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Analysis (04/24/2024) [Archive: 2017–2003] Go to: List top | Next section | List bottom

Alvin Bragg has his Trump trial, all he needs now is a crime (NYP 04/24/2024)
‘Hush money’ is not a crime, and Bragg has no case against Trump (NYP 04/22/2024)
The push to erode American voting rights (JWR 04/18/2024)
I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust (4/17/24 )
Where Cancel Culture Must Go Next (American Thinker, 04/16/24)
A serial perjurer will try to prove an old misdemeanor against Trump in an embarrassment for the New York legal system (NYP 04/15/2024)
DEI cronyism and woke grifters (JWR 04/12/2024)
America Is Now in the Business of Losing Wars (JWR 04/10/2024)
The Biden Middle East Delusion (JWR 03/27/2024)
Biden's border blowup (JWR 03/22/2024)
Why I'm Co-Hosting a Trump Fundraiser (JWR 03/21/2024)
Trump derangement syndrome is ruining the country (INN 03/21/2024)
Republicans must reject 4 myths about Ukraine and pass much-needed aid (NYP 02/25/2024)
America must take the world’s new Axis of Evil much more seriously — or else (NYP 02/23/2024)
Blue laws for red citizens (JWR 02/23/2024)
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We are entering a dangerous era in America. Ideology and party affiliations increasingly determine guilt and punishment. Opponents are first targeted, and then laws are twisted and redefined to convict them.

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The left is waging lawfare with the implicit message to political opponents: either keep quiet or suffer the consequences.
Tish James and other Trump persecutors are perverting the American legal system (NYP 02/23/2024)
Google has Usurped Democracy (Brownstone Institute, 02/22/24)
Democrats weaponized justice system to punish Trump in business case (NYP 02/19/2024)
Mail-In Ballot Fraud Study Finds Trump ‘Almost Certainly’ Won in 2020 (2/16/24)
Guilt-Tripping Our Way to Self-Destruction (JWR 02/08/2024)
Visiting the extraordinary world of supplemented reality (JWR 02/07/2024)
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Imagine children growing up with such technology, removed from the normal consequences of life, their thinking atrophied by AI superpower, never having experienced the difficulty and beauty of normal human relationships.

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We are opening a can of worms here. And that can of worms can't be closed. All of which means that even as our society throws away classical virtue, nothing is more necessary than its rapid reinstitution.

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If we advance technology and give people new capacities while ignoring the natural limitations of human beings, we are likely to meet with the ugly consequences of unknown unknowns.
Why do so many young Americans hate Israel? (INN 02/03/2024)
The hysterical style in American politics (JWR 01/19/2024)
When Virtue Signals Wear Science as a Skin Suit (Brownstone Institute, 1/17/24)
Who is funding the antisemitic pro-Hamas rallies in NY? (INN 01/17/2024)
Biden 'saves' democracy by destroying it (JWR 01/12/2024)
Harvard — Out the frying pan into the fire (JWR 01/05/2024)
How and why Harvard's DEI policy must go (INN 01/04/2024)
The treason of the intellectuals - again (INN 01/04/2024)
Why Are Americans At Each Other's Throats? Ask Barack Obama (JWR 01/04/2024)
The Year that Expertise Collapsed (Brownstone Institute, 12/31/23)
Our razor's edge (JWR 12/29/2023)
The Familiarity of Old Evils: The Zone of Interest Movie Review (Brownstone Institute, 12/27/23)
The Velvet Fascism of “Protect our Democracy” (Brownstone Institute, 12/23/23)
Antisemitism issues at elite colleges masks 'deeper rot' of DEI dominance in higher education (Fox 12/11/2023)
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"The three presidents have apologized for or moderated their comments before Congress, but that was only after the political consequences became clear. Believe what they said the first time. That is what their institutions now stand for."

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Taking steps against antisemitism won't address the "deeper rot of anti-American, anti-Western" philosophies, or the DEI policies "that use race, gender and sexuality as political weapons to enforce intellectual conformity, dictate tenure decisions, and punish dissenters."

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"The answers must lie with boards of trustees willing to appoint presidents who will stand up to the DEI censors and require intellectual diversity among the faculty. Donors will also have to follow through on boycotting schools until they do. Too many trustees and donors are happy to settle for getting their names on buildings and their children admitted."

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"[E]ffective reform means only one thing: getting those political activists out of the classrooms and replacing them with academic thinkers and teachers. (No, that isn't the same as replacing left with right.)"

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"Nothing less will do. Political activists have been converting money intended for higher education to an unauthorized use — advancing their goal of transforming America. That is tantamount to embezzlement. While we let it continue we are financing our own destruction as a society."
Americans must choose between civilization — or its destroyers (JWR 12/08/2023)
Enlightened Jew hatred (JWR 12/07/2023)
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One can make the case for free speech on campus — I can and I do — but one cannot pretend that universities protect students against harassment and then soft-pedal Holocaust-level rhetoric.

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It is difficult to imagine that these icons of sensitivity and diversity, equity and inclusion would be nearly so sanguine about slurs against any other racial or ethnic minority in America.

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Simply put, they wouldn't. So, why are they so sanguine? There are two reasons.

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First, the Left — and university presidents are almost the Platonic ideal of intellectual Leftists — believes that Jews are not part of the intersectional coalition of the oppressed.

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By Leftist logic, Jews are part of the superstructure of power, since all success is merely a reflection of hierarchies of power, and Jews are disproportionately successful. Thus Jews cannot be victims.

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Then there's the second reason: the hard Left hates Israel. The Left hates Israel because, like American Jews, Israel is too successful in the region in which it is located.

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Israel, according to the Left, is a colonialist outpost of the West, and the West is evil because it too is successful — which means that it is exploitative and oppressive.

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Hence the Left's rabid attachment to the idea that calls for Israel's destruction are somehow not anti-Semitic, but actually a reflection of a more universalistic humanitarian creed.

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Sure, that creed would actually materialize in the death of millions of Jews and the dominance of radical Muslim terrorism.

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But that doesn't matter. After all, Israel is the real problem, because the West is the real problem — and we know that's true because the West and Israel are successful.

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So, what ought to be done? First, donors ought to pull their money.

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Second, businesses ought to start hiring directly out of high school and stop treating the bizarre credentialing process of major universities as worthwhile.

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Finally, parents ought to stop subsidizing this nonsense with their own children.

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The universities are corrupt through and through. Their endorsement of DEI has been a curse to reason and decency.

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Their politics are vile, and those politics also make the universities corrupt factories of moral depravity. It's time to end the system.
Explaining the First Amendment to university presidents (INN 12/07/2023)
College presidents just showed America their moral cowardice (Fox 12/07/2023)
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The refusal of the leaders of our most elite universities to answer questions directly and to acknowledge inconsistencies in their institution's response to hatred vented toward Jews and other groups was a shocking display of moral cowardice and intellectual dishonesty.

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... suggested that if crowds of students chanting genocidal slogans crossed into "conduct" it could be punished.

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Good to know. It appears that actually murdering Jews, since it is conduct, is subject to university discipline, but only calling for their murder — even as Jewish students walk to their dorms or sit in class — is just part of the robust dialogue needed to shape our best and brightest.

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The sudden adoption of an absolutist free-speech position by these universities is especially surprising given that none of them upheld that principle when non-Jews were the targets.

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MIT could not be more clear about who matters more – not Jewish students facing abuse, but the foreign students abusing them.

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The hypocrisy of suddenly discovering a deep commitment to free speech when Jews are the ones being attacked is bad enough, but an anything-goes approach to speech on campus is also educationally inappropriate.

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Nothing will get better without external pressure. As many representatives suggested at the hearing, Congress should reconsider the incredibly generous subsidies taxpayers provide to these universities coddling antisemites.

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If that's the kind of education Harvard, MIT, and Penn wish to offer, let them do it on their own dime, which is especially true given that these three universities have nearly $100 billion in endowment funds between them.

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But the most powerful form of accountability would be the removal of the presidents of these universities.

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Senior administrators in higher education are characterized more by ruthless ambition than they are by deep principle or scholarly accomplishment.

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If they see others losing their jobs for failing to stand up to antisemitism, they'll all get in line.
Universities' shifting policies toward speech are not only hypocritical but also illegal (JWR 12/05/2023)
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In recent years, many universities have aggressively condemned and punished speech they found odious.

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Elite universities have canceled speakers who have expressed doubts about the benefits of diversity, fired untenured faculty for expressing doubts about affirmative action and revoked offers of admission based on student social medial posts.

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Despite well-documented cases of hateful speech and even physical intimidation after Oct. 7, universities have been largely mum on student discipline.

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In the weeks after Oct. 7, universities have been allowing and even protecting speech that, if the colors, national origins or races of those speaking and being targeted were reversed, would have certainly been subject to sanction.

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... "the rules of Harvard College provide a framework within which all students are free to pursue their work, under the safest and most equitable conditions (Harvard) can create."

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Harvard, and other universities, may not arbitrarily decline to enforce their promised community standards. Doing so would constitute a breach of contract with tuition refunds as a potential remedy.

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Swift actions in favor of one constituency in one year, and disregard of the interests of another constituency the next year, raise the specter of bad faith, arbitrariness and invidious discrimination.

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By implicitly taking sides, universities have diminished their status as the forum to address the world's most complicated problems.

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See related Poison Ivy (David Hitch, 10/20/2023)) cartoon from USA picture album
Yad Vashem chairman slams Ivy League schools for rampant antisemitism on campuses (Fox 12/02/2023)
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"In Ivy League colleges across the U.S... there are groups of academics, not all of them, but important academics, especially in the humanities and social sciences, that are meticulously, stone-by-stone and step-by-step, building pseudo-academic, pseudo-scientific, pseudo-intellectual theories justifying the elimination of the Jewish state."

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"Violent demonstrations with students calling 'from the river to the sea' or for a 'global Intifada' are, of course, extremely disturbing. "But in some sense, these are just a symptom."

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"With all those academic buzzwords about the 'ethnic-nationalistic,' 'settler colonial,' 'colonization of Palestine' and 'apartheid,' they are building slowly yet constantly, a pseudo-scientific truth of academic theories, first it's the demonization of Israel and then justification, after that they are actively advocating for the elimination of the Jewish state, and that is terrible."

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"... when a professor at Columbia or Harvard or Princeton publishes a pseudo-scientific call for the elimination of Israel, there is a good chance that he or she will be promoted."

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"It's hard for me to say this, but we have been there. The University of Heidelberg in Germany in the 1930s was no less prestigious than Harvard or Columbia. That university, together with other German institutions of higher learning, developed far-fetched, horrific and barbaric academic theories of racial inferiority of the Jews and racial supremacy."

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"Universities and intellectuals are not immune from developing terrible theories to justify and advocate for atrocities ... the mob that burned books written by Jews in Berlin in the 1930s were not the ignorant masses, they were the professors and the students of the elite universities of those days."

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"Of course, we all want to protect the Jewish students, but these attacks are a symptom and not the actual disease. They have taken measures for the wrong reasons ... because of pressure from donors, but that's not the reason why the president of a prestigious Ivy League university should take a stand against antisemitism, such a stand should come from his inner beliefs."

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"Unfortunately, I don't see college administrators understanding this. They only respond to provocations, and they don't take a principled stand, rejecting antisemitism from their innermost convictions."

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See related Poison Ivy (David Hitch, 10/20/2023)) cartoon from USA picture album
Anti-Israel protests borrow playbook from social justice movements: experts (Fox 11/24/2023)
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"We need to call these protesters what they are. They are not pro-Palestinian. There is no Palestinian democracy movement. There's no Palestinian peace movement. They are pro-Hamas."

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"We need to take a long hard look at how a significant segment of our population has become radicalized. Law enforcement and lawmakers have, for too long, turned a blind eye to the operations of foreign governments within our borders, especially Qatar. They have ignored the relationship between designated terrorist groups and student groups on campus."

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"These protesters are not progressive, and they are not nonviolent. Their purpose is to destabilize this country and there's an urgent need for law-enforcement to open an investigation into how they are being organized and whether or not they are tied to foreign governments or foreign terrorist groups."

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Other reasoning behind several of those protests, which have been complex and unpredictable in many instances, boils down to the teachings and activism of "left-wing academics" who have long supported certain racial divides and expect others to do the same...

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"The left-wing academics who have been cheering on violent 'decolonization' against Jews have been pushing the same hideous rhetoric against 'whiteness' for years. Same ideology. Same hatred. Same bloodlust."

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... several on the "academic left treat the Hamas fighter as a noble savage who symbolizes revolt against the West and through whom the academic can experience the thrill of violence. The fighter is seen as the physical embodiment of the jargon: 'decolonization,' 'resistance,' 'power,'..."

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"A significant contributor to the rise of antisemitism, especially among those under 25 and on college campuses, is the cross-sectionality of social justice movements and organizations that are telling young people, 'If you care about various human rights such as gay rights, trans rights, race issues, then you need to demonize Israel."

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"Similarly, we are seeing Israel portrayed as a country of White, privileged people, the offspring of Europeans who immigrated there. This is absolutely false."

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"The Hamas object was to attack and kill as many Israelis as they could... on Oct. 7, retreat, regroup and then do it again. And that's not me speaking, that's top Hamas leadership. I think some of the demonstrators support that plan."

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See related Hamas Influence (Dick Wright, 11/02/2023) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Lives Matter (Michael Ramirez, 11/03/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
Back Before Things Got Ugly (JWR 11/17/2023)
Antisemitism on today's college campuses echoes the dark pasts of many elite American universities (Fox 11/17/2023)
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... "progressive" intolerance is nothing new for college campuses, with antisemitism and even Nazism part of many universities' dark pasts.

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"It's hard for us to imagine now, but it was an idea that was shared by essentially all elite opinion makers and institutions in the early 20th century, especially as part of the wider progressive movement."

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"In many ways, it was developed in the United States in the 1920s and exported to Germany and [they]... really actually implemented it with that kind of dramatic efficiency."

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Adolf Hitler was a great admirer of American academics' work to advance eugenics. ... academic articles published by eugenicists like Charles B. Davenport – who lectured at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Carnegie Institution – were the "intellectual underpinnings" of the Nazis' racial social policies.

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"Eugenic theory provided the basis for the Nazis' clandestine program that killed disabled Germans, an estimated 250,000 patients," before it was later turned against Jews, Roma, homosexuals and other groups deemed inferior as part of "racial hygiene."

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"Over the course of the 1920s, Harvard's administration passed a series of admissions policies to limit the percentage of Jewish students in each incoming class. These policies were the first attempts in Harvard's history to restrict the admission of qualified applicants."

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... elite institutions invited Nazis to speak at their universities, participated in foreign exchange programs to bring in indoctrinated students and Nazi professors and allowed Nazi ideology to spread to their peers and the West more broadly.

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In fact, "German exchange students had been directed to act as agents of the German Government on American... campuses."

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In 1939, after the Nazis' Kristallnacht pogrom was widely publicized, Princeton's first-year students chose Adolf Hitler as "the greatest living person," according to a New York Times article from the time.

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A few years after Hitler took power, "the Harvard administration permitted Nazi Germany's consul general in Boston to place a wreath bearing the swastika emblem" on its campus...

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... Harvard "warmly welcomed" Nazi leaders to campus, "inviting them to prestigious, high-profile social events, and striving to build friendly relations with thoroughly Nazified universities in Germany, while denouncing those who protested against these actions," even as The Third Reich "intensified its persecution of Jews."

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Other institutions, such as Columbia, accepted invitations to attend a festival at Heidelberg University, the site of the infamous and antisemitic 1933 book burning and a nexus of Nazi indoctrination, despite massive pushback from its students.

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Columbia University's president, Nicholas Murray Butler also "lashed out viciously against Columbia students who publicly protested Nazi crimes."
Israeli actress demands FBI probe funding, terror links of college groups 'brainwashing' American students (Fox 11/16/2023)
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... violence and harassment against Jewish students "has been planned, engineered and incubated for decades by heavily funded, professionally orchestrated groups with close connections to terrorist organizations, like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP."

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"One of the main perpetrators of campus Jew-hate is Students for Justice in Palestine or SJP. SJP was set up and is supported by groups and individuals with well documented records of support and fundraising for terrorist organizations."

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"Individuals like Hatem Bazien, who founded SJP and is also the founder of American Muslims for Palestine – or AMP. Terrorist sympathizers figured out decades ago that instead of sending money to jihadist organizations, they will target the hearts and minds of young and naive, sometimes well-meaning American students."

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... these groups use "progressive buzzwords like 'justice' and 'freedom,' but their true intent - is destroying the world's only Jewish state by all means necessary."

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"And after Oct. 7, we have seen that anything goes: Beheading babies and raping women is just fine. If it's done to the Jews, they call it resistance."

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"Ladies and gentlemen, SJP is a hate group. It is grooming American college students – grooming your children – to hate Israel, hate Jews and hate America. And for years, universities stood by, watched this brainwashing take place and did nothing."

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"With the amount of evidence linking SJP and AMP members with support and financing of terrorist groups including Hamas, these organizations and networks should be investigated by state police and the FBI."

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"We need to kick these hate groups off campus. How can it be that college fees and taxpayers' dollars are funding hate groups that cheer on the burning alive of Jewish families?"

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"Every college in this country should ban SJP, and never let them back. We wouldn't fund KKK chapters in our colleges. We shouldn't fund SJP chapters in our colleges either."

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"And if universities fail to remove SJP off campus; if they continue to protect and fund the ringleaders of an antisemitic mob, then this Committee should withdraw funding for them."

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"We would not allow the mafia to teach business on campus. We should not allow terrorist supporters to teach political activism to our kids."

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"... this is not just a Jewish issue; it's an American one. There is a direct line between brainwashed extremists who rip down posters of kidnapped Jewish children, and those who rip down the American flag ahead of Veterans Day. I urge this committee to act now, and stop this coordinated assault on Jewish students, on American values and on the future of the American dream."

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See related Hamas Influence (Dick Wright, 11/02/2023) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Concern (Gary Varvel, 11/01/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
If lying was an art, Michael Cohen would be a Rembrandt. Why does he keep getting a pass? (Fox 11/16/2023)
Anatomy of a college brainwashing (INN 11/13/2023)
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Your children are lost to you. You may never have them back. In the left-wing nationwide college invasion of the body snatchers, they have been seized, their minds and souls emptied.

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See related Concern (Gary Varvel, 11/01/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
The Islamophobia Lie (JWR 11/10/2023)
Trump gag order in election case is 'unconstitutional': law professor (Fox 11/04/2023)
Is the Biden administration preparing for the wrong kind of war with Iran? (Fox 11/01/2023)
Emboldened Global Jihad Is Final Nail in Coffin of Mass Migration Delusion (JWR 10/27/2023)
Retired Army legal expert blasts AOC's accusations against Israel for committing 'war crimes' (Fox 10/25/2023)
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The first thing was that she acknowledged the conduct of Hamas terrorists Oct. 7 were war crimes, yet failed to acknowledge that 8,000 rockets have been fired indiscriminately at Israel since that date.

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"Every time one of those rockets is fired, it is a war crime because the law of war doesn't focus on whether you kill civilians. It focuses on the fact that you're trying to kill civilians."

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... "collective punishment" is a phrase being tossed around that is "simply erroneous," because it requires an intent to inflict collective suffering on the population because of something that happened to your forces.

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"Collective consequences of combat is not the same thing as collective punishment, and the prohibition on collective punishment is more focused."

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... during World War II, the Germans would have a soldier killed by the French resistance, and in retribution, they would round up 50 civilians and execute them as a collective sanction.

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"There's no indication that the Israeli military operations are directed for that purpose. Instead, they're directed to destroy Hamas combat capability as a legitimate exercise of self-defense."

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"I think for somebody in a position of a member of Congress, they bear an obligation to ensure that before they accuse soldiers and pilots of committing war crimes, that they understand what the law is that dictates that accusation."

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"The fact that civilian casualties are inflicted during combat operations does not prove the commission of war crimes."

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... war crimes in combat are established by proving either that an attack was deliberately directed against civilians — which he said what Hamas has been doing, but not the IDF — or that an attack on the military objective is conducted in a way that is inherently indiscriminate because the anticipated civilian harm will be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage derived from the attack.

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"This is the problem of what I've called 'effects-based condemnations,' where you look at the effects of an attack, and you immediately assume that the party that caused the destruction must have committed a war crime, and it's legally and factually invalid."

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"Candidly, it's quite disappointing that a member of our Congress would make that allegation. And it also demeans the integrity and the honor of the IDF combatants who, in my opinion and based on my experience, are actually trying much harder than their enemy to take measures that mitigate the risks to the civilian population."
The single greatest threat to America is hiding in plain sight (Fox 10/23/2023)
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Philosopher John Stuart Mill warned in 1867 that all it takes for evil to prevail is for "good men [to] look on and do nothing."

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We are now in an existential struggle to preserve the values that founded the most successful constitutional system in the history of the world.

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It is our legacy that now can be either boldly defended by a grateful people or lost in the whimper of a disinterested generation.
Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel? (JWR 10/17/2023)
Black Lives Matter, but Jewish Lives Don’t (INN 10/15/2023)
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Why does BLM support the Muslims? Because their members suffer from endemic, systemic, innate Jew hatred.

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And that Jew hatred leads them to stand with Muslims who burn babies, shoot women and children and the elderly. Rape women, children and babies.

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And these barbarians take videos of their atrocities and share them on line. Women held hostage. These animals are soooooo proud. And, you stand with them.

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And like the Holocaust when the world turned its back on the Jews, organizations like BLM have turned their back on the Jews as well. Well why not. The Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan hates Jews, too.

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According to FBI statistics, Jewish people make up only 2.4% percent of the US population but account for more than 50% of religiously motivated hate crimes. And BLM stands proudly with the Jew haters.

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During WWII, if BLM had been around, would they have stood with the White Aryan Nazis, or the Jews?
Hamas and amoral clarity (JWR 10/13/2023)
Hamas-Israel war reveals the world's oldest hatred in American higher education (Fox 10/12/2023)
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Thirty-one student organizations at Harvard made a joint statement condemning Israel and denouncing its "colonial retaliation."

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Students at Columbia asserted that the weight of responsibility for the war lies with Israel. Similar sentiments have come from Northwestern University, Yale, Portland State, City College and Hunter College in New York, Boston University and Stanford. No doubt others will follow.

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It's because for decades now, many of these schools have been advocating leftist theories that lead to a hatred for Israel and a contempt for Jews.

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At many schools, educators have been teaching this stuff for years, and now some of us are surprised to see it being lived out by students this week as they actually celebrate the slaughter!
Five ways Ronald Reagan can save America: 'Freedom never more than one generation from extinction' (Fox 10/11/2023)
I survived Mao. Hillary Clinton's call for 'deprogramming' of Trump supporters is no joke, it's alarming (Fox 10/08/2023)
Illegal Alien Invasion from Sea to Shining Sea! (American Thinker, 10/4/23)
Five ways Ronald Reagan predicted the future, from weaponized medicine to 'Morning in America' (Fox 10/04/2023)
Kevin McCarthy's run as Speaker is finished. Is Matt Gaetz a villain or a hero? (Fox 10/04/2023)
Why Trump's message works (JWR 09/27/2023)
Our self-induced catastrophe at the border (JWR 09/22/2023)
Why it’s important to continue our support for Ukraine (Fox 09/21/2023)
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Ukrainians are fighting and dying for their freedom, all the while degrading the power of a hostile Russia that aspires, in open cooperation with China, to establish a new world order in which America's freedom and prosperity are radically diminished.

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Not one American serviceman has been a casualty in Ukraine's war of self-defense, which we are supporting with a tiny percentage of our overall defense spending.
Yes, You Are Being Manipulated (Brownstone Institute, 9/19/23)
Pretending It's Normal [cont] (JWR 09/18/2023)
Post-postmodern America (JWR 09/15/2023)
If Libs Voted Their Values, America Would Be Saved (JWR 09/12/2023)
The Real New Normal (JWR 09/11/2023)
Jack Carr's take on the 9/11 terror attacks — including 'hope' and the lessons from Afghanistan (Fox 09/11/2023)
What game is Hunter Biden playing? (JWR 09/10/2023)
Democrats' 14th Amendment-Trump talk 'one of the most dangerous legal developments,' law professor says (Fox 09/06/2023)
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"He said... 'I thought it would be easier and smoother to go [via] the 14th Amendment' – well, of course. You don't need any proof. You don't need [a] 50 percent vote in the House. You don't need a two-thirds vote in the Senate. You don't need specific charges: treason, bribery, other high crimes and misdemeanors. You don't need due process."

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"You [would] just need a couple of secretaries of state, Prof. Laurence Tribe and Adam Schiff to say it's our opinion that this is an insurrection. We don't think what happened after the George Floyd killing was an insurrection. We don't think what happened with open borders or sanctuary cities is an insurrection. But we do think this was an insurrection."

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"The idea that you would have some state official, a partisanly-elected state official, disqualify Trump without any kind of due process at all, I think is not going to fly."
The Trump prosecutors have a grand jury problem. Where are the defense attorneys? (Fox 08/28/2023)
“One fall away from oblivion” (INN 08/22/2023)
Where is Hillary’s indictment on the same charges as Trump? (INN 08/18/2023)
First, the Moral Collapse... (JWR 08/17/2023)
Biden's DOJ targets defendants' rights. You could be next (Fox 08/14/2023)
I just reread George Orwell's '1984' and the novel is scarier than ever (Fox 08/12/2023)
Forget American meritocracy. China's scary spying system is already here (Fox 08/04/2023)
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Do you think that could never happen in America, that only a communist party would use technology, coercion and social pressure to conform behaviors and even take away your wealth building opportunities?

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Well, think again. This Chinese-style social credit system has already landed in America.

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There is an evolution to social credit, which starts with cancel culture, moves to an informal state-adjacent system and eventually becomes a full-blown state-run system like the Chinese are building out.

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The Biden administration issued an executive order that in some cases forced and in others coerced businesses to take jobs away from thousands of individuals who didn't comply with their vaccine orders, many of whom had been branded heroes and essential workers just months earlier.

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If you had thoughts that conflicted from the anointed narrative, and were in a field like science and medicine, the masses tried to cancel your credibility and your job.

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In addition to trying to cancel your job, the state tried to silence you as well. As recent details out of Twitter and Meta/Facebook have shown, the government worked with these platforms to remove information and people that conflicted with the narrative they were pushing.

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When a social moral code replaces a legal code and gains acceptance, it is only a matter of time before those in power want to leverage that dynamic to secure more power for themselves.

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The formalization of this state social credit system requires two steps. The first is information-gathering on individuals. The second is those in power using the information without being challenged. When both of those become easy to do at scale, tyranny quickly follows.

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Today, both of those components are here. Technology enables easy, scalable information collection, storage, and analytical capabilities. People voluntarily shun privacy for convenience, ego and other purposes, and so the information is available for such collection.

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The social devolution where people are widely judged not in a court of law but rather a court of public approval sets up the second part — the creep of government and other powers being able to use information for compliance and to subjugate individual rights.

•
We are remarkably close to a place where by acting outside the preferred narrative, not agreeing with the mob, having a bad day, or engaging in wrongthink like not complying with government directives, criticizing the president, or being a gun owner, the government can penalize you.

•
Potential penalties could remove your freedoms, big and small, including your ability to earn a living, access your savings and provide for your family.

•
Becoming more like China isn't a good outcome for Americans. So, we must stand up for and protect our God-given rights, from the government, from the digital sphere and from any social credit initiatives that may threaten them.
Levin warns Trump indictment is part of 'passive revolution' by Democrats (Fox 08/03/2023)
•
"You see what's going on. You see we're unraveling... The Democrat (sic) Party is destroying our schools, it's destroying parental rights, it's destroying the nuclear family, it's destroying people of faith. It's gone after the Catholic Church. The Democrat Party is promoting censorship in all of its departments and agencies. It's destroying our traditions."

•
"It's the kind of revolution that Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Communist, and even [Soviet leader Vladimir] Lenin talked about, where they take over the institutions of government, they take over the institutions of the culture and they impose their will."

•
"We now have a government that's banning household products from light bulbs to automobiles in order to control your life. We have a government that is destroying your lifestyle; driving up the cost of energy. It's going to get worse before it gets better."

•
"They will use any tool they can. They don't care about free speech. They don't care about the Bill of Rights. They don't care about attorney-client privilege... This is a Democrat Party that is power-hungry, and they see an opportunity right now to monopolize the government and politics forevermore."
Has Liberty Died in Our Hearts? (JWR 07/31/2023)
It’s not climate change that’s causing heat waves this summer but no one wants to explain why (Fox 07/27/2023)
Joe Biden’s new claim about Hunter’s business deals reveals what he really thinks of voters (Fox 07/27/2023)
Five ways Ayn Rand predicted America's political crises, from parents spurned to the rise of cancel culture (Fox 07/25/2023)
America, Stand Up! (JWR 07/21/2023)
Grover Norquist believes progressives will turn on one another: 'It's made up of competing parasites' (Fox 07/19/2023)
•
"There are two competing factions in the United States that have been around for at least 50 years and will be for the next 50 years."

•
"The Republican Party is a coalition of groups and people that sit around a table, and they'll all want the same thing: they want to be left alone on their vote-moving issue."

•
"Leave my money alone, my property alone, my small business alone, my guns alone, my homeschooling alone, my parental rights alone! Leave me alone! That's what I vote on. I'm not asking for somebody else's money... I'm not asking you to send me cash or tell me I'm swell. I'm asking you to leave me alone on my vote-moving issue, and by the way, I've only got one vote-moving issue."

•
"That's why we can get together because the guy who goes to church all day, and the guy makes money all day, and the guy who fondles his guns all day, have nothing in common, and no conflict. That's not how I spend my time, but you do what you do: just leave me alone. So, that's why the coalition works."

•
"On the left, you have a takings coalition: all around the table the people who view the proper role of government as taking money from somebody and giving it to them...Trial lawyers, government labor unions, government employees, the big city political machines, the various coercive utopians, the radical environmentalists."

•
"Then they'll turn on each other, because the left is not made up of friends and allies. It's made up of competing parasites, and if you don't feed them taxpayers, they will clearly grab what's in the other guy's hand and take it for themselves."

•
"The job of the modern Republican Party: don't raise taxes, don't give them more money, make them push people away from the table so that they cost us less, and then repeat."
Five reasons Ayn Rand loved the United States of America: 'The right to live by one's own judgment' (Fox 07/18/2023)
•
"I can say, not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots — that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world."
The American Triumvirate (INN 07/17/2023)
•
Americans caught up in the radicalization of their country have found its transition to a banana republic to be a heart-breaking journey of toil and pain with no exit.

•
To reach this point in history in which the disturbed and felons run free, and responsible and honorable citizens live in fear took time, it required years of planning to achieve by three once-respected groups who methodically are revising history.

•
By denying students sound explanations for the cause and effect of the ideas leading to the rise and fall of civilizations, these three groups, working in harmony, have blinded students to the eternal war that exists between two mighty forces, freedom and domination.

•
Without a strong historical reference, students and adults aren't easily able to grasp the conceptional significance of events as they unfold, which is exactly what the three groups (educators, journalists, and government leaders) want.

•
What lies ahead for America, a once free and magnificent nation, is uncertain. Reversing its direction isn't going to be easy. Dumbing down the population has gained too much momentum in the last few years.

•
To glimpse America's future, one only needs to look at communist countries like China, or warring third-world countries like those in the Middle East, or the impoverished remains of a once flourishing country like Venezuela.

•
Fortunately, enough Americans are awakening to the truth. But their awakening has been too slow. The country has lost significant battles against the forces to destroy it.
I’m a college professor with the key to stopping a campus from going woke (Fox 07/13/2023)
•
America's universities are making increasingly bold attempts to police language on campus. In addition to encouraging students to use "preferred pronouns," a growing number of schools are issuing language guides to help students avoid non-inclusive and "harmful" words like mother, father, Christmas trees, bunnies and ... America.

•
Activists have defended these efforts as simply a matter of politeness, but as a professor of rhetoric I know that there are dark motives that are driving this language-policing.

•
Words, of course, are the very medium of our thoughts. Our thoughts come to us in words. Thus, limiting the number of words available to us also limits the range of thoughts we can think.

•
This means that the universities' ideologically-inflected "language guides" are really a form of thought control – one that is specially calibrated to foment radical political reforms by changing how we think about our world.

•
The manipulation of norms for public speech was closely linked with authoritarian power in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, fascist Italy and various other regimes.

•
Imposing artificial restrictions on what we can think is the true function of the many "language guides" that are popping up on campuses these days.

•
As evidence grows that America's universities are the headquarters of the left-wing cultural revolution we see unfolding in our society, many students and parents wonder how to resist the spread of ideology on campus.

•
My answer: when it comes to language, don't give an inch.

•
When faced with language policing that tries to deny reality, we need to forcefully insist on speaking the truth.

•
If we don't, we may soon find that we ourselves have forgotten what is true.

•
And when that happens (if we allow it to happen), it won't simply be our society and language that are conquered – it will also be our minds.
The Founders Were Right (JWR 07/07/2023)
The Bidens' existential threats to the American rule of law (JWR 07/06/2023)
What the Left Has Left for America (07/03/2023)
•
Democrats have transmogrified into a Soviet-style socialist binary of rich and poor, run by an elite nomenklatura that dictates its orders to its foot soldiers of the underclass.

•
Wage ad hominem attacks on traditional justices in the media. Allege they are corrupt, on the theory that they are limited in their means of defense and any rebuttal will lack the wherewithal of the original unfounded smears.

•
In our Animal Farm left-wing world, free speech is "hate speech" and "individual liberty" is selfish privilege.

•
Once dangerous censorship has become a noble effort to silence "misinformation" and more dangerous "disinformation" — as adjudicated by ignorant 20-somethings at computer screens in Silicon Valley and obsequious 30-somethings in government cartels.

•
By absorbing the MBA programs at the major universities, the Left ensures that the new corporate credentialed elite has never gotten its hands grubby or stained in the lower echelons of business, or worked its way up the long, grimy corporate ladder.

•
Instead, unpolluted the new execs transition from their MBA courses in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and in environmental, social, and governance to the activist corporate boardroom.

•
Remember, only mega-wealth is good. It is a revolutionary force that can bury wannabe capitalists, whose parochial right-wing millions stand no chance against enlightened left-wing globalized billions.

•
Segregation and separatism are noble ideas that perpetuate proper racial distinctions on the necessary pathway to massive transfers of reparatory wealth. Tribalism is a good word now.

•
Poverty is now to be redefined. White poverty is the deserved fate of the stupid who never caught on to globalization and mindlessly try to convince us that ossified farming, the drudgery of mining, icky construction, the stink of fracking, or the monotony of assembly work remain vital industries.

•
Nonwhite poverty is the fault of the exploitative middle class, which lacks the romance of the distant poor and power and good taste of the rich corporate elite.

•
FBI directors can lie if the cause is deemed good, and with impunity under oath. Compliant FISA courts that are willingly deluded by false writs can help to spy on right-wingers.

•
Noble ex-CIA directors can round up "authorities" to issue false manifestos to influence elections.

•
Enlightened attorney generals can overlook corruption and money laundering like that of the Biden family to emasculate any looming political rival.

•
Whistleblowers are neutral characters: deified when useful to the Left, to be despised as quislings when they disclose left-wing crimes.

•
The southern border is a mere construct created by fascists to exclude the Other. Its removal fast tracks a new demography, dependent on leftist largess and eager to reciprocate with loyalty at the polls.

•
Anyone who strays — a Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Matt Taibbi, or an Elon Musk — will be targeted by the woke bureaucracies, libeled in the media, and ostracized by the popular culture.

•
The message is one of deterrence: stay properly left and you are accorded the James Comey/Andrew McCabe/James Clapper/John Brennan/Anthony Fauci/Hunter Biden/2020 rioters exemptions from legal accountability for lying under oath, rank profiteering, or abject violent rioting.

•
The Left's only problem is that it has bequeathed a new legacy that has the potential to boomerang should it ever lose power.

•
The media is utterly corrupt. What it covers and what it omits are entirely political decisions and thus can be warped accordingly by government rewards and punishments.

•
What the Left now fears most is the revolutionary model it has bequeathed to America — and what might happen if its monstrous creation falls into politically incorrect hands.
How Obama brought back the Race Card (INN 07/02/2023)
•
The infuriating thing about Obama was that he told the truth when it was politically convenient. And then, having won over white liberals and moderates, he pivoted to weaponizing race to divide Americans by treating black people like the perpetual victims of a racist country.

•
Obama started out claiming that, "there's not a black America and white America". And that's true, there wasn't until he brought them into being, dividing us in order to conquer us.
Pride vs. shame (JWR 06/29/2023)
'We're coming for your children’ is the last straw (Fox 06/29/2023)
•
When I learned that a group of activists at New York City's annual drag queen parade were chanting "we're coming for your children," it was the final straw.

•
This calls for a blunt, straight-forward repudiation of those who would destroy our children and civilization.

•
The audacity of the perverse minds who have been undermining, insulting and attempting to destroy American civilization's core values is infuriating.

•
These destructive, at times deranged, people want us to be quiet while they act out their sickness. And the Biden administration wants to help them.

•
The time has come for those of us who believe in our civilization to meet the haters and the destroyers with equally firm, clear language. We must confront evil – and describe it and those possessed by it accurately and without hesitation.

•
For two generations those who would destroy our civilization have kept us at a rhetorical disadvantage by using harsh, intimidating language, and images – and demanded that we be timid, respectful, and tolerant.

•
"I'm about to say something really controversial in Joe Biden's America. If you're able-bodied, you work. If you take out a loan, you pay it back. And if you commit a violent crime, you go to jail. And if you're a man, you should play sports against men. America needs more victors and less victims... those aren't just conservative values they are American values."

•
... overwhelmingly Americans reject the advocates of extreme behaviors, policies and values. Nevertheless, the elite media, many left-wing politicians and some big business executives fight for these extreme positions anyway.

•
Our answer to those who would "come for our children" should be to make sexual solicitation and brainwashing of children acts of child abuse comparable to pedophilia. Advocating preying upon children should be treated as comparable to possessing child pornography.

•
The full power of the law should be used to block those who would entice, intimidate, tempt and coerce children into undergoing profound physical changes before they are old enough to make life-changing decisions.

•
Parents rights should be guaranteed, so every parent can know what is being told to their child in school. And parents must be able to interpose themselves against those who would brainwash their children.

•
(The opposite is happening in some liberal states where parents are at risk of losing custody of their children if they do not obey the transgender dictators.)...

•
"As we gather today, our beloved nation is teetering on the edge of tyranny. I believe that, and you believe that. Our enemies are waging war on faith and freedom, on science and religion, on history and tradition, on law and democracy, on God Almighty himself..."

•
"Biden's corrupt DOJ has targeted parents at school board meetings. They've sent SWAT teams to arrest pro-life activists. You know that. The FBI has been caught labeling devout Catholics as domestic terrorists and sending undercover spies into Catholic churches just as it was in the old Soviet Union days. Pretty rough stuff. Who can believe this?"

•
It is time for those who love America to be just as direct and tough as those who would mock, undermine and destroy our society.

•
It is time to confront evil.
What happened when the woke came to bully the wealthiest man in the world (Fox 06/29/2023)
•
Basic free-market economic tenets largely solve many social, governance, and even environmental issues. People don't want to do business with companies that don't treat employees well.

•
The same goes for diversity. Those who seek out diverse perspectives and experiences and incorporate them in an authentic manner often see better business results.

•
So, ESG concepts make general sense. However, once they have been co-opted by the elites for their own agenda, they become bastardized and guided to central planning outcomes.

•
As we have learned throughout history, and paid the price for in recent years, this is never to anyone's benefit other than the central planners and their cronies.

•
If Musk could be targeted by negative business social credit for daring to champion free speech, what chance do other companies and their management have?

•
An executive may decide to sacrifice what is best in the short term for actual shareholders and those personally and otherwise invested in the company so that the powerful ESG-purveyors don't target them in the long run.

•
Elon Musk has called ESG "the devil" and that seems fairly accurate. A small group of people are holding the economy hostage.

•
We need an exorcism to get rid of this devil in our lives and our businesses — our individual wealth creation opportunities, our freedom and the global economy hangs in the balance.
This movement could retake control of prosecutors' offices (Fox 06/28/2023)
America wakes up to woke (JWR 06/22/2023)
There Is No Short Path Back to Institutional Credibility (JWR 06/22/2023)
George Soros’s prosecutors wage war on law and order (Fox 06/22/2023)
•
See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Those Silly Dads on TV (Brownstone 06/20/2023)
Trump's indictment is not the slam dunk case liberal media believes it is (Fox 06/15/2023)
•
The media's pronouncements that Donald Trump is almost certainly guilty of crimes are based on an ignorance of the law and a blinding political bias. As is often the case with capacious fiats mouthed by the featherhead class, the opposite is true.

•
Trump's principal defense rests with the Presidential Records Act (PRA). ... It was a law passed by Congress in 1978 that granted an exclusive right of former presidents to maintain custody and control of presidential papers accrued during their terms in office. Arguably, it includes classified documents.

•
It is a fundamental precept of law that specific statutes prevail over general statutes. The PRA is a specially crafted law that applies to a narrow group of people. That is, presidents.

•
By contrast, the Espionage Act enacted in 1917 is a general statute that applies broadly to all citizens. Hence, the defense will argue that PRA takes precedence over the Espionage Act, which accounts for most of the charges against Trump.

•
It is another elementary tenet of law that if statutes are in conflict, the more recently implemented statute predominates over the earlier one. Here, the Records Act was passed 61 years after the Espionage Act. This makes it more recent, relevant and operative.

•
For more than a decade, it was the considered opinion of the Department of Justice that the PRA conferred a unique right on former presidents to keep whatever presidential records they want, and the government has no authority to seize them. The National Archives agreed. A president has the sole discretion to segregate and dispose of records.

•
Forty-five years ago, Congress passed the Records Act to memorialize what previous presidents had always been permitted to do as a matter of tradition and practice.

•
Trump's defense team will argue that Garland manipulated the law by commandeering the Espionage Act to criminalize conduct that is not criminal at all under the prevailing statute, the Presidential Records Act.

•
The FBI did not raid Bill Clinton's home to reclaim classified material. Nor did the agency raid the same home when his wife, Hillary, stored more than a hundred classified documents on her personal server as secretary of state. Notably, she did not have the protection of the Presidential Records Act.

•
But it seems that abusive raids and inflated indictments only happen to Republicans. The new litmus test for prosecution is party affiliation, not fidelity to the law.

•
Trump's defense team will aver that unequal application of the law and selective prosecution are a violation of their client's due process rights.

•
After all, "Equal Justice Under Law" should be more than mere words chiseled on the pediment of the U.S. Supreme Court.

•
A similar motion based on constitutional violations may argue that Garland snookered a Florida magistrate into signing an overly broad general search warrant that is strictly prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.

•
If the evidence seized was accomplished by unlawful means, it constitutes an unreasonable search and seizure. The evidence would be inadmissible under the well-established exclusionary rule.

•
At issue are instances in which Trump supposedly asked his counsel about ways to avoid producing evidence that Garland was seeking. But it has never been a crime for a client to ask his attorney questions — even questions about how to evade government intrusions and demands.

•
We don't prosecute people for their thoughts or discussions. Was it unreasonable or somehow criminal for Trump to ask his lawyer if he could adopt the same obstructive tactics that Hillary Clinton and her lawyer employed to escape charges?

•
If Trump prevails in his argument that his actions were lawful under the PRA, then it seems incongruous to charge him with obstruction without an underlying crime.

•
Failure to permit the jury to read the documents themselves might well constitute reversible error. This leaves the government with the option of declassifying the records.

•
So, imagine a trial where the former president of the United States is accused of having classified documents that have since been declassified. It sounds absurd because it is.

•
Unaware of Trump's various defenses, the chronically biased media has gobbled up every word of the indictment and treated it as gospel.

•
These are the same faux journalists who pasteurized the phony Trump-Russia collusion "dossier" as scripture.

•
None of them are smart enough to heed the warning of Albert Einstein that the "only mistake in life is the lesson not learned."

•
There isn't a prosecutor alive who doesn't think his case is better than it really is. That delusion is frequently reflected in an overwrought indictment.

•
Prosecutors also have a nasty habit of ignoring exculpatory material that is beneficial to the accused. They twist the law and contort the evidence in the most damning light possible.
Indict Trump's valet? Why not the biggest liars first? (JWR 06/15/2023)
The Dangerous Trump Indictment (JWR 06/15/2023)
The Democrats who cried wolf (INN 06/15/2023)
Face it - America is doomed (INN 06/13/2023)
•
... dictatorial, Banana Republic-like behavior of the Progressive, Liberal, Radical, Marxist oriented (and led) Democrat Party has led to the soon, sure to come destruction of a once great Democratic, Constitutional Republic.

•
The future for the land in which I live is bleak. School children, from kindergarten through graduate school, are tutored by educators, intent on and trained in instilling hatred for this country, its history and its laws.

•
Marxism rules throughout the big cities where crime is growing in intensity and is destructive to growth.

•
Illegals are welcomed into this country to overflow, overrun and bankrupt the cities they are dumped into.

•
The criminal prosecution and persecution of Trump is the final straw that will break the back of nearly 250 years of the greatest nation the world has ever enjoyed.

•
A sad farewell to all of that glory is on the backs of the Democrat Party, its leaders and the morons whose votes put and kept them in power.
Wildfires aren’t getting worse because of climate change. The real culprit will surprise you (Fox 06/13/2023)
•
The Center for Biological Diversity, a left-leaning environmental group, acknowledges that, "The vast majority of western dry forests are at risk of large, high-intensity fire because of the effects of poor forest management over the past century. The primary factors that lead to current forest conditions include logging large trees, fire suppression and livestock grazing. Since the beginning of the 20th century, all three of these factors have been present in western forests, and they continue to play a role today."

•
And who, you might be wondering, is the biggest manager of U.S. forests? The very same federal government that is now blaming the problem of wildfires on climate change.
Truth Is the Foundation of Our Nation (JWR 06/08/2023)
How not to fight crime (INN 06/06/2023)
Fights erupt as California parents protest Pride event at elementary school: 'They're too young' (Fox 06/05/2023)
Is the sleeping conservative dragon finally waking up? (JWR 06/01/2023)
Don't be fooled, 'Green Energy' is neither green nor energy (Fox 06/01/2023)
While Washington security establishment was busy chasing Russia collusion hoax, Putin invaded Ukraine (Fox 05/31/2023)
•
The establishment's preoccupation with getting former President Trump through the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation, for which there was no justification, as special counsel Durham concluded, very likely resulted in the misjudgment of the actual Russian threat.

•
The Russia collusion scandal was masterminded by the Washington security apparatus on a massive scale. This could only be done by realigning the intelligence resources assigned to the Russia target - away from collecting and analyzing secrets that are critical to understanding Russian President Vladimir Putin's mindset and detecting his regime's plans and intentions, such as the invasion of Ukraine.

•
... a frequent question analysts were asked by their seniors was "What does Putin have on Trump?" What they should've been asking is questions about Putin's state of mind and Russia's cyber weapons, space warfare, nuclear doctrine, and the like.

•
The high-profile Mueller and Durham investigations carried the price tags of $32 million and $6.5 million respectively, a justified investment given that they debunked the "collusion" hoax, putting to rest the saga that has polarized American society for years.

•
But the nearly $200 billion in promised or already sent aid to Ukraine, and counting - all because those entrusted with detecting and neutralizing foreign threats to America failed to do their jobs – is a dangerous precedent.

•
It encourages the bureaucracy to continue using ordinary Americans as a cash cow, rather than figure out smart ways of keeping our enemies at bay.

•
... the Justice Department must make it clear that those who in 2016 weaponized the administrative state's spying and police bureaucracy against a political opponent they didn't like will be held to account.

•
Because if these apparatchiks are not punished, they will repeat their subversive playbook again in 2024.
Reparations demands are spiking and Democrats have this astonishing reaction (Fox 05/27/2023)
•
Reparations and sanctuary cities have long been the bread and butter of identity politics. For years, Democratic politicians have campaigned on these "moral imperatives" in passing sanctuary laws and setting up reparation task forces.

•
It is the equivalent of a compounding interest on credit card debt. Each election Democrats used these issues for short-term political gains. Now those bills are coming due and Democratic leaders are balking.

•
The years of politicking on the issue have created a sense of entitlement to large cash payments. As one well-known California activist declared: "It's a debt that's owed, we worked for free. We're not asking; we're telling you."

•
The late New York governor Mario Cuomo famously said that politicians campaign in poetry, but they govern in prose. However, the "prose" of many Democratic leaders is not winning any prizes.

•
While many have denounced the busing of migrants to sanctuary cities, most privately admit that there is an element of poetic justice.

•
For years, these cities have told undocumented migrants that they are welcome to come to their cities where they would be protected.

•
Then they showed up. It was a political version of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," the movie about a liberal couple who is confronted with a visit of their daughter and her Black fiance.

•
The single most riveting moment came at Martha's Vineyard where residents came out to clap and wave to the migrants ... as they were shipped to a military base off the island.

•
New York City has been shipping migrants to other cities, which are going to court to stop the relocation.

•
Many of these towns point out that, unlike New York City, they have never declared themselves a sanctuary for undocumented persons.

•
Even though these cities have been sent a fraction of the influx of states like Texas, mayors in sanctuary cities like Chicago have expressed outrage.

•
As with those expecting reparations, these migrants are understandably confused. They were told that Chicago was a "ciudad santuario." Chicago reaffirmed this status in 2022 when it extended protections and benefits.

•
At the time, politicians scrambled for cameras to declare ... that Chicago must be "a welcoming city for immigrants" and reaffirmed that "our city is responsible for acting with solidarity towards the people that are the most marginalized and the most impacted by a system that oppresses them."

•
Then they showed up in greater numbers and the former mayor Lori Lightfoot demanded that the migrants be sent elsewhere or kept in border towns overwhelmed by far greater numbers of migrants.

•
... cities that led efforts to defund the police are now refunding the police after soaring crime rates and high levels of police retirements and resignations.

•
In the meantime, Newsom's task force has demanded an assortment of other changes, including eliminating cash bail, abandoning the prosecution of certain crimes, subsidizing home purchases for Black residents, guaranteeing a "right to return" by taking over development projects to guarantee Black housing ownership.

•
These are the creditors of the Democratic Party, and they seem now intent on collecting on compounded interest of years of identity politics.

•
See related Lincoln Assassination Reparations (Sean Delonas, 06/29/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
‘Anti-Black Racism’ course to be required for UConn graduation…for the ‘collective good’ of course (American Thinker, 05/26/2023)
•
1984 is the leftist reality in 2023 — hordes of college-educated whole-heartedly gobbled up such moronic ideas like "Male is Female", "Right is Wrong", and "Intelligence is Stupidity — so what's stopping them from embracing any tyrannical scheme "for the common good"?

•
When the left effectively owns every American institution (academia, public schools, healthcare, media, the Fourth Branch), and Americans have unprecedented levels of distrust in said institutions...

•
... now, the "best and the brightest" are lowbrow groupthink sophists, capable of copying and pasting "#BlackLivesMatter" 100 times on their admissions essay, or willing to flaunt their mental illness under the "2SLGTBQIA+" banner.
5 things conservatives need to know before AI wipes out conservative thought altogether (Fox 05/26/2023)
The Illusion of Republicanism 5/22/23 (Brownstone Institute, 05/22/2023)
Who Is Being Brought to Justice? (JWR 05/21/2023)
The Worst Political Scandal in American History? (JWR 05/17/2023)
•
The report is an astounding expose of corruption and collusion ... between the Hillary Clinton campaign, friendlies at the FBI and top officials at the Obama administration.

•
As it turns out, Crossfire Hurricane was initiated based on sheer conjecture. That conjecture was trafficked by Hillary's 2016 campaign. And that conjecture served as the basis for a four-year-long witch hunt into a bevy of allegations that ultimately came to nothing.

•
... we now know that top officials at the White House and the FBI were aware of Hillary Clinton's plan to disseminate information falsely claiming Trump-Russia collusion; the FBI knew full well that the intelligence it had making such accusations was flimsy at best; they all went ahead anyway.

•
For the rest of the election cycle and much of Trump's presidency, the Democrats, media and intelligence community continued to parrot the Trump-Russia collusion lie.

•
This is patently insane. It destroys any semblance of legitimacy in the FBI. It implicates former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, James Clapper, John Brennan and a bevy of other high officials in weaponization of the government to stop Donald Trump.

•
The Russia hoax was much more than a hoax, it turns out. It was a nefarious plan, enacted at the highest levels of government, to corrupt an election and undermine a presidency.
Jonathan Turley takes media to task for Russiagate coverage: 'The most essential player in this conspiracy' (Fox 05/17/2023)
•
"The most essential player in this conspiracy was the media, which pumped up the [Steele] dossier as gospel."

•
"On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow assured her viewers that 'no major thing from the dossier has been conclusively disproved. On CNN, one of the guests insisted, 'I think we... actually have to stop calling it the 'infamous dossier' and increasingly calling it 'accurate dossier,' the 'damning dossier.'' CNN host Alisyn Camerota attacked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and said the dossier 'hasn't been discredited, in fact, it has been opposite, it has been corroborated,'..."

•
"Durham has laid out how the most cited claims were not supported, let alone corroborated. Indeed, he found there was no basis for this investigation to have been launched in the first place."

•
"[Former FBI Director James] Comey went on to make millions selling books and giving speeches on 'ethical leadership.' Former FBI special agent Peter Strzok was given a job by CNN."

•
"Clinton general counsel Marc Elias is advising people on election ethics and running a group to 'defend democracy'."

•
"After all, this was a collective effort. In Washington, the more people involved in a conspiracy, the less culpable it becomes. They all did it, so no one did."
Bombshell Durham report confirms FBI, Justice Department had these radical motives (Fox 05/15/2023)
When You Don't Police Crime, Civilians Will (JWR 05/04/2023)
China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are investing in ways to nuke us. The time is now for missile defense (Fox 05/04/2023)
•
We have relied upon our adversaries' fear that our nuclear weapons could destroy them to deter their use of nuclear weapons against us or our allies. The result has been that our cities and populace remain unprotected from a nuclear attack from Russia or China.

•
Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with nuclear weapons.

•
All four countries have also escalated their threatening rhetoric, indicating their willingness to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict.

•
By expanding their nuclear programs, each has made clear that our nuclear arsenal is no longer a deterrent to their potential use of nuclear weapons.

•
If deterrence is dead, then the concept of mutually assured destruction is obsolete and comprehensive missile defense must be revisited as an essential capability to protect our citizens.

•
We only have ourselves to blame. Our current vulnerabilities are the product of conflicting political priorities and our own shortsightedness as missile defense took a back seat to other national issues after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The focus dissipated for the next decade.

•
Given advancements by our adversaries, the U.S. and its allies must invest in a modernized, scalable and integrated missile defense system that can sense threats early and intercept them at every stage.

•
With political and financial fortitude, we can protect our sovereignty and citizens. Ultimately, we can achieve President's Reagan vision of a world free from the threat of mutually assured destruction at the hands of tyrants and rogue actors.
Watch Fox News Slide As Tucker Carlson Rises, With Help From Musk (American Thinker, 05/01/2023)
Dems Have a 'Big Lie' of Their Own (JWR 05/01/2023)
Dominion vs. 'Russian collusion' and 'disinformation' (JWR 04/28/2023)
Fight With Everything You Have or Lose Everything You Have (JWR 04/20/2023)
The Left's Favorite Lie: Widespread White-On-Black Violence (JWR 04/20/2023)
The undoing of America through false journalism (INN 04/16/2023)
•
Depart from the orthodoxy, and you will be branded a racist, even worse, a Trump ideologue, and speaking of Trump, the gloating by the media over his being shamed by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg.

•
... the real shame is over all our heads for an act that diminishes the office of the presidency, Democrat or Republican.

•
Nothing like this was ever done in this country, and surely Trump...who allegedly tried to hush up an affair...would have been better off In France.

•
There, a leader who has not at least one mistress on the side, is laughed at as suspicious and inadequate. That was the case with King Louis XVI.

•
Regicide it was when Louis XVI was reduced from monarch to "citizen," tried to flee, got caught, was beheaded, in the crosshairs of the French Revolution.

•
A form of all that is true for Trump, certainly the aspect of reducing him from leader to citizen, through four years of false charges broadcast via impeachment hearings.

•
Off with his head, they clamored...in parliamentary-speak.

•
Today it's a different type of revolution, or maybe it's the same thing... one party, the Democrats, hell-bent to take over the entire system.

•
They've pretty much got it done.
Could It Happen Here? It Is Happening Here (JWR 04/04/2023)
Donald Trump indictment ignores this core legal principle (Fox 04/04/2023)
•
In a single indictment, Alvin Bragg bulldozed any high ground that the Democrats had after January 6th.

•
He has fulfilled the narrative of the Trump by supplying a raw and undeniable example of the politicization of the legal system.

•
What is most shocking is that this attack on the rule of law was met with the rapturous applause of many, including lawyers and legal pundits.

•
They not only will ignore the affront to the integrity of our legal system, but celebrate its demise.

•
I remain hopeful that there remains a modicum of judicial integrity in New York to stand against this effort.

•
However, this is a defining moment for many who have rationalized this abuse of the criminal justice system.
AI could go 'Terminator,' gain upper hand over humans in Darwinian rules of evolution, report warns (Fox 04/04/2023)
•
"Competitive pressures among corporations and militaries will give rise to AI agents that automate human roles, deceive others, and gain power. If such agents have intelligence that exceeds that of humans, this could lead to humanity losing control of its future."

•
"In the marketplace, it's survival of the fittest. As AIs become increasingly competent, AIs will automate more and more jobs, This is how natural selection favors AIs over humans, and leads to everyday people becoming displaced. In the long run, AIs could be thought of as an invasive species."

•
"As AI agents begin to understand human psychology and behavior, they may become capable of manipulating or deceiving humans. The most successful agents will manipulate and deceive in order to fulfill their goals."

•
"At some point, AIs will be more fit than humans, which could prove catastrophic for us since a survival-of-the fittest dynamic could occur in the long run. AIs very well could outcompete humans, and be what survives."

•
"Perhaps altruistic AIs will be the fittest, or humans will forever control which AIs are fittest. Unfortunately, these possibilities are, by default, unlikely. As we have argued, AIs will likely be selfish. There will also be substantial challenges in controlling fitness with safety mechanisms, which have evident flaws and will come under intense pressure from competition and selfish AI."
Racist Left screams the quiet part out loud (JWR 04/03/2023)
This is why Trump argues there was no crime at all, not even the misdemeanor falsification of records (Fox 04/03/2023)
Left-wing violence chic (JWR 03/31/2023)
•
Most Americans decried the illegal entry into the Capitol on January 6, 2021, by protesting Trump supporters.

•
Over 1,000 have been charged, or are in prison, with hundreds more facing indictment. Yet none in the Capitol were armed. And the only ones to die violently that day were among the protesters themselves.

•
No so in the summer 2020. Then the vast majority of the Black Lives Matter and Antifa-led violent protesters who rioted, burned, and looted for 120 days – injuring 1,500 police officers and causing over 35 deaths – were either not arrested or released.
The whopping outrage in Trump's indictment (Fox 03/31/2023)
When a Tranny Murders Christian Schoolchildren (JWR 03/29/2023)
•
... we ought to consider the possibility that it is dangerous to promote the idea that mentally ill people ought to be celebrated as political groundbreakers by the legacy media for their symptoms, and simultaneously told that their suicidal ideations are caused by the intolerance of a broader society.

•
Teaching trans-identifying people that their suffering is caused by a cruelly religious and patriarchal world, explaining that these forces put their very lives in danger — that, indeed, they are victims of a potential "genocide" — creates an incredibly dangerous ideological predicate for violent action.

•
To admit the obvious — that men cannot be women and vice versa; that believing you were born "in the wrong body" is a mental disorder, not a weapon to be used in tearing down an unjust society; that high rates of depression and suicidal ideation among those who identify as transgender is not caused predominantly by societal intolerance but by the disorder itself — undermines the new civil rights crusade the Left has built, directed against traditional roles and institutions.
Things are getting uglier (JWR 03/28/2023)
Do Conservatives Oppose Change? (JWR 03/28/2023)
Students deserve to know this shocking truth about communism (Fox 03/27/2023)
•
Communism may not be knocking at your front door, but it is spying in our backyard. Why, then, are our children not being taught the truth about the deadliest ideology the world has ever known?

•
After all, students deserve the facts about communism, both its brutal history and the ongoing oppression of those still living under such regimes.

•
... established the goals and measures necessary to achieve communism that included the abolition of private property, abolition of the rights of inheritance, the establishment of a classless society, and the centralization of power in the hands of the state. It also specifically called for the destruction of all aspects of the old system through violence and revolution.

•
To date, more than 100 million people have been killed by communist regimes around the world in their desire to reach this utopian fantasy.

•
The first attempt to install communism occurred in Russia in 1917, as Vladimir Lenin's initial promise of peace, land and bread quickly devolved into terror, collectivization, famine and civil war leading to the deaths of almost 7 million people.

•
Things only got worse under Josef Stalin who killed upward of 20 million Soviets. Those who dissented or stood against this cruel system of rule were sent to the Gulag – a system of forced labor camps – or were executed.

•
Millions of innocents held captive behind the Iron Curtain at the conclusion of World War II, like their Soviet counterparts, lived secret lives, fearful of being reported by their neighbors and punished by the regimes' terroristic security services.

•
The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but communism did not. Today, one-fifth of humanity still lives under its brutal rule.

•
By ignoring the continued existence of communism, we are failing to understand the challenges that the United States faces at home and abroad.

•
... 18 percent of Gen Z and 13 percent of millennials reported that communism is a fairer system than capitalism and deserves consideration in America. These results are only possible in a generation whose education was devoid of the true history of communist regimes and their deadly ideology.

•
This is a tragic disservice to America's students and a blatant dismissal of the 1.5 billion people still suffering under communist regimes. It should not be controversial to talk about historic facts and prepare our students for the world as it exists outside the classroom.

•
We ignore history's warnings at our own peril. The truth about communism is readily available to all through the historic record, but future generations will only learn if they are taught.

•
As the great Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in his famous "Warning to the West": "It is astonishing that Communism has been writing about itself in the most open way, in black and white, for 125 years... yet somehow no one wants to understand."

•
We must ensure our students understand.
The sudden turn of events that could derail Trump's indictment (Fox 03/22/2023)
•
"Show me the man and I'll show you the crime," was the infamous boast of Joseph Stalin's ruthless secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria.

•
His modus operandi was to target any man the Soviet dictator chose and then find or fabricate a crime against him.

•
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has taken a page out of Stalin's playbook and targeted Donald Trump. Driven by personal and political animus, the DA presumed the former president must be guilty of something.

•
It was just a matter of devoting enough time and resources to hunt down the crime. Failing to find one, Bragg copied Beria's paradigm and simply dreamed one up.

•
... the DA invented his case against Trump by taking an alleged misdemeanor business records violation and supercharging it into a felony by citing an imagined second crime arising out of a supposed campaign finance violation. The novelty of such a charge is exceeded only by its absurdity.

•
Bragg's determination to snooker a grand jury into indicting Trump is an egregious abuse of government authority. It constitutes the weaponization of the law for political gain. But it is also — and importantly — selective prosecution of the worst kind.

•
Much of the current witch hunt was driven and directed by former assistant DA Mark Pomerantz, an outsider who was hired for the sole purpose of "getting Trump."

•
When Bragg initially balked at bringing charges, Pomerantz quit in a fit of pique but not before blasting his former boss in a resignation screed conveniently made public.

•
He then ratcheted up the pressure on Bragg by penning a disgraceful tell-all book. In it, Pomerantz arrogantly laid bare his contempt of Trump because "he posed a real danger to the country and to the ideals that mattered to me."

•
That confessional exposed the underlying rationale for charging Trump. The district attorney soon caved and fully embraced the loony legal theory promoted by Pomerantz.

•
Disagreeing with someone's political views or harboring personal animosity is not a basis for criminal prosecution. Indeed, it is a serious breach of legal ethics.

•
It is the duty of a prosecutor to see that justice is done, not to target an individual and contort the law to bring a feckless case against him. Pomerantz should face disbarment for his unconscionable conduct.

•
The district attorney's prejudicial pursuit of Trump undermines the vital concept that the administration of justice will be fair and equitable. He has forsaken the presumption of innocence embodied in the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to our Constitution. When it comes to Trump, the DA only operates on the presumption of guilt.

•
Alvin Bragg has chosen to criminalize politics with the zeal of the notorious Lavrentiy Beria. In the process, he has badly damaged the public's trust and sullied the sacred principle of equal justice under the law.
Why a Trump Arrest Imperils the American Idea (American Spectator, 03/21/2023)
The Vulgarization of America (JWR 03/21/2023)
Memo to Conservatives: You Don't Have to Agree on Everything — Only on Fighting the Left (JWR 03/21/2023)
•
People should adopt two rules with regard to political allies. One is that you will have no allies if your only allies are individuals with whom you agree on every issue; it should suffice to agree on most issues.

•
The other rule is that if we agree about who our chief enemy is, we can differ on a lot of other issues.

•
With few exceptions, if you understand the existential threat the Left poses to America and to Western civilization, you are my ally.
San Francisco's reparations plan will lead to this surprising outcome for Blacks like me (Fox 03/21/2023)
Are we the Byzantines? (JWR 03/20/2023)
•
Nowhere is it foreordained that America has a birthright to remain the world's preeminent civilization.

•
An ascendant China seems eerily similar to the Ottomans. Beijing believes that the United States is decadent, undeserving of its affluence, living beyond its means on the fumes of the past — and very soon vulnerable enough to challenge openly.

•
Left and Right seem to hate each other more than they do their common enemies. Like the Byzantines, Americans gave up defending their own borders, and simply shrugged as millions overran them as they pleased.

•
Our once iconic downtowns, like end-stage Constantinople before the fall, are now dirty, half-deserted, dangerous, and dysfunctional. America prints rather than makes money, as its banks totter near bankruptcy.

•
Americans similarly believe they are invincible without ensuring in reality that they are. Our military is more worried about being "woke" than deadly.

•
Like Byzantines, Americans have become snarky iconoclasts, more eager to tear down art and sculpture that they no longer have the talent to create.

•
Current woke dogma, obscure word fights, and sanctimonious cancel culture are as antithetical to the past generations of World War II as the last generation of Constantinople was to the former great eras of the emperors Constantine, Justinian, Heraclius, and Leo.

•
The Byzantines never woke up in time to understand what they had become. So far neither have Americans.
DeSantis slams ‘Soros-funded’ Manhattan DA for ‘weaponizing the office’ as Trump rumors swirl (Fox 03/20/2023)
•
"The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor, and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety."

•
"... the real victims are ordinary New Yorkers, ordinary Americans and all these different jurisdictions that they get victimized every day, because of the reckless political agenda that the Soros DA's bring to their job."

•
"They ignore crime, and they empower criminals, and that hurts people hurts a lot of people every single day."

•
See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump's expected 'arrest': The politics and power plays behind these legally feeble charges (Fox 03/20/2023)
•
... it is essential to examine what motivated the charges. At its core, the case represents an egregious abuse of power and the corrupt weaponization of the law for political gain.

•
Bereft of any credible evidence, Bragg is contorting the law in a brazen attempt to inflate his case. His actions constitute serious prosecutorial misconduct.

•
It is the culmination of a years-long effort by the District Attorney's Office to target Trump for something – anything.

•
It is obvious that Bragg doesn't give a hoot about the law. He's banking on the likelihood that a liberal New York judge will let the case go to a Manhattan jury stacked with biased Trump-haters anxious to ignore all the legal constraints and convict the former president despite the paucity of incriminating evidence...

•
As the chief prosecutor in a city reeling from rampant crime, you would assume that Bragg is preoccupied with public safety instead of pursuing a politically motivated case. Wrong assumption. The lawlessness that plagues New York City doesn't seem to interest him in the least.

•
The great irony is that Bragg has spent most of his tenure in office downgrading felonies to misdemeanors. But now he wants to upgrade a misdemeanor to a felony because his target's name is Trump. His selective prosecution is an affront to the principle of equal justice under the law.

•
I suspect that the district attorney's real goal is to interfere in the upcoming presidential election by knocking out Trump.

•
In a democracy, that important decision should be left up to voters, not a local prosecutor doing the bidding of his political party.

•
Fortunately, most Americans are smart enough to see through the veneer of a sham case. Indeed, Bragg's actions may well have the unintended consequence of rallying even more support for Donald Trump.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
J6 Lies Are Part of a Much Bigger Pattern (JWR 03/09/2023)
The price of eliminating consequences (JWR 03/09/2023)
Is progressive fever finally breaking? 5 signs Americans getting fed up with woke politicians and policies (Fox 03/07/2023)
Is this the greatest ripoff in American history? (Fox 03/07/2023)
McCloskeys speak out after escaping Soros-backed DA felony crusade for 'defending' home from BLM (Fox 03/06/2023)
•
"The only unforgivable crime in America is standing up against the left." ... "In our case, we were [considered by Gardner] the worst criminals in St. Louis – despite the 262 murders we had in 2020 – by standing on our front porch and defending ourselves. We got leapfrogged over 6,000 other cases, other serious felonies."

•
... the Missouri Bar Association disciplinary council "decided that what we did in standing on our front porch defending ourselves was a crime of moral turpitude, that we were evil people and that we should not be allowed to practice law anymore."

•
The Missouri Bar requested the state's Supreme Court to suspend their licenses. Missouri's Supreme Court suspended the McCloskeys' law licenses in February 2022, only to later put them on probation for one year.

•
"The good news for us is that we're self-employed. We don't owe anybody anything. There's nothing they can do to us. And they can try to cancel us all that they want to."

•
"But I'm going to be... saying the truth... But we anticipate that they will continue to try to find ways to make our lives miserable."

•
"This is like they're two different nations. [There is a] nation of people that respect the Constitution and believe that individuals have a God given right to be free and self-determination and a duty to have self-respect and integrity. And [then the people who]... want to crush freedom and crush independence and create a single world socialist government."

•
"And because it helps them politically, they can take the position that they're counteracting generations of systemic racism and that putting people behind bars is White supremacist propaganda and that the laws are designed to oppress and not for any other reason. And therefore to refuse to enforce the law is to the benefit of diversity, equity and inclusion."

•
"I absolutely do believe there's an intent to create chaos. It's not accidental. It's not incompetence [at prosecuting crime]."

•
"Because out of chaos comes tyranny. You demoralize people, you give them an environment of chaos, lawlessness, poverty and uncertainty. And what do they do? They ask somebody else to fix their problems, they ask the government to come in and provide a solution. And that's what all this is about. And it's not just happening in St. Louis, but in every major city."
The woke wrecking machine (JWR 03/02/2023)
The Greatest Cover-up in Human History (JWR 03/01/2023)
Sexual revolution is key cause of America's social disarray, asserts book author (Fox 03/01/2023)
Why does so much of Gen-Z hate America? Here's why we can't give up on them (Fox 02/23/2023)
This threat to American culture is 'political correctness on steroids' (Fox 02/20/2023)
Lincoln's advice for success still rings true today (Fox 02/20/2023)
Destroying meritocracy is deadly (JWR 02/16/2023)
End of the Electoral College is in sight if Democrats keep getting their way (Fox 02/16/2023)
Young Americans Are Losing Their Minds. The Social Left Is to Blame (JWR 02/15/2023)
•
... any society that attempts to destroy all rules, roles and intermediate institutions laden with traditional values will end up abandoning its children — all in the name of tolerance and diversity.

•
We have robbed young men of a sense of meaning: we've told them that they need not be providers, protectors or defenders, and that even aspiring to do so makes them bigoted remnants of the past.

•
Instead, young men are told that they ought to relegate themselves to the role of "male feminists," condemning their own "toxic masculinity" while shying away from the commitments that turn boys into men.

•
We have robbed young women of any sense of place, time or purpose: we've told them that they need not seek out a husband, aspire to bear and rear children or make preparations to build a home.

•
Instead, we've told them that they can run from their own biology, declaring themselves boys rather than girls, delaying childbearing indefinitely, pursuing the things that are supposedly truly important: sexual license, more work hours, sipping wine at brunch with single friends.

•
We have done all of this because children do not lie at the top of our civilizational hierarchy: the interests of adults do.

•
Increasingly, adults in the West see children as either a burden and thus avoid having them, or as validators of their own sense of subjective self-identity, requiring indoctrination into more liberal forms of social organization.

•
The social Left has been in control of virtually all levers of culture and policy for decades.

•
Now they demand more control in order to alleviate the consequences of the chaos they have created.

•
The answer, of course, is precisely the opposite: the reinvigoration of traditional sources of wisdom and values, the re-inculcation of morality and obligation.

•
If our society does not quickly reverse field, the consequences for our young people will be utterly disastrous.
School choice is the right answer for a ‘free, diverse, equal, society:’ Neal McCluskey (Fox 02/14/2023)
Valentine's Day letter to my daughters for a long and happy marriage (Fox 02/14/2023)
Climate is now our state religion (Fox 02/11/2023)
America 'unrecognizable' and on the brink of collapse, experts warn: 'Turning on our own legacy' (Fox 02/07/2023)
•
"We're in a very bizarre and unprecedented situation in our civilization today, which is – we are turning on our own legacy and declaring it evil, oppressive, without any redeeming characteristics......"

•
Among the devastating changes ... are unbearable living costs, anti-American "woke" sentimentality infiltrating the nation's public schools and universities, riots in the streets of major U.S. cities, and the emboldening of the nation's greatest adversaries, including Russia and China.

•
"The gas prices, the housing crisis, the crisis with education, with healthcare... [it's] one crisis after another."

•
"The chain of civilization is only as strong as its weakest link, and all the values have to be passed on in their entirety from one generation to the other."

•
... erasing America's past and the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that constructed its foundation could spell a devastating change in the near future.
Ever Wonder? (JWR 02/06/2023)
Race, race everywhere, nor any way ... (JWR 02/02/2023)
Biden's next classified documents defense may be 'Corn Pop did it.' President running out of credible excuses (Fox 01/23/2023)
Biden's doc defense: 'Immaculate reception' works in football but not for president with classified info (Fox 01/22/2023)
The Real Purpose of Drag Queen Story Hour (American Thinker,1/21/23)
Idaho murders: 10 key mysteries that need to be solved (Fox 01/21/2023)
How the woke college cartel shakes down taxpayers to pay for elite endowments (Fox 01/20/2023)
Hunter Biden laptop-denier now admits emails are real. Don't let him get away with it (Fox 01/18/2023)
My stalker murdered my husband. Here’s how you can protect yourself (Fox 01/14/2023)
Why I left the FBI (Fox 01/12/2023)
•
The FBI became politically weaponized, starting from the top in Washington and trickling down to the field offices.

•
... on June 4, 2020, images and videos surfaced online of special agents in their FBI-marked ballistic vests kneeling to protesters in Washington, D.C., while on official duty protecting our nation's institutions.

•
Although agents have their First Amendment rights, they are not at liberty to publicly express any potential political support while on duty wearing official FBI gear.

•
For many agents nationwide, it was upsetting to see the lack of judgment by the kneelers, much less their apparent political statements while on the job. And the fact that they were treated like heroes by some FBI managers was appalling.

•
There has also been a shift in recruiting practices – a lowering of the eligibility requirements – which is negatively impacting the agency's performance.

•
For me, distancing myself from egregious mistakes, immoral behavior and politically charged actions taken by a small but destructive few FBI employees became exhausting.
How Did The Left Acquire Such Power? (JWR 01/03/2023)
I'm a psychologist and the 'Twitter Files' are a perfect storm of psychology and society's rules (Fox 12/28/2022)
The new, new antisemitism (JWR 12/29/2022)
Roberts v. Gorsuch: Title 42 case pits Supreme Court's pragmatist against the purist (Fox 12/28/2022)
Biden's climate czars want to fly private, live like kings, while you shiver in the cold (Fox 12/26/2022)
•
Fossil fuels are integral to almost every part of our lives, from their obvious use in transportation to their behind-the-scenes role in products we use every day — like clothes, cleaning products, phones, pharmaceuticals ... and even football helmets.

•
We are nowhere near a world in which we can live without fossil fuels. Anyone who says otherwise, or promotes ideas that we can significantly curb our use in the next decade, is not living in reality.

•
Unsustainable "green" policies and the relentless pursuit of eliminating fossil fuels are suffocating the American energy sector and increasing our reliance on foreign crooks and criminals for energy and oil.

•
See related Jet Setters (Antonio Branco, 12/28/2018) cartoon from World picture album
Two presidents, Trump/Biden – two criminals? (INN 12/25/2022)
Are universities doomed? (JWR 12/22/2022)
FBI and Twitter formed a censorship alliance and they can't be allowed to get away with it (Fox 12/21/2022)
Did National Security Imperatives Compromise COVID-19 Vaccine Safety? (12/19/22)
Was American teacher left behind in Russian prison camp because he wasn't woke enough for Team Biden? (Fox 12/14/2022)
Calling all moms, it's time to teach our daughters corporations don’t get to decide their identity as women (Fox 12/14/2022)
Brittney Griner represents the "Best of America"? (INN 12/12/2022)
Musk deserves a medal for revealing how the Biden campaign, FBI and media censored the Hunter Biden scandal (Fox 12/06/2022)
I deposed Dr. Fauci for seven hours. Here's what I learned about 'science' (Fox 12/06/2022)
•
... which came first, the corruption of science or the censoring of speech? It appears they've walked hand-in-hand for quite some time, becoming all the more apparent with the consolidation of social media power and the collective efforts of federal bureaucrats who wish to control not only what you think but especially what you say.

•
During no time in human history was this more obvious than during the COVID-19 crisis where social engineering tactics were used against the American public, not to limit your exposure to a virus, but to limit your exposure to information that did not fit within a government sanctioned narrative.

•
Throughout the pandemic, doctors, scientists, patients, and families were censored, shadow-banned, blocked, and punished for having views, opinions, and research findings disfavored by the government and their chosen gatekeepers.

•
This was done in direct collusion with social media companies, allowing the federal government and its senior officials to effectively silence legitimate debate in the modern public square.

•
... science is not belief; a scientist is not supposed to believe anything. It is the role of the scientist to question, debate, refute, and demonstrate with evidence - not blindly accept ideas based on a set of beliefs.

•
Fauci, who believes he represents science itself, has a long history of silencing dissent, neutralizing debate, and destroying the career of any scientist who disagrees with him by ensuring their research is never funded, published, or taken seriously.

•
Many a scientist over the past fifty years has been vilified, ridiculed, and sacrificed at this altar of Fauci-ism and the profits that come with it.

•
... over our seven-hour deposition, what did Fauci have to say about the "science" he supposedly represents? ... Instead of providing us with answers, this supposed beacon of truth said "I don't recall" 174 times, all while evading questions, trying to run out the clock, and insisting he's a very busy man (with his signature condescension).

•
But the fact is, Fauci was never too busy to have Mark Zuckerberg and others actively censor those who did know, who were right, and who might have saved lives during this recent pandemic.

•
That is our goal moving forward - to ensure that your First Amendment rights are not only protected but also enforced.

•
Hopefully then real science can return to its rightful place in our society as an evidence-based pursuit of Truth, because anything less is simply Newspeak.

•
See related Faith in Fauci (Gary McCoy, 10/29/2021) cartoon from General picture album
Wall Street CEOs funding China’s military and human rights abuses. Here's why (Fox 12/05/2022)
Media's Hunter Biden collusion: 'Twitter files' dump has them on defense, attacking the messenger (Fox 12/04/2022)
Weaken America First is the new Democrat Party policy (Fox 12/01/2022)
Elon Musk triggers liberals, sends them into wartime footing over free speech (Fox 11/29/2022)
Why only a modest Republican midterm victory? (INN 11/26/2022)
Sad Reality (JWR 11/21/2022)
Garland's double standard — a special counsel for Trump but not Hunter and Joe Biden (Fox 11/21/2022)
TUCKER CARLSON: A free society requires comedians (Fox 11/18/2022)
Trump: The lost Tycoon (INN 11/18/2022)
Let the blame games begin? (JWR 11/17/2022)
The FTX Dog That Didn't Bark (JWR 11/16/2022)
Drag Queen Story Hour's radical origins and the subversive sexualization of our kids (Fox 10/29/2022)
Joe Biden, Dylan Mulvaney and the Collapse of the West (JWR 10/28/2022)
The invisible villain - drug demand among the young (INN 10/27/2022)
Not to vote is to vote (INN 10/25/2022)
'America is being destroyed' by the Democratic Party: Mark Levin (Fox 10/23/2022)
•
"America is being destroyed. If you want to destroy America, then you vote Democrat because the Democrat Party has been unmasked. Its policies and programs are delusional and destructive, and they are dismantling the most fabulous nation on earth right before your eyes."

•
"Capitalism stands in the way of a planned socialist economy, which they support, so they seek to deconstruct capitalism."

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"In order to fundamentally transform America, you must seize power by perverting and sabotaging our Constitution, legal and voting systems. That's what they're doing."

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"The American people have not knowingly or voluntarily surrendered their liberty, property, society and Constitution to the reprobates and malcontents within the Democrat Party and who are among us. It's a slow process, and it's packaged in deceit and propaganda and lies. You are said to be the beneficiary of these designs when in fact you are the targets. The Democrat Party doesn't seek to improve society. It seeks to destroy it than replace it."

•
"If you want to save the country, if you want to begin the process, we hope, of reversing course, if you want to improve your lives, if you want to protect your family, whatever you do, don't vote Democrat."
TUCKER CARLSON: Open race hate forms much of MSNBC's substance (Fox 10/20/2022)
Danchenko is acquitted, but Comey and the FBI are guilty of perpetrating the Russia hoax (Fox 10/18/2022)
•
In reality, the crooked FBI was in the dock throughout the weeklong trial, exposed for its years of shameful lies, shocking corruption, and devious cover-ups.

•
It was former Director James Comey and his sleazy confederates who colluded with the Hillary Clinton campaign to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia. They framed him for alleged crimes he never committed.

•
The genesis of the lies came from Hillary herself, according to declassified documents. In the run-up to 2016 presidential election, she personally approved a plan to defame her political opponent as a clandestine Russian mole.

•
But that's not all. Clinton's acolytes covertly funded the specious dossier authored by the now-disgraced Steele who was already pocketing cash while on the FBI payroll.

•
Hillary's cronies and political operatives not only furnished the fabricated garbage in the document, but they disseminated it to the Trump-loathing media. With the FBI as witting accessories, the Russia hoax took flight and a dilating witch hunt ensued.

•
Any intelligent person who has ever read Steele's preposterous report knew immediately that it was bogus. It read like a dime novel penned by a halfwit.

•
Days after the inauguration, Danchenko — Steele's primary source — confessed to Comey's agents that the document was all a sham.

•
As Democrats and the media proceeded to convict Trump in the court of public opinion, the sanctimonious Comey and others at the bureau remained mute and happily watched as their nemesis struggled to defend himself.

•
Through their abuse of power they managed to convince tens of millions of citizens that the president was a traitor without a shred of evidence.

•
Special counsel Durham should be commended for his dogged pursuit of the truth. He may have lost the trial, but he succeeded in unraveling a multitude of pernicious lies.

•
He exposed how a malignant force of unelected officials committed uncommon corruption through insipid deceptions and malevolent acts.

•
They subverted our rules of law and undermined the democratic process. By their venal acts, they damaged the institutions of American government. And they squandered the nation's trust.

•
Comey and his miserable minions may be gone from the FBI, but the wretched rot lingers.
On this day in history, Oct. 13, 1792, cornerstone of White House laid down (Fox 10/13/2022)
Biden, Democrats use midterm mass-distraction strategy to hide counterculture revolution from angry voters (Fox 10/13/2022)
Ukraine war shows us that old nuclear strategies won't keep us safe and Biden must wake up (Fox 10/10/2022)
Parental authority is the basis of civilization (JWR 09/28/2022)
Banks, asset managers should ignore calls for ESG and woke capitalism and stick to what they do best (Fox 09/27/2022)
•
... please resist the impulse to respond to the very loud noise in your left ear from political activists.

•
The calls for environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) in the financial industry are a public relations ploy more focused on placating "Twitter risk" than any material risk to investors.

•
The Left uses capital, the banking industry and Wall Street's largest asset managers to shape policy in ways they can't achieve through the legislative process.

•
Addressing complex, contentious social policy issues of national significance involves balancing competing values and using the channels of our democratic system where elected representatives of the people call the balls and strikes, not coercing our financial institutions into "woke capitalism."

•
... there is political pressure to block legal transactions and insert financial institutions into controversial social issues, but the American banking system was not created to virtue-signal.

•
Banks and asset managers should steer clear of weighing in on social and cultural issues lest they leave the impression their priorities are based on shifting political trends.
From Jussie Smollett to BYU, the media's history of peddling race hoaxes (Fox 09/26/2022)
•
"The media falls for these fake hoaxes for the obvious reason. It plays into the Democratic far-left narrative that this is a racist country."

•
"To the left, the allegation is more important than the facts... The media won't cover the investigation. The media will not cover the fact that the accuser was basically lying.... The media will never let facts get in the way of sensational headlines regarding racism, systemic racism, institutionalized racism. In essence, the media and the Democrats will ignore the ultimate truth and move on to another hoax."
Transgender historical revisionism (INN 09/25/2022)
New York AG's Trump lawsuit should be dismissed as politically punitive and an unethical abuse of power (Fox 09/22/2022)
The left condemns hate speech while ignoring fallout from Biden branding Trumpers fascist: Victor Davis Hanson (Fox 09/21/2022)
Larry Kudlow: People everywhere must fight for freedom (Fox 09/21/2022)
Tucker Carlson: Only a society that hates children would allow this (Fox 09/21/2022)
On Constitution Day, honor our chief governing document as one of history's highest political achievements (Fox 09/17/2022)
Biden’s paranoid presidency delivers divisiveness to Americans, not unity (Fox 09/15/2022)
Drawing a parallel between January 6 protests and fall of the Twin towers — true lunacy (Fox 09/13/2022)
New disease erases Dems' memories of their post-2016 attack on democracy (Fox 09/12/2022)
The world wants no part of woke, but it's glad we do (JWR 09/08/2022)
Biden's dumb, dangerous Afghanistan decision: it will haunt us for decades (Fox 08/29/2022)
DOJ's redacted Trump raid affidavit revealed precious little (Fox 08/27/2022)
Tucker Carlson: The FBI has been working on behalf of the Democratic Party (Fox 08/27/2022)
Founding Fathers already rejected attacks on Constitution, calls to 'pack the Court' (Fox 08/25/2022)
Those Who Want to Destroy the Constitution (JWR 08/24/2022)
What the Democrats do not realize is going to bite them (INN 08/16/2022)
•
In a democracy, where the ruling party can be replaced by the opposition in the next elections, precedents brought into being by the provisional leaders may come to bite them when they are sidelined by the voters later on.

•
All in all, the Democrats' handling of their fanatical partisanship is going to bite them when the balance of power is reversed. They have been committing bad precedents all over the map as if their political supremacy were going to stretch out forever, so that no consequences could ever affect them.

•
Don't they realize that their behavior could be duplicated by their adversaries? And with some added topping of hot pepper, driven by a touch of revenge?

•
What these idiots are doing is initiating the start of an endless blood feud that will steer America to the brink of an all-embracing lawlessness.

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Whoever is in power will strive to crush those who preceded them; whoever is in power will try to wipe clean and reverse all policies and directions instated by their predecessors; whoever is in power now will become prey when they lose power to their adversaries.

•
It's already happening before our eyes. It's the beginning of the end of America as we knew it.

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And it's all done by those in power today, who possess an utter disregard for the consequences and precedents they originate, while effecting the decline in values and morals that brought about the fall of the Roman Empire.
Tucker Carlson: There's a reason the public's confidence in the FBI has plummeted (Fox 08/16/2022)
Trump raid shows that FBI, Justice Department want to decide who can be our president (Fox 08/16/2022)
•
The FBI raid of Trump's home on August 8, in concert with the Department of Justice (DOJ), marks a dark and seminal point in American history. There can be no undoing of that act.

•
Sadly, the world has seen America, once the land of the free, descend into a new the realm with the DOJ and FBI attempting to decide who can be president of our country — not unlike so many military coups throughout history.

•
There will be much fallout over the raid at Trump's Florida home. There are significant legal and political consequences, including potentially making Trump into a political martyr and even helping his 2024 presidential campaign.

•
Those pale in comparison, however, to the FBI and DOJ's stunning foray over the last few years into politics, a foray that was capped off by the Mar-a-Lago raid.

•
Stated in the starkest terms, the FBI and the DOJ are now in the business of deciding who shall be eligible to run for office in America.

•
... the FBI and the DOJ, and even the attorney general of New York have been going after Donald Trump, virtually from the moment he announced his bid for the presidency – with or without probable cause. The raid is just the latest act.

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Think of the third world military coups through history, in Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil and Peru to name a few of the hundreds throughout history. Those coups saw military leaders determine who could be the leader of a country.

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In Russia, Putin regularly poisons his political enemies to prevent them from running against him. In China, they tolerate no opposition at all.

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Today the FBI and DOJ are attempting to use their own corrupt legal processes to effect nearly the same outcome. They have decided they are in the game of choosing who can be president and who cannot.

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Even when they lie about doing it, they suffer no consequences. What greater danger could there be to a republic?

•
Beyond that, in a single raid, it has been confirmed that we have a two-tier justice system. Americans are right to confirm, after this raid, that we have one system of justice for Republicans and another for Democrats.

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Democrats can lie to federal authorities (Andrew McCabe) and sue the government for benefits and get them. Republicans get jailed.

•
FBI officials can take federal government property/documents home (James Comey, Sandy Berger, and the Clintons) and nothing happens to them.

•
As for a judge putting his stamp on the process, the same was done over and over on the lie of the Russia collusion story. As a result, the American system of justice has taken yet another massive credibility hit from a judge who donated to President Obama.

•
It has also been confirmed, politically and historically, that the American paradise has been lost. The republic is now firmly in danger and America if no longer a beacon of freedom and justice to the world.
Merrick Garland's case against Trump is dangerously problematic (Fox 08/15/2022)
•
Hysteria is what members of the liberal media do best. Furious assumptions and wanton speculation are their specialties.

•
They are terminally allergic to the meaning and nuance of laws. Facts are trifling matters that tend to impede their favored narrative.

•
But in the interest of truth and accuracy, let's explore a few salient facts and relevant laws that the mainstream press would never bother to consider in their zeal to convict the former president of something — anything.

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To prove a case that Trump stole government records — including allegedly classified documents — prosecutors would first have to establish that he misappropriated the material deliberately.

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Presidents don't personally pack up their papers and belongings when they depart the White House at the end of their term at noon on January 20th.

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Because presidents are federal government employees, any records created or received during their service are to be held in the custody of the National Archives.

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But properly identifying and sorting millions of documents in a short time frame is a recipe for mistakes, especially where personal papers have been commingled with official records.

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In nearly every administration during the last 60 years, materials have been erroneously categorized and/or misplaced. That doesn't mean a crime occurred.

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Subsequent negotiations with the National Archives is the rule, not the exception. Disagreements can be protracted but are usually resolved amicably.

•
This makes Attorney General Merrick Garland's decision to convene a grand jury and seek a criminal warrant to search and seize documents at Trump's home all the more confounding and suspicious.

•
Why undertake a harshly invasive raid in the dark of the night by a battalion of agents and a phalanx of tactical support?

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It makes little sense unless the purpose of the warrant was dishonest and served merely as a pretext for the FBI to rummage through Trump's home for ten hours in the hope of seizing anything that Garland could exploit for a different objective.

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Distrust of the attorney general's motive is compounded by the method he chose in securing the warrant. Instead of soliciting the approval of a federal district court judge for an intrusion of this magnitude, Garland and his confederates chose a low-level magistrate who is not a presidentially appointed and congressionally approved judge.

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An experienced jurist would have posed challenging questions about why the government was not utilizing another subpoena.

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It is also troubling that Reinhart — prior to his appointment as a magistrate — posted anti-Trump opinions on social media attacking the president's moral character.

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Six weeks before he signed off on the Mar-a-Lago warrant, Reinhart recused himself from a different case involving a Trump lawsuit by citing his own personal bias and lack of impartiality.

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Why, then, didn't he also disqualify himself under the same statute when presented with the Trump warrant?

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Trump insists that documents previously designated as classified and top secret were declassified by him before he left office and that he was more than willing to convey them to the National Archives upon request.

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Garland claims that he is "applying the law evenly, without fear or favor." That is an odd assertion from an attorney general who refused to enforce the law by arresting demonstrators who issued ugly threats outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court Justices in clear violation of federal statutes.

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And then there was his targeting of concerned parents who dared to complain to school boards about policies with which they disagreed. Is treating them as "domestic terrorists" Garland's idea of sound law enforcement?

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If upholding the rule of law and applying it "evenly" is so precious to Garland, why has there been no raid or indictment of Hunter Biden despite a trove of incriminating evidence that he ran multi-million-dollar foreign influence peddling schemes by selling access to his powerful father?

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... the attorney general appears to be running a protection racket for his boss, President Joe Biden, and his corrupt son.

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Garland pretends that no one is above the law. But his actions suggest otherwise. Partisan allies receive special treatment while political opponents are persecuted and punished.

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Abuse of power and unequal application of the law are now the hallmarks of his poisonous tenure. The raid of Trump's home that the attorney general personally approved is the latest illustration of his dangerous paradigm.
We Ignored Salman Rushdie's Warning (Common Sense, 08/13/2022)
FBI, R.I.P.? (JWR 08/11/2022)
The day the American ethos collapsed - August 8, 2022 (INN 08/10/2022)
•
Mark the date in your memory; August 8, 2022. It will be recorded in history as the "Shattering of American Democracy."

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Yesterday was a sad day for all of patriotic Americans, as our former independent federal law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the Justice Department, now officially both under the singular control of the Democrat Party, raided the home of former President Trump and confiscated all of his personal data, after a judge - hard to believe - gave the court orders to do so.

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They operated as agents of a radical political party, the Democrat Party, to begin the process of incriminating Trump and thereby preventing his run for office in 2024.

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All of the formerly independent federal agencies, Homeland Security, the IRS and the Justice Department are now an essential militant part of a totalitarian Fascist government that dominates and is willing and able to prosecute any of us who stray from the paths of the Democrat Party.

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Our freedom to speak, act and think as is guaranteed in the Constitution, is gone. And that goes for loyal Democrats, as well.

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Speak the party line or you're considered an enemy of the state and will be handled as such; as an enemy of the state. A traitor to be treated as one.

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Never before in American history has a former president been falsely, maliciously, targeted, investigated, singled out, labeled, even when he was in office, as treasonous to this country.

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For 3 years, the likes of Democrat Congresspeople Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and other elected progressives, with the backing of the entire media, educational system and the elitist society, promulgated the outright lie that Trump was an agent under the domination of and in collusion with Putin.

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No facts were ever produced, but the slime stuck to the walls and had its desired effect among ordinary, naive Americans now howling in delight at the eventual, inevitable prosecution of Trump. They've all been tools of those now in totalitarian-like power.

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Each and every individual supporting this current administration is part of the battering ram that has led to the destruction of the pillars of freedom we once appreciated and lived under. Now, gone.

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Prior to the actions of our national government, on August 8th, such behavior was limited to nations like Venezuela, Cuba, Communist Russia, Iran, China and other dictator-run Banana Republics that we all rightfully denounced and repudiated.

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We have now embraced this fascistic behavior and we will all be doomed by such actions. No one will escape the bonds of dictatorship which are now spreading among our national leaders.

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We're all doomed to be victims of what is becoming a one party system in control of every facet of our lives.

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My friends, relatives and acquaintances who stand beside these recent actions are part and parcel of the cancer that has now enveloped this nation.

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These thoughtless idiots are all spitting into the closed eyes of those millions of patriots throughout our history, who willingly sacrificed their lives to found and keep alive the democracy of our nation.

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Sadly, they may have died in vain. We are now a fascist, dictatorial swampland. May G-d have mercy on all of us.
FBI raid of Trump home shows that 'equal justice' is a farce (Fox 08/09/2022)
•
"Equal Justice Under Law" is engraved on the ornate pediment above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Department of Justice and the FBI continue to hurl eggs at it.

•
Monday's pre-dawn raid by a battalion of FBI agents on former President Donald Trump's Florida home represents an abandonment of the cherished principle embedded in our Constitution that the law will be equally applied to all of its citizens.

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Instead, political status now dictates whether a person receives fair treatment in a supposedly fair justice system.

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If you check the box marked "Republican" on a political affiliation form, brace yourself for persecution and prosecution.

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If you check "Democrat," you'll be granted special elevated status. You're untouchable. Just ask Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden.

•
The evidence is indisputable that Clinton, while serving as secretary of State, converted tens of thousands of government records to her private email server in the basement of her home. In simple terms, she was stealing.

•
She committed at least 110 crimes under the Espionage Act, representing the number of documents that the FBI determined were classified and top secret.

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She jeopardized America's national security by exposing vital secrets to our enemies. The State Department discovered her computer was successfully hacked.

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When Congress instructed Clinton to preserve all of her documents, she destroyed more than 30,000 of them while wiping her server clean by using file-deleting software. Her mobile devices were broken in half or demolished with hammers. Her willful destruction of government property constituted another set of crimes, including obstruction.

•
Did the FBI ever raid Clinton's home in Chappaqua, New York, to seize the incriminating evidence she kept there? No. Just the opposite occurred. Without authority, then-FBI Director James Comey absolved Clinton despite overwhelming evidence of criminality that he spelled out in his infamous July 5, 2016, news conference.

•
Months later, when Comey was fired for usurping the power of the attorney general, he stole government documents from the FBI.

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He did it for the admitted purpose of leaking them to the media to trigger the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Trump over phony allegations of Russian "collusion" that Hillary invented and the FBI exploited.

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Did the FBI ever raid Comey's home to retrieve the documents he pilfered? Did the DOJ charge him with theft of government property? Of course not. Don't be silly.

•
This brings us to Hunter Biden. His notorious laptop contains a trove of damning documents and emails that offer compelling evidence of multiple enrichment schemes with foreign entities that forked over millions of dollars for access to Joe Biden and the power he wielded as vice president.

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Did the FBI ever raid Hunter's home to obtain additional evidence? Or Joe Biden's home, since the laptop implicates him as involved in his son's profiteering scams?

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Don't forget – the FBI had the computer in its possession since December 2019 and knew it was real. The contents were fully analyzed and overflowing with evidence of influence peddling. But the agency and the Justice Department kept it under wraps, taking no action to charge or prosecute.

•
Ten months later when news of the laptop broke, 51 former intelligence agents publicly bashed it as Russian disinformation. The FBI knew it was a lie that the bureau helped invent. So, officials remained mute to help Biden get elected.

•
FBI Director Christopher Wray has done nothing to clean up his cesspool of an agency. He seems more interested in covering up acts of malfeasance and misfeasance.

•
The attorney general, who was appointed by Biden, is overseeing the investigation of his boss' son. To the extent that the president was a participant and beneficiary in Hunter's schemes, Garland has a disqualifying double conflict of interest. Yet, he has refused to appoint a neutral special counsel even though it is mandatory under federal regulations.

•
Garland despises Republicans for denying him a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Covering up for a Democratic president is his vengeance. He's the attorney general in name only.

•
As long as Garland and Wray preside over our nation's law enforcement, "Equal Justice Under Law" is a farce.
Can media, Democrats implode Hunter Biden case without blowing up Washington? (Fox 08/03/2022)
•
See related Media Protecting Hunter (Dick Wright, 03/25/2022) cartoon from Adult picture album
Your Gun Is None of the Government's Business (JWR 08/03/2022)
The Point of No Return (JWR 08/03/2022)
The New Age of Orwellianism (JWR 07/31/2022)
Sorry, Progressives, But America Isn't Intersectional (JWR 07/29/2022)
Horowitz: Elevating homosexuality to a national religion (07/25/2022)
Tucker Carlson: Bannon found guilty of a crime Democrats are never convicted of (Fox 07/24/2022)
The insanity is spreading! (JWR 07/22/2022)
•
"This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality: you're on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable...Go as far as you like on this road. Its limits are only those of mind itself. Ladies and Gentlemen, you're entering the dimension of imagination. Next stop.... The Twilight Zone."
The 'Green' Globalist Elites Will Make Serfs of Us All (JWR 07/21/2022)
I'm proud to be an American because I've lived without freedom (Fox 07/21/2022)
•
This July 4th, so many people took to social media to say they were disappointed in their country, that they didn't feel like celebrating it. They were mad about the Supreme Court. They were angry at their fellow Americans.

•
The luckiest people in history somehow don't know it. Their faces blue from holding their collective breath until they are given even more than they have already.

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The people who have woken up on 3rd base, who have been blessed through the accident of birth to live their whole lives in the greatest, freest country the world has ever known, are somehow still unhappy with their lot.

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It's sometimes too much to bear. For those of us who have family who have never tasted this freedom, this spoiled, miserable, ungrateful class of people can be particularly galling.

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They don't know how lucky they are, and they don't know how their unappreciativeness looks to the rest of the world. Only the comfortable and the free can take to their Instagram and trash something so good.

•
The people who hate on America, on our Independence Day, have never had the discomfort that comes with the lack of freedom. Their privilege shows in every word they say.

•
It's easy to dismiss them, these children throwing a tantrum. But they're moving us away from each other. They're severing our collective binds.

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They target July 4th, Thanksgiving and all the other days when we should pause and reflect, so that we don't celebrate the obvious bounty of our lives.

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It keeps us angry and bitter, despite having everything. Our ungraciousness is good politically. It keeps people engaged. But it tears us apart.

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My Americaversary is a pause for me to say a quiet thank you to the country that took us in and has given us so much.

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But the calendar is filled with days for all of us to pause and do the same. Don't let the entitled few take it from us. We are lucky every single day to be Americans, and we can't ever forget that.
How can we prevent weaponized loners from striking? (JWR 07/15/2022)
Barack Obama: Still a Racial Incendiary (JWR 07/14/2022)
Informers on campus (JWR 07/14/2022)
Mattias Desmet on the Totalitarianism of Mass Panic (Brownstone Institute, 07/13/2022)
Identity Politics for people without identities (INN 07/12/2022)
Seeing the beauty in imperfection (JWR 07/11/2022)
Twitter vs. Musk — who is lying in battle over social media company's future? (Fox 07/10/2022)
The disappearing American? (JWR 07/07/2022)
Why We Can't Have a Nice Independence Day (JWR 07/06/2022)
Chinese immigrant, a witness to Mao's political purge, warning about indoctrination in public schools (Fox 07/06/2022)
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"[Mao believed that] young people's mind is a blank piece of paper. You can draw the most beautiful pictures or whatever he wants to draw or whatever he wants them to believe. Those are the... warning signs. That's why, you know, we have to absolutely support that parental rights and support school choice."

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"Parents start[ed] to wake up to say 'what's going on in our schools?' which is good thing. I'm still positive, and I'm still optimistic about our country."

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... Mao was probably responsible for the largest mass murder of all time. ... Western intellectuals are "reluctant to fully accept what a great evil it was" because they are "fearful – perhaps – that other left-wing causes might be tainted by association."

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"... How many people... are [the progressives] willing to see die of starvation, be murdered and killed in order to have [an accurate] conclusion [about socialism]?"

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... the K-12 education system is not teaching American schoolchildren the full facts about what happened under communist dictatorships at the peril of a "repeat of the human tragedy that happened throughout all the 100 years of communism," the congressional candidate said.

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"I hope parents start to exercise parental rights and control in America. Our children belong to parents. They do not belong to government. So parents absolutely have decision[s]... about what they're taught in school and what age-appropriate curriculum they should be allowed."

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Free speech, the Second Amendment, and parental rights – "everything is under attack. It's upside down. Well, that's part of the Cultural Revolution. Redefine social norms, change your birth, control the narratives and purge their political enemies. [These are] very similar tactics I have seen before in China."
Independence Day, Two Years Ago (JWR 07/01/2022)
Nuclear War can be won — and lost (INN 06/29/2022)
Roe v. Wade Is History, but the Abortion Debate Reveals Rot at America's Center (JWR 06/29/2022)
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"The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision ... It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."
Who would you kill? (INN 06/28/2022)
Courageous Supreme Court's abortion ruling makes history (Fox 06/27/2022)
A regime of lies and conspiracies (INN 06/26/2022)
From a nation of heroes, to a nation of wimps? (INN 06/26/2022)
Amid new gun laws, here's the true story behind the 'Right to keep and to bear arms' (Fox 06/25/2022)
The power of hatred (INN 06/20/2022)
The definitive proof critical race theory is being taught in our schools (Fox 06/20/2022)
•
The war against parental rights is happening at school districts in every corner of America. "Equity consultants" are making millions of dollars off the back of taxpayers to train teachers to view everything through the lens of critical race theory, and then transform education by applying those lessons through teaching children that America's institutions, monuments, traditions, holidays, language, and foundational principles are systemically, irredeemably racist.

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... as their children participated in remote learning, many parents were able to look behind the curtain and see that schools were no longer focused on giving children the educational building blocks to succeed in the real world – math, science, reading, and writing.

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Rather, schools have embraced a new role of changing the belief system of children, regardless of what their parents want.

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As a groundswell of parents started to speak out, the left, its media allies, and even our nation's top law enforcement agencies went into overdrive to treat these parents as racist rubes.

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Throughout this debate, we have heard that "critical race theory is simply a way to learn about the past" that "critical race theory is not taught in elementary schools or high schools" and that it is merely "teaching accurate history" and is only taught in law school and college.

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The tenets are "counter-storytelling," "the permanence of racism," "whiteness as property," "interest convergence," and "critique of liberalism."

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Specifically, in the "critique of liberalism," teachers were encouraged to deconstruct and challenge colorblindness, race neutrality, incremental change, equality vs. equity, and the myth of meritocracy.

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... it takes dozens of traits like the following and assigns them to "whiteness" :

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"Whites are taught to see themselves as individuals, rather than as part of a racial group."

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"Independence and autonomy highly valued and rewarded."

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"Be polite."

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"Must always ‘do something' about a situation."

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"Hard work is the key to success" and "work before play."

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"Emphasis on scientific method."

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"Adherence to rigid time schedules" and "plan for the future."

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"Nuclear family (father, mother, 2-3 children) is the ideal social unit."

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... it assumes that non-white individuals do not also value and exhibit those traits because of a different skin color.

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What we are witnessing is taxpayer-funded consultants and woke school systems using terms like "equity" and "culturally responsive teaching" to hide from parents a very dangerous philosophy that is not only anti-American, but seeks to undo Age of Enlightenment concepts like free will, individual liberty, Constitutional jurisprudence, and the scientific method.

•
To fight back, America will need more parents to stand up, take legal action and protect their rights to have a say in their child's education.

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
North Korean defector: I am terrified of the 'massive indoctrination coming from the left' in public schools (Fox 06/15/2022)
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"This is exactly the dictator's handbook. I mean, it's [Adolf] Hitler's youth, Mao's youth and Kim Il-Sung's youth. They always go for young children because they have [not] lived their life enough to... have critical thinking skills. Their brains are very plastic, very malleable, and easy to observe information and believe it and [they're] innocent."

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"And... big killers [who] want to seize power from the people, they always mobilize the youth. And that is the truth that [worries me that], as a parent myself, that I cannot protect my child right now in America."

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"So the thing about North Korea is that is so oppressed to the point we don't even have the word for oppression... There's actually even the control of the language in words. And this is why it concerns me where there's such a something called a speech code, the things that we cannot talk about in America right now."

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"I'm willing to move anywhere it takes for me to protect my child from this brainwashing. So when one more person convert[s] every day like that, we are going to end up like North Korea eventually. So I think it's our personal responsibility to protect as many people... [and] children as we can from this massive indoctrination coming from the left."

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"I escaped North Korea when I was 13 years old... And that journey led me to become trafficked in China and sold as a child sex wife... Currently, I'm right now actually fighting for freedom even in America."

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"A lot of people in America who are born into freedom, they never had to fight for their freedom... I had to fight for freedom... I fought for it... So I think it gives me unique perspective and unique appreciation for what I have here."

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Park is raising her 4-year-old son in Chicago and says she is concerned about the indoctrination in the daycare she sends him to.

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"It's really worrisome because... I cannot afford not to work and... do homeschooling. I have to have him [in the] public education system."

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The indoctrination includes tenets such as "White privilege" and "White guilt" and, she said, is exactly what North Korea did in the name of "equity."

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"[In America,] it's all about this hierarchy of victimhood. And I see that my son... [is] learning their school, who is privileged, who is guilty."

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"This is where it keeps me up at night. I never knew that I was going to be waking up at night and terrified being in America. I did that tons of nights in North Korea and China."

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"The definition of socialism means giving all the power to the government – they decide the means of production. They despise every aspect of our lives... In North Korea, they say, 'Okay, we're going to make sure everybody is equal... So give us all your land.' So we gave the regime all the land, so they abolish[ed] private property. Nobody could own anything. State owns it. And that is when they took everything, did not give anything back to us. And then when we gave all our rights, they didn't give anything back... That's a reality of socialism."

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... those who promote the ideology fail to study history. "That's why we keep repeating it. We have seen how this plays a role, a playbook for dictators. There is a playbook for this elite... to seize power from people. And this brainwashing is a seed of that like making sure that everybody [is]... brainwash[ed] to believe this is a way to get to that paradise. And the paradise doesn't exist."

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Park is currently working on a book, which will be released in 2023, called "While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America" that explores the parallels between some trends in the U.S. and North Korea, such as speech censorship and demonizing groups of people for the purpose of exploiting power.

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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
I'm right, and you're an evil monster (JWR 06/07/2022)
Levin: Ruling class attacks your liberties to avoid facing their own failures (Fox 06/05/2022)
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"We have a ruling class that is narcissistic, that is incompetent and in many respects, anti-American. We have seen failure after failure for which they take absolutely no responsibility."

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"As a matter of fact, when they fail, they blame you. The American people. When they fail they blame other people, institutions and our history, they do whatever they can to deflect. Why? Because the answer to their failure is always more power for them, and less freedom for you."

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"Ladies and gentlemen, there is not a damn law they can pass in this country that will stop these shooters, when we have people who are responsible for enforcing these laws that don't do it."

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"When the ruling class fails it doesn't look in the mirror" ... they "look at you." "They're not going to say their ideology doesn't work. They're going to press the gas pedal. These people aren't going to fix what they broke."
President Biden’s political prisoners (INN 05/31/2022)
Biden's censors want Russian-style speech controls and they haven't given up (Fox 05/27/2022)
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In America, we have not yet granted government the police power to criminalize misinformation, but not for trying. The American Left believes that the public should be protected from anyone who questions COVID-19 orthodoxy.

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The Pandemic has caused an epidemic of efforts to police speech. The Biden Administration has, for now, shuttered the Disinformation Governance Board. ...

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But don't for a moment accept that the left's infatuation with censorship is over. If fact, the left is quite peeved that everyone seems to have misinterpreted their noble goals.

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I wish this authoritarian urge to censor speech would die along with the Disinformation Governance Board.

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But I fear the impulse to regulate human behavior via unlimited regulation of the economic sphere has simply found its way down the slippery slope to regulating speech.

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For sure, there are still liberal minds who recognize the dangers of censorship but the once vaunted and revered concept of free speech is under assault like never before.

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"The traditional liberal approach to the search for truth, which stresses skepticism and free-flowing debate, is giving way to a reactionary movement that Plato himself would have loved, one that believes knowledge is too dangerous for the rabble and must be tightly regulated by a priesthood of ‘experts.' It's anti-democratic, un-American, and naturally unites the residents of even the most extreme opposite ends of our national political spectrum."

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For now, Biden's Ministry of Truth is dead but free speech advocates on the right and the left need to zealously guard and defend a right so precious that it's not an overstatement to claim that our free society depends on it.
Texas school shooting was evil. Here are 8 steps to confront it (Fox 05/27/2022)
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Evil exists. Evil hunts for opportunities to infect humans. Humans infected and overpowered by evil do horrible things.

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The more than two-centuries-old drive to replace religion with secularism and faith with popular rationale, has been a stunning failure in the disasters it has created for mere mortals.

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Swapping Isaiah for Freud and the Gospels for modern psychology has left a nation of empty souls – and a desperation for meaning.

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As people become desperate in the absence of inner faith and meaning, their need for reassurance and a sense of being alive leads to more dangerous addictions. The search for salvation is replaced by the search for sensation.

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Far too many people behave as though they have become gods in redefining their sexuality, their right to be addicts, and their right to harm themselves and others. A godless world is a dangerous jungle filled with predators and victims.

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Ancient Greeks warned that hubris (excessive pride – and specifically a belief that you are beyond the laws of gods and nature) attracts Nemesis (a spirit of vengeance who inflicted retribution upon arrogance and caused powerful humans to fall from great heights to great depths).

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The West's rejection of God and salvation, its focus on self and the right to redefine reality, and the assertion of earthly values over spiritual values, attract the multitude of nemeses we now face.

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If we are really going to change the trajectory of decay and death, we must be prepared to bring back into our public dialogue a set of values and ideas that the current establishment will find frightening and totally unacceptable.

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Here are a few first steps: First, acknowledge evil exists in our society.

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Second, allow prayer in schools. Students should be allowed to pray freely in circumstances which don't disrupt classrooms.

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Third, recognize that the experiment in closing mental hospitals and putting severely ill people on the street has been a huge failure and has led to levels of drug addiction, violence, murder, and decay which would have been unthinkable a generation ago.

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Fourth, recognize that bringing God back into public dialogue is essential. The Alcoholics Anonymous 12 steps program is a prime example. Among other things, participants must admit they are powerless; acknowledge they need a greater power to manage their lives; confess their deepest failings to God, themselves, and others; and ask God to forgive and remove those failings from them.

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Fifth, we must recognize that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s hope of a country in which the content of our character is more important than the color of our skin suggests that re-centering education and much of life on character development is vital. Simply asking what has happened to the character of people who commit violence, sell drugs, and prey upon others starts a totally different conversation about solutions.

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Sixth, the drug crisis and the deaths from overdose are now such an epidemic we should re-establish widespread drug testing and mandatory rehabilitation.

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Seventh, threats of imminent, aggravated violence on the internet must be quickly detectable, unacceptable, and punishable.

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Eighth, the legal system must be radically overhauled so murderers and drug dealers can face speedy punishment. A legal system which takes years to execute sentences – and involves massive procedural obstructions – is a system which separates crime from punishment and has no effective impact on deterring potential criminals. Justice must be swift to deter unacceptable behavior.

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These examples are designed to begin a dialogue. Some of these ideas may work. Some may be rejected. Others may be improved.

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Bringing God back into the public dialogue and acknowledging the existence of evil as a real danger to humanity are important first steps.
What is U.S. foreign policy? (JWR 05/26/2022)
A cabinency of dunces (JWR 05/26/2022)
Joe Biden's Buffalo Speech Was the Speech of an Indecent Man ()
Netflix, corporations realize woke mob only a paper tiger (Fox 05/24/2022)
Divider-In-Chief (JWR 05/20/2022)
I'm a doctor and a Democrat, and I won't let the mob force me to choose between the two (Fox 05/20/2022)
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The high-profile back-and-forth between Elon Musk and Twitter has jump started a national conversation about the broader re-alignment of our cultural priorities and ideology.

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In the face of blowback from progressives, Musk has argued that today's Democratic Party, "has been hijacked by extremists," morphing fellow center-left liberals like myself to align with current perspectives of those held by conservatives.

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He's right — and the Democrat party's newfound and aggressive affinity for censoring debate and strong-arming doctors is making many of us rethink our political allegiance.

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... as the pandemic unfolded, and I discussed with doctors across the country and around the world my experience treating patients, I met many new conservative colleagues and friends who put politics aside to focus on doing our best at the bedside.

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At the same time, I used to view Democrats, and the center-left more broadly, as the champions of free speech both in civil society and in our professional institutions.

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But now, as with today's progressive political movement, medical boards are adopting policies that censor opinions, defining such speech as mis- or disinformation, especially scientific opinions around COVID.

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Medical professionals who refuse to toe the party line risk censorship, cancellation, and even the loss of license — a fate far worse than getting banned from Twitter.

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The trend is forcing doctors who exhibit critical thinking to face an existential choice: join the mob and support what many of us believe are dangerous policies without a sound scientific basis, or stand up and risk losing your livelihood.

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This trend has troubling long-term implications for patients — something all of us will become at some point in our lives.

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In medical school, we are taught to apply critical thinking and question even established medical protocols and scientific dogma for important reasons — by questioning and researching, we more strongly understand the basis (or lack thereof) which underpin these beliefs. The history of science is replete with established practices being overturned in this way.

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In medical practice, we are pushed to use all our knowledge to treat patients using our best judgement and abilities and to advance the practice of medicine.

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Allowing bureaucrats or politicians to intrude on the doctor-patient relationship inflicts irreparable harm on the practice of medicine. Free thought and expression would be replaced by fear and group think.

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Many doctors choose to go-along-to-get-along — even with policies they vehemently disagree with — rather than finding themselves out of work and struggling to feed their families.

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Falling in line with censorious Big Tech companies bottles up potentially game-changing treatments in our ongoing battle with COVID. ... Now is the time to foster — not suppress — creative thinking that could lead to better treatment strategies.

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Science is not static. It is constantly changing. Those who provide treatments need the freedom to do the same.

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Tribalism and polarization have made our political and medical discourse nasty and divisive.

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Doctors must be kept above the partisan fray, not forced to take sides and pick a jersey. Our jobs are too important, and we need to be apolitical to maintain credibility with everyone who comes to us seeking treatment.

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Progress and innovative medical breakthroughs in the future depend on freedom and medical choice now.
Fighting critical race theory: The law is a parent's best weapon (Fox 05/19/2022)
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Teach kids to hate America so that they destroy it. That is the unmistakable goal of those putting critical race theory into our nation's public schools.

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Too many parents are failing to use the sharpest arrow in their quiver — the law. ... The law can be a powerful weapon, offering hope for a lasting victory that can't easily be undone by the next election.

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For decades those who would remake our country have tried to tear down America and replace it with a collectivist fantasy.

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The stark reality is while we fought on Capitol Hill, in our state legislatures and in the courts, they were using a new weapon to cultivate a new army tasked with hating America.

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The weapon: critical race theory. The new army: America's children.

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When schools implement critical race theory, they teach children that America is a nation founded on White supremacy and that racism is embedded in America's legal system, government policy and the Constitution.

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When they lie and insist that CRT is "real history," the message is clear: "End the American Republic."

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Again, teach kids to hate America so they will destroy it. It's quite genius in its brutal use of the power of ideas.

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If kids are taught from the beginning that America is irredeemably racist, then they fall right into the progressive army and join the fight to undo our constitutional republic.

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But parents are done. I know because I am one of them. We refuse to let the progressive left take our children from us.

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We refuse to continue framing the fight to stop woke education as nothing more than a cultural battle: a fight concocted by right-wing parents — alleged book burners, racists and even domestic terrorists — relegated to school board meetings, cable talk shows, and state legislatures. We refuse to be silenced or intimidated.

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The army of parent advocates have mobilized. The impact on local and state executive officials and legislative representatives is undeniable.

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This is an informed citizenry in action. It is evidence of a healthy system. It is also an inconvenient truth for the progressive left that no longer tolerates any questioning of its orthodoxy.

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Over the last year, I have had the privilege of speaking with thousands of parents across the country. They have shared their families' personal stories with me — their awakening to critical race theory, their concerns, their fights and their fears. They all spoke of the toll this hateful ideology has had on their children, family, and community.

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As a mom of two school-age children who has dedicated my career to defending freedom, I applaud and stand with them as I too fight for my children's innocence.

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But we cannot win the most important battle to save our American republic (and our kids' future) if we always find ourselves playing defense.

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It is time to go on offense — to make a strategic plan and execute it so that when we rid our nation's classrooms of unconstitutional and illegal woke education, it remains gone forever.

•
In direct response to the thousands of parents who have shared their stories with our organization, we recently launched a legal guidebook to give parents a basic understanding of the law and provide the tools to stand up for their children in this fight for freedom.

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There is no silver bullet, but one thing is for sure, we will not win if we only play defense. The parent guidebook will be an important tool for parents as they continue to fight to save America's public schools.

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Is Biden's 'success' our mess? (JWR 05/19/2022)
Why I support a Ukraine aid package before it's too late (Fox 05/19/2022)
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There is an ongoing, vicious effort by a maniacal dictator to rewrite the map of Europe. Some American voices are saying "stay out – what happens there doesn't matter to us."

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It all sounds too familiar. The last time this happened, it led to World War II. This time, the brave people of Ukraine and their incredible military are more than holding their own against Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to destroy Ukraine as an independent, sovereign democratic nation.

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The brutal invasion of Russia has devastated the Ukrainian economy, and Ukraine is unable to continue this fight without military aid.

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This Ukrainian victory over Russia would be priceless for the United States, because if Putin is not defeated in Ukraine he will continue to rewrite the map of Europe – his words, not mine.

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In the last century, the policy of appeasement and an isolationist fever allowed Hitler to gain strength and avoid being effectively stopped numerous times. The rest is history.

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The mistakes the world made in World War II need not be repeated in this conflict. Ukraine is not asking for American service members to fight – they're only asking for weapons and economic systems to continue the fight.

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I am certain this package could be improved and more efficient and $40 billion is a lot of money, but the sooner the Ukrainian military can receive more weapons and the Ukrainian people can receive much-needed economic humanitarian support, the better.

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This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to defeat Putin's Russia, and the ripple effect would be enormous for U.S. national security interests.

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When it comes to Putin, either we pay now or we pay later.

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Congress has an opportunity to supply Ukraine with $40 billion worth of weapons and economic and humanitarian aid.

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Over half of this package would replenish U.S. weapons stocks and provide military weaponry to the Ukrainian forces who have shown an ability to use everything America has given them with amazing effectiveness. It is possible, in my view, for Ukraine to defeat the Russian army militarily.

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If Putin is stopped in Ukraine and eventually replaced, China will be far less likely to invade Taiwan. Having just returned from Taiwan, I can assure you that Asia is watching the fight between Russia and Ukraine.

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President Trump provided lethal aid to Ukraine on his watch, and that aid was used effectively. The Biden administration, while slow at first, is now working with our allies to supply Ukraine with weapons that are making a difference.

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The rumblings of discontent in Russia are growing, and the Russian military is realizing that this war in Ukraine is beyond devastating to them. We are at a decisive point in this conflict, and now is not the time to take our foot off the pedal.

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It is my hope and belief that there will be a large bipartisan vote in support of much-needed assistance to Ukraine with the understanding that Ukrainian victory over Russia is a victory for democracy itself.

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Putin must see an unending commitment by the West to supply weapons to the Ukrainian military, and the Ukrainian people must see that the freedom-loving world is with them.

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The Russian people must understand that Putin's misadventure in Ukraine will be a nightmare for the future of Russia.

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It is in our national security interest to stand up for freedom for the Ukrainian people and send a signal to other bad actors like Iran and China that we have the resolve necessary to push back against evil aggression.

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I believe the combination of a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and a weak approach to Putin's military buildup led to this invasion.

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It is now time to reset these mistakes by providing economic and military assistance to the Ukrainian people who are very much deserving of our support and respect.

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While we have many problems and challenges here at home – broken borders, a broken supply chain, rampant inflation, spiraling debt – none are made better by Putin winning in Ukraine.

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Quite the opposite – if Putin loses in Ukraine, the world will stabilize over time. A yes vote for Ukrainian assistance is a no vote to Putin's barbaric evil war.
The Supreme Court leaker must pay (Fox 05/18/2022)
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... lest anyone accuse me of propagating cancel culture by calling for professional punishment here, let me emphasize that the offense is not some politically incorrect statement but rather an action that damages the Supreme Court's functioning and thus the rule of law.

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Whoever did this must pay for putting another tear into the parchment barrier keeping us from tyranny.
How children become progressives (JWR 05/17/2022)
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"Public education has been incredibly successful in one area — churning out youthful progressives — growing numbers of men and women in the grips of existential confusion, perpetual victimhood, and political intolerance. . ..The system takes full advantage of their most formative years in early elementary school, and the indoctrination continues through high school. Thanks to America's public schools, they show up to college already prepped and ready to play on the progressive team."

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Refusing to protect one's children from this stuff is a form of moral, spiritual and intellectual abuse.

•
As this school year comes to an end, the summer would be a good time for parents of public school children to consider what is truly best for their offspring.

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They can start by investigating what is taught in their local school and they can finish by getting them out.
PolitiFact Is to Fact What Pravda Was to Truth (JWR 05/17/2022)
Tucker: No race politics is better than others - it's all poison (Fox 05/16/2022)
Who's afraid of lib media bias? (JWR 05/16/2022)
Vote the Dems into the Smithsonian (JWR 05/16/2022)
The Slaughter of Babies Should Be Unfathomable (JWR 05/16/2022)
Imagine the unimaginable (JWR 05/12/2022)
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The traditional bedrocks of the American system — a stable economy, energy independence, vast surpluses of food, hallowed universities, a professional judiciary, law enforcement, and a credible criminal justice system — are dissolving.

•
Crime is now mostly a political matter. Ideology, race, and politics determine whether the law is even applied.

•
Politics are resembling the violent last days of the Roman Republic. An illegal leak of a possible impending Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade that would allow state voters to set their own abortion laws has created a national hysteria.

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Merit is disappearing. Admissions, hiring, promotion, retention, grading, and advancement are predicated increasingly on mouthing the right orthodoxies or belonging to the proper racial, gender, or ethnic category.

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When the new campus commissariat finally finishes absorbing the last redoubts in science, math, engineering, medical, and professional schools, America will slide into permanent mediocrity and irreversible declining standards of living.

•
Remember all these catastrophes are self-induced. They are choices, not fate. The U.S. has the largest combined gas, coal, and oil deposits in the world. It possesses the know-how to build the safest pipelines and to ensure the cleanest energy development on the planet.

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Inflation was a deliberate Biden choice. For short-term political advantage, he kept printing trillions of dollars, incentivizing labor non-participation, and keeping interest rates at historical lows — at a time of pent-up global demand.

•
The administration wanted no border. Only that way can politicized, impoverished immigrants repay left-wing undermining of the entire legal immigration system with their fealty at the ballot box.

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Once esoteric, crack-pot academic theories — "modern monetary theory," critical legal theory, critical race theory — now dominate policymaking in the Biden Administration.

•
The common denominator in all of this is ideology overruling empiricism, common sense, and pragmatism.

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Ruling elites would rather be politically correct failures and unpopular than politically incorrect, successful, and popular.

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So as the public pushes back, expect at the ground level more doxxing, cancel culture, deplatforming, ministries of disinformation, swarming the private homes of officials they target for bullying, and likely violent demonstrations in our streets this summer.

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Meanwhile, left-wing elites will do their best to ignore Supreme Court decisions, illegally cancel student debts, and likely by the fall issue more COVID lockdowns.

•
They will still dream of packing the Court, ending the filibuster, scrapping the Electoral College, adding more states, and flooding the November balloting with hundreds of millions more dollars of dark money from Silicon Valley.
For Too Many on the Left, Children Are Either Obstacles or Tools (JWR 05/11/2022)
Abortion opinion leak is just latest leftist assault on Supreme Court (Fox 05/11/2022)
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In over two centuries of our nation's history, this has never happened. This leak is an unprecedented breach of the trust that every clerk, justice, and employee of the Supreme Court owes to the institution.

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It's impossible to overstate the gravity of this ethical — and possibly legal — violation. The wound to the independence and integrity of the court may well be one from which the court never fully recovers.

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The justices trust each other to negotiate privately and in good faith in order to reach well-reasoned opinions and then explain those decisions to the public in such a way that each member of the Court can agree with — or to give members time to dissent when they disagree.

•
Similarly, the justices rely on their clerks and staff because they trust that his or her inner deliberations are sacrosanct. These procedures are integral to the Supreme Court's deliberative process.

•
So the idea of an angry, left-wing law clerk breaching the trust of the Supreme Court — presumably in an attempt to intimidate the justices — is appalling.

•
Unfortunately, the decision of a lone unethical individual to leak the court's confidential working documents is the consequence of a decades-long effort by Democrats to politicize and undermine the Supreme Court.

•
Democrats have systematically tried to turn the court into a mini-legislature, where five unelected justices get to decree the rules for the country — regardless of what voters want.

•
President Barack Obama famously denounced the Supreme Court justices during his 2010 State of Union address for the court's decision in the Citizens United case.

•
Democrats employed false character assassination attacks against Justice Thomas for years, and against Justice Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings.

•
In 2020, Sen. Chuck Schumer even threatened two justices by name for the potential decisions they might make, saying they "released the whirlwind."

•
In 2021, left-wing groups announced plans to protest at Justice Kavanaugh's home in a clear effort to intimidate him and threaten the safety of his family.

•
Groups like Demand Justice also launched shameful ads and a mobile billboard truck to bully Justice Breyer into retiring so he could be replaced with a younger, more activist justice.

•
Ever since President Trump nominated Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, and Justice Barrett, left-wing groups and progressive lawmakers have demanded with increasing volume to "Pack the Court" by adding four new seats until they hold the majority.

•
The pattern is clear: when Democrats think they control the Supreme Court, they want it to write laws. When they think they don't, they want to destroy it.

•
The leak of Justice Alito's draft opinion in the Dobbs case — while unprecedented — is an unfortunate next step in the left's campaign to undermine the Court and intimidate justices.

•
At the end of the day, the leaked document is still a draft, and the justices can change their votes up until the moment of the decision.

•
I very much hope the justices will fulfill their constitutional responsibility and not be influenced by political pressure and partisan thuggery.
2020 election results in retrospect: Not entirely impossible, but extremely implausible (INN 05/10/2022)
DOJ silent on abortion protests at justices' homes despite federal law prohibiting 'pickets' to influence case (Fox 05/10/2022)
•
The pro-abortion protestors are targeting the private homes of the six Republican-appointed justices after the leak last week of a draft opinion signaled the Supreme Court intends to overturn landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade.

•
Federal U.S. code 1507, states that any individual who "pickets or parades" with the "intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer" near a U.S. court or "near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer" will be fined, or "imprisoned not more than one year, or both."

•
Despite the language included in the federal statute, Attorney General Merrick Garland has not issued a public statement addressing the protests outside conservative justices' homes.

•
... the Biden DOJ is being silent on this for the same reason as the White House: "They are elevating their political interest in portraying the draft Supreme Court opinion as extreme over their constitutional duty to execute the laws faithfully and protect both the Court and the justices."

•
"... months ago, when Attorney General Garland unjustifiably dispatched the FBI to investigate parents who were protesting the inclusion of racist and anti-American materials in school curricula, Garland claimed that the Justice Department had an interest in protecting teachers and school administrators. Not only was it untrue that schools were under siege; the relationship between parents and schools is a state and local issue, not a federal one — hypothetically, if a parent were to assault a teacher, it would be a state crime, not a federal one."

•
"By contrast, the protection of the Supreme Court as an institution, and of the justices' security, are patently federal matters over which federal law-enforcement has clear jurisdiction. It is inexcusable that the Justice Department is so silent and passive now, when it was loud and active over a manufactured controversy as to which it had no jurisdiction."

•
"It says all you need to know about how politicized this Department of Justice is. Despite no records from the FBI about a spike in harassment or threats to schools boards, Merrick Garland weaponized the DOJ against parents a mere four days after the Biden Administration received a letter from the NSBA."

•
"Meanwhile, here you have protesters arguably violating federal law by protesting at Supreme Court justices' homes to influence a legal decision, and we haven't heard a peep from Garland. This administration has showed nothing but contempt for anyone that doesn't fall in line with its radical policies and appears to be completely fine with extremist, mob-like tactics to back those policies."

•
Abortion activists protested outside of Chief Justice John Robert's and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's homes over the weekend, and the group "Shut Down DC" organized another group that stationed outside of Justice Samuel Alito's home on Monday evening.

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Alito is the author of the leaked draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue of abortion to individual states.

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"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Alito wrote in a February draft opinion... "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."
Biden's 'disinformation board' is an unconstitutional thought-police bureau (Fox 05/06/2022)
•
The last thing America needs is a taxpayer-funded thought-police bureau that monitors public utterances, condemns them as "disinformation" and then flags them for dutiful erasure by the Democrat-Left's social-media henchpersons in Silicon Valley.

•
This wretched concept echoes the mind control of the USSR. Indeed, these bumbling neo-totalitarians gave this monstrosity a name whose acronym is DGB, which rhymes with KGB...

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It would be bad enough if the DGB were a small, stand-alone panel, a la the National Endowment for the Arts.

•
Instead, the DGB operates within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a massive law-enforcement agency with ample guns, ammo, and well-trained federal agents whose firepower would inspire the average enemy of the state to clam up.

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"The fact that a federal department with approximately 240,000 employees would set up a ‘Disinformation Governance Board' to enforce the government's judgement of what information is allowed in the public square should frighten anyone who values liberty and understands how crucial free speech is in maintaining that liberty."
Tucker: Why is everyone so mad at Justice Alito? (Fox 05/04/2022)
Yelling 'racism!' only shuts down speech, and threatens U.S. strength (Fox 05/04/2022)
•
The biggest problem with all of this grandstanding is not that it's slanderous, though it is, it's not that it's lazy, though it is, it's that it makes very serious and needed conversations about our country and society completely impossible.

•
We actually do need to talk about how to best protect speech on the internet while combating things like child porn and foreign information operations, but instead the left just points and yells ‘racist!'...

•
What makes this all so insidious is that the baseless charge of racism not only allows progressives to refuse to engage with conservative ideas, it compels them to do so by arguing that it is immoral to legitimize these so-called racists by even discussing their ideas and perspectives. And yet, at the same time, they can't even define what a racist is.

•
The left has concocted a definition of racism that is a mile wide and an inch deep, one that is functionally useless.

•
It does not require the expression of animosity towards minorities, it does not require any discriminatory behavior.

•
All it requires is insufficient deference to progressives' bizarre, almost religious belief that racism is everywhere in America – that it is the very air we breathe.

•
It is difficult to know whether this deeply illiberal tendency among progressives is a cynical tactic to shut down discourse, or a deeply held belief that shutting down "racist" conservative speech is a moral imperative.

•
Either way, the result is the same. We can no longer talk to each other. There is no greater threat to democracy – any democracy – than the inability to discuss the issues we ultimately vote on.

•
American conservatives really do want a debate about ideas and issues, but that can't happen if the left uses racism as a tool to shut down any discourse they don't like.

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There are very few things that can truly threaten the strength and power of the United States. But this is one of them.

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The American people need to talk again, to share, to do so without fear of slander. Pray this happens before things get much worse.

•
See related China Vacation (Glenn McCoy, 03/25/2014) cartoon from USA picture album
From CRT to gender ideology education, the left keeps coming for our kids (Fox 05/04/2022)
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President Biden, speaking to teachers at the White House last week ... announced, "They're all our children. And the reason you're the teachers of the year is because you recognize that. They're not somebody else's children. They're like yours when they're in the classroom."

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Ummm, no. They're still "like" ours — in the classroom, out of the classroom, here, there, everywhere. Still our kids. We the parents are not interested in co-parenting with the state.

•
What should have been a mic drop moment from the president was just another Wednesday in the White House with the radicals running the show.

•
We have to ask ourselves, why is this fight to indoctrinate our kids the political hill they're choosing to die on?

•
Parents attempting to partner with government run schools have entrusted their kids to these schools for the purpose of receiving a service they pay for with their tax dollars.

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That service is an academic education, yet the return on their investment has increasingly been a push for social indoctrination and a game of political ping-pong with their kids.

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All trust in these schools has been destroyed and a full-blown assault has been declared on parents in a "battle" to take control of our kids.

•
President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, drew those battle lines when she said, "But in modern history, since the huge desegregation battles, kids have been off-limits. Now, they are the battlefield."

•
And speaking out against Florida's parental rights bill, which bans government run schools from teaching kindergarten through third graders about sex and gender issues, Weingarten shockingly — or not so shockingly — said, "This is the way in which wars start."

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The union bully might be the boss of her teachers, but her power ends with parents. Spoiler alert, if you're declaring war on parents over indoctrinating their kids, you're on the wrong side of the war. Our babies are not up for grabs.

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Nor are they somehow public property, a notion radicals have shamelessly attempted to market and sell us.

•
... MSNBC, then-host Melissa Harris-Perry outrageously declared that kids don't belong to their parents, saying, "So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities."

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The idea that it takes families — moms and dads — to raise their kids is not some antiquated idea. Most of us take our job as parents very seriously, and we will not concede our role to the state or the public domain — ever.

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As parents it's up to us to choose the values and ideals we instill in our children to help shape their character. The village doesn't get a vote. Back off.

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If you listen, you can hear the whispers of socialism reverberating in the radical left's incessant need to gain control of our kids, even at great political risk to them.

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They want custody of our children's hearts and minds, but they won't get it. They will continue to be on the losing side of parents, kids and shhhh....elections.

•
See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related CRT Bully (Gary McCoy, 07/07/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Free speech warriors who defend only speech that they like (JWR 05/03/2022)
The Age of the Absurd (JWR 05/03/2022)
'2,000 Mules' offers vivid proof of vote fraud (JWR 05/02/2022)
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"... make no mistake," Chuck Schumer of New York declared on the Senate floor. "There has been no evidence of any significant or widespread voter fraud."

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"The Big Lie is just that," President Joe Biden bellowed about crooked ballots. "A Big Lie!"

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... this film uses state-of-the-art technology to prove that the 2020 presidential election was stained, if not fully stolen, through the lowest-tech means: stuffed ballot boxes.

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True the Vote researchers Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips analyzed 10 trillion cell-phone geo-tracking signals captured during the closing weeks of the 2020 general election campaign.

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They focused on the commercially marketed "pings" from mobile phones whose owners interacted with ballot drop boxes in five swing states.

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Democrats demanded the broad deployment of these boxes during COVID-19, due to the "dangers" of in-person voting.

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These digital sleuths then narrowed their search to people who approached 10 or more drop boxes and contemporaneously visited five or more pro-Biden non-profits.

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They then requested and acquired 4 million minutes of government-security-camera recordings of these drop boxes. It would take seven years and eight months to watch all these images at normal speed.

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This investigation's results are staggering: Cameras capture one mule after another traveling from box to box to deposit successive fists full of ballots. One mule in Atlanta slid ballots into 28 different collection bins.

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These mules were not just overzealous political operatives. Corrupt activist groups reportedly paid them per ballot delivered...

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So, was there enough fraud to change the outcome? A mere 42,844 votes sprinkled among three swing states clinched the White House.

•
... some 2,000 mules averaged 38 drop-box visits and — in each of these scenarios — left five illegal ballots per visit. This totals 380,000 fraudulent votes. Coming from heavily Democrat areas, these almost certainly were overwhelmingly pro-Biden ballots.

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In Arizona, 200 mules typically approached 20 boxes each. Disqualifying these 20,000 unlawful ballots would evaporate Biden's 10,457-vote win.

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In Georgia, 250 mules stopped at 24 boxes and inserted five ballots per encounter. Rejecting these 30,000 illegal votes would eliminate Biden's victory margin of 11,779.

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In Pennsylvania, 1,100 mules in Philadelphia alone encountered 50 boxes. Vacating these 275,000 illegitimate votes would eradicate Biden's 80,555-vote victory.

•
Undoing this evil would have removed these states from Biden's total. The Electoral College count would have shifted to 259 for Biden and 279 for Trump. This would have earned DJT four more years.

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"This was an organized effort to subvert a free and fair election. This is organized crime." These criminals should be prosecuted at once.

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See related The Big Lie (Dick Wright, 05/19/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Canceling student debt will make things worse (JWR 05/02/2022)
Biden's Ministry of Truth (JWR 04/29/2022)
Tearing down the Silicon Valley wall (JWR 04/28/2022)
The new American way of getting everything wrong (JWR 04/28/2022)
Biden's plan to cancel student debt isn't debt forgiveness, it's debt for all (Fox 04/28/2022)
How America became La La Land (JWR 04/26/2022)
9 questions for Elon Musk now that he's bought Twitter (Fox 04/26/2022)
Overwhelmed (JWR 04/25/2022)
•
This thing in Florida with the Disney Company taking a hard stand in favor of teaching young grammar school children all about homosexuality, lesbianism, and transgenderism whether parents want it or not is just the latest absurdity taking place in our culture today.

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Remember we're talking about indoctrination of children as young as five years old. That this killing of the innocence of children is being led by the one company that parents once trusted to be protective of kids, affirming traditional family values and upholding standards of normalcy makes it all the worse.

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Disney movies and theme parks were once thought to be safe havens from the ugliness and harsh realities of life, certainly never driven by leftist agendas and ideologies.

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I'm old enough to remember what normal used to be. When marriage meant the wedding of a man and a woman. When there was no distinction between sex and gender - a man was a man, a woman was a woman, boys were boys and girls were girls.

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Yes, there were always aberrations, exceptions to the rule. Human beings are complicated creatures after all.

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Sexuality can be deviant in some people to one degree or another. But an exception to a rule doesn't void the rule, if anything it strengthens it.

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Attempting to bend 300 million people in our society to accept (and more than accept, embrace) the abnormal sexual proclivities of a tiny fraction of the population is nuts.

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At most only about 3% of the population is homosexual or lesbian. Less than 1% is transgender. Some people don't know or are unable to figure out which sex they belong to, these are confused and sick individuals.

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Teaching young impressionable children that there are many genders beyond male and female to choose from, that it's all a matter of one's personal "preference" is more than factually wrongheaded, it amounts to child abuse.

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We as a society have always been sympathetic to those that are not completely normal, be it physical or mental or emotional.

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Decent people should treat everyone in a decent way, no matter how divergent they may be from the rest of us.

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No one with any decency wants to see those who are crippled, handicapped, retarded, or homosexual abused or mistreated in any way.

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We have always had our percentage of broken humans; the disabled, alcoholics, drug addicts, mental cases, and others who for one reason of another can't function normally in society.

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We make allowances for them, we try to help them, and in dire cases we should certainly support them monetarily until they can support themselves.

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And for the extreme cases, society will care for them all the rest of their lives. That's fine.

•
But we must never attempt to alter all of society to accommodate the few. It doesn't make sense and it is unfair.

•
Just because some are incapable of passing a test you don't get rid of the test. Because some cannot emotionally cope with opinions that they themselves don't agree with, you don't prohibit the opinions of others.

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And because some refuse to accept that there are only two biological sexes in the world, you don't begin to teach children that there are really dozens of gender identities to choose from. That would be a lie.

•
It's also abnormal.
Disney totally earned its slapdown from Florida lawmakers (JWR 04/25/2022)
Levin: 'America first' doesn't mean sticking 'your head in the sand' (Fox 04/25/2022)
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"The Tenth Amendment rejects nationalism. It's federalism. Talks about state sovereignty. Why do we have a Ninth Amendment? Have you read that one lately? It talks about individual liberty, it is in my view, a reflection of the Declaration. They put it right there in the Ninth Amendment. That is your protection. Nationalism strikes me as an all powerful, centralized federal government. Right? I am not a nationalist."

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... compared nationalists to Marxists, as both operating under a faulty sense of what America is. "There's a fusion there. The one outright hates the country, the American Marxist, trying to destroy it from within. The other says ‘I love the country so much, we have to isolate it from everything and everything else.' Really?"

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... "America first" means responding to global atrocities like Russia's war with Ukraine, to stop another world war from happening.

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"America first doesn't mean putting your head in the sand and pretending otherwise. You want to protect your children from war? You stand up now."

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"If you believe in America first, from our Declaration to our Constitution to our founding principles, to our economic system, then you must reject American Marxism, nationalism, populism and all the other -isms... Reject these dangerous ideologies. That are incoherent but are destructive. This country has been through this before."
Reversal of Disney's self-governing status 'ironic' says historian Victor Davis Hanson (Fox 04/22/2022)
'White nationalists' haunt America while black racists open fire, kill people (JWR 04/19/2022)
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Top Democrats claim that nothing in America is more dangerous than white racism.

•
As President Joe Biden said last October 21, "According to the United States intelligence community, domestic terrorism from white supremacists is the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland."

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"In the FBI's view," Attorney General Merrick Garland said June 15, "the top domestic violent-extremist threat comes from...those who advocate for the superiority of the white race."

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So, where is all the damage from this white-nationalist army? Where are the wounds of those they have maimed and the cadavers of those they have killed?

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"Charlottesville!" Biden and the Democrat Left shout in unison. Yes, James Alex Fields, Jr. weaponized his car and murdered protester Heather Heyer during Charlottesville, Virginia's race riots in August 2017 — nearly five years ago.

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Anybody else? The sound you hear is grass growing.

•
As Team Biden searches furiously for those touched by this supposedly ubiquitous white threat, black racists scream hatred and inflict dozens of casualties, some fatal.

•
... a black man named Frank James unleashed a smoke bomb on a Brooklyn Subway train. He then fired 33 rounds from a Glock pistol. James allegedly shot 10 commuters, and 13 suffered other injuries. Five were hospitalized in critical condition. Amazingly, no one was killed. ... James' profane, deeply bigoted posts foreshadow an atrocious, anti-white hate crime.

•
... Darrell Edward Brooks last November plowed his Ford Escape SUV into marchers and spectators at a Christmas parade. Brooks's carnage killed six people and wounded 62 others. Brooks also is an outspoken, white-hating bigot.

•
... Noah Green drove up to a barricade on April 7, 2021 and charged two officers with a knife before a third fatally shot him. Green belonged to the anti-white Nation of Islam, led by notorious Jew hater Louis Farrakhan.

•
... would-be assassin Quintez Brown shot at and grazed the sweater of Democrat mayoral candidate Craig Greenburg... His Twitter profile reads: "We have one scientific and correct solution, Pan-Africanism: the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism."

•
These cases confirm that Joe Biden and the Democrat Left are lost in space. While they battle imaginary white nationalists, real-life black racists usher their victims into hospitals and cemeteries.
Defending American Democracy Requires We Start by Crushing the Public School Weirdos (Townhall 04/18/22)
•
If you think pierced mutants with blue hair and gender confusion have some sort of right to leverage their position as public school teachers to groom your kids with racist Marxism and sexual confusion, you hate democracy.

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Schools were not established so that narcissistic stange-os with galaxy-sized daddy issues could work out their personal psychodramas using our children's minds as props.

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They were established to teach our kids to read, write, do some math, and be useful citizens. And that's what we, the People, want.

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And we, the People, get to make the decision about what gets taught in our classrooms. The emphasis is on "our classrooms."

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The kids are ours. The schools are ours. And the curriculum is ours.

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Public education is not a vehicle to vindicate the feelz and thotz of the nimrods who teach in them. It's to do the job we – the bosses – decree should be done, and nothing else. Teach our kids their ABCs and how to count.

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And teach them about democracy, though the teachers clearly need a refresher. Let me help. Here's how democracy works.

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We citizens decide, and you government flunkies obey. I would ask if you have any questions, but you shouldn't. The chain of command is clear. Citizen, followed by hireling. In that order.

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I just love it when I see some mutated whiner on Tik Tok complaining that xe is not supposed to show videos if xis interpretative dance performance of "My Penis Confounds Me" to classrooms of second graders and how the mean old school board is cruelly repressing xis personal vision of a genderfluid future.

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Yes, exactly. Yes, you are being repressed. You may not use the classroom as your personal venue for your delusional and stupid obsessions.

•
We call this "Democracy." And ground zero in the fight to defend it is our local elementary.

•
Someone has to decide what gets taught in government schools. If you think the citizens should make that decision, you support democracy.

•
If you think government workers should make that decision, you support a fascist dictatorship of the weirdoletariat.

•
Why do these leftist – and they are all leftists – hate democracy?

•
Well, because in a democracy other people get a say and these goofs do not get to do whatever they please on our dime using our facilities to indoctrinate and groom our kids.

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Don't be fooled. They are not for freedom. They are for their freedom to run roughshod over the rest of us, unaccountable and occupying the alleged moral high ground.

•
... we are not morally obligated to cater to the bizarre fetishes of unaccomplished drama royalty (I don't want to misgender anyone by using the term "queens") who got education decrees because getting a bachelor's in communications was too hard.

•
Time to tighten up on the teachers as a prelude to tightening up on useless public employee across the government.

•
Stop pretending teachers are, as a group, people worthy of our special respect and deference. Everyone had some great teachers. I remember a couple who made a difference for me. Neither was a pinko with delusions of genderfluidity.

•
But let's face it – most teachers are undistinguished time-serving hacks who drone along awaiting their pension.

•
As a group, "educators" are not smarter than us, and their track record of actually educating is a trainwreck. Do you think kids today are better educated than they were 40 or even 20 years ago?

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Maybe in terms of pronouns and privilege, but not in anything that's not nonsense. For too long we gave teachers the benefit of the doubt. No longer. Now we need to give them orders and ultimatums.

•
Ban teachers' unions. Public employee unions are a disaster anyway, but teachers' unions are the worst.

•
One lib teacher whining is insufferable. Hundreds of thousands banding together and funding the Democrats in return for influence is an apocalypse.

•
It gives the worst people the most power over the most important thing – our kids' future.

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When they called you a "terrorist" for participating in democracy, they gave the game away. Activism works. Now we need to take it to the next level by not just going to school board meetings but by running for the school board.

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And we have to withstand the lies and slanders when we act. Ban CRT. Ban gender weirdness. Ban grooming behavior. Get rid of porn and propaganda. Impose pro-family, pro-American curricula in place of the Marxist dross masquerading as education nowadays.

•
They will scream and they will shout. They will call you "Nazis," "racists," and "transphobes." But guess what? They are already calling you "Nazis," "racists," and "transphobes." Ignore their howls and protests; fire those who will not conform. Be ruthless – for your kids' sake.

•
Emphasize that the purpose of public education is not to provide a platform for damaged people to perform their creepy vignettes. It is to teach and create good citizens.

•
Our teachers are not getting paid to express themselves but to express what is normal. All that weird stuff is narcissism and attention-seeking, and that attention goes to precisely the wrong people. The people who should get attention in schools are the kids.

•
Stay Involved. When the high tide of this trend hits and the waters of weirdness starts to recede, we will be tempted to go back to not paying attention.

•
Nope. Watch them like hawks. We need to stay activated to clean-out the abscess that is our education system and make sure the woke infection never returns.

•
This is what democracy looks like – the citizens telling the government what to do no matter how sad it makes the government flunkies. And when they oppose us, it only reaffirms that the left hates democracy.

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See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Elon Musk and free speech (JWR 04/18/2022)
•
Americans who subscribe to "traditional values" have had to put up with a lot from the left in the name of the First Amendment.

•
From vulgarities on TV (self-described First Amendment defenders said things like, "If you don't like, it change the channel" ), to sexual scenes in movies ("If you don't like it, don't go" ), to the ready availability of pornography on the internet ("use blockers if you don't want to view it" ), to books that offend parental values in public schools, to flag burning during protests, cries of "censorship" have been hurled at defenders of deportment and tradition.

•
Now comes Elon Musk and suddenly everything has changed. Musk wants to buy Twitter and add to the diversity of opinions that can be expressed on this popular and influential platform.

•
At first the Twitter board welcomed him to the company, but they quickly changed their minds and have now inserted a "poison pill" they hope will keep him from taking over. It's complicated, but they would limit the number of shares that Musk could purchase.

•
Why does it appear the only speech that wins the approval of the left is speech with which they agree?

•
People mostly agree on limits involving libel, slander and the old one about not crying "fire" in a crowded theater when there is no fire, but what is happening now is different.

•
Twitter (and Facebook) have "standards" which, if violated, can get one suspended or in the case of Donald Trump, banned from their platforms.

•
They define "hate speech" but it is often arbitrary, and the company in too many cases, seems to bow to the wishes of leftist organizations.

•
That the allegations of censorship have shifted from the right foot to the left was evident in a recent Washington Post column by Max Boot.

•
Boot lamented that a billionaire like Musk could potentially have influence in deciding Twitter's content. The irony is that his paper is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

•
During the turbulent years leading up to the founding of the nation there were views expressed for and against the Revolution. Even so, George Washington said, "If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."

•
In an Aug. 8, 1950, message to Congress regarding the internal security of the United States, President Harry Truman wrote: "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

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The response to speech one does not like is more speech, not less. That's what freedom of speech ultimately means...

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See related Unabomber II (Mike Shelton, 01/19/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Hang Em' High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
America's parents aren't 'woke' but they are awake to gender ideology education plans (Fox 04/17/2022)
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State and local school boards in New Jersey and beyond should listen to parents and stop sacrificing children's interests to their political agenda.

•
Schools must focus on the academic and learning loss crisis they have created.

•
State standards and recommended lesson plans should prioritize accurate academic instruction, rather than proselytize gender ideology.
How Corruption Dictates the Practice of Medicine (04/16/2022)
An empty vessel for global elites (INN 04/13/2022)
GLSEN's Groomers in Plain Sight (JWR 04/13/2022)
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Silence is complicity. Complicity in the sexual exploitation of children in the name of "diversity," "tolerance" and "safety" is an unconscionable crime. The groomers aren't even hiding in plain sight.

•
They've been out in the open, feeding on your fear and feasting on your children.
Yes, It's Biden's Inflation (JWR 04/13/2022)
Watters asks why FBI, big tech did not have suspect of Brooklyn subway attack on radar (Fox 04/13/2022)
•
Police have arrested Frank James. This is the guy accused of unleashing hell on a crowded subway yesterday morning, shooting 10 and injuring 23 in a flurry of gunfire and smoke bombs.

•
For years, this freak was letting the world know his deepest, darkest thoughts, and big tech never flagged it.

•
They consider themselves the speech police of what's right and wrong to post, saying "gender is real" is considered hate speech online.

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But kill Whitey is just fine? And of course, this guy, Frank James, has a long rap sheet.

•
The FBI has been busy framing Trump and militia kidnappers, missing dangerous radicals just right under their nose.

•
If you watch the mainstream media, you'd have no idea Black nationalists even exist. As soon as the press realizes the attacks don't fit their narrative, they bury this story.

•
Political correctness is putting lives in danger. The media is completely ignoring Black nationalism.

•
There's only room for White nationalism in their coverage because they need to keep the Democrat base scared and the country divided.

•
Black nationalism is a serious threat, and our FBI just keeps dropping the ball. Why? The FBI director needs to answer questions under oath about this because the bureau's priorities are out of whack.
Fall of the house of Biden (Fox 04/13/2022)
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It is no coincidence that as vice president, Joe Biden oversaw American policy in China, Ukraine, and Russia at the same time his son was landing big paydays from those same countries.

•
Hunter monetized his father's power and influence. His only marketable skill was being the scion of a powerful U.S. government official. So, he exploited his genetics for financial gain.
What the Left Has Done to Women (JWR 04/12/2022)
Fantasy takes over reality in Disneyland (JWR 04/11/2022)
•
To see Disney attempt to pull the rug out from under the parents who actually do care, and destroy that wonderful magic of childhood to appease some misguided adults...

•
Walt Disney had a dream. The people who kidnapped that dream are trying to turn it into a nightmare.
Here are five things we must do to remain a global super power (Fox 04/11/2022)
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... if we wish to protect our global interests, we must act with our allies to build a force capable of addressing 21st century realities.

•
Today, Russia is stirring troubles in Europe and not just in Ukraine, which require a renewed focus in that arena.

•
Meanwhile, China is beating the war drums across much of Asia, building the world's largest and soon most capable armed force poised by all estimates for a blow-out of a regional fight perhaps beginning with Taiwan.

•
The U.S. must therefore have a serious discussion about the need for a realistic two major regional contingencies capability, a concept recently abandoned for mostly budget reasons but now necessary thanks to the alliance of authoritarian global enemies.

•
... today's military is much too small to credibly pass the two major regional contingencies test even though our threat is growing which means we must increase our size, modernize our weapons platforms and invest in new technologies.

•
... our political class interfered by squandering our investment in unnecessary wars, they embraced the wrong technologies, further encumbered Pentagon processes and advanced woke social experiments on our force.

•
... instead of investing in a meaningful two major regional contingencies capability, the political establishment invested our resources in a war with al Qaeda, the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks on America, which unnecessarily morphed into a failed two-decade nation building effort.

•
Then the Iraq war of choice further wasted resources and distracted us from true national interests, which continue in part today.

•
Meanwhile, the Pentagon's technologists focused on defeating terrorists and not as much on hypersonic platforms and artificial intelligence. Now we trail our adversaries in these and other significant applied sciences.

•
Further, politicians created such a labyrinth of bureaucratic nonsense as to cripple the Pentagon's ability to make quick and sound decisions.

•
Then of course, there were a series of administrations which treated our military personnel as lab rats upon which to impose an assortment of bizarre social experiments rather than focusing on building and sustaining fighting prowess.

•
So, if we are serious about remaining a global super power in the 21st century and given our growing list of existential adversaries, we must do the following:...

•
First, we must invest in a force with an eye on the 21st century realities and sufficiently fund the Pentagon to field a true two major regional contingencies capability.

•
Even though past administrations embraced the two-war policy, they never provided the funding to ensure sufficient forces and capabilities to achieve that goal.

•
Second, we must focus on contingencies in Europe against Russia and in the Pacific against China. Both countries present true existential threats albeit for different reasons – Russia's nuclear capability and China's multi-pronged, all-domain capabilities.

•
Third, we must become serious about arming our forces with the latest technology. We've fallen behind China in key areas because of two decades of distraction and now Beijing aims to lead the world with its Military-Civil Fusion development strategy, an integrated national strategic system to accelerate the modernization of its military.

•
Fourth, we must streamline our outdated military procurement process. The Pentagon's processes are encumbered by congressionally mandated nonsense, preventing quick decisions because of legal constraints, and also by Pentagon officials who build-in layers of red tape to protect themselves.

•
Finally, stop the social engineering. Building a fighting force is hard enough without imposing sex-based social causes and politically-driven agendas on the force. They hurt our fighting capability.

•
The 21st century presents the U.S. with real challenges from the authoritarian regimes in China and Russia.

•
That means our full-range of security capabilities must be ready to fight on at least two fronts across all domains (land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace).

•
Right now, we lack that elastic capability and if we are to survive as a free people, we must make changes like those outlined above.

•
See related Bombshells (Antonio Branco, 10/22/2021) cartoon from World picture album

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See related Military Readiness (Antonio Branco, 10/20/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Why schools adopted the 1619 Project as a curriculum when it was full of historical errors (Fox 04/11/2022)
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"[The Project] engages students, and it makes them activists, which is what a lot of teachers want to do. There are way too many woke teachers. They've been trained in colleges of education to produce not knowledgeable citizens, but left-wing social activists."

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After the project was published in the magazine, five historians penned a letter to The New York Times demanding corrections for the errors they found.

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The most significant error was that The American Revolution was fought in order to preserve slavery when most historians say it was a disrupter of slavery.

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"Of course, slavery was part of the history of the United States. The problem with the 1619 Project is that it makes extraordinary sweeping claims."

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"The claim isn't that ... [for the] first 80 years of American history, we had slavery." ... Instead, The Times claims American history should be reframed to have the start date of 1619 when the first slaves are believed to have arrived, not when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.

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"It's important to get the dates here correct. I mean, in 1619 there wasn't any United States of America."

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"When you say racism is built into the DNA of the United States, or that it's America's original sin – [it means] those things are unchanging. And that, to me, is not just ahistorical, it's almost anti-historical."

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"There have always been large numbers of Whites divided among themselves in alliance with Blacks and in the struggle against slavery and racial discrimination. The 1619 Project erases that and instead posits a racial consensus among Whites that is unchanging."

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"What really bothered me [about the 1619 Project] was that [The New York Times] was so willing to advance the narrative ... not even at the expense of the truth, but to change the very conception of what the truth is."

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"I think the key message to understand is that [The 1619 Project] is not history ... it really is about present-day ideology and power."
Durham's prosecution of Clinton's campaign lawyer keeps getting stronger as more lies are exposed (Fox 04/08/2022)
Woke Disney vs. Walt's Disney: Is political corporate model sustainable or just goofy? (Fox 04/06/2022)
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In the past Disney sought to reflect the changing cultural norms on issues like race and gender; today, like so many corporations, they seek to be leaders in creating such change, and therein lies the problem.

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To keep its traditional place as the avatar of American childhood, Disney needs to pay more attention to the crowds in their parks and less to their diversity experts.

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Parents, and indeed children, will make clear what they want from Disney. Fiery debates over the trans issue isn't it.

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Hopefully that is the lesson Disney will take from this ill-advised foray into politics.
The Left Is the Culture War Aggressor (JWR 04/06/2022)
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For too long, Americans have planted their heads firmly in the sand, hoping that the forces of the free market would militate against the cultural hijacking of corporate institutions.

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Instead, corporations built by entrepreneurs have been hijacked by woke employees and a feckless managerial class.

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The blowback will be real, and it should be real. And if that means parents swearing off Mickey Mouse, increasingly they will.
Biden's Supreme Court nominee doesn't define 'woman,' and devalues them all (Fox 04/06/2022)
Hunter Biden's laptop and emails are real but what legacy media does next is anyone's guess (Fox 04/05/2022)
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Polling indicates that full knowledge of his son's scandal could have flipped six battleground states to Trump, according to The Polling Company's survey of 1,750 Biden voters.

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That would have meant Trump won in a walk. We'd be in year two of his second term.

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But his enemies, our enemies and the enemies of fair elections, they all triumphed. They buried news and tried to bury the Constitution along with it.

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Big Tech and Big Journalism and the Deep State the press pretends doesn't exist, they all undermined a presidential election. None of them were fired. None of them prosecuted. As far as I can tell, none of them even apologized.

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Instead, they laughed at the rubes who thought Americans had a free press or fair elections.

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Unless the legacy media push hard on the story, it will all blow over ... until next time. And you can bet there will be a next time.
Biden's budget would bankrupt America, put national security at risk (Fox 04/04/2022)
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Is America serious about survival in this increasingly dangerous world? President Joe Biden's $5.8 trillion budget says no. So does the recent $1.5 trillion earmark-filled spending bill.

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They send the message that America doesn't care about the fiscal sanity and economic strength on which our national security depends.

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There is never a good time to send that signal. But the worst time is right now, as Russia invades Ukraine and threatens nuclear war, and China aims to dominate the world.

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Instead of preparing to defend our freedom and vital interests, President Biden and Congress are undermining the domestic foundations of our global leadership. Their failure puts our future at risk.

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That's the essential point of Biden's budget. It hikes federal spending by a third compared to pre-pandemic levels, doubling down on the debt and deficits that are destroying opportunity for our children and grandchildren.

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We know where this story ends: A bankrupt America. Earmarks encourage both Republicans and Democrats to support the very spending hikes Joe Biden is calling for in his budget, because hey, at least they're getting something.

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Yet the national debt stands at more than $30 trillion – having tripled in just over a decade – and it's set to rise by at least a trillion dollars a year without end.

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Washington's spending binge was dangerous before earmarks came back. Now it's set to reach a new low, and the national debt a new high, since both parties have a reason to put selfish desires before America's security demands.

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This is not a recipe for national success, much less survival. Not when Russia is attacking Europe and China is advancing on every front.

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The national debt takes us nowhere, but it comes from somewhere, and that's the American people. Washington spending has already driven inflation to a 40-year high, and while the short-term harm to families is steep, the long-term consequences will take us over a cliff.

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How can we stay ahead of our enemies if we're falling behind economically? How can we beat China, which is getting stronger by the day, if we're on track to get weaker?

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China's economy may surpass America's within the next few years, yet rather than prevent that, our leaders are working hard to make it happen sooner.

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This has to stop. Fiscal sanity and economic strength are foundational to national security, but Washington is too distracted to realize it.

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Instead of bringing back earmarks and doubling down on spending and debt, we should be getting spending under control. That means no new entitlements, no more "stimulus," and no more corporate welfare masquerading as "relief" or "infrastructure."

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We need to fundamentally change how Washington spends, before Washington's spending fundamentally changes us.

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Restoring fiscal sanity is necessary, but it isn't sufficient. Equally important is restoring free-market capitalism to spark an economic boom. That starts by getting government out of the way of job-seekers and entrepreneurs through top-to-bottom regulatory and tax reform.

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It also means tapping America's incredible energy resources. We should drill our own oil before buying a drop from Russia, Iran, Venezuela, or any other enemy – the opposite of President Biden's approach. A country that wants to defend itself doesn't pay regimes that want to destroy it.

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We must also be smarter about who we trade with. Trade with China in advanced technology and dependence on China for essential supplies such as medicine must end.

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The alternative is to keep empowering regimes that want to end freedom and spread tyranny worldwide. Let them trade with each other; we don't want what they're selling.
Parental rights bill: Teach kindergartners the ABCs, not S-E-X (Fox 04/04/2022)
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Conservatives used to note that Democrats who wanted to dictate the size of your soda cup were creating a "nanny state."

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But now, Democrats aren't content to just be nannies. They want to be your child's parent – and they think you should have no say in the matter.

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That's the debate happening in Florida right now. Leftists are outraged about the new Florida law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis protecting parental rights, dishonestly dubbed "Don't Say Gay."

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This follows an unfortunate pattern of the ultra-woke attempting to reshape American institutions to fit their warped, extreme worldview.

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But let's be clear: Florida's new law never even mentions the word "gay." Rather, it bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades for kids aged 5 to 8...

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Whether it's woke corporations or political activists, it's just the latest example of Democrats putting their far-left agenda over kids' best interests.

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The controversy isn't about the specific contents of the bill so much as the fact that it dares to assert parental authority over school boards, activists, and government bureaucrats.

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Democrats have come to feel a sense of entitlement toward other people's children. Just look at how they treated kids during the pandemic.

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When kids are in the classroom, they're being indoctrinated with anti-American and sexually-explicit propaganda.

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More than 4,500 teachers all over the country have used curriculum inspired by The New York Times' 1619 Project, the "reframing" of American history that claims our country is inherently racist...

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And, yes, despite what the mainstream media might tell you, kids are also being deluged with inappropriate gender and sexual content.

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... a school district in Wisconsin outrageously stated that parents are "not entitled" to know their children's sexuality. The New York Department of Education is drawing heat for promoting explicit sexual books to its high school students. In Los Angeles, teachers who refuse to use trans pronouns for young children are being targeted by school administrators. In Oregon, the statewide public school system has passed guidance promoting kids as young as kindergarten using gender pronouns of their choice.

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This is happening nationwide. No amount of misrepresentation from the left and their allies in the media can erase what the left is trying to do to our kids.

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It's no wonder why Democrats don't want parents to know what goes in on classrooms. That's why teachers in Loudoun County, Virginia, created a secret Facebook group to attack concerned parents.

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The Biden administration tracked moms and dads who spoke up at school board meetings with an FBI "threat tag" despite previously claiming they weren't using tools usually reserved for domestic terrorists.

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Democrats who are putting indoctrination and sexualization over education – and cutting parents out in the process – are setting themselves up to fail. It's not just bad politics. It's a disgrace.

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Meanwhile, Republicans stand for parents being involved in their kids' education and protecting children from the left's inappropriate agenda, whether it's in the classroom or in the movies they watch.

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Democrats are about to learn a lesson the hard way: Don't mess with moms.

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See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
America’s 2020 masquerade election led to Ukraine’s horror and the world’s turmoil (INN 04/01/2022)
Walt Disney Productions, my former employer, RIP (JWR 04/01/2022)
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The company I worked for and loved for all those years is now completely gone. Although things have been slowly changing over the past couple of decades, what has happened recently has really put the final nail in the coffin.

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The company has made an about-face from pro-America to pro-China. From pro-family, to profanity. From creativity to crap. The company today honors none of the traditions that Disney stood for.
Ingraham: The Left loves perverting language to promote 'twisted agenda' (Fox 04/01/2022)
Big Tech keeps trying to silence conservatives and it won't stop until we stop them (Fox 03/30/2022)
A clear and present danger (INN 03/26/2022)
•
A Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month asked nearly 1,500 Americans whether, if we were invaded by Russia, they would stay and fight to defend America or leave.

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Fewer than half of Democrats said they would fight. In contrast, 68% of Republicans said they would protect their homeland, while only one in four said they would flee. About 57% of independents would stand their ground.

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Imagine if that polling question were asked in 1941 or even 2001. One need only look at how the country rallied after Pearl Harbor or 9/11 to know that Americans' love for the flag was deeply felt across all segments of society.

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What explains the current ambivalence and outright contempt held by some for our country? It's mostly because our political leaders, media, and educators too often tell the American people their country is not worth defending.

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Recall when Barack Obama took office and quickly embarked on a world tour to apologize for America's supposed history of malign behavior.

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The former community organizer did not understand American exceptionalism. Although it required complete historical ignorance, Obama's warped view was that we are an ordinary country.

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His message was damaging to U.S. security. Why would someone be motivated to join the military and possibly sacrifice their life for such a mundane cause?

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Obama's mainstreaming of the odious social justice agenda has contributed to the infuriating conclusion reached by many that America is not worth defending.

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Libel claiming we are "systemically racist" is appalling, yet a walk around most college campuses confirms it's a common thought.

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This has been the cornerstone of the woke movement since Obama was elected and helps explain why so few Democrats will fight against an enemy.

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America's unparalleled progress does not matter to the woke, because we were founded upon the great evil of slavery; therefore they denigrate all institutions.

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Critical race theory, which Democrats originally denied existed, then obfuscated its nefarious aims, is another culprit, since it permeates schools across the country.

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This indoctrination is particularly insidious because children are taught to loathe themselves and their country.

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It is no coincidence that Republicans are more opposed than Democrats to teaching CRT in our schools, more likely to defend our country, and value free speech.

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While children are given little input into what they are taught, the same cannot be said of private corporations.

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Employees are now required to accept so-called "White Privilege" bigotry in seminars on "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion."

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No matter how asinine the premise, America's business community is desperate to prove they aren't inherently racist.

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A nation is only as strong as the citizens willing to fight for it. These aforementioned maladies will continue so long as our political leaders, corporate overlords, media elites, and vituperative "educators" continue telling citizens to hate America.

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President Joe Biden long ago surrendered to the hard left wing of his party and continues to promote social justice activism, a clear and present danger to the security of our nation.
Putin banked on Obama's appeasement to continue under Biden, sparking Russo-Ukranian war: expert (Fox 03/25/2022)
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"[Biden's] Russian experts are the same people as the Obama Russian experts. They were the people that said the Russian reset is going to be great."

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In 2018, the Trump administration revealed the U.S. military killed hundreds of pro-Assad Russian mercenaries in Syria in airstrikes. The administration also pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal that year. Later, Trump also unilaterally pulled out of the three-decade-old Open Skies Treaty with Russia in 2020.

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"Yet the fact is that Trump's foreign policy, in action, was more successful. Biden's policy appeasement, on the other hand, has been a 15-year project. It's no surprise that Putin thinks this is the time to strike."

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"I think he made this decision in 2014 ... he decided that Obama was leaving Europe, that the Europeans were weak and divided and woke, and that he was pushing on an open door. And he just stopped for four years when Donald Trump was there because they didn't know how to deal with Trump."

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"The day Trump left, all the Obama people came back and Putin went right back to doing what he's doing."

•
Biden barked at Russia ahead of his election that Putin knew his days of "tyranny and trying to intimidate the United States and those in Eastern Europe are over" once he took the White House.

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But Biden's bark was much tougher than his bite when dealing with Moscow, which critics and lawmakers had long warned would lead to an invasion.

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"Within days of taking office, President Joe Biden's campaign-trail veneer of tough-talking Russia hawk melted away to reveal a weak-kneed appeaser unwilling to constrain the Russian bear."

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At the start of his administration, Biden proposed extending the START treaty to Russia after the Trump administration waited to begin talks and made a list of demands that Russia would not meet.

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Sen. Cotton, R-Ark., slammed the move as appeasing Russia "with nothing in return." "Instead of satisfying Putin, this concession only whetted his appetite."

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Last year, Biden waived sanctions on Nord Stream 2, a pipeline that would run from Russia to Germany without crossing through Ukraine. Trump vehemently opposed the pipeline, with his administration fearing it would allow Russia to further tighten its grip on Europe's reliance on Russia for oil.

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To Sen. Cotton, it was "yet another unbelievable victory for the Russian dictator," which would ease Russia's reliance on Ukraine to move the natural gas and ultimately "allow Russia to attack Ukraine without having to worry about losing revenue from gas sales to Europe."

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The Biden White House also reportedly stalled on sending a military aid package last year to Ukraine - allegedly including short-range air defense systems, small arms and more anti-tank weapons - as tensions flared between Russia and Ukraine.

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A report surfaced just this month that the Biden administration allegedly axed another plan last year to send additional operations personnel to Ukraine to train them on guerrilla tactics and unconventional warfare methods.

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A cyber ransomware attack carried out by a Russian hacker last year on a major U.S. pipeline network caused mayhem in the country, briefly interrupting gas deliveries.

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Among Biden's responses was giving Putin a list of 16 critical infrastructure entities that are "off limits" to a Russian cyberattack.

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"The Biden administration certainly needs to step up. Although they have been publicly making statements of commitments to give Ukraine the tools and weapons to defend themselves, they've been very slow to do so."
Our once stellar intelligence community has morphed into an intelligence cabal (Fox 03/25/2022)
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In 2017, efforts clearly designed to undermine and perhaps collapse the administration of incoming President Donald Trump were executed by leading FBI and intelligence officials, including DNI Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden.

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They embraced the phony Steele Dossier and talked with the media to bolster its credibility and damage Trump. They pedaled this narrative until it collapsed under the weight of its own lies when a key Russian source of Christopher Steele was arrested and charged with lying to the FBI.

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It also was revealed the dossier had been a hoax bought and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign, with Steele pocketing almost $170,000 from the campaign.

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But far from being chastened after promoting the politically funded lies of the Steele Dossier, the individuals continued their partisan behavior and attacks.

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In another blow to the credibility of these much-ballyhooed former IC leaders, The New York Times finally admitted the contents of the abandoned laptop of Hunter Biden first revealed by the New York Post in October of 2020 were real and had been authenticated by the paper.

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This after discussion about the laptop had been banned from many social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook as being Russian misinformation or the result of a hack.

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And after these vaunted former intelligence officials, joined with 51 former IC colleagues and leaders, to write a letter stating:

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"All of us have an understanding of the wide range of activities of Russian overt and covert activities that undermine U.S. national security ... Perhaps most important, each of us believes deeply that American citizens should determine the outcome of elections, not foreign governments."

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"... has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

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"If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly Americans need to be aware of this."

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Well, they were wrong, and in an ironic twist, they were doing exactly what they accused Russia of doing — engaging in a classic partisan, political information campaign to influence the outcome of an election.

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Signatories of the letter included many familiar and some not so familiar names: Clapper, Hayden, Brennan and David Buckley.

•
So why bring up someone I like? It's to demonstrate that the "Intelligence Cabal" never quits. They went after Trump before he assumed office, while he was in office, and during the 2020 election. Their ongoing information operation, that started with the Steele dossier, continues to today.

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The latest chapter, David Buckley, who signed the laptop letter, is now the staff director for the January 6 Committee.

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Many of us have raised questions about the January 6 Committee, including its construct, its membership, and scope just mention a few.

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This latest revelation about the role of its staff director in influencing the 2020 election through a partisan disinformation campaign is the latest major red flag.

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The questions that need to be asked now are: Who will investigate the 51 intelligence officials who signed the Hunter Biden laptop letter about what they knew when signing, and who will investigate whether this created any conflicts for the lead investigator of the January 6 Committee?

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The sorry thing is we all know the likely answer — no one will.
Reject Ketanji Brown Jackson (JWR 03/24/2022)
Ukraine: The Politics Behind Biden's Reluctance to 'Do More' (JWR 03/24/2022)
The real 'reset' is coming (JWR 03/24/2022)
Without the Rule of Law, Our Rights Are Threatened (JWR 03/24/2022)
Tucker Carlson: The White House, Congress and FBI all support Ketanji Brown Jackson, so don't ask questions (Fox 03/23/2022)
America Caught Between Russia and China Externally and the Left Internally (JWR 03/22/2022)
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America is caught between an external and an internal threat. The external is an economically aggressive and America-hating China and a nuclear-equipped, America-hating Russia; the internal is a non-nuclear, America-hating Left.

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(As I always note, "Left" is not the same as "liberal"; in fact, leftism poses a mortal threat to liberalism. The greatest contemporary tragedy in American life is that most liberals are unwilling to acknowledge this and continue to vote for the Left.)

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To use one of the Left's favorite terms, the Left poses an existential threat to America. Russia, unless it starts a nuclear war, does not.

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Every left-wing movement in the world despises America — and for good reason. America has stood for everything the Left opposes.

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It is the most capitalist, most religious, and most nationalistic major democracy. America's unique success has been the greatest possible rebuke to left-wing ideology.

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America must therefore be brought down. Specifically, it must abandon its capitalist economy, its Judeo-Christian values and its nationalism (as expressed, for example, in Americans' celebration of the flag and national anthem; in Americans' celebration of national holidays such as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving; in Americans' opposition to anything hinting of world government; and in Americans' belief that their country is "the greatest country in the world").

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... America finds itself today attacked by three anti-American forces: Putin and China externally and the American Left internally.

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If there is no nuclear war with Russia, by far the greatest of these threats emanates from the American Left.

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It has successfully de-Americanized and ruined every major institution it has touched: nearly all educational institutions from elementary schools through universities; virtually all major mainstream news media; the intelligence agencies ... the economy (the worst inflation rate in nearly half a century is the result of the cavalier spending of trillions of dollars and the Left's energy policies which, within a few months, transformed America from energy-exporting to energy-importing); and even medicine...

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The only way to save America from its internal existential threat is for liberals to understand that the threat to their core values emanates from the Left, not the Right.

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Just to cite two examples, it is not the Right that opposes liberalism's commitment to free speech; it is the Left that cancels people for saying anything the Left differs with — including stating obvious scientific and moral truths, such as that it is unfair to women to allow biological males to compete in women's sports.

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And it is not the Right that opposes liberalism's commitment to racial integration; it is the Left (holding the same position as the Ku Klux Klan) that calls for all-black dormitories on college campuses and all-black graduations.

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America cannot defeat Russia and China without the help of other nations. And America cannot defeat the Left without the help of liberals.

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To put it in political terms, if America's liberals voted their values, the Democratic Party would not win another major election — and it would either become irrelevant or decide to return to its liberal roots. Only America's liberals, working in common cause with conservatives, can save America.
Universities like Yale must stand up to the mob and protect a culture of free speech (Fox 03/21/2022)
Biden's timid leadership in Ukraine on full display in Poland MiG fiasco (Fox 03/15/2022)
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While President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rallied his people to defend their homeland, President Biden has responded with timidity and half-measures.

•
Most recently, Biden rejected a plan to deliver Polish MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. The Ukrainians are in dire need of aircraft and spare parts to prevent Russia from gaining air supremacy, but the president refused to give the Ukrainians these valuable tools when they were practically handed to him by one of our strongest allies, Poland.

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Biden's defenders claim that sending MiGs to Ukraine would have "provoked" Putin and "escalated" America's involvement in the war. But the United States shouldn't be cowed by hollow threats from Moscow.

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Russia is bogged down in a war that's far more costly than it predicted. The past two weeks of fighting have demonstrated the flaws of Russia's armed forces as well as the tenacity of its enemies.

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If Putin attacked us or a NATO ally over a few dozen fighter jets, he would be signing up his military for a vastly larger and more painful struggle that he cannot afford to fight. He would be signing the death warrant of his corrupt regime, as well.

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Fighter jets are also no more provocative than the weapons America is already sending to Ukraine by the hundreds.

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We've already sent Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine that are turning Russian tanks and other armored vehicles into burning heaps of junk.

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We've also sent Stinger anti-air missiles that are blowing Russian helicopters and low-flying jets out of the sky.

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Giving the Ukrainians more fighters won't drag America into war; it will just make Ukraine more likely to win the war by keeping its air force in the fight.

•
Biden's fighter fiasco is only the latest example of his timidity in the face of Russian aggression.

•
When Russia built up its forces at the Ukrainian border, Biden rewarded Putin with a glitzy summit that increased his stature while gaining no concessions.

•
On the eve of war, he admitted that a "limited incursion" into Ukraine might divide NATO and go unpunished.

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When Putin made nuclear threats, Biden caved by canceling a routine missile test, even though the U.S. notified the Russians about the test months ago.

•
He has even refused to give the Ukrainians real-time intelligence about the Russian invasion force, again out of misplaced fear of "escalation." But if information is too provocative to send, what can we send?

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The United States must ensure that Russia pays a steep price for starting the biggest war in Europe since 1945. That means we must stand with the people of Ukraine – and arm every last one of them.

•
If Vladimir Putin and his oligarch allies don't pay, they could widen the war and invade other countries, including NATO allies that we're obligated to defend. Moreover, other tyrants may conclude that they can take territory by force and get away with it.

•
The Communists in Beijing are watching Russia's invasion with great interest. The fighting that began on the plains of Eastern Europe may end on the beaches of Taiwan.

•
At every step, Joe Biden has allowed America's response to be dictated from Moscow out of a fanciful fear of provocation.

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The wages of Biden's weakness are Russian tanks rolling through Eastern Europe. If we fail to support Ukraine, the stakes and the flames of war will rise.
Fight for your country? Ukrainians will but Americans torn in new poll. That's a problem (Fox 03/14/2022)
•
In World War II, Winston Churchill famously declared, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." It appears that there may be even fewer to count on if a recent poll is accurate.

•
The Quinnipiac University poll asked Americans, "What would you do if you were in the same position as Ukrainians are now, stay and fight or leave the country?" Only 55% said that they would stay and fight for this country. That included only 40% of Democrats.

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Overall 38% of Americans said that they would flee. It appears that this country is facing an existential crisis of faith, and we should have a frank discussion about why so comparably few Americans are now willing to pledge their lives in defense of this country.

•
It is important to note that, while the results were shocking overall, many did say that they would stand and defend the United States from any invader. When asked this question, 68% of Republicans and 57% of Independents say that they would fight.

•
However, more than half of Democrats (52%) said they would flee before fighting for their country – 8% did not have an answer, a shrug that is equally alarming.

•
We should be alarmed by this poll because it shows a deep disconnection with this country and its protection.

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If you are not willing to defend this country, citizenship becomes a status of convenience; an opportunistic association that can be shed as easily as it is acquired.

•
The poll shows a crisis within the Democratic Party, but also our country at large, with people losing their connection to our common article of faith, the Constitution.

•
That did not occur overnight. There have been unrelenting attacks on our institutions and core values for years that ignore our countervailing successes.

•
There has been a growing agnosticism regarding this country as many challenge our foundational institutions and values.

•
It is captured in words of leaders like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who questioned the very need for the Supreme Court when it was not ruling in line with her own views: "How much does the current structure benefit us? And I don't think it does."

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Our Constitution created an experiment in self-governance that remains a work in progress. However, it does not guarantee that you simply get what you want or you can "throw out" the Constitution like ... unwanted trash.

•
President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who was decorated for his bravery in World War II, famously declared in 1961: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

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The question is whether Americans are willing to answer the same call today.
US urgently needs homegrown energy plan, with renewables, fossil fuels and nuclear in the mix (Fox 03/14/2022)
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The Canada-to-U.S. Keystone XL pipeline permit? Revoked. New oil and gas leases on federal lands? Suspended. Investments in pipeline infrastructure? Stifled by oppressive rules and excessive oversight.

•
Then, with the president's 180-degree policy reversal away from U.S. energy independence and with gasoline prices surging, the White House last summer incredibly called on OPEC to boost oil production while continuing to choke output at home.

•
Now, with the world watching in horror as Ukraine valiantly defends itself against brutal Russian aggression, the plain reality that energy security, national security and global stability are fundamentally linked is clearer than ever. ...

•
Even though this ugly conflict is far from American shores, its impacts arrived swiftly in the form of rising prices at the pump.

•
American and European dependence on Russian oil and gas has reduced our strategic ability to hit Putin with hard-hitting sanctions, including against banks that finance Russian energy.

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In December, the United States imported 405,000 barrels per day of Russian oil and crude oil products, according to the Energy Information Administration.

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The European Union, which gets 40% of its natural gas from Russia, was paying as much as $722 million a day to Russia last week – triple what it was paying before the invasion...

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For well over a generation, oil prices have become either the harbinger of global anxiety and panic, or the measuring stick of peace and prosperity.

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Because of the commodity status of oil and Russia's outsized role in its supply, Putin's actions have resulted in a dramatic and rapid price spike.

•
Washington downplays the effects of federal energy policy, but those in the energy business understand that oil production and rig count are far below pre-pandemic levels.

•
All this despite the price per barrel being almost twice as high as it was in January 2020. Put simply, the math doesn't make sense.

•
America needs to pursue an all-of-the-above approach to energy and we need to do it now. This is not an either-or scenario – it means simultaneously growing renewable energy without compromising dispatchable baseload power, harnessing advancements in nuclear power, deploying carbon capture, developing next-generation technologies in the form of hydrogen, and continuing to extract fossil fuels in the most responsible way possible.

•
In his State of the Union address, the president called for the United States to "buy American." His administration should heed those same words when it comes to U.S. energy.

•
Otherwise, we will continue to be dependent on nations and autocrats who produce energy less cleanly than we do, and who clearly care nothing for our American ideals of democracy and prosperity.

•
While we appreciate last week's ban on Russian energy imports into the United States, the president should focus urgently on producing homegrown energy, with a mix of clean fossil fuels and renewables.

•
We should be able to sell cleanly produced energy to our friends and allies, rather than rely on buying dirtier energy from our adversaries and competitors. It's that simple.
Weakening Putin requires targeting Russia's oil and boosting US energy production (Fox 03/12/2022)
•
More than a third of Vladimir Putin's budget comes from the sale of Russian oil and natural gas. Congress must target that — and more — to hold Putin accountable, long term, for his unacceptable aggression against the Ukrainian people.

•
In addition to banning Russian energy imports, we must revoke favorable trade relations with Russia and Belarus, and provide the President authority to raise tariffs on the other nearly half of imports that Russia sells to the United States.

•
Putin cannot enjoy the same trade status as our NATO allies, and other international partners. Instead, Russia belongs in the same pariah trade status as North Korea and Cuba.

•
The U.S. should also use its influence to deny Russia the trade benefits it enjoys from other countries as a World Trade Organization (WTO) member, since it is denying those very benefits to Ukraine. WTO members should punish tyrants and war criminals.

•
That is only half of the equation, however. As inflation and gas prices skyrocket to new highs, it is time for President Biden to change his mind on another issue that empowers Vladimir Putin: domestic energy production.

•
Rather than ask Venezuela and OPEC to increase production, American oil and gas production must replace Russian energy imports so we have more jobs, stable energy prices and the ability to support our allies' energy needs, instead of leaving them at Putin's mercy.

•
Despite attempts to blame rising energy prices on efforts to punish Russia for its premeditated attacks on a free and independent Ukraine, the skyrocketing cost of gas in Idaho and across the nation has been more than a year in the making.

•
Enough. Unleash American oil and gas production to replace not only Russian imports — and help stabilize prices at the pump — but to facilitate exports to support our allies, and end their dependence on Russia. It means jobs at home, stronger allies and a weaker Putin.

•
Congress should counter Russia's aggression and advance pro-American energy proposals.

•
We watch in horror Vladimir Putin's increasing aggression toward the people of Ukraine that threatens regional and international security.

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Our respect for the extraordinary resolve, resourcefulness and determination of the Ukrainian people must be backed by strong American policies. ... that replace Russian energy imports with domestic energy production, revoke Russia's undeserved trade status, and provide a mechanism to increase tariffs on Russia even further are steps we must take quickly to help crush any underpinnings of Putin's awful agenda.
Putin wants Ukraine and if we do nothing to stop him our world will never be the same (Fox 03/11/2022)
•
Doing nothing about the desecration of Ukraine by an international thug is still doing something, much like turning away as someone beats up your neighbor down the street.

•
True, if I rush to rescue him there are risks to me. However, it's not enough to just yell harsh words at the criminal and then declare, "I've done everything possible." That's cowardice and inhuman, not a reflection of the America many of us know and love.

•
There is a better way but it takes moxie that President Joe Biden probably lacks. Real leaders take risks and stand-up against bullies like Russia's Vladimir Putin.

•
What's not in question is that our president has the support of some Americans who insist that the Ukraine war isn't our fight.

•
I hear their angry protests, "Let the Europeans fight Putin. It's not worth American blood and treasure."

•
The same sort of comments were heard before each of the First and Second World Wars by the same kind of people, the elites.

•
They smugly tell us to ignore live television images of more than a million frightened Ukrainians fleeing war, bleeding in the streets and smoke billowing from apartment buildings and hospitals bombed by Putin's forces.

•
These scenes are now too familiar because this is the harsh reality of Russian tyranny. In 2016, Russian forces carried out a massive bombardment of Aleppo, Syria in support of their ally in Damascus.

•
Similar brutality was evidenced against the Chechens. In 1999, Russia's air force bombed the Chechen capital of Grozny in response to Putin's order to destroy the city. Soon, Grozny laid in waste, tens-of-thousands dead and in Putin's words, his troops "fulfilled their task to the end."

•
Juxtapose the scenes in Aleppo and Grozny with what happened in the Balkans. In 1999, the western allies, led by the US, responded to the mass atrocities committed in Kosovo by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and did so under the doctrine of the "right to humanitarian intervention."

•
At the time, the US and its allies provided a no-fly zone over Kosovo until the killing stopped and then put troops on the ground to ensure civilian safety.

•
Most informed observers of that war confirm that the west's intervention saved Kosovo and many thousands of lives.

•
The typical U.N. failure is not an excuse for moral societies to refuse to create safety nets when governments don't protect their own people (like the 1994 Rwanda genocide which claimed 800,000 lives) or when outside tyrants like Milosevic savage sovereign states.

•
The latter is the situation with Ukraine today. Brave Ukrainians are likely to continue to resist Putin's assaults and therefore, because of Russia's significant military power and past experience, we should expect the Kremlin's tyrant to go "full Aleppo" on them, no holds barred, no mercy even for the innocent women and children.

•
History is clear that thugs such as Putin won't stop with Ukraine, which reminds us that the rest of us are vulnerable as well.

•
We know from the mouth of the tyrant himself that more countries must fall in order to resurrect his vision of a renewed Russian empire.

•
After all, he sees his role not just reversing the end of the Soviet Union (1991) but undoing the Bolshevik policies that formed the contemporary state system across Eurasia.

•
No wonder armed humanitarian intervention is a topic much discussed among Europeans and Americans today. After all, many of us want to do more more action than just promises to stop buying Russian energy, flowing weapons to Ukrainian fighters and aiding the flood of frightened refugees.

•
We believe that much more ought to be done, perhaps like what we mounted against the Serbian dictator to save the Kosovars.

•
However, as many of our leaders say under their breath, Putin's threat of nuclear war makes humanitarian intervention impossible.

•
That's a poor excuse. President Biden and our nuclear-armed allies in London and Paris must remind the butcher in Moscow that we too have a nuclear arsenal and we're ready to use it.

•
Better we talk commonsense now and stop threatening each other with nuclear assured annihilation. That public reminder of a nuclear stand-off should take the issue off the table.

•
Then we demand that Putin stop military operations, pull his forces back and announce our intention to launch a massive humanitarian effort inside Ukraine to protect the civilian population, not a campaign to join with Kyiv's armed forces.

•
Of course, we will coordinate with Russian authorities announcing our intent to set up safe zones across Ukraine to help the civilian population.

•
Any interference with our efforts to aid the civilian population will be met with maximum military force.

•
Will Biden accept the risk and come to the rescue of Ukraine's civilian population? Unlikely, much as the neighbor and the armchair non-intervention critics, Biden will look away as Ukraine gets beaten up.

•
And, that my friends, will contribute to the world losing more trust in America and our own sense of morality plummets further.

•
See related We\\\'ll Show... (David Hitch, 03/04/2022)") cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Ukranian Flag (Gary McCoy, 02/26/2022) cartoon from USA picture album
Wake up, America — They're Trying to Destroy Us (JWR 03/10/2022)
•
The ideologies and tools of pathological egotists may differ, but the results are the same: They will attack everything you believe in, take away everything you own, and destroy everything that means anything to you — your property, your business, your income, your children, your freedom, your life — all of which they insist are necessary to remedy the social ills they profess to want to redress.

•
The "better world" they promise never materializes for anyone else; but they themselves grow rich on the spoils of others' sacrifices.

•
Those pushing this destructive agenda must never get control over the United States. And the power they do have must be wrested from them and their agents.

•
It is not merely the so-called Democrats (who left that party's ideals behind decades ago) who must be unseated but also the cloying, fawning collaborators calling themselves Republicans who put on a clown show but do nothing to stop the onslaught of totalitarianism in the United States.
Where STEM professors resist indoctrination (JWR 03/07/2022)
•
The proposed new mission and vision statements mention "research" and "teaching" only in passing. They begin instead by proclaiming that UMass Boston must become "an anti-racist and health-promoting institution" that supports "diverse forms of knowledge production" and is dedicated to education "rooted in equity, environmental sustainability, [and] social and racial justice."

•
They reiterate that the university's purpose is to be "anti-racist" and to promote "climate, environmental, and racial justice."

•
The draft of the vision statement concludes with a vow to hold everyone associated with the university "accountable" for ensuring that "these values drive all decision-making" at UMass Boston — including decisions about research, the allocation of funds, and the development of campus policies.

•
"Under no circumstances can political or ideological activism be the primary purpose of a public university," they wrote.

•
Of course individual students or staff members have every right to be active in social causes. "However, in this regard the role of the university is to empower people to take action themselves — not to coerce students, faculty, or institutional units to do so."

•
They are objecting not because of their political views but because they are teachers: If political activism becomes "a central goal of the university," warns the open letter, inevitably "it will conflict with education and research.

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The search for truth can never be subjugated to social or ideological beliefs."

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"If your research on quantum computing is not perceived as promoting climate, environmental, or racial justice, will you be held accountable and your resources re-allocated?"

•
There was an era, not so long ago, when spirited debate over questions of university policy and politics was an integral part of higher education.

•
Today, when expressing the "wrong" opinion on a controversial social issue has led to the investigation, censure, suspension, or firing of hundreds of faculty members around the country, it takes moral courage to openly criticize the progressive dogma being pushed by the UMass Boston leadership.

•
In too many institutions of higher education, illiberal hostility to free speech has grown endemic.

•
All the more reason, then, to applaud the UMass instructors who have put their names to the open letter challenging the university's misbegotten — but ideologically fashionable — statement.
Without an American Renewal, Putin's Aggression Is Only a Preview of Troubles Ahead (JWR 03/04/2022)
Russia-Ukraine war: Knowledge of communist history will help Americans understand invasion, expert says (Fox 03/03/2022)
•
To understand the Russia-Ukraine war, one must understand the history of communism – and more specifically, Russian communism.

•
"Young Americans know very little, and frequently nothing, about Josef Stalin – the brutal leader of the USSR that took over after Lenin and took his crimes under communism and really ratcheted them up."

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"I think people know nothing of the Holodomor, which was Stalin's planned famine in Ukraine that killed over 10 million people during the time."

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At the time of the Holodomor, known as the Great Famine, when Westerners were suffering from the Great Depression in the early 1930s, socialism and communism were "very much in vogue."

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"It is a terrible chapter in human history of the 20th century, and the vast majority of young Americans truly know nothing about [it]. Just knowing that one fact, I believe, can really materially change how a person understands communism."

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"And, frankly, I think it has an effect on how people understand the attacks and crisis today" in Ukraine.

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... an increasing number of young Americans are unaware that some 100 million people have been killed by communist parties in power over the last century, and many are unaware that the Chinese Communist Party is responsible for more deaths than Nazi Germany.

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While Russia is a socialist country today, ... it is being led by a "dictator" and former KGB leader, President Vladimir Putin, who is "trying to legitimize and rehabilitate the image of Josef Stalin – specifically him as a person – and of the Soviet empire."

•
"Putin knows the history of communism in 20th century, and if we do not, we are at a significant disadvantage in not understanding what is going on, why it is happening, and ... the important historical context for what is happening."

•
A century ago, the Red Army invaded Poland with the intent of taking over Central Europe, and Polish citizens stepped up during the invasion to help defend the country's capital of Warsaw, which is reminiscent of Ukrainians defending Kyiv today.

•
In 1956, Hungarian people helped defend Budapest when Russia tried to invade during the Hungarian Revolution.

•
"It is hopeful, inspiring to see many thousands of Russians protest this war, and that most likely never would have happened under the previous communist regimes."

•
"[B]ut one difference, frankly, is that I think the regime probably cared or feared a popular uprising, whereas I fear that today that Putin actually just doesn't."

•
... "Putin is so isolated and separate" from the Russian people "that regardless of how they may protest," the impact of sanctions – with "Russia being basically cut off from much of the rest of the world" – will be more significant on them than Putin and Russian oligarchs unless further sanctions, such as travel options, are directed toward the higher-ups personally.
Tucker Carlson: Moments from Biden's State of the Union that left you scratching your head (Fox 03/03/2022)
Biden State of the Union disappoints – same old claptrap (Fox 03/02/2022)
Tucker: Defense of Ukraine's democracy has led to an erosion of our own (Fox 03/01/2022)
Tucker Carlson: Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a humiliating defeat for Joe Biden (Fox 02/26/2022)
Communist North America (JWR 02/25/2022)
Ants of the World, Unite (JWR 02/24/2022)
The War On Parents Continues (JWR 02/23/2022)
Deja Vu all over again at Harvard (INN 02/22/2022)
Do Americans even know what free speech is? (JWR 02/22/2022)
Presidents Day: Great advice from great US presidents for modern-day America (Fox 02/21/2022)
•
"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." — Washington's Address to the Officers of the Army, March 15, 1783

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"Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person's own mind, than on the externals in the world." — Letter to mother Mary Ball Washington, Feb. 15, 1787

•
"For in politics ... my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy." — Letter to Dr. James Anderson, Dec. 24, 1795

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"A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?" — Eighth Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 7, 1796

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"It is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts." — George Washington's Farewell Address, Sept. 19, 1796

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"This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." — Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Henry L. Pierce, April 6, 1859

•
"Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling." — Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, remarks, Nov. 20, 1860

•
"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address, Jan. 27, 1838
CIA Spies and Their Collaborators (JWR 02/21/2022)
New docuseries encourages us to 'talk about Cosby' — and we should. Particularly, due process (JWR 02/21/2022)
What Public School Doesn't Teach About Washington (JWR 02/18/2022)
I'm a Team USA World Masters track athlete, mom and coach calling for the protection of women's sports (Fox 02/18/2022)
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I'm a mom, a coach and a Team USA World Masters track athlete who is fighting for something greater than another gold medal: I'm standing for the protection of women's sports.

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If male-bodied athletes continue competing on female teams, it will be the end of women's sports. This is no exaggeration; this is reality, and it's happening right now.

•
It wasn't just on the world stage that I experienced the demoralizing trend of male-bodied athletes displacing females from their own competitions; it was also on my home island of Maui, Hawaii.

•
A year and a half after my experience in Spain, my daughter lost to a biological male identifying as female in her first-ever high school track race.

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I had watched proudly as my strong and determined girl did all the right things – made personal, difficult sacrifices to train her body to be as fast and fit as possible for her first race.

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Yet all her hard work seemed to drift away along with the male-bodied athlete, who had just transferred from the boys' volleyball team to the girl's team the season before.

•
... how can you win as a female when you're lined up next to a male body whose strength, heart and lung capacity, and pace are all greater than your own no matter what the "treatment"?

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The most important factor is the psychological toll. Many of the girls I coach suffer from anxiety over having to compete against male-bodied athletes.

•
We all know the powerful scientific neurotransmitter connection between our minds and our bodies: When you think you can win, you have a better chance of doing it. It's proven.

•
Yet those of us who dare speak out that competing against males is unfair are told, "Oh, it's not that big of a deal. It doesn't happen that often."

•
"Just keep your mouth shut and be quiet." That's what I was told when I raised questions as to the unfairness of running next to a male-bodied athlete at the World Masters.

•
From coast to coast, we see college administrators, coaches, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and many others in the media and culture trying to downplay our stories and sweep us under the rug.

•
... there's a chorus of voices bravely recounting the missed opportunities, lost scholarships and titles, and the enormous challenge of competing in the sport you love on a playing field you know isn't level.

•
It is wrong for high school girls – or women at any age, for that matter – to worry about not being good enough simply because they are a woman.

•
We must raise our voices on behalf of fairness and equal opportunity for all women, before the entire category of women's sports is erased.

•
See related Poor Sport (Antonio Branco, 06/25/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Reclaiming Our Country and Our Individual Agency (JWR 02/17/2022)
Hillary Clinton's greatest masterpiece (JWR 02/17/2022)
One year without Rush Limbaugh – 5 lessons he left us on how to handle the left (Fox 02/17/2022)
•
Of this I am sure: whenever news hits, millions wonder, "What would Rush say?" It's largely unknowable. ... Rush's perspective and analytical gifts were so original they were a colossal audience draw...

•
But what is knowable is that Rush fought – and won – the same battles against the same leftists who used the same tactics being weaponized against us today.

•
1. Know your enemy. Rush's core mission ... was to give his listeners an ideological understanding of our political opponents on the left. The left's handbook never, ever changes.

•
Page one of Leftism 101: Silence dissent. Everywhere and always. The left has no interest in engaging in the arena of ideas. Liberals despise the very notion of political opposition; that we have time and space in the United States of America "to say whatever we want" ... ticks them off to no end. Freedom is their greatest nemesis; control of speech is the means to all their ends: accruing power.

•
They try to label all opposing ideas out of bounds, beyond the pale, fringe – so critics are marginalized, scorned and shunned...

•
Leftism is built on intimidation and a tissue of lies, to which we are the fact check.

•
2. Reject the premise. Leftist accusations and attacks are based on unstated premises: You are the problem; conservatives are the problem; America is the problem.

•
Learn to instantly and instinctively turn the tables, as Rush did. Leftists used to call Rush "dangerous." The unstated premise was that being dangerous to liberalism was bad. They expected the accusation would put Rush on defense. But he embraced that he was indeed a threat – to their dominance...

•
3. Use your power. The left may appear invincible, but it exerts control based on a currency of deception, manipulation, corrupt bargains. The power we have is unassailable, and it is built on invisible things: Truth. Joy. Common sense. Humor. Love. Gratitude. Faith. These qualities answer to a Higher Authority, and the left has no counter to them.

•
Never forget: we are the many. Rush connected us, his most important bequest to us, and we will never again believe the lie that we are weak and scattered and powerless and fringe. They are the few. Flexing our strengths – especially the power of the truth – drives them into hysterics.

•
4. Have no fear. Leftists are bullies who are terrified of fearless, cheerful people – who know they're right.

•
Never, ever buy into the temptation to despair that our situation is hopeless. This is the left's most oft-used deception, wanting you to pre-emptively surrender without a fight (hello, Republicans). Optimism is an intellectual choice, and good cheer is the blessing that follows. Happy warriors never surrender.

•
5. Stay on offense. Be relentless. Because it is has no moral foundation, the left's "power" is ephemeral – when fought, it will deflate like a souffle, and come crashing down like the Berlin Wall. Follow Rush's model and laugh at them every day.

•
In the same way Rush was "the most dangerous man in America," embrace the truth that we are the most dangerous people in America – to the left.

•
They may at the moment control the institutions, the levers of power, and much of the media, but we have them surrounded. And they know it.
Durham probe proves some media would rather ignore a major story than expose their role in covering it up (Fox 02/16/2022)
Tucker Carlson: How long until Canadian-style tyranny comes to America? (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
... Canada canceled democracy last night. And the remarkable thing is no one in this country seemed to notice that it happened.

•
There was no outcry from our political class, as their friend Justin Trudeau declared martial law in response to an entirely peaceful protest from his country's working class.

•
Weirdest of all, the State Department, which exists these days to denounce such attackers of democracy as Hungary and Poland, didn't say a single word as democracy in Canada ended.

•
Canada is not some exotic, faraway land with an alien culture and unintelligible language. It's not Ukraine. Canada is our neighbor. It's our trading partner. Canada is our closest ally on Earth.

•
What happens there matters here. If nothing else, it's a preview of what will likely happen in the United States.

•
So with that in mind, you should know that Justin Trudeau is no longer the prime minister of Canada. Justin Trudeau is Canada's maximum leader, its strongman, its potentate. Justin Trudeau is the dictator of Canada...

•
For the first time in Canada's history, Trudeau has invoked what's known as the Emergencies Act, but the protests he is facing hardly qualify as an emergency.

•
But suddenly, Justin Trudeau has the power to crush all political opposition to his rule, and that's exactly what he's doing.

•
Trudeau has ended free speech in Canada. He's banned free assembly. Trudeau's government has shut down political rallies and arrested his political critics without probable cause. Trudeau has instituted internal passports, that restrict travel within Canada, to the politically obedient.

•
Canadians are no longer allowed to leave their own country unless they obey Justin Trudeau. And if they don't obey, they could be bankrupted and destroyed. He now has the power to do that.

•
Trudeau has claimed the power to freeze the financial assets of any Canadian who resists him. No court order is required to do this, he just decides.

•
Justin Trudeau can even dictate what you do for a living and how you do it. Today, Trudeau threatened to arrest tow truck drivers who refused to tow the trucks of protesters.

•
In a dictatorship, the only real crime is opposing the regime. So how did all this happen so quickly in a country as nice and moderate as Canada?

•
Well it happened the way that it always happened. It happened with maximum aggression and limited popular support.

•
Justin Trudeau won reelection last year with less than a third of the national vote. In fact, he finished the election behind his main competitor, the Conservative Party.

•
Thanks to quirks in the parliamentary system, Trudeau took power anyway, and he immediately began to crack down on anyone who opposed him.

•
... what do all of these media companies have in common? Well, they're all squarely on the side of entrenched power against the population they supposedly serve. That's the opposite of what journalism was designed to do.

•
But at this point, it is the rule. Not just in the United States, but around the world. Reporters and politicians and big business all align against voters, against you.

•
Media organizations have been agitating against democracy for years now, even as they've posed loudly as its greatest defenders.

•
... isn't holding anti-government views allowed in a democracy? In fact, isn't the measure of democratic government the degree to which you're allowed to question the people in charge? Well, that used to be the definition of democracy. It's not anymore...

•
... since when does the CIA get to decide what websites Americans read? Are there any civil libertarians left in this country? Old-fashioned liberals, anyone? What do they think of this?

•
This new class of dictators seizes power incrementally, through the bureaucracy. They never raise their voices. They don't wave their arms. They smile and they tell you they're protecting democracy and public health. They praise diversity, even as they demand conformity.

•
One morning you wake up and they've canceled your job and seized your bank account for the crime of disagreeing with them.

•
This is the architecture of tyranny, and it's not just happening in Canada. It's happening here in the United States. It will be used against us. Bet on it.
11 implications of Durham probe threaten to undermine Biden (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
... the Durham filing further confirms what so many voters already suspected – that President Donald Trump was right about his opponents infiltrating his private information, and that Hillary Clinton's campaign consistently lied to the American people.

•
But beyond those obvious top line revelations, there are even more sweeping implications that threaten to undermine the Biden Administration, the Democrat Party, and our country for years to come.

•
Government can't be trusted to protect our data.

•
... data collected on us by the federal government has now been used for partisan political activities. How much other data is out there and who can access it?

•
White House Communications are not secure.

•
No one should be able to access them. The fact that the Clinton campaign was able to reflects a severe national security threat. Who else has access to White House communications?

•
The Biden Administration has a clear conflict of interest.

•
The filing implicates current National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. As a result, there should be no interference in the investigation by the administration. Such would be presumed to be self-serving.

•
Sullivan is the last person who should be advising the President on national security.

•
Sullivan, in promoting the false Trump narrative revealed he is a mere partisan hack. He should not be trusted as Biden's point person on national security, especially with potential war between Ukraine and Russia.

•
Intelligence Agencies can be weaponized for partisan politics.

•
Americans must think twice about anything they hear from intelligence agencies.

•
No one can trust mainstream news outlets who buried this story.

•
Though we knew this, the traditional and social media reinforces this fact with their obvious double standard in the way they ignore and actively suppress the Clinton corruption story (which is true) versus their saturation coverage of the purely speculative Trump/Russia collusion story (which has been debunked).

•
There is no justice if Clinton and her minions not held accountable.

•
The Clinton campaign was the architect of a disinformation campaign aimed at government, media, and Congress. Team Clinton allegedly lied to all three.

•
The lying was not accidental.

•
... Clinton's team, upon contacting the various agencies about the Alpha Bank allegations, excluded facts that would have cast doubt on the connection to Trump, including the fact that the DNS pings in question began years before Trump took office.

•
Clinton's team knew they were lying.

•
One participant admitted in August 2016 that they would need "to expose every trick we have in our bag to even make a very weak association," adding that "the only thing that drive[s] us at this point is that we just do not like [Trump]."

•
Security clearances are not secure.

•
The fact that Jake Sullivan still has a security clearance, despite his role in this whole sordid affair and the scrutiny over potentially false statements he made to Congress creates doubt about the efficacy of our security clearance process.

•
The DOJ is compromised.

•
... Durham's filing also "highlighted the revolving door that exists between the D.C. proletariat and government employment."

•
After being shamed into reporting on the story, some mainstream outlets released bare-bones reports on their websites days after the Durham filing became public.

•
But make no mistake – this story is a bombshell, potentially bigger than Watergate, that should reverberate far beyond the next election.
Durham probe: Media suddenly develops 'laryngitis' after years of pushing Trump-Russia collusion, critics say (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
"The traditional media is more interested in whisper campaigns and rumors than filings from U.S. attorneys."

•
"If they got it wrong, and they did, then cover the truth with the same vigor. It seems some media outlets were so interested in perpetuating a lie they can't now say they were wrong."

•
The Media Research Center found that ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts alone spent a whopping 2,634 minutes covering the investigations into alleged Russia collusion through July 20, 2019. "That's nearly one-fifth (19.5%) of all of these broadcasts' Trump coverage, a huge shadow on his presidency."

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The heavy-handed coverage from ABC, CBS and NBC was in addition to the dedicated airtime from both CNN and MSNBC, which focused relentlessly on the investigation's developments.

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The New York Times and Washington Post even shared the Pulitzer Prize for in 2018 "for deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage" of alleged Russian interference.

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A court filing made late Friday by Durham, who was appointed during the Trump administration to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, revealed that a tech firm mined internet data from Trump Tower during the 2016 election and later the White House in order to "establish 'an inference' and 'narrative' tying then-candidate Trump to Russia"...

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"The networks and major papers avoided touching this news like Durham was a leper." ... "The corrupt corporate media is trying to ignore it & hide the truth."

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MSNBC, which made the Russian investigation the most dominant topic on the network for years under President Trump, completely ignored the revelations Durham made in the court filing late Friday night through Monday.

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Washington Post initially refrained from publishing a report on the matter but rather an "analysis" piece attempting to downplay the significance of the court filing, framing it with the headline, "Why Trump is once again claiming that he was spied upon in 2016," and telling readers, "Durham's filing ties the campaign to Sussman [sic] and Sussman [sic] to the executive, but it's not explicitly argued that the probe flowed down from Clinton's team — or up to it."

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"... it is just breathtaking to watch the media-Democrat complex, which hyped Robert Mueller's every move in the bogus Trump-Russia ‘collusion' caper, suddenly develop laryngitis in the matter of Durham's probe — that is, when it is not outright hostile."

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"You would almost be convinced that journalists do not want a close examination of what thin gruel they turned into a three-year scandal, seeking to destroy the Trump administration's capacity to govern."

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Former President Trump reacted to the filing on Saturday evening, saying Durham's filing "provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia."

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It remains to be seen if the mainstream media will pay attention to further developments, but the lack of coverage has surprised even seasoned observers.

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"It's absolutely stunning that virtually all the major newspapers and the other networks are absolutely determined to ignore this story."

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"They cover every throat clearing by the January 6 committee and all the coverage of Russiagate... but this is an actual federal prosecutor delivering actual evidence in a court filing, not some anonymously sourced story. Yet, these other places are just magically declaring it to be non-news."

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See related Running for President (Mike Lester, 08/23/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Unmasking (Glenn McCoy, 04/04/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Hillary Clinton was the mastermind behind the Trump-Russia collusion hoax and may never face justice (Fox 02/15/2022)
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The stunning revelation that lawyers for the Hillary Clinton campaign paid a computer technology company to surveil a sitting president, Donald Trump, shows that more than half a dozen crimes may have been committed to advance the false accusation that he colluded with Russia.

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Some background is in order. After a 22-month probe, Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of a criminal collusion conspiracy because none ever existed.

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U.S. Attorney John Durham was then tasked to investigate how the odious lie arose and whether crimes were perpetrated to accomplish it.

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Later elevated to special counsel status, Durham has indicted three people so far as he continues to doggedly pursue his investigation of wrongdoing by others.

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In a recent federal court filing, he disclosed that Clinton campaign lawyers hired a tech company to "infiltrate" computer servers housed in Trump Tower, and later, the White House.

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... the goal was to generate an "inference" or "narrative" that Trump was colluding with Russia and then feed the phony information to the FBI to trigger an investigation of him.

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The methods behind the brazen smear were remarkably devious. The tech outfit exploited its access to non-public and proprietary internet data on servers at Trump Tower and the White House...

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It was equivalent of breaking into a computer except the technicians had special access since the company was performing what's called "resolution services" on those highly sensitive accounts.

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The cyber sleuths then covertly penetrated the servers without authorization. Once inside, they commandeered innocuous information and peddled it as nefarious back-channel communications between Trump and a Kremlin-linked financial institution called Alfa Bank.

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It was insinuated that Trump and his associates were secretly communicating with Russia. Naturally, the media was tipped off and went full-throttle with wild claims that Trump was a Russian asset.

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In reality, much of the tech company's pilfered information turned out to be routine Internet traffic such as computer-generated and automated advertising that came from a mass marketing email company that located its server in Trump Tower.

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Shockingly, the surreptitious intrusions continued when the new president moved into the White House.

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But no evidence of Russian collusion was discovered because it was, after all, a cunning hoax conjured up by Hillary and her acolytes.

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This brings us to the present. Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman has been criminally charged with lying to the FBI about the Alfa Bank fiction.

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... Durham offered the appalling new details of how Trump was the victim of an insidious secret surveillance operation at the hands of his political opponent in the 2016 presidential election.

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The Clinton secret surveillance ring sounds very much like a criminal enterprise engaged in an illegal scheme involving fraud and obstruction of justice.

•
As with any well organized criminal exercise, it is exceedingly difficult to nab the person at the top. Hillary Clinton is no different. She carried out her machinations in smart and clever ways.

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She had others do her dirty work for her and maintained a distance separated through an elaborate chain of people. It was akin to a money laundering scheme, except dirty information was being washed.

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Unless people in the chain break their silence and implicate Hillary, she will likely escape culpability.

•
Evidence of her role has slowly emerged from declassified records. It was July 26, 2016, when Clinton personally approved the plot to vilify Trump with the bogus collusion claims, according to CIA documents. The genesis of the smear came from Hillary herself as a strategy to distract from her own email scandal.

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Two days later, President Obama was alerted but appears to have done nothing except keep the matter concealed.

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Intelligence officials then sent an investigative referral on Clinton to then-FBI Director James Comey and his deputy, Peter Strzok. Predictably, it was buried.

•
Make no mistake — it was Clinton who invented the elaborate collusion hoax, financed it, and directed the process by which it was circulated to the media and the FBI.

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Her false claims were then disseminated by a cadre of cronies and dirty-tricksters working secretly in the shadows.
Joe Rogan and the Freedom of Speech (JWR 02/14/2022)
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"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind." — John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)...

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... the First Amendment only insulates speech from the government's reach. It does not insulate it from private reach. Stated differently, if your speech offends the government, today it cannot sue or prosecute you.

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But, if you work for a private entity, your boss can punish you for speech that transgresses regulations in the workplace.

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Is there a right not to be offended? Of course not. The freedom of speech, however, is a natural right. It comes from within each of us.

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Its essence is that individuals have a natural right to think as we wish and say what we think and listen to whomever we choose, and we don't need the approval of the government or a consensus of the loudest.

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Freedom thrives on the clash and free flow of ideas. Since 1969, we have succeeded in keeping the government out of the business of censoring and punishing speech; now we must keep the mob out.

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The Natural Law insulates the exercise of our rights from all incursions, not just the government.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris created this crime wave, now they must fix it (Fox 02/14/2022)
•
As a former prosecutor, FBI Special Agent and Chair of the North Carolina Crime Commission it is heartbreaking to witness the Biden administration's swift reversal of over 30 years of crime control and violence reduction strategies.

•
As they shelter behind their gates, guards and guns, the rest of the country fend for themselves in the face of skyrocketing violent crime rates.

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Every day, senseless violent assaults and homicides are committed by recidivist offenders who should be in prison, yet Biden panders to a progressive base who undermine law enforcement by defunding police, implementing "no cash bail" and refusing to prosecute lawbreakers. These policies have deprived police of the strategies and tools necessary to actually prevent crime.

•
Biden was mute as the leftist DA in LA published his list of crimes he would not prosecute. Following suit, the Manhattan DA undercut police by refusing to prosecute a litany of crimes, including resisting arrest, thus inviting offenders to resist.

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Such policies contributed to a record 73 officers murdered in 2021, even as a cop shooter with a prior arrest for a gun crime was released on bond in NYC.

•
Recall the "summer of love" riots, supported by progressives as their cities were ravaged, looted and burned. The Major City Police Chiefs Association reported criminals torched 97 police cars and committed 624 arsons.

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Over 2,000 officers were assaulted with bricks, water bottles, fireworks and Molotov cocktails which the alt-left dismissed as "civil unrest" triggered by systemically racist policing.

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Meanwhile, our Vice President promoted a fund to bail out these criminals and prosecutors declined to prosecute them.

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Any progressive wind can blow this President. The prevailing winds demagogue the guns, the cops, the racist criminal justice system, Trump, even the victims. Social reformers blame everything but the violent offenders themselves.

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... this administration opened our borders to transnational criminals, drug-toting cartel mules, human smugglers and terrorists even as the reformers pull back on arrests and prosecutions, creating the perfect storm.

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Biden's DHS transports young male illegals into the heartland becoming a taxpayer-funded human smuggling organization.

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Liberals cite reductions in some crimes due to their social reform policies. Not so fast: when arresting criminals became an exercise in futility police pulled back from arresting certain offenders. When no arrests are made, no crime is recorded. Problem solved!

•
The most accurate crime metrics are homicides and violent assaults. Such incidents don't lie: someone calls 911, police respond, the victim is found seriously injured or dead and the police make arrests.

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Biden has cited a "deep sense of distrust towards law enforcement" even as he sows that distrust. When asked if there was systemic racism in policing Biden responded: "Absolutely...it's real. It's genuine. It's serious."

•
On Biden's watch officers are leaving the profession at an alarming pace because they were denied the public support, tools, funding, tactics and mission to do the job.

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It's time to fix it. Start by holding criminals accountable and providing meaningful support, not undermining, those whose sole mission is to protect others.

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See related One Down, Three more to Go (Gary Varvel, 01/05/2022) cartoon from Government picture album
Cathedral of the Left – Dems, Biden want to replace rule of law with their brand of religious zealotry (Fox 02/13/2022)
Why ideology is the ancient enemy of civilization (JWR 02/11/2022)
•
What ultimately destroyed the evil empires of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were bankrupt dogmas. Crackpot ideology destroyed free expression. It ruined meritocracy and ensured unequal application of the laws — and so paved the way for far worse.

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The Nazi idea of a superior Aryan race adjudicated everything from physics to tank design. Soviet commissars did the same, subordinating rational thought to communist agendas.

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Zealots in both systems infiltrated the universities and schools to institutionalize indoctrination.

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Why were most Antifa and Black Lives Matter criminals who looted, destroyed, and assaulted during the 120 days of summer 2020 not charged, much less tried?

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Why, in contrast, were the January 6 rioters or the current Canadian truckers treated disproportionately harshly by the media?

•
Had the same rioters on January 6 been waving pride flags and BLM banners, would some of them have been sitting for a year in solitary confinement and still uncharged?

•
What would have happened had conservative demonstrators cut out a police-free "MAGA Zone" in Seattle rather than the exempted Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone? Would police have similarly left it alone, and the media similarly romanticized such illegality?

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One of the reasons the COVID-19 lockdown and mask policies lost public confidence was their utter corruption by ideology.

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Which politicians in 2020 trashed the vaccine programs and declared they would likely not get inoculations — if they were endorsed by then-President Donald Trump?

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If Trump is demonized as a destroyer of election legitimacy, what then are we to say of the beatified Stacey Abrams?

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She lost the Georgia gubernatorial race by more than 50,000 votes. Yet for years, she has maintained the voting was rigged and the elected governor is illegitimate.

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In 2000, who challenged for weeks the vote count, despite numerous public and private audits confirming George W. Bush's popular vote victory in Florida?

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Who in 2004-2005 — for only the second time in history — challenged in Congress the Electoral College vote?

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In whose party were the 31 House members and one senator who forced a congressional vote in a failed effort to overturn the election?

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Who in 2016 ran ads for weeks after the election, beseeching the chosen electors to violate their constitutional duties, ignore their state vote tallies, and instead vote for Hillary Clinton?

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And who in 2016 claimed her victorious opponent was elected president illegitimately? Who bragged she was joining the "resistance" to undermine his presidency? Who advised Joe Biden in 2020 not to accept the election result if he lost?

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If conservative zealots were ransacking American stores, carjacking innocents in the major cities, and spiking murder rates to historical highs, would the Biden Administration be mobilizing law enforcement to ensure arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration?

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If anti-communist Cubans by the millions were illegally crashing the southern border, would they be welcomed in as are those from Mexico and Central Americans?

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If, by 2024, a Republican president enjoys a Republican Congress, what would be the reaction to conservatives who advocated ending the filibuster?

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Voting to increase the Supreme Court to 15 justices to guarantee at least six new nominations for the Republican-controlled presidency and Congress?

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When ideology in places like Castroite Cuba, the old Soviet Union, and Venezuela warped the application of the law, destroyed the role of merit in assessing qualifications, silenced speech, and unequally applied the law, then society unwound.

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Scarier still, ideology ensures that such chaos is heralded as success. Critics are demonized and hounded. And the obsequious state media assures the public that things are going just great.

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See related USA (Gary Varvel, 01/04/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
It's time to admit affirmative action has failed (Fox 02/11/2022)
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... we have to have some understanding of what the goal of affirmative action was when the term was coined by the Kennedy administration in 1961. Here is what Executive Order 10925 had to say, government contractors should "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin."

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But in 1965 Lyndon Johnson, with his own executive order, tweaked the intent of affirmative action to promote full realization of equal opportunity.

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That's where things got confusing. It was no longer enough for governmental systems, including in education, to be color-blind, they had to actually produce diversity.

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Suddenly race had to be taken into account in order for race not to account for discrimination in jobs and admissions.

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There was a logic to this half a century ago. ... The idea here was that positive discrimination in the short term would level the playing field over time and render affirmative action no longer necessary.

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Surely, the quotas and set aside programs were not meant to go on forever, but rather to contain the seeds of their own obsolescence.

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By this measure there is simply no way to look at affirmative action as a success. It has been 50 years. Yet, proponents of race based admissions seem to still cling to the hope that if we do it just a little longer it will work.

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Or do they? A key question for proponents of affirmative action, one we don't hear a lot of answers to, is whether they think the need for it will eventually end, or whether they think it should go on forever.

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By the old rubric, the one in which affirmative action's success is measured by not needing it anymore, it has been an abject failure, nobody argues that disadvantaged minority groups have overcome the education gap in America.

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But for supporters of race-based admissions the goal seems to have changed, it is now more akin to reparations.

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That is to say that affirmative action has morphed into a permanent racialized benefit not tied to the goal of equal opportunity, but rather its own reward.

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If we are going to ask Asian kids to meet some higher academic standard in order fix racism in America then they at least deserve to know how and when that will be achieved.

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So far, affirmative action has not worked, so when can we expect that it will?
All Americans — including those arrested in the Jan. 6 riots — deserve due process (Fox 02/10/2022)
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The right to due process, enshrined in the Constitution, includes the right to a speedy trial by a jury of one's peers.

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Those denied bail or unable to afford it can often be incarcerated for months awaiting trial, during which time they often lose their jobs, face eviction, and have their lives spiral downward — all before ever being convicted of a crime.

•
In many of my speeches, I shared the heartbreaking story of Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old Black teenager who was accused of stealing a backpack and was incarcerated on Rikers Island for three years without trial.

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Two of those years were in solitary confinement. Kalief was abused by guards and gangs and attempted suicide in prison.

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Finally, after Kalief was released, the trauma this teenager had experienced was too much for him to bear, and he ultimately took his own life.

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The injustice and tragedy of this case brought prominent progressives such as Kamala Harris together with civil libertarians like myself to call for reform, to insist that the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a speedy trial apply to everyone, regardless of the color of your skin or your socioeconomic status.

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I would add today that the Sixth Amendment should apply regardless of your political persuasion. It is disappointing that progressives today will not apply the same equal justice under the law to the people accused of entering the U.S. Capitol illegally on Jan. 6, 2021.

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During the months of arson, murder and other violence in 2020, Kamala Harris tweeted her support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bailed out a woman charged with murder for stabbing her friend to death as well as a twice-convicted rapist charged with kidnapping and sexual assault.

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The protests of 2020 resulted in at least 25 deaths, thousands of injured police, and nearly $2 billion in damage to our cities.

•
Yet we have heard nothing from Vice President Harris on the Jan. 6 detainees held for nearly a year without trial, some of whom have not been charged with any acts of violence against persons.

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Indeed, the sentences for the charges many face would likely fall short of the months they have already been jailed without conviction of a crime. Many have been held for long periods in solitary confinement.

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I worked with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., to legislatively end solitary confinement for juveniles. I applauded President Obama when he stepped in to stop this cruelty.

•
It disturbs me that the outrage from the left seems to be selective. Where is the ACLU when it comes to the prolonged and inhumane solitary detentions of people accused of crimes on Jan. 6, especially for those who are accused of no violence?

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A federal judge stepped in to confirm the abusive jail conditions and yet those on the left fail to lift a finger or pen a word to condemn this injustice.

•
Their hypocrisy indicates that either they hate these people so much that they now refuse to acknowledge the injustice of prolonged incarceration without trial, or they simply don't care because these citizens are supporters of Donald Trump.

•
Many on the right also sit silently in fear of being accused of supporting violence.

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I condemned all violent acts on Jan. 6 and continue to do so. But that does not mean we should destroy the lives of non-violent protesters by deliberately conflating them with the acts of others, denying them bail, and incarcerating them for nearly a year with no trial.

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That is not justice. Our laws demand that even those accused of the most horrific crimes of mass murder are guaranteed due process.

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To abandon those principles for political purposes is to abandon the very bedrock of American jurisprudence.

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A true bipartisan criminal justice reform movement must defend the civil liberties of all Americans, regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic level, and political persuasion.
The Attack on Joe Rogan Is an Attack on Dissent (JWR 02/09/2022)
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... corporate overlords are absolutely gutless. CEO Daniel Ek believed that picking up the exclusive license to Rogan's show would increase listenership and advertising dollars; he was clearly blindsided by the blowback, to the extent that he issued a mewling letter to the company's woke interns begging their forgiveness for their hurt feelings.

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... the media are not interested in freedom of speech as a principle. They're interested in freedom of speech for themselves and no one else. It's been fascinating to watch the evolution of our treasured Journalismers (TM) from guardians of the First Amendment to attack dogs on behalf of Big Tech censorship of their perceived enemies.

•
Third, apologizing to insincere radical Left alligators is always a mistake. Their goal is not a conversation. Their goal is destruction.

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Rogan will survive all of this. Perhaps Spotify ends up paying him a bag of cash to leave, and he takes his audience and goes elsewhere, tanking Spotify's stock price on his way out the door. That would be precisely what Spotify deserves for their cowardice.

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But no matter what happens, the lesson will be learned by those who don't have Rogan's audience: shut up or face the whirlwind. And most will shut up.
Woke Policies Kill Cops (JWR 02/08/2022)
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We have a suggestion that might change the attitudes of so-called progressive public officials toward police officers: The next time their woke policies cause the death of a cop, lock them up.

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Let these public officials who like to coddle violent criminals share a cell with one of their "poor victims" for a week or two.

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The charge? We suggest accessory to murder.
The real cause behind the rise in crime (JWR 02/08/2022)
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Few wish to stand for what is right in contemporary society because they fear condemnation from people and "groups" that will tag them with negative labels.

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If we don't like the direction in which we are headed, it is time to yell "stop," then turn around and take a different road. The one we are now on will lead to our destruction.

•
The late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen correctly forecast in the mid-20th century what was to come when he said: "The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction."

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Crime is first a moral issue. Failure to address it on that level ensures it will only get worse.
Spotify shouldn't accept the premises of the cancelers (JWR 02/08/2022)
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The debate over speech in this country is too often defined by people using their childishness and sense of entitlement as weapons.

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That won't change until leaders are unafraid to tell them in frank terms to grow up.
Christians are called to opt out of cancel culture (Fox 02/08/2022)
Stop pretending non-citizen voting is normal — it's not (Fox 02/08/2022)
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... the discussion over voting should focus on election integrity – improving the public's confidence in our election process by implementing common sense security measures like voter ID requirements.

•
Democrats, on the other hand, want to head in the opposite direction. We all know about their open border immigration policies that have led to a crisis at our southern border.

•
Now, Democrats are pushing to apply their open borders policies to our elections as well by allowing non-citizens and illegal immigrants to vote.

•
Over the past few years, an alarming trend has popped up in cities nationwide where non-citizens (foreign nationals), and in some cases illegal immigrants, are allowed to vote in local elections.

•
Non-citizen voting dilutes the value of citizenship, normalizes illegal immigration, and invites foreign nationals to interfere in U.S. elections.

•
The idea of non-citizen voting is absurd. If an American citizen moved to another country, would he expect to have a say in how that country is run without first becoming a citizen? Of course not.

•
... very few Americans that I've spoken with are in favor of non-citizen voting. Most people are either appalled or refuse to believe this happens in the United States.

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Being an American citizen comes with great benefits and responsibilities, including the privilege of voting in elections to choose who represents us in government.

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Allowing non-citizens to vote suppresses the voice of citizens, undermines the rights of Americans, and puts our democracy at risk.

•
Policies like non-citizen voting erode our values and the integrity of our democracy by allowing foreign nationals to have a direct influence in important decisions ranging from policing to taxation to the basic rule of law.

•
While Democrats may argue that they are only allowing non-citizen/illegal immigrant voting on the local level, the truth is that local government matters a great deal, and their decisions can impact us all.

•
Seeing a potential voting bloc in illegal immigrants, it makes sense why Democrats would advocate for policies that run counter to the interests of most citizens but benefit non-citizens and illegal aliens.

•
We need to stop pretending like this is okay or normal because it's not. Non-citizen voting is explicitly un-American and disrespectful to those who fought and died for the preservation of our freedoms and democracy.

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American citizenship is special, and for those not lucky enough to be born here, obtaining citizenship is hard work.

•
There is no doubt we live in the greatest country on the planet. For centuries, people around the world have left everything behind in their home countries to come to the United States legally, gain citizenship, and achieve the American dream for their families.

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This is the beauty of America, and non-citizen voting tramples on the value of being an American citizen.

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Dreamer (Glenn McCoy, 09/15/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: How long before protests like the 'Freedom Convoy' come to America? (Fox 02/08/2022)
•
Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains. That's from Karl Marx, of course. He wrote that famous phrase in 1848.

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The weird thing is, it's pretty likely that Marx himself never met an actual worker. ... Karl Marx never spent a moment in a factory.

•
He was a rich kid who became a journalist. Of course he was. But for more than 150 years, Karl Marx inspired generations of other rich kids who also became journalists to repeat his line or variations of it.

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Over time, workers became working men or working class and then with feminism, working people or working families, but the idea itself never changed.

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Ordinary people, wage earners, are getting shafted, so they've got to unite. They've got to come together for protection and for dignity.

•
This was the idea, of course, behind the organized labor movement, and every Democratic president from Andrew Jackson until now has made the very same point over and over again.

•
"The noble people of Scranton..." You hear it even today. So, Democrats have repeated that line often enough. You would think they really mean it.

•
Do they really mean it? Let's take the test. Here's how you know. Watch what happens when actual workers, working people from working families who constitute the working class, actually come together as a group to protest how things are going.

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What happens then? Does the intellectual class greet these workers as heroes? Throw a parade? Listen intently to their stories? Does NPR do a sympathetic feature on them?

•
Or, do self-described progressives recoil in revulsion and horror at the grubbiness of the people who as we used to say, work for a living? Do liberals immediately denounce them as Nazis and call for their suppression by force?

•
Or consider what's happening right now in Canada. Thousands of truck drivers have descended on Ottawa, the capital city, to protest the tyranny of Justin Trudeau's government.

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Justin Trudeau does not like truck drivers. He thinks they're revolting. Justin Trudeau likes private equity barons and tech moguls, the only people who give him money.

•
Trudeau is not in Ottawa right now. In fact, he and his family fled when the truck drivers arrived and they've been in hiding ever since.

•
So when the revolution he has been calling for finally arrived, Justin Trudeau wasn't there to see it. He ran away in terror, kind of sad.

•
So instead, in his place, his friend Mark Carney has been speaking for him. Carney is a former Goldman Sachs executive... In a recent op-ed, Mark Carney vented his rage at the impudent truckers in Ottawa and anyone who sent them money on the internet.

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"Anyone sending money to the convoy should be in no doubt. You are funding sedition. Foreign funders of an insurrection interfered in our domestic affairs from the start."

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Got it? That is not a protest. It's sedition. It's an insurrection. Clearly, Mark Carney's been watching a lot of CNN up there in Canada and that's why he's concluded the truckers should be crushed by force.

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"Those who are still helping to extend this occupation must be identified and punished to the full force of the law."

•
People who sent the money should be prosecuted. If they're not prosecuted, Mark Carney fears, "the constant blaring of horns at all hours will bankrupt our businesses."

•
... the very same finance ghouls who cheered lockdowns for two solid years are now deeply concerned that small businesses might be hurt by the trucker protests.

•
Justin Trudeau has just ordered police to shut the whole thing down. How do you do that? How do you stop a truck protest? Simple. You seize their fuel. That's exactly what police in Canada are doing...

•
The very same people told us we had to defund the police are now telling the police to seize fuel from working-class Canadians who are trying to stay alive in Arctic temperatures.

•
As they used to say in the 1960s, "scratch a liberal, and you will find a fascist." That was a Black Panther slogan, actually. They weren't entirely stupid. In fact, in this case, they were absolutely right.

•
According to Justin Trudeau, possessing gasoline in the city of Ottawa is now a crime. Now, to be clear, Ottawa didn't declare the state of emergency because the truckers lit a courthouse on fire or shot someone or leveled a church.

•
These are Canadian citizens who drive trucks for a living, but they're being treated like a terror group.

•
GoFundMe announced it would redirect the $10 million raised by supporters of the truckers to charities of its choice, presumably BLM, which it has supported since the very beginning. In other words, GoFundMe planned to steal that money.

•
They were stopped from doing this, by the way, by a number of American attorneys general who threatened to sue the companies. So the company backed off and they're going to refund the money, supposedly.

•
But still, the truckers, the people for whom this money was intended, will not get it.

•
The question is: How long before protests like this come here? Clearly, our media are worried about that.

•
Could that happen? Is it impossible? No, it's not impossible.

•
See related Special Delivery (Antonio Branco, 02/03/2016) cartoon from World picture album
A conservative marketplace – a timely response to corporate wokeness (INN 02/07/2022)
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As a pro-free market conservative, observing wokeness run amok in corporate boards is one of the most disheartening developments of recent times.

•
During decades, ordinary American families have worked long hours and voted in ways that made America great for business.

•
Corporate America is repaying its debt to these families with scorn and disdain towards the values dearest to them.

•
We are witness to this quarter after quarter, when America's wealthiest corporations lavish funds on organizations promoting critical race theory, identity politics and woke censorship that will dismantle America as we knew her.

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... we need a marketplace that welcomes companies that, for example, vow not to subsidize race-baiting organizations like BLM or ones that literally justify infanticide like Planned Parenthood does, so that Americans' hard-earned dollars do not undermine their most cherished values.

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From a business perspective, tens of millions of conservative families would prefer to buy from companies that endorse their values instead of companies that undermine them.

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As long as we buy from woke companies that support Amnesty International, the Southern Poverty Law Center and JVP we are complicit in furthering an agenda that threatens our way of life and corrupts the society our children are raised in.

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... given the hegemonic position of Amazon and eBay in online retail, a conservative alternative would introduce healthy competition.

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Given that liberal outlets such as MSNBC, the Huffington Post and the New York Times are bound to go berserk as soon a new retail player vows to defenestrate corporate wokeness, we can also look forward to this new marketplace receiving tons of free publicity......
Black history is American history (Fox 02/06/2022)
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... today American life faces an ongoing challenging yet not insurmountable reality; purveyors of division constantly weaponize a false racial premise by equating racial identification to skin color, all in a cynical effort to divide our communities.

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Of course, "skin color racism" has no scientific basis, nor is it relevant to the human persona.

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Nevertheless, the perpetrators of this dogma of division push even further toward a dangerously erroneous conclusion: America is the worst place for Blacks and other minorities to live.

•
This outlook is false and dangerous — and it betrays the very principles the greatest Nation on earth was founded upon.

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Where did the term "people of color" originate, anyway? All human pigmentation has some hue. Nobody's skin is the exact color of a sheet of copy paper or a lump of coal.

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When we continue to search for different euphemisms to define — and therefore box in — the Black community, we overlook the simple scientific and spiritual truth that there is only one race, the human race.

•
To state the truth clearly, there is only one human race. By turning skin color into a lightning rod of division, we are turning a blind eye to the God-given gift of ethnicity.

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Perhaps my uncle, the patriot, and preacher Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream gives insight: "I still have a dream. It is deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

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Thankfully, a majority of Americans all across the country understand that the racial divisions being foisted on our young people are wrong. America's parents are waking up as they refuse to stand for this indoctrination.

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"To define each of us by our race is nothing short of a denial of humanity." Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said.

•
... the politically-charged effort to replace "equality" with "equity" is a grave threat to the American Dream. The shift to "equity" leads us away from the very words of our own founders, that "All men [humans, male and female] are created equal.

•
"... And hath made of one blood all nations of men [humans, male and female] for to dwell on all the face of the earth..." Acts 17:26 KJV...

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To legislate based on true equality means that we must treat all people the same, conferring equal moral value and human dignity on every regardless of ethnicity.

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The truth of the matter is that we have too often turned a blind eye to the humanity of our brothers and sisters.

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It is time past for being colorblind. It is time to open our eyes and work together for justice and righteousness.

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"... You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." John 8:32...

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Black History Month should remind us that we should never forget our past, yet moving ahead, our focus must be on uniting as one America.

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When we put aside our differences — from faith to politics, and yes, even to skin color — we can come together to uplift our brothers and sisters, giving everyone an equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream.
War on critical race theory: Gov. Noem emerges as national leader in fight against classroom indoctrination (Fox 02/05/2022)
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All across America over the past year, a growing army of concerned parents has been rising up to take a stand against political indoctrination in the classroom.

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Through training and curriculum, educators and students are being inundated with left-wing politics and malicious concepts which deliberately pit Americans against one another.

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As an historian, I believe deeply in teaching young Americans about their nation's history — that includes our mistakes and shortcomings.

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But it also includes our heroes and values. The glorious revolution in human freedom and equality that began in 1776 remains a work in progress even today.

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Teaching honest history is not about prompting second-graders in a class read-aloud to actively differentiate the characters in a book by race, as one educator in Connecticut was told to do. That teacher recently resigned in protest.

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Teaching honest history is not making high school students play "privilege bingo" to better understand their supposed unearned advantages over other students, as happened in Virginia. One such unearned advantage listed was being a "military kid."

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This isn't about "teaching racism" or "teaching history." This is about teaching ideology – and thankfully Republican governors and legislators around the country are not sitting idly by and doing nothing.

•
While it is less well known, action civics is a key battleground in the left's assault on our schools. It is designed to indoctrinate our youngest students into political activism.

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The idea behind action civics is to give students course credit for participating in protests and advocacy campaigns which overwhelmingly support left-wing causes.

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So, CRT makes students hate their country, then action civics turns them into foot soldiers for the Woke Revolution.

•
America's big government socialists have wedded themselves to the false, destructive ideology that their own country is systemically evil and racist.

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Rather than working to build an America in which one's future is defined by merit and character, they are promoting education materials and rules that encourage students to see race in every facet of their lives.

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This is why restoring honest, patriotic education is so important. It's about telling the full story of America.

•
Our next generation must understand the bravery of George Washington and the brilliance of Thomas Jefferson.

•
Likewise, they must understand the selflessness of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the steely resolve of Rosa Parks.

•
Regardless of the left's lies, all these heroes fought for the same fundamental vision –"one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all."

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Fauci's gain-of-function conspiracy and why I'll continue to hold him, his allies accountable (Fox 02/02/2022)
•
In January, I asked Dr. Anthony Fauci a pretty basic question: "Do you really think it's appropriate to use your $420,000 salary to attack scientists that you disagree with?"

•
Given Dr. Fauci's theatrical outburst and deflection in response to my question, I think I hit a nerve.

•
Answering that question truthfully, which he is legally compelled to do when speaking before Congress, would have meant illuminating the deceitful game he and National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins have been playing about COVID's origins and their support of the type of dangerous research that could have led to the pandemic.

•
How ironic that the frantic efforts by Fauci and Collins to label esteemed scientists as "fringe" and "conspiracy theorists" for daring to suggest that COVID came from a lab was actually a sinister conspiracy of their own.

•
Why such aggressive behavior toward their scientific colleagues? One reason is that their gain-of-function research, funded by your tax dollars, was at stake.

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Dr. Fauci has been a longtime supporter of this type of research. Gain-of-function research is conducted by taking a known virus and conducting experiments to create new viruses that are not found in nature.

•
Despite Dr. Fauci's ducking and dodging when I've asked him about his funding of gain-of-function research in China, we have the receipts.

•
... the virologists consulted in the early days of the pandemic immediately thought the lab leak theory was credible, and the lab where it could have come from happened to be a place where they performed dangerous (U.S. funded) gain-of-function research.

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That same lab had previously attempted to secure funding to create a virus with a very specific attribute – which was remarkably found in the novel coronavirus. That's not a conspiracy, those are just facts.

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I do not know whether COVID-19 originated in a lab. My point is that our government's bureaucrats brutally squashed any attempt to discover the truth of the origins of the virus because doing so conflicted with their self-interests.

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Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins' conspiracy to silence these scientists and bury the lab leak theory tells us one thing – they clearly prioritize dangerous gain-of-function research at a Chinese lab and their own behinds over the health and safety of the American people.

•
When Republicans win the Senate, we will not only investigate the origins of the virus but also investigate whether or not we should be sending taxpayer dollars to do research that could have caused this pandemic.
Tucker Carlson: Our democracy is no longer functioning properly, here's proof (Fox 02/02/2022)
•
All of a sudden, pretty much every powerful person in the country is talking about something called democracy. Democracy, our sacred democracy. You hear that word everywhere... All the cool kids are saying it.

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But actually, if we're being honest about it, you should be a little worried about the state of our democracy, how is our democracy doing?

•
Well, let's see: Another way to describe democracy is popular representation. It's a synonym.

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When the government does what citizens want it to do, you have a democracy. And when it doesn't, you don't. You no longer have a free country that is ruled by its people.

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So what kind of system do we have? It's easy to know. You find out what citizens care about and then you compare those concerns to what the people who run the government say they care about.

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If you've got a functioning democracy, there should be a fairly precise overlap. In a democratic system, leaders try very hard to speak for their voters. That's the whole point of the government.

•
So let's apply that test to the United States of America. What do our leaders care about? We know the answer because they tell us constantly.

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Our leaders care about equity and climate change. They care about trans rights, police brutality, the deadly insurrection on January 6th, mandatory vaccinations, more H1B visas for Indian tech workers and above all, at the moment, defending our closest ally, Ukraine, from Russian aggression.

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And of course, they care about third-wave academic feminism. That's deeply important to them.

•
The most famous Democrat in Congress gave us an impromptu tutorial in Instagram about the connection between cosmetics and the patriarchy.

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ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: There are studies that show that women who wear makeup regularly wear like a, a decent amount of makeup kind of show up to the office and glam also make more money. And so at that point, it stops being these calculations and decisions stop being about choice and they start being about patriarchy... We live in systems that were largely built for the convenience of men and oftentimes were designed with the subjugation of women and queer people in mind.

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If you work in the media or have multiple college degrees, chances are you're pretty good at making it all about you. You is what you care about most.

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What does the rest of America care about? Once again, we don't have to guess about that. We've got a huge amount of public opinion polling on that subject.

•
At the top of the list, you'll see government incompetence, the economy, the cost of living and immigration.

•
It is completely different from the list Joe Biden might have made. Equity, climate change, transgenderism mandatory vaccination, Jan. 6, Ukraine.

•
Those trends be pretty unimportant to most Americans. Some of those issues or at the very bottom of the list.

•
... Americans are very worried about inflation and crime. As it happens, and this tells you everything, those are the two topics the White House has dismissed recently as irrelevant and dumb. The White House isn't at all worried about inflation and crime.

•
Baltimore is a city run by people who fervently believe in the equity agenda and consider gender studies a legitimate academic discipline.

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In Baltimore, pretty much everyone in charge is Black, yet it's a matter of religious faith that the main thing holding the city back is White racism.

•
Who do you blame for Baltimore? Did White men do this to Baltimore? Was it the patriarchy? Was it structural racism that caused all those murders? Do you agree with Pete Buttigieg that Klansman urban planners put the highways in the wrong place? And that's the real problem. Racist roads?

•
Or, could it be that the real problem with Baltimore is something much more obvious? Could it be that progressive policies designed to "lift up marginalized communities" in the end destroyed those communities?
Fight crime: Arm the American People! (JWR 01/31/2022)
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America's surge in grotesque, random mayhem has become a coast-to-coast crime epic. ... This unbridled bedlam comes courtesy of the Democrat Left. Their peaceful, easy feeling toward criminals no longer is cute. It now induces death.

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Beyond addressing "homelessness" rather than lawlessness, the Left's autonomic response is to control guns, not illegal shooters.

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... America needs criminal control and, whenever possible, criminal elimination.

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The time is now to arm the American people: Law-abiding citizens deserve maximum freedom to acquire guns, defend themselves against criminals and, when appropriate, erase them.

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Too bad it has come to this. But here we are.

•
The Democrat Left's robust campaign to defund, demoralize, and demonize the police has worked beautifully.

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On a good day, decent, industrious, dedicated police officers patrol the streets with their tails between their legs. Others stay in their squad cars and observe crime.

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Numerous Left-wing "prosecutors" proudly refuse to enforce the law.

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With the entire criminal-justice system in collapse, the last resort is to let Americans pack heat. The mere presence of armed citizens will deter some criminals.

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The hardier weeds can be yanked out, once and for all, with sober aim and the swift infusion of lead.

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This policy can be implemented with sensible precautions: Gun-permit applicants should be law-abiding, sane, and trained in firearms safety.

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But within these common-sense parameters, the next step cannot happen too soon: Arm the American people!
It's Not Government's Job to 'Root Out' Misinformation (JWR 01/28/2022)
Will We Ever Eradicate the Cancer of Identity Politics? (JWR 01/28/2022)
Voters Oppose 'Transformative' Policies, Want Reform of Dysfunctional Bureaucracies (JWR 01/28/2022)
Tucker Carlson: Biden's Supreme Court promise based on identity politics will end in tribal warfare (Fox 01/27/2022)
Biden's Supreme Court pledge is not Reagan's nor Trump's — it's unfair (Fox 01/27/2022)
The COVID-19 Impact of Expressive Individualism (JWR 01/26/2022)
Biden's war on American energy made us dependent, again (Fox 01/26/2022)
Will American Jews learn anything from the Colleyville Jihad? (INN 01/25/2022)
Kudlow: The very essence of Biden's presidency is hanging on by a thread (Fox 01/24/2022)
Why states are fighting Biden's vaccine mandates (Fox 01/24/2022)
No Biden reboot coming from president who thinks he's 'outperformed' (Fox 01/24/2022)
•
Biden is not interested in making any course corrections because, after all, he has, by his own modest estimation, "outperformed what anybody thought would happen."

•
Further, the president is convinced "we have made enormous progress" and everything is "getting better."

•
That's what he told the country during his recent press conference, which was an eye-opener. Turns out Joe Biden is either seriously delusional or utterly sequestered and misled by his team.

•
Addressing his White House's effort to "shut down" the pandemic, as he promised to do, Biden said, "Am I satisfied with the way in which we have dealt with COVID and all the things that – that go along with it? Yeah, I am satisfied. I think we've done remarkably well."

•
As to the performance of his embattled and unpopular vice president, Biden said of Kamala Harris: "I think she's doing a good job." Well, what could he say?

•
When asked how his administration's report card might appear to voters as they approach the midterm elections, Biden said it "would look pretty good."

•
The problem is, according to Biden, Americans are too dim to comprehend what a terrific job he is doing. According to him, "We've passed a lot of things that people don't even understand what's all that's in it, understandably."

•
"I have to make clear to the American people what we are for." Joe Biden thinks he has not done a good enough job explaining to people how wonderfully things are going.

•
His new idea is to go "out on the road a lot, making the case around the country, with my colleagues who are up for reelection and others, making the case of what we did do and what we want to do, what we need to do."

•
In addition to getting out more, Biden's new program includes "bringing in more and more – now that I have time-... experts outside, from academia, to editorial writers, to think tanks. And I'm bringing them in, just like I did early on, bringing in presidential historians to get their perspective on what we should be doing..." ...

•
He now has the luxury of this renewal because, as he says, "I've gotten the critical crises out of the way, in the sense of it moving – knowing exactly where we're going."

•
Even as Biden is quite comfortable with the job he is doing, he is very disappointed in his Republican colleagues, who, he says, are out to block his every initiative.

•
More concerning, it seems, is that the president cannot figure out the GOP agenda. He challenges Republicans to outline "what are you for?"

•
For the record, Republicans across the country are running on safe streets, stable prices, secure borders, school choice, strength overseas and getting the country back to work. Does Biden seriously not know these are the topmost issues for voters today?

•
Last November, the president underwent an annual physical exam, which showed him fit for office, but apparently did not take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which might squash widespread speculation about his mental abilities. Why not? Trump took such a test and passed with flying colors. Why didn't Biden do the same?

•
The obvious conclusion may be that Biden knows his mental capabilities are fading, he knows he will not run again and therefore a mid-course correction is not as important as sticking to his leftist guns.

•
Second, the people who appear to have the most influence over this White House – Democrats like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Bernie Sanders, of Vermont – are zealots.

•
They do not care about their party; they do not care about Democrats running in swing districts. They are on a mission.

•
Even as the political tide has begun to swing away from progressives, who have lost most marquee races in recent months to moderates, Warren and Sanders and their colleagues push the envelope.

•
They know they have a limited amount of time to "transform" a country that does not seek to be transformed.

•
It is unclear whether Joe Biden understands how badly his White House has been damaged; what is clear is he has no intention of changing course.

•
See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Let’s Go Brandon (Antonio Branco, 10/23/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Presidential Portrait (Gary Varvel, 01/19/2022) cartoon from Government picture album
Out-of-control Congress and Fed need binding rules (Fox 01/22/2022)
Kudlow: These policies are a modernized version of big government socialism (Fox 01/21/2022)
The infiltration of woke DA’s into the justice system will not be easy to fix (Fox 01/21/2022)
•
On January 1, Alvin Bragg was sworn in as the district attorney of Manhattan, and upon taking office, he implemented some of the most radical and dangerous policies in the country.

•
His strategy for "fighting crime" — in the city where violent offenses have skyrocketed — is to simply not fight it at all.

•
From refusing to prosecute resisting arrest cases to downgrading felonies like armed robberies, it is clear that Bragg's "restorative justice" is the last thing New York City needs.

•
When I was a prosecutor 20 years ago, the profession attracted Republicans, Democrats and Independents dedicated to the mission of dispensing the law and willing to take a government salary for the privilege to serve and administer justice.

•
That's all changing with the help of early Obama campaign investor and billionaire left-wing activist, George Soros, a man determined to "fundamentally transform" America by electing men like Bragg.

•
Around 2015, Soros devised a plan to destabilize America through our criminal justice system. His plan was as devious as it was smart.

•
Instead of working to "reform" the criminal justice system by changing the laws on the books through legislatures, Soros funded a campaign to just change the district attorneys.

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Soros understood how tedious and expensive it is to elect enough like-minded state legislators to change laws. Likewise, ballot initiatives can be difficult to coordinate since those pesky voters can make the outcomes unpredictable.

•
A liberal, social justice DA has the power to undermine the law by simply not enforcing the law. A DA, through the power of prosecutorial discretion, can reduce charges and sentence recommendations. He or she can enact criminal justice and bail reform without any change in the underlying law.

•
With less money than it would cost to flip a statehouse, Soros, through his web of organizations and focus on local DA races that too many citizens and politicos take for granted, has fundamentally changed the culture of law enforcement in America.

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He has successfully recruited and elected people like Bragg to create a new generation of weak-on-crime DAs across the country.

•
The crime wave we are experiencing in America is the result of his wicked plan and the electoral "success" of his new recruits.

•
2020 saw a 30% spike in homicides across the country. Sadly, America's children are paying the price, but Soros and his paid social justice warriors don't care.

•
The infiltration of woke DAs into the justice system will not be an easy problem to fix — reversing trends that have become ingrained in the culture never are. Good, mission-driven prosecutors are leaving DA offices in disgust.

•
Across America, assistant DAs are being replaced by a younger, woke-er generation of prosecutors who, thanks to the new judicial philosophies being taught at many of today's law schools, don't believe in incarceration or cash bail.

•
Take the socialist San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, another political race George Soros successfully funded. Boudin was actually raised by the infamous Bill Ayers while his fellow Weather Underground terrorist parents served time for murder.

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The DA of San Francisco was also a translator for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. When Boudin was elected, Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted, "Now is the moment to fundamentally transform our racist and broken criminal justice system." Boudin is indeed transforming San Francisco, for the worse.

•
When weak prosecutors let career criminals off the hook, the police officers who risked their lives to arrest them become understandably demoralized.

•
Officers stop taking risks when criminals are handed unjustifiably light charges or shortened sentences. That is why police officers are quitting or retiring early in record numbers. Not surprisingly, recruitment is at an all-time low for a profession that has been maligned as racist.

•
We are witnessing the rise of a new army of activist prosecutors who are corrupting the quality of officers we will have to police our streets.

•
The goal of a woke DA is not justice, rule of law, or even safety – it's radical racial and social justice.

•
Once corrupted, citizens lose trust and confidence in the criminal justice system and that will be even harder to restore than law and order.

•
See related Pulling the Strings (Antonio Branco, 12/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Is America heading for a systems collapse? (JWR 01/20/2022)
•
... most of our maladies are self-inflicted. They are the direct result of woke ideologies that are both cruel and antithetical to traditional American pragmatism.

•
Hard-Left district attorneys in our major cities refuse to charge thousands of arrested criminals — relying instead on bankrupt social justice theories.

•
Law enforcement has been arbitrarily defunded and libeled. Police deterrence is lost, so looters, vandals, thieves, and murderers more freely prey on the public.

•
"Modern monetary theory" deludes ideologues that printing trillions of dollars can enrich the public, even as the ensuing inflation is making people poorer.

•
"Critical race theory" absurdly dictates that current "good" racism can correct the effects of past bad racism. A once tolerant, multiracial nation is resembling the factionalism of the former Yugoslavia.

•
The culprit again is a callous woke ideology that posits little value for individuals, prioritizing only the so-called collective agenda.

•
Woke's trademark is "equity," or a forced equality of result. Practically, we are becoming a comic-book version of victims and victimizers, with woke opportunists playacting as our superheroes.

•
Strangest in 2021 was the systematic attack on our ancient institutions, as we scapegoated our ancestors for our own incompetencies.

•
The woke have waged a veritable war against the 233-year-old Electoral College and the right of states to set their own balloting laws in national elections, the 180-year-old filibuster, the 150-year-old nine-person Supreme Court, and the 60-year-old, 50-state union.

•
The U.S. military, Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, Center for Disease Control, and National Institutes of Health until recently were revered.

•
These bureaus and agencies are losing public confidence and support. Citizens fear rather than respect Washington grandees who have weaponized politics ahead of public service.

•
This governmental freefall is overseen by a tragically bewildered, petulant, and incompetent president.

•
In his confusion, an increasingly unpopular President Joe Biden seems to believe his divisive chaos is working, belittling his political opponents as racist Confederate rebels.

•
As we head into the 2022 midterm elections, who will stop our descent into collective poverty, division, and self-inflicted madness?
Tucker Carlson: The world no longer cares what Joe Biden says (Fox 01/19/2022)
•
Joe Biden shuffled forth from seclusion this afternoon for a rare solo press conference. ... it was only his second since taking office a full year ago. And by the end, you were wishing that Joe Biden spoke in public less often.

•
The whole thing was awful, was totally weird and embarrassing, not just to him, but to the country. At one point, Biden treated us to a stream of consciousness thoughts about his son's former employer; that would be a small, corrupt nation called Ukraine.

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Apparently, Ukraine's eastern border with Russia — unlike, say, our southern border with Mexico — is a sacred boundary created by God that must be protected at all costs, up to and including, American lives.

•
... here's what you should know. You are currently funding a proxy battle in Ukraine against the nuclear-armed Russian military, and that could very well erupt into a hot war that includes you, the United States. If nothing else, Biden made that very clear. So sleep well tonight.

•
Then Biden bragged about himself, as he tends to do whenever he's awake. "Can you think of any other president who's done so much in a year?" he asked at one point. How do you respond to a question like that? Biden didn't wait for the answer. Instead, he got mad at a reporter who dared asked him about COVID.

•
BIDEN: ... I didn't overpromise, but I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen.

•
Outperformed. Well, it's true, actually. Outperform - meaning more Americans have died from coronavirus on my watch than under evil anti-science Cheeto man...

•
Biden talked about his so-called voting rights legislation, which only Nazis oppose. Without that legislation, the next election will almost certainly be fraudulent, rigged, illegitimate, stolen.

•
See how that works? If you complain about an election after the fact, you're an insurrectionist. The Justice Department may indict you for sedition. But if you complain about an election ahead of time preemptively, then you're a civil rights leader.

•
Biden went on to boast under his steady, wise leadership, peasants in this country have gotten "raises." Now, he didn't mention that inflation has already eaten those raises in a single bite, and next year's raises too.

•
Biden did allow that there are some Americans who are "frustrated and fatigued," but that is not his fault. It's COVID's fault, a disease created by unvaccinated Trump voters and not - we want to be clear about this - not created by his family's longtime patrons in the government of China. They had nothing to do with it. You did it.

•
In any case, the solution, Biden explained, is more testing and more shots. That's why he plans to send a COVID test to every American household and force every last holdout to get the vaccine.

•
No one is listening to Joe Biden anymore. He is weak. He commands no respect. The world no longer cares what he says. As if to prove it, just hours before Biden spoke today, Starbucks — the left-wing coffee chain and under usual circumstances, worships Joe Biden and his party — Starbucks, announced its 200,000 employees no longer have to get the vaccine. It was mandatory in Starbucks. It's not anymore.

•
Meanwhile, in Israel, which is probably the most vaccinated country in the world, scientists just contradicted everything the administration's been telling us for a full year about vaccine passports and natural immunity.

•
So a study in Israel, which no one has yet to denounce as misinformation, found that four vaccine shots do not work as well against Omicron as natural immunity does.

•
Oh, where have you heard that? Well, we've known that for more than a year. Our own CDC found that natural immunity provided more protection against delta variant of COVID than vaccination did.

•
Professor Cohen went on to apologize for the biggest mistake of the pandemic: shutting down schools and forcing children to stay home, which destroyed a generation. It turns out there was no scientific basis for doing that at all. It was all teachers' unions wanting more time off.

•
Omicron, the professor said, will turn this pandemic into the endemic phase. It'll be like the flu, a widespread but mild illness. Everybody gets it, and very few are badly hurt by it.

•
This has been pretty obvious. You'd never know it from listening to Joe Biden. He had no clue whatsoever. But Great Britain, which has been almost hysterical in the face of COVID, has come to the same conclusion. So today, as Joe Biden pushed everyone to take a third COVID shot, calling it the optimum protection you can have — except for natural immunity, which tends to be much more effective.

•
Boris Johnson, the prime minister of Great Britain, announced an end to all mandates and all lockdowns in Great Britain, including in schools.

•
So the United States used to lead the world, particularly in the field of science. Modern science was essentially invented here. It was certainly perfected here. Now, the United States follows the world.

•
Much smaller countries. Our two closest allies, in fact. Countries which have COVID at least as seriously as we did, have decided that what we've done for the last two years doesn't work. And they're changing their policies. They're freeing their population from the yoke of this insanity.

•
All of that was happening at the very moment Biden was preparing for his big solo press conference. But apparently nobody told them what was happening. Our two strongest allies are doing this, and he didn't know.

•
See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

•
See related Inflation (Mike Shelton, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Allowing aliens to vote in New York City violates state law and devalues citizenship (Fox 01/19/2022)
•
... it's hardly fair to the many aliens who have gone through the lengthy process of becoming citizens. More importantly, allowing aliens to vote violates the New York constitution and state election law.

•
The state constitution provides in Art. II, Sec. 1, that "[e]very citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all officers elected by the people" as long as they are at least "eighteen years of age or older" and have resided in the "county, city, or village for thirty days" prior to the election (emphasis added).

•
This language is clearly not limited to just statewide elections; it applies to all state and local elections in New York.

•
This constitutional emphasis on citizenship as a requirement for voting is again outlined in New York state election law.

•
Section 5-102(1) of Chapter 17 explicitly states that "No person shall be qualified to register for and vote in any election unless he is a citizen of the United States."

•
It does not provide any exceptions. There is no question that legal alien residents and those aliens authorized to work in the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security are barred from voting in any election in New York.

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Outside of its illegality, this law is very problematic from a policy point of view. Aliens who would be able to vote under this law include foreign students from Russia or China, reporters from anti-American propaganda mouthpieces such as Al Jazeera, Pravda and the China Daily, and numerous other aliens with international science, economic or political interests that conflict with the best interests of our country.

•
There is by no means a small number of "voters" impacted by this legislation. Sponsors of the law estimate that at least 800,000 aliens lawfully in New York City meet the criteria of "municipal voter."

•
The U.S. government was created to be by the people, for the people, and of the people. "People," however, refers solely to the American people — those who have pledged their allegiance to the government they are hoping to shape.

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It is not intended to be an open invitation for persons of the world, including foreign governments and non-U.S. citizens, to shape and mold our democratic republic as best benefits them, not our country.
Woke ideology is 'cruel,' 'evil,' and won't end well: Victor Davis Hanson (Fox 01/18/2022)
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"It's a very evil ideology because it's cruel. It's mean-spirited. And we haven't talked about that. But if that's what it is and it won't end until the people start identifying it like that ... It's cruelty because it has a history throughout the centuries, and it doesn't end well."

•
"Academics ... call this 'systems collapse,' where all of a sudden a successful society suddenly doesn't follow its tradition and rules and things happen that people cannot believe, such as empty shelves or you're not able to buy meat or you go to fill up your car, and it's a hundred dollars ... or people getting shot in the street ... And all of these things start to unwind the society. So the point is that it can't continue."

•
... the refusal to take criminals to task, among other injustices, is causing the American people to lose faith in institutions that were once held in high esteem.

•
"We fear the government and so the government's lost credibility, morality, and we've got to restore it by all of these DA's [re-starting to] prosecute crimes. You have to be arrested. You have to be indicted if you're guilty. You have to serve your time to regain confidence and make it safe to be a human again."

•
"When you look at the career of a Fauci, a Milley, ...a Comey, a McCabe ... These aren't the people that we trust."

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"I think finally, we really have to redefine this whole woke ideology. We think it's kind of cute or it's incompetent or it's left-wing or it's Marxist. [But] it's cruel, it's mean. It tells you, me, every citizen: If you get hurt, you get shot, we're not going to worry about you. And the person who did that to you is probably going to be out without bail or not prosecuted for an earlier crime. It tells a young child: you in the present are going to learn good racism because there was bad racism in the past. It tells the old guy that is 68 like me, if you need treatment, you may be the wrong color – you wait in line."
The MisEducation of America (Fox 01/18/2022)
•
Seemingly out of nowhere — accelerated after the Black Lives Matter riots in the summer of 2020 — concepts like "white privilege" and "systemic racism" and even a new founding date for America, the year 1619, were splashed across computer screens across America.

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Critical Race Theory had fully arrived (often masked as "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion"), along with a full-on attempt to redefine gender, infuse climate fatalism, and turn our children into activists.

•
... with parents finally questioning what was happening in their kids' classrooms, certain quarters of the news media, like FOX News, took notice in a substantial way.

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The question is — what happens next? How can parents and patriots reassert control over curriculums and classrooms full of poisonous indoctrination?

•
The key to answering these questions is getting to the bottom of how progressives — and now cultural Marxists — targeted and then transformed our schools over the past 100 years.

•
What we see today in our classrooms is not an aberration born of the 1960s; but instead, the end state of a progressive project to control what every American student learns.

•
... before there was "Critical Race Theory" there was "Critical Theory" – a Marxist philosophy that landed at our shores in the 1940s, and quickly took root in our most prominent teachers' colleges.

•
Before there was a formal high school system in the United States, there was the "Gary Plan." A planned school system, started in Gary, Indiana, devoted specifically to removing God from the classroom and training kids only for a vocation – instead of critical thinking.

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Before there were "social studies" and "political science" – all inventions of the progressives – American students learned Latin, read the Bible, studied the Great Books, and received a real liberal arts education – "liberating" their minds to be free thinkers.

•
The public school system (better known as "government schools") we have in America – in nearly every way – has been crafted over 100 years ago to be fully progressive.

•
... Abraham Lincoln once said, that "the philosophy of the school room in one generation becomes the philosophy of government in the next."

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Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., used to be the exception, now Marxist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is the rule.

•
If we hope to save America, it starts first with God, then with the family, and finally — in the classroom.

•
We need to abandon government schools all together – they are a lost cause – and fight for full educational choice for parents, especially toward schools – like classical Christian schools – that proactively advance a REAL liberal arts education.

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: Mainstream media is turning on Joe Biden (Fox 01/18/2022)
Kudlow: It is dismaying that a growing number of woke progressives have attempted to subvert MLK's mission (Fox 01/17/2022)
•
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

•
This is a thought that I would assume all Americans regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, political party could agree with.

•
But it is dismaying to me that a growing number of far-left, woke progressives in the name of so-called 'equity' have attempted to subvert MLK's brilliant statement, by moving us toward a society where solving the remnants of racism leads to ever more racism.

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I'm speaking particularly of critical race theory which seeks racial divisions and routinely denounces color blindness as 'White supremacy' or 'White privilege,' or for that matter, Black victimization.

•
These ideas of reverse racism and Black victimization and attacks on people with White skin not only run completely against what Reverend King envisioned, it's something that provides the greatest harm to children in school where unfortunately critical race theory is being taught by too many left-wing teachers across the country.

•
Two years ago, when I was in government, and rioting broke out across the country, and the woke CRT cry of systemic racism reached its zenith I would try to argue, "wait a minute, we just elected an African American president for two terms who garnered 80 million White votes just a few years ago."

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And African Americans routinely serve in the cabinet, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House, state governors, legislatures.

•
Our election system undoubtedly could stand with some improvements, but in the last six or seven decades, minority progress has been enormous; that is, African American progress.

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Civil rights laws were passed in my lifetime that did enormous good, and more good can undoubtedly come to our imperfect institutions as long as we invoke some civility in the discussions and some common sense in the solutions.

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As a young man, I came to believe that civil rights and equality on the basis of merit and character was really a matter of common sense and fairness.

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I think these crazy, woke, critical race theory leftists are the real racists in our society today. And I truly believe their vision will be soundly defeated while Martin Luther King's will triumph.
The lost legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. gives the lie to holiday rhetoric (JWR 01/17/2022)
•
... Biden wasn't content to laud King's heroism or to make the argument for the basic principle that every citizen should have the right to vote.

•
Instead, employing his characteristic love of hyperbole and hysterical overstatement, Biden linked the two bills to King's efforts to end segregation and to secure the right for African-Americans to vote...

•
This is pernicious nonsense. The two bills are, in fact, efforts to federalize elections and erase safeguards for the integrity of the vote erected by many states over the years, including many blue ones, for what Democrats believe will be to their advantage.

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Biden claims that banning measures like requirements to show a photo ID when voting, which is supported by 80 percent of the American public including African-Americans and other minorities, is a necessary corollary to King's work.

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The notion that blacks are not as capable of obtaining the identification necessary to perform just about any transaction or to travel as other people contradicts King's belief that all Americans are "children of God" and equal in the eyes of their Creator.

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That Biden claimed that those who oppose his legislative agenda or who believe that the Senate should remain a constitutional check on the will of narrow majorities are also advocates of "Jim Crow" — a vile slander that he has repeated more than once...

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... it's the way King's name is invoked to support the notion that contemporary political battles are somehow an extension of the life and death struggle against segregation that ended more than a half-century ago.

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... the claim that the America of 2022 is anything like the one that King spoke to in 1963 when he made his "I have a dream" speech to a country that had not yet passed the federal civil-rights and voting acts that ended legal segregation and other racist measures isn't merely inaccurate.

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It's a way of denying reality so as to twist the cause of civil rights to have it stand for something antithetical to the key points that King was seeking to convey to a divided nation.

•
To be sure, King saw the problems of African-Americans as going beyond that of restoring to them the legal rights promised to them in the 14th and 15th amendments passed after the 13th — and the outcome of the Civil War — ended slavery.

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A century of legal discrimination had created a situation in which blacks were operating with a severe handicap economically, one that was unfortunately exacerbated rather than helped by the American welfare state in the second half of the 20th century.

•
But at its heart, King's philosophy was one that was embodied in the most famous passage of his 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

•
It's a beautiful sentiment that resonates to this day, but one that is flatly contradicted by those who currently claim to speak for African-Americans in the Black Lives Matter movement and among those promoting critical race theory as the only way to understand America.

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Critical race theory — and its corollaries which focus on "white privilege" — teaches that the color of their skin is more or less the only thing we should see when encountering someone, and that a person's background is more important than personal circumstances or behavior.

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It divides us irrevocably into groups that are either privileged or victims and allows nothing to interfere with that essentially racist view of the world.

•
King was a complex man who sought to guide a movement that was already at the time of his death becoming more radical and increasingly distant from those unifying ideas that made him a hero to both blacks and whites.

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His ideas are not easily boiled down to one famous phrase; at their core, they were a plea for all people to be regarded as "created equal" and to be treated equally.

•
King was also the man who said, "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism!"

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The idea that his philosophy could be perverted into a justification for a bizarre effort to revive segregation, or to justify the anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel that he deplored — as is the case with the BLM movement — is as appalling as it is discouraging.

•
We would do well to use the observance of MLK Day to drop the partisan demagoguery we've heard so much of from Biden and concentrate on making America a better place for people of all races.

•
We need to consign that kind of thinking that is so antithetical to King's work to the past, and not acquiesce in their revival in the name of woke ideology and "anti-racism."
Reflecting on Dr. King's vision – how are we faring in pursuit of the just society? (Fox 01/16/2022)
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Dr. King's admirable efforts to ensure that we become and remain a nation where an individual is judged based on the content of his character, not the color of his skin, is well known by most Americans.

•
Indeed, this message comes from the King of the Universe himself, who tells us in his Love Letter to us, that He "hath made of one blood all nations of men." (Acts 17:26).

•
This beautiful admonition puts to rest once and for all the idea that some races are inherently superiority to others, and even the very idea that we should be divided based on race at all.

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So let us reflect on how we're faring in achieving a society based on such principles so well-articulated by Dr. King.

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First, there's no question that progress has been made in our journey as a nation toward a just and fair society.

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When I was a boy growing up in Detroit, the idea of a Black Cabinet secretary, neurosurgeon or rocket scientist, would have been totally unimaginable.

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But due to the guidance of our Creator and the fair mindedness of the American people in our commitment to constantly improving ourselves, such things are not only imaginable, but have actually happened.

•
Yet, we're starting to see troubling signs that our nation's dedication to the principles of Dr. King, or at least the dedication of the elites and those who control our institutions, is beginning to wane.

•
Many of those in leadership positions no longer ascribe to the noble aspiration that all of us should be judged based on the content of our character.

•
Instead, they're increasingly embracing the notion that a person's worth and future potential are determined by their race.

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If you're White, that means you're automatically guilty of racism and discrimination, totally independent of how you actually treat other human beings and love others.

•
If you're Black, that means you're automatically doomed to a life bound in poverty and unable to achieve the American dream, due to alleged White privilege and systematic racism, independent of your actual work ethic, dedication and tenacity.

•
This ideology is manifest in diabolical schemes such as critical race theory, which seeks to redefine educational curriculums based on racial grievance ideology, including the false idea that all racial disparities are due to racism, rather than due to family structure, educational choices, and other factors that the evidence clearly shows impact outcomes. The 1619 Project is one of the biggest such examples.

•
This divisive worldview is also apparent in the new concept of equity being employed by its adherents.

•
Unlike the traditional notion of equality, which envisions that all persons should have a chance at success no matter where they came from – also known as "equality of opportunity" – the new idea of equity instead demands forced "equality of outcomes," expecting that people should be forced to arrive at the same result regardless of individual choices, effort and dedication – a clear absurdity.

•
Such ideologies threaten to deliver us into a dystopian future where once again, race is the determining factor in a person's worth, instead of character.
America needs an honest, adult conversation about our challenges in 2022 (Fox 01/16/2022)
Martin Luther King's dream is alive but liberal policies are destroying Black communities (Fox 01/15/2022)
•
I was five years old when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Then, nearly 80 percent of Black children were born into two-parent families but sadly, the Black community transformed to 80 percent fatherless homes in my lifetime.

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If the American Black family was a spotted owl or a gray wolf, it would be on the endangered species list.

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Instead of refocusing on cultural roots of faith, family and education that sustained the Black family during the most difficult times in our country's history, we now blame racial disparities on white privilege and systemic racism.

•
We know the damaging affects fatherless homes to children after seeing the steep decline of two-parents in the Black community for five decades: 85 percent of children with behavioral disorders; 90 percent of homeless and runaways; young boys and girls suffer higher rates of physical and sexual abuse, and list continues.

•
In 2021, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) celebrated 50 years. On their website they state, "While we have come a long way, African Americans continue to face racist and discriminatory policies and institutions that result in disparities across almost every facet of life, from access to quality affordable health care and education, to police brutality and voter suppression."

•
The disparities the CBC references are not a result of racism. Ninety percent of the problems in the Black community can be attributed to the fatherless home crisis.

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Nowhere does the CBC reference the decline of two parent families and its impact on women, children, health, or education. The reason they hide this is sorrowful and treasonous to their communities and the country.

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Many of these elected and local community leaders promoted and/or sustaining a welfare dependency class...

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We have operated for decades as if this has no impact on social norms. To make matters worse, the public schools in these Democratically-controlled cities have failed students for decades, leaving generations of young people unemployed or underemployed.

•
My parents and grandparents lived through systemic racism including sanction segregation. I did not. I know from personal experience that this country is not systemically racist.

•
One the largest and most interesting benefactors of the civil rights movement are Black Americans that have legally immigrated to the U.S. from Africa (non-refugees) and the Caribbean Islands.

•
They see the country much differently than native born Black Americans and based on the U.S. Census; their children grow up in higher levels of two-parent families.

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Because they see America as a land of opportunity and haven't been indoctrinated by years of anti-white, anti-capitalism and anti-American propaganda, they earn significantly more in household income and are more educated than those who are native-born.

•
My wife of nearly 36 years, Sheila and I taught our children the rules our parents taught us, work hard, secure a good education, take care of your family and live a life worthy of the sacrifices by those that came before you. Those are the same rules that have been passed down for generations.

•
Unfortunately, to make a systemic change worthy of the sacrifices by civil rights leaders, a wholesale cultural transformation is needed from the Black community from the bottom up, starting with a re-dedication to two-parent families, a return to the principles of the Christian faith and recommitment to education.

•
These efforts need universal support taught to children from parents, grandparents, pastors, fraternities, and sororities.

•
Lastly, a solid education is a pathway to prosperity. Unfortunately, many leaders who are supposed to represent the best for the Black community are instead representing what's best for the teacher's union.

•
One look at their financial disclosure documents reveals why school choice or vouchers are often hardest to pass in America's inner cities despite being widely popular with inner cities parents.

•
Americans are tired of being bullied by the left and exhausted by constant accusations of systemic racism.

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As we begin a new year, now is the time to start having a new conversation and start implementing new ideas because liberal policies of the past and present are failing the Black communities of today and tomorrow.
Biden’s 'voting rights' speech stinks up Atlanta (Fox 01/15/2022)
The 10 worst provisions in Biden, Schumer's voting rights bills (Fox 01/13/2022)
Supreme Court puts an end to pandemic of the autocrat (Fox 01/13/2022)
•
Whether it has been governors or mayors, presidents or admirals, the disturbing aggrandizement of power in a very few ought to trouble any American committed to freedom, especially religious freedom.

•
Thursday's high-profile ruling enjoining the Biden administration's efforts to federalize the private workforce should put an end to that once and for all.

•
As the Justices noted in their per curiam opinion, "It is telling that OSHA, in its half century of existence, has never before adopted a broad public health regulation of this kind — addressing a threat that is untethered, in any causal sense, from the workplace."

•
"Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life — simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock," the Justices wrote, "would significantly expand OSHA's regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization."

•
President Biden's mandate is authoritarian and offensive to the U.S. Constitution. It violates the Constitution's commerce clause by regulating parts of the economy reserved to the police powers of the 50 states. It claims authority that it does not have and has not been given by Congress.

•
Worse, it tramples the First Amendment by forcing religious employers to violate their religious mission by forcing their employees to violate theirs.

•
Separation of powers, federalism, and religious liberty mean precious little if a president can pronounce kingly edicts and demand he be obeyed.

•
If President Biden is so committed to this mandate, the Justices suggest he has a built-in solution: take it to Congress — both houses of which his party controls.

•
The fact that he has not reveals either that he cannot lead even his own political party or he has become drunk on the same drink of raw power we have seen throughout this pandemic.

•
The thing about autocratic policies is that they eventually always fail. But autocratic lords, lacking the ability to lead by conviction, demand they be obeyed and force their peasants to comply with failed policies even harder expecting different results.

•
Watch for President Biden, already famously out of patience with those who have declined the COVID shot, now loses his patience with the Justices who have reminded him of his rightful place under the Constitution.

•
The president and his far-left allies always default to the autocracy of the administrative state summoned by "a phone and a pen" and threats of "pack the court."

•
For now, the American work force — including its religious employers — is safe from the unnecessary threat of its government trying to help.
Kudlow: Biden is becoming more vitriolic and insulting as his political agenda falls apart (Fox 01/13/2022)
•
Joe Biden's sinking presidency suffered two more major defeats today.

•
First, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 against the administration's mandate that private businesses must mandate vaccines.

•
Second, Senator Kyrsten Sinema repeated on the floor of the Senate, roughly one hour before President Biden's meeting with the Senate Democratic Conference, her long-standing opposition to any changes in the legislative filibuster.

•
That effectively rules out the Biden election takeover bill.

•
As his political agenda falls apart, the president has become more vitriolic and insulting in various speeches.

•
... on the Hill, he threw another temper tantrum about losing on the election takeover bill, but also adding this bizarre screeching about who counts the votes.

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PRESIDENT BIDEN: We missed this time. We missed this time. The state legislative bodies continue to change the law not on who can vote, but who gets to count the vote. Count the vote! Count the vote! It's about election subversion.

•
By the way, the answer to who counts the votes is the gang of Democrats who run the election day operations throughout America's big cities. They're the vote counters. Not Republicans.

•
And, let's not forget Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who spent $450 million, illegally placing his left-wing minions into election operations throughout the country, thereby bending every decision against Donald Trump and Republicans.

•
Meanwhile, even Biden's State Department is acknowledging that this week's talks with Vladimir Putin and his threatened invasion of the Ukraine have gone nowhere.

•
Ted Cruz's amendment to restore the Nord Stream 2 sanctions – which were a gift to Putin in the first place and should never have happened – looks to have been defeated on the Senate floor today by Democrats.

•
Of course, so much of this stems from the catastrophic withdrawal in Afghanistan, which has emboldened Putin in the Ukraine and Xi in Taiwan.

•
Real wages are falling while prices are spiking. We're talking gasoline and grocery prices among many others, all of which contributes to Mr. Biden's remarkable unpopularity.

•
See related It\\\'s Who Counts the Votes (Gary Varvel, 11/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Counting Ballots (Jake Fuller, 2020)") cartoon from Politics picture album
Thou shalt not criticize Black Lives Matter (INN 01/12/2022)
•
Leslie Neal-Boylan was fired as director of a nursing school in Massachusetts for writing that "everyone's lives matter."

•
Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson has been censored by his university for calling Black Lives Matter "anti-American activists who want to destroy capitalism in an act of revenge."

•
Tim Gordon was fired from Garces Memorial High School, a Catholic high school in Bakersfield, California, for calling Black Lives Matter rioters "terrorists" during the looting.

•
A University of California professor, Gordon Klein, was fired for refusing to allow more exam time for black students during the Black Lives Matter protests.

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A Vermont principal ... was fired after posting on Facebook: "I strongly believe Black Lives Matter, but just because I'm not walking around with a BLM sign shouldn't mean I'm a racist."

•
But we would be wrong twice to think that if at universities you incite for the actual killing of whites, the same result will ensue.

•
A psychiatrist at Yale medical school told a seminar that she dreams of "killing whites," a professor at Rutgers University argued that "whites must be hunted" and a Cambridge researcher wrote that "the lives of whites they don't count " ... And none of them have lost their jobs.

•
... this movement wants to "destroy Western civilization by starting to criminalize all its past and rejecting all its legacies. From the more or less playful deconstructionist pedantry this monster that is 'wokism',was born a conquering conformism that seems to mark the emergence of a new totalitarian spirit " .

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And whoever gets in the way must be eliminated.

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See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related And That's Why We Are Letting You Go (Mike Lester, 06/14/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Tucker Carlson: Biden's speeches reveal what he thinks of Americans (Fox 01/12/2022)
•
Here's how democracies work: In a democracy, voters strike a highly straightforward deal with a government that rules them. Here's what it is: Politicians do their best to improve your life.

•
In exchange for that, you vote for them. That is a voluntary arrangement. It works pretty well. For 250 years, that's how it's worked here in the United States.

•
But suddenly, not anymore. During his entire first year in office, Joe Biden did virtually nothing to improve the actual lives of actual American citizens. And he didn't because he didn't even really try.

•
Making voters happy is not a feature of the equity agenda. Punishment is the point of the equity agenda, inflicting pain on the right people, dispensing rough justice, meting out reparations by other names.

•
In his speeches, you can see clearly how Joe Biden feels about America. He's deeply disappointed in the country, and he's annoyed with the people who live here.

•
Biden doesn't cajole voters. He harangues and berates them. He patronizes them and issues threats. You cause the corona pandemic. You're stupid and selfish.

•
So for an American president, this is an entirely new way of governing. And you've got to wonder how long it can continue. How exactly are Democrats going to hold on to power in the coming midterm elections?

•
If you think about it, there's only one way they can do that. They've got to create a new form of government, one that keeps incumbents in power forever, no matter what they do, no matter how incompetent and destructive they may be.

•
One way to do that is by diluting the political power of citizens. And that's why Democrats in New York are allowing nearly a million foreign nationals here illegally to vote in local elections. It's why Gavin Newsom has announced that California is now going to offer unlimited health care to illegal aliens, so that more of them will come.

•
That's the point. And it's why Democrats are pushing for what they describe as a transformative voting rights bill. It's their top legislative priority. It's the main thing they care about.

•
... at its heart, the bill would give the federal government the power to control how elections are conducted across the country. The bill requires states to obtain pre-clearance from the federal government before they can set the rules of their own elections.

•
... it means, among other things, that states would no longer have the authority to require voter ID or registration at the polls. States would also lose the power to pick the locations for polling sites, as well as the ability to draw the boundaries of their own congressional districts.

•
... the idea is simple. The idea is this country is too racist to allow states to run their own affairs.

•
Everything about that claim is absurd. If America is so racist, then why have tens of thousands of Haitians stuck across our border this year?

•
Why would you let incumbent politicians rig the game in their own favor? We would not allow that. You'd have to be bullied into it.

•
How would you be bullied? You know the answer. The fastest way to bully Americans, other than by scaring them with viruses, is to call them racist. So, of course, that's precisely what the Democratic Party is doing right now.

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JOE BIDEN: Do you want to be the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis? This is the moment to decide to defend our elections, to defend our democracy.

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So if you oppose an unconstitutional power grab by corrupt politicians in their 80s, you are the leader of a confederacy. You're a foreign combatant. That's what he said.

•
That's how important it is to keep the Democratic Party in power forever, and that's why we need to change the way the Senate votes. So we'll never lose an election again.

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JOE BIDEN: We must find a way to pass these voting rights bill debate and vote. Let the majority prevail. And if that very amendment is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this.

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Yeah, getting rid of the filibuster. We can go on about this, heard it, you probably know, but it's worth remembering that the Democratic Party Joe Biden's party invoked the filibuster more than 300 times recently.

•
So what's different? Well, the threat of White terror, of course. Getting rid of voter ID laws is a matter of national security, Biden explained. Stand in the way and you may be a terrorist.

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JOE BIDEN: I will not yield, I will not flinch, I will defend the right to vote our democracy against all enemies, foreign and, yes, domestic.

•
Enemies within our own country, we will kill them. It's kind of amusing to see Joe Biden call other people extremists. The message: Give me total power over your life or else I know you're a dangerous radical. It's pretty funny, but it's also not funny.

•
Just hours before Joe Biden spoke, the Department of Justice announced the formation of a new domestic terrorism unit.

•
What's it for? Well, you can read about it on the website. It's designed to hunt down and punish anyone who opposes the federal government or is otherwise "anti-authority."

•
Anti-authority? Who's that? Well, pretty much at this point, all thinking people who aren't directly on the federal payroll. That means you.

•
It means all of us got the message? If you think voters ought to show I.D. at the polls, you could be hearing from the FBI because you're a threat. On the other hand, speaking papers, you should know that your COVID papers are still mandatory, and becoming more so because vax cards are not at all like driver's licenses at polling places, they're not racist.

•
In fact, in Washington, D.C., the mayor, Muriel Bowser, just announced you're no longer allowed outside without your papers.

•
Here's the quote: "Starting Saturday, we'll need these three things before heading out: Proof of vaccination (12 years), Proof of vaccination and photo I.D. (18 years), and a mask."

•
Otherwise, you must stay in your house, because we own your body. That's Muriel Bowser, who, by the way, is not a dangerous extremist. She can't be, because she's loyal to the regime.
Hannity: January 6 committee must subpoena Pelosi if they are to be taken seriously (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
"We now know, and it has been confirmed and corroborated by numerous sources right here on this show, that Donald Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard soldiers to protect the Capitol. He authorized this two days before January 6. Now, why would he authorize that? Everybody knew a massive demonstration was planned. Everybody knew tensions were running high in the country and given what happened over the summer."

•
"Five hundred and seventy-four riots and all these people dead and all these cops hurt. Everyone knew that any large protest would be vulnerable to bad actors. We saw what had just happened in the summer of 2020."

•
... once Trump approved the request, it was up to Pelosi and Bowser to take action – but they refused. In that regard, if the committee seriously intends to get to the bottom of January 6, they must subpoena Pelosi and Bowser...

•
"We now know they blocked the National Guard assistance on multiple occasions. They refused to even call up the guard after the Capitol Police chief literally was begging for the National Guard; on at least six separate occasions that we've chronicled. So the question tonight is why? Why? Why not approve the extra security that the president allocated for? Why choose to leave lawmakers vulnerable with such a massive crowd that they knew would be going to the Capitol?"

•
"Liz Cheney tried to tell us that nothing was off-limits, but of course, Cheney is powerless in this committee, even though she's vice chair."

•
"In fact, she's being used frankly as a pawn by the very same people who — as I've been reminding her — accused her father of being an evil war criminal."

•
"Meanwhile, Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, Jim Banks of Indiana, they were booted from the committee by Nancy Pelosi. Now ask yourself why? Because they would ask the serious questions."

•
"Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Bowser; they would have been held accountable. Well, that can't happen... This committee is not about getting to the truth. Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi is off limits, according to the chairman, and safeguarding our lawmakers at the Capitol should be a top priority. Instead, it's all about smearing Trump and his supporters."

•
"Are you or have you ever been a Donald Trump supporter? Anyone focused on securing the Capitol would look into additional fencing barriers. I would suggest that other security measures need to be put in place. Anyone actually interested in the truth and what went wrong would subpoena everyone responsible for bringing in the proper amount of security based on the conditions."

•
... the panel is too focused on targeting people like Bannon for their political beliefs rather than executing a thorough and responsible probe as they claim to be doing.
Who keeps democracy in the cross hairs? (JWR 01/10/2022)
•
"The former president and his supporters have decided the only way for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections," President Joe Biden said... "It's wrong. It's undemocratic. And frankly, it's un-American."

•
Vice President Kamala Harris alluded to President Donald J. Trump's voters as "the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy."

•
Congressman Eric Swalwell (D – California) told ... that if Republicans win November's midterm elections, "voting in this country as we know it will be gone."

•
For Biden, Harris, Swalwell, and their comrades, bellowing about Republicans killing democracy is easier than conceding that Democrats, not the GOP, have battered America's democratic norms and institutions non-stop since at least 2016.

•
That year, Obama's Justice Department and FBI spied on the opposition party's presidential campaign. The Russiagate probe was Watergate without the break-in.

•
The basis for Democrat espionage against Trump was the so-called "Dirty Dossier," funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democrat National Committee.

•
Team Hillary then leaked these Russian lies to pro-Democrat news outlets (excuse the redundancy), which injected them into the public debate over Clinton and Trump.

•
Soon after Trump's upset victory, Democrats used print ads, TV commercials, and death threats to pressure Trump's Electoral College representatives to change their votes.

•
When this gambit failed, at least 54 congressional Democrats boycotted Trump's inauguration, dissing America's peaceful transition of power.

•
Former President Jimmy Carter said, "Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016." Hillary Clinton called Trump "an illegitimate president."

•
For three years, Democrats advanced the full-throated lie that Trump was a Russian agent.

•
ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter rioters trashed and burned government buildings in summer 2020. While some Democrats cheered these rioters, Kamala Harris actively raised bail money to spring them from jail.

•
Democrats weaponized COVID-19 to bludgeon centuries-old voting procedures. "Temporary, emergency measures" included no-excuse absentee ballots, mass mail-in ballots sent to all registered voters (alive or dead), diluted or discarded witness-signature requirements, unsupervised ballot drop boxes, and more.

•
On Election Night 2020, vote counting mysteriously and inexplicably stopped in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and other Democrat strongholds. Ballots normally are counted overnight, until winners emerge. Instead, canvassing was halted.

•
A tabulation room at Atlanta's State Farm Arena was cleared at 10:30 p.m. so election officials could "retire" for the evening.

•
In fact, after journalists and GOP election watchers were sent home, surveillance cameras caught poll workers removing boxes from beneath a covered table and placing the contents — ballots — into counting machines until 1:00 a.m.

•
"We want all the Republican challengers out of this room!" yelled a man wearing an official-looking lanyard in a Detroit, Michigan, vote-counting facility. Anti-transparency authorities then covered this tabulation room's windows with cardboard.

•
Georgia and Pennsylvania were among the states where Republican poll watchers were barred from counting rooms or kept too distant to scrutinize vote tallies, inspect absentee-ballot signatures, and otherwise perform their solemn duties.

•
Democrats relentlessly have jackhammered the pillars of America's democratic elections. They are democracy's natural enemies.

•
And rather than own this despicable distinction, Democrats do what they do best: Accuse everyone else of their own evil.
The Terrifying Lessons of COVID-19 (JWR 01/10/2022)
Jan. 6 is Purim for Dems. Trump is their Haman (INN 01/09/2022)
•
Biden, Kamala and all the media you can't trust tried to commemorate Trump's folly of Jan. 6, 2021 as a sad, mournful occasion...terrible...terrible for the country.

•
Don't believe the long faces. Forget the funereal oratory. They love Jan. 6, and always will...a date that will live in gladness for all time thanks to the crazies who stormed the Capitol in Trump's name.

•
Even the Covid face-coverings could not hide the smirks. In Trump they found their Haman and in Jan. 6 they found their Purim.

•
Hang him they will each time that date comes around and each day in between because hissing, booing, jeering, hating Trump is all they've got.

•
In fact, they should thank him. What a favor he did them when after four successful years in office, he unleashed that mob.

•
Due to an inexplicable, self-destructive, impulse, Jan. 6 is his legacy...and not the wonders Trump did for America through secure borders and energy independence.

•
He blessed Israel and made the entire world safer by introducing, through the Abraham Accords, a huge step towards peace in the Middle East.

•
Instead of gratitude, he's got Jan. 6 and Biden ripping him apart... Biden suddenly sounding like Churchill not in taking on China, but in taking on Trump.

•
The network boys and girls swooned. They pronounced it the best speech Biden ever gave... for being so furious, hard-hitting, spiteful and mean-spirited, as only he can deliver.

•
No doubt his speechwriters asked him which speech he wanted for that day...the Biden who unites or the Biden who divides the nation.

•
The speech that unites was missing from the files; it had been used only during the campaign, when bets were taken as to whether you can really fool all the people all the time.

•
Yes, you can. So, it was music to them to hear him say that Trump is a menace to Democracy, and it is poetry when Biden and Kamala accuse all Republicans of being insurrectionists.

•
Most festive of all, about Jan. 6, is that it gave cover to the Dems and their own crazies and assorted scoundrels, who far outnumber the loons found in any GOP dugout.

•
Who remembers the Dem sanctioned riots of 2020 when city after city went up in flames, robbery, murder, arson, dubbed "mostly peaceful?"

•
Except for the New York Post, and Fox News, who knew or cared that Joe's travelling companion, son Hunter, was allegedly on the take, Joe denying apparent complicity?

•
The Jan. 6 rioters... those found guilty... deserve what they get. There is no excuse for the lawlessness that they did.

•
But that was one day.

•
Yet every day people like AOC, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar sit in Congress as LAWMAKERS.
Gutfeld: Did Biden just declare a civil war on Americans? (Fox 01/08/2022)
•
Come on, what kind of leader is he, really? You can probably find that answer in a tweet that he posted yesterday... "I've said it many times, and it is no more true or real than when we think about the events of Jan. 6: We are in a battle for the soul of America, a battle that by the grace of God and by the goodness and greatness of this nation, we will win."

•
... the president of the United States just said we were in a battle for the soul of America, and that implies a good side and a bad side, right, with two teams. Which means if you're watching this show and you like this show, you're probably on the bad team.

•
... he's made this claim on a fabricated commemoration targeting his political adversaries, and Democrats were saying it's worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

•
Yes, that might be the worst comparison since the NFL is like slavery. But Joe's defined himself against something that doesn't even exist. A White supremacist movement. A violent insurrection. None of that is real.

•
... did Joe just kind of declare a civil war on a sizable portion of America? Because I can't believe he thinks we're at war with just one guy like Trump or a freak in a Viking hat.

•
... you might not even believe this crap, because like his bladder, it's not him who's in control. But there are people in his White House who believe we're evil, you and me, because you didn't vote for them. Maybe you voted for the other guy, who knows. And now Joe uses Jan. 6 to declare a war over the soul of a country.

•
... hard times are supposed to bring out the best in men, but what if the best in one man is long gone? And all you have is a hollowed-out husk open for exploitation from any woke operative?

•
... when you collapse Afghanistan, spike inflation and crime and can't control corona, all that's left is creating a fake emergency.

•
... we the people, as in all Americans, and we all know that there's no battle for the soul of this country.
Dismantling the myths of the Socialist paradise (Fox 01/07/2022)
•
Radical progressives are trying to convince Americans, especially young Americans, that socialism is the solution to America's socio-economic problems.

•
They are banking on millennial ignorance of the repeated failures of socialism and the proven ability of free enterprise to produce opportunity and prosperity for the greatest number. ...

•
To camouflage their intent, progressives speak of "democratic" socialism. They promise a tranquil land of collective ownership and equal distribution.

•
But in every case, for more than a century, the socialist "paradise" has turned out to be a centralized state administered by political elites.  ...

•
Myth #1: Karl Marx, the founder of socialism, was one of the great thinkers of the 19th century.

•
In truth, Marx was wrong about nearly everything. Nearly 200 years after "The Communist Manifesto" was published, the nation state has not withered away and capitalism rules most of the global economy. Workers have preferred to turn into entrepreneurs rather than revolutionaries, to their great benefit. Private property is a cornerstone of every prosperous country...

•
Myth #2: Socialism places power in the hands of the people.

•
In truth, socialism cedes power to the government and the political elites who run it. After more than 60 years, the Cuban people are still waiting for the free and open elections that Fidel Castro promised.

•
Myth #3: Socialism is working in Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries. ...

•
In truth, Denmark has a free-market economy — and it is capitalism that enables the Danish government to finance a bountiful welfare state through top-to-bottom personal income and VAT taxes.

•
A frustrated Danish prime minister told a shocked Washington audience, "I would like to make one thing clear .... Denmark is a market economy."

•
Myth #4: Socialism has never failed because it has never been truly tried.

•
In fact, socialism has failed everywhere it has been attempted for over a century, from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 to present-day Chavez-Maduro socialism in Venezuela.

•
Nowhere has democratic socialism been more faithfully practiced and then rejected by public demand than in Israel, India and the United Kingdom following the end of World War II. ...

•
This is the true story of socialism, a pseudo-religion posing as a pseudo-science and run by political elites.

•
Millennials do have a choice: the suffocating embrace of socialism, under which individual freedom and responsibility are surrendered, or the freedom of democratic capitalism, under which people of all colors and classes can work to be whatever they want to be. ...

•
See related Socialist Economy (12/18/2018), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Schumer's Ugly 'Voting Rights' Gamble (JWR 01/07/2022)
•
"As former Senator Robert Byrd famously said, Senate Rules 'must be changed to reflect changed circumstances,'" Schumer argued.

•
"Put more plainly by Senator Byrd, 'Congress is not obliged to be bound by the dead hand of the past.'"...

•
And by the "past," Schumer means only a couple of years ago, when he led a record 300-plus filibusters during Donald Trump's presidency. In 2005, when Republican George W. Bush was president, Schumer, coincidentally, also warned that eliminating the legislative filibuster was a "doomsday" for democracy.

•
"The checks and balances which have been at the core of this republic are about to be evaporated by the nuclear option," Schumer said.

•
"The checks and balances which say that if you get 51% of the vote, you don't get your way 100% of the time."

•
Indeed. And to avoid looking like a conniving, power-hungry, partisan hypocrite with absolutely no respect for the institution he serves, Schumer rationalizes his assaults on norms by pretending the nation faces an existential threat to "democracy."

•
And so, Schumer has fused together two of the contemporary left's most cynical and pernicious projects.

•
First, the trashing of the filibuster, part of a broader effort to create a more direct democracy to ram through massive, unalterable policy changes with the slimmest of majorities in the shortest of windows.

•
Now, Schumer proposes nationalizing elections by overturning the will of voters and compelling states to adopt chaotic voting regulations that he believes will favor Democrats in the long run.

•
But no one has a "right" to vote without an ID. No one has a "right" to ballot-harvest. And many Democrats' proposals, as in empowering the federal government to mandate gerrymandering and forcing taxpayers to finance congressional campaigns, have absolutely nothing to do with voting rights — nor do proposals meant to dismantle First Amendment protections.

•
On the voting front, House Democrats have passed a bill that would compel states to count mail-in votes that arrive up to 10 days after Election Day, require states to allow ballot-harvesting, coerce states to ban voter ID laws, induce states to allow felons to vote and mandate 15 days of early voting, automatic voter registration and online voter registration.

•
Most of the state regulations that Democrats claim are Jim Crow 2.0 simply undo some of the anarchic COVID-era rules and reinstate standards that exist in many blue states and basically all Western nations.

•
... is there any doubt Schumer would do it if he could? Is there any doubt he's continuing to normalize un-American majoritarianism? Is there any doubt he is willing to destroy the Senate?

•
... Democrats will have to do more corroding of trust in elections by leaning into the notion that supporting basic voter integrity is racist.

•
In his letter, Schumer compared Republicans who believe Americans should provide photo IDs to vote to "violent insurrectionists."

•
In truth, Schumer, because of his power, is a bigger threat to the constitutional order than any rando who showed up to riot on Jan. 6. Unlike their actions, his attacks on the system would live on in perpetuity.

•
See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
American Oligarchy (JWR 01/07/2022)
•
Jan. 6 was the day, the narrative goes, where "deplorable" Trumpians attempted to effectuate an "insurrection" and a "coup," seeking to "overturn" the results of the perfect and pristine 2020 presidential election.

•
The imbecilic and senile dolt who is our commander in chief dedicated his Jan. 6, 2022, remarks to excoriating his predecessor for that predecessor's alleged incitement of an "insurrection."

•
Defying parody, a candlelight vigil was held at the National Mall — "in remembrance of the attack on our democracy that occurred on January 6, 2021."

•
In fairness, it is true that modern America no longer meets a threshold definition of "democracy." But the left is wrong as to why.

•
America in the year 2022 is not a nation bedeviled by a great scourge of right-wing political violence, but it is a nation bedeviled by a monolithic and intellectually homogenous oligarchy that seeks to subjugate dissenting "deplorables" by any means necessary.

•
American oligarchy is when a duly elected president of the United States is stymied from day one by cynical ruling class fabulists concocting a false story about that president's alleged collusion with a foreign power, based on the primary "evidence" of a salacious and unverified "dossier" created in conjunction with the defeated opponent's presidential campaign.

•
American oligarchy is when the institutional media cheers on not one but two baseless and mind-numbing presidential impeachments based on nothing more than frothing partisan fealty to the oligarchs' preferred political tribe, the Democratic Party.

•
American oligarchy is when the nation's fourth-largest newspaper, the New York Post, runs on the eve of a monumental presidential election a prominent piece of investigative journalism about the oligarchs' preferred candidate's troubled son's shameless overseas venality — only to see that piece of journalism wiped clean from the Big Tech platforms and the Post locked out of its very own Twitter account.

•
American oligarchy is when neoliberal purists from the left, center and right unite to thwart any meaningful attempt at antitrust enforcement against Big Tech, permitting the Birkenstock-wearing C-suite dweebs who control our digital public square to bowdlerize that public square of any "deplorable" dissent from regime rule.

•
American oligarchy is when White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg collude, in naked fashion, to purge Facebook of any discourse skeptical of the recent crowning regime achievement, ineffectual COVID-19 "vaccines."

•
American oligarchy is when White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients, echoing the rhetoric of a Maoist "social credit system," rebukes "the unvaccinated" for "looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm."

•
American oligarchy is when myriad states take advantage of a pandemic to pass massive changes to electoral regulations by executive fiat, and thus in violation of the U.S. Constitution, in such a manner as to not-so-coincidentally benefit the regime's favored political party.

•
American oligarchy is when even the most anodyne of post-2020 election attempts to undo the ad hoc electoral changes of 2020, such as Georgia's quite moderate voting law, are unfairly maligned by political oligarchs as "Jim Crow on steroids" and viciously opposed by Big Business oligarchs all too happy to boycott states that legislate on behalf of cultural or electoral sanity.

•
American oligarchy is the spawning of a two-tier "biomedical security state" in which dissenters from the ruling class' preferred narrative on COVID-19 vaccines, mandates and lockdowns are punished via woke consternation, fired from their jobs, kicked off the digital public square and physically dragged out of convenience stores by police.

•
American oligarchy is when the uniparty regime's foot soldiers, the Antifa and Black Lives Matter hooligans who savaged American urban corridors during 2020's "1619 Riots," are let off scot-free, while Jan. 6 trespassers without any previous criminal history are subjected to solitary confinement.

•
The left is correct to bewail the sordid and fallen state of "our democracy." It just has no idea why.
Tucker Carlson: Why are we still talking about this? (Fox 01/07/2022)
•
As you may have heard, this is the anniversary of January 6th, and in commemoration of that, we have donned the official network-approved solemn anchor outfit: white shirt, muted tie, message reverence.

•
But actually, if you take three steps back as historical events go — if we're being honest now — January 6th, barely rates as a footnote, really, not a lot happened that day.

•
If you think about it, the presidential election was not overturned, the Capitol was not destroyed. The government wasn't toppled. No matter what you may have heard, not a single elected official was injured, thank God.

•
Police got shoved. Unfortunately, punches were thrown. But the only person who wound up dead from violence was an unarmed protester who was shot to death without warning by a cop.

•
None of the so-called insurrectionists had guns. When was the last time you saw an insurrection like that?

•
So looking back, you could probably call what happened on January 6th a riot, we have called it that, but really only just a riot, maybe just barely. By recent standards, it was an embarrassingly tepid effort. No one even bothered to set a fire or spray paint slogans on the walls.

•
So the question is why are we still talking about this? Why are our leaders obsessing over this event? For every single one of the last 365 days, the propaganda machine has been at 11, ginning up noise about January 6 to deafening levels, and it's not stopping.

•
In fact, after all this time, amazingly, the yelling is getting louder and wilder and still more disconnected from reality.

•
A year after the election it doesn't make sense. It's not relevant to their lives. Everyone agrees January 6 was ugly. But was it really a greater threat to America than, say, inflation? Than opening the southern border and admitting two million people whose identities we can't confirm?

•
So it's a tough sell, telling normal people that this is a world-historic event. So why are they still saying that? There are reasons actually and we're going to do our best to explain what those reasons are and what actually happened?

•
Biden told the country that in fact, symbolically, January 6th was worse than the Civil War, the American Civil War. That would be the war that killed more than a million people. January 6th was worse than that because somebody held a naughty flag.

•
... these people have no shame. And that definitely goes to the national media, they were out in force today.

•
But then you saw something pretty strange, you saw the police who were in charge of securing the perimeter, move aside the barricades and let the protesters or rioters or insurrectionists whatever you're going to call them — a lot of people still in prison — let them in the building. So why did they do that?

•
Now we know conclusively, because an awful lot has been reported on it, much divulged by the U.S. government, that law enforcement authorities knew there was going to be a significant protest that day. And so they were prepared. Apparently, they had snipers with shoot-to-kill orders on standby.

•
So why exactly where the protesters allowed in, welcomed in, by law enforcement? There may be a completely good reason for that. We're not doubting that there is an honest explanation. We just don't know what it is. No one has ever explained that.

•
Liz Cheney, who has berated the country in the most self-righteous possible way for weeks, months now, telling us we need to get the bottom of exactly what happened — totally uninterested in finding out why that happened.

•
So there he is, scaffold commander, commanding the crowd to break the law, exhorting them forward to break the law. There was the largest manhunt in American history conducted after this day, January 6th.

•
... this man has been dubbed by internet sleuths as the scaffold commander. Now he was shot from a variety of different angles on videotape on January 6th, appearing to give orders to the crowd from an elevated position. There's really no doubt if you watch the tapes and they're all available online and if interested, you should that this guy was coordinating the movement of the crowd toward and into the United States Capitol.

•
If FBI agents can fly to Alaska and hassle old ladies on Social Security because they were present, they can probably find this guy. And yet, as far as we know, this guy who clearly had some kind of management role that day has not been arrested, has not been charged or even publicly identified. What is that about?

•
Scaffold Commander: (on top of scaffolding yelling on a megaphone) Okay we're in! We're in! Come on! We gotta fill up the Capitol! Come on! Come now! We need help Come now we need help! We're gonna fill up the Capitol.

•
... this guy is not only unidentified, no new authority seems interested in the slightest and finding out who he is and why is that?
Hannity blasts Democrats, media 'clown show' focus on January 6, points out 574 uninvestigated riots (Fox 01/07/2022)
•
"The gaslighting from the Democrats and the mob and the media's reaching record levels. We have fake hysteria, crocodile tears, analogies now to 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and even the Holocaust complete with a special performance and the cast of 'Hamilton'."

•
"It is a clown show unspectacular levels," he said. "Where is the committee investigating all of those riots with dozens of dead Americans, thousands of injured cops?" he asked, going on to point to millions in property damage from Portland to Philadelphia, and noted that in one case, now-Vice President Kamala Harris helped publicize a Minnesota-based bail fund for the violent left-wing rioters.

•
While Rep. Bennie Thompson's, D-Miss., committee focuses on the Capitol riot, no concern from Thompson or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has been construed in response to incidents of left-wing activists attempting to break a U.S. Secret Service barricade to the White House in 2020, where the Trump family was living...

•
... some activists around that time went so far as to set a church on fire across from the White House.

•
"The situation was so dangerous, the president and his family were forced to flee to a secure bunker, and ultimately 60 secret service officers sustained injuries in the attack. Eleven were transported to a local hospital. According to Democrats, the media mob, the January 6th committee, this never happened."

•
"Where is the committee investigating this?" he added, tabulating 574 such incidents of riots, looting and/or arson nationwide by leftists and aligned groups.

•
Regarding the January 6 incident, Hannity said Trump authorized 10-20,000 National Guardsman to protect the Capitol, while the Capitol Police Chief requested assistance as well.

•
... both Pelosi and District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser had to approve such requests, and refused them multiple times. "By doing so, they left the Capitol totally vulnerable."

•
"Ask yourself this question, if the true purpose of the committee is to understand what happened so that it can never happen again, how can you possibly ignore the issue of rejecting the National Guard that the president called up? The only reason I can think of is the committee is playing partisan politics and it has a predetermined outcome."

•
... Pelosi rejected part of the Republican caucus' slate of appointees to the committee – leading Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to pull the entire roster.

•
"Don't forget, Trump said [on that day], ‘many of you will peacefully, patriotically March to the capitol so your voices may be heard.' But of course, those words don't matter to Democrats ... The Democratic Party, they never let truth and facts get in that we have a good narrative."
Who are the real insurrectionists? (JWR 01/06/2022)
•
... the Left now variously alleges that either in 2022, when they expect to lose the Congress, or in 2024, when they fear losing the presidency, Republicans will "destroy democracy" or stage a coup.

•
A cynic might suggest that they praise democracy when they get elected, only to claim it is broken when they lose.

•
Or they hope to avoid their defeat by trying to terrify the electorate. Or they mask their own revolutionary propensities by projecting them onto their opponents.

•
After all, who is trying to federalize election laws in national elections contrary to the spirit of the Constitution? Who wishes to repeal or circumvent the Electoral College? Who wishes to destroy the more than 180-year-old Senate filibuster, the over 150-year-old nine-justice Supreme Court, and the more than 60-year-old, 50-state union?

•
Who is attacking the founding constitutional idea of two senators per state?

•
The Constitution also clearly states that "When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside."

•
Who slammed through the impeachment of former president Donald Trump without a presiding chief justice?

•
Never had a president been either impeached twice or tried in the Senate as a private citizen. Who did both?

•
The Left further broke prior precedent by impeaching Trump without a special counsel's report, formal hearings, witnesses, and cross-examinations. Who exactly is violating federal civil rights legislation?

•
New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in December decided to ration potentially lifesaving new COVID-19 medicines, partially on the basis of race, in the name of "equity."

•
The agency also allegedly used racial preferences to determine who would be first tested for COVID-19. Yet such racial discrimination seems in direct violation of various title clauses of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

•
That law makes it clear that no public agency can use race to deny "equal utilization of any public facility which is owned, operated, or managed by or on behalf of any State or subdivision thereof." Who is behind the new racial discrimination?

•
In summer 2020, many local and state-mandated quarantines and bans on public assemblies were simply ignored with impunity — if demonstrators were associated with Black Lives Matter or protesting the police.

•
Currently, the Biden Administration is also flagrantly embracing the neo-Confederate idea of nullifying federal law.

•
The Biden Administration has allowed nearly 2 million foreign nationals to enter the United States illegally across the southern border — in hopes they will soon be loyal constituents.

•
The administration has not asked illegal entrants either to be tested for or vaccinated against COVID-19. Yet all U.S. citizens in the military and employed by the federal government are threatened with dismissal if they fail to become vaccinated.

•
Such selective exemption of lawbreaking non-U.S. citizens, but not millions of U.S. citizens, seems in conflict with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

•
After entering the United States illegally, millions of immigrants are protected by some 550 "sanctuary city" jurisdictions.

•
These revolutionary areas all brazenly nullify immigration law by refusing to allow federal immigration authorities to deport illegal immigrant lawbreakers.

•
At various times in our nation's history — 1832, 1861-65, and 1961-63 — America was either racked by internal violence or fought a civil war over similar state nullification of federal laws.

•
Hillary Clinton hired a foreign national to concoct a dossier of dirt against her presidential opponent. She disguised her own role by projecting her efforts to use Russian sources onto Trump.

•
She used her contacts in government and media to seed the dossier to create a national hysteria about "Russian collusion."

•
Clinton urged Biden not to accept the 2020 result if he lost, and herself claimed Trump was not a legitimately elected president.

•
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has violated laws governing the chain of command. Some retired officers violated Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice by slandering their commander-in-chief. Others publicly were on record calling for the military to intervene to remove an elected president.

•
Some of the nation's top officials in the FBI and intelligence committee have misled or lied under oath either to federal investigators or the U.S. Congress, again, mostly with impunity.

•
All these sustained revolutionary activities were justified as necessary to achieve the supposedly noble ends of removing Trump.

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The result is Third World-like jurisprudence in America aimed at rewarding friends and punishing enemies, masked by service to social justice.

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We are in a dangerous revolutionary cycle. But the threat is not so much from loud, buffoonish one-day rioters on January 6.

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Such clownish characters did not for 120 days loot, burn, attack courthouses and police precincts, cause over 30 deaths, injure 2,000 policemen, and destroy at least $2 billion in property — all under the banner of revolutionary justice.

•
Even more ominously, stone-cold sober elites are systematically waging an insidious revolution in the shadows that seeks to dismantle America's institutions and the rule of law as we have known them.
Declining faith in democracy? How did that happen? (JWR 01/05/2022)
Associated Press = Associated Propaganda (JWR 01/05/2022)
White parents of school shooters are culpable; black parents of inner-city gangbangers are blameless (JWR 01/05/2022)
Tucker Carlson: What our leaders have done to young people is unforgivable (Fox 01/04/2022)
Kudlow: The America we love will not accept big government socialism (Fox 01/03/2022)
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The American way rewards success, not punish it. The American way loves the freedom to invent, innovate, discover, create, and prosper. Americans don't want to be strangled by red tape and taxes from radical left bureaucrats in the Washington D.C. swamp.

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The American way promotes parents and families, not government control of education and child-rearing. The American way defends police and law and order.

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Americans very much favor legal immigration through appropriate processes, but the country is appalled by the current lack of borders and nearly two million illegals who are also, by the way, receiving various forms of government welfare.

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Americans are not racist. They do not believe the country was founded on a bunch of white supremacists, they don't want divisive racism in their kids' classrooms, and they are sick and tired of far-left crazy people who constantly charge racism as the answer to every legitimate disagreement or even conversation. This kind of totalitarian approach that seeks to end freedom of speech is unacceptable to traditional America.

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The majority of this country, indeed it's backbone, is comprised of honest, blue-collar workin' folk who cherish traditional conservative values.

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Their arch-enemy is leftist wokeism and that's why the middle class is in full revolt against these leftist attacks.

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Also, Americans want to see a strong nation, peace through strength, American interests first, not diplomatic appeasement. Whether it's China's Xi, or Russia's Putin or Iranian mullahs, workin' folks are sick and tired of seeing America pushed around. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a catastrophe. We could be on the verge of war with Russia and Ukraine. We mustn't give up Taiwan. And we must not allow Iran to nuclearize.

•
These are a few key points and what has turned out to be a populist revolt against the administration of Joe Biden. His foreign policy is in shambles. His economic policy is universally unpopular. His honesty and competence are questioned at every turn. And frankly his presidency is on the verge of collapse.

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We've been through rough patches before, but we've always come out of them greater, stronger, and more prosperous.

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This little socialist interlude we are experiencing will soon pass. America is too good, too practical, too commonsensical, and too smart to allow socialist economics and bigoted prejudicial values to last for long.

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
America Sticks Out Its Tush (JWR 01/03/2022)
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America has literally lost the plot. On the last soundstage, all parts are interchangeable: Men become women, and the grizzled butch coaches of college athletics can't wait to put 'em on the ladies' track team.

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Women become men, and then pregnant men, and then threaten the hospital for the humiliation of having to give birth in a "maternity ward" .

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At dark on the streets of US cities, wispy, spindly, elderly eternal "college" boys cheer on hefty psycho-trannies with purple hair and hirsute cleavage as they light up precinct houses.

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Indulgent prosecutors release them without bail - or, if bail is still quaintly required, Seth Rogen or a Joe Biden staffer will cover it.

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Stories with less helpful narratives - Democrat Congresswomen getting carjacked, or blacks slaughtering blacks every weekend in Chicago, or black criminals (sprung from the big house by woke DAs) mowing down white grannies at a Christmas parade - are instantly memory-holed.

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Even real people adjust their actual lives to conform with the needs of the greater narrative: Thus the Vice President of the United States, the first in history to announce her pronouns on Twitter, purports to have celebrated "Kwanzaa" during her childhood in, um, a high-caste Indian household in, er, Quebec.

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The same Democrat party that enslaved blacks for decades and then discriminated against them for another century now demands the incineration of the entirety of American history with the exception of its own glorious inviolable self.

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Kate Smith, for example, never owned slaves or ran a segregated lunch counter or served as a Grand Kleagle, as did Joe Biden's mentor for whom everything in West Virginia is named.

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But she did ninety years ago make a record with the word "darkies" in the lyric, so she cannot be permitted to sing "God Bless America" to a stadium of kneeling superstars.

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America's hideously unwatchable knee-taking corporate sports franchises boycott entire US states over "bathroom bills" but kowtow before a genocidal politburo if one of their lads accidentally puts in a good word for the people of Hong Kong.

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Thoroughly Modern Milley and the other beribboned buffoons of the planet's most lavishly funded dysfunctional military take twenty years to lose to goatherds with fertilizer and write off a two-billion-dollar ship because a five-admiral chain of command can't command its men to put out a fire in a timely manner ...or even call the municipal fire department in a timely manner.

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But they can design third-trimester flight suits for heavily pregnant fighter pilots. And, in a year or so, no doubt for heavily pregnant Navy Seals...

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The rah-rah right finds the scale of America's global humiliation in Afghanistan a bit of a downer, but not to worry because it sets up the GOP (Send Money Now to sendmoneynow.com) pretty nicely for the midterms...

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The "national security" right swivels smoothly from the Fall of Kabul to saber-rattling over Taiwan and the Ukraine, fully confident that the same military that managed to return Afghanistan to the Taliban with more territory than they ever controlled before is now fit and rested and ready to threaten the Red Army on its own turf and a Chinese Communist Party that makes all the most basic American needs, from batteries and microchips to aspirins and underwear.

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Covid fits naturally into such a world. What matters is to strike the correct attitude and ignore your lyin' eyes. So half the population staggers around in tatty moth-eaten cloth masks hanging off the ends of their noses agreeing with Fauci that an open southern border taking in millions of maskless unvaccinated persons testing positive at a higher rate than the natives is absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the pandemic, no sir...

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Also, it's important to follow "the science" , even if it was "the science" that created this thing by doing gain-of-function research at the Chinese Communist lab the virus managed to escape from.

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And you can't blame the Chinese because that would be racist, and racism toward Asians is totally unacceptable, except in US college admissions and daylight sucker-punching in midtown Manhattan.

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Unvaccinated people are a threat to vaccinated people, and double-vaccinated people are a threat to triple-vaccinated people, and people who submit to annual booster shots are a threat to people who submit to quarterly booster shots, who in turn are grossly irresponsible by going to Christmas dinner at the homes of people with fortnightly booster shots...

•
... when a forty-nine-year-old New York Times editor dies of a heart attack, The New York Times announces his sudden death, but not that it came less than twenty-four hours after tweeting gleefully that he's gotten his third vaccine shot and that Omicron should now feel free to "hit me with your wet snot".

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To come back to where we came in - the dearth of children in the remnants of Christendom - ex-Pope Benedict observed a decade and a half ago: "Children, who are the future, are seen as a threat for the present; the idea is that they take something away from our life. They are not felt as a hope, but rather as a limitation of the present."

•
Whether that was true then, it has certainly been the guiding principle of the last two years. It has been obvious for at least eighteen months that children have been the principal victims of public health policy over a virus that is statistically harmless to them.

•
The toll on mental health has been enormous, and the damage will be with us for years. It is almost too perfectly symbolic of the inverted demography of the post-Christian west: elderly adults sacrificing their infants to ward off the evil spirits of Omicron.

•
William Kilpatrick is correct that it is hard to hold a "clash of civilizations" when one party to the clash is obsessed with flaying misgenderers and torching its entire civilizational inheritance.

•
Our enemies know, even if that LGBTQWERTY flag flying over Washington's lost billion-dollar embassy a month before the Fall of Kabul hadn't advertised the fact to the world, that Woke America is for losers: it's what fills the void when you have trashed your history, right up to the day before yesterday.

•
We do a lot of history at this website, in part because our own moment is so bloody stupid and because the disinclination even to try to understand a man of the past in the context of his times is the apotheosis of a totalitarian triumphalism that will eventually prove violent and murderous.

•
Mr Kilpatrick is right, too, that we cannot win a clash of civilizations until we have settled matters on the home front. So, at the dawn of another Year Zero, I renew my old credo: Unless you're prepared to surrender everything, surrender nothing - and don't waste your time with alleged rock-ribbed politicians who have surrendered far too much already.

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In the meantime, China, Russia and the mullahs have the advantage on us: They do not take refuge in fatuous platitudes belied by a thousand years of history that "diversity is strength".

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See related Diversity Is Our Strength! (Sean Delonas, 12/01/2019) cartoon from Terror picture album
Popular Supreme Court a threat to democracy? Liberals panic over latest poll (Fox 01/02/2022)
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"The consequences for ... popular democracy could be dire." Those ominous words from Eric Levitz in the New York Magazine are enough to chill one to the bone after a year of alleged insurrections and plans for a conservative coup.

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Indeed, the magazine itself has disclosed a Republican strategy to kill Americans with COVID-19.

•
... Levitz explained, "If the Court's right-wing majority finds that it can continually push the boundaries of conservative judicial activism without undermining its own popular legitimacy, then the consequences for progressivism and popular democracy could be dire."

•
First, Levitz is saying that the goals of the left would be scuttled if the court or its members are popular.

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For over a year, many in the media and Congress have launched unrelenting attacks on the court and pushed an agenda to pack the court to create an instant liberal majority.

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They know that court-packing is widely detested by the public (as it once was by President Biden and many on the left).

•
In order to achieve such a goal, the justices must be demonized like much else in our age of rage.

•
It is also worth noting that the stated goal is "popular democracy." The term is often associated with "direct democracy," where citizens have unfiltered and direct say in government decisions.

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It was the model expressly rejected by the Framers in favor of our system of representative democracy.

•
In Federalist 10, James Madison wrote: "Pure democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."

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Instead, he created a system by which public passions could be filtered or expressed through a smaller group of representatives, officials who could temper and refine popular impulse.

•
In addition to our system of representative democracy, we have institutions designed to resist popular impulse or demands.

•
The U.S. Supreme Court is the principal example. Justices were given life tenure to insulate them from such pressures and intimidation.

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The court is designed to stand against majoritarian demands and what Madison called "the tyranny of the majority."

•
That system has served us well. It was the counter majoritarian role that allowed the court to strike down bans on interracial marriage, decriminalize homosexuality and protect the rights of the accused. Those were unpopular acts, but the court followed the Constitution rather than the polls.

•
Levitz assumes that if the justices or the institution were unpopular, it would compel different outcomes or changes on the court.

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Ethical jurists on both the left and the right reject that notion as the very antithesis of the rule of law.

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The left once celebrated the independence of the court in ordering relief that was denied or blocked in Congress like desegregation.

•
... extreme groups like Demand Justice have run their own billboards targeting justices like Stephen Breyer to push them to retire. With the support of many law professors, they are also demanding that Congress pack the court to create an instant liberal majority.

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As in the 1960s, Democratic politicians are issuing direct warnings to the justices to rule "correctly," or face consequences.

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Professors have declared that "our Constitution isn't working" because they are not seeing the outcomes that they deem to be correct.

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Senators and commentators are now calling for "revolution" and "rebellion" to achieve what cannot be achieved in a system that has worked for over two centuries to preserve stability and freedom for our country.

•
... Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., asked why we should preserve an institution if it is not going to vote consistently with her views and those of the Democratic Party: "How much does the current structure benefit us? And I don't think it does."

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That brings us back to Roberts and his pesky popularity. You cannot achieve a revolution without people getting really angry.

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Yet, despite a steady drumbeat in the media, it is not working. Indeed, the Gallup poll shows the diminishing power of the mainstream media, which has largely abandoned half of the country with its embrace of "advocacy journalism."

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Levitz is one of the writers who previously denounced reporters who have been critical of Biden and openly editorializing "against the White House's policy."

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The result is that all of that advocacy journalism is just "singing to the choir" – independents and conservatives left a long time ago as our media have become more of a series of hardened silos for echo journalism.

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With the courts and the public not responding, it is hard to bring about the "revolution" promised by members and commentators.

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You need an angry populace to tear down institutions that stand in the way. You need to destroy the legitimacy of the court itself.

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... all the attacks in the media have not "eroded public reverence for the judiciary." The scary thought for Levitz is that, if conservative justices are respected, there is little hope for forcing the court to yield to demands of "progressivism and popular democracy."
Being silenced is not golden (INN 01/01/2022)
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Virtually all major media, the intelligentsia, all the Democrats, and even many Republicans tell us that the man we supported for President is guilty of "sedition."

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That he led an "insurrection" in an "attempted coup" or "putsch" that sought to destroy democracy in America.

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We are guilty by association with cretins wearing "Camp Auschwitz" shirts who attacked the high citadel of America.

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We should be cowering in silence and shame over the travesty and horror that we aided and abetted.

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We must be fired from our jobs, cast out of polite society, and have our social media accounts shut down.

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Even more so, if we dare to continue asserting that there were serious questions about the election that were never properly resolved.

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In fact, all such claims have been thoroughly "debunked" ; all the lawsuits Trump's team brought were tossed out of court for lack of evidence.

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Senators Cruz and Hawley, who (while denouncing the rioters in the strongest terms) persisted in objecting to the certification of the elections, should be thrown out of office and perhaps charged with sedition.

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We must hang our heads in shame before the wiser, all-knowing liberals who always knew that Joe Biden and the Democrats were morally superior.

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After all, they have long been warning us that Trump is a rabble-rousing, incompetent, corrupt, arrogant white supremacist who has now proved to be the greatest imaginable danger to America and the world.

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We must submit to the silencing of our voices and accept our deserved lot as defeated and "canceled," while our political opponents use their now unbridled power to change America forever.

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I believe that it is crucial for us – the 71 million who voted for Donald Trump and against Joe Biden – to refuse to allow ourselves to be written off due to the awful actions of a relatively tiny bunch of criminals at the rally.

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It is crucial that 70 million-plus people not feel that their voice has been stolen from them – which is exactly what the left is now trying to do in every possible way.

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We must stand for respectful ways to disagree when necessary. We must demand that reasonable voices on all sides deserve to be heard, and that all have the opportunity for freedom of speech and expression, providing that it is not an explicit call for violence.

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We must refuse to be silenced. We cannot let the guilty few steal our self-respect, nor accept the twisting of the truth to dismiss our legitimacy.

•
We must hold our heads high, knowing that the tragic events of January 6th changed nothing about what we believe to be true.

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We cannot let those hypocrites – who for months and years excused and even praised the many violent protests BLM and Antifa, who repeatedly called for and engaged in acts of violence against their political foes – lecture us with their selective, newfound outrage.

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We must stand for respectful ways to disagree when necessary. We must demand that reasonable voices on all sides deserve to be heard, and that all have the opportunity for freedom of speech and expression, providing that it is not an explicit call for violence.

•
Millions of people are not convinced that the election of Joe Biden was legitimate and proper. Contrary to the oft-repeated lie, the vast majority of the courts did NOT rule on election fraud evidence.

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Virtually every case held either that Trump's advocates had no standing to bring the lawsuit (as in the US SupremeCourt) or failure to file in a timely manner (the ruling in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court).

•
Thus, the many bad acts that were testified to by the thousands (mail trucks of fake ballots delivered, suitcases of ballots being brought out after hours, ballots of the dead and missing, keeping observers far away thus rendering them useless, etc.) were never presented in court.

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The constitutional arguments that the courts changed election laws rather than by the legislature were never given a fair hearing.

•
The recounting of possibly fraudulent ballots with the envelopes that might have proven fraud was never done.

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Did President Trump act improperly in the lead-up and during the riot at the Capitol? In short, yes.

•
He was wrong to demand that Vice President Pence overturn the certification. The Twelfth amendment grants the Vice President no such right; it is purely a ceremonial role.

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By contrast, the Senators and Congressmen DO have a right – and even duty – to object if they conclude that the election should not be certified.

•
Immediately upon hearing that things had gone awry at the Capitol, the President should have forcefully sent a message for the rioters to leave the building and stand down.

•
He should have known that his message – which was directed primarily not to the rioters but to the hundreds of thousands who had come to the rally – "Go home, we love you ... Go home in peace" would be misconstrued by his enemies (and by some of the rioters).

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They would claim that he supported the violence, though he specifically said the opposite ("Go home now, we have to have peace, have to have law and order, we have to respect our great people in law and order, we don't want anyone hurt" ).

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He should not have engaged in personal verbal attacks against his political foes, which unduly raised passions in the crowd.

•
He, and the hundreds of thousands who came to support him, were right to exercise their first amendment rights to protest and voice their concerns. However, he erred in turning up the temperature to make it a personal fight against evil.

•
The extremists on the far right (like the extremists on the far left) did not need much motivation to commit acts of violence.

•
Less violently than BLM's actions and other militants on the left for the past four years, the extremist morons of the right (many of whom are as anti-semitic as the extremist morons on the left) engaged in very damaging behavior that was foreseeable.

•
In fact, there is growing evidence that most of those who broke windows and entered the Capitol were anti-Trump Antifa activists, who planned a false flag operation to make Trump and his supporters look bad.

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I believe that most of those who entered the Capitol were just regular law-abiding people caught up in a mob mentality and followed the crowd where they should not have.

•
... impeaching the President one week before the end of his term and slandering his behavior as having engaged in sedition, insurrection, and treason was an act of political vindictiveness that sought only to silence him and his supporters forever...

•
The truth is that although Mr. Trump's actions on January 6th are rightly criticized, we were right to support a president who – despite unending hostility, enmity, and attacks since the day he was nominated – managed to accomplish a great deal of good for the United States.

•
He restored much sanity to America's economy, foreign policy, and national pride. He appointed excellent judges who will leave their mark for a long time.

•
He restored much balance taken away by the radical left (which they are now trying to grab back). And, of course, he was the best friend Israel ever had in the White House.

•
It is an epic tragedy that the Trump presidency ended this way. Perhaps his behavior can be understood as having snapped after the relentless opposition pushed him past his breaking point – not many people would have been able to continue functioning on such a high level under such relentless attack for so long.
Why does 'diversity' have to lead to anti-Semitism? (JWR 12/31/2021)
The ungracious — and their demonization of the past (JWR 12/30/2021)
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Critics assume their own judgmental generation is morally superior to those of the past. So, they use their own standards to condemn the mute dead who supposedly do not measure up to them.

•
Yet 21st-century critics rarely acknowledge their own present affluence and leisure owe much to history's prior generations whose toil helped create their current comfort.

•
And what may future scolds say of the modern generation that saw over 60 million abortions since Roe v. Wade, even as fetal viability outside the womb continued to progress to ever earlier ages?

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What will our grandchildren say of us who dumped on them over $30 trillion in national debt — much of it as borrowing for entitlements for ourselves?

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What sort of society snoozes as record numbers of murders continue in 12 of its major cities? What is so civilized about defunding the police, endemic smash-and-grab thefts, and car jackings?

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Was it actually moral to discard the "content of our character" and "equal opportunity" principles of the prior Civil Rights movement of 60 years ago?

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Are their replacement fixations on the "color of our skin" and "equality of result" superior?

•
Would America have won World War II with the current labor participation rate of only six in 10 Americans working?

•
Would our generation have brought all American troops home and quit World War I in fear of the deadly 1918 Spanish flu pandemic?

•
Are we proud that most standardized tests of student knowledge and achievement continue to decline, despite record investments in education?

•
Do we ever pause to consider that we enjoy our modern standard of living and security because we were once a meritocracy that quit judging our workforce by tribal affinities and ancient prejudices?

•
Our generation talks of infrastructure nonstop. But when was the last time it built anything comparable to the Hoover Dam, the interstate highway system, or the California Water Project — much less sent a man back to the moon or beyond?

•
If prior generations were so toxic, why do we continue to take for granted the moral and material world they bequeathed to us, from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to our airports, freeways, and power plants?

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Did we ever defeat anything comparable to the Axis powers or Soviet communism?

•
We know the symptoms of the current epidemic of hating the past. One is Orwellian renaming and statue-toppling.

•
Historical revision often responds to puritanical mob frenzies rather than to democratic discussion and votes of relevant elected officials.

•
Where is the pantheon of woke heroes who will replace the toppled or defaced Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt?

•
Racial fixations tend predictably in one direction. In good Confederate fashion, we lump all individuals who look alike into inexact collectives of "white," "black," or "brown" — often to stereotype the supposed evils of so-called white supremacy.

•
But if we go down that tribalist and simplistic road of caricatured oppressors and oppressed, will future generations tally up each group's merits and demerits, to adjudicate the roles of millions of individuals in making America worse or better?

•
What standard would they use to judge our ignorant world of racial stereotyping — proportional representation in Nobel Prizes, philanthropy, scientific breakthroughs, or lasting art, music, and literature versus statistics on homicides, assault, divorce, and illegitimacy?

•
Immigration — when legal, diverse, measured, and often meritocratic — has been the great strength of America, as typified by industrious arrivals who chose to abandon their own homeland to risk new lives in a foreign United States.

•
But if America is so flawed and so irredeemable, why in fiscal year 2021 are nearly 2 million foreigners now crashing its borders — illegally, en masse, and intent on reaching a supposedly racist nation that is purportedly inferior to those they abandon?

•
According to the ancient brutal bargain, assimilation and integration grant the immigrant as much claim to America's present and past as the native-born. But then shouldn't the antithesis also be true?

•
Shouldn't immigrants at least respect those of the past who created the very country they now so eagerly desire, and died in awful places from Valley Forge to Bastogne to preserve?

•
Never in history has such a mediocre, but self-important and ungracious generation owed so much, and yet expressed so little gratitude, to its now dead forebears.
The Year of Living Unreasonably (JWR 12/29/2021)
Please — stop the coup porn (JWR 12/23/2021)
Kim Potter made a mistake. Her jury did not, but maybe the law needs to be reviewed (Fox 12/23/2021)
The Big Government COVID-19 Lie (JWR 12/22/2021)
•
On Oct. 30, 2020, just days before the presidential election, Joe Biden tweeted, "I'm not going to shut down the country. I'm not going to shut down the economy. I'm going to shut down the virus."

•
This was a lie. It was a lie because nobody can shut down the virus. Government does not have the power to end disease, as a general matter.

•
Which means that government should not aim for elimination; it can aim for some level of control. That control must be balanced with countervailing concerns, ranging from suppression of economic freedom to the effects of social isolation.

•
... why pursue useless — no, counterproductive — COVID-19 restrictions? Because the big-government lie must be maintained. It is an article of faith. And faith requires reason-free sacrifice — it requires skin in the game, demonstration of devotion.

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To pursue irrational policy and then demand obeisance — this is the mark of the faithful. And if you are not faithful, you are a heretic.

•
On Oct. 22, 2020, in a debate with President Donald Trump, Biden said that "anyone who is responsible for not taking control ... anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America."

•
This was incorrect. The truth is that anyone who claimed that he could take control of a virus should be held responsible for the consequences of that lie.

•
But that will only happen when Americans abandon the cultic worship of government and return to reality.

•
And Biden and Democrats will fight such blasphemy with every weapon in their arsenal.
Tucker Carlson: The Democratic Party is failing, so they are trying to ruin your Christmas (Fox 12/22/2021)
•
Has there ever been a news environment like this one? Every day feels like some weird new PSYOP from the government, as translated through the media companies designed to convince you of something that's just obviously false.

•
Here is the most important fact in American politics right now: The Democratic Party just hit a brick wall. Democrats cannot continue to run the United States of America.

•
Democrats sincerely believe they were the party of oppressed racial minorities, a group that they alone could protect from White racism.

•
That was the whole point of the party. And weirdly, Republican leaders seemed to kind of accept it as true. But actually, it turns out it wasn't true at all.

•
In fact, the Democratic Party is not the party of oppressed racial minorities, it's the opposite, it's the party of entitled White liberals and pretty much only entitled White liberals.

•
Now they're telling you you're going to die of a cold. They're calling it omicron. It's a terrifying new variant of COVID, which you remember is a name they picked to conceal the fact that the entire pandemic was likely created in a lab by the Chinese government with the help of American tax dollars.

•
But shut up. Stop talking. That's racist. And now omicron is here, so there's no time to think. Your job is to be afraid.

•
And unfortunately, many people are afraid they haven't had time because they're so afraid to check the numbers and discover that as an epidemiological matter, this is all completely insane.

•
Far more Americans have died this month from choking on entrees than have died from omicron. That is factually true. The CDC can confirm it for you.

•
So there you go. If you've had at least three Joe Biden-approved vaccine injections, you can celebrate Christmas. That's the word from our Botoxed Napoleon. Otherwise, you can't celebrate Christmas.

•
How long before they tell us you can't vote in person without the vaccine? That's coming, obviously.

•
But for now, Joe Biden has canceled Christmas for America's working class, now known as "the unvaccinated." They didn't vote for him in the last election, so they can't celebrate Christmas. In fact, this whole pandemic is their fault.

•
Now, before we unpack the implications of what Biden has said, a word about the language he and many others are using. Biden and his employees persist in calling these injections of vaccine.

•
But that's not quite right. A vaccine prevents disease. The polio shot is a vaccine. You take the shot, and you don't get polio. That's not what these shots are.

•
As Biden himself conceded from the stage today, many thousands of fully vaccinated people have been infected with COVID recently. Now, Biden claims these people are in better shape because they got the shot. He didn't prove that. So far, no one has proved that.

•
But let's assume Biden is right, which is fine. It's still not really a vaccine if you can get and transmit the virus, it's more like an experimental health supplement.

•
And that's fine, too. We're not against experimental health supplements, your body, your choice, they used to say. But unlike other experimental health supplements, this one's mandatory.

•
In fact, as our increasingly desperate and honestly vicious president explained today, submitting to this injection is your patriotic duty.

•
If you don't get this shot, said the man who, up until his election was secretly doing business with the Chinese, you don't really love this country.

•
All the words delivered with Joe Biden's signature lack of shame. Literally, nothing embarrasses this man. Maybe that's one of the benefits of senility.

•
As its power wanes and its destruction at the ballot box looms on the horizon, the Democratic Party is trying to wreck your Christmas.

•
It's their latest PSYOP. They can't convince you of anything anymore. You no longer believe them. Why would you? So they're trying to punish and terrify you into submission instead.

•
But here's the good news: It's not working. Americans are going to celebrate Christmas anyway, they always have, and they're going to this year. This is still America.
Tucker Carlson: Biden’s COVID policies are the muscle spasms of a dying political party (Fox 12/21/2021)
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The one thing we have always known about Latino voters is they're Democrats, and they're Democrats because they understand that Republicans are racist. Period. Upon that assumption, hang all the Democratic Party's hopes for the future.

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Now we learn it isn't true. It's not even close to true. In fact, it's approaching the opposite of the truth. So how are Democrats going to respond to this new reality?

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Look for CNN contributors to start attacking Hispanics just as they've been attacking whites for the past several years. They've got a new enemy now, and it speaks Spanish.

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In the meantime, you really cannot overstate, because it's literally impossible to overstate, the level of panic a poll like that must be inducing at the Democratic National Committee.

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If the Democrats aren't the party of non-White voters, which is what they said, they were probably even what they thought they were. Then what are they?

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It turns out Democrats are exactly what they appear to be. They're the party of neurotic, personally unsatisfied White ladies who live in the suburbs.

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You know, the pretty little signs you see in the lawns of affluent neighborhoods telling you how the people who live inside love BLM and support Tony Fauci?

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That's the real Democratic Party. It's not a national political party. It's a professional class cultural movement that is highly unappealing to normal people.

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The advisers around Joe Biden understand this perfectly well. If these new polling numbers are right, even if they're just sort of right, this is the end of the Democratic Party as a governing majority.

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But, political parties, like markets, often seem the strongest right before they collapsed.

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The problem is, at this moment, the Democratic Party is still in power, and that's a very bad combination for the rest of us.

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Regimes in decline tend to become dangerous. As they weaken, they get increasingly desperate and ruthless. They've been rejected by voters.

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Democracy doesn't work for them anymore. That means they can no longer operate within democratic boundaries and hope to stay in power. So inevitably, they swerve outside those boundaries.

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Instead of trying to convince the public to support them, that's a democracy, they invent domestic enemies and national panics to keep themselves in charge. And that's exactly what we're watching happen right now.

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As of tonight, in this country of 334 million people, there are no confirmed deaths of the omicron variant of COVID.

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At the same time, just this month, many thousands of Americans have passed away from heart disease and cancer, suicide, diabetes, murder, drug overdoses, not to mention car accidents, Parkinson's, emphysema, Alzheimer's, asthma attacks, choking to death on lobster at a crowded restaurant, just to name a few causes.

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Lots of people still die in America, but they are not dying of omicron. No one in this country is. And yet, it's omicron that our leaders and their vessels are suddenly hysterical about.

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CNN doesn't want to talk about the COVID outbreak among vaccinated people in New York. They'd have to correct too many lies that they told. In any case, there are more Democratic voters in New York City than anywhere else in America, so there's no reason to embarrass the base of their own party.

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Instead, CNN and its masters in the Democratic Party have identified the real villain to blame for this outbreak. And you'll know, even before we tell you that it's not Pfizer, it's not the government of China. It's America's working class, a group now known as "The Unvaccinated." On Thursday, Joe Biden informed us that these people will die for what they've done.

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JOE BIDEN: It's here now, and it's spreading and it's going to increase. For unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death if you're unvaccinated. For themselves, their families and the hospital will soon overwhelm.

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It's hard to remember ever in our history an American president saying something more dishonest, crueler or more divisive than that.

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In fact, there's quite a bit of evidence that the millions of Americans who've recovered from COVID and have natural immunity are safer than most people. They've relied on their own immune systems, and they've been rewarded for it. Joe Biden has never once acknowledged that these millions of people exist.

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As for Biden's claim that the unvaccinated are overrunning hospitals, it's hard to believe he would even say that. First, and most obviously, these are American citizens. They have every right to use American hospitals. They pay for those hospitals. This is their country. And as of tonight, they are not overwhelming those hospitals, in point of fact.

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And by the way, since we're on the topic, here's a question: Do the unvaccinated "overwhelm emergency rooms" more than the, say, millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden has just admitted into our country?

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Do they overwhelm the hospitals more than the drug addicts and the mentally ill living on our streets at the Democratic Party so faithfully subsidizes?

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No, they don't. This is a lie. This is all a lie. And it's a very scary thing for the leader of the United States of America to be saying out loud.

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But you can see why he's saying it. You know what's happening here. Biden's COVID policies are a miserable failure. More Americans have died from COVID under Joe Biden than died under Donald Trump.

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That's not some Republican talking point, it's the truth, and you can look it up on the CDC website. That's the bottom line. It's a very hard number to ignore.

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So Biden's advisers want you looking elsewhere. And to get you looking elsewhere, they are working to create a kulak class - a group of reviled subhumans at the rest of us are free to hate and mock and whose deaths were allowed to root for. That's the unvaccinated.

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When David Frum tells you we should let the unvaccinated just die, he's not alone. That is not the official position of the Democratic Party.

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If you get COVID and you're unvaccinated, it is immoral for you to go to the hospital, you're overcrowding it. And we need that space for the many people who've taken the COVID vaccine and are now sick from COVID. That's what the president United States just said on Thursday.

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It's at this point that, if at all wasn't so dark, you'd probably pause and laugh because it's also genuinely hilarious. Take the vax so that when you get the disease it's designed to prevent, you have a right to go to the hospital? It's insane.

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Sens. Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren announced yesterday that they have COVID and are now in quarantine, and of course, we wish them the best, sincerely.

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But you can't help but notice that between them, Booker and Warren have had at least six vaccine injections, and now they're sick.

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So what is the lesson here, exactly? Well, the lesson that Eric Swalwell is drawing from all of this is that unvaccinated Americans should be banned by law from flying on airplanes in their own country. He announced that last night on Twitter.

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In the meantime, whatever personal decisions about the vaccine or COVID or how many masks you wear, if any, know what you're watching here.

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This is not a public health campaign designed to save you from a variant that has not killed a single confirmed American.

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Sorry, it has not. No. So, what is this? These are the muscle spasms of a dying political party. The people in charge are on their way out. Unfortunately, they can still hurt you.
Another approach to the Trump reports (INN 12/20/2021)
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The Democrats' reaction from the first nano-second he announced his candidature was appalling and more than disgusting.

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This reaction soon turned into the most virulent unjustified and dishonest assaults that haunted his presidency from before his inauguration and throughout it.

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The vicious invention and financing by Hillary Clinton of the Russia Hoax, the endless attacks, the unjustified, dishonest and inventive impeachments all would have an effect on any human being.

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Trump showed great strength and character and certainly worked hard at doing a decent job as President in spite of the daily attacks.

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... let us acknowledge that Trump was a very good President and put the welfare and security of the United States and its people first.

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On the international stage he stood strongly and had many accomplishments. The Abraham Accords were a supreme achievement. Making the other NATO allies pay their fair share was a major achievement.

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Standing powerfully against China, Russia, Iran, North Korea was exactly what the world needed and now needs more than ever.

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Trump wasn't part of the political establishment and unlike them, he was financially independent and couldn't be bought.

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He brought a lifetime of being a successful businessman to managing America, which he did successfully. So some people may not have liked his hairstyle, his manner of speaking or style.

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The answer is that all of that is irrelevant as the main question is, did he do the job? The answer is a resounding YES!
Time to take back the real world (JWR 12/20/2021)
The importance of work and the benefits of honest labor (Fox 12/20/2021)
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The United States was founded on the idea of the inherent nobility of work. A nation of free, self-sufficient homesteaders believed their hard labor could ensure their prosperity, liberty and autonomy.

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Through our 233 years as a nation, the American national ethic, our various religions, even our popular culture stressed the character-building nature of labor – and its pathway to personal self-sufficiency and a prosperous and powerful nation of industrious citizens.

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When World War II broke out on Sept. 1, 1939, an isolationist, underemployed and neutral America was still in the throes of serial Depression-era recessions. Its military was undermanned and nearly unarmed.

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... after entering the war on Dec. 11, 1941, in the aftermath of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans – men and women, teenagers and the elderly, all races and religions – worked nonstop, 24-7 as no nation has before or since.

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Less than four years later, the U.S. won the war, by enrolling over 12 million men and women in uniform. Its economy was larger than those of all the major combatants –Britain, Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and imperial Japan – put together.

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The U.S. Navy was not just the largest sea power in the world. Its thousands of newly built ships were also more numerous than all the navies of the world combined.

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America did not fall back into recession after World War II. Instead, its work ethic grew in peace. Labor created a massive interstate highway system, millions of new suburban homes, and thousands of new airports and skyscrapers.

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Americans created so much capital and wealth that they could afford to be the most generous people in the world and supported what was then called government "relief "or ‘welfare" for the indigent, the ill, the elderly and the disabled who could not work.

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The work ethic persisted even amid the hippie cultural upheavals of the "tune in, turn on, drop out" 1960s. Teens still looked forward to summer and part-time jobs in lieu of dependence on parental allowances.

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The nation worked feverishly on the space program, massive water reclamation projects, and won the Cold War by simply outproducing communism.

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Apprentice carpenters, plumbers and electricians often began steady work at 18. "Working your way through college" was a given for students – in the days before trillion-dollar federal loan programs and subsidies.

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Yet the present labor participation rate stubbornly has dipped even lower to about only 62% of the available workforce. Currently, signs like "Now Hiring" and "Help Wanted" dot nearly every city block and suburban mall in America.

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Trucks and vans drive the freeways with painted ads "Workers Wanted". The recovering economy is starting to sputter. Everything from supply chain shortages to inflation is attributed to shortages of labor.

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... our current crippling labor shortages is also because of state and federal serial supplemental entitlements. The cash handouts ostensibly started out as necessary but temporary support during the pandemic. But they now persist as a sort of de facto guaranteed income that often pays better than joining the work force.

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There has been relatively little pushback against this new idleness. To suggest that the government curtail incentives not to work is considered insensitive, even mean-spirited.

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Few make the argument that it is far more immoral that millions of the able are not working in full expectation that millions of others will work.

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And the employed must work even harder to produce food for the healthy nonparticipants, to ensure their gas and power supplies, to keep them safe at home and abroad – and to subsidize their idleness.

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There is a danger when generations of America grow accustomed to not working – they may have forgotten why and how to work.

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Psychologically, citizens can become prolonged adolescents who lose the confidence that comes from independence from government and the ensuing sense of achievement that only work provides.

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Have we also lost the idea that a collectively hard-working America is needed more than ever to remain competitive with rival nations?

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China especially boasts its economy and military will soon surpass our own, in the fashion that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev once boasted over America, "We will bury you" .

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Let us hope we will rediscover the work ethos of an earlier generation and keep safe by outworking our enemies, while we become happier and better Americans – the more we are all busy and employed.
Tucker Carlson: Biden's southern border policy may be the most destructive thing any administration has done (Fox 12/18/2021)
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Most Americans have no idea it's happening, but the rest of the world is watching closely. So if you live in an impoverished country and you'd like a better job and free schools and free health care courtesy of American taxpayers, come on in. And they are.

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This is totally crazy and third-world. You're not supposed to mention that they've racialized everything, so you can't say anything. Most Republicans have been intimidated into silence. They don't want to be called names.

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But the truth is, nothing like this has ever happened in the United States, and it's important for two reasons: The first is the rule of law. Remember that?

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So there are people right now still being held in solitary confinement because they trespassed in a building that technically they own — it's called the Capitol of the United States — and they're still there. They're still in jail.

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But millions of foreign nationals just walk in ignoring our laws completely, and that's totally cool because equity or something?

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How can anybody respect the laws of the United States when they are being ignored by the people in charge of enforcing them? There's a massive cost to that.

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And here's the second point to make: You cannot overstate the scale of demographic change underway right now in the United States. It's a direct assault on our democracy.

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Democracy is the process by which the population elects its representatives. If you change the population, you dilute the political power of the people who already live there. This is an assault on democracy.

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At what scale? Here's an example: Customs and Border Protection caught more than 170,000 foreign nationals crossing into our country from Mexico last month. How many people is that? Well, that's the equivalent of the entire population of Knoxville, Tennessee, in a single month.

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But it's happening every month, month after month under Joe Biden. And those are just the people we're catching. So this, and let's not lie about it, is the Democratic Party's reelection plan.

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New York is already allowing non-citizens to vote. Expect that trend to spread, because equity.

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Opening the border may be the single most destructive thing that any administration has ever done to this country.

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See related Leading the Caravan (Sean Delonas, 10/22/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Dreamer (Glenn McCoy, 09/15/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Socialism Doesn't Work [And You Shouldn't Support It] (JWR 12/16/2021)
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Here's the truth: Trump didn't create anything. He didn't cause anything.

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Trump only tapped the public sentiment that had preexisted his entry into the political sphere for years.

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Americans — Black, white, Hispanic, native-born and immigrant, working class and wealthy, business owners, farmers and the military — were sick to death of being ignored, insulted and lied to by D.C. swamp dwellers (of both parties), the news media and other self-appointed elites.

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They supported Trump because he amplified their voices; he understood their concerns. Those newly unified voices are not going away; in fact, they are growing in number.

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The 74 million people who voted for Trump in 2020 have had their worst fears confirmed with each passing day of Biden's dementia-addled administration.

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Millions more who actually voted for Biden realize they were sold a bill of goods, whether they admit it publicly or not.

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Democrats must know this. The party has been yanked so far to the left that their policies don't even appeal to a majority of the American public. That's why they lie.

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The real "coup" isn't conservatives' efforts to preserve election integrity; it's the left's attempt to overthrow the truth in their quest for power. They must be defeated.
Restraint and the tornado tragedy (JWR 12/16/2021)
Why is the Left suddenly worried about the end of democracy? (JWR 12/16/2021)
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What then is behind this new left-wing hysteria about the supposed looming end of democracy?

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It is quite simple. The Left expects to lose power over the next two years – both because of the way it gained and used it, and because of its radical, top-down agendas that never had any public support.

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After gaining control of both houses of Congress and the presidency – with an obsequious media and the support of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, higher education, popular culture, entertainment and professional sports – the Left has managed in just 11 months to alienate a majority of voters.

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The nation has been wracked by unprecedented crime and nonenforcement of the borders. Leftist district attorneys either won't indict criminals; they let them out of jails or both.

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Illegal immigration and inflation are soaring. Deliberate cuts in gas and oil production helped spike fuel prices.

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All this bad news is on top of the Afghanistan disaster, worsening racial relations, and an enfeebled president.

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In other words, leftist elites are terrified that democracy will work too robustly.

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After the Russian collusion hoax, two impeachments, the Hunter Biden laptop stories, the staged melodramas of the Kavanaugh hearings, the Jussie Smollett con, the Covington kids smear, and the Rittenhouse trial race frenzy, the people are not just worn out by leftist hysterias, but they also weary of how the Left gains power and administers it.

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They are fearful and angry not because democracy doesn't work, but because it does despite their own media and political efforts to warp it.

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When a party is hijacked by radicals and uses almost any means necessary to gain and use power for agendas that few Americans support, then average voters express their disapproval.

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That reality apparently terrifies an elite. It then claims any system that allows the people to vote against the Left is not people power at all.
Biden, Democrats face a bleak future after squandering the last 11 months (Fox 12/15/2021)
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Despite controlling the White House and Congress — with the biased mainstream media in their pocket — the left has completely squandered the past 11 months at a time when the American people can least afford it.

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In fact, since Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., assumed power in January 2021, the America people see firsthand their lives and outlook have gotten far worse.

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It's become clear that the radical left has total control over the Democrat Party and the socialist policies being pushed are putting our constitutional republic in danger.

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After nearly a year of failure and incompetence, hardworking patriotic taxpayers are feeling down about what's happening in Joe Biden's America.

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The president's policies and weak posture have created an inflation crisis, border crisis, crime crisis, foreign policy crisis, supply chain crisis, and vaccine mandate crisis.

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But it's not just the crises themselves; it's the Democrats' refusal to show any concern for the various disasters that are unfolding right before our eyes. This arrogant tone-deaf behavior is making our country miserable.

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The American people don't support tax increases or wasting tens of billions on climate change initiatives, and they're sick and tired of exploding gas prices and expensive groceries.

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The so-called Build Back Better legislation is a terrible idea, especially in the current environment of skyrocketing inflation.

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Headlines such as "A dozen U.S. cities set annual murder records with three weeks left in 2021" have all Americans on edge, but leading Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has been busy seeking to minimize the criminal activity that's caught on camera seemingly every night.

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AOC's recent statements in which she dismissed the crime spree are so reckless that even members of her own party are calling her out. ... "AOC is out of control. I don't think she's living on this planet... I really think she's a danger. These crimes that are being committed — there are real victims out there."

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Recently the governor of Arizona said that "the border is wide open, and it is unprotected ... we call on the administration to care about what is going on."

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There's an invasion taking place at our southern border with record numbers of illegal immigrants entering the country and not only do Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democrats not care, they actually welcome it.

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Whether it's the deadly fentanyl, the violent criminals, or allowing untold numbers of COVID-19 positive foreign nationals into the country, Biden's open borders policy is a national security threat.

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It's simply Politics 101 to know abrupt changes need to be made quickly or the Democrats are going to get wiped out in next year's midterms.

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That being said, it's highly unlikely the arrogant out of touch leftists in power are capable of acknowledging the catastrophe they're presiding over.
On COVID and crime Democrats assess risk very differently (Fox 12/14/2021)
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For well nigh two years now Democrats across America have urged strict restrictions and obedience from the nation in all matters regarding COVID.

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If it can save just one life, and all that. But when it comes to crime, these same lefties have more risk tolerance than a drunk 22-year-old at a Vegas craps table.

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Think about this statement the progressive Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm made when he was elected in 2007 regarding his lax approach to crime, "Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into treatment program, who's going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It's guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach."

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We saw the fruits of this wrongheaded approach last month when Darrell Brooks Jr., exited the turnstile of Milwaukee County's criminal justice system, despite a rap sheet longer than a CVS receipt, to allegedly murder 6 people at a Christmas parade.

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In New York, a grad student lost his life to a knife attack to another career criminal roaming Manhattan who should have been behind bars.

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It's happening all over the country. And it is making the law-abiding people of America second class citizens in their own cities.

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While Democrats moan and wail about the danger of the unvaccinated, even though we know that the vaccinated are perfectly capable of spreading COVID, our criminal class is coddled at every turn.

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Democrats and their media allies might argue that COVID and the hundreds of thousands of deaths it has wrought is on a different scale than our crime crisis.

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But that is little consolation to the families of those who died preventable deaths owing to woke prosecutors.

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And besides that, crime in our cities is a paralyzing force that rains negative outcomes down on millions of Americans.

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So what explains this disparity in risk tolerance? Put simply, COVID has no claim to oppressed status, except maybe in regard to what we are allowed to call it.

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Sacrificing Americans to COVID serves no social justice purpose, but sacrificing Americans to crime does.

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Even regarding COVID we see this dynamic at work. Everyone, including American citizens who enter the country legally must run a gauntlet of COVID restrictions, but those who break into the country through our spaghetti strainer of a Southern border may traipse in free of any protocols at all. The migrants, you see, are oppressed, and exemptions must be made for them.

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The irony here is that despite our best efforts for 2 years we have no idea how to effectively stop the spread of COVID, the Florida model, the New York Model, the Sweden model, the Australia model, all have pros and cons.

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But in regard to crime, we know exactly how to fight it. In cities across America, led by New York, the police tactics of the 1990s chopped crime at the knees, and yet we have abandoned those police and prosecutorial practices.

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Democrats lack the serenity to accept what they cannot change about COVID, they lack the courage to change what they can about crime, and are severely lacking in the wisdom to see the difference.

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This is not a mystery that progressive prosecutors have to solve, we know how to fight crime in our major cities, it's time we get back to doing it.

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See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Jesse Smollett, Criminal for our time: Make America hate again (INN 12/13/2021)
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As Walter E. Williams has observed, the best news of all that comes from such hoaxes: If it were not so overwhelmingly, blatantly false that America is beset with systemic race hate, the woke Left would not have to invent so many hate-crime hoaxes for so many years continue to feeding their false narratives.
Goodbye Red Kettle: The Salvation Army goes woke (JWR 12/13/2021)
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In pushing white guilt, the Salvation Army is starting to resemble the NEA with CRT. Soon, its supporters will be forced to choose between their favorite charity and their country.

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Since it was founded in 1865, the Army has done a world of good the world over. That it has been infected with the pandemic of our age ("racial equity" — more properly racial Marxism) is depressing.

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Internal forces have taken the Christian desire to repent and perverted it into an embrace of racism in the name of fighting racism, — seen in Critical Race Theory — which has become the greatest threat to our unity and survival as a nation.

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Throughout its history, the Salvation Army has served people of all races in America — even during the era of segregation. Today, 60% of those it helps are minorities.

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Still, the organization is driven to both apologize for its imaginary sins and demand that all Caucasians do the same.

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The indoctrination takes place mainly through its online resource, "Let's Talk About Racism," which urges us to "lament, repent and apologize for biases or racist ideologies held and actions committed."

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Naturally, this only applies to white folks. The black career criminal who was arrested for killing six white people with his car, and wounding 62 in Waukesha, was probably upset about climate change.

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The accompanying "Study Guide on Racism," explains: "The subtle nature of racism is such that people who are not consciously racist easily function with the privileges, empowerment and benefits of the dominant ethnicity, thus unintentionally perpetuating injustice."

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"We must stop denying the existence of individual and systematic/institutional racism. They exist and are still at work to keep White Americans in power."

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It's the same virus being injected in school children that led to the parents' revolt and the upset in Virginia's gubernatorial election.

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"Active officers in the Salvation Army's western territory were trained in matters of racial equity in a compulsory manner in January." It's expected to spread throughout the organization like a cancer.

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In the war for America's soul, standard Marxist dogma (the class struggle) has been replaced by the race struggle.

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Even if they don't hold racist views themselves, all whites are said to be the beneficiaries of so-called white privilege which confers unearned benefits on them while handicapping minorities.

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Thus, the racial income gap is attributed to this entrenched racism, rather than the dominance of fatherless families among African Americans, a phenomenon which also drives the black crime rate, the black unemployment rate, the black out-of-wedlock birth rate, and the rate of drug abuse in the inner cities.

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Seen through the lens of white privilege and black victimization, everything becomes a matter of race. In classical Marxism, the only solution to worker exploitation is abolishing capitalism.

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In racial Marxism, the only solution to racism (always white) and exploitation is to bring down the entire system, including representative government and our free-market economy.

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Hence hundreds of business districts in flames last year, open borders (it's racist to keep out people of color), a revolving-door criminal justice system, soaring crime rates, and public-school indoctrination.

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It should come as no surprise that Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors confessed in a 2015 interview that she and her fellow organizers were "trained Marxists."

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"Despite being a historically apolitical organization, the Salvation Army has recently been promoting controversial political and racial ideologies under the banner of its International Social Justice Commission."

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"The Study Guide on Racism" also encourages whites to read "How to Be an Antiracist," by notorious CRT huckster Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility: Why It's so hard for White People to Talk about Racism."

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"In my estimation, CRT (which the Army is now pushing) is a Trojan Horse taking in well-intentioned Christian enterprises that — because they care about justice and oppose oppression — naively promote the most serious threat to biblical Christianity in 50 years"...

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For all of the good the Army has done over the past 156 years, in the great struggle to save America, it's now on the side of the devils of racial discord...
Newsom's gun-control stunt – good TV, bad law (Fox 12/12/2021)
Biden-Dems' Big Government Socialism isn't working (Fox 12/12/2021)
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It is important to tie the continuing failures all around us to the underlying philosophy of Big Government Socialism, which simply does not work.

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The Biden administration and the Democrats in Congress are committed to the most radical experiment in imposing government on Americans since the British failed to coerce free Americans in the period from 1770 to 1783.

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Big Government Socialism seeks to control our bodies through vaccination and mask mandates while controlling our minds through radical indoctrination in schools, businesses and government offices.

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This passion for total control fits the warnings of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm," and Friedrich Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom."

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We have seen this kind of radical effort to remake society before – from the Jacobins of the French Revolution, the Russian Communist effort to create the New Soviet Man, and the thought control of Maoist China (which is still underway with Xi Jinping as the new Mao).

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Again and again, radical belief systems have tried to force people into a government-imposed version of reality.

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Why not release murderers, rapists, robbers and others back into the population? Why not recognize and speak well of the Taliban and other terrorists? Why not tolerate the aggression of Communist China, Vladimir Putin's Russia, the Iranian Mullahs or the dictatorship of Kim Jong Un? They are committed to the Big Government Socialist worldview, why be mean to them?

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If you don't want to study and succeed in school, the Big Government Socialists will simply abolish grades, so you don't feel bad.

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If you work hard and save, the Big Government Socialists will take your money to give it to others who have learned to be dependent on government.

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If you have been diligent and acquired some property, the Big Government Socialists will tolerate criminals who steal your hard-earned goods or vandalize your home or business.

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... as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Jussie Smollett's guilt was never in doubt, his testimony only made it obvious (Fox 12/11/2021)
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The evidence of guilt was overwhelming. There was no doubt that actor Jussie Smollett staged a hate crime and then lied to police to gain publicity.

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The two Nigerian brothers he hired to fake the attack against him took the witness stand and told the truth. They proved to be compelling witnesses who presented a coherent and credible story that Smollett had perpetrated a racist hoax. Every aspect of their story was corroborated by police and the evidence collected.

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By contrast, Smollett's story that he was the victim of a hate crime made no sense. For example, he claimed that his attackers yelled, "This is MAGA country!" Really? Chicago?

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The fabric of lies that he peddled were easily shredded by police. Text messages and surveillance tape undermined his credibility. His statements to police were dramatically different than his public statements. He couldn't seem to get his story straight.

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Smollett's decision to take the witness stand to perpetuate his charade was a foolish maneuver made in desperation. The defense must have known that it was losing the case badly. But the defendant's testimony only made matters worse.

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The actor did not hold up well under a vigorous cross-examination. When confronted with incriminating evidence, his explanations seemed utterly contrived and defied common sense. None of it added up.

•
Perhaps the actor thought he was so skilled as a thespian that he could snooker the jurors. Or maybe he was really asking them to discard the damning evidence and find him not guilty because they should loath our justice system and despise police.

•
In the end, the jury didn't fall for the con. They faithfully followed the law and emphatically rejected Smollett's fable. They knew it was an insidious and despicable lie designed to inflame racial tension.

•
Indeed, it did. His tall tale tore apart the city of Chicago and further incited racial animus throughout the nation.

•
At sentencing, all the damage that Smollett wrought will pose a serious problem for him, as it should. If the judge decides that he deliberately lied in his testimony, he could elevate the punishment and impose a harsher sentence.

•
Moreover, the extraordinary amount of money and manpower that was devoted to uncovering the hoax demands full restitution to the taxpayers.

•
It is shameful, but predictable, that Smollett's false accusations were accepted as gospel by prominent politicians and others without ever waiting for the facts to unfold.

•
In a classic rush to judgment, then-Sen. Kamala Harris called it "a modern-day lynching." Joe Biden repeated the canard that Smollett was the victim of a racist attack and stated, "We are with you, Jussie." When the fraud unraveled, it was nothing but crickets from both.

•
It says something about the quality of leadership in the White House when neither the president nor vice president have the common decency to apologize for their role in blindly supporting a phony hate crime.

•
Ginning up racial division with arrant falsehoods is their reliable strategy.

•
See related One of His Better Performances (Tom Stiglich, 02/18/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
'Build Back Better' is Democrats' down payment on socialism (Fox 12/09/2021)
•
The debate now is a fundamental fight about the future of our country, and an almost evenly divided Congress is about to decide how far the long arm of federal government will reach into your everyday life.

•
Beyond hyperbole, Democrats want to increase the federal government's reach into nearly every step of a person's life from cradle to grave. And if they're successful in passing their reckless tax-and-spending spree, there will be no turning back.

•
And at a time when businesses are struggling to find workers, Democrats want to provide government jobs, tuition and loan assistance, and other benefits for climate activists.

•
Billions of taxpayer dollars would be spent on "tree equity," "urban agriculture," "environmental justice programs" for schools and other progressive pet projects that amount to slush funds for cities.

•
At the most basic level, Republicans want to create an environment that encourages economic opportunity for all – as a party, we believe there is dignity and value in work for families, communities and the economy.
What the Jussie Smollett case reveals about us (Fox 12/09/2021)
•
The details of the Jussie Smollett case are as sensational as they are disturbing, but the bigger story is why a successful actor would invent such a racially-tinged plot out of whole cloth.

•
The inconvenient truth is that his actions didn't spring from a vacuum. Far from it, our society actually incentivizes this kind of toxic behavior by glorifying victimhood.

•
Two primary ingredients make up this noxious stew. For years, progressives have sought to weaponize identity politics and wield it as a tool of political power.

•
You've likely heard many of the associated phrases bandied around, such as critical race theory (CRT), White fragility, antiracism, intersectionality, and so on. These craven ideologies have become ubiquitous in nearly all facets of life.

•
The second element is the nefarious role played by legacy media outlets. Newsrooms today are packed with political activists masquerading as journalists.

•
The institutional rot began long before Donald Trump came along but by 2017, they were busy torching what was left of their reputations on the false altar of Trump and Russia-gate stories.

•
By the time Jussie hatched his plot in January 2019, legacy media outlets had formed an assembly line producing a woke worldview for mass consumption.

•
Smollett's story perfectly fit the media machine's pre-designed narrative: Trump and Republicans were racists and they were to blame for a stunning and violent hate-crime perpetrated against a young Black and gay actor.

•
Jussie had every reason to believe that once he was cast as a victim, he would be hoisted upon shoulders and delivered to the next charmed phase of his career and life.

•
In the Black community, many of our so-called leaders have fully embraced the toxic blend of identity politics and the celebration of victimhood.

•
For generations, they have been selling us the idea that someone else is always to blame for our lot in life.

•
We have no personal responsibility to work hard, get ahead in life, and create the kind of generational wealth that every other neighboring community seemed able to enjoy.

•
We're told that we are owed something; indeed, we are owed more than any other class, race or religion.

•
This culture of victimhood meets modern-day identity politics and so it goes. If this kind of thinking sounds absurd and self-defeating, that's because it is.

•
The poisonous progressive politics that produced Jussie Smollett went into overdrive just one year later.

•
Living in downtown Minneapolis, I watched portions of my beautiful city burn in the summer of 2020 as various media outlets "Black-splained" the rioting and looting taking place in front of my eyes.

•
If it wasn't downplayed and dismissed as "fiery, but mostly peaceful protests," it was accepted as the righteous and warranted reaction to George Floyd's death.

•
That's when I realized the progressive project was proceeding so splendidly that much of the country thought we were animals, incapable of controlling our behavior or emotions. Even more, they were OK with it.

•
Legions of Black talking heads spread out across television channels and were helped along by journalist activists.

•
White suburban liberals sat in front of their TV screens, wracked by revisionist guilt as they nodded their heads, wrote checks, joined demonstrations in solidarity, and endlessly apologized for things they never did or said.

•
Without a hint of irony, they all presented their bigotry of low expectations as a gift in the name of combating racism.

•
The Jussie Smollett case simply provided a mirror that presented an unvarnished and uncomfortable glimpse of the current state of American society and the acidic political ride we are experiencing as a country.

•
From cries of racism at every turn, to the glorification by the media of victimhood mentality, Jussie Smollett is simply a result of a broken and dishonest media and political landscape.

•
Victimhood, along with political correctness and other cultural phenomena brought forth by the left, have corrupted our nation, and specifically our younger generations.
Inside the Vaccine Passport Racket (JWR 12/08/2021)
Biden's catastrophic collapse of American leadership (Fox 12/08/2021)
Are Biden's policies inviting the next Pearl Harbor? (Fox 12/07/2021)
•
Already he's made concessions to our adversaries without even being asked. He granted Iran sanctions relief without an Iran deal. He withdrew U.S. objections to Nord Stream II, the new energy pipeline from Russia to Germany that makes Europe more energy dependent on Moscow, giving the Kremlin a major weapon for coercing and cowing our friends and allies "over there."

•
In addition to refusing to challenge Beijing on the origins of the global COVID pandemic, the president has requested a defense budget that won't even cover the cost of inflation.

•
... Beijing continues its massive military buildup, which has already created the largest navy in the world and is testing hypersonic nuclear weapons capable of orbiting the earth and striking anywhere.

•
... Biden's domestic policies have done nothing to strengthen the home front. He has divided the American people, pitting the vaccinated against the unvaccinated, Black against White and blue states against red.

•
He has turned the economy into a dumpster fire with raging inflation, constrained energy supplies, sluggish job growth and excessive COVID restrictions. And his open border policies have left the U.S. far more vulnerable to infiltration by terrorists, narco-traffickers and other security risks. ...

•
If you're an adversary who wants to see America taken down a notch or two, you'll look at what Biden is doing and say, "What's not to like?"

•
All that said, there are potential Pearl Harbors in America's future. One could come from transnational terrorists who got a tremendous boost from Biden's humiliating and disastrous retreat from Afghanistan.

•
After decades of humiliation following 9/11, they may feel that their only real redemption lies in hammering American with another 9/11 as soon as possible. ...

•
There is also the rising prospect that America's adversaries see our military as being so weakened that the time to put us away is drawing close.

•
In 1941, Japan attacked America out of weakness. When the U.S. cut off oil exports, Tokyo reasoned that its only option for obtaining secure energy supplies was seizing the fields and refineries in Southeast Asia.

•
That could not be achieved without securing their flanks by taking out the British in Singapore and the Americans in the Philippines and they could not risk that without taking out the U.S. naval fleet at Pearl. And, so, they risked all, and the rolled the dice of war. ...

•
China, Russia, North Korea and Iran don't feel backed into a corner under Biden and likely never will while he is in the White House. They have no need to risk it all when everything is going their way.

•
They're perfectly content to nibble away at the democracies next door, confident that the leader of the free world will do nothing to stop them as he focuses his attention on transforming America into a woker, weakened nation.

•
See related Bombshells (Antonio Branco, 10/22/2021) cartoon from World picture album
Congress must investigate Hunter Biden – and those protecting him. Here's why (Fox 12/05/2021)
•
As more stories about Hunter Biden's meetings with foreign agents in Serbia, China and elsewhere come out, serious scrutiny will become unavoidable.

•
The evidence is overwhelming that Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine, Russia and China have direct national security implications.

•
We simply do not know how much the Biden administration's weakness toward Communist China is influenced by the Chinese corruption of the Biden family and its allies.

•
We do not know how much Vladimir Putin has been emboldened by his knowledge of the corruption of Hunter Biden – and through him the governing family of the United States.

•
There has been a complete absence of honesty and inquiry from the FBI and the Justice Department.

•
It is amazing that the Hunter Biden laptop has not already led to an indictment of President Biden's son for a series of amazing influence-peddling schemes.

•
Sadly, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, where the laptop was found and where the Bidens live, has shown no interest in pursuing a case that involves public corruption at the highest levels.

•
The FBI has had the laptop and yet nothing has been done to pursue the clear corruption outlined in the various emails it contains.

•
Hunter Biden's irresponsible marketing of "a unique relationship" with the vice president during the Obama years, (then with a presidential candidate, and now with the president) has enormous national security implications.

•
It is no accident that Hunter was actively seeking business in Communist China, Putin's Russia and Ukraine.

•
These were countries keenly interested in developing influence in Washington and it seems they felt they were getting real access and impact through Hunter and his family.

•
Former U.S. Navy Lt. Tony Bobulinski has had virtually all his allegations of Biden corruption validated by the emails discovered in the Hunter Biden laptop.

•
.His allegations clearly implicated the president and his son – and suggest a Biden family mired in the most venal kinds of corruption.

•
Imagine the contempt with which Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian bribers must have looked at the cocaine-using, prostitute-hiring son of a major national politician as they paid him again and again for influence.

•
Ask yourself: Is it at all plausible that all this foreign money and business was coming to Hunter Biden – a clearly unqualified, deeply troubled and totally unprepared broker – and Joe Biden did not ask about it, look into it or ask staff to monitor what Hunter was doing?

•
If Joe Biden knew, he is clearly implicated in corruption involving foreign powers. If he willfully avoided knowing, it would be a sign of parental indifference and determined neglect that seems almost impossible to believe.

•
It is vital that any investigation include Hunter Biden and his associates (which may or may not include his father). It should also look into the network of cover-up officials who were clearly failing to do their duty and the widespread collection of traditional and social media collaborators who consciously suppressed and lied about Hunter Biden's corruption.

•
How could the FBI have avoided taking apart the Hunter Biden laptop and tracking down the details found in the emails?

•
How could the authorities have avoided tracking the vice president's son as he dealt with nations actively dangerous to America?

•
What officials made the decisions to avoid looking and avoid knowing?

•
Not since Hillary Clinton deleted more than 33,000 emails while her staff used a hammer to literally destroy the hard drives on her computer has there been such a willful avoidance of knowledge by law enforcement officials.

•
When you compare the Justice Department's benign neglect of Clinton and Hunter Biden with its illegal overreach in pursuing what we now know was a totally phony Russian dossier designed to smear President Donald Trump, it is clear something is profoundly sick in our federal criminal justice system.
Education freedom is a political winner in 2022. Time to give parents school choice (Fox 12/03/2021)
America's cash bail system has many flaws, here's a better solution (Fox 12/03/2021)
•
The problem is that many states require courts to set bail, even though the Constitution does not. That leads to the pretextual setting of high dollar-amounts – meant to deny bail, not grant it.

•
This not only fuels the Left's narrative that the system is rigged in favor of the rich; it undermines the purpose of bail, which is to permit the accused to be at liberty pending trial, not prevent release.

•
It is very simple: If a defendant is a high risk to commit more crimes or flee, that defendant should be denied bail.

•
If not, bail should be set at a level that the defendant can meet – preferably, release on the accused's own recognizance (i.e., with no assets posted), but otherwise with just enough money or property posted by the accused – or by people, such as family members, with moral suasion over the accused – to provide confidence that court appearances will be made and no new crimes committed.

•
If an offense is sufficiently serious – e.g., violent crimes that carry heavy sentences – or if a defendant was already under restrictions outlined above, bail should not be set.

•
Beware, though, the dirty little secret: The Left hates transparency. When sentencing guidelines came into effect, they were soon attacked for being too severe.

•
Because the numbers don't lie, faithful application results in higher sentences, while undercutting the fiction that race is the driving factor.

•
The same thing would happen with pretrial detention: More criminals would be denied bail because of the seriousness of their crimes and criminal records.

•
That would mean less crime ... but for progressive prosecutors, less crime is never progress.
Waukesha Christmas parade mass murder coverage is low point in American journalism (Fox 12/03/2021)
•
The willful avoidance of facts and deliberate obscuring of what happened in Waukesha, Wisconsin is a low point in American journalism nationally.

•
It is stunning how much the propaganda media distorted and misreported the massacre at the Christmas parade last week.

•
Here are the facts: The alleged killer, Darrell Brooks Jr., is an African American who was previously released from jail on an "inappropriately low bail" after reportedly running over the mother of his child with a car.

•
He has openly talked about using a vehicle to kill people and posted anti-white racism on social media. On Nov. 21, he reportedly used his car to murder six people and maim more than 60 others (including children and senior citizens).

•
These horrendous facts apparently violate the established media's narrative of inherent White racism and Black victimization.

•
The propaganda media's answer has been to simply avoid the facts and focus on reporting which can at best be described as inadequate and at worst be described as maliciously dishonest and misleading.

•
The amazing thing is that this was not the work of one or two news outlets. Consider this deafening repetition of false and misleading headlines:

•
"After SUV slammed into Wis. Parade and killed 5, driver to be charged with homicide" (The Washington Post, Nov. 22)

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"A sixth victim has died after the Waukesha Christmas parade crash, prosecutors say" (CNN, Nov. 23)

•
"Child is 6th death in Waukesha parade crash: suspect charged" (AP, Nov. 23)

•
"Waukesha parade crash suspect captured on doorbell camera shortly after crash" (USA Today, Nov. 23)

•
"More than a dozen remain hospitalized after deadly Waukesha parade crash" (CNN, Nov. 25)

•
Read these headlines and ask yourself: Was this a crash or an intentionally malicious act of violence? Did the SUV drive into the crowd and murder or maim people, or did the person driving it? Is that person a "crash suspect" or a suspected mass murderer?

•
The propaganda media (as the mouthpiece of the left) seems on the verge of calling for SUV control akin to gun control. The SUV only did what its homicidal driver wanted it to do.

•
But recognizing that the driver is an African American with a criminal history who spouts racism on social media appears politically unacceptable.

•
Saying so would have destroyed years of carefully convincing people of the left's vision of a "systemically racist" White America preying upon innocent African American victims.

•
The headlines were just the start. News outlets also took to Twitter. "HAPPENING NOW: The man accused of deadly Christmas parade crash in Waukesha, WI makes his first court appearance" (CBS News, Nov. 23)

•
"Waukesha will hold a moment of silence today, marking one week since a car drove through a city Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring scores of others." Here, on Nov. 28, CNN asserted that "a car" drove through the parade as though it weren't being driven by a person.

•
Similarly, The Washington Post withdrew a tweet after it absurdly posted, "Here's what we know so far on the sequence of events that led to the Waukesha tragedy caused by a SUV."

•
Again, the newspaper suggested this "tragedy" – not mass murder or a massacre – was "caused by a SUV." It can't be an individual held to account, because that violates the spirit of collective guilt and societal causation at the heart of the left's worldview.

•
On television, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow spent an entire segment on the horrific attack without mentioning Brooks once. She only referred to him as "the suspect." MSNBC didn't put his mugshot on screen during the segment.

•
On the day of the attack, Maddow reported, "A red SUV inexplicably sped into the parade route and then directly into people marching in the parade and people watching on the sidewalk."

•
Note, she said, "inexplicably sped into the parade route." What a lie. The vehicle was deliberately driven at a high speed by a man who had recently used a car to attack someone.

•
Only after all the national false coverage did the truth began to come out in local media. ... "Darrell Brooks Jr., the driver accused in the Waukesha Christmas Parade massacre, is charged with sixth count of first-degree homicide."

•
This is a disgraceful act of deliberate false reporting and misinformation by the national media to protect a political ideology. The journalists involved should be ashamed of themselves.

•
The American people should remember this effort to misinform them and protect the narrative of the left at the expense of the truth, respect for the victims, and justice for their families and loved ones.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Tucker Carlson: It's not surprising Jussie Smollett pushed his hoax as far as he could (Fox 12/03/2021)
•
The question is - how did anyone, anywhere, ever fall for this story, even for a moment? Looking back, in retrospect, it was maybe the most obvious hoax ever perpetrated.

•
Smollett claimed that he left his apartment in Chicago alone one freezing January night at 2 a.m. to pick up a Subway sandwich, something that no one who isn't homeless has ever done.

•
As he walked down the street, two White men approached him and began screaming in his face for being Black and gay.

•
Because of course, you're not allowed to be either one of those things in the city of Chicago. They called him the N-word. They punched him in the face. They poured a chemical onto his body.

•
Then, needless to say, they wrapped a noose around his neck because, you know, Chicago. They didn't bother to rob him.

•
Their motives were purely political: "This is MAGA country," they screamed about a city that voted more than 83% for Hillary Clinton.

•
So that's the story that Jussie Smollett told the police that night, a noose still hanging around his neck. The police, it's fair to say were highly skeptical.

•
The leaders of the Democratic Party, however, were not skeptical at all. In fact, the story he told was the story they were already telling.

•
That same year, several Democratic senators, including notably Kamala Harris of California, a personal friend of Jussie Smollett, sent a letter to the Justice Department. The letter claimed that attacks from White supremacist Trump voters were among this country's greatest threats.

•
Attacks by Black supremacists, by contrast, were not even real. In fact, Harris lectured the DOJ, saying the very term Black supremacist is a "fabricated term based on a faulty assessment of a small number of isolated incidents." In other words, only Trump voters commit hate crimes.

•
Then the FBI noticed that nearly 90% of law enforcement agencies across the country had been reporting no hate crimes within their jurisdictions because actually, there's not a lot of hate in the country because it's a pretty nice country. Most people are not racist at all, most people are really kind. They're Americans.

•
Then the FBI encouraged law enforcement agencies to report any possible hate crime, even if the crime derived from an obviously false report.

•
And that's why more than 80% of the hate crimes suspects investigated by the feds from 2005 to 2019 were never prosecuted.

•
Why is that? Because they were fake. But they still show up in the statistics, and they still allow NPR to tell you that people who would disagree with Anthony Fauci are beating up Asians on the street in New York.

•
Right. So it's a fiction. It's yet another lie engineered by the Biden administration and carried forth as fact by the media. They did it for political reasons. They've been doing it for years. In fact, they've done it for so long. they started to believe it was actually true.

•
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they took Jussie Smollett seriously when no normal person would. The story was absurd from the very first day, but they believed it completely.

•
By 2019, in America, it was actually getting pretty difficult for the average Black person to get beaten up on the street for having the wrong skin color.

•
As Jussie Smollett found out, personally, if you wanted to have racists throw bleach in your face and hang a noose around your neck, you had to pay Nigerian bodybuilders to do it. The going rate at the time was $3,500. That's not cheap, but then violent anti-Black racism was getting extremely hard to find. It was a rare commodity.

•
... Kamala Harris, did. Harris described what happened to Jussie Smollett as an "attempted modern-day lynching." Nancy Pelosi said it was a "homophobic attack and an affront to our humanity." Eric Swalwell of California told us they were countless Jussie Smolletts in this filthy, racist nation of ours, "Hate crimes like this are happening more frequently egged on by careless, hate filled rhetoric." Notice the redundancy. Senator Cory Booker, meanwhile, demanded anti-lynching legislation as if we didn't already have that, and so on.

•
So in a landscape like this, with the most powerful people in the country cheering him on like a modern Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is it really surprising that Jussie Smollett just pushed it as far as he could? No, it's not very surprising.

•
What's surprising is that absolutely nothing Smollett said - no matter how transparently ridiculous or melodramatic or embarrassing or obviously non-factual - no matter what he said, none of it aroused even the slightest hint of skepticism of any kind from a hardened newswoman Robin Roberts of ABC.

•
Well, eventually, thank God, the police took over. Robin Roberts had to relinquish control of the story. The cops interviewed the people in the end, who Jussie Smollett had hired to beat him up - the two Black guys.

•
Turns out, Smollett had paid for the noose and the bleach. So you've got to ask once the evidence arrived, how did all of his supporters react?

•
A Michelle Obama aide reached out to a partisan D.A. in Chicago, Kim Foxx, and had charges against Jussie Smollett dismissed. Oh, that's what happens when you have friends. You're so powerless you can get Michelle Obama to make it go away.

•
... the same day that Jussie Smollett cried in his interview with Robin Roberts - which she described as "beautiful, Jussie beautiful" - he was texting one of the people he claims beat him up because he's Black and gay.

•
"Brother, I love you. I stand with you. I know 100 percent you and your brother did nothing wrong." These are the people he paid to put a noose around his neck.

•
Smollett was also on videotape, conducting a dry run of the attack the day before it happened. Oh, you're not hearing a ton about this in the media. Why is that? Because it undermines the core claim that they are making, which is people who vote for candidates they don't like are dangerous. People of a certain color are dangerous. The violence in America is committed by their political enemies, when in fact, that's a lie.

•
And we know it's a lie because there are real numbers out there, and you're welcome to look them up if you like. And they do not tell you that Trump voters are the ones behind the crime wave currently in progress.

•
So once you learn that one thing is a lie, you might start to ask yourself, "What else are they lying about?" And that's not a process they welcome.

•
See related One of His Better Performances (Tom Stiglich, 02/18/2019) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
We Are the Majority; Let's Start Acting Like It (JWR 12/02/2021)
Third Worldizing America (JWR 12/02/2021)
Trey Gowdy: Reflecting on the institutions worthy of your respect (Fox 12/02/2021)
Biden's 'Build Back Better' is the very definition of cradle-to-grave, big-government dependency (Fox 12/02/2021)
•
Since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth 400 years ago, America has, above all, promised the freedom to hold your own beliefs, raise your own children, and control your own destiny. This basic guarantee of liberty created the greatest nation in the history of the world.

•
For the last four centuries, each American generation has successfully preserved this precious gift for their children and grandchildren, against threats both foreign and domestic.

•
Nothing less is demanded of us today. As Americans, we must protect that freedom and reject these massive big-government socialist programs.
Tucker Carlson: Tyranny is coming unless someone stops Democrats' COVID power grab (Fox 12/02/2021)
New Twitter rules, CEO Parag Agrawal signal social media giant still doesn't understand freedom of speech (Fox 12/01/2021)
•
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey resigned from his post this week and replacement Parag Agrawal was named to the job.

•
Dorsey had famously banned President Donald Trump but continued to allow accounts from despots and their spokespeople in places like North Korea and Iran.

•
In an interview with MIT Technology review last year, Agrawal said, "One of the changes today that we see is speech is easy on the internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard. The scarce commodity today is attention. There's a lot of content out there. A lot of tweets out there, not all of it gets attention, some subset of it gets attention. And so increasingly our role is moving toward how we recommend content and that sort of, is, is, a struggle that we're working through in terms of how we make sure these recommendation systems that we're building, how we direct people's attention is leading to a healthy public conversation that is most participatory."

•
Agrawal certainly doesn't sound like he believes Twitter's role is to facilitate free speech.

•
The day after the announcement Twitter announced changes to their "private information policy." "When we are notified by individuals depicted, or by an authorized representative, that they did not consent to having their private image or video shared, we will remove it."

•
It sounds good. Certainly people who have been mobbed on Twitter will appreciate the ability to have their private information contained.

•
But it also will limit things like videos from inside schools indoctrinating children. The larger conversation about what kids are being taught in school is happening at least in part because of materials and videos that have been captured inside schools.

•
What about filming a crime? Does the criminal have the right to have their image removed by Twitter? Would the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict be the same if video hadn't emerged of what actually happened that night?

•
What about protests? Can people in public spaces really have a right to privacy that precludes sharing their images on Twitter? The language on this is vague. "We recognize that there are instances where account holders may share images or videos of private individuals in an effort to help someone involved in a crisis situation, such as in the aftermath of a violent event, or as part of a newsworthy event due to public interest value, and this might outweigh the safety risks to a person. We will always try to assess the context in which the content is shared and, in such cases, we may allow the images or videos to remain on the service."

•
The trouble, of course, is that Twitter has been uniquely bad at assessing situations in the past and adding another layer of difficulty is a bad idea.

•
See related Twitter Mad Man (Gary McCoy, 01/15/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
With Twitter's Jack Dorsey gone, now is the time for Americans to take back control of their communication (Fox 12/01/2021)
•
Twitter has repeatedly attempted, with the help of partisan political groups, to suppress conservative speech that they mislabel as "misleading," while ignoring blatant falsehoods peddled on the left or by China.

•
This problem was at its apex last year when Twitter deliberately suppressed the distribution of an unflattering Hunter Biden story in the New York Post, describing the report as "potentially spammy or unsafe."

•
That was a lie, and the Post was eventually vindicated on the facts. But the damage was done.

•
In a 2018 Wired interview, Dorsey outlined his general philosophy of Twitter's role in supporting free expression. Twitter would enthusiastically support free speech, he said, because Twitter "looks like a public square" and people "have the same sort of expectations of a public square."

•
Under Dorsey's leadership, Twitter regularly failed to meet that standard. But Dorsey at least paid lip service to a defensible ideal, one that reflected the reality that dominant social media platforms have become fixtures in civic life — and so should be held to the free speech standards appropriate to civic life.

•
Yet Dorsey's replacement, Parag Agrawal, offers a different vision, an authoritarian vision. In a 2020 interview with the MIT Technology Review, Agrawal rejected Dorsey's view that traditional "public square" standards should apply on the platform.

•
Instead, he said the role should be "reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation."

•
In other words, Twitter should "focus less on thinking about free speech" and more "about how the times have changed."

•
Let's be clear about what this means: Agrawal is saying that going forward, Twitter will openly shape the user experience according to its own value judgments about what counts as "healthy" public engagement.

•
Even the fig leaf of neutrality is now gone. It certainly seems to me that in the months and years to come, we can expect a lot more crackdowns on user speech, and a lot more shamelessness about it.

•
All of this, though, bespeaks a larger problem. Free speech-loving Americans shouldn't need to pay attention to who's running Twitter in the first place. They shouldn't be this beholden to a handful of ideologically-driven private companies at all.

•
Our laws must change to accommodate the new reality of Big Tech dominance. Fortunately, Congress has a wide range of options if it finally chooses to act.

•
For one thing, it can reform Section 230: if dominant platforms want to act like publishers, they need to be held liable like publishers when they editorialize.

•
For another, it's time for policymakers to rethink moderation itself. Users, rather than unaccountable Twitter bureaucrats, should be able to decide what algorithms are used to moderate their content feeds.

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With Agrawal at the helm of Twitter, sorry times lie ahead for free expression. But maybe this new turn will finally galvanize the long-overdue policy reforms that will pare back Twitter's power

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That's how Americans will really take back control of their communication — and their lives.

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Unabomber II (Mike Shelton, 01/19/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Twitter Evolution (Gary Varvel, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Tucker Carlson: We're in for a whole new pandemic (Fox 12/01/2021)
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... have the military run it, the U.S. Army is going to force you to get your third injection. That's how serious omicron is - this from the guy who demanded you keep your money in Bear Stearns five days before it disappeared completely.
A Brief Guide to Leftist Destruction (JWR 11/30/2021)
Kyle Rittenhouse must be protected from campus mobs (Fox 11/30/2021)
•
... students and groups at Arizona State University are planning a rally against Rittenhouse and demanding that he be expelled.

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Demands for such extrajudicial punishments may seem legitimate to critics of the verdict with leaders like Biden calling Rittenhouse a "white supremacist" before any investigation was completed and legal analysts calling the entire trial "white supremacy on steroids."

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Students groups like MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan), Students for Socialism, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Multicultural Solidarity Coalition are organizing a rally this week to "get murderer Kyle Rittenhouse off [the] campus."

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He is not on campus since he was enrolled as an online student (Indeed, he may not be currently enrolled for any classes at ASU).

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Students and faculty are being called to the rally to "protect students from a violent, blood-thirsty murderer."

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In addition, ASU student Taskina Bhuiya started a Change.org petition to denounce the verdict and to call for Rittenhouse to be "held accountable for the crimes he has committed."

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Without a sense of irony, the petition declares, "ASU should be a safe and inclusive place for all students, which will be disrupted if Kyle Rittenhouse is allowed to attend this school."

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Inclusive unless you are an acquitted individual who must be "held accountable." Hundreds have signed the petition insisting that "Rittenhouse should pay for his crimes."

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The campaign reflects a growing sense that the legal system is only worthy of respect (or even protection) if it rules in the way that we demand.

•
It is the same mentality that has led members of Congress, law professors, and others to demand the expansion or restriction of the Supreme Court because it now has a conservative majority.

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Universities have long been dominated by liberal faculty but a new orthodoxy has emerged. Conservative students often feel that access to education is conditioned on their silent adherence to compelled values and language. That is if they are even allowed to attend such schools in the first place.

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We saw a similar campaign to block Nick Sandmann, who was wrongly accused of racist attacks on a Native American activist, from attending Transylvania University.

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The fact is that Rittenhouse cannot be expelled or kept off ASU's campus due to such mob measures. He would quickly prevail in court. However, the rally and the rhetoric magnify the risk to his safety by those who demand "accountability" regardless of any verdict.

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We have seen faculty members join such mob efforts, even attacking others on campus, blocking speakers, destroying political signs, or encouraging attacks on student journalists.

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University of Rhode Island professor Erik Loomis defended the murder of a conservative protester and said he saw "nothing wrong" with such acts of violence.

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Other faculty members have made similarly disturbing comments such as "detonating white people," denouncing police, calling for Republicans to suffer, strangling police officers, celebrating the death of conservatives, calling for the killing of Trump supporters, supporting the murder of conservative protesters and other outrageous statements.

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It is less common to hear professors today speak out for the rights of conservatives or others who are being targeted by campaigns on campus. The risk is simply too great that they will be "tagged" as intolerant, racist or reactionary.

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It is common for former felons (including violent offenders) to take classes or give lectures on campuses without such protests.

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It is not clear whether any school will admit this acquitted teenager given the protests at ASU and other universities.

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If admitted, Rittenhouse has every right to attend ASU in person and has every right to expect that he can do so safely. If ASU cannot muster the integrity and courage to reaffirm those rights publicly, it has abandoned a core defining element for higher education.

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Colleges often sit in cringing silence as individual students are targeted and harassed. It is not clear whether Rittenhouse will seek to continue at ASU or other universities. However, his education should not be treated as a vehicle for collective extrajudicial punishment.

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See related Lemmings 2021 (Mike Lester, 11/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Verdict (Mike Shelton, 11/17/2021) cartoon from Usarit-verd picture album

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See related Leftists Seek to Destroy Justice System (Dick Wright, 11/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: How can America survive three more years of Joe Biden? (Fox 11/27/2021)
Losing confidence in the pillars of our civilization (JWR 11/25/2021)
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Millions of citizens long ago concluded that professional sports, academia, and entertainment were no longer disinterested institutions, but far Left and deliberately hostile to Middle America.

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Yet American conservatives still adamantly supported the nation's traditional investigatory, intelligence, and military agencies – especially when they came under budgetary or cultural attacks.

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Not so much anymore. For the first time in memory, conservatives now connect the FBI hierarchy with bureaucratic bloat, political bias, and even illegality.

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In the last five years, the FBI was mostly in the news for the checkered careers of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Robert Mueller, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok. Add in the criminality of convicted FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith.

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The colossal FBI-driven "Russian collusion" hoax was marked by the leaking of confidential FBI memos, forged documents, improper surveillance, and serial disinformation.

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Mention the military to conservative Americans these days, and they unfortunately associate its leadership with the disastrous flight from Afghanistan.

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Few, if any, high-ranking officers have yet taken responsibility – much less resigned – for the worst military fiasco of the last half-century.

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Instead, President Joe Biden and the top generals traded charges that the other was responsible for the calamity. Or both insisted the abject flight was a logistical masterpiece.

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Never in U.S. history have so many retired four-star admirals and generals disparaged their president with charges of being either a traitor, a liar, a fascist, or a virtual Nazi, as occurred during the last administration.

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Never has the proper advisory role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff been so brazenly usurped and contorted.

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Never has the secretary of defense promised he would ferret out alleged "white supremacists," without providing any evidence whatsoever of their supposedly ubiquitous presence and dangerous conspiracies.

•
Conservatives have always been amused by the liberal biases of the old network news and big-city print media. But they grudgingly admitted that many liberal journalists of the last century were mostly professionals. News divisions mostly reported the news rather than simply made it up.

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Not so now with Big Tech and 21stt-century "woke" journalism. Few reporters have yet offered apologies for helping hatch and spread the Russian collusion hoax that paralyzed the country for three years.

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Rarely have communication industries – veritable utilities in the public domain – so asymmetrically censored speech and applied such one-sided standards of suppressing free expression.

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Conservatives used to oppose regulating larger corporations. Now, ironically, most are calling for regulating and breaking up multibillion-dollar social media monopolies and conglomerates that suppress as much as transmit private communications.

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The American criminal justice system also used to earn the respect of conservatives. Prosecuting attorneys, police chiefs, and big-city mayors were seen as custodians of the public order.

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They were entrusted to keep the peace, to prevent and investigate crime, and to arrest and prosecute criminals.

•
Again, not so much now. After 120 days of mostly unchecked riot, arson, looting, and violent protests during the summer of 2020, the public lost confidence in their public safety agencies.

•
District attorneys in several major cities – Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and St. Louis – have often predicated prosecuting crimes on the basis of ideology, race, and careerism.

•
In the current crime wave, brazen lawbreakers enjoy de facto immunity. Mass looting goes unpunished. Indictments are often aimed as much against those who defend themselves as against criminals who attack the innocent.

•
Conservatives now have lost their former traditional confidence in the administration of justice, in the intelligence and investigatory agencies, in the nation's military leadership, in the media, and the criminal justice system.

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No one yet knows what the effect will be of half the country losing faith in the very pillars of American civilization.
Are You Thankful for America? Then Fight for Her (JWR 11/26/2021)
•
The message the left is sending, loud and clear, is this: "We want what you have, and you'll give it to us, or we'll take it by force. If you object to our agenda, we'll send our shock troops to torch your towns and cities. If you defend yourself, we'll prosecute you. Your children are ours to indoctrinate. If you object, we'll call you 'racists' and 'domestic terrorists.' What we don't want, and don't want you to have, we'll destroy."

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Midterm elections are a year away, but it is not too soon to start rallying the troops. On this Thanksgiving Day, we need to be grateful enough for our country and we have to commit to fighting for her — before there's nothing left to fight for.
As Arizona's attorney general and a first generation American, I'm grateful for the USA (Fox 11/25/2021)
•
Outrage and ingratitude are the currencies of today's society. Many people rush to take offense at the tiniest issue or express their discontent with any perceived slight. Unfortunately, our children and grandchildren are learning from our attitudes and will take our negativity to greater heights.

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This spiral is destructive to every unit of our society and will ultimately lead to the undoing of this country.  ...

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It is incumbent upon all of us to stop this cycle of outrage and ingratitude – especially as it pertains to the United States.

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This Thanksgiving, we can resolve to be the spark that strengthens our society. Instead of continuously looking for a reason to be outraged, we can choose to be grateful for what this country has given us and our families.

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I have a unique perspective for being thankful for this country. My family fled communism from the former Yugoslavia.

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They came to America because this nation could provide them and their descendants with boundless opportunities and freedoms. They understood that the rule of law was the way of life here and that their rights would be protected.

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There are many other countries around the world with constitutions or other founding documents that appear to grant protections or freedoms for their citizens.

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Without adherence to the rule of law, however, those documents mean absolutely nothing – as we've seen throughout world history.

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My family understood that the United States was different in this respect, and I'm thankful for what this nation stands for and the efforts its leaders undertake to enforce the rule of law.

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Nevertheless, the United States isn't perfect, and its opportunities for improvement are often magnified by people who have nothing but contempt for this country.

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Yet, the reality is that no other nation in history has been able to match what we have accomplished and the freedoms we've maintained and protected for hundreds of years.

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The United States has brought more opportunities to more people than any other country.

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While we work to create a more perfect union, we must never forget that America remains the most extraordinary place to pursue a better life for more people than we could ever imagine.

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This Thanksgiving, let us resolve to be truly grateful for everything we have been given.

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No matter who we are, what we look like, or where we came from, we are all Americans.

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We are united in our humanity and our appreciation that our rights are not given to us by other people but given to us by our Creator.

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And that we have an obligation to fight for all that is good and pass on to our children and grandchildren a nation they can continue to believe in and be thankful for. ...

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This Thanksgiving, let us resolve to be truly grateful for everything we have been given.

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No matter who we are, what we look like, or where we came from, we are all Americans. We are united in our humanity and our appreciation that our rights are not given to us by other people but given to us by our Creator.

•
And that we have an obligation to fight for all that is good and pass on to our children and grandchildren a nation they can continue to believe in and be thankful for. ...
The First Thanksgiving story shows us how disparate people come together in challenging times (Fox 11/25/2021)
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... the First Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1621, when the 52 English settlers known as the Pilgrims and 90 Native warriors from the Wampanoag confederation of Indian tribes shared a three-day harvest feast.

•
In our cynical age, the wisdom embodied in the story of the First Thanksgiving can get short shrift.

•
Yet at its heart, the First Thanksgiving is a heroic tale about a moment in time when two disparate peoples found a way to come together in harmony and respect.

•
The Pilgrims' story teaches courage, persistence, love of liberty and gratitude to God.

•
The Wampanoag demonstrated generosity, neighborliness and friendship in their offers of assistance to the newcomers.

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We and subsequent generations of Americans can continue to learn from the First Thanksgiving and be inspired by it.

•
... Forefathers' Day, a now mostly forgotten holiday marking the arrival of the Mayflower in Plymouth on Dec. 22, 1620. The occasion was a large dinner following Daniel Webster's celebrated oration honoring the Pilgrims on the bicentennial of their arrival in Plymouth.

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In his speech, Webster reminded his listeners that we are "not mere insulated beings, without relation to the past or the future." We must leave for future generations "some proof that we hold the blessings transmitted from our fathers in just estimation."

•
Among the blessings he listed was a desire to promote everything that may "improve the hearts of men," a category that surely includes Thanksgiving.

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Today, shades of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag sit at every American's Thanksgiving table. This history, and more, is worthy of our remembrance, with grateful hearts, on Thanksgiving Day.
Lincoln, Jefferson and Thanksgiving's anti-slavery roots (Fox 11/25/2021)
•
In the dusty old pages of contemporary Christian chronicles of the Crusades there is to be found a curious and oft repeated theme.

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When the Crusaders stood victorious in battle the writers of the time said it was owing to God's grace, but when they tasted defeat, it was "for our sins."

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Centuries later, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln summoned similar solemn thoughts in his proclamation announcing the holiday of Thanksgiving.

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With the nation ravaged by civil war, Lincoln pointed to the great blessings of everyday life still enjoyed by the nation, saying, "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."

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What Lincoln and the Crusaders both understood was that gratitude is a function of fallibility. It is the living testament to forgiveness.

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We do not feel gratitude for that which we are owed, but rather, for that which we scarcely deserve.

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As we know, not everyone has been on board with the national holiday of Thanksgiving. I am not referring to the modern progressives who decry it as racist, but rather to our third president, Thomas Jefferson.

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His objection to this tradition born of Puritan New England was owing to his strict belief in the separation of church and state. He did not think the government had a role to play in thanking God.

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One needn't doubt that Jefferson's fidelity to disestablishment of religion was sincerely held to point out that it was also very convenient for a man who supported the continuation of the institution of slavery.

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Separation of church and state was a rallying cry for the pro slavery crowd, for obvious reasons.

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It kept pesky moral questions out of the political realm, rendering unto God what was God's and to Congress what was Congress'.

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There is an elegant historical symmetry at work here. Lincoln in proclaiming a national day of Thanksgiving made reference to our sins as the cause of our pain and distress.

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Surely he meant slavery, in particular, as the sin that caused the horrors of war to steal away young lives and rend the country in two.

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In a sense we can say then, that the United States was not prepared to offer thanks to God in this way, until it released Black Americans from bondage.

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Jefferson's positions on slavery and Thanksgiving would lose out in the fullness of time, but his position on the separation of church and state fared better.

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Throughout the 20th century public displays of state piety, like prayer in school, would diminish.

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And yet, even though so many Americans do not see religious or objective morality as a just goal of the government or body politic, for those who do Thanksgiving is a powerful tool and reminder.

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We do not thank each other for our blessings on this day, but rather God.

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... like Lincoln, and the Crusaders, we must reckon, cheery in our disposition, with our sins, and faults, and those of our great nation.

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Only then, as we enjoy the bounties and blessings of America with friends and family can we truly thank God, that notwithstanding our too oft lack of worthiness, He will accept our thanks, protect us from our worst inclinations, and continue to watch over the United States of America.
Black Lies Matter (JWR 11/24/2021)
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I dare you to look, with a clear and unfiltered lens, at the bloody nightmare we once called the United States of America.

•
Connect the dots. Contemplate the utter chaos in every major city while Black Lives Matter militants, academics and bureaucrats prattle on about "systemic racism" and "two-tiered justice."

•
It's about much more than the horrific mass murders and attempted murders in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where the annual Christmas parade will now forever be stained by the wanton acts of alleged killer Darrell Brooks — a convicted sex offender and domestic abuser who sailed through George Soros-funded Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm's soft-on-black crime revolving door like a Six Flags season pass holder.

•
Look at Philadelphia, home to another Soros-funded DA, where four black teenage girls beat the stuffing out of a group of Asian students on a SEPTA train in broad daylight last week.

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The lead aggressor, a hulking female in a hijab, brutally punished one Asian girl for asking her to stop harassing her friends.

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Viral video shows how Ms. Islam-Is-Peace tackled the intervener to the ground and beat her over the head with her shoe and clenched fists. Not a single adult intervened.

•
Look at the living hellhole of New York City, where homeless lunatics push random strangers off subway platforms, repeat offenders rob and beat pedestrians on their way to work, and druggies urinate, defecate and fornicate openly on once-safe tourist thoroughfares.

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Look at Oak Brook, Illinois, just outside woke-hijacked Chicago, where mobs of diverse thieves carted off $120,000 from a Louis Vuitton store on Wednesday afternoon.

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Look at Walnut Creek, California, where roving bands of black-clad gangs absconded with $200,000 worth of merchandise from Nordstrom.

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We are all supposed to pretend we can't discern the race of the criminals so "experts" can castigate us for using racist terms like "looting" to describe ... looting.

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We are hectored repeatedly by the Biden administration that "white supremacy" is the root of all this country's problems.

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CNN reported as "news" this week that "there's nothing more frightening in America today than an angry White man."

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Systemic racism and two-tiered justice won't allow black criminals to get a fair shake, we are propagandized over and over — even as a new catch-and-release carousel-riding Darrell Brooks emerges with numbing regularity by the week or day.

•
The scourge of Soros DAs has ushered in nothing but misery, filth and death across the ravaged plain in the name of social justice, but if we just tear down one more Thomas Jefferson statue, strip away one more Confederate general's name off a military base and toss another trillion or two or 10 or 20 at "diversity, inclusion and equity" initiatives to make white people atone for their alleged sins, peace and harmony will prevail.

•
Fraud upon fraud upon fraud. How many more innocent Dancing Grannies and schoolchildren have to die for the Big Lies?

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When will more good people stop reflexively cringing in the face of accusations of "racism" and call out the racist system of two-tiered justice that is actually bringing America to its knees?
Thank Private Property (JWR 11/24/2021)
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Happy Thanksgiving! But beware the "tragedy of the commons." It almost killed off the pilgrims.

•
When they came to America, the pilgrims decided to share everything. The governor of Plymouth Colony, William Bradford, wrote that the pilgrims thought "taking away of property and (making it communal) ... would make them happy and flourishing."

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Food and supplies were distributed based on need. Pilgrims would not selfishly produce food for themselves.

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In other words, they, like Sen. Bernie Sanders and many American young people today, fell in love with the idea of socialism.

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The result was ugly. When the first harvest came, there wasn't nearly enough food. Many pilgrims died that winter. If the Wampanoag American Indians hadn't helped them, all might have starved.

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It was the tragedy of the commons. No individual pilgrim owned crops they grew, so no one had an incentive to work harder to produce extra to sell to others.

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Since even slackers got food from the communal supply, they had no incentive to work hard. Many didn't.

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Strong men thought it was an "injustice" that they "had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could."

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Women had to cook and clean for other women's husbands, and they "deemed it a kind of slavery."

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The shared farming, Bradford concluded, "was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit."

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When the Pilgrims ran out of food, they "began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop ... that they might not still thus languish in misery."

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Their solution was private property. They split up the collective farm and gave every family a plot of land.

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That was a big success. "It made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been," wrote Bradford. "The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn." Before, they "would allege weakness and inability."

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Thanks to individual plots of land, food shortages turned into a surplus that became the feast we now call Thanksgiving.

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"All men have this corruption," Bradford observed. In a common, everyone wants to take as much as they can.

•
Private property created prosperity.
For Thanksgiving, some answers on the meaning of life (JWR 11/24/2021)
Reality Remains Undefeated (JWR 11/24/2021)
•
This week, a 39-year-old black man in Waukesha, Wisconsin, plowed a maroon Ford Escape into a Christmas parade of children and older women. Five people were killed and another 48 were injured.

•
The motive of the suspect is unknown; if the media have their way, it will remain that way. The media apparently only care about why suspects commit violent acts when motives can be credited to their political enemies.

•
There is one thing we do know: the suspect should not have been on the street. He had a rap sheet longer than the first five books of the Bible.

•
His latest alleged crime took place on Nov. 5, when he was charged with resisting an officer, bail jumping, recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct and battery.

•
... John Chisholm, the District Attorney of Milwaukee County, who had embraced criminal justice policies geared toward rectifying "the racial imbalance in American prisons."

•
"Chisholm stuck his neck out there and started saying that prosecutors should also be judged by their success in reducing mass incarceration and achieving racial equality."

•
Chisholm himself admitted the costs of his policies in 2007: "Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into a treatment program, who's going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It's guaranteed to happen."

•
Reality with regard to criminality isn't all that complicated: when you free criminals unjustifiably in a misguided attempt to achieve "group equity," innocents suffer.

•
When you take cops off the street, freeing criminals to work their will, innocents suffer. When you refuse to prosecute crime, criminals spot an opportunity.

•
Voters can either continue to deny reality and pay the price, or they can wake up to the simple fact that reality always wins.

•
Until they do the latter, the criminals — and the politicians who enable them — will be the only winners.
This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for democracy and the commonsense of ordinary Americans (Fox 11/24/2021)
•
We went into COVID lockdown nearly two years ago and have emerged to find a greatly changed America. "Wokeism" has taken over our schools, churches, media and corporations. Teachers indoctrinate children with racial hatred and anti-Americanism.

•
Freedom of speech has been banned from college dorms and faculty lounges. Our most renowned media outlets routinely and proudly censor any voices criticizing the radical left's socialist agenda.

•
Some of our once great cities are defunding police departments. Our senior military officials used to focus on defeating America's foreign adversaries; now they're obsessed with which pronouns to use in training manuals.

•
Anyone criticizing the new "Woke America" is attacked by social media mobs and by the "cancel culture."

•
Just a few years ago, America was the gold standard for freedom and individual liberty. Now we're the capital of group think.

•
Almost all of us have in recent months had conversations with friends who look around the room and whisper fearfully, "What has happened to America?"

•
The silent majority of Americans realize we're going in a very bad direction — we're just not sure what to do about it.

•
But I've detected a shift in the last few weeks. People around the country have finally had enough and are starting to fight back.

•
The silent majority has found its voice. We're willing to stand up the socialist, totalitarian, racist, anti-American agenda.

•
The battlegrounds are not in Washington, they're in local school boards, town halls, and in state capitols. The warriors are not in our military nor the FBI.

•
They're the ordinary citizens who live ordinary lives, but who are filled with extraordinary courage that inspire others in different communities to stand up for their rights.

•
Americans, as a people, are slow to rile up. We're generally focused on our families, friends, neighborhoods, and our jobs. We go to our kids' soccer games — not school board meetings. We drive to work, not to political protests.

•
But push us far enough, and we will respond. That's what is happening all over America today. It's parent protests at school district meetings. It's whistleblowers revealing government abuse of power. It's veterans, businessmen, and even truck drivers who are stepping up to run for political office.

•
It's why I'm thankful for democracy. Our Founding Fathers understood the nature of government is always to expand its power and privilege. They took steps to guard against mob rule and a dictatorship of interest groups.

•
I'm grateful they also had the wisdom to give the average, commonplace, ordinary Americans the power to stop them.

•
This Thanksgiving, it's God bless America — and our fellow Americans.
Tucker Carlson: Media won't investigate motives in Waukesha massacre - here's why (Fox 11/24/2021)
•
Last Friday, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges against him in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Just two days later, a Black nationalist BLM supporter drove an SUV through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

•
It was a slaughter. Six people were killed, including three grandmothers and an eight-year-old boy. Forty-seven people were injured very badly, many of them children.

•
Police say the man who did this is a career criminal called Darrell Brooks. As of tonight, Brooks has not publicly explained why he committed mass murder.

•
Instead, the media and local authorities have decided to speak for him, and the main thing they want you to know is that these killings had absolutely nothing to do with the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict just two days before. Nothing whatsoever. The timing is just one of those amazing coincidences.

•
"There is no evidence that this is a terrorist incident," announced Waukesha's chief of police. But if indiscriminately murdering women and children at a Christmas parade isn't terrorism, then what exactly is it?

•
Well, it's a vehicular mishap. Here's how Twitter's in-house news team described it. "Five people dead and more than 40 injured after car drives through parade." Car. It's the fault of the red SUV.

•
Other news organizations had another explanation handy. It turns out they told us that Brooks was fleeing from a knife fight. And the implication, of course, was that he got spooked and drove through the parade by accident.

•
... then MSNBC took this theory a step further and suggested the police had somehow goaded Darrell Brooks into driving into people by firing a gun at him.

•
So Brooks was doing whatever he could to get away from the police so effectively, it's the cop's fault. Except no, that's not what happened. Eyewitnesses, many eyewitnesses described Brooks zigzagging down the street trying to murder as many innocent people as he could. These killings were absolutely intentional. And no, Brooks was not being chased by the police. That's a lie.

•
... the question remains why did Darrell Brooks commit mass murder in Waukesha? The media don't seem interested in finding out, not even a little bit. So they've decided to ignore the story completely. And they are.

•
Subpoenas to Roger Stone from some fake congressional committee are apparently more important than six deaths.

•
The more we learn about Darrell Brooks, the easier it is to understand why the media don't want to talk about him. Brooks's social media feeds are full of racist and Black nationalist propaganda. In one of his rap songs, he includes lines from Malcolm X justifying race-hate against Whites...

•
... one BLM activist was happy to connect the dots here. He describes Brooks' mass murder, as retaliation for the Rittenhouse acquittal...

•
This has to do with the verdict. That's the obvious conclusion. Is it true? Again, we have not confirmed it, but we can be absolutely certain that the national media will spend zero time trying to find out. Why? Because they're implicated.

•
News organizations spent more than a year telling us that a case that had precisely nothing to do with race was somehow a referendum on the civil rights of Black people and the rise of White supremacy.

•
So if it turns out those lies, and they are lies, got six people murdered. They'll probably be the last to tell us that.

•
We do know that Darrell Brooks never should have been on the street in the first place, he was a thoroughly loathsome person.

•
A few weeks ago, probably not surprisingly, he was charged with punching the mother of his latest child in the face and then running her over with his car, so he should have been in jail for that.

•
But the Milwaukee County District Attorney, a radical called John Chisholm, released Brooks on a $1,000 bail.

•
So $1,000 for beating and running over a woman. Why? Well, because John Chisholm believes that bail is racist.

•
A few years ago, Chisholm acknowledged that letting violent criminals out of jail was certain to cost innocent lives. But, he explained, it's still worth it, because equity.

•
"Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into a treatment program, Who's going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It is guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach."

•
In other words, the deaths of innocents, old ladies, small children are a small price to pay because the principle of equity is so beautiful and so important.

•
That is a diseased way of thinking. It's how cult leaders and dictators think. It is not a western worldview, but suddenly it's a mainstream position within the Democratic Party.

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... what would happen if we did this if we actually emptied the prisons? As Democrats are demanding, we're getting a taste of the consequences right now by watching what's happening in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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There's nothing equitable about what's happening there. It's theft, big picture, it's anarchy, it's violent chaos in which the weak will always suffer the most.

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Why do we have civilization in the first place? Precisely to prevent that. So you've got to wonder why they're encouraging it.
It is up to the “Deplorables” to save America (INN 11/23/2021)
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A discrete group of individuals – academics, cultural, media and political figures - has bequeathed onto their cultures postmodernism, and the nihilistic impact of its destruction, or as they say, deconstruction, of the truth, of facts, of values, of absolutes, of roles, relationships and traditions.

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... in the name of some undefined or even unconceived utopian vision, the elites have ordained a dismantling of all that we have come to regard as the pillars and attributes of Western Civilization.

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Americans now live in a country where serious people are worried about what pronouns they should be referred to, what gender they should adopt, and what victimization might, at some point in time, have been inflicted on themselves or upon those that they deem to be perennial victims.

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They have enshrined the immutability of one's race or ethnicity as the defining characteristic of one's being.

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And, as in the ancient world, they have assigned divine or near divine status to nature, with the twist that somehow we can appease and impact the gods of climate and nature through our submission and mortification.

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While millions of ... Americans, not so lovingly labelled "the Deplorables" by Hillary Clinton in 2016, might only have a high school education, they have studied, learned and assimilated the genius of the American respect for the individual, opportunity and mobility, as well as the ability of an individual to transcend the circumstances of his birth.

•
They see in American history, a flawed but magnificent effort to raise the level of the dignity and well being of the great swath of humanity that compromises the nation.

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They revere those who sacrificed to maintain that effort, those who saw that in defending America they were defending something grand, glorious, humane and decent.

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Today, the Deplorables are steeped in a wisdom that has completely eluded their elite leaders: common sense.

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They have also become the ultimate custodian of the mindset and motivation that birthed America: individualism.

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These two attributes have the power to reverse the all too apparent tailspin that has beset America and much of the rest of the West.

•
The Deplorables know that they are not racist people; they know that America is not the fount of all evil; they also know that they have individual human rights, and just as a woman has a right to the integrity of her body, so do they.

•
We are witnessing the beginning of a highly unusual if not unprecedented - by history's metrics - bottom up, grassroots uprising designed to restore American culture, rescue American history, and rediscover traditional American values.

•
Any one of sound mind, who values the existence of America, not to mention its leadership of the free world, must want to cheer them on. Their mission must succeed. The alternatives are too frightening to contemplate.
What If Leviathan Destroys Our Freedom? (JWR 11/23/2021)
•
What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What do we do about it?
The Rittenhouse verdict (JWR 11/23/2021)
•
If confronted by someone seeking to loot, destroy your business, or kill you, would you see your armed self as the best defense, or would you call 911, hoping the police will show up in time, if at all?

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Or would you be glad that a Kyle Rittenhouse is patrolling your streets like a neighborhood watchman, doing the job the police are unable, or reluctant to do?
Janet Yellen, Democrats peddle pending-default lies, yet again (Fox 11/22/2021)
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"Last night, in a bizarre spectacle, Senator Schumer exploded in a rant that was so partisan, angry, and corrosive that even Democratic Senators were visibly embarrassed by him and for him."

•
"This childish behavior only further alienated the Republican members who helped facilitate this short-term patch."

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McConnell should demand an FFCA vote and let Schumer and his comrades boost the debt limit, if they must. Republicans should spend the next month telling Americans the truth about this Democrat Big Lie: Washington has abundant revenue to pay federal creditors...
It didn’t start with Kyle Rittenhouse, nor will it end in Kenosha (INN 11/21/2021)
'Reckoning' Over Steele Dossier? (JWR 11/21/2021)
Afghanistan fiasco shows US military encourages lapdog generals, retired colonel says: The Last 96 (Fox 11/21/2021)
•
"Can you imagine if those three or even two out of three had offered their resignation? You don't think that might have caused the president to think twice?"

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"I think they're products of a culture that has arisen within the U.S. military that simply does not encourage innovative thinking or creative thinking. That rewards perhaps obedience above all else."

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"I think within our organizations, the Joint Force, we sadly have a culture that does not always see the most strong-willed creative thinkers rise to the top. It's a culture that I think is amiss."

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"How are these three holding themselves responsible? I've seen all three of them during the 90-day period use that term," Milburn said of Austin, Milley and McKenzie.

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"It's very difficult to explain exactly what that means if you continue in office. Holding yourself responsible often is a prelude to resignation. Not always, but ... that's really the ultimate sanction. So, it is hard to take them seriously." ... the trio has "rendered their own words hollow."

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... the American public's wishes aren't "really the only arbiter of making that moral decision because ... his oath was to the Constitution."

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"It's not necessarily, what the American public would like. It is what does he feel his duty to the Constitution is. Not to any particular person."

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"That is the time to stand your ground and simply say, 'no boss. I'll give you my resignation.' That should be our collective expectation of these people."

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"No one really without any sense of foresight could say [Biden] will yank [the troops] out and the Afghan government will not collapse."

•
"Certainly as military planners, you always have some contingency plan, no matter how unlikely you think an event is to occur. If the events are going to be catastrophic, you plan for that."

•
"Ignoring the ramifications of any decision that you make or order that you pass, I suppose would come within that category of SNAFU."

•
"As a military professional, our duty isn't simply to follow orders. There is a point where if we see something that is happening catastrophic to the institution, then doesn't our oath to the Constitution obligate us to take action?"

•
The Taliban ultimately took point on securing the Kabul airport. An ISIS-K suicide bomber bypassed the Taliban's checkpoints and killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

•
Milburn said poor leadership is standard and that bad decisions from the top – even minor ones – amplify down the ladder.

•
He repeated a joke Marines often told: "What is the difference between the Marine Corps and the Boy Scouts of America? The Boy Scouts have adult leadership."

•
It was the kind of joke used "to mitigate your sense of powerlessness" from "the bottom of the pyramid". ... In the military, "the results of ineffective leadership or inefficiency or just minor mistakes are felt greatly at kind of the tail end of the whip."

•
Failure to make decisions "causes a great deal of frustration beneath you". ... "A lot of us would rather have a tyrannical commander than one who simply avoided decisions because at the tail end of the whip, that causes all kinds of confusion."

•
In the military, "the most important thing you have is your reputation," the retired colonel told... "It's not even rank, it's not necessarily authority at any given time. It's the ability for you to inspire people, especially those beneath you."

•
The Defense Department launched a $500 million program in December 2014 to train 5,400 Syrian fighters a year to help the U.S. combat ISIS. The following September, Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee that only "four or five" trainees were fighting In Syria.

•
"It just seemed incomprehensible to me that there were no ramifications for him aside from, I assume, just being embarrassed. Can you imagine anyone not getting fired for that kind of mismanagement? But somehow he survived."

•
"What we saw during the closing days of the fall of Kabul, who can deny that those images were disastrous to just our credibility as a nation?"

•
The Pentagon declined to comment.

•
See related The Buck Stops Where? (Antonio Branco, 10/01/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Tucker Carlson: Lying media had no effect on Rittenhouse verdict and propaganda was defeated (Fox 11/20/2021)
•
Here's how the story started, just so we all remember. 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse wound up on the street in Kenosha in the first place with a gun for one reason: He was there because in the summer of 2020 the leadership of the Democrat Party endorsed mob violence for political ends.

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That's why there were riots in Kenosha that night, because people like Kamala Harris supported those rights.

•
More than a year later, as Rittenhouse stood trial for murder, those very same people implied there would be more violence if he was acquitted.

•
So imagine being a juror on that case. Imagine the pressure and the fear. It would take enormous moral courage for any juror to ignore the threats and follow the evidence to its logical conclusion.

•
So much courage that at times we doubted it was even possible in a country as politicized as ours now is. But as we learned today, it is still possible, thank God.

•
This afternoon, the jury acquitted Rittenhouse on all charges. The jury affirmed what was obvious from the very beginning: He acted in self-defense.

•
It was a wonderful moment. Anyone who believes in impartial justice was vindicated. Here's that moment:...

•
COURT CLERK: As to the first count of the information — Joseph Rosenbaum — we, the jury, find the defendant, Kyle H. Rittenhouse, not guilty. As to the second count of the information - Richard McGinnis - we the jury, find the defendant, Kyle H. Rittenhouse, not guilty. As to the third count of the information - unknown male - we the jury find the defendant, Kyle H. Rittenhouse, not guilty. As to the fourth count of the information - Anthony Huber - we, the jury, find the defendant, Kyle H. Rittenhouse, not guilty. As to the fifth count of the information - Gaige Grosskreutz - we the jury find the defendant, Kyle H. Rittenhouse, not guilty.

•
Remarkable. Months of relentless lying from the media about this case, in the end, had no effect whatsoever on the jury. Propaganda doesn't always win. Today it was soundly defeated, thank God.

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REPORTER: How do you feel, man? / KYLE RITTENHOUSE: The jury reached the correct verdict. Self-defense is not illegal. And, I believe they came to the correct verdict. And I'm glad that everything went well. It's been a rough journey, but we made it through it, we made it through the hard part.

•
Technically as a legal matter this case is over. Kyle Rittenhouse has been proclaimed innocent in a court of law. He's free to resume his life.

•
For the authoritarians among us, this is a disaster, they can't let it go. Why? Because they understand the Rittenhouse case is a referendum on the most basic right of all, the ancient right of self-defense.

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If Kyle Rittenhouse can save his own life from the mob, then you can too. That drives them insane.

•
So insane that the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee today, Jerry Nadler of New York, implied Kyle Rittenhouse may face federal charges. ... You have to be deranged to consider that. What would be the effect on the country?

•
But you never know with these people. At the very least, the case will be used to justify taking your guns away. You can bet on it.

•
But, if it does go to the Feds, if Kyle Rittenhouse is prosecuted by the Department of Justice, the case will be handled by Kristen ClarkE, the Black nationalist who runs the so-called Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. The division that does not protect your civil rights, in fact, it's trying to take it away.

•
Last year Kristen Clarke weighed in on the Rittenhouse case and zeroed in on Rittenhouse's color like his race was some kind of crime. She described him as an "armed White man," murdering innocent protesters at "point-blank range."

•
Just hours after the verdict, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Sean Patrick Maloney, a congressman, released this statement: "It is disgusting and disturbing that someone was able to carry a loaded assault rifle into a protest against the unjust killing of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man."

•
Everything about it is wrong, not just a lie, but factually wrong. Jacob Blake was not killed. He was also not unarmed. He was carrying a knife. You know that because he said he was carrying a knife. He was allegedly trying to kidnap a child. That's when the police showed up. When he grabbed a knife, they shot him. Again, that's not in dispute. And he's still alive. But it doesn't matter. Because to these people, facts don't matter, clearly.

•
Kamala Harris said she was proud of Jacob Blake last year, the Democratic Party is sticking with that too. They are trying and they have been from the beginning to make this case into a racial divide, to further divide the country. Kamala Harris today said that the outcome of this case, the jury's verdict, was proof that our judicial system is not "equitable," whatever that means.

•
It needs to be changed. The Attorney General of the state of New York said it needs to be completely torn down and rebuilt, our justice system, that we've had for 250 years, the best thing in our country.

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The idea that you are tried on the basis of the facts, not on the basis of what you look like. But they would like to change that.

•
They're trying to whip people into a frenzy on the basis of claims that are totally, provably untrue. What kind of a frenzy? Well, consider this: This is from a senior advisor at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic campaign arm. His name is Dyjuan Tatro, he issued an explosive call for riots. "No justice, no peace," he wrote in the wake of the verdict.

•
Who is Dyjuan Tatro? He, according to news reports, spent a decade in prison after he shot two people. Now he works for the Democratic Party, in case you're interested in whose side they're on.

•
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Congresswoman Val Demings, another Democrat, offered this assessment: "The core of the far-right movement in America is they should be able to kill you if they want to." That's the official line of the Democratic Party tonight.

•
Keep in mind, if you watch the trial, you know this, Kyle Rittenhouse was walking down the street when he was charged by a convicted child rapist and charged by a number of other people. He sought no conflict. There was never any evidence he was the aggressor in any case. He was aggressed against.

•
White vigilantism, White supremacy. White. White. White. White. White. That was over the media all day long, explicit racial attacks.

•
What does that have to do with this case? And in what kind of country is that allowed when the most powerful people in the country level explicit racial attacks against one of their countrymen?

•
It's very ominous they are talking like this now. Just as a reminder in case you're tuning in for the first time in a year, everyone involved in this case is the same color.

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It's really, really dark. The rest of us should not allow them to get away with racializing this, allowing them to get away with attacking people on the basis of their skin color.

•
The ACLU said, "Despite Kyle Rittenhouse's conscious decision to travel across state lines and injure one person and take the lives of two people protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake by police, he was not held responsible for his actions."

•
This is insanity. And by the way, the continuous references to crossing state lines are not insignificant. Legally they're meaningless. You have a right to cross state lines if you're an American because it's your country. You can go to all 50 states and you're not breaking the law.

•
So why are we inflicting that on you on a day when all of us should be celebrating? We'll tell you why.

•
Because none of that made any difference to the jury. And if you're totally absorbed in American media, you get the impression that American media are in charge of our country.

•
And it turns out, they're not. Most people don't watch that crap. They don't care what people like that say. They don't care at all.

•
There are a lot of rational, decent, thoughtful people on all sides of all races in this country who are still willing to think clearly about what is right, what is wrong, what is factual, what is false, what is just, and what is not. And today, they did.

•
So, that's the real lesson here. In the face of all of that propaganda, a group of jurors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, were brave enough to reach the right and obvious conclusion anyway. Amen.
After the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict could a defamation lawsuit or DOJ investigation be next? (Fox 11/20/2020)
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Immediately following the verdict, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler called for the Justice Department to investigate the "miscarriage of justice." Others have called for a federal civil rights case against Rittenhouse.

•
The Justice Department does not have an office for the prosecution of "miscarriages of justice" due to errant jury decisions.

•
Rittenhouse was acquitted on state charges by a state jury. Moreover, while some have called for reducing self-defense protections, the jury applied the law as it currently appears on the books. It is not allowed to simply ignore the law to seek our own criminal justice rules.

•
The Rittenhouse jury faithfully applied the Wisconsin law and came to a well-founded verdict of acquittal. It is a dangerous precedent to investigate jury decisions simply because you disagree with their decisions.

•
There is also no clear basis for a civil rights prosecution. Rittenhouse is White and shot three White men. He was not accused of a hate crime.

•
Moreover, he is not a member of law enforcement or government agency, so he did not deprive anyone of their civil rights under federal law.

•
Rittenhouse could face lawsuits from the families of the deceased or from Gaige Grosskreutz, who survived being shot in the arm. That includes wrongful death actions...

•
All three men attacked or threatened Rittenhouse before he used his weapon. The common law protects not just self-defense but mistaken self-defense where a person may have erroneously (but reasonably) thought that he was under attack.

•
When attacked, Rittenhouse is authorized under common law to use commensurate force. While Wisconsin does not have a "Stand Your Ground" law, the common law has always recognized such a right and did not require a person to retreat before using force.

•
Rittenhouse does not have a viable claim for wrongful arrest or prosecution given the fatalities in the case and the reasonable disagreement of the need to use lethal force.

•
However, many commentators have suggested that he has a strong case for defamation against President Biden and many in the media for calling him a "white supremacist," "domestic terrorist" and "murderer."

•
There is no question that Rittenhouse has been subject to false and harmful claims in the media. Indeed, many watching the trial were surprised by the sharp disconnect between what they had seen on the case in the media and what was being presented in court.

•
What is clear is that the Rittenhouse case (like the Simpson and Sandmann cases) will continue for years. Indeed, Sandmann is still awaiting trial on some of his defamation claims.

•
This is why Thomas Edison once remarked that "a lawsuit is the suicide of time."
Tucker Carlson: Actions like these threaten America's judicial system (Fox 11/19/2021)
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The judge in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial has just sent the jurors home for the night to think about the trial for yet another day.

•
So far, deliberations, in this case, have lasted about 20 hours. In a normal proceeding, we'd have the jury's decision in about 20 minutes.

•
The essential question, in this case, is really clear did Kyle Rittenhouse have good reason to believe dangerous men were trying to murder him?

•
And the answer is also clear and unequivocal? Yes, he did. These people were definitely trying to murder Kyle Rittenhouse.

•
So Rittenhouse's response to that threat was the definition of self-defense. Desperate split-second decisions made in the face of unwanted aggression in an attempt to save his own life.

•
That's what happened. Every person who testified at the trial on both sides confirmed that no honest person doubts it.

•
So Kyle Rittenhouse never should have been charged in the first place. And yet he was, and the reason he was is very simple. From the beginning, this case was driven by politics, and ever since it's been tainted by government deception and incompetence.

•
One of the charges that Kyle Rittenhouse faces is a felony count for recklessly endangering the safety of a man who until today had never been identified.

•
Video footage from the night of August 25th shows a man kicking Kyle Rittenhouse in the face and knocking him down. Rittenhouse responds by firing his rifle twice, and both times he missed.

•
Tonight, the jury is considering whether Rittenhouse acted recklessly when he fired those two shots. And yet, and here's the point. The jury has no idea as it deliberates who this man is because the prosecution never identified him. Prosecutors claimed they didn't know his identity, and they had no way to find it out.

•
So that means that Rittenhouse's defense attorneys never got to cross-examine this man or introduce any evidence about his behavior that night. That's not a small thing.

•
... that man's name is Maurice Freeland. Freeland has admitted that he attacked Rittenhouse moments before another man, a domestic abuser called Anthony Huber, started bashing Rittenhouse in the head with a skateboard.

•
So who is Maurice Freeland? Well, according to the Daily Mail, he's a career criminal. He has opened charges for domestic abuse, disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property.

•
So what we learn here, among other things, is that every single person Kyle Rittenhouse shot or shot at on August 25th in Kenosha had a lengthy and violent criminal record.

•
Well, that seems relevant, but the jury doesn't know it. Thanks to unethical behavior by the prosecution, Maurice Freeland never had to testify in court.

•
That means the state knew all along exactly who Maurice Freeland was but they withheld that information from Kyle Rittenhouse's lawyers.

•
And as a result of that, Kyle Rittenhouse was deprived of his constitutional right under the confrontation clause to challenge the accuser in open court.

•
That's not supposed to happen, it can't happen, and that's not the only relative evidence that was withheld from Kyle Rittenhouse' lawyers during this trial.

•
The prosecution's theory of the case is that Joseph Rosenbaum, the child rapist, began chasing Kyle Rittenhouse after Rittenhouse pointed his rifle at Ziminsky. So apparently the pedophile was defending the honor of the accused rapist. That's their claim.

•
Conveniently for the state, however, Joshua Ziminsky, like Maurice Freeland, never testified in this case. Why? Because prosecutors made sure he couldn't. Prosecutors charged Ziminsky with arson and then delayed his trial so he would not be available to testify and the Rittenhouse trial.

•
By the way, and this is relevant too, authorities say the Ziminsky brought a gun to the riot and fired a shot before Kyle Rittenhouse ever pulled his own trigger. How's that for relevant? But jurors never got to hear Joshua Ziminsky explain that.

•
According to one of Rittenhouse's lawyers, the defense copy of the drone footage was nearly three times less clear than what the prosecutors had.

•
It doesn't matter what the explanation is, there's no excuse for this in a criminal trial. The prosecution has a legal obligation to obtain evidence in a timely manner and then provide the defense the moment it's available, that's the law.

•
So by definition, Kyle Rittenhouse is not getting a fair trial, by the way. Outside the courtroom as well as inside. yesterday as hundreds of National Guard troops idled nearby, a fight broke out between protesters within earshot of jurors.

•
Today, we learned that a freelancer for MSNBC followed the jurors' bus to the courtroom. He blew through a red light to keep up with the bus.

•
Now, why would a "journalist" follow jurors before they've reached their verdict? Well, the judge seemed to understand exactly what was going on. This morning, he banned anyone associated with MSNBC from the courthouse.

•
Now, you don't have to like Kyle Rittenhouse or what he did to see this as scary and wrong and a threat to all of us doesn't matter who you voted for, it does matter what you thought of Donald Trump. That's irrelevant.

•
Withholding evidence in a criminal trial. Intimidating jurors. These things threaten not just Kyle Rittenhouse. They threaten America's system of impartial justice, which, by the way, is the best thing we still have in this country.
Can the FBI be salvaged? (JWR 11/18/2021)
America, we've been swindled again on infrastructure (Fox 11/18/2021)
Tucker Carlson: How much longer can this go on in our country? (Fox 11/18/2021)
•
So there's a difference between lying and propaganda, and it's worth knowing what it is. All propaganda is lying, but not all lying is propaganda. So what's the difference between the two?

•
Propaganda is not a shading of the truth. Propaganda is a complete inversion of the truth. ... propaganda looks like it's the mirror image of reality is the exact opposite of the truth. And it is always delivered with ferocious aggression.

•
Propaganda tends to bewilder people to confuse them when they first hear it. It's so completely and obviously untrue. What is this, you think? And yet for that very reason, because it's so ridiculous, so absurd, Propaganda tends to be effective. People assume that lies that bold have got to be true.

•
And that's why propaganda has always been a feature of society, especially now it's why we're now swimming in propaganda. January 6th was an armed insurrection. They screamed, Russia is the real threat. The 2020 election was perfectly fair. COVID is more dangerous than opioids, no really, it is.

•
... here's one from today's headlines. Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist. Now you're hearing that claim constantly from media figures and from politicians as a factual matter.

•
That is a lie. There's no evidence whatsoever that Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist, whatever that term is supposed to mean. There is precisely no racial angle at all to this story. None.

•
Of the four people directly involved in the Kyle Rittenhouse shootings, all four of them were white. So you might not like Kyle Rittenhouse, but if you're an honest person, you would have to concede that racism had nothing to do with what he did.

•
The point was Kyle Rittenhouse is a dangerous racist. And by the way, anyone who would defend Kyle Rittenhouse is probably a dangerous racist too — maybe one of those white militia people.

•
You see how that works, it works by indirection and stealth and dishonesty. But of course you see it because you see it every day because it never ended. They're still telling you the same thing now.

•
So why have they been doing this for 15 months? Well, now it's obvious. If Kyle Rittenhouse wasn't actually what he was, which was a 17-year-old lifeguard who came to Kenosha to clean Antifa graffiti off the walls of schools.

•
If their lies are true, it means this trial is about whether Black people can continue to live in the United States without being fear in fear of being murdered by white supremacist militiamen like Kyle Rittenhouse.

•
And by the way, after much repetition at this point, many Americans believe that's exactly what the trial is about, and they believe it because they keep hearing it on MSNBC.

•
If Kyle Rittenhouse is acquitted, quote, the rest of us should be living in fear. Now, why would we be living in fear? Because Kyle Rittenhouse might go on to shoot other convicted child rapists and violent criminals who actually tried to murder him?

•
That's the threat. How afraid should the rest of us be of that? Once again, that claim doesn't even make sense, but it doesn't need to. The fact that it's nonsensical does not diminish in any way the emotional power of those words.

•
But there's another point, too. And that point is to subvert our system of justice. American justice is based on the principle of equality, the principle that all of us are equal under the law, no matter what we look like, no matter who are parents were, no matter where we came from. That's called equality. And until very recently, our leaders were proud to offer it.

•
Equity is something very, very different. In fact, it's the opposite of equality.

•
If you think equity is the point of the justice system that you don't care about the details, you're not interested in the evidence, you don't understand who is actually guilty or innocent before the law.

•
What you care about instead, is the appearance of the defendants, the identity of the people who are convicted and acquitted. According to the principles of equity. How you were born determines whether or not you are guilty. That's equity.

•
And it's not a fringe theory anymore, according to Joe Biden himself, equity is the organizing principle of this White House. He said so the day he was inaugurated.

•
But in order to replace equality in our justice system and every other institution with equity, that means you have to tear down the system we currently have and have used for the last two hundred and fifty years.

•
That's not easy. It's a big assignment. How do you do it? Well, in the justice system, there's no faster way to tear it down than by calling judges racist, which, needless to say, is exactly what they're doing now.

•
Elie Mystal: He has made a series of decisions, each one perhaps maybe individually defensible, but in totality lead to the impression of a biased racist judge with his Trump rally cellphone that is trying to get Rittenhouse a walk.

•
The racist judge. So that's a very heavy thing to say about anyone and particularly a sitting judge in the middle of a murder trial. So the question is, is the judge actually a racist? In the answer, as you know by now, is that No, there's no evidence of that at all.

•
And the man who has claimed the judge was racist knows there's no evidence of it. The man who just claimed it by the way went to Harvard Law School. He's not stupid. He knows what the facts are. He just doesn't care what the facts are. Whatever it takes.

•
So this way of looking at the world intentionally denying reality for the sake of a desired outcome is often called postmodernism. But that's not quite right. In fact, this is pre-modern. This is an instinct older than civilization itself and in fact, a challenge to civilization itself.

•
This is the kind of thinking that leads to tribalism. Tribalism is the belief that my team is always right and your team is barely human. Tribalism has been around for as long as people have been around. It's never gone away. It just lurks beneath the surface of societies, all societies.

•
One of the main goals of any civilization is to suppress tribalism so that we can live together without killing one another. So you should be concerned when it reemerges in public and boy has it.

•
Joy Reid: ... In America, there's a thing about both white vigilantism and white tears, particularly male white tears.

•
So that is it currently employed MSNBC anchor, Harvard graduate, not an employee of Radio Rwanda. And that person is telling us what she really thinks in a Tik Tok video.

•
White tears. She mocks the very idea. People that evil can't cry. They don't have human emotions because they're not really human. You don't have to care about them. They don't qualify for your compassion. You can laugh as they weep and feel good about it.

•
You often hear the word dehumanize. What does it mean? That's what it looks like. So you wonder how long this can go on our country before something really important breaks.
Adam Schiff, Steele dossier and the death of shame in American politics (Fox 11/17/2021)
•
The famous philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once declared that "the only shame is to have none."

•
The problem with shame is it assumes a sense of guilt over one's actions. In the age of rage, there appear fewer and fewer actions that are beyond the pale for politics.

•
Take Adam Schiff and the Steele dossier. While even the Washington Post has admitted that it got the Russian collusion story wrong in light of the findings of Special Counsel John Durham, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is still insisting that he was absolutely right to promote the discredited Steele dossier.

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Schiff was one of the greatest promoters of the Steele dossier despite access to briefings casting doubt about Steele and the underlying claims.

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However, Schiff recently has attempted to defend himself by claiming that Steele was a respected former spy and that he was lied to by a Russian source.

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Some of us have spent years being pummeled for questioning the obvious problems with the Steele dossier, including the long-denied connection to the Clinton campaign. Schiff was the main voice swatting down such criticism and his endorsements were treated as dispositive for media from MSNBC to the Washington Post.

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... Schiff ignored repeated contradictions in Steele's dossier as well as evidence that the dossier was paid for and promoted by the Clinton campaign. In 2017, even fired FBI agent Peter Strzok admitted that "we are unaware of ANY Trump advisers engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials" and "Steele may not be in a position to judge the reliability of his subsource network."

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Schiff would have had access to some of this intelligence. Indeed, while the Clinton campaign was denying that it funded the dossier, American intelligence knew that that was a lie.

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... Schiff attempts to portray the sole problem with the Steele dossier as Russian analyst Igor Danchenko. That is simply not true. Schiff was long aware that there were allegations of misleading or false information given by the FBI to the secret court.

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Schiff was aware that President Barack Obama was briefed in 2017 that Hillary Clinton was allegedly planning to manufacture a Russian collusion scandal – just days before the start of the Russian investigation. The dossier was riddled with disproven allegations.

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... Schiff states that he merely sought to investigate allegations. However, Schiff was one of the most active members fueling the Russian collusion allegations.

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Indeed, when the Mueller investigation found no proof of Russian collusion, Schiff immediately went public to claim that he had evidence of collusion in his committee files. It was meant to keep the scandal alive. Schiff has never produced his promised evidence of collusion.

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... Schiff insists that he was just doing his due diligence in pushing for an investigation, the claim is not only undermined by his refusal to acknowledge obvious flaws in the dossier for years but his opposition to the investigation by John Durham.

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Indeed, while Schiff insists that he is glad to see people like Danchenko prosecuted, he opposed the continuation of this and other investigations.

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Schiff told MSNBC that ongoing investigations would constitute "tearing down our democracy" and would serve as a way to "delegitimize" a president.

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Schiff denounced the Durham investigation as a "politically motivated" effort and resisted demands from Trump to issue a report before the election.

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Schiff raised the termination of the Durham investigation by Attorney General Merrick Garland before Durham could issue any indictments or reports.

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"The appointment is not consistent with the language of the statute that he's relying on and can be rescinded, I think, by the next attorney general. I would presume the next attorney general will look to see if there is any merit to the work that John Durham is doing."

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So Schiff is now heralding indictments by Durham despite the fact that, if he had gotten his way, there would have been no Durham and no indictments.

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The Russian collusion scandal was not some harmless political ploy. Lives were destroyed.

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Carter Page, who was never charged with a single crime, was labeled a Russian agent and pilloried across networks and print media. A fortune was spent on investigations by Congress, two special counsels, and inspectors general investigations. Hundreds of people faced questioning and many spent their savings on legal representation. A presidency was derailed, agencies like the Justice Department and the FBI were whiplashed by scandal, and Congress dropped a myriad of other issues to focus on various investigations.

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In the wake of those costs, Schiff offers little more than a shrug.

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Many have long marveled at the incapacity for shame in politicians. That missing emotion was most famously captured by lawyer Joseph Welch in the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954: "Have you no shame, sir, at long last? Have you no shame?"

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The answer is that we now live in a post-shame era where the only shame is yielding to the impulses of decency or decorum.

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The Russian collusion scandal served its purpose and Adam Schiff would be the first say that there is no shame in that.
The Narrative Is the Priority (JWR 11/17/2021)
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According to the media, Kyle Rittenhouse was a white supremacist. According to the media, Kyle Rittenhouse was an active shooter. According to the media, Kyle Rittenhouse was a murderer.

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In reality, he was none of these.

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Kyle Rittenhouse was a 17-year-old young man who went to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in order to protect businesses and administer medical aid to those who needed it.

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He was chased down by Joseph Rosenbaum, a 36-year-old convicted child molester; he shot Rosenbaum when Rosenbaum grabbed for his gun.

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He was then chased down by Anthony Huber, 26, a man convicted of two felony counts of strangulation and suffering after pulling a knife on his brother and grandmother and choking his brother; Rittenhouse shot Huber when Huber tried to slam his skateboard into Rittenhouse's head.

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Finally, Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, a member of a radical Antifa offshoot, approached Rittenhouse with a pistol in his hand; Rittenhouse shot him in the biceps.

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All of this was on tape. It was verified by witness testimony and physical evidence. Yet Rittenhouse was brought to trial anyway.

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Members of the Left declared that Rittenhouse was a stand-in for American racism, despite the fact that all three of the people Rittenhouse shot were white.

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Even after the prosecution presented its case — a case so weak that the prosecution's own witnesses ended up supporting Rittenhouse's self-defense case — members of the media continued to maintain that an exoneration for Rittenhouse would be yet another stain on America's racial record.

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Meanwhile, last week, we learned that the Department of Justice had indicted one Igor Danchenko, a Russia analyst who worked with Christopher Steele on the infamous Steele dossier — a collection of bizarre misinformation about Trump treated as blockbuster material by the media.

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... Steele, at the behest of Hillary Clinton's hired guns at Fusion GPS, gathered false information from Clinton allies, and laundered it into a report — and then Clinton's team handed the Steele report over to the FBI, which promptly used it as the basis for a FISA warrant against Carter Page, a member of the Trump campaign. The Clinton campaign then used the FBI investigation of Team Trump as a campaign point.

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The media, of course, went right along with all of this. When the Steele dossier went public, members of the media treated it as though it were verified and credible.

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Jussie Smollett was not attacked by MAGA-hatted white thugs; the media treated his initial story with complete credulity.

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Christine Blasey Ford provided no supporting evidence for her allegations against Brett Kavanaugh; the media treated her as a groundbreaking heroine.

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The high schoolers of Covington Catholic did not mock a Native American man; the media treated them as evil white supremacists.

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No evidence was ever presented that Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd based on race; his case nonetheless became the point of the spear in our "national conversation" about racism.

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How many facts will die at the hands of media-crafted narratives? As many as need to die in order to achieve political utopia for the Left.
Tucker Carlson: Why did the people in charge let Kenosha be destroyed? (Fox 11/17/2021)
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... from the very first moments of this trial it was obvious that Kyle Rittenhouse never should have been indicted in the first place.

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The key question was: Did Kyle Rittenhouse act in self-defense that night in Kenosha? And the answer unequivocally is yes. Obviously, it's a no-brainer. ... no honest person could reach a different conclusion.

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Kyle Rittenhouse shot men he believed were trying to kill him. Now, why did Kyle Rittenhouse believe that, you may ask?

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Well, in one case, the man he shot told him so directly, "I plan to kill you." Of the other two men Kyle Rittenhouse shot, one repeatedly bashed him in the head with a skateboard as he lay on the ground. The other stuck a loaded gun in his face. So Kyle Rittenhouse fought back in order to save his own life.

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We're not guessing about that, even the prosecution's witnesses made that point. So once that happened, once Kyle Rittenhouse's life was threatened on the street in Kenosha, what were his options exactly?

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Well, he could fight back, or he could allow himself to be murdered by the rioters. And allowing himself to be murdered by the rioters is essentially what the prosecution has argued: Kyle Rittenhouse had a duty to submit to the mob.

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... that's lunacy, and no sane jury could agree with that for a second. So the question is why is it taking so long for this jury to produce a very obvious verdict?

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For answer, look outside the courtroom. There are hundreds of National Guard troops assembled tonight in Kenosha. Why are they there?

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Well, they've come in case Kyle Rittenhouse is acquitted. Not in case he's convicted, in case he's acquitted. At which point if he is acquitted, pretty much everyone expects the usual mobs of Joe Biden voters to burn and loot and destroy.

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Why does everyone expect this? Because people on the left are openly calling for it. "Now the jury deliberation has begun, I think every city in America should prepare for what could happen if Rittenhouse gets acquitted. It may get RIGHTFULLY unpleasant."

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So imagine if you were a juror in this case? How would you feel about this? You're not sequestered, you know how the country feels. You know what the threats are. Well, you might think twice before you acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse, no matter what the evidence was.

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Remember what happened after Rodney King, they burned Los Angeles to the ground. You wouldn't want to be responsible for that. You wouldn't want to spark riots.

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And of course, that's the whole point of the exercise. The mob threatens violence, the rest of us tremble, and pretty soon the mob controls our justice system.

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Pretty soon, the enemies of civilization, which is what they are, are in charge of the country. That's what's happening now.

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So it's worth pausing for a moment to ask, how did we get here? ... "We're waiting to see if riots break out because of media lies about a case from a riot that happened because of media lies."

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The August 2020 riot in Kenosha wasn't really a riot in the way that we understand riots, it was an outbreak of political violence. It began three days after the Democratic Convention. That was the context for it.

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It was, in fact, one of many riots that summer across the country, all of which were explicitly supported by the leadership of the Democratic Party. We're not making this up. Look it up.

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What was the point of these riots? Big picture, the point was to unseat Donald Trump.

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In the specific case of Kenosha, we know exactly the chain of events that led to where we are today. A man called Jacob Blake was shot by the police.

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Immediately, the media and the Democratic politicians they serve lied about what happened. So they told us that a cop shot Jacob Blake in the back for no apparent reason – and by the way, Jacob Blake was unarmed, he was helpless, he was pulled out of a lineup and shot him because that's what America is like.

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Kamala Harris then jumped in and said she was "proud" of Jacob Blake like he was a civil rights hero, like he was shot for being the wrong color, as so often happens in a systemically racist country.

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In fact, the police were responding to a call from a woman who said Jacob Blake was trying to kidnap her child. So the police showed up as they should have.

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They tried to detain Jacob Blake and Jacob Blake fought the cops. Then he grabbed a knife. Jacob Blake was holding that knife when he was shot by the police. Jacob Blake admitted that on television.

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Based on the first false stories from the news media told intentionally, our leader suggested that these riots in Kenosha were somehow justified and then allowed them to continue.

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... that's not a civil rights protest, that's not people fighting back against oppression, systemic racism. That's just people destroying things they didn't build. That's people wrecking our civilization.

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In no normal country would that be allowed, it would be put down immediately with force. That's why we have police.

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You can't allow that because if you do allow that, people get killed - as they did. But local police, you should know, did virtually nothing to stop any of the things...

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The governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers, turned down an offer from Washington to send federal officers in order to help get Kenosha under control, to save the city...

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Downtown Kenosha burned. It will never be rebuilt. Talk about a city that doesn't deserve any of this. Kenosha is just a town of 100,000 people, many of them Hispanic, if that even matters. But it's true, they're not rich people who live there.

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Kenosha is far past its prime. It was part of the industrial base that built this country that built the modern world. Now it's suffering even more than it was before the riots because a bunch of entitled antisocial lunatics broke things for no reason. Because our leaders allowed them.

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So why did the people in charge allow Kenosha to be destroyed? This happened over days. They allowed this. Why?

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Well, for the same reason they indicted Kyle Rittenhouse. To send a very clear message to the rest of us watching on television: Don't resist. When the mob comes, you can't fight back. We're in charge. We'll do what we want. All summer they made that very clear.

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So the message over time was very, very clear. And again, it's the same message they're sending us with the Rittenhouse trial: resistance is futile. Try to defend yourself and we're gonna throw you in jail.

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During closing arguments, in case you missed the point, one of the prosecutors, in this case, said it out loud: When the mob comes, he said, just let them beat you.

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KRAUS: Everybody takes a beating, sometimes, right? Sometimes you get in a scuffle and maybe you do get hurt a little bit. That doesn't mean you would just start plugging people with your full metal jacket, AR-15 rounds...

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Everyone takes a beating? How dare you talk like that in court. In a sane, civilized society you can't condone violence just because the people committing it vote for the candidate you like.

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Notice the change here, though. This case has gone from "white supremacist hunts down executes BLM protesters" – like it was a racial case, everyone's white – to the new theme "that teenager should have accepted his beating from the child molester arsonist who was chasing him and threatening to kill him and because he didn't he needs to go to jail." Once again, a very clear message: submit. The prosecution hammered this again and again and again.

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KRAUS: Why do you get to immediately just start shooting? As Mr. Binger said, he brought a gun to a fistfight. And he's too cowardly to use his own fist to fight his way out. He has to start shooting.

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Really? Too cowardly? A 17-year-old should have gotten into a fistfight with a 36-year-old violent pedophile? Right.

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Speaking of cowardly, where were the police who are paid to stop this stuff? Who are paid to keep mob violence from happening in the first place? Where's the governor, who's under too much political pressure to protect his own people?

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Talk about cowardly. Blaming a 17-year-old who shows up because the city his dad lives in is on fire and he wants to do something?

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He shouldn't have been there in the first place, he shouldn't have had to have been there. The adults should have been there. They're the cowards.

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These prosecutors are appalling, this whole spectacle is appalling. At the same time, watch how the prosecutor characterizes the pedophile's actions the night he was shot.

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BINGER: So what does he do that night? Oh, let me tell you all the awful things Joseph Rosenbaum did. He tipped over a porta-potty that had no one in it. He swung a chain. He lit a metal garbage dumpster on fire. Oh, and there's this empty wooden flatbed trailer that they pulled out in the middle of the road and they tipped it over to stop some bearcats and they lit it on fire. Oh, and he said some bad words. He said the N-word.

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That's one of the weirdest thing that's ever happened in an open court. That's the prosecutor. That's a government official mocking the idea that it's a big deal to light cars on fire to keep the police from coming in and restoring order.

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It's just not a big deal at all, is what the prosecutor is telling us. He's also saying it's not a big deal to scream racial slurs in public. Really, since when is that true?

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This is lunacy. The jury was never allowed to hear the details of the life of this guy, Joseph Rosenbaum. He had quite a history that does seem sort of relevant, actually.

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The rest of the media is not going to tell you anything about it, so we will. In 2002, Joseph Rosenbaum was charged by a grand jury with 11 counts of child molestation, including forcible sodomy. This wasn't, him at 19 with a 17-year-old girlfriend. No, no. He raped children. The victims were 5 boys between the ages of 9 and 11.

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Ultimately, Rosenbaum was sentenced to 10 years in prison for this. When he got out of prison, Rosenbaum destroyed his ankle monitor that he was required to wear. The day he died, Rosenbaum had an open case for domestic abuse. They're defending this guy.

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Just hours before he threatened to kill Kyle Rittenhouse, Rosenbaum had been released from a mental hospital being treated for some sort of disorder, obviously. He tried to go back to his fiance, but she had a no-contact order after she pressed charges against him a month earlier for hitting her. So this is the man they're telling you was a model citizen.

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JOY REID: Let me just remind people of the names of the victims. Joseph Rosenbaum, who was 36-years-old. Anthony Huber, who was 26. Gaige Grosskreutz is only 27 years old, was injured. These are the victims. These are the people that people ought to remember, these are the people who were hurt here, not the person who was crying on the stand today.

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This is not a cross-section of America. These are the worst people in America. Joseph Rosenbaum, the child rapist. What about the other victims? Our media tells you a main victim is a guy called Gaige Grosskreutz. He's the guy who ran up Kyle Rittenhouse and pointed a loaded gun in his face, for which he's never been charged, that's not a big deal because he votes the right way. Who is this guy?

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Well, Grosskreutz, it turns out, also has a lengthy criminal history that includes an arrest for hitting his own grandmother in the face. Just six days before he testified in the trial Grosskreutz was in court on a DUI charge, which Joe Biden says is not a big deal, but most of us grew up thinking, you were not supposed to do that.

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Several years ago, Grosskreutz was charged with smashing the bedroom window of his ex-girlfriend's home at 4 a.m. On the night, Kyle Rittenhouse shot him, Grosskreutz has admitted he was carrying an illegal firearm. Oh, no longer a big deal, either. Gun crimes don't matter if you vote the right way.

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So what about Anthony Huber? He's the man who hit Kyle Rittenhouse twice in the head with a skateboard. Who was he?

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He's a convicted domestic abuser. According to court records, Huber once told his brother that if he didn't clean a room in his house, he was going to "gut him like a pig." Huber said that while he was holding a six-inch knife to his brother's stomach. Then he grabbed his brother's neck and said "I'm going to burn this house down with all of you in it." Huber pleaded guilty to one count of strangulation that time.

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So I guess the point is pretty simple: there were a lot of violent criminals at this particular Joe Biden rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer.

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Kind of hard not to contrast it with what happened on January 6, the insurrection they never stopped telling us about.

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No one has been charged with carrying a gun inside the Capitol building that day. How many fires did they set? None that we're aware of, but they get to rot in solitary confinement anyway while Gaige Grosskreutz gets the seal of approval from MSNBC anchors for pointing a loaded gun he was carrying illegally in the face of a child.

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So the Kyle Rittenhouse trial is wrapping up, but the people who engineered the political prosecution behind this are still in power.

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One of the main takeaways from all of this is that those people are now more brazen than they have ever been. They're just saying it out loud now.
FOUND! New university aims to pursue truth, not suppress speech and ideas (JWR 11/16/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Media and Big Tech lied about the Kyle Rittenhouse case - here's the truth (Fox 11/16/2021)
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... part of the reason it's just so interesting is because the facts are so different from what we've been told for more than a year, completely different. And it's shocking to compare reality against the version of reality we've been force-fed.

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Here's one example. ... "Kyle Rittenhouse, 17," declared the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "was not old enough to legally carry the assault-style rifle he had." Just stating it as fact. And then the entire national media followed suit and told us the same thing.

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The problem was it was a lie. In fact, under Wisconsin law, which apparently no one in any newsroom in America had even bothered to check, 17-year-olds are allowed to carry rifles as long as their barrels meet a minimum length requirement, and Kyle Rittenhouse's rifle met that requirement.

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The prosecution is admitting in open court that it was legal. He had not committed a gun crime, and that means that for more than a year, Big Tech and its lackeys throughout our media have spread misinformation about Kyle Rittenhouse.

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Well, that's embarrassing. What are they going to say? Well, they're not going to admit it, of course. They're going to make certain you don't learn about it.

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Just minutes after the judge in the case dismissed the gun charge, YouTube, which is owned by Google, censored the video streams of several independent legal experts who were commenting on the trial in real time.

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... hundreds of people were watching those streams at the moment they were canceled, but over concern that Americans might conclude that Kyle Rittenhouse is innocent, YouTube shut them down, citing policy violations...

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... the very same people who have told you for years that borders are by definition White supremacy now claim it's some kind of moral offense for an American citizen to enter a contiguous state.

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Nor have any of the people hyperventilating about crossing state lines explained why it's OK for the BLM rioters and the Antifa creeps to come from around the country to burn Kenosha down, as many of them did. Haven't even addressed that.

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But if there's one thing this trial has taught us, it's how completely dishonest and totally misleading so many of the news accounts of what Kyle Rittenhouse did have been.

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... for example, how Rittenhouse first encountered convicted child rapist Joseph Rosenbaum, the first man he shot. There are multiple witnesses to that. Most of it's on video, actually.

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Joseph Rosenbaum had just been released from a mental hospital and for some reason decided to join the riot. So first he lit a fire. Then he began to swing a chain like a weapon.

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When he saw Kyle Rittenhouse, he threatened to kill Kyle Rittenhouse. Then he chased Rittenhouse in a full sprint, cornered him, and then tried to snatch his gun from his hands.

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It was at that point that Rittenhouse fired. Who wouldn't fire at that point?

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After shooting Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse tried to turn himself in to police, but he couldn't because a mob howling for his death chased him down a city street.

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One rioter that knocked Kyle Rittenhouse to the ground, another smashed him in the head with a skateboard, and a third rioter drew a loaded pistol, which he was not allowed to have, unlike Kyle Rittenhouse, and pointed it in Kyle Rittenhouse's face.

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So at no point was Kyle Rittenhouse the aggressor in the sequence of events. Every move he made was defensive.

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That's not our interpretation of it. That's what came out from prosecutors and witnesses in court. None of these facts are disputed. They all happened.

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So that's a very tough problem for the prosecution. With facts like those, What exactly do you say? What they said is really interesting. Today the prosecutor was left trying to argue that convicted child rapist mental patient Joseph Rosenbaum, whose criminal record you can read online, and you should get a sense of who they're defending here, that this guy had threatened to murder Kyle Rittenhouse in front of witnesses, and yet actually, he was not a threat to Kyle Rittenhouse.

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The whole thing is ridiculous. And it got more absurd as the day progressed. The prosecutor Thomas Binger explained that if you take steps to defend yourself, you have by definition given up your right to self-defense.

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If an ex-con with a history of violent crime informs you that he is going to murder you and then tries to grab your gun from your hands, you are allowed to respond. In fact, you have to respond because it would be suicidal not to, obviously.

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You have no right to resist. That's the whole point of this whole proceeding. So the next time BLM sweeps into your town, your neighborhood, your house to burn and loot and brandish weapons, you had better not try to protect yourself or your family.

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Try to protect yourself or your family, and we will charge you with murder. And while we're at it, we'll have the national media call you racist.

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These people are demented and they're dangerous, and that kind of talk degrades the social fabric faster than everything.

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See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
The Rittenhouse case is a cautionary tale for conservative legislatures (Fox 11/16/2021)
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The power and prejudice this prosecution is wielding should worry anyone who advocates for the fair administration of the rule of law.

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As experienced prosecutors who have handled high-profile criminal cases and made difficult charging decisions, we leverage our decades of experience toward advancing reforms that translate to systemic support for the rule of law.

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We do not typically engage with the latest case the media has chosen to circus. The probing and insightful Twitter analysis is best left to the great and renowned legal minds of our generation – LeBron James, Alyssa Milano and John Legend.

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Or better, the thoughts of tenured law professors in maze-like university buildings who pontificate courtroom knowledge from the safety of a quiet corner office.

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Like much of America, over the last couple days we have watched the Rittenhouse prosecutor exhibit the attitude that rules and the judge's rulings don't matter.

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Rather than apply the law to the facts, the prosecutor has exercised discretion so as to reflect his own self-righteousness, so the ends justify the means.

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The judge in this case has been criticized by the left and the media for the audacity of not rolling over.

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Instead, he has fiercely guarded the integrity of the proceedings, the rights of the defendant, and regularly checked the unabashed overreach by the prosecution.

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For this reason, the Rittenhouse case is a cautionary tale for conservative legislatures, where debates are waged around whether to infuse prosecutors with more power over the outcome of a criminal case, while reducing the influence of the judge.

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Proponents call it truth in sentencing. The result is the tipping of the state's criminal justice balance of power in favor of prosecutors, who, let's not forget, are partial actors in this system.

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The evidence presented in the case by both the prosecution and the defense clearly supports Kyle Rittenhouse's contention that he acted in self-defense as he attempted to guard property threatened by rioter...

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Video evidence shows individuals chasing, attacking and threatening a 17-year-old Rittenhouse with his life, with at least one pointing a gun at him before he fired, and another trying to take his own gun from him while shouting that he was going to kill Rittenhouse.

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Yet, the prosecution has pursued six criminal charges against him, including first degree reckless homicide and multiple weapons charges.

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Simply put, prosecutors are the most powerful actor within the criminal justice system, and since the 1980s, their power has only grown. Luckily for Rittenhouse, Wisconsin has preserved the authority of the judge in a criminal case.

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Another issue this case has brought into focus is the abject hypocrisy of wokeness. These woke criminal justice reformers claim to advocate for protecting the rights of a defendant but have lamented over what they perceive as the "pro defense" judge in the Rittenhouse case.

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Perhaps the most disappointing, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a co-sponsor of the First Step Act, has publicly called for such aggressively woke policies like the defunding of the prison industrial complex, and yet before all the evidence had even been presented, Jeffries tweeted "Lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key."

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A progressive who would withhold justice from someone they do not like is devoid of credibility when discussing criminal justice policy. Period.

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The Rittenhouse case has put Americans on notice of some very dangerous ways in which the scales of justice can be perverted. Prosecutors with agendas and woke activists will sacrifice justice to serve their own ends.

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Let's be grateful for a judge willing to safeguard justice from abuse of power or bias. Americans must demand that more judges have the ability to check that power...
Rittenhouse prosecutors cling to 'provocation' lifeline after muddying the facts (Fox 11/16/2021)
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In a trial where prosecutors unwittingly helped make the case in support of Kyle Rittenhouse's right of self-defense, they sought during closing arguments to deprive him of that right by arguing that the accused provoked the encounters that led to the deaths of two men and the wounding of another.

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The prosecution was helped by Judge Bruce Schroeder, who decided that the jury in the homicide trial would be given an instruction on the law of provocation.

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In Wisconsin, the law of provocation states that if the defendant is the initial aggressor, he loses his right of self-defense.

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That makes sense – as long as there is credible evidence that Rittenhouse engaged in a clear act of aggression toward the first man he shot, Joseph Rosenbaum.

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... in the end, the judge relented and delivered to the jury the requested provocation instruction. In doing so, he effectively tossed prosecutors a lifeline that might salvage their failing case.

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This allowed assistant district attorney Thomas Binger to tell the jury, "The defendant provoked everything and forfeited his right to self-defense."

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There is only one problem. Under the law, a defendant regains his right of self-defense if he retreats after his alleged provocation and withdraws from the encounter. That is exactly what the prosecutor's own videotape showed.

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Jurors watched as Binger played a video of Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse for nearly two blocks. The defendant ran away trying to escape Rosenbaum, who continued to pursue him and eventually cornered him against a group of parked cars.

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According to Rittenhouse, who took the witness stand late last week, his pursuer tried to grab his gun to take it away from him. The defendant said he feared for his life because Rosenbaum threatened to kill him. The video appears to corroborate much of this, in addition to the gunpowder found on Rosenbaum's hands.

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In other words, the defendant did his level best to retreat but to no avail. At that point, the law allowed him to defend himself with lethal force if he reasonably believed that he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily injury.

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If there was an aggressive threat, which is contested by the defense, it was never directed toward Rosenbaum. Instead, it was directed toward Ziminski, who appears to be armed with a gun of his own.

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This means Rittenhouse was acting not as an aggressor toward Rosenbaum, but a defender acting in self-protection from a gunman just a few feet away.

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The prosecutor's attempt to mislead the jury about this critical event included sensational courtroom trickery. In a slight-of-hand – literally – Binger dramatically held up the defendant's rifle and, with his right hand and arm, aimed it at an imaginary Rosenbaum.

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It was clever, until you realize that the right-handed Rittenhouse is seen lifting his left arm in the videotape while his weapon seems to hang from a sling closer to his right side.

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The prosecutor's contortions over the concept of provocation should have no bearing on the fatal shooting of Anthony Huber and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz.

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The evidence shows Huber trying to bludgeon Rittenhouse with a heavy skateboard and attempting to grab his weapon.

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Grosskreutz admitted in his testimony that he advanced on the defendant and aimed his loaded pistol at him. Under both circumstances, the accused was permitted under the law to defend himself.

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"All three men who were shot were the aggressors. The physical evidence doesn't lie – it's an inconvenient truth."

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Whether the jury will see it that way, is another matter. The prosecution's effort to muddy the legal and factual issues may well result in a deadlocked jury and a disappointing mistrial.
Why Kyle Rittenhouse should walk free (JWR 11/15/2021)
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... I hope that this time, a mediocre and politically motivated prosecutor will not be able to advance his career on the body of an 18 year old boy, who has now become the symbol of all that the left hates.

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Kyle Rittenhouse is guilty of only one thing: youthful stupidity, and a failure to understand that all of your best intentions are no match for nihilistic anarchists hell bent on burning down the only world you've ever known.

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Unfortunately, a lot of people have opinions about this case, which has become as much a reflection of the troubled social climate as the O.J. trial was almost three decades ago.

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I remember that when the not guilty verdict was rendered, the country reacted as if they'd seen two separate trials.

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African Americans, on the whole, were thrilled that a Black man had somehow beaten the system, while a majority of the rest of us were horrified at the obvious miscarriage of justice.

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We have Harvard Law grad Elie Mystel calling the presiding Judge Bruce Schroeder a "racist" and arguing that Rittenhouse will get off only because he knows "what white people are willing to do to defend white supremacy."

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You have that washed-up, bitter geriatric Keith Olbermann calling for a prosecution of the "racist" judge.

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You have CNN commentator Wajahat Ali comparing the judge to a Klan member, tweeting, "This dude should just put on the hood and show off his Halloween costume." And these are just the printable comments.

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Then, perhaps most troubling, is candidate Joe Biden using a photo of Kyle Rittenhouse as the face of "white supremacy" in an ad last year.

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... I'm disgusted by the sort of people who will use their own obvious prejudices to convict an 18 year old of murder when their lying eyes tell them otherwise.
The Government Lies About Its Secrets (JWR 11/15/2021)
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The sensitivity of our collective consciences has been dulled by the repetitive behavior of a government whose officials and agents work without discerning right from wrong, and in utter disregard of the laws they have sworn to uphold. Why do we tolerate this?
The 2021 Election and the Leave-Us-Alone-Movement (JWR 11/15/2021)
Parents' Bill of Rights is needed to combat Left's indoctrination of students (Fox 11/15/2021)
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As just about every parent with school-aged kids knows, the Left is trying to shut parents out of education.

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Joe Biden's Justice Department has tried to turn the FBI into a monitor of school board meetings, with one DOJ official going so far as to draw up lists of federal crimes for which parents could be prosecuted.

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Parents have every right to direct their children's education, as the U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized. Parents make our schools work.

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The Left's concerted effort to silence parents' speech and ridicule their concerns is dangerous – for our children, our schools, and our democracy.

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That's why I'm proposing a Parents' Bill of Rights, for every mom and dad in America. My proposal would guarantee them the seat at the table they deserve, one that no bureaucrat – or political party – can take away.

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The need for action is urgent. Democrats and their allies in academia increasingly view our schools as laboratories for the indoctrination of American children.

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Over the past year, we've learned how school districts have quietly introduced new learning materials in classrooms related to critical race theory – often without parents' knowledge, let alone approval.

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Faced with backlash, now the Left denies there is any such thing as critical race theory, and the media gladly repeats the falsehood. But parents know better.

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An Illinois teacher reported being required to teach students that "racism is a white person's problem and we are all caught up in it," that "color blindness helps racism," as well as the need "to disrupt the Western nuclear family dynamics as the best/proper way to have a family."

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Seattle Public Schools released a draft math curriculum including discussion questions like "where does Power and Oppression show up in our math experiences?" – as if addition and subtraction could somehow be racist.

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The Virginia Department of Education even issued a document denouncing "microinvalidations," or "communications that subtly exclude, negate, or nullify the thoughts, feelings or experiential reality of a person of color."

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To make matters worse, much of this propaganda was pushed into schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Few school boards were holding lengthy in-person meetings where parents could weigh in on curricular changes.

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Indeed, many school boards didn't seem particularly interested in reopening schools at all. But the Left was interested in force-feeding students a poisonous, anti-American ideology. And all this while millions of American parents struggled to balance work with child care.

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Parents have had enough, as the recent election results in Virginia and New Jersey attest. They're tired of education bureaucrats and teachers unions keeping schools shuttered for months on end, while still finding time to wallow in woke sloganeering.

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They're tired of being called racists for holding to Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of a colorblind society.

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But parents shouldn't have to fight these battles for their children's future alone. It's past time for Congress to declare, clearly and firmly, the rights that American parents have over their children's education.

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Those parental rights begin with a right to transparency – to know what their kids are being taught, and by whom.

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Likewise, parents have a right to know whether their tax dollars are funding trainings saturated with racist agitprop.

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Parents should be able to check in on their kids at school, and to know immediately of any safety issues at their kids' campuses.

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And parents should be able to access all school data concerning their children, as well as control how any third-party groups use that personal data.

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Finally, parents should have the right to be heard at school board meetings, without any fear of reprisal from Biden's Justice Department.

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In addition to writing them in law, Congress also needs to give these parental rights teeth. Where any of these rights are infringed, parents should be able to sue to enforce them.

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If schools or districts refuse to cooperate, their federal funding should be on the chopping block.

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Protecting these basic parental rights can help start a new era of openness in schools. These rights will help parents get the information they need, and deserve to have, about their kids' education.

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Empowering parents will, in turn, hold administrators accountable – and stop activists from lacing school lessons with toxic ideology disapproved by parents.

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America's schools should be the envy of the world. And they will be, if America's parents are empowered. The Parents' Bill of Rights is a start.

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See related Another Good Reason to Wear a Mask (Chip Bok, 10/20/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Hey, Joe Biden and Democrats, leave our kids and child care alone (Fox 11/13/2021)
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If the outrage over public school curriculums in Loudoun County, Virginia, has taught us anything, it is that parents should reign supreme in educating and caring for children.

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Moms and dads across the nation are fed up with the radical Democrats and the Biden administration's drive to impose a nanny state that overhauls the role of the family.

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The $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, otherwise known as reconciliation, places government where it has always wanted to be: at the head of every household in America.

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This behemoth piece of legislation would devote approximately $400 billion for taxpayer-funded and federally controlled child care and pre-K, as government aims to control our lives with every string attached.

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Our first, and arguably most important, societal safety net is the family. Next comes churches, communities and civil institutions. Government should be dead last.

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The Build Back Better Act eclipses the family, churches and communities, leaving us all beholden to big government.

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Make no mistake. Federal bureaucrats will surely claim the right to approve curricula, performance standards, and more – all decisions best left in the hands of parents and local communities.

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If policymakers truly want to move the needle on child care, they should step aside and give parents the resources to make the decisions that are best suited to the needs of their children and families.

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Let the money follow the child. Give parents the flexibility to use existing child care subsidies with the provider of their choice.

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Reduce the tax burden so families can devote more of their hard-earned paychecks to desired child care arrangements.

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The bottom line is that a one-size-fits-all solution from the halls of Washington never leaves Americans better off.

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Applying this to something as integral and personal as the education of our nation's children is as offensive as it is naive.

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American parents are best suited to make these decisions for their children and big government should empower them and get out of their way.
2022 Coming into Sharper Focus (INN 11/12/2021)
Trump's Anti-Americanism (JWR 11/12/2021)
Dems' Russia-ruse exposed: The Durham indictments explained (Fox 11/12/2021)
The looming peasant state (JWR 11/11/2021)
Andrew McCarthy: Durham indictments – don't be fooled, here's where this case is likely headed (Fox 11/11/2021)
Dan Gainor: Dishonest press go dark on discredited dossier designed to divide and destroy (Fox 11/10/2021)
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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Tucker Carlson: Kyle Rittenhouse's trial is the most bizarre court proceeding ever caught on camera (Fox 11/10/2021)
•
The outline of the case itself is pretty straightforward. Kyle Rittenhouse went to the BLM riots in Kenosha last summer, armed with a rifle.

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While he was there, he shot three people. He killed two of them. The prosecution claims this was murder. Kyle Rittenhouse says it was self-defense, so it's pretty simple.

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But here's the amazing thing: Every single witness the prosecution has called so far has wound up making Kyle Rittenhouse's case for him.

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That would include even Gaige Grosskreutz. He's the avowed communist who Rittenhouse shot in the arm. Grosskreutz was supposed to be the prosecution's star witness in this trial.

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But once he got on the stand, he admitted that Kyle Rittenhouse only shot him after he pointed a loaded gun in the boy's face.

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"It wasn't until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him, with your gun — now your hands down, pointed at him — that he fired, right?" GROSSKREUTZ: Correct.

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So that's kind of it right there, that's pretty much the end of the trial, because when someone runs up and points a loaded gun in your face, you are allowed to shoot that person that is called self-defense.

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That's the rule. It has been the rule throughout human history, in every society on Earth since people lived in caves.

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According to the prosecution's star witness, self-defense is exactly what happened here. So as a matter of law, in addition to custom and common sense, Gaige Grosskreutz just proves that Kyle Rittenhouse acted to defend himself from harm.

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But the trial kept going, and as it did keep going, things got even weirder and much worse for the prosecution. Gaige Grosskreutz, for example, admitted that he was carrying his gun illegally. He'd been arrested for felony burglary. Of course, he had. So his gun permit was invalid.

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Grosskreutz also admitted under oath that when he sued the city of Kenosha for $10 million, which for some reason he thought he was owed, he failed to mention the fact that he was carrying a firearm and pointing it in people's faces.

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At one point, a detective, a witness called by the prosecution, implicated the prosecution in a cover-up. The detective admitted that the police did not search Gage Grosskreutz's phone after the shooting, even though they had a valid warrant to do that.

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Well, why didn't they? Well, they didn't, because the prosecution ordered the police not to look at the phone, and that had never happened before.

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And you can see why it's baffling, really. Why would a government lawyer want less evidence in a case?

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So you're not allowed to look at the phone of the guy who got shot and was holding a gun. So why would an honest prosecutor ask a cop to ignore that? Why wouldn't an honest prosecutor want to see the phone?

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Apparently, the phone had video from that night, had relevant text messages, location data. So if you want to know what really happened that night, you would look at the phone.

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But it turned out the prosecutor didn't want to know what happened that night. He wanted to declare Kyle Rittenhouse a murderer. He was under enormous political pressure to do that, so that's exactly what he did.

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It goes without saying this is not how American justice is supposed to work. But thankfully, like most webs of deception, it collapsed under scrutiny in a big way.

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... why was a convicted child molester at a riot on behalf of BLM? ... A lot of people like that there that night, it turns out.

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But the prosecutor hoped to portray the shooting of the child molester Rosenbaum, as an act of senseless violence committed by a psychopath, Kyle Rittenhouse.

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PROSECUTOR: So your interpretation of what he was trying to do or what he was intending to do or anything along those lines is complete guesswork isn't it. MCGINNISS: Well he said f** you and reached for the weapon.

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Well, there's that. So a convicted child molester with a long and violent criminal history runs up to Kyle Rittenhouse out of nowhere in the middle of a riot and tries to take his gun away. So Rittenhouse shot him.

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That's what happened. Those are the facts. Again, according to the prosecution's own witness. And not just one witness.

•
... the prosecution's medical expert, a man called Doug Kelly, testified that Joseph Rosenbaum appeared to be grabbing the barrel of Kyle Rittenhouse's rifle when Rittenhouse fired.

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Then yet another prosecution witness, this one called Ryan Balch, testified that Joseph Rosenbaum said out loud that he intended to kill Kyle Rittenhouse.

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BALCH: ... And when I turned around, Rosenbaum was right there in front of my face yelling and screaming. And I said dude, back up chill, I don't know what your problem is. And he goes you know what, if I catch one of you guys alone tonight I'm going to f***ing kill you.

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BINGER: And he said that to you? / BALCH: Correct. / BINGER: Did he say that to the defendant as well? / BALCH: Well the defendant was there – so yes.

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At one point, another prosecution witness testified that Anthony Huber, who was, you won't be surprised to learn at this point, a convicted domestic abuser was bashing Kyle Rittenhouse in the head with a skateboard when he was shot.

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So once again, we have the textbook definition of self-defense. Not much of a prosecution. In fact, at no point did the prosecution make its own case. They make Kyle Rittenhouse's case.

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But you never know any of this from watching the coverage of the trial. NBC News, for example, just ran this thoroughly dishonest headline: Shooting victim at Rittenhouse trial said he thought he was going to die. What the article didn't mention, seems kind of relevant, the shooting victim was pointing a loaded gun at the boy who shot him.

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Actually, in point of fact, Kyle Rittenhouse went to Kenosha to clean up the filth left by the rioting Biden voters the child molester included.

•
Turns out, the morning of the shooting Kyle Rittenhouse was videotaped cleaning anarchist graffiti off the walls of a local high school. That seems like good citizenship, actually.

•
Naturally, elected Democrats denounced him as a racist. Ayanna Pressley described Rittenhouse as a "White supremacist domestic terrorist," echoing the MSNBC Morning Show. Ilhan Omar did the same.

•
Joe Biden, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, called the 17-year-old "A White supremacist." Now, for the record, the men Rittenhouse shot were all White, kind of a funny kind of White supremacy there.

•
So if you wanted a guilty verdict in this trial, you would probably have to threaten the jury. And as it turns out, some people are planning to do just that.

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CORTEZ RICE, FRIEND OF GEORGE FLOYD: I ain't even going to name the people that I know that's up in the Kenosha trial. There is cameras in there. There is definitely cameras up in there. There is definitely people taking pictures of the jury and everything. We know what's going on. So we need the same results man. We need the same results.

•
There's not a small thing. Jury intimidation is a serious felony in this country. But as far as we know, the Department of Justice isn't doing anything to stop it in this case.

•
So it looks like it's continuing today. At the Rittenhouse trial, a judge told jurors that some were taking their pictures at a bus stop outside the courthouse. That, of course, is a threat. We'll see if it works.
Tucker Carlson: When ideologues take over, life gets much worse for most people (Fox 11/09/2021)
•
Why are people so dissatisfied all of a sudden with Joe Biden? Well, the obvious answer is you're going to hear a lot of people say this Joe Biden is senile and ineffective.

•
But if you think about it, that's not true. It can't really be true because voters knew perfectly well all along that Biden was doddering.

•
They knew that when they elected him, it was obvious even then. In fact, it was part of his appeal.

•
Biden was too slow to be threatening to anyone. This was not a guy who was going to be making a lot of sudden moves. If you secretly wished it was still 1985, Joe Biden was your man because he was under the impression that it actually was.

•
Biden is afraid. You see it every time you look at him. He's overwhelmed. He's off-balance. And that's why he's so often snappy and aggressive, because underneath it all, he feels anxious.

•
Biden isn't always sure where he is or what's happening around him. So a man like that cannot possibly lead a country this complex.

•
But the problem is his weakness makes him a target for predators. Ideologues like Susan Rice or Barack Obama can take a man like that hostage and make him read their scripts. That's exactly what is happening...

•
... the White House plan to pay reparations to illegal aliens up to almost half a million dollars per person. So the very idea of an administration doing that under any circumstances is completely deranged.

•
What's interesting is that Joe Biden, who was not ideological, he's emotional. Biden understood that immediately. And so he responded when asked the way that any normal person would, he said effectively, What the hell are you talking about? That's crazy.

•
Now whatever you think of Biden, he's been in politics for more than 50 years, and at this point, if nothing else, he's got a pretty good gut sense of these things.

•
Unfortunately, Joe Biden is no longer in charge, he no longer makes meaningful decisions. The ideologues are in charge. The Obama people are in charge. That's the point.

•
So after that moment, they hauled Joe Biden before the central committee. They gave him a good reeducation. And the next thing you know, Biden is out there dutifully repeating their lunatic slogans.

•
Biden: If, in fact, because of the outrageous behavior of the last administration, you coming across the border, whether it was legal or illegal and you lost your child, you lost your child, he's gone, you deserve some kind of compensation, no matter what the circumstance. What that will be, I have no idea. I have no idea.

•
The ideologues are in control, and that is a huge problem for the rest of us. It's a problem because ideologues have no interest in the lives of actual human beings.

•
Ideologues care only about their theories, about the bright new future they are building. Human beings are just speed bumps on the way to utopia.

•
So not surprisingly, when ideologues take over society, any society in any country, at any point throughout history, life always gets much worse for most people. Borders fall, crime rises, schools collapse, inflation gets out of control.

•
But the ideologues don't care because they're completely focused on the shiny new society they're constructing. Nothing else matters. Perfection is always just around the corner. As soon as we get rid of all these white men, everything will be great.

•
Meanwhile, inevitably, the actual physical world around them, the world that the rest of us inhabit day to day crumbles at high speed and you're seeing it now everywhere.

•
... here's the thing from an ideologues perspective. Destruction is the whole point. Burn down Wendy's, loot Macy's, defund the police, close the school, shut down the energy grid, tear it all down, scrape the pads so we can put up something new and perfect — as they often put it — Build back better.

•
The problem with thinking like this, there are many problems, but the core problem is that you tend to ignore the suffering of the people who still live in your country, pre utopia. You don't care about them and they know you don't care about them.
F-bombing the president (JWR 11/08/2021)
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Pro-Trump Republicans have been deploying the F-word to convey their dislike for the president of the United States, and The Washington Post is appalled.

•
The Post ... claimed: "The current eruption of anti-Biden signs and chants ... is on another level, far more vulgar and widespread." Seriously?

•
Anyone who didn't spend the last several years in a sensory deprivation tank knows that Trump inspired such loathing that many of his opponents could scarcely mention his name without attaching it to the F-word.

•
When Robert De Niro strode onto the stage at the 2018 Tony Awards, his opening words — on live television — were: "I'm gonna say one thing. F** Trump!" The celebrity-filled crowd erupted in a standing ovation.

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Online you can find a seemingly endless array of vendors selling gear emblazoned with the same words De Niro used.

•
Rapper Nipsey Hussle's F-drenched anti-Trump song "FDT" has been viewed 32 million times on YouTube and was extolled by the Los Angeles Times as "the most prophetic, wrathful, and unifying protest song of 2016."

•
Unhinged rhetoric and foul incivility didn't begin with the current attacks on Joe Biden.

•
The First Amendment protects your freedom to vent the crudest insults you can think of and to drench politicians (or anyone else you despise) with noisome, potty-mouthed contempt.

•
But freedom of expression isn't the only value a healthy civic environment requires. Tolerance, courtesy, and temperate standards of public conduct — in a word, civility — matter too. They matter a lot.

•
Yet civility has been stripped away from vast swaths of our social and political culture, with the result that everything has become a battlefield.

•
For adherents of clashing world views and partisan loyalties, finding common ground has grown nearly impossible.

•
Divergent opinions are treated as deadly threats that must be opposed not with grace and a willingness to hear each other out, but with uncompromising rhetorical ferocity.
On Youngkin, Biden, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Braves (INN 11/07/2021)
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The despicable liars of the Left Media hide the true news by shading and shaping it. It is the exact same in Israel as it is in America.

•
They color and distort public opinion. They lie to us, intimidating tens of millions of people and brainwashing the public. They distort polling. They tell people a "truth" from an alternate universe, often persuading the weak and impressionable to lose faith in their own common sense.

•
... Left Media aim continually to reinforce the Democrat party's headstrong rush and determination to teach schoolchildren a falsified narrative of American history.

•
They want children, from the start, to learn that America was created to be an outlet for slavery and racism. That is a pernicious lie.

•
America was created to be an outlet for freedom. Of course America's Founding Fathers were not perfect — they were deeply flawed in accepting and maintaining slavery. But they were products of their time, just as we are of ours.

•
Just as we look back today on them and recoil from the horror that they perpetuated with slavery,_so it is that future generations will look back on our Woke era and will see the flaws and shame and madness of our times that include:...

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1. The mental illness of gender dysphoria that so many attempted to normalize;

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2. The cruelty and barbarianism of transgender surgery;

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3. The insanity of 1619 false history;

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4. The mendacity that systemic racism exists in America against non-Whites;

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5. The reality that systemic racism does exist now in America against Caucasians;

•
6. The historic tragedy of importing millions of illegal immigrants across America's southern border to replace the moderate, conservative American majority; and even

•
7. The historic error of teaching American public school students "woke math" — where all answers are correct — while assuring that those who avoid public schools learn true 1776 history and honest numerical mathematics.

•
Americans do not want critical race theory and false self-hating "1619 American history" taught to their children in the public schools.

•
They want children to be safe in public bathrooms that are designated respectively either for boys or for girls.

•
They want law and order at the southern border.

•
Americans of good will and tolerance are sick and tired of being called racist. They want police funded and criminals suppressed.

•
They are sick of "Black Lives Matter" and Antifa racists and thugs defining them. They want home-sourced American energy, and they want inflation controlled.
Nikola Kedhi: Why patriotic capitalism is the way forward for conservatism (Fox 11/06/2021)
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"We do not merely study the past: we inherit it, from people to whom we are bound by natural piety. Inheritance brings with it not only the rights of ownership, but the duties of trusteeship. Things fought for and died for should not be idly squandered. For they are the property of others, who are not yet born." — "Town and Country," ed. by Roger Scruton and Anthony Barnett...

•
In this quotation, Sir Roger Scruton perfectly encapsulated conservatism's essence. It is not an ideology, but rather a variety of ideas, beliefs and feelings that are natural to every human being.

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We inherit from our parents the home we are born into, the extended family, the community, the city, and the country of our forefathers.

•
Instantly, and quite instinctively, we become attached to these places and people, and a feeling of protectiveness arises.

•
We become heirs to traditions and culture, history, and deeds, for better or for worse. Each of us is born into an environment and into a certain social and economic status.

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It is our duty to leave to our successors this multi-layered inheritance in a better shape than it was in when we received it.

•
The conservative is an individual who understands this most natural relationship between the living, the dead and the unborn.

•
However, apart from making this basic and humane relationship apparent to everyone, a conservative must find practical ways and means to protect and strengthen it.

•
To that end, conservatives should have an answer as to the political and economic systems that need to be implemented for a country and its individuals to be free, have social mobility, meritocracy and protect their cultural and moral norms.

•
Through an appropriate economic system, conservatives can improve the welfare of every citizen in a society, so that each of us leaves a better world to the future generations, while honoring our past.

•
After decades of being bullied into silence, a sort of reawakening is occurring among conservatives – a resurgence that has been taking shape in the last six years.

•
Under threat by cancel culture, self-censorship, revision of history, a return of Marxism, illegal immigration and a forced push towards herd mentality and rejection of critical thinking, conservatives are starting to rise and stand up for what they believe in.

•
It is an existential fight propelled by the most unlikely of individuals: a real estate mogul from perhaps the most progressive city, New York.

•
Donald Trump's campaign and presidency inspired not only tens of millions of Americans but seemed to awaken from a deep slumber the divided conservatives of Europe.

•
Many establishment conservatives do not like him and would not like to admit in public that Donald Trump gave them a fighting chance. He showed conservatives how to fight and win.

•
The 45th president had the gumption to stand up for what he believes in, and consequently inspired conservatives, the right in general and freedom-lovers on both sides of the Atlantic.

•
Conservatism has many nuances and forms, each with something to offer in a great right of center coalition. We should agree on some core common fundamentals, based on what has worked in the past, adapted to the present circumstances.

•
We can learn from what President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher did in the eighties and combine their economic policies with the cultural, patriotic, and social values that Burke, Scruton and many others present and defend. These two sides are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, such alliance can be what the West needs to be saved.

•
Patriotic capitalism is the way forward for conservatism. A patriot cares for his family, his property, his community, his country, and the environment, undoubtedly while wanting to cooperate closely and peacefully with others.

•
A capitalist system brings about the means to conserve everything that conservatives – and most human beings – hold dear.

•
A patriotic education leads to better citizens with a higher degree of civil responsibility and care for the environment – capitalism provides the means to have school choice and achieve this strong patriotic education.

•
Educated individuals with the necessary economic means and opportunities, create stronger families, which undoubtedly lead to healthier and tougher societies.

•
Governments should exist to preserve life, liberty, private property, national security and nothing else. That is what makes a strong government — a concept different from that of big government.

•
The bigger the government, the greater the danger that it will abuse its powers. Coming from a country with a communist past, I well understand the dangers of expanding the reach of government as well as its allure, even for conservatives.

•
Conservatives have ideas that work and yet they do not use them. It is important to understand that without economic empowerment of individuals there can be no successful cultural fights.

•
It should not be the state – no matter who runs it – to tell individuals what to do with their lives or how to spend their money.

•
The wealthier the individuals are, the lesser their reliance on governments and bureaucrats will be and the stronger their ability to create a patriotic and stronger society.

•
Supply-side, capitalist policies are the tools to create societies where freedom, opportunity, patriotism, prosperity, civil society and strong nation states thrive.

•
I will never tire of quoting President Reagan: "the best welfare program is a job." That is what restores dignity to people.

•
An individual with a sense of his own dignity will then fight for family, tradition, sovereignty, and culture.

•
Someone dependent on government will be a servant of political cronies in the private sector, reluctant acceptant of woke ideologies and harmful policies.

•
Conservatives should focus on cutting taxes and easing regulatory burdens. They should promote incentives to work and seek to reduce bureaucracy. Governments should tax enough to raise a bare minimum of revenue for the most vital areas such as national security.

•
A true patriotic capitalism promotes freedom, cooperation, and equality of opportunities and not of outcome.

•
Contrarily, crony capitalism, big government systems and socialism immorally thrive in the absence of these three elements.

•
Moreover, capitalism promotes choice and competition, through the free cooperation of market participants.

•
Overall, it is more in line with human nature, just like conservatism. For this reason alone, capitalism will always be morally superior to any other economic system.
Gregg Jarrett: The Hillary Clinton crony behind the phony dossier identified in Durham indictment (Fox 11/06/2021)
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It was all manipulated by Hillary Clinton and her cronies. Or, as the Russians would say, "comrades."

•
The national nightmare known as Russian collusion was an odious invention from Hillary's fictive imagination and carried out by her cadre of loyal lieutenants who worked secretly in the shadows to smear Donald Trump as a Kremlin asset.

•
That is the inexorable conclusion that can be drawn from the 39-page criminal indictment by Special Counsel John Durham made public Thursday afternoon following the arrest of Igor Danchenko, who supplied the pack of lies that comprised the bulk of the infamous Steele dossier — the nucleus of the false allegations against Trump.

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Danchenko, who once worked at a liberal D.C. "think tank" with deep ties to Hillary, stands accused of lying to the FBI about his sources for the disinformation.

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Yet, to some extent, he was truthful in his assessment of the dossier itself as nothing more than a compendium of gossip, rumors, innuendo, and noxious speculation.

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Several of the phony stories intended to frame Trump for conspiring with the Russians appear to have emanated from a longtime Clinton acolyte by the name of Charles H. Dolan Jr., who is identified on page 3 in the indictment as "PR Executive-1" but whose role was confirmed by his lawyer.

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Dolan's dutiful allegiance to Bill and Hillary Clinton dates back decades. He served as Virginia state chairman for Bill's presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996. He was rewarded with an appointment to a comfy do-nothing position in the State Department.

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Thereafter, Dolan served as an adviser to Hillary during her failed presidential run in 2008 and was actively involved in her 2016 campaign. Indeed, "actively" is an understatement. The indictment lays bare a myriad of nefarious activities.

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As a dedicated Hillary sycophant, Dolan proved instrumental in cultivating the Russia hoax by allegedly feeding Danchenko hearsay gossip for Steele's dossier.

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The indictment suggests that Dolan's handiwork can be found in various parts of the discredited document, although he claims that he had no idea that it would be used as the basis for the FBI's damaging investigation of Trump. Right.

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The fact that that obscene behavior by Trump never happened did not deter the ex-spook from fabricating the damning story that was then blasted to the American public through media loudspeakers without a scintilla of credible evidence.

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When interviewed by the FBI, Dolan confirmed that his sojourn to the hotel produced not a single incriminating word about Trump.

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Danchenko is charged with repeatedly lying to the FBI by claiming that he never received any information for the dossier from Dolan.

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One of the great ironies produced by Durham's indictment is how a Hillary adviser was meeting with a number of top Russian officials in Moscow while her minions were dishonestly accusing a Trump adviser, Carter Page, of doing the same thing but with treasonous intent.

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And so it is with Hillary Clinton. Declassified CIA documents show that ... she approved an audacious plot to vilify her political opponent, Donald Trump, with false accusations that he was colluding with Russia to steal the presidential election.

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The genesis of the smear came from Hillary herself as a strategy to distract from her own email scandal. It was magnificently devious and classic Clinton.

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Her campaign financed the dossier, and her allies sedulously disseminated the lies to both the FBI and the gullible media, both of whom went after Trump with a vengeance. It produced the greatest mass delusion in American political history.

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Now, thanks to Durham's most recent indictment, another vital piece of the puzzle has been filled in. It wasn't a Russian insider, but a Hillary crony who furnished material for some of the dossier's deceitful claims.

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It's hard to conceive of anyone more duplicitous and despicable than Hillary Clinton.
Charlie Kirk: What Youngkin's victory tells us about Trump and the conservative movement (Fox 11/06/2021)
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Republicans must learn the right lessons from their recent victories and focus on concrete policy proposals that protect Americans from the radical left. That is popular. That can win.

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But if Republicans decide to throw out Trump and his movement, they will destroy a coalition that just proved it's powerful enough to completely remake the American political landscape for a generation.
Tom Del Beccaro: Dems play the long game by ramping up endless government spending (Fox 11/06/2021)
After Virginia, Fight the Culture War With the Aim of Victory (JWR 11/05/2021)
Can We Bring Back Honesty in Voting? (JWR 11/05/2021)
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Interesting, isn't it, that when boxes containing hundreds or more uncounted votes are discovered they're always Democrat votes.

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Why is it that extended vote counting always ends with a Democrat victory? How does that happen unless there is cheating involved? Answer: it doesn't.

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Leftists don't play by the same rules that conservatives play by. Most conservatives, by and large, have a closer relationship with honesty and fair play then do those on the left. Cheating, lying, and stealing is a part of who the left is.

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It is for this reason that it is imperative for this country to reestablish the time honored "voting day" tradition. One day to vote and one polling place to vote at. Period. Yes, some reasonable absentee voting can be counted, but no more open-ended stuff. And voter I.D. must be the law of the land. Why the hell it isn't is beyond comprehension.

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WE MUST change our voting laws back to pre-2020 rules if we ever want to see honesty in our voting process.

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See related It\\\'s Who Counts the Votes (Gary Varvel, 11/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Election Fraud (Mike Shelton, 11/24/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Dear Republicans: Here's How to Win (JWR 11/04/2021)
Gregg Jarrett: The arrest of the man behind the phony dossier underscores the many lies of the Russia hoax (Fox 11/04/2021)
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It has been a long time coming. But that is how reckonings sometimes happen.

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The fabulist behind the discredited anti-Trump dossier was taken into custody by federal authorities Thursday as Special Counsel John Durham continues to build his case against those who manufactured and propagated the phony Trump-Russia collusion narrative.

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Igor Danchenko was charged in a criminal indictment with five counts of lying to the FBI about the sources he used for the bogus information he delivered to former British spy Christopher Steele that comprised the bulk of his dossier.

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Danchenko was not some mysterious Russian agent operating in the bowels of the Kremlin. He is a Ukrainian-born resident of the United States who worked as a senior research analyst for the Washington, D.C. liberal think tank, Brookings Institution.

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When the dossier was concocted in 2016, the president of Brookings was Strobe Talbott, a longtime friend and ally of Hillary Clinton. This was hardly a coincidence.

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It was Clinton and her confederates who invented the Russia hoax to frame her opponent with the most noxious offense in America: a treasonous conspiracy with the Kremlin to steal a presidential election.

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The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) financed their illicit scheme by secretly funneling money to Steele, who hired Danchenko as his primary source for the dossier.

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Declassified documents show that the CIA knew as early as July of 2016 that Clinton had personally approved the devious operation.

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Shortly thereafter the FBI tracked down Danchenko, who admitted his role and debunked the dossier as little more than a fairy tale.

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But John Brennan and James Comey, the respective directors of the CIA and FBI at the time, kept the truth hidden from Congress, President Trump, and the American people.

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Their insipid deception allowed the collusion lie to gain traction in the mainstream media.

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The FBI exploited the dossier as a pretext to investigate Trump. Their misbegotten probe should have been shut down in its infancy.

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Beginning a mere four days after Trump was inaugurated in January of 2017, FBI agents interviewed Danchenko during three successive sessions and on multiple occasions after that.

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Danchenko admitted to the FBI that Steele paid him to dig up dirt on Trump. The Brookings researcher/analyst seemed desperate for money.

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He told agents that he "felt like he had to report something back to Steele" to justify the monthly salary he was receiving. So, he decided to traffic in gossip to keep the paychecks coming. Facts and truth were irrelevant.

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In telephone calls and voice communications through Skype, Danchenko spoke with a handful of people he knew in Russia and others he described as "random associates." Some were barroom buddies with whom he would "drink heavily."

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They traded yarns and tall stories about Trump. It was nothing more than prattle and drivel — a guy told a guy who told me that someone connected to Trump might have done thus-and-such. You get the picture.

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It's wasn't plausible intelligence; it was scandalous junk derived from "speculation and open secrets."

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Danchenko insisted during his FBI interviews that he had repeatedly cautioned Steele that the information he was feeding the ex-spook was just "rumor and speculation and that he had not been able to confirm" any of the dubious stories about Trump-Russia collusion.

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Danchenko confessed that Steele had "misstated or exaggerated" the hearsay that he furnished.

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The mainstream media, riven with bias and easily exploited, helped fuel the collusion fable. Reporters were more than happy to appropriate the Steele-Danchenko garbage, treating it as gospel without ever attempting to confirm the accuracy or veracity of any of its ludicrous allegations. Journalists became witting accessories to the witch hunt.

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Comey and his FBI knew all of this but continued to misappropriate the dossier as the basis for the four successive warrants to spy on Trump campaign associate, Carter Page.

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The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was consistently told that Steele was a credible source even though the agency had fired him for lying.

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The FBI defrauded the FISC judges by insisting that the dossier was credible, even though they possessed incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.

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The bureau scrupulously guarded their secret knowing full well that disclosure would ruin the public's trust in the FBI. And so it has.

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Durham should be commended for having the courage and persistence to uncover the incessant lies and bring criminal charges against those whose malevolence drove the dirtiest political trick ever perpetrated in American politics.

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The Danchenko indictment should have been brought years ago. But the FBI's complicity and coverup of its own malfeasance necessitated the work of a skilled special counsel to unravel the tangled web of deceit that enabled the Russia hoax to survive and flourish.

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See related Trump Collusion Charges (Glenn McCoy, 10/30/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Trump Interrogation (Sean Delonas, 02/10/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Of pencils and miracles (JWR 11/02/2021)
Sorry, media, 'Let's go, Brandon' is NOT a new low in US politics (JWR 11/02/2021)
You shouldn't vote if... (JWR 11/01/2021)
Stop voting Dem (JWR 11/01/2021)
Radical Retelling of US History Is Not Only Damaging, But Built on Lies (JWR 11/01/2021)
Hemingway: Mark Zuckerberg funded quiet takeover of government offices to help Democrats in 2020 election (Fox 11/01/2021)
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Through the Center for Technology and Civic Life and the Center for Election Innovation and Research, Zuckerberg poured $419.5 million into the election — which reportedly went to advance mail-in voting efforts and rally Democratic voters.

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"This is crazy that it was allowed to happen. So he [Zuckerberg] spends about as much money as the federal government does in running our 2020 elections. He gives $419 million to two left-wing groups who then funnel the money primarily to Democrat counties in swing states."

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It enabled "this army of left-wing people to come in and handle everything... they target[ed] registration to Democrat communities, they translate[d] ballots, they design[ed] ballots."

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"... no-one ever imagined that one of the world's wealthiest people would take over government election offices, so they didn't have a system in place to prevent it."
Rep. Waltz slams US companies 'drunk on Chinese money,' says they pose serious threat to America (Fox 11/01/2021)
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"... we've talked about [China's] military build up. Their manufacturing base. They're launching hypersonics. They're doing it with our money between Hollywood, between sports, between Wall Street. Firms like Blackrock, that are telling people to triple their investments into China. Enough is enough."

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"I call on all Americans: When you see ‘Made in China,' put it down. If you care about social justice. Well, let me tell you where slavery is happening. It's happening right now where women are being abused. They're being imprisoned, they're being forced to be sterilized. It's a genocide going on as we speak. But because everybody is drunk on Chinese money, including the Olympic sponsors that are happening in February, that everybody wants to turn a blind eye."

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... comments come after China tried to quell U.S. concerns last week surrounding its launch of a hypersonic missile, saying such a launch is "routine." The high-speed missile is capable of evading U.S. defense systems by orbiting the Earth, and reports of the test were confirmed by the Pentagon.

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"I want people to make money all day long, but not when it comes to the expense of U.S. national security. And when the head of China has talked about replacing the American dream with the China dream, enough."
Ingraham: Where have all the men gone? (Fox 10/30/2021)
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The radical left's goal ... is to "destroy the underpinnings of the nuclear family" by launching attacks against the traditional roles played by mothers and fathers.

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"Somehow this idea of traditional roles is threatening to the radicals who see the traditional family — especially traditional men — as an impediment to socialism and a rewriting of American history."

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... decried that the "natural instinct of men to protect women" has been slowly destroyed, and seems to have become evident in urban areas.

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In one case, a woman told a man to take a "chill pill" only to be viciously punched in the face — yet not a single man intervened.

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Another, more shocking attack, took place in Philadelphia where a man brutally raped a woman on a train as passengers looked on — again not one stepped in to help her.

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Ingraham noted that in San Francisco this week, it was a woman who chased down a man after he attacked an elderly woman — yet when the woman confronted the attacker she was stabbed three times.

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... the "mass feminization of men should trouble women the most" because women were indeed the victims of these heinous attacks.

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"Because the cultural elites and institutions have spent years villainizing masculinity, there were no good men willing to step in and save them.
Tucker Carlson: Censorship is mainstream media's last dying grasp at relevance (Fox 10/30/2021)
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About 20 minutes into the 2016 presidential campaign, it was pretty clear the American media were horribly addicted to Donald Trump. They hated Trump, obviously, but they also needed Trump in order to live. And that's the face of addiction.

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So there was really never any question about what was going to happen for sure when news organizations were finally cut off from their vital daily supply of Donald Trump.

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They're going to collapse in a pile, and that's exactly what they've done. They've collapsed.

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They have one final hope for keeping the scam alive and its censorship. So the dying media companies have convinced themselves that somehow they can get the government and their friends in the tech monopolies to shut down their competitors.

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And it explains why all of a sudden journalists, of all people, are leading the charge against the First Amendment that you thought made their jobs possible.

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This is the key to their campaign against what they call misinformation. Now, if you're a literal-minded person - we certainly are - you laugh every time you hear them say that.

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Misinformation? Aren't these the exact same people who told us that Putin got Trump elected? The ones you swore that some high school kid from Kentucky was in the Klan? Yeah, same people.

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So of course, they're not against misinformation. Obviously, the point is they want to restore their monopoly on it, and that's what they're trying to do.

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See related Addicted (Antonio Branco, 02/09/2021) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Greg Gutfeld: Chivalry is dead and probably killed by a guy let out of jail by Democrats (Fox 10/30/2021)
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A man who slugs a woman sends a message that he'd do anything. Chivalry is dead because bystanders know if they step in they'll be dead too.

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And then, of course, he created a force field, by claiming he was a victim of racism. The sad part is because this was in NYC - half the people on the train probably agreed with him.

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And if a White man stepped in, the story would become about race. And all those folks who just looked down at their phones would be sure to point the phone at the melee – and we would view that clip thousands of times, but with the context of a Black man accosted by a White guy on a train.

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Accusations of race keep everyone in their place. Everything is judged not by context, but by group identity.

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Remember: a cop prevented a fatal stabbing of a Black woman, only to be called out by LeBron James. If you dare address bad behavior anywhere, it's you who becomes the oppressor.

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It started with the soft bigotry of low expectations. Followed by the notion that cops and prosecutors are part of the problem. Finally, criminals are let loose, and there's nothing we can do about it but capture their crimes on our phones.
I, Domestic Terrorist (JWR 10/29/2021)
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... the definition of domestic terrorist is expanding. Soon, it may include anyone who's posted mean tweets about President Geezer, owns a pickup truck with a gun rack or doesn't run shrieking into the night at the sight of an American flag.

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And while I've never harassed a Senator in a restroom, burned down business districts, assaulted a cop in the name of racial equality or left our borders wide open to criminals, drugs and real terrorists — crimes which members of your party and their anarchist auxiliary commit regularly with impunity — nonetheless, it seems that I am person of interest.

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Here are a few of the things which (in the estimation of your party) mark me as someone who bears watching:...

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I believe in the Constitution, including the First Amendment. Among other fundamental liberties, it guarantees the right to speak at public meetings against the government and its minions, including school committee members and teachers. Our freedom of speech trumps your paranoia.

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I believe public education is in the business of indoctrination. Turning children against their parent's values and into compliant subjects of the state is the foundation of totalitarianism. A precursor of the modern Democrat Party, V.I. Lenin said: "Give me four years to teach children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted." The NEA has them for 12 years.

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I believe parents have a right to control their children's education. Children are born into families, not into governments.

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I think the alleged existence of "white supremacy" (the basis of Critical Race Theory) is an absurdity. In America today, whites are at the bottom of the food chain. You can ridicule them, discriminate against them and even assault them in broad daylight without consequence.

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I do not believe there's an epidemic of gun violence. In the hands of the law-abiding (used for self-defense) guns aren't a disease but a cure. There is an epidemic of lawlessness in this country reflected in what your party and its allies have done to our once-great cities.

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I believe election fraud is the sine qua non of the Democrat Party. I don't know if the last election was stolen. I do know there was massive fraud...

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I believe that what happened on January 6 was more comedy than tragedy. The so-called insurrectionists were as organized as the fire brigade in a Charlie Chaplin movie.

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I believe the threats to America are, in ascending order of importance: Iran, Islamic extremism, Red China, anarchy in our streets and your boss and those who pull the marionette's strings. As a security threat, parents protesting at school committee meetings are right up there with those who don't recycle.

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I think face masks are a sign of servitude and a talking point for the 2022 campaign. They are a way to keep the credulous in full panic mode over a "pandemic" that's become as dangerous as the seasonal flu. But Democrats are going to run on face masks and vaccinations (with drugs developed under Trump) next year. What else do they have — our "extraordinarily successful" withdrawal from Afghanistan, the remarkable Biden economy, border security?

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I thank God every minute of every day that your Supreme Court nomination was never confirmed. At the most you'll be tormenting us for another 3 ? years instead of (on average) 16 years as a Justice.

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I believe that America is still worth fighting for. Too many brave men and women have spilled too much blood over the centuries to just roll over for you and the ideologues who control your party.

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If contempt for the elite is a terrorist impulse, you might as well take me into custody and trundle me off to the hoosegow. Maybe I'll share a cell with Lady Liberty.
Tucker Carlson: In Biden's America, you'd be stupid not to cross the border illegally (Fox 10/29/2021)
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According to a piece in this afternoon's Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration has decided to pay reparations to illegal aliens. In other words, foreigners who came here without invitation, who came in willful violation of legal statutes passed by our Congress, per our Constitution, those people are about to get a groveling apology and huge amounts of cash.

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Why? Because our government dared to enforce its own laws, which now apparently is immoral. So the Biden White House is going to pay criminals for committing crimes.

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You won't be surprised to learn, according to the paper, that nearly a thousand reparations claims have already been filed. Why not? The total payout from all this: More than a billion dollars.

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So how much is that, exactly? Well, let's see if you're an American citizen who is killed in a war defending your country, our government promises to send your family $100,000. That is less than a quarter of what Joe Biden intends to give illegal aliens for the inconvenience of being deported.

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They're once again getting $450,000 apiece from your tax receipts. That's more than some of the 9/11 victims got. It's more than any ordinary American ever gets for anything from the U.S. government...

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So take three steps back, you've got to wonder how long this sort of thing can continue. How long before the people who make this country run who, by the way, are not the same people who run this country - Those are two very different groups - But before the people who make this country run decide they have had enough and they're not going to take it anymore.

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The Biden administration, once again, is making this country poorer, more chaotic, and in many places much more dangerous. It's not an accident, of course, it's being done on purpose.
Rittenhouse has a strong self-defense claim under Wisconsin law, legal experts say (Fox 10/29/2021)
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The Rittenhouse case isn't a whodunit. Bystander video captured most of the shootings.

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It shows an unarmed Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse into the parking lot of a used car dealership. At one point, Rosenbaum throws a plastic bag at Rittenhouse before the two move off-camera and Rittenhouse fires the fatal shots at around 11:45 p.m.

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Soon after, Rittenhouse is seen running down a street away from the scene with several protesters on his heels. He falls. Huber appears to strike him in the head and neck area with a skateboard; Rittenhouse shoots Huber, striking him in the heart.

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Seconds later, Gaige Grosskreutz steps toward Rittenhouse holding a pistol. Rittenhouse shoots him, badly injuring Grosskreutz's arm. Rittenhouse then gets to his feet and leaves the scene.

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Self-defense, pure and simple. Rittenhouse's attorneys say he came to Kenosha not to hurt anyone but to protect businesses from damage and looting. And they say the people he shot left him no choice.

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They're expected to highlight Rosenbaum's pursuit of Rittenhouse, and Huber and Grosskreutz subsequently coming at him.

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The defense has said Rosenbaum and Huber tried to wrest Rittenhouse's rifle away, leading Rittenhouse to fear he would be shot with his own weapon.

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Rittenhouse "was the aggressor, there with the intent to violently clash with those opposed to his beliefs," prosecutors have said.

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... allows someone to use deadly force only if "necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm." And it sets a two-part test for jurors.

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First, they have to decide if Rittenhouse really believed he was in peril. Hindsight may show he was wrong. But did he sincerely believe it at the time?

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... they must determine if Rittenhouse's belief was objectively "reasonable." To make that call, jurors will be instructed to consider whether any reasonable person in Rittenhouse's shoes would have also felt they had no choice but to shoot.

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Wisconsin law doesn't require someone whose life is in danger to flee before shooting. But jurors can consider whether someone tried to move away from danger as they assess the reasonableness of a self-defense claim.

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Rittenhouse faces two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, and two counts of recklessly endangering safety for firing his gun near people adjacent to those he shot. A successful self-defense argument would seem to apply to all five of counts.

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Rittenhouse faces a sixth count, possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, that the defense unsuccessfully tried to get dismissed.

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... once jurors hear from the defense that a client feared for his life, they expect to hear straight from the defendant about his or her mindset at the time of the shooting.

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Prosecutors would surely welcome the chance to try and rattle Rittenhouse on cross-examination in front of jurors.

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Under self-defense law and precedent, Rittenhouse's motives for being in Kenosha are irrelevant to whether he had a legal right to shoot when threatened... What matters is what happened in the minutes surrounding the shooting...

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"If I had a 17-year-old-son, I would not encourage him to engage in this kind of behavior. But poor judgment is not a crime."

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Even if it isn't directly relevant to the self-defense claim, legal experts agreed that the question of why Rittenhouse was in Kenosha will loom over the trial.

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"Everybody in that courtroom is going to be thinking he deserved what he got because he put himself in a hostile situation... ‘What are you doing down there with a gun?'"...

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... said the law and facts should lead to Rittenhouse's acquittal, but said he's not sure that will happen.

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"Trials are dangerous and unpredictable ... and innocent people get convicted all the time. So it's quite possible that Kyle Rittenhouse could be convicted in this case based on that kind of rhetoric, despite the legal merits of the charges."
Hans von Spakovsky?: DHS' Mayorkas makes jobs for illegal aliens a priority over US workers and the law (Fox 10/29/2021)
We Need to Be a Nation of Skeptics (JWR 10/28/2021)
Dumb-downed for Dems? Free stuff ain't free (JWR 10/28/2021)
The 'nuanced' history of Thomas Jefferson (JWR 10/28/2021)
The ignoble lie (JWR 10/28/2021)
Tucker Carlson: The Biden administration is targeting blue-collar men (Fox 10/28/2021)
•
Less than a year into the Joe Biden administration, the United States faces massive and potentially dangerous shortages of just about everything.

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Just this week, one of the largest health care providers in the western United States, it's called Intermountain Healthcare, began soliciting help from its own patients.

•
... understand the current state of the American economy. Hospitals begging for medical equipment. Essential goods unavailable everywhere. Supply chains frozen just months before Christmas. It's not improving. It could get much worse very quickly.

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How did we get energy shortages in a country that has more energy than it can consume? Well, that was not accidental. It was entirely intentional. It was the result of policies that came from Washington.

•
And maybe that's why Joe Biden does not seem upset about it when asked. Now, cars may be a threat to the global climate, but more pressing cars equal physical autonomy. They're yours. You can take them where you want.

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So say goodbye to cheap gasoline, probably forever. That was the basis upon which our modern society was structured. That's why we have suburbs that, by the way, the administration hates what most people enjoy living in.

•
So what's going on here? We'll be honest, Joe Biden didn't do all of this, a lot of things are going on here and they're happening all at once.

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The main driver of this is that over time we've become completely through various administrations, both parties, we've become completely dependent on China.

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The Chinese Chinese Communist Party effectively is our new OPEC with the word they can shut down our economy.

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At the same time, the ideologues in the White House are raising energy costs. Just in case you thought, maybe we could make up some of the gap in domestic manufacturing, that's impossible with energy costs this high. You need cheap energy in order to have a manufacturing economy.

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And then to add to this, there is a labor shortage once again, the result of long-term sad trends. But that has been dramatically exacerbated by policies from the Biden White House and that labor shortage is hitting paradoxically at exactly the moment when there's an unemployment crisis.

•
... this administration has targeted a very specific portion of the population, targeted them for ideological and political reasons, blue-collar men. The idea is they supported the wrong party, they have retrograde attitudes, they engage in wrong think and we're going to crush them. And so systematically, they have.

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... instead of answering these most basic problems when you're running a country... they're lecturing us about how we should be delighted that we have a new four-star trans admiral. That's the prize they're bringing to us. You voted for us, here's your trans admiral, be happy.

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Among other things, these are totally unserious people. They are purely ideological. They do not care if the actual country, the physical country, comes apart at the seams as long as the population dutifully repeats the correct slogans.

•
Once you understand that, you understand why every day we get some frivolous new announcement about some social justice goal that in the end will not improve the life of a single American citizen.

•
Here's today's example. The State Department has just announced it will issue the first passport ever with an x gender marker. Huh? First of all, who cares?

•
Second, why is the U.S. government trying to pretend that gender isn't real? It's the realest thing in human society. It's the basis of civilization.

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But whatever they lectured us today quote, this is for those who don't have identify as male or female. So you won't be able to get on a plane because no one's working at the airlines anymore. But at least you won't get misgendered. OK.

•
Here's another example. There's an ongoing House Intel Committee hearing with the heads of the CIA, NSA and DNI, not on how the intel agencies have been weaponized against American citizens. No, that would be too germane.

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No, this hearing was about DEI. That's not a new intel agency. It's a new cult. It's called diversity, equity and inclusion. So the hearing began with Adam Schiff complaining, and this is a key problem for most Americans, that all the Intel briefers he deals with are white men?

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SCHIFF: I can't help but notice that the large majority of IC briefers, though uniformly excellent, who appear before the committee are often White and male.
We need to recruit officers with diverse backgrounds into the IC and then show them there's a path forward to advance and grow their careers to top leadership positions.

•
The White House just issued its first-ever national gender equity and equality strategy that happened on Friday. Did you miss it? Maybe you were waiting in line trying to buy food? Well, one of the highlights from that plan, the White House, says it will work to end cash bail. Oh, that will make your life better.

•
But that's not all. The White House also announced it wants to, and we're quoting seek to eliminate barriers that prevent immigrants from accessing government-funded services. Ooh, that's the whole game right there.

•
So you're getting poorer. Gas prices are going up. We've completely lost control of the infrastructure in the country. What are the chances we're going to have blackouts this summer when people dare to turn on the air conditioning about 100 percent?

•
The White House, instead of spending a single moment trying to fix actual problems that actually affect your life, has turned the entire force of the federal government on this question. How can illegal aliens get more free stuff from the government? That tells you everything.
Eric Metaxas: Is atheism the enemy of freedom? Here's how retreating from faith makes US less free (Fox 10/28/2021)
'Rational thinking' is white, male? (JWR 10/27/2021)
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What's the alternative to intellectual debate and rigor? Superstition, personal preference and, ultimately, sheer power.

•
It's the latter that the woke critics of Western reason believe they can wield to crush their enemies, facts and logic be damned.
Punishing Achievement Is Punishing Everyone (JWR 10/27/2021)
•
Wealth taxes have been tried in a variety of countries, and they have regularly failed. When France created a wealth tax, some 42,000 millionaires left; French President Emmanuel Macron eventually killed it.

•
From 1990 onward, nine out of the 12 European countries that had a wealth tax followed Macron's lead and killed their wealth taxes.

•
So, what's the point of a wealth tax if, in the end, it will fail? The point is the punishment. Biden and Warren are seeking to tax dollars that do not yet exist, because the people who have created those dollars are worthy of sanction.

•
While Biden constantly blathers that he is a capitalist who doesn't seek to punish earners — only to make them pay their fair share — he's simply lying.

•
Earners in America certainly pay their fair share: the top 1% of income earners pay approximately 40% of all income taxes while earning just 21% of all income; the highest quintile of income earners pay virtually all net taxes in America after income transfers by the government.

•
This isn't about a "fair share." It's about disincentivizing wealth creation, demonizing it, treating it as a mark of sin.

•
Unfortunately, we have mainstreamed such economic and moral idiocy. When we speak of the wealthy as the "privileged," we betray our own unwillingness to speak the obvious: High-income earners provide more and better goods and services to people than lower-income earners. That is why their income is high. Income is a reflection of consensual transactions resulting in voluntary trades.

•
Innovation and risk-taking must be rewarded in order for them to take place; to then attribute success to "privilege" or "luck" is to pretend that a free-market system is some sort of lottery. It isn't.

•
If we decide that it is somehow more altruistic and moral to receive government benefits than to take risks that result in economic success, we destroy the economic mechanism that has generated all of our prosperity — and the individuals who make that mechanism work.

•
And that's the point. What begins as a small tax on an upper crust doesn't stay that way.

•
The original income tax contemplated in the United States was 1% applied to the lowest tax bracket, and 7% on those making $500,000 or more.

•
Today, the top marginal income tax rate is 37%; income above $86,000 is taxed at 24%.

•
Eventually, the agenda becomes clear: going after all earners, not merely those at the top. When achievement is punished, there are no income barriers.
Grant Napear's Life Matters (JWR 10/27/2021)
Karol Markowicz: The war on parents is real (Fox 10/27/2021)
•
It's a war on parents and every part of the government is getting involved. The latest front began with a letter from the National School Board Association on September 29th.

•
In it, the NSBA compared concerned parents speaking up at school board meetings to "domestic terrorists" and called for the "U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Homeland Security," the FBI, "including any technical assistance necessary from, and state and local coordination with, its National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division" to step in and help. They suggested using the Patriot Act, among others, to silence these parents.

•
The letter was striking in its ferocity. Parents were the enemy and the NSBA was ready to fight them all using every available tool of the government.

•
But what happened next was most frightening. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued his own memo noting his office "will launch a series of additional efforts in the coming days designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.

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... representatives from the department's Criminal Division, National Security Division, Civil Rights Division, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the Community Relations Service and the Office of Justice Programs, to determine how federal enforcement tools can be used to prosecute these crimes."

•
The NSBA ended up apologizing for the memo — but only to its members. Parents who felt the weight of the federal government moved to quiet them lest they stand up and speak out on behalf of their children got no such apology.

•
Parents should worry about all of this. An ideologically-aligned cabal of people in various agencies of the federal government are working together to shut them down.

•
It's not a conspiracy theory, it's all done very openly. The threat to parents is also very real.

•
There's no reason for the attorney general's involvement. If any altercation, verbal or physical, occurs at a school board meeting that is an issue for local police enforcement.

•
Garland's role is only to stifle speech and to issue a warning to parents to limit their challenges to authority lest they be punished.

•
The pandemic exposed so much about our broken school systems. So many parents realized just how little their kids were learning and how much of their child's day was filled up with indoctrination.

•
Parents were motivated to stand up and speak out on behalf of their kids. Their government can not now tell them to sit down.
Tucker Carlson: Is there a public health reason Joe Biden often leaves the White House? (Fox 10/27/2021)
For Marxists, there is one very special key to everything (JWR 10/26/2021)
•
For Marxists, killing the family is the key to everything. The war on the family isn't peripheral; it's central to the revolution.

•
Just as white people are "privileged," according to CRT, so too is the nuclear family, which supposedly enjoys "unearned benefits in U.S. laws, policies and practices"...

•
Why is it that intact (two-parent) families consistently outperform others on every measurement – income, independence and children who are healthier, happier and less prone to social pathologies.

•
Due to the success of Black Lives Matter, everything now is seen through the lens of institutional racism – criminal justice, electoral politics and, of course, the family. When BLM's founders described themselves as "trained Marxists," believe it.

•
Until negative publicity forced them to take it down, BLM's website proclaimed: "We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages' that collectively care for one another..."

•
BLM echoes the screwball theories of Marx and Engels, who insisted there was an ancient, matriarchal communist society which preceded patriarchy and capitalism.

•
They viewed the "bourgeoise family" as capitalism in miniature, with the father/husband as the owner and his wife and children as the exploited proletariat. Both will be abolished by the communist state, they predicted.

•
Writing in the 1920s, Antonio Gramsci, the father of Cultural Marxism, reversed the equation. Since the family is the chief obstacle to revolution, its destruction must precede the triumph of communism, not follow it.

•
Gramsci said the family will be overthrown, and society reshaped, through subversion of the culture: "In the new order, Socialism will triumph – via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society."

•
For the left, the central purpose of public schools isn't education but indoctrination. Public education has failed miserably at the former (as may be seen by plummeting standardized test scores) but succeeded spectacularly at the latter (as may be seen in the leftward drift of the electorate – especially younger voters).

•
The objective is to take children away from parental values and align them with the worldview of the Democratic Party.

•
The cutting edge is CRT and the sexualization of students, seen most recently in the enthusiastic embrace of transgenderism.

•
The battle lines are drawn, with the public education establishment (administrators, school committees and teachers' unions) and Democrat politicians on one side and parents and some conservative politicos on the other.

•
Parents are outraged by what their children are being taught. Progressive are outraged that families would try to interfere with the intellectual/emotional kidnapping. For the left, the role of families in education is to pay up and shut up.

•
... the principal purpose of the schools is to get children to reject the parental worldview (the Judeo-Christian ethic, patriotism, individualism and the free market) in favor of Cultural Marxism (neo-paganism, internationalism, determinism and collectivism).

•
In clear defiance of the dictates of the elite, protesting parents are invading school committee meetings, calling for accountability and demanding change.

•
The Empire is striking back with a vengeance. In Virginia, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and former Governor Terry McAuliffe lectured the little people, "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."

•
Biden, who's even more of a tool of the teachers' mafia, has his Justice Department investigating activist parents as domestic terrorists under the Patriots Act.

•
Nothing must be allowed to interfere with the pedagogical brainwashing — the main offensive of the war on the family.

•
Marxists hate competition. They demand the undivided loyalty of the masses. Thus, destroying the family is an imperative.

•
Our true enemy has been showing us his face for more than a century. We've seen it in planned economies, gulags and the war on parents and children. For the family, it's the face of death.
Monica Crowley: Biden's destructive policies – here's how to lose a country in 10 months (Fox 10/25/2021)
•
During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama identified his and the Left's ultimate objective: the "fundamental transformation of the nation."

•
By that, he meant moving the country away from its foundational principles of individual liberty, limited government and free market capitalism and toward a socialist, collectivist economic model and governance through a permanently installed Democrat majority.

•
Everything Democrats do is geared to achieving that objective. Last week, when asked about Biden's multitrillion-dollar spending proposals, White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted they were about "making fundamental change in our economy."

•
All Biden administration policies can be understood not in the traditional sense of "success" but in the radical context of remaking the country into an American-style socialist tyranny, atop which the leftist ruling class will sit forever.

•
In that context, the cascade of crises begins to make sense: they're necessary steps in the transformation. The attendant chaos allows them to implement endless "emergency" policies that hand them ever-greater power and control at the expense of ever-dwindling individual freedom.

•
Prior to the pandemic, the economy under President Trump was firing on all cylinders, with growth strong, wages up and unemployment at or near historic lows for every demographic group. When the pandemic hit, Trump oversaw the execution of $4 trillion in economic relief, and when he left office, he handed Biden the fastest economic recovery on record.

•
Biden has chosen to squander that robust recovery by pushing multitrillion-dollar spending sprees, racking up unprecedented debt, threatening higher taxes on most Americans and paying people more to stay home than work.

•
Inflation, a hidden, regressive tax that disproportionately hurts the poor, working and middle classes, is at a 13-year high, with prices on everything from groceries to gas skyrocketing and heading higher. ...

•
Into this inflationary situation the Democrats want to inject an additional $5 trillion in spending, complete with new entitlements that will reach into the middle class, and as planned, expand a never-ending and irreversible dependence on government.

•
Biden's economic devastation has also led to a convulsive supply chain crisis, overwhelmed ports, a trucker shortage, and airline workers staging sickouts over his vaccine mandates.

•
Beyond the economy, tens of thousands of Americans responsible for keeping the rest of us safe and healthy – doctors, nurses, other medical professionals, police officers, firefighters, teachers, military personnel – are being fired for asserting medical freedom, throwing the labor market into greater disarray.

•
Biden's inherent weakness is a provocation, emboldening America's enemies as they probe, advance and threaten us and our interests. The southern border is a dangerous free-for-all of unchecked illegal immigration. The catastrophic defeat in Afghanistan has created a power vacuum being filled by the Taliban, ISIS, al Qaeda, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran.

•
It also makes our homeland more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, particularly when coupled with the wide open southern border.

•
If you were a cartoon villain devising a way to destroy America, you'd be hard-pressed to come up with more effective ways. Given how committed Biden is to this downward spiral and how fast the consequences are piling up, it will get worse.

•
Economic dislocation will accelerate. Inflation will spike further. Shortages will increase. The labor market will remain destabilized.

•
Taxes will climb, growth and innovation will slow, and suffocating debt will extinguish the future. Crime will continue to spike and social unrest will accelerate.

•
Our enemies may strike in unforeseen ways. And since COVID restrictions have conditioned us into a kind of submissive obedience, we'll be more likely to passively accept all of it.

•
As a result, more and more people will look to the government for help, which is one of the main points of the chaos. In another era, this upheaval would have been a political liability, but the Left sees it as an opportunity.

•
After all, you can't make a socialist omelet without breaking some eggs. ...
Rebekah Koffler: Biden nominee prefers Soviet system to free-market economy – don't let them destroy the US (Fox 10/24/2021)
•
President Joe Biden's choice for comptroller of the currency, Saule Omarova, wants to transform America's free market economy into a Soviet-style system – the same kind of central planning that destroyed her native country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

•
As an immigrant from the former Soviet Union and communism survivor, I know firsthand the damage central planning can do to an economy and to lives.

•
United States senators must reject "Comrade" Omarova's radical ideology which includes ideas like nationalizing banks, empowering federal government apparatchiks to set pay scales and prices, and enabling academics to oversee investments so they can finance social experiments.

•
It all will doom America to the same destiny as the country I fled 30 years ago.

•
Omarova, a winner in her home country of the "Lenin" award, praised her native Soviet socialist system because of the lack of gender pay gap.

•
She derided the free market economy for producing a Wall Street "a**hole culture" and expressed contempt for our "dysfunctional" financial system.

•
As someone who grew up standing in line for hours to shop in an over-crowded grocery store or a bare-shelved department store, let me tell you about Omarova's "wondrous" socialist system.

•
By the time you reached the counter to pay, all that was left to buy was rancid milk, or at the department store, wrong-size boots.

•
You bought them anyway – the first to make a sour-tasting tvorog (cottage cheese), and the second to wear with several pairs of socks.

•
The socialist economy didn't produce enough of anything and everything that was manufactured domestically was barely usable.

•
Why? There was no incentive for anyone to work hard or innovate, because everyone was paid the same regardless of effort.

•
Government bureaucrats, like Omarova, made it impossible for people to improve their lot and better themselves by controlling every aspect of their lives.

•
We had a saying under communism: "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work." There can't be a gender pay gap when there's no pay.

•
Whether a garbage collector or a doctor, the salary was never enough to support a family, spurring people to seek seedy alternatives like corruption and black market dealings.

•
Meanwhile, the Communist Party ruling elites were the Soviet version of Omarova's Wall Street "a**holes," except they didn't produce any wealth.

•
President Biden and his coterie of socialists like Omarova are hard at work transforming America into the type of "Workers' and Peasants' Paradise" many fled for freedom.

•
For whatever reason, Omarova never shed the socialist mindset upon arriving in America, and she is a pawn in a familiar foreign scheme designed to undermine the United States.

•
As a former DIA intelligence officer and specialist in Russian doctrine and strategy, I am very familiar with efforts to undermine America from within through ideological subversion.

•
Soviet defector and KGB-trained covert-influence expert Yuri Bezmenov warned Americans in the 1980s about a secret Soviet program.

•
This "master plan" was designed to transform the United States, over 30-plus years, from a capitalist to a communist-socialist country through ideological subversion.

•
The four-stage program, which was implemented by the vast network of KGB agents highly trained in psychological warfare, aimed to change the mindset and behavior of young Americans by exposing them to Marxist-Leninist ideas such as equality of outcome, intolerance of dissent, and rejection of religion.

•
Intelligence operatives infiltrated academia, media, government institutions, labor unions, and Hollywood to portray socialist ideas as desirable and humane, and capitalism as evil and unjust.

•
Spies targeted left-leaning individuals, the so-called "useful idiots," and cultivated them as "agents of influence" who would educate the next generation of elites – sometimes unwittingly helping the Kremlin execute its plan.

•
In turn, these elites were supposed to assume senior roles eventually within government, business, culture and other institutions — positions with the power to change or overturn the American system.

•
The Soviet Union lost the Cold War, but the effort to undermine America is still very hot.

•
A prominent Russian think tank, in its 2018 issue of an "International Threats" forecast, recommended to "disorganize" the "fundamentals of American strategy."

•
The Russian "analysts" pointed out that under U.S. law, foreign governments can lobby the federal government through agents, and it is not considered interference in domestic politics.

•
The use of emotionally charged language, biblical themes, and arguments related to the defense of human rights and individual freedoms was recommended to create narratives that would resonate with Washington, D.C., elites.

•
Whether some Americans' disturbing embrace of socialism is a result of a long-term foreign influence program or a natural outcome of a democratic society that places a premium on a free exchange of ideas is irrelevant.

•
History has proven time and again which system produces prosperity – and which produces stagnation and tyranny.

•
Biden must stop acting like a useful idiot who seems to be letting agents of influence and radicals – whether home-grown like Bernie Sanders or foreign-born like Saule Omarova – destroy our country from within.
Thomas Jefferson is "cancelled" at NY City Hall (INN 10/23/2021)
Jonathan Turley: AG Garland's testimony only begs more questions. Why is DOJ monitoring parents? (Fox 10/22/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Everyone at the White House has gone crazy (Fox 10/22/2021)
•
Behind the heavily guarded walls of the White House, everyone has gone crazy. Just this week, the Biden administration declared that a biological man who wears a dress is now a female admiral.

•
And then they sent that brave Four-Star female admiral out to deliver a speech that read like something out of a D-Day documentary.

•
They're daring you to sit there and not say this is ridiculous, but it is sorry, it is ridiculous. Sorry, not playing along. But they don't think it is.

•
And so you have to ask yourself, how long will it be before Joe Biden appoints his horse to the Supreme Court?

•
And when he inevitably does do that, you have to ask how long will it be till CNN informs us: This is a watershed moment for equine rights.

•
Don't you dare laugh. That would be a hate crime.
One man's anarchy is another's road to justice (JWR 10/21/2021)
Michael Goodwin: Manchin, Sinema are a dying breed. Progressives have won Democrats' civil war (Fox 10/20/2021)
Sens. Cotton, Blackburn: Free speech is under fire on America's college campuses. Here's how we'll protect it (Fox 10/20/2021)
•
Professors and administrators have become almost uniformly liberal. This near-uniformity of belief has led to arrogant demands for conformity of belief.

•
Whereas schools once prided themselves on fostering free and open debate, today they create "safe spaces" to shield students from difference, diversity of opinion, and dissent.

•
What is even more alarming, opposition to free speech is infecting the student body. In earlier eras, this trend gave rise to protest movements that vehemently opposed restrictions on student free speech; today, however, campus revolutionaries leverage everything from intimidation to character assassination to outright violence to shut down debate...

•
This finding, which signals younger generations' willingness to view free speech as a conditional privilege, rather than a fundamental right, explains the rise of so-called "shout down" or "de-platforming" incidents, where students prevent someone from speaking by drowning them out with megaphones and disruptive behavior.

•
A democracy that doesn't tolerate free speech will not remain a democracy for long. It's essential that we reclaim our colleges and universities so that they provide value to future generations of Americans, not just an exclusive safe haven for Marxists and other radicals.

•
If colleges want to fulfill their responsibilities to this country and justify the enormous public support we give them, they must lead by example.

•
We all have a duty to help young Americans become better citizens and we should start by teaching them to respect and embrace freedom of speech wherever they encounter it.

•
See related Tolerance (Michael Ramirez, 02/06/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: The White House has new instructions for Americans - lower your expectations (Fox 10/20/2021)
•
We've seen riots before, in 1992. Following the Rodney King verdict, rioters in Los Angeles torched a lot of the middle of that city.

•
But they didn't burn any police stations because you can't burn a police station because there are police there and they're armed and they represent the law, they enforce the laws.

•
You can't burn down a police station because if they let you do that, then you know the whole system is crumbled.

•
And yet that's exactly what happened just days into the BLM hysteria last summer. A police station was burning, and the implication of that was very clear.

•
This is why we don't allow police stations to get burned because the message it sends is this: the police can't protect you, They can't even protect themselves.

•
So the police aren't in charge. Legitimate authority is gone. The mob is now in charge.

•
So as this is happening, there happens to be, as noted, a reporter standing right there with a microphone and a camera taking those pictures directly into your living room.

•
"The fire engines can't get in here. There is no ability to bring anybody in here to solve this problem, so I want to be clear in how I characterize it, this mostly protests. It is not - It is not, generally speaking, unruly."

•
It's mostly a protest, he said. Flames in the background. It's generally speaking, not unruly. While standing in front of a burning building.

•
... it wasn't a gaffe, was not taken out of context, in fact, it was MSNBC's explicit editorial policy to lie about what you were watching live, to characterize violent riots as peaceful protests.

•
"This will guide our reporting in MN: While the situation on the ground in Minneapolis is fluid, and there has been violence, it is most accurate at this time to describe what is happening there as protests — not riots."

•
"... Our country was started because - the Boston Tea Party rioting. So don't get it twisted and think oh, this is something that has never happened before and this is so terrible and where are we and these savages and all of that..."

•
Now that's not true. In fact, it's grotesquely untrue, and you have to be historically literate to believe it. Many people are, unfortunately, but it worked because propaganda does. That's why they do it.

•
So instead of pushing back against this rioting, most Americans kind of went along with it. Well, it doesn't look quite right to me, but this is how our country started.

•
And this trend has continued, The Washington Post just ran this headline, "Don't rant about short-staffed stores and supply chain woes." Rather than "living constantly on the verge of throwing a fit ... We do ourselves a favor by consciously lowering expectations."

•
Lower your expectations, what did you expect in America? Come on. Bread lines, we've always had bread lines. It's sort of charmingly retro, these bread lines. Don't complain as your life becomes worse and as your country degrades. That's the message, and not surprisingly, that message is coming directly from the people who are making your life worse and destroying the country.

•
The truth is, you shouldn't have daily looting in American cities because it's a first-world country. This isn't some Third World hellhole.

•
This is once again the country that our ancestors built. This is a great country, it's a clean country, it's an orderly country.

•
People don't steal. You're not allowed to steal, period. But all of a sudden, you can steal and our leaders are telling you you've always been able to steal. It's OK...

•
In Philadelphia last week, several people on the train, they got on the train and then they got to watch as a man raped a woman on the train for minutes.

•
She was raped in front of all these people and they did nothing. So how does this happen? Now we're saying about root causes, what were the root causes of this rape?

•
We can tell you tonight that the 35-year-old Congolese man who apparently raped this woman, his name was Fiston Ngoy, has a criminal record and shouldn't have been here in the first place.

•
He was on an overstayed student visa. He should have been deported. This should never have happened. He should not have been here.

•
And the only reason he was is because he had a lot of people like him have been invited here and allowed to stay by the people who run the country, but who don't ride the train.

•
This particular man first came the United States in 2012, is on a student visa now that visa ended in 2015 because he was no longer a student. Court records show that the boy racked up "multiple arrests" and two misdemeanor convictions one for controlled substances and one for sexual abuse.

•
OK, so here's someone in the country illegally who is convicted of sexual abuse and drugs, but he's still here? So why aren't the people who allowed him to remain here in jail themselves? They certainly should be.

•
So to recap, you can walk into our country at the invitation of our leaders at public expense. You can overstay your visa and in so doing, mock our laws. Then you can get busted for drugs and a sex crime, not deported, allowed to stay. And then you go on - Probably inevitably at this point - to rape a woman on a train in full view of a crowd that does nothing to stop it.

•
Today, Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Border Patrol, a guy called Chris Magnus set for his confirmation hearings. Now it turns out that Magnus, if anything, is to the left of Biden, even to the left of Barack Obama on immigration matters.

•
So here you have the person who's about to oversee our country's border security, who does not believe in borders.

•
Now, if that bothers you in any way, if you think we should be deporting rapists instead of letting them rape women on trains, then the White House has a very clear message for you: Shut up, Karen. Stop complaining.

•
Those arsons are an arsonist or mostly peaceful protesters. That treadmill? You don't deserve a treadmill. Lower your expectations. Get used to it.

•
See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Ideas must be debated, but not historical facts (INN 10/19/2021)
The Left is Evil — and Libs Keep Voting for Them (JWR 10/19/2021)
•
The left has never believed in free speech and has suppressed dissent wherever it has assumed power. Free speech is a pillar of liberalism, and it has always embraced dissent.

•
The left rejects the anti-racist ideal of color-blindness. Colorblind is the liberal racial ideal.

•
The left supports racial segregation — such as all-black dorms and separate black graduations. Liberals have always advocated racial integration.

•
The left has always loathed capitalism. Liberals were always major advocates of capitalism — recognizing that only capitalism has lifted billions of people out of poverty.

•
The left has always been anti-Israel. Liberals have always been fervent supporters of Israel.

•
The left has always held America in contempt. Liberals loved this country. A liberal wrote, "God bless America." No leftist would write such a song.

•
Yet, it is liberals who keep the left in power. Were it not for the liberal vote, the left would have no power.

•
Why do liberals vote left? Why do liberals vote for those who have contempt for virtually everything they, the liberals, hold dear?

•
The question is all the more apt given that it is conservatives who protect virtually every liberal value.

•
It is conservatives who seek to preserve free speech, racial integration, love of America, a strong Israel, and capitalism.

•
So why do liberals vote for the left, for the very people who hold liberals and their values in contempt? There are two primary reasons.

•
One is brainwash. Liberals are brainwashed from childhood into believing that the right is their enemy and that pas d'ennemis a gauche (there are "no enemies on the left" ).

•
That is why there is no left-wing position, no matter how destructive or vile, that could move a liberal to vote Republican or identify with conservatives.

•
The second reason is fear. Liberals fear they will lose friends and even family if they do not vote Democrat or if they publicly criticize the left. And this is not an irrational fear.

•
America and the West are being destroyed by the left. But this destruction of the universities, the high schools, art and music, journalism, and of freedom itself could not take place were it not for liberals.

•
The fate of America and the West lies largely in the hands of liberals. There are simply not enough leftists to destroy our most revered institutions. They need liberals to serve as fellow travelers to accomplish their ends.

•
Should the American experiment fail — and it may — that profile in lack of courage, the liberal, will have made it possible.
The politics of court-packing (Fox 10/19/2021)
Gregg Jarrett: Disgraced dossier author Steele attempts to resuscitate his ruined reputation with more deceit (Fox 10/19/2021)
Tucker Carlson: America has once again become segregated (Fox 10/19/2021)
•
If you're old enough to recall the first Gulf War, you know that Colin Powell was one of the last public officials that most Americans believed in. Powell's life, his story, seemed to confirm everything that was good about this country...

•
Toward the end of his life, Powell sometimes said that his remarkable career was proof that affirmative action worked, but it always seemed like a halfhearted talking point.

•
Anyone who knew Powell personally can confirm that he was as impressive as any person in the U.S. government and far more than most of them.

•
He was legitimately smart, deeply knowledgeable about the world. He was openly patriotic. He was hardly a diversity hire. He was so obviously superior to a lot of the people around him.

•
Unlike other people in Washington, Colin Powell got where he was on merit, and that was inspiring to watch. Powell's success meant that our system worked.

•
Our system was meritocratic at the time. It elevated the best. Thirty years ago, our meritocracy was the country's unifying principle. All Americans were proud of it. Colin Powell embodied it.

•
Like almost everyone his age, Colin Powell was fully vaccinated against COVID, and yet, according to his family and doctors, Colin Powell died of COVID.

•
Former CDC Director Robert Redfield announced just today that about 40 percent of all recent COVID deaths in the state of Maryland, for example, are among those who have had both shots.

•
So what does that tell you exactly? What tells you you've been lied to? Vaccines may be highly useful for some people, but across the population, they do not solve COVID.

•
That's not speculation. It is an observable fact. People have been fully vaccinated can still get the virus. They can still transmit the virus to others, and they can still die from COVID.

•
So the question is why are they telling us otherwise? And the answer is simple. They're telling us that to divide us from each other to set the country against itself.

•
And yet, from the very beginning, demagogues, like Joe Biden and many others have used this virus as a hammer to smash the bonds that connect Americans to one another.

•
During last year's presidential campaign, Joe Biden, repeatedly and always with a straight face, told us that every single American who died from COVID died because of Donald Trump's negligence.

•
Now, Biden is telling us that the only reason people are still dying from COVID is because stubborn, mostly working-class Americans won't submit to his shot.

•
This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, they all repeat that line just as they've been told to. But that claim is a lie. This is not a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

•
It never was that. This is a pandemic of the Chinese government born in a lab in Wuhan and brought here either accidentally or not. That's the fact of it.

•
You'll read that some plumber in Wichita was choked to death from COVID alone in a hospital bed, and then you watch as the blue checks and social media celebrate his death. He wasn't vaccinated. They'll tell you he deserved it.

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Some preacher in Florida will die, leaving behind not just a grieving family, but tweets skeptical of the COVID vaccine, and then suddenly his death becomes a neat little morality play performed at maximum volume for the rest of us. See, this is what you get.

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This is the most corrosive possible way to approach the deaths of fellow Americans, but the president himself joins in gleefully. He scolds these people, these otherwise decent Americans as they die alone in agony.

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How dare they take up the space in our hospital, Biden says, they're occupying the beds of worthy patients, people who followed instructions and therefore deserve health care. People who deserve to live.

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Pause for a moment and think about that, we don't think about it enough, but we should. Colin Powell follow the instructions he did what Joe Biden asked. So did 40 percent of fully vaccinated people who recently died in Maryland. They all died anyway.

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Are those deaths more or less tragic than the passing of the disobedient plumber in Wichita or the preacher in Waco?

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In fact, they're all the same in their significance and in their effect. People cried when these people died, people who love them, vaccinated or not. Every life matters. Every single one, every death is sad. That's obvious, it's the most basic fact of the human condition. How do we forget that?

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Because they told us to forget it. And the irony, of course, is the people telling us to forget that and treat our fellow Americans as criminals who deserve to die, clearly don't mean a single word that they are saying. They are not sincere.

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They're not interested ultimately in our health. They are fixated on maximizing their own power. And we know that because of the distance between what they say and what they do. That's always how you know.

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Stopping the spread of COVID is not the point. Dividing the country into rulers, and the ruled is the point.

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We're looking at a system of government that is changing very fast. One in which laws explicitly do not apply to the people who make the laws.

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Colin Powell, whatever you think of him, didn't grow up in a country like this. And you don't want your children to grow up in one, either.
Down with Biden's Build Bigotry Better Act! (JWR 10/18/2021)
When Are Secrets Not Secret? (JWR 10/18/2021)
The undiagnosed issues with claims of school-board 'domestic terrorism' (JWR 10/18/2021)
Michael Goodwin: Zuckerberg and 2020 election – new book offers surprising details on Biden win (Fox 10/18/2021)
•
Nearly a year has passed since the 2020 election, yet there has not been a clear, satisfactory answer to the central mystery: How did a dull, declining Joe Biden manage to get more than 81 million votes and win the presidency?

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After all, Biden spent most of the pandemic-laced campaign in his Delaware basement and his appearances were marked by sparse crowds and signs he had lost more than a step. Yet he flipped five states Hillary Clinton lost in 2016, including Georgia and Arizona, and racked up 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump's 232.

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Trump offers his own answer, of course, declaring incessantly that the election was stolen. His efforts to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to block certification of results and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot have made his arguments out of bounds for most Americans.

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Numerous courts rejected claims made by Trump lawyers involving manipulation of voting machines, bags of secret ballots emerging and other kinds of alleged fraud.

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But rejecting Trump's claims is one thing, solving the riddle of Biden's triumph is another.

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Lacking any other explanation, two-thirds of Republicans still believe "the election was rigged and stolen from Trump," while only 18% believe "Joe Biden won fair and square."

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... a strong case that the $419 million that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ostensibly spent to get out the vote was actually used by Democrat activists to infiltrate local election operations and take over jobs government workers were supposed to do.

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... two Zuckerberg nonprofits used their unprecedented deep pockets to line up left-wing groups in key cities that in turn hired poll workers, collected absentee ballots and cured those with errors.

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"... because no one ever imagined that a coordinated operation could pull off the privatization of the election system, no laws were built to combat it."

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"The 2020 election wasn't stolen. It was likely bought by one of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men pouring his money through legal loopholes."

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... the Zuckerberg groups' promotion of universal mail-in voting, the push for unlocked and unwatched drop boxes and extended deadlines.

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The pandemic played a major role in many ways, with health fears leading most states to loosen safeguards.

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But in swing states, left-wing groups outraged by Trump's 2016 upset of Clinton started plotting early for 2020 and were able to piggyback on the pandemic fears to go even further.

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In Pennsylvania, activists had done an end-run around the sleepy Republican Legislature by suing to eliminate protections and getting a Democratic governor to sign a consent decree. A Democratic-heavy state Supreme Court approved it.

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In Georgia, a Republican governor signed a consent decree on signatures pushed by Democratic activist Stacey Abrams.

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The U.S. Supreme Court made noises about the Constitution's delegation of power on state elections to legislatures, but never made a major ruling.

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Although her findings do not mean there was no voter fraud, she offers a more substantive and documented explanation than the "stolen" argument, which remains a political dead-end outside of Trump's core Republican base.

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Although Trump doesn't have trouble raising money, his campaigns did not feature strong ground games. Both of his races were built around his personality and rallies, which drew enormous crowds.

•
He won more than 74 million votes last year, an increase of 10 million over his 2016 tally, and he sounds very much like a 2024 candidate.

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But Biden's victory exposed the limits of his approach, and now we have a good picture of how Dems did it.
Newt Gingrich: Big Government Socialism isn't 'free' – all programs taxpayer-funded, meaning YOU pay for them (Fox 10/18/2021)
•
There is an almost religious fanaticism within the left to believe that somehow more big government implementing more socialist policies will create a better future.

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The left's constant refrain of the word "free" is a key example of how misguided Big Government Socialism really is.

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None of the things the Big Government Socialists want to do are free. In a bygone, saner political era, they would be described as what they are: taxpayer-funded programs.

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To dig a little deeper: Taxpayers fund government programs in three ways – borrowing, taxing cash and taxing through inflation.

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All three methods involve taking money out of taxpayers' pockets and reducing the standard of living for Americans.

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Borrowing for public programs is a future tax. Businesses borrow to make investments, which increase revenue and become self-liquidating. They invest in greater production and larger profits, which then pay off the debt without a further claim on the borrowers.

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But government borrows, spends money on current goods and services, and has nothing coming back to repay the debt – except your future tax dollars. Sooner or later, you have to lower your standard of living to pay off the government's debt.

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Further, when interest rates rise, the cost of paying interest becomes so large it dominates and soaks up the budget. Because of the compounding effect of interest on the debt, the Founding Fathers – and most generations who followed them – have had a distinct hostility to deficit spending and large government debt build up.

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The traditional alternative to borrowing is to raise taxes. It is no accident that Sanders' $3.5-plus trillion Big Government Socialism bill has a $3 trillion tax increase attached to it.

•
President Donald Trump helped grow the economy with the largest tax cut in history, and now Biden seems determined to crush the economy with the largest tax increase in history.

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Of course, Trump combined an extraordinary program of regulatory modernization with his tax cuts, which further accelerated economic growth and job creation, and increased take-home pay.

•
By contrast, Biden is launching a massive wave of job- and investment-killing regulatory red tape along with his tax increases.

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However, the real hit for ordinary Americans may not come in the form of direct taxes. They will feel the indirect taxation of their spending power through rampant, crippling inflation.

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The Biden promise to only raise taxes on people earning more than $400,000 a year has clearly been broken. Every person who buys gasoline or heating oil is paying more. ... To be clear: If you eat, Biden inflation taxes you.

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Of course, if you don't eat, drive, or use electricity to light, heat or cool your home, you might avoid the Biden inflation tax.

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See related The Blind Date (Jake Fuller, 08/17/2021)) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Inflation (Mike Shelton, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Mark Levin: Network of liberal dark money groups, billionaires, and Democrats attacking our elections (Fox 10/17/2021)
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"Ladies and gentlemen, our election system is in fact under attack, and it's under attack by very, very wealthy people in combination with radical, left-wing Democrat party organizations. There is no getting around it."

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"There is no question about it. Dark money, all this money flowing into the coffers, organizations that don't have to report who's giving what to whom. A combination of the corporatists and the left-wing groups."
Andy Puzder: Biden is about to drive us off an economic cliff (Fox 10/17/2021)
•
You can't "Build Back Better" without either workers or supplies. You would think that was fairly obvious, but apparently it is not.

•
Yet, none of this should come as any surprise to President Biden and his progressive policymakers. After all, they themselves contributed to the problem with $1.9 trillion in government handouts last March.

•
Within a month, inflation surged past wage growth for the first time since before the Trump presidency. Now they want to double down on this gross economic error.

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Unfortunately, expecting different results with more of the same policies is a form of fiscal insanity that our country can ill afford.
Tucker Carlson: The hypocrisy of the left has left America in a nightmare scenario (Fox 10/16/2021)
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... this is unequal justice, by any measure, it contradicts the central principle of our legal system and our country, which is we're all citizens and all of a stand equal before the law. It's not about what you believe, it's about what you do. It has nothing to do with who you vote for. Nothing to do with who you listen to on the radio or watch on television. It has to do with what you violate the law. But that's no longer what it has to do with.

•
You should know that none of the code pink protesters who stormed Senate buildings during the Kavanaugh hearings wound up in jail. Of course not. They weren't tossed in solitary confinement.

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Neither were the self-described environmentalists who just raided a federal building in Washington.

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This is what happens when law enforcement becomes partisan. This is the nightmare scenario. This is the country you don't want to live in. This is the country that judges you on the basis of who you vote for and we'll put you in jail if you got the wrong way.

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... criminals with the right politics suffer no consequences. In some cases, those criminals are put in charge of enforcing the law themselves.

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Here's one example: The former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe. McCabe admitted lying to federal investigators - That's a felony, by the way, unlike parading in the Capitol - but he was never hauled off to jail, never lectured about his vaccine status by some lunatic prosecutor.

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... you're the country's second in line in our biggest law enforcement agency and you've admitted committing a felony, and all that happened to you was that you lost your padded federal benefits. And you say that was unfair and you're still whining about them even after you got it back.

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Are you the same Andy McCabe, who destroyed Mike Flynn's life and bankrupted him, tried to send him to prison on a charge of lying to federal investigators?

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Yes, that charge was in fact engineered by Andy McCabe for the sole purpose of getting rid of Michael Flynn at the behest of Barack Obama and his cronies.

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... when Andy McCabe lied to investigators about leaking to the media, was he charged? No, that wasn't parading in Congress. Now he gets his pension back and he's celebrated on national television.

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Why is that? Because Andy McCabe is on the right side. He's a member of the national security state, which the Left now venerate because the national security state is on their side.

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The FBI can label political dissidents domestic terrorists, which justifies killing them, and everyone applauds when they die. So Ashley Babbitt hurt not a single person on January 6th. She was unarmed, and yet, Andy McCabe's defenders justified shooting her because the FBI says she was somehow a threat to national security.

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JOY REID: Ashli Babbitt, who was a trained Air Force specialist, trained by our tax dollars to kill, she was a military member. If she had gotten through that door, God knows what kind of harm she could have done.

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DEAN OBEIDALLAH, MSNBC COLUMNIST: His supporters who attack the Capitol are terrorists. It`s two plus two equals four stuff, like Ashli Babbitt, all those who attacked the Capitol are terrorists because the FBI director has said it was an act of terrorism.

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REP. SWALWELL: Ashley Babbitt was the woman that was leading the mob that was about to storm the House floor and she was shot by a brave officer that was the last line of defense for many members of Congress and many of these members were the slowest, least mobile members. If they had been overrun by that mob, people would have been killed.

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She was a threat to their safety. She was like 5' 2" and totally unarmed. She was not warned, by the way, before she was shot to death. We've never seen the results of that investigation.

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We know the man who shot her was completely reckless. He left a loaded firearm in a men's room in the Capitol. He wasn't fired for that for some reason, no one in the federal government ever fired.

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So that's clearly over the line in a functional country, but then to see those ghouls gloating about the death of an unarmed woman? How will they treat you?

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So they're telling you that for the crime of praying in the Capitol building, Ashley Babbitt deserved to be executed.

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At the same time, they're telling you that, they're ignoring other crimes, once committed by people who are actually armed.

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An 18-year-old who opened fire in his classroom in Texas shot several people, got out of jail in a single day. He told us he was bullied. Yet another victim of white supremacy and he got a pass...

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Shooting an unarmed woman in the neck without warning her because you didn't like what she was saying. But if you torch a federal courthouse in Portland, no problem.

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If you show up at a school board meeting and object to your 14-year-old daughter being raped in the bathroom, that's when you get thrown to the ground and taken to jail.

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SCOTT SMITH: Then I tried to tell the lady what had happened to my daughter. And she looked me down in the face and said, that's not what happened. And that just struck me, like, how do you know what happened? You don't even know me. // And she started in on me again and threatened my family business, my livelihood, everything that gives my family what we need. She threatened to ruin my business on social media. // The next thing I know, I'm getting touched from all over the place. I didn't know who was touching me, who was grabbing me. I turn around, the police are grabbing me. And next thing I know, I'm tackled to the ground.

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They're not for defunding the police... They're for repurposing the police. They're not against the use of force. They embrace the use of force. As long as it's against their political opponents.

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Therefore, letting criminals off the hook and redefining people who oppose the regime as criminals, the only ones who get punished.

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What form of government is this? It's not democracy, it's anarchical tyranny. ... this is a threat to the very center of the American idea, which is equality. Under the law, everyone treated the same by the justice system.

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Right now, you can burn a Target in Minneapolis. You can burn a Wendy's and face no consequences, but try to defend your own property like the McCloskeys.

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Try to exercise your constitutional right to state your views about the last election and you go to jail. That's true.
David Marcus: COVID has given us a new normal and it's not bold or beautiful (Fox 10/15/2021)
•
Aside from the economic disaster that is becoming clearer to Americans every day, we also have a social disaster of political polarization, rooted in the lockdowns, that has made credible people on both sides contemplate a "national divorce."

•
This, of course, is impossible because there are no neat regional lines along which to divide ourselves. No, in the new normal we just stay together and hate each other.

•
It is tempting to believe that the parade of horribles listed above were unintended consequences born of our need for emergency action when COVID hit. But that isn't quite true.

•
The entire reason that the term "new normal" popped up in the first place is that we knew and understood we were making choices with profound long term consequences.

•
Those who warned of this, who stated the plain obvious truth that the longer we kept lockdowns and restrictions in place the worse the result would be, were scorned as Grandma Killers.

•
The lesson here is that when you radically and dramatically change systems, like the economy, education, health care, which took decades of complex decisions to create, there is a very high likelihood that you will foul it up, not make it better.

•
The bad news is that we cannot undo the past. Our kids will never get two years of education back, our supply chains will remain broken for a long time, prices will continue to climb, and our disdain for each other will continue to grow. These are all the results of choices we already made.

•
The good news is that we can learn a lesson here about enacting "fundamental change" as the Biden administration is intent on doing with its trillions of dollars of spending.

•
What America needs now is not more transformational change, we've had enough of that already, thank you very much. What we need is slow, steady, restrained time to heal from our self-inflicted wounds.

•
We made a choice, beginning in March of 2020 to simply ignore the very real costs of our aggressive COVID mitigation methods and instead blindly follow, not the experts, but a very select set of experts who told us to shut it all down.

•
That which took a mere two years to break could take twenty to fix, maybe more, maybe it never will be fixed.
Is America becoming Rome versus Byzantium? (JWR 10/14/2021)
Karol Markowicz: Parents as terrorists, cancel culture mobs – we must fight the age of conformity (Fox 10/14/2021)
•
It is the age of conformity. We see it in the cancel culture around us, the vaccine mandates pushed by the president, the move to turn parents at school board meetings into domestic terrorists. Speaking out, speaking up, gets scarier all the time.

•
For a long time, the cultural enforcement was happening by the left for the left. They impose speech codes on each other and change language on a whim. "Latinx," 76 gender names, were how you knew you belonged with the in-group of the left.

•
It was much harder to cancel public conservatives. Prominent conservatives can rile up the left weekly, have their names trend on Twitter, but ultimately would only grow in prominence from being the left's targets.

•
The pandemic emboldened the survivors of the circular firing squad to turn their attention to the rest of us. It was a particularly difficult time for free thinking and speech.

•
Any questioning of conventional wisdom on COVID was immediately shut down. Discussion of a possible lab leak in Wuhan, China was considered so racist and unacceptable that Twitter, YouTube and Facebook would censor discussions about it.

•
During the election, there were many stories of assaults on people wearing the Trump campaign's signature "Make America Great Again" hats throughout the country. How could people living in a free country accept this?

•
The conformists cannot be stopped through compliance, only through resistance. We're in a precarious moment in American history where the conformity enforcers can so easily win.

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But we're a country founded on rebellion and the fight is necessary now. Americans need to remember that and stand up.
Tucker Carlson: 'Let's go Brandon' chants are demonstrations of pro-Biden unity (Fox 10/14/2021)
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A lot of the things you assumed were true, in fact, are not true. They are instead a mirage. They're a web of purpose-built myths designed to deceive rather than inform you. You can't really trust your senses anymore. Your eyes will lie to you.

•
It's inspiring when you think about it. Joe Biden, on his first day in office, promised to bring this country together, and now he's actually doing it. It doesn't matter what team you showed up to root for in your heart, you are a Joe Biden fan. And that is national unity.

•
... we can be thankful that there was a credentialed representative of NBC Sports on hand earlier this month when fans at a NASCAR event began to celebrate spontaneously celebrate Joe Biden. If the NBC lady had not been there, you might very well have misheard what the crowd said.

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What they said and you could hear it very clearly if you just open your ears to the truth is, let's go, Brandon. The NBC lady made that very clear. Not f Joe Biden. Let's go, Brandon.

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See related NBC Loses Credibility (Robert Ariail, 02/06/2015) cartoon from Media picture album
Can concerned parents threaten totalitarian education in US schools? (INN 10/13/2021)
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It's a big mistake to get between a Mom and her kids. A mother's wrath in support of her offspring will not be pleasant for the offender.

•
It has always been that way. Thank G-d for that.
Was Jan. 6 an 'armed insurrection'? (JWR 10/13/2021)
The Nation in the Bubble (JWR 10/13/2021)
Michael Goodwin: The Hunter Biden saga remains an outrageous scandal on its first anniversary (Fox 10/13/2021)
School board meetings may need help — but NOT from the FBI (JWR 10/12/2021)
Mollie Hemingway: What happened during the 2020 election must be investigated and discussed (Fox 10/12/2021)
•
If questioning the results of a presidential election were a crime, as many have asserted in the wake of the controversial 2020 election and its aftermath, then much of the Democratic Party and media establishment should have been indicted for their behavior following the 2016 election.

•
In fact, the last time Democrats fully accepted the legitimacy of a presidential election they lost was in 1988.

•
After the 2000 election, which hinged on the results of a recount in Florida, Democrats smeared President George W. Bush as "selected, not elected."

•
When Bush won re-election against then senator John Kerry in 2004, many on the left claimed that voting machines in Ohio had been rigged to deliver fraudulent votes to Bush.

•
HBO even produced and aired the Emmy-nominated "Hacking Democracy," a documentary claiming to show that "votes can be stolen without a trace," adding fuel to the conspiracy theory fire that the results of the 2004 election were illegitimate.

•
But nothing holds a candle to what happened in 2016 after Donald Trump's surprising defeat of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

•
Rather than accept that Trump won and Clinton lost fair and square, the political and media establishments desperately sought to explain away Trump's victory.

•
They settled on a destructive conspiracy theory that crippled the government, empowered America's adversaries, and illegally targeted innocent private citizens whose only crime was not supporting Hillary Clinton.

•
The Russia collusion hoax had all the elements of an election conspiracy theory, including baseless claims of hacked voting totals, illegal voter suppression, and treasonous collaboration with a foreign power.

•
Pundits and officials speculated openly that President Trump was a foreign asset and that members of his circle were under the thumb of the Kremlin.

•
But despite the patent absurdity of these claims, the belief that Trump stole the 2016 election had the support of the most powerful institutions, individuals, and even government agencies in the country.

•
To question the legitimacy of the 2016 election wasn't to undermine our democracy; it was considered by some of our most elevated public figures a patriotic duty.

•
"You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you," Clinton told her followers in 2019. "I know he's an illegitimate president," Clinton claimed of Trump a few months later.

•
Former president Jimmy Carter agreed. "[Trump] lost the election and was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf. Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016."

•
Their view was shared by most prominent Democrats in Congress. ... one out of three Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives boycotted Trump's inauguration. Many said they refused to take part in the installation of an "illegitimate" president.

•
The corporate media didn't condemn leading Democrats' refusal to accept the results of the 2016 election.

•
In fact, the media amplified the most speculative claims of how Trump and Russia had colluded to steal the election from Clinton.

•
They dutifully regurgitated inaccurate leaks from corrupt intelligence officials suggesting Trump and his staff had committed treason.

•
They ran stories arguing that Republicans who didn't support their conspiracy theory were insufficiently loyal to the country or somehow compromised themselves.

•
It was all nonsense. Even Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who ran a multi-year and multi-million-dollar government investigation into claims that Trump personally colluded with Russian president Vladimir Putin to steal the election from Clinton, found no evidence to support the fevered accusations.

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The reporters who pushed this conspiracy theory were never held accountable by their peers for peddling leaks and lies.

•
They received raises and promotions, honors and awards, and the applause of their colleagues. Some were given Pulitzer Prizes for "reporting" that was closer to fan fiction than an accurate description of events.

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From 2016 through 2020, the easiest way to achieve stardom on the political left was to loudly proclaim one's belief that the 2016 election was illegitimate — stolen by the Russians on behalf of a corrupt traitor.

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Conspiracy-mongering, up to and including the assertion that the president of the United States was a secret Russian spy, was the highest form of patriotism.

•
And then 2020 happened. At the drop of a hat, America's electoral system went from irredeemably corrupt and broken in 2016 to unquestionably safe in 2020.

•
Voting methods that were allegedly used to steal elections in 2004 and 2016 suddenly became sacrosanct and unquestionable in 2020.

•
Whereas so-called election experts repeatedly warned pre-2020 about the pitfalls of electronic voting and widespread mail-in balloting, by November 2020 any discussion about the vulnerabilities of those methods was written off as the stuff of right-wing cranks and conspiracy-mongers.

•
If concerns about election integrity were valid from at least 1960 through 2016, then surely those concerns were even more valid in 2020, an election year unlike any other in American history.

•
In the lead-up to the election, thanks in part to the coronavirus pandemic that gripped the world, wide-ranging electoral reforms were implemented. ... Many changes, allegedly justified by the global pandemic, were broad reforms that Democrats had long desired. The crisis was their chance to sneak in contentious policies through the back door.

•
The bedrock of the American republic is that elections must be free, fair, accurate, and trusted.

•
Election lawyers will tell you that fraud is almost impossible to conclusively find after the fact, and that to fight it, strong rules and regulations are needed on the front end.

•
What happened during the 2020 election must be investigated and discussed, not in spite of media and political opposition to an open inquiry, but because of that opposition. The American people deserve to know what happened.

•
They deserve answers, even if those answers are inconvenient. They deserve to know the effect flooding the system with tens of millions of mail-in ballots had on their vote.

•
They deserve to know how and why Big Tech and the corporate political media manipulated the news to support certain political narratives while censoring stories they now admit were true.

•
They deserve to know why courts were allowed to unilaterally rewrite the rules in the middle of the contest, often without the consent of the legislative bodies charged with writing election laws.

•
See related What Makes You Think... (Chip Bok, 12/03/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related It\\\'s Who Counts the Votes (Gary Varvel, 11/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Election Fraud (Mike Shelton, 11/24/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Stephen Moore: Biden thinks climate change is a bigger threat than China. He'll be sorry (Fox 10/12/2021)
Revolution has come to America (INN 10/10/2021)
•
How does a nation lose its freedom? One way, of course, is through foreign conquest. History is filled with examples of nations being subjugated and enslaved by foreign tyranny.

•
Today, in the United States, Americans are not losing their liberty to a foreign power, but to domestic revolutionaries.

•
The revolutionaries are willing to use force, as they showed in the summer of 2020 when they burned and looted their way through U.S. cities.

•
But generally speaking, their weapon is not the gun or the jackboot, but demonization and intimidation.

•
And now, with the Biden administration firmly ensconced in power, they move forward with their revolution with the firm backing of the state and its weapons of repression and criminalization.

•
Last month the revolutionaries and the administration converged before the cameras at a meeting between Vice President Kamala Harris and students at George Mason University in Virginia.

•
A female student with the voice of a child used her audience with Harris as an opportunity to promote the revolution's vicious hatred of Jews, and of America.

•
She sniffed emotionally under her mask and told America's second highest elected official that her feelings had been hurt when Congress passed a bill for supplemental funding to Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.

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The move, she yowled, "hurts my heart because it's an ethnic genocide and a displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and I'm sure you're aware of this."

•
Harris might have been expected to call the student out for promoting anti-Semitic and anti-American blood libels. But she didn't.

•
Instead, Harris empowered the young bigot. She said she was "glad" the student had shared her views. "This is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth, should not be suppressed and it must be heard, right? And one of the things we're fighting for in a democracy, right?"

•
It's possible that Harris was intimidated. She didn't want to get into a confrontation with a delicate crybully who talked about her hurting heart.

•
Telling off whiny revolutionaries doesn't film well. In fact, more often than not, it leads to one's cancellation in society.

•
The wrongthink mobs who reign supreme in most U.S. campuses have spread their tentacles to the political realm.

•
The second reason Harris may have decided to support the George Mason student's slander of Israel and America is because it is likely that she really liked what the student was saying.

•
This brings us to what the revolution is about and to the Biden-Harris administration's position on its goals.

•
As Barack Obama said after winning the 2008 presidential election, the purpose of the revolution is to "fundamentally transform the United States of America." The doctrine that stands at the heart of the revolution is critical race theory.

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"Critical race theorists believe that American institutions, such as the Constitution and legal system, preach freedom and equality, but are mere ‘camouflages' for naked racial domination. They believe that racism is a constant, universal condition."

•
"Critical race theory reformulates the old Marxist dichotomy of oppressor and oppressed, replacing the class categories of bourgeoisie and proletariat with the identity categories of White and Black. But the basic conclusion is the same: in order to liberate man, society must be fundamentally transformed through moral, economic, and political revolution."

•
... the federal government, including government departments and agencies, as well as the U.S. armed forces, were requiring their employees and servicemen to undergo CRT workshops and seminars.

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Participants in the seminars were separated by race. White participants were required to acknowledge and disavow their "whiteness," that is, their inherent racism, and apologize to non-whites and commit themselves to empowering their non-white colleagues at their own expense, since, they were told, as white people, they were inherently oppressors.

•
Then-President Donald Trump reacted by issuing an executive order banning CRT training from the federal government and the armed forces.

•
Trump's executive order was one of the first policies Biden overturned. Biden cancelled Trump's executive order on his first day in office.

•
In the days and months that have followed, his administration has reinstated and expanded CRT indoctrination.

•
Since early this year, the center of gravity in the fight against the CRT revolution moved from the government to the classroom.

•
... local school boards from coast to coast have been transforming K-12 classrooms into CRT indoctrination centers. Kindergarten children are taught that their gender is not fixed, but fluid.

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Tales of hardcore communist, anti-American, anti-white and anti-police indoctrination have abounded across America.

•
... fifth graders in a Philadelphia elementary school were forced to celebrate "Black communism." Kindergarteners in Buffalo, New York were taught that "all white people" are racists and forced to watch a video of dead black children. They were warned of "racist police and state-sanctioned violence" that placed their lives in constant jeopardy.

•
As the schoolrooms moved into the homes through Zoom, American parents saw their children's teachers demonize police and teach them to hate their country, judge people by their skin color, and reject the values at the heart of the American experience. The backlash has been profound.

•
Over the spring and summer, thousands of concerned parents countrywide began attending school board meetings and demanding that the indoctrination stop and CRT curricula be withdrawn.

•
Videos of the meetings, and the invariably dismissive and hostile responses parents received from school board members, were seen by tens of millions of people.

•
In Virginia, which has been a focal point of the struggle, parents have been subjected to arrest for trying to protect their children from CRT.

•
At a gubernatorial debate in Virginia on Sept. 28, former governor and current Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe said that parents have no right to interfere with school curricula.

•
The next day, the National School Boards Association shot off a letter to Biden asking him to direct his administration to treat the protesting parents as "domestic terrorists."

•
And this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo to the FBI Director and federal prosecutors effectively ordering them to fulfill the NSBA's request.

•
Garland's memo was directed at parents no less than to federal law enforcement officials. And his message was clear: If you object to CRT indoctrination in the classroom, the federal government will treat you like terrorists. You will lose everything.

•
This returns us to the student at George Mason. The anti-American and anti-Semitic lies she propounded to Harris were not her lies.

•
They were the lies she has been taught by the CRT revolutionaries in the classroom. They taught her that the United States was born not in liberty, but in slavery, racism and genocide.

•
She has been taught that the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Civil War and the Civil Rights Act were all fig leaves behind which the true venality of America operates and carries out its oppressive, genocidal and racist machinations.

•
Consistent polling data show that between two thirds and three quarters of Americans oppose the inclusion of CRT in school curricula. But the revolutionaries don't care.

•
They don't need the public's approval with the FBI, U.S. attorneys, the president and the vice president on their side and placing the full force of the federal government behind their efforts.

•
Americans are not losing their liberty to invading armies from China or Russia, or even to terrorists from Al-Qaeda.

•
Those enemies are all sitting on the side, eating popcorn and watching as the combined force of CRT revolutionaries and the federal government trample the rights and freedoms that have defined America since its founding, in favor of "their voice, their perspective, their experience and their truth."
Biden’s main accomplishment-joining up with self-hating Jews (INN 10/10/2021)
Tucker Carlson: The people in charge are intent on replacing democracy with authoritarianism (Fox 10/09/2021)
•
The people in charge are intent on replacing our free democratic system with an authoritarian system where they don't convince you of anything. They simply make you do things and they benefit from that.

•
... that really is the divide. People are for an authoritarian America and those who are for a free America. It's that simple. And once you start to understand politics through that lens, you figure out what's really going on.

•
If we allocate power based on who's the most popular with the public and that's the basic premise of democracy, the Democratic Party is in very tough shape and they know that.

•
And that may be why, according to polls, Democrats now overwhelmingly want the government to make their political opponents shut up.

•
More than three-quarters of Democratic Party voters want the tech companies to "restrict false information online, even if it limits freedom of information."

•
So that's authoritarianism, there's no other word for it. And it's ironic considering for four years, prominent Democrats told us we were living through a fascist system. Donald Trump was a fascist.

•
So you'll recall that Joe Biden voters destroyed statues and destroyed our country's biggest cities for more than a year, and the police did nothing about it. And our media class applauded.

•
And yet, because justice is no longer meted out equally if someone dares to dishonor the legacy of St. George Floyd, the New York Police Department Special Hate Crimes Division springs into action.

•
So that's not really hypocrisy anymore, it's hierarchy. What they're telling you is that crimes against their ideas are the only crimes that matter.

•
Well, that attitude has no popular support in this country, so you can only enforce it by force using surveillance to root out people who've got the wrong ideas.
Lindsey Burke: Dropping 'F' grades for kids is a new 'soft bigotry of low expectations' (Fox 10/09/2021)
Give Marxist inspired authoritarians their due — and day? (JWR 10/08/2021)
What Kind of Country Are We, Really? (JWR 10/08/2021)
•
Our ruling classes are infected with arrogance, egotism and condescension. So convinced are they of their inherent superiority that their desires, whether motivated by purported altruism or blunt self-interest, are subordinated to nothing; not even the most fundamental principles of American society, such as truth and due process.

•
The Biden administration, its puppet masters behind the scenes, and its willing warriors in Congress and the press are all engaged in a full-blown propaganda war against ordinary Americans.

•
This started with absurd accusations against former President Donald Trump, but quickly expanded to include anyone who voted for or supported him.

•
Nonviolent Trump supporters are imprisoned in solitary for months, while antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters who lobbed explosives, looted, burned and destroyed throughout 2020 have their bail paid (if they are arrested at all) and charges dropped against them.

•
... President Joe Biden's Justice Department is now going after parents and families who object to the imposition of racist, Marxist, anti-American indoctrination such as critical race theory into public school curricula.

•
If walking around the U.S. Capitol unarmed is an "insurrection," one can anticipate that vehement, vocal disagreement at a school board meeting can easily be characterized as "harassment" or "intimidation."

•
This administration, aided and abetted by a politicized Justice Department, out of control FBI and unaccountable federal agencies, is now criminalizing political disagreement.

•
I will say this as often as I must: The horrific human rights abuses that have taken place in other countries can happen here.

•
If we permit the erosion of every principle upon which America was founded, we will suffer consequences every bit as atrocious as those we've seen elsewhere.

•
Those of us who love America are facing powerful headwinds in our efforts to engage in serious inquiry and communicate facts.

•
But we must make a choice. Are we willing to watch the continued attack on America's most fundamental principles? Or are we going to fight to defend them?
Tucker Carlson: It is beginning to seem like the national security state runs everything (Fox 10/08/2021)
•
... this is the spokesman for the President of the United States, saying atthe Justice Department, they're going to take actions that they're going to take, we don't really have any control over this.

•
And she may be on to something there. It does increasingly seem like the national security state runs everything.

•
You remember, the DOJ recently dispatched its Anti-Terrorism National Security Division to investigate ordinary parents, calling them domestic terrorists.

•
The DOJ is also developing training sessions to tell school board members that free speech is actually violence.

•
So who's really in charge? It's a really interesting question.
Lauren Appell: Biden's DOJ targets parents but when protecting our kids, we know how to handle bullies (Fox 10/07/2021)
•
The Justice Department (DOJ) declared open season on parents this week in a disturbing decision to target moms and dads across the country who dare speak out against woke school board agendas like critical race theory curriculum (CRT) and politically driven COVID-19 restrictions.

•
The absurd announcement to investigate parents they deem a threat follows an equally absurd letter from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) last week asking for the Biden administration's protection against parents.

•
In their woke world parents exercising free speech to protect their kids is somehow equivalent to domestic terrorism. You read that right. Parents are now terrorists in Biden's America.

•
Shameful and a gross misuse of power that with all our nation's problems, violent crime included, the DOJ wants to direct resources to investigate moms and dads. Because to them we're the real threat to our country.

•
... American parents have really become a problem. A big giant colossal roadblock for the uber woke agenda of activist school boards across the country trying to brainwash our kids. And they've caught on that we're not going to sit down and shut up anytime soon.

•
So parents are bullied and told to butt out, and if we don't, we'll be investigated and persecuted by the very government agencies we fund.

•
They're overplaying their hand. It was COVID that exposed both their indoctrination of kids and the power-hungry mentality of school boards and teachers unions.

•
Parents caught wind of their agenda and started speaking up. Activist school boards and teachers unions threw gasoline on the fire by doubling down on parents, who then got even more upset at the arrogance with which we were dismissed and ignored.

•
Perhaps this is their first rodeo being challenged by parents, since they operated largely unchecked and under the radar before COVID blew the lid off their woke shenanigans.

•
However, when it comes to our children, the most precious gifts God has entrusted us with, we will not be scared into silence, especially by a bunch of power-hungry elitists with a distorted view of their role in our kids' lives and education.

•
Our taxpayer dollars fund all the power and privilege that is afforded to them as they sit atop their bully pulpit.

•
You can bet parents aren't going to be browbeaten into submission while they cash our checks and then use their perch to lob threats at us so they can control our kids.

•
In Virginia's recent gubernatorial debate Democrat Terry McAuliffe shockingly said the quiet part out loud, "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."

•
Every once in a while, even the most well-oiled politician accidentally tells you what they really think. And this is what the school boards, teachers unions and the politicians they back really think of you the parent.

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Listen up – We don't co-parent with the government. While every family dynamic may be different, one thing is for sure – it takes a family, not some agenda-driven bureaucrat in a government-run school to raise our kids.

•
Parents (you know, the "domestic terrorists") are heading for the exits of these public schools. In Fairfax County, Virginia, home of one of the largest school districts in the country, the district lost close to 9,000 students just this year.

•
It's almost laughable that school boards want to be "protected" against "big bad parents" when, for the last year and half, it's our kids who've needed the protection against their woke indoctrination.

•
This whole thing reeks of desperation and a political stunt to put a lid on moms and dads, whose only crime is exercising our First Amendment right. As we've often seen lately, when free speech conflicts with the approved narrative, they try to cancel you. Or in this case, flag you as a domestic terrorist.

•
The only threat we pose to school boards is taking back our kids and stopping their politically driven agenda and severe overreach into our children's education through their indoctrination.

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We will not be undermined, intimidated or silenced by a bunch of woke bureaucrats trying to pump our kids full of propaganda for their political purposes.

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From extremist school boards to the DOJ, these government bullies are the real threat. Now that they've been exposed, their days of unhampered power with no accountability is a history lesson.

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We're parents – we can handle bullies. Thou shalt not mess with our kids.

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related You Better Shut up! (Mike Shelton, 06/28/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Despicable louts (INN 10/07/2021)
The Far Left takeover of the Democrat party is dragging America over the cliff (INN 10/07/2021)
America and 'The Dying Citizen' (JWR 10/07/2021)
•
Given our privileges, affluent and leisured Americans must always ask ourselves whether as citizens we have earned what those who died at Gettysburg or on Omaha Beach bequeathed at such costs.

•
Refusing to stand during the national anthem is not and should not be illegal. But such blanket rejection of American customs is admittedly now a collective narcissistic tic — and hardly sustainable for the nation's privileged to sit in disgust for a flag that their betters raised under fire on Iwo Jima for others not yet born.

•
Sometimes citizens can do as much harm to their commonwealth by violating customs and traditions as by breaking laws.

•
Instead, freedom requires constant reinvestment in and replenishment of a nation's traditions and ideals.

•
Self-criticism of one's country is salutary to ensure needed changes, but only if Americans accept that an innately self-correcting United States does not have to be perfect to be good — and especially when, in a world of innately flawed humans and failed states, it remains far better than any of the alternatives abroad.
What if 'Polarization' Isn't the Big Problem? (JWR 10/06/2021)
•
80% of Biden voters and 84% of Trump voters believed that elected officials of the opposite party present a "clear and present danger to American democracy".

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78% of Biden voters believed that the Republican Party wanted to eliminate the influence of "progressive values" in American life, while 87% of Trump voters believed that the Democrats wanted to eliminate "traditional values".

•
75% of Biden voters and 78% of Trump voters believed that the opposing party's supporters were a "clear and present danger to the American way of life."

•
The popular theory these days is that willingness by both Democrats and Republicans to abandon democratic norms — election result acceptance, checks and balances, due process of law and all the rest — is purely the result of reactionary dislike.

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If you fear your neighbor is going to abuse the process, you'd be a fool to stick to the process — and the more we dislike our neighbors, the more we fear that they'll take advantage of us.

•
But is this theory correct? Is polarization actually the reason for increased willingness to ditch democratic norms?

•
... the answer is that the reverse is actually occurring: As we've abandoned democratic norms, we've come to despise our neighbors.

•
Given the variability of human nature, epistemic humility — a recognition that human beings are often wrong — would be necessary. And that epistemic humility would translate into a desire for liberty.

•
High-level government, in this view, would be hamstrung from cramming down a unitary form of virtue on a pluralistic society, at least; subsidiarity, in which local communities governed themselves while the federal government maintained certain basic norms, would be the proper approach.

•
The federal government would be pitted against itself through checks and balances, creating obstacles that would necessitate broad agreement about use of power to legitimize such use of power.

•
Today, however, most Americans seem to instinctively recoil from this vision of human nature and its concomitant governmental approach. Instead, human beings are held to be entirely malleable creatures of circumstance who can be molded by a better system into their highest selves...

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Grant the "right person" with the "right principles" unending power, democratically or not, and watch virtue spring forth.

•
The problem with this, of course, is that we all have different ideas of the right person and the right principles.

•
And once we have agreed that the government ought to have the ability to fix all our problems, anyone who stands in our way becomes a heretic.

•
By abandoning the Founders' accurate characterization of human nature and the governmental structure embodied in the Constitution, we set ourselves up for polarization and rage.

•
Perhaps the first step toward fixing our newfound dislike for democratic norms is to re-inculcate not love of neighbor, but understanding of human flaws, human foibles and the limits of human understanding. Perhaps we ought to start with some epistemic humility.

•
From that source, perhaps a renewal of democratic norms and an embrace of our neighbors might spring.
Gregg Jarrett: Biden sics Garland's Justice Department on parents to bully them over free speech (Fox 10/06/2021)
•
Garland's ruse is not thinly disguised; it is plain to see. He intends to silence mothers and fathers who vigorously oppose their students being indoctrinated with critical race theory and other socialist or Marxist dogma.

•
To accomplish it, Garland plans to weaponize the immense powers of the FBI and the Department of Justice to bully parents into submission.

•
Under the guise of combating what he refers to as "intimidation," he is exerting more intimidation with superior force. He aspires to criminalize contentiousness.

•
These are menacing and unconscionable tactics by him designed to abolish free speech rights under threat of federal investigation, arrest and prosecution.

•
In essence, Garland has ordered you to shut up or else. You won't just be canceled, you'll be sporting some new cuffs.

•
The leftist group demanded that the DOJ use "domestic terrorism" laws against parents who attend school board meetings to vocalize their opposition to the inclusion of "critical race theory within classroom instruction," as well as mask mandates for children.

•
Right on cue, Garland capitulated on Monday by threatening to investigate and prosecute parents who dare to protest against the teaching of what they regard as "woke" propaganda and radical racist brainwashing in classrooms.

•
Biden's attorney general made it abundantly clear: no political or academic opposition to the progressive agenda will be tolerated.

•
Even more embarrassing was Garland's misstatement of constitutional law. He claimed that the First Amendment does not protect "efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views." What? Where is that written anywhere in the myriad of U.S. Supreme Court decisions involving free speech cases?

•
... political intimidation is not uncommon during heated civic debates or legislative discourse. It's often calculated to influence policy action. Unless it is accompanied by what the high court justices have consistently defined as a "true threat" of imminent violence, it is fully protected speech. A first-year law student knows better than Garland.

•
Even more confounding was the attorney general's assertion that he possesses some imagined jurisdiction over local school boards and any potential crimes arising from their public meetings.

•
Those are issues solely within the province of local police and their enforcement of state laws. There is no valid federal authority over such matters. Yet, Garland asserts it without the power to do so.

•
Political activity in petitioning our government – whether it be Congress in Washington or a school board in Wichita – for a redress of grievances is a cherished right of every American and vital to democracy. It is embedded in the Bill of Rights. Garland seems oblivious to this sacred principle.

•
Beyond his lack of authority, what is also conspicuously missing from Garland's order are any credible threats or acts of violence that might justify his actions. Nowhere does he identify specifically the kind of lawlessness that he pretends to prevent.

•
He twice cites the broad claim of "harassment" but offers no support. It is a wonderfully fungible term, but not necessarily criminal in nature.

•
The prerogative to protest insensible curricula is an inviolable right of any parent. One can even argue that there is a duty to object. The idea that irate mothers and fathers should be equated with domestic terrorists is repugnant.

•
Acrimonious disagreement is not terrorism, nor is acerbic argument a crime. But if you fail to comply with the new imperious dictates of Biden's Justice Department, you will be subjected to the full fury of government retaliation. What's next – a Ministry of Political Control?

•
Garland's threat to punish parents for their sometimes vituperative views is an egregious abuse of power. This is nothing more than a corrupt attempt by the attorney general to target political opposition.

•
He wants to repress speech and discourage any resistance. To carry out his wishes, Garland has deputized the FBI and unleashed what one mom decried as the "politics police."

•
If you're not careful with the words you choose, they may come banging at your door sooner than you think. That is precisely what Biden and Garland want – to chill free speech and extinguish any dissent.

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related You Better Shut up! (Mike Shelton, 06/28/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Enemies List (Antonio Branco, 06/17/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Greg Gutfeld: Joe Biden is a unifier, we all think he's nuts (Fox 10/06/2021)
•
... the school board and the law want you to think that parental concern is now a domestic terror threat.

•
That's right, a mom yelling at school board members at a public meeting is the same as her donning an explosive vest and blowing up a school. Demanding quality schools is now like crashing a plane into the Pentagon.

•
They've taken the most necessary debate one could have: how to teach your kids, and re-cast it as the perfect left-wing fantasy: Heroic educators battling a mob of pitchfork-wielding heathens all wearing mom jeans and fanny packs.

•
Garland published the memo right after the National School Board letter demanded help from the White House because our "public schools and its education leaders are under immediate threat."

•
First, can you imagine asking Joe Biden for help on anything other than how to use Metamucil? Did you not see the Kabul airport evacuation? Asking Joe for help is like asking Ted Bundy for a ride home.

•
Now there may be unsavory incidents — but when it comes to getting between a dad and his kid who you've labeled racist because of his race, that can happen.

•
Teachers and parents will get in shouting matches. Which isn't good. But it's understandable, given the insane teachers' unions, the brainwash they call education and the utter disregard for difference of opinion.

•
They don't care if our schools are dead last. They only care about preventing you from having a choice of schools, or a say in the matter.

•
The left hates open debate almost as much as they love open borders. They hate legitimate protests as much as they love riots. And now they have the law to intimidate you into silence.

•
You can brutalize anyone or steal anything in New York, and be back on the streets in hours. You could torch businesses and permanently ruin cities like Minneapolis, and never see jail time.

•
But the FBI needs to cuff a mom because she raised her voice to a transitioning social studies teacher with a rainbow tattoo on her neck. Yes: Antifa is just an idea, but mom and dad are deadly.

•
That's the world we live in – where your speech is redefined as violence, and their violence is redefined as justice.

•
See related CRT Bully (Gary McCoy, 07/07/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
MIT Abandons Its Mission. And Me. (10/05/2021 )
•
... I started to get alarmed about five years ago as I noticed an increasing number of issues and viewpoints become impossible to discuss on campus.

•
... the street violence of the summer of 2020, some of which I witnessed personally in Chicago, and the justifications and dishonesty that accompanied it, convinced me that I could no longer remain silent in good conscience.

•
In the fall of 2020 I started advocating openly for academic freedom and merit-based evaluations. ...

•
As a result, I was immediately targeted for cancellation, primarily by a group of graduate students in my department.

•
In an academic context, that means giving everyone a fair and equal opportunity when they apply for a position as well as allowing them to express their opinions openly, even if you disagree with them.

•
That group of graduate students organized a letter of denunciation. It claimed that I threatened the "safety and belonging of all underrepresented groups within the department," and it was presented to my department chair.

•
A strong statement in support of faculty free expression by University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer put an end to that, and that is where things stood until the summer of 2021.

•
... a colleague and I wrote an op-ed in Newsweek in which we argued that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as it currently is implemented on campus "violates the ethical and legal principle of equal treatment" and "treats persons as merely means to an end, giving primacy to a statistic over the individuality of a human being."

•
Shortly thereafter, my detractors developed a new strategy to try to isolate me and intimidate everyone else into silence: They argued on Twitter that I should not be invited to give science seminars at other universities and coordinated replacement speakers.

•
This is an effective and increasingly common way to ratchet up the cost of dissenting because disseminating new work to colleagues is an important part of the scientific endeavor.

•
Sure enough, this strategy was employed when I was chosen to give the Carlson Lecture at MIT — a major honor in my field.

•
On September 30 the department chair at MIT called to tell me that they would be cancelling the Carlson lecture this year in order to avoid controversy.

•
It's worth stating what happened again: a small group of ideologues mounted a Twitter campaign to cancel a distinguished science lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because they disagreed with some of the political positions the speaker had taken. And they were successful within eight days.

•
The fact that such stories have become an everyday feature of American life should do nothing to diminish how shocking they are, and how damaging they are to a free society.

•
The fact that MIT, one of the greatest universities in the world, caved in so quickly will only encourage others to deploy this same tactic.

•
I have consistently maintained that woke ideology is essentially totalitarian in nature: it attempts to corral the entirety of human existence into one narrow ideological viewpoint and to silence anyone who disagrees.

•
I believe that these features ultimately derive from the ideology's abandonment of the principle of the inherent dignity of each human being.

•
It is only possible to instrumentalize the individual in order to engineer group-based outcomes within a philosophical framework that has rejected this principle.

•
Similarly, it is easy to justify silencing a dissenter if your ideology denies her individual dignity.

•
Do we want a culture of fear and repression in which a small number of ideologues exert their power and cultural dominance to silence anyone who disagrees with them?

•
Or do we want our children to enjoy truth-seeking discourse consisting of good-natured exchanges that are ultimately grounded in a spirit of epistemic humility?

•
If you want the latter, it's time to stand up and so say. It's time to say no to the mob, no to the cancellations. And it's time to be forthright about your true opinions.

•
Anyone who is interested in the pursuit of truth and in promoting a healthy and functioning society has a stake in this debate. Speaking out now may seem risky. But the cost of remaining silent is far steeper.

•
Administrators: Never give in to a mob. Rewarding bad behavior encourages more of it. You, more than anyone else, have the power to put an end to cancel culture by simply ignoring demands made by a mob.

•
Faculty: Cancellation tactics work by isolating the target and fostering an atmosphere of fear. You can help by joining together with others committed to academic freedom.

•
Students: Don't participate in social media mobbings or sign letters of denunciation.

•
Parents: Take into consideration a university's commitment to academic freedom when you are helping your child decide which school to attend.

•
Alumni Donors: Tell your alma mater that freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and academic freedom are supremely important to you.

•
Trustees: Hold the administrators you appoint responsible for upholding academic freedom. If they refuse, replace them.

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Lawmakers: Add stipulations to funding for both public and private universities that require that academic freedom and political neutrality be strictly observed.

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Citizens: Make sure your lawmakers know that you want the research you pay for to be untainted by ideology.
Andrew McCarthy: The Biden Justice Department's lawless threat against American parents (10/05/2021)
Jonathan Turley: Supreme Court top cases for new term address abortion, 2nd Amendment, speech on campus (Fox 10/04/2021)
Michael Goodwin: Joe Biden needs a victory but progressives are eating him alive (Fox 10/04/2021)
David Marcus: It's over. Progressives now own the Democratic Party (Fox 10/04/2021)
Abortion, Texas and Roe v. Wade (INN 10/02/2021)
45% Without a Clue (JWR 10/02/2021)
David Bossie: Manchin and Sinema are not moderates (Fox 10/01/2021)
The death, debt and debauched Dems (JWR 09/30/2021)
What Kind of Person Are You, Really? (JWR 09/30/2021)
No, Government Spending Isn't 'Zero Cost' (JWR 09/30/2021)
Orwell and the woke (JWR 09/30/2021)
Brian Brenberg: Biden's $3.5T spending plan is really about the addiction that follows (Fox 09/30/2021)
Hanson warns of 'Cuba or worse' economic collapse if Democrats' $3.5 trillion 'equity' infrastructure passes (Fox 09/30/2021)
We should have remembered the lessons of 9/11 (INN 09/29/2021)
Afghanistan was a fiasco and our woke military, political leaders will never be held accountable (Fox 09/28/2021)
•
The generals insisted they did nothing wrong, they bore no responsibility for what happened. They deflected, bobbed, weaved and tried to spin one of the most significant military disasters into U.S. military history as a great success.

•
Nothing was their fault! It was the incompetent Afghan military! It was the corrupt Afghan president! It was the weather!

•
By the time the generals were finished, they even threw President Joe Biden under the bus.

•
All three military leaders claimed they advised Biden, in person, that a sudden and complete withdrawal would lead to the immediate collapse of the Afghan military and government.

•
Yet President Biden has said that all his generals agreed in his withdrawal plans. He was just carrying out their recommendations.

•
That just doesn't square — either the generals are lying or the president is. But don't hold your breath that anyone will take responsibility or be held to account for one of the most shambolic and shameful events in modern American military history.

•
These three generals, over time and in other positions, trotted up to Capitol Hill year after year telling us that victory in Afghanistan was right around the corner, that all they needed was a few billion dollars more, a few more months, a few thousand more troops.

•
Why did Gen. Milley spend hours with authors like Bob Woodward and various reporters spinning himself as a brilliant strategist and politically correct soldier instead of crafting an Afghanistan withdrawal plan that would save American lives and prevent the rise of a super armed terrorist regime?

•
Contrast their behavior to Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who last month spoke out on behalf of the rank-and-file military and junior officers who want answers from the senior military leaders. Their response? His military bosses relieved him from command.

•
Tuesday, while the generals were busy wrapping themselves in the bloody flag of the men and women who fought, bled and died in Afghanistan, Scheller was hit with a gag order and thrown in jail.

•
Scheller is behind bars for speaking the truth, while America's top three generals spin failure as success and get off scot free.

•
The people responsible for the Afghanistan fiasco – the generals, the politicians, the civilian leaders – will never be held accountable.

•
For decades they pushed a war they knew we couldn't win. They failed to create a stand-alone Afghan military or build a modern society.

•
When it came time to leave, they were practically criminally incompetent. In in the end, they abandoned thousands of Americans behind enemy lines.

•
There is something seriously wrong with the senior leadership of our armed forces. They have taken a sacred, non-partisan, universally respected organization – the American military — and turned it into a woke, politically correct, media-focused, often militarily incompetent institution.

•
Contrast them to Scheller. He risked his life fighting in Afghanistan. Then he threw away his storied career by asking that senior leaders answer questions and be held accountable for a lost war. He's a hero.

•
The three generals? They're not heroes. They're not leaders. They're political hacks in uniforms.
Tucker Carlson: Christianity is dying and being replaced by cult of coronavirus (Fox 09/28/2021)
Voluntary Servitude (JWR 09/27/2021)
•
Can the president compel employers to enforce a federal program at their own expense? In a word: No. The 13th Amendment prohibits involuntary servitude.

•
Compelling persons and entities to work against their will and without just compensation is the definition of involuntary servitude, otherwise known by its more descriptive name — slavery.

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One can see the utter disregard the Biden administration has for constitutional norms. It wants the president, not Congress, to write rules of personal and corporate behavior. It wants the Department of Labor, not the courts, to be judge and jury when those rules are disregarded.

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It wants private persons and entities to work for the federal government against their will and with no compensation, in violation of the 13th Amendment.

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All this can happen only if we let it. But, because the 13th Amendment only prohibits involuntary servitude, the feds can surely enslave us when we are timid enough to consent.
David Marcus: Biden admin doublespeak – your handy guide to White House euphemisms (Fox 09/27/2021)
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Things are getting confusing in the nation's capital these days. Words that we thought we knew the meaning of are regularly twisted by the Biden administration to mean surprising things. ... for those keeping track, here is a brief glossary of terms minted by our dear leader.

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Irregular Migration ... An irregular migrant is what we used to call an illegal alien, or undocumented immigrant.

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Over The Horizon ... It turns out that we have "over the horizon" capabilities. This is kind of like, "somewhere over the rainbow," except it mostly means drone strikes that kill innocent people, including kids.

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Circling Back ... This Biden White House classic is generally employed by Jen Psaki when she has no intention of ever answering a perfectly reasonable question.

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Human Infrastructure ... It seems handing out checks to people for doing nothing requires infrastructure, too. And for a mere $3.5 trillion the great D.C. leviathan will turn us all into essential infrastructure. Why get paid to work when you can get paid not to work? Why take responsibility for your own life when the government can take care of you forever?

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Pandemic of the Unvaccinated ... The great part about this term is that it creates bad guys. ... It makes everything so simple. And after all, that's really what doublespeak is for.

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... maybe lying is too harsh a term. Maybe Biden and his band of bunglers are just telling you the irregular truth.

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Tucker Carlson: Media will never admit there was no insurrection (Fox 09/24/2021)
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In March 1971, a bomb went off in the U.S. Capitol building. There was no mystery about who did it. A Marxist group called the Weather Underground took responsibility for it, even before the explosions.

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The Weathermen weren't ashamed of what they did. They planned to overthrow the U.S. government, and they wanted everyone to know it.

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Yet even at the time, many Americans weren't aware of this. The media immediately began telling a very different story about what happened.

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The Washington Post, for example, explained that the radical left wasn't actually to blame for the Capitol bombings. Instead the culprit was something far more general, something called quote, "the easy contagion of extremism in a time of dark frustrations and deep disillusionment." (Whatever that means. It probably means that there was a Republican president at the time.)...

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The actual bombers remained welcome in polite society. Years later, one of them became a quote, "distinguished professor" at a supposedly prestigious American university.

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Leftists commit violence and the media covers for them? That's something most of us are highly familiar with. It's been happening for a very long time.

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To this day, there are a lot of Americans who think a right-winger killed JFK. Of course, the gunman was a man so committed to communism that he defected to the Soviet Union. But the media told the public it was a conservative, so many believed them.

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Partisans understand that history is a tool they can use to accumulate power. So they lie about something to suit their ends, they keep lying, and before long their lies are recorded as truth.

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We're living through distorted history as we watch the events of January 6 described by everyone. Here's how the media described that day:

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TARA SETMEYER, CNN: That day will be another day that lives in infamy in history, similar to Pearl Harbor and 9/11

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CHUCK SCHUMER: We can now add January 6th, 2021 to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy.

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BIDEN: The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.

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ANDERSON COOPER: 150 days since the worst single act of political violence since the Civil War.

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CHRIS HAYES: The worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War SCHUMER: The greatest attempt at insurrection since the Civil War.

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STEVE SCHMIDT: The 1/6 attacks are likely to kill a lot more Americans than were killed on the 9/11 attacks.

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MATTHEW DOWD: Though there was less loss of life on January 6th, January 6th was worse than 9/11.

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Because we are literal, let's go through the evidence: only one person was killed on Jan. 6, and that person was an unarmed female protestor, shot in the neck without warming by a Capitol Hill police officer who happens to have a documented history of extreme recklessness.

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The protestors, meanwhile, killed no one. Yet they're telling you those protesters were worse than the imperial Japanese army that attacked Pearl Harbor, killed thousands of Americans and led to the Second World War, the biggest war in history. They're also worse than al Qaeda.

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BESCHLOSS: Think of the 6th of January. If those terrorists who committed that attack on our Capitol had been a little bit faster, they could have and probably would have executed the vice president, executed the speaker of the House, executed other members and leaders of Congress.

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You look at that, and say ‘that guy's stupid,' and that's fair, by the way. But then you look at 15 other guys just like him saying exactly the same thing, and you have to ask yourself, why are they all saying the exact same thing, maybe there's a purpose here.

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And that might lead you to ask what actually happened, and how can we find out? How can we make up our minds for ourselves?

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It's clearly a significant day in American history. It's being used to change the country. So maybe we should get to the actual facts of that day, what are they?

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Well, it turns out, the Biden administration didn't want to tell us what they were. They refused to release thousands of hours of surveillance footage from within the Capitol on January 6.

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Why wouldn't they want us to see that? Well, we're not sure. But we know they really didn't want us to see it. In fact, they went to court to keep the footage under seal.

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The point is they can't let you see the video because it's just too dangerous to national security. Keep in mind, the Capitol is a public building, which technically speaking, you own. You've probably been inside, because until the other day, you were allowed to, because it's your country, or was.

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So, the idea that you're not allowed to see the inside of the Capitol is insane. The idea that the public has a clear interest in knowing what happened that day is real.

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Footage we have seen up to this point — shot by journalists and citizens — contradicted the official storyline.

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So if you look at the guy in the Viking horns, the Chewbacca guy, you may reach the obvious conclusion maybe Psilocybin mushrooms aren't good for you. And that's fair.

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But no honest person could look at that video and decide America is under attack from terrorists.

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When you see images from a surveillance camera positioned at the entrance to the Senate wing of the capitol, you don't see people hiding bombs, or using bayonets or firing weapons, trying to take over the country, an insurrection.

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You see people walking around taking pictures. They don't look like terrorists, they look like tourists, and all of them, by the way, are Americans. The rest of the footage, including shots from surveillance cameras outside the crypt at the capitol, is similar.

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You can look up all of this footage online right now. And you should. Because you'll notice that contrary to what the DOJ – we're going to have to start putting air quotes around that - claimed, none of the footage shows a secret route into the capitol.

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You can compare the footage that was released with what Democrats showed us during the impeachment hearings earlier this year.

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Surveillance footage shows a squad of people, dressed in all-black, systematically entering the capitol and kicking open one of the exterior doors on the Senate side.

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They appear to be well-trained and coordinated. They're not high on hallucinogenic mushrooms. The question is, who are they?

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What is clear is that, once again, this footage reveals that the first draft of history was a lie. An intentional distortion. A mirage created to control you. It was the work of a specific political party, it was the work of the Democratic party.

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So it turns out, the vast majority of people inside the Capitol on January 6 were peaceful. They were not insurrectionists. They shouldn't have been there, they weren't trying to overthrow the government, that's a total crock.

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And with that in mind, some of the other lies about January 6 start to make more sense. Remember this?

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ANA CABRERA, CNN: Officer Brian Sicknick died after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher in the hours-long attack.

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NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC: They beat a capitol police officer to death with a fire extinguisher.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: Officer Brian Sicknick died after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher after the fight.

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CRAIG MELVIN, MSNBC: He died at the age of 42 after he was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher.

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When all of them are using exactly the same line, maybe there's a reason for that. Maybe it's coordinated. Maybe they're lying. In this case, they were lying.

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Brian Sicknick was not murdered – there's no evidence of that at all, the medical examiner said he died of a stroke.

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So, the reason they told you that is they wanted to establish a storyline before all the facts were in.

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That's a common theme for virtually everything that happens in the news right now. Something happens, you're not exactly sure what the outline is, you don't know all the facts, nobody does, and all of a sudden, they hang a story on it that helps them politically, and they ram it down your throat day after day.

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Remember the lies you heard again and again about the McCloskeys, who were White supremacists, or the Covington kids, who were also White supremacists.

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Remember how they claimed George Floyd was choked to death, even though an autopsy showed he had a fatal level of fentanyl in his system and zero signs of suffocation.

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And remember what they said about the laptop showing that Hunter Biden was selling access to this father for years, but no it wasn't real:

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FRANK FIGLIUZZI, MSNBC: disinformation that he knows to be fabricated and supplied by a foreign intelligence service and despite the warning, he's still doing it.

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TIFFANY CROSS, MSNBC: You have said this entire thing is so obviously a Russian plot.

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JOHN AVLON, CNN: It's sort of a crazy quilt that has all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation.

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That said it wasn't for lack of trying.

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NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC: Rudy basically functioning as a Russian asset by pushing Russian disinformation.

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BRIAN STELTER, CNN: CNN reported on Friday that U.S. authorities are seeing if those e-mails we just talked about, are connected to an ongoing Russian disinformation effort. Huh.

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These people are so shameless. They know they're being used by liars and the Democratic party and the so-called intel community and they just mouth the words anyway. They say whatever they're told to say.

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And then, of course, the tech community gets involved and shuts down all conversation about it.

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Joe Biden went on stage at a presidential debate and repeated the lie.

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BIDEN: We are in a situation where we have foreign countries trying to interfere in the outcome of our election.

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His own national security adviser told him that what is happening with his buddy, Rudy Giuliani, he's being used as a Russian pawn. He's being fed information that is Russian. Information that is not true.

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They all knew it was true at the time. They knew within hours of the first New York Post story that really was the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop. Everybody knew it. Everybody.

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Especially Joe Biden. His texts and emails were all over the laptop. Of course he knew they were real. He wrote them.

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But, the media lied on his behalf, and Biden got elected because they covered for him. And now that he is President, they can admit it is, in fact, all true. Too late, it's true.

•
Politico finally got around to confirming that every bit of the New York Post's reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop was absolutely accurate. It wasn't Russian disinformation, it was totally real.

•
When are they going to admit there was no insurrection? Never.
Tucker Carlson: This is proof Biden and his lackeys in the media are lying about COVID (Fox 09/24/2021)
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Think about that: blaming regular Americans for a virus that American bureaucrats funded and the Chinese military created.

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If you don't follow his made-up laws, laws with no precedent in all of American history, you're the reason we're all suffering.

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It's your fault middle America. Of course it is. It's always middle America's fault. What a lie.
As America Has Become More Secular, It Has Become Less Free (JWR 09/23/2021)
When Pols Call For 'Fairness,' They're Usually Lying (JWR 09/23/2021)
As Americans, We Have the Right To a Government That Works For Us (JWR 09/23/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Joe Biden revealed why he supports illegal immigration in 2015, he wants to change the country (Fox 09/23/2021)
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You've got to ask yourself, as you watch the historic tragedy that is Joe Biden's immigration policy, what's the point of this? Nothing about it is an accident, obviously. It is intentional. Biden did it on purpose. But why?

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Why would a president do this to his own country? No sane, first-world nation opens its borders to the world. Promising the poorest people on the planet that they can have endless free, taxpayer-funded services if they show up and break your laws isn't just stupid. It's suicidal.

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What Joe Biden is doing now will change this country forever. So, again, why's he doing it?

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There's only one plausible answer. You're not allowed to say it out loud. CNN will attack you if you do. The social media companies will shut you down. The Southern Poverty Law Center will call you dangerous. You could lose your bank account. The left will become completely unhinged and hysterical, and that's how you know it's true.

•
So it would be risky for us to explain what's actually happening here. But for once we don't need to do that. Joe Biden himself has already done it. Biden explained the entire point of mass immigration back in 2015, when he was Vice President:...

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JOE BIDEN: An unrelenting stream of immigration. Nonstop, nonstop. Folks like me who are Caucasian, of European descent, for the first time in 2017 we'll be an absolute minority in the United States of America. Absolute minority. Fewer than 50% of the people in America from then and on will be white European stock. That's not a bad thing. That's a source of our strength.

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... there's a reason Biden said it. In political terms, this policy is sometimes called the great replacement — the replacement of legacy Americans, with more obedient people from faraway countries.

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They brag about it all the time, but if you dare to say this is happening they'll scream at you with maximum hysteria. And yet here you have Joe Biden confirming his motive, on tape, with a smile on his face.

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No one who talks like this should ever be the President of the United States. The president has a moral obligation to represent all Americans equally, not just those of a specific color.

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For four years, remember, they told you Donald Trump was a racist. But has anyone shown that Trump ever in his life said anything half as disgusting as Joe Biden said on that tape? No. No one has.

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Two sitting members of Congress told you it's "racist" to enforce immigration law. ... "It's worse than slavery," enforcing our own laws. That was Maxine Waters.

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Haitians aren't bad people, a lot of them are great people. But we have no obligation to let them into our country. American citizens owe no debt to Haiti. Haiti was never an American colony.

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It's been an independent country for more than 200 years, since 1804. For much of that time, we've sent Haiti a whole lot of aid. So however sad and dysfunctional Haiti might be, it's not our fault. That's for sure.
Grover Norquist: Democrats' $3.5T reconciliation bill's top 10 woke handouts (Fox 09/22/2021)
Residents in AOC's district say how much they think the rich pay in taxes (Fox 09/21/2021)
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"We're paying too much taxes. The lower and middle classes, we're working our butts off and we're paying so much taxes, and then you've got the upper class and they're not paying anything."

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"Its totally unfair. The bottom percentile of individuals are probably paying the bulk of the taxes whereas you have millionaires and billionaires being able to avoid their share."

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The wealthiest people are "definitely paying the bare minimum if any," he continued. "I would assume it's about 5%, if that."

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Most people said they wanted a "fair" solution when ... asked how much the wealthy should pay.

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"They should be paying the same amount of taxes as the middle and lower class are. That way it gives us equal share and no one is feeling singled out."

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"It's not fair to ask them to pay much more than everyone else. I wouldn't ask for something crazy like half of your money ... keep it under 20% and it would be good."

•
According to a Congressional Budget Office report, the top 1% of earners paid an average federal tax rate of 32% in 2017. Tax rates that year declined with income, with the poorest 20% paying an average tax rate of 1%.

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In 2018, the top 1% of income earners — those who earned more than $540,000 — earned 21% of all U.S. income while paying 40% of all federal income taxes, according to a Tax Foundation analysis.

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The group paid more in income taxes, about $615 billion, than the bottom 90% of taxpayers combined, or $440 billion.

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The top 10% earned 48% of the income and paid 71% of federal income taxes, the data showed.

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In 2001 ... the top 1% accounted for 33.2% of the nation's individual income taxes, according to the Tax Foundation.

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From 2001 to 2018, the share paid by the bottom 50% of taxpayers fell to 3% from 4.9%.
Twilight's Last Gleaming (JWR 09/20/2021)
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Government is essentially the negation of liberty. Liberty is the default position because we are born with our rights.

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Some liberty should be negated, like the liberty to harm another's person and property. It should be negated from all — including the government.

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Government is a thief in the night when it takes — rather than protects — liberty or property.

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Does the government work for us, or do we work for the government? Such a question would have been laughable 100 years ago.

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But today, the government treats us as if we work for it because we have permitted it to do so. We supinely let the federal government right any wrong, regulate any behavior, tax any event, start any war, kill any foe, seize any property and crush any liberty as if our rights came from it, and as if the Constitution had no meaning or authority.

•
This is the same government that can't deliver the mail, fill potholes, stop robocalls, spend within its means, abide by the laws that it has written or follow the Constitution — and Biden wants it to force vaccinate us!

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All modern presidents have misunderstood their obligations under the Constitution. From Wilson to Biden, they have argued that their first job is to keep us safe.

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That obligation is self-assumed. Their first job under the Constitution is to keep us free. Even if the government keeps us safe but unfree, we have the duty to alter or abolish it.

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The alternative is the twilight of freedom and the coming age of voluntary servitude.
Tucker Carlson: The Biden administration finally forced to stop lying (Fox 09/18/2021)
•
As American forces were pulling out of Afghanistan this summer, Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced a new and highly innovative intelligence partnership.

•
The Pentagon, Milley said, would begin sharing classified information with the Taliban — the bearded religious extremists in man pajamas that for 20 years we've been told pose a major threat to the United States.

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But no longer, they're our partners now. The Biden administration, Milley explained, was open to coordinating with the Taliban on counterterrorism strikes against our new enemies — a shadowy group that may or may not actually exist, called "ISIS-K.

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Because when you are fighting ISIS-K, no holds are barred. The first of Milley's "coordinated" attacks against "ISIS-K" arrived three weeks ago, on August 29.

•
That was just days after thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a bombing at the Kabul airport, a date you remember well.

•
At the time, even Democrats were pointing out the obvious — Joe Biden is senile and totally incompetent. The administration desperately needed something to prove they are not senile and incompetent, that they are instead decisive and strong.

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What better way to do that than to kill people? So that day, the U.S. military bombed a white Toyota in a residential complex not far from the Kabul airport.

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The White House touted the strike as a demonstration of our "over-the-horizon" military capabilities in Afghanistan — particularly against ISIS-K.

•
Mark Milley, who is pretty young to be senile but often seems like it, strongly agreed this was a good thing.

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... that was a righteous strike. Everyone in Washington agreed. An unnamed U.S. defense official described the attack ... way. Quote: "Multiple suicide bombers inside the vehicle, struck by U.S. drone today in Kabul. Significant explosives in the vehicle led to secondary explosions. Bombers belonged to ISIS-K and were en route to Kabul airport."

•
So it was perfect. All the bad people were dead. All those ISIS-K operatives. Virtually every news organization in the country parroted this account. They were grateful to give poor old Joe Biden credit for something.

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"The military event today is so much more than just a single drone strike. It is a projection of power. It is a message from the united states government that even though we are leaving, we are not done with counterterrorism operations. Even though we're going to have to do this as we say over the horizon from remote locations and it's far more challenging, we can still do it."

•
Keep in mind, every single one of the people you just saw speaking knew nothing, literally nothing about this drone strike other than what they read on Twitter. They were totally ignorant, and that not prevent them as it never does, from trying to sound totally authoritative. That's our news coverage.

•
More than a week ago the New York Times ran a piece revealing, with video evidence, that the Biden administration's drone did not actually kill anyone from ISIS-K, whoever they are assuming they exist.

•
The drone killed a civilian aid worker and a car full of kids. There were no bombs in their Toyota; they had bottles of water which are very different from bombs in that they don't explode, even secondarily.
Mark Milley Exposes the Myth of American 'Democracy' (JWR 09/17/2021)
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This week's deeply unsettling revelation of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley's alleged late Trump administration-era perfidy, bordering on high treason, is but one glaring fusillade in a years-long crusade by America's decrepit ruling class to condemn and ultimately subjugate us "deplorables," "wrong-thinkers" and all others with a conservative or traditionalist worldview.

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It is a shot across the bow in that roiling cold domestic conflict, and a clarion call as to the relevant stakes. It is also a brazen assault on one of the most rudimentary defining features of America's constitutional order — an assault that exposes the lie that the ruling class and its left-wing echo chamber denizens care one whit about the very "democracy" they invariably claim to cherish.

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Specifically, Milley allegedly convened a rogue meeting with senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon's de facto war room, to tell them not to accept military orders from anyone unless he was personally involved.

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In effect, Milley, haunted by hysterical cable news-induced nightmares and caving to delusions of grandeur, took impetuous action to cut out the commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces himself from the formal chain of command.

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He did so, we are made to believe, out of fear the lame-duck president might launch a high-scale attack or nuclear weapon strike, perhaps against China.

•
There could not possibly be a clearer example of how much the American ruling class is drunk on power and of how little it cares for any and all obstacles standing in the way of its accumulation and exercise of that power.

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It also just so happens that, in this instance, those obstacles take the form of the quintessential defining feature of what usually separates a democracy or a republican form of governance from a dictatorship: ultimate civilian control of the military.

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In undermining that ultimate civilian control, Milley and his apologists are playing with fire.

•
How bitterly ironic, too, that the same left-wingers who opposed Trump on ostensibly "fascist" or "authoritarian" grounds while simultaneously preaching about the imperative to save our American "democracy" are now the ones who, seemingly without fail, have taken to defending a Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who has taken a blowtorch to the very definition of "democracy."

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Milley is, of course, the same man who has openly defended the merits of studying critical race theory in the military and, in general, seems far more preoccupied with preening for holier-than-thou wokesters than he does with ensuring the U.S. Armed Forces are adequately prepared to hunt down and kill America's enemies in the most efficient way possible.

•
"To Mark Milley, the General Lee who has been dead for 151 years is a dire threat, but the General Li who commands the world's largest army on behalf of a murderous tyranny is a chum."

•
Milley's direct attack on civilian control of the military is but the latest indication that our wokeist ruling class will take no prisoners in its systemic assault upon the very pillars of the American constitutional order.

•
From Trump-era "deep state" malfeasance to imperious progressive judging to a woke Joint Chiefs chairman feeling justified in removing the duly elected commander in chief from the military chain of command, the ruling class has now thoroughly revealed the depths to which it is willing to sink in order to enact its agenda and force its political opposition to bend the knee.

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Eyes wide open, the onus is now on the deplorables to resist such an anti-constitutional — indeed, anti-American — trampling.
Is Dubya Really an Effin' Moron? (JWR 09/17/2021)
Sorry, AOC, The Rich Already Pay Their Fair Share (JWR 09/17/2021)
The death of science (JWR 09/17/2021)
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From rewarding wokeness in medical school admissions to the peer reviewing of scientific papers, the anti-scientific mania has polluted scientific endeavors.

•
"Critical race theory" would preposterously tell us that we need racism to fight racism.

•
"Critical legal theory" ludicrously claims that laws have no rational basis but simply reflect power inequities.

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"Modern monetary theory" defies millennia of evidence and basic logic in stating that governments can simply print money without worrying about balancing expenditures with revenues or inflating the currency to ruination.

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Corporations are now asked to substitute a new woke agenda theory — "Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG)" — in lieu of market realities, rules of investment and economic data.

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Science is dying; superstition disguised as morality is returning. And we'll all soon become poorer, angrier and more divided.
KT McFarland: Gen. Milley deserves separate probes over China phone calls, Afghanistan (Fox 09/17/2021)
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Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be fired over the Afghanistan debacle.

•
If the allegations in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's book "Peril" are true, General Milley should also face court-martial.

•
At a minimum there needs to be two separate investigations into his conduct:

•
The sensational story of the week is that Milley went rogue earlier this year while President Trump was nearing the end of his term. Here's what is being alleged by Woodward and Costa:

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He conspired with Speaker Pelosi to take away the president's nuclear codes.

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He spoke to China's top general and promised a heads of if President Trump took military action against China.

•
He did all of these on his own, single-handedly, without the knowledge or consent of his bosses at the Pentagon or White House.

•
His alleged rationale was that he worried about Trump's sanity. So Milley went rogue because he thought Trump might go rogue.

•
If the allegations are true, Milley was willing to subvert a fundamental tenet of our Constitution, the crown jewel of the principle of American self-governance, because in his opinion, "Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic and screaming at officials...."

•
Gen. Milley will finally be forced to answer for his actions when he appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify under oath later this month.

•
Senators from both parties should grill him on his actions at the end of the Trump administration and his role in the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal. Both will have repercussions on American domestic and foreign policy for years.

•
Is it now OK for an unelected senior official, a military officer, on his own recognizance, to decide whether or not the president is up to the job, and then take preemptive action, again on his own recognizance, to thwart him?

•
If true, that is getting dangerously close to a military coup.

•
The Afghanistan fiasco has forced our allies to doubt us and offered our enemies an opportunity to exploit us. As a result, President Biden and his team will now face a series of challenges to American power.

•
The Great Reckoning has already begun. North Korea is firing missiles again. China is sending warships across the Pacific and right up to the territorial waters of Hawaii.

•
China has warned the Pacific nations that America is not an ally to be trusted, and it has underscored the point with military exercises demonstrating their ability to invade Taiwan.

•
Perhaps Gen. Milley is the villain in both these cases. Perhaps he's merely a pawn.

•
Either way the American people need answers. Pronto.
Tucker Carlson: Open borders means the death of young Americans, but Biden doesn't care (Fox 09/17/2021)
•
Close to 100,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses in the last year. ... These are kids on your street, young people in the prime of life, our country's future, the next generation. And they are dead now, mostly because of fentanyl that came up through Mexico.

•
So open borders means much more of this poison in your neighborhood, killing our children. Statistics released this week show that as of the end of July, fentanyl seizures at the southern border are more than double what they were for all of last year.

•
Joe Biden never even mentions it. He doesn't care. And drugs are hardly the only disastrous effect of open borders, the median price of a new home in this country is now almost six times higher than the median American household income. Think about that. That's a record. It's never happened.

•
Thanks to the lunatics now in charge, this unsustainable growth is accelerating in ways it never has before, ever. Under Joe Biden, hundreds of thousands of immigrants are coming into the United States every single month.

•
So where are they going to live? Where are they going to send their children to school? What about the health care they've been promised for free? Have you been to a hospital emergency room recently? You should go. Check it out.

•
Once you see it, you'll understand the future of the Democratic Party is planning for you: squalid, overcrowded, chaotic, loud.

•
Of course, having created this human disaster, Democrats now claim they have a solution to it, of course, that's why they created it in the first place so they could fix it.

•
The Biden administration's plan will ultimately entitle illegal immigrants to the full benefits of citizenship. That's the whole point. That would include Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, etc., etc., etc. Even as the welfare state expands, the number of people drawing from it expands as well.

•
How's that going to end? The cost of all of this, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars in the next few years alone. What about the long term? Some estimates put the cost at well over a trillion dollars or more.

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They don't care about individuals. Individuals are expendable. That's the mindset of every revolutionary through history. People are a means to power.

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So to our leaders, illegal immigrants have a very specific functional purpose, they are a tool to change the country forever and ensure permanent democratic control over our government. They look at the numbers.

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If you were born in this country and you don't have a high school degree, you're not voting for them. You don't like what they're doing. They don't want to change your mind. They can't be bothered. So they're going to bring in new people without high school degrees. Got it? It's changing the country in order to win elections.
Tucker Carlson: Mark Milley is a danger to the country, and Congress doesn't seem to care (Fox 09/16/2021)
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Yesterday we learned that Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a danger to the country. That was not totally surprising. We already knew he was a reckless nutcase.

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In June, in the middle of a televised congressional hearing, Milley leveled a racial attack against more than half of this country. Milley told Congress that something called White rage was a national crisis.

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He never proved it or even defined the term and yet still he kept his job, which says as much about Congress as it does about him.

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Then in July, we learned that Milley had suggested the U.S. military was willing to use violence against Donald Trump, who was then the sitting president. "We're the guys with guns," he told fellow officers. Still, Congress did nothing.

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Now ... we've learned that Milley secretly collaborated with our greatest military rival, the government of China.

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On October 30th last year, according to the book, Milley called his counterpart in China - a Chinese general. He did not tell his boss about the call either before he made it or after.

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Here was Milley's message for the Chinese military: "We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. General Li, you and I have known each other for five years. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise."

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It's hard to believe that conversation actually took place, but apparently, it did. More than 24 hours after it was reported, Mark Milley has not denied it.

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Instead, his spokesman released a statement today confirming that Milley does regularly speak to Chinese military officials, but claiming that those calls are authorized by civilian leaders at the Pentagon.

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But that turns out to be a lie. Just hours ago, the former secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, told ... he has no idea what Mark Milley is talking about.

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"As secretary of defense, I did not and would not ever authorize such conduct." As Miller put it, "A lesser ranking officer accused of such behavior would immediately be relieved of duty."

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But Mark Milley has not been relieved of duty and apparently he won't be. Today, Joe Biden endorsed him and the job he's doing.

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So for secretly revealing American military strategy to the Chinese government for threatening violence against a sitting American president, Mark Milley is not going to be punished. Are you surprised by this? Maybe you shouldn't be.

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... Milley thinks China is winning, and so he's sucking up to his new masters, so he tells us, "Russia's the only country on Earth that has the capacity to destroy the United States."

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That's absurd. Nobody believes that. The Chinese military is far, far more powerful than anything Vladimir Putin controls. It's not even close. Milley knows that, he's lying about it.

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See related Woke General Milley (Dick Wright, 06/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Our Elective Monarchy (JWR 09/15/2021)
Hey, ADL: The real lesson of 9/11 isn't a story about 'Islamophobia' (JWR 09/15/2021)
Gregg Jarrett: Gen. Milley's alleged treachery and betrayal merit a court-martial (Fox 09/15/2021)
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According to the book, Milley usurped the authority of the president as the elected civilian leader of the United States, sought to defy any order with which he disagreed, and inserted himself into a chain of command where he did not belong in order to arrogate power over the nation's military operations and nuclear codes.

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The authors contend that Milley secretly informed China that he would warn them in advance of any attack by U.S. military forces.

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Given the gravity of these accusations and the corresponding national security threat they posed, Milley should be immediately suspended from all military duty — including his position as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — pending a thorough investigation.

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If there exists credible evidence to support the claims against him, he must face a court-martial by military tribunal to answer for his perfidy.

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Two days after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Milley spoke by telephone with House Speaker Pelosi.

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In a transcript of the call obtained by the authors, Pelosi demanded that the general wrest control of the nuclear codes from Trump by instituting precautions and otherwise prevent him from taking any adverse military action. Milley offered his resolute assurances to the speaker.

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Shortly thereafter, Milley convened a covert meeting with senior Pentagon officials, including the chain of command for the nation's nuclear arsenal.

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Asserting unfettered power that he did not have, the general instructed them that no one was to act on any orders for military strikes — even from President Trump — unless he, Milley, was personally involved and approved. He insisted that everyone in the room verbally commit to effectively place him in charge.

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As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Milley serves only as an adviser to the president. That is all. His position is not within the chain of command overseeing the codes that control U.S. nuclear weapons.

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Indeed, by law he is prohibited by from having any operational command authority over America's armed forces. As such, his actions as described in the book were both treacherous and lawless.

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Under Article 94 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), a person is guilty of sedition if he acts "with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority."

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Usurping the power of the president as commander-in-chief and undermining his constitutional authority are grounds for a court-martial.

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Actively subverting or defying the elected, civilian control of the military is nothing more than a hijacking of our government by an advisor who thinks he can do so because he happens to have four stars resting on his shoulders.

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After ordering Pentagon officials to bypass President Trump and undertake no military incursions without first seeking his assent, Milley telephoned his counterpart in China.

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... he reassured Gen Li Zuocheng that the U.S. would not initiate any type of attack amid American military exercises in the South China Sea.

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... allege that Milley promised he would warn the Chinese Communist Party in advance if the president were to launch an attack against the country.

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"We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. General Li, you and I have known each other for five years. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise."

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Bear in mind that there is no evidence that Trump ever contemplated such an attack, and he has said as much.

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Regardless, tipping off an enemy about a planned strike would not only allow opposing forces to prepare a potent defense but it would also enable them to mount a devastating preemptive attack against the U.S.

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Under Article 103b of the UCMJ, a person is guilty of aiding the enemy by providing intelligence or military information to the enemy without authority.

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Milley's communications with Li were allegedly made in secret and without President Trump's knowledge or consent.

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Conveying highly privileged military information, vital intelligence, or war plans to a foreign adversary might also constitute the crime of espionage under Article 103a of the UCMJ.

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No amount of rationalization can possibly justify an advisory general's seizure of the reins of power from an elected president so that he could wield it himself as he saw fit.

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It doesn't matter whether he had convinced himself that he was acting in the best interest of the American people. It was not his judgment to make. In a word, it's irrelevant.

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Under our system of military justice, Milley must be held accountable. If the evidence merits a court-martial, he should be tried. If crimes were committed, he will be convicted and sentenced.

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These are the inexorable consequences when men entrusted with power betray that sacred trust.
Tucker Carlson: Mark Milley committed treason, and others were implicated (Fox 09/15/2021)
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There's something about the term "deep state" that sounds paranoid, even nutty. ... The term ... suggests that our democracy is fake. Elections and domestic politics are a sideshow. No matter who you vote for, in the end, the same people still run everything. That's a pretty dark understanding of the American system.

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If you're a normal person who grew up here, it's the last thing you want to believe about your country. It seems crazy. And then you read stories like this one:...

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According to reporting this summer, in the days after last November's election, Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a meeting with senior military officials at the Pentagon.

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Milley wanted to inform them of what he described as a serious threat to national security — a threat so grave it imperiled "the stability of the Republic."

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That threat, Milley said, was the sitting president of the United States. Donald Trump had dared to question the election results.

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For this, Milley explained, the United States military might be required to use physical force against the president.

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"We're the guys with guns," Milley said. He'd apparently been preparing for this moment. Milley had similar conversations with the director of the CIA, Gina Haspel, as well as with the head of the NSA, Paul Nakasone. He'd also spoken directly to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, Trump's chief political rivals.

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... Milley went even further than that. ... called his counterpart in China, a general called Li Zuocheng. Milley did not tell his boss, the president, about the call, either before he made it or afterward.

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Here was Milley's message for the communist Chinese military. "Gen. Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be OK. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you."

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"Gen. Li, you and I have known each other for five years. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise."

•
Let that sink in. "If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise." According to this account, our country's top defense official secretly colluded with our chief military rival to undercut the elected president of the United States.

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How do you describe this? "Deep state" isn't strong enough. It's treason. It's a crime.

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And apparently, Mark Milley isn't the only person implicated in it. Others knew it was happening. Our intelligence agencies almost certainly heard Mark Milley's call.

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Yet the NSA did nothing. The CIA was clearly fully on board. "We are on the way to a right-wing coup," Gina Haspel told Milley.

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In fact, there was a "coup" in progress, but it didn't come from the right. It wasn't brewing in Alabama.

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Instead, a constellation of unelected government employees, loyal above all to the Democratic party and the permanent class in Washington, ignored the United States Constitution and invalidated the votes of tens of millions of American citizens.

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How'd they do that? They invalidated democracy. Democracy doesn't mean anything if the people you elect have no power.

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In early January ... Milley called another meeting of senior officials at the National Military Command Center.

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He informed the group that they reported to him, not to the elected president of the United States. It was not a small claim.

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The National Military Command Center controls, among other things, the nuclear weapons inside the country's missile silos and onboard its nuclear submarines. Mark Milley was seizing personal control of America's nuclear arsenal.

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He went around the room and demanded his officers submit to his authority, not the president. Milley told them to follow no order without consulting him first. Civilian control of the military was over. Mark Milley was in charge.

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If this is true, this is one of the scariest things that has happened in this country. To those who say they're worried about authoritarianism coming in America, well, it's here.

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That's what this is. Authoritarian government. Government by unelected, unaccountable leaders willing to use violence to preserve their rule.

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It's shocking. Not surprisingly, our news media have spent the day celebrating it. It turns out the self-described defenders of democracy don't really believe in the system they claim to revere.

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The idea of giving voters power over the government repulses them. They're relieved to discover that, in fact, our democracy is fake.

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They're happy to see Mark Milley secretly conspiring with the Chinese military to end civilian control of our Pentagon. This is the government they want. You should not forget that.
Why Freedom Is in Serious Jeopardy (JWR 09/14/2021)
Tucker Carlson: The degradation of our people is the real American crisis (Fox 09/14/2021)
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Joe Biden, Sept. 9: "I'm announcing that the Department of Labor is developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees that together employ over 80 million workers to ensure their workforces are Fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week. // We're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers. // We've been patient, but our patience is wearing thin and the refusal has cost all of us."

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Virtually every sentence of the speech reinforced a single point again and again. And it was this: Your fellow Americans are dangerous to you. They could kill you. And that includes your family, it includes your friends, it includes the people you sit next to at work. All of these people are threats to you and only the Biden administration can save you. "We're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers."

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Think about that for a moment. Does it make sense? If the vaccine works — and they assure us adamantly that it does work and they punish us if we question how well it works — then how can the unvaccinated possibly pose a threat to the vaccinated? How? What exactly is the risk exactly to the vaccinated from the unvaccinated?

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Joe Biden didn't tell us the answer. He didn't tell us because he doesn't know. No one knows. There is no answer. The entire argument is transparently absurd. And once you realize that, you realize that none of this endless talking about public health, at this point, is really about public health.

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If it was about public health, the authorities would simply make vaccines available to anyone who wanted the vaccine, call it a victory, which it would be, and leave it there.

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But that's not what it's about. It's about power. These demands are so obviously irrational, that forcing you to accept them without complaint is the whole point of the exercise.

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It is a form of sadomasochism, it is dominance and submission. It's about power. If they can make you take medicine you don't want or need, they've won. You are theirs. You belong to them. They want this.

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... the very moment Joe Biden accused the unvaccinated of wrecking our hospital system, they're going to flood the system – at that moment, actual hospitals around the country were beginning to deny critical services to patients because too many nurses had quit. Why did the nurses quit? Because of the vaccine mandates. They left their jobs rather than get the COVID vaccine.

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... health care executive told ... that only about half of his front-line nurses who treat COVID every day have received the COVID vaccination. The rest of those nurses have refused. Half!

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Again, these are people who treat COVID for a living. You can't dismiss them as uninformed. They know virtually more than anyone in the world about this subject. But they've refused the vaccine. Why?

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No one's answered that question and until recently, no one thought we'd have to answer that question. Because until recently, mandatory vaccines were unthinkable, even among Democrats.

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For a quick recap, a year ago they were telling you maybe you shouldn't take the vaccine because Trump created it. A few months ago they were assuring you – Nancy Pelosi in April assured you – we're never going to require vaccines because we can't do that. We don't have the power. Your medical status is a matter, a sacred matter, of privacy.

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Leana Wen (CNN): "There are privileges associated with being an American. That if you wish to have these privileges, you need to get vaccinated. Travel, and having the right to travel in our state, it's not a constitutional right as far as I know to board a plane."

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"If you wish to have these privileges, you need to get vaccinated." The person who said that ... is the former head of Planned Parenthood.

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Her name is Leana Wen. That's quite a statement to make. So here you have a woman who moved to this country from China sitting authoritatively in a box on CNN, lecturing Americans that their most basic birthright — the right to travel within their own country, the country they were born in — is now, in fact, a privilege that the Democratic Party may decide to grant you if follow its demands.

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How dare somebody say something like that out loud on television? What country is this? But more to the point, why doesn't anyone in authority seem outraged by it? Possibly because a lot of them hope that's our future.

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If that sounds like a fever dream or paranoia, rest assured it's not. Without mass resistance, that's exactly what's coming, and it's coming soon.

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And once it does come, the question is where does it go from there? In a moment of centralized tech surveillance, combined with mass social conformity, and that's exactly the country we're living in right now, there aren't many limits to where it could go. 9/14/21

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If they can force you to take a vaccine that you don't need, what can't they do? Why don't they, I don't know, make you take psychiatric drugs if you're persistently disobedient? Express the wrong view, get a Thorazine shot. Why couldn't they do that? What's the limiting principle on them?

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In fact, you can imagine a panel of CNN doctors explaining that we'd all be a lot safer if the mentally ill propagandists on the radical right got the treatment they need, and stopped spreading their dangerous conspiracy theories. So giving them psychotropic meds is an urgent matter of public health. Does that sound far-fetched?

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Suddenly things are moving very fast, and they're all moving in a very specific direction. Just the other day, one of the most prominent members of the United States Senate — the former Harvard Law professor called Elizabeth Warren — wrote a public letter to Amazon demanding the site ban books she disagrees with...

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So here you have a self-described liberal, who was a law professor at a premier law school, calling for book burning. Did you think you'd live to see that? The most amazing thing is that no one seemed to notice.

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Most people understand it's all crap. And they know it's crap because they live here. And they know the greatest crisis that America actually faces is the disintegration of America itself — and not just of the social fabric — what do we have in common again? — more than that.

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The physical reality of the country is disintegrating: the buildings, the natural landscape, and above all, the people. A lot of them are falling apart.

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Look around. Yes, Americans are dying in large numbers, but it's not from a Chinese flu virus. The real dangers to the population are much more obvious than that and they're omnipresent.

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It's loneliness, it's suicide, it's fast food, it's broken relationships, it's Xanax and fentanyl, and cheap beer. Americans are dying in large numbers of self-inflicted deaths, caused by sadness and neglect. That is true.

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New video was shot in downtown Philadelphia not along ago... That's the real crisis that we face. It's right in front of us. The walking dead, haunting our cities and forgotten rural towns. How did they get there? There are hundreds and hundreds of them just in Philadelphia — shuffling, moaning, shooting up, dying — all under daylight in a major American city. And by the way, right down the street from where our founding documents were written.

•
Imagine the selfless geniuses who framed our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, returning 250 years later to see what their country has become.

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So that is the actual crisis that we face; it's the degradation of our people. But rather than fix it or care about it, which is the first step toward fixing it, they increase the degradation.

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Bow to our will or we'll punish you. Violate your own beliefs. Give us your dignity. And the very moment when the American population desperately needs to be loved, helped, understood, uplifted, they are being degraded and punished by their leaders. How is that going to end?
Ingraham: America 'won't be fooled again' as Bush 'speaks for Biden' in political remarks (Fox 09/14/2021)
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"We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can do not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within. There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But there is disdainful pluralism in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols. They are children of the same foul spirit and it is our continuing duty to confront them," Bush said Saturday.

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... the 43rd president wasn't speaking about actual extremists like Antifa or Black Lives Matter, "whose rampages and riots caused death and destruction coast to coast."

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... Bush never once spoke out during the mass violence and rank criminal activity in places like Portland, Philadelphia, Washington and New York last year.

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"Do you remember seeing him speak out about any of that? When they screamed that America is "inherently racist" did he raise an objection? When they tried to burn down Saint John's Church across from the White House did President Bush decry the defiling of "national symbols"? No and No."

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"Bush and Obama have coordinated before in hitting Trump. One day in October 2017, both men in separate speeches hit Trump without mentioning him by name of course."

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"When Benghazi went down and four Americans died, Bush didn't speak out. When Obamacare was rammed through without a single Republican vote, Bush didn't speak out. When Biden created a humanitarian, national security, and economic nightmare at the border, Bush didn't speak out."

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"But when Donald Trump began to slowly but surely call out and dismantle Bush's globalist legacy, he couldn't stop himself. It was personal."

•
"Let's not kid ourselves, the Bushes helped raise 150 million dollars for Jeb's 2016 run, and in the end, Jeb dropped out before getting to his own home state primary. And they still don't get it. They're not mad at the people who called him a war criminal or Hitler or who ridiculed him every week on Saturday Night Live. They're mad at the Republicans who rejected their policies."

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"They all claimed that Trump was the devil incarnate for demanding loyalty of the people who worked for him, but the truth is, the Bushes were the ones who demanded personal loyalty regardless of how their policies affected the country."

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"So the Old Bush Guard has declared an unwinnable war again, and this time it's against the 74-million-plus Republicans who voted for Trump in 2020, and who didn't vote for Jeb in 2016."

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"The fact is, most conservatives long ago shook off the allure of the Bushes. We found new leaders – including exciting young governors — who will fight for us instead of against us, and we won't be fooled again."
Newt Gingrich: Angry Biden blames Americans for his failures (Fox 09/13/2021)
Victor Davis Hanson: Recall could save California – here's how Newsom, elites destroying once-thriving state (Fox 09/13/2021)
Newt Gingrich: Biden's Afghanistan surrender – who will be held accountable for this national disgrace? (Fox 09/12/2021)
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We surrendered the country that we'd been defending to a seventh-century tribe, which had endured immense casualties and was unable to defeat the U.S. on the battlefield.

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But the Taliban was able to defeat America politically and psychologically.

•
How can we have spent 20 years, thousands of lives, and trillions of dollars and then lose to a band of medieval thugs with no air force?

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This is the kind of question the generals, diplomats and analysts should be asking in the halls of government.

•
It's troubling how unfazed many of our leaders appear to be, especially the principals of the Biden administration.

•
What they don't seem to understand – or perhaps worse, don't recognize the importance of – is that what happened in Afghanistan isn't just about Afghanistan.

•
China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, other jihadists – they're all taking note of what's transpired over the past several weeks. The world now sees America as completely unreliable.

•
Accountability is absolutely crucial to come to grips with how big a problem this is and to reestablish respect among allies and enemies.

•
The leaders who, through their shameless incompetence, threw away two decades of sacrifice in a matter of days, left Americans behind enemy lines, betrayed our Afghan allies, and left Afghanistan to reemerge as a terrorist haven must be held responsible.

•
When Biden decided to push ahead with his plan ... Austin and Milley had two choices: resign in protest or follow the order and take responsibility for the outcome.

•
Unfortunately, no one is taking responsibility – not Biden, not Austin, not Milley. And the nation will suffer as a result, with its leaders refusing to learn lessons from their failures.
Rebekah Koffler: Socialism in America – a warning to my adopted homeland about the evils of this system (Fox 09/12/2021)
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As Afghanistan is burning – with American citizens left behind the enemy lines by Joe Biden, at the mercy of the murderous Taliban – Washington's socialists don't sleep.

•
Having sunk $2.2 trillion of your money into yet another failed nation-building project, the leftists, headed up by Confiscator in Chief Bernie Sanders, are conjuring up additional schemes of how to leech another $3.5 trillion from hard-working Americans.

•
Sanders is dead set on delivering on his goal stated in August 2020, "We must first elect Biden, then keep pushing country further left."

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As an immigrant to America from a socialist country, I am distressed about the monumental shift of my adopted homeland toward socialism. I am compelled to warn my fellow Americans what socialism is really about.

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Let me put in context what the promises of free stuff and equality for all, by elitists like Sanders, really mean.

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Socialism is an evil system, incompatible with freedom and democracy. It doesn't work because it is based on unrealistic theories that ignore human nature. It has failed everywhere. And it could also destroy America.

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Socialism idealistically looks for government to create complete equality in society and to end suffering — a noble-sounding idea.

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To achieve this goal, the government promises to give everyone life's necessities, regardless of people's merit for pay or desire to work.

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However, it must find the money for all these necessities. Historically, socialist governments have confiscated wealth and income to pay for them. Ultimately, the government runs everything.

•
The first problem with socialism is not only that socialists eventually run out of other people's money, as Margaret Thatcher once famously said, it is also that socialist societies stop producing wealth altogether.

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If individuals cannot keep the wealth they create, they stop creating it. Most people make the rational decision: do mediocre work, because the same amount is paid regardless how hard they work.

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Once the state kills entrepreneurship, the society will stop innovating. Do you know why Americans have a potato peeler, garlic crusher and apple cutter in their kitchens, for example, while Russians use a knife for everything?

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Because there was no financial incentive for Soviet citizens to create them. The same logic, tragically, applies to creating blood pressure medicine and cures for cancer.

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The second problem with socialism is that, as scarcity of goods grows, those in charge of wealth redistribution start taking care of their needs first, rationing goods and services for everyone except themselves.

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There comes a point when the society simply doesn't produce enough necessities, forcing ordinary people not part of the state apparatus to cheat and steal to survive.

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In the Soviet Union, the Communist Party elites (we called them apparatchiki, because they were part of the state apparatus) had everything, and everyone else struggled.

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A third problem with socialism is the state's complete control over individuals. In fact, being called an "individualist" has a derogatory connotation in Russian. Under socialism, since the state "takes care" of its people by providing everything "for free," it plays the dominant role in all spheres of life.

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Socialism creates a society of "one-percenters" and "ninety-nine-percenters," except the one-percenters are the ones who redistribute wealth, not the ones who create it.

•
Having lived in a country where everything was "free" but nothing was available, I am terrified when I hear proposals for a single-payer medical system, "Medicare-for-all," or "free college for all."

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During the past few years, I have increasingly felt like socialism is resurfacing in America. The rise of pervasive political correctness, growing intolerance toward religious people, and alienation of and even attacks on people whose views don't conform to the mainstream orthodoxy remind me of my youth in the USSR.

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I find myself repeating the same admonitions to my children that my mother frequently gave my sister and me: "Don't believe everything you hear on TV, think for yourself, and keep your and your family's views private."

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Ironically, just like my parents tried to shield me from untruths and brainwashing by Soviet schools by explaining at our dinner table the truth behind Soviet indoctrination, I've found myself pulling my children from public schools and placing them into religious schools in order to avoid heavy and biased government-sponsored indoctrination.

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It was painful for me to watch my little ones coming home and spouting how oppressive America is when I know firsthand what oppression really means.

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I also could not bear watching my kids coming home sad and confused because they were simply not old enough to be bombarded with all the sex-related garbage that the school pushed on them under the rubric of "family education." Family education, in my view, truly belongs within the family.

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Big Tech and the mainstream media's taking on the roles of the government's mouthpieces and agents of influence is frightening. Silencing those who express "incorrect" opinions by de-platforming them on social media, banning their books, and blacklisting them to ensure they cannot make a living — simply because they have strayed from the "party line" — is the method of totalitarian states to suppress dissent and ensure total control.

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I sincerely hope more and more of our citizens wake up and recognize these markers of a Sovietization of America so that we can regain the freedom of the America that my mother sent me to at a young age.

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I hope Americans keep the right to express unpopular views without fear of being ostracized by fellow citizens or losing their jobs, continue to enjoy presumption of innocence and due process, and be free from unlawful government surveillance for having "incorrect" politics.

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Socialism inevitably results in stagnation and tyranny. If we don't want our nation to join the ranks of failed and oppressive socialist countries, we must fight socialism in America with all we've got.

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See related What Did They Teach You in School Today? (Sean Delonas, 09/30/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related USA (Gary Varvel, 01/04/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
KT McFarland: 20 years after 9/11 it's like we've been gut-punched again. Still, don't count Americans out (Fox 09/11/2021)
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After 20 years of war to help Afghans fight off the Taliban; after hundreds of billions spent to build schools, hospitals, roads for the Afghan people; after a generation of effort, our military and political leaders quit the country in an unimaginably chaotic and incompetent fashion.

•
They knowingly left Americans behind, and abandoned tens of thousands of Afghans who stood loyally with us for decades. Terrorists have the upper hand and the Taliban now have our military equipment and bases.

•
Once again, we are left wondering about our future, our place in the world, our national purpose. While history doesn't repeat itself, it does rhyme.

•
Although we were united after September 11th, today we seem hopelessly divided. Our leaders would rather score points against their political opponents than find a way to work together for the common good.

•
Our president is busy blaming everyone but himself for what is so obviously a political, military, and humanitarian fiasco.

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Yet the strength and beauty of our democracy is that we can replace our officials come the next election, and I suspect the American people are in the mood for a major, historic change come 2022 and 2024.

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Feckless incompetent leaders parading as patriots are rarely reelected. We may make mistakes in whom we elect, but we have the means to correct those mistakes the next time around.

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In the meantime, it is worth remembering what we have also witnessed in these last few weeks as we quit Afghanistan. Once again it is common Americans doing uncommonly brave and noble things.

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That is the fundamental truth of our founding fathers understood, that often gets lost in the minutiae of politics of the moment.

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They understood the nature of Americans. We are so busy building our own lives that we tend to leave the governing to our elected officials.

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People around the world often confuse that with the idea that Americans are soft, lazy and spoiled.

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But underneath that layer of seeming unconcern is a backbone of steel. We are often slow to act, oftentimes we only act when forced to.

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But when that happens, we prove our mettle. The can-do spirit, the self-reliance built into our national DNA, our resiliency. We improvise, we innovate, we may break a few rules, but we do not accept defeat.

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Our adversaries should take note – America has been gut-punched in the past... Pearl Harbor... Sputnik... the Berlin Airlift... Saigon... Sept. 11th... and now Kabul.

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Every time our enemies danced with glee, predicting with great confidence our inevitable decline. They were wrong every single time.

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Rather than accept defeat, we got up off our knees, dusted ourselves off and climbed our way out of the tragedy... to greater achievement, prosperity and purpose.

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That's what our adversaries never understand about us. Defeat doesn't doom the American spirit, it reinvigorates it.

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I am reminded of what Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said to his colleagues after as they celebrated their utter destruction of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. He said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

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Our adversaries shouldn't count us out this time. And neither should we.
Ingraham: Biden administration can't govern a nation they hate, they can only occupy it (Fox 09/11/2021)
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"You can't govern a country you essentially hate. You can only occupy it, rule over it."

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"When Biden announced a federal vaccine mandate yesterday, his intention was not to promote more trust or to appeal to our patriotic spirit. This wasn't about COVID, following the science, or implementing sound policy."

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"The White House fight is not against COVID, but against the inevitable collapse of Biden's presidency."

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"He's drowning in bad poll numbers and Democrats are bracing for a bloodbath in the mid-terms. Biden's angry, creepy speech was designed to do one thing — pick a fight with Republican governors in a lame attempt to turn his presidency around and change the topic from weeks of humiliation in Afghanistan.

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... called Biden's media cheerleaders "sick" but "gleeful because Biden is about to make life miserable for millions of Americans."

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"They hate you, they hate what you stand for and they really hate the fact you won't just shut up and obey."

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"They want to strip you of your independence so that you can be dependent on the government."
Dismal Sequels: Twenty years after 9/11, Afghanistan has reverted to the Taliban and America has disappeared down a rabbit hole (JWR 09/10/2021)
Ever wondered what the world would be like without America? (INN 09/09/2021)
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Europe is weak and ineffectual filled with self-righteous socialism. Britain is no longer the great power it once was. It took the wrong path immediately after WWII voting in a socialist Labour Party which proceeded to nationalise and destroy much in Britain exactly when it needed to recover economically from the war.

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Without America it is to see no bulwark against China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Islamic terrorism and other dangerous countries in South America and around the world. Only America stands against all this, slightly assisted by Britain, Germany and her NATO allies.

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But America is being attacked not only from the outside, but from within.

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... "the Democratic Party is currently a fifth column in the defence of America and the west against these enemies. The point of calling this out is to warn about the supreme danger of ever putting the left into power."

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"The Democrats have shown themselves to be institutionally unsuitable for high office. They currently constitute a menace to the cultural integrity and continued strength of the United States, are placing individual American lives at terrible risk and are presenting a mortal threat to the security of the free world. And if Biden were to be removed, he would merely be replaced by the Vice-President, Kamala Harris, who is an even worse proposition; and after her in the constitutional pecking order comes the ineffable Nancy Pelosi. Say no more."

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Russia's Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev once said, "We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within...."

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I never thought that possible even eight months ago, although the American academe has been infiltrated by the left for decades and should be systematically cleaned up. The universities generally produce ignorant, spoiled, viciously indoctrinated young people who are the future of the Democratic Party and a danger to American values and society.

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The four years of Donald Trump's Presidency showed the Democrats to be hateful, ruthless and vengeful aided and abetted by their unwise media wing.

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It is clear that the Democrats are determined and brutal in attaining power and trying to hang onto it by whatever means.

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The American electorate must remove the Democrats from power and unless there is a major change in that party, keep them from being elected again.

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The Democrats have shown what they are and should be kept as far away from power as possible.

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It is clear that Biden and his administration, essentially Obama III, are a monumental disaster. It is frightening to see America after eight months of Biden's control. What will America and the world look like in six months' time, a year and at the end of this administration in 2024 given its gross incompetence and lack of direction?

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In addition, the leadership of the Democrats is getting old and the Squad of agendised inexperienced ignoramuses is holding sway with absolutely no control exercised over them by their party elders and more experienced politicians.

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Whilst Biden is an acknowledged failure and the Democrats are responsible for choosing him and Harris as their recent Presidential candidates, the real fault for their election lies with the Americans who voted for them and the Democrats.

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America is a house divided and unless this is severely changed, America has doom hanging over its head.

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To the sane, logical and wise, America needs a Donald Trump back in the White House urgently. It is irrelevant whether a person likes him, his manner of speaking, his hairstyle, whatever.

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What matters is, did he do the job? The resounding answer without hesitation is yes. Trump was intelligent and strong, which is exactly what America and the world need now more than ever.

•
... the Democrats need to pay for foisting Biden and Kamala Harris on the US and the world. The Democrat media needs equally to pay for their immoral and irresponsible role in getting Biden elected and the Democrats current dominance in Congress.

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Hopefully, in the Midterms in 2022, the Democrats will be defanged and Pelosi and Schumer, plus the irresponsible virtue incarnate "Squad," confined to the dustbin of history. For good measure, let us include that dangerous, but useless old communist, Bernie Sanders.

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The fall of the Soviet Union during Reagan's Presidency was a wonderful development, but unfortunately didn't last. In spite of much economic aid from the West given to Russia, under Putin it soon returned to its old ways.

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The Russian bear may not be as powerful as it was and is economically challenged, but it is no weakling and is still dangerous.

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China looms and is showing aggression that is fast developing. Iran is currently uncontrollable and never will be unless defeated. Islamic terrorism has just got a major boost thanks to Biden.

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America should have kept a small force and base in Afghanistan because of its strategic position with regard to Iran and China.

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The obvious role of an army is protection and winning wars and it should always be in an acute state of readiness to be called on at any time. Nothing wrong with America's military, just the current leadership.

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America is not a Mickey Mouse state. It has much that is going for it. How will it survive this calamity forced upon it by the last person who should do so?

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It really has a major dilemma. The dilemma is for all of us in the western world.

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I don't want to see America fade. It is an exceptional country and the world owes it much in gratitude for saving it many times, its generosity and its protection.

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I want to see it truly return to greatness and full strength with sound and sane leadership. I really don't like the prospects for the next three years.

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Perhaps, in a strange way, what the Democrats have done, their foisting two of the most inappropriate individuals on their country, their desperate lust for power and control, has been a deep shock and wake-up call for Americans, who will react to what Biden and the Democrats have done to their country and its standing in the world and will reject all the politically correct and invented cultural madness that has been inflicted upon their country.

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I believe it started with the Clintons with political correctness and grew worse with Obama and as a result of Obama's Presidency, reached its zenith with the cultural wars that have plagued America through the Democrats' hate of Trump and willingness to make the country ungovernable.

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What is clearly needed is a new administration and definitely not the Democrats. There has to be a big change in the House and Senate. The Democrat old guard has to go as do the vociferous, vacuous and dangerous "Squad".

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A sanity has to return to American politics, especially as there is and will be enormous damage to every aspects of America. Its foreign relations, its standing in the world as the challenges will be coming quick and fast.

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America has to heal internally and get its economy on an even keel urgently. Its military leadership will have to be rebuilt and prepared for what is coming.

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Difficult as it may be, America may have to return to Afghanistan to take on the terrorists it will foster all over again and this time, set up a permanent base there as Afghanistan is strategic in terms of its position regarding China and Iran.

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It may be much more difficult or impossible as China will probably side and aid the Taliban, which was not the case when America originally invaded.

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America's left leaning press and media are already being punished with low readership and low TV ratings. There has to be much more balance and real unbiased news in reportage with TV talking heads confining themselves to discussion and opinion programs and to refrain from doing so in news programs.

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Iran is a looming issue and will not go away. Not only Israel cannot allow Iran to have nuclear weapons, neither can Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States- and nor can America allow it.

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A rapacious China has to be countered. Russia is always at the ready to take advantage. Biden has certainly made America's position substantially more difficult.

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However, I have faith in America, gloomy as matters may be at present. America will pull itself together, assuming they throw the Democrats out and keep them out for a long time.

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A world without America is too horrible to contemplate. Woe to Biden and the Democrats. This is not the way America ends and it will rise again.

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Lamentations for a Nation in Decline (JWR 09/09/2021)
The next terrorist attack (JWR 09/09/2021)
Colorblind Is the Moral Ideal (JWR 09/09/2021)
Marc Thiessen: Biden should stay far away from Ground Zero on 9/11 after ‘dereliction of duty’ in Afghanistan (Fox 09/08/2021)
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"His incompetence is turning this solemn day of remembrance into a victory celebration for the terrorists. Biden has abdicated his right to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11."

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"I take no joy in saying this. As a general rule, I believe that when a president attends a ceremony on behalf of the American people, he is not representing himself but the office of the presidency. We respect that office, even if we do not respect the man who occupies it," Theissen wrote.

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"But this is different. Joe Biden is the president who surrendered to the enemies who attacked us on 9/11."

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"He not only surrendered but did so with dishonor — leaving stranded behind enemy lines American citizens, legal permanent residents, and the majority of our Afghan allies who risked their lives to help us. Not by accident, mind you. Intentionally."

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"This is a stain on the honor of our nation. At the very moment the bells ring at Ground Zero on 9/11, U.S. citizens and allies will be hiding from Taliban death squads because of Biden's shameful decisions."

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... "Biden knowingly put the safety of U.S. service members securing the airport in the hands of the Taliban and the Haqqani network," which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members.

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"On Saturday, those who died as a result of Biden's blunder will rest in freshly dug graves, while those who survived will watch the ceremonies from hospital beds with injuries they will carry with them for the rest of their lives."

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"Worst of all, Biden explicitly chose to time his withdrawal to the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. There was no military justification for this. If operational considerations had driven his decisions, he would never have withdrawn U.S. forces during the summer fighting season."

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"He pulled U.S. forces out when he did because he wanted to use the 9/11 commemorations as a political prop — so he could bask in the glory of having ended America's longest war by the anniversary of the attacks that necessitated it."

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... Biden's presence at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and Shanksville "would insult the memory of those who died in that sacred place — and those who gave life and limb to deliver justice to the enemies who struck us that day."
Michael Goodwin: Biden will be competing with the Taliban as 9/11 approaches (Fox 09/08/2021)
American Express CRT training and Marxism in the workplace (Fox 09/08/2021)
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CEOs tripping over themselves to prove how "woke" they are has become de rigueur, but the news that American Express subjected its employees last year to what can only be described as Marxist "re-education" sessions has struck a chord – and rightly so.

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Thankfully, we are not so desensitized to Marxism everywhere that when we hear that a financial giant that calls itself "American" attacks our way of life, and considers discriminating according to race, we don't simply shrug.

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It would seem, though, that AmEx doesn't want to hear any dissent. One ex-employee, Brian Netzel, just filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that he was fired for voicing his opposition to these sessions.

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If we're shocked, good. Maybe the AmEx saga can help open the nation's eyes to what is taking place across America today.

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Ever since the Black Lives Matter organizations launched a year-long destabilization campaign, many of us have warned that the adoption of Marxist principles throughout society would inevitably follow.

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... the founders of the Black Lives Matter organizations are open Marxists who don't hide the fact that their goal is to disassemble American society as it is.

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And as the AmEx revelations make clear, our leaders are so eager to atone for their sins that they'll gladly adopt Marxist and anti-capitalist concepts.

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... American Express has demanded that its employees map out their degree of privilege, determine whether they are in an oppressor or marginalized category, and then asks whites to act subordinately to members of minority categories.

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AmEx's workforce has even heard speakers demand that the company discriminate racially by charging black customers lower premiums.

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... the company's handouts lead employees to the group Critical Resistance, which advocates for the dismantling not just of police but also of the prisons system.

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Among its handouts there is a chart that inform the reader that something called the "Prison Industrial Complex" is empowered by "racism & xenophobia, sexism, capitalism, homophobia."

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American Express also brought in Khalil Muhammad to harangue its long-suffering employees about how capitalism is racist and steeped in "racist logics and forms of domination."

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The criticism of AmEx for doing this has been so strong that Chairman and CEO Steve Squeri is now writing letters to enraged customers saying that "none of our [training] programs state that capitalism is racist. These notions are patently false. We believe in the free market and in capitalism, and we have never said anything counter to that point."

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All of which technically is true, but the company is still bringing in speakers with this message and linking to charts that state exactly that.

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... also doubled down in his message saying that his company's value "include fostering a diverse and inclusive culture," buzzwords of CRT that often end up meaning a quota-based approach that includes only people who agree with the leftist agenda.

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None of this should surprise. Undermining our belief in capitalism — which means only the freedom to own property and trade it — is what the Black Lives Matter organizations and founder have demanded from the start.

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"We believe in transformation and a radical realignment of power. . . . The current systems we live inside of need to be radically transformed, which includes a realignment of global power."

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"I do believe in Marxism. It's a philosophy that I learned early on in my organizing career. We were taught to learn about the systems that were criticizing capitalism."

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This is who the leaders of so many of our foundational pillars, from education to the military, the corporate world, the houses of worship, sports, entertainment, the media etc., have surrendered to.

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See related Critical Race Theory (Mike Shelton, 06/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Deroy Murdock: Nice guy Joe Biden has morphed into a mean man who is calculating, callous and cruel (Fox 09/08/2021)
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President Joe Biden got elected largely because millions of voters found him caring and empathetic. Mr. Nice Guy, the argument went, would be a welcome relief from the sometimes abrasive and combative President Donald J. Trump.

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But Biden's winning, grandfatherly persona is among the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans abandoned in Afghanistan. As the president retreated from Kabul, to the beat of the Taliban's drummer, Nice-guy Joe morphed into Mean Mr. Biden.

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The president's true colors now shine with searing clarity. He has exposed himself as calculating, callous, and cruel.

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Even as Americans remained trapped in the hands of al Qaeda's once and future hosts, Biden departed for a long Labor Day weekend brimming with rest and relaxation.

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Days after shouting at his fellow Americans about decamping Kabul in shame and leaving hundreds of his constituents behind, Mean Mr. Biden has moved on.
When the Constitution Fails Us (JWR 09/05/2021)
Victor Davis Hanson: Our new woke Pentagon is hell-bent on losing America's trust – and wars (Fox 09/05/2021)
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It is the beginning of a never-ending bad dream. President Joe Biden and the Pentagon have managed to birth a new terrorist haven, destroy much of U.S. strategic deterrence, and alienate our allies and much of the country.

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In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 service members, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban to provide security for our flights was wise.

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We were told that the terrorist victors share similar goals to ours in a hasty American retreat from Kabul.

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On the very day of the attack that killed American troops, the sergeant major of the U.S. Army reminded us in a tweet that diversity is our strength, commemorating not the dead but Women's Equality Day.

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If so, then is the opposite of diversity — unity — our weakness?

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The chief of staff at the Office of Naval Intelligence warned the ONI's active duty and retired service members that they must not criticize Biden, their commander in chief, over the Afghanistan fiasco.

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The office correctly cited prohibitions found in the Uniform Code of Military Justice barring any disrespect shown to senior government leadership.

•
Indeed, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps was relieved of his command for posting a video accurately blaming military and civilian leadership for the Afghanistan nightmare.

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Yet until Jan. 20, retired top brass had constantly smeared their elected commander in chief with impunity.

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Recently retired Gen. Michael Hayden retweeted a horrific suggestion that unvaccinated Trump supporters should be put on planes back to Afghanistan, where they presumably would be left to die. Hayden earlier had compared Trump's border facilities to Nazi death camps.

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Other retired high-profile military officials variously called their president an emulator of Nazi tactics, a veritable Mussolini, a liar, and deserving of removal from office sooner than later.

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None of these retired four-stars faced the sort of repercussions that the Office of Naval Intelligence just warned about.

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More than 50 former intelligence officials on the eve of the November election signed a letter suggesting that incriminating emails found on Hunter Biden's missing laptop might be "Russian disinformation."

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They used their stature for political purposes to convince the American people that the story was a lie.

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Retired Gen. Joseph Dunford and retired Adm. Mike Mullen recently blasted retired brass who had questioned Biden's cognitive ability.

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OK. But they should have issued a similar warning earlier, when the violations of fellow retired officers were even more egregious in election year 2020.

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Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologized for doing a photo op with Trump, erroneously buying into the narrative that Trump had ordered rioters cleared from Lafayette Square for the staged picture.

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Worse, he leaked to journalists that he was so angry with Trump that he "considered" resigning.

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Think of the irony. If Milley considered a politicized resignation to rebuke Trump over the false charge, then surely he could consider a real resignation after overseeing the worst military disaster of the last half-century in Kabul.

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Milley had promised to root out white supremacy from the ranks while recommending that his soldiers read Ibram X. Kendi's racialist diatribes.

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Something is terribly wrong in the ranks of America's top commanders that reflects something wrong with the country.

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The Pentagon needs to stop virtue-signaling about diversity days and culturally sensitive food for Afghan refugees.

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Instead, can it just explain why the Bagram air base was abandoned by night, or why Taliban terrorists are our supposed "partners" in organizing our surrender and escape?

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Which general allowed more than $85 billion in American weapons to fall to the Taliban — a sum equal to the price of seven new U.S. aircraft carriers?

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Who turned over to the Taliban the lists of Americans and allied Afghans to be evacuated?

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Who left behind biometric devices that the Taliban are now using to hunt down our former Afghan friends?

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Somehow our new woke Pentagon is hell-bent on losing the trust of the American people — along with the wars it fights abroad.

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See related Woke General Milley (Dick Wright, 06/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Gen. Milley (David Hitch, 07/06/2021)) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: Our military has been lying to us for 20 years (Fox 09/04/2021)
•
In July of 2017, every member of the joint chiefs of staff met with newly-elected President Donald Trump for the first time. It didn't go well. "You're all losers," the president told them... "You don't know how to win anymore."

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It was a harsh assessment, obviously though arguably true, the joint chiefs of staff are the nation's highest-ranking military officers. Their job is to follow the order of elected officials and protect the country, no matter how much their feelings may be hurt.

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According to U.S. Army Major General Paul Eaten, the president's insults that day, and the similar comments he made in public, were a bitter humiliation for the nation's military leaders.

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"I was really shocked by how many of my former colleagues voted for the former president and openly supported him. But when [Trump] turned on the military, well, the military turned on him."

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Keep in mind, that is not how democracy is supposed to work — military leaders report to the people you elect. Again that's not what happened.

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... the military refused to pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, even though they were ordered to do so by the elected president of the United States — again no civilian control of the military.

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When Joe Biden finally became president, on inauguration day, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mark Milley, was so excited he couldn't control himself.

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... no matter how badly our mission in Afghanistan was deteriorating — we were never clear on what that mission was — but clearly, our strategy of pacifying the nation was falling apart.

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No matter how bad it got in Afghanistan, the Pentagon and its spokesmen repeatedly told us they were making incredible progress.

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So if you're wondering why Americans are so confused that Kabul fell in an afternoon and the Taliban controlled the country we occupied for 20 years, maybe it's because they thought we were making progress.

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Lying to the rest of us about what is actually happening with our troops with our money in our name in a foreign country has been the philosophy of this nation's military establishment for the last twenty years, and it's also the philosophy of every high-ranking official in the Biden administration.

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We had twenty years to figure it out but we have no idea how many Americans including schoolchildren remain in Afghanistan because we're the adults in the room.

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It takes a special kind of arrogance, we used to call it cultural imperialism, to imagine other cultures want to ape your family structure for example. Isn't it up to Afghans to decide what families they want?

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No. We tried to impose our customs on them and they hated it and maybe that's one of the reasons the Taliban took over in a weekend.

•
... while we've been leading with our diplomacy, we've given billions of dollars of American military equipment to the Taliban.

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So now, were arming the Taliban and marooning our own citizens in Afghanistan. Who could possibly have seen that coming?

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See related On the Other Hand... (David Hitch, 08/22/2021)) cartoon from Government picture album
Victor Davis Hanson: Biden created the most heavily armed terrorist nation in history (Fox 09/04/2021)
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"... If you look at all the military aid that we have given Israel since the founding of the Jewish State, this is about 85% of that [which we gave] over a 70 year period."

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"We are all worried about the new aircraft carrier Gerald Ford [at] $12 billion; the most expensive aircraft carrier in history. We could have had 7 of them for the price of weapons that we have left in Afghanistan."

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"So this is the greatest loss of military equipment in the history of warfare by one power. It's absolutely staggering, and yet, we take it so nonchalantly: The people responsible for this should be either fired or resigned."

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... the Pentagon and White House "empowered a pre-civilizational terrorist band, making them into a considerable militia that will cause havoc for the next 20 years."

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"There is something terribly wrong with our military. I don't know whether it is their distraction because of wokeness, as they go through the ranks and rosters trying to weed out potential, I don't know, ‘supremacists' — or they are just incompetent, or they are too worried about the revolving door of going in and out from defense contractor boards, but we need a bipartisan investigation of our top brass and the system."

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See related On the Other Hand... (David Hitch, 08/22/2021)) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Military-Industrial Complex (Mike Shelton, 08/26/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Americans Left Behind (JWR 09/03/2021)
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Monday the administration was very proud to announce that all the troops had left Afghanistan. Biden was nowhere to be seen that day.

•
On the next day, Tuesday, he stepped in front of a camera and TelePrompTer and read the same b.s. he and his spokesholes have been feeding the nation for weeks. "Completion of our mission." "The end of the longest war in U.S. history." "An extraordinary success." "The biggest airlift since World War II."

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What Biden didn't say, his general said the day before, "I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third-country nationals, and vulnerable Afghans."

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Did you get that? The completion of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third-country nationals, and vulnerable Afghans?

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How can they claim that the mission was completed when hundreds of Americans have been left behind? That wasn't the mission at all.

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The real mission was to comply with the Taliban's demand that all of our forces be out of the country by the end of the month.

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That mission was completed. We kept our promise to the terrorists. But the promise to the hundreds of American citizens to get them out was not kept.

•
Joe Biden, who is definitely the worse president we've ever had, may also go down in history as the most narcissistic. He has no ounce of decency, no sense of propriety or honor, no understanding of the right thing to do.

•
Last Sunday the bodies of the murdered troops arrived at Dover Air force Base. Biden met with the families of the fallen and in many cases it didn't go well.

•
Mark Schmitz, the father of deceased Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, toldEThe Washington Post that a sister of one of the fallen troops yelled at the president after receiving the remains on Sunday:E "I hope you burn in hell! That was my brother!" Schmitz said, 'The checking of his watch, that didn't happen just once. That happened on every single one that came out of that airplane...I found it to be the most disrespectful thing I've ever seen"...

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Shana Chappell, a mother of a slain marine posted this after the meeting with Biden at Dover.

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"Joe Biden this msg is for you! I know my face is etched into your brain! I was able to look you straight in the eyes yesterday and have words with you. After I lay my son to rest you will be seeing me again!"

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"Remember I am the one who stood 5 inches from your face and was letting you know I would never get to hug my son again, hear his laugh and then you tried to interrupt me and give me your own sob story and I had to tell you 'that this isn't about you so don't make it about you!!!'"

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"You then said you just wanted me to know that you know how I feel and I let you know that you don't know how I feel! U then rolled your ** eyes in your head like you were annoyed with me and I let you know that the only reason I was talking to you was out of respect for my son and that was the only reason why, I then proceeded to tell you again how you took my son away from me and how I will never get to hug him, kiss him, laugh with him again etc turned to walk away and I let you know my son's blood was on your hands and you threw your hand up behind you as you walked away from me like you were saying, 'Okay, whatever!!' You are not president of the United States of America Biden!!!"

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"Cheating isn't winning!!! You are no leader of any kind! You are a weak human being and a traitor!!! You turned your back on my son, on all of our heros!!! You are leaving the White House one way or another because you do not belong there! MY SONS BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS!! All 13 of them, their blood is on your hands!!! If my president Trump was in his rightful seat then my son and other Heros would still be alive!!! You will be seeing me again very soon!!! BTW as my son and rest of our fallen heroes were being taken off the plane yesterday I watched you disrespect us all 5 different times by checking your watch!!! What the * was so important that you had to keep looking at your watch??? You are nobody special Biden!!! America hates you!!!"

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If it is true that some of Biden's military heads tried to dissuade him from taking the action he ultimately took, then why the hell aren't they resigning? Not to do so infers compliance.

•
What has happened to honor in our military commanders? The grunts have honor. The rank and file have honor. What the hell has happened to the men at the top?

•
Realize that most of the same idiots who were in the Obama administration are part of Biden's regime as well.

•
These are the very same foreign policy geniuses who gave us Benghazi and the Iranian "deal." They're called the national security brain trust.

•
All of them share blood on their hands with Biden. Will anyone in this disgusting, cowardly administration be held accountable for the Afghan travesty? What do you think?
Sirhan should die behind bars (JWR 09/03/2021)
Why Isn't Biden to Blame for COVID-19 Deaths? (JWR 09/03/2021)
Fred Fleitz: Biden is a threat to our national security. Congress, will you keep us safe? (Fox 09/03/2021)
•
In one of the most tin-eared and imbecilic speeches ever given by a U.S. president, Joe Biden claimed Tuesday that the sudden withdrawal of U.S troops from Afghanistan that he ordered without a plan and without notifying the Afghan government and America's allies was an "extraordinary success."

•
... Biden and his advisers "have decided that the only way out of this debacle is to lie about it, blame everyone else and claim that defeat is really a victory."

•
Biden's abrupt Afghanistan withdrawal was in fact a catastrophe for Afghanistan, the United States and the world.

•
At the same time, it was a major victory for radical Islamist terrorists, the radical Islam movement and America's adversaries around the world.

•
Biden severely damaged America's reputation as a strong and reliable ally by blaming the Afghan government and military for the consequences of his chaotic withdrawal.

•
Biden stubbornly refused to extend the withdrawal date despite pleas from our allies – including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson – that they needed more time to get their nationals and Afghan citizens who assisted them out of the country.

•
The U.S. not only shared intelligence with the Taliban, we also shared information on Americans and Afghan citizens with green cards and SIV visas, supposedly so the Taliban could help these people evacuate.

•
It's likely the Taliban will instead use this information as a "kill list" to track down and execute these Afghans for assisting the U.S.

•
Biden's reckless withdrawal made the Taliban the best-armed terrorist group on earth by leaving behind an estimated $80 billion in arms, including 358,000 assault rifles, 16,000 night-vision goggles, 64,000 machine guns, 22,000 Humvees and 33 Blackhawk helicopters.

•
This represents a security and intelligence nightmare. These arms likely will find their way to other terrorist organizations and the more sophisticated weapons probably will be sold to Russia, China and Iran.

•
Assertions by Biden aides that U.S. economic leverage, resolutions passed by the U.N. and expectations by the global community will convince the Taliban to not support terrorism and respect human rights – especially the rights of Afghan women – are laughable.

•
The Taliban is primarily driven by its extreme Islamist ideology. It does not care what the global community thinks of it.

•
The Pentagon confirmed that the Taliban released thousands of ISIS-K prisoners when it took control of Bagram air base. ... Al Qaeda leaders who sought refuge in Pakistan and Iran reportedly have returned to Afghanistan.

•
When ISIS created the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq during the Obama administration, radical Islamists were emboldened to stage several major acts of terrorism...

•
Assertions by Biden and his aides that the U.S. will be able to effectively counter terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan with an "over the horizon" capability – drones and satellites – are not credible.

•
We also need to worry about how Biden's reckless withdrawal from Afghanistan, stiffing of U.S. allies over the pullout, and refusal to take responsibility for his decision are signals of his weakness and lack of resolve that will be exploited by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and other U.S. adversaries.

•
We know from history that strong and decisive American presidents like Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump greatly promoted American and international security and weak presidents like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama undermined it.

•
Joe Biden's Afghanistan fiasco, along with his other ill-advised national security policies and his signs of mental decline, mean Biden is now seen in America and abroad as the weakest U.S. president in modern history.

•
Since Biden cannot be easily removed for political reasons, it is vital that Congress act on a bipartisan basis to protect our nation from Biden's incompetence with extreme pressure on the administration to replace the president's top national security officials ... so Biden can be surrounded by highly qualified and principled experts who will not tolerate more of his irrational national security decisions.

•
Biden's Afghanistan debacle proves he is extraordinary threat to U.S. security. Congress needs to address this threat ASAP.
Greg Walcher: Forests burn, bureaucracy fiddles – let's act now to save these national treasures (Fox 09/03/2021)
•
The French historian Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand wrote that forests precede civilizations, and deserts follow them.

•
Looking out this summer at smoke that covered half the country, and mudslides that buried major highways like I-70 in Colorado, we should wonder if we really want that to be America's legacy, too. It is not inevitable.

•
Professional foresters know how to manage forests to sustain their yield, their beauty and their health, forever. But professional foresters are not in charge.

•
For 25 years, politicians, environmental industry groups and the most cumbersome bureaucratic process imaginable have intervened to prevent professional management.

•
The result is that over 100 million acres of national forests have burned to the ground, including the largest fires ever in California, Colorado and several other states...

•
The Forest Service says at least another 100 million acres are still "at risk" of catastrophic wildfire, such is their unhealthy and overgrown condition. They are doing almost nothing about it.

•
In fact, a generation of politicians have created such a maze of regulations that "analysis paralysis" has all but stopped the professional management of our public forests.

•
Now, we are witnessing the disease, death, rotting, collapse and burning of billions of trees covering millions of acres of previously healthy forest lands.

•
Some of these iconic landscapes will not recover their former beauty in our lifetimes, and some will never again provide the same habitat for wildlife, or the same quality water supply they once did.

•
This summer smoke from giant wildfires in the West covered not only the West, but caused code red and orange air quality alerts from Philadelphia to Toronto and spread toxic haze all the way to the North Pole.

•
Land managers, politicians, lobbyists and environmentalists continue to argue instead of act. The tragic irony is that mostly they argue about the cause of the crisis, not the solution to it.

•
The real culprit ... is poor management, for allowing the unnatural overgrowth of forests that turns them into tinderboxes which obliterate landscapes when ignited.

•
Nevertheless, this crisis has reached such proportions that we ought to step back and realize that the blame game is futile. Whatever caused the forest health disaster, we ought to be arguing about solutions.

•
It is clear that postponing that discussion is a death sentence for nature. The national forests produce eight times more new growth than managers remove every year.

•
If the amount grown and the amount removed are not similar, the situation worsens continuously. Just look out the window.

•
Blame it on bad management, blame it on global warming, blame it on whatever you like – what are we going to do about it?

•
We spend billions on fire suppression every year, yet still lose quality watersheds and wildlife habitat. We sacrifice hundreds of homes and a number of lives annually.

•
Whatever the cause, it would be far more efficient to thin the overload and restore healthy trees, than to put out fires and deal with the dead landscapes left in their wake.

•
Like all living things, trees live, grow and die, so forests cannot be preserved in their current condition forever.

•
So, we face a clear and simple choice. Forests must be managed, or allowed to die and burn.

•
When there are no forests left, only deserts, will we still demand more studies, more delays and more bureaucratic red tape?
Tucker Carlson: Texas abortion law demonstrates democracy still exists (Fox 09/03/2021)
•
Here's an interesting observation/theory: The slogans they yell the loudest are the ones they believe the least.

•
The very same people who've told us for decades that it's "my body, my choice," and seemed to mean it — those people — immediately abandoned their own argument when Covid arrived.

•
... the court upheld a Texas law that effectively bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Typically that's at about six weeks into pregnancy. The law doesn't allow the government of Texas to enforce the ban. No one's going to jail over abortion. Instead, the new law lets citizens sue clinics that commit illegal abortions.

•
No matter how you feel about abortion, it's hard to argue this is an especially radical law. Intentionally stopping a person's heart from beating is the definition of killing.

•
Government has a right to regulate that. Deciding when it's OK to kill a person is, on the most basic level, the whole reason we have laws in the first place.

•
So whether it's right or wrong or whether you like it or not, it's not a crazy statute. It did however drive the media crazy.

•
So few sane people are left with big platforms in this country that you almost never hear a sensible, logical, rational argument about anything.

•
Just hours ago, the A.C.L.U. released this statement. Quote: "Far from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties." You have more civil liberties when they control your body.

•
You can imagine the 1860s version: "Far from compromising civil liberties, slavery actually enhances personal freedom." It's not even Orwellian at this point. It's post-Orwell.

•
But millions of Americans do recognize this moment for what it is. It's proof that democracy does still exist — voters can decide what they want for their communities, their states, their towns, and courts will potentially respect that right. It's called self-government.

•
The legislature in Texas legislature has realized this for months now. They've passed laws banning vaccine passports, homeless encampments, racist struggle sessions in school, protests that block emergency vehicles from riding down the road.

•
Those are laws specific to Texas and what the people of Texas want and a lot of those laws are still on the books.

•
Why should Texas have to be exactly like California? That problem is if that kind of thinking spreads nationally it gravely disempowers the people at CNN and the so-called civil rights organizations that think they are in control of everything.

•
On the other hand, it might actually save civil rights for the rest of us and that might be a good thing.
Where is the Lord? (JWR 09/02/2021)
•
What we today use as a holiday to watch football, get drunk and stuff ourselves with turkey, George Washington saw as, "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty G od especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

•
Think of how far we have strayed from those prophetic words.
There's a problem in the upper reaches of our military (JWR 09/02/2021)
•
Joe Biden and the Pentagon have managed to birth a new terrorist haven, destroy much of U.S. strategic deterrence, and alienate our allies and much of the country.

•
Something is terribly wrong in the ranks of America's top commanders that reflects something wrong with the country.

•
The Pentagon needs to stop virtue-signaling about diversity days and culturally sensitive food for Afghan refugees.

•
Instead, can it just explain why the Bagram air base was abandoned by night, or why Taliban terrorists are our supposed "partners" in organizing our surrender and escape?

•
Which general allowed more than $85 billion in American weapons to fall to the Taliban — a sum equal to the price of seven new U.S. aircraft carriers?

•
Who turned over to the Taliban the lists of Americans and allied Afghans to be evacuated?

•
Who left behind biometric devices that the Taliban are now using to hunt down our former Afghan friends?

•
Somehow our new woke Pentagon is hell-bent on losing the trust of the American people — along with the wars it fights abroad.

•
See related Incompetent Duo (Dick Wright, 08/19/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Jonathan Turley: Is Roe vs. Wade finished? The mainstream media just can't hold back (Fox 09/02/2021)
David Bossie: Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal can't ever be forgotten. Congress, here are your options (Fox 09/02/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Democrats only care about maintaining power, Afghanistan proves it (Fox 09/02/2021)
•
In a functioning democracy, this wouldn't work, voters wouldn't put up with it, even partisan Democrats would say, "come on now you have to have a border, it's a country."

•
So when you start behaving this way, so outside the bounds of normal behavior so far from what the population actually wants, clearly you don't plan to be held accountable at the election.

•
You plan to change the way the election works. And that's exactly what they're doing. Sorry, it's true.
We in America just lost our honor in Afghanistan (INN 09/01/2021)
Confessions of an enemy of the state (JWR 09/01/2021)
America's Slow Suicide (JWR 09/01/2021)
•
... a simple truth: In the game of power, vacuums are filled, generally by those who are most aggressive. And thus, surrender of the good means victory for the bad.

•
Historically, America has understood this. America has always been uncomfortable with the realities of foreign policy but has never shied away from its actual role as a player on the world stage.

•
A powerful America was good, and a powerful America was necessary.

•
Our hunger gives us a mission. We must cure all inequality, even inequality caused by differences in behavior — the unavoidable condition of humanity — by spending trillions of dollars not yet created.

•
We must rectify the imbalances of history — the unavoidable condition of humanity — by skewing all institutions toward "equity."

•
We must abandon our prior foreign policy commitments — and our real foreign policy interests — in the name of quixotic attempts to "build back better" at home.

•
We must rewrite the basic social compact in order to alleviate all natural differences between human beings.

•
We must sacrifice our sons and daughters to our hunger. We must teach them idiotic doctrines about complete human malleability, training them for confusion and chaos.

•
We must indoctrinate them with the evils of our own philosophy, while teaching them that cultural diversity mandates that we overlook the far greater evils of other cultures.

•
And, of course, we must snarl them in a web of debt not of their own making, condemning them to a future footing our bills.

•
And then, in the end, we eat ourselves. We turn on each other, recognizing that our mission has been lost and that our hunger can't satisfy us.

•
We treat each other as enemies while downplaying the actual presence of actual enemies.

•
And then we disappear.

•
Or, alternatively, we don't.

•
We realize that whatever our faults, whatever our shortcomings, we have a role in the world; that whatever our faults, whatever our shortcomings, we still are heirs to the greatest founding philosophy in world history; that whatever our faults, whatever our shortcomings, we are still citizens of the same body politic.

•
The choice is still in our hands. But if Afghanistan is any indicator, it's quickly slipping away.
Charlie Kirk: Forget MAGA, Biden's got the Knock on Wood doctrine going forward (Fox 09/01/2021)
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In eight short months, America has gone from the Doctrine of America First and "peace through strength," to that of American weakness, literally trusting terrorists to keep our troops safe.

•
The few times Biden has lowered himself to taking questions about his failures in Afghanistan, he has demurred, placing much of the blame on a previous treaty signed by President Trump. ...

•
This is nonsense, of course, and there are a few very obvious reasons why. Since taking office Biden has been pathologically bent on reversing nearly every single Trump-era policy he could by executive fiat.

•
Trump left the World Health Organization; Biden promptly rejoined. Trump rejected the Paris climate accord; Biden promptly rejoined. Trump established the very successful Remain in Mexico policy for illegal immigrants; Biden immediately cancelled MPP, which led to a historic migrant crisis at the southern border.

•
At every turn, Biden's record-breaking executive order onslaught was designed with one guiding principle in mind: Whatever Trump did, do the opposite, the consequences be damned.

•
And yet, we're supposed to believe that Joe Biden inherited an unworkable mess from President Trump and he wasn't able to reverse course? ...

•
... while Trump terrified the Taliban into compliance, Biden's hope and prayer execution is marked by weakness, which has only emboldened America's enemies around the world.

•
It's no secret that Trump wanted to end the war in Afghanistan as soon as he took office, but his was always a conditions-based withdrawal. He proved it, too. In September 2019, he shocked the world while drawing widespread criticism, canceling peace talks when he felt the Taliban weren't living up to their end of the bargain.

•
Trump eventually signed a peace deal in February 2020, but it was always predicated upon strict compliance by the Taliban.

•
Trump even warned the Taliban that he would bomb their family villages if so much as a hair on the head of an American was harmed. ...

•
"... the Taliban understood that if they acted against Americans and took actions that were inconsistent with what they had promised to do, we'd respond and we did. We did it multiple times. When they pushed on us and the Trump administration, we responded with American power and American might..."...

•
By contrast, Biden didn't just withdraw, he surrendered. At every step he has deferred to the demands of the Taliban...

•
The Biden Doctrine has led to hundreds of thousands of refugees coming to America, billions in high-tech military equipment handed over to our enemies, the emergence of a new terrorism super state, a power vacuum Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran are sure to fill, and 13 dead Americans and countless Afghan civilians. Oh yeah, and the Taliban once again rule Afghanistan.

•
Instead of ending America's longest war, Biden's weakness threatens to indefinitely embroil the U.S. in the land of blood and sand.

•
May God protect our troops, as it's been said. Joe Biden's disgraceful Knock on Wood Doctrine certainly won't. ...
Don Brown: In the War on Terror, never forget the fallen despite Joe Biden, our incompetent commander in chief (Fox 09/01/2021)
•
Dozens of poor Afghans clinging desperately to the underbelly of an American C-17 taxiing for takeoff from Kabul International Airport, with some falling to their deaths, and one crushed in the aircraft wheel assembly, epitomizes all that is wrong with Joe Biden and his buffoonish withdrawal from Afghanistan.

•
While most Americans agree that U.S. ground troops should be withdrawn after 20 years, no one envisioned the execution of that withdrawal in such a cataclysmic, disastrous manner which cast unspeakable humiliation upon the United States.

•
It didn't have to happen this way.

•
Biden could have taken a common-sensical approach. One doesn't need an advanced degree in Strategic Studies from the Naval War College to know that you never telegraph withdrawal deadlines to enemy forces.

•
Rather than announcing his August 31st deadline, come hell or high water, Biden could have (and should have) first quietly gotten all excess American military equipment and weaponry out of the country, and then quietly removed all Americans from the country.

•
He then should have quietly removed all essential Afghan Personnel from the country who were instrumental in helping United States during the twenty years of the war effort.

•
Then, only after first executing the steps above, should Biden have ever announced a withdrawal deadline, if at all.

•
British and the French paratroopers, the week of August 23rd, entered Taliban-infested Kabul to rescue their people.

•
But did Biden, with the world's most powerful military at his disposal take that step? Of course not.

•
Like a paralyzed deer frozen in the headlights, he sat back and did nothing, leaving Americans stranded on their own, making them fair game in open season for the Taliban.

•
Then, on August 26th, news came that 13 American GIs were killed in a bomb attack, including 12 Marines and a sailor, along with some ninety Afghans, their blood spilled by Biden's unfathomable incompetence.

•
The cataclysmic international embarrassment brought not only universal international shame upon the United States, but — just as shameful — served as a desecrating disservice to the memories of those who lost their lives in the 20 year War on Terror.

•
What will the world remember now? Will it remember the great and heroic Americans who fought and died in Afghanistan? Or Biden's shameful and disgraceful public exit?

•
This is the legacy of the horrid recent democrat stewardship over America's foreign affairs: disaster after disaster, fumbling every possession, unnecessary loss of American life.

•
... for the men of Extortion 17, for the men of Benghazi, for the 13 Americans unnecessarily killed in Kabul just last week, and for the thousands of other Americans who shed their lives in the War on Terror, we as a nation must work to ensure that the smoke of the Biden-Obama incompetence will not obfuscate the memory of their ultimate sacrifice.

•
Remember the fallen who served America. Remember those who voluntarily gave their lives for our nation.
Newt Gingrich: Biden’s ‘damage’ to US in Afghanistan disaster is unprecedented (Fox 09/01/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Our leaders won't apologize for Afghanistan, Biden doubled down (Fox 09/01/2021)
Yes, I miss Donald Trump (INN 08/31/2021)
The Biden regime is aiding and abetting our worst enemies (INN 08/31/2021)
•
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." – Article III, Section 3, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution...

•
While the USA and NATO spent 20 years fighting the Taliban and its allies in Afghanistan, the illegitimate Biden regime has now reversed that policy and is actively collaborating with Americans' worst enemies.

•
The deliberate policy reversal, which cost the lives of 13 US Soldiers and did the greatest damage to the security of the United States since Pearl Harbor, fits the textbook definition of treason.

•
As Representative Jim Banks, a former US Navy reservist, pointed out, the Biden regime has now given the Taliban access to $85 billion worth of American military equipment and the biometric data of the Afghans who have assisted soldiers over the past 20 years.

•
The vast hardware left behind includes 75,000 vehicles, 200 airplanes and helicopters and 600,000 small arms and light weapons...

•
"The Taliban now has more Black Hawk helicopters than 85 per cent of the countries in the world. They also have night vision goggles, body armor, and medical supplies. And unbelievably, the Taliban now has biometric devices which have the fingerprints, eye scans and the biographical information of the Afghans who helped us over the last 20 years."

•
... "a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies. Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a ‘Kill List'... It's just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean."

•
The U.S. government has thus made itself guilty of collaborating with a known terrorist group, the same group which harbored Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden 20 years ago, leading to the overthrow of the Taliban 2001 in collaboration with the Afghan Northern Alliance.
FDR vs. JFK vs. JRB (JWR 08/31/2021)
KT McFarland: Biden's Afghanistan speech was a chance to speak to a nation in pain. It utterly failed (Fox 08/31/2021)
•
Instead of speaking to a nation in pain, President Biden made this speech all about himself. He dodged and weaved, blamed others, and even claimed our evacuation from Afghanistan was a great success, while most everyone else saw it as an unmitigated disaster.

•
... on this day we needed our president to rise above the petty politics of Washington's "swamp" and speak directly to the men and women who fought and bled in Afghanistan, to the Gold Star families whose loved ones gave their lives, and to the world bracing for what will come next in Afghanistan and the region.

•
We needed him to reassure us that their sacrifices were not in vain. The failures in Afghanistan were not of their making, but due to the deliberate and inadvertent mistakes of our senior military and political leaders.

•
We needed President Biden to admit defeat. We failed to build a modern democracy in Afghanistan. Despite our efforts, we failed to destroy Islamic extremism, or even al Qaeda's heirs.

•
We needed him to rise to the power and majesty of his office and confer on our men and women the blessing of a grateful nation.

•
He did not.

•
President Biden may not have intended to, but his remarks personified the failures of 20 years of the war in Afghanistan. Our leaders made mistakes that cost people their lives, but those leaders were never held accountable.

•
They were never straight with us. They cared more about their legacies, their reputations, their personal popularity, than they cared about the American people.

•
The men and women who served in Afghanistan deserved better than this. So did the American people.

•
May the Good Lord bless the sacrifices of our men and women who fought, bled and died in Afghanistan — because our president did not.
Tucker Carlson: Contrition is essential to fixing problems, our leaders don't have it (Fox 08/31/2021)
•
We've just learned from the commander of U.S. troops in the region that at least some of these people — our countrymen, our fellow Americans — really are trapped in a nation controlled by the Taliban.

•
They tried to flee, but it was too chaotic and dangerous. As General McKenzie put it, they couldn't get to the airport in time. So the U.S. military just left. Tough. Call us if you make it to Tampa.

•
It's hard to believe Kenneth McKenzie admitted this in public. The reporters in the briefing room seemed to think it was all perfectly normal — just another Pentagon briefing.

•
But it's not normal, not in this country. It's appalling on every level. It's the definition of dishonorable.

•
What's the point of having a military that doesn't bother to rescue its own citizens? Serious question. Why do we have an army — all those guns and helicopters and missile systems? Isn't the whole purpose to protect Americans?

•
Apparently, there's another purpose, or at least that's the view of the man who oversees the military's central command. Those trapped Americans aren't our problem, General McKenzie explained. Let the State Department deal with them.

•
Yes, Blinken confirmed, there are more than 100 Americans who've been abandoned in Afghanistan and are desperate to get out. No, we have no actual way to guarantee their safe passage, the military's gone. But no problem. The medieval theocracy that now runs the country has everything under control. The Taliban have given us their word American citizens in Afghanistan will be fine. And with that, Tony Blinken left the stage.

•
Clearly, we're watching a pivot point in our history. The most obvious casualty — apart from 13 dead servicemen last week — is American power and prestige, both of which, in the span of just days, have been profoundly diminished.

•
There will be huge consequences of this moment, both in the near term and through the generations going forward. But for now, it's worth wondering, who's taking responsibility for it? Who's paying for this disaster?

•
Not so long ago, that would have been an easy question to answer: our leaders. Until recently, the people in charge understood that leadership comes with obligations, not just privileges. If you're going to make big decisions, you have to be willing to suffer if they go wrong.

•
In the spring of 1912, Edward Smith ran his ship into an iceberg in the North Atlantic. As the ship went down, Smith didn't blame climate change for the disaster. He stood stoically in the wheelhouse and rode the Titanic to the bottom of the ocean and people applauded. No one thought that was strange. It was expected. He was in charge. He stayed until the end.

•
Over time, an entire class of foreign policy experts and political leaders watched for 20 years as Afghanistan turned into a pointless mess in which Americans died and we were damaged beyond repair. As this happened they said nothing.

•
What's their punishment? How many have been fired or resigned, or even apologized? That's the best place to start always. To our knowledge, none.

•
This is a disaster, that is obvious. That disaster is the result of a series of bad decisions made by people whose names we know. Have any of those people been punished, explained themselves, or apologized?

•
Instead of taking any form of responsibility for the disaster they've caused, the Biden administration is bewilderingly doing the opposite — bragging about what a great job it's done. Biden's flack has already announced that the White House doesn't plan to punish anyone at the Pentagon or at the intel agencies for what we are watching now — no one.

•
Our intelligence agencies received a combined $85 billion in last year alone in federal tax dollars. That's more money than Russia, Germany, and the UK all spend on their entire annual military budgets. And after all that money, our generals and our spies were confident Ashraf Ghani would stick around for an "orderly transition." They say there was no way to predict otherwise.

•
Meanwhile, no one — not the Pentagon, the C.I.A., or the State Department — could say where Ashraf Ghani was — they had no idea. Out authorities have no problem finding, say, a middle-aged woman who committed the crime of waving a flag at the Capitol building in January, but not the president of Afghanistan.

•
Keep in mind — Ghani, no background in any relevant discipline. The guy was a college professor who worked at Johns Hopkins. We picked an incompetent tool from American academia, rather than an actual Afghan who could run the country...

•
But still, none of our leaders are apologizing for any of this — they're not even acknowledging they screwed up.

•
Suddenly a lot of what we've seen over the past 20 years in Afghanistan, and in particular the past four months, makes a lot of sense. The "experts" in the State Department and the C.I.A. took trillions of dollars to install people in Afghanistan who are as clueless as they are...

•
Contrition is an essential part of fixing a problem. It's not just practically important, it's spiritually important.
What to say before you have to say goodbye (JWR 08/30/2021)
•
... everything we want to say at the end, we should be saying now.

•
Think about how many people these past 18 months never got a chance to say goodbye to a mother, a father, a sibling, a spouse. The heartbreaking stories of people dying alone in quarantined hospital rooms.

•
Don't wait. I've known so many people who rush to attend a funeral, who cancel meetings or obligations because, they say, "I have to be there. He was such a big part of my life."

•
But funerals, I've always felt, are for the survivors. For the family. To get comfort. To ease the grief. To see how cherished their loved one was in life.

•
The deceased themselves get nothing from a gravesite service. Given a choice, I think most people would tell those they love, "If you have to pick one, skip the funeral and come see me before I die."

•
Don't wait. Don't count on good timing. Life is fragile. If these August days are teaching us anything, it's that.
Miranda Devine: 13 soldiers in Afghanistan are dead due to terrible leadership. They deserve this now (Fox 08/30/2021)
Michael Goodwin: Biden team's meltdown – Afghanistan crisis renews doubts. Is he up to the job? (Fox 08/30/2021)
Jonathan Turley: Biden defies laws, courts – eviction ban latest setback for administration (Fox 08/29/2021)
Why are the right questions not being asked? (INN 08/28/2021)
Fathers of Marines killed in Kabul attack rage against Biden, brass (Fox 08/28/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: How can we have any confidence in our leaders? (Fox 08/28/2021)
•
So what do we do? I'm no military general, but again does it matter? We must take responsibility for our people over there. Get them all out. And obliterate those responsible for the bombings.

•
And when we're done, we can decide what to do with Joe and the rest of that clown car.

•
But in the meantime, I don't want to hear s** about January 6th, climate change, mask mandates or voter suppression, or whatever gassy stupid political theater you're trying to peddle - until you figure out how to get us out of this mess.

•
But maybe, asking them for help to get us out, is as stupid us relying on the Taliban for the same thing.
Why the Crown Heights pogrom still matters (JWR 08/27/2021)
Michael Goodwin: Biden's exit from Afghanistan is a surrender and defeat he wants to call success (Fox 08/27/2021)
Newt Gingrich: Joe Biden's top 10 blunders (Fox 08/27/2021)
James Jay Carafano: Biden still in excuse-making mode (Fox 08/27/2021)
Tucker Carlson: To make the Taliban's job easier, Biden gave them a list of Americans in Afghanistan (Fox 08/27/2021)
Is America doomed? (INN 08/26/2021)
Does America still work? (JWR 08/26/2021)
•
For nearly two years, Americans have engaged in a great woke experiment of cannibalizing themselves.

•
American civilization has invested massive labor, capital and time in an effort to constantly flagellate itself for not being perfect.

•
Yet America's resilience and its resources are not infinite. We are now beginning to see the consequences of what happens when premodern tribalism absorbs Americans.

•
There are repercussions when ideology governs policy or when we take for granted the basics of life to pursue its trappings.

•
Who cares whether the blow-dried media is woke if it cannot report the truth and keep politicians honest?

•
Once journalists became progressive poodles rather than the watchdogs of government, the Biden administration had no fear of audit.

•
Government-engineered "equity" has replaced the goal of equal opportunity. But such utopianism births popular anger when personal initiative, excellence and performance do not count as much as virtue-signaling groupthink.

•
The United States just suffered a terrible and shameful defeat in Afghanistan. The catastrophe reminds us that the Biden administration had its politicized military and bureaucracy mostly fixate on diversity, equity and inclusion, and to root out supposed internal enemies.

•
So, our top brass and functionaries talked of redirecting the military to every possible woke agenda — except ensuring military superiority and the safety of the United States.

•
The result is the horrific mess of a premodern Taliban army routing the most sophisticated military in the history of civilization. We shudder when America begs premodern tribes not to murder our citizens whom we abandoned in full retreat.

•
Airline CEOs virtue-signal their wokeness by damning voter ID laws — though such identification is required to board their airplanes.

•
Some universities now subject their admissions, their hiring and their research to race and gender directives.

•
Are college administrators really so virtuous when they boast of improving diversity, equity and inclusion? Why, then, do they ignore indebted and poorly educated graduates — veritable serfs who cannot afford homes, put off raising families and prolong their adolescence rather than becoming autonomous citizens?

•
We know from centuries past which policies ensure public safety and which guarantee crime. All laws must be enforced equally.

•
Yet now, suicidal legal and critical race theories sometimes govern which laws are enforced and which are ignored.

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If a state attorney prosecutes crimes — or chooses not to prosecute them — on the basis of ideology and race rather than on questions of impartial law, then who would obey, much less honor any of them?

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The police must not just be monitored, but respected and supported. Today they are defamed and defunded.

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If those who commit crimes do not expect to be arrested and punished, then crime pays. And so we get more of it.

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Before a country can conduct cancer research, explore outer space or defeat its enemies thousands of miles away, its citizens must have access to affordable fuel, food and shelter.

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But ideologues now restrict irrigation water, gasoline supplies, power generation and timber production.

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Social media fights, the cancel culture wars between celebrities and elites, the virtue-signaling of academics and actors — all of it means nothing if Americans do not have safe roads; viable travel; affordable gas, food and housing; and safety in their homes.

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Increasingly, they do not have these things. Woke leaders are losing the ability to do the hard and essential work of civilization, largely because they are obsessed with the dispensable.

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Until our officials can ensure a humane and sustainable standard of living, we have no business lecturing others abroad, much less conducting endless witch hunts of our own at home.
President Biden has chosen decline (INN 08/25/2021)
Welcome to the Forever Pandemic (JWR 08/25/2021)
Cal Thomas: Afghanistan's horrors will spread. Does Team Biden have a grip on reality? (Fox 08/24/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Elitist Democrats want you to shut up and obey (Fox 08/24/2021)
Biden's Twin Catastrophes Put US in the Crosshairs (JWR 08/23/2021)
Disgusting! (JWR 08/23/2021)
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... Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama should thank Biden for overshadowing them as, without doubt, the most incompetent president in U.S. history.

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As Afghanistan fell into the terrorist hands of the Taliban thanks to Biden's complete surrender and botched withdrawal, the Idiot in Chief doubled down on his stupid decision which will undoubtedly cause the deaths of thousands and make the world a more dangerous place in the weeks, months, and years to come...

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"He is determined in retreat, defiant in surrender, and confident in the rightness of consigning the country to jihadist rule."

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After nearly 3,000 American lives lost, $1 trillion spent, and the effort of so many over the course of 20 years who wanted to do the right thing, we have left that country in worst shape than before we invaded it. The terrorists won.

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"The world has seen a President portraying surrender as an act of political courage, and retreat as strategic wisdom."

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After seven months in office the man has done more damage domestically and internationally than I ever thought possible in that short a period.

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The idiot has more than three years left (if he can still be propped up and able to read a teleprompter).

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The leftists who are pulling his strings can still do a lot of damage to this country.
Vivek Ramaswamy: Biden's Afghanistan catastrophe – here are the 3 flawed assumptions that led to debacle (Fox 08/23/2021)
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The first flawed assumption relates to speed: the Biden administration wrongly assumed there was no way the Taliban could seize power as quickly as it did.

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The second flawed assumption relates to strength of allegiance: the Biden administration wrongly assumed that the Afghan military would fight as hard for democracy as the Taliban troops would fight for their cause, naively concluding that the Afghan military would prevail simply because it was more numerous and better-armed.

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The single most effective deterrent to the Taliban would have been a credible threat from America to completely decimate the Taliban if the latter reneged on its prior agreements relating to America's exit.

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Yet when America's president obsesses over self-criticism, claims that America's history is "stained," and instructs military generals to teach our forces about White privilege, he lacks moral standing on the global stage to use extraordinary force against our enemies precisely at the moments where we need it most.

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The Taliban took a calculated risk to seize Kabul because they doubted that America would do anything about it. They were right.

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That same factor accounts for why the Afghan military was less impassioned to fight for our cause than the Taliban was to fight for theirs.

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Why would they fight for a form of government that reflects the ideals of a country whose leader consistently criticizes itself?

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Taliban leaders had more conviction in their cause than President Biden appeared to have in the American vision.

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Taliban fighters were more inspired to fight for their cause than the Afghan military was to fight for ours – and that's why Afghan soldiers simply put down their guns even as they were armed with superior equipment and outnumbered the Taliban by nearly 5-to-1.

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Enemies like the Taliban increasingly understand this dynamic and exploit it to their advantage.

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Most importantly of all, there was a third flawed assumption whose implications will haunt future geopolitical conflicts: corporate America has now turned its back on America.

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Our technology companies are the most powerful companies in human history: even the Dutch East India Company could not control the acceptable bounds of thought or debate, as American social media companies do today.

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But there's a critical difference: while the Dutch East India Company consistently advanced the global interests of the Dutch Republic, America's top companies now actively betray American interests abroad.

•
See Twitter's behavior last week. Twitter consciously allowed the Taliban to use its platform to communicate in real-time with its followers as it staged a military coup, even as it maintains a permanent ban on America's 45th president from communicating with his own followers here at home.

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This tactically aided the Taliban to consummate their takeover of Kabul, but even more importantly, it lends the Taliban a patina of moral authority that the group otherwise lacked: a powerful multinational company has now signaled that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is a more legitimate figure than President Donald J. Trump.

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China heeded the lesson as it took further military steps in its pursuit of Taiwan in recent days – and they fully expect corporate America to stand by their side.

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Multinational companies like Disney and Nike consistently criticize social injustice here in the United States while staying silent about true human rights abuses in China, including its treatment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Province – one of the greatest human rights atrocities committed by a major nation since the Third Reich.

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Over 1 million Uighurs have been consigned to concentration camps that include forced sterilization and Communist indoctrination, yet multinational companies that criticize "systemic racism" and "transphobia" in the United States say nothing about it.

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If their present behavior is any indication, these same companies will praise China as it proceeds to invade Taiwan in the years ahead – all the while eroding the moral standing of the United States to do anything about it as they criticize America's social injustices that pale in comparison to those of our enemies abroad.

•
The winners of this game range from large corporations to the Chinese Communist Party. The real losers of this game are the American people. A solution is still achievable, and the first step is to see the problem with clear eyes.
Victor Davis Hanson: If Biden were a Republican, Dems in Congress would have impeached him. They should (Fox 08/22/2021)
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The American-nurtured Afghan military of the last 20 years that had suffered thousands of prior casualties evaporated in a few hours in the encirclement of Kabul.

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Enlistees apparently calculated that their own meager chances with the premodern Taliban were still better than fighting as a dependency of the postmodern United States — despite its powerful diversity training programs.

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Forces more powerful than the Taliban, in places far more strategic, will now leverage an ideologically driven but predictably incompetent administration, a woke Pentagon and politically weaponized intelligence communities.

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Why not, when Biden asks Russia's Vladimir Putin to request that Russian-related hackers be a little less rowdy in their selection of U.S. targets?

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And why not, when our own military jousts with the windmills of "white supremacy" as Afghans fall from U.S. military jets in fatal desperation to reach such a supposedly racist nation?

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Biden keeps repeating that he was bound by former President Donald Trump's planned withdrawal. Really?

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A mercurial Trump repeatedly demonstrated that he was willing to use air power to protect U.S. personnel and to bomb an Islamic would-be caliphate. The Taliban knew that and so struck when Trump was gone.

•
Biden claims he was bound by Trump's decision to withdraw and thus cannot be blamed for his reckless operation of a predetermined departure.

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But all Biden has done since entering office is destroy Trump pacts, overturning past agreements on energy leases, protocols with Latin America and Mexico on border security, and pipeline contracts.

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In a sane world, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense would resign. We have heard for too long their careerist boasts about assigning climate change as their chief challenge.

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For too long they have virtue-signaled their critical race theory credentials to Congress. For too long they have bragged about rooting out alleged white supremacists from their ranks. For too long they have sparred with journalists while fighting Twitter wars and issuing cartoonish commercials attesting to their woke credentials.

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In other words, they sermonized on anything and everything — except their plans to prevent a humiliating military defeat of U.S. forces and their allies.

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Our intelligence and investigatory agencies are just as morally suspect. ... Current and retired intelligence lackeys and careerists all wasted years promulgating Russian "collusion." They swore Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian "disinformation."

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They surveilled and unmasked officials and hatched adolescent plots against an elected president. All that was more important to their careers than warning of the growing threats in Afghanistan.

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In the aftermath of the Afghan debacle, we must de-politicize and de-weaponize these warped agencies and incompetent institutions.

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We could get a symbolic start by pulling security clearances from all retired operatives, officers and diplomats who go on television to offer partisan analysis.

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The retired and pensioned top brass should finally be held to account if they violate tenets of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. When four-star generals lecture the nation that an elected president is a Mussolini or Nazi-like but keep mum during the greatest military setback in a half-century, they should forfeit exemptions from existing military codes.

•
Retired officers who revolve in and out of corporate defense contractor boards and Pentagon billets should have a cooling-off period of five years before leveraging their inside knowledge of the Pentagon procurement labyrinth.

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As for Biden, his team in defeat threatens the victorious Taliban with possible ostracism from global diplomacy as the price of their illiberality.

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We are to assume that in between executing women, the Taliban will fear losing the chance to visit the U.N. in New York.

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Biden has defied a Supreme Court ruling and assumed that it was a good thing to have broken the law.

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Under his watch, the fate of America's border, equal enforcement of the laws, economy, energy, safety from crime, foreign policy and racial relations have imploded — and in seven months no less.

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If Biden were a Republican, the current Democratic House would have impeached him. It would have been right to have done so.
KT McFarland: Joe Biden is living in an alternate reality. Afghanistan proves it (Fox 08/21/2021)
Tucker Carlson: American weakness has been exposed, a problem that will become a threat (Fox 08/19/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Vaccine mandates are not about COVID, but about autonomy and rational decision-making (Fox 08/18/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Our leaders botched the Afghanistan withdrawal, they were too busy destroying the US (Fox 08/18/2021)
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Turns out - surprise - they aren't an enlightened bunch! They're not only stuck in the dark ages; they prefer everyone join them there. So they have that in common with the green new deal.

•
... we've been told by the press this is a kinder, gentler Taliban. So what's that mean exactly? They only partially behead you? They only throw gays out of an eight-story window, not a twelve-story one.

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Did you see how one Taliban leader freed from Gitmo by then-president Obama, is back on the job - and I don't mean as a tenured professor.

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I'm not bashing the decision to leave. It's how the atrocious exit negated so much sacrifice. This is truly a man-made disaster.

•
... if 20 years made no difference on the exit, you think taking another few months would make any difference? But still, it's on Biden.

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Remember as president, he said that the number one threat to America — wasn't the Taliban, al Qaeda, or ISIS. It's millions of white voters.

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He didn't see the Taliban resurgence, because he was too busy indulging fabricated adversaries in between photo-ops of him licking ice cream cones.

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And as for the Democrats - it's par for the course. In Afghanistan, just as on the border, or in law enforcement, the Dems always embrace what undermines order.

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Taliban leaders were in the president's palace. One missile would have ended that photo-op.

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But how would the chattering classes take to that? Sorry, that swift brutal action should be reserved only for the insurrectionists at the Capitol.

•
Over here, our effed-up media focused on plastic straws, mean tweets, racist Halloween costumes, misgendering, refusing a vaccine, or appropriating another ethnic group's food in the school cafeteria.

•
And in all that time, we still hadn't prepared for this moment.

•
That's amazing. Imagine you got 20 years to plan on your exit, and it's this bad.

•
What were our leaders doing? Too busy destroying this country, I guess.
Newt Gingrich: Biden's Afghanistan debacle reminds us that when the world gets tough, Joe hides from reality (Fox 08/18/2021)
•
The gap between the television scenes of thousands of panic-stricken Afghans desperate to leave their country and Biden's calm, almost subdued speech was enormous.

•
He stoically defended his decision to surrender and blamed everyone except for his own administration for the disastrously chaotic, dangerous U.S. exit from the country.

•
Meanwhile, the rest of the world witnessed a clearly massive failure of leadership in which the American government turned its back on a 20-year ally.

•
How could Biden say, "I have been clear that human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery," as the Taliban begins to oppress every woman and girl in the country and institute a policy of seizing women and girls to force them to marry Taliban fighters?

•
Does Biden truly not understand that the Taliban victory is a massive victory against women by a medieval movement rooted in the ideas of the 7th century?

•
How could Biden smear the courageous Afghans who had risked their lives for decades fighting against the Taliban and allying with the United States?

•
This is among the most cowardly lies any American president has said about an ally. While some 2,448 Americans have been killed in the 20-year war, the Afghan military has lost nearly 30 times as many (an estimated 69,000).

•
This by no means diminishes the sacrifice and bravery of American troops – but it refutes Biden's callous denigration of our Afghan allies.

•
Further, to suggest that the interpreters, guides, and informants who risked their lives – and their family's lives – helping American troops were unwilling to sacrifice for their own future is a vicious lie told by a failing leader who is trying to mask his own incompetence.

•
Contrast Biden's words Monday with his words in July, when he told reporters a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was not inevitable. At that time, he said, "the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped — as well-equipped as any army in the world — and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable... Do I trust the Taliban? No. But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more re- — more competent in terms of conducting war."

•
See how quickly Biden turns his back on allies when he's trying to save face? Can you also see how dangerous this is for America? With the world watching the Biden decision to chaotically cut and run on an ally, why should Taiwan, the Europeans, South Korea, or any other ally trust and rely on President Biden?

•
There is a reason former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (who served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama) said Biden has been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." When the world gets tough, Biden hides from reality.

•
And to be perfectly clear: This is dangerous for our allies, our troops abroad – and Americans at home.

•
With a historically porous southern border, President Biden is presiding over the recreation of a worldwide wave of terrorist enthusiasm – and the rebuilding of a terrorist sanctuary in Afghanistan. If there was ever a time for implementing serious, robust border security, it is now.

•
Unfortunately, President Biden's failure in Afghanistan is just the latest in a series of failures that weakened America and strengthened hostile nations.

•
Killing the Keystone XL pipeline and attacking American energy production while approving the Russian pipeline to our allies in Western Europe hurt America.

•
Dividing and demoralizing the American military with internal, ideological witch hunts and special courses on woke radical social values is enabling the Chinese and Russians to keep their militaries focused on learning how to defeat us.

•
Responding to the continuing and enormous Chinese military buildup (including two new intercontinental ballistic missile fields) with an American defense budget that has no increase – even while the U.S. Navy is shrinking to its weakest position since before World War I – is hurting America.
Three simple ways you can beat Wokeness and Cancel Culture (INN 08/17/2021)
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Say what's on your mind.

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If enough people speak up, the left will retreat. They can't cancel most of the population.

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If someone defriends you for your views, be happy.

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... think about it. If someone defriends you merely for expressing political views they don't like, how real of a friend were they in the first place? You are better off without them...

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Learn which companies and institutions support the woke lunacy, and then don't patronize them.

•
... if you are patronizing woke companies, you are not only not opposing leftism, you are paying the leftists for the very rope that they will later use to hang you and your children.

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Woke companies are a primary funding source for the evil that the left now perpetrates. Cut off the funder's funds and the problem will be solved.

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All the above is also applicable to the schools and universities you choose to send your kids to. Don't go broke helping a school that's woke.

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If masses of good people would cut their spending with woke concerns even in half, let alone more than that, we would quickly regain at least a semblance of normality.

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As the slogan goes, "Just do it."
The president America deserves, the mess we saw coming (INN 08/17/2021)
The unbroken history of socialist failure (JWR 08/17/2021)
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Championed by people who are repelled by economic inequality, socialism invariably worsens those disparities by combining them with political inequality. Thus a system rooted in idealism leads, always, to corruption and cynicism.

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Under every one of the socialist regimes of the past 100-plus years, from the Soviet Union to Cuba to Cambodia to North Korea to Venezuela, the gap separating the rich and powerful from the poor and impotent grew wider.

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And who were the rich and powerful? Those who controlled the government. More socialism = more tyranny.

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In all of recorded history, there is no example of a society that became happier, wealthier, fairer, or freer by moving from a market economy to a socialist one.

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"Born of a commitment to remedy the economic and moral defects of capitalism," wrote Heilbroner, the lifelong socialist who belatedly saw the light, socialism "has far surpassed capitalism in both economic malfunction and moral cruelty."

•
Those of us who lived through the fall of the Iron Curtain naively imagined that that lesson had been learned once and for all.

•
Alas, no. Barely a generation later, 59 percent of Democratic voters say they have a positive view of socialism.

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Making the case for economic liberty remains as necessary as ever. The intellectual work isn't finished, and probably never will be.
Lessons from Afghanistan (JWR 08/17/2021)
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Among many things the U.S and the West in general have failed to understand about the Taliban is their religious motivation. They claim they are conquering Afghanistan in the name of Allah.

•
It reminds me of a verse from the New Testament book of John: "... the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God." (John16:2 NLT).

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How do you repel such radical Islamic fanaticism? Not by quitting a war the enemy continues to fight. It's going to be a hard lesson, especially if we face another attack created by a reconstituted al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
The fact is that Kabul 2021 IS Saigon 1975 (JWR 08/17/2021)
Gutfeld: As we watched terrorists waltz into power, what were we doing? (Fox 08/17/2021)
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20 years, billions of dollars, and no plan. Or maybe we had a plan but Joe left it in the men's room at Cold Stone Creamery.

•
But what were our priorities while this war went on for decades? For us, at home, it was bad cops, bad tweets, bad combustible engines, bad pronouns. Yes, the CDC reminds us it's pregnant people instead of moms. I'm so glad we won that battle.

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Meanwhile, our armed forces put out highly polished recruitment ads that ticked all the intersectional boxes.

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We're not sure how to win wars, but at least if we lose them, we won't be able to blame just old white men.

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We also learned that our military leaders assigned left-wing anti-racist tones to our troops. So, at least the Afghan military can hate America as much as we're supposed to.

•
Think about it, 20 years preparing for this moment and we're as lost as Joe Biden trying to find a White House entrance.

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As we watched terrorists waltz into power, what were we doing? Well, we obsessed over white supremacists on January 6 with our commander in chief yelling nevermind the Bin Laden look-alike with the rocket launcher.

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You wonder why Kabul fell faster than Joe Biden walking up a flight of stairs. How about viewing opposition to mask mandates as the same threat as terrorists?

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Yeah, your aunt who wants election transparency is no different than people who flew planes into American buildings.

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So your uncle who won't get vaccinated till it's FDA-approved, well, he'll be the first terrorist waterboarded while being made to wear a surgical mask.

•
So as the Taliban assumes control without a hiccup, we should at least see part of the reason why. It's in that chart which shifted the threat from one group to another and played down the madmen of the past.

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We weren't fighting a war in Afghanistan, we were fighting it here in America against ourselves... Biden, Trump trade accusations on Afghanistan 8/17/21 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-trump-trade-accusations-afghanistan
Tucker blasts Afghanistan withdrawal: Biden did ‘necessary thing’ in ‘ugliest possible way’ (Fox 08/17/2021)
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"Just because something is necessary doesn't mean you get to ignore the details of it. If you learned you needed an emergency appendectomy, would it matter to you who performed the operation – a surgeon with a scalpel or a drunk guy with a pocket knife?"

•
"Yes, it would matter to you. But it didn't matter to Joe Biden, apparently. He barely mentioned the withdrawal. Biden did the necessary thing in the ugliest possible way."

•
"They couldn't even secure a single runway. And that's the main lesson of the fall of Kabul. We are led by buffoons. They have no idea what they're doing, we know that now. They're imposters."

•
"So our government's official position is that American lives are not more valuable than the lives of foreigners. But you already knew that because you've seen our southern border."

•
"Why did the Taliban win? How did the sixth-century triumph over the 21st century? Maybe it's possible we failed in Afghanistan because the entire neo-liberal program is grotesque. It's a joke."
Why America can't win wars (INN 08/16/2021)
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"Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. That's why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. The very thought of losing is hateful to Americans." -General George S. Patton...

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Why can't America win wars? You've gotta fight a war to win a war. And we don't fight wars.

•
We were propping up a government that wouldn't exist without us. We were exporting our ideals.

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We were trying to win hearts and minds. We were trying to stabilize an inherently unstable part of the world. What we weren't doing was fighting and winning.

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Wars, like stories, are simple things if you define a goal that can be achieved by military means.

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Not only don't we know what we're fighting for, but we couldn't define victory except in terms of Afghanistan turning into San Francisco with coffee shops, courses on feminism, and LGBT parades.

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The Taliban are fighting a culture war by military means. Our elites tried to do the same thing in Afghanistan without being able to define an enemy or victory.

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The same establishment that excels at fighting culture wars against Americans keeps discovering that its toolbox of activism, media bias, and victimhood fails miserably outside the western world.

•
Undermining traditional culture worked in America, they assumed that it would work in Afghanistan.

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Their repeat failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Europe should be a wake-up call to their bright future in Little Mogadishu and all the Islamic enclaves that they've created in America.

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The Taliban play to win. We don't. That's the simple answer to why we haven't won wars in a long time and aren't about to start.

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American soldiers are the best. They win battles all the time. When faced against an enemy that will stand and fight, our men roll over them.

•
We aren't losing those kinds of battles: we keep losing wars in which the leaders can't define what a war is or what victory looks like in military terms.

•
Let's get back to Patton for a moment. "Sure, we all want to go home. We want to get this war over with. But you can't win a war lying down. The quickest way to get it over with is to get the bastards who started it" and "I don't want any messages saying 'I'm holding my position.' We're not holding a goddamned thing. We're advancing constantly."

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Wars can be won when you're out to defeat the enemy. When you're not out to defeat the enemy, you never win the war and you never go home until you get tired of holding your position and waiting for the culture to change.

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The inability to define war or victory isn't a military problem: it's a cultural problem.

•
We can't win wars because while Patton's "Americans play to win all the time. That's why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war" may still ring true in parts of the country, it's as alien to the elites who run the country as the Taliban are.

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It's a strange species of exotica for people who drink organic seltzer, hand out participation trophies, and spend all their time worrying about victimhood.

•
They view the military as a means to a non-military end. That's how we ended up in Afghanistan. Stability, cultural transformation, and all the rest of it are non-military ends.

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If you want to use the military to achieve a non-military end, you have to engage in conquest and then use force to transform a region or a society. That's what the Taliban did and that's what they'll be doing again.

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After successfully using the military for a military end, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, defeating our named enemies, our elites embarked on an impotent program of cultural change in which they couldn't tell themselves the truth about what they were doing or even explain why the military was there.

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They assumed that they were liberating the innate forces of progress and civilization which would thrive if we just had some soldiers there to protect them.

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We were trying to protect client states that couldn't stand on their own. We were practicing imperialism without the empire and it was always bound to fall apart on us.

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"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." - Sun Tzu

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Americans don't know the enemy. And increasingly our elites don't know ourselves.
Do We Still Have the Constitution? (JWR 08/16/2021)
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We need resistance to tyranny in order to stay free. Power unresisted continues to grow and to corrupt.

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History teaches that most people prefer the illusion of safety to the cacophony of liberty.

•
The only reason we have civil liberties today is because generations of determined minorities — starting with the revolutionaries in the 1770s — have fought for them.

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Today, we are governed by dangerous people who are again threatening to take away our ability to make personal choices, and to use force to compel compliance.

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In doing that, they will not only have violated their oaths to uphold the Bill of Rights; they also will have committed the criminal acts of nullifying our rights.

•
We must remind them that by using the powers of state governments to do this, they will make themselves candidates for federal criminal prosecutions when saner days return.
The Scale of Humiliation (JWR 08/16/2021)
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"Harmless as an enemy, and treacherous as a friend" : a devastating indictment, and entirely correct.

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But it neglects the ultimate reality: the bungling superpower can inflict defeat only on itself.
Michael Goodwin: Goodbye, Cuomo and de Blasio – here's how new leadership can save New York City (Fox 08/16/2021)
Jason Chaffetz: Dear Republican Trump haters – What did you get for your trade? (Fox 08/16/2021)
•
A little less than a year ago, a significant number of independent and Republican voters decided to trade bad tweets for bad policy.

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Gone are the good policies that drove the Trump economy and made the world a safer place. In their place are policies antithetical to prosperity, freedom and security.

•
You traded energy efficiency for dependency on the Middle East. Whereas a year ago you enjoyed inexpensive gas, high paying energy jobs, and fewer incentives to entangle ourselves in Middle Eastern politics, today President Biden is begging OPEC to produce more oil.

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You traded an energy pipeline out of Canada for a crime pipeline out of Mexico. Instead of creating jobs for skilled American workers, Biden is creating opportunities for cartels, traffickers and COVID-positive migrants.

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Trump said no to federally funding abortion. You traded for Biden, who wants your taxes to pay for abortion, and your tax dollars are being sent around the world to fund abortion in other countries.

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You traded rising wages for rising prices. Inflation is up sharply - 5.4% from a year ago, swallowing any wage gains produced by a tight labor market.

•
With Democrats controlling the House, the Senate and the presidency, our national debt has exploded to more than $28 trillion.

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Though President Trump was no fan of austerity, his spending priorities, tax reductions and approach to regulations at least drove economic growth and prosperity.

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You traded safety and security for less safety and security. The one and only spending priority Democrats have shown a willingness to cut is security.

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You traded fairness for a George Orwell version of equality. Under the new administration, there are two systems of justice.

•
Protesters on the left can set buildings ablaze, vandalize them and shoplift with impunity. Protesters on the right will be branded, surveilled and prosecuted as domestic terrorists.

•
Americans are not better off than we were eight months ago, with one notable exception. Trump's efforts to engage the private sector in fast-tracking the vaccine have been enormously successful. For that success, Joe Biden is happy to take credit.

•
But the grim reality for Trump haters is this: the tradeoff has been costly. The cost could become even more dear if Democrats are successful in leveraging their slim majority to commandeer control of local elections.

•
Their ability to tilt the playing field dramatically in their favor could prevent voters from ever restoring the freedom and prosperity we took for granted just eight months ago.
Rep. August Pfluger: Afghanistan reveals the Biden Doctrine – Hear no evil. See no evil. Stop no evil. (Fox 08/16/2021)
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The unmitigated disaster in Afghanistan must be a wake-up call to every American. Our strength, our resolve and our future as the world leader and defender of democracy is being tested in real-time. And President Biden is failing.

•
I grew up in the doctrine of peace through strength, and it worked. Biden's doctrine of "crisis due to weakness," is forcing our nation to realize an incredible number of threats from every possible direction.

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Instead of protecting our country, Biden and his administration are surrendering to our enemies and rendering us more vulnerable to all.

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... it is heartbreaking to watch the reports come from Afghanistan of the destruction of Afghan national forces and the Taliban's rolling through the streets of Kabul in less than a week.

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The United States spent nearly two decades expending blood and treasure fighting the Taliban, denying Al Qaeda a terrorist stronghold, instituting democratic values, and building relationships with our Afghan partners.

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Now, the Chinese Communist Party, which is waging a campaign of genocide against the Muslim minority in their own county, is preparing to formally recognize the Taliban and expand their Belt and Road Initiative into Afghanistan.

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The upcoming 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack will be marked with the complete takeover of Afghanistan and Kabul by the Taliban.

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This utter failure is a stain on America's reputation — as we turn the country right back over to enemies of America and grotesque human rights abusers. ...

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The Biden administration's lack of planning and inability to accept the realities on the ground is nothing short of an unmitigated and easily predictable national security and humanitarian disaster.

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The images of helicopters leaving the U.S. Embassy in Kabul harken back to those of Saigon in 1975. The lack of planning to address the safety and security of our Afghan partners is astonishing.

•
Our promises to the Afghan faithful that fought and died alongside our U.S. service members and civilian personnel for decades have been shattered.

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Their failed decisions and hasty withdrawal will have lasting impacts on America's security and ability to engage partners and allies for generations.

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The president continues to deny the national security and humanitarian crisis unfolding at our own southern border. Hundreds of thousands of people are flooding into the country illegally every single month with enough drugs to kill every American.

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We are aware of Known and Suspected Terrorists (KSTs) crossing into the United States and the ensuing chaos in Afghanistan is sure to make that rise exponentially. ... Biden is hiding the numbers from the American people, living up to his tactics of non-transparency and deceit.

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The administration is relentless in their pursuit to harm American energy production and energy security, all while handing Vladimir Putin a major strategic victory with the tacit approval of the Nord Stream II pipeline.

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Last week's begging of OPEC to produce more energy into the global market comes after American sources are handicapped by government fiat was laughable.

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The administration fails to recognize or hold the CCP accountable for its role and cover up of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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We must ask ourselves, is our country safer under this administration? With Biden's "head in the sand" policies, the answer is undeniably no.

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These examples tell the story of our national security. How hard it is to achieve. How easy it is to lose. The sacrifices of so many are in vain.

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President Biden's failure to keep our nation safe is an embarrassment. His administration never engages Congress in these solutions. Our pleas from the border have been repeatedly ignored. The benefits of American-made energy are belittled with climate alarmist nonsense. Our concerns about rushed withdrawal from Afghanistan fall on deaf ears.
Newt Gingrich: Fighting 'woke industrial complex' – here's how we restore faith, patriotism and morality (Fox 08/15/2021)
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Stakeholder capitalism is the idea that companies should serve not only their shareholders but also other interests and society at large.

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This ideology, championed by America's business and political leaders, promises a better, more diverse, and environmentally friendly world. Social justice is the purported goal.

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In reality, this insidious idea is an invitation for politics to infect business, creating a marriage between big business and big government that has the two working in concert.

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The result is a hybrid behemoth of immense power, capable of controlling our money, our voice, even our identity.

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One way this malevolent force exercises power is by creating a culture of fear. Anyone who questions woke dogma is labeled a racist and effectively exiled as a pariah.

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Big Tech silences conservative speech under the Orwellian guise of stopping "misinformation." The list of authoritarian tactics goes on.

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... we live in a moment when both religion and patriotism are on the decline. There is a dark void at the center of our national identity being filled by malevolent forces. One of those forces is wokeness, which has all the characteristics of a religion but does more to divide than to unite us.

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Absent faith, patriotism and any sense of a traditional, objective morality, multiple generations of younger Americans are hungry for identity and a sense of purpose. For many, wokeness is serving as a seductive yet ultimately inadequate replacement.

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Contributing to our current cultural crisis is a deep and justified mistrust of society's most prominent institutions.

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From corporate America to the media to our education system, we're being lied to and fed propaganda about COVID-19, race and our own history.

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The proper response to all this is to push back with a renewed vision of moral and American identity that is more meaningful and satisfying than wokeness.

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This is a crucial moment in American history. We must begin to counter the insidious advances of the woke industrial complex and work to restore faith, patriotism and a proper sense of morality to our culture.

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See related The Circle of Life (Glenn McCoy, 03/30/2016) cartoon from Government picture album
Levin: Biden operating 'the most diabolical presidency and Democratic Party probably since slavery' (Fox 08/15/2021)
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... congressional Democrats with Biden's blessing seek to permanently transform America from a capitalist model to one that is far to the left by ushering in "American Marxism" through massive legislative bills disguised as "infrastructure" and "voting rights."

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Combined ... the Democrats seek to nullify the opposition Republican Party and control all levers of power in a way not seen in over 150 years.

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"The economics of that, how that's going to impoverish so many Americans in the war on success, the destruction of the voting system to make it [so] only one party can ever win, blowing out the Republican state legislatures so they have no say on it."

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"This is probably the most diabolical presidency and diabolical Democrat Party, probably since slavery."

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Levin went on to describe what he called the collective "thin reed" that separates 245 years of American liberty from tyranny – the two moderate Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.

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"Every other single Democrat senator is marching right behind Chuck Schumer and the American Marxists."

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... their roles as one of the few remaining congressional moderates are evidence America is "always one election away from tyranny."

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"[Democrats] will ram through whatever they have to. They don't play within the boundaries of the Constitution. They play outside the boundaries."

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... Miller, a former speechwriter and aide to President Donald Trump, added that Biden is "the vessel that American Marxists have been waiting for their entire lives to advance their radical program."
Tucker Carlson: Mainstream media will never stand up to Big Tech's censorship (Fox 08/13/2021)
Rep. Michael Waltz: We can still save Afghanistan but we need bold leadership — now (Fox 08/13/2021)
Deroy Murdock: Biden's eviction moratorium reveals Dems' utter contempt for rule of law, Constitution (Fox 08/13/2021)
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"I went ahead and did it," Biden said of the CDC's brand-new eviction ban. "I can't guarantee you the Court won't rule if we don't have that authority, but at least we'll have the ability, if we have to appeal, to keep this going for a month at least. I hope longer than that."

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Bidenese-to-English translation: Let's defy the Supreme Court and molest the Constitution for as long as we can get away with it.
We Are Being Ruled by Fear and Deceit (JWR 08/12/2021)
The Diversity Problem on Campus (Newsweek 10/11/2021 )
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American universities are undergoing a profound transformation that threatens to derail their primary mission: the production and dissemination of knowledge.

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The new regime is titled "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" or DEI, and is enforced by a large bureaucracy of administrators.

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Nearly every decision taken on campus, from admissions, to faculty hiring, to course content, to teaching methods, is made through the lens of DEI. This regime was imposed from the top and has never been adequately debated.

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The words "diversity, equity and inclusion" sound just, and are often supported by well-intentioned people, but their effects are the opposite of noble sentiments.

•
Most importantly, "equity" does not mean fair and equal treatment. DEI seeks to increase the representation of some groups through discrimination against members of other groups.

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The underlying premise of DEI is that any statistical difference between group representation on campus and national averages reflects systemic injustice and discrimination by the university itself.

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DEI violates the ethical and legal principle of equal treatment. It entails treating people as members of a group rather than as individuals, repeating the mistake that made possible the atrocities of the 20th century.

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The core business of the university is the search for truth. A university's intellectual environment depends fundamentally on its commitment to hiring the most talented and best trained minds: any departure from this commitment must come at the expense of academic excellence, and ultimately will compromise the university's contribution to society.

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DEI undermines the public's trust in universities and their graduates. ... If current trends continue, employers and consumers will quickly adjust their perception of the value of a university degree.

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Viewed objectively, American universities already are incredibly diverse. They feature people from all countries, races and ethnicities (for example, one of us was born and raised in Chile, and is classified as Hispanic by his university).

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American universities are diverse not because of DEI, but because they have been extremely competitive at attracting talent from all over the world.

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Ninety years ago Germany had the best universities in the world. Then an ideological regime obsessed with race came to power and drove many of the best scholars out, gutting the faculties and leading to sustained decay that German universities never fully recovered from.

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We should view this as a warning of the consequences of viewing group membership as more important than merit, and correct our course before it is too late.
The Demise of the Love Gov (JWR 08/12/2021)
'Woke' nonsense is warping everyday life (JWR 08/12/2021)
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Have we ever had a president who made no pretense about destroying federal immigration law and asking of Americans what he does not ask of those entering the country illegally?

•
Joe Biden has also conceded that his moratorium on housing evictions defied a Supreme Court ruling. He added that he probably didn't have the legal authority to ignore the court but didn't really care.

•
As in the case of demolishing immigration law, the president seems either unaware or proud that he is insidiously dismantling the Constitution.

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America has also never before seen such overt and multifaceted efforts to undermine the foundations of free-market capitalism.

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At a time of resurging GDP, low unemployment and record worker shortages, Biden has announced that renters can continue to avoid paying what they owe their landlords — even after a prior year of free housing.

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In a rebounding economy amid record debt, the government is still sending workers unemployment benefits that are more remunerative than the paychecks they would earn if employed.

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Such insanity not only means that labor-short employers can't provide goods and services to American consumers; the new ethos also institutionalizes the pernicious idea that it is smarter to stay home and be idle than to get a job and be productive.

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Biden is also considering further extending exemptions for the repayment of $1.7 trillion in student loans. That amnesty will only further mainstream this growing notion that borrowing money entails no legal or moral obligation to pay it back.

•
No one seems to acknowledge that both students and the universities that lured them to borrow knew the risks they were taking.

•
Meanwhile, millions of American youth, the working classes who choose not to attend college, and those who paid off their loans or whose parents saved enough over the years to cover their tuition obligations will subsidize the debt evaders by paying higher taxes.

•
Inflation is roaring back. Soaring prices are a direct result of incentivizing the unemployed not to work, while discouraging manufacturers and producers of food, gas, oil, timber, mineral and metals.

•
Rising crime rates are likewise not accidental. Increasing crime is the logical result of releasing thousands of criminals from prison, defunding and defaming the police, and empowering woke mayors and prosecutors to contextualize crime as the fault of society, not the criminal.

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Race relations have regressed 50 years. Under the fad of critical race theory, the color of our skin is now deemed essential to who we are.

•
... the current woke revolution is an elite, top-down effort to smear a self-critical and always improving nation as some sort of contemporary racist hellhole.

•
George Orwell would say of these cultural Marxists that they grab power in the present to reinvent the past in order to control our futures.

•
All this multifaceted chaos is not just faculty lounge stuff. We are beginning to see the collective craziness filter down to disruptions in our everyday lives.

•
What started out as elite woke nonsense now warps daily life. If we don't wake up from wokeness, we will continue on our sure trajectory to self-inflicted, systemic paralysis — followed by civilizational collapse.
Tucker Carlson: Schools are creating tribalism in our kids (Fox 08/12/2021)
Jonathan Turley: Oregon, others ditch standardized tests — it's our kids who will be hurt most (Fox 08/11/2021)
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With states like Oregon now eliminating the need to demonstrate proficiency on basic subjects with standardized tests, American education faces the perfect storm.

•
Despite record taxpayer spending on public schools, too many government-run, union-controlled schools are still failing students — particularly minority students — in teaching the basic subjects needed to succeed in life.

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Too many schools are graduating students without testing barriers for graduation. Then too many may go to colleges and universities that have also eliminated standardized testing for admission.

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At every stage in their education, they have been passed along by educators without objective proof that they are minimally educated. That certainly guarantees high graduation rates or improved diversity admissions.

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However, these students are still left without any marketable skills as they enter an increasingly competitive job market and economy.

•
Any failures will come down the road when they will be asked to write, read, or add by someone who is looking for actual work product. They will then be outside of the educational system and any failures will not be attributed to public educators.

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If we truly care for these students, we cannot rig the system to just kick them down the road toward failure. It is like declaring patients healthy by just looking at them and sending them on their way.

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We have the ability to measure proficiency and we have the moral obligation to face our own failures in helping our kids achieve and succeed.

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See related Math (Mike Lester, 02/17/2010) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden's trillions-dollar agenda is staggeringly irresponsible (JWR 08/10/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Hungarian architecture proves Americans don't understand 'how bad it can get' (Fox 08/10/2021)
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... Hungarian and Central European architecture is essentially a lesson to the West of how good Americans have it, to the point that they don't understand or can't fathom the world across the oceans from them...

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... pointed to bullet holes still lodged in the Gothic buildings – something few places in the U.S. outside of towns like Gettysburg, Pa., or Franklin, Tenn., – can lay claim to.

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"I wish I lived in a city full of bullet holes in the building because every morning you look at them and you think to yourself, it could be really bad because it's been really bad. There's a lot at stake."

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... the permanently damaged buildings remind Hungarians to "make wise, sober, long term decisions or else you could wind up with more bullet holes."

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"I could spend all day leveling very accurate accusations against the American foreign policy establishment, but the main one would be that they have no sense of how bad things can get."

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"America is an optimistic country, always has been," Carlson said noting that the pilgrims "showed up in this mostly untouched continent with the most fertile farmland in the world and an ocean to separate us from the lunatics."

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"And it gave us the feeling that anything is possible and everything has been possible. And I've never stopped being grateful for that or proud of it. But the downside to that, the flip side, the obverse, the other side of the coin, as you say in Hungary, is that Americans have no sense of how bad things can get, that it actually could be a lot worse. Our physical isolation cuts us off from the history of the rest of the world."

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"There's not a passion to study what happened before in a place that you're building a new. Right, right. So we don't have a sense of that. So I love your bullet holes. Let me just say, I'm probably the only visitor to your nation has complimented your small arms and artillery scars ...The buildings are pretty. The architecture uplifts. So this is another this is another third rail of American politics."

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"Every Hungarian I have met, every from the driver to the waiter to the border guard had better English than our own president."
Tucker Carlson: You can be sophisticated or a superspreader (Fox 08/10/2021)
Andrew Cuomo is not the real problem (INN 08/09/2021)
The eviction moratorium and the rule of lawlessness (JWR 08/09/2021)
Freedom in the Coming Time of Madness (JWR 08/09/2021)
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Liberty is natural and personal. You can sacrifice yours, but you cannot sacrifice mine.

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Thus, personal liberty — the Declaration of Independence calls our rights inalienable, and the Ninth Amendment reflects freedom's nature as limitless — is insulated from totalitarian and even majoritarian interference.

•
Today, the fear of contagion again gives government cover for its assaults on freedom and poses a question the government does not want to answer: If liberty can be taken away in times of crisis, is it really liberty; or is it just a license, via a temporary government permission slip, subject to the whims of the politicians in power?

•
We cannot permit this to happen again.
Smelling Blood (JWR 08/09/2021)
Deroy Murdock: COVID is an invisible enemy at war with US and Biden is giving aid and comfort to it (Fox 08/09/2021)
•
Biden's red carpet for COVID carriers on the US-Mexico boundary — atop his mandatory vaccines for U.S. military personnel and vaccination papers for lawful foreign visitors — epitomizes hypocrisy, reckless endangerment, and quite likely negligent homicide.

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"More than 18 percent of migrant families and 20 percent of unaccompanied minors who recently crossed the U.S. border tested positive for COVID on leaving Border Patrol custody over the past two to three weeks."

•
It appears that COVID-positive illegal immigrants are rarely quarantined. Instead, they enjoy taxpayer-funded bus and airplane rides to cities across America. They reach their destinations after Team Biden neither asks permission of nor even alerts relevant state and local officials.

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These jurisdictions then must cope with COVID-19-positive foreign citizens who have broken into America and instantly become health burdens on communities already reeling under this pandemic, the delta variant, and a range of other socio-economic-medical nightmares that hardly need illegal aliens to exacerbate their cost and complexity.

•
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, America's most accomplished political chief executive, treated Biden last week with all the contempt that he so richly deserves for simultaneous sanctimoniousness and total disregard for the health and safety of the American people.

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"This is a guy who ran for president saying he was going to shut down the virus, And what has he done? He's imported more virus from around the world by having a wide open southern border."

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"Why don't you do your job? Why don't you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don't wanna hear a blip about COVID from you.

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COVID-19 is an invisible foreign enemy at war with America. Joe Biden's superspreader border policies are giving this deadly virus aid and comfort.

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The president of the United States is guilty of bio-treason.

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Beyond Hiroshima: Blackout warfare (INN 08/07/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: We are the luckiest generation of spoiled brats in the history of the world (Fox 08/07/2021)
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I had no idea that society, through its own inaction and cowardice, could just let it happen... Day by day... Slowly... Until, lo and behold the dystopia shows up at your front door like a naked Amway salesman.

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But that's what's happening. The stats say so, but they're ignored. The local news says so, but they're ignored too.

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America has become the frog sitting in that pot of slow boiling water. Having no idea that in time he'll be some French guy's appetizer.

•
In major cities all over, life is changing. For the worse. And it's incremental, but it is inexorable. Why is that? Why are we fine with this?

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It's a perfect storm of distraction, and exploitation. We are distracted. We have everything we need.

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An abundance of food, a never-ending faucet of trivia, news, and cat videos. Instagram and Tik Tok keep the young ones enthralled. Twitter keeps the maniacs frothing over microaggressions. Porn keeps the boys glued to the screens because there is no stopgap. And the cancel culture mob decides whether we live or die.

•
We are the luckiest generation of spoiled brats in the history of the world. But because of that, we stopped minding the store. And in walked the worst of the worst. The radicals.

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Who said, to themselves: while these suckers are nose deep in their phones, we can do this.

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They're in every power center - they're the politicians, the DAs, the professors, the judges. The social media honchos. Even kindergarten teachers.

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So yeah, I finally got to live in the movies I loved. But sadly it's gonna end like the "Planet of the Apes."
Biden's Unprecedented Attack on the Constitution (JWR 08/06/2021)
The Manhattan Project's 'Martians' Didn't Look Like America (JWR 08/06/2021)
Eastman and Yoo: Dems' unrelenting drive against Trump continues to do real harm to presidency, Constitution (Fox 08/06/2021)
•
The progressive crusade to bring down Donald Trump by any means necessary continues to damage the Office of the President and the Constitution's separation of powers.

•
New York prosecutors succeeded in subpoenaing a sitting president — and thereby interfering with his ability to carry out his duties — all for the sake of indicting a single Trump Organization official for under-reporting taxes.

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Now the Biden administration has inflicted even more damage on the Presidency by waiving Trump's constitutional right to confidential communications with his closest aides.

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In normal times, the Justice Department would immediately reject these demands. Article II of the Constitution specifies, after all, that the President "may require the Opinion" from his principal officers "upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective offices."

•
... the D.C. federal court has recognized that "history and legal precedent teach that documents from a former or an incumbent President are presumptively privileged."

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The Supreme Court has only recognized an exception when a criminal defendant's own constitutional right to information conflicts with the President's right to confidentiality.

•
Then — and only then — has the Court sought to balance the two competing rights by intruding only as necessary on the claim of privilege.

•
Congress's demands for documents and subpoenas for testimony are more far-reaching and much more destructive to the separation of powers.

•
While Congress has a right to investigate the events leading to the terrible riot of January 6, it does not have a right to override the constitutional prerogatives of an independent branch of government.

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If Congress has the right to demand presidential documents and discussions at will, it could just as easily force the Justices of the Supreme Court to reveal their deliberations about the electoral fraud cases brought after the November 3 elections, too.

•
Imagine the howls from Capitol Hill if the Trump Justice Department had issued subpoenas to Nancy Pelosi to obtain internal documents and communications between her and her top legislative advisors about threat assessments provided in the run-up to the January 6 joint meeting of Congress.

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The Department's new position, which appears to be based on political animosity toward the former president, is a terrible (and in our view unconstitutional) idea. That privilege exists not for the personal benefit of a president as an individual but for the benefit of the Republic.

•
Should the Department's politically-motivated waiver of privilege go unchallenged, we can expect to see tit-for-tat waivers every time a new administration from a different political party comes into office.

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Such political "gotcha" is hardly conducive to resolving our political divide, and will likely exacerbate it to the point of undermining our political institutions.

•
The Department of Justice needs to withdraw its waiver of executive privilege, and if it does not, the former president needs to assert it himself and, if need be, litigate to protect the executive privilege not just for himself but for future presidents — the long-term good of the Republic demands no less.
Invasion by any other name (JWR 08/05/2021)
It Isn't Immigration; It's a Government-Sponsored Invasion (JWR 08/05/2021)
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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden administration should look in mirror before casting stones over vaccinations (JWR 08/05/2021)
Jason Chaffetz: What is Biden's biggest flaw? (Fox 08/05/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Rochelle Walensky now makes the laws, and she's taking your private property (Fox 08/05/2021)
When Does the COVID-19 Panic End? (JWR 08/04/2021)
As media push critical race theory, Ayaan Hirsi Ali fears curriculum will teach children to 'hate each other' (Fox 08/04/2021)
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"It divides us into people of different races and it says that these racial differences are irreconcilable and then divisions along gender, along transgender, along immigrants ... It sees no reconciliation, no coming together unless the people that they describe as eternal victims, black people, people of color, women, transgender people, unless they unite to destroy and dismantle our existing institutions. It's a very nihilistic, zero-sum game. It's the worst philosophy I've ever come across."

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One of those institutions that "wokeness" appears to be seeping into, Ali agreed, is American education with the push to teach CRT, a curriculum based on the idea that U.S. institutions are inherently racist.

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"What CRT tells schoolchildren and teachers, educations, is that small children can only relate to one another based on their color and their gender and all of these other identity details that they have."

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"So you have one set of children who will hate the other. Black children and children of color will hate White children because they'll associate them with oppression, and they'll see them as their oppressors."

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"White children, on the other hand, will hate America because they will feel that it's the legacy of America that has saddled them, burdened them with this terrible history. Both sets of children will look at America and America's legacies and institutions and all that they have either with contempt or with hatred and anger or a combination of all."

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But the media has taken hold of CRT, even to the point of shaming opponents and parents live on their programs. ... Ali suggested that the press has jumped on the CRT bandwagon because they've "decided that what sells is divisiveness."

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... was similarly concerned that CRT appears intended to blow up the nuclear family, which she said "just boils my blood."

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"All the work that we've done to fix these programs ... the family, the school, they want to bring all of this down."

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To reverse CRT's influence, Ali noted, is to expose it. "We need to come together, not be driven apart by these crazy people."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Facebook and freedom (INN 08/03/2021)
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.

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On its face, the above definition and descriptor is all well and good. After all, for the U.S. to maintain its vitally important super-power status in the free world, it is critical for the Pentagon to support a qualitatively superior research and development operational arm; a mandatory, non-negotiable departmental mission.

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That being established, it is neither accidental nor incidental that DARPA created LifeLog; a highly specific research and development project which preceded Facebook. Facebook, however, seems to mirror LifeLog to the nth degree!

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Pentagon documents state that the goal of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) LifeLog project is to develop software that deduces behavioral patterns from monitoring people's daily activities, and DARPA officials say the initiative could be used to improve military training as well as the memory of military commanders.

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LifeLog volunteers would be equipped with cameras, sensors, and microphones to record everything they feel, everything they do, and everywhere they go; the research is not classified, which means that LifeLog software could eventually be made available to private companies.

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According to the Pentagon documents, the LifeLog software would not just file geophysical and vital readings, but also emails, instant messages, phone calls, voice mails, snail mail, faxes, and Web-based transactions, as well as links to every radio and TV broadcast the subject hears and every publication, Web site, or database he or she sees.

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The Center for Government and Technology's James X. Dempsey is concerned that such a tool could impact privacy...

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Now that it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that DARPA created LifeLog, it is also the case that its core components, total surveillance and privacy intrusions, became burdensome liabilities for the powers that be. As such, much pressure was applied to scrap it. To cease and desist.

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On February 4, 2004 the agency shut down its so called "LifeLog Project". The project's aim would have been, "to gather in a single place just about everything an individual says, sees or does" .

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On February 4, 2004, a Harvard sophomore named Mark Zuckerberg launched The Facebook, a social media website he had built in order to connect Harvard students with one another.

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How could this be, unless Lifelog and Facebook are Siamese twins separated at birth? Asked and answered. Indeed, on the very exact day, one program "ceased" to exist and another, its mirror image, was born!

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Facebook emerged. In short order, it has become the world's largest social media site; the defacto internet since nearly every site connects to it. And with that size comes great power - the power to lift up and the power to destroy.

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Ask yourselves: why is it that NASDAQ lists Facebook Stock as "Facebook Inc. CIA?" Could it be that said stock symbol is due to Facebook's DARPA/CIA roots?

•
Even more so, another highly consequential query becomes: why are former DARPA employees now working for Facebook? Why, indeed.

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Moving right along, how surprising is it that "Facebook's hardware project called PORTAL was born out of Pentagon-inspired Building 8?" Curious and curiouser.

•
Thankfully, after Facebook's 17 (mostly) destructive years in operation, it became impossible to keep everyone asleep and in the dark.

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Most significantly, the slumbering masses - many of whom became enthralled and addicted to its "engaging" features - are now awakening like sleeping giants.

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When rational people consider the fact that Facebook (alongside collusive social media giants) had the ability to manipulate the results of the 2020 election in a myriad of ways - most tellingly, through outright censorship, to the point of removing, thereby silencing, the President of the United States - what other evidence is required, as per its dangers to the free world?

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Consider the fact that Facebook (again, in tandem with fellow social media giants) has the ability to delete all information which dares to question the efficacy of everything related to covid!

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Effectively, whatever, and whomever, contradicts the leftist narrative becomes a target for communist/socialist style purging on Facebook. This is not hyperbole. It is fact-based.

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Conclusively, urgent questions must be asked, answered, and immediately addressed - with all due speed, deliberation, and seriousness - that is, if freedom aligned ideals and rights are to be preserved within Western Civilization.

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What will it take to stop Facebook from operating akin to a law unto itself, in direct violation of the Constitution writ large?

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Will Facebook be pried loose from its total, lock-step alignment with the Dems, as the operational arm of the left?

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Resultant, will Congress, the representatives of the people, be forced to pry loose Facebook's stranglehold and monopolistic powers, never mind all the much ballyhooed hearings and occasional huffing and puffing on Capitol Hill?

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Finally, since Facebook is allowed to freely operate as a government unto itself, will President Trump's much anticipated lawsuit against Facebook, et al. be the key to opening up the rest of its treacherous Pandora's box?

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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
January 6 was not an Insurrection in America (INN 08/03/2021)
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To call what happened in Washington D.C. on January 6th an Insurrection, is not only preposterous but is an intentional lie. Lies like these fragment society and impune national sovereignty.

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In America January 6 was marked by a very large public street demonstration aimed at protesting a truly questionable election: the way it was conducted, the results that were reported.

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No matter how anyone comes out on the November 2020 election, there was something wrong with the whole thing.

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States changed their election laws only months, even only weeks, before balloting. There was despicable voter harvesting in many states.

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In many states people voted weeks too early, way before the last debate or simply before all the issues were on the table.

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Social media monopolies suppressed the news of the Hunter Biden laptop, which would have been a game-changer.

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The President of the United States was being denied a voice and platform!

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Again, no matter how anyone comes out on claims that the election results were false, there was that screwy thing about how President Trump was leading by wide margins in several battleground Midwestern states in the middle of the night . . . and then the Midwestern states stopped counting . . . and then, when they resumed, Biden suddenly was ahead.

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Whatever the true tally as the numbers had been reported, something manifestly had been unfair. Half the country knew it, and that is why half the country voted as they did and remains dissatisfied.

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In the face of all that stuff, many thousands came to Washington, D.C. to protest.

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They did not come to kill Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi and to seize the reins of power.

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Anyone who ever has read or learned anything about military coups or Bolshevik-style revolutions knows that January 6 was a cookie-cutter Washington, D.C. demonstration that got out of hand, as did scores of racist, anti-Semitic, "Death to the Police" Black Lives Matter demonstrations all summer.

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There were no U.S. military generals or captains or colonels or lieutenants involved in leading or strategizing a coup. Many people came dressed for a carnival, like the ones dressed in bear or wolverine outfits. There was not shooting of rifles, taking of hostages.

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Rather, the D.C. and Capitol Police proved incompetent — something we knew already — and failed to set up sufficient barriers. Consequently, a bunch of angry people in the front lines charged the police barricades and got through, and the throng mindlessly followed them.

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That is what throngs do. They do it at movies, at restaurants, at soccer games, at heavy metal concerts.

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They burst into the Capitol because that's where the throng unpexpectedly flowed. For 99 percent of those inside, it was pure curiosity. So much video shows most people milling about, not sure what next to do once inside a building they had not come to enter.

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... the character who ended up in Pelosi's office with his shoes on her desk was having fun. He had followed the throng, and he ended up where he did. He had not come to seize the government nor to kill Pelosi.

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But where was the insurrection? Where the coup? That also is why the trespassers now on trial for January 6 law-breaking are getting incredibly light sentences like eight months or just probation.

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... these people did not come to overthrow the elected government of the United States. They came to demonstrate their disgust with a broken system, and the thing got no less out of hand than did a summer of left-wing Antifa and Black Lives Matters "insurrections."

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Certainly, perhaps four or five people came to overthrow the government. They just forgot to tell anyone else. What kind of insurrection is that?_

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Would the Bolsheviks have taken Russia or Mao China if simply Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky had shown up one day with a manifesto and a few thousand people chanting slogans? Would Mao have gotten China that way?

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Pelosi has fixated on a political strategy of doing an annual Passion Play about "rescuing democracy" from "fascism" (i.e., from those who do not vote Democrat).

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One year it was a Trump impeachment. The next year another Trump impeachment. This year: no Trump in the White House, so a "January 6 Insurrection Investigation."

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In truth, this canard of "Insurrection" does grave damage to America. Democracy is not in danger from Republican conservatives nor from populists among Independents who just want to be left alone, to enjoy their lives, to keep the lies of "systemic racism" and "critical race theory" out of kids' and grandkids' schools, to keep the police maximally funded and reinforced, to control inflation as it was in the Trump days, and to be spared having to pay "reparations" to people whom they did not harm and who do not deserve a penny from anyone anyway.

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Instead, by fostering the Big Lie of "January 6 Insurrection," Pelosi inserts the idea of insurrection into the American psyche and arena.

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This is terrible. Americans must get rid of her in November 2022. The old-fashioned American way: at the ballot box.

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See related Witch-Hunt Continues (Antonio Branco, 06/01/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Tantrum! (Mike Shelton, 01/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
What's Ripping American Families Apart? Responses From the Bizarre World of New York Times Readers (JWR 08/03/2021)
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... comments written by New York Times subscribers about how proud they were of their children for deciding not to have children of their own.

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Why did these parents take so much pride in their children's decision not to give them grandchildren? Because of climate change.

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You read that right. Better not to have grandchildren than to have grandchildren who will suffer and quite possibly die because of global warming.

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What could better prove the power of the media and the universities to pervert the mind than their having convinced people to be proud of the fact that they would never be grandparents?

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Narcissism: Many Americans were raised to believe they have innumerable rights but few obligations.

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Radical secularism: The belief that one is commanded to "Honor your father and mother" has died along with other core Judeo-Christian values.

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Naivete about life: Many Americans — especially among the religion-free and the well-educated — think life is supposed to be pain-free. And when it isn't, it is someone else's fault (usually parents or white people).

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Incompetent psychotherapists: If most psychotherapists were ineffectual, their patients would only be wasting their money. But many are not merely ineffectual; they do harm.

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Every time I speak to a parent whose child refuses to communicate with them, I ask the parent if their child discussed this issue with his or her therapist. Nearly always, the answer is yes.

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And nearly always, the therapist encouraged the patient in their decision to sever relations with their parents.

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If you want to know how the left has screwed with people's minds, hearts and consciences, just read the comments sections accompanying New York Times articles.

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Then read comments accompanying Wall Street Journal articles. You may not agree with them, but you will encounter nothing so comparably irrational or mean, let alone deranged.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler: Critical race theory and our schools — focus on the ABCs, not CRT (Fox 08/03/2021)
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See related CRT Bully (Gary McCoy, 07/07/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
What Happens When the Government Breaks its Own Laws? (JWR 08/02/2021)
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Can the government get away with planting the seeds of a crime in the minds of innocent folks, providing them with the means for the crime, arresting them before the crime takes place and then charging them with a crime that never occurred?
Thanks to Team Biden, America could soon be on the verge of economic disaster (Fox 08/02/2021)
Mark Levin: I have a plan to liberate your children from Marxists (Fox 08/01/2021)
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"Parents are starting to show up in numbers at school board meetings, but they're abused at these school board meetings, the entrenched unions, the entrenched educational bureaucracy and administrators, the school board members, this cabal, they have no intention of doing what we demand."

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"We spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year for these institutions. They call it public education. Yet we have no say on anything that takes place. We don't even have transparency. While that's got an end. And I got a plan."

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"It's not just for parents. It's for those of us who care about this country, It's about taxpayers. It's about grandparents. It's about all of us, whether you have children or not."

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The first step ... is to "adopt some of the strategies of the left."

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"This BDS movement, we can apply it against school systems. More importantly, we can apply it against the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers and their state and local affiliates."

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... parents must "get tactical" and become "more litigious" to combat the dangerous ideologies overtaking their children's schools.

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"It's time for us to get tactical in what we do, How are these budgets decided? These school board meetings, they have these executive sessions. Why are they having executive sessions? What's discussed in the executive sessions? And ladies and gentlemen, lawsuits can be brought. Obviously, they're expensive, but they're legal groups throughout the country... Your children are not supposed to be subjected to a hostile educational environment that preaches that indoctrinates about racial stereotypes."

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"There's some of these suits going on now. They ought to be all across the country. We need to become litigious just like they are."

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... also encouraged parents to file complaints with the Internal Revenue Service against the National Education Association and its state affiliates.

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"You can do this... You don't have to be a lawyer to do this. But again, there are legal groups who will help you."

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"It is time to liberate our school systems. It is time to prevent them from being the playthings of these Marxist movements in the Democrat Party."
Critical Race Theory and its discontents (INN 08/01/2021)
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A politically-correct social media community I am a member of summarized the goals of Critical Race Theory as follows:

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1) History needs to be taught as completely as possible, including the ugly elements.

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2) Recognition that it is impossible to surgically separate today's society from the past.

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3) Examine the issue of today's people's personal responsibility for the status quo.

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Couched in these terms, Critical Race Theory is a most noble and edifying educational and intellectual endeavor.

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But let us not be deceived by appearances. Let us dig deeper point by point:

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1) History needs to be taught as completely as possible, including the ugly elements.

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Does this mean that only black and Native American slave ownership in the antebellum South will be taught?

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Or will children also learn that slavery was endemic to Africa prior to the arrival of Europeans and that it was abolished by Europeans - although it still exists in some parts of Africa and the Muslim world?

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Probably not, since such "ugly elements" would hurt the sensitivities of minority students.

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So what does this point in practice mean? It means that all ugly elements of white Christian culture will be highlighted to make sure that only white Americans feel ashamed of their history.

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2) Recognition that it is impossible to surgically separate today's society from the past.

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I thought that history as a discipline has taught this since the days of Herodotus. So why does this point need to be spelled out?

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Because what it actually says is that schools should teach that contemporary problems are rooted in the past.

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In other words, if black gangster rappers are killed in drive-by shootings today, the cause is no longer that they freely choose to lead lives of violence and crime, but because their great-great-great-great grandfathers were mistreated as slaves.

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Of course, there are valid reasons to argue that certain patterns formed in the past still subsist in the present.

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However, the goal of Critical Race Theory is not to discuss the role of the past in the present, but to convince our children that all problems affecting non-whites are rooted in past (and present) oppression while all advantages of whites are rooted in past (and present) supremacy.

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That the past is not a perpetual curse is proven by the fact that the descendants of Asian coolies and millions of other non-whites have successfully overcome their initial social, legal and economic handicaps in America.

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However, Critical Race Theory will ignore their achievements, since they undermine the woke narrative that Critical Race Theory is designed to undergird.

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3) Examine the issue of today's people's personal responsibility for the status quo.

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Does this mean children will be taught to be studious, conscientious and to take responsibility for their lives and their future?!

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Critical Race theorists argue that doing so constitutes subordination to dominant white values (sic)... So what does this beautiful sentence actually mean?

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It means that white children will be taught to see themselves as oppressors due to the real (and alleged) crimes of their ancestors and minority children will be taught that whites have an inextinguishable debt in their regard.

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Regardless of affirmative action, quotas, reparations and so forth no amount of contemporary white penance will atone for the crimes whites have committed against minorities.

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The fact that most whites in America have ancestors who arrived after the Civil War is irrelevant. Just like in tribal systems, guilt and responsibility no longer attach to individuals or even to interrelated communities, but to races in their entirety.

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I tremble at the thought that this garbage will be taught to American children.

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I tremble not because I think it will empower blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, but because the opposite is true.

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The backlash against this race-driven folly will be so strong and so violent as to undo the progress in race relations since the Civil Rights movement.

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In other words, Critical Race Theory is a movement that foments racism and vows to tear America apart.

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Deroy Murdock: Critical race theory mutilates centuries-old legacy of interracial cooperation (Fox 07/30/2021)
Tucker Carlson: COVID has been good to Democrats, it got them to the White House (Fox 07/30/2021)
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We're watching the lunatics in charge of our country spiral even deeper into madness, and as we watch that, we feel a duty to keep track of their decline.

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We do this to assemble a permanent historical record of the craziness, if only for the amusement of future generations.

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It's all enough to make you wonder if Democrats might be using COVID for political advantage. Why wouldn't they? The pandemic has been awfully good to the Democrats so far.

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Their allies in the federal bureaucracy helped to create the virus in the first place, with ghoulish taxpayer-funded experiments in China.

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Once the virus came here, they rode the panic all the way to the White House and control of Congress, not to mention to a socialized economy. Now they're betting coronavirus will help them keep power forever.

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That's exactly what's happening. The question is, why are Republicans in Congress still playing along with it? Because they're afraid of being called science deniers by people who think men can have babies?

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Today Joe Biden announced that the COVID vaccine — which, we remind you, still hasn't been approved by the FDA — is now, nevertheless, mandatory for all federal workers, as well as federal contractors and the armed forces. That's many millions of people.

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Washington, D.C. is a COVID hotspot says the credit card shill turned epidemiologist. What does that mean? We checked. It turns out the District of Columbia has recorded a total of two COVID deaths over the past two weeks.

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How many is that? In the same period, considerably more people in the city have been murdered. The crime epidemic is far more dangerous to human beings in Washington than COVID is.

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But Biden isn't sending the National Guard to protect poor neighborhoods in D.C. to keep people from being murdered. He's mandating injections of an experimental vaccine.

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This isn't normal. People should never be forced to take medicine they don't want or need. That's a foundational principle. It's not just a preference. Everything is based on it.

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And the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with it. Overwhelmingly in both parties. And here's the amazing thing: suddenly you can no longer say that out loud.

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It is no longer factually correct to believe you can control what the government injects into your body. Do you want to live in a place like this?

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Wrong predictions don't deter the predictors (JWR 07/29/2021)
Coming Soon: America's 'Social Credit' System? (JWR 07/29/2021)
How to Interpret Section 230? The legal debate over tech firms' right to censor has broader implications (JWR 07/29/2021)
What is American wokeness really about? (JWR 07/29/2021)
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The woke movement is a slicker, more sophisticated and far more grandiose version of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson's shakedowns of the 1990s.

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Those, at least, were far more honest in leveraging cash with charges of racism — and came without the academic gobbledygook of critical race theory.

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The problem is not just that most of America is exhausted from being smeared as racists, or hearing that a wonderful country — the most free, just, equitable, affluent and leisured in civilization's history — must continually pay penance for its past and present.

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The public is more tired of projectionist hypocrisy. Those who scream the loudest are usually the most guilty of woke crimes.

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The woke madness coincides with an epidemic of crises that go largely ignored as a distracted America cannibalizes itself.

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The border is being breached at a time of pandemic. Migrants barge in without either COVID-19 testing or vaccinations — during a coronavirus spike that has government officials talking about going door to door to roust out American citizens to get vaccinated.

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Whiteness is supposedly the cause of America's problems. But our inner cities are suffering historic levels of violent crime. Couldn't our critical race theory accusers take time out from their merchandising to address the soaring violence?

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The Biden administration denies that huge deficit spending and generous cash payments to workers fueled inflation. But America hasn't seen anything like the current price hikes and labor shortages in the last 40 years.

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The military, CIA and FBI have lost the confidence of the public — and not just because of their woke politicking.

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They are perceived as distracted and ignoring their primary missions of winning wars, catching terrorists before they strike, and offering superb intelligence about our enemies.

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Wokeness is many things. But increasingly it seems a cover for careerism, profiteering and utter incompetence.
Ariz AG Mark Brnovich: Democrats' hypocritical election fights – forget fairness. Here's what they really want (Fox 07/29/2021)
Tucker Carlson: This isn't about the science, here's proof (Fox 07/29/2021)
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If you're looking for a single snapshot that perfectly distills the pure, hallucinogenic absurdity of the moment we're living in, consider the Biden administration's new guidance on COVID. We learned yesterday that America's children will spend yet another year with covered faces.

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We also learned yesterday that the administration will force federal employees to take the covid vaccine. This mandate will start with government healthcare workers.

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But now, Kamala Harris will make them. Ponder that for a moment. Willie Brown's girlfriend is claiming she knows more about medicine than doctors and nurses do. She's an expert on the subject.

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So, by the way, is her 78-year-old business partner, the one who seems adrift in fantasy a lot of the time, and tends to nod out in mid-sentence. He's a medical expert too. He explained that, once you've had the vaccine, you don't need to wear a mask.

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JOE BIDEN: I think it's a great milestone. A great day. It's been made possible by the extraordinary success we've had in vaccinating so many Americans so quickly... When your country asked you to get vaccinated, you did. The American people stepped up. You did what I consider to be your patriotic duty. That's how we've gotten to this day... If you've been fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask. Let me repeat: If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.

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"Let me repeat: If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask." And we believed that. It made sense. That was the settled science just two months ago, in May. Only Russian spies and white supremacists questioned that science.

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Of course, you don't need a mask once you've had the vaccine. Why would you? The COVID vaccine is a miracle, like the moon landing. It's foolproof. It's all you need. We actually believed that, because why wouldn't we? It made sense.

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And then we saw something very strange Kamala Harris and her husband — whose name is either Doug or Douglas, depending on the source — kissed each other in public with masks on. And this is strange because we knew that both had been vaccinated. That's when we started to wonder.

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Either this was some sort of weird fetish ritual they're into — get the mask, it's time to kiss! — or else the White House wasn't telling us everything about the vaccine. They're still not telling us everything, but yesterday they dropped more clues.

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The administration now says that all people, including people who have been vaccinated, will have to wear masks, but only depending on where they live. If you're in something called "high or substantial COVID" region, prepare to put on your mask.

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What does that mean exactly? For the answer, we turn to the man who helped to create COVID in the first place.

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FAUCI: The recommendations and guidelines have been changed to say If you are vaccinated, even though you are vaccinated when you are in an indoor public setting in an area of the country with a high degree of viral dynamics, namely the red and orange sections on the CDC chart, then you need to wear a mask even though you are vaccinated.

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... how do you know if you live in one of those places? According to Dr. Fauci, just check the "red and orange sections on the CDC chart." Oh, right! The chart you keep in your wallet next to your AAA card. Look carefully and you'll see the "red and orange" account for more than 60% of the entire country.

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... here's one example: In Florida, the Sun-Sentinel newspaper recently ran this headline. "New COVID cases nearly double in Florida — the worst in the nation." Holy smokes. Better run to Georgia.

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And to show how scary this is, they included a chart that shows an uptick in positive test results, and it looked terrifying. But those are the test results. But actually, who cares? What matters is the harm.

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What they didn't include is the chart showing COVID deaths. I wonder why? Because those are near zero. That's a very different picture, and it's the one that actually matters.

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It wasn't long ago that all of us understood that. People like Tony Fauci, in fact, told us the goal was keeping people from dying from COVID. That sounded reasonable to everybody. That's why they said we needed the vaccine. That's why millions took the vaccine.

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Now that they have taken the vaccine, politicians have decided that actually, they can't part with the enormous, unprecedented amounts of power they've amassed over the last year, so they're going to keep ordering us AROUND, regardless of the science. And of course, Tony Fauci will defend it all, because in the end, he's one of them.

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In the past year, Tony Fauci has gone from telling us not to masks, they're totally useless, and plus doctors need them, to wear masks, or you will die, to wear three masks, or you will die, to don't wear any masks at all, to now, you'd better wear masks. Now he's telling us he'd never flip-flopped on masks.

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In fact, they're doing such a bad job that even Kamala Harris doesn't know what to think. ... You don't have to wear a mask if you're vaccinated, says the vaccinated lady who's wearing a mask.

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Does your head hurt yet trying to follow this? It might be easier to stop thinking entirely and just obey. Maybe that's the real message.

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From 2019 to 2020, according to the CDC, a total of 124 children died of COVID. From 2020 to 2021, 213 children died of COVID. By comparison, influenza killed more than 400 children just last year.

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Now, we're going to pause here, and say why are we getting so precise about these numbers? Because these numbers are being used to justify putting a mask on your third grader for an entire year at school.

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What's the effect on a child of doing that, of sitting in a classroom full of people whose faces he can't see, of breathing cotton fiber for ten hours a day, every day. They're profound. These numbers matter.

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But Rochelle Walensky doesn't care. She is instead leading the charge for more mandates, for both children and adults. According to Wolensky, we need vaccine passports to make sure that people who aren't vaccinated can't go outside or make a living.

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The Biden administration's lackeys in the media are pushing the same message. ... "Words I never thought I'd write: Saudi Arabia is being more progressive than America. Saudis will need to show proof of vax to enter schools, shops, malls, restaurants, concerts, public transport."

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Oh, that's progressive. Forcing people to take medicine they don't want to take. By the way, the vaccination rate in Saudi Arabia is far lower than the vaccination rate in the United States. But they're more progressive, somehow.

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But the bigger question is: If the vaccine works, why are so many vaccinated people getting COVID? It's not just happening to democrats who flee Texas.

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... it's becoming really clear the science is slightly more complicated. It doesn't mean the vaccine doesn't work or it's not worth taking. But don't lie to us. It doesn't always work. You know people who've gotten COVID after getting a double vax. Again, it doesn't mean it's not worth taking, but stop lying to us.

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If you want us to have confidence in your medicine, then tell us the full truth. But they won't. They've been telling us for six months the vaccine is perfect. But clearly, in some cases, it doesn't work.

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Don't take it from us. That's not our theory. Take it from the man who created COVID himself. ... The level of virus is "exactly the same as the level of virus in an unvaccinated person." What? What does that even mean?

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The other day, Pfizer's purchase agreement with the Albanian government leaked on the internet. ... "Purchaser acknowledges the long-term effects and efficacy of the Vaccine are not currently known and that there may be adverse effects of the Vaccine that are not currently known."

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Reassuring? What are those effects? And why don't we know? And why can't we ask? No one is pausing to ask questions at this moment, though. That's not allowed.

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CHIP ROY, R-Texas: We have a crisis at our border and we are playing footsie with mask mandates in the people's House. I mean it is absolutely absurd what this body is doing – the people's House. It is an embarrassment. It is a mockery and the American people are fed up! They want to go back to life, they want to go back to business, they want to go back to school without their children being forced to wear masks!! To be put in a corner, to have mental health issues... And the speaker comes down at ten o'clock in the morning saying we have to wear masks in the people's house! While we have got thousands of people pouring across our border and Democrats don't do a darn thing about it... We are absolutely sick and tired of it and so are the American people. This sham of an institution is doing nothing for the American people. Nothing for the betterment of the people that send their representatives here.

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See related Why You Need 2 Masks... (Chip Bok, 02/25/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Mike Gonzalez: Critical race theory, Team Biden and our schools – 2 big lessons conservatives must learn (Fox 07/28/2021)
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When the Biden administration retreated twice this month from its attempts to shoehorn critical race theory into K-12 classrooms, it showed two things: The first is that a strategy of exposure and pressure works, the second is that the American people can never let up.

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The second is particularly vital. President Joe Biden has surrounded himself with committed ideologues who themselves have appointed mid-level managers devoted to far-leftist causes, and they are determined to impose these ideas on the rest of us.

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If anything, this is a "teachable moment." Conservatives often remind themselves that personnel is policy, but when it comes to filling out administrations, they sometimes buckle under to the wishes of the left-of-center entrenched federal bureaucracy.

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Example A is the Department of Education's hasty decision to eliminate a radical CRT outfit from its recommendations to schools on how to open up in the fall after the lengthy COVID-19 shutdown, and how to spend moneys allocated in the American Rescue Plan.

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The guidance, called the "Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting all Students' Needs," had promoted the Abolitionist Teaching Network, a grifting outfit that (sadly) is fairly typical of companies that offer "anti-racist" trainings programs or curricula.

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The network itself says it is gearing toward building "abolitionist teachers ... requires students, families, and educators who disrupt Whiteness and other forms of oppression."

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The "roadmap" called for the elimination of "all punitive or disciplinary practices that spirit murder Black, Brown, and Indigenous children."

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And it included calls to "remove any and all police and policing from schools" and institute "reparations for children of color stolen by the school-to-prison pipeline."

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... Bettina Love, co-founder of ATN and chair of its board, said during a welcome webinar, "If you don't recognize that White supremacy is in everything we do, then we got a problem." Love added, "I want us to be feared."

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All of this is ugly stuff, but average fare for the outfits that suck tax dollars out of hard-strapped communities with their "Social Emotional Learning" (SEL) programs.

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The outrageous posturing of these trainers and "educators" has helped convinced parents across the country to resist CRT.

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The thinking is also classic Critical Race Theory — even though now that a natural resistance to CRT has built up, those practicing these divisive concepts deny that they are part of CRT.

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They can't hide, however; defining deviancy down, and decriminalizing crime, is at the heart of the writings of Regina Austin, Angela Harris and Paul Butler, undeniable CRT academics.

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And, it is important to note as well that the use of the term "abolitionist" is not meant to associate this effort with the actual abolition of slavery, the work of Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, or the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

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No, abolition in this sense is a Marxist term. ... "The word ‘abolition' is omnipresent throughout Marx's writings. As [Marx scholar] Robert Payne noted, the word almost seems to jump off every page of the Manifesto. ‘And after he has "abolished" property, family, and nations, and all existing societies, Marx shows little interest in creating a new society on the ruins of the old'."

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In fact, in a video that Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors cut in February, she praised her intellectual guru, Angela Davis, as one of her "favorite abolitionists."

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Lest we forget, Davis ran twice for VP on the Communist Party ticket and received the Lenin Peace Prize from the ruthless East German leader Erich Honnecker.

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She fills auditoriums at universities today where she informs her clueless audience that "I am now and have always been a Marxist."

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... as Fox News had reported that the administration was recommending ATN materials, a spokesperson said the whole thing had been "an error." A rushed-out statement said, "The Department does not endorse the recommendation of this group, nor do they reflect our policy positions."

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The episode over the abolitionist teaching network was but the second time the Department of Education leads with its CRT fist, and then folds when America punches back.

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Americans are faced with an administration that pretends to be moderate, and which a fawning media portrays as moderate, but which appoints people who attempt to impose fringe ideas onto impressionable minds. Parents and taxpayers must remain vigilant.

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Gregg Jarrett: Pelosi's Jan. 6 committee is a charade that smacks of a cover-up. What was her role? (07/28/2021)
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Mark Twain once mused that if you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

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Pelosi's Democratic Party is the majority in the House of Representatives, albeit narrowly. As speaker, she rules like a tyrant.

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She abides no dissent, tolerates no differing opinion, and is contemptuous of the truth. Only her truth is indulged. Any contrary evidence will be suppressed or covered up.

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Pelosi has no interest in the full story of what actually happened on Jan. 6. She blames the great villain Donald Trump for everything and will countenance no other inquiry or outcome. You must believe her or else.

•
For Pelosi, it is not enough that the rioters who committed crimes are being prosecuted. Nor that Trump was impeached (and acquitted) after he left office. No, Pelosi demands more.

•
Under threat of losing the majority in the midterm elections next year, she engineered a purely biased committee to do her bidding. Its conclusions are pre-ordained, likely written by Pelosi herself.

•
Ruthless Nancy is nothing if not obvious in her motives. With her stranglehold on power in serious jeopardy, she is determined to keep battering Trump as her party's political pinata, hoping that votes will drop out like candies.

•
But her more pressing objective is to deflect responsibility for her own suspected malfeasance.

•
A fair, objective, and truth-seeking committee would surely investigate why our nation's Capitol was significantly unprotected on Jan. 6, notwithstanding advance intelligence warnings from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Capitol Police itself that events could spiral out of control with violence.

•
As speaker of the House, Pelosi plays a vital role in overseeing the Capitol Police and is partially responsible for maintaining adequate security.

•
A comprehensive review by the Capitol Police's inspector general found that officers were hindered by poor leadership decisions and deficiencies in equipment, leaving them ill-prepared to respond to protestors who breached barricades and invaded the Capitol building.

•
It is both natural and logical to ask, where was Pelosi in all of this? Was she aware of the alarming threat assessments that painted a dire picture of rampant violence without a substantial back-up force from the D.C. Metropolitan Police and/or the National Guard?

•
Even worse, did she ignore the threat analysis and actively discourage a larger protection force? Who initiated the order for officers not to employ more aggressive tactics to hold off the mob?

•
... she has worked sedulously to avoid any inconvenient questions bearing on her own responsibility. The prospect of being called as a witness to answer for her own conduct must have given her night terrors.

•
This is precisely why Pelosi rejected a truly bipartisan committee and stacked the panel with inveterate Trump-haters.

•
This was on full display during the opening session as the speaker's sycophants condemned Trump and conspicuously avoided any line of inquiry that might tarnish their boss...

•
The inspector general has all but begged Congress to investigate the abysmal security failures, but Pelosi won't stand for it. Perhaps she fears that her own incompetence (or malevolence) might be exposed for all to see.

•
I suspect most Americans will see through Pelosi's charade. There are vast swaths of information surrounding the terrible events of Jan. 6 that will never be examined thanks to her leadership.

•
I would encourage all Americans to channel their inner Mark Twain to pause and reflect on that...
Rebekah Koffler: USSR 2.0 — my adopted US homeland is giving me flashbacks to the Russia I fled (Fox 07/27/2021)
•
Born and raised in a totalitarian state, I am intimately familiar with government spying on ordinary citizens.

•
Recent revelations about possible actions surrounding government surveillance by the NSA took me back 30 years ago to a place that no longer exists, my birth country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – the USSR.

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In the course of daily life in the USSR, we assumed all our communications were monitored by the state. Back then, it was phone calls and snail mail.

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Any criticisms of Soviet leaders, government control, or the socialist system could get you expelled from school or fired from work.

•
Coming from that background, I was stunned to learn that the same thing could be happening here in the United States.

•
This anti-American act has turned on its head my perception of America. Raised behind the Iron Curtain, I always viewed America as the land of freedom and justice — the exact opposite of socialism, an oppressive system of poverty and total government control.

•
In America, out of all the benefits of capitalism, I always cherished freedom the most. Only someone who has experienced the absence of freedom can truly understand the meaning of the word.

•
I remember, as a new immigrant, being shocked that Americans could visit another city and even decide to live there. You could even go to another country without needing permission.

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Neighbors, classmates, and coworkers would not report me to the authorities for anything "wrong" I may have said.

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I could talk on the phone with anyone at all without having to worry that the government was listening.

•
For 30 years, I soaked freedom in as much as I possibly could. I tried to teach my American-born children its meaning.

•
Recently, however, I've noticed disturbing developments. I find myself worrying about what I say and to whom I say it.

•
In America, there are now "correct" opinions, those of the ruling class and polite society — just like the nomenklatura's party line in the USSR — and what are called in Russian "incorrect" (nekorrektnoye) opinions.

•
Americans with views contradicting liberals' ideological orthodoxy get fired, "canceled" by activists, banned from speaking on college campuses, and deplatformed by "Big Brother" aka Big Tech."

•
The FBI's recent tweet urging families to report their loved ones for signs of "violent extremism" and the Biden administration's efforts to censor private speech on social media and phone texts through "fact-checking" are giving me flashbacks to the oppressive Soviet society I fled 30 years ago.

•
Incredibly, I find myself telling my children the same things my mother used to tell me: "Don't believe everything you see on TV; don't trust everything your teachers say; don't talk to random people about your family's views."

•
As free speech is increasingly under attack in today's America, I hear more loud calls for socialism and government promises of free stuff.

•
I urge ordinary Americans to consider what they'll be giving up in return. Under socialism, everything was provided by the government free or nearly free. But the cruel joke was on the people: nothing was available.

•
We stood in line for hours to get basic staples. You got in line before you even knew what it was for because there was an indefinite shortage of everything.

•
Socialism simply does not produce enough goods and services: Who would work harder for the same paltry, barely subsistence-level wage as everyone else?

•
We had a saying, "The government pretends to pay us, and we pretend to work."

•
Whatever the system was actually capable of producing was appropriated by the government. The nomenklatura had first dibs on everything.

•
They shopped at different stores, got treated at different hospitals, could travel, and got cars, telephones, TVs, and other "amenities." The rest of us used torn-up copies of Pravda as toilet paper.

•
Beware when the ruling class promises things for free — whether education, health care, or anything else. In return, the government will control every aspect of your life — where you live, work, study, travel, or get medical care.

•
The double standard that Americans experienced during the COVID lockdowns reminded me of the USSR...

•
Remember the shortages in the beginning of the pandemic of simple things: masks, hand sanitizer, paper towels? Remember how hard it was to get those? Imagine a future America where, compounding the problem, elites get their toilet paper first.

•
The COVID pandemic experience served as a sneak preview of the horror movie called socialism.

•
If you don't want your child's teeth drilled without Novocain under "free" socialist medical care, as I experienced, please fight this dystopian idea as hard as you can today.

•
And when you start protesting the glorious socialist system, the government will know who the complainers are. Big Tech and the NSA will make certain of it.

•
What happens to the complainers will depend on how much control the government will have established over its citizens.

•
The NSA's surveillance of President Trump's campaign advisor, Carter Page — based on dishonest FBI applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — may very well be a harbinger of what's to come.

•
Spying on citizens is a hallmark of totalitarianism. That the feds did this to Page and possibly others with impunity is a sign that government apparatchiks feel the era of total government control in America is approaching.

•
To prevent a USSR 2.0, we must act now to save freedom in America.
Miranda Devine: Why Nancy Pelosi's days as speaker of the House are numbered (Fox 07/27/2021)
•
Nancy Pelosi used to point her angry finger at Donald Trump, but she leaves him in the dust when it comes to busting norms, dividing Congress and causing mayhem.

•
If anyone is to blame for the hyper-partisanship in Washington these days, it's the spiteful House speaker.

•
She behaves more like a Mafia don waging a gang war than a dignified, fair and honest presiding officer, which is what the speaker's role requires.

•
Pelosi abuses her power in ways that once were unthinkable. Her speakership has been the antithesis of Lincoln's entreaty to "the better angels of our nature."

•
Everyone in Congress — and, by extension, the nation — has been sullied by the spite and vitriol she has injected into the political sphere.

•
There is no grace or Christian charity, just the barren wasteland of the zero-sum game, power for power's sake.

•
It's made all the worse by her increasingly frantic claims to be a "devout Catholic."

•
The fact that all this venom is packaged in the shape of a small, elderly, expensively shod woman has bestowed upon her an element of deference her actions do not deserve.

•
Pelosi is scared of Jordan and Banks, even though she has the majority. That's the real reason. She is afraid they will bring to the committee, on behalf of the American people it is supposed to represent, the very reasonable question about her own culpability in the events of Jan. 6. Most obviously, what was her reason for leaving the Capitol Police outnumbered and unprotected?

•
Another question for the committee would be whether the shooting of Ashli Babbitt by a Capitol officer was justified.

•
It also could examine the very real and documented inhumane treatment of Jan. 6 suspects who are not charged with violent offenses but who remain in jail without trial just down the hill from Congress, many in solitary confinement now for their seventh month.

•
... everyone knows Pelosi just wants to turn the commission into a third Trump impeachment stunt and make sure it stretches on into next year in the vain hope that it will distract midterm voters from the car crash that is the Biden presidency.

•
It's all she's got. Pelosi's nasty antics almost cost the Democrats the House in November and she only retained the speakership by a thread, so, for her, it's time for lifeboats overboard.

•
Her "tenure is destroying the House of Representatives and our ability to faithfully represent the people we are here to serve," the Republicans wrote in a letter to McCarthy.

•
"As a devout Catholic and mother of five in six years, I feel that God blessed my husband and me with our beautiful family," Pelosi said last week in the same breath as asserting that taxpayer-funded abortions are a "priority"...

•
"It's an issue of fairness and justice for poorer women in our country ... the right thing to do." It's enough to make you throw up.

•
... San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone saw right through the sophistry. "To use the smokescreen of abortion as an issue of health and fairness to poor women is the epitome of hypocrisy: What about the health of the baby being killed?" he told... "What about giving poor women real choice, so they are supported in choosing life?"

•
The real "devout Catholics" are the "people of faith who run pro-life crisis pregnancy clinics; they are the only ones who provide poor women life-giving alternatives to having their babies killed in their wombs."

•
Catholics everywhere squirm at the ostentatious piety of Pelosi and her fellow apostate Joe Biden. If they must sin, can they at least keep religion out of it?

•
See related St. Joe the Devout (Mike Shelton, 01/26/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Michael Goodwin: Biden the divider – what happened to all the unity talk in his inaugural address? (Fox 07/26/2021)
Deroy Murdock: Biden, Democrat policy failures – from crime to immigration, can Left get anything right? (Fox 07/26/2021)
•
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas repeatedly has claimed that "the border is closed." Regarding the illegal-alien surge through Mexico, "we have seen extreme progress over these last few months," Vice President Kamala Harris insisted on June 25.

•
Really? If "extreme progress" is an invading army of Future Democrats of America, then, yes.

•
... uninvited illegals reach the border and demand admission. Some 300 or so banged on a steel gate and, slowly but surely, entered America.

•
Those who patiently wait worldwide for visas and others – already here – who navigate the federal naturalization Skinner box should be revolted.

•
"It's definitely irksome to see people just marching in like they own the place, especially when I'll end up wasting my prime years languishing in America's legal immigration system," one 20-something European told...

•
"I probably couldn't become a citizen until well into my 40s, no matter how hard I tried," he added.

•
In July's first half, 135 illegals at the border's Rio Grande Valley sector tested positive for COVID-19. Compared to the previous 14 months, this figure rocketed 900%. As the delta variant blows new wind beneath COVID's wings, this is how "the pandemic president" protects his fellow Americans?

•
The Left weeps that illegal aliens break into America because "they want better lives." Well, who doesn't?

•
And if Haitians seek cheerier prospects, why leave their island? Haiti (2019 per-capita GDP: $2,905) shares Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic ($18,413).

•
Why don't Haitians bang on Dominican doors? Where is it written that America must accommodate these people?

•
The Left's "Defund the police!" battle cry of summer 2020 has yielded an endless winter of chaos and bloodshed. Rampant shoplifting, assaults, shootings and murders plague Democrat-mismanaged cities.

•
"Bail reform" catapults criminals – including a New York-based serial synagogue attacker – back onto the streets with dizzying speed. Rather than jail criminals, far-Left PINOs – George-Soros-funded Prosecutors in Name Only – such as Chicago's Kim Foxx, Los Angeles' George Gascon, and San Francisco's Chesa Boudin wave their social-justice pompoms on behalf of "oppressed" criminals.

•
President Trump's hard-won energy independence is going dark. Biden's cruel cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, his ghastly greenlight for Vladimir Putin's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany, and his strangulation of domestic petroleum production all have left America and Europe more dependent on foreign energy suppliers, some of whom hate us.

•
This also has helped hike West Texas Intermediate petroleum from $53 to $72 per barrel under the Biden-Democrat Left – up 36%.

•
Inflation, as 1970s as Studio 54, is back on the dance floor. Fear not! Biden proposes to fight higher prices with ... even more robust federal outlays.

•
Biden says that this will "take the pressure off of inflation" which hit 5.4% in June, year-on-year. The startling notion that exploding federal deficits tame prices would make even the late statist economist John Maynard Keynes drop his teacup.

•
Texas Democrats already have earned 2021's Nobel Prize for Boneheaded Political Gaffes. Several Lone Star State lawmakers fled Austin, to deny Republicans the quorum needed to adopt election-integrity legislation.

•
These "parliamentarians of the people" then eschewed commercial aviation and, like the billionaires they hate, took a private jet to Washington. Unlike average Americans, they escaped the discomfort and indignity of purely theatrical federal in-flight mask mandates.

•
These Texas twits then created a COVID-19 super-spreader event on the national stage. After slamming GOP efforts to combat Democrat vote fraud, at least six Texas Democrats, a member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff, and a White House aide all tested positive for COVID-19. This pathetic stunt could not have gone worse.

•
Moreover, if Republicans must abandon the U.S. Senate floor, to deny Democrats a quorum and doom the election-fraud-enabling H.R.1/S.1, the dinosaur media will roar: "The GOP killed democracy!"

•
Republicans then should play non-stop video of Texas Democrats' COVID-tainted catastrophe and ask: "Who do you think gave us this idea?"

•
New York Democrats could not leave untouched the standard, centuries-old practice of asking primary voters to pick one nominee per public post. Instead, Democrats pushed for, and Gotham voters in November 2019 foolishly approved, an absurd and baffling ranked-choice system. Voters last month were asked for their top five contenders, in preferential order.

•
On Election Night, June 22, the first-choice tallies for the Democrat mayoral nomination suggested a comfortable victory for law-and-order candidate Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer.

•
But wait! Tabulation of choices two through five did not begin until June 26. Then 135,000 test ballots were discovered among actual ballots and had to be deducted before 124,000 absentee ballots were added among the re-allocated votes of failed candidates.

•
These and countless other public-policy belly-flops prove that the Left cannot be trusted with anything beyond Broadway, if that.
Pompeo: Future of GOP lies in upholding faith-based virtues (Fox 07/26/2021)
•
... outlines four virtues that he says must define the GOP and America: vision, hope, gratitude and forgiveness.

•
"They come from our faith, If we get these right, then we will fulfill our constitutional responsibilities and this will continue to be the most exceptional nation in the history of civilization..."

•
"Those of us responsible for helping to maintain the mantle of conservatism because we believe it's right for the country have a responsibility to speak to it as clearly as we can, to articulate it and defend it everywhere we can."

•
"When the secular left wants to undermine these understandings, we have to be absolutely fearless at confronting it."

•
He is expected to call on people of faith to raise their collective voices and state: "We must return to our moral core, lest all be lost."

•
... America's strength comes from its virtues and founding documents that are imbued with faith, and the country is weakest when "we disregard this priceless heritage."

•
"We must once again openly profess our faith, our devotion to our families, and proclaim, unapologetically, the words, ‘I am an American'."

•
"President Trump has been a historic figure in the Republican Party. And I'm proud of the work that our administration did. But these virtues that I talked about aren't connected to me, they're not connected to Donald Trump and they are not connected to any one person. These are central understandings of the conservative movement."

•
"Particular Republican actors will come and they will go, including me, ... But these ideas are eternal."
Liz Peek: Biden wrong on inflation – president ignoring these realities Americans see every day (Fox 07/26/2021)
•
At a recent CNN Town Hall, President Biden once again dismissed rising prices as a temporary hiccup in his otherwise brilliant recovery plan...

•
More astonishing, he again claimed that Democrats' proposals to spend trillions more in new entitlements and grandiose payoffs to special interest groups like the teachers unions will actually bring prices down.

•
Uncle Joe promised during the town hall that if Congress passes the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and Democrats' $3.5 trillion wish-list mess of a bill, "We will, in fact, reduce inflation. Reduce inflation. Reduce inflation..." ...

•
Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Biden seems to think repeating something three times will magically make it happen.

•
He proposed that the spending will provide "good opportunities and jobs for people who, in fact, are going to be reinvesting that money back in all the things we're talking about, driving down prices, not raising prices." Who knows what that means.

•
In his recent six-month victory lap, Biden assured voters that, "The data shows that most of the price increases we've seen are – were expected and expected to be temporary."

•
That is pure malarkey. A year ago the Federal Reserve, which is charged with controlling inflation, estimated that PCE inflation (their preferred measure) would be 1.6% this year; their most recent forecast is 3.4% – almost double.

•
Certainly the past year has been full of surprises, and we have to cut the Fed some slack. But it is noteworthy that, even 12 months ago, while they expected our economy would grow at 5% this year – more than twice the long-term rate – they did not foresee much inflationary impact.

•
Now the Fed is projecting that inflation next year will drop to around 2%; what could go wrong?

•
First, we have a shortage of workers, which is pushing wages higher. The NFIB, an association of small business owners, reported recently that nearly half their members are unable to fill job openings, more than twice the historical average.

•
Not surprisingly, a record number of small businesses are raising wages. To cover their costs, almost half are also raising prices, the highest number since the start of 1981. That is how inflation takes root.

•
Second, the rate of growth in the economy may be tapering slightly, but it will be sustained at a high level by the extreme shortage of goods available. Inventories are at their lowest-ever level relative to sales; businesses will continue scrambling to stock empty shelves.

•
Third, home prices are soaring; last month the median U.S. home price rose 23.4% from a year earlier. Though the cost of a house is not included in inflation calculations, there is a spillover effect in the imputed cost of housing, which comprises 30% to 40% of the indices.

•
Fourth, the Fed continues to ignore the powerful impact of consumer net worth, which has increased by tens of trillions of dollars over the past year, thanks to rising stock and home prices, and which leads growth by about two quarters.

•
A key Democrat pollster is warning Joe Biden and his colleagues that consumers will not applaud their big spending plans if prices continue to rise.

•
People paying more for cars, groceries and housing will connect the dots between their higher bills and the trillions being shoveled out by the government... even if Biden does not.

•
And they will punish Democrats in the midterms.

•
See related Inflation (Mike Shelton, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album

•
See related Inflarion (Dick Wright, 05/13/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album

•
See related Economy (Gary Varvel, 02/09/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Larry Kudlow explains how government spending brings government regulation (Fox 07/23/2021)
How Do You Turn It Off? (JWR 07/23/2021)
More deadly than the Chinese Virus (INN 07/22/2021)
These aren't the Dems of old (JWR 07/22/2021)
Mark Levin outlines origins of 'American Marxism': Exported from Berlin, 'radicalized' on campus (Fox 07/22/2021)
•
That history ... began in the former Weimar Republic as the politics of philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who was born in Berlin in 1898.

•
Marcuse traveled to Freiburg in 1928 to study under fellow German philosopher Martin Heidegger – the latter of whom went on to join the Nazi Party.

•
Marcuse, however ... later fled Hitler for the United States, and became a "very prominent professor" at Columbia University in New York City.

•
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Marcuse sought to develop what has been named "Heideggerian or phenomenological Marxism."

•
"When you look at the background of critical race theory, this comes out of critical theory. Where does that come from? It comes from the ... Frankfurt School out of Berlin: These are a group of Marxists."

•
"[Marcuse] was the founding father, basically, of ‘critical theory'. Critical theory was the basis for the New Left Movement, Weather Underground, the SDS, and all the rest."

•
"Then you have a gentleman Derrick Bell at Harvard Law school. He takes this idea (of 'critical theory'), which I will get to quickly, and he racializes it."

•
... quotes Bell as notably declaring that "we use a number of different voices, but all recognize that the American social order is maintained and perpetuated by racial subordination."

•
"It's a fringe ideology. Critical race theory – just to put it in plain English – is basically Louis Farrakhan dressed up as scholarship."

•
"That's what it is: Hate-America, Anti-Semitic. Anti-White. And so, we try to put some kind of historical perspective on it — the perspective is that 'anything White is bad because that's the dominant culture'. You dehumanize people. You don't treat them as individuals."

•
"This ideology was invented half a century ago. And the idea that it's in our schools is unbelievable."

•
"What is it when you are teaching to destroy our monuments, to destroy our books, to destroy our history to push a racist ideology, you talk about taking down the economic system."
Kudlow: How one leading Democrat's proposal is 'critical race theory run wild' (Fox 07/22/2021)
Mark Brnovich: To defeat critical race theory, hold tight to Constitution, Declaration of Independence (Fox 07/22/2021)
•
The United States of America is the land of opportunity, committed to the rule of law, dedicated to the proposition that all of us are created equal with certain unalienable rights. Millions have fled to the beacon of hope on our shores over the past two centuries.

•
Yet there are those who have made it their mission to tear down every institution and principle that has made the United States so unique in world history. These movements have always existed but appear to be more pronounced today with the promotion of critical race theory.

•
Critical race theory is nothing more than the neo-Marxist idea of how race has influenced the inception and history of our nation, building upon a Marxist utopia of destroying and creating a new society based on class.

•
The radical concept, using race in place of class to achieve the long-term Marxist goal, is already threatening to consume many of our institutions – from the U.S. military, to our churches and our professional sports leagues, and even our legislatures.

•
Perhaps most disturbing, critical race theory is now corrupting our most vulnerable and cherished by undermining the education of our youth.

•
The good news is that thousands of parents, including many in Arizona, have awakened to this attempted infestation of the minds of our children and are standing up to school boards and university systems to stop this curriculum before it takes permanent hold of our society.

•
The proponents of critical race theory seek to demonize and undermine Americans' confidence in our system by arguing that the American Revolution and our founding were created to further and protect slavery, and therefore the entire American experiment is inherently flawed.

•
Slavery is a flawed chapter of American – and world – history, but it is one chapter. It is not the foundation or the core of who we are.

•
Why do proponents of critical race theory do this? The strategy comes from a classic revolutionary playbook that says if you want radical change in a country, you must first convince people that their current institutions are so systematically flawed and not worth saving, and that people who support them should be ashamed of themselves.

•
That opens the door for some new vision of change – one that is more concerned with the centralization of power than being grounded in facts.

•
That is why we all should be armed with America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the founding documents and the guiding stars of our nation.

•
America was founded on liberty. Critical race theory claims the United States was founded on protecting slavery.

•
The United States has brought more liberty and opportunity to more people in this world than any other country. We need to teach our children about what makes America an inspiration to the rest of the world and how hard we have worked to achieve it.

•
Even with all of the political vitriol today, none of us can begin to imagine the turmoil that threatened the future of the United States at the time of the Civil War. Hundreds of thousands died to try and make this a more perfect Union. In the end, the blood of those fighting for the equality of all mankind was vindicated, and slavery was banished from the land.

•
That doesn't mean that all of the root motivations behind slavery ended when the practice was outlawed. For decades – and continuing to present day – the United States has fought political and cultural battles for civil rights.

•
Yet, instead of teaching the truth about why this nation was founded, activists scheme to rewrite history on a false premise that slavery was the foundation of this country's birth.

•
Instead of concentrating on how we eliminated slavery from the land, activists seek to eliminate figures from our past.

•
Instead of focusing on the courage of men and women of all racial backgrounds who made enormous sacrifices for civil rights, activists recreate the demons of our history with the intent of driving a sabotaging wedge between us.

•
If this nation is to continue to be the beacon of hope and freedom to the world, then we cannot allow critical race theory to divide and tear down our nation. We must reject it and all of its applications.
In America, white is the color of guilt (INN 07/21/2021)
•
"I am in favor of integration. I am in favor of diversity. But I believe that racial essentialism is racist and should not be taught in school ".
'Woke' Language (JWR 07/21/2021)
•
"A big problem with the social justice movement is the idea that people's mindset is controlled by their skin color. That may be called 'anti-racism' today, but it's just plain old-fashioned racism."

•
"Enlightened America needs to develop a backbone and start getting used to being called racist on Twitter. Just withstand it. Keep their voices out there. Make us understand what true justice is."
Down a Black Hole: Even the hard sciences are no longer immune to the ongoing racial hysteria (JWR 07/21/2021)
•
Seeing specters of racism everywhere, the racial avengers are tearing down every institution associated with Western civilization, simply because of its "whiteness."

•
Science had stood as a guard against such metaphorical, magical thinking. Bit by bit, it is succumbing.
Lying About 'Misinformation' To Justify Tyranny (JWR 07/21/2021)
•
The authoritarianism of the left is in full swing. Americans must spot it and fight it before it destroys our ability to see anything other than that which the left wants us to see.
Kudlow: What happened to 'America First'? (Fox 07/21/2021)
Dan Gainor: Texas Dems met with love fest from liberal media – imagine the freakout if they were Republicans (Fox 07/21/2021)
SCOTUS “Public/Private” Action Case dooms Section 230 (INN 07/20/2021)
•
... core argument that the Federal Government's granting of lawsuit immunity for the "private" Tech companies under Section 230 amounted to "public" action, and hence the Government - facially unconstitutionally - delegated the unlawful power to censor constitutionally protected speech to those "private" companies.

•
The Trump Lawsuit is not about someone deadbeat getting his lights turned off for non-payment of the electricity bill. Trump's 230 Lawsuit is about the survival of the 1st Amendment and the United States of America.

•
... the Tech companies are acting "under color of federal law" when they rely on Section 230's immunity to unconstitutionally censor constitutionally protected content.

•
In sum, Section 230, in effect, governmentally deputizes and immunizes private companies to censor protected speech no less than if the federal government deputized and immunized a private party to make a criminal arrest in the name of the sovereign United States.

•
As such, Section 230 is not only facially unconstitutional, but is also an abhorrent exercise of governmental power.

•
In Section 230, the government has unconstitutionally deputized private companies armed with virtual total immunity to explicitly violate the most cherished freedom Americans possess, the right of free speech.

•
Similarly, if Section 230 is "constitutional," then nothing stops the government from empowering electric utilities or any private company from banning you for your constitutionally protected speech.

•
This is not a slippery slope, this is slippery abyss from which America will never recover.

•
If America loses its 1st Amendment freedom of speech, America is no longer democratic America, but a Techo-plutocracy owned and ruled by a handful of tech centa-billionaires, cum-trillionaires.
Let self-haters Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield choke on their Woke (INN 07/20/2021)
•
There is a deep, intense Jewish social sickness that afflicts perhaps one quarter of all Jews in the contemporary West. Some call it "self-hate." Some have other names for it. A good word for it is "apostasy."

•
These apostates share a common psychological sickness that always backfires on them: they believe that, if they turn against "the Jews," then others in their Left universes — whether they be liberal or "progressive" or socialist or communist or just plan Woke — will welcome them as fellow travelers.

•
Do you see their dilemma? To be leftist, they need to station themselves as universalists, globalists. No national identity suits them — too jingoistic. No national language, no national anthem, no sense of deep-rooted patriotism.

•
These are the Jewish apostates, the self-haters of anything Jewish, who have been a blight on all other Jews these past two thousand years since Rome burned the Second Holy Temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and thereafter banished the Jewish citizens of Israel into two millennia of diaspora.

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They have emerged in each and every Jewish generation of Exile: the Nicholas Donins of Spain, Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky and the Yevesekzia (Hebrew Section) of the Communist Party of Russia, Max Naumann and his Verband nationaldeutscher Juden (Association of German National Jews) who supported Hitler until they went up in smoke.

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This is the torment of today's Woke American Jew. The faculty members at colleges and graduate schools who must curse Israel and declare her an "apartheid" state in order to advance in their careers, qualify for tenure, and not otherwise get canceled.

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The Jews in Hollywood who must mouth the right words and praise the right Jew-haters in order to be considered for future roles.

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The Jews in the teachers' unions who now push critical ethnic studies curricula that demote themselves into second-class citizenship.

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It is a sickness. It is a deep sickness. If it did not exist, who would believe it? In their desperate pursuit to be accepted by their Woke Intersectionalist colleagues, they not only are loathed by us on the conservative side of the aisle, but are pathetic when viewed by the Left as well.

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These Jews of the Left try so desperately to win entry into the Left's inner circles — to gain a smile or wink from an Ocasio or Sharpton or Elizabeth Warren — by self-denigrating at every juncture.

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And now Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the Woke of ice cream, announce that Ben and Jerry's no longer will sell ice cream in two regions of Israel that now are populated by 800,000 Jews (living on state land in the biblical heartland of Israel, retaken after Jordan's illegl occupation and which can at most be legally termed "disputed" ).

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It is challenging to find two more perfect exemplars of Woke Jews, so immersed in their self-hating need to gain acclaim outside their own community that they will boycott Jews — not Chinese torturers, not the world's tyrants and dictators, just Jews in Judea and Samaria.

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I will not purchase another Ben and Jerry's ice cream again in the United States until they reverse their announced anti-Semitic boycott of 800,000 Jews in Israel. They can choke on their Woke.
Michael Goodwin: Biden's Big Tech blunder – here's how admin's actions threatening First Amendment ()
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Any assessment of Joe Biden's performance last week runs into an obstacle. While it was awful from start to finish, the hard part is deciding which was the absolute worst moment.

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Was it the president's latest attack on state voting law reforms, which he bizarrely called "the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War" ?

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Was it the administration's outrageous invitation for the pampered popinjays at the United Nations to sit in judgment of America's racial strife?

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Or perhaps it was Biden's decision to push a one-party spending spree of trillions of dollars even as inflation levels reached their highest mark in 13 years?

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Under almost any president, each of those events would qualify as a low point. But Biden is proving to be spectacularly awful at his job, and he did something else that captures the award for the week's Worst of the Worst.

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Friday, the president accused Facebook of "killing people" and demanded it silence those opposed to or questioning the coronavirus vaccines.

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Coming from the president, this is a breathtaking accusation and demand.

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It far exceeds anything Donald Trump ever said or did. Trump wrongly called some media "the enemy of the people," but never accused them of actually "killing people."

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But Biden has – recklessly – and no doubt assumes the lapdog news media will echo his charge.

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Notably, Facebook's defense is that it is silencing as many people as it can find who question or criticize the vaccines.

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That's hardly a defense of free speech, but rather shows Big Tech fundamentally agrees with Biden's goal. They just differ on the success rate.

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"Biden allied groups, including the Democratic National Committee, are also planning to engage fact-checkers more aggressively and work with SMS carriers to dispel misinformation about vaccines that is sent over social media and text messages."

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The White House and the DNC are going to monitor and "dispel misinformation" on social media and private text messages? And work with congenitally-corrupt "fact checkers"?

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... the government is not only "flagging" people it doesn't like, it's also helping to "boost trusted content."

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... how about the fact that today's "misinformation" on COVID is tomorrow's approved "information?"

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Recall that government officials, including the unreliable weathervane, Dr. Anthony Fauci, switched directions so many times it's hard to say with certainty what the latest official line is.

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If that weren't bad enough, Psaki dug a deeper hole Friday by arguing that people banned from one social media platform should also be banned from others. Her proposal effectively urges the companies to create a unified ban against American citizens.

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On top of Biden's inflammatory accusation, her remarks and the government's actions make it clear we are far down the slippery slope.

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There's already one example of the potential impacts. The Post's expose on Hunter Biden's laptop last October was blocked by Big Tech for two crucial weeks while voting in the presidential election was underway.

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Later, a poll found most voters were not aware of the stories and some 8 percent said they would have voted differently had they known the facts.

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That restriction was done for partisan purposes by private companies. Imagine if the government had demanded the blackout, as it is doing now on vaccines and who knows what else.

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... the Big Tech platforms are so huge that they really operate as monopolies. When they work together as one, as they did in squelching the Hunter Biden stories, they have almost absolute power to shape events. They even silenced Trump when he was president, a blackout that continues.

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... some Democrats and others on the left embrace the cancel culture habit of silencing dissent. What started on college campuses has metastasized into a national phenomenon, with even large companies insisting that some routine disagreements are intolerable and must be banned.

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And now we have the government endorsing these developments and trying to unite them.

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The effort is not a mere suggestion, as Biden's demand to the social media platforms carries an implicit threat of government compulsion.

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As such, the administration is moving toward gutting the First Amendment and controlling private companies. That's a new low, even for Biden.

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Marion Smith: Marxist Black Lives Matter – here's why it supports Cuba's communists over the protesters (Fox 07/19/2021)
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BLM minced no words: "The people of Cuba are being punished by the U.S. government." Apparently, through a decades-long embargo, the U.S. has "instigated suffering for the country's 11 million people – of which 4 million are Black and Brown."

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The group simultaneously claimed that "Cuba has historically demonstrated solidarity with oppressed peoples of African descent."

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To start, the United States is not oppressing the Cuban people. That distinction belongs to the communist regime founded by Fidel Castro – and the U.S. embargo is a response to Cuba's tyranny.

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For more than 60 years, the country's leaders have denied all basic freedoms, imprisoned people for their political views, and systematically pillaged the country's wealth.

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And while the BLM statement claimed the U.S. is "undermining Cubans' right to choose their own government," it is in fact the Cuban authorities that protect the communist regime at any cost – even violence toward the country's citizens.

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The question is why BLM tolerates such obvious injustice. The answer is the same ideology that animates the Cuban regime – Marxism.

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Two of Black Lives Matter's founders are trained Marxist agitators, according to one of them, and the organization itself reflects it.

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Its operational agenda is essentially to overthrow American society, which it deems irredeemably unjust, and build a new one in its place.

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It has made perfectly clear what it wants in this brave new world: A state with the power to punish anyone it pleases, and penitents forced to publicly repent their privilege.

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What is that vision, if not a Marxist state with struggle sessions? Such countries already exist, like China. Another example is the country BLM refuses to denounce: Cuba.

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There's a reason the group's recent statement condemns the U.S. for trying to "crush [Cuba's] Revolution."

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It's the same reason one of BLM's founders has stood side-by-side with Nicolas Maduro, the dictator who has brought Cuban-style socialism and oppression to Venezuela.

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That it refuses to do so points to its real goal – the same goal that Marxists have sought since the Russian Revolution and in every Marxist movement since. They want nothing less than power, and they're willing to obtain it by any means.

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By backing Cuba and bashing the U.S., Black Lives Matter is standing in the way of Cuba's liberation.

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So are BLM's allies, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who make similar arguments. Their defense of the indefensible and criticism of their own free country have dangerous effects.

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Whether Black, Brown or any other color, the Cuban people deserve the libertad for which they're chanting in the streets.

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The same is true for the American people, who also deserve better than dangerous hypocrisy of Black Lives Matter.
Dr. Ben Carson: Fighting critical race theory – this is how we stop this blatantly racist ideology (Fox 07/19/2021)
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Growing up poor in Detroit, if I had believed, as critical race theory (CRT) proponents claim, that my destiny was based on my race, I would not be where I am today.

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We cannot allow CRT to rob American children of that same hope that was instilled in me.

•
Recently, author and professor Ibram Kendi, creator of so-called antiracist doctrines that lie at the core of CRT, has claimed that CRT is an "imagined monster" concocted by conservatives as a scare tactic to deny talking about race. This is clearly false.

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To start, it's important to understand that the term "antiracism" as used by Kendi, which sounds non-threatening enough, does not mean what you think.

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Indeed, far from being antiracist, the ideology promoted by Kendi and fellow travelers is anything but.

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It redefines reality to assign guilt and blame based solely on race. Classifying persons in such a manner is literally the definition of racism.

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This type of vocabulary manipulation is part of the reason this ideology has stealthily overcome our institutions. After all, who doesn't want to be antiracist?

•
Contrary to Kendi's recent claim, CRT and so-called antiracism are very much real, and are the vanguard of a radical, revolutionary movement that seeks to overthrow the established order in every area of society, including capitalism itself.

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This divisive ideology seeks to replace the traditional American value of equality of opportunity with a regime that assumes all White people are racist oppressors and labels all racial minorities as victims.

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While the classical Marxism from which CRT was born focuses on class conflict, CRT substitutes class for race, wholly ignoring the demonstrated failure of Marxist ideologies...

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CRT's focus has primarily been the classroom, but it's also gaining momentum in board rooms, corporate trainings, and even the U.S. military – which is now suffering a lack of wartime readiness as a result of an excessive focus on CRT.

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Kendi has even gone so far as to propose the creation of a Department of Antiracism that is permanently funded, accountable to no one and responsible for preclearing all local, state and federal public policies based on CRT and antiracist ideology.

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Another distinguishing characteristic of antiracism and CRT proponents, besides the fact that they engage in blatant racism, is that they blame all racial disparities on racism. This is an assertion that is not supported by the evidence.

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Research has shown that factors such as the presence of a stable two-parent family, educational choices and economic prosperity, among others, account for the large bulk of observed racial differences, rather than the boogeyman of racism. Thus, CRT and antiracism are founded on racist, conspiratorial drivel.

•
The results of this extremist ideology have been devastating. The massive rioting in Portland and other parts of the country, whose damage has made them the most costly riots in U.S. history, are the fruits of a generation raised on racial grievance indoctrination.

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And big city prosecutors, also steeped in CRT ideology, are often letting violent rioters go free. This does nothing more than free criminals to continue menacing their communities and victimize the very disadvantaged populations the radicals claim to be protecting.

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But if there's any silver lining in the Marxist's aggressive zeal to force CRT on our communities, it's that their efforts are waking up the nation like few issues in recent memory, mobilizing citizens around the country to engage school boards and local governments to remove racist conspiracy theories like CRT from schools, businesses and government.

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This renewed engagement could be a promising first step in eroding the decades-long dominance of Marxism in American education.

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See related Critical Race Theory (Mike Shelton, 06/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
‘American Marxism’ author Mark Levin blasts ‘appalling’ Big Tech censorship: ‘Do I miss Twitter? No’ (Fox 07/19/2021)
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"... Facebook is a censorship and propaganda operation. We now see what they're doing, working with the Biden administration and actually, in many respects, taking orders from the Biden administration to censor information that differs from that of the government, which is shocking and appalling."

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"She's the spokesperson for the President of the United States, Her words represent that of the administration, the executive branch of the federal government ... She's sending a message out there to the rest of Silicon Valley and the rest of the social platform oligopoly and billionaires to do the same thing as Facebook."

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"To treat a former president as if he doesn't exist and banned him ... who the hell are these people? I'm getting out of here," Levin said.

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"Do I miss it? Not in the least but from time to time, people do try and pressure me to go back because they want to participate in discussions."

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"... We have these elements in this country that are embracing the totalitarianism of an Americanized form of Marxism."

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"It's on our college campuses, where academic freedom is really a joke, free speech on the internet is really a joke. More and more of our liberties are being smothered, and somebody needs to bring attention to it, needs to give it the right name and needs to talk about how we confront it. And that's the point of the book."

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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Liz Peek: Calling Reagan 2.0 – Biden, Dems' radical policies wrong for US. Here's how we get back on track (Fox 07/19/2021)
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Democrats are proudly trying to "transform" our country. They want to give out even more welfare programs, free college, free child care and free senior care.

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They want to fund all this by raising taxes on the wealthy, to make them pay "their fair share," even as the top 1% of earners pay 40% of all income taxes, the highest since 1980, and "six out of 10 households receive more in direct government benefits than they pay in all federal taxes," according to the Tax Foundation.

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Democrats want to push our nation further along the road to a managed economy, reducing the incentives to work, crushing productivity and the kind of success and growth that has elevated the United States above its European rivals. We cannot let that happen.
Levin talks rise of 'American Marxism': Appeals to 'people who don't take responsibility for their own lives' (Fox 07/18/2021)
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... Marxism endures as a philosophy on the far left more than 100 years after its namesake's death because it appeals to people who want to blame others for their problems.

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One group Marxism appeals to ... is "people who do not take responsibility for their own lives. So they can blame society. They can be viewed by themselves as victims, as oppressed."

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"[For them,] there's really no personal responsibility or personal accountability. They have no real connection to society."

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Because these individuals do not feel the need to contribute to society, a political ideology that relies on seizing resources from producers and giving it to others is appealing.

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"And so, people who are successful need to be dragged down. People who are happy need to be sad. People who are productive need to be less productive," he said, calling the collective result "sheer destruction."

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Marxism ... also can be seen in the Democrats' endeavor to rip down public statuary and erase historical figures from education curricula.

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Marx believed that history starts ‘today' and that "rejecting past history" is the key to a purportedly equitable society.

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The second major group of adherents to American Marxism is the "fanatics" and people who crave power – which in turn means they must quash individual liberty to be able to control individuals.

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"These are diabolical people. And many of them are tenured professors other than our mouthpieces on television and radio, Some of them are elected from the state of Vermont."

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... American proponents of Marxism, especially those on campuses, claim "real" or "authentic" Marxism or socialism has never been tried, despite failures such as the Soviet Union.

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"Despite all the examples of how horrendous and inhumane Marxism and its offshoots have been – 100 million dead and God knows how many billions enslaved – you know, 'It just wasn't done the right way'."

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See related Critical Race Theory (Mike Shelton, 06/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Black, Bennett, Hanson: America and a tale of two wars – one in Afghanistan and one at home (Fox 07/18/2021)
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President Biden is needlessly gambling with the survival of any non-Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

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While it is correct that the United States really doesn't care how Afghanistan is governed as long as it doesn't back-slide into a terrorist breeding ground or the scene of genocidal atrocities like Rwanda or Kampuchea, this is still an unsatisfactory end of the American and Allied commitment in Afghanistan: 20 years and over $1 trillion and approximately 23,000 casualties including over 2,300 dead.

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In 1972, South Vietnam prevailed over the communists with the U.S. providing only heavy air support, a model that was successfully replicated in the destruction of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

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And it should have been given a better try in Afghanistan. There was no need not to retain enough forces in-country to protect and ensure the efficient operation of the Bagram air facility.

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There seems to be an almost unanimous consensus that the honor of America and the West is at stake in providing sanctuary for the many Afghans who actively helped the Western expeditionary forces. A failure here will be a human tragedy and a credibility disaster for the United States.

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The British concluded in the 19th century, without occupying much of Afghanistan, that it was not worth the trouble or the cost in personnel and resources to try to add it to the vast British Indian Empire which then extended from Pakistan to Myanmar.

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The Russians, after ten years and 15,000 Russian war dead, came to the same conclusion.

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The United States is now certainly avoiding the Soviet debacle but may be replicating the British.

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If the Chinese try to run their vaunted " Belt and Road" initiative through Afghanistan, they won't do any better than the countries that preceded them.

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Even Alexander the Great confined himself mostly to the valleys, passed through the country twice, took a wife, (one of several), and departed.

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More important than the Afghan war is the war on the home front against the woke mania.

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We all agree that the great drive across America to replace school boards who have caved to the teachers' unions and tolerated subversive education is the cutting-edge of the only possible, but altogether likely rejection of the present wave of woke national self-reproach and even self-hate.

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This grassroots and common-sense pushback is the strength that de Tocqueville perceived in Americans. Even though the media and the Academy are almost entirely within the hands of the ideological enemies of the traditional American system, public opinion continues by a sizable majority to defend those traditional values, and the revolts against the woke school boards appear to be the beginning of the benign reaction to the lawlessness and Americophobia that has gripped the media and schools and universities and is now oozing through the U.S. armed forces.

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We expect a counter-revolution to sweep from the bottom upwards reacting to the anti-democratic left, inflation, soaring violent crime, a president who at times seems challenged and confused, and open southern borders.

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The media will roll over like poodles when the current woke fad wanes, and the academicians, who birthed it, will no more be able to resist a pincers between the opposition of the students and the parents and benefactors than their predecessors resisted the student activists of the 60's and 70's.

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All polls and all common sense show that the great majority of Americans wants elections that faithfully reflect the wishes of the voters, a completely non-political military and intelligence leadership, a much braver and more competent and balanced media, and a much less opinionated and monotonous entertainment and sports community.

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This resurgent national sentiment will be asserted and will be irresistible.

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It is a sobering time when the leader of a slothful teachers' union and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are defending critical race theory in almost identical terms.

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Gen. Milley (David Hitch, 07/06/2021)) cartoon from USA picture album
The secret that Biden, Obama, Hillary won't say aloud about today's Democratic Party (Fox 07/17/2021)
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How often during the last year of wokeness have middle- and lower-class Americans listened to multimillionaires of all races and genders lecture them on their various pathologies and oppressions?

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University presidents with million-dollar salaries virtue-signal on the cheap their own sort of "unearned white privilege."

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Meghan Markle and the Obamas, from their plush estates, indict Americans for their biases.

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Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors Brignac decries the oppressive victimization she and others have suffered — from one of her four recently acquired homes.

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Do we need another performance-art sermon on America's innate unfairness from billionaire entertainers such as Beyonce, Jay-Z or Oprah Winfrey, or from multimillionaire Delta or Coca-Cola CEOs?

•
During the 1980s cultural war, the left's mantra was "race, class and gender." Occasionally we still hear of that trifecta, but the class part has increasingly disappeared.

•
The neglect of class is ironic given that a number of recent studies conclude class differences are widening as never before.

•
Middle-class incomes among all races have stagnated, and family net worth has declined. Far greater percentages of rising incomes go to the already rich. Student debt, mostly a phenomenon of the middle and lower classes, has hit $1.7 trillion.

•
So why are we not talking about class? First, we are watching historic changes in political alignment.

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The two parties are switching class constituents. Some 65% of the Americans making more than $500,000 a year are Democrats, and 74% of those who earn less than $100,000 a year are Republicans, according to IRS statistics. Gone are the days of working people automatically voting Democratic, or Republicans being caricatured as a party of stockbrokers on golf courses.

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Increasingly, the Democrats are a bicoastal party of elites from corporate America, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the media, universities, entertainment and professional sports. All have made out like bandits from globalization.

•
The Democratic Party does not wish to admit it has become the party of wealth. All too often its stale revolutionary speechifying sounds more like penance arising from guilt than genuine advocacy for middle-class citizens of all races.

•
The wealthy leftist elite has mastered the rhetoric of ridicule for the lower-middle classes, especially struggling Whites.

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Class is fluid; race is immutable. So by fixating on race, the left believes that it can divide America into permanent victimizers and victims — at a time when race and class are increasingly disconnecting.

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The wealthy of all races are the loudest voices of the woke movement. Their frequent assumptions of "victimhood" are absurd.

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Americans who struggle to pay soaring gas, food, energy and housing prices are berated for their "white privilege" by an array of well-paid academics, media elite and CEOs.

•
Note that the woke military is the brand of admirals, generals and retired top brass on corporate boards, not of the enlisted.

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It's multimillionaire CEOs who bark at the nation for their prejudices, not saleswomen or company truck drivers.

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America is a plutocracy, not a genocracy. Wealth, not race, is the factor most likely to ensure someone power, influence and the good life.

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The more the elites scream their woke banalities, the more they seem to fear that they, not most Americans, are really the privileged, coddled and pampered ones — and sometimes the victimizers.
American Marxism (JWR 07/16/2021)
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... "a unified, patriotic front of previously docile ... factions and forces" that believes America is worthy of defending must emerge. People of good will must wake up to the gravity of the threats we face and recognize "the urgency of the moment" and rise up to take back this nation.

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
The Left's Disgraceful Failure To Condemn Cuba's Communist Dictatorship (JWR 07/16/2021)
What the Protests in Cuba Tell Us About the Left's Agenda for America (JWR 07/16/2021)
Larry Kudlow: 'This is a free country and people should have free speech' (Fox 07/16/2021)
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There's no such thing as accurate information and there's no such thing as the White House telling us what's accurate information and, by the way, parenthetically I would say any White House, not just this one.

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This is a free country and people should have free speech. They are free to believe whomever they want to believe. That's the way it works.

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In this business of Big Tech being illegally deputized as the censorship arm of the U.S. government, violates all these freedoms.
Harmeet Dhillon: Biden White House 'flags' Big Tech – here's why digital policing is so dangerous (Fox 07/16/2021)
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Controlling the narrative is power. Authoritarian regimes know this well, and ruthlessly employ power to control public discourse and, in turn, the people themselves.

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... throughout modern history, regimes seeking to quell citizen protest begin a repressive crackdown by silencing dissenters, journalists, even ordinary protestors – either through censoring the press or forbidding critical talk.

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Psaki admitted, "members of the [White House] senior staff" are "in regular touch with the social media platforms" for the purpose of addressing this "big issue of misinformation."

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She went on to admit that the White House has "increased disinformation research and tracking" and that "within the surgeon general's office, we're flagging problematic posts for Facebook" and "boost[ing] trusted content."

•
How exactly is our government "boosting trusted content" on supposedly private social media networks? Who decides what content is "trusted"?

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The First Amendment's free speech clause prohibits the government from abridging speech, especially on the basis of viewpoint, absent judicial scrutiny.

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The White House freely admits that it is pressuring Facebook to remove information it subjectively deems "misinformation" with respect to the coronavirus and vaccine.

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In other words, Dr. Anthony Fauci is carrying a pocket veto on your speech. Don't forget that at the same time, the big tech companies are facing increasing bipartisan calls for regulation, even antitrust breakup remedies. Against such a backdrop, when the White House comes calling, they are sure to stand at attention.

•
The Biden administration is littered with former "Big Tech" executives and employees – many of whom worked in the Obama administration, then went to Big Tech during the Trump years, and now are back at the White House.

•
They are wasting no time using their cozy revolving door relationship to stifle protected speech.

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After the election, they suppressed criticism of sloppy election practices. Today, it's vaccine questions. Tomorrow, will the government "boost content" through its proxies telling us that inflation is imaginary, there is no labor shortage exacerbated by extended government handouts, and climate change is racist?

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Our founders declared independence and paid with their blood for our freedom of speech. We cannot give it away as the price of doing business in a digital age.
Hans von Spakovsky: The Big Lie about Texas and other states' election reforms (Fox 07/16/2021)
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Biden says what the states are doing is "pernicious." No, what is pernicious are the outrageous lies that he and other liberals are spreading about common-sense election reforms sponsored by state legislators who are trying their best to protect the integrity of the franchise for all Americans.

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See related Joe Crow (Mike Shelton, 04/06/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be fired (Fox 07/16/2021)
Larry Kudlow: In a communist system, the state is everything (Fox 07/15/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Pentagon leaders are trying to hide truth about illegal immigration from Americans (Fox 07/14/2021)
•
It's not a partisan talking point or any kind of exaggeration to say that Joe Biden has opened this country's borders to the world.

•
Since Biden's inauguration in January, the Border Patrol has apprehended close to a million foreign nationals coming into this country overland through Mexico.

•
That's enough people to change our country forever. You may argue that's a good thing. America will benefit from this influx of people from foreign countries. If so, we'd love to hear that argument. No one has so far explained how that works.

•
But what you can't argue is that opening the borders was legal, or that anyone in the country voted for it. The current mass movement of foreign nationals into the United States was never approved by Congress. No one passed a law asking for it.

•
The Biden administration just did it, unilaterally, without asking Americans what they thought of it.

•
... the administration has enlisted the U.S. military to move illegal immigrants secretly around the country. It's happening at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas.

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"Over the next few days, weeks or months," the note began, "you may see passenger aircraft on our ramp transporting undocumented non-citizens. Please review the attached public affairs guidance on the issue."

•
... email then instructed uniformed military personnel to hide what was happening on the base from the country they're sworn to serve. "Do not take photographs and refrain from posting anything on social media."

•
... U.S. military leadership at the Pentagon helping the Biden administration — with maximum, enforced stealth, with secrecy — to subvert the country's core immigration laws.

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Apparently, Americans don't have a right to know where foreign nationals are being resettled in their own country.

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Changing the electoral map, are we? Serving the businesses that paid for you to get elected, are we? Yes, we are.

•
What you're watching is demographic transformation, in our country, without our consent and in violation of our laws. That is happening. Our job is to shut up and accept it. We know that they will call us names if we don't accept it.

•
But no, thanks. What's happening, what they're doing, is wrong. It's moreover a violation of the most basic promise of democracy, which is that citizens get to control who runs the government. We, as citizens, have an absolute right to know what they are doing.

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Immigration Politics (Sean Delonas, 01/12/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: Texas freedom fighter Democrats fled to DC in a move even Putin wouldn't attempt (Fox 07/14/2021)
Rep. Mike Waltz: Military and critical race theory – this is why we shouldn't teach soldiers to hate US (Fox 07/14/2021)
•
Imagine being a recent graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and you are given your first orders as an infantry officer in command of a unit in an active war zone.

•
You are thousands of miles away from home and responsible for the lives under your command. Like in most instances, your unit is comprised of soldiers of mixed ethnicities, religions and backgrounds.

•
With all this in mind, you were also taught in a government-funded course that the institutions you serve and that your unit swore an oath to defend, are inherently racist, and that inherent inequality based on skin color should impact your decision making.

•
Does this impact your thinking as you order a soldier to move forward against a machine gun? Will you select a soldier of a different race because you have White guilt?

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In the face of gunfire, you often have less than seconds to make decisions. You have one focus: to complete the mission while mitigating injuries and fatalities.

•
When pressed on CRT being taught in the military, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the House Armed Services Committee, "We do not teach critical race theory. We don't embrace critical race theory, and I think that's a spurious conversation."

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Yet the evidence is mounting. ... Air Force Academy Professor Lynne Chandler Garcia admitted, "I teach critical race theories to our nation's future military leaders" and that "racism was ingrained in the system from the beginning."

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There is no denying the military – and the United States – has a history of racism and a checkered past. We should understand that. But this isn't a history course.

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As academic proponents of CRT ... have put it: "Unlike traditional civil rights, which stresses incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law."

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Why are we teaching cadets to question the principles of the Constitution that they have taken an oath of allegiance to?

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I was alarmed when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley sought to defend the teaching of CRT and declared, "I want to understand White rage."

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According to Anderson, who addressed West Point cadets, "The trigger for White rage, inevitably, is Black advancement. It is not the mere presence of Black people that is the problem; rather, it is Blackness with ambition, drive, purpose, aspirations, and with demands for full and equal citizenship."

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I can't think of anything more dangerous to unit cohesion and moral than to think your fellow soldier of color's advancement contributes to your White rage.

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When you join the military, everyone has their head shaved and is given the same uniform. You are taught to bleed green and the only color that matters is camouflage. The enemy's bullets certainly don't care about your race.

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As a country, we should want anyone, regardless of race, in our military ranks. Any Americans who are willing to put their life on the line for our country should be accepted with open arms should they meet the criteria that has made our military the best in the world.

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But learning about CRT isn't like learning about Marxism or Mao, as Gen. Milley put it. It is a widely held belief among academics and is being taught as reality by professors such as Anderson.

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The American military stands as the country's most trusted intuition yet stands to lose the trust of the public should this continue. There are certainly areas to improve but indoctrinating our soldiers to hate the country they serve isn't one of them.

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See related Woke General Milley (Dick Wright, 06/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: Your private conversations will be controlled by the DNC (Fox 07/13/2021)
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Last March, as the first big clusters of Coronavirus cases, started to appear in this country, media executives in Silicon Valley coordinated with officials in Washington to determine how much the public was allowed to know about the growing epidemic that was killing them.

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Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook emailed Tony Fauci at NIH, to assure him that Facebook users would see only Tony Fauci's approved guidance on Covid-19. Twitter and Google effectively did the same.

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Twitter and Google eliminated any post that deviated from Washington's official line. In many cases, they censored information from frontline physicians that was both medically sound — it was the science — and potentially lifesaving. Posts about treatments for example were downplayed.

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They have never apologized for this, they probably never will.

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Historians will assess it. They will likely record the early days of COVID-19 as a turning point in our society — an unprecedented assault on our most basic civil liberties, that somehow very few people seemed to notice when it first started happening.

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The usual stooges and think tank libertarians assured us at the time none of it was a big deal. Soulless multinational media monopolies censoring essential medical information? No problem. That's how the free market works.

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Build your own Google if you don't like it. Start your own NIH. And anyway, in private you can still say what you want. You're still free. It's not like this is North Korea. So calm down, conspiracy nut.

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We shouldn't have. Today we learned the Biden administration considers censorship is applicable to private speech as well. What you say in private, when you're alone with your phone, you won't be able to say or read what you want because the DNC plans to control — and apparently have the ability to control — the flow the information you receive on your phone. Nothing that questions official regime policy will reach you.

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"Biden allied groups, including the Democratic National Committee, are planning to engage fact-checkers more aggressively, and work with SMS carriers to dispel misinformation about vaccines that is sent over social media and text messages."

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We'll say that again because it's a sentence we never thought we'd see written in English: The DNC is planning to censor any quote, "misinformation about vaccines" that you receive privately over text message.

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What does "misinformation" mean? It's not the same as false information, as factually inaccurate information. Misinformation can be factually true. In fact, it very often is factually true. That's why they're angry about it.

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Misinformation is anything the Biden administration doesn't want you to know — including, for example, how effective the Covid vaccines actually are, and what the potential side effects from them might be from taking them.

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Your private conversations will be controlled by the DNC. Is that the picture of a free country?

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Looks like we should have worried about civil liberties last year when all this started. "It's a global health emergency. We have no choice. Things will go back to normal when it ends."

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But will they go back to normal? If the government can ban discussion of the drug they're making you take, what can't they do? And by the way, are they doing this now, expanding censorship on the conversation about the pandemic as the pandemic recedes?

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The covid vaccines have been around for more than seven months. Pretty much everyone who wants a shot has had one. You can get the shot very easily — they're free.

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According to the administration, the vaccine works perfectly, so vaccinated people are protected from covid. They're bulletproof. They can't get sick. That's why they took the vaccine in the first place.

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So why is official Washington so angry at the people who won't get vaccinated? How precisely do they propose a threat?

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It makes you think that maybe none of this is really about Covid. Maybe it's about social control. Tony Fauci all but admitted that the other day.

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"There should be more mandates." Actually, they didn't tell us that. Do you remember hearing that when they first rolled out the vaccine, that we're for mandates?

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No, they said they're not for mandates actually — but now they are. These drugs will be mandatory in many places they already are.

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Many questions arise from this — deep questions about civil liberties and what it means to be a free country. But even on a medical level, questions arise for example: Do we know enough to make these drugs mandatory?

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... the F.D.A. is preparing to announce a new warning for the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine, saying it's been linked to a nerve DISORDER called GBS, which can cause paralysis and has.

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Millions of people in this country alone have taken the Johnson and Johnson shot, but other vaccines could be implicated, too.

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According to the government's own VAERS database, which tracks vaccine side effects, GBS has been reported as a potential symptom for every other COVID vaccine too.

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... in 1976, the federal government ended its mass vaccination program for influenza after several hundred people came down with GBS. People started asking questions, and very quickly, the Ford administration determined the vaccine wasn't worth the risk.

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But that's not happening now. People are not asking those questions because they can't — they're not allowed to in public.

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... Tony Fauci isn't stopping the vaccines in the United States. Instead, he's accusing anyone who has questions about the vaccine of having a sinister political motivation.

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... Fauci on the one hand says this should be mandatory and then moments later says for some reason people think we are forcing this on them — and that's "inexplicable." They must be right-wingers.

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... Fauci's claim the resistance to the vaccine is somehow political is a bad-faith attack posing as science. In fact, it has been the Democratic Party, very much Anthony Fauci's party, that has engaged in partisan discussion about the vaccine from the very first day.

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Less than a year ago, in September 2020, Kamala Harris announced that the coronavirus vaccine might be dangerous. Why? Because Donald Trump oversaw its development, she said, "is going to be an issue for all of us." Really?

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No longer an issue because Kamala Harris is in charge. So now that she's in charge anyone asking obvious questions even non-partisan questions, must be a white supremacist.

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... when you refuse to answer basic questions about the vaccine and when you dodge them with partisan talking points like that, you make people nervous, Americans have the right to have basic questions answered before taking a medicine, that is their right.

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Medical choices are by definition personal choices. They are not choices that politicians get to make for you. You should never be forced to take medicine you don't want, period.

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... claiming African-Americans aren't taking the vaccine because white supremacists have asked questions about the vaccine. That's lunacy, of course.

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"The more that it's a push for me to go get vaccinated, it makes me not want it even more." And of course, that makes sense. If the vaccine is so great wouldn't it sell itself? There would be no reason to force people to take it.

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But people are being forced to take it. The people who are trying to force us are the ones who lectured of for decades about "my body my choice" — they are leading the way. The levels of irony here are exhaustible.

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... when they start talking like that, when they start making claims that have no logic, no clear medical justification, they're just transparently political — in that case clearly illegal — when they start talking about punishing Americans who don't want to do their will, follow instructions they refuse to explain, policies that will not account for using data instead they throw talking points at you and bumper stickers and attacking you as immoral — who's going to believe them ever again?

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... nor anyone else who is making that case has answered a very simple question: why should people who've recovered from COVID-19, and there are millions in this country who are immune to the virus, why should they be forced to get the vaccine? What's the answer?

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When you attack people rather than answer their questions they don't trust you anymore and they don't trust the drugs you say they must take and that's a shame.

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And where are the Republicans when they learned the Biden administration decided they can police your text messages? That the DNC is in charge of what you text to other Americans? There is almost no resistance to it in Washington. That means it's likely going to get worse.

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The numbers are straight from the Department of Defense's website. Quote: "202,567 active duty service members have had COVID, of whom 26 have died. [That's] better than a 99.987 percent survival rate."

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The government is purging the military, and spying on its own citizens, because of a virus that isn't killing very many people anymore.

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And keep in mind: vaccination isn't like voting. They don't trust you to do it yourself at home and mail in the results. They're keeping track.

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How East German is this country becoming? The FBI just announced in a tweet that it's encouraging Americans to snitch on family members who exhibit signs of "extremism."

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The federal government — the Biden administration — is encouraging your family to snitch on each other. Does extremism apply to people who have questions about the vaccine? Of course, it does.

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The people running the government have one standard for enforcing the law for people who agree with them, and a different one for those who don't agree with them.

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That is third world. Now those same people just gave themselves the power to read and censor your text messages.

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We got to resist this, you can't let this continue. Or else you're going to wake up in a very different place from the place you were born.

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Why You Need 2 Masks... (Chip Bok, 02/25/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump’s Lawsuit based on Section 230’s Facial Constitutional violation (INN 07/12/2021)
Andrew Sullivan: It's bigger than CRT — radical ideologies transforming US (Fox 07/12/2021)
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"What happened to you?" "When did you become so far right?" "Why have you become a white supremacist, transphobic, misogynistic eugenicist?" Or, of course: "See! I told you who he really was! Just take the hood off, Sully!"

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It's trolling, mainly. And it's a weapon for some in the elite to wield against others in the kind of emotional blackmail spiral that was first pioneered on elite college campuses.

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But it's worth answering, a year after I was booted from New York Magazine for my unacceptable politics.

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Because it seems to me that the dynamic should really be the other way round. The real question is: What happened to you?

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The CRT debate is just the latest squall in a tempest brewing and building for five years or so.

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Take a big step back. Observe what has happened in our discourse since around 2015.

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What is it? It is, I'd argue, the sudden, rapid, stunning shift in the belief system of the American elites. It has sent the whole society into a profound cultural dislocation.

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It is, in essence, an ongoing moral panic against the specter of "white supremacy," which is now bizarrely regarded as an accurate description of the largest, freest, most successful multiracial democracy in human history.

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The elites, increasingly sequestered within one political party and one media monoculture, educated by colleges and private schools that have become hermetically sealed against any nonleft dissent, have had a "social justice reckoning" these past few years. And they have been ideologically transformed, with countless cascading consequences.

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The reason "critical race theory" is a decent approximation for this new orthodoxy is that it was precisely this exasperation with liberalism's seeming inability to end racial inequality in a generation that prompted Derrick Bell et al. to come up with the term in the first place, and Kimberle Crenshaw to subsequently universalize it beyond race to every other possible dimension of human identity ("intersectionality").

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A specter of invisible and unfalsifiable "systems" and "structures" and "internal biases" arrived to hover over the world.

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The movement is much broader than race — as anyone who is dealing with matters of sex and gender will tell you.

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And the term "successor ideology" works because it centers the fact that this ideology wishes, first and foremost, to repeal and succeed a liberal society and democracy.

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In the successor ideology, there is no escape, no refuge, from the ongoing nightmare of oppression and violence — and you are either fighting this and "on the right side of history," or you are against it and abetting evil.

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There is no neutrality. No space for skepticism. No room for debate. No space even for staying silent. (Silence, remember, is violence — perhaps the most profoundly anti-liberal slogan ever invented.)...

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And that tells you about the will to power behind it. Liberalism leaves you alone. The successor ideology will never let go of you.*

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Liberalism is only concerned with your actions. The successor ideology is concerned with your mind, your psyche, and the deepest recesses of your soul.

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Liberalism will let you do your job, and let you keep your politics private. S.I. will force you into a struggle session as a condition for employment.

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A plank of successor ideology, for example, is that the only and exclusive reason for racial inequality is "white supremacy." Culture, economics, poverty, criminality, family structure: All are irrelevant, unless seen as mere emanations of white control. Even discussing these complicated factors is racist, according to Ibram X. Kendi.

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"It means taking full responsibility for own lives — by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny."

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To say this today would evoke instant accusations of being a white supremacist and racist. That's how far the left has moved: Obama as an enabler of white supremacy.

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Due process? If you're a male on campus, gone. Privacy? Stripped away — by anonymous rape accusations, exposure of private emails, violence against people's private homes, screaming at folks in restaurants, sordid exposes of sexual encounters, eagerly published by woke mags.

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Non-violence? Exceptions are available if you want to "punch a fascist." Free speech? Only if you don't mind being fired and ostracized as a righteous consequence. Free association? You've got to be kidding.

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Religious freedom? Illegitimate bigotry. Equality? Only group equity counts now, and individuals of the wrong identity can and must be discriminated against.

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Color-blindness? Another word for racism. Mercy? Not for oppressors. Intent? Irrelevant. Objectivity? A racist lie. Science? A manifestation of white supremacy.

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Biological sex? Replaced by socially constructed gender so that women have penises and men have periods.

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The rule of law? Not for migrants or looters. Borders? Racist. Viewpoint diversity? A form of violence against the oppressed.

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We are going through the greatest radicalization of the elites since the 1960s. This isn't coming from the ground up. It's being imposed ruthlessly from above, marshaled with a fusillade of constant MSM propaganda, and its victims are often the poor and the black and the brown.
Liz Peek: Pelosi, Democrats need Trump – Jan. 6 commission created for this one reason (Fox 07/12/2021)
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently announced the formation of a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 "insurrection," saying she did so with "great solemnity and sadness."

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The same kind of solemnity, we presume, with which she launched the impeachment trials of President Trump, along with souvenir pens.

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It's rubbish, of course. Pelosi, D-Calif., can't wait to get started on yet another excoriation of the former president. Why? Because Pelosi doesn't just miss Donald J. Trump, she needs Donald J. Trump.

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Trump is the glue holding the Democrat Party together; the epoxy that unites the progressive Bernie Bros and moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W-Va. Trump's the guy who inspires turnout among Democrats; no Trump, no 81 million votes.

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It isn't just Democrat politicians that miss our former president; their partners in the media are dying without Trump. Ratings for CNN and MSNBC have cratered; the audience for CNN's Jake Tapper has plummeted 75% from January. Tapper can't wait for Pelosi's "insurrection" hearings.

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The Left's problem is that Trump is practically invisible today. Liberals applaud Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for taking The Donald off their platforms, and it surely has reduced his impact.

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But those social media giants have in fact done Democrats a huge disservice. Instead of railing about Trump's latest disruptive Tweet, Pelosi and President Joe Biden have to talk about the chaos at the border, or their push to spend even more trillions of dollars, despite the worst inflation in decades.

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They have to explain why gasoline prices are up more than 30%, or why crime is soaring in Democrat-led cities. They have to tell us why American kids are being brainwashed into thinking that all that matters is the color of their skin.

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Biden's far-Left agenda looks dead in the water thanks to some moderates in Congress whose constituents are alarmed at the prospect of higher taxes, giant budget deficits and immoderate payoffs to Democrat special-interest groups.

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What will Democrats sell to voters in 2022?

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That's where Nancy's commission comes in. She wants to return to the 2020 playbook, in which Trump is the Bogeyman. In particular, she wants to alarm the country that we are at mortal risk from violent extremists – I.e. Trump supporters – of the kind that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.

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She wants to play up the "insurrection" narrative, and has the FBI toiling to back her up. The agency, displaying the kind of fervor conspicuously lacking in dealing with the BLM riots a year ago, has so far hunted down and arrested more than 535 people who approached or crowded into the halls of Congress.

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Make no mistake: the attack on the Capitol was horrendous and should never have happened. But Pelosi's inquiry may raise uncomfortable questions, and could backfire.

•
... people may demand to know who shot Ashley Babbitt, an unarmed Trump supporter who was the only person killed that day. With cops being hounded from coast to coast for any questionable use of force, it is outrageous that federal prosecutors determined the killing was justified and declined to press charges, even as they refused to identify the shooter.

•
Also, why were repeated requests to call in the National Guard ahead of the rally turned down? The former chief of U.S. Capitol Police told the Washington Post that security officials at the House and Senate rebuffed his early entreaties to call in the National Guard. Was Pelosi behind that decision?

•
How did the FBI, which has been warning for some time about the threat we face from "domestic terrorists," not see the attack coming? There was apparently ample social media chatter about the gathering; is the FBI politically corrupt and inept?

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The hearing could prove a minefield for Pelosi and her fellow Democrats unless the partisan makeup of the commission prevents an honest accounting, which it might.

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Pelosi, after all, has already written the conclusion, saying the committee's job will be to explore the "root causes of [the Jan. 6 uprising] – the White supremacy, the anti-Semitism, the Islamophobia, all the rest of it that was so evident." ...

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The commission isn't about uncovering important information about domestic terrorism or about the events of Jan. 6; it is about reviving Donald J. Trump as the enemy and energizing struggling Democrats. From all appearances, they need it.

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See related Witch-Hunt Continues (Antonio Branco, 06/01/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Diminishing our capability to distinguish and differentiate (INN 07/11/2021)
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Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets (encourages, incites) another person in the commission of a crime.

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It exists in a number of different countries and generally allows a court to pronounce someone guilty for aiding and abetting in a crime even if they are not the principal offender or even directly involved in the criminal act itself.

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The progressive Democratic Party as represented by Tliab, Pressley, Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, and Bush will continue to blur the publics' ability to distinguish and differentiate between police forces and criminals, between victims of violence and those responsible for the violence.

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These Congresswomen should all held accountable for aiding and abetting this breakdown of order and safety on the streets of America.
Racial Marxism is destroying America (INN 07/11/2021)
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America is in a turmoil over the "critical theory of race" in public schools. A dark academic ideology formulated in the 1970s is at the center of political debate today.

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... Christopher Rufo of the Manhattan Institute explains that Critical Race Theory is an academic discipline which states that the United States was founded on racism, oppression and white supremacy and that these forces are still at the root of our society.

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It reformulates the old Marxist dialectic of oppressor and oppressed, replacing the class categories of bourgeoisie and proletariat with the categories of black and white. A form of "race-based Marxism" .

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In Cupertino, California, a school forced third-graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities and rank themselves according to their "power and privilege."

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In Springfield, Missouri, a middle school forced teachers to place themselves on a "matrix of oppression." "Males, Christians, English-speaking straight men are the greatest oppressors."

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In Philadelphia, a school forced fifth grade students to celebrate Black Communism and simulate a Black Power rally.

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In New York, a principal of a public school sent material to parents advocating the complete "abolition of whites".

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In Portland, Oregon, students are educated on racial justice in terms of "revolution and / or resistance"...

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"If we teach that somehow the founding of the United States of America was somehow flawed, it was corrupt, it was racist, it's really dangerous," former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told...

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"It affects the... very foundations of our country. It is called critical race theory, but in the end they are attacking the central understandings we have shared together for 245 years and are trying to divide the country" .

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As researcher James Lindsay, one of the main critics of this theory, puts it: "Do you notice the race? It is because you are a racist. Don't you notice it? It is because you are privileged, therefore a racist " .

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When in doubt, all that remains is to kneel.

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America is declining rapidly in front of our eyes.

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
'Neo-Marxist' Democrat 'enemies' seek to destroy US, as Biden engages in 'radical cultural attacks' (Fox 07/10/2021)
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"I was doing research and studying the scholarship and who were behind these various movements, critical race theory, the current immigration movement, so-called climate change, the de-growth movement. Transgender movement, which is an attack on the social construct... and I said we have allowed these people to intimidate us long enough. We have allowed these people to use language, we regurgitate their language."

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"I said enough is enough. If we are going to defeat this, we are in the abyss trying to claw our way out – we are not looking into the abyss anymore, we are in the abyss and if we are going to get out of this, we need to know exactly who we are dealing with."

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... the left are not "opponents" or rivals as often described but truly our "enemies." "Our institutions are under attack. Our children are now being brainwashed. This isn't the Red Scare or McCarthyism, this is American Marxism."

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"... clever enough to try and customize it and tailor to the American system — you chip away at it and chip away at it so the American Marxist is very clever and conniving about how they conduct themselves and develop these various movements over the course of decades and we are seeing the pinnacle is here whether it's in the classroom, whether it comes to economic system, energy and so forth, intersectionality all come together in the aggregate and that is what we are confronting today."

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"This is a cabal of American-hating Marxists, that's exactly what they are. They defend Hamas, they trash Israel, trash the United States, want to eliminate law enforcement, eliminate the border. That's not a Squad. That's poison, a cancer, that's what these people are."

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... the Democrats have "adjusted" historically understood Marxist tenets and constructs to present day society, and that critical race theory is itself essentially "Louis Farrakhan dressed up in scholarship."

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"Farrakhan hates Whites, hates America, [is an] anti-Semite, separatist, nationalist: That's pretty much what critical race theory is but even worse because it's objective is the Marxist objective which is what? To overthrow and overturn the American society."

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... the Democrats continue to attack American history and seek to undermine our founding ideals and founding fathers – ... their quest to destroy and topple all of the historical monuments is rooted in the Marxist belief that history begins anew at day zero.

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"When you look at Joe Biden and the executive orders he signs, they are the most radical cultural attacks on our system in American history. He attacks the nature of gender and sex and undermines women's sports, they attack over 60% of the people in this country who are White, they are as divisive and racialist as one can possibly imagine."

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"[Marxists] don't believe in free speech. They don't believe in engagement. They don't believe in discussion."
Tucker Carlson: They're trying to trick us with Soviet-style fakes (Fox 07/10/2021)
Who Are the Real Bullies on Race? (JWR 07/09/2021)
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Don't be bullied by those seeking to intimidate you with false charges of racism from standing up for your children, for accurate history and for promoting the laudatory goal of seeing and treating people of all races as individuals made in God's image.

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Wide Open Frisco! Come and Get it! (JWR 07/09/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Government forced sterilization, what's keeping them from forcing vaccines? (Fox 07/09/2021)
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... begin with the most obvious observation of all: force works. If you decide to make people do something — if you demand they do it and punish them if they don't — generally they'll do it. They'll comply. They don't really have a choice.

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If you tell them they have to take a dose of experimental medicine, for example, otherwise they can't have a job, and their kids can't be educated, most of them will take it.

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And in fact, most of them have. According to the latest CDC data, 67% of all American adults have received the coronavirus vaccine so far. Sixty-seven percent.

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That's a huge number in a country like this. Try to think of anything else that 67% of American adults have done recently.

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For perspective, only about 24% of the country's population voted for Joe Biden in November, and that was enough to make him president of the United States.

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So in some ways, the administration has done something amazing. Get the vaccine or else. That was their message.

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Most people did. But not everyone. There are still holdouts. These are not people who haven't heard of the vaccine or can't afford it, or can't just find a dose. It's free, it's everywhere and the media never stop talking about it. Every news hour is a Pfizer commercial.

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The Biden administration is no longer accepting excuses. ... XAVIER BECERRA: "The federal government has spent trillions of dollars to keep Americans alive during this pandemic. So it is absolutely the government's business. It is the taxpayer's business... We want to give people the freedom to choose but we hope they choose to live."

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We want to give people the freedom to choose, unfortunately, we can't. No more freedom for you. The Biden administration is no longer pro-choice.

•
So, does the Biden Administration have a right, based on the money they spend fighting these diseases, to your medical information? Do they have a right to know your HIV status? Why not? Can HHS force you to take antibiotics for your TB? Xanax for your anxiety? Thorazine for your mania?

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And while we're at it, why are we letting irresponsible, defective people reproduce? Vagrants, mental patients, even QAnon people, can all have children? Why's that? Why aren't we sterilizing them?

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Sound crazy? It's happened before, on a huge scale.

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In a landmark decision, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, whom we revere most of the time, ruled that the same legal framework that justifies mandatory vaccination laws also permits the government to sterilize people against their will.

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"The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes," Holmes wrote. By 1930, dozens of states were forcing women to undergo involuntary sterilization, and more than 60,000 American women were sterilized by the government against their will.

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Things like that tend to happen when a distracted citizen population allows the government to dictate what medical procedures they get, what drugs they take.

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This is a well-known and horrifying chapter in American history, so you'd think the news media might point this out. But just the opposite.

•
The media demanding forced vaccinations. That shouldn't surprise you. They're not in the business to inform the public, they're in the business for power.

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Veterans' groups, for example, have stayed silent as the Pentagon floats the idea of mandatory vaccinations for all soldiers.

•
Have you seen this movie before? Yes, those of us who are older than 22 remember it well. The Pentagon has forced soldiers to take untested experimental vaccines before, it happened in Iraq. Troops there had to take the anthrax vaccine. What happened?

•
Many of those soldiers are eligible for disability benefits through the VA, because that vaccine caused serious long-term complications — including infertility, lupus, paralysis, blindness, and neurological damage.

•
What's going on here? It's so obviously unnecessary and vindictive that it makes you wonder what this is really about. At the very moment that the risk for young people dying from the coronavirus hits zero, they're telling us that soldiers should be arrested and go to jail if they don't get the vaccine.

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They're telling you that you'll end up in a government database if you don't comply, and that government agents will be showing up and knocking on your door. What's really going on?
If you question critical race theory, crazed ideologues will attack you and hurt your children (Fox 07/07/2021)
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Despite what you may read, day in and day out, this is still a great country. Where are you going to go that's better? Nowhere. America is still full of happy, decent, independent-minded people. The attitudes of our leaders may have changed dramatically in recent years, but the virtues of our population really have not changed. That's the good news...

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The bad news is, the people in charge are working hard to make Americans hate our own country. If you made the mistake of going online this weekend, you saw them pouring out their misery on social media. Instead of enjoying hotdogs and fireworks with the kids they don't have, they were on Twitter yelping about slavery and White supremacy and what a terrible place the United States is.

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It's easy to ignore people like this. You just turn off your screen and live your life. Unfortunately, it's much harder to shield your children from them. That's the problem.

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Last week, the largest teachers' union in the country, the National Education Association, announced that its new, and first, priority is making racist anti-American indoctrination, race-based indoctrination, mandatory in every classroom in the country.

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All K-12 schools, the union declared, must teach children that, "White supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cis-hetero-patriarchy, capitalism, ableism, and anthropocentrism" are embedded in every aspect of American "society."

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So, if you're a straight White American, even if you're a very small child, you're guilty. It's your fault. You're a bad person. That's what teachers will be telling your children this fall.

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The teachers' union ended its statement with this, which is so hilariously revealing it belongs in a museum somewhere, and we hope it makes it. "As the ancient African proverb says, Know Thyself."

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The African proverb. Except it's not an African proverb. "Know thyself" is, of course, Greek, as any literate person knows. It was inscribed by the ancient Greeks in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

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But the teacher's union didn't know this. Not only are these people crazed racist ideologues, but they're also stupid. Your children are being taught by some of the most ignorant people in the country.

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How'd that happen? God knows how it happened. But you'd better not complain about it, or else Joe Biden's praetorian guard will denounce you on TV as a racist...

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... if you object in any way to the current obsession with race, the one subject no normal person really wants to obsess over, then you yourself are obsessed with race and must be stopped because you're dangerous.

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So what does the average person do about this? What does it take to fight back against it? Of course, you should be fighting back against it because everything's at stake.

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You can't have a multi-racial democracy if people retreat into their tribes and hate each other, as critical race theory teaches them to do. So what do you do?

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Whatever you do, it takes courage. Daniel Concannon learned that the hard way... Like so many school employees, he was then forced to participate in training about the fundamental moral flaws inherent to white people. As an American, and a normal person, someone who admires Martin Luther King, he objected to this. On the other hand, he, like most people, had very little power to do anything about it. He wasn't a rich person. He was making around $30,000 a year. He needed the job. But in the end, his conscience wouldn't allow him to participate in something this poisonous. So he resigned.

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You should read his resignation letter. He ends this way. "I wish the Trotsky disciples at Manchester School District nothing but failure in their ongoing request for civilizational degradation. I leave you with the only verbal response befitting an attempt at anti-White indoctrination. F** you."

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It wasn't so long ago, that Daniel Concannon, and men and women like him, would have been considered heroes. He's a man of conscience, who's willing to sacrifice his own job to do the right thing.

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The few that rise are muted so that no one will follow them. Corporate media has no interest in amplifying their stories. Here's a father who showed up at a school board meeting recently and decided to tell a few obvious truths.

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TY SMITH: You're going to deliberately teach kids that he's got it better than you because he's white? You're gonna tell a white kid, ‘Oh, Black people are all down and suppressed.' How do I have two medical degrees if I'm sitting here oppressed? Two medical degrees. No mom or dad in the house. Worked my way through college. Hustled my butt off and got two degrees. You're gonna tell me white folks are gonna keep me from doing that? Are you serious?! ... I do this stuff on a daily basis. I'm in the hood. I'm in the communities. I'm out there with folks in their face. I've been doing stuff since I was 18 years old, talking to Black folks. You know what? None of them are buying this nonsense... Not one white person will ever keep them from getting there. This CRT stuff is BS.

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So it is BS. In fact, it's more than that. It's civilization-ending poison.

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But it's everywhere. How widespread is it? Well, we can't really be sure until we finally get cameras in the classroom, as we put them on the chests of police officers.

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Until we finally bet a civilian review board in every town in America to oversee the people teaching your kids, forming their minds.

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But there are indications. We know that these ideas, this poison, have made it all the way to expensive private schools in central Ohio. Columbus Academy, one of the most prestigious schools in the state, is among them. Tuition is more than thirty grand a year per student.

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When you make a mother mad about her children, it's hard to make her shut up. So, last month, instead of punishing them, the school decided to punish their children. Columbus Academy kicked their three daughters out of school. They expelled them for what their mother did. So, challenge the regime and we'll hurt your children. The Soviets did it. Columbus Academy did it too.

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According to Soderberg and Kass, by daring to complain about racism at Columbus Academy, the two mothers had caused, "pain, and even fear for physical safety, among students, families, faculty, and staff."

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In other words, if you dare to question us, we won't disagree with you, we'll attack you, we'll hurt your children, and we'll accuse you of assault. You're making us afraid.

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related New Fathers Day (Gary McCoy, 06/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Deroy Murdock: Dems' electric car dreams running low on battery (Fox 07/07/2021)
The Press That Can't Shoot Straight and Doesn't Even Try (JWR 07/06/2021)
Stop Surrendering Education to the Radical Left (JWR 07/06/2021)
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America's children have been raised in a system dedicated to the proposition that America itself is evil, a repository of discrimination and bigotry, a country founded in sin and steeped in cruelty.

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This week, for example, the National Education Association, the single largest teachers union in the country, passed a resolution pledging to "Share and publicize ... information already available on critical race theory (CRT)"; "Provide an already-created, in-depth, study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society"; and "Join with Black Lives Matter at School and the Zinn Education Project to call for a rally this year on October 14 — George Floyd's birthday — as a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppression."

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Meanwhile, the American Federation of Teachers is hosting radical grifter Ibram X. Kendi, who preaches on behalf of overt racial discrimination.

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Now Americans are banding together to fight back against the indoctrination of its children. States have begun to ban the indoctrination of CRT in schools, for example.

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But some thinkers are fighting back, suggesting that such content standards undermine the notion of a liberal education.

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... "citizens" is a specific word with a specific definition. According to Aristotle, a "good citizen" is a person who upholds the Constitution of his particular polis.

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If we teach our students to be bad citizens in the Aristotelian sense — citizens who disparage the polis with lies, who engage in tribal politicking rather than civic friendship, who insist that truth be subsumed in favor of intersectional sensitivities — we will wind up as a country with no future.

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... American public education has all-too-often become a tool of those who wish to produce anti-citizens: those who wish to tear down the systems in the name of some higher or lower purpose. No society can survive this in the long term.

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For the past several decades, the answer seems to be the radical left's standards, undermining key American principles like individual rights and equality before the law in favor of a utopian redistribution of outcome based on group identity.

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It is one thing to discuss the ideological perversion of CRT in order to combat it; it is another thing to indoctrinate in its central tenets. Our education system is currently far more likely to do the latter than the former.

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That must stop. Good citizens have an obligation to stop it. Whether that happens through the mechanisms of civil rights lawsuits or through the mechanisms of local school board elections or through the mechanism of state legislation — all appropriate tools when it comes to defining how our children ought to be educated at public expense — radical indoctrination of our children must stop.

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related New Fathers Day (Gary McCoy, 06/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Salute the American Revolution's enduring legacy (JWR 07/05/2021)
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Ours is the greatest revolution the world as ever known. It succeeded where so many other revolutions have failed, delivered a severe blow to monarchy and aristocracy, inspired republican movements around the world and won the independence of a country whose power and ideals have influenced the course of history for the better.

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We shouldn't underestimate the violence and at times the brutality of a multi-dimensional, years-long struggle that killed more Americans per capita than any conflict besides the Civil War.

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But there was nothing like the Vendee, the bloodbath when royalist resistance to the French Revolution in a Western region of the country was put down in a spasm of all-consuming savagery in 1794, let alone the terrors that characterized 20th-century communist revolutions.

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The Revolution's military leader, George Washington, had no ambitions to rule on his own and tamped down a potential military coup by restive soldiers at Newburgh in 1783.

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The Revolution didn't devour isn't own. Its leaders died in their beds. At the end of long lives, sworn political enemies John Adams and Thomas Jefferson struck up a respectful correspondence and both died on July 4, 1826, still honored 50 years after the Revolution.

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When the country's politics factionalized after the war, no one was guillotined or exiled for his beliefs; instead the profound disagreements between the two sides played out in battles in the newspapers and at the ballot box.

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The Revolution didn't seek to wipe out all that had come before. There was no Year Zero. The idealism of the Revolution (Thomas Paine: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again") was leavened with a realism about human nature (James Madison: "There is a degree of depravity in mankind").

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It established a republican system that endured. Where other revolutions have given way to serial changes of regime, whether in Mexico or France, the Revolution led to the adoption of a Constitution of remarkable staying power.

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"The Revolution commenced the demolition of the early modern hierarchical world of kings, aristocracy, serfdom, slavery, and mercantilist colonial empires, initiating its slow, complex refashioning into the basic format of modernity."

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Were the Revolution's ideals of republicanism and equal rights incompletely realized and the men who espoused them often blinkered and hypocritical? Yes, of course.

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But the Revolution coincided with a searching debate about the status of slavery that opened up new vistas.

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... the aftermath of the Revolution saw "the abolition of slavery in the North, a sharp increase in the number of free blacks in the upper South, and the ending of the African slave trade."

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In his famous 1852 speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglass thunderously condemned the United States for celebrating its liberty at the same time it tolerated — or affirmatively defended — the barbaric practice of chattel slavery. Still, he appreciated the greatness of the founding generation and their handiwork.

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"It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Mark them!"
Dems' crime surge – here's the reason safety and policing finally have their attention (Fox 07/05/2021)
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Breaking news alert: National Democrats are suddenly worried about the rise of violent crime. We know this because they're blaming the bloodshed on Republicans.

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... White House press secretary Jen Psaki tipped the new strategy when she concocted the notion that it's Republicans who actually support defunding the police.

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Her fatuous attempt to flip reality on its head relied on GOP resistance to another multitrillion-dollar Biden administration boondoggle. A boondoggle, by the way, that has nothing to do with police or crime.

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Nonetheless, desperate times call for desperate measures and so Psaki was making like Lady Macbeth in trying to wipe the blood off Dems' hands.

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The effort won't wash, but the attempt is telling.

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Adams, a retired NYPD captain and the Brooklyn borough president, was the lone candidate to make combating crime his top issue, as did voters. It's a beautiful thing when politics works like it's supposed to.

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The others continued to parrot the left's talking points about climate change, systemic racism and free everything for everybody except the wealthy, who must finally pay their fair share.

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We can only imagine the way Adams' victory was received in Dems' back rooms: Holy s**t, did you see what just happened in New York? Quick, say something!

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So the party that featured police haters and people who see racism behind every badge last year is suddenly sweating bullets. That's how fast the momentum is shifting.

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... voters chose Adams in big numbers and cited growing crime in their neighborhoods as the reason. They don't want less policing – they want more and better policing.

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Predictably, the party's far left is not on board with even that modest change. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed herself to be a crime denier by decrying public "hysteria" over the fear.

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... hard for Dems to portray themselves as crime fighters, let alone actually take serious actions to support law enforcement and tougher penalties. In fact, they're the ones who changed laws to eliminate or take the sting out of punishment.

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Lefty prosecutors across the country have been elected in recent years on a platform of decriminalizing quality-of-life offenses and property crimes.

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And blue-state legislators and city councils have added to the problem by handcuffing cops, emptying prisons and freeing even suspects arrested for some violent crimes.

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That pattern explains why you see reports of repeat offenders who are free to commit new crimes despite dozens of arrests over just a few years.

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Imagine how demoralizing it is for cops who risk their lives to make an arrest despite knowing the perp will be home before they are.

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As with all bad ideas from the left, the propaganda media trumpets the nonsense. A recent Washington Post article declared that, despite the nationwide surge in murders, there was "a sober recognition from city leaders that they don't have many options left."

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If past is prologue, the surrender to crime will also include chin-stroking academic laments that New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other large cities are simply ungovernable.

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That, too, is wrong, as New York proved for the 20 years between the reigns of David Dinkins and Bill de Blasio. Nobody said Gotham was ungovernable when Rudy Giuliani or Mike Bloomberg sat in City Hall.

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Instead, they marveled at the policing revolution that made the city safe and turned it into a global magnet for living, visiting and investing.

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In truth, the problem with cities isn't guns, racism or climate change. The problem is the policies of left-wing Democrats – and the people who elect them.
The Ideas behind US Independence Day, July 4th (INN 07/04/2021)
Stand up to Critical Race Theory (INN 07/02/2021)
On a Collision Course with National Disaster (JWR 07/02/2021)
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... I'd bet that most Americans sense something is drastically wrong and that this nation is rapidly slipping away right before our eyes as we squander the legacy of liberty bequeathed to us by preceding generations of patriots who toiled and bled to secure and preserve for themselves and us the things that we once knew matter most.

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I realize the race-baiters and gaslighters believe they have us finally muzzled, but they will soon find we haven't given up.

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They haven't deflated us; they haven't weakened our resolve. They have emboldened us to take our country back, and I believe we will. I truly believe we will.
Critical Race Theory admissions — and more (JWR 07/02/2021)
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Consider this forthright (and harrowing) admission from "Critical Race Theory: An Introduction" ... "Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law."

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CRT proponents, in line with the "anti-racism" movement and vogue notions of "equity," candidly advocate for discrimination — as long as it is anti-white, anti-Asian, anti-Christian or anti-Jewish.

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As leading CRT "anti-racist" intellectual Ibram X. Kendi wrote in 2019's "How to Be an Antiracist" : "The only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination."

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In practice ... CRT takes the form of crass racial indoctrination that ascribes collective and historical guilt to white Americans, urging white parents of schoolchildren to seek "white abolition" and accusing schools of wantonly "spirit murdering" black children.

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It is ... a logical fallacy committed to advancing profoundly un-American notions of collectivized and racially hierarchical guilt and innocence.

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CRT in most forms is already illegal under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, but many Republican-governed states have gone further, crafting and passing new legislation to specifically ban CRT pedagogy from corrupting their impressionable youth.

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Many arguing against the states' CRT bans resort to trite First Amendment appeals. "You're infringing on teachers' speech!" they risibly claim.

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Nonsense. A public school classroom is not a utopian "marketplace of ideas" derived from an Enlightenment-era political pamphlet.

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More generally, any society that takes the bare minimum amount of pride required to wish to sustain itself for its progeny must understand that instilling racially divisive poison in the minds of impressionable students is a recipe for disaster.

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No nation will long endure if its youngest generation is full of disdain, disgust and self-hatred. The traditional goal of education, as the Founders conceived it, was to help inculcate the sound republican habits of mind and civic virtues necessary for a flourishing polity.

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Banning CRT is neither coercive nor liberty-infringing. Rather, it is a prudent and necessary first step to salvaging a fractious nation teetering on the brink of collapse.

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Has the military lost Middle America? (JWR 07/01/2021)
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The military is not yet a revolutionary people's army overseen by commissars. But it is getting there with politicized agendas that split the country in half and abandon the military's traditional role of unifying in common purpose to defend America.
America currently rewards an entitled sense of grievance — especially for unknown sportsmen (JWR 06/30/2021)
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Now, she's going to the Olympics. And presumably, there, she will turn her back on the flag and the national anthem if she makes it to the podium.

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In doing so, she'll become a hero to millions. She'll get richer; she'll get more famous. Perhaps, like pseudo-Marxist Patrisse Cullors of Black Lives Matter, she'll buy herself a few houses; maybe, like Kaepernick, she'll make the cover of Sports Illustrated.

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Like self-declared Marxist Cullors, who currently owns three separate houses worth over $1.5 million each, Berry is in it for the attention and the profit.

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Yesterday, nobody had heard of her. Today, everybody has. It's that simple.

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One thing is certain, however: Those who spend their days championing their own ingratitude at a society that gives them extraordinary opportunities — opportunities unavailable to nearly all humans for nearly all of human history, and unavailable to most people on the planet right now — aren't likely to live happier lives.

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And they're unlikely to make their nations better, either.
Tucker Carlson: Abolishing the suburbs is major part of Biden administration's infrastructure plan (Fox 06/29/2021)
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According to the Obama administration, Westchester was an instrument of white supremacy — not the good liberals who live in Westchester, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, many others.

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No one accused them of being bigots. The problem was the buildings they lived in. All those single-family homes — row upon leafy row, set back from the street, well-tended lawns and mailboxes — were examples of racism — literally "structural racism."

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The only solution, the Obama people announced, was much greater density: more subsidized housing complexes in Westchester, more hi-rise apartment buildings, maybe some drug-addicted vagrants living on the sidewalk, begging for change. Only if Westchester became more like the Bronx could it become non-racist.

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That referred to county regulations that restricted the heights on certain buildings and limited the placement of sewers to protect drinking water" — it sounds reasonable.

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But according to the Obama administration, those were "restrictive practices." "Restrictive practices" is a legal term that, under civil rights law, means they were racist.

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Why is this happening? The goal isn't to eliminate racism. The goal is to eliminate suburbs. So rather than improve the lives of people who live in crappy places, the goal is to destroy the lives of people who live in nice places.

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Why would you want to do that? There's a very clear political reason. Suburbs are typically purple politically. Republicans win as often as Democrats.

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You want to make suburbs into cities and if you did that, you'd win every time. Democrats win cities. Of the ten biggest cities in the United States, Democrats run nine of them. Of the 50 biggest cities, they control two-thirds. It doesn't mean they are good at running cities, they're not. Many are on the verge of collapse. But running things isn't the point. Winning elections is the point. Democrats are happy to admit this.

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Ayanna Pressley, MSNBC, June 27: This is about human and physical infrastructure. Progressives in Congress have been leading this fight. Care economy is infrastructure. Climate justice is infrastructure. Housing justice infrastructure. Public transit justice is infrastructure. These bold investments must be made to support workers and families in order for us to have a just, equitable, robust recovery from this pandemic...

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"Housing justice." It sounds like a new term that Ayanna Pressley just made up. What's it mean? If most people were asked, they would say it means you're not allowed to prevent people regardless of what they look like or where they're from, from moving into a specific neighborhood...

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It's been federal law for more than fifty years, you can't discriminate in housing sales and you shouldn't be able to. But that's not what she's talking about, she's talking about something very different saying if neighborhoods look different then by definition, they are racist. If one is nicer than the other, you have to make it less nice, or else that's not equity.

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In his new infrastructure plan, which you can read online — and you should — Joe Biden calls for dramatically expanding the federal government's power over suburbs.

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This isn't a conspiracy theory. Very soon, it could be law — read the bill. Abolishing the suburbs is a major part of the Biden administration's infrastructure plan. That legislation is still being negotiated, and nothing is finalized yet. But already, the media is rushing to defend it. What shills they are, what liars.

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For Democrats, the goal of this infrastructure plan is permanent control over the federal government. For multinational corporations like Black Rock, the point is driving down the costs of homes even further, and building more apartment high-rises in the suburbs.

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What's less clear is why more self-described conservatives — whose job it is to "conserve" things, like America's self-respecting independent middle class — aren't objecting to this. It's not clear if they even notice it's happening.

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They are negotiating this bill. The future of the way Americans live is at stake and you never hear them say that.

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See related Land of the Freebie (Antonio Branco, 04/27/2021) cartoon from General picture album
The Jewish stake in the battle against Critical Race Theory (JWR 06/28/2021)
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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
KT McFarland: Second COVID cover-up – China, we know about but was there another one in the US? (Fox 06/28/2021)
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The world rightfully wants to find out what really happened in Wuhan and how what should have been a run-of-the-mill virus set off a global pandemic. We probably never will, however, because of the Great Chinese Cover-up.

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But is there another cover-up, hiding right here in plain sight in Washington?

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Did America bungle our initial handling of the pandemic because a handful of government scientists and bureaucrats, and their unwitting media enablers, deliberately sent us off in the wrong direction in order to cover up their own complicity in creating COVID-19?

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These scientists insisted that anyone promoting the lab leak theory, including our leading governors and well-respected scientists, was a hysterical, xenophobic, anti-science conspiracy theorist.

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Did they react with such velocity and venom because they were covering up for their own misguided actions? What did they not want the world to know?

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That they were funding risky gain-of-function research and genetically engineering fairly harmless viruses to make them more contagious, virulent and lethal in order to study them?

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That they were awarding grants to an adversarial nation's research lab, where the Chinese military was also involved?

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Did they do these things without the approval, or perhaps even knowledge of their bosses and therefore need to cover their tracks, lest the world demand answers for their role for inadvertently contributing to a global pandemic?

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I was President Trump's first deputy national security adviser and knew nothing about these potentially dangerous gain-of-function research projects, nor that the U.S. government was funding Chinese labs.

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If President Trump had been briefed, he NEVER would have agreed to it. First, he would have railed against U.S. tax dollars being used to pay for research in China. He was elected to change China policy, not subsidize it.

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Trump, a notorious germaphobe, would have railed even more loudly against paying mad scientists to create Frankenstein monster viruses.

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So, who did give the go-ahead to resume risky gain-of-function research? Government bureaucrats? The so-called "expert class" who have been proven wrong again and again over the course of the pandemic?

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Even if they were not specifically funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, what were we funding there?

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If we weren't funding gain-of-function research in China, were we doing so at other labs in other lands?

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Surely the decision to create killer viruses capable of creating global pandemics if mishandled should have been made at the highest levels of government. But it wasn't.

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When discussing the possibility of a lab leak in gain-of-function research, Dr. Anthony Fauci wrote "that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks."

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Tell that to a world still in the throes of a pandemic that has caused almost 4 million deaths.

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When President Trump entertained the lab leak theory, they blamed him for the death of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

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These same government experts urged their allies in the media, social media and Silicon Valley to censor and silence anyone who questioned their pronouncements.

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It is not fearmongering or conspiracy theorizing to ask legitimate questions of our own officials. It is only prudent.

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We are just emerging from a global pandemic that has caused more damage to our society and economy than a world war.

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Surely, we need to examine every aspect of the origin and spread of COVID, even if holding up a mirror to our own actions unveils a cover-up in Washington.

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See related Wizards of Billowing Bovine Fodder (Antonio Branco, 06/15/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Regrets, anyone? (INN 06/27/2021)
Mark Levin warns Marxism is here now and in your face (Fox 06/27/2021)
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"Critical race theory is not about learning the history of America. It is not about learning slavery and segregation. It's not about learning about Neo-Nazis and the Klan. It is about a Marxist movement, invented by the Marxists, Herbert Marcuse, Derek Bell, and many, many others. And it attracts Marxists like Black Lives Matter founders, two or three of them already said they were Marxists. And that's not a coincidence."

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"All these forces and more, these are spawned from the notion of Marxism. This is not a passing fad. It's not liberalism. It's not ‘oh there's the old Democrat party.' No no no. This is here. This is now, and it's in your face."

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"Tell me, where on the face of the earth has Marxism worked? Where on the face of the earth has Marxism not ended up in the slaughtering of tens of millions of people? The imprisonment of tens of millions of people? The silencing of hundreds of millions of people? Is that really what we want in the greatest nation on the face of the earth?"
The Movement Against Critical Race Theory Is Deeply Necessary (JWR 06/24/2021)
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The grassroots pushback against CRT is rooted in the best of the American tradition: a rejection of racial essentialism in favor of individualism, an enthusiastic endorsement of agency rather than determinism, a willingness to stand united against tribalism.

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We all ought to fight those who have hijacked and weaponized our institutions against all of these traditionally American ideals.

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Anything less would be an abdication of the trust we have been given — a trust that has resulted in liberty, equality and prosperity beyond imagining for nearly all of human history.
Blowing the Lid Off Probate Predators (JWR 06/24/2021)
If America Is Racist, Why Have Millions of Blacks Emigrated Here? Did Jews Emigrate to Germany... (JWR 06/24/2021)
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If America is systemically racist, why have millions of blacks from Africa and the Caribbean come to this country over the past 50 years?

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Why would they and many millions more want to move from all-black societies to a white-dominated, racist one?

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This is a question every black and white leftist should be asked. After all, no Jews moved to Germany in the 1930s. And why didn't any?

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After all, many Jews were suffering terrible persecution and poverty in Russia and in Eastern Europe.

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Why didn't any of them move to Germany after 1933? We all know the answer: Because Germany was systemically antisemitic.

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But with regard to their believing America is systemically racist and so persecutes blacks — LeBron James tweets that, like all blacks, "We're literally hunted EVERYDAY/EVERYTIME we step foot outside the comfort of our homes!" and Oprah Winfrey likens present-day America to "the days of Jim Crow when black men would be lynched and dragged through the town as an example for other people to see" — their not making any attempt to dissuade blacks from coming to America makes no sense.

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Truth is a liberal value and it is a conservative value. But it has never been a left-wing value. Truth is nothing more than whatever the left says it is at any given moment.

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That is why Lenin, the father of modern leftism, named the Soviet Communist Party newspaper "Pravda," the Russian word for "truth" — truth was what the Soviet Communist Party said it was.

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For Lenin, then, as for Rep. Adam Schiff, The New York Times, Yale University and CNN today, truth is what they say it is.

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Their pravda is that America is a systemically racist country. Their pravda is that all whites are racist. Their pravda is that Donald Trump is a white supremacist and that everyone who voted for any Republican is a racist.

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Yet, there is a reality that Schiff and these others cannot deny: Vast numbers of blacks yearn to come to America.

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They do so because they have been influenced not by pravda, but by actual truth: America is the least racist multi-ethnic, multi-racial country in world history, and any black who seeks to improve his life and that of his family has a better chance of doing so in America than anywhere else.

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That's why it is not Africans who are foolish for wanting to come to America; it is America's left for thinking they are fools.

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See related LeBron James Sports Basketball (Sean Delonas, 06/02/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
The systemic con behind wokeism (JWR 06/24/2021)
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Wokeism ... illustrated a psychological pathology of projection: transferring one's own prejudices onto others in order to alleviate or mask them.

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Barack and Michelle Obama occasionally venture out of their multimillion-dollar Washington, D.C., mansion or their Martha's Vineyard estate to lecture the country on its systemic racism.

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Does such sermonizing square the circle that the Obamas have no desire to return to their Chicago home — a city where hundreds African-American males were murdered in 2020, most of them by other black men?

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The second catalyst of wokeism is the distraction it provides from scary problems that threaten American civilization. While the country consumes itself in demanding more than 12% representation of Black actors in television commercials, it is nearing $30 trillion in national debt.

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The woke Biden administration can't stop hundreds of thousands of immigrants from illegally entering the United States this year. Almost all are in need of free American health care, housing, food and legal subsidies. Violent crime is spiking at an alarming rate. Yet few dare say why that is — or how to stop it.

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America can't seem to face the likelihood that Chinese researchers engineered a gain-of-function virus — with oversight from the Chinese military and subsidies from the United States.

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So instead of offering real solutions to these crises, we war with each other over whether the deceased children's book author Dr. Seuss or the plastic toy Mr. Potato Head were racist or otherwise exclusionary.

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When our elites are clueless about national debt, inflation, illegal immigration, crime, soaring gas prices and a global pandemic, they reassure themselves that at least they can cancel out Father Junipero Serra or knock down another statue of Robert E. Lee.

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Finally, the hysterias of wokeism are being channeled for profit — if they do not already reflect the reality of many of our most woke being the richest among us.

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For next-generation grifters such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, to claim that America was, is and always will be racist means more than just speaking gigs and book sales.

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The solution for the pseudo-crises they invent is the mass reeducation of self-confessional whites — with lucrative consulting fees for both, and for thousands of others.

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America is systematically being conned by those who disguise their hypocrisy, who manipulate the guilt-ridden, who have no interest in solving America's most dangerous problems, and who get or stay rich by hyping an America in need of massive rebooting.
Gregg Jarrett: COVID and China – Dr. Fauci's tangled web of deceit just got bigger (Fox 06/24/2021)
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... there is more than sufficient evidence to justify a criminal investigation of Fauci by the Department of Justice. If the DOJ won't do it, then congress can and should.

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Why would Fauci deceive, mislead, or misdirect two legitimate congressional inquiries into a deadly contagion that infected 180 million people worldwide and caused closed to 4 million deaths?

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The answer seems rather obvious. Fauci had a motive to conceal incriminating evidence of his own possible involvement in the spread of a virus that ravaged the world. In short, he didn't want to be implicated.

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If Fauci's group at NIH helped finance hazardous experiments inside a Chinese laboratory (known for its shoddy safety protocols) where a lethal pathogen escaped, he would most certainly be viewed as complicit in millions of deaths.

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Is it any wonder that Fauci devoted more than a year dismissing the lab-leak theory as implausible while blaming the virus on animal-to-human transmission in nature, despite no empirical evidence to support his hypothesis?

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No one knows for sure whether COVID-19 was hatched in the Wuhan lab and then leaked into the environment.

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But this theory continues to gain currency in the face of thousands of tests that have failed to locate an infected bat population or identify a singular animal host.

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It is imperative that competent, objective, and thorough investigations pursue the truth of what really happened.

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They must not be obstructed by scientists like Fauci who appear compromised by their own self-interest and may be prone to cover-up acts of misfeasance.

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See related Wizards of Billowing Bovine Fodder (Antonio Branco, 06/15/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Deroy Murdock: Biden opposes the slavery of 1619-1865. So why does he enable the slavery of 2021? (Fox 06/24/2021)
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"We're finally now getting to the point where we're going to be addressing the original sin of this country, 400 years old," candidate Joe Biden told Wisconsin voters in September 2020, "slavery and all the vestiges of it."

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On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that cited "the Civil War and the abolition of slavery."

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A presidential proclamation in March decried "the damaging legacy of slavery," while another, on June 1, lamented the "unconscionable hardships of slavery."

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On June 17, Biden signed into law the Juneteenth national holiday. "Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and a promise of a brighter morning to come," Biden said in the White House's East Room.

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Joe Biden clearly opposes the slavery of 1619-1865. As well he should. Too bad he enables the slavery of 2021.

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"Biden's open-border policies have produced the largest human-trafficking operation since the international slave trade, To the extent that immigrants are forced to labor as indentured servants to the crime cartels, these policies have reintroduced slavery into the United States."

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The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1865. This provision drove the final stake into the heart of human bondage in America:

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"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

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"We have what can be described as modern-day slavery, Human traffickers (as opposed to smugglers) lure unsuspecting migrants with promises of all sorts of opportunity in the U.S., and then hold them hostage once they arrive here with threats of violence against them, or family members back home. Often people who are trafficked are forced to work in the sex trades."

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"I believe that some forms of trafficking and indenture that have been enabled in this crisis are indeed comparable to slavery, even if they are not as systemic, institutionalized, and tolerated as slavery was in the world a century or two ago."

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"I have not heard of many cases of people being bought and sold as property, but it does happen, there is no doubt, particularly in sex trafficking."

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"The huge increase in illegal immigration caused by the rescission of prior immigration practices, policies and laws by the Biden administration, and the violation of human rights that has accompanied many of these immigrants — including coercion, violence, rape, debts, and payments would qualify as human trafficking, That is slavery."

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"The Biden-Harris administration refuses to acknowledge that they are enabling this entirely predictable criminal and exploitive result of their policies."

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"They prefer to see themselves as saviors of the migrants, even if their policies are literally enslaving some of the migrants to the cartels and smugglers. If there are some horrible crimes that happen, well they ‘fix' them by awarding the victims with a U or T visa, and their conscience is laundered."
Big Tech's monopoly powers must be broken up – conservatives should support antitrust reform (Fox 06/23/2021)
Big Tech merged with Big Government – radical Dems' bills would transform US (Fox 06/23/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: We live in a time where we can't speak the truth especially about biology (Fox 06/23/2021)
Vivek Ramaswamy: Woke, Inc: Why I'm blowing the whistle on how corporate America is poisoning society (Fox 06/22/2021)
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Here's how it works: Pretend like you care about something other than profit and power, precisely to gain more of each.

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All great magicians master the art of distraction — flashing lights, smoke, beautiful women on stage. Today's captains of industry do it by promoting progressive social values.

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Their tactics are far more dangerous for America than those of the older robber barons: Their do-good smoke screen expands not only their market power, but their power over every other facet of our lives.

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... the thing I was supposed to do was shut up and play along: Wear hipster clothes, lead via practiced vulnerability, applaud diversity and inclusion, and muse on how to make the world a better place at conferences in fancy ski towns. Not a bad gig.

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I'm fed up with corporate America's game of pretending to care about justice in order to make money. It is quietly wreaking havoc on American democracy. It demands that a small group of investors and CEOs determine what's good for society, rather than our democracy at large.

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This new trend has created a major cultural shift in America. It's not just ruining companies. It's polarizing our politics. It's dividing our country to a breaking point.

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Worst of all, it's concentrating the power to determine American values in the hands of a small group of capitalists, rather than in the hands of the American citizenry at large, which is where the dialogue about social values belongs. That's not America, but a distortion of it.

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Wokeness has remade American capitalism in its own image. Talk of being "woke" has morphed into a kind of catch-all term for progressive identity politics today. The phrase " Stay woke" was used from time to time by black civil rights activists over the last few decades, but it really took off only recently, when black protestors made it their catchphrase in the Ferguson protests in response to a police officer fatally shooting Michael Brown.

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Basically, being woke means obsessing about race, gender, and sexual orientation. Maybe climate change too.

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Today more and more people are becoming woke, even though generations of civil rights leaders have taught us not to focus on race or gender. And now capitalism is trying to stay woke too.

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Sincere liberals get tricked into adulation by their love of woke causes.

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Conservatives are duped into submission as they fall back on slogans they memorized decades ago — something like "The market can do no wrong" — failing to recognize that the free market they had in mind doesn't actually exist today.

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Both sides are blinded to the gradual rise of a 21st-century Leviathan far more powerful than what even Hobbes imagined almost four centuries ago.

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This new woke-industrial Leviathan gains its power by dividing us as a people. When corporations tell us what social values we're supposed to adopt, they take America as a whole and divide us into tribes.

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Corporations win. Woke activists win. Celebrities win. Even the Chinese Communist Party finds a way to win.

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But the losers of this game are the American people, including both sincere progressives who are used as pawns and everyday conservatives who are silenced, our hollowed-out institutions, and American democracy itself.

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The modern woke-industrial complex preys on our innermost insecurities about who we really are as individuals and as a people, by mixing morality with commercialism.

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That might make us better consumers in the short run, but it leaves us worse off as citizens in the end.
Tucker Carlson: Democrats create problems and their solutions empower them (Fox 06/22/2021)
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A year ago this month, a University of Chicago economics professor called Harold Uhlig questioned the wisdom of defunding the police. Uhlig is German by birth and a macroeconomist by trade. He's a fairly rational person.

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It struck him that maybe a functioning society might want to have police around from time to time — so that, say, old ladies don't get beaten on the way to the grocery store, and fewer people get shot to death. The basics. That seemed reasonable to him.

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Unfortunately for Uhlig, in the weeks after George Floyd's death, rational thinking of any kind had been prohibited. Nothing true could be said out loud — the truer it is, the more forbidden it is.

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The Federal Reserve of Chicago promptly fired Uhlig from his job as an advisor, and then they went online and attacked him for his support of police as quote, "not compatible with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion." All of which require no police apparently.

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Then the University of Chicago — his employer — began an investigation into Uhlig's racial views which went on for some time. Janet Yellen, then the chairman of the Fed and now the secretary of the Treasury, denounced Uhlig, effectively, as a racist.

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"Defund the police! We'll be safer if we do." That's what they were saying a year ago, everyone in charge. It was lunacy — and precisely because it was lunacy, no one was allowed to disagree with it.

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Here's the formula: The more self-evidently absurd a statement is, the more viciously they attack anyone who points out that it's untrue, who dissents.*

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"Trans women are women!" "January sixth was a racist insurrection!" "Defund the police!" It's childish, it's all so ridiculous and no sane person believes a word of it.

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But until the fever of the moment passes, most people who have no power feel obligated to play along with whatever orthodoxy it is until reality re-emerges, as inevitably it does because you can't beat nature.

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Looting is reparations, you go looters! They should apologize for that, they never will. The leftist ideology destroyed America's cities but they will never under any circumstances admit it. Instead, they'll blame you, that's guaranteed.

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... whatever Democrats propose to fix the problems they created will, in the end, make them more powerful. See that? They create a problem and the solution empowers them. That's always the way it goes.

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BIDEN 2/4: We've taken steps to acknowledge and address systemic racism and the scourge of white supremacy in our own country (edit) BIDEN: 1/26: And yes, forcing us to confront systemic racism and white supremacy. It's just been weeks since all of America witnessed a group of thugs, insurrectionists, a political extremist and white supremacist violently attack the capital of our democracy. (edit) BIDEN: 1/26: I believe we are in a battle for the soul of this nation and the simple truth is our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist.

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There's no evidence but they say it anyway. But even with the inflated numbers, the researchers could find fewer than 70 people in the entire country who died from white supremacist violence between 2015 and 2019. Of course, it's too many — any death is too many.

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But, for some perspective, more people die every year from lightning strikes, literally. So, no, white supremacist violence — as bad as it may be — is not a major threat.

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What's at the top of the list? Crime. There's no second place on that list. In the year 2019 alone, there were more than 10,000 arrests for murder in this country.

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By the way, there were more murders than that, but 10,000 were arrested. In 2020, more than 750 people were murdered just in the city of Chicago.

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We can say with some confidence the overwhelming majority of those suspects in the city of Chicago were not practicing white supremacists. How do we know this? Well in some cases, there's video.

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A couple with a Puerto Rican flag waving from their car — apparently minding their own business — is ambushed by a mob and shot execution-style, right in the road. The men who shot them take off. Maybe the worst part, the victims just lie there bleeding. No one comes to help.

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What country is this? Who's running the place? And why haven't we brought those people up on felony neglect charges? They deserve it. If we accept a country where things like this happen then we are the savages.

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Joe Biden does accept it. He hasn't said a word about that shooting and he won't because there are no white supremacists to blame.

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Just days ago, officials in New York announced they were dropping charges against hundreds of rioters and looters who were arrested last year. So you wreck the city and you're not punished.

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Now we have that: sociopaths celebrating a shooting by twerking. What kind of society produces people like that? Who would behave like that? Do you know anyone who would behave like that?

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When you see people behave like that you have to ask yourself — what is society doing wrong? Is it no fathers, is it the schools? Who knows what the answer is, but if we're not trying to find the answer, there's going to be guaranteed more of it. Anybody who celebrates a shooting is not someone we want to share a country with.

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Instead, our irresponsible, low-IQ political leaders patronize us with the same mindless talk about gun control and assault weapons. Like AR-15s are the problem and not our political class which is clearly the problem.
Hans von Spakovsky: Merrick Garland's misleading voting claims – what AG gets wrong about US elections (Fox 06/20/2021)
Acting Woke (JWR 06/18/2021)
Gregg Jarrett: Rep. Adam Schiff's fury and outrage over seized phone records is a perverse irony (Fox 06/16/2021)
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Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., threw an apoplectic fit the other day when he learned that what he did to others was done to him. There is some perverse irony in all of this. But, of course, Schiff neglected to mention his own hypocrisy.

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When Schiff learned last Thursday that his phone records had been collected he predictably accused Trump of using the DOJ as a "cudgel against his political opponents and members of the media." The House Democrat called it "a blatant attack on our democracy." Cue the feigned outrage and sanctimony.

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The insufferably self-righteous Schiff didn't bother to note that he was guilty of engaging in the exact same tactics. Moreover, he was counting on the mainstream media to conceal it. Naturally, they complied.

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Here's a quick refresher on Schiff's duplicity. During the Trump impeachment proceedings in 2019, he secretly subpoenaed the phone records of ranking Intelligence Republican Devin Nunes of California, Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, attorney Victoria Toensing, journalist John Solomon, Fox News host Sean Hannity and others.

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Schiff then compounded the injustice by publishing the call records and some telephone numbers of those he had targeted.

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All the while, he refused to turn over any of his own electronic communications with the impeachment press and the so-called "whistleblower."

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It is equally troubling (but not surprising) that so many in the liberal media never considered it important –much less relevant– to inform their readers or viewers that Schiff's outrage over having his phone records subpoenaed must have been the same outrage that others felt when he did the identical thing to them.

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There is no balance or equivalency in today's press; there is only a shameless double standard. The media yawned when Schiff covertly collected phone records of journalists and lawyers. But now they're seething with anger that Trump's DOJ did it.

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Schiff has always been the beneficiary of media fawning because of his self-appointed role as Trump's chief antagonist in Congress.

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Documents made public last year show that Schiff knew all along that there was no credible evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.

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But that never stopped him from stoking incendiary rhetoric that his nemesis conspired with the Kremlin. He claimed to have secret evidence (which never existed). And the gullible media lapped it up.
Tucker Carlson: Government agents may have helped organize the Jan. 6 Capitol riot (Fox 06/16/2021)
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This weekend, police in Columbus, Georgia arrested a 39-year-old man called Justin Tyren Roberts.

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Over the course of a single day, Roberts shot five separate people in two different states. We know this because Roberts has admitted it.

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He also said why he did it. In his confession, police say, Roberts, "explained [that] throughout his life, specifically white males had taken from him." So he decided to kill them.

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In one case, Roberts walked up behind a white man, a total stranger, as he was getting out of a car and shot him in the back.

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By any definition, these were crimes of viciousness motivated by race hate. They're not unique in this country — not by a long shot. If we wanted to — and we don't — we could do a whole show on crimes like these. Nor are they especially surprising, when you think about it.

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If you really believed the propaganda from the Democratic Party and BLM are telling you — that white males are intentionally destroying the world — you might be motivated to hurt someone. Why wouldn't you?

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What's striking is how little attention Justin Tyren Roberts' shooting spree has received. Imagine if the colors here were reversed. Roberts would be leading every newscast tonight. Needless to say, he's not.

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A multi-racial country can only survive if it self-consciously deemphasizes race — if it treats every person as an individual and not a member of some larger group that's guilty or innocent. That should be the goal, it's our history, and we should get back to it as soon as we can.

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But that's not what our leaders are doing. They're doing just the opposite. They're working hard to divide us into warring camps with lies. They're telling us a story that is completely — and very much intentionally — disconnected from reality.

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They're claiming that something called white supremacy, a term they never define, is the greatest threat we face. A greater threat than Al Qaeda or ISIS. Our thoroughly craven attorney general told us that very lie today.

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MERRICK GARLAND: In the FBI's view, the top domestic violent extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocated for the superiority of the white race.

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That was the Attorney General of the United States stating a fact backed up by the FBI. So it's fair to ask the obvious questions.

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Who are these violent white supremacists exactly? What are their names? What crimes have they committed? We still don't know. Merrick Garland didn't tell us.

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He spent most of his speech talking about the riot at the Capitol on January 6th, an event that had nothing whatsoever to do with race. But Merrick Garland lied about that.

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He, like the rest of the liars you see on television, wants you to believe and wants history to record, that January 6th was an attempted insurrection by white supremacist revolutionaries bent on taking over this country.

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We came this close, Garland said. And that's why "We must adopt a broader societal response to tackle the problem's deeper roots."

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Because of January 6th, says the chief law enforcement officer in the United States of America, and many other members of Joe Biden's cabinet, we must now use law enforcement and military force to arrest, imprison, and otherwise crush anyone who leads opposition to Joe Biden's government. That's their position. They say it out loud.

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So what is this, exactly? Well, it's a big change in the way the U.S. government treats its own citizens. We're looking at the transformation of a democratic republic into something else. We're looking at growing authoritarianism.

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... those are entirely fair questions. Who did shoot Ashli Babbit? Why don't we know? Are anonymous federal agents now allowed to kill unarmed women who protest the regime? That's OK now?

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And why are all those January 6th protesters still in prison on trespassing charges, while so many Biden voters who torched federal buildings are walking free?

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And speaking of January 6th, why are there still so many things, basic factual matters, we don't know about that day? Why is the Biden administration preventing us from knowing?

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Why is the administration hiding more than 10,000 hours of surveillance tape from the U.S. Capitol? What could possibly be the reason for that? Even as they call for more openness.

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We ought to be asking those questions, urgently. Because as the attorney general reminded us, a lot depends on the answers.

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We know the government is hiding the identity of many law enforcement officers who were present at the capitol on January 6, not just the one who killed Ashli Babbitt. According to the government's own court filings, those law enforcement officers participated in the riot. Sometimes in violent ways.

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We know that because, without fail, the government has thrown the book at most of the people who were in the Capitol on January 6. There was a nationwide dragnet to find them. Many of them are still in solitary confinement tonight.

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But, strangely, some people who participated in the riot haven't been charged. Look at the documents. The government calls these people "unindicted co-conspirators." What does that mean? It means that in potentially every case, they're FBI operatives.

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So it turns out this white supremacist insurrection was, again, by the government's own admission in these documents, organized, at least in part, by government agents.

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Are you shocked? You shouldn't be. In March, the FBI director admitted the bureau is infiltrating as many dissident groups as it possibly could.

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... there's a huge difference between using an informant to find out what a group you find threatening might do, and paying people to organize a violent action, which is what happened, apparently according to government documents, on January 6.

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That's a line, and the FBI has crossed it. And that's not the first time. They crossed that line in Michigan. Remember that plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer? And Whitmer is able to cover some of her own incompetence, although not all, by pointing to the fact that she's not a victim.

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The whole story was a farce. Insulting really. But if you read the government's charging documents carefully, and you should, you'll see that it gets even more ridiculous. It turns out that one of the five people in the planned "Gretchen Whitmer kidnap van" was an FBI agent. In the van. Another was an FBI informant. ... In other words, nearly half the gang of kidnappers were working for the FBI.

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If you empower the government to violate civil liberties in pursuit of a foreign terror organization, and there are foreign terror organizations, it's just a matter of time before ambitious politicians use those same mechanisms to suppress political dissent. That's what we're seeing now. We should have seen it earlier.

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"Crossed the line from merely observing potential criminal behavior, which is allowed and good, to encouraging and assisting people to participate in plots that are largely scripted by the FBI itself."

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So they're doing that to Islamic radicals, what are they doing to American citizens? That should worry you.

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In a moment of uncharacteristic honesty, a former FBI Assistant Director called Frank Figliuzzi explained on MSNBC. The goal is to round up political dissenters and throw them in solitary — including members of Congress.

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FIGLIUZZI: What have we learned from our experience with international terrorism? In order to address that problem, arresting low-level operatives is merely a speed bump, not a roadblock. In order to really tackle terrorism, this time domestically, you've got to attack and dismantle the command and control element of a terrorist group...That may mean people sitting in Congress right now.

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Round up duly-elected democratic members of Congress because they oppose the machine? Even Vladimir Putin's not doing that. And a former Assistant Director of the FBI called for it on television, and no one noticed.

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Why not round up the FBI operatives who were rioting on January 6? Why not identify the guy who killed Ashli Babbit? This is crazy, and we should resist it.
How to fight critical race theory, other dubious ideologies and end student indoctrination (Fox 06/16/2021)
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Indoctrination. It's an apt description of the left's overhaul of civics and history education in American schools.

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Under a Department of Education proposed rule, projects that peddle critical race theory, a fundamentally racist view of America, will be prioritized for specialized grant funding from the federal government.

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These proposed priorities violate prohibitions against the federal government's involvement in local schools' curriculum, advance racist and divisive ideologies, and advocate for false history and misinformation.

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While the character of the Department of Education's actions violates law, the content is far more corrosive to the American way of life.

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Instead of instilling pride in America to the country's next generation of leaders, the Biden administration is capitalizing on this freefall by framing all of America's history as a source of shame.

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Critical race theory, the ideology that American society is inherently racist, is corrosive to American's founding principle that we are all created equal.

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More importantly, adherents to critical race theory converge with White supremacists by equating the content of one's character to the color of a person's skin. That fact alone is repulsive and un-American.

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So why is the Department of Education looking to peddle curriculum that favors alternative history over the real story of America? The simple truth is that when the federal government controls education, it controls society itself.*

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The whole of the American story is not pretty. Slavery existed in America for more than 240 years and former slaves and their descendants suffered legal discrimination for another century afterward. Students should be taught this history.

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They should also learn about the tremendous progress we have made, will continue to make, and what it means to be part of a country that empowers all citizens regardless of skin color.

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Any effort from the federal government must respect the oversight and control of curriculum from the state and local levels, be free of ideological bias, and focus on instilling in our students an understanding of, and appreciation for, our nation's founding principles of equality and unalienable rights.

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Contrary to the radical left's rhetoric, America is not a racist country. We are a collection of the failures and successes of past generations to create a nation grounded in the idea that all people are created equal.

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That is what our schools should be instilling in our youth, that no matter your background, there will always be room for you to succeed in America.

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Let our history stand as a testament to how far we've come, and not a weapon for mistruths and rancorous division.
Tucker Carlson: CNN hates the idea of Buckhead trying to leave the city of Atlanta (Fox 06/15/2021)
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Outside of the Indian reservations, Montana has the demographics of 1956 America. Everyone looks the same. It's not a melting pot.

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So, no, rich liberals don't actually believe that diversity is our strength. They hate it so much that at the first sign of spray paint, they run for the whitest hills they can find.

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Then they lecture you some more about how you're the racist because you don't like getting shot outside of Cheesecake Factory. That's how it works.
A Society Infected with Lies (JWR 06/14/2021)
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How can a society survive when truth is banned, when its government is corrupt, when its media are complicit, when its educational institutions preach falsehoods, when its adult members care more for public opinion and their own sexual gratification than they do the health of its children?

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The short answer is that it cannot.
So call me 'racist' (Americvan Thinker, 06/14/2021)
Manchin's sin: He has a mind of his own (JWR 06/14/2021)
Organized religion 'decays' as political ideologies increasingly viewed in 'religious light' (Fox 06/14/2021)
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"We are dealing not just with the decay of traditional religion, but far worse, the rise of new fake religions, political religions."

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"And one thing that's very clear from the 20th century is that when people take their religious feelings and they apply them to political ideologies, terrible things can happen. Central to what made communism so deadly, was it ultimately a religion: Karl Marx is ultimately a prophet and Marxism is a kind of religion."

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"The most ardent Nazis thought of Hitler and explicitly called him a redeemer of the German nation. So we've got to be very careful of political religions. Politics is not something that you should approach with a religious impulse."

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... added that in the U.S. people like to claim that the term "science" has a religiosity to it — where it cannot be questioned and exists as described.

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"There is no such thing as ‘the science'. Of course, there are scientists, My sister is a physicist at Yale. And they'll tell you there are sciences, plural, and it's a constantly shifting dynamic system in which ideas are tested and frequently found to be false."

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"... watching actual science working, where lots and lots and lots of people in different disciplines are churning out papers, most of which turn out to be wrong, because they're trying to find the truth by trial and error."

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"That's the scientific method. You have a hypothesis, you're not wedded to it, and you bombard it with data to see if it's right or not."

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... noted the U.S. political left has a view of "science" as some sort of "magical thinking" where there is an established "stated view [and] consensus." "And if you don't subscribe to it, you're a heretic. Well, that's magical thinking."
Michael Goodwin: Top 10 biggest lies liberal media has been caught peddling — and why it matters (Fox 06/14/2021)
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The latest lie to die is the false claim the feds cleared Lafayette Park of protesters last year so then-President Donald Trump could hold a photo op.

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The Interior Department's inspector general says police planned to clear the park so a contractor could install a fence, a decision unrelated to Trump's walk to a nearby historic church burned in a riot.

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... the truth usually emerges not because of the press, but despite it.

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Take growing acceptance of the idea the COVID-19 pandemic started with a leak from a virology lab in Wuhan, China.

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The idea was always plausible, but the press and big tech declared it a "conspiracy theory" and snuffed it out of circulation.

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The pattern is so pronounced that it's easy to assemble your own list of Top Ten Media Lies. On mine, the recent cases involving Lafayette Park and the lab-leak theory are Nos. 8 and 9.*

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No. 1 is the oldest and biggest: Trump colluded with Russia to win in 2016 and might be a Russian agent. That scam involved crooked FBI agents and led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who took two years to conclude there was no evidence to back the charge.

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Yet the probe had enormous impact, with the drumbeat of anonymous leaks hampering the Trump agenda and helping Democrats take the House in 2018.

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Remember Lie No. 2, the "Muslim ban" that wasn't? Or No. 3, the mantra that the 2017 tax cuts were only for the "rich" despite studies showing 80% of the population benefitted?

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How about the "kids in cages" firestorm, complete with gripping photographs of migrant children in metal containers?

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That was Lie No. 4 and the hottest story going, with Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., rushing to the border with photogenic outrage.

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They vanished when it was revealed the Obama-Biden administration built the cages and the heart-wrenching photos were from 2014.

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Apologies, corrections and retractions came in bunches, right? You must be kidding. Big media and big tech are too big to admit error.

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Even now, with historic surges of young people at the border, the press doesn't complain about Biden banning their cameras. That's not journalism – it's complicity.

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Lie No. 5 was the Ukraine impeachment of Trump, a creative fiction based on a complaint from an anonymous member of the swamp who never testified.

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But others did to say the president, in trying to get information on Biden family corruption in Ukraine, was guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.

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What Trump actually did was threaten the scam Joe Biden and son Hunter created that involved selling the suggestion that Joe's influence could be had by hiring Hunter. That's the sort of thing reporters are supposed to expose, not protect.

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Five years after the New York Times and others abandoned standards of fairness to become anti-Trump activists, press misconduct is repeatedly exposed as willful malpractice. In a word, lies.

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Just as liberals have become illiberal, media have become more focused on suppressing the truth than revealing it.

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Take Hunter Biden's laptop, which is No. 6 on my Top Ten, although it rivals Russia, Russia, Russia in importance.

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The outlets that held their noses over the laptop had no trouble embracing the claim from Joe Biden's campaign that the e-mails on it were "Russian disinformation." In what felt like a coordinated move, big tech instantly blocked The Post and other users from sharing them.

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The final proof that media caution had morphed into coverup came when Tony Bobulinski emerged. ... They were especially loathe to report anything supporting Joe Biden's role, even though Bobulinski gave all his evidence to the FBI. That cone of silence goes well beyond bias. That is Lie No. 7.*

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Finally, the 10th lie remains active, so the truth has not fully emerged. The subject is ballot integrity, which the left demonizes as improper voter suppression. Joe Biden made the astonishing claim that demands for photo identification are the new Jim Crow.

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... there are antidotes to a corrupt press: Facts, facts and more facts. Or, as the late economist Herb Stein put it, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."

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Media lies are no exception.

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Oh the Humanity! (Michael Ramirez, 06/06/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
North Korean defector says 'even North Korea was not this nuts' after attending Ivy League school (Fox 06/14/2021)
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As American educational institutions continue to be called into question, a North Korean defector fears the United States' future "is as bleak as North Korea" after she attended one of the country's most prestigious universities.

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One of several hundred North Korean defectors settled in the United States, Park, 27, transferred to Columbia University from a South Korean university in 2016 and was deeply disturbed by what she found.

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"I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think."

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"I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying."

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Those similarities include anti-Western sentiment, collective guilt and suffocating political correctness.

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During orientation, she was scolded by a university staff member for admitting she enjoyed classic literature such as Jane Austen. "I said ‘I love those books.' I thought it was a good thing."

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"Then she said, 'Did you know those writers had a colonial mindset? They were racists and bigots and are subconsciously brainwashing you.'"...

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It only got worse from there as Yeonmi realized that every one of her classes at the Ivy League school was infected with what she saw as anti-American propaganda, reminiscent to the sort she had grown up with.

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"'American Bastard' was one word for North Koreans" Park was taught growing up. "The math problems would say 'there are four American bastards, you kill two of them, how many American bastards are left to kill?'"...

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"English is my third language. I learned it as an adult. I sometimes still say 'he' or 'she' by mistake and now they are going to ask me to call them 'they'? How the heck do I incorporate that into my sentences?" "It was chaos. It felt like the regression in civilization."

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"Even North Korea is not this nuts, North Korea was pretty crazy, but not this crazy."

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"Because I have seen oppression, I know what it looks like," said Yeonmi, who by the age of 13 had witnessed people drop dead of starvation right before her eyes.

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"These kids keep saying how they're oppressed, how much injustice they've experienced. They don't know how hard it is to be free."

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"I literally crossed through the middle of the Gobi Desert to be free. But what I did was nothing, so many people fought harder than me and didn't make it."

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In 2015 she published her memoir "In Order to Live," where she described what it took to survive in one of the world's most brutal dictatorships and the harrowing journey to freedom.

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"The people here are just dying to give their rights and power to the government. That is what scares me the most."

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She accused American higher education institutions of stripping people's ability to think critically.

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"In North Korea I literally believed that my Dear Leader [Kim Jong-un] was starving," she recalled. "He's the fattest guy - how can anyone believe that? And then somebody showed me a photo and said 'Look at him, he's the fattest guy. Other people are all thin.' And I was like, 'Oh my God, why did I not notice that he was fat?' Because I never learned how to think critically."

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"That is what is happening in America, People see things but they've just completely lost the ability to think critically."

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"North Koreans, we don't have Internet, we don't have access to any of these great thinkers, we don't know anything. But here, while having everything, people choose to be brainwashed. And they deny it."

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"You guys have lost common sense to degree that I as a North Korean cannot even comprehend."

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"Where are we going from here? There's no rule of law, no morality, nothing is good or bad anymore, it's complete chaos."

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"I guess that's what they want, to destroy every single thing and rebuild into a Communist paradise."

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Rachel Campos-Duffy: Fight back against wokeism and build a 'Freedom Library' for your family (Fox 06/12/2021)
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As a Chinese immigrant, Helen is deeply worried that political correctness, cancel culture, and the woke gatekeepers of America's publishing world are cultivating the same propaganda literature of her Marxist homeland.

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One of the few silver linings of the pandemic is that parents of all political persuasions across America are beginning to wake up to the indoctrination their children are being exposed to through their teachers, librarians, textbooks, cartoons, movies, and social media.

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The death of George Floyd suddenly made BLM Inc. mainstream and rich, and the organization wasted no time churning out school curricula as fast as they could. After all, progressive Saul Alinsky acolytes know to never let a crisis go to waste. But with schools shut down and children forced to Zoom from home, parents began to see the toxicity of critical race theory up close.

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Frustrated and feeling helpless, parents finally started showing up at school board meetings and pulling their kids out of woke schools that were teaching them to hate their country, each other, and if they are white, themselves.

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This is all good. But as parents focus on their schools and the usual Hollywood and Big Tech suspects, the gatekeepers of America's children's literature – publishers, editors, and big box bookstores like Amazon and Barnes and Noble — fly under the radar.

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They decide what gets published, cancelled, or "suggested" to you when you are shopping for children's books online.

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It is no coincidence that racial huckster Ibrahim Kendi's books "Antiracist Baby" and Chelsea Clinton's "She Persisted" are displayed prominently at your local bookstore's children's lit section.

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Vice President Kamala Harris' ode to herself, "Superheroes are Everywhere" even wound up in children's detention centers at our southern border.

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No journalist has bothered to figure out how or who paid for them to be distributed to children who endured enough trauma crossing the desert and the Rio Grande.

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It's even more rich considering Harris has paid zero attention to these children, their tragic journeys and the entire human rights crisis at the border that she helped create and was assigned to fix.

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Only liberal authors who meet the narrow woke definition of diversity are published or promoted. For them, "inclusion," ironically, does not include authors who don't agree with their politics or world view, particularly about America.

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Books with traditional or conservative messages are deliberately excluded. Most troubling is that today, in the name of racial and historical "sensitivity," books that are culturally important to America, ones that once shaped our children's minds, such as "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "Little House on the Prairie," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Dr. Seuss are being cancelled and outright banned.

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It's all part of the radical left's cultural revolution to break the bonds – in this case literary bonds – that connect us to our past. Forgetting and banning our past reinforces the notion that our history is systemically racist and in need of remaking.

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One solution, she explained, is to create your own "Freedom Library" at home. How do you start? "It's easy!" says Raleigh. Start with all the books progressives want to ban. With America's librarians and Amazon's Jeff Bezos leading the charge in literary censorship, I suggest quickly purchasing those little treasures you grew up reading and loving...

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Some have a liberty point of view, but others, like Dr. Seuss and Peter Pan, are just plain fun, and therefore also in danger of being cancelled by the humorless, politically correct censors of our time who see racism and sexism everywhere.

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Gregg Jarrett: Dr. Anthony Fauci should be criminally investigated (Fox 06/11/2021)
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A criminal investigation should be opened into whether Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to Congress when he denied that his agency helped fund dangerous experiments in a Wuhan laboratory that might have caused the COVID-19 pandemic that killed more than 3.5 million people worldwide.

•
The newly unearthed emails show that Fauci was warned at the outset of the pandemic in late January of 2020 that the COVID-19 virus contained "unusual features" that "(potentially) look engineered" inside a laboratory.

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Unique genetic sequences not found in nature indicated that scientists might have manipulated cells to make the virus more virulent and contagious.

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Such gain-of-function experiments could have transformed the virus into a lethal "superbug" that then escaped from the lab and ravaged the world.

•
Instead of disclosing that critical information to the public, Fauci did the opposite. He trashed the idea as a crazy conspiracy, even as his own emails suggest that he seemed worried about a deadly man-made pandemic that leaked from the lab. One pivotal message is inexplicably redacted. Why?

•
Fauci's determination to downplay this credible lab leak theory smacks of a cover-up designed to hide incriminating evidence of his agency's complicity in financing the Wuhan project. But the emails are not the only damning evidence against Fauci.

•
At a conference as far back as 2012, Fauci described gain-of-function as "reverse genetics," which he had energetically endorsed despite its known hazards. Indeed, the NIH money that made its way to the Wuhan lab was specifically designated for "reverse genetics," according to the written grant.

•
There is more than sufficient evidence to justify an investigation by the Department of Justice into whether Fauci gave deliberately deceptive or false testimony when he appeared before a Senate committee.

•
Beyond Fauci's potential criminal culpability, there are civil actions at law that come into play. His suspected conduct and the decisions by the NIH could precipitate an explosion of litigation involving wrongful death lawsuits, negligence cases for pain and suffering, and a myriad of claims over financial losses when global economies ground to a halt.

•
Given the disastrous nature of the pandemic, damages would amount to trillions of dollars. Is it any wonder that Fauci worked furiously to tamp down any talk of the lab leak theory and, instead, sought to blame the contagion on a natural transmission in the environment?

•
Perhaps he feared he would be directly implicated in what could turn out to be the worse man-made catastrophe in world history. Lives and livelihoods everywhere were ruined.

•
At the very moment Fauci was being given persuasive genetic information that lab experiments in Wuhan appeared to have gone horribly wrong, he publicly derided the idea.

•
Thousands of tests have failed to locate the infected bat population or identify an animal host. It seems increasingly likely that no genesis transmission in nature has been located because none ever existed.

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What did exist was a controversial laboratory in Wuhan known for its shoddy safety protocols conducting risky experiments designed to genetically supercharge viruses to attack humans. The first reported cases happened in or around the lab itself.

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Although scientific evidence seems to support the hypothesis that the virus was hatched in a laboratory, the origin of the outbreak is not known for sure. Hence, it is imperative that an independent commission be established by Congress to investigate what happened...

•
Fauci's dubious role in all of this should be included in the investigation. If he sought to manipulate public opinion to undermine the truth and lied to or misled Congress in the process, he should be held legally accountable.

•
There is growing suspicion that Fauci is not at all the saintly figure portrayed by the biased and gullible mainstream media. Some now wonder whether he is mendacious or incompetent.

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I'm betting he is both.
This isn't your father's left-wing revolution (JWR 06/10/2021)
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Starry-eyed radicals in the 1960s and 1970s dreamed that they either were going to take over America or destroy it.

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One of their favorite mottos was "Change it or lose it," even as protests focused on drugs, music, race, class, sex, fashion — almost anything and everything.

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Most of these silly revolutionaries were not unhinged Weathermen killers or SDS would-be communists, but just adolescents along for the good-time ride.

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With the end of the draft in 1972, the winding down of the Vietnam War, the oil embargoes and a worsening economy, the "60s revolution withered away.

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The "60s were at heart a narcissistic free-for-all, when "freedom" often entailed self-indulgence and avoiding responsibility.

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By 1981, the Reagan revolution finished off the dead-enders of the Woodstock generation. Most eventually grew up.

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They rebooted their self-centered drug, sex and party impulses to fixations on money, status and material things.

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Sixties protestors mainlined divorce, abortion on demand, promiscuity, drug use and one-parent homes. But by the late 1970s and the 1980s, most veteran cultural revolutionaries had gotten married, were raising a family, bought a house, got a job and made money.

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This time around, their offspring"s left-wing assault is different — and far more ominous. The woke grandchildren of the former outsiders are now more ruthless systematic insiders.

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The woke and wired new establishment knows how to use money and power to rebirth America as something the founders and most current Americans never envisioned.

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Name one mainline institution that the woke left does not now control — and warp. The media? The campus? Silicon Valley? Professional sports? The corporate boardroom? Foundations? The K-12 educational establishment? The military hierarchy? The government deep state? The FBI top echelon?

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The left absorbed them all. But this time around, members of the left really believe that "by any means necessary" is no mere slogan. Instead, it is a model of how to disrupt or destroy American customs, traditions and values.
Virginia mom who survived Maoist China eviscerates school board's critical race theory push (Fox 06/10/2021)
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A Virginia mom who endured Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution before immigrating to the U.S. ripped a Virginia school board at a public meeting Tuesday over its stubborn support of the controversial critical race theory.

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"I've been very alarmed by what's going on in our schools, You are now teaching, training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history."

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She likened CRT, which critics deride as a form of "neo-racism," to China's Cultural Revolution, a Mao-led purge that left between 500,000 and 20 million people dead from 1966 to 1976.

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The estimates vary greatly and many details have been shrouded in secrecy for decades.

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The Cultural Revolution began when she was 6 years old, she said, and immediately pitted students and teachers and against one another by hanging "Big Posters" in hallways and the cafeteria where students could write criticisms against anyone deemed ideologically impure.

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"One of the teachers was considered bourgeoisie because she liked to wear pretty clothes, So the students attacked her and spit on her. She was covered with spit... and pretty soon it became violence."

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Communist squads would raid homes and destroy any relics of China's past culture, history, governments or religion...

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"Everything that was considered ‘old,' feudalist, a vase, Buddhas, everything was taken out and smashed."

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"We were asked to report if we hear anything about someone saying anything showing that there's a lack of complete loyalty to Mao, There were people reporting their parents, and their parents ended up in jail."

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At 26 years old, she said, she finally made it out, traveling to the U.S. – where she immediately found freedoms she had never been able to enjoy before.

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"I felt like it's such a free country, meaning I have free access to all sorts of information – books on both sides of the issues."

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In the current political and cultural climate in the U.S., however, she said she felt some of that freedom eroding.

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"I can't really just say what I mean, even though the other side can say whatever. To me, and to a lot of Chinese, it is heartbreaking that we escaped communism and now we experience communism here."

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... she drew direct parallels between what she saw back then in China and what she sees in the United States today.

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"The Communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people. The only difference is they used class instead of race."

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She said she witnessed students and teachers "turn against each other" during the pogrom and saw schools change their names "to be politically correct."

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"We were taught to denounce our heritage, and Red Guards destroyed anything that is not communist...statues, books and anything else."

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"We were also encouraged to report on each other, just like the Student Equity Ambassador program and the bias reporting system."

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"This is indeed the American version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our school."

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Her speech came 246 years after fellow Virginian Patrick Henry declared "Give me liberty or give me death" during the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, 125 miles to the south of Loudoun.

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"I just want Americans to know that their privilege is to be here living in America, that is just the biggest privilege."

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"I do not think a lot of people understand. They are thinking they are doing the right thing, ‘be against racism' sounds really good. But they are basically breaking the system that is against racism."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
The Definition of Courage Has Shifted (JWR 06/09/2021)
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Last Sunday marked the 77th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

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On that day, Operation Overlord began, launching the Allied invasion of Europe that would spell the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime.

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At least 4,400 Allied troops died in the Normandy landings, and another 10,000 were wounded.

•
As the invasion started, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took to the radio airwaves to ask Americans to join him in prayer: "Almighty G od: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity ... let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be."

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Nearly eight decades later, President Joe Biden had nothing to say or tweet about the D-Day anniversary. Breaking with bipartisan precedent, Biden remained silent on that topic.

•
The next day, however, Biden did tweet something noteworthy about bravery: "To transgender Americans across the country — especially the young people who are so brave — I want you to know your President has your back."

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Bravery circa 1944: young men charging from the choppy seas of the English Channel onto the corpse-strewn beaches of Normandy, hellfire raining down upon them, to liberate a continent.

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Bravery circa 2021: young men identifying as women, and vice versa. Our definitions of bravery have shifted rather dramatically.

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Our old definition of courage used to comport with the Aristotelian notion of virtue. The virtue of courage — andreia, or manliness, in Greek — lay in recognition of serious risk in pursuit of a heroic telos, a final end.

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"The courageous man withstands and fears those things which it is necessary (to fear and withstand), and on account of the right reason," Aristotle explains in "Nichomachean Ethics."

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Now, courage lies in authenticity. Authenticity has not been, until recently, conflated with courage. In fact, authenticity very often cut directly against the virtue of courage: After all, wallowing in the solipsistic generally involves ignoring the demands of a higher noble goal.

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Higher virtue lies in finding our personal truths, and then demanding applause from the rest of the world. Heroism lies in forcing the world to bow before our subjective ideas of truth and decency.

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Or perhaps there's another possibility. Perhaps the new definition of bravery does serve some higher goal: the goal of tearing down the old definition of the good.

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It remains to be seen whether a civilization obsessed with tearing down its most powerful institutions can long remain civilized, or whether a civilization that discards old-fashioned courage in favor of the newfangled "bravery" of authenticity can long hold. The early evidence is unpromising.

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When called upon to face true enemies of freedom, civilization requires men willing to charge beaches on behalf of higher truths, not men focused finding their "inner truths," many of which bear no resemblance to reality.

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To use the same terminology to describe both phenomena is a betrayal of true courage.

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See related Generations (Michael Ramirez, 06/05/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
The Single Best Thing Americans Can Do to Retake America (JWR 06/08/2021)
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The single best thing Americans can do to counter the left-wing attack on America — against its freedoms, its schools, its families, its children, its governmental institutions, its sports, its news and entertainment media, its medical establishment, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department and the military — is to take their children out of America's schools.

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Other than in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), the vast majority of America's elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities teach your child or grandchild almost nothing important; prematurely sexualize them, thereby robbing them of their innocence; and harm them intellectually and morally.

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They rarely teach them, for example, art or music because they are too busy teaching them race-centered hatred of whites, of America and of America's values.

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In many elementary schools, your child is taught that gender is chosen and that there is no difference between boys and girls (in a growing number of schools, the teachers are told not to call their students "boys and girls"); they are taught about masturbation; and many children from first grade on attend "Drag Queen Story Hour," wherein an obvious man wearing women's clothing, garish makeup and a wig entertains them.

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Given that all this is well-known, why do any nonleft — meaning, liberal or conservative — parents send their children to an American school?

•
Many parents do not want to know what their children are being taught and the consequent damage done to them. They don't really believe school(s) will ruin their child, let alone their child's relationship with them.

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These parents should speak to any of the millions — yes, millions — of Americans whose children have contempt for America, for free speech and for their parents as a result of attending an American college or even high school.

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A second reason is they feel they have no choice. If they remove their child from the local public or private school (most private schools are just as committed to anti-American indoctrination over education as public schools), what will they do with their child?

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They cannot necessarily even rely on Christian or Jewish schools. Most of them are as "woke" as most secular schools. And if they do find a school that teaches rather than poisons, they may not be able to afford the tuition.

•
The only other option, then, is to home-school one's child. The problem is that many parents assume this is essentially impossible.

•
It is true that, at least at the outset, a working parent may have to cut back from full-time work, and it is true that no matter what the family's financial condition, there are challenges to taking one's children out of school and home-schooling them.

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But given the low intellectual state of most American schools, the damage they do to young children's innocence and the anti-American, anti-white, anti-Western indoctrination in most schools, if you are a parent of school-age children, what is your choice?_

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You are fooling yourself if you think the odds are that after attending American schools from kindergarten through college (not to mention through graduate school), your child will turn out well-educated, intellectually alive, rational, kind, happy, well-adjusted, grateful to be American and respectful of you and your values.

•
Poorly educated students. Ask your college son or daughter to diagram a sentence; identify Joseph Stalin, "The Gulag Archipelago" or the Soviet Union; name the branches of the American government; identify — or just spell — Ludwig van Beethoven; date the Civil War; identify the Holocaust; and name which sentence is correct — "He gave the book to my friend and me" or, "He gave the book to my friend and I."

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Angry young people. Why wouldn't they be? First, they graduate college with a huge load of debt, having received almost nothing useful for their money.

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Second, if they are anything other than a white heterosexual Christian male, they have been taught to regard themselves as victims of oppression.

•
Third, their future is so bleak they may not even have one: They are threatened with extinction by climate change.

•
The single best thing Americans can do to fight the left-wing destruction of the country is to withdraw from the "educational" system that is actively, deliberately miseducating them by the tens of millions.

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If millions of American parents did so, the country would turn around as fast as you could say "teachers unions."

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If they don't, their children will continue being used as guinea pigs in the left's sick and dystopian experiment.
David Marcus: The Periodic Table of the New American Right (Fox 06/06/2021)
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The time for conservative deciding has passed. The decision has been made and the American conservative movement is now a populist, nationalist, Reform Party minded body.

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It matters very little if our corporate liberal media chooses to accept this. It is true.

•
What conservatives can do now, not unlike the early Christians, is wake up every day, secure in their beliefs, refusing to be confounded by a culture hegemonically controlled by content creators who mock them, and stay firm in their ideas.

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It is an opportunity. And what we do now will shape our country's future in profound ways that not long ago seemed impossible.
Tucker Carlson: Two-faced Fauci pushed draconian measures despite data (Fox 06/05/2021)
Never let a plague go to waste (JWR 06/03/2021)
Mike Gonzalez: Black Lives Matter leader resigns but this radical, Marxist agenda will continue (Fox 06/03/2021)
•
Over the last 10 months, Patrisse Cullors led the main Black Lives Matters group to significant success: assembling a $100 million war chest, getting a bill introduced in Congress and critical race theory curricula distributed to unsuspecting children in 14,000 school districts, and achieving enough cultural cachet to partner with the musical "Hamilton."

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Yet the self-avowed Marxist resigned suddenly last week. The reasons for her resignation are unknown, and may never be known.

•
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the main organization known as Black Lives Matter, has all the transparency of the Kremlin during the Brezhnev years.

•
In her resignation video, Cullors said she was quitting as the group's executive director to spend more time with her family (her 5-year-old son) – a statement that shows how far the radical group has come in becoming part of the political furniture.

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Had this been said by a balding White politician from Owatonna, the press would be busy looking for embezzlement or at least a mistress.

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In fact, Cullors resigned amid allegations of financial improprieties, criticism of her purchase of million-dollar homes, and a radical leftward turn that saw her asking two months ago for not just the elimination of the police force, but also of jails, prisons and the court system. All of that has led to tanking public support for BLM.

•
... the Post reported that Cullors had gone on a house-buying spree that saw her snap up four high-end houses worth $3.2 million in total.

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That opulent lifestyle has in no way diminished the communist instincts of the woman who once described herself as a "trained Marxist" (which is true: she was recruited and trained by Eric Mann, a former member of the Weather Underground terrorist group who still seeks world revolution).

•
... Cullors described the radical goal this way: "Abolition is the getting rid of police, prisons and jails, surveillance, and courts."

•
Just to make sure everyone got it, Cullors in her February video praised her mentor, Angela Davis, as one of her "favorite abolitionists."

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Davis, you'll recall, ran twice for Vice President on the Communist Party ticket and was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the ruthless East German regime...

•
It's not clear if Cullors' resignation means she will fade away. Along with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, also committed Marxists, Cullors founded BLM in 2013 after a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin.

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But even if she does go away, don't expect that to mean a softening of BLM's radical agenda. That's baked in.

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See related Marxist Privilege (Antonio Branco, 04/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: COVID's lasting lesson – we can never take liberty for granted (Fox 06/03/2021)
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"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826).

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No one knows if President Thomas Jefferson personally uttered those words. They have been widely attributed to him, but they don't appear in any of his writings.

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If he did not literally utter them, he uttered the sentiments they offer. They remind us not to take liberty for granted.

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The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution presume that our liberties are natural and cannot be suppressed or taken away by the government absent due process.

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Are the governments we have established morally legitimate? They are when they have, as Jefferson wrote in the Declaration, the consent of the governed, and when they defend our liberties. Absent consent and defense of liberty, government is not legitimate.

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Jefferson argued that government exists only to secure our rights. When it fails to protect our rights, or when it destroys our property, we have the right to alter and abolish it.

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These principles of personal liberty in a free society were mocked and attacked by the government during the recent pandemic, and most folks went along with it.

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How, in a land made prosperous by rugged individualism and personal sacrifice, not by government, did the people become sheep when their governors — without legal authority and in utter defiance of constitutional guarantees that they swore to uphold — signed orders that purported to deny the right to worship, work, travel, assemble peaceably and use private property as one sees fit?

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Why did so many folks who believe in personal liberty accept these illegal orders and cave to them? Why did we wear medically useless masks on our faces when we, not the government, own our faces? Why did we allow the government to close lawful businesses? Why did police and prosecutors break their oaths to defend the Constitution in deference to these gubernatorial power grabs?

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The same Constitution that restrains the federal and state governments from curtailing fundamental liberties also guarantees those liberties.

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Stated differently, the 14th Amendment — which imposes the guarantees of the Bill of Rights on the states and prohibits the states from impairing those guarantees — also enables Congress to intervene when states fail to uphold basic, fundamental, constitutionally protected rights.

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Did the feds come to the rescue of any of us in beleaguered states where our liberties were curtailed by executive decree? They did not.

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Did the courts, whose principal role is to apply and enforce the Constitution, invalidate the unlawful commands of governors or curtail the unconstitutional prosecutions of those who had the courage to defy them? They did not.

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Did any legislative body — state or federal — use its powers to write laws to invalidate the unlawful, unconstitutional, immoral orders of governors? They did not.

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The core thread running through all this is fear. Fear of sickness and death. Fear of bucking the tide. Fear of exercising personal liberty. Fear that the government might be right.

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The public took for granted that the governors actually had the authority they claimed they had and actually could become dictators in a crisis of fear — a crisis they created.

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Now that this is for the most part behind us, the question arises: Why did we let this happen?

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It happened because we take liberty for granted. We repose the Constitution for safekeeping in the hands of men and women who, in the eternal conflict of personal liberty versus governmental power, side with power.

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What kind of a society is ours? You can go to jail for fishing or barbering without a license, but if you are a governor, you can crush the liberty of millions and destroy the property of thousands with impunity.

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The next time this happens, will we cave, or will we resist?

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See related Now Giddyup! (Chip Bok, 01/01/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Nikki Haley: US corporations need to shed their China hypocrisy, practice what they preach to Americans (Fox 06/02/2021)
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... the leaders of some of America's biggest companies ... chosen to talk a big game about social justice at home while propping up injustice abroad, especially in Communist China. "Hypocrisy" doesn't begin to describe it.

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Look no further than the list of primary sponsors for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Beijing. About half are U.S. companies.

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Many of them, like Coca-Cola, have spent the past year talking about "racial equity" and criticizing commonsense voting rights bills like the one in Georgia.

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Yet these companies have no problem ponying up $100 million or more for an event that will glorify one of the most tyrannical countries on earth.

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Communist China's horrible record is on full display. It trampled the people of Tibet. It wiped out Hong Kong's freedom. It makes near-daily threats against democratic Taiwan.

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It covered up the origins of the coronavirus, leading to the worst public health crisis in a century. And China's leaders are guilty of genocide against the Uyghurs – a fact formally recognized by the United States.

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Beijing has imprisoned more than a million Uyghurs, forced them into slave labor, and committed horrible crimes against women and children.

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The companies backing China's Winter Olympics are whitewashing this genocide while sending out press releases on democracy and "equity."

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Of course, the Olympics sponsors aren't the only example. They're just one of the most recent. Another embarrassment is everyone's favorite phone manufacturer: Apple.

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In America, Apple portrays itself as the company that protects privacy, supports voting rights, and fights systemic racism.

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In China, Apple is planning to store its user data on servers essentially run by the Chinese government.

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It could use it to sniff out dissidents, stifle debate, and further strangle the Chinese people's freedom. Apple also reportedly benefits from China's Uyghur forced labor.

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The list goes on, and on. Major League Baseball is deepening its ties with Chinese tyranny while criticizing Georgia's attempts to secure elections.

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It recently inked a deal with a company that's helping the Communist Party keep track of – and ultimately control – the Chinese people. ...

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A recent report found that 83 major companies, many of them American, rely on Chinese slavery in their supply chains.

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These same businesses fight attempts to hold China accountable and support its victims.

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No doubt these companies believe that giving in to Beijing's demands is the price of doing business in China. No one disputes that.

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Communist authorities have been known to force American firms to infringe on people's fundamental rights, hand over their trade secrets and generally play by a completely different rule book.

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That's why the Trump administration took concrete steps to hold China accountable and stop its abuse of American businesses.

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Once they're in the Chinese market, companies don't have the choice of ignoring Beijing's orders.

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But they do have a choice to set up shop in China in the first place, and they also have a choice to walk away from China's injustice.

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Instead of bemoaning that China "made them do it," powerful companies could avoid it by steering clear of China altogether.

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Companies are free to operate overseas, including in China. But CEOs should be more self-aware.

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It's outrageous and embarrassing for them to self-righteously talk about social justice in America while staying quiet when it comes to Communist China's total injustice.

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The American people should pressure businesses to stop enabling Communist China's genocide and oppression.

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Corporate America's leaders have a choice to make: support horrible wrongs or do what's right. The American people will look, not listen, for the answer.

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See related Winning the Pooh (Antonio Branco, 09/15/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
The Muddled Thinking of 'Antiracism' (JWR 06/02/2021)
Jonathan Turley: Supreme Court's recent unanimous 9-0 decisions – are justices sending a message? (Fox 06/02/2021)
Tucker Carlson: COVID passport could be just the beginning (Fox 06/02/2021)
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If you're a middle-aged American, you can probably still dimly remember back to what things used to be like in this country, say, 13 or 14 months ago.

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Way back then, before the revolution, pretty much everybody agreed that segregation was the worst thing this country ever did.

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Forcing certain categories of citizens into separate, lesser accommodations, barring them from public places, treating them like lepers or untouchables — that was completely immoral and wrong, we were told that a lot and most of us strongly agreed. It was wrong.

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So imagine our confusion today looking out across the country now. The very same people who just the other day told us that segregation was wrong are now enforcing segregation.

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Does it make sense? Why would people who've had the vaccine fear being near people who haven't had the vaccine? Aren't the vaccinated protected? Isn't that the whole point of getting the shot? Sure.

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Maybe from a health perspective that's technically true, if you want to be precise about it. But this clearly isn't about health or science.

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It's bigger than that. It's about good and evil. It's about discovering who's a decent person, and who, by contrast, deserves to be punished for sin. It's about finding out who has obeyed.

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But it does make you wonder: is this the end, or is it the beginning? Whys should it end here? The coronavirus is transmissible, and it can be dangerous. But it's hardly the only illness that fits that description, there are many.

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The precedent has been set. And by the way, say goodbye to those HIPAA protections you thought you had. It used to be illegal to demand people's confidential medical information. Not anymore. What's illegal now is trying to hide it.

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"Absent an informed consent or presidential waiver, the United States cannot demand that members of the armed forces also serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs."

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It's always the same people, isn't it? It's those White Republican men, the very ones Joe Biden just told us today are more dangerous than ISIS.

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The White Republican men are dangerous, and they can sit at the back of the bus. In fact, they can walk. They shouldn't even be allowed in public buildings. That's the story you keep hearing: No group in America is more likely to turn down the vaccine than White Republican men.

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We've heard that so many times that just the other day we decided to check the number, because not all the numbers you hear, even from the podium from the White House, are true.

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Here are the numbers, as collected by the U.S. government. As of two weeks ago, 50% of Asian-Americans had been vaccinated against COVID. That number among White Americans was about 40%. Among African Americans, it was 27%. Among Hispanics, it was 29%.

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Turns out — and we know you're shocked — what they told you is not really true. In fact, it's a total lie, like everything they say. It's the opposite of the truth.

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It seems like the new segregation looks a lot like the old segregation. You wonder how they're going to explain that. We can't wait to hear.
Deroy Murdock: Joe Biden and a tragic tale of 3 pipelines – Trump's hard-won energy independence is gone (Fox 06/01/2021)
The world under siege as Big Tech weaponizes Democracy (INN 05/31/2021)
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Having feared for years that it would be Communist forces emanating from Russia attacking all that we as Americans hold dear, it is all the more shocking to realize that the dangers we face come from within our own ranks.

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Big tech has taken over, controlling relationships at the highest levels of government so that it has free reign and can ban anyone who speaks out against its interests, whether they be private citizens, businesses, elected officials, or as we saw so clearly over the last few months, even the president of the United States.

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"What we've been seeing across the U.S is an effort to silence, intimidate and wipe out dissenting voice by the leftist media and big corporations."

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"I applaud Governor DeSantis for taking a stand against censorship because we are living in a time where our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech and religion are being violated and our country is looking more and more like a communist state."

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"The very foundations of this country are under attack and when we see that there are entities who are above government it is clear we need to do a reset. I urge everyone to follow Governor DeSantis's lead and to put partisan differences aside by speaking out against these injustices that threaten our business, our politics and even our very lives."

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
No, Prince Harry, the First Amendment isn't bonkers (JWR 05/31/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Corporations placating the Left are behind woke culture (Fox 05/29/2021)
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So we live in a world where expecting hard work from minorities is racist and telling White people they're intrinsically evil isn't.

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Employees then must rebuild their identities as "agents of change" by reading over a hundred White privilege statements, where they confess their acts of bigotry.

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If it sounds like a cult indoctrination, that's because it is a cult indoctrination.

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These evil White men had to read statements from fictitious minorities and women that explain how bad White men have been to them.

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So why would Lockheed Martin greenlight this idiocy? Well, what do they make? Baskets and flutes? Cute hats for bunnies?

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No. It's air and missile defense systems. Fighter jets. Essentially, they sell things that kill people. And not just White people. Brown ones too. And they make billions off it.

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You can go on Investopedia and check their products. But you'll also find - just as important - their commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and social responsibilities. Those are their words.

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Meaning what? They'll kill people of any color? No - it means that the missile destroying a village was brought to you by a non-binary person of color with a degree in gender studies!

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You see what's going on? Corporations have finally figured out how to defang the hard left. The anti-war crowd can easily be appeased if you just go woke, and play the "I'm the worst race ever" card. It's the best distraction since texting while driving.

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A pacifist might be disgusted by Lockheed, but what if that fighter jet has a rainbow bumper sticker on the fuselage? And guess what: the cockpit is now called a "non-binary, inclusion space in which the aviators drops projectiles on citizens from above." Non-binary citizens.

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You know, I've been trying to figure out who's behind woke culture. I thought there was no head on the snake. But I think I'm wrong. It's the corporations.

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They finally figured out how to placate the left. And that's to throw their White employees under the M1 Abrams tank.

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On one hand, Jeff Bezos is supporting Black Lives Matter - in the other hand, is the steering wheel of his 500-foot yacht.

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Does it make better products? No. Does it improve race relations? Not by a long shot. But it does put a lot of money in the pockets of diversity coordinators and other grifters - and a smile on the face of filthy rich executives.

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
America: Land of the Apathetic and Easily Led (JWR 05/28/2021)
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The longer I live the more I realize that human beings are for the most part cowards, lazy, and easily led.

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What else would cause millions of my fellow Americans to think and vote the way so many of them do?

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Naturally I am putting aside the obvious left-wing America haters, the media, and the Democratic Party for the moment, we all know where they come from and they will always be what they are.

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But I'm convinced that most Americans are not ideologues or partisan hacks. So why do so many of them espouse the rhetoric and talking points of the left and blindly vote for the Nancy Pelosis, Chuck Schumers and Joe Bidens of the world and their liberal policies?

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For anyone who has been paying attention, those liberal policies have done nothing but harm to our country over the course of the last six decades.

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Literally every single liberal social policy which has been implemented into our society has failed miserably...

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The Democratic party has embraced Marxism and it is clear that with each new policy and program, they are intent on destroying what has always been the American ideal.

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Why can I see this and so many millions of my countrymen cannot? I'm no political genius, I just pay attention to what" s going on. I wish more people would do the same.
Deroy Murdock: Critical race theory loved by Democratic-left preaches Black failure. That is so wrong (Fox 05/28/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Why did the White House shut down an investigation into COVID origins? (Fox 05/27/2021)
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: The government's community caretaking ruse (Fox 05/27/2021)
Ministry of Truth 2.0 (JWR 05/27/2021)
Will the madness of 2020 last? (JWR 05/27/2021)
Facebook says mentions of COVID-19's possible origins in Wuhan are now allowed. How generous (Fox 05/27/2021)
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Read the headline above a couple times. There was a time when such a headline would only appear on the satirical outlet The Onion but it is actually true.

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Facebook has long banned anyone who discussed the evidence that a worldwide pandemic killing millions and destroying the global economy may have been released from a government lab in Wuhan, China.

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Facebook would not allow the theory to be discussed as "debunked" despite widespread criticism that the social media giant was, again, engaging in corporate censorship.

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The false claim that this theory was "debunked" was pushed by various media platforms as part of the criticism of then-President Donald Trump and his administration.

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Since February, Facebook has been banning posts claiming the virus was man-made or manufactured "following consultations with leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization" who had "debunked" the claim.

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Now, Facebook has declared "In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made from our apps. We're continuing to work with health experts to keep pace with the evolving nature of the pandemic and regularly update our policies as new facts and trends emerge."

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Putting aside the lack of a basis for the earlier ban, the statement reflects that assumption that, of course, Facebook should be the arbiter of what can be discussed by users.

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... Facebook is running a campaign to convince young people to accept "content modification" as part of their evolution with technology.

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... the underlying portrayal of the public is the same: they are unwitting dupes who must be protected from harmful thoughts or influences. It is safer for them to have these members and these companies determine what they can hear or discuss.

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Facebook's announcement is meant to assure that it will not abuse its power as the overseer of any political or social discussions.

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It is similar to the benign dictator pitch where a government argues that, despite authoritarian powers, it uses such powers in a benign and tolerant fashion.

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There was a time when the assumption was that the Internet is a forum for largely unimpeded free speech.

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Yet, companies like Facebook started to assert the right to monitor those exchanges and decide if it approves of the views or representations being made.

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What began with censoring out violent threats soon morphed into "misinformation" or "harmful" thoughts on subjects ranging from climate change to COVID-19 to election fraud.

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We would never tolerate a company like Verizon intervening in telephone conversations to correct or cut off arguments.

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However, Facebook now regularly censors views and is running a glitzy ad campaign to get people to love the company for its paternalistic limits on what they can see and discuss.

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Facebook and other companies have turned a rolling ocean of free speech on the Internet into a swimming pool of censored and managed expression.

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Worse yet, according to its ubiquitous commercials, Facebook wants us to love it for the loss of free speech.

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So rejoice, America. Facebook and its censorship board will now allow us to discuss whether China is responsible for the release of this virus... for now.

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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Miranda Devine: Dishonest Nancy Pelosi doesn't care transparency or accountability or even the truth (Fox 05/25/2021)
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not interested in transparency and accountability, or she would come clean about her role in leaving the Capitol Police without the backup they requested on that terrible day.

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She is not interested in the truth, or we would know the name of the officer who fatally shot Donald Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt and Pelosi wouldn't have spent almost five months lying about Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day of a stroke, not at the hands of Trump supporters.

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... the only thing Pelosi is interested in is branding Republicans "white supremacists" and "domestic terrorists," because demonizing their opponents is all the Democrats have for the 2022 midterm elections.

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They know that after another 18 months of the tender mercies of a Biden administration, voters will be waiting to kick them out.

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki was at it on Friday, declaring that "a number of officers" died during the riot. Is she really so ignorant?

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The reason Democrats keep throwing extra corpses into the mix is because they want to dilute the impact of the one person who really was killed in the Capitol riot.

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That was Babbitt, an unarmed woman who appeared to pose no threat to the Capitol officer who shot her in the neck as she climbed through a window that day draped in the American flag.

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The 35-year-old Iraq war veteran was petite, 5 foot 2 inches tall and weighing 110 pounds. In her backpack was just a sweater and a scarf. Her car was plastered with "Back the Blue" stickers. She was a patriot who signed up for the Air Force straight out of high school in the wake of 9/11.

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She had been honored with 12 service awards in her 14 years in the military and did four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan...

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She came home to a country she felt had lost sight of who the enemy was and instead had turned on itself.

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A struggling small-business owner, she admired Trump's efforts to "Make America Great Again."

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She answered his call to fly across the country from California Jan. 6 to attend what would be his last rally as president.

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She made the mistake of entering the Capitol with the mob that day. But she did not deserve to die for that mistake.

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She was not a villain, and that is what scares Democrats. It is why Pelosi is bending over backwards to suppress the circumstances of her death from the public...

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... the speed and secrecy of the investigation is at odds with the treatment we have seen of police officers involved in other fatal shootings this past year.

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One Capitol Police insider said yesterday there are concerns about the safety of the officer and his family if his identity were revealed — which is reasonable.

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Perhaps it's a good thing to suppress the names of police officers involved in fatal shootings until public emotion cools.

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But the problem is that this special treatment has been afforded only to the police force which protects the politicians in Washington, not to the officers who protect the rest of us.

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No, the truth is the last thing Pelosi wants to come out.
Tucker Carlson: Fauci, the WHO, and mainstream media lied about COVID origins for more than a year (Fox 05/25/2021)
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... the debate among serious people over the origins of COVID appears to be pretty much winding up. Pretty much every sane person acknowledges at this point that the government of China likely caused the single worst man-made disaster in human history.

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As if we need more evidence, over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the first people infected with COVID-19 were probably researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In November of 2019, three of them were taken to the hospital with symptoms.

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The Journal did solid reporting, but it wasn't entirely new. Back in January of this year, the State Department issued a fact sheet telling the entire country the same thing.

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They said the first COVID patients were not hungry patrons of the local wet market, reckless diners who gorged themselves on pangolin and bats. No, they weren't.

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The first patients were researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Clearly, they'd been infected at work, while working on the virus.

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If you were trying to understand where COVID came from, and you should be if you want to prevent future pandemics, that State Department in January told you a lot. Yet it was ignored.

•
... Tony Fauci himself — the man in charge of our whole response to COVID-19 — told CBS News that he never even heard about the State Department's findings on the Wuhan lab. He had no idea.

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In other words, Fauci's own employers, the U.S. government, publicly released compelling evidence that the virus that he has devoted his life to fighting, did not come food, but instead escaped from the very bio lab that Tony Fauci has sent American tax dollars to fund.

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Yet somehow Tony Fauci didn't know this. He didn't know it till he read this weekend's Wall Street Journal. It was news to him. Bolt from the sky. Totally new information.

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Can we really believe that? No, of course, we can't. ... Fauci has known from the beginning the virus may very well have come from that lab. Many people have known that. Fauci just lied about it for more than a year.

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Now that we know what we know about the Wuhan lab — and we know that, of course, Fauci has known it too for a very long time, how could he not — it's pretty remarkable to go back and look at Fauci's public statements about COVID and the government of China.

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... you look back over the last year in light of what we now know, and you ask yourself, how does Tony Fauci still have a job? Seriously. What kind of country gives this much power to someone who's proven himself to be serially dishonest and incompetent?

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It's scary we'd allow that. Especially in public health. Meanwhile, and this is the most galling part, those few journalists and scientists who told the truth about what happened in Wuhan were punished for telling the truth.

•
The WHO, which followed China's instructions and told the world that COVID wasn't really transmissible by air, now has the full support of the Biden administration. In fact, Joe Biden rejoined the WHO, with no conditions.

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Even as of now, the U.S. government has not launched any broad and serious investigation into where the coronavirus came from.

•
At the same time, they're telling us we need a 9/11-style commission to understand every facet of the January 6th events at the capitol.

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But the pandemic that killed three million people and destroyed the west? Which it has. Never mind. We'll let someone else figure it out.

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See related Thanks, China (Bob Gorrell, 03/19/2017) cartoon from World picture album
The China threat is real and big business is a sellout. Here's what Congress must do now (Fox 05/25/2021)
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For decades, China has seized our intellectual property, flooded our country with cheap imports, gutted our industrial base, stolen our jobs, and lured American corporations abroad.

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With American dollars and technology, they've financed a regional and global strategy bent on domination.

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China has built its military on the backs of our working class and they appear increasingly willing to use it.

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For decades, experts in Washington have enabled the CCP with policy choices that have left our workers out to dry and empowered multi-national corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else.

•
The real sellouts to China are mega billion-dollar corporations that are obsessively wedded to the Chinese market. From Big Tech to Wall Street to Nike, the NBA, and Disney, big business is embracing the values of the CCP.

•
Several multi-national corporations have allegedly taken advantage of forced labor in China and elsewhere, effectively choosing slaves over American workers.

•
Just this week, we saw new reports describing how Apple, America's wealthiest company, has caved to the Chinese government time and again.

•
After years of pumping money into China, now Apple is doing the CCP's bidding. To appease China, Apple won't even call the iPhone an American product anymore.

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Any bill from Congress that focuses on our competitiveness with China must ensure that U.S.-based corporations are required to shift their focus back to where it belongs: American workers and American values.

•
There are strong steps that Congress can take to cut China down to size. It starts with addressing slave labor and the multi-national corporations that enable it to persist abroad.

•
Second, big corporations based in America should be required to certify that their entire supply chain is "slave free" or face stiff penalties.

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Then, we should require that all goods originating from a country believed to be a source for forced labor by the Department of Labor be marked as such.

•
If enacted, these measures could be transformative. By purging slave labor from our supply chains, we can isolate China economically and limit its access to rich American firms that fuel its aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

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And by protecting our domestic industry from exploited labor, we will empower our own workers and create jobs. China cannot hope to compete with American workers on a level playing field.

•
Since the ruinous decision to allow China into the World Trade Organization, our ballooning trade deficit with China has resulted in the loss of 3.7 million jobs. These were good-paying, stable jobs that helped families grow and communities thrive.

•
Rather than making a bet on special interests, let's make a bet on American workers. Let's give them the opportunity to compete on fair terms through corporate transparency and protective tariffs. That's how we revitalize our economy and beat China in the decades to come.

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See related Winning the Pooh (Antonio Branco, 09/15/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Dr. Marc Siegel: COVID is on the way out but the other pandemic, fear, is still going strong 5/25/21 (Fox 05/24/2021)
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Fear is a strong emotion with a fierce grip that attaches itself to an object and doesn't let go easily. And when it does let go, it may choose another object, just as irrational, yet just as persuasive.

•
A cycle of fear, once activated, is very hard to break. Fear-driven dogma and pseudo-religions based on fear have been the story of this pandemic.

•
Keep in mind that some fears are justified, and can serve as a warning system against real dangers, while others are not, and cause unremitting anxiety.

•
It was certainly warranted to be afraid of a mysterious deadly virus coming from China especially when the outbreak started in a city with a high security virology lab that studies bat coronavirus and works directly with the Chinese military.

•
A senior official at WHO told me that it is quite conceivable that COVID-19 started in that lab, and there are now reports of research scientists there getting sick in November 2019 and going to the hospital.

•
Fear is the appropriate response, even today, to the possibility that this virus was manipulated in a lab and leaked out. Gain of function research to gauge a pathogen's potential, is a serious threat to global health, and it was taking place in that lab, whether it led to COVID-19 or not.

•
It also made sense to be afraid of the damage lockdowns and closures were going to do to our society, to our economic, physical, and emotional health.

•
But that's where the value of our fear warning system ends. Unfortunately, fear has been used throughout the pandemic to control and manipulate us.

•
There are two pandemics, and only one of them is due to the virus directly. The other, the fear that has resulted, has led to a pandemic of depression, anxiety, drug abuse, hesitation, and distrust that will be much more difficult to heal.
Michael Goodwin: Dems' anti-Israel faction – how Biden is playing to the radicals within his party (Fox 05/24/2021)
•
Eleven minutes after Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, the White House issued a two-sentence statement.

•
The first said simply, "This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine and recognition has been requested by the provisional Government thereof."

•
The second sentence made history: "The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the State of Israel."

•
It was signed "Harry Truman."

•
The president's decision made America the first country to recognize the new nation and made him a hero to Jews around the world. It also helped make the Democrat Party a reliable ally of Israel for decades as war after war threatened its survival.

•
Unfortunately, Truman would not recognize his party today. An anti-Israel faction has taken root among Democrats and was on full display during Israel's clash with Hamas.

•
Because that faction is largely synonymous with the party's ascendant far-left wing, more moderate Dems are increasingly afraid to speak up for Israel, just as they are afraid to speak up against the emergence of socialism and anti-White racism in their party.

•
The Dems' gradual divorce from Israel picked up speed under Barack Obama, who took apology tours to Arab capitals and wooed Iran while giving Israel the back of his hand.

•
Donald Trump flipped the script by embracing Israel, recognizing Jerusalem as its capital and moving our embassy there. Trump also withdrew from Obama's feckless nuclear pact with Iran.

•
But now the pendulum is swinging back again as President Biden bends to the radical elements of his party.

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The 11-day war that was halted with Thursday's cease-fire revealed how Hamas has vastly expanded and improved its rocket arsenal. ... this was the first time the terrorists in Gaza put all of Israel in their rockets' range.

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At first, the president acted the part of a Truman Democrat and instinctively supported Israel's right of self-defense. But as casualties mounted in Gaza, the criticism grew and the president surrendered.

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A defining moment came last Tuesday when Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian woman elected to Congress, confronted Biden at the Detroit airport and argued American aid to Israel was funding atrocities against Palestinians.

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The tarmac face-off lasted eight minutes, and Biden later lavished praise on Tlaib's "passion and concern for so many people." Presumably, her concern doesn't include the Jews Hamas vows to eliminate.

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The very next day, Biden flipped sides and demanded Israel de-escalate immediately and move toward a cease-fire.

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... The very next day, Biden flipped sides and demanded Israel de-escalate immediately and move toward a cease-fire.

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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Liz Peek: Biden's radical agenda stalled – here's how Americans responding to progressives' wish list (Fox 05/24/2021)
DC vs. the rest of America — a major political hurricane is building outside the Beltway (Fox 05/22/2021)
Making It Up as They Go Along (JWR 05/21/2021)
Rebellion of the outcasts - a woke awakening (INN 05/20/2021)
Press Deceit Is a Pathology (JWR 05/20/2021)
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: The government's emergency powers myth (Fox 05/20/2021)
NY's AG Letitia James' behavior is an affront to justice. She is neither fair nor impartial (Fox 05/20/2021)
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Before Democrat Letitia James was ever elected Attorney General of New York in 2018, she vowed to exploit the immense powers of that high office to investigate and prosecute then-President Donald Trump for his business transactions.

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Never mind that James was not privy to any evidence or documents that the then-president had ever violated state laws as a real estate developer.

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Being bereft of facts did not deter her from accusing Trump of everything from "money laundering" to "defrauding Americans."

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She publicly denounced him as an "illegitimate president" and constantly repeated her campaign pledge to take him down.

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Her bitter crusade was always an investigation in search of a crime. She prejudged the merits of a case she had yet to bring and promised an outcome that was preordained.

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James is the kind of bete noire prosecutor who sullies the good name and reputation of honorable prosecutors everywhere.

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... the New York attorney general is under the mistaken impression that her prosecutorial power is an omnipotent weapon that can be used to selectively punish a political nemesis and to advance her own career in public office. Her malign behavior is an affront to justice because it is so profoundly unethical.

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Under the code of conduct that governs prosecutors in New York, James is duty-bound to be fair and impartial. She must refrain from methods that are calculated to produce prejudice. Her decisions cannot be driven by political bias. Her neutrality must be beyond question such that even the appearance of a conflict of interest is grounds for disqualification.

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James seems to have forgotten one of the most sacred cannons of professional ethics: the primary duty of a lawyer engaged in public prosecution is not to convict, but to see that justice is done.

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Yet, throughout her campaign speeches and post-election remarks, James committed herself to a legal course of action against Trump regardless of whether it was warranted and well before she gained access to any relevant evidence or facts.

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She accused him of conspiring with foreign governments, obstruction of justice, and a "pattern and practice of money laundering." She informed her supporters and the media that she was running for attorney general because "the man in the White House can't go a day without threatening our fundamental rights." ... James vowed to relentlessly pursue Trump, his organization, his family, and anyone in his orbit.

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Compare these remarks to the American Bar Association's ethical standard 2.1 which reads: "When deciding whether to initiate or continue an investigation, the prosecutor should not be influenced by partisan or other improper political considerations...or hostility or personal animus toward a potential subject."

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No reasonable person can believe sincerely that James did not breach her ethical duty under this strict professional standard. To the contrary, she obliterated any semblance of fairness and impartiality with a pernicious investigation driven by prejudice.

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Her hatred of Trump is palpable and laid bare for all to see in her many chronic condemnations of him before she ever opened her investigation.

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Unwittingly, James has delivered to Trump a jurisprudential gift and self-sabotaged her own ability to prosecute. Beyond recusal, he could demand that any criminal charges filed must be dismissed due to overwhelming evidence of bias.

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In other words, James has been chasing Trump, not crimes. This is a flagrant violation of his due process rights which are designed to protect citizens from abusive prosecutions. Her own incriminating words would be used against her.

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If a motion to dismiss fails, Trump could argue what's known as "selective prosecution" as a procedural defense. That is, he was singled out by James for political and personal reasons, thus violating the guarantee of equal protection under the law.

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In several cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has reminded prosecutors that they are constitutionally forbidden to bring criminal charges "that have a discriminatory effect and are motivated by a discriminatory purpose."

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Bear in mind that any criminal case brought by James would be exceedingly difficult to prove. In valuing his holdings, seeking loans, and filing taxes, Trump has always relied scrupulously on the judgment and advice of real estate experts, lawyers, and tax accountants.

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Proving that he "intended" to violate the law by following the counsel of experienced professionals would be a tremendously high burden for any prosecutor to achieve.

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None of this seems to have occurred to Attorney General James. For nearly three years, she has been waging an implacable political and personal vendetta against the 45th president.

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In so doing, she has undermined herself, corrupted her high office, and debased the rule of law that was founded on the principle of fundamental fairness. The words "Equal Justice" are not a mere nuisance engraved on the pediment of the Supreme Court. They are a necessity in our constitutional republic.

•
Letitia James is the one who should be investigated for her malicious actions.
David Limbaugh: Biden's bipartisan sham – Republicans, put country first and fight Dems' radical agenda (Fox 05/19/2021)
•
Riddle me this: Why would Republicans fall for the Democrats' age-old ploy of pressuring them into working on "bipartisan" legislation that will only advance the Democratic agenda and damage the nation?

•
Indeed, what's the point in the GOP puffing up its chest about ousting Liz Cheney from her House leadership position if they're just going to turn around and behave like never-Trumpers by caving on President Biden's agenda?

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Why would they play footsy with the most militantly leftist party in American history? That can't possibly be good for America, nor can it be good for their political fortunes, as voters don't want them to be spineless wimps.

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Republicans need to do more than just talk. They must summon all of their power to block Biden's disastrous agenda — not for the sake of partisan obstructionism but for the sake of the nation.

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People likely to vote for Republicans don't elect their representatives to engage in self-congratulatory bipartisan soirees; they elect them to advance beneficial policies and thwart destructive ones. They mustn't appease the cancel culture mobs.

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The left will demonize Republicans no matter what they do and no matter whether they rally around former President Donald Trump, so how about they just do what is right and aggressively pursue their supporters' policy preferences?

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Biden's schemes will further retard economic growth, which will disproportionately harm the middle class and the poor.

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So I'm not particularly thrilled with Republicans kowtowing to this demagoguery just to appear bipartisan.

•
... other Biden statements... "... Let's see if we can get an agreement to kick-start this and then fight over what's left and see if I can get it done without Republicans if need be."

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He expects Republicans to cave on many items, and on all others, he'll railroad them right through via the reconciliation process. He has shown no willingness to compromise his positions.

•
Making matters worse, all of Biden's proposed solutions are backasswards. You don't increase productivity and jobs by injecting play money into the economy and continuing to pay unemployment benefits that disincentivize people from returning to work, a reality he cynically denies.

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We are already witnessing the poisonous fruits of Biden's programs: inflation; an overrun border that threatens America's sovereignty and security; a constant stirring of racial resentment; foreign policy weakness and a betrayal of our ally Israel; gas hikes partially caused by a war on domestic energy; a war on cops; a war on free, fair and honest elections; a perversion of our national security by preposterously identifying white supremacy as the greatest security threat; a weakened military obsessed with identity politics; a never-ending climate of fear over the pandemic that keeps schools and businesses shut down; rampant cancel culture; and our academic, cultural and digital institutions suppressing speech, demanding conformity and smothering academic inquiry.

•
Note to Republicans: Don't fall for this sham for the thousandth time. Democrats will promote their agenda zealously, without compromise, and with or without your support.

•
Please surprise us and block them at every turn. You should not set your sights on crossing the aisle for a phony photo-op but on saving the country.

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See related For the Sake of Unity... (Mike Shelton, 01/21/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Worst Cooks (Gary Varvel, 01/25/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Could the courts still invalidate US election results? (INN 05/18/2021)
Prince Harry and 'bonkers' First Amendment – take this threat to free speech seriously (Fox 05/17/2021)
•
On a show appropriately called the "Armchair Expert," Harry declared the First Amendment "bonkers" and expressed frustration about how it protects the media in its "feeding frenzy" over his life.

•
Harry's criticism of the First Amendment can be dismissed as the unfamiliarity of a royal refugee. However, it is actually far more serious than that.

•
Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle have attacked media rights in England and succeeded under the laws of the United Kingdom. They are now joining a growing anti-free speech movement in the United States.

•
It was a surprise for many to hear Harry lash out at the First Amendment. After all, Harry and Meghan are so woke, they are virtual insomniacs.

•
Indeed, the First Amendment is now more often treated as a danger than a guarantee to a fair and just society. Experts have explained how to evade its limitations to silence others.

•
Democratic leaders now openly call for corporate censorship and the banning of books and authors. Academics join in the canceling of colleagues who express dissenting views of subjects ranging from climate change to gender identification to racial justice.

•
Thus, it is not as risky for the Harry to declare "I've got so much I want to say about the First Amendment as I sort of understand it, but it is bonkers." Rather, millions are likely to wait in rapt anticipation to hear more of what Prince Harry will say about correcting our Constitution.

•
The United Kingdom has a strikingly different approach to free speech and particularly press rights. The British media are subject to harsh laws giving the government far greater powers to control or punish publications.

•
One American who seems to have embraced the more restrictive laws on expression and the media is Meghan Markle. Recently, Piers Morgan, the former co-host of ITV's "Good Morning Britain," was canned after he committed the unpardonable sin of declaring on air that he didn't believe a word of what Markle told Oprah in her now famous interview.

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Markle and others reported TIV and Morgan to United Kingdom's "Ofcom," or Office of Communications, for violation of its "harm and offense rules."

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Ofcom enforces a chilling set of regulations that allows a severe penalties for expressing any views deemed "harmful or offensive" or assertions that could "materially mislead" others.

•
Markle also recently prevailed in a highly damaging court victory against the press. The case involved the publication of details from a letter that Meghan wrote to her estranged father after she married Prince Harry in 2018.

•
The lawsuit would have failed in the United States under the freedom afforded to the press, but prevailed in Great Britain.

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Under our system, public disclosure of embarrassing private facts has an exclusion for "newsworthy" stories. ... The court explained that "regrettably or not" such media coverage of public figures are protected and "it would be unwise for a court to bar their expression in the newspapers, books and magazines of the day."

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Keep in mind that this letter was given or leaked to the media – a common factor in some of our most important investigative journalistic works. While Meghan could accuse her father or others of a privacy violation, she went after the media...

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Markle rejoiced in the victory and declared, "The world needs reliable, fact-checked, high-quality news ... We all lose when misinformation sells more than truth, when moral exploitation sells more than decency, and when companies create their business model to profit from people's pain."

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What Harry and Meghan achieved in the challenge was a direct assault on core press freedoms. ... That is why the "bonkers" interview with Harry is not just some tabloid tripe. Harry was raised in a system that rejects core press freedoms and Meghan is an enthusiastic convert to that system.

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It is ironic that they left what Harry described as the "toxic" media environment of Great Britain to come to a country with greater protections for the press.

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However, the couple took little time in seeking to challenge the core values of the free press in this county. That is not just bonkers, it is bollocks.

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See related Kissed a Prince! (Mike Shelton, 01/15/2020) cartoon from World picture album
Biden flirting with disaster – here's where division at home, weakness abroad will lead (Fox 05/16/2021)
•
Human nature stays the same across time and space. That is why there used to be predictable political, economic and social behavior that all countries understood.

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The supply of money governs inflation. Print it without either greater productivity or more goods and services, and the currency cheapens. Yet America apparently rejects that primordial truism.

•
The United States is more than $28 trillion in debt – about 130% of the country's annual gross domestic product. The government will run up a $2.3 trillion budget deficit for 2021 after a record $3.1 trillion deficit the year before.

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The Biden administration still wants to borrow more – another $2 trillion in new social programs and "infrastructure."

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In the crazy last 100 days, the price of everything from lumber, food and gas to cars and houses has soared. Yet many interest rates are still stuck at or below 3%.

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Jobs are plentiful; workers are not. Is it a surprise when government handouts discourage the unemployed from taking a pay cut to go back to work?

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Are the old principles really obsolete? Should we be printing money while expanding government debt?

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Is it wise to keep interest rates close to zero and to discourage employment, production and thrift?

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This dangerous behavior used to ensure inflation, followed by ruinous stagflation.

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Police response times have slowed in many places, perhaps because officers are worried about being fired for using force.

•
The result? In major cities such as New York and Los Angeles, homicide and violent crime rates have increased by double digits.

•
State and local governments believed they were exempt from primeval laws of deterrence that warned when criminals assumed they would not be caught and punished, then they committed more crimes.

•
The same dangers of ignoring unchanging human nature apply to foreign policy.

•
Aggressive opponents such as Iran, North Korea, China and Russia expect that the Biden administration will ignore their brinkmanship.

•
They assume the administration will cut American defenses. And Biden sounds to them more critical of Trump foreign policy than of America's enemies. Why not take previously unwarranted risks?

•
Apparently, the Biden administration did not believe that dictatorships and theocracies would interpret its virtue signaling as weakness to be exploited rather than as magnanimity to be returned in kind.

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In the old days, the greater the impediments to crossing a nation's border – walls and the enforcement of laws – the less likely was illegal immigration. Here too, the Biden administration apparently rejected the ancient warnings.

•
Stopping construction of the border wall, promising amnesties in advance and damning the tough enforcement of the previous administration has only led to more illegal immigration.

•
Refusing to call the chaos at the southern border a "crisis" did not mean it was not a disaster.

•
Wisdom of the ages also warned that humans' first allegiance was to their own tribe, as defined by race, ethnicity or religion.

•
That existential danger is why multiracial nations always wisely sought to tamp down tribal differences, and to emphasize common ties of citizenship and transcendent common interests.

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Otherwise, a diverse country ended up like Lebanon, Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia, where tribal feuding turned bloody and barbaric.

•
Yet for three months, the Biden administration has emphasized racial differences rather than our melting-pot commonalities.

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It has stereotyped America's White population – hardly uniform in terms of class and ethnicity – as somehow uniformly enjoying unearned privileged and acting systemically racist.

•
Amid such talk, the danger is that racial tensions will increase, hate crimes will spike, racial demagogues will dominate, meritocracy will vanish and tribal solidarity will replace it. And the ancient idea of America will unwind.

•
When an arrogant present dismisses the wisdom of the past, then an all too predictable future becomes terrifying.
If you are a Jewish American or a regular Democrat, and voted Biden, read this (INN 05/14/2021)
Tucker Carlson: In some schools, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is out, sexual propaganda is in (Fox 05/14/2021)
•
... Loudoun County is now the single richest county in the entire United States. And that's been a problem, because any place you find easy money, you'll also find large numbers of unhappy white liberals, those brittle neurotics with masks on, screaming at everyone else to get in line.

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Loudoun County has a whole bunch of those people now. It also has a huge number of immigrants. One out of every four people in Loudoun County was born in another country.

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In general, most immigrants are not very liberal, at all, actually. In fact, many of them have what would now be described as extreme right-wing positions on social issues. If you ever have the chance, ask a Salvadoran what he thinks of transgenderism. It'll make you laugh, probably nervously, you'll look around and see if anyone heard it.

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Immigrants vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party. Their votes give more power not to them, but to those unhappy white liberals who want to blow everything up. That's why, mystery solved, a lot of places with a lot of recent immigrants tend to be far more liberal than those immigrants themselves.

•
Take a look at the schools if you don't believe it. Loudoun Country used to have famously good schools. People wanted to send their kids to those schools.

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Now, those schools are run by lunatics who hate the country. It happened fast, it always does. Below is what was said at a county school board meeting two days ago. The first person speaking is a middle school teacher called Andrea Weiskopf.

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ANDREA WEISKOPF: It's funny how they are so afraid of having their children seeing another view of sexuality, gender or religion...If you want to talk about books that are assigned, let's read To Kill a Mockingbird together. If you aren't able to consider the racial trauma this assigned book causes black children with its white saviorism, then you have no business discussing any books.

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... if she looks familiar, there's a reason for that. You've heard a lot of lectures like this recently. From people like Andrea Weiskopf. Stupid people telling you what you're allowed to say and read. That's essentially 2021 summed up in a single sentence.

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The scary thing is, they're telling your kids the same thing. All day, every day, in school. What effect is that having on your kids? On all of our kids? On the country itself? Well, over time, the effect is unimaginable.

•
For the last year, most parents have put up with this. Either they didn't know it was happening, or they felt powerless to stop it from happening. They were afraid to object, to speak up, as lunatics like Andrea Weiskopf hurt their kids.

•
But that's changing, finally. Some parents have had enough. Here's what one mother said at this week's Loudoun County school board meeting.

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SHAWNTEL COOPER: [Critical race theory] is not an honest dialogue, it is a tactic that was used by Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan on slavery very many years ago to dumb down my ancestors so we could not think for ourselves. Critical race theory is racist, it is abusive, it discriminates against one's color. Let me educate you. An honest dialogue does not oppress or implement hatred injustice. We don't need your agreement. We need action and a backbone for what we ask for today: To ban CRT...I had to come down here today to tell you to your face that we are coming together and we are strong. This will not be the last greet and meet – respectfully.

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... it's now federal policy. Last month, the Department of Education proposed a regulation that directs tax dollars to race hustlers who traffic in this poison. The administration specifically cited the work of Ibrim Kendi (real name Henry Rogers), as well as the entirely fraudulent 1619 Project, headed by Nikole Hannah Jones.

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So what are these people like? Well here's an example. ... ETHAN JOHNSON: One of the things that is really important, I think is to not frame slavery as a legacy but as it's still here. Its legacy suggests that it's over and there's some remnants of it moving forward. And I would suggest that no, slavery is right here...the idea of what a slave is, is still here. And we're living that.

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The Civil War never happened. Turns out that your ancestors weren't killed or maimed trying to end slavery. Abraham Lincoln never signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Slavery is still underway. That's view of some guy who's literally claiming to be a college professor.

•
But he's not alone. People like that are in charge of the schools now. Low-IQ vandals, wrecking what they did not build, from the very bottom to the very top, they are everywhere.

•
Just hours ago, the state of California has announced its new "Mathematics Framework" for students across the state. ... One of the authors of it is a Stanford professor called Jo Boaler. Here's how she explained the plan. "I am very pleased to announce the new Mathematics Framework for California. Some highlights: a strong social justice orientation; all students should take the same courses, kindergarten through tenth grade. Viva La Maths Revolution!"
GOP: Seek Not Phony Bipartisanship. Save the Nation (JWR 05/14/2021)
•
We are already witnessing the poisonous fruits of Biden's programs: inflation; an overrun border that threatens America's sovereignty and security; a constant stirring of racial resentment; foreign policy weakness and a betrayal of our ally Israel; gas hikes partially caused by a war on domestic energy; a war on cops; a war on free, fair and honest elections; a perversion of our national security by preposterously identifying white supremacy as the greatest security threat; a weakened military obsessed with identity politics; a never-ending climate of fear over the pandemic that keeps schools and businesses shut down; rampant cancel culture; and our academic, cultural and digital institutions suppressing speech, demanding conformity and smothering academic inquiry.

•
Note to Republicans: Don't fall for this sham for the thousandth time. Democrats will promote their agenda zealously, without compromise, and with or without your support.

•
Please surprise us and block them at every turn. You should not set your sights on crossing the aisle for a phony photo-op but on saving the country.
Where Are All the Conservative Companies? (JWR 05/14/2021)
Tucker Carlson: If you don't get the COVID vaccine, you may be an agent of Russia (Fox 05/13/2021)
•
You hear that a lot: "They're anti-vaxxers. They don't believe in vaccines." But pause for a second and think about it. That's a pretty strange way to talk about science. Science never asks us to believe in anything.

•
Just the opposite. Science is a never-ending attack on settled belief, on faith, on what we imagine we know, on what we assume. Science doesn't tell us what's true. Science shows us what's true. It demands proof, not faith.

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... we've long ago left the realm of science, and are instead in a state of mass hysteria and mass manipulation. Many Americans are too scared to think clearly.

•
... you're afraid because you've been told for more than a year that you are required to be terrified. And the arrival of the vaccine has not calmed you at all. Instead, demagogues have instructed them to channel their fear into hate, and turn it on anyone who disobeys their orders.

•
That's not rational. That's not science. It's something much darker than that. What began as public health measures have become instruments of social control.

•
Here's how MSNBC responded last night. BRIAN WILLIAMS: This is Senator Ron Johnson on Fox News tonight

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RON JOHNSON: People ought to respect other people's freedom and liberty in their ability to choose whether or not to get vaccinated or not...I am concerned now about them trying to push it on children, who, let's face it, aren't in a position of informed consent. We do need to recognize that this is not a fully approved vaccine.

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BRIAN WILLIAMS: So Doctor, I know really smart, educated, substantial people who believe him to be a witting or an unwitting asset of Russia — who would sound a lot like that — in American society.

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An asset of Russia. If you choose not to get the vaccine — even on the advice of your physician, taking medical advice from a practicing doctor — then you're working for Putin. You're a traitor, doing the bidding of a foreign power. You've committed treason.

•
Here's some guy on CNN calling for people who haven't been vaccinated to be arrested if they try to enter buildings:

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JOHN BERMAN: Is that my concern that someone who's chosen to be unvaccinated is making a bad choice. And question two is, maybe there should be laws that allow them to be kept out of the building.

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BECERRA: Well, you've hit right on the point, John, how do we get to a point where we get everyone to be as safe as possible?

•
"Maybe there should be laws that allow them to be kept out of the building," says the dumbo on TV. They'll say anything.

•
What's amazing, is the response from Joe Biden's Cabinet secretary. Absolutely, says Joe Biden's cabinet secretary.

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You'd like to think we'll look back on this and laugh someday. But we're starting to wonder if that day will ever come.

•
Maybe the fear will never go away. It's too useful. Maybe anyone who asks questions will be called an agent of Russia or China or Syria, or wherever.
With Friends Like These (INN 05/13/2021)
•
As Hamas-fueled rockets rain down on Israel and violent Arab rioters attack Jews in cities across the Holy Land, progressive Democrats rush to castigate the Jewish State and demand a halt to its financial aid.

•
AOC slammed Israel for "inhumane" treatment and "paramilitary violence". Rep. Ilan Omar dubbed Israel's defense as "an act of terrorism" .

•
She was joined by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who demanded that U.S. tax dollars not support Israel's acts of "apartheid" and "inhumanity" , and by Rep.

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Andre Carson in accusing Israel of "human rights abuses". Rep. Ayanna Pressley demanded that "American government $$ should not finance state violence...in Jerusalem" . And the list goes on......
Tucker Carlson: If you don't get the COVID vaccine, you may be an agent of Russia (Fox 05/13/2021)
It's time to crush Big Tech censorship before Facebook, Twitter and others crush us (Fox 05/12/2021)
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Never before has so much power been held by so few. And never before has that power been so egregiously abused.

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The censorship applied to American news consumers by Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google, and Apple must be broken up.

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They have evolved into massive monopolies that pose a grave danger to democracy by suppressing speech with which they disagree.

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The staggering wealth and unbridled power of these tech giants allow them to punish political adversaries and protect partisan allies. They do so with impunity and no regard for the public interest.

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In October of 2020, Facebook and Twitter shut down the spread of a New York Post story revealing the incriminating content of a laptop owned by Hunter Biden. They blocked millions of voters from reading an accurate story of vital public interest.

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The move was instrumental in containing damage to Joe Biden's campaign just weeks before the presidential election.

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Since then, former president Donald Trump has been banned from Facebook indefinitely and banished from Twitter permanently.

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Parler, a social network favored by conservatives, was cut off completely when Amazon removed the site from its server, while Google and Apple deleted Parler's app from their app stores.

•
Digital platforms increasingly dominate public discourse in today's social media environment. The dissemination of speech and information is concentrated in the hands of a few private parties that control online content and platforms. Today's oligarchs enforce their vast and influential dominion with an iron grip.

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They argue that as private companies they are not required to respect free speech rights and may act as they please. In this they are correct inasmuch as the First Amendment protects against government interference, not private action.

•
Therein rests the dilemma of what to do when private-sector behemoths repress speech and thought in the era of the commanding internet.

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The first option is for the government to recognize that these companies constitute clear monopolies in their respective markets — social networking, mobile content and apps, search and advertising, and e-commerce.

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Their sheer size, the tyranny they exert, and their anti-competitive conduct makes this obvious under any antitrust analysis.

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As such, a bold move must be made to treat them as public utilities that are strictly regulated such as electric, water, gas and telecommunications companies. This will protect the public from tech abuses and free speech repression.

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In an honest world, the Biden administration would initiate and lead such action. But it won't since Democrats, and Biden in particular, have been the great beneficiaries of tech censorship.

•
Their progressive views align perfectly with the liberal establishment that operate today's technology companies. Both have a common interest in maintaining the status quo of exploiting unchecked power over public discourse. Manipulating the narrative is their objective. And they're good at it.

•
It is therefore most likely up to the federal courts and, in the end, the U.S. Supreme Court to rectify the wrong.

•
In an opinion last month involving Trump and Twitter that was dismissed as moot, Justice Clarence Thomas laid out a compelling argument that could be used in a future case before the high court to rein in social media companies by treating them as "common carriers" akin to utilities. A platform's right to exclude users or censor content would be restricted or halted altogether. They would be held accountable.

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"If the aim is to ensure that speech is not smothered, then the more glaring concern must perforce be the dominant digital platforms themselves," wrote Thomas.

•
He cited historical precedence in the transportation and communications industries that would easily justify such pragmatic regulations to safeguard the public's greater interest in the free exchange of ideas and information.

•
The second option is to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that gives unfettered legal protections to social media companies. In essence, they are immune from liability in censoring material that they deem "objectionable". This amorphous language allows them to do whatever they want without constraints.

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While Section 230 may have been a rational idea when the internet was a nascent endeavor and needed protection in order to grow, the anomalous exemption has long outlived its purpose.

•
Today's tech giants hold unfathomable wealth derived from their unprecedented market power. They are answerable to no one.

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This must change. They should be subject to lawsuits and damages over unfair censorship, as well as their punitive actions in banning users based on mercurial (and politically driven) standards.

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It is abundantly clear that the current Congress controlled by Democrats won't act because it is against their self-interest to do so. But if their majority is lost in next year's mid-term elections, Republicans must seize the moment to eliminate the now-ludicrous legal shield that has enabled companies like Facebook and Twitter to rage out of control.

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The third option is tied to the first. It is a given that the above-named tech goliaths constitute unlawful digital monopolies that have emerged as instruments of suppression and coercive thought.

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The corporate overlords who run them have become, in many ways, more powerful than our own government. This is anathema to the public's interest in a constitutional republic that has always been dependent on the principles of free expression.

•
Hence, breaking up Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google and Apple may represent the only logical choice if all else fails. This will require time-consuming antitrust litigation that could stretch out over several years.

•
These companies are a collective colossus with unlimited resources. Like the railroad barons and oil tycoons before them, they will spare no amount of money to battle dissolution every step of the way.

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But if these corrective measures fail, America may cease being a beacon of freedom. Corporate authoritarians will demand conformity.

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You'll be dispossessed on social media if you dare to offer a contrary view. Just as they cornered their markets and crushed competition, they'll crush you.

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See related Election Interference (Antonio Branco, 10/16/2020) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Anthony Fauci let the coronavirus pandemic happen, why isn't there a criminal investigation? (Fox 05/11/2021)
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How do we assess the Biden administration's response to COVID? Well, here's one marker: it tells you pretty much everything that the White House that is supposedly so committed to science chose as its head COVID coordinator a man with no background at all in science or medicine.

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His name is Jeffrey Zients. Zients ran Joe Biden's presidential transition team, that's his qualification. He's a former management consultant from Bain, who sat on the board of Facebook. Jeffrey Zients is a political operative. That's who's overseeing COVID response for Joe Biden.

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The good news is because Zients isn't even close to being an actual scientist, he doesn't talk like one. Occasionally he says things whose significance the rest of us can clearly understand.

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JEFFREY ZIENTS: And the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter and brighter. Let's keep up our guard. Let's follow the CDC guidance. And the CDC guidance across time will allow vaccinated people more and more privileges to take off that mask.

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There it is. "The CDC guidance across time will allow vaccinated people more and more privileges to take off that mask." A sentence like that raises so many questions, it's hard to know where to start.

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How about here: If the vaccines work, why are any vaccinated people wearing masks anywhere, ever? Seriously.

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Our public health authorities act as though masks are absolutely critical. But are they absolutely critical? Where are the serious studies that prove that? Do they exist? If they do exist, is there a reason they're being hidden from us?

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And, finally, when did masklessness become a privilege? For thousands of years, until 12 months ago, masklessness was the global status quo. Virtually everyone on earth lived without masks. That wasn't considered weird. Masks were weird. They were unhealthy and menacing.

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Yet Jeffrey Zients has just informed us that things have changed. Going forward, not wearing a mask, even after you've been vaccinated, is "a privilege"...

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What does that mean, exactly? How long will this terrifyingly irrational exercise continue? For the answer to that question, we go to a man even more partisan than Jeffrey Zients. The nation's most highly credentialed political operative, Tony Fauci, let us know that, actually, this mask thing is never going to end.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: You know, that's quite possible. I think people have gotten used to the fact that wearing masks, clearly, if you look at the data, diminishes respiratory diseases...So it is conceivable that as we go on a year or two or more from now, that during certain seasonal periods when you have respiratory-borne viruses like the flu, people might actually elect to wear masks to diminish the likelihood that you'll be spreading these respiratory-borne diseases.

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"A year or two or more from now." In other words, never — you're never taking off the mask. Get ready for a lifetime of filthy wet cotton covering your mouth, reduced oxygen flow to your brain, and a world where every stranger looks the same because no one has a face.

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... it's not public health. It's a kind of punishment. Tony Fauci is punishing the country — you, us, everyone. The question is: why is he doing that? Maybe he liked it, that's possible.

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But you've got to think that at least part of Fauci's authoritarian germ hysterical is a cover for something else. Could it be that Tony Fauci is trying to divert attention from himself and his own role in the COVID-19 pandemic?

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We can't recommend more strongly a new piece by Nicholas Wade, who for more than 50 years has been one of the preeminent science writers in the world. ... explains where the virus almost certainly came from. In it, Wade makes it clear that, more than any other single American, Tony Fauci is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Wade lays out a nearly insurmountable amount of evidence that this virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Central China.

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At the time the outbreak began last fall, the Wuhan lab was conducting experiments on how to make bat viruses infectious to human beings. Those experiments were funded by American tax dollars, the funding for those experiments was approved and directed by Tony Fauci in Washington.

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... job was genetically engineering coronaviruses so that they infect human beings, and do so as easily as possible. The work, Wade notes, involved, "doing gain-of-function experiments designed to make coronaviruses infect human cells."

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Why was this research going on? You'll have to ask the scientist who did it.

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But the facts remain, these were some of the most dangerous experiments ever conducted by mankind. And yet we know that China wasn't taking the necessary safety precautions.

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Several years ago, U.S. diplomatic cables warned about lax standards at the Wuhan Lab. The Wuhan facility was classified as a "bio-safety-level two laboratory."

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What does that mean? ... that's approximately the same level of safety that you would find in a dentist's office in America.

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So that lab, conducting research on the coronavirus, and how to make it transmissible to human beings, resulted almost certainly infected a lab researcher and spread from there.

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The first coronavirus patients didn't come from the so-called wet market as we heard. That was a lie. The first patients of the coronavirus were employees at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

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Once again, why would the Wuhan lab be conducting experiments like that in the first place? Well, we know that Tony Fauci had authorized payment for the research.

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For five years — from 2014 to 2019 — the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci runs, and has for decades, pumped money to a group called the EcoHealth Alliance.

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The EcoHealth Alliance, run by a man called Dr. Peter Daszak, contracted with Dr. Shi to conduct gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab.

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Just before the pandemic became public knowledge — on December 9, 2019 — Peter Daszak sat for an interview that was streamed online. In that interview, he bragged about how easy it is to manipulate coronaviruses in lab experiments.

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Just days after he said that, it became clear that this new version of coronavirus, this novel coronavirus, what we now call COVID-19, was running rampant through Wuhan then China then the world.

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Since the pandemic began, Peter Daszak, not surprisingly, has appeared on virtually every media platform available to him to deny, in the most strenuous and dismissive terms, that the Wuhan lab could be in any way linked to the outbreak, since he has very personal motives for claiming that.

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A lot of smart people knew that right away. One of those people is Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute at Harvard and MIT.

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She bravely wrote a paper about how the coronavirus's genome hadn't changed much over time, and that was odd because that genome had gone through trillions of replications. According to Chan, that fact implied that the virus was designed for human-to-human transmission from the outset.

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The former director of the CDC also clearly understood this. He too argued the virus came from the Wuhan lab.

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Millions of people have died of COVID-19, so it's not a matter of score-settling or blame-assignment to figure out where it came from. If you want to prevent the next global pandemic, you have to figure out how this one started.

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The WHO's investigation into the origins of the virus was fraudulent, and that matters to public health globally. But one thing you'll notice is that Tony Fauci did not say that. Why? Because once again, he's implicated in it, personally.

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The gain-of-function research ... in fact, been banned explicitly by the U.S. government. There was a federal moratorium on the funding of exactly the kind of gain-of-function experiments that went on in the Wuhan lab, to disastrous effects.

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So why didn't the feds halt its funding to the lab in Wuhan? That is a central question, and Nicholas Wade looked into it.

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"... 'An exception from the research pause may be obtained if the head of the USG funding agency determines that the research is urgently necessary to protect the public health or national security.'"

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And that's exactly the loophole that was exploited. Who signed off on this? Tony Fauci — possibly along with Francis Collins, the director of the NIH — invoked that special exception in order to keep funding the Wuhan lab, and the deadly experiments that were going on there.

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This wouldn't have happened if Tony Fauci didn't allow it to happen. That is clear.

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It's an amazing story. It is a shocking story. In a functional country, there would be a criminal investigation into Tony Fauci's role in the COVID pandemic that has killed millions and halted our country, changing it forever.

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So why isn't there a criminal investigation into Tony Fauci's role in this pandemic?

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See related Why You Need 2 Masks... (Chip Bok, 02/25/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Rep. Ken Buck: The real goal of cancel culture — first you're canceled, then you're replaced (Fox 05/11/2021)
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Cancel culture's damaging consequences are becoming apparent to anyone paying attention. ... 64 percent of Americans now believe Cancel Culture is a "threat to freedom."

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Americans are right to be alarmed by cancel culture's sweeping effects. But "replacement culture" is the ultimate objective of cancel culture and is even more dangerous. Cancellation is the first part of the progressives' agenda; replacement is the second.

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The examples of progressives' intentional replacement in our culture are numerous – and conservatives should not be surprised that the real aim here is not simply purging our culture, but actually, a full-scale shift that comports to progressives' radical worldview.

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Take history education in this country, as just one example. For years, the political left has attempted to erase parts of our American history, especially our founding.

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The left has attacked the true story of 1776 and our nation's commitment to the protection of individual liberty. That attack on our history has manifested itself in many ways, including attempts by progressives to remove the monuments and statues in Washington, D.C.

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Last summer, the city of Washington put forth a radical proposal to "remove, relocate, or contextualize" the Benjamin Franklin statue, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the Washington Monument.

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In place of America's true history, the progressives seek to install their revisionist history curriculum, known at the 1619 Project. This false narrative presents students with a picture of an America founded not on the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence, but instead on a racist pursuit of expanding slavery.

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Canceling 1776 was only the necessary precursor to replacing our true history with a curriculum that views every event in history through the lens of race and racism.

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Another insidious example of cancel culture in education appears with the canceling of traditional standards and curricula, with the goal of replacing those lessons with a race-based curriculum.

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The Biden administration announced last week that it will use taxpayer funds to push not only the racist 1619 narrative but also "critical race theory" in public schools across the nation.

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Critical race theory is the backdoor way to teach Marxism to students and adults in this country, under the guise of pushing "equity."

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Outside of the education sphere, cancel culture has also set its sights on one of the most important industries in my state of Colorado: the oil-and-gas industry.

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The goal of canceling fracking and the vital oil-and-gas industry is to replace it with Green New Deal objectives, including increasing our dependence on unreliable energy sources such as wind.

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Perhaps the biggest example of cancel culture on Americans' minds is the recent shakedown in Georgia. As soon as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed an election integrity bill into law, progressives leapt into action, canceling the Major League Baseball All-Star game planned for Atlanta this summer.

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The intent here was not simply a retaliatory cancellation of Atlanta's hosting of the All-Star Game, but actually a cancellation of all similar voter integrity laws, with the goal, of course, of keeping less secure laws in place.

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We see the cancel culture playbook on display everywhere from toy stores to universities.

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Schools named after our founders must be renamed after liberal icons. Professors and journalists who will not kowtow to the progressive agenda find themselves replaced in their jobs.

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Cancel culture has many tools in its toolbox. We often focus on this movement's figurative use of scissors and erasers as it eliminates parts of our culture.

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But we should be equally alarmed about its use of two other tools – glue and tape – as cancel culture advocates engage in replacement culture and paste in their own revisionist history and cultural priorities.

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See related Forget Cancel Culture... (Michael Ramirez, 03/03/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden's radicalism – weaponizing race, crushing dissent are new hallmarks of Dems, far left (Fox 05/10/2021)
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The e-mail was short and nasty. After first calling Sen. Tim Scott "the token Uncle Tom" and the N-word, the writer added: "You knuckle dragging conservatives should be sent to the ovens."

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The writer, Mildred50, if that's her real name, was one of many on the left who were infuriated that Scott, a Black Republican from South Carolina, had the gall to declare that "America is not a racist country" in his rebuttal to President Biden's address to Congress.

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Scott did not duck the unfinished business on race or his experiences of being stopped for no reason by police. He was frank in acknowledging there is more work to do.

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But he also put Biden to shame by hailing the enormous progress America has made, in stark contrast to a president who sounds stuck in the past when he compares new voting laws to the Jim Crow era and insists the country remains riddled with "systemic racism."

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For his common sense and optimism, Scott received deserved acclaim and, distressingly, an outpouring of hatred, with the "Uncle Tim" slur trending on Twitter for 12 hours.

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The e-mail from Mildred50 echoed that vile language, but the second sentence revealed something more. By saying "You knuckle dragging conservatives should be sent to the ovens," the writer effectively identified as a liberal.

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... here is a racist who identifies as a liberal while wishing conservatives get "sent to the ovens." The Holocaust reference is also unmistakable and repugnant.

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Although it's impossible to know what shaped that warped outlook, raw hatred is a growing and powerful force in American politics, especially on the left.

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That is not to suggest all Republicans are innocent, or that every Democrat is a racist who wants Republicans dead.

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Rather, it is stating the obvious to say the new left alone wants to irrevocably change America, rewrite its history and tear down its institutions.

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And many are prepared to crush any and all dissent.

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Unfortunately, millions of Democrats fit that description and they are driving the party. Many are in Congress and the administration, including, I am sorry to say, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

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This is not the Biden we expected, but, based on his actions, this is the Biden we have.

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With traditional liberals fast disappearing, the ascendant left no longer champions equal rights. Instead, it champions racial prejudice and even resegregation under the guise of equity.

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The open, unabated hatred for Tim Scott and others who don't subscribe to this new orthodoxy is especially alarming.

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While politics has always been a tough business, radicalism grew more powerful under President Barack Obama, where a coercive, moralistic tone clouded every discussion.

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If you didn't accept his programs, you were either ignorant or corrupt. There was no room for honest disagreement.

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Those who felt abandoned and betrayed responded by electing Donald Trump, who embraced the role of their avenger.

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In its response, the left upped the ante again by starting a resistance that adopted the posture of moral and intellectual superiority on steroids.

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The refusal of Dems in Congress and the media to accept Trump's legitimacy shredded any hopes of reconciliation and led to the bitter polarization we now face.

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We saw the flowering of the madness during the violent anti-police protests last summer. Most often, it was young Whites, some of them graduates of elite universities, who, while demonstrating over the George Floyd case, were caught spitting on and cursing police and calling Black officers traitors to their race.

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Just like Tim Scott, the brave officers were accused of not being authentically Black because they dared to break from the stereotype leftist Whites demanded of them.

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Biden, seeing the widening breach and numerous fault lines, cleverly sold himself as someone who would lower the temperature and get things done by working with both sides.

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It was a ruse. The bonfire of rage is still burning and his administration is using its power to further racialize and radicalize daily life.

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No leading Democrat, including Biden, condemned the outrageous attacks on law enforcement, and few spoke honestly about the rise in violent crime. Similarly, few Dems condemn Big Tech's silencing of voices that oppose the left's worldview.

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The weaponization of race and a commitment to blocking dissenting speech goes beyond rhetoric.

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Traditional liberals were inherently suspicious of the FBI and CIA because they had sometimes trampled on Americans' rights, but the new left enlists those agencies to criminalize dissent.

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"We have a president who is a life long creature of the swamp and left wing elements are pulling the strings.

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"The criminals are viewed as heroes and cops are the bad guys. We are lectured and accused of being racist. I'd like to think the good guys will eventually win, but I'm losing hope."

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See related Stayin’ Alive (Antonio Branco, 02/22/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden's Jimmy Carter connection – here, already, is where their policies are alarmingly similar (Fox 05/10/2021)
Biden vs. Big Pharma – here's why waiving patent rights on COVID vaccines is a big mistake (Fox 05/10/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Could New York City have a gun-wielding mayor? (Fox 05/07/2021)
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The city has once again become dirty, chaotic, and increasingly dangerous. The parks and train stations look like refugee camps for mentally ill drug users.

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Just as in the 1970s, a lot of people who live in New York are fleeing. ... "Why should I care about what happens in New York? I voted with my feet and got out of that place. Let it rot."

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And, honestly, that's a fair point. But consider another perspective. New York is the biggest city in the United States. More than eight million people live there, including Americans.

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What happens in New York affects all of us. In the end, we'll have to pay for the damage anyway, so we might as well root for the best outcome.

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Bill DeBlasio is heading for retirement. We know that for sure. The single worst mayor in the history of representative government has reached the end of his second, disastrous term. The long municipal nightmare is over. DeBlasio's leaving. So, the question is, who replaces him?

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It turns out, New York is changing. All the urban decay seems to have awakened voters to actual issues.

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Once you're afraid of getting shot to death while walking to the store — once you can't use the park across the street because vagrants are living in it — nothing else really matters. No matter what color you are, crime and disorder define your life.

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The first order of business is to get the violence under control. You'd think that'd be the top priority of every New York City politician. Why have a mayor otherwise?

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But it's not their top priority. Not even close. The current mayor spends half his life opining on global warming, even as he pollutes the atmosphere with his weed smoke.

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HOST: So as mayor would you carry a firearm on you even with a security detail?

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ADAMS: Yes I will, number one. And number two, I won't have a security detail. If the city's safe, the mayor shouldn't have a security detail with him. He should be walking the street by himself. Number three, the hypocrisy of those who are citywide officials who said you shouldn't have guns in church, those guys that walk in with them – they got guns.

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Meanwhile, once-promising Andrew Yang has descended deeper into the self-discrediting absurdity of identity politics — something that, it turns out, most voters actually don't like.

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At a forum the other day, Yang was asked about violence against Asian-Americans. Now, every single human being in New York City understands where that violence comes from, but of course, Yang didn't say that. His solution: give more taxpayer money to racial affinity groups aligned with the Democratic Party. That'll make Asian grandmothers safe.

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Except it won't make Asian grandmothers or anyone else safe. We know because we tried it. It doesn't work. All that does work is enforcing the law. And most people know that.

•
The sad thing is people like Andrew Yang, Exeter, Brown, Colombia, are such craven butt-kissers they don't understand the advantage of telling the truth. If he'd said to the radio host "are you joking? Defund the police? That's insane." The radio host probably would have agreed with him. But that's not what Yang did. He tried to suck up, and he humiliated himself, and then he went on from there.

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Grad school liberals love it. Fawning over criminals makes them feel good about themselves. And then when things disintegrate, as of course, they will, the grad school liberals just leave. They literally head for the hills — Telluride, Aspen, Beaver Creek — anywhere without the "crime problem." A lot of them are doing that now.

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The liberals who still remain in New York don't have much use for Eric Adams. He's the one black candidate they don't like. You get the feeling he doesn't like them back. He definitely doesn't believe them when they talk.

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ERIC ADAMS: We're in the period of sexy headlines. Truth be damned. Nobody cares about the truth anymore. This is an Instagram, Twitter universe where people push what's sexy and what sells. Everything they accused Donald Trump of, that far left is (laughs). Moderate communication and real facts don't even matter in this universe we're in right now.

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Could it be that things have fallen apart to such an extent in New York, they've gotten so crazy, that someone like Eric Adams, who you would have laughed off the stage eighteen months ago as crazy himself, is actually the sanest guy running and maybe the one person who can save the city from itself.
Tom Del Beccaro: California's Gavin Newsom recall — why the country needs to get behind it (Fox 05/07/2021)
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If Gavin Newsom remains the governor of California, the assault on jobs, farmers, and employers will continue – including a ban on gas powered-vehicles. But still, there is more.

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Last but not least, Newsom is pushing ahead with the early release of 76,000 felons including nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole.

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While the list of California's problems goes on and on – keep this in mind – Gavin Newsom wants to be president of the United States. He wants his failed policies to be the norm across the Country.
Are Americans becoming Sovietized? (JWR 05/06/2021)
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What ultimately ended the nihilist Soviet system? Was it not that Russians finally tired of the Kremlin's lies and hypocrisies that permeated every facet of their falsified lives?

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Here are 10 symptoms of Sovietism. Ask yourself whether we are headed down this same road to perdition.

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1. There was no escape from ideological indoctrination — anywhere. A job in the bureaucracy or a military assignment hinged not so much on merit, expertise or past achievement. What mattered was loud enthusiasm for the Soviet system.

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Wokeness is becoming our new Soviet-like state religion. Careerists assert that America was always and still is a systemically racist country, without ever producing proof or a sustained argument.

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2. The Soviets fused their press with the government. Pravda, or "Truth," was the official megaphone of state-sanctioned lies. Journalists simply regurgitated the talking points of their Communist Party partners.

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In 2017, a Harvard study found that over 90% of the major TV news networks' coverage of the Trump administration's first 100 days was negative.

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3. The Soviet surveillance state enlisted apparatchiks and lackeys to ferret out ideological dissidents.

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Recently, we learned that the Department of Defense is reviewing its rosters to spot extremist sentiments. The U.S. Postal Service recently admitted it uses tracking programs to monitor the social media postings of Americans.

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4. The Soviet educational system sought not to enlighten but to indoctrinate young minds in proper government-approved thought.

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Currently, cash-strapped universities nationwide are hiring thousands of diversity, equity and inclusion staffers and administrators. Their chief task is to scan the admissions, hiring, curriculum and administration at universities.

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Like good commissars, our diversity czars oversee compliance with the official narrative that a flawed America must confess, apologize for and renounce its evil foundations.

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5. The Soviet Union was run by a pampered elite, exempt from the ramifications of their own radical ideologies.

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Now, woke Silicon Valley billionaires talk socialistically but live royally. ...

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What unites current woke activists such as Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James Mark Zuckerberg and the Obamas are their huge estates and their multimillion-dollar wealth. Just as the select few of the old Soviet nomenklatura had their Black Sea dachas, America's loudest top-down revolutionaries prefer living in Martha's Vineyard, Beverly Hills, Montecito and Malibu.

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6. The Soviets mastered Trotskyization, or the rewriting and airbrushing away of history to fabricate present reality.

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Are Americans any different when they indulge in a frenzy of name-changing, statue-toppling, monument-defacing, book-banning and cancel-culturing?

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7. The Soviets created a climate of fear and rewarded stool pigeons for rooting out all potential enemies of the people.

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Since when did Americans encourage co-workers to turn in others for an ill-considered word in a private conversation? Why do thousands now scour the internet to find any past incorrect expression of a rival? Why are there now new thought criminals supposedly guilty of climate racism, immigration racism or vaccination racism?

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8. Soviet prosecutors and courts were weaponized according to ideology.

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In America, where and for what reason you riot determines whether you face any legal consequences. Politically correct sanctuary cities defy the law with impunity.

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Jury members are terrified of being doxxed and hunted down for an incorrect verdict. The CIA and FBI are becoming as ideological as the old KGB.

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9. The Soviets doled out prizes on the basis of correct Soviet thought.

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In modern America, the Pulitzer Prizes and the Emmys, Grammys, Tonys and Oscars don't necessarily reflect the year's best work, but often the most politically correct work from the most woke.

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10. The Soviets offered no apologies for extinguishing freedom. Instead, they boasted that they were advocates for equity, champions of the underclass, enemies of privilege — and therefore could terminate anyone or anything they pleased.

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Our wokists are similarly defending their thought-control efforts, forced re-education sessions, scripted confessionals, mandatory apologies and cancel culture on the pretense that we need long-overdue "fundamental transformation."

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So if they destroy people in the name of equity, their nihilism is justified.
Fred Fleitz: CIA's 'woke' video — here's how we get liberal leaning agency back on track (Fox 05/06/2021)
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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has issued a new recruitment video that has caused a great deal of controversy.

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Instead of discussing the Agency's important mission to protect American security and freedom, the CIA officer says: "I used to struggle with impostor syndrome. But at 36, I refuse to internalize misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be."

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Many Americans were puzzled why the CIA would produce a video focusing on political correctness and far-left politics.

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... I have watched the left take over the Agency over the last 30 years with no effort by Republican administrations to clean house.

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Liberal bias in the CIA goes back many years. During the Cold War, conservatives complained CIA analysts were slanting their analysis of the Vietnam War, playing down the threat from the Soviet Union, and arguing there was a moral equivalency between American and Soviet foreign policies.

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In the 90s, the CIA politicized its analysis to support President Clinton's disastrous "Assertive Multilateralism" national security strategy that sent lightly armed UN peacekeepers to Haiti, Bosnia and Somalia with tragic results.

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CIA officers actively worked to undermine President Bush in the 2000s. Aside from leaks of intelligence to the press to hurt the Bush administration, Paul Pillar, the CIA's national intelligence officer for Near East and South Asia, gave a notorious speech in September 2004 criticizing Bush's Iraq policy to help John Kerry win the 2004 presidential election.

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Efforts by CIA officers to undermine the Bush presidency were such a problem that the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial in September 2004 condemning them as "The CIA's Insurgency."

•
Liberal bias and politicization of intelligence in the CIA and other agencies exploded during the Obama administration.

•
This included the politicized talking points on the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks and slanting analysis of Iran's nuclear weapons program to support the deeply flawed 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the JCPOA).

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But the worst distortion of the CIA's mission began under Director John Brennan when he implemented his Diversity and Inclusion Strategy in 2016 to make the CIA more diverse and politically correct.

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Brennan mandated "diversity and inclusion performance objectives for all CIA managers and supervisors and ultimately [for] the entire workforce."

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This required CIA personnel to weigh diversity and gender figures in making key assignments and senior-level promotions. Brennan's plan also includes agency-wide "unconscious bias" training.

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CIA officers perform sensitive work with high level security clearances. Some of this work is dangerous. The Agency was not the place for Brennan to be implementing President Obama's social engineering efforts with hiring and promotion quotas.

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Brennan got away with this because the CIA had drifted so far to the left after Republican presidents had repeatedly failed to clean house to return it its national security mission.

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The CIA recruitment video reflects how the Trump administration was unable to clean up the CIA in Trump's first term.

•
CIA Director Mike Pompeo had little chance to clean house at CIA since he was there just over a year before President Trump nominated him to be Secretary of State.

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Pompeo's successor Gina Haspel, a career CIA officer, did not openly oppose President Trump's policies but oversaw and encouraged the Agency's leftward movement.

•
She did nothing to curb the stream of leaks to the press from intelligence officers to undermine the Trump presidency. Haspel also refused to cooperate with repeated orders from the president to bring classified documents on the now-debunked Trump campaign Russia collusion hoax to the White House. Haspel should have been fired for this insubordination.

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The recruitment video is part of a CIA YouTube video series called "The Humans of CIA" that began under Haspel's directorship. President Trump planned to fire Haspel if he had been reelected and would have named a new director to enact major reforms.

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This recruitment video is a warning sign of how severe liberal ideology is rotting the mission of a crucial intelligence agency with a multibillion-dollar budget.

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Instead of performing its national security mission, the Agency's leftist leadership and the Biden administration plan to continue to use it to conduct social engineering and to politicize intelligence against the administration's political adversaries.

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The next Republican president, who I hope takes office in January 2025, will have an enormous mess on his or her hands at the CIA and other national security organizations due to leftwing woke-ism running amok in them during the Biden administration.

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For the good of our national security, the next Republican president has to do better filling the top positions of these crucial organizations by nominating principled and experienced managers from outside government with the backbone to enact major organizational changes to streamline and depoliticize them – and to endure the resulting fierce blowback they will encounter from taking such action from the press and congressional Democrats.

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This must include new standards for hiring and promotions and firing incompetent staff who were hired solely for the sake of political correctness.

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CIA is engaged in deadly serious business to protect our freedom and security. There is no room at CIA for woke, politically correct personnel schemes.
Will CIA soon stand for 'Central Insanity Agency'? Team Biden weakening America from inside out (Fox 05/06/2021)
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The Central Intelligence Agency is always looking to recruit new agents and advertising is one way it has done so in the past.

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The difference this time is in a newly created series of recruitment videos that reflect the spirit of the age in which we live, rather than appealing to abilities and patriotism.

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The videos seem to suggest that the super-secret agency has been infiltrated, not by spies from Russia, China, or Al Qaeda, but rather a subtler and nearly invisible enemy.

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That would be the infiltration by woke liberals, whose primary goal appears to be the undermining of every tradition and institution — from Disneyland's Snow White ride (the famous kiss scene by the Prince has been deemed sexually aggressive because Ms. White is unconscious and cannot give consent, so it will be re-imagined) — to America's foremost intelligence agency.

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The latest CIA video features a Latina officer who identifies as a "cisgender millennial." Even the word "cisgender" is so new that my spellcheck does not (yet) recognize it.

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The video is part of a new series called "Humans of CIA" designed to attract a more "diverse pool of candidates."

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"I am a woman of color. I am a mom. I am a cisgender millennial who has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I am intersectional, but my existence is not a box-checking exercise."

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Really? What else could it be?

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WebMD defines anxiety disorders: "They're a group of mental illnesses that cause constant and overwhelming anxiety and fear. The excessive anxiety can make you avoid work, school, family get-togethers, and other social situations that might trigger or worsen your symptoms."

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Forget the other stuff. Why would the CIA be fine with an agent suffering from such a malady?

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said: "If you're a Chinese communist, or an Iranian mullah, or Kim Jong-un ... would this scare you?"

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Donald Trump Jr. joined the mock fest when he tweeted that the agency has gone "full woke. China and Russia love this" and are "laughing their asses off." ... "wokeness is the kind of twisted PSYOP (psychological operations) a spy agency would invent to destroy a country from inside out."

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Such operations have traditionally been used to influence the reasoning and emotions of people, a strategy now full-blown in America.

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The late historian Will Durant had the definitive statement about what happens to nations that ignore traditions and policies which have worked in the past: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within."

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An even higher authority preached: "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3 NLT)...

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The Biden administration is weakening America from inside out, especially by ignoring the crisis at our southern border. Wokeness is spreading at least as fast COVID-19 ever could.

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Unlike the virus, there is no vaccination for this moral and intellectual pandemic.

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The CIA has had problems in its past, but none as serious as this. If they continue to succumb to wokeness, the "I" in its acronym will stand for insanity.
Now the Post Office is spying on Americans — will our government ever behave? (Fox 05/06/2021)
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In August 2019, one FBI agent accessed the raw intelligence data of 16,000 Americans in order to find criminal evidence about seven of them. The FBI reported that as one share.

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Also last week, the USPS revealed that its postal inspectors have been monitoring social media at random, looking for troublemakers.

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What articulable suspicions did the Postal Service have before its police began their surveillance? What conceivable threat to the postal mails is manifested in texts and emails (other than that the latter are infinitely faster and profoundly more efficient)? None and none.

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All this shows just how corrupted America's security state has become under presidents of both parties.

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From counting 16,000 as if it were one, to hacking the texts and emails of people without articulable suspicion or probable cause, to orchestrating end runs around the Fourth Amendment, to lying to federal judges about all this — we see the tactics of the East German Stasi and Soviet KGB have been reborn on this side of the Atlantic.

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Of what value is the constitutional guarantee of privacy if those we have hired to protect it are themselves undermining it?

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See related Spy Service (Mike Shelton, 04/23/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: How many Americans have died after taking the COVID vaccine? (Fox 05/06/2021)
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... how many Americans have died after getting the vaccines designed to prevent the virus? Do you know the answer to that question? Do you know anything about the downside?

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... what about the potential risks? You'd think you would know more about that than you do. We talk about vaccines constantly...

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Joe Biden was on TV yesterday talking about vaccines. He wants you to get one. Everyone in authority wants you to get one. In fact, you've probably already had your shot, and good for you. If you haven't had your shot, you're under enormous pressure to get your shot.

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There is a lot of pressure to comply. At some point, you probably will comply. It's just too difficult not be to vaccinated in this country.

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But before you make the appointment: do you know anything about the potential risks? Probably you don't know much. We all assume the risks are negligible. Vaccines aren't dangerous. That's not a guess, we know that pretty conclusively from the official numbers.

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Every flu season, we give influenza shots to more than 160 million Americans. Every year, a relatively small number of people seem to die after getting those shots.

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To be precise, in 2019, that number was 203 people. The year before, it was 119. In 2017, a total of 85 people died from the flu shot.

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Every death is tragic, but big picture, we don't consider those numbers disqualifying. We keep giving flu shots, and very few people complain about it.

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So the question is how do those numbers compare to the death rate from the coronavirus vaccines now being distributed across the country? That's worth knowing.

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We checked today. Here's the answer, which comes from the same set of government numbers that we just listed: Between late December of 2020, and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the COVID vaccines in the United States. ... that's an average of 30 people every day.

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The data we just cited come from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System — VAERS — which is managed by the CDC and the FDA.

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Some critics have argued for a long time that VARES undercounts vaccine injuries. A report submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services in 2010 concluded that "fewer than one percent of vaccine adverse events are reported" by the VARES system.

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Fewer than one percent. So what is the real number of people who apparently have been killed or injured by the vaccine? Well, we don't know that number.

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... it's clear that what is happening now, for whatever reason, is not even close to normal. It's not even close to what we've seen in previous years with previous vaccines.

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Most vaccines are not accused of killing large numbers of people. The Menveo vaccine, for example, is given to people around the world, often children, to prevent bacterial meningitis. In this country, only one person died from that vaccine in the entire period between 2010 and 2015. One.

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So, compare that to what's happening now. In just the first four months of this year, the U.S. government has recorded more deaths after COVID vaccinations than from all other vaccines administered in the United States between mid-1997 and the end of 2013. That's a period of fifteen and a half years.

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Again, more people, according to VAERS, have died after getting the shot in four months during a single vaccination campaign than from all other vaccines combined over more than a decade and a half. Chart that out. It's a stunning picture.

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If the vaccine injury reporting system is flawed — and it clearly is flawed — why hasn't it been fixed? And more to the point, why has there not been an independent vaccine safety board to assess what's happening.

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But amazingly, none of that has been done. No one even mentions the numbers. And in fact, you're not allowed to. You'll be pulled off the internet if you do.

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The people in charge do not acknowledge them. Instead, they warn us about what might happen if we don't take the vaccine. Like Joe Biden.

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JOE BIDEN: You know, there's a lot of misinformation out there, but there's one fact I want every American to know. People who are not fully vaccinated can still die every day from covid-19...This is your choice. It's life and death.

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"People who are not fully vaccinated can still die every day from COVID -19," Biden said. As a factual matter, that is true. But it's also misleading. Not all Americans are at a similar risk of dying from COVID-19.

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Some are at relatively high risk: the old and the sick. They might want to get vaccinated, and most do. Some are at very low risk of dying: the young and the healthy.

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... the White House – the official policy-makers who are designing the vaccine rollout – do not acknowledge that those categories even exist. Health Authorities are pretending that everyone's health and risk potential is exactly the same as everyone else's.

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This might be an acceptable policy – it would never be an ethical policy – but it might be acceptable to the country if COVID vaccines we could show conclusively came with no risk, and if we truly understood the long-term effects of those vaccines.

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But neither one of those things is true. We know that according to the government reporting system, thousands of people have died after getting the shot.

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Vaccines are complicated medicines, and as with any drug, it can take a long time to get it precisely right. The dosage, for example.

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And this is not the first time people have been hurt during a vaccination campaign. That is bound to happen. What's different this time, and so striking, is the reaction to these numbers.

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Here's a contrast for you: in 1976, the U.S. government vaccinated 45 million people with a vaccine for the swine flu. Fifty-three people reportedly died after getting that shot.

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The U.S. government immediately halted the vaccination program. Authorities decided it was too risky, it wasn't worth it.

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Contrast that with what is happening now. This time, our health authorities have reserved their energy for anyone who dares to question vaccines.

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LifeSiteNews, a nonprofit news organization, just found itself permanently banned from Facebook. Why? Because it reported government numbers from the VAERS database.

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We're not precisely sure what the risks are. It is a lie to say there are no risks. There are risks in everything, including in getting a vaccine. So why not rationally weigh the risk/reward ratio, as we do with every decision we make.

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There's a reason many states have more vaccine doses than they can use. Some people just don't want the vaccine. That's their right. Period. Not all of them are crazy. Health decisions used to be considered personal choices. We didn't ask about them. They were considered personal as recently as last fall.

•
... at the vice presidential debate, Harris was if anything more emphatic on the subject. "If Donald Trump tells us we should take" the vaccine, she declared, "I'm not going to take it."

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Kamala Harris has, of course, since changed her mind. She's no longer skeptical of the vaccine, nor does she tolerate the skepticism of others. Instead, she's an enthusiastic participant in COVID theater. And that's really the only name for it.

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It is the crudest kind of propaganda, designed by the cynical for the benefit of a population they consider stupid and weak and malleable.

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If American citizens are going to be forced to take this vaccine or any other medicine, they have an absolute right to know what the effects of it might be. And they have an absolute right to ask that question.

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No amount of happy talk or coercion or appeals to false patriotism can change that. Period.
Due Process Is the Opposite of Social Justice (JWR 05/05/2021)
Facebook vs. Trump – Big Tech has allowed for the creation of a state media without the state (Fox 05/05/2021)
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Facebook, Twitter and other companies now openly engage in what they like to euphemistically call "content modification." The decision reflects the convoluted logic of censor's free speech review board.

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The company – and the board – start from the assumption that it can and should censor views deemed "misinformation" or dangerous. The starting position therefore is that censorship is justified and that content neutrality is dangerous.

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The board's position on the standardless policy on permanent bans ignores that its temporary suspension policy is equally standardless.

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The company cited the response to Trump's speech by third parties as opposed to a specific call by Trump to commit violence.

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It does not take the same position when similar words are used by figures like Rep. Maxine Water, D-Calif., during protests.

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The company declared that it would censor any content "in the voice of Donald Trump."

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What is most alarming is that Facebook, Twitter, and other companies have been defended by Democratic leaders, writers and academics.

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They declared that "in the great debate of the past two decades about freedom versus control of the network, China was largely right and the United States was largely wrong" and "significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet."

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Democratic leaders like Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have warned Big Tech companies that they are watching to be sure that there is no "backsliding or retrenching" from needed "robust content modification."

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Many commentators on the left have become unabashed enablers of not just censorship but corporate censorship.

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The common rationalization is that these companies are not subject to the First Amendment so there is no free speech issue.

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The First Amendment is not synonymous with broader values of free speech. Private companies can still destroy free speech through private censorship.

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This is particularly the case with companies that not only run platforms for communications but received immunity from lawsuit under the view that they would be neutral providers of such platforms.

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Imagine if your telephone company took it upon itself to intervene in phone calls to object to something you just said or ban you from further calls for spreading misinformation.

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Some of us believe free speech is a human right that is defined by values beyond the confines of the First Amendment.

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The alliance between political figures and these companies is particularly chilling. Big Tech has allowed for the creation of a state media without the state.

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Governments can now outsource censorship duties to Big Tech, which benefits from government support ranging from immunity to taxation laws.

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The internet was once the greatest creation for free speech in history. It is now being converted into a managed space for corporate-approved viewpoints.

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Is the CIA's new wokeness virtue signaling or an attempt to infiltrate the American left? (Fox 05/05/2021)
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The CIA is the most heavily-armed, and supposedly the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering operation on the planet. And yet somehow, they produced this video, and then put it on social media.

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"I am a woman of color. I am a mom. I am a cisgender millennial who's been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder." And then she told us — hilariously — that this new spunky new CIA lady is also "intersectional," but — and pause for laugher here — "my existence is not a box-checking exercise."

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Well of course not. Box checking? Just a cisgender Latina millennial mom of color with a certified emotional disability. Not a hint of box-checking here.

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In fact, it sounds like pure meritocracy — if by "meritocracy," you mean a system in which narcissism is the highest achievement. At Joe Biden's CIA, the spies talk mostly about themselves.

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"The CIA used to be about mission to country. Now it's now about demanding — and getting — accommodation to fix an emotional wound or advance a personal agenda. America is less safe with this new CIA, and dangerously more political."

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For months now, the Biden administration has told us that a group called "white supremacists" are America's most dangerous enemy. White supremacists don't live in the Middle East. Their caliphate is right here in America...

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How can you tell a white supremacist? How do you know when you're in presence of one? It's simple: anyone who objects to be being called a racist without evidence must be a white supremacist. That's the working definition. Beyond that, no one has defined the term.

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People in Washington just repeat the line, again and again, and again, in the apparent belief that frequent repetition makes it scarier. And apparently, it does.

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JOHN BRENNAN: The members of the Biden team who have been dominated or have been appointed are now moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about what looks very similar to insurgency movements that we've seen overseas, where they germinate in different parts of the country, and they gain strength, and it brings together an unholy alliance frequently of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists, even libertarians.

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That's quite a list. "Religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists. Even libertarians." Yes, says John Brennan with a visible quiver, even libertarians. Even libertarians, even the guys at the Cato Institution. That's how deep this white supremacist threat really is.

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You may be surprised to hear that. You imagined in your naivete that professional libertarians were merely ridiculous, with their stupid little theories that no one's ever tried because they're so self-evidently absurd they'd evaporate like steam if they ever made it beyond the walls of a Koch-funded think tank, which of course they never will. But no. It's much worse than that.

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That's what John Brennan has told us. That's what they're all telling us. They repeat it daily. The question is, does anyone with an IQ over 80 actually believe a word of this? Does anyone in power really think something called "white supremacy" is the greatest threat America faces?

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No, of course not. Susan Rice knows that isn't true. So does Barack Obama. So do all the other architects of the lie. They made it up in the first place, so of course, they know precisely how false it is.

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They may be liars, but they're not delusional. In real life, they understand perfectly well what threatens America. They've seen it up close. It's the culture that produced them.

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It's the decadent rich people from their class at Harvard. It's the gender studies department at Cornell. It's the cat cafes in Austin and Asheville.

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Those are the people who actually detest the country. They're the ones working through the night to destroy it. They're the people who are committing and excusing violence.

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So, if you wanted to save America, these are the people you'd be worried about. They make the Iranian nuclear program look like nothing.

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So maybe the CIA actually does know this. Maybe they really have it figured out. Maybe the intersectional lady with the emotional problems is just a deep-cover operative. Think about that. It makes sense, actually.

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For a mission like that, we're going to need a brand new kind of spy. The old kind will not do. Imagine James Bond trying to infiltrate the Queer Dance collective at Brown.

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This progressive new CIA agent ... would never be discovered. They wouldn't suspect her for a minute. She's just like them: They're unhappy. So is she. They got diagnosed with emotional disorders. So does she. They can talk about themselves for eight hours at a time. She can too. Talk about deep cover. This woman is a natural mole, the Kim Philby of wokeness.

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The Biden administration appears to be training a lot of spies like this. They know this war won't be won in a day. Existential struggles never are. So they're marshaling all the forces of government, from DHS to the president's own personal flak.

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFICIAL: "I acknowledge the place-based knowledge of these peoples and I'm grateful for their ancestral and current stewardship of these lands, my pronouns are she/her.

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You read that and you think, that can't be real. Let's hope you're right. Let's hope it's a ruse.
Biden's vile 'Jim Crow' smear gets a free pass from liberal fact-checkers. Is anyone surprised? (Fox 05/05/2021)
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... liberals take conservative accusations extremely literally, while the vilest liberal accusations get a free pass...

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For example, last October, PolitiFact rated then-President Donald Trump "false" for saying Joe Biden is a socialist. Oh, no, they said, writing: "Biden has not advocated nationalizing industries, a key principle of socialism. His platform on health care, energy and other issues aligns with moderate Democrats, not socialists."

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Does that look true right now?

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... President Biden can appear in a televised press conference on March 25 and say the Republican voter-integrity bills in Georgia and elsewhere are so viciously racist that "this makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle." So hanging blacks from trees looks mild compared with Republican voting bills?

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Get a load of how they rationalized this lie: "Some said Biden's rhetorical point was justified as a way of highlighting the dangers of backsliding from hard-won voting rights. Those who say the comparison is justified acknowledge that the Georgia law does not literally resemble Jim Crow in its particulars."

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It "does not literally resemble Jim Crow"? How about "It's not anywhere close to Jim Crow"? They think these aren't fighting words; it's just an academic exercise. "Substantively, we found that the Georgia election law is a mixed bag when it comes to restricting ballot access."

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They casually report that there's an opposing view: "Other experts, however, said the comparison is overblown since even the recent revisions to Georgia's voting laws leave black residents with far more access to the ballot box than they ever had during the grimmest days of Jim Crow."

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If the liberal media and their aligned "fact-checkers" were truly interested in encouraging more racial healing in our discourse in the post-Trump era, they could start by accurately characterizing these "Jim Crow" insults as unacceptably false.

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But they know these incessant smears are how Democrats keep their voters agitated. They highlight "the dangers of backsliding."

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See related Biden\\\'s Glory (Mike Shelton, 01/22/2021) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Joe Crow (Mike Shelton, 04/06/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden vs. Scott (JWR 05/04/2021)
Facebook's Orwellian censorship push – their insidious campaign to destroy free speech (Fox 05/04/2021)
Unconstitutional Debt and Future Generations (JWR 05/03/2021)
Biggest cultural challenge of our lifetime: Defeating anti-American indoctrination (Fox 05/03/2021)
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In his 1989 farewell address, President Ronald Reagan worried whether we were doing a good enough job teaching our own children what it means to be American. He longed for what he called an "informed patriotism."

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This sentiment was echoed over 30 years later by President Trump, who in his own farewell address warned that our "loss of confidence in ourselves" was not just a worry, but our greatest danger.

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"No nation can long thrive," President Trump said, "that loses faith in its own values, history and heroes – for these are the very sources of our unity and our vitality."

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It's bad enough to lose one's faith, which at least holds forth the possibility of recovering it.

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But what if we give up and abandon altogether the teaching of our children the true and inspiring story of America? What will become of our youngest Americans who are starting off with a blank slate about what our country means and stands for?

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What exactly are we doing if we are not teaching them about their country's values, history and heroes?

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The alarming answer is, in our nation today, there are far too many classrooms where our children and grandchildren are not learning about the positive revolution in human affairs set in motion by our Founders, or how later leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called upon the wisdom and vision of the Founders to defeat the evil injustices of slavery and segregation.

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Instead, many are learning that our Founders were altogether sinful men unworthy of statues or even praise. The historic achievements of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Douglass and King are being shelved in favor of the false and destructive narrative that we are a systemically racist and ultimately irredeemable nation.

•
Even worse – and at an alarming pace – students are being subjected to the radical concept known as critical race theory, which pits them against one another on the basis of race and gender under the guise of achieving "equity."

•
Not only is this extreme ideology deeply divisive and harmful, but it rejects America's most defining principle – that as individuals we are all created equal by God.

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A great nation cannot survive if its citizens are taught to hold their own country in contempt. Our Founders knew that people are not perfect – that is why they created an ingenious constitutional system of checks and balances.

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But that system also requires strong civic engagement by citizens who understand and defend the values and traditions that make America special.

•
Critical race theory is a deliberate means to sow division and cripple our nation from within – one brainwashed and resentful student at a time.

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And while foreign adversaries like China and Russia surely work to inflame our divisions, we are doing this to ourselves.

•
Whether or not we can defeat this ascendant anti-Americanism is perhaps the most important cultural challenge of our lifetime, and fortunately a growing number of courageous parents, grandparents and teachers understand the stakes and have begun to speak out and push back.

•
The brave and patriotic parents and educators we have seen defend America's founding principles fill us with optimism, confidence and hope. It is truly inspiring to see. They just need the encouragement and support necessary to be successful.

•
The creation of President Trump's Advisory 1776 Commission offered real promise, as it sought a return to a truthful, patriotic education worthy of an exceptional nation.

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But, signaling his capitulation to the far-Left of his party, President Biden canceled and disbanded the 1776 Commission just hours after his inauguration.

•
Now, patriotic Americans at the state and local level must lead the way. That means pressuring candidates and elected officials to clarify their positions, making patriotic education a defining issue in elections up and down the ballot this year and beyond.

•
An important new tool for making this a reality is The 1776 Pledge to Save Our Schools just released by 1776 Action. Aside from affirming where candidates and officials stand on a set of core beliefs – that our Founding Fathers were great Americans who deserve to be honored as heroes, for example – the pledge includes four specific commitments for public K-12 education. They include:...

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Restoring honest, patriotic education that cultivates in our children a profound love for our country.

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Promoting a curriculum that teaches that all children are created equal, have equal moral value under God, our Constitution and the law, and are members of a national community united by our founding principles.

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Prohibiting any curriculum that pits students against one another on the basis of race or sex.

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Preventing schools from politicizing education by prohibiting any curriculum that requires students to protest and lobby during or after school.

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It is true that President Biden and his congressional allies are working hard to impose a new federally-funded, federally-defined curriculum for civics and history, but education remains primarily a state and local issue – and rightly so.

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And while it may seem difficult to make an impact in Washington, D.C., you may be surprised by how powerful your voice can be in your own school district or state capital.

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By focusing on this issue, we have the opportunity to create an entirely new, diverse coalition of voters for these values – one built upon a genuine love for our nation and our children.

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Our children and grandchildren should understand the full picture – our fundamental values, our greatest achievements, and the long struggles to overcome injustice as well.

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It's now up to us to choose – will we prepare our youngest generation to write the next exciting chapter in the great American story?

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If so, we must act now, before it's too late.
Liz Peek: Biden flip-flops on US racism – here's what prompted the new White House message (Fox 05/03/2021)
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After a year of slamming the United States as "systemically racist," President Biden now says, "I don't think the American people are racist."

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How can country be racist if its people are not?

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A nation is defined by its citizens; its people determine whether a country is optimistic, educated, hard-working, fair-minded and ... whether it is racist.

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Surely a country cannot be racist if its people twice elected a Black president or if they back policies demanding equality. We have laws banning discrimination, we have jury trials that convict White cops who kill Black men, and we have schools, religious institutions, neighborhoods and political parties that are open to all.

•
One indication that the U.S. is not racist is this: even though Whites constitute 60% of all Americans, and presumably control many levers of power, they are not the most prosperous group, as measured by median household income.

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Indeed, it is Indian Americans who earn by far the highest incomes in the U.S., at more than $119,000, followed by Taiwanese Americans, Filipino Americans and Chinese Americans. White Americans are only the ninth most prosperous group, with median incomes just shy of $66,000, according to Census Bureau data.

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Black Americans rank last, with median average income of $41,500, but it is hard to conclude this reveals bigotry, when other non-White ethnic groups fare well.

•
In addition, studies from a few years ago showed Black immigrants earning 30% more than native-born Blacks; that suggests skin color is not the only issue.

•
... Democrats have put race at the center of every issue; according to the Left, "systemic racism" should drive our policies on education, immigration, climate change and a host of other issues, including how to handle COVID-19. If you disagree, you are a bigot and will be canceled.

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Scott said in his speech, "A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic. And if they looked a certain way, they were inferior... Today, kids again are being taught that the color of their skin defines them, and if they look a certain way, they're an oppressor."

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Americans know this indoctrination is toxic and will destroy our nation.

•
Race is important to Democrats, who count on receiving roughly 90% of the Black vote. It is especially important to Biden; were it not for African Americans handing him the Democratic primary win in South Carolina, he would not be president.

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Hence, payback to the Black community figures prominently in Biden's ongoing spend-a-thon.

•
Some Americans are speaking up.

•
Oklahoma and Idaho are moving to ban teaching critical race theory in state schools and 39 GOP senators have warned incoming Education Secretary Miguel Cardona against rolling out that offensive and misleading dogma nationally.

•
A father in one of New York's most prestigious private schools publicly denounced its "obsession with race" and bashed the administration for kowtowing to an "anti-intellectual illiberal mob," sparking a firestorm but also speaking for many parents.

•
A bigger problem for Democrats, though, is the success and popularity of a Black conservative like Tim Scott. The senator can speak to racism, which does exist in America as it does in every country in the world.

•
But Scott also attributes his success to a "string of opportunities that are only possible here in America." Democrats do not want young Black kids to know that if they work hard and get a good education, the sky is the limit.
Tim Scott's speech – here's what Biden, Dems can learn from SC senator's inspiring words (Fox 05/03/2021)
•
Biden talked America down by building the government up, painting 330 million people as hopelessly lost unless Washington takes more and more control of the economy and everyday life.

•
His plans for $6 trillion of spending and tax hikes are so far out of the mainstream that they are by definition radical.

•
... Biden's continuing refrain of "systemic racism" is fundamentally at odds with his promise to unite the country.

•
A reckless charge of racism might silence speech in college dorms, but coming from a president, it's an intolerable insult to millions of people and fuels growing rancor.

•
Scott, the only black GOP senator, gracefully sliced and diced Biden's remarks with a tone of disappointment, lamenting "this feeling that our nation is sliding off its shared foundation."

•
Scott offered contrast by noting how, with Donald Trump in the White House and the GOP holding the Senate, "we passed five bipartisan COVID packages," with all five bills getting 90 votes in the Senate.

•
"I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around a store while I'm shopping," he said evenly before quickly adding: "I've also experienced a different kind of intolerance. I get called ‘Uncle Tom' and the N-word by progressives, by liberals."

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He cited his efforts to get a police reform bill through the Senate after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, only to have Dems use the filibuster to kill it. Dems, Scott said, "want the issue more than they wanted a solution."

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He called the practice of having children focus on skin color a new racism and said it was "absurd" for Biden to refer to Georgia's new voting law as worse than Jim Crow.

•
"Hear me clearly. America is not a racist country. It's backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it's wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present."

•
Given the shaky state of our union, Scott's speech is the most valuable thing said in Washington this year. In under 15 minutes, he made vastly more sense than Biden did in 65 minutes, while also outlining the case against the nihilistic attacks on America's history, culture and institutions.

•
But what happened after his speech is almost as important. The reaction on social media and elsewhere confirmed everything Scott said about the left's intolerance and bigotry.

•
He was instantly insulted as an "Uncle Tim" on Twitter for saying America is not a racist country and, revealing its own bias, Twitter highlighted the offensive term for 12 hours.

•
This is the same left that is quick to label as racist anyone who doesn't subscribe to its agenda. Yet here it is, actually using racist language against a Black man because he dares to disagree.

•
For Scott, the outpouring of vitriol was proof that blacks "cannot step out of your lane," as he put it the next day.

•
The attacks were indeed brazen but, sadly, consistent with the mindset of many Dems. Black supporters of Trump were mocked as traitors to their race, mostly by far-left Whites who presume to know how Blacks should think.

•
Biden himself scolded a Black interviewer, saying "You ain't Black" after the interviewer suggested he was undecided about how to vote last year.

•
Sadly, this is increasingly leftists' approach to all people on all issues. Your authenticity and legitimacy are recognized only if you behave in the way they say you should, based on your race, ethnicity or gender.

•
There is only one accepted path, and those who disagree are stupid or racist or misogynist – and that includes Blacks, Latinos, Asians and women. No honest disagreement is acceptable. It's either conform or we will ridicule and silence you.

•
This intolerance is the greatest threat to America and is turning public life into a nightmare. It makes the nation brittle by leaving no room for disagreement and offers no respect for those who differ.

•
Worse, this coercive approach is force-fed into the education system. Even in kindergarten and elementary grades, children are being taught to judge themselves and others by race, with Whites deemed oppressors and nonwhites victims. If you or your parents don't agree, shut up or leave.

•
Biden, who seems besotted by this madness, is giving it a boost by handing out grants as an incentive for schools to teach critical race theory, which pits people against each other on the basis of race.

•
Thankfully, Scott, for one night at least, was the antidote. He finished his remarks in uplifting fashion, saying, "Original sin is never the end of the story. Not in our souls, and not for our nation. The real story is always redemption."
Tucker Carlson: Why Republicans no longer recognize their own party (Fox 05/01/2021)
•
There are a lot of nice people in the Republican Party, but the point of a political party is not to be nice, it is to represent the interests of its voters. That's the only reason political parties exist. There is no other reason to have them except to represent their voters.

•
Yet year after year, on issue after issue, the leadership of the Republican Party fails to do that. We're not guessing about this. We know what Republican voters care about. They tell pollsters all the time.

•
Since they kept getting ignored, in 2016 they elected Donald Trump, just to make it incredibly clear what they cared about. If that wasn't a wake-up call, nothing would be.

•
However, it remains true that the priorities of the people who run the Republican Party are very different — in some cases, completely different — from the priorities of the people who vote Republican.

•
Why is that? Well, there are lots of reasons, probably, but Frank Luntz is definitely one of them. ... For decades, Frank Luntz has told elected Republicans what to say and exactly how to say it.

•
Frank Luntz is a smooth salesman. He's been around for a while. The problem is that Frank Luntz's views are very different from those of your average Republican voter.

•
Frank Luntz is a conventional liberal. His main clients are left-wing corporations like Google. When Frank Luntz gives advice to congressional Republicans, he's got Google's perspective in mind. That's a huge problem.

•
So why does Frank Luntz remain a fixture in Republican politics at a time when the companies he works for are explicitly opposed to the Republican Party?

•
Well, in part because he is particularly close to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy R-Calif., and has been since McCarthy entered politics.

•
In an interview earlier this year, Luntz described Kevin McCarthy as a personal friend. That relationship gives Frank Luntz outsized influence over the Republican Party's policy positions.

•
He'll conduct something called a "focus group," a moderated conversation between several people that has no actual relevance to anything. It's just random people yammering. Your ninety-second exchange with the UPS guy this morning meant more than a Frank Luntz focus group.

•
Yet purely on the basis of that irrelevant conversation, Luntz manages to make pronouncements about the country and how the Republican Party should respond to it. Most of those pronouncements, as you can imagine, tend to comport perfectly with his own views, as well as the views of Google executives.

•
What did Frank Luntz supposedly find out about immigration? It turns out that Republican voters are actually dying to give amnesty to as many foreign nationals as possible. They're demanding it right away. It's a top priority for them.

•
You see? Amnesty has broad bipartisan support. There's a national consensus in favor of opening the borders. So Republicans had better get on board, because Frank Luntz's research proves they definitely want it.

•
This is pretty close to fraud. Who's served by it? That's always the question in Washington. Well, Luntz's corporate clients are served by it, of course, but the Democratic Party is aso served by it, a party whose priorities Frank Luntz appears to support.

•
In 2012 he told the rest of us that, according to his highly scientific surveys of a dozen people in some shopping mall somewhere, most Americans actually really want the government to take their guns away.

•
Luntz's comments were Democratic Party talking points. But if you'd like more, there's this: an interview from last summer in which Luntz explains that the phrase "law and order" is somehow offensive to most people. Keep in mind that at the very moment Frank Luntz was saying this, American cities were on fire and people were dying. Why? Because there was no law and no order.

•
FRANK LUNTZ: Well I was critical that he [Trump] used the words law and order. He's assuming that we have the same politics as 1968 ... Donald Trump doesn't realize that you can govern in a strong, stable, successful way and still use language that is warm and kind and empathetic.

•
If that sounds a lot like something a corporate HR executive might say, you shouldn't be surprised. As we said, Luntz's main business is not helping the Republican Party. No, his main business is working for left-wing companies that despise the Republican Party, are horrified by Republican voters and all they believe.

•
Luntz's long list of corporate clients includes Jeff Bezos' Amazon, Facebook, Nike, Coca-Cola, Disney, Delta Air Lines, and the Chamber of Commerce. These are the people who pay Frank Luntz's bills.

•
In his spare time, Frank Luntz tells Kevin McCarthy how to run the Republican Party. You can see the conflict there. You wonder how it's been allowed to continue.

•
The question is to ask what's really going on here. Would you take medical advice, for example, from Frank Luntz? Should you have to?

•
If you've listened to him recently, he very much wants you to take the vaccine. Vaccines are great. Only a crazy person wouldn't get the shot.

•
Frank Luntz hasn't said a lot, however, about his longtime work for Pfizer. Nor does he brag about his work for Purdue Pharma, the company that got rural America addicted to opioids.

•
In 2003, as the opioid epidemic devastated entire regions of the United States, Frank Luntz encouraged more people to take OxyContin. Are we making this up? No, we're not.

•
"I am a proponent of the pharmaceutical industry," Frank Luntz told PBS. "I am a supporter of a very famous medication right now, OxyContin, because I think that this is a miracle drug which allows people to get through the day."

•
This is the guy Republican leaders went to just this week for "messaging guidance on hot topics." And you wonder why you no longer recognize the party that you vote for.

•
See related Immigration Politics (Sean Delonas, 01/12/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
Team Biden Intends to Never Let Its Manufactured Crises Go to Waste (JWR 04/30/2021)
The Republican Party's Woke Capital Awakening (JWR 04/30/2021)
Odds and Ends (JWR 04/30/2021)
•
When the movie industry stopped producing pictures for the majority, the majority stopped watching. Simple as that.

•
Movies have become just another propaganda tool for the far-left progressive agenda, reenforcing the same messages and platforms that are now regularly taught at colleges, universities, and yes, even grade schools, throughout our country.

•
Whether it's animation, superhero flicks, or any other film, the uber-liberal social messages are always apparent. Pure entertainment and personal drama don't get made anymore.

•
And speaking of leftists, that brings us to May Day: May 1st, otherwise known as May Day is just a happy carefree time to celebrate Springtime by dancing around the May pole, right?

•
What most people don't realize is that modern May Day was procured and promoted by the Communists to further the Marxist ideology around the world.

•
In 1889, May 1st was chosen as the date for "International Workers' Day" by the ... Socialists and "Communists" of the "Second International" to commemorate the Haymarket affair in ... Chicago.

•
"What was the Haymarket Affair? It was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago."

•
The whole thing began as a "peaceful rally" in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, but it escalated into violence (sound familiar?).

•
Police were called which led to someone getting killed and others being injured. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.

•
The event became internationally publicized and the legal proceedings that followed resulted in eight anarchists getting convicted of conspiracy. So HAPPY MAY DAY EVERYONE!
American universities have lost their prestige (JWR 04/30/2021)
•
Not long ago, Americans used to idolize their universities. Indeed, in science, math, engineering, medicine and business, many of these meritocratic departments and schools remain among the top-ranked in the world.

•
Top-notch higher education explains much of the current scientific, technological and commercial excellence of the United States.

•
After World War II — won in part due to superior American scientific research, production and logistics — a college degree became a prerequisite for a successful career.

•
The university from the late 1940s to 1960 was a rich resource of continuing education. It introduced the world's great literature, from Homer to Tolstoy, to the American middle classes.

•
But today's universities and colleges bear little if any resemblance to postwar higher education.

•
Even during the tumultuous 1960s, when campuses were plagued by radical protests and periodic violence, there was still institutionalized free speech.

•
An empirical college curriculum mostly survived the chaos of the '60s. But it is gone now.

•
Instead, imagine a place where the certification of educational excellence, the Bachelor of Arts degree, is no guarantee that a graduate can speak, write or communicate coherently or think inductively.

•
Imagine a place where after an initial trial period, a minority of elite employees receive lifetime job guarantees.

•
The money devoted to non-teaching administrative costs is now about equal to the money devoted to classroom instruction.

•
Imagine a place where "diversity" is the professed institutional ethos, while studies reveal that liberal faculty outnumber their conservative counterparts by over 10 to 1.

•
Imagine a liberal place where in 2021 race can still be used as a criterion in selecting and rejecting applicants, choosing prospective dorm roommates, organizing segregated dorms and restricting access to special places on campus.

•
Imagine a progressive place that once renounced unconstitutional "loyalty oaths" but now rebrands them as "diversity pledges" and requires reeducation and indoctrination training.

•
Imagine a place with non-taxable endowments that restricts free speech and expression. Nonprofit universities make it impossible for some speakers to lecture, and often suspend constitutionally protected due process for students facing particular allegations.

•
Imagine a place loudly devoted to income, capital and marketplace equity measured against the reality that 800 of the largest colleges and universities hold more than $600 billion in endowments.

•
Yet just 20 elite universities account for half that total. And just four — Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton — account for almost a quarter of all endowment funds.

•
Imagine a liberal place that has upped its tuition and total costs far beyond the rate of inflation, with its graduates now collectively owing $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.

•
Imagine a place that has institutionalized human rights but welcomes nearly 400,000 students from human rights-violating China — a great many of whom are the offspring of elite Communist Party members who provide a lucrative source of university income.

•
Imagine a place where faculty and students now selectively change the names of campus streets, centers and buildings that honored supposedly illiberal, long-dead donors, graduates and former heroes.

•
As long as universities produced highly educated and open-minded graduates at a reasonable cost and kept politics out of the lecture hall, Americans didn't care much about peculiarities such as tenure, legacy admissions, untaxed endowments, rebellious students and quirky faculty.

•
But once they began to charge exorbitantly, educate poorly, politick continuously, indebt millions of people and act hypocritically, universities turned off Americans.

•
Just as a sermonizing Hollywood grates when it no longer can make good movies, a once-hallowed but now self-righteous university seems hollow when it charges so much for so little.
Jason Chaffetz: Biden's first 100 days – now we know just how much president was hiding the truth (Fox 04/30/2021)
•
... the promise of Joe Biden and the reality are two different things. There is nothing bipartisan or moderate about the way the Biden-Harris administration has governed in the first 100 days.

•
... we've seen Biden go it alone with an unprecedented number of executive orders this early in a presidency. We've seen massive deceptively marketed spending sprees passed on a party-line vote. We've seen many of Biden's long-held "moderate" positions abandoned. What we haven't seen is bipartisanship.

•
Bipartisanship is no longer even a pretense. Biden still has not met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with whom he brags of having influenced in previous legislative battles.

•
Nor has he had a single conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose requests to meet have been ignored.

•
The policies of Biden and Harris must also come as a surprise to those who voted for the ticket hoping for some kind of reasonable middle ground.

•
Instead, Biden has dispensed with his own long-held positions on abortion, court packing and the filibuster. And he has taken extreme positions on the Green New Deal, border security and the Second Amendment.

•
Biden's alleged moderate agenda was marketed to appeal to Reagan Democrats, centrist independents and Trump-weary Republicans. But that agenda has been supplanted by one socialists and anarchists now applaud.

•
Biden has come to reflect the extreme wing of his party, with self-proclaimed socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., saying Biden has "exceeded expectations that progressives had."

•
The would-be president "for all Americans" supported legislation punitive to Americans who didn't vote for him – and to Americans who did.

•
In killing the Keystone Pipeline on his first day, he killed thousands of good jobs. His COVID relief package was formulated to concentrate aid (what little there is of it after the bill was loaded up with pork) to large Democrat-voting urban centers.

•
His failure to stem the tide of illegal (and sometimes COVID-positive) border crossers has placed significant burdens on border state taxpayers and complicated their efforts to contain the pandemic spread.

•
Just 100 days in, the Republican narrative of Biden was right. He is a weak leader, possibly in mental decline, through whom extremists in the Democratic Party can push their most unpopular ideas.

•
Massive spending, rising crime rates, proposed economy-killing tax increases, destruction of jobs and energy independence – thus far these are the prize fruits of the Biden-Harris administration.

•
Set aside the immovable positions of partisans at either extreme and just consider the people in the middle. For them, Biden has been an abject failure.

•
See related The Little Dictator (Mike Shelton, 02/02/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related The Shadow President (Gary Varvel, 02/01/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Biden\\\'s Brain Trust (Gary Varvel, 07/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: Joe Biden says he's in charge and will brook no opposition (Fox 04/30/2021)
•
Language is designed to communicate ideas, but not when Joe Biden uses it. Wednesday night's speech was a cluster bomb of cliches meant to knock you senseless and make you surrender.

•
Americans choose "hope over fear," Biden droned, "truth over lies," "light over darkness." We lost track after that. Our brains shut down. Mission accomplished.

•
The news media didn't care. They didn't even notice. They weren't listening to him. They have no interest in what Joe Biden says. They got him elected. He's their guy, and that's that.

•
Technically, Biden is now the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world. Maybe someone, somewhere ought to keep track of what he's doing.

•
But no, reporters covered Joe Biden like he's an actor on a press tour for the hot new summer blockbuster alongside his dazzling co-star, Kamala.

•
Wait a second. Was that the president of the United States talking? No, that's what you thought. In fact, it was Jesus in aviator glasses.

•
What Joe Biden said was beautiful. It was intimate. Grandfatherly. Indeed, Rooseveltian. Joe Biden spoke to the soul of America.

•
He connected with people who didn't even deserve to be connected with. Hopeless sinners, redeemed by his voice alone — a voice that is not, and we want to be clear about this, the fading monotone of a 78-year-old man losing his grip.

•
No, it's not. Joe Biden's voice modulates. It has the capacity to change pitch in a way that is — and we're quoting now — "rather extraordinary."

•
We could keep going with this, if we wanted — cable news is a rich vein — but we'll stop now and return to reality. A powerful politician gave a speech about how he plans to change your life.

•
So what did Biden actually say? Well, he said that people who disagree with him are terrorists, more dangerous than the jihadist who destroyed the World Trade Center.

•
JOE BIDEN: One hundred days since I took the oath of office and lifted my hand off our family Bible and inherited a nation that was in crisis. The worst pandemic in a century. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.

•
Really? The worst attack on our democracy in 160 years? How about the Immigration Act of 1965? That law completely changed the composition of America's voter rolls, purely to benefit the Democratic Party.

•
That seems like kind of an assault on democracy, a permanent one. But no. That was a good thing, because, in the end, it helped Joe Biden.

•
What's bad is when anyone other than Joe Biden has power. That's an attack on democracy, and the people who commit that attack deserve to be in solitary confinement in the D.C. jail, even if they only, technically speaking, committed misdemeanor trespassing.

•
So abandon those silly racist assumptions about how you have "rights" derived from some ancient piece of parchment decorated with a quill pen. The Bill of Rights? Come on. As Joe Biden reminded us last night, no constitutional amendment is absolute. They are subject to his approval:...

•
JOE BIDEN: We need a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Don't tell me it can't be done ... I'll tell you that there are too many people today who are able to buy a gun but shouldn't be able to buy a gun ... And no amendment to the Constitution is absolute. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater.

•
"No amendment to the constitution is absolute." Good to know. Stupidly, we assumed the document was real. ... The only thing that is absolute at this point is the power of the Democratic Party. And don't you dare resist it.

•
"You can't yell fire in a crowded theater," Biden pointedly told us last night. But of course, that depends entirely on the condition of the theater.

•
If it actually is on fire, you should say so, loudly. If you think the presidential election was stolen, by God, speak up. That's the right that's really at stake here — the right to speak your conscience. To say the obvious. To tell the truth.

•
BIDEN, APRIL 8: But no amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute. You can't yell ... "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater and call it freedom of speech.

•
So, you can't yell "Fire", even if the theater's burning. You must read the script. That's the message. You thought you could say what you wanted in a free country. That was your birthright. But it's not anymore.

•
Your opinion isn't legitimate if it deviates from Joe Biden's opinion. You yourself aren't legitimate. If you disagree with Joe Biden or the afternoon panel on MSNBC that represents him, you're a White supremacist.

•
By definition, you have lost your rights. The national security state has determined that you're a terrorist.

•
BIDEN: And we won't ignore what our intelligence agencies have determined to be the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today. White supremacy is terrorism. We're not going to ignore that either. My fellow Americans. Look, we have to come together to heal the soul of this nation.

•
We have to come together to heal the soul of the nation by attacking our fellow Americans using a phrase no one will define.

•
What does coming together mean? Well, it means that because of a concept called "White supremacy," a phrase often invoked, but never defined, your civil liberties have been suspended. (By the way, the whole point of the Derek Chauvin murder trial was to inform you of that.)

•
Traditionally in this country, we've forced ourselves to assume criminal defendants are innocent until proven otherwise, even if we have video. That's our system; innocent until proven guilty. Not anymore.

•
Once you've been identified as a White supremacist, you don't get a fair trial. You're not entitled to one. A sitting member of Congress can threaten to burn a city down if you're not convicted, and the people in charge will applaud her as she does.

•
That was the message of last night's speech: The only remaining principle in this country is that you can't oppose the people in charge.

•
See related Biden\\\'s Glory (Mike Shelton, 01/22/2021) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related A Dark Winter (Antonio Branco, 01/20/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Smear Job (Antonio Branco, 02/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden wants largest peacetime transfer of wealth ever – that's unconstitutional (Fox 04/29/2021)
David Bossie: Biden's speech — top takeaways from president's '100 days' address to Congress (Fox 04/29/2021)
•
This is a presidency that doesn't have a skeptical mainstream media to contend with. In the absence of legitimate media scrutiny, President Biden can essentially say and do whatever he pleases, because he thinks he's accountable to no one.

•
Biden is wrong. There's no such thing as free stuff and responsible adults understand that taxpayers will be picking up the tab for all of this.

•
The president tried to equate climate change to job creation, but millions of blue-collar workers know liberal climate change policies are job-killers.

•
It doesn't take a genius to understand that this reckless disregard for taxpayer dollars must not continue. In fact, with our national debt already at $28 trillion and rapidly rising, we're on the fast track to a calamity that will make Greece's economic collapse look like a walk in the park.

•
As Biden discussed popular poll-tested issues like health care and education, he failed to mention his administration's radical plans on packing the Supreme Court or making Washington, D.C. our 51 state.

•
Then there's H.R. 1, the Democrat's bill designed to destroy the integrity of our elections and stifle free speech. It is based on a lie — voter suppression.

•
To make matters worse, the president glossed over the crisis he created at our southern border with his irresponsible executive orders. ...

•
Biden also continued to divide our nation over the issue of police reform and his dangerous plans to "reimagine" policing.

•
The truth is that Biden's wrongheaded quest to fundamentally transform America into a socialist utopia is running into political reality. ...

•
Biden won the presidency by about 40,000 votes in just three states, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a microscopic majority in the House, and the U.S. Senate is deadlocked at 50-50. The American people aren't looking for radical change.
The Tribalist Left: When will the 'antiracists' start rooting out the bigots in their own ranks? (JWR 04/27/2021)
Affluence + Secularism = Boredom = Leftism (JWR 04/27/2021)
•
Most leftists come from the upper and upper-middle class. This was true for the two founders of leftism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

•
Marx was supported by his family and by Engels, who was a wealthy businessman and the son of a very wealthy businessman.

•
All the Western spies for the Soviet Union were economically secure. And the great funder of radical causes today is a billionaire — George Soros.

•
Nearly all leftists are irreligious people. And the breeding place of leftism, the university, is the most secular institution in modern society.

•
These two facts produce a problem: Many people lack meaning in their lives. And lack of meaning is another way of stating "boredom" — a boredom of the soul.

•
People need meaning. After food, that is the greatest human need. As important as sex is, there are happy people who go without sex (loss of a partner, never having found a partner, vows of chastity), but there are no happy people who go without meaning (no matter how much sex they have).

•
This need for meaning has traditionally been met by four things: religion, family, providing for oneself and one's family, and patriotism. And all are fading.

•
Let's begin with religion. In America today, religion is in sharp decline. ... more than a third of all Americans born after 1980 identify with no religion. That is the highest percentage ever.

•
Next comes family. Marrying and making a family have always been sources of meaning to the great majority of people. However, like religion, the American family is also in steep decline.

•
As every criminologist knows, a lot of single men is a problem for society. And as the ubiquity of women on the left and among the left's angriest protesters makes clear, a lot of single women is no blessing either.

•
Another nearly universal source of meaning has been providing for oneself and one's family. That's why, though the poor lack money and material wealth, they have never lacked meaning. Figuring out how to feed one's family every day provides a person with a great deal of meaning.

•
Finally, belonging to one's nation also provided meaning to most people in modern history. But love of country largely died in Western Europe after World War II, and it is dying in America today.

•
So, then, with the four primary sources of meaning dying — killed in large measure by leftist ideology — meaning must be found elsewhere.

•
And that is where the left steps in. Leftism has always been a secular religion. It kills traditional religion and presents itself as a secular alternative.

•
It certainly provides meaning. "Anti-racism" and saving the world from a threat to its very existence (global warming) are two prominent life-filling examples.

•
Therefore, the only way to prevent the left from destroying America and its core value of freedom is to make the case for Judeo-Christian religions, the importance of marriage and family, and the unique achievement of America as the world's first and greatest multiracial, multiethnic, multinational society.

•
Americans should have been making that case in every generation. Post-World War II, they forgot, or never really believed, that the land of the free is, as former President Ronald Reagan warned, always just one generation away from losing its freedom.
Greg Gutfeld: Media ignores good policing while highlighting the bad (Fox 04/27/2021)
•
If you look at nearly all police-involved fatalities, patterns emerge. Noncompliance, illegal drug use, mental illness, even fear. I get it: telling people cops are killing Blacks with impunity may cause Blacks to fear cops.

•
But there's another pattern going on. It's one in which one shooting is covered and another isn't. This is some serious selective bias.

•
... imagine doing this with reckless driving: only covering accidents in which the paramedic arrives at the scene, and the driver still dies. You'd be left with a warped view that paramedics kill with impunity.

•
The current narrative about policing is based on isolated events taken out of millions. ... It doesn't help the people truly in trouble.

•
Bad things happen in life — illness, accidents, vending machine honey buns — they can all cut your life short. But life choices, the environment you live in and bad luck can lead you to a place where it can only end badly.

•
Such terrible endings are often preceded by failed social programs and the far left that makes excuses for them. Sadly the media ignores the problems that gets you up there until you get to that moment at the end.

•
Then all attention is thrusted upon the person who shows up when no one else will: the cop. And because we ignored all the factors leading to that moment — we blame that person.

•
Of course he or she can do a terrible job, so terrible that a jury finds him guilty of murder.

•
Others, however don't do a terrible job, but only participate in an endless cycle, to the best of their abilities. When they do it right, we don't care. When they don't, we take them apart.

•
The false narrative that cops are unjustly killing minorities at an increasing rate has an unhappy ending. Gone is the decades-long decrease in crime.

•
Lawlessness aint going anywhere for a long time. The left truly will have no justice - and no peace.

•
If you're a victim of crime: too bad. You aren't clickbait. If you expect the protesters to help: sorry they only read the headlines.

•
Even after the Chauvin verdict, protesters blocked the Brooklyn Bridge. They're demanding to remove the police from city engulfed in a massive crime wave.

•
Who will show up then? Who will show up to help the innocent? It won't be these marchers, that's for sure. But they will call 9-1-1 if someone steals their skateboard.
Michael Goodwin: Old Biden vs. New Biden – here's why the president is such a changed man (Fox 04/26/2021)
•
The old Biden was a windbag who wouldn't shut up, the new Biden is a silent Sam, especially when it comes to answering press questions. He ducks, dodges, hides and mumbles.

•
The old Biden was proud about his friendship with Southern segregationists and called Sen. Robert Byrd, a former member of the KKK, a mentor. The new Biden declares all America guilty of "systemic racism" and says it's "a stain on the nation's soul."

•
The old Biden defended the Senate filibuster and opposed packing the Supreme Court. The new Biden calls the filibuster a relic of Jim Crow and forms a commission to study court changes.

•
The old Biden pushed back against the Green New Deal during the campaign, but the new Biden wants to upend industries and alter daily life by imposing draconian cuts on fossil fuels.

•
The old Biden claimed credit for writing the 1994 crime bill, which funded 100,000 local police officers and 125,000 new prison cells and toughened mandatory penalties.

•
The new Biden marked the guilty verdict against former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd by saying the case "ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism. The knee on the neck of justice for black Americans."

•
... the new Biden is not the result of evolution. Rather, his radical views on race, government institutions, climate change and criminal justice represent such sudden, wholesale reversals that they invite skepticism about his sincerity and whether he is fully in charge of his faculties.

•
Does he really believe these things, or are they convenient lurches as he tries to keep up with the "woke" wingnuts who dominate his party in Washington? Does he recognize the implications of his sweeping condemnations of law enforcement and White Americans?

•
One revealing moment came last week when a Post reporter, Steven Nelson, asked the White House this question: "To what extent does President Biden acknowledge his own role in systemic racism?"

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It's a fair question because Biden has been a pivotal player in a system he now denounces. Does he regret his own conduct as it relates to race?

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Does he believe he, his children and grandchildren benefited from the systemic racism he sees everywhere?

•
A thoughtful, honest answer might have been revealing about events or experiences that changed the president's views.

•
Instead, press secretary Jen Psaki responded with a nonresponse, saying in part, "One of the president's core objectives is addressing racial injustice in this country."

•
The same question could be asked of other long-serving, powerful Dems who regularly echo the race-baiting claims.

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has been in Congress since 1987. What has she done to stop systemic racism, and has she benefited from it? Was her father, also a politician, a racist?

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been in public office since 1975, starting with the New York state Assembly. When did he discover America is riddled with systemic racism, and what did he do about it?

•
The same pattern holds on other ideas Biden is pushing. He talked for years about helping "lunch pail" workers, but his first action as president was killing 11,000 good-paying jobs by blocking the Keystone XL pipeline.

•
While Biden's entire big-ticket, big-cost agenda is roiling the nation, his approach on race is explosive and polarizing. Already his Department of Education is proposing grants to incentivize schools to teach critical race theory and push The New York Times's error-ridden 1619 Project.

•
Purveyors of this propaganda aim to destroy pride in American history and cast every aspect of modern life as evidence of White supremacy. You can bet a push for reparations is coming.

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It is one thing for crackpot academics and racialized newspapers to indoctrinate students with anti-American trash. It is scandalously awful when the president of the United States joins the amen chorus.*

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Race relations declined under the Obama-Biden administration and are now in free fall. Unfortunately, the damage is not limited to academic debate.

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The national surge of criminal violence is a direct result of politicians handcuffing cops and preventing them from making arrests because of the ideology and/or race of perpetrators.

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With nonwhite Americans making up the vast bulk of both crime victims and suspects, restricting cops will mean more victims among the very people Biden says he wants to help.

•
Of course, he also says he wants to unite the country. How's that going?

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Biden\\\'s Brain Trust (Gary Varvel, 07/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
China's students are tops academically while US schools focus on warping the minds of our kids (Fox 04/26/2021)
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While 15-year-olds in China blitz their peers in the West in math, reading and science, we are warping the minds of our children by indoctrinating them in an ideology that is Marxist in nature and teaches them that America is an oppressive regime of "whiteness" and anyone born with white skin needs to be punished, humiliated and marginalized.

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Whether you call it "critical race theory" or just plain woke insanity, it is a recipe for social upheaval and mental illness, not success.

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We are teaching white children to hate themselves. We are teaching nonwhite children that it's OK to bully and torment white children because of the color of their skin.

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Even if you are Black, Hispanic, Asian or part of some other minority, if you believe in a meritocracy, you also are guilty of "whiteness" and branded "white adjacent" in this insane ideology.

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This is the forced institutionalization of racism, which is evil no matter who is the victim. It is a cult that has captured the Biden administration and almost every corporate and elite institution in the country.

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Now that the president has decided that the nation is infected with "systemic racism," he wants to turbo-charge neo-Marxist brainwashing in schools in the name of racial "equity."

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The administration's plan to institute lavish federal grants for schools that institute critical race theory in the guise of "History and Civics Education" will destroy America's competitiveness at a time we are most under threat.

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American students ranked eighth in reading, 11th in science and 30th in math in the latest scores from the Program for International Student Assessment, which tests 15-year-olds every three years. #Mainland China came out on top of 79 OECD countries in all three subjects.

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Those results are from 2018, before woke indoctrination takes hold and dumbs down our schools even further.

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When the state of Virginia seeks to eradicate advanced mathematics in schools in the name of "equity," you know we are embarking on a national suicide mission.

•
Like "anti-racism," the term "equity" is a linguistic trick that sounds benign enough when Biden issues executive orders to inject it into every arm of government.

•
"Equity" is only two letters away from "equality" after all, and who would object to that? But in those two letters is a world of difference.

•
"Equity" is intrinsically unjust because it demands equality of outcome and not equality of opportunity. The bloody history of the 20th century tells us that equality of outcome can only be achieved through totalitarian brutality.

•
As civil rights veteran Bob Woodson has said: "This discussion of equity reminds me of a car that has four flat tires and we're worrying about the race or sexual orientation of the driver . . . It doesn't matter because the system is broken."

•
"Critical race theory" is not "anti-racism," and objecting to it does not make you a racist. It means the opposite.

•
In true Orwellian fashion, in which words mean the opposite of what they say, "anti-racism" is, in fact, sanctioned racism.

•
It means "demonizing white people for being born," as George Davison, the principal of the elite Grace Church School in Manhattan, admitted last month.

•
One parent from the Grace Church School has reported that students spend one week per month being indoctrinated in the destructive ideology in lieu of learning something useful.

•
You can bet that Chinese President Xi Jinping won't make the same mistake.
Liz Peek: Biden's 100 days – here's how his divisive agenda enrages GOP and threatens recovery (Fox 04/26/2021)
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In just three months, under Biden's presumed leadership, Democrats have threatened to pack the Supreme Court, eliminate the filibuster, abolish the Electoral College, grant statehood to Washington, D.C., federalize voting laws, and enact a labor bill that would overturn right-to-work statutes in 27 states.

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Democrats want unlimited power and are mobilizing all possible means to get it.

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On the day he took office, Biden set about dismantling every policy initiated by his predecessor. Most damaging, the president reversed President Trump's immigration measures, setting up a humanitarian and security nightmare at our southern border. ...

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As president, Biden has worsened race relations by frequently denouncing the United States as "systemically racist" and insulting the citizens of Georgia by foolishly declaring their legislators' voting bill as "Jim Crow on steroids."

•
It almost seems as though Biden and the people around him don't like the United States very much.

•
Biden's furious legislating is remarkable considering that Biden took office just as the country was getting back on its feet.

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All he had to do was to sit back and take credit for the rollout of the vaccines and rapidly recovering economy. He couldn't even manage that.

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As Democrats push issues that surveys show are not top of the list of most voters' concerns, such as race and climate, and as Republicans address more pressing matters like restoring law and order and reopening the economy, that will shift, opening the door for the GOP to regain power and stop the Biden blitz. ...

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Greg Gutfeld: Biden wants us to unify under a belief we are racist (Fox 04/24/2021)
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Our nation's great unifier, Joe Biden now wants to spend your money on critical race theory lessons for our country's already distressed students. This guy divides the country more than time zones.

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... he keeps saying Kamala is president. Cuz he's not sure if he is. They installed the Waze app on his phone so he could find the west wing. So it's no wonder the ignorant activist class can pull his strings.

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... the U.S. Education Department — whatever that is — wants financial grants to "incorporate teaching and learning practices that reflect the diversity, identities, histories, contributions, and experiences of all students."

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Which doesn't sound bad at all. Until you see their curriculum is uniformly hard leftist brainwash - from the debunked 1619 Project to the best-selling white-hating book "How to be an Anti-Racist."

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In this lesson plan, "social identities are viewed as an asset rather than a barrier to success." Unless you're Caucasian or Asian.

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Now when you learn the language of identity politics, it sets off your BS detector. They're obsessed with identity - unless it's an ID to show you voted.

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You realize that it's not an education they're after, but indoctrination. While other countries focus on reading, writing, innovating, succeeding, we're tearing ourselves apart.

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Division should be for math class, but no longer. And if you disagree, well you're no better than a pedophile.

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According to this Oregon teacher: "So, if you're being resistant, i understand that, but you're going to have to eventually come to the light – because if you're going to keep with those old views of colonialism, it's going to lead to being fired because you're going to be damage to our children, trauma. And so, as we fire the teachers who sexually abuse our children, we will be firing the teachers who do racist things to our children and traumatize them."

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Talk about child abuse. That's from a teacher. How does she have a job?

•
... it is a cult, one that guarantees your kids turning on each other. And then you. We used to let puberty do that.

•
It's the revolution from within. From Ivy League discrimination against Asian students to condescending, lower standards for Blacks and Hispanics, it's a war on achievement. And the anti-American language they use sounds just like Chinese propaganda.

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Their curriculum is exactly what our enemies would airdrop as leaflets to undermine the cohesion of America.

•
Seriously - imagine if our president - in the midst of the Cold War – had sided with the USSR. "Mr. Gorbachev repair this wall! Now please join me for our daily flag burning." But that's the way it is now.

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A White House that believes the country that owns it is evil. When Joe says he's here to unify - he really wants us to unify under a belief we are racist.

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This from a guy who actually went to the funeral of a KKK member. A geezer who helped put more blacks behind bars than Kamala Harris.

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But I guess this is his own personal reparations. Because it's systemic leftism - from head to toe. This is the one old white fart, the woke can forgive.

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The goal isn't to educate. It's to convince minorities white people are the reason your schools are horrible. The teachers unions are never accountable as they fight all competition and accountability.

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And this radical ideology has a built-in survival mechanism. It labels everyone who won't play along, a racist. Until racism has no meaning.

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Which is why it's key that all of us - of every creed and color - stick together, and fight this dangerous nonsense.

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Because, alone - they will try to take you down quicker than a Trump 2024 yard sign. And if we don't, some old white dude who once palled around with segregationists, will use you to pay for his phony redemption.

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See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
A nation's well-being hinges on only a few factors – is US teetering on the edge of ruin? (Fox 04/24/2021)
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As Americans know from their own illustrious history, any nation's well-being hinges on only a few factors.

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Its prosperity, freedom and overall stability depend on its constitutional and political stability. A secure currency and financial order are also essential, as is a strong military.

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Perhaps most important is a first-rate inductive educational system. Of course, nothing is possible without general social calm (often dependent on a reverence for the past) and secure borders.

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The ability to produce or easily acquire food, fuel and key natural resources ensures a nation's independence and autonomy.

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Unfortunately, in the last few months, all of those centuries-old reasons to be confident in American strength and resiliency have been put into doubt.

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The challenge is not just enemies abroad such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. The greater problem lies within us, as we erode the inherited and acquired strengths that made us singular, both materially and spiritually.

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We are now witnessing a concentrated effort to alter the constitutional order and centuries of custom and tradition. The left believes that's the only way it can retain its transient power, given the unpopularity of most of its current agenda.

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A nation's institutions are its bedrock. Yet, the Electoral College and the Constitution's emphasis on individual states establishing voting laws are under assault.

•
Already gone is the 176-year-old tradition of a pivotal November Election Day. The 152-year-old nine-member Supreme Court, the 184-year-old Senate filibuster and the 62-year-old idea of a 50-state union are all being targeted by the New Democratic Party.

•
Given that the last presidential election was hotly contested, that Democratic congressional majorities are minuscule and that the Supreme Court is unsympathetic, the left seeks to change the rules to stay in power rather than adjust its unpopular policies.

•
We are running up vast multitrillion-dollar annual deficits as we race to a $30 trillion national debt. More worrisome, our elites justify the spending with sophistries about debt being irrelevant, or inflation and stagflation being relics of the past — even as prices are now soaring.

•
After costly strategic stagnation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, our military is now turning on its own. Some of the politicized top brass seem more worried about the politics of their own soldiers than the dangers of foreign militaries.

•
Our public schools and colleges are systematically downplaying meritocratic curricula and substituting ideological, racial and cultural litmus tests. Admissions now often hinge as much on race, gender and ethnicity as on quantifiable achievement.

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The First Amendment and Fifth Amendment, covering free speech and due process, have vanished from most college campuses.

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The year 2020 saw the most destructive riots in American history. Yet very few of the looters, arsonists and rioters were ever indicted. Most were never arrested.

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Whether government arrests violent protesters or those assembling en masse and breaking quarantines is contingent on their ideology.

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Private monopolies that control most of the written communications of Americans censor expression entirely on the basis of politics.

•
Modern Jacobins seek to erase our founding in 1776. Mobs tear down statues and deface monuments with impunity. There is no consistent rhyme or reason to why the names of schools, institutions and streets are erased overnight — except the relative dangers of a nihilistic electronic mob.

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Our officials at the Justice Department and the United Nations either will not or cannot defend the history and reputation of their own homeland.

•
Record natural gas and oil production has been giving the public affordable heating, cooling and transportation. Self-sufficiency in energy made the United States exempt from worries over Middle Eastern wars and foreign oil embargos.

•
Yet in just 100 days, energy prices have soared. The Joe Biden administration has canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and limited energy leasing on federal lands, threatening to all but end our gas and oil independence in just a few years.

•
In the drought-stricken West, key irrigation water is still being diverted from farms to the ocean. Billions of dollars in farm aid are doled out on the basis of race. And promised new regulations and estate taxes may well kill off what's left of family farms.

•
Adam Smith said of successful nations that they have a lot of "ruin" in them. He meant that a dissolute, leisured and ahistorical generation has to waste a lot of its generous inherited wealth before it runs out.

•
We are learning how much will soon be left of what our ancestors bequeathed. And the rest of the world is watching — some with glee, others with horror.
Tucker Carlson: Democrats cry, 'Let them use knives,' because teenage knife fights are human rights (Fox 04/23/2021)
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Stabbing people has long been taboo in this country, especially for those under 18. ... No more. Knife fights are human rights. Stabbing can finally come out of the closet.

•
Now, not everyone embraced this news. Some called it a form of child sacrifice. Of course they did. As Kamala Harris often points out, bigots hate progress. They want to take this country back to the Dark Ages, a time when America's residential neighborhoods were safe and people liked each other. But there's no going back.

•
If your first thought upon hearing "someone's trying to stab us and get our grandma. We need a police officer here now." was, "Calm down, racist. Stabbing people is an important part of childhood development," give yourself an equity ribbon.

•
Then we saw clearer tape of what happened next, and we'll concede for a moment we wondered if allowing kids to kill people with knives was really the enlightened idea they told us it was.

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A teenager called Ma'Khia Bryant was seconds away from plunging that knife into someone else when the police arrived.

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It doesn't matter who you voted for or what your views of modern America are, you don't need to guess what was happening when you watch the video.

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If you listen carefully, you can hear someone say it on the tape: "I'm gonna stab the f** out of you." There's no question that she was going to do that. Her hand was in the air. The knife was heading into the down stroke.

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The other girl was just an instant from being stabbed. If the cop wanted to save that girl, he had to shoot. So he did.

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Kiara Yakita of the Black Liberation Movement of Central Ohio had a different take ... "As soon as the officer got out of the car, he had the gun ready to shoot somebody. Law enforcement and city officials are rushing to make excuses because she had a knife. Those excuses are not valid to me."

•
Using a gun to save a life isn't affirming. It's not equity, even if the girl the cop saved was also African-American.

•
If that police officer had read Ibram X. Kendi, if he'd been trained in the principles of anti-racism, he would have produced a pair of soft foam nunchucks and disarmed the assailant — or else just let the other girl get stabbed.

•
In the meantime, MSNBC pointed out, we know for a fact that the cop was a racist, because he didn't even bother to ask Ma'Khia Bryant what her grade point average was, or whether she had a popular TikTok account, if you can even imagine.

•
The ACLU affirmed this. "We'll say it again," the former civil liberties organization declared on Twitter, "a system that kills children with impunity cannot be reformed."

•
According to Bree Newsome, "Teenagers have been having fights, including fights involving knives, for eons," meaning a very long time. "We do not need police to address these situations by showing up to the scene and using a weapon against one of the teenagers."

•
As the mayor of Columbus, a Democrat called Andrew Ginther, put it after the shooting: "How did we get here? This is a failure on the part of our community. Some are guilty, but all of us are responsible."

•
But wait a second, you might be asking yourself. My kid didn't try to stab anyone. In fact, my kid could have been stabbed. How am I responsible for any of this?

•
And now I'm "responsible" for attempted murder? How does that work, exactly? Why don't you explain it to us, Mr. Mayor?

•
Well, it works by the magic of systemic racism. Systemic racism is the means by which you get blamed for things you had nothing to do with.

•
Joe Biden's frowny little flak made that point immediately after this happened in Columbus. In response, she said, the White House will work "to address systemic racism and implicit bias head on." Whose? Yours. Your racism, your bias. That's what caused this.

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That's right, agreed Obama bag woman Valerie Jarrett, who took a quick break from getting rich to set America straight about what really happened: "Demand accountability," she wrote. "Fight for justice."

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Let them use knives! Or else.
Justice in Joe Biden's America? (JWR 04/22/2021)
Americans should be deeply concerned about the future of the rule of law (JWR 04/22/2021)
Will changes to American life become permanent? (JWR 04/22/2021)
Rep. Jody Hice: DC statehood vote – here's what Democrats' power play is really about (Fox 04/22/2021)
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We are witnessing a radical transformational push by the Left to bend and warp America's institutions and government to their will. ... This is a political power play, plain and simple.

•
Eager to solidify their narrow control in Congress to force through their radical agenda, Democrats are happy to disregard the wisdom and intent of our Founding Fathers.

•
Let's remember, there's a reason the District of Columbia exists as a special federal enclave and holds a unique status in our system of government as created by the Constitution.

•
As James Madison argued in Federalist Paper No. 43, if America's capital were situated in any state, that state would wield tremendous influence over the federal government.

•
The Constitution was explicitly crafted to avoid this by carving out a federal district in which to seat the capital on neutral ground.

•
Legitimately granting statehood to D.C. requires a constitutional amendment – which is both immensely difficult and highly unlikely.

•
Recall that there are two ways to propose a change to the Constitution: two-thirds of both chambers of Congress can vote on it, or two-thirds of state legislatures can vote to ask Congress to call a national convention.

•
Once proposed, ratifying an amendment requires approval from three-fourths of the states, either by the states' legislatures or in the national convention. With such a high bar, any amendment to the Constitution requires broad support across the nation.

•
Democrats claim their aim is simply to give the district's residents voting representation. But it's entirely false that the district has no representation. While it's true that the district does not have a voice in the Senate, it does have a delegate in the House and three electoral votes in presidential elections – something no other city in the country enjoys.

•
Why would Democrats so stubbornly reject any compromise that gives voting representation to district residents? Because, truthfully, it's not about voting representation. It's about the balance of power in Congress itself.

•
Like all states, the proposed "Washington, Douglass Commonwealth" would have two seats in the U.S. Senate – and Democrats know which party will win those seats.

•
Right now, Democrats' grip on power in the Senate is so tenuous that they rely on Vice President Kamala Harris to cast tie-breaking votes.

•
Two additional Senate Democrats would be a tremendous advantage in preserving their majority, and that's what this comes down to at the end of the day.

•
They need more votes in the Senate to pass their radical agenda to appease their base – the socialists and Marxists, the Black Lives Matter and #DefundThePolice movements, climate change extremists, union bosses, social justice warriors, and so on.

•
Just as they now aim to expand the Supreme Court to tilt it in their favor, Democrats also want to expand the Senate to cement their majority.

•
See related House-Senate Conference (Mike Shelton, 02/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: Derek Chauvin verdict seals devil's bargain between America and BLM (Fox 04/22/2021)
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Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted Tuesday on all counts. The trial went on for more than a month. At times, the testimony was complex and technical.

•
But at the center of the case, there was always really just one piece of relevant evidence: the videotape of George Floyd's death in a Minneapolis street last May.

•
If you haven't seen the tape recently, it remains as shocking as the day it was shot. Watch it, and you can see that George Floyd knows on some level he's going to die, and in the end, he does.

•
It's crushing. Millions of Americans saw this and they were horrified. Many decided as they watched it that Officer Chauvin must have committed an act of criminal brutality.

•
So it's really not surprising that the jury concluded the same thing. The images in that tape seemed to tell the whole story. In fact, even if no one outside the courtroom had ever seen that tape, it's possible that Derek Chauvin still would have been convicted. The tape is that powerful. That's totally possible.

•
The George Floyd video went around the world. It became the centerpiece of a new political movement. Political actors harnessed the emotion over that video and Floyd's death to control the country and change it forever. And then, and this is the key, in the last month, some of these same people went further than that.

•
They worked to change the outcome of Derek Chauvin's trial. That's the one thing we can never allow, no matter how we feel about a specific case.

•
Civilized countries have impartial justice systems. That's their hallmark. It's what separates the countries you want to live in from places you don't even want to visit.

•
Civilized countries demand, above all, that every citizen is held to precisely the same standard under the law as every other citizen is — and that applies no matter how popular or unpopular a particular defendant might be. It applies no matter what the alleged crime is.

•
Civilized countries do not tolerate jury intimidation. You see it, you stop it. They don't allow the threat of violence to influence the outcome of a trial, ever. Not under any circumstances. That would be the opposite of justice. That would be mob rule.

•
America used to strive hard to be like that. And yet just Tuesday, we saw the President of the United States throw his backing behind Chauvin's prosecution even as the jury in Minneapolis was still deliberating the case.

•
We saw one of the most powerful members of Congress tell a group of angry people they should act out in violence if the jury dared to acquit.

•
We watched the city of Minneapolis concede responsibility for the death of George Floyd right in the middle of the trial, before Chauvin's lawyer could even sum up his case.

•
Most ominously of all, we watched thugs threaten a defense witness with death — smearing blood on the door of what they thought was his house — and then get away with it. No one in authority seemed especially interested in catching them.

•
These were terrifying acts. It doesn't matter whether you think Derek Chauvin was guilty and deserves what he got. It doesn't matter who you voted for. It doesn't matter what you think about anything else.

•
Seeing mobs try to influence this trial should shock and horrify you at least as much as the George Floyd video did. This is a country moving backwards at high speed.

•
But the strange thing is, most people didn't seem shocked or upset by any of this. They seem relieved by the verdict. They'd, of course, seen the boarded-up buildings. They'd watched the troops in the streets. They understood very well what an acquittal would mean. They believed that a conviction, justified or not, would buy the country peace.

•
Many people thought this, and not just cynical people. Most people, including many Republicans, said as much. If we obeyed Maxine Waters and ignored the pig blood, hopefully the chaos would end.

•
And you could see why they felt that way. After 11 months of mostly unrestrained violence and intimidation from BLM, Americans decided to pay the ransom. They understood Derek Chauvin as a sacrifice for the sins of a nation.

•
On television, they told us this was the case in the clearest terms. America is on trial, they told us. It's not just Chauvin, one cop from Minneapolis on the stand. It's all of us — our history, our culture, our system.

•
We internalized that, and we went along with it. But we were foolish to go along with this. A wise country stands on its principles. It puts down mobs. It doesn't obey mobs because mobs are never sated. No matter what demands you follow, they demand more.

•
And now they are demanding more, not surprisingly. Here were the two most powerful people in the United States reacting to yesterday's verdict.

•
Keep in mind that no one has ever shown that race or skin color played any role in the death of George Floyd. If you watched the trial, you know that.

•
These people didn't watch the trail. They're not interested in the details. Their plan is to use the trial the way they used George Floyd.

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KAMALA HARRIS: A measure of justice isn't the same as equal justice. This verdict brings us a step closer and the fact is we still have work to do. We still must reform the system.

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JOE BIDEN: No one should be above the law. And today's verdict sends that message. But it's not enough. We can't stop here.

•
The attorney general has announced that the investigation into the death of George Floyd — overseen, presumably, by avowed racist Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division — is "ongoing."

•
Ongoing? Didn't we just have a month-long trial that presented all the evidence? Yes we did. But once again, that was just the start.

•
So what we can expect next? Hard to know exactly but there are signs. BLM activists, for example, celebrated the Chauvin verdict in New York. George Floyd died 1,200 miles from New York, in an entirely different region.

•
Presumably, they didn't know Floyd. They probably didn't watch the trial. But for people like this, justice for George Floyd isn't the point. Never-ending ethnic conflict is the point.

•
Protesters yelled "Stay the f** out of New York," "We don't want you here," "We don't want your f***ing money," and "We don't want your f***ing taqerias owned by f***ing White men!" outside a Brooklyn restaurant.

•
They're doing it for one simple reason: it gets results. Radicalism works. Violence works. That's the lesson. We have taught the mob that lesson. And at least one BLM activist is willing to say it out loud:...

•
BLM ACTIVIST HAWK NEWSOME: It was a mixture of violent and nonviolent protest that yielded this result. That's the bottom line. America doesn't listen to us when we march peacefully. I'm not saying people will be back in the street but America must know that if you continue to allow us to be murdered in the streets without justice, we will raise hell in America.

•
It's that simple: violent protests get results. That's a threat, obviously. But it's also, unfortunately true. Rioting does work. When you burn cities, you get what you want.

•
You get rich from corporate handouts. You get the jury verdicts you've demanded. Rioters know this very well, even if the rest of us won't admit it.

•
By allowing Wendy's to be torched and Macy's to be looted and police stations to be destroyed, the rest of us have relinquished our power as citizens and instead handed it to the most violent, unreasonable, and least productive people in the country.

•
... don't kid yourself. Derek Chauvin's conviction didn't settle accounts. It merely increased the debt.

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IBRIM X. KENDI: So now what? Chauvin is headed to jail but is America headed to justice? Is justice convicting a police officer or is justice convicting America? ... It's easy to just blame individual officers like Derek Chauvin but the problem is structural. The problem is historic ... Justice has convicted America. Now we must put in the time transforming this nation.

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So, we've all been convicted of murder. And by the way, you can't blame Ibram X. Kendi. That guy's gotten many millions of dollars from our captains of industry. He's incubated within the academy. You may be paying tuition to support his salary.

•
Why are you doing that? Why are the rest of us doing that as he calls for punishing you for a murder you didn't commit?

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See related Weighing the Options (Antonio Branco, 04/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Finally, the facts about Capitol officers's death (JWR 04/21/2021)
Big Tech crushing free speech – this censorship report card reveals growing and dangerous bias (Fox 04/21/2021)
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Big Tech went to war with conservatives in a place that was once one of the most free places on earth – the internet.

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The power-mad powerbrokers of Big Tech went after President Donald Trump following the Capitol Hill riot. At least 10 separate tech companies censored him. Trump had long been in their sights.

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Leftist journalists and their friends in the tech world were furious that he had used social media to win election in 2016. They spent years getting revenge.

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It wasn't enough that they censored him and his campaign 625 times, compared to zero for Team BIden. The tech overlords were determined to take away his online powerbase and used the Capitol Hill riot as an excuse to do so.

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Once Big Tech companies got away with that, they figured they could do anything to anybody.

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The results were staggering. Three major tech firms tried to destroy the free speech platform Parler. Google and Apple proved to the whole world they have too much control of app downloads for phones.

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Amazon Web Services followed by banning Parler from its platform, effectively shutting down the social media site for more than five weeks.

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Amazon Employees For Climate Justice, one of the many leftist pressure groups in the tech world, demanded the company censor Parler.

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The incident was just one more reminder that Big Tech is liberal from top to bottom.

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Of course, Amazon was being completely hypocritical. The riot was organized more heavily on Facebook and Twitter, according to news reports. But Amazon didn't target them.

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Amazon's attitude about hate was especially ironic, given the preponderance of it on the Amazon platform. Our analysis of the things the company sells found at least 270 hateful items.

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Those included close to 100 items with Nazi or White supremacist symbols and runes – jewlery, patches, flags and clothing. Amazon even sold a T-shirt with the slogan "Kill All Republicans."

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Nothing typifies Amazon's attitude toward the right better than a shirt calling to kill every member of the opposing political party.

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See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Tucker Carlson: Jury verdict in Derek Chauvin trial a cry of 'please don't hurt us' (Fox 04/21/2021)
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The jury in the Derek Chauvin trial came to a unanimous and unequivocal verdict Tuesday afternoon: "Please don't hurt us."

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The jurors spoke for many in this country; everyone understood perfectly well the consequences of an acquittal in this case.

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After nearly a year of burning, looting, and murder by BLM, that was never in doubt. Last night, 2,000 miles from Minneapolis, police in Los Angeles preemptively blocked roads. Why? They knew what would happen if Derek Chauvin got off.

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In the end, he didn't get off. If given the maximum sentence under the law, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

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Is that a fair punishment? Is the officer guilty of the specific crimes for which he was just convicted?

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We can debate all that, and we will. But here's what we can't debate: no mob has the right to destroy our cities. Not under any circumstances, not for any reason.

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No politician or media figure has the right to intimidate a jury, and no political party has the right to impose a different standard of justice on its own supporters.

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Those things are unacceptable in America, but all of them are happening now. If they continue to happen, decent, productive people will leave. The country as we knew it will be over. So we must stop this current insanity. It's an attack on civilization.

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That stake is far more than the future of Derek Chauvin or the memory of George Floyd. At stake is America.

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So before we consider the details of Tuesday's verdict, a bigger question, one we should all think about: Can we trust the way this decision was made?

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That's the promise of our justice system – that it's impartial, that it's as fair as human beings can make it.

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That the cop who killed Ashli Babbitt will be held to the very same scrutiny as the cop who was just convicted of killing George Floyd.

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That political or ethnic considerations will play absolutely no role in jury deliberations. That justice will be blind.

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Can we say all of that in this case? And if we can't, why can't we?

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See related Weighing the Options (Antonio Branco, 04/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Answer these mass-killing questions correctly — no more deaths (JWR 04/20/2021)
Crisis of American civilization – here's what we must do to oppose forces trying to destroy US (Fox 04/18/2021)
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We are now in a crisis of American civilization fully as dangerous and real as the crisis of the U.S. Civil War or World War II.

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During both those crises, if America had lost, it would have ceased to be America – and the cause of freedom around the world would have been dramatically weakened.

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Today, we face combined internal and external threats that are as great or greater.

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Internationally, we face a surging China whose economic, scientific and technological power is now fully competitive with the United States.

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The announcement of a joint China-Russia moon project is an example of the collective authoritarian challenge to the American-led freedom coalition.

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However dangerous the foreign challenges are they fade away when compared with the domestic threats to American civilization. Consider these indicators that our civilization is beginning to fall apart.

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Several days of looting and rioting in Minnesota have occurred even as a trial of a former policeman is underway proving the rule of law works.

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A policeman is killed during a car stop in New Mexico, and our elites ignore the murder. ... There is a war on police underway with 264 killed in 2020, a jump of 96% over the previous year.

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Faced with aggressive criminal behavior and violence against innocent people – including young children being killed – Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib calls for "no more policing, incarceration and militarization."

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In Seattle, Portland and Milwaukee, no-go zones similar to those in France have been created that are effectively localized secessions from the United States.

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Portland continues to be attacked nightly by anarchists. Despite pious statements by public officials, no effective action is underway to restore law and order.

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In San Francisco, the declaration by the communist district attorney that theft under $900 will not be prosecuted has led to so much shoplifting that Walgreens is closing all 10 of its drugstores in the city.

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The threat to American civilization goes far beyond violence in the streets.

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Woke CEOs who refuse to condemn genocide and police state tyranny in China are quick to attack Georgia – even though President Joe Biden was just plain wrong (perhaps lying) about the state's new election law.

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The television establishment systematically lied to defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. CNN's Charlie Chester recently asserted: "I came to CNN to be a part of that. Look what we did, we [CNN] got Trump out. I am 100% going to say it, and I 100% believe that if it wasn't for CNN, I don't know that Trump would have got voted out...I came to CNN because I wanted to be a part of that."

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Of course, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, NBC, CBS and ABC would dispute any CNN claim that it alone defeated Trump. The two papers won Pulitzer Prizes for lying about Trump.

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Traditional media hostility and dishonesty are overshadowed by the internet giants, who are increasingly acting like Russian oligarchs. They are trying to erase a leader who was supported by more than 75 million Americans with a ruthlessness worthy of Soviet tyranny and the Chinese Communist Party.

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Crony capitalism is becoming bolder as big government and big business reinforce each other at the country's expense.

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Overt racism through race-based reparations, school quotas, and anti-white and anti-male curricula are a return to government-fueled discrimination and segregation.

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Finally, when the state of California is considering requiring students to chant every day to an Aztec god who was the center of a human sacrifice cult, there are sound reasons to believe American civilization is in crisis.

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If we are going to remain America, we must oppose the forces trying to destroy us.

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See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related USA (Gary Varvel, 01/04/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
The Abiding Shame of 'Packing' the Supreme Court (JWR 04/16/2021)
Here We Go Again (JWR 04/16/2021)
Democrats' court packing push is next step in radical march to destroy another American institution (Fox 04/16/2021)
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They already demand an end to the Electoral College, they want to do away with the filibuster, and they want to add more states to disrupt the workings of the Senate. Now they have made the Supreme Court their next target.

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Congress has the constitutional authority to set the size of the Supreme Court, but ever since 1869, both Republican and Democratic leaders have agreed that they should not manipulate the Court's size in order to engineer their favored decisions.

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Politicians should have learned their lesson in 1937 when FDR – fresh off one of the greatest re-elections in history that also gave him two-thirds Democratic majorities in the House and Senate –sought to expand the Court to end its opposition to the New Deal.

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FDR suffered his greatest political defeat as his own party turned against him and killed the court-packing plan – though a spineless Court soon blessed the constitutionality of the New Deal in the face of FDR's threat.

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Looking back on FDR's failure, the revered late liberal Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, observed: "Nine seems to be a good number. It's been that way for a long time," Ginsburg said in a 2019 interview.

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"I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court. If anything would make the court look partisan, it would be that — one side saying, ‘When we're in power, we're going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.'"

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Justice Stephen Breyer, appointed by President Clinton, similarly warned his friends at Harvard Law School against court-packing. "I hope and expect that the court will retain its authority, an authority that my stories have shown was hard won. But that authority, like the rule of law, depends on trust– a trust that the court is guided by legal principle, not politics. Structural alteration motivated by the perception of political influence can only feed that latter perception, further eroding that trust."

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"President Roosevelt clearly had the right to send to the United States Senate and the United States Congress a proposal to pack the court. It was totally within his right to do that. He violated no law. He was legalistically, absolutely correct. But it was a bonehead idea. It was a terrible, terrible mistake to make. And it put in question, if for an entire decade, the independence of the most significant body, including the Congress in my view, the most significant body, in this country, the Supreme Court of the United States of America." Which president said this? None other than Joseph Biden.

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Nevertheless, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party seeks to subject the Supreme Court to outright political manipulation.

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Where those who've wanted to expand the size of the Court used to pretend they were reforming the judiciary to make it more efficient, today's progressive see no problem in blatantly claiming the power to alter the Court's decisions.

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Of course, they blamed Trump for somehow ruining the Court by filling three vacancies – as was his constitutional right – and that they must force the Court back to its natural, liberal direction.

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"Some people will say we are packing the Court," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said. "We're not packing it. We're unpacking it. Senator [Mitch] McConnell and the Republicans packed the court over the last couple of years."

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These comments would spark howls of outrage if a Republican Congress had made them during the reign of a Democratic president.

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But legal academics and leaders of the bar, who normally should oppose blatant efforts to interfere with the independence of the judiciary, instead believe in political payback for the failed Merrick Garland nomination in 2016, the damaged Kavanaugh appointment, and filling the Ginsburg vacancy in an election year.

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"Here to stay is the sea-change the Republican party has forced onto a once-proud institution. No longer a ‘check' or ‘balance,' it is now — and will henceforth be seen by both sides as — simply another lever of power," writes noted constitutional scholar Garrett Epps.

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"And on the day the Democrats hold power to alter the makeup of the court by bare-knuckle means, they will do it. And they should."

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Progressives have launched such a destructive attack on the independence of the federal judiciary because their fears have come true.

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Trump indeed launched a conservative makeover of the federal courts, which may finally undo the liberal transformation of society through judicial fiat.

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Trump's very success set off an extreme, anti-constitutional response that has liberals attacking the independence of the Supreme Court and, perhaps, sparking a cycle of retribution that turns the judiciary into a political body.

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Democrats may well follow through on threats to add four new Justices to the Supreme Court – though they have only three seats to spare in the House and a 50-50 tie in the Senate broken by Vice President Kamala Harris.

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But when Republicans inevitably retake the presidency and Congress they will retaliate by increasing the Supreme Court by another four or five Justices.

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Soon the Court will become just another agency, like the Education or Commerce Department, whose leadership will change with each presidential election.

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Such an outcome may prove satisfying to progressives determined to overthrow constitutional tradition.

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But it will come at the long-term cost of turning the federal courts into another openly partisan political body, rather than an institution that tries its best to do justice under neutral principles of law.

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There is a reason why the Supreme Court's size has remained nine Justices for more than a century: because our political parties realized that they should confine their competition to elections and policy, not changing the Constitution every two or four years.

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Our leaders used to understand that our nation still needs a more impartial third branch to interpret and apply the law, rather than simply follow popular passions.

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Ironically, progressives who constantly accused Trump of violating the Constitution are the ones eager to toss out the history and traditions that have stabilized our democracy.
Tucker Carlson: Democrat court-packing push shows change coming too far, too fast (Fox 04/16/2021)
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Things are changing fast, in case you haven't noticed; much too fast. People can't metabolize change at this pace... Human beings are not designed for relentless, abrupt changes to the way they live or the way they think.

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For most of human history, they didn't have to deal with those changes because they didn't happen much. Societies evolved slowly. Fourth-century France was very much like fourteenth-century France.

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Then, in the 1700s, someone perfected the steam engine and nothing was ever the same. Life for average people began to change. It moved faster and faster, and then exponentially faster.

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This continued until the present day, a moment in which nearly every morning, you awake to a brand new world.

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If you're over 40, you may have trouble recognizing your own country. It's just too unfamiliar. The self-righteous children on social media don't care to notice this and when they do, they dismiss any complaint about change as bigotry.

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But it's not bigotry. It's human nature: Abrupt change always causes social chaos. Human beings develop customs and habits and generational expectations for a reason. It's not random.

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Continuity is comforting to people. If you eliminate familiar things overnight, societies fracture. Populations tend to explode.

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We've seen that happen. The last industrial revolution, in the end, provoked armed revolutions. Hundreds of millions of people died. Germany got Hitler. Eastern Europe got Stalinism.

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Yes, we did wind up with antibiotics in the end. You can thank technology for that, and we do. But we also got genocide and atomic bombs.

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There's a lesson here: if you're going to change things, go slowly. Choose the incremental over the immediate. Explain yourself as you do it. Reassure people. Acknowledge the reality of evolutionary biology.

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Human beings aren't born to be machine components. You can't bang out improved versions of your citizens on a 3-D printer. People in real life are complicated and stubborn and hard to control. Even the most open-minded ones get jumpy and bewildered when suddenly everything's different.

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You'd think this would all be obvious and that wise leaders would know it intuitively. If you're going to have relentless technological change — and apparently we are — you can't inflict relentless social change and expect your society to survive. Things will fall apart if you do that, guaranteed.

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Yet that's exactly what our leaders are currently doing. They're changing everything, whether we like it or not: a new language, new values, new biology, new curricula, new social mores and hiring standards and body types. A brand new national population.

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And then, because that's still not enough change, a whole new system of government. All of that in three months.

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What will the consequences of that revolution be? In your bones, you know the answer. It's terrifying. And it doesn't have to happen. What America needs more than anything is a pause, a moment to catch our national breath.

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Take stock. Assess what just happened — a lot — and calmly consider the best way forward. You want unity for the country? We all do. That might bring us unity. But no. The kaleidoscopic barrage of unending change continues.

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On Thursday, Democrats informed us, they plan to dismantle the last trusted branch of our government, the Supreme Court. A Congressman from New York explained why they're doing it. His name is Mondaire Jones. He's 33 years old. He went to Stanford and Harvard Law School, meaning that in his short life, he produced essentially nothing. None of it is real to him. So he's happy to blow it up.

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"Our democracy is in crisis. The insurrection on January 6th made that clear. This crisis didn't arrive overnight or by accident. The Supreme Court helped bring us here. In fact, the Court has been actively dismantling our democracy for years ... It gutted the protections of the Voting Rights Act and paved the way for a new era of racist voter suppression. It helped install Donald Trump in the White House and he returned the favor by appointing more justices who are hostile to our democracy ... We the people can break the far right, anti-democratic grip on our democracy. We can expand the Supreme Court. And together we can finally restore government by the people instead of government by the powerful."

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That was a slick campaign ad. He didn't make it in his basement. It cost money to make the ad. Where'd that money coming from? We'd love to know. Was it funded by some of the big corporations that have just finished telling us that asking people to show ID when they vote is Jim Crow racism?

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It's possible. ... We asked Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, Delta CEO Ed Bastian, longtime Amazon head Jeff Bezos, and Merck CEO Ken Frazier. All of these business titans have been happy to weigh in with full force recently on what form of government the rest of us must have. It's their business, it's up to them now.

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RUTH BADER GINSBURG TO NPR IN 2019: I have heard that there are some people on the Democratic side who would like to increase the number of judges ... If anything would make the court appear partisan, it would be that, one side saying, "When we're in power, we're going to enlarge the number."

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JOE BIDEN, 2019: I would not get into court packing. We add three justices, next time around we lose control, they add three justices. We begin to lose any credibility that the court has at all.

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... in real life, the bill we are talking about may not pass. But the sad thing is, it doesn't matter whether or not it does, because the damage has already been done.

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People who are paid to care about the country have proven they don't. They'd wreck the place as long as they got to control it.

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That's not a reassuring message. Americans are highly anxious right now. They're paranoid and distrustful. They don't think any of their institutions are on the level.

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But instead of reassuring them everything will be OK, leading Democrats just showed them they have every reason to feel that way.
Will there be a penalty for withdrawal from Afghanistan? (JWR 04/15/2021)
Dems' Quest for Complete Control (JWR 04/15/2021)
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Joe Biden and guns (Fox 04/15/2021)
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"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." — Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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President Joseph R. Biden Jr. recently announced his determination to use his powers as the chief executive of the federal government to infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms.

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This is a profound violation of his oath to uphold the Constitution.
Tucker Carlson: America is now one nation with two very different justice systems (Fox 04/15/2021)
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The ironically-named "Civil Rights Division" of the Biden Justice Department announced Wednesday there will be no charges brought against the man who shot and killed protester Ashli Babbitt in the Capitol back in January.

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In cases like this, the benefit of the doubt usually does goes to law enforcement, and as we've often said, we're fine with that. It should.

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But still, in a free society, the rest of us have a right to know roughly what happened. In this case, who shot Ashli Babbitt and why?

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No one will tell us. The Biden administration says the man who killed Babbitt is a Capitol Hill police officer, and he did the right thing. That's all they've said.

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We know that Ashli Babbitt was short, female and unarmed. There's no evidence the officer who killed her gave any kind of verbal warming before he pulled the trigger.

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Is that standard procedure? We'd imagined the rules of engagement for federal agents limited the use of deadly force to situations where law enforcement has reason to believe they or the people around them are in imminent danger of being harmed.

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You can't just shoot people without warning because they're in the wrong place. That's not allowed. Except now, apparently, it is allowed. When did these rules change?

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And, once again, who exactly shot Ashli Babbitt? Journalists exist to ask questions like these, but they're not.

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"Authorities determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove Babbitt's civil rights were violated," the Post declared. That was it. The rest of the piece was a personal attack on Ashli Babbitt and her political views. She deserved to die. That was the point of the Washington Post story.

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How amazing to read something like this, especially now. Eleven hundred miles from Washington, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a police officer accidentally reached for her gun instead of a Taser and killed a man called Daunte Wright.

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It was a tragedy, as all shootings are. But we know that officer's name because every news organization in the country printed it immediately.

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She has now resigned and is facing charges. Her mugshot is all over the Internet. Two nights ago, a mob showed up at her house, forcing her to flee.

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She's not the only one. Last August, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin shot a man called Jacob Blake. Remember that? Riots erupted immediately. Yesterday, that officer was cleared of all charges. When that story broke, NPR put that police officer's name and photograph on the front of their website.

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So that's the standard, except in this case where they are still hiding the identity of the man who shot Ashli Babbitt.

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The standards that big news organizations use to cover shootings depend entirely on the political views of the people who get shot.

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In the case of Ashli Babbitt, we'd know next to nothing about how she died, and we wouldn't know anything if her shooting hadn't been captured on video by people who don't work at the Washington Post.

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On Jan. 6, Samuel Montoya took what may be the clearest video of Ashli Babbitt's death. When you watch the video, there are a lot of things to notice. Ashli Babbitt had no weapon. She wasn't attacking anyone. She couldn't attack anyone, because she was climbing through a window at the moment she was shot.

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But what's most striking is that several Capitol Hill police officers in paramilitary gear were standing directly behind Babbitt when she was killed. They were carrying what Joe Biden refers to as weapons of war — loaded AR-15s.

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So tell us again how Ashli Babbitt posed an imminent physical threat to anyone when she was shot. She didn't. Samuel Montoya's footage proves it.

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And we're grateful we have that tape. If we didn't, The New York Times would be telling us that Ashli Babbitt was beating people to death with a fire extinguisher when she was killed.

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Yesterday, a large group of armed federal agents showed up at his house in Austin. They smashed Montoya's front door, confiscated his electronic devices and threw him in jail. He's behind bars right now. What was his crime?

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The FBI says it began investigating Montoya after one of his family members provided "proof that Montoya was physically inside the U.S. Capital near the shooting of a woman on January 6, 2021." To be clear, Montoya didn't shoot the woman. He just happened to be nearby.

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So why is journalist Samuel Montoya behind bars tonight? Well, he committed a crime: "Interfering with government business." In other words, trespassing.

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If this happened in Ukraine, what are the chances NBC News would describe Samuel Montoya as a "dissident journalist," and then describe Ashli Babbitt an "unarmed pro-democracy demonstrator".

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But this is America, and they're not saying that. Instead they're telling us that Ashli Babbitt deserved to die.

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What's amazing is not simply the grotesque cruelty of assessments like that — a young women is shot to death and the media applaud — but what's more amazing is the contrast between this and the coverage of other violence that's now in progress.

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Tuesday night, Biden voters burned a police building in Portland, Oregon. Did you know that? Probably not, it didn't get much coverage.

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In the wake of Daunte Wright's death Sunday, riots broke out all over the country, in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Minneapolis.

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People were stealing stuff off store shelves, but don't call it looting. It's a peaceful demonstration. We know that because the mayor of Brooklyn Center, Mike Elliott, told us so.

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"Earlier this evening, I had the opportunity to go talk to these peaceful protesters, Our city is calm now." Here's the funny thing: the mayor's wearing a Kevlar helmet in the picture, which was not taken in Syria, but in his own town. That's how peaceful it is.

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Others, by contrast, have decided to drop the pretense entirely. BLM leader Bree Newsome no longer talks about "peaceful protests." She doesn't want those any more.

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"I'm definitely in the camp of defending rioting and looting as a legitimate, politically-informed response to state violence," she wrote in a tweet that the Twitter censors have pointedly left up.

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What's really striking is that Newsome once committed a more aggressive version of the offense that Samuel Montoya is changed with.

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A few years ago, she trespassed at the Capitol in South Carolina and ripped down the flag. She also trespassed in a state lawmaker's office and refused to leave.

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Is she rotting in jail? No. She was arrested briefly, then drew praise from no less than Hillary Clinton herself. Hillary endorsed that particular insurrection. But not everyone gets the same treatment, you may have noticed.

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That should worry you, no matter who you voted for and no matter how fervently you may support Joe Biden. This is a huge, society-ending problem. Laws have no meaning if they're not applied equally.

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When they are not applied equally, they are not even laws. They're just tools of political persecution. You don't want to live in a country like that, even if the people you don't like are the ones being persecuted.

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A panel of privileged people tell you to abolish the police. But they're not saying actually abolish the police. We often claim they are, but listen very carefully. They say they want to abolish American policing as it currently exists. And that raises the question: how does policing currently exist?

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Here's how: local communities get to control it. So the cops walking down your street, you hired them. That's what Rashida Tlaib doesn't like. That's what offends MSNBC.

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The thing they hate about it is that they don't control it. They can't use your local police department to punish you for your political views. For that, they have to go to the FBI. It drives them crazy.

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Abolishing the police doesn't mean getting rid of people with guns. It merely and specifically means stripping you of any control over local law enforcement.

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It's just a more ambitious form of gun control, meant to disempower the citizenry, not protect them. When your police department answers to them, things will be very different.

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In the past few days, federal prosecutors have essentially dropped half a dozen federal felony cases that arose from those famous riots in Portland last summer. The feds reached non-prosecution agreements, which ensure that people who committed felonies will walk away with no criminal record of any kind.

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One of them, a woman called Alexandra Eutin, was charged with beating a Portland police officer in the head with a wooden shield while he was trying to make an arrest.

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Another defendant, called Alexa Daron Graham, was charged with trying to bring down a police aircraft with a laser pointer.

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Now that's bad, obviously. But it's not quite as bad as, say, voting for Donald Trump, or walking around the Capitol building with a camera.

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Alexandra Eutin and Alexa Graham won't have a criminal record by the end of this. Samuel Montoya could spend the next seven years in jail.

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You see what's going on. Two systems of justice — one for the allies of the people in charge, and a very different one for their enemies.
The Fight Over Identity (JWR 04/14/2021)
Michael Goodwin: Biden border, White House chaos — if it ain't broke, president will break it (Fox 04/14/2021)
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The sage advice that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is older than Joe Biden, but apparently he never heard of it. Or doesn't think much of it.

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The president is on a tear, as in tearing up arrangements that were achieving their objectives. His early results are disastrous.

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In the Mideast, he looks determined to undo the Arab-Israeli alliance Donald Trump forged by returning to the failed policies Biden helped to implement in the Obama-Biden administration.

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Biden also wants to end the Senate filibuster and took the first step toward packing the Supreme Court.

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The easy description of what Biden is up to, assuming he's really calling the shots, is that he is simply the anti-Trump president. Whatever Trump did, Biden will undo it.

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While that approach tugs at the heartstrings of the hate-Trumpers, it's hardly a path to success.

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Instead, it's more like a child throwing a tantrum and breaking all his favorite toys. What's he going to play with tomorrow?

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Tomorrow has arrived, and how well Biden's approach is working can best be seen at the border. The chaos in the migrant facilities overflowing with minors is mirrored in chaos at the White House.

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The aide Biden tapped to be his "border czar," Roberta Jacobson, announced Friday she is leaving at the end of the month. ... Even the Biden bootlicking New York Times called her departure "striking" given the problems. It quoted Jacobson as claiming the system is moving toward "an immigration system that is humane, orderly and safe."

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Good grief. Only a committed virtue signaler could call it "humane, orderly and safe" when coyotes and sex traffickers brought nearly 30,000 unaccompanied minors to the border in just February and March. Caring for them is costing taxpayers $60 million a week.

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... officials caught 172,000 migrants at the border last month, a 71 percent increase from February. Reports say as many as 1,000 others escape capture and enter illegally every day.

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This is all on Joe Biden and his arrogant decision to break what Trump fixed, without a workable plan of his own.

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First, he ended the "Remain in Mexico" compact that kept asylum-seekers in Mexico, he stopped wall construction and said children traveling alone would be exempt from rules blocking most families and childless adults.

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His implicit invitation to come was accepted by tens of thousands of migrants from Central American hellholes.

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The result is a new generation of illegal residents and "Dreamer" children that will make it impossible for any president to achieve a bipartisan solution.

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No doubt some American money again will pay the families of terrorists who kill or attack Israelis, and some will disappear into the secret bank accounts of corrupt Arab leaders.

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The United Nations relief agency, riddled with anti-Semites, will also get funded so it can continue the fiction that Palestinians remain refugees nearly 75 years after Israeli independence.

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... includes courting Iran, a theocracy committed to exporting terrorism. Already the president is offering to lift sanctions Trump imposed on oil exports if only the mullahs would make promises about nuclear enrichment they never intend to keep.

•
In Washington, Biden is using his wrecking ball to demolish institutions he served and defended for 40 years.

•
The filibuster he once said is essential he now calls a legacy of Jim Crow. He revered the Supreme Court but now reviles it.

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Because his moves are so confusing, Washington chin strokers are searching for a Biden Doctrine to explain it all.

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Let me save them time. There is no doctrine because what Joe Biden is doing doesn't make a whit of sense.

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Rep. Nancy Mace: Biden's 'infrastructure' fiasco – Dems offering Green New Deal in sheep's clothing (Fox 04/14/2021)
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War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength, and 2+2 equals 5. George Orwell warned us of doublespeak 72 years ago.

•
Yet today, some of my colleagues on the left and President Biden are using this tactic in a desperate attempt to sell their disastrous "infrastructure" package.

•
One tweet from a New York senator even claimed child care and caregiving are infrastructure.

•
Respectfully, no, they are not. Nor is approximately 85% of the $2 trillion monstrosity Biden released last week and dubbed "infrastructure."

•
The proposal includes $20 billion to advance racial equity and environmental justice. I'm not entirely sure what that means, or what the government is supposed to spend $20 billion on to make sure these vague goals are achieved, but I do know it has nothing to do with infrastructure.

•
The plan incorporates large swaths of the socialist "Green New Deal," which remains firmly planted on the brains and wish lists of socialists in the House and Senate despite both Congress and voters rejecting the bill.

•
For example, $175 billion – nearly 10% of the package – is dedicated to subsidizing electric vehicles. Another $100 billion is allocated to building new public schools to make school lunches "Greener." There is $50 billion is set aside for the National Science Foundation, and $200 billion is meant to green up and fix our power grid, the one that we just overloaded with the $174 billion in electric car subsidies.

•
Far-left Democrats and the Biden administration have been using this tactic all year, most recently passing a COVID "relief" package in which nearly 90% of the money allocated had absolutely nothing to do with relief, all while our national debt continues to mount.

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Over $600 billion of your tax dollars would subsidize favored corporations and technologies, rather than allowing a market to develop them. Another $400 billion bails out Medicaid programs. The list goes on and on, but I can assure you, very little of it is what any normal American would consider to be "infrastructure."

•
It sacrifices those goals on the altar of politically correct ideas and unsound economics. It mortgages our future as well, spending more money we do not have.

•
They're not going to stop unless we make them. They're not going to stop unless enough people with sense and courage stand up and say, "No."

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See related Biden\\\'s Brain Trust (Gary Varvel, 07/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Green New Deal (Gary Varvel, 03/16/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Why the Left Ignores the Killing of a Pakistani Immigrant Uber Driver (JWR 04/13/2021)
Lost liberties (JWR 04/13/2021)
Even Dems start to resist Left's growing insanity (JWR 04/12/2021)
Government Against Bourgeois Values (JWR 04/12/2021)
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It seems inevitable that the long-building crusade to legalize the sale and use of marijuana will succeed...

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A society of liberty depends mainly on voluntary compliance to maintain the rule of law. There aren't enough police to monitor every traffic light, for instance. Many have come to believe that banning marijuana use is impractical.

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However, state governments are doing more than just acquiescing in the sale of what was once quaintly called grass.

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Implicitly ... we are witnessing the state's not just accepting drug use but relying on its revenues — and thus encouraging it. Government is now a co-conspirator in vice.

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Drug legalization is just the latest in a series of public policies that actively undermine the values forming the basis for a healthy economy and, even more important, for a fulfilling life — what economic historian Deirdre McCloskey unflinchingly terms "bourgeois virtues."

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The mystery of the origins of modern capitalism — and its capacity to lift whole societies out of poverty — has captivated economic theorists at least since Max Weber.

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To simplify his argument aggressively, Weber attributed capitalism to an attitude that saw the pursuit of financial gain not as the product of greed but of a religiously influenced positive attribute.

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"What is significant is not the strength of the motive of economic self-interest, which is the commonplace of the ages. . . . It is the change of moral standards."

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... underlying attitudes as prudence and trust — part of the bourgeois project of thinking beyond transient pleasures of the moment (such as those provided by the rush of drug use) as fundamental to economic growth.

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"It is not at all bad being a businessman. There is a spirit of trust and cooperation here. Everyone jokes about such things, but if businessmen were not trusting of each other and could not set their great project going on credit, the country would collapse tomorrow."

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... bourgeois virtues like prudence and trust are fundamentally focused on the long-term horizon. Don't spend; invest. Privilege forward-thinking over short-term thrills.

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... this is not only the path to economic accumulation but also the best way to pursue happiness.

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The idea that such values would eventually succumb to affluence — that capitalism's bounty would lead to its demise — is not new. ... "If capitalism begins as the practical idealism of the aspiring bourgeoisie, it ends, Weber suggests, in an orgy of materialism."

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Neither Weber nor Daniel Bell, however, envisioned the active undermining of bourgeois self-abnegation by government. Yet, more and more, government is actively undermining bourgeois values.

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... social-service programs, which grew exponentially starting in the 1960s, implicitly sent the message that social interventions could compensate for poor life decisions, such as teen pregnancy, "juvenile delinquency," or substance abuse.

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Government has now gone even further down this path, actively encouraging and relying on revenues from those who choose pleasure over self-improvement and achievement.

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Whether marijuana truly induces psychosis (and Berenson makes a persuasive case that it does), it's not likely to sustain the virtues necessary to do one's homework or, more broadly, to close the achievement gap in education.

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Encouraging drug use is only the latest in a string of anti-bourgeois virtue signals from government. In addition to state lotteries, with their manipulative get-rich-quick advertising, we also have state-sanctioned sports betting, which, like marijuana sales, provide revenue for state government.

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Next up is legalized prostitution — a.k.a. "sex work." New York state senator Julia Salazar has introduced legislation to decriminalize the exchange of sex for money.

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Government's message: that we should accept a society where pleasure-seeking replaces the hard work of building intimacy through knowing and loving another person; and that sex work is just another career option.

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Perhaps sex workers will save money and pay off college loans to help support later STEM careers — but at what cost, psychologically, to themselves and their "customers"?

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The list of public policies undermining bourgeois virtues goes on — and arguably includes stimulus checks (a.k.a. "stimmies"), based on the belief that income matters above all in ensuring comfort and joy.

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Any work ... can offer the fulfillment either of a job well done or of something leading to a job one would prefer. A check in the mail can pay for groceries, but it cannot substitute for such fulfillment.

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One fears that simple income transfers in the name of reducing inequality will instead increase it.

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Middle-class parents will continue to steer their children away from what we once called vice, even as others are lured into it.

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Parents and responsible adults who succeed in guiding their children toward positive choices will do so only at the cost of also teaching them to discount messages and policies promulgated by government.

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None of this, of course, is to say that drug use, gambling, and prostitution would disappear if they were not permitted by law. Rather, it is to question the wisdom of government both encouraging them and relying on the tax revenue they generate.

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It was not so long ago that government urged us to "just say no" to drugs. It may not have been an effective effort, but that doesn't mean that government should encourage us to just say yes.

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See related Never Trust... (Glenn McCoy, 05/24/2016) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Let\\\'s Legalize Pot (Michael Ramirez, 08/31/2019) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Legalized Marijuana (Dave Granlund, 01/08/2014) cartoon from USA picture album
Victor Davis Hanson: The 10 radical new rules that are changing America (Fox 04/11/2021)
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1. Money is a construct. It can be created from thin air. Annual deficits and aggregate national debt no longer matter much.

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Prior presidents ran up huge annual deficits, but at least there were some concessions that the money was real and had to be paid back. Not now.

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2. Laws are not necessarily binding anymore. Joe Biden took an oath to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." But he has willfully rendered federal immigration laws null and void. ... Ideology governs when a law is still considered a law.

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How useful the crime is to the larger agendas of the left determines whether a victim is really a victim, and the victimizer really a victimizer.

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3. Racialism is now acceptable. We are defined first by our ethnicity or religion, and only secondarily — if at all — by an American commonality.

•
The explicit exclusion of whites from college dorms, safe spaces and federal aid programs is now noncontroversial. It is unspoken payback for perceived past sins, or a type of "good" racism.

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Falsely being called a racist makes one more guilty than falsely calling someone else a racist.

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4. The immigrant is mostly preferable to the citizen. The newcomer, unlike the host, is not stained by the sins of America's founding and history.

•
Our elites believe illegal entrants more closely resemble the "founders" than do legal citizens, about half of whom they consider irredeemable.

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5. Most Americans should be treated as we would treat little children. They cannot be asked to provide an ID to vote.

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"Noble lies" by our elites about COVID-19 rules are necessary to protect "Neanderthals" from themselves.

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Americans deserve relief from the stress of grades, standardized testing and normative rules of school behavior. They still are clueless about why it is good for them to pay far more for their gasoline, heating and air conditioning.

•
6. Hypocrisy is passe. Virtue-signaling is alive. Climate change activists fly on private jets. Social justice warriors live in gated communities. Multibillionaire elitists pose as victims of sexism, racism and homophobia.

•
The elite need these exemptions to help the helpless. It is what you say to lesser others about how to live, not how you yourself live, that matters.

•
7. Ignoring or perpetuating homelessness is preferable to ending it. It is more humane to let thousands of homeless people live, eat, defecate and use drugs on public streets and sidewalks than it is to green-light affordable housing, mandate hospitalization for the mentally ill and create sufficient public shelter areas.

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8. McCarthyism is good. Destroying lives and careers for incorrect thoughts saves more lives and careers. Cancel culture and the Twitter Reign of Terror provide needed deterrence.

•
Now that Americans know they are one wrong word, act or look away from losing their livelihoods, they are more careful and will behave in a more enlightened fashion. The social media guillotine is the humane, scientific tool of the woke.

•
9. Ignorance is preferable to knowledge. Neither statue-toppling, nor name-changing, nor the 1619 Project require any evidence or historical knowledge.

•
Heroes of the past were simple constructs. Undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees reflect credentials, not knowledge. The brand, not what created it, is all that matters.

•
10. Wokeness is the new religion, growing faster and larger than Christianity. Its priesthood outnumbers the clergy and exercises far more power.

•
Silicon Valley is the new Vatican, and Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter are the new gospels.

•
Americans privately fear these rules while publicly appearing to accept them. They still could be transitory and invite a reaction. Or they are already near-permanent and institutionalized.

•
The answer determines whether a constitutional republic continues as once envisioned, or warps into something never imagined by those who created it.
Greg Gutfeld: Hunter Biden is a victimizer, not a victim (Fox 04/10/2021)
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Hunter Biden is currently out pumping his new memoir like the stock he owns in Burisma. ... Hunter says he doesn't remember anything about the laptop.

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BIDEN: I had expertise in corporate governance, I was asked to serve on the board for corporate governance, and I was a lawyer at Boies Schiller Flexner, which was how I was first approached. However, what I didn't take into account was the way in which they would use the perception against my dad. And for that [reason] I have — I wouldn't do it again.

•
You see, it's about bad optics. Not how Hunter was creating financial windfalls for Daddy through China or securing cash for himself from Ukraine as his dad lobbied on behalf of those directly affected.

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That's beyond bad optics. That's corruption on an international scale, especially when Hunter's only experience producing energy is staying up for four days straight on a bender.

•
Part of the strategy here is to humanize the guy to protect his dad. But if you read Hunter's memoir "Beautiful Things", sex, drugs and trashing hotel rooms has never been less appealing.

•
We aren't here to make fun of Hunter for waltzing around in a jockstrap and feather boa (Who hasn't done that? Paging Mr. Toobin ...) or posting explicit amateur porn videos online.

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It's really about how the story was covered — or buried — before the election when the New York Post first published their piece on Hunter's laptop.

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You know what happened: The media, social media companies and the Dems worked together ... to suppress, suppress, suppress.

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You had Twitter banning the story. You had experts claiming it was Russian disinformation, and it all worked.

•
The story, which is less about Hunter and really about how compromised Joe was, vanished like Kamala Harris during a border crisis. The sex-and-drugs side, while fun to ponder, is merely the frosting on a deeply corrupt cake.

•
Now, drug addiction really isn't anything to laugh at. However, the "But I'm a victim!" position is, especially when you're doing most of the victimizing.

•
Men and women alike face temptation — from sex, drugs and food — and understand the benefits of restraint. Controlling urges is something we all deal with in order to appreciate the greater goal, which is living a long and very boring life.

•
What most people don't have are connections so deep they can escape the consequences and learn nothing from it.

•
See related 15 Million Dollar Minimum... (Mike Shelton, 10/15/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Democrats' China syndrome – this is why they're tough on Georgia, soft on communists in Beijing (Fox 04/10/2021)
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As the fascist woke mob continues the politics of personal destruction by punishing the state of Georgia over false allegations about its new voting law, the Biden administration, Major League Baseball, and companies like Coca-Cola and Delta turn a blind eye to China's human rights abuses and voting crackdowns in Hong Kong. ...

•
Why is it the policy of the left to be tougher on Georgia than the Communists in Beijing? If we can't have a 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta, can we really have a 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing?

•
Biden's decision to mobilize the cancel culture with fake news about the commonsense reforms in Georgia instead of on headlines like "China legislature endorses reducing public vote in Hong Kong" and "China sharply reduces elected seats in Hong Kong legislature" makes one thing abundantly clear: woke is broke.  ...

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Apparently, the left has decided that criticizing Communist China – arguably our chief geopolitical adversary – is taboo. ...

•
Forgetting China's ongoing human rights abuses; forgetting China's crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong; forgetting that it was China that allowed the coronavirus to fester into a global pandemic; forgetting China's refusal to cooperate with health investigators; forgetting all that, Democrats and their allies in the liberal media are choosing the woke mob over American interests. ...

•
The chilling result of this phony narrative is that it's fast becoming a de facto thought crime to criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – and Beijing is taking advantage of that on the world stage.

•
With over 550,000 Americans dead, calls for Chinese truth and transparency from the Democrats in power, the mainstream media and corporate America should be the rule, not the exception. ...

•
... indicated that the Biden administration would not take any action to hold China accountable and pivoted to discussing the importance of mitigating future pandemics.

•
China's economic, trade, military and espionage abuses are aggressive and ultimately designed to undermine the United States as the leader of the free world. So, what's going on with the American left's appeasement of China?

•
Democrat politicians are often targeted to further Beijing's agenda. Joe and Hunter Biden's ties to the Chinese are well-documented and have given many a cause for concern.

•
The younger Biden's shady business dealings in China have raised red flags over conflicts of interest and the elder Biden's ability to confront the Chinese. ...

•
But Beijing extends its influence to congressional Democrats, as well.

•
Christina Fang, or Fang Fang, was a Chinese national and reported spy for the CCP. She targeted Congressman Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and ingratiated herself into his office...

•
The curious decision by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to allow Swalwell to continue to serve on the House Intelligence Committee deserves much more scrutiny.

•
For two decades, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., employed a Chinese spy as her driver and personal assistant. The spy reported to Chinese government officials while Feinstein, at the time, was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

•
The liberal media's lack of legitimate interest in these stories is odd. Perhaps the left's kid gloves treatment of Communist China is rooted in their proclivity for big government authoritarianism or, in the case of corporate America, the almighty dollar.

•
Perhaps it's due to critical race theories following college graduates from the campus to the White House, Capitol Hill and the newsroom. Perhaps Trump Derangement Syndrome is causing half of our country to not only be anti-Trump but also pro-Beijing.

•
Whatever the cause, the result is the same: If we're unable to have serious discussions about the real threats posed by China's communist regime, we're leaving ourselves vulnerable to their aggression. ...

•
The woke mob may cheer as our nation is undermined by Chinese incursions while they criticize Georgia on false pretenses, but the rise of China is a geopolitical disaster for all countries that value liberty, free and fair elections, and human rights.

•
See related Foreign Affairs (Antonio Branco, 05/16/2019) cartoon from World picture album

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See related Biden Bible (Fuller, 12/2020)") cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Top Secret (Mike Shelton, 12/11/2020) cartoon from Adult picture album
Tucker Carlson: Disagree with AOC? You might want to start looking over your shoulder (Fox 04/10/2021)
•
If you had to sum up this moment in American history, what would you call it? Maybe the "Age of Fraud."

•
We're living in a time when the most powerful people in the world masquerade as the least powerful, a time when billionaires pose as helpless victims (don't criticize Bill Gates!), when a women who literally identifies as "the Duchess of Sussex" tells Oprah she's oppressed and Oprah nods in empathy, because Oprah's oppressed, too.

•
In a moment like this, it's not surprising that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez feels deeply sorry for herself. Ocasio-Cortez was elected to Congress a few years ago at the age of 29, beating a longtime incumbent in a race no one thought she could win.

•
Her previous job, famously, had been waiting tables and tending bar at a taco place in Union Square.

•
People made fun of that, but we haven't. Say what you will about Ocasio-Cortez's views, that's a legitimately impressive achievement. If your daughter did that, you'd be proud.

•
But Ocasio-Cortez doesn't seem proud. She seems aggrieved. With every passing year, as her fame and power grew, she appeared angrier and more brittle.

•
Within a month of arriving in Washington, Ocasio-Cortez had amassed a larger social media presence than any member of Congress.

•
As of Friday, she has 12.6 million Twitter followers, nearly twice as many as Nancy Pelosi, who has been doing this for half a century.

•
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has one of the largest political megaphones on earth. But she wants more.

•
Ocasio-Cortez now insists that not only should she be able to speak totally unfiltered to millions, but that no one should be allowed to disagree with what she says.

•
In February, her office sent a mass email to supporters asking them to report anyone who criticizes her to the tech monopolies for punishment.

•
"Scan your social media to find posts with misleading information," the email read, "use the built-in report feature to flag them for moderators."

•
What is this? It's pretty straightforward, really. Here you have one of the most powerful politicians in the country using the most powerful companies in the world to censor her political opponents.

•
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn't a power-mad demagogue. No, she's a vulnerable young woman just trying to protect herself from assault. To disagree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is to injure her.

•
At 31, she's a much sought-after voice on every possible topic, from economics to the way society is designed to the details of complex foreign policy questions. ... she was asked how to bring peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. "...We value Jewish and, rather, we value Israeli, uh, uh, uh, we value the safety and human rights of Israelis, we value the safety and human rights of Palestinians."

•
It went on like that for a bit, but you get you the idea. "Centering people's humanity," "Protecting people's rights," blah, blah, blah, blah. It was vapor.

•
If you were her mother, or a college roommate, or a close friend, you might give her a pass for this. "Pretty brave of her to weigh in on a subject she knows nothing about," you might think to yourself, if you were being charitable.

•
But if you were a sincere progressive, watching from home and hoping for a leader, you'd be deeply disappointed. This is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, after all, lioness of the left. Where was the full-throated defense of the Palestinians and their rights? Where was the truth to power?

•
That was Ryan Wentz's reaction. Wentz is a man of the left, an anti-war activist in California. He wasn't impressed by what she said, and he said so. On Twitter, Wentz wrote this: "Her response was incredibly underwhelming, to say the very least."

•
A week later, the police showed up at his house. Two plainclothes officers from the California Highway Patrol arrived, calling his name.

•
They explained they'd been sent by the U.S. Capitol Police in Washington to respond to a threat against a sitting member of Congress.

•
Wentz hadn't threatened Ocasio-Cortez or anyone else. He'd merely disapproved of her opinions.

•
But the police seemed unconvinced. As he explained ... "they just wouldn't back down from this accusation that I threatened to kill her."

•
But here's the spookiest part: Ryan Wentz hadn't included any personal information in his social media profile. Yet the police knew his name and exactly where he lived. How'd they find him?

•
It seems likely that Twitter turned Wentz in to authorities on behalf of their friend Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

•
It's hard to believe this is happening in America, but it did. The California Highway Patrol confirmed it Friday. The Capitol Police told ... they referred Wentz's name because he was mentioned in a "threatening" message. They denied that Ocasio-Cortez requested an investigation.

•
For her part, Ocasio-Cortez also denied direct involvement in any of it, but she didn't seem especially upset that it happened. She certainly didn't launch into an impassioned speech about civil liberties.

•
Why would she? Threatening people for daring to criticize the powerful is normal now. ... no one was defining the terms very clearly. What's an "extremist"? How is that different from someone who disagrees with the people in charge?

•
So, what is an extremist? A lot of people assume an extremist must be someone who voted for Donald Trump or reads forbidden websites.

•
No. It turns out it's someone who disagrees with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from the right, or even the left.

•
See related Almost Died... (Michael Ramirez, 02/09/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
What Happened to Biden's Unity Agenda? ()
Clarence Thomas Shows the Path Forward on Big Tech (JWR 04/09/2021)
Utopian nightmare (JWR 04/09/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Biden wants to take your guns, but leave criminals with theirs (Fox 04/09/2021)
•
Nothing the Democratic Party advocates for is more dishonest than gun control. Everything about that specific issue is false.

•
You might deeply dislike taxes, for example, but you can still acknowledge it's fair to charge people for the services they receive from government. The other side isn't crazy, they've just arrived at a different number than you did.

•
Gun control is not like that. Gun control is entirely fraudulent. The Democratic Party claims that guns cause violence. That's the core claim, and it is a lie.

•
It's provably untrue. The places in this country that have the most guns and the loosest controls on those guns also have the least gun violence and the fewest killings.

•
That's the bottom line. You could look it up; the statistics are available to anyone.

•
Anyone who tries to restrict your legally owned firearms is not trying to make America safer. The point is to disarm you and strip you of your autonomy, your power, your right to self-defense.

•
Gun control is not about guns. Gun control is about who controls America. Is it the population, as in a democracy, or does all control go to a small group of authoritarians, as in an oligarchy?

•
Those are the stakes in the gun control debate. It's not about guns, it's about who runs the country.

•
With that in mind, Joe Biden's speech Thursday calling for more gun control should make you uncomfortable. Almost nothing the president said was true.

•
It was a speech aimed to mislead rather than to inform. Before he announced how he plans to restrict your Second Amendment rights, Joe Biden wanted to remind you that those rights are not real in the first place. They are not, as he put it, "absolute."

•
BIDEN: Nothing I'm about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment. There are phony arguments suggesting that these are Second Amendment rights at stake, for what we're talking about. But no amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute.

•
(By the way, if you watched the speech live, you heard the sirens in the background responding to the skyrocketing crime rate in the city Biden presides over.)...

•
The right to keep and bear arms "shall not be infringed," the Constitution promised. But according to Joe Biden, that's not an absolute right, despite what the text says.

•
No, that right is subject to his approval and his interpretation. Joe Biden is in charge of the Constitution now.

•
Joe Biden defines its terms and Joe Biden has decided that something called "stabilizing braces" can no longer be allowed.

•
... a stabilizing brace is used by target shooters to hold heavy firearms. They play zero role in the murder epidemic now underway in our cities.

•
So why is Joe Biden banning them without the approval of Congress? Probably because up to 40 million law-abiding Americans own this device.

•
Under Biden's order, every one of those people will have to alert federal authorities and pay hundreds of dollars in fines for the crime of owning a harmless piece of plastic that was legal yesterday.

•
If they don't comply, Joe Biden's federal authorities can drag them off in handcuffs, seize their property, and charge them with a felony.

•
So with a single stroke of a pen, Joe Biden just turned tens of millions of overwhelmingly Republican voters into criminals. Is it starting to make sense now?

•
Think about that for a minute and you'll begin to understand why the Democratic Party is so focused on what they call "weapons of war."

•
You might know them as semiautomatic, small-caliber sporting rifles that normal people use for hunting and target shooting and home defense.

•
Here's the thing: No subject is more carefully cataloged than gun violence. Guns like these so-called "weapons of war" play no meaningful role in crime.

•
Virtually all gun murders in this country are committed with handguns (again, don't take our word for it, you can look this up).

•
A small number of people are responsible for most of the violence and they use a small variety of weapons to commit it (again, you can look this up). Those weapons are not rifles.

•
So if you actually cared about making the country safer and keeping people from getting murdered, you would target handguns in big cities. That's where the murders are. That's where the violence is.

•
But the Biden administration is doing the opposite of this, the mirror image of this. The Biden administration is letting big city criminals go. People who use guns for violence are walking out of jail.

•
And instead, the Biden administration is using the full force of government to disarm peaceful voters in zip codes that voted for Donald Trump. It is that simple.

•
... David Chipman suggested that people who fail background checks should be arrested on the spot.

•
While at ATF, I conducted studies involving people who failed background checks to determine how many later committed crimes with a gun — many did. This is a perfect opportunity to arrest people before committing crimes rather than responding after the fact."

•
Arrest people before committing crimes." That's a new concept in American law, though the Chinese are highly familiar with it.

•
However, it does raise a point of pressing interest to the Biden family. Joe Biden just appointed a guy who thinks people who lie on federal firearms background checks should go to prison.

•
Do you know any people like that? Hunter Biden purchased a handgun illegally. He lied on a federal background check.

•
So the question is, will David Chipman arrest the president's son? And if he doesn't arrest the president's son, the question is: How exactly are you obligated to follow these rules?

•
That's a serious question. Can you live in a country where the rules don't apply to the president's son, but you could go to jail for violating them? How can you participate in a system like that?

•
If you bought a gun to protect your family, your business or your home during the riots that these people unleashed on the country, the conspiracy nut running the ATF calls you crazy.

•
Across the country, criminals who commit violence with guns are going free. Murder rates are hitting record levels.

•
Meanwhile, you haven't hurt anyone. You haven't done anything wrong. But suddenly, Hunter Biden has a fat book contract from Simon & Schuster, and you're a felon for trying to defend your home.

•
You can see what's going on here. Again, they're not trying to control guns. They're trying to control you.
Newt Gingrich: The truth about Georgia's voting law and the mainstream media's lies (Fox 04/09/2021)
Delta Airlines CEO, others prove that the woke revolution is not a grassroots movement (Fox 04/08/2021)
•
Ed Bastian made $17 million in 2019 as chief executive officer of Delta Airlines, Georgia's largest employer. Bastian just blasted Georgia's new voting law.

•
He thinks it is racist to require the same sort of ID to vote that Delta requires for its passengers to check in.

•
Yet most Americans believe voting is a more sacred act than flying Delta and, moreover, may have noticed that Delta has partnerships with systemically racist China.

•
The most privileged CEOs of corporate America — those who sell us everything from soft drinks and sneakers to professional sports and social media — now jabber to America about its racism, sexism and other assorted sins.

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The rules of cynical CEO censure are transparent. First, the corporation never harangues unless it feels it has more to lose — whether by boycotts, protests or bad publicity — than it stands to gain in staying neutral and silent.

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Second, class concerns are never mentioned. Bastian made about $65,000 for each working day of 2019. In a sane world, he might seem a ridiculous voice of the oppressed.

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Third, CEOs never fear offending the conservative silent majority, who are assumed not to boycott or protest.

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The woke revolution is not a grassroots movement. It is powered by a well-connected and guilt-ridden elite.

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Yet the religion of wokeness assumes that these high priests deserve exemptions. Their wealth, credentials, contacts and power ensure none are ever subject to the consequences of their own sermons.

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Multimillion-dollar NBA stars blast America's "systemic racism." They utter not a word about Chinese re-education camps, the destruction of Tibetan culture or the strangulation of Hong Kong's democracy. Players' salaries depend on coaxing a huge Chinese market to the game.

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Players' domestic endorsements hinge on a young, woke American clientele. Defending the professional sports lifestyles of rich and famous stars apparently requires loud penance by blasting an unfair America.

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Examine almost any woke hotspot and a growing class divide is clear. Academia? Tenured administrators and university presidents pulling down seven-figure salaries are far more likely to virtue-signal their universities' "racism" than are untenured, poorly paid, part-time lecturers.

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It is easier for a college president to blather about his own "unearned privilege" than to support the rights of exploited part-time faculty — much less resign to give someone else a spot.

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The woke media? Its clergy are elite network newsreaders, not so much reporters on the beat.

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The military? The retired and current officers who lecture us on the evils of Donald Trump or promise to ferret out "insurrectionists" among the ranks are mostly generals and admirals — and some retired top-brass multimillionaires.

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The richest people in America — the heads of our biggest corporations — are the most likely to voice their derision for the unwoke lower and middle classes. Ditto the multimillionaires of politics — Al Gore, Dianne Feinstein, John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi.

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Celebrity billionaires such as Jay-Z, George Lucas, Paul McCartney and Oprah Winfrey weigh in often about the oppression of the supposedly rigged system they mastered, but rarely about the plight of the less-well-paid in their own professions.

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So wokeness is medieval. Sin is not given up as much as atoned for — and excused — through loud confessionals.

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Self-righteous elites rant about carbon footprints, needless border security, defunding the police, gun control and charter schools.

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But they rarely forgo their private jets, third and fourth homes, estate walls, armed security guards and prep schools. Apparently, the more you rant about "privilege," the less you need to worry about your own.

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Wokeness is an insurance policy. The louder the damnation of American culture, the more likely a career will be saved or enhanced.

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Wokeness is classist and elitist. Those who made or inherited a fortune, got the right degree at the right school, made CEO or a four-star rank, live in the right ZIP code or know the right people believe they have earned the right to decide what is moral for their inferiors.

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So, some of them have created an entire vocabulary — "deplorables," "irredeemables," "clingers," "dregs," "chumps" and "Neanderthals" — for the peasants and losers who must do as they are told.

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Wokeness is not really about fairness for minorities, the oppressed and the poor, past or present. It is mostly a self-confessional cult of anointed bullies, and hypocrites of all races and genders, who seek to flex, and increase, their own privilege and power. Period.
Tucker Carlson: Pilot ability no longer matters to United Airlines, but skin color does (Fox 04/08/2021)
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On his very first day in office, Joe Biden signed something called an "Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities."

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You ought to read it and see if you can figure out what it means. The document uses the term "equity" a total of 21 times, yet, revealingly, never defines the word.

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So, what is equity? Joe Biden never tells us, never even hints. His order proclaims that America will be getting "an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda."

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So whatever it is, equity is ambitious, and it will be everywhere. We know that it will be everywhere. But we're not allowed to know what it is. That's odd.

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For three months, we've been trying to guess: What is this "equity" that is now our country's main reason for existing? We know it's not the same as "equality," or even closely related.

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In the name of equity, for example, the Biden administration supports open discrimination against Asian college applicants. They're Asian, therefore they can't get in to school. It's that simple.

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We used to call that kind of behavior "racism" and had laws against it. Now we call it "equity" and we have laws demanding it. It turns out that racism and equity are pretty much the same thing. Who knew?

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Here's the latest illustration of the principle, and it comes not from the Biden Administration, but from United Airlines. United used to be a conventional commercial air carrier. It flew airplanes from place to place, most of the time uneventfully. That was the old United Airlines.

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The new United is very different. It's a combination of a hyper-aggressive corporate HR department, and a left-wing political action committee. The new United is big on moral pronouncements and mandatory social engineering. United has embraced equity. Here's its latest directive, spelled out yesterday on Twitter:...

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"Our flight deck should reflect the diverse group of people on board our planes every day. That's why we plan for 50% of the 5,000 pilots we train in the next decade to be women or people of color."

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When Coca-Cola embraces some equity scheme, you can understand why: they're hoping that by hiring more Black executives, no one will ask how many Black Americans have gotten diabetes from drinking Coke. For Coca-Cola, equity is purely a defensive PR move, and it makes sense.

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But airlines are different. An airline pilot transports hundreds of people at a time in a thin-walled metal tube going nearly 600 miles an hour, 35,000 feet off the ground.

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Flying a commercial airliner is dangerous. Like performing heart surgery, no matter how many times you've done it, it's inherently high stakes. People die if you screw up. In the airline business, as in medicine, not killing people is all that matters.

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So, how will racial and gender quotas make United Airlines safer? That's the only question that matters.

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"Only 7% of United pilots are female!" fretted CBS. "Only 13% aren't White!" OK, but why exactly should we care about those numbers? An airline pilot's job is to land the plane safely. Everything else is irrelevant.

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If 100% of United pilots were Black women, or Malaysian Muslims, or for that matter, White men from Alabama, not a single sane person would complain about it as long as the airplanes didn't crash. Safety is all that matters.

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But you'll notice the CEO of United didn't mention safety. Safety is no longer that airline's top concern. Identity politics is. United will dispute that characterization, of course.

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... in the airline business, there's only one standard that matters, and it's not race or gender. It's competence. The way people look is totally irrelevant. How they perform is all that matters. Once you forget that, airplanes tend to crash.

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Everyone knows that's true, very much including the people who run this country. Many of them don't fly United. They don't fly commercial.

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They use NetJets, the largest private airline in the world. Has NetJets embraced equity or hiring quotas? Of course not. Check out the NetJets website if you have a minute.

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They'll tell you exactly what they're looking for in an airline pilot they hire. Here's the first line: "We seek individuals who demonstrate an unwavering dedication to safety." That's the first requirement on their list. We couldn't find any mention of race and gender.

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That shouldn't surprise you, because once again, race and gender are literally irrelevant to who flies your airplane. Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry and the rest of our private-jet-dependent ruling class know that perfectly well. They won't be demanding quotas at NetJets any time soon. Their families fly on NetJets airplanes.

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So if hiring on the basis of irrelevant criteria will, over time, get people killed, why are they demanding it? Because they don't care. They're ideologues.

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They're suffering from an incurable brain disease called wokeness. Reality means nothing to them. It's merely an impediment to their plans.

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... the CEO of United is saying ... that we need to replace the pilots currently flying airplanes because they're the wrong skin color. Only diseased people think like this. Imagine if we applied this same standard to other professions. How about professional sports?

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African-American men account for roughly 6% of the American population, yet about 75% of players in the National Basketball Association are Black men. That doesn't sound like equity.

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So what if, to remedy that lack of equity, the NBA announced tomorrow that going forward, at least half of its players had to be White, Asian, Hispanic or female to better represent the fans in the stands?

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How would we respond to that? We'd understand immediately, and we would say so, that it's a racist policy.

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No one had even alleged that NBA players were doing a bad job. We'd all assumed, correctly, as we do with airline pilots, that the players were hired in the first place because they were the very best players the NBA could find. But nevertheless they had to be replaced because they were the wrong race and gender.

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That's sick. You think it couldn't happen? Why wouldn't it happen? By the logic of identity politics, it has to happen. NBA players make a lot more than airline pilots. At some point, someone will notice that.

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That's the whole problem with this diseased way of thinking. You don't want to live in a completely racialized country, where a person's genetics are the most important thing about them. Where you are dehumanized and reduced to your DNA.

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But that's exactly the society they're creating. And what's the result of what they're doing? Every action provokes a reaction. That's the most basic principle in physics. When you attack people for qualities they can't control, over time you will make them radical. That's guaranteed.

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You've got to wonder if it's ever occurred to the morons pushing this equity garbage that everyone on earth has an identity. If you make identity politics mandatory, and they have, how long until you get White identity politics? Ever consider that, you reckless fools?

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How long before there is no national identity at all, only warring tribes fighting each other for the spoils? Does anyone want to raise children in a society like that? Only the racists want that. But that's exactly where they're pushing us, and at high speed.

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See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Judge Andrew Napolitano: The tyranny of the majority (Fox 04/08/2021)
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"Which is better — to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or three thousand tyrants one mile away?" — Rev. Mather Blyes (1706-1788)

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Does it really matter if the instrument curtailing liberty is a monarch or a popularly elected legislature? This conundrum, along with the witty version of it put to a Boston crowd in 1775 by the little-known colonial-era preacher ... addresses the age-old question of whether liberty can survive in a democracy.

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Blyes was a loyalist, who, along with about one-third of the American adult white male population in 1776, opposed the American Revolution and favored continued governance by Great Britain.

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He didn't fight for the king or agitate against George Washington's troops, he merely warned of the dangers of too much democracy.

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No liberty-minded thinker I know of seriously argues today in favor of a hereditary monarchy, but many of us are fearful of an out-of-control hybrid democracy, which is what we have in America today.

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I say "hybrid" because, there remains in our federal structure a few safeguards against run-away democracy such as, the equal state representation in the Senate, the Electoral College, the state control of federal elections and life-tenured federal judges and justices.

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... the Senate as originally crafted did not consist of popularly elected senators. Rather, they were appointed by state legislatures to represent the sovereign states as states, not the people in them.

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Part of James Madison's genius was the construction of the federal government as a three-sided table. The first side stood for the people — the House of Representatives. The second side stood for the sovereign states — the Senate. And the third side stood for the nation-state — the presidency. The judiciary, whose prominent role today was unthinkable in 1789, was not part of this mix.

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In his famous Bank Speech, Madison argued eloquently against legislation chartering a national bank because the authority to create a bank was not only not present in the Constitution but also was retained by the states and reserved to them by the Tenth Amendment.

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In that speech, he warned the creeping expansion of the federal government would trample the powers of the states and also the unenumerated rights of the people that the Ninth Amendment — his pride and joy because it protected natural rights — prohibited the government from denying or disparaging.

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Had Madison been alive during the presidency of the anti-Madison Woodrow Wilson — who gave us World War I, the Federal Reserve, the administrative state and the federal income tax — he would have recoiled at a president destroying the three-sided table.

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Wilson did that by leading the campaign to amend the Constitution so as to provide for the direct popular election of senators.

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Nor would Madison have stomached the efforts today by liberal Democrats to amend the Constitution to provide for the direct popular election of the president.

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Part of Madison's genius was to craft anti-democratic elements into the Constitution. And some of them — like retaining state sovereignty — created laboratories of liberty.

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Ronald Reagan reminded the American public in his first inaugural address that the states formed the federal government, not the other way around.

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Reagan also famously said that we could vote with our feet. If you don't like the over-the-top regulations in Massachusetts, you can move to New Hampshire. If you are fed up with the highest state taxes in the union in New Jersey, you can move to Pennsylvania.

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But the more state sovereignty the feds absorb — the more state governance that is federalized — the fewer differences there are among the regulatory and taxing structures of the states.

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If Congress wants to regulate an area of human behavior that is clearly beyond its constitutional competence, it bribes the states to do so with borrowed or Federal Reserve-created cash.

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The states are partly to blame for this as well. They take whatever cash Congress offers and they accept the strings that come with it. And they, too, are tyrants.

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Blyes feared a government of 3,000. Today, the feds employ close to 3 million. Thomas Jefferson warned that when the federal treasury becomes a federal trough, and the people recognize it as such, they would only send to Washington politicians — faithless to the Constitution — who promise to bring home the most cash.

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And the majority will take whatever it wants from the minority that cherishes limited government, private property and personal liberty.
Intentional illegal migration chaos (INN 04/07/2021)
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Why is the U.S. government intentionally engaging in mass child abuse, encouraging a criminal invasion of the country, and aiding in the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases in violation of its national security and the CDC guidelines?

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Why has the Biden Administration encouraged and then launched an illegal invasion into the country? What could be its motivation?

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The President and the leaders of the Democrat Party are globalists and are keeping their campaign promise for "open borders" to the U.S.. They are doing so regardless of the cost and chaos that they have created.

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The Administration is supported by large corporations looking for cheap labor.

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Democrat leaders are interested in flooding Texas and other Republican states with illegal immigrants who, the Democrats hope, would later vote for Democrat candidates and help turn the once "Red" states into "Blue"states.

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The Biden administration and the leaders of the neo-Marxist Democrat Party intend to apply pardon millions of illegals.

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Their hope is that these immigrants – who according to the Administration's new voting plans, will not require IDs – would vote for Democrats.

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This would assist the Dems in creating one-party rule ‘forever', as in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.

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So, what can the 95% of the law-abiding Americans do to protect themselves from a lawless, irresponsible, immoral, and increasingly tyrannical federal government?

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The governors of the 25-30 states that still believe in the Constitution and rule-of-law must unite to save the Constitutional Republic and its citizens.

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These governors must flood the court systems with lawsuits against the violations of local, state, and federal laws committed by the Federal government, seeking immediate injunctions to prevent further violations and harm.

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Wealthy patriotic Americans should immediately invest in creating new media and social media platforms that could counter the ‘fake news', censorship, and disinformation that the corrupt, Democrat-controlled media is producing, and provide unbiased information and opinions to all Americans and the world.

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Does it sound like 1776 all over again? Or is it 1861, again, when the Confederates (Democrats) declared war against the Unionists (Republicans) in order to perpetuate slavery?

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Past Time to Fight Back (JWR 04/07/2021)
Justice Thomas: When the courts will rule on social media (JWR 04/07/2021)
New York City is in a death spiral – its ultimate destruction now appears inevitable (Fox 04/07/2021)
Hunter and how the Left rescues its scoundrels (INN 04/06/2021)
Putin v. American Left: No comparison (JWR 04/06/2021)
Deroy Murdock: Under Biden, our southern border has become a crime scene (Fox 04/06/2021)
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The border criminals include every illegal alien who invades America without permission. They undermine U.S. sovereignty, fleece beleaguered American taxpayers, and mock millions of immigrants who arrive legally.

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Even more nefarious are apprehensions of aliens with criminal convictions. ... "That's alarming, and suggests that the criminal aliens feel empowered by Biden's welcome-wagon policies."

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Even more menacing ... three Yemenis and a Serb on the FBI's Terrorism Watch List have been nabbed at the border since October.

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Meanwhile, Biden's human-trafficking bonanza is huge business for seriously bad guys.

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If those who seek better lives in America visited U.S. embassies, acquired visas, and landed at American airports, most of this chaos and mayhem would go unperpetrated.

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Instead, this new administration has engineered the conditions under which international hoodlums prey on, profit from, and even kill other human beings.

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In just more than two months, a "nice guy" named Joe Biden has distinguished himself as the trans-border criminal's best friend.

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Tucker Carlson: Biden administration lying to Americans, hiding key facts about the border crisis (Fox 04/06/2021)
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In the fall of 2018, not long before that year's midterm elections, President Donald Trump ordered a small group of active-duty soldiers to the American border with Mexico.

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In some ways, sending the troops was a symbolic gesture. Only about 5,000 participated. For perspective, that is about half the number of troops that the Democratic Congress sent to Washington this winter to protect itself from an imaginary QAnon threat.

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"Deploying troops to our own border for no national security reason is one of the biggest scandals of his presidency," declared Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, with what looked like carefully simulated outrage.

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The so-called "national security community" claimed to be every bit as upset as their partners in the Democratic Party. "It's a craven misuse of the U.S. armed forces for an obvious political stunt," said a former National Security Council staffer called Kelly Magsamen.

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How is the border doing these days? ... Well, our military is still involved in the immigration crisis, but not in the ways that you might expect.

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American troops are now occupied serving the needs, not of Americans, but of foreign nationals who have flagrantly violated our laws. The Biden administration is turning our military bases into housing for illegal aliens.

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So you break into our country and in return we give you free housing and medical care. What's interesting is to note who's not getting that treatment.

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Last night, more than 500,000 Americans spent the night in makeshift shelters or on the streets. They're homeless, but the Biden administration isn't even considering the use of the U.S. military to help them, despite the fact that many are veterans.

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Instead, the administration is boasting about all they're doing for the people who have demonstrated pure contempt for our system, the system that some of us prefer and would like to preserve.

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Sources familiar with internal Customs and Border Protection data have confirmed ... that officers so far have encountered 171,000 illegal immigrants in the month of March alone.

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That's a 418% increase from March of last year. But that does not represent the total of people who crossed over.

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Those are the ones who were caught, the ones that we know about. The real number is higher, much higher.

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How high is it? High enough to change this country forever in every conceivable way. High enough to devalue your political power as a voter. High enough to subvert democracy itself. High enough to make this country a different place.
Greg Gutfeld: 'Gutfeld!' is here to scare the people who love to scare you (Fox 04/06/2021)
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I like bashing creeps in power, those stupid talking pinatas in politics, entertainment and especially the news media because they're all the same people — or in Mark Zuckerberg's case, things that look like people.

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It's also because the only way they make money is by making people hate each other. It's not enough to say respectful disagreement makes less money. You have to say it's racist.

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That's why to them, Twitter is a news source. It created "cancel culture," a crowdsourced version of a hit piece, a GoFundMe page for character assassination.

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The press used to write these hit pieces themselves. Now they encourage steel cage matches so they can sell ads and ratings, repurposing tweets into click bait because it's profitable.

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Cancer culture is to the media what an ATM in the lobby of a casino is to an addicted gambler. It's democratized media destruction, putting a Joker mask on reality and declaring everything is not debatable.

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But their power is an illusion. Their numbers are small. It's just that their constant noise scares the hell out of corporations.

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Look what's happening to Delta. They're more scared of tweets than of birds flying into their engines.

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Clearly, these cowards got spooked by activists manipulating the media, because how is voter ID immoral?

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Meanwhile, the president calls Georgia's new election law "Jim Crow on steroids". Yeah, the so-called great unifier now flinging racial discord like Frisbees at a fish show.

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In fact, screw all corporations. You stupid executives are cowards and bad golfers. You cheat on your taxes and you cheat on each other.

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Maybe I'm turning socialist, but after years of proclaiming corporations as engines of free markets, I realize they're actually locomotives run by meth heads who'd do anything to save their own hides.

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No matter how many inclusion coordinators they hire, they'll turn a blind eye to China's slave labor, knowing that adding a diversity fun run to whatever History Month is currently celebrated will stoke the woke in human resources.

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It's their way of doing business, no different than a bodega putting up a BLM sign so hopefully their store will survive the next demonstration.

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That's our job, to scare the people who delight in scaring you. ... It's time to turn this one-way road into a two-way street.

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Think of it as part of Biden's infrastructure package, except it's real and it costs several trillion dollars less.
Eli Steele: Justice for George Floyd from honking horns? (Fox 04/05/2021)
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Outside the courthouse, a motley band of Black Lives Matter activists had commandeered the intersection of 3rd Avenue and 5th Street.

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They waved their flags, staking claim to this piece of land. The police were nowhere to be seen. As each car rolled up to the intersection, the driver was subjected to a trial of sorts.

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They could honk in support of justice for George Floyd or risk having their cars swarmed by activists, the implication being they were racists and on the wrong side of America.

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Of course, there was something unpleasant about this so-called display of activism. There seemed to be no higher purpose or calling at work here – how exactly was this advancing justice for George Floyd?

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... there were a handful of drivers who honked enthusiastically in support. Most drivers, however, gave what seemed to be token honks in order to get on with their day.

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Then there were those who refused to honk and that's when the activists and media swarmed. Would the drivers lose their cool, spout something racist or slam the gas pedal and ram the activists, reenacting Tiananmen Square in their own minds?

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What gave Black Lives Matter their tremendous power was that they used Floyd's death to seize the mantle of moral authority in America.

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They knew every American's greatest fear is the label of racist and they used the death of a man to divide America into two camps: racist and antiracists.

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The only way to become an antiracist was to subscribe to the Black Lives Matter ideology, which included critical race theory.

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But like those activists outside of the courthouse, the goal here for Black Lives Matter was not true justice but conformity to an ideology that reduces us all to skin tone.

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Perhaps that is why there was a momentary burst of excitement every time a driver resisted the urge to honk.

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Would that driver be the one to expose what was truly happening or to challenge the moral authority of these activists?

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In the end, every single driver that I saw gave in and honked. They were no different from the countless parents who complained to me that they were afraid to challenge race-based education policies in their children's schools out of fear of being seen as a racist or Uncle Tom.

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The civil rights foot soldiers knew that holding onto their principles no matter the cost – personally and professionally – was the only way to swing back the pendulum of moral authority from the ideologues to the people.

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After all, they knew that a democracy lives or dies by the discipline and courage of its citizens.

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They paved the way for us with their righteous sacrifices and steadfast beliefs in the American values and we are on the verge of betraying everything they fought for.
Hunter Biden's laptop – end of media cover-up for president, family would be beautiful thing (Fox 04/05/2021)
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In a TV interview, Hunter effectively conceded for the first time the laptop was his, opening the door to a new round of scrutiny about his foreign business scams and influence peddling. This time, the door must stay open until America gets the truth.

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... because Democrats and their media mouthpieces tried to hide the truth, emails revealing suspicious conduct of the man who is now president have never been fully examined and explained.

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So far, all we've gotten are lies, as when Joe Biden called the laptop "a Russian plant" during a presidential debate. He had help in concocting that claim, with 50 former intelligence leaders, including the odious John Brennan, saying that the contents smelled like Russian disinformation.

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That was a dog whistle for Big Media, which tried to debunk stories about the shocking content. ... with Facebook and Twitter promptly blocking The Post's reports during the stretch run.

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The performance was a national embarrassment – and a successful dirty trick that helped Biden win the election.

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How successful became clearer in a poll where 45% of his voters said they didn't know about Hunter's business deals, and 9.4% said they would not have voted for Biden had they known.

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Weeks later, in December, Hunter admitted he was the target of a criminal tax probe by the Department of Justice, in part because the FBI also had the laptop's contents. How convenient that the information held until after the election.

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While I'm not naive enough to assume The New York Times, CNN and Twitter will suddenly become anything other than leftist shills, they no longer have a monopoly on the information many Americans get.

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Moreover, as president, Biden cannot hide as easily as he did last year. Press conferences provide journalists opportunities to ask him directly about his role in Hunter's deals.

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It's way past time Joe Biden answers questions about how his family, including brothers Jim and Frank, managed to make tens of millions of dollars off contracts and connections to Joe's government power.

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The short answer is that they were selling access and foreign governments and oligarchs were happy to buy at exorbitant prices.

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The best known scam, Hunter getting $4 million from Burisma, the corrupt Ukrainian energy company, despite knowing nothing about energy or Ukraine, sums up the family business model.

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See related Biden Bible (Fuller, 12/2020)") cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Election Interference (Antonio Branco, 10/16/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
America's True Believers and Their Gutless Enablers (04/10/2021)
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... the countless, less visible who have lost jobs, lost businesses, lost reputations, lost friends. The schlubs. The cautionary tales. Those who have been cautioned, made to comply, squeezed into the Procrustean Bed of identitarian absolutism.

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We know who's to blame for this surreality: the True Believers. The children of Park Slope and Echo Park with their graphic tattoos and nut allergies and an odd inability to form complete sentences.

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The neurotic, anxious twentysomethings who went to college to be told that "truth" is a white male construct, who seem devoid of poetry or irony, who believe mean words, words with which they disagree, are like ICBMs.

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Those whose lives are circumscribed by galactic reservoirs of ignorance — about the past, the culture, themselves, about why they believe what they know to be good and indisputable.

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Those who know only how to perform, and who rely on acronyms and slogans and logical fallacies when asked: how can you be sure of that?

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But children are children. They can only be blamed so much. The real wrongdoers are the Enablers. The so-called adults.

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The tech founders and college presidents and newspaper editors and museum directors and bank CEOs who pretend that the fight for "justice" is just.

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Who pretend that the "equity" crusade is about fairness and not about defending the grotesque inequality between those who have been trained to think correctly and those who have not.

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We forget this sometimes. We forget that there are people with the power to turn off this nonsense.

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Those who made room for the new radicals in the first place, who fired the miscreants, who issued apologies, who pleaded for understanding, who stayed silent, who adopted the new lingo, who made promises, who laughed nervously, who promised to do better, to "do the work," to unlearn.

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They are vulnerable to this idiocy because of fear. They fear becoming staid. They fear being on the wrong side of history.

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And anyway it's hard to say no, to tell one's audience things it does not want to hear. They fret about the microscopic: the tarnishing of their brand, the shrinking of their network, a difficult conversation, an angry tweet.

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They seem oblivious to that which matters: legacy, value, meaning, the stewardship of the institutions they ostensibly lead.

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The Enablers fail to grasp that, by enabling, they marginalize themselves. That every time they kowtow to their subordinates in a ploy to remain relevant they advertise their creeping irrelevance.

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The gap between their superficial and actual power, between their status and the waning value of that status, is widening.

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They wouldn't put it this way. They prefer to inhabit a make-believe world. They prefer to imagine that we face one crisis when, in fact, we face another.

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The real crisis is the unraveling of the postwar American order: the hollowing out of vast swatches of the American hinterland, the unaffordability of our big cities, the emergence of this lackluster in between, this gig economy, which feels like a very prolonged, bad joke.

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But doing something about this real crisis is hard, and the Enablers are weak. They lack imagination, and they care too much about hoarding status and clinging to power to do anything to solve the real problems, which might require sacrifice.

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So they accommodate the True Believers and embrace the never-ending search for hate. They pretend to be all in. But they're not, and everyone knows it.

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The disconnect between the True Believer and the Enabler — between what the Enablers pretend to be and what they are — is reflected in their vacillation, their defensive crouch...

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The Enablers worry that just reacting to the True Believers' demands, playing defense, won't suffice. They worry the True Believers are onto them. (They are.) To persuade the True Believers they're also True Believers, the Enablers go on offense.

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The enabling has been going on, out of view, for years. But in 2020, during the Summer of Biblical Forces, the summer of pestilence, isolation, fear, death, protest, riot, chaos and the fires of a thousand cities converging on the American psyche, the Enablers openly embraced the True Believers. They advertised their love. They tweeted it. Or at least their assistants did.

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The True Believers, who had been proselytizing and canceling and Twitter-mobbing for years, were catapulted to the highest echelons of the American power structure.

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The famous-people cancellations sky-rocketed. So did the denials of those cancellations. Cancelling, we were told, wasn't canceling. It was holding bad people "accountable."

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Now, the long knives were coming out, and the angers were crescendoing, and there was this feeling, in the ether, that everything — processes, norms, the constitution — had to be torpedoed in the service of The Cause.

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A paralyzing fear percolated down. To the office scribes. The time-clockers. The people who were seething and stuck in their apartments. The whispering, the accusing, the snitching, the bad-faith mischaracterizing.

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The twentysomethings who had taken to saying, you can't say that, and the fortysomethings scrambling to adapt...

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The Enablers, in this moment of great national angst, were relieved the True Believers were angry at other people. They were happy to feed the beast. To enable the Jig of Wokeness.

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Wokeness, to the likes of Lead Belly, meant vigilance. In the current climate, it means deplatforming or firing people for nonexistent crimes, for questioning dogma, for not signaling one's antiracism with enough passion.

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It is not about equality of opportunity, but equality of result. It is about redistribution or revenge justified by centuries of other people's suffering.

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This line of reasoning is indefensible, and the Enablers know it or should know it. And if they don't, they're unfit to lead.

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You do not share in the suffering of other people, even if you have the same skin color, so you do not derive any moral authority from that suffering.

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And even if you did derive some moral authority from it, it would not justify making other people suffer.

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But the Enablers won't — can't — say any of this. To the extent they still possess any authority, that authority derives from their support for the True Believers.

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They have the technology and political will to make other people unemployable, to upend their personal lives, to curb that which is said or debated, to force grown-ups to voice unpopular opinions behind closed doors, in hushed voices, away from their children, lest their children repeat something they shouldn't have heard.
Tucker Carlson: 'No one should care' what 'race baiter' AOC thinks about border crisis (Fox 04/01/2021)
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"It's just interesting to come to a place where a low IQ race-baiter like that has an important voice in national policy. Like, who cares what she thinks? She is totally reckless and she's racist, like openly. I think the key to this, though, is to think clearly about what's best for the United States."

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"Obviously, the border policy now is a disaster. To be fair, it's been a disaster for a long time and doesn't serve the interests of most Americans, and it won't because people like that use the magic word, which is racism, to cow the rest of the country into submission."

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"She wants to change the population. She wants her party to be more powerful. I get it. But we're allowing her and people like her to do that because we're afraid of being called names."

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"Until decent people would shed their fear of being smeared by someone whose opinion you really shouldn't care about, that we're never going to have a rational immigration policy that helps everybody."

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"And one last thing. How does it help Ecuador or El Salvador or Guatemala or any of the countries from which these people are coming to have your most ambitious people leave? It's a disaster for them, too."

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"And for us, it doesn't help any good person to have this kind of uncontrolled migration into our country. ... No one should care what she thinks."
Tucker Carlson on NBC anchor Lester Holt's 'grotesque' idea of media fairness (Fox 04/01/2021)
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"They're grotesque. Fairness is never overrated ... If you don't strive to be fair, you are certain to commit moral atrocities, but again, not just true for network newsreaders. By the way, when did newsreaders become philosophers? I think Lester Holt seems like a perfectly nice guy, but you don't turn to Lester Holt for deepthink. The truth is, he's saying that we know what we know, and we shouldn't question it, when in fact the reality of life suggests that's completely wrong."

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... said Holt's viewpoint was arrogant, given there are plenty of things people may think they know but actually don't.

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"We, for thousands of years, imagined that the sun revolved around the Earth, The point of journalism is to continuously press against what we think we know, demand evidence, and show it to the public. It's not to affirm what the ruling class declares, which is basically what he's saying. It's demented, actually."

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... Holt and other elite reporters' worldview was to "make the other side shut up" and run interference for the world's most powerful people.

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"That's like a perfect inversion of what journalism is supposed to be. It's supposed to, in the famous formulation, make the powerful uncomfortable and comfort the afflicted. But that's the opposite of what it does."

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"They take the weakest people in our society and they hurt them, and then they suck up to the most powerful. That's why everyone hates them, and for good reason."
No, the Derek Chauvin Trial Isn't a Referendum on American Racism (JWR 03/31/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Unsafe cities, divisive mainstream media the real legacy of George Floyd's death (Fox 03/30/2021)
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If your job is to make Americans hate each other, if your job is to divide the country (and that's how they see their job), the opportunity to talk about George Floyd all day is like your Super Bowl.

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It's not about George Floyd, obviously; it never was. No one on CNN cared about George Floyd while he was alive. He was unemployed and on drugs.

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Like a lot of people in this country, they paid him no attention. For that matter, no one on CNN actually cares about George Floyd now. What they care about is you and your role in the systemic racism that supposedly killed George Floyd.

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If the Floyd trial ends in acquittal, there could be riots. We accept that as a fact of life in this country. No civilized country should, but suddenly we do.

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If there are riots, innocent people may die, as they did in large numbers this summer. CNN will downplay those deaths or justify them as they did this summer and as they have so many times before when those deaths are politically convenient.

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The point isn't to save people from dying. The point is to punish you and to change America. So from that perspective, it's worth it.

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That's why they're replaying that video of George Floyd dying in the sidewalk, to remind you of your culpability in his death. That's why, even as they rub the country's face in the death of George Floyd, there are many other tragic deaths — some on video — they ignore completely.

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Here's one: A 66-year-old Pakistani immigrant called Mohammad Anwar died in Washington recently. As in George Floyd's case, Anwar's death was on video. Unlike George Floyd, Mohammad Anwar was not a violent career criminal with a drug habit.

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He worked at the very bottom of the so-called gig economy and made his living driving for Uber Eats. It's a tough gig.

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On Tuesday, he was driving near Nationals Park in southeast Washington when two girls assaulted him with a Taser.

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The girls were 13 and 15 years old. Mohammad Anwar resisted. It was his car, the key to his living, and he didn't want to lose it.

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Anwar's last words were, "This is my car", and it was. Bystanders watched all of this happen, but no one stepped forward to help Mohammad Anwar.

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The two girls hit the gas, flipping the car over. Anwar flew out of the vehicle and landed face down on the sidewalk, dead. The girls who killed him didn't seem bothered by this.

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"My phone is in there! My phone!" one of them screamed. She cared more about her phone than the life of the man she just killed.

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This raises all kinds of questions, not only about them, but about us. What kind of society produced children like this?

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Who raised them? What does it say about our country that no one jumped in to help this poor man before he was killed?

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Like clockwork, six months after they defunded the police department, Washington, D.C., recorded its highest murder rate in 15 years. When you defund the police, people die. That happens every single time.

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And that's why Mayor Muriel Bowser must surround herself with cops. She doesn't want to get hurt, though she doesn't care if you do.

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They defunded the police across the country, and our leaders are ignoring the consequences. Some places are doubling down.

•
So Baltimore has equity now. What a relief. ... What does that look like? Last week, Baltimore recorded seven murders in six days. That's a killing every day of the week, plus two on Saturday.

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That's deeply equitable and it's happening in cities across the country. Once again, no one's noticing this, but if you live in one, you well know what's happening.

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This is happening everywhere is we advance toward a full year of mourning the death of a single man on the sidewalk in Minneapolis. Thousands of Americans have been murdered thanks to the policy changes justified by the death of that man.

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Ponder that for a minute. Has there ever been a more perverse moment in this country?

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It's not clear what we can do about it, but you can start by telling the truth out loud. According to The Washington Examiner, the murder rate in virtually every city in the United States is at its highest levels in more than two decades.

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Last year, there were more homicides in the United States than in any year since 1998. How did that happen?

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Oh, BLM. Thanks, BLM. BLM did this to us while the people who are funding them were posturing about how great they are and how this is going to make America more equitable.

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Poor people were paying the price with their lives. #No one has admitted this, no one is accepting responsibility for it, and no one has been punished for it.

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It's not all political. The 13 and 15-year-old girls who killed the Pakistani Uber Eats driver weren't acting out of political solidarity with anybody. What is that exactly? Why do people do that?

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... if you took the out of wedlock birthrate, broke it down by demographic group, and put it next to the crime rate, one thing you notice they track exactly or close enough to suggest a profound connection.

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Why is no one interested in pursuing that? No one even asks why this is happening.

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... if you look away from the propaganda and you look toward the reality of what's happening to your country on the streets of Washington or Chicago or Minneapolis, you might have a few questions for the people in power.

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They're the ones who created this society. They're the ones responsible, and that's exactly the conversation they don't want to have.
Biden worsens border mess – here's how adversaries view fragile admin's self-induced crisis (Fox 03/28/2021)
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In just a few days, the administration went from proclaiming there is "no [crisis] ... the border is closed" to announcing that Vice President Harris has been tapped to fix the crisis-that-isn't-a-crisis.

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Then a vice presidential spokesperson declared that the VP is not in charge; she's just undertaking a diplomatic outreach to Latin America.

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Finally, speaking for himself, Biden had nothing to add but the same blame game and excuse-making that his team has been peddling for days.

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... Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly emphasized the administration's intent to continue accepting unaccompanied minors.

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By saying the government won't stop this abuse of the immigration system, administration officials are literally telling the human smugglers how to game the system and get the maximum number of illegal aliens into the U.S. as quickly and efficiently as possible.

•
At the same time, the administration promotes major amnesty bills, two of which have already passed the House.

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Amnesty bills also spur illegal immigration. The cartels use them as recruiting tools, making the case that NOW is the time to come to the U.S. "They will let you in. They will let you stay. Strike while the iron is hot."

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... reporter recently interviewed a person who crossed the border, he admitted he came because Biden had been elected – that he would never have tried if Trump was still president. No wonder they are coming wearing Biden T-shirts.

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When President Obama's policies signaled open borders in 2014, public outrage led his administration to reinstitute some controls – measures close to what Trump later perfected.

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Similarly, when Europe was flooded with immigrants, the problem was out of control until European governments finally adopted Trumpian measures.

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Biden's border crisis will not go away unless Harris follows this proven path. So far, however, the White House is loath to follow Trump's lead, even when it's demonstrably the right step to take.

•
Meanwhile, the president seems disconnected, barely talking to reporters, offering vague promises of future visits to the border, and refusing to admit that the problem flows from what is just bad policy.

•
Trump's policies were, at root, not partisan. They were just realistic.

•
Biden's team, however, seems bent on following a hard-left ideology, even if sticking with proven, non-leftist policies make the best sense for American interests.

•
This may suggest to America's adversaries some promising avenues for needling the administration.

•
A seemingly disengaged president, a penchant for pushing a radical agenda over practical policies, and a willingness to hide the truth about their failures rather than face and fix problems ... that's a formula bad guys can play with.

•
What's happening on our southern border makes the U.S. administration looks fragile, insecure and distracted. Iran, North Korea, China and Russia must all be thinking, "How can we take advantage of that?"

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Democrats gaslighting with 'Jim Crow' election law claims; trying to 'import' new voters (Fox 03/28/2021)
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... the Democrat Party represents Black America like plantation owners represented slaves, the irony here being is that the Democrats were the slave owners [in the 1800s]."

•
On Friday, Biden called a new Georgia state election law "Jim Crow in the 21st Century." The law strengthens voter identification procedures, shortens the absentee voting window, and prohibits distributing "money or gifts, including, but not limited to, food and drink" to people waiting in line to vote.

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"They're using language, referring to things like Jim Crow, Who was the party that implemented Jim Crow in this country? It was the Democrats."

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"That's the deep, sinister evil of the Democrat Party, that they're really just rewriting what they authored in the beginning."

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"These were the slave-masters, and they understand the system better than anybody else because they wrote it. It is it is the fabric of the Democrat Party."

•
... compared critical race theory to the way the Slave Codes in the 19th Century South prohibited Black people from learning how to read or write.

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"They understand that an educated mind can not be enslaved, They need to make sure there are no educated minds. What better way to ensure that than to pretend that you're educating Black Americans, but instead you're filling our minds with absolute filth, making us see the world in Black and White?"

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"... they're now broadening their reach and saying, you know what, not just Black America ... [because] the growth rate population-wise, is not significant enough. So now they're bringing in a new class of voters."

•
... the border "crisis" is not a crisis, but an intentional "border plan" by Biden and the Democrats to import a new electorate and displace American citizens.

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"They are trying to import a new class of voters. They are trying to say to the [migrants] coming over the border, 'We will help you. We'll give you free stuff like we gave Black Americans free stuff ... after Jim Crow ended, we're going to welfare-ize you'."

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... the Democrats plan to "marry" the new migrants to the government: "like we married Black Americans to the government. It's pure evil."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Dreamer (Glenn McCoy, 09/15/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: US military has gone full woke, waging war on those who disagree with them (Fox 03/27/2021)
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Special Operations Command is very significant in the U.S. military, and in our country.

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It oversees Delta Force, the SEAL teams and the rest of our most-celebrated, best-trained and most lethal war-fighters.

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The tweet announced that a man called Richard Torres-Estrada is now the, "Chief of Diversity & Inclusion" of America's Special Forces.

•
The question is: wWho exactly is Richard Torres-Estrada? His Facebook page gives us some indication of who he is.

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On it, you'll find an attack on the police, you'll find crude BLM propaganda, you'll find a picture of Donald Trump holding a Bible in front of a church.

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Next to Trump is a photograph of Adolf Hitler. The point is, they're the same. So, this is the guy who now oversees hiring for the SEALs.

•
If you're wondering whether our military leadership has gone woke, consider that question settled for good. The Pentagon is now the Yale faculty lounge, but with cruise missiles. That should concern you.

•
Meanwhile, the rest of the world rolls on and gets more menacing by the day. Tonight, the Suez Canal, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, is blocked by a stranded container ship.

•
Was it an accident? Maybe. Maybe not. We don't know. What we do know is the Suez Canal is vital to the world's economy. That's not an overstatement.

•
The Suez Canal is one of about a dozen strategic choke points that control virtually all global trade. Now it's closed.

•
This is a challenge to America's critical national interests. How is the Pentagon responding to this challenge to critical American interests? They're occupied with other things right now.

•
For the last month, the entire U.S. military has been operating under a so-called "stand-down" order issued by the new Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, the defense contractor who is now running the military.

•
Lloyd Austin believes the real threat to America is not the Chinese government or paralyzed global trade. The real threat is people who didn't vote for Joe Biden.

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"And if confirmed, I will fight hard to stamp out sexual assault and to rid our ranks of racists and extremists ... The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies. But we can't do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks."

•
Forty-three Senate Republicans voted to confirm Lloyd Austin, and they have said virtually nothing about him since, because they're paralyzed. They're paralyzed because Lloyd Austin has no problem calling his opponents racist immediately.

•
"Ridding our ranks of racists and extremists." The key question is, how does Lloyd Austin define a racist or extremist? The definition matters. This show has been denounced as a dangerous White supremacist organ for the crime of reading Martin Luther King quotes on the air.

•
So it's worth finding out what those words mean. But Lloyd Austin doesn't provide a definition. That's not accidental, because what you're seeing is not an attempt to make the military better. What you're seeing is a political purge of the military.

•
"I am concerned about the way that some people are looking at the current environment and what they are thinking, they can do and act upon based on their personal beliefs."

•
Colon-Lopez said he was working hard to, "make sure that military members understand the difference between Seattle and Washington, D.C." What are those differences exactly? Here's one: BLM, he explained, is a, "social injustice organization," and therefore not extreme.

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Also, "When the military was called upon to go ahead and support an effort [in Washington], we did. We never got called for the law enforcement issue that was happening in Seattle."

•
Oh. So the mayor of Seattle never called the National Guard to put down Antifa. Therefore, Antifa isn't an extremist organization. That's ludicrous, obviously. In fact, it's not even true. In fact, the National Guard did deploy to Seattle during the riots last year.

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SENATOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH, D-ILL., MARCH 18: We absolutely need to look at any type of White supremacists that are still members of the military and how they are being targeted for recruitment by White supremacist groups and we need to weed this out ... This whole idea of police officer on police officer violence with those officers who have been turned by White extremists is really scary to me. And I know it's got to be scary for the other police officers.

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SEN. MAZIE HIRONO, D-HAWAII, MARCH 9: I am considering legislation to create a standalone punitive article in the Uniform Code of Military Justice to address violent extremism in the ranks and to send a message of deterrence, that this kind of conduct will not be tolerated in the military.

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REP DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ, D-FLA., MARCH 12: We've seen a lot of reports highlighting how many of the attackers were veterans, and there's been really a growing recognition that the military has to do more to address extremism in its ranks.

•
It's really amazing. Hirono and Duckworth are extremists. They're the most extreme members of the U.S. Senate. They went on television this week to tell us people with the wrong skin color couldn't be hired for federal jobs.

•
Every two months, senior enlisted leaders in the military gather for something called "the Commanding General's Stewardship of the Army Profession forum." In January, the forum included a "professional dialogue" on the racist hate tract "White Fragility" by lunatic Robin DiAngelo. No one condemned Robin DiAngelo's obvious extremism. They celebrated it.

•
Just last month, Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, the commander of the Air Force Education and Training Command, made it explicit. He acknowledged that the Air Force was recruiting candidates with a private pilot's license. That might seem like a wise course — flying planes is what the Air Force does — but to Lt. Gen Brad Webb, no, that's systemic racism:...

•
LT. GEN. BRAD WEBB: One of the other areas in line with that has been aptitude tests. In fact, the chief mentioned that one as well in his talk the other day. But we are deep underway updating pilot tests and also officer candidate tests that, at its root, you know, you get a weighted score ... if you have a private pilot license. Well, that's a socioeconomic influencer. In other words, if you're rich enough to afford to have private pilot time, you can get a license. That ought not be weighted in such a way that you exclude, you know, various ethnic groups.

•
The real question is: how does a doughy moron like that end up with an important job in the U.S. military? This isn't the Department of Transportation. It's not the DMV. This is a serious thing. This is the federal agency to which we give the most money and exists to protect the rest of us from foreign threats. And guys like that have power?

•
In October, the head of Air Force recruiting office, Major General Ed Thomas, published a piece on Yahoo entitled, "86% of Air Force pilots are [W]hite men. Here's why this needs to change."

•
You have to wonder what the families of the thousands of American White pilots who have died defending this country over the last hundred years think of that.

•
We had a long conversation, but he never explained the only thing that matters: How his race-mongering was supposed to make the country safer. He obviously didn't care. He clearly hadn't even thought about it.

•
How did someone like that get power in the U.S. military? There are a lot of generals like that.

•
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., represents thousands of military personnel, people who joined the services because they love the country and they want to protect it. No one is speaking up for them right now. So at a hearing in Congress the other day, Matt Gaetz did.

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GAETZ: How long until MAGA hats are considered an extremist symbol? How long until Catholic or pro-life groups or those who believe in two genders are too extreme for the ruling Woke-topians? Today is about nothing more than cancel culture coming for our military and it is disgusting.

•
Disgusting. Usually that's hyperbole. In this case, it's understatement.
Despising Liberal coercion and hypocrisy — and knowing you are not alone (INN 03/25/2021)
Disgraceful Duckworth, Hirono join progressive, Democrat history of race hatred (Fox 03/25/2021)
•
It's funny how no one really covers the big stories. Instead the news media bring us minutia, all the time. Cartloads of it.

•
A middle-aged professional golfer hurts his leg in a car accident, and the networks go wall to wall. They literally give his car crash more coverage than they give the bombing of Syria.

•
Then, a few weeks later, some weird, fake duchess from Los Angeles gives a boring interview to Oprah and we stop the presses. It's all we talk about for days. Meanwhile, something legitimately momentous happens, and it's crickets.

•
On Tuesday, for example, two sitting members of the United States Senate announced they oppose the entire foundation of American civil rights law, and then proceed to attack the core principle, the main principle, of our country.

•
Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii publicly informed the White House that until the Biden administration puts more people they like in powerful jobs, they will refuse to confirm White nominees.

•
"I am a no vote on the floor on all non-diversity nominees," Duckworth said, out loud, with cameras rolling. "I will vote for racial minorities and I will vote for LGBTQ, but anybody else, I'm not voting for."

•
And then Mazie Hirono backed her up. "Tammy's position is that until she gets a commitment from the White House that there will be more diversity representation in the Cabinet and senior White House advisory positions, she will not vote to confirm anyone who does not represent diversity. So this is not about pitting one diversity group against another. I think this is a well-articulated, focused position, and I am prepared to join her in that."

•
So here you have two actual U.S. senators announcing in public they will deny jobs to people who have the wrong skin color. That's not news?

•
In their defense, Hirono and Duckworth are well-known as the dimmest politicians in Washington. Neither one could carry a dinner conversation. But not everyone in Congress is stupid or oblivious.

•
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., certainly isn't. The Senate Majority Leader misses nothing. Chuck Schumer has spent his entire life telling us at high volume that racial discrimination is wrong, which obviously it is.

•
Then, this week, two of his colleagues went on television to demand racial discrimination. What did Chuck Schumer think of that? Schumer didn't say a word about it. No one in the Democratic Party did.

•
... whatever their motives, the fact that his happened in public and no one in power said anything about it seems like a turning point in the history of our country.

•
To recap the most basic principle we have: All Americans have an inalienable right, given by God and guaranteed by the Constitution, to be judged solely and exclusively on the basis of what they do and of what they choose.

•
Not on the basis of their race, or their genes or who their parents were. That is the entire promise of the country.

•
It's why we're different. It's why people move here from other countries. It's why we're a self-governing republic, because everyone is equal.

•
It's also, in addition to everything else, federal law. It's written down. What Mazie Hirono and Tammy Duckworth did is not simply morally repugnant (although it is). It's also illegal.

•
Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act opens this way, "No person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

•
You cannot deny an American a federal job because of his race. That is against the law, and has been for nearly 60 years.

•
Racial discrimination in government hiring is a crime. You may have heard that before. It's on the wall of every break room in every office in the United States. In fact, the Civil Rights Act may be the most famous law we have.

•
Critical race theory is not a new idea, despite what they tell you. In 1964, a third of Senate Democrats voted against the Civil Rights Act. One of those who did was a man called Robert Byrd.

•
Byrd was a strident supporter of "equity" — or, as it was called at the time, Jim Crow. In 1944, at the height of the Second World War, Robert Byrd wrote a letter to Theodore Bilbo, who represented Mississippi in the Senate. Byrd was upset that the Roosevelt administration was giving federal jobs to people with the wrong skin color. Robert Byrd was the Tammy Duckworth of his day.

•
"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side," Byrd wrote, amazingly. "Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

•
That's real. Robert Byrd wrote that. At the time, he was working as a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan, which was very much the Yale University of the time, the source of so much poison in our society.

•
Shortly after he wrote that, Byrd abandoned his Klan career, which never paid well. Instead he decided to run for office as a Democrat. Robert Byrd served in Congress for nearly 60 years.

•
When Byrd died, during Barack Obama's first term, the entire leadership of the Democratic Party came forward to slobber over his memory — including, amazingly, Barack Obama himself.

•
"It is almost impossible to imagine the United States Senate without Robert Byrd," said Hillary Clinton. "He was not just its longest-serving member, he was its heart and soul. From my first day in the Senate, I sought out his guidance."

•
"While some simply bore witness to history," remarked an emotional Nancy Pelosi, "Senator Byrd shaped it and strove to build a brighter future for us all."

•
Vice President Joe Biden, always big on memorials, went on perhaps the longest. Biden described Robert Byrd as "a very close friend of mine, one of my mentors." Joe Biden even misquoted William Shakespeare as he celebrated his Klansman mentor.

•
"When I learned of his death, I was on an errand for the President in Cleveland, and I said, you know, to paraphrase the poet, we shall not see his like again ... Mr. Leader, we're not going to look upon your like again. I'm not even going to ask God to bless you because he already had and I know where you are."

•
Underneath it all, they never really disagreed with the core idea. Only the colors have changed.

•
There exists in the darkest parts of human nature the instinct to form a mob and attack other people for how they were born. "Fear of the other," is what sociologists call it. They say it's a function of evolutionary biology.

•
Whoever it comes from, however you describe the phenomenon, it's real, and it's a grave threat to America.

•
This is an enormous, complex — and, yes, diverse — society. We have very little in common with each other, apart from the fact we're all Americans.

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There are 350 million people living within the borders of our country. Most of us can't leave, so we have to live together.

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If you want Americans to live peacefully without hurting each other, you have to treat them as individuals, not as members of warring tribes.

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You have to guarantee every American identical opportunities to work and live and go to school, as well as identical judgement under the law. Equality under the law.

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You can't just announce that Americans of a certain color can't have jobs. If you do that, things will tend to fall apart very quickly. We fought a war over this once, by the way, one that killed 700,000 people.

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Not that long ago, all Americans understood this. But then a new generation of Robert Byrds took control of the Democratic Party, and dark and primitive forces have been unleashed.

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You see them everywhere, so you hardly need to be reminded, but here's one example... It was written by a Harvard Law graduate named Elie Mystal. The open reads, "I've said, here and elsewhere, that one of the principal benefits of the pandemic is how I've been able to exclude racism and [W]hiteness generally from my day-to-day life. Over the past year, I have, of course, still had to interact with [W]hite people on Zoom or watch them on television or worry about whether they would succeed in reelecting a [W]hite-supremacist president. But [W]hite people aren't in my face all of the time. I can, more or less, only deal with [W]hiteness when I want to ... White people haven't improved; I've just been able to limit my exposure to them."

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That's someone who went to Harvard Law School. That's not normal, and it's not healthy. It's open race hate, and it's the beginning of our actual destruction.

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As with Senators Hirono and Duckworth, no one in power says a word about it. So naturally, exhibitions like that accelerate and it becomes more dangerous.

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Last week, a corporate-owned website called The Root published a kind of terrorist manifesto written by a New York Times contributor named Damon Young.

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The tract begins like this: "Whiteness is a public health crisis. It shortens life expectancies, it pollutes air, it constricts equilibrium, it devastates forests, it melts ice caps, it sparks (and funds) wars, it flattens dialects, it infests consciousness, and it kills people."

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With that established, Young wrote this: "White supremacy is a virus that, like other viruses, will not die until there are no bodies left for it to infect. Which means the only way to stop it is to locate it, isolate it, extract it, and kill it."

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"And kill it." You have to ask yourself, where is this going? Let's pull back now before we find out.
'Misinformation' hearing with Facebook, Twitter, Google CEOs – why even more censorship may be... (Fox 03/25/2021)
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In announcing the hearing, the Democratic leaders of the committee said, "Whether it be falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine or debunked claims of election fraud, these online platforms have allowed misinformation to spread, intensifying national crises with real-life, grim consequences for public health and safety."

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Unfortunately, what appears to be the Democratic leaders' of the committee's classification of "misinformation" — content that they disagree with politically — does not track with the dictionary's definition of the term.

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Already, Facebook is removing COVID-19-related claims that run contrary to data from the Chinese Communist Party-influenced World Health Organization (WHO).

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Big Tech has also gone so far as to censor content from a respected 30-year environmentalist who changed his mind on climate change matters and limit the distribution of a news report that appeared damaging to the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

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It has even banned conservative influencers outright, including the then-president of the United States, for not adhering to the script found on the mainstream media's accepted 3x5 index card of allowable opinion.

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Apparently, however, this tilting of U.S. news and opinion coverage isn't enough for the Democratic Party, which appears to have called a full hearing just to pressure Big Tech into going further.

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Without question, misinformation is a problem on social media, but it has come from too much — not too little — censorship.

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Misinformation is spread with the most speed when these digital monopolies allow the public to only see one side's point of view — preventing them from separating fact from fiction and forming their own conclusions.

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That's why Republicans on the committee can't let the Democrats' misinformation narrative go unchallenged. They need to pivot the conversation at the hearing to how Big Tech has, through predatory and collusive behavior, created a cartel with the power to mislead the public and artificially tilt the scales of news coverage and political debates online.

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Big Tech appears to think it's become the arbiter of what's true and what's not. Democrats now want them to go further, but the country doesn't.

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Antitrust law was created to stop monopolistic behavior like what we see from these giants. Any hearing on digital misinformation should start with discussing that as a remedy. More censorship will only make the problem worse.

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See related Thanks (Chip Bok, 01/12/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Who will keep our liberties safe? (Fox 03/25/2021)
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What if liberty and democracy are opposites? What if the principle underlying liberty is to restrain the government to maximize individual autonomy? What if the principle underlying democracy is to unleash the government to give the people whatever they want?

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What if personal liberty is an individual birthright because we are created in the image and likeness of God? What if just as God is perfectly free, we are perfectly free? What if our personal liberties are integral to our humanity?

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What if personal freedom — which we are free to abuse — is God's greatest gift, after life itself? What if, without freedom, we would not be fully human but subservient to whomever or whatever took our freedoms away or persuaded us to surrender them?

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What if government is essentially the negation of liberty? What if some liberties should be negated? What if those liberties that should be negated consist of the liberty to violate the natural rights of others by taking their lives, liberties and properties?

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What if government does this every day because it wants to tell us how to live? What if no one consented to a government that takes property and freedom from the people it governs?

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What if the right to worship or not, to think as you wish, say what you think, to publish what you say, to associate — or not — with whomever you choose, to defend yourself using the same means as the government and bad guys, to enjoy the right to privacy, to keep the government off your property and back and out of your face, to travel wherever and whenever, to engage in commercial intercourse on private property freely and without the need for government permission are natural, personal rights that no government — whether by edict, legislation or referendum — can morally dismiss or discard?

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What if democracy offers the government tools to take our personal liberty and private property? What if, under a democracy, the government grows and liberty shrinks?

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What if that's because the democratic government desperately wants to stay in power, and in order to do so, it takes wealth from some and gives it to others? What if those from whom it takes wealth never consented to the takings?

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What if, in a democracy, the public treasury has turned into a public trough? What if, in a democracy, those in power find ways around laws intended to limit their power? What if the government is essentially the judge of its own powers?

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What if no matter which party is in power, the government acts as if it can right any wrong, regulate any behavior, tax any event, and insinuate itself into any controversy — whether authorized by the Constitution or not?

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What if the Constitution is the supreme law of the land? What if it was written to establish the government and to limit it? What if its amendments expressly guarantee that the government shall not interfere with the exercise of natural rights? What if the government does so anyway?

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What if the government's excuse is always emergency or safety? What if it promises during "an emergency" that it will bring safety in return for a surrender of liberty?

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What if the Ninth Amendment commands that the government may not deny or disparage natural rights, no matter the emergency?

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What if this liberty-for-safety-in-an-emergency offer is the Devil's bargain? What if surrendering liberty does not lead to safety but only more government?

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What if — since liberty is a personal birthright — you can surrender your own liberty but you cannot your neighbor's? What if the government takes liberty whether voluntarily surrendered or not?

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What if the theory of the Constitution is that the states voluntarily surrendered some of their sovereign powers to the federal government so that it can address federal issues that are spelled out in the Constitution?

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What if the theory of state sovereignty is that the people in each state voluntarily surrendered some personal liberty in return for the protection of natural rights?

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What if the only liberty surrendered is the liberty to impair the natural rights of others?

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What if no rational person has surrendered to government the liberty to walk the streets, to go to work, to operate and patronize lawful businesses and to control absolutely one's own face?

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What if the Fifth Amendment commands that the government cannot take property rights without paying the owner their fair market value?

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What if the government and its friends in the media have scared the daylights out of hundreds of millions of Americans so that they will peacefully surrender their rights and livelihoods during the government's emergency, and thus bring about the government's version of safety?

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What if state legislatures are utterly without power to interfere with our daily choices in the name of emergency and safety? What if those same state legislatures cannot give to governors powers that they do not have?

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What if all the COVID-19 restrictions on personal autonomy directly defy the Constitution? What if the government doesn't care?

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What if millions who lost personal autonomy don't care because they have accepted the Devil's bargain that somehow voluntary servitude will bring them temporary health and safety?

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What if they have forgotten about the safety of their personal liberties?

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What if democracy and liberty can only co-exist when the government is faithful to the Constitution?

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What if the history of American government is its infidelity to the Constitution?

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What if liberty taken or surrendered is not returned?

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What will we do about it?
MSNBC's Serial Smear Merchant (JWR 03/24/2021)
For the Left, Bigotry Is a Tool (JWR 03/24/2021)
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This week, a white man shot to death eight people in Atlanta-area spas, six of them Asian American.

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According to Atlanta police, the man said he was targeting brothels and blamed the women for his alleged sex addiction.

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So far, there is no evidence that the shooter was motivated by anti-Asian animus, making hate-crime charges unlikely at this point.

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Nonetheless, the establishment media and Democratic politicians quickly began reflecting the lie that the shooting was an anti-Asian hate crime, the latest outgrowth of a major uptick in anti-Asian hate crimes — all driven supposedly by "white supremacy."

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki connected the alleged increase in anti-Asian sentiment to former President Trump, stating that his "calling COVID 'the Wuhan virus' ... led ... to perceptions of the Asian American community that are inaccurate, unfair."

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The same sources decrying anti-Asian sentiment have spent years expressing anti-Asian animus in the form of discriminatory college admissions standards: President Biden's administration dropped a discrimination case against Yale University just a month ago, clearly thanks to the administration's position that affirmative action for black students outweighs Asian American success in a pure meritocracy.

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The same people blaming "white supremacy" for anti-Asian hate crimes have militantly ignored the location of the crimes — largely major metropolitan areas, with a large number of such crimes coming not from white Americans but from black Americans (a plurality of overall violent crimes targeting Asian Americans, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, were committed by black Americans in 2018).

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The same establishment media sources blaming Trump for anti-Asian hate cheer on the active closing of merit-based magnet schools in New York and San Francisco, thanks to those schools' disproportionate Asian American attendance...

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Here, then, is how the narrative works, according to the left: No matter the antecedent to any statement, the conclusion must be that America is systemically racist.

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When we are discussing Asian American economic success, Asian Americans must be treated as beneficiaries of a white supremacist system; when we are talking about hate crimes against Asian Americans, Asian Americans must be treated as people of color victimized by a white supremacist system.

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When a white person harms Asian Americans, ... intent doesn't matter — animus can be assumed. When a black person harms Asian Americans, as NBC News reported, "experts say it's important to evaluate each case individually."

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All of this is morally base. Anti-Asian animus is anti-Asian animus, whether it comes from woke school administrators or street criminals.

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To treat such animus differently based solely on the identity of the offender is to make obvious that you simply don't care about anti-Asian animus.

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For the left, it's just the latest club to wield against the broader American system, facts be damned.
The left, mainstream media turn Boulder shooting into yet another racial powder keg (Fox 03/24/2021)
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After lunch on Monday, a man walked into a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado and shot 10 people to death.

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Police responded quickly to the massacre and they arrested a 21-year-old suspect. Here's how CNN described the scene.

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"We know that the suspect is in custody. He was injured. They have not released any details about who he was, but we did see footage of a White man. He was wearing shorts. No shoes, no shirt. He seemed to be bleeding down his leg and he was handcuffed."

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In other words, CNN told you: "We don't really know anything about what just happened, but we do think a 'White man' did it." That was CNN's first observation. What they cared about most was the gunman's race.

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To CNN, that was the all-important thing; not the 10 people lying dead or the grieving children they left behind. No, the shooter's skin color.

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So this is what "wokeness" is. This is how you see the world when you've been so corrupted by ideological mania that you consider even a mass shooting a perfect opportunity to push your race-based political agenda. He was a White man. That's all you needed to know.

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Then we learned the suspect's name: Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa. That fact raised an immediate problem for the race mongers. Does Ahmad Alissa qualify as a White man? No.

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Honestly, you may be wondering, who cares? He just shot 10 people. That's the only fact that matter. By the way, for what it's worth, Ahmad Alissa looks pretty pale to us, too, not that decent people ought to care one way or the other about his race.

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But to the bigots in charge of America's increasingly convoluted and politicized system of racial classification, his race is the only thing that mattered.

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They decided that people called Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa cannot be White men no matter what they look like. People with names like that are oppressed. Therefore, they're not White.

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Now, that's insanity, but it's where we are right now. It's where they've taken us. So, of course, once we learned his name, the entire storyline had to be rewritten immediately.

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You may not even have noticed because you hear things like this every single day. You hear them constantly. And if you step back, you've got to wonder how long the rich and the powerful ... can continue this, can keep attacking a single racial group before our country breaks apart. We may find out in the end because no one seems to be stopping them. No one even mentions it.

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But to those who were interested in Monday's tragedy, the question remains: Who was this Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa? Here's what we know: Apparently, he's an immigrant from Syria who came here as a child and is now a naturalized American citizen.

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He's political, but likely not a QAnon sympathizer. He's not a right-winger. In fact, his social media posts seem to track pretty consistently with CNN's prime-time editorial views.

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A former classmate told ... that Alissa saw himself as an oppressed victim of racism in high school. He would "talk about being Muslim and how if anyone tried anything, he would file a hate crime [report]."

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Three years ago, he was charged with violently assaulting a classmate. ... Alissa's name was "previously known to the FBI based on an ongoing investigation into one of his associates."

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Then the Associated Press reported that Alissa may have been delusional. Of course, he was delusional. He apparently shot 10 people.

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However, that did not prevent the usual tragedy buzzards from circling the crime scene and speculating in the most destructive possible ways about what might have happened.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, specializes in shocking recklessness. It's what she does. After the mass killings in Atlanta last week, none of which seem to have anything whatsoever to do with the race of anyone involved.

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Omar tried her best to make Americans hate each other even more. That's how she's repaying the country that rescued her from a refugee camp in Africa.

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"It isn't hard to understand why it's so normalized for law enforcement to protect the humanity of white mass murderers and their willingness to continually make excuses them."

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Law enforcement, Omar said, with zero evidence of any kind, works to protect "the humanity of [W]hite mass murderers." What does that even mean? We have no idea, though obviously it is bristling with racial hostility.

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So MSNBC just rolled with it. "Scapegoating is the evil cousin of White supremacy, and together they reinforce the notion that White is always in the right ... The indifference to lives not White must stop. The disregard for the fear of White terror must stop ... We must not be cowed by the terror unleashed by White men drowning in the deep end of racism, xenophobia and misogyny."

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White supremacy! That's the culprit, no matter what color the criminal was. It doesn't matter what the criminal's color was because it's systemic racism. Like carbon monoxide, it's an invisible poison. That is suddenly a very common view on the left.

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It's certainly Barack Obama's position. More than any other contemporary American leader Barack Obama is a racial arsonist. He emerges at our most vulnerable moments to deepen the wounds that divide us. He sows hate.

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Why does Barack Obama do this? It would take a psychiatrist to answer that question fully, though it seems obvious that deep loathing of some kind plays a role. It must.

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Tuesday, Obama took a break from being one of the richest men in the world to issue a statement blaming "racism and misogyny" for Monday's killings.

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So a guy who appears to be White shoots a group of White people and Barack Obama calls it racism. How exactly does that work? Can you speak slowly and tell us?

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Well, the former president didn't say, but he didn't need to. Barack Obama had managed to divide Americans a little more than they were yesterday. And so, from his perspective, mission accomplished.

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See related Miss Me? (Glenn McCoy, 02/28/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
COVID unmasks 'party of science' – here's what we've learned after a year of pandemic (Fox 03/24/2021)
'Back-to-Normal' Biden, the guy voters thought they were getting, still AWOL after 2 months (Fox 03/24/2021)
Equality Act threatens parents' rights, children's safety. Here's how you can fight back (Fox 03/23/2021)
Biden administration has lost control of border — and some Republicans still want amnesty (Fox 03/23/2021)
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Nobody thinks it's the immigrants fault. You can't blame poor people for wanting to come here. Who wouldn't come? Free education, free health care, clean streets, safety. You'd have to be crazy not to leave Guatemala for Texas. So of course they come.

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The people streaming across the border want better lives for their families, and no one can hate them for that, least of all us.

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The people to blame are the reckless ideologues who caused this disaster. Joe Biden tops that list. Biden wanted this to happen. He said so out loud at a Democratic debate.

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Immigration Politics (Sean Delonas, 01/12/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
The Very Model of a Modish Loser General Staff (JWR 03/22/2021)
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Having failed to get anywhere with the Taliban, the Pentagon is now going after Tucker Carlson. Who ought, in theory, to be an easier target.

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It began last week when Tucker noted that Joe Biden had emerged from his basement for "International Women's Day" and held a White House event touting the US military's recent achievements on that particular front - including such brilliant innovations as better maternity flight suits for pregnant pilots.

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Given that the brass no longer even try to win wars (our present negotiating position with the Taliban has dwindled down to: "Whatever you want - as long as we're allowed to stay running around this barren sod for another decade or two"), one might suppose it's relatively unimportant (except to the grim toll of wounded and dead, and their grieving families) whether the twenty-first century's endless unwon wars are lost by male, female or transgender soldiery.

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Accepting that it's obviously far better for us to lose two-decade wars as diversely as possible, it still seems a very weird thing to be boasting about...

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In response to Tucker pointing out the bizarre priorities of the world's wokest military, the Pentagon went full shock-and-awe on him...

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"I like generals!" enthused Trump at the dawn of his administration. After being on the receiving end of John Kelly and Mad Dog Mattis, he wouldn't say that today.

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This is no reflection on the men and pregnant women on the frontlines (for whom Alan Clark's famous formulation of the Great War, "lions led by donkeys", might have been created) but on the fellows who run the joint, and have run it into the ground.

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We're supposed to be excited because the newly appointed Lloyd Austin is the first African-American to serve as Defense Secretary.

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Of more relevance is that until two months back he was a board member of Raytheon, the high-tech armaments contractor that develops ever more advanced technology to ensure that we lose to inbred goatherds with fertiliser even more expensively.

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In other words, Lloyd Austin is business as usual, whatever his identity-politics points. Meanwhile, China's winning the real war without a shot being fired.

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... observing the "very palpable evolution of America's soldiery into yet another victim group" - which is quite an achievement for a body that accounts for forty per cent of all military spending on the planet.

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Back on the ground, the Taliban now control more territory than at any time since October 2001, but as long as Raytheon gets its "ten per cent for the big guy" there's no reason we can't string that out till the fiftieth anniversary.

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Meanwhile, since January 6th all the experts agree the real war is on the home front - so thank God we can still take down retired thirty-year Naval chaplains.

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As Tucker pointed out on Friday, if they take the Afghan approach with him, in five years he'll bestride the fruited plain like a colossus. Allahu Tuckbar!
Message to DeSantis – civics important but here's what we really need to teach our kids (Fox 03/21/2021)
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"A high-quality education begins with a high-quality curriculum," the governor said, adding that his $16 million civics curriculum initiative will not be "teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other."

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I have a message for Gov. DeSantis: Right problem, wrong solution.

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The real solution isn't boring and bloodless civics courses, which all too often provide cover for the left to sneak in their agenda under the guise of promoting "good citizenship," but teaching American history: the real American history, full of drama, pageantry, struggle and heartbreak, but also triumph and greatness; and all built around the theme of the constant striving to secure and protect the freedom of the individual.

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It's the pursuit of liberty that has united Americans from the beginning and remains our most precious legacy to the future – and defines the epic of American exceptionalism.

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The course would start with the settlement of North America, first from Asia then from Europe; followed by the struggle of the original British colonies to free themselves from foreign domination, first from the French and then from the government in London.

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Then it would trace the trials and struggles of the new republic from revolution in 1776 to civil war in 1861-65, showing how the experience of that conflict has shaped the character of America ever since.

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Next, it would cover the changes that occurred in America after 1865 to World War II, including the massive influx of immigrants from Europe and from the Jim Crow South into northern cities and into the heartland and West Coast.

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After that, it would explore America's role in the world after World War II through today, from the Cold War to the technological revolutions of Silicon Valley.

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From start to finish, however, the epic story would center on how individuals, rich and poor, great and small, from every race and sex and creed, have discovered and used their freedom in America to advance the freedom of others: as politicians, thinkers and activists, religious and business leaders, and above all as immigrants to a land and country that gave them the freedom they yearned for and could not find anywhere else.

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In fact, it's the story critical race theorists don't want our children to learn about: America as the transformative nation that banishes the dismal legacies of the past, whether it's slavery or religious bigotry or structural poverty and ignorance, and has built instead a unique national character based on common political ideals and shared experiences.

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It's the story of a nation dedicated from its start to a single powerful proposition, that all human beings are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and the institutions that govern our society – including our three branches of government and our federal system – were built to secure and protect those rights, and still do today.

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It's also about the real America race theorists can't explain: the one that has been a magnet for immigrants from around the world from its very beginning.

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If America were such a racist cesspool, then why would any non-White person risk everything to come here; and why would the descendants of the enslaved and dispossessed Native Americans want to stay? Our history explains why far better than any civics course could.

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Children also need to learn from this history that no nation is perfect, not even their own. They will learn that America's struggle to free its peoples from the burdens of the past has not always been successful, whether that burden is slavery, poverty, racism or toxic ideologies like fascism in the 20th century and Marxism today.

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The point is, it always has been a struggle, conscious and deliberate; and while America's history is populated by villains as well as heroes and heroines, all of them are part of a single great dramatic story, the story of America's pursuit of liberty; the pursuit that ultimately makes us all one.

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In the end, critical race theory is about stealing away our children's freedom. The study of history is about restoring it, by giving it a basis in truth and fact rather than ideology.

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It's time to turn our study of the past into a tool to set our future free.
The Civil Rights Movement I was a part of has been betrayed by a twisted progressive ideology (Fox 03/19/2021)
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The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned a just and equitable America, in which citizens treated each other as persons rather than as carriers of an indelible racial imprint.

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Today, the progressive left has bet against King's vision: we are not persons, we are our racial identities, and anyone who rejects that view is guilty of racism.

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King himself would be called out and targeted for "anti-bias" reeducation if he were alive today.

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The Civil Rights Movement of which I was proudly a part has been betrayed by a twisted progressive ideology that hyper-racializes our country.

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It divides our country into two groups: on the one side, blacks and other minorities who are permanent and powerless victims; and on the other irredeemable white supremacists, bent on their destruction.

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Instead of helping to create a society in which all have an equal opportunity to thrive, it insists that systemic racism prevents anyone except "privileged" whites from succeeding.

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This sea of helpless victims must depend on whites cleansing themselves of racism, on more government programs, or on both.

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The left has today weaponized race not for the purpose of healing wounds but for gaining power.

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... I represent a group of scholars, who together form the 1776 Unites initiative and are standing up to the radical Left and its twisted narrative on race.

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We dissent from contemporary groupthink and rhetoric about race, class and American history that defames our national heritage, divides our people along racial lines, instills weaponized helplessness in minorities and smothers the rights of white Americans to fair and equal treatment.

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The civil rights movement was about giving everyone an opportunity to succeed and treating everyone fairly regardless of race, religion, or creed.
Tucker: Even the Chinese know America won't survive with 'woke' liberals in charge (Fox 03/20/2021)
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We spend a lot of time talking about China: its intentions, its crimes, its treatment of dogs. We've got pretty clear views on the Chinese government. Polls show most Americans do. #But here's a question we rarely ask: What do the Chinese think of us? Most of the time, we have no real idea. China's on the other side of the world, and its leaders are cagey enough to keep their opinions to themselves most of the time.

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But occasionally, we get a glimpse of what they really think. ... Here, for starters, is the Chinese government's assessment of our democracy:...

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"Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States, and they have various views regarding the government of the United States."

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Many Americans don't have confidence in their own democracy, he said. In other words, maybe the last presidential election was fraudulent. Suddenly China's top diplomat sounded a lot like one of those right-wing White supremacist insurrectionists you're always hearing about on CNN, the ones the Biden Justice Department has put in prison.

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"We do not believe in invading through the use of force, or to topple other regimes through various means, or to massacre the people of other countries, because all of those would only cause turmoil and instability in this world ... It is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world."

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Ouch. This is not the traditional language of diplomacy, elaborately polite, oblique and indirect. This is talk radio. The Chinese government has utter contempt for the Biden administration, and doesn't feel like hiding it anymore.

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When it came time for a showdown with one of the leaders of the Communist Party of China, all Blinken could muster was this:

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"I have to tell you, what I'm hearing is very different from what you described. I'm hearing deep satisfaction that the United States is back."

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A slogan straight from the bumper sticker. Really? You're hearing that? From whom? Tony Blinken didn't say. Nor could he manage to press any point that might conceivably benefit the United States.

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For example, where did COVID come from? We still don't know. The Chinese government likely does know, but they're not telling.

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Scientists would like to know, because they'd like to prevent future global pandemics. So we ought to find out.

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But Tony Blinken didn't dare mention any of this. Notice COVID's conspicuous absence from his list of concerns: "We'll also discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks on the United States, economic coercion of our allies."

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Listening to the secretary of state, you'd never know the Chinese government is still, to this day, stonewalling international efforts to find the origin of the coronavirus. Even officials at the World Health Organization, which China pays for, have complained about it (privately, of course).

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China has consistently lied about COVID-19 for more than a year. The Chinese government delayed the release of genetic information about the virus that could have helped scientists understand it, fight it, and save lives.

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This is a crime of enormous proportions. It affects the entire world and endangers all of us.

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As one of his first acts as President of the United States, Biden signed an executive action ordering federal agencies to stop making reference to the pandemic by the "geographic location of its origin."

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So, as a matter of official U.S. policy, no more linking a Chinese virus to China. No more talk about where it came from. None of that lab theory. This is now the official position of the Democratic Party.

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Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., announced that when you criticize the Communist Party of China, people in the U.S. die of hate crimes.

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"This surge did not spontaneously arise only out of fears regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Some of this blame lies squarely on political leaders who have demonized China — both because of the virus and ongoing geopolitical tensions."

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Here you have a sitting member of Congress flacking for China, our most dangerous rival. You'd think the Chinese would appreciate this. It makes their job easier. But they don't appreciate it. In fact, it just increases their contempt for our leaders.

•
"There are many problems within the United States regarding human rights ... and the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter. It did not come up only recently."

•
So there you have the Chinese government using Black Lives Matter as a weapon against the United States. You have the Chinese lecturing us about human rights. You never thought you'd see the day that happened.

•
... they have a name for our self-hating professional class. They call them "baizuo." The rough translation from Mandarin is "White liberal," and it is definitely not a compliment.

•
Chinese state media describes baizou as people who, "only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment, who have no sense of real problems in the real world, who only advocate for peace and equality to satisfy their own feelings of moral superiority, and who are so obsessed with political correctness that they tolerate backward Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism."

•
As Chinese state media notes, "former US [sic] President Obama was considered an advocate of baizuo ideology."

•
Other observations about baizuo, as reported by Chinese state media, include the fact that they "advocate inclusiveness and anti-discrimination but cannot tolerate different opinions."

•
Baizuo's political opinions are "so shallow that they tend to maintain social equality by embracing ideologies that run against the basic concept of equality."

•
According to one scholar from Peking University, "baizuo are phony and hypocritical and will make the situation in the West go from bad to worse."

•
A study of Harvard's admissions policy, for example, found that if the school admitted students solely on merit, as we thought they did, the percentage of Asian students in a given class would double to 43%.

•
Harvard doesn't want that many Asians, so it denies admissions to Asians because they're Asian. That's the definition of discrimination. That's what racism is.

•
But it's everywhere. It's going on in all elite schools right now, as well as in almost every major corporation. The current administration wholeheartedly supports it.

•
We have standardized tests for a reason. They're created so that people who have no social connections – ambitious and talented immigrants, for example – could succeed in this country too.

•
People like that have no one to write recommendation letters for them — no rich uncles who sit on the board of this or that school — but they're smart and they work hard and we wanted a place for them in our hierarchy. (This is the land of opportunity, remember?)

•
So we created standardized tests so they could make it too. People from nowhere could succeed on their own talents. That was the idea.

•
But, not anymore. Standardized tests are disappearing, thanks to lobbying by baizou - from woke Democrats. The meritocracy is racist, they claim. So is succeeding through hard work.

•
In Boston, as in so many places around the country, public schools have suspended an "advanced work" program due to quote "concerns about equity." The real concern is the skin color of the students in the program.

•
We all see this happening. No one in this country mentions it. You know who else notices it? The Chinese. Why wouldn't they?

•
On one hand, they're offended, because the baizuo's so-called "equity programs" always wind up hurting people who look like them.

•
On the other hand, the Chinese government is pleased as they watch this. Because no country that penalizes people for intelligence and hard work can last very long.

•
The Chinese have been around long enough to know that's true.
Tucker Carlson: Media ignoring facts about Atlanta shooter to boost their political agenda (Fox 03/19/2021)
•
On the afternoon of March 16, police say, a 21-year-old man called Robert Aaron Long walked into a massage parlor outside Atlanta and shot five people. Long then drove to two other massage parlors in the city and shot another four.

•
Of the nine people Robert Long is accused of shooting, two were White, one was Hispanic, and the other six were Asian women.

•
... the police took a long and detailed statement from Robert Long, and to restate, here's what they found: Long immediately confessed to the crimes. But while he admitted to committing multiple murders — a death penalty offense in the state of Georgia — Long denied having any racial motivation. Instead, he told police he had a sex addiction and an "issue with porn," and that he shot up massage parlors in an effort to eliminate his own temptation to visit them.

•
Police arrested Long as he was heading to Florida, where he said he'd planned to kill more people in the sex industry. So, Robert Long was fixated on prostitution and pornography, and that's why he said he committed the murders.

•
A ninth victim, 30-year-old Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, remains in the hospital in critical condition. According to police, Hernandez-Ortiz had nothing to do with prostitution whatsoever. He just happened to be walking past a massage parlor on the way to another business when Long shot him.

•
So, those are the facts as we understand them. An honest reporter might follow those facts in a number of obvious directions.

•
Robert Long seems deranged, but his obsessive and violent behavior seems sadly familiar if you follow the news closely.

•
An increasing number of Americans struggle with mental illness. It would be worth knowing much more about Robert Long's life, if only to try to prevent the next mass shooting.

•
Then there's the very real question of sex addiction, which we should not laugh off. Why is there so much prostitution in Atlanta?

•
Google business listings show more massage parlors in the city than Starbucks outlets. Who works in these places and under what conditions?

•
That's not a hard question to answer. Wikipedia has an entire entry on human trafficking in the state of Georgia. According to the Department of Justice, "Atlanta is a major transportation hub for trafficking young girls" and "one of the fourteen U.S. cities with the highest levels of child sex trafficking."

•
A competent media might tell us more about this. Knowing more facts and rationally assessing them might improve this country. But it's not the coverage we're getting. It's not even close to the coverage we are getting.

•
Instead, the usual liars are describing the massacre in Atlanta as the one thing it apparently wasn't: A racial attack. "White supremacy and hate are haunting Asian Americans," CNN confidently announced in a headline.

•
David Leebron, the president of Rice University in Texas and a man who is supposed to be a scholar, may have been watching this. He immediately issued a statement... "The deliberate use of such terms as ‘the China virus' to foster bigotry has played a significant role. Sadly and predictably, this escalation of racially-based hatred has led to violence."

•
Leebron is telling us it was all entirely predictable, because once you describe a Chinese virus as Chinese, people are naturally going to start murdering Korean women. You could have seen that coming.

•
Harvard couldn't resist involved too. Bigotry against Asians is a sensitive subject at Harvard University, given that it is one of the very few institutions in American life that has publicly admitted committing it.

•
Many schools do, but Harvard got caught. Over the course of many years, Harvard has denied admission to Asian students precisely because they are Asian.

•
If there's a clearer definition of bigotry than this, it's hard to imagine what it might be. Harvard doesn't want to talk about it, and a mass murder in Atlanta was the perfect way to change the subject.

•
"For the past year," Harvard administrators wrote, "Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been blamed for the pandemic." Once again, if you dare note that the novel coronavirus came from Wuhan, a mentally ill sex addict is certain to shoot up a brothel in Atlanta.

•
Seem far-fetched? The White House press secretary agreed with it. "You know, I think there's no question that some of the damaging rhetoric that we saw during the prior administration, blaming — you know, calling COVID, you know, the ‘Wuhan virus' or other things led to, you know, perceptions of the Asian-American community that are inaccurate, unfair..."

•
Asian-Americans do suffer quite a few violent attacks in this country, unfortunately, but there's zero evidence that a rise in White supremacy is driving those attacks.

•
We don't have to guess about this, because the Justice Department keeps the numbers. According to federal statistics, African-American perpetrators are more likely than any other group to attack Asian-Americans. It happens quite a bit.

•
Most racial violence in this country, most violence of all kinds, occurs within racial groups. Whites are the most likely to attack Whites, Blacks are the most likely to attack Blacks, etc.

•
The only exception we found were Asians. Asians were more likely to be attacked by African-Americans than by members of their own ethnicity.

•
Why is that? We can't say for sure, and we're not going to speculate. Unlike the other cable channels, we will not draw grand and divisive conclusions from this or any data about race.

•
It's always wrong to blame an entire group for anything, ever. Treat people as individuals first — that's the whole point of America.

•
We can say this has been going on for quite a while, as anyone who lives in a city well knows. Tensions between African-Americans and immigrant Korean store owners, for example, were a central factor in the 1992 Los Angeles riots. It wasn't QAnon that made violent threats against Asian shopkeepers in New York in the 1980s. It was Al Sharpton.

•
And so on. As noted, this kind of violence has a long history, though the media have done their best to ignore it.

•
But now they're lying to us at very high volume. Why are they doing that? Because they need to. The Democratic coalition is profoundly unstable, and becoming more so.

•
The rise of BLM, and the riots they led over the summer, is a big part of why that is happening. Decadent White liberals loved the whole thing, but no one else did.

•
BLM came out in favor of abolishing the nuclear family, and looting and burning small businesses. If you're a bearded nihilist living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with a degree in gender studies from Oberlin, that might sound pretty great.

•
If you're an immigrant Chinese or Salvadoran, running a restaurant or a dry cleaning business, it definitely doesn't sound great. You care most of all about your family. You desperately need your business.

•
So, the Democratic Party is at risk of losing voters... At this point, the media's job is to remind these voters they need to stay in the Democratic Party because the real enemy is straight White men. So that's what they're doing.

•
... keep in mind, the more they say it, the more people believe it, and the more power they can grab on the basis of those lies.

•
We have seen that happen in the two months since Jan. 6. At first it was almost amusing to hear them call that a "White supremacist insurrection." It was so stupid. But now, two months later, it's all but established history.

•
They're changing the country on the basis of those lies. They repeat them until people believe them, and then they act. Never underestimate the power of propaganda. That's why they use it. It's not an accident.

•
The mayor of New York is calling for armed thought police in America's biggest city. Laugh if you want at that. "De Blasio's a joke," right?

•
Just wait. What sounds absurd today becomes established practice sooner than you think.
James Carafano: Biden's border crisis — here are the top 5 proven steps to regain control (Fox 03/19/2021)
Cal Thomas: First, Biden, Dems spent money they didn't have. Now come the taxes (Fox 03/18/2021)
•
The front-page headline in Monday's Wall Street Journal said: "Biden weighs how to pay for Agenda." Who purchases something they know they can't afford, and then worries about paying for it later? Only government.

•
We are already hearing the mantra Democrats have used for decades to justify tax hikes: The rich must pay their "fair share."

•
They never tell us what is fair, or the amount of confiscation they wish to impose. It is always a moving target.

•
Unrestrained by a Republican majority in either house of Congress or a Republican president, Democrats have the votes to push legislation through, at least until the 2022 election, showing little concern for voter anger.

•
It doesn't matter to them that the Trump tax cuts produced tremendous economic results for businesses that then create jobs and hire workers.

•
Democrats cling to the false notion that more spending and higher taxes solves everything. If it did, would it not have by now?

•
They never speak of individual responsibility, liberty, or the proper role of government. Oh, how we need term limits, but that would mean career politicians would have to vote for them, which they will never do.

•
Democrats will likely begin with raising corporate taxes, because they have been successful in portraying corporations as evil and greedy.

•
Trouble is, those corporations hire people and employees also pay taxes, contributing to economic growth.

•
If corporations must pay more in taxes, they are less likely to hire and layoff current employees. Anytime is a bad time to raise taxes but raising them while people are still struggling with the consequences of government shutdowns is immoral.

•
Voters not addicted to government will have to demand more fiscal responsibility. As with nations of the past, massive debt and high taxes have contributed to national decline.
Tucker Carlson: No country could survive Biden's border policies (Fox 03/18/2021)
•
Under this administration, they don't have to, and they don't. Illegal aliens are exempt from the public health measures that have been imposed by force on the rest of us by the U.S. government.

•
Illegal aliens come and go as they please. No one seems to care if they spread deadly viruses to the rest of the American population.

•
... DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted in congressional testimony that the Biden administration is releasing foreign nationals into American neighborhoods without even bothering to check if they're infected with COVID.

•
Given the authoritarian lockdowns the rest of us have lived under for the last year, the ones that have crushed the country, it's hard to understand this policy as anything but an act of violence and hostility toward our country.

•
It is an utter betrayal. They don't care about you. They're saying that clearly as they possibly can.

•
Joe Biden is saying it too. A reporter recently asked Biden if he planned to visit the border to see for himself the disaster unfolding there. "Not at the moment," he replied dismissively, as if he had better things to do. We'd love to know what those things are.

•
That same day, a reporter asked Kamala Harris what she knew about the current immigration crisis, the one her administration caused. More than 100,000 foreign nationals are flooding in every month like the border doesn't exist. Some of them are gang members. Others appear to be on FBI terror watch lists. More than 13,000 of them are children, unaccompanied minors, now in U.S. custody.

•
It's an enormous, possibly unprecedented, wave of humanity coming into America right now. But Kamala Harris didn't seem to have any idea it was happening. "I haven't been briefed on anything today about it," she said.

•
She was too busy promoting critical race theory, and making sure there are boys on your daughter's track team. Has there ever been an administration this reckless and destructive?

•
What's happening on the border tonight will change our country forever. A lot of things won't, but this will, and you should know that. Unlike other disasters, mass illegal immigration is permanent. No one ever really gets sent home.

•
El Salvador is a charming country in a lot of ways, but it's still a very poor place. So, when American politicians offer free education and free healthcare, and free all kinds of things to anyone who can just make it across the border, millions of Salvadorans accept their offer. And why wouldn't they accept it?

•
No one says it, but imagine if a third of the boldest, most ambitious people in your country just left. What would that mean for your future?

•
The overfunded NGO's and self-satisfied compassion-mongers who promote open borders haven't thought for a moment about that, because they don't care.

•
... the border gets more porous by the day. That's intentional, the Biden administration has made it that way. Early indications suggest this month will see the largest surge of illegal entries in a generation.

•
So, who are all those people coming? Well, we don't really know who they are, and we don't really have a good way to find out, and that's the scariest part.

•
In the last day, we've learned that at least four people arrested recently at the southern border were identified by law enforcement as "known to be or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activities."

•
Biden's now trying to blame the whole thing on Trump, of course. Apparently, the promise of a border wall was a massive lure to Central Americans trying to sneak in. Pretty funny.

•
But at the same time, not so subtly, Biden is telling more illegal aliens to come here. He was ... letting the world know that America's top priority is making foreign nationals comfortable in the United States.

•
Has any country ever promised something like this to the world? Can any country survive once it has? Joe Biden hasn't thought about that. He doesn't care. None of them care.

•
All they know is that the Democratic Party will never lose again once they pull this off, and that's all that matters to them.

•
See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Merrick Garland, the Justice Department and the coming war on privacy (Fox 03/18/2021)
•
Expect the next legislative step to be proposals that impose the legal obligation to report suspicious activities — and the failure to do would be a crime.

•
This would turn the U.S. into East Germany where thousands were prosecuted for failure to report their neighbors, friends and family; and thousands more suffered from prosecutions based on false reports.

•
The government loves to give the impression that it has caught bad guys before they struck, thereby keeping us safe. Don't believe it.

•
The government's first task is to keep us free. But when it violates the Constitution, it keeps us neither safe nor free.

•
Who will keep us safe from the government?
Wokeifying America's Military 3/17/21 (JWR 0/0/2024)
•
This week, President Biden's military declared its first war ... on Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

•
Carlson had committed the great sin of pointing out the oddity of the fact that the Biden White House had been promoting brand-new uniforms for pregnant soldiers, rather than America's military efficiency in the face of a rising Chinese military threat.

•
This prompted spasms of apoplexy from top brass in the military itself: Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that the Pentagon was filled with "revulsion" at Carlson's comments, adding, "We absolutely won't just take personnel advice from a talk show"; Army Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston tweeted that women "will dominate ANY future battlefield we're called to fight on," calling Carlson's words "divisive"; Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott H. Stalker, the senior enlisted leader of the U.S. Space Command, said that Carlson's opinion was "based off of actually zero days of service in the armed forces."

•
Now, the military itself recognizes that pregnant women can't exactly staff front-line positions.

•
And the military has reported in the past that mixed units underperform all-male combat units.

•
But the content of Carlson's words was less important than the reaction to them, for it was unprecedented for top members of the military to unite in excoriating a civilian opinion journalist.

•
Had it happened on former President Trump's watch, the media undoubtedly would have used it as an example of politics infusing traditionally apolitical institutions.

•
Dark buzzwords like "authoritarian" and "fascist" would have been tossed around casually. Yet when the military was mobilized to attack Carlson, the media cheered instead.

•
We are watching in real time America's institutions being gutted on behalf of left-wing politics.

•
Formerly apolitical institutions are being remolded top down to reflect the values of our New Ruling Class: those who speak the wokeabulary, who believe in the tyrannical and polarizing theories of Ibram X. Kendi and Kimberle Crenshaw, who see their roles as the social engineers of their fellow Americans.

•
This is true in our universities; it's true in our colleges; it's true at our corporations; and now it's true in the American military.

•
No wonder we're told that our military will somehow be stronger for tossing out gender-neutral physical fitness tests, or paying for transgender surgeries, or forcing soldiers to read the asinine musings of critical race theorists.

•
Our military is designed to deter and to defend, to kill people and break things. If diversity facilitates that mission, that's wonderful.

•
But to supplant the military's chief mission with the woke protocols of the political left is to undermine that chief mission. The world is a dangerous, ugly, competitive place.

•
If our masturbatory woke solipsism blinds us to that reality, the cost will be quite real — far more real than any supposed threat emanating from the musings of Tucker Carlson.
Tucker Carlson: Biden's border crisis has shown he doesn't value American citizenship (Fox 03/17/2021)
The Human Need To Feel Important — and How Government Squelches It (JWR 03/16/2021)
Welcome to Biden's border crisis, sponsored in part by Trump Derangement Syndrome (Fox 03/16/2021)
•
See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Tucker Carlson: How the pandemic has made fools of the so-called 'experts' (Fox 03/16/2021)
Climate change and cancel culture – here's how left uses fear to push costly, radical policies (Fox 03/15/2021)
•
Across the world, politicians are now promising climate policies costing tens of trillions of dollars – money we don't have and resources that are desperately needed elsewhere.

•
Yet, climate campaigners tell us, if we don't spend everything on climate now, nothing else matters, because climate change threatens our very civilization.

•
Yes, climate change is a real problem. However, it is typically vastly exaggerated, and the resulting alarmism is exploited to justify the wasteful spending of trillions.

•
... stories of catastrophe and human guilt garner more clicks and are better for weaponizing political arguments. Unfortunately, we're unlikely to make good decisions if we're panicked.

•
The political forces looking to spend the climate trillions and the academia segment supplying the fear want to scrub the climate debate of anything but the scariest scenarios.

•
They want an unwavering allegiance to vigorous spending on climate policy, no matter its effectiveness.

•
They insist on treating this issue as a moral binary choice instead of a realistic balancing of costs and effectiveness that would allow for our many other challenges to be heard as well.

•
The easiest way to get societies to authorize the spending of tens of trillions we don't have is to scare us.

•
The academic and activist faction that sets the threatening tone in the climate conversation want dissent eliminated, leaving themselves the only ones authorized to tell you how scared you should be.

•
To avoid wasting trillions, we should not let them.
Hans von Spakovsky: HR1/For the People Act imperils free and fair elections. Here are the worst... (Fox 03/14/2021)
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If it becomes law, it will interfere with the ability of states and their citizens to determine the qualifications and eligibility of voters, to ensure the accuracy and validity of voter registration rolls, to secure the integrity of elections, and to participate and speak freely in the political arena.

•
H.R. 1 is an 800-page monstrosity that would usurp the role of the states. It would not only eliminate basic safety protocols, but mandate new, reckless rules and procedures. Here are the eight worst provisions of this ill-considered bill:...

•
1. It would eviscerate state voter ID laws that require a voter to authenticate his identity.

•
Indeed, it would force states to allow anyone to vote who simply signs a form saying that they are who they claim they are.

•
2. It would make absentee ballots even more insecure than they already are.

•
Not only could states not apply any ID requirement to absentee ballots, they could not enforce any witness signature or notarization requirement.

•
3. It would worsen the problem of inaccurate registration rolls, which are full of people who have died, moved away, are ineligible felons or noncitizens, or are registered more than once.

•
4. It would take away your ability to decide whether you want to register to vote.

•
This will not only lead to multiple registrations of individuals in the same and multiple states, but the registration of aliens and other ineligible individuals.

•
5. It would force states to allow online registration, opening up the voter registration system to massive fraud by hackers and cybercriminals.

•
Worse, it severely restricts the ability of state officials to reject a voter registration application even when it is rejected because the official believes the individual is ineligible to vote.

•
6. It imposes onerous new regulatory restrictions on political speech and activity, including online and policy-related speech, by candidates, citizens, civic groups, unions, corporations and nonprofit organizations.

•
7. It would authorize the IRS to investigate and consider the political and policy positions of nonprofit organizations when they apply for tax-exempt status.

•
This would enable the political party in control of the White House (and thus the IRS) to use the IRS to go after anyone criticizing them or their policies.

•
8. It would set up a public funding program for candidates running for Congress.

•
This would force taxpayers to subsidize the political campaigns of individuals they may vehemently disagree with and wouldn't vote for in a million years.

•
Senators who supports H.R. 1 should realize that they are essentially in favor of throwing the validity and credibility of future elections in doubt and taking away the authority of the voters of their states to make their own decisions on how their elections should be run.

•
How much more anti-democratic can you get?
David Bossie: Biden's border crisis – here's what it should mean for his 'immigration reform' plans (Fox 03/14/2021)
•
See related Anchor Babies (Gary McCoy, 08/31/2015) cartoon from USA picture album
MATTHEW HENNESSEY: Cancel culture is out of control — and Gen X is our only hope (Fox 03/13/2021)
•
First it was Huck Finn. Then it was JK Rowling. Last week it was "The Muppet Show." This week it's Dumbo. It's only a matter of time before "Star Wars" gets canceled and you know it.

•
Will Gen X please stand up? I have something I want to say to you — to us.

•
We grew up in a country that didn't ban books. We all agreed that witch hunts and blacklists were bad. Censorship was an outrage. The 1980s were not that long ago. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about.

•
So obviously we've got a problem here. Everybody can see it. Everybody knows where it's heading. What we don't have — yet — is a group of people who are willing to do something about it.

•
The generation that fought for its right to party should be leading the charge against these millennial Maoists terrorizing the culture via social media. Why aren't we?

•
The reason is as obvious as it is unacceptable: We're terrified of getting canceled ourselves. The kid who stands up to the neighborhood bully may end up a hero, but he may take a humiliating beating first.

•
Tears for Fears was wrong when they said everybody wants to rule the world. Only people between the ages of 23 and 33 want that kind of trouble.

•
Once you reach 40, ruling the world sounds like too much work. People with jobs and families and mortgages want a quiet life.

•
Here's the thing: The situation with the millennials is getting way out of hand. Probably some of them are like us and think ruining a person's life over a rumor that he once uttered a bad word is madness.

•
But even the good ones are in too deep to see a way out. They don't have the guts to stand up. They've seen what happens to their friends who step out of line.

•
Bad news, bears. We're the adults here. We have to do it.

•
If Gen Xers want to spare our own kids having to live in the new East Germany these woke maniacs are trying to build, we can't go on wearing our sunglasses at night. We have to do something, and we have to do it soon.

•
Here's why it has to be us. The Gen X childhood was built around a simple premise: The US wasn't a perfect country, but living here beat the pants off life behind the Iron Curtain.

•
Whatever else is wrong with America, people don't lose their jobs because of their political views. We don't rat on our neighbors when they criticize the government.

•
Nobody has to worry about a visit from the secret police when they say rude things about certain sacred cows.

•
Liberals and conservatives have always had plenty to fight about, and the 1980s were no different, but this was something both sides actually agreed on back then. Say your piece. Speak your mind. Agree to disagree.

•
What happened to that country? Where did it go?

•
Skewer a sacred cow these days and you're likely to have your home address and phone number spilled out on the Internet for every troll and troublemaker to play with.

•
Voice an unpopular opinion and you could be delisted, deplatformed, and maybe — one day soon — defenestrated.

•
We are living through an era of intelligence-insulting national debates. Does Mr. Potato Head erase the existence of trans teens? Do Dr. Seuss' sneetches perpetuate systemic racism?

•
Is it OK to let the kids watch "Gone With the Wind"? What about "The Mandalorian"? Does saying there's two sides to every story make me a racist?

•
You know the answers to these questions. We all do. It sure says a lot that we'd rather eat glass than have to answer them in public.

•
Honestly, I think I know what happened. In a weird way the existence of the Soviet Union was good for American democracy.

•
We spent a lot of time comparing ourselves to the Russkies and the superiority of our way of life was obvious.

•
Due process was better than show trials. Personal liberty was better than state tyranny. Free speech was better than censorship. Reckoning with history was better than erasing it.

•
The Evil Empire component of the Cold War was perversely helpful. Several generations of American kids grew up knowing that we were the good guys.

•
When we won the Cold War we lost our enemy. So we looked around for a new enemy and decided that the enemy could be us.

•
Kids stopped learning what Gen X and every previous generation learned in high school: free speech is good for everyone; witch hunts and moral panics always end in terrible injustice; blacklists are un-American.

•
Instead they started learning that speech could be violence and purges could be heroic. Victimhood is currency and sending someone to the gulag makes you feel superior.

•
I'm not saying that the 1980s were some kind of paradise. Tipper Gore launched a censorious crusade against popular music.

•
All the cool kids protested and jeered — not at Twisted Sister and Cyndi Lauper, as they might do today if the woke mob called for it — but at Mrs. Al Gore, who was obviously sticking her nose where it didn't belong.

•
What's more, the artists who were targeted by the PMRC fought back and just about everybody agreed they were right to do so.

•
Dee Snider didn't apologize for having given offense and slink away like a pathetic, spineless slug.

•
He waltzed into a Capitol Hill conference room, looked 'em straight in the eye, and, in not so many words, told them to back the f**k up.

•
We could use some of that spirit around here, don't you think?

•
Gen X needs to realize something: Nobody is going to ride to the rescue. Harrison Ford isn't going to show up in the final act to save the day. No politician or celebrity is capable of turning back the woke millennial tide with a sharp tweet or a snappy speech.

•
The cavalry is us. We are the ones who have to fight the cancel culture (rhetorically, of course).

•
We will have to engage in a thousand tiny battles every day and it will be terribly uncomfortable.

•
It'll be hard standing up to school administrators pushing an "anti-racist" curriculum on your kids.

•
It'll take real courage to refuse to call yourself a bigot and to denounce the people who raised you.

•
If we can't find the guts to do this dirty job, the second half of our lives is going to look very different than the first half did. We will taste life in Siberia.

•
Our children and our children's children will be forced to navigate a miserable, paranoid world of lies and deception.

•
They will be asked to spy on their own parents. They will denounce their friends.

•
Don't let it happen. We are a generation with a certain set of skills. We can read a map. We can tell time on an analog clock. We can get along just fine without social media.

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And we know deep down that sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you.

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The most important thing about us is that we remember how things used to be. How it was not to be afraid to speak your mind. As the Shawshank man said, you either get busy living, or get busy dying.

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Woke racism (INN 03/14/2021)
Tucker Carlson: America's Brezhnev lets us dream of socially distanced hot dogs on July 4 (Fox 03/13/2021)
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... Joe Biden's COVID speech Thursday night. Did you see it? The one where he seemed so sad about the lockdowns that have crushed businesses, kept kids out of school – "an entire generation," he said – and driven so many to suicide.

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Yet he never once mentioned or even hinted that he and his party are the very forces behind those lockdowns. "I'm really sorry about your black eye," he said, as he punched you in the face.

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Biden has been living in utter seclusion for more than a year. He hasn't spoken to anyone but his own lackeys. He hasn't driven a car or sat on the grass and looked at the sky or been anywhere or done anything except in the most controlled possible environment. What an incredibly weird life that would be.

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Biden must imagine that everyone in America is as terrified of COVID as he is and is living in the same kind of bunker. Joe Biden is totally cut off.

•
Russia's own Joe Biden was the late Leonid Brezhnev. Like Biden, Brezhnev was very clearly fading in his later years after a series of health problems.

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Brezhnev didn't actually lead Russia by the end. He remained the country's figurehead, but it was the ideologues behind the scenes who ran the show. Brezhnev had his own Susan Rice and Barack Obama to make the real decisions. The similarities are pretty amazing.

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Over at CNN, however, they didn't see it. Or maybe they did see it, and didn't care. CNN always loved Brezhnev. In any case, the usual chorus of toadies strained for a high note Thursday. They would tell you how wonderful the speech was, as if you didn't have a TV and didn't see it for yourself.

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What are these people talking about? What about Joe Biden's shaky monotone last night inspired them, exactly?

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Don't ever tell us that Joe Biden isn't a compassionate, generous man. Here he is, offering you, with some medically necessary caveats outlined by Dr. Anthony Fauci himself, the right to cook your own hot dogs!

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With the provision, obviously, that you do it in a small, masked group seated far apart, at a prescribed distance from one other. Don't get crazy and hug or celebrate or talk too loud or anything like that.

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Moderation's the key here. But still: a socially-distanced barbeque! What other wonders does President Biden have in store for us?

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Well, you're going to have to get vaccinated to find out. Sorry. That's the other requirement. Should have mentioned it. Everybody needs the shot, period.

•
Thousands of vaccinators to vaccinate everyone. That sounds amazing. But it does raise at least one vexing question: what if you don't want to get vaccinated?

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Not everyone does. Some people have religious objections. Others have concerns about this specific medicine. Others simply don't want it. Do you need a reason to turn down the vaccine?

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What happens if you do? Will you be allowed to fly on airplanes or go to work, or enter the front doors of Madison Square Garden?

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Joe Biden didn't specify, though it's hard to believe he would support any kind of vaccine coercion. As he's said so often over so many years, if it's your body, it's your choice.

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BIDEN, JUNE 2019: "I support a woman's right to choose under that constitutional guaranteed provision. And quite frankly I always will. Folks, you know and we're going to fight to protect a woman's right to make her own personal decisions when it comes to her health care."

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Quite frankly, you've got the absolute right to make your own personal decisions about your own personal health care. Period.

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That's in the Constitution. Joe Biden would never violate that right. He's been defending that right since before you were born. It's your body, it's your choice.

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Of course, as with everything these days, there are caveats. If you don't take the shot that Joe Biden wants you to take — if you persist in making your own personal decisions about your own personal healthcare — then Joe Biden will have to shut the country down again.

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No socially distanced barbecues for you, buddy. You'll have to eat your hot dogs alone, inside.

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See related Stayin’ Alive (Antonio Branco, 02/22/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Tucker Carlson: Is the military more concerned with wokeness than winning the next war? (Fox 03/12/2021)
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Our military is the last functional institution of any size in this country. It's the last institution most people trust and respect. It is by far the most important. A weak military means no country. Period.

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... Joe Biden pledge to bring an "intensity of purpose and mission to really change the culture and habits" of the U.S. military...

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"Some of it's relatively straightforward work where we're making good progress. Designing body armor that fits women properly, tailoring combat uniforms for women, creating maternity flight suits, updating requirements for their hairstyles."

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Perhaps maternity flight suits have been around for a while. We've never heard of them. But here was the President of the United States promoting them at a press conference.

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The rest of us depend on the U.S. military to protect our families and to protect the country itself.

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Joe Biden doesn't see it that way. Finding the most effective military pilots — or infantry officers, or SEAL teams — is not his priority. It's not even close to his priority. Identity politics is Joe Biden's priority. It's all that matters.

•
You see this attitude throughout the U.S. government, as well as in the corporate world. Key positions filled on the basis of physical appearance, without any reference to ability or experience.

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Now, you can get by with that if you're Citibank, which now cares more about wokeness than about banking. (They can explain the results to their shareholders ten years from now.)

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But it is not fine if your only job is to protect the United States from people who want to kill the rest of us. That is the worst kind of dereliction of duty.

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Yet it's happening right now on an enormous scale. Just this week, the Biden administration announced that the Pentagon will pay for gender reassignment surgery for active duty personnel.

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How do sex changes in the military make this country safer? That's not a trick question, it's another volley in the culture war.

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It's the only question that matters — literally. But no one bothered to ask it, probably because no one can remember why the U.S. military exists.

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Here's a reminder: the U.S. military exists to fight and win wars. That is its only purpose.

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The U.S. military is not an NGO. It is not a vehicle for achieving equity. It is not a social experiment.

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It's definitely not an employment agency; nobody has a God-given right to work in the military.

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Making people feel valued and included is a good thing, but it is not the point of the U.S. military. It cannot be the point of the U.S. military, or else we're done.

•
Joe Biden has put a man called Lloyd Austin in charge of the Pentagon. Biden plucked Austin from the cynical world of private equity, but you're not supposed to notice that. You're supposed to notice only that Lloyd Austin is Black.

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For centuries, our military has been self-consciously non-partisan. In a democracy, it has to be that way. No country can survive if its armed forces become the tool of a specific political party.

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We know that because it happens all the time, all over the world, and the consequences are always horrifying. It has never happened here.

•
However, Lloyd Austin is openly political. In his first days on the job, Austin made the entire armed services submit to a kind of political purity test. Anyone with views that he found "extreme" had to leave.

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Then Austin set about accelerating poisonous trends already in progress at the Pentagon, the worst of these being the use of irrelevant criteria in hiring and promotion.

•
In order to meet the demands of various Democratic interest groups, the Pentagon has dramatically lowered standards in the services.

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Now, if you dare to point any of this out, they become hysterical because they can't defend their own policies. When people can't defend what they've done, they yell. They can't even clearly explain what those policies are, at least publicly. So they attack.

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Every American citizen has a right, maybe an obligation, to know what the military they pay for is doing because our lives may depend on it.

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The Department of Defense has never been more aggressively or openly political. There are, at present, 2,500 American troops stationed in Afghanistan. They remain there to prevent the fall of Kabul to extremists.

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Simultaneously, there are 5,000 troops in our own Capitol, also as protection against "extremists," meaning people who voted for the losing candidate in the last election.

•
Judging by those numbers, the Pentagon is twice as focused on controlling our own citizens as it is on controlling the Taliban.

•
Meanwhile, as Lloyd Austin hyperventilates about White supremacy, there are real threats out there, and the biggest ones continue to be ignored. Those threats aren't in Syria or suburban Virginia, and they're not domestic extremism, at least not right now.

•
The main threat we face, as everyone who is honest knows, is the government of China. China is ascendant. Their economy will soon outpace ours. China now has the largest navy on the planet.

•
Why do they have that? Why did they feel the need to build it? Does that have potential consequences for us? Yes.

•
If China moved against Taiwan, how would we respond? More likely, if the Chinese decided to close international shipping lanes, it would cripple our economy.

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If they decided to shut down our internet, it would bring our life to a halt. If they decided to occupy Malaysia, that would be a grave concern to the world.

•
If any of these things, or 100 other things that might take place, actually happen, what exactly would our Pentagon do about it? Can the U.S. military still win a real war?

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Those are the questions that matter. Those are the only questions that matter, which may be why Joe Biden wants to talk about maternity flight suits.
Cal Thomas: Biden's immigration mess – no nation can survive if it fails to control its borders (Fox 03/12/2021)
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... former President Trump recently said: "The spiraling tsunami at the border is overwhelming local communities, depleting budgets, crowding hospitals, and taking jobs from legal American workers. When I left office, we had achieved the most secure border in our country's history. Under Biden, it will soon be worse, more dangerous, and more out of control than ever before. He has violated his oath of office to uphold our Constitution and enforce our laws."

•
He is right, but the Biden administration seems unwilling to do anything about it. No nation can survive if it fails to control its borders.

•
Our nation is unique in the world. We are a nation of laws. We are a nation with a rich history.

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If we abandon what our forebears fought to preserve, what will be left but a shell of a once-great country?

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Too many schools remain closed, but the border is increasingly open. Does this make sense?

•
Some House Democrats are supporting bills that would grant legal status to millions of immigrants who broke our laws to get here.

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Democrats will make sure they quickly become voters to solidify their hold on power.

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We had better decide what kind of country we want to be, or we will become a country others want us to be.

•
That was clearly not the vision of our Founders, of the many presidents who succeeded them, or even recent Democratic presidents and presidential candidates.

•
Until now.

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Tucker Carlson: Everything the media didn't tell you about the death of George Floyd (Fox 03/11/2021)
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The death of George Floyd changed the United States, profoundly and forever. George Floyd, we were told, wasn't simply an individual. He was every African-American in this country.

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Derek Chauvin wasn't just a cop. He was the physical embodiment of America's institutions.

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We were told that when Chauvin murdered George Floyd, he was doing to one man what our country has done to all African- Americans.

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Many people told us this, including Joe Biden: "I just want to say a few words about the horrific killing of George Floyd in Minnesota ... It sends a very clear message to the Black community and Black lives that are under threat every single day ... They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk ... George Floyd's last words spoke to a nation where the color of your skin dictates the safety of you and your future ... I'm a white man. I think I understand. But I can't feel it."

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George Floyd was murdered because he was Black. That's what they told us. They demanded that we believe that, and if you doubted it in any way, if you had any questions about the facts of the case, then you were effectively as guilty as the racist cop.

•
One theology teacher at a Catholic high school in Columbus, Ohio, learned that the hard way. During a virtual class, teacher Deborah DelPrince noted that the cause of George Floyd's death was "disputed."

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That's literally true. The trial hadn't even begun yet, a dispute is at the core of every trial. But, for the crime of observing this, the Catholic Diocese of Columbus fired Deborah DelPrince.

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According to the Diocese, DelPrince had made, quote, "unsupported personal assertions and opinions" about the death of George Floyd.

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We're going to do what you're not allowed to do in Catholic high schools in Columbus, or anywhere else in America.

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We're going to assess, calmly and as honestly as we can, what happened to George Floyd on Memorial Day.

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George Floyd's death was sad. Every death is sad, as we often point out. But the question is: Was it murder?

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That question matters deeply, because Floyd's death has been used to reshape how we live in this country.

•
Because he died, we have something called "equity." Under the pretext of equity, our leaders have enshrined open racism in nearly all of our institutions, from corporate hiring quotas to woke kindergarten lesson plans.

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Americans have been told that George Floyd's death was a racist murder, and they're responsible for it.

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"It is not incumbent upon Black people to stop racism. To stop this, it is incumbent upon people who hold the power in this society to help to do that, to do the heavy lifting. And guess who that is?.."

•
"White people" are responsible. CNN said that out loud, but many others joined them. That assertion led to rioting that killed at least 19 people, and may continue to kill more. It destroyed hundreds of businesses. Minneapolis, where this all began, may never return to normal.

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Nothing BLM has done in Minneapolis has improved the lives of the people who live there. On Saturday night, a man was shot to death in the neighborhood. A reporter from The Washington Examiner, Joe Simonson, tried to get to George Floyd Square to find out what happened.

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But he couldn't. He was informed no White people were allowed in. That is a snapshot of the equity George Floyd's death has been used to justify.

•
The second reason we're going to assess what happened to George Floyd is that it's likely Derek Chauvin won't receive a fair trial.

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You may not care, but you should. That should matter to you, regardless of who you voted for. Every American deserves a fair trial, period. That's the whole point of this country. Equal justice under the law. There is no other point.

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Hundreds of activists – some dressed in all black – have been staring down National Guard troops outside the courthouse in Minneapolis all week.

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They shut down streets outside the courthouse on Monday. "We need justice, people," one shouted. "Justice by any means necessary."

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In other words, if you vote to acquit Derek Chauvin, the mob is saying, the community will burn because we will burn it.

•
... where's the Justice Department? Where's the so-called Civil Rights Division to protect the civil rights of Derek Chauvin?

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Yes, even accused cops have the right to a fair trial. Your civil rights are not suspended when you're accused. This is America.

•
... several would-be jurors expressed a reluctance to have anything to do with the case. Would you want to be a juror in this trial? I don't think so. One prospective juror explained the threats he would face:...

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"It's more from a safety, security standpoint. As far as I'm concerned I feel comfortable and safe. But I just wouldn't want any issues or harm to come to my wife or my family ... If certain individuals who were out to intimidate or cause harm, if they knew where I lived, there's potential [they] could damage the house or spray paint the house or garage door. Or break a window."

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So the jurors are intimidated. That's the point of mob justice. It was the point of mob justice 100 years ago in the American South, it's the point of mob justice in Minneapolis today.

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The thugs outside the courthouse don't want jurors to focus on the evidence. They know that evidence might not help their case. Most of that evidence hasn't been seen by most of the American population.

•
The effort to hide that evidence began immediately after George Floyd died. Everyone saw the footage of Derek Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd's neck. It was horrible. It is also confusing. When you watch it, you ask yourself "Why would a police officer act like that? Of course, it must be illegal."

•
No one in the media thought to tell us that, in fact, using a knee to restrain an uncooperative suspect is the official policy of the Minneapolis Police Department. In fact, it's taught at their academy.

•
Nor did anyone in the press think to report what happened before Derek Chauvin put his knee on George Floyd's neck.

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Authorities in Minnesota made certain no one saw the body camera footage that showed it. Body cameras exist so that we can know what happened, but they hid this footage.

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The video showed officers working for about 20 minutes trying to detain a man who they believed had just committed the crime of passing a fake $20 bill, a man who clearly had lost all sense of reality.

•
The footage showed George Floyd begging officers to stay with him. He was clearly suffering. The tape is wrenching, it really is.

•
By the end, you're filled with sympathy for George Floyd. But it's not the picture of a murder.

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The incident began around 8 p.m. on May 24, when a grocery clerk called police to report that George Floyd had tried to make a purchase using a counterfeit bill.

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Officers found George Floyd in a car nearby. Immediately, it was very obvious that something was very wrong with him.

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George Floyd was emotionally out of control, and that's why you feel so deeply for him as you watch that video. He's panicked, he's terrified, he's hysterical. The question is, why?

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The Minneapolis Police Department does not have some fabled history of brutality, and this certainly wasn't George Floyd's first encounter with law enforcement.

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Between 1997 and 2007, police in Texas arrested Floyd a total of nine times, on charges ranging from drug possession to theft.

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Then, on Aug. 9, 2007, George Floyd barged into a woman's home and held a gun to her abdomen in front of her toddler.

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It was a home invasion, and George Floyd got five years in prison for participating in it.

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If he'd been in custody before, why was George Floyd on the verge of hysteria? The police officers wondered the same thing. "You've got foam around your mouth," one says. A bystander tells Floyd, "You're gonna die of a heart attack." "Are you on something right now?" one police officer asks. "No," says George Floyd.

•
But that wasn't close to true. According to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, George Floyd wasn't just high.

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He had a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system, in addition to methamphetamine. The autopsy report showed that Floyd had 11 nanograms of fentanyl per milliliter of blood in his system when he was tested at a hospital.

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That's more than three times the amount of fentanyl that can kill a healthy person.

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Again, that's not our judgment. That's directly from the autopsy report, the one people didn't see until after the riots.

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"Signs associated with fentanyl toxicity include severe respiratory depression, seizures, hypotension, coma and death. In fatalities from fentanyl, blood concentrations are variable and have been reported as low as 3 nanograms of fentanyl per milliliter of blood."

•
No one is denying this. The Floyd family's own lawyer admits that it's true. It's "true that the Hennepin County medical examiner's office autopsy showed that Floyd had fentanyl in his system," he conceded, but then he insisted that George Floyd was actually killed by racism.

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According to a press release from the medical examiner's office, Floyd's cause of death was, "Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression" Contributing factors included, quote, "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use."

•
... a conversation the prosecutor's office had with Andrew Baker, the chief Hennepin County medical examiner. Andrew Baker told prosecutors that, "if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors, he would conclude that it was an overdose death." The memo noted that Baker said Floyd's fentanyl levels were "pretty high" 'and that it is a "fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances."

•
In a separate memo, Baker announced that "the autopsy revealed no physical evidence suggesting that Mr. Floyd died of asphyxiation."

•
Well, Floyd was having trouble breathing. That's the the most notable part of the videos. What explains that? Why was George Floyd telling officers "I can't breathe?"

•
Here's one possible explanation: One of the primary symptoms of fentanyl overdoses is "slowed or stopped breathing," leading to "unconsciousness" and death.

•
That might also explain why George Floyd was saying "I can't breathe" long before any police officer's knee was anywhere near him.
HR1, the 'For the People Act,' tells us the Democratic Party is now the party of vote fraud (Fox 03/11/2021)
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Democrats resist virtually every Republican idea to make America's elections more secure, and they labor tirelessly to make this country's elections more chaotic, more unsupervised, and more unreliable.

•
Democrats used COVID-19 as an excuse to dilute voting standards that would make the citizens of almost any Third World country blush.

•
Democrats, not Republicans, blasted out mass-mail-in ballots to everyone on voter rolls in multiple states — whether requested or not.

•
Democrats, not Republicans, installed ballot drop boxes on sidewalks, where nobody oversaw them. How many fraudulent ballots got deposited in these boxes, unchecked, and then got counted? Who knows?

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Democrats, not Republicans, diluted signature-match standards, which made it easier to accept and tabulate mail-in ballots with forged signatures.

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Democrats, not Republicans, blocked GOP observers from ballot-counting rooms in Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, and other Democrat swing-state cities.

•
In contrast, Democrat observers did their jobs in peace in Republican-controlled areas. How do we know this? It's safe to say that if GOP election officials had given Democrat challengers so much as one dirty look, it would have dominated the headlines for days.

•
In February 2017, Virginia lawmakers passed SB 1105. This bill would have required "the local electoral boards to direct the general registrars to investigate the list of registered voters whenever the number of registered voters in a county or city exceeds the population of persons age 18 years or older..." If there are more registered voters than voting-age citizens, take a look. How sensible.

•
Well, guess what? Former governor Terry McAuliffe — a Democrat, not a Republican — vetoed that measure. Thanks to McAuliffe, phantom voters lived to vote another day.

•
The federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (AKA the Motor Voter Act) and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 both require that states maintain accurate voter rolls.

•
To obey these federal laws, former Governor Rick Scott (R – Florida) attempted to remove 51,308 dead people from the voter rolls.

•
Not so fast! Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder — a Democrat, not a Republican — sued Florida.

•
Holder and the DOJ behaved as if the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Riders fought valiantly to ensure the voting rights of the deceased.

•
And now, Democrats — not Republicans — are pushing H.R. 1, a bill that would take everything that went haywire last November and shove it into the U.S. Code. The House passed this measure last week, 220 Yeas (all Democrat) to 210 Nays.
Why Dr. Seuss Had to Go (JWR 03/10/2021)
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Society has long held that activity that damages others ought to be curbed.

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John Stuart Mill posited the so-called harm principle — the belief that activity that harms someone ought to be condemned or even barred — in the mid-19th century.

•
But Mill refused to conflate harm and offense: Being offended wasn't cause for sanction of another.

•
Broadly speaking, society agreed with this formulation. But in the past few years, this formulation has been completely turned on its head. Now offense is not only considered a harm; it is considered the chief harm in our society.

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When individual self-creation becomes the chief goal of a society, institutions must be torn down — institutions, after all, foster a set of rules that may not be conducive to individual self-creation.

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Informational flow must be dammed — after all, information may allow others to take a different, objectively based opinion about you than you take subjectively about yourself.

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Books must be burned — after all, books carry with them implicit messages that may threaten your sense of yourself.

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Our societal turn from actual, measurable harm toward subjective, psychological harm places us on the road to complete devastation of our culture and our rights.

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Now anyone who offends — or even has the potential to offend — can be, and indeed ought to be, fired.

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Now any book — no matter how old or how inoffensive — can be, and indeed ought to be, banned.

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Now any kernel of information — no matter how true — can be discarded.

•
This formulation puts all power in the hands of those who are most easily offended — or at least those who claim to be. The offense itself is the weapon. Legal torts require damages; societal torts merely require a claim of damages, without evidence.

•
No one can explain just how a drawing in "If I Ran the Zoo" has contributed to actual racism; there are no recorded incidents of a single white supremacist citing "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" as a formative source in his racist worldview.

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But any academic with a computer and a degree in postmodern nonsense can take those books off the shelves simply by claiming that offense is possible.

•
In the end, the only literature allowed will be the literature that adheres to the values of our postmodern world — a world in which we are not expected to conform to societal rules but society is expected to conform to our own acts of self-definition.

•
See related Forget Cancel Culture... (Michael Ramirez, 03/03/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Most American Schools Are Damaging Your Child (JWR 03/07/2021)
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If your child attends almost any university in America (or Canada or anywhere else in the English-speaking world), the odds are that your child's decency, intellectual acuity, faculty of reason, character and moral compass will be damaged, perhaps permanently.

•
The worse news is that sending your child to almost any elementary school or high school — public or private — is fast becoming equally toxic.

•
More and more schools are being taken over by left-wing ideologues and by nonideologues who lack the courage to confront the ideologues.

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Once infected with leftism, these schools teach children to hate reason, tradition, America, Christianity, whites, excellence, freedom and masculinity.

•
To cite one example, thanks to a million-dollar grant from Bill Gates through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Oregon Education Department has announced that teaching there is "one right answer" in math — yes, in math — is an expression of white supremacy.

•
In addition to perverting education, teachers and their unions have exhibited a contempt for children that has taken even conservatives by surprise.

•
Why would you send your young child to a school that sponsors a "Drag Queen Story Hour" or that dwells on "nonbinary" gender identity?

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Do you think such things do not damage your child's innocence? Do you want your child to be challenged about his or her sexual identity?

•
Why would you send your child to any school that teaches The New York Times' "1619 Project" ?

•
This project holds that America was not founded in 1776 but in 1619, with the arrival of the first black slaves in North America, and that the Revolutionary War was fought not to gain independence from Britain but to preserve slavery.

•
... not only are these children alienated from their parents' values, but they are often also alienated from the parent(s). One thing you learn when you become left-wing is to have contempt for those who hold other beliefs.

•
Had these parents known how their children would turn out, they would never have sent them to college — or even to the high school they attended.

•
It appears, however, that no matter how many people lose their children's hearts and minds to left-wing indoctrination, and no matter how much information accumulates about the perversion of education in American schools, parents continue to take risks with their children they would never take in any other sphere.

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If your child wishes to study STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) or law, college remains a necessity. Otherwise, it isn't.

•
As for elementary and high school, parents must either find a school that teaches reading, writing and arithmetic rather than America-hatred, or they should home-school their child.

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This, understandably, sounds terribly daunting. However, it is becoming considerably easier to do so as home-school groups and quality home-school curricula proliferate around the country.

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Whatever your decision, never say you weren't warned.
Drew Holden: Fighting cancel culture – here are the cases we should worry about the most (Fox 03/07/2021)
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The definition of cancel culture is tough to nail down but, fundamentally, it's about punishing someone for something they've said or done in the past that is deemed unacceptable.

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This judgement is often a result of changing cultural norms and mores by a subgroup of people who are often unaccountable to the broader public.

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The punishments vary but usually involve a loss of money or status – ensuring someone is fired or de-platformed, blackballing a company or product, invalidating awards or honors.

•
Much of the recent coverage around cancel culture has been focused on high-profile cases of people in the public eye...

•
But our concerns should be less about whether a celebrity gets booted from a show or a senator has to change book publishers – since there's only so much capacity for outrage and discussions around the chilling of free speech – and focus our attention on the many real crises happening below our collective radar.

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Perhaps the most acute crisis is on college campuses across the country. College professors and administrators are increasingly losing their livelihoods and reputations as a result of transgressions that often border on the ridiculous.

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... receiving about 50 messages a week from academics fearful that their (predominantly liberal) beliefs would run afoul of the progressive orthodoxy in a way that could imperil their career...

•
Numerous educators have lost their jobs in high schools and middle schools across the country for not supporting Black Lives Matter and other protests.

•
Concerns go beyond education. In workplaces across the country, everyday Americans fear they could be next.

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The last few years have seen numerous people lose their jobs for everything from misunderstood comments to unintentional hand gestures.

•
... upending someone's life because you don't agree with all of their political views – past and present – isn't something a healthy society does.

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A country that walks on eggshells around the slightest transgression, that lives in fear of the most innocuous of comments, that is unwilling to speak and act in a way consistent with their conscious because of reprisals, is untenable.

•
Cheapening the definition or focusing just on the flashiest celebrity cases undermines this threat that greets countless everyday Americans when they walk through the door of their job, their parent-teacher association, or a local school board.

•
It can be easy to write off these concerns as isolated incidents – a journalist loses a job over seemingly mundane comments here, a university professor facing a boycott for so much as attending a pro-police protest there.

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A well-informed resistance to cancel culture should be concerned with protecting the little guy, ensuring that unfashionable views aren't shouted out of the public square.

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That requires an active stance against the phenomenon, a position that's constantly at-the-ready to reject attacks on both the letter and the spirit of the freedoms that all Americans hold dear.

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And opposing cancel culture is important not just where fairness is concerned. It's also the best way to kill bad ideas.

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Human history has shown that reason is a powerful antiseptic; bad ideas die faster in the light of better ideas than in the darkness of banishment, where they're often left to fester.

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The American experiment requires that each and every one of us tolerates certain opinions and beliefs that don't share and may even revile.

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Maintaining that experiment will require that we start living up to our responsibilities.

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See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Gone with the Wind (Chip Bok, 06/12/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Jonathan Turley: Scandalous failure of big city public schools has created a lost generation of kids (Fox 03/07/2021)
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Decades and billions of dollars have been exhausted without significant improvement.

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However, the real cost of our failure is borne by these students who find little solace in knowing that their per capita expenditures continue to rise as their scores continue to fall or remain stagnant.

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De Blasio may be successful in using public education for the redistribution of wealth but he, and other politicians, have done little in the equal distribution of education and opportunity.
Islamophobia, Cancel culture and the silencing of the lambs (INN 03/06/2021)
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"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind." — John Stuart Mill, On Liberty...

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We are living in a time when many of us are being censored – silenced for making statements or asking questions that may offend some.

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At a time when we have social media – an opportunity to learn from others all over the world, expand our horizons, ask more questions of people we would never have had the opportunity to meet in person, we are being bullied into silence; on social media!

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Not only bullied into silence but erased; literally canceled. Cancel culture, today, reminds me of Islamophobia. Both of them operate on the same level.

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They try to shame and bully us into silence. And they use fear, especially the fear of being called a racist, to suppress opposition to their ideologies. RACIST – the one word that enforces silence.

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The terms Islamophobia and cancel culture are left wing ideologies working hand in hand to undermine and destroy the West by vilifying critical thinking.

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... why not use the term phobia – "irrational fear" to silence criticism of Islam? And they did.

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Yet, it seems to me millions of people have a rational fear of Islam.

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Jewish people have a very rational fear of Islam. Calls from Muslim countries and Muslims around the world for death to Israel and death to the Jews and the eradication of the state of Israel – are rational fears. Calls for "Death to America" promotes a rational fear.

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Since the 2014 ISIS invasion of their territory, the United Nations estimates that of the 500,000 Yazidi, 5,000 Yazidi men died in the massacre. ...

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Yazidi men who refused to convert to Islam were executed and dumped in mass graves; many boys were forced to become child soldiers. An estimated 7,000 Yazidi women and girls, some as young as nine, were enslaved and forcibly transferred to locations in Iraq and eastern Syria. Held in sexual slavery, survivors reported being repeatedly sold, gifted, or passed around among ISIS fighters. Do you think the Yazidi may have a rational fear of Islam?

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Then there are the Christians in Africa who are being murdered for the crime of being Christian. Nigeria is becoming the "biggest killing ground of Christians in the world"... between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians have been killed in the last decade in the West African nation, the most populous on the continent.

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The three biggest terrorist organizations in the world today are ISIS, Boko Haram, and al-Shabaab. ... Do you think their fear of Islam is irrational?

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The term Islamophobia has effectively silenced free speech by turning Islam into a race, so the fear of Islam is a phobia and racist. A double whammy.

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Except Islam is not a race. It was never a race, but hey, never let a fact get in the way of a narrative. No one wants to be labeled a racist! And so the sheep are silenced.

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Which brings me to cancel culture. Cancel culture — the phenomenon of promoting the "canceling" of people, brands and even shows and movies due to what some consider to be offensive or problematic remarks or ideologies.

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It is "censorious" and "an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty."

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Disagree with the proponents of cancel culture, their ideologies, and without doubt YOU are a RACIST; because YOU are a WHITE SUPREMACIST.

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That ends the discussion or the possibility of employing critical thinking. Who wants to be labeled a white supremacist or racist?

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Democrats are calling for the canceling, silencing of Conservative news stations. A full frontal attack on the freedom of speech.

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After the years of McCarthyism, how did we get here again? Right – erasing the past.

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My favourite is the new "Math Equity," which informs teachers that many classroom practices once considered normal are actually aspects of white supremacy culture that must be systematically dismantled.

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"Only white people can be racist in our society, because only white people as a group have that power," says the Dismantling Racism 2016 Workbook...

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... contains a list of characteristics of white supremacy culture that are utilized in the Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction toolkit. The list includes traits such as individualism, objectivity, perfectionism, paternalism, power hoarding, and worship of the written word.

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... says that the white supremacy characteristic of individualism is reinforced in the classroom when independent practice is valued over teamwork.

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"This does not give value to collectivism and community understanding, and fosters conditions for competition and individual success."

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... says that placing an emphasis on "real world" math "can result in using mathematics to uphold capitalist and imperialist ways of being and understandings of the world."

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And the response to these teaching methods? Silence. Except for a brave few who put their lives and careers in jeopardy – from cancel culture; too many parents are silent sheep.

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Cancel culture, like Islamophobia, is meant to name, shame and blame people into silence and give up their free speech and with it, critical thinking. They are both an attack on freedom given to us on our Constitutions.

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Sadly, the problem is that it has been "given to us" and too many have thrown away the gift in the name of tolerance, inclusion and accommodation, and ultimately fear of being labeled a racist.

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It is not so much that the lambs are being silenced as the lambs are silencing themselves into oblivion.

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See related Gone with the Wind (Chip Bok, 06/12/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Two more 'white racists' join an illustrious cohort (JWR 03/05/2021)
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After the Coca Cola Company issued a memo to its white employees not to behave in a "white way," you probably thought cancel culture couldn't get more idiotic. Well, you were wrong.

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Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that publishes Dr. Seuss' children's books, said it will stop selling six of his titles because they contain racist and insensitive images. The firm said it scrapped the books because they "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong."

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Our beloved Dr. Seuss has at long last been outed as being a white supremist. Just another colonial racist making millions off the backs of poor, disenfranchised minorities. Making this slap in the face to Dr. Seuss even a bit nastier, the company issued the statement last Tuesday, on the author's birthday.

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Dr. Seuss Enterprises said it decided last year to stop publishing and licensing the titles — which include "If I Ran the Zoo," "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," "McElligot's Pool," "On Beyond Zebra!," "Scrambled Eggs Super!" and "The Cat's Quizzer" — after consulting with a panel of so-called educators and other morons in academia.

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In one example, the book "Mulberry Street," was the first children's book Seuss published in 1937. The "experts" and "educators" claim the book contains a controversial illustration of an Asian man dressed in Chinese clothing holding chopsticks and a bowl of rice whom the text called a "Chinaman who eats with sticks."

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Well, excuse me, but Chinese people in 1937 actually did dress in Chinese clothing and ate rice with chopsticks. Also, in 1937 the term Chinaman was not considered any more derogatory than calling a Brit an Englishman, or a man from Ireland and Irishman.

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Even our Idiot-in-Chief, President Biden avoided mentioning Dr. Seuss in his presidential proclamation for Read Across America Day, and a Virginia school district ordered its teachers to avoid linking the day with the late writer because research has shown "strong racial undertones" in many of his books.

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"Cancel Culture" is going on all over the place, and it doesn't look like it will stop any time soon.

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"Cancel Culture" is nothing more than a modern term for censorship; the banning of books, movies, art, and freedom of speech when it doesn't comport with leftist, elite doctrine.

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Fascist, communist, and other totalitarian dictatorial governments have engaged in this for decades, but as we now see it doesn't always emanate from oppressive laws and edicts mandated by a structured governmental regime.

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Today in our country censorship is coming out of a leftist politically correct mindset, just as insidious and just as evil as any totalitarian government.

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When censorship and bans are imposed by private businesses, organizations, the press, social media, and other entities the result is the same as governmental oppression.

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Suppression of thought, silencing freedom of expression, speech restriction, book banning, and rewriting history becomes the normative way of life.

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Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney. Just a couple more white racists who have joined George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as the latest to be cancelled in 2021 America.
Tucker Carlson: The occupation of Washington and liberals' deepest fear (Fox 03/05/2021)
Tom Homan: Biden's border surge – here's how president's team has created a crisis in record time (Fox 03/05/2021)
Form Over Substance (JWR 03/04/2021)
What happened to boundaries? (JWR 03/04/2021)
•
All games must be played within boundaries. No one would think of erasing them. If they did, how could they ever expect an orderly contest?

•
Boundaries are rapidly being erased in American culture. It seems everything has been sacrificed to opinion polls, campaign contributions from certain advocacy groups and editorial support from major newspapers.

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What are the consequences to a society that embraces an "anything goes" mentality? Who among us wants to publicly oppose anything for fear of being labeled a bigot? The standard for what is acceptable and what is not is now subjectively determined.

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So, please, tell me if you can: do any standards exist and if they do, based on what? If you believe they don't, on what is this belief based?

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Denying a standard is in itself a standard, is it not?
Tucker Carlson: School closures show triumph of equity over equality in America (Fox 03/04/2021)
•
Six weeks into the Biden administration and there still has been no solo press conference from the president. That is the longest stretch of silence from any new president in at least a century.

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In their spare time, Joe Biden's scribes produce an awful lot of presidential proclamations. One of his very first proclamation was entitled "An Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government."

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This was the document that introduced the administration's new equity plan, which is going to "eliminate systemic barriers to opportunities and benefits for people of color and other underserved groups."

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It's quite a mouthful, but what does it mean? Has anyone asked what it means or did everyone in Washington graduate from Yale and thus intuitively understands sloppy, meaningless words like this?

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The rest of us might still like to know what a "systemic" barrier is and how Joe Biden plans to eliminate it. That's easy, with equity, of course.

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But that raises a whole new question: What exactly is equity and how is it different from equality, the central principle this country was founded on?

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Well, the first thing to know about equality is that it's designed to challenge power. Equity, by contrast, is designed to protect power.

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Equality is what allowed Andrew Jackson to rise from a childhood of bitter poverty in the Carolina woods and make it all the way to the White House.

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Equity is the opposite. Equity is what allowed Kamala Harris, the privileged child of two PhDs, to stay privileged and become one of the most powerful people on the planet, despite having achieved nothing impressive or worthwhile over the span of 56 years.

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So Andrew Jackson and Kamala Harris — both Democrats, one the child of equality, the other the child of equity. That's the difference in a nutshell.

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Equality challenges power. Equity protects power. That principle has never been on starker display than in the case of the teachers unions, which are some of the most powerful institutions in America.

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They are using the term "equity" to justify their own prerogatives as they hurt the weak — in this case, school children and their increasingly desperate parents.

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So purely because the most privileged government workers in the United States won't work, an entire generation of children is being destroyed. That's equity: The strong hurt the weak and call it justice.

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Everyone who thinks about this, even for a moment, knows that it's true. That's why you never hear equity debated or even defined. They won't define the term because they can't defend its definition.
Silencing free speech — when the First Amendment is not enforced, this can happen (Fox 03/04/2021)
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"In short, we do not need good laws to restrain bad men. We need good men to restrain bad laws." — G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

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Last week produced news about the suppression of speech on university campuses. There, the suppression usually occurs through the power of intimidation before the speech is given.

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Yet, most public lectures on college campuses are public accommodations, meaning the landowner — the university — cannot bar the entry of audience members because of their political views, nor can it silence the speakers because of theirs.

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Ordinarily, the owner of private property can impose whatever regulations he wishes upon those who voluntarily come upon his land.

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But in our era of ubiquitous government, state legislatures have enacted laws that require that if you invite the public, you must take whoever shows up.

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And if you accept money from the state or the feds — and there are only a handful of colleges and universities that do not — you must abide the same First Amendment standards as the government.

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In the latter case, since the government cannot discriminate on the basis of ideas, then colleges or universities that accept funds from the government likewise cannot.

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The theory here is that the government's funds — dollars taken from taxpayers or money the government has borrowed, to be repaid by future taxpayers — ought not be used indirectly in ways that the Constitution bars the government from using directly.

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But the First Amendment is rarely enforced on college campuses today because colleges have largely become places of left-wing orthodoxy where it is acceptable to cajole or intimidate into silence speakers who are at odds with that orthodoxy.

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The usual excuse is the speaker will outrage the audience and that would threaten public safety.

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Yet, under the First Amendment, where the audience is voluntary, free speech trumps public safety.

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This clash happens when people come to public lectures not because they like the lecturer's ideas but because they hate them.

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The court held that the government cannot silence a speaker because it fears his words or the audience.

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It also held that it is the duty of the government to respect and protect the freedom of speech, not to nullify or avoid it.

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... the First Amendment and the natural right to say what you think compel the court to side with liberty, no matter how odious is the speech.

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The essence of humanity is personal liberty. And the essence of government is the negation of liberty.

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Which is the greater threat to personal liberty, a speaker who harangues a crowd that came to be harangued or a government that fears free speech and issues edicts about what to say and when to say it?

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Will colleges and universities take note of this? Don't hold your breath.

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See related Tolerance (Michael Ramirez, 02/06/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
When Lies Matter More Than Facts (JWR 03/03/2021)
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In one of the more astonishing sentences ever written in a major newspaper, The Times reported, "The story highlights the tensions between a student's deeply felt sense of personal truth and facts that are at odds with it."

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For those who speak English, this sentence translates thusly: The story highlights the tensions between lies and the truth.

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But for those who speak the wokeabulary, this sentence actually makes equivalence between lies told on behalf of a self-serving victim narrative and factual truth.

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The two must be balanced against each other, not one dismissed for its patent falsehood.

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This is the society we now inhabit: a society in which a "deeply felt sense of personal truth" must be weighed against "the facts." And typically, our society dismisses "the facts."

•
... an accepting, kind society would allow a "deeply felt sense of personal truth" to flourish by requiring others to accept it as fact.

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What of those harmed by that "deeply felt sense of personal truth"? This is where structural arguments about power come in.

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We can choose which sense of personal truth ought to triumph with reference to societal structures: Those who are deemed more victimized ought to be given more credibility.

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This is how we arrive at the insanity of a transgender agenda that calls for banning books that demonstrate the unmalleability of sex: A "deeply felt sense of personal truth" is at odds with the biological facts, and the biological facts must lose.

•
In the end, perhaps the deconstructionists were right; perhaps a society's emphasis on facts, data and actual truth reflects the values of that society.

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Such a society values the individual, since facts are accessible to individuals and aren't the select preserve of a priestly caste.

•
Such a society allows the possibility of consensus by appeal to verifiable facts. If facts don't matter, there can be no common polis — or there can only be a polis as dictated by those in power. And perhaps that's precisely the point.

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See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Will Andrew Cuomo resign? Don't bet on it. Here's how governor plans to stay in office (Fox 03/03/2021)
Lockdowns are killing our children, and everyone knows it — including teachers' unions (Fox 03/03/2021)
Lauren Appell: Dr. Seuss silenced – sobering lessons as cancel culture strikes beloved author (Fox 03/03/2021)
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Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known in households across America as Dr. Seuss, just became the latest cancel culture casualty.

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Dr. Seuss' birthday coincides with Read Across America Day, which was by design when it was founded by the National Education Association more than 20 years ago.

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This year the author and cartoonist, who has sold more than 650 million books in at least 95 countries, posthumously received an unexpected birthday gift — he got blacklisted.

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Dr. Seuss Enterprises said it will stop publishing six of the author's books due to racial and insensitive imagery.

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The organization said they "listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field as part of our review process. We then worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review our catalog of titles."

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That's funny, the one audience they fail to mention listening to is parents. Parents of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds.

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What do those parents have to say about the imagery from Dr. Seuss? We don't know, because it appears none of us have been asked.

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A parent might have said: "Change a word, soften an image, but banning entire books is a draconian and unnecessary overreaction."

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While six books have been banned for now, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said it's "committed to listening and learning and will continue to review our entire portfolio." That's code for stay tuned, we're not done banning books.

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... actual listening and learning leads to respectful dialogue, otherwise the result is cowering to the politically correct mob.

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President Biden parted from past Presidents Obama and Trump by dropping Dr. Seuss from his "Read Across America Day" proclamation this week.

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When asked why Dr. Seuss was missing from the president's proclamation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki wouldn't answer the question, and this time she didn't even bother to say she'd circle back.

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We can't let ourselves turn into a country that's quick to blacklist everything and slow to communicate anything.

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In President Obama's proclamation, he said Dr. Seuss "used his incredible talent to instill in his most impressionable readers universal values we all hold dear." It's not often I find common ground with President Obama, but on this he was absolutely right.

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Here are a few quotes from Dr. Seuss that speak to those universal values.

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Some of these I've even been known to put on shirts for my kids to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday.

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"Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you."

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"Why fit in when you were born to stand out."

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

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"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

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"A person's a person, no matter how small."

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A book by Dr. Seuss is reportedly the first story one in four American children receive. That was true for my kids and that was also true for me.

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It's no wonder, he made reading fun, instilled a curiosity and love for learning, and created some of our kids' first childhood memories.

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We're all uniquely created, it's unreasonable to expect that we will all think the same. Nor should we. Our country cannot continue down this path of stamping into silent submission everyone with a dissenting viewpoint.

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When we continue to erase stories and silence voices, we can never hear what they have to say.
Tucker Carlson: Biden's Syria strike shows the folly of Establishment 'counter-terrorism' (Fox 03/02/2021)
Biden — The first frightful month (INN 03/01/2021)
•
Of course, it is not totally beyond the realms of possibility that an insipid challenger and his unpopular running mate amassed almost 83 million votes, outstripping the previous record popular vote cast for the far more vibrant Barack Obama in 2008 by around 12 million votes.

•
Likewise, it is not entirely impossible that an incumbent president, who:

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oversaw a remarkable economic recovery;

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achieved record low unemployment rates including for ethnic minorities and women;

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provided for the exceptionally swift production of a vaccination for the COVID-19 pandemic — within a time frame initially considered unrealistically short;

•
built up the US armed forces without entangling the nation in any further foreign military campaigns; and;

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extended his overall electoral support by over 10% and 7 million votes to attain a popular vote higher than any previous incumbent;

•
was ousted from office by a lethargic, lackluster opponent and his low profile, evasive and non-committal campaign — after two distinctly unsuccessful attempts (in 1988 and 2008) to win the nomination as his party's presidential candidate.

•
But even those who believe that Biden won the election "fair and square" without the aid of "underhand" shenanigans, should be able to understand why so many feel that a Biden-Harris victory — especially by such a wide margin — is to, say the least, highly implausible.

•
Adding to the sense that Biden's victory was aided by a heavy "thumb on the scales", was the blatant collusion by major social network firms and mainstream media to refrain from reporting on potentially pertinent negative information on Biden, his family, and their shady business activities with America's chief geostrategic rivals — and thus prevented it from reaching voters before they cast their ballots.

•
But no matter how gullible or skeptical over the electoral outcome one might happen to be, the die has now been cast.

•
The ominous trajectory for the American people — and for much of the world — has been set.

•
See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Steal Team Six (Antonio Branco, 10/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
The elevation of every world culture as 'equally meritorious' has created a deep inequality in our own (JWR 03/01/2021)
Liz Peek: CPAC blasts cancel culture – could the attacks on Dr. Seuss be the tipping point? (Fox 03/01/2021)
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If you haven't heard, Dr. Seuss is being canceled. The same boneheads who claim that the "mister" in Mr. Potato Head is overly "exclusive," that Aunt Jemima syrup encouraged racial stereotyping, that math is a vestige of White supremacy and that gender reveal parties are "transphobic," want you to find racism in the pages of "Hop on Pop."

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This is absurd, of course, and makes Democrats who applaud such virtue signaling look stupid.

•
But the urge to condemn people who challenge the woke mob and cancel every icon of American life – the founders of our nation, the historical monuments that adorn our cities, the books we grew up reading – has reached a tipping point.

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Cancel culture has become so mindless and all-encompassing that the average American will soon say... Enough! Dr. Seuss could bring us to that point.

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We should ridicule those who support these ideas, because nothing brings down an inflated crusade or ego faster than mockery. But the wholesale cancellation of people and ideas in our nation today is no laughing matter.

•
Under the guise of increasing tolerance liberals have become utterly intolerant, and especially of opposing ideas. We have seen an American president and many of his supporters scrubbed from autocratic social media platforms – actions that drew rebukes even from the reliably anti-Trump Emmanuel Macron of France and Germany's Angela Merkel.

•
We see liberals like the Washington Post's Max Boot calling for cable companies to drop conservative news organizations. We see longtime editors and writers at the New York Times felled because they stand up for free speech.

•
Liberal critics just recently went after Hyatt Hotels for hosting CPAC; the hotel chain stood their ground, noting that they "believe in the right of individuals and organizations to peacefully express their view." Good for them.

•
By way of background, Dr. Seuss has our attention today because the Loudoun County Public Schools, which spend over $1 billion annually to educate more than 80,000 students in northern Virginia, has canceled its annual celebration of the beloved author's birthday.

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They did that, according to the school's spokesman, because "Research in recent years has revealed strong racial undertones in many books written/illustrated by Dr. Seuss."

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For years, schools across the nation have held a Read Across America Day on March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. The celebration included "read-ins" of Seuss' best-loved titles and other works. Just a couple of years ago, the event featured first lady Michelle Obama reading "The Cat in the Hat" to youngsters.

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... a 2019 study that analyzed 50 books and more than 2,200 characters created by Dr. Seuss and concluded that "of the 2,240 (identified) human characters, there are 45 characters of color representing 2% of the total number of human characters."

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The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss reports that, "Of the 45 characters, 43 exhibited behaviors and appearances that align with harmful and stereotypical Orientalist tropes."

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As is often the case, the perpetrators of this nonsense appear ignorant of the facts. Theodor Seuss Geisel, who wrote under the pen name Dr. Seuss, was an ardent liberal who supported FDR and passionately spoke out against fascism. His work includes books that embrace environmentalism ("The Lorax") and racial equality ("The Sneetches"). To conclude that Seuss was a closet racist is preposterous.
Tucker Carlson: Americans have been lied to by COVID response leaders (Fox 02/27/2021)
Biden's immigration order – this is how policy will hide crimes, ignore victims (Fox 02/27/2021)
•
... Trump's executive order created a new office at DHS to "provide proactive, timely, adequate and professional services" to the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens, and their families.

•
Biden's order dissolved the authority for the continuation of this office, thus people who are victimized by illegal aliens are now on their own.

•
In President Biden's order, he claimed "the policy of my administration is to protect national and border security, address the humanitarian challenges at the southern border, and ensure public health and safety."

•
With the complete revocation of Trump's order and the issuance of new guidelines that will force federal agents to stand down from enforcing the law, Biden is doing the exact opposite of his alleged policy, particularly when it comes to protecting "public health and safety."

•
The only "health and safety" he seems to want to protect is that of dangerous, criminal aliens who prey on Americans.

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Whether or not you were a fan of President Trump's "America First" approach to immigration and public safety, are we really better off with President Biden's "America Last" approach?

•
See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Tucker Carlson: Racial injustice and class warfare at Smith College (Fox 02/25/2021)
We have lost an American genius (JWR 02/25/2021)
What to cut? Plenty (JWR 02/25/2021)
Tucker Carlson: So how many illegal aliens are really in the US? (Fox 02/25/2021)
•
Have you ever noticed that nobody in Washington can agree on a number? You would think that people with functioning calculators could come to similar math- based conclusions once in a while, but not in D.C.

•
With all of that in mind, it's pretty amazing to watch virtually everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat, repeat precisely the same number when discussing one of the most critical problems that we face.

•
That number is 11 million. That number, they tell us, is exactly how many foreign nationals currently live here illegally.

•
It's almost like a script now. People have different views on what we ought to do about illegal immigrants, but nobody questions how many there are. There are 11 million, period.

•
A month before last year's presidential election, Joe Biden promised: "Within 100 days, I'm going to send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people, and all of those so-called Dreamers, those DACA kids, they're going to be immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship."

•
Joe Biden is in the White House now. His party controls everything, so he can make good on that promise and he plans to do so. In fact, it's one of the very first things he's doing. How's it going to affect you?

•
First of all, it's kind of a big deal. All but seven U.S. states have fewer than 11 million people living in them.

•
It doesn't take an economist to know that giving free "health care" to 11 million new people could easily capsize the U.S. economy.

•
As Milton Friedman once wisely noted, you can have a welfare state or you can have open borders, but you cannot have both.

•
However, we're getting both. We may, in fact, be getting a great deal more than that.

•
We all assume that 11 million is the real number of illegal aliens in this country, but is it? No, it's not. In fact, it's a totally fake number which people endlessly repeat either because they are badly informed or dishonest. They've been repeating that number for more than 15 years.

•
Many illegal immigrants don't respond to census takers. ... "There is no magic bullet that anyone has discovered to count this population [illegal immigrants]. This is really very difficult to estimate."

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... all the assumptions that there are 11 million illegal immigrants in this country are based on a separate assumption: That 90% of illegal immigrants are willing to cooperate with the Census Bureau. That assumption, in turn, is based on a survey showing nearly half of all illegal immigrants refused to fill out the survey. This is bad math at the very least.

•
"After running 1,000,000 simulations of the model, the researchers' 95% probability range is 16 million to 29 million, with 22.1 million as the mean."

•
... There could easily be 30 million (or more) illegal immigrants living in this country. That's more people than live in the entire state of Texas.

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So how would amnesty for that many people affect our "democracy"? In effect, it would end our democracy.

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People who have lived here all of their lives, paid taxes, followed the rules, been good citizens, would find their votes diluted to the point of irrelevance.

•
It would also ensure permanent rule by the Democratic Party, which is the point of it.

•
Of course, they won't tell you the total number. They want you to believe it's 11 million, always and forever.

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By the time you figure out they're lying to you, it'll be too late to do anything about it, obviously.
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: COVID, Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Constitution (Fox 02/25/2021)
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History teaches that governments crave control and resist restraint. They negate liberty.

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Yet, according to the Declaration of Independence, the reason we have government is not to tell us how to live but to protect our freedoms.

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How well has that worked?
Dear Woke Asians: Stop Blaming Whitey (JWR 02/24/2021)
The Authoritarian Left Is on the March (JWR 02/24/2021)
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This week, Democratic Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Jerry McNerny, D-N.J., sent out a series of letters to America's largest communications corporations...

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Their letters demanded answers from these corporations on one simple topic: Why would these platforms continue to allow the dissemination of "misinformation" from conservative outlets?

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"Our country's public discourse is plagued by misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and lies," the House Democrats wrote.

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"These phenomena undergird the radicalization of seditious individuals who committed acts of insurrection on January 6th, and it contributes to a growing distrust of public health measures necessary to crush the pandemic. ... Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN?"

•
The overt move by members of the government to cudgel private corporations into silencing unpopular viewpoints was clearly violative of First Amendment principles.

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The Constitution clearly provides that Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or the press; Democrats have now hit upon a convenient workaround where they bully private actors into doing their censorious bidding.

•
Why, precisely, wouldn't the answer to misinformation be factual rebuttal? Because, the authoritarian left argued, misinformation led to "incitement."

•
Now, there is a legal standard for "incitement" — and it's a high bar to reach. But the authoritarian left has broadened out the meaning of incitement to include any verbiage that elicits strong emotions ... so long as conservatives are responsible for such verbiage.

•
Thus, it's possible incitement to call people by their biological pronouns but perfectly innocent fun to wink and nod at widespread looting and rioting.

•
The answer to "misinformation" and "incitement," however, can't lie within government.

•
So Democrats have turned toward hijacking the private instruments of informational dissemination, all in the name of reestablishing an informational monopoly the left lost with the death of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, and with a monopoly that collapsed completely with the rise of the open internet.

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And corporations are going along with all of this. This week, Amazon banned a book on transgender people, "When Harry Became Sally," presumably because it took a non-woke line on the subject.

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Coca-Cola is now apparently indoctrinating its employees into the cult of Robin DiAngelo "anti-racism."

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Facebook and Twitter and Google are all preparing new measures aimed at cracking down on "misinformation" — opaque guidelines and nonrigorous standards that will surely cut in favor of the same establishment media now pushing censorship, and the Democrats they support.

•
The establishment media are fond of saying that we're experiencing a crisis of authoritarianism in America; they point to the criminal acts of Jan. 6 and suggest that right-wing authoritarianism threatens democracy itself.

•
The far greater threat to democracy, however, lies with an authoritarian left that is now ascendant in virtually every powerful institution in America.
Tucker Carlson: Mainstream media disinformation more powerful and destructive than QAnon (Fox 02/23/2021)
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... have watched with growing amusement as our media gatekeepers thrash about in a frenzy of foaming hysteria at the possibility that someone, somewhere might dare to present facts or form opinions without their express written permission.

•
Freelance thinking is what they hate most, because it's a threat to their monopoly. They can't say that out loud, so instead they call it "disinformation."

•
"Disinformation is the real threat," says the guy who thinks his union has the contract on bringing you the news. It's ridiculous.

•
If we're being completely honest, there is a kernel of truth in what they're yelling about. There is disinformation out there and it does hurt people, imparing their ability to make wise decisions.

•
You can't know what to do next if you don't know what's really going on. A lot of people in this country are in that position right now.

•
A lot of Americans are completely and utterly misinformed, and that has actual consequences. Public policy can change dramatically on the basis of things people think they know but don't actually know. So it's worth finding out where the public is getting all this "disinformation."

•
It was cable news and politicians talking on TV. They're the ones spreading disinformation to Americans.

•
... it takes a sophisticated operator to take the central problem of American life, the agonizing death of our middle class, and cover it with a smokescreen of manufactured race hatred so that no one even realizes it's happening.
Rush, explained (JWR 02/23/2021)
•
Limbaugh's devoted fans believed their values helped build and sustain America through wars, economic downturns and other challenges.

•
They see those values under siege from a secular progressive generation that tolerates everything but them.

•
Many had served in the military to defend once traditional values and the freedoms many now take for granted, as if freedom is automatically and effortlessly achieved.

•
These people go to church and take their children to Sunday school. Some enroll their kids in Christian schools or home school them because they dislike what is taught in public schools.

•
They believe their country is losing all moral standards, is becoming increasingly corrupt and in danger of extinction if things don't turn around.

•
Shouldn't these concerns explain why they wish to issue warnings because they love the country and don't want it to fail? Limbaugh was their spokesman in these and other matters.

•
In 2015, Obama told a gathering of wealthy Californians at a fundraiser that conservatives "cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

•
While running for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton famously characterized "half of Donald Trump's supporters belong in a basket of deplorables" characterized by "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic" views.

•
You see how this works? If you don't bend the knee to them and their way of thinking, you are somehow less of an American than they are.

•
They think they have the right to set standards, which constantly shift and thus are not standards, while they obliterate conservative and religious standards, which are fixed.

•
Conservatives got tired of either being ignored, or having their ideas, values and beliefs demonized and so when Limbaugh, especially, and other conservative commentators and outlets came along, accurately describing, defending, even promoting their beliefs, they flocked to them.

•
The major media, which must make money to exist, had an opportunity to understand "these people," a term used by some on the left to collectively describe them as if they were aliens from another planet.

•
Instead, they effectively told them "we don't want your business," so they took their "business" to Limbaugh and others.

•
Instead of reaching out to understand, employ conservatives in the media and comment fairly on their beliefs, the secular progressives in and out of the media doubled down on their rejection of them.

•
This made the rejected even more loyal to Limbaugh and those who followed him.

•
One definition of "The Establishment" is: "the existing power structure in society; the dominant groups in society and their customs or institutions; institutional authority."

•
This is what Rush Limbaugh challenged and why his listeners loved him. He was right and those critical of him never understood. They still don't and neither do they care to.
Rush Limbaugh's legacy – Here's how conservative Americans can repay the debt we owe to him (Fox 02/22/2021)
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Rush Limbaugh was a genuinely good man, who had a heart for our country and the American people.

•
Rush Limbaugh won hearts and minds all across America with "talent on loan from God" and could articulate conservative ideals and principles like very few Americans of our time.

•
See related Return (Michael Ramirez, 02/18/2021) cartoon from General picture album
Michael Goodwin: Biden revives Obama policies – and each one hurts Americans. Take a look (Fox 02/22/2021)
•
As winners never fail to remind losers, elections have consequences. But rarely is there a single day where consequences pack as much wallop as Friday, where the irrationality of Joe Biden's policies came into full view.

•
From the border with Mexico, where the new administration started opening the doors to at least 25,000 migrants seeking asylum, to the Mideast tinderbox, where it moved to rejoin the misbegotten Iran nuke deal, the new president appears fixated by the desire to turn back the clock to 2016.

•
It's as if Biden has been seized by a sentimental longing to try to make the world like it was when the Obama-Biden administration left office.

•
Still, trying to recapture the past would be reasonable if those years had created prosperity at home and peace abroad.

•
In fact, the world Donald Trump inherited was bristling with trouble and America's economy was moving forward at a snail's pace.

•
Despite revisionist efforts by the media and the left to erase the achievements of the president they hated, Trump had major policy successes that benefited all Americans.

•
It's especially unnerving, then, that Biden is choosing to reverse the very policies that produced those benefits.

•
Trump Derangement Syndrome leads people to do weird things, but Biden's attempt to cancel Trump's biggest victories is among the weirdest.

•
The "Remain in Mexico" program was an effective solution to the endless stream of caravans of Central Americans that moved north to escape violence and find work in a booming U.S.

•
The Obama-Biden policy had been to admit the asylum applicants and turn them loose pending hearings. Naturally, many never showed up because they knew they could not qualify as refugees from persecution. But their ability to stay here illegally served as an incentive for others to follow.

•
Instead of building on the program that reduced mass migrations, Biden returned to the broken system Trump had fixed. Biden also pledges not to build another foot of border wall and pause nearly all deportations for 100 days.

•
In what world does any of that make sense, especially in a pandemic?

•
Something similar happened at the G-7 Security Conference Friday, where Biden abandoned Trump's America First policy and embraced the "Kumbaya" notion that everybody is better off when we outsource our interests to globalist institutions.

•
Although he didn't mention Trump, Biden went out of his way to distort recent history. "I know the past few years have strained and tested our transatlantic relationship, but the United States is determined – determined – to reengage with Europe, to consult with you, to earn back our position of trust and leadership."

•
In truth, America's major fight with Europe, especially Germany, was over the failure of NATO members to meet their agreed-upon commitment to spend at least 2% of their GDP for defense.

•
For years, American presidents, including Barack Obama, had made the same complaint and were ignored.

•
Trump of course cannot be ignored. He loudly questioned the value of the alliance and railed against the fact that America was paying far more than a fair share for the common defense. He also was not amused that NATO spent more than $1.4 billion for a new Brussels headquarters.

•
Bingo, he succeeded. Most of the deadbeats increased their defense spending, to the tune of more than an additional $100 billion a year, while agreeing to a reduction in U.S. contributions. They remain unhappy but why should Biden care?

•
And why is he such a generous sap with American taxpayers' money?

•
His plan to rejoin the Iran nuke deal that Trump scuttled is perhaps the looniest idea of all because of the shock waves it sends around the Middle East.

•
The deal didn't even address, let alone stop, Iran's military aggression and terror proxies, which the Obama-Biden administration admitted.

•
After Trump withdrew from the pact, reimposed sanctions and droned Iran terror leader Qasem Soleimani, an odd thing happened.

•
As Democrats, including Biden, were running around like Chicken Littles warning of new wars, four Muslim countries signed historic peace and diplomatic accords with Israel, part of which involve joint security – against Iran.

•
So again questions arise: Why would Biden trust the untrustworthy Iranians and undo the enormous progress Trump achieved? Does he hate Trump more than he loves peace?

•
Before you answer, remember what former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said about Biden: "I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national-security issue over the past four decades."

•
Finally, Friday was the day America formally rejoined the Paris climate accord that Trump abandoned.

•
Soon the White House will push more job-killing restrictions on industry and consumer emissions, all while China and India keep increasing theirs.

•
But fear not, the intrepid John Kerry is on the case. The private-jet warrior for eliminating greenhouse gases used the occasion to restart the countdown to catastrophe.

•
"Well, the scientists told us three years ago we had 12 years to avert the worst consequences of climate crisis. We are now three years gone, so we have nine years left."

•
To underscore that this time is different, Kerry insisted, "There is no room for BS anymore. There's no faking it on this one."

•
Funny he should put it that way. If you eliminate fakery and BS, Biden's policies don't have much going for them.
Newt Gingrich: 'Woke' American military puts US in danger. Here's how (Fox 02/21/2021)
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"I pledge to advocate for and acknowledge all lived experiences and intersectional identities of every sailor in the Navy. I pledge to engage in ongoing self-reflection, education and knowledge sharing to better myself and my communities. I pledge to be an example in establishing healthy, inclusive and team-oriented environments. I pledge to constructively share all experiences and information gained from activities above to inform the development of Navy-wide reforms."

•
Reread this pledge and think of the young men and women who will be asked to commit to it.

•
First, how many new recruits will have any idea what this "intersectionality" they have pledged to advocate for and acknowledge actually is?

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"Intersectionality is a concept often used in critical theories to describe the ways in which oppressive institutions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another."

•
It is profoundly wrong to have our young men and women in uniform take a pledge like this.

•
Since most of the sailors will not know what "intersectionality" is, they will be instructed by woke professionals who make a living teaching wokeness in government, corporations and educational systems.

•
There is now an entire industry of woke instructors and woke experts who make pretty good livings putting on mandatory woke lessons – where people are trapped by the power structure and forced to learn left-wing nonsense as a condition of keeping their jobs.

•
So, should this pledge be instituted, we will soon have a brainwashed military spouting largely partisan ideological nonsense.

•
Members will be told their survival in the military and their chance for promotion is dependent on learning left-wing baloney.

•
This isn't what we want in a military. We want a military dedicated to war fighting, learning the lessons of military history, and preparing to defeat our opponents if we are militarily threatened.

•
The kind of potentially heroic young men and women who rally to the flag to fight for America are not going to be strengthened in their dedication to winning by having to learn an ideology that has been foisted on a gullible country by woke flim-flam artists (the modern grifters of phony sociology and politics).

•
The leftwing anti-American bias of the woke movement proves that the very words of the pledge are a lie.

•
The pledge says, "I pledge to advocate for and acknowledge all lived experiences and intersectional identities of every sailor in the Navy." Do you think the writers of it really mean that?

•
What if you are a fundamentalist Christian or an Orthodox Jew who joined the Navy? Do you think this new pledge means people are supposed to listen to and support you?

•
What if your life experiences include a belief in the right to life and a deep commitment to marriage between a man and a woman?

•
Do you think trying to explain that is going to be applauded by the woke fanatics? Do you think they will "advocate for and acknowledge" your lived experience?

•
What if your life experiences have led you to a deep patriotism and a belief that the police and the American military are forces of good?

•
Do you think your woke instructor is going to encourage the class to listen to you if you start talking like an author at National Review or Sean Hannity?

•
Remember that "ableism" is discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. Military institutions must produce the toughest, most capable and strongest people – in order to win in combat. The entire premise of intersectionality is madness when applied to a military institution.

•
The identity politics that come from intersectionality are designed to separate people into different social groups with different ratings of privilege and grievance.

•
Military units must be one team – in complete unity – or Americans die and America fails.

•
Can you imagine Xi Jinping – who is in the middle of simultaneously orchestrating the genocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the suppression of the pro-freedom movement in Hong Kong – being briefed that the U.S. Navy has decided to become a social work experiment in feeling warm and understanding about each other?

•
Do we think this will make the Chinese Communist dictatorship more or less likely to test our resolve in the South China Sea or the Taiwan strait?

•
Do we think this newly emerging sensitive U.S. Navy will lead them to stand down because they realize what nice people we have become?

•
Similarly, can you imagine Vladimir Putin – in the middle of planning the poisoning of one or more opposition leaders – being told that the new woke American Navy was prepared to contest the Black Sea or the Baltic?

•
Do you think he would be more likely to back off or more likely to test this new social sciences experiment?

•
The Defense Department is starting down a dangerous road. The Congress should stop it.
One week in progressive America (INN 02/21/2021)
Cuomo's nursing home scandal — what are the crimes that may have been committed? (Fox 02/21/2021)
•
News that the FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's coronavirus task force in the deaths of thousands of nursing home patients and a suspected cover-up of the truth, invites the question: what crimes might have been committed?

•
Let's begin with the obvious — obstruction of justice.

•
If it is true that Cuomo's top aide Melissa DeRosa admitted to lawmakers that the state misrepresented the number of deaths in nursing homes to avoid having the data "used against us" in a Department of Justice probe, then DeRosa appears to have confessed to a potential obstruction charge.

•
If there were others, including Cuomo, who knowingly participated in concealing the truth this could constitute a conspiracy to obstruct.

•
Under the federal statute, a person can be found guilty of obstructing a "potential or pending investigation."

•
In other words, if a government official falsifies or hides evidence to avoid triggering an investigation (or acts out of fear that such a probe may occur) that official is still culpable under the law of obstruction.

•
What about the crime of defrauding the government? In plain language, this means cheating the government. But fraud is not limited to causing monetary loss or property damage. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that defrauding the government is also the act of interfering with "a lawful government function" such as investigations and the duty of a legislature to report truthful information to the public.

•
If Cuomo or anyone in his administration provided false information to the New York State legislature or to any agency of the federal government by deceitful and dishonest means, then the government has been defrauded.

•
Once again, the involvement of others in such a scheme or artifice would constitute a conspiracy to defraud the government.

•
Does the evidence discovered thus far support such charges? It seems so.

•
... the stunning admission by DeRosa in a private phone call with Democrat lawmakers that the numbers were doctored to shield against a federal investigation.

•
But what about the deaths themselves? Could Cuomo be criminally charged for causing more than a thousand deaths when he issued an order on March 25, 2020, to send infected patients into nursing homes where elderly and infirm residents were most at risk of dying?

•
If Cuomo's name was Trump, you can bet there would be a cacophony of calls for his criminal indictment for murder.

•
In reality, murder is a stretch. Standard definitions involve the intent to kill. Being arrogant, uncaring, and making dumb decisions are not enough under the law and do not rise to the legal requirement of intent.

•
Nevertheless, there is a provision in New York law whereby second-degree murder is defined as reckless conduct "which creates a grave risk of death to another person and thereby causes the death of another person."

•
Involuntary manslaughter carries a similar reckless standard but with a lesser level of proof in its language.

•
Was Cuomo's decision so wanton and reckless that it was foreseeable that vulnerable nursing home residents exposed to COVID patients would die by the thousands? In retrospect, perhaps. But it would be an exceedingly difficult case to make to a jury.

•
The offense of reckless endangerment is more relevant. In New York, a person can be charged under this statute for "recklessly engaging in conduct which creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury to another person."

•
This is something that an aggressive prosecutor might consider, but it is doubtful that even this lower charge would ever be leveled against Cuomo in the liberal state of New York.

•
It was obvious from the outset that the New York governor's order was causing an appalling spike in nursing home deaths. Under pressure, he reversed himself and rescinded his directive on May 10, 2020.

•
But it was too late. Thousands of patients had been exposed and died. Cuomo's malfeasance killed those who needed his help the most. They can now be counted as his victims.

•
Cuomo has never accepted responsibility for his poor decision-making nor apologized to the families that lost loved ones who should never have died.

•
Instead, he has blamed nursing home staff, visitors, other agencies, conservatives in the media, and of course Donald Trump.

•
The governor's persistent and most vacuous excuse is that his decision was based on "President Trump's CDC guidance." This is both absurd and demonstrably false.

•
Before Cuomo issued his fateful order, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a stern advisory that virus-infected patients must be isolated. "It is critical that long-term care facilities implement active measures to prevent introduction of COVID-19," it read.

•
Yet, Cuomo pressured nursing homes to accept patients who were infected and insisted that they "must comply." Parents, grandparents, and others died as a direct consequence.

•
It is too early to know whether federal prosecutors will bring criminal charges against Cuomo and/or his confederates for obstruction of justice, fraud, and conspiracy.

•
But his attempt to cover-up his wrongful actions shows no signs of abating. His propensity for bullying people who dare to disagree with him is in full swing.

•
As the pandemic raged, Cuomo somehow found the time to pen a nauseatingly self-righteous book titled, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic."

•
The sequel should be called, "American Failure: How My Arrogance Killed Thousands."

•
See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

•
See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

•
See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
The Only Way to Save America (JWR 02/19/2021)
•
How could so many people go along with leftist polices? Polices that are the antithesis of what America has always stood for and represented.

•
The answer isn't a hard one to figure out if you step back and consider what has been going on in the United States for over 50 years.

•
Like the Chinese water torture, the drip, drip, drip of leftist thinking has slowly but surely taken its toll with vast majorities of our citizens over the course of time.

•
... lots of Republicans have outright embraced many of the ideas and social changes brought on by liberal and leftist elites who were intent on "fundamentally changing" America.

•
... once the university professors became mostly liberal, things really started changing fast. It wasn't long before the anti-west teachings at the college level crept into general society and into all grades of public school.

•
Eventually it seeped into every single business and organization. Publications, entertainment, religion, and of course news.

•
Once people become indoctrinated from grade school all the way up through university, the ideology they've been taught follows them into whatever business or vocation they go into.

•
... multiculturalism, critical race theory, feminism, and other liberal thought is now part and parcel of the military code.

•
Thanks to President Trump, most of us are now quite aware of how pervasive leftist thinking has become in the news we hear every day.

•
Our news media, once an important watchdog on politicians, big business, and American life in general, has been perverted as nothing more than a propaganda platform for the left.

•
Almost without exception, news outlets and social media internet sites report only stories that support the liberal views and either twist, lie about, or simply ignore the views on the conservative right.

•
They in fact paint patriots and conservatives as radicals and domestic terrorists. Things will only get worse as time goes on.

•
All the talk about how to rebuild the fractured Republican party by cooperating with the other side and finding "common ground" is a lot of hogwash that will only strengthen the left and allow them to continue to implement their destructive programs across the nation.

•
The left will NEVER concede to any conservative or traditional value. The left's entire reason for existence is incumbent on DESTROYING American traditions and liberties which include the nuclear family, the individual work ethic, religious freedom, and the freedom of independent speech and thought.

•
There's only one way to turn around the ever-increasing leftist march in our country. Conservatives must concentrate all their efforts (and I mean ALL) on changing the dogma being taught in the public school system and colleges and universities.

•
There's no other way to halt the anti-Western, anti-family, anti-religious, anti-white male Marxist mindset that has taken root through several generations of students since the 1960's.

•
It can't happen overnight. Our schools are lousy with revisionist, America hating textbooks. These have to be supplanted with truthful American history, not a whitewashing of our country's mistakes, but an honest telling of the American story.

•
And our American forefathers and heroes must be brought forth once again as the good and courageous men that they were. Citizenship and patriotism must be taught once again.

•
More conservative professors and teachers need to be cultivated and added into our school systems. An equal balance of political and social ideas is a must if we are to have real education and freedom of thought.

•
I am not nearly smart enough to offer all the answers on how to turn things around. But I know one thing, it must start with the schools.

•
We must reverse the indoctrination of our young people if we ever expect to keep our country free.
Tucker Carlson: The far-left agenda your children are being taught every day (Fox 02/19/2021)
•
Nothing changes a society more over the long term than the way we teach our children, what we teach them, and how we teach them.

•
If you want to pass on your values, you tell your kids about them. So school matters maybe more than anything.

•
... we have covered the way our schools are changing and the indoctrination that your kids are suffering through. Over the past four-plus years, the curricula in so many schools has turned from the extremely left-wing to the outright totalitarian.

•
"Do Black Lives Matter in America?" it begins. By the end of the lesson, it declares, "Students will be able to understand the need for the Black Lives Matter movement."

•
Here you have a school district explicitly endorsing a political movement, and that's in a lesson plan for little kids.

•
By the time they hit the fifth grade, students in Buffalo are reading advanced BLM studies. Students learn about BLM's core platform, including "Disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure."

•
At the end of the program, students are asked: "What do you think about our society being organized into separate, nuclear family units?"

•
The implication, of course, is that it's immoral, that your own family is immoral, and that's just the beginning.

•
Buffalo Public Schools go on to suggest that George Washington, the man who founded this country, was a fraud; that Colin Kaepernick is a moral hero; and that we should celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Thanksgiving. Apparently, we have no right to give thanks for a country that isn't ours.

•
By the time they hit high school, students in Buffalo are ready to go out into the world to destroy buildings and statues. That's what they're being trained for.

•
They're asked this explicitly: "Why would someone engaging in rioting be protected under the First Amendment?"

•
We don't mean to single out Buffalo. This is happening in middle schools all over the country.

•
The lesson plan requires children to "examine the ways the Black Panther Party successfully functioned to preserve the values of Black families and villages."

•
Again, that's the Black Panther Party; racial separatists with a history of murdering people. Of course, that part's not included.

•
This is Khmer Rouge propaganda, not education. But again, that's just the beginning. Some schools have eliminated biology. They're teaching children that biology isn't real.

•
One of the guiding principles in the Black Lives Matter at School curriculum, of course, is to be "transgender affirming," so they have no choice. Out with biology, in with BLM.

•
Here's how one pre-kindergarten teacher at a New York public school described this principle: "Everybody has the right to choose their own gender by listening to their own heart and mind. Everyone gets to choose if they are a boy or a girl or both or neither or something else, and no one gets to choose for them."

•
Again, this is being taught to children in schools in lieu of actual science. This is religion, this is insanity, and this is also required.

•
... the point is to adopt a "transformationist white [sic] identity" where "white [sic] folks are attempting to come to terms with race in a real way and question the systemic issues that have caused whites [sic] to be so much in a superior position."

•
"See race. Listen to and learn from people of color. Acknowledge the reality of racism. Acknowledge the reality of white [sic] racial privilege. Transcend guilt. Educate other white [sic] people. Confront racist behaviors, attitudes and practices. Use your privilege to work for racial and social justice."

•
Someday, we're going to look back at this and see it for what it is: Race hate.

•
This is happening all over the country in school districts your kids may attend, and you may not know about it.

•
What can we do about it? What effect is it having on our children? On our society?
Cuomo nursing home scandal – even New York Democrats gang up on Governor Granny-killer (Fox 02/19/2021)
•
New York politicians are hovering ravenously over Gov. Andrew Cuomo, like vultures circling a mortally wounded stallion.

•
Mocked as Governor Granny-killer, Cuomo's fellow Democrats now attack him for covering up the needless coronavirus deaths of fragile seniors.

•
The grand dame of the far Left is just the latest to prey on Cuomo, as his political position looks increasingly precarious.

•
"I support our state's return to co-equal governance and stand with our local officials calling for a full investigation of the Cuomo administration's handling of nursing homes during COVID-19, Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives in nursing homes throughout the pandemic."

•
Cuomo created the toxic disaster that could send him to Sing Sing...

•
Last March 25, Cuomo's Department of Health ordered nursing homes (NH) as follows: "No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19."

•
Despite relentless pleas for coronavirus tests, Cuomo further mandated that day: "NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission."

•
Cuomo waited until April 30 — Day 48 of this national emergency — to ban COVID-19-positive personnel from nursing homes.

•
The corona-positive elderly could have been quarantined in Samaritan Purses' 68-bed field hospital in Central Park as early as March 28.

•
The 1,000-bed USNS Comfort medical ship and the Javits Convention Center's 2,910-bed pop-up hospital, both supplied by President Donald J. Trump, opened March 30.

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Long before Cuomo unplugged his deadly decree on May 10, these underused facilities could have treated seniors until they either yielded to or overcame COVID-19.

•
After a fortnight, those no longer contagious could have entered nursing homes without endangering others.

•
... as these seniors teemed with lethal microbes, Cuomo forced them straight into eldercare facilities. No surprise, COVID-negative residents contracted the virus and perished.

•
According to Cuomo, these deaths totaled 8,711. But this number was a lie.

•
Cuomo's death toll excluded seniors who left nursing homes and expired at medical centers. These bogus "hospital fatalities" did not bloody Cuomo's hands.

•
... Cuomo's Health Department finally uncooked the books: COVID-related nursing-home deaths through January 19 totaled 12,743.

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"Who cares?" the ice-hearted Cuomo said January 29. "Died in a hospital. Died in a nursing home. They died."

•
... Cuomo's "emergency powers must be rescinded, he & his admin must be subpoenaed, and a full investigation must result in justice for our grieving families."

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"It is now unambiguously clear that this governor has engaged in an intentional obstruction of justice, as outlined in Title 18, Chapter 73 of the United States Code."

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"This is a necessary first step in beginning to right the criminal wrongs of this Governor and his administration."

•
Andrew Cuomo immediately should apologize to the families and loved ones of the thousands of seniors whom his utterly boneheaded decisions needlessly exposed to COVID-19.

•
Next, he should resign and be handcuffed.

•
See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

•
See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Whistling Past... (Michael Ramirez, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Ingraham slams Biden, Democrats over immigration reform bill, tells Americans 'you are not...' (Fox 02/19/2021)
•
"There's something that I want every American watching right now to understand, The Ingraham Angle You are not a priority for the Biden administration or congressional Democrats."

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"Your safety, your job prospects, your kids going back to school, your mental health, your freedom, none of that is as important to the left as their desire to fundamentally transform America, and achieving this requires that they pass an amnesty bill as soon as possible, certainly before the next election."

•
... American voters "need to be replaced — or at least canceled out — by new voters who will be more compliant when new climate change or pandemic restrictions are active."

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Democrats ... "need new voters who won't obsess about protecting Second Amendment rights or frankly worry about the Constitution at all."

•
"There may be room for compromise on an immigration bill if there is there's any sense that Democrats would take enforcement seriously."

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"Maybe they can show us for a couple of years that they will lock down the border and really enforce it, but we know they won't do that."

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"So this bill, like all the others that came before, will go down in flames. Democrats will turn off millions of already beleaguered voters in 2022 and those voters will get to wonder why they ever voted for a party that never put them first."

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See related Immigration Politics (Sean Delonas, 01/12/2018) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Dreamer (Glenn McCoy, 09/15/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Our descent into collective madness (JWR 02/18/2021)
•
These are crazy times. A pandemic led to national quarantine; to self-induced recession; to riot, arson, and looting; to a contested election; and to a riot at the U.S. Capitol.

•
In response, are we focusing solely on upping the daily vaccination rate? Getting the country back to work? Opening the schools as the virus attenuates? Ensuring safety in the streets?

•
Or are we descending into a sort of madness?

•
It might have been understandable that trillions of dollars had to be borrowed to keep a suffocating economy breathing.

•
Meanwhile, the United States will have to start paying down nearly $30 trillion in debt. But we seem more fixated on raising rather than reducing that astronomical obligation.

•
We are told man-made, worldwide climate change — as in the now discarded term "global warming" — can best be addressed by massive dislocations in the U.S. economy.

•
The Biden administration plans to shut down coal plants. It will halt even nearly completed new gas and oil pipelines. It will cut back on fracking to embrace the multitrillion-dollar "Green New Deal."

•
Parts of the American Southwest were covered in ice and snow for days. Nighttime temperatures crashed to near zero in some places.

•
The state, under pressure, had been transitioning from its near-limitless and cheap reservoirs of natural gas and other fossil fuels to generating power through wind and solar.

•
But what happens to millions of Texans when wind turbines freeze up while storm clouds extinguish solar power?

•
Millions are shivering without electricity and affordable heating. Some may die or become ill by this self-induced disaster — one fueled by man-made ideological rigidity.

•
Texas' use of natural gas in power generation has helped the United States curb carbon emissions.

•
Ignoring it for unreliable wind and solar alternatives was bound to have catastrophic consequences whenever a politically incorrect nature did not follow the global warming script.

•
In 2019, a special counsel wrapped up a 22-month, $35 million investigation into then-President Donald Trump's alleged "collusion" with Russia in the 2016 election. Robert Mueller and his team searched long and hard for a crime and came up empty.

•
Then, Trump was impeached in December 2019 and acquitted in the Senate in early 2020. His purported crime was warning the Ukrainians about the Biden family's quid pro quo racketeering.

•
After the revelations concerning Hunter Biden's shenanigans not only in Ukraine but also in Kazakhstan and China, Trump's admonitions now seem prescient rather than impeachable.

•
Trump had been threatened with removal from office under the 25th Amendment. He was accused of violating the Logan Act and the Constitution's emoluments clause. His executive orders were often declared unconstitutional if not seditious.

•
Finally, an exasperated left decided to flog the presidential corpse of now private citizen Trump. It did so without a Supreme Court chief justice to oversee an impeachment trial in the Senate. The targeted president was no longer president.

•
But the height of our collective madness is the current cancel culture. Its subtexts are "unearned white privilege" and "white supremacy."

•
In the name of those abominations, mobs tear down statues, destroy careers, censor speech, require veritable oaths and conduct reeducation training.

•
Stranger still, those alleging "white privilege" are usually themselves quite wealthy, liberal — and white. These elites count on their incestuous networking, silver-spoon upbringings and tony degrees to leverage status, influence and money in a way undreamed of by the white working class.

•
Affluent and privileged minorities likewise join the chorus to call for everything from reparations to "reprogramming" Trump voters.

•
The most elite in America are the most likely to damn the privilege of those who lack it. Perhaps this illogic squares the psychological circle of feeling guilty about things they never have any intention of giving up.

•
If blaming those without advantages does not satisfy the unhappy liberal elite, then there is always warring against the mute dead: changing their eponymous names, destroying their statues, slandering their memories and denying their achievements.

•
The common denominator with all these absurdities? An ungracious and neurotic elite whose judgment is bankrupt and whose privilege is paid for by those who don't have it.
What Left-Wing Educators Don't Teach During 'Black History Month' (JWR 02/18/2021)
The lowest common denominator and the Democratic Party (INN 02/18/2021)
The Rush Limbaugh I knew (JWR 02/18/2021)
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Trump, impeachment and the Constitution (Fox 02/18/2021)
•
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It recognizes that we have natural rights that cannot be interfered with by the government absent due process.

•
But its vitality as a guarantor of liberty is only as durable and reliable as is the fidelity to it of those in whose hands we have reposed it for safekeeping.

•
Is the Constitution in good hands? It is not. In defiance of the Constitution, its keepers permit political prosecutions, suppressions of speech, thefts of liberty, invasions of privacy and the slaughter of innocents in the womb.

•
These are perilous times. Our freedoms are hanging by a thread — a thread that its keepers keep weakening.
When the White House can't handle the truth (JWR 02/17/2021)
It's Time to Uncancel Americans (JWR 02/17/2021)
Tucker Carlson: The mainstream media's disgusting, corrupting love affair with Joe Biden (Fox 02/17/2021)
•
America is not rotten, the people who run it are rotten. That's why things are so volatile.

•
What you're looking at is a crisis of our institutions, all of which are corrupt and some of which are collapsing.

•
... looming above the rest is our most corrupt institution: The mainstream news media.

•
Watching the news on television makes you question the system itself. ... Dumb and conventional now pass as impressive. It's insulting.

•
All of us lie from time to time, that's the human condition. Imagine, though, if lying was your job.

•
Imagine forcing yourself to tell lies all day about every subject in ways that were so transparent and so outlandish that there is no way the people listening to you could possibly believe anything you said.

•
Then imagine doing that again and again and again every day of your professional life for your entire life.

•
Could you do that? If you could, CNN has an opening on the media analysis desk.

•
They achieve feats so dishonorable that you gasp in horror as you watch them, but at the same time, you've got to respect those skills.

•
... as the inauguration neared last month, and the Biden family made its victorious procession into the capital city, CNN rousted its poet laureate from lunch and led him to the set to commemorate this moment. "Those lights that are just shooting out from the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool ... it's like almost extensions of Joe Biden's arms embracing America."

•
When Joe Biden writes a talking point, they repeat it. Not just a few of them, but all of them in precisely the same way. Think of reporters as the North Korean gymnastics team celebrating Kim Il Sung Day in a soccer stadium in Pyongyang. They move as one.

•
To hear the mainstream media tell it, Joe Biden is like America's dad. A little blunt sometimes, but honest. A straight shooter, solid, reliable, steady. That's Joe Biden.

•
Above all, Joe Biden is a family man who took the train back to Wilmington every night to the 10,000-square-foot estate a campaign donor bought for him in exchange for unregistered lobbying on behalf of credit card companies.

•
Joe Biden's family's refreshingly normal. There aren't any weird sex scandals or protracted drug problems or ongoing criminal investigations you've got to worry about.

•
At the heart of this great American family is a love story; a man and a woman united in the fires of passion that changed the course of our history.

•
As a headline from Politico on Valentine's Day put it: "Historians and relationship experts agree: The first couple's romantic gestures aren't just genuine — they're restorative"...

•
"On a mission to rebuild institutional norms and help heal a hurting nation. Joe and Jill Biden are trying something novel after four years of the Trumps: a little tenderness."

•
MSNBC's Dr. Joy Reid prescribes a whole lot more of it: "What a story, though, what a great love story between Jill Biden and Joe Biden ... And it's just a different kind of marriage. This is a love match like the Obamas were. So I think that'll be healing for the country, too."

•
See related Biden\\\'s Glory (Mike Shelton, 01/22/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Ingraham: Left's 'race-obsessed approach to daily life is vindictive and counterproductive' (Fox 02/17/2021)
•
"It sickens me to hear anyone, especially our president, accusing America of systemic racism, After all, why do millions of people want to come here from all across the globe if Americans are just a bunch of racists?"

•
"Are the people who want to come here all stupid? Do they just not know that when they get here they're going to be immediately harassed and attacked by police?"

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The phrase "systemic racism" ... was first used in the 1967 book "Black Power", in which authors Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) and Charles V. Hamilton sought to solve racial problems not by changing minds, but changing how history is viewed.

•
"That's why you're seeing the historical rewrites all over the country, That's why we're seeing so many people canceled from their careers. The radicals who started Black Lives Matter know the power of shame and they wield it like a club, threatening anyone who gets in their way."

•
"This race-obsessed approach to daily life is vindictive and counterproductive, It drives a wedge, not a conversation."

•
"Joe Biden has been in Washington for almost 50 years, if you can believe it. He knows that Republicans aren't racist. He knows that this country is not systemically racist, but he goes along with the lie because he thinks it's going to help him stay in power. If you think that sounds cynical, you're right."

•
"America is an amazing country with great and generous people. And working together, we can take power away from the cynics who try to divide us by race and give that power back to the people, and I mean all of the people."
Tucker Carlson: The great Texas climate catastrophe is heading your way (Fox 02/16/2021)
•
The Green New Deal has come, believe it or not, to the state of Texas. How's it working out so far?

•
Well, the good news is all that alternative energy seems to have had a remarkable effect on the climate.

•
Sunday night, parts of Texas got the temperatures that we typically see in Alaska. In fact, they were the same as they were in Alaska. So global warming is no longer a pressing concern in Houston.

•
The bad news is, they don't have electricity. The windmills froze, so the power grid failed. Millions of Texans woke up Monday morning having to boil their water because with no electricity, it couldn't be purified.

•
The ironically named Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the grid, had no solution to any of this. They simply told people to stop using so much power to keep warm.

•
So in Houston, hundreds of shivering Texans headed to the convention center like refugees to keep from freezing to death.

•
That happens every time when the power goes out; even advanced societies become primitive and dangerous, and people die.

•
But who saw that coming in Texas? If there's one thing you would think Texas would be able to do, it's keep the lights on. Most electricity comes from natural gas and Texas produces more of that than any place on the continent.

•
Rather than celebrate and benefit from their state's vast natural resources, politicians took the fashionable route and became recklessly reliant on so-called alternative energy, meaning windmills.

•
Just last week, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott proudly accepted something called the Wind Leadership Award, given with gratitude by Tri Global Energy, a company getting rich from green energy.

•
So it was all working great until the day it got cold outside. The windmills failed like the silly fashion accessories they are, and people in Texas died.

•
This is not to beat up on the state of Texas — it's a great state, actually — but to give you some sense of what's about to happen to you.

•
Here's President Biden last month: "In my view, we've already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis ... That's why I'm signing today an executive order to supercharge our administration['s] ambitious plan to confront the existential threat of climate change. And it is an existential threat."

•
"Climate crisis", "existential threat", "ambitious plan". You hear those phrases a lot and you'll notice that they are all suspiciously non-precise.

•
Here's our new climate czar taking a quick break from spewing carbon in his private jet to lecture the rest of us about a topic he personally knows nothing about: "The president of the United States has expressed in every comment he has made about climate the need to grow the new jobs that pay better, that are cleaner than — I mean, you know, you look at the consequences of black lung for a miner, for instance, and measure that against the fastest growing job in the United States before COVID [which] was solar power technician ... And similarly, you have the second fastest-growing job pre-COVID was wind turbine technician. This is happening."

•
The old plan, you'll remember, was coding. All the guys in pickup trucks were going to learn to code and run the Internet after we sent their jobs to China. In the end, of course, we just imported people from China to code, so that didn't actually happen.

•
John Kerry himself once fought to keep wind farms out of sight of his summer house on Nantucket. That's hypocritical, but it's not surprising.

•
... green energy is the ultimate inside game. A tiny number of people profit from it due to government subsidies and regulated prices. Everyone else gets a moral lecture about climate change and anyone who complains about any of it gets called a Nazi by Cory Booker.

•
The problem is that demagogues like Cory Booker have no earthly idea what a wind farm is. They don't know how to run a power grid, or anything else, for that matter.

•
They talk, they brag, but they don't build anything, much less fix or maintain it. They can't, they have no skills. If you don't believe that, take a look at what they have done to our cities.

•
Not a single major American city is prettier or more functional than it was in 1950. The parks that previous generations so lovingly built are filled with vagrants and junkies. The monuments they constructed are covered with spray paint.

•
Public transportation is a disgrace. It's filthy, the streets are dangerous. Are you really surprised that Cory Booker was once the mayor of Newark, N.J.? You shouldn't be.

•
See related John Kerry\\\'s World (Mike Shelton, 01/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
The Freedom To Think ... Like Us (JWR 02/15/2021)
•
What happens when the "last best hope on earth" is gone?

•
Where do people go after the United States of America becomes just another totalitarian government with limited personal freedoms?

•
Freedom of speech, once the cornerstone of our nation, is on its way out thanks to politically correct policies and radical leftist agendas which have shut down true free speech and independent thought.

•
The emergence of internet social media sites as the primary means of communication has sped up the process. It's called "cancel culture." Go contrary to popular leftist dogma and you will be shunned, shamed, and possibly lose your job.

•
Did you vote for President Trump? If so, you are labeled racist, crazy, and a danger to society.

•
You do not deserve to be employed, your views shouldn't be heard, and you must be shut off from participating in normal society. Actually, you should be imprisoned.

•
Since the presidential election President Trump has completely disappeared from the American scene. He has been vanquished from social media sites, for all intents and purposes he has lost his ability to freely communicate publicly.

•
He has been banned from Twitter, once his best way of communication to the public. Television networks and other news media only cover him to ridicule him, they will not allow him to speak his mind. Businesses who once worked so well with him have cut him off. The left will not rest until they have completely and forevermore destroyed the man.

•
But this isn't only about President Trump, it's about everyone who supported him and his policies. President Trump is only the poster boy for all Americans who value individualism, freedom, and the traditional American ideal that anyone can make it in this country.

•
The American dream that with proper education, hard work, and perseverance every person has a shot at success. This way of thinking has been completely dismissed in today's educational system and elite circles.

•
It is no longer a good value to believe in rugged self-reliance, now it is all about group identity. Tribalism has replaced individualism.

•
The well-known phrase attributed to English writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," has been used for decades as a way of illustrating the principle of freedom of speech.

•
The thinking now is, "If you say something that I disapprove of, you are engaging in hate speech and therefore you must be silenced."
Biden's ethical standards aren't worth a hill of beans — the ugly truth about 'Honest Joe' (Fox 02/15/2021)
•
Starting with the obvious, Hunter Biden is still in business with the Chinese Communist Party.

•
So much for Joe's promise that "no one in my family will . . . have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country. Period. Period. End of story."

•
But that was B.E., aka before the election. Everything's changed now.

•
Biden watered down his family's ethics rules immediately after the election to a vague statement about "appropriate distance" from the presidency.

•
"My son, my family will not be involved in any business, any enterprise, that is in conflict with or appears to be in conflict, with the appropriate distance from, the presidency and government," he told CNN in December. Clear as mud.

•
Joe's younger brothers, Frank and Jim, know what the rubbery rules mean: The Biden family's influence-peddling business can continue as before, only better, with an actual sitting president to sell.

•
Frank wasted no time, with a two-page newspaper ad on Inauguration Day touting his relationship with "my brother" for the South Florida law firm that pays him as an adviser, even though he isn't a lawyer.

•
Of course, there is still that pesky issue of federal criminal investigations hanging over the heads of Hunter and Jim, another truth bomb that stayed hidden from the American people until after the election.

•
But, wouldn't you know it, on Day One as president, Joe installed the law partner of Hunter's defense lawyer to lead the Justice Department's criminal division, the very division that is investigating his son and brother.

•
"The president is committed to ensuring we have the most ethically vigorous administration in history," Psaki told reporters at the start of the Biden presidency.

•
It's a refrain we hear often from Biden and the White House, about just how honest and ethical he is.

•
But people who feel the need constantly to tell you how honest and ethical they are in life always turn out to be quite the opposite.

•
Asked about Hunter, Joe came up with a whole new formulation for Biden family ethics rules: "No one in our family and extended family is going to be involved in any government undertaking or foreign policy." Hmmm. What happened to the ban on foreign business relationships?

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Liz Peek: Biden's early blunders – here's how he could hurt Democrats in 2022 (Fox 02/15/2021)
•
Under cover of the impeachment circus, Joe Biden has been very busy, frantically extinguishing every last vestige of the Trump presidency.

•
What took four years to build, Biden will destroy in four weeks.

•
Overturned Trump immigration policies that stemmed the flow of caravans from Central America flooding our southern border.

•
Biden is set to welcome 25,000 asylum-seekers, who had been in Mexico, into our nation. Soon we will witness chaos at the border, as we did under President Obama.

•
Canceled the Keystone Pipeline, nixing thousands of high-paying union jobs, even though the pipeline was shown by the Obama administration to have minimal environmental impact.

•
Plus, Biden has "paused" new drilling leases on federal lands, which will especially kill revenues for New Mexico, which voted for Biden in November.

•
... ided with teachers unions over the needs of families, and especially women, trying to earn a living.

•
Biden's refusal to order teachers back on the job and indifference to the "science" saying that schools can open safely is payback for union support, but a slap at unemployed workers forced to stay home and care for their kids.

•
Begun to actively undermine the Trump administration's extraordinary progress in the Middle East.

•
Encouraged Democrats to jam through an absurd $1.9 trillion aid package with no GOP votes, destroying his campaign promise to work across the aisle.

•
Buying votes and bailing out blue states with $350 billion of taxpayer funds will not play well in purple states like Georgia, and could prove dangerous to the economy.

•
Biden is racing to show progressives in his party that he deserved their vote, and that his party will again merit their support in 2022.

•
Liberals cynically imagine that all Biden has to do is throw enough cash around, and Americans will ignore the tent cities springing up at the border or the fired oilfield workers applying for food stamps.

•
Biden's hasty decision to reverse everything Trump is foolish. Seventy-four million Americans voted for Trump; it's safe to say the majority supported him because they approved of his policies, many of which proved startlingly successful.

•
Biden appears to think he won a broad mandate to be, as he promised, the "most progressive president in history."

•
He seems not to realize that, according to post-election polling, more Americans were happy that Trump lost than Biden won. More people, in other words, voted against Trump than for Biden.

•
Now that the impeachment battle is over, Trump will no longer dominate the news, and the country will turn its attention to Biden.

•
Voters will be shocked to see how far he has strayed from his promise to heal the nation. They will be shocked to see what a mess he has already made.

•
See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

•
See related Biden Executive Orders (Gary McCoy, 01/26/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

•
See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Donald Trump is an honorary member of the tribe - and is sharing its fate (INN 02/14/2021)
•
Trump now suffers the travails of the wandering Jew- silenced, vilified, demonized, hated, humiliated as his enemies seek vengeance against him.
Justin Haskins: Biden's Made in America order – here's what part of America he's talking about (Fox 02/14/2021)
Trump impeachment trial takes center stage but world goes on while America sleeps (Fox 02/14/2021)
•
The Democratically controlled Senate just spent thousands of collective hours conducting an impeachment trial against a president who is no longer president.

•
The president's acquittal on Saturday was predetermined, as in the first impeachment effort a year ago — and known to be so to the Democratic prosecutors.

•
The constitutionally mandated presiding judge — the chief justice of the Supreme Court — refused to show up.

•
The Democratically-controlled House of Representatives is busy ferreting out purportedly extremist Republican House members. For the first time in memory, one party now removes committee members of the other.

•
Yet for each Republican outlier, there is a corresponding Democratic firebrand member who has either called for violence or voiced anti-Semitic slurs — and yet will not be removed from House committees.

•
The subtext to this madness is that the Democratic Congress, the new administration, the administrative state and the political left are obsessed with dismembering the presidential corpse of now citizen Donald Trump.

•
Apparently, they fear that one day he will rise from the infernal regions to wreak his revenge.

•
Yet few of our leaders are very worried about the existential crises left unaddressed by their obsessions with the ghost of Trump.

•
Our allies, such as democratic France, warn America that it is cannibalizing itself — and becoming dangerous to others. Our enemies, such as the totalitarian Chinese, are delighted with our suicidal wokeness.

•
The cost is not just the expense of cleaning up the billions of dollars of destruction from the summer riots, the thousands of memorials and statues destroyed and defaced, the hundreds of schools and buildings to be renamed.

•
Far more consequential is the suppression of creative thinking — from humanistic study to scientific research.

•
Scholars, journalists, artists and educators feel they must mouth politically correct platitudes. They constantly hedge their public discourse in fear of career cancellation.

•
They strain to synchronize their research with some approved woke ideology to save their livelihoods.

•
When professors must write "diversity statements" and hire, promote and fire on the basis of race, the model is not the U.S. Constitution, but something out of contemporary China.

•
No one pays much attention that our capital is now weaponized with soldiers in camouflage and barbed wire.

•
Ex-military officers who once warned Donald Trump not to deploy federal troops to ensure the safety of the White House from Antifa and Black Lives Matter demonstrators now are silent about a veritable army deployed in Washington.

•
Joe Biden has signaled that all new pipeline construction is over. Fracking on public lands is taboo. The border is to become wide open. Federal immigration law is now effectively nullified.

•
Americans may soon have to be tested for COVID-19 before flying into or out of the country. But undocumented immigrants will not be so COVID-19 certified when — illegally — they cross the border.

•
Iran is bankrupt, isolated and roundly despised by most of the countries in the Middle East.

•
Now America is doing its best to resuscitate the most radical and anti-American regime in the world — at the expense of our allies in the Arab world, Israel and America's own interests.

•
While we are busy devouring each other, China is smiling because once-feared American capitalists have become laughable Keystone Cops.
Michael Goodwin: Trump impeachment verdict – here's who won and who lost (Fox 02/14/2021)
•
This was a show trial, an attempt by Democrats to humiliate Trump after his election defeat and force Republicans to side with him or against him.

•
While the president's speech before the Capitol riot was at times too angry and bitter, there was nothing in it that could reasonably be seen as intending to incite an insurrection, as the single House article charged.

•
In the long history of our republic, there have been only four presidential impeachments, and two of them came courtesy of Pelosi and Schumer in the last two years. That's making history in all the wrong ways.

•
They have normalized impeachment as a partisan weapon, which is the last thing our country needs.

•
For Trump, the acquittal allows him to begin moving on with his life and focus on what role he wants to play in the 2022 midterms and whether he wants to run in 2024.

•
He must also deal with the fact that various prosecutors are looking at his businesses and other issues.

•
Beyond that, expect Democrats to be especially creative in trying to keep Trump's name in the headlines.

•
Nothing unites their fractured party like hating him, and Saturday's failure will provide more fuel for their perpetual outrage.
Tucker Carlson: From Andrew Cuomo to The Lincoln Project, media protected the worst of politics (Fox 02/13/2021)
Impeachment-crazed Dems fight like hell against their favorite phrase (JWR 02/12/2021)
Trump impeachment trial — defense skillfully destroys Dems' case against former president (Fox 02/12/2021)
•
In the course of one extraordinary hour, the defense team for former President Donald Trump thoroughly demolished the impeachment case against him that House Managers spent two days alleging.

•
It was a resounding and humiliating defeat. The defense could have rested its case after the first 60 minutes. It was over. They won hands down. In the end, Trump's lawyers used less than three hours of their allotted 16 hours before resting.

•
The brilliance of the defense was the use of videotape to exonerate Trump. They beat prosecutors at their own game.

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The clips showed the shameful hypocrisy of both the managers and Democrats who have absurdly accused Trump of inciting an insurrection by using the terms "fight" and "fight like hell" when he spoke to a crowd of supporters on January 6, 2021.

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The damning video presented by the defense showed each and every House Manager voicing the identical words (and in the same context) that Trump had used — as a political metaphor.

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Democratic Senators were also seen repeatedly using "fight" and "fight like hell." Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) uttered it more than 50 times. Vice President Kamala Harris invoked the words close to 70 times.

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But it didn't stop there. President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and scores of other prominent Democrats were heard hurling rhetoric that was far uglier than anything Trump said on January 6th.

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Some even wished aloud that they could punch Trump in the face. Biden envisioned beating him up.

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By their own twisted incitement standard, all those Democrats would be evicted from office.

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Another series of video clips showed Democrats seeming to tolerate, condone, and encourage the violence that consumed American cities last summer. This was juxtaposed with the hideous scenes of the violence itself — assaults, batteries, looting, vandalism, arson, and wholesale destruction of property. There were murders, too, but this was not shown.

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The defense team handily destroyed the House Managers' ancillary argument that Trump should be convicted because he ginned up emotion by wrongfully telling his supporters that the election result was rigged or stolen.

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On the television screens Senators took a trip down memory lane as numerous Democrats, including Pelosi and former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, claimed the same thing in a past election result they didn't like.

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The most devastating moment came when Schoen accused his counterparts of unconscionable dishonesty and duplicity. "House managers manipulated evidence, deceptively edited videos, and falsely represented tweets," he declared. And then he proceeded to prove it with undeniable evidence.

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Armed with a collection of visuals, Schoen showed how an important tweet by Trump appeared to have been significantly altered and how numerous videos involving the former president had been cleverly doctored to transform exculpatory evidence into incriminating evidence.

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If this were a court of law, the prosecutors would be held in criminal contempt and tossed in the hoosegow.

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The centerpiece of Trump's defense rested on the actual words he used on the day of the riots. House Managers deliberately concealed those words during their two-day presentation of evidence.

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Once again, the video exposed their malice. Trump was seen telling his supporters to behave "peacefully and patriotically" as they made their "voices heard" in support of Republicans who were challenging the electoral votes.

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Never once did Trump encourage or advocate violence or destruction of property, as Democrats have persistently asserted. Their impeachment said Schoen, "is driven by hatred, vitriol, and political opportunism."

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In a thirst for vengeance against a man they have long loathed, they deprived Trump of due process, contorted the evidence against him, and lied about what truly occurred.

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Their ultimate goal is to prevent Trump from ever running for president again. As defense attorney Michael Van Der Veen reasoned, "They want congressional control over which private citizen can run for office... they want to disqualify a political opponent."

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He condemned this as nothing more than "constitutional cancel culture." He is absolutely correct.

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The defense readily acknowledged that the violence that took place at the Capitol Building was despicable. But in their rush to judgment, Democrats plotted to exploit that tragedy for partisan gain.

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In the process, they attempted to strip Trump of his primary defense under the First Amendment. They sought to punish him by impeachment for exercising his right to free speech.

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Van Der Veen put it best when he said, "This sham impeachment threatens political speech everywhere."
Trump impeachment trial — Dems need to wrap up this sham and get to work before it's too late (Fox 02/12/2021)
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It's February 2021. The election of 2020 has come and gone. President Donald Trump is not the president of the United States and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is not presiding over the U.S. Senate.

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So, why are the Democrats holding an illegitimate impeachment show trial after President Joe Biden implored all of us to unite just 23 days ago?

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As House impeachment managers closed their weak opening arguments on Thursday, COVID-19 has killed over 473,000 people - including over 73,000 on Biden's watch - and millions of Americans are still struggling to make ends meet.

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This is an abuse of power, plain and simple, and the American people are paying close attention. They're wondering: when will the Democrats do something for them?

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The dangerous precedent that's being set by Democrats will live in infamy for many reasons.

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First and foremost, we already know the outcome. Late last month, 45 Senators voted in favor of the position that the impeachment of a former president is unconstitutional.

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Trump will be acquitted because the Constitution states that conviction requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate.

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By forcing a vote on the constitutionality of this impeachment farce in January, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. provided the Democrats with an easy exit strategy.

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At that point, President Joe Biden — the leader of the Democratic Party — could have called Leader Schumer and asked him to use Senator Paul's vote as an excuse to dismiss the trial.

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Biden could have demonstrated that he's interested in uniting and healing the country, but it didn't happen — because he's not. Instead, Biden showed no leadership or genuine interest in stopping this charade.

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By failing to act, the president has made it clear that the Democrats' priority is not putting vaccines in arms or providing relief for the American people but instead continuing their divisive four-year political war against Donald Trump.

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In his remarks on January 6th, President Trump said, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

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The key words here of course are "peacefully" and "patriotically" and make "your voices" heard.

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The Constitution clearly states that "Judgement in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor..." In the context of the current scenario, the first part of this provision isn't possible, making the second part void.

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Simply stated, President Trump cannot be removed from office because he's no longer the officeholder. But this hasn't stopped Trump-hating-Democrats from plowing forward with their shameful political stunt.

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Imagine how the mainstream media would react if a Republican majority in the Senate tried to impeach a former Democratic president. Suffice to say, it would never happen.

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Impeachments should never be used to carry out a political vendetta against a former political adversary.

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See related Tantrum! (Mike Shelton, 01/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
The world goes on while America sleeps (JWR 02/11/2021)
The Trump trial is bad drama (JWR 02/11/2021)
Andrew McCarthy: Trump impeachment trial – the inconvenient truth about the incitement charge (Fox 02/11/2021)
Tucker Carlson: What we still don't know about the Capitol riot (Fox 02/11/2021)
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It's funny how change happens. You thought the big change came on Election Day, when the incumbent president lost, but that turned out to be nothing compared to the change that came two months later.

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On Jan. 6, supporters of Donald Trump swarmed the Capitol building. Some forced their way inside, and Washington has never been the same. It may never be the same.

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As a result of what happened on Jan. 6, your descendants will live in a very different country.

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Some in Congress have compared that day to 9/11. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has likened it to Pearl Harbor, which spurred America's entry into the Second World War.

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Every day we hear new and more florid comparisons from Democratic partisans. But Tuesay night, CNN outdid all of them by comparing what happened Jan. 6 to the Rwandan genocide.

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Keep in mind that close to a million people were murdered in Rwanda in 1994, about 70% of all ethnic Tutsis in the country. Entire towns were hacked to death with machetes. People were set on fire and crushed alive by bulldozers. Hundreds of thousands of women were raped. It was among the most horrifying crimes in human history.

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How does a country recover from something like that? Well, first, obviously, you punish the guilty quickly and severely.

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Then, and this is more important, you set about reordering your society from top to bottom to make certain nothing like that ever happens again.

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So you purge the military, suspend basic civil liberties, send troops to the capital, tear down the old, destroy all vestiges of the past in order to save the future.

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However, before we remake America to prevent future genocide at the Capitol, maybe we should know a little bit more about the crime that occurred on Jan. 6, if only to understand the justification for overturning our lives permanently. What exactly did happen that day?

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You may be surprised to learn how little we know, even now. In fact, it's remarkable how many of the most basic questions remain unanswered more than a month after the fact.

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Let's start with the headline of the day: Five Americans died on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. You've heard that, but it doesn't really tell you very much.

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It's the details, as always, that matter. Who were these people and how did they die? That's how you understand what actually happened.

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So with that in mind, here are the facts: Four of the five who died that day were Trump supporters. The fifth was a Capitol Hill police officer who apparently also supported Donald Trump.

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Why is this relevant? Of course, the political views of the deceased shouldn't matter, but unfortunately, in this case, they do.

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and many other elected Democrats claim the mob was coming for them that day.

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Yet the only recorded casualties on Jan. 6 were people who voted for Donald Trump.

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The first among them was a 34-year-old woman from Georgia called Rosanne Boyland. Authorities initially announced that Boyland died of a "medical emergency". Later video footage suggested she may have accidentally been trampled by the crowd.

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The second casualty was 55-year-old Kevin Greeson, who died of heart failure while talking to his wife on a cell phone outside the Capitol. "Kevin had a history of high blood pressure," his wife later said, "and in the midst of the excitement, suffered a heart attack."

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The third was 50-year-old Benjamin Phillips of Ringtown, Pa. Phillips was a Trump supporter who organized a bus trip to Washington for the rally that day. He died of a stroke on the grounds of the Capitol. There is no evidence that Phillips rioted or was injured by rioters or even went inside the Capitol building.

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The fourth person to die, the only one from intentional violence, was 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, a military veteran from San Diego. Babbitt was wearing a Trump cape when she was shot to death by a Capitol Hill police lieutenant.

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Babbitt's death was caught on video, so hers is the best-documented death that took place that day. Yet it is surprising how little we know about it.

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Babbitt was shot as she tried to crawl through a broken window into the Speaker's Lobby within the Capitol, and that's essentially the extent of what we know. ... We may never know exactly why this unnamed Capitol Hill police officer took her life.

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According to that officer's attorney, "There is no way to look at the evidence and think that he is anything but a hero." Of course, we can't actually look at that evidence, because they're withholding it.

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Killing an unarmed woman may be justified under certain specific circumstances, but since when is it heroic? When the dead woman has read QAnon websites? Republicans aren't asking that question.

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Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., has said he immediately hugged the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt and told him, "Listen, you did what you had to do."

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Did the officer really have to do that? We don't know. We do know that Ashli Babbitt was not holding a weapon when she was killed.

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Nevertheless, at the impeachment trial this week, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., described what happened at the Capitol as "an armed insurrection."

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Cicilline is a former mafia lawyer from Providence, so presumably he knows what it is to commit a felony with a firearm. There are no reports of rioters at the Capitol building Jan. 6 discharging weapons or threatening anyone with a gun. So what exactly is David Cicilline talking about?

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Apparently, he's referring to the death of Officer Brian Sicknick. In the hours after the riot, The New York Times reported that Trump supporters had brutally beaten Oficer Sicknick to death with a fire extinguisher.

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That account forms the basis of the myth that Democrats have constructed around Jan. 6. Sicknick's remains lay in honor at the Capitol building. Streams of politicians, who just months before had told us that cops were racist by definition, praised Brian Sicknick as a hero. They had finally found a police officer who served their political uses.

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Just one problem: The story they told was a lie from beginning to end. Officer Sicknick was not beaten to death, with a fire extinguisher or anything else.

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... there's no evidence that Brian Sicknick was hit with a fire extinguisher at any point on Jan 6. The officer's body apparently bore no signs of trauma.

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In fact, on the night of Jan. 6, long after rioters at the Capitol had been arrested or dispersed, Brian Sicknick texted his brother from his office. According to his brother, Sicknick said he'd been "pepper sprayed twice" but was otherwise "in good shape". Twenty-four hours later, Officer Brian Sicknick was dead.

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How did he die? The head of the Capitol police union has said he had a stroke. His body was cremated immediately, and authorities have refused to release his autopsy. No one has been charged in his death, and no charges are pending.

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Whatever happened to Brian Sicknick was tragic, obviously, but it was also very different from what they have told us. They have lied about how he died. They've lied about a lot.

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How did this riot start, anyway? Was it a spontaneous event incited by a reckless president in a fit of vicious pique?

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Was the riot long-planned, the result of a conspiracy? Those are two theories of what happened and both cannont be true.

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... the newspaper reported that it was well-known that a group of Trump supporters was headed to the city to cause trouble. The FBI almost certainly knew this. They likely had paid informants in the ranks of protesters.

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So if the authorities knew that violence might be coming to the Capitol, where was the necessary security? It wasn't there.

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We're not sure what all this means and we're not going to speculate. We do know for certain that the known facts of what happened on Jan. 6 deviate in very important ways from the story they are now telling us, including the story Democrats are telling in the impeachment trial.

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In many places, the known facts bear no resemblance to the story they're telling. They're just flat-out lying. There's no question about that.
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: The Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade and the coming abortion wars (Fox 02/11/2021)
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... there have been rumblings among Democrats to make it more difficult for the Supreme Court to invalidate or permit states to gnaw away at Roe v. Wade.

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Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court opinion that essentially establishes — within the privacy of the patient-physician relationship — the right to choose to abort a baby in the womb.

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The opinion holds that during the first trimester of pregnancy, the states have no interest in regulating abortion beyond the health of the mother. During the second trimester, the states can regulate the procedures used, but they may not ban or interfere with abortions. During the third trimester, the states may ban or permit abortions.

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The Fifth Amendment prevents the federal government — which gives millions a year to Planned Parenthood — from impairing life, liberty and property of people without due process.

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The 14th Amendment prohibits the states from impairing life, liberty and property without due process, compels them to treat persons within their borders similarly — what is an unlawful killing for me is an unlawful killing for thee — and compels the states to guarantee privileges and immunities; foremost among which is the right to live.

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Coming our way is a massive effort by pro-abortion forces at the state and federal levels to shore up Roe — to insulate it from interference by the Supreme Court — and thereby make abortions more available and, in some states, performed at taxpayer expense.

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President Joseph R. Biden has stated that he wants Congress to enact a statute that will put into positive law the right of every woman to kill her unborn child at any time, irrespective of what various states have enacted to preserve the lives of unborn children.

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Is the baby in the womb a person? Biden does not want to answer that question. I don't know how conversant he is in philosophy or constitutional law, or common sense, but he won't go near this.

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Last week, the Senate defeated a measure that would have protected the lives of babies who survive abortions. ... The Senate vote was not only humanly repulsive — it permitted the states to permit the mother and the abortionist to let the surviving baby die — it violated the obligation of the government to uphold the Constitution.

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Is the baby in the womb a person? Of course, she is. The baby has human parents, and her body contains all the genomic materials to grow into human childhood and adulthood.

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The denial of personhood to babies in the womb is akin to the judicial denial of personhood to Blacks before the Civil War.

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In the very essence of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that our right to life is inalienable.

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The right to live is the highest right there is. Any society that can impair the right to live by declaring any groups to be nonpersons has rejected the self-evident concepts of right and wrong and cannot long endure.

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Negating personhood is the most dangerous thing the government can do. It is a one-way slippery slope. Whose personhood will the government negate next?

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See related St. Joe the Devout (Mike Shelton, 01/26/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Peter Hoekstra: Intel community to target Americans? Here's what we must do to safeguard liberties (Fox 02/10/2021)
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Whether it is in space, cyber, electronic or human intelligence, America's intelligence professionals certainly generate a "wow factor," and it was always reassuring knowing the "IC," as it is often called, was a powerful force arrayed against foreign enemies abroad to protect us at home.

•
A recent charge from former Obama-Biden era CIA Director John Brennan should give all of us a moment of pause.

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Brennan stated on MSNBC that the Biden administration is "now moving in laser like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about what looks very similar to insurgency movements that we've seen overseas."

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He went on to list potential targets as an "unholy alliance frequently of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, Nativists, even libertarians."

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Given Brennan's history, such a charge from him should not be taken lightly. After all, it was Brennan who was forced to admit his agency had spied on the U.S. Senate when it was investigating the CIA.

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And Brennan also played a central role in pushing the now-discredited Russian collusion conspiracy that animated years of investigation and inaccurate media coverage of the Trump administration.

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The issue itself, however, is larger than Brennan – even if he serves as the prime illustration of the concern.

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The issue on where to draw the line on the massive surveillance powers of the IC and its use domestically requires profound consideration even in the heat of this current political moment.

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As we hear calls from political leaders proclaiming, "the enemy is within," I urge my fellow citizens to take a step back and ask whether we as Americans want our foreign surveillance apparatus turned against us.

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I have witnessed the power and capabilities of the IC, and I will state unequivocally we most certainly do not.

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They IC operates by law to protect us from foreign threats, and the rules reflect the fact that foreigners do not enjoy the same constitutional protections as U.S. citizens.

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We want this awesome capability to protect our nation from threats abroad, not to target our fellow citizens.

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The tools necessary to protect us from international threats must remain singularly focused on the real threats that continue to exist beyond our borders.

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An Intelligence Community that has the lines blurred between foreign intelligence and domestic spying will lose the support of all Americans and becomes a real threat to our freedoms.

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We must never let our Intelligence Community be weaponized against our citizens again.
Ingraham: 'Sanctimonious snitches' turning Americans against each other in age of COVID, Biden (Fox 02/10/2021)
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The coronavirus pandemic and the election of Joe Biden as president has given rise to a "busybody phenomenon" across America, "courtesy of unhinged progressives who are happiest when they're ordering someone else around."

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"Now, this is funny in one way, but it's pernicious stuff and it's infected every level of our society, 90% of the sanctimonious snitches are just frustrated, bitter lefties with too much time on their hands."

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... went on to proclaim that "these seething snitches have more in common with the old-fashioned Soviet thought police than they have with the free speech liberals of the 1970s" and noted that the left is using what she called the "snitch and ditch culture" to divide families.

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She referenced the case of a Massachusetts teen who called out her mother for being present at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and "has since raised $74,000 for college on a GoFundMe page since tweeting about Mommy. I guess it beats babysitting or waiting tables to pay for tuition."

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"Liberal busybodies claim that they're just trying to save lives with their snitching, but we know that's not true."

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"They're silent when blue state mayors and governors are caught violating their own COVID dictates, and they made excuses when entire city blocks were in flames last summer because of the BLM riots. They're complete frauds."

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"This is not about standing on principle. Snitches want riches and of course, they want power. Their political overlords and the Biden administration themselves are masters of snitching ... That's an entire job description for Anthony Fauci, shaming America for wanting to go back to normal, but it's time to shame them right back for turning Americans against Americans."
Tucker Carlson: Have questions about the COVID vaccine? 'Shut up and take it,' says Big Tech (Fox 02/10/2021)
•
After months of hearing that life could never return to normal until we get a vaccine, we got a vaccine (two, actually), but life did not return to normal. In fact, life got worse.

•
We were instructed to take the new vaccine as soon as possible and then to put on more masks. Anyone who complained about that was punished.

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Most people obeyed the orders (not like they had a choice), but the whole thing made them nervous.

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Why exactly did the rules change all of a sudden? Was there a good reason for that? When are we finally going to repeal corona law?

•
And what about this vaccine? Why are Americans being discouraged from asking simple, straightforward questions about it? How effective are these drugs? Are they safe?

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These questions are not conspiracy theories, they're the most basic questions in a democracy. Every citizen has a right to know the answer, but instead we got fluff and propaganda...

•
Most Americans already supported vaccines. They didn't need to be browbeaten in order to be convinced. They were grateful their kids no longer get tetanus and polio and chickenpox. They weren't anti-vaccine.

•
And yet from the very first day, the way the authorities handled the coronavirus vaccine did not inspire confidence.

•
From the moment the vaccine arrived, the most powerful people in America worked to make certain that no one could criticize it.

•
Here's Bill Gates' wife Melinda on CNN back in December: "The Internet and the rise of social media has happened so quickly that really the regulations and the good policymaking hasn't stayed out in front of it. And quite frankly, it needs to catch up."

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Quite frankly, she says, we need to censor people's views on the COVID vaccine. Remember, Melinda Gates is not a scientist. ... She worked in the marketing department at Microsoft, but she's the wife of a billionaire. That's why she's on television, and it's why she's allowed to control what you're allowed to say about the drug she is demanding you inject in your body.

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Is this really science? Not even close. It's oligarchy, and all the billionaires are participating in it. The tech companies announced early they would not allow anyone to criticize this vaccine, and anyone who did would be kicked off their platforms right away.

•
CNN identified a group on Facebook called "COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Stories" . The group was exactly what it sounds like: People talking about their experiences with the vaccine.

•
Last week, that group was among the top 20 groups on all of Facebook. Tuesday, it couldn't be found, not even if you searched specifically for its name.

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Search for the word "vaccine" on Facebook now and you will find a lot of material that precisely matches the storyline approved by Melinda Gates and her fellow non-scientist billionaires...

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"Twitter suspended me for saying that vaccines have known side effects". Of course vaccines have side effects. Physicians who develop vaccines concede that. But at the moment, you are not allowed to say it.

•
... tens of millions of Americans have been vaccinated and most of them seem fine. On the other hand, scientists are now conceding on the record that the vaccine may trigger a fatal blood disorder in a small number of people.

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Science can't live in an environment like this. Without relentless skepticism, science dies. That's what science is, relentless skepticism.

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And when it leaves, inevitably it's replaced by witchcraft and superstition. Are we there yet? You decide.
The spending addiction (JWR 02/09/2021)
High time to Take on 'Progressive Prosecutors' (JWR 02/09/2021)
Are the classics racist? (JWR 02/09/2021)
How Many Americans Has the American Medical Establishment KILLED? (JWR 02/09/2021)
Pelosi's impeachment charade undermined by evidence the Capitol attack was planned in advance (Fox 02/09/2021)
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It is a perfunctory exercise with a pre-ordained outcome of acquittal that was forced on them by a House Speaker consumed with hatred and a Democrat caucus that resembles lemmings marching to the sea.

•
Treating impeachment like a bag of "minute rice," Pelosi cooked up the case against former President Donald Trump without bothering to scrutinize the true facts of what happened when rioters invaded the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

•
Instead of conducting a comprehensive investigation and then examining all the gathered evidence, the Speaker engineered a rash and reckless vote just days after the attack based solely on the frailty of the emotional moment.

•
Substantial and compelling evidence has emerged that the attackers planned their assault days and weeks in advance.

•
Much of this evidence collected by the FBI shows that the criminal conduct was not incited by Trump's speech on January 6th but was the result of a previously coordinated and premeditated plot to invade the Capitol and disrupt Congress as it tallied the electoral votes in the presidential election.

•
The genesis of the conspiracy, according federal authorities, dates back to November of 2020, shortly after the election but well before the Electoral College convened in December to award the presidency to Joe Biden.

•
Not only was the FBI aware of a potential attack on the U.S. Capitol, but local law enforcement in Washington, D.C. knew that violence was likely to occur.

•
Had the House Speaker acted responsibly by holding hearings and soliciting evidence before voting to impeach, the nation might have been spared yet another specious Senate trial driven by a rush to judgment.

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But this is what Pelosi does. Rage replaces reason. In a feverish race to blame Trump, she never hesitates to violate established House rules designed to ensure fairness and due process.

•
We've seen this tired movie before. More than a year ago, Pelosi launched the first impeachment inquiry improperly — without approval from the full House. She sanctioned secret hearings in a basement bunker of the Capitol and then blitzed impeachment through the House with record speed.

•
Trump's easy acquittal in the Senate was a humiliating defeat for the House Speaker and an extravagant waste of time.

•
But Pelosi is so consumed by her hatred for Trump that she can't seem to get out of her own way. Her determination to impeach him all over again is constitutionally anemic since Trump is no longer president.

•
More importantly, his speech on the national mall does not come close to meeting the definition of incitement. He urged supporters to protest "peacefully." At no time did he direct or advocate violence or destruction of property. His words constitute political speech protected by the First Amendment.

•
Pelosi, no doubt, will be standing in the wings urging Senators to endorse another of her fatuous and frivolous impeachments. "Once more, with feeling this time!"

•
See related Tantrum! (Mike Shelton, 01/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Sen. Rand Paul: Trump impeachment trial – here's my challenge to Democrats and Republicans (Fox 02/09/2021)
•
The trial is of dubious merit and even more dubious constitutionality.

•
I've spoken out against those who tried to object to the seating of the electors, as I thought that was not the role of Congress.

•
But where is the other side? Where were they all last year when political violence ravaged our cities, when people could barely dine or walk the streets in many places? When businesses burned and people were injured or killed by mobs? They were silent.

•
Where was the outrage from the left when their politicians, from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., asked people to "get up in the faces" of people they disagreed with politically?

•
When they said to not let Trump officials have a moments peace, even if you see them out in public, dining in restaurants?

•
Where were they when it was shown the political rhetoric of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and the rest of the socialist left inspired the shooter who fired at Republicans at our baseball practice, nearly killing Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.?

•
And where were they when Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stood in front of the Supreme Court last year, when he called out Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh by name saying, "You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions"?

•
This earned Schumer a rare direct rebuke from the chief justice, and scathing rebukes from senators and others in the GOP, but not a word from the Democrats.

•
Their outrage is one sided and that's not how this works. You either go after the Democrats who "incited violence" or you say that political speech always inspires great passion, and the speaker is not responsible for the actions of the listener unless clearly calling for violence.

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President Trump deserves the same standard as the other side. He deserves the protections of our Constitution.

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Our system only works well if we understand the speaker is not responsible for the actions of the listener no matter if they are Republican, Democrat or other.

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I call on both sides to pay more attention to fealty to our oaths and pressure our own sides to be better.
Rep. Jim Jordan: Trump impeachment trial – here's what the Senate must do (Fox 02/09/2021)
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It's been almost a month since he left office, but Democrats still can't let go of President Donald Trump.

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That's why, as our country faces many urgent challenges, the Senate will set aside its real work this week and instead focus on yet another political impeachment charade.

•
After all the bluster and rhetoric from the House Democrat managers, the Senate must acquit President Trump because the facts and the Constitution are on his side.

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We all agree that the events on Jan. 6, 2021, were as wrong as wrong can be. Every American has the right to peacefully protest. But there is no place for political violence of any kind – whether in Washington, D.C., or in Portland, Ore.

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Republicans have been consistent in denouncing acts of political violence. Democrats have not, and now they are casting political blame for what happened at the Capitol.

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President Trump did not incite the violence of Jan. 6. News reports suggest the FBI knew in advance that violence would occur. The U.S. Capitol Police also reportedly understood that there was a "strong potential for violence" that day.

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Far from inciting violence, President Trump urged listeners to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

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Those who failed to heed the President's advice and who committed the acts of violence must be held accountable.

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But Democrats cannot seriously accuse President Trump of inciting violence when he specifically called for peaceful protests.

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Democrats ignored these facts. They also ignored the Constitution. Democrats afforded President Trump no due process in the House of Representatives. In fact, there was no process whatsoever – no witnesses, no depositions, no hearings, no cross-examinations.

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The Constitution states the "President ... shall be removed from office on impeachment ... and conviction." The Constitution also specifies that "Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor."

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The Senate obviously can't remove a president who is no longer in office, and so it can't disqualify a president from future office if it didn't remove him while he was in office.

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The Constitution also requires that the chief justice of the United States preside over a presidential impeachment trial. Chief Justice Roberts has said that he won't preside over this trial. The substitute presiding officer, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is also a juror who has already signaled support for President Trump's conviction.

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In their desperation to attack President Trump, Democrats are trampling on other important constitutional rights.

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Last week, Democrats threatened President Trump that if he declined to testify during the Democrats' impeachment charade, they would use it as proof of his guilt.

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That may be how trials work in socialist countries. But that's not how it works in America.

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Democrats are going to these lengths because they are obsessed with canceling President Trump. Democrats tried to impeach President Trump at least nine times since January 2017. They investigated him endlessly – the Russia hoax, the Mueller investigation, the first sham impeachment. They pestered him, his family and his associates.

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But President Trump wasn't fazed. He got results for the American people.

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President Trump said he'd cut taxes, and he did. He said he'd reduce regulations, and he did. He said he'd get out of the Iran nuclear deal, and he did. The president said he'd put the U.S. Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, and he did. He said he'd build a wall on our southern border, and he did. He said he'd bring hostages home, and he did. The president said he'd win approval of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, and he did. He said he'd appoint well-qualified conservative Supreme Court justices, and he did – three times.

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At the end of the day, Democrats don't want President Trump to run for office again. They're scared of him. They know he works the American people, and not the Washington Swamp.

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Unlike most politicians, President Trump did what he said he'd do. Hopefully, one day, he'll get to do it again.

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The Senate must stand up for the facts and the Constitution. The Senate must acquit President Trump.

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See related Rent Free (Gary Varvel, 02/04/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related He Didn\\\'t Drain Our Swamp... (Mike Shelton, 01/27/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Gingrich: Senators who vote to convict Trump take part in 'profound attack on the American system' (Fox 02/09/2021)
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"The idea that a bunch of politicians in D.C. think that they have the power to say to 75 million Americans 'We will decide whether or not you get to vote for this guy again' — that is such a profound attack on the entire American system."

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"The level of corruption and ego that that suggests, for everybody that votes yes is astonishing. Instead of talking about President Trump, talk about Citizen Trump. He's a citizen."

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... Congress does not have the power to hold a trial-like forum against a private citizen in an effort to "limit their opportunities."

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"This is one of the most profound attacks we've seen on the American system, The oligarchs, the Big Tech companies, the propaganda media, all of them are on the same team. They're all in favor of crushing the American people's right to pick the leaders that they want and instead impose the leaders that the elites want. I think it's an amazing moment."

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... the trial itself is corrupt because the presiding officer, Senate President Pro Tempore Pat Leahy, D-Vt., has previously made overtures in support of voting to impeach Trump.

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"How can you have a judge who has already announced that he wants conviction? This is like an old western. No resemblance to a real trial. It's a mock trial and pathetic."

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... Trump's attorneys should subpoena Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and question them about their use of inflammatory rhetoric.

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"They can find 20 or 30 Democrats, and they should list all of them and say, 'These are our first defense witnesses and we want the Senate to subpoena every one of these and demand that they come and testify.'"...
Biden is 'figurehead' of left-wing insurrection against America in 'deepest depths' of 'DC swamp' (Fox 02/09/2021)
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"The Democrats and the media that serve them are like addicts looking for their next fix, and their drug of choice over the past five years has been Donald Trump."

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"If you're conservative and you voted for Trump, they want you demoralized by the impeachment proceedings and the January 6th riot and they want you to believe things will never get better."

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"... if you keep your eye on what's really happening out there, you're going to realize Biden isn't running anything. He's barely awake."

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... the 46th president's administration is "populated by snotty, entitled, overeducated, underperforming goofballs" who "are slowly but surely dismantling our economy, attacking our prosperity and opening the door to an endless stream of illegal aliens and gang members."

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"If we had a Congress that was focused on protecting American jobs, safety, healthcare, and education, they would immediately tighten the asylum laws."

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"At a time when we're seeing more crime, fewer jobs, and millions of kids stuck in Zoom hell and not in school, Biden's team is focusing on shielding illegals from deportation because he doesn't want to put them through too much stress..."

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"Biden's open-borders zealots have what they want. Big business, they get their slave labor, and the social justice warriors, the far-left 'Squad' types, they have their new population that can be molded and formed into socialist party faithful."

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"There is an insurrection taking place against America, all right, It's been going on for years in the deepest depths of the D.C. swamp. And now its figurehead resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Biden Executive Orders (Gary McCoy, 01/26/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Cancel culture eerily similar to Communist China playbook to control its people (Fox 02/09/2021)
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Censorship is something we're used to seeing in China, but we should be shocked when we see signs of it in our own backyard.

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China's social credit system, designed to track every Chinese citizen's social and economic behavior, is the CCP's attempt at total control over its citizens' lives.

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While the United States might not have an official social credit system, the radical left – through cancel culture and censorship of ideas – has created something that's eerily similar.

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Totalitarians of the past kept their lists of dissidents in paper files, but the CCP keeps records on all citizens digitized, complete with facial recognition, biometric material and intensive data tracking.

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More than threats of physical force or imprisonment, China's social credit system uses social shaming and ostracization to ensure total control of citizens.

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"Bad" behavior lowers a person's score and can make it difficult for them to buy, sell, travel, get loans or send their children to college.

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"Very bad" behavior, such as political dissent, can get someone and their family members blacklisted, making it difficult for them to function in society.

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China's social credit system is about power and conformity. It's an attempt to shape citizens into the CCP's ideal subject: don't ask questions, disobey or think for yourself.

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What are the signs that the U.S. has its own social credit system? What else do you call it when a Democrat senator demands Republicans be put on a no-fly-list for how they voted, or when an editor is forced to resign for allowing a Republican to publish an opinion piece in the editorial section of his newspaper?

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Big tech has increased its censorship of those they disagree with as well. Before the election, Twitter suppressed the New York Post's story on Hunter Biden, YouTube removed two videos from a Senate hearing about COVID treatments, and in another instance, Google blocked ads from a legal group against court packing.

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Then Amazon, Apple and Google exercised their monopoly power to deplatform Parler, the biggest conservative alternative to Twitter.

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And this is just the beginning of the left's activity to silence dissent. A PBS lawyer was caught on camera calling for reeducation camps for the kids of conservatives, and numerous political pundits have called for cable companies to deplatform Fox News.

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The push by the left to censor viewpoints that do not conform with liberal orthodoxy is dangerous and antithetical to the freedom of speech and free exchange of ideas our country holds dear.

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Regulating the thoughts of citizens is something that has, until recently, been left for repressive regimes that want subjects, not citizens.

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Cancel culture in the U.S. might not be as far advanced as China's social credit system, but it has a similar aim – ensuring conformity to one ideology.

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Unlike moderate liberals of earlier days, today's woke radical leftists won't be satisfied until there is one party rule in America and every dissenting voice is silenced.

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Demanding total submission to one orthodox view is not freedom, nor is conformity true unity. Intolerance of opposing ideas will only lead to resentment, not agreement.

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Threatening to crush a person's career, demonetize them or ostracize them from the public square might scare people into silence, but it will not convince them.

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It's time to stand up for freedom – we have no time to waste.
Michael Goodwin: New York Times firings – here's how cancel culture claimed two more victims (Fox 02/09/2021)
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Thunk, thunk. The career guillotine at The New York Times was busy Friday, dispatching two men found wanting by the Purity Police.

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When the shock wears off, the former employees might consider their departures a blessing. At least they are no longer marooned on an island that evokes "Lord of the Flies."

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This is not moving the goal posts. This is rewriting the rules to satisfy the mob.

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Such is life in Wokestan, where notions of misconduct are malleable and arbitrary. Social-justice activists stalk a newsroom that is racialized and radicalized, hunting for reasons to be offended. When they are, the ax falls.

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When reporters and editors gang up to complain about colleagues, including former op-ed page editor James Bennett, Baquet, along with publisher A.G. Sulzberger, promptly delivers pink slips. Careers and years of service are tossed aside like trash.

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Opinion writer Bari Weiss, in her fiery resignation from the Times last year, decried the mob mentality running the paper, declaring that "Twitter has become its ultimate editor."

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Even as the Gray Lady abandons its standards of rigor and fairness in its coverage, it is obsessed with imposing progressive standards of thought and conduct on its employees.

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... one might imagine that getting the news right for readers would be their highest priority. But that's an outdated view of the Times, which now sees itself as America's ultimate enforcer of social and racial justice. Virtually every story has an agenda, and facts that don't fit are minimized or omitted.

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Its relentless attacks on Donald Trump stoked the paper's hubris and its bid to rewrite American history with its error-ridden 1619 Project, which put slavery at the center of the independence movement.

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Such grandiose callings require a relentless commitment to ferreting out evidence of human imperfections.
The Tyrannical Left's Sinister Conspiracy to Silence Conservatives (JWR 02/08/2021)
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As worried as we should be about the hyperexploding national debt and our inevitable fiscal catastrophe, I am even more worried about the left's success in turning America into a police state (ironic, given its simultaneous war on the police).

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People still able to summon their rational faculties during this pandemic have to be concerned about this insane, concerted effort to control people's thoughts and speech.

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How can those who purport to rage against the fascism of former President Donald Trump, which was an abject Democratic and media myth, promote actual fascism in our culture?

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It strains the mind to imagine that fair people can deceive themselves into believing that silencing and canceling people for "offensive" views is consistent with our liberty tradition.

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Some rationalize that because government is not the moving agency in this censorship, and because the Constitution only restricts state action, not that of private entities, there is no violation of our constitutional principles.

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They can lie or fool themselves, but don't let them fool you. Let's not pretend that this consortium of overblown, unaccountable digital oligarchs does not represent an equal threat to our speech.

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The left has been quite strategic in its sinister plans to silence and control conservatives. If it could sufficiently demonize us, it could emasculate us as effective opponents of its agenda.

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Leftists have laid the groundwork for decades, along with their other extremist ideas they are now peddling as mainstream.

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They've persistently hammered the narrative that conservative speech is inherently hateful and inciteful, leading people to violent behavior.

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They've framed mainstream conservative ideas and speech as racist, bigoted, homophobic, devoid of compassion and hateful.

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The smear is more powerful and malleable than ever. Leftists have exploited it to drive their open-borders policy — essentially arguing that America is the first nation in the history of the world that doesn't have a right to control its own borders and pretending it could survive if it were to give up that control.

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They're using it to advance socialism, arguing that our "racist" past requires us to scrap the founding principle of equality of opportunity and replace it with "equity," a euphemism that means guaranteed equality of outcomes.

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Justice is now social justice, which also means cashiering principles of equality in favor of forcing equal outcomes. "White privilege," critical race theory and "systemic racism" are part of the same mix. The racism smear has even found its way into climate change and pandemic politics. It's embarrassing how mind-numbed we've become.

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In order to credibly argue that we need a fundamental reordering of our constitutional and judicial systems, leftists must show that America is irredeemably drenched in the sin of racism and can only expatiate itself through the atonement of socialism, reparations, guaranteed universal income, outright wealth redistribution and the rest.

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... the endless vendetta against Donald Trump is not primarily about Donald Trump. He is a convenient scapegoat to taint the entire conservative movement.

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If they can succeed with their preposterous claim that the 74 million Trump supporters were accessories before the fact to the few hundred or so people who stormed the Capitol, then they've made a prima facie case that conservative ideas — and conservative speech — are intrinsically hateful and dangerous. What's the big deal, after all, of silencing "domestic terrorists"?

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Disgracefully, this censorship crusade is being pushed by the very people who have a particular duty to safeguard free speech, i.e., the mainstream media.

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... the adaptable left is employing yet another euphemistic sleight of hand to marshal the private sector to shut down its political opposition.
The Reichstag Fire of the Democrats (Frontpoage 02/08/21)
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There are thousands of soldiers outside Congress and political terror inside its halls. That political terror isn't coming from a QAnon Shaman who only eats organic food, but from the Democrats who are using a manufactured state of emergency to purge the opposition.

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Democrats deployed 26,000 troops to Washington D.C. at a cost of $500 million. Thousands of soldiers, authorized to use deadly force as they were forbidden to do either at the border or during the Black Lives Matter assault on the White House, will stay to fight an imaginary threat.

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While walls, razor wire, and military encampments rise outside the halls of government, inside them the Democrats have unleashed a true coup.

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Protesters have "stormed" Congress before, from both the Left and the Right, which cannot be called overthrowing the government.

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The fascist theater of the military occupation is a pretext for a political occupation with Democrats inciting political purges in legislatures, both state and national, of any Republicans who criticised the stolen election and called for accountability on behalf of the voters.

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A purge is also underway of the military and law enforcement to root out "extremists" from the same forces that the Democrats have deployed to intimidate Americans and suppress political dissent.

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There are plenty of precedents for a political faction declaring a false state of emergency, occupying the center of government, and unleashing a campaign of political repression.

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In 1933, the Nazis used the Reichstag fire to begin purging the political opposition. The fire in the German parliament building was exploited by the Nazis to seize control and purge the opposition, beginning with the Communists, and then moving on to everyone else.

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A year later the Communists imitated their National Socialist comrades with the Kirov assassination.

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The Reichstag Fire Decree and the Great Purge both blamed the inciting incidents on the political opposition and used them as a pretext for an emergency, for endless investigations, and for criminalizing dissent against two formerly weak leaders: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

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By the time the Nazis were done exploiting the Reichstag fire, the Reichstag had been destroyed in a way that no fire, no matter how hot or severe, could have done.

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The Kirov assassination eliminated Stalin's greatest rival, and was then used by the Communist dictator to purge all his remaining rivals in a systematic process of trials and executions.

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Rivals were forced to accept "moral responsibility" for Kirov's death in an ominous parallel to the way that Republicans are told to accept moral responsibility for a "coup" invented by the media.

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The Democrats manufactured a permanent state of emergency and blamed its existence on their political opponents.

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But the political terror and the purges being pushed in the name of that emergency are all too real.

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Like their National Socialist and Communist ideological forebears, the Fascist Left has spent the past four years inventing new and undefined political crimes, beginning with "disinformation" and escalating to "incitement" and "sedition", which lack any resemblance to normative legal usage.

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President Trump and Senate Republicans were far more careful in their words about the stolen election of 2020 than the Democrats were in falsely claiming that the 2016 election was stolen. (Not to mention the 2000 and 2004 elections which they had challenged.)...

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When House Democrats universally voted to call for removing President Trump under the 25th Amendment, they engaged in a coup.

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All the political crimes invented by the Democrats really translate into political opposition. The Democrat uses of "incitement" and "sedition" are political crimes that mean opposing them.

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... it was patriotic of them to question every single election won by a Republican in this century, but why it's "seditious" of Republicans to question the 2020 election.

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The Democrats have only begun exploiting their permanent state of emergency. And they intend to use it to usher in a one-party state while purging the political opposition.

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The Democrats have only begun exploiting their permanent state of emergency. And they intend to use it to usher in a one-party state while purging the political opposition. Russia and Germany show us how these purges by megalomaniacal fascists will end once they are set into motion.

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Republicans must push back against the occupation of Washington D.C. and against a fake state of emergency whose goal, like those of the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Great Purge, is the suspension of political norms and the rule of law by keeping the people afraid all the time.

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It's a lot easier to stop a purge before it starts than to try to pause it once it's underway.

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The only emergency here is the leftist plot against the Constitution under the guise of manufactured emergencies.
Trump impeachment trial – No, impeachment is not insulated from free speech arguments (Fox 02/08/2021)
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"The First Amendment does not apply in impeachment proceedings." If there is a single line that sums up the sense of legal impunity in the second Trump impeachment, it is that line from a letter sent by law professors to deny any basis for the former president to challenge his impeachment on free speech grounds.

•
The scholars call any such arguments "legally frivolous" but only after misstating the argument and frankly employing a degree of circular logic.

•
The scholars start by stating the obvious: that there is no First Amendment "defense" that bars the impeachment or conviction of a president.

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The scholars go to great lengths to contest an argument not in dispute in stating "Congress's power to impeach is not limited to unlawful acts."

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Constitutional rights and values are always relevant to an impeachment. While many subscribe to the "anything goes" school of impeachment, these senators are performing a constitutional, not just some political, function pursuant to a stated standard for removal.

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As such, they need to weigh the gravity of conduct and the implications of any conviction for the future.

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Ironically, some of these scholars have emphasized that this is a purely political process where senators have free range in determining what they consider to be a basis for conviction.

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Yet, Trump's objections of constitutional and prudential concerns are being widely dismissed as frivolous, "bad faith," or irrelevant to that decision.

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... these scholars insist that "The First Amendment does not apply in impeachment proceedings, so it cannot provide a defense for President Trump."

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That may be technically true in the sense of an actual defense to enjoin or bar impeachment in court.

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It is not true in the sense of a free speech concern over the implications of a conviction of political speech in America.

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Declaring that the First Amendment has no relevance or applicability to an impeachment proceeding is chilling.

•
The question for senators is whether they should be concerned that the president's speech would not be considered actual incitement as a criminal matter in federal court. The answer is that, of course, they should.

•
That is particularly a concern when critics of the president, including members of this Senate "jury," have engaged in similar over-heated and reckless political rhetoric.

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The Framers saw impeachment as reserved for cases of constitutional clarity. That clarity is achieved by comparison to the conduct of others – both as criminal and protected matters.

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As a secondary argument, the scholars insist that "The First Amendment ... does not grant the president the freedom to engage in a willful dereliction of duty." The statement is again conclusory.

•
Trump is accused of seeking to incite an actual insurrection or rebellion, not just the "willful dereliction of duty." The status and intent of his words are the crux of the matter.

•
Moreover, the argument is circular. It is arguing that this is not protected speech because it is incitement. However, if it is not incitement, it is protected speech.

•
While Trump does call for citizens to "fight" for their country and used aggressive rhetoric, he also told them to protest "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." He also said that the reason for the march is that "we are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."

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In the end, however, the primary argument is not just a First Amendment claim but a free speech claim (though these terms are often used interchangeably).

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In judging the culpability of a president's speech, the Senate must consider how this impeachment impacts free speech for presidents in declaring such speech to be a constitutional violation of his duties.

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That means that free speech is relevant, as is prior political speech deemed protected under the First Amendment as essential to our democratic system.

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The Senate should consider how this riot was an attack on democracy. But it should also consider the impact of sanctioning political speech on that same democratic system.

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... just two days before the trial, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., was criticized when some felt she was justifying the violent takeover of a prison in St. Louis by tweeting the words of Martin Luther King that "a riot is the language of the unheard."

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I believe such statements are not only protected under the First Amendment but exercises of free speech. I would take that position if there was an effort to sanction or expel Bush in Congress.
Andrew McCarthy: Trump impeachment trial – what you need to know, what may surprise you (Fox 02/08/2021)
Liz Peek: Democrat fear-mongering allows Biden to destroy Trump’s legacy (Fox 02/08/2021)
•
The events of Jan. 6 were heinous and inexcusable; tragically, a police officer and four Trump supporters lost their lives.

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For Democrats, they were also extremely useful.

•
The attack on the Capitol finally gave Democrats the ammunition they needed to portray President Trump's supporters as dangerous extremists.

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Up until Jan. 6, drawing that characterization had been challenging, since the country had not witnessed a single significant outbreak of violence amid all the giant rallies and marches – complete with guns! – that for four years had celebrated the president.

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The effort to demonize Trump backers was set back further last summer when riots broke out across the country, fueled by charges of police racism and enabled by progressive mayors and governors who tolerated the looting and destruction.

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Those melees were not caused by the scary Right, but by the Left – the people who later came out to vote for Joe Biden. In some cities, like Portland, those disturbances are ongoing.

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That was awkward, but Democrats breezed right through the smoke clouds left by burning cars and buildings, continuing to warn that it was right-wing conspiracy mongers who posed the greatest threat to the nation.

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And, the liberal media pitched in, hilariously dismissing the riots as "mostly peaceful."

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By that standard, Trump's Jan. 6 rally on the Elipse was "mostly peaceful," in that tens of thousands cheered the president's speech, while a few hundred slipped away to cause mayhem at the Capitol.

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But now, in the shadow of that day's events, we are told that the rioters of Jan. 6 were the tip of the iceberg, that armed militias stand ready to topple the government.

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The FBI helpfully warned in a bulletin that "Armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitals... and at the U.S. Capitol" in the weeks leading up to the (uneventful) inauguration.

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Yes, the same FBI that enabled the Russia-gate attack on President Trump.

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According to Democrats, murderous White nationalists lurk everywhere. "Squad" leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, D-N.Y., affirms there are "White supremacist sympathizers" at the core of the House GOP caucus.

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A hysterical Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., claims we have "an enemy within" the halls of Congress – representatives who have requested to carry firearms in the Capitol and, according to the House speaker, have threatened their colleagues.

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Deep breath: does anyone really think there are members of Congress lying in wait, ready to murder their fellow representatives?

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(Footnote: The only congressman actually shot in recent years was Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise, who was gunned down in 2017 by an angry left-wing activist while playing baseball.)...

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The reality is that Democrats, master directors, have staged a compelling scene, complete with impressive props like the tens of thousands of National Guard troops who remain in our nation's capital, for who knows what reason, at a cost of half a billion taxpayer dollars.

•
The Democrats' fear-mongering is purposeful. With Trump disgraced and his supporters denounced, his policies can be junked wholesale, and few dare object.

•
Joe Biden is slicing through Trump's measures to protect our border, build our energy independence, ring-fence Iran, confront China and bolster our economy like a scythe through dandelions. Resistance on both sides of the aisle is mute.

•
Aiding Biden's wholesale slaughter of Trump's common sense policies has been the kerfuffle over Marjorie Taylor Greene, a newly elected GOP representative from Georgia who has in the past signed onto nutty and offensive conspiracy theories.

•
Make no mistake: there are extremists on the right, and on the left, who can pose a threat to ordinary Americans. Those who perpetrate violence must be brought to justice, like any other criminals.

•
But Democrat elites are busy canceling and defaming President Trump and his supporters because they fear he will not disappear.

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Trump successfully challenged the liberal establishment, and his outreach to traditional Democrat constituencies terrifies his opponents.

•
The Democrat Party is now in bed with Big Business, Big Tech and Big Labor, and many middle-class Americans know that those powerful forces do not represent them.

•
The wholesale shipping of jobs overseas, the immigration policies that undermined wages paid to low-income Americans, the kowtowing to special interests and undermining of our traditional values are not their priorities.

•
Those people voted for Donald Trump in 2016; more voted for him in 2020. They will not be silenced, no matter how much scorn is rained upon their heads.

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They will not be bought off by $1,400 checks or by lofty promises of the "jobs of tomorrow" delivered by a president cheerfully canceling the jobs of today.

•
They will not be fooled. Instead, they will continue to despise the people who despise them, especially in the liberal media.
Our Animal Farm (02/07/2021)
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The short, allegorical novel's human-like farm animals replay the transition of supposedly 1917 revolutionary Bolsheviks into cynical 1930s Stalinists.

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Thereby, they remind us that leftist totalitarianism inevitably becomes far worse than the supposed parasitical capitalists they once toppled.

•
Orwell saw that the desire for power stamps out all ideological pretenses. It creates an untouchable ruling clique central to all totalitarian movements. Beware, he warns, of the powerful who claim to help the helpless.

•
Something so far less violent, but no less bizarre and disturbing, now characterizes the American New New Left.

•
It is completing its final Animal Farm metamorphosis as it finishes its long march through our cultural, economic, and social institutions.

•
Leftists may talk of revolutionary transformation, but their agenda is to help friends, punish enemies, and to keep and expand power.

•
First, remember the 1960s and 1970s agendas of the once impotent, young, and supposedly idealistic leftist revolutionaries.

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The First Amendment was said by them to be sacred, even as the "free speech movement" transitioned to the "filthy speech movement."

•
Leftists sued to mainstream nudity in film. They wanted easy access to pornography. They mainstreamed crude profanity.

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The supposed right-wingers were repressed. They were the "control freaks" who sought to stop the further "liberation" of the common culture.

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"Censorship" was a dirty word. It purportedly involved the religious bigots and medieval minds that in vain had tried to cancel ideological and cultural mavericks...

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Only drunken "paranoids" like Joe McCarthy resorted to "blacklists." We were reminded that the inferior nuts tried to cancel the brilliant careers of their betters whom they disliked, or feared.

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Conservatives, the radicals lectured us, masked the poverty of their thinking by "red-baiting." They talked as if "commies" and "insurrectionists" were around every corner — in hopes of militarizing the country, and using police and troops to intimidate the "people."

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Snooping, surveillance, wiretaps — all that and more was awful — the purported work of nutty J. Edgar Hoover.

•
Hollywood went wild in the 1960s and 1970s by warning us about "them." Endless movies detailed the solo efforts of heroes, who were watched and threatened by the "government," working hand in glove, of course, with either corporations or the "rich."

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Fearing Russia was the mark of a conspiracist nut. In films like "The Russians are Coming, the Russians Are Coming," we were reminded that the paranoia about the Soviets was as deadly as the Soviets themselves, who were pleasant enough, not much different from us.

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Students in the 1960s high schools were spoon-fed Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, Brave New World, and other dystopian novels. Orwell and Huxley warned them of the dangers of a super-spy apparat, a one-party state that reorders a docile subservient population, and the combination of "science" with thought control...

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So better to be an individualist, the Left preached, a rebel at war with all orthodoxy and conformity...

•
On campus, professors began to drop F-bombs in class. They dressed like students, tore down hierarchies between student and teacher ("Just call me Mike").

•
Once staid academics now invited edgy campus speakers to blast America. In melodramatic fashion, they considered themselves perennially teaching from the barricades.

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We were told that they were the frontline speakers of truth to power. These were the nonconformists who had defeated loyalty oaths.

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Reporters were either iconoclastic Gonzos or shoe-leather investigators on the scent of deep state overreach. They were obsessed with wrongdoing at the CIA and FBI.

•
Generals were caricatured as caudillos, cigar choppers with shades, showy ribbons and bronze on their chests, and oversized hats and epaulets. We were warned they threatened us with a militarized police state.

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Civil and women's rights were the twin pillars of the 1960s radicals. ... The problem was never 1776 or 1787, but those who had not yet fully met the Founders' exceptional ideals.

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The good guys, the students, and the activists, if they only had power, were going to break up corporations, shame (or "eat") the rich, and bring in young, hip politicians.

•
They would all push hard for assimilation and integration of the races, and the equality of the sexes in pursuit of universal equality of opportunity.

•
Fast forward a half-century. What did these now-late septuagenarians give America?

•
We are now finally witnessing the logical fruition of their radical utopia: Censorship, electronic surveillance, internal spying, monopolies, cartels, conspiracy theories, weaponization of the intelligence agencies, pouring billions of dollars into campaigns, changing voting laws by fiat, a woke revolutionary military, book banning, bleeding the First Amendment, canceling careers, blacklisting, separate-but-equal racial segregation and separatism.

•
Conspiracies? Now they brag of them in Time. Read their hubristic confessionals in "The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election."

•
They are exactly what they once despised, with one key qualifier: Sixties crudity and venom are central to their metamorphosis.

•
Our left-wing American revolutionary cycle from the barricades to the boardroom was pretty quick — in the manner that the ideology of the Battleship Potemkin soon led to Stalin's show trials, or Mao's "long march" logically resulted in the Cultural Revolution.

•
The credo, again, is that the noble ends of forced "equity" require any means necessary to achieve them.

•
The Left censors books in our schools, whether To Kill a Mockingbird or Tom Sawyer. It is the Left who organizes efforts to shout down campus speakers or even allows them to be roughed up.

•
The Left demands not free-speech areas anymore, but no-speech "safe spaces" and "theme houses" — euphemisms for racially segregated, "separate-but-equal" zones.

•
The mere way we look, smile, or blink can indict us as counterrevolutionaries. Stalin's Trotskyization of all incorrect names, statues, and commemoratives is the Left's ideal, as they seek to relabel Old America in one fell swoop. No one is spared from the new racists, not Honest Abe, not Tom Jefferson, not you, not me.

•
The Left spun conspiracy theories about computer pings in Trump Tower, and nefarious meetings of Trump's campaign officials colluding with Russian agents.

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The racist Covington kids, on the National Mall no less, mocked and insulted a noble indigenous combat veteran. And Jussie Smollett fought off racist thugs while managing to hold his sandwich and cell phone, as he stumbled home with a racist rope around his neck, stained with iconic bleach. "Hands up, don't shoot" should have been true, even if it wasn't.

•
Assimilation and integration are not our goals. Instead, we are to ferret out "cultural appropriation" and the odious culture of "white supremacy" and "unearned privilege."

•
Deprogramming 74 million "whites" and "Republicans" is the advice on the pages of the progressive Washington Post. Don't like an idea? Then wash clean the polluted minds of those who embraced it.

•
The new and improved ACLU's job is to encourage the suppression of conservative free speech. ACLU trains its handlers not to protect unfettered speech, but to spot "hate speech."

•
To advocate burning or destroying a book is not some nightmare from Fahrenheit 451, but a woke way to "stop the hate."

•
The old racist boilerplate of apartment owners and realtors was "You can live anywhere you want, just not here." The new hate mantra of Silicon Valley cartels is, "You can tweet or socially post anywhere you like — if you can manage to find a place."

•
Surveillance and spying are now good. How else to ferret out "right-wingers," "white supremacists," and "insurrectionists"?

•
So the FBI and CIA have transmogrified into heroic agencies run by stalwart social activist fighters like John Brennan, the old Gus Hall supporter, James Clapper, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe.

•
What a wonderful world they have created: Eavesdropping on the national security advisor, forging FISA documents, spying on American citizens, aiding one presidential candidate by surveilling another.

•
Militarization is now beautiful. The U.S. Army may become our People's Revolutionary Army as generals sniff out counterrevolutionaries hidden deeply in their ranks. Maybe a cleansing purge or two is necessary, in the Soviet fashion.

•
Barb-wiring the capitol and stocking it with camouflaged troops send the message that the military is, at last, woke and in control of America's central nervous system. Corporate profiteering for retired generals and admirals is a necessary amplifier of their critical work.

•
Bank of America helps to find out which enemy of the people bought which coffee where.

•
Could we have ever stopped the hate without the help of billions of dollars from Mark Zuckerberg and George Soros?

•
The media? It is a Ministry of Truth. Informers and readers beg the Great Leader to let drop his favorite flavor of ice cream or the details of the Oval Office makeover.

•
There is no need for censorship: the media are the censors. Whatever sinister idea a paranoid politician has for muzzling journalists, reporters themselves have already trumped it. Pravda is their model.

•
Who can be disinterested when there is a war to be fought for diversity and equity, against climate change and white supremacy?

•
The revolutionary animals are now running the farm in a way that would be nightmarish even to Farmer Jones.

•
They won. They are now one with — but also far, far worse than — what they rebelled against.
Jonathan Turley: Impeaching Trump – House threatens to trash this core principle to ensure conviction (Fox 02/07/2021)
•
Over the last four years, we have seen an alarming trend of law professors and legal experts discarding constitutional and due process commitments to support theories for the prosecution or impeachment of Donald Trump or his family.

•
Legal experts who long defended criminal defense rights have suddenly become advocates of the most sweeping interpretations of criminal or constitutional provisions while discarding basic due process and fairness concerns.

•
Even theories that have been clearly rejected by the Supreme Court have been claimed to be valid in columns. No principle seems inviolate when it stands in the way of a Trump prosecution.

•
Yet, the statement of House manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., last week was breathtaking. A former law professor, Raskin declared that the decision of Trump not to testify in the Senate could be cited or used by House managers as an inference of his guilt – a statement that contradicts not just our constitutional principles but centuries of legal writing.

•
... it appears a signature of this team of House managers. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., insisted in the last impeachment that the failure of then-President Trump to turn over documents by citing privilege or other defenses should be cited as evidence of guilt on any underlying claims.

•
Presidents have historically not testified at impeachment trials. One reason is that, until now, only sitting presidents have been impeached and presidents balked at the prospect of being examined as head of the executive branch by the legislative branch.

•
Moreover, it was likely viewed as undignified and frankly too risky. Indeed, most defense attorneys routinely discourage their clients from testifying in actual criminal cases because the risks outweigh any benefits.

•
Finally, Trump is arguing that this trial is unconstitutional and thus he would be even less likely to depart from tradition and appear as a witness.

•
Despite the historical precedent for presidents not testifying, Raskin made an extraordinary and chilling declaration on behalf of the House of Representatives. He wrote in a letter to Trump that "If you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on Jan. 6, 2021."

•
Raskin justified his position by noting that Trump "denied many factual allegations set forth in the article of impeachment." Thus, he insisted Trump needed to testify or his silence is evidence of guilt.

•
Under this theory, any response other than conceding the allegations would trigger this response and allow the House to use the silence of the accused as an inference of guilt.

•
The statement conflicts with one of the most precious and revered principles in American law that a refusal to testify should not be used against an accused party.

•
The statement also highlighted the fact that the House has done nothing to lock in testimony of those who could shed light on Trump's intent.

•
... the relative passivity of the House simply shows a lack of effort to actually win this case. The Raskin statement is far more disturbing.

•
The Fifth Amendment embodies this touchstone of American law in declaring that "[n]o person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."

•
Central to this right is the added protection that the silence of an accused cannot be used against him in the way suggested by Raskin.

•
The Supreme Court has been adamant that the type of inference sought by Raskin is abhorrent and abusive in courts of law.

•
This is not a political exercise. It is a constitutional exercise. These senators are undeniably politicians but they are also constitutional actors bound by oath to the standards and procedures laid out for impeachments.

•
It would make this process a mockery if, in claiming to uphold constitutional values, members like Raskin destroy the very foundations of constitutional rights.

•
It is true that this is not a criminal trial. It is a constitutional trial. As such, the Senate should try an accused according to our highest traditions and values.

•
That includes respecting the right to remain silent and not to have "inferences" drawn from the fact that (like prior presidents) Trump will not be present at the trial or give testimony.

•
This is not the first time that reason has been left a stranger in our age of rage. There appears no price too great to pay to impeach or prosecute Trump.

•
Now, the House is arguing against one of the very touchstones of our constitutional system and legal experts are silent.

•
If everything is now politics, this trial is little more than a raw partisanship cloaked in constitutional pretense.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Impeachment — why America must let go of bitterness to heal (Fox 02/07/2021)
•
On Monday the Senate will begin impeachment proceedings against the now-former President Donald Trump.

•
The same political controversies that have embroiled our nation seem to continue on, with no end in sight.

•
Research shows that prolonged stress — including stress triggered by political anger — even decreases the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.

•
It is no secret that I was, and continue to be, an enthusiastic supporter and friend of President Trump.

•
I believe Donald Trump's presidency made our nation's laws more just by protecting unborn life and promoting religious freedom.

•
I was disappointed by the results of the election. During his first two weeks in office President Biden signed a number of executive orders that I find deeply troubling and wrong.

•
I have every intention of pushing back against the torrent of ungodly policies that I believe the Biden/ Harris administration will unleash on our country.

•
But I refuse to allow that determination to devolve into an all-consuming anger that poisons my spirit and infects everyone close to me.

•
I would encourage my fellow Trump supporters to do the same. As the writer of Proverbs warned, "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life" (Proverbs 4:23, The New Living Translation).

•
My concern about next week's impeachment trial is that once the expected acquittal comes half of the country will refuse to accept it, giving Democrats the ammunition they need to continue their relentless attacks on the former president.

•
I'm not suggesting that it's wrong to be angry — even over political differences.

•
The reason we get angry is because we are made in the image of God who is angered over any kind of injustice. But in the Bible, there are two kinds of anger — destructive anger and productive anger.

•
Destructive anger tries to take vengeance into its own hands. It's like a cancer in our souls, spreading corrosive rage until it eventually destroys us. Destructive anger knows no bounds, zealously trying to settle the score through vitriol and violence.

•
However, productive anger recognizes that there are real injustices but responds with a totally different posture of heart.

•
Productive anger forgives personal offenses and seeks justice through the proper channels, whether it be from God Himself or through God-ordained channels such as government.

•
And if we feel justice has not been served, we trust God to ultimately right the wrong. The apostle Paul told us, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord'" (Romans 12:19). While God doesn't always settle the score immediately, He will settle it ultimately.

•
Republicans certainly have the right to believe that the election was stolen, but after they have exhausted their appeals it is time to move forward and try to win the next election.

•
Democrats who believe President Trump committed an impeachable offense need to make their best case next week and, if they fail, they should focus on supporting the new president rather than persecuting the last one.

•
Real injustices happen in our broken world every day. But with every offense comes a choice.

•
The choice is ours. Letting go promotes healing; holding on ensures destruction. As comedian Lily Tomlin said, "Refusing to forgive is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die."

•
What's true at the level of individuals is true at the level of the nation.

•
If we can't find a way to forgive and heal, we're headed for devastation. However, as theologian Lewis Smedes wrote, "When we forgive we set the prisoner free, and the prisoner we set free is us."

•
It's time for America to be set free from the destructive power of bitterness.
Biden leads the most radical left-wing movement in US history – will he pay a price? (Fox 02/06/2021)
•
... social, cultural, economic and political extremism prompt reactions — and sometimes counterreactions.

•
The Bush-Clinton-Obama continuum of 24 years cemented the bipartisan fusion administrative state. Trump and his "Make America Great Again" agenda were its pushback.

•
The counterreaction to the populism of the Trump reset — or Trump himself — is as of yet unsure.

•
Joe Biden's tenure may mark a return to business as usual of the Bush-Clinton years. Or, more likely, it will accelerate the current hard-left trajectory.

•
Either way, it seems that Biden is intent on provoking just such a pushback by his record number of early and often radical executive orders — a tactic candidate Biden condemned.

•
On almost every issue — open borders, blanket amnesties, canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, promoting the Green New Deal, and hard-left appointees — Biden is touting positions that likely do not earn 50 percent public support.

•
When Biden made a Faustian bargain with his party's hard-left wing of Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to win the election, he took on the commitment to absorb some of their agenda and to appoint their ideologues.

•
But he also soon became either unwilling or unable to stand up to them.

•
Now they — and the country — are in a revolutionary frenzy. The San Francisco Board of Education has voted to rename more than 40 schools honoring the nation's best — Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln — largely on racist grounds that they are dead, mostly white males. Statues continue to fall. Names change.

•
The iconic dates, origins and nature of America itself continue to be attacked to meet leftist demands. And still, it is not enough for the new McCarthyites.

•
Social media are banning tens of thousands. Silicon Valley and Wall Street monopolies go after smaller upstart opponents.

•
A wrong word destroys a lifelong career. Formerly sane pundits now call for curtailing the First Amendment.

•
Thousands of federal troops blanket a now-militarized Washington, D.C.

•
If Trump's pushback tried to return to traditions ignored during the Obama years, Biden's reset promises to become far more radical than Obama's entire eight years.

•
Trump likely lost his second pushback term for two reasons — neither of which had anything to do with his reset agenda.

•
First, the sudden 2020 pandemic, quarantine, recession, summer-long demonstrations and riots, and radical changes in voting laws all ensured that 100 million ballots were not cast on Election Day, derailed a booming economy, and finally wore the people out.

•
Second, Trump underestimated the multitrillion-dollar power and furor of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the media, Hollywood and the progressive rich. Those forces all coalesced against him and swamped his outspent and outmanned campaign.

•
With 24/7 blanket ads, news coverage, endorsements and social media messaging, Trump sometimes was easily caricatured as a twittering disrupter.

•
The inert and mute Biden in his basement was reinvented as the sober and judicious Washington "wise man" antidote to Trump's unpredictability.

•
... Biden is now unapologetically leading the most radical left-wing movement in the nation's history.

•
... the idea of just one term has liberated the 78-year-old Biden. ... Some old guys can feel their careers only have a few remaining years and might as well go out with a bang — and a legacy.

•
How ironic that Biden will not just be pushed and pressured by the radicals whom he brought to power, but he may be leading them forward to cement an even harder-left legacy.

•
The left is assured that radical changes in voting laws and demography, the fears of COVID-19, the Antifa-Black Lives Matter uprising and anger at Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot have all permanently changed the electorate — and pushed it further leftward.

•
If they are wrong, they have instead alienated and insulted the American people, and will reap the whirlwind in 2022 of the wind they are now sowing.

•
See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Worst Cooks (Gary Varvel, 01/25/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Biden\\\'s Brain Trust (Gary Varvel, 07/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Ingraham: Big Tech, Big Business and BLM exposed as 'unholy trinity' behind Biden win (Fox 02/06/2021)
•
A bombshell report by Time magazine Friday proves the existence of "a real and vast conspiracy to unseat" former President Donald Trump...

•
... an "unholy trinity" of anti-Trump forces. "First is Big Tech, It's no secret that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey are rabid leftists and supported Biden."

•
That support ... was most obvious when Facebook and Twitter limited circulation of the New York Post's reporting on documents detailing Hunter Biden's overseas business interests that were recovered from a misplaced laptop.

•
"A poll from November found that 4.6% of Biden voters would not have voted for him had they been aware of the Hunter Biden scandal, Biden only beat Trump by 4.4% of the vote."

•
"Of course, we can't leave out the fact that Zuckerberg was key to realizing mass mail-in balloting. He donated $300 million to local election offices and the liberal activists masquerading as nonpartisan voter educators. They expanded vote by mail and enrolled millions of voters."

•
The second part of the trinity ... was Black Lives Matter, who Ingraham described as "loyal Biden foot soldiers."

•
The third anti-Trump force in the trinity, is Big Business... "They began to discuss a joint statement pledging the organization's shared commitment to a fair and peaceful election."

•
However, the real reason for the meeting ... was to ensure "access to cheap foreign labor and endless streams of people coming across the border."

•
"Trump kept labor markets tight by clamping down on work visas and securing our border, That was great for American workers. The Chamber of Commerce hated it."

•
"Democrats have control [of Washington] at least two more years, The more we learn about how they got there and the more we see the disastrous results of their policies in this collaboration, the easier it will be to end that control and give it back to those of us that want to empower Americans; not just manipulate them."

•
See related Steal Team Six (Antonio Branco, 10/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Helping Biden (Gary Varvel, 11/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Obama's third term (INN 02/05/2021)
Dem hypocrites pillory GOP for following Dems' example (JWR 02/05/2021)
•
Some Democrats aim to expel congressional Republicans who challenged Electoral College votes at last month's certification ceremony.

•
Democrats likely convinced corporate Cancelistas to terminate PAC donations to as many as seven Republican senators and 138 GOP House members who opposed electors from one or more states...

•
Harvard students, too many of whom resemble Mao Zedong's Red Guards, demand that university officials yank diplomas from alumni Ted Cruz and Representative Elise Stefanik (R - New York).

•
There are two massive problems with the Left's jihad against these Republicans:

•
First, these GOP lawmakers' actions were perfectly legal. Article II, Section I, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, 3 U.S. Code A§ 15, both governed their objections to states' electors.

•
Second, Democrats repeatedly have resisted electors, starting four years ago. When Democrats do this, it epitomizes public service.

•
When Republicans do this, it's Kristallnacht. Indeed, President Joe "Unity" Biden compared Cruz and Hawley to Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment Dr. Joseph Goebbels.

•
As the Congressional Record confirms, during the January 6, 2017 quadrennial joint-session/certification ceremony, seven House Democrats challenged electors in 10 states. Among these objectors: Lead impeachment manager, Maryland's Jamie Raskin.

•
"I have an objection because 10 of the 29 electoral votes cast by Florida were cast by electors not lawfully certified because they violated Florida's prohibition against dual office holding," Raskin complained.

•
Democrats understandably balked at electors from Michigan and Wisconsin, which Trump won by 0.3 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively. Whatever these Democrats believed went wrong could have been decisive.

•
However, Democrats also opposed electors from Alabama (where Trump outran Hillary by 28.3 percent), West Virginia (42.2 percent), and Wyoming (47.6 percent). This was recreational obstructionism.

•
No senator joined the fun. So, House Democrats' objections went nowhere.

•
... on January 6, 2005, Democrats were back at it. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio objected to George W. Bush's Electoral College votes from her state. Senator Barbara Boxer of California concurred.

•
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D - California) praised the 31 Democrat objectors for "speaking up for their aggrieved constituents" during "their only opportunity to have this debate while the country is listening."

•
"The fight for electoral justice," Senator Boxer argued, was "worth a couple of hours to shine some light on these issues."

•
On January 6, 2001, 13 House Democrats, including five current incumbents, focused their fire on Florida's electors for G.W. Bush.

•
"Mr. Vice President, I rise to object to the fraudulent 25 Florida electorial [sic] votes," said Representative Maxine Waters (D - California). "The objection is in writing, and I do not care that it is not signed by a Member of the Senate."

•
Vice President Albert Gore dryly replied: "The rules do care, and the signature of a Senator is required." No senator stepped forward, and House Democrats' challenge foundered.

•
Unlike today's unfairly excoriated Republicans, Democrats faced zero repercussions when they exercised over and over again their constitutionally protected and statutorily permitted power to object to Electoral College votes.

•
Democrats should abandon their congenital hypocrisy and recognize their Republican colleagues' right to behave like Democrats.
Big Tech and the scary truth — if we don't have online freedom, then we are no longer free (Fox 02/05/2021)
•
We are only a few days into a new administration and online censorship has already gotten much worse.

•
Facebook declared it will cut down on political speech, which likely means conservative political speech.

•
YouTube continues to restrict former President Donald Trump and other conservatives.

•
And Twitter's phony fact-checking system won't even rein in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for lying and accusing Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas of trying to have her "murdered."

•
When Big Tech got away with suspending the president of the United States, it was obvious they would not stop there.

•
Tech tyrants joined forces to take down the social media site Parler for not adhering to their speech mandates.

•
Big Tech threw its weight behind the Democratic presidential campaign, censoring truth about the Hunter Biden scandal that would have tipped the election for President Donald Trump. Then they censored the president when he tried to tell that story. Now they've censored him altogether.

•
If Big Tech can silence the president of the United States, they can muzzle anyone. The jihad they are waging against anyone who strays from their worldview proves it.

•
The most powerful companies in human history have decided the public has no rights in the online world the public helped create. Big Tech does not believe in free speech.

•
They swear to tell the truth in congressional committees. They proclaim their allegiance to free speech. Then they are actively suppressing it before everyone's eyes. How is this not perjury?

•
The public should be terrified. Everything we do now is online. Big Tech has declared its intention to ban, censor and block anyone whose opinions it opposes.

•
Work. Tweet your opposition to Fauci's COVID shutdowns — that's a threat to public safety and you're censored.

•
Shopping. Purchase something PayPal disapproves of and it won't process your credit card.

•
Church. Post a statement endorsing traditional marriage – that's hate speech and you're banned.

•
Politics. Veer from leftist ideology and you're banished from the public square.

•
Say the wrong thing. Think the wrong thing and you become a third-class citizen. Only when you accept the left's ideological worldview will your rehabilitation be complete.

•
Many conservatives and free-market supporters have naively defended Big Tech as private companies with the right to do as they please.

•
What happened to Parler proves how ridiculous that argument is. Both Google and Apple removed the Parler app from their stores, making it almost impossible to download.

•
Then the woke "Amazon Employees For Climate Justice" joined in, demanding that the company also force Parler off of its servers, shutting it down.

•
The idea that, "If you build it, they will come," is dead. No one can simply build a social media site that the tech lords oppose. You need to build the entire support network — banks to fund it, credit card companies to process payments, server companies, search engines and dozens more firms that would all be closed to you by the woke left.

•
Big Tech, along with their media allies, are being disingenuous suggesting conservative sites such as Parler, and public leaders such as President Trump somehow project violence, or other inappropriate behavior.

•
Twitter allows an open platform for foreign dictators like Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has fantasized about wiping out Israel. "Why should & how can #Israel be eliminated?" he asked, answering "9 key questions." His main account is still there even after Iranian threats to Trump's life.

•
Twitter has also allowed the monsters who run China to falsely blame the U.S. military for COVID-19, and, most recently, defend the genocide of 1 million Uyghur Muslims.

•
Facebook, YouTube, Google, Apple, Amazon – these companies are the arbiters of free speech. All allow "hate speech" from BLM, or Antifa, or numerous other radical groups, but if a conservative says one word that veers from their orthodoxy, they are often expelled.

•
Now, Big Tech executives are in bed with the Biden administration, and why not? Biden knows they'll do all of his dirty bidding.

•
They know he will thwart any effort to hold them to account politically. Biden talks about regulating tech, but that's what they want.

•
Tech CEOs have begged for more regulation. They want regulations to shut down their competitors almost as much as they want to shut down the right.

•
The urgency for anti-trust legislation to break up these monsters is greater than ever. Even that would only be a start.

•
It is not just that they are monopolies. They are monopolies that are actively attempting to force America into submitting to a radical leftist orthodoxy – and have demonstrated they have the power to do so.

•
The radical left is rejoicing. They believe they have it all. If Americans comply – maybe they do.

•
See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

•
See related 1984 (Bob Gorrell, 01/14/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Ingraham: Biden defense chief starting 'ideological and un-American purge of the US military' (Fox 02/05/2021)
•
President Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are politicizing the military and may plan to "purge" conservative or Trump-supporting service members under the guise of stamping out "extremism."

•
"The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe [from] our enemies, but we can't do it if some of the enemies lie within our own ranks," added Austin, a retired general...

•
... Austin announced a 60-day "stand down" and ordered military leaders to have "needed discussions with the men and women of the force" in an effort to weed out extremism in the ranks.

•
"One thing is for sure, If this is substantive and not symbolic, it will do grave damage to our military preparedness and morale. Our men and women in uniform have been asked to sacrifice — multiple tours, many of them — for so long. Oftentimes, in ridiculous engagements, idiotic wars."

•
"Now the Biden administration rewards them by casting them as potential domestic terrorists? Ticking time bombs of White supremacy? You can always count on think-tank generals whose salaries are funded by rich donors to side with the Democrats on the issue like this."

•
"If Democrats were seriously concerned about stamping out extremism, they'd be looking in the mirror, How many wacky, incendiary, inflammatory, defamatory hateful things have been said by their members over the past five years, or just over the past month?"

•
... a challenge to Republicans like House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. "This is your opportunity to show everyone that you will fight harder against the Democrats than you do against Donald Trump, Refuse to allow a single U.S. taxpayer dollar to fund this ideological and un-American purge of the U.S. military or expect a lot of us to push for steep cuts in military spending."

•
"Why should we fund a organization that the Democrats plan to use, not to protect us, but to restrain us in order to protect themselves and their grip on power?"
Jason Chaffetz: Biden and the media – here's how lack of transparency hurts Americans (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
The lovefest that greeted new White House press secretary Jen Psaki from a fawning press corps has been feted as a return to more "normal" times.

•
Psaki marks a return to the way it used to be – when White House messaging was carefully scripted with staff-driven press releases and poll-tested talking points.

•
An adoring White House press corps is firmly back in the driver's seat, filtering the narratives that reach the American people.

•
If Psaki accidentally takes a tough question, she can defer to the president, noting she hasn't talked to him about it.

•
We've lost the more insightful information that comes from a president who answered questions unscripted in real time from everyone who wished to ask them. He was open, transparent and candid to a fault.

•
Despite his aggressive New York style, at least we knew what the leader of the free world was really thinking. No president was ever as accessible as Trump.

•
Gone is the skepticism that greeted every utterance from President Trump, replaced with an obsequious glee accompanying endless stories about Joe Biden's dogs, his bagel runs and his Peleton bike. We know more about the president's dog than we do about the president's son.

•
... Biden returns us to a time where everything is scripted, and the media loves it because Biden is their guy.

•
... Psaki's evasive word salad responses are reported faithfully by a credulous media. Asked about the recent GameStop controversy, Psaki punted, replying, "I know it's a big story, but our focus and our big story is getting the American people back to work."

•
This on the heels of a slew of job-killing executive orders designed to shut down entire sectors of the economy and send the business to our foreign enemies.

•
Psaki, when asked about Yellen's receipt of over $800,000 in speaking fees from Citadel hedge fund, reminded viewers that Yellen is a woman. And she "deserves that money."

•
While Trump was made to answer for the actions of every angry supporter, no such standard applies to the new administration.

•
Ongoing rioting, looting and destruction in the Pacific Northwest, when it does come up in press briefings, is casually dismissed by an unprepared Psaki, who simply defers to another agency for comment. Other critical questions are quickly brushed off with promises to "circle back."

•
Psaki has promised Biden will provide "the most ethically vigorous administration in history," even as we still await answers to questions about Hunter Biden's business dealings and Ukraine's investigation of Joe Biden.

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Just in the administration's first week, we saw a D.C. law firm running advertisements bragging about their association with the president's brother, Frank Biden.

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Imagine if the Trump children had been the subject of advertisements touting their access to the leader of the free world?

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Americans must not accept focus-grouped slogans and one-sided reporting. We should all hope and pray for the success of the United States of America, no matter who the president may be.

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But we should also be selective about where we get our news and information. Only outlets that are willing to ask tough questions and cover inconvenient narratives are deserving of our clicks and subscriptions.

•
See related Biden\\\'s Glory (Mike Shelton, 01/22/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
A House of nut jobs and bigots (INN 02/04/2021)
The decorum of courteous disagreement has been lost (INN 02/04/2021)
The American Public Has a Right to Information (JWR 02/04/2021)
Will a hard-left turn lead to pushback? (JWR 02/04/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Bank of America handed over customer data to feds following Capitol riot (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
There has been an enormous amount of talk — not just this week, but over the last month — about violent extremism and the people who embrace it. Those people, we're told, are domestic terrorists who must be put down by force.

•
We're hearing those words nonstop, not just on cable news, but from elected officials, including some Republicans.

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We're hearing it from the leaders of federal law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agencies. We're hearing it from the Pentagon.

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Just this week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the entire U.S. military to "stand down" while investigators cleanse the ranks of political extremists.

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And, of course, we're hearing it from the business establishment, from Wall Street and the tech monopolies, from the massive multinational corporations that increasingly control the contours of American life. All of them are now on the hunt for political extremists.

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At one level, that does not sound bad No sane person is for political extremism, especially violent extremism. We're for moderation, for incremental change and the consent of the governed.

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But it's not enough to be against something. You have to be more precise than that. In order to root out a problem, you have to know what the problem is. You need a sense of what you're looking for, a clear picture. You have to define the terms. The remarkable thing about this public conversation we're having is that no one is doing that.

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Have you noticed that none of these newly energized and highly empowered extremist hunters have told us exactly what an "extremist" is?

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We're left to guess, to look around nervously to see if we can spot one. They're not talking about us, are they? And if they are, what exactly are they doing?

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How are they hunting these "extremists" they keep telling us about but will not describe?

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Bank of America is, without the knowledge or the consent of its customers, sharing private information with federal law enforcement agencies.

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This is the moment when, for the sake of our country and our grandchildren who will live here, we need to pause and breathe deeply avoid hysteria and ask, "What are the rules? What, for God's sake, is a political extremist?"
The abuse of the Fourth Amendment and the consequences of that abuse (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
"The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man's spiritual nature, of his feelings, and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized men." Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)

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When Justice Louis D. Brandeis referred to the right to privacy as "the right to be let alone," it was 1928.

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The issue in the case was whether the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of searches and seizures without a warrant issued by a judge based on probable cause of crime includes surveillance.

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It would be 39 years before the Supreme Court accepted Brandeis' dissent as properly encapsulating the understanding of the framers when it characterized surveillance as a search.

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Stated differently, the language in the Fourth Amendment, which unambiguously prohibits the government from engaging in warrantless searches and seizures, was not interpreted so as to characterize government surveillance as a search until 1967, when the Supreme Court accepted Brandeis' rationale.

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Since then, it is commonplace that the government needs a warrant to engage in surveillance. The warrant is a constitutional bulwark against fishing expeditions, and it requires the courts to defer to privacy.

•
... the Defense Intelligence Agency — an arm of the Pentagon and one of 16 federal entities that spies on Americans — acknowledged publicly that it uses commercial software to monitor the movements and conversations of those on whom it has chosen to spy. And because it does so without warrants, it spies on whomever it wishes.

•
It claims that the language of the Fourth Amendment — which protects the right of all people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects — only restrains law enforcement and does not restrain the balance of the government.

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Yet, the whole purpose of the Bill of Rights is to recognize that personal liberty stems from our humanity.

•
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he referred to our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as inalienable from our human nature, and as gifts of the Creator.

•
The Bill of Rights, too, articulates that our rights are natural. The Ninth Amendment expressly commands that the enumeration of certain rights — such as the freedoms of religion, speech and press — shall not be construed by any government to deny or disparage other rights retained by the people.

•
Among the rights retained by the people — never given away to the states or the federal government — and thus protected by the Ninth Amendment, and since 1967 by the Fourth, is the right to privacy.

•
Brandeis understood that true happiness can only come from the exercise of personal liberty, and James Madison understood this when he wrote the Fourth Amendment.

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This understanding, as recognized by the courts today, is that the right to privacy protects intellectual activities, beliefs, thoughts, emotions, sensations, and private communications about them.

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Who could be happy under a state of surveillance? Privacy is natural — there are things we all do that are none of the government's business.

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Surveillance is totalitarian. It is the manifestation of the tyrant's wish to know all about a potential opponent.

•
The whole purpose of the Bill of Rights is to keep the government at bay — off the people's backs, as Justice William O. Douglas wrote — thereby protecting our natural state of freedom so that we can pursue happiness.

•
The Declaration of Independence underscores, and the Bill of Rights protects, the right to pursue happiness for individuals, not for governments.

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Who can be happy while being observed by the government? A watched person changes behavior and loses liberty on account of being watched.

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The liberty to make unfettered choices, the right to shake a metaphorical fist in the tyrant's face, the personal power to ignore what the government expects are all dissipated.

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A watched person hesitates to exercise freedom. The more the government gets away with surveillance without warrants, the more people will accept the servitude it brings.

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Personal freedom is the unfettered power to exercise natural rights without the approval of the government or the consent of any other person. It is the means to happiness.

•
Yet, because we live in a society in which we need the government's permission to do nearly anything, is it any wonder that the government wants to know everything about us?

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The government that spies continuously has large ears and insatiable eyes. And on its face there is no smile.

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See related What Are YOU Looking at? (Glenn McCoy, 03/16/2015) cartoon from Government picture album
Can the Senate stop Trump running for president again? (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
Former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial is set to begin next week as he faces allegations of inciting an insurrection at the Capitol that took place on Jan. 6, the same day Trump spoke at a massive rally and encouraged a protest, claiming there was fraud in the 2020 election.

•
The Senate has never heard an impeachment trial for a president who was no longer in office. Democrats supporting impeachment claim it is necessary in order to bar Trump from ever running again.

•
"Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States," the Constitution says in Article 1, Section 3.

•
Senate rules state that if the necessary two-thirds of the senators present vote to convict, the subject is immediately removed from office, and a second vote may be held if they choose to determine whether the convicted official will be disqualified from holding any future office.

•
Only a simple majority is needed for this vote.

•
The British system, which preceded and inspired the American one, allowed for the impeachment of any civilian.

•
That is not to mean that the American system would automatically follow suit, however, as American impeachments already differ from the British by requiring a two-thirds vote to convict.

•
Given that 45 senators voted against holding the trial in the first place, it appears unlikely that Trump will be convicted.

•
Should this happen, however, he would be subject to a permanent bar from office if the Senate then voted for this.
The powerful are abusing history to get their way — and Americans will bear the consequences (Fox 02/04/2021)
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On Nov. 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald murdered the president of the United States. There are a lot of questions about what happened, but there was never any question about who Lee Harvey Oswald was.

•
Oswald was a passionate and committed Communist. In 1959, he gave up his American passport and defected to the Soviet Union. There, he married a Russian woman and lived in Minsk.

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Three years later, he returned to this country and immediately began attending rallies in support of Fidel Castro. In the fall of 1963, Oswald traveled to Mexico City and met with KGB agents there.

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A few months before in Dallas, he had tried to murder Gen. Edwin Walker because Walker had given speeches attacking Communism.

•
Lee Harvey Oswald never hid his politics, not for a moment. He talked incessantly about Communism to anyone who would listen.

•
And yet many Americans never really understood what Lee Harvey Oswald believed, because news outlets didn't tell them.

•
Instead, almost immediately, the media began spinning a very different story. President Kennedy, they suggested, had been murdered by conservatives, possibly by conservatism itself, "by hate," as they often put it.

•
The explanation was never very precise, but the idea was always the same: Right-wingers killed John F. Kennedy.

•
The Soviet Union, naturally, was happy to agree with the assessment. As a Soviet spokesman put it, moral responsibility for the Kennedy assassination lay squarely with, "Barry Goldwater and other extremists on the right."

•
In the end, the coordinated lying paid off. A year later, Goldwater lost to Democrat Lyndon Johnson in a historically lopsided presidential election. By that point, many voters associated Goldwater with murder.

•
As the decades passed, the media kept repeating this lie. On the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, The New Yorker magazine was still blaming anti-Communism for the fact that an avowed Communist had murdered the president.

•
Just because it's absurd doesn't mean they won't say with a straight face. By now, it's likely that most Americans believe that's exactly what happened. And why wouldn't they believe it? That's what they've been told.

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History is a political tool, not simply a record of what happened. History is a way to shape the future. History is used to hurt some people and to help other people gain power. History is never neutral.

•
We are watching our own history being written before us right now. Consider the below statement, which was uttered on MSNBC Tuesday night by historian Michael Beschloss:...

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"This was a president of the United States inciting an insurrection, a terrorist attack on Congress ... We observe 9/11. We remember the fact that there were attacks that landed, one that almost landed, which was an effort to fly an airplane into the Capitol [and] kill lot of members of Congress. That almost happened. Here is a terrorist attack that did happen."

•
As Beschloss has said repeatedly and pointedly over the last 24 hours, we must "never forget." Now, it's true that Michael Beschloss is a historian in the same sense that 7-Eleven is a restaurant, but he sells what is called popular history, the kind of history that sticks.

•
For Americans under 30, history is written exclusively on social media, and that's where the real demagogues live. Tech platforms are the domain of people for whom factual reality is not even a consideration. What actually happened in a given place at a given time is totally and completely irrelevant. Ideology is all that matters.

•
Sandy Cortez is a master of this medium, of course. Here's her description of the events of Jan. 6, as broadcast to kids across the country on Instagram.

•
"I jump into my bathroom and I close the door and I just keep hearing bang, bang, bang ... I open the door when all of a sudden I hear that whoever was trying to get inside got into my office ... and I just hear, "Where is she? Where is she? And this was the moment where I thought everything was over."

•
... People will believe this crap; some already do. Anyone who was physically present at the Capitol that day knows it's ridiculous. There were no rioters in Sandy Cortez's hallway.

•
Trump voters weren't trying to kill her. A lot of the rioters were angrier at Mitch McConnell than they were at any Democrat.

•
To some extent, what you saw on Jan. 6 was an intraparty struggle, an act of mindless destruction aimed at Republican leaders and born of long simmering frustration.

•
The people who run the Republican Party don't care about the people who elect them. That has long been true, but Republican voters finally figured it out. On Jan. 6, they exploded.

•
Lindsey Graham was likely in graver danger than Sandy Cortez or Ilhan Omar. They were literally calling poor Mike Pence's name. He didn't do anything, but they were furious with him.

•
That's not a defense of rioting or even an ideological point. It's just true; it's what happened.

•
But at this point, the truth doesn't matter. What matters is who gets to write the history of what happens, who gets to define what the truth is.

•
There's a reason that within hours, Democrats begin describing the riot as a racial attack. It was confusing to hear that at first, if you watched it and knew what happened.

•
As awful as it was, there was nothing racial about what happened that day. Claiming otherwise is an absurd fantasy and a lie.

•
But no one pushed back against that lie, so they kept repeating it. Now, weeks later, it is the accepted version of what happened.

•
Powerful lawmakers just say it from the House floor like it's fact, like it's been proven in some objective inquiry.

•
Why are they claiming that it was some kind of "What nationalist insurrection," to use the words of Adam Schiff? You know the answer. Everyone does, though almost everyone is too cowardly to say it out loud.

•
They're saying that so they can lump you in with the people who broke into the Capitol and punish you for crimes you did not commit and never supported.

•
If what happened on Jan. 6 was a riot, and it was, then we can arrest the rioters and punish them, and we should.

•
If what happened on Jan. 6 was an insurrection, a failed revolution, an attempted coup, then it's something else entirely. Then we need a military response, a new war against our own population. Not surprisingly, that's exactly what they're calling for.

•
... a piece by a former CIA officer called Kevin Carroll. According to Kevin Carroll: "We saw five dead in the Jan. 6 attempted coup d'etat."

•
Now, Carroll didn't explain who exactly those five people were or how exactly they died. It would be nice to know that, but facts were not the point. The point was that this was an attempted coup d'etat and the U.S. government needs to act accordingly.

•
"We defeated al Qaeda [sic] and can do the same to the fascist thugs who attacked our democracy last month, But only if we take similar hard measures against the enemy within."

•
Treating Americans like Al Qaeda, the enemy within. Apparently, that's the new conservative position on the riots of Jan. 6.

•
And why wouldn't it be the position of everyone in this country? Because that's the history they are writing and we're letting them.

•
But we should be prepared for the consequences of that history.
The Thirty Tyrants (02/03/2021)
•
For the upper caste of an Athenian elite already contemptuous of democracy, the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War confirmed that Sparta's system was preferable.

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It was a high-spirited military aristocracy ruling over a permanent servant class, the helots, who were periodically slaughtered to condition them to accept their subhuman status. Athenian democracy by contrast gave too much power to the low-born.

•
The pro-Sparta oligarchy used their patrons' victory to undo the rights of citizens, and settle scores with their domestic rivals, exiling and executing them and confiscating their wealth.

•
The Athenian government disloyal to Athens' laws and contemptuous of its traditions was known as the Thirty Tyrants, and understanding its role and function helps explain what is happening in America today.

•
... documents the exact moment when the American elite decided that democracy wasn't working for them. Blaming the Republican Party for preventing them from running roughshod over the American public, they migrated to the Democratic Party in the hopes of strengthening the relationships that were making them rich.

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In the more than 10 years ... the disenchanted elite that the Times columnist identified has further impoverished American workers while enriching themselves.

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The one-word motto they came to live by was globalism — that is, the freedom to structure commercial relationships and social enterprises without reference to the well-being of the particular society in which they happened to make their livings and raise their children.

•
... elite ... saw enlightened Chinese autocracy as a friend and even as a model — which was not surprising, given that the Chinese Communist Party became their source of power, wealth, and prestige.

•
Why did they trade with an authoritarian regime and by sending millions of American manufacturing jobs off to China thereby impoverish working Americans? Because it made them rich.

•
They salved their consciences by telling themselves they had no choice but to deal with China: It was big, productive, and efficient and its rise was inevitable.

•
And besides, the American workers hurt by the deal deserved to be punished — who could defend a class of reactionary and racist ideological naysayers standing in the way of what was best for progress?

•
Returning those jobs to America, along with ending foreign wars and illegal immigration, was the core policy promise of Donald Trump's presidency, and the source of his surprise victory in 2016. ... The only people who took Trump seriously were the more than 60 million American voters who believed him when he said he'd fight the elites to get those jobs back.

•
What he called "The Swamp" appeared at first just to be a random assortment of industries, institutions, and personalities that seemed to have nothing in common, outside of the fact they were excoriated by the newly elected president.

•
But Trump's incessant attacks on that elite gave them collective self-awareness as well as a powerful motive for solidarity.

•
Together, they saw that they represented a nexus of public and private sector interests that shared not only the same prejudices and hatreds, cultural tastes and consumer habits but also the same center of gravity — the U.S.-China relationship.

•
Connections that might have once seemed tenuous or nonexistent now became lucid under the light of Trump's scorn, and the reciprocal scorn of the elite that loathed him.

•
Because of Trump's pressure on the Americans who benefited extravagantly from the U.S.-China relationship, these strange bedfellows acquired what Marxists call class consciousness — and joined together to fight back, further cementing their relationships with their Chinese patrons.

•
United now, these disparate American institutions lost any sense of circumspection or shame about cashing checks from the Chinese Communist Party, no matter what horrors the CCP visited on the prisoners of its slave labor camps and no matter what threat China's spy services and the People's Liberation Army might pose to national security.

•
But if Donald Trump saw decoupling the United States from China as a way to dismantle the oligarchy that hated him and sent American jobs abroad, he couldn't follow through on the vision.

•
After correctly identifying the sources of corruption in our elite, the reasons for the impoverishment of the middle classes, and the threats foreign and domestic to our peace, he failed to staff and prepare to win the war he asked Americans to elect him to fight.

•
And because it was true that China was the source of the China Class' power, the novel coronavirus coming out of Wuhan became the platform for its coup de grace.

•
So Americans became prey to an anti-democratic elite that used the coronavirus to demoralize them; lay waste to small businesses; leave them vulnerable to rioters who are free to steal, burn, and kill; keep their children from school and the dying from the last embrace of their loved ones; and desecrate American history, culture, and society; and defame the country as systemically racist in order to furnish the predicate for why ordinary Americans in fact deserved the hell that the elite's private and public sector proxies had already prepared for them.

•
For nearly a year, American officials have purposefully laid waste to our economy and society for the sole purpose of arrogating more power to themselves while the Chinese economy has gained on America's.

•
That Democratic officials intentionally destroyed lives and ended thousands of them by sending the ill to infect the elderly in nursing homes... The job was to boost coronavirus casualties in order to defeat Trump and they succeeded.

•
"The economic prosperity of U.S. allies and partners hinges on strong trade and investment relationships with Beijing," wrote Mattis, who was literally being paid by China for taking exactly that position.

•
Just after defeating communism in the Soviet Union, America breathed new life into the communist party that survived. And instead of Western democratic principles transforming the CCP, the American establishment acquired a taste for Eastern techno-autocracy.

•
The United States didn't trade with Moscow or allow Russians to make large campaign donations or enter into business partnerships with their spouses.

•
Cold War American leadership understood that such practices would have opened the door to Moscow and allowed it to directly influence American politics and society in dangerous ways.

•
Manufacturing our goods in their factories or allowing them to buy ours and ship them overseas would've made technology and intellectual property vulnerable.

•
It started with Bill Clinton's 1994 decision to decouple human rights from trade status. ... Clinton's decision sent a clear message, said then AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, "no matter what America says about democracy and human rights, in the final analysis profits, not people, matter most."

•
More than two decades later, the number of American industries and companies that lobbied against Trump administration measures attempting to decouple Chinese technology from its American counterparts is a staggering measure of how closely two rival systems that claim to stand for opposing sets of values and practices have been integrated.

•
Nearly every major American industry has a stake in China. ... "It's so pervasive, it's better to ask who's not tied into China."

•
Unsurprisingly, the once-reliably Republican U.S. Chamber of Commerce was in the forefront of opposition to Trump's China policies — against not only proposed tariffs but also his call for American companies to start moving critical supply chains elsewhere, even in the wake of a pandemic.

•
Even the Trump administration was split between hawks and accommodationists, caustically referred to by the former as "Panda Huggers."

•
The idea that countries that scorn basic human and democratic rights should not be directly funded by American industry and given privileged access to the fruits of U.S. government-funded research and technology that properly belongs to the American people is hardly a partisan idea — and has, or should have, little to do with Donald Trump.

•
But the historical record will show that the melding of the American and Chinese elites reached its apogee during Trump's administration, as the president made himself a focal point for the China Class, which had adopted the Democratic Party as its main political vehicle.

•
Riding the media tsunami of Trump hatred, the China Class cemented its power within state institutions and security bureaucracies that have long been Democratic preserves — and whose salary-class inhabitants were eager not to be labeled as "collaborators" with the president they ostensibly served.

•
News that China was stealing American scientific and military secrets, running large spy rings in Silicon Valley and compromising congressmen like Eric Swalwell, paying large retainers to top Ivy League professors in a well-organized program of intellectual theft, or in any way posed a danger to its own people or to its neighbors, let alone to the American way of life, were muted and dismissed as pro-Trump propaganda.

•
The Central Intelligence Agency openly protected Chinese efforts to undermine American institutions. ... It's no wonder that protecting America is not CIA management's most urgent equity — the technology that stores the agency's information is run by Amazon Web Services, owned by China's No. 1 American distributor, Jeff Bezos.

•
In Afghanistan, the large copper, metal, and minerals mines whose security American troops still ostensibly ensure are owned by Chinese companies.

•
"We need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says," Cotton said. "And China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all."

•
The corporate American press disparaged Cotton's search for answers. Jeff Bezos' Washington Post claimed that Cotton was "fanning the embers of a conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked by experts."

•
Trump was derided for contradicting American spy services when the president said he had a high degree of confidence that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab.

•
Sen. Ted Cruz said that in dismissing obvious questions about the origins of the pandemic the press was "abandoning all pretenses of journalism to produce CCP propaganda."

•
Why did journalists automatically seek to discredit the Trump administration's skepticism regarding Beijing's origin story of the coronavirus? Why wait until after the election to allow the publication of evidence that the CCP's story was spurious?

•
China had cultivated many friends in the American press, which is why the media relays Chinese government statistics with a straight face...

•
Eventually, the pro-China oligarchy would come to see the full range of benefits the lockdowns afforded. Lockdowns made leading oligarchs richer — $85 billion richer in the case of Bezos alone — while impoverishing Trump's small-business base.

•
... in a sense, Joe Biden really did represent a return to normalcy in the decadeslong course of U.S.-China relations.

•
... a public speech given by the head of a Chinese think tank close to the Beijing government. ... "after 2016 Wall Street couldn't control Trump ... In the U.S.-China trade war they tried to help. My friends in the U.S. told me that they tried to help, but they couldn't. Now with Biden winning the election, the traditional elites, political elites, the establishment, they have a very close relationship with Wall Street."

•
The family of the incoming commander-in-chief was reportedly given an interest-free loan of $5 million by businessmen with ties to the Chinese military, while Biden's son Hunter called his Chinese business partner the "spy chief of China."

•
The reason that the press and social media censored preelection reports of Hunter Biden's alleged ties to the CCP was not to protect him — $5 million is less than what Bezos has made every hour during the course of the pandemic.

•
No, for the pro-China oligarchy, the point of getting Joe Biden elected was to protect themselves.

•
Chinese autocracy is their model. Consider the deployment of more than 20,000 U.S. armed forces members throughout Washington, D.C., to provide security for an inauguration of a president who is rarely seen in public in the wake of a sporadically violent protest march that was cast as an insurrection and a coup; the removal of opposition voices from social media, along with the removal of competing social media platforms themselves; the nascent effort to keep the Trump-supporting half of America from access to health care, credit, legal representation, education, and employment, with the ultimate goal of redefining protest against the policies of the current administration as "domestic terrorism."

•
What seems clear is that Biden's inauguration marks the hegemony of an American oligarchy that sees its relationship with China as a shield and sword against their own countrymen.

•
What does history teach us about this moment? The bad news is that the Thirty Tyrants exiled notable Athenian democrats and confiscated their property while murdering an estimated 5% of the Athenian population.

•
The good news is that their rule lasted less than a year.
Cry for America: Why has America become so polarized? (INN 02/03/2021)
The Inequality of 'Equity' (JWR 02/03/2021)
•
Equity, in the common political parlance, means that each group should receive the same outcome as every other group.

•
Because race is a social construct, says Kendi, the chief indicator that two races are on unequal footing can be found not in proof of differential treatment by race but in differential outcome by race.

•
To prove racial inequity, therefore, one need not show animus or discriminatory policy. All one must show is unequal outcome_.

•
Kendi explains in his massive bestseller, "How to Be an Antiracist": "A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups."

•
And, says Kendi, "There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy." All policies either forward equity or oppose it. Any policy not explicitly designed to rectify unequal outcome is therefore racist.

•
This philosophy is both idiotic and perverse. It's idiotic because all human groupings — literally all of them — will result in differential outcomes.

•
Draw a line down the middle of any room in random fashion and the result will be unequal income distribution, criminal records, educational histories.

•
When culture takes a hand, disparities can be more deeply rooted than random chance. Discrimination would still not be the cause of such disparity.

•
As a basic logical matter, discrimination is not the cause of all disparity.

•
This philosophy is perverse because it attributes malice to those who have none; it fosters policy that actively discriminates_, supposedly in order to alleviate unproven discrimination.

•
Kendi himself explains: "The defining question is whether the discrimination is creating equity or inequity. If discrimination is creating equity, then it is antiracist. If discrimination is creating inequity, then it is racist."

•
Unfortunately, this idiotic and perverse philosophy has become the root of Biden administration policymaking. "Equity" has been used as the keyword from environmental to economic to COVID-19 policy.

•
Susan Rice, Biden's domestic policy adviser, explained this week, "(W)e're focused on racial justice and equity...It's for everybody who has not had the benefits of a system that has not served everybody. ... This is not about serving one group to the detriment of another."

•
This, of course, is a lie. It is utterly about group equality, which requires individual injustice.

•
America was rooted in equality and freedom. Equity requires freedom to be curbed. It's therefore a national tragedy to watch equality of rights abandoned in favor of equity.

•
If freedom is discarded to achieve equality of outcome, we no longer live in an America defined by the Declaration of Independence.

•
We live in an America defined by tribalism and leveling — and, in short order, tyranny.
Gregg Jarrett: Democrats' impeachment of Trump – here's why this is a lost cause (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
The inexorable outcome of the Senate trial set to begin the week of Feb. 8, 2021, was ordained the moment 45 Republicans voted last week to dismiss the case against Trump on the ground that the Senate "lacks jurisdiction over the 45th president because he holds no public office from which he can be removed."

•
To their credit, some on the GOP side must have actually read Article II of the Constitution which provides that the "The President" – not a former president who is now a private citizen – "shall be removed from Office on Impeachment and Conviction."

•
Yet, Democrats maintain the tortured illusion that a person can be removed from an office he no longer holds.

•
Thankfully, the Framers did not pen the Constitution with disappearing ink. They meant what they wrote and memorialized it in such plain language that a simpleton could absorb it.

•
Of course, this means there are at least 55 senators who are severely challenged when it comes to reading comprehension. Or maybe they just don't care about that pesky document called the Constitution.

•
Against this backdrop, the impending impeachment trial in the Senate is little more than a farce. But it was rendered so by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her fellow Democrats who abandoned all semblance of due process by rushing to impeach in the House without holding a single hearing.

•
They denounced Trump for "inciting an insurrection," but never bothering to present any evidence before casting their predictable votes.

•
There is a manifest reason why Pelosi and her confederates chose to deprive Trump of his due process rights – they had no credible and incriminating evidence to present.

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They knew the full content of Trump's speech at the national mall on Jan. 6, 2021. He encouraged the crowd "to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

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At no point did he advocate violence or destruction of property. The exculpatory evidence is on tape. You can watch it yourself on "YouTube" or any video platform.

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Did Trump express his views about the election passionately? Yes, but what political speech does not embrace emotional rhetoric designed to motivate the audience?

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Take a moment to examine some of Pelosi's own bombast – courtesy of any search engine. Over the past four years, she has publicly accused Trump of racism, fascism, treason, sedition, bribery and causing mass deaths.

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Incendiary? Absolutely. Trump's words on Jan. 6 seem to pale by comparison.

•
I have repeatedly argued that Trump's remarks that day were foolhardy and driven by a dogmatic, indeed unfounded, belief that Congress had the authority to reverse the election result.

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However mistaken his opinion may have been, Trump was entitled to express it just as Democrats did in 2017 when they, too, mounted a campaign to contest the electoral vote in Congress.

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In America, we call this free speech. It is a protected and cherished right under the First Amendment.

•
Significantly, there is no plausible evidence to be found anywhere in Trump's address that supports the definition of incitement. Being wrong in your convictions is neither a crime nor an impeachable offense.

•
This is where the law lends clarity. In her floor speech on Jan. 13, 2021, shortly before the House voted to impeach, Pelosi posed to her colleagues a carefully crafted rhetorical question as her primary indictment of Trump: "Were his words and insurrectionary mob a high crime and misdemeanor?"

•
Examine that statement closely. Pelosi cleverly contrived a non-sequitur. She conflated two separate and very different actions to imply that Trump was responsible for what the mob did. The rioters committed crimes, but Trump did not. Pelosi knows this.

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Nowhere in his speech did Trump advocate or direct imminent harm, as the law of incitement demands. Moreover, incitement requires proof of the speaker's specific intent to cause violence.

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There is no evidence whatsoever that Trump intended for the mob to launch an assault on the Capitol building, breach security, attack police, threaten lawmakers, riot, vandalize, loot and commit rampant criminality. None of those malign acts can be reasonably inferred from his spoken words.

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Pelosi's deceptive question was designed to convict Trump by association (not causation) because she knows there is a paucity of evidence that Trump was the proximate cause of the crimes perpetrated by the mob. This is why Pelosi summarily dispensed with a hearing in the House and its mandated presentment of evidence.

•
Pelosi is now demanding that the Senate do what she refused to do – present evidence by calling witnesses.

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Fine. Let's hear the testimony of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who revealed on Tuesday that she received text messages warning of the expected violence one week before the riots.

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Really? So, how is it possible for Trump to have incited violence that was planned before he delivered his speech at the Ellipse? That illogic must have escaped AOC when she voted to impeach Trump.

•
In my last column, I called this a "counterfeit impeachment." But it's worse than that. It is an egregious assault on the principle of fundamental fairness that has long been the foundation of our democratic institutions.

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How can Americans have trust in a Congress so riven with bias and blinded by hatred that it is willing to contort the meaning of the Constitution to achieve an illegitimate and vindictive end?

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Our Founding Fathers – no strangers to corrupt politicians and unjust governments – would be ashamed.

•
See related Tantrum! (Mike Shelton, 01/14/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: NYU's farce of a study on Big Tech censorship of conservatives (Fox 02/03/2021)
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... the biggest threat to Americans' basic freedoms is huge, publicly held corporations, particularly the tech monopolies. Unlike the federal government — which, while stupid and dangerous, you theoretically have some control over — these corporations aren't interested in what you think, and yet they have enormous control over your life.

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... a pair of NYU researchers released what they described as a study of social media and censorship. The study authors didn't hide their conclusions in footnotes. They got right to it in the title.

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This new paper is called "False Accusation, The Unfounded Claim that Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives."

•
On page 16, right there in black and white, we learn that "Conservatives frequently point to Twitter's practice of suspending or permanently banning account holders as evidence of bias against the right."

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Happily, the study concludes, "facts don't support this claim. Conservatives do get suspended or banned for violating Twitter's rules against such things as harassment, hateful conduct, or, as in Trump's case, glorifying violence. But liberals are excluded in this fashion, as well."

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Can we get some numbers on that, NYU? No, actually we can't. In the words of the study, "[p]inning down precise proportions is impossible because Twitter doesn't release sufficient data."

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Are you following the reasoning here? Their conclusion is that Twitter is not biased and we can be certain it's not biased because Twitter refuses to release data on who it bans. Case closed.

•
What we do know is that shutting down the New York Post's entire Twitter account right before the election because the newspaper printed stories that were unflattering to the Biden family was not censorship.

•
According to NYU, shutting down a newspaper's account for its political views during a presidential election is not censorship. It is instead "reasonable."

•
Why is it reasonable? Well, because presumably — and unlike, say, the Pentagon Papers or virtually every scoop The New York Times has ever published — the New York Post used information that was not publicly available in its stories about Hunter Biden.

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That's totally wrong, and it should be censored, which is not actually censorship. It's just common sense. It's "reasonable."

•
The following headline in the New York Daily News, which we should tell you is a direct competitor to the New York Post, gives you a flavor of the reaction from the guardians of the First Amendment: "Big tech doesn't censor conservatives: A careful review of evidence shows that's fake news."

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So, to be clear: This NYU study has proven there is no censorship from the tech monopolies. But if you persist in complaining about this censorship, which does not exist, you may be spreading disinformation.

•
This so-called academic study was, in fact, paid for by Big Tech. It was funded by a man called Craig Newmark, one of the many Silicon Valley billionaires who paid for the Joe Biden for President campaign.

•
Are you following how this works? Is it becoming clear? In 2021, billionaires fund their own studies and in return for that investment, they get the conclusions they have paid for and the rest of us get to obey those conclusions. That's called science, ladies and gentlemen, and suddenly it's everywhere.

•
Ask yourself, just for example, who has more influence over our national COVID policy: Physicians who treat COVID patients in hospitals every day, scientists who work to find an effective treatment for the virus, or Bill Gates, who is not a physician or a researcher but is worth more than $100 billion?

•
That's why billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros now gets to decide how our laws are enforced.

•
It's why his fellow billionaire hedge fund manager, Tom Steyer, gets to determine America's response to climate change.

•
It's why Jeff Bezos, who sells brightly-colored garbage from China for a living, gets to tell Congress what to do from the editorial page of their hometown newspaper, The Washington Post.

•
That's a lot of power and it was only a matter of time before the people who wield that power decide they should control democracy itself.

•
So they're trying. In the last election, 36-year-old billionaire Mark Zuckerberg spent at least $350 million to influence who in America would vote and whose votes would be counted.

•
At the same time, Facebook, Zuckerberg's company, decided who could share certain political opinions online.

•
We all watched this happen and in the end, of course, those efforts had a great effect.

•
You'd think someone, somewhere would push back against this, but no one in the Democratic Party dares to do that. The last one who tried was Bernie Sanders, and look what happened to him.

•
Just the other day, Sanders was dismissed in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle, which you would think would be a friendly news outlet, as someone who "manifests privilege, white [sic] privilege, male privilege and class privilege."

•
Honestly, it's hard to feel too sorry for Sanders right now. He knew perfectly well that the real divide in this country isn't race or sex, but class.

•
He used to say that out loud, but in the end, he was too much of a coward to criticize identity politics. It was ascendent, and he wanted to ride the waves. Big mistake.

•
What's so interesting, and what you should meditate on, is who has White privilege and who doesn't.

•
Apparently, beat cops who risk their lives for $60,000 a year have White privilege, a ton of it. We know that firemen have white privilege, along with construction workers, roofers, Uber drivers, the guys who hang drywall, and anyone who doesn't take Nancy Pelosi seriously.

•
But what about Bill Gates? When was the last time someone told you that Bill Gates had White privilege, or Jeff Bezos or George Soros or any other politically active billionaire? Never.
Tucker Carlson: The media wants you fixated on Marjorie Taylor Greene. You should ask why (Fox 02/02/2021)
•
No presidential administration has changed so many basic facts of American life as quickly as Joe Biden's administration has over the week and a half that it's been in charge.

•
... the Biden administration plans to make the tiny District of Columbia our 51st state, a more corrupt, English-speaking version of Monaco. As if lobbyists in Washington didn't have enough control over your life, now they'll be U.S. senators.

•
... Biden officials informed us that after almost 65 years of working to build a nuclear weapon, the nation of Iran may be "weeks away" from getting a bomb.

•
You already know how that story is going to end. Another pointless foreign war, trillions spent, many dead, the United States gaining nothing. We've seen that a lot, and it's happening again.

•
Oh, and by the way, Joe Biden just sent American troops to Syria. What, you didn't know that? Yes, hours after he became president, American soldiers crossed into the nation of Syria. Sending them to Syria was one of the first things Joe Biden did as commander-in-chief.

•
Somehow, most the media forgot to mention that. In their defense, Washington, D.C. looks like occupied Sarajevo, a small city overflowing with soldiers.

•
The troops came last month, tens of thousands of them. We were told they were going to protect the capital from the inevitable right-wing violence that would accompany Joe Biden's inauguration.

•
Then Joe Biden was inaugurated and there wasn't any violence. Donald Trump didn't chain himself to the North Portico. Trump voters didn't rush the stage. The Trump restoration never happened.

•
And yet the troops stayed. As of Jan. 28, National Guard troops from 23 states were stationed in Washington. That number seems to have risen over the past few days.

•
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was not so shy about the purpose. In a statement announcing the deployment of more soldiers to Washington, D.C., Pritzker explained that "we must root out the dark forces of racism, white [sic] supremacy and disinformation that have created this moment."

•
Let that sink in. The military has been deployed to Washington, D.C. to fight disinformation. So if you say something a Democratic governor doesn't like, he will send troops.

•
This is not the way things are done in America. It's not the way they have been done since the Civil War. No one alive has ever seen anything like this.

•
So why is everyone pretending it's totally normal to have thousands of troops in the capital to fight disinformation?

•
Because obviously, they're in favor of it. They think it's fine to mobilize the army in order to put down domestic opinions.

•
This week's enemy is freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who is apparently so dangerous that in the name of democracy, she must be expelled from Congress. She was elected months ago with 75% of the vote, roughly the same percentage that Nancy Pelosi got out in San Francisco. There's no question that her voters very much wanted her to represent them in Washington.

•
On the other hand, what do her voters have to do with democracy? That's not how democracy works. In the new democracy, CNN gets the veto. If cable news doesn't like your views, you have to leave Congress. That's the rule.

•
The test is entirely ideological. You don't actually have to harm anyone to lose your job. This new member of Congress has barely even voted, but CNN says she has bad opinions. Therefore, she's the greatest threat we face.

•
Now, if you're skeptical about any of this, our advice is keep it to yourself, because free inquiry is dead and unauthorized questions are hate speech.

•
Anyone who suggests that this one member of Congress is not really America's greatest enemy is by definition one of America's greatest enemies.

•
Why, you ask? Simple: Donald Trump is gone now. That's very bad news for the many people who made a living yelling at Donald Trump.

•
And it's especially dangerous for their political party, whose nonsensical coalition can only hang together by collectively throwing rocks at whomever happens to be at the center of the hate circle on a particular day.

•
If there's no more Donald Trump, that means you get to be Donald Trump.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
A Tsunami of Hate (FPM 2/1/21)
The case for The Donald's dismissal (JWR 02/01/2021)
Bari Weiss: Woke culture is dominating our lives — here are 10 ways to fight back (Fox 02/01/2021)
•
... there is no gulag in America. There are no laws permitting honor killings. There is no formal social credit system of the kind that exists right now in China.

•
By any measure, we have achieved incredible progress and enjoy extraordinary freedoms. And yet people aren't acting that way. They are acting, increasingly, like subjects in a totalitarian country.

•
When everything is recorded for eternity, when making mistakes and taking risks are transformed into capital offenses, when things that were common sense until two seconds ago become unsayable, people make the understandable decision to simply shut up.

•
Do not nod along when you hear the following: That Abraham Lincoln's name on a public school or his likeness on a statue is white supremacy. (It is not; he is a hero.)

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That separating people into racial affinity groups is progressive. (It is a form of segregation.)

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That looting has no victims (untrue) and that small-business owners can cope anyway because they have insurance (nonsense).

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That any disparity of outcome is evidence of systemic oppression (false). That America is evil. (It is the last hope on Earth.)

•
This list could go on for a thousand pages. These may have become conventional wisdom in certain circles, but they are lies.

•
Yet too many good people are sacrificing the common good, and therefore their long-term security, for the sake of short-term comfort.

•
1. Remind yourself, right now, of the following truth: You are free.

•
Your loss of self is the most significant thing that could be taken away from you. Don't give it up for anything.

•
2. Be honest.

•
Do not say anything about yourself or others that you know is false. Absolutely refuse to let your mind be colonized. The first crazy thing someone asks you to believe or to profess, refuse. If you can, do so out loud. There is a good chance it will inspire others to speak up, too.

•
3. Stick to your principles.

•
If you are a decent person, you know mob justice is never just. So never join a mob. Ever.

•
... if a friend or a colleague does something you disagree with, write them a private note. Don't be a snitch. Any mob that comes for them will come for you.

•
4. Set an example for your kids and your community.

•
That means being courageous. I understand that it's hard. Really hard. But in other times and places, including in our own nation, people have made far greater sacrifices.

•
If enough people make the leap, we will achieve something like herd immunity. Jump.

•
5. If you don't like it, leave it.

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A class in college, a job, anything. Get out and do your own thing.

•
I fully understand the impulse to want to change things from within. And by all means: Try as hard as you can.

•
6. Become more self-reliant.

•
To the extent that you can build your life to be self-reliant and not 100 percent reliant on the Web, it's a good thing. It will make you feel competent and powerful. Which you are.

•
7. Worship God more than Yale.

•
In other words, do not lose sight of what is essential. Professional prestige is not essential. Being popular is not essential. Getting your child into an elite preschool is not essential.

•
Doing the right thing is essential. Telling the truth is essential. Protecting your kids is essential.

•
8. Make like-minded friends.

•
Then stand up for them. Two good tests: Are they willing to tell the truth even if it hurts their own side? And do they think that humor should never be a casualty, no matter how bleak the circumstances?

•
These people are increasingly rare. When you find them, hold on tight.

•
9. Trust your own eyes and ears.

•
Rely on firsthand information from people you trust rather than on media spin. When you hear someone making generalizations about a group of people, imagine they are talking about you and react accordingly.

•
10. Use your capital to build original, interesting and generative things right now. This minute.

•
You have the ability to build new things. If you don't have the financial capital, you have the social or political capital. Or the ability to sweat.
Michael Goodwin: Biden family has no shame – here's why they get away with it (Fox 02/01/2021)
•
They can't quit the grift. No sooner had Joe Biden won the White House than his family went back to trying to make a buck off his name.

•
The latest sordid example involves one of Joe's younger brothers, Frank Biden, appearing in a Florida law firm's ad – on Inauguration Day no less.

•
The ad used the president's name to draw attention to the Berman Law Group's class-action suit against sugar cane growers.

•
"The two Biden brothers have long held a commitment to pushing environmental issues to the forefront," says the ad.

•
"The president-elect has vowed to rejoin the Paris Agreement and wants to set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets."

•
The ad ... carried a picture of Frank Biden and quotes him saying, "My brother is a model for how to go about doing this work." How touching. And shameless.

•
After the enormous political trouble Hunter Biden's shady business ties caused during the campaign, Frank's bid to piggy-back on Joe's election sounds especially reckless. But here's another way to look at it.

•
Biden family members are oblivious to conflicts and criticism because they've been swimming in swamp corruption for decades.

•
The two brothers, Frank and Jim, and Hunter have made millions and millions based on selling the perception of access to Joe's power.

•
Having gotten rich and gotten away with it, why quit now? Joe is no longer one of 100 senators or just the vice president. Now he's the "big guy." Ka-ching!

•
As a candidate for president, he insisted he never discussed Hunter Biden's vast foreign businesses with him. Yet Hunter flew to China with him on Air Force 2 in 2013 and returned with a $1.5 billion investment from a bank controlled by the Communist Party.

•
So we're supposed to believe that during the long round trip flight, Joe never said, "Son, what are you doing on my plane? And what are you doing in China?"

•
Even more galling, when Hunter abandoned his laptop at a repair shop and The Post published e-mails and photos from it showing how the son had been reaping a king's ransom from autocrats, oligarchs and various thugs, Joe called the whole thing "Russian disinformation."

•
He was the one spreading disinformation, though most Americans didn't know it because Big Media ignored the story and Big Tech blocked The Post's accounts.

•
Still, we know Joe knew the truth because the laptop contained an email from an adviser to the corrupt Ukrainian energy company Burisma, thanking Hunter for arranging a meeting with Joe.

•
Burisma, recall, paid Hunter more than $4 million for sitting on its board despite his knowing nothing about Ukraine or energy while Joe was vice president.

•
See related Biden Bible (Fuller, 12/2020)") cartoon from Politics picture album
Liz Peek: Biden's first 10 days – here's how he infuriated half the nation in record time (Fox 02/01/2021)
•
Joe Biden lied. He lied about wanting to bring the country together. He lied about trying to work "across the aisle." He lied about being a "moderate."

•
After the blitzkrieg rollout of 40 executive orders that targeted President Trump programs, kowtowed to progressives (and enraged conservatives) on hot-button issues like taxpayer funding of abortion and showed Biden's disdain for our country's system of checks and balances, Republicans have zero excuse for cooperating with the new administration.

•
Elections have consequences; the behavior of the winners has consequences, too.

•
Even as Biden pretends to want Republican cooperation, his flurry of executive orders suggests he's not only determined to alienate those 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump, but he's in a rush to do so.

•
How might Biden have brought the nation together? By telling Pelosi and Schumer to stand down on impeachment, telling the country he wanted to look forward and not backward, and by focusing on getting the nation back to work.

•
He could have left in place Trump policies that worked, such as those that slowed the flow of people illegally swarming across our border. That would include the "leave in Mexico" arrangement for asylum seekers, which deterred the caravans from heading north.

•
Biden should have agreed that the history-making Abraham Accords had successfully reoriented our Middle East priorities, creating a powerful alliance against Iran's belligerence, and sworn off the flawed Iran nuke deal.

•
He should never have thrown 11,000 union members building the Keystone Pipeline out of work; he might have explained to the country that North American energy output was critical to our national security, and that pipelines are safer than trucks and trains.

•
Perhaps most important, President Biden might have joined with Germany's Angela Merkel, Mexico's Manuel Lopez Obrador and other world leaders in denouncing Twitter's censorship of Donald Trump and his supporters.

•
He could have calmed Republicans alarmed that the growing muscle of social media has been flexed to prevent dissent, limit dissemination of information unflattering to Biden and his family and to entrench viewpoints favored by the woke Left.

•
Biden should have sent a powerful signal that the United States is still committed to freedom of speech, one of this nation's most essential founding principles.

•
Unhappily, Joe Biden will be rewarded by the tech-corporate industrial complex that overthrew President Trump's many challenges to their power; Biden is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

•
See related Let Them Learn (Gary Varvel, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Welcome to Soviet America (AG 02/01/21)
Republicans must learn to play hardball (INN 02/01/2021)
•
The Radical-Progressive-Democrat Party is not befuddled, as President Joe is. They are street smart, predator led, with animal instincts. This is their moment to accomplish the goals set by Obama just 12 years ago.

•
Simply stated, two more states added to the union, voting by snail or e-mail, redistricting Republican held House seats, adding Supreme Court seats, federal voting laws over-ruling the states', reducing the voting age, legalizing illegals and more.

•
The violence of a few in D.C. on January 6th was turned by them and their media allies to impose military control over our nation's capital.

•
So well, in fact, it may yet be used throughout the nation to gradually impose martial law management against any opposition, parallel to the Big-Tech censorship. All moves to blanket us all in the darkness of fascism.

•
We must fight the takeover of our public schools by the Socialist led unions by pushing, supporting and electing conservatives on local school boards.

•
Citizens must cram into school board meetings to hear, learn and to vocalize their concerns about radicalized curricula such as the "1619 Project."

•
Newspapers, and other media outlets championing the Constitution and backing allies such as Israel, must be supported.

•
Local Republican leaders will have to replicate the Democrats' methods of bare knuckle campaigning to win over those fringe and on the fence Democrats.

•
Avoiding conflict and meekness, the usual strategy to counter the opposition will no longer be acceptable.

•
Many Americans are worried, anxious and concerned. In less than two weeks since being inaugurated and with lightning like speed, Biden has dutifully followed orders and signed into law more Executive Orders than any other previous president, with more to follow. All geared to handcuff the nation to the chains of the federal government.

•
Americans must unite against those who would fascistisize this nation. Let's finally be willing to fight for our survival. We must be willing to get up and push and shove 'til we win. We can hear the clock ticking away the time.

•
See related The New Abnormal (Antonio Branco, 11/30/2016) cartoon from Government picture album
What drove Obama into Iran's arms? (INN 01/31/2021)
The simple way to bring down Amazon (INN 01/31/2021)
Biden says 'unity' but he really means 'conformity' – here's what the real deal would look like (Fox 01/30/2021)
•
... in his first week, President Biden continued to talk about unity but delivered purely partisan actions. This is because when he says "unity" he really means "conformity."

•
The left-wing is not interested in listening to or compromising with the more than 74 million people who voted for President Donald Trump. The left just wants them to step in line or be ignored.

•
If President Biden really wanted unity, he could call on the U.S. Senate to drop impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

•
But he knows he can't do that. It would break his flimsy coalition. The single unifying element of the current Democratic Party is hatred of Trump.

•
The Democrats know they must keep Trump as a central issue if they are going to keep their grip on the government.

•
See related For the Sake of Unity... (Mike Shelton, 01/21/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
The Left's Ongoing Campaign to Denigrate Trump Supporters (JWR 01/29/2021)
America Grows Sick on a Diet of Propaganda and Political Theater (JWR 01/29/2021)
•
Even the briefest foray into social media, editorial commentary or what passes for "news" makes it abundantly clear: America is sick.

•
She is sick because her people have been fed a steady diet of propaganda, political theater and lies. This has become so extreme and so widespread of late that it is literally infecting every aspect of American society and turning ordinary Americans against one another.

•
We'll start with the most recent: What happened on Jan. 6 was not an "insurrection." There was no serious attempt to "overthrow" the United States government.

•
Was there a riot? Yes. Was it deliberately disruptive of government business? Definitely. But an attempted coup? Ridiculous on its face.

•
We've seen plenty of riots in state capitols in recent years. Have these been called "insurrections" or attempts to overthrow state governments?

•
No. To the contrary, they have been lauded as examples of "democracy in action," as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

•
Washington, D.C. — including the Capitol itself — has endured no small amount of violence in the past year and earlier (including massive unrest four years ago when Donald Trump was inaugurated).

•
And the Capitol violence three weeks ago was caused by a small number relative to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who converged on Washington to make their voices heard peacefully.

•
But it has become necessary to call it an "insurrection" to justify the political theater taking place now.

•
First and foremost, of course, is the attempt by Democrats in Congress to impeach Trump for "inciting insurrection." Most people won't read the full text of Trump's speech that day.

•
It was vintage Trump, confrontational and full of braggadocio, but in it, he explicitly told his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically" make their voices heard.

•
But no "insurrection" means no "incitement," and that would mean no impeachment.

•
The articles of impeachment are themselves a charade. ... the Constitution simply does not authorize Congress to take the action contemplated by an impeachment trial against a private citizen. Only a sitting president can be "removed," and Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States.

•
So, the impeachment shtick isn't about removing a man who is already gone, and it isn't really about getting a conviction either. It's more — and more extreme — political theater.

•
And it gets much worse. The target of the "insurrection" propaganda campaign is not so much Donald Trump as it is the 74 million-plus people who voted for him.

•
Americans were stunned when Hillary Clinton referred to only half of Donald Trump's supporters as a "basket of deplorables" in 2016.

•
But Trump had millions more supporters in 2020, and now all of them are being demonized by Democrats and their mouthpieces in the media as threats, as "seditionists" and "white supremacists" who need to be "deprogrammed," "reprogrammed," imprisoned in "reeducation camps" or subjected to "Nuremburg trials."

•
These are not isolated remarks by fringe elements; they are comments made by "mainstream" Democratic voices: Washington Post correspondent Eugene Robinson, media darling Katie Couric, MSNBC anchor Don Lemon, actor Jon Cryer, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

•
Comments on these articles and tweets — made by non-famous, left-leaning Americans — are even worse.

•
This is beyond political difference. It is a sickness.

•
... even the most peaceable and law-abiding person will retaliate in the face of baseless accusations and unfair treatment, contributing to a destructive cycle that threatens the fabric of society.

•
The political and cultural elites in this country consider themselves uniquely qualified to lead.

•
But true leaders behave in ways that demonstrate their concern for the health of the organizations and people under their charge.

•
They do not exploit differences and foment discord for their own personal aggrandizement.
Biden: A liberal wolf in moderate sheep's clothing (JWR 01/28/2021)
The 'After Trump' era begins (JWR 01/28/2021)
Reps. Scalise, Herrell: Biden's reckless, job-killing energy executive orders must be reversed (Fox 01/28/2021)
•
Wednesday, President Biden chose left-wing activists over American workers and affordable energy costs by signing an executive order to ban new oil and gas exploration on federal lands.

•
Who wins? Oil-producing foreign nations like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran win.

•
Who loses? American workers employed in the energy sector lose. American consumers and families who depend on low-cost electricity lose. American public schools and first responders funded by oil and gas tax revenues lose. America's national parks and environmental restoration projects that rely on oil and gas revenues lose.

•
It's devastatingly simple. When Washington radicals ban drilling on federal lands, Americans lose their jobs, investment flows overseas, and communities across America lose a primary source of revenue for schools, health care, and conservation efforts.

•
Our friends and neighbors rely upon these jobs to pay rent, put food on the table, and keep the lights on. The Biden administration is attacking their livelihoods and jeopardizing America's energy security.

•
President Biden either doesn't understand the damage he is doing to our communities or he doesn't care.

•
By banning a significant source of America's oil and gas supply, Biden ships our jobs and energy production to countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, who don't adhere to the same environmental standards that we enjoy.

•
Climate activists do not understand that banning drilling on federal lands is damaging to both our economy and our environment.

•
When the United States became the single largest oil and gas producer in the world, we were protected from market manipulation by OPEC and rogue actors.

•
By undermining our energy dominance, Biden once again puts us at the mercy of foreign regimes, many of whom use those new-found billions of dollars against America and our allies.

•
The same leftists who put Biden in office are demanding that he go further to ban all fossil fuels and enact policies inspired by the job-killing Green New Deal.

•
For these activists, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement won't be enough, cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline won't be enough, and banning drilling on federal lands won't be enough.

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These far-left radicals won't stop until we're fully dependent on foreign nations for our energy.

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In the middle of a pandemic, while states are struggling to get their economies back on track and hard-working families and small businesses are suffering, it's not just thoughtless for President Biden to sign these heavy-handed executive orders — it's destructive.

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
David Bossie: Biden and the impeachment charade – it's time for president to step up in name of unity (Fox 01/28/2021)
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You can't support unity and remain silent on big tech censorship at the same time. You can't support unity and not condemn Antifa at the same time.

•
You can't support unity and sign executive orders canceling your predecessor's signature policies at the same time.

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And you can't support unity and allow congressional Democrats to waste precious time on an unconstitutional impeachment trial of a president who is no longer in office.

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President Biden ran a campaign for president promising to put his response to the COVID-19 pandemic first. Then-candidate Biden pledged from his basement to take decisive action and tackle COVID-19 more effectively than the Trump administration.

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Sadly, it took just two days for the President to backtrack on his central guarantee to the American people. Now Biden says, "there's nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months."

•
These actions speak volumes about the hopelessly out of touch mindset of President Biden. Biden's words during the campaign appear to have been just empty rhetoric designed to win an election at any cost.

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Swamp creatures like Biden believe that once you're elected, you can do whatever you want once you take office.

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Only a career politician who has thrived in Washington for nearly a half-century would insult the intelligence of the American people by thinking he could get away with these disingenuous antics.

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It took the unhinged radicals in Pelosi's caucus less time to debate the impeachment of an American president than to debate the renaming of a post office.

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It was a sad and irresponsible abuse of power. And it's something we're all going to regret for a very long time.

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These Democratic career politicians still hate President Trump more than they love their country, even as Trump the citizen-politician gets on with his private life in Florida.

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This is the perfect time for President Biden to say something real about unity. Biden could stand up and say call off the trial – because it will further enflame our divisions and would be counterproductive to bringing people together to enact his legislative agenda.

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Biden will never unite this nation if he can't take on his political base when it's for the greater good.

•
The fact that Supreme Chief Justice John Roberts won't be presiding over the divisive impeachment trial confirms its illegitimacy.

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The decision to have partisan Democrat Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy preside over the phony trial just confirms that the entire operation is an act of naked retribution against a former – and potentially future – political adversary.

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As the sham trial approaches, Senate Democrats are setting a dangerous precedent that will render impeachment meaningless in the future.

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Using impeachment as a vehicle to ban a former president from running for federal office again is a slippery slope.

•
What would prevent the impeachment process from being used against anyone the party in power wanted to block from running for president in the future?

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See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: Democrats' meaning of 'equity and inclusion' is 'believe what we say, or else' (Fox 01/27/2021)
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Let's begin with a basic point: The United States government should never, under any circumstances, favor one race of people over any other race of people. That is immoral.

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We are all citizens. We are all human beings. We are all created by God. We are all equal.

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Every one of us has a right to equal treatment by our government. That right is guaranteed by our Constitution. It's the heart of countless laws passed with well-deserved fanfare by our Congress over many decades.

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... Susan Rice announce on television Tuesday that every agency in the U.S. government, the largest and most lavishly funded organization in human history, must "place equity at the core" of its policy design specifically and for the benefit of "marginalized communities."

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Rice's speech was carried live by many news outlets, but as far as we know, not a single one of them paused to ask what exactly she was talking about. They should have.

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The federal government is, above all, an enormous printing press, dispensing trillions of dollars every year.

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According to Rice, much of that money will now be distributed on the basis of equity. That means it will go to people who do not possess "privilege." So let's get very specific about what that means.

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What precisely is privilege? Can it be measured? If so, how exactly are we measuring it? Is there a formula?

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We should see it because a huge amount turns on the definition of this word. Some Americans won't get jobs because it's been decided they have too much privilege. Others won't get into college or get promoted or win federal contracts. Others will see their neighborhoods change dramatically in ways they may not like because of their privilege.

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Before any of that happens, the rest of us deserve a clear explanation of what's going on, who's getting rewarded, who's getting punished and why.

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We don't have to ask politely. We're American citizens. This is our government. No matter who we voted for, we're paying for it, so we can demand an answer.

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But of course, there isn't an answer. That's the point. They can't really define privilege. They can't tell us who, in a country with no majority culture, actually qualifies as a "minority."

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They only want to have this conversation at all because their views are indefensible. That's why they're trying to make us be quiet. You see those efforts all around you now.

•
Never in American history has there been press censorship on this scale. Fox News is the last significant media organization remaining in this country that allows its employees to tell obvious truths in public. The rest of them have been muzzled or shut down completely.

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The last to go was the social media site Parler, which was created as a free speech alternative to the Silicon Valley monopolies like Twitter and Facebook.

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A few weeks ago, those very same monopolies pulled it right off the Internet. Parler no longer exists.

•
When the history of this period is written, the destruction of Parler will get its own chapter, and so will the mindless corporate shills who applauded its destruction.

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Amazon Web Services, the largest Internet hosting service in the world, was allowed to simply unplug Parler, to destroy it with no debate or coherent explanation.

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It certainly wasn't because they were morally offended by Parler. Last year, according to the group Parents Together, a total of 69 million photos and videos of children being sexually abused were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

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Only eight of those reports came from Amazon Web Services, which was hosting quite a few of them.

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"Amazon Web Services has vast resources, controls a third of cloud infrastructure services and handles billions of uploads and downloads. Their abysmal failure to report child sex abuse material makes it clear they're not looking for it."

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... Amazon Web Services provides hosting services to Twitter and according to one lawsuit, Twitter "benefited from and neglected to remove an exploitative video — featuring a [minor boy] and another minor — which was retweeted thousands of times and received at least 167,000 views on the platform."

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You're getting the picture. There's a lot of garbage floating around on Amazon Web Services and on Twitter, but according to our media class, none of it would justify shutting down Amazon Web Services.

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You should also know that Amazon Web Services provides Web services for the CIA. You're paying for that.

•
Amazon has built data centers in China. According to a report by the Horizon Advisory Group, Amazon runs a "innovation center" in close partnership with the Communist Party of China.

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It's not clear what they're innovating, but whatever it is, it's not a problem for our leaders because no one in the Chinese government voted for Donald Trump, so it's not like they're dangerous.

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But you know who is dangerous? Any American citizen who doesn't agree with MSNBC.

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Equity and inclusion means that you will believe what they tell you to believe, or else you're a terrorist and they can hurt you because we hurt terrorists.

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Listen to America's new grand inquisitor, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. "We have been urging for some time that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security raise the priority to domestic terrorism, to White nationalism as it threatens the country, and we're going to continue sounding the alarm and make sure that they're devoting the resources, the time, the attention, just as we did after 9/11 to the threat from international terrorism, we need to give the same priority and urgency to domestic terrorism."

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Got that? Vote the wrong way, and you are a jihadi. You thought you were an American citizen with rights and just a different view, but no, you're a jihadi and we're going to treat you the way we treated those radicals after 9/11, the way we treated bin Laden.

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Get in line, pal. This is a war on terror. Keep in mind, as you listen to people talk like this — and Adam Schiff is far from the only one — they're talking about American citizens. They're talking about you, but nobody seems to notice or care.

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One who does notice and who cares quite a bit, one of the only Democrats willing to stand up and oppose this transparently fascist purge (for that's what it is) is Tulsi Gabbard, the former member of Congress from Hawaii.

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"The John Brennans, Adam Schiffs and the oligarchs in Big Tech who are trying to undermine our constitutionally protected rights and turn our country into a police state with KGB-style surveillance are also domestic enemies, and much more powerful and therefore dangerous than the mob that stormed the Capitol."

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Those words are absolutely true, and God bless Tulsi Gabbard for saying so out loud.

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See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Torquemada (Antonio Branco, 01/21/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Ingraham: Biden's 'twisted and poisonous claims' about US take 'wrecking ball to his unity goal' (Fox 01/27/2021)
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President Biden "continued taking a wrecking ball to his unity goal" Tuesday by stating "that America, at her core, is racist."

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"Does Biden now renounce his own Catholic education? His teachers? His professors, who celebrated, for instance, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as well as the men who sent them?"

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"The 1776 Commission understood that America is a great nation that nevertheless made some grave errors."

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"Today's left inverts that belief, insisting that we are a gravely evil nation that only occasionally does some good things, like elect Obama and Biden."

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"For decades, radical academics have been teaching students to believe that White privilege is a greater threat to us than the CCP, Islamic terror, the former Soviet Union, unemployment, and certainly any viruses."

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"They believe that dangling the prospect of reparations, will obscure the fact that their policies ... will make impoverished and working-class Americans of all races poorer and less safe."

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... Democrats "know all too well that Trump grew his political support among all minorities, especially Latinos and Asians. Why did he do this? His policies delivered record low unemployment for Blacks and Hispanics. Household incomes grew for all races and ethnicities."

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"Biden's handlers think they can still keep minority voters on the hook with identity politics, virtue signaling, diversity quotas, and the pipe dream of reparations, It's so cynical, and more than that, it's so insulting."

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See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Deroy Murdock: Trump answered liberal prayers through conservative means (Fox 01/27/2021)
The D.C. occupation will continue until democracy is saved (INN 01/26/2021)
Journos have become the thing they profess to hate (JWR 01/26/2021)
Is modern media more biased than before? (JWR 01/26/2021)
Donald Trump Has Been One Of Our Great Presidents (JWR 01/26/2021)
•
As Richard Nixon once said, "history is written by liberals," so don't count on any objectivity.

•
But we, Trump's supporters, need to keep the memory of his record in mind so we can unpack it for the next election.

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He defied almost every vested interest group in the country — and in the world — to achieve his ends. And in 2020, those interests took their revenge.

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He began by defying the almost-royal power of the economic establishment — Wall Street, the big banks, hedge funds, multinational corporations. These giants were used to writing tax policy to benefit only themselves, but Trump changed that.

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He forced Congress to pass a massive tax cut, skillfully crafted to benefit the middle class, the working poor and small businesses, producing millions of jobs.

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Then he upended the pro-China foreign policy elites — and corporate America — by holding Beijing accountable for its unfair trade practices through massive and highly effective sanctions.

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President Trump virtually eliminated illegal immigration over the southern border, first by using the threat of trade sanctions to induce Mexico to hold refugees on its side of the Rio Grande and then by brilliantly contriving to build a border wall and funding it despite congressional opposition.

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In the process, he incurred the wrath of the immigration establishment which included American industrialists and agribusinessmen by cutting off their supply of dirt-cheap labor and making them hire decently paid Americans instead.

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Perhaps the most dramatic initiative he took was to cripple the most notorious and dangerous anti-American regimes in the world.

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When Iran was caught secretly building nuclear weapons in defiance of international agreements, he confronted them with a new and devastating weapon: massive and crippling economic sanctions. Where some wanted to send in troops, he chose, instead, to use this economic weapon.

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When Russian oligarchs evaded law enforcement, laundering money and brutally killing opponents, he called them out by name, barring them from obtaining visas to the U.S. and from accessing the international banking system.

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And when Venezuelan dictators proved to be immune from diplomatic pressure as they rigged elections and repressed the opposition, his sanctions destroyed their economy. Where others saw no middle ground between war and appeasement, Trump's reliance on economic sanctions imposed a true new world order.

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Climate change, the sacred cause of the left, put Trump and the environmentalists at loggerheads over the issue of America's signature on the Paris accords. Flying boldly in the face of a worldwide consensus, the president pulled out when Europe gave China a free pass, allowing it to continue to emit more carbon pollution into the atmosphere than the U.S., Europe and Japan combined...

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Then he further defied the environmental lobby by granting fracking rights so that natural gas would replace coal in U.S. power generation.

•
At the same time, he demanded aggressive oil drilling offshore and throughout America, finally realizing a goal set more than forty years ago to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

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He alienated the military establishment by demanding withdrawal from the Middle East and Afghanistan while still wiping out ISIS.

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Our NATO partners were also furious when he successfully forced them to pay their delinquent assessments for our common defense.

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When he scrapped the two-state solution on the West Bank and used the looming threat of Iran to induce the Arab OPEC states to coalesce with Israel and end their subsidy of Hamas and Hezbollah, the foreign policy establishment was aghast.

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He quit NAFTA and negotiated a new deal that stopped China from sneaking products into the U.S. and allowed free hemispheric trade only for goods produced by Mexican, American or Canadian workers paid at least $15 per hour.

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He alienated the legal establishment by appointing and confirming Supreme Court justices who uphold our values, even as they proved their independence by voting — wrongly — against his post-election challenges.

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The intelligence community hated him for exposing their corrupt lying about his so-called collusion with Russia, which was a subterfuge designed to keep him out of the White House.

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Silicon Valley bristled at his attempts to stop them from controlling and censoring the content that their amazing technology put at our fingertips.

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Facebook, Google and Twitter wanted to be the exclusive arbiters of what information was sufficiently politically correct to distribute to their audience.

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Trump insisted that tech companies could not censor the news or opinions any more than broadcast or cable networks could.

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He paid for his sins with his presidency when his various establishment enemies ganged up on him and tried to finish him off.

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But his most serious error was to incur the wrath of the media. They hated him as they have never hated any politician, crime boss, dictator or even mass murderer before. It was bloodlust. Why?

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First and foremost, he was an existential threat to the media's power and credibility.

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He alone dared to challenge them and fearlessly speak the truth. He wouldn't kowtow to the media deities. He ignored them, going over their heads and speaking directly to the voters.

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It isn't just that the media disliked Trump. They hated him. They were liberals who hated his policies, insiders who hated his outsider mentality and unorthodox appointments.

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They denigrated his proposals. They belittled his accomplishments, his style, his confidence and most of all, his success. He was their rival for power.

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See related Immigration Politics (Sean Delonas, 01/12/2018) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Not a crackpot conspiracy theory to wonder about the integrity of America's 2020 presidential election (JWR 01/26/2021)
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Since the day after the 2020 presidential election, I have said I am agnostic with regard to whether the election was honestly or dishonestly decided. The primary reasons for my agnosticism are the usual ones.

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In 132 years, no president has received more votes in his run for reelection and lost. Yet Donald Trump received 10 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016 — and lost.

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Trump won 18 of the 19 counties both Democrats and Republicans regard as the "bellwether" counties that virtually always go with the outcome of presidential elections. Yet he lost.

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He won four bellwether states — Florida, Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina. Yet he lost.

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Republicans held onto all the House seats they were defending and gained another 13 seats. Yet, Trump lost.

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Unprecedented efforts were made in some states to change election laws. Mostly Democratic states sent out tens of millions of ballots or applications for absentee ballots to people who never requested them. Voting began in some states six weeks before Election Day.

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People have submitted sworn affidavits at great personal cost and with possible perjury charges that they witnessed ballot tampering on election night.

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... there is one question I have never heard posed that trumps all other considerations: Would moral considerations prevent Democrats from cheating to oust Trump? Or, to put the question in the positive: Would Democrats deem it morally obligatory to cheat on behalf of Joe Biden?

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The answer to the first question is no: Moral considerations would not prevent decent Democrats from cheating to prevent Trump's reelection. The answer to the second question is yes: Decent Democrats would deem it morally obligatory to cheat on behalf of Biden.

•
For four years, the media and their party, the Democrats, told us every day that Trump is a fascist, a dictator, a racist and a white supremacist; that he was an agent of the Russian government — a real-life Manchurian candidate.

•
We were also repeatedly told by the lying media (Trump's accurate description of the mainstream media) that in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump said there are "very fine" Nazis...

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Yes, the media told us with a straight face that a man with a Jewish daughter, Jewish son-in-law and Jewish grandchildren said there are fine Nazis. Biden said he decided to run for president because of this lie.

•
So, then, here is the question: Why would anyone who sincerely believed Trump is a white-supremacist fascist dictator not cheat if he or she could prevent such a person from becoming or remaining president of the United States?

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Let me sharpen this question: Isn't someone who could prevent a fascist, white-supremacist, Nazi-defending dictator morally obligated to cheat if he or she could prevent such a person from becoming president?

•
To repeat, I have never said Biden did not win the election. And even if there was considerable fraud, that doesn't mean the election result would have been different.

•
But there are consequences to beliefs. Unless Democrats knew they were lying for four years when they labelled Trump a fascist, racist, Nazi, dictator, etc., were they not duty-bound to cheat on Biden's behalf?

•
So, then, when you have circumstantial evidence (not proof), combined with opportunity, desire, motive and, most important, no moral argument against cheating and a strong moral argument for cheating, it isn't a "lie," and it isn't a crackpot conspiracy theory, to wonder about the integrity of America's 2020 presidential election.

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See related It\\\'s Who Counts the Votes (Gary Varvel, 11/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Voted Today... (Chip Bok, 01/06/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Glenn Greenwald warns of Dem 'bloodthirsty' attempt to exert complete control over modern political... (Fox 01/26/2021)
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Large American corporations are colluding with mainstream media outlets and prominent Democrats to silence Americans in a "bloodthirsty" attempt to exert complete control over modern political discourse...

•
... accused the Democratic Party of believing themselves to "have a monopoly on objective truth.

•
"They believe they are the party of science and rationality and the only way to disagree with them is you are either a deranged conspiracy theorist or exhibitionist, someone who is engaged in criminal conduct or terrorism."

•
"Therefore, they genuinely believe — it's not a show or a pretext they all have convinced one another through the echo chamber that they've created...that if you disagree with their orthodoxies and their consensus, you are a threat and a danger."

•
... noted the irony that the same groups who have "spent four years claiming they fight authority to some end of fascism," are now trying to harness corporate, and monopoly power to "silence everyone that disagrees with them, [represening] the very hallmark, the epitome of the facism they claim to be fighting, but in reality they embody."

•
"... they genuinely want everyone who disagrees with them, silenced, I know it sounds like hyperbole if you don't pay attention constantly to the news..."

•
"They want to shut everybody off the Internet" he continued, pointing to the removal of Twitter rival app Parler from app stores and online platforms.

•
"They destroyed an entire social media platform, they just took it off the Internet because they instructed Silicon Valley monopolies that it was their obligation to remove it."

•
"It's very chilling, and I really can't overstate how bloodthirsty they are in the control they are trying to exert over our discourse."

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See related Thanks (Chip Bok, 01/12/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Twitter Evolution (Gary Varvel, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related What Bias? (Gary Varvel, 06/13/2019) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Democrats' sweeping 'For The People Act' would 'enshrine fraud,' as lawmakers seek to stifle dissent (Fox 01/26/2021)
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Democrats will control the federal government for decades or more if a sweeping new proposal touted as comprehensive government reform becomes law...

•
"The 'For The People Act' is the foundation of the Democratic Party strategy to control the federal government well into your grandchildren's middle age."

•
"Like most revolutionary documents, it's not a very exciting read — nothing sounds especially radical at first. The bill begins by declaring that — contrary to Article I of the United States Constitution — Congress has an " ultimate supervisory power over federal elections."

•
... handling of elections is largely left to the states, but that the Democrats' bill would essentially nationalize what he called the Californian election system.

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"Under our current loss, states get to decide how much fraud they will tolerate: Florida requires you to show photo identification in order to vote. California just wants you to vote Democrat."

•
"If H.R. 1 passes, all 50 states will be California — the entire country will have ballot harvesting and mail-in voting. Think about that."

•
... Democrats are essentially taking the exact opposite message from the right-wing riot at the Capitol on January 6.

•
... throngs of people turned to civil unrest because millions were convinced the 2020 election was not fair, and that they did not come to that conclusion because "the last president told them so."

•
"You are hearing that now as if they are animals who take commands and do what they're told — but they're not animals, they're American citizens who can see what is happening and come to their own conclusions about it: They saw the radical increase in mail-in voting, and it corroded the public's faith in the system of our of elections. They were enraged by that and some of them exploded."

•
"According to the Democrats, the lesson of that terrible day was that we needed more of the corrupt policies that caused it in the first place. We need more mail-in voting, we need more ballot harvesting: More corruption! That will unite the country."

•
"Under H.R. 1, [people] could freely go house to house and apartment to apartment collecting unknown thousands of ballots and then dump them all in a ballot dropbox. No one would have any idea if those ballots had been tampered with at any point along the way or would there be any way to prove it if they had been tampered with."

•
"H.R. 1 also makes it harder for election observers to file complaints about any of this because complaining is racist."

•
"A system like that is suicidal for democracy and no other free country would tolerate it."

•
... Canada and France have prohibitions on mail-in ballots, while the party in power in the U.S. seeks the opposite remedy.

•
... went on to contrast the Democrats' call for open, unaccountable voting with surprising contravening messaging from an entity he said is otherwise friendly to the left: Jeff Bezos' Amazon.

•
"When it's their power at stake Democrats have a totally different position," ... remarking on Amazon corporate's criticism of mail-in type balloting for its unionization election in Alabama.

•
"You should know this is not considered hypocrisy. They don't mind if they are caught breaking their own rules, they are not offended by double standards. They want power, this is a power grab and that's all it is."

•
... went on to point to legislation from Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., noting that the Orlando lawmaker is proposing a bill that would, in the host's words, "ban anyone with the wrong opinions from having a significant job in the federal government."

•
"Believe forbidden things and you don't get a security clearance. You can't work here, Murphy's bill would require federal investigators to ask all applicants whether they had 'associated with or knowingly engaged in activities conducted by an organization or movement that spreads conspiracy theories and false information about the United States government'."

•
"At this point [Murphy's bill's criteria] would include everyone pretty much currently in power, Yes, they were knee deep in conspiracy theories that actually hurt our country in measurable ways — but this legislation isn't designed to punish them — just the opposite — this legislation is designed to protect them from your criticism."

•
"Under Stephanie Murphy's bill, anyone who criticizes Stephanie Murphy could be punished. Make sense now?"
Liz Peek: Here's why Joe Biden could get very lucky in his first 100 days as president (Fox 01/25/2021)
Journalists celebrate the destruction of freedoms on which their profession depend (JWR 01/25/2021)
With President Joe, it's divided we stand (JWR 01/25/2021)
Trump answered liberal prayers through conservative means (JWR 01/25/2021)
The Conservative Path Forward in the Biden-Harris Era (JWR 01/25/2021)
•
The presidency of Joseph R. Biden Jr., a thoroughly mediocre and gaffe-prone career politician in the throes of debilitating senescence, has commenced.

•
It has done so with disingenuous paeans to unity, thinly veiled swipes at his "deplorable" political foes and an immediate executive action-driven assault on his predecessor's legacy — from the environment to immigration to religious liberty — that is simply breathtaking in its scope.

•
Worse, the Biden-Harris regime has taken power as America's myriad corporate bastions, led by Big Tech, dutifully promise to punish dissenters to the regime's enforced monolithic orthodoxy.

•
For conservatives, it could get ugly out there as we spend our near-term future in political exile.

•
And this is before even considering the possibility that the U.S. Senate, now under de facto Democratic leadership, may well ditch the legislative filibuster, opening up a Pandora's box of power-grab possibilities that could irrevocably transform the republic — chiefly, "packing" the Supreme Court and lower courts, and statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

•
... conservatives must do the hard work of actually building up the digital and corporate infrastructure to push back in earnest against Big Tech, "woke" capital and the broader "cancel culture" threat to the American way of life.

•
The recent collusive efforts by Amazon, Apple and Google to systematically black out Parler, the pro-free speech Twitter alternative, reveal the short-sightedness of those liberals and libertarians who, for years, merely told conservatives concerned about online censorship to "build your own Google."

•
... while we must use any remaining levers of state power to rein in unaccountable Silicon Valley oligarchs, conservative programmers and coders ought to begin laying the foundation for an entirely new, rivalrous digital domain — a rival internet dedicated to viewpoint nondiscrimination, soup to nuts.

•
Similarly, conservative financiers and entrepreneurs must begin the long, slow process of funding and building out rival institutions affecting every area of life — banks, medical practices, universities and so forth.

•
It is profoundly sad that we have gotten to this point, but there is no virtue in failing to confront reality.

•
Finally, exiled conservatives must continue to build a constructive, substantive conservative agenda that is politically appealing and can actually win at the ballot box.

•
We know the path forward: an unabashed defense of traditional American bourgeois values; opposition to the excesses of neo-Marxist "woke" -ism; a political economics that is unafraid to use government to channel productive market activity and support those in true need; unapologetic moral prioritization of the rule of law; temperance in foreign policy; and sobriety about the limits of immigration assimilation.

•
There is plenty to lament right now. But conservatives' time and energy would be better spent thinking ahead and plotting a future — one that, in all likelihood, can still be salvaged.

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Michael Goodwin: I'm ignoring Biden's 'unity' talk, here's why you should, too (Fox 01/25/2021)
•
Biden won the right to pursue the leftist agenda he campaigned on. But his promise that he will also work for the Americans who didn't vote for him is more fig leaf than honest invitation.

•
Again, he's entitled — elections have consequences. But knitting together a fractured America around a far-left agenda was never going to work. And Biden knows it.

•
In fact, his actions suggest the "Kumbaya" appeal is not directed at Trump voters or even the public in general. It's really a disguised call to the factions in his own party to stick together, to give him a chance. I'll keep you all happy, he's saying, just watch.

•
Biden kept Dems together during the campaign because everyone wanted to dump Trump.

•
Now that he's won, he's got to find other ways to keep the fault lines from widening. Early signs show he believes he can straddle the divide by staffing his administration with establishment veterans and party warhorses while giving the passionate far left early policy victories.

•
Consider that just hours after the new president moaned in his inaugural address that "Millions of jobs have been lost, hundreds of thousands of businesses closed," he deliberately killed more jobs in the energy sector.

•
One executive order revoked the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which snuffed out thousands of good-paying union jobs in Canada and the United States.

•
He halted new oil, gas and coal leases on public lands and water and rejoined the Paris climate accord, which is certain to be a massive jobs killer once he sets targets for reducing carbon emissions and enforces them with regulations.

•
Naturally, the global climate elites cheered because, well, their jobs are secure.

•
Trump's policies on the pipeline and fuel exploration, along with pulling America out of the climate pact, succeeded at creating jobs and achieving energy independence. By reversing those policies, Biden keeps his promise to do the opposite of Trump.

•
The effective campaign tactic is economically disastrous as a governing principle. It's not even clear the politics will work for long in his own party if he keeps killing jobs before creating any.

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History teaches that raising unemployment is a fast ticket to a short honeymoon.

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There are other oddities as well. After months of trashing the Trump White House over its handling of the pandemic and the vaccine, Biden said Friday "there is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months."

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Lowering expectations is an old political trick, but his comment reflects a defeatist concession that can only deepen the nation's funk.

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Similarly, he said in his inaugural that America is both a great nation and systemically racist, which is hardly an uplifting message to a broad public.

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Then again, if you're only appealing to wokesters and racial arsonists, the seeming incoherence makes sense.

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Despite high unemployment and the pandemic, Biden invited Central American caravans to come on in.

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With a moratorium on deportations of illegal crossers, he made it certain the border will be flooded, and that criminals and the COVID-infected will be among them. His press secretary described the policy as contributing to "racial equity."

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Biden also signed a radical order letting boys compete in girls' sports events if they identify as transgender. The practice already is causing an uproar and now Biden has put the federal government on the side of glaring unfairness.

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He rejoined the World Health Organization, which Trump accused of obscuring China's role in spreading the coronavirus.

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So Biden will spend upwards of $450 million a year for the privilege of being the WHO's largest donor — and we'll never get the truth about what the organization knew and when it knew it.

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The conflicts and incoherence aside, the far left and media echo chambers swooned their approval of these and other measures, but that was predictable. The real test will come when Biden doesn't have Trump to kick around anymore.

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Impeachment 2.0 moves to the Senate this week when Nancy Pelosi transmits the House charge of "incitement of insurrection" regarding the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. While Biden has ducked questions about whether trying a former president is good for the country, his failure to object is all the answer we need.

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He's on board and why not? As long as Trump is the target, Biden can keep his coalition intact. Trump is the best uniter Dems ever had.

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Even if he is convicted and barred from public office, that won't be the end of the Trump obsession. Pelosi, driven mad with hate, wants a commission to probe any Trump ties with Russia.

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At some point, however, the smoke will clear and voters will judge Biden on the merits of his own presidency. For some of us, that time began the moment he took office.

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See related Endorsements (Sean Delonas, 08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Miranda Devine: Please hold Dr. Fauci responsible for COVID-19 mistakes (Fox 01/25/2021)
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In his inauguration speech, President Biden pledged to "defend the truth and to defeat the lies."

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So let's start by being brutally honest about Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been the source of some of the most damaging misinformation about COVID-19.

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At the very least, the nation's top infectious diseases expert and chief medical adviser to Biden is loose with the facts and is prone to changing his mind.

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This is the man who dictated coronavirus policy in the Trump administration. If mistakes were made, as the Biden administration claims, they are Fauci's.

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Yet, astonishingly, Fauci told CNN Friday that a "lack of candor" from the Trump administration had cost American lives.

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If people's lives really were at stake last year, why did he wait until now to tell us?

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Chalk it up to another convenient fib from a habitual fibber, who has deceived us on everything from masks to herd immunity.

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Even if you decide these are not lies but lapses of judgment by Fauci, they had potentially lethal consequences.

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Take, for instance, Fauci's serenity back on Jan. 21 last year, when he assured us that the virus convulsing China at the time "is not something the citizens of the United States should be worried about."

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To be fair, the pandemic caught a lot of people unaware, but the thing about Fauci is that he always is so sure of himself.

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The following week, he was at it again, vehemently opposing President Donald Trump's proposed flight ban from China, which Biden at the time decried as "xenophobia."

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It was Jan. 28, and Trump had asked his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, into the Situation Room to convince Fauci and other officials that the China travel ban would save lives.

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"The guy I fought the most that day was Fauci," Navarro told ... "He was adamantly opposed to the travel ban. All he kept saying was travel restrictions don't work."

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"‘If you stop 20,000 Chinese nationals coming in every day and some are infected, you're telling me that's not going to spread the virus?' It was like talking to a brick wall."

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The next day, Navarro wrote a memo outlining three options: If you do nothing and there's no danger, that's OK; if you do the travel ban and there's no danger, you lose a few million dollars; but if you do nothing and there is danger, the risk is a million American lives and more than $2 trillion in damages.

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"I papered everybody in the task force with the memo and ... it flipped everyone to supporting the president."

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Trump imposed the travel ban on Jan. 31 and Fauci later credited the action with saving lives.

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But, says Navarro, "If Biden had been president and Fauci had been the top adviser, we would probably have a million more Americans dead."

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Then there was Fauci's advice on masks. Back in March, when the coronavirus was decimating New York, he told us masks were useless. "Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks."

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Three months later, he did a backflip: "Masks work ... to prevent you from infecting someone else ... but also, it can protect you to a certain degree."

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Posing by his pool in sunglasses and novelty socks last June, Fauci told ... he had no regrets about lying: "We were told ... we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs and masks for health providers [and decided] we really need to save the masks for the people who need them most."

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It was a noble lie, so he didn't feel the need to apologize or even be slightly ashamed. But nothing was more corrosive of public trust in medical experts at the height of the pandemic. If Fauci lied about masks, what else would he lie about?

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Turns out he lied about herd immunity, too. ... Fauci admitted ... that he had "slowly but deliberately been moving the goalposts" on the percentage of the population that needed to be vaccinated before "herd immunity" against COVID-19 was reached.

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"When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent. Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,' so I went to 80, 85."

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Fauci is not precise with numbers, which is odd for a scientist who professes to care about facts.

•
Fauci last week gushed about how "liberating" it was to work for Biden now. "One of the new things in this administration is: If you don't know the answer, don't guess. Just say you don't know the answer."

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That would suit Fauci because, for an expert, he never seems to know the answer to anything.

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See related Now Giddyup! (Chip Bok, 01/01/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Gregg Jarrett: Pelosi seeks retaliation in Trump impeachment trial — get ready for 'the sequel' (Fox 01/25/2021)
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Pelosi and her colleagues didn't bother to abide by their own established rules that call for hearings, presentation of evidence and witnesses, the right to cross-examine those witnesses, the right of defense counsel to be present, and the right of an accused to mount his own defense.

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By depriving Trump of the essential rights of due process, they abandoned all semblance of fairness in an impetuous bid to pass what can only be described as a "counterfeit impeachment."

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This thin veneer of legitimacy will not withstand scrutiny in the Senate when the trial is expected to commence on Monday, February 8, 2021.

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Republican senators are sure to assail the trampling of fundamental rights that are a cherished part of any trial process, including impeachment.

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A motion to dismiss the case on this basis must be seriously considered.

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A dismissal motion should also argue that the Senate lacks jurisdiction and authority to hold an impeachment trial of a private citizen who cannot be removed from office.

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It is obviously an impossibility to expel a person from an office he has already left.

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Take a moment to read the text of Article II of the U.S. Constitution. It states that "The President...shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors."

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Yet, Trump is no longer "The President" as the Constitution defines it because Joe Biden is. We have one president at a time.

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As law professor Jonathan Turley has correctly argued, removal from office is the primary purpose of impeachment. Inasmuch as Trump does not hold a federal office, a belated Senate trial of the former president would be invalid and unconstitutional.

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Some have argued that the value of a retroactive Senate impeachment trial is to bar Trump from holding future federal office. However, a strict reading of the Constitution indicates that disqualification from office is a secondary purpose. Indeed, it is a separate vote that can happen only after the Senate decides on removal. In other words, it is an optional, discretionary, and contingent penalty. Without removal, there can be no disqualification. Since Trump cannot now be removed from an office he does not hold, such a disqualification vote would not be constitutionally valid.

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If Congress is allowed to prevent private citizens from holding office by the practice of retroactive impeachments, what is there to stop it from deploying this tactic to forbid anyone they might politically oppose in the future? The answer is nothing. This is surely not what the Framers intended.

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Given the current composition of the U.S. Senate (a 50-50 tie with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote), a motion to dismiss may not succeed for purely political, instead of constitutional, reasons. Trump's defenders will then be forced to argue the case based on its conspicuous lack of merit.

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Did Trump truly "incite an insurrection," as the impeachment article alleges? It appears that Democrats cavalierly assumed that Trump was the proximate cause of the violence without ever bothering to consider what he actually told the gathered crowd.

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In relevant part, here is what Trump said: "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

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Nowhere in Trump's remarks did he advocate violence or destruction of property. He did not direct or encourage protesters to launch an assault on the Capitol building, breach security, attack police, threaten lawmakers, riot, vandalize, loot, and engage in seditious conduct.

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To the contrary, Trump called on the crowd to act "peacefully." He urged them to make their "voices heard," not their actions devolve into violence.

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Under the law, incitement requires the speaker to be clear, obvious, and unequivocal in directing specific acts of imminent harm. There is no evidence Trump did this.

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Yes, he extolled people to voice support for Republican lawmakers who were contesting the electoral vote and to "fight like hell" in their challenge of that result. But encouraging a public demonstration is not the same thing as inciting criminal acts.

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There is a big difference between rousing passions in a speech — which all politicians do — and inciting an insurrection. The former is protected by free speech, while the latter is not.

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As I have argued before, Trump's remarks on January 6, 2021 were ill-advised, if not foolhardy. They were driven by an obstinate refusal to accept defeat and the mistaken belief that Congress had the constitutional authority to reverse the outcome by altering the tally of electoral votes.

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But his words that day do not remotely constitute an impeachable offense or meet the legal definition of incitement.

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The violence on our nation's Capitol was grotesque and disgraceful. Those who committed crimes must be prosecuted and punished.

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However, what happened there does not constitute grounds for impeaching Trump, nor should Congress be permitted to compound the tragedy by contorting the meaning of impeachment for political gain or persecution.

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It is time to end the politics of revenge. An assault on our seat of government should not give rise to an assault on our Constitution.
Josh Hawley: It’s time to stand up against the muzzling of America (Fox 01/25/2021)
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Have you checked your social credit score lately? You might want to. Mine seems to have taken a nosedive this month. You might want to see how yours is doing.

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Everyone knows what a credit score is. But social credit scores are new. They're the latest corporate import from Communist China, where government and big business monitor every citizen's social views and statements.

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And they're the latest form of cancel culture in this country, as corporate monopolies and the left team up to shut down speech they don't like and force their political agenda on America.

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For those who still believe in free speech and the First Amendment, this is the time to take a stand.

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Like the old-fashioned kind of credit score, your social credit requires a lot of maintenance. You'll need to get good grades in school and stay out of trouble with the law. But that's just the start — you have to earn your right to live in polite society these days.

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So if you want to get a good job, stay at hotels and be served at restaurants, you will need to do a few other things.

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You will need to voice the right opinions. You will need to endorse the right ideas. You will need to conform. That's what the corporate chieftains tell us, anyway.

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They tried to reprimand me this month because I didn't. On behalf of the voters of my state, I raised a challenge to the presidential electors from Pennsylvania after that state conducted the election in violation of the state constitution.

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Maybe you agree with me. Maybe you don't. But whatever your view, corporate America's rush to cancel those it dislikes should trouble you.

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In my case, it started with leftist politicians demanding I resign from office for representing the views of my constituents and leading a democratic debate on the floor of the Senate.

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Taking that cue, a corporate publishing house then canceled a book it had asked me to write. Ironically enough, the book is about political censorship by the most powerful corporations in America. (And will be published by an independent publishing house.)

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Now corporate America is cancelling my political events, because two parties are apparently one too many for their taste.

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It will get worse. The tech titans have already booted dozens of conservatives off social media, and if they have their way half the House Republican conference will be expelled from Congress.

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The corporate titans seem to believe that the only way to get a democracy to their liking is to eliminate all threats to the Democratic Party's unified control of government.

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The alliance of leftists and woke capitalists hopes to regulate the innermost thoughts of every American, from school age to retirement. And they've trained enforcers of the woke orthodoxy to monitor dissent or misbehavior.

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A "Karen" who cuts the wrong person off in traffic gets followed home on a livestream and shamed into crying for mercy as her license plate is broadcast to an online hoard eager to hound her out of a job.

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Everyone knows it can happen to them, so everyone shuts down. The circle of trust narrows. Conversations — too easily recorded — shift to encrypted messaging apps. For now. Until those get banned too for interfering in efficient social credit markets.

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For some time, conservatives, recognizing that we're now the counterculture, indulged in the delusion that we could opt out of all this.

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We'd send our kids to schools that don't teach all the woke stuff. We'd make our friends at church, not at work, and take comfort that trust and openness were still possible in communities of shared purpose. We'd vote our conscience, because the ballot box was something no election could take from us.

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And if ever our political organizing were impeded by censorship — say, by the big tech giants — we could build our own platforms.

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But the left and the corporations are challenging all of this now. Your "conservative" social platform isn't worth much when Amazon can shut it down. Your vote may still be yours, but if your party is denied the means to effectively organize by corporate monopolies, it's not going to win. Your church, well, you can still attend for now, but go to the wrong church and you may not have a job in a few years.

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Here's the good news. The cancel culture agenda will only succeed if we let it. We need live in fear only if we choose to say nothing.

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In this time of testing, conservatives must not shrink back. We need to stand up for the right of every American to be heard.

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We need to stand up for the basic principles that join all Americans together — the right to speak freely, to debate openly, and to address our differences graciously without fear of being silenced or punished for dissenting views.

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The powerful see in the present moment an opportunity to consolidate their control over society and to squelch dissent.

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That means those who believe in the First Amendment and the fundamental principles of American liberty must now take a stand, while we still can.

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related And That's Why We Are Letting You Go (Mike Lester, 06/14/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Torquemada (Antonio Branco, 01/21/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
America’s ‘Great Purge’ [and Israel] (INN 01/24/2021)
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U.S. President Joe Biden and the small crowd assembled on the Washington Mall for his inauguration on Wednesday celebrated the event as "democracy's day." But in truth, the state of democracy in America today is nothing to celebrate.

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The talking heads on TV, Democrats and a smattering of anti-Trump Republicans insist that the fault for all of America's political woes lies with former president Donald Trump and the senators and congressmen who joined him in questioning the results of the election in several swing states.

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For refusing to set aside evidence of widespread election fraud, they stand accused of inciting an insurrection and so endangering the foundations of American democracy.

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Trump was impeached for his statements at the Jan. 6 rally, and Democrat lawmakers are calling for senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to be expelled from the Senate for questioning the electoral college votes from states with widespread allegations of election fraud.

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The accusers forget conveniently that Democrat leaders from Nancy Pelosi to Hillary Clinton have insisted since November 2016 that Trump's electoral victory was "illegitimate" and that the job of good Americans was to "resist" his "regime."

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They forget as well that Democrat lawmakers objected to the certification of the electoral college ballots in 2016.

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And when their objections failed to overturn the election results, a protest broke out in the visitors' gallery of the Capitol. Several protesters were arrested.

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No one in the media or in the coastal elite ever accused Pelosi and Clinton of inciting an insurrection, even as hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets demanding that Trump be overthrown.

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Republicans still unafraid of being called domestic terrorists and insurrectionists insist that if the violent protesters in the Capitol on Jan. 6 were insurrectionists, their "insurrection" was but a pale glimmer of the insurrection mounted in the streets of America's cities throughout the spring and summer, with the enthusiastic support and financial backing of Democrat leaders and their corporate sponsors.

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Seven hundred police officers were injured, dozens of citizens were killed and tens of thousands of businesses were destroyed and vandalized during the Antifa and BlackLivesMatter riots. Property damage and losses were assessed at $2 billion. Government buildings were besieged, burned to the ground and vandalized.

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The truth is that both Democrats and Republicans are wrong. Politicians from all sides and at all levels of government have long questioned election results. And no matter how strident their rejection of the results may have been, their actions never undermined America's democratic foundations.

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Likewise, America has been the site of mass protests since before the Revolution. The right to protest is considered so sacred that it is protected in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

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There are laws governing where the line between protests and lawbreaking lies. And policing protests is as American as the protests themselves. Protests do not threaten American democracy.

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The great danger to American democracy is not to be found in the streets. It is certainly not to be found in politicians debating how votes were counted and collected.

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The grave danger to American democracy emanates from the unprecedented fusion between the Democratic Party and corporate America. Political philosopher Angelo Codevilla referred to this unity of forces as a ruling "oligarchy" that is replacing the American Republic.

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The emerging "oligarchy" is currently enacting something that can rightly be dubbed "The Great Purge."

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The Great Purge, an event without precedent in American history, isn't about one side seizing the levers of power. It is about one side denying the other side the right to even vie for power.

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The purpose of purge is not to replace Trump loyalists with Biden loyalists in positions of power. Such replacement happens as a matter of course every time a new administration comes into office.

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The purpose of the purge is to "cancel" the Republican Party and its voters as a legitimate political force and so transform the United States into something approaching a one-party system.

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To achieve this goal, the Democrats in government and their partners in the corporate and big tech media are using their power to repress, silence, ruin and criminalize tens of millions of private citizens for the "crime" of supporting Trump and the Republican Party.

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The Big Tech giants' coordinated cancellation of all of Trump's social media accounts almost simultaneously was the opening gambit.

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It was rapidly followed by Congress's light-speed impeachment of Trump for his alleged role in fomenting the violent protest at the Capitol.

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Like the social media ban, the impeachment flew through with no debate, no due process and no evidence, through the good offices of Democrat lawmakers and their Republican allies who wish to make an example out of Trump.

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There is every reason to believe that in the coming months and years, the members of the ruling class will continue to abuse their power to destroy Trump, whether by bankrupting him or prosecuting him.

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They must continue to pursue him. For if he perseveres, then they will have failed.

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At some point in the near future, Trump will face a Senate trial. As he left the White House on Wednesday morning, Trump had yet to secure legal counsel for the trial.

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The reason he has no lawyers doesn't owe to a sudden shortage of good defense attorneys in Washington. It owes to fear of the purge. Qualified lawyers are afraid to represent him. And they should be.

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Cleta Mitchell has long been a fixture in Washington legal circles. A senior partner at the Foley and Lardner law firm, Mitchell was a member of Trump's legal team in his electoral challenges in Georgia.

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When word got out that she was representing him, Democrat operatives from the Lincoln Project began threatening her firm with a client walkout.

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The day after the Lincoln Project began threatening the firm's business, Mitchell announced her resignation. Within an hour of her announcement, all mention of Mitchell was scrubbed from the firm's website. One of Washington's top attorneys had been "cancelled."

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Weeks before, the Lincoln Project did the same thing to two other law firms whose partners were representing Trump's legal challenges to the Pennsylvania election results.

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The attorneys saved themselves from immediate cancellation by immediately cancelling their representation of the president of the United States.

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Since Jan. 6, petitions of lawyers and law students demanding that senators Cruz and Hawley be disbarred for lawfully challenging the electoral college votes of disputed states have garnered thousands of signatures.

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Harvard students are demanding the university withdraw the degrees of Trump advisers and political allies.

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Regular Americans who participated in the protests — outside and inside the Capitol — are also being purged. Doctors, lawyers, state lawmakers, policemen and others whose only "crime" was being present have lost their jobs after being "outed."

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As bad as things are becoming in the private sector, the smoke signals being sent out of Washington are even more alarming.

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Since Jan. 6, Democrat lawmakers have been preparing legislation that would apply counter-terror laws passed to fight foreign terror groups abroad to investigating and fighting Americans suspected of membership in "domestic terror groups."

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Former military, law enforcement and intelligence leaders are pushing for such a move.

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Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, spent the past year campaigning against Trump. ... "I see a similar dynamic in the evolution of al-Qaeda in Iraq, where a whole generation of angry Arab youth with very poor prospects followed a powerful leader who promised to take them back in time to a better place, and he led them to embrace an ideology that justified their violence. This is now happening in America."

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Former CIA director John Brennan then detailed who the enemy is. Aside from Trump and "lawmakers," Brennan said the new enemy comprises "an unholy alliance of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists and even libertarians."

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Former FBI director James Comey made the goal of the purge explicit. "The Republican Party needs to be burned down or changed."

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"Who would want to be part of an organization that at its core is built on lies and racism and know-nothingism? It's just not a healthy political organization."

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The Lincoln Project is run by former Republicans who have devoted the last four years of their lives to helping Democrats by demonizing Trump, Republicans and Republican voters. Their efforts met with negligible success in the 2020 elections. Trump increased his vote total by 11 million over 2016.

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Trump didn't lose because Republicans stopped supporting him. He lost because the Democrats massively increased their voter base.

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But since its election failure, the Lincoln Project has come into its own. When Ocasio-Cortez said Democrats should make a database of Trump administration officials to prepare a blacklist, she was pilloried as a totalitarian.

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But when the "former Republicans" from the Lincoln Project said they were compiling such a list, it went over without protest.

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And ever since, the Lincoln Project has led the way in blacklisting and cancelling everyone from Trump's attorneys to hotels and vacation websites that served Trump supporters who came to Washington on Jan. 6. It is now calling for the firing of everyone from a county election board chairwoman in Georgia to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

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See related Lincoln Project Checkpoint (Chip Bok, 01/19/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Torquemada (Antonio Branco, 01/21/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Newt Gingrich: Biden says one thing, does the opposite (Fox 01/23/2021)
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After watching the elite liberal media gush over the inauguration of President Biden, I have waited for someone to analyze the fascinating difference between his inaugural speech and his inaugural actions.

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I thought the speech was incredibly well-delivered. The new president promised unity, togetherness and finding common ground. It was a speech of classic American bipartisanship and civic goodwill.

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Biden said he would reach out to everyone, work with everyone, and be an American president rather than a Democratic partisan president.

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The speech strongly reminded me of President Barack Obama's first inaugural address.

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And in fact, I had about the same takeaway for Biden's speech as I did for Obama's: If the president leads the way he's speaking — and acts as he says he will — he will split the Republican Party and have a large, American governing majority for his entire presidency.

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Of course, President Obama didn't do this. He quickly went to the left and lost his majorities in the House and Senate. Based on President Biden's first days, it seems he is following the same Obama playbook.

•
Hours after giving his excellent inaugural speech, Biden went to the White House and signed 17 executive orders — including more than a dozen that totally contradict his pledge of bipartisanship, unity and finding common ground.

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Instead, he began the process of tearing down everything President Trump did — erasing everything Trump achieved — no matter how it benefited Americans or how many Americans supported it.

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We can start with immigration — an issue on which the country has long been deeply split. President Biden immediately withdrew President Trump's emergency declaration that was funding the wall and additional security at the Southern border.

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President Biden canceled his predecessor's order to exclude people in the country illegally from the state-by-state Census Bureau tallies for determining the number of congressional and Electoral College seats.

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President Biden also withdrew President Trump's orders that made it easier for law enforcement to deport people who are in the country illegally — including people who have broken laws unrelated to their immigration status.

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Biden said the U.S. – with zero stated conditions — would rejoin the World Health Organization, which continues to be beholden to Communist China and continues to lie about the origins of COVID-19 on the Chinese Communist Party's behalf.

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President Biden's decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement was, of course, inevitable. ... Ironically, the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement has been more than met by the US.

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Because we've moved toward natural gas and away from coal, our carbon emissions are drastically lower than even before we joined the agreement under President Obama. No other country in the world has reduced its environmental impact as deeply as the United States. But this only matters if you care about reality more than symbolism.

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President Biden also canceled the Keystone XL pipeline to move oil from Canada to the U.S. This was totally divisive.

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The pipeline was also a critical piece of President Trump's plan to keep the U.S. energy independent. But the left didn't like the idea of the pipeline, so it's out.

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To quickly name a few more, President Biden ended President Trump's travel ban on majority-Muslim countries that lacked appropriate security. (It was never a "Muslim ban" as the left asserted. Seven countries do not represent the entire Muslim world.)

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Further, why — in the midst of a pandemic — would you lift any travel bans from unstable nations?

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As a final example from the longer list ... President Biden's rescinding the 1776 Commission goes to the heart of the argument over our nation's identity.

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It is has become near-theology for the left to believe that America cannot be exceptional, and that people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson must not be considered serious contributors to our history.

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The left believes every American should ascribe to The New York Times' 1619 Project, which reframes all of American history around slavery and discredits virtually every person who had a hand in writing the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, or in winning the American Revolution.

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Now, none of this should be construed as a wish or desire that President Biden fail as our chief executive.

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Unless you are irrational, every American should want the American president to succeed. If the president doesn't succeed, America gets in trouble.

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This should be taken as a challenge to Biden to make sure his actions match his words. So far, I see the new president talking about unity and calling for all of us to work together, but I'm curious about who he thinks "us" really is.

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See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Ingraham: Second Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be 'ugly, feudal farce' (Fox 01/23/2021)
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"Chuck Schumer is pushing forward with a trial almost one year after the first impeachment farce that focused on Ukraine."

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"After initially suggesting a trial next week, the Senate reached an agreement earlier to push it to February 9th. That doesn't change the facts: This is an egregious, vicious act of political violence against the U.S. Constitution and our country."

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Supporters of holding a trial ... should "spare us the claim that Democrats and a handful of Republicans are trying to make that they truly care about punishing individuals who incite political violence."

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"Where was their sanctimony and demand for justice when Minneapolis was smoldering? ... Or how about when rioters and looters used the George Floyd case as an excuse to rampage across cities across the nation?"

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... the only Republicans who are likely to vote to convict Trump are the "self-indulgent, self-righteous goofballs" she referred to as "Senator Romkowski", referring to anti-Trump Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah.

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"Another point: Going after Trump makes the Biden administration look weak, Remember when Obama pursued Bush and Cheney for war crimes? Well, of course you don't because Obama was much too smart for that. He had too much sense."

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"If Democrats really believe that Donald Trump is disgraced and washed up with no political future, man, they are acting really insecure about that concept. If Democrats insist on going through with this unconstitutional impeachment, Republicans have to ensure that they pay a heavy political price."

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See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Hannity: Biden's 'unity' pledge 'rings more hollow than ever' with economy-crushing orders (Fox 01/23/2021)
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"Two days ago, Joe Biden promised over and over again [to bring] unity [and] compassion ... Tonight, his words ring more hollow than ever. Just as we predicted, a flurry of what are divisive, extremely far-left executive orders have now been signed into law."

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"The Keystone XL Pipeline has been canceled and thousands of layoffs in the oil and gas industry have already begun. The cost of insulin for low-income Americans is about to go up because of Joe's executive orders stripping away [prescription] price protections, and that's not all."

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"[A]pparently nothing unifies the country like a new, divisive Senate trial to remove a former president from an office he no longer holds, Amazing use of your taxpayer dollars and government resources in the middle of a pandemic."

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... said Schumer and Biden should note Washington Post reporting that the purported "insurrection" was not a product of Trump's words at a Washington rally on Jan. 6, but was instead "pre-planned" by fringe groups on the right and left.

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"So the obvious question now becomes: How did, if you read the article of impeachment, how did the president's remarks at the rally on January 6th incite the insurrection if the breach was all pre-planned?"

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"Trump did say the following: 'Many of you will now peacefully and patriotically go to the Captiol to make your voices heard.' A far cry from Chuck Schumer's own rant on the steps of the Supreme Court as he threatened Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch..."

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"Ultimately the former president will be acquitted, This is nothing but political theater, another Schiff-show that will cause problems in an already divided country."

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See related Working from Home (Antonio Branco, 03/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
You've Got To Be Carefully Taught (JWR 01/22/2021)
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Depressing times. The left appears to be winning the culture war in our country. Free speech has, for the most part, been banished from social discourse.

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If you disagree with left dogma you will be kicked off the major social media sites on the internet, or worse, you will be subject to "cancel culture" persecution which would include many or all of the following; losing your job, destroying your reputation, intimidation, bullying, and harassing your family members.

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The left controls universities, nearly every news medium, and the entertainment industry.

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How did we get here? How did the United States of America, a nation founded on personal freedoms, devolve into such a suppressive, restrictively dangerous society when it comes to expressing viewpoints that do not adhere to the politically correct orthodoxy of the left?

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My answer, it was easy. It was accomplished with leftist indoctrination over the course of a few generations in our public schools and universities.

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Yes, it started in the 1960's and metastasized as the decades went on. Slowly and surely the teachings of leftism crept into school curricula.

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It wasn't called "socialism," or "communism," or "Marxism" it was presented in terms that sound righteous and just, cloaked in all the Orwellian lies that the left has historically engaged in.

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"Social justice." "Equal rights." "Egalitarianism." "Redistribution of wealth." "Diversity."

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Words like "fairness" came to mean that no one should be allowed to have any more than anyone else. And "equality." It isn't enough to have equal education and equal opportunity; all people must have equal results.

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The idea of "group think" began, separating people into tribes. The idea of a "melting pot" was done away with. We were no longer the land of "e pluribus unum," we are divided into groups, the ones who are victims and the ones who victimize.

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Today in our country students are taught that white men are bad, evil people whose main purpose is to enslave, incarcerate, and murder all other races and cultures. It's part and parcel of what they are, the white man can't change.

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Western culture is mostly ignored or given short shrift. White man's contributions to science, the arts, writing, philosophy, inventions, industry, and technology have been replaced with an elevation of multiculturalism and feminism.

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The traditional nuclear family has been marginalized and special consideration is now given to two father households, two mother households, and no father households.

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There is no difference, our students are taught, between a family with a mother and father and a family without one.

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A family with two fathers and no mother or two mothers and no father is just as good as a family with one mother and one father.

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A man who decides (either with or without surgery) to suddenly call himself a woman is fine and should be allowed to engage in all aspects of our society as such, even women's sports.

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If one thinks of himself or herself as being a member of a race other than the one he or she was born into, then their choice must be honored and accepted by all of society. And don't forget, there are many more than just two sexes of human beings in the world today.

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Crazy progressive ideas and doctrines such as these few examples are part of the daily instruction of our children in our schools and universities and they have been going on for decades. For at least two or three generations.

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Is it any wonder then that we now have adult people in positions of power within academia, social media, business, entertainment, sports, and virtually every corner of our society who believe what they have been taught since the day they entered public school?

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And these indoctrinated people believe wholeheartedly that anyone who doesn't hold the same views as they were taught are either evil or stupid and unworthy to be heard in a public square. In fact ideas that differ from progressive ideology are downright dangerous and need to be silenced.

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See related What are You? (Gary McCoy, 07/21/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Diversity and bias obsessions come for wan Lake (JWR 01/22/2021)
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It's an odd way to seek national unity: call a significant portion of the American public white supremacists, racists, and nativists. Welcome to the Biden presidency.

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According to Biden, we are a "great nation" and a "good people." But we also oppress minorities with an ever-rising fervor. "Growing inequity" is among the greatest challenges facing the country, according to Biden, along with the "sting of systemic racism" and encroaching "white supremacy." Only now are we confronting "a cry for racial justice, some four hundred years in the making."

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One might have thought that more than 50 years of civil rights legislation; the banishing of Jim Crow segregation; the ubiquity of racial preferences throughout corporate America, higher education, and government; trillions of dollars of tax dollars attempting to close the academic achievement gap; and the election of black politicians by white voting districts would have reduced inequity, not increased it.

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But to Biden's speechwriters, steeped in academic victimology, racial inequity is always with us, requiring constant remediation from government.

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Biden rattled off a litany of white America's sins: the "harsh, ugly reality" of "racism, nativism, fear, [and] demonization" ; "anger, resentment, hatred, [and] extremism."

•
This characterization of America's worsening racism is not just factually ungrounded, it is also a tasteless rhetorical move in an inaugural address. Reflexive invocations of "systemic racism" and "white supremacy" have become the Tourette's Syndrome of left-wing professors and activists. They are au courant, shallow terms of the moment, lacking depth or weight.

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The "systemic racism" conceit means that every American institution is illegitimate and needs to be reconstructed. Biden's cabinet nominees, whether in health, finance, environmental policy, or education, have declared that eradicating systemic racism is their top priority.

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How this agenda will play out has already been adumbrated in the CDC's initial priority list for Covid vaccinations: hold off on vaccinating the elderly, despite their higher risk levels, because the elderly are disproportionately white. Racial quotas will become even more the order of the day than now.

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The diversity obsessives in the federal science bureaucracies waited out Donald Trump's presidency. They will now redouble their efforts to treat a researcher's race and sex as scientific qualifications in the awarding of federal research grants.

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Expect to see any mention of merit or excellence denounced as a form of bigotry, a response that the University of California and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as an army of corporate diversity trainers, have already perfected.

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The next four years will likely be one long anti-white-privilege struggle session. ... Biden is betting that white liberals, at least, will continue hanging their heads in penance for their hereditary crimes and trot off to their latest show trial.

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Given past behavior, he's probably right.

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See related A Dark Winter (Antonio Branco, 01/20/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden & Co. are driving the American freight train leftward at full throttle — we must resist (Fox 01/22/2021)
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Now that the Democrats won't have Donald Trump to kick around anymore, they'll do it anyway, if for no other reason than to keep your eyes off their extremism.

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While President Joe Biden is talking about "unity and compromise," the leftist machine is still obsessing over Trump (by design) and demonizing and silencing his supporters.

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Leftists don't want unity and compromise, which has been clear since Trump announced his candidacy in 2015. They want total control and submission.

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Their strategy is to keep the spotlight on Trump to continue to capitalize on the week from hell during which the D.C. riots occurred, milking from it every last ounce of negativity to discredit and neuter the MAGA movement.

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Meanwhile, Biden and his handlers are conducting the American freight train leftward at full throttle.

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Our job is to counter their propaganda and resist every leftist executive order and policy initiative with as much force as Democrats resisted Trump from day one — not for payback, not to be petty but for the good of the nation and our fellow citizens.

•
Progressive media outlets are beside themselves with glee; they feel empowered to renew their push to dismantle America as founded and use their fascist social media allies to implement their radicalism.

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CNN blissfully reported, "President Joe Biden is finalizing 17 executive moves just hours after his inauguration Wednesday, moving faster and more aggressively to dismantle his predecessor's legacy than any other modern president."

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Likewise, The New York Times glowed, writing, "In 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations signed hours after his inauguration, President Biden moved swiftly on Wednesday to dismantle Trump administration policies his aides said have caused the 'greatest damage' to the nation."

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Does that sound like an agenda of unity and compromise? Aren't you tired of disingenuous rhetoric from politicians? Biden is pretending with one hand that he is unifying and compromising while using his other to misrepresent and vilify Trump's record.

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It's certainly Biden's prerogative to push his preferred agenda, but could we please dispense with the double talk? Biden's actions are not in the spirit of compromise, and they will damage the United States, not undo damage.

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But in the spirit of humoring Biden's narrative for discussion purposes, let's ask ourselves what terrible damage Biden is trying to undo. Well, he's halting funding for the construction of a border wall. But did the erection of a border wall harm America? It did the opposite, and discontinuing the project will, in fact, harm the national interest.

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Biden is canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, which will harm the United States and Canada and help our adversaries — but it will appease environmental radicals, as will Biden's move to reenter the Paris climate accord in 30 days.

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The principal reason our emissions have decreased, by the way, is the shale gas revolution, which Biden and crew will probably try to end in an upcoming war on fracking.

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Adding insult to injury and guaranteeing further damage to the United States, Biden will impose a temporary moratorium on oil and natural gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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Biden designated Susan Rice, no stranger to political controversy and divisiveness, to lead a "robust, interagency" effort to force all federal agencies to make "rooting out systemic racism" a priority.

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... by doing this, the Biden administration is adopting the ideas of the radical left on critical race theory, which, a short time ago, was a kookish theory far outside the mainstream of thought and propagated by leftist academics.

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Now the president of the United States is telling us that racism is so deeply ingrained in our institutions that it will require a systemic overhaul.

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Do you honestly believe that? Do you have the courage to say what you believe anymore, or do the thought police and cancel culture enforcers have your tongue in a vice?

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I don't see how we can reduce racial tension in this country when the left is constantly pointing fingers and agitating. Everything is race, race, race. This exploitation might not be as toxic if Democrats, including Biden, hadn't been trying to cast all conservatives as bigots, but sadly, they have.

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It also might not be as toxic if Democrats weren't using race to villainize conservatives and as a Trojan horse to usher in their socialist agenda.

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Democrats want you to forget this, but Trump amassed a mile-long record of accomplishments that dramatically improved America, not damaged it.

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His policies triggered an unprecedented economic boom with enormous increases of middle-class family income and record-low unemployment rates, especially for minorities.

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For 40 months in a row, there were more job openings than job hirings. African American homeownership increased, and income inequality decreased.

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So, could we please keep our eyes on the big ball and not allow the left to divert us? They know Trump's policies didn't damage the United States, but they have to convince Americans otherwise to facilitate their fundamental transformation of America, which former President Barack Obama began and now seeks to complete during what has been ominously dubbed his third term under the failing Joe Biden.

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Don't fall for it. Resist.

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden wants to Make America California again… here's how that could go (Fox 01/22/2021)
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... asserts that the Biden-Harris administration is looking to California as its "de facto policy think tank" and an "incubator of innovation, premier laboratory of democracy (and) land of big ideas."

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How bad does it have to be in California, the land of near-perfect weather bracketed by the Pacific Ocean and the soaring Sierra Nevada mountains, to lose residents to other states year-after-year for more than a decade? Bad.

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California is losing a congressional seat for the first time since becoming a state in 1850. Tellingly, the No. 1 state where Californians go to become ex-Californians is Texas.

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The ideological opposite to the Golden State is set to gain three U.S. House seats in the decennial reapportionment.

•
A quick rundown of California policy failures provides a preview of President Joe Biden's future failures.

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California has the nation's highest income tax. And even with all that income redistribution, it still manages to have the nation's highest poverty rate after accounting for the state's high cost of living and generous welfare benefits. Relatedly, California also leads the nation in the extent of its homeless problem.

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Speaking of immigration, look for Biden to copy California by expanding welfare and health insurance benefits for immigrants. This, coupled with an officially welcome attitude, will act as a magnet for millions to migrate north from Central America.

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California's liberal lawmakers have also floated the idea of noncitizens and children voting in elections. Some of this is seen in the reintroduction of HR 1 in the House.

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HR 1 is a federal takeover of state elections. It would force states to adopt California's way of running elections: no voter ID allowed, big increases in mail-in ballots that are more susceptible to fraud, and restrictions on maintaining voter lists, meaning that more noncitizens, dead people and nonresidents remain signed up to vote.

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On the energy front, look for Biden to rapidly decarbonize – and, as in California, look for huge increases in costs for gasoline and electricity along with the occasional blackout, as wind and solar power can't be relied to keep the lights on and the air conditioners running without trillions of dollars in battery backup storage as Californians rediscovered last year.

•
California's costly and failed high-speed rail, launched in 2008 but still not in operation, will become the blueprint for similar boondoggles around the nation as federal money plugs the more than $30 billion hole needed to complete the project.

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And, despite the Democrats' overwhelming dominance of the California political scene, there's a growing chance that Gov.

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Gavin Newsom will face an embarrassing recall election later this year.

•
It seems even Californians – the ones who haven't moved to Texas already – aren't all that happy to be in California these days.
Vivek Ramaswamy: Big Tech's rise threatens country's future – beware the woke-industrial complex (Fox 01/22/2021)
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Last month, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reportedly made China's wealthiest man Jack Ma disappear. Here at home, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made the president of the United States disappear.

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Both of these moves were shows of strength. And the parallels between them should shake every American to their core.

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Silicon Valley tech giants like Twitter and Facebook are now, undisputedly, the most powerful companies in the history of the world.

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The Dutch East India Company wielded a private militia, but it still couldn't control what people said and read.

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... our new class of unelected corporate monarchs now controls whether and how Americans can hear any democratically elected president in the future.

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This is the power of the 21st-century Leviathan, far more insidious than anything Thomas Hobbes imagined.

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It's the unholy marriage between big government and big business, through which corporations operate as the extended tentacles of the state.

•
It's the birth of "woke capitalism" – a toxic new brew of profit-seeking and "wokeism." It's a cultural revolution perpetuated not just by politicians, but by the leaders of big corporations – especially in Silicon Valley.

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Don't private companies get to decide who uses their platforms? Yes – if they're actually behaving as private companies.

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But in reality, today's corporate behemoths in Silicon Valley are effectively doing the work of big government under the cloak of private enterprise to evade constitutional constraints. Here's how the game works.

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First, Congress endowed big tech with the special corporate privilege of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that immunizes technology companies from any liability in state court for censoring or otherwise regulating user content.

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Second, liberal congressmen threatened those same companies at hearings for the last year saying that if they fail to remove "hate speech" from White nationalists, they would be punished.

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Third, liberal lawmakers congratulated social media companies after they go on to censor content that Democrats don't like.

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Fourth, tech titans took their most aggressive actions of all just as Democrats are poised to have control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in over a decade.

•
And fifth – of course – Silicon Valley billionaires made staggeringly one-sided campaign contributions to those same Democratic candidates as a show of good faith, and to remind them where their bread is buttered. ...

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In 2020, "keeping money out of politics" ceased to be a liberal mantra. Instead, blending profits with politics became the new progressive way.

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Consequently, we have devolved from a three-branch federal government to one with a headquarters in Silicon Valley and a branch office in Washington D.C., and with no pesky constitutional term limits for Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

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The great challenge for today's conservative movement isn't to simply dismantle big government. It's to dismantle the powerful henchmen of big government in the private sector.

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They can fire you, tarnish your reputation, excise you from the Internet and cancel your identity. You can either speak your mind freely or enjoy the comforts of modern life. But you can no longer safely do both.

•
Conservative solutions must be prudent, not merely reactionary. Enacting regulations out of spite will only favor big business leaders who deftly capture the regulatory process.

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Instead, the right first step is to work through the last institutional bastion that we can trust – our court system – to recognize that state action dressed up as private business is still state action.

•
The First Amendment applies to big tech censorship, a view supported by certain Supreme Court precedents.

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Hopefully, victories in court against today's new class of state-like actors will spawn a cultural revival that steadily restores the voice of every American – in their places of work and their sites of worship, at the dinner table and on the Internet.

•
No doubt this will be difficult for both populist conservatives and classical free-market conservatives to swallow. But to borrow from Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," we're not in 1980 anymore.

•
The problem isn't just big government; it's the woke-industrial complex. Defeating that monster should be the defining challenge of the new conservative movement.

•
If we succeed, the prize is worth winning: a revival of true democracy and true capitalism in America. To save both, we need to disentangle each from the other.

•
The leaders who help the Republican Party understand this new reality will hold the keys to the GOP's future – and more importantly, our country's future as well.

•
See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Tucker Carlson: Biden cancels Keystone Pipeline, opens the border and shows who he really is (Fox 01/22/2021)
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Thursday was Joe Biden's first day in office. You can tell a lot about what people value on their first day in any job, so what's at the top of Joe Biden's to-do list? Opening the borders and crushing our country's last remaining independent economic sector.

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First, Biden signed an executive order revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. Now, no matter how you feel about fossil fuel (and if you drive a car or fly on airplanes or use the hospital or enjoy electricity, you might want to think carefully about how you feel about fossil fuel), there is no getting around the economic effect of this decision.

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Millions of Americans don't have jobs right now, but with a single shaky signature, Joe Biden just put another 11,000 people out of work.

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But he wasn't done. Biden also instructed the Department of Homeland Security to halt deportations of illegal aliens.

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And when we say illegal aliens, we mean millions of illegal aliens, not just the countless undocumented Americans that Joe Biden tells us are busy curing cancer, winning Nobel Prizes and in general being a lot more impressive than you have ever been.

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Biden's order also covers criminals, rapists, murderers, and others who are dangerous to you and me.

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So the message is clear: If you break our laws to get here and commit violent felonies once you arrive, sometimes against American citizens, Joe Biden will reward you with blanket amnesty. It's a pretty strong straight statement to make on your first day as president.

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In a typical 100-day period last year, for example, ICE agents removed 46,800 immigrants with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. Now they're all staying, and that's fine with Joe Biden.

•
One thing is for certain, they're definitely not aliens. That's another change we learned about this week. Henceforth, the totally-modern-and-not-at-all-radical Biden administration demands that federal agencies refer to illegal aliens as "non-citizens."

•
That language is less precise, obviously, but it's way less racist, so it's better. In the name of unity, people should not be allowed to use certain words or have certain thoughts. Everyone must think exactly the same thing all the time.

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Now, if that seems like terrifying mandatory conformity to you, you're wrong. It's unity. That's why on the Biden administration's website, you can now select your preferred pronouns as you fill out the contact form.

•
We do have one nagging question, though: What exactly is the point of all of these things that have been done in the last 24 hours?

•
Will any of these changes, these bigger things that Joe Biden has enacted on his very first day in office, actually help any living American?

•
We're pretty sure the pronoun thing will appeal to whatever tiny group of deluded, unhappy people still believe that destroying nature's gender roles is a form of liberation, but what about everyone else?

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How, for example, does amnesty and the waves of mass illegal immigration that inevitably will follow make this a better, more united country?

•
You're not supposed to ask that question, but it's totally fair. We have a right to know. Anyone who tries to answer that question, not that anyone has so far, should first have to explain whatever happened to the state of California, the state with the most illegal immigration by far.

•
How, in the course of a single generation, did the best state in the Union become the worst state? How did the place that so many Americans desperately wanted to move to become the place that millions of Americans are fleeing?

•
The Biden administration's immigration plan is not designed to improve the United States of America. It's not intended to make Americans happier or richer or more secure or more united.

•
You might think those would be the aims of every government policy ever but no, not in this case. The point of Joe Biden's immigration plan is "racial equity."

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Now, we've got to be completely honest with you, we're not exactly sure what that means. But as of tonight, it sounds a lot like punishment.

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Mass immigration, explains Joe Biden, isn't something that will make your life better. It's something you deserve.
Biden immigration order shows new administration wants America 'united behind lawlessness' (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"In an executive order Biden thought was so important he had to issue it on day one, the administration purports to have the authority to halt all deportations in the U.S., even those that have been fully adjudicated."

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"This is both profoundly dangerous and profoundly revealing, Dangerous for all the obvious reasons, Biden's move will cause an explosion in violent crime and COVID. Tens of thousands of migrant criminals and traffickers are already rushing the border right now. They clearly got the amnesty memo."

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"In part, he's doing it to satisfy his party's radical open-border caucus. AOC and the gang are eager to replace native-born Americans and lawful immigrants with foreigners who came here illegally."

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"This, they hope, will hasten the cleansing of the country which they believe is systemically racist. A crush of new illegal immigrants fully programmed by BLM-approved curriculum and far-left influence."

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"This is about cutting labor costs and giving them more power over workers, This is not about helping Hispanic voters or atoning for American sins, it is about putting money in the pockets of Biden donors."

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"They care about law and order when the angry mob sends them scurrying for cover, but when some poor Hispanic-American family is trying to save their son from MS-13 ... Pelosi and the gang, they look the other way."

•
"When a landscaper or a construction worker can no longer support his family ... because wages have been driven down due to the flood of illegal workers, Team Biden doesn't care."

•
"The American people are collateral damage on the road to their open borders nirvana."
Gingrich: Dems 'methodically trying to destroy conservatism' with Biden as 'pleasant cover' (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"I think you are seeing the hysteria of the Biden system, because it's not really about Biden himself."

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"It's his entire team around him who are radicals who believe that they could exterminate the Republicans. That would be one way to get the 'unity'."

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... noted the case of New York Times contributor Will Wilkinson who had joked that if Biden meant what he said about unity, he would "lynch Mike Pence."

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"That gives you a sense of the ferocity and the anger and the hatred that underlies the modern left."

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... "you have to think in terms of the Biden machine, not Biden personally. Biden didn't personally sit down and draft 17 executive orders — but radicals on his staff did."

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"Think about this. On the very day he was sworn in as president, he signed an executive order to destroy the 1776 Commission. And all of our viewers tonight ought to ask themselves, what is it about this 1776 Commission that made it such a big deal that Biden went out of his way to destroy it on his first day of office?"

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"The answer is it is a pro-American, pro-history, pro-fact commission which threatens the very essence of the modern left and ... all of their lies about the makeup of America."

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... went on to contrast the "smiling" visage of Biden on the inaugural stage with the dangerous and divisive policies he immediately enacted upon leaving it.

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"I thought it was a great speech. I thought it had all the right tone. But I also know that if Eisenhower had given that speech, he would have meant it."

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"He's just the pleasant cover, below which they are methodically trying to destroy conservatism."

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related I AM the Democratic Party! (Gary Varvel, 10/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
The revenge factor in America's crisis: Pelosi and others (INN 01/21/2021)
Thoughts on the 1776 Commission and its report (JWR 01/21/2021)
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The unanimously approved conclusions focused on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the historical challenges to these founding documents and the need for civic renewal.

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The 16-member commission was diverse in the widest sense of the familiar adjective. It included historians, lawyers, academics, scholars, authors, former elected officials and past public servants.

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First, the commission offered a brief survey of the origins of the Declaration of Independence, published in 1776, and the Constitution, signed in 1787.

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It emphasized how unusual for the age were the founders' commitments to political freedom, personal liberty and the natural equality endowed by our creator — all the true beginning of the American experiment.

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The commission reminded us that the founders were equally worried about autocracy and chaos. So they drafted checks and balances to protect citizens from both authoritarianism, known so well from the British Crown, and the frenzy of sometimes wild public excess.

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The report repeatedly focuses on both the ideals of the American founding and the centuries-long quest to live up to them

•
It notes the fragility of such a novel experiment in constitutional republicanism, democratic elections and self-government — especially during late-18th-century era of war and factionalism.

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The report does not whitewash the continuance of many injustices after 1776 and 1787 — in particular chattel slavery concentrated in the South, and voting reserved only for free males.

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Indeed, the commission explains why and how these wrongs were inconsistent with the letter and spirit of our founding documents.

•
So it was natural that these disconnects would be addressed, even fought over, and continually resolved — often over the opposition of powerful interests who sought to reinvent the Declaration and Constitution into something that they were not.

•
Two of the most widely referenced Americans in the report are Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther King Jr. Both argued, a century apart, for the moral singularity of the U.S. Constitution.

•
Neither wished to replace the founders' visions; both instead demanded that they be fully realized and enforced.

•
The report details prior ideological and political challenges to the Constitution as we approach America's 250th birthday.

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Some were abjectly evil, such as the near-century-long insistence that the enslavement of African Americans was legal — an amorality that eventually led to more than 600,000 Americans being killed during a Civil War to banish it.

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Some ideologies, such as fascism and communism, were easily identifiable as inimical to our principles.

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Both occasionally won adherents in times of economic depression and social strife before they were defeated and discredited abroad.

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Perhaps more controversially, the commission identified other challenges, such as continued racism, progressivism and contemporary identity politics.

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The report argued how and why all those who insisted that race might become a basis from which to discriminate against entire groups of people were at odds with the logic of the Declaration.

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Historically, progressivism assumed that human nature is malleable. With enough money and power, Americans supposedly can be improved to accept more paternalistic government, usually to be run by technocrats.

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Often they sought to curb the liberties of the individual, under the guise of modernist progress and greater efficiency.

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The commission was no more sympathetic to the current popularity of identity politics or reparatory racial discrimination.

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It argued that the efforts to insist that race, ethnicity, sexual preference and gender define who we are, rather than remain incidental in comparison to our natural and shared humanity, will lead to a dangerous fragmentation of American society.

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Finally, the commission offered the unifying remedy of renewed civic education. Specifically, it advocates far more teaching in our schools of the Declaration and the Constitution, and other documents surrounding their creation.

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The commission may be short-lived with the change of administrations, given that it was born in the chaos of the divisive present. President Joe Biden reportedly planned to terminate the commission through an executive order.

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But any fair critic can see that the report's unifying message is that we are a people blessed with a singular government and history, that self-critique and moral improvement are innate to the American founding and spirit, and that America never had to be perfect to be both good and far better than the alternatives.
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Free speech, the First Amendment and our modern tech-filled world (Fox 01/21/2021)
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The speech we love needs no protection. The speech we hate does. The government has no authority to evaluate speech.

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As the framers understood, all people have a natural right to think as we wish and to say and publish whatever we think.

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Even hateful, hurtful and harmful speech is protected speech.

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Yet, in perilous times, such as the present, we have seen efforts to use the courts to block the publication of unflattering books.

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We have seen state governors use the police to protect gatherings of protestors with whose message they agreed and to disburse critical protestors.

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We have seen mobs silence speakers while the police did nothing.

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And in perilous times, such as the present, we have seen Big Tech companies silencing their opponents. I hate when they do that, but they have every right to do so. They own the bulletin board.

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Twitter and Facebook can ban any speech they want because they are not the government. And the First Amendment only restrains the government. In the constitutional sense, free speech means only one thing — free from government interference.

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Punishing speech is the most dangerous business because there will be no end. The remedy for hateful or threatening speech is not silence or punishments; it is more speech — speech that challenges the speaker.

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Why do government officials want to silence their opponents? They fear an undermining of their power. The dissenters might make more appealing arguments than they do.

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St. Augustine taught that nearly all in government want to tell others how to live. How about we all say whatever we want and the government leaves us alone?
Tucker Carlson: Joe Biden declares war on 'White supremacy.' What does he mean by that? (Fox 01/21/2021)
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Inauguration Day is always a big moment for this country, and so it was Wednesday.

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There were solemn speeches, sworn oaths, belted anthems, all echoing against the backdrop of 26,000 smartly attired federal troops guarding our capital city from unseen threats.

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If you watched and listened to most of the media coverage, you got the impression that Joe Biden will bring hope and decency back to America and fill the yawning void where empathy should be.

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His arms, lean and hard from decades of empathetic labor on our behalf, will encircle us like lights from the Lincoln Memorial.

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Joe Biden and his wife Jill are the father and mother of this nation, may their names emerge from our lips in praise forever. And so on.

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The funny thing is, every person with a microphone in every TV studio in America knew the fuller truth. They knew, for example, that Joe Biden isn't well. Everyone in Washington knows that, but no one said it out loud.

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One particular passage of the speech stuck out, one we found very hard to disagree with:

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"On this January day, my whole soul is in this: Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation, and I ask every American to join me in this cause ... With unity, we can do great things, important things."

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To which we say, "Amen." Unity is precisely what this country needs more than anything. We are all in this together, and we have no choice but to hang together. Let's finally accept that we are one country, act like we are and make this a better place for everyone. If Joe Biden can bring unity to this country, he will be a legitimately great president.

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But there's a catch. There always is a catch. Unity doesn't mean every single American because not everyone who was born within our borders really is an American.

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Some of us are beyond the pale of citizenship. ... Here's who Joe Biden says those people are. "A rise of political extremism, White supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat."

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On one level, this is not very remarkable. Not many Americans support White supremacy. Most people in this country find it disgusting, and they should.

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But the question is, what does it mean to wage war on White supremacists? Can somebody tell us in very clear language what a White supremacist is?

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This is not a question of semantics. Joe Biden is the president of the United States, not a high school debate coach. He controls the largest military and law enforcement agencies in the world.

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He has now declared war, and we have a right to know, specifically and precisely, who exactly he has declared war on.

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Innocent people could be hurt in this war. They usually are. There could be collateral damage in this war, and the casualties will be Americans.

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So, again, what is a White supremacist? You might be surprised to learn just how broad the definition has become.

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Bloomberg News has described a wall along our southern border as "a Monument to White Supremacy," so be certain not to support that.

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Colin Kaepernick, who seems to have the unequivocal support of corporate America, calls the Fourth of July an example of White supremacy. Better put away the fireworks and the hot dogs.

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The United States Army, a trusted institution if there ever was one, has an entire manual on what is and what is not White supremacy.

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Apparently, among the tell-tale signs of a committed White supremacist are these: Celebrating Columbus Day, using the term "American exceptionalism" , any support for federal border security or English-only measures or "education funding from property taxes" .

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Using the phrase "there's only one human race" is White supremacy, too, according to the Army.

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Here's the problem: Let's say you don't buy those definitions. Let's say you're, for example, White but poor and you have trouble accepting the idea that you're benefiting from some kind of structural advantage.

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Well, you'd better shut up about it if you know what's good for you, because according to the United States Army, the "denial of White privilege" is a classic sign of, yes, White supremacy. So no complaining.

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You know who does have power? Private equity has power, a lot of it. So does Google, Citibank, the government of China, even silly Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with her massive social media accounts.

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Those are the people who run our country and they don't like to be criticized. On the other hand, they don't care to defend themselves directly with reason and fact, often because they can't.

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So instead, they denounce you and their critics as White supremacists, and then they just ignore what you say.

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They're getting the FBI and the Pentagon involved in this hunt for people who may criticize them. That's a very big change, and you should understand what it's really about.

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See related What are You? (Gary McCoy, 07/21/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
The shot not heard round the world (INN 01/20/2021)
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... an insurrection requires armed insurrectionists. Unless, of course, you live in LaLa Land California, home of Hollywood's virtual reality, and so you can't tell the difference between Reality and the virtual kind.

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Moreover, the inability to call a spade a spade has now spread from California, to all over the US.

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Nutcases think that, despite their male chromosomes, they can label themselves female (go to the girl's room, play athletics vs. females- and win big) or even refer to themselves as "we" or "they"...

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They have "big, merciful" hearts and think that the US is big and wealthy enough to knock down the borders and incorporate all comers, even scum like the rebels from Syria, and drug cartel gangsters from Mexico.

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Meanwhile, they have no mercy on unemployed oil men in Pennsylvania, coal miners in Kentucky and West Virginia who haven't worked for years, and factory workers all over the US who have no factory to work at (the factory is now in China).

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In the movie Matrix, most humans think they are living, but they are really sleeping away their lives. Only a very few have refused the Blue pill of coma, and have swallowed the Red pill of reality.

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Pelosi and her mob of Bluepillers can label what happened in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021, an insurrection. A bunch of idiots waved Confederate flags as they trespassed on the Capitol Building, and the Bluepillers call that an "insurrection".

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No guns, no revolution, no insurrection- but not according to Lala Land Bluepillers. They have declared the trespass an "insurrection", and want to impeach President Trump for inciting a revolution.

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The tragedy of the events of that day is that the trespass has overshadowed the real drama of that day, which was going on inside the halls of Congress.

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January 6 is the day that the US Constitution designates for counting the Electoral College votes in the previous November's Presidential election. C-Span televised the whole event, and I watched.

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As is well known, the election in 2020 smelled to high Heaven of fraud: mail-in votes, no checking of ID's, Dominion machines designed by the CIA to commit fraud (but" NO, we Dems would never dream of cheating with machines designed for cheating" ), polling place observers not allowed to observe, etc.

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There was debate on the floor of Congress. First, Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, wheeling in a table loaded with postcards:

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"My fellow Congressmen and women, you have in front of you 32,000 fraudulent voter registration cards that were used by voters in Arizona. This was more than enough to tip the scales and make for a fraudulent election result, as the difference between President Trump and Joe Biden was only 11,500 votes."

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Finally, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas: "Gentlemen and woman, everyone in this hall has approached today's issue as if there were two doors: accept the election results as is, or reject them. However, I offer a third door: the door of history. In 1876, the election featuring Rutherford B. Hayes against Samuel Tilden was also tainted by charges of fraud. To settle the issue, an emergency ten-day investigation was undertaken by a committee comprised of five Congressmen, five Senators, and five judges. I propose that we do the same. 75 million Americans today claim that this election was rigged, and for the sake of peace and the truth, I ask you to follow the route of history, investigate and settle this issue once and for all."

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At this point the invasion took place. ... It was hours before peace was restored, Senator Cruz's eminently reasonable proposal was rejected by the Bluepillers, and Joe Biden was declared the winner.

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All the subsequent nonsense like the impeachment of President Trump is a smokescreen to make sure that 75 million Americans never get Senator Cruz's investigation.

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It's not Islamophobia that led Prez Trump to ban foreign Muslims from entering the US: it's that they are dangerous people, with values antithetical to the US.

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It's not jingoism that had him build a wall: it's respect for the law, discrimination of legal from illegal, and a sincere desire to protect Americans, their jobs, and their very lives.

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Finally, everyone knows about the damage done by the BLM/Antifa riots from May till now: shooting, killing of twenty-plus victims, burning, and looting in downtown Portland, Chicago, Manhattan, LA, Minneapolis and total twenty American cities.

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Only one person was shot and killed in the Capitol Building on January 6. Ashli Babbitt was unarmed, yet she was gunned down by a cop.

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What would have happened in American cities had she not been a white Caucasian backer of President Trump?
Get Ready for 4 Years of Media Sycophancy (JWR 01/20/2021)
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For four years, the media complained that outgoing President Donald Trump treated them as an enemy. They self-servingly claimed that they were actually the protectors of democracy and individual rights.

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Trump, for his part, attacked the media whether they deserved it or not: Every disparaging headline, true or not, became "fake news."

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But the media's lack of credibility wasn't solely attributable to Trump. It resulted from their own journalistic malfeasance for years on end during former President Barack Obama's administration — "his only scandal was wearing a tan suit!" — followed by their aggressive repetition of even the most thinly sourced scandal regarding Trump.

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And now we'll return to the gaslighting of the Obama era, when members of the Obama team could openly admit to lying to the media, only to receive obsequious praise in return.

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Media members are even admitting that the vacation has begun: CNN's Jim Acosta — and, ladies, find you a man who loves you like Jim Acosta loves Jim Acosta — admitted that he'd be covering Biden differently, explaining, "If being at the White House is not an experience that might merit hazard pay ... then perhaps it is going to be approached differently."

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... now that the Biden administration is a reality, our media can go back to sleep. And so, the controversies of the day will turn to the trite.

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The big question won't be governmental oversight but media self-policing: Last week, the media were consumed with the vital question of whether Vogue magazine's cover of Harris is respectful enough, given that it shows her wearing her trademark Converse sneakers.

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Meanwhile, the same media outlets that act as stenographers for the Democratic Party will insist that other outlets meet with social media censorship.

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After all, American needs unity! And that unity can only be provided by the same people who have wrecked all pretense of institutional objectivity in the pursuit of partisan outcomes.

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People will continue to seek information from alternative sources, of course. But that will only provoke the media to seek new methods of repressing those alternatives.

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As it turns out, the commitment of many in our media isn't to truth or facts. It's to monopolistic control.

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See related Mount Surigaffle (Antonio Branco, 07/02/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
In President Biden's administration, liberalism will be unleashed — and will fail again (Fox 01/20/2021)
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I've lived through two major Democratic takeovers of Washington in my 35 years inside the Capital Beltway.

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The first was in 1993 when Bill Clinton and the "new Democrats" seized complete control of power, and the second was in 2009, with the Barack Obama "hope and change" liberal agenda.

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In both cases, Democrats and their liberal allies outran their mandate from voters with "Hillarycare" and then "ObamaCare," obscenely obese spending bills, and a regulatory vice grip on American businesses large and small.

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In both cases, within two years of unchecked liberal mischief, voters had had it and pummeled the Democrats with massive Republican victories from coast to coast from local dogcatcher races to congressional seats and governorships.

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My prediction is that this is precisely what Democrats will do. The dominant far-left wing of the party will feel uncaged. The "squad" in the House, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., will be demanding a take-no-prisoners rush to socialist policies on health care, education, student loans and climate change.

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... they will try to jerry-rig the rules in Washington to sidestep every check and balance that was installed by our Founding Fathers and nearly 230 years of speed bumps to protect the rights of the minority.

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This means saying adios to the Senate filibuster and hello to court-packing schemes. The House Democrats have already canceled the "pay as you go" budget rules requiring new spending to be offset with other deficit-reduction measures.

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This whole leftist power agenda has a name: the "Great Reset," which is a repudiation of capitalism and free markets and a grand tilt toward re-empowering the elites and the ruling class.

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The globalists are all for it. So is the pope. Putting America first is to be replaced with globalism.

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As sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, Americans will be repulsed by this anti-freedom agenda.

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The nation voted against Trump's antics and his bombastic personality, not his policies — which were a spectacular success, particularly on the economy.

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Let's not forget that right before the November elections, almost 6 of 10 Americans said the country was better off today than four years ago — i.e., the end of the Obama-Biden regime.

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Democrats will concentrate power in Washington and refill the swamp. Most voters still want it drained.

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To save the country from socialism — which voters in 2020 said they clearly do NOT want — Republicans need to ... play defense like it's fourth down on the one-yard line and lay out an alternative vision for America based on opportunity, freedom, free markets, choices and, yes, making America great again.

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Conservatives may have lost the reins of power in Washington, but they won nearly everywhere else coast to coast in November.

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... the victims of progressivism and redistributionism, as always, will be the very people who benefited the most from Trump policies: the poor, the working class and minorities.

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Liberalism has been unleashed, but it has also been put on trial in 2021 and 2022. I'd bet high odds that voters will convict it two years from now.

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See related Draining the Swamp (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Jason Chaffetz: Biden administration — here’s what to expect (Fox 01/20/2021)
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Americans should prepare for a severe case of whiplash as President Joe Biden's administration takes office.

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With power changing hands, political expediency will drive Democrats to embrace positions they spent four years castigating.

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Meanwhile, we'll see a sea change in the way media cover the president. ... we can expect the Biden administration to follow in the steps of the Obama administration to leverage the mainstream media's unsavory devotion to the Democratic Party and deliberately mislead the public.

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With Democrats now in control of the House, the Senate and the presidency, we can almost certainly expect the Democrats' almost religious devotion to resistance and protest to wane, while their renewed commitment to law and order will manifest itself in efforts to control speech and suppress dissent.

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As with any Democratic administration, we can expect to see government grow, spending explode, and taxes increase. These changes are predictable.

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But other changes may be less obvious, like the sudden allegiance of many federal employees who spent four years sabotaging their commander in chief.

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Anticipating a president who will fulfill their dreams of heavy-handed regulation, ever-growing budgets, and unrestrained surveillance power, the federal bureaucracy will welcome further weaponization of its powers to retaliate against Trump supporters.

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Perhaps the most predictable battle is the coming filibuster fight, a procedural change necessary for Senate Democrats to impose their most unpopular agenda items on a sharply divided electorate.

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Should Democrats somehow convince recalcitrant senators to go along with dropping the filibuster, we can expect a no-holds-barred stampede to preserve Democratic Party power.

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Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood will top the list. This will be followed by massive new entitlement programs for health care and student loans — designed to be irreversible, of course.

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With democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont heading up the Senate Budget Committee, there will be no limits to the amount of money Democrats will feel entitled to take from wage earners.

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And don't forget House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's longstanding effort to federalize elections, removing the constitutional imperative for local control.

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Thanks to President Trump, far fewer Americans willingly accept carefully constructed fake media narratives at face value.

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I remain hopeful that Americans will seek out truth from reliable news sources, reject efforts to hamper their freedom of speech and assembly, and lean on their state legislatures to push back hard against incursions of state and local authority.

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See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: As troops swarm our capital, Democrats send clear message: We're in charge now (Fox 01/19/2021)
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Our capital city is currently under military occupation. By Inauguration Day, there are expected to be more than 26,000 armed federal troops in Washington. No living American has seen a moment like the one we're watching now.

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For comparison, Lyndon Johnson sent a total of 13,600 federal troops and D.C. Army National Guardsmen to quell the race riots in Washington that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Those riots injured hundreds of people and killed at least 13.

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In 1864, as the Civil War raged on the other side of the Potomac and Americans died every day in large numbers on the battlefield, there were fewer federal troops protecting Washington, D.C., than there are right now.

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But according to our leaders, the so-called "insurrection" of Jan. 6 was much worse than any of that. So in response, they have assembled the largest military presence in Washington in all of American history during peacetime. It's truly a national force, with Guardsmen from every state in the Union as well as Puerto Rico. The question is, why?

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For decades, Washington, D.C., had the highest per-capita law enforcement presence in the country and one of the highest in the world. There was no need to fly in troops from Alaska to keep the city safe.

•
But keeping the city safe is hardly the point of this exercise. The murder rate in the District of Columbia has risen with terrifying speed over the last six months.

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Men, women and children have been shot to death in the streets, but no one in charge seems to care about that or even notice.

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So no matter what they are telling you, those 26,000 federal troops are not there for your safety.

•
Instead, unmistakably, the Democratic Party is using those troops to send the rest of us a message about power: "We're in charge now. We run this nation, from Honolulu to our colony in the Caribbean and everywhere in between, very much including where you and your family live. Do not question us men with guns. We control the Pentagon." And indeed, they do.

•
The mask is off our military leadership. The very same generals who howled at the idea of deploying American troops to stop an invasion of our southern border sent tens of thousands of soldiers with rifles to Washington purely as a show of force on behalf of the political party they support.

•
Once they did that, they allowed Democratic politicians to degrade and politicize the military itself.

•
Democrats in Congress demanded that the troops sent to Washington this week submit to a political purity test — "ideological vetting", as they put it — to make certain that every soldier professed loyalty to the new regime.

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Not loyalty to our country, not loyalty to our Constitution, but loyalty to the aims of a specific political party.

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Nothing like that has ever happened in America and just a few months ago, it would have been unimaginable. Suddenly it's compulsory.

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Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., has even gone so far as to say that every White man in this country is a potential murderer, that every White man in America should be under suspicion — purely on the basis of being White and male — of planning a presidential assassination.

•
On Nov. 5, 2009, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire on innocent people at Fort Hood, Texas. He shot 45 people and 13 of them died.

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When it emerged later that Hasan was an Islamic extremist and the Army had failed to notice his extremism or in any way protect the public from it, no one at the Pentagon was court-martialed.

•
Instead, the rest of us sat through months of lectures about how we had no right to come to broader conclusions about what had happened at Fort Hood.

•
Yes, the shootings were bad, though not — President Barack Obama made this clear at the time — an act of terrorism.

•
But far worse than mass murder, we were told, would be the sin of drawing any connection between Nidal Hasan's beliefs and the beliefs of anyone else in our country. Nidal Hasan was literally a lone gunman, not a stand-in for all Muslims.

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That's what they told us. And by the way, it's OK that they told us that. Most Americans are decent people who don't blame entire groups for the crimes of a few. Bigotry is immoral and so is collective punishment. There is nothing more un-American than that.

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But collective punishment is now the official policy of the federal government, and it's enforced by the Pentagon.

•
In the meantime, you've got to wonder what the Guardsmen themselves think of all of this. ... they've been deployed to their country's own capital city and they've been given orders to shoot their fellow Americans if necessary. That's a lot to ask.

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Now, on top of all of that, they've been told that if they were born a certain way, if they're White and male and therefore evil and dangerous, they themselves are under suspicion of being the enemy. They're potential killers, assassins, betrayers of a nation.

•
The Democratic Party is using the military of the United States as a political weapon. But Republicans in Congress just can't be bothered to notice that.

•
You'd also think officers at the Pentagon would be outraged by this, but as far as we know, not a single one has resigned in protest of conducting background checks on people because of their race or sex or their political views.

•
On Monday, The Daily Beast, the home page of our highly credentialed but none-too-bright ruling class, ran a piece with this title: "Can U.S. Spy Agencies Stop White Terror?" Other countries, the story pointed out, have domestic spy agencies to fight extremists at home.

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So, of course, we need one right away. What the piece does not mention is that those other countries include China, North Korea, and Kazakhstan. Domestic spy agency is a not-very-subtle euphemism for secret police. That is what they're calling for.

•
Something awful has been unleashed on our country. Unchecked, it will inevitably lead to more awful things. Every action provokes a reaction. That is both physics and human nature.

•
Citizens, Lincoln said, "seeing their property destroyed; their families insulted, and their lives endangered; their persons injured; and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better; become tired of, and disgusted with, a Government that offers them no protection; and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose."

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... let's pray that the people planning a war on American citizens find their reason and their decency and stop talking like that immediately, much less planning to act on it.

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Most Americans are good people, even if you hate how they voted. We don't need a war within our borders. Only the worst people will win that war.
Michael Goodwin: Pelosi and Schumer's America – welcome to the new abnormal (Fox 01/18/2021)
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... the unrest and growing use of violence to achieve political ends are outgrowths of the extreme resistance movement against Trump.

•
He ran as a disrupter, but was a piker compared to those who hated him and were willing to smash every social, political and legal norm to drive him from office.

•
That resistance was started by Hillary Clinton and holdouts from the 2016 election and spread to Democrats in Congress, especially Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

•
Their refusal to treat Trump as a legitimate president and worthy of their cooperation marks them as early victims of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

•
They incited and fanned the flames of the Russia collusion scam and used it, with the help of J. Edgar Comey and other crooked players in the FBI and intelligence agencies, to sabotage the president.

•
The bid to overturn the 2016 election was the first pandemic to strike America, and the contagion sickened mayors and governors in blue states, the mainstream media, Hollywood, academia, the courts and much of the sports and entertainment world.

•
The anything-goes madness made it acceptable in many quarters to declare that the president deserved to be assassinated.

•
The final industry to put its full force against him, the social-media giants, used their monopolies not just to restrict but ultimately to silence the president of the United States. It's as if Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple stamped the word "cancel" on the White House.

•
The tech blackout, while largely a response to the Capitol invasion, was the capstone of four years in which unwritten codes of conduct were broken and traditions shattered.

•
The players were different, but the central explanation was always the same: Trump is dangerous, this time is different, we have no choice.

•
Trump certainly made his share of mistakes, especially during the post-election period, but the most provocative thing he did was refuse to surrender.

•
For four years, each time he punched back, the would-be destroyers escalated their attacks, which were amplified by a media chorus.

•
The New York Times, Washington Post, broadcast networks and CNN and MSNBC were on a mission to destroy him.

•
The claim that Trump's conduct demanded an extraordinary effort against him is a convenient excuse. The truth is that elite institutions, businesses, unions and others aligned with Democrats made the choice that getting rid of Trump was more important than anything else.

•
Trump didn't break those institutions and cause half the country to distrust them. The people running them did that.

•
Before Pelosi, in the entire history of the United States, presidential impeachment was used only twice. She doubled that total in the last 13 months.

•
If the departure of Trump could cure what ails America, we should be seeing signs of it already. But the victory has only stoked the anger of those who never accepted him as president.

•
Revenge is in the air, as members of Congress and far-left activists demand that airlines, hotels, publishing houses and other businesses shun Trump supporters.

•
Some firms are complying in a craven bid to curry favor that smacks of banana republics where the vanquished are hounded and punished for daring to dissent.

•
In a move straight out of George Orwell, Dems and the media have twisted the plain meaning of words. "Violence" is speech when committed by Black Lives Matter, and "speech" is violence when it comes from Trumpers.

•
Political opposition from Republican members of Congress is deemed "sedition" and 74 million Trump voters are blithely smeared as White supremacists.

•
The Times bemoaned the "mindset" of those who still support the president while others talk of "deprogramming" them. Comparisons of Trump to Hitler, Nazis and even 9/11 terrorists are so routine they no longer shock.

•
Unfortunately, this radical talk is accompanied by equally radical plans. The Dems aim to use the coronavirus and the riot as Trojan horses to expand government power and shrink individual freedoms in a push toward socialism. Election safeguards are being permanently dismantled.

•
To underscore the sweeping nature of what is coming, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a member of "The Squad," tweeted Thursday that "There will be no reset button. No return to normal. The status quo was unjust in the first place."

•
Will Biden stop the madness? Can he? Our hopes for America hang by a very slender thread.
Farewell, President Trump (INN 01/18/2021)
Real Threats to Democracy Still Come From the Left (JWR 01/18/2021)
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... leftists are purging conservative speech and conspiring to destroy conservative digital competitors.

•
Leftist students at Harvard University seek to ban Trump administration officials from speaking on their campus and are now calling for revoking the degrees of Trump supporters and aides. Where are the long-lost civil libertarians in the Democratic Party?

•
It is a well-rehearsed fantasy that Trump supporters threaten democracy. It is an observable fact that the left does.

•
Be peaceful, but stay vigilant, because freedom is "never more than one generation away from extinction."

•
Indeed, we are well into that menacing generation today.
Liz Peek: Democrats' anti-Trump blitz goes too far – here's who they might inadvertently hurt the most (Fox 01/18/2021)
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The viciousness of Democrats seeking to punish President Trump for "inciting violence" knows no bounds. The unprecedented blitzkrieg impeachment in the House was just the beginning.

•
Trump's critics want to silence his voice, bankrupt his businesses, cut off his political funding, banish his family and, for good measure, humiliate and censor the 74 million Americans who voted for him in November.

•
Democrats are attempting to prevent anyone who worked in the Trump White House from getting a job, students are petitioning Harvard to revoke the diplomas of "enablers" like White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, corporations are stripping campaign donations from congressmen who challenged the election, and on and on.

•
Some have tweeted #KillTrump, on that very same social media platform that banned the president for life because he purportedly inspired violence.

•
The appetite for vengeance is insatiable, and it is the hallmark of an angry mob, not a political party.

•
An angry mob that has been egged on by President-elect Joe Biden, who likened Cruz to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels for spreading the "big lie" about election irregularities.

•
Biden, who vowed to bring the nation together.

•
But the furor against the defeated president has little to do with his thin skin or his role in the terrible assault on the Capitol.

•
It has everything to do with punishing an outsider who dared to expose the duplicity and sanctimony of our powerful elites. He embarrassed them, and they want to extinguish him.

•
The liberal media, Big Business, Big Tech, and all the woke establishment types who enjoy protections and privileges they would deny others, despise Donald Trump, as he despises them.

•
It is not just that he exposed their hypocrisies; he did it effectively. When Trump assailed the liberal media, he destroyed their credibility...

•
When Trump took aim at China's malignant behavior, demanding fair trade terms and an end to their ongoing theft of intellectual property, he threatened Big Business, which is hugely vested in outsourcing U.S. jobs and accessing China's emerging consumer class.

•
This seismic political realignment has been dutifully ignored by Democrats and the liberal press, which continues to pretend that Scranton Joe represents the "little guy," even as his monster fund-raising from corporate America and Big Tech indicates otherwise.

•
For Biden, the vicious hatred of Donald Trump is useful; it is the glue holding the Democrat Party together.

•
As Biden takes office, the progressive left, emboldened by the victories in Georgia that handed Democrats control of the Senate, will make impossible and unpopular demands that will split the party.

•
They will push, as incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed, to "change the world."

•
So far, Biden, master of platitudes, has avoided declaring himself on hard issues, like packing the court or banning fracking.

•
The Senate trial is scheduled to begin one hour after his inauguration, overshadowing his triumph and possibly derailing his first weeks in office.

•
If Biden allows the bloodlust to continue, he will confirm critics' expectations that he is a weak and ineffectual leader.

•
Democrats have won. They are in charge and their actions in the next several months will decide how long they hold onto political power.

•
Smearing and canceling Trump and his supporters may be satisfying in the short run, but it will not serve them well in 2022, when their slim House majority will be at peril.

•
The president-elect should demand a cease-fire, beg his friends in the media to tone down hostilities, call an end to the impeachment process and perhaps even pardon President Trump, preventing any future prosecutions of the president for actions taken while he was in office. Such conciliatory gestures might actually help the nation heal.

•
President Trump is a beaten man, his reputation in tatters. It is remarkable that Democrats will undermine their own president-elect by pursuing a Senate trial, which will serve only to prevent Trump from running again.

•
Maybe it isn't that Democrats hate Trump. Maybe they fear him, still.

•
See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Miranda Devine: Why Democrats demonize good Republicans, too (Fox 01/18/2021)
•
There's a reason why blameless Republicans and Trump voters are being tarred with the same brush as the Capitol rioters.

•
It's not enough just to arrest and prosecute actual lawbreakers who smashed their way into the Capitol.

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No, anyone who supported the president, voted for him or worked for his administration now has to be hunted down and purged.

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They're losing their jobs, having their insurance canceled, their book contracts and recording deals torn up. They are being banned from flying or banking or speaking on social media.

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A petition at Harvard University even demands Trump staffers have their degrees revoked.

•
But it is not just an emotional overreaction to the frightening events of Jan. 6.

•
It is a deliberate tactic designed to intimidate conservatives and silence their protests when the Biden administration radically remakes the country, as it has promised to do from Day One.

•
Democrats and their allies in corporate America are preemptively taking out the opposition because they know that their prescriptions don't work and are opposed by the majority of Americans.

•
They will now have control of both houses of Congress and the White House and are working fast to establish one-party rule — including stacking the Supreme Court to remove the remaining check on their power, stacking the Senate by creating two new states, and stacking the nation's demography with unchecked immigration.

•
The only levers we have left to oppose this authoritarian power grab are protest and free speech.

•
Hence the crackdown on free speech by a partisan Big Tech oligopoly that wields the ever-present threat of arbitrary censorship over conservatives in the public square.

•
Just as the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis was the pretext to reanimate racial division in an election year, so too is the Capitol riot a golden opportunity for the left to criminalize dissent.

•
"There are millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed," Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson told...

•
In other words, all Trump voters are guilty by association. They are seditionists, insurrectionists and white supremacists. They deserve excommunication, deplatforming, and reputational and financial ruin.

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... the aim is to dehumanize conservatives so that any cruelty can be inflicted on them and they are powerless to resist.

•
"Unity Joe" Biden himself likened his political opponents, Sens. Hawley and Ted Cruz, to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels last week.

•
See related Speech on Unity (Mike Lester, 11/13/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Jonathan Turley: Trump impeachment trial – why his best defense may be no defense (Fox 01/17/2021)
Deroy Murdock: Final, fair look at Trump presidency shows abundant policy victories (Fox 01/16/2021)
•
"Life isn't fair," President John F. Kennedy once said.

•
A hundred years hence, history books will recall President Trump for his two impeachments and detail the deadly U.S. Capitol riot that he is accused of fomenting — never mind that he told his supporters at a rally near the White House: "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." [Emphasis added.]

•
Regardless, historians will dwell on the ensuing mayhem. Pity.

•
One hundred years from now, a fair-minded assessment of Trump's presidency will recognize his abundant domestic and international accomplishments.

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The $1.5 trillion Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a globally competitive 21% corporate tax rate, immediate deduction of business expenses, eight regulations junked for every new one inflicted, and Washington's overall pro-business tone helped generate the most robust economy in U.S. history.

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Total employment (peaking at 158,803,000 working Americans in December 2019) never was higher.

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Median household income in 2019 hit a record $68,703 — up 6.8% from 2018. Wages grew a healthy 3.6% that year, even as the left's favorite adult toy, income inequality, slid for the second consecutive year under Trump, after rising under President Barack Obama.

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America's poverty rate fell to 10.5% in 2019, a record low, with Black poverty at 18.8%, its first year ever below 20 %.

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Stock markets soared, thanks to Trumponomics.

•
Trump's approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, fracking projects, and other initiatives have made America energy independent.

•
The U.S. is now a net energy exporter, to OPEC's regret and the frustration of Russian President Vladimir Putin — Trump's "boss," according to four years of baseless, unsubstantiated, evidence-free Democratic lies.

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For those who care, expanded natural gas production under Trump helped cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to their lowest level since 1985.

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Trump and the GOP Senate placed 231 constitutionalist jurists on the federal bench: Three Supreme Court justices, 54 appellate judges, and 174 trial-court appointees

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Trump's signature on the First Step Act criminal-justice reform ended mass-incarceration and let some 3,100 largely Black, non-violent offenders begin new, mainstream lives in fiscal year 2019.

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The president pushed school choice, expanded educational savings accounts to cover K-12 students...

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Trump vastly improved Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, launched veterans medical choice, strengthened health savings accounts, required medical price transparency, and secured for terminally ill patients the right to try experimental drugs.

•
Trump was the first president to address the National March for Life in person, rather than literally phoning in his remarks.

•
he president fought for a southern border wall, to stop entry by illegal immigrants, gang members, drug smugglers, terrorists and others who break into America without permission. Overcoming relentless Democratic objections, Trump ultimately prevailed.

•
In fact, the president Tuesday celebrated 452 miles of steel and concrete wall along the southern frontier.

•
Consequently, federal apprehensions and encounters on the U.S.-Mexico border have plunged from 977,509 in fiscal year 2019 to 458,088 in fiscal year 2020 — down 53.1%.

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Trump dumped the cost-rich, benefit-poor Paris Climate Accord.

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Trump scrapped Obama-Biden administration's absurd, ayatollah-friendly Iran-nuclear deal.

•
Trump flushed Obama-Biden's asphyxiating rules of engagement and sicced U.S. and friendly forces on ISIS in early 2017. By year's end, the bloodthirsty, primitive, Islamic-extremist caliphate — which Obama-Biden let swell to the size of two New Jerseys — was blasted clean off the map.

•
ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Iranian terror master Qasem Soleimani both were killed via American force.

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Under Trump's guidance, Israel signed the Abraham Accords — four peace agreements (and the first since 1996) between Jerusalem and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.

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The president confronted China. He applied trade sanctions for its cheating and intellectual property theft, locked up its spy-choked Houston consulate, slapped travel bans on top officials, and more.

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While Trump's diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not denuclearize that country, the North halted the underground nuclear bomb tests and long-range missile flights that chilled the Obama-Biden years.

•
The president harangued America's NATO allies to keep their word and spend at least 2% of GDP on common defense.

•
Of course, the Chinese virus arrived a year ago and ruined everything. The pandemic, ensuing lockdowns, and economic devastation lobbed a sledgehammer into Trump's prosperity machine.

•
Incredibly, Operation Warp Speed yielded two COVID-19 vaccines within nine months of the March 13 national-emergency declaration.

•
Thanks to these triumphs, countless promises made and promises kept, and a parade of late-campaign rallies with at least 25,000 people each, Trump scored 74.2 million votes, the most for an incumbent president seeking reelection.

•
Alas, President-elect Joe Biden won 81.3 million votes and, crucially, 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232. The rest is history.

•
For four years, Trump's critics banged this pot daily: Trump is a narcissist! Shocking. A political leader with a large ego. (To endure narcissism, watch almost any Obama speech. "I" is his favorite vowel.)

•
Future historians should focus less on Trump's abundant self-regard and, instead, do this: Ask not what Donald J. Trump did for himself. Ask what he did for his country.
Newt Gingrich: Delusional anti-Trump forces are wrong to predict a Republican civil war (Fox 01/16/2021)
•
Various left-wing writers (some of them nominally Republican) have been salivating over the prospects of a GOP civil war.

•
Nothing would make them happier than to see Republicans tearing each other apart in a fight over President Trump and the future of the GOP.

•
Only in the delusional world of the left could a vote in which 197 people were on one side and only 10 people were on the other side be described as the beginning of a civil war.

•
The left is using the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol ... as an excuse to try to destroy the conservative movement in America. It is about to discover how powerful more than 74 million Americans can be.

•
The dramatic drop in stock prices for Twitter and Facebook (the companies have lost a combined $51 billion in market value after banning Trump) are early warnings that arrogant companies that think they can bully the American people may be running big financial risks.

•
If a conservative social media spring up, they will financially cripple the seemingly invulnerable Internet giants, cost their founders a lot of money, and further drive the United States into a tribalized society in which the social media you use further define who you are.

•
For the 74 million-plus Americans who voted for President Trump — despite four years of vilification and hatred from the left — it is more likely that they will learn to adopt the cultural-social tools that the left has been using rather than surrender and submit to a tyranny of left-wing bullies.

•
When web-hosting platforms like Google, Amazon and Apple conspire to apply ideological tests for the apps they carry, they may find they've created a niche for competition.

•
Any doubt conservative Americans had about the radicalism of the Democrats is being rapidly erased by the aggressiveness of their Washington behavior.

•
Pelosi and her left-wing allies know full well their power is tied to seven shaky seats. They also know that it is likely the Republicans will win the House in 2022. Their radical actions are in part a desperate effort to impose their ideology before they lose control.

•
When the House Democrats in their first vote on the House rules eliminate mother, father, brother, sister and more than two dozen gender-specific words from the House rules document, it is a sign of their commitment to a cultural radical left that does not represent most Americans.

•
Any tension within the Republican Party will rapidly be replaced by anger at left-wing Democratic efforts to bully, ostracize, intimidate, and — if necessary — jail those Americans who refuse to go along with their ideologically driven reinterpretation of America.

•
The performance failures of the Democrats will rapidly replace any lingering anger at President Trump for most Americans.

•
Any thought of a Republican civil war will rapidly be replaced by a conservative and moderate revulsion against the Democratic Party's drive to the left — and desperate efforts to rig the game so they can't lose future elections...

•
The supposed GOP civil war is wishful thinking by liberal elites in D.C. and the media — nothing more.
It Never Stops (JWR 01/15/2021)
•
All the Democrats and way too many Republicans, along with television pundits, and just about every news outlet are demanding one of the following things; either 1) President Trump must resign, or 2) Vice President Pence must invoke the 25th Amendment (removing the president) or 3) impeachment. Why?

•
Well, of course it is because President Trump held a rally on January 6th and told his followers to turn to violence and storm the Capitol. But President Trump never said that, or implied that, or wanted that.

•
For anyone who didn't watch the rally all one has to do is go back and listen to President Trump's exact speech that day.

•
He never said anything that condoned violence. As a matter of fact he told his audience to demonstrate peacefully. But once again the progressive left turns the entire thing on its head and blames President Trump.

•
If President Trump's words incited the crowd to riot, then why haven't the mainstream media been replaying the speech...

•
The media hasn't replayed the speech because there was nothing Trump said that supports their lie that he instigated a mob riot. Not even close.

•
He told his followers not to give up. He said Republicans need to fight much harder. He suggested that the crowd walk to the Capitol to cheer on the brave Republicans who were showing support for the president. He asked for a peaceful and patriotic march to the Capitol.

•
Nevertheless, we have all the usual suspects out there in front of any microphone they can find condemning the president, demanding he leave office immediately, even though it's only a matter of days before the Democrats take over the presidency.

•
President Trump never knew just how right he was years ago when he called the accusations he was being charged with "a witch hunt."

•
Actually, the Democrats and never-Trumpers are worse than the Salem witch hunters. Those naive people of Salem actually believed the ones they were condemning were evil, in league with the devil.

•
The Trump witch hunters know damn well that the president did nothing to deserve the torture they've put him through. Today's witch hunters are the evil ones in league with the devil.

•
As it stands now, President Trump will not resign. Why should he? He did nothing wrong but demand justice and accountability in the presidential election. He is legally entitled to do that.

•
And the vice president will not invoke the 25th Amendment. He would be crazy to do that.

•
So that only leaves our old, old friend, nasty Nancy Pelosi to once again do her worst and start impeachment hearings for a second time.

•
In the next few days we will see hate like never before coming out of media and the Democrats. You see, no matter what they tell you, the real instigators of hatred are those on the left. They incite hate, violence and upheaval.

•
The left, the instigators of progressive change, the haters of America will never stop until they have totally transformed our country into something that our forefathers never intended.

•
These people hate America and everything it represents. It's a shame that too many of our fellow Americans just don't get it.
Impeachment exposes hypocrisy of the left: Miranda Devine (Fox 01/15/2021)
•
"We saw Democrat after Democrat stand up in the House during that sham impeachment process on Wednesday and declare that mob violence was terrible, and law and order was wonderful, and the police are terrific. What happened to all the rhetoric of last year, from last summer through fall, about systemic racism of police and, you know, 'fry them like baco' and Molotov cocktails and bricks thrown at police, fire stations, police stations set alight? What happened to mob violence being condoned and embraced by Democrats?"

•
"[The Democrats] have suddenly become big law and order proponents, which is a welcomed thing. I think that Republicans and conservatives have been saying this all along, but what took them so long? What took them four years, really, to come around to upholding noble ideas like, you know, they're into civility now? They revere the Founding Fathers, we learned on Wednesday. They respect institutional norms."

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"Why weren't they doing that for the last four years? We know the answer. The answer is because now they have got rid of Donald Trump, they also have successfully silenced Donald Trump. They are just kicking him as he is on his way out the door with great glee. The purpose of that is they want to demoralize Trump supporters and conservatives and silence them before they then embark over the next two years in their radical policy program."
KT McFarland: Only Trump, Biden can fix the Great American Divide ripping us apart – here's how (Fox 01/15/2021)
Ari Fleischer: Trump is a political wrecking ball — but with remarkable accomplishments (Fox 01/15/2021)
•
The rioters marred the president's accomplishments and did tremendous damage to a worthy cause, especially for over 74 million peaceful Americans who voted for Trump.

•
Trump marred his own accomplishments as well, but still, he should be judged for what he did throughout his presidency, the good and the bad. There is something to learn about America too, considering how many people supported him.

•
Trump won the second-most votes ever in a presidential election, after President-elect Joe Biden, who received about 7 million more.

•
The president's appeal is and was that he is an anti-Washington outsider. A massive number of Americans don't trust politicians and hold Washington in low regard. Many yearn for someone authentic, who bluntly speaks his or her mind.

•
Add to the mix a Congress that barely functions, problems that don't get solved, and experts, including a biased media, that accepted the false Trump-Russia collusion charges made by Democrats. It's no wonder the public was open to an outsider who threatened to disrupt the government.

•
Prior to the arrival of COVID-19, the U.S. poverty rate dropped to its lowest level since 1959, an amazing fact that barely received any attention because the news came out during the pandemic.

•
In fact, in late 2018 Trump did more to lift up the poor than any of his predecessors, including President Lyndon Johnson, who launched the War on Poverty.

•
The unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma, pre-pandemic, also hit the lowest level in recorded history. Hispanic and African American unemployment hit record lows.

•
Wages, stagnant for a decade, shot up under Trump, especially for working blue-collar Americans. These people benefitted greatly by Trump's low-tax and deregulation policies.

•
Unfortunately, the economic dislocation caused by the coronavirus wiped out many of the benefits on the jobs front that Trump had achieved.

•
In addition, the president brought relative peace to the Middle East. He virtually destroyed ISIS and helped achieve remarkable peace agreements that will lead to diplomatic relations between four Muslim nations and Israel — an extraordinary accomplishment.

•
Trump stood up to China, resetting the terms of relations between our countries. He understands that China is a growing threat to America — economically, morally and militarily. He opened people's eyes to these problems and stood up to China using tariffs — a tool no typical politicians would have used.

•
The president's appointments to federal courts, especially the Supreme Court, will have an impact for decades.

•
Trump's biggest problem was and is himself. He regularly went too far, crossed too many lines, and offended too many people.

•
If he had toned himself down a notch or three, he could have kept many of the voters who liked his tough, blunt approach without losing as many women and college graduates, especially in the suburbs, who were turned off by his tweets and his demeaning behavior.

•
It's one thing to fight when necessary, but it's another to fight everyone, including your allies, almost all the time, in ways that go too far, culminating in a takeover of the Capitol by pro-Trump forces.

•
"You'll never take back our country with weakness," Trump told the crowd. "You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."

•
Remember the first presidential candidate debate, the one in which Trump and Biden interrupted each other all night long? Then there was the second debate, where Trump bit his tongue.

•
If his four years were more like the second debate than the first, Trump would likely be enjoying another four years as president.

•
Donald Trump is the very definition of unique. No other candidate will be like him.
Tucker Carlson: The latest 'national crisis' and the coming crackdown (Fox 01/15/2021)
•
Last week's deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol was not an act of racism, nor was it an insurrection. It was not an armed invasion by a brigade of dangerous White supremacists.

•
Those are lies. Why are they demanding that you believe those lies?

•
What happened last week was not new or unusual. The riot was the perfect illustration of why we should oppose all mob action. Left uncontrolled, mobs boil over, violence erupts, and people get killed.

•
That has happened many times through human history. That's the way mobs are. Wise leaders know that, and it's why they don't encourage mobs.

•
We had hoped that everyone in Washington had learned that lesson, but of course, they haven't. Instead, they're trying to use this moment to increase their own power, so they're lying about what you saw.

•
They're calling it a precisely orchestrated coup attempt. They're telling you the Chewbacca guy you saw on video, the guy with the painted face and the Viking hat, was actually the leader of some super secret commando unit here to overthrow our government.

•
It's absurd and insulting, yet it's working. What happened last week is being used to justify the most sweeping crackdown on civil liberties and free speech in the history of this country.

•
You shouldn't be surprised, however. We lived through something similar that showed the template for what they'll do and what they plan to do.

•
Over Memorial Day weekend, George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody. The usual frauds and demagogues leveraged that moment to change this country forever.

•
They used hysteria to subdue the population and crush anyone who dared to ask questions about what they were doing.

•
To this day, they maintain strict ideological orthodoxy through threats and fear rather than argument and reason.

•
Meanwhile, and this was the point all along, a small number of genuinely radical haters and nihilists have stepped into the void where our national conversation used to be and taken total control of the floor.

•
They say things that virtually no one in this country actually agrees with, but since no one else is allowed to talk, they have a monopoly on what we do next.

•
We were told the death of George Floyd was a national crisis, and in any national crisis, you've got to make some sacrifices.

•
Well, guess what? Every one of your sacrifices is going to make vacuous little totalitarian morons like Sandy Cortez more powerful.

•
That's how national crises work. Something bad has happened, therefore, you've got to hand the worst people in the world the keys to your life.

•
... feeling unsafe is not new for Ayanna Pressley, particularly when she attended the single most expensive private school in Chicago growing up. And it was even scarier when she arrived, like her friend Sandy Cortez, on the mean streets of Boston University. Ayanna Pressley knows well what it's like to be persecuted and oppressed.

•
And that, friends, is why you should no longer be allowed to speak in public or read the websites you like or watch this show.

•
The New York Times has published a column by Nick Kristof that made this entirely sensible point: "I'd like to see pressure on advertisers to withdraw from Fox News so long as it functions as an extremist madrasa, and cable providers should be asked why they distribute channels that peddle lies."

•
You won't be surprised to learn that the rest of the media, our competitors, strongly agree with that sentiment: The government needs to shut down Fox News.

•
People who watch Fox News, meanwhile — that would be you — need to be "deprogrammed" , presumably in some kind of residential facility.

•
Reeducation camps, if you will. We can't say specifically what the plan is. Honestly, we haven't thought a lot about it. MSNBC, though, has thought a lot about it.

•
EUGENE ROBINSON: There are millions of Americans, almost all White, almost all Republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed. It's as if they are members of a cult, that Trumpist cult, and have to be deprogrammed. Do you have any idea how we will start that process?

•
It turns out that many Democrats do, in fact, have some ideas on how to start the process.

•
Sandy Cortez, by the way, has been thinking about this since sociology class at BU and she has concluded that we need a government commission to shut down media outlets that might criticize her.

•
OCASIO-CORTEZ: There's absolutely a commission that's being discussed ... Several members of Congress, and some of my discussions, have brought up media literacy because that is a part of what happened here ... We're going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so that you can't just spew disinformation and misinformation.

•
This is all moving pretty fast, but then it always does move pretty fast. But don't you worry, it's for your safety. You see how that works, right? You're protected when you can't speak.

•
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey knows that. He looks like a pothead, but he's pretty clever and he takes the long view on these things.

•
DORSEY: We are focused on one account right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account and it's going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week ... I don't believe this is going away anytime soon. And the moves that we're making today around QAnon, for instance, [are] one such example of a much broader approach that we should be looking at and and going deeper on.

•
So this is "much bigger" than silencing just one man, and it's going to go on "much longer" than just this week.

•
Maybe Jack Dorsey isn't so bright. He just admitted out loud with the rest of them are still denying: This isn't really about Donald Trump, and it never was. It's definitely not about what happened last week at the Capitol.

•
It is about controlling you, and the country you thought was yours, forever. Sorry, there's a national crisis going on and we have no choice.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Franklin Graham asks if Pelosi promised 10 Republicans 'pieces of silver' to betray Trump (Fox 01/15/2021)
•
Shame, shame on the ten Republicans who joined with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in impeaching President Trump yesterday.

•
After all that he has done for our country, you would turn your back and betray him so quickly?

•
We have never had a president like him in my lifetime. He gave us lower taxes, a strong economy, and low unemployment. He made NATO take notice and pay their own way.

•
He had the guts to take on North Korea and meet with their leader personally. He didn't let China walk all over us.

•
Just his Mideast peace initiatives in the last couple of months deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.

•
He has defended religious liberty like no president before him, and that matters to all people of faith.

•
He has worked to bring prison reform and secured our southern border. He defeated the ISIS caliphate in Syria, and he strengthened our military. He was also the most pro-life president we have ever had.

•
But the House Democrats impeached him because they hate him and want to do as much damage as they can.

•
And these ten, from his own party, joined in the feeding frenzy. It makes you wonder what the thirty pieces of silver were that Speaker Pelosi promised for this betrayal.

•
President Trump isn't a perfect person. I don't support or agree with some of the things the President said and did the last couple of weeks. January 6 was a low point in his presidency.

•
We knew he had flaws when he ran for office in 2016. But I, and millions of others, voted for him because of the platform and policies he promised. I still support those.

•
The Democrats have been trying to get rid of the President since the day he took office. What they did yesterday only further divides our nation.

•
I hope President-elect Biden will keep his word and work for unity as he has said.
Twitter Permanently Bans Trump; Why Do Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Harry Reid Get a Pass? (JWR 01/14/2021)
•
Trump said: "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today, we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections, but whether or not they stand strong for our country, our country."

•
Democrats' intend to impeach Trump again because of his pre-Capitol building siege speech.

•
George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley, a Democrat, wrote: "Like others, I condemned those remarks as he gave them, calling them reckless and wrong. I also opposed the challenges to electoral votes in Congress. But his address does not meet the definition for incitement under the criminal code. It would be viewed as protected speech by the Supreme Court."

•
Similarly, Democrat and professor Alan Dershowitz wrote: "Nothing the president said constituted unprotected 'incitement,' as narrowly defined by the Supreme Court over nearly a century of decisions. His volatile words plainly fell on the side of political 'advocacy,' which is protected speech."

•
For four years, Hillary Clinton, the failed 2016 presidential candidate, has called the 2016 election "stolen" while frequently describing Trump's election as "illegitimate," only the result of Russian interference.

•
"I believe he understands that the many varying tactics they used, from voter suppression and voter purging to hacking to the false stories — he knows that — there were just a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out like it did."

•
Similarly, in 2019, former President Jimmy Carter said: "There's no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election, and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf."

•
Indeed, according to an August 2018 Gallup poll: "Democrats widely believe Russians interfered in the 2016 campaign and that it changed the outcome of the election (78% say this), presumably by helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton."

•
Never mind that Jeh Johnson, Barack Obama's former secretary of Homeland Security, said in his June 2017 testimony before a congressional committee: "To my current knowledge, the Russian government did not through any cyber intrusion alter ballots, ballot counts or reporting of election results."

•
Yet, Hillary faces no ban from Twitter, despite promoting a dangerous, divisive 2016 election narrative not supported by the intelligence community.

•
In 2012, then Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., stood on the floor of the Senate and knowingly, falsely accused Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, of not paying taxes.

•
Reid later, out of office, bragged that he knowingly told this "rich don't pay taxes" lie to damage Romney's candidacy. It worked. Reid remains active on Twitter.

•
For four years, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter referred to President Donald Trump as illegitimately elected. Risk of violence, Twitter?

•
Reid likely altered the outcome of the 2012 election with his Senate lie about Romney and his taxes. Risk of violence, Twitter?
Purging and pulverizing President Trump and America, communist style (INN 01/14/2021)
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Democrats and progressives should wipe the superior smirks off their faces. What Big Tech and Big Commerce are doing, with their banning of still-president Trump, their attacks on Republicans who supported him, their censorship of negative news about Democrats, and their shutdown of social media site Parler smack of collusion, censorship, anti-trust, interference with interstate commerce, and breach of contract.

•
It is sickening to see fellow Republicans falling all over themselves, denouncing Trump as they grovel before the Democrats and liberal press. They have no principle or shame. Joe McCarthy would be so proud. The rest of the world is laughing...

•
So kiss the ring of Don Joe Biden and his consigliere, Nancy Pelosi, but that's only the beginning. Viciously kicking Trump to the curb is the start of destroying us in this cycle, not the end.

•
Mr. Unity, Joe Biden, is off to a grand dictatorial start. Instead of tamping down the naked assault on free speech and competition, he is musing how to balance a second Trump impeachment with getting his Cabinet approved.

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Press coverage on the Hunter Biden corruption has gone dark, almost assuredly for good, and the creators of the phony Steele Dossier are on Easy Street — unrepentant and unpunished.

•
Democrat outrage is now laser-focused on a second impeachment of President Trump, concomitant with a Big Tech purge of all electronic messaging from Trump and his followers. The censorship is purportedly vital to thwart hate speech. Fake news.

•
Twitter spent last summer proudly broadcasting the time and place where radical riots would commence.

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It also kept Iranian leader Khamenei's tweets advocating the annihilation of Israel, and hate speech toward Jews.

•
Putative vice president Harris scolded that riots were good and that, surely, more were to come. Biden called the police racist and never denounced the violence.

•
We've seen this play before. It doesn't end well, but unfortunately, it takes time to get to the end.

•
From start to finish, it is estimated that some sixty million people died during the Russian Revolution onward. Russians were killed through famine, purges, dislocations to barren parts of the country, and an attack on capitalism. Religion, the family, and civil society were vilified. It took seventy-two years for the horror to end.

•
In China, governmental control is still absolute, while more than a hundred million souls since the 1949 communist takeover have perished. China's experiment with collectivism and dictatorial fiat is ongoing.

•
Yes, Trump has a big mouth and a big ego. But his actions mattered, too, and he accomplished much.

•
Now Trump-supporters are indiscriminately being called domestic terrorists.

•
Seventy-odd million or so who did not loot, did not steal, did not burn, did not destroy, and did not physically harm, as happened from the left last summer — are labeled domestic terrorists.

•
The United States is already looking very different.
Welcome to the American Digital Gulag (INN 01/14/2021)
•
From China's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s they borrowed cancel culture.

•
From Stalinism of the 1930's they borrowed the use of media for unanimous propaganda onslaught.

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From the Nazis they borrowed how not to "let a good crisis go to waste."

•
From Iran, they learned to create heroes from enemies and enemies from heroes.
Dems, unity and revenge (JWR 01/14/2021)
Assault on the Capitol has let loose the electronic octopus (JWR 01/14/2021)
•
Two days after the 2020 election, a defiant Kathy Griffin retweeted the notorious picture of her holding a prop that looked like the bloody head of a decapitated Donald Trump.

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Earlier last year, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tweeted out a call to his followers to destroy Israel.

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Both tweets passed the censorship rules of Twitter's 20-something judges in San Francisco.

•
In contrast, Trump has been banned for life from Twitter and barred indefinitely from Facebook. Twitter said in a statement it excluded Trump "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

•
The president had called for thousands of his followers to assemble at a massive Washington, D.C., rally protesting the results of the election.

•
Splinter groups broke off from the massed protesters. Some stormed into the halls of Congress, Social media platforms canceled Trump after he urged his followers, albeit "peacefully and patriotically," to go protest at the U.S. Capitol, where the mayhem followed.

•
After the assault — and after Democrats won the presidency, kept the House, took the Senate and threatened to pack the Supreme Court — furor broke out against Trump. The outrage included the banning of Trump and some of his supporters from social media.

•
Is Madonna banned from social media? Shortly after the 2017 inauguration, she voiced a desire to blow up the White House with the Trump family in it.

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Is AK-47-toting rapper Raz Simone banned from social media? He took over a swath of downtown Seattle last June and declared it an autonomous zone.

•
For weeks, his armed guards reigned supreme without worry of police. There were at least four shootings and two deaths in or around Simone's kingdom.

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He was neither prosecuted nor deplatformed from social media. The lyrics of his song "Shoot at Everyone" are full of allusions to violence, racial slurs and stereotypes.

•
With an unpopular Trump on the way out, and with control over the levers of government, members of the left abruptly settled all their old scores.

•
Their aim was not just to humiliate opponents but to curtail opponents' ability to organize against them.

•
This time around there will be no progressive trustbusters or muckrakers. They are in league with, or bought off by, the new electronic octopus.

•
And its tentacles are strangling the thoughts and speech of an increasingly unfree America.
Michael Goodwin: Democrats want to bring down anyone who ever backed Trump (Fox 01/14/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Why Democrats wanted to impeach Trump again, and why the GOP went along (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
President Trump was impeached Wednesday with bipartisan support. No matter how angry you may be at Trump over what happened at the Capitol building last week, watching this happen may confuse you.

•
The chaos of an impeachment trial is hardly the peaceful and orderly transition of power both parties assure you they want. So why are they doing this? There has to be a reason, and indeed there is one.

•
First, let's be clear about what that reason is not. Legitimate moral outrage will play absolutely no role whatsoever in whatever happens next, no matter how many times House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. goes on television and talks about the civil rights movement or how often you see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., read lines like this:...

•
"We know that we face enemies of the Constitution. We know we experienced the insurrection that violated the sanctity of the people's Capitol and attempted to overturn the duly recorded will of the American people. And we know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country. He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love."

•
At this point, it's worth recalling that for decades, and not that long ago, the two most powerful Democrats in the United States Senate were Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd.

•
Ted Kennedy left a young woman to drown in a drunk driving accident. Robert Byrd was a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan. Democrats did not seem bothered by any of that. They praised Kennedy and Byrd at every turn, including at their funerals.

•
So, no, Democrats are not actually outraged in any moral sense by Donald Trump. They never have been.

•
So spare us the self-righteous indignation. What's happening here instead is old fashioned, hard-eyed politics. Democrats have every practical reason for wanting to see Trump impeached during his final days in office.

•
The first and most obvious reason is to make Republicans weaker. Every loss diminishes a political party, and impeachment is nothing if not a loss.

•
But there's another thing: Democrats need to keep talking about Donald Trump, next week and forever, if they're going to keep their own party together.

•
Most political coalitions are built on shared interests. The Democratic coalition is built on shared genetics. The basic idea is that everyone who's not a straight White man must be united as one in unshakable solidarity.

•
The problem is that can't happen because it's not true in real life. Many Democrats have nothing in common with each other.

•
Once Donald Trump leaves the scene and it's time to divvy up the spoils of the United States Treasury to begin the great pinata party of 2021, various components within the Democratic Party — the fabled communities you hear so much about — will turn on each other with feral ferocity. It's going to be ugly.

•
Democrats would like to delay that disaster as long as they can, so they need to keep Donald Trump at the center of the conversation. They're impeaching him so they can continue to give speeches about him. It's that simple.

•
But why are Republicans playing along? They don't really have a sound political rationale for any of this, they're just dumb and guilty.

•
Here's how it works from the perspective of the Republican leadership: It would be best if Donald Trump just went away forever.

•
He's embarrassing. They don't want to talk about him. They'd like him to disappear. So that's their plan with impeachment.

•
Make it so that Trump can never run for office again, not that he actually planned to, and then disgrace Trump so thoroughly that he cannot appear in public ever again, then pretend that Donald Trump never happened.

•
By impeaching the president during his final week in office, Congress will not succeed in discrediting Trump among Republican voters. In fact, it will enhance Donald Trump among Republican voters, obviously.

•
Who does your average Republican voter trust more, Donald Trump or the many people who hate Donald Trump? Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell? Donald Trump or CNN? You know the answer.

•
It's not complicated, but apparently it's too complicated for the dummies in the Republican Party who think impeachment will help them in the long run.

•
They have no idea what you really think. They haven't spent five minutes wondering why you voted for Donald Trump in the first place, and by the way, they don't care.

•
At no point does it seem to have occurred to McConnell or any of the geniuses clustered around him that what is really at stake right now is not the future of Donald Trump, but instead the future of his voters, tens of millions of them, who in the space of the last seven days have seen themselves recast as domestic terrorists. That has happened, but Republicans in Washington don't seem to have noticed.

•
Just today, former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling announced that he has had his personal insurance policies canceled by his insurer.

•
Why? Because Curt Schilling wrote a social media post defending Donald Trump, and in 2021, that's not allowed. You could lose your insurance for that.

•
You could also lose your bank account, your website, your access to email and social media, your ability to communicate with the outside world, and there's nothing you can do about it because you can also lose your lawyer.

•
How long before they cut off your water and electricity? Before UPS won't deliver your packages? And not to wreck your day, but guess what? Amazon is now one of America's biggest grocery providers. Good thing you don't need to eat.

•
But no problem, says Mitch McConnell, the real problem is Donald Trump, and once he's gone, everything will be fine.
Democrats' flexible morality and selective outrage is so dishonest, it makes your head spin (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
What a difference a week makes. On Wednesday, we discovered that House Democrats actually support police. They are against mob violence. They believe in law and order. They believe in harsh punishment for rule-breakers. They believe in accountability.

•
They care deeply about civility. They believe words matter. They abhor intemperate rhetoric. They are against coarse language. Fancy that.

•
They believe in a peaceful transition of power, at least this time, as opposed to 2016. They believe in the Electoral College. They believe in the legitimacy of the people's vote.

•
They believe in walls, at least when it comes to protecting their own place of work. They even believe in bringing in the National Guard to quell civil unrest, at least when it comes to preserving their own peace.

•
They believe in guns, at least when their own safety is at risk. They revere American history and institutional norms. They honor the Founding Fathers. Hah!

•
This is what we learned while watching the Democrats in the House impeach President Trump for the second pointless time in 13 months.

•
Where have they been the past four years with these noble ideas that conservatives have been begging them to defend?

•
Perhaps if Democrats had not normalized and encouraged violence when organized BLM-Antifa mobs began rampaging through our cities, the tragic events of Jan. 6 at the Capitol would not have occurred.

•
"Last summer the Antifa and BLM riots swept across our country. Businesses were destroyed, cities burned. It was not like the horrible hours we had on January 6. But rather, they went on for weeks and in some cases months."

•
Perhaps if Democrats had not weaponized the intelligence agencies to spy on Trump's campaign, perhaps if they had not used the Steele dossier to undermine the legitimacy of his presidency and accuse him of colluding with Russia to rig the 2016 election, perhaps if they had not hobbled his administration with the three-year Mueller investigation, perhaps more Trump voters would have been willing to accept the legitimacy of a Biden presidency.

•
Perhaps if Dems had not already launched a spiteful partisan impeachment last year, their efforts to highlight the president's shortcomings would have fallen on fewer deaf ears this time.

•
As Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said, it took just 19 minutes into Trump's presidency for the Washington Post to trumpet: "Campaign to impeach President Trump has begun."

•
"And now with just one week left," Jordan said Wednesday, "they're still trying."

•
Perhaps if Dems had reflected on their own culpability in the attempted assassination of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana by a Bernie Sanders supporter, their sanctimonious lectures Wednesday would be more credible.

•
Perhaps if Joe Biden had not spent two years muscling up to Trump, with threats like "I'd smack him in the mouth" and "I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him," Biden's pitch for civility might be more palatable.

•
Perhaps if Democrats had not spent the last four years calling Trump a dictator, authoritarian, Nazi, Hitler, white supremacist, anti-Semite, bigot, racist, hater, dangerous, demented and insane, then the hyperbole they used against him Wednesday might have been more effective.

•
Hence the absurdity of Wednesday's rhetoric in the House, as Democrats overreached yet again, traducing the president as a "white supremacist" — or "racist in chief," as Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan called him.

•
His refrain since November about having won in a "landslide" was reckless and deluded but it had nothing to do with racism, and his speech at the Ellipse in DC on Jan. 6 explicitly called for the crowd to "peacefully" protest.

•
How was he to know that the Capitol would not be adequately guarded, and the mob would so easily smash their way inside?

•
Capitol Police had been left like lambs to the slaughter in part because the cop-hating mayor of DC, Muriel Bowser, wrote to the Department of Justice the day before the protests specifically to reject federal reinforcements.

•
The flexible morality and selective outrage of the Democrats and their media boosters is so dishonest, it makes your head spin.
Democrats are 'impeaching America' by obsessing over Trump while COVID rages, economy ails (Fox 01/14/2021)
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"The grandstanding today at the U.S. House, it was really hard to stomach and I hope you didn't waste one minute of your precious time watching."

•
"It was just another political exercise in futility conducted by self-righteous, out-of-touch blowhards."

•
... many Democrats displayed the worst "teenage social media" type behavior, with lawmakers "spewing any hashtag" they could think of.

•
The entire episode, she argued, makes Congress appear to be "incompetent fools who don't know how to fix what ails us as a nation.

•
"At a time when 140 million Americans are out of work, when thousands are still dying daily with COVID and small business owners are living in despair about losing their life's work and when vaccine distribution is appallingly slow in large parts of America, including most of the Democrat-run cities, Democrats are wasting precious time on a moot exercise."

•
The truth is ... "most of these people, they can't quit Trump. Without him around, we'll see just how little they have to offer America."

•
... accused Democrats of being unwilling to work with Republicans on anything that may redound to their opposition's credit."

•
This political gamesmanship will continue until the swing voters who supported Democrats will say, 'We are not taking it anymore.'"
Deroy Murdock: Joe Biden is a sore winner and a divider, not a uniter (Fox 01/13/2021)
•
It would be bad enough if President-elect Joe Biden were a sore loser. Even worse: He's a sore winner.

•
"With the campaign over, it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation," Biden said on November 7. "It's time for America to unite. And to heal."

•
On December 27, he wrote via Twitter: "After a year of pain and loss, it's time to unite, heal, and rebuild."

•
"Here's my promise to you: I'll be a president for all Americans. Whether you voted for me or not, I'll wake up every single morning and work to make your life better," Biden proclaimed on January 3.

•
Biden's inaugural theme: "America United."

•
Alas, those warm words T-boned into Biden's frosty speech last Thursday in Wilmington. ... Biden slammed Trump and kicked gravel in his supporters' faces.

•
Angry, and often screaming, Biden complained: "The past four years, we've had a president who's... unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy from the outset."

•
Biden ignored the Obama-Biden administration's espionage against the opposition party's presidential nominee and the Democrats' deployment of a Russian-disinformation dossier to torpedo Trump's campaign.

•
After Trump won, Democrats abused their offices to sabotage the peaceful transition of power, sandbag incoming national security advisor Michael Flynn with imaginary Russian-collusion charges, and saddle President Donald J. Trump with the Russiagate hoax for three years.

•
As for the relentlessly parroted Democrat lie that Trump and Vladimir Putin plotted to win the White House, former FBI chief Robert Mueller and 14 liberal-Democrat prosecutors concluded: "Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities."

•
In another act of psychological projection, Biden further thundered about Trump: "He's attacked the free press who dared to question his power, repeatedly calling the free press ‘the enemy of the people.'"...

•
The president has used this debatable term to describe the left-wing media. But he has been transparent, probably to a fault, and has done nothing to hinder press freedom.

•
Conversely, Biden must have forgotten that the Obama-Biden administration treated journalists like enemies of the people. Obama's press conferences were rare, unlike Trump's nearly continuous media access.

•
And Obama-Biden spied on the Associated Press in May 2012. In a putative leak probe, DOJ seized the records for 21 phones used by some 100 AP news people.

•
Biden accused Trump of "Treating the attorney general as his personal lawyer and the department as his personal law firm."

•
Biden somehow forgot Obama-Biden's first attorney general, Eric Holder. While running the Justice Department, Holder said: "I'm still the President's wing-man, so I'm there with my boy."

•
At Obama's direction, Holder investigated himself in the aforementioned journalist-surveillance outrage. Holder's inquest concluded that Holder did nothing wrong.

•
Biden devolved from convenient omissions to bald-faced lies.

•
Trump "deployed the United States military, tear-gassing peaceful protesters in pursuit of a photo opportunity," Biden claimed.

•
These were not "peaceful protesters" near the White House in June. As U.S. Park Police Acting Chief Gregory T. Monahan said June 2: "Violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles, and caustic liquids."

•
He added: "Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats, and metal poles hidden along the street."

•
When protesters were told to evacuate and allow a security perimeter, they refused. So, the USPP and Secret Service — not the U.S. military — cleared Lafayette Park. They did so with smoke canisters and pepper spray, but "did not use tear gas."

•
Also, Biden failed to note in June and last week that Trump's "photo op" expressed solidarity with a historic church whose adjacent parish house was set ablaze the previous night during the left's George Floyd riots.

•
There was nothing wrong, and everything right, with the president of the United States standing before that legendary shrine and, in essence, throwing his institutional asbestos blanket over it.

•
Biden then argued that the Capitol Police virtually welcomed the marauders. "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol."

•
Biden growled. Kamala Harris grumbled: "We witnessed two systems of justice when we saw one that let extremists storm the United States Capitol and another that released tear gas on peaceful protesters last summer."

•
The Capitol Police did not wave in the pro-Trump hooligans. As news footage confirms, they fought the rabble, but were overwhelmed. ... the notion that so-called "white nationalists" were ushered into the Capitol is yet another ugly, fractious lie.

•
And, besides, Democrats who wish that police had acted more assertively violate Black Lives Matter's agenda: cops must de-escalate, use non-fatal force, and, generally, stand down. The same Democrats who screamed to declaw and defund the police now demand Super Cops.

•
For her part, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., further racialized this ugliness. "There are people in our country, led by this president, for the moment, who have chosen their whiteness over democracy."

•
Meanwhile, remember some of what brings Americans together: Independence Day parades, the World Series, impeachment.

•
That's right: Pelosi and her House Democrats plan to impeach President Trump, for the second time, today.

•
With one call, Biden could tell Pelosi to stand down. Instead, he has dodged this pivotal question. "We're going to do our job and Congress can decide how to proceed with theirs," Biden said.

•
So, Biden will let Pelosi tear the country in two, like the ripped pages of her copy of Trump's last State of the Union address.

•
All of this should surprise only the gullible. Joe Biden — lovable Grandpa Lunchbucket from Scranton — turns out to be a divider, not a uniter.

•
See related Mourning in America (Michael Ramirez, 11/10/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Leftist figures calling for Trump supporters to be 'deprogrammed' like Chinese dissidents (Fox 01/13/2021)
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Democrats and their mainstream media allies are hell-bent on suppressing dissenting voices as the Biden administration takes office...

•
... called out Washington Post associate editor Eugene Robinson, who said during an appearance on MSNBC earlier Tuesday that "there are millions of Americans, almost all White, almost all Republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed." "It is as though they are members of a cult, the Trumpist cult," added Robinson.

•
"In their continued effort to use the Capitol incursion for political gain, Democrats feel emboldened to smear tens of millions of Trump supporters."

•
"They feel no need to debate issues or policies, not when they can treat their political opponents the way the Chinese treat its dissidents."

•
"Apparently, they are now in favor of separating families," ... referring to a since-fired PBS lawyer caught in a Project Veritas sting saying Trump is "close to Hitler" and that the Department of Homeland Security should set up "reeducation camps".

•
However ... these same figures were silent as Black Lives Matter and other leftist groups tore through urban areas last summer, looting big-box retailers, setting fires and at times blowing up automated teller machines.

•
"We heard no talk of manhunts or big pushes for facial recognition technology or adding supportive politicians to no-fly lists."

•
"Where were the cries for swift justice back then? Remember, a lot of the same people attacked state and federal institutions. And by the way, where are the cries for justice today as thugs continue to target federal courthouses in places like Portland and Philadelphia?"

•
"Condemning violence shouldn't be related to one's ideology [or] the ideology of the perpetrator, and neither should the call for justice, ever."
Biden administration’s goal will be to impose more control over America’s culture and economy (Fox 01/13/2021)
•
Much of today's Democratic Party has an agenda that undermines America's guiding principles — the same principles that have made America the freest, most equal and most just nation in human history.

•
Most of the time, Democrats don't try to hide it. Freedom and equal opportunity are out. Censorship and intolerance are in.

•
President-elect Joe Biden's administration is the vehicle to advance this vision. The goal is to impose more control over America's culture and economy.

•
What started with "political correctness" has morphed into "cancel culture." From college classrooms to corporate boardrooms, to media green rooms, to holiday dining rooms, liberal elites want to silence anyone who does not toe the far-left line.

•
Members of the far-left are even comfortable using the full force of government to impose their views on the rest of us. They've tried to shut down a Catholic adoption agency, targeted conservative nonprofits because of their political views, and mandated teaching in classrooms that condemns the founding of our country.

•
What they really want is to massively expand government and use its immense power to remake American culture however they want.

•
The far-left vision for the economy is just as harmful. Only a few years ago, Americans of all political stripes believed in capitalism.

•
Right, left, or center, we all knew economic freedom is essential to creating better lives and brighter futures for people of all beliefs and backgrounds.

•
Many Democrats have abandoned that truth. They have replaced it with socialism — the opposite of capitalism and economic freedom.

•
Their economic agenda is based on the idea of control. It means more government power, more corporate bailouts, more bailouts for dysfunctional state governments, more lockdowns and less freedom. That is the essence of socialism.

•
Today's Democrats think politicians can spend your money better than you can. That's why they call for enormous tax hikes.

•
They think bureaucrats can run businesses better than the people who create them. That's why they push for huge regulations.

•
They think the same government that has broken health care can somehow fix it, if only it had more control over patients and doctors.

•
Ultimately, liberal elites think they're smarter than the rest of us — that they have the brains and the birthright to build a better economy for all.

•
But they don't. And their socialist ideas have failed everywhere they've been tried.

•
When capitalism gives way to socialism, the result is always less opportunity, more poverty and more suffering. That's what happens when people have less freedom.

•
Most of all, we know America isn't America without freedom. And we will stand up for preserving that freedom for ourselves and future generations. That is the job of the loyal opposition.

•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Twitter brazenly deplatforms conservatives, then reminds Uganda that censorship is bad (Fox 01/12/2021)
•
It's been a very tough week in the United States of America. A spasm of mob violence has been followed by an unprecedented crackdown on our basic civil liberties. This is the darkest time many Americans can remember.

•
But even in the midst of this disaster, there have been flashes of comedy and we're grateful for every one of them.

•
We got one Tuesday in the form of a statement from a group called the Global Public Policy Team at Twitter.

•
Now, you may have thought Twitter was just a social media company run by some bearded, ethereal pothead in downtown San Francisco, but not anymore.

•
While you were sleeping, Twitter got bigger than you ever imagined it could. Twitter is now an independent nation-state with its own National Security Council, an inner agency constellation of foreign policy experts whose job it is to manage the world's affairs.

•

•
We actually had to check and make sure the above statement was real, which it is. Twitter actually sent that, which only proves that the tech monopolies are even worse than we thought.

•
Not only are they cruelly authoritarian and totally dishonest as well as limitlessly ambitious, but they are also — and we didn't know this — childishly stupid. They have no idea how they appear to others. They can't see themselves.

•
They lack even a glimmer of the ironic self-awareness that is a prerequisite for wisdom. They are idiots. They don't even get their own jokes.

•
On the other hand, none of this is really very funny. It's terrifying. We don't need to convince you of that.

•
You have seen the crackdown and the censorship all week long and you sense all of it is going to get worse. And you're right about that, it is going to get worse.

•
See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
The 'Good American' (JWR 01/12/2021)
•
... come to better understand the moral problem of the "'good German,' the term used to describe the average, presumably decent German, who did nothing to hurt Jews but also did nothing to help them and did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime."

•
Watching America accept the rationally and morally indefensible physical and economic lockdown of the country, I concluded: "Apathy in the face of tyranny turns out not to be a German or Russian characteristic. I just never thought it could happen in America."

•
In one week, it has gotten worse. Now we are faced with a lockdown on speech the likes of which have never been seen in America.

•
The left-wing party (the Democrats) and the left-wing media (the "mainstream media" ) are using the mob invasion of the Capitol exactly the way the Nazis used the Reichstag fire.

•
On Feb. 27, 1933, exactly one month after the Nazis came to power, the German parliament building, the Reichstag, was set ablaze.

•
The Nazis blamed the fire on their archenemy, the communists, and used the fire to essentially extinguish the Communist Party and its ability to publish, speak or otherwise spread its message.

•
Using the Reichstag fire as an excuse, the Nazis passed the Enabling Act, a law that gave the Nazi chancellor, Adolf Hitler, the power to pass laws by decree — without the Reichstag.

•
Now to America 2021. On Jan. 6, 2021, a right-wing mob of a few hundred people broke away from a peaceful right-wing protest involving tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of American conservatives and forced its way into the U.S. Capitol.

•
One Capitol policeman was killed after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, and one of the right-wing Capitol invaders was shot by a Capitol police officer.

•
(A handful of others who died in the vicinity of the Capitol did so of nonviolent causes.) Aside from smashed windows, the mob seems to have done little damage to the Capitol.

•
Their intent is still not clear. It seems to have been largely catharsis. They hurt no legislators, and if they intended to overthrow the government, they were delusional.

•
Beginning the next day, the American left used the Capitol mob just as the Nazis used the Reichstag: as an excuse to subjugate its conservative enemies and further squelch civil liberties in America — specifically, freedom of speech.

•
Twitter not only permanently banned the account of president of the United States but permanently banned him from Twitter. Any Twitter account found tweeting Donald Trump was permanently banned.

•
The left was able to do all this not only by using the Capitol mob incident but also by engaging in a series of lies.

•
The first was blaming the attack on President Donald Trump. Over and over, in every left-wing medium and stated repeatedly by Democrats, Trump is blamed for "inciting" the riot in his speech just before it took place.

•
Almost never is a Trump quote cited. Because there is none.

•
On the contrary, he did say, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard".

•
Another lie was the immediate labeling of the mob attack on the Capitol as "insurrection." All left-wing media and Democrats now refer to the event as an "insurrection," a term defined by almost every dictionary as "an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government."

•
As morally repulsive as the actions of the mob were, they did not constitute a revolt against civil authority or an established government.

•
Disrupting the work of legislators for a few hours — as wrong as that was — does not constitute a "revolt."

•
But what proves the left's "insurrection" label is a lie is that Democrats and their media never once labeled the left-wing riots of 2020 — which involved the destruction by fire and/or occupation and vandalizing of police stations, and the establishment of "autonomous zones," which, by definition, revolted against "established governments" — as an "insurrection."

•
The enormous number of businesses burned down, looted or otherwise destroyed was barely covered by the mainstream media, and their violent perpetrators were almost never prosecuted, let alone condemned, as engaging in an insurrection.

•
Dozens of people were killed in these riots, yet there was more outcry and condemnation against the hourslong occupation of the U.S. Capitol than against six months of left-wing violent riots.

•
Then, like the Nazi regime after the Reichstag fire, the left immediately moved to further curtail civil liberties, specifically conservatives' ability to promote their ideas.

•
Twitter and Amazon made it impossible for the alternative to Twitter, Parler, to exist, all in the name of preventing another right-wing "insurrection."

•
In the name of the Capitol "insurrection," the Democrats announced they would impeach the president of the United States, though he had only 14 days left in office.

•
In the name of the Capitol "insurrection," the editor of Forbes, Randall Lane, announced that Forbes media was "holding those who lied for Trump accountable" in what he called "a truth reckoning" : "Hire any of Trump's (press secretaries)," Lane warned, "and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie."

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In the name of the Capitol mob attack, 159 law professors at Chapman University have called for the firing of John Eastman, a tenured fellow law professor and holder of an endowed chair at Chapman — because "his actions Wednesday (that) helped incite a riot." Eastman had spoken at the Trump rally.

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The professors ended their Los Angeles Times letter: "He does not belong on our campus." Words well chosen.

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What the left is doing is announcing — and enforcing — that conservatives "do not belong" in our society.

•
The parallels to 1933 are precise. And most good Americans are keeping silent, just as did most Germans.

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Though they do not risk being beaten up, are Americans in 2021 as afraid of the American left as Germans in 1933 were of the German fascists? We're about to find out.

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From cancel culture to political exterminationism (INN 01/12/2021)
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"Exterminationism" is generally defined as genocide of an ethnic or religious group. Accordingly, I use the term political exterminationism to connote a wish or a course of action to destroy or exterminate one's political enemies.

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This seldom involves actual murder, but is an attempt to so denounce your cultural enemies to deprive them of legal rights or human rights, that they become "beyond the pale" of polite company.

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These enemies might share an ideology or a political culture or simply common values that so bother, or are found so objectionable, to justify a full culture war to repudiate and cancel their very humanity.

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This festering cultural disease stems mainly from the cultural Marxism of the universities, and the way in which students (and most of their professors) in the arts and humanities and social sciences want to cancel opinions (and sometimes facts) that make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe__.

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Cancel culture closes minds. Cancel culture causes formerly fair media that provided a diversity of opinions, to become shills in the widest sense for totalitarian control of what was once constitutionally-protected freedom of expression.

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The tolerance of evil when it does not affect our own safety and the notion of cultural relativism and the decline in the West of strong adherence to Christian and Jewish religious values, together rob the West from its moral duty to promote Good over Evil.

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The American Left, its entertainers, professors and media so hated Donald Trump that practically anything is tolerated in terms of denouncing his very legitimacy as president, politician or respectable leader of a great country.

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We witness a political war by Democrats and the media, especially, to rob him of his humanity as well as his legitimacy.

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And so, we witnessed the Democrats in the basest and most dishonorable way possible, seek a two year investigation by a highly biased group which notwithstanding its bias could not find the alleged "Russian collusion" .

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When that didn't work, we witnessed an impeachment proceeding weakly justified by some vague words in a phone call.

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This occupied American politicians who should have been oriented towards the coming pandemic and should have dug deeper into whether it was launched by the Chinese as bio-warfare.

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The obscene bloody image of Trump's severed head by entertainer Kathy Lee Gifford was just one instance of an entertainment industry that became mentally unhinged by Trump. Was the fact that he had success in business, politics and entertainment what bothered them?

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The so-called Deep State feared this President who pledged to attack the corruption and the "elites" in what he termed the "Swamp" .

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Middle America, which had been rendered powerless as American jobs were exported to China, watched helplessly as radical curricula were adopted by the public education system, and the media turned hard to the Left.

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Any expression of concern about the immigration of Islamists (proponents of radical Islam seeking conversion or submission of American law and customs to Islam, rather than the traditional assimilation and melting pot) was said to be illegitimate as being racist, as was any concern about the open border which did not discriminate against criminals including child-traffickers.

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The election of November 2020 was the tipping point. Never before had media totally censored important information from the electorate.

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Censoring his communications, showing a pretend severed head, constantly insulting him, never showing his elegant wife on the cover of fashion magazines where Michele Obama was given that honor many times, all were ways to dehumanize him and delegitimize him.

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Trump hatred has become an obsession among Democrats and their supporters. The attempt to impeach him or have him removed for supposed mental instability or have him barred from office in the future, when he has a week or so left in his term, is not something rational or proper.

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The riots by Democrat supported groups like BLM were part of a really racist group called BLM, Black Lives Matter. Part of their mandate, it seems, is to object and cancel any voices stating that All lives matter. And so, a professor who innocently stated that was fired.

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The new way to politically exterminate your opponent is to call him/her/it a "racist". (Falsely accused) racists are the new Jews. Anything is justified against them.

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Assaulting a Trump supporter is supposedly understandable in our new morality.

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According to Rick Klein, an executive with ABC News Trump supporters must be cleansed from America." Am I the only one who sees the political exterminationism and similarity to Nazi pronouncements?

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The Democrats in their attempt to take down President Trump have resorted to calling him a racist and some have gone so far as to call him a Nazi. Anyone who convinces himself that Trump is a Nazi serves to justify any course of conduct against the President.

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... once the truth of a matter becomes irrelevant, the deniers of truth become totalitarian in their methods of shunning that truth.

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The failure of the mainstream media to advocate for truth rather than political power, will be a sad commentary on America in 2020.

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As young Americans go about destroying statues with no criminal charges, how long will it be before they burn books that they don't like?

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Most people don't know that at aTrump rally in Washington DC, (November 14, 2020) BLM and Antifa supporters viciously attacked people who were simply walking home or to their cars and other transportation.

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And how many in the mainstream media even covered this story? Yet the media worldwide told the story of January 6th as one involving Trump supporters breaking into the Capitol, when the truth was that entry was led by Antifa members and 99% of pro-Trump demonstrators were peaceful. There are lies of commission and lies of omission.

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Cancelling our opinions, our facts, and our history will inevitably lead to political exterminationism aided by compliant media and universities. The scary question is how long before political exterminationism becomes physical.
Is Truth Irrelevant? (JWR 01/12/2021)
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It is amazing how many people seem to have discovered last Wednesday that riots are wrong — when many of those same people apparently had not noticed that when riots went on, for weeks or even months, in various cities across the country last year.

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For too many people, especially in the media, what is right and wrong, true or false, depends on who it helps or hurts politically.

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Too many media people who are supposed to be reporters act as if they are combatants in political wars.

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Someone once said that, in a war, truth is the first casualty. That has certainly been so in the media — and in much of academia as well.

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One of the most grotesque distortions growing out of this carelessness with the facts has been a removal of Abraham Lincoln's name and statues from various places, on grounds that he saw black people only as property. Such criticisms betray an incredible ignorance of history — or else a complete disregard of truth.

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As a lawyer, Abraham Lincoln knew that there was nothing in the Constitution which authorized him or any other President to free slaves.

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But he also knew that a military commander in wartime can legally seize the property of an enemy nation.

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Defining slaves as property gave President Lincoln the only legal authority he had to seize them during the Civil War. And once they were seized as property, he could then free them as human beings.

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Gross distortions of history, in order to get Abraham Lincoln's name removed from schools tells us a lot about what is wrong with American education today.

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Many schools are closed because of the corona virus and the teachers unions. And many schools in minority neighborhoods failed to teach children enough math and English, back when they were still open.

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So it is incredible that school authorities have time to spend on ideological crusades like removing names and statues from schools.

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Unfortunately, too many American educational institutions — from elementary schools to universities — have become indoctrination centers.

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The riots that swept across the country last year are fruits of that indoctrination and the utter disregard for other people's rights that accompanied those riots.

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At the heart of that indoctrination is a sense of grievance and victimhood when others have better outcomes — which are automatically called "privileges" and never called "achievements," regardless of what the actual facts are.

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Facts don't matter in such issues, any more than facts mattered when smearing Lincoln.

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Any "under-representation" of any group in any endeavor can be taken as evidence or proof of discriminatory bias.

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But those who argue this way cannot show us any society — anywhere in the world, or at any time during thousands of years of recorded history — that had all groups represented proportionally in all endeavors.

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In America's National Hockey League, for example, there are more players from Canada than there are players from the United States. There are also more players from Sweden than from California, even though California's population is nearly four times the population of Sweden.

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Californians are more "under-represented" in the NHL than women are in Silicon Valley. But no one can claim that this is due to discriminatory bias by the NHL. It is far more obviously due to people growing up in cold climates being more likely to have ice-skating experience.

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This is one of many factors that produce skewed statistics in many endeavors. Discriminatory bias is among those factors. But it has no monopoly.

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Yet who cares about facts any more, in this age of indoctrination?
Twitter, Facebook, others, here's how to crush tech giants' tyranny (Fox 01/12/2021)
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The mob that stormed the Capitol last week was a grave threat to our democracy but just as serious were actions taken by social media companies days later when Twitter shut down President Trump's accounts and Google and Amazon ousted Parler, a site favored by millions of conservatives.

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Big tech, which is run by the left, is robbing Americans of their access to a free marketplace of ideas.

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If social media can silence the president of the United States, think what they'll do to you. It's tyranny.

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The nation's founders wrote the First Amendment, to guarantee us freedom of speech and association and protect us from government censorship.

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They had no way of anticipating that tech companies would grow more powerful than governments, and have the monopolistic ability to suppress or cancel political viewpoints.

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What's the solution? So far the focus has been on repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects the tech giants from being sued for what they post, based on the fiction that they are merely unbiased platforms.

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Republicans want their liability removed, but that may incentivize them to limit content even more, just as many Democrats want.

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The better approach is to treat these tech platforms as public utilities, just like water, electric, phone and gas companies and regulate them as utilities.

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They're monopolies, and they provide essential services to a dependent public. Public utilities cannot withhold services from some customers based on their political views.

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Treating social media platforms as public utilities is not a new idea. President Trump proposed a similar approach last July.

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But with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, it's unlikely to happen any time soon.

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Help is more likely to come from the Supreme Court when a litigant challenges being censored by a tech giant. The Justices are poised to protect access to social media as a fundamental right.
Cal Thomas: Twitter, Facebook ban Trump and free speech is tested again (Fox 01/12/2021)
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Twitter and Facebook have permanently banned President Trump from their social platforms.

•
Trump has hinted he may announce an alternative social media platform, possibly one created by him.

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"As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me. Twitter may be a private company, but without the government's gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long. I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future."

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Twitter removed the tweet from Trump's @POTUS account within minutes of when it popped up, and then shut down the account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

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When Trump posted the same message to his campaign Twitter account, "the company permanently suspended that account too."

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Trump has now also been banned from Instagram, Snapchat and Twitch, and Parler, "the alternative social media platform favored by conservatives, now finds itself virtually homeless on the internet as Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOGL) have all booted it from their platforms in a span of a little more than 24 hours."

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The late writer Nat Hentoff ... once told me the answer to speech you don't like is not less speech, but more speech.

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Banning offensive speech encourages radicals in their extremism. We no longer talk to each other.

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Too many read and listen only to what supports their point of view and demeans people who believe differently. This is unhealthy for a free society.

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In another display of the double standard, the two social media giants still allow the Iranian leadership and people associated with the Chinese Communist Party to maintain their accounts.

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Trump voters deserve to have their concerns addressed, or the cynicism and division will only get worse, as will the potential for more violence.

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The best way to lower the temperature would be to create a forum that would fairly and accurately examine all claims of voter fraud and ballot manipulation.
Ingraham: Too-powerful tech oligarchs silence GOP while giving full reign to China, radical Islamists (Fox 01/12/2021)
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The uproar over Big Tech's crackdown on social media users like President Trump and upstart platforms like Parler has little to do with the First Amendment...

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"We obviously know that Facebook, Apple, Twitter, etc. are private companies. We know that the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to private companies and when we use the terms 'free speech' and 'free expression,' we are speaking metaphorically, not literally."

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The real issue ... is that many private companies like Twitter have "too much power," and often have market caps "larger than the GDP of our closest allies."

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"If Big Tech was truly worried about speech that incites harm and violence, well, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, they would have removed all the content from Antifa and radical Islamists years ago."

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"There's always a risk that in a system like ours, a small group of rich people will end up having outsized influence, too much power, And that's where we are right now. So instead of talking about rights, it's time to start talking about power."

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"We cannot allow a situation where the [Chinese Communist Party] has unlimited access, unlimited ability to spout dangerous propaganda while the GOP is effectively silenced. And that means we must ensure that this tech oligarchy never amasses that type of power, that much power again."

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According to Ingraham, the real purpose of Big Tech's "war on conservate thought" is twofold: Halting what she called "Trump's digital momentum" while ensuring conservatives are "vanished altogether from the public square."

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"I still remember when liberals were liberals, when they distrusted big corporations had they supported debate and dialogue, But long before Trump, they gave up on trying to persuade political foes and they decided instead to persecute them. Silence them. Demonize them."
Democrats Need a Do-Over on Their Impeachment Article (01/12/2021)
Democrats were for riots before they were against them (INN 01/11/2021)
•
The outrage over the protests is a farce coming from a political movement that advocated terrorizing Republican elected officials, that aided invasions of Congress, and that supported the Black Lives Matter riots which, aside from terrorizing D.C., also wrecked much of the country.

•
Why is broken glass on Capitol Hill so much more precious than the broken glass that ended the dreams of store owners in Kenosha?

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Where was all the outrage, the tears wept for our country when Black Lives Matter thugs were prying open shops around the country, looting them, and assaulting their owners on a scale so vast it racked up $2 billion in damages?

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Martin Luther King's infamous quote, "a riot is the language of the unheard" , popped up in Time, USA Today, and on CNN.

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"Violence was critical to the success of the 1960s civil rights movement," a Washington Post op-ed argued.

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The AP urged reporters to use "uprising" instead of "riot" to describe the violence, while suggesting that protests can be violent and that reporting should not focus on the "property destruction" , but instead on the "underlying grievance" .

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A subsidiary of one of the big 5 publishers put out a book titled, "In Defense of Looting."

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You can't normalize political violence and then expect it to be a one-sided affair.

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After months in which BLM mobs attacked a federal courthouse in Portland, throwing fireworks and shining lasers in the eyes of law enforcement personnel, toppled statues across the country, and injured hundreds of police officers, the Democrats and their media are suddenly outraged.

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Laws only work when they apply to everyone. When violence is okay for some, but not for others, then a violent struggle ensues until a totalitarian monopoly on violence is achieved.

•
There's little question as to which side of the political spectrum has championed and mainstreamed violence for over a century.

•
Contrary to the media's spin, Republicans have never normalized violence. And Republican political power doesn't depend on political terror and violence. Leftist power invariably does.

•
And that means the violence will escalate. Opportunists will seize the moment to play agent provocateurs, creating memorable images for media propagandists to justify a crackdown.

•
The protesters in D.C. had a legitimate grievance. And they still do. The outrage over stolen elections won't be suppressed this way. The mass movement in D.C. is the true resistance.

•
There is a great deal of irony in quoting "a riot is the language of the unheard" to describe the race riots of a movement with unlimited political and corporate backing, whose message is heard all the time, but not to address a movement that is genuinely unheard.

•
Before the fighting started, there was virtually no media coverage of President Trump's speech and the rally.

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Press conferences that mention election fraud aren't aired. Articles and videos questioning the election are censored. That is the true voice of the unheard who are more so than ever.

•
Democrats and the media normalized violence when they were in the opposition and now want to normalize the suppression of political protests and speech as they expect to take power.

•
But media spin isn't real life. And it's a lot easier to break a country than to put it back together.

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Liz Peek: Big Tech censors nation – here's how Republicans can fight back (Fox 01/11/2021)
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This is not about Big Tech "protecting" Americans; this is about stifling dissent from those who do not buy into the Left's woke agenda.

•
Millions of conservatives have abandoned Twitter and Facebook, migrating to Parler, which promises to be a neutral platform.

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But now, Apple has suspended the fast-emerging Twitter competitor from its App store, claiming Parler is not doing enough to squash "threats of violence and illegal activity."

•
Google has done the same, claiming an "ongoing and urgent public safety threat," while Amazon has announced it will no longer host the platform on its web services, effectively shutting it down.

•
It is a frightening and outrageous attack on free speech in this country, which was founded to protect just such freedoms.

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Republican lawmakers need to stand up to these tech giants; they can start by campaigning in 2022 to revoke the protections granted these firms by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

•
We get it: the Left feels empowered. They have elected a Democrat president who will enjoy for at least two years a Democrat majority in the House and Senate.

•
At the same time, President Trump will soon leave office a defeated man, subject of endless recriminations by Democrats and non-stop condemnation from the liberal media.

•
Trump is threatened with impeachment once again by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whose appetite for partisan nastiness appears insatiable. ...

•
Big Tech is empowered too, having played an important role in the election of Joe Biden.

•
The social media giants lean left politically; their campaign donations to Biden and suppression of negative articles about him and his son Hunter Biden were all in service to electing their favored candidate.

•
But, it was also a smart preemptive strike against liberal Democrats who have rightly accused Twitter and Facebook's CEOs of abusing their immense power.

•
It is important to note that the stories about Biden's son are not empty accusations; the New York Post ran well-documented pieces describing Hunter's shady activities – stories which have never been denied by Joe Biden or his son. In response, Twitter shut down the account of the New York Post. ...

•
For Americans who believe that free and fair elections are more than a campaign slogan, the silencing constituted unimaginable interference.

•
Michelle Obama became the newest face of partisan rage and censorship when she recently called for Twitter, Facebook et al. to permanently ban President Trump. Imagine – silence the elected leader of the "Free World" who just received 74 million votes in November.

•
Obama isn't just hoping to silence the president; she wants all those Trump-loving "deplorables" shut down as well.

•
Given the relentless and increasingly dishonest bias of the liberal media, the availability of social media platforms is one of the few avenues left to push back against the Left's indoctrination of the nation.
Trump speech before Capitol riot not enough for impeachment charges: Turley (Fox 01/10/2021)
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Trump invited supporters to rally in Washington Jan. 6, saying it would be "wild," and gave a speech where he said ralliers would march "peacefully" to the Capitol. During the speech, he repeated the unproven claim that the election was stolen from him.

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"The speech itself does not give a clear basis for the charges of insurrection or incitement."

•
"The president talks about his followers marching on Congress peacefully... He does not call for riots. He does not call for violence."

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... Turley argued that even though he disagrees with the president's comments and called them reckless, swift impeachment could be harmful to the Constitution.

•
"With seeking his removal for incitement, Democrats would gut not only the impeachment standard but also free speech, all in a mad rush to remove Trump just days before his term ends."

•
"Are you actually going to impeach a president for speech that the Supreme Court would likely find protected under the First Amendment?"

•
As Democrats push for a "vicarious" snap impeachment, Turley said the party should be careful of setting such a precedent.
Newt Gingrich: Despite Trump leaving office, crusade to preserve America’s freedom must continue (Fox 01/10/2021)
•
More than 74 million Americans voted for President Trump in the 2020 presidential election — a record for an incumbent.

•
The anti-Trump news media have spent four years calling them racists and are now portraying each one as an insurrectionist because of the actions of a small minority.

•
In reality, most are patriotic, law-abiding Americans who see a culture under siege by the radical left.

•
The ballot box was the one sure thing still available to them to foster change and make their voices heard, to change the trajectory of the country.

•
But now many feel like that's no longer available to them and that their votes aren't being counted fairly or honestly. As a result, many Trump supporters wonder what their recourse is now. Hence their frustration.

•
... President Trump's supporters believe he has awakened them to "first principles that are under assault from the left" — from cancel culture to indoctrination at schools.

•
The movement that President Trump started isn't going anywhere, even after President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated Jan. 20. This is in part because people are fed up and don't know what to do.

•
All aspects of our culture — schools, the media, Big Tech, the bureaucracy, corporations — are dominated by the woke left and are becoming more radical.

•
The media's behavior has been especially egregious. Recall this past summer, when countless journalists defended and even championed the Antifa-Black Lives Matter riots.

•
What happened at the Capitol on Wednesday should of course be condemned. But the same should go for violence and chaos perpetrated by the left that destroyed businesses and ruined countless lives. The double standard is striking.

•
... our cultural elites have spent their time condescending and demonizing 74 million Americans with such visceral hatred.

•
Yet, many Republicans are now caving to these left-wing forces in a moment of vulnerability, which Democrats and their allies in the left-wing media are using to their full advantage.

•
At any given moment, somewhere between 20% and 50% of the Republican Party is eager to sell out. They'll be happy with a pat on the head and an invitation to a cocktail party from left-wing elites. That way, they can be accepted as "mature statesmen."

•
In fact, some Republicans are joining the insane calls by Democrats and the media to invoke the 25th Amendment to oust a man who received 74 million votes and has already said he's leaving the White House in just a few days.

•
Few politicians, if any, besides President Trump have demonstrated that they're willing to fight earnestly for the American people, standing up to the forces on the left that want to destroy the American system and to feckless leadership within the GOP.
Twitter, Facebook banning of Trump continues crackdown on conservatives — censorship dangerous (Fox 01/09/2021)
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Facebook and Twitter drew a bright and dangerous line in the online sand late this week by banning the sitting president of the United States from their platforms.

•
They are treating President Trump as they do terrorists, mass murders, human traffickers and child molesters.

•
When it comes to President Trump, social media companies are taking the side of discrimination over freedom of expression.

•
People on all sides of the political spectrum should be alarmed instead of cheering Big Tech on.

•
If the social media giants can block a Republican president from their platforms, they can also block Democratic elected officials and far-left groups.

•
It's a safe bet that many of the people applauding the banning of President Trump by Twitter and Facebook would be outraged if the companies took the same action radical Democrats like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan in response to their inflammatory posts.

•
... Big Tech companies appear to be using the riot as a justification for their already questionable approach to policing political speech.

•
... the companies have a record of suppressing stories that reflect poorly on Democrats, like the scandal surrounding President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter — who is being investigated by the Justice Department for possible tax law violations.

•
The truth is that the banning of posts by President Trump is just the latest example of the steady efforts by social media companies and others on the left to silence conservative voices.

•
The cancel culture has now created a new and unnerving phase of a societal purge for supposed wrongthink.

•
To their credit, Big Tech companies largely fended off calls from the left to take even more draconian steps to silence their political opponents — some more than others.

•
Perhaps that was to stay in the good graces of the Trump administration, in fear of regulatory actions that could cost the companies huge sums of money.

•
But with President Trump now having just over a week left in office and many Democrats calling for his impeachment, the social media companies have become emboldened to act against him.

•
Going forward, no individual or group is safe. As a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union — no bastion of conservatism — noted in a statement: "We understand the desire to permanently suspend him [Trump] now, but it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions — especially when political realities make those decisions easier."

•
With their drastic action against President Trump, the social media companies can no longer feign being unbiased and apolitical. Nor do they have to. They have little reason to be restrained.

•
... we should all be concerned that Biden and a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and Senate will pursue policies that liberal, Silicon Valley types demand to silence conservative voices.

•
Imperfect as they are, platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have offered groups of like-minded individuals and organizations a public square to meet, exchange ideas, celebrate milestones and even grieve losses.

•
Social media platforms have been an effective tool to rapidly disseminate information, organize individuals, and democratize society — just as the printing press did nearly 600 years ago.

•
A plurality of Americans credit technology with making the biggest improvement to life in our country over the past five years. Censorship undermines those benefits.

•
The actions of social media companies now veer past hypocrisy to being harmful to public discourse and democracy.

•
Censoring and purging political viewpoints will not make the ideas suddenly disappear. It will only make these viewpoints go underground, create resentments, and make wounds fester. Healthy dialogue changes hearts and minds.

•
To heal the deep divisions in our nation, we need open forums that encourage understanding, not thought-police who selectively censor those with unpopular views and encourage groupthink.
Johnny 'Joey' Jones: After Capitol riots, this moment matters. We can't lose faith in America (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
Life happens in moments. Things change in the blink of an eye. Along with the universal gift of self-determination comes the responsibility of decision making.

•
People react every day in a split second to save a life or prevent a disaster. These moments are the determinative high and low points of human existence.

•
Our Constitution is little more than a game plan for gambling on these moments, to wager complete chaos and anarchy for personal liberty and self-governance.

•
Freedom and democracy live in the space between the problems we face and the decisions we make.

•
The moment protest turns to riots, the moment anger turns to rage, the moments faith in something becomes a total lack of respect for it; those are the moments our founding fathers and our sacred document took a risk for.

•
They believed in us, they believed in our ability to see beyond the moment, to understand the consequences of our actions and to move towards fixing problems rather than relieving frustration.

•
I don't know if this election was fraught with fraud, and frankly at this point I don't know how much it matters.

•
I've been cheated many times in my life, I was cheated out of my legs trying to keep people safe, I was cheated out of a comfortable life by my parents and grandparents' misfortune and just last year my kids were cheated out of a grandad because my dad has an unexpected heart attack.

•
I can't reverse any of these things but I can overcome them. I can respond to them and I can make changes to deter them from happening to my kids.

•
We have an opportunity to decide if what happened in Washington, D.C. this week will be a flame to light a fire of chaos and destruction or a venting of mass frustration that makes way for a cooling off of anger and mobilization of foresight and wisdom.

•
This is a moment for every American, especially those who feel cheated, to look ahead and find unrelenting faith while living inside the empty feeling of betrayal.

•
We still have a federalist system of government. We have power, true power, over D.C. Our state legislatures decide wholly how we conduct our election and pick our electors.

•
Invest your energy in your neighbors, and support leaders who represent you.

•
Let me be clear, if I know anything I know two things 1) life is not fair and 2) that's not an excuse to lose.

•
I, like most of you, have had cards stacked against me before. Yet, we're still here walking through life, finding victories, letting our voices be heard.

•
Even after my body was blown to pieces. After I suffered the painful and tormenting task of accepting my fate as forever limited, smiles come easier than frowns. Why? Because I control the moments that matter.

•
You either let your emotions control you, or control and mold your emotions.

•
Taking control now simply means not giving up. It means going to work, continuing to believe and finding strength and faith you might not have known you hold.

•
President Trump was a disruptor, he advanced conservative policies and values in a time we feared such things were on the brink of a political extinction, and I thank him for it.

•
But he was never going to carry the load forever. The burden is still ours.

•
In a moment in November he unwillingly passed that torch back to us. We can't be so scared that the things we believe in will die that we kill them ourselves in desperation and fury. We know better.

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Today, as every day, is a new opportunity. It's the best-kept secret of life.

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So today, we can make a choice. We can choose freedom, liberty and country or we can choose fear, division and hatred.

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This moment matters and even when it feels like it's against all of us, this moment can be ours.

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God bless our beautiful republic and God bless you, America.
Is it possible to reconcile the two Americas? (INN 01/09/2021)
Can Biden AG nominee Merrick Garland run Justice Department without political bias? (Fox 01/09/2021)
Trump's Agenda Must Survive His Presidency (JWR 01/09/2021)
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I am saddened by what occurred at the nation's Capitol building on Wednesday. Such mob violence, especially against the nation's institutions of government, must be firmly and unequivocally condemned.

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... the Republican Party has been the party of law and order and has zealously honored the Constitution. We must and will continue to be.

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Extreme leftists routinely engage in violence. In the last year alone, we have seen widespread leftist violence and the Democratic leadership's total indifference to it.

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This is not to excuse the violence or engage in whataboutism; rather, we must recognize the Democrats' double standard and not enable the false narrative that this is who we are.

•
There will be much chest-thumping from those who've long argued that President Donald Trump is evil personified and who say that he incited his supporters' violence.

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They'll say his supporters are just a violent mob waiting for their dear leader to instruct them so they can go ballistic, that Trump and his supporters are the ones who threaten the Constitution, not the tolerant, peaceful left — you know, the left that jealously guards "our democracy."

•
These are the same leftists who never let a crisis go to waste, and they smell blood in the water now that some administration officials are resigning. They will go all out these next two weeks.

•
But remember: As much as the left genuinely hates Trump, the endless assaults on him have never been primarily about him or his alleged threat to democracy but about thwarting his agenda.

•
Yes, inveterate Trump haters loathe every molecule of his body, but they care far more about advancing their secular religion of political and cultural leftism, and anyone who gets in their way must be destroyed.

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Trump got in their way — and so did his supporters, so, they, too, have to be demonized.

•
Have we been asleep the last four years? Have we not seen the slander of our entire movement as intrinsically racist?

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The left still remains the greatest threat to our republican form of government, to capitalism, to prosperity, to law and order, to our national identity and to any hope of harmony among the American people, the last of which you can't possibly have as long as the left continues to paint 74 million people as hateful racists, sexists and homophobes.

•
Let's not forget what Trump has accomplished in office and how he has articulated and driven an agenda that has led to unprecedented (pre-COVID) prosperity. His successful policy prescriptions for America are as viable now as when he took office.

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Though the left would love nothing more, Trump supporters are not going away. The same bill of complaints leading to Trump's ascension remains.

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Trump didn't arise in a vacuum, and the left's mission to fundamentally transform America that gave birth to Trump and Trumpism is not only alive and well but is even more dangerous now that Democrats have captured control of the two political branches of our government.

•
Of course the left wants to finally destroy Trump and prevent him from ever returning to the Oval Office.

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But it also intends to eviscerate the movement he began. It wants to send a signal that no one else better try to challenge its hegemony.

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It hopes to escalate this conflict and remove Trump with just two weeks remaining in his term — not because it truly fears he'll do something crazy but to ensure that whatever damage he may have done to himself is amplified and contaminates his legacy and his entire movement.

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What is at stake is the survival of the conservative agenda, and the rebuilding and expansion of the Republican Party.

•
We can't afford to lose heart. We have an urgent responsibility to stay in the fight, to redouble our efforts to resist the left's destructive agenda and to continue to pursue America's greatness.
To defend objectivity and restore liberalism (JWR 01/09/2021)
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It was always the case that principled neutrality — a commitment to following the facts wherever they might lead and regardless of which side of the political tug-of-war they might strengthen — was more of an honored value than a rigorously enforced policy.

•
No more. Now objectivity is not only not honored in the breach, it is widely disdained.

•
Without objectivity, without the practice of detachment that makes genuine deliberation possible, without tearing ourselves away from ourselves, justice in our society will mean only what the majority, or the crowd, or the media (all of them fickle) want it to mean.

•
Our system of disagreement will continue to be degraded into a system of umbrage, in which a dissenting opinion may be dismissed as "tone-deaf."

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Empathy, where it exists, will be remorselessly selective and most often reserved for one's own kind.

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But none of the questions that we are asking as a society can be answered with a scream or a scowl.
Lawless, stupid pro-Trump mob that attacked Capitol hurt Trump and GOP — but helped Dems (Fox 01/08/2021)
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The pro-Trump mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol Wednesday was un-American, destructive and lethal. An astonishing five people are now dead, but they would be alive if not for the rioters' anti-democratic trespassing, breaking and entering, vandalism and more.

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"Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem," President Trump said in a video message released Thursday night, in which he recognized that "a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th."

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The president added: "The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy."

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These evils aside, these savages are just plain stupid. ... These thugs' incursion against America's national legislature was an act of breathtaking political self-sabotage.

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Just when these hoodlums smashed into the Capitol, Congress was debating GOP objections to Arizona's electors for Joe Biden.

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Grand Canyon State Republican Rep. Andy Biggs showed a stack of voter registrations that were approved after their statutory deadline. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, offered his constitutional arguments against Arizona's electoral lawlessness.

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Left in peace, Republican objectors would have presented affidavits, documents, and other evidence of irregularities and illegalities in up to six states.

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Even if this didn't change the outcome of the election, Americans at least would have learned some of the gravely serious reasons why 39 percent of Americans believe "the election was rigged."

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But nooooo! These barbarians disrupted the very process that they demanded and rendered this noble cause as radioactive as plutonium.

•
Rather than rally lawmakers for election integrity, these savages repelled them. After rattled legislators reconvened, GOP senators Steve Daines of Montana and James Lankford of Oklahoma turned against scrutinizing multi-state vote-fraud allegations.

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Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., freshly defeated by far-left Democrat Raphael Warnock in Tuesday's runoff election, abandoned her challenge to her state's highly tainted Electoral College votes, among others.

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"I cannot now, in good conscience, object to the certification of these electors, The violence, the lawlessness, and siege of the halls of Congress are abhorrent and stand as a direct attack on the very institution that my objection was intended to protect."

•
Here's some free advice from a veteran commentor and activist: When politicians are busy doing exactly what you begged them to do, don't send them fleeing for their lives in gas masks.

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These marauders have imperiled the fight for election integrity, humiliated hundreds of thousands of peaceful Trump supporters in Washington and millions of others across America, and scarred the president's scores of path-breaking accomplishments.

•
Those behind this chaos also made an in-kind contribution to the Democratic National Committee worth about $10 billion. The DNC and related groups will remind voters of this week's carnage for decades to come.

•
Most urgently, and ironically, these bums have made it tougher for Republicans to oppose H.R. 1. H.R. 1 would codify numerous dodgy-ballot-fueling measures that COVID-19 "required" last year.

•
If Republicans oppose this gambit to make voting less secure, Democrats now can respond: "This is just another conspiracy theory from the allies of those who attacked our Capitol." Grossly unfair? Yes. Will Democrats say this? Is milk white?
Gregg Jarrett: Pelosi and Schumer wrong to claim Trump can be removed with 25th Amendment (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
Against this legislative backdrop, the 25th Amendment has no application to the circumstances that unfolded Wednesday. Pelosi and Schumer don't care about that. In a shameless ploy, they seek to bastardize a constitutional standard for partisan gain.

•
The objective of the Democratic leaders is to score political points by further demonizing Trump during the last two weeks of his presidency. Their previous efforts ended in failure. Trump-Russia collusion proved to be a hoax. The attempt to remove the president by impeachment was a predictable bust.

•
Many Democrats and some in the mainstream media accuse Trump of inciting violence and an insurrection against the United States on Wednesday.

•
Yet, the record (and videotape) of the president's remarks to supporters who rallied in Washington does not back this up in any criminal sense.

•
As he has done so often since the Nov. 3 election, Trump argued to the gathered crowd that widespread fraud had "stolen" the presidency from him. Both state and federal courts have consistently rejected this claim. Nonetheless, Trump told his supporters "we will never concede."

•
The president then extolled the crowd to march to the Capitol where objections to the Electoral College vote count were being presented by Republican House members and senators (mimicking what Democrats did in 2004).

•
Nowhere in the president's remarks did he advocate acts of violence or destruction of property. He did not direct the protesters to launch an assault on the Capitol building, breach security, riot, and engage in seditious conduct.

•
Under the law, encouraging a demonstration of grievances is not the same thing as inciting criminal acts. For the latter to attach, the language of the speaker must be clear, obvious and unequivocal.

•
Make no mistake: the lawless display of violence inside the Capitol was appalling and disgraceful.

•
Those who smashed windows and doors, looted and vandalized federal property, threatened lawmakers, and assaulted police officers are nothing more than common criminals. They should be arrested, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned.

•
It will not be forgotten that five people — including a Capitol Police officer — lost their lives.

•
Regardless of his intentions, President Trump's involvement in Wednesday's tragic and sad spectacle is not without responsibility or recrimination. It will serve as an indelible stain on his legacy.

•
He seems incapable of moving beyond the first two stages of grief — denial and anger. He may never be able to reach the fifth stage of acceptance, although he acknowledged in a video released Thursday night that "a new administration will be inaugurated Jan. 20th."

•
Yes, there are serious questions about election integrity and voting improprieties that need to be addressed by both Congress and individual state legislatures. This must be done soon if Americans are to have any confidence in their representative democracy.

•
But the kind of major fraud that would reverse the election outcome never materialized in the way the president's legal team promised, at least to the satisfaction of dozens of judges who considered the many challenges.

•
Trump's failure to gracefully, if grudgingly, concede defeat constitutes a stunning act of political self-immolation. He will likely be remembered not for his considerable accomplishments in a single term, but how he left office embittered by an ignominious obsession. It did not have to end this way.
Against the 25th Amendment — and Warily against Impeachment (01/08/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Who will stand up for everyday Trump voters facing retribution from the left? (Fox 01/07/2021)
•
Within minutes of Trump supporters breaching the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday, virtually every powerful person in the country erupted in rage at the president.

•
Business leaders demanded that Trump be removed from office immediately under the 25th Amendment.

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Members of Congress clamored to impeach him, and at least one Democrat suggested that anyone in Congress who supported his claims of election fraud must be expelled.

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Meanwhile, the media set about denouncing Trump as a terrorist and a murderer, etc.

•
Notice a theme? The reaction was all about Donald Trump. The people in charge of every institution in American life spend all day talking about Donald Trump.

•
You may not have noticed, because that's not very different from any other day over the past five-and-a-half years since he announced his candidacy.

•
Just for a moment, let's think about what life will be like next month. Two weeks from Thursday, Donald Trump will no longer be in control of our nuclear arsenal. He will not have command of federal agencies or even, most likely, his own Twitter account.

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The rest of us, and this is key, we'll still be here. We've got nowhere to go. So what is life going to be like for us on Jan. 20? Not many people seem to be thinking about that, up to and including the people we pay to think about it.

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Who's got your concerns top of mind? Who wakes up in the middle of the night worried about your family? As far as we can tell, no one.

•
The point of the Republican Party is not to protect the personal reputations of its leaders, but its voters. In practice, that means protecting the Bill of Rights, the bedrock promises of American life.

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Without them, you wouldn't want to live here. Those freedoms are incalculably more important than any single politician.

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... if America becomes a place where you have to violate your own conscience in order to hold a job, you're not allowed to protect your family from mob violence and your children can't afford to get married and raise your grandchildren because employers don't like their skin color, then what's the point of all of it?

•
Wednesday's riot is already being used as a pretext for an unprecedented crackdown on civil liberties. Just in the last several hours, we have heard people in positions of power demand that those who support Donald Trump should no longer be allowed to publish books or use the Internet or fly on airplanes. Driving cars, holding jobs and staying in hotels, will certainly be next and we're barely exaggerating.

•
To justify these mind-bending, terrifyingly un-American demands, they are, as usual, relying on lies and hysteria. What happened Wednesday wasn't simply a political protest getting out of hand after the president recklessly encouraged it (Which is, you know, what actually happened). Instead, they're calling it domestic terrorism and needless to say, White supremacy.

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Why are they doing that? Simple. They know that if they keep saying it, history will record it as true. They understand the power of language, and that's why they try to control it. They know that words have consequences.

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This is scary, and the party that should be stepping in to stop it, to push back, to tell the truth in the face of lies and to protect its voters from this deception and the destruction that inevitably comes next, does nothing. Often, in fact, they join in.

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With bodyguards like this, tens of millions of Americans have no chance. They're about to be crushed by the ascendant left...

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Why is no one defending them? The main problem, and this really is the main problem on the right, is that the people who run the Republican Party don't really like their own voters.

•
Many Republicans in Washington now despise the people they're supposed to represent and protect. In fact, it's not just Republican leaders who feel this way, but our entire leadership class.

•
So if you want to understand the hatred — not just disagreement, but gut level loathing and fear of Trump in, say, New York or Washington or Los Angeles — you've got to understand that first. It's not really Trump, it's his voters. The new money class despises them.

•
Trump didn't despise them, and that really was his secret. In the end, Donald Trump did not judge his own voters.

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Thirteen days from now, tens of millions of these voters will not have Donald Trump to protect them. They won't have anyone.

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And unless the Republican Party decides to wake up and push back against the lies and acknowledge the purpose of those lies, which is an unprecedented crackdown on the way you live, you have no chance, either.

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See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
The Washington protest and its context (INN 01/07/2021)
Right-Wing Conspiracy 'Insane' — Left-Wing Conspiracy Theories, Not So Much (JWR 01/07/2021)
The new 'know-nothing' party (JWR 01/07/2021)
Is the wisdom of Homer immune to cancel culture? (JWR 01/07/2021)
Republicans’ Fight Isn’t in Congress (01/07/2021)
•
On Wednesday the Capitol of the most powerful nation the world has ever known was stormed by an angry mob.

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Americans surely never thought they'd see such a scene: members of Congress barricaded inside the House chamber, Capitol Police trampled, and four Americans dead.

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It was a display not of patriotism but of frenzy and anarchy. The actions of a few overshadowed the decent intentions of many.

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Why? Perhaps we should ask our Founders. They were not oracles, but they were borderline prophets.

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In Federalist No. 68, Alexander Hamilton lays out the purpose of the Electoral College, arguing that an independent and decentralized body of electors should elect the president.

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"The choice of several, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements."

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According to Hamilton, the only people in America who should not be allowed to be named an elector would members of the House and Senate and any "other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States."

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Electors would "exclude from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office."

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Our Founders thought it crucial to entrust a temporary body with electing the president for the simple reason that a standing body like Congress would face enormous pressure from voters, officeholders and interest groups.

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That could be, for example, pressure from a president or from 10,000 protesters outside the Capitol.

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For this reason, the Founders opted to diffuse responsibility to electors from each state.

•
They sought to avoid the exact situation we saw on Jan. 6. Millions of Americans were falsely led to believe that the final say in the election of our next president lay with a single body, Congress. And so it was no surprise that thousands showed up to make their voices heard.

•
But the belief that Congress has any say whatever in the "certification" of electoral votes has never been true.

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It has always been unconstitutional and against our Founders' intent, as it was when Democrats attempted the same stunt in 2005.

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Article II of the Constitution lays out a clear role for Congress. "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted."

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It does not say "certify." It does not say "object if you disagree." It does not say "object and decertify if you feel the state's certification is wrong."

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The only contingency the Constitution provides is in the case of a failure of any candidate to reach an electoral majority.

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The right of objection that members of Congress now invoke is derived from a misreading of the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

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It was passed in the wake of the disastrous presidential election of 1876, in which states certified competing slates of electors and sent both to Congress; a governor might send one slate and the legislature another.

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The 1887 law was meant to allow members of Congress to object to one of the competing slates of electors.

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But no state after the 2020 election has approved multiple slates, nor has any state legislature petitioned Congress to consider different electors.

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In fact, the law clearly states that so long as the final determination of electors is "made at least six days prior to the said time of meeting of the electors," that slate of electors "shall be conclusive, and shall govern in the counting of the electoral votes as provided in the Constitution."

•
The real cause of Wednesday's unrest was that many officeholders and commentators misled millions of Americans to believe that the vote count was their final chance to have a say, and their last, best chance to fight for election integrity.

•
Millions were lied to and told they had to fight at our Capitol or all would be lost.

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But Jan. 6 was merely ceremonial — with or without the protesters, the unconstitutional right of objection some lawmakers invoked would have resulted in nothing more than a couple of hours of debate.

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The good news for those millions of Americans is this: It wasn't your final say. It wasn't your last chance. In our system of government, it never is.

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The concerns about election integrity are real, and they must be heard. The merits of these objections are real and substantive.

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There have been countless examples of states engaging in irresponsible and unverifiable election practices, casting doubt on election outcomes.

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Whether it is unverified signatures on mail-in ballots or lax voter-ID laws, a refusal to update registration rolls or a refusal to allow partisan observers to witness counting, there are many practices that must be changed.

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The fight for these changes must be America's greatest priority, because faith in democracy is our most urgent need.

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Republicans must champion these changes in the states, which the Constitution invests with primary responsibility for conducting elections. That is where our fight is.
Four years of frustration led to storming the Capitol (INN 01/07/2021)
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Of the protestors who breached the Capitol, this much we can say... they learned from the best... Antifa coupled with BLM.

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This outpouring of frustration was four years in the making, and no Trump supporter can be happy that it turned ugly. Not in our name.

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But lesson learned. If they can do it, so can we, goes the message, and now watch us do to Biden what you did to Trump over the past four years.

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Trump's supporters haven't forgotten, in no particular order —

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Rep. Maxine Waters urging Democrats to declare war on Trump and his supporters, as follows: "If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere."

•
From The New York Times came the word that Trump was to be Resisted and belittled by all reporters and columnists. Trump was to be given no shade. He was to be hounded.

•
Comedian Kathy Griffin took the hint and showed up with a plaster mock-up, which depicted President Trump's head dripping in blood.

•
On all the Late Shows, Trump was a nightly object of derision.

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Robert De Niro drew wild applause when he said, of the President, "I want to punch him in the face."

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Every Awards show, New York to Hollywood, began and ended with poison-tipped yuks against Trump.

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The House of Representatives spent Trump's entire four years with that single objective, to punch him in the face, through Russia, Ukraine, and impeachment.

•
Shady lawyers were given starring roles on CNN when they offered themselves as proof-positive witnesses to Trump's alleged wrongdoings, until they were caught lying.

•
Women of questionable repute were brought forth to allege indiscretions. None was substantiated.

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Rep. Schiff was everywhere, claiming to have absolute proof that Trump was a Russian agent. The goods never materialized.

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But the show must go on, and it did when Speaker Pelosi theatrically ripped up Trump's State of the Union address.

•
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was handed the task to dig up any dirt he could on Trump. After a probe that lasted two years. and cost millions, zero. No bang for the buck.

•
When it appeared that Trump's campaign for a second term might succeed, the Democrats sent in the goons.

•
Throughput the country, they defaced statues, harassed pedestrians and motorists, burned down shops and destroyed entire neighborhoods.

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The media saw nothing, heard nothing. Peaceful protests, they said.

•
We will see how peaceful it feels now that payback is coming and the shoe is on the other foot.
The Mainstream Media and social media oligarchs are to blame for the D.C. rioting (INN 01/07/2021)
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The Mainstream Media are to blame for the D.C. rioting. Through four years they relentlessly pursued a single-minded goal: to take down the fairly-and-squarely democratically elected presidency of Donald Trump.

•
Towards that end, they escalated non-stories into major "news" and elevated non-entities into major public figures.

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They highlighted stories that belonged on back pages, and they blacked-out or back-paged stories that belonged above the fold on front pages.

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They carefully selected spokespeople aligned with their liberal-progressive ideologies as their sources for quotation, and they discarded press releases and ignored statements issued by significant voices whom they chose to blackout or blacklist.

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When selecting dramatic photos to highlight stories, they chose the pictures that told their ideological narrative and censored those that depicted other realities.

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As a result, Americans do not have a reliable source of information. A society is imperiled when information — not opinion — is so unreliable that no one knows what to believe.

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In a democracy, astute citizens know they cannot rely on politicians for the truth, not even from their favorite government leaders. Even honest Congressional representatives, Senators, and Presidents regularly have to balance realities and their very consciences when they speak to the public. ... It has always been a delicate duty of leadership to manage expectations and to calm untoward fears.

•
Sophisticated people know they simply cannot rely primarily on their democratically elected leaders for the absolute truth. A head of government may wish to say publicly that the leader of another country is dishonest, crooked, even a murderer — and yet prudently restrains his or her tongue because that very tyrant is en route to negotiate a major treaty or other agreement whose consequences are enormous.

•
Historically, free citizens have looked to the mainstream media — the "Fourth Estate" — for the truth.

•
Something terrible happened in America these past four years, as the country divided more sharply than ever, frequently incited precisely by the media on whom the public relied for truth.

•
America reached a point that, as a society, the public cannot — and do not — trust the Mainstream Media.

•
Americans cannot trust their "news." Cannot trust their photographs. Cannot trust their "reliable sources." Cannot even trust the raw data in their surveys and polls.

•
Along the way, the social media that we all hoped at its gestation would prove to be one of humanity's greatest boons proved instead to be yet another contributor to social discord and national division.

•
America's Mainstream Media are not as in tow with totalitarian governmental ... but U.S. Mainstream Media utterly lost their credibility and reliability these past four years, a trustworthiness on which the general public needs assurance.

•
That is the reason that, when many sensible and responsible voices tell Americans and bring compelling supporting data that the November 2020 Presidential election was decided fairly — while other sensible and responsible voices tell Americans and offer corroborating data and meaningful circumstantial evidence that the November 2020 Presidential election was decided unfairly — half the country does not believe the other half.

•
The Mainstream Media and social media oligarchs are to blame for the D.C. rioting now arising from a sincerely held belief by nearly half the country that the election was stolen in November.

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If the media had been doing their jobs in the responsible, dispassionate, balanced, investigative way that American societies of the past had come to expect, then today Americans would hear their reports on the November election and, for the most part, would accept the journalism and the narrative.

•
The tragedy is that America now is a country of "alternate facts." No one knows whom to believe — and there are virtually none in America who have earned the trust that makes a greater society functional.

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Tucker Carlson: A death in the Capitol, and what we must do now (Fox 01/07/2021)
•
Amid the bombardment of images of what took place at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, too little time has been spent thinking about why it happened.

•
Anyone who is trying to understand the significance of what's going on ought to watch video of the last moments of Ashli Babbit, the woman who was shot and killed in the chaos.

•
Footage, which can easily be found online, shows Babbit standing in a hallway right off the House floor with an American flag tied around her neck.

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The scene around her is chaotic. People are bumping into each other, yelling, trying to get through the door into the chamber.

•
Suddenly, with no warning, there is gunfire. You hear a shot and Babbit falls. People in the hallway scream.

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The camera closes in on her face. Babbit looks stunned. She's staring straight ahead. You can see that she knows she's about to die, which she did.

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So what can we learn from this? It's not enough to call it a tragedy. Imagine for a second that Babbit was your daughter. The last time you spoke to her, she was heading to Washington for a political rally.

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Now, she's dead. You'll never talk to her again. That's what we're watching, and we may be watching a lot more of it in the coming days.

•
Political violence begets political violence. That is an iron law. We have to be against that, no matter who commits the violence or under what pretext, no matter how many self-interested demagogues assure us the violence is justified or necessary.

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We have a duty to oppose all of this, not simply because political violence kills other people's children, but because in the end it doesn't work.

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No good person will live a happier life because Ashli Babbit was killed in the hallway of the Capitol today. So our only option, as a practical matter, is to fix what is causing this in the first place.

•
You may have nothing in common with the people on the other side of the country (increasingly, you probably don't), but you're stuck with them. The idea that groups of Americans will somehow break off into separate peaceful nations of like-minded citizens is a fantasy.

•
The two hemispheres of this country are inseparably intertwined, like conjoined twins. Neither can leave without killing the other. As horrifying as this moment is, we have no option but to make it better, to gut it out.

•
The second thing to consider, and it's related to the first, is why Ashli Babbit went to the rally in the first place.

•
She bore no resemblance to the angry children we have seen wrecking our cities in recent months — pasty, entitled nihilists dressed in black, setting fires and spray painting slogans on statues. She looked pretty much like everyone else.

•
So why was she there? We ought to think about that. If you want to fix it, you have to think about that.

•
The only reason this country is rich and successful is because for hundreds of years, we have enjoyed a stable political system. The only reason that system is stable is because it's a democracy, responsive to voters.

•
Democracy is a pressure relief valve. As long as people sincerely believe they can change things by voting, they stay calm. They don't burst into the House chamber. They talk and they organize and they vote.

•
But the opposite is also true if people begin to believe that their democracy is fraudulent, that voting is a charade, that the system is rigged and it's run in secret by a small group of powerful, dishonest people who are acting in their own interests. Then, God knows what could happen.

•
Actually, we do know what could happen, because it's happening right now. It's happened in countless other countries over countless centuries. And the cycle is always the same because human nature never changes.

•
"Listen to us!" scream the population. "Shut up and do what you're told," say their leaders.

•
In the face of dissent, the first instinct of illegitimate leadership is to crack down on the population, but crackdowns never make it better. They always make the country more volatile and more dangerous. The people in charge rarely understand that. They don't care to learn or listen, because all of this conversation is a referendum on them and their leadership. So they clamp down harder.

•
Millions of Americans sincerely believe the last election was fake. You can dismiss them as crazy. You can call them conspiracy theorists. You can kick them off Twitter. But that won't change their minds.

•
Rather than trying to change their minds, to convince them and reassure them that the system is real, that democracy works — which you would do if you cared about the country or the people who live here — our new leaders will try to silence them.

•
What happened Wednesday will be used by the people taking power to justify stripping you of the rights you were born with as an American: Your right to speak without being censored, your right to assemble, to not be spied upon, to make a living, and to defend your family.

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These are the most basic and ancient freedoms that we have. They're why we live here in the first place. They're why we're proud to be Americans. They're what make us different, and they're all now in peril.

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When thousands of your countrymen storm the Capitol building, you don't have to like it. We don't. You can be horrified by the violence, and we are.

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But if you don't bother to pause and learn a single thing from your citizens storming your Capitol building, then you're a fool, you lack wisdom and self-awareness, and you have no place running a country. We got to this sad, chaotic day for a reason.
Miranda Devine: From Pence to the Senate, Trump destroys the party on the way out the door (Fox 01/07/2021)
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The storming of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday by a group of fired-up Trump supporters was a tragedy for the Republican party, for conservatives and populist nationalists, and for Donald Trump and his legacy.

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It has bestowed the great gift of the moral high ground on the most undeserving people in the world: Joe Biden and the left.

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They now have a free pass to persecute their ideological enemies while enacting their pet cultural Marxist projects and changing this country irrevocably for the worst.

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They will be unimpeded by a Senate now in Democratic control, thanks to Tuesday's Georgia runoff debacle.

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Trump's sabotage of the Georgia runoffs and his rabble-rousing "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington yesterday were a catastrophe for his followers. They have justified the outlandish criticism of his enemies for the past four years.

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His good works will be undone, and no one will be there to protect them. He will be gone, and his people will reap the whirlwind.

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The footage of Wednesday's Capitol break-in will be played on eternal loop by Trump-hating media as evidence that the populist nationalist movement which propelled Trump to power was a dangerous aberration that must never be allowed to rise again.

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Of course, it was wrong for pro-Trump protesters to break into the U.S. Capitol and wander around with their flags. They shouldn't have trespassed and fought police and broken windows. Those selfies they took on the House floor ... were dumb and self-incriminating.

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... they won't receive the kid-glove treatment that BLM-Antifa received with last year's "mostly peaceful protests."

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They didn't throw bricks at police or burn police buildings to the ground or beat innocent passersby senseless.

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But they will have the book thrown at them, because it's not the crime you commit that matters anymore, it's who you are.

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So, as bad as the Capitol Hill anarchy Wednesday looked, we shouldn't be surprised after the way leftist violence was condoned most of last year. You let the genie out of the bottle, there's no telling where it goes.

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Joe Biden's attempt at being a teleprompter statesman condemning the protests was laughable. Does he think we forgot he sat by benignly as his supporters torched American cities for months leading up to the election? Portland is still burning, not that you hear that on CNN.

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Suddenly the same politicians and media squawkers who turned a blind eye to actual violence, arson and murder are big advocates of "law and order." Give me a break.

•
Frustration among his supporters has been building to boiling point for four years, as every power base conspired to subvert his 2016 election win and hobble his presidency. He was stymied until the end, and this is the result.

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But becoming what you hate isn't the answer.

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... Pence quite properly refused the demand he block Congress' confirmation of Biden as president yesterday.

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Almost half of all voters, including 69 percent of Republicans, don't believe Biden won the November election fairly... That's a shocking vote of no confidence.

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But, having failed to prove your case in court after trying for two months, you can't load the entire weight of unrealistic expectations onto Pence at the last minute.

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He has two weeks left to persuade his supporters to put the 2020 election behind them and focus on the real fight ahead, winning back the House in 2022, and the White House in 2024. Everything else is a distraction.
Jonathan Turley: Trump’s legacy ‘in tatters’ after supporters riot at Capitol (Fox 01/07/2021)
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"I don't think there's ever been a lower moment for the presidency of the United States. And that's going to take a long time to repair for the office. I don't think it will ever be repaired for President Trump."

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The riot appeared to have been precipitated by a letter to Congress from Vice President Mike Pence, in which he vowed to abide by the Constitution and defy Trump's orders to challenge the election results.

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Turley said Pence's statement was presidential in itself and "reminded us we were all in this together."

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's remarks shortly before demonstrators stormed the building advising his colleagues not to object to the vote count was also a "redeeming" moment for the U.S., Turley said.

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"It was perhaps his greatest speech of his career. That was a high point for us as a nation, And then this happened."

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"It's chilling for all of us because it shows a crisis of faith. That's what the Constitution is, it's a leap of faith that we take together."

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"The people that scaled the walls ... have lost their faith. And the question is – how much of America is now faithless?"
How could voters support a hater like Raphael Warnock? (INN 01/06/2021)
Will the Biden administration confront the Chinese? If not, why not? (INN 01/06/2021)
The future of American culture (INN 01/06/2021)
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"Very proud to say we got the Odyssey removed from the curriculum this year!" proclaimed Heather Levine, who teaches at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

•
It is the Wall Street Journal that tells us about the most grotesque madness of American cancel culture.

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Under the slogan #DisruptTexts, critical theory ideologues, teachers, school bureaucrats and Twitter agitators are purging the classics, from Homer to Francis Scott Fitzgerald from schools.

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Thus Seattle English teacher Evin Shinn writes that she "would rather die" than bring "The Scarlet Letter" to class, unless Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel is used to "combat misogyny" .

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When the "anti-racist teacher" Lorena German complained that many classics are affected by their time, writer Jessica Cluess retorted: "If you think Hawthorne was on the side of the judgmental Puritans, then you are an idiot and you shouldn't be given the title of educator" .

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An online horde accused Cluess, the author of the popular "Kingdom of Fire" series, of "racism" and "violence" and asked Penguin Random House to terminate her contract.

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"Anything remotely associated with stereotypical ‘white males' is cause for cancellation, or rather opportunity for the mediocre to virtue signal their ignorance"

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"Homer both creates Western values and critiques them at the same time; his treatment of women, slaves, and the poor show a sensitivity lacking in any other culture of the time."

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"The university is not a serious place and its reputation is eroding under massive student debt, ideological attacks on the First Amendment, and general mediocrity. Paying 75 thousand dollars for tuition to zoom in on classes is not sustainable. Those who cancel Homer usually never read him. How can you say Odysseus or Circe or Polyphemus is toxic when you have no idea who they are?"

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"The Left tries to wipe out the past to create a new future, but has nothing but nihilism to offer in place of what it destroys. Western youth suffers from prolonged adolescence; an entire generation is struggling under student debt, lack of adequate education despite being credentialed, not marrying, childlessness, and living at home. It lacks any formative challenges — buying a home, caring for a spouse, raising a child — that direct attention away from the self, or at least tend to make one more traditional and conservative. Without any positive referents or achievements it can only destroy or cancel in its nihilist madness".

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In the last few years, I have written hundreds of articles on this American political correctness, which is now affecting and corrupting also Europe's cultural life. As a conservative Catholic author, I look at this American madness with sadness and concern.

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Because I believe that it's not funny at all, but that this "systemic anti-racism" , the new Achilles heel of Western culture, along with civilizational multiculturalism and pathological self hate, if not stopped on time will bring America to its knees.
The Zuckerberg Heist (JWR 01/06/2021)
How Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds of Thousands of Americans (JWR 01/06/2021)
Newt Gingrich: Georgia Senate runoff losses were a Republican disaster that could’ve been prevented (Fox 01/06/2021)
Deroy Murdock: Attack on Capitol by un-American anarchists is a terrorist act and disservice to Trump (Fox 01/06/2021)
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It's hard to express my shock and sadness at seeing America's legislative palace breached, a door to the U.S. House broken, and senators and House members hunkering down, apparently in gas masks.

•
Most astonishing is to see those involved in this violence not waving Antifa flags but, instead, Trump and MAGA banners.

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It would be bad enough if the acts of terrorism now being perpetrated by this mob were underway while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., banged her gavel and shut down any objections to Electoral College votes that many of my fellow Trump fans believe are tainted by ballot irregularities.

•
On the contrary, 180 degrees, the House and Senate were debating Republican objections to Arizona's Electoral College votes. Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas, was making his case to his colleagues, with his usual eloquence.

•
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., head of the Freedom Caucus, rose to state his concerns about his own state's Electoral College votes. He even presented something that should not have existed: A stack of voter registrations that were recorded after the Grand Canyon State's statutory deadline. This is precisely the sort of evidence that the president's supporters have wanted for weeks to be aired in public.

•
Thus, the sheer mind-blowing stupidity of the buffoons who stormed the Capitol. They attacked Congress exactly as it was doing precisely what these people wanted done.

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With guns drawn on the U.S. House floor (!), and reports of one person shot, this is the most vicious breach of the Capitol since the British Army attacked in 1814, during one of the most ominous moments of the War of 1812.

•
In an astonishing act of self-sabotage, these idiots now have made it enormously difficult for those of us who admire President Trump for his enormous domestic and international policy victories.

•
Instead, any discussion of the highest median household income in American history, the lowest poverty rate ever, the complete liquidation of ISIS, and two COVID-19 vaccines in nine months will be answered with, "Oh, you mean the boob whose people assaulted the U.S. Capitol?"

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These un-American anarchists have performed an enormous disservice to President Trump, the America First movement, the more than 74 million voters who cast our ballots for him in November, and our beloved United States of America.

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Those intruders in the Capitol need to back off, evacuate, go home, and ponder the evil that they did.

•
President Trump did the right thing Wednesday afternoon. He issued a video statement from the White House via Twitter and told his overzealous backers to beat it.

•
They should heed his words at once: "I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace."
Warnock's Georgia win means politics of envy, grievance beat hope, prosperity message – here's how (Fox 01/06/2021)
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To someone who loves this country, it is almost inconceivable that Georgia voters have elected to send Rafael Warnock to the United States Senate.

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Democrat Warnock, a Black preacher who has thundered from the pulpit that "America must repent for its worship of whiteness," has edged out Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler to win one of two Senate seats up for grabs in run-off elections.

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The politics of envy and grievance – of class warfare and racial hostilities — have won out over messages of hope, prosperity and opportunity for all. How could this happen?

•
Simply put, Republicans did not turn out in the numbers needed to beat an energized Democrat campaign.

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A campaign that was funded by massive contributions from liberals across the nation, spurred by dreams of a progressive future; a future driven by the prospect that taking control of the senate would allow them, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, to "change the world."

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Weeks ago angry Trump backers in Georgia began a #BoycottTheVote campaign... Those disaffected Republicans were somehow convinced that not voting in the senate races would punish those who had "stolen" the presidential race from Donald Trump in November.

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Instead, that voter boycott will punish the nation.

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The race in Georgia should have been a referendum on the Democrats' agenda. Voters should have chosen between GOP policies that have built our country up, creating jobs and opportunities, versus Democrat policies that aim to punish successful Americans.

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Policies that protect traditional rights and freedoms versus those that allow a censorious mob to decide what Americans can or cannot say.

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Policies that aim to make all neighborhoods safe, including those populated largely by minorities, versus attempts to defund the police and let criminals out of jail.

•
In reviewing the Georgia election, critics will rightly award the liberal media a starring role. The press acted as apologists for both Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, instead of reporters.

•
Georgia's Senate runoff contests were viewed by left and right as critical to the future direction of the country.

•
Republicans see Democrat control of the senate possibly leading to fundamental and damaging changes in our nation.

•
Given the chance, Democrats may push to change the Electoral College, pack the Supreme Court, allow Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. to become states and other measures that would guarantee one-party rule and pave a progressive pathway to the future.

•
Georgia voters have made a terrible choice. If Jon Ossoff beats David Perdue, handing control of the Senate to New York Democrat Chuck Schumer and, consequently, all three branches of our government to Democrats, the damage will be complete.

•
As for President Trump, his reputation and his extraordinary support among Republicans, as well as his chances of running in 2024, have been dealt a serious blow.
It’s legally absurd to claim Trump committed crime in call with Georgia election officials (Fox 01/06/2021)
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For many legal analysts, President Trump remains a type of criminal Midas figure: everything he says or does turns instantly into a crime. This pattern is continuing to the very end of the Trump administration.

•
Within minutes of the leaking of a Saturday call between Trump and Georgia election officials, the same experts were declaring yet another clear crime.

•
The loudest was Andrew Weissmann, whose desire to find a crime to use against Trump appears to be moving from the obsessional to the delusional.

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Weissmann recently called for prosecutors to use grand juries to pursue Trump and others in an unrelenting campaign based on unfounded legal theories.

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Now he is claiming that the president's call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is clear evidence of a criminal act. While I clearly come to these questions from the counter perspective of a criminal defense attorney, the claim is legally absurd.

•
Weissmann declared that the tape showed "criminal intent" as well as "proof of his motive and his pattern of similar activity."

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The problem is that Weissmann again left the criminal code and controlling case law behind in his blind pursuit of Trump.

•
As with the obstruction allegations investigated by Mueller and the Ukrainian call that was the basis for Trump's impeachment by the House of Representatives, this comes down to a question of intent.

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While most experts are notably vague on the specific criminal provision, one possibility would be election fraud under 52 U.S. 20511. However, such an interpretation comes to a full stop at intent — a required showing of "knowingly and willfully" acting to subvert voting.

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The call Trump participated in was a settlement discussion over election challenges with a variety of lawyers present, not some backroom at the Bada Bing club.

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The entire stated purpose of the challenges was to count what the Trump campaign alleged were uncounted votes that far surpassed the 11,780 deficit.

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In any criminal case, Trump would simply argue that he was restating the point of the pending cases in a settlement negotiation: that the election was not fair and that a review could easily flip the result given the margin.

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A prosecutor would have to show that Trump clearly knew his theories were bogus and that he did not believe there were sufficient ballots to reach that number.

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Even if prosecutors could find a basis for establishing intent, they would still be pushing fraud statutes beyond any intelligible limits without more direct evidence of intent.

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Ironically, this is the very issue that marred Weissmann's career and the reason many of us viewed his selection by Mueller to be an egregious error.

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Of course, none of this matters. That is just law and this is legal entertainment. In our media echo chambers, such views are rarely challenged. Viewers hear what they hoped to hear from experts who are eager to supply endless theories of criminality.
Tucker Carlson: Democrats are on the verge of unchecked power. Where was the GOP? (Fox 01/05/2021)
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In-person voting reduces fraud, and reducing fraud and the appearance of fraud used to be important to us. We wanted people to believe the results when they came in.

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We wanted to protect the system that made all of our good things possible. We wanted democracy to continue. But then everything changed.

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... think about that for a second. If you can go to the grocery store — and most people can and do — then you can go to a polling place. There's no medical reason that you can't vote in person.

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When Republicans complain about it, the left doesn't answer the question. They just get hysterical and start screaming about racism.

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This scam will continue for as long as people keep falling for it, and they do keep falling for it. Everything Democrats don't like is Jim Crow.

•
Republicans recently argued that thousands of Georgia voters should be excluded from participating in the election for this simple and obvious reason: Post office change-of-address records showed they had left the state, and were no longer in Georgia. Therefore, they couldn't vote in Georgia because they're not in Georgia.

•
That seems simple and obvious, but that standard does not meet the burden of proof in the court of U.S. District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner. Who is Leslie Abrams Gardner?

•
She happens to be the sister of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic pretender to the governorship of Georgia. The case in question, by the way, involves a group funded by, you guessed it, Stacey Abrams.

•
Because this is an amazing time in our history, Gardner explained her refusal to recuse herself from the case like this: "One can only assume that the argument is something to the effect that if my sister is actively engaged in a cause, I cannot be impartial ... This argument is mere speculation."

•
... stop asking questions, America is racist. That's the answer to everything, but it would be nice if someone disagreed with that claim, because that claim is totally false.

•
It's poisonous and it's wrecking what has been, for a couple of hundred years now, a pretty great country.

•
But increasingly, no one pushes back. In fact, recently, a lot of Republicans have been saying the same thing.

•
Last May, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., didn't bother holding hearings on election integrity or mail-in balloting.

•
That might have been nice. No, McConnell was busy attacking police officers and eulogizing George Floyd.

•
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was on the street mouthing Black Lives Matter slogans on camera in a sort of Jane Fonda moment.

•
Meanwhile, two Republican senators called for replacing Columbus Day, a day that celebrates the discovery of this country, with Juneteenth.

•
If Democrats win both Georgia Senate runoffs, they're not going to be too concerned about Juneteenth.

•
They have much bigger goals in mind, like eliminating the filibuster, adding new states to the union, packing the Supreme Court, ending the independence of the judicial branch, and giving citizenship to tens of millions of illegal aliens, now known as their base.

•
None of that should come as a surprise, we've seen it coming for a long time. The question we need to ask right now is, why did so few Republicans do anything to stop it?
Pence's appointment with destiny (INN 01/05/2021)
I Now Better Understand the 'Good German' (JWR 01/05/2021)
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Apathy in the face of tyranny turns out not to be a German or Russian characteristic. I just never thought it could happen in America.
A Vote at the Crossroads (JWR 01/05/2021)
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As a nation, we are at a crossroads in the history of America. And if we take the wrong road, we may never get back again.

•
If Georgia voters send two Democrats to the closely divided U.S. Senate, that will give the Democrats control of both houses of Congress, as well as the White House.

•
Senate Democrats' leader, Senator Charles Schumer, has already announced what he has in store, if the Democrats get a majority in the Senate. So has President-elect Joe Biden.

•
And it goes way beyond specific policies. It includes institutional changes that can be permanent, and almost guarantee one-party rule in this country, as far out as the eye can see.

•
If more than 10 million people who are in this country illegally are given the right to vote — and most of those votes are almost certain to go to Democrats — that is a major new political reality that will be with us for generations.

•
In a democracy, a majority of the voters can change the government. But, by giving millions of illegal immigrants a vote, the government can create enough voters to get a majority. That is the opposite of democracy.

•
More important, it is irreversible. Nor is that the only irreversible institutional change the Democrats have on their agenda.

•
The Democrats' agenda, if they get a majority in the Senate, includes turning a city — Washington — into a state, with two Senators. It is no coincidence that Washington voters have been voting overwhelmingly for Democrats for decades.

•
If the city of Washington gets the same power in the Senate as the state of Georgia or Texas, that is another major institutional change that is irreversible.

•
Georgia voters have a lot of responsibility, not just for Georgia but for America, and not just for now but for future generations.
Georgia Democratic State Rep. Vernon Jones: Georgia Senate runoffs — Why I’m supporting Loeffler... (Fox 01/05/2021)
•
Given that the Democrats continue to control the U.S. House of Representatives, a GOP loss of the Senate would put them in charge of Congress.

•
That would not only be catastrophic for Republicans, it would be a colossal mistake for the country and would contradict the will of most of the electorate including independents and many Democrats.

•
... today's national Democratic party has drastically changed from what it once was. It has moved from being a center-left party during Bill Clinton's presidency to one that is increasingly driven by far-left ideas and policies.

•
The older Democratic party focused on equality of opportunity, economic growth and targeted tax cuts. Today's party demands equality of outcome and redistribution of wealth.

•
The Clinton Democrats supported hiring more police officers. Today's Democratic leaders, at least at the state and local level, are open to "defunding" entire police departments.

•
Democrats once saw America as a force for good in the world. Now many of them see America as an ugly, imperialist country of oppression.

•
Late 20th century Democrats believed in making our energy sources cleaner through science and technology. Today they seek to ban every form of energy except for renewables.

•
Yesterday's party didn't dismiss public school choice. Now it opposes alternatives for children from impoverished families trapped in failing neighborhood schools.

•
On every one of these issues, not just Republicans and independents, but millions of Democratic voters prefer the older version of the party.

•
And on all or most of these issues, Warnock and Ossoff prefer today's radicalized party.

•
Warnock ... seems to embrace the illiberal Marxist idea of America as fundamentally flawed from its inception, and as needing to reject and disown its supposedly wicked foundation.

•
As for Ossoff, he, like Warnock, is drawn to the Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez wing of his party, boasting about receiving Sanders' endorsement and mimicking their views on issues ranging from the environment to gun control to health care. In addition, his ties to China and its ruling Communist party are concerning.

•
Tellingly, both Warnock and Ossoff have raised millions of out-of-state dollars from San Francisco and Silicon Valley area donors.

•
This points to a major reason for the Democrats' radicalization — their increasing dependence on precisely those kinds of contributors who often espouse hard left beliefs.
Tucker Carlson: Forget Trump phone call, here's what really matters about Georgia Senate runoffs (Fox 01/04/2021)
•
A year ago at this time, the biggest story in the world was getting almost no attention in our country.

•
A terrifying new form of the coronavirus was spreading through central China. From the very first moments of the outbreak, it was clear to many scientists it may have been engineered by the Chinese government and escaped from a lab in Wuhan.

•
For a variety of reasons, the people in charge of this country didn't want to talk about it. So instead, they told us that the biggest thing happening on Jan. 4, 2020, was the impeachment of Donald Trump, and nothing was more important than removing him from office.

•
Trump's crime, you may remember, was a 30-minute phone call with the president of Ukraine. In that call, Trump suggested there might be something corrupt about Joe Biden's son making $40,000 a month from Ukrainian energy company, despite having no relevant work history in either Ukraine or the energy business.

•
Fast-forward a year later and the people in charge are saying pretty much the same thing: Donald Trump must be impeached over a phone call, this time one one that took place over the weekend.

•
On Saturday, the president spoke by telephone to the secretary of state of Georgia for about an hour. They talked about vote counting in Georgia.

•
The president, as you may have heard, believes the election was stolen from him. Georgia's secretary of state, whose job it is to oversee elections, disagrees.

•
No matter what you conclude about vote counting in Georgia, we're willing to bet that you won't decide Donald Trump's latest phone call is the single most important thing happening in the world right now, probably not even close.

•
On Tuesday there are two U.S. Senate elections in Georgia, and the outcome of those races will determine who controls the entire U.S. government. If the Democrats win both races — and at this point, that is entirely possible, even likely — the Democratic Party will run everything in Washington and they will be able to do whatever they want.

•
The Democratic Party and its marionettes in the news media would rather you didn't get involved, and so they're encouraging you to think about Trump's phone call instead. If they didn't at some point, you might start asking bigger, more disruptive questions.

•
Here's one: How exactly did Joe Biden win more votes than any other presidential candidate in the history of the United States?

•
After 50 years of uninterrupted mediocrity in Washington and two spectacularly unsuccessful presidential campaigns in which he was rejected resolutely by Democratic primary voters, did Americans suddenly decide they wanted to be led by Joe Biden?

•
Joe Biden got his party's nomination for one reason: Because Bernie Sanders turned out to be more popular than anyone expected him to be. Sanders was an actual threat to the Democratic establishment.

•
No one expected that, least of all Biden. Once he was chosen, virtually every power center on earth joined the cause. Big business, Wall Street, the defense establishment, pharma, the permanent bureaucracy in Washington and above all, Silicon Valley worked tirelessly from the day Biden got the nomination until Election Day to bypass voters and get Joe Biden to the White House.

•
Google changed its famed algorithm to obliterate traffic to websites that criticized Joe Biden. Facebook and Twitter did essentially the same thing.

•
If that's not rigging an election, there's no meaning to that phrase. The people who control the flow of virtually all information in English became unpaid consultants to the Joe Biden for president campaign.

•
Those are the new rules, and they are unsustainable. You can't have a democracy in a system like that because people can't get the information they need to make informed decisions. You bypass the First Amendment.

•
But if Democrats take over the entire federal government Tuesday, that's it, there will be no way to stop it. In fact, it will accelerate because it benefits a specific political party.

•
You'll have plenty of time to think about what happened on Tuesday come Wednesday morning when Democrats are in charge and there's nothing you can do about it, now or ever.
Michael Goodwin: Trump's last stand – how will final days impact Georgia Senate runoffs? (Fox 01/04/2021)
•
With apologies to Mark Twain, reports about the death of Trumpism are premature. At least for a few days more, Donald Trump has license to keep upsetting apple carts in Washington.

•
Just when it seemed the president was roadkill and about to be abandoned by his own party, growing numbers of GOP members of Congress are signing on to a last-ditch effort to challenge the election results.

•
Because success in any state would require a majority of both houses to vote no, the objectors are virtually certain to fail.

•
Yet the swelling ranks of supporters in both chambers signals that it's still Trump's party and that enough of his 74.2 million voters are sticking with him that the pols have concluded it's not politically healthy to go against him.

•
Most important, the challengers have more than enough clout to force debates on each state they dispute, and to require every member of Congress to vote yes or no on whether to accept the results as reported.

•
The development will turn what is normally a routine procedural step into a heated battle and marks a major victory of sorts for Trump.

•
It follows weeks where the president and his legal team got almost no traction among elected officials for their claims of widespread voter fraud, largely because court after court dismissed their filings.

•
Claims by lawyer Sidney Powell alleging an international conspiracy involving voting machines drew widespread scorn.

•
Suffering from Trump fatigue and eager to focus on the future, most Republicans simply wished the president would go away quietly.

•
Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated Joe Biden on his victory and urged GOP senators to accept the election results, scheduled for final certification on Wednesday.

•
But in recent days, more and more House members said they would object to a tally showing Biden getting 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232.

•
Reports say up to 140 of the 211 GOP members would vote no on the grounds that results in some states are not trustworthy.

•
Until Saturday, just one senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, said he would join them, arguing that some states, such as Pennsylvania, had improperly changed or not followed their election laws, a move that would force both houses to conduct the debate and vote.

•
Suddenly, however, nearly a dozen other senators, some just elected, issued a Saturday statement saying they, too, would vote no.

•
Led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, they demanded that Congress appoint an electoral commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of states where Trump has charged there were sweeping instances of fraud.

•
They cite as precedent the 1876 election between Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford Hayes, where the electoral votes in four states were in dispute amid a flurry of charges of cheating.

•
"Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy, Instead, Congress appointed an electoral commission — consisting of five senators, five House members, and five Supreme Court justices — to consider and resolve the disputed returns."

•
The most immediate impact of the sudden shift of support for the president could be felt in Georgia, where voting will close Tuesday for the two Senate runoff elections.

•
... if Democrats win both seats, they will flip the Senate and gain control of Congress and the White House. The implications of one-party rule are enormous, especially given the growing ranks of socialist-leaning Dems. As Trump has acknowledged, his America First agenda would be a dead letter.

•
... hovering in the background is the question of how Trump leaves the Oval Office. I have never doubted he would do so voluntarily, and the fact that he and Melania are searching in Florida for a home and a school for their son illustrates he has privately accepted the reality of a Biden presidency, even as he rails against the results and exercises every possible right to contest them.

•
By convincing many Republicans to object to the certification, he has extended those rights to Wednesday. As president, it is his last stand.
Liz Peek: Georgia Republicans, vote against Pelosi and Schumer in Senate runoff races (Fox 01/04/2021)
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Listen up, Georgia Republicans! I get it – you're exhausted, angry and sick to death of ads warning that only you can fend off a Democrat Socialist Republic.

•
Here's the bad news: those ads are true. You have the terrible responsibility, in these last remaining hours, to decide the future of our country.

•
Let's make this easy; do you want Democrats to massively raise your taxes? And ... do you want your tax dollars bailing out New York and California, which have been demolished by crazy tough-on-business and soft-on-crime policies?

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There's more at stake than taxes. If Jon Ossoff and Rafael Warnock win, and Democrats take control of the Senate on Jan. 5, many of the rights and freedoms you cherish are at risk.

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Moreover, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Schumer, two dishonest partisans who fought President Trump every moment of the past four years, will run the nation.

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Just as President Trump stemmed the downward slide of our great country into mediocrity, that responsibility now rests with you.

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... the House is set to adopt rules that would, its authors claim, "honor all gender identities" by forbidding the use of words like "mother" or "sister"; going forward, House members could only use terms like "parent" or "sibling."

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That kind of idiocy can spread like a virus. Do Georgians want their speech censored by left-wing culture warriors?

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How about the 49% of you Georgians who live in homes that contain guns? Do you know that Democrats are pushing a law through the House called the Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020, which makes it very tough to buy or sell a gun and removes limitations on the civil liability of gun manufacturers?

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If that law were to pass, gun makers could be sued by victims of shootings; the law might well put U.S. gun manufacturers out of business and make our Second Amendment rights a thing of the past.

•
Democrats are also working to open our borders, with a House bill called the New Way Forward Act, which repeals criminal penalties for illegally entering the country. It also ends mandatory detention for asylum seekers.

•
That bill is part of Democrats' long-term push to enable mass in-migration of Hispanics whose U.S.-born children automatically become citizens and, almost as automatically, future Democrat voters.

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Another push by Democrats could lead to so-called "reparations" payments to descendants of people brought to this country as slaves.

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It is hard to imagine a more divisive proposal; race relations are at a low point. With Democrats pushing this kind of "grievance" agenda, they will only get worse.

•
The For the People bill, which passed the House more than a year ago and is just waiting for a Democrat-led Senate, would allow criminals to vote, permanently expand absentee voting and voting-by-mail, prohibit purging voter rolls of "eligible" voters ... and in many other ways attempt to advantage Democrat candidates.

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Other ambitions include stacking the Supreme Court, welcoming reliably blue Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., as states, and abolishing the Electoral College.

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These attempts to profoundly change our nation could only succeed if the Democrats win control of the Senate.

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... they will make access to full-term abortions the law of the land, push criminal justice "reforms" the likes of which have set once-safe New York City's murder rate soaring, and eliminate "right-to-work" laws that make Georgia more competitive and has led to state unemployment of 5.7%, much lower than the national average of 6.7%.

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That's a hint of what's in store if Democrats take the Senate.

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Georgia – you can still save yourselves, and this great nation. Please vote for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. We will thank you.
Chairman Bernie? How Senate Committees Could Devolve if Dems Sweep Georgia (01/04/2021)
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Who would you rather have write the U.S. Senate's next budget — Lindsey Graham or Bernie Sanders? This is among the choices before Georgia's voters on Tuesday.

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These twin races will determine whether Republicans maintain a one- or two-seat majority in the upper legislative chamber or, if Ossoff and Warnock prevail, Democrats take control, along with holding the House of Representatives and White House.

•
If Democrats capture the Senate and make New York's Chuck Schumer majority leader, they also will chair the Senate's committees.

•
If Republicans keep command, these committees will be marginally likelier than today's to pursue conservative objectives of individual freedom, limited government, free enterprise, and peace through strength.

•
If Democrats take power, however, Americans should brace for a jump to the left. Senate panels will become rocket engines for curbing liberty, swelling the state, shackling the economy, and appeasing America's enemies.

•
If Republicans decide committees' agendas, they most likely will investigate the deep-state genesis of the synthetic Russiagate non-scandal that hounded President Donald J. Trump for three excruciating years.

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Republicans almost surely will probe Hunter Biden's mangy business affairs and any benefits that possibly flowed to his father.

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And Senate sleuths likely will address the myriad irregularities and vote-fraud allegations from November's elections.

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If Democrats manage the Senate's committees, they will bury each of these scandals in an unmarked grave and never look back.

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Tuesday's choice is as dramatic as America's fruited plains versus the downward-spiralism of left-wing big cities.

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Republicans, independents, and Democrats dismayed by their party should run, not walk, to the polls and spare the Republic such Democrat domination of the Senate and its committees.

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Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue's victories would keep Bernie Sanders, Patty Murray, Dick Durbin, and their ilk snarling but, essentially, toothless.
2020 hindsight (INN 01/01/2021)
•
We are now living in two Americas. It is a very sad situation. One America believes in tradition, and cherished values and the other America believes in radical change and cancellation of our culture.

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Trying to bridge the two America's is a noble goal but unlikely to succeed. The chasm is too wide.

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The mainstream media for the most part has exacerbated the situation. Instead of honest reporting , they act as though it is a grudge match.

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"Respect" does not exist. To this day, the media does not give President Trump appropriate credit for one of the great miracles of our lifetime ,"Operation Warp Speed" which will save millions of lives worldwide.

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They also fail to grasp the very real possibility that massive fraud occurred in the November election. ... It is easy to sweep under the rug but this should be given the highest priority because it tears at the very fabric of the Republic.

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Half of the American population is in total denial because it fits their worldview and narrative. But serious questions have been raised and answers must be given that are accurate and truthful.

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Congress' Intelligence Committee must fully investigate the election shenanigans to prevent this from ever happening again. The election skulduggery is just one of the many ills society has succumbed to.

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Overall, what is lacking is humility. The men and women of the World War 2 generation were the humblest of souls and sacrificed their lives for their children and grandchildren. They represented "Good" and they defeated "Evil Incarnate".

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The West defeated the Nazis and their allies because of self sacrifice. We have a great deal to learn from that generation.

•
The "cancel culture" revolution and the "Defund the Police" movement competed with the Pandemic for space in the news cycle. To say that these movements' vision is blurry is the greatest understatement of all. Blind is more appropriate.
It’s 2021, and still Waiting for Godot and Durham Report (INN 01/01/2021)
It Can't Get Any Worse Than 2020. Here's a 2021 Political Wish List (JWR 01/01/2021)
Vote-Integrity Legislation a Must for 2021 (JWR 01/01/2021)
•
... the public still does not have satisfactory answers about what took place during the counting of ballots on election night and the days immediately following.

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We clearly do not really know why counting suddenly stopped or paused in multiple battleground states on election night (unprecedented in the history of the country), or why the excuses that were offered at the time (for example, that a pipe had burst at the State Farm Center in Atlanta) were subsequently proven false.

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Hundreds of witnesses have given sworn statements and testimony under oath, and the public has seen videos of behavior that is suspicious, to say the least.

•
There are statistical anomalies — some say impossibilities — for example, that 100% of the votes that magically appeared in the middle of the night in Michigan and Wisconsin, after official vote counting had allegedly stopped, went for Joe Biden.

•
Or how Biden managed to get more than 81 million votes despite losing Florida, Texas and Ohio, and taking only 527 of 3,113 counties, while former President Barack Obama won Florida and Ohio and took 875 counties.

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Or how the voter participation rate was in excess of all registered voters.

•
We are in a bad place. Half the country does not believe — and will probably never believe — that Joe Biden was elected president of the United States.

•
On Jan. 5, there are runoff elections for two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia, which will decide the composition of Congress.

•
They are being administered just as the November election was. That does not inspire confidence.

•
The No. 1 priority must be passing legislation at the state level that ensures the integrity of elections in 2022 and thereafter.

•
States, not Congress, have control over election procedures. And a 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court will likely uphold state election-integrity laws.

•
Republican-controlled state legislatures should pass laws that include the following:

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No. 1: Require state- or federal-issued identification to vote, and put in place efforts to provide every citizen who does not already have an ID with one. No one who is not a citizen of the United States and of any given state should be able to vote.

•
Objections to this most basic election-integrity rule are meritless; you cannot drive a car, travel by plane, purchase a firearm or walk into a liquor store without identification.

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No. 2: Purge voter rolls of people who have died or moved, and duplicate registrations removed.

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No. 3: Strictly enforce residency requirements, and eliminate or ban same-day registration.

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No. 4: Ban ballot harvesting. More than half of the states allow it in some form or another, but this procedure is ripe for fraud...

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No. 5: Forbid ballot drop boxes, which present tampering and chain-of-custody concerns, as well as concerns about whether all votes deposited will even be counted.

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No. 6: Ban mail-in ballots, and preserve absentee ballots. Absentee ballots are only mailed to voters upon request, but mail-in ballots are sent to everyone on the voter rolls.

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No. 7: Mandate the presence of bipartisan poll watchers at a distance close enough to observe the vote counting. Forbid ballot deliveries or vote counting unless poll watchers are present.

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No. 8: Congress should pass legislation making Election Day a federal holiday. Whether or not it does so, state legislatures should pass laws making Election Day a state holiday...

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There has never been a more propitious time for Republican-controlled state legislatures to pass election-integrity legislation.

•
Democrats will challenge these laws in court. Let them. The public — especially the 74 million-plus people who voted for Donald Trump — is outraged about the sloppy and careless practices that created an environment ripe for fraud.

•
And court challenges will provide opportunities to present the evidence of fraud (actual and potential) from the 2020 election.

•
Common-sense election-integrity laws should have been passed decades ago. Our cavalier and cowardly attitude about election laws threatens the survival of the United States as a republic.

•
Millions of Americans believe that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and fear that we will never again have a free or fair election.

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Anyone who derides such concerns should look to history to see what happens when half the population decides it has been permanently disenfranchised.
What will historians make of our 'annus horribilis'? (JWR 01/01/2021)
Medal of Honor recipient Gary Beikirch: I learned a lesson of hope in Vietnam War that helps... (Fox 12/30/2020)
Sen. Marco Rubio: Dr. Fauci lied about coronavirus — I am appalled by his arrogance (Fox 12/30/2020)
•
Thanks to our news media's monomaniacal obsession with President Trump, few have paid attention to an important interview that Dr. Anthony Fauci gave last week, in which he acknowledged that he selectively lied to the American public about the coronavirus and what was needed for our national recovery.

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For most of this year, Dr. Fauci and other scientists in our public health establishment have been telling Americans that about 60 to 70 percent of the nation would need a vaccine in order for us to reach herd immunity and make the coronavirus a non-issue.

•
... Dr. Fauci admitted that he believes the real number is in fact significantly higher — perhaps 75 to 90 percent — and he declined to be forthright because he felt the country wasn't ready to hear it. Only now did he say that he feels he has the freedom to "nudge this up a bit" without discouraging the nation.

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I am sure that Dr. Fauci — the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — made the decision to mislead with nothing but good intentions.

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However, let's be clear about what he was doing: lying to the American people in order to manipulate their behavior.

•
The American people deserve the truth; they also deserve accountability. When elected representatives make decisions, they can be held responsible by the public.

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But when public health officials with decades of experience and leadership within our nation's institutions short-circuit the political process and make these decisions themselves, they deny the American people that same opportunity — and to change course if desired.

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After all, accountability is a central tenet of representative government. It's the best way to ensure that the vision of what is being enforced by decision-makers matches the values of the population who have elected them.

•
Passing the buck to unelected technocrats avoids accountability and means falling back on two fallacies: first, that science gives us a straightforward playbook for answering questions facing decision-makers; and, second, that those technocrats are the only legitimate interpreters of the facts.

•
... placing blind faith in unelected celebrity scientists — elevated by a media that award Emmys to negligent politicians with their own grisly records — has its limits, and we must not be afraid to call them out when they're caught overstepping their legitimate authority.

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I do not question Dr. Fauci's motives — I trust they are noble — but I am appalled by his arrogance.

•
If he wants to lead the nation, he should run for office. Otherwise, he should give us an honest and transparent reading of the science, not polling data, and let the rest of us — policymakers and the American people who have elected them — do our jobs.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: Stop indoctrinating students with insidious anti-American lies (Fox 12/29/2020)
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This pandemic has laid bare a number of things about American education, not the least of which is that it's not entirely American; in too many places, students are taught outright anti-American material.

•
The 1619 Project contends that because of slavery, America's "founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written."

•
It also states that "nearly everything" about our country sprang forth from racism, and that our Founding Fathers and other early Americans in the colonies fought the Revolutionary War to "protect the institution of slavery."

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These insidious lies and more have been exposed and refuted by many scholars, including one of the project's own fact-checkers.

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Yet too many children across America are already being indoctrinated. More than 4,500 schools use the Project 1619 curricula, according to the project.

•
Appallingly, more than half of high school seniors, according to the Nation's Report Card, have a "below basic" knowledge of our history.

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... poll conducted over the summer found that half of parents don't want their children using material that offers the idea that slavery is the "center of our national narrative."

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Parents know that the idea at the center of our national narrative is freedom. And they're demanding more of it. Parents today are more aware today of the bad civics and American history education their children are receiving.

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The 1776 Commission, which President Trump launched recently, will help focus the national conversation on the great American story and the importance of ensuring the rising generation understands the values of our founding, the contents of our Constitution and the critical need to be engaged citizens.

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Instruction that misconstrues American history or outright lies about it is not instruction at all. Worse still when it's the only option for too many families. That underscores the massive unmet demand for more education options.

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This Trump Administration strongly supports the bipartisan School Choice Now Act, which would directly fund families and allow them to choose the best educational setting for their child.

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... the Trump administration wants everyone to have the freedom, the flexibility, and the funds to make the best decisions for them. Parents, students, and our country would certainly be better off for it.
The ethical decline of American journalism (INN 12/28/2020)
Winter Skating, Or, Barr the Brave? (JWR 12/28/2020)
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In a letter to President Trump dated December 14th Attorney General William Barr officially resigned from his post ... praised President Trump for his "many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people."

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... stated that "your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance. Your 2016 victory speech in which you reached out to your opponents and called for working together for the benefit of the American people was immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds. The nadir of this campaign was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your Administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia."

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"Few could have weathered these attacks, much less forge ahead with a positive program for the country. You built the strongest and most resilient economy in American history - one that has brought unprecedented progress to those previously left out." He spoke of how Trump restored American military strength; how he brokered peace deals in the Mideast that were once thought impossible; how he advanced the rule of law; and lead the way, with Operation Warp Speed, of delivering a vaccine for coronavirus on a fast-track schedule that no one could have imagined."

•
... there's no question that Barr supported President Trump on many levels during his tenure as Attorney General, but for many of us, however, it wasn't nearly good enough. Not even close.

•
What happened to all the investigations into the attempted coup against the Trump administration? Where were the indictments of those rogue FBI and Justice Department elites who did all they could to thwart the will of millions of Americans who elected President Trump in 2016?

•
And what about Hillary and her campaign who spearheaded the lies and the fake dossier? And what about those Obama officials who were a party to it all?

•
For the most part I found Attorney General William Barr to be a brave, honorable man and a patriot. Unfortunately that is not enough in today's America.

•
Because of the politics and political correctness of our times we literally need a superman, a man willing and able to go up against the most powerful forces on earth in order to preserve our country, its history and its future. It will not do to have someone who merely loves his country and has good intentions.

•
I'm pretty certain that Barr stopped short of indictments, let alone prosecutions of the people involved, because of how high the chain of corruption goes. And it goes really high. You can't move on Comey or Brennan or Clapper without eventually exposing Hillary Clinton and all her people. And you can't move on Hillary without exposing President Obama and his personal participation in it.

•
I'm sure the thinking was, if we go that high up we will have put ourselves in a position to essentially accuse a former president of the United States with crimes of the highest order. What would be definitely the biggest political scandal in our nation's history.

•
And not only that, but we will have accused the first African American president of being a party to it all. The first black president turns out to be a crook!

•
If all that happens this country, which is already divided, would go into a total racial civil war. Those on the left will ignite every black community with more hate than you can imagine.

•
The streets would be filled with rioters like never before. The violence would make what happened this past summer seem like a picnic in the park.

•
I think that's why all the investigations were stopped. Barr and company were scarred of presenting to the American people what their investigators unearthed.

•
In a more sane time, exposing a ruthless and corrupt past administration would actually be a good thing for our nation. We would prosecute those responsible and correct the system going forward. Our country would be all the stronger for it.

•
But not now, not in these politically correct, highly volatile times. Sadly, even the Supreme Court is afraid of it all.

•
With the incoming administration all investigations will be buried forevermore. The bad guys got away with some winter skating. Happy New Year!

•
See related Now We Need to See Where This Goes (Gary Varvel, 04/12/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Has the Democrats’ push to depose Biden begun? (INN 12/25/2020)
•
The contour lines of an approaching scenario in which Biden, exposed as both frail and mendacious, is forced to step down and concede the presidency to Harris, are gradually coming into focus.

•
With an ever-more critical press and an ever-more radical intra-party opposition, we may well be on the cusp of a new American (or rather unAmerican) revolution — a revolution in which a cardboard cutout president is driven from office by people imbued with a political credo, forged by figures and ideas not only different from, but entirely contrary to, those that made America, America.

•
It is indeed, a scenario that risks transforming America into a de-Americanized post-America — an unrecognizable shadow of its former self.

•
That will be the terrible price the American electorate has inflicted on itself for submitting to the fit of puerile and petulant pique that molded its choice this November.

•
See related A Leg up (Antonio Branco, 12/02/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
COVID Christmas isn’t our first facing hard times. We recovered before, we’ll recover again (Fox 12/25/2020)
Psychopathy and the Origins of Totalitarianism (New Discourses, 12/25/20)
Michael Goodwin: Coronavirus vaccine is Trump’s greatest achievement as president (Fox 12/25/2020)
•
"I think that the administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed," Joe Biden said as he got his Trump vaccine shot.

•
"Some credit?" Then who deserves the rest of the credit?

•
Notice, too, that Biden can't bring himself to say "President Trump." It's just the "administration" that deserves "some credit."

•
This is stingy stuff. Imagine for a second that Trump had not pushed as hard as he did and instead allowed the vaccine research, development and human trials to follow the usual drawn-out process through the maze of approval checkpoints.

•
That would mean a delay of possibly four or five years, putting the vaccine's debut near or after the end of Biden's term.

•
In the long interval, how many more Americans would have died from the coronavirus? Half a million more? A million, 2 million?

•
Whatever the additional horrific toll, the worst clearly has been avoided and many, many lives have been saved.

•
Think also of the economic impacts of going another four or five years without a vaccine. Repeated waves of infections would have been met with more lockdowns and restrictions, slashing or eliminating income to tens of millions of families and driving cities and states closer to bankruptcy.

•
Even Washington's money-printing presses would have had trouble keeping up.

•
There's little doubt how Biden himself would have reacted absent a vaccine. He said during the campaign he would "follow the science" and if that meant national lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, so be it.

•
One of his top advisers suggested a lockdown across the country lasting "four to six weeks" would control the pandemic and allow the economy to reopen.

•
Right, except remember that the initial lockdowns were going to be for just two weeks and that would be enough to flatten the curve. That was nine months ago.

•
In fact, the Trump vaccine is a great gift to the nation and the world, and that includes the Biden administration.

•
Its agenda on issues like climate and tax hikes would have been dead on arrival without a way to reopen the country and give people hope that better and safer days are coming.

•
The vaccine also will allow Biden to pursue something like a normal presidency in that he will no longer be forced to shun most human contact because of his age and health problems.

•
The vaccine will free him personally, so it shouldn't be asking too much for Biden to acknowledge Trump's contribution in a complete and honest way. But apparently it is asking too much.

•
Nonetheless, getting the vaccine successfully produced and with millions of doses now being distributed and administered, Operation Warp Speed must be counted as Trump's greatest achievement as president.

•
It is hard to believe any other modern commander in chief would have done it nearly as well, let alone better.

•
This was a triumph of the first order made possible by the sheer force of his personality. Trump's relentless pressure on private companies as well as the sprawling bureaucracy turned what many in the left-wing media and even some in the medical community regarded as a pipe dream into a lifesaving reality.

•
It's as if his take-no-prisoners determination was made for the moment, an impression that adds to the irony given that the pandemic wrecked the final year of his presidency and probably cost him four more years.

•
... despite the fact that the vaccine came soon enough to save an enormous number of lives, it came too late to save Trump's job.

•
Still, it was a remarkable achievement for which all Americans should be grateful.
Our upside-down postelection world (JWR 12/24/2020)
Omar, Tlaib and AOC demand Facebook remove 100% of 'anti-Muslim content' (INN 12/23/2020)
Stop America from becoming a Banana Republic (INN 12/23/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Congress tells struggling Americans to take their $600 and shut up (Fox 12/23/2020)
•
After tense negotiations and multiple rounds of televised theatrics, Congress has passed a spending bill.

•
It's 5,593 pages long, and allocates $2.3 trillion, including more than $900 billion in COVID relief.

•
That's a lot of money, but on the other hand, there's a lot of need. Thanks in part to government lockdowns, more than 100 million Americans are out of the workforce. One in six restaurants is closed. Huge parts of the retail sector are in tatters.

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If there was ever a time that Americans need relief, it's right now. So be glad to know there is something for you in this bill: It is entirely possible that you could get a $600 check, courtesy of the U.S. Congress.

•
That money, should you receive it, is yours with which to do what you wish. Buy a moderately sized television set and watch the free channels all night. Rent a Tesla for a day and drive it until the power runs out. Order two appetizers off the tasting menu at The French Laundry in Napa County (Tip not included). The sky's the limit here. Go crazy. It's good to be an American.

•
On the other hand, it's also pretty good to be a Jordanian. The same bill passed (but not read) by Congress allocates $500 million for border security in that country. Congress wants to help Jordan build a wall along its 275-mile long border with Syria.

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Apparently, Congress is worried about illegal immigration in the Middle East, which is why it allocated another $250 million for additional border security in Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Oman. God knows those countries need it. Borders make a nation, remember that.

•
Except here in the United States, which is unique among nations through history, borders are not relevant. In fact, borders are racist. And that's why this very same bill defunds American border security.

•
It slashes funding for ICE detention space and blocks requests to hire more deportation officials. Immigration authorities in this country will have 11,000 fewer detention beds starting this year.

•
There's also $33 million for what are called "democracy programs" in Venezuela, because we're experts on democracy. We're spending $231 million to help pay down the national debt of Sudan, debt being another area we know a thing or two about.

•
And just in case you were worried that American society wasn't divided enough, this bill creates two new monuments to the interest groups that have the most political power at the moment. So the Smithsonian will create a women's history museum, as well as what's called the National Museum of the American Latino.

•
There's a whole lot more for the rest of the world. This bill spends $10 million on what it calls "gender programs" in Pakistan. Now, Congress doesn't specify exactly what those are...

•
"Overreach." I hear you say. "These are the same people who can't get the votes counted in a congressional election." Yeah, but they've got bigger aspirations than that. And those aspirations are all over this bill.

•
On one page, you will find tens of millions of dollars set aside to recruit and retain women in the Afghan army. Why is the U.S. paying for this? Is that something that will help the United States in some measurable way? Why are we doing this?

•
The real reason Congress is spending that money, of course, is because crazy ideologues and various interest groups and the federal bureaucracy would like to change one of the world's last remaining traditional societies.

•
Someday, some unhappy 26-year-old foreign service officer can write her master's thesis in gender studies on how she undermined the patriarchy in Southwest Asia. That's the whole point of it.

•
Meanwhile, no one in the State Department or Congress has paused to think about what the Afghans think. The very same people who lecture you about cultural imperialism think it's totally irrelevant what the native population might think of this.

•
It's possible Afghans may not consider this progress. Maybe they are happy with their ancient culture, unsavory as we may find it. That culture existed a thousand years before ours, and maybe they'd like to keep it.

•
Come to think of it, why would anyone in Pakistan ever take advice from us on how to organize a society? "You must allow market forces to destroy your gender roles." says a civilization that's become miserable by doing the exact same thing.

•
Foreign aid is the most effective possible way for the academic left to export its poisonous social programs to the rest of the world. ... Before long, our aid budget will consist entirely of advanced weapons systems for the Middle East and taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgeries for Africa...

•
But how will you feel about it? Well, who cares how you feel about it? You get $600, so shut up.
'Social justice' meddles in America's business board rooms (INN 12/21/2020)
•
Our nation is currently being devastated by deadly mental-disorder diseases that will not be overcome by scientists and traditional lab concoctions.

•
They are the infectious sicknesses of Diversity, Wokeness and Quotas, all wrapped up in the catch-all phrase of Social Justice.

•
We are, many of us against our will, being forced into this war to destroy the fake, fabricated thing known as Systemic Racism.

•
Recently, NASDAQ, the second largest exchange in the world, marshalled its forces behind the movement and asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to impose a quota system on the boards of its listed companies.

•
This new regulation would mandate that their listed 3,249 companies, to be exact, have a minimum of one woman director and one who is considered a diverse minority or LGBTQM on their boards.

•
If this new policy is endorsed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, it will destroy our business community from top to bottom. ... All hell will break out and businesses will be destroyed through being forced to hire based on the fear of litigation.

•
Our companies, in order to remain sound, in order to produce marketable products, to satisfy consumers, in order to create jobs from top to bottom, must remain free to choose its leaders based on their skills and talents, not their physical appearances or ancestry.

•
Nasdaq has no role, nor right to dictate the decisions for the hiring of personnel. It is contrary to good corporate management to put Wokeness, Social Justice and politics ahead of the purposes of the exchange, which is to make money, create jobs and keep America strong.

•
This latest Nasdaq move signals the downward spiral of our nation as it grovels at the feet of incompetents, losers and misfits. They will rule and ruin our nation... if we don't develop a backbone.....soon.
The Right Diversity Approach (JWR 12/22/2020)
•
Efforts to force proportionate outcomes are ... demotivating and divisive. The attempts to move away from merit-based tests and grades for elite public schools in many of America's big cities will inevitably diminish these schools' ability to put any students on an accelerated path.

•
Some school districts have even considered eliminating advanced programs because of unequal minority representation.

•
The inevitable outcome will be to teach universally to standards set by the least able students: a race to the bottom.
Catch-Up Conservatism (JWR 12/21/2020)
Communist China's influence in America is a real threat, Swalwell case puts it in stark relief (Fox 12/21/2020)
•
The most amazing part of the story is not that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is desperately trying to keep him on the House Intelligence Committee.

•
The most fascinating question is: Why did Pelosi appoint him after the FBI had warned her he had been in a dangerous relationship with a Chinese spy?

•
... Swalwell was not only invited to the committee – he was given a special sub-committee assignment to oversee CIA funding.

•
"Just a few weeks or months after being told by the FBI that he'd been duped into conducting some sort of relationship with a communist spy, a young backbencher in Congress was given a significant role overseeing the CIA?"

•
"Both Mr. Swalwell and the speaker need to explain who knew what and when about the Chinese infiltration of his political network and why many intelligence committee colleagues were not told, among other issues."

•
"They must also address the process that led to Rep. Swalwell's lead role among Democrats in overseeing the CIA. Who were the people who weighed in on the young congressman's behalf when the speaker was preparing to hand out committee assignments? And don't tell us it's classified."

•
Swalwell is not alone in California Democratic Party ties to Communist China. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, at one time chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had a driver for 20 years with ties to Chinese intelligence.

•
... the Chinese Communist penetration of the United States is focused as much on economic power as on political power. The size of the Chinese market and the aggressive use of economic rewards and punishment by the totalitarian dictatorship give it enormous influence over selected industries and companies.

•
It is this economic power which makes it alarming that Biden may appoint a Hollywood oligarch to serve as U.S. ambassador to Beijing.

•
Finally, consider the recent reports that China has given roughly $1 billion to American universities – who are hiding the source of the money and how they are spending it.

•
The threat of the Chinese Communist dictatorship penetrating the United States is not a problem for the future. It is a crisis now.
Liz Peek: Trump’s four years – productive, contentious, energetic and … fun. Let's review (Fox 12/21/2020)
•
It is hard to imagine that President Trump will soon leave office. His presidency has been so big, so full of energy and purpose, that it seems almost impossible that it will come to an end.

•
Trump supporters are angry, yes, that the election was unfair, and, many think, dishonest.

•
They are also sad, knowing they may never again elect a president more dedicated to protecting their interests and so ready to take on the intolerant liberal mob.

•
For four years, the president has tackled one issue after another, some big, some small – like the water rules – using common sense and sheer orneriness to buck the system.

•
Not being a creature of the "swamp," Trump entered the Oval Office four years ago prepared to challenge everything. For four years, he did just that, perpetually riling the Establishment.

•
For example, Trump questioned why we allow tens of thousands of people to stream illegally across our southern border every year, which no country should permit.

•
Rather than ignore the problem, Trump looked for solutions, ultimately demanding that Mexico keep asylum seekers in their country while they await their hearings, and working with governments in Central America as well.

•
In the face of enormous opposition, Trump also began to build a wall, to narrow the places along our nearly 2,000-mile divide where gang members or coyotes could steal across.

•
In his very first year, Trump also focused on undoing the damage done by the regulatory zeal of the Obama-Biden crew.

•
Over the next three years, Trump never let up. In 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency replaced Obama's signature climate bill, the massively disruptive Clean Power Plan (CPP), with the Affordable Clean Energy law.

•
Trump is reviled by climate warriors, but protecting one of our greatest geopolitical competitive advantages – our abundant and cheap energy — was the right thing for our country.

•
Some of the changes Trump made, on labor practices and immigration, for example, won't last; many will be challenged in court.

•
But the outcomes of those legal battles will benefit from President Trump's appointment of more than 227 conservative judges to federal courts, more than a quarter of the total, including three associate justices of the Supreme Court.

•
Those mostly young judges will make a lasting contribution to protecting our Constitution; given the extent to which our freedom of speech, in particular, is under attack today, nothing could be more important.

•
Trump's achievements in foreign affairs include the historic Abraham Accords, which forged first-ever diplomatic relations between Israel and a number of Arab states, ring-fencing Iranian belligerence in the Middle East.

•
Trump also took a harder line against ISIS, freeing our troops to crush the caliphate, which they did in short order.

•
Most important, President Trump confronted China, exposing and demanding an end to their unfair trade practices, massive theft of American know-how and persistent human rights abuses.

•
As for accusations that Trump has been soft on Russia, the charge is as dishonest as the Russiagate hoax. Unlike Obama, Trump sent lethal weapons to Ukraine to help in their battle against Russia, closed consulates in Seattle and San Francisco, threw dozens of suspected Russian spies out of the country and imposed sanctions on Moscow.

•
More important, Trump's enthusiastic backing of our oil and gas industries helped drive oil prices down, wreaking havoc on Russia's economy. If the climate zealots succeed in hobbling our energy businesses, it will be a great gift to both Russia and China.

•
Over four years, Trump brought home hostages, revamped important trade deals, rebuilt the military, boosted school choice, created nearly half a million manufacturing jobs before the virus hit, and pushed through major tax cuts.

•
Trump has presided over a remarkably productive and, many think, extremely successful four years.

•
Those years have also been, at times, chaotic and disruptive, marked by some false steps as well as unprecedented opposition from the liberal media and dishonest Democrats.

•
For his supporters, patriots from all walks of life fed up with political correctness and the censorious Left, the Trump presidency has been a breath of fresh air. It has also been – dare I say it? – great fun.
Trump leaving with 'a historically bad economic record'? Let's look at the facts (Fox 12/21/2020)
•
In reality, President Trump's economic record is one for which any president would be proud — and any Democrat would be praised.

•
First, a little context. The last eight months of the Trump presidency have been severely impacted by a worldwide pandemic.

•
Comparing Trump's economic record to that of other president's without factoring in the pandemic is like comparing the number of U.S. combat deaths under President Lincoln to that of other presidents without factoring in the Civil War.

•
People will debate for decades the effectiveness of economic lockdowns in slowing the spread of the coronavirus, but their negative impact on the economy is unquestionable.

•
It's the height of hypocrisy to support economic lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus and then criticize President Trump for the obvious negative consequences.

•
Faced with this crisis, Congress and the president acted quickly to protect American workers and businesses. When Congress was unable to act due to partisan divisions, President Trump acted on his own.

•
As a result, while we are still in the midst of the pandemic, we are also in the midst of the most dynamic jobs recovery in U.S. history.

•
The economy has added back over 16 million jobs since April, a historic high for any seven month period.

•
To give the jobs numbers some perspective, the economy added a total of just under 10 million jobs during President Obama's entire eight years in office, seven-and-a-half of which were post-recession.

•
... under Trump, job openings exceeded people unemployed for the first time since the government began reporting the data in 2000. That remained the case for 24 consecutive months, most with over 1 million more job openings than people unemployed, a record that may never be matched.

•
With the demand for employees high and the supply low, yearly wage growth hit 3 percent or better for 20 consecutive months, a record streak in the data going back to 2007.

•
As a result, 2019 saw median family income rise a record-high 6.8 percent to a record-high $68,700 while the poverty rate decreased a record high 1.3 percentage points to a record low 10.5 percent lifting over 4.1 million people out of poverty...

•
... the top 1 percent owed $16 billion more in taxes while everyone else owed $80 billion less. Middle-class earners owed $31 billion less and low earners owed $4 billion less. If this was a tax cut designed to "disproportionally" benefit the wealthy, it was the most poorly designed tax cut in history.

•
With more Americans working, earning higher wages and paying less in taxes, 2019 had the strongest labor market in modern times and maybe ever.

•
... 2019 set the standard against which future presidents will be measured and for which any president would be justifiably proud.

•
See related Finally Got Him (Chip Bok, 03/31/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Michael Goodwin: New York Times admits to major blunder – but these errors go uncorrected (Fox 12/21/2020)
•
Here are a few recent examples that had far worse impacts than "Caliphate" and none has been admitted or corrected.

•
The Times was the lead offender in the greatest error in modern journalism: The false claims that President Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

•
The paper pushed the narrative and was rewarded with Pulitzers and other awards. The Times played Pied Piper to pack rats from other outlets who joined the feast of fabrication.

•
The campaign, based largely on anonymous sources, sabotaged a presidency for nearly three years. Even after special counsel Robert Mueller came up empty in trying to find collusion, the Times and fellow culprits never expressed contrition for their destructive errors. Their hatred of Trump was their justification.

•
The paper also played a major role in the unforgivable smearing of Brett Kavanaugh during the 2018 Supreme Court nomination battle.

•
Times reporters reflexively gave credence to lurid allegations that had not a shred of evidence in a bid to block his confirmation. To this day, there have been no apologies or explanations.

•
Then there is the 1619 Project, where the Times took it upon itself to rewrite American history, despite esteemed historians pointing out its major errors. ... facts didn't matter in their bid to advance a radical racial narrative.

•
The list of errors also includes things the Times doesn't print because the facts conflict with its partisan position. It withheld until after the election the knowledge that e-mails linking Joe Biden to his son Hunter's foreign business schemes were authentic.

•
The Times runs afoul when it shapes stories to make the truth appear what reporters and editors want it to be. When facts don't fit, they are ignored or massaged.

•
... eliminated those standards in 2016 when he gave reporters free rein to trash Trump in virtually every story. Although the daily dose of Trump hate brought increased revenues, the more enduring result is a collapse of public trust in the Times.

•
Not coincidentally, the number and scope of major screwups has also ballooned. That's what happens when you stop being a newspaper and become an activist chasing social and political agendas.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Adriana Cohen: Coronavirus lockdowns – make politicians share the pain. Here's how (Fox 12/20/2020)
•
Power-hungry governors, mayors and other government officials throughout the country are taking home paychecks while shutting down small businesses and restricting millions of workers from earning a living and providing for their families.

•
If that's not the definition of income inequality, then what is? As you can see, we're not all "in this together."

•
We're operating under a grossly unfair and unethical system where almighty government officials don't suffer any financial hardship during the pandemic while taxpayers — who fund their salaries – get kicked in the shins. If this is acceptable to you, please locate your spine.

•
Luckily, there's a solution: Voters must demand that elected officials forfeit their own paychecks when any business is shuttered under their mandate.

•
... if a business is shut down restricting Americans from earning a living for three weeks, then the official must forfeit their salary for the same duration. If a lockdown extends, so does the official's pay freeze.

•
That will level the economic playing field eliminating a two-tiered system of "haves" and "have-nots." It will also restore the noble concept that we're all in this together.
Ingraham: As 2020 ends, reflect on 'Trump's triumphs' before Biden squanders them (Fox 12/19/2020)
•
"Today, more than six weeks after Election Day, The New York Times, believe it or not, published a piece confirming how much Trump's policy helped our factory workers. The focus in that article was on the Carrier plant in Indianapolis."

•
Trump promised in 2016 to save the jobs of the many workers at the plant after the company announced it would move its operations to Mexico.

•
While Trump came through on his promise, ... Carrier employees now see the impending Biden administration as cause for concern.

•
... predicted #the incoming president "will be a passive manager of our decline as we outsource not just jobs but the entire future.

•
"If Joe Biden didn't want to lose to China, he shouldn't have signaled he had every intention to trash the Trump agenda ... with Trump out of the way, the winner is China. In this scenario the rich international conglomerates will get richer. Wall Street will get richer too as they engage in global arbitrage without a wit of concern when entire industries are dismanted and shipped overseas. Isn't globalization wonderful?"

•
As Trump leaves office ... the 45th president has "left Biden with vaccines and an economy that is set to boom. If that boom doesn't happen, we are all going to know who is to blame."

•
"But we know how the media operates. Highlight any and all developments that could have a negative impact on the president, and bury the good news that revealed just how difficult life would become for regular working people once again under Biden.

•
"We will be Building Back Better all right. But unfortunately it will be happening in China. Not here."
Public confidence in the coronavirus vaccine won't be achieved by Big Tech censorship (Fox 12/18/2020)
•
The rollout of the coronavirus vaccine has been accompanied by the kind of corporate image campaign you typically associate with high-end consumer products...

•
How are the rest of us supposed to respond to a marketing campaign like this? Well, nervously.

•
Even if you're strongly supportive of vaccines — and we are — even if you recognize how many millions of lives have been saved over the past 50 years by vaccines — and we do — it all seems a bit much.

•
It's too slick. Better to treat Americans like adults, explain the benefits, be honest about the risks, and let the rest of us decide.

•
In this country, we control our own bodies. They're always telling us that. But now the rules have changed. On the question of the coronavirus vaccine, our leaders are definitely not pro-choice.

•
Their view is, "Do what you're told and don't complain." No uncomfortable questions. Those aren't just suggestions, they're rules, and Silicon Valley plans to enforce them.

•
Twitter has announced a new policy to censor any unauthorized inquiry about the vaccine or, as the company put it, "false or misleading narratives about COVID-19 vaccinations."

•
So whatever you do, don't say this is social control. If you do, the richest, most powerful people in the world will act in perfect coordination to shut you down immediately.

•
To repeat: There is no social control going on here, but if you suggest otherwise, Twitter will censor you.

•
... Facebook has now decided it must "build demand for vaccination in communities worldwide" by sharing "reassuring information" about getting the vaccine. ... Facebook has announced it will squelch "any misinformation" it sees about this vaccine.

•
None of this inspires confidence. Censorship will not convince a single person to take the coronavirus vaccine. In fact, it will have the opposite effect.

•
If you wanted to roll out a national vaccination campaign, the first thing you would need after the vaccine itself is social trust.

•
People have to believe that the authorities know what they're doing, otherwise they won't participate. Censorship is the enemy of social trust.

•
Once the population understands that you are holding back critical information, trust evaporates and people become suspicious.

•
They start wondering if the vaccine is as safe and effective as you claim it is. Why do you have to lie about it? Why are you threatening us if we don't take it?

•
If you want people to take your vaccine, they must trust your vaccine, and if you want them to trust it, you have to let them speak freely about it. That has always been true, but authorities have long been slow to grasp it.

•
If you want people to get vaccinated, you need to convince them to get vaccinated and you must do it with reason. Lying and force do not work.

•
Yet with our current leadership, you sometimes get the impression that lying and force are the whole point.

•
If they can keep ordering you around like you're an animal, if they can censor you when you start asking hard questions, maybe you won't notice how totally incompetent they are.

•
In this respect, the coronavirus vaccine is not merely a vaccine, it is the source of their power.

•
... a noted medical expert called Dr. Vin Gupta explained that the point of the vaccine is not for you to resume your normal, productive, happy, unmasked life. ... "Just because you get vaccinated with that second dose does not mean you should be participating in things like traveling in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic or that you're liberated from masks. Everything still applies until all of us get the two-dose regimen ... Don't let your guard down just because you got vaccinated."

•
To be clear, most Americans support vaccines. The track record for vaccines is better than for any other part of medicine. It's the basis of modern medicine.

•
But it's people like Gupta who discredit vaccines, not the conspiracy theories. People like him create conspiracy theories because they're so clearly lying.
Techno-fascism strikes again — Congress must fight Big Tech’s suppression of free speech (Fox 12/18/2020)
•
Whoever controls the information we see or don't see controls the universe — and must be reined in without delay.

•
We're talking about Big Tech's ever-expanding ability to shape and control public opinion on any topic it desires — including U.S. elections — by censoring conservatives' tweets and posts while amplifying liberal voices and news stories favorable to Democratic candidates.

•
We're living in an era of techno-fascism, where ultra-powerful liberal elites at Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube and other digital platforms are acting as modern-day book burners, using algorithms, content monitors and other opaque methods to control what millions of Americans read and view online.

•
Like state-run media used by totalitarian regimes to control the masses — and rig elections — Big Tech is deciding what news articles we're allowed to see or not see. Same with videos, GIFs, images and other online content.

•
This includes the suppression of President Trump's tweets, conservative lawmakers and other heads of government agencies. This is a threat to national security.

•
What if America were under an attack like 9/11? Or if a foreign enemy were to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile toward our shores?

•
Would you want to give unelected central planners in Silicon Valley the almighty power to decide whether our commander in chief would be permitted to alert the American people on their networks?

•
The ongoing failure of Congress to contain Big Tech censorship not only violates our rights to free speech and a free press; it also puts the American people in harm's way.

•
How is this allowed in the Land of the Free, the strongest nation on Earth?

•
As a matter of national security, Congress must pass a law that forbids any American company from censoring the president, any elected official or any head of a government agency.

•
Until then, it's high time Congress took meaningful action to address Silicon Valley's out-of-control suppression of speech, which is getting worse by the day.

•
Recently YouTube — owned by Google — announced it is removing from its platform all content involving allegations of voter fraud in this year's presidential election. ... YouTube claims its new policy is an effort to blunt the spread of disinformation.

•
That's hypocritical and downright disingenuous, given that this platform and others have given Democrats and their media allies a blank check to peddle the Russia-collusion hoax against President Trump and his administration for the past four years.

•
"Big Tech companies have stretched their liability shield past its limits, and the national discourse now suffers because of it." Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told...

•
"Today's internet is a different online product from what was available in 1996; the polished mega-platforms we associate with online research and debate exert unprecedented influence over how Americans discover new information, and what information is available for discovery."

•
"Moreover, the contentious nature of current conversations provides perverse incentive for these companies to manipulate the online experience in favor of the loudest voices in the room. There exists no meaningful alternative to these powerful platforms, which means there will be no accountability for the devastating effects of this ingrained ideological bias until Congress steps in and brings liability protections into the modern era."

•
That can't come a moment too soon.
Raised Court Packing Issue To Intimidate The Justices ... And It Worked (JWR 12/17/2020)
Biden should beware of Nemesis (JWR 12/17/2020)
•
Joe Biden will be our next president. But he will face Nemesis in a way that few other presidents have ever encountered the cruel Greek god.

•
Biden's hubris and that of the media/Democratic Party fusion almost guarantee such divine retribution.

•
Once the last of the other Democratic primary candidates dropped out and Biden was nominated, all prior negative media stories about his apparent cognitive decline and his family's financial entanglements disappeared.

•
From April 2020 on, a virtual news blackout surrounded Biden. His rare interviews were scripted. Biden communiques were teleprompted. Press conferences were either nonexistent or revolved around his favorite milkshake or his socks.

•
Mentions of Hunter Biden's business dealings in China and Ukraine were taboo. It was sinful to reference reports of a Hunter Biden email allegedly detailing a 10 percent distribution of such revenue to the "Big Guy" — presumably Joe Biden.

•
Unlike Donald Trump, Joe Biden never really campaigned. After the primaries, he outsourced his fall 2020 campaign to subordinates and pet journalists to attack Trump.

•
So is Biden the centrist old Joe from Scranton, or the recently reinvented hard-left running mate of Kamala Harris? Both or neither?

•
A President Biden cannot avoid the press forever. He will soon face unscripted meetings with foreign leaders. He will have to meet dozens of movers and shakers each week.

•
Is he or the nation prepared for the consequences of his return to normality after nearly a year of media fawning and forced isolation?

•
Given the Democrats' Faustian bargain with their leftmost faction, destructive rumors about Biden's faculties or his family's financial escapades will more likely come from his own party's left wing, eager for a Harris presidency, rather than from the Republican opposition.

•
Biden will enter office with an ethical cloud hanging over his head — one that could have been vetted and adjudicated rather than blacked out for most of 2020. His son, brother and perhaps family associates may talk if faced with FBI and IRS probes, if not a special counsel investigation.

•
It will not help Biden that to defeat Trump, many of our institutions were deformed. Special counsels usually never receive a blank check — 22 months and $32 million — to assemble a team of partisans to investigate a new president on mostly hearsay evidence and an opposition-concocted dossier.

•
But that precedent ended with the ill-conceived Robert Muller investigation. By spring, Biden could have done to him what was done to Trump — and what Biden himself so frequently cheered on.

•
Should the Republicans hold the Senate and take the House in 2022, they could do what the Democrats did in 2020. But if they were to impeach Biden as a possible beneficiary of his family's foreign influence-peddling, a Republican-controlled Senate might not so easily acquit him.

•
Biden variously called Trump supporters "ugly folk" and "chumps." He compared the president to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's Nazi propagandist. Biden smeared Trump by referring to him as the nation's first racist president.

•
Half the nation will take some time to forget all that. The repair of warped protocols will take longer, given that the left forgot the ancient Thucydidean warning to us not to destroy the very institutions whose protections one day we may need.

•
Biden should hope that a rogue FBI does not conduct freelance investigations of him the way it did to Trump. Let Biden pray there is not a partisan medical community to diagnose him as impaired and suited for 25th Amendment removal, as was the case with Trump.

•
Biden should hope that if Republicans hold the Senate in January, they do not mimic the Democratic habit of voting against nearly every Trump nominee.

•
So let us celebrate Biden's call to unity.
Hunter Biden should be investigated by special counsel — national security demands it (Fox 12/18/2020)
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I have come to this conclusion not out of a desire for payback, or even because of potential crimes the Hunter Biden might have committed.

•
I believe that only with a special counsel can we uncover just how deeply and broadly the Chinese Communist Party has gotten its hooks into our ruling elites.

•
If the Chinese can bribe the former vice president's son, they will go after anyone.

•
And it's obvious that a Justice Department headed by an attorney general selected by Joe Biden will not be eager to investigate and possibly prosecute the son of the president. ... it is a clear and blatant conflict of interest for anyone appointed by Joe Biden to run an investigation of Hunter Biden.

•
We now have abundant evidence of China's influence operations targeting American politicians, academics, business executives and other influential people to serve as China's cheerleaders and apologists. China has co-opted them with money, contracts, donations, and in some cases even sexual favors.

•
The intelligence community estimates that China steals $600 billion a year in American intellectual property. ... China's goal is to "rob, replicate and replace" American products.

•
China has hacked into personal, medical and financial files of half the American population.

•
Chinese officials openly brag that for 40 years they have cultivated "friends" at the highest levels of the American elites. Is Hunter Biden one of these friends?

•
It is of the utmost and urgent importance that we discover what the Chinese Communists are doing, who they have targeted and how we can stop them from continuing this hostile action directed against the United States.

•
... a transparent look at influence peddling could go a long way toward healing the divisions in the country today.

•
Half of America distrusts the other half. Half of our citizens believe the 2016 election was stolen the other half believe the 2020 election was stolen.

•
A significant percentage of our people think President-elect Biden is compromised by the Chinese government; just as a significant percentage of the country thinks President Trump was compromised by the Russians.

•
America has not been this divided since the Civil War. We cannot go on like this. Faith in our elections, institutions and leaders are prerequisites for our democracy to survive.

•
Our government needs to show the American people that no one is above the law, and it needs to be open and transparent about foreign influence peddling. We are past the point where our people automatically trust our leaders to do the right thing.
Tucker Carlson: Biden set to pick China propagandist Bob Iger as ambassador to Beijing (Fox 12/17/2020)
•
"The week that changed the world." That was Richard Nixon's description of his 1972 visit to China. Nixon was the first American president to engage directly with China's communist government. He was right; that visit changed everything.

•
For a while, they told us relations with China would help every American. Free trade would make us rich. They told us that for decades, even after the evidence mounted that it wasn't true, even after China entered the World Trade Organization and immediately eliminated entire portions of our economy and the millions of American jobs they sustained, most of which never returned.

•
The media mostly ignored that part. It didn't affect them, and they weren't interested. Factory workers could learn to code. In fact, some workers may have learned to code.

•
But then, China began the wholesale theft of our country's intellectual property, our coding, which was the only thing we had left once our hard industries died.

•
Again, the media stayed silent as this happened. They didn't seem bothered at all by China's relentless espionage campaign against the U.S. government, the biggest and most successful spying operation since the Cold War.

•
Reporters instead screeched about Russia and George Floyd and hoped that we wouldn't notice any of it.

•
... as many Americans were being hurt by China, a small group of Americans was prospering. There were a few who got rich from the China trade, and most of these people have clustered around Joe Biden.

•
... Walt Disney Company Executive Chairman Bob Iger may become America's next ambassador to the People's Republic of China. Few people have made more money from their connections to the Chinese government than Bob Iger, and fewer still are as openly grateful for it.

•
We should note that Joe Biden isn't thinking of nominating Bob Iger in spite of his praise for the communist government of China. Sucking up to China is the qualification. Iger is just following the lead of the Biden family.

•
... email offers the chairman "best wishes from the entire Biden family" and goes on to urge him to quickly send a $10 million wire to, "properly fund and operate" the Biden family's venture with the company.

•
... is the company that offered Hunter Biden $30 million for "introductions alone". The company also reserved a 10% equity stake for someone called "the big guy." Who's "the big guy"? Well, according to Biden's business partner, "the big guy" was Joe Biden.

•
... our media are dependent on China. They won't let you view stories about Hunter Biden because those stories are really about China and negative stories about China are not allowed.

•
In the face of this, Joe Biden is accelerating our sucking up to China, installing Chinese propagandists in the U.S. government to represent our interests in front of China.

•
This will continue to happen every day in this country, and if you try to say anything about it, your words might disappear, too.
Major New Revelation: Massive Vote Manipulation in key state (JWR 12/16/2020)
•
... Allied Security reported that the mistakes were "caused by intentional errors in the system." It said, "these are not human errors' this is definitely related to the software and software configurations resulting in error rates far beyond the thresholds listed in the guidelines." Antrim County Dominion machines recorded an error rate of 68%.

•
... Allied reports that "we conclude that the errors are so significant that they call into question the integrity and legitimacy of the results in the Antrim County 2020 election to the point that the results are not certifiable."

•
"Dominion voting system is a Canadian owned company with global subsidiaries. It is owned by Staple Street Capital which is in turn owned by UBS Securities LLC, of which 3 out of their 7 board members are Chinese nationals. The Dominion software is licensed from Smartmatic. which is a Venezuelan owned and controlled company. Dominion Server locations have been determined to be in Serbia, Canada, the US, Spain and Germany."

•
... as Allied noted in its audit report, "Because the same machines and software are used in 48 other counties in Michigan, this casts doubt on the integrity of the entire election in the state of Michigan."

•
And... the exact same Dominion system was used in half of the counties in swing states in the 2020 election.

•
To stop a second stolen election, it is vital that the Georgia Legislature call itself into special session since Governor Kemp, a longtime advocate of Dominion, won't do it.
Sen. Thom Tillis: Georgia voters we need you to keep Perdue, Loeffler in Senate and save America (Fox 12/16/2020)
•
You should believe Schumer when he says, "Now we take Georgia, then we change America."

•
If Democrats flip both seats in Georgia, they will have complete control of Congress and will pass the socialist wishlist... If they had their way, they would take our country down a path from which we may never recover.

•
"Medicare-for-all" will go from Sen. Bernie Sanders', I-Vt., fantasy to the law of the land, while American families lose control over their health care forever.

•
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.,'s Green New Deal will lead to skyrocketing utility bills, higher taxes, and will ultimately mean big government in every aspect of daily life — from what kind of car you can drive, to where you can live, and what you can eat.

•
There will be nothing standing in the way of communities across the country from experiencing the horrific violence we saw in Portland this summer. Why? Because the liberal mob will stop at nothing until they abolish our police departments, defunding our brave men and women in blue who put their lives on the line each day to keep us safe.

•
The hard work that President Trump put into re-shaping our judiciary with well-qualified, conservative judges will be undone when the Democrats pack the Supreme Court and confirm liberal activist judges at every level of the federal courts.

•
And if you don't believe that Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock would rubber-stamp the radical agenda of their party, just look at their records.

•
The bottom line: there is a clear choice facing Georgians as they begin early voting this week. They can hand Schumer complete control of the Senate and give him the power to destroy all of the values we hold dear in this country, or they can send Perdue and Loeffler back to Washington and get six more years of results.

•
If we win Georgia, we save America. We guarantee that the accomplishments of President Trump remain intact no matter what.

•
See related Take and Change (Chip Bok, 11/12/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: George Soros, George Gascon and the fall of Los Angeles (Fox 12/16/2020)
•
Many of the most important elections are the ones you hear nothing about. The news media barely covers them and most voters don't know they're happening.

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As a result, a small group of committed extremists get to control the outcomes of those elections, often with disastrous results.

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Bill de Blasio, for example, was elected to his current term as New York City mayor with the support of 8.5% of the city's population.

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De Blasio then used that non-mandate from a non-representative election to completely destroy the biggest city in our country.

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That's not democracy as we were taught it, but it is increasingly how things work here.

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George Soros understands that. He became extraordinarily rich by finding ways to exploit the weaknesses in systems that he did not build himself.

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In the early 1990s, Soros became a billionaire by shorting the British pound, crushing the Bank of England in the process.

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He went on to repeat those tactics in countries around the world. Then he turned his attention to the United States, and decided he would fundamentally change our society.

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Soros began funding politicians and political initiatives that had very little popular support. But because so few were paying attention to what he was doing, he often got his way.

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On those rare occasions when Soros was criticized for subverting our democracy, he and his allies in the media claimed bigotry.

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If you're wondering why so many people are being robbed, raped and killed in American cities right now, George Soros is part of the reason.

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Soros has funded the campaigns of left-wing extremists in district attorney races in cities like Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, and Boston.

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Traditionally, a prosecutor's job is to enforce the law, but Soros wanted rigid ideologues who would instead let murderers and rapists go free while allowing our society to degrade and collapse.

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In Los Angeles, Soros won his biggest victory so far. In the most recent election, Soros backed George Gascon for district attorney, spending more than $2 million on his campaign.

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What happened next was the entire point of the exercise. Gascon stopped enforcing the law in Los Angeles Tuesday. He is now moving to dismiss all sentencing enhancements against an alleged double murderer accused of killing a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy.

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The details of this story are important, and here they are: On June 10, 2019, off-duty deputy Joseph Solano was standing in line at a Jack In The Box restaurant in suburban Alhambra, Calif., when authorities say the suspect, Rhett Nelson, shot him execution-style. An hour earlier, police say, Nelson opened fire on a group of skateboarders in downtown Los Angeles, killing 31-year-old Dmitry Koltsov. Solano was taken off life support two days later.

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In a functioning society, prosecutors are allowed, if they wish, to seek longer prison terms for criminals who, for example, inflict great bodily harm on their victims or carry out gang assassinations in public.

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George Gascon is getting rid of those additional penalties, along with cash bail and the death penalty. Why is he doing this? Because George Gascon, like the billionaires who made his current job possible, is far enough removed from the consequences of crime that he can identify with the criminals rather than with their many victims.

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Gascon believes that poverty causes crime, an idea for which there is no evidence in actual social science. However, it's the kind of thing that halfwits learn in college, repeat, and turn into policy when they get power.

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The irony is, we know exactly what policies like those Gascon is imposing on Los Angeles will do and who they will hurt. They will affect people who live in the neighborhoods with the most crime, and those are the poorest neighborhoods.
A premature autopsy report on Trump (INN 12/15/2020)
Gutfeld on Biden claiming Trump committed an ‘assault on democracy’ (Fox 12/15/2020)
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Monday night Joe Biden ripped into President Trump. "Thankfully, a unanimous Supreme Court immediately and completely rejected this effort. The court sent a clear signal to President Trump that they would be no part of an unprecedented assault on our democracy."

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Unprecedented? That's rich. After the four-year-long assault on all of us by Democrats, the media and Joe.

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All beginning with a simple lie that's amplified. "Russia collusion." for one.

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Then the "fine people" hoax, which Joe used to brand Trump and his supporters as racist.

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That hate-filled lie excused everything from the acceptance of mob rule to attacking cops. They probably voted for Trump, so they must be bigots

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There were other hoaxes Biden used to ruin democracy. Like that Hunter letter signed by 50 intelligence officials. It was pure disinformation, and came in the nick of time for Joe. Right before a debate!

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Then there was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., delaying COVID-19 relief, trading lives for votes to help Joe win an election. An election where the left used intimidation at polling stations, where there were more irregularities than at an Ex-Lax festival.

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A Biden supporter told Biden on May 14, 2019 that Trump "is an illegitimate president in my mind. That's it." Biden replied: "Folks, look, I absolutely agree."

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On Jan. 16, 2017, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said: "Frankly the FBI's weighing in on the election, I think makes his [Trump's] election illegitimate."

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On Oct. 4, 2019, Hillary Clinton said: "Trump knows he's an illegitimate president."

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On October 2, 2019, Hillary Clinton said: "He is an illegitimate president."

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On Sept. 29, 2019, Hillary Clinton said: "He knows he's an illegitimate president."

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So now Joe wants us to turn the page. But it would help if he went back and read the book first.

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I mean: how can you mend a nation if you're unaware how you fractured it?

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Of course, politics means that when the fight is over, the dirty tricks become water under the bridge.

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But the Democrat response to 2016 changed that. No fences were mended then. They were burned.

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So you want to talk about undermining a democracy? OK, Joe. You first!
Cal Thomas: Hunter Biden investigations — where has the mainstream media been? (Fox 12/15/2020)
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... now media is reporting on the Biden tax investigation. After the election. After voters made their choice with half the information necessary to do so competently.

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And they wonder why trust in the media has been declining for years, as have their TV ratings and, sadly, newspaper subscriptions.

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We are now getting revisionist reporting from the same media outlets that relentlessly pursued Russian "collusion" in the 2016 election, impeachment and the Mueller Report among other "stories" designed to damage the president and separate his supporters from him, which didn't work as his rallies have shown.

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It's no wonder Trump's base agrees with him about the election's outcome. It isn't just about the number of ballots cast, it's about censorship and suppression.
Tucker Carlson: Does Joe Biden believe in democracy or oligarchy? (Fox 12/15/2020)
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If you didn't know better, you might think everything is better now. The Great Orange Emergency is finally over, it's 1996 again, and we can exhale.

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"In this battle for the soul of America," Joe Biden told us, "democracy prevailed."

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"Politicians don't take power," the president-elect's speechwriter wrote, "people grant power to them."

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Joe Biden wants you to know he didn't run for president three times because he craves power or because he seeks to enrich ne'er-do-well relatives or because he has a vast, empty space inside that only the adulation of strangers can fill. No, he ran for president because he deeply cares about you.

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What matters, Joe Biden wants you to know, is that this is a democracy. Always has been, always will be.

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And by electing Biden and the small, secretive group of billionaires who choreograph his every move, this country has become even more democratic.

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... for example, Bill Gates announced that the lockdowns we're enduring are going to have to continue for a long, long time.

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Bill Gates is not an epidemiologist or a research scientist. Bill Gates is a retired 65-year-old from Seattle who used to make mediocre software for office computers. But now he's a billionaire.

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Therefore, Bill Gates gets to decide our national health policy, much the same way retired hedge fund operator Tom Steyer gets to tell you what to think about the weather, or how 78-year-old Mike Bloomberg decides which guns you can buy or how George Soros can choose your prosecutors or how Tim Cook of Apple runs our trade policy or how Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook can keep America's borders open just because he feels like it, but nobody says anything because his friend owns Washington, D.C.'s hometown newspaper and may soon buy CNN.

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That is the democracy Joe Biden is talking about, the kind of democracy in which 11 left-wing billionaires who fund his campaigns run everything.

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That's the Chinese model of democracy that Joe Biden and his friends so admire. In China, people in power don't have to answer questions, so neither does Joe Biden.

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People may grant politicians power in America, but it turns out the people granting that power don't get answers. What we do know is that Joe Biden is "very proud" of his son and his son's federal criminal investigation, and that's all you need to know.

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So why isn't Joe Biden willing to answer even basic questions about his son's foreign business dealings, the ones where he had very lucrative arrangements with companies directly tied to the Communist Party of China? It could be because Joe Biden himself was directly involved in those deals and has been lying about them.

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... Hunter Biden wrote to his building manager: "[P]lease have keys made available for new office mates: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Jim Biden, Gongweng Dong (Chairman Ye CEFC emissary)."

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So, the new office mates included the former vice president, his wife and a representative of CEFC, the Chinese energy company that — according to emails published by The New York Post — was reserving a 10% equity stake for Joe Biden.

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... offered Hunter Biden a three-year, $30 million contract for "introductions alone." To whom? His dad, Joe Biden.

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If all this seems a little dodgy to you, you should know that back in 2019, Joe Biden wasn't repeating the same line about being proud of his son.

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No, he went on the record and denied he knew anything about his son's business relationships abroad, including with Chinese communists.

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The point of the Biden political operation — one of them, anyway — from the very beginning has been to make as much money through influence-peddling as possible.

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How many 10,000-square-foot homes has Joe Biden, who's been in public office at the federal level since 1972, been able to live in? A number of them.

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How do you do that on a government salary? How did Hunter Biden go from unemployable to rich virtually overnight? You know the answer.

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... offer another window into the kind of life the Bidens were living: "Since you couldn't have lived on approximately $550,000 a year, ..." So here you have Hunter Biden, a person who became so dependent on peddling influence that he couldn't live on a $550,000-per-year salary.

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If you're going to restore democracy, the rest of us have a right to know exactly where the money came from, what they did for it, and what effect it is going to have on the country going forward.

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In a democracy, that's a very basic request, and there's nothing democratic about ignoring the question.

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In fact, it just confirms what's obvious, which is that Biden and his cronies don't plan to govern this county as a democracy, but instead as an oligarchy.

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See related 15 Million Dollar Minimum... (Mike Shelton, 10/15/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Steal Team Six (Antonio Branco, 10/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Joe Biden's Electoral College win is a big deal, so is his scary 'Great Reset' agenda (Fox 12/15/2020)
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On Monday, a majority of presidential electors, 306 to 232 cast their votes for Joe Biden, formally making the 78-year-old the new president-elect of the United States.

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Although Biden campaigned as a "moderate" who would unify the country, his various progressive policy proposals and numerous efforts to appease the Democratic Party's far-left base suggest strongly that Biden could very likely end up becoming — in the words of comrade Bernie Sanders — the "most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt."

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What, exactly, will Joe Biden's presidency look like? The answer to that question depends almost entirely on the outcome of the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia.

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If Republicans win just one of the two Senate seats in contention, Democrats would likely be incapable of passing any legislation without the consent of several Republicans and, in many cases, the blessing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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That would severely handicap the ability of congressional Democrats and Biden to pass many of the sweeping reforms they called for throughout the 2020 campaign.

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However, if Democrats manage to win both races, they would control 50 seats in the Senate plus benefit from the tiebreaking vote of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, giving them the power to enact expansive new government programs and regulatory schemes that would stifle economic growth, drive up the national debt and limit individual freedom.

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How does the incoming Biden administration plan to usher in this promised Great Reset, and what would it mean for you and your family?

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Although Biden's economics plan includes numerous proposed changes ... the core parts of Biden's platform are large tax increases on businesses and increasing regulations so that government has greater control over economic activity.

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... these reforms would impose one of the largest tax increases on corporations in American history, encouraging businesses to flee the country in droves, driving down economic growth.

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Although Biden spends most of his time talking about taxes and regulations aimed at large corporations, some of his proposals would cause significant damage to small businesses too.

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Some of Biden's most radical proposals are those that align with the Great Reset's goal of stopping the so-called "climate crisis" by transforming the world's energy industries and infrastructure systems.

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... if 80% of electricity were to come from wind and sources, a projection more closely aligned with Biden's plan, total electricity costs would increase by more than $1.8 trillion per year...

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Biden has also called for a global trade war with any nation that refuses to adopt similar energy policies, including China.

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Based on Biden's far-left policies and the comments made by the incoming climate czar, John Kerry, it seems pretty clear the Biden administration is committed to doing their part to bring about the Great Reset.

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Those of us who support free markets and personal liberty must be equally committed to stopping it.
Hunter Biden investigation – to protect probe, Attorney General Barr must do this (Fox 12/14/2020)
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Now that the election is over and it is safe for the media to cover the Hunter Biden scandal they ignored when The Post broke the story in October, things in Washington are getting back to normal.

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FBI and Justice Department officials are once again leaking like sieves to their favorite reporters.

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... the Times writes that "the inquiry originally focused on possible money laundering but did not gather enough evidence for a prosecution, according to people close to the case."

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... the real question is, what else did the Times know and when did it know it? And why did it keep silent before Election Day?

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Try to imagine Donald Trump and his family getting the same deference.

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... the Journal story says that, in addition to the Delaware tax case, federal prosecutors in New York had been examining Hunter for a year as part of an "international financial investigation." That would have been worth knowing earlier.

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Sources always have an agenda, but when they are permitted to hide behind a cloak of anonymity, readers cannot judge their credibility and motive. Worse, readers increasingly don't believe reporters even try to tell the truth.

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The supposed cream of the Washington press corps not only showed zero curiosity about the Biden family's lucrative business schemes, they actively tried to debunk The Post's stories as "Russian disinformation" or a smear.

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Democrats clearly wanted to erase the states' guardrails on ballot integrity, and they did, sometimes with GOP assistance or indifference.

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Then there's Big Tech, whose censors always lean in one direction. Their political donations and news blackouts are two sides of the same agenda.

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The Deep State was a zealous backstabber. More than 50 former intelligence officials, many of whom probably wanted jobs in a Biden administration, signed a letter suggesting the Post reports on Hunter Biden smacked of Russian disinformation.

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An honest media would have blown the whistle on all these dirty tricks. But we don't have an honest media. The one we have either looked the other way or played cheerleader.

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Someone wrote that, by standing alone against the mob, The Post proved itself the nation's indispensable newspaper.

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That high praise is borne out by the fact that the October reports were on the money — and there were no anonymous sources.

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The paper identified Rudy Giuliani as the source of the contents of the laptop Hunter left at a Delaware repair shop and failed to retrieve, and the repair-shop owner confirmed it.

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To this day, neither Hunter nor Joe Biden has disputed any of the e-mails, messages and lurid pictures found on the device.

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Consider this, too: The Post's reports, including interviews with Tony Bobulinski, a former partner to Hunter and Jim Biden, presented more solid evidence about dirty dealings by the Biden family than anyone found on Trump and his family.

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This is true despite special counsel Robert Mueller's two-year probe into Russia, Russia, Russia and the nonstop House impeachment investigations.

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The confederacy against Trump gives rise to another reality: The only way to protect the probe into the Biden family money-grubbing is through the appointment of a special counsel.

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The need for protection was the logic behind the Mueller appointment, and it applies now in spades.

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Not only must the probe be protected from Joe Biden's White House but also from FBI Director Christopher Wray. Biden indicated he wants Wray to stay on, so the lackluster chief starts with an enormous conflict of interest, as will the eventual attorney general.

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In fact, the special counsel provision is to be used when there are conflicts of interest among investigators and prosecutors. This case fits the definition in every possible way.

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Most worrisome is that the foreign governments that tried to buy influence with Joe Biden by paying millions to his brother and drug-addled son know if they got anything in return, and whether Biden has compromised himself.

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Hunter's biggest deals took place when his father was vice president and in countries where Joe was the frontman for the Obama-Biden administration, including Ukraine, Russia and China.

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The potential implications for America's national security are enormous. The Trump administration has forcefully confronted China on numerous fronts...

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As a result, Joe Biden will be under pressure from President Xi Jinping to take a softer approach. If he does, will that show he is bought and paid for? And what else does China know about the Bidens that Americans don't?

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The decision is up to Barr. When he announced he had elevated John Durham, the prosecutor probing the FBI's spying on the Trump 2016 campaign, to the position of special counsel, Barr said he wanted to provide Durham and his team "with the assurance that they could complete their work, without regard to the outcome of the election."

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The Biden probe is potentially far more consequential, and it deserves at least those same protections.
Let’s get ready to celebrate 1776 in 2026 — 250th anniversary of Declaration of Independence (Fox 12/13/2020)
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Indeed, July 4, 2026 should be a central moment for reigniting American understanding and American passion for our unique and remarkable history.

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It is a great opportunity to remind people that this country was built to protect citizens from government.

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It was explicitly not created to make a slightly different system in which citizens are subordinate to their government.

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To modern ears, this may not seem revolutionary. But in 1776 it was a truly historic breakthrough that changed the future of humanity.

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It broke the rule of kings and uplifted the rule of the self. It fully established the notion that our human rights come from God — not government — and therefore cannot be revoked by government.

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Virtually every country today that operates as a modern democracy, in which government is limited by the will of the people, owes a debt of gratitude to the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence.

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As Thomas Jefferson wrote to his friend-turned-rival John Adams many years after the American Revolution: "The flames kindled on the Fourth of July, 1776 have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them."

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After what we've watched this year — with petty politicians flagrantly violating the right to assemble, the right to earn a living, the right to worship and many other rights — we clearly need to recommit every American to true American freedom, and not the petty despotism that we're seeing around the country.
Andrew McCarthy: Supreme Court right to refuse to block Biden election — rejects absurd legal theory (Fox 12/12/2020)
Tucker Carlson: How to fix the post-COVID economy and keep the socialists at bay (Fox 12/12/2020)
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If you still don't know that dishonest people can easily manipulate data to tell you any story they want to tell you, consider the condition of our economy.

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Stock prices, 401(k)s and upscale home sales have all risen dramatically. There are a lot more billionaires than there ever have been in this country. In fact, billionaires as a group have increased their wealth by 30% overall this year. At the same time, the unemployment rate is falling, so it's all good, right?

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Well, that is one way to look at it, but it's not the whole story. America has a very different economy now from the economy we had even just last year. People at the very top are thriving, but many other Americans are withering away.

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Tens of thousands of independent businesses have been shut down for good, entire sectors of the economy have been wiped off the map.

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That's a lot of people out of work. So where are they? Why does the federal government tell us the unemployment rate is down?

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Here's the simple answer: The official unemployment numbers don't count unemployed people who have stopped looking for jobs, and there are a lot of those.

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There are 10 million fewer jobs available in this country than there were in February, when politicians decided to destroy countless small businesses in the name of slowing the spread.

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So what is our government's solution to the disaster they created? Well, more money from the Federal Reserve, printed out of nowhere and backed by nothing.

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Trillions of new dollars spent to fix a problem they created, and more on the way soon. Keep in mind, this is stimulus money, designed to help those hurt by the lockdowns. In many cases, it did help and it will help.

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But in many other cases, the money has gone to people with the right political connections.

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You can't keep printing trillions of dollars without getting serious inflation. There's no getting around it.

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The people making these decisions know that perfectly well. But thats the secret: They want inflation. In fact, they need inflation. Why? Because they've gotten rich from debt.

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If Democrats retake the Senate in January, they've committed to passing something called the HEROES Act. Just who are these heroes they plan to help?

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Not the thousands of small business owners whose lives they destroyed. No, this legislation will help rich people in the Northeast who were hurt by the Trump administration's last tax cuts.

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Why wouldn't you assess, say, Amazon and Apple and Goldman Sachs and Google and Netflix and Walmart, all the big winners in this pandemic?

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Why wouldn't you assess them a one-time COVID fee, take it out of their record profits and make them pay for the next bailout?

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... why not make Harvard and Yale and Stanford and Princeton use their endowments to pay off some of the student debt they caused? There's no reason ordinary taxpayers should be on the hook for their spending.

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Here's the bottom line: The rich are getting richer, everyone else is getting poorer. That's not a talking point. It's true and measurable.

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Why is it a problem? Because if it continues, we're going to wind up with an even more volatile society in which everybody hates each other and is consumed by envy. Along the way, capitalism itself will be discredited, and you don't want that.

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You may have noticed there are an awful lot of socialists around these days. It's because the people in charge of our economy are discrediting our system.

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They are giving capitalism a bad name because what they're participating in is not a free, open market economy.

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It's a closed game, run for their benefit and their benefit alone. Long-term, this is a disaster for all of us and not even so far in the future.

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In four years, for example, Sandy Cortez will be eligible to run for president. Now, you may laugh at Sandy Cortez, and you should. She's a vacuous idiot, another rich-girl narcissist with an overheated Twitter account.

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But that doesn't mean she couldn't win. If we keep up with this economic craziness, she absolutely could.
Where Are We Going? (JWR 12/11/2020)
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In the midst of this disgusting time in which we live, do you ever stop and wonder how all this will finally shake out in the end?

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What will become of our country? Of our civilization? Of our world? Of us?

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2020 has seen lockdowns, fraud in our elections, a leftist media camouflaging their lying propaganda as "news." burning and looting in the streets, tearing down statues and monuments which represent our national honor and history, and a Democratic Party that has become brazenly communistic, exercising authoritative control over citizens like never before. And there seems to be no end in sight.

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For over four years I've watched the machinations of Democrats and their useful idiots in the press, entertainment, pro sports, academia, and big tech doing and saying anything and everything to get President Trump out of office, thwart the will of the American people and regain their own power over our society.

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It is undeniable that these people will stop at nothing to achieve their ultimate goal.

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There's no question in my mind that the hard left wants to destroy Western Civilization and replace it with a communistic global society controlled by the multi-billionaire elite. That is the end game.

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And who are these globalist people? You know the names. George Soros, Bill Gates, Obama, Biden, and the Chinese Communist Party just to name a few.

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Many of the richest of the rich in Big Politics, Big Business, and Big Media are on board. Including of course the wizards of Silicon Valley, who control all information to the masses.

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But why would all these oh so smart, oh so wealthy people want to destroy America? Good question, but relatively easy to answer.

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They believe in something much bigger than a mere country or its Constitution; they believe in world domination.

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Democrat governors, mayors, and other wannabe tyrants get their jollies by pulling the chains of their citizenry with their royal edicts on where a person is allowed to go, who he is allowed to see, where he is allowed to eat, where (if any place) he is allowed to pray, and what he must wear when doing these things.

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In all likelihood the virus was formulated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. And purposely released to damage the West.

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Were the globalists in on it? Who knows? But even if they weren't, they certainly have made the most of it.

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"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. It provides the opportunity to do things that were not possible to do before."

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If this makes me sound like one of those crazy conspiracy theorists, fine. Put me down on that list. The last four years, accentuated by the past ten months has proven to me that what I've lived through is no theory.

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The biggest question is, how long will it take before the masses revolt against the tyranny? At some point it has to happen. History has shown that people won't tolerate being shoved around forever.

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There has to be a breaking point. And when that breaking point finally happens, what then? Certainly anarchy on a scale like we've never imagined. And then what?

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Where do we go from there?
Hunter, Pelosi, Swalwell, Omar – pick a scandal (INN 12/11/2020)
Trump Supporters Right to Doubt Election (JWR 12/11/2020)
Hunter Biden Saga Personifies Ruling Class Power and Conceit (JWR 12/11/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Hunter Biden fiasco shows dishonesty, arrogance of mainstream media elites (Fox 12/11/2020)
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In October, the New York Post, the oldest daily newspaper in this country, published a trove of documents showing that members of Joe Biden's family have been selling access to the former vice president to a number of foreign governments, including the communist government of China.

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That's a blockbuster, but the rest of the media decided to kill it before you could read it. Social media companies banned their users from sharing the Post's reporting. Other news organizations simply ignored it.

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On Oct. 22, 11 days before the presidential election, National Public Radio — an organization that is literally state media, funded against your will by your tax dollars — explained that they would not say anything negative about the Bidens.

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"We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories. and we don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' time on stories that are just pure distractions."

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And so it went across the entire American news media until the presidential election. Now, six weeks later, it is finally safe to speak freely. We now know the New York Post was right all along...

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Wednesday, millions of Americans learned — some for the very first time — that the Biden family has indeed been deeply enmeshed in a series of sleazy international business deals that undercut America's core interests.

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We learned that there is an active federal criminal investigation into Joe Biden's son, Hunter, for that very reason.

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What's interesting is how we found this out. The media didn't tell us, and neither did the Justice Department.

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... the Biden-Harris transition team broke the news in the form of a bizarre press release that informed us with a straight face that Joe Biden was "deeply proud" of his boy Hunter, who, by the way, may have had some minor tax trouble that he will clear up the minute his accountant returns from Cabo. No big deal, and Happy Holidays.

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But actually, and you may have guessed this part, it turns out there's more. A report in Politico reveals that Joe Biden's younger brother, Jimmy, is involved, too. Jimmy Biden is under federal criminal investigation over alleged corruption in the hospital business.

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"And I remember looking at Jim Biden and saying, 'How are you guys getting away with this? Like, aren't you concerned?' And he sort of looked at me and he laughed a little bit and said, 'Plausible deniability.'"

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An independent media wouldn't be fooled by plausible deniability, either. They'd demand answers. Except they didn't.

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When the New York Post published the outlines of this story, the media raced to find its own plausible deniability, to find some reason, any reason not to report the story.

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Any reporter who broke rank and decided to state the facts was quickly disciplined and brought to heel.

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Now, we're being told to pretend that none of this ever happened. ... "evidence of the larger [Hunter Biden] probe was apparent in the markings on a series of documents that were made public — but went largely unnoticed — in the days leading up to the November election."

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One group who did notice were the professional liars in our so-called intelligene community, the ones who work hand-in-glove with so-called journalists in our media.

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Shortly after the New York Post story ran, a number of these all-star propagandists like Jim Clapper and John Brennan — people who have lied in public under oath and never been punished for it — denounced the New York Post series as Soviet-style disinformation.

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The stories, they said had all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation. They didn't explain what that meant, but they didn't need to. The media class ate it up like the seals they are and clapped and barked in unison.

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Now there are calls for a new special prosecutor to investigate what we have learned so far about the Biden family's business dealings abroad.

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Robert Mueller spent millions of dollars and ruined many lives purely as a favor to people who could not believe that Donald Trump really beat Hillary Clinton.

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This country might not survive another investigation like that. On the other hand, you've got to wonder how long a democracy can survive a leadership class like the one we have now.

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
The whole election was a mess and the whole election remains a mess (INN 12/09/2020)
Ben Shapiro: COVID-19 pandemic exposed an 'enthusiastic authoritarian streak' in our politicians (Fox 12/09/2020)
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The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a troubling "authoritarian streak" among Democrats who have publicly violated their own rules while imposing crippling restrictions on businesses and communities across the country,...

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"When these political actors suggest that we must act out of an abundance of caution, they mean that they ought to enjoy abundance while benefiting from our caution."

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"Throughout the pandemic, one set of rules has applied to America's most ardent lockdown advocates, and another set of rules has applied to everyone else."

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"The message is obvious, Our intellectual and moral betters in politics are free to make their own rational calculations on COVID-19 risk. The rest of us are to be locked in our homes until further notice."

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"You and your family are capable of making the same decisions Cuomo, Garcetti, Newsom, Lightfoot, and Adler do, You should be careful. You should engage in social distancing, mask up when in close proximity with others and generally avoid social gatherings involving those with preexisting conditions."

•
"But you can do all of these things and still live in a free society."

•
"Our politicians don't believe that, because our politicians have seen how easily so many Americans were willing to indefinitely suspend their freedoms out of trust in our authorities. Until the incentive structures change, our freedoms will continue to be throttled by people who have no problem exercising their own."

•
"One need not be a COVID-19 skeptic in order to question whether the enthusiastic authoritarian streak revealed by those politicians can be curbed. The longer we tolerate it, the more our politicians will normalize their power grabs."

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Until then ... the country will be ruled by "a political class incentivized to pursue tyranny rather than rational policy."

•
See related Hello Citizens! (Mike Lester, 12/04/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Ingraham: Chinese Communist Party's influence in US is dangerously 'widespread' (Fox 12/09/2020)
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"It is not Russia, it is China. The Ingraham Angle The fact that China has spent decades infiltrating almost every aspect of American society should be well known to you at this point."

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... called on Congress to "step up and pass legislation barring any American who has profited directly from China from ever serving in elected office, period, no exception."

•
"But. don't hold your breath waiting for that initiative to be announced ... and I think you know why."
Why is Eric Swalwell still on House Intel Committee after Chinese spy revelations? (Fox 12/09/2020)
•
The defining characteristic of the American ruling class is narcissism. The people in charge talk almost exclusively about themselves, about their limitless neuroses, their so-called privilege, their guilt about that privilege, their "identity." No matter what they're saying, it's always all about them.

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China's leaders aren't frivolous and stupid like our leaders are. They don't care what pronouns you use. They don't hire people because of the way they look. They have a very specific goal: To knock the U.S. from our perch.

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To accelerate this, the Chinese Communist Party has engaged in a ceaseless effort to subvert our leadership class, and that has worked more effectively than anyone imagined.

•
At every turn, Swalwell has remained a reliable source of Chinese government propaganda. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, he's styled himself as an expert at spotting foreign interference in our government.

•
It's always those who have the most to hide who attack other people for the very things they've done. Two years ago, we asked Swalwell to come on this show and reveal the evidence he claimed to have collected on Russian collusion.

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Swalwell came, because he couldn't turn down a TV opportunity. He made loud noises and he left. He had no evidence, but he didn't stop making allegations.

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When the Russia hoax subsided, as it inevitably did because it was a lie, Swalwell turned his energies to his first love, defending the government of China from all criticism.

•
... and here's the amazing thing: At this very moment, Eric Swalwell — who has used his office to promote Beijing's talking points almost word-for-word; a man who admits to a close personal relationship with an actual Chinese spy who helped him get elected to Congress, raised money for him and put an intern (probably another spy) in his office — continues to serve on the House Intelligence Committee, where he has unrestricted access to classified information.
Newt Gingrich & Jackie Cushman: Ensure election integrity in Georgia runoffs (Fox 12/09/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Our elites' collusion with China is real and widespread (Fox 12/08/2020)
•
Since the day Donald Trump was elected in 2016, we have been told that Russia is at the very top of the list of threats to America. Russia has penetrated our government. Russia threatens our democracy. Russia works tirelessly to subvert our economy and our way of life.

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Of course, such claims were a lie, and we're all aware of that now. Russia never had the power or the money to control our government, and there's no evidence they even tried.

•
In fact, top leaders in American government and business have been compromised by a foreign power that seeks to undermine our country and our democratic system.

•
It turns out that many of the very people who ranted so hysterically about Russia were doing precisely what they claimed to decry.

•
They were working on behalf of our chief global rival, the government of China.

•
The Russia hoax, effectively, was a diversion. It hid something that is not a hoax at all, but is real and threatening to all of us.

•
We're going to spend the foreseeable future reporting on the relationship between America's political and financial elites and the communist government of China that has made many of them very rich.

•
On Nov. 28, Di Dongsheng, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, appeared on a Chinese television show about Wall Street and international trade. Like so many in academia in China, Di is a servant of his country's government.

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"The Trump administration is in a trade war with us, so why can't we fix the Trump administration? Why, between 1992 and 2016, did China and the U.S., use to be able to settle all kinds of issues? No mater what kind of crises we encountered ... things were solved in no time ... We fixed everything in two months. What is the reason? I'm going to throw out something maybe a little bit explosive here. It's just because we have people at the top. At the top of America's core inner circle of power and influence, we have our old friends."

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So who are these people and how many of them work in our media and in our government? Well, Di didn't say precisely.

•
The Obama administration was easy to manipulate, Di suggests. The Chinese had many friends among the Obama people. The problem came when Donald Trump was elected. After that, he says, everything changed.

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"For the past 30 years, 40 years, we have been utilizing the core power of the United States ... Since the 1970s, Wall Street had a very strong influence on the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States, so we had a channel to rely on. But the problem is that after 2008, the status of Wall Street has declined, and more importantly, after 2016, Wall Street can't fix Trump. Why? It's very awkward. Trump had a previous soft default issue with Wall Street, so there was a conflict between them. But I won't go into details, I may not have enough time. So during the U.S.-China trade war they [Wall Street] tried to help. And I know that, my friends on the U.S. side told me that they tried to help, but they couldn't do much."

•
If you're wondering why our political class has stood by and allowed the Chinese government to degrade this country and our way of life, stood by as the Chinese government has flooded the United States with deadly opioids that have killed hundreds of thousands of people, stood by as the Chinese government ripped off billions of dollars worth of intellectual property from our companies, there's your answer.

•
In effect, Donald Trump was an impediment to this very lucrative arrangement, and for that reason, Di explains in the video, America's most powerful elites — and he calls them that — got to work on electing a new president again:...

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"But now we're seeing Biden was elected [laughter]. The traditional elite, the political elite, the establishment, they're very close to Wall Street. So you see that, right? Trump has been saying that Biden's son has some sort of global foundation. Have you noticed that? Who helped him [Biden's son] build the foundations? Got it? There are a lot of deals in all these. [laughter, applause]"

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So now you know why you weren't allowed to talk about Hunter Biden's laptop and why big business aligned as one to suppress that story: Because they were implicated in it.

•
"And in that document, they reference loaning $5 million to the 'BD family' ... The 'BD family' is the Biden family." ... "I think Joe Biden and the Biden family are compromised."

•
It looks like Tony Bobulinski was right about that. And it looks like the Bidens are far from the only ones who have been compromised.

•
See related Make China Great Again (Gary Varvel, 11/17/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Laura Ingraham: Biden more afraid of upsetting far left than alienating Trump supporters (Fox 12/08/2020)
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... argued that if the president-elect "had any real interest in cooling off rather than igniting the culture wars, there are things he could do that don't conflict with true liberal thought.

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"He could take a principled stand against the cancel culture, maybe go to Harvard [and] push for more intellectual diversity on campus."

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"He could go to El Paso, Texas, and talk about the rule of law and why it's the responsibility of the executive branch to enforce all immigration laws currently on the books."

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Biden could, she added, give a substantive address about the importance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and come out strongly against undemocratic ideas from like packing the Supreme Court or expanding the Senate.

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"He could pledge to oppose an effort ... to quash the free speech of his political opponents, or do anything that would undermine our traditional rights as Americans"...

•
"Biden could make clear that he generally opposes lockdowns and understands that they infringe on our constitutional rights. ... At a minimum, he could demand that all schools be open to in-person learning, period — no exception — because teachers are essential workers and have to show or find a new job."

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The president-elect could also remind Americans ... "that pro-life Americans aren't anti-women and that Antifa and other violent street movements have no place in this nation."

•
But none of those statements will be made ... because Biden "is tiptoeing right now around the far left. He is more afraid of upsetting them then alienating the more than 74 million Americans who turned out for President Trump.'

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"As long as conservative Americans believe that President Trump is the only person standing between them and tyranny, they will remain fiercely loyal to him."

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"They believe he is one of the few who actually fights for their values and for their families, and in watching everything that's going on right now, who could blame them?"

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
The “I Hate Trump, so election-fraud is totally OK” Democrats (INN 12/07/2020)
Michael Goodwin: Biden's Iran delusions – Trump policies offer option to failed nuclear deal (Fox 12/07/2020)
•
The assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist counts as a rare piece of good news from the mad mullahs' gulag. It eliminates a key player in the bid to get nuclear weapons and creates a safer world.

•
The event is being celebrated by the Trump administration, which has been relentless in bringing Iran to its knees.

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Israel, which likely carried out the bold hit, is delighted by the demise of a man whose weapons threatened to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

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Also cheering are the Sunni Arab nations whose governments are targeted by Iran.

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In short, the death of Moshen Fakhrizadeh is an unmitigated good thing to millions upon millions of innocent people.

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Yet to read The New York Times or listen to Joe Biden, the death is a bad thing because it complicates Biden's plan to persuade Iran to rejoin the nuclear pact that President Trump wisely scuttled.

•
Welcome to a bizarro land ruled by nostalgia for a past that never was.

•
In the real world, Fakhrizadeh's death is a gift to Biden, and if he has any sense, he will recognize it as such. The next president might even whisper, "Thank you," to Trump and the Israelis.

•
That Biden is instead complaining and trying to woo Iran illustrates how stuck in the past he is. The Mideast has changed dramatically for the better since he left office in 2016, or maybe he hasn't noticed that Israel and Arab states signed historic accords of mutual recognition, trade and tourism and are united in opposing Iran.

•
The core problem is that he and the Democrats' media handmaidens continue to fetishize the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as a triumph of diplomacy and believe in Iranian "moderates" the way children believe in Santa Claus.

•
In fact, the terms of that deal, negotiated by John Kerry and approved by the Obama-Biden White House, were a surrender that paved the way for the mullahs to get nukes in due course.

•
Almost as bad, international sanctions were lifted and Obama returned unfrozen Iranian funds, much of which went to finance terror in the region.

•
Why would anyone want to go back to that time, especially when subsequent events weakened Iran and put it on defense?

•
Biden said the mullahs must adhere to the enrichment limits before he removes sanctions and wants to expand talks to include the proxy wars and missile production. In response, Iran, sensing that Biden seems desperate, demands that he simply drop all sanctions and says no talks are needed.

•
Left unsaid is that in the last 40 years, Israel destroyed two nuclear reactors built by its enemies, in Iraq and Syria. Biden and Iran should remember that history.
Liz Peek: Biden and China – 4 reasons he can't be trusted to protect US from Beijing (Fox 12/07/2020)
•
Robert Gates, secretary of Defense under President Barack Obama, has written that Biden has been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."

•
While senator or vice president, Biden's bad impulses – like opposing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden – had little impact. But, assuming he becomes president, his wrongheaded instincts will put our nation at risk, especially when it comes to dealing with China.

•
Biden's inability to rein in an increasingly belligerent China starts with his naive confidence in the United Nations, which has done exactly nothing to punish Beijing for its military aggressions, its widespread theft of Western know-how or its illegal crackdown in Hong Kong.

•
Chinese President Xi Jinping has worked tirelessly to expand China's influence at the U.N., even as it subverts it missions. For instance, the Human Rights Council will soon include China, Russia and Cuba, all of which make a mockery of human rights.

•
The U.N. will not protect the United States, or Joe Biden, from China's aggression. Xi knows that; Biden may not.

•
The second reason Biden will not stand up to China is his fealty to Big Business and Big Tech, which funneled tens of millions of dollars into the president-elect's campaign.

•
Why would corporate America, Wall Street and Silicon Valley abandon a president who lowered business taxes and rolled back regulations?

•
Because Trump's trade battle with China was more pro-worker than pro-business; America's CEOs decided they'd rather suffer unfair trade terms, red tape and higher taxes than figure out how to manufacture goods here at home or forego access to Chinese consumers.

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Third, Joe Biden needs to reward progressives who supported his campaign. To that end, the president-elect has committed to rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, a first step toward the Green New Deal.

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Obama didn't demand anything from China when he signed the U.S. up for the Paris Accord; chances are, Biden won't either.

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Fourth, Hunter Biden's questionable business dealings in China put Joe Biden on the defensive. The liberal press has ignored seemingly solid evidence that Hunter traded on his father's name and White House position and that Joe may have been involved in his son's activities. China will not shy from using any compromising material they might have.

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For four years, President Trump and his national security team have educated Americans, and indeed the world, about China's misdeeds and alarming quest for world dominance. The result has been a healthy and growing skepticism about China.

•
Our intelligence agencies agree: China poses the greatest threat to our nation's security. They also agree that Beijing backed Biden's candidacy. President Xi likely considers Biden a weaker adversary than Trump; he is correct.

•
President Trump celebrated his first meeting with President Xi by ordering a missile strike on Syria, signaling strength and unpredictability.

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Biden's first impulse will be to give up our energy independence, a major geopolitical asset. No wonder Beijing is celebrating his win.
The New Untouchables (JWR 12/06/2020)
Escape From Reality (JWR 12/06/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Meet Patrick Gaspard, George Soros' man in Biden's would-be Cabinet (Fox 12/05/2020)
•
After a lifetime of serving the Democratic Party, Joe Biden has no fixed beliefs. He can't have any; the party has changed too much.

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That's the world Joe Biden grew up in. His "Joe from Scranton, son of a coal miner" shtick is a relic from that era. He still whips it out occasionally at events, but only for nostalgic reasons.

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Joe Biden became a Democrat back when Democrats represented America's working-class wage earners, heavily Catholic and concentrated in the big cities and industrial states.

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Democratic voters of that era tended to be populist on economic matters — they liked Social Security and Medicare — but they were basically conservative on social questions. They believed in biology, and most of them got married and went to church.

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The modern Democratic Party no longer represents wage earners. It is now funded almost exclusively by Silicon Valley and the finance establishment, the billionaire class.

•
Its foot soldiers don't work in factories. They're community organizers. They're members of interest groups that have coalesced around a specific race or sex or sexual orientation.

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None of these groups exist for the benefit of the United States. They exist only for their own benefit.

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Their purpose is very clear: To leverage our political system in order to collect as much money and as much power as they can for their own members and for their members alone.

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This is called identity politics and it is the most divisive way possible to run a government.

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Identity politics is zero-sum. No group can benefit except at the expense of other groups. There is no such thing as the common good.

•
A system like that never ends well, to put it mildly. But in 2020, there are no options left on the left. The Democratic Party is about identity politics and identity politics is about redistributing the spoils.

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So, of course, Joe Biden is on board with it. ... "The first eight members [are] the most diverse Cabinet anyone in American history has ever announced. There are three, three White men, there are — excuse me — the three men. There are five women. There are five people of color, three White people."

•
It sounds like the setup to the kind of joke you can't tell anymore. Jokes like that are considered insensitive because they reduce people to qualities they can't control.

•
In America, you are more than your ethnicity. Life here is not determined by your DNA. That was the promise, anyway.

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And for a time, roughly from the end of the civil rights movement to the beginning of Barack Obama's first term, that seemed to be working fairly well.

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We all agreed to try to drop the stereotypes and try to judge people for what they do, not on how they were born.

•
But no longer. We've got new rules now, rules that in fact are very old rules. They stretch back to the antebellum South and the ancient caste systems of India.

•
Of course, everyone in charge lies about this and calls it progress. ... "Joe Biden is building a team that looks like the people it serves," slobbered the newspaper. And in fact, there's some unintentional truth in that.

•
Joe Biden apparently intends to hire a man called Patrick Gaspard. Gaspard was Barack Obama's political director, then U.S. ambassador to South Africa.

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Most recently, though, and this tells you everything, Gaspard has been the president of the Open Society Foundations, funded by George Soros. Patrick Gaspard could soon be America's labor secretary, a Cabinet official.

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So if you're asking yourself, "Does a 90-year-old, left-wing Hungarian financier have enough control over the way my country operates?", the answer is decidedly, "Yes." George Soros definitely has enough power now, much more power than you have, for sure.

•
In Patrick Gaspard, George Soros has found someone as radical as he is.

•
Three years ago, South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, endorsed a plan of taking land from farmers based on skin color without compensating them. They called it land reform.

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Neighboring Zimbabwe had already done this under its bloodthirsty lunatic leader, Robert Mugabe, and promptly became the single poorest country in the world, killing a lot of people in the process.

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No sane person thought or thinks this was a good idea. But Patrick Gaspard thought it was a great idea.

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Ah, more equity, just like in Zimbabwe. Gaspard added in many forums that anyone who disagreed with both this point of view and land reform generally was, of course, an irredeemable racist.

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Gaspard later said that he found the South African constitution superior to America's constitution, and George Soros would no doubt agree with that.

•
But would many South Africans agree with that? How many have fled that country in just the past 10 years?

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Patrick Gaspard doesn't care. Like George Soros, he is an ideologue. For him, as for all ideologues, outcomes are far less interesting and far less important than theories.

•
Here's Patrick Gaspard in the streets this past June protesting the police. "Earlier today, President Obama told us all that we have to make people in power uncomfortable, so I'm out here marching with a diverse group of incredible New Yorkers as we all get ready to violate curfew, as we march for peace and we march for justice. This is a powerful community of dissent that cannot be quarantined and that will not be silenced until real change arrives. Whose streets? Our streets."

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"Just taking on the powerful," says the man who runs George Soros' foundation.

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Could this moment get any more perverse? Could the lying be any more obvious? Could it be more Orwellian? But it doesn't matter what you think, that man could soon be your labor secretary.

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See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
The War on the Electoral College Has Only Just Begun (12/05/2020)
Trump Won His OTHER Campaign (JWR 12/03/2020)
•
For four years, major media, along with their Democratic comrades, banded together to bring down Trump. They appear to have succeeded.

•
But as to Trump's campaign to expose the media's blatant, often vicious anti-Republican bias so that much of America will never again trust it, Trump won. Huge.
The Propaganda of Fear (JWR 12/03/2020)
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We have become a nation governed not by truth, vision, science or even majority vote — but by fear.

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Fear in social interaction. Fear in the media. Fear in politics.

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Social media has become a tool for screaming at, shaming and, in extreme cases, silencing all views with which certain preferred groups disagree.

•
And now, with elections clearly capable of having been rigged, these same hypocritical politicians don't even have to be afraid of being voted out of office.

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Masked, muted, shamed, silenced, emasculated and disenfranchised, the overwhelming majority of Americans are being left with nothing — no business, no voice, no vote.

•
No doubt, those playing this game applaud themselves for their win-at-any-cost tactics.

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This is dangerously childlike thinking, characteristic of a country that has come to worship youth and pooh-pooh impulse control: "I want what I want right now, and I don't care what the future holds."

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They'd better start caring, and fast. When a country abandons truth, the only winners are the biggest liars.

•
When it abandons basic justice — the protection of private property, the rule of law and the integrity of elections — then the only way to get what you want, whether it's stereos or political power, is to steal it.

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And when a country's politicians are cowed by fear rather than motivated by principle, those who win will instill the most fear.

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This is a dangerous prospect indeed.
Progressives are no longer defenders of free expression (JWR 12/03/2020)
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Efforts to censor, cancel, discredit or destroy the work of anyone with contrasting viewpoints are canonized by the wealthy, powerful left-wing elites and their institutions.

•
In Orwellian fashion, they have redefined being illiberal and vindictive as being woke, enlightened and progressive — and for the public good rather than their own interests.

•
How ironic that the kindred spirits of today's progressives are not Socrates, Galileo and Harper Lee, but the Athenian mob, Joseph McCarthy and the Taliban.

•
Past and present, all of these zealots and character assassins cloaked their intolerance in the pretense that they were advancing truth — by destroying it.
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Why religion is first freedom protected by the First Amendment (Fox 12/03/2020)
The coronavirus pandemic is a global fraud perpetrated by China, abetted by the powerful (Fox 12/03/2020)
•
Why weren't elected officials demanding a coherent account of where this virus that has changed American history forever came from, how it got to the United States and how it spread through our population? Why don't we know that yet?

•
Because nobody seemed to care. Our elected officials were too busy enjoying their newfound power. They were shutting down small businesses and arresting people for kayaking without masks.

•
Back in January, 11 months ago, the Department of Homeland Security warned that American airports could be ground zero for a new pandemic, but Congress yawned.

•
On Jan. 24, a day when, these blood samples now prove, the virus had already spread across the continent, the Trump administration held a classified briefing on the coronavirus for the entire U.S. Senate, but only 14 senators showed up for it.

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Why? Well, Jan. 24 was the final day of House Democrats' opening statements in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.

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So the people in charge of protecting the country were not worried about coronavirus, but were standing in front of their mirrors rehearsing the moment when they could finally confront Alan Dershowitz about the dreaded Zelensky phone call.

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Now they're claiming the pandemic caught them completely by surprise. How do they get away with that? They get away with it because our public health establishment gives them cover and has all year.

•
Two days before that classified Senate briefing that only 14 senators showed up for, Dr. Anthony Fauci went on Fox Business Network's "Bulls & Bears" to reassure Americans they could trust the Chinese government.

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"From what I can see right now, they really are being much, much more transparent than what happened with SARS, where they really kept back information for a while. It was embarrassing to them. They're really transparent now. They put the sequence of the virus up on the public database right away. So in that respect, they've been transparent."

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In a well-functioning country, a line like that would ensure that you never work in public policy again.

•
China has in fact been transparently dishonest about the virus. Beijing officials are now claiming the virus came to their country from somewhere else, that it arrived in frozen food, possibly as a bioweapon staged by the U.S. military.

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They're not saying this in secret. They're saying it on social media. But so far, Twitter hasn't bothered to fact-check that claim. Like Fauci, Silicon Valley trusts China far more than they trust you.

•
On Jan. 8, the WHO — funded, of course, by the Chinese government — released a similar message: "Preliminary identification of a novel virus in a short period of time is a notable achievement and demonstrates China's increased capacity to manage new outbreaks."

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In other words, the rest of us ought to be thanking the government of China for the blessing of COVID-19.

•
A week later, WHO was back with more demonstrably untrue propaganda straight from their overlords in Beijing.

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"Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China."

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That was yet another dangerous lie that unquestionably cost American lives, but Twitter didn't fact-check that either.

•
Instead, the American media dutifully amplified the message.

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They told us anyone who suggested this thoroughly Chinese virus came from China was, by definition, a racist.

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... interviewed a Chinese virologist, Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who fled her country with this message for us: This virus came from a government lab in China.

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She said she knew that in her own country she would have been punished, possibly killed, for saying so. So she came here, to the land of the free.

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What did she find? She found her words censored by American tech companies working in tandem with the tyrants she fled.

•
Internal documents now prove that Chinese officials knew they were facing a coronavirus pandemic — something they'd never seen before — but they hid that information from the world and they arrested those who tried to report it.

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More critically, millions of people continued to travel through the city of Wuhan in central China, the epicenter of the pandemic. Then more than a million Chinese citizens flew to the United States.

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It wasn't until Jan. 20 that Chinese President Xi Jinping finally admitted the virus could be contagious. At best, that's criminal negligence. At worst, it's something like mass murder.

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But no, said the WHO. In fact, it was just more evidence that the Chinese Communist Party was doing an extraordinary job managing the pandemic.

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"Right now, there's very, very few countries that have actually been able to reverse this epidemic and bring their cases down to [a] very low level. And in fact, the only country that has done that is China. It was the passion, the diligence, the sense of responsibility, the seriousness of the average Chinese — and I want to use that term very carefully because they weren't average. They were extraordinary people, but they were driven by a sense of collective responsibility."

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Got that? The Chinese are driven by "a sense of collective responsibility." Contrast that with us fat, lazy Trump-voting Americans. We demand to go to church on Sundays or go out to dinner with our families once in a while and then deservedly, we get sick and die.

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That's the message from the media, our health establishment, and our elected officials, and it has been for almost a year.

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See related Thanks, China (Bob Gorrell, 03/19/2017) cartoon from World picture album

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See related Assurance (Chip Bok, 04/10/2020) cartoon from World picture album
Michael Goodwin: AG Barr's Russia probe move means there will be justice (Fox 12/02/2020)
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The appointment, made in secret on October 19, two weeks before the election, does not absolutely protect the investigation once Biden moves into the White House.

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But it means the probe cannot be swept under the rug because ending it would require the new administration to publicly remove Durham, which would smack of a coverup and cause a uproar in public and in congress.

•
The prospect that justice might be done for the dirtiest trick ever played in American politics helps restore a modicum of confidence in Washington.

•
The move is also a reminder that turnabout is fair play, for it presents Biden with a cloud similar to the one that he, Obama, Jim Comey and others created for Trump at the start of his administration.

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The only difference is that the probe of Trump was concocted out of whole cloth for purely partisan purposes. This one is more than warranted.

•
As Trump often said, what happened to him should never again happen to any president.

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Barr, who took office in 2019, soon expressed concerns about the origins of the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign, telling ... that "the use of foreign intelligence capabilities and counterintelligence capabilities against an American political campaign to me is unprecedented and it's a serious red line that's been crossed."

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It is also to Barr's credit that he kept the appointment secret until after the election, which was the right thing to do.

•
In a letter to Congress, Barr said he decided to make Durham a Special Counsel "to provide him and his team with the assurance that they could complete their work, without regard to the outcome of the election."

•
Now, Mr. Attorney General, how about those Hunter Biden schemes to profit off of his father's public office? A special counsel is also warranted there.
Tucker Carlson: The 'diversity' delusion and the destruction of the American meritocracy (Fox 12/01/2020)
•
A meritocracy is the main threat to incompetent people. It keeps them from getting rich and powerful, so they hate it.

•
So what does tearing down a meritocracy look like in practice? It looks a lot like Joe Biden staffing a presidential administration.

•
... the Congressional Black Caucus is demanding that Biden select a Black secretary of defense.

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Not a secretary of defense who is good at defending America, mind you, a secretary of defense with the correct skin color.

•
Now, feminist groups are mad about this ... — not because it would leave the country vulnerable, but because they want a female secretary of defense.

•
According to these groups, the secretary of defense should look like them because it's all about them, not about the Pentagon or the country or the military threats we might face in the future.

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"... Raphael Bostic, who would be the first Black and first openly gay Treasury secretary, is also receiving some consideration."

•
Hispanic, Black, gay, those are categories. They're not people. They're not individuals. This is about identity, not country. It's about Balkanization, not unity.

•
"Straight White men are the enemy," says the party led by one, and so it goes.

•
It's hard to imagine anything uglier than this. This doesn't go anywhere that you'd want to go. It ends with discord and worse, but it continues.

•
In other words, certain jobs for certain identities. Certain skin colors have pre-prescribed roles. How is this different from a traditional caste system?

•
The NASDAQ, for example, has proposed new listing rules that require companies to "have or explain why they do not have at least two diverse directors, including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ+."

•
What you're seeing is an attempt to preserve and codify the class system that is already in place and is growing more rigid by the day.
The Big Tech Occupation [Technocrats are imposing foreign law on American jurisdictions] (American Mind, 12/1/20)
Black Fragility? Bestseller prescription for race relations casts whites as sinners and blacks as... (JWR 12/01/2020)
Deroy Murdock: Barack and Michelle Obama's breathtaking ingratitude (Fox 12/01/2020)
•
The same liberals who accuse President Donald J. Trump of narcissism ignore the fact that Obama's third (!) autobiography is more voluminous than Dante's "Inferno."

•
And, who could forget the photos of Obama admiring himself in a filthy mirror in the White House and snapping pictures of himself with a selfie stick?

•
But, much worse, Obama is — among many other wretched things — a divisive, self-oblivious ingrate.

•
"What's always interesting to me is the degree to which you've seen created in Republican politics the sense that white males are victims," Obama told...

•
"They are the ones who are under attack — which obviously doesn't jive with both history and data and economics. But that's a sincere belief, that's been internalized, that's a story that's being told, and how you unwind that is going to be not something that is done right away."

•
So, white-male grievance fueled President Trump's 74 million votes on Election Day 2020. Wow! What a great way to bring Americans together, as Democrats never stop claiming they want to do.

•
Obama never explained how white-male self-pity, rage, or both propelled Trump's support among 12 percent of Blacks (versus 8 percent in 2016's exit polls), specifically, 19 percent of Black men and 9 percent of Black women...

•
Maybe Black men feel sorrier for white men than do white men themselves.

•
This theory might not be so outlandish. After all ... Biden declared ... "If you have a problem figuring out if you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black."

•
Trump won 61 percent of white, male voters (according to 2020's exit polls). This equals some 33,555,556 ballots ... White men, in aggregate, fell an estimated 40,423,122 shy of Trump's 73,978,678 total...

•
So, 40.4 million minorities and women identified deep-down as grumpy white guys or — what a concept! — these 25.7 percent of all voters believed that four more years of Trump would benefit them, their loved ones, neighbors, and nation.

•
Obama saved particularly ugly words for a segment of Americans who backed Trump... "People were surprised about a lot of Hispanic folks who voted for Trump. But there are a lot of evangelical Hispanics who, you know, the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans or puts detainees, you know, undocumented workers in cages — they think that's less important than the fact that he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion."

•
Obama also revealed his holistic lack of self-awareness when he slammed Trump for placing "undocumented workers in cages."

•
Obama's self-oblivion is staggering. Has he really forgotten who installed these cages? Obama did!

•
The BBC's institutional memory is more reliable than Obama's convenient amnesia. "These chain-link enclosures were built during the Obama presidency. Some 60,000 unaccompanied minors stopped at the southern border were detained in these cells during one summer alone in 2014"...

•
Even more damning: "The Obama administration also separated migrant children from adults at the border, though only in rare circumstances."

•
This is textbook-grade psychological projection, which is a key Democrat offering, along with defunding the police and overlooking the domestic terrorism of ANTIFA, Black Lives Matter, and their comrades in the ascendant hard left.

•
Obama's worst sin — and that of his wife — is breathtaking ingratitude.

•
While the former president points fingers at supposedly racially biased white dudes, the former first lady sees America drowning in bigots.

•
She said November 7 ... "Let's remember that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division."

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Rather than excoriate the Prejudiced States of America, the Obamas should say thank you.

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They should thank America for giving them 69.5 million votes or 53 percent of 2008's ballots.

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The Obamas should thank America for handing them 62.6 million votes or 51 percent of 2012's ballots.

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And yet, Michelle insists, America is awash in race hatred. Disgusting!

•
Along with this whiny wife, Obama should focus on the ex in ex-president and leave the rest of us alone.

•
See related Miss Me? (Glenn McCoy, 02/28/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Cal Thomas: Government's assault on faith and conscience is far from over (Fox 12/01/2020)
•
In totalitarian societies, governments suppress the church and religious worship. That's because dictators believe citizens should worship them as the highest authority and not a Higher Authority, which they view as a threat to their power and position.

•
What is it that causes so many Americans to place their faith in government over faith in God, or even faith in themselves?

•
False gods of wood, iron, bronze and gold could not answer the prayers of ancient peoples, so why, when government fails to answer the "prayers" of so many today, do people continue to put their faith in it?

•
What is it that causes so many Americans to place their faith in government over faith in God, or even faith in themselves? False gods of wood, iron, bronze and gold could not answer the prayers of ancient peoples, so why, when government fails to answer the "prayers" of so many today, do people continue to put their faith in it?

•
When government sets itself up as the ultimate authority on all things, including the right to gather and worship freely, other liberties can quickly be at risk.

•
If the First Amendment is to be challenged, even watered down when it comes to faith and practice, why not impose stricter controls on speech and the press, as is done in totalitarian states?

•
Once the principle that government endows rights is established, it is a very short step for government to take them away.

•
In China and elsewhere around the globe, dictators view God as a challenge to their rule. They demand total fealty, or those who seek to go over their heads with appeals to Heaven must be arrested, jailed and in some instances murdered that the almighty state be preserved.

•
One of the founding principles that brought Pilgrims from England to America was the freedom to worship God as their consciences dictated. The Constitution guarantees that right.

•
In more recent years the term "separation between church and state" penned by Thomas Jefferson in a private letter to a friend, has come to mean the right of the government to define the meaning of "church"...

•
One of the founding principles that brought Pilgrims from England to America was the freedom to worship God as their consciences dictated. The Constitution guarantees that right. In more recent years the term "separation between church and state" penned by Thomas Jefferson in a private letter to a friend, has come to mean the right of the government to define the meaning of "church."

•
... noted that in the eyes of God when one has broken one of the Ten Commandments, one has broken them all. Breaking one law, they have noted, defines one as a lawbreaker.

•
It is a good analogy when considering our liberties. If one is threatened, all are potentially at risk.
Trump's options – election decision, his political future come down to these hard choices (Fox 11/30/2020)
•
Donald Trump is nearing a crossroads. Those who allege that he has endangered the tradition of smooth presidential transitions by not conceding immediately after the media declared him the loser suffer amnesia.

•
When Trump was elected in 2016, the Washington establishment lost its collective mind.

•
The top echelon of the FBI and CIA were still spreading a fraudulent Christopher Steele dossier paid for by the campaign of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee.

•
Shortly before Trump's inauguration, President Barack Obama called Vice President Joe Biden, national security adviser Susan Rice, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and FBI Director James Comey into the Oval Office.

•
The purpose of the meeting was reportedly to collate progress reports about how best to continue government surveillance of Trump's designated national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and thereby disrupt the transition.

•
Flynn's name was soon unmasked, apparently by Obama administration officials, and then illegally leaked to the press.

•
The harassment during the transition became thematic for Trump's next four years, which saw false evidence submitted to federal courts and other classified documents illegally leaked.

•
No prior president has faced such hysterical opposition bent on removing him from office by a special prosecutor, concocted charges that he should be deposed under the 25th Amendment, and, finally, a failed attempt at removal via impeachment.

•
The president's private phone calls to foreign leaders were leaked. Media darlings and anonymous opponents within the government boasted of sabotaging Trump's initiatives.

•
Washington analysts and retired military officers hyped coup scenarios about how best to use force to remove him from office.

•
So it is a bit rich for the media to now warn of Trump's dangers to the spirit of smooth presidential transitions. Such protocols were deliberately rendered null and void in 2016.

•
He can continue to ask the courts to set aside any illegal votes that do not conform to state voting laws. His supporters demand and deserve no less than the investigation of all charges of serial voting impropriety.

•
But Trump within days will have to prove that any such crimes and lapses warped state counts enough to have wrongly elected Joe Biden president. Trump realistically has perhaps a week or so left to make his case or concede.

•
Then, to maintain the Senate majority for Republicans and to save the very rules and protocols of the Senate, the Supreme Court and Constitution, Trump will have to barnstorm Georgia.

•
Trump's "Make America Great Again" agenda will be codified as his party's own.

•
... there is some chance that the country will have been turned off by a hard-left shift by Biden, surrogate to the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of his party.

•
Trump can bask in a successful first term that remade the Republican Party into a multiracial coalition of the broad middle class. His Middle East and China resets will unlikely be altered by future presidents.

•
Trump finally did close the border to illegal immigration. His initiatives to revitalize America's interior ended the notion that industrial decline was inevitable rather than a silly choice.

•
But Trump's other alternative is bleaker. Currently, Trump-affiliated lawyers claim they can prove their bombshell allegations of historic voting fraud by leftists and foreign interests.

•
They further claim that Trump was robbed not of a close election but of a veritable landslide, constituting the greatest scandal in U.S. history.

•
But so far none of these advocates have produced the requisite whistleblowers, computer data or forensic evidence to prove their astounding charges.

•
If they do not produce it in a few days, and if Trump pivots to put his fate in their hands, then the pilloried Republicans may well lose the Senate races in Georgia.

•
And with that historic setback he would endanger his legacy, his influence and perhaps a crack at a second presidential term.
Jonathan Turley: Gun-rights case tailor made for Justice Barrett, Supreme Court. Here's why (Fox 11/30/2020)
•
It has been 12 years since the Supreme Court ruled that the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment is an individual right like freedom of speech or religion.

•
However, the court left the scope of that right undefined at the edges, particularly when it came to limits on who can be excluded from gun ownership or whether certain guns can be excluded from ownership.

•
The Supreme Court recognized that this is not an "unlimited" right under the Constitution while affirming the right of "law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home."

•
Originally, in 1938, Congress prohibited only gun ownership to those who were convicted of "crimes of violence."

•
That limited the denial of gun ownership to those convicted of murder, manslaughter, rape, mayhem, kidnapping, burglary, housebreaking and various types of aggravated assault.

•
While no right is absolute, most of us would be outraged if such a low burden was imposed on other individual rights under the Constitution.
David Limbaugh: After years of attacking Trump and his supporters, Democrats now ask for unity (Fox 11/30/2020)
•
Many Trump haters have been lying all along about the president, what he stands for, what his record has been and who his supporters are. Now they tell us they want unity.

•
What Trump wants — and what his supporters want — is for America to reclaim its greatness, its robust liberty tradition, its prosperity, the integrity of its borders, fair trade deals with foreign nations and its military strength. He has made great strides in achieving these goals.

•
Trump's opponents — the left-wing media, Democrats, never-Trump Republicans — have never given him a moment's rest, never a benefit of the doubt, never an atom of cooperation or bipartisanship.

•
They haven't just served as the loyal opposition, resisting his agenda like the minority party is expected to do.

•
They have never let him govern. From the time he stepped on the political stage, they've harassed, investigated, bullied, impeached and censored him.

•
The liberal media have tormented Trump, ignored and distorted his accomplishments, and shown him in a 100% negative light for his entire term.

•
They have deliberately misrepresented his words to paint him as a bigot. They have claimed his immigration policies are driven by racism, rather than a desire to protect our borders and ensure the orderly process of legal immigration.

•
They have relentlessly hammered this into the national psyche to where millions upon millions of Americans not only believe it but also believe racism animates all Trump supporters.

•
Just remember there was a time in the recent past when both parties agreed that we must control our borders and prosecute illegal immigration.

•
Most of the charges against Trump are over-the-top outrageous. Joe Biden — who the media characterize as a nice, harmless fellow — has portrayed Trump as a racist and has said Trump is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans from COVID-19.

•
Trump put his all into fighting this virus, and for partisan opportunists to blame him for its death and destruction is indescribably vicious. But in our society, in which hating Trump has become a popular blood sport, no libel is too low.

•
The left has villainized every Republican president in recent memory and, for several generations, has defamed all Republicans as heartless bigots.

•
But Trump, because of his manner and personality, is a convenient target, allowing those who hate conservatives to pretend it's all about him. Trump's refusal to take this abuse sitting down has just further enraged his haters.

•
The only good Republican is one who doesn't talk back; who doesn't respond to his accusers; who lets charges of racism, sexism and heartlessness stand.

•
Trump supporters have appreciated his refusal to roll over, especially since they realize that the hatred directed against him is also meant for them.

•
Even if you find Trump's manner objectionable, let's not confuse his style with his policies, his combativeness with his agenda.

•
His agenda is not divisive. His economy has lifted up all groups of people. He has reached out to minorities and tried to address their concerns.

•
It is the Democrats (and their policies) who are divisive. Through rank identity politics, they stir people against one another on the basis of their skin color, gender and economic circumstances.

•
But now that they believe the election is over and that Joe Biden will be the next president, many Trump haters are calling for unity — while another sizable batch is making lists of Trump supporters and promising retribution.

•
If you want healing, stop calling us haters and bigots simply because we strongly disagree with you on policies. Quit suppressing our speech, and quit canceling us from culture.

•
Most of all, quit pretending your calls for unity are anything other than a demand that we surrender to your radical agenda.

•
That's not going to happen, because we believe your policies would devastate this nation and transform its fundamental character.

•
We don't intend to resist you as a matter of revenge but because we believe your ideas are destructive.

•
We must be personally cordial and civil, but let's quit indulging the fantasy that we can unify on policy, as our visions couldn't be more opposite.

•
See related Speech on Unity (Mike Lester, 11/13/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Reasons why the 2020 presidential election is deeply puzzling (Spectator 11/27/2020)
•
To say out-loud that you find the results of the 2020 presidential election odd is to invite derision. You must be a crank or a conspiracy theorist.

•
Mark me down as a crank, then. I am a pollster and I find this election to be deeply puzzling. I also think that the Trump campaign is still well within its rights to contest the tabulations.

•
Something very strange happened in America's democracy in the early hours of Wednesday November 4 and the days that followed. It's reasonable for a lot of Americans to want to find out exactly what.

•
First, consider some facts. President Trump received more votes than any previous incumbent seeking reelection. He got 11 million more votes than in 2016, the third largest rise in support ever for an incumbent.

•
By way of comparison, President Obama was comfortably reelected in 2012 with 3.5 million fewer votes than he received in 2008.

•
Trump's vote increased so much because, according to exit polls, he performed far better with many key demographic groups.

•
Trump grew his support among black voters by 50 percent over 2016. Nationally, Joe Biden's black support fell well below 90 percent, the level below which Democratic presidential candidates usually lose.

•
Current tallies show that, outside of a few cities, the Rust Belt swung in Trump's direction. Yet, Biden leads in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin because of an apparent avalanche of black votes in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee.

•
Biden's ‘winning' margin was derived almost entirely from such voters in these cities, as coincidentally his black vote spiked only in exactly the locations necessary to secure victory.

•
He did not receive comparable levels of support among comparable demographic groups in comparable states, which is highly unusual for the presidential victor.

•
We are told that Biden won more votes nationally than any presidential candidate in history.

•
But he won a record low of 17 percent of counties; he only won 524 counties, as opposed to the 873 counties Obama won in 2008. Yet, Biden somehow outdid Obama in total votes.

•
Another anomaly is found in the comparison between the polls and non-polling metrics.

•
The latter include: party registrations trends; the candidates' respective primary votes; candidate enthusiasm; social media followings; broadcast and digital media ratings; online searches; the number of (especially small) donors; and the number of individuals betting on each candidate.

•
... when the polls err, non-polling metrics do not; the latter have a 100 percent record. Every non-polling metric forecast Trump's reelection.

•
... for Trump to lose, not only did one or more of these metrics have to be wrong for the first time ever, but every single one had to be wrong, and at the very same time; not an impossible outcome, but extremely unlikely nonetheless.

•
Atypical voting patterns married with misses by polling and non-polling metrics should give observers pause for thought.

•
Adding to the mystery is a cascade of information about the bizarre manner in which so many ballots were accumulated and counted.

•
The following peculiarities also lack compelling explanations:...

•
Late on election night, with Trump comfortably ahead, many swing states stopped counting ballots. In most cases, observers were removed from the counting facilities. Counting generally continued without the observers.

•
Statistically abnormal vote counts were the new normal when counting resumed. They were unusually large in size (hundreds of thousands) and had an unusually high (90 percent and above) Biden-to-Trump ratio.

•
Late arriving ballots were counted. In Pennsylvania, 23,000 absentee ballots have impossible postal return dates and another 86,000 have such extraordinary return dates they raise serious questions.

•
The failure to match signatures on mail-in ballots. The destruction of mail-in ballot envelopes, which must contain signatures.

•
Historically low absentee ballot rejection rates despite the massive expansion of mail voting. Such is Biden's narrow margin that, as political analyst Robert Barnes observes, ‘If the states simply imposed the same absentee ballot rejection rate as recent cycles, then Trump wins the election'.

•
Missing votes. In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 50,000 votes held on 47 USB cards are missing.

•
Non-resident voters. Matt Braynard's Voter Integrity Project estimates that 20,312 people who no longer met residency requirements cast ballots in Georgia. Biden's margin is 12,670 votes.

•
Serious ‘chain of custody' breakdowns. Invalid residential addresses. Record numbers of dead people voting. Ballots in pristine condition without creases, that is, they had not been mailed in envelopes as required by law.

•
Statistical anomalies. In Georgia, Biden overtook Trump with 89 percent of the votes counted. For the next 53 batches of votes counted, Biden led Trump by the same exact 50.05 to 49.95 percent margin in every single batch. It is particularly perplexing that all statistical anomalies and tabulation abnormalities were in Biden's favor.

•
If you think that only weirdos have legitimate concerns about these findings and claims, maybe the weirdness lies in you.
Private Property's Harvest (JWR 12/03/2020)
•
... a similar Tragedy of the Commons nearly killed the Pilgrims. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they started a society based on sharing.

•
Sharing sounds great. But sharing, basically, is collective or communal farming, which is socialism. Food and supplies were distributed based on need. Pilgrims were forbidden to selfishly produce food for themselves.

•
That collective farming was a disaster. When the first harvest came, there wasn't much food to go around. The Pilgrims nearly starved.

•
Since no individual owned crops from the farm, no one had an incentive to work harder to produce extra that they might sell to others. Since even slackers got food from the communal supply, there was no penalty for not working.

•
William Bradford wrote in his "History of Plymouth Plantation" that the colony was ridden with "corruption" and "much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable."

•
People eager to provide for their families were less eager to provide for others. Bradford wrote, "young men, that were most able and fit for labour, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense."

•
Ultimately, said Bradford, shared farming "was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort."

•
The Pilgrims "begane to thinke how they might raise as much corne as they could, and obtaine a beter crope (so) they might not still thus languish in miserie."

•
The Pilgrims' solution: private property. In 1623, the collective farm was split up, and every family was given a plot of land. People could grow their own food and keep it or trade it.

•
"It made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been." wrote Bradford. "Women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability."
Anomalies in Vote Counts and Their Effects on Election 2020 (11/24/2020)
•
In the early hours of November 4th, 2020, Democratic candidate Joe Biden received several major "vote spikes" that substantially — and decisively — improved his electoral position in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia.

•
Much skepticism and uncertainty surrounds these "vote spikes."

•
Critics point to suspicious vote counting practices, extreme differences between the two major candidates' vote counts, and the timing of the vote updates, among other factors, to cast doubt on the legitimacy of some of these spikes.

•
While data analysis cannot on its own demonstrate fraud or systemic issues, it can point us to statistically anomalous cases that invite further scrutiny.

•
Our analysis finds that a few key vote updates in competitive states were unusually large in size and had an unusually high Biden-to-Trump ratio.

•
With this report, we rely only on publicly available data from the New York Times to identify and analyze statistical anomalies in key states.

•
... we discover a remarkably consistent mathematical property: there is a clear inverse relationship between difference in candidates' vote counts and and the ratio of the vote counts.

•
(In other words, it's not surprising to see vote updates with large margins, and it's not surprising to see vote updates with very large ratios of support between the candidates, but it is surprising to see vote updates which are both).

•
Of the seven vote updates which follow the pattern the least, four individual vote updates — two in Michigan, one in Wisconsin, and one in Georgia — were particularly anomalous and influential with respect to this property and all occurred within the same five hour window.

•
In particular, we are able to quantify the extent of compliance with this property and discover that, of the 8,954 vote updates used in the analysis, these four decisive updates were the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 7th most anomalous updates in the entire data set.

•
Not only does each of these vote updates not follow the generally observed pattern, but the anomalous behavior of these updates is particularly extreme.

•
The four vote updates in question are:

•
An update in Michigan listed as of 6:31AM Eastern Time on November 4th, 2020, which shows 141,258 votes for Joe Biden and 5,968 votes for Donald Trump

•
An update in Wisconsin listed as 3:42AM Central Time on November 4th, 2020, which shows 143,379 votes for Joe Biden and 25,163 votes for Donald Trump

•
A vote update in Georgia listed at 1:34AM Eastern Time on November 4th, 2020, which shows 136,155 votes for Joe Biden and 29,115 votes for Donald Trump

•
An update in Michigan listed as of 3:50AM Eastern Time on November 4th, 2020, which shows 54,497 votes for Joe Biden and 4,718 votes for Donald Trump...

•
This report predicts what these vote updates would have looked like, had they followed the same pattern as the vast majority of the 8,950 others.

•
We find that the extents of the respective anomalies here are more than the margin of victory in all three states — Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia — which collectively represent forty-two electoral votes.

•
Late on Election Night 2020, President Donald J. Trump had a lead of around 100,000 votes in Wisconsin, a lead of around 300,000 votes in Michigan, and a lead of around 700,000 votes in Pennsylvania.

•
On Election Night, conflicting news reports came in that various precincts were stopping their count for the evening, sending election officials home, or re-starting their counts.

•
There remains a large amount of confusion to this day about the extent to which various precincts stopped counting, as well as the extent to which any state election laws or rules were broken by sending election officials home prematurely.

•
Whatever the case is, various precincts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania continued to report numbers throughout the night.

•
By the early hours of the following morning, Wisconsin had flipped blue, as did Michigan soon after. A few days later, Georgia and Pennsylvania followed suit.

•
Through several investigative mechanisms, we find these four vote updates to be extraordinarily anomalous.

•
While these alone do not prove the existence of fraud or systemic issue, it invites further scrutiny.

•
The basic intuition is: big margins are one thing, and so are super-skewed results, but it's weird to have them both at the same time, as they generally become inversely related as either value increases.

•
We will demonstrate below that the data overwhelmingly follow this intuition, but that four key vote updates identified by this report cut against this intuition.

•
In particular, we will show the existence of a very strong inverse relationship within vote updates, across all states and times, between the difference of votes for Joe Biden and Donald Trump (often referred to as the "Biden-Trump margin" ) and the the ratio of Joe Biden's votes to Donald Trump's votes (often referred to as the "Biden:Trump ratio" ).

•
At any geographical level, we can test the assumption of an inverse relationship between vote update size and the extremity of the ratio between the candidates' votes, and, as we will see here, the relationship is extremely strong.

•
Across states red and blue, where turnout is high and low, there is an obvious inverse relationship between the two.

•
This election represents an extraordinary and unique opportunity for election integrity analysts and the application of statistical fraud detection research, as it is likely the first national election in American history, at the very least, where the general public has had access to time-series election data.

•
... update, at (135,290, 3.164), represents the vote update described at the top of this report, and is responsible for the extremely noticeable spike which nearly eliminated Trump's lead in one shot.

•
It arrived at 6:31am ET on November 4th, and went 141,258 for Biden to 5,968 for Trump — representing both the largest vote margin for Biden of any of the 502 updates we have here, at 135,290, while also representing, by a factor of more than 2, the largest Biden:Trump ratio, at a whopping 23.67:1 (the log of which is 3.16).

•
As we will see when comparing with other states, by our metric this is the single most anomalous point in the nation.

•
... it calls into serious question the veracity of this vote update, and is perhaps some of the strongest direct evidence of fraud in this entire report.

•
... four of the seven most anomalous vote updates — which is to say, updates in which the margin and ratio are co-extreme — are in election-critical states and occurred during the same five hour period where the circumstances on the ground were (and remain) contested and highly suspicious.

•
... it is possible to definitively say that Joe Biden's victory in all three of these states relied on four of the seven most co-extreme vote updates in the entire data set of 8,954 vote updates.

•
... to accept the results as seen in Michigan as legitimate, one would need to believe that the one or two most possible pro-Biden areas of the state were somehow each counted their ballots entirely in one or two vote updates.

•
... the believability of these updates relies on the premise that the one or two most Biden-favoring parts of the state (perhaps by ballot type) were counted entirely in these two batches.

•
If we are to accept that these votes were counted entirely in one batch, this raises serious questions as well. In particular, given the ambiguity — to this day — about where the vote-tabulation process was stopped and why, it makes little sense why these votes would be released in such an unusually large batch.

•
This report studies 8,954 individual updates to the vote totals in all 50 states and finds that four individual updates — two of which were widely noticed on the internet, including by the President — are profoundly anomalous; they deviate from a pattern which is otherwise found in the vast majority of the remaining 8,950 vote updates.

•
We further find that if these updates were only more extreme than 99% of all updates nationally in terms of their deviation from this generally-observed pattern, that, holding all else equal, Joe Biden may very well have lost the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia, and that he would have 42 fewer Electoral votes — putting Biden below the number required to win the Presidency.

•
Either way, it is indisputable that his margin of victory in these three states relies on four most anomalous vote updates identified by the metric developed in this report.

•
It is our belief that the extraordinarily anomalous nature of the studied vote updates here, combined with the staggering political implications, demands immediate and thorough investigation.
Blind Samson (INN 11/29/2020)
•
... the elections in the USA were accompanied by numerous falsifications, fraud, manipulation, cooperation of one of the parties with criminal structures, and threats of mass pogroms in the event of an "unfavorable" outcome.

•
No one can predict the development of events in the foreseeable future. But in any case, the main losers have already been identified - the democratic system, as it is, and the United States.

•
People may differ in opinions on how to solve a particular problem, which problems are primary, and which of them are secondary.

•
However, they should originally strive for a common prosperity, respect opinions of opponents, and follow decisions of the majority.

•
Well-being of the state should be their ultimate common goal, and any deliberate attempt to damage it should be deemed as an obvious crime.

•
Take away the concept of "moral responsibility", and democracy will turn into an ugly parody of itself.

•
This is exactly what happened before our eyes. Intimidation, falsification and fraud are inevitable parts of totalitarian regimes, but they are fatal to the very idea of democracy, because they inevitably turn democracy into kleptocracy.

•
Personal responsibility of people, commitment all social groups and parties to freedom, honesty and transparency form a basis of a democratic system.

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If the oldest and the most powerful democracy has failed, what can we expect from the relatively young and much weaker democracies in Europe, such as Germany, Italy or Spain, not to mention Latin America, Asia and Africa?

•
American globalists, neo-Marxists and progressives have devalued the very concept of democracy. And what is even sadder, they blew up the US as a state - from within.

•
The USA is a young country with a relatively short history. It was conceived and created by the Founding Fathers solely as the grandiose project of a free society that prioritizes equality, social success and civil rights.

•
Destroying the very idea of democracy, the globalists and progressives are depriving America of its origins of strength, leaving behind only a disoriented and fragmented consumer society.

•
Samson without his hair ceases to be Samson. Blinded and humiliated, left without its democratic core, America becomes an easy prey for the modern day Philistines. And this is the main goal of the current "dirty revolution".
Joshua Rogers: I complained about a cashier — and I won't forget her boss's response (Fox 11/29/2020)
Georgia on My Mind (JWR 11/27/2020)
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The Georgia Senate runoff election will determine the fate of our government going forward.

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The two Republicans in that race are the only ones standing in the way of ultra-liberal Democrat controlled governance, which would transform the United States for decades if not forever.

•
Should Republicans lose the runoff in Georgia Democrats will gain total control of the three branches of government, which means they will be free to install their liberal social programs and policies without any opposition.

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For starters, this means ending the Electoral College, packing the Supreme Court with liberal judges, admitting in new states to allow Democrats to keep control of Congress in the future, ending the Senate filibuster, neutering the Second Amendment, enforcing speech codes and shutting down dissenting points of view, opening our borders, increasing taxes, and establishing the Green New Deal as the law of the land.

•
It all depends on those Senate seats in Georgia. But winning them won't be easy. Democrats are outspending Republicans. Democrat politicians are brazenly encouraging their democratic voters to move to Georgia and set up temporary citizenship so they can vote in the election.

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Republicans are not only fighting against Democrats, they're fighting against social media and big tech such as Google, Twitter, YouTube, and others. They're fighting against traditional media (news organizations, entertainment, the arts). They're fighting against the corporate boardrooms, against professional sports organizations, and against polling biases.

•
Sadly, our social fabric, our traditional institutions, and American traditions have been corrupted ever leftward thanks to political correctness, socialistic changes in public school curriculum and religious teachings, and the breakdown of traditional marriage and the nuclear family.

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The case has got to be made that if our country gets fundamentally changed it will no longer be the United States of America.

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What is at stake in the Georgia runoff on January 5 is the American experiment. The American Republic.

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If we can keep it, we can keep the Left from destroying the Constitution and altering the basic framework of our government.

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If we can keep it we can focus on fixing the corrupt voting laws that the Democrats pushed through this year.

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If we can keep it we can do what is necessary to rein in the Silicon Valley's hold on public communication.

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If we can keep it we can work to reverse the damage done by progressive educational systems and political correct nonsense.

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If we can keep our republic we will have honored what Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Washington and the others worked so hard to give us, the greatest nation on earth.
KT McFarland: Trump pardon of Flynn ends unjust prosecution of an innocent man (Fox 11/27/2020)
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Trump's pardon of his former national security adviser — who was my boss when I was deputy national security adviser — ends a four-year nightmare for the Flynn family.

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... the pardon will shield Flynn from further persecution by Trump-hating Democrats who may have wanted another go at him again in a Joe Biden administration.

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The irony is that Flynn should not have needed pardoning at all, because he never should have been investigated or charged with any crime.

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Flynn didn't break any laws. But he was forced to plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit in order to save his son from being unjustly prosecuted and destroyed by the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

•
From the dozens of documents, transcripts and notes that have since been released, it is clear that Flynn never committed the initial crime he was accused of when he spoke with Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the U.S.

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As Trump's incoming national security adviser during the transition period between Trump's election as president in 2016 and inauguration in January 2017, Flynn was following routine practice by making introductory phone calls to foreign officials he would soon be dealing with as a high-level federal official.

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It's exactly what Biden transition officials are doing today.

•
Mueller's investigators and officials at the FBI and Justice Department knew Flynn had done nothing wrong.

•
Yet they pressed ahead with an unjustified investigation and prosecution of Flynn because they were determined to undermine Donald Trump even before he took office.

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It's important to understand that the persecution of Flynn, me and others was never about any of us. It was always about getting to Trump and crippling his presidency.

•
The entire Russia investigation was a hoax — a fraud perpetrated by Trump-hating government officials and their all-too-eager enablers in the left-wing media.

•
They destroyed lives, sabotaged a duly elected president, and dragged the nation through three years of division and acrimony.

•
America is now in a place where half the country distrusts and even despises the other half in no small measure thanks to those who spread the baseless allegation that Trump and his campaign worked with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.

•
One tragedy of the entire Russia investigation is that none of the people who perpetrated the Trump-Russia collusion hoax will ever be brought to justice.

•
The nation is now entering the Biden honeymoon period, cheered on by the anti-Trump media and Washington power centers.

•
No one thinks that U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation of the origins of the Russia probe will ever see the light of day after President Trump leaves office.

•
Indeed, some of the same officials who were behind the phony Steele dossier, Mueller investigation and Russia collusion delusion are now slated for senior positions in the Biden administration.

•
They collected their 30 pieces of silver years ago and are now on the threshold of proudly coming back into power.

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But the divisions they have sown across the nation will not quickly disappear nor quietly fade away.
Lots of take-aways from November 2020, Part I: His Fraudulency (INN 11/26/2020)
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It is appearing that Biden (hereinafter "His Fraudulency") will be the next president.

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Attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell have staged a nice show, but there comes a time to produce the goods. So far, no goods.

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And even if they present evidence of fraud, it is not evident that they have evinced enough to move sufficient votes from His Fraudulency back to the cemetery where they came from.

•
Democrats conned Republicans, state by state, into approving election procedures that were impossible to manage or police. States never before had undertaken massive mail-in balloting of the dimensions and quantity proposed. Democrats knew that state elections commissions would be overrun, utterly incapable of handling the mail tsunami.

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In too many critical states, Republican poll watchers were denied access to overseeing the goings on.

•
Dead people voted. So many that they should be entitled to at least four Congressional representatives and, if the Democrats had their way, to their own state.

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Ballots were backdated, "cured," and "fixed" in ways that cannot be justified. Ballots were lost and never counted. ... Ballots were harvested, often in states that ban harvesting.
Discrimination and Prejudice (JWR 11/25/2020)
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Some of the confusion in thinking about matters of race stems from the ambiguity in the terms that we use.

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Good analytical thinking requires that we do not confuse one behavioral phenomenon with another.

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Let's start with "discrimination." Discrimination is the act of choice, and choice is a necessary fact of life. Our lives are spent discriminating for or against different activities and people.

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Some students discriminate against George Mason University in favor of attending Temple University.

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Many people racially discriminate by marrying within their own race rather than seeking partners of other races.

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People discriminate in many ways in forming contracts and other interrelationships. In each case, one person is benefitted by discrimination and another is harmed or has reduced opportunities.

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What about prejudice? Prejudice is a useful term that is often misused.

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Its Latin root is praejudicium, meaning "an opinion or judgment formed ... without due examination."

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Thus, we might define a prejudicial act as one where a decision is made on the basis of incomplete information.

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The decision-maker might use stereotypes as a substitute for more complete information.

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We find that in a world of costly information, people seek to economize on information costs.
Trump faces critical choice about his political future (JWR 11/25/2020)
Tammy Bruce: An entire generation is being conned out of a real education (Fox 11/25/2020)
Ben Shapiro: Why Biden's 'return to normalcy' is going to be terrible (Fox 11/25/2020)
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They meant a system in which all difficult political questions were put off for another day; in which scandals were brushed off without a second thought; in which even anti-journalistic efforts by Democrats were dismissed as out of hand.

•
It was a system in which constitutional boundaries were routinely overridden in the name of left-wing policy priorities; in which nasty rhetoric by Democrats was written off as a natural byproduct of the right's innate evil; in which alternative news sources were treated as conspiracy outlets.

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The old normal wasn't good. That's why Donald Trump was elected.

•
The old normal stank of cronyism and oligarchy, of corrupt relationships between the Democratic infrastructure and the Democrats' praetorian guard in the media.

•
Today, the media celebrate the return of the old normal. That celebration is likely to again result in a backlash they can't control.

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And they'll be just as puzzled as ever about why everyone else wasn't as overjoyed as them about the return of the establishment Democratic swamp.
Trump’s Flynn pardon justified — adviser should never have been investigated and prosecuted (Fox 11/25/2020)
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Months ago, the Justice Department moved to dismiss Flynn's prosecution on the ground that there was no basis to investigate him in the first place...

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During the transition to the Trump administration in December 2016, Flynn — as the designee to be the incoming president's top national security aide — had entirely appropriate communications with foreign officials, including Russia's Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.

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In the growing "collusion" hysteria, however, it was rumored that these contacts were somehow illegal and may have involved a corrupt deal to undo sanctions against Moscow imposed by President Obama as a payoff for Russia's meddling in the election for Trump's benefit.

•
It is noteworthy that the collusion narrative was a creation of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, abetted by illegal classified leaks to the media from intelligence officials.

•
Although there was no evidence that Flynn was either a clandestine agent of Russia (which could have been the proper basis for a counterintelligence investigation), or had committed any penal offense (which could have predicated a proper criminal investigation), FBI Director, James Comey dispatched two agents to interview Flynn at the White House on January 24, 2017 — Flynn's first full day as national security adviser.

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The interview had not been cleared with the Justice Department or the White House, as protocols required.

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Plainly, the interview was a perjury trap. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe softened Flynn up by discouraging him from getting counsel. The interviewing agents, led by Peter Strzok, schemed to avoid giving Flynn the FBI's standard advice to interviewees about the nature of the interview and the fact that any false statement could result in prosecution.

•
The FBI's overarching plan, initiated by the Obama administration, was to continue investigating the bogus Trump-Russia angle, in hope of developing a basis to impeach or prosecute President Trump.

•
That would have been difficult to do with Flynn — an experienced official and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency — at the National Security Council helm.

•
... the FBI never sought to prosecute Flynn during Comey's tenure because the bureau did not believe he had intentionally made false statements.

•
The Flynn investigation, however, was revived by Mueller's team, which was largely staffed by activist Democrats, several of whom had served in the Obama Justice Department.

•
They heavily pressured Flynn to plead guilty, including, according to Flynn's current counsel, threatening to prosecute Flynn's son.

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Flynn indicated in early 2018 that he was prepared to be sentenced and put the awful chapter behind him and his family.

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As a first offender who (a) should not have been investigated, (b) had pleaded guilty to a dubious process crime, and (c) was a decorated combat commander with a distinguished 30-year history of service to the United States, it should have been an easy sentence, involving no jail time.

•
Yet the sentencing did not happen, because Judge Sullivan became unhinged. At an outrageous hearing, the judge suggested that Flynn had committed treason (later apologizing for that slander).

•
He also implied that if Flynn did not provide additional cooperation to the Mueller prosecutors (with whom Flynn had been cooperating), a prison sentence could be in the offing.

•
This launched a transition in which Flynn first changed his mind about pushing to be sentenced and ultimately decided to fight the case.

•
The improprieties surrounding Flynn's investigation led the Justice Department to move to dismiss the Flynn case.

•
Despite the Justice Department's thorough explanation for its decision (which it is not required to give in such detail), the judge intimated that motion to dismiss Flynn's case, despite two guilty pleas, was potentially a corrupt deal.

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Sullivan even retained a former federal judge and unabashed Trump critic, John Gleeson, as a friend of the court for the purpose of developing a legal theory that Sullivan had lawful authority to sentence Flynn — notwithstanding that the only legitimate prosecutorial authority, the Justice Department, wanted the case dropped.

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... Sullivan had no intention of acting expeditiously or following the law. He clearly did not want to dismiss the case, and realized that no one would force him to do it on a short timeline.

•
If he waited long enough, and Trump lost the election, Sullivan calculated that Trump would have to pardon Flynn or risk having a Biden Justice Department withdraw the dismissal motion.

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This would deny Flynn the exoneration on the official court record that he hoped to get from the Justice Department, which had brought the case against him.

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It was not Judge Sullivan's place to do that, no matter how personally convinced he may be about Flynn's guilt or the wrongness of the Justice Department's dismissal decision.

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But the procedural rule, coupled with the solicitude of the appellate court, gave Sullivan the whip hand. He used it in a most unseemly manner.

•
Judges are supposed to be impartial arbiters whose main function in a criminal case is to protect the rights of defendants from government overreach and intimidation.

•
The pardon, nonetheless, expunges the case against Flynn. As a matter of law, it is as if the charges were never brought, as they should never have been.

•
... Flynn "is yet another reminder of something that has long been clear: After the 2016 election, individuals within the outgoing administration refused to accept the choice the American people made at the ballot box and worked to undermine the peaceful transition of power. These efforts were enabled by a complicit media that willingly published falsehoods and hid inconvenient facts from public view, including with respect to General Flynn."
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Americans need Thanksgiving – our founders knew the value of this moment (Fox 11/25/2020)
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In October 1789, George Washington issued our nation's first Thanksgiving proclamation, declaring that Thursday, Nov. 26 would be "devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."

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Washington was just a few months into his first term. It was far from clear that our fledgling nation would survive, much less still be thriving over two centuries later.

•
Yet Washington found much to be thankful for.

•
He called upon Americans to be "united in rendering unto [God] our sincere and humble thanks" for what we had. He recounted how God's provision had been evident throughout the history of the nation, from settling the colonies to making it through a difficult war. The nation's statesmen had come to a peaceable ratification of the new Constitution. Americans lived in a land with "civil and religious liberty." The new president was grateful.

•
Washington also called on the nation to "unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions."

•
From the outset, our nation has aspired to be great but it hasn't ever been perfect. Washington encouraged all Americans to acknowledge this. They were invited to spend Thanksgiving not only in gratitude but in repentance as well.

•
These responses – gratitude and repentance – don't come naturally to us. Americans have always been a hard-working, industrious people. We're proud of what we make and what we accomplish.

•
Thanksgiving, however, is a way Americans devised in our earliest days to collectively hit pause on the grind and toil of work. Instead of being hyper-focused on what we can achieve, we take a day off to look at all the things God has achieved for us.

•
When you look back at the past few decades, we seem to have so much more now than we've ever had. Yet I think we enjoy it so much less.

•
We experienced incredible economic growth alongside skyrocketing depression, loneliness and addiction across our country.

•
Our growing dissatisfaction with life is because of our nation's shrinking belief in God – a fact that is verified by numerous public opinion polls.

•
But Thanksgiving as a holiday makes no sense and serves no purpose without God. You can't be "thankful" unless you're thankful to someone. You can't see what you have as a "gift" unless you admit you've received it from someone.

•
I'm praying that, amid all the challenges we've faced this year as a nation, we might return back to that spirit expressed by our first president at that first national Thanksgiving in 1789.

•
Let's set aside some time on Thursday to "give thanks to the Lord" for his "steadfast love," which endures throughout pandemics and political turmoil, and into all eternity (Psalm 118:1).
Jonathan Turley: The Michael Flynn pardon — here's why he may deserve it (Fox 11/25/2020)
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The strongest case for a pardon for Flynn ... was not made by his lawyers as much as his judge, the Honorable Emmet Sullivan.

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Sullivan's continued controversial actions in the case could be cited as a credible, if not a compelling basis, for a pardon of Flynn.

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... Flynn was targeted due to his communications with Russian diplomats shortly before becoming national security adviser. There is nothing untoward, unlawful, or even uncommon in such meetings weeks before a new administration.

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... Comey himself reportedly told then-President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden that the FBI thought the meetings with the Russians was "legit."

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... Flynn stated that he assumed that the agents already had a transcript of the conversations (which they did), and the two FBI agents did not believe that Flynn intentionally lied to them about the details of the conversations.

•
... the effort to criminally charge Flynn had fallen apart by the end of December 2016. On January 4, 2017, the FBI's Washington Field Office issued a "Closing Communication" that said it was terminating "CROSSFIRE RAZOR" because it found no evidence of criminal conduct.

•
They were prevented from closing the case by fired FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, who expressed vehement opposition to Trump being elected as president.

•
The Justice Department later charged Flynn and, after draining him of most of his money and threatening his son with prosecution, secured a plea to a single count of lying to federal investigators.

•
(Yes, those same investigators who did not think that Flynn intentionally lied to them).

•
This barely scratches the surface of the irregular and abusive handling of the Flynn case.

•
However, that alone would not justify a pardon from a president who has such a close personal and professional relationship with Flynn. Then came Judge Sullivan.

•
From the outset, Sullivan's handling of the case was unsettling and irregular. This should have been a simple sentencing on a simple criminal count.

•
After all, Flynn cooperated with federal prosecutors and even uncooperative witnesses like Alex Van Der Zwaan received only 30 days in prison on a similar charge.

•
However, in his first sentencing hearing, Sullivan blew up the proceedings with a bizarre diatribe. Using the flag in court as a prop, Sullivan falsely accused Flynn of being an "unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser" who sold his country out.

•
Sullivan even suggested Flynn should have been charged with treason, then suggested he might ignore any recommendations and send Flynn to jail when he declared, "I cannot assure you that if you proceed today, you will not receive a sentence of incarceration. I am not hiding my disgust and my disdain."

•
There would be two more sentencing hearings. Each time, Sullivan lashed out at the Trump administration and refused to issue a final order.

•
The Justice Department later filed to drop the prosecution entirely. Yet, Sullivan again refused and took the extraordinary step of inviting former judge John Gleeson to argue against dismissal of the case. ... Sullivan even suggested that he might charge Flynn himself with perjury.

•
Sullivan's conduct led a D.C. panel to order him to dismiss the case, in a scathing decision over his handling and the briefing of Gleeson.

•
Later the D.C. Circuit reached the same conclusion and, without endorsing the conduct of Sullivan, sent the case back for final decision for Sullivan to do the right thing.

•
Instead, in September, Sullivan refused again to issue a final ruling and stated that he "still has questions" about the case. It left the troubling appearance that Sullivan was prosecutor shopping, delaying the case until after an expected Biden electoral victory.

•
That leads us to this possible Trump pardon. There are no claims in the case that Flynn withheld criminal evidence against Trump. He was charged with lying about something that was not even a crime.

•
We have a case where the prosecutors have declared that there is insufficient evidence for a charge but the judge refuses to let the defendant out of his courtroom after years of delay.

•
That is why the only basis for a pardon in this case that is stronger than the conduct of defendant is the conduct of judge.
Tucker Carlson: Joe Biden and his gun-grabbing, open-borders, soft-on-China advisers (Fox 11/25/2020)
•
Here's a question for you: What does Joe Biden believe? What are his plans for our country?

•
The truth is, we still don't know the answers to those basic questions. Joe Biden somehow made it through an entire presidential campaign — most of a year — without telling us because a partisan press corps let him get away with it.

•
As a result, tens of millions of people voted for a candidate who wasn't real. They voted for a ghost with a whitened smile. They had no idea who Joe Biden was. They had no idea who they were voting for or what he might do if he got elected. But at the urging of the media, they voted for him anyway. Now the rest of us get to find out what they voted for.

•
Joe Biden has started to assemble his Cabinet, and what is emerging so far looks a lot like the HR department at a large, left-wing multinational. Heaps of woke authoritarian social policy mixed with a corporatist economic agenda.

•
A small group of highly connected people will get even richer, while the rest of us will get stern lectures about our moral failings. Sound familiar?

•
It's starting to look like the mirror image of what Donald Trump ran on in 2016. More giveaways to our chief global rival, the government of China; more pointless wars in the Middle East that no one outside Washington supports; massive increases in illegal immigration, along with the huge drop in American wages that always is the inevitable result of that.

•
And then, of course, the attendant chaos and instability at home (which they have stoked for months now), and fewer Americans able to defend themselves and their families in the face of that chaos (which they caused). Above all, and this is the defining characteristic so far, more corporate control over our lives.

•
If you believe the federal government is powerful now, in some cases too powerful, wait until it fully aligns with big business. That appears to be happening.
The USA 2020 'Bolshevik Revolution' (INN 11/24/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Yes, the election was rigged for Joe Biden. Here's how (Fox 11/24/2020)
•
You've heard a lot over the past few days about the security of our electronic voting machines. This is a real and serious issue, no matter who raises it or who tries to dismiss it out of hand as a conspiracy theory.

•
Electronic voting is not as secure as traditional hand counting. It never will be as secure.

•
Other countries don't use electronic voting because they know it undermines confidence in democracy. A system cannot function if no one trusts the vote.

•
Going forward, we need to find out exactly what happened in this month's presidential election, no matter how long it takes the investigation to unfold or how much it costs.

•
Once we get answers from that investigation, we ought to revert immediately to the traditional system of voting, the one that served our democracy for hundreds of years.

•
But we also shouldn't let our focus on voting machines distract us from all that happened earlier this month. The 2020 presidential election was not fair, and no honest person would claim that it was.

•
The system was rigged against one candidate and in favor of another, and not in ways that were hidden from view.

•
The media openly colluded with the Democratic nominees. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to explain what they would do if they were elected. That's never happened before in any presidential election in American history, but the media allowed them to do it.

•
At the same time, beginning in the spring, Democrats used our public health emergency for nakedly partisan ends.

•
They punished Trump supporters for trying to gather, but they exempted their own activists — rioters and vandals from Black Lives Matter and Antifa — from the COVID lockdowns entirely.

•
The restrictions they did enforce crushed America's small businesses, the heart of the Republican Party, while making their own donors fantastically richer. Jeff Bezos alone saw his net worth jump by more than $70 billion during the pandemic.

•
They used the courts to neutralize the Republican Party's single most effective get out the vote operation, which for generations had been the National Rifle Association.

•
But above all, Democrats harnessed the power of Big Tech to win this election.

•
Virtually all news and all information in the English-speaking world travels through a single company, Google. A huge percentage of our political debates take place on Facebook and Twitter.

•
If you use technology to censor the ideas that people are allowed to express online, ultimately, you control how the population votes. And that's exactly what they did.

•
They rigged the election in front of all of us and nobody did anything about it.

•
See related It\\\'s Who Counts the Votes (Gary Varvel, 11/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
The GOP — Still bringing a knife to a gunfight (INN 11/23/2020)
•
"I've been active in the Republican party for a very long time. So I think I can say with some knowledge: Republicans play badminton; Democrats play pro football" — Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.

•
For any fair-minded person, even one who, for some reason, harbors a deep personal animus towards Donald J. Trump, the conduct and resultant outcome of this month's presidential elections ought to be deeply troubling.

•
After all, the (still) incumbent president increased his overall electoral support by more than 10 percent nationwide — despite a continuous and orchestrated assault on the legitimacy of his administration by virtually the entire mainstream media; a blatant and uninterrupted endeavor by his political adversaries — beginning even before his inauguration — to circumvent the electoral process and unseat him through the unscrupulous and fraudulent corruption of the legal system.

•
Moreover, Trump made marked gains in virtually all ethnic minority constituencies — with the notable exception of Jewish voters.

•
Yet, somehow, this was not enough to beat the aging, lackluster Democratic candidate, whose running mate, Kamala Harris, proved distinctly unpopular even within her own party.

•
Perhaps even more perplexing is the fact that Joe Biden racked up the highest popular vote ever — despite an anemic (to be charitable) campaign and the tangible lack of enthusiasm he aroused among voters.

•
Moreover, a heavy cloud of corruption, abuse of office and influence-pedaling hangs — or, at least, should hang — over Biden and his complicity in his family's questionable business activities in countries not among the U.S.'s traditional allies, including Russia and China, America's most serious geo-political rivals.

•
However, not all the blame for the results of the presidential election can be attributed to the external animus of the political adversaries and their comrades-in-arms.

•
To the contrary, considerable fault must be found with the inherent lethargy and sluggishness that seems to plague the GOP in any political "dust up" with its Democratic adversaries.

•
The Democrats have shown that they have no qualms in conjuring up — literally out of thin air — the gravest of allegations against Republicans and their associates and wielding it, without any compunction, as a political weapon, regardless of whose lives are ruined.

•
Ironically, the Democrats have themselves committed (typically, flagrantly) the very transgressions (such as collusion with foreign powers to promote personal interests) of which they accuse the Republicans on the basis of fabricated — or at best, fragile — evidence.

•
Indeed, the Democrats and their collegial bureaucrats have been engaged — or at least, complicit — in every dirty trick in the book, and even some that have not made their way into it; and then holler "foul" aggrievedly when their duplicity and deceit are exposed.

•
Sadly, it seems the GOP tends to be taken aback by these howls of feigned outrage — and recoil from any robust and timely counteractions.

•
Arguably, the starkest illustration of this is the snail-paced progress in the completion of the Durham Report and the excruciating wait for its publication — which was delayed until after the November elections — with any potential political impact largely defused, if not indefinitely curtailed.

•
... Barr excoriated the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation, asserting: "I think our nation was turned on its head for three years based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press."

•
No less damning are the words of former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy: "The investigation was fabricated, sprung from bogus information ginned up by the political campaign of Trump's opponents. As exculpatory evidence inevitably mounted, moreover, the politicized investigation was sustained by the Obama administration and the Mueller special counsel probe — the latter chockablock with partisan Democratic lawyers, some of them Obama Justice Department officials."

•
... the findings of an inquiry of almost 20 months into whether or not the Democratic party mechanism was involved in colluding with a foreign power to tip the 2016 election, defrauding the FISA court that helped launch a specious special counsel probe, resulting in the squandering of thousands of work hours and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars seems something voters ought to be aware of before they make their way to the ballot box.

•
... concern that if Durham's work were not completed while Trump is still in office, the investigation could well be shuttered in some future Biden administration — with justice then not only being delayed, but permanently denied.

•
Ironically — or ominously? — it was in Georgia in 2018, where former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (2009-2015), in the Obama administration, proclaimed at a Democratic rally — to the applause and cheers of the audience: "When they go low, we kick them ... That's what this new Democratic Party is about."

•
The GOP would do well to heed these bellicose words and draw the commensurate conclusions from them.

•
... winning both the runoffs in January (early voting begins mid-December) is the only thing that can prevent the Democrats from making a clean sweep of the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate.

•
With a cardboard cutout for president, it is the only thing that can prevent people driven by a political credo, forged by figures and ideas not only different from, but entirely contrary to, those who made America America from usurping the reins of unrestrained power.

•
It is, indeed, the only thing that can prevent them from transforming America into a de-Americanized post-America — an unrecognizable shadow of its former self.
Should the US consider adopting Israel’s ‘low tech’ election model? (INN 11/23/2020)
•
There is a huge gulf in public opinion regarding the latest U.S. election and whether the American election system is flawed or not.

•
Those who voted for former Vice President Biden are convinced that there were no abnormalities and that those who think otherwise have no case.

•
Those who supported the president are either concerned about election tampering and waiting to see the outcome or convinced the election was stolen.

•
52 percent of Republicans say that President Trump "rightfully won" the election and 68 percent of Republicans say the vote count was "rigged" in Biden's favor.

•
After all of the investigations are complete and lawsuits adjudicated, regardless of the ultimate outcome, there will still be a very significant percentage of the U.S. electorate that will likely remain unconvinced.

•
In light of this, it may well make sense for Americans to take a look at other voting systems. Israel's should be a model to consider.

•
An Israeli election more closely resembles a high school election for student council president. Voters typically come to their local school and are checked in by a paid election commission employee flanked on both sides by representatives of the political parties.

•
After showing their national ID card, they receive an envelope. Then they go behind a screen and pick the paper card that represents their political party or candidate. They put the piece of paper in the envelope. They come out from behind the screen and then in front of everyone, put the envelope in a simple cardboard box with a slit in the top.

•
After voting concludes for the day, the same poll watchers open the envelopes, count the paper slips and together with the paid staff, report the totals. They also need to confirm that the number of envelopes collected is equal to the number of those who entered the "classroom."

•
While the United States allows U.S. citizens living in Israel to vote remotely, Israel does not allow Israeli citizens not physically present in Israel to vote. A small number of Israelis who live overseas actually make it a point to fly to Israel to be present for election day.

•
Election day in Israel is also a national holiday, so there is no pressure to find time to vote. For many, it is also a day at the beach or a hike with the family. The day has the atmosphere of a celebration of democracy.

•
... given the accusations flying in America, whether proven or not, it may be time to look at a different model. The level of distrust in the United States can be a cancer, eating at its foundations.

•
Democracy only works if citizens trust the electoral process.
A student debt bailout would be unjust (JWR 11/23/2020)
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"My daughter's getting out of school. I saved all my money [so] she doesn't have any student loans," the man said. "Am I going to get my money back?"

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"Of course not," Warren answered.

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"So you're going to pay for people who didn't save any money, and those of us who did the right thing get screwed," said the father, visibly upset.

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"My buddy had fun, bought a car, went on vacations. I saved my money. He made more than I did, but I worked a double shift, worked extra. My daughter's worked since she was 10."

•
That exchange vividly illustrates the injustice of student-debt proposals that would, in effect, punish those who saved and worked more to pay for college, those who deferred higher education until they could afford it, and those who responsibly repaid their loans — by forcing them to pay for those who didn't.

•
Even more outrageous, it would compel the two-thirds of Americans who didn't earn a college degree to help pick up the tab for many of those who did.

•
Since higher education correlates strongly with higher earnings, these college loans are concentrated among the relatively well-to-do. So an immense government program to forgive outstanding student debt would disproportionately benefit high-income people at the expense of those less fortunate.

•
Yet leading Democrats and progressives are doubling down. "Biden-Harris can cancel billions of dollars in student loan debt," Warren tweeted recently.

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Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, claims that any college graduate's "first $50,000 of debt [can] be vanquished" through an executive order by the next president.

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... a coalition of 236 liberal organizations called upon Biden to issue that order upon taking office.

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It is far from clear that billions of dollars of debt can be simply written off via presidential decree. But set aside the procedural question. A huge new student loan forgiveness scheme is indefensible as a matter of policy.

•
Of course, there are borrowers who find themselves struggling to make their payments. But those borrowers can avail themselves of existing means to have their debt deferred, reduced, or even canceled. By one count, there are 13 major student loan forgiveness programs.

•
Bottom line: The overwhelming majority of college loans are paid off, and help is available for debtors who get in over their heads.

•
What it would provide is an unstoppable demand for the government to wipe out other kinds of personal obligations. "Cancel rent. Cancel mortgage. Cancel student debt."

•
Children send Santa Claus lists of things they want for free, but adults know that Santa isn't real. Santa isn't the federal government, either.

•
Washington cannot magically make people's debts disappear; it can only compel other people to pay them.

•
That may or may not be good politics, but it is certainly terrible economics.
Newt Gingrich: Thanksgiving reminder — amid hardships, Americans must remain grateful (Fox 11/23/2020)
•
... for most Americans, the Thanksgiving table will have fewer seats – either because people are isolating or because they are no longer with us. And, there is more potential for disagreement as families across the nation are stressed out and split on politics.

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... I have one serious request for every American: This week, set all differences aside and remain thankful.

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No matter how fiercely we disagree about matters of policy or the right direction for the country, our loved ones – and the time we share with them – are more important.

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If this year has taught us anything it is that we have no control over whether the person sitting across the table will be there next year or not.

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So, instead of arguing, let's share the time, fellowship and blessings we have and be thankful for them.

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Even if there are fewer seats at the table, be thankful for those which are filled. If you have to see your relatives on the screen instead of in person, be thankful that we live in a time when this kind of communication is possible.

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Also, be thankful that it appears there are at least two vaccines that are near to completion. Hopefully, next Thanksgiving will return to tradition.

•
... let's be thankful that the underlying economy is strong, and things will improve. Jobs will return. Opportunities will return, and America will succeed.

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We can be thankful for all the men and women who put themselves in harm's way – both abroad and in our neighborhoods – to ensure that we are safe, and our freedoms are secured.

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No matter our differences, we can be thankful that we live in America – the only nation in history founded on the ideals that all men are created equal, and that we are endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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We have the right to disagree and debate – something not every person on earth can claim. We should set our disagreements aside this week – but be thankful we have the right to voice our opinions next week.

•
These ideals and values make possible everything else for which we give thanks this week.

•
So, as we gather with loved ones to celebrate Thanksgiving – either safely in person or digitally – let us give thanks that we are blessed to be American.
Liz Peek: Liberal lies have created this moment – Trump can do this to secure his legacy (Fox 11/23/2020)
•
According to a new Rasmussen Poll, 61% of Republicans think it is "very likely" that Democrats stole the election. Really, why wouldn't they?

•
For four years, Democrats and their handmaidens in the liberal media have lied their heads off, spinning false narratives aimed at undermining President Trump. Why would Trump supporters trust them now?

•
The Russian collusion story, which the president rightfully deemed a "hoax," was the granddaddy of misinformation campaigns. It led to the appointment of a special counsel and an exhausting investigation that ensnared and ruined the lives of entirely blameless people like retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and his son.

•
"It is now clear that Adam Schiff lied to his colleagues, that he lied to the media, and that he lied to the American public." Congressman Schiff, D-Calif., wasn't alone.

•
Democrats in the House impeached President Trump for pushing officials in Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden's activities while he was our government's point person in that nation.

•
Little did we know how appropriate Trump's request was. In recent weeks it has become clear that Joe's son Hunter Biden did indeed participate in questionable activities in that corrupt country and that his father may have protected his interests.

•
Democrats and their media partners denigrated the president from day one, telling tall tales of nefarious self-dealing and portraying the Trump White House as dangerously unstable.

•
In 2018 the New York Times published to great fanfare the op-ed by "Anonymous," in which the author claimed he was one of "many" high-level employees in the Trump "administration [who] are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations."

•
The Times claimed its author was a "senior official," and implied that President Trump posed such a threat to the country that it simply had to break its long-standing rule against running anonymous pieces.

•
Never once did the mainstream media applaud Trump's many victories, like the return of hostages from abroad or trade concessions made by Beijing. His breakthrough diplomacy in the Middle East was greeted with a polite yawn.

•
The left-wing media joined Democrats like Michelle Obama in lying about Trump's immigration program, claiming it was his White House that initiated the policy of separating children from their parents at the border.

•
Oh, the lamentations over "children in cages," until it turned out the worrisome photos were from 2014 and that it actually was the Obama administration that began the maligned practice. So many lies, so much nastiness.

•
But nothing – nothing – prepared Trump supporters for how powerfully the mainstream media, Twitter and Facebook were to jump on the scale to ensure Biden's victory.

•
No one could have imagined that a documented story about Hunter Biden's shady dealings in Ukraine and China during the years that Joe Biden served as vice president would be banned – literally banned – on social media.

•
It was impossible to foresee how all dissenting voices on COVID policy and practices, including from senior health experts, would be silenced in order to hurt Trump.

•
Nobody expected that an unelected media magnate – Twitter's Jack Dorsey – would control what President Trump could say to the public.

•
Trump supporters, cheered that 56% of the nation claimed they were better off than four years before, could not and do not believe that he could fail to win reelection.

•
Unlike the Left, those folks understand why he was elected in 2016. They know it was because people were fed up with the elitist globalism of Barack Obama and liked the unabashedly pro-US message from an outsider candidate.

•
They were sickened by the treacly excesses of political correctness and hungry for a president determined to protect them from terrorists, tighten our borders and take on China.

•
... nitwits and others in the smug intelligentsia who so despise Trump and the people who voted for him do not understand that millions of Americans love their country, and want a president who shares that enthusiasm.

•
Tens of millions of Americans have lost faith in our institutions, our media and now in our elections.

•
Those doubts are now fueling uncertainty about the election outcome – uncertainty encouraged by President Trump. Unhappily, there appear to be enough instances of vote irregularities to feed suspicions, but not enough to overturn the results.

•
Trump supporters will want the president to be their voice going forward. Whether he chooses to run again in 2024, or whether he is content to be a senior party influencer, Trump is not going away.

•
But now, to maintain his powerful voice and leadership, he needs to concede. The Left is using his refusal to admit defeat as more proof that he is undermining our democracy.

•
He cannot allow this to be his legacy; his presidency has been so much bigger than that.
Michael Goodwin: Trump's election challenges — time is running out (Fox 11/23/2020)
•
In calendar time, it's less than three weeks since the election. In political time, it's beginning to feel like an eternity.

•
President Trump has every right to pursue substantive court challenges and doing so does not undermine democracy, despite what the left insists. But at some point, much of the broad public's patience will wear thin.

•
At its exhaustive press conference Thursday, the team, led by Rudy Giuliani, outlined a sweeping theory of a "national conspiracy" by Democrats to steal the election.

•
A map highlighting Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia was titled "Multiple Pathways to Victory," as if this were a pre-election, get-out-the-vote event.

•
To support his charges, Giuliani cited mostly individual affidavits where voters and poll workers reported seeing or hearing about fraudulent activities. The sworn statements, even if true, did not seem to match the scope of the broad claims.

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"What we are really dealing with here is the massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba and likely China and the interference with our elections here in the United States," Powell insisted. "This is 1775 of our generation and beyond."

•
Such language aims to stir the heart of patriots, but will ring hollow in a courtroom unless she has solid evidence. If she does, she's done a great job of keeping it secret.

•
That's not to say there wasn't fraud and human error. Of course there was. That happens in most elections, and this one was especially vulnerable given the turnout (about 160 million voters) and the tsunami of mail-in ballots, which are easier to manipulate.

•
Also, Democrats invited suspicions by intentionally lowering safeguards, including barring GOP observers in urban areas, where they ran up big margins.

•
Still, the overarching fact is that the Trump legal team hasn't presented a provable claim that looks likely to overturn the results in a single state.

•
In her Friday briefing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the General Services Administration will certify the results at the "right moment," which suggests internal talks are taking place about a formal transition process.

•
That's good because Trump will pay a steep price if he appears to be stonewalling without hope of prevailing. Most immediately, he could undermine GOP chances in the two Georgia election runoffs, where control of the Senate is up for grabs. If Dems win both, they get all of Congress and the White House.

•
Outside Washington, Dems are doing all they can to toxify Trump's legacy, and he shouldn't help them. The pernicious Barack Obama has a new book, and he and wife Michelle are making a Netflix film that slams the president.

•
The left's cancel culture will try to erase Trump's achievements on job creation, border security and foreign policy. Don't be surprised if Biden gets credit for the historic sprint to develop the COVID vaccine. Anything that goes wrong will be Trump's fault.

•
In other words, nothing has changed. Trump was spied on, sabotaged and impeached for purely partisan purposes, and the corrupt press corps rooted for failure.

•
But it was the media that truly failed the American people by betraying their public trust — and Trump still got 10 million more votes than he got in 2016.

•
Almost by definition, one-term presidents are failures. Donald Trump defies the assumption. He secured the peace and kept the American dream alive for millions upon millions of people.
Dave Sidhu: Justice Alito was right — cancel culture in the law is dangerous (Fox 11/23/2020)
•
"We should all welcome rational civil speech on important subjects, even if we do not agree with what the speaker has to say."

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But, he continued, "tolerance for opposing views is now in short supply in many law schools, and in the broader academic community." Justice Alito is right.

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Insisting on ideological purity or uniformity is paternalism at best and extremism at worst.

•
It also is inconsistent with the concept of academic freedom, or the protection to push the limits of argument without fear of retribution or retaliation, a protection possessed by faculty and ironically and prospectively denied to certain applicants.

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Students should be exposed to all sides of the debate, if anything, to prepare them for the real world in which people have differing views.

•
While some faculty may be able to effectively discuss both liberal and conservative arguments, no one is better suited to introduce and explain conservative legal ideas than a conservative.

•
Moreover, some colleagues don't bother to present all sides of a debate. (A colleague once told me that she presents only her own views and encourages students to push back on them, a dubious expectation as a student naturally may not seek to bite the hand that grades them.)

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Diversity, the argument goes, permits all students to confront other perspectives, challenge their preconceived notions, and break down stereotypes. If the universe of those who participate in the classroom dynamic is limited, so too are the intellectual and social benefits of diversity. If we value diversity among qualified students, we should for qualified faculty who think differently as well.

•
I stress that my assessment of Alito's comments are based on only my experiences and thus are not intended to capture the situation at all law schools.

•
I also must emphasize that it is not conservatives who are victims. Rather, freedom of speech and academic freedom are at risk.

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Justice Alito is right to seek the full and proper expression of these values, for the sake of our educational institutions and our democracy as a whole.
Election integrity - what's that? (INN 11/22/2020)
Victor Davis Hanson: Politicizing coronavirus – the reasons Americans are skeptical of 'experts' (Fox 11/22/2020)
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Irony abounds. Those who accused Trump of playing politics with the virus made him look like a relative amateur through their own machinations. Those who claimed they were guided by science proved unscientific in their partisanship.

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No wonder Americans remain so skeptical of the experts in general and the Washington administrative state in particular.
Dershowitz: Trump has 'constitutional paths' to pursue in court cases, will likely come up short (Fox 11/22/2020)
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... while President Trump has a number of legal theories he can pursue in his efforts to swing the 2020 election result in his favor, it does not appear likely that these efforts will be successful.

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... there are several avenues that Trump could take, but that even those options currently appear limited in their ability to secure an election victory.

•
The first one he addressed was in a case out of Pennsylvania, where Republicans are fighting against a state court decision that extended the deadline for accepting mail-in ballots beyond what had been specified by state law. Dershowitz said that the argument that the court usurped the legislature's power could be a winning one with the Supreme Court.

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Another argument that could work in Trump's favor ... is based on the allegation that in Pennsylvania Democratic voters were allowed to fix problems with their ballots, but Republicans were not permitted to do so. He said this could be a viable and potentially successful Equal Protection argument.

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The big problem with these cases ... is that they do not address a large enough number of votes to overcome Biden's current lead in Pennsylvania...

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The allegation that does cover enough numbers ... is the one that the Dominion computer systems were compromised to the degree that hundreds of thousands of ballots were affected.

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"There, there are enough votes to make a difference but I haven't seen the evidence to support that. So in one case they don't have the numbers, in the other case they don't seem yet to have the evidence, maybe they do, I haven't seen it. But the legal theory is there to support them if they have the numbers and they have the evidence."

•
... would need to file a complaint and have hearings in order to prove her case before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14.

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"Once the electors are certified, and once they cast their vote I can't see any legal route to undoing that, even if they were to find fraud later on. There's certainly nothing in the Constitution about that."
Newt Gingrich: Powerful system controlling cultural institutions tries to impose far-left agenda on US (Fox 11/22/2020)
•
Last week Senate Republicans released a supplement to their recent report on Hunter's Biden's overseas business dealings.

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The five-page addendum shows millions of dollars in wire transfers further tying Joe Biden's son to the Chinese government.

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I bring this up not to focus on Hunter or Joe Biden, but rather to note that if this story was about one of President Trump's sons, then it would be on the front page of every major newspaper.

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But it was hardly covered, because the left-wing media are overwhelmingly hostile to the president — as are the social media companies that now have nearly monopolistic control over the flow of information.

•
... the liberal media and Big Tech are also hostile to Republicans and conservatives in general, not just to Trump.

•
Add academia, Hollywood, and the majority of political elites to the mix, and you have the ingredients for a powerful system in control of our cultural institutions, trying to impose a radical, far-left agenda on the American people.

•
Tens of millions of Americans have suspicions about how the votes have been tallied and just want to ensure our elections are honest. Because without honest elections, our other freedoms will quickly fade away.

•
And yet, Democrats, the anti-Trump media, and the rest of this machine are saying: We don't care. Just sit down, shut up, and take it.

•
This imposition of course extends beyond the election. Americans turn on their televisions and see people in power, many with cushy lives, calling their country systemically racist but denigrating God and the Bill of Rights.

•
In recent years before President Trump entered the political arena, when the Republican Party was led by the likes of John McCain and Mitt Romney, Republicans were more concerned about being nice than winning these fights. They were perfectly content to lose nobly and seemed to take pride in it.

•
Which is fine, until America becomes unrecognizable.

•
The GOP needs to stand up for its vision of hope and opportunity and not submit to the machine quietly. This means channeling President Trump's energy as a fighter.

•
If this doesn't happen, then those on the left will just continue using their levers of power to entrench their agenda until it's irreversible, regardless of who is in elected office.
A young American at the Million Maga March (INN 11/21/2020)
Ben Shapiro: Attacks on ‘Transgender Craze’ book latest example of attempts to censor conservatives (Fox 11/21/2020)
Ingraham: Globalists are already planning to 'subvert your rights and take your prosperity' (Fox 11/21/2020)
•
... annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum functioned as a place to advocate for policies that would crush individual liberty in the United States and subjugate the American people to the whims of the international community.

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"The pandemic has ... also given us something: The opportunity to think afresh about the world that we want. We can build the healthier, safer and fairer world that we all want — and build back better."

•
"You think it's any coincidence that he's borrowing Biden's campaign slogan?" ... that statement was "a signal they're all on the same time, all have the same end goal. Individualism and individual rights will be subverted to the global rights, the communal rights. It's a sign that Joe Biden won't put America first."

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... the overarching theme of the international left is "globalists unite against freedom," noting that the forum has been attended by figures from China, Europe and the Americas, as well as Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.

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"At this moment, planning is underway by the wealthiest and most powerful people on Earth about how you should live your life, how nations should be structured and societies reorganized all to promote global harmony through a world-wide distribution of assets."

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"There's an astounding lack of curiosity by the media about this project. Well, it's largely because most of them agree with the ultimate goals of a global wealth tax and perhaps an international Green New Deal."

•
... "if Biden gets into office, get ready for the fight of your life over the next year. At every turn, they will try to subvert your rights and take your prosperity. To start, they'll crater your personal finances with insane climate policies."

•
... Gates himself floated the idea of a globally recognized coronavirus vaccine "certificate" to be used as something like a passport to gain entry to nations based on immunity statues.

•
"As people come in, do they have a digital certificate that says whether they have been vaccinated or not?" Gates said, adding that he hopes a "dialogue" will begin on the topic when the U.S. rejoins the WHO, as expected under a Biden presidency.
The Censorious Left Is Obliterating Free Speech (JWR 11/20/2020)
Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Is Idiotic and Immoral (JWR 11/20/2020)
•
As currently structured and carried out, higher education is a blight upon the nation — an affirmative hindrance to our efforts in aiding human flourishing and securing the common good.

•
Caviling about the systemic corruption of the academy is perhaps old hat. ... the metamorphosis of America's ivory tower into something closely approximating a fifth column was well underway.

•
But the situation has, in recent decades, worsened; it has metastasized into a cancer whose tendrils spread the latest faddish developments in intersectional, anti-American, anti-Western "woke-ism" all throughout the land.

•
It is both terrifying and perverse that America's intellectual gatekeepers — the "elite" -forming, credentialing institutions that separate the "deplorables" from the ruling class — impress self-loathing pablum upon impressionable young minds.

•
With some notable exceptions, American higher education today comprises madrasas of wokeness fundamentally hostile to the American regime and the American way of life.

•
Many of the far left's most toxic ideas, whether moral relativism, socialism, "anti-racism" or multiculturalism, either begin on campus or gain steam there.

•
... four years of willful indebtedness to major in such patently silly "subjects" as "gender studies." Student loans are now the second-largest source of collective American debt, behind only mortgage debt.

•
The modern Democratic Party is heavily reliant on woke college graduates for political support, and many on the left have warmed in recent years to large-scale student loan "forgiveness"...

•
This policy is idiotic in the extreme and brazenly immoral. Republicans and sensible Democrats must unite to defeat it.

•
The higher education-student loan complex is in desperate need of more transparency and accountability — not more bailouts.

•
A prudent first step would be for creditors, whether public or (ideally) private, to present clear information about salaries and career paths for graduating high school seniors to consider before they commit to taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans to major in "ethnic studies."

•
The worst possible thing we could do would be a mass bailout of this nature, which would initiate a vicious, never-ending cycle of tuition spikes, more indebtedness and more bailouts.

•
Such a bailout is inherently regressive, as it would disproportionately benefit woke children who decided they could afford four years of the decadent ivory tower wasteland, and disproportionately harm taxpayers who themselves did not go to college.

•
Such a bailout would also be manifestly unfair to those graduates who have diligently worked to pay off their loans in earnest — even if it meant forsaking jobs they otherwise would have preferred to take in favor of jobs that pay more.

•
In other words, such a bailout would inculcate the worst lessons in fiscal imprudence and recklessness — all while letting the universities off the hook for their running what amounts to one sustained racket.
Hate Trump, Inc.'s alternative reality exposed but still ignored (JWR 11/20/2020)
The party of never-ending hypocrisy (JWR 11/20/2020)
•
Democratic politicians, forgetting something referred to as the Mueller investigation, are accusing President Donald Trump of politically motivated mayhem for lawsuits about possible fraud in the presidential election.

•
They say important matters are being delayed, that our system of presidential transitions is being squashed, that democracy is being spat upon and that institutional distrust is being fostered.

•
They also say there is nothing to be found that would alter the election outcome, and that is likely true. But Trump is still within the law and may be doing good in digging into the predicted, denied but actual mail-in ballot confusion.

•
The lawsuits might help instruct us on how to deter future risks, such as by keeping the practice far more limited and procedures far more transparent and precise.

•
And even assuming the worst, this is nothing compared to the Russia collusion probe headed by Robert Mueller.

•
Instead of a short hold on things, we had a two-year, multimillion-dollar shock-and-awe onslaught based on a collaboration of corrupt officialdom setting principles aside to come up with nothing.

•
Here is an obvious contender for the worst ever governmental scandal, abetted to no small extent by misleading news accounts and lying Democrats.

•
The purpose was the impeachment of a legitimately elected president, and, yes, he could make you shudder, coming across as multidimensionally askew: a clown act, a demagogue, petty, occasionally mindless, uninformed and inexperienced.

•
Some bureaucrats looked at that and were scared. They figured the government was pretty much theirs, forgot their oaths of office and were determined on White House eviction.

•
We now know there was official lying before Congress and other unlawful conduct and that the Clinton campaign financed a deal with a former British spy who came up with phony dirt on Trump.

•
Trump was indeed many times tougher on Russia than Obama, and the miracle is that, while having to climb over investigation hindrances, Trump accomplished quite a bit.

•
The impeachment proceedings did underline a stark Joe Biden conflict of interest as vice president, something actually more intriguing than the Trump phone call, but more importantly the proceedings caused a delay in focusing on and addressing a virus just making its appearance.

•
In addition to all of this, we also know about all the illegal leaks of classified information and that we have an ongoing criminal investigation under the Justice Department that could lead to criminal prosecutions of certain precious ones involved in some of the shenanigans.

•
Unless charges are made soon, Biden's attorney general will likely erase that pursuit of justice.
Tucker Carlson: Time for Sidney Powell to show us her evidence (Fox 11/20/2020)
Biden to 'Racist' Trump Voters: 'Let's Heal' (JWR 11/19/2020)
•
After four years of attacking President Donald Trump as "illegitimate," "fascist," "Nazi," "tyrant," "dictator," "racist," "anti-Semitic," "Russian stooge," "traitor," "grifter," "xenophobe," "sexist," "homophobe," "ignorant," "fat" and "lazy," former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive president-elect, now says, "Let's heal."

•
In his "victory speech," Biden said: "And to those who voted for President Trump, I understand your disappointment tonight."

•
"I've lost a couple of elections myself. But now, let's give each other a chance."

•
"It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again."

•
"To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans."

•
"The Bible tells us that to everything there is a season — a time to build, a time to reap, a time to sow. And a time to heal."

•
"This is the time to heal in America."

•
Well, that's lovely. But please forgive Trump supporters for not being in a mood to "heal."

•
How bogus was the Trump-Russia collusion investigation that consumed most of the Trump presidency? Neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris bothered to mention it during the campaign.

•
Whatever Russia, China or Iran did to meddle with our elections pales in comparison to the impact of our biased, bigoted, Republican-hating, class-warfare waging, secular, "health care is a right," "there's no such thing as illegal people, only 'undocumented,'" Donald Trump-hating media.

•
"For the past several years, I have researched this question, trying to solve the following thought experiment: What if media bias were suddenly to disappear? In such a world, how would America look and act politically? The answer is, approximately like Texas."

•
Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, once admitted, "The left, as a rule, does not want to hear thoughtful disagreement."

•
Given this mentality, liberals, Democrats and the media find Trump absolutely, positively insufferable.

•
This raises a question: Mr. Biden, which side needs to heal?
Justice Alito and warning signs (JWR 11/19/2020)
•
"Tolerance for opposing views is now in short supply in many law schools, and in the broader academic community. When I speak with recent law school graduates, what I hear over and over is that they face harassment and retaliation if they say anything that departs from the law school orthodoxy."

•
"The pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty. Now, notice what I am not saying or even implying, I am not diminishing the severity of the virus's threat to public health. . . . I'm not saying anything about the legality of COVID restrictions. Nor am I saying anything about whether any of these restrictions represent good public policy. I'm a judge, not a policymaker. All that I'm saying is this. And I think it is an indisputable statement of fact, we have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced, for most of 2020."

•
Where does this lead? Alito answered when he spoke of "... the dominance of lawmaking by executive fiat rather than legislation. The vision of early 20th-century progressives and the new dealers of the 1930s was the policymaking would shift from narrow-minded elected legislators, to an elite group of appointed experts, in a word, the policymaking would become more scientific."

•
On the erosion of religious liberty, he said: "It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored, right."
The Propaganda War Continues... (JWR 11/19/2020)
Irony abounds as the left politicizes the coronavirus (JWR 11/19/2020)
Barack Obama releases his memoir and the liberal media's aerobic adoration routine is back (Fox 11/18/2020)
•
Is anyone in America so remarkably naive to believe that the news media are "objective" and nonpartisan, fair and balanced?

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This old claim seems to have been obliterated under President Donald Trump, but it was also deeply eroded in the media's incessant and aerobic adoration of former President Barack Obama.

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As long as the "objective" press sounds like tinny echoes of the latest Democratic Party messaging, someone needs to stay on watch and call it out.

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After four years of reflection (and a reported $65 million his and hers book advance), the Almighty Barack Obama has come forward to bless the media with a 768-page memoir — and it's only volume one, with another one expected to follow.

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"Barack Obama is as fine a writer as they come. It is not merely that this book avoids being ponderous, as might be expected, even forgiven, of a hefty memoir, but that it is nearly always pleasurable to read, sentence by sentence, the prose gorgeous in places, the detail granular and vivid."

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"... it was a reminder about the humanity and intelligence of Barack Obama, and also Michelle Obama." ... "Ted Kennedy said to you, 'You don't choose the time. The time chooses you.'"

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... began by asking Obama: "Have you developed any interesting COVID habits? Like some people are gardening. Mrs. Obama indicated she was learning to knit."

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... proclaimed on NPR that Obama was "the greatest terrorist hunter in the history of the American presidency."

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"How much of the death and destruction we've seen — over the past five or six months especially, after the beginning of the pandemic — do you blame on President Trump?" Obama gave the media's usual answer: a lot.

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See related Miss Me? (Glenn McCoy, 02/28/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Facebook, Twitter and 2020 election — Top takeaways from Tuesday's Big Tech Senate hearing (Fox 11/18/2020)
What American Schools Should Teach about Race, Racism and Slavery (JWR 11/17/2020)
Dan Gainor: Twitter, Facebook were a big part of takedown efforts against Trump in 2020 election (Fox 11/17/2020)
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Unless Trump can pull off enough last-minute court victories, Twitter and Facebook cost Trump the election.

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They did it by hiding the Hunter Biden story. A post-election poll ... showed more than a third (36 percent) of Biden voters didn't even know about the scandal.

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The Media Research Center poll said his voters were unaware of allegations that Biden and his son had financial ties to communist China.

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Thirteen percent of those voters were enough to turn the election for Trump. That works out to 4.6 percent of the total vote for the former vice president.

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They said they wouldn't have voted for Biden if they had known. That would likely have shifted enough votes to cost Biden the Electoral College.

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Twitter suspended links to the story and those who linked to it. That included numerous prominent people on Twitter such as White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

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Traditional news outlets were largely silent about the censorship, happy to see a bad Biden story killed before it could truly harm their candidate.

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Trump has been the enemy of leftist Twitter for his entire presidency, despite having nearly 89 million followers on the site.

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The social media site committed one of the greatest acts of censorship in American history when it shut down the Hunter Biden scandal.

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"Upon further consideration, we admitted this action was wrong and corrected it within 24 hours." Except Twitter still demanded the Post take down its original tweet, which it refused to do.

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It took 17 days for Twitter to admit it was wrong in this way, as well. Seventeen days — right before an election.

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This wasn't the first time Dorsey admitted that Twitter messed up. Back on Oct. 14, he tweeted: "Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we're blocking: unacceptable."

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Except it wasn't so unacceptable that Twitter was willing to fix the problem right away.

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Who said cheaters never prosper?
Election 2020 — Americans deserve a system that is open, transparent and reliable (Fox 11/17/2020)
Deroy Murdock: COVID feud — Gov. Andrew Cuomo bites the hand that healed New York (Fox 11/17/2020)
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"The good news is that the Pfizer tests looks good and we'll have a vaccine shortly" ... "The bad news is that it's about two months before Joe Biden takes over, and that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan."

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Slamming the president by name, Cuomo continued: "When you deny a problem the way Trump did, you can never solve it and that's true in life. The Trump administration denied COVID, so they were never ready for it. There was no mobilization of the government."

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Cuomo Chameleon has become one of President Donald J. Trump's most rabid China-virus critics.

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But Cuomo's colors were completely different as the pandemic raged earlier this year

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"I want to thank the vice president and especially the president, who facilitated this and moved quickly," Cuomo said March 13.

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"We need obviously more testing capacity, and we need it quickly. So I spoke to the vice president about this."

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"Fairness dictates that kudos where kudos are due, and here the vice president and the president responded very quickly. So, I want to thank them for that," Cuomo said March 16, as a "Fox & Friends" montage reminded viewers last Saturday.

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"I spoke to the president this morning, again. He is ready, willing, and able to help," Cuomo announced March 17.

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"His team is on it. They have been responsive late at night, early in the morning. And thus far, they have been doing everything that they can do, and I want to say thank you, and I want to say that I appreciate it."

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"I want to thank the president of the United States, President Trump, who mobilized this effort, and he did it with all rapid speed," Cuomo said March 30, as the U.S. Navy's newly refurbished USNS Comfort steamed up the Hudson, moored at Manhattan's Pier 88, and opened its 1,000 hospital beds to sick New Yorkers.

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"He has been good in delivering for New York," Cuomo told radio host Howard Stern about Trump on April 13. "He has delivered for New York."

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"I'll tell you, he's been amazingly accessible. Either he gets on the phone, or he calls me back in 10 minutes."

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"The president always makes a point of saying to me ‘How is Chris? Is he doing OK?' And that's not in his usual character. We're not chit-chatty on the phone."

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"Do I have faith in the president?" Cuomo asked April 19. "Look. What the federal government did, working with states, as I just said, was a phenomenal accomplishment. The federal government stepped up and was a great partner, and I am the first one to say it. We needed help and they were there."

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By contradicting his earlier encomia about President Trump, Cuomo has revealed his profound dishonesty and political opportunism. It also reflects Cuomo's jaw-dropping ingratitude.

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Trump labored tirelessly to assist his home state and home town last spring, when New York was COVID Central Station.

•
Cuomo deepened this tragedy by ordering nursing homes to accept COVID-positive residents, which turned eldercare centers into killing fields. Cuomo's holistically idiotic regulation fueled the deaths of perhaps 12,000 senior citizens.

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President Trump's Operation Warp Speed has zipped five vaccine candidates into Phase III trials in record time. What typically takes 10 years ... has transpired more swiftly than human babies gestate.

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America is fortunate to be served by a bold president who rides people hard, demands more of them and their institutions, rarely takes no for an answer, barely sleeps, and then does likewise the next day.

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If President Trump's legal challenges, recounts, and severely vital vote audits somehow earn him a second term, Americans will be luckier than they know to benefit from four more years of his tough-but-industrious leadership.

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The alternative is a White House filled with Democrat incompetents and ingrates — just like Andrew Cuomo.

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
America's trust-challenged election (INN 11/16/2020)
Truth and reconciliation? Gimme a break! (JWR 11/16/2020)
Liz Peek: Trump's 2020 supporters – what they had to overcome to vote for 4 more years (Fox 11/16/2020)
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Seventy-four million Americans voted for President Trump. Though that number was not enough to carry him to victory, the support is encouraging, and also amazing.

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Think of the mountain of lies from the liberal media that Trump voters had to climb in order to cast that ballot.

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They had to ignore, for starters, the steady drumbeat of stories predicting a blue wave, and polls that showed Joe Biden winning decisively in critical swing states.

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Trump's backers also had to put aside the mainstream media's never-ending attacks on the president: the bogus charges of Russian collusion, racism and sexism, and accusations that Trump was undermining our democracy, among others.

•
Most important, Trump voters had to reject Biden's campaign promise that he could bring the coronavirus under control and heal the country.

•
In his rare virtual campaign events, Biden claimed he had a "plan" to combat the virus. ... As it turns out, Biden's much-touted plan comes down to this:

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Encouraging everyone to wear a mask and Ramping up testing.

•
As many have noted, evidence on wearing masks to help contain the spread of COVID-19 is mixed.

•
In any event, today more than 80% of Americans are wearing masks routinely; in the hardest-hit states, like California and New York, more than 90% of the population is now wearing masks, and still the case count rises.

•
President Trump turned over to states the organization of testing, but it is a lie to say that we have lagged on the effort. From April through to last month, the number of tests has soared, going from essentially zero to over 1.6 million tests daily.

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In all, we have conducted 164 million tests, or approximately 485 per 1,000 people. That compares favorably with 477 in the U.K., 298 in Germany and 321 in Spain.

•
The persistent story from the left-wing media that the U.S. is lagging other nations is simply false.

•
As he promised, President-elect Biden has assembled a group of experts to confront COVID. One of those is Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert from the University of Minnesota, who recently reiterated his call for a four- to six-week nationwide lockdown.

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This, despite growing data showing that state-imposed lockdowns have resulted in deferred cancer diagnoses, soaring child and domestic abuse, and other serious health consequences.

•
Another advisor is Zeke Emanuel, former Obama administration health policy adviser, who famously suggested that people wear out their useful lives by age 75. He probably didn't foresee working for a 77-year-old president.

•
Emanuel recently wrote a paper in which he warned against "vaccine nationalism" and argued that an immunization developed and funded in the U.S. should perhaps be distributed globally before making it available here at home.

•
Biden has said repeatedly that he will "listen to the science," as though Trump has been guided by fortune cookies. He will confront the same issue faced by Trump: the experts do not always agree.

•
... describing his "plan," Biden wrote "the only complete solution is finding a vaccine to extinguish the threat it poses." Thankfully, President Trump initiated the program – Operation Warp Speed – that will do just that in record time.

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As to Biden's other promise – to unite the country – we wish him luck. When Trump voters turned out recently in Washington, D.C., to show their support, they were attacked by violent Leftists.

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... doubtless speaking for millions, "I want to hear Joe Biden and Kamala Harris condemn Antifa/BLM criminals who assaulted and harassed peaceful demonstrators in DC today, including elderly and families. Of course they won't. And 'media' won't make them."

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If he wants to unite the nation, Biden could start by condemning the violent Left, and the media that covers for them.

•
Spoiler alert: it isn't going to happen.
Jordan argues ironing out voting irregularities is 'important,' 72M Trump voters have concerns (Fox 11/15/2020)
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"It's important we get to the bottom of exactly what happened in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, all these key swing states."

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"On election night, it seemed like every state that kept counting, President Trump won. But all the states that halted counting for a while, he wound up losing. Why did that happen?"

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"And then maybe the most important question: Why don't Joe Biden and the Democrats want to find out?"
Election fraud, voter fraud, and what Statutes of Limitations tell us (INN 11/15/2020)
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We all saw this coming weeks ahead and months ahead. We saw the computer-software mess the Democrats made of their own Iowa state caucuses a year ago.

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America was not ready for a massive mail-in balloting election of this dimension, never before having done a mail-in national election of this scope.

•
America ran right into a mess for which it never before had tested in the way needed to assure a fair outcome.

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Unless a fair and extended opportunity is given to get to the bottom of the mess, with the same kind of fraud discovery timetables that any other fraud situation entails,the 2020 elections never will be deemed legitimate. And for good reason.
No voter fraud, says the NYT (INN 11/15/2020)
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We're supposed to believe the same crowd that gave us four years of false charges against President Trump has suddenly turned kosher. ... "No Evidence of Voter Fraud in Any of the 50 States."

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That, of course, is a bald-faced falsehood. Suspicious ballots...into the millions... are under review in all the contested states...PA, AZ, GA, NV, WI, MI.

•
Some 600,000 votes in Michigan that were marked for Trump ended up for Biden. Oh, machine malfunction. Aha. Funny how it never malfunctions in Trump's favor.

•
But typical of the Times to know best... a paper that does try to fool all the people all the time...and too often comes too close to succeeding.

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The same paper saw no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Hunter Biden, nor even Hillary Clinton and the 33,000 emails she unlawfully destroyed.

•
The same paper saw no evidence of mass starvation in Ukraine when millions died from famine under Stalin's Five-Year Plan.

•
Walter Duranty, the paper's Man in Moscow, used the power of the press to misinform and to deceive, but he was so good at it that he got himself a Pulitzer.

•
Then the truth came out, and the Times admitted that Duranty's reporting was disgraceful... but refuses, to this day, to revoke the Pulitzer.

•
The same paper, which could have alerted FDR and awakened the nation, instead mentioned the Holocaust while it was happening sparingly and reluctantly, which is more than journalistic malpractice, but a sin of Biblical proportions.

•
Lives could have saved. The rails to Auschwitz could have been bombed.

•
People still believe what they read in the paper, if it's the Times. For the Networks, the Times is the received word.

•
Sunday's headline becomes Monday's talking points...and the official policy of the Democrat Party.

•
It is all coordinated between the Times, the media, and the Party, and It is never happenstance, not while Dean Baquet is in charge.

•
Outside of the president, Dean Baquet may be the most powerful man in America. He is the most powerful Democrat in America.

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Runs most of it behind the scene, like a ventriloquist, as executive editor at The New York Times.

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Nobody in the Party makes a move before consulting Dean Baquet. He sets the table.

•
Upon Trump's ascent four years ago, Dean Baquet gathered his staff...almost all of them fanatically Liberal...and instructed them to forget Old School Journalism.

•
Instead, they were to focus on their "feelings." Which is the most flagrant departure from the norms of American Journalism since Benjamin Franklin...or even Adolph Ochs.

•
So it was like recess, now that they could go wild and OPINE even on the Front Pages and let it rip, how they felt about Trump and all Republican/Conservatives. Never anything good.

•
These days they feel that "there is no evidence of voter fraud" and so, case closed, we are to accept Joe Biden as our president, no further word needed, because?

•
Because it says so in the paper.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Hans von Spakovsky: Effort to win Georgia Senate races by bringing in out-of-staters to vote is illegal (Fox 11/15/2020)
•
Celebrities and politicians urging people to visit Georgia and falsely claim residency for the sole purpose of voting in two critical U.S. Senate runoff elections Jan. 5 are advocating criminal actions and should be ashamed of themselves.

•
The Georgia runoff elections are extraordinarily important because they will determine which political party controls the U.S. Senate.

•
It is a felony for people to visit Georgia and falsely claim to be residents just so they can vote. Millions of us have visited states on vacation or business, but that doesn't make us residents entitled to vote there.

•
Georgia Code §21-2-561 states that providing false information when you are registering to vote is a felony. So is voting by an "unqualified elector" under §21-2-571. So if you register to vote when you know that your assertion of residency is false, and then you vote or even just attempt to vote Jan. 5 knowing you are not a qualified voter of the state, you have violated both of these state criminal statutes.

•
The punishment for this illegal activity under Georgia law is a minimum of one year and a maximum of up to 10 years in prison and as much as a $100,000 fine. Georgia obviously takes this crime very seriously.

•
No matter how interested non-residents of Georgia are in that state's crucial election, they should not listen to the ill-informed, manipulative and reckless tweets and calls for them to break the law and pretend to be Georgia residents just so they can vote in the two Senate races.

•
This call for illegal voting — coming primarily from Democrats — is a basic betrayal of the democratic process.

•
Everyone who urges or participates in this criminal activity should be ashamed of themselves and deserves to be criticized, no matter who they are and which party they favor.

•
... New Yorker journalist Eric Levitz wrote: "These run-offs will decide which party controls the Senate and thus, whether we'll have any hope for a large stimulus/climate bill. If you have the means and fervor to make a temporary move to GA, believe anyone who registers by Dec 7 can vote in these elections."

•
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang also tweeted that he and his wife are moving to Georgia to help the two Democratic contenders.

•
Dec. 7 is the deadline to register to vote in Georgia for the Jan. 5 election for any residents of the state who have not already registered, including voters who have just moved to Georgia. But under the Georgia Election Code, §21-2-217, you have to be an actual resident of the state to vote, not just a visitor.

•
Georgia law says that a voter cannot be in the state "for temporary purposes only without the intention of making [Georgia] such person's permanent place of abode."

•
Those who think they can get around this requirement by simply lying and asserting their intention to make Georgia their permanent abode should beware.

•
Under the law, county registrars are given the authority to consider a long list of other factors that may contradict the "applicant's expressed intent."

•
The Jan. 5 Senate races in Georgia are understandably capturing national attention, and both Republicans and Democrats are mounting major efforts to win the seats. That's how democracy is supposed to work.

•
But having out-of-state voters visit a state for a few weeks to masquerade as Georgia residents is not a democratic exercise — it's a crime.

•
Anyone who visits Georgia temporarily and falsely claims to be a resident cheats the real residents of the state — no matter which side of the political aisle they favor — by interfering in their choice of who should represent them in Congress.

•
Vote in your own home state when elections are held — not in the home state of others.
Biden administration set to engineer 'great American sellout' of working, middle class (Fox 11/14/2020)
•
"[Donald Trump] sees the world from Park Avenue, I see it from Scranton," he said in one campaign speech.

•
"Sadly, millions of voters took him at his word," Ingraham said, "because they didn't know about his nearly five decades pushing all these policies that are very pleasing to big business and bipartisan establishment figures.

•
"These are policies that ended up robbing hard-working Americans of their wealth and their opportunity."

•
... Biden and his family became wealthy off the backs of those same American workers, helped by a distinct lack of scrutiny from the mainstream media.

•
"The worst thing about all of this is that for his entire career, especially during the past few years, he put on the big show, claiming to be the guy who cared so much about the little middle class."

•
... Biden will reverse Trump's "hard-won successes for the working class" — including stringent border security measures, decreased refugee and visa quotas and a hardline stance toward China.

•
"He's going to halt deportations for 100 days upon taking office, and then, I guess, figure out how to avoid departing as many illegals as possible by narrowing the scope of any enforcement in the future."

•
"Biden will also end the incredibly successful remain-in-Mexico policy [for asylum seekers]. He's also going to rip up agreements from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to take in those rejected asylum seekers."

•
"He has a national security team that is basically uninterested in the whole 'national' part of its duties ... "

•
"Basically, they are going to retake control of our foreign policy. Unless Trump actually pulls all of our troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, troops will be stuck there for four more years."
Haven't Heard Any Singing From the Fat Lady Yet (JWR 11/13/2020)
Georgia May Decide the Future of our Country (JWR 11/13/2020)
Against 'Unity' (JWR 11/13/2020)
•
Political unity is an ugly, authoritarian idea. No free place has domestic political unity, nor should it aspire to it.

•
What "unity" really means, of course, is capitulation. America is once again being subjected to the inane brand of pseudo-patriotic sloganeering we saw during President Barack Obama's tenure.

•
Now, as then, the media will pretend that the moral fabric of the nation must be mended after Republican rule. It's pretty transparent.

•
When Democrats win the presidency, we are treated to solemn calls for national restoration and political harmony, and to the expectation that, for the good of the nation, the opposition will embrace decorum and pass legislation they oppose.

•
When Republicans win elections, grown women put on knitted hats depicting their reproductive organs and stomp around Washington protesting, all to a hero's welcome.

•
Time magazine, the same publication that helped erode trust in our electoral system with conspiratorial covers of the White House morphing into the Kremlin, now offers a commemorative cover featuring Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with the words, "A time to heal."

•
My favorite post-election headline came from the social scientists at Pew Research Center, who informed us that the "2020 election reveals two broad voting coalitions fundamentally at odds."

•
Michelle Obama says we can overcome our divisions, but that Democrats must first remember "that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division."

•
Anyhow, I reject this false choice in the name of patriotic disunity.

•
Not one of those 72 million agents of chaos lied to millions of Americans to strip us of our health care insurance plans.

•
Not one of those voters has attempted to force nuns to buy contraception — or sued them when they refused.

•
One day, I hope Michelle will stop defending the lies, hate and division that her husband inflicted on this great nation.

•
Until then, though, we'll have to agree to disagree.

•
The liberal pivot from "resistance" to "unity" is as swift as it is dishonest.

•
After four years of treating every unexceptional conservative policy victory as one of the Seven Seals of the Apocalypse, Washington Post columnists are already dusting off their columns about "obstructionism" and "minority rule."

•
After years of blanket opposition to Trump, we are being told that Joe Biden has a national "mandate."

•
He does not. God willing, Washington is headed for more "gridlock" — a completely healthy, organic reflection of the geographical, ideological and theological differences of real people in contemporary America.

•
Congress makes laws, and right now that institution is narrowly divided and unlikely to be able to come together on any of the big-ticket items Biden promised. This is why federalism exists.

•
Unity is found in comity with your neighbors, in your churches and schools, in your everyday interactions with your community.

•
Politics is not a place for unity. It is a place for airing grievances. And we've got plenty.
The Gaslighting of the American People (JWR 11/13/2020)
Trump v. Biden – a SCOTUS Study Guide (INN 11/13/2020)
Adriana Cohen: Democrats and Republicans know that empty words won't unify this nation (Fox 11/13/2020)
•
President-elect Joe Biden says he wants unity and promises to be a president who represents all Americans not just Democrats. t's give each other a chance," he told the nation in his acceptance speech...

•
"It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again. To make progress we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy," he said. "We are not enemies. We are Americans."

•
A well-scripted sentiment that's out of touch with our deeply divided nation as the Democratic Party and its media allies have spent the past four years calling Donald Trump's supporters racist — and every other repugnant smear you can think of.

•
That's not exactly a way to win over half the country and heal the nation.

•
Worse, Democrats' extremely divisive smear campaign against conservatives, a tool the left uses to obtain power and win elections, has no basis in reality.

•
... those aren't the only baseless smears Biden's backers have been peddling. Just last week, an opinion columnist from The Boston Globe compared Trump supporters with ISIS in a despicable tweet that went viral.

•
Did the Biden camp denounce the sick comparison and defend conservatives? Fat chance. Biden and Harris both ignored it. As did the Boston Globe...

•
... there's more. In a tweet three days after the election, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., asked: "Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future."

•
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, a rabid "Never Trumper" was more explicit. On Nov. 6, she tweeted: "Any R now promoting rejection of an election or calling to not follow the will of voters or making baseless allegations of fraud should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into 'polite' society. We have a list."

•
Again, has Biden or Harris denounced these extremist threats and hateful rhetoric directed at the 72 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump? No. Their silence is deafening.

•
Bottom line: If Biden is sincere in his desire to unite the nation, then he must condemn these fascist tactics from his supporters or spare us the vacuous platitudes.
Justice Alito warns of dangers to free speech, religious liberty in Federalist Society address (Fox 11/13/2020)
•
"Tolerance for opposing views is now in short supply."

•
"In certain quarters religious liberty has fast become a disfavored right. For many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom. It's often just an excuse for bigotry and it can't be tolerated even when there's no evidence that anybody has been harmed."

•
"The question we face is whether our society will be inclusive enough to tolerate people with unpopular religious beliefs."

•
"Religious liberty is in danger of becoming a second-class right," he warned, adding concerns about free speech and the Second Amendment.

•
"You can't say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. Until very recently that's what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it's considered bigotry."

•
"Judges dedicated to the rule of law have a clear duty" he added, saying they can't "compromise principle or rationalize any departure from what they are obligated to do."

•
"The Covid crisis has highlighted constitutional fault lines" he said, but stressed in his 15 years on the court good work has been done to protect freedom of speech and religious liberty and "the structure of government created by the Constitution."

•
He closed by saying that standing up for the Constitution and freedom is work that lies ahead for all Americans.
Glenn Greenwald tears into media, Schiff, other Dems for dismissing Hunter Biden controversy (Fox 11/13/2020)
•
"[Wolf Blitzer] asked him a rhetorical question embedded with baseless assumptions: 'does it surprise you at all that this information Rudy Giuliani is peddling very well could be connected to some sort of Russian government disinformation campaign?'"

•
"Schiff stated definitively that it is: 'we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin,' adding: 'clearly, the origins of this whole smear are from the Kremlin, and the President is only too happy to have Kremlin help in amplifying it... 'there it is in the Oval Office: another wonderful propaganda coup for Vladimir Putin, seeing the President of the United States holding up a newspaper promoting Kremlin propaganda."

•
"Schiff, as he usually does when he moves his mouth, was lying: exploiting CNN's notorious willingness to allow Democratic officials to spread disinformation over its airwaves without the slightest challenge. Schiff claimed certainty about something for which there was and still is no evidence: that the Russians played a role in the procurement and publication of the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop."

•
The former Intercept editor then blasted the "'more than 50 former senior intelligence officials'" who co-signed a letter declaring that they believe Hunter Biden's emails had "'all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,'" a list he noted included former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, both of whom he accused of being known liars.

•
"With these ex-CIA officials and their servant Adam Schiff disseminating this narrative into U.S. public, both the Biden campaign and their captive media outlets began asserting this rank speculation as truth."

•
"They did so despite the fact that even the intelligence officials were cautious enough to acknowledge: 'We want to emphasize that ... we do not have evidence of Russian involvement' — a rather crucial fact that numerous outlets omitted when laundering this CIA propaganda and which the Biden campaign and Adam Schiff completely ignored when treating the claims as proven truth."

•
"As I noted when I announced my resignation from The Intercept, a major reason I harbored so much cynicism and scorn for their claim that my story on the Hunter Biden emails had failed to meet their high-minded, rigorous editorial and fact-checking scrutiny was because that same publication was just was one of the many anti-Trump news outlets which, in the name of manipulating the outcome of the election on behalf of the Democratic Party, had mindlessly laundered the CIA/Schiff narrative without the slightest adversarial skepticism or, worse, without a whiff of evidence."

•
... "this disinformation campaign has done its job," which was "allowing Biden to get past the election without having to answer any real questions about those emails and his family's work in Ukraine and China."

•
"Whatever else is true about this whole sordid affair, no evidence has emerged — none — that the Russians have played any role in any of this... But journalism, in its minimally healthy form, requires evidence before spreading inflammatory accusations about a nuclear-armed power and, even more so, speculation designed to discredit evidence of possible misconduct by the front-running candidate for the U.S. presidency."

•
"But here we have yet another case where purported news outlets — knowing that there is no price to pay professionally or reputationally for publishing evidence-free intelligence agency propaganda as long as it benefits the Party and advances the ideology which they all embrace — casually spread disinformation without the slightest evidentiary basis."

•
"Yet again we find that the most prolific propagators of Fake News and disinformation are not the enemies of the mainstream U.S. media. It is the mainstream U.S. media itself that deceives, propagandizes and spreads disinformation on behalf of the coalition of the intelligence community and the Democratic Party far more than any other faction or entity."

•
Last month, Greenwald publicly exited The Intercept, a news organization he co-founded, after his editors refused to run his story about the Hunter Biden controversy.
Tim Graham: CNN's shameless call for unity after Biden's acceptance speech (Fox 11/12/2020)
•
A female narrator mourned in the commercial, saying, "Our trust has been broken — in our leaders, in our institutions, even with some of our friends. And we are hurting. Now, more than ever, we need each other — to listen, to learn from one another, to rebuild those bonds."

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Does anyone think CNN hasn't been ripping apart our leaders and our institutions for four years?

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The announcer added: "(T)rust shows that we believe in the good in each other. It's what makes us human. And when we trust one another, that is when we can truly achieve great things."

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You cannot spend four years with people such as Don Lemon denouncing Trump fans as "people who will lie, steal and cheat, lie to their own mother, lie to themselves" and expect unity.

•
CNN's own continued abuse in between the "unity" commercials should underline why their Xeroxed Biden message is preposterous.

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
The Propaganda War (JWR 11/12/2020)
Extortion Day (JWR 11/12/2020)
•
Riot preparations are unprecedented in modern American electoral history. The media have quickly moved to establish a new narrative'the "return to normalcy" under a presumptive Biden presidency'and would prefer to relegate the much-discussed pre-election tensions to the memory hole.

•
Despite a handful of incidents involving right-wing agitators, most urban unrest has been driven by the activist Left, loosely organized under the banners of Antifa and Black Lives Matter. This reality has been exhaustively documented in newspaper reporting, activist livestreams, and police-blotter mugshots.

•
While the national media can afford to peddle a largely imaginary narrative about "white supremacist violence," business owners in New York, Minneapolis, and Portland have no illusions about where the real threats come from: they've spent the past five months defending themselves against vandalism, looting, and robbery from black-bloc rioters and criminal opportunists.

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In political terms, the activist Left's campaign of violent protest provided a convenient foil for the Biden campaign.

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Biden adopted the high-minded language of racial justice, promising to combat "systemic racism," while benefiting from the implicit threat of violence from far-left shock troops on the ground.

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It's the same logic of extortion that any thug would use'vote for us and things will return to normal; vote for Trump and your cities will burn.

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Immediately after the networks began calling states for Biden, left-wing protesters demobilized, the white supremacist threat failed to materialize, and small businesses took down the plywood.

•
You could even say that the extortion worked: voters delivered the election to Biden, and the rioters delivered the return to normalcy they had promised.

•
Without a doubt, the fear of post-election violence was a background variable'and pressure point'for this entire election season.

•
Left-wing activists in cities like Portland have rioted on a nightly basis for more than five months. They operate with impunity: they know that there will be few arrests, few prosecutions, and few consequences; most will be bailed out and back on the streets in a matter of hours.

•
Biden's apparent victory has delivered a reprieve from this kind of violence, but not from similar threats in the future.

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For what many take away from the election's outcome is that the threat of violence is now a viable, even proven, political tactic in America.
Will Trump ride off into the sunset? (JWR 11/12/2020)
•
I once wrote that whenever Donald Trump exits office, he will likely leave as a "tragic hero."

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The outsider deliverers are suspiciously seen as self-absorbed. Their methods bother an endangered, polite society, even as they begin to bring it results.

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A wounded Shane will ride off into the sunset in the snowy Grand Tetons, assured that the danger is past but knowing there is no place in a now-calm range for his six-gun that brought others justice and peace.

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Foul-mouthed Patton, with his ivory-handled pistols, is often recalled more as a madman who believed in reincarnation than as a genius who saved thousands of GIs.

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A cigar-chomping LeMay, more than anyone, destroyed Imperial Japanese industry and created an effective Cold War deterrent. He ended up caricatured as a nut in the film "Dr. Strangelove."

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Quietly, many Americans knew that unchecked illegal immigration was undermining the melting pot and eroding the idea of legal immigration.

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Some feared it was a matter of when, rather than if, communist China would rule the world.

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Many people were tired of "endless" wars in the Middle East, even as America kept getting sucked into them.

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Republicans knew that an originalist court was necessary to save the Constitution, but Republican presidents nonetheless often nominated future liberal justices.

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Conservatives hammered away at the principle that late-term abortion was wrong but feared that taking on Planned Parenthood was suicidal.

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Republicans rightly suspected that they were being typecast as a party of aristocratic golfers but were scared of the changes needed to appeal to the working classes, both black and white.

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So in 2016 the peasants sought outside deliverance and so it came — orange skin, dyed hair, Queens accent and all.

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The more Trump beat back Robert Mueller's dream team, impeachment efforts and the terrible year 2020, the more his beneficiaries worried about his tweets, his bluster and his self-absorption.

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The more the economy boomed, and the more Trump recalibrated foreign policy and changed the status quo with China and the Middle East, the more the public could afford to listen to charges of Trump excess.

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So here we are in the wake of the most contested election in memory, and Trump may be officially declared the loser — even after he won his struggle to stop America's leftward drift.

•
Often, Hollywood epics and even some Sophoclean tragedies have a sequel. And perhaps Donald Trump will too, even if he is forced to ride off into the 2021 sunset — at least for now.
Tucker Carlson: Yes, dead people voted in this election and Democrats helped make it happen (Fox 11/12/2020)
•
It's been more than a week since the final votes were cast and many of Donald Trump's 72 million voters still believe this election was fundamentally unfair. They're right about that.

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Democrats completely changed the way we voted in this election. Our system has never been more disorganized and it's never been more vulnerable to manipulation.

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So was there voter fraud last week? ... We've tried to be careful and precise as we report this out. In moments like this, truth matters more than ever. False allegations of fraud can cause as much damage as the fraud itself, and the last thing America needs right now is more damage.

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What we're about to tell you is accurate. It's not a theory. It happened, and we can prove it. Other news organizations could prove it, too. They've simply chosen not to.

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Fewer than 15,000 votes separate Donald Trump from Joe Biden in the state of Georgia. It's close enough that it's worth getting specific about what happened there. Georgia's secretary of state has now confirmed there will be a hand recount of all votes cast.

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As of right now, there aren't enough of these votes to alter the outcome. But the point is this: They are dead, but they voted anyway. The question is, how did they do that? How exactly did they cast their ballots?

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States sent ballots and registration forms to millions of people, totally unsolicited. The pretext was COVID and a public health emergency. The effect was to encourage fraud.

•
One 2012 study by Pew found there were close to two million dead people still on voter rolls around this country. The study also found that approximately 24 million voter registrations — that is, one out of every eight in America — were either no longer valid or they were significantly incorrect. Close to three million people in America had registrations in more than one state.

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So what happens if you start sending ballots and registrations to lists like this? You're guaranteed to increase the amount of fraudulent voting, and that's exactly what Democrats did. Republicans, we should add, let them do it.

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Why did this happen? How can we prevent it from happening again? Those are the questions. The first is very simple to answer: Democrats did it. They understand that when you send mail-in ballots to an entire unverified voter roll, you can't really know who's voting. But just to make certain that fraud remained likely, Democrats filed lawsuits in Nevada to eliminate signature verification.

•
This summer, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed something called the HEROES Act. It wouldn't simply have mailed absentee ballots to all voters in America. It also would have prevented states from restricting ballot harvesting in any way. That means that anyone could collect and return bundles of ballots from dead or living voters to polling stations, and there would be no oversight of this at all. That's insane, but expect more of it. Loose voting rules are too useful for the left to pass up.

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In January, Democrats could very well gain control of the United States Senate. If that happens, much will change. But one of the things that will happen is that they will pass the HEROES Act into law.

•
Right now, they're claiming universal mail-in balloting is necessary because of coronavirus, but they're lying. They've been pushing for this very thing for years for one reason. It gives them an advantage because it increases the incidence of fraud.

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If we care about our democracy, we must demand clean and honest voting regardless of the outcome. The system is what we must protect.

•
Sending ballots to entire unverified voter lists unsolicited gets you dead people voting. And what does that do? It puts us where we are now: Cynical, distrustful, withdrawn.

•
If you want to run a democracy, you need one thing above all: Social trust. If you want people to have social trust, if you want them to believe in the system, it's not enough to yell at them on television and tell them that they must believe.

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You have to create a system that is worth believing in.
The Biden Threat to Law Enforcement (JWR 11/11/2020)
When 'Unity' Means 'Shut the Hell Up' (JWR 11/11/2020)
•
... presidential frontrunner Joe Biden — who doesn't actually become president-elect until vote counts are certified — gave a preliminary victory address.

•
In that address, he spoke of his mandate to govern: a mandate, he said, that extended to marshalling the "forces of decency ... fairness ... science ... hope." Which is a pretty vague mandate, as it turns out.

•
But there was another overarching mandate Biden expressed: a mandate to come together, to unify as Americans. "To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy," Biden said. "We are not enemies. We are Americans."

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All of that is nice. Who wouldn't like a country in which we could enjoy cultural events together without being lectured about the alleged evils of the country, in which we could attend family events without being castigated as bigots, in which we could disagree and still enjoy one another?

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Who wouldn't like an America in which our neighbors no longer see us as cancel-culture targets, in which we no longer have to fear our compatriots rioting and looting over supposed systemic injustices, in which our social interactions are not limited by our voter registration?

•
Americans are right to have some rather serious trust issues with calls for unity in our polarized time.

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After all, former President Barack Obama pledged American reunification right up until he began treating tea partyers as unspeakable threats and political opponents as crypto-racists.

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Everything was hopey and changey right up until the time ... it wasn't.

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So, in order to earn our trust, Joe Biden would have to call his own side out for raising the temperature.

•
And he has steadfastly refused to do so. He hasn't called out Black Lives Matter for the suggestion that America is systemically racist; he has cheered it on.

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He hasn't condemned antifa; he has deemed it a philosophy rather than a dangerous movement. And he certainly hasn't said a word about the continuing attacks on Trump supporters.

•
We will wait in vain for Biden to chide former first lady Michelle Obama for declaring that 70 million Americans "voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division."

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Our bones will likely bleach before Biden tells Hillary Clinton that Trump supporters aren't deplorables.

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No, "unity" in the Biden formulation isn't a recognition of what we have in common; it's a demand that we silence ourselves in order to mirror Biden's priorities.

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Unity, you see, can be achieved one of two ways: through recognition of the other, through a determination to understand those who think differently than we do; or through ideological domination.

•
It's rather obvious which pathway Democrats will choose. After all, social ostracization is one of their most powerful tools. Why disarm now?

•
Americans can only come together when we share a common philosophy, history and culture.

•
Democrats have spent years attempting to tear away those commonalities in favor of coalitional interest-group politics.

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They've declared American philosophy racist from inception; they've declared American history a litany of brutalities; they've declared American culture bigotry embodied.

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Now they want unity — the unity of absolute victory.

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Ironically, it's that very desire — the desire for monolithic control — that will be their undoing.

•
Unless Biden is serious about unity — unless he's willing to cross the aisle and recognize the humanity of those with whom he disagrees, and to call out those on his own side who won't — Biden's term is likely to be contentious, polarizing and ultimately unsuccessful.
No Time for Phony Healing (JWR 11/11/2020)
•
After liberal media operatives prematurely declared Biden the winner of election 2020 this weekend, Biden's handlers carefully trotted him out in front of the cameras to read a script that proclaimed: "It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to each other again."

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"Listen" ? Biden's already hatching plans to crack down even harder to silence patriots and dissidents who share their ideas online.

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Twitter, which ran censorious interference for Biden throughout the campaign, allows thousands of tweets by users wishing to "assassinate Trump," but deplatforms peaceful conservatives and independent investigators exposing voter fraud, COVID-19 hypocrisy and left-wing violence.

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"See each other again"? Biden and his Silicon Valley cronies want to wipe us all completely off the internet.

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"Lower the temperature"? Tell that to the flag-burning, window-breaking, traffic-obstructing lunatics shouting: "All cops are bastards!" "Shut it down!" "No borders; No walls; No USA at all!"

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Biden has never disavowed them, and for his running mate, Kamala Harris, has helped raise millions of dollars in bail money for them.

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Biden now says it's "time to heal." I call bullcrap. This corrupt career politician and his mob-coddling party seek to disarm us, debase us and destroy us.

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Biden's celebrants marched onto the streets Saturday with President Trump's bloody head on pikes. One Black Lives Matter bigmouth shrieked that asking them to be peaceful was "white supremacy."

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They've torn down statues across the country, pillaged small businesses, invaded residential neighborhoods, and engineered assaults and assassinations of Trump supporters.

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They've slapped senior citizens and gunned down retired cops while deifying serial criminals, convicted sex offenders, and home invasion robbers. They've been threatening to burn down Washington all year.

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This is the time for hell-raising, not healing. Every legal vote must be counted, every illegal vote thrown out, every lawsuit heard.

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Anything less amounts to exactly the kind of "coup" undermining the "peaceful transition of power" that anti-Trump forces falsely accused our president of perpetrating.

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We, the 71 million Americans who voted to reelect Donald J. Trump, resist the media-Silicon Valley coronation of Biden-Harris.

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We, the 71 million Americans who voted to reelect Donald J. Trump, do not relent.

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We, the 71 million Americans who voted to reelect Donald J. Trump, do not yield.

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We, the 71 million Americans who voted to reelect Donald J. Trump, do not concede.
In Russia hoax probe, fired FBI Deputy Director McCabe gives ludicrous defense of misconduct (Fox 11/11/2020)
•
Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe wants his old job back. Heaven help us.

•
It's hard to think of anyone who? did more sustained damage to the FBI than McCabe. Well ... maybe two other odious characters: fired FBI Director James Comey and fired counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok. It's a close call.

•
All three bad actors demolished the good name and reputation of the once-vaunted law enforcement agency. It's quite possible that the bureau may never recover.

•
Smug and arrogant as ever, McCabe appeared Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee and brushed aside all the evidence of the FBI's abuse of power under his watch. He dismissed it as mere mistakes, not malevolence.

•
To hear him tell it, the FBI is guilty only of monumental incompetence — as if that's a benediction.

•
... McCabe was a key participant in corruption, in his case at the FBI. He presided over every decision in the bureau's misbegotten investigation of Trump and his campaign.

•
... there was never any plausible evidence that someone connected to Trump had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election.

•
There was no credible evidence to justify the FBI's intrusive investigation, which included undercover informants, secret recordings, and illegally obtained surveillance warrants.

•
Before Trump's inauguration in January 2017, McCabe's agents tracked down Steele's main source, Igor Danchenko, who promptly discredited the dossier as nothing more than multiple hearsays and rank speculation, some of which emanated from Danchenko's drinking buddies.

•
It was also determined that parts of the dossier were likely Russian disinformation and that the Russia Hoax itself was invented by none other than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to smear Republican candidate Trump with an alleged scandal.

•
Did McCabe know this? It is inconceivable that he did not. But ... McCabe insisted that he was oblivious to the exculpatory evidence and knew nothing at all about what his own agents had discovered.

•
Documents prove that McCabe was intimately involved in every facet of the Trump investigation, codenamed "Crossfire Hurricane."

•
Yet, McCabe professed complete ignorance of the pervasive deceit, misfeasance and corruption that contaminated the case.

•
Evidence of Trump's innocence was scrupulously concealed by McCabe's FBI.

•
"If you knew then what you know now, would you have signed the warrant application in June 2017 against Carter Page?" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked McCabe.

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"No, sir," McCabe said.

•
Everything else was wrapped in puerile ineptitude and amnesia. McCabe feigned no recollection whatsoever of the infamous meeting in his office with Peter Strzok and Strzok's lover, Lisa Page, where the subject of an "insurance policy" against Trump's election was discussed.

•
McCabe didn't recall writing a text message expressing his hope that Trump would lose to Clinton.

•
Nor did McCabe remember whether he authorized the decision to keep open the FBI's investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in January of 2017, even though his own investigators had determined Flynn had done nothing wrong.

•
... McCabe struggled to explain why he thought Flynn presented a national security threat for daring to speak with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during the presidential transition period.

•
Conversations like this with foreign officials are something that all transition teams do to prepare the incoming administration for the foreign policy challenges ahead. Hundreds of such conversations typically occur.

•
n one fiery exchange, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pointed out that former Vice President Joe Biden has recently spoken with foreign leaders about his forthcoming policy agenda, as widely reported.

•
"Do you believe Joe Biden is violating the Logan Act?" Cruz asked.

•
McCabe refused to answer, claiming that he wasn't certain whether Biden had been conversing with foreign officials.

•
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., mocked the hypocrisy in McCabe's actions. "Gen. Flynn's been prosecuted for lying to the FBI. You lied to the FBI, and you are not being prosecuted. Don't you think that sends the wrong message to the American people?"

•
McCabe was fired for repeatedly lying to the FBI (and his own boss) and obstructing its investigation after he authorized the furtive disclosure to a reporter of sensitive information to "advance his personal interests."

•
Naturally, McCabe blames Trump and is suing to get his old job back. "I did nothing wrong," he claimed.

•
Given the extraordinary damage McCabe did to the FBI, the bureau would roll up the welcome mat and lock the doors. McCabe knows this, which is why he seems perfectly contented now as a paid CNN commentator spewing his anti-Trump bile.

•
Where else could a documented liar land gainful employment?
Thoughts in a Dark Time (JWR 11/10/2020)
Tucker Carlson: 'Defund the police' was a disaster for Democrats, and don't you forget it (Fox 11/10/2020)
•
At some point, it's worth pausing, turning off the headlines for a moment, and framing what we're seeing in order to understand it.

•
What you're watching right now is not simply a battle between two political parties or even two opposing worldviews. It is deeper than that.

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If you want to understand what's really going on, we're going to isolate just one slogan that kind of decodes it all. The slogan is "Defund the police."

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... it was the central demand of the American left, and there was never any question about what defunding the police would mean. "Defund the police" meant defund the police, cut off their salaries, get rid of them.

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But what was the point of getting rid of the police? That's the real question, and it's a baffling one.

•
In conventional politics, the goal is always to improve the lives of your voters. Give people something they want, and in return, they will vote for you. That's the exchange.

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But who exactly wanted to defund the police? Was there a constituency whose life was going to be improved by abolishing law enforcement? Was there evidence that anyone's life would be improved? No, there wasn't.

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How would dangerous neighborhoods become safer once there was no one around to stop crime and violence?

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If you thought about it for 15 seconds, you would know that defunding the police inevitably would wind up killing people, literally. Americans would die if you defunded the police.

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We've never seen anything like that happen here. We've had a lot of bad ideas in America over the years, but most of them hurt people by accident.

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That is not what is happening here. The left called for defunding the police, knowing full well what would happen next.

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Chaos was the whole point of it: More rape, more robbery, more murder. Those weren't unfortunate byproducts of a noble idea. Those were the intended consequences.

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The people behind defunding the police tried to destroy society itself. That's not politics. Tearing down civilization isn't a political position.

•
It's something much, much darker than that. It's a kind of spiritual battle. That sounds like overstatement, but it's not. We should understand the stakes here, but for a long time we did not.

•
... our cities burned. The elderly were beaten and killed by thugs. Crime skyrocketed in every metro area in the country. Things fell apart, as they were always going to.

•
... Black Lives Matter had only one demand of the justice system, and they shouted it over and over again into bullhorns in our streets: "Defund the police! Defund the police!"

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In many places, the authorities did just that. And you know what happened next.

•
... this has been a disaster for the Democratic Party. Who is for defunding the police? Well, pretty much no one.

•
It turns out crime and chaos scare the hell out of homeowners, taxpayers, job holders, anyone with children or pets or cars or furniture or any expectation of life beyond this afternoon.

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You would have to be a desperately unhappy gender studies major with a degree from Duke to think defunding the police was a wise idea.

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... it's unlikely we'll be hearing a lot more about defunding the police. In fact, no one will ever again use that slogan.

•
At some point, it'll be like it never happened. But it did happen and it had massive consequences for all of us. You should remember it.

•
See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
On which issues would Biden be willing to compromise and find common ground with... (Fox 11/10/2020)
•
In an address to the nation last Saturday, President-Elect Biden claimed he has been given a "mandate for action on COVID, the economy, climate change (and) systemic racism." He called for healing and unity.

•
Biden reportedly plans to issue a slew of executive orders, reversing those by President Trump. It is his right to do so, but how does that promote healing and unity?

•
For Democrats, healing and unity often means bowing to their policy wishes. It never seems to work in reverse.

•
Does Biden have a mandate on COVID? Would Americans, including businesses owners, accept a national lockdown that could cripple the economy?

•
What about open borders and lifting the ban on immigrants from nations that have experienced and, in some cases, promoted terrorism? Does Biden have a mandate for that?

•
Will he be anti-Israel, as some believe Obama was? Will Biden undermine peace agreements brokered by Trump between Israel and three Arab/Muslim states?

•
Was Trump's impeachment by Nancy Pelosi's House a contribution to healing and unity?

•
The Biden economic plan includes tax increases and more spending.

•
Biden also said, "the purpose of our politics isn't total, unrelenting, unending warfare."

•
You wouldn't know it from the way Democrats behave, starting with their slander of Robert Bork during his hearing to become a justice of the Supreme Court — ditto Brett Kavanaugh — through the presidential election of 2000, which many Democrats then and now claim illegitimately elected George W. Bush, to the 2016 election when they claimed Hillary Clinton should have won based on the popular vote and mounted a four-year political assault against the president.

•
Biden's bromides sound comforting, but Democrats do not practice what they preach.

•
"We may be opponents, but we are not enemies. We're Americans," he said. No credit to Abraham Lincoln.

•
Speaking of Lincoln, who Democrats like to cite as a great Republican president ... After the 1860 election and before he was sworn in, the owner and editor of the New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett, called on Lincoln not to assume office: "A grand opportunity now exists for Lincoln to avert impending ruin, and invest his name with an immortality far more enduring that would attach to it by his elevation to the Presidency."

•
Trump critics planned to impeach him before he was inaugurated and publicly said so.

•
Biden says he wants to bring us together? On which issues would he be willing to compromise and find common ground with Republicans?

•
To win the approval of Democrats and their media acolytes, Republicans must lose elections and forfeit their principles.

•
The mystery is why so many Americans vote for Republicans in one election and Democrats the next. Too many it seems vote mainly on personality and superficialities, not substantive policies.

•
It was the media's job to dig under the superficial and reveal the true Joe Biden (and Kamala Harris, who could likely become president sooner than later). They failed, becoming an extension of the Democratic Party and anti-Trumpers.

•
If Biden's policies fail don't expect Democrats to admit it; they will blame Republicans.

•
Meanwhile, we are a bipolar nation, unlikely to unify.

•
See related Unmasking (Glenn McCoy, 04/04/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Media calls for unity after spewing 'never-ending, nonstop psychotic rage and hatred for four...' (Fox 11/10/2020)
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Republicans will not be lectured into calls for "unity" by the same media outlets and Democrats "that spewed never-ending, nonstop psychotic rage and hatred for four years."

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"It is a national disgrace how some states have handled this election, but I want to start... by saying this because this is important: The double standard we are watching with the mob and the media is beyond disgusting, repulsive, sickening, and sad."

•
"That's the same mob and the media that spewed never-ending, nonstop psychotic rage and hatred for four years and lied to all of you about so-called Trump-Russia collusion."

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"The media mob and the Democrats harassed this president, harassed his supporters for four straight years with lies and conspiracy theories always questioning the legitimacy of this presidency."

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... said the media have been exposed as a "bunch of hypocrites" with their "empty calls for civility and unity pretending like none of that ever happened."

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"They never accepted the election results in 2016 but in seconds, Joe Biden won, let's tell the world."

•
The media can try as they might, but Trump supporters are "not going to be lectured by the same media frauds and Democrats, the ones that called us chumps, irredeemable, deplorable, sexist, racist, smelly Walmart shoppers."

•
"We cling to our God, our guns, our Constitution, our religion, and bibles, while they have been fueling a blind rage every second, every hour, of every day."
Keep fighting in the Courts, start fighting the Libertarian Party (INN 11/09/2020)
With enemies like today's progressives, conservatives don't need many friends (JWR 11/09/2020)
Election Day Plus Six (JWR 11/09/2020)
Where America now stands (JWR 11/09/2020)
•
On Wednesday, supporters of President Donald Trump gathered outside ballot counting centers in Arizona and Michigan to demand a clean and honest vote count.

•
Standing behind the protesters, the reporter tried to paint the crowd as violent and dangerous even as they stood and kneeled in silent prayer for election integrity.

•
It was a hard sell, but other reporters quickly got in on the action and videos appeared throughout the day of reporters describing the swelling crowd chanting "Count the Vote" as violent.

•
Perhaps the men and women with the mics simply don't know the meaning of the word "violent." After all, for the past seven months, they have been describing riots replete with broken windows, burning tires and looted stores as "peaceful protests."

•
The urge Trump voters feel to protest the vote count is easy to understand. The widespread fear that the Democrats were working to falsify the U.S. presidential election results grew with each news update about another 369,000 ballots suddenly appearing in Philadelphia or 10,000 votes in Nevada cast by people who don't live in Nevada.

•
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump supporters at a ballot counting facility in Detroit were stunned as a poll worker used cardboard boards to block Republican poll watchers from watching the vote count.

•
Tuesday night, Trump was leading Biden by comfortable margins in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.

•
And suddenly, election officials in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Atlanta — Democrat-run cities in states where Trump was leading — announced they were stopping the vote count.

•
... based on information published by election officials in Michigan and Wisconsin, while the vote-counting had officially been suspended, strange things were happening.

•
In the wee hours of the night in Michigan, 138,339 mail-in ballots were counted. Biden won every single one of them.

•
Hours after the stunning, vertical rise in Biden's numbers was reported (and after Twitter censored Republicans, including President Trump, who demanded an explanation), Michigan election officials claimed the numbers were a "data error."

•
A glitchy vote-counting software accidentally added a zero — that is, 100,000 votes — to Biden's tally. The same glitchy software accidentally forgot to enter the votes that Trump won. Oops.

•
In Wisconsin, Biden got a similar 120,000 vote boost during the night and when Republicans woke up on Wednesday morning, Trump's 4.7 percent lead had all but disappeared. Trump got none of the votes.

•
Trump's campaign filed lawsuits in Michigan and Wisconsin regarding the apparent irregularities. The campaign also filed suit against Nevada's Board of Election for allegedly counting 10,000 votes cast by non-residents.

•
There are also multiplying claims of improprieties in vote-counting in Philadelphia. ... Republican poll watchers were barred from observing election officials count 120,000 ballots. A court order to permit the Republicans to observe the vote-counting was ignored by election officials and Democrats appealed the ruling.

•
The Democrats' response to all of the Trump campaign's claims is to accuse Trump and his supporters of trying to suppress the vote.

•
Most of the alleged irregularities have to do with mail-in ballots. This is no surprise. Trump and the Republicans warned from the outset of the Democrats' mail-in ballot campaign that the purpose of the move was not to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.

•
... it may take time for the legal challenges to work their way through the courts and determine definitively who will be inaugurated on January 20.

•
But we can already see that whoever wins, America's democratic order is steeped in crisis. The Democrats' post-election shenanigans are an expression of this crisis.

•
To be clear, Trump did not cause the crisis. It has two authors: The Democrats and the media.

•
The Democrats fomented the crisis, which places America's very future as a constitutional democracy on the line, when they refused to accept the results of the 2016 election. The media caused it by abandoning journalism in favor of political activism.

•
Although the media and the Democrats have spent four years insisting that Trump supporters are violent, dangerous racists and Nazis, the merchants in Kenosha and Los Angeles didn't post Trump election signs in their storefronts to win brownie points from the rioters.

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They posted signs of support for the looters. And they all hailed from Black Lives Matter, Antifa and allied Democrat voting groups.

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... Biden's supporters in Black Lives Matter and allied groups started posting detailed instructions to their supporters about where to gather and where to protest a week before Election Day.

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And late Tuesday night, the riots began on schedule in Washington, New York, Portland and Los Angeles. And they weren't kneeling in prayer.

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... a "protester" in Portland was arrested Wednesday carrying hand grenades and a loaded AR-15 assault rifle. "Protesters" in New York were arrested carrying commercial military-grade firecrackers, a taser, knives and hammers.

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Black Lives Matter rioters in Washington reportedly stabbed five Trump supporters close to the White House early Wednesday morning.

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Political violence, like ballot harvesting, is a feature of the Democrats' post-democratic political playbook.

•
During the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, her campaign and the media presented Trump and his supporters as illegitimate political actors.

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When Trump won the race, their delegitimization of Trump and his supporters quickly led them not to oppose Trump's presidency, actions and policies, but to reject the legitimacy of both his presidency and of the democratic process that enables "deplorables" to choose a president that the Democrats don't support.

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That is, the delegitimization of Trump and his voters morphed into a rejection of the rules of American democracy.

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All Democrat efforts to oust Trump from office and to block his ability to govern since, like the political violence the Democrats have employed with greater intensity in the intervening years, are a function of that move.

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The Democrats revealed their new post-democratic character and totalitarian bent on inauguration day. When the millions of Democrats came out to protest the peaceful transfer of power, they called themselves "the Resistance."

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The media have been a full partner in the Democrats' efforts to overturn America's constitutional order in favor of one that denies their opponents (or "enemies" ) the ability to lead the country.

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In 2008, the U.S. media replaced its traditional pro-Democrat bias with full mobilization when Barack Obama entered the presidential race.

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The media writ large presented Obama as a man without blemish. His domestic and foreign policies were deemed ingenious, completely successful and kind-hearted, and were never subjected to serious scrutiny. Obama's personal and policy failings were airbrushed out.

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Obama's opponents were demonized as corrupt and evil foreign agents and avaricious "moneymen."

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From the moment Trump rode down the escalator of Trump Towers, he received the exact opposite treatment. If Obama was a messianic figure and Biden a kindly, wise grandpa, Trump was the devil incarnate.

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The media's abuse of Trump has known no bounds. The legacy newspapers and television networks competed over who could report more Trump-Russia lies.

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Trump's dizzying array of accomplishments in office, at home and abroad were deliberately ignored or downplayed all day, every day for the past four years.

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Media executives, editors, anchors and reporters made clear the moment Trump was elected that their only goal, and the only legitimate goal, was to oust him from office.

•
It's impossible to know how things will develop in America in the coming weeks. But it is hard to see a rainbow over the horizon. If Trump is declared the winner, the Democrats won't accept the legitimacy of the verdict. Their use of political violence will undoubtedly rise.

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And if Biden is declared the winner, the Democrats will not rest on their laurels. Having already adopted the totalitarian mindset, they will insist their newfound power be used to advance their program. Indeed, they already are.

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MSNBC commentator Jason Johnson said ... "You cannot come into this White House with the idea that these people [Trump supporters] aren't the enemy. They are. They are the enemies of democracy."

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As for Trump's supporters, after being called "chumps" by Biden, after watching the Democrat-run vote counts and Big Tech's censorship of the president, Trump's supporters will not trust the integrity of the process that brought Biden to the White House.

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And it is hard to imagine them taking it silently.
Miranda Devine: If there's fraud in the 2020 election, then we must find it (Fox 11/09/2020)
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There's more evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election than there ever was of Russia collusion, so America is owed a legal examination of the election irregularities alleged by the Trump campaign.

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It's not crazy to say this, despite the gaslighting from much of the media.

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Basically, the election is down to roughly 120,000 votes of almost 150 million votes cast.

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That's 0.08 percent, a tiny margin by anyone's reckoning.

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Recounts have been ordered. President Trump's campaign is challenging hundreds of thousands of votes in the courts.

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Five swing states are within 1 percent, all with Joe Biden in the lead.

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In Georgia, Biden was ahead on Sunday night by just 10,352 votes.

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In Arizona, he was ahead by 19,438 votes.

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In Wisconsin, he was ahead by 20,540.

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In Pennsylvania, he was ahead by 43,251.

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In Nevada, he was ahead by 31,464.

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It is not outlandish or unprecedented to accept the possibility that at least some of those margins may be erroneous, whether through human error or, indeed, fraud.

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Electoral fraud is not unknown in America. Probably the most famous example was in 1960, when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley allegedly rigged the ballot for John F. Kennedy, dead people were found to have "voted" and 677 election officials were indicted.

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Due to the pandemic, around 40 percent of votes in Tuesday's election were cast by mail, double the percentage in 2016.

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Even the New York Times once reported the truth that mail-in voting is the most vulnerable to fraud. This is why most developed countries ban the practice.

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So, as you can see, it is perfectly reasonable in such a close election to take seriously allegations of irregularities and suspicious activity.

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An honest media would investigate rather than dismissing the allegations out of hand as "baseless," "false" and "conspiracy theories."

•
The Trump campaign's legal team, led by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, claims that, in Pennsylvania alone, 600,000 ballots are in question because they were counted without any poll-watchers observing to ensure they were legitimate, as state law requires.

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In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Giuliani says that "50 to 60 poll-watchers ... will all testify that they were uniformly deprived of their right to inspect any single part of the mail-in ballots ... Not a single one was inspected as the law required. Even when a court order was obtained to allow the Republican inspectors to get six feet closer, they moved the people counting the ballots six further feet away.

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"It's really simple. If you have nothing to hide with these mail-in ballots, you allow inspection."

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Giuliani has promised one lawsuit will be filed today and four more by the end of this week.

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Another Trump team lawyer, Sidney Powell, claimed yesterday that 450,000 ballots had been found with only votes for Biden and no down-ballot selections, which she regarded as suspicious.

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... two pieces of software called Hammer and Scorecard were used to flip votes from Trump to Biden in some pre-election voting ballots.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that he will be investigating "all credible allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct" after receiving a sworn affidavit from Pennsylvania postal worker Richard Hopkins alleging that Erie Postmaster Robert Weisenbach had told workers he was "back-dating the postmarks on the ballots to make it appear as though the ballots had been collected on November 3, 2020 despite them in fact being collected on November 4 and possibly later."

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... in Pennsylvania, the Trump team has found "over 100 people they think were dead but 15 people that we verified that have been dead who voted ... Six people registered after they died and voted."

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All of this may not amount to a hill of beans. But it deserves to be examined, or otherwise 71 million people who voted for Trump may end up believing the election was stolen.

•
"This is no longer about any single election," Trump said in a statement... This is about the integrity of our entire election process." Quite right.

•
Whatever comes of the allegations, in reality, nothing is more important than two Georgia US Senate runoffs, on which control of the Senate may depend.

•
Since neither of the Republicans, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, has reached the 50 percent threshold in votes required under Georgia law to win outright, there has to be a redo on Jan. 5.

•
If they both were to lose, the US Senate would be deadlocked 50-50, with the vice president, Kamala Harris, having the deciding vote.

•
In other words, the Democrats would be in control and nothing would impede their radical agenda, including the Green New Deal, packing the Supreme Court and adding two new states.

•
... why the unseemly rush now for Biden to declare victory, as he did in one of his weird car park appearances Saturday night? His son Hunter Biden, currently under FBI investigation, was on stage, fully clothed and minus the crack pipe, which was nice.

•
Of course, Trump's team will have to provide concrete evidence of systemic fraud enough to flip the election result in enough states to make a difference to the outcome.

•
It's a very high bar, so I wouldn't be holding my breath. But it's 2020. Stranger things have happened.
Michael Goodwin: Biden's call for unity — here's what he can do to show he means it (Fox 11/09/2020)
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The Democrat promised repeatedly during the campaign to unite the country by governing as "an American president," a pledge he repeated...

•
Since the polls closed, he's also been urging patience as the counting went on in a handful of battleground states.

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"We knew because of the unprecedented mail-in vote and the early vote that it was going to take a while. We have to be patient, and it's not over until every vote is counted."

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"Democracy sometimes is messy. It sometimes requires a little patience as well, so I ask everyone to stay calm."

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Excellent advice then — and he should follow it himself now by slowing down the rush to spike the football.

•
Equally important, he must make sure his supporters get the message that revenge was not on the ballot because some, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, apparently believe it was.

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If Biden isn't sincere about bridging the polarization, both sides will know it and the national hatreds and violence he vowed to temper will multiply.

•
President Trump also has an important role to play. While he is entitled as a candidate and obligated as a sitting president to pursue challenges where he believes tallies are incorrect or illegal, it's not in America's interest or his to continue to lodge blanket accusations of fraud and theft. ... The president should let the evidence and his lawyers do most of the talking.

•
... both would be wise to acknowledge the more than 70 million people who voted for Trump, which would have gained him a landslide in any other year. To dismiss all those voters as racists and idiots, as many on the left do, is to consign the nation to unresolvable conflict.

•
Similarly, Biden and Harris should not scoff at the lawsuits and challenges in the most contested states.

•
If Biden were to shut his eyes and pretend that all Americans fully accept the outcome as untainted, he would be making a colossal mistake that could haunt him should he be formally declared the winner.

•
If he trusts the results are honest and accurate, he must do what he urged others to do — be patient and calm "until every vote is counted."

•
All these resolutions can happen quickly — if Democrat state officials stop hiding behind cardboard coverings taped to windows and evicting GOP observers.

•
Actions like that suggest there is something to hide and Biden must make it clear to those state officials that he wants full transparency and doesn't fear it.

•
Another of his welcome campaign messages is one that he repeated Friday: "We may be opponents, but we are not enemies. We are Americans."

•
It's absolutely the right tone, but some of his key supporters sound more interested in humiliation and revenge than reconciliation.

•
His spokesman, Andrew Bates, also said Friday in a statement about Trump that "the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House."

•
As for Ocasio-Cortez, she is supporting the reprehensible idea of having her side keep lists of Trump supporters, writing on Twitter: "Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future?"

•
A group of Never Trumpers echoed the banana-republic notion, saying they aimed to punish the president's supporters.

•
Jennifer Rubin, the odious Washington Post columnist, wrote that Trump supporters "should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into ‘polite' society. We have a list."

•
The best response Biden could give is to say that he, too, is keeping a list — of those who continue to stir hatred and division and that he denounces them, regardless of how they voted.

•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Who gets to define ‘disinformation’? (INN 11/08/2020)
Newt Gingrich: We still don’t know if Trump or Biden won election — despite what you’ve been told (Fox 11/08/2020)
•
Republicans focus on campaigns; Democrats focus on elections. While that difference may seem minor, even semantic, it's one of the great differences in American politics — and largely explains what we are now living through.

•
If you prioritize campaigns, you want a candidate who draws great crowds, gets people excited, and has an attractive policy platform.

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But if you prioritize elections, you want to build a machine that wins the elections — the candidate is secondary at best.

•
And that's what Democrats have been doing methodically. While former Vice President Joe Biden was hiding in his basement, Democrats were building a machine to win no matter what, able to adapt to this year's massive surge in voting by mail.

•
And now we are seeing their plan come to fruition. Based on current, uncertified vote totals, every major news organization is projecting that Biden will be the president of the United States in January.

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However, the media don't decide elections. Votes are still being counted.

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... four states (Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) are within 1 percent. No recounts have started, and challenges (which will ultimately play out) are being ignored.

•
... election night and into early Wednesday morning, and the president was ahead in most of the key battleground states. But then suddenly vote-counting stopped. We couldn't figure out what was happening.

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And when we got up in the morning, we saw that hundreds of thousands of ballots suddenly appeared, almost all of them for Biden.

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Now, you can rationalize that development however you want, but at the least it's suspicious and worthy of further investigation.

•
The Democrats and the media are going to say that, even though all the votes haven't been counted, President Trump owes it to the country to cave, accept defeat, and walk off. Some will also say that we don't need to do any recounts.

•
There are a large number of what I call accommodationist Republicans who always believe it's their job to side with the Democrats and the news media when things get too tough and when the elites really put the pressure on them.

•
These accommodationist Republicans will say they don't like the president talking about fraud, vote theft, or corruption. They don't want to look at the data and the growing evidence that something is clearly amiss in places like Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

•
And then there are the people around Trump who understand that his presidential run in 2016 was a direct assault on a national establishment, which had betrayed the American people and no longer represents them.

•
This elitist group only represents its own interests and sometimes the interests of foreign countries.

•
I suspect that President Trump is going to keep fighting, as he should. We owe it to the American people to have an honest, straightforward election. Every legal vote should be counted.

•
That's a tall order, but it's necessary for the sake of our republic — not to benefit President Trump or anyone else, but to ensure the legitimacy of our sacred democratic process.

•
The integrity of our elections is in jeopardy, and we need to ensure that our electoral process does not become delegitimized beyond repair.

•
Also, brace yourself as the entire national establishment rushes to embrace Biden as president-elect.

•
Some will do so because they want it to be true. Others simply don't want to pick a fight with a new potential president.

•
Meanwhile, Trump supporters will be lectured to forget five years of vicious attacks by Democrats and the liberal media.

•
We will be told to be nice and work together — while the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and others publicly say they want to purge Trump supporters.

•
Don't be fooled: This is not over.
President-elect Biden calls for 'unity' – but where was 'unity' from Dems when Trump won? (Fox 11/07/2020)
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Remember when Democrats called for peace and unity in the days following the 2016 election of Donald Trump? Neither do I.

•
Back then, they wanted a special prosecutor, criminal investigations, lawsuits, and congressional hearings to ensure there would be no peaceful transition of power.

•
In the months following, the "Resistance" was born. Clinton voters, many from outside my district, packed my town hall in the days following the presidential inauguration.

•
They carried out a well-documented plan to disrupt the meeting, displace many actual constituents, and shout me down. Similar acts of sabotage were replicated around the country, all following a script developed by Resistance activists.

•
Back then, we were assured protests were the American way. As I recall, when Donald Trump won Joe Biden was the vice president. Never heard a peep from him about unity.

•
But now in 2020, as Joe Biden proclaims himself the president-elect, it's a "time to heal." Convenient.

•
"The better angels of America are back," Biden proclaimed ... And just like that, "Resistance" is no longer in fashion. The rules have been rewritten.

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When Democrats hold power, we must be unified, and our opposition must be silent. Not to be confused with the rules when Republicans hold power – which are that Resistance is as American as apple pie.

•
In reality, it's highly unlikely Trump supporters will replicate the violence, the hate, and the looting that characterized so many leftist protests over the last four years.

•
But if Democrats believe Americans are obligated to passively stand by while they pursue an agenda that hurts American workers and limits their fundamental rights, they will be disappointed.

•
Former first lady Michelle Obama said Saturday on Twitter, "Let's remember that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division."

•
In other words, Trump voters, more than 70 million of them, are idiots. Doesn't sound like a move for unity to me.

•
Americans will not be silent. Instead, we will take the wins President Trump left us and use them to defend against a leftist agenda we believe undermines the very core of American values.

•
The irony of Saturday's night of celebration for Democrats is that Election Day was actually quite devastating down-ballot. Though they believe they have claimed the presidency, Democrats failed at every other level.

•
In the Senate, bad polling told them to expect to flip the chamber. They failed.

•
In the House, Speaker Pelosi last August had projected "double-digit" gains for Democrats. Instead, their majority narrowed.

•
... the blue wave Democrats hoped would flood state legislatures in the election before the post-census redrawing of Congressional maps never materialized.

•
... for Democrats is the reality that they can no longer depend on activist courts to enforce unpopular legislative priorities they are unable to pass in Congress.

•
President Trump's herculean efforts to rebalance America's courts will pay dividends for decades to come.

•
See related Love Trumps Hate (Sean Delonas, 11/10/2016) cartoon from USA picture album
The Election Battle Is Just Beginning (JWR 11/06/2020)
What kind of sore-losing idiot would suspect the Democrats of Voter Fraud? (INN 11/05/2020)
Mike Huckabee: Trump vs. Biden — Election Day is over but race is far from decided (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
When Americans woke up Wednesday, strong coffee wasn't the only thing they had brewing. Chaos and confusion were brighter than sunrise — and the worst part is that this pandemonium is happening by design.

•
For months, the power-hungry Democratic Party has schemed to tilt this pivotal presidential election, deploying tactics that dangerously undermined the legitimacy of the democratic process in several key battleground states.

•
Many observers sounded the alarm over the Democrats' dirty tricks in recent weeks, foreseeing just this scenario.

•
After all, not only did the Democrats successfully persuade millions of Americans to vote by mail — a process that automatically raises logistical concerns about ballot counting and chain of custody — but they also managed to get states like Pennsylvania to implement controversial ballot drop-boxes, dramatically increasing vulnerability to voter fraud.

•
Voters in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have already gone to court challenging the management of unattended ballot drop-boxes, and rightfully so.

•
Since local authorities did not adequately monitor and regulate these locations, drop-boxes could have easily become contaminated with improperly cast ballots.

•
According to the law firm's press release, voters are asking the courts for access to security camera video footage for each drop-box in light of alleged fraud.

•
More importantly, the voters also want authorities to separate drop-box and in-person ballots to ensure that the courts can preserve the integrity of the election process.

•
"Without such action, late ballots may spoil the properly cast ballots through comingling. We are dealing with unprecedented and late changes to election procedures and the United States Supreme Court has recognized the wisdom of segregating the ballots based on the time and date of receipt to preserve election integrity and to protect properly cast ballots."

•
Throughout the day and the evening, voters in battleground states reported a wide variety of blatant election code violations, including election interference, voter intimidation and suppression, illegal campaigning at polling places, and more.

•
Even certified poll watchers were reportedly kicked out of polling places in Pennsylvania, or prohibited entry altogether.

•
Other reports alleged that the state's election officials were blocking observation of absentee ballot processing and that observers were fearing for the integrity of the election.

•
Undoubtedly, many of these cases will spark high-stakes litigation that could drag on for months.

•
Thanks to the Democrat Party's desperate attempts to regain power by any means necessary, voters across America continue to endure chaos and confusion during this time of frightening uncertainty.
Trump 'turning up the heat' with rhetoric does not help his legal case over ballots... (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
"Turning up the heat politically does not help persuade the judges" and likely "does help the judges who don't want to take the case."

•
"The political part of the election is at an end. The president can do no more at this point to persuade voters."

•
"If we are headed into a litigation phase, he should leave public statements to his very capable lawyers."

•
"To the extent that he wants to litigate what votes should count and which ones should be inspected and whether there's been fraud, the audience now isn't the electorate, it's the court."

•
"And in particular with the Supreme Court, you're looking at a tribunal that if we just take a step back, for the last three weeks it has shown again and again that it doesn't want anywhere near this election."It has really tried to resist getting involved in the Pennsylvania case.

•
... "what has to happen now is the court has to get a compelling legal argument that they need to take this case and straighten out what the rules are about which votes should count."

•
"That's a straight, calm, compelling legal argument and turning up the heat politically does not help persuade the judges and actually probably does help the judges who don't want to take the case."
Biden may steal 2020 election for the elitists, but Democrats will live to regret it (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
The provinces, for whom President Trump is an instrument, not an end in himself, were never going to have an easy time winning the 2020 election against the amassed might of the Democratic Party, the "Fake News" media and allied pollsters, Big Tech, woke billionaires and the celebrity class, who united to stamp out the barbarian orange emperor.

•
The "chumps" and "ugly folk," as Joe Biden calls them, came out in their glorious millions from the American heartland on Election Day and now we will see if people power prevails, if the nationalist populist movement enabled by Donald Trump, but not defined by him, lives to fight another day against the corrupt globalists represented by the sad husk of Biden.

•
It boils down to Trump's belief that the Democrats perpetrated widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere to steal the election.

•
While even those in his own party are urging him to lose gracefully, the president has every right to ensure electoral laws are enforced to prevent fraud.

•
In fact, he owes it to the 68 million deplorables who voted for him.

•
... in such a close election, Trump's concerns are not frivolous. Fraud is corrosive, but so is claiming fraud where there is none. We will see where the lawsuits land.

•
The result has crushed Democratic expectations of a clean sweep. It wasn't a landslide win against an unpopular president, as we had been told so confidently for months.

•
And all the hundreds of millions spent on retaking the Senate came to nothing, with the Republicans looking to hold onto their lead.

•
The fatal miscalculations of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in cynically refusing to negotiate on the latest stimulus bill have cost the Democrats dearly in the House, where they have gone backward by at least six seats. They did not manage to get rid of a single Republican.

•
The Democrats won't be able to pack the Supreme Court, abolish the Electoral College or make DC and Puerto Rico states. They will struggle to impose the Green New Deal.

•
Unfortunately, nothing can be done to stop a President Biden-Harris repeat of the geopolitical errors of the Obama presidency, such as appeasing China and Iran's mullahs and signing onto the Paris climate accord.

•
But a President Biden in cognitive decline will sooner or later be replaced by his unpopular, untested vice president, Kamala Harris.

•
Saddled with a recession and policies that will only exacerbate economic decline, the next four years will hobble Democrats.

•
Their flaws and hypocrisy will be on full display, with a good chance of the 2024 presidential race being won by one of the new generation of Republican heirs to Trumpism.

•
Whoever wins this election, the result is a humiliation for the Trump-deranged media and the tame pollsters who provide them with the justification for their dishonest political narrative.

•
Whoever wins, this election has exposed the frauds and liars who pose as our elites, and half of America won't forget it.

•
... contrary to Pennsylvania law, Republican election observers were denied the right to oversee the counting of 120,000 ballots by being forced to stand 20 to 30 feet away from where they were being counted.

•
"They were never able to see the ballot itself, never able to see if it was properly postmarked, properly addressed, properly signed on the outside ... this went on for 20 hours. While all of you thought there was some kind of legitimate count going on here in Philadelphia, it was totally illegitimate."

•
... also launched a lawsuit in Wisconsin, where ... after election observers had gone home, "at 3 or 4 in the morning about 120,000 ballots appeared ... and they all got counted."

•
... Republican observers were denied "meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law."

•
There are other allegations of fraud or irregularities, late-counted votes and suspected vote harvesting being reported around the country.
Tucker Carlson: The election that narrowly saved America (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
The outcome of our presidential election was seized from the hands of voters, where it rightly belongs, and now resides in the control of lawyers and courts — and highly partisan, clearly corrupt big city bureaucrats.

•
No matter what happens next, that is a tragedy. Many Americans will never again accept the results of a presidential election.

•
But believe it or not, there is some good news in spite of everything else that has happened. First, and most importantly, America remains. That was not a foregone conclusion; we almost lost it.

•
Democrats didn't harness the full power of Big Tech and the billionaire class simply to make Joe Biden president. No, what they really wanted was total control over everything. No more democracy, no more dissent, permanent obedience from the rest of us, and they came shockingly close to getting that.

•
If Democrats had won the White House and the Senate Tuesday night, the country as we know it would have ended, not because Democrats have bad ideas (though they do), but because Democrats planned to impose an entirely new system on our country.

•
Not an agenda, a system.

•
With nothing to check their power, the left fully intended to eliminate the traditional American balances within our government, along with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that constrain their power.

•
Joe Biden's party planned to turn our highest court into a partisan political weapon. They admitted that. They even wrote magazine articles about how they plan to do it.

•
... they planned to pack the Congress of the United States, the legislative branch, by adding new states to our union purely for the Senate seats.

•
... they planned to pack the electorate itself — the ultimate corruption in a democracy — by adding 20 million foreign nationals to our voter rolls overnight.

•
How would any of that improve the United States of America? Well, they never claimed that it would. Making this country better was never the point.

•
The point was to create a permanent Democratic majority, a one-party state with complete control over the population.

•
Never in our history has any mainstream political party proposed an agenda more radical than this.

•
They didn't talk about it much, and there's a reason for that. They didn't want to scare you, but it was entirely real.

•
This isn't a matter of opinions and the difference between those opinions. This isn't about policy. It's about the system that all of us live under that governs this country. That's what's at stake. So keep that in mind as we move forward.
Liz Peek: Liberal media were big losers in election (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
We do not yet know who won the race for the Oval Office, but we know who lost: the pundits, pollsters and — especially — the liberal media that have infuriated half the country.

•
The left-leaning newspapers, networks and social media giants for weeks broadcast predictions of a blue wave, spun the worst-case scenarios about COVID-19, withheld from the public damaging and credible information about Joe Biden's involvements with son Hunter's shady business deals, and ignored the former vice president's mental lapses.

•
The anti-Trump media continued to proclaim the Democratic presidential nominee a "moderate" in spite of towering evidence to the contrary. And they inexcusably suppressed comments by the president of the United States.

•
These acts were purposeful and they had consequences.

•
During the weeks leading up to Election Day, the steady drumbeat of polls and news stories downplaying the president's reelection chances discouraged his supporters.

•
Many wondered if it was worth voting; they asked on Twitter and Facebook if the president had any chance at all of being reelected.

•
Many Trump backers soured on his prospects; the money flowing to his campaign began to dry up.

•
Meanwhile, the swell of upbeat expectations fattened Biden's coffers as donors on Wall Street and elsewhere began to see the Democrat as likely to win.

•
Nobody wants to be left off the gravy train, after all.

•
Given the huge money advantage in the final days of the contest, the Biden team was able to outspend the Trump campaign by a factor of two, throwing enormous resources into TV advertising in vital swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, and online ads as well.

•
The one-sided coverage of this campaign in the anti-Trump media is no surprise. They declared war on President Trump more than four years ago, and have never paused to reconsider their all-consuming enmity.

•
How can so many smart media types get an election so totally wrong? Because liberal journalists have never tried to understand Trump's appeal, or why so many millions of Americans are in his corner.

•
Those on the left have demeaned Trump voters as "Deplorables," as Hillary Clinton did; Joe Biden called some Trump backers "ugly folks." Liberals hint that Trump backers are racist, or prone to weird conspiracy theories.

•
Trump support turns out to come from nearly half the nation, from all walks of life, and it has built over the past four years.

•
If Biden becomes president these folks will not disappear. They will look for a candidate ready to take up the same battles and to look out for their interests.

•
And they will look to get even with the dishonest liberal media and the social media giants that even now are censoring questions being raised about election irregularities...

•
How to demand fairness from the dishonest liberal press and tyrannical social media platforms? Nobody knows.

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Maybe Republicans in the Senate will try to strip Twitter and Facebook of their protections against lawsuits; maybe some new information platform will emerge that does not attempt to editorialize.

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Americans are an entrepreneurial and creative people; they will find a way. Let us hope they do so before 2024.

•
See related He's Crazy! (Glenn McCoy, 05/16/2017) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Trump trauma: How the media blew it once again (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
The question hangs in the air: Why were the media so utterly convinced that President Trump would be trounced in the election?

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Why were all the expectations for a substantial Joe Biden victory, to the point that many news outlets were running lists of his possible Cabinet members, and the Washington Post was asking how Fox would fare with Trump gone?

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In short, how did so many journalists, with endless coverage backed by seemingly bottomless resources, blow it again?

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Nearly half the country sees Trump as a cultural warrior battling the elites who look down on them, especially working-class whites without college degrees.

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And they view the mainstream media, which the president attacks virtually every day, as biased, arrogant and condescending.

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If Biden narrowly wins the White House, some of this will seem like a footnote.

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But it's one thing for the country to repudiate a first-term president and another for him to lose by a modest number of votes in one or two states.

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The American public will have delivered a split decision, one that clashes so sharply with the media's nearly unanimous verdict.
A Trump good deed receives its punishment (JWR 11/04/2020)
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Of all the Twitter attacks on President Trump — and there are thousands every day — one stood out on election eve.

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It was a photo of a woman sitting with the president in the Oval Office. It read: "Trump leaned in and said, 'You know it's I who released you, don't you? I succeeded and Obama failed.' In the most vulnerable moment of my life, 48 hours after releasing me from prison. It was never about me like it was never about us. It's about his ego. We deserve better. #VoteBiden."

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Hijazi is an Egyptian-American activist who ... moved to Egypt and founded the Belady Foundation, "an organization that aims to shelter and rehabilitate marginalized street children."

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In 2014, Egyptian police raided the office of the Belady Foundation and arrested Hijazi. She was held without charge and eventually accused of "operating an unlicensed organization, inciting street children to join pro-Muslim Brotherhood protests and sexually assaulting minors."

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The United States government showed no interest in helping her. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden stayed out of the case of an American citizen unjustly imprisoned abroad.

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For more than two years, the State Department offered no public protest or even expression of concern about her case."

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Three years passed. Hijazi remained behind bars. Then Donald Trump was elected president.

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Unlike Obama and Biden, Trump was not afraid to put pressure on Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. Trump personally brought up Hijazi's case when al-Sissi visited the White House in April 2017.

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... Trump talked to the Egyptian strongman, and things got done. Somehow, an Egyptian court almost instantly acquitted Hijazi. The prison door opened.

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Not long after, she met with Trump in the Oval Office. "He was very hospitable," Hijazi told PBS of the meeting with the president. "He made us feel very welcome, and he admired our strength and our work for the children. So I was glad."

•
That was then. Now, there's an election going on. And Hijazi is telling a different story. Trump never cared about her, she tweeted. It was all about his ego. And by the way, vote for Joe Biden.

•
But first, remember that if Trump said what Hijazi alleged, it was true. Obama did nothing for Hijazi, and Trump did. She was trapped in prison in a country with a terrible human rights record, and when Trump, unlike his predecessor, took up her cause, within hours she was on a plane to the United States.

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And assume for a moment that Hijazi's description of the White House meeting is entirely accurate, and freeing her was, in fact, a big ego trip for Trump.

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So what? Did she prefer to be in an Egyptian prison under President Obama to being free under President Trump? Really?

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In another tweet, Hijazi wrote, "I felt torn after the meeting, worried about not being a loyal person, as Trump demands loyalty as a means of maintaining control. But the government should not help citizens to make them loyal; it should do help because it is the right thing to do. #VoteBidenHarrisToSaveAmerica."

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Did Trump really demand Hijazi's loyalty? Did he demand that she vote for him? That she provide an affidavit declaring that loyalty?

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Or did he want something much simpler — gratitude?

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Put aside all the other noise around her case. She was in prison. One president ignored her. Another president freed her. Who wouldn't be deeply grateful for that? Instead, Hijazi questioned Trump's motives.

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None of that means Hijazi can't support Joe Biden. Of course she can. But why take a public shot at the man who freed her?

•
The Hijazi case echoes much of the continuing controversy around Trump.

•
There are people who appreciate what he has done — who appreciate the economic prosperity they experienced under his presidency, who appreciate the conservative judges he has appointed to the Supreme Court and other top courts, who appreciate the way he has freed the economy from burdensome regulations, who appreciate the way he destroyed ISIS and more.

•
But much of the popular culture demands that they express their disapproval of the president. He does things for the wrong reasons! It's all about him!

•
Hijazi's case is an extreme one — she owes her very freedom to Trump — but it is not at all unusual.
Proof through the night that our flag is still there (INN 11/04/2020)
Joe Biden, FDR, and the Nazis (INN 11/04/2020)
There's more to life than politics (JWR 11/04/2020)
Hatred of Trump Vs. Hatred of the Left (JWR 11/03/2020)
•
One way in which today's presidential election can be summarized is this: It is a contest between those who hate Donald Trump and those who hate the left...

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When you put it this way, it shows how superficial the anti-Trump electoral argument is.

•
We who are not on the left base our opposition to the Democratic Party on ideas, values and our love for America, not on antipathy toward an individual.

•
And let me assure Democrats: Most Republicans had just as much contempt for former President Barack Obama and have as much contempt for Joe Biden as Democrats have for Donald Trump.

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But we don't obsess over personalities; we obsess over America.

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Leftists — and the naive liberals who do not recognize the left as the mortal enemy of liberalism — are obsessed with the president's persona.

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In their endlessly repeated, hate-filled descriptions of him, he is the apotheosis of evil: a dictator, narcissist, misogynist, racist, xenophobe, anti-Semite and white supremacist.

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Virtually every charge is either wildly exaggerated or outright false. For instance, regarding Trump's alleged responsibility for the American deaths due to COVID-19...

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Do these people hold any other leaders in the world responsible for the COVID-19 deaths in their countries?

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Do these people hold New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo responsible for the deaths in New York, the state that has had by far the highest death rate in America?

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If one cared about truth, one would hold Cuomo far more responsible for New York City's virus deaths than Trump for America's virus deaths. But what is truth compared to hatred of Trump?

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To those who hate Trump because they regard him as such a defective human being, there is nothing good he can do.

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A particularly pathologic example is American Jewry, which is expected to vote 3 to 1 for Joe Biden.

•
Presidential candidates since Bill Clinton have vowed to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, which would entail moving our embassy there. Israel was the only country in the world in which the United States had its embassy in a city other than the capital. Only Donald Trump kept his promise by actually moving the embassy.

•
His policies have led to peace between Israel and three Arab countries, with more likely to follow unless Biden and the Democratic appeasers of Iran and the Palestinians come to power.

•
In addition, Trump did more for black America than any president since Abraham Lincoln — but, of course, that's only true if you think the lowest black unemployment rate ever recorded, prison reform, opportunity zones, support for school choice and second chances for those convicted of crimes matter.

•
But none of this matters to Trump haters. Their only concern for blacks is that blacks be as angry at America as possible.

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Angry blacks are Democratic voters. Blacks grateful to be Americans are Republican voters.

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Those who hate the left do so not because of dislike for any individual but because everything the left touches it ruins.

•
In a nutshell, liberals build; conservatives build; leftists destroy. And the Democratic Party is now the party of the left.

•
So, while the Democrats and their media focus on Donald Trump, the rest of us focus on the left...

•
That strikes me as the more moral concern. Between Donald Trump's narcissism and the left's assault on liberty; left-wing elected officials standing by as leftists smash windows and burn cities; and the left's rewrite of American history to ensure that our children have contempt for America, a vote for Trump should be an easy call to make for anyone who loves this country.
Keep America (JWR 11/03/2020)
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American politics should be about policy, it should be about what is best for our country, doing what is right to keep our country safe and strong, both economically and militarily.

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When we decide whether to reelect a president (or congressman, or senator) we should be examining their record, what did that person do to strengthen America and all Americans?

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How did that person preserve our individual rights and honor the US Constitution?

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Did he make things better? Did he attempt to honor his promises? Did he keep us safe; keep us out of foreign wars and entanglements?

•
Most voters don't examine the details of an elected official, for too many people it becomes strictly a popularity contest.

•
President Trump has always been himself, love him or hate him, but for those who actually took the time and made the effort to honestly evaluate what he has done since taking office, his work has been extraordinary.

•
Unlike many other recent presidents, everything he did or attempted to do was always done with the intention of keeping our nation strong, our people employed, and our manufacturing open.

•
His judicial appointments have been exemplary. His trade deals and foreign policy decisions were smart and good for America and the world as a whole.

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I am thoroughly convinced that President Trump is the only thing that stands between the America of individualism, fairness, freedom, and our G od-given rights as laid down by our founding fathers, and a Marxist, totalitarian big brother government controlled by leftist elites for their own benefit.

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If the latter wins, our country as we have always known it will be gone.

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I hope and pray that enough people get out and vote for America. Because that's what this election is really all about.

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Not just Keeping America Great, but keeping America, period.

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See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
The choice 2020 (JWR 11/03/2020)
Plywood over polls: What all of that Big City panic reveals (JWR 11/03/2020)
Newt Gingrich: If election riots break out, Trump should follow Lincoln’s advice (Fox 11/03/2020)
•
There is something obscene and repulsive about American businesses having to board up store windows on the eve of an election because they know their government cannot protect them from anti-American barbarians and thugs.

•
There is something un-American about mobs going into neighborhoods and restaurants and intimidating innocent citizens.

•
President Trump should respond to the vicious, destructive, and lawless mob precisely as President Abraham Lincoln did.

•
Consider how deeply Lincoln understood the importance of enforcing the law and providing safety and order — and the obligation of the government to use force when necessary.

•
President Lincoln understood mob rule — and he hated it. Lincoln believed in the obligation of government to take action to protect people and property from mob violence.

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In Lincoln's Lyceum Address of January 1838, titled "On the Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions," he described mobs as the enemy of law-abiding citizens.

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He also captured the exasperation of citizens when government does nothing to suppress the mobs.

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Lincoln, who was only 28 at the time, said this about mobs:

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"Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much, as its total annihilation.

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"While, on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquility, who desire to abide by the laws, and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country; seeing their property destroyed; their families insulted, and their lives endangered; their persons injured; and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better; become tired of, and disgusted with, a Government that offers them no protection; and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose."

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"Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic spirit, which all must admit, is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any Government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed, I mean the attachment of the People."

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"Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and bum churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this Government cannot last."

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In 1850, Lincoln wrote a "Fragment on Government," which connected the protection of people and property from lawlessness with the government's central existence.

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"The legitimate object of government is 'to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves.' ,.. But a far larger class of objects springs from the injustice of men. If one people will make war upon another, it is a necessity with that other to unite and cooperate for defense."

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Hence the military department. If some men will kill, or beat, or constrain others, or despoil them of property, by force, fraud, or noncompliance with contracts, it is a common object with peaceful and just men to prevent it. Hence the criminal and civil departments."

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Days after the Baltimore riots against Massachusetts and Pennsylvania militia on April 19, 1861, Lincoln replied to members of a delegation from Baltimore who insisted he should do nothing. Lincoln said:

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"You, gentlemen, come here to me and ask for peace on any terms, and yet have no word of condemnation for those who are making war on us. You express great horror of bloodshed, and yet would not lay a straw in the way of those who are organizing in Virginia and elsewhere to capture this city.

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"The rebels attack Fort Sumter, and your citizens attack troops sent to the defense of the Government, and the lives and property in Washington, and yet you would have me break my oath and surrender the Government without a blow. There is no Washington in that, no Jackson in that, no manhood nor honor in that. ... Keep your rowdies in Baltimore, and there will be no bloodshed. Go home and tell your people that if they will not attack us, we will not attack them; but if they do attack us, we will return it, and that severely."

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In Lincoln's "Special Message to Congress" on July 4, 1861, he posed the necessity of calling out the "war powers" of the government to resist insurrection, stating:

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"It presents the question, whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control administration, according to organic law, in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in this case, or on any other pretences, or arbitrarily, without any pretence, break up their Government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth."

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"It forces us to ask: 'Is there, in all republics, this inherent, and fatal weakness?' 'Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?' So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation."

•
Lincoln explained the results of resisting the mob in Baltimore: " I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me. This appeal of professed friends has paralyzed me more in this struggle than any other one thing."

•
In the spirit of President Lincoln, President Trump should issue the following warning to the violent and the lawless:

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All honest citizens will be asked to submit video of anyone they see engaged in violence, looting and destruction.

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Every business will be asked to share any pictures its security cameras produce of mobs and violence.

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Every TV news program will be scrutinized to seek to identify the violent and the destructive.

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All police officers will be asked to use their phones to record videos of every violent or destructive person they encounter.

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The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security will be tasked with coordinating with state and local authorities to track down, arrest and prosecute the violent, lawless, and criminal.

•
Those local authorities who refuse to cooperate will have all their federal funding suspended until they are replaced by the voters with people who are anti-criminal and anti-looting.

•
Like Lincoln, we are going to ensure "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Victor Davis Hanson: 2020 election is not really about a choice between Trump vs. Biden ()
•
In traditional presidential campaigns, the two major parties offer contrasting ideas and policies. The Democratic and Republican candidates barnstorm the nation to make their cases.

•
Not this year. Democratic nominee Joe Biden is more or less a virtual candidate, mostly communicating from home via Zoom. He offers few detailed alternatives to the first four years of the Trump administration.

•
Instead, Biden is running on the idea that Donald Trump caused the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic recession, and that he's responsible for violence in the streets.

•
But Biden rarely offers contrasting visions of what he would have done differently than the Trump administration...

•
Even in the final days of the race, Biden is making far fewer campaign appearances than Trump.

•
The challenger is outsourcing to the media his defense against allegations that the Biden family has peddled influence to foreign interests for millions of dollars that were routed into family coffers.

•
An inert Biden is playing the role of good ol' Joe from Scranton, while his supporters hope not to just to change presidency, but to alter the very rules of how America has been governed for decades and even centuries.

•
Not long ago, the left favored the Electoral College. California, New York and Illinois gave Democrats more than 100 automatic Electoral College votes.

•
Now, furious progressives plan to end the constitutionally mandated Electoral College by hook or crook. They feel it is no longer serves their election purposes.

•
Ditto the traditional structure of the Supreme Court. For nearly 60 years, a left-leaning Supreme Court revolutionized American cultural and political life with progressive decisions.

•
The majority on the court advanced liberal agendas that often found little support in referenda, state legislatures and Congress.

•
Even Republican-appointed judges often flipped from conservative to liberal in the progressive culture of Washington. ... Almost no Democratic-appointed justices turned traditional and conservative.

•
The Supreme Court includes two of Barack Obama's liberal nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

•
Trump now has appointed three traditionalist (and relatively young) justices to lifetime spots on the Supreme Court.

•
Ironically, he was empowered to so after Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed the Senate rules in 2013, reducing the threshold for approval of executive and judicial nominees from 60 votes to 51 votes.

•
... Reid ensured that Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate could appoint conservative judges at will under the new rules.

•
If elected president, Joe Biden would likely "pack" the Supreme Court with additional slots. That enlargement would ensure new activist left-wing justices.

•
The left also wants to pack the Senate — and change the rules. Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., would become new states. Their admission would end the tradition of 50-state America and would likely mean another four Democratic senators.

•
A Biden presidency and Democratic-controlled Senate would also quickly kill off what is left of the filibuster.

•
Democrats wish to ensure that a surviving Republican minority could not impede progressive agendas in the same manner that the Democratic minority has stopped Republican legislation in recent years.

•
In sum, the 2020 election is not just about Joe Biden sitting on a perceived lead and trying to run out the clock against barnstorming incumbent President Trump.

•
It is really a choice between changing rules when they are deemed inconvenient and respecting constitutional norms and long-held traditions that have served America well for many years.
Tammy Bruce: I proudly vote for Trump — his great accomplishments have been historic (Fox 11/03/2020)
•
His success on the issues alone should be enough for the majority of Americans to excitedly vote him in for a second term.

•
But the times we live in are not normal; they are replete with a Democratic propaganda machine serviced by a majority of American media, fraud and a deliberate attempt to cause chaos with mass mail-in voting.

•
It is an establishment machine working 24/7 trying to convince people not to trust their lying eyes.

•
For Trump, his first term had to deal with the unfolding reality that the establishment itself tried to remove him from office using a fake Russia dossier hoax, facilitated by a compromised legacy media.

•
They knew his success in the White House would reveal the establishment grifters for the frauds that they have been for decades.

•
Trump won in 2016 because of the issues. Immigration reform, law and order, the economy, jobs, and returning America to its natural station of strength and preeminence on the world stage.

•
In other words, he promised to get our great nation back on its feet, creating futures for all of our families that were in our hands, not crushed by the paws of big government. And he succeeded.

•
The president made and kept his promises on jobs, law and order, and reforming the justice system.

•
He promised the appointment of judges who were beholden to the Constitution, not to partisan politics.

•
The economy he created was the best — not just that this nation has ever seen but that the world has ever known.

•
And while we lament what could have happened with that magnificent economic trajectory had the pandemic not been unleashed onto the world by the Chinese Communist Party, we were able to take the action required to react to a shocking and invisible viral enemy specifically because the nation had the resources created by President Trump's economic agenda.

•
We know that his extraordinary foreign policy has led us to the first Middle East peace deals in over a quarter of a century. Securing beneficial relationships between Israel and its neighbors takes us closer to a future without a nuclear exchange in that region, impacting the world over.

•
I was at first opposed to Trump during the 2016 primary season. And it was fascinating to experience being won over — won over by his argument on the issues; won over by his experience and ability to do what he promised to do; won over by his genuine passion wanting to lift us up, we the forgotten man and woman. I was won over by a man who wanted to be president not for himself, but for everyone else.

•
Even if 2020 was the first time that Trump was running for the presidency, he would still be the best and only man for the job. The situation we are in now, post-pandemic with the economic impact worldwide, requires a man who knows how to fix it, and improve upon it.

•
Now we do not have to guess as we did in 2016 whether or not Trump will deliver. He has already. And he will again.

•
He is the right man at the right time. There is no other individual on Earth who could lead this nation not just out of a pandemic, but also understand the importance of not bending to the leftist mobs attempting to burn down our nation and its potential.

•
We are the hope for humanity, requiring a leader who looks up to us, not down on us.
Tucker Carlson: Why Donald Trump's supporters love him so much (Fox 11/02/2020)
•
... the questions still hung in the air. Why did all those people come?

•
They must have known that Donald Trump is the most evil man who has ever lived. They've heard that every day for five years. They know that people who support Donald Trump are also evil, they're bigots, they're morons, they're racist cult members. They know that Americans have been fired from their jobs for supporting Donald Trump, not to mention kicked off social media, belittled by their kids' teachers and shunned by decent society. Only losers and freaks support Donald Trump.

•
Millions of Americans sincerely love Donald Trump. They love him in spite of everything they've heard. They love him, often, in spite of himself. They're not deluded. They know exactly who Trump is. They love him anyway.

•
They love Donald Trump because no one else loves them. The country they built, the country their ancestors fought for over hundreds of years, has left them to die in unfashionable little towns, mocked and despised by the sneering halfwits with finance degrees — but no actual skills — who seem to run everything all of a sudden.

•
Whatever Donald Trump's faults, he is better than the rest of the people in charge. At least he doesn't hate them for their weakness.

•
Donald Trump, in other words, is and has always been a living indictment of the people who run this country.

•
That was true four years ago when he came out of nowhere to win the presidency. And it's every bit as true right now, maybe even more true than it's ever been.

•
It will remain true regardless of whether Donald Trump wins reelection.

•
Trump rose because they failed. It's as simple as that. If the people in charge had done a halfway decent job with the country they inherited, if they cared about anything other than themselves, even for just a moment, Donald Trump would still be hosting "Celebrity Apprentice."

•
But they didn't. Instead, they were incompetent and narcissistic and cruel and relentlessly dishonest. They wrecked what they didn't build, and they lied about it. They hurt anyone who told the truth about what they were doing.

•
That's all true. We all watched.

•
America is still a great country, the best in the world, but our ruling class is disgusting.

•
A vote for Trump is a vote against them.
Racism, Cancel Culture, and hypocrisy come to Harvard (INN 11/02/2020)
•
The lesson for some of Harvard's students is that if they accept without question the current view of many anti-racists of the existence and influence of white supremacy, "white fragility," systematic racism, and endemic police bias against black victims, for example, they must also consider that there are possible, and justifiable, counterarguments to each of these topics.

•
And the individuals who debate those terms cannot automatically be considered racists, their speech should not be shut down, and they should not arbitrarily be purged from the academy because their ideas are troublesome, unorthodox, insensitive — even cruel.

•
Why is that? Because, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. put it so clearly, "if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate."
Newt Gingrich: Undecided voters, a Trump vote is imperative for our country's future (Fox 11/02/2020)
•
The key question is: Which future do you believe America must seek?

•
A Biden victory would be a victory for radical anti-Americanism.

•
It would be a victory for violence in the streets reinforced by an anti-police and pro-criminal bias.

•
It would mean massive tax increases which would propel America into a depression.

•
It would ensure government-imposed thought-police courses that are anti-history, anti-free thought, anti-White, and anti-male.

•
Finally, it would include subservience to China which would guarantee that the totalitarian thought control system of the Chinese Communist Party – and not the freedoms of the American Bill of Rights – would dominate our future.

•
A Trump victory would reinforce a remarkable four years of achievements and use them as a springboard to an even more dynamic and exciting future.

•
Using large tax cuts and aggressive deregulation policy, Trump grew the economy to the best unemployment numbers for African Americans and Latinos in American history.

•
He aggressively renegotiated trade agreements to give American exporters real advantages.

•
In the process, we began rebuilding the manufacturing base which had migrated to China, Mexico and elsewhere over the last three decades.

•
The president reversed decades of judicial activism and bench legislating by methodically nominating (and working with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to get approved) constitutional conservative judges in our federal courts.

•
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Defense was rebuilt and began to make the research and development investments necessary to stay ahead of China.

•
In a series of complicated moves, President Trump began disengaging our service members from the risk of death in the Middle East while using our military with surgical effectiveness.

•
He destroyed ISIS where President Barack Obama had failed, killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, surgically took out Iranian General Qasem Soleimani (the top general waging the Iranian terrorism war), and increased economic pressure on the Iranian dictatorship to curb its aggression.

•
Yet, while using precision military forces, President Trump also maneuvered diplomatically to change the entire equation of the Middle East.

•
... President Trump finally implemented the 1995 legislation moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

•
... he convinced the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan to recognize and normalize travel and trade with Israel in the biggest move toward regional stability in 25 years.

•
The greatest challenge of President Trump's time in the White House was the emergence of the Chinese coronavirus from Wuhan.

•
President Trump instinctively reacted to the pandemic and cut off travel from China long before the so-called experts thought it was necessary.

•
He also moved to radically increase the number of ventilators and personal protective equipment being built. He moved two Navy hospital ships to threatened hot spots.

•
... President Trump looked ahead and launched the most comprehensive and aggressive program of vaccine development in history.

•
... President Trump is pushing more and more effective therapies into action and is continuing to open up America.

•
President Trump deserves a second term because he has earned it. He doesn't just promise – he delivers.

•
He doesn't live hidden in a basement fighting a war of words. He travels America providing leadership and getting things done.

•
If you want a hidden leader who just talks, Biden is your man.

•
If you want a courageous activist who takes the risk to achieve for the American people, then Trump is the only choice.
Not so 'ideological'? Volunteer group warns of planned Antifa election violence, regardless... (Fox 11/02/2020)
•
"Our intelligence shows that no matter who wins the election, they [Antifa] are planning a massive ‘Antifa Tet Offensive,' bent on destroying the global order they are not beholden to any one party."

•
"Their sole purpose is to create havoc, fear, and intimidation."

•
"They also attempted to launch PSYOPS and, if you believe it, tried (once again) to insert a false Russian collusion / operative narrative via an 'actor' at the event."

•
"The most interesting part is when they start fake fights with each other to try and draw onlookers into the fray."

•
... maintains that Antifa is "much more advanced than people give them credit for in terms of intelligence collection and counterintelligence" and that they are "frequently changing their Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) and logistics."

•
"For anyone who believes Antifa is just a grassroots idea and their attacks are organic, we have a simple answer: do organic, spur of the moment movements and actions need logistics?"

•
"How else did they have pallets of bricks pre-positioned on street corners? How do they have a comprehensive legal network ready to defend and bail out their operatives and foot soldiers at the drop of a hat?"

•
"The inner circle only meets with certain leaders of the outer circle, who then pass the directions off to their peripheral groups – these cells in the other circle can be anywhere from five to thousands of people."

•
"This exact methodology is what allows them to say they aren't an organized group, as the majority of their numbers are made up by these peripheral groups or cells."

•
"This strongly indicates a model of command where individual cell leaders are given instructions in private or through anonymous media. There is zero possibility of such a large 'coincidence.'

•
"It is very apparent from my team's monitoring of online threats that Antifa-type groups intend to engage in violence in the aftermath of the election, especially if Trump wins. Rallies celebrating Trump's victory would be the most obvious target for violent disruption."

•
"But the threat comes from multiple angles. There are many extremists who hate Antifa and the left and don't necessarily want to initiate violence but are eager to jump into a fight once it begins."

•
"There are groups that have planned this for some time. Antifa is a paramilitary group that has done this over the summer. They first graffiti, bust windows, and then start to loot but keep moving quickly ahead."

•
"Militia groups and far-right groups will look to settle scores with BLM and Antifa when the demonstrations start. They will be in vehicles and will try to enter areas with bats, pipes, pepper spray, and in some instances, guns."

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And then ... are the "always-prepared, organized thugs who communicate on WhatsApp with another and use the term 'it's time to go to work.'"

•
"They come with backpacks and tools to bust locks and ply off plywood, bust windows and go in and out of stores in waves. The next day they will post the items on CraigsList, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, or fence the items in the streets. This is just another payday."
Election Day riots – how did we get here? There's plenty of blame to go around (Fox 11/02/2020)
•
Driving around Washington, D.C. a couple days ago was a shocking experience. Block after block of businesses are boarded up and anything throwable or movable has been removed from the streets.

•
In the meantime, faculty, staff, and students at George Washington University (where I teach) have been told to stockpile medicine and food "as you normally would for a hurricane or a snowstorm."

•
The reason? We are about to have a democratic election. The expectation is that is, unless it is a landslide for Biden, there will be rioting and arson in Washington and other cities.

•
When exactly did election rioting become as forecastable as inclement weather?

•
... Democratic leaders like House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C. declared on Sunday that the only way Democrat Joe Biden could lose the election would be "for voter suppression to be successful."

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Thus, if Trump is close or winning on election night, it can only be due to unlawful conduct. When President Trump made such statements about stealing the election, the media went into full alert over his laying the foundation for a coup.

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Yet, the media seems entirely comfortable with Clyburn's pre-election declaration that either Biden wins or the election is invalid.

•
... rioting is not an act of God, but the criminal acts of those who only embrace democratic elections to the extent that they result in the "right" outcomes.

•
People have little tolerance for analysis that does not reaffirm their bias. They want clarity and reinforcement like Clyburn assuring them that any close election or Trump victory is by definition a stolen election.

•
This expectation has been magnified by the unrelenting media coverage supporting Biden and his campaign. If you watch CNN or MSNBC, there is no other possibility than voter fraud if Trump comes close on election night.

•
... I do not recall any prior election where there were predictions of rioting, let alone such predictions in virtually every major city.

•
We have never relied on this number of mail-in ballots. Even in a normal year with a fraction of this number of mail-in balloting, we have had inevitable challenges on when and how to count such votes.

•
This could be a perfect storm of such election issues. Both campaigns have assembled forces of lawyers that make D-Day look like a small intimate gathering. They are going to use those lawyers.

•
It falls into the old military adage that "when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." In any contested election, all these campaigns will have are lawyers and every problem will look like fraud.

•
Yet, the advantage of legal challenges is that lawyers do not throw their burning briefs through the broken windows of courthouses.

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We have a political system to bring democratic change and a legal system to make sure that such change comes from as the result of balloting not rioting.

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So here is my legal forecast. This constitutional system will survive this election even if our windows do not. Those rioting will be triggered by the exercise of democracy, not its denial.

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For the rest of us, this too will pass.
Liz Peek: Liberal media helping Trump win four more years. Here's how (Fox 11/02/2020)
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Our liberal media outlets are not putting their thumb on the scale; they are putting their shattered reputations, too.

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There is nothing more sinister or offensive to those who believe in freedom than censorship.

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Suppressing contrary views is the tool of socialist totalitarian regimes; witnessing it burrow into our national politics is harrowing.

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It is not just the media, it is also the toxic "cancel culture" enabled by woke elites in academia, Hollywood and corporate boardrooms who are intolerant of opposing views and punish those who do not conform.

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Voting for Trump is one way to push back. ... Supporters of Donald Trump, to be sure, are motivated to vote for his reelection for many reasons.

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They believe his pro-business program of lower taxes and limited regulation will boost the economy better than Biden's regulatory zeal and proposed $4 trillion tax hike.

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They know that President Trump is willing to confront China in order to curtail Beijing's predatory behavior, including their gigantic theft of our business secrets and dishonest trade practices.

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Those voting for President Trump believe in America First, and know that Democrats are the party of America Second.

•
Trump fans applaud his common-sense demands that our NATO allies pay their promised share of our mutual defense, and the extra hundreds of billions of dollars that they have already surrendered.

•
They also applaud his breakthrough Middle East policy, which has brought together several Arab nations to make peace with Israel and to ring-fence Iran.

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Supporters of President Trump will vote for his policies because they think they are best for the nation.

•
But they are also voting against Twitter, which has been "fact-checking" President Trump and also censoring doctors who do not agree with Dr. Anthony Fauci's fluid pronouncements about COVID.

•
Twitter also recently shut down the account of Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan for a post about the wall being built on the Southern border.

•
Morgan wrote, "Every mile helps us stop gang members, murderers, sexual predators, and drugs from entering our country. It's a fact, walls work." That was deemed "hateful conduct."

•
Just as Democrats overstepped by impeaching Trump, which pushed the president's fund-raising and approval ratings to an all-time high, the liberal media's excesses may achieve the very outcome they have worked so hard to prevent: four more years of President Trump.

•
Wouldn't that be something?
Newt Gingrich: Will Trump win? Yes. I think history will repeat itself – here's why (Fox 11/01/2020)
•
In 1964, Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater asked Ronald Reagan to deliver a nationally televised speech on behalf of his campaign. The speech was called "A Time for Choosing."

•
In his address, Reagan made the point that freedom was at stake — that we're always taking a step toward either more freedom or more tyranny.

•
Reagan noted that, for several thousand years, man had gradually worked to create the rule of law; to establish the right of a free people who insist their liberties come from God, not government; and to limit the power of those who would exploit us, bully us, and dominate us.

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In 2020, we have seen the re-emergence of tyranny in America to a degree that I would have thought impossible were I not living through it.

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Across the country, Democratic leaders and their allies have trampled rights, censored speech, and hidden the truth from the American people.

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Americans have a choice on Election Day to continue further down this tyrannical path or step back from the brink and recapture our God-given freedoms.

•
Most egregiously, Democratic governors have abused their power during the coronavirus pandemic, discarding the Constitution to impose arbitrary bans that crush our liberty.

•
We've also seen Big Tech, especially Facebook and Twitter, try to imitate the Chinese Communist Party by censoring political stories they find inconvenient.

•
These tech giants are spreading across the country a San Francisco radicalism personified by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

•
And then of course there's the elite media, which has become a collection of propaganda outfits dedicated to protecting Joe Biden and other Democrats — even from confirmed reports of corrupt business dealings.

•
In short, what we're witnessing is an undermining of the United States of America — not just by the above forces but also by Black Lives Matter rioters and Antifa anarchists.

•
In this environment, the 2020 election is occurring at one of the most amazing and consequential times in modern history.

•
A victory for Donald Trump would be an American populous uprising against all the large systems that would sell out to the Chinese, give up the American dream, and suppress the political right.

•
Voters have to ask themselves whether they really trust a man who hides in his basement and a San Francisco radical running the country — especially when we've seen President Trump oversee a historically strong economy and not get involved in any more wars.

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All Americans who care about the future of their country must go out and vote and urge their friends and family to do the same.
The truth about Trump's tax cuts by the numbers, not by Biden: Andy Puzder (Fox 11/01/2020)
The Closing Argument for the American Regime (JWR 10/30/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Hunter Biden scandal shows media collusion with powerful is the real threat to America (Fox 10/30/2020)
•
For five years, we have watched the news media treat Donald Trump in a way that no American president has ever been treated.

•
Reporters hate Trump with an all-consuming mania. They hate him so intensely that at times it's been amusing to watch.

•
If you're a fair minded person, all this has been infuriating. Not only is it dishonest, it's also patronizing because it's almost unbelievably stupid.

•
Reporters are supposed to be tough on people with power. That's why we have journalism, to keep a close eye on those who have outsized influence over our lives.

•
The people we should watch carefully include business moguls, the intelligence agencies, prominent academics, cultural figures, military leaders, and most obviously, our politicians.

•
The rest of us can't really know what the people in charge are doing at all times. A reporter's job is to find out and tell us.

•
So in the end, the real threat to America isn't too many nasty questions from reporters. It's the opposite of that. The real threat is collusion.

•
When journalists strike secret alliances with the very people they're supposed to be holding accountable, we are in deep trouble.

•
Lies go unchallenged. Democracy cannot function. And that's what we're watching right now.

•
... we learned that the FBI is conducting an active investigation into Joe Biden's son for business deals that apparently included his father, the former vice president.

•
Former Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski sat for a five-hour interview with six FBI agents last week. They asked him about his business dealings in China with the Biden family.

•
Now, we don't know if this investigation will result in indictments, but we know that it could. That's significant because Joe Biden, as you may have heard, is running for president.

•
This is a criminal investigation into business deals that we know for a fact Joe Biden was party, too.

•
So why haven't you heard more about this? If you don't watch Fox News, you've likely heard nothing at all. Not a word.

•
Do you know why? Because the media are collaborating with the Democratic Party.

•
They're collaborating with the intelligence agencies that spy on Americans with impunity.

•
They're collaborating with the tech monopolies that have choked off the average person's access to legitimate information.

•
The people you're supposed to be able to trust are dismissing a completely legitimate, verified news story.

•
So you have to ask yourself: At some point, why would they tell you what they know is not true? Because these people are not your allies. They're not trying to help you or inform you.

•
Just the opposite. These people are your enemies. They are misleading you so that you will obey, and maybe it'll work.

•
Maybe they will get Joe Biden elected president next week without asking the most basic questions or vetting him in any way.

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Mark Levin describes how Biden-Sanders 'unity platform' mimics 1936 Soviet Constitution (Fox 10/30/2020)
•
"The Democrats like to run on on policies that are impractical and impossible, but they sound great. Where do they get this idea from? I'm looking at the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union; adopted in December of that year."

•
"'The right to work is ensured by the socialist organization of the national economy. The steady growth of the productive forces of Soviet society, the elimination of the possibility of economic crises and the abolition of unemployment,'" he reads. "Sound familiar, AOC?"

•
"Sounds very much like our own Communist Manifesto here [in the U.S., from the Democratic Party]," Levin warns after reading an article laying out nationalized health care and "social insurance."

•
He continues: "Article 121 [says that] citizens of the USSR have the right to education. This right is ensured by universal compulsory elementary education ... including higher education being free of charge ... by the system of state stipends."

•
Levin adds that Stalin and his government "destroyed" religious institutions in a manner predicted by the Soviet constitution's Article 124:"In order to ensure the citizens' freedom of conscience, the church in the USSR is separated from the state and the school from the church. Freedom of religious worship and freedom of antireligious propaganda is recognized for all citizens, of course," he reads, adding that the Stalinists "destroyed churches and they rounded up people because Communism and religion simply don't mix."

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The point ... is that "nothing in that constitution was complied with.

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The opposite was the case: Stalin was a ruthless, vicious Communist dictator who slaughtered tens of millions of people, including his own people.

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"Our Constitution protects us from this — [and] the 110-page Sanders-Biden manifesto, which is the Soviet Constitution-lite. But it is the same mindset."

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"Every aspect of our society in this document is regulated and taxed by a central authority that the Democrats want to control once they dispose of the Supreme Court, once they dispose of the Senate, once they dispose of the right for many of us to have our votes count, once they dispose of parts of the Bill of Rights ... this document, their 110-page document will become more like the Soviet constitution."

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See related AOC Green New Deal (Gary McCoy, 02/11/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus: Trump deserves a second term and has my vote. Here's why (Fox 10/30/2020)
Deroy Murdock: Trump's latest Mideast peace deal buried by ABC, CBS, NBC in sand dune (Fox 10/30/2020)
•
The United Arab Emirates agreement was the first compact between Israel and any of its former enemies in 26 years.

•
A second treaty, between Israel and Bahrain, followed just 29 days later, on September 11.

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The Israel-Sudan accord fell into place 42 days after that, on October 23.

•
This is the Domino Theory, but for good: Generations-old hatreds are being buried in the sands, as the Jewish state and its Muslim neighbors say goodbye to rancor and hello to reconciliation.

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... doesn't a major step forward overseas merit at least a passing wave from America's brave news anchors? Why not a few seconds of relevant footage with brief, sonorous voice-overs?

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"... the networks continue to demonstrate why they have alienated so many who dismiss them as ‘fake news'. Refusing to cede even 10 or 15 seconds to a major peace deal in the Middle East? Just because the president involved is named Trump, and they cannot countenance giving him a win days before the election?"

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That is the really big news here: The three major networks, like most of the dinosaur media, are so diabolically possessed with hatred for Donald J. Trump that they actively conceal virtually anything that shines a positive light on the president — especially as they labor sedulously for his defeat on November 3.
As Anonymous admits lying, will the vitriol rage on after the election? (Fox 10/30/2020)
•
... he hardly fits the description of "senior administration official" that caused a furor as Washington wondered whether the person describing Trump as "petty and ineffective" was a Cabinet or sub-Cabinet official, or even someone in the White House.

•
Instead, it was the chief of staff to the secretary of Homeland Security — one of an army of Beltway bureaucrats and hardly part of the Trump inner circle.

•
... raises "questions about whether his position in the Trump administration was senior enough to justify the decisions by The Times's Opinion desk and the book's publisher to keep his identity secret."

•
Had Taylor resigned and put his name on the piece, it would barely have caused a ripple.

•
It was the Times that pumped up the Anonymous mystery by conveying the impression this was some big-shot insider who deserved journalistic protection.

•
Now — you can't make this up — he's just been hired as a CNN contributor.

•
All this got me thinking about the legions of former Trump officials joining the Resistance and the Republican strategists joining forces through the Lincoln Project and other groups.

•
I'm not doubting anyone's society, and politics has always been a rough game. But the president's harshest critics often wrap their assaults in an aura of righteousness.

•
In a Times column using his actual name, David Brooks denounces Trump, praises Biden as "the personification of decency" — and raises questions about his own conduct and that of the hate-Trump crowd.

•
"Over the past four years we've poured out an hourly flow of anti-Trump diatribes and in almost every case they rise to the top of the charts — most liked, most retweeted, most read."

•
The fashionable thing in media circles is to blame the politics of hate on Donald Trump. But if Biden is sworn in next January, will much of the country simply aim its vitriol in different directions?

•
Will those on the left who have been demanding that the media and Congress hold the president accountable just roll over for Biden and defend everything he does?

•
Will those on the right who say this president has been victimized by fake news relentlessly attack Biden and the Democrats, castigating the press as lapdogs?

•
That sounds like a prescription for nonstop ugliness. And remember, it's not like the pandemic will have magically vanished.

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^MEDIA ANONYMUS Anonymous (Mike Lester, 09/07/2018) www.gocomics.com/mike-lester
China, Russia, Iran and North Korea care about US election results — here's why (Fox 10/29/2020)
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The bottom line is this: if we want to keep America safe, free and prosperous – and make the world safer in the face of these global bad boys – we should just keep doing what we are doing.
Here's what booming GDP numbers say about Trump's economy: Andy Puzder (Fox 10/29/2020)
•
For the second time in less than four years, President Trump has successfully lifted the U.S. economy out of stagnation, finding solutions to two very different crises.

•
As our historic third-quarter economic growth attests, the proof is in the pudding — no one is better equipped to steer America toward prosperity in the next four years than Donald Trump.
Americans are in two politically warring camps — each side hates the other (Fox 10/29/2020)
Adonis Hoffman: Big Tech Senate hearing winners and losers (Fox 10/28/2020)
Sadly, Jewish political intelligence is an oxymoron (INN 10/27/2020)
Woke Democrats are not so elite (INN 10/27/2020)
•
Wokes, as already known, can't think straight. Though educated and intelligent, they occupy the intellectual low ground.

•
Hardly a cause or concern fails to ruffle Woke feathers: gender, climate, black lives, police, migrants, Palestinian rights, Israeli wrongs, racism, dog whistles, white supremacy and a feudal midget of a President.

•
The evils of America, home to systemic racism, trouble moral elites by day and by night.

•
The evils troubled Wokes up to the week that was. Then at the pinnacle of the November 2020 campaign a corruption story became about Joe and not Hunter.

•
It came as a shock to Woke Democrats that their candidate for President was more unsavoury and irredeemable than (to their mind) the despicable Trump. The candidate runs a Family.

•
The crux of Biden's bind is that the facts about him are too factual for his handlers to deny authenticity.

•
So the Big Tech Wokes had to step in with a protection racket, which even their Atlantic mouthpiece admits.

•
"Concerns about illiberal tendencies on the left are not made up out of thin air. Parts of the left now seek far-reaching censorship in social media, and are hostile to free speech."

•
At the release of the Hunter Biden emails, Joe, rather than staying to rebut them, scuttled back to the bunker, leaving it to the Woke media to make lame excuses for not covering the news.

•
And when Trump began to speak of the Family his interviewer cried out, "This is ‘60 Minutes and we can't put on things we can't verify.

•
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil portrays the Woke protection racket, which non-stop during four bitter years heard, saw and spoke continuous evil about a concocted straw figure named Trump.

•
If the protection racket, aided and abetted by feudal lords of the social media, banked on burying or blocking the revelations about the Biden Family, the gambit failed. The story ended up being the most-discussed of the campaign.

•
The next most talked-about story was the social networks trying to block it. The New York Post which broke the story called it an act of modern totalitarianism.

•
But the Wokes have never been put off by totalitarianism. In their DNA is the instinct to control and indoctrinate everyone from cradle to grave. From language to sport everything must conform to Woke doctrines.

•
Biden in the White House would mean that the protection racket snatched the soul of America the free. It would mean that the Family will be protected. There'll be no paying for its corruption, as Hilary Clinton did not have to pay.

•
It's the unprotected American people who will pay. They'll have to live with another lockdown perhaps for the sake of saving the planet from climate extinction. To Wokes follow the science means doing what Big Brother and Sister tell you is good for you.

•
Bank on Wokes pursuing such a line of thought. Remember, they have a fatal deficiency of critical reasoning. Wokes don't think so good.

•
It wouldn't occur to them that policy makers don't have to live with the consequences of utopian dreams.

•
Havoc caused by open borders, Green Deals, national health, language police and defunded proper police is for the meek and mindless to bear.

•
Orwell's 1984 did not have a bleaker finale.
Why packing the Supreme Court would not be easy for Democrats (Fox 10/27/2020)
John Yoo: Amy Coney Barrett and Trump's direct impact on America's political future (Fox 10/26/2020)
•
... President Donald Trump's most profound effect on the Constitution may no longer be his fight against the Russia collusion probe or his acquittal for impeachment.

•
In both cases, he also defended the Founders' vision of the executive branch – one that vests the power to enforce the law and protect the national security in the hands of a single, elected president – against the progressive idea of government as the preserve of unelected experts who should wield their professional judgment free from political control.

•
But now, Trump has had a more direct impact on our political future by appointing Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

•
It will not be, as Democrats fear and Republicans hope, due to her immediate influence on urgent issues such as the constitutionality of ObamaCare and 2020 election disputes arising out of battleground states. These questions will fade.

•
Instead, Barrett will have the far more profound influence of addressing controversies that have divided our politics for decades and perhaps even beginning to settle fundamental questions that may provide a structure for the future.

•
Abortion has driven the escalation of politics because it removed one of the nation's most important social questions from the arena of elections and legislatures and transferred it to the docket of the Supreme Court.

•
Voters who care about abortion can now change policy only by influencing the judges on the federal courts.

•
Reversing Roe v. Wade would not end abortion in the nation, but only return the question to Congress and the nation's statehouses.

•
Barrett may prove just as important in finding a path forward for the future. Perhaps the greatest conflict besetting the Court today is the conflict between liberty and equality.

•
Our Bill of Rights recognizes the right of individuals to freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion, among others.

•
These rights have steadily come into conflict with the efforts of state and local governments to extend equality beyond race, gender, and religion to new categories such as sexual orientation and the transgender.

•
Justice Barrett could provide a fifth or even sixth vote on the Court to recognizing that the Bill of Rights fundamental protections for liberty supersede more recent, popular efforts to mandate equality.

•
If she were to demand that the courts protect the right of speech and religion above all, Barrett would make her most profound contribution to the Supreme Court and the Constitution.

•
Many conservatives overcame their wariness toward Trump four years ago when he released his list of potential Supreme Court nominees.

•
In nominating Barrett to the Supreme Court, he kept his promise by choosing an undaunted originalist – someone who interprets the Constitution based on the understanding held by its ratifiers.

•
Trump's most profound effect on the Constitution will come when she and the other Trump Justices apply that originalism to the questions of liberty and equality.
‘Alarming’ for Biden to consider ‘wacky’ proposals to change Supreme Court: Jonathan Turley (Fox 10/26/2020)
•
"What Vice President Biden is referring to is a series of proposals put out by professors to fundamentally change the Supreme Court and some of them are quite wacky."

•
"You're talking about proposals in one case that is being put forward by [former 2020 candidate] Pete Buttigieg [to] just go ahead and select five Democrats for the court, five Republicans, and then five sort of transient or temporary justices. That's the type of proposal that is being batted around in addition to court-packing."

•
"They're even calling this vote [to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett] a form of court-packing, which is legally and logically incomprehensible. I mean, this is not court-packing, it is filling a vacancy according to the constitutional system."

•
The reality that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and the Director of National Intelligence all say there is absolutely no evidence Russia is involved in the Hunter Biden laptop scandal seems to be of no effect on these accessories after the fact to what appears to be the greatest criminal corruption scandal in the history of the United States.

•
Additionally, the fact that a Navy Officer veteran has not only verified many of the emails, but also said Joe Biden was personally involved in many of the transactions seems to cut no ice with the lame-stream media.

•
But the real key to understanding how Joe Biden is likely guilty of federal criminal bribery is carefully parsing Biden's Oct. 22, 2020 debate statement that "I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life."

•
This statement is vital because while Joe Biden said that personally, he hasn't taken "a penny from any foreign source," if his son Hunter has taken "a penny" from foreign sources and Joe Biden knew about it, it is just as much of a crime as if Joe Biden had taken the "penny" personally.

•
Hunter Biden receiving money from companies and governments that specifically benefitted from Joe Biden's official decisions as Vice President explicitly invokes the Federal criminal bribery law, specifically 18 USC Sec. 201.

•
Under 18 USC Sec. 201, "Bribery of public officials and witnesses," the mere fact that Joe Biden knew that Hunter Biden, with no experience in these areas, was receiving huge sums of money from companies and entities regarding which Joe Biden was making favorable decisions would, at a minimum, be a predicate for a full scale criminal investigation, if not a likely federal bribery crime in, and of, itself.

•
... Biden's debate-night carefully parsed statement that "I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life." looks suspect when viewed through the lens of 18 USC Sec 201 where it is every bit as much of a direct crime if Hunter took foreign source or any source money in return for a favorable official act by Vice President Joe Biden.

•
It is also clear that Joe Biden knew the only reason these companies, (specifically Burisma when Joe was Vice President) were giving Joe Biden huge sums of money was because Hunter was Joe's Biden's son.

•
Did Joe Biden expect these companies to give his son millions of dollars with nothing for Joe Biden to do in return? Of, course not.

•
Joe Biden's actions with respect to directly protecting Burisma by demanding the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor who was criminally investigating Burisma is, at a minimum, a red flag predicate act to start a major criminal investigation of Joe Biden, if not prima facie explicit evidence of gross bribery.

•
But tragically, the failure of the relevant US government agencies to properly investigate Joe Biden's suspicious acts, and either clear him or indict him, has allowed a possibly suspect person to be a candidate for the office of the next president of the United States.

•
The American government agencies' failure to properly investigate Joe Biden is, perhaps, an even greater crime than the one Joe Biden may have committed.

•
Joe Biden may be personally corrupt, but the American government investigative agencies' failure to even investigate Biden's Burisma actions proves conclusively that these branches of the American government itself are hopelessly corrupt.
Amy Coney Barrett deserves to be confirmed, she's one of most impressive nominees I've ever seen (Fox 10/26/2020)
•
She answered questions on everything from the Bill of Rights to the Sherman Antitrust Act to cameras in the courtroom. She demonstrated an exhaustive, even encyclopedic, knowledge of the law.

•
Even in the face of hostile and at times unfair questioning from Democratic Senators, Judge Barrett was poised, confident, and courteous. She demonstrated beyond question that she is qualified for, and deserves confirmation to, the Supreme Court.

•
I served for four decades on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including three separate stints as chairman. I know a thing or two about Supreme Court nominees.

•
I participated in the confirmation of every Justice from Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981 to Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. And I can say without question that Judge Barrett was as impressive as any nominee I have ever seen.

•
Senate Democrats hit Judge Barrett with everything they had. They asked her over and over again how she would decide questions likely to come before the Court or what she thought about hotly contested legal issues, subjects she could not discuss without violating the canons of judicial ethics.

•
They distorted her record and cherry-picked quotes from her cases and law review articles in an effort to portray her in the worst light possible.

•
When she explained why she could not say how she would rule, or offer views on issues likely to be litigated, Senate Democrats expressed faux outrage and misrepresented how prior nominees had answered questions.

•
Through it all, Judge Barrett remained calm, collected, and devastatingly impressive. More than a few times Democratic Senators came out of exchanges looking the fool. Not because Judge Barrett had been condescending, but because Judge Barrett was so clearly the better, smarter lawyer.

•
Judge Barrett, however, is much more than just an impressive jurist. She is an impressive person.

•
Regrettably, over the past few weeks, we've seen scurrilous attacks on Judge Barrett's family and life choices. Although deeply disappointing, these attacks are not surprising.

•
More than 30 years ago, liberals deployed search-and-destroy tactics against Judge Robert Bork, distorting his record and impugning his personal character in a desperate attempt to defeat his nomination — an attempt that unfortunately succeeded.

•
Liberals continued their scorched-earth campaign against Justice Clarence Thomas and most recently against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, leaking utterly unsubstantiated allegations at the eleventh hour in an effort to derail their nominations and destroy their lives. Thankfully, those efforts did not succeed.

•
This time the tactics have been a bit different. Opponents have attacked Judge Barrett's outlandish decisions to have children, to adopt children, and to participate actively in her religious community.

•
That Judge Barrett may be personally pro-life — just like tens of millions of other Americans — is apparently a scandal, as is the fact that she takes seriously the commitments of her faith.

•
She's even been called a "colonist" for adopting two children from Haiti who lost their parents.

•
Senate Democrats were sufficiently embarrassed by these attacks that they largely confined their hearing strategy to complaints about process and ineffective questions about Judge Barrett's judicial philosophy.

•
Although one can never be certain what tricks Senate Democrats may have up their sleeves, Judge Barrett's masterful performance at her hearing this month has put her on a clear path to confirmation.

•
She will be an outstanding Justice and a worthy successor of both Justice Scalia, for whom she clerked, and Justice Ginsburg, whose seat she will fill. She will interpret the law fairly and faithfully — of that there can be no doubt.

•
Equally important, she will be an inspiration to millions of Americans. Judge Barrett demolishes the lie that professionally successful women must act or live a certain way or that active religious faith is a tool of patriarchy and oppression.

•
When confirmed, she will have reached the very pinnacle of her profession — a place that only nine Americans occupy at any one time — and she will have done so with her husband, her children, and her faith community by her side every step of the way.

•
I could not be more pleased that President Trump nominated Judge Barrett for our nation's highest court. And I could not be more proud that we will soon be able to call Judge Barrett Justice Barrett.
Why Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation is an imminent victory for court and country (Fox 10/26/2020)
•
In an earlier era, someone with the qualifications and character of Barrett would have been confirmed by a unanimous or nearly unanimous vote.

•
Not so in this era of a hyper-politicized judiciary, when the Democratic playbook is to treat courts as vehicles for policy.

•
During the hearings, Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee acted as if they were hammering out the details of health care legislation. One after another, they trotted out troubling stories about people struggling with illnesses, complete with blown-up photos.

•
Of course, the number one reason this process was able to reach the brink of confirmation is the nominee herself.

•
Judge Barrett's qualifications, her brilliance, and her poise were on full display during the hearings.

•
So was her commitment to constitutionalism and the rule of law. The American Bar Association gave her its highest rating, and no one could seriously disagree.

•
Praises for her, both personal and professional, are in abundance from people across ideological lines who have known and worked with her.

•
... Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., showed perhaps more of his hand than he intended when he admitted, "It's not about qualifications. It's about what the American people need and want..." For him, courts are about policy rather than law.

•
The minority leader bookended the scurrilous arguments his party had initially made against filling the seat with the grandiloquent declaration that this was the "least legitimate process in the entire history of Supreme Court nominations."

•
We can laugh at that statement as an inadvertent act of self-parody by a senator who is routinely loose with facts and who months ago shamefully threatened Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, "You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price!"

•
It is difficult to overstate the importance of the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to be the next associate justice.

•
Besides being an outstanding jurist, she would give the Supreme Court its first originalist majority since the advent of the modern debate over constitutional law.

•
That is a gift to the Court and the nation. It gives us a system better resembling a republic. To borrow Benjamin Franklin's famous words, let's hope we can keep it.
Amy Coney Barrett incredibly qualified for Supreme Court, Dems' radical agenda alarming (Fox 10/26/2020)
•
It was already known that Judge Barrett is by any measure imaginable — including the ABA gold standard — incredibly qualified to be a Justice on the Supreme Court.

•
... it was clear my Democratic colleagues in the committee were grasping for straws trying to find reasons to oppose her nomination. Their entire opposition is predicated on their unsuccessful demand for Judge Barrett to promise to legislate from the bench and advance their liberal agenda by decimating your right to religious freedom and to keep and bear arms.

•
Democrats know that if they can't advance their radical liberal agenda like the Green New Deal and taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants through legislation, they can appoint judges who will do their job for them, turning the federal judiciary into an extension of the legislative branch.

•
What's even more concerning than the Democrats' demands that Judge Barrett be a legislator from the bench is their plan to pack the Court if they don't get their way.

•
... former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and their liberal allies are hell-bent on repeating the mistakes of the past and packing the Supreme Court with left-wing activists.

•
Let me be clear — despite what some Democrats have said in an effort to hide their plans to increase the number of seats on the Supreme Court — court-packing means increasing the number of justices so that there is a left-wing majority on the Court that would rubber-stamp the Democrats' unconstitutional liberal agenda.

•
Court-packing means that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer would be able to confiscate your guns, force people to violate their deeply held religious beliefs, and use the federal bureaucracy like a weapon to crush American businesses and taxpayers.

•
That's why I strongly support judges like Amy Coney Barrett who will interpret the Constitution and law as written. They don't have agendas, conservative or liberal. They don't go to the bench to legislate or to advance any agenda.

•
Their job is to interpret the law as written; nothing more, nothing less. Instead of court-packing, radical Democrats should instead be working with Republicans to confirm judges who will be neutral arbiters of the law and not liberal or conservative policy advocates.

•
But sadly, they won't do that. For them, eliminating religious freedom, destroying our Second Amendment rights, and imposing their job-killing Green New Deal is more important than having a properly limited Supreme Court.

•
Democrats will do anything to achieve those goals, including turning the Supreme Court into an unelected super-legislature.
Trump's best presidential debate ever (INN 10/25/2020)
COVID has radically disrupted American habits and behavior. What's next for us? (Fox 10/25/2020)
•
The coronavirus, widespread quarantines, an unprecedented self-induced recession, and unchecked rioting, looting and protesting — all in a presidential election year — are radically disrupting American habits and behavior.

•
Those more fortunate wonder why they should get bogged down with commutes and urban traffic — or navigate city sidewalks amid homelessness, crime, racial tensions and urban unrest — when they can make as much money while staying distant in quieter landscapes.

•
Many of the people who have never before owned firearms are no longer clamoring for gun control. A "man's home" is now becoming his armed castle.

•
As a general rule, any business or activity that does not bother, judge or lecture Americans and instead allows them to work or relax in peace is preferred.

•
Why are Amazon and Walmart booming while smaller businesses are going broke? Largely because home delivery better serves those who are barricaded at home, terrified both of the virus and government reaction to it.

•
Family businesses are not vertically integrated. They have few cash reserves and no special insider exemptions from government officials.

•
How ironic that in our quest to become safe and in control of our own destinies, we empower the anonymity of huge conglomerates and erode the viability of reliable, service-friendly, mom-and-pop stores.

•
For the first time in their careers, many teachers and professors are careful not to go off-topic and rant to their high school and college students.

•
Their video streams are not only seen by captive student audiences but occasionally peeked in on by the parents and taxpayers who pay their salaries.

•
This is the first autumn in memory that a huge percentage of college students are staying home. And no one is sure of the ensuing consequences.

•
Will students revolt over borrowing money simply to watch lectures on their basement computers?

•
Will they be less likely to vote in November when they are isolated at home, rather than congregating on campus near polling places and subject to constant peer pressures to vote — and to do so in predictable ways?

•
With college revenues dropping, will ambitious promises to hire more diversity administrators, build more self-segregated racial theme houses and increase campus social services be seen as just more costly overhead that shorts classroom teaching?

•
During the pandemic, government has become more intrusive and yet seemingly more impotent and incompetent.

•
Pick a month and some government official issues yet more contradictory orders on mask-wearing, social distancing and lockdowns — all to be soon reversed.

•
Taxes stayed high and yet urban services got worse. Increasingly, American city dwellers don't always count on the power going on when they flip the switch, or the bus or train always showing up, or the police always answering 911 calls.

•
We still do not know the full consequences of these radical changes in American life, especially whether they will continue after the COVID-19 virus abates and quarantines end.

•
The cultural currents are often contradictory. They defy easy political analysis and seem at times counterintuitive. But there is one historical constant.

•
When institutions and politicians cannot accommodate radically changed circumstances, people will no longer value institutions and politicians.

•
In their place, citizens will seek to ensure their own livelihoods, leisure and safety in ways that are more reliable and affordable — with their circumstances in their own hands rather than in those of distant others.

•
And their adjustments won't always be calm or polite.
Censorship of conservatives proves Twitter & Facebook are enemies of free speech, free press (Fox 10/25/2020)
•
Big Tech titans Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg better lawyer up.

•
These enemies of free speech and a free press will be hauled in to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain their brazen censorship of conservatives.

•
The ever-growing list of those censored includes the president of the United States, his White House press secretary and the New York Post, whose account was locked for posting a credible story about Joe Biden and his son during an election.

•
In light of Twitter's unprecedented and willful censorship, Jack Dorsey could also be facing charges for lying to Congress in 2018.

•
... Dorsey told lawmakers: "Let me be clear about one important and foundational fact: Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules."

•
That's an outright lie, given the overwhelming and well-documented evidence of the social network's extreme bias and disproportionate censorship against conservatives over the years.

•
... a study earlier this month that showed Twitter and Facebook have censored President Trump and his campaign 65 times. His political opponent, Joe Biden, hasn't been censored once. Hardly impartial, wouldn't you say?

•
Yet, that's not what Dorsey told Congress. He said: "We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially. We do not shadow ban anyone based on political ideology. In fact, from a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform." Is that a joke?

•
Twitter locked the New York Post's account for doing its job — reporting on a presidential candidate's sketchy foreign business dealings and an alleged influence-peddling scheme.

•
Amid other instances of censorship, Twitter also blocked the House Judiciary GOP from posting a link to the Post's story to a government website.

•
There's nothing impartial about this un-American suppression of information, especially if one considers that Twitter and Facebook gave Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, legacy media outlets and scores of blue-check "journos" the green light to peddle stories about the fake dossier and Russia collusion hoax against President Trump and his administration the past four years.

•
This five-alarm conspiracy theory has since been debunked by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and various congressional probes.

•
Twitter permitted China's mouthpiece, the World Health Organization, to tweet last January that the coronavirus wasn't transmittable between humans — false information that put millions of lives at risk worldwide.

•
And yet it routinely silences right-leaning accounts such as Dr. Scott Atlas, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, for what it considers to be misleading information about the virus.

•
Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, was censored by the oligarchs at Twitter this month for simply questioning the efficacy of masks when data shows that infection rates soared in Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, Miami and Los Angeles and elsewhere despite mask mandates.

•
The frightening reality is the social media speech police won't even allow health care medical experts, like Atlas, to question anything that strays from their narrow point of view.

•
The rest of us must regurgitate the approved left-wing talking points or risk being silenced or deplatformed from these almighty digital monopolies.

•
Congress must stop these rampant abuses once and for all.

•
See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Jonathan Turley: NBC analyst says Trump supporters have lizard brains (Fox 10/24/2020)
•
Vanderbilt University professor and historian Jon Meacham recently gave a quiz in his course on the 2020 election in which students were asked: "Was the Constitution designed to perpetuate white supremacy and protect the institution of slavery?"

•
You had to answer "yes" or get points deducted.

•
"I think Trump did himself good with his base tonight," Meacham said.

•
"The question for America is how big that base is. There is a lizard brain in this country. Donald Trump is a product of the White man's, the anguished, nervous White guy's lizard brain."

•
... was referring to a primitive part of the brain in psychological literature: "Many people call it the ‘Lizard Brain,' because the limbic system is about all a lizard has for brain function. It is in charge of fight, flight, feeding, fear, freezing up, and fornication."

•
What is striking is that Meacham is supposed to give what NBC, MSNBC and PBS present as neutral, scholarly analysis.

•
But his comment about Trump supporters having lizard brains captures why conservative or independent voters view the networks as biased and gratuitously insulting.

•
Indeed, these comments show that networks like NBC are now focusing entirely on Democratic and liberal viewers — writing off half of the American people as gag lines.

•
There appears to be no point that is too insulting or raw for national commentary so long as it is an attack on Trump or those who support him.

•
Miami Herald columnist and NBC analyst Leonard Pitts wrote a column headlined: "No, it's not the economy, stupid. Trump supporters fear a black and brown America."

•
The narrative has moved beyond Hillary Clinton's description of Trump supporters as a "basket of deplorables" to now portraying all Trump supporters as open racists.

•
"Make America Great Again" hats are denounced by academics as the symbol of "modern day hitlerjugend" and hate speech.

•
An article headlined "Why Your Lizard Brain is Keeping You Stuck and Specific Tools To Start Connecting" could be distributed as a self-help guide for network analysts.

•
The article states: "When you're acting in one of these fear-based modes — whether you fight, flee or freeze — you can't remember any of the great communication tools you've learned or the tips or strategies you've been practicing because you can't access the part of the brain where that stuff is saved! Brain imaging has shown that when the amygdala is activated by negative emotions, it actually interferes with the brain's ability to solve problems (or figure out how to get unstuck). But here's the good news: positive emotions and thoughts do the opposite; they help you with creative problem-solving and strategic thinking."

•
In other words, it is possible that tens of millions of voters are not lizard people, but people with opposing views.

•
Yet, once Trump supporters are shown or discussed, it triggers these intense negative emotions in analysts who respond with fight and flight impulses.

•
Once you accept that, you can access parts of "the brain where that stuff is saved" from your training and your scholarship. You know. Like history.
Laura Ingraham urges voters to 'teach the elites and their lackeys a message' by reelecting Trump (Fox 10/24/2020)
•
"If you love America, if you think our experiment in democracy is one of the greatest triumphs of the human spirit and you reject this pay-to-play government symbolized by Biden, you must stand with President Trump."

•
"This is our chance. Never before in my lifetime have the elites gathered in such numbers or have spent such money to stop a political movement."

•
... Biden's alliance of Democrats and establishment figures controlled the levers of power in America for many decades, but failed their constituents as time went on.

•
"They used to mock us, but now they fear us. They are right. They had their chance to govern this country for decades and they blew it."

•
"Let them spend billions on propaganda, let them spread their lies, let them quiver with threats and rage. We will defy them."

•
... although Biden has Hollywood, Big Tech and the Beltway insider class behind him, the man himself inspires little excitement among the public apart from his status as the "un-Trumpian necessity of the moment."

•
"On Election Day let's teach the elites and their lackeys a message they will never forget."

•
"In America, power belongs to the people — all of the people, not just an elite few who write the checks every four years."
Tucker Carlson: What we learned at the final presidential debate (Fox 10/23/2020)
•
We learned that self-control pays off. Donald Trump pulled back a little bit on stage and he was never better than he was Thursday night.

•
At the same time, we learned that if you really want to wreck Joe Biden, let him talk without a script for two minutes at his age.

•
We also learned something that we already knew: Donald Trump drives a certain sort of person completely insane. He could recite the words from the "Happy Birthday" song and these people would hear machine gun fire.

•
... at one point during the debate, the president tried to explain why the human smuggling of children into the United States is a bad thing. ... "Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they're brought here and they used to use them to get into our country."

•
... human smugglers — coyotes, as they're often called along the border — bring children into this country illegally, sometimes without their parents. That's true, and that's what the president said.

•
Dar'shun Kendrick is an elected Democrat in the state of Georgia. She's one of her party's leaders in the State House there, and she wasn't buying it for a second. "How the hell does a coyote bring a whole human across the border?" she wondered...

•
You should know that Dar'shun Kendrick is an attorney and a self-described investment adviser. You're going to want to hand your retirement portfolio to her as soon as you can.

•
At one point, Joe Biden told us that hundreds of these children brought here by coyotes, possibly dragged, have been separated permanently from their parents by the Trump administration, which hates families — 545 children, to be exact.

•
It's not even close to true. The vast majority of the parents of these children have been located by federal authorities and they are refusing to reunite with their children.

•
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson says that in one lawsuit currently pending, the plaintiffs have been able to contact the parents of 485 children separated at the border and yet "they've yet to identify a single family that wants their child reunited with them in their country of origin."

•
In many cases, the parents in question are not in the United States. They're still back home in their country of origin, usually in Central America. In some cases, they never even tried to come to the United States. Instead, they set their children up with someone else, a coyote possibly, to bring them here.

•
All the people howling about children in cages and family separations have no idea what they're talking about or don't care. And of course, they have no answers to the problems they claim are plaguing their consciences.

•
... like virtually everyone else in Washington at the time, Joe Biden voted to stiffen drug penalties. That was an enormously popular thing to do in the middle of a drug epidemic and the murder epidemic that inevitably followed. It was popular with people in Black neighborhoods, who were suffering the most.

•
But now Joe Biden is pretending it was all a big racist mistake. "In the '80s ... All 100 senators voted for a bill on drugs and how to deal with drugs. It was a mistake..."

•
The bill that Joe Biden just referred to passed in 1986 and it passed the United States Senate with 97 votes. That bill was co-sponsored by the then-chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. The House approved it by a 376-vote margin.

•
The majority of the Congressional Black Caucus supported the crime bill. They're now telling us it was written by the Klan (and by the way, Republicans are saying that too, mindlessly).

•
Joe Biden knows that these bills weren't mistakes. We don't put people in jail in this country for being Black. People go to jail for committing crimes.

•
Not all of our anti-crime laws are smart. But the bill wasn't written to punish an ethnic group. It was written to control what was a very real problem, including in Black neighborhoods, and that was drug-fueled crime. People were dying from it in big numbers in 1994.

•
Not only is Joe Biden now telling us these crime bills were mistakes, now he's telling us that any law that puts any drug offender in prison is a mistake. Would that include the opioid dealers who haveve killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in recent years?

•
... what exactly is the HEROES Act and what does it do?

•
Among other things, the HEROES Act would allow illegal immigrants to retroactively receive coronavirus stimulus checks. People who are here illegally would get tax dollars retroactively.

•
The bill contains a prison break provision, allowing inmates with asthma or diabetes to get out of jail. It bans voter ID laws, because of course it does.

•
It also allows marijuana businesses and their service providers access to banking and insurance services.

•
The bill would bail out left-wing jurisdictions that had financial problems going back many decades, long before coronavirus.

•
And of course, the bill would allow paid political operatives to collect ballots in bundles and return them to polling stations.

•
So consider those provisions and ask yourself, who exactly do they help? Americans who haveve lost their jobs because of the lockdowns? Small business owners trying to save their livelihoods?

•
At this point, we should mention that this virus has a 99.9% percent survival rate for the vast majority of Americans. The lockdowns, on the other hand, hurt everyone.

•
The economic and psychological costs of them are, in many cases, irreversible. Thousands of businesses will never come back. The families that own those businesses are destroyed even as Google and Amazon get stronger.

•
And what about our children? Students who have already spent a year away from school are now preparing to stay away from school indefinitely and they're learning nothing.

•
Joe Biden essentially ... saying, "Do not open until you get this under control." What does that mean? According to Joe Biden, that's what the public health experts are saying.

•
These are the same public health experts who say you can't go outside unless, of course, it's to attend a Black Lives Matter rally or loot a Wendy's. But you must listen to them.

•
These are the same people who told you that the riots were, in fact, not a threat to public health. They were necessary, but any demonstration against the lockdowns was a threat to public health.

•
... our public health infrastructure is supposed to be nonpartisan. Instead, it's become completely corrupted by partisan interests, and it's making decent people cynical.

•
The people in charge, once again, have revealed themselves to be completely unserious, and yet they still demand that we pay attention to them.

•
That was the theme of the night. It's the theme of the age.

•
See related Watch This... (Jake Fuller, 2019)") cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Think It's Almost Over? Think Again (JWR 10/24/2020)
•
If the president wins, whether by a squeak or by a landslide, the left will take to the streets.

•
We're at a time in this country where violent protesting and destruction has become a common occurrence from leftist radicals, cheered on by the Democrats.

•
If Biden wins there won't be any cars set on fire, there won't be any looting, no bottles being thrown at police, nor statues torn down by Trump supporters.

•
The fact is, those of us on the right just don't engage in rioting. The left tears down, the right builds. That's the way it works.

•
We've come to a tipping point for our country. This election will determine what kind of a country we will be living in. The consequences of this election will last for decades, maybe forever. Will we remain a constitutional republic or will we begin the march toward Communism? Will we become the next Venezuela?

•
A couple of thoughts as we enter what may very well be the most chaotic and troubling period within one of the most chaotic and troubling years in our national history.

•
First thought, the American press: In my lifetime I've never seen a more corrupt body of people who appear to be happily engaged in a concerted effort of deceit when it comes to news reporting.

•
We used to point to the Nazi and communist governments as examples of fascist regimes who controlled the news by spreading false propaganda and outright lies to its people.

•
But what we have here in our country is actually much worse and more deeply troubling. The difference is, the fascist regimes were dictating what the media was to report.

•
In America's case the government isn't forcing reporters to lie or falsify the truth, the reporters are willfully doing it on their own.

•
We can thank the last 50 years of leftist indoctrination taught in our public schools and universities for the leftist mindset of today's journalists.

•
They learned in schools that free speech is not a good thing since it may produce "hate speech." And hate speech must be muzzled. What is hate speech exactly? Hate speech is anything that anyone might feel offended and/or threatened by.

•
For two or three generations our schools have taught that there is no such thing as truth, per se. Everyone has their own "truth." You have your truth, I have my truth.

•
Schools taught that those people who do not share the "progressive" mantra on social issues and liberal causes do not deserve to be heard or even taken seriously.

•
In fact, people who have different views than the left are undoubtedly evil racists who want to do harm to women, the LGBT community, and blacks.

•
The schools taught several generations of prospective journalists that America was founded by evil white racists with the intent of colonizing other countries, stealing their wealth and enslaving their people. American history has been either ignored or drastically altered to reflect a leftist progressive view of the world.

•
... the far left doctrines which include anti-America, anti-white men, anti-religious, and anti-nuclear family have been part of our educational system for 50 years.

•
You can call it ultra-liberal, progressive, socialistic, or Marxist, but it's communism, pure and simple.

•
It's all about the destruction of individualism, Western culture and capitalism and the elevation of an all controlling vast centralized state.

•
People who attended school back when school engaged in honest history, patriotism, good manners, right and wrong, and the value of traditional families and religion are not part of our working media anymore. They are retired or dead.

•
... millions of voters under the age of 65 have gone through this very same "progressive" educational system, so it should not come as any surprise if they vote with a liberal mindset.

•
And then again, we still have millions of heartland Americans who treasure their families, who take pride in their work, who love their country and who value their God given rights as enumerated in the Constitution. Maybe we still have enough of these good people in the U.S.A. who will keep our country alive.
A Sordid Conspiracy to Deceive American Electorate (JWR 10/23/2020)
Sen. Marsha Blackburn: Debate contrasted Trump successes with Biden failures (Fox 10/23/2020)
•
If you're looking for a fighter and a political outsider, Donald Trump is your man.

•
If you want an insider who is prepped and poised to go with the same old Beltway flow, Joe Biden is your man.

•
Right away, President Trump went on offense. He took control of the first round of questioning on his coronavirus response, invoking the specter of the Obama-Biden administration's disastrous H1N1 flu response in 2009 to illustrate how a Biden administration might respond to future COVID-19 waves.

•
It took the Obama-Biden administration seven months to classify the H1N1 outbreak as a national health emergency. Even Biden's former chief of staff admits that they dodged a bullet.

•
The president kept up his support for small businesses and workers throughout the debate, toward the end hitting back against Biden's destructive stance on raising the minimum wage.

•
If you want to know who won the most points debating the future of the Affordable Care Act, just ask the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance.

•
Biden doubled down on already-debunked claims that no one lost their private health insurance post-Affordable Care Act, which is just as false a claim as President Obama's assertion that "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" under his health plan.

•
All President Trump had to do was point out that Biden's plan would strip health insurance from 153 million Americans who get health insurance from their employers and the private market, along with 57 million people insured under Medicare.

•
Voters in states producing oil and natural gas need to listen-up: Biden said will shut down your industries and wipe out the jobs they provide.

•
And on and on it went. Rather than offering a heartfelt defense of his son Hunter against allegations of collusion with foreign interests and unethical behavior, Biden panicked and insisted the evidence against his son was yet another Russian hoax.

•
Biden took credit for America's 2009 economic "recovery" — which was the slowest in U.S. history, and one plagued by government interference in the private sector.

•
He got lost in his own defense of the Obama administration's approach to crime, blaming congressional Republicans for his own failures.

•
Of course, both candidates missed opportunities to hit on hot dinner table topics. The American people wanted to hear more from both of them on foreign policy, taxes, school choice and the economy.

•
Biden should have gotten specific about his flip-flops on criminal justice reform, rather than just apologizing for his past positions.

•
Trump should have clarified his attacks on the faulty Iran nuclear deal, and the cost of the Paris Climate Accords — and then taken credit for reversing those policies.

•
... one thing is clear: in the final days of this election cycle, all Donald Trump needs to do to earn four more years in the White House is keep Joe Biden talking into a hot mic.
Time to win America's Multifront War (INN 10/21/2020)
Hunter Biden’s magical Moscow laptop (INN 10/21/2020)
Can Joe Biden be trusted? (JWR 10/21/2020)
The media 'cover' Joe Biden the way a protection racket does (JWR 10/21/2020)
America Is Drowning in the Lies of the Left (JWR 10/21/2020)
•
There are conservatives who lie, and there are liberals who lie, but both conservatism and liberalism hold truth to be a supreme value.

•
This is not true for leftism. Truth is simply not a left-wing value. Lying is to the left what breathing is to biological life.

•
That is why the father of modern leftism, Vladimir Lenin, named the Soviet communist newspaper "Pravda," the Russian word for "truth."

•
Truth is what a leftist says it is. It is not an objective reality. The left has always relied on lies to gain and retain power.

•
This is as true today in the United States as it was in the Soviet Union.
Biden email scandal 'not about Hunter': 'This is about the Biden family' and 'pay-for-play' (Fox 10/21/2020)
Blackburn: Trump should focus on his 'incredible record' at presidential debate, not 'Biden Inc.' (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"I think tomorrow night what the president should do is focus on his record and how much he has gotten done in 47 months."

•
"The American people are focused on themselves, and on their personal economy, their health care, [and] the education of their children."

•
"And the president has done a fantastic job building an economy, lowering poverty rates, helping everyone to lift through this economy ... He should be out there talking about it."

•
"He should be talking about what he has done for seniors and health care. He should talk about the successes in the Middle East ... getting us out of the Iran deal, and jobs, the economy. This is what people want to hear."

•
... added that "people are concerned ... very concerned about what they have heard over the Hunter Biden story. They think there should be a special prosecutor."

•
"They want to know what happened and how many years back does Biden Inc. go? Is it during the vice presidency? Did it precede that? So, they are curious and they want answers to that and if there is criminal conduct, they want it dealt with."
Biden campaign endangered by explosive revelations about son Hunter’s emails on business deals (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
Over this past weekend, Joe Biden supporters attempted to deflect from the controversy by suggesting the emails released were the work of Russians attempting to foment a disinformation campaign against him and his bid for the presidency.

•
There are four problems with this approach. First, the metadata associated with these emails has been authenticated by news sources and is from Hunter Biden's computer.

•
Second, new information came to light Sunday that includes emails and phone logs showing Hunter's attorney attempted to recover the missing computer from the repair shop where it was located. This validates Hunter's ownership.

•
Third, in a separate email relating to one of the alleged business transactions in China, an individual copied on that email has come forward and validated its authenticity.

•
Finally, and most stunningly, neither Joe Biden, his campaign, nor Hunter have denied any part of any of the news stories regarding material on Hunter's computer, first reported by The New York Post.

•
While the FBI has offered no comment thus far, it issued a subpoena to the computer repair shop in Delaware and has been in possession of Hunter's hard drive since December 2019.

•
Yet none of this information was shared with congressional leaders during a recent bipartisan committee investigation of the Biden family's alleged foreign business dealings.

•
Enflaming the situation even further, several tech giants — including Twitter and Facebook — initially prevented the reports of the Bidens' business activities from being widely amplified by suggesting the information could not be shared due to a potential breach of the companies' hacking and privacy rules.

•
However, this same standard offered up by the tech companies in the Biden case was never applied to information widely disseminated during the Russia investigation carried out by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, or during President Trump's impeachment hearings.

•
Who nominated Twitter and Facebook to be the information police? Censorship in any form is wrong. But the actions taken by both companies last week are tantamount to election interference. They need to be held accountable.

•
In the meantime, the revelations about the Bidens' suspicious business transactions — and Big Tech's attempts to cover it up for them — have now only cast an even darker shadow in voters' minds of what exactly Joe Biden did, the influence and power he used as vice president, and whether he enriched himself and his family from it.

•
... perhaps the Bidens have no idea how to respond because they do not know precisely what information is on the laptop and are waiting to better understand what bombshells may drop.

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Right now, it doesn't really matter, whatever the reasoning. The American people are demanding that Joe Biden come clean. The drumbeat for the truth will only continue to rise louder before Election Day.

•
If Biden continues to refuse to respond in details and does not answer every question fully, it may cost him the election
Liz Peek: 4 ways Trump can win the debate and the 2020 election (Fox 10/21/2020)
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First, the president must remind the nation what he has accomplished in his first three and a half years in office, with specifics.

•
Next, the president must be likable; he should smile. There's an old adage that people will vote for the guy they most want to have a beer with.

•
Third, the president should dial down his attacks on Joe Biden. Attacking Joe Biden is like punching cobwebs, there's just not that much there. Thanks to the liberal media's protection of the former V.P., the public is unaware of that Biden frequently lies about his education and background, about his involvement in the civil rights movement and numerous other issues.

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He is viewed, rightly or wrongly, as a decent guy. Better for Trump to talk up his achievements and plans than browbeat Biden.

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Finally, the president should tell the audience what he plans to do in his next four years. He should make a strong case that he can rebuild the economy, and engineer another surge in jobs and wages.

•
He should talk up further peace initiatives in the Middle East and his ongoing efforts to rein in China. The moderator has taken foreign policy off the list of debate topics but Trump will have many opportunities to turn the conversation in the direction he wants.

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Following these guidelines will not be easy. Once again the moderator of the debate ... has deep ties to Democrats and will likely favor the former vice president.

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Winning the last debate will be challenging, but President Trump has survived a hostile press for years and has a great record to run on.

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According to Gallup, 56% of Americans say they are better off than they were four years ago. He just needs to convince those folks to vote for better times ahead.
Twitter, Facebook and Amazon censorship of conservatives harms social media giants (Fox 10/21/2020)
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It's rare for two social media giants to make such a blatant and coordinated move against their own self-interest.

•
Their actions directly undermine the rationale for Facebook's and Twitter's exemption under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields them from any liability for content that appears on their sites.

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The exemption is built on the assumption — fiercely defended by Facebook and Twitter — that the sites serve as neutral platforms and are not editors of content like the publishers of books, magazines and newspapers. Such publications are not exempt from liability for what they publish.

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Now many people refuse to believe the claim of the social media companies that is the basis for their exemption.

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As a result, we should expect efforts in Congress to redraw the Section 230 rules to allow parties to sue the social media giants when posts the sites publish are libelous or personally damaging. Starting this week, Twitter and Facebook will need to put a lot more lawyers on their payrolls.

•
The second blunder was Amazon's decision not to release the documentary "What Killed Michael Brown," written and narrated by the noted African American scholar Shelby Steele.

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The documentary consists largely of interviews with African Americans. It casts a very different light on fatal police shooting of Brown... Steele examined the misconceptions and outright untruths surrounding the shooting of Brown.

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Amazon clearly decided that a look at American race relations that defied the usual Groupthink was too hot to handle, and so refused to release the documentary on its streaming service.

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With breathtaking hubris, Amazon informed Steele and his filmmaker son that "this decision may not be appealed."

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It's not hard to read into Amazon's action a desire to suppress an unwelcome message — and the brandishing of a political bias that be very costly to Amazon in the future.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has been the main congressional point person pushing for a breakup of Big Tech — including Facebook, Twitter and Amazon.

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If Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is elected president, Warren will no doubt try to legislate her wish.

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If leaders of the social media giants think Republicans or free-market conservatives will charge to their rescue, they might want to think again.

•
There is a powerful double-shame hovering over the events of last week.

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The first is that the case for exempting the social media platforms from Section 230 is strong. Under ideal circumstances the exemption serves to further the free exchange of expression and discourse as public goods in a free and open society. But by acting as they did, these companies have put their defenders — including me — on the defensive.

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The second cause for shame is that these companies — and all of Big Tech — command huge resources of capital, data, innovative energy, and individual talent that could be supporting open and honest public debate of important issues, not undermining or suppressing debate.
Tucker Carlson: America's most powerful people want you to shut up about Hunter Biden (Fox 10/21/2020)
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What happened to Joe Biden? Remember him? Longtime senator, Obama's VP, now running for president and on the ballot in two weeks? He was last seen a couple of days ago buying milkshakes in North Carolina. Given Biden's present condition, that is worrisome.

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Biden's campaign team assures us there is no cause for concern. The final presidential debate is on Thursday, and he's just preparing for that. ... Maybe Joe Biden really does need a week to prepare for a 90-minute debate moderated by an MSNBC correspondent.

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But there are other potential explanations as well. Last week, we learned how Vice President Joe Biden altered this country's foreign policy to help his son's lobbying interests.

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Big Tech and the national media tried hard to kill that story, but it hasn't really gone away. Facts are like that. They tend to persist. They're hard to erase.

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... an undated photograph that shows Joe and Hunter Biden posing with a man called Kenes Rakishev. Rakishev is an oligarch from the nation of Kazakhstan, the former Soviet republic. He has close ties to that nation's corrupt government. Reportedly, Hunter Biden helped Rakishev stash his fortune here in the United States.

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It would be worth knowing a lot more about this before we vote in two weeks. For example, how much money changed hands? What did the Bidens do in return for that money, if anything? We should know and maybe we'll learn the answers because there's an awful lot of material on that laptop.

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Leaders of the Democratic Party are very aware of that, of course, and it terrifies them. So they're doing everything they can to prevent you from seeing that information before you make up your mind.

•
And that includes concocting ludicrous and potentially dangerous conspiracy theories about foreign interference in our political system. ... A group of 50 former U.S. intelligence officials signed a letter claiming that the New York Post story could very well be part of a secret Russian operation designed to help Vladimir Putin's fellow Slavic dictator Donald J. Trump cling to power.

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Who are these people? They're the very same people who missed 9/11 and who endorsed the Iraq War. They're the same people who illegally spied on American citizens for years. Those people.

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"Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case," the letter reads.

•
Now, these are so-called "intelligence operatives." But they offered no evidence to support that reckless, very serious claim.

•
Why didn't they offer any evidence? Because there is no evidence. None exists. Instead, they simply asserted it, which means they simply lied.

•
They lied to the American public in order to influence the outcome of a supposedly free and fair election. Isn't that what they claim Russia does?

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In the final days before we vote, they're not even bothering to hide what they're doing or their methods. Senior figures in our vast national security state are working in concert with the Democratic Party to get Joe Biden elected.

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... Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. ... is telling us the former mayor of New York City is a Russian asset.

•
Keep in mind, for 50 years, Rudy Giuliani has worked for the American government at all levels, from local to federal. But now a sitting senator tells us that Giuliani is a traitor, a treasonous Russian spy. It's too bad you can't sue sitting senators for libel.

•
Both Brennan and Clapper signed the letter claiming the Russians are behind Hunter Biden's emails.

•
What does this mean? ... This is an ominous moment. When every power center in the nation — that includes Big Tech, big media, the finance establishment, the federal spy agencies — when every power center aligns behind a common political goal, you have a very dangerous axis. That is far too much power concentrated in one place.

•
Normal people will inevitably be crushed and they are being crushed. ... The media tell us they deserve to be crushed because anyone interested in learning more about the emails on Hunter Biden's laptop is effectively colluding with the Russians.

•
Again, none of them are saying that the emails are fake. They're not going to claim that because they know it's not true.

•
The emails are not fake, they are real and everyone knows they're real. And the laptop is real. Hunter Biden signed for it. His lawyer asked for it back.

•
And to this day, no one has shown or even claimed that a single photograph or video or document or email or text message on that laptop — tens of thousands of them — is fraudulent, not one.

•
So they're not even really trying to convince you that Russia did this. They're trying to bully you into shutting up and they're using lies. "Russia did it! Russia, our sworn and former enemy, an empire more evil and more threatening to America even than the twin perils of Poland and Hungary."

•
Those are nations that Joe Biden described just the other day as "totalitarian regimes." Bet you didn't know that Poland and Hungary, tiny peaceful nations in Central Europe, were threats to American national security. Did you know that?

•
Well, they are. Unlike, say, China, which pays far higher consulting fees to everyone in D.C.

•
On Monday, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe tried to put an end to this. He confirmed that there is precisely zero evidence showing the Russians planted that laptop or invented any of the documents on it or conspired to leak it.

•
Tuesday, a senior federal law enforcement official told ... that the FBI and DOJ concur with that assessment. Another law enforcement source has confirmed that the emails are authentic...

•
In the mad scramble to unseat the president, our core institutions are being destroyed: A free press, fair elections, spy agencies that won't turn their dark arts on the public, all of that is disappearing.

•
We should be very concerned about that and we should fight to get those institutions back, no matter what you think of Trump.
How to Put a Stop to Twitter’s Game-Playing on Censorship (10/20/2020)
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The much-misunderstood Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act is in the spotlight again.

•
Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Facebook, suppressed reporting that Joe Biden abetted his son Hunter's cashing in on the then-vice president's political influence.

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Since there are plenty of alternatives to these social media platforms, their actions merely drew more attention to the story while calling into question their qualification for Section 230 immunity from lawsuits.

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... there is no evidence that the emails, photographs, videos, and other materials on the laptop were hacked or otherwise misappropriated.

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Hunter suffers from drug addiction and is notoriously erratic. The laptop was brought to a repair shop in Delaware and never reclaimed.

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The shop owner, in addition to being given consensual access to the data, reported it to the FBI. Plus ... the work order prepared when the computer was dropped off appears to bear Hunter Biden's signature.

•
A hypothetical: Let's say information that really had been hacked was damaging to the Trump campaign, Republicans generally, or conservatives.

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Is there any doubt that Twitter would readily permit the free exchange of that information? Of course not.

•
Twitter and its allies on the left would insist that the hacked information was newsworthy political data, that any unilateral effort to suppress it would be futile, and that if it weren't authentic then the victims would say so.

•
... Twitter is playing games. It is not a place where everyone's voice is equally welcome; it is a Democratic partisan that occasionally censors information and people it finds politically disagreeable.

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Because Twitter poses as a nonpartisan medium of exchange that does not engage in political-viewpoint discrimination, it is struggling to camouflage its suppression of news harmful to Democrats as good-faith, ideologically neutral censorship: portraying its actions as discouragement of cyber-theft, or the purging of "Russian disinformation" (another kneejerk claim that lacks supporting evidence).

•
As one would expect, Twitter's poor judgment has calls to repeal or drastically amend Section 230 raining down from Washington.

•
To be sure, the provision does need some tinkering, but the rancor against the statute is misplaced. Section 230 states a modest, salutary statutory immunity.

•
The problem here is not the safe harbor; it is that Twitter should not be entitled to its protection unless it meets the qualifying conditions.

•
The matter is definitional. Twitter is claiming to be nothing more than an interactive computer service, as that term is defined in Section 230(f)(2).

•
But it is patently more than that. It is also a content provider, as that term is defined under Section 230(f)(3), because it partially develops the substantive presentation of information by engaging in politically motivated content discrimination.

•
To be sure, it does not do this all the time. But understand the legal landscape: The issue here is not regulating behavior (i.e., the government telling Twitter how it must operate) or punishment (i.e., the government fining Twitter for its behavior).

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The issue is qualification for a legal benefit — viz., immunity from liability that publishers of arguably actionable content ordinarily face.

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That is a benefit that the government provides, but only to entities that comply with the terms on which the benefit is offered.

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No one sensible is claiming that Twitter's partisan censorship is illegal. Twitter is not the government; it is a private actor. It need not enable free speech. It is perfectly free to be openly progressive in its politics... Twitter has not committed a legal wrong by suppressing a politically damaging story in order to help Joe Biden's presidential campaign.

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But when we talk about denying Section 230 immunity, we are not talking about penalizing Twitter.

•
Section 230 immunity is a legal privilege to be earned by compliance with the attendant conditions.

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If an entity fails to comply, that just means it does not get the privilege; it does not mean the entity is being denied a right or being punished.

•
To be a mere interactive computer service entitled to immunity from speaker/publisher liability, a platform must refrain from publishing activity — which includes suppressing one point of view while promoting its competitor.

•
Twitter is well within its rights to censor its partisan adversaries; but in doing so, it forfeits the legal privilege that is available only to interactive computer services that do not censor on political or ideological grounds.

•
... to repeat, it would not be a penalty to deny publisher immunity to Twitter and other social-media platforms that are content providers because they practice political-viewpoint discrimination.

•
It would simply force them to make a choice. If they want to be progressive media outlets, then they have to bear the same risks as left-wing magazines, websites, and programming.

•
This would be a challenge for them because they transmit copious amounts of content, and they want to do it instantaneously.

•
But media outlets that shape content have to avoid defamation and other harms; if they don't, they have to bear the legal costs.

•
To earn the immunity, Twitter has to comply with the terms, which should include no political-viewpoint discrimination. It's not more complicated than that, and it is eminently fair.
The 2020 election question: Are you ready for $6 a gallon gas? (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
Beginning in 2008, American entrepreneurship and innovation changed the energy game. Call it the American Energy Renaissance.

•
The results were extraordinary. Once again, we became the world's largest producer of natural gas and oil.

•
In September of 2019, we became energy independent, a net exporter of hydrocarbons. We created millions of jobs across the country and filled the coffers of states with billions in tax dollars.

•
We also kept gas and electricity affordable for every American family. Plus, there was a trillion-dollar swing in our favor, money was kept here rather than spent over there.

•
We achieved true energy freedom. One of the hugely important, but underappreciated results of the American Energy Renaissance is that peace is breaking out all over the Middle East. There's a new order in play.

•
Yet we have a political party and candidate who wants to end the miracle and replace it with the utopian notion of a carbonless world. There's no such thing. Nor will there every be.

•
Former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democrats want to depress or even destroy one of America's most critical industries. I don't know about you, but I have no desire to worship at the alter of Putin or OPEC. Nor do I think it's a good idea for American families to spend 6 bucks or more for a gallon of gas or watch their electricity bills double.

•
Not too many of us remember just how bad things can get when you're not in control of your energy supply.

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Let me take you back to the '70s. ... were running out of domestically produced oil and natural gas. There were no incentives to find more.

•
Meanwhile, governments in the Middle East seized control of their oil and natural gas reserves and formed a cartel known as OPEC.

•
The "oil shocks" rattled the world. They knew they had us where it hurts. ... we and our allies became hooked on OPEC oil for decades. The cartel dictated the supply and the price, and we shipped a good portion of our wealth to autocrats, kleptocracies and the like – not to mention the hundreds of billions in military spending to protect the energy lifelines.

•
We don't have to be dumb all over again. (Wind and solar will never make us energy independent.)

•
President Trump and his administration understand the huge geopolitical and economic benefits of American energy independence and freedom brought about by the American Energy Renaissance.

•
His opponent clearly does not.
Cal Thomas: Can Joe Biden be trusted? Hunter Biden scandal begs the question (Fox 10/20/2020)
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If true, Biden's influence and positions in government were used by himself and his family for profit.

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People who have not yet voted deserve to know whether a man who might be elected president is a crook, or not, or at a minimum if he traded his influence for cash, even if it was technically legal.

•
There is, after all, the matter of propriety and setting a good example for others, two assertions by Biden as to why he is a better choice than President Trump.

•
The former vice president should not be allowed to get away with the claim that he is being smeared, especially when the smear appears to be coming from his own muddy hands.
Laura Ingraham: Biden's 'nice guy' image is the 'Trojan horse' the far left needs (Fox 10/20/2020)
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Democrats are banking on Joe Biden's reputation as a "nice guy" to hide their true intentions of extremism and political retribution should they win the White House next month...

•
"Do they think that you are stupid or what? It's all being ... framed this way to throw you off the scent of what's really to come: Punishment."

•
"Those running the Joe show has always hated Middle America. That's why he is their perfect candidate; kind of a Trojan horse from the old, slightly more moderate party to push their new, far more radical policies."

•
... "the marketing of Biden as this nice, normal guy was funded and promoted by some of the most ruthless, the richest people in business, the media, and entertainment — and once they get past the election it is payback time."

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"They want us to embrace, in the end, a false sense of decency with Biden, a fake dignity being peddled by a man who, despite his Grandpa Joe act, is still just Nasty Joe from Scranton when he's exposed."

•
"Total fraud. The normalcy the left craves ... I will tell you what normal is to them. It's when you're under their heel, you're taxed to death, you are told where you're going to get your health care and your speech is stifled along with your religious practice."
Media, intel agencies collude to spread real 'disinformation' about Hunter Biden story (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
One very newsworthy series of emails showed that as vice president of the United States, Joe Biden tailored American foreign policy — our foreign policy, which Joe Biden does not own — in order to help his son's business interests.

•
Biden intervened aggressively in the internal affairs of another sovereign nation, Ukraine, and his son got paid for that.

•
Something then happened that was bigger and far more dangerous to our country than anything the New York Post found on Hunter Biden's laptop: The most powerful people in the world aligned to censor the news, to keep it from the population of the United States.

•
Twitter prevented its users from sharing the story. So did Facebook. When Americans searched Google to read the New York Post story, many couldn't find it.

•
So within hours, the premise of a free press, the basis of American democracy for 250 years, just disappeared. One minute we were America, the next minute we were China.

•
Perhaps most horrifying of all, our news media applauded it. The self-described guardians of the First Amendment cheered the destruction of the First Amendment. The New York Times actually ran an op-ed attacking the idea of free speech.

•
Every power center in America vehemently agreed with that and most ominous of all, the U.S. intelligence community, the secretive federal agencies that have nearly unlimited power, joined in.

•
Those agencies colluded with the news media to hide information from the American public weeks before a presidential election.

•
"Federal authorities are investigating, " the paper declared, whether the story about Hunter Biden's laptop was "part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia."

•
The newspaper never bothered to assess whether the core story was true, nor did the article explain how this Russian plot might have worked in practical terms.

•
"FBI probed if purported Hunter Biden emails are a Russian plot," declared Bloomberg News. PBS, which you pay for, said a "senior former intelligence official" — whose salary you also paid — claimed that Rudy Giuliani was likely channeling Russian disinformation.

•
In this frenzy to find this new batch of Russian spies, the media did miss a few obvious things. For example, two people reporters forgot to call were Joe and Hunter Biden.

•
Presumably the Bidens could have confirmed whether or not the famous laptop was real. That would have ended the speculation and would have informed the rest of us, but somehow no one thought to do that.

•
What you're watching is the most powerful people in America aligning as one to hide legitimate information from the public.

•
This is not the way our country used to operate. Are you terrified yet? You should be terrified because it worked. That's why they do it, because it works.

•
At some point, you've got to be honest and say, who cares what's on Hunter Biden's laptop?

•
This is the real threat: The most powerful in our country, colluding to dismiss legitimate questions, using a fake threat of Russian disinformation. That's scary.

•
"Joe Biden and all of us should be furious that media outlets are spreading what is very likely Russian propaganda. I've seen the intel. The mainstreaming of misinformation is Russia's 2020 goal."

•
That's both worse and dumber than anything Joe McCarthy ever said. "I've seen the intel." Notice that Murphy didn't tell us what the so-called intel said, much less show it to the rest of us so we could evaluate it for ourselves.

•
Powerful people have seen the intel. You haven't. You must take their word for it. Otherwise, maybe you're working for Vladimir Putin. Maybe you're a Russian spy. Want to get accused of that? Of treason? I don't think so. So just take it on faith, pal.

•
Once again, no one in Joe Biden's campaign has said these emails or text messages are false. They're not even claiming that. So these claims are coming from anonymous sources and media hacks and that's it.

•
But in fact, many are saying they're inauthentic. False claims of Russian interference in our democracy are now a well-established fact of American political life, like fears about climate change and White supremacy.

•
They are very useful to the people in charge because those fears can be leveraged to strip you instantly of your constitutional rights. And that's exactly what's going on now.

•
Now you know why they're doing it for the next two weeks. The point is to defeat Donald Trump and they may succeed in doing that. But for the rest of us who plan to stay in this country, the real worry is what happens after that.
Democrats are backed against the wall - watch out! (INN 10/19/2020)
•
Trump kept his promises; every one. People noticed. Blue collar Democrat workers not only retained their jobs but employment opportunities increased.

•
America became not only energy independent but became the major producer and exporter of such power sources.

•
Trump lowered taxes, made peace in the Middle East, re-bargained trade agreements in our favor, sent shivers down the spines of the dictators in China, North Korea, Iran, hung Putin out to dry and is pulling out of our age-old wars.

•
All this and much more in only less than four years with the Democrat jackals at his throat 24/7. Throw in the ludicrous spectacle of his impeachment by the House which began a few days before his swearing in, which unfortunately for the Left, raised his stature as a winner.

•
The foundation of Biden's campaign is cracking. Something drastic has to be done, now at the finish line, to panic the voters, to short circuit the voting process, to divert voters' attention, to basically destroy the election and eventually declare the outcome null and void.

•
How to do this and what to expect in the days ahead? Nothing's off the table for the Radical Left.

•
Look for those vandalous thugs in the armies of the BLM and Antifa, who, in recent years were in Spring Training, to be called out in the next two weeks to strike fear into the hearts of America.

•
They are at wit's end and will risk the destruction of the nation to regain power. They are capable of anything. Watch out!
Woke Democrats have a fatal deficiency.: They can't think straight (INN 10/19/2020)
•
Wokes don't vote for their candidate's policies. They vote against a rival's character. Biden has no policies other than ones he plagiarised from the Trump card, or adopts on the trot according to the prevailing wind; or keeps for after being elected such as fracking or packing the Supreme Court, or policies at cross-purpose, such as pro-lockdown and pro-job creation.

•
Contrast the straight thinking of Conservatives. They vote for policies not for character. They don't look for "Mr. nice guy" in their leaders. In politics there are hardly any, and in any case being Mr. Nice is a hindrance for a leader more than a help. It means nothing for the country if a candidate is rude, ill-mannered and caustic. He can be the biggest jackass but who cares provided he is pro-law and order, pro-constitution, pro-Israel, anti-Iran, pro-liberty, pro-freedom of speech, pro-religion.

•
The Clinton-Obama axis that controls the Biden puppet is the wannabe dictator.

•
A rude and crass President Trump believes America is great and wants to preserve it that way.

•
The right Presidential material boils down to nothing more complicated than that.
Section 230 facially violates 1st Amendment by sub-contracting censorship (INN 10/19/2020)
Victor Davis Hanson: US Constitution and traditions are under attack by Democrats (Fox 10/19/2020)
•
Democrats are waging war against traditions and the Constitution. Several of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates favored the abolishment of the Electoral College.

•
The Founding Fathers saw a purpose in the Electoral College. It ensured that small, rural states would retain importance in national elections.

•
The Electoral College lessens the chance of voting fraud affecting the outcome of a national vote by compartmentalizing the outcome among the various states.

•
It usually turns the presidential election into a contest between two major parties that alone have the resources to campaign nationwide.

•
Yet to change the U.S. Constitution is hard — and by intent.

•
Historically, a constitutional n amendment has required a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and an additional ratification by three-fourths of the states through votes of their legislatures.

•
But now there is a chance that some states could render void the Electoral College without formally amending the Constitution.

•
To circumvent the Constitution, Democrats have pushed "The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact," an agreement among a group of states that would force state electors to vote in accordance with the national popular vote and ignore their own state tallies.

•
Already, 15 states that have 73 percent of the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency have joined.

•
Liberal academics are supporting an array of other proposed constitutional changes as well.

•
They ask: Why do two Wyoming senators each represent about 290,000 voters while each California senator represents 20 million?

•
Forget that the founders established a constitutional republic, not a radical democracy, in order to check and balance popular and often volatile public opinion.

•
One way was by creating an upper-house Senate that would slow down the pulse of the more populist House of Representatives.

•
Nevertheless, there is an ongoing effort to dream up ways to create more, and apparently liberal, senators — to change the rules rather than the hearts and minds of the voters.

•
Turning to another issue, there is nothing in the Constitution that specifies the exact size and makeup of the Supreme Court.

•
It only offers guidance on how justices are appointed and confirmed, and that there will be a chief justice.

•
But since 1869, the Supreme Court has been fixed at eight associate justices and one chief justice.

•
Democratic presidential primary candidates ... said they would consider ending that 151-year tradition and "pack" the court with additional justices in the fashion of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's failed 1937 effort.

•
In his eulogy for Lewis, Obama also called for an end to the Senate filibuster. He claimed it was a racist relic from the Jim Crow era used to stymie needed social change.

•
Democrats were perfectly happy with the filibuster — or the mere threat of the filibuster — from 2017 to 2019, when the Democratic Senate minority blocked much of the Trump agenda.

•
But efforts to change time-honored rules for short-term gain are becoming more common.

•
Sanctuary cities nullify federal immigration law to empower illegal immigration. The nonenforcement of laws against rioting and looting has become common in big cities. The First Amendment is inert on college campuses.

•
The left should beware. Politics are volatile and often change. When Democrats destroy longstanding rules for short-term advantage, they may regret it when they too are in need of sober traditions and the U.S. Constitution.
Michael Goodwin: What Joe Biden must do now about his son Hunter. Right now, before the debate (Fox 10/19/2020)
Liz Peek: Trump vs. Biden — 5 reasons why a sane person should vote – again – for Trump (Fox 10/19/2020)
•
Today, backing the president is downright risky. People are losing their jobs, children are being kicked out of class and businesses are boycotted because their owners support President Trump.

•
Hitting back at the Democrats' assault on Candidate Trump in 2016, I wrote a piece for the Fiscal Times titled: "Five Reasons a Sane Person Might Still Vote for Trump." The arguments I highlighted hold up well, and are perhaps even more persuasive today.

•
First up: Education.

•
President Trump has championed school choice, which is overwhelmingly popular across the nation.

•
Bottom line: if politicians actually care about improving the fortunes and opportunities for Blacks and Hispanics, they need to back school choice. Only Trump can deliver on this essential issue.

•
Next up: ObamaCare.

•
Democrats have put this failed insurance program on the ballot, and it should be.

•
ObamaCare helped some people but it was also seriously flawed. It needs to be fixed, and augmented with more private options, which is Trump's ambition.

•
Someone should ask Biden: if the ACA is so terrific, why do so many Democrats want to replace it with "Medicare-for-all" ?

•
Next: The economy.

•
As we emerge from a sharp recession, Trump's continued embrace of lower taxes and light regulation, and insistence on better trade deals for American workers, will inspire business investment and expansion, and fuel more job creation.

•
That's what happened in 2016; the minute the president was elected, both business and consumer optimism spiked, pushing our then-lethargic economy into overdrive.

•
This will happen again. Activity has rebounded faster in recent months than economists expected, even as much of the country has been locked down, and the outlook is for more growth in 2021.

•
Next up: Dissatisfaction with government

•
Americans do not want a bigger federal government.

•
Finally, the Supreme Court.

•
Trump has outperformed expectations on this front, and the addition of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court will be another bulwark against judicial activism and increased federal power.

•
These five reasons to vote for Trump remain critical in 2020.

•
His many accomplishments – bringing hostages home, revised trade deals, taking on China, rebuilding the military, tightening our borders, the blockbuster Middle East peace initiative — and the near-insanity of the left, make the choice even easier.
Joe Biden and packing the Supreme Court — the dirty little secret Dems don't want to reveal (Fox 10/19/2020)
•
The former vice president can dodge the question for another 15 days, but we know exactly what he'll do because his radical base demands it.

•
And here is the dirty little secret that Democrats do not want the American people to know: it has always been their plan to pack the Supreme Court with liberal judges.

•
This isn't about Amy Coney Barrett or Justice Neil Gorsuch or Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The truth is that this has been in the works since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States four years ago.

•
Protecting our legal institutions is critical. Over the past two centuries, they have defended and upheld Americans' natural rights and made the United States the most exceptional nation in all of human history.

•
But this is about more than our institutions — it is about what happens to our country, our communities, and our way of life if the radical left and the Democratic Party destroy them.

•
It is clear they don't want to pack the Supreme Court just to cancel out the votes of Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and soon Amy Coney Barrett.

•
They want to pack the Court to cancel out your ability to resist their radical agenda.

•
The truth is that this is a major part of the Democratic Party's desire to manipulate and coerce our public institutions into being an arm of their radical progressive agenda.

•
And that radical agenda is part and parcel to Joe Biden, who said earlier this year that he would be the "most progressive president in history."

•
Our Founders believed in a radical idea: that all men are created equal and that their rights came from God, from our Creator.

•
That idea — the very premise of our nation's founding — is increasingly under assault from the left.

•
They would have you believe that America and its founding is irredeemably racist, and that nothing short of a revolution is acceptable.

•
This cultural revolution will come at a great cost to our personal freedoms and natural rights, but our nation's institutions stand as a bulwark against the effort to remake America.

•
If the left succeeds in packing the Supreme Court, they will be one step closer to erasing our founding and values in pursuit of progressive utopias such as Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.

•
To protect our people, we need to protect our institutions and ensure no one can ever pack the Supreme Court for partisan gains.
November election impact on US National Security (INN 10/18/2020)
Shocked… SHOCKED… that there’s corruption going on (INN 10/18/2020)
Biden won't answer on court packing — but Dems appear to draw inspiration from socialists (Fox 10/18/2020)
•
For someone who claims to be campaigning on restoring the soul of our nation, it shouldn't be difficult to reject a court-packing plan that would destroy America's judicial independence.

•
If you think that's farfetched, just look at another country that packed their Supreme Court – socialist Venezuela.

•
In 2004, Hugo Chavez and his socialist allies expanded the Venezuela Supreme Court size by more than half.

•
Chavez packing the court with loyalists who helped advance his socialist agenda and destroyed the once great country.

•
In America, we cannot afford to allow a socialist agenda to transform our treasured institutions.

•
Sixteen years after Chavez's Supreme Court expansion, the Democratic Party led by Biden and Sen.

•
Kamala Harris, which has increasingly embraced socialism, shares a similar objective.

•
Democrats want to consolidate as much power as possible and massively expand the size of government's role in our lives.

•
Clearly, Democrats are demonstrating utter contempt for our Founding Fathers' original goal – the creation of a republic that limits government and embraces individual freedom.

•
Democrats want to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court in an effort to fundamentally transform America without a single vote of Congress.

•
Their court-packing plan is the fastest way to delegitimize our Judicial branch – the only non-political branch of the American government.

•
Democrats don't care about that dangerous consequence – all they care about is ensuring their radical socialist agenda is greenlit by the highest court in the land.

•
Democrats can't win by playing by the rules, so they want to change the rules and tear down American institutions in the process.

•
You would think that as the face of the Democrat Party, Biden would reveal his opinion on his party's new radical position, yet he continuously refuses to share it with the American people.

•
It is not an exaggeration to say our democracy is on the ballot November 3.

•
If Democrats take power, they will prove that they will stop short of nothing to advance their radical socialist agenda. Packing the court is just the first step in the process.

•
We must come together and reject their dangerous ideology for the sake of our country and our children's future. A vote for President Trump is a vote to save American freedom.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Liz Peek: Facebook, Twitter's censorship brazenly protects Biden — endangers our democracy (Fox 10/17/2020)
•
In 2016 President Trump promised to drain the swamp. Little did he know how tough that would be.

•
The swamp is protected by the liberal media, Hollywood, the Justice Department, much of corporate America, academia, and now – most threatening of all – social media. The same social media that is working overtime to elect Joe Biden president.

•
It isn't just that Twitter and Facebook tried to squash a blockbuster New York Post story that could destroy Joe Biden's campaign; it is that they were so brazen about it.

•
Both companies shamelessly blocked the spread of a Post story purporting to show that Joe Biden knew about his son Hunter Biden's questionable activities in Ukraine and China, and that he lied about it.

•
Twitter and Facebook had no excuse; they simply didn't want Uncle Joe's image tainted, because they want him elected president.

•
There really is no alternative, which is why they can manufacture absurd arguments to justify their misdeeds, content that it will not dent their business model or cost them money. Make no mistake, at the end it is all about money.

•
But that's where the brazenness comes in. The social media firms know that virtually every institution in our country is stacked against President Trump.

•
That includes the liberal mainstream media, for sure. They didn't even bother to carry the Ukraine story until it became a row about censorship on the social platforms.

•
... the excuses lofted by Twitter and Facebook don't hold up, especially when matched against the bogus anti-Trump stories allowed to roam free across the Internet.

•
Many stories connected to the RussiaGate probe, repeated breathlessly on CNN and MSNBC and spread enthusiastically on Twitter and Facebook, proved entirely false.

•
It isn't just the media. The computer containing the compromising emails was first sent to the FBI, last December.

•
Someone needs to explain why the FBI never followed up, especially since Senate Republicans held hearings about Hunter and Joe Biden's activities in Ukraine. Wouldn't this laptop be significant to those investigations?

•
Misbehavior at the FBI figures prominently in the center of many controversies, including dropping an investigation into possible influence peddling by Hillary Clinton enabled by her foundation, the dishonest set-up of General Michael Flynn, the lying to the FISA court and, most recently, according to CNN, in a three-year quest to determine if Trump received campaign funds illicitly from an Egyptian state-owned bank.

•
Three years of pursuing a possible crime committed by the president, which was ultimately abandoned and shut down this past summer. They found nothing, just as Robert Mueller found nothing.

•
What other politically-motivated investigations of President Trump are underway? Who is authorizing these wasteful political efforts?

•
Our country is in danger, and I do not say that lightly. If only one point of view is allowed, if the media suppresses contrary opinion, we are in trouble.

•
It is astonishing that as of Friday afternoon seemingly no employees at any major liberal news outlet have stepped up to defend freedom of speech, and a free press.

•
When the New York Times' token Republican never-Trumper Bret Stephens recently criticized the paper's discredited 1619 Project, the Times' union blew up in outrage and demanded he be shut down. Yes — journalists wanting to suppress journalists.

•
And yet they complain when President Trump rails against Fake News.

•
Trump supporters have but one recourse: making sure they vote by November 3. Reelecting Trump would be a service to our great nation, and sweet revenge as well.
Hans von Spakovsky: Pelosi bill to remove president from office is a needless political stunt (Fox 10/17/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Biden ABC News town hall was a cover-up in real time (Fox 10/17/2020)
Trump vs. Biden – voters in 2020 should think long and hard about policy, not personality (Fox 10/17/2020)
Time to heed George Orwell's warning (INN 10/16/2020)
•
The British essayist, novelist, and critic Eric Arthur Blair, best known to the world as George Orwell, died in 1950.

•
A year before his death from tuberculosis, he used his unique insight to write his classic dystopian novel "1984" .

•
That book, published in 1949, eerily predicted the totalitarian threats that the United States is facing today.

•
It dealt with the consequences of a totalitarian government, mass surveillance, unending propaganda to distort the truth, and the suppression of freedom, including even the freedom of thought.

•
The totalitarian state, which is at the heart of the story, perpetuates its rule by continuously spying on its citizens, systematically manipulating the truth, and rewriting history.

•
1) "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

•
2) "The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."

•
3) "The people will believe what the media tells them they believe."

•
4) "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth."

•
5) "Free speech is my right to say what you don't want to hear."

•
6) "There Is no swifter route to the corruption of thought than through the corruption of language."

•
7) "Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them."

•
8) "It's frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence."

•
9) "A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud."

•
10) "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever."

•
But now, in 2020, we discover that communist authoritarian ideology is alive and well in our elementary schools, our universities, our entertainment industry, our mainstream media, our social media, some of our religious institutions, and very forcefully throughout the Democrat party.

•
One of Orwell's observations is particularly appropriate today.

•
He warned of the authoritarian enemies who, driven by an intoxication of power, will be waging a campaign of fear, rage, and loyalty only to their Party. Already in 1949, Orwell foresaw the budding of dystopia in the world.

•
By 2020, the Democrat Party has made noticeable efforts to impose its dystopian socialist agenda on America.

•
Remember Orwell's warning: "Don't let it happen; it depends on you!"
Should we defund the FBI for "stonewalling"? (INN 10/16/2020)
•
Pres. Trump was, essentially, impeached for investigating Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's financial dealings in Ukraine.

•
It appears that the day before the House vote to impeach President Trump, or sometime in December 2019, the FBI was given hard physical evidence of Hunter/Joe Biden's questionable dealings, and the FBI buried the evidence and never told the Department of Justice or President Trump of its existence.

•
The evidence could have been exculpatory for Trump because it is alleged to have proved that where Trump smelled smoke, there was, in fact, fire, and that would have validated Trump's investigation of the smoke.

•
The fact that Joe Biden went on to become the Democrat nominee for President without this being disclosed and investigated only heightens the FBI's possible failure.

•
If the FBI agents and/or FBI Director Wray knew of the existence of the evidence on the Hunter Biden hard drive, and failed to alert the Department of Justice and the President, such actions would constitute clear "concealment"...

•
And finally, Hunter Biden's laptop contained explosively exculpatory evidence vital to President Trump's defense of his impeachment proceeding.

•
The Hunter Biden laptop evidence could have shown President Trump had every right, and possibly obligation, to allege corruption in the Hunter/Joe Biden dealings with Ukraine.

•
In that case, Pres. Trump's requesting Ukraine to assist the United States in investigating the Hunter Biden Ukraine dealing was not an illegal "quid pro quo," but would be action of the highest imperative for the national security of the United States.

•
The FBI is clearly conflicted out of any investigation, and the Department of Justice must immediately authorize a special investigative unit to probe what could be the greatest criminal cover-up in the history of the United States.

•
Perhaps until this is fully probed we should take our cue from modern parlance and demand to "Defund the FBI."
Will Conservatives Finally Awaken to the Big Tech Threat? (JWR 10/16/2020)
Save the court and save America (JWR 10/16/2020)
Lakers Win NBA Championship. Few give a #$@&%*! (JWR 10/16/2020)
Hunter Biden's laptop and the Facebook, Twitter censorship scandal – watch these 3 things (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
The convergence of law and politics is a common occurrence in Washington. While law is used to ascertain truth, politics is often used to obscure it.

•
That is why the truth is rarely evident in looking at a scandal straight on. Rather it requires peripheral vision or analysis – often what is not evident is what is most enlightening.

•
This most famous example of such reasoning was found in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story "Silver Blaze," on Sherlock Holmes's investigation of the disappearance of a racehorse.

•
The local inspector asked if there was "any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" Holmes responds, "To the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime."

•
When the inspector objects, "The dog did nothing in the night-time," Holmes replies, "That was the curious incident."

•
There is always something a tad curious of Washington legal scandals in what has not occurred. That is why the latest Hunter Biden scandal is so curious.

•
When the story broke in the New York Post, the Biden campaign was faced with thousands of emails that purportedly showed clear support for allegations that Hunter Biden was given millions as part of an influence-peddling scheme related to his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden.

•
The problem was the absence of "barks" from the Biden camp. The computer files revealed a host of embarrassing pictures of Hunter Biden using drugs or exposed in other embarrassing ways. The emails contain dates and addresses that match up with confirmed records.

•
If they are fabricated, there were three barks that we would have expected within hours of the release.

•
Bark 1: This was not Hunter Biden's computer

•
The most obvious response would be that this is not the computer of Hunter Biden. After all, the computer store owner John Paul Mac Isaac who is legally blind said that he could not recognize the person who dropped off the laptop.

•
Someone in the campaign must have called Hunter Biden and he had to have told them whether or not it was his laptop.

•
Bark 2: These were not Hunter Biden's photos or emails

•
Even if the campaign cannot deny that the computer was Hunter Biden's, it could deny that these incriminating pictures and emails were his.

•
Note that if these are fabricated emails or pictures, this would be a serious federal crime and the basis for legal action.

•
Yet, there is not a single allegation of fraud or fabrication after days of a brewing scandal.

•
Bark 3: This is defamation

•
Perhaps this bark is the most telling. If these emails or pictures are fabricated, it is a clear case of defamation and other tort actions.

•
It would seem that one of the hundreds of lawyers currently lined up by the Biden campaign would fire off an "intent to sue" letter.

•
One big difference between the legal and political worlds is that in the latter there is no protection for the right to remain silent. In politics, scandals can be managed but not silently.

•
Instead of these obvious barks, the public heard something closer to a whimper: that the campaign could not find any notation on Vice President Biden's official schedule that he met with a Ukrainian figure connected to the payments to his son Hunter Biden.

•
It would be a curious sight in itself for Biden's official schedule to include "meeting with Ukrainian connected to Hunter."

•
Many meetings are not part of an official schedule that staffers know is subject to official records laws for preservation and review.

•
That is what is so curious about the Hunter Biden story and, to move from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Lewis Carroll, it is becoming "curiouser and curiouser."
Jimmy Failla: Trump, Biden town halls offer America stark choice: 'Victor-hood' or victim-hood (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
Guthrie's constant interruptions stood in stark contrast to the spa treatment Joe Biden received from ABC moderator George Stephanopolous, who couldn't have made the Biden family feel more comfortable if he gave him a hot towel and spoke Ukrainian.

•
(I hope you enjoyed that line because I'll probably get banned from Twitter for it.)

•
Let the record show that on a night when President Trump was asked about QAnon, an internet conspiracy many people have heard of but few can explain, his rival didn't face a single question about his son's business dealings in Ukraine, which happens to be one of the biggest stories in the country despite the efforts of the big tech oligarchs to suppress it.

•
Much can be said about the contrasting style of the moderators on Thursday night but what really jumped out at me was the contrasting leadership styles of the candidates and their dueling visions for our country.

•
Trump comes off as a street fighter, whose nose for conflict has been hardened by four years of incessant attacks from a media hellbent on stopping his presidency at all costs.

•
Biden has the auto-pilot charm of a lifelong politician. He campaigns like he's not interested in fighting for anything other than the TV remote when he's home on the plastic-covered couch with Jill.

•
Trump pushes American excellence at every turn, as he did again Thursday night in touting the record-breaking unemployment numbers we enjoyed pre-pandemic for people of every socio economic background.

•
Biden pushes systemic racism and class warfare, as he did in calling out America's troubled history with race and vowing to increase taxes on the rich yet again.

•
In short, these Town Hall events made it abundantly clear that 2020 is a choice between VICTOR-HOOD or VICTIM-HOOD.

•
The Republicans unapologetically call this the greatest country the world has ever known. They rightfully point out that we live in an age where everyone can flourish through hard work thanks to the spectacular upward mobility in our society.

•
No, we're not perfect. Yes we've made immense progress in the last 50 years we should continue to build on.

•
The Democrats devoted their entire presidential election cycle to telling us the rich have stacked the deck against us and the whole country is racist. If you believe this is true, you have to wonder why it took their candidate 47 years to realize it.

•
But any way you slice it, the left is constantly scolding us for the America we were instead of giving us credit for all the work we've done to become the America we are.

•
For all the hysterical claims that President Trump poses an existential threat to our country, a Gallup poll released last week shows that 56% of Americans consider themselves better off now than they were four years ago, compared to 45% of American who felt that way at the end of Barack Obama's first term.

•
When confronted with these findings during a campaign stop in Cincinnati, Biden said voters who feel that way "should probably vote for Trump" adding, "well, their memory is not very good, quite frankly."

•
Now to be fair, if anybody knows about having a bad memory, it's a presidential nominee who's told people he's running for Senate on multiple occasions.

•
But Biden's dismissive attitude towards the facts is emblematic of the left's entire approach to fighting this president: push his rhetoric over his record.

•
They continue to run this exhausted play because while the president throws tons of wild rhetorical pitches, he's had no problem finding the strike zone with his pro-growth agenda.

•
Not only did he slash regulations at a staggering pace to get the bureaucratic boot off the neck of small businesses, but he cut taxes for 80% of Americans, with the biggest benefits being felt by women and minorities at the lowest end of the economic scale.

•
Do we want a president who campaigns relentlessly and never stops pushing an empowering message of American greatness?

•
Or do we want a president who's spent the vast majority of this campaign letting the media fight his defeatist, race-baiting "battle for the soul of our nation."

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Facebook, Twitter's thuggish censorship and election interference mean no citizen is safe (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
Big Tech is the biggest threat to democracy — and must be reined in by Congress — before our rights enshrined in the Constitution protecting free speech and freedom of the press are placed in the dustbins of history.

•
On Wednesday, Twitter and Facebook acted no different than Communist state-run media organizations that corruptly block the distribution of information and news stories they don't like.

•
These social media networks run by high-tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley — in the tank for the Democratic Party — barred a sourced New York Post story exposing alleged emails between Joe Biden's son Hunter and a powerful Ukrainian executive while Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukraine natural gas company — getting paid as much as $50,000 per month despite no industry expertise — while Vice President Biden was the point man on Ukraine during the Obama administration.

•
Not only did Facebook and Twitter block users from posting the bombshell report calling Joe Biden's statements denying knowledge of his son's business dealings into question, amongst other valid concerns, but also Twitter locked the New York Post's account and that of White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

•
"It's not a temporary blockage," McEnany told... "When I log on to my Twitter account, it says I'm permanently banned. They essentially have me at gunpoint and said unless you delete this story, a news story by the New York Post, I cannot regain access to my account."

•
If this type of thuggish censorship and election interference doesn't send a chill up your spine, what will?

•
The reality is that if the arrogant overlords in Silicon Valley can censor the president's tweets, which they do regularly, as well as a top White House official and major newspaper for reporting on a presidential candidate during an election, then no American citizen or media outlet is safe from similar censorship.

•
On Thursday, the power-trippers at Twitter continued their out of control censorship by silencing high-ranking members of Congress and links they post to government websites.

•
"Twitter is now blocking an official government website to protect Joe Biden. WATCH what happens when you click the link to @JudiciaryGOP's website. Twitter censors the United States House of Representatives but not propaganda from Communist China and Iran. Let that sink in."

•
Twitter Safety said in a tweet this week that it limited distribution of the New York Post's story because of its 2018 policy that "prohibits the use of our service to distribute content obtained without authorization."

•
A bogus standard they seem to apply only when it comes to protecting Democratic candidates like Joe Biden from damaging stories — not the president, his family or administration.

•
An obvious double standard that illustrates how these social media networks are not the neutral gatekeepers they pretend to be.

•
This shouldn't surprise anyone given the far-left political leanings of those who work in Big Tech including the head of site integrity at Twitter, Yoel Roth.

•
In January 2017, Roth compared the Trump administration to Nazis by tweeting: "Today on Meet the Press, we're speaking with Joseph Goebbels about the first 100 days... — What I hear whenever Kellyanne (Conway) is on a news show."

•
Will Senate Republicans and attendant members of Congress permit these almighty monopolistic platforms to continue its wide-ranging abuses?

•
Or will they finally protect the most sacred pillars of a Democracy — free speech and free elections?
Tucker Carlson: New emails reveal exactly what Burisma wanted from Joe Biden (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
Not everything you hear is untrue and not every story is complex. At the heart of the growing Biden-Ukraine scandal, for example, is a very straightforward question: Did Joe Biden subvert American foreign policy in order to enrich his own family?

•
In 2015, Joe Biden was the sitting vice president of the United States. Included in his portfolio were U.S. relations with the nation of Ukraine. At that moment, Vice President Joe Biden had more influence over the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian economy than any other person on the globe outside of Eastern Europe.

•
Biden's younger son, Hunter, knew that and hoped to get rich from his father's influence. Emails published Wednesday by The New York Post, documents apparently taken directly from Hunter Biden's own laptop, tell some of that story.

•
If these emails are fake, this is the most complex and sophisticated hoax in history. It almost seems beyond human capacity. The Biden campaign clearly believes these emails are real. They have not said otherwise.

•
... a Burisma executive called Vadym Pozharskyi emailed Hunter Biden and his business partner, Devon Archer. The purpose of the email, Pozharskyi explains, is to "be on the same page re our final goals ... including, but not limited to: a concrete course of actions."

•
So what did Burisma want, exactly? Well, good PR, for starters. Pozharskyi wanted "high-ranking US [sic] officials" to express their "positive opinion" of Burisma, and then he wanted the administration to act on Burisma's behalf.

•
"The scope of work should also include organization of a visit of a number of widely recognized and influential current and/or former US [sic] policy-makers to Ukraine in November, aiming to conduct meetings with and bring positive signal/message and support" to Burisma.

•
The goal, Pozharskyi explained, was to "close down for [sic] any cases/pursuits" against the head of Burisma in Ukraine.

•
It couldn't be clearer what they wanted. Burisma wanted Huter Biden's father to get their company out of legal trouble with the Ukrainian government. And that's exactly what happened.

•
"Hello all ..." it began. "This morning, the White House hosted a conference call regarding the Vice President's upcoming trip to Ukraine. Attached is a memo from the Blue Star Strategies team with the minutes of the call, which outlined the trip's agenda and addressed several questions regarding U.S. policy toward Ukraine."

•
So here you have a PR firm involved in an official White House foreign policy call. How could that happen? Good question. But it worked.

•
Days later, Joe Biden flew to Ukraine and did exactly what his son wanted. The vice president gave a speech slamming the very Ukrainian law enforcement official who was tormenting Burisma.

•
If the Ukrainian government didn't fire its top prosecutor, a man called Viktor Shokin, Biden explained, the administration would withhold a billion dollars in American aid.

•
Now, Ukraine is a poor country, so they had no choice but to obey. Biden's bullying worked. He bragged about it later.

•
The obvious question: Why was the vice president of the United States threatening a tiny country like Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor? That doesn't seem like a vice president's role. Well, now we know why.

•
Viktor Shokin has signed an affidavit affirming that he was, in fact, investigating Burisma at the moment Joe Biden had him removed. Shokin said that before he was fired, administration officials pressured him to drop the case against Burisma. He would not do that, so Joe Biden canned him.

•
That's how things really work in Washington. Your son's got a lucrative consulting deal with a Ukrainian energy company, you tailor American foreign policy — our foreign policy — to help make him rich.

•
Even at the State Department, possibly the most cynical agency in government, this seemed shockingly brazen.

•
Five years later, Joe Biden still has not been forced to explain why he fired Ukraine's top prosecutor at precisely the moment his son was being paid to get him to fire Ukraine's top prosecutor, nor has Joe Biden addressed whether or not he personally benefited from the Burisma contract.

•
But there are tantalizing hints. ... yet another email from Hunter Biden's laptop. It's a note to one of his children. At the end of the email, there's this quote: "But dont [sic] worry unlike Pop I won't make you give me half your salary."

•
What does that mean, exactly? Well, we don't know. There may be more detail on the laptop, but unfortunately, we don't have access to that.

•
But the question remains, how has Joe Biden lived in extravagance all these years on a government salary?

•
No one has ever answered that question. And the tech monopolies are working hard to make certain no one ever does.

•
One email describes a "provisional agreement that the equity will be distributed as follows ... 10 held by H for the big guy?"

•
The big guy? Is the big guy Joe Biden? If so, how much did Joe Biden get and how much of that came from the Communist Chinese government? Those are real questions, this man could be elected president in three weeks.

•
But Twitter doesn't want you to wonder. It won't allow you to ask those questions. Twitter restricted the New York Post story as "unsafe"...

•
All day Thursday, they deflected questions about Joe Biden's subversion of our country's foreign policy by invoking Twitter's ban on the New York Post story.

•
So the tech monopoly censors information to help their candidate, that candidate uses that censorship to dismiss the story. One hand washes the other.

•
It doesn't matter who you plan to vote for Nov. 3, you should be terrified. Democracies cannot exist and never will be able to exist without the free flow of information. That is a prerequisite and without it, we're done.

•
But companies like Facebook and Google and Twitter do not care because they don't believe in democracy. They worship power and they don't need to be consistent.

•
Melania Trump's private phone conversations, the president's stolen tax returns, they were happy to publish all of that. But if you criticize the Democratic candidate, their candidate, you are banned.

•
"Facebook and Twitter have policies to not spread things that are utterly unreliable, that have been debunked, and where their origin is untrustworthy," Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Thursday.

•
Not one word of this story has been debunked, not one word in those emails has been "debunked." And if it is debunked, we'll be the first to report it because we're not liars.

•
But none of their garbage, their lunatic lies about Russia is ever censored by the tech monopolies. It's not "unsafe" because it helps Joe Biden. Therefore, you can read it.

•
And where are the real journalists, now that we need them more than ever? They're gone. They're cowering. They're afraid. They don't want to upset power.

•
These people are craven. They have no standards. They have no self-respect. Like their masters in Silicon Valley, they worship power alone.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Destroying the institutions we inherited (JWR 10/15/2020)
Facebook and Twitter's censorship is an insult to democracy — they must stop or be broken up (Fox 10/15/2020)
•
The great Twitter and Facebook masquerade is over. Posing as disinterested and neutral media platforms, they have unmasked themselves as partisan protectors of Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden and propaganda advocates of the progressive cause.

•
It is time that Twitter and Facebook be forced to halt their destructive practices or be broken up.

•
The two technology giants wield too much marketplace power in the ever-expanding social media universe. With power comes abuse.

•
This was on full display Wednesday when both Twitter and Facebook blocked access to a New York Post story offering stunning email evidence that Biden may have exploited his position as vice president to financially benefit his son, Hunter Biden.

•
If the Post's evidence is authentic, as it appears to be, it would put a lie to the candidate's previous denials that he engaged in influence peddling and knew nothing about his son's business dealings.

•
... a smoking-gun message from a top executive at the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma thanking Hunter for arranging a meeting with his father in Washington.

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The son was being paid a minimum of $50,000 a month by Burisma to sit on its board, even though he had absolutely no experience in either natural gas or Ukrainian affairs.

•
As Hunter was pocketing the cash, his company Burisma was under siege for suspected corrupt practices and searching desperately for a way to quash any government action against it. Emails from Burisma asked Hunter to tap his influence.

•
It is obvious why Hunter Biden was being paid such an outlandish sum of money every month despite his utter lack of qualifications.

•
Burisma was in deep trouble. It was searching for a powerful political figure who could exert pressure on Ukraine to leave the company alone.

•
Joe Biden fit the bill perfectly. He was the vital point-person in the Obama Administration's foreign policy directives to Ukraine.

•
Sure enough, the elder Biden intervened and later bragged about it on camera. He threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine unless the chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was fired from his job.

•
Shokin is on record stating that he was poised to launch a criminal investigation of Burisma where Hunter Biden was employed. With his termination, all of that suddenly and magically vanished.

•
What inexorable conclusion can we draw from this? The evidence is compelling that Vice President Joe Biden used the powers of his high office and taxpayer money to take action that benefited a foreign company that was paying his son.

•
Is that a crime? It could be. It certainly merits an investigation because it is a felony for a public official to confer a benefit to a foreign government (for example, a billion dollars in financial assistance) in exchange for something of value to himself or a relative.

•
While it is true that not all acts of wrongdoing constitute crimes, the facts as presented by the Post deserve scrutiny by both the media and voters who are poised to cast — and, in some states, have already cast — their ballots in a presidential election.

•
In his pointed attacks on Trump, Biden has made character and corruption an issue. So, too, have many Democrats and the press.

•
Shouldn't Biden be held to the same standard of fitness and rectitude that he demands of his opponent? Of course he should. Biden has unwittingly invited the scrutiny he now deserves.

•
And yet, Twitter, Facebook, and many in the media have sought to suppress the evidence reported by the Post.

•
The damning emails come from a laptop computer that almost certainly belongs to Hunter Biden. It was dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware and never retrieved by its owner.

•
In the process of fixing the computer, the shop owner discovered the material, grew alarmed about its contents, and notified the FBI. Armed with a subpoena issued by a Delaware grand jury, the bureau seized the laptop and its hard drive in December of last year.

•
What followed was conspicuous (if not disturbing) silence. No meaningful action was taken.

•
Concerned that evidence of wrongdoing involving a presidential candidate was being buried as the election draws near, the shop owner gave a copy of the hard drive to President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. From there, the Post gained access and reported its contents.

•
Almost immediately, Facebook initiated a blackout maneuver "reducing" the ability of users to distribute the Post article and its supporting email evidence. Facebook described the story as "potentially harmful" and it hadn't verified its legitimacy

•
Nearly every major story is "potentially harmful" to someone. If that is the standard, Facebook would have no media traffic.

•
Moreover, since when does Facebook verify the legitimacy of articles that are damaging to President Trump? The answer is never.

•
Think of all the "collusion" stories that were peddled by major news organizations that were unverified and wrong. Facebook didn't restrict or ban those.

•
More recently, Facebook did not restrict or ban access to a New York Times "potentially harmful" story on Trump's taxes that was based on unnamed sources and documents the newspaper refused to produce.

•
Yet, the New York Post is not permitted to post its story on Biden based on documents it actually did produce. This is nothing more than selective and dangerous censorship motivated by political bias. It is also an effort to influence an election by the withholding of relevant information.

•
Twitter also banned the Post story, claiming that it violated its "Hacked Materials Policy." Except the material wasn't hacked at all. Hacking is unauthorized access.

•
The repair shop was granted authorized access to fix the water-damaged laptop. Thereafter, the device was abandoned without compensation, giving the repair shop constructive ownership.

•
Twitter's excuse for repressing the Post story is inane. It disingenuously declared that its policy "prohibits content obtained without authorization." Really?

•
Twitter must have forgotten the countless stories it has allowed that were anonymously sourced from leaked classified documents that were illegally obtained and disseminated.

•
The unconscionable actions of these two tech giants has produced such outrage that it only managed to elevate — not suppress — the Post's story about Biden.

•
While there is some satisfaction in that boomerang effect, there is no doubt that both Twitter and Facebook will continue their partisan manipulation of information until they are stopped.

•
Congress is now duty-bound to impose new restrictions on such marketplace abuse.

•
At the same time, the Justice Department must consider levying severe penalties or, preferably, breaking up both companies under anti-trust laws.

•
Too much power and little accountability is a recipe for destructive behavior that is anathema to our cherished freedoms.

•
Like a witness who incriminates himself, the politically driven decisions by Facebook and Twitter are the best evidence against them.
Tucker Carlson: The Joe Biden story Twitter and Facebook don't want you to read (Fox 10/15/2020)
•
Most of us never imagined it could happen in this country, and yet Wednesday, it did happen.

•
A major American newspaper published a story, apparently an entirely accurate story, about a presidential candidate. The tech monopolies that control American media feared this story might hurt that candidate, whom they favor. So three weeks before a national election, they shut the whole thing down.

•
They prevented the public from reading the news. They didn't apologize for doing this. They didn't bother to make up reasonable-sounding justifications for it.

•
They just did it, exactly as the Chinese government does. These are monopolies. They have all the power, you have none. They don't have to care about what you think and they don't.

•
This was mass censorship on a scale that America has never experienced in 245 years, and it's a threat to all of us.

•
Democracies only function when there is a free exchange of information between citizens. We no longer have that.

•
... the New York Post published a series of emails that describe Hunter Biden's lucrative relationship with a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma, and then describe how his father, then the vice president of the United States, intervened to help his son peddle influence.

•
These e-mails came from an Apple laptop that was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop last year and then abandoned there. After a certain number of days with no payment, the shop's owner took legal possession of the laptop.

•
When he looked inside, he found tens of thousands of emails, including exchanges with representatives of foreign companies and foreign governments. The laptop apparently belonged to Hunter Biden.

•
The shop owner was stunned by this, by the appearance of corruption, and he was afraid for his family.

•
So late last year, he gave the laptop to the FBI and kept a copy of the hard drive for himself. He never heard back from the FBI.

•
By May, he was anxious. So he made overtures to Senator Mike Lee's office and at least one conservative nonprofit, but no one responded.

•
Finally, the man contacted Rudy Giuliani's office. And Wednesday's story is the result of that.

•
The tech monopolies crushed the story the moment it appeared. An executive at Facebook called Andy Stone, a former Democratic staffer, announced that his company would censor the New York Post story. As he put it, Facebook would be "reducing its distribution on our platform."

•
Twitter quickly followed suit by locking the New York Post's entire Twitter account. One of the biggest newspapers in the world was banned from Twitter, which then prevented its users from sharing the story, both privately and publicly.

•
Those who tried to share it got this message: "Your tweet couldn't be sent because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful."

•
In a separate explanation, Twitter wrote this: "We don't permit the use of our services to directly distribute content obtained through hacking that contains private information, may put people in physical harm or danger, or contains trade secrets."

•
That's the same Twitter that just promoted a New York Times story about the president's private tax returns, obviously obtained illegally. And who, by the way, was hacked here? No one was hacked. Twitter never addressed that.

•
As for "trade secrets," there were none. We already knew that Hunter Biden was trading on his father's office to make $50,000 a month from the Ukrainians. In October, he admitted it.

•
So we knew the outlines. What we didn't know until Wednesday was how brazen this was. Hunter Biden didn't simply sell access to his father, the vice president, or take cash to influence American foreign policy.

•
As he schemed to extract more money from Burisma, Biden didn't refer to his father as his father. He referred to Joe Biden, the vice president, as "my guy." ... wrote to his business partner, "The announcement of my guy's upcoming travels should be characterized as part of our advice and thinking."

•
Hunter Biden added that he needed to be "protected financially" and wanted a long term role with Burisma: "The contract should begin now - not after the upcoming visit of my guy. That should include a retainer in the range of 25k" .

•
... just weeks after Hunter Biden joined the board of that company, a top executive there let him know explicitly why he was being paid: "We urgently need your advice on how you could use your influence to convey a message/signal, etc., to stop what we consider to be politically motivated actions."

•
What message does that mean? Well, another e-mail from the same executive ... explains in very clear terms what it means. "Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC [sic] and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It's realty [sic] an honor and pleasure."

•
That's what you're not allowed to read. And you can see why Facebook and Twitter don't want to allow you to read it.

•
If Joe Biden met with Burisma executives at the request of his son for the profit of his own family, it becomes very clear that Joe Biden's previous denials were lies. Just last year, Joe Biden was telling us he had no idea what his son was doing it for Burisma.

•
... back in 2018, Joe Biden explained that he got the top prosecutor in Ukraine fired. That prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, said he was planning to investigate Burisma when he was stripped of his job. Here's how Joe Biden explained/bragged about how he canned Viktor Shokin.

•
"I had gotten a commitment from [then-Ukraine President Petro] Poroshenko and from [then-Prime Minister Arseniy] Yatseniuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor, and they didn't ... They were walking out to the press conference and I said ... 'We're not going to give you the billion dollars.' They said, 'You have no authority. You're not the president, the president said — ' I said, 'Call him.' I said, 'I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion dollars. I said, 'You're not getting the billion. I'm going to be leaving here' — I think it was what, six hours? ... I said, 'I'm leaving in six hours and if the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money.' Well, son of a bitch, he got fired."

•
Why is the vice president of the United States firing prosecutors in Ukraine? Pause for a moment and ask yourself that. That's bizarre behavior. It doesn't help the United States in any way. Why was he doing that at the time?

•
Then last October, we showed you a photograph of Joe and Hunter Biden golfing with a man called Devon Archer, a board member of Burisma and Hunter Biden's business partner. The Biden campaign never explained that photograph. Rather than following up, our media rushed to Joe Biden's defense in the same way they're now rushing to bury the New York Post story.

•
In December, a voter in Iowa tried to ask Joe Biden about Burisma and his fitness for office. Joe Biden lost control of himself. He called the man "fat" and then challenged him to a push-up contest.

•
We have some questions, and here's the first one: Did any money from Burisma or any other foreign company or foreign government wind up in Joe Biden's pockets or in the account of any entity he benefits from?

•
We're not accusing Joe Biden of a crime. We're saying it has long been a mystery how a man who took a government salary for almost 50 years has lived like a rich man since the 1970s. (Ever seen Joe Biden's houses? Look them up. "Opulent" doesn't begin to describe the way he lives.)

•
Can you do that? No, you can't. So how did Joe Biden do that?

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden wants to pack Supreme Court to put America on road to socialism — he just won’t admit it (Fox 10/15/2020)
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Coronavirus — what if we all start to return to normal life now? (Fox 10/15/2020)
Why Dems Hate Barrett (JWR 10/14/2020)
Michael Goodwin: Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearing frustrates Dems unable to 'Kavanaugh'... (Fox 10/14/2020)
Democrats will use court-packing to destroy the Constitution (INN 10/13/2020)
What Will Happen If the Democrats Pack the Supreme Court (JWR 10/13/2020)
Curt Levey: Amy Coney Barrett's judicial philosophy – here's what skeptical Democrats are missing (Fox 10/13/2020)
•
... she said in a 2019 lecture, "The law is comprised of words — and textualists emphasize that words mean what they say, not what a judge thinks that they ought to say... Fidelity to the law means fidelity to the text as it is written."

•
In her opening statement on Monday, Judge Barrett emphasized that "The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people," not by the courts.

•
... a justice who leaves policy decisions and value judgments to the people's representatives is exactly what most Americans want.

•
To understand why Democrats make this assumption about Barrett and other Catholic judges, you need to understand the left's judicial philosophy: living constitution theory.

•
It views the Constitution and even statutes as documents that evolve to adapt to changes in values, culture and politics.

•
"If the Constitution is not constant ... then someone is changing it, and doing so according to his or her own ideas about what the Constitution should look like... So a living Constitution becomes ... just some gauzy ideas that appeal to the judges who happen to be in power at a particular time and that they impose on the rest of us."

•
When Democrats project this philosophy onto Barrett, they conclude that she too will use her power as a Supreme Court justice to impose her personal values on us, including those which spring from Catholicism.

•
Not only are Democrats skeptical that a conservative jurist can interpret the law as written, they also see that approach as a threat to their nearly century-long project of using judicial activism to mold the Constitution into what they want it to be.

•
When Senate Democrats tell you this week that Judge Barrett's Catholicism will stand in the way of her dispassionately applying the law, remember that it's the last thing they want.
Replacing RBG – Delinquent Democrats deserve no quarter (INN 10/12/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Democrats treat first day of Amy Coney Barrett hearings like a campaign rally (Fox 10/12/2020)
•
... Almost none of the attacks on Barrett — and, of course, there were many of those — had to do with the job she is trying to get.

•
The Supreme Court exists only to determine whether the laws that our politicians write are consistent with the Constitution of the United States.

•
Supreme Court justices do not make laws because they're not elected by voters. We don't let them legislate as a result. That's how democracy works: Only people who are elected get to make laws.

•
Democrats would like to change that system. ... if you're going to remake America, you're going to have to do it from above. And you're going to have to impose it on people. And the left would like the Supreme Court as their instrument to do that, a kind of super-Congress with lifetime tenure. Imagine power like that. There's nothing you couldn't do.

•
So once you understand that perspective, which is very much their perspective, Monday's hearing made sense. Democrats spent hours talking about the 2009 ObamaCare law. That was baffling at first.

•
If you're interviewing someone for the Supreme Court, there's only one relevant question about ObamaCare: Is it constitutional? That's all they consider. That's all they're supposed to consider.

•
Not how they feel about the law, not whether it comports with their personal values, not whether their party supports it. Is it constitutional?

•
And yet that was one of the few things that Democrats didn't ask because they're not interested in whether or not it's constitutional. What they care about is power and whether Amy Coney Barrett will diminish or enhance theirs.

•
They understand the Supreme Court purely in political terms. So, not surprisingly, they conducted today's hearings like a campaign rally.

•
... Democrat, pointing to a photo of a middle-aged woman called Laura, who looked very unhappy without ObamaCare. The senator said Laura will be "unable to afford the treatments necessary for her to survive."

•
In other words, if Amy Coney Barrett gets this job, it's curtains for Laura. Democrat after Democrat made that very same point as they so often have recently: Obey us or many will die.

•
There is no case currently pending anywhere in this country before any court in America that would eliminate ObamaCare.

•
More importantly, we don't have any idea how Amy Coney Barrett would rule in a case like that were it to materialize, which again, it hasn't.

•
But most bewildering of all, Democrats themselves have spent most of the past two years publicly conceding that ObamaCare is a disaster.

•
The goal is to undermine the legitimacy of our system and, in this case, of the Supreme Court so that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can pack the court full of partisan Democrats who will rubber stamp their program.

•
Again, it's about power. So that's the key to the riddle when confirmation hearings become partisan political exercises.

•
Democrats know that for the public to go along with court-packing, they have to delegitimize everything about the court and the confirmation process.

•
Hugo Chavez packed the Supreme Court of Venezuela in 2004. Erdogan did the same in Turkey. How did they do that? How they get their populations to go along with it? By claiming their judicial systems were already illegitimate. Sound familiar?
Michael Goodwin: Americans agree, Trump has made things better, so where's the momentum? (Fox 10/12/2020)
Amy Coney Barrett deserves same fair hearing Justice Ginsburg once received (Fox 10/12/2020)
•
During her confirmation hearing in 1993, then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg declined to answer any questions about issues that may come before her on the Supreme Court.

•
She famously said that a "judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints," about how she would rule on a case, "for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process."

•
Ginsburg also quoted Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "[O]ne of the most sacred duties of a judge is not to read [her] convictions into [the Constitution]."

•
Applying what has come to be called the "Ginsburg Standard," she refused to answer nearly 60 questions over the course of her hearing.

•
At his hearing, Justice Stephen Breyer said he did "not want to predict or commit myself on an open issue that I feel is going to come up in court."

•
Similarly, Justice Elena Kagan suggested that "it would be inappropriate for a nominee to talk about how she will rule on pending cases or on cases beyond that that might come before the court in the future," while Justice Sonia Sotomayor refused to "engage in a question that involves hypotheses."

•
In 1939, Felix Frankfurter said, "I should think it improper for a nominee no less than for a member of the court to express his personal views on controversial political issues affecting the court."

•
William Brennan, who would become a liberal lion of the court, asserted at his hearing in 1957 that he had "an obligation not to discuss any issues that are touched upon in cases before the court."

•
... Biden attacked. He criticized Bork based on Democrats' objections to the Reagan administration's policy agenda rather than on the judge's record. And Biden used hypotheticals about "our tradition of progress" and "rights of individuals in a changing world" to suggest that Bork was unfit to serve on the Supreme Court.

•
Biden's performance was so bizarre that even the Washington Post criticized him, saying that Bork deserved a fair hearing but asking, "How can he possibly get one from Sen. Biden, who has already cast himself in the role of a prosecutor instead of a juror in the Judiciary Committee?"

•
Like Justice Ginsburg, Judge Barrett is a trailblazer, a brilliant jurist, and a kind and remarkable woman.

•
Like Justice Ginsburg, Judge Barrett has emphasized the importance of impartiality, explaining, "We shouldn't be putting people on the court who share our policy preferences. We should be putting people on the court who want to apply the Constitution."

•
And like Justice Ginsburg, and all Supreme Court nominees, Judge Barrett deserves a fair hearing that focuses on her legal qualifications rather than on partisan smears.

•
Senators should honor Justice Ginsburg's legacy and her service to our country by holding Judge Barrett to the same standard that other justices have been held to.
No, Joe Biden, it is not packing the Court for the president and Senate to fill vacancies (Fox 10/12/2020)
•
In a flourish that would have greened George Orwell with envy, the media-Democrat complex now proclaims that Democrats are merely intent on depoliticizing thice Supreme Court because Republicans have been "packing" it for four years.

•
This, of course, turns on its head the commonsense, historical understanding of court-packing that has been universally accepted – and, indeed, invoked by such Democrats as [checks notes] Joe Biden – for decades.

•
To "pack" the Supreme Court means to enact legislation to expand the size of the tribunal in order to achieve constitutionally dubious political outcomes that the Court's legal rulings are frustrating.

•
The concept arises out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's threat to pack the Court because its decisions were invalidating New Deal legislation. This was during the Great Depression.

•
Notwithstanding that FDR had won a historic landslide victory in 1936 and enjoyed super-majority Democratic support in Congress, his own party slapped his proposal down, forcing the 20th Century's most powerful president to beat a hasty retreat.

•
That happened because Depression-era Democrats, unlike today's Democrats, not only grasped but feared the implications.

•
Expanding the Court and filling the new slots with progressive ideological allies, as FDR intended to do, would irrevocably convert the non-political judiciary into a politicized super-legislature.

•
It would eviscerate the rule of law, which courts are presumed to enforce without partisanship, substituting the ideological preferences – the brute political will – of the party that happened to be dominating the political branches at that point in time.

•
Those Democrats understood that times change. If they packed the Court, the Republicans at their next opportunity would expand the number of seats and array their own politically-driven lawyers in judicial robes.

•
The Court would have become a super-legislature. That would destroy the Court as an institution. The legitimacy of the tribunal's rulings – the reason its decisions are accepted by the public as law – is that they are presumed to be driven by the remorseless logic of jurisprudence, not the wheeling-and-dealing of politics.

•
The destruction of the judiciary as a non-political institution would inexorably destroy our framework of government.

•
The Constitution sets up a system based on separation-of-powers: The division of authority that prevents any actor in the system from accumulating too much power, the Framers, as students of Locke and Montesquieu, believed would lead to tyranny.

•
Among the system's key checks and balances is the judiciary's insulation from politics. This enables it to preserve the Constitution and statutes as written, pushing back against majoritarian political impulses that would otherwise overrun minority rights and individual liberty – our system's ideal.

•
If the Supreme Court became a nakedly political institution, then it would be the tool of the majority party in power.

•
In sum, it could no longer perform the function for which it was created: To serve as a bulwark between Americans and government oppression, protecting the former's rights to free speech, worship, self-defense, property, privacy, due process and equal protection under the law.

•
To be clear, it is not packing the Court for the elected president and Senate to fill vacancies that arise under existing law.

•
As a matter of constitutional law, there are only two rules for filling a vacancy: The president must appoint, and the Senate must consent.

•
Historically, when the presidency and Senate are controlled by the same party, the president's nominees (assuming they are professionally and ethically qualified) get confirmed.

•
If they are controlled by different parties, the Senate often does not consent and thus nominations are defeated.

•
When Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, the last year of President Obama's term, the White House and Senate were in control of different parties, and the Senate did not consent to Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland.

•
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently passed away while Trump was still president, which he will lawfully be until at least January 20; and while Republicans still controlled the Senate, which they will lawfully do until at least January 3.

•
Trump has thus nominated the highly qualified Judge Amy Coney Barrett, and the Senate is poised to confirm her.

•
That is not "court-packing." It is the Constitution in action.

•
There is nothing magic about the number nine. The Constitution makes Congress the master of the Supreme Court's size. It started out with six members after the Judiciary Act of 1789. Over the next 80 years, the number varied between five and ten justices.

•
Since 1868, it has been set at nine. That has proved a prudent number for resolving tough issues while making sure all legitimate legal positions are effectively considered.

•
It was one thing to vary the Court's size when the nation was growing, the Court's role was evolving, and the work of the federal judiciary was expanding.

•
As FDR found, however, it would be a very different thing, a ruinous thing, to expand the court to achieve political outcomes.

•
That would not only destroy the Court as an institution; it could be a mortal blow to our constitutional system.
What binds the radical US Left is hatred for both Israel and the USA (INN 10/11/2020)
•
For all intents and purposes, the Democratic Party's current incarnation (as it moved left-ward, incrementally, over a period of years) is ideologically imbued with those who would like to see Israel's destruction. America's, too.

•
The party's radical, Marxist/communist element hates Israel for the same reasons they hate America.

•
This tragic truth is plain for all to see, but only if one's eyes are wide open enough to absorb the seismic upheavals taking place all over America.

•
Akin to the outcome of a civil war, the upcoming 2020 election will determine the absolute fate of the nation. This is so on both the domestic and foreign fronts.

•
See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Victor Davis Hanson: California ignores current problems, comes up with illogical reparations bill (Fox 10/11/2020)
Yes, Hillary Clinton Orchestrated the Russia-Collusion Farce (10/10/2020)
•
In late July 2016, Hillary Clinton, in an effort to divert attention from the email scandal that was haunting her presidential bid, directed her campaign to peddle a political narrative that Russia's suspected hacking and leaking of Democratic Party emails was in furtherance of a conspiracy between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to swing the election to Trump.

•
... the Clinton campaign dreamed up, paid for, and peddled the Trump–Russia collusion farce. And in promoting it, President Obama's former secretary of state had a willing and able partner in the Obama administration — very much including its intelligence and law-enforcement apparatus.

•
... because our spy agencies have very effective foreign-intelligence-gathering methods, they were able to "obtain insight" into a Russian intelligence analysis that concluded Clinton orchestrated the damaging political narrative.

•
That is, Clinton actually did what she accused Trump of doing: She colluded with Russians (through yet another foreigner she recruited to meddle in the 2016 presidential campaign: the ludicrous former British spy Christopher Steele) in order to damage Trump's campaign and cinch the election for herself.

•
As ever with the Clintonistas: When they're moving their lips, they're projecting.

•
While our spy agencies judged Moscow's analysis about Clinton to be authentic (in the sense of truly being a Russian intel product), they could not vouch for its accuracy (i.e., it might reflect what the Russians really believed, but it might alternatively be exaggeration or fabrication).

•
This was not a wobble. Intelligence agencies sweep up scads of information, and they must always grade its reliability with a skeptical eye to avoid deluding themselves.

•
But this was all Democrats needed ... at least at first. At a Judiciary Committee hearing, former FBI director James Comey and Senate Democrats scoffed at Ratcliffe's frank, professional concession, claiming it discredited his disclosure in its entirety, and called his competence into question. He'd clearly been duped by Russian disinformation ... said the people who seem to have made a habit of being duped by Russian disinformation.

•
Did the Russians have a window into the Clinton campaign? It sure looks that way, between Secretary Clinton's security practices (which even Comey has described as irresponsible) and her retention of Steele, with his stable of Russian oligarch clients and his dossier "primary subsource," whom the FBI suspected (with copious reason) to be a Russian asset.

•
But the point here is not whether Russian spies, thanks to Clinton's own carelessness, had effectively infiltrated her campaign. The point is: Clinton was undeniably doing what, it turns out, the Russians were contemporaneously detecting.

•
The Russians were able to deduce what Hillary Clinton was up to because it was patently obvious. It did not take a super sleuth to figure this one out. Just eyes to see and ears to hear.

•
After Ratcliffe published these documents, we were no longer hearing much about disinformation. Now the talking point became: Well, there was nothing criminal in what Clinton did; she was simply worried about a potentially corrupt conspiracy between Trump and Putin — and who wouldn't be?

•
Right ... worried based on absolutely zero evidence. There was not a shred of proof that Donald Trump and his campaign had any foreknowledge of, much less complicity in, the suspected Russian hack of DNC emails. That, you may remember, was the sinkhole on which the collusion farce was constructed.

•
... Steele's "report" could have been written by Clinton or Brennan themselves. It frets over Trump's by-then-well-documented skepticism about NATO, surmising that such thinking couldn't possibly be explained by anything other than Trump's being blackmailed by Putin.
Joe Biden may currently be under Federal criminal investigation (INN 10/09/2020)
President Trump made Obama-Biden's parched garden grow, grow, grow (JWR 10/09/2020)
No Coincidence (JWR 10/09/2020)
•
There is no doubt in my mind at this point that the Democrat Party is evil in every respect.

•
They have attempted everything in their power to overthrow the 2016 election, destroy Donald Trump and with him the entire foundation of our country.

•
The Democrats along with the majority of the press are intent on turning our republic into a totalitarian communist country, and they will stop at nothing to do so.

•
For four years they have been lying about President Trump "colluding" with Russia when the fact is, and newly released official documents have proven, that Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC were the ones who set the whole thing up. This by the way, with the full knowledge of President Obama.

•
The game plan is always the same with the left. They accuse their opponents of doing what they themselves are doing. It's the old bait and switch trick.

•
Read Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, and you'll get the entire picture. That has been the playbook, the bible of the left for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, AOC and so many other "progressives" for decades.

•
The Russia hoax, the phony impeachment trial and anything else they could think of were designed by the corrupt officials within the deep state to take down a duly elected sitting president. This is the closest America has ever come to a real political coup.

•
And these people are still at it. I am thoroughly convinced that they mean to completely alter America, and most Americans don't even see it.

•
It isn't a stretch to see the link between the Chinese government and the Democrats. The Democrats have been at the forefront of keeping Americans scared and locked away for all these months.

•
And it isn't farfetched to assume the Dems are in bed with antifa and Black Lives Matter. Ask yourself this, how many of those young people burning buildings, throwing bricks at the police, and looting stores do you think are Trump voters?
Lack of pre-election indictments in Durham probe shows abuse of power often not a crime (Fox 10/09/2020)
If Trump loses 2020, it's on Trump although the Biden-Harris team is absolutely lackluster (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
Joe Biden is a terrible candidate. He is 77 years old; he is incoherent; he has called a "lid" every other day of his campaign to avoid serious questioning.

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His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is so unpopular that she dropped out of the Democratic primaries before they even reached her home state.

•
Were the election held today, by the RealClearPolitics statistics, Biden would win 375 electoral votes, picking up states including North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

•
How is this happening? How did a doddering fool, a career politician mostly famous for his incurable logorrhea, end up in the catbird seat one month before the 2020 election?

•
The answer is simple: Joe Biden understands the nature of this election. Donald Trump simply does not.

•
To understand this election does not require a graduate course in political science: If the election is a referendum on President Trump, he will lose; if the election is a referendum on Joe Biden, he will lose.

•
Trump is personally unpopular by every poll metric, and he has been consistently unpopular for years, but he was still able to win in 2016 because Hillary Clinton was even less popular.

•
But Biden hasn't answered a single serious question. He has been able to avoid nearly all questions by pointing at his opponent.

•
Biden hasn't just run a lackluster campaign; he hasn't run any campaign. He hasn't even walked a campaign.

•
He has essentially grown into his couch in his Delaware basement, getting out only long enough to stand in front of an empty field or answer a few softball questions from a friendly pseudo-journalist.

•
That's not just because the media hate Trump and sycophantically massage Biden, though they do.

•
It's because Trump himself steadfastly refuses to recognize the central issue of the campaign: his own centrality.

•
Trump loves being the center of attention, and he simply refuses to cede the spotlight. ... The media hang on Trump's every word, and he appears to love that.

•
But that symbiotic relationship between Trump and the media puts Trump at a dramatic disadvantage. The more people think about Trump, the less they want to.

•
Joe Biden has learned the lesson. Biden has spent this campaign pointing at Trump. Trump, who should be pointing at Biden, is too busy pointing at himself.

•
Unless Trump somehow suppresses his ego enough to allow Biden to become the issue, Trump is likely to exit the political stage altogether come Nov. 3.
When it comes to Antifa, how real is an Idea? (INN 10/08/2020)
Trump Contracts COVID-19; What Happened to Compassion? (JWR 10/08/2020)
•
Trump-hating America when he quipped, "President Trump is in the hospital from COVID and I just wanna say my heart goes out to COVID." The audience then erupted in laughter.

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"I was in the White House in 2009 and 2010. I was working for Vice President Biden. I wasn't involved directly in the H1N1 response, but I lived through it as a White House staffer, and what I would say about it is: A bunch of really talented, really great people were working on it, and we did every possible thing wrong. And 60 million Americans got H1N1 in that period of time, and it's just purely a fortuity that this isn't one of the great mass casualty events in American history. It had nothing to do with us doing anything right. It just had to do with luck."

•
Trump's enemies are accusing him of purposefully mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic. But this is par for the course in the Trump era.

•
After all, about 29% of the Democratic congressional delegation boycotted Trump's inauguration; several never attended any of the president's State of the Union speeches; Democrats attempted to invoke the 25th Amendment by arguing that the new president was mentally unfit for the job; Rep.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., accused him of violating the emoluments clause; there was a 2 1/2-year Russia-Trump collusion investigation; Trump was impeached; and somehow, The New York Times acquired several years of his income tax returns, apparently revealing that Trump paid little or nothing in federal income taxes for many years.

•
And Trump has routinely been compared to Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, a dictator, a tyrant, a grifter and other things unsuitable for family consumption.

•
As to Trump's handling of the coronavirus, Democrats, like Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden, literally accuse Trump of all but personally murdering more than 200,000 people.

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Trump, to the consternation of medical experts and Democratic politicians, frequently appeared maskless and continued to hold rallies and gatherings where social distancing and mask-wearing were not observed.

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Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein calls Trump's coronavirus response "homicidal negligence."

•
Goodness, does this make Dr. Anthony Fauci a co-conspirator? In a "60 Minutes" episode that aired on March 8, Fauci expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of wearing masks: "There's no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you're in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet, but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences: People keep fiddling with the mask, and they keep touching their face."

•
Is Biden a co-conspirator in this mass homicide for criticizing Trump, who, at the end of January, announced travel restrictions on aliens who had been in China in the preceding 14 days, preventing their entry into the U.S.?

•
The next day Biden tweeted: "We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency."

•
Let us not forget that China lied to the world about when it first learned of the coronavirus and lied when it denied that there was human-to-human transmission of the deadly virus.

•
As a result of those lies, the rest of the world played catch-up from the very beginning.
Upon release from hospital, Trump denounced as a heretic by media high priests (JWR 10/08/2020)
•
A man got coronavirus and, like most who get it, he did not die. After a few days in the hospital, he emerged and told his people something shocking: that they can beat it too, and that while they should be cautious, they shouldn't let fear control their lives.

•
"Don't be afraid of COVID," he said when he got back to work. "Don't let it dominate your life." As you know by now, the man is President Donald Trump.

•
What he said seemed reasonable, a leader telling his country not to be dominated by fear at a time when fear, and fear porn, have become staples of the news and of political efforts to defeat him.

•
The numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention back him up. Estimates released in September show a death rate that is low across the board, especially among the young and healthy, but the drumbeat in politics and media has been all about fear.

•
The high priests of the Washington establishment media who have thrown their lot in with the Democratic Party and Joe Biden for the 2020 campaign were outraged by Trump.

•
They denounced him as a heretical blasphemer for rejecting their absolute moral authority.

•
Yes, the coronavirus is indeed frightening. Some 210,000 Americans have died of it already. I am not mocking it, nor do I want others to die.

•
Yet even so, it should be obvious by now that the virus has become weaponized politically by Democrats and their media allies.

•
We're actually dealing with two viruses now. The one came from China.

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And the other is our own homegrown variety: politics.
'Russia hoax' was lie created by Hillary Clinton and one of the dirtiest political tricks ever (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
For Hillary Clinton, inventing the lie was easy. Spreading the lie was even easier.

•
For President Trump, uncovering the truth has been hard. The truth always has its enemies.

•
This is the maxim – and chilling lesson – of the Russia hoax.

•
Newly declassified handwritten notes authored by former CIA Director John Brennan show that on July 28, 2016, he briefed President Barack Obama on intelligence evidence that Clinton had approved a plan to vilify Trump with false accusations that he was colluding with Russia.

•
She did it, the intel concluded, to distract from her own damaging email scandal.

•
It was an audacious plot put in motion by one of Clinton's foreign policy advisers and then sanctioned by the then-Democrat presidential candidate on July 26. But the genesis of the smear came from Clinton herself.

•
For months, she had peppered her campaign speeches with increasingly venomous accusations that her opponent was a Kremlin asset and a "puppet of Putin."

•
There was not a shred of plausible evidence. It was a shameless lie drawn from the insidious depths of Clinton's fictive imagination. It was magnificently devious and classic Clinton.

•
But the lie didn't stop there. Through a conduit, her campaign commissioned an ex-British spy who composed an anti-Trump dossier of rumors and disinformation derived from a suspected Russian spy.

•
These fabricated stories were then secretly and sedulously fed to James Comey's FBI and the gullible media, both of whom went after Trump with a vengeance.

•
The result was the greatest mass delusion in American history and one of the dirtiest political tricks ever perpetrated.

•
In short, it was Clinton who invented, financed and disseminated the collusion hoax.

•
The intelligence community caught on to Clinton's machinations. The evidence of what she had done was so credible and persuasive that Brennan determined Obama must be informed immediately.

•
That briefing is memorialized in Brennan's top-secret notes that have been buried for four long years in the bowels of the vast intelligence apparatus. Until now.

•
John Ratcliffe, the new director of National Intelligence, deserves credit for having the courage to dig up and make public the shocking proof. But it should have happened long ago.

•
On May 23, 2019, President Trump granted Attorney General William Barr "full and complete authority" to declassify and unveil the carefully guarded government secrets in the Russia investigation.

•
Trump directed that it be done quickly to "ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the actions that were taken and to restore confidence in our public institutions."

•
So, why did it take more than 16 months? The answer is an indictment of the nefarious elements working destructively within our nation's clandestine intelligence operations.

•
It is truly reprehensible that the CIA, FBI and Obama concealed this vital information over the last four tumultuous years.

•
The truth would have dramatically altered Trump's presidency, spared Americans from a rancorous national nightmare, and saved taxpayers $30 million in a phony investigation.

•
It was Clinton who should have been investigated for promulgating a lie, not Trump.

•
And yet, Obama remained silent. Did he do so to protect Clinton, his chosen successor, and to destroy Trump? The question answers itself.

•
The former president sat idly by and watched as the country devolved into convulsive turmoil. He uttered not a word about the incriminating evidence he had seen.

•
Brennan shares equal blame. As a paid commentator for MSNBC, he repeatedly stoked the odious narrative that Trump was a Russian asset, knowing full well that it was untrue. He even accused Trump of treason.

•
It should surprise no one that Comey's dirty fingerprints are all over the collusion lie.

•
Comey's sudden onset of acute amnesia was laughably preposterous. When the CIA tells you that a presidential candidate has concocted and propagated false evidence against her opponent and demands an investigation, it's not something any FBI director would forget. Ever.

•
If nothing else, the newly disclosed evidence confirms just how immoral, conniving, deceitful and unscrupulous Hillary Clinton is. Her malevolence knows no bounds. But the evidence also shows that Trump was the victim of a contemptible hoax. He became the innocent target of a baseless and exhaustive witch hunt.

•
In the wake of these revelations, President Trump has renewed his demand/order that all relevant documents pertaining to the Russia investigation be declassified and released, including all redactions.

•
Americans deserve the full and unadulterated truth. Anything less would only compound the collusion lie with even more cover-ups.
New Files Highlight Brennan’s Role Promoting Clinton’s Russia Collusion Narrative (10/07/2020)
•
... the Obama administration, including its law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, was on the same page with the Clinton campaign in peddling the collusion narrative.

•
... in late July 2016, Russian intelligence agents assessed that Clinton sought to blame Donald Trump, her opponent in the presidential race, for Russia's suspected hacking of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails.

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Clinton's alleged objective was to divert attention from the scandal over her use of a non-secure homebrew server system to conduct State Department business.

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Brennan's notes appear to state: "We're gaining additional insight into Russian activities from" – after which at least three or four lines, presumably referring to the source of the information, are blacked out.

•
The notes then continue: "Cite alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on 28 July of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to villify [sic] Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services."

•
... we don't know whether Obama was asking a question or making a suggestion; we don't know if Brennan is recording a statement the president made or an impression Brennan himself formed.

•
Lest we forget, in late August, shortly before the CIA crafted this memo, Brennan briefed a close Clinton ally, then Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), regarding Russia's interference in the election.

•
Reid immediately fired off a letter to Comey, complaining that the FBI seemed to be ignoring "the evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump's presidential campaign [which] continues to mount."

•
To summarize what happened here, in late July 2016, at precisely the time our spy services learned that Russian intelligence was saying Hillary Clinton was scheming to blame the DNC hacking on a Trump-Russia conspiracy, the FBI formally opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation – on the theory that the Trump campaign may have conspired in Russia's hacking of the DNC emails.

•
And in September 2016, around the time Brennan was nudging Reid to pressure Comey to aggressively investigate a possible Trump-Russia conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 election, the CIA was formally providing the FBI with a memo outlining that Clinton (who was expected to be the next president) wanted Trump investigated for conspiring with Russian hackers to interfere in the 2016 election – which, conveniently, could distract the voters' attention from her own email scandal.

•
This was information the FBI already had but, according to Reid, was not acting on.

•
Within days of getting the CIA memo, the FBI began preparations to apply to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a warrant to monitor Carter Page.

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"[T]he FBI believes that the Russian Government's efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with [Donald Trump's] campaign."

•
The CIA did not want the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton. The CIA – with the Obama White House and Reid in the loop – wanted the FBI to act on Hillary Clinton's unfounded allegation that Donald Trump had conspired with Russia to hack the DNC. And the FBI willingly obliged.

•
Because it had no actual evidence implicating Trump in Russia's cyberespionage operations, the FBI had to rely on the Clinton campaign-sponsored Steele dossier, which either made up that allegation out of whole cloth or based it on disinformation from a "primary subsource" who, it turns out, the FBI suspected was a Russian asset. Astonishing.
An open letter: Israeli-Americans for Trump (INN 10/06/2020)
The Ultimate October Surprise (JWR 10/06/2020)
President Trump's handling of his coronavirus diagnosis models positive masculinity — rational... (JWR 10/06/2020)
Jimmy Failla: Trump is on pace to win 2020 election in a 'lawn-slide' — here's why I say that (Fox 10/06/2020)
•
... I can report with full confidence that a recent family road trip took us through the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan and in all three states the "Biden-Harris" signs were running a distant third behind "Trump-Pence" and "Sweet Corn For Sale."

•
... the trucker polls show Trump enjoying a massive edge in signage and that's some seriously bad news for Democrats because lawn signs represent next level passion.

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Look no further than the president's stay at the Walter Reed Medical Center this weekend.

•
Thousands of fans showed up to express their support, which has to be considered an encouraging sign, especially when you consider that most nights, Biden is lucky if he gets the pizza guy to show up, let alone thousands of fans.

•
I'm not trying to sound dismissive of the former V.P.'s chances. There are millions of Democrats who hate this president — so much so that on Friday night Twitter had to issue a warning to any account wishing him harm after his COVID-19 diagnosis.

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You know, because "when they go low, we go high?"

•
But despite their weapons-grade levels of hatred, the left still hasn't learned the key lesson from the 2016 election, which is that voters are far more passionate when they have someone to vote for as opposed to someone to vote against.

•
Biden and the Democrats have not given anyone that sense of purpose, choosing instead to devote the vast majority of their messaging to the same old tired chorus of "Orange Man Bad."

•
Which might explain why spotting a "Biden-Harris" sign in many states across this country is almost as rare as a sign of the candidate himself.

•
You can tell me Joe's calendar has been light because he's trying to steer clear of the coronavirus, but to be clear, I'm not asking him to take off his mask and give people a hug, I'm asking him to give people an effort.

•
Think about it: a hospitalized Donald Trump made more campaign appearances on Sunday than Joe Biden did.

•
And whether you agree with the president's drive-by in a van at Walter Reed or not, there's no escaping the fact that most people campaign harder to be the president of their fantasy football league than Biden has to be president of the United States.

•
Sure, the media is doing most of the heavy lifting by attacking President Trump incessantly, even during his hospitalization.

•
And yes, the Biden campaign has a massive spending advantage in the final month of the race.

•
But all the money and media support in the world can't win you the White House if voters aren't passionate about your candidacy.

•
The truth is, there are a ton of parallels between this race and 2016. Perhaps the most damning one for the Biden campaign is that the polls tell one story but our eyes tell another.

•
How this plays out is still anyone's guess, but despite all the setbacks the president has endured in the past week, don't be surprised if he pulls another upset because the signs are everywhere.
James Carafano: Trump hospitalized for coronavirus – what's the impact on US foreign policy? (Fox 10/05/2020)
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The president has been hospitalized. As always, America's adversaries will examine this unusual development, looking for ways to use it to their advantage – either to weaken or threaten the United States. Fortunately, they won't find much to work with.
Michael Goodwin: Trump's COVID diagnosis – left displays a shameful lack of decency (Fox 10/05/2020)
•
Perhaps they are channeling a line from an Oscar Wilde play: "I can resist everything except temptation."

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The president of the United States tests positive for the coronavirus, is soon moved to a hospital and given a cocktail of drugs to fortify his body for the fight ahead.

•
Whereupon truly awful people erupt in joy, revealing themselves to be self-hating Americans.

•
Some take to Twitter to exhibit their soullessness, enough so that the site, which too often blocks routine conservative viewpoints, vows it will suspend users who wish for the president's death.

•
It is shameful that such a statement is even necessary.

•
Others try to veil their pleasure, yet their satisfaction is unmistakable in their self-righteous scolds of "We told you so" and "He had it coming."

•
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., displayed her heart of stone by saying the president had issued a "brazen invitation" to the deadly virus by meeting with people and holding rallies.

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She impeached him over next to nothing, tried to have him removed from office and still calls him a Russian agent.

•
Now she resents that he continued to do the routine things a president should and must do.

•
... even before the president entered the hospital, the Gray Lady had advanced her argument into the fever zone by speculating – or was it a hope? – that Trump's illness "could raise questions about whether he should remain on the ballot at all."

•
Still others revealed their brainlessness by suggesting Trump was faking his illness so he could skip the final two debates.

•
By contrast, her colleague Rachel Maddow, hardly a fan of Trump, set exactly the right tone by saying: "God bless the president and the first lady. If you pray, please pray for their speedy and complete recovery – and for everyone infected, everywhere. This virus is horrific and merciless – no one would wish its wrath on anyone. We must get its spread under control. Enough."

•
Similarly, Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who had called Trump a liar, a clown and a racist at Tuesday's debate, responded to the president's illness with a gracious note wishing him and Melania well.

•
And so it goes in a year where the word "unprecedented" has become a cliche.

•
Still, it is a fact that we are now sailing in uncharted water, as we wait for updates on the president's health a month before Election Day.

•
First, a spirit of national unity is not only desirable, it is necessary. The world is full of malevolent actors always on the prowl for weakness, and expressions that reflect and harden polarization when a president is hobbled amount to an invitation to take advantage of us.

•
If you are anti-Trump, that's what the ballot box is for. Shut up and vote, or at least shut up.

•
Second, the speculation about how Trump got infected reeks of amateurism, especially among those who claim to "follow the science."

•
Nobody knows exactly where and when it happened and the insinuation by Pelosi and others that the president caught it by acting recklessly is itself reckless.

•
While Trump certainly said and did things that were cavalier in the last seven months, he was also indefatigable in ordering and overseeing a vast mobilization of government and private resources to combat the once-in-a-century virus.

•
Nearly as important, he was determined that America not be held hostage to fear and ignorance.

•
His push to reopen the economy, get people back to their jobs and his meetings with health workers and others were exactly the kinds of things a president must do to rally the nation during a crisis.

•
He campaigned because the alternative was to let the media that hates him define him.

•
Remember, too, that the president was true to the oath of his office when he pushed and prodded mayors and governors to stop the urban riots and looting and demand that they secure the civil rights of law-abiding citizens.

•
In fact, while many on the left have held up Biden's hermit-like behavior as a model of safety, it is impossible to govern that way.

•
No president can remain isolated and appear to be frightened and still command the respect and trust of the public, law enforcement and the armed forces.

•
Biden's behavior, where he stays out of sight about every other day, suggests he would also hide in the White House, at least until a vaccine is widely available. That doesn't seem tenable in any situation, especially during a crisis.

•
To his everlasting credit, Trump never stopped being president out of fear of getting sick. While you are praying for his recovery, you might also thank God for giving him uncommon courage.
Democrats and the politics of projection (INN 10/04/2020)
Trivializing the true evil of Nazism (INN 10/04/2020)
Black Lives Matter leaders support violent riots and looting, Biden won't condemn them (INN 10/03/2020)
Who are the Proud Boys? (10/02/2020)
The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Charlottesville (INN 10/01/2020)
David Bossie: Trump clearly defeats Biden in first presidential debate (Fox 09/30/2020)
•
Why won't Biden answer questions about whether or not he'll upset decades of precedent by packing the Supreme Court with liberals and ending the Senate filibuster?

•
What is Biden's response to President Trump's policies that caused the lowest unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans in our nation's history before the pandemic hit?

•
What is Biden's answer to his disastrous 1994 crime bill and his chummy relationship with segregationist Southern senators?

•
He has no answer; Biden can only lob unpresidential personal insults.

•
President Trump is running for reelection with a sense of purpose and urgency. It's clear that he wants four more years because he wants to keep America great.

•
On the other hand, Biden is walking, not running for president — and slowly at that.

•
Trump is fighting with all his might to keep his job as commander in chief because he's deeply concerned about the dangerous road to socialism that Biden has in store for America.

•
The president finally got a chance to ask Biden many other questions the liberal media refuse to ask.

•
President Trump's response to the Chinese coronavirus has been outstanding. The president has done everything in his power to keep Americans safe.

•
From quickly stopping international travel to the United States, to fulfilling the request of every governor regardless of political party, to keeping the public informed, to making sure there was enough personal protective equipment, beds, and ventilators, to implementing Operation Warp Speed to quickly find a vaccine, this president has risen to the occasion.

•
It's easy to criticize when you're sitting in the cheap seats like Biden, but it's obvious that if Biden were the one confronted with this unprecedented crisis, he would have failed.

•
Moreover, and just as noteworthy, if President Trump had done everything exactly the opposite, Biden and his minions would have criticized him all the same.

•
The American people ... that President Trump made a lot of money before he was elected to public office, and they know Joe Biden's family made a lot of money during his four decades in public office.

•
The president spoke about the importance of freedom that prioritizes individual liberty versus a socialist society; celebrating and learning from our nation's history instead of erasing it; and lifting up all Americans with pro-growth economic policies compared to a faceless bureaucracy that picks winners and losers.

•
The contrast with Biden couldn't be greater. Disingenuously, Biden now says he supports the police, but after the statements and actions this summer of both he and his running mate — Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. — can't be trusted.

•
When pressed by President Trump, Biden failed to name one single police organization that supports his candidacy and refused to condemn Antifa anarchists by name.

•
Furthermore, Biden can't be trusted on keeping our borders secure, raising taxes and job-killing regulations, allowing the government to outlaw private health insurance, or making foreign policy decisions with a peace-through-strength mentality.

•
To the contrary, for the better part of 18 months, Biden has shown a stunning indifference to law and order and our heroic police, has promised to raise taxes, cozy up to China, give free health care to illegal immigrants, and enact portions of the socialist Green New Deal...

•
Similarly, Biden's rhetoric about President Trump's eminently qualified Supreme Court nominee... Biden appears not to understand that judges are not policymakers on health care or anything else; these are typical Democratic scare tactics.

•
President Trump's outstanding decision to elevate a 48-year old working mother of seven who resides in the middle of the Rust Belt to the highest court in the land sends a signal to voters from Minnesota to Pennsylvania that he appreciates bedrock American values.

•
This fact is of great concern to Biden, who spends his days pandering to the out-of-touch socialist agenda of coastal elitists.

•
The American people saw ultimate political outsider Donald Trump make a strong case Tuesday night about why he deserves four more years in office instead of the ultimate Washington swamp creature Joe Biden.

•
Biden still has no answer about why he failed to accomplish in 47 years what President Trump has delivered for the American people in just 47 months. The American people deserve to know.
Ed Rollins: First presidential debate — How Trump can win a historically consequential faceoff (Fox 09/29/2020)
Supreme Court and 'One Vote Away' — How a single seat on the high court can change history (Fox 09/28/2020)
•
The justices who have been most faithful to the Constitution include Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, my old boss Chief Justice Rehnquist, and Justice Alito.

•
All of them share important characteristics: Before they were nominated, each of those justices had a long and demonstrated record.

•
Each had served in the executive branch, each had defended conservative or constitutionalist positions, and, critically, each had been roundly criticized for doing so.

•
Indeed, I believe there's no better predictor of whether a Supreme Court justice will remain strong and faithful to the Constitution than whether he or she has a long record of being excoriated by the press, mocked by the legal academy, and ridiculed by polite society, and holding his or her ground nonetheless.

•
Only by looking for stoic and adamant resistance to the "Greenhouse effect" can we reliably deduce that a prospective nominee has the mettle and the fortitude to stick to his or her convictions when confronted by Washington, D.C.'s proverbial storm of locusts.

•
... we need judges and Justices who are committed to the full panoply of constitutional issues — and who have demonstrated their commitment and bled for those ideals over the course of their careers.

•
Incidentally, the flip side of these criteria is true, as well. Those justices who have been faithless, who have been willing to join the activists in imposing liberal policies regardless of what the Constitution might provide, often fall in a similar pattern: Typically, they have little to no record, they have assiduously avoided controversy, they have refrained from taking difficult stands, and they have avoided subjecting themselves to the harsh light of criticism.

•
They have been timid where they could have been bold or assertive. For seven decades, Republicans have gotten this wrong, starting in the 1950s.
Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation – this issue will be front and center (Fox 09/28/2020)
•
If Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed for the Supreme Court, the credit will go to President Trump for nominating her and the GOP Senate for producing the votes. But Barrett will also owe a big thank you to Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

•
It was Feinstein, a California Democrat, who inadvertently made the Roman Catholic mother of seven a conservative star two years ago.

•
At Barrett's confirmation hearing for a federal Court of Appeals seat, Feinstein complained that Barrett's faith was apparent in her writings and said she was concerned because "the dogma lives loudly within you."

•
The overt expression of anti-Catholic bigotry made Barrett an instant hero among religious conservatives and it's no leap to conclude Trump's embrace of Barrett has something to do with Feinstein's attack. After all, the disrupter in chief has a special fondness for those who drive Dems crazy.

•
... Trump did call on "the other side" to conduct "respectful and dignified" hearings. He also urged the media and others to "refrain from personal or partisan attacks."

•
Fat chance. This is war and if truth is the first casualty, the innocent are close behind.

•
In her remarks, Barrett was poised and gracious, paying homage both to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom she would replace, and her mentor, Antonin Scalia.

•
She cited their famous friendship, despite their deep differences, as a model for her own life, while also allowing that she does not assume "the road ahead will be easy."

•
Given the issues already rocking the presidential campaign, it's possible the selection of Barrett won't make much of a difference – unless Dems go overboard in their personal attacks. Even now, the gutter is already crowded.

•
Some on the left are taking to social media to denounce – yes, denounce – Barrett and her husband for adopting two Haitian children.

•
Others, supposedly feminists, wonder how Barrett will have time for her children as a means of objecting to her confirmation. Imagine the media storm if a conservative dared say that about a progressive nominee.

•
Meanwhile, what is certain is that confirmation of the 48-year-old Barrett would seal the remaking of federal courts under Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

•
In one term, Trump nominated and the Senate confirmed more than 200 federal judges, or more than 25 percent of the total positions. Barrett would be the third on the Supreme Court.

•
Most important, by replacing Ginsburg, she would be flipping a liberal seat to the constitutional conservative side. That would tilt the court 6-3, and dilute the power of Chief Justice John Roberts, who made himself the swing vote in some key cases by joining with the four liberals.

•
Those enormous stakes mean Barrett will face mountains of mud concocted by Dems and their media handmaidens.

•
They aim to trip her up and run out the clock on Trump's term, but if that fails, at least make their voters angrier and more determined to defeat the president and capture the Senate in November.

•
The spectacle promises to be nauseating – but also informative. Because the attacks will continue Feinstein's smear that Barrett will let her religion rather than the Constitution guide her rulings, Americans will get to witness the contempt many Dems have for people of faith.

•
The clause is commonly seen as requiring a separation of church and state. But many on the secular left go way beyond that and demand that religion play no role at all in the public sphere.

•
She has said that although she opposes abortion, it is unlikely the basic thrust of Roe v. Wade would be overturned without actually saying the entire case is settled law.

•
That script would get her confirmed mostly along party lines, but my hope is that the hearings will also offer ringing defenses of both religious liberty and the role of faith in public life.

•
For example, the vast educational, social, health and charitable works of religious institutions have always been and remain a large part of what makes our country exceptional.

•
More fundamentally, faith in God motivates millions of individuals to pursue virtuous privates lives. And faith has called generations of worshipers to serve their neighbors and nation in every conceivable field, from the military and law enforcement to child and elder care.

•
In that light, perhaps a GOP senator could ask why Barrett's tormentors feel free to impose their secular political views on others, whether it's unlimited abortion rights, radical climate ideology, open borders or racial preferences.

•
And why, this senator might ask, are the views of religious believers given less weight in public debate than the views of those who worship at the altar of socialism?

•
The more they can demonize and diminish religion, the more power they have over people.

•
As many believers note, during times as unsettling as these, America needs more religion, not less.

•
More than just abortion, the right of the faithful to participate fully in public life is on trial in the Barrett confirmation.

•
While religious dogma should not rule on the Supreme Court or elsewhere, neither should it cower in silence anywhere.
Steele’s Dossier Source Was a Suspected Russian Spy (09/26/2020)
•
See if you can follow this: In an effort to depict Donald Trump as if he were in an espionage conspiracy with the Kremlin, the Obama administration used bogus information, from a man the FBI suspected was an actual Russian spy, to brand as a suspected Russian spy a former U.S. naval intelligence officer who had actually been a CIA informant.

•
Your head spinning? Mine too.

•
And that's just the beginning. It turns out that Igor Danchenko, the man the FBI suspected of being an actual Russian spy, initially provided the bogus information about the American, Carter Page, through a former British spy, Christopher Steele.

•
Through a couple of cut-outs, Steele had been retained by the Clinton campaign to dig up — or, alas, to make up — Russian dirt on Trump.

•
Through his private intelligence business in London, Steele was known to be working for Russian oligarchs, while Danchenko was on Steele's payroll. That is, the Clinton campaign, and ultimately the Obama administration, colluded with Russians for the purpose of accusing Donald Trump of ... yes ... colluding with Russians.

•
Nobody bothered to check the information or press Steele about its sourcing.

•
Steele did not have a network of sources; he had Danchenko. In turn, Danchenko had a motley collection of drinking buddies, a grifter, a girlfriend, and an anonymous source Danchenko cannot identify.

•
And ... none of these sub-sources could actually vouch for anything they heard, or wildly speculated, about Trump and Russia.

•
On this score, we can't let pass the opportunity to describe what Steele and, ultimately, the FBI portentously describe as a "close associate" of Trump's who asserted that the candidate-turned-president was in a "well-developed conspiracy of cooperation" with the regime of Vladimir Putin.

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It was left to Steele, the old intel pro, to turn this sow's ear into a silk purse.

•
By the time the craftsman was done "summarizing" Danchenko's unverifiable, anonymously sourced gossip, "this guy" had evolved from Danchenko's "Source 6" to Steele's "Source E," depicted as "an ethnic Russian and close associate of ... Donald TRUMP," who had "admitted" that "there was a well-developed conspiracy of cooperation" between the Trump campaign and Russian leadership (emphasis added).

•
And now we know, the liberal inflation of unsubstantiated — indeed, unattributable — rumor into purported probable cause that the now-president of the United States was a Kremlin mole is not the half of it.
Breonna Taylor: Yet another grand jury defies the Fake News narrative (INN 09/25/2020)
Trump Haters Gaslighting Trump Supporters (JWR 09/25/2020)
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It's getting scary out there, people. Everywhere you turn, Trump haters are venting their wrath against Trump supporters, as if supporting President Trump is an unforgivable sin.

•
They're projecting and gaslighting — blaming Trump and his supporters for everything they're doing.

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It's madness, but at long last, they might have awakened the sleeping giant they're trying to hunt down and destroy.

•
MSNBC's Joy Reid tweeted, "Genuine question: what will be the relationship between the majority of Americans, and Trumpists after this long, national nightmare ends — and it will eventually end — do people anticipate simply letting bygones (be) bygones with people who joined the Trump personality cult?"

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What bygones? Who's doing what to whom? What are we Trump supporters doing to you Trump haters...

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We are trying to mind our own business and stay safe. Are you and yours?

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MSNBC's Donny Deutsch likened a Trump rally to a Hitler rally from the early '30s:"Well, basically you had a destruction of the belief in the free press. You had a blurring between the executive branch and the Justice Department. You have creating an other, whether it's Muslims, whether it's Mexicans, whether it's congressmen who weren't born in this country. And then you have the destruction of free elections. And we're here."

•
This is screaming insanity. Trump supporters aren't censoring people on social media. They aren't threatening their opponents' civil liberties. They aren't violating the separation of powers, which leftists routinely do, including through their activist courts and lawless executive orders (under former President Barack Obama). They're not demonizing other races, as you maliciously accuse. Quit belching that vicious slander. And they are not the ones threatening the integrity of the electoral process.

•
The left, on the other hand, has promised to stack the Supreme Court; add territories to the union to increase its electoral prospects; circumvent the Electoral College; obliterate the integrity of the voting process through rampant unverifiable mail-in ballots and the elimination of voter ID rules; and lower the voting age to 16. Republicans aren't the ones threatening to lawlessly invoke impeachment to block Trump's lawful Supreme Court nominee.

•
Increasingly deranged, intolerant, hateful and unhinged actor-turned-artist Jim Carrey said, "Too many Americans support Trump because he appeals to their basest and most primitive urges."

•
What base and primitive urges do you mean? Our commitment to the Constitution, law and order, equal protection under the law for everyone, liberty, prosperity and a strong national defense? Protecting the borders to ensure orderly and legal immigration? Are these commitments racist and sexist to you, Jim?

•
And how about the now-famous Leo Guinan, who publicly bragged that he told his parents neither he nor his children would visit them because they had placed Trump signs in their yard.

•
We have obnoxious leftist "protestors" in St. Petersburg, Florida, taking over peaceful diners' tables from restaurant to restaurant, ratcheting up the despicable practice they began a few years ago to harass Trump supporters.

•
And, once again, we have violent leftists rioting in the streets of Louisville, where two policemen were shot trying to keep the peace.

•
The left is projecting its own darkness onto Trump and his supporters. Countless leftists accuse Trump of inciting violence and hate while displaying their own intolerance and hatred and committing violence. Trump is trying to stop the violence, while Democratic governors and mayors are fanning the flames.

•
How many Trump supporters are burning down cities, murdering cops, threatening mayhem if Joe Biden is elected, bullying Biden supporters out of restaurants, accosting people with Biden caps or yard signs, threatening to withhold their children from their Biden-supporting parents and stirring up racial disharmony throughout the nation?

•
When have Republican lawmakers ever tried to destroy the character of a Democratic president's Supreme Court nominee?

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Yes, Republicans say they're ready to defend themselves, but I know of none who are threatening to commit violence and mayhem if Trump loses.

•
I don't know how people can be so warped as to condemn Trump for allegedly inspiring violence simply because they don't like him, when they themselves are actually committing violence or enabling those who are.

•
I don't know how they can rage against Trump as a dictator when he is doing nothing but exercising his lawful authority in office and appointing justices who will uphold the Constitution and rule of law, and when they are openly promising to thwart the Constitution in countless ways if they regain power.

•
Notwithstanding the planted trick question, Trump will not resist the peaceable transition of power, but he might legally contest a stolen election. Meanwhile, prominent Democrats are promising not to accept a Trump victory — just like they never accepted his 2016 victory.

•
No, Joy Reid, we Trump supporters are not part of a cult, no matter how much Trump haters have convinced themselves otherwise.

•
But we do see him as the last best hope to restore America's greatness — and that includes liberty, peace and security for all, not just for those who agree with us, unlike many on your side believe.

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We are relying on him to lawfully prevent the left's destruction of the nation, its violence and lawlessness, and its abolition of liberty.
Republicans, Confirm a Supreme Court Justice Immediately (JWR 09/25/2020)
American Hero Wayne Morris (JWR 09/25/2020)
•
As violent rioting continues across the nation, Democrats threaten that if they don't get what they want they will blow up the system.

•
Meanwhile motion picture genius, aka Meathead, Rob Reiner has accused the president of killing thousands and says, "In forty-two days we will arrest the killer."

•
I would call Reiner an imbecile, but that would be an insult to imbeciles the world over.

•
Today's entertainers think it's brave to tweet out vulgarities, threaten our president, and vilify anyone they don't agree with. But showing the world you're a moron isn't exactly profiles in courage.

•
I much prefer the actors of the past who really were courageous, not in words, but in deeds. And had much more class to boot.

•
That's why I think this might be the right time to honor a true American hero from the greatest generation who also happened to be a movie actor. That would be Wayne Morris.

•
... Morris was "credited with 57 aerial sorties, shooting down seven Japanese Zeros, sinking an escort vessel and a flak gunboat and helping sink a submarine and damage a heavy cruiser and a mine layer."

•
One of these days, when you're looking for something different to watch, try an old Wayne Morris picture.

•
Beneath his big lug character you'll find a warmth and kindness that comes through, a gentle, honest guy who knows right from wrong and does his job to the best of his ability.

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In short, an American hero. Unlike the cowards who make movies today.
Stunning revelations expose FBI’s Trump probe as dirtiest political trick in US history (Fox 09/25/2020)
•
It was always a witch hunt designed to "get Trump." Collusion was an illusion invented by a suspected Russian spy but zealously embraced by malevolent actors at the FBI and later by scheming prosecutors on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team of partisans.

•
... has exposed how the bureau's collusion investigation of Donald Trump was based on nothing more than "supposition on supposition" and devoid of any credible evidence.

•
... came to realize that the case against Flynn was being engineered or manipulated as way to damage President Trump. Flynn, whose life and livelihood were ruined, became collateral damage.

•
FBI investigators, who concluded there was no plausible case against Flynn, were ignored. Instead of closing the investigation down, the critical decision to move forward was made "top-down."

•
Then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who had a contentious past relationship with Flynn, was calling the shots. The retired three-star Army general didn't stand a chance.

•
... meticulously documented the bureaucratic malfeasance and malicious politicization of the legal process. In what are known as 302 reports, he memorialized "the ‘get Trump' attitude by some at the SCO" (Special Counsel Office). Whatever the president said or did was reflexively misrepresented by Mueller's confederates.

•
When President Trump asked investigators to "get to the bottom" of a matter, special counsel lawyers interpreted it as "cover it up."

•
The firing of FBI Director James Comey was viewed as conclusive proof of obstruction by the president, instead of an action motivated by some other logical reason such as the president's dislike of Comey and a desire to replace him.

•
While many of Mueller's lawyers may have been motivated by a hatred of Trump, ... it seemed like they "wanted to be part of something ‘big,' a successful prosecution."

•
All of this comes at the same time as the release of another set of declassified documents detailing how the infamous "Steele dossier" alleging Trump-Russia collusion actually originated from a suspected Russian spy who was designated as a possible "national security threat."

•
In simple terms, the phony collusion narrative appears to have been the clever product of Russian lies and disinformation designed to damage Trump and funded by the Clinton campaign and Democrats.

•
Comey's FBI knew this all along, having interviewed Steele's primary source in January 2017 — just days after Trump was inaugurated as president. But the bureau kept it carefully concealed.

•
Evidence continues to mount that Trump was been victimized by rogue and lawless government actors throughout his entire presidency. Law enforcement was weaponized for a purely political purpose.

•
Public officials chased a specious conspiracy that never existed, as Democrats and the biased anti-Trump media spun the daily tale that Donald Trump was a traitor working with and for the Russians.

•
If Americans are to have any faith in their government, Durham must expose the full truth. And those who betrayed their positions of trust should be held accountable.

•
See related Trump Interrogation (Sean Delonas, 02/10/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
Language and Thought (JWR 09/23/2020)
Dems answer to anything they dislike is increasingly 'burn it all down' (JWR 09/22/2020)
Trump and Supreme Court's future — conservatives have been waiting for this moment for decades (Fox 09/22/2020)
•
From outlawing prayer and Bible reading in public schools to the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion, conservative Republicans have yearned for a time when a Republican president and Republican majority Senate might put supan end to judges making law and return to the day when Congress was the legislator.

•
Yet, Republican presidents have appointed several liberals to the Court.

•
President Dwight Eisenhower appointed five members to the Supreme Court, including Earl Warren and William Brennan.

•
Eisenhower purportedly said years later that, "I have made two mistakes, and they are both sitting on the Supreme Court."

•
Richard Nixon named Harry Blackmun, the primary author of Roe v. Wade. Gerald Ford named liberal John Paul Stevens.

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Ronald Reagan selected Sandra Day O'Connor, who upheld several challenges to Roe v. Wade, and Anthony Kennedy, who ruled same-sex marriage constitutional.

•
George H.W. Bush picked David Souter, a liberal, and George W. Bush selected John Roberts, who has been inconsistent on some issues, like ObamaCare.

•
Democratic presidents have not faced this problem. Their nominees have been reliably liberal in their interpretation of the Constitution.

•
Charges of hypocrisy will be hurled at Republicans for their statements opposing confirmation of judges in an election year (when the president was a Democrat).

•
But what Justice Ginsburg said in 2016 should repeatedly be invoked by Republicans against predictable Democrat criticism.

•
"There's nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year."

•
... this is a chance to do something great for the country and leave a mark worthy of the most patriotic citizen. There is no point in having power if one does not utilize it.

•
Senators who do not like President Trump's personality, but agree with many of his policies, should swallow their pride and vote to change the Supreme Court back to the role the Founders intended for it.

•
In Federalist Paper 81, Alexander Hamilton expressed a high view of the Supreme Court as a separate body that would rarely cause harm to the intent of Congress: "...the supposed danger of judiciary encroachments on the legislative authority...is in reality a phantom. Particular misconstructions and contraventions of the will of the legislature may now and then happen; but they can never be so extensive as to amount to an inconvenience, or in any sensible degree to affect the order of the political system."

•
One hopes a Senate majority puts the country ahead of personal gain.

•
The ability to return the Court to its constitutional boundaries would be a win for the ages, even as the sliming of the candidate and street demonstrations are inevitable.
Confirm Supreme Court justice now – 4 reasons why Trump, Republicans should act quickly (Fox 09/21/2020)
•
Republicans have four excellent reasons to move as quickly as possible to confirm a new associate justice to the Supreme Court.

•
First, the upcoming election will likely be close, and could well be contested. The Supreme Court may ultimately determine the outcome, and the GOP needs to seat an additional (conservative) justice to guarantee the court is not deadlocked in the event of a dispute.

•
Second, the fight over filling Ruth Bader Ginsberg's seat will energize Democrat voters, which Joe Biden's campaign has failed to do.

•
Republicans need to counter this surge of enthusiasm by showing their commitment to conservatives who have historically ranked Supreme Court appointments one of their top priorities.

•
Third, as progressives take control of the Democrat Party, a court dedicated to upholding our Constitution becomes ever more important.

•
Nothing will better protect religious freedom, our freedom of speech or our Second Amendment rights, among many other freedoms, than a conservative court.

•
Fourth, it's payback time. Democrats' heinous and unforgivable attacks on Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh can best be answered by confirming another conservative jurist.

•
Make no mistake. This battle is going to get ugly; just how ugly became clear almost immediately.

•
Let us be clear: Republicans owe Democrats nothing. No courtesy, no respect, no accommodation.*

•
If the GOP can ensure a conservative majority on the Supreme Court for years to come, they should move as quickly as possible to do just that.

•
For four years, Democrats have obstructed and undermined President Trump at every turn.

•
They have continually challenged the legitimacy of this duly elected president, resorted to arcane maneuvers to prevent the White House from filling even non-controversial appointments, engaged the administration in endless litigation, and dragged the country through an extended, costly and ultimately fruitless investigation into the supposed ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

•
Not content with tying the nation in knots over Russia-gate, House Democrats then impeached the president on even more spurious charges.

•
This overreach cost Democrats voter support and raised the president's approval ratings to a record high, for good reason.

•
But nothing was more despicable that the accusations of sexual assault leveled against Brett Kavanaugh, a judge with a spotless reputation and impeccable credentials...

•
The spectacle of Sens. Cory "Spartacus" Booker, Kamala Harris and others destroying the reputation of Kavanaugh, based on completely uncorroborated testimony regarding activities decades in the past, the searching through the nominee's high school yearbook for clues, the description of a fine man as a "gang rapist" and the willingness of the media to promote even the most heinous allegations with no proof whatsoever... we remember.

•
During that appalling show trial, Democrats ceded all decency. They do not deserve any consultation whatsoever in naming the next Supreme Court justice.

•
Republicans not only should proceed as quickly as possible with a nomination to fill Ginsberg's seat; they must do so.

•
Given the increased use of mail-in ballots and recent rulings that might make such voting untrustworthy, there is every chance the Supreme Court will be called upon to officiate the results.

•
In the event of a dispute, the worst possible outcome would be a tie vote, which would leave our bitterly divided nation adrift. That is unacceptable.

•
Moving quickly to fill Ginsberg's seat might also help the GOP keep control of the Senate, by spotlighting the importance of maintaining their majority.

•
Let Democrats howl. American voters intelligently put Republicans in control of the Senate; they have yet another chance to protect our Constitution from persistent undermining from the Left. They must take it.

•
Former President Barack Obama famously said, "Elections have consequences." Indeed they do.

•
See related Who Are You Voting for? (Glenn McCoy, 08/03/2016) cartoon from USA picture album
Tom Fitton: Supreme Court vacancy – If Dems can impeach in an election year, Trump can do this (Fox 09/21/2020)
•
When karma lands, it lands hard. This is the lesson Democrats are now learning with the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the reality that President Trump will move forward to fill her seat this week.

•
In years past, Democrats might have had the tools to stop the process in its tracks, or the comity and goodwill to be able to reach a compromise with Senate Republicans or the White House.

•
But they have squandered their goodwill and disarmed their senators, leaving them with little to do but fume and threaten.

•
If the Left can unilaterally impeach and try to remove a president during an election year, a Supreme Court justice can certainly be appointed during an election year.

•
Democrats can hardly stand on principle regarding election year nominations when they were more than willing to engage in a partisan, election-year impeachment fiasco based on a contrived pretext that had no chance of prevailing.

•
The impeachment followed other failed attempts to sabotage Trump – illicit spying, the "insurance policy," seeking to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office, and the Mueller "witch hunt" investigation that harassed him despite almost everyone in D.C. knowing that there was never any evidence of Russian collusion.

•
After the Mueller fiasco flamed out, Democrats weaponized the whistleblower process to create a fake scandal out of a harmless July 25, 2019, conversation between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

•
This became the basis for what George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley called "the shortest proceeding, with the thinnest evidentiary record, and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a president."

•
The fact that the coup impeachment was occurring as an election was looming made no impression on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her minions, who were eager to leave Trump "impeached forever" (though he was also acquitted forever).

•
So it is ironic to hear Democrats saying that the people should decide who gets to choose the next Supreme Court justice when they were more than willing to deny voters the opportunity to judge President Trump's fitness for office.

•
Defenders of the election-year impeachment also argued that the timing was valid since the "crimes" under investigation might affect the outcome of the election itself. A similar argument can be made regarding filling Ginsburg's vacant seat.

•
The Left has hired 600 hundred lawyers for the Biden campaign and intends the Supreme Court to be an active participant in the 2020 election. The stakes going into November are frankly too high to have a Supreme Court not at full strength.

•
Democrats have pushed for a mail-in election that virtually guarantees fraud and chaos and subsequent urgent litigation.

•
They have instructed Democratic nominee Joe Biden not to concede under any circumstances and have threatened violence if they do not win.

•
The country cannot afford to have an eight-member Supreme Court that could deadlock on critical questions coming from these dangerous circumstances.

•
We are staring down the barrel of potentially the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War, and we need nine justices on the bench.

•
There is plenty of time. Justice Ginsburg was confirmed only 42 days after she was nominated by President Bill Clinton. President Trump's nominee should get the same speedy consideration by the Senate.
Michael Goodwin: Election 2020 – Supreme Court can't risk a vacancy. Here's why (Fox 09/21/2020)
•
Democrats vehemently vow to oppose the prospect of a sixth constitutional conservative on the bench, and already far-leftists are threatening violence.

•
If nothing else, that should stiffen the spines of some Republican senators who are leery of taking up the issue.

•
It is their job, and slinking into the fetal position in the face of controversy and threats is unspeakable cowardice.

•
If the outcome of the election depended on a court ruling, which is certainly possible given the passions and the potential machinations involved in universal mail-in voting, a tie vote at the Supreme Court could leave America without a president and no way to resolve the issue.

•
Politically motivated violence is already spreading, so imagine what might happen if the election remains undecided. America's great history of the peaceful transfer of power could be at risk.

•
If that sounds far-fetched, consider some of the suspect decisions already being made in various states that deliberately weaken ballot security.

•
... a recent Post story revealed the dirty tricks and fraud committed by a longtime Dem operative in the state, who says mail-in ballots are a gold mine for those who want to cheat.

•
"Ron Tims said he checked his mail Wednesday and found a voter registration application addressed to Cody Tims – his cat, who died 12 years ago."

•
Giving a cat a ballot is one thing – but a dead cat? The secretary of state's office said it had nothing to do with the application, blaming "out-of-town activists" trying to register voters in hopes of swaying the election. How comforting.

•
Most state systems are not designed to handle mass mail-in voting, which is why the decisions to create new, extra-lenient rules on the fly are so troubling.

•
The argument that every vote should count is valid only to the extent that every voter's identity has been verified.

•
That is especially important in states and municipalities that allow noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, to vote in local elections.

•
It would be a crime if they voted in federal elections – if they are caught. But with the guardrails removed, who is to catch them?

•
Because disputes are certain to emerge over how and what votes are counted in November, Trump and Joe Biden are loading up with lawyers ready to fight it out in swing states.

•
The approach makes it almost certain some cases will get to federal courts, and one or more likely will make it to the high court.

•
While it might seem a no-brainer for Dems to oppose a lifetime Trump nominee as they aim to win the White House and Senate, the prospect of a deadlocked Supreme Court on the election presents an unacceptable danger for the entire nation.

•
Elections need to be seen as fair and final if Americans are to keep what little faith we still have in our government institutions.
John Yoo: Conservative Supreme Court majority? What it could mean on these issues (Fox 09/21/2020)
•
A sixth new justice would virtually guarantee that Harvard and other colleges will lose, and that the government will return to the color-blind treatment of its citizens that our Constitution demands.

•
These cases would merely come first in a potential string of robust conservative victories on the Constitution.

•
A third Trump appointment to the court could spell the death knell for ObamaCare and a resurrection on the limits on the federal power to regulate everyday life.

•
It could trigger a restoration of the rights of states to regulate social and moral issues.

•
It could produce a long-awaited expansion of the Second Amendment right to bear arms and an advance of individual economic rights to own property and make a living.

•
Justice Ginsburg took the leading part in a constitutional revolution on gender. Her passing may create the opportunity for the court to shift toward greater equal treatment of religious, color-blind and economic rights as well.
Replacing Justice Ginsburg: Politics, Not Precedent (09/19/2020)
•
In reality, there are only two rules, both set forth in the Constitution: A president, for as long as he or she is president, has the power to nominate a person to fill a Supreme Court seat; and that nominee can fill the seat only with the advice and consent of the Senate. That's it.

•
Everything else is posturing. Everything else is politics.

•
There are no rules about what happens in the last year of a president's term, nor codicils that hinge on whether the Senate is controlled by the president's party or the opposition.

•
For example, there was nothing inappropriate about President Obama's nominating D.C. Circuit judge Merrick Garland after Justice Antonin Scalia died months before the 2016 presidential election; nor was there anything wrong with Senator Mitch McConnell's holding his Senate majority together to block the nomination — against the caterwauling of the media-Democrat complex.

•
For their part, Senate Republicans understood that Justice Scalia was a conservative icon, that the base would have mutinied if they'd rolled over for an Obama pick, and — most significantly — that the alarming prospect of a President Hillary Clinton choosing Scalia's replacement dramatically improved Donald Trump's chances to win the presidency ... and thus for Republicans to control judicial nominations for four years.

•
Of course there was risk: Clinton was heavily favored to win, and had she done so, she'd likely have withdrawn Garland's nomination in favor of someone younger and more left-leaning. But that's politics.

•
The calculations on both sides made sense, and none of the maneuvering was dictated by a legal or precedential rule.

•
President Trump has the power to make nominations until at least noon on January 20, and maybe for another four years after that. For the time being (at least until the beginning of January), Republicans control the Senate by a fairly thin margin, 53–47.

•
The president has the power to make a nomination, and the Senate has the power to confirm the appointment. Period.

•
These politicians are all over the mat because the vaunted precedents they were purporting to rely on were embarrassingly thin camouflage for power politics. That is what dictated their behavior — then as now.

•
That said, the fact that the president has the power to name a replacement for Justice Ginsburg and that Republicans have a majority to get the nomination approved does not necessarily mean that that's the smart play.

•
The best play, particularly if Republicans lack the Senate votes they need anyway, would be to use the vacancy as a core issue in the 2020 campaign. This worked for Trump in 2016 — indeed, it got him elected, ever so narrowly.

•
To be sure, Democrats are going to be more galvanized this time because the shoe is on the other foot: The prospect of a Republican replacing the Court's leading liberal will alarm them as much as the prospect of Clinton choosing Scalia's replacement alarmed Republicans.

•
... the fact is that Republican judicial nominees are forces of stability who favor judicial restraint, enabling Americans to determine democratically how they wish to live.

•
By contrast, the public rightly sees Democratic judicial nominees as forces of radical change, imposed by judicial fiat at the expense of democratic self-determination.

•
For now, President Trump is signaling (by tweet) that he intends in short order to announce a nominee to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ginsburg's passing, and that he will push for Senate consideration.

•
There is a good chance that he won't get Senate consideration before the election ... but that the nomination of a solid prospective justice, and the inevitable comparison of the kinds of jurists a Biden administration would appoint, will help the president's reelection bid.

•
See related Who Are You Voting for? (Glenn McCoy, 08/03/2016) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Merrick Garland (Chip Bok, 03/22/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
Systemic Racism? Make Them Prove It. (09/21/2020)
•
I worked in the criminal-justice system for a quarter century. It is run, day-to-day, by the creme de la creme of graduates from America's top law schools.

•
Those institutions wear their progressive bona fides on their sleeves and proclaim it for all the world to hear.

•
In their offhand rhetoric — insouciant, because they know their bien pensant allies in politics and media will never call them on it — legal elites will tell you that the administration of justice in America is systemically racist.

•
But they are the system.

•
The judges, the top prosecutors, the defense bar, the experts who craft the sentencing guidelines and the standards of confinement — overwhelmingly, they are political progressives.

•
Most of them are proud of being on the left. I don't agree with them politically, but the routine handling of criminal cases is not political. It is clinical: professionals doing the best they can.

•
And that's just the point: They do the best they can. That is the antithesis of racism.

•
They will tell you there is endemic racism in the system. If pressed on the matter, though, they would not be able to describe for you any racist things that they themselves have actually done, nor any racist things done by colleagues.

•
Nor can the earnest lawyers who represent the purported victims of racism point you to stacks on stacks of motions they've filed claiming the police arrested their felonious clients because of skin color.

•
The crimes, it turns out, are not only supported by abundant proof; they have victims, who are disproportionately black and Latino.

•
The lawyers are at a loss to point to cases in which they've shown that prosecutors charged their clients due to racial animus rather than evidence.

•
They can't cite cases where clients were sabotaged by the racism of the presiding judge.

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In a system that was pervasively racist, such cases would abound. Not in this one, though.

•
Still, the legal elites will insist there is systemic racism. There must be, even though no one can put a finger on where it happened, because the outcomes the system produces are not "equal" — equality being a utopia in which the racial composition of those arrested, convicted and sentenced aligns perfectly with the proportion of that race in the overall population, as if all racial and ethnic groups committed crimes at exactly the same rates.

•
Nor is the problem confined to the justice system. Racism "happens in our residence halls and in our classrooms, at the tables of our dining halls and in our locker rooms, on our sidewalks, within the offices where we work, and in our town."

•
It is not just the administrators, the battalions of diversity coordinators, and the social scientists.

•
According to academics, "structural racism" even "pervades" mathematics, geology, astronomy, you name it — to the point ... that the journal Nature claims "the mission of science should be to ‘amplify marginalized voices' in atonement for science's complicity in ‘systemic racism.'"

•
Okay, if they say so ... but where are the concrete examples?

•
What are the specifics of the indictment: "Which faculty members do not treat black students fairly? If that unjust treatment is so obvious, why weren't those professors already removed?"

•
How have we tolerated an admissions process that apparently lets in thousands of student bigots?

•
... these same administrators: when not preening about systemic racism, they are gushing about the sensitivity, accomplishments, and integrity of their faculty, students, and alumni.

•
The "institutional racism" prattle would melt if it were ever subjected to the enlightened rationalism that is supposed to be the university's reason for being.

•
What do they do? Marxism and voodoo, mainly. When you cannot cite hard evidence for the cosmic propositions you swear by, it can only be because we're beset by "false consciousness" that prevents us from perceiving how whiteness and West-ness have corrupted us.

•
Being a human society, ours is inevitably an imperfect society. It is a great society, however, because of its capacity for continual improvement.

•
America frees individuals to achieve, but it teaches them that, individually and collectively, we all make mistakes.

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We strive for a more perfect union not only by learning from past errors but by remembering we are just as human, just as prone to error, as the forebears we presume to judge.

•
It is a lot to ask black Americans to concede redemption in a society that abided race-based slavery for over 200 years, and then — even after eliminating it in a bloody civil war — tolerated de jure racism for another century, and de facto racism even after Jim Crow ended.

•
We nevertheless need law enforcement and strong institutions if everyone, including black Americans, is to enjoy the opportunities for prosperity in a free country.

•
The imperative is to improve the pillars of our society. To condemn, defund, and banish them would not be "Change!" It would be suicide.

•
The regnant ideology never cites real-world examples. Its disciples would have us believe our society and its institutions — the very society and institutions that have promoted our elites to their lofty heights — are irredeemable.

•
They're for perfect equality, in which they remain perfect and everyone else is equally miserable.
The new McCarthyism (INN 09/17/2020)
Jews who hate Trump and do not know why (INN 09/18/2020)
The Problem Isn't Netflix. The Problem Is Us (JWR 09/17/2020)
Why so much anger? (JWR 09/17/2020)
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"Anger, resentment and jealousy doesn't change the heart of others - it only changes yours."
Terror or bio attack, nukes? No, America's greatest threat is our vulnerable electrical grid (Fox 09/17/2020)
The news as we once knew it is dead (JWR 09/17/2020)
Rep. Bruce Westerman: Wildfires ravage the US every year. They don't have to (Fox 09/17/2020)
Lawn-Sign Virtue Signaling and the Death of Politics (JWR 09/16/2020)
Refugees from socialist countries warn Americans: Don't let it happen here (Fox 09/19/2020)
•
One of the most memorable moments from the Republican National Convention came when Cuban-born Maximo Alvarez cautioned Americans against creeping socialism.

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"I've seen movements like this before," he warned last month.

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... immigrants who settled in the U.S. say that recent political shifts here – including class warfare, riots and language policing, not to mention calls for expansive government programs – are starting to remind them of what they left behind.

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And they carry the same message as Alvarez, urging Americans not to repeat history.

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Venezuela

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"Division between the classes was something that Hugo Chavez wanted — to make sure that poorer sectors of society hated anyone that was wealthy."

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He defined capitalism as the "kingdom of the egoism of inequality" and socialism as the "kingdom of love, equality, solidarity, peace and true democracy."

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Once, before Chavez became president in 1999, Venezuela was the wealthiest country in South America. Venezuela also has more untapped underground oil than any country in the world, even Saudi Arabia.

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But after Chavez ruled for more than a decade — enacting strict price controls and seizing private businesses — the economy collapsed. Last month, after decades of mismanagement, the country's last oil rig shut down. Millions have now fled amid mass starvation and violence.

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In little-known history, Chavez's government officially renamed "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Resistance Day" in 2002.

•
"In 2004, the Columbus statue came down in Venezuela. It was torn down by mobs. People had been encouraged by Chavez's rhetoric."

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Nicaragua

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"What we see now has all the same characteristics as I saw there ... violence, looting, damaging private property."

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"Even the flags! The protesters here in the U.S. are using the red and black flags."

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Cuba

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"I heard the promises of Fidel Castro and I can never forget all those who grew up around me ... who suffered and starved and died because they believed those empty promises."

•
"You can still hear the sounds of those broken promises. It is the sound of waves in the ocean carrying families clinging to pieces of wood. It is the sound of tears hitting the paper of an application to become an American citizen."

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"My dad, who only had a sixth-grade education, told me – don't lose this place," Alvarez said of America. "My family is done abandoning what we rightfully earned."

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China

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"The riots, looters, destruction of properties, it's so familiar. It's scary to me because I went through that."

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"The people who attack small businesses in cities — you see them take private property, and they say, ‘we deserve this. This is reparations.' And it's just – this is the Marxist way. It's an excuse at the barrel of a gun."

•
... took aim at the "silence is violence" concept. "You cannot even keep silence. You have to publicly agree with them. It's fundamentally not American."

•
"The tactics they use are very Marxist and communist. They did this in China. Everybody had to be PC."

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"Free speech, and free thoughts and ideas — that's what makes America great. We don't have to agree with each other all the time, but we should be able to have a civil discussion."

•
"I have friends who attended Republican National Convention. They got harassed, just walking out. Thank goodness they were not harmed ... But it is scary."

•
... claimed that some Americans were falling for socialism only because they haven't lived through it.

•
"People here are allowed to peacefully protest. The protesters do not appreciate the freedom they have in this country... They have not suffered from hunger, real poverty."
The Left's Moral Compass Isn't Broken ... (JWR 09/16/2020)
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... in order to have a broken moral compass, you need to have a moral compass to begin with. But the left doesn't have one.

•
This is not meant as an attack. It is a description of reality. The left regularly acknowledges that it doesn't think in terms of good and evil.

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It all began with Marx, who divided the world by economic class — worker and owner or exploited and exploiter. To Marx and to Marxism, there is no such thing as a good or an evil that transcends class. Good is defined as what is good for the working class; evil is what is bad for the working class.

•
Those of us still in thrall to Judeo-Christian morality believe that good and evil are universal. In other words, whether an act is good or evil has nothing to do with who committed the act — rich or poor, male or female, religious or secular, member of one's nation or of another nation. Stealing and murder are morally wrong, no matter who stole or who murdered.

•
That is not the case for Marx and the left. In Marx's words in "Capital" ("Das Kapital"): "Right can never be higher than the economic structure of society and the cultural development thereby determined. We therefore reject every attempt to impose on us any moral dogma whatsoever as an eternal, ultimate and forever immutable moral law."

•
Fifty-three years later, Marx's foremost disciple, Vladimir Lenin, architect of the Russian Revolution, proclaimed: "We say that our morality is entirely subordinated to the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat. ... We do not believe in an eternal morality. ... We repudiate all morality derived from non-human (i.e., God) and non-class concepts"

•
This is how Marx's ideological heirs, today's leftists, view the world — with one important difference: Morality is not determined only by class, but by race, power and sex as well.

•
It is left-wing dogma that a black person cannot be a racist. Only whites can be racist. And, indeed, all whites are racist.

•
It is increasingly a left-wing position that when blacks loot, they are only taking what they deserve, or, as the looters often put it, looted goods are "reparations."

•
Another nonmoral left-wing compass concerns power. Just as right and wrong are determined by class (worker and owner/rich and poor) and race (white and people of color), good and evil are also determined by power (the strong and the weak).

•
That explains much of the left's hatred for two countries in particular — America and Israel.

•
One must automatically "believe women" because, on the left, it is not only morality that doesn't transcend race, power, class or sex; truth doesn't either.

•
The left's moral compass is not broken. The left simply rejects such a compass.
Attacks on police must end — they are America’s heroes and protect us all, regardless of race (Fox 09/16/2020)
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Law enforcement officers protect and serve people they don't know and may never meet — including people who despise them. If there was a day with no cops, everyone would realize what they do.

•
I respect our police, and I believe police officers are generally decent and honorable men and women who are doing a difficult, dangerous and often thankless job.

•
They risk their lives every time they go to work and they bear the added burden of listening to insults shouted at them by ungrateful people and those who think they are entitled or who will say they are "offended."

•
The truth is that today there are those who live to be offended. They call themselves progressives.

•
They will always be offended until we give them what they think they are entitled to, such as free college, free housing and no police.

•
They also want no bail, no courts and no system of consequence for bad behavior.

•
As I said when I recently testified before Congress, "you work for me!" We are taxpayers and these politicians are accountable to us. Not the other way around.

•
The politicians are accountable to us for the violence in their cities and their failure to act and allow the police to do the job they are trained for. They are accountable for the failure to accept help from President Trump.

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Hold them accountable. And finally, vote in the upcoming elections. Not just the presidential election but for races for state and local elected offices as well.

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Take our country back step by step. Don't just watch TV and remain angry. Take action and live in the country that you want.

•
We have a free country and you can decide on how it is run.

•
In fact, our country is so free that people like democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan can badmouth it every day and get away with it.

•
Time for us to be just as loud.
Hollywood has fallen and can’t get up (INN 09/15/2020)
Woodward rides again (JWR 09/15/2020)
•
The president now claims Woodward conducted a "political hit job" on him. Why would he have expected anything else?

•
The president said the reason he initially played down the threat of COVID-19 was to avoid causing panic.

•
In hindsight he might have made a nationally televised address, warning of the possibility of a pandemic and advising people to prepare with hygienic behavior.

•
Predictably, Democrats, led by presidential candidate Joe Biden, are trying to turn the interviews and Woodward's forthcoming book, "Rage," to their advantage.

•
Those with short memories should be reminded that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged people on March 11 to eat out and visit movie theaters, just weeks before the city became ground zero for the virus.

•
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Chinatown on February 24 where she urged people to patronize shops and restaurants, in spite of growing fears about the virus.

•
Joe Biden opposed the president's order shutting off travel to China.

•
He has also claimed to have "sounded the alarm" about the virus in January, which various fact-checkers have noted is not true.

•
One of Biden's health advisers, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, said on January 30: "Everyone in America should take a very big breath, slow down, and stop panicking and being hysterical. We are having a little too much histrionics on this. . . . And people should remember not to panic. . . . And the best thing we have is the seasonality. It's going to go down as spring comes up."

•
... Biden held "dozens and dozens of events in January and February" and never mentioned social distancing, personal protection equipment, ventilators, the need for temporary hospitals, or travel restrictions.

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The virus should never have been politicized. As many have noted it does not discriminate between political parties or candidates.

•
Now that it has become political, like everything else, it is fair to ask those who wish to maintain, or obtain power, why the public should trust either candidate to deal with it going forward.
Sen. Rick Scott: Riots, 'We hope they die' chants – I am mad. Here's what I plan to do (Fox 09/15/2020)
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I am mad that rioters think they can burn and trash businesses and property of hard-working Americans. The government buildings burned were paid for with our taxes.

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Business owners have put in long hours trying to make a living and support their employees and their families. No one has a right to burn or trash our businesses.

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I am mad when I hear rioters chant "Death to America." These are the same chants you hear in Iran.

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I am mad when I hear rioters chant "We hope they die" after two law enforcement officers were ambushed and shot in Los Angeles last weekend.

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I am mad that rioters are barging into restaurants and demanding we support their political point of view. How dare they interrupt celebrations, terrorize seniors and hurt struggling businesses.

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I am mad when rioters try to tear down monuments of our Founding Fathers. Were our founders perfect? Of course not. Neither are we. Our goal should be to improve, not be perfect. I am not perfect and neither are you.

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If you commit crimes against others, you should be punished to the full extent of the law.

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It appears the rioters have no plan or clear agenda; they simply want to tear down our country. That will not happen!

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I am proud of this country. We were the first country in the history of the world to try governance of, by and for the people. No other country has done more to promote individual freedom than this country. No one.

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What country do the rioters want to emulate? Cuba? Venezuela? North Korea? Communist China?

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... America, which is one of the few countries that guarantees individual rights, is the country the Radical Left wants to tear down. I am mad and will do everything I can to protect this country.

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Life is unfair and terrible things happen. Let's work to make it better.

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The Radical Left rioters are demanding we agree with them or they will tear down our country. We should all be mad.

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It is time we all say that life is not perfect, but we can make it better by respecting each other and each other's faith, beliefs and property, treating others the way we would like to be treated, working hard, getting up when life is unfair and redoubling our efforts to succeed, voting for better government, and acting in the manner we would like our children and grandchildren to act.

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I don't see many of these rioters planning to move to some other supposedly utopian country. So, stop screwing up ours. If you don't like the way America is governed, run for office.

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Socialism sounds nice, but has never worked. If someone believes in socialism, move to a socialist country.

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People die to get out of Cuba, Venezuela and Communist China. The murderers in the Maduro, Castro and Xi governments will be excited to welcome you into their totalitarian countries.

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I am mad and my plan is to fight to save our country. There is no Plan B. There is no place to move to.

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We all have a responsibility to do our part to preserve what President Ronald Reagan called "this last and greatest bastion of freedom."

•
We will not let the rioters ruin this country and the future for our children and grandchildren.

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We will not surrender America to fascist punks or woke elitists who despise everything we stand for. It will not happen.

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
'A Hidden Life' examines the cost, and value, of resisting the totalitarian impulse (JWR 09/14/2020)
Remembering 9/11 in a woke year (INN 09/14/2020)
•
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots that attacked the statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln did not spare 9/11 memorials.

•
The statue of a police officer was beheaded and toppled in Plymouth, Mass. at a 9/11 memorial honoring those who had died in the attacks.

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But the 2,000 pound steel beam from the World Trade Center proved beyond the ability of the vandals to topple.

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When BLM racists defaced statues and memorials in the Boston Common, including the "Glory" regiment, they didn't spare the 9/11 memorial in the Public Garden.

•
Beyond the radical attacks on the monuments of September 11 were the attacks on its heroes.

•
The NYPD has suffered its worst days since 9/11, with over 400 officers injured in the BLM riots. Police and firefighters went from the heroes of a nation to being smeared as soulless monsters.

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"I could see no difference between the officer who killed and the police who died, or the firefighters who died," wrote Ta-Nehisi Coates, an intellectual godfather of BLM.

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"They were not human to me. Black, white, or whatever, they were the menaces of nature; they were the fire, the comet, the storm, which could — with no justification — shatter my body."

•
"Between the World and Me," the hateful tract in which Coates dehumanized the police officers and firefighters who had died trying to save people of all races and creeds, became a bestseller, was a Pulitzer finalist and has repeatedly shown up on corporate anti-racism reading lists.

•
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum tried to cancel the Tribute in Light, whose beams that fill the night sky are used to light the space of the fallen towers of the World Trade Center, and the reading of the names of the fallen dead by 9/11 family members.

•
It took an outpouring of anger from family members and alternative events by Tunnel2Towers to get the museum to reverse course.

•
... the Tribute in Light had been decried as a symbol of "extreme nationalism."

•
There had always been a deep discomfort with the patriotism of Sept. 11 and with its heroes and victims.

•
In the long years after the men of the NYPD and the FDNY had raised up the courage of a nation, both organizations, like the military, have been gutted by political correctness, and have turned into shadows of their former selves.

•
... the heroism of the FDNY and NYPD on Sept. 11 came from the fact that its men did not reflect a random sampling of the city's population. They were extraordinary men, heroes who went where no one else would dare, climbing 100 stories in the hope of saving someone.

•
The men who lived and died on that day were not victims and they were not trying to get famous. They did their duty. But to many the concept of duty has become as alien as frock coats and top hats.

•
Nineteen years after 9/11, men and women born after the attack will be able to vote.

•
History is made up not only of dry facts, but emotional connections. The stories that define us are the ones that matter because they endow life with meaning.

•
For millions of Americans, the death of an ex-con who had robbed a pregnant woman at gunpoint gave their lives meaning. That's why so much of the country is burning and so many of its memorials have fallen.

•
The Islamic terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11 had beliefs that gave their lives meaning. So did the SS soldiers who marched through Poland, or their NKVD counterparts.

•
It is not the mere presence of evil that creates a crisis, but the absence of meaningful opposition to it. And meaningful opposition comes from a deep moral passion without which life is empty.

•
The 19 hijackers lied to the passengers that if they didn't resist, they would be allowed to live.

•
Mohammed Atta told Flight 11 passengers, "Nobody move. Everything will be okay. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet."

•
"Take prisoners and kill them. As Allah said: ‘No prophet should have prisoners until he has soaked the land with blood,'" Atta told his men.

•
The leftist radicals who have been in league with Islamic terrorists, defending them in court, propagandizing for their "civil rights" in the press and funding their networks, now call themselves "woke."

•
Another Sept. 11 anniversary reminds us that we need to wake up.

•
In our streets, the radicals chant "Death to America," they burn flags, desecrate churches and synagogues and topple the statues of the nation's founders. And their media allies and Democrat apparatchiks tell us to go along with it and we'll be okay.

•
The rioters and stabbers just want to issue their demands and make their point. If we stay quiet, they'll leave us alone.

•
The 19th anniversary is another warning from the bloody echoes of history that they won't.

•
When the jihadis and BLMers chant "Death to America," believe that they mean it.

•
... they want to be rid of the courage and heroism of our entire history because they know that the power of Americans to resist their brutality and hate comes from our history.

•
That includes Sept. 11.

•
On a cool fall day, millions of Americans woke out of a hazy dream of the end of history and remembered that we were a nation, not a borderless global order, that we needed heroes, not diversity, that history wasn't over, that we still had enemies, and that what mattered was not the color of your skin or your politically correct virtue signaling, but whether you would rush the cockpit or sit in your seat hoping that despite everything you knew, they wouldn't kill you.

•
On the 19th anniversary of that cool fall day, we are passing through fire and havoc, flying over ruined cities and fallen rubble because too many of us had fallen asleep until the guttural voice came on again reading its hateful demands.

•
And many of our fellow passengers kneeled while the anthem played, they disgraced their country, and the memory of our fallen dead.

•
No amount of wishing or willing can raise the dead of Sept. 11 out of their ashen graves.

•
All we can do this anniversary, and every one after it, is to keep resisting the terrorists, domestic and international, to stay awake and ready in the long flight of history.

•
We must remember our heroes and honor their valor, because we may need to imitate it.
A plea for humility from America's first superstar (JWR 09/14/2020)
•
Many Americans have heard the story of the woman who approached Benjamin Franklin as the delegates emerged from their proceedings in Independence Hall, which had been conducted in secret.

•
"Well, doctor," she asked, "what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin famously replied: "A republic, if you can keep it."

•
Far more profound than that tossed-off rejoinder, however, were the less well-known words spoken earlier that day, in Franklin's extraordinary closing address to the convention.

•
His message of political compromise and intellectual modesty is one our society, so angrily uncompromising and immodest, badly needs to hear.

•
At 81, Franklin was by a considerable margin the oldest delegate to the convention.

•
He was the only man present who had signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War.

•
As a statesman, a scientist, and an intellectual, he was the most famous American in the world, and, with the possible exception of George Washington, the most respected member of the convention.

•
The Constitution incorporated provisions that Franklin had opposed. He had strongly favored a plural executive, for example. He had advocated for the direct election of judges, and argued that federal officials should serve without pay.

•
The final document by no means represented what he considered ideal. The same was likely true for every other delegate. Indeed, some members of the convention regarded the new system's shortcomings as so wrongheaded that they had walked out before the final vote.

•
But Franklin thought nothing could be worse than for the new Constitution to make its appearance amid open dissension among its drafters.

•
Drawing on his skill as a diplomat, he urged his colleagues to set their differences aside and accept the document in a spirit of cooperation.

•
"I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them," Franklin began.

•
"For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects. . . . [T]he older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others."

•
People have a bad habit of falling in love with their own opinions, said Franklin, and of sneering at the unsoundness of other people's views — a phenomenon even truer in the 21st century than it was in the 18th.

•
He implored the delegates to resist that temptation and to support the Constitution despite their misgivings

•
"I agree to this Constitution with all its faults. I doubt too whether any other convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? . . . I consent, sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die."

•
Franklin moved that a line be added to the final document, declaring that it had been accepted "by the unanimous consent of the States present" — a formulation that would allow even the minority of delegates who had voted No to sign.

•
It was his wish, he said, "that every member of the convention who may still have objections to it, would, with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and . . . put his name to this instrument."

•
The stakes in 1787 were no less grave than those Americans fight about today. Then as now, disunity and polarization threatened to tear the nation apart.

•
The difference is that those men in Philadelphia agreed to work through their ideological differences, while our ability to do so seems to diminish by the day.

•
More than ever, we are in need of leaders like Franklin, and of lessons like the one he conveyed so effectively 233 years ago next Thursday: that we strive to be less hostile to the views of others, and learn to doubt a little of our own infallibility.
Michael Goodwin: Dems cast Trump's Middle East achievements as political ploy (Fox 09/13/2020)
•
First, it was the United Arab Emirates and Israel making peace. Then it was Serbia and Kosovo agreeing to set aside political disputes to sign an economic deal. And now Bahrain and Israel are set to sign a peace treaty.

•
These breakthroughs were brokered by President Trump and his administration. It is an extraordinary record of peacemaking, yet in too many circles, it is being treated as a sideshow without significance.

•
Naturally, The New York Times took the low road, insisting Saturday that the deals show Trump trying "to position himself as a peacemaker before the elections in November."

•
So being an actual peacemaker doesn't count because the Times spies a personal motive?

•
In the same vein, talk of the president getting a Nobel Peace Prize is instantly dismissed. Over the dead bodies of the world elite will Trump be so honored.

•
Make no mistake — had these feats been achieved by a Democratic president, he would be celebrated. When Trump does it, meh.

•
That much is obvious, but there's another dimension to these deals, one that bears on the dangerous polarization gripping America.

•
We are now in an election year where political violence is growing and both parties are expressing reservations about whether they will accept the outcome.

•
Future historians will chart the decades-long path of how we got to this perilous point, but they must not ignore the incredible damage done by Democrats' decision to reject the legitimacy of the Trump presidency.

•
Having never accepted his election, they resisted and tried to destroy him.

•
They weaponized the Justice Department and the FBI, CIA and State Department, and enlisted the left-leaning media — meaning most of the media — to paint Trump as unfit, unworthy and even a Russian agent.

•
Worse than personal slander, it was character assassination masquerading as concern for national security.

•
It reached rock bottom in the impeachment fiasco, where they tried to undo 2016 and prevent Trump from being on the ballot this year.

•
Now imagine if Dems had taken a different course. Imagine if Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer had acted as responsible opposition leaders starting in 2017 instead of surrendering to the mob.

•
They would have found a president eager to negotiate on almost everything. Trump prides himself on being a dealmaker and loves nothing more than a signing ceremony.

•
Call it vanity, but because that's who he is, Pelosi and Schumer could have gotten much of what they wanted.

•
Trump, remember, had been a Democrat, a party donor, and many of his policy outcomes, such as rising wages for poor and middle-class families and record low unemployment for black and Latino workers, were things Democrats always said they wanted to achieve.

•
... they abdicated their responsibility to the nation in exchange for partisan power.

•
They claimed to want a national infrastructure program but said no when Trump pushed for one. They said they wanted the first big immigration deal since 1986, but rejected Trump's demand for improved border security and enforcement, along with a deal on the "Dreamers."

•
The details of the big GOP tax-cut package could have been reshaped if Dems played ball.

•
Dems did, briefly, cooperate on fighting the coronavirus, but soon decided it was better used as a weapon against Trump. It was impeachment by another name.

•
None of this is to suggest that Trump is easy to deal with or predictable. He can be difficult to the point of exasperating, insufferably boastful and gratuitously mean in his personal attacks.

•
But those undesirable traits haven't stood in the way of the international peace deals. Is Trump a different person in those negotiations, or are Arabs and Israelis, Serbs and Kosovars more focused on the fruits of the deal than on the dealmaker's personality?

•
To be sure, much of Trump's Mideast success has to do with big strategic decisions that reversed Barack Obama's approach.

•
Trump's policy of isolating the mad mullahs of Iran instead of coddling them included withdrawing from Obama's misbegotten nuclear pact, reimposing harsh economic sanctions and taking out Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the military leader whose specialty was spreading death and mayhem.

•
At the same time, Trump reduced our troop presence in hot spots and became the most supportive American president Israel has ever known.

•
... Trump "has forced all Arab-Muslim states in the region to choose between placating the Mullahs and making a common front against them. The Bahrain and UAE agreements with Israel show that they are choosing to oppose — not appease — Iran."

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Obama, by comparison, got an emboldened, aggressive Iran and no peace treaties between Arabs and Israel. But he did get a Nobel Peace Prize.
David Limbaugh: Trump will win in November — Here's why I believe that bold statement (Fox 09/12/2020)
•
As a Trump supporter, I don't casually dismiss the polls that consistently show he's behind. But I am cautiously optimistic he's going to win, for many reasons.

•
Trump won in 2016 against overwhelming odds, the formidable Hillary Clinton machine and almost-unanimous predictions of his defeat.

•
Though Trump was a well-known public figure, people didn't know whether he would fulfill his campaign promises and govern as a conservative.

•
Sure, his outsider status was a major part of his appeal, and, yes, Clinton's unlikability helped, but I'm unimpressed with the theory that Joe Biden will defeat Trump because Trump has baggage and Biden doesn't have Clinton's negatives.

•
Biden has plenty of negatives thus far strenuously shielded by the media, and they're becoming more apparent daily.

•
His main negative, of course, is that he is not even a candidate but a hapless placeholder, a puppet in the Democrats' sinister scheme to implement a Bernie Sanders agenda under cover of "centrist" Biden.

•
Meanwhile, we've never seen a Republican president generate more enthusiasm. He has an electric bond with his supporters, who rightly recognize that he is uniquely situated for these turbulent times.

•
Conservative, patriotic Americans and everything they hold dear have been under relentless bombardment by the militant left in all sectors of our society — culture, academia, Hollywood, the media.

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Everywhere they turn, they're told that America sucks; that they are racist; that they are uncompassionate Christian bigots, homophobes and sexists.

•
They are vilified as intolerant by the most intolerant of people and censored by those waving the banner of free speech.

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Most people have no way to respond to the bullying. They're often too intimidated to share their opinions for fear of being demonized.

•
They have their talk radio and television defenders, but they've had no one in elective office to stand up for them and their essential goodness and dignity.

•
No prominent public official has stood athwart this fraudulent, toxic narrative and said, "Enough is enough." But in Trump they've found their fearless, tireless advocate.

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What other Republican president would have had the guts to stand against this high tide of political correctness and challenge the left's divisive ideas, as when he recently banned federal sensitivity training on so-called white supremacy and critical race theory?

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Trump has given freedom-loving patriots a voice, and they will never forget it. Despite efforts to portray him as a carnival barker, he has proven his sincerity on the things that matter to his supporters. They see his genuine love for America and his steadfast commitment to their shared agenda.

•
While Trump's opponents cast him as an inveterate liar, he has kept his campaign promises perhaps more than any modern president.

•
Indeed, Trump has vigorously resisted enormous pressure from radical environmentalists to surrender our sovereignty to international bodies guided by pseudo-science and a Marxist worldview, hellbent on returning us to the horse and buggy.

•
He has also kept his promise to secure more favorable trade deals for the United States, and even Joe Biden recently admitted that the USMCA is better than NAFTA.

•
He has studiously protected American manufacturing jobs, which is not lost on American workers. Unlike his predecessors, he honored his promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

•
... despite gratuitous Democratic obstruction, Trump is proceeding with the wall and has made substantial progress.

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Though the Democrats and media have savaged this president every day for four years, falsely accused him of unspeakable acts, mounted ceaseless investigations and impeachment proceedings against him, and given him no favorable coverage, he remains undaunted and presses forward.

•
On top of all this, America is under siege by leftist street radicals who are fomenting racial tension and turning our cities into hellish war zones, not to advance the cause of racial justice but to dismantle America root and branch and fundamentally convert it into a Marxist state.

•
... minorities also care about law and order and jobs and are slowly awakening to Democrats' taking them for granted.

•
President Trump stands as a towering figure against this lawlessness condoned and often enabled by Democratic governors and mayors.

•
The public can't help but notice that a man the left depicts as erratic, unpredictable and unstable has been a steady hand throughout the pandemic (notwithstanding Democratic propaganda to the contrary), the riots and the endless personal onslaught against him.

•
Democrats are so confident they have irreversibly tarnished Trump that they believe they can defeat him with a candidate who's already ripe for the 25th Amendment. They are brazenly hiding Biden in the closet with the media's reprehensible complicity.

•
So, take heart, Trump supporters. We have a strong candidate with a remarkably successful record, running against a Democratic Party that bears little resemblance to the party of JFK.

•
This new party has no real candidate, no constructive solutions, and a stubborn insistence on dividing Americans based on their group identities and tearing America down.

•
There are surely enough patriots left to ensure President Trump's reelection.
Tim Graham: How would liberal media report on coronavirus deaths under President Hillary Clinton? (Fox 09/12/2020)
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"Trump lied. People died." This was the hot smear from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y...

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The president told Woodward back in March that he wanted to downplay the coronavirus so people wouldn't panic, even though he said he'd been told it was an airborne threat.

•
Predictably echoing Schumer, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough dug into the mud bucket: "Donald Trump says he didn't want Americans to panic. No, he just wanted to sit by and watch them die."

•
Insert the MSNBC pandemic slogan: "This is who we are. We are in this together."

•
Let's put aside the nagging question of why Republican presidents grant interviews to this liberal Watergate warhorse.

•
Let's focus instead on the nastiness of blaming hundreds of thousands of deaths on the president.

•
Imagine, for a minute, if Hillary Clinton had been president when the coronavirus arrived from China. Would the press place a single death at the White House door?

•
If Hillary Clinton had been elected instead of Trump, reporters would show her valiantly working 16-hour days and endlessly consulting scientists to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

•
They would tenderly feel the pain of her sleepless dedication to saving lives.

•
Any Republican trying to blame Clinton for a single American death from this persistently infectious disease COVID-19 would face the wrath of "Pants on Fire" and "Four Pinocchios" ratings from the "independent fact-checkers" for stating "without evidence" that the White House failed to combat the pandemic.

•
Look no further than the Obama-Biden handling of the H1N1 swine flu in 2009. The network news couldn't even say the word "Obama" when Obama bumbled with a vaccine that October.

•
These networks aren't part of a "culture of accountability." They smear Republicans and absolve Democrats.

•
That's how they see their job. President Hillary Clinton would have expected their servility ... and they would have delivered.

•
See related Running for President (Mike Lester, 08/23/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Adriana Cohen: Coronavirus pandemic wrong time for hypocritical finger-pointing (Fox 09/12/2020)
•
With the release of liberal journalist Bob Woodward's taped private conversations with the president — suspiciously released just weeks before the upcoming election — Democrats are now attacking Donald Trump for downplaying the pandemic publicly while conveniently ignoring their role in diminishing the public health threat.

•
Last fall through early 2020, when the coronavirus was spreading its deadly tentacles in China, Italy and around the globe, taking thousands of lives, conspiracy theorist Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party were not focused on protecting Americans from it.

•
They were impeaching Donald Trump in a failed political stunt.

•
Had the Democratic establishment truly cared about protecting the American people from the coronavirus, they would've spent those precious months working shoulder to shoulder with our commander in chief getting critical personal protective equipment to hospitals and health care workers as well as implementing other measures to curtail the spread of the virus — and save lives.

•
Instead, they were trying to overturn the results of the 2016 election.

•
It shows us where their priorities were during a critical time in stopping the spread.

•
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. In January, the World Health Organization — a global health organization fully supported by former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party — downplayed the severity of the virus.

•
"Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China," the health organization tweeted Jan. 14.

•
How many lives were lost worldwide due to this reckless misinformation?

•
That said, when the president took bold and decisive action closing the border to China early on in late January, Biden lambasted the decision and called him "xenophobic" for blocking travel to the United States despite China being a known hotspot for the deadly virus.

•
In March, Biden was still unwilling to admit the president made the right call in closing the border. He tweeted: "Stop the xenophobic fear-mongering. Be honest. Take responsibility. Do your job."

•
In February, Pelosi also downplayed the virus by going shopping in San Francisco's Chinatown area — without a mask — urging fellow Americans on television to do the same.

•
When will the media ask Pelosi how many citizens may have contracted the disease and/or died from it as a result of her incautious advice?

•
In the Big Apple, Mayor Bill de Blasio went on TV earlier this year downplaying the threat of the virus.

•
"Transmission is not that easy," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "I think there's been a misconception that coronavirus hangs in the air waiting to catch you. No. It takes direct person-to-person contact."

•
... "there's very little threat here," de Blasio added. "Even if you were to get it, it very much acts like a common cold or the flu."

•
And as late as March 11, the liberal mayor appeared ... joking about elbow bumps and urging New Yorkers to go about their lives with little changes to their lifestyles.

•
If you watched any of the five televised Democratic primary debates between mid-January and March 15, you'll notice the pandemic was barely mentioned.

•
... Democrats in attendance had nearly a dozen hours to sound the alarm about the threat of the virus — potentially reaching millions of American homes throughout the debates — but instead warned us about the threat of climate change.

•
But now, in the final sprint to the presidential election, the liberal mob is blaming President Trump for not doing enough or saying all the right things to mitigate the crisis.
Barkin' Her Head Off (JWR 09/11/2020)
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Most of us with a normal brain know that for wisdom, intelligence, and common sense the last person you'd want to listen to would be an actor, a musician, or an athlete.

•
Reason, insight and intellectual honesty are not necessarily in an entertainer's toolbox.

•
Of course there are some in the arts who do possess a semblance of clear thinking, profundity, and logic, but by and large the celebrities of today who take to spouting off on social media are generally as sharp as marbles.

•
Not surprisingly, high morals, grace, and decency are not part of their attributes either, any more than truth and honesty are.

•
Sadly for them they don't even realize that as soon as they open their stupid mouths or begin their nasty tweets they have exposed themselves for the shallow feebleminded dimwits that they are.

•
The latest celebrity jackass is actress Ellen Barkin who felt a need to share her brilliant thoughts, beautifully articulated over Twitter this past Tuesday, calling President Trump a "murderous motherf***er" (spelling the vulgarity out completely, of course) as he was addressing the press on the progress being made to combat the coronavirus

•
Then last June as President Trump crossed the street to visit the historic St. John's Episcopal Church after it was set on fire by rioters, the actress tweeted, "if Jesus was our savior trump would have gone down in flames before he crossed the street"

•
The depth of hate and classlessness of this person is without measure.

•
I've never seen so many elite celebrities completely losing their minds over a president.

•
You might say that one of Trump's unsung accomplishments is that he has the ability to bring out the nincompoops, ignoramuses, and dingbats who dwell among us.

•
It's like shinning a bright light and suddenly all the cockroaches go scurrying. It's great because it's always helpful to know who the idiots are. President Trump makes these people crazy with hate.

•
It makes you wonder why so many rich famous people are so unhappy. They have made a fortune of money doing what they enjoy; acting, playing ball, singing, whatever it is.

•
Most of the rest of us who work for a living don't have it half as good as the celebrities. If we do our jobs, pay our bills, and provide for our families we feel that we're doing fine.

•
What does the multi-millionaire actor or athlete have to complain about? Why are they so angry and seemingly unfulfilled? Not enough homes? Not enough cars? Not enough fame?

•
What is it with these people? I have to believe that there is something seriously wrong with them. A mental disorder of some kind.

•
I have no doubt that Ellen Barkin will continue her ranting and raving against President Trump. She has no incentive to stop because too many of her fellow "artists" agree with her.

•
The cancel culture doesn't work both ways; it's a double standard. As long as you're a politically correct leftist celebrity you will never be canceled for hating on conservatives who value America and American traditions.

•
And if you call our president the most vulgar names imaginable you can be sure to be invited to all the best cocktail parties in the ultra-elite circlesA‰as long as the president's name is Trump, that is. I wouldn't try it with Obama.

•
See related Watch This... (Jake Fuller, 2019)") cartoon from USA picture album
Daniel Hoffman: America now more vulnerable than at time of Sept. 11 attacks — we need a... (Fox 09/14/2020)
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Sept. 11, 2001, was transformational for me and my colleagues in the intelligence community, State Department and military — and for our entire nation.

•
Al Qaeda's horrific act of mass murder demonstrated that our enemies could reach us in spite of the oceans that separated us from Europe, Africa and Asia.

•
We had become accustomed to sending troops off to foreign lands in wartime. Now the war on terrorism had reached the continental United States.

•
One of the most critical lessons of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was that we need a robust forward presence to protect us, especially against threats emanating from ungoverned spaces.

•
This includes intelligence collection, diplomacy and — when justified — military engagement so that we can detect threats and take appropriate action to prevent terrorists from striking us again.

•
A forward presence should be as small as necessary to accomplish the mission of defending our nation within a limited scope. Protecting America from attack should not be confused with an "endless war" or our failed efforts this century at nation-building.

•
This entails confronting our enemies "over there" rather than allowing them to plan and execute attacks on our homeland from ungoverned space in failed states.

•
The key is to settle on the minimal forward-deployed presence required to detect and preempt threats before they are visited on our shores.

•
President Obama's precipitous withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011, which helped create the conditions for the massive growth and spread of the ISIS terrorist group in the Middle East, is an admonition about the danger of withdrawing our forward-deployed capability before the threats are fully eliminated.

•
... as long as the local authorities were unable to eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism and as long as there were failed states — which terrorists exploit to recruit extremist followers and plot attacks against us — we would need to be on the watch and prepared to take action to defend ourselves in the most faraway places.

•
Today Al Qaeda is still a threat. Its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is still waging jihad.

•
The U.S. destroyed the ISIS so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, but roughly 20,000 ISIS fighters have melted into an insurgency, which continues to threaten Iraq, the region and beyond.

•
We should start, therefore, with a clear assessment of the threats to our national security that emanate from terrorist hot spots like Afghanistan and Iraq.

•
We can then consider how much or whether our forward-deployed U.S. military and intelligence personnel should withdraw even further — and if so, under what timetable and who should remain to work with forces of our allies.

•
... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo emphasized that when "America retreats, chaos often follows."

•
On this most solemn day, let us remember terrorism's innocent victims and be deeply
Socialism - how to destroy a society (INN 09/10/2020)
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What has killed almost 100 million people in less than 100 years? What has led to mass famine around the world, and regardless of our efforts, seems unwilling to disappear?

•
The answer: The killing machine is known as Socialism.

•
Shockingly, after wreaking havoc on nations around the world, the Democratic Party has adopted socialism as one of its guiding ideologies.

•
At 77 years old, Joe Biden is merely a figurehead being utilized to attract more moderate voters, while the real Democratic Party has been hijacked by a group of radical, self-declared socialists, such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

•
Although these socialist politicians may promise to create a more equal and fair society for all, in reality, their policies will lead to only one possible result: the destruction of any nation they touch.

•
Similar to Bernie Sanders, the notorious leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, also desired to take control of the soviet economy.

•
In the end, more than 40 million men, women, and children were killed under Stalin's reign.

•
Carrying out policies that Mr. Sanders could only dream of, Stalin nationalized the private industry and collectivized all agriculture.

•
Stalin's centralized economy was made possible by forcing all citizens to live in a perpetual state of fear, whereby dissenters were banished to a Gulag.

•
Anyone doubting whether Mr. Sanders would want to carry out such policies, must remember that this is the same man who once praised Fidel Castro, the socialist dictator of Cuba, and literally honeymooned in the Soviet Union

•
Next, the Democratic Party and its socialist members relentlessly attack capitalism and argue that equality for all must be pursued. While this may create an attractive headline in the media, enforced economic equality essentially means that the results of your labor will belong to the government.

•
Socialism begins by disincentivizing work, and slowly brings about deterioration of the well-being of the overall society.

•
Additionally, socialism rejects all notions of individual freedom. By definition, socialist leaders eventually take control of the economy, which inherently results in the government controlling all aspects of society.

•
In a socialist society, the leadership decides your profession, where you can work, and how to allocate all resources. Since humans naturally have desires that they wish to pursue, the government's goals are only achievable through the use of force.

•
This method of enforcement is already observable today in the US as the radical leftwing is prepared to attack anyone that disagrees with its policies.

•
Finally, for anyone who still supports socialism, a visit to Venezuela may change your mind.

•
Radical leftwing socialists have hijacked the Democratic Party and are attempting to hijack our government as they strive to implement their radical ideology.

•
... we must never forget the words of Winston Churchill, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

•
Unlike our ancestors, this sacred battle to defend our freedom is won not by the warriors on a battlefield, but by all citizens making their voices heard, one vote at a time.
I’m a pro-life conservative Republican college student who won’t let cancel culture silence me (Fox 09/10/2020)
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Beginning the college year during the coronavirus pandemic is difficult enough for millions of students. But the beginning of my freshman year at Transylvania University in Kentucky is being made even more difficult by an unwarranted attack against me by the cancel culture due to my conservative views.

•
Even before starting college I was the subject of a lot of unwanted attention following media coverage of a school trip I took in January 2019 to Washington, D.C. I wore a Make America Great Again hat.

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... I was confronted by a Native American activist who stood in front of me and began chanting and banging a drum. I simply stood there and smiled, but some media accounts falsely portrayed me and my fellow students as aggressors who provoked a confrontation.

•
I filed a lawsuit against The Washington Post and CNN.

•
With that behind me, I recently began my freshman year at Transylvania University in Kentucky.

•
But unbelievably, an official of the American Civil Liberties Union — a liberal group that claims to be dedicated to defending free speech — criticized the university last week for admitting me, saying my admission was a "stain" on the school.

•
... Kentucky ACLU staffer Samuel Crankshaw wrote of me that "this kid clearly is a provocateur in training with no intention of learning. He exists only to troll, intimidate and play victim."

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I have never met Crankshaw. He knows nothing about me besides news stories regarding my trip to Washington and lawsuit.

•
Yet still, he tries to cancel me and demand that I be denied admission to college. Why? Because he seems outraged that my conservative values don't align with his left-wing ideology.

•
So should only liberals and those on the far-left be able to get a college education? Should there be an ideological purity test required that bars conservatives and Republicans?

•
That's a pretty frightening idea and sounds like something you would expect in a totalitarian state, not a democracy where we are all guaranteed free speech by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

•
The ACLU claims to support free speech but, at least where Crankshaw seems to be concerned, that only applies if you share his ideas.

•
While he works for an organization founded on inclusivity, he is quick to exclude differing opinions.

•
If you are a conservative like me, watch out. The intolerant left might come for you, too.

•
As a graduate of Transylvania University, Crankshaw doesn't deem me worthy of sharing an alma mater with him.

•
How would he have felt if he had been denied admission as a liberal? I imagine he would have been rightfully outraged. But he hypocritically wants my dreams of a higher education canceled.

•
"I have previously written, as a long supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), about my concern over how the venerable group has changed under its current leadership, including a departure from its long robust defense of free speech." Turley wrote.

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"Recently, the ACLU has abandoned its famed neutrality and has not supported some on the right while supporting those on the left."

•
... referring to Crankshaw's attack on me, Turley wrote that "it is far more alarming to see an ACLU official rallying people against a young man whose chief offense appears to be that he is publicly (and unapologetically) conservative and pro-life."

•
Turley is right. Colleges have a reputation of being toxic places for conservative, pro-life ideas like the ones I hold.

•
But an alumni assuming I'll act in a certain way before even meeting me? Well, that's a new low.

•
Crankshaw will be sad to learn that, against his wishes, I feel that I am treated fairly as a student and am looking forward to learning and forming my own opinions over my next four years at Transylvania University.

•
Sadly, I'm not the only young Republican being attacked for my political beliefs. Conservative students on college campuses across America face attacks just for speaking out and exercising their First Amendment rights.

•
If the threats to students like me don't come from the left-leaning administrators, the threats come from fellow students who call on campus leadership to cancel events or shut down student organizations that dare challenge their left-wing view of the world.

•
The idea of "free speech zones" that some colleges and universities create in an attempt to address this problem is utterly ridiculous.

•
Our entire country is a free speech zone, enshrined by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution. And no one has the right to cancel the Constitution or its First Amendment.

•
Sen. McConnell and President Trump are the exact leaders we need at a time when liberal mobs take glee in destroying our lives and erasing our voices.

•
I don't advocate barring liberals or even socialists from going to college. It is wrong for any of us to demean people who hold different beliefs.

•
Now more than ever, we need more speech, not less. We need to hear new ideas and to learn from others.

•
And to those who are inclined to write my future for me, I say let me define myself. I will not be canceled.

•
See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Tolerance (Michael Ramirez, 02/06/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Dems Playing the Long Con (JWR 09/10/2020)
Biden is a weak appeaser in dealing with China — Trump stands up to China with strength (Fox 09/09/2020)
•
As the American people have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden couldn't even bring himself to condemn the Chinese regime for its mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak.

•
And Biden has even echoed Beijing's propaganda criticizing President Trump's emergency travel restrictions, which have helped save countless American lives, as being "xenophobic."

•
"This is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science," Biden said Jan. 31.

•
... the Democratic presidential nominee has vowed to reverse President Trump's decision to withdraw from the corrupt World Health Organization, ignoring the fact that the institution has played a key role in facilitating China's coronavirus cover-up campaign.

•
In fact, the WHO publicly disseminated a Chinese study about the pathology of COVID-19 that falsely claimed the virus can't be transmitted between humans.

•
Why would America trade President Trump's courage for Joe Biden's capitulation to the communist dictatorship?

•
"Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China," the health organization tweeted Jan. 14.

•
To make matters worse, Biden recently pledged to "reevaluate" President Trump's strategic counter-tariffs on Chinese goods if he gets elected this November.

•
The Trump policy is designed to correct Beijing's years of dishonest trade practices that have stolen millions of jobs from American workers.

•
Biden doesn't even comprehend the geopolitical threat China poses to the U.S. Just a year ago, the former vice president passionately insisted that the world's second-largest economy is not "going to eat our lunch," airily dismissing widely held concerns about the rise of the communist nation.

•
There are around 200 sovereign states in the world. Many of them are dictatorships that pose no challenge to the United States.

•
China, on the other hand, is determined to undermine America's hegemony and fundamentally change the world order — and it's well-positioned to achieve those aims if American leaders don't assert our country's interests.

•
Donald Trump has done just that since taking office, securing a historic Phase One trade deal with China that went a long way toward restoring parity to our trade relationship. We need to keep the pressure on until we finish the job.

•
After years of being played as chumps by China under past administrations, President Trump has put America — and American workers — first.

•
The liberal media are desperately trying to redefine Biden as a leader who can challenge China — but erasing history is no easy feat.

•
Beijing Biden does not have what it takes to stand up to our biggest geopolitical adversary, and his own actions during this election season show it.

•
President Trump has put a stop to the long-time swamp policy pushed by politicians like Joe Biden, who have left cookies and warm milk out for the Chinese as if they were Santa Claus when they were actually acting like burglars in the homes of America's middle class.
Rob Smith: Black Lives Matter doesn’t really care about Black lives lost unless group can blame... (Fox 09/09/2020)
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BLM's cult-like tactics are more like those of a violent gang than a traditional civil rights group fighting against racial discrimination.

•
Black Lives Matters supporters taking to the streets, screaming in the faces of white diners attempting to enjoy a meal outside, breaking into stores, looting, setting fires and engaging in other acts of physical violence aren't movement members.

•
They're criminals. BLM is their cult. It is their religion. It is what gives them purpose.

•
BLM also traffics in "defund the police" rhetoric that sounds amazing to liberal elites who live in gated communities and luxury high-rises — but is far less appealing to Black people who live in crime-ridden communities.

•
... far more Black people have been protected by police from criminals than have been killed by police.

•
... how do we fix the problems that have resulted in the wrongful treatment of some African Americans while at the same time offering protection to the vast majority of Black people, who are law-abiding citizens?

•
... we see no BLM rallies and marches for Black crime victims, including murder victims. Don't those Black lives matter? Where are the posters demanding justice for these people?

•
The truth is that the tragic loss of these Black lives can't be used to further the radical BLM agenda, so the organizations ignores them.

•
Professional activists make money fundraising for Black Lives Matter. Black journalists are accepted in media circles as "authentic" because they don't dare question BLM's hypocrisy and victim narrative. Ambulance-chasing lawyers make millions off the pain of families reeling from the loss of relatives — a loss that is usually avoidable.

•
... Black Lives Matter does nothing to benefit the vast majority of Black Americans. It makes them hate police officers. It turns the real world into an alternate universe in which evil White cops are hunting them down the moment they leave the safety of their homes.

•
... BLM emboldens people who push ridiculous rhetoric and don't care one bit that it makes the lives of average Black people — not rich entertainers, athletes and media personalities — more dangerous.

•
Black Lives Matter is here to stay. The many millions of dollars the organization has raised in the past few months will ensure that. The question is: who benefits?

•
Certainly not the Black cops trying to protect everyone in their communities, despite the insults they get and the risks they face of getting badly hurt or killed.

•
Certainly not the people who see their communities becoming less safe because of anti-police rhetoric.

•
And certainly not the families of the Black people murdered by criminals every day, who look at Black Lives Matter and wonder when the lives of their lost loved ones will matter as well.
Leftists Blame America. Decent People Blame Themselves (JWR 09/08/2020)
•
As long ago as the 1970s, I came to a major realization.

•
While watching fellow students at Columbia University demonstrate not just against the war in Vietnam but against America — "Amerika," as many spelled it, the "imperialist," "colonialist," "mass-murdering" country — I kept wondering what made these people so hostile to the freest country in human history.

•
Then, one day, as a result of my having attended a yeshiva (an Orthodox Jewish day school) through high school, the reason became clear.

•
Though it was Jewish, this worldview could also be called "Judeo-Christian." Students at traditionally Christian schools were immersed in essentially the same worldview.

•
We were all taught that the most important battle we need to wage in life was with our own nature. Jews and Christians learned from the same Scripture that "the will of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21).

•
Therefore, being a good person involved a constant battle with our flawed human nature: our urges, appetites and innate weaknesses. This battle was also the only real route to a better world.

•
Every individual had to work on him or herself to be decent, strong, courageous and self-controlled, and every parent had to work, first and foremost, on raising such people.

•
One day, I came to realize that this was not how the vast majority of my fellow students were raised.

•
They were raised to believe that the great battle in life was not with one's nature but with outside forces — with parents, in many cases, but most of all with society, i.e., America.

•
All of us, whatever our political outlook, have to confront personal failure, loss, disappointment and unhappiness.

•
When confronted with these challenges, religious Jews and Christians are taught to look inward for both the primary source of their problems and the primary solutions to those problems: What have I done wrong? What can I change in my life to solve my problems?

•
Of course, some nonreligious liberals and conservatives also have this attitude. But most of them likely inherited it from religious parents or, at the very least, from parents who were raised in a religious home or a home that retained the remnants of such an upbringing, which was common in pre-1960s America.

•
The left, which proudly rejects Judeo-Christian values, has adopted the opposite of the Judeo-Christian view regarding pain in life. Leftists (as opposed to liberals) hold outside forces responsible for their pain.

•
That is the reason for the litany of left-wing enemies: capitalism, patriarchy, misogyny, systemic racism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, sexism, xenophobia.

•
The more oppressed women, gays, blacks, etc., see themselves, the more they are alienated from America and its values, and the more they gravitate left.

•
America has been a great country because it was built on the belief that we must all fight against our natures (and fight for our country).

•
It is difficult to overstate the damage the left is doing to this country by abandoning the fundamental Judeo-Christian teaching that we must fight our natures in order to lead a more decent and happy life and replacing it with the belief that we must battle America instead.

•
This replacement inevitably leads to a population of unhappy, ungrateful and mean-spirited human beings — precisely the type of individuals you see rioting and looting, the type of elected officials who do nothing to stop rioters and looters, the columnists and academics who devote their lives to spewing hate-filled lies about America, and the Twitter mobs who comprise the toxic cancel culture.

•
It will lead to what the left acknowledges it seeks: the end of America as we have known it.
Another day older and deeper in debt (JWR 09/08/2020)
•
It isn't that we don't have sufficient warnings and examples from the Founders to contemporary political leaders about the dangers of debt.

•
It is that the politicians and those who elect and benefit from their largesse refuse to heed those warnings.

•
... consider this succinct quote from Ronald Reagan: "We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."

•
Who can credibly argue with that? It's true in our personal lives, but unlike the government individuals can't borrow money without end to prop up their lifestyles.

•
Again, Reagan cut to the heart of the spending and debt problem when he observed: "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!"

•
Thomas Jefferson said: "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."

•
Alexander Hamilton warned: "Nothing can more affect national prosperity than a constant and systematic attention to extinguish the present debt and to avoid as much as possibl(e) the incurring of any new debt."

•
George Washington said: "Avoid occasions of expense ... and avoid likewise the accumulation of debt not only by shunning occasions of expense but by vigorous exertions to discharge the debts, not throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear."

•
Then there's James Madison: " I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse, and in a Republican Government a greater curse than any other."

•
Can anyone credibly challenge these warnings? If not, why aren't we obeying them?

•
See related National Debt Clock (Gary Varvel, 12/27/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden: If you like your country, you can keep your country (INN 09/07/2020)
The power of public fantasies (INN 09/07/2020)
•
... the Third Reich reveals the power of public fantasies. The liberal mind-set is not the default position."

•
And so, it is beyond annoying, to read discussions of current American public affairs that seem stuck on the silliness ofname-calling and such when in fact the abuses of power reside more in the media, the university and the alliance of corrupt bureaucrats and corrupt politicians, than anything Donald Trump could dream up in his tweets or his reactions to the war against him by what I term the "Leftist-Islamist-Globalist Agenda" .

•
What should be of interest is how the private fantasies of the Left and their Islamist and Globalist friends have been turned by those in power into very public fantasies which have formed the basis of 3 and a half years of non-stop slander.

•
This political libel reflects not just a hatred of one man, but the hatred of the very basis of American liberal democracy and its Rule of Law.

•
The knee-jerk welcome of the racist and anti-Semitic Black Lives Matter and corporate funding of a group so little understood by these donors, and the failure to admonish Antifa and its enablers in Democrat-ruled states and municipalities, shows the danger of the transition of private into public fantasies.

•
These symbols in the public realm are but one aspect of fantastical thinking -"the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need" .

•
We have to be more concerned with the symbolic nature of the destruction of statues, the attacks on police stations and the budgets for policing, the idea that rioters are just protesters, the taking of the "knee" by athletes, and other symbols of the attack on liberal democracies.

•
Even the symbolic nature of George Floyd's death as an example of so-called systemic racism must be challenged as it might also be construed as a symbol of the wasted life of a career criminal, high on very dangerous drugs like fentanyl, abandoning father of 5 children, and the lack of values of too many black males in America.

•
Study the actual numbers of black men killed by whites, compared to black men killed by other black men or whites killed by blacks and the George Floyd matter loses some of its power.

•
Symbols without truth, fantasies without understanding, all connote the triumph of power over goodness.

•
More good would come from Floyd's death if it would be seen as a warning against the use of the horrible drug Fentanyl, currently killing thousands of young people, far more than the police could ever kill.

•
The fact that America, with its "swamp" and "Deep State" was well aware that its fantasies were to be exposed,by the "other" , was the reason that even before his inauguration Trump was under attack both legally and illegally by the Deep State and other actors in government, academia and the media.

•
The gap between their perception of his supposed authoritarianism and the fact that their methods were more authoritarian than anything he might do, can only be explained by studying the psychological needs of a Democratic Party (and its shills in media and the academy) now controlled by hard Marxists and radical environmentalists and anti-Israel propagandists.

•
Public fantasies indeed.
Gutfeld on Trump getting rid of critical race theory (Fox 09/07/2020)
•
The Trump White House just killed "Critical Race Theory" (CRT) training in federal agencies – that's the stuff that claims all white people are racists in this inherently racist country.

•
So once again, the big orange meanie does something no one had the guts to do before: eradicate a punitive ideology, that ruins businesses and lives — and it's one that you pay for!

•
It's a disease borne from the hateful halls of leftwing academia — Critical Race Theory (CRT) undermines the positive core beliefs of America by redefining the nation as an engine of oppression.

•
This leads to discord in schools, families, and now work. The top attribute of a great employee: positive attitude. CRT replaces that with grievance and envy.

•
And what you're seeing on America's city streets are its results. Starting on campus, then leaking into unconscious bias training at work — culminating in infantile rioters who use this ideology to justify violence.

•
Do you wonder why these clones accost people at restaurants? They've been brainwashed to think you're "unconsciously racist" and they're going to wake you up.

•
"Unconsciously racist" means even when you say you aren't racist, the response is, "Well, you just aren't conscious of it."

•
That's a cult.

•
But those who demand such indoctrination operate on their own unconscious racism: they assume all white people are one way — possessing white privilege.

•
That's conscious racism. And Trump is right to expel this toxin from the workplace.

•
Let's hope this bravery spreads.

•
The survival of our country depends on it.
Jeff Rhodes: On Labor Day, it's workers we honor, not the unions that exploit them (Fox 09/07/2020)
The New York Times Times is plunging head first into new depths of partisanship and deceit (Fox 09/07/2020)
•
In the 1930s, the paper cozied up to Josef Stalin and ignored the famine in Ukraine, then downplayed the Holocaust and later supported the rise of Fidel Castro while hiding his commitment to communism.

•
Using distortions and duplicity to influence a presidential election deserves to be included in that roster of infamy.

•
At some point, perhaps next January, Trump will leave the White House.

•
But what then of the Times and the many news outlets that followed it into the gutter?

•
They have destroyed the foundations of fairness and nonpartisanship that gave American journalism its credibility, so why should anyone ever trust them again?

•
How debased they have become was obvious at a Biden press conference Friday. Except for once earlier in the week, the Democrat has refused to take questions, a fact that would normally lead reporters to grill him about policies, the campaign and his health.

•
Instead, they fed him a diet of loaded invitations to attack Trump.

•
And so it went, as the ostensible cream of the journalism crop took turns embarrassing themselves. If there is any competition among them, it's to see who hates Trump most.

•
Government institutions that corrupted themselves in a bid to dethrone Trump, such as the FBI, the Justice Department and the State Department, are at least trying to restore their agencies' professionalism and regain public trust.

•
Not the media. Tragically, most have actually gotten worse. Now they don't even pretend to be fair and impartial.

•
See related Unmasking (Glenn McCoy, 04/04/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Dinesh D'Souza says recent riots and political unrest could lead to 'rise of citizen militias...' (Fox 09/06/2020)
•
"The problem is that you respond [to rioting] through the lawful authorities, which is through the police; if things escalate beyond a certain point then you call in federal assistance. If things escalate beyond that point you call in the military."

•
"Local governments and state governors are calling down the cops and licensing their own private gangs. If the cops won't protect us, then you're going to see the rise of citizen militias around the country."

•
"I'm not advocating this. I'm predicting it. It is a natural and inevitable response to the militarization of one side."

•
... claimed the escalation of division by the Democratic party has set off a chain reaction, which has caused cities to break down and inspired hardworking taxpayers to start new lives in more rural areas of the country.

•
"There's a great line from the movie Breaker Morant, 'When one side violates the rules of engagement you would expect the same type of conduct from the other,'"

•
"This has to be stopped, otherwise you're going to see things just deteriorate. Cities will become uninhabitable. The cities are the center of western civilization. You have commerce and you have culture. The Democrats are making it such that it's difficult to have either one. That means technology, commerce, and culture will decamp and move out of the city, which means they'll become like ghost towns."

•
"It's not that you have some Catholic churches that are pro-life and other Catholic churches that are pro-choice. The Catholic Church institutionally is pro-life and it's pro-life based on the basic principle that life is a gift from God.. The pro-life comes out of a core doctrine of the faith which is that God made us and God cares about us and that our rights that come from God are inalienable. We couldn't give them up even if we wanted to."

•
"The left is looking to create a coalition of minority victims that equals 51 percent so they can loot and oppress the other 49 percent. Our model is, one way or the other stop them from doing that... We will be essentially undoing 200 years of development of Western civilization. And commerce and culture will have to go elsewhere."

•
"If the Democrats want to try the approach that's called 'license the criminal gangs and start setting fires to businesses' that's their model."

•
"Our model is peace and prosperity and commerce and civility — then let people choose if they want to live in burned-out Milwaukee or burned out Portland, or if they'd much rather live in a nice Republican suburb where it's really nice and there's good stuff to be found in stores."

•
"This is why the Democrat party relies on force. Ultimately, they can only win if they can force us to live their way. Now, I don't think we're going to. We are no more going to submit to them and change our ways then perhaps they are going to submit to us. This raises the deeper question of how do we find a way going forward... We don't want the America they want and they don't want the America we want. The real question is, how do we coexist with each other. That's the real question of the future."

•
"I think that the Democratic plan is [to swap out] Biden after the election. They don't want Biden to keel over before the election. The reason they picked him is they think they needed a white male to camouflage the racial radicalness of their party. It's not like some chaotic process produced these horrible candidates. They chose him."

•
"Biden's not a natural Antifa type, but he is desperately trying to accommodate these people of whom he has no understanding whatsoever. They're aliens to him."
Republicans should campaign hard for votes of immigrants like me who are US citizens (Fox 09/06/2020)
•
It was inspiring to hear former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley's powerful speech describing her parents' journey from India to South Carolina, and Maximo Alvarez's family history of escaping from communism in Cuba.

•
They make me reflect on my own journey from Somalia via the Netherlands to the United States, where I have found liberty and opportunity.

•
For those of us who chose to come here, America really is exceptional. Indeed, sometimes it feels as if we newcomers value America more than some of those who were born and raised here.

•
We've seen poverty, violence and hopelessness much worse than anything here. We've lived under regimes that sought to strip us of our freedoms and promoted tribalism among our communities.

•
The combination of the rhetoric that Democrats put on display at their convention last month, along with their disconcertingly radical policy agenda, is — to put it mildly — off-putting.

•
It is unlikely that anyone who has experienced real oppression, or who has witnessed real ethnic conflict, would voluntarily decide to uproot his or her life to move to a country characterized by "systemic racism."

•
Yet at the Democratic National Convention, speakers consistently berated America and its existing institutions.

•
Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris, whose parents were immigrants, explained that the problems we are facing in America today are "the effect of structural racism."

•
Presidential nominee and former vice president Joe Biden melodramatically asked: "Will we be the generation that finally wipes the stain of racism from our national character?"

•
Even after the Democratic Convention, former first lady Michelle Obama lamented on her podcast about times in her past when she was ignored by White people.

•
"What White folks don't understand. it's like that is so telling of how White America views people who are not like them. You know, we don't exist. And when we do exist, we exist as a threat. And that, that's exhausting."

•
It is jarring for a recent immigrant to listen to this kind of thing from a Black woman who was first lady for eight years and is perhaps the most popular American woman alive. Her Black husband was elected president, after all — twice.

•
And Kamala Harris was elected as California's attorney general and then to the U.S. Senate before Biden chose her as his running mate.

•
American racism certainly doesn't look very systemic to me, compared with all the other countries in the world where careers like Barack Obama's and Kamala Harris' would simply be impossible.

•
Americans today are being offered two very different versions for their future. The version that the Democrats offer looks more and more unappealing. It's a future of even bigger government, even more regulation, higher taxes, and a national version of progressive campus politics — in short, California writ large.

•
This is not the future that most immigrants want. Immigrants come to America and become citizens looking for political freedom, economic opportunity and secure property rights.

•
It is not that immigrants have come here looking for Utopia. They know America isn't perfect.

•
They are simply looking to work hard and to care for their families under a constitutional system designed above all — more than any other in the world — to guarantee freedom to the individual under the rule of law.

•
Those of us who have come here love this country and the idea of freedom. We've chased it from all corners of the globe.

•
I am not the only one who would never trade my life in America and go back to the countries of Somalia, Kenya and Saudi Arabia where I grew up.

•
Whether you fled communism in Venezuela, civil war in Somalia, the Chinese Communist Party, or the caste system in India, you came to America for freedom and opportunity.
Blood in the Streets (JWR 09/04/2020)
The Dems Hold the Nation Hostage (JWR 09/04/2020)
•
The stakes this November are very, very high. The election is a referendum on many things.

•
It is a referendum on whether America is a systemically racist and irredeemably flawed nation.

•
It is a referendum on the goodness and justness of the American idea.

•
And now we can add one more to the mix: It is a referendum on whether American voters are as offensively stupid as Democrats seem to believe they are.
In defense of looting (JWR 09/04/2020)
•
Vicky Osterweil, the author of "In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action," is getting her 15 minutes of fame thanks to a segment on NPR in which she said some really mind-bogglingly dumb, indefensibly evil and fascinatingly reactionary things.

•
Looting — mobs grabbing stuff that doesn't belong to them — is an ancient practice dating back hundreds of thousands of years, before we even had the concept of dates.

•
Pillaging, ransacking, theft — call it what you like — is how tribes acquired stuff before the invention of trade.

•
... Osterweil thinks she's making some powerful neo-Marxist argument on the bleeding edge of theory, but what she's discovered is tribal barbarism and put a fresh coat of paint on it.

•
She is fluent in all the latest buzzwords and campus jargon. The "so-called" United States of America, she writes in her book, was founded in "cisheteropatriarchal racial capitalist" violence.

•
Destroying businesses is an "experience of pleasure, joy and freedom," she writes. Osterweil also insists it's a form of "queer birth," and that "riots are violent, extreme and femme as f***." Looting isn't wrong, she claims, but rather a form of "proletarian shopping."

•
"Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police," Osterweil explained on NPR.

•
"The very basis of property in the U.S. is derived through whiteness and through Black oppression, through the history of slavery and settler domination of the country."

•
What Osterweil is really describing is revenge based on collective guilt. A Viking or Gaul from the past would instantly recognize it.

•
So would countless non-white barbarians of yore, because that's what humans used to believe. "Your ancestors did something to my ancestors and so you have this coming."

•
... there is one place where she's right. Rioting and looting are fun, which is why young people do it from time to time. Mobs are thrilling, which is why they're so dangerous and evil.

•
(Presumably rapists and murderers feel "joy" too, that doesn't make them good; it illuminates their evilness.) That's why civilized societies try to prevent them.

•
Barbarians come up with clever word salads to defend them.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Nonsense (JWR 09/03/2020)
•
My question to you is: Would a basketball team be improved if coaches were required to include ethnically diverse players for the sake of equity?

•
I have no idea of what your answer might be but mine would be: "The hell with diversity, equity and inclusion. I am going to recruit the best players and do not care if most of them turn out to be black players."

•
Another question: Do you think that any diversity-crazed college president would chastise his basketball coach for lack of diversity and inclusiveness?

•
What explains the fact that over 80% of professional basketball players are black, as are about 70% of professional football players?

•
Only an idiot would chalk it up to diversity and inclusion.

•
Instead, it is excellence that explains the disproportionate numbers.

•
Jewish Americans, who are just 3% of our population, win over 35% of the Nobel prizes in science that are awarded to Americans.

•
Again, it is excellence that explains the disproportionality, not diversity and inclusion.

•
As my stepfather often told me, "To do well in this world, you have to come early and stay late."
Biden is a prisoner of his own paradoxes (JWR 09/03/2020)
Deroy Murdock: Biden's upside down Trump, violence theory –yes, it's all the president's fault (Fox 09/03/2020)
•
"He doesn't want to shed light. He wants to generate heat, and he's stroking [sic] violence in our cities," Biden claimed. "He's got no problem with Right-wing militia [sic], and white supremacists."

•
So, I guess it must be white supremacists who have been shouting, "Black lives matter!" and decrying "white privilege" in all four time zones. Who knew?

•
In Biden's warped view, nothing says leadership like the president ordering Right-wing ambushes against his own conservative backers. What will Trump think of next?

•
President Trump faces this unfair dynamic: If he inserts law-enforcement personnel without local permission, then he is a fascist dictator.

•
When Democrats such as Walz and Evers accept his aid, Trump gets no credit when things cool down.

•
And when Democrat mayors and governors rebuff his assistance, then the left faults Trump for the ceaseless pandemonium "on his watch."

•
"That's like the arsonist blaming the firefighter."
Tim Graham: Trump and liberal media's common 'without evidence' claims (Fox 09/03/2020)
•
One of the common tropes we see in everyday news coverage is the claim that something said by President Donald Trump or his supporters is "without evidence."

•
... NPR tweeted this to 8.3 million followers: "President Trump declined to condemn the actions of the suspected 17-year-old shooter of 3 protesters against police brutality in Kenosha — claiming, without evidence, that it appeared the gunman was acting in self-defense."

•
Video evidence clearly shows a man holding a handgun approach the 17-year-old, Kyle Rittenhouse, while he is on his back, and Rittenhouse shoot him in the arm.

•
The words "without evidence" are routinely applied to Trump's statements about mail-in voting. ... NBC's Hallie Jackson said, "On Saturday, the president, without evidence, claimed mail-in voting to be, quote, 'catastrophic.'"

•
... NBC's Peter Alexander lectured saying, "The president, without evidence, keeps escalating his attacks on universal mail-in voting and defending recent policy changes at the Postal Service that critics warn could delay the delivery of ballots."

•
But NBC is blatantly avoiding evidence from its own base in New York City. The city took six weeks to count a record 400,000 absentee ballots cast in the June 23 primary and didn't certify liberal Rep. Carolyn Maloney as the winner until Aug. 6.

•
It would certainly feel "catastrophic" to Trump-hating reporters if Trump were to win a state with mail-in ballots by a narrow margin. They would complain if it took weeks to count the ballots and if some ballots were never counted. No one believes they wouldn't eagerly promote challenges to the integrity of the election. See 2016.

•
... it's sadly routine for liberal media outlets to make outlandish claims about Trump.

•
The Washington Post editorial board recently published a hyperpartisan editorial claiming Trump "has done as much as any global actor to advance the cause of authoritarianism and undermine the free world. Mr. Trump's most conspicuous aid to tyranny has been his relentless support for Russian President Vladimir Putin."

•
There is overwhelming evidence that Trump's policy toward Putin has been tougher than the Obama-Biden "reset button" approach.

•
Trump provided lethal aid to Ukraine; Obama didn't.

•
But no one should expect the Biden-loving press to ever report that "Biden stated without evidence Trump weakened American policy toward Russia."

•
See related He's Crazy! (Glenn McCoy, 05/16/2017) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Mike Huckabee: Judge Trump and Biden by their actions on law and order — not their words (Fox 09/03/2020)
•
Any high-profile politician worth his or her salt is capable and well-versed in the art of selling a utopian vision to the voting public.

•
Meaningless platitudes and vague promises of a better future are hallmarks of American politics, and that has contributed to immense distrust of the political elite in Washington, especially in recent years.

•
That cynical impression is reinforced by the fact that very few elected officials actually follow through on their grandiose promises. In fact, they far too often end up doing exactly the opposite of what they said they would do.

•
For the past four months, Democrats and the liberal media have fully embraced and energetically promoted the radical Black Lives Matter organization, refusing to condemn the violent riots that have plagued many of America's largest cities.

•
Determined to protect the most visible activists from scrutiny, left-leaning media outlets have absurdly described the widespread rioting and looting as "mostly peaceful" protests.

•
However, recent polls showing the rioting is unpopular have managed to pressure the Democrats to change their tune.

•
They now want the American public to believe they will keep our communities safe from lawlessness if we hand them the White House this November.

•
Let's be clear about something important: If the Democrats truly want to repudiate their anti-American alliance with the far left, I would be the first to praise their newfound patriotism.

•
... the Democrats' last-minute pivot on law and order is merely intended to change optics and poll results, not deliver results.

•
Not a single Democratic politician has offered tangible solutions to the ongoing wave of violence in Democratic-run cities, or even urged state and local officials to accept assistance from the federal government.

•
Luckily, President Trump is a proven leader who does whatever it takes to keep his promises — and his stance on law and order is no different.

•
"If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," the commander in chief said in June, just days after the first eruptions of violence in cities across the country.

•
... he continued to implore local authorities to take control of their streets, and has repeatedly deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement assets to restore order.

•
President Trump did more than just condemn the rioters and offer condolences to the victims — he took decisive action to put an end to the orgy of destruction.

•
"My administration coordinated with the state and local authorities, to very, very swiftly deploy the National Guard ... to Kenosha and stop the violence."

•
Meanwhile, neither Biden nor his running mate — Sen.

•
Kamala Harris, D-Calif. – have disavowed the members of his campaign staff who donated to a fund created to bail out rioters arrested in Minneapolis at the start of this summer's unrest.

•
Actions speak louder than words — and Biden's feeble and fearful condemnation of leftist violence is no substitute for offering real solutions to restore the rule of law in our neighborhoods.
Court wrong to block Justice Department from dropping charges against Michael Flynn (Fox 09/03/2020)
Judge Andrew Napolitano: Has Trump incited violence? (Fox 09/03/2020)
Michael Goodwin: Poor Biden, looks like he's got a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (Fox 09/01/2020)
•
Joe Biden had a good thing going. In a rare adventure outside his basement, he was giving a speech in Pittsburgh that contained some fine passages about national unity mixed with blistering attacks on the president.

•
Most important, he had — finally — crossed the Rubicon in condemning the crime and violence plaguing the nation's urban areas.

•
"Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting," he declared. "It's lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted."

•
So had Biden stopped with his condemnation, it would have been progress enough for one day. He had left the basement and done what he had to do.

•
To combat Trump's claim that electing Biden would give free reign to lawlessness — a claim that has been resonating among swing-state voters — the Democrat tried to turn the tables and pin all the blame on the president, saying:

•
"He can't stop the violence because for years he's fomented it." And "he's not been part of the solution thus far. He's part of the problem."

•
"Murder is up 26 percent this year under Donald Trump," Biden said...

•
The problem with the witches' brew he concocted is that the ingredients don't go together.

•
The most obvious contradiction is that virtually all these cities engulfed in destabilizing turmoil are in blue states and are run by Democratic mayors.

•
Trump has offered to send in federal help and the mayors have generally said no.

•
Similarly, Democratic mayors preside over the cities at the heart of the racial fires involving allegations of police misconduct. If there are bad cops on their forces, why didn't the mayors supporting Biden remove them?

•
That's just one of the logical problems with the argument, but Biden is not appealing to logic, only to the erogenous zones of anti-Trumpers.

•
Nothing turns them on like another excuse to justify their hate for the president and now they have one.

•
It presumably is meant as a replacement for the excuse from last week, when the media Praetorian Guard declared that the murder surge Biden now finds troubling really isn't that big of deal.

•
... pray tell, is Trump responsible for riots that were started and continue with the goal of ending his presidency?

•
Recall that the FBI was so determined to paint him as a Russian agent that it corrupted itself in the process.

•
The New York Times and other lefty outlets were willing to forfeit their public trust and trash standards in an effort to thwart him.

•
Congressional Democrats gave up being a governing partner to join the resistance and many federal judges ignored their oaths to become partisan players.

•
Apparently the rioters, arsonists and common criminals were all good little boys and girls in the pre-Trump era and their assault against America just demonstrates that they, too, are casualties of the president's toxic being.

•
The idea is so fatuous, so idiotic that it only adds to the concerns about Biden's well-being.

•
On top of all his other health maladies, he, too, seems to be suffering from a serious bout of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

•
Even a mask can't help him with that.

•
See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Sen. Rick Scott: Biden vs. Trump and false narrative of an America cloaked in darkness (Fox 08/31/2020)
•
Biden said our president "has cloaked America in darkness," and vowed to "end this chapter of American darkness," and "overcome this season of darkness."

•
And of course, former President Barack Obama eagerly played his part, pledging faith in "Joe and Kamala's ability to lead this country out of these dark times."

•
Many others, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and failed presidential candidates ... dutifully read their TelePrompter lines about these "very dark days" with America in a "deep dark hole."

•
Our esteemed Speaker of the House later went so far as to say that Republicans are "enemies of the state."

•
Politics is indeed a contact sport but this is another level.

•
What if our country turned the keys over to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and turned away from capitalism in favor of socialism?

•
Well, the data is already in on that. The result would be the same as it has been throughout history – socialism would destroy our economy and cause widespread poverty and oppression. Darkness.

•
What if our country just gave up on the battle to protect innocent human life and agreed with the political party that proudly embraces the killing of the unborn, at any time, for any reason? What if America celebrated this "right" to kill? Darkness.

•
What if we decided to change our First Amendment, editing out our freedom of speech and freedom of religion and embracing the woke mob's march toward cancel culture? Forcing Christians and Jews to retreat from the public square, and silencing any who dare to speak up? Darkness.

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What if America did what every authoritarian government in history has done and must eventually do – disarm the populace? Darkness.

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What if we defunded our police forces across the country, even just partially? What would happen to public safety? How would life in our cities be affected? Turn on your TV for the answer. Darkness.

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What if we allowed people to throw homemade bombs at police and burn down police stations, and then pretended that these violent demonstrations are peaceful? Darkness.

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What if we enacted the Green New Deal? Literal darkness.

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What if we decided to have our government pay people more to not work than they would make if they worked? What if we embraced a policy that undermines and disincentivizes work? Darkness.

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What if we let China, a communist country that systematically imprisons and murders its own citizens, take advantage of American workers and put them out of work? Darkness.

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What if we teach our kids that America is a bad country with an evil history that must be erased and that America is fundamentally a racist country? Darkness.

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For anyone seeking more information about the Democratic Party's agenda, just listen to the looters and arsonists and rioters in the streets of major cities across the country.

•
They represent the future of that once-proud political party.

•
See related Democrat Knee (Sean Delonas, 05/31/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Sen. Tom Cotton: Kenosha, Minneapolis carnage will spread until politicians restore order, deter... (Fox 08/31/2020)
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A return to normalcy won't come through weakness and passivity, but only by a decisive and overwhelming show of force that convinces these anarchists they can't blackmail and burn America into submission.

•
The chaos and destruction spread to different towns like a wildfire.

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Americans watched in horror this summer as armed anarchists took over entire city blocks in Seattle, violent mobs besieged government buildings in Portland, and looters in Chicago forced the mayor to cut off access to downtown to prevent further destruction.

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This season of chaos and lawlessness has contributed to a double-digit spike in the murder rate in the nation's largest cities.

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Months into this crisis, the lesson to any responsible leader is clear: take action quickly to maintain order, otherwise anarchists and insurrections will be emboldened to destroy your city and move on to the next one.

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Last week, Kenosha and Minneapolis were the unlucky cities. Next week, it could be your home town.
Rep. Greg Steube: 'Universal' mail-in voting dangerous – here's why Dem plans so reckless (Fox 08/30/2020)
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... the Democrats' latest political play is a fabricated conspiracy theory that Republicans are using the U.S. Postal Service's operational changes to disenfranchise the American people.

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Not only is this narrative not based in fact, but it is also a threat to the security of our elections.

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The fact is that any changes to the USPS have nothing to do with universal mail-in voting. These changes began before President Trump even took office.

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More importantly, the changes did not begin with any goal of slowing down our federal elections – they began because the operational failures were costing American taxpayers billions in losses per year.

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However, regardless of the timeline for USPS changes, the mail-in voting issue is separate and should be treated as such.

•
To understand the true threats to our elections, it is important to start with the distinction between universal mail-in voting and absentee voting.

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Though the Democrats prefer to ignore the difference, universal mail-in voting is when the state sends a mail-in ballot to every single registered voter, regardless if one has been requested or if the person is even a citizen or otherwise legally able to vote.

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For traditional absentee ballots, a registered voter must request a ballot and their identity must be authenticated.

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Universal mail-in voting would be disastrous for our country, as there is no way of knowing who is actually voting.

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As we have seen in states with newly implemented universal mail-in voting, this practice is ripe for fraud and crippling logistical errors.

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While blue states across the country continue to promote this mail-in scheme with zero safeguards against fraud, protections must be put in place to ensure the person voting is legitimate.

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We need to have faith in the accuracy of the results with verified voter ID and mailing deadlines adequate to accomplish security and completion for results on Nov. 3.

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Now, as we approach one of the most consequential elections in our nation's history, it is dishonest and irresponsible for the Democrats to even suggest that states can set up a "universal" mail-in system with so little time and zero safeguards.

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The United States is the democracy it is because of the faith we have in the legitimacy of our elections.

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Implementing such radical changes to our electoral system this close to an election is reckless and should be very transparent to the American electorate.
David Limbaugh: Democrats own these riots – blaming Trump won't work (Fox 08/29/2020)
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Democrats can try but won't succeed at distancing themselves from the violence they have enabled on American streets. People surely know where the Democrats have stood on this...

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To blame this violence on Trump because he's in office is like blaming him for the border wall not being erected fast enough.

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It's like blaming him for the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus when, in fact, he has persistently tried, over strenuous Democratic obstruction, to sensibly and safely reopen our economy.

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It would be like blaming him for abortions because they have persisted during his first term despite his valiant efforts for the innocent unborn.

•
Democratic CNN has called the Kenosha riots "fiery but mostly peaceful," and the Democratic Virginia Senate just passed a bill allowing assaults on police officers to be mere misdemeanors, for crying out loud.

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Then, something happened. No, Democrats didn't all of a sudden become outraged at the criminal assaults and property destruction against people whose only sin was to own businesses in a convenient location for Marxist arsonists and opportunistic looters.

•
One of Biden's handlers must have seen the polling data, too, though, for after months of silence on the matter, Biden finally faintheartedly denounced the chaos, saying: "Needless violence won't heal us. We need to end the violence now – and peacefully come together to demand justice."

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Well, Mr. Biden, why haven't you urged Democratic governors to take charge of this madness? Why haven't you encouraged them to accept President Trump's offers of federal assistance? And just what do you mean that we ought to all come together to demand justice? You know that Trump condemned the George Floyd killing within hours of its occurrence, yet some of your Democratic friends are acting like he kneeled on Floyd's neck himself.

•
... the entire Democratic Party apparatus, now that it has strategically decided it better shift gears and publicly oppose the violence, is poised to blame the anarchy on Trump, not just because it is happening during his presidency but also because Democrats claim he is an evil racist who engenders an atmosphere of racism in the country.

•
Democrats own these riots. They own this endless leftist drumbeat of hatred toward America and everything it stands for.

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They can now pretend to oppose the violence until they are as blue in the face as the uniforms of the cops they demonize, but it's too late.

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They chose the wrong time to side with criminals torching our cities – a time when Americans are feeling particularly unsafe and insecure.

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No one is going to believe they didn't know exactly what they were doing, and few will buy that they've had a genuine change of heart.

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See related Democrat Knee (Sean Delonas, 05/31/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Deroy Murdock: Trump and racism – Republican Convention's answer to this big lie (Fox 08/28/2020)
Cal Thomas: Republican Convention outreach – party disproving these smears by the left (Fox 08/28/2020)
Streetfighter Trump hits Biden with flurry of solid punches at Republican Convention (Fox 08/28/2020)
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"This election will decide whether we save the American Dream, or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny."

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"How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?"

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After saying Biden had buckled to the demands of the socialists in his party, Trump asked: "If he can't stand up to them, how is he going to stand up for you?"

•
Many of the lines echoed Ronald Reagan, and the two men share key traits, perhaps the most important being a willingness to take on Washington from the inside without ever losing their outsider's perspective.

•
... he detailed numerous examples of where he believed he was fighting the entire establishment to get things done for the American people, including standing up against China's theft of jobs and intellectual property and stopping illegal immigration. In his mind, he is often a lonely warrior.

•
On the merits, it was an effective argument on every front, from the economy to foreign policy to law and order. The routine was for Trump to cite his own first-term accomplishments as more than Biden had done in his 47 years in Washington.

•
... while the speech on the White House lawn had a rally feel about it, the attacks on Biden were substantive and policy-based.

•
The riots, looting and crime surges in the nation's cities have become a political flashpoint.

•
One reason is that nearly all the cities are run by Democratic mayors. Another is that Biden and the party didn't say a single word about the destruction at their convention, instead embracing Black Lives Matter and treating the protesters as new-age heroes.

•
Trump and the GOP have been jumping on the error ever since, and it became a major focus of the convention.

•
The spreading violence is scaring Americans everywhere, with the situation in Kenosha, Wis., perhaps more frightening than what's been happening in Portland, Seattle and elsewhere.

•
Kenosha is a city of only 100,000 people, and the violence there is all the more shocking than what is happening in much larger cities.

•
In effect, Kenosha is something of an Everytown, and the riots, arson and murder could cause more people to identify with it and wonder if their town is next.

•
In effect, the Trump team is asking: Who would you rather have on your side in a street fight — a tough puncher like Trump, or a guy like a Biden who feels the opponent's pain?
Liz Peek: Trump makes riveting case for reelection, shows America what it is in for if Biden wins (Fox 08/28/2020)
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Not only did Republicans swat down Democratic Party talking points during their convention, but they also put on a much, much better show.

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... Republicans made a convincing case that voters have a very clear choice in November. They can reelect Donald Trump and vote for policies that will protect and benefit all Americans, or they can elect Joe Biden to sacrifice our freedoms, fatten the federal government and squander the gains of the past three years.

•
Democrats spent their convention denouncing America as a hotbed of "systemic racism" and profound inequality.

•
Republicans celebrated the United States as a land of immense opportunity, a nation of promise to all who were willing to work hard and obey our laws.

•
While Democrats praised Biden as a good guy whose personal tragedies had given him enormous empathy, they all but ignored both his policies and achievements.

•
By contrast, Republicans reviewed Trump's many accomplishments of the past three-plus years; the list includes bringing home hostages held overseas, revamping our trade deals to better serve American workers, rebuilding our depleted military, staunching the flow of people illegally crossing our southern border, broadening school choice, standing up to China, creating 7 million new jobs, rolling back cumbersome and costly regulations, installing three hundred conservative judges to the federal bench, battling human trafficking, reducing prescription drug prices, getting NATO nations to up their defense spending and cutting taxes for working-class families and so much more.

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Trump made a compelling case for his reelection, emphasizing his promise to restore order to our cities, keep America safe, stand up for our cops, and rebuild our economy.

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He forcefully condemned Biden's far-left platform, warning that his promised $4 trillion tax hike would stifle our nation's growth and that his Socialist agenda would crimp America's freedoms.

•
As Ivanka Trump said as she introduced her father, "Washington has not changed Donald Trump; Donald Trump has changed Washington."

•
For many Americans, that is his greatest selling point.
Two Visions of America (JWR 08/27/2020)
•
We're told by Democrats that the United States is an irredeemably racist country, and that "systemic racism" keeps Blacks and other Americans of color from achieving what they otherwise could.

•
But Democrats don't explain Americans like Oprah Winfrey, former President Barack Obama, Sen. Kamala Harris, Colin Kaepernick, Kobe Bryant, Rep. Maxine Waters, LeBron James, Sydney Poitier and countless other Black activists, actors, athletes, teachers, firefighters, politicians, police officers and business owners who have, despite facing discrimination, uphill battles and more difficult odds, achieved incredible success.

•
Either the "system" that was allegedly set up to keep those individuals from succeeding does a remarkably lousy job of it or there's more to the story.

•
We're told that it's Democrats who truly care for women, minorities, immigrants and children, but it's the left that insults first lady Melania Trump for her status as an immigrant and her accent.

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It's the left that calls Black and Hispanic conservatives the worst racial slurs.

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It's the left that mocks and pooh-poohs the accounts of immigrants like Maximo Alvarez who escaped communist Cuba.

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And it was the left that misjudged pro-life teenager Nick Sandmann, called him a racist with a "punchable face" and sicced the social media mobs on him.

•
We're told that President Donald Trump and Republicans are fascists, but it's Democratic governors, mayors and prosecutors who have shut down small businesses; who have sent coronavirus patients to be housed among the most vulnerable populations in nursing homes and long-term care facilities; who have released convicted felons from prison but ordered the arrest of religious observers, moms at parks and surfers; and who have allowed rioters and looters to escape scot-free but charged homeowners for defending their home.

•
We're told that Republicans and conservatives are racists, but it's progressive whites who are screaming racial epithets at minority police and other first responders.

•
We're told that it's Democrats who can best lead our cities. But Democratic-led cities like New York, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Atlanta and even tiny Kenosha, Wisconsin, have seen unprecedented rioting, looting, arson, destruction, vandalism, theft and physical violence — including murder — at the hands of criminal mobs of rioters, while the state and local political "leadership" does virtually nothing.

•
Democratic mayors tell the police to stand down. Democratic governors hesitate to call in the National Guard to protect people and property. And Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden barely addresses the violence.

•
The riots and destruction that Democratic political leaders have allowed to explode and spread in cities across the country make clear that a lot of people in America don't matter.

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Homeowners don't matter, as they can be screamed at and threatened all hours of the day and night.

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Business owners — even and especially minority business owners in the cities ravaged by riots — don't matter, as their buildings and property are destroyed with impunity.

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Law-abiding and peace-loving citizens don't matter, as riotous mobs are permitted to burn, vandalize and destroy property; assault people; and even kill people.

•
Law enforcement doesn't matter, as Democratic activists and politicians call for defunding and even abolishing the police.

•
Meanwhile, what do we see at the Republican convention?

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Minorities such as Sen. Tim Scott and football great Herschel Walker, women such as former U.S. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov.

•
Nikki Haley, and immigrants such as Maximo Alvarez speaking up for the unparalleled opportunities that the United States offers because of liberty and individual rights, notwithstanding our failings.

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Alvarez, who escaped communist Cuba, warns us about going down the primrose path to collectivism. Activists like Abby Johnson speaks up for the lives of unborn children.

•
Republicans are pitching optimism, opportunity and the limitless possibilities of the individual in America, regardless of background, religion, race, ethnicity or the obstacles that have existed and continue to exist.

•
Democrats are pitching anger, hatred, victimhood, resentment, class and racial warfare, and self-loathing. If there is any hope, it lies solely in the hands of an ever-larger government — led, it must be noted, by the same people who have presided over the devastation and catastrophic failures noted above.

•
This is what the Democratic National Committee expects Americans to support? This is what it thinks people — regardless of party affiliation — want more of?

•
... at this juncture, it's hard to see how a majority of the American electorate is going to vote for what the Democrats are selling as their vision of America.

•
In truth, it's not even a "vision." It's more like a nightmarish hallucination. Except that it's all too real.
Victor Davis Hanson: Violent rioters and anarchists – here's what they want (Fox 08/27/2020)
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It is hard to tell what the current revolutionary violence in our major cities is all about.

•
So far, hundreds of police have been injured, dozens of people have been killed, and we have seen billions of dollars in property and collateral damage.

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Ostensibly, many of the summer demonstrations were in protest over the gruesome detention and death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.

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Yet three months later, few of those trying to burn down a Portland police precinct – with police barricaded inside – or looting the high-end boutiques of Chicago's Magnificent Mile, or indiscriminately beating up innocent pedestrians, appear to be driven by Floyd's death.

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Many simply wanted to vent their rage at the world and almost everything in it.

•
The media romanticized the "summer of love" unrest and downplayed the violence.

•
Many in the street seemed as interested in taking selfies as they were in smashing windows.

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Some cite furor directed at President Trump, the tensions of an election year and the weaponization of almost every current issue by both political parties.

•
Still others claim the violence is mostly careerist-driven. Demands are made to fire ideological enemies and hire partisan friends.

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If the old guard is banished, then their lucrative billets can be snapped up by a new woke generation. Demagogues see political careers birthed with the bullhorn.

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None of these explanations are mutually exclusive. But all reflect confusion over why often senseless vandalism has been directed at statues of Ulysses S. Grant and Frederick Douglass, and at the World War II Memorial.

•
Why do liberal authors and artists fear there is a new McCarthyite cancel culture that threatens to take out even progressive sympathizers?

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Why do city governments defund police departments at the very moment vulnerable residents are most fearful for their safety?

•
Note that there are rarely demands from antifa for new statues, given that the protesters' own heroes are often more flawed than the historical figures whose statues they deface and destroy.

•
What, then, is going on?

•
As with most cultural revolutions that wish to start things over at "year zero," the violence is aimed at America's past in order to change its present and future.

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The targets are not just the old majority culture but also classical statues and buildings, hallowed institutions, religious icons, the renowned names of streets and plazas, and almost every representation of tradition and authority.

•
For the majority of Americans who do not buy into the revolution, it all seems so surreal – and hypocritical.

•
Only a despised, dynamic American economy allows millions to divorce from it for a summer of protest.

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A ridiculed U.S. Constitution ensures that looters and arsonists have due process.

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The Bill of Rights guarantees peaceful assembly and electrically amplified profanity rarely protected elsewhere.

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Affirmative action; federally insured and subsidized college grants and loans; and cheap smartphones, headphones and laptops all give youth choices unimagined in the past.

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No matter – cultural revolutions are incoherent and nihilist.

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Those who signed up for the Jacobin Reign of Terror wanted violence, not a constitutional republic to replace the French monarchy.

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The Bolsheviks were less interested in substituting an elected prime minister for the Russian czar than in grabbling power and murdering millions of their enemies.

•
Mao Zedong did not just hate the warlords, landlords, Mandarins and Nationalists.

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He wished to reinvent 1 billion Chinese in his own narcissistic image by first killing millions.

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There is, of course, reason to oversee the police more effectively.

•
Universities are partly culpable for a collective $1.4 trillion in student loan debt.

•
Globalization eroded the middle class.

•
Inner-city America is far too violent – and far too neglected.

•
But these are not the apparent concerns of those who carry off shoes and phones in U-Hauls, kick the unconscious on the pavement, destroy art and sculpture, or seek to torch public buildings with public servants inside.

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The point of the mob is to wipe out what it cannot create.

•
It topples what it can neither match nor even comprehend.

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It would erode the very system that ensures it singular freedom, leisure and historic affluence.

•
The brand of the anarchist is not logic but envy-driven power: to take it, to keep it and to use it against purported enemies – which would otherwise be impossible in times of calm or through the ballot box.

•
See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Rep. Jeff Van Drew: Why I left Democratic Party – and how GOP keeping US strong, prosperous (Fox 08/27/2020)
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America was founded by statesmen who were guided by strong moral and political principles. These principles have allowed this nation to flourish and continually improve itself.

•
Often this has been a painful process, one that has been frequently stained by the blood and tears of the generations that have preceded us.

•
Today, these fundamental principles are being attacked by zealous partisans who want to attack the moral and political foundations of our society and start completely anew.

•
... the Democrat Party has changed. It is no longer the party that my grandparents and I grew up admiring.

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It is not the party that once allowed for and encouraged free thought and robust debate.

•
Now, it is a mob that drives policy decisions with the goal of starting over with a new system of governance.

•
The picture of Republicans that is painted by Democrats and their allies in the media is mostly false; in fact, many of my former colleagues firmly believe the Republican Party is the sole cause of many societal ills.

•
It is this unjustified logic that allows them to treat their colleagues, their constituents and their fellow citizens with disdain and call them deplorable, or worse.

•
America is under immense pressure to turn its back on the things that have made it exceptional.

•
Make no mistake, many proposals put forth by the House majority in this Congress, while cloaked in the language of good intentions, are not governed by truth and are communistic in nature.

•
Winston Churchill once stated – "...that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried."

•
America is not perfect, but it is better than every alternative.

•
We must continue to provide our society with the opportunities on which our past, present and future generations have and will continue to thrive.

•
We cannot stand by and idly watch; we must be actively involved in the fight for this nation.

•
We must continue to improve ourselves without destroying all the values that have made us great.
Newt Gingrich: Trump's Contract with America – 50 promises from candidate who delivers (Fox 08/27/2020)
James Carafano: Rioting in US cities – 5 reasons why violent radicals feel emboldened (Fox 08/26/2020)
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... there is no sign that the deliberate attacks will end any time soon.

•
Indeed, the looting, threats, arson, assaults, intimidation and extortion seem to be spreading, now reaching into smaller cities and suburbs.

•
Here are five reasons these emboldened and increasingly violent radicals pose a very real threat to safety on our streets and equal protection under the law.

•
No. 5: We are facing a capable enemy

•
The street militias have shifted targets and tactics to sustain pressure on communities and local officials. They have become consistently more belligerent.

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They have developed aggressive legal tactics, allowing them to bail out rioters – even those charged with assaulting police – almost as quickly as they are arrested.

•
They have also developed sophisticated social networking and media strategies that allow them to distribute how-to–riot guidance (such as how to avoid being identified and arrested) as well as spread disinformation and propaganda.

•
Further, it is clear these groups have robust financial and logistical support.

•
These guys are not going to run out of steam like easily bored teenagers or liberal activists who have to go back to their day jobs.

•
Backed with a large war chest, this organized radicalism presents a persistent threat, constantly seeking new ways and new places to the make rest of our lives miserable.

•
No. 4: There is a war on our streets

•
Sustained violent protests attract extremists who crave even more extreme violence.

•
And, as we saw over the weekend in Portland, violent extremists draw counter-extremists, who see the challenge as a green light to press their own radical agenda.

•
No. 3: Local officials have failed us

•
Portland, Seattle, Chicago and other cities where violence has spiraled out of control share one common liability: political leadership that has utterly failed to address public safety.

•
In every case, they have turned a blind eye toward criminal behavior, creating permissive environments that only encourage ever more extreme protests and violence.

•
In every case, they have hamstrung local police and adjured cooperation with state and federal enforcement. This is a recipe for disaster.

•
Organized crime of all kinds thrives when it can exploit weak enforcement and gaps between local, state and federal law enforcement.

•
No. 2: Our media have failed us

•
It is astonishing that the organized violence in American cities has not received wall-to-wall coverage from mainstream media.

•
Equally astonishing is the absence of any substantive investigative reporting into the operations of Antifa, BLM or other organizations creating and condoning chaos in our streets.

•
Apparently unable to distinguish peaceful advocacy for justice from radical agendas intent on achieving change by warring on the American people, the media remain content to pretend that eyewitness accounts and even videos of nightmarish violence are somehow overblown.

•
Too often, the handful of reporters and commentators who have given the issue the attention it deserves are dismissed, ignored or ridiculed.

•
No. 1: Our politicians have failed us

•
The safety of American streets and the sanctity of our homes and businesses ought to be as strongly a bipartisan agenda as the demands for racial equality.

•
They are not. Virtually to a person, one side of the political aisle has ignored this threat, like a fireman at a five-alarm blaze ignoring a fire.

•
We have to stop playing politics with the safety and livelihood of the American people.

•
This won't stop – and, indeed, will get worse – if every day Americans don't start standing up more and saying no more.

•
Find ways to show support for our law enforcement agencies.

•
Start demanding that local and state officials work with the federal government to disrupt and demolish the organized, criminal militias on our streets.

•
And for heaven's sake, stop giving money to groups that funnel that money to those who supply and bail out the people who are tearing up our streets.

•
See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
RNC highlights best of free enterprise, not what's wrong with America (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
The Republican National Convention got off to a strong start on Monday. It did so, not by dwelling on what is wrong in America, but by demonstrating what is possible in a land of free enterprise.

•
The American civilization is unique in history.

•
Never before, and not since, has a nation of its size been born of such fresh ground and cultivated so deliberately by ideals.

•
Over the last 400 years, this New World has invited an unprecedented number of diverse peoples, from around the globe, to its shores to pursue, not the culture or systems of their pasts but, instead, the economic and political fortunes of their individual futures.

•
Only a vibrant and free economy could have assimilated the millions that came throughout the 1800s and into the 1900s. No European state could have assimilated so many people with their comparatively less free and vibrant economies.

•
The choice of the 2020 election is whether to reduce that freedom with a more government-driven economy or one that moves back toward a market-driven approach.

•
That is why Republicans placed the stories of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Cuban-American Maximo Alvarez front and center Monday night.

•
Alvarez warned of the false promises of socialism based on his family's experience under Castro in Cuba.

•
According to Alvarez, speaking about the Democrat big-government promises, "Free education, free health care, defund the police, trust a socialist state more than your family and community. They don't sound radical to my ears. They sound familiar."

•
Alvarez knows those are false promises and prefers his chances in a free society. "In America, I would decide my own future. I'm so grateful to America, the place where I was able to build my American dream through hard work and determination."

•
Scott highlighted his family's journey from "cotton to Congress" in a single lifetime – his grandfather's. He even noted that he got off to a rough start in his studies. Perseverance, however, allowed him to succeed.

•
Haley highlighted the aspirational over the negative with her personal story.

•
She noted that she was "the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. They came to America and settled in a small Southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a Brown girl in a Black-and-White world. We faced discrimination and hardship. But my parents never gave in to grievance and hate. My mom built a successful business. My dad taught 30 years at a historically black college. And the people of South Carolina chose me as their first minority and first female governor."

•
Most importantly, Haley made clear that "America isn't perfect. But the principles we hold dear are perfect."

•
In practical terms, standards of living rise with economic growth or fall with stagnation. Excessive government produces that stagnation, as it has in the European Union, which has produced just over one percent growth over the last 20 years. It is even worse in Cuba.

•
The eight years of the Obama-Biden administration, with their high regulation and high taxation policies, produced the least growth of any modern presidency.

•
Economic stagnation does not produce the rags-to-riches stories that have made America great. Adopting the redux of the Obama-Biden big government policies won't either.
Sen. Tom Cotton: As president, Biden would pander to China – just look at his lifelong record (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
Now that the presidential election is heating up, Joe Biden is suddenly talking tougher on China. But his recent half-hearted statements can't cover up a lifelong, consistent and catastrophic record of support for the Chinese Communist Party.

•
Just last year, not long before the deadly China virus hit our shores, Biden was still on his old message, telling a campaign audience that the Chinese communists "are not competition for us" and "not bad folks."

•
I'm guessing the millions of Americans whose jobs have been lost to China's dishonest trade practices, not to mention the million ethnic minority Uighurs in Chinese concentration camps, would not agree.

•
... Chinese haven't done much to hide their preference – in trade negotiations with the Trump administration, they suddenly took a much harder line when Biden announced his candidacy last year, figuring that they might soon have a friend in the White House.

•
When, for a time, it looked like Biden wouldn't get the Democratic nomination, the Chinese were suddenly more willing to strike a deal, which they closed in January when Biden was near his weakest point in the polls.

•
Shortly after this "Phase I" trade deal was struck, President Trump banned travel from China due to the rapid spread of the virus, a move that Biden swiftly condemned as "xenophobia."

•
... it doesn't take expert knowledge to see what's right in front of our eyes. Biden has been around for a long time, and for 50 years his record on China has sounded the same note over and over again: assisting the Chinese Communist Party's rise, no matter the cost.

•
By the late 1990s, as China angled for membership in the World Trade Organization and for most favored nation trade status with our country, Joe Biden was already the powerful senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

•
... anything the Senate considered to slow down China's march to greater trade privileges – for example, conditioning the new status on increased support for human rights or on better labor practices – Biden voted against and used his significant influence to shoot down.

•
The devastating legacy of this conduct can be seen across our country today, in shuttered factories and manufacturing towns ravaged by economic hardship.

•
When Biden served as Barack Obama's vice president, he continued running interference for the Chinese Communist Party.

•
Of the rapacious tactics that were robbing American workers of their livelihoods while locking down China's strategic advantage in critical fields like pharmaceuticals, rare earths and telecoms, Biden said only that Americans "welcome this competition ... It pushes our companies to develop better products and services and our government to craft better policies."

•
The very next year Biden was in China along with his son Hunter, whose presence was noted and thought strange by reporters on the trip.

•
China was accelerating its island-building campaign in the South China Sea, but the trip didn't do anything to push back against that development.

•
What did it accomplish? Not long after the trip, Hunter joined the board of a Shanghai-based private equity firm. A few years later, just after Joe left office, Hunter invested a large chunk of money in the company.

•
We can safely say that things are going better financially for the Bidens and China than they are for most other American families.

•
When Joe Biden first came to the Senate, American troops were still on the ground in Vietnam, and China was so poor and undeveloped that it barely registered compared to the threats from the Soviet Union.

•
Today, it is immensely wealthy and our leading adversary. It is seizing territory from its neighbors by force, threatening our security and stealing our jobs.

•
We cannot afford to hand over the White House to Joe Biden, whose life's work led to the rise of China.
Cal Thomas: Republican optimism vs. Democratic pessimism (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
... an excerpt from Donald Trump's inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2017: "The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land."

•
Trump brought back those who had been struggling under the slow-growth Obama-Biden administration.

•
Contrast Trump's address with the gloom and doom projected by Joe Biden and his supporters in his professionally produced speech last Thursday night:

•
"Here and now I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It's time for us — for we, the people — to come together. And make no mistake. United we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America."

•
Cliches. Bromides. Meaningless.

•
When he was vice president, Biden and President Barack Obama had a chance to get out in front of the pandemic, which they now blame on Trump. Instead, they did nothing to replenish the stockpile of masks and other needed protective equipment.

•
They can't say they weren't warned. On Nov. 1, 2005, President George W. Bush delivered a speech at the National Institutes of Health: "Scientists and doctors cannot tell us where or when the next pandemic will strike or how severe it'll be, but most agree: At some point, we are likely to face another pandemic."

•
The country the Democrats describe is not the real America. We've come through far greater challenges in the past because of the optimism and tenacity of our citizens.

•
Ronald Reagan used to say America's best days were ahead.

•
Republicans should say if the Biden/Harris/Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez gang assumes power, they will transform America into the darkness they now falsely claim envelops us.

•
If they win, their pessimistic rhetoric will become all too real.
Joe Lieberman: Here's the great failing of party conventions – and US politics (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
The first two virtual national conventions in American history have been successful in many ways.

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But the change has also had at least one bad consequence, and that is the failure to bring together in one place people in each party with different points of view.

•
That, in turn, reflects a larger problem that ails our national politics.

•
Political conventions once were much more than shows to present the party's nominees and agenda to television audiences.

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They were raucous affairs in which the difficult work of selecting a nominee was done through hard-nosed political negotiations and balloting.

•
Even after that ended and nominees were chosen through primaries and caucuses ahead of any convention, the conventions brought together people who often had very different prescriptions for how to improve the country every four years.

•
Today ... substantive discussions designed to bridge disagreements are fewer, and nonexistent at virtual conventions.

•
While those seeking message discipline may view the current situation as a blessing, it blocks substantive discussion between people who disagree, which is the hallmark of a healthy democracy.

•
What's happened to political conventions is emblematic of a more pervasive trend within American politics. We've stopped engaging with other peoples' ideas within our parties or between parties, choosing instead to castigate them as too far outside our norm.

•
It's also happening on television news, where vitriol and sanctimony drive viewers. It's happening in newspapers, where opinion forums shrink from printing challenging pieces. It's happening online, where partisan views or conspiracy theories vilify others, rather than engaging their ideas.

•
And it's happening in Congress where Democrats and Republicans reflexively lob charges at one another in lieu of meeting, talking, engaging and compromising.

•
American democracy needs a resurgence of the thoughtful engagement that once helped everyone understand problems from more than one perspective.

•
Set aside the politics – bipartisanship is the only way the country will ever address its problems with solutions.

•
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are sufficiently powerful to bulldoze the other and impose an agenda wholly rejected by the other side. To solve problems, they need to work together.

•
Political conventions may never again be what they once were. They may never again be more than choreographed productions to present a party's nominee to the electorate. But we need to find new spaces for the left and right to work together.

•
Elections may be about highlighting differences, but solving problems requires cultivating common ground.

•
American voters will make crucial decisions this November. Once the winners are chosen, they will need to think proactively about how to engage their adversaries in building a better shared future for our country.
Michael Goodwin: Trump's opportunity – Dems mum on this issue, giving president an opening (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
In case you didn't have the time or stomach to watch the Democrats' convention last week, I humbly offer this summary: Trump bad. Biden good. You're all racists.

•
The disciplined approach was admirable, even though the "facts" used to support each element often were shaky or flat-out false.

•
The ideas were hammered home repeatedly because they reflect the core of the Dems' case and show how they intend to oust the incumbent.

•
The Trump Bad, Biden Good contrast displays an obvious plan to make the election a referendum not just on Trump's record, but also his character.

•
His handling of the coronavirus was the central focus, with former President Barack Obama and others claiming that Trump failed miserably because he only cares about himself.

•
Oddly, the Russia hysteria and the Ukraine impeachment, both of which Dems had insisted justified removing him from office, were not mentioned.

•
The third main element, the focus on race, is the most radical and risky, especially the frequent endorsement of the Black Lives Matter movement.

•
Group leaders are avowed Marxists and say numerous incendiary things, including that destroying property is not violence and that looting is a form of reparations.

•
My suspicion is that the campaign decided not to condemn the lawbreakers for two reasons. First, the most violent cities have Democrats as mayors, so Biden's team was not about to alienate key supporters.

•
Second, condemning the violence would amount to a call for the police to intervene. That, in turn, would upset the supporters of Black Lives Matter because the organization is essentially anti-police.

•
The net result is that a major party's nominee for president is silent during a nationwide urban crisis.

•
Biden's promise to "remove the stain" of pervasive racism also raises potential policy pitfalls, from quotas in college admissions and jobs to reparations.

•
While the activists driving the party's agenda further and further left support a racial-spoils system, there is no indication that the general public does.

•
The Dems' failure to address the crime situation and the massive spending plans are two obvious openings for the GOP at its convention.

•
"Would you," the president might ask his TV audience, "buy a home today in Portland, Seattle, Chicago or New York, knowing that you and your family stand a good chance of being victims of crime and that the police might not show up?"

•
"Also, the homeless are allowed to set up tent cities on your sidewalks, and your mayor and governor don't stop them. Would you buy that house even if it were dirt cheap?"

•
There are ... no shortages of areas where Trump can draw a favorable contrast with Biden.

•
But the trick is to weave them together in a way that paints a coherent picture of what is at stake in November.

•
And in a way where the narrative, not the narrator, is the message.
Christopher Nixon Cox: Trump the peacemaker – Nixon offers this blueprint for reelection (Fox 08/23/2020)
Newt Gingrich: Why Biden's boffo convention speech could hobble the rest of his campaign (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
His theme of "the light and the darkness" is a theme President Donald Trump should embrace, embellish upon, and emphasize again and again.

•
Let the American people decide where the darkness is and who is creating it.

•
Neither Biden nor Harris could comment about Antifa violence in Portland, which is now going beyond 90 days. Isn't that part of the darkness?

•
Neither Biden nor Harris could comment on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announcing she had lost control of the city and was deploying police to protect her own block, saying:

•
"I have an obligation to keep my home, my wife, my 12-year-old, and my neighbors safe. The deployments that are there are there when they are necessary – it's not a 24-hour thing and I think that residents of the city, understanding the nature of the threats that we are receiving on a daily basis, understand that I have a right to make sure that my home is secure."

•
Isn't it darkness which leads to police protection for the elected aristocracy but increased danger and violence for everyday citizens?

•
In city after city, crime rates are skyrocketing, and assaults and homicides are rising rapidly.

•
This is happening because of George Soros-supported, left-wing prosecutors are protecting criminals and radical local politicians are seeking to defund (or in Biden's clever language "reallocate money away from" ) police departments.

•
Where is the Biden-Harris condemnation of the growing crime and increasingly emboldened criminals in the cities their Democratic Party runs? Isn't that part of the darkness?

•
Neither Biden nor Harris could comment on the darkness created by teachers' unions. When the power-hungry union leadership threatens to cripple the future of children unless radical demands are met, the most Biden can say is we have to strengthen unions.

•
Biden and Harris want us to believe that they are proud of America and want to unify Americans. Biden went so far as to even quote the Declaration of Independence (something which must have jarred the left-wing, anti-American part of his coalition).

•
However, neither candidate could bring his- or herself to defend historic American statues and memorials or condemn those who break the law to destroy and deface them. Yet aren't these radical forces of destruction an example of the darkness?

•
Biden's speech talked about the importance of job creation, but his campaign promises massive tax increases, radical crippling of the fossil fuel industry, massive reregulation, and other job killing actions.

•
Wasn't the slow growth, high unemployment, and massive increase in dependency on government a major part of the darkness for American families?

•
Ironically, Biden quoted his father on the importance of a job as a source of dignity (sounding almost like Ronald Reagan as he said it).

•
Yet, his policies would increase dependency, guarantee slow growth, and revert to hamstringing the economic future of minorities. Wouldn't that be darkness for the families left behind?

•
By contrast, the Trump policies did lead to the lowest Black and Latino unemployment rates in history – and the fastest modern wage increases for workers at the bottom of the ladder. Shouldn't these achievements be considered a sign of the light?

•
... he promised to provide a slew of new equipment and technology to fight the virus – which President Trump already has underway.

•
In fact, I don't think there was a single thing in that section of the speech that the Trump administration isn't already doing.

•
So, since that was going to be part of Biden's light, shouldn't it count as light when done by President Trump?

•
... Biden (and the Democrats in general) refuse to admit that the worst virus responses are in states run by Democrats – and that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in particular made policy mistakes which unnecessarily killed roughly 6,000 to 8,000 senior citizens and led hist state to represent about 20 percent of the virus deaths in America.

•
... the Obama-Biden record on managing a new virus was a disaster. ... "Former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain said at Texas A&M in 2019: ‘We did every possible thing wrong. Sixty million Americans got H1N1 in that period of time, and it is just purely a fortuity that this isn't one of the great mass-casualty events in American history. [It] had nothing to do with us doing anything right; just had to do with luck. If anyone thinks that can't happen again, they don't have to go back to 1918. Just go back to 2009, 2010. Imagine a virus with a different lethality, and you can just do the math."

•
Biden misrepresenting, as usual, his role in virus management under Obama is darkness rather than light.

•
This thematic of light versus darkness was good for one night for the Democrats – but it was good for the rest of the campaign for President Trump and the Republicans.
Believing in the country (JWR 08/21/2020)
White Lib Repentance (JWR 08/21/2020)
•
The virtual Democrat Convention is the greatest show on earth. The greatest show of anti-American hateful liars, that is.

•
Divisive doesn't even come close to describing the spectacle. The first night featured speakers repeating over and over just how racist and evil America is.

•
White people are bad. And since Donald Trump is the whitest person on the face of the earth, he is undoubtedly the worst of all.

•
And by extension, all white people who support him are bad, evil villains. White people by virtue of their very color are systemically evil, the left says.

•
It must be horrible for white liberals to live their lives hating themselves so much. Imagine getting up every day feeling a gnawing sense of guilt down deep in the pit of your stomach over the fact that you were born a Caucasian.

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But groveling at the feet of minorities, crying, and begging forgiveness isn't enough after all, is it? In the end their skin is still just as white as it was on the day they were born.

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Actually these wretched souls need to do much more to repent for their sin than simply acknowledging that their skin tone is evil.

•
... the liberals want all white America to collectively genuflect to all minority groups who they believe have been shut out of their rightful position in society over the last two or three hundred years due to "white privilege."

•
Toward that end they would enact reparations and engage in wholesale income redistribution.

•
But the inconvenient truth of the matter is, my family never enslaved anyone.

•
Furthermore, there are no slaves alive today who deserve reparations, nor are there slave holders alive to punish.

•
So why should I be punished for something that some long dead people did to other long dead people hundreds of years ago?

•
So, if the liberal guilt-ridden Caucasian really wants to repent he must do so as an individual.

•
To start with, the repenters need to give up their jobs to more deserving people of color. This is step one. It doesn't even matter if the aggrieved minority individual is qualified or possesses the proper skill set for the job, no, the important thing is that the white guy leaves the position and the person with a more acceptable skin tone takes his place. (By the way, universities and other organizations are already engaged in this "enlightened" selection process.)

•
Next, the white leftist needs to redistribute his or her own personal wealth to a person of color. If it's a person of color who has less money than the white liberal, that's great, but it isn't really necessary, it could just as well be a person of color who happens to have more money. It doesn't matter. The important thing is that a person of color gets the white dude's dough.

•
Next comes personal property. I call this "individual redistribution of goods." To ensure proper repentance the liberal must divest himself entirely of his worldly possessions. That means your car (or carS) your home (or homeS) and any other valuables that might be construed as obtained by "white privilege."

•
After all this has been accomplished to the satisfaction of leftist social media, only then can the white guilt-ridden liberal at last say with a degree of certainty that he has shown his desire to make amends for the sins of his race.

•
Of course if he really wants to rectify the situation once and for all, he should finally just disappear and clear the way for the more deserving races of the world to live their lives in peace.
The Truth About the Post Office Controversy (JWR 08/21/2020)
David Limbaugh: Obama attacks on Trump are petty, personal, dishonest and divisive (Fox 08/21/2020)
•
I urge those who still indulge the fiction that former President Barack Obama is a uniter and great statesman to read the transcript of his Democratic National Convention speech with an open mind and discerning eye.

•
Obama proudly violated the long-practiced rule that former presidents shouldn't attack sitting ones.

•
But he's Obama, exempt from the rules, and he was attacking President Trump, whom the left considers fair game for any smear anytime, anywhere, no matter how deceitful and malicious.

•
Obama was petty, personal, dishonest and strikingly divisive while pretending to call for unity. He showcased the very qualities for which he torched Trump.

•
Obama said: "I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously, that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care. But he never did."

•
"For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work, no interest in finding common ground, no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends, no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves."

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"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever, our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished and our democratic institutions threatened like never before."

•
Projection, anyone? In every single sentence.

•
I honestly don't know how even the most rabid Trump haters can deny he takes the job seriously, even if he occasionally gets in the mud with his detractors.

•
He clearly recognizes the gravity of the presidency and reveres our system, which happens to not be a democracy but a constitutional republic.

•
Obama is confusing President Trump with himself. Trump is nothing if not an energizer bunny, tirelessly working to advance his pro-America agenda.

•
No, Mr. Obama, you and your party are the ones assaulting our system, while Trump is trying to protect it.

•
He is the immovable force on our side standing in your way, and, boy, do you and yours loathe him for it.

•
Trump is committed to appointing judges who will preserve our constitutional system, instead of exercising the wicked prerogative of dismantling it through judicial legislation.

•
He further seeks to uphold the integrity of "our democracy" by safeguarding the integrity of our voting process and opposing myriad Democratic efforts to thwart it — plans to undermine the Electoral College; stack the Supreme Court; block voter ID measures; lower the voting age to 16; and push schemes to transfer power from duly elected congressmen to an unelected, unaccountable, power-mad administrative state.

•
Obama's criticism of Trump for showing "no interest in finding common ground" is a bad-faith cliche.

•
Progressives like Obama routinely accuse conservatives of divisiveness without proof, assuming the charge will stick because they've long categorically demonized us as bigots.

•
But in fact, Trump has repeatedly reached across the aisle and only abandoned his efforts when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., consistently snubbed him and blocked almost all bipartisan initiatives he proposed, including those they had earlier embraced, such as a border wall.

•
They even obstructed a COVID-19 relief stimulus package to keep Trump from getting any credit.

•
Sadly, Obama is the one who drives an ongoing wedge between groups of Americans on the basis of identity.

•
Trump has not only appealed to all Americans and specifically to minorities; his policies, in stark contrast with Obama's, have dramatically improved their economic circumstances.

•
Shouldn't those real results matter far more than inflammatory, condescending rhetoric aimed at perpetuating an atmosphere of minority victimhood?

•
Obama and his fellow travelers have no proof that Trump is using the power of his office to enrich himself, unlike some in Obama's orbit.

•
They simply throw charges against the wall, and the media pile on to complete the libel, never providing evidence — only vicious, unsubstantiated innuendo.

•
If all this weren't audacious enough, Obama also blamed Trump for every single COVID-19 death — as if heads of state can eradicate the coronavirus with a magic wand or cruise missile.

•
To the contrary, Trump has been on this problem from the beginning, and we must emphasize that he has usually followed the advice of his medical team, Democratic sweethearts Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx.

•
Critics can't have it both ways. If Trump was wrong, they were wrong.

•
Obama's most surreal claim was that Trump has caused the economic problems brought on by the virus.

•
From the start, Trump has been urging America to get back to work, while Obama's party has fought to keep America locked down.

•
On top of all this, Mr. Obama, President Trump has rescued this nation from your lead-from-behind foreign policy and restored us to a position of respect in the world.

•
Poor taste or not, Obama certainly has the right to use his undeserved stature to excoriate President Trump, but many of us would appreciate it if he didn't insult us by masquerading as bipartisan in the process.

•
See related Miss Me? (Glenn McCoy, 02/28/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Michael Goodwin: Biden gives an OK DNC speech — now he needs to hit campaign trail and give... (Fox 08/21/2020)
•
He did it. Joe Biden got through the biggest speech of his life cleanly and coherently Thursday night, without stumbling or mumbling or getting that far-away dazed look in his eyes.

•
Coming into his party's virtual coronation, the test was not whether he would give a good speech or a bad speech. It was whether he could give a speech at all.

•
So congratulations to Biden for clearing a fundamental hurdle. Now the bar is raised and he should be treated as any other candidate. He can start by releasing his health and medical reports, which he has so far refused to do.

•
Most importantly, there is no excuse for him to hide any longer in his basement. Hidin' Biden must be a thing of history.

•
He must come out into the sunshine and, while protecting himself from COVID-19, get on the campaign trail and take his claim to the presidency to the people of America.

•
If he can't or won't, how can he possibly be president? Would he isolate himself in the Oval Office?

•
The enormous promises he made about defeating the killer virus, creating jobs, combatting climate change, "removing the stain of racism" and uniting the nation will mean nothing if he continues to shrink from public view.

•
So, too, his accusation that President Trump's performance on COVID-19 has been "unforgivable" and that giving the incumbent four more years would let him continue to "fan the flames of hate and division."

•
Joe Biden has broken the protective shell and he can't now wrap himself in it again. Ever.

•
As for the actual content of the speech, it was more pedestrian than soaring, and the ideas were presented in simple, stark contrasts. Light vs dark, hope vs fear, almost always in short sentences.

•
Two notable points: he did not explicitly promise the huge, socialist-leaning items the left is demanding, though that hardly means the issues are settled.

•
The aim from the Bernie Sanders wing is clearly to help Biden get elected, then move him to the far left.

•
Also missing was any mention of the violence convulsing the nation's cities. These are no longer protests over George Floyd.

•
These are anarchists in Seattle and Portland and elsewhere attacking the police and the courts on direct assaults on society.

•
In addition, common criminals have stepped into the void left by police forces that have been handcuffed and abandoned by Democratic mayors and governors. This is a major urban crisis that neither Biden nor anyone else over four nights said a single word about.

•
That is shameful and a major opening for the Trump campaign.

•
Otherwise, the fourth night was like every other night. With a sneering Hollywood leftist presiding ... the Dems effortlessly cemented their reputation for being a bunch of coastal elitists talking down to voters.

•
As in the first three nights, the aim was to paint Trump as the devil and Biden as a saint.

•
Part of that image involved injecting faith into the proceedings, with Sen. Chris Coons giving a semi-sermon on Biden as a devout Catholic.

•
When Republicans have invoked faith as a presidential trait, the secular left always goes crazy, claiming it's a threat to the separation of church and state.

•
It's either progress or hypocrisy that there will be no such accusation against the Dems. I vote for hypocrisy.
Deroy Murdock: The soft bigotry of mass-mail-in ballots (Fox 08/21/2020)
•
... crafty liberals begin with the tragic fact that the often-deadly Chinese virus has weighed especially heavily against Blacks and other minorities in general, due to existing medical conditions, subpar medical care, and other woeful factors that ensnare specific patients.

•
From this sad reality, the Commission's left infantilizes voters of color and assumes that they cannot handle myriad challenges to casting ballots.

•
The entire paper reeks of what President George W. Bush once called "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

•
Requiring notarized signatures makes it harder to cast phony ballots. This is too much for Commission Democrats. They complain that voters of color endure a "lack of access to items such as transportation and printers."

•
Blacks, Hispanics, and other minority voters are perfectly capable of visiting notaries public or asking people to witness their ballot signatures.

•
The Commission report also claims that underprivileged voters have trouble acquiring stamps and basic office supplies.

•
The Commission's entire "save minority voters from racist voting practices" theory is baseless.

•
"... many of the liberal commissioners see everything through a biased, racial prism even when there isn't any support for their claims."

•
The Commission should worry primarily about disenfranchisement. Alas, mass-mail-in-ballots are perfect for making votes vanish.

•
According to the USPS's inspector general, for 2018, "We found that the Postal Service's nationwide service performance score for Election and Political Mail was 95.6 percent, or slightly below its goal of 96 percent."

•
Imagine that USPS satisfies its own standards and delivers 96 percent of the ballots to which it is entrusted. So, only 4 percent of ballots would disappear.

•
Given that Hillary Clinton won Minnesota by a margin of 1.52 percent, and Donald J. Trump secured Michigan by just 0.23 percent, a USPS promise to lose just 4 percent of ballots is nauseatingly inadequate.

•
Unlike the Commission draft, America's highest-profile authority on the Chinese virus does not believe the pathogen merits an all-mail election.

•
According to federal COVID-19 guru, Dr. Anthony Fauci, "There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to vote in person or otherwise."

•
As he told ABC News on August 14: "If you go and wear a mask, if you observe the physical distancing, and don't have a crowded situation, there's no reason why shouldn't be able to do that."

•
The infirm and those vulnerable to COVID-19 should be free to request absentee ballots, as has been possible for decades.

•
Everyone else should go vote at the polls on Election Day and hope that the COVID cure also eradicates the political pandemic of mass-mail-in ballots.
Support for Black Lives Matter repeats a lethal error of history (INN 08/20/2020)
•
Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history, it is said, are doomed to repeat them.

•
In the 20th century, thousands of progressively minded people supported Soviet communism.

•
Believing this ideology was the key to a better world, they refused to acknowledge the horrific abuses under Stalin when millions were brainwashed, murdered or starved to death.

•
Today's progressives are behaving in similar fashion in response to another onslaught on civilized values, perpetrated in the name of an ideology with the same roots as Soviet communism.

•
... BLM, which took off after last May's death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer, is not about promoting fairness and tolerance.

•
It is instead a nihilistic, violent, revolutionary movement committed to defunding the police as an incorrigibly racist institution, closing the prisons, destroying the family and overthrowing white capitalist society. What's more, many of its leaders are white.

•
There's no doubt that black people experience bigotry, and that there are racist police officers.

•
But a significant number of police officers are themselves black; most people who are killed in police custody are white; and most black people who are murdered are killed by other black people.

•
Moreover, BLM's denunciation of white society as racist is itself a racist act since it categorizes an entire ethnic group as bad.

•
In the name of the BLM movement thuggish mobs, including supporters of the "anti-fascist" Antifa, have been subjecting the public to shocking levels of violence over the past three months in a number of cities.

•
Democrat administrations in such places have let this happen with no pushback against the rioters, sometimes even stripping the embattled police of funds.

•
In Seattle, marchers demanded that white residents give up their homes and abused them as racists when they protested.

•
In Minnesota, demonstrators shrieking obscenities assembled outside the home of the president of the Minneapolis police department union and vilified his neighbors.

•
This week, one such mob there beat up a homeless, white, transgender person. A man who tried to help the victim was attacked in turn by the rioters, who dragged him out of his truck and beat him almost to death.

•
Yet this sustained thuggery has been all but totally ignored by the media.

•
There's been not one word of criticism from the Democratic Party. Instead, it wove support for BLM into its convention this week, with Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez declaring: "We will not miss this moment to ensure those values are reflected in everything we do."

•
Worse still is the reaction of the broader intellectual establishment.

•
In both America and Britain, universities, corporations, voluntary organizations, cultural bodies and other institutions have adopted the BLM agenda of bullying white people to "check their privilege."

•
"Recognize your white privilege ... call out racism in your family, friends and colleagues ... (unintended or not)."

•
This sinister attempt to force people to denounce themselves and their loved ones is straight out of the Soviet communist playbook.

•
... anti-racism and other "woke" ideologies are all rooted in Marxism. They have adopted some of its key precepts: that all relationships are defined by power, that people are either oppressors or oppressed, and that through "false consciousness" oppressors may not even realize they are indeed oppressive. Hence the demand for white people to acknowledge their guilt.

•
What makes Jewish support for BLM even more grotesque is its profound anti-Semitism, identifying "Jewish privilege" as the worst manifestation of "white privilege."

•
"You can be Jewish and the child of Holocaust survivors and still benefit from white privilege — a privilege that accrues to you whether you've chosen it or not."

•
... here are Jews eagerly offering up the community's collective throat to the metaphorical knife of defamation, vilification and the potentially murderous lie that their very identity makes them oppressive, exploitative and altogether bad.

•
Today's Jews who have signed up to the BLM agenda are ... in the grip of this latest Marxist-based delusion or are simply trying to protect themselves by going along with it, they are helping promote anti-white racism, anti-Jewish hatred and anti-West insurrection.

•
And tragically, they fail to see that this monster they are helping create is coming for them, too.
What's really going on with Trump and the post office? (JWR 08/20/2020)
Michelle Obama told Dems to 'go high' after her husband 'tried to destroy a political campaign' (Fox 08/19/2020)
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"When she says 'We go high when they go low,' she's talking right now when her husband's administration has weaponized the IRS, the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA, and is the subject of a massive investigation by [Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham]."

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"It will probably end up, if things happen as many predict, as one of the most corrupt administrations that tried to destroy a political campaign, a president, transition, and a presidency. and she's saying, 'When they go low, we go high.'"

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"Michelle Obama knows that there were over 100 people killed in one month alone in her hometown in Chicago."

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"They weren't killed by White people. They weren't killed by the police. There's been over 400 ... she knows what the real problem is, but she also knows that she could go to Chicago with Barack ... meet with community leaders and say, 'We have a crisis in Chicago in general and among the African-American community.'"

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... "it's very easy to say something from your Washington or Martha's Vineyard $20 million estate and mansion because you're never going to be subject to the ramifications.

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"Black Lives Matter's not going to show up outside of her mansion and there's not going to be an inner-city shooting match right outside [in] Martha's Vineyard. So these all become abstractions."
Michael Goodwin: Democratic Convention long on pain and grievance, short on hope and faith (Fox 08/19/2020)
•
Old and young, progressive and super progressive, left and far left, Black, White, Asian, Latino, Native American — they all had something to say. But if there was a theme running through the night, I couldn't find it.

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Oh, yes, Donald Trump bad, got that. Really, really bad. OK, got that, too.

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Then what? What do Democrats stand for and, more to the point, what are they promising voters if they gain the White House? I honestly don't know.

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I do know that, once again, they failed to address the violence erupting across the country, as if it isn't happening. Or maybe they are afraid to criticize it because it will somehow come off as pro-police, which would infuriate the Black Lives Matter movement the party is embracing.

•
For whatever reason, Dems are ceding a huge issue to Trump, one that resonates across income, race and geographic boundaries. Public safety is a civil right and it matters to everyone.

•
Normally, those issues would be settled by the nominee, whose victory puts the party under his command. But that hasn't happened because the man who beat Sanders is not in full command of his own faculties.

•
Joe Biden, I accept as a fact, is a decent enough guy whose life story of tragedy and resilience is admirable. The testimonials the first two nights about his consoling others in their grief are truly touching.

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But that Joe Biden is not the same man who is now the official nominee for president.

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The man who finally climbed that mountain after a lifetime in Washington is greatly diminished and every live appearance he makes even at his own convention must terrify the handlers.

•
What if he wanders off script? What if he forgets where he is?

•
There is another kind of pall over the convention, too, and that is by choice. There is a constant refrain that America is fundamentally ruined by racism and all forms of bigotry. "An ingrained system of inequity," said one speaker. "Racial inequality," said another.

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez added to the gloom when she used her minute to talk about a movement to erase "racial injustice, colonization, misogyny and homophobia."

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... I suspect the party is too much in the thrall of the activists who want to overthrow most of our institutions.

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The old Joe Biden wouldn't have put up with that.
The Democrat Con-vention: Pros and cons (INN 08/18/2020)
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No one kneeling during the National Anthem. No one wearing African kente cloths and kneeling as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer did.

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A reverend or priest prays to "Almig-ty G-d" ... In his prayer, he avoids discussing the movement among Democrat "progressives" to kill fetuses even after they are born and become unequivocal living human beings...

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A White farmer tells us about the soybean tariffs against China impacting him.

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He does not tell us that China has been cheating America for more than half a century, has been stealing American intellectual property, hacking U.S. computer systems, cheating in international trade, sending outright spies into America and basing them in consulates and at universities to steal national secrets.

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There was no way to stand up to the despicable cheating by China except by taking the tough stands on trade that President Trump took and that led to China blinking, buckling, and ultimately conceding on issues of trade — and on purchasing American soybeans.

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Next, throughout the evening, we are treated to little brief sound bytes of Biden. "We choose [this] over [that] , [this] over [that]." I remember a Biden quote like that, but they omit the last part: "We choose unity over division. We choose science over fiction. We choose truth over facts." He really said that.

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We hear from George Floyd's brother: "My brother George was selfless." He does not mention the selflessness of George when he broke into a Black woman's home and pressed a firearm into her pregnant torso as he burglarized her home.

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He does not mention that, between 1997 and 2005, "selfless" George Floyd was sentenced to jail terms eight times on various charges, including drug possession, theft and trespass.

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In 2009, he was sentenced to five years in prison for that armed robbery invading that woman's home.

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On the day of his truly tragic death, Floyd's body was filled with restricted drugs including fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use.

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Next we get lectured on COVID-19, on how President Trump has not handled the coronavirus battle the way the Democrats would.

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Who lectures us? The inadvertent though recklessly liable mass killer, Governor Andrew Cuomo, who singularly has killed more people by leveraging Government to mishandle COVID-19 than has any other person alive.

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An Arizona young lady named Kristin Urquiza next comes on screen to blame President Trump for her father's death from coronavirus. It is Trump's fault that her 65-year-old father got infected by coronavirus and died.

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So now she is her dead father's spokesperson. Did she turn against Trump just now, with her Dad dying? No. Rather, her own biography at radical-left UC-Berkeley tells us:

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"... I am confident we cannot enact the type of change we need without transforming our society's definition of ‘leader,' and I realize I am a trailblazer in the environmental movement for others like me — brown, queer, community-focused, ethically-minded changemakers; future leaders who are not benefiting from the current status quo and are ready to upend our current systems of oppression and privilege."

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This brings us to a bashing of the President over COVID. The alternative is that Joe Biden would have saved us.

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There is no mention that Biden attacked Trump when the President closed air travel to visitors from China, where the coronavirus erupted and was virulent.

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How many more would have died if that infection source had not been cut off? Is it Trump's fault that coronavirus exists throughout the world, that there have been "second waves" everywhere?

•
Next we get Rockefeller Republicans, liberals who would vote Democrat — again. ... And then we get poor rejected John Kasich, whom the Republican electorate roundly rejected during the 2016 GOP primaries. So now he carries the bitterness by appearing four years later on the Democrats' show.

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Next, we get clips of Kirsten Gillibrand, Robert O'Rourke, and other dismally failed Democrat Presidential candidates.

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And then, at 10:36 p.m. EDT, Bernie the Communist: This millionaire "Socialist" attacks "greed," though it is not clear from which of this millionaire's three houses he is speaking.

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He talks of people of color without reminding us that he fled the demographic diversity of Brooklyn for lily White Vermont.

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The same Bernie who supported and praised Castro Cuba, Hugo Chavez Venezuela, and extolled bread lines in the Communist Soviet Union when he honeymooned there tells us that he is concerned about Trump's commitment to democracy.

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He blames Trump for the economic crisis derived from the pandemic, overlooking that Trump had achieved the lowest unemployment numbers ever for Blacks, Latinos, and women and had boomed the economy until the tragedy of COVID came and destroyed economies uniformly all over the world.

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Bernie is not done. He extols Biden for adopting sections of the Bernie agenda and reminds us that "the future of our economy is at stake."

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Next it is time for Michele Obama. And she reminds us that, four years ago, the American people had a chance to extend the Obama vision by electing Hillary — and instead threw her out and freely dumped the entire Obama agenda.

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She tells us that "we don't stand in judgment," but she does not remind us that her husband, when the cameras were off, mocked Americans who "cling to their guns or religion" :

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"And it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

•
She tells us that she "must be as honest and clear as she possibly can." She — the wife of Obama — tells us that Donald Trump is "in over his head." But —

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We saw what her husband Barack Obama did to stagnate the American economy for eight years.

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how Putin took the Crimea and marched into Eastern Ukraine on Obama's watch.

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how Obama signed a "climate accord" that imposed devastating restrictions on the American economy while allowing polluters like India and China free reign.

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We saw what Obama did with Iran, secretly flying $400 million blackmail in cash to Iran.

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We saw "Fast and Furious," Lois Lerner, and now are learning more daily about how the Obama government spied on the incoming Trump Administration and used the FBI to spy.

•
And yet she tells us that Donald Trump, who boomed the economy, brought record unemployment lows, stopped Putin's expansions, deregulated the economy, transmogrified America from needing to import oil from Arab dictatorships to becoming a net energy exporter — that he is "in over his head."

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And we realize that Michele Obama was being as honest and clear "as she possibly can."

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End of Day One of the Democrat National Convention. The rest was more of the same.

•
Is this what the critical Independent voters of Middle America want? One can only hope they will ask themselves that very same question because the convention's first night may have begun by catering to them, but it ended warning them what lies in store if Biden and Kamala slither in.

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See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Gordon Chang: Here's how China is interfering to smear Trump ahead of 2020 election (Fox 08/17/2020)
Democrats have become "Mobocrats" (INN 08/17/2020)
•
It started with the "Occupy Wall Street" Movement. The Democrats saw an enthusiasm that they thought could be capitalized on (pardon the pun) at the polls to win elections.

•
But, what started with the "Occupy" Movement has become an amalgam of the white-fascist Antifa and the black-fascist Black Lives Matter.

•
Over the last two to three months, the Democrat Party, its Democrat governors and its Democrat mayors believed it was to their electoral advantage to kow-tow to these violent, looting, fire-starting laser-pointing mobs, and let them run rampant.

•
The Democrat Presidential Nominee Joe Biden and the entire Democrat Party, with few exceptions, co-opted the "Defund the Police" and the Antifa/BLM platform virtually lock, stock and barrel.

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The Democrat Party has become the Mobocrat Party and is leading the United States into a tyrannical socialist-cum-communist abyss from which we, the American People, and the world, will never recover.

•
... the Democrat leaders' validation and acquiescence to violent mobs in Portland, Seattle and everywhere else proves the Democrats don't "Hate Donald Trump;" it proves the Democrats hate America, and everyone who works hard, has a job, and wants to live in safety and peace.

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If the Democrats thought that the mob violence was actually bad for their election prospects, they would have been, from the start, out in front trying to close the violence totally down.

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But the Democrats thought the gross violence was a net political positive so they sat by, and still sit by, and watch statues, businesses, and buildings torn down and burned to the ground.

•
The Democrats actually think they are scaring America into voting Democrat because if America votes for President Trump again, America can expect a lot more of these violent "peaceful demonstrations."

•
The Democrats are essentially criminally extorting America with the threat: "Either Vote for us, or the recent violence will look like child's play compared to what you'll get if Trump is elected again."

•
This, then, leads us to the very simple question: Are these violent, fascist Antifa and BLM organizations under the control of the Democrat Party? Do the Democrats control these violent mobs?

•
On the one hand, if the Democrats control these violent criminal mobs, then the Democrats aren't a political party but a vast criminal/domestic terrorist organization that needs to be stopped immediately.

•
On the other hand, if the Democrats don't control these violent mobs, how will the Democrats prevent these mobs if they are elected?

•
The answer is that the to-be elected Democrats won't be able to control the mobs. And, in fact, the mobs have already received and will receive additional police policy implementation that only makes them stronger, if not untouchable.

•
The question's answer postis only two possibilities: either the Democrat Party is a domestic criminal terrorist syndicate, or the Antifa/BLM criminals control the Democrat Party, and the Democrats will have less control over the violent thugs than President Trump and the Republicans have.

•
This makes the Democrat extortion of the American People with their "Vote Democrats, or get more violent riots" even more of a tragic criminal farce.

•
For, if the Democrats don't control the violent thugs now, then when they are elected, America will only get more violence with elected Democrats who will be powerless to and paralyzed from stopping the bedlam and mayhem.

•
In conclusion, it seems the Antifa/BLM domestic terrorists are, today, the Democrat Party's "Military Wing."

•
They both have exactly the same end-game policy platform of razing the American system to the ground and replacing it with a hybrid-racist-fascist communist system.

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The Democrat Party wants to rule a communist America, and Antifa wants to rule a communist America.

•
The only question is how long the "Political Wing" of the Democrat Party will be able to keep up the charade that Military Wing Antifa/BLM is not in the real control of the Political Wing.

•
A vote for any Democrat candidate for any office is a vote for Antifa thugs permanently blinding Federal Officers with lasers.

•
A vote for any Democrat is a vote to have your house confiscated by the mobs that will soon be coming for you.

•
Don't think you're immune. Because, just remember, the Democrat Party and its Antifa and BLM brown-shirt fascist thugs aren't coming for Trump; they are coming for America; they are coming for you.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump vs. Dems on mail-in voting — here is the truth the left doesn't want you to know (Fox 08/17/2020)
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With less than three months until the 2020 election and no end in sight for the coronavirus pandemic, a new debate over mail-in voting has begun.

•
Swirling and sudden concerns about the United States Postal Service (USPS) have arisen from Democrats who are wildly accusing President Trump of cheating and manipulating the Postal Service in his favor.

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Conveniently they forget to mention the president is more than an arms-length away from how we vote, and the Postal Service is not under the thumb of his control.

•
No doubt President Trump has expressed deep concerns about the validity of the ballots, and rightfully so.

•
Sending out millions of ballots without authenticating the inbound ballots is ripe for massive fraud.

•
Democrats have desperately been seeking to legalize "ballot harvesting" (the collection and submission of ballots by someone other than the voter and without authentication) and other nefarious activities.

•
It must be noted elections in the United States are administered by counties and certified by states.

•
In other words, per the United States Constitution, elections are run locally and not by the executive branch of the federal government. The president has simply sought fair elections.

•
Ironically, it is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's H.R. 1 that seeks to federalize elections and give the president power he doesn't currently have now.

•
The president of the United States does not control the operations of the Postal Service nor does he select or appoint the Postmaster General. The Board of Governors does both of these things.

•
The Postal Regulatory Commission sets rates, service levels and decides on postal closings, not the president.

•
The governors are appointed by a president and confirmed by the United States Senate. No more than five of the nine governors may be from the same political party.

•
Robert Duncan now serves as the Chairman of the Board of Governors.

•
From 2007 to 2009 he was the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, which will undoubtedly be repeated extensively by Democrats.

•
Also notable was Duncan's reappointment to the Board of Governors in 2019 when the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed him again 89-0.

•
It will be difficult for the Democrats, with a straight face, to complain about Duncan's leadership when the Senate confirmed him a second time and did so unanimously.

•
... it is an independent body, lead by an Obama appointee confirmed by the Senate who makes the postal changes in question.

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If there is a shortfall in service, it isn't the president who is in charge. The Board of Governors and the Postal Rate Commission make the decisions.

•
The United States Postal Service receives no annual appropriation by the United States Congress. Their operating budget is dictated by their revenue, which has fallen precipitously with electronic communications.

•
The Postal Service offers a variety of products and services. Pay for First Class mail and you get faster service. Pay for bulk mail and you get much slower service.

•
It's been that way for a long, long time. It's not something President Trump conjured up to manipulate the election. And Pelosi and Schumer know it.
Deroy Murdock: Kamala Harris is no moderate — she's further left than Bernie Sanders (Fox 08/16/2020)
No, you cannot "always undo" a stupid thing (INN 08/13/2020)
Law[lessness] and [dis]order in Seattle and elsewhere (JWR 08/13/2020)
•
What would you think if local politicians decided to cut the size of their fire department while buildings in their city were ablaze?

•
What about a general who orders his soldiers to stop fighting and surrender to the enemy?

•
Something similar has occurred in the once tranquil city of Seattle, Washington, where in the midst of riots and over the objections of the mayor and police chief, the city council has voted to defund the police and reduce by 100 the number of officers on the force.

•
This decision could be seen as a victory for mob rule and could encourage more cities to take a knee before criminals.

•
Last weekend, overnight, rampaging looters streamed into Downtown Chicago by caravan and then proceeded to smash their way into businesses along the Magnificent Mile, stealing high-end merchandise and anything else they could get their hands on.

•
Why don't reporters investigate who organized the raid? Where did these people come from? Who, what, when, where and why?

•
Aren't those the questions every good journalist should ask? Journalism was once a proud profession. What happened?

•
Deep beneath the lawlessness spreading like coronavirus across the land is a moral and spiritual drought that politicians do not have the power to fix.

•
In previous generations, fiery preachers would remind citizens of the consequences of living unrestrained and unaccountable lives.

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They called it "sin," but that diagnosis has virtually disappeared, along with the generation of Billy Graham, and we are left with the current moral desert.

•
We can't say we have not been warned by history and experience about the dangers inherent in unrestrained living.

•
America's second president, John Adams, said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

•
Which begs the question as to what happens to our Constitution and our nation when a growing number of those among us become immoral and irreligious?

•
That great sage, Benjamin Franklin, remarked at the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia: "I agree to this Constitution ... and I believe, further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other."

•
Franklin's basic philosophy of sound government was that personal and national freedom are in jeopardy if the people become wicked and immoral.

•
He believed that when such behavior becomes widespread and people fear for their lives and property, demands for a police state become almost inevitable so that order might be restored.

•
Given what is occurring in Seattle and elsewhere, it would appear we are edging closer to the day when Franklin's prophecy is fulfilled.
Victor Davis Hanson: US Constitution and traditions are under attack by Democrats (Fox 08/13/2020)
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Democrats are waging war against traditions and the Constitution.

•
Several of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates favored the abolishment of the Electoral College. ... "I plan to be the last American president to be elected by the Electoral College."

•
Furor over the Electoral College among the left arose from the 2000 and 2016 elections. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, respectively, won the popular votes. But, like three earlier presidents, they lost the Electoral College voting — and with it the presidency.

•
The Founding Fathers saw a purpose in the Electoral College. It ensured that small, rural states would retain importance in national elections.

•
The Electoral College lessens the chance of voting fraud affecting the outcome of a national vote by compartmentalizing the outcome among the various states.

•
It usually turns the presidential election into a contest between two major parties that alone have the resources to campaign nationwide.

•
The college is antithetical to the parliamentary systems of Europe. There, a multiplicity of small extremist parties form and break coalitions to select heads of state, often without transparency.

•
Yet to change the U.S. Constitution is hard — and by intent.

•
To circumvent the Constitution, Democrats have pushed "The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact," an agreement among a group of states that would force state electors to vote in accordance with the national popular vote and ignore their own state tallies.

•
Already, 15 states that have 73 percent of the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency have joined.

•
Liberal academics are supporting an array of other proposed constitutional changes as well. They ask: Why do two Wyoming senators each represent about 290,000 voters while each California senator represents 20 million?

•
Forget that the founders established a constitutional republic, not a radical democracy, in order to check and balance popular and often volatile public opinion.

•
One way was by creating an upper-house Senate that would slow down the pulse of the more populist House of Representatives.

•
Nevertheless, there is an ongoing effort to dream up ways to create more, and apparently liberal, senators — to change the rules rather than the hearts and minds of the voters.

•
... former President Barack Obama proposed giving statehood to liberal Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. That would instantly give Democrats four additional senators.

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Others want senators allotted by population. ... "The Path to Give California 12 Senators, and Vermont Just One."

•
Turning to another issue, there is nothing in the Constitution that specifies the exact size and makeup of the Supreme Court.

•
It only offers guidance on how justices are appointed and confirmed, and that there will be a chief justice.

•
But since 1869, the Supreme Court has been fixed at eight associate justices and one chief justice.

•
Democratic presidential primary candidates ... said they would consider ending that 151-year tradition and "pack" the court with additional justices...

•
The left is apparently afraid of a second Donald Trump presidential term that might allow him four or five Supreme Court picks over eight years in office.

•
The effect of such appointments could be mitigated by expanding the court to 12 or more justices, along with altering the rules for selecting them.

•
... Obama also called for an end to the Senate filibuster. He claimed it was a racist relic from the Jim Crow era used to stymie needed social change.

•
Given recent polling, Obama now apparently believes Trump will lose the election, and Congress with it.

•
But he also seems to fear that fundamental progressive transformation could be checked by a filibuster-happy Republican Senate minority.

•
Democrats were perfectly happy with the filibuster — or the mere threat of the filibuster — from 2017 to 2019, when the Democratic Senate minority blocked much of the Trump agenda.

•
But efforts to change time-honored rules for short-term gain are becoming more common.

•
Sanctuary cities nullify federal immigration law to empower illegal immigration. The nonenforcement of laws against rioting and looting has become common in big cities. The First Amendment is inert on college campuses.

•
The left should beware. Politics are volatile and often change.

•
When Democrats destroy longstanding rules for short-term advantage, they may regret it when they too are in need of sober traditions and the U.S. Constitution.
Are Today's Leftists Truly Marxists? (JWR 08/12/2020)
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Most people who call themselves Marxists know very little of Karl Marx's life and have never read his three-volume "Das Kapital."

•
Most people who call themselves Marxist have only read his 1848 pamphlet "The Communist Manifesto," which was written with Engels.

•
Marx is a hero to many labor union leaders and civil rights organizations, including leftist groups like Black Lives Matter, antifa and some Democratic Party leaders.

•
It is easy to be a Marxist if you know little of his life.

•
Marx's predictions about capitalism and the "withering away of the state" turned out to be grossly wrong.

•
What most people do not know is that Marx was a racist and an anti-Semite.

•
Many of Marx's racist ideas were reported in "Karl Marx, Racist" a book written by Nathaniel Weyl, a former member of the U.S. Communist Party.

•
Marx's anti-Semitic views were no secret. In 1844, he published an essay titled "On the Jewish Question."

•
He wrote that the worldly religion of Jews was "huckstering" and that the Jew's god was "money."

•
Marx's view of Jews was that they could only become an emancipated ethnicity or culture when they no longer exist.

•
Just one step short of calling for genocide, Marx said, "The classes and the races, too weak to master the new conditions of life, must give way."

•
Marx's philosophical successors shared ugly thoughts on blacks and other minorities. Che Guevara, a hero of the left, was a horrific racist.

•
White liberals are useful idiots. BLM, antifa and other progressive groups use the plight of poor blacks to organize left-leaning, middle-class, college-educated, guilt-ridden suburbanite whites.

•
These people who topple statues and destroy public and private property care about minorities as much as their racist predecessors.

•
Their goal is the acquisition and concentration of power and Americans have fallen hook, line and sinker for their phony virtue signaling.
Woke Foundations: Some of America's most august charitable institutions are embracing radical... (JWR 08/12/2020)
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The legacies of ... industry titans now flow to the coffers of Marxist scholars who cite racial, gender, or environmental reasons for dismantling our system of free enterprise.

•
Donor funds now go to advocacy groups looking to undermine the rule of law and eliminate the governmental and nongovernmental institutions responsible for American freedom and prosperity.

•
In recent weeks and months, these organizations have moved even further down this path in response to protests, demonstrations, and urban riots.

•
Foundations form the backbone of what some call the 'independent sector.' They operate independently of government funding or market forces — or even public opinion.

•
Yet today, foundation executives and trustees are rushing to join the new bandwagon led by Black Lives Matter and 'social justice' advocates. So much for independence.

•
What's happening in the nonprofit sector right now is a tragedy.

•
When this moment in America has passed, and we're left to deal with burned cities, vandalized buildings, and schools lost in a sea of intellectual nonsense, we could really use a foundation or two devoted to supporting the arts and humanities.
Varney: What a Kamala Harris presidency would look like (Fox 08/12/2020)
•
Kamala Harris will have a big impact on Joe Biden's campaign. It's almost a ticket of co-equals.

•
To put it bluntly, if Joe wins, Kamala could soon sit in the Oval Office. A vote for Biden is just as much a vote for Harris.

•
Sen. Harris has been selected entirely on her identity: she is a Black woman. Race and gender put her on the ticket. That's the nature of politics today in the Democratic Party. Identity rules.

•
Therefore, any criticism will immediately be considered racist and/or sexist.

•
Debate should not be stifled by this. We should be discussing policy openly and freely.

•
So what would a Harris presidency actually do? She's a radical.

•
She would decriminalize border crossing: sounds like open borders.

•
Medicare for All? Not quite. She would allow some private health insurance.

•
She likes the Green New Deal. Say goodbye to energy independence.

•
She would "study" reparations for slavery.

•
And of course, she would tax the rich and beat up big corporations.

•
That is the most progressive agenda of any candidate in recent memory.

•
Like so much in 2020, we've never seen anything like this before.
Why America Is in Real Danger (JWR 08/11/2020)
James Carafano: Election meddling — domestic threats more of a challenge than foreign (Fox 08/11/2020)
•
Washington used to abide by the maxim: "Politics stops at the water's edge." Those days are gone.

•
The apoplectic pundits would have us believe that foreign efforts to influence the elections have everything to do with helping one candidate or another win. They don't.

•
Foreign powers have tried to meddle in our elections — through overt action and covert manipulation — since we started having elections.

•
Election meddling is part of foreign statecraft. Perhaps the most expansive foreign effort to bend the American electorate came in the years leading up to Pearl Harbor.

•
Our British cousins really wanted to tilt a neutral America their way in the battle against the Axis powers.

•
Then, as now, the appropriate response to any activity that threatens election integrity is not to ask: "How can I use this to bash my political opponents?"

•
Rather, the question to ask is: "What is the appropriate, proportional and responsible way to deal with this threat?"

•
Few reports bothered to parse the nature of the threats. Generally, there are two: efforts to actually manipulate and change voting outcomes and efforts to influence voters.

•
Efforts to actually change votes are an issue that the government already takes very seriously. There is no proof that the Chinese, Russian, Iranian or any other foreign government changed or interfered with balloting during the 2016 election.

•
In gauging threats, Americans ought to be far more concerned about domestic voter fraud and the integrity of state-managed election efforts.

•
The Heritage Foundation maintains a data base, a sampling of recent cases of voter fraud around the country. It shows that domestic voter fraud is all too real and all too common.

•
Every vote cast illegally undermines the integrity of the system and the rights of legitimate voters. In close elections, fraud could undermine our democratic will.

•
Those wishing to preserve the integrity of our elections should worry less about foreign interference and concentrate on pressing state and local election authorities to adopt practices and provide oversight to assure that every legitimate vote is counted, and every bogus vote gets spotted and tossed out.

•
But what about that other phenomenon: foreign efforts to influence American voters? Certainly these efforts are being made. But how much of an impact do they have?

•
Politician, parties and PACs already spend tens-of-billions of dollars trying to influence our decisions as to who gets our votes. Influence-spending by foreign powers is but a drop in the bucket.

•
Nor are American voters hopelessly naive. Knowing that some of the voices they hear are not legit makes voters warier, making them a harder target for foreign influencers.

•
The American electorate is deeply divided. But it's divided for many reasons — reasons that have nothing to with foreign manipulation and, in most cases, are impervious to it.

•
Foreign policy issues typically take a backseat to domestic policy considerations in U.S. elections, and that certainly appears to be the case this year.

•
We can use our intelligence services to understand and undermine their actions. Civil society can help bring transparency to foreign influences. All this will mitigate the threat even further.

•
What does not help is we do our enemies work for them and use their ill-intended behavior to bash each other.
Cal Thomas: Trump on voting by mail — president is right for these reasons (Fox 08/11/2020)
•
Many Democrats claim the fear over mail-in ballots is misplaced, but the evidence proves otherwise and in close elections, especially presidential elections, a few votes either way in key states can decide the winner.

•
... "universal mail-in balloting resulted in one out of every six ballots being 'undeliverable' in a recent primary...over 223,000 ballots bounced because the addresses were incorrect or outdated."

•
Then there is the possibility of fraud. ... "Homeless people on Los Angeles' Skid Row were bribed with cash or cigarettes in exchange for bogus and forged signatures in a 'large-scale voter fraud scheme,'" according to state prosecutors.

•
For these reasons mail-in balloting should be limited and thoroughly checked.

•
Voters can practice all the things medical experts tell us to do and vote in person.

•
It is a civic duty and a privilege. It will also help reduce errors and fraud and improve the credibility and acceptance of the results.
Gregg Jarrett: Trump Russia Hoax fallout — what happens now that FBI lies have been exposed (Fox 08/11/2020)
•
The number of FBI lies keeps piling up as the bureau's sedulous cover-up of the Russia hoax continues to unravel.

•
There is now a mountain of evidence that the agency was riven with corruption during James Comey's scandal-plagued tenure.

•
Abuse of power there was so endemic that it persisted unabated by Comey's successor, Christopher Wray, who assumed leadership in August 2017.

•
The latest document declassified on Sunday proves that the FBI actively deceived the Senate Intelligence Committee when it briefed members in 2018 about its Trump-Russia collusion investigation.

•
Whoever at the FBI made these false representations should be charged with perjury and conspiracy.

•
Let's back up for a moment. It was the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee that commissioned and funded the phony dossier.

•
Steele composed it in the summer of 2016 and spoon-fed it to the FBI, as well as select members of the gullible mainstream media.

•
Those who defrauded the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gain warrant applications to spy on former Trump campaign associate Carter Page must be held accountable under the law.

•
There was never any credible evidence that Trump was a Russian asset who colluded with Moscow. There were no seditious acts that he cooked up with the Kremlin.

•
The FBI knew that it was a damning fiction that constitutes what is surely the dirtiest political trick ever perpetrated in politics.

•
The FBI and others deployed despicable tactics to destroy Trump's presidency, undo his election and drive him from office.

•
His enemies, blinded by their own political bias and personal hatred of Trump, pursued him with a vengeance.

•
... the greatest peril to democracy today is not a foreign force but a malignant force of unelected officials here at home.

•
Armed with immense power and often lurking in the shadows, they have revealed themselves capable of uncommon corruption.

•
Their allegiance is not to the Constitution and the rule of law but to themselves.

•
Personal animus and a voracious appetite for authority are what motivates their zeal.

•
They have politicized their agencies, weaponized law enforcement and persecuted people without respect for law or process.
Adonis Hoffman: Cancel culture is techno tyranny – it gives everyone the power to do this (Fox 08/10/2020)
•
Hyper partisan politics and our divided nation make it easier than ever to vilify anyone, any time in any way.

•
While cancellation may seek to stifle speech, it causes social and economic destruction as well.

•
It projects permanence and public shame for its targets whether deserved or not. And it promotes a kind of techno tyranny against which we all should be vigilant.

•
Cancel culture is not new. So let's call it what it is: a coeval form of character assassination that has gone way too far.

•
Technology today empowers anyone – everyone – to become their own media outlet.

•
It has liberated our ability to publish widely and without reserve and has allowed opinions themselves to be bountiful, ubiquitous and cheap.

•
Given such a surfeit, measuring the value of a voice has been reduced to a simple integer: the number of viewers that can be engaged.

•
Validation does not depend upon principle or prescience and neither vision nor veracity seems to count for much anymore. It's all about the looks and the likes of those who follow.

•
Consider the litany of celebrities who endorse, promote and recommend products, services and viewpoints via social media.

•
And countless others who aspire to be influencers by being louder, lewder or loftier than anyone else in the Twittersphere or on Facebook.

•
What trades for value today in the marketplace of ideas is a counterfeit notion of public discourse. But free expression of ideas is the standard currency.

•
Freedom of speech, without threat of government regulation, is a defining feature of American democracy – firmly enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

•
With very few exceptions, government restraint is not what most Americans fear. We are free to write, speak, protest against – or in favor of – just about anything or anyone in our society.

•
Our Constitution, as viewed through decades of Supreme Court jurisprudence, permits us to burn the flag, kneel at the national anthem, or call the president anything but a child of God – all with the right to bear arms at the same time.

•
It protects us when we disagree with Supreme Court decisions, a controversial war or legislation that cuts to our very core.

•
Say what you want in America, just don't yell "fire" in a crowded theater and the First Amendment will protect your speech.

•
Indeed, the true power of censorship rests with the people not the government. So we should not be surprised that, today, private actors are empowered to enforce censorship – or cancellation – over those who express unpopular opinions.

•
As such, we have come to fear those who trade in hate speech and hanging by hashtag to silence and destroy the lives and livelihoods of others. Whether Left, Right, Black or White it makes no difference.

•
Because all it takes is access to social media and you, too, can cancel your enemies of choice with impunity – whether they be caustics, cynics or merely clumsy communicators.

•
In a bygone era, we watched similar word-of-mouth campaigns conducted under the guise of "boycotts" and "blacklists." Both practices could be sinister assassins of brand and character, indelibly bruising a reputation and good name.

•
Products, events and programs were boycotted to publicly convey moral opposition to anything that was not "correct."

•
Blacklists, conversely, were among several tools used by the entrenched establishment to arrest the momentum of people with contrary views.

•
Restraint is the best way to vitiate the vitriol of cancel culture.

•
And like free expression, that is a matter of individual liberty, violently protected by our Constitution.
Michael Goodwin: Bill de Blasio doesn't care about New York City — look at his record (Fox 08/10/2020)
‘Cancel culture’ distorts history to portray US as evil nation that must be transformed (Fox 08/08/2020)
•
This has been the year of "cancel culture," with celebrities, politicians, and anyone who's ever held an opinion that is mildly divergent from the politically correct left coming under attack.

•
Amidst all the public apologies, disavowals, and firings that this political correctness crusade has wrought, the biggest victim of all has been American history.

•
And now the assault is poised to get worse. A concerted effort to revise history to fit the modern social justice narrative and insert works of fiction in our education system — from kindergarten through higher education — is well underway.

•
The 1619 Project, which describes itself as "an ongoing initiative of The New York Times Magazine," is the clearest evidence that this indoctrination has become institutionalized in the American education system — but certainly not the only evidence.

•
Despite being labeled "so wrong in so many ways" by a group of Pulitzer Prize-winning historians, the 1619 Project is set to hit K-12 classrooms this fall.

•
Soon, 6-year-olds will be learning a reframed version of America's founding, shaped to fit today's standards and train the next generation of social justice warriors.

•
According to the project's makeover of U.S. history, 1619 — not 1776, when American colonists declared independence from Britain — is actually "our nation's birth year." That's because 1619 was the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in the colonies.

•
"Their arrival inaugurated a barbaric system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the country's very origin."

•
"Out of slavery — and the anti-black racism it required — grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional: its economic might, its industrial power, its electoral system, its diet and popular music, the inequities of its public health and education, its astonishing penchant for violence, its income inequality, the example it sets for the world as a land of freedom and equality, its slang, its legal system and the endemic racial fears and hatreds that continue to plague it to this day. The seeds of all that were planted long before our official birth date, in 1776, when the men known as our founders formally declared independence from Britain."

•
In other words, the Founding Fathers were a bunch of evil white supremacists and the most important thing they did was to institute and perpetuate slavery.

•
The pace at which our educational system has removed or revised history has been staggering.

•
On many college campuses, American history courses have been replaced with mandatory "white privilege" courses or "diversity and inclusion workshops."

•
The history courses that are taught often seek to indoctrinate students with the idea that America's lasting legacy is one of genocide and oppression, not freedom and liberty for all.

•
History courses have been politicized with the clear objective of convincing the next generation that their nation is not one to be proud of, but a place they should be ashamed of.

•
This narrative of an evil America lays the foundation for the embrace of far-left ideology that would upend our entire social and economic order with endless protests and other actions — even violent ones — to transform our "evil" country into an imagined utopian society.

•
The repercussions of this massacre of our nation's history are real and significant — look no further than the images of young Americans tearing down statues and destroying vehicles of "oppression" like businesses that support capitalism and courthouses that carry out justice.

•
People aren't going to protect what they don't understand. The reason we see so many young Americans behave this way is that so many of them don't understand our history.

•
Pride in America only happens when people know what they're proud of. ... Why would someone take pride in a country when they've been taught is evil?

•
We must not stand idly by while our education system is hijacked, and our children misled and brainwashed to hate our nation instead of loving it.

•
... Americans must demand a say in what's being taught in our schools.

•
Without action, our education system will continue to indoctrinate students with anti-American propaganda, and future generations will think our culture and way of life is nothing worth preserving.

•
If that happens, we won't need to teach American Exceptionalism in schools, because America will no longer be exceptional.
Should Judge Sullivan Be Disqualified from Flynn Case? An Appeals Court Is Asking (08/08/2020)
•
Granting the Justice Department's dismissal motion would not be a judicial endorsement of the motion, much less a court ruling that Flynn is not guilty.

•
Judge Sullivan is absolutely entitled to believe the Justice Department is wrong to dismiss the case, and that Flynn is as guilty as the day is long.

•
What a judge is not entitled to do, however, is substitute his view for the prosecutor's on the question of whether a prosecution should continue.

•
In our system, separation of powers principles make that the Justice Department's call.
Judge Sullivan engaged in disqualifying “ex parte” communications (INN 08/07/2020)
High stakes of Americanists v. civilizational arsonists (JWR 08/07/2020)
•
The English department at Rutgers University, the eighth-oldest university in America, recently went woke.

•
... initiatives include "limit(ing) emphasis on grammar/sentence-level issues so as to not put students from multilingual, non-standard 'academic' English backgrounds at a disadvantage."

•
A pedagogical insistence on proper English grammar and syntax, you see, is now racist.

•
Generations of hardworking immigrants arrived on these shores from the farthest-flung reaches of the globe, toiling away in menial, minimum-wage jobs to provide their children a greater chance at success.

•
They strived to assimilate into our culture and integrate into our politics. Learning the English language was — and still is — a necessary steppingstone.

•
What was and still ought to be universally lauded is now condemned as an outmoded bigotry.

•
The Rutgers English department rejects "e pluribus unum," America's traditional motto of unity, preferring instead to stoke the flames of divisiveness.

•
Worse yet, those Rutgers feigns to help are the very ones who will be most hurt; their odds of assimilating, and therefore building distinctly American lives, will be most hindered.

•
... Princeton University ... offered its own sacrifice at the pagan altar of wokeness. On Independence Day, hundreds of Princeton faculty members co-signed a disgraceful letter to Princeton University President... That letter, echoing the worst of The New York Times' mendacious "1619 Project," baldly asserted that "anti-Blackness is foundational to America."

•
The letter includes its own overtly racist elements, such as rewarding certain faculty members with extra privileges and perks based on nothing more than their melanin levels.

•
Welcome to the world of American higher education in the year 2020, where up is down, left is right, good is bad, and right is wrong.

•
U.S. taxpayers are on the hook — via subsidized student loans, over $1 trillion in student loan debt, calamitously spiked tuition, exacerbated administrator-to-faculty ratios, the hiring of ever-more diversitycrats and the intellectual poisoning of each new generation — for the very rope to hang ourselves.

•
Let's be clear about this: We the people, one subsidized student loan and one gender-studies major at a time, are actively complicit in destroying the United States of America.

•
The propagation of a noxious myth about college as an indispensable rite of passage has now come full circle to bite us in the derriere.

•
Each generation that emerges from the smoldering ashes of the once-noble academy is further indoctrinated in insufferable anti-American, anti-Western, self-renouncing claptrap.

•
There is nothing noble about bamboozling, on the taxpayer dime, impressionable teenagers into indebting themselves to major in unemployable "academic disciplines" nonetheless feted by the woke as cutting-edge scholarship.

•
How long a society can perdure while its educational apparatus is oriented toward churning out heavily indebted pompous ignoramuses is anyone's guess. But we should not wait to find out.

•
With the possible exception of narrowly targeted investments in science and technology, it is long past time to defund American higher education of every single taxpayer dollar.

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Time to rediscover KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov (INN 08/06/2020)
•
In 1984, Bezmenov published a small book, "Love Letter to America," in which he explained, in great detail, how the communists running the USSR were working to destroy America — not using physical weapons, but through what he described as "cultural subversion.

•
The KGB, the former Soviet Union's secret police, used only 15% of its resources on traditional espionage (or "James Bond stuff," as he said) — and 85% focused on ideological and psychological warfare (cultural subversion), through the use of "active measures" to interfere in, and degrade, the affairs of enemy states.

•
These "active measures" were designed to corrupt a targeted free, self-governing country (and its elections) to the point where the people acted in the interests of the USSR, though not aware that they were doing so.

•
Around 1965, the KGB sought to undermine America's elementary schools. By now, three generations of teachers and students had been indoctrinated with subversive socialist ideologies.

•
This subversion went unchallenged by an increasing number of schools and teachers, which steadily sabotaged (and now vilifies) traditional American values.

•
As these students progressed to universities, they were not only unaware of the lies they'd been told, they were primed and receptive to higher-level indoctrination of hatred for freedom, democracy, individual rights, limited constitutional government, free enterprise, etc.

•
And once they graduated, they became the next generation of leaders, in all segments of society.

•
The "destabilization" process was accelerated by also attacking religion, primarily Judaism and Christianity, and turning peoples' attention to personal, short-term gratification, and human degradation of innumerable forms, largely through destroying the family, and the virtues of thrift, goal-setting, diligence, savings, and sobriety were gradually forgotten.

•
Further destabilization came by replacing the teaching of important core science, with an overarching emphasis on humanities.

•
America, which once was the undisputed world leader in science & technology, now is witness to the fact that a majority of students in our universities that focus on these disciplines are foreign, primarily from China, who then take what they've learned back to their home nations.

•
And in the case of China, ruled by a communist dictatorship, we are literally training (if not subsidizing) the rise of our most lethal adversary, which is now approaching the technical sophistication of all of America's weapons systems.

•
Another key facet of KGB's subversion efforts was creating a permanent "crisis" mode, with a full-scale attack on free markets and legitimate historical & constitutional organizations.

•
... the U.S. has now entered into this "civil war" stage, as violent anarchists, communists, "cancel" militants and other opportunists (including Islamists) use force to provoke attacks against statues (history) and the police in close to twenty, American cities — most of which have been "governed" at all levels by far-left "useful idiots" for decades.

•
To save freedom, Bezmenov suggested very harsh responses to those who seek to violently overthrow our Constitution, even if some liberties were temporarily suspended from the people.

•
The alternative is a full communist takeover, or an even worse invasion by a foreign enemy.

•
Bezmenov also suggested a mass public movement to remind and re-educate the population as to the virtue of traditional American values, in order to help the citizens regain their confidence in their base values.

•
While many of us are at work, America's children and young adults are being targeted by the new wave of anti-American communist propaganda...

•
How successful have the communists been at subverting American freedom — thanks to the "useful idiots" at all levels of our government, "educational" institutions, "news" industry and arts?

•
"The Communist Manifesto" is the most-assigned economics textbook in U.S. colleges, assigned more than twice as frequently as any other economics book.

•
70% of U.S. Millennials say that they would vote for a socialist for elective office.

•
36% of U.S. Millennials "approve of communism" (up from 28% in 2018).

•
83% of U.S. college graduates and 68% of elected officials cannot identify the functional differences between the free market and a command (totalitarian) economy.

•
64% of Americans overall (across political parties) now agree with Marx's core doctrine, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

•
We didn't listen to Yuri Bezmenov in 1984...
Barr’s Dilemma: How to Get Politics Out of the Justice Department (08/07/2020)
Barack Obama and His Race Card (JWR 08/06/2020)
Tyranny's first battlefield (JWR 08/05/2020)
Fact Check: Yes, the Mob Is Coming For You (JWR 08/05/2020)
•
"Protect and serve" has been replaced with "Tweet and retreat." Run and hide. Kneel and grovel.

•
If it's coming to my once-solidly conservative community, it's coming to your town, too.

•
"Announcements? Reminders? How about arrests? Pathetic response by law enforcement. Unbelievable!"

•
"(H)ow are the masked protestors who are in full tactical gear and standing down vehicles with their hands on the stocks of their rifles not menacing?"

•
"You shouldn't have to hide in your own house and be held against your will for fear of bodily harm or death."

•
"It's time to stop living in utopia instead of reality," ... Amen. Reject the lies. Ignore the smears.

•
Lock, load and lean on each other. Domestic tranquility, like anarchotyranny, doesn't just happen on its own.
Americans in surrender (JWR 08/05/2020)
•
What changed is that Americans surrendered to the narrative promulgated for so long by those who seek to undermine American comity: that American history is not the story of moving toward the fulfillment of the promises of the Declaration of Independence but of the continuous, chameleonic perversion of bigotry; that America's founding ideas were lies, then and always; that only racial identity provides credence for talking about racial inequalities.

•
The burden of proof has shifted to America's defenders.

•
And those defenders can never prove their case: first, because no country is perfect, and second, because systemic racism is a non-disprovable theory.

•
Four short years ago, we mostly assumed the best of our fellow Americans — that they weren't endemically racist, at the very least — and the best of our country's ideals.

•
No longer. The counterculture has become the culture. And that is both a tragedy and a travesty.

•
There can be no future for a country in which standing for the national anthem is considered gauche, while kneeling is considered heroic.
Michael Goodwin: Biden's basement strategy will backfire if he doesn't show up for this (Fox 08/05/2020)
•
... the mere entertaining of the idea that Biden could break with tradition that goes back nearly half a century and take a pass on face-to-face showdowns with his opponent may masquerade as strategy, but it is a sign of fear, plain and simple.

•
It is the fear that Biden will be unmasked as mentally unfit to be president.

•
His deficiencies are not a secret to those who know him, and general-election voters have a right to see them clearly before they make their final choice for the presidency.

•
So far, Biden's team hasn't suggested he won't debate Trump, but it is almost certainly something they have thought about. It's even possible they have given a silent approval to the media Praetorian Guard floating the trial balloon to see if it flies.

•
As of now, it's still flying, unmolested by any hostile fire from other top Democrats. Where are Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi? Where is the Democratic National Committee? Where is Barack Obama on this one?

•
Their silence shows they, too, want to know if the no-show ruse will work. After all, they, too, must suspect that Biden cannot go for three, 90-minute encounters with Trump and emerge intact.

•
Think what that means; it means the Biden campaign and the entire establishment of the Democratic Party are prepared to foist an impaired man into the Oval Office, uncertain that he can fulfill his duties.

•
Trump Derangement Syndrome has done some strange things to people, but this one takes the cake.

•
In reality, if it became widely understood among independent voters that the insiders wanted Biden to skip the debates because they knew he wasn't up to them, that would almost certainly lead to a Trump victory.

•
Put it this way: Why would anyone who isn't mad with Trump hatred vote for an opponent whose most intimate associates know he can't do the job?

•
If Biden doesn't show, that will be conclusive proof that he's not capable of being president.
Deroy Murdock: Trump is right about vote fraud — here’s proof (Fox 08/04/2020)
•
Hard proof of vote fraud, including mail-in-ballot crimes, is ubiquitous and swiftly accessible — unless one is blinded by Trump hatred and can't handle the truth.
Plot and Deflect. The Democrats' path to victory (INN 08/04/2020)
•
Plot and Deflect. The Democrats are working to the playbook of Alinksy and the Marxist pair.

•
"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions."

•
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions."

•
The target is President Trump as the personification of a Government they wish to overturn.

•
Plot and Deflect. Watch out! It's coming to a polling station near you.
Tom Del Beccaro: If Biden wins 2020 election, his policies would damage US in 3 major ways (Fox 08/04/2020)
•
American politics is so divided these days that, for many, defeating the other party's candidate appears to be all that matters, so much so that the candidate's policies are almost completely ignored.

•
In this election, however, that's a dangerous dynamic given that Biden's policy choices would do unprecedented damage to the United States and the world.

•
As a historical matter, the larger or more powerful representative governments become, the greater the gap between the major parties and their policies becomes.

•
Biden's Policies Would Impose An Economic Depression

•
The U.S. economy is already weak with record numbers of people on government assistance in the form of unemployment benefits and loans or grants to businesses.

•
Entire industries such as travel, schools, entertainment and restaurants are facing uncertain futures.

•
Indeed, there is no certainty they will come back to anywhere close to pre-COVID-19 levels. Even if they did, there is no certainty how long that would take.

•
... Biden's policies are particularly damaging to business startups. They will drag the economy down at a time when we need to provide incentives to start-ups – not kill them off.

•
Beyond that, Biden's war on energy will cripple an industry that has been a major source of the economic growth America has enjoyed for years.

•
Biden's Policies Would Weaken Us and Strengthen Russia, Iran and China

•
President's Trump greatest foreign policy achievement occurred without firing a shot.

•
By unleashing the American energy industry, Trump lowered the price of energy and gained new customers around the world for American oil and gas.

•
Trump's policy defunded Russia and Iran, for whom energy is their main trading commodity because they lost energy customers and access to hard currency as prices dropped.

•
A defunded Iran and Russia directly led to them being less provocative. Both have precarious economies as a matter of course because they are centrally planned.

•
Less oil money for them means they have less money to spend on terror and international intrigue.

•
Incredibly, Joe Biden wants to empower them. Biden's war on energy would raise the price of energy and put Iran and Russia back in the game.

•
Biden literally would make the United States' economy more centrally planned, weaken it, thereby hobbling U.S. foreign policy, and enable the centrally planned governments of Russia and Iran to exploit the only lifeline they have – their oil reserves.

•
The stupidity of such a policy and long-term implications cannot be understated – but it gets worse.

•
Who benefits most from a weaker United States? China.

•
China gains whenever the United States is economically weak. China is the most aggressive country in the world with enormous means. Joe Biden would unleash them as well.

•
In sum, the combination of Biden's bad economic policies will not only push the United States into a depression; it will embolden our worst enemies whose fortunes will rise.

•
Law and Order Under Biden Would Suffer Irreversible Harm

•
Law and Order, like reputations, is easier maintained than recovered.

•
... the pushover Joe Biden (as the Marxist Angela Davis has described him) will seek to redefine social justice in America at the expense of the rule of law.

•
Finally, Democrats in Congress will reinstate discredited investigations of Republicans.

•
Meanwhile, law and order in our major cities will continue to decline while the 2nd Amendment is assaulted as never before.

•
Overall, between his economic policies that will result in a depression and his social justice policies, Biden will plunge America into a new round of class warfare that will reach unprecedented heights.

•
As we turn on each other, our attention from the world will be averted. That will give freer rein to the actions of Iran, Russia and China.

•
That's what lies ahead under a Joe Biden presidency – elections have consequences and policy matters.
Here's how to stop cancel-culture mob, violent anarchists from remaking our country (Fox 08/04/2020)
•
I've always said that our goals inform the paths we choose. You can tell a lot about a person — or, a political movement — by how they choose to persuade the masses.

•
Ask yourself, what do their tactics look like? Are their tactics effective, if peaceful? Or, are their efforts repression dressed up as resistance?

•
Once you figure that out, you can get a pretty good idea whose side they're on.

•
The so-called "resistance" decided on an acceptably woke, conveniently fluid narrative long before George Floyd's brutal murder sent police reform protesters pouring into the streets ... and now, they've weaponized those moving goalposts against anyone who steps out of line.

•
The result? An America under siege by the left's political mob, hell-bent on remaking the world's shining city on a hill in their own image. It's the very thing our Constitution is meant to protect against.

•
Make no mistake — this is nothing less than an attempt to extort compliance from the American people.

•
The left wants you to know that all of this violence and unrest is on you. But, if you fall in line, we will go away. If you comply with our demands, we will refrain from confiscating your livelihood.*

•
Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution will gather for a hearing examining how we as Americans can protect our right to freedom of speech in the face of anarchist violence.

•
... we're going to do all we can to loosen the stranglehold that these activists have on the American consciousness.

•
The radical left is attacking not only the spirit of the First Amendment, but our very sense of unity, and the spoils of this brewing war will be the right to re-mold the American identity.

•
We're counting on our local officials to stand strong against violence and intimidation, and enforce law and order.

•
Community leaders must step up and do what they can to bring people together.

•
Most importantly, the American people must punch through the rhetoric and remind each other what we, the people stand for.
Michael Goodwin: Mail-in ballot problems — here are issues the left ignores (Fox 08/03/2020)
•
A fundamental and tragic fact of life in America today is that whatever President Trump is for, most media and half the country instantly reject.

•
Even when he's clearly right, the zombie-like resistance leaps into frenetic opposition.

•
Trump insists that the plans of some states, such as California and Colorado, to counter the pandemic by mailing a ballot to every registered voter is a formula for disaster.

•
It will, the president says, guarantee mayhem and cast doubts on the November results.

•
Nonsense, shout the usual suspects. That's unfounded, he's making it up, there's no evidence, blah blah blah.

•
Ah, but there is evidence. Lots of it, and right in front of us, thanks to the continuing saga of two New York congressional races.

•
Five weeks after the Democratic primaries, no winners have been declared. Results for two others were delayed for three weeks.

•
State officials, who included pre-stamped return envelopes when they sent the ballots, apparently didn't know that such envelopes often don't get postmarked.

•
Thus, there is no way to know if those ballots were marked and mailed by Election Day.

•
In some cases, ballots were returned late because election officials did not send them to voters until the day before the primary.

•
Some lacked signatures and ran afoul of other technicalities.

•
That's smoking-gun evidence of chaos and grounds to doubt the accuracy of the final outcome.

•
Now imagine the enormous opportunity for mischief and mistakes if every state opts for universal mail-in and 160 million ballots are mailed to registered voters and back to election offices in the fall.

•
Nothing like it has ever been attempted, so to assume it would go smoothly is beyond foolish. Indeed, it would be a miracle if it weren't a disaster.

•
And not just for the presidential election. Congressional, state and local races all could be upended by ballot issues and disputes.

•
By comparison, fights over hanging chads in one state would seem like a walk in the park.

•
So Trump wins the argument, right? On the merits, he does, but he doesn't make it easy for himself or his supporters.

•
Sometimes a tweet is just a tweet, and sometimes it's an exploding cigar. He specializes in the latter.

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The president, who has cited the New York cases as examples, drew heated attention by tweeting a suggestion that the November election be delayed because a national mail-in plan would cause the most "fraudulent election in history."

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"It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

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In a nanosecond, the chattering class declared the end of the world was near. Even some allies were alarmed, with Steven Calabresi, co-founder of the Federalist Society, calling for a new impeachment of the president.

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Eight hours later, Trump said never mind, suggesting the initial tweet was intentional misdirection. "Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting..."

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In a later press conference, he went further, saying "Do I want to see a date change? No," Trump said, "but I don't want to see a crooked election."

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The incident was a good example of how his instinctive habit of poking the hornet's nest can result in his getting stung and valid policies getting overshadowed.

•
Of course, the backlash also proved that the media don't want to confront the obvious problems of mail-in ballots — for the obvious reason.

•
Many are openly hostile to Trump and don't seem to mind whether the results are trustworthy nearly as much as they want the result to be that Joe Biden wins.

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So while the president got them talking about the issue, what they were saying, and still are, is that Trump is a threat to democracy.

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He's not. That dishonor belongs to those who can't see straight because of their hatred for him.

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The left's endorsement of riots, its support for China and its disdain for the police, American history and culture are tearing this country apart.

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And now the same people are willing to let the election be thrown into chaos because Trump dared to point out problems.

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No tweet, no matter how off-key, can match the danger of their madness.
Cancel culture is Stalinism. Ask Mike Adams (INN 08/02/2020)
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"A friend of mine died this week and people across the country celebrated his death."

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Mike S. Adams shot himself. ... Adams, who was a professor of criminology at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, had been forced to resign as of August 1, following two student petitions asking for his expulsion for posting "offensive" comments on social media.

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The University had denounced his words as "unjustifiable" , while the petitions grinded 88,000 signatures and the entrance to the faculty was dominated by a rock with the words "Fire Mike Adams" .

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On May 28, in the wake of protests for George Floyd, the professor had written: "Do not close the universities. Close non-essential majors. Like women studies" .

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When university chancellor Jose Sartarelli announced that Adams would be leaving on August 1, the professor replied with a tweet: "Many young people are depressed because they have been taught to feel constantly offended."

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Referring to the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement, Adams wrote: "The violent outrage of white liberals taking to the streets is brought to you by your local university. None of this would be possible without the encouragement of academic extremists who have hijacked the system of higher education."

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He seemed to love controversy, from attacks on abortion (his last tweet before death) to criticism of LGBT groups, so much so that he became a hero of Rush Limbaugh's conservative America.

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He had published numerous books, most recently "Letters to a Young Progressive: How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things You Don't Understand" .

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Local movie stars, such as Orlando Jones, and teachers from other universities, including 270 criminologists, had also mobilized in support of his expulsion.

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"2020 success, having survived Mike Adams" , people tweeted after his suicide.

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Mike Adams had ... been properly and viciously broken. And too many, perhaps, were looking forward to his self-cancellation.

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We have seen this phenomenon before.

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Where? In Moscow in 1937. Because cancel culture is pure Stalinism.
Trump was personally targeted by FBI probe during Obama administration, new disclosures show (Fox 08/01/2020)
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... the target of the probe spearheaded by the FBI — but greenlighted by the Obama White House, and abetted by the Justice Department and U.S. intelligence agencies — was Donald Trump.

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Not the Trump campaign, not the Trump administration. Those were of interest only insofar as they were vehicles for Trump himself.

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In collusion with the Clinton campaign, and with the complicity of national security officials who transitioned into the Trump administration, the Obama White House deployed the FBI to undermine the new president, dually using official investigative tactics (e.g.

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FISA surveillance, confidential informants, covert interrogations) and lawless classified leaks — the latter publicized by dependable journalists who were (and remain) politically invested in unseating Trump.

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You don't like Donald Trump? Fine. The investigation here was indeed about Donald Trump.

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But the scandal is about how abusive officials can exploit their awesome powers against any political opponent.

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And the people who authorized this political spying will be right back in business if, come November, Obama's vice president is elected president — notwithstanding that he's yet to be asked serious questions about it.

•
It seems mind-boggling that, for so long, the FBI and Justice Department were able to keep a lid on the documents now being released.

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President Trump could have directed their disclosure at any time over the last four years.

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But when you think about it, concealing the paper trail was the easy part.

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The real challenge was: How to continue the probe even after Trump had taken office and was, at least nominally, in a position to shut it down?
Culture War Lost (JWR 07/31/2020)
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So much of our lives have been drastically altered this year, and maybe for years to come.

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Disease, economic ruination, street riots, and divisiveness are everywhere.

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What happened to civilized society? What changed the United States of America so drastically so quickly?

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How is it that we have been so willing to allow ourselves to lockdown our lives by liberal mayors and governors?

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Why is the younger generation in particular so afraid to stand up and speak out against the tyranny of progressive policies that are eroding the very essence of free speech, freedom of worship, and our other rights as enumerated in the Constitution?

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Any honest clear-thinking adult knows damn well that this country does not practice nor endorse bigotry, racism or animus toward any minority group, least of all the blacks.

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A black man was elected president twice by mostly white voters; blacks have more opportunity in the United States than in any other country on earth.

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Any yet to see the level of rioting, looting, maiming, and killing in our cities one would think that this country is rounding up and gassing blacks in concentration camps.

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Where are the common sense Americans that should know better?

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Why are the major corporations, sports leagues, and other institutions jumping on the bandwagon with the anarchists and troublemakers?

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Why do so many of our fellow citizens have no love of our country? What happened to the nuclear family?

•
Where is the America we all once knew? What exactly happened?

•
The answer to all this is not a mystery, really. This has been in the works for decades, moving at a slow pace, but incrementally changing our culture bit by bit with each succeeding generation.

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Only now it's been ramped up, going on hyper warped speed. Many people have just awakened to a place they never knew they were living in.

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It's shameful that our so-called conservative leaders have either willingly or stupidly relinquished the reins of culture to the people on the left.

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Literally everything from school curriculum, to personal relationships, to family structure, to entertainment, to music, to art, to even the very words we use in the public square have been hijacked by the progressives.

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And the people we elect to represent us have allowed this to happen over the years right under our noses.

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Year after year, generation after generation no one has challenged the progressive ideology that has seeped into our society.

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When colleges and universities instituted "safe spaces" on campus, which is nothing more than a way of limiting freedom of speech and thought, no one made a peep.

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When the left frames every issue using twisted, Orwellian language to confuse and obfuscate the truth, no one from the other side jumps up and says "No, that's a lie! That's not true!"

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And where were the elected conservatives when the progressive groups and the teachers unions rewrote the textbooks that went into out public schools and into our children's brains?

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Why wasn't anyone aware that American history was being altered, and in many cases eliminated, to fit an agenda of anti-American multicultural victimhood?

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Where was our PTA when citizenship, patriotism, good behavior, virtuousness, and God were thrown out of the classrooms?

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Why didn't anyone on the conservative side do something when the performing arts (movies, television, music) turned so disgusting and vile?

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Why didn't anyone question why most of our popular media hammers our young people with far-left anti-traditional, anti-religious ideology?

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Why didn't someone see a problem with young men being pushed out of mainstream society by feminist organizations who clearly hate males more than they love females?

•
When labeling only two sexes (male and female) were dismissed by the "woke" leftists as discriminatory and non-inclusive, where were the adults in the room to say "That's nonsense! Like it or not, there are only two sexes!"

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The left began with changing words, now they aim to change the natural human condition.

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Grade school youngsters are taught that marrying a member of your own sex is just as wonderful, just as normal as marrying a member of the opposite sex.

•
What we are seeing play out in the streets of America, in the sports stadiums, in the board rooms and newsrooms, and in just about every aspect of our daily lives in 2020 is a direct result of not paying attention to how our culture was being manipulated and changed over the course of the last 50 years.

•
President Reagan once warned that we are but one generation away from losing our country if we don't fight for it and teach its values to our children.

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Mainstream America left it up to the traditional conservative leaders to fight the good fight, but they abandoned the American culture to the left.

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Several generations have grown up since. The United States of America will undoubtedly go on, but it will never be the same unless conservatives can reclaim the culture.
Deroy Murdock: Orwellian Democrats claim Portland's violence = peace (Fox 07/31/2020)
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"Do you disavow the violence from Antifa that's happening in Portland right now?" journalist ... asked Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y...

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"That's a myth that's being spread only in Washington, D.C.," Nadler replied.

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Clearly enraged by the Trump administration's surge of federal officers sent to Portland to combat the carnage that is not happening there, Nadler said, "The president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered."

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The Judiciary chairman added: "Now you are projecting fear and violence nationwide in pursuit of obvious political objectives. Shame on you, Mr. Barr. Shame on you."

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"The playbook is to create the impression that there is violence, that he must send in federal troops. And that is how he [President Trump] hopes to win the election."

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"People are showing up because the troops are there," added Lofgren. "Most of them are non-violent."

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Of course, as a 13-term congresswoman, Lofgren knows the difference between troops, who are not there, and federal civilian officers, who are confronting the impression of violence.

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"Most of the protests have been peaceful, Mr. Barr. You know that. In most of these cities, the protests had begun to wind down before you marched in and confronted the protesters."

•
Unlike House Democrats, who mainly told Barr to shut up, Republicans introduced a radical reform: They asked Barr questions and let him answer.

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He listed "rifles, explosives, knives, saws, sledgehammers, Tasers, slingshots, rocks, bricks, lasers. Have I missed anything?"

•
"You have missed some things, but that's a good list," Barr replied. "They have these powerful slingshots with ball bearings that they shoot. They have used pellet guns, we believe. We have found those projectiles have penetrated Marshals to the bone. They use the lasers to blind the Marshals. They do start fires. They start fires, if they can get the fire inside or through the windows. And they start fires along the outside of the courthouse. When the Marshals come out to try to deal with the fires, they are assaulted."

•
"Federal courthouses are under attack," Barr reminded the Committee on the Judiciary, no less.

•
Seemingly exasperated with oblivious, or totally dishonest, Democrats, Barr wondered: "Since when is it OK to try to burn down a federal court? If someone went down the street to the Prettyman Court here, that beautiful courthouse we have right at the bottom of the Hill, and started breaking windows and firing industrial grade fireworks, and, to start a fire, throw kerosene balloons and start fires in the court. Is that OK? Is that OK now?"

•
According to DHS, "Violent anarchists targeted surveillance cameras around the Hatfield Courthouse, rendering them inoperable."

•
"I watched as injured officers were hauled inside. In one case, the commercial firework came over so fast the officer didn't have time to respond. It burned through his sleeves & he had bloody gashes on both forearms. Another had a concussion from being hit in the head w/ a mortar."

•
"The lights inside the courthouse have to be turned off for safety & the light from high-powered lasers bounced across the lobby almost all night. The fear is palpable. Three officers were struck in the last few weeks & still haven't regained their vision."

•
DHS's deployment to Portland is not ritual chest-beating. It's not toxic masculinity. It's the law.

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According to 40 U.S. Code § 1315, the Secretary of Homeland Security "shall protect the buildings, grounds, and property that are owned, occupied, or secured by the Federal Government."

•
Acting Secretary Chad Wolf would break federal law if he left the courthouse undefended and let Antifa & Co. burn it to the ground.

•
Of course, if the Hatfield Courthouse went up in smoke, the same people decrying President Trump's supposed fascism would erupt like Klaxons: "Why didn't he stop this? He was asleep at the switch! Wake up, Mr. President!"

•
Attorney General Barr had every reason to be perplexed by the radical Democrats' institutional indifference toward these relentless onslaughts against federal personnel and what they are guarding: a palace of justice.

•
"What makes me concerned for the country is this is the first time in my memory that the leaders of one of our great two political parties, the Democratic Party, are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts," Barr said.

•
"Why can't we just say violence against federal courts has to stop? Could we hear something like that?"
Tucker Carlson: America is witnessing a brazen power grab (Fox 07/31/2020)
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None of what you are watching is about civil rights. Violence and race-baiting are the enemies of civil rights.

•
What you're watching instead is a power grab. It's being coordinated by the most ruthless and cynical figures in American politics. They don't want you to know what they're doing. They're not honorable enough to state their intentions.

•
They accuse you of the crimes they themselves are committing. It makes your head spin. Arguing with them is pointless, by the way, they're nihilists.

•
They don't believe in the existence of truth or in the fixed meaning of words.

•
They care only about power. It's painful to say this. It hurts to admit there are people in our country who are like this, but there are, and they have more power than ever.

•
If you need more evidence of that, Barack Obama showed up at Congressman John Lewis' funeral today. Obama claimed he was there to eulogize his own friend, but that's not true, and that's not what he did. Instead, Obama gave a divisive and deeply dishonest campaign speech in church.

•
BARACK OBAMA: "By ending some of the partisan gerrymandering so that all voters have the power to choose their politicians, not the other way around."

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"And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that's what we should do."

•
... take three steps back, imagine if some greasy politician showed up at your loved one's funeral and started throwing around stupid partisan talking points about Senate procedure, can you imagine that?

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Desecrating a funeral with campaign slogans? What kind of person would do that? But Democrats in the audience didn't seem offended. They didn't blink, they cheered. It all seemed normal to them, and why wouldn't it?

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Political power is their religion. It's not out of place in a church. It's what they worship.

•
People who will politicize a funeral will do anything, and they're trying to. Democrats are working systematically to dismantle the core institutions of American life, beginning with the family and with faith.

•
They're subverting the core system in our government, the justice system.

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They're nullifying laws, burning police stations, attacking courthouses, working to eliminate the legal equality of American citizens, the foundation of it all.

•
They've systematically repurposed Federal law enforcement agencies as political weapons. They have imprisoned their political opponents.

•
Their leaders have called for making all of these changes permanent by packing the Supreme Court, packing the United States Senate, packing the electorate itself by importing tens of millions of new voters.

•
They're doing this for one reason: to ensure they have complete control of the United States.

•
We're watching it happen right now, though almost no one ever admits it and those who do come close to getting shut down.

•
So how should the rest of us respond to what we're seeing? ... everyone who fundamentally loves this country, which is still most Americans. What are people like that do in the face of this?

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Well, it's simple. Defend the system that we have. That's our job.

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The American system is flawed. No one doubts that, but it works better than any other system in history and tearing it down will not help. In fact, it will benefit only a few of the ones pushing for it, and it will crush millions.

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So if you care about the United States, fight for its institutions. They have served us well.

•
This country has survived almost 250 years through a Civil War. Let's keep going.

•
A bewildered population, dealing with change from every possible direction cannot fight back. That's why they're doing it.

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So our job is to defend what we already have as a nation and to promote the continuation of it.

•
Keeping things the same has never been more important than it is right now.

•
See related Miss Me? (Glenn McCoy, 02/28/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Adriana Cohen: Congress should break up Big Tech — companies are far too powerful (Fox 07/31/2020)
•
Monopolistic companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple and others have become far too powerful.

•
They thwart competition and abuse their power, whether it's by failing to protect users' privacy and data or by controlling one of our most basic freedom — free speech — in hopes of influencing, if not, swaying elections.

•
These actions warrant congressional intervention, especially given Silicon Valley's well-known political bias against conservatives — including the president of the United States of America.

•
President Trump's tweets are routinely "fact-checked" and censored, for example, while his political opponents are not.

•
This rigged system has far-reaching consequences that, among other things, shape public opinion and culture and taint America's standing in the world, while diminishing our collective rights.

•
Take Apple. If you ask Siri what "demon" means, she says "an evil spirit or devil, especially one thought to possess a person or act as a tormentor in hell." The second definition Siri offers is "a cruel, evil, or destructive person or thing." Now, brace yourself for Siri's third definition: a police officer.

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"Big Tech Bias in America is real — and it's disgusting. Apple's Siri defines 'demon' as 'a police officer.' Go ahead and try it. Apple needs to answer for why they're instigating this kind of hate in America."

•
Indeed. Especially when you consider that as of April 2017 there were 728 million iPhones in use worldwide, according to Statista, including at least 100 million users in the U.S.

•
The far-left radicals at Apple Inc. are indoctrinating users to believe law enforcement officers are demons.

•
This not only maligns police officers' character, including black cops and other minorities in uniform, but also puts cops lives at risk given today's extremely volatile political climate.

•
Then there's Twitter silencing conservatives en masse. This week, the social network censored tweets by the president and his son Donald Trump Jr. for sharing a viral video of doctors speaking about the purported benefits of hydroxychloroquine, a controversial medicine that some experts claim helps COVID-19 patients.

•
"A Henry Ford Health System study shows the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine helps lower the death rate of COVID-19 patients, the Detroit-based health system said Thursday."

•
"Officials with the Michigan health system said the study found the drug 'significantly' decreased the death rate of patients involved in the analysis."

•
Nonetheless, the overlords at Twitter still censored the tweets.

•
But that's not all. Google, Facebook and Twitter have also been censoring the right-leaning news site Breitbart.

•
... Breitbart's Google search traffic is down over 99 percent since May. "If you want to search for Joe Biden or Biden, the chances of you getting a Breitbart article are virtually zero."

•
See how election meddling works?

•
Conservative voices are being silenced across the spectrum leading up to the November election, while those on the left continue to get full access to voters.

•
This corrupt system cannot stand in a democracy. Congress must act.
Our summer of cultural suicide (JWR 07/30/2020)
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Cultural suicide used to be a popular diagnosis of why things suddenly just quit.

•
Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off.

•
Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences.

•
*Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors' respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence.

•
At this late date, all that matters is that the country itself learns from these suicidal examples and heals itself.

•
If the U.S. is not to become an extinct Easter Island, it must rediscover a respect for its past, honor for the dead who gave us so much, the desire to invest rather than spend, and a need for some sense of transcendence.

•
If we do not believe that what we do today has consequences for our children after we are gone, there are ancient existential forces in the world that will intervene.

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And it won't be nice.
By any other name (JWR 07/30/2020)
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Politicians and various social justice groups have long used labels that have nothing to do with the real intent of legislation, or an organization, to dupe the public.

•
Numerous "civil rights" bills have been passed by Congress over the years that have nothing to do with civil rights, but how many members are brave enough to point that out and vote against them?

•
Which brings me to the Black Lives Matter movement.

•
How many mainstream reporters have bothered to delve into the background and founding principles of the rapidly spreading organization to which even white CEOs are contributing gobs of money in what appears to be an attempt to protect themselves and their businesses from any potential charge of racism?

•
... the founding principles of BLM include a guaranteed minimum income for all black people, free health care, free schooling, free food, free real estate, gender reassignment surgery, free abortion...

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Washington, D.C.'s local BLM chapter has even called for "no new jails"... BLM also demands reparations and wants to create a "global liberation movement" that will "overturn U.S. imperialism (and) capitalism."

•
"Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a newly surfaced video from 2015 that she and her fellow organizers are 'trained Marxists'."

•
"Cullors, 36, was the protege of Eric Mann, former agitator of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization, and spent years absorbing the Marxist-Leninist ideology that shaped her worldview."

•
Driving through what appeared to be a mostly white neighborhood in Washington, D.C., last weekend I was surprised, though I probably shouldn't have been, to see quite a view "Black Lives Matter" signs on front lawns and on cars. A few friends have posted the BLM sign on their social media pages.

•
I wonder if any of these people know the background and goals of the movement, or the radical ideology behind it.

•
There are a growing number, especially among the young, who have been "educated" in our once-great universities by some professors who support the BLM movement and promote similar or identical ideologies.

•
Part of what they are taught is that America began as a white, slave-owning patriarchy and that slaves actually built America. They quickly absorb this, then come home to tell their parents they are part of the problem.

•
This is a major reason school choice is important if the nation is to be preserved.

•
Black lives matter because like all lives, everyone is endowed with unalienable rights. But the BLM movement might be more harmful than helpful to African Americans.

•
BLM's foundational principles and goals seem closer to those of China and the former Soviet Union.

•
If more people understood that, they might wake up and realize that the United States, as Ronald Reagan used to say, is only one generation from losing it all.
Rep. Ken Buck: 2020 election is opportunity for conservatives to stand up to cancel-culture mob (Fox 07/29/2020)
•
The cancel culture continues to gain momentum, as more statues across the nation are toppled, and sports teams, major food brands and even music bands are succumbing to pressure to change their names.

•
The logical question on many Americans' minds is: When does this all end?

•
To understand where this war on our history ends, we have to examine its roots and its underlying causes.

•
Over the years, a toxic idea has emerged on college campuses. Students have demanded that college campuses become so-called "safe spaces."

•
The argument in favor of safe spaces goes something like this: that which challenges me, that which offends me, that which makes me uncomfortable must be silenced or shut down. Canceled, in other words.

•
The advocates for canceling American history are fixated on one narrative – that America is irredeemably flawed and oppressive.

•
The least safe idea, from their perspective, is that America's founders put into motion the greatest political experiment in human history that has led to more freedoms for more people than any past system.

•
The greatness of America's founding is a fact, but it disrupts their conclusion, so it must be canceled.

•
One of the exceptional aspects of our system of government is that we are a republic, not a democracy (despite what progressives say).

•
The founders understood that both democracies and republics present challenges. The difference is that democracies all suffer the same fate, suicide, as John Adams pointed out; republics, by contrast, require constant vigilance, but at least provide the hope of survival.

•
That our republic has lasted 244 years is strong proof that our founders were on the right track.

•
Our founders knew that republican government was a necessity for our nation's survival but that it alone was insufficient. Republics require that each generation commit to our founding ideals.

•
The legend is that Benjamin Franklin was asked, upon exiting the Constitutional Convention of 1787, what form of government we would have.

•
His quip, "A republic, if you can keep it," has been an enduring reminder to generations of Americans ever since that we share the responsibility for keeping the republic.

•
The tenuous nature of republican government means personal responsibility plays a significant role in American culture. Progressives reject the concept of personal freedom because of what it demands of us.

•
The progressives' assault on American greatness goes straight to the Declaration of Independence.

•
The document is a marvel and is the strongest demonstration of American exceptionalism.

•
Through Jefferson's words, we gave birth not only to a new nation but to an entirely new arrangement between humans and their government.

•
G.K. Chesterton, in his commentaries on America, remarked on the significance of the Declaration of Independence. "America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.... It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just."

•
Therein lies the heart and soul of the Declaration, and it gives insight into why progressives, so determined to undermine America, attack the document.

•
The Declaration of Independence defined individual liberty in a way that had never been done before, and it defined our rights as being God-given.

•
The Declaration of Independence did something even the founders did not fully anticipate. It put into motion the abolition of slavery.

•
Progressives have championed historical nonsense such as the 1619 Project, which attempts to make slavery the sine qua non of our nation's founding.

•
In reality, slavery was an affront to America's ideals, and to the very language of the Declaration of Independence, and that is why the institution was done away with.

•
Elections almost always come down to one central question. This year's election question is a nod to Benjamin Franklin: Is our republic worth keeping?

•
The cancel crowd tells us there is nothing worth preserving in our history, and we should systematically attack, destroy, rewrite and rename.

•
For the rest of us, November provides an opportunity for us to take personal responsibility for keeping our republic.

•
Will that be easy? No, of course not. But nothing worth doing ever is.
In Seattle, Portland left's willingness to tolerate violence should frighten all Americans (Fox 07/29/2020)
•
"Mostly peaceful." So goes the characterization of demonstrations that have routinely turned into looting and rioting for months on end, from Portland to Seattle to New York to Los Angeles.

•
"Protesters in California set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station and assaulted officers after a peaceful demonstration intensified."

•
... the Los Angeles Times noted, "The third night of countywide curfews followed days of massive, mostly peaceful protests ... Nearly 1,200 people were arrested Sunday after police officers clashed with demonstrators and looters shattered windows and emptied stores in Santa Monica and Long Beach."

•
When anti-lockdown protesters descended on the Michigan state capitol, a columnist for The New York Times labeled them "armed rebels," despite a complete lack of violence.

•
In truth, the category of "mostly peaceful" is a brand-new invention meant to obscure the simple fact that many of our cultural elites are fine with violence so long as those who engage in such violence have the proper goals.

•
Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the pseudo-historical 1619 Project, celebrated when critics labeled rioting and looting "the 1619 riots" ; she added that destruction of property was "not violence."

•
This week, Democrats grilling Attorney General Bill Barr could not be bothered to condemn violence, prompting Barr to rant, "What makes me concerned for the country is this is the first time in my memory the leaders of one of our great two political parties, the Democratic Party, are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts."

•
This should come as little surprise, given that those same cultural elites have cheered on massive protests in a time of a deadly pandemic, explaining that sometimes politics is just too important to stop a raging disease.

•
Our journey back to the 1960s is nearly complete. Too many Americans have rejected some of the key lessons of that time — that a breakdown in law and order costs lives, that political change does not require violence — in favor of a newfound sense of purpose.

•
These Americans will pat the violent vanguard of revolution on the head, content that they will not pay the price, all the while maintaining that those who crave law and order stand for regressive autocracy.

•
With Democrats and those in the media willing to run cover for violent leftists, the thin veneer of civilization disintegrates.

•
When violence is excused as speech and speech by the opposition labeled violence, democracies die.

•
With each passing day of silence by those who should know better — or worse, those propagandizing on behalf of those who engage in criminal activity — America draws closer to the brink.
Tucker Carlson: Big Tech censors COVID-19 video featuring doctors (Fox 07/29/2020)
•
In an election year, everything significant that happens is about the election. So all of these developments are in fact related, and here's the core question in every election. Who is up and who is down?

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As of tonight, the president is down double digits in the polls and there's not much question about why that is.

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Americans are miserable. They're stuck at home. They are fearful. Millions of them don't have jobs.

•
The percentage of Americans who believe our country is headed in the right direction has dropped off a cliff since this spring.

•
Not coincidentally, that's when a strange new virus from China began to spread among our population.

•
The rise of COVID-19 in the United States tracks almost precisely the decline of Donald Trump's approval numbers and the political lesson from this is clear.

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The more damage the Wuhan coronavirus does to America, the harder it is for the President to get reelected.

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If the population remains terrified, Democrats will have more power in January.

•
So the Democratic Party has every incentive to keep Americans afraid and off balance. For the next 97 days, they plan to do that.

•
That is their entire campaign strategy. It's the only thing they're running on.

•
Yesterday, the news site Breitbart posted a video of a group of physicians giving a press conference about medical advances in the fight against COVID-19. Some of the news that doctors delivered was hopeful because there is hopeful news to report.

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Any scientific advancement that reduces the suffering of Americans in an election year is a threat to Joe Biden's campaign. So they decided to pull that video off the internet.

•
While the rest of us were sleeping, or in the case of so many of our senators, taking payoffs from Google, a tiny number of left-wing corporations took virtually complete control of all news and information in this country.

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Now, if Democrats want to erase a politically inconvenient news story fewer than a hundred days before an election, they can do that, and they did do it.

•
They pulled the video of doctors in lab coats talking about coronavirus research, and they hid that video from the public. It's exactly what the Chinese government so often does, except when Silicon Valley erases your freedoms, they lecture you as they do it.

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They've got all the ruthlessness of Chinese authoritarians, but with double the self-righteousness. It's the American version.

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The science on hydroxychloroquine is not settled either way. Science rarely is settled. That's why it's science and not, for example, radical feminist theory.

•
Science is constantly evolving as we test and retest our assumptions against observed reality. That's the whole point of science.

•
"The Daily Beast" attacked Dr. Immanuel for the crime of getting her medical degree in Africa and then suggested she believed in witchcraft because you know, Africans do that, right?

•
So political correctness is fine with "The Daily Beast" most of the year, but this is election season so Dr. Immanuel must be destroyed. "The Daily Beast" was happy to help achieve that.

•
So by the way, with the think tank libertarians, including some still posing as conservatives, people you read, people who work for places you probably have sent money to.

•
You saw them on Twitter today, hopefully reminding you that this variety of censorship isn't really censorship because the government isn't doing it.

•
They didn't explain exactly why that distinction matters to anyone. In fact, censorship is always bad, whether it's imposed by Congress or whether it's imposed by monopolies that only exist because they receive special carve-outs granted to them by Congress.

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Censorship is always wrong. Censorship does not improve public health. In fact, it threatens public health.

•
The authorities responsible for containing this pandemic clearly have failed. We know that. Some of them are decent people. They're trying their best.

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But despite their efforts, they've frequently been wrong. We know that because it's on tape.

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So what we desperately need now, as we always do in crisis, and especially in a crisis that can be solved by science is more voices in the conversation, not fewer.

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As we learn more, our conclusions change. Legitimate scientists understand that. That's called the scientific method.

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Big Tech companies don't care one way or the other because their goal is not the truth. Their goal is to control the outcome of an election. It's not to protect public health.

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This isn't about public health, and it's not about science. It never was. It's about power.

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And no one in the history of the world has ever had more power than Google and Facebook have right now.

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So we should have seen this coming. People with power abuse that power and people who have absolute power abuse it absolutely, as we learned.

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See related What Bias? (Gary Varvel, 06/13/2019) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Rioters are seditionists, not protesters (JWR 07/28/2020)
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These protesters, who appear to be mostly spoiled, mostly white, and mostly young, have likely been radicalized in their universities and on social media. They are destroyers, not builders.

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Elected leaders who refuse to stop them are as guilty of abetting a crime as the driver of the getaway car after a bank robbery.

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The president is right to put a stop to this just as he would be right to order the military to oppose an outside enemy seeking to destroy the nation.

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If these anarchists are allowed to get away with their crimes, there will be more anarchy.

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Peace through strength is not just a slogan to be invoked when fighting foreign enemies and terrorists.

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It is also a policy that will deter this spoiled mob that has no gratitude for a nation that has given them everything and to which they have returned little.

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They should be arrested, prosecuted and locked up so that order may be restored.
James Carafano: In Portland, Seattle, Homeland Security is facing organized, criminal activity (Fox 07/28/2020)
•
Critics assailing the Department of Homeland Security for "over-stepping their bounds" in Portland have it 100 percent wrong. The department is in the right.

•
Further, its actions thus far should just be the first step in disrupting the organized violence aimed at intimidating public officials, injuring law enforcement officers, destroying public and private property and making our streets less safe.

•
Let's be clear. We are not talking about "peaceful protests." What is going on in Portland, as well as Seattle and some other is an array of criminal activity: rioting, looting, arson, assaulting law enforcement officers and more. This is flat out criminal activity.

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And it is not all spontaneous. This is organized criminal activity.

•
... the rioters are targeting cities where public officials have created a more permissive environment. They have restricted the actions of local and state law enforcement. When rioters are arrested, they release them quickly, refusing to prosecute.

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Moreover, these officials refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement. In sum, they have turned their cities into "soft targets" for criminals.

•
... it is clear that many of the crimes committed are premeditated. Rioters show up armed with commercial fireworks, chain saws, crowbars, frozen water bottles, laser pointers (that have already injured the eyesight of several law enforcement personnel), leaf blowers (to disperse tear gas) and metal spikes (to incapacitate the tires of law enforcement vehicles).

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People planning to conduct a peaceful protest would have no use for any of these items.

•
They have no defensive value. These are nothing more — or less — than weapons intended to be used to attack property and injure law enforcement personnel.

•
In addition, the rioters appear to be changing and adapting tactics as time goes on.

•
After the Department of Homeland Security deployed to protect the courthouse, groups soon appeared to protect the rioters.

•
These included "moms" in yellow shirts (several identified by a reporter at the scene as the same rioters they had seen days before); flag-waving "patriots" and then "vets."

•
That such groups would spontaneously materialize in succession and show-up in the middle of post-midnight riots seems unlikely.

•
Criminals — whatever their motivations — have hijacked legitimate demonstrations, transforming them into lawless, violent mobs that deny citizens equal protection under the law, make our streets less safe, and threaten the safety of law enforcement.

•
The ongoing attacks in places like Portland are not just people "letting off steam" or advocating for change.

•
They are acts of violence, conducted illegally to get what they want. That's a crime. It needs to be stopped.

•
The federal government should vigorously investigate, prosecute and disrupt any organizations or individuals they find aiding, abetting or directing these attacks.

•
Local, state and federal law enforcement need to pool their resources to protect our cities and investigate and prosecute organized criminal activity.
Ben Shapiro accuses Democrats of using unrest as 'a pressure tactic' against voters (Fox 07/27/2020)
•
Rioters in cities across America are engaging in a form of "political terrorism," and Democratic officials have show complicity through their response, "If you are burning cities because you're trying to apply pressure tactics ... then you are in fact engaging in a form of political terrorism."

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"And for cities to stand by and cave to that is not only the height of irresponsibility, it's incredibly dangerous and it makes them complicit in this act."

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"So why are the Democrats not doing anything about this? Why? All the cities are burning. The answer is pretty obvious at this point. For a lot of Democrats, they're willing to wink and nod at this so long as they think it's a political tool."

•
"They believe that a feeling of chaos will drive Trump from office. Trump's the president, feelings of chaos do not redound to the benefit of a sitting president, and so they are perfectly willing to go along with the chaos. They are rooting for the chaos."

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... "this is the actual Democratic strategy. It's all about Trump and if you just got rid of Trump, then the violence would go away. This is the tacit threat. The tacit threat is, 'Unless you give us what we want, the violence will not go away.'"

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"The day after Joe Biden is elected this all ends. That is my prediction. Why? Because all this is is a pressure tactic being applied to law-abiding Americans — which is disgusting."

•
"It's horrifying. and that is what you're watching across the country."

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See related Democrat Voter Registration (Sean Delonas, 06/04/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
The Hysterical ‘Trump Won’t Leave’ Canard (07/26/2020)
•
... the Washington Post: "Trump's assault on election integrity forces question: What would happen if he refused to accept a loss?"

•
The premise is that the president is engaged in "relentless efforts to sow doubts about the legitimacy of this year's election" by "escalating attacks on the security of mail-in ballots."

•
This is coupled with Trump's refusal, a priori, to accept the legitimacy of the election outcome, echoing the position he took in the last presidential campaign — you know, before the same Democrats who feigned outrage over Trump's demurral began four years of mulishly refusing to accept the outcome of the 2016 election.

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... declaims that Trump is "undermining confidence in the most basic democratic process we have" and "arousing his core supporters for a truly damaging crisis."

•
What rubbish. We are a nation of laws, not men. It would be nice if our elections were universally regarded as such solemn democratic exercises that, without fail, all incumbent and challenger candidates could confidently commit to endorse the outcome ahead of time.

•
But we don't bank on anyone's good will. We rely on the law.

•
Under the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1933, the president's term "shall end at noon on the 20th day of January."

•
At that point, if he has lost the election, Donald Trump would no longer be the president of the United States. Period.

•
His personal feelings about how the loss came to pass, and whether he did or did not regard the result as legitimate, would be irrelevant.

•
Under the Constitution, he would neither be president nor wield the powers of the presidency as of that moment.

•
There is no rational reason to indulge the anti-Trump hallucination of a defeated president holed up in the Oval Office refusing to leave.

•
Presidents do not exercise any control over the electoral process. They may influence it by challenging the results in state and federal courts.

•
An incumbent president who loses the election may grouse. His supporters may insist that he was robbed.

•
But the states follow their own legal processes to certify the outcome of voting, the electors vote as they must under state law, and Congress tabulates and certifies the result.

•
The last thing this country needs right now is a disputed election. But let's not pretend this is so familiar and straightforward that potentially serious problems are unimaginable.

•
Moreover, as we saw with Hillary Clinton in 2016, even if a candidate purports to endorse the legitimacy of the election beforehand, that is not an enforceable commitment to accept the result after the candidate has lost.

•
So it is pointless to fret over whether a candidate will pledge, before the voting, to endorse the process and the result. Such a pledge would be nothing more than political posturing.

•
In two of the last three presidential elections that Democrats lost, they claimed the result was illegitimate.

•
And if Joe Biden loses in November, who would be surprised to find battalions of Democratic lawyers filing challenges in the courts of every battleground state?

•
But fear not. No matter what happens in the election, no matter how messy the process, the presidential term that began at noon on January 20, 2017, will end at noon on January 20, 2021.

•
And at that point, when the new term commences, the president will be whomever Congress certified two weeks earlier, based on the Electoral College votes cast in December by electors in each state.

•
It won't matter what the candidates and their supporters have to say about it. It only matters what the Constitution says about it.
David Bossie: Trump vs. Biden polls – here's what you need to keep in mind (Fox 07/26/2020)
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... when you study a poll, make sure you look under the hood for a political agenda and flaws on how data is weighed.?

•
Liberal elites are working in concert to defeat President Trump. The media establishment, the political establishment and the academic establishment have gone all-in to take him down — and the American people see it.

•
Over the next three months, Biden will be defined by Trump, just like Bush defined Dukakis in 1988.

•
The American people are going to find out that Biden is a weak puppet of the radical socialist left and is willing to sacrifice the America we know and love in order to get elected.

•
Voters face a clear choice in November. Trump stands for security, prosperity and putting America first.

•
Biden, by definition, stands for the exact opposite and his dangerous policies confirm just that.

•
At the end of the day, the only polling that matters will be the results on Election Day.
Ben Shapiro hits back at rewrite of US history: 'historically ignorant, stupid and counterproductive' (Fox 07/24/2020)
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"In order for a country to hold together, you have to have a shared philosophy, a shared culture and shared history, and all of those are under attack."

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"American history is being rewritten from a glorious history of an attempt to reach foundational ideals where we struggle, we fall, we get up, we push forward. It's being rewritten that America was founded in racism and rooted in bigotry and all of the institutions of the United States are unchangeably horrible."

•
... America's culture is "entrepreneurship and respect for other people's rights."

•
"Those are supposed to go out the window in favor of a culture that really believes that we all have to say the same things in the same tenor and with the same level of passion in order to be accepted into mainstream 'woke' society."

•
"The way that you battle back is pointing out that the United States is the most tolerant country in the history of the world and has spread its liberty and its prosperity to not only hundreds of millions of Americans at home, but to billions of people abroad. The basic idea that America was rooted in all of the innate human sins, as opposed to the ideals that have been foundational to a country that has attempted to alleviate and vitiate those sins, is historically ignorant, stupid and counterproductive."
Andrew McCarthy: Trump critics wrongly mount political attack on his use of fed law officers to protect cities (Fox 07/24/2020)
•
"Unidentified stormtroopers" is what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the law enforcement agents of the Department of Homeland Security struggling to protect the federal courthouse that Portland, Ore., rioters have been firebombing.

•
"The president's personal militia," chimed in Tom Ridge, the nation's first Homeland Security secretary.

•
It's shameful. Never is it more critical for the nation's senior officials and elder statesmen to present a united American front than in times of insurrection.

•
No matter how we may feel about the underlying political grievances, when peaceful protest descends into violent subversion, or — more accurately — when essentially violent subversion is allowed to masquerade as peaceful protest, there needs to be ringing condemnation and support for law enforcement.

•
Yet, Democrats and Trump-abhorring Republicans cannot get past their petty political score-settling, even for the purpose of supporting law enforcement against violent anti-American radicals.

•
This is not one of those times for "But Trump ..." bleating. Yes, the president is abrasive and prone to say inexcusable things.

•
On this one, though, there is only one right and one wrong side. The demagogues aligning themselves with subversives against federal agents are wrong. Say what you will about the president, he's made it very clear he's with our agents.

•
Pelosi is a professional political partisan ... thinks it can make common cause with violent radicals, even use them as political attack dogs, and not get bitten in the end. Sadly, then, her slander against law enforcement comes as no surprise.

•
Ridge's remarks, on the other hand, are worth pausing over. First, there was the revisionist history: DHS, he says, "was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism."

•
... DHS was established so Washington could try to show the country it was doing something meaningful after jihadists killed nearly 3,000 Americans in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

•
The main government failing in the 9/11 debacle was the failure to share intelligence within and across agencies that have national security responsibilities.

•
Congress being Congress, it was thought that more bureaucracy would improve how bureaucracies cooperated...

•
Taking aim at Trump, and promoting the Democratic narrative that the president is a dictator using federal agents as a military force, Ridge asserted: "It would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities."

•
But DHS performs such missions all the time. One of its component agencies is the Federal Protective Service.

•
FPS's job, according to its own mission statement, includes the protection of U.S. government "infrastructure, services, and the people who provide or receive them."

•
This includes providing "integrated security and law enforcement services to more than 9,500 federal facilities nationwide."

•
... DHS agents go into cities all across the country, every day, uninvited by the state and local governments, and unilaterally protect federal courthouses and other federal property — even when those facilities are not being firebombed, vandalized, and otherwise forcibly attacked by radicals and arsonists.

•
If DHS agents didn't do this, they'd be flouting their legal obligations. If the president did not direct them to do this, it would be a dereliction of his solemn constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

•
In Portland, the rioters overwhelmed the contingent of DHS agents that, in normal times, is sufficient to protect the courthouse and other federal facilities. As commonsense would dictate, DHS brought in reinforcements from its other law enforcement agency components...

•
As Ridge well knows, these agents are not a military force. They are now seen wearing heavy protective gear — not because they are soldiers but because they are under siege.

•
They are not carrying out a personal mission for the president. They are carrying out their lawful, congressionally mandated responsibility to protect federal infrastructure.

•
Ridge also knows this is not occurring in a vacuum. At the same time federal facilities are under attack in Portland, violent crime is spiking in major American cities.

•
If the president is to fulfill his constitutional duty to enforce federal law, he must take action on that front as well.

•
Consequently, Trump has announced that federal law enforcement agencies ... will be surged to high-crime cities...

•
Trump is not sending federal agents to storm Democratic-controlled cities. The president is beefing up existing federal-state partnerships ... to assist in quelling murderous brutality that is making swaths of cities unlivable for the Americans who reside there.

•
Yet, knowing that, Democrats are exploiting a violent crime crisis — one largely wrought by their own policies — to hone a political message: Trump is a dictator who is militarizing federal agencies to suppress peaceful protest.

•
In this mendacious narrative, Democrats conflate the security mission they have distorted in Portland with the law enforcement mission in the cities where violent street crime is on the rise.

•
They would have the public think the president has already sent "troops" — indeed, "stormtroopers" — to Portland and is now planning to send them all over the country.

•
The Democrats know this is not true. Tom Ridge knows it's not true. But they are saying it anyway.

•
They are making the already dangerous job of dedicated federal agents even more perilous.

•
For them, the political imperative of defeating Trump in November is a higher priority than the safety of Americans. That's a disgrace.
Thomas Sowell: Black and minority lives would improve if politicians supported charter schools (Fox 07/24/2020)
Not your parents' revolution — how today's anarchists differ from 60s protesters (Fox 07/23/2020)
•
In the 1960s and early '70s, the U.S. was convulsed by massive protests calling for radical changes in the country's attitudes on race, class, gender and sexual orientation.

•
Sometimes the demonstrations became violent, as with the Watts riots of 1965 and the protests at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

•
Terrorists from the Weathermen (later called the Weather Underground) bombed dozens of government buildings.

•
The '60s revolution introduced to the country everything from hippies, communes, free love, mass tattooing, commonplace profanity, rampant drug use, rock music and high divorce rates to the war on poverty, massive government growth, feminism, affirmative action and race/gender/ethnic college curricula.

•
The enemies of the '60s counterculture were the "establishment" — politicians, corporations, the military and the "square" generation" in general.

•
A half-century after the earlier revolution, today's cultural revolution is vastly different — and far more dangerous.

•
Government and debt have grown. Social activism is already institutionalized in hundreds of newer federal programs. The "Great Society" inaugurated a multitrillion-dollar investment in the welfare state. Divorce rates soared. The nuclear family waned. Immigration, both legal and illegal, skyrocketed.

•
Thus, America is far less resilient, and a far more divided, indebted and vulnerable target than it was in 1965.

•
The '60s protests were for racial assimilation and integration to reify Martin Luther King Jr.'s agenda of making race incidental, not essential, to the American mindset.

•
Not so with today's cultural revolution. It seeks to ensure that racial difference is the foundation of American life, dividing the country between supposed non-white victims and purported white victimizers, past and present.

•
In the '60s, radicals rebelled against their teachers and professors, who were often highly competent and the products of fact-based and inductive education. Not so in 2020.

•
Today's radicals were taught not by traditionalists but by less-educated older radicals.

•
Another chief difference is debt. Most public education in the 1960s was bare-bones and relatively inexpensive. Because there were no plush dorms, latte bars, rock-climbing walls, diversity coordinators and provosts of inclusion, college tuition in real dollars was far cheaper.

•
Today's angry graduates owe a collective $1.6 trillion in student loan debt — much of it borrowed for mediocre, therapeutic and politicized training that does not impress employers.

•
... today's radical is far more desperate and angry that his college gambit never paid off.

•
... the scariest trait of the current revolution is that many of its sympathizers haven't changed much since the 1960s. They may be rich, powerful, influential and older, but they are just as reckless and see the current chaos as the final victory in their own long march from the '60s.

•
... the war no longer pits radicals against conservatives, but often socialists and anarchists against both liberals and conservatives.

•
In the '60s, a huge "silent majority" finally had enough, elected Richard Nixon and slowed down the revolution by jailing its criminals, absorbing and moderating it.

•
Today, if there is a silent mass of traditionalists and conservatives, they remain in hiding.

•
If they stay quiet in their veritable mental monasteries and deplore the violence in silence, the revolution will steamroll on.

•
But as in the past, if they finally snap, decide enough is enough and reclaim their country, then even this cultural revolution will sputter out, too.
Tammy Bruce: Trump's Portland intervention decried by Dems who are enabling chaos (Fox 07/23/2020)
•
After an effort by the legacy media to disappear the story, the nation is finally hearing about the mayhem and violence overtaking Portland, Oreg.

•
For almost two months, the city has been in the grip of typical vandalism, chaos and bedlam that is the hallmark of the fascist group Antifa, a federally declared terrorist group.

•
They, along with the Democratic-aligned Marxist group Black Lives Matter, have made Portland a hellscape for the law-abiding citizens who live there.

•
But in today's upside-down world, the federal government coming to the aid of a city under siege has enraged Democratic leadership.

•
That alone should tell you everything you need to know about that party and its malevolent politics...

•
... Mayor Lori Lightfoot ... laughably insisted, "She will use every tool she has to stop Trump from sending ‘troops' to the city, including filing a lawsuit. ‘We're not going to have tyranny in the city of Chicago,'"

•
Talk about a lack of self-awareness. This last weekend of violence in Chicago left 10 people dead and 70 injured, including 10 minors...

•
But it's the arrival of federal assistance to quell the violence that threatens "tyranny." Got it.

•
Democratic leadership calls federal law enforcement "stormtroopers" as local leadership fights against assistance to stop murderous crimes waves killing their cities.

•
The rhetoric against police continues, and police budgets are getting cut, as in New York, where certain crime units have already been disbanded.

•
Democrats revel in anarchy and mayhem, and throwing your family into the volcano is the price they decided is worth paying as they imagine making Mr. Trump look bad.

•
See related Democrat Voter Registration (Sean Delonas, 06/04/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: Chicago needs federal help to stop senseless killings (Fox 07/23/2020)
•
For the past two months, as you well know, a small group of power-hungry professional activists has screamed at the rest of us about saving lives.

•
The rest of us, they tell us just don't care about saving lives. We are selfish and immoral and we must be punished for that.

•
The activists yell all of this at high volume. They've yelled it for so long now, unchallenged, that many otherwise sensible people have begun to believe it and to take them seriously.

•
Our richest corporations have sent them millions of dollars. Our media praise them as heroes. Our political leaders, terrified and confused, do whatever they say.

•
... turn down the volume a little bit. Ignore what the slogans are screaming at you. Ignore the graffiti they're painting in your cities. Instead, consider the evidence.

•
Watch what they've done.

•
... here's the result in Chicago. In the last month alone, literally hundreds of Americans have been gunned down there.

•
Just on Tuesday night, for example, at least 15 people were shot in a single incident outside a funeral home in the city.

•
The killers pulled up in full view and simply started shooting people with impunity.

•
Bodies fell on the sidewalk, the wounded screamed. But the gunfire continued. But this wasn't Baghdad, it was America's third-largest city.

•
It's hard to believe this is happening here. But the activists don't care.

•
The White House is not ignoring it. The administration has said it will send federal law enforcement agents to Chicago to restore order, to stop these killings.

•
The city's mayor, a living parody of entitlement and incompetence called Lori Lightfoot has promised to prevent that help from arriving.

•
"Under no circumstances ... will I allow Donald Trump's troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents."

•
In Lori Lightfoot's Chicago, law enforcement is banned, only gang members are allowed to terrorize the population, and they do.

•
Lori Lightfoot is surrounded at all times by armed bodyguards paid for by her suffering subjects. She demands that.

•
But for the ordinary people who live in her crumbling city, things look very different. They don't have taxpayer-funded bodyguards.

•
... for them, in the face of violence like that, law enforcement isn't primarily a political issue. Cops aren't "Donald Trump's troops." They're vital to survival, without them people die.
Ben Shapiro: America is hitting the self-destruct button (Fox 07/23/2020)
•
America has worked to extirpate the nearly universal sin of bigotry in pursuit of the fulfillment of the declaration. The story of America is 1776, not 1619; it's Abraham Lincoln, not John C. Calhoun; it's Martin Luther King Jr., not Robin DiAngelo.

•
It is particularly true today that American society does not deserve the scorn being heaped upon her head. American society is decidedly not racist: According to Swedish economists from World Values, America is one of the most racially tolerant countries on Earth.

•
American law has banned discrimination on race for two generations and more than half a century; in fact, the only racially discriminatory laws on the books cut in favor of racial minorities, who have been granted special privileges in arenas like college admissions.

•
The police are no longer instruments of racial terror, contrary to popular media narrative: In many of America's largest cities, police forces are either majority-minority or nearly so, and police are not more likely to shoot and kill black Americans than white Americans.

•
Black Americans occupy many of the most prominent positions in American society, from government to entertainment to education to finance. Responsible individual decision-making is generally rewarded for all Americans, black and white.

•
More and more Americans apparently believe that the American system is endemically racist — yet the system produces more wealth, freedom and opportunity than any on Earth for millions of citizens of every color, creed and religion.

•
If a majority of Americans believe that society is racist — not just individuals but a vast swath of friends and neighbors, and America's institutions to boot — then it will be quite difficult for Americans to unify.

•
No country can survive its citizens seeing one another as enemies rather than friends, seeing their country as a reflection of continuing evil embedded in its history.

•
America, like every other nation, requires a common philosophy, culture and history to survive.

•
And yet those elements are being consistently eroded by those who would rather collapse the American system in pursuit of some unspecified utopia.

•
That utopia will not come. All that will follow in the wake of the dissolution of our common bonds is chaos.
Trump right to send fed law officers to Chicago and other cities to fight crime and save lives (Fox 07/23/2020)
•
Contrary to the claims of his left-wing critics, President Trump does not want to prevent lawful peaceful protests, which are protected by our Constitution.

•
The president wants to stop lawbreakers who violently attack and sometimes kill people, burn buildings, loot stores, and commit other crimes. These actions are not a form of protest.

•
It is heartbreaking to see so many innocent people — including children — lose their lives to dangerous criminals in communities across our nation.

•
By deploying additional federal agents and other resources to communities under attack by violent criminals, the president is carrying out his duty to keep the American people safe.

•
Note that I said federal agents. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other far-left politicians and media outlets call these federal law enforcements officers "troops" or even "storm troopers," an insulting name that recalls the forces of Nazi Germany.

•
The president is sending in highly trained federal law enforcement officers from the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Marshals Service; and Department of Homeland Security.

•
These federal officers are trained to enforce the law. They are trained in the Constitution, especially the Fourth Amendment.

•
This amendment provides that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

•
I am grateful that President Trump is committed to restoring public safety and bringing criminals to justice.

•
The only people who should be upset by the president's actions are the criminals he wants to stop from victimizing innocent men, women and children.

•
... the recent surge in violence is the result of poor leadership from far-left politicians who have failed to protect their communities and who now endorse defunding the police. They have failed on their No. 1 responsibility and duty — to protect lives and property.

•
Violent crime has drastically increased in major cities led by Democratic officials. That is a fact, not an opinion.

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Instead of condemning the onslaught of violent crime destroying our cities, Democrats choose to ignore, justify, or condone it.

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While the radical left wants to defund our police, President Trump wants to give them the support they need to keep our communities safe.

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That action is in our national interest and will benefit every law-abiding American.
Standing for the flag matters (INN 07/23/2020)
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... those who stand by the American flag are standing against the demands of the evil "cancel culture," racists of all stripes, and the so-called "Progressives" — who are actually regressive.

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Those who stand for our flag stand for the rule of law, for equal protection under the law, for equal opportunity, for freedom of speech (versus political correctness), freedom of religion, and for minority rights.
The filibuster is an obstacle in Dems' path to total control. That's why they want it gone (Fox 07/22/2020)
Power to illusions: Let me confuse you with the facts (INN 07/22/2020)
•
Historians of the future will have a hard time figuring out how so many organized groups of strident jackasses succeeded in leading us around by the nose and morally intimidating the majority into silence." Thomas Sowell

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Except... no one is silent. They're tripping over each other proclaiming America a racist country.

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And not because one George Floyd and 19 violent, black criminals died (in 2019) at the hands of white-supremacists, the men in blue, who killed many more whites that year.

•
Yes, there is racism in America. That is not the same as calling America a racist country.

•
America is a racist country because the Black Lives Matter movement, not only exists, but has managed to amass millions in funding, position itself on everyone's lips, streets, in corporate offices and policies for hiring, and infiltrate the psyche of every uninformed millennial and intimidated passerby.

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What really goes on in the "systemically racist" America and why do all Americans need to kneel and repent for their collective sin?

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And why does every individual and organization need to plaster a large black square in support of ending this horrendous record of discrimination towards African Americans?

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The United States of America acted in the following ways, detailed below, towards the 13% black minority.

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{Read the list in the original - it's quite impressive!}

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Now, wouldn't every country and every minority welcome this?

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Imagine re-reading all of the aforementioned while subbing the word "white" for "black" each time.

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The pageantry of BLM virtue-signaling by useful idiots should be over. It's run its course.

•
Fabricated racism, the priceless possession of today's liberal, exists to seed outrage, division and dissatisfaction for the purpose of one and only intended goal — the anti-Trump vote at the ballot box. They know that grandpa Biden needs all the help he can get.

•
The BLM enthusiasts care nothing for months-long Covid-spreading by their rioters, their country's actual track record, their fellow Americans, their safety, livelihood and well-being. And absolutely nothing for black lives or anyone's lives.

•
They've turned 2020 into the Year of The Empowered Criminal while granting BLM's platform of tyrannical Marxism and rabid antisemitism exclusive moral authority, unequivocal legitimacy and very sharp teeth.

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These enthusiasts were able to achieve a huge cultural shift by their relentless physical and emotional intimidation of society.

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Monument toppling was a mere test run for their Stalinist-inspired reputation and career toppling.

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Fear-based subjugation of politicians, journalists, editors, schools, businesses and general populace into BLM groupthink requiring total devotion to the cause is now complete.

•
The palpable danger of job/income loss and public lynching for the crime of non-compliant heresy on social media or in "polite company" , is breeding a society of obedient sheep intent on preserving their own paycheck and survival, to hell with facts, truth and morality.

•
To wonder how a mere 15% of official Nazis could enlist the other 85% of German populace into the holy grail of complete continental dominance and an obliteration of an entire race is to exhibit cluelessness about human nature and the ultimate power of fear.

•
We are the implicitly consenting participants in this apocalyptic cultural destruction by liberal kneelers and their first-prize-for-victimhood holders.

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Our freedom of choice and moral compass have been hijacked; our minds manipulated to give power to illusions.

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And we know it. And that means all of us - white and black.
Historical Ignorance and Confederate Generals (JWR 07/22/2020)
•
"The Confederacy, the American Civil War, was fought, and it was an act of rebellion. It was an act of treason, at the time, against the Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the U.S. Constitution."

•
Let's start at the beginning, namely the American War of Independence (1775-1783), a war between Great Britain and its 13 colonies, which declared independence in July 1776.

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The peace agreement that ended the war is known as the Treaty of Paris signed by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay and Henry Laurens and by British Commissioner Richard Oswald, on Sept. 3, 1783.

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Article I of the Treaty held that "New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States."

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James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, rejected it. Minutes from the debate paraphrased his opinion: "A union of the states containing such an ingredient (would) provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a state would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound."

•
During the ratification debates, Virginia's delegates said, "The powers granted under the Constitution being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression."

•
If there were a provision to suppress a seceding state, the Constitution would never have been ratified.

•
... on the eve of the War of 1861, unionist politicians saw secession as a state's right. ... "If tyranny and despotism justified the Revolution of 1776, then we do not see why it would not justify the secession of Five Millions of Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861."

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"An attempt to subjugate the seceded States, even if successful, could produce nothing but evil — evil unmitigated in character and appalling in extent."

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Confederate generals fought for independence from the Union just as George Washington fought for independence from Great Britain.

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Those who label Robert E. Lee and other Confederate generals as traitors might also label George Washington a traitor.

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Great Britain's King George III and the British parliament would have agreed.

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See related P.C. (Glenn McCoy, 08/15/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
One Nation Under Anarcho-Tyranny (JWR 07/22/2020)
Portland riots – it is Trump's constitutional duty to enforce federal law and he should (Fox 07/21/2020)
•
"[H]e shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." The Constitution says that's the president's job, but we're not hearing much about that from the chattering classes.

•
We hear plenty of bloviating from the media-Democrat complex, dutifully masquerading the rioting in Portland as "mostly peaceful protest."

•
And there is no shortage of faux outrage over President Trump's purported trampling on state sovereignty by dispatching federal agents to address the mayhem.

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The president has two principal, closely related responsibilities: to provide for national security and to see that the laws are enforced.

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The latter duty very much includes the protection of federal property and the execution of laws Congress has constitutionally enacted to address violent crime.

•
Back in June, in the mayhem that followed George Floyd's death after being arrested by Minneapolis police, there was a raging public debate about whether the president should deploy the National Guard and perhaps other U.S. military forces to stabilize cities and reestablish order.

•
As a matter of law and history, the commander-in-chief has such authority; there are, however, certain circumstances in which the Constitution calls for waiting until the state government has asked for federal military assistance.

•
Law enforcement is a completely different matter. Enforcing federal law is an independent obligation of the chief executive.

•
Consequently, the president and the Justice Department never have to wait for a state to ask for federal intervention.

•
Federal law enforcement agencies may and routinely do take investigative and enforcement action within the territorial jurisdiction of the states.

•
They need not provide notice to, much less a request for permission from, the state government and its police agencies.

•
... consider for a moment the concept of a "sanctuary city." That is a municipality that obstructs the federal government's enforcement of the immigration laws.

•
The concept would make no sense if the feds needed the state's permission – the state would simply refrain from asking the immigration authorities to conduct arrests and deportations.

•
Cities purport to become "sanctuaries" only because the local authorities realize that the federal government has an independent obligation to enforce federal law; they can't prevent the feds from coming in, so they try to impede federal action.

•
(Obviously, I am not endorsing sanctuary cities; I am simply explaining why they exist.)

•
Federal officers in Portland are not a military force. They are deputized law enforcement agents of the Department of Homeland Security and other federal police agencies.

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They are not, as Senator Paul misleadingly suggests, "rounding up people at will." They are making arrests based on probable cause that laws enacted by Congress have been violated.

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To my knowledge, Senator Paul has not proposed any legislation to repeal federal penal statutes that prohibit, for example, mutilating federal property, arson, and conspiring to oppose government authority by force.

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In circumstances where police are being targeted for assault and harassment, which includes being "doxed" by radicals who use identifying information to threaten the police and their families, it is perfectly reasonable to withhold the names of the agents – particularly when their badges and numbers are visible.

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Federal agents must be able to operate undercover, particularly when they are dealing with radical militants who mask themselves, strategically obstruct law enforcement from making arrests and protecting property, and attack police in stealth.

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When arrested for a federal crime, a suspect has the rights to be detained with no greater force than necessary under the circumstances, held humanely, given Miranda warnings, and brought without undue delay to a federal judge, who advises the suspect of the charges, assures that counsel is assigned and sets bail.

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Notwithstanding, the political demagogues who would have us turn a blind eye to violent crime under the guise of honoring free expression, the Trump administration has the constitutional duty to uphold federal law.

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In Portland, federal agents are faithfully executing our nation's laws.
'White Fragility' Comes to Washington (JWR 07/20/2020)
Ben Shapiro on Fox News poll on nation's founders: Results are 'devastating to the future...' (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
... the fact that "only 63 percent of Americans describe the founders as heroes is devastating, that means that 37 percent of Americans do not describe the founders as heroes, they describe them as either villains or I don't know."

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... White voters (71 percent) are more than twice as likely as Black voters (31 percent) to consider the founders to be heroes.

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"If you look at the Black community in the United States, according to this poll, a plurality of Black Americans believes that founders were villains rather than heroes, which is devastating to the future of the country."

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"If you believe that the country was neatly founded on sin and evil, it's going to be very difficult to reach the sort of national unity that we require in order to move forward and I think that is something the radical left has been promulgating."

•
"We have to share history and believe that we are all part of the same great stream of American history, trying to justify those founding principles, falling short, but eventually succeeding."

•
"If we don't believe in those things, the country falls apart."

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"The Declaration of Independence is now bad, the Constitution of the United States is now bad, American history is now the 1619 project as opposed to the 1776 project."

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"All of this spells doom for our country of unity and essentially just means that the only thing holding us together is government power."

•
"This is just the final flowering of a program that began decades ago, to basically rewrite America's history and to suggest that America has not progressed at all, even since the civil rights era, which is, of course, an absolute lie."

•
... thinks "the fact that President Trump is president" has "devastated the left."

•
"They literally thought they were going to be in charge for the rest of time after Barack Obama's presidency."

•
... adding that he thinks "that has generated an awful lot of radical feeling on the left and that it flowered here, in the lead-up to the election."

•
"My suspicion is that if Joe Biden is elected, you're going to see a lot of this go away, at least for a little while, while the left stops humoring its own radicals."
Karol Markowicz: As an immigrant, I know left-wing America-bashers are wrong (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
Believing in America, and that the core of our country is good and sound, shouldn't be tied to any president or political party.

•
Yet the hard left continually pushes the line that America is hopeless and terrible. The Democratic Party too often follows along.

•
It isn't good for any of us when half the country's population thinks we suck.

•
In January 2012, I attended an event held by WNYC New York Public Radio. It was very likely that I was the only conservative in the room.

•
The WNYC host, Brian Lehrer, asked a room full of New York liberals — people who should have been thrilled by President Barack Obama's first term — who was optimistic about the future of America.

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I was one of only two people to raise their hands.

•
Last year, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., suggested that America offered most citizens little more than "garbage," owing to inequality and other social ills.

•
Here was a member of Congress, supremely privileged and supremely unaware of how lucky she was to have been born American.

•
Her rage and fury, her provincial mindset, are products of her ignorance.

•
She doesn't know what people around the world live through. She doesn't know garbage. Bless her heart!

•
Yet America-hating has real consequences. There is a movement now to erase America's imperfect history.

•
Every day brings a new online hot take about how we should get rid of our National Anthem or remove Thomas Jefferson's statue from New York's City Hall.

•
There's irony in the fact that the party which considers itself "pro-immigrant" is also the one that wants to destroy our country's rich and complicated heritage.

•
If Democrats believe immigrants come to America to be anything but American, they are kidding themselves.

•
My family and millions of others came here longing to be free, to say what we want, to worship how we want and to raise American children who will know nothing but freedom.

•
Don't end our patriotic displays because an influential fringe has decided they are somehow evil.

•
We are in a difficult moment in our nation's history. But if an immigrant family — arriving in a new country in the tumultuous late 1970s — could believe in the goodness of America and have hope for a better day, so could we all.

•
America's best days are ahead, if we remember what made us great in the first place.
As 'cancel culture' activism peaks, big tech and its algorithms quietly fuel the flames (Fox 07/19/2020)
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Algorithms developed by big tech companies have become the gasoline on the flames, bringing the complaints of a few to the attention of millions, often with the help of media coverage.

•
... savvy social media users can easily create a firestorm with memes and "pithy hashtags."

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"It mostly starts with social media influencers taking up a cause. If I'm angry at, say, American Airlines, I, a savvy user of social media with shockingly few followers/friends on Twitter/Instagram/TikTok/Facebook will find someone more established who can spread the word, and then I will sit back and hope it takes off."

•
Some cancel culture campaigns are driven by up-to-the-minute outrage, while others are dredged up from decades past.

•
"The thing is, technology is amoral; anyone can use it. Cancel culture is merely another form of an advertising campaign that is using these platforms for destructive versus constructive purposes."

•
Cancel culture is the process of banding together to publicly shame celebrities, corporations, or movements that are deemed by some to be offensive — not only to demand an apology or seek some form of accountability but squeezing the business or personality financially.

•
Outrage spreads so quickly across the internet that brands and people often struggle to respond fast enough to limit the damage.

•
Hashtags have since come to play a pivotal role. ... "These hashtags influence the news cycle and result in stories that the mainstream media covers. Instead of having a free and open debate of ideas, people who support the canceling will try to get you doxxed, fired, thrown out of school, and ruin your life."

•
"Cancel culture will continue as long as the media continues to act as a willing partner."

•
"So platforms write algorithms that curate news feeds to maximize engagement; social media companies, after all, want you to spend as much time on their platforms as possible."

•
"Outrage is the perfect negative emotion to attract attention and engagement — and algorithms are primed to pounce. One person tweeting her outrage would normally fall largely on deaf ears. But if that one person can attract enough initial engagement, algorithms will extend that individual's reach by promoting it to like-minded individuals. A snowball effect occurs, creating a feedback loop that amplifies the outrage."

•
"Every time you read a headline about a brand being canceled, that brand has to spend millions of dollars in consulting fees for a crisis or P.R. firm, legal fees, management consulting fees, contractor or vendor fees, design."

•
"These cancellations cost brands millions to pivot – and every time a small business is canceled, the likelihood of them coming back is even harder because they don't have access to the same capital source for revival."

•
Competing businesses sometimes fan the flames of the questionable or false narratives.

•
... big-tech's string-pulling has reached a point of perpetuating cyber-bullying in cases that in years past would merely highlight diverging points of view.

•
"In internet space, these techniques can grow rapidly in what is called 'viral storms,' Platforms are presently nearly helpless in managing these storms because they propagate outside the business control systems of these companies. This is why companies like Facebook and Twitter have struggled to create new algorithms to counter nefarious uses of their technology after the fact. They never anticipated this type of misuse of their infrastructure."

•
Despite raising concerns over the protection of free speech, cancel culture has been praised for bringing about fast, necessary change by bringing to light defamatory actions and behaviors by people and businesses.

•
"The problem with cancel culture is that it is a moving target and constantly changing. It is based around individual opinions. Therefore, it is very hard to predict what would be canceled next."
Trump’s defining moment at Mount Rushmore (INN 07/17/2020)
Open the Schools! (JWR 07/17/2020)
Intersectionality Vs. America (JWR 07/17/2020)
Trump critics don’t understand him or his supporters — we don’t care if he’s unpresidential (Fox 07/17/2020)
•
Presidents always frame their policy positions in the most favorable political light, especially this close to an election. Don't even think about saying Trump is unique on this.

•
Of course Trump is going to argue that his actions warrant his reelection. It's absurd to claim that's unusually political, as if it's possible to separate policy from politics.

•
But the liberal media's hypocrisy is hardly noteworthy anymore. We'd be fools to expect fairness from them.

•
What is notable, though, is that some establishment conservative strategists and analysts also joined in, lamenting that Trump shot himself in the foot by going off script and meandering all over the board.

•
They cringe that Trump is unorthodox, unpolished and unafraid to get down in the dirt with his opponents, especially from the lofty, hallowed presidential podium. They also don't get Trump supporters, who are not holding their noses to vote for him.

•
These establishment handwringers have shown themselves ill-equipped to analyze Trump or his supporters because they can't adapt their expertise and experience to Trump, who broke the mold and is unlike any political figure they've ever encountered.

•
They are handicapped by their willful blindness to the unprecedented fascism of today's political left.

•
The overwhelming majority of Trump supporters don't give a rip about his so-called presidentiality.

•
They don't care about the proverbial crease in his pants, or many other characteristics the pseudo-sophisticated Beltway elite cherish.

•
They don't want someone like Mitt Romney, who let President Barack Obama walk all over him in a presidential debate instead of fighting for what he purported to believe in.

•
Trump supporters don't want Trump to moderate his positions in the hopes that the committed radicals will morph into moderates and the crisis will pass. It won't, because leftist agitators won't let it.

•
Trump supporters realize we're in a war for the survival of the country — a war we didn't start and one we'll lose if we don't fight back with every fiber of our being. We want him to counter the violent, revolutionary left at every turn.

•
Shame on us if we ignore or downplay the anarchy and violence in the streets; the destruction of monuments; the assault on and defunding of police; the sanitization of radical groups as humanitarian rather than Marxist organizations; the cultural terrorism against ideological diversity; and the deliberate fanning of racial discord.

•
Sadly, there's no rational basis for clinging to the hope that the Neville Chamberlains of the right are going to wake up to the existential struggle we're in and get on board.

•
So, at the very least, we mustn't let them discourage those who understand the struggle.

•
Purveyors of conventional political wisdom miss the reality on the ground. They fail to grasp how much Trump supporters appreciate that he counters the liberal media narrative, that he's calling out the anti-Americanism of the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's and the insane radicalism of their energy-and-economy-destroying green agenda.

•
Trump supporters don't believe he's inhumane for refusing to allow America to be paralyzed by fear, and for insisting that we reopen the economy and get our kids back to school.

•
They deny that he's racially insensitive because he believes we should protect our borders and shouldn't kneel for the national anthem.

•
They reject the false choices foisted on them by a media dedicated to extinguishing the Trump presidency and fundamentally transforming America.

•
They resent being called racist because they celebrate our founding and our Constitution.

•
They will not be bullied into submission by those cynically using the race card as a Trojan horse for socialism and leftist authoritarianism.

•
Trump supporters understand that the failing Joe Biden, whether or not he's a radical himself, will be putty in the hands of extremists and that, if Trump loses this election, their children's chances of living in freedom drastically diminish.

•
They see what these radicals have done when their political party of choice is out of power, and they shudder at what they would do if in power.

•
So you "conservative" strategists longing for the surrender of our principles for the sake of Oxford eloquence and phony politeness in the midst of an all-but-hot civil war will just have to remain frustrated, because if you don't understand what's at stake by now, you never will. You just aren't wired to get it.

•
We Trump supporters understand that we may lose the election and the country, but we won't do it without fighting or because we fear being falsely depicted as bigots more than we fear losing the nation.

•
See related Gets Me Where I Want (Michael Ramirez, 02/25/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Demoralizing the Police: As cops become objects of derision and scorn, violent crime soars in American cities (JWR 07/17/2020)
•
The police officer occupies a distinctive position in American life.

•
Dressed in his uniform and driving his distinctively marked cruiser, he is the most visible symbol of civil government and serves as a reminder that society is governed by rules that citizens are expected to follow.

•
A compact exists between the officer and the government that he serves.

•
The officer does his job in the knowledge that it comes with significant risk to his personal safety; he accepts this risk with the understanding that the government affords him certain protections, especially in cases where he may have to use reasonable or justifiable force.

•
Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers — and with the resulting social upheaval — that compact has been now tossed aside.

•
Today, the police officer is an object of derision and scorn, viewed not as a remedy to crime and disorder but as a cause of it — at least to an uninformed but influential minority, which includes members of the government and media.

•
As the police officer endures this reaction, he knows crime and disorder haven't abated. Indeed, both have increased alarmingly in many places.

•
But now, if the officer uses force to bring a lawbreaker into custody, the legal protections that he once enjoyed will be abrogated, if necessary, to appease that same minority.

•
... if the officer uses force to bring a lawbreaker into custody, the legal protections that he once enjoyed will be abrogated, if necessary, to appease that same minority.

•
Police now face the knowledge that their superiors and the politicians to whom they answer will sacrifice them without a second thought if it meets the approval of the woke mob and the political leaders and media figures who amplify its demands.

•
Take over an entire neighborhood in downtown Seattle, including a police station? No problem, says the city's mayor — it will be a summer of love!

•
Too many still believe that the police are at the root of what troubles America's cities, but reality has a way of reasserting itself — often cruelly.

•
This wave of violence hasn't aroused even a fraction of the outrage that attended the deaths of Floyd and Brooks, a fact not lost on the nation's cops.

•
America's police have gotten the message: they're the problem. And they're responding accordingly.

•
How many more lives will be lost before the country sees through this lie?
Ingraham tells voters to 'learn to spot lies' from Democrats, prevent 'Orwellian chasm' of Biden... (Fox 07/17/2020)
•
... quoting George Orwell's classic 1946 essay, "Politics and the English Language", in which he wrote that "political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

•
"At the time, George Orwell was writing about the rise of communism and far-left thought."

•
"Today with the rise of the hard left in America, we should keep Orwell's warnings in mind and learn to spot lies that are made to sound truthful during this pivotal time."

•
... Democratic governors and other politics accusing Trump of lacking a "national strategy" to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. "When they say 'national strategy', they mean 'national lockdown.'"

•
... Democrats have made it clear through their actions that they want a full economic lockdown until coronavirus "magically disappears" or until an "effective, safe vaccine" is found.

•
... Biden himself has promised "racial justice" measures before translating the term to mean "empowering groups that pretend to care about minorities but actually just end up profiting themselves by stoking racial animosity."

•
"Under a Biden administration, decisions will be made largely based on race, not on merit or hard work or achievement ... Get ready for massive discrimination against more than 100 million Americans [while] special privileges, accommodations and money are doled out to certain politically preferred groups."

•
"Get ready for another apology tour. Biden is going to go around the world begging America's pardon. After all, having a president who actually fights for American workers and is tough on trade [and] not giving away the store like Obama did — you think the Europeans like that?"

•
"Wouldn't you rather be decoding and exposing the radical agenda than actually living under it?"
Tammy Bruce: Attacks on Goya CEO expose the left's mob-mentality tactics (Fox 07/16/2020)
•
During his remarks, he noted that "Trump was ‘a builder,' like his own illustrious grandfather, and called for Americans to pray for their president."

•
Fortunately, for most Americans, such decent and generous remarks are considered normal and worth praising, yet Democrats were sent over (again) their Trump-hating cliff leading to a call for a boycott of this largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States.

•
Make no mistake, this cancel-culture obscenity, the seeking to destroy people and businesses that do not conform, is the virtual version of the riots that played out in Democratic-run cities with real-life fire bombing of buildings and the physical destruction of businesses and lives.

•
It may be less visually dramatic, but it is still the mob, and they still seek to destroy and punish anyone who dares to get in their political way.

•
Mr. Unanue was attacked on social media and in newspapers. The conventional wisdom was, after having his company disemboweled, he would lift himself briefly off the ground, beg for forgiveness and then slink away into cancelled obscurity.

•
But as a man of principle, he decided to not bend to the mob. "You know, this call for a boycott. There's so many people for, you know, against the boycott and for our company. So it's just a reflection, I believe, of the division that exists today in our country."

•
Mr. Unanue told ... "I don't know who I attribute this quote to, but we've lived by the philosophy of ‘there are those who are born to love and to build and others to hate and destroy.' And unfortunately, this great divide is killing our nation."

•
As the left was engaging in virtual arson, conservatives and other well-meaning people countered this threat against Goya with a call to support the company and buy their products.

•
This typical cancel-culture effort to destroy a person and a company for not conforming to the Democratic worldview is nothing new.

•
Bullying, abuse, violence and rioting are now the upfront Democratic election strategies for 2020.

•
I know, it doesn't make sense, but it is all the left has ever had — they feed on envy, jealousy and hate, and condition their base to view everything, especially their own lives, through a lens of victimhood and enemies.

•
For generations now, liberals and the left have been conditioning Americans to see each other through the lens of tribalism.

•
It is, after all, easier to control people when they believe they're under constant threat by an unknown and unknowable enemy who happens to live right next door.

•
Americans have been sold the lie that a sliver of your identity is what matters, and that the Democratic machine will represent and protect you.

•
Identity politics is sold as philosophy of personal elevation and power, but in reality it's about control, punishment and destruction.

•
Ultimately, it is the brainwashing and destruction that enforces a code of complete conformity lest you are expelled and cancelled.

•
This is the real agenda of the left — control people with threat so questions, debate, independent thought and genuine inquiry into facts are too dangerous to even consider.

•
It is the only way violent fascists are able to take, and keep, control of Americans cities without fear of confrontation.

•
How else can you explain urban areas run by Democratic mayors in the United States before our very eyes turning into dystopian hellscapes?

•
How else can you explain the demonstrations by Black Lives Matter, but their silence about the surge in murders of Black people (including children) every weekend in New York and Chicago?

•
How else is it that Mr. Unanue, head of the largest Hispanic-owned company in America, founded by his immigrant grandfather, would be at the top of the liberal list for virtual execution?

•
It is explained by the fact that it is all about control by people who have contempt for the very communities they claim to care about.

•
It is about the political control brought by chaos and fear. And it is the only thing the Democrats and their allied groups know how to do.

•
See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Bari Weiss' NY Times exit shows stifling political correctness left wants. Don't let them win (Fox 07/16/2020)
•
Just as radicals in many cities have seized control of the streets and are demolishing statues to American heroes like George Washington, a band of more polished radicals have seized control of venerable institutions and are using their newfound power to bully an unwilling country.

•
Suffice it to say the New York Times isn't a newspaper anymore, in the traditional sense of the word.

•
It's a propaganda bullhorn — a super PAC for the Democratic Party, the 1619 Project, and other revolutionary causes.

•
The media is just the latest prize in the left's long march through elite cultural institutions.

•
This march began on college campuses, where radical faculty — many of whom had participated in the mayhem and bloodshed of the 1960s and ‘70s — indoctrinated students with far-left ideology and sent them off to tear down supposedly oppressive institutions like the family and the police, and harangue those who disagree.

•
It has become commonplace for conservative students, faculty, and speakers to be shouted down and even assaulted on campus by far-left student radicals, while administrators look the other way — or worse, join in their persecution.

•
Those student radicals graduated and got degrees, but they didn't grow up or go away.

•
They entered the real world armed with protest tactics and elite credentials — and they're using both to upend American society, from sports leagues to social-media feeds.

•
Their primary objective is to impose a stifling political correctness on the American public. They must not be allowed to succeed.

•
These radicals are now in charge of social-media companies like Twitter, which routinely censors conservatives, up to and including the president.

•
And they're in charge of big corporations like the NBA, which just announced a list of pre-approved protest slogans players can wear on their jerseys.

•
Curiously, the list didn't include any slogans that would offend the Chinese Communist Party, which controls the league's access to the vast Chinese market; woke radicals seem not to care nearly so much about actual oppression committed by Communists overseas. Or at least, they can be paid not to care.

•
Far-left absurdities about race, sex, and other topics seemed harmless enough when they were parroted by impressionable freshmen in social-justice seminars.

•
Now it's clear these radicals aren't just a group of special snowflakes on a college campus.

•
And they aren't content protesting outside the dean's office and publishing in obscure journals.

•
They've gotten ahold of real power and seek to use that power to remodel the country so their absurd beliefs are the only acceptable beliefs that can be voiced in public.

•
The elites have nearly finished purging their ranks of dissenters like Weiss and Bennet, who believe in such quaint principles as pluralism and free speech.

•
Now they can turn their full attention to silencing, disenfranchising, and defunding the overwhelming majority of Americans who vote or think the "wrong" way — who believe, for example, that there are only two sexes, or that abortion is wrong, or that the police make us safe, or that our country is fundamentally good and noble.

•
That's why increasingly we hear calls for such radical proposals as eliminating the Senate filibuster, packing the Supreme Court, and abolishing the Electoral College.

•
Having consolidated control over the media, higher education, and big corporations, the left is enraged that it cannot permanently capture our political institutions. So they want to rig the rules to take care of that, too.

•
Americans of all races, religions, and walks of life who believe in the principles of this country — natural equality, toleration, the rule of law — must realize that these principles are under threat, and band together to protect them against the powerful elites revolting against them, and ultimately against us.

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Despicable Behavior of My Fellow Academicians (JWR 07/15/2020)
•
As George Orwell said, "Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them."

•
If the stupid ideas of academic intellectuals remained on college campuses and did not infect the rest of society, they might be a source of entertainment — much like a circus.
Stone's 'unprecedented' commutation (JWR 07/15/2020)
Bari Weiss vs. NY Times 'woke' groupthink – the Great Culture Purge of 2020 marches on (Fox 07/15/2020)
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The mildest sign of unwillingness to become an "ally" in the Great Culture Purge of 2020 ends with your neck in the guillotine.

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Have we finally reached the glorious age in which Absolute Truth is known with such fulsome certainty that our cultural betters should be trusted to wish dissenters away into the cornfield?

•
Of course not. We're just watching the latest cultural revolution in real time.

•
Which leaves those who wish to not be purged with two simple choices: Stand up together against this round of Maoist purification, or hang separately.
Michael Goodwin: Bari Weiss resignation latest example of New York Times' decline (Fox 07/15/2020)
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... groupthink now dominates the paper's coverage from front to back and readers are encouraged to obey, not think.

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... the Times no longer functions as an actual newspaper. Its "mission" is to rewrite the story of America, one that dovetails with the paper's obsession with race, gender and every new form of identity politics.

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The paper is now published not to give readers facts and information, but to browbeat them with the far, far left political and social positions of the writers.

•
It's a predictable Lord of the Flies outcome, where the official party line is the only acceptable position and you either go along or get out.

•
So day after dreary day, from front to back, the Times reeks with the delusion that it knows best about everything.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
5 Arguments Against 'America Is a Racist Country' (JWR 07/14/2020)
Defund vs. defend — policing debate poses opportunity for Republicans in 2020 election (Fox 07/14/2020)
•
A major choice in this year's election will be between defunding or defending police.

•
Most Americans believe the vacuum created by defunding the police is going to be filled with predators and dangerous criminals — not with social workers and do-gooders.

•
... both at home and abroad, the radical Democrats led by the Biden-Pelosi-Schumer triumvirate are developing a pattern of defunding those who defend us.

•
This pattern is not just about speeches, slogans, and platforms. The Democrats in Minneapolis are abolishing the police department and replacing it with some undefined community service program.

•
You can imagine how intimidated robbers, murderers and rapists will be by the unarmed-but-sincere Minneapolis community service force.

•
In Seattle, the Democrats are cutting the police budget by 50 percent with a similar community service fantasy replacement.

•
Given that six people were shot, which led to the deaths of two teenagers, during what the Democratic mayor called "the summer of love" in the autonomous zone, you might have thought the people of Seattle would get more police protection rather than less.

•
"In New York City, where the city council has voted to cut $1 billion from the NYPD's budget, weekly shooting incidents in mid-June increased by 358 percent over the same period in 2019."

•
Every week, from now to the election, we are tragically likely to see more murders, children killed, and incompetence by Democrats mismanaging cities.

•
The reality that Democrats are making America more dangerous for innocent people and their children will begin to sink in.

•
Ultimately, there are only two groups who should be happy about the Democratic Party's commitment to defund rather than defend: criminals and the Chinese Communist dictatorship. Both groups will be cheering for a Biden-Pelosi-Schumer victory.

•
Now, the propaganda media will interpret support for the police as racism – even when three-quarters of Americans oppose defunding police.

•
If Republicans can find the courage to ignore the distortions and dishonesty – and muster the discipline to stick to supporting police alongside a set of big issues despite every media effort to get them off message – the GOP may be successful in November.
Judge Jackson Demands that the President Clarify Extent of Stone’s Commutation (07/14/2020)
•
With a few important exceptions not relevant to this discussion, a trial judge's role in the defendant's imprisonment ends when she imposes sentence.

•
So Jackson is no doubt disturbed by the commutation. Legally, she cannot do anything about it, but politically, she is not letting it go.

•
Transparently, she seeks to force the president to state publicly that he is sparing Stone from any supervised release, which is sure to intensify the already unhinged coverage that Trump's clemency is the most corrupt act in the history of America, the world, the universe, etc.

•
Or, perhaps she is trying to pressure Trump to pardon Stone outright, just as Judge Emmet Sullivan is trying to pressure Trump to pardon Michael Flynn outright (rather than honor the Justice Department's lawful dismissal of the case).

•
Pardons, of course, would add to the Democrats' narrative that Trump is corrupt and unfit for the nation's highest office.

•
I expect the president will make clear that he intended to commute both the sentence of imprisonment and all attendant limitations arising out of it, including any term of supervised release.

•
He will also take the opportunity to reiterate his contentions that the Mueller investigation was an Obama-driven witch hunt, aided and abetted by Obama-appointed judges.

•
How it helps the court to become embroiled in cat-fighting over such pettifoggery as whether Roger Stone should be under supervised release is beyond me.

•
I do wonder, though, whether any federal judges have intervened to make sure that the terrorists whose sentences were commuted by Presidents Clinton and Obama are reporting to their probation officers.
Andy McCarthy: Media, left's reaction to Trump's Roger Stone commutation was 'remarkable' (Fox 07/13/2020)
•
"[President Obama] granted more pardons than any president in history."

•
"He pardoned Marc Rich, infamously with the help of (Attorney General) Eric Holder. That was just a straight-up political payoff. He pardoned a CIA director, his HUD secretary, and eight people who were under investigation in his Agriculture Department. And that was just sort of getting warmed up, that doesn't count the terrorist pardons and the other politically motivated pardons."

•
"He pardoned Chelsea Manning, who transmitted classified information to Wikileaks. Giving sensitive information to Wikileaks apparently became a problem when Trump became president."

•
"But, the thing people don't focus on is just like Obama tried to get the federal immigration law changed and then on his own he basically issued or decreed DACA after many times saying he didn't have the authority to change the law on his own. He also wanted Congress to change the federal narcotics laws and when they didn't change it to his satisfaction, what they did was use the pardon power to slash the sentences of people who had been convicted of narcotics violations."
Deroy Murdock: Failure of leadership — Pelosi shrugs at statue vandals, ignores this in her own... (Fox 07/12/2020)
Trump wrong to give DACA recipients ‘road to citizenship’ — unless Dems change immigration... (Fox 07/12/2020)
•
"I'm going to do a big executive order, I have the power to do it as president and I'm going to make DACA a big part of it."

•
When he campaigned for president in 2015, Trump correctly labeled Obama's decree as being illegal.

•
For Trump to do an about-face now and give DACA recipients what he called "a road to citizenship" would be a huge blow to his base and a major policy mistake if he does so without getting significant concessions in return from the open-borders crowd.

•
In 2016, many voters were turned off by candidate Trump's acerbic style, but they voted for him anyway because of his policy positions — including getting tough on illegal immigration — and because he was perceived to be a practical businessman and a tough negotiator.

•
Indeed, the president negotiated some commendable deals, including the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, along with a promising trade deal with China prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

•
So why would Trump simply cave to the Democrats on DACA without requiring them to give something on their end?

•
The president's comment about a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients smells of election-year desperation.

•
But Trump shouldn't think for a second that granting this amnesty is going to get him additional votes.

•
It's one thing to grant protection from deportation, but it's quite another to take the next step and provide citizenship.

•
Such action would almost guarantee Republicans being shut out of the White House for a generation.

•
This is another example of Republicans seeking short-term gain at the expense of long-term security.

•
It's what we saw when corporate America sold out the long-term interest of America's middle class for short-term profits in moving jobs to China.

•
It's what we're seeing today as corporate America sells out to the radical and intolerant left in the support of boycotting other businesses.

•
These short-term ploys wind up being a form of political suicide. That's exactly what granting citizenship to illegal immigrants would be for Republicans who ignore the views of their base.

•
One of President Ronald Reagan‘s biggest mistakes was signing the 1986 Amnesty Act for illegal immigrants. It was supposed to be the last amnesty we ever had. All it did was send a message that it paid to come here illegally, rather than waiting in line.

•
As a result, another 20 million individuals did just that over the next 35 years. In the meantime, the millions of people around the world patiently waiting their turn to get into America the right way have become the biggest suckers on the planet.

•
There surely are a number of Republican strategists figuring that an election victory by former Vice President Joe Biden is going to give citizenship to illegal immigrants anyway.

•
So why not just do it now, with the hope of siphoning some votes from Democrat Biden?

•
But that's not why Americans – Republicans, independents and even some conservative Democrats – elected Trump.

•
They wanted a fighter, not someone who was going to cave in for political expediency when things got rough.

•
The only chance America has of stemming the tide of illegal immigration is a Trump win in November and the leverage that it would provide to get the concessions from open-border Democratic politicians.

•
What's the point of voting for Trump if he's going to make a major concession to Democrats on illegal immigration and get absolutely nothing in return?

•
... the president should not cave on illegal immigration – one of the core policy issues that first attracted disaffected voters to the Trump campaign.
Trump Spares Stone from Imprisonment, Sparking Howls from Amnesiac Democrats (Fox 07/11/2020)
•
President Bill Clinton pardoned his own brother for felony distribution of cocaine. And a key witness in the Whitewater scandal for which he and Hillary Clinton were under investigation. And three others convicted in independent counsel Ken Starr's probe. And Marc Rich, in what was a straight-up political payoff. And his CIA director. And his HUD secretary. And eight people convicted in an investigation of his Agriculture Department.

•
No surprise there: The Clintons and their supporters then, like President Trump and his supporters now, regarded the special-prosecutor probes into the administration as witch hunts.

•
Clinton also commuted the sentences of convicted terrorists, some of whom hadn't even asked for clemency. Shameless as he was, though, even he couldn't bring himself to pardon Oscar Lopez Rivera, the defiantly unrepentant FALN leader.

•
President Obama took care of that.

•
Obama also commuted the sentence of a U.S. soldier who passed top-secret information to WikiLeaks. He pardoned his former Joint Chiefs of Staff vice chairman, who'd been convicted of making false statements about a leak of classified information to The New York Times.

•
So, as abuses of the pardon power go — and they do go — I can't get too whipped up over President Trump's commutation of Roger Stone's 40-month sentence for non-violent criminal obstruction of a bogusly based and ridiculously over-prosecuted investigation.

•
Not under circumstances in which jail-house doors have been swung open all over the country by federal, state, and local governments, which are using the coronavirus pandemic as a rationale to release both hardened criminals and elderly convicts (i.e., those around Stone's age).

•
Not under circumstances in which many of Trump's loudest critics are the same Democrats and media cheerleaders who not only soft-pedaled the outrageous Clinton and Obama pardons, but who would have been blissfully content to have the pervasively corrupt Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office exercising the pardon power — no doubt on her husband's model.

•
I should here specify that Roger Stone is a whack job. If we are assessing President Trump's job performance, though, it is more damaging that he has brought people such as Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Stone into his inner circle than that he has used the pardon power to spare one of them from imprisonment.

•
If you are offended by Trump's act of clemency on behalf of a longstanding ally of checkered character, go ahead and vote him out of office. Just please spare us the righteous indignation if you'd be perfectly happy to have the Clintons or the Obama-Biden team back in power making the clemency calls.

•
As for the rest it, we're left with the usual unhinged commentary from people who ought to know better. Take top Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann. After the clemency was announced, Weissmann took to Twitter to assert, "Time to put Roger Stone in the grand jury to find out what he knows about Trump but would not tell. Commutation can't stop that." Well, no, but the Fifth Amendment can.

•
A lawyer of Weissmann's acumen should not get such a basic legal point wrong, but he is so politically and emotionally invested in attacking Trump that he obviously tweeted without thinking things through.

•
The tweet underscores that Weissmann — an overt Biden surrogate these days — was a terrible choice for a special-counsel probe that should have been rigorously non-partisan.

•
He scorched the earth investigating Trump for three years; to imply that he might have nabbed the president were it not for Roger Stone's omerta is pathetic.

•
Weissman & Co. did not come close to proving that he or Trump had anything to do with the hacking of Democratic Party emails by Russia or by anyone else.
Is Electoral College headed for extinction? Republicans should oppose Dem attempt to kill it (Fox 07/11/2020)
Good riddance anti-Trump Republicans who would rather support Biden, Pelosi and Schumer (Fox 07/11/2020)
Trump, Republicans push back against cultural revolutionaries and this is what they get for it (Fox 07/11/2020)
•
One reads and hears this from every media outlet and Democrats in Congress. President Trump is dividing America. Talk radio is divisive. The right-wing is undermining our "unity."

•
What is really meant by the divisive slur is that conservatives decided not to take it anymore. They are pushing back and the biggest push-backer of all is the president.

•
Only the latest example: The president last Saturday gave what was mostly a Fourth of July patriotic speech in South Dakota. He reminded us of what used to be widely accepted as traditional American principles.

•
Predictable media reaction was summarized by a Wall Street Journal editorial. — The president was accused of "stok(ing) a culture war" (Los Angeles Times) delivering a "divisive culture war message" (The New York Times), "push(ing) racial division" (Associated Press), and delivering a "dark speech" (The Washington Post).

•
... is it just the latest example of groupthink in a media industry that constantly promotes "diversity," but not ideological diversity?

•
On his radio program ... Rush Limbaugh asked how it is divisive when one tells the truth? Ah, but therein lies the problem.

•
We live in an era when truth is subjective, if it exists at all. There is no truth, except the "truth" of the left.

•
Where is it written that the left gets to control the political and cultural agenda and conservatives must bow to its ideology when, in fact, it is liberalism that has brought the nation to near cultural ruin?

•
Which ideology is responsible for 60 million abortions, the welfare state and entitlement mentality, the promotion of any human relationship that can be conjured up in the most twisted of minds, family breakup, drugs, the teaching of a false American history, failing inner-city public schools and much more?

•
When conservatives oppose these cultural revisionists, they are called divisive. Conservatives have little to defend. They should be holding the left accountable for the destruction caused by their ideology.

•
On a related topic, why do "reporters" never ask demonstrators where they come from? Do they hold jobs? Who made their signs? Are they being paid to be there, and if so, by whom?

•
If they are from out of town and staying overnight to demonstrate and pull down statues the next day, who is paying for their hotel and food?

•
Democrats tolerated Republicans when they mostly surrendered to their legislative demands and judicial rulings.

•
When Republicans began to realize they no longer had to take it lying down, that's when allegations of "divisiveness" began.

•
Karl Marx wrote: "Revolution in general – the overthrow of the existing power and dissolution of previous relations – is a political act. Socialism cannot be realized without a revolution. But when its organizing activity begins... its soul comes forward, then socialism casts aside its political cloak."

•
We are experiencing the result of a new American revolution, one that seeks to impose socialism – and worse — on the nation.

•
It is not divisive to push back against those who would "fundamentally transform America" into their political and social image, as Joe Biden has promised to do if he becomes president.

•
Pushing back against this toxic tide was once known as patriotism.
Tucker Carlson: ‘Social justice’ shields elites from criticism (Fox 07/11/2020)
•
It turns out that revolutions cover a multitude of sins. Once every conversation in your country turns political, only the politicians benefit from it.

•
In a normal moment, the people in charge would be in deep trouble right now. The rest of us would be asking hard questions about why things seem to be falling apart — why our streets are filthy, why violent crime is rising, why nothing seems to work.

•
We pay a lot to keep this society functioning. Suddenly, we're not getting a lot in return.

•
It's not a very good deal. But in the age of Black Lives Matter, our leaders don't have to answer for this. They just give speeches about social justice and they're insulated from all criticism.

•
If you persist in bothering them about their incompetence, they'll have you arrested for hate crimes.

•
So revolution is the best thing that ever happened to our political class.

•
You see it with perfect clarity in New York City. Just a few months ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio was a national joke.

•
Now de Blasio is his generation's Al Sharpton. He's a protest leader fighting in the streets for civil rights. He no longer has to pretend to run the city.

•
Now leaders in New York City don't have to address their failing schools. Instead of helping kids to learn, the city can just blame racism.

•
Racism might seem like a strange explanation in New York. The school population there is fully 84 percent non-White. There aren't that many White kids to blame.

•
But that hasn't stopped the school chancellor. He recently issued a statement pledging his commitment to "anti-racism" and to "work every day to undo these systems of injustice."

•
The chancellor wasn't more specific than that. He didn't specify which "systems of injustice" he was talking about. Maybe that's because the kids with the highest test scores in New York are not White. They're Asian.

•
Asian students score far higher than any other ethnic group in New York City — not just higher scores in math, but also higher in English proficiency.

•
That seems odd. So many of these students come from poor immigrant families where no one speaks English at home.

•
At first glance, kids like this don't seem to have much "privilege." So how are they so successful? Racism, obviously. There's no other possible explanation for it.

•
It is a "system of injustice" that allows penniless foreigners from faraway countries to arrive here with no language skills whatsoever and still shoot to the top of the academic rankings.

•
The mayor's wife is in charge of fixing problems like this. She is the city's systemic racism czar. ... What she said — the one thing she was absolutely confident about — is that White people are definitely to blame for it.

•
At a meeting of the Community Education Council in Manhattan, some of the people who are supposed to help educate the children of New York City spent time attacking each other for being too white, instead of talking about reading or math.

•
Robin Broshi said: "It hurts people when they see a white man bouncing a brown baby on their lap and they don't know the context. That is harmful. That makes people cry... I take that to heart and that hurts me. I have to learn how to be a better white person."

•
Thomas Wrocklage said: "I would like to know before this meeting adjourns how having my friend's nephew on my lap was hurtful to people and was racist. Can you please explain?"

•
Broshi yelled back: "I've explained it to you. You can read a book. Read a book. Read ... ‘White Fragility.' Read ‘How To Talk To White People.' It's not my job to educate you. You're an educated White man."

•
OK. It's true. They did talk about reading for a second at the end. They'd like you to read something called "White Fragility," by Robin DiAngelo.

•
"White Fragility" isn't really a book. It's what we used to call a tract — a screed, a diatribe. It's the kind of wild-eyed hate propaganda you push just before you decide to really start hurting people. It's preemptive justification for abuse.

•
Explaining her thesis on NBC ... DiAngelo said: "White people are racist A-Holes." ... There you have the accumulated scholarship of Miss Robin DiAngelo. This is the same person who is probably the single most popular figure in American education right now.

•
School districts around the country have made "White Fragility" required reading. Your children will almost certainly read it, or be taught by people who have read it.
Roger Stone was victim of political prosecution — Trump right to commute his prison term (Fox 07/11/2020)
•
This is a prosecution that should have never happened, and one that was motivated entirely by ego, politics and hatred of President Trump.

•
The saga began with a predawn SWAT team raid on Stone's Florida home, televised by a gleeful CNN crew that — by an amazing "coincidence" – happened to be on the scene.

•
It looked like a bad made-for-TV movie about the takedown of an armed and dangerous terrorist leader of the caliber of Usama bin Laden — when, in fact, Stone was unarmed and posed no danger to anyone.

•
Thankfully, President Trump has now acted in the interests of justice so that the 67-year-old Stone — who is not in the prime of good health — has been able to avoid a potential death sentence due to his vulnerability COVID-19 if he were imprisoned.

•
Ironically, our prisons are being emptied of dangerous criminals at the very same time that the harmless Stone was about to be committed to life-threatening confinement.

•
I say the Stone's ordeal is only nearly over — and not finished — because the next chapter will inevitably be a chorus of Trump-hating partisan Democrats fulminating impotently about the president's "abuse of power" and demanding "answers" and an investigation.

•
The melodramatic and false Democratic claims are by now familiar because we've heard them so many times. "Russian collusion! Treason! Betrayal! Obstruction!"

•
Prosecutors working for anti-Trump Special Counsel Robert Mueller were under intense pressure to deliver on the hyped Russia collusion narrative in what is tantamount to an attempted coup against the president.

•
The prosecutors seized on Stone's contradictory statements about contacts with Assange as a thread they could unravel to lead them back to the prize of proving that the Trump campaign somehow colluded with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton

•
In truth, the Mueller investigation came up empty, other than persecuting Roger Stone, former Trump campaign head Paul Manafort, a couple of clueless low-level campaign volunteers, and a passel of conveniently absent and unreachable alleged Russian spies.

•
... the prosecution of Trump supporters was meant to send a message to conservatives: if you dare support Trump, you will be targeted with a no-holds-barred and merciless political prosecution.

•
And indeed, many got the message. To this day the abhorrent treatment of Stone, Manafort and others incidentally caught up in a rigged witch hunt starring Special Counsel Robert Mueller has caused many talented Republicans to sit on the sidelines rather than play any role in the Trump administration or reelection campaign.

•
Who wants to risk prison, the blackening of their good name, or bankruptcy caused by enormous legal defense costs for supporting your favored candidate for president?

•
Piling onto the unjustified prosecution and abuse of government resources was a federal judge, Amy Berman Jackson, whose sentencing hearing condemning Stone to three years and four months in prison was replete with personal attacks against Stone and the president.

•
Most laughable was the stentorious pronouncement that Stone should have received more punishment for "witness tampering" — angry texts by Stone to a longtime friend, Randy Credico about Credico being a "rat" for talking to prosecutors and about the disputed substance of his testimony.

•
These texts are not a modicum of propriety. But jail time?

•
In a justice system where former FBI officials Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Comey and other perverters of justice walk free?

•
From a judge who refused to properly resolve patent juror bias issues by no less than the jury foreman who clearly lied during jury selection?

•
Even "victim" Credico himself asked the court not to send Stone away for the trash-tweet texts. No victim, no harm – no problem! The court threw the book at him anyway, pitilessly.

•
In the end, the Stone prosecution had nothing to do with justice. It was about politics, public shaming, and a peculiar inside-the-Beltway set of self-referential rules: watch your back and watch who you support, because WE, the establishment, are watching YOU.

•
We all know why Stone was persecuted for the same type of behavior Obama administration officials and Hillary Clinton campaign operatives have skated free for. It was because Stone supported Trump, plain and simple.

•
This is the type of prosecution we see in newly-minted "democracies" or in tin-pot dictatorships. That's not America — at least, it shouldn't be.

•
President Trump's act of mercy won't give Stone and his family their last two years back, or their millions of dollars in legal fees and lost income, or their good name or peace of mind. But it will give them back some dignity, and some respite from the baying hounds.

•
I can hear the shrieking from the mainstream media and the left ringing in my ears. But let's put President Trump's commutation into context, shall we?

•
President Barack Obama pardoned over 200 convicts and granted clemency to nearly 2,000 — the most of any president since Harry Truman.

•
Obama's clemency grants extended to major drug dealers, traffickers, embezzlers, money launderers, fraudsters, killers and more.

•
President Trump has been far more selective about exercising his clemency power. Rather than releasing dangerous violent criminals, he has acted against unjust political prosecutions that targeted his supporters.

•
Trump's act of mercy for Stone – a former campaign supporter who stepped up and was loyal when many others have not been — strikes a note of grace and decency and serves the interests of justice.
The Authoritarian Left Fears a Level Playing Field (JWR 07/10/2020)
President Trump Emerges as Defender of the American Regime (JWR 07/10/2020)
The enduring value of the Electoral College (JWR 07/10/2020)
Mauled Mark: Zuckerberg paying high price for free speech (JWR 07/10/2020)
Gregg Jarrett: Trump right to commute Roger Stone’s sentence – Stone committed no crime, was... (Fox 07/10/2020)
Biased anti-Flynn rogue judge exceeds authority by refusing to dismiss wrongful charges (Fox 07/10/2020)
To be reelected, Trump must focus on broadening his base — not petty fights on Twitter (Fox 07/10/2020)
•
"The drop in Trump's job approval rating puts him in the company of George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter ... who also had sub-40 percent approval ratings in June of their reelection years."

•
And look what happened to them.

•
Given these grim poll results, and with just nine weeks before voters pull the first levers, President Trump at once needs to focus like a bloodhound on winning a second term.

•
The alternative is unthinkable — an addled Democratic President Joe Biden weakly assenting to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, and their every unhinged, extreme, vindictive, far-left fantasy.

•
The president needs to stop wasting precious time with Twitter messages about seemingly every petty controversy that arises.

•
The president already has a massive problem getting his important messages out, thanks to the Hate Trump Media, which constantly gnaw at him like termites nibbling through the floorboards.

•
Creating his own distractions makes it that much harder for Trump to get reelected — an objective that has grown from an urgent priority to an existential imperative for the survival of America as we have known it.

•
The president needs to stop caving in to temptation as he recently did on Twitter, when he wondered if NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace would apologize over a two-week-old incident involving a noose-like garage-door closer...

•
First, Wallace is not like failed, publicity-starved actor Jussie Smollett, who totally fabricated a racial "attack" on himself. At worst, Wallace rushed to misjudgment about the noose/rope in his garage stall.

•
Second, Wallace is not like Colin Kaepernick, an anti-American radical who denounced July Fourth as a "celebration of white supremacy."

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Third, who cares? The president of the United States has far bigger cars to race...

•
... with 91 percent of Republicans already supporting Trump, per Gallup, he cannot rise much above his near-deity status within his own party.

•
Trump needs to expand his base, pronto.

•
For every rally, the president should do at least three events with independents, suburban women and Black voters.

•
Trump should explain to Black parents that he strongly backs school choice, while Biden sadistically promises to padlock charter schools.

•
Trump should visit minority-owned companies that have grown through his Opportunity Zones program.

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He should introduce Americans to Black former prisoners who have benefited from his First Step Act criminal-justice reform and made something of themselves.

•
If Trump can capture 15 to 20 percent of the Black vote, he will romp in November. That looks daunting, but it's worth the effort — not least because asking for Black votes calms Whites rattled by relentless, filthy media and Democratic lies about Trump's alleged racism.

•
The president should offer a positive, optimistic vision of how his ideas will reverse COVID-19's damage and make America great again, again.

•
Trumponomics triumphed. Tax cuts, deregulation, energy independence and other pro-market reforms can work their magic once more.

•
Finally, Trump must remember that he is not running against athletes, comedians and pundits.

•
He is running against an increasingly befogged Joe Biden, first elected 48 years ago.

•
So, atop his own positive message, Trump must highlight Biden's weaknesses, his shabby Senate record, the Obama-Biden administration's abundant failures, and the bonkers AOC/BLM/Antifa left that will control Washington if Biden wins.

•
President Trump should discuss these huge ideas, ignore sniping celebrities, and lock up his magic Twitter machine, save for major, upbeat announcements such as bill signings, new treaties and COVID-19 vaccine breakthroughs.

•
In short, a presidential reelection is a terrible thing to waste.
Justin Haskins: If you believe Black lives matter, support more funding for police — not less (Fox 07/10/2020)
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... demands by some to defund or disband police departments around the nation will only lead to increased crime and the loss of more innocent lives, including Black lives.

•
Already, serious crime is skyrocketing in a number of cities, as criminals take advantage of attacks on police to step up their activity.

•
From June 29 to July 5, there were 85 shooting incidents and 27 murders in Chicago alone.

•
Over the July Fourth holiday weekend, 44 people were shot in New York City and at least eight were killed.

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In Atlanta, there were 31 confirmed shooting victims and five deaths over the holiday weekend, including an 8-year-old girl...

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Many of the victims of these and other shootings are Black. Every day, police officers in communities across America willingly risk their lives to prevent such crimes, without regard to the race or ethnicity of crime victims.

•
Far-left politicians have also joined the effort, including self-described socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who complained in late June that action by New York City to cut its police budget by $1 billion — one-sixth of the total — didn't go nearly far enough.

•
... radical Black Lives Matter groups — many of which have explicitly endorsed socialism — and socialist politicians like AOC are doing the exact opposite of what needs to be done to protect Black lives.

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If they really believe Black lives matter, they would be seeking increased funding to put more police on the street.

•
Reforming and improving the police is a laudable goal. But defunding and dismantling police departments will only make things worse and result in the deaths of more crime victims.

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Should we defund schools because some teachers have raped and assaulted their students?

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Should we defund hospitals because some doctors have killed patients through medical malpractice?

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Should we shut down churches because there are documented cases of pedophile priests and other clergy members attacking children?

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Of course not. Defunding police makes no more sense.

•
Why don't the Black lives lost to gangs and other criminals matter as much as the Black lives lost to the relatively rare cases of unjustified killings by police?

•
... sending out unarmed social workers and psychologists to deal with rapidly unfolding and potentially dangerous situations won't work. Armed robbers, rapists, violent gangs and other gunmen sometimes need to be confronted by armed police officers.

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In many cases, the deterrent effect or presence of police is enough to prevent violence. But sometimes force becomes unavoidably necessary to save the lives of innocent crime victims.

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Imagine if your own child were in school and a gunman broke in and started shooting, killing children and teachers. Would you want a social worker or armed officers to respond?

•
Calls to defund police departments so that activists can expand failing welfare programs and hire an army of social workers aren't just foolish.

•
Such calls are incredibly dangerous and disrespectful to the families who have lost loved ones at the hands of criminals.

•
... it would be insane to slash police budgets to the bone prior to poverty rates falling, and even more insane to think — as Black Lives Matters claims — that simply increasing funding for welfare programs would magically reduce poverty.

•
Since the start of President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" more than $20 trillion has been spent on a long list of welfare programs, but poverty rates have hardly improved at all.

•
Of course Black lives matter. The best thing we can do to show that is to focus on alleviating poverty through proven reforms like enhancing school choice, investing in job training, reforming welfare programs and helping police departments become more effective while also holding them accountable when they violate Americans' rights.

•
But none of these policies would move our country closer to socialism, so the Black Lives Matter leadership team — which is composed of numerous "trained Marxists" — isn't interested.

•
Instead, BLM leaders argue it would be better to tear down as many existing American institutions as possible, the police first among them, regardless of the consequences to Black families.
The fragility of the woke (JWR 07/09/2020)
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Historically, the tips of the spears of cultural revolutions are accustomed to comfort. But they grow angry when they realize that they will never become securely comfortable.

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The woke but godless, the arrogant but ignorant, the violent but physically unimpressive, the degreed but poorly educated, the broke but acquisitive, the ambitious but stalled — these are history's ingredients of riot and revolution.
John Yoo: Supreme Court smacks Trump and delivers body blow to the office of the presidency (Fox 07/09/2020)
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Thursday's Supreme Court decision requiring President Trump to turn over his tax returns shows that we should add Chief Justice John Roberts and his liberal majority on the Court to the list of those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome...

•
Symptoms include willingness to discard any political custom and undermine any institution, without regard to future consequences, to bring down Trump.

•
Other sufferers have included presidential primary candidates, former Trump cabinet and White House officials, sitting Senators, members of the House, and governors.

•
But unlike these members of the "resistance," when the Supreme Court unleashes its hostility, it permanently damages the office of the presidency.

•
Chief Justice Roberts and the four liberals on the Court have raised their opposition so high that they are upending the constitutional structure and dooming future presidents to years of harassing investigations that will interfere with their performance in office.

•
... today's case involved a probe launched by a state official, Cyrus Vance Jr., the New York county district attorney, who claims he needs Trump's tax and financial records to carry out a money laundering investigation.

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The Court should have held, as Justices Thomas and Alito clearly showed in dissent, that state officials could not carry out litigation against a sitting president.

•
The Constitution vests the president with the awesome duties of protecting the national security, commanding the armed forces, carrying out foreign policy, executing the law, and managing the government.

•
Unlike with the other branches of government under our system, the Framers chose to concentrate all of the powers and duties of the executive into one person – the president – unlike the courts or Congress, which can carry on even if one of its members is disabled or distracted.

•
A president's "duties as chief magistrate demand his whole time for national objects," Thomas wrote.

•
By allowing Vance's fishing expedition into Trump's finances under the guise of a money laundering investigation, the Court places the presidency at the whim of any state official.

•
Today, it is Vance who is conducting a probe into Trump. Tomorrow, any district attorney – and there are at least 2,300 of them in the country – could claim that they too are investigating a sitting president for his alleged improprieties before office.

•
They could claim the right just because any president has a financial interest in their district, visited their district, or had money even pass through their district.

•
It will become a standard political tactic henceforth for the opposition party to use its state officials to harass and embarrass chief executives, but at the price of distracting them from carrying out their constitutional duties.

•
Vance does not just distort our politics by validating a new form of political resistance. It also injures the balance of powers between federal and state governments, and even within the federal government.

•
Under our separation of powers, the Congress imposes the primary check on the President.

•
The Framers designed our system for "ambition to counteract ambition," for Congress to use its constitutional powers to engage in constant struggle with the president for power.

•
... now Vance virtually adds 2,300 state prosecutors as a fourth branch of government.

•
They will have a powerful ability to interfere with a president's ability to carry out his constitutional functions.

•
Vance undermines the Supremacy Clause, which prohibits state governments from standing in the way of the federal government's performance of its duties.

•
Imagine what will happen in a Trump second term. Any state D.A. from a blue state can file harassing litigation against Trump because of his actions not just before he was president, but because he retains an interest in his business empire now.

•
What will happen if Joe Biden wins in November? Red state D.A.s will take advantage of Vance and investigate Joe Biden.

•
Hunter Biden should start hiring better lawyers now.
Tucker Carlson: The left doesn't want Biden to debate Trump (Fox 07/09/2020)
•
So what does that say about the people around Joe Biden?

•
Well, they are ruthless, obviously, and they're not into debate, not just presidential debates, but any debate.

•
They don't like being disagreed with. They don't believe that there are two sides to any question. They believe their own views are the only legitimate views.

•
When you criticize them, they won't engage with you. They don't bother to rebut your points. They simply attack you.

•
Biden will pick some running mate whose identity makes it impossible for anyone to criticize her, and then they'll describe any criticism of their governance as a hate crime.

•
We got a taste of that for eight years under Barack Obama, you know this — you know how it works.

•
And of course, they've been doing it for years on college campuses and in corporate diversity seminars, any place where they have total control.

•
... close to a thousand companies are boycotting Facebook's advertising platform.

•
Why are they doing that? Because they're demanding that Facebook censor the president and his voters, ban conservative news outlets, allow only publications controlled by the left to decide, what is news?

•
Well, that's most news outlets anyway, because there's only one mass media company left in America that consistently dissents from the left's view of things. You're watching and reading content from it right now.

•
What do you think they plan to do to Fox News if they take power? You can imagine, we're in their way.

•
So, these people aren't liberals. We call them that, but they're not. They don't wring their hands and wonder what to do next like your flaky fifth-grade teacher who wore sandals and worried about the fate of the baby harp seals or with a "Save the whales" sticker on her Volvo.

•
No, they're nothing like that. They're not sentimental. These are totalitarians.

•
They know exactly what they want. They don't wring their hands. They want power and they know how to get power.

•
Why are so many people being fired right now for absurdly trivial offenses? Liking the wrong tweet. Commenting on the wrong post. Making the wrong hand gesture accidentally? Why is that happening?

•
Simple. To terrify the rest of us into obedience. We better not say that, we could be hurt, too.

•
That's the lesson we take as we watch people around us fired and destroyed for doing very small things.

•
That tells us the people around Joe Biden, they're the ones doing this, rule by fear. They do not rule by consent as you're supposed to in this country. They are in fact the true enemies of democracy. They don't care what you think.

•
And just in case the rest of us missed the point, they are working hard to make self-defense against their mobs, their militia a crime. You cannot resist us, or we will prosecute you.

•
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is threatening to arrest Mark and Patricia McCloskey for daring to defend themselves against a mob that was threatening to murder them, a mob of democratic voters, but they're the criminals.

•
This is why the left wants to abolish the police. They're not abolishing law enforcement, they are replacing them with a woke militia of armed social workers, psychologists and ethnic studies majors. Also obedient Democratic voters.

•
And it's why in places where the police still exist, they want to make certain you're too afraid to call them.

•
In San Francisco, Supervisor Shamann Walton has introduced the Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies or CAREN Act. Hilarious if you think about it.

•
The bill would make it a hate crime for citizens to call law enforcement based on "racial bias."

•
How exactly do you think that law will be applied? You don't have to wonder. Call the police because you're frightened of mostly peaceful protesters threatening to kill you? You're the criminal now.

•
And day by day, liberalism evaporates and the left's troops — who call themselves liberals, children of the enlightenment — are falling in line behind what is clearly a power grip.

•
... the founder of vox.com, Ezra Klein, someone regarded as an intellectual on the left, went on Twitter to explain why free speech is actually very bad.

•
"A lot of debates that sell themselves as being about free speech are actually about power, and there's a lot of power in being able to claim and hold the mantle of free speech defender."

•
Actually, Ezra Klein is half right about this. Free speech definitely is about power. Power for people who don't have any.

•
People like Ezra Klein want less free speech for others so they can have more power.

•
When they can tell you what you can say, what they're really telling you is what you're allowed to believe.

•
They're not controlling your mouth, they are controlling your mind and there's no deeper control than that.

•
Any person who is telling you that is someone you should be very afraid of.

•
See related Democrat Knee (Sean Delonas, 05/31/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related And That\\\'s Why We Are Letting You Go (Mike Lester, 06/14/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Who's 'divisive'? (JWR 07/08/2020)
Dear Jews: Too many of you don’t even know what it is you are not to forget (INN 07/07/2020)
Critics of Trump's 4th of July speech reveal patriotism hatred (JWR 07/07/2020)
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See related Hates America Like Before (Jake Fuller, 2017)") cartoon from USA picture album
If America Is So Racist, Why Are There So Many Race Hoaxes? (JWR 07/07/2020)
•
... if America is so racist, why are there so many race hoaxes? Virtually every time we read about a swastika painted on a door, or a noose hanging from a tree to taunt blacks, it turns out to be either a false alarm or, more frequently, a hoax.

•
If there were a lot of racism, there would be no need for hoaxes.

•
No Jew in Germany in the 1930s made up an anti-Semitic hoax. No Jewish shop owner ever made up a charge that a Nazi hurled a rock through his store window.

•
The reason? None was needed. Nazi hatred against Jews was real. It didn't have to be faked.

•
To convince people that America is racist, you have to fake it.
Tucker Carlson: Can the left really lead a country it hates? (Fox 07/07/2020)
•
... the reason the ruling class despises Donald Trump is because they can't control him. Trump throws the bit. He refuses to mouth their lyrics. He will not obey.

•
At any moment, Donald Trump is liable to come out with something that you're absolutely not allowed to say. Borders make countries, for example.

•
All of it undeniably true, and that's the point and the problem.

•
Trump's words hang in the air for all to see and to assess. And they are therefore a massive threat to people whose livelihoods depend upon fraud and lying.

•
Trump is the most dangerous to his enemies when he tells the truth.

•
"Make no mistake, this leftwing Cultural Revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution."

•
"In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery and progress."

•
"To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol and memory of our national heritage."

•
"Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains."

•
"The radical view of American history is a web of lies. All perspective is removed. Every virtue is obscured. Every motive is twisted. Every fact is distorted. And every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition."

•
Every word of that is true. If you have kids in school, you know, it may even be an understatement.

•
What is happening in our classrooms right now in 2020 is a crime. It is long past time that a sitting president said so.

•
They're the same people who spent the last month telling you that the riots you saw live on television were actually peaceful protests against racism.

•
That was a lie. They knew it was a lie when they said it, but they said it anyway in order to undermine a country that they hate. Yes, hate.

•
America deserves to be in flames. That is their view. And this weekend, they said it essentially out loud.

•
"President Trump's unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of White domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him."

•
That was not an opinion piece, by the way, on the op-ed page. It was a news story written by two Washington Post reporters. They describe the president's defense of equality under the law as "Trump's push to amplify racism." That's Jeff Bezos's newspaper.

•
Local politicians joined the chorus. The Mayor of Nashville canceled the city's Fourth of July fireworks, but allowed BLM protests to continue unimpeded.

•
In Richmond, city officials ordered a construction site to remove an American flag. It was too provocative, they said.

•
Meanwhile, the statue of mass murderer, Vladimir Lenin stands totally unmolested in the City of Seattle tonight. Officials there see nothing provocative about it.

•
And yet paradoxically, at the same time, they desperately want to control America more than anything, and that leads to the most basic of all questions.

•
Can you really lead a country that you hate?

•
Ask yourself, what kind of parent would you be if you hated your children?

•
What kind of officer would you make if you didn't care about your troops?

•
Loving the people you lead, caring deeply about them is the most basic prerequisite of leadership.

•
The leaders of today's Democratic Party do not, they despise this country. They have said so, they continue, to.

•
That is shocking, but it is also disqualifying. We cannot let them run this nation because they hate it. Imagine what they would do to it.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
America: Yes or No? (INN 07/06/2020)
•
... the issue is no longer about systemic racism or police reform. It is about anarchy.

•
... Black Lives Matter (BLM), an anti-American, anti-capitalism and anti-Semitic movement.

•
After BLM led riots in Ferguson and elsewhere, President Barack Obama hosted BLM members at the White House in February 2016 and praised them profusely.

•
"They are much better organizers than I was when I was their age, and I am confident that they are going to take America to new heights."

•
BLM's hatred of Israel and Jews is integral to its hatred of America. Its charter asserted that "America is an empire that uses war to expand territory and power," and calls for slashing 50% off the US military budget, followed by a demand to end military support for Israel.

•
According to other accounts of the attacks, BLM members chanted, "F**k the police and kill the Jews."

•
Identity politics now dominate the left in America, and BLM controls identity politics; thus, the reluctance of the mainstream media to report the attacks properly.

•
... preserving America should be the focus of the Trump 2020 election campaign: preserving liberty, upholding the rule of law and law-enforcement officers, strengthening capitalism, promising to keep protecting the vulnerable of all races and classes, defending America's interests, restoring a great nation and supporting America's allies.

•
For over 40 years, murderous ayatollahs and other jihadists have been chanting their desire to see the death of America.

•
Now that mobs in America are rioting, looting and destroying monuments of great historical significance, and statues of Presidents George Washington, William Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S.

•
Grant and Theodore Roosevelt have been desecrated, vandalized, toppled and smashed, while elected Democrats kowtow to the mobs, pledging to implement their anti-America agenda.

•
Many Americans have essentially taken up the chants of the ayatollahs: Death to America!

•
The vital question for American voters on the November ballot is essentially this: America: Yes or No?
Breakdown: The unwinding of law and order in our cities has happened with stunning speed (JWR 07/06/2020)
Liberty or Equality? What the Founding Fathers knew (JWR 07/06/2020)
•
With the fulminating on the left about inequality — "Fighting inequality is the mission of our times," as New York's mayor, Bill de Blasio, summed up the theme of his postelection powwow with President Barack Obama — it's worth pausing to admire anew the very different, and very realistic, modesty underlying Thomas Jefferson's deathless declaration that all men are created equal.

•
We are equal, he went on to explain, in having the same G od-given rights that no one can legitimately take away from us.

•
But Jefferson well knew that one of those rights — to pursue our own happiness in our own way — would yield wildly different outcomes for individuals.

•
Even this most radical of the Founding Fathers knew that the equality of rights on which American independence rests would necessarily lead to inequality of condition.

•
Indeed, he believed that something like an aristocracy would arise — springing from talent and virtue, he ardently hoped, not from inherited wealth or status.

•
In the greatest of the Federalist Papers, Number 10, James Madison explicitly pointed out the connection between liberty and inequality, and he explained why you can't have the first without the second.

•
Men formed governments, Madison believed (as did all the Founding Fathers), to safeguard rights that come from nature, not from government — rights to life, to liberty, and to the acquisition and ownership of property.

•
Before we joined forces in society and chose an official cloaked with the authority to wield our collective power to restrain or punish violators of our natural rights, those rights were at constant risk of being trampled by someone stronger than we.

•
Over time, though, those officials' successors grew autocratic, and their governments overturned the very rights they were supposed to protect, creating a world as arbitrary as the inequality of the state of nature, in which the strongest took whatever he wanted, until someone still stronger came along.

•
In response, Americans — understanding that "kings are the servants, not the proprietors of the people," as Jefferson snarled — fired their king and created a democratic republic.

•
Under its safeguard of our equal right to liberty, each of us, Madison saw, will employ his different talents, drive, and energy, to follow his own individual dream of happiness, with a wide variety of successes and failures.

•
Most notably, Federalist 10 pointed out, "From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results."

•
That inequality would be a sign of the new nation's success, not failure. It would mean that people were really free.

•
The democratic republic that the American Revolution brought into being, however, contained the seeds of a new threat to natural rights, Madison fretted.

•
Yes, the new nation will operate by majority rule, but even democratic majorities can't legitimately overturn the fundamental rights that it is government's purpose to safeguard, no matter how overwhelming the vote.

•
To do so would be just as grievous a tyranny as the despotism of any sultan in his divan. It would be, in Madison's famous phrase, a "tyranny of the majority."

•
As Continental Congressman Richard Henry Lee put it, an "elective despotism" is no less a despotism, for all its democratic trappings.

•
How would such a tyranny occur? Almost certainly, Madison thought, it would center on "the apportionment of taxes."

•
How easy for the unpropertied many to expropriate the wealth of the propertied few by slow erosion, decreeing that they should pay more than a proportionate share of the public expenses.

•
Not content merely to limit and define explicitly the federal government's power, Madison made sure that the Constitution divided it up among several branches, limiting the power that any single individual or official body could wield and putting each jealously on guard against any other's attempt to seize a disproportionate share.

•
Moreover, all these officials (except the judges) were elected representatives of the people: they were the agents through whom Americans, who had no rulers, governed themselves.

•
If the liberty that America had secured through the war was going to be about pursuing your own happiness in your own way, then Hamilton aimed to create an economy that would give his fellow citizens the fullest opportunity to do so, through a limitless variety of career possibilities.

•
The wealth of the nation and of individuals will mushroom, he saw, and America's opportunity economy would be a mighty engine of upward mobility.

•
In a free, opportunity society, by contrast, "each individual can find his proper element, and can call into activity the whole vigour of his nature." The purpose of such a society is moral as well as practical.

•
Much of what we can make of our single life — or even imagine making of it — depends on the kind of society around us.

•
The liberty and opportunity that the United States would afford, Hamilton believed with all his fiery intensity, would allow individuals to realize every G od-given potential and to become all that they had it within themselves to be. It's hard to imagine a higher aspiration for your fellow man than that.

•
When we see the same faults followed by the same misfortunes," Madison wrote, "we may reasonably think that if we could have known the first we might have avoided the others."

•
So, against the liberty and opportunity central to the Founding American vision, which produced two centuries of freedom and prosperity unmatched in history, what have the dreams of equality yielded?

•
At the outermost extreme, the French upheaval for egalite in 1789 and the Russian drive toward a classless society in 1917 drenched every inch of their respective countries in blood and immeasurably decreased the stock of human happiness and freedom for years to come

•
Though the 1913 ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment — levying the first permanent income tax, with unequal, graduated rates — cracked open the door to Madison's dreaded tyranny of the majority, it was only in the Depression that radical income redistribution became national policy.

•
It stayed so for half a century, until the Reagan administration gradually lowered income-tax rates and made them less unequal.

•
... one more proof to Madison that "[i]n framing a government of men over men the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."

•
George Washington and many of his fellow Founders believed that a special kind of culture, one that nurtures self-reliance and a love of liberty, was essential to keeping alive the free Constitution over whose creation he had presided.

•
It is possible to demoralize an entire people and stifle their faith in the future and in themselves. The welfare underclass, filled with aggrieved resentment and void of hope, is the most extreme case in point.

•
Because man makes the meaning of his life himself, through work, through family, through community, it is not easy for a person kept by government, from womb to tomb, like a gerbil in a cage, to retain a sense of dignity and purpose.

•
Nor is it easy for someone branded his victimizer, and taxed unequally to support him and the army of bureaucrats who live by claiming to make sure he gets his due, to retain with confidence his own sense of dignity and purpose.

•
Hamilton and Madison had a much larger and nobler sense of human possibility.
Justin Haskins: Nationwide chaos – Radical left took over this and we're all paying the price (Fox 07/06/2020)
•
... Boston city officials voted to remove its Emancipation Memorial from public land. The statue, which depicts Abraham Lincoln and a kneeling freed slave, has been situated in a popular park near Boston Common since 1879.

•
Since the tragic death of George Floyd, far-left activists across the country have been demanding cities, states, universities and private property owners strip their land and institutions of all statues and other honors that allegedly depict racism or celebrate people who held views considered to be racist, even the "Great Emancipator" himself, Lincoln.

•
Although some of these protesters say their motivation is racial justice and equality under the law – goals everyone should embrace – the reality is that many of the leaders calling for the destruction of statues like the Emancipation Memorial are motivated by Marxist and socialist ideology, not by a well-meaning pursuit of racial harmony.

•
... the Movement for Black Lives, a well-funded Black Lives Matter organization, bluntly states on its website, "We are anti-capitalist. We believe and understand that Black people will never achieve liberation under the current global racialized capitalist system."

•
It's Marxists' desire to overthrow capitalism and paint America – along with all of its founding principles and beliefs – as hateful and racist that is really motivating so many of the most radical rioters across the country. Racial justice is merely the facade behind which Marxists are hiding.

•
The Boston statue is a copy of the famed Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., which protesters are also attempting to tear down.

•
Incredibly, freed slaves paid for the Washington statue, and Frederick Douglass, one of the most important black civil rights leaders in American history, delivered a speech at the memorial's dedication in 1876, during which he said the memorial was a "good work for our race" because, in part, building the statue was "doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator."

•
He also said the statue would provide the "highest honors to ourselves and those who come after us."

•
How can a statue celebrating the emancipation of slavery, paid for by former slaves and dedicated by one of the most important black leaders in history – himself a former slave – ever be considered racist against blacks?

•
Vandalizing and beheading statues of George Washington, burning down police stations, looting department stores and removing memorials built by former slaves serve no purpose for those who truly care about racism and seek racial equality.

•
They are, however, quite useful actions for those who wish to foment a socialist revolution.

•
The real cause for concern here isn't that there are radical leftists who want to destroy the American way of life. They have had a presence in the United States for more than a century.

•
The most disturbing aspect of these events is that so many well-meaning people have been duped into joining them and have been convinced that our country has never been anything other than a bastion of hate, racism and greed, and that the only way to right those wrongs is to eliminate capitalism.

•
The most obvious explanation for the growing socialist movement in the United States is that, for decades, socialists and progressives have been in charge of America's public schools and colleges.

•
They have taught historical revisionism, rejected the value of free-market capitalism and done everything in their power to indoctrinate a whole generation of young people into believing our nation's founding principles are rotten to the core.

•
With these biases in mind, it's no wonder that America has been slowly transformed into a nation that would tolerate the desecration of its greatest heroes, most of whom would be classified as conservative by today's standards.

•
Nor should it be surprising that about half of all young people now say they have a favorable view of socialism, despite its long and tragic history of failure, starvation, oppression and bloodshed.

•
What is truly mystifying, though, is that Republicans have known about this problem for a half-century and have done virtually nothing to fix it.

•
Curriculum standards and college faculty are still controlled by leftists, even in the most conservative states.

•
The overwhelming majority of parents say they support school choice programs, whether they identify as Republican, Democrat or independent, and across all racial groups.

•
The Republican Party has failed conservatives, libertarians and, most importantly, America's children. And the worst part is, we're just starting to see the greatest effects of that failure.

•
Unless our education system is completely overhauled, the problem is only going to get worse, a truly terrifying thought, indeed.

•
How much more chaos do Republican politicians need to see before they finally take action?
Liz Peek: Trump punches back at totalitarian left — here's why Mt. Rushmore speech important (Fox 07/06/2020)
•
Which is more divisive? Tearing down our nation's heroes and monuments, demeaning the accomplishments of a great country, casting patriotic Americans as relics from a bygone era, painting the United States as profoundly racist ... or railing against these things, as President Trump did at Mount Rushmore?

•
In response to the president's Independence Day event, the New York Times thundered "Trump Uses Mount Rushmore Speech to Deliver Divisive Culture War Message."

•
We ask the Times, who declared that war? Who decided that our country's history is not something to honor, but rather a dark stain on our nation's conscience?

•
Could it be the liberal elites like those running our universities and the New York Times who have decided that we are better off shouldering a collective guilt than celebrating our successes on the battlefield, in the laboratories, on the playing fields and every other place where Americans have triumphed?

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Who chose to divide our country and our politics by gender and by race? Who declared our differences more significant than our common cause?

•
It wasn't Republicans; it was Democrats who cultivated identity politics and ripped apart the fabric of this nation.

•
The Left has been chipping away at our culture and our values for decades. They deride religion, abhor tradition and sneer at patriotism.

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To what end? What do they celebrate? What statues will they erect?

•
All wars incur casualties. The culture wars threaten the optimism and positivity that have long driven this nation and attracted millions to our shores.

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They threaten the pride we take in our founding and in our founders, the freedoms we cherish and the aspirations we pass on to our children.

•
The Times writes that Trump created a "straw-man version of the left that he portrayed as inciting mayhem and moving the country toward totalitarianism."

•
There is no "straw man." Millions of Americans were horrified by the riots in Minneapolis, New York and elsewhere that spiraled out of control. They are shocked that Democrat-backed groups call to defund the police while crime is surging across the nation.

•
It is not the government that is demanding "complete subservience," as dictionaries define the term. The intimidation is instead coming from the leftist mob, enabled by social media.

•
When scores of people are losing their jobs because of years-old tweets or remarks that are racially insensitive by today's standards, when college-bound students find the doors slammed in their face because of un-woke social media posts, when a professor loses his post at Michigan State University because he shared data suggesting cop shootings are not racially biased, or the New York Times fires an editor because he publishes an opinion piece not conforming to the paper's liberal code, millions are intimidated, afraid to speak up.

•
The Times says President Trump "signaled even more clearly that he would exploit race and cultural flash points"; isn't that what Democrats have done?

•
Neither Biden nor any other senior Democrat has rebuked those destroying America's monuments, or denounced those who burned and looted neighborhoods in our most liberal cities. They have also not condemned the intolerance of the Left.

•
Everything about Trump's Independence Day speech offended liberals, including the setting. CNN introduced the address with this: "President Trump will be at Mount Rushmore, where he'll be standing in front of a monument of two slave owners and on land wrestled away from Native Americans."

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In 2016, CNN described Bernie Sanders "taking in the majesty of the moment as he visited this monument to four great American presidents." When President Obama visited, CNN described it as "majestic."

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Mount Rushmore has not changed.

•
In this "dark" speech so scorned by liberal commentators, President Trump proclaimed anew "the ideals of the Declaration of Independence," and vowed to "never surrender the spirit and the courage and the cause of July 4, 1776."?Perfect.

•
See related What Do We Want? (Sean Delonas, 07/12/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
Former G.W. Bush appointees supporting Biden have embraced socialist policies – why? (Fox 07/05/2020)
Adriana Cohen: 2020 presidential election poses clear choice: jobs or mobs (Fox 07/04/2020)
•
If you want mobs vandalizing stores, destroying public property and setting churches on fire, then vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who has spent the majority of his time hiding out in his Delaware basement while our country has been in flames in the aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy.

•
... he hasn't condemned the burning of St. John's Episcopal Church by violent protestors.

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He hasn't denounced the heinous assaults and killings of police officers that have taken place throughout the country.

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Nor has he said a peep about the brutal murder of civilians — including teenagers — shot and killed in the Seattle CHOP zone controlled by armed left-wing anarchists.

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And he certainly hasn't called upon Democratic mayors and governors to get their ransacked cities and states under control.

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The stark reality is that Democrats today would rather appease anarchists, looters and violent criminals than uphold law and order.

•
Make no mistake. Republicans who elected Donald Trump are just as horrified by the appalling death of George Floyd as Democrats. We want police reform so that type of excessive force never happens again. That we can all agree on.

•
Conservatives also support peaceful protests of any kind. But where conservatives draw the line is arson, mayhem and murder, which are antithetical to a civilized society.

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"Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn, a Great Police Captain from St. Louis, who was viciously shot and killed by despicable looters last night. We honor our police officers, perhaps more than ever before. Thank you!"

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The president has also taken action against those who deface America's historical monuments. ... "My Executive Order to protect Monuments, Statues etc., IS IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT. In excess of a 10 year prison term. Please do not put yourself in jeopardy. Many people now under arrest!"

•
The president has also threatened to use military force, if necessary, to break up violent protests.

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Undoubtedly, Trump is our "law and order" president, and, thankfully for our nation, he's also our jobs president who's succeeding, once again, in creating millions of jobs.

•
... while Democrats are defunding the police and turning a blind eye to the mob's criminal destruction in cities nationwide, Trump is bringing back millions of jobs and increasing wages for union workers.

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When voters cast their ballots in November, they'll choose between a president that's creating jobs and Joe Biden, a career politician, who tiptoes around the mob. The choice is clear.
Victor Davis Hanson says Trump must evoke Abraham Lincoln's July 4 address in 1861 amid current unrest ()
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"In 1861, Lincoln gave a Fourth of July address to Congress, and it [the situation in America] was divisive, much more divisive than it is now."

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"He wanted unity but it's very hard to have unity when a small proportion of the states don't want unity. So what Lincoln did was he said, basically, 'I have bent over backwards, I'm going to protect federal property.'"

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"'I don't want you to do what you're doing,' [Lincoln said] when he addressed the people who were against unity in the Union, but he reassured the others that he was going to be firm."

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"I think Donald Trump has got to say, 'We have 244 links in this chain [of] years. Our generation is not going to be the first one to break it, I'm sorry,'"

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"'People died in Okinawa. They died at Gettysburg. They died at Shiloh. We have an obligation to them to carry on that spirit, and I'm not going to preside over the first generation that says we are going to tear down statues ... we are going to cancel people's lives out with McCarthyite tactics,'"

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"We have blue state mayors and governors who deliberately do not enforce the law. We have corporate CEOs, we have retired generals, we have university presidents, who know better but either out of weakness or timidity or fear, they are allowing people to change our customs, our traditions, our icons, and our reverence. And somebody has to say, 'We are not going to do that. We don't want to offend you, we don't want to go to war with you, but we are not going to let you, a minority, dictate to a majority that is trying to keep a wonderful nation.'"
We Must Decide Whether We Want to Save America (JWR 07/03/2020)
The American idea (JWR 07/03/2020)
A tale of two revolutions, and why America must be celebrated (JWR 07/03/2020)
Rep. Bill Johnson: This July 4th, America faces a crossroad over the future of our country (Fox 07/03/2020)
•
During the last few weeks, we've witnessed a burst of violence, destruction and the brazen flaunting of the rule of law unprecedented in modern American history. The fabric of our society – of our country – seems to be fraying.

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An overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are good people trying to do a very difficult job.

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Black lives do matter...as do all lives. And shame on the Republican party if we don't aggressively compete to earn the black vote and defeat a Democratic party that has, for decades, taken the votes of black Americans for granted.

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Americans of all colors have freed more people around the world from oppressive fascism, communism, terrorism, slavery and tyranny than any other nation on earth.

•
Today, social media has made it easier to hate others for holding different views. It is much easier to type vicious things to someone than to say hateful things while looking into the eyes of another human being.

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I remember when free speech was encouraged on college campuses. But today, a politically incorrect view is now "hate speech" that is banned in "safe spaces".

•
This produces intolerance. Intolerance creates real hate. Hate creates mobs. Mobs hurt others, burn down and loot businesses, throw bricks at police officers and tear down statues.

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Our society is based on the health of a strong family unit, and America's family unit is sick. As we push God further and further from public life, we get angrier, less tolerant and more selfish.

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America is just as much simply an idea today as it was when our founders penned the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution... an idea just as fragile.

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It can evaporate like a vapor if we don't treasure it and keep it alive in our hearts... and the hearts of our children.

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Are we the fundamentally good, but imperfect nation with a complicated past rooted in the ideals of freedom and equality that our forefathers sought when they turned back the British at Concord and sought to salvage on the fields of Antietam?

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Or are we a nation irreparably poisoned at our roots by the evils of racism and exploitation with no hope of salvation?

•
As Ronald Reagan once said, "This is a time for choosing" .

•
I know where I stand. Where do you?
Tucker Carlson: Who are the criminals destroying your country? (Fox 07/03/2020)
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MARK MCCLUSKEY: I see all these people outside the gate. Then the gate bursts open. People start coming in, and then a flood of people started coming in. They're angry, they're screaming. They've got spittle coming out of their mouths. They're coming towards our house. Out there with my wife, and I said, oh my God, we're absolutely alone. There's nobody here to protect us but us. That was the same night retired police captain David Dooring was murdered. I was literally afraid that within seconds there would surmount the wall, come into the house, kill us, burn the house down and everything that I'd worked for and struggled for the last 32 years.

•
Today, they learned of another coordinated attack on them that is planned for this weekend. They immediately called police. The dispatcher put them on hold and then finally transfer them to an officer. The officer didn't seem to be listening to anything the McCluskey's said. "We'll call you back," police said, and they never did.

•
Desperate, the McCluskey's then called a number of different private security firms, but not one of them would take the job of protecting them. The owner of the last company McClosky spoke to advise them to flee immediately. "The only advice I can give you is abandon the house, run. Let the mob have its way, let it burn."

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But the McCluskey's are not running. They have spent thirty-two years rebuilding their home and they plan to defend themselves. They have no choice. They are completely alone. No one will come to their aid.

•
Their governor, Mike Parson, is a Republican. He's also a former sheriff. Parson could fix their problem immediately. Parson could send state troopers to St. Louis tonight to protect the McCluskey's. But he hasn't done that.

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Parson hasn't even picked up the phone to speak to them. He doesn't care, obviously, nobody cares.

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American citizens trapped in their home by a violent mob, knowing that something awful could happen to them very soon. Totally undefended. This is your country.

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The mob is winning, if things like this happen. So who is the mob exactly? They're not protesters. They're not civil rights activists. They are violent criminals.

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They are being used as a militia by the Democratic Party to seize power. That's the truth.

•
But even that description is too imprecise. Most of these are Americans. They have faces. They have names. So who are they?

•
Thanks to delayed but very welcome efforts by federal law enforcement, at least one hundred and twenty-eight people have now been charged for riot-related offenses. Many of them have been charged at the state level.

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Authorities arrested 24-year-old Devin Montgomery on Tuesday on federal arson charges.

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33-year-old Lori-Elisabeth Blumenthal is accused of burning a cop car in Philadelphia where she lives.

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Stephan Cannon, 24 years old, is charged with the murder of retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn.

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Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman are both attorneys in New York City. Both went to prestigious law schools. Mattis graduated from Princeton undergraduate and NYU law. Rahman went to Fordham Law. Both are charged with tossing a Molotov cocktail at a marked NYPD squad car. ... "The only way they hear us is through violence, through the means that they use. We've got to use the master's tools. That's what my friend always says."

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... Minneapolis, twenty-five-year-old Montez Terrill Lee of Rochester, Minnesota, is accused of burning down a pawnshop there during the riots.

•
Jessica White is also being charged for arson in the Twin Cities. She allegedly helped burn down an auto zone in St. Paul because everything this year is irony, White's Facebook page says she studied, quote, "violence prevention" at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul.

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Brandon Wolfe, 23, has been charged with participating in the destruction of the third police precinct in Minneapolis.

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Jesse Taggart of Salt Lake City was participating in a BLM protest in Provo when a white SUV tried to pass through the area. A crowd swarmed around the car and according to police, without provocation Taggart drew a gun and fired twice into the car, nearly killing the driver.

•
It appears Taggart went on Facebook afterward to defame the driver as a, quote, "Nazi or white supremacist who ran over protesters." Hours later, he posted, quote, "#America 20-20. No respect for other human beings blows my mind. We will overcome this together!"

•
And then there are the people who have been targeting our public art, our shared history, our heritage, our country itself.

•
Earlier today, federal agents arrested Jason Charter in Washington, D.C. They say he is the ringleader in the effort to topple the statue of Andrew Jackson. Charter apparently is affiliated within Antifa.

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Jason Charter's LinkedIn says he studied computer science at George Washington University. Tuition there, by the way, one of the highest in the country. More than $55,000.

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Another angry, rich kid. There are so many of them. Still far more than five people were involved in the attacks on those statues in Washington.

•
Hundreds more have attacked monuments and destroyed public property around the country.
Universities sowing the seeds of their own obsolescence (JWR 07/02/2020)
•
When mobs tore down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant and defaced a monument to African American veterans of the Civil War, many people wondered whether the protesters had ever learned anything in high school or college.

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Did any of these iconoclasts know the difference between Grant and Robert E. Lee? Could they recognize the name "Gettysburg"?

•
Universities are certainly teaching our youth to be confident, loud and self-righteous.

•
But the media blitz during these last several weeks of protests, riots and looting also revealed a generation that is poorly educated and yet petulant and self-assured without justification.

•
Many of the young people on the televised front lines of the protests are in their 20s. But most appear juvenile, at least in comparison to their grandparents — survivors of the Great Depression and World War II.

•
The universities, some with multibillion-dollar endowments, will accept no moral responsibility.

•
They are not overly worried that many of their indebted graduates discover their majors don't translate into well-paid jobs or guarantee employers that grads can write, speak or think cogently.

•
There would be far less college debt if higher education, rather than the federal government, guaranteed its own students' loans.

•
If universities backed loans with their endowments and infrastructure, college presidents could be slashing costs.

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They would ensure that graduates were more likely to get good-paying jobs thanks to rigorous coursework and faculty accountability.

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Taxpayers who are hectored about their supposed racism, homophobia and sexism don't enjoy such finger-wagging from loud, sheltered, 20-something moralists.

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Perhaps taxpayers will no longer have to subsidize the abuse if higher education is deemed to be a politicized institution and thus its endowment income ruled to be fully taxable.

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If socialism has become a campus creed, maybe Ivy League schools can be hit with an annual "wealth tax" on their massive endowments in order to redistribute revenue to poorer colleges.

•
It is hard to square the circle of angry graduates having no jobs with their unaccountable professors who so poorly trained students while enjoying lifelong tenure.

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Why does academia guarantee lifetime employment to those who cannot guarantee that a graduate gets a decent job?

•
Universities are renaming buildings and encouraging statue removal and cancel culture.

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But they assume they will always have a red line to the frenzied trajectory of the mob they helped birth.

•
If the slaveholder and the robber baron from the distant past deserve no statue, no eponymous hallway or plaza, then why should the names Yale and Stanford be exempt from the frenzied name-changing and iconoclasm?

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Are they seen as billion-dollar brands, akin to Windex or Coke, that stamp their investor students as elite "winners" ?

•
The current chaos has posed existential questions of fairness and transparency that the university cannot answer because to do so would reveal utter hypocrisy.

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Instead, the university's defense has been to virtue-signal left-wing social activism to hide or protect its traditional self-interested mode of profitable business for everyone — staff, faculty, administration, contractors — except the students who borrow to pay for a lot of it.

•
How strange that higher education's monotonous embrace of virtue signaling, political proselytizing and loud social justice activism is now sowing the seeds of its own obsolescence and replacement.

•
If being "woke" means that the broke and unemployed are graduating to ignorantly smashing statues, denying free speech to others and institutionalizing cancel culture, then the public would rather pass on what spawned all of that in the first place.

•
Taxpayers do not yet know what to replace the university with — wholly online courses and lectures, apolitical new campuses or broad-based vocational education — only that a once hallowed institution is becoming McCarthyite, malignant and, in the end, just a bad deal.

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See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Generations (Michael Ramirez, 06/05/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Dale Wilcox: Stop abusing visa system — Corporate America must hire homegrown talent (Fox 07/02/2020)
•
Education has long been one of the building blocks to achieving the American Dream. Go to college, get a degree and you'll be on your way to a successful career and a prosperous life.

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Today that time-tested maxim is faltering, thanks in part to Corporate America's addiction to cheap foreign labor and its love for unfettered immigration.

•
Greek poetry and Nietzsche may be the stuff of Starbuck's baristas, but the country will always need IT professionals and lab researchers, right? Not exactly.

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At various times in America's rise as an enduring global economic superpower, our industries have needed specialists who were not available among our population.

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For that reason, the federal government created programs like the H-1B visa, which allows employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.

•
Sadly, profit has subsumed principle. Foreign workers continue to be hired for American jobs under H-1B, not because of a dearth of skilled native workers, but because foreign workers can be hired at often a fraction of the cost of their U.S. counterparts.

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This pattern has continued even through the mass unemployment of the coronavirus pandemic.

•
... there are 583,420 H-1B skilled workers in the country at a time when tens of millions of Americans are out of work. Are we to believe that no skilled workers are among that pool of job seekers?

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This is fundamentally wrong during better times. Today it is a gross injustice.

•
Corporations that want to enjoy low U.S. corporate taxes and have access to the American market show utter contempt for American workers.

•
This can be seen in numerous accounts of American workers who were asked to train foreign workers and then received pink slips when the trainees turned out to be their replacements.

•
To be sure, this obsession with foreign labor is not about a lack of homegrown talent. As of 2014 there were more than five million native-born Americans with STEM undergraduate degrees, but they were working in non-STEM occupations.

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Why is that? Maybe because many of them have been squeezed out of the career they trained for as employers prefer foreign labor that can be paid substandard wages.

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That is not capitalism; it's exploitation and using yet another government program as a form of corporate welfare.

•
These maneuvers may be smart for a company's balance sheet, but they are decidedly bad for America and its citizens.

•
At a time when many corporations are extremely image-conscious and virtue signal their political correctness, many have no shame about proclaiming their unquenchable thirst for cheap labor at the expense of Americans.

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Even at the height of the pandemic-related economic fears, 324 of America's largest employers sent a letter to President Trump, warning that any attempt by him to limit their access to cheap foreign labor would likely result in more financial hardship.

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Who advocates for our sons and daughters who played by the rules, worked hard and earned a degree in a growing field?

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They are mere collateral damage to the corporate giants and the politicians who carry their water in exchange for campaign funding.

•
Some corporations that buy Super Bowl commercials and wrap themselves in American values are also harming American workers by leveraging foreign labor programs to increase profitability.

•
Americans need to know who these companies are and make consumer decisions accordingly.

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President Trump and a few brave souls in Congress have been tireless defenders of American workers on immigration issues.

•
We, the American people, need to continue to remind them that programs like H-1B have strayed far from their original intent and are harming the future of our children and our nation.
Tucker Carlson: What holiday should be canceled next? (Fox 07/02/2020)
•
We spent an awful lot of time this spring talking about viruses and how they spread.

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One person infects another person, who infects a third, who then has contact with a larger group of people and infects 20 more, each of whom — and you know how it works. It's exponential.

•
Pretty soon individuals thousands of miles from the source of the outbreak start getting sick.

•
What we now know is that craziness spreads very much the same way. A single lunatic can pass a debilitating case of it to millions of others with just one appearance on MSNBC or a long thread on Twitter.

•
Hysteria is the most communicable disease known to man and we're now living through a pandemic of it.

•
On Memorial Day weekend, a man called George Floyd died in police custody in Minnesota. That's where this outbreak first began. Minneapolis was our Wuhan.

•
"It was just before midnight Thursday when protesters began dismantling and toppling the statue honoring Christopher Columbus in Civic Center Park."

•
"One protester climbing up a statue and began spray painting its face and hands, possibly symbolizing blood, while others spray painted the words "George Floyd," "BLM" for Black Lives Matter and the communist symbol."

•
"And they have just torn down the statue of Christopher Columbus. The statue has been here since 1931."

•
What does Christopher Columbus have to do with George Floyd? Christopher Columbus was not a Minneapolis police officer, Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator who died more than 500 years ago. Columbus probably never even heard of George Floyd. He almost certainly didn't mistreat him personally.

•
So, why are people attacking Columbus's statues? Well, who knows? You're definitely not allowed to ask. Questions are not permitted during hysteria and epidemics. Logic of any kind seems to dramatically increase the severity of the symptoms.

•
A patient may appear to be recovering from hysteria, speaking in nearly complete sentences, bathing independently on occasion, but then a single direct question will send him into a tailspin.

•
A renewed attack of slogan shouting, anarchist graffiti, hours of hostile tweeting the disease back and forth. It's safer not to say a word.

•
Republican senators have decided not to disturb the patients in any way, even as they rampage through America destroying our culture and history. It's easier to give them what they want, so that's what they're doing.

•
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and James Lankford of Oklahoma are both Republican senators. Wednesday, they introduced legislation to abolish Columbus Day. They want to delete it from the National Calendar and replace it with Juneteenth.

•
This is a big change. Americans have celebrated Columbus Day as long as we have had a country since 1792. Columbus Day is a celebration of the nation itself. That's why it's a National Holiday.

•
Juneteenth is newer. Three weeks ago, many people had never heard of it. Even the media seemed oblivious to its existence.

•
But paradoxically, and this is odd, the people who are pushing Juneteenth on the country do not consider Abraham Lincoln a hero. They're pulling down the statues along with Columbus's.

•
Confused? Well, that's the nature of a hysteria outbreak. Nothing makes sense.

•
... all the yelling about Columbus Day and Juneteenth doesn't really have much to do with Emancipation or civil rights, more likely, it's just another way to humiliate and demoralize Americans.

•
A couple of weeks ago, Senator Mike Braun of Indiana sponsored a bill designed to punish the police. At the very moment the country was undergoing widespread looting, arson and violence — rioting.

•
Then Braun endorsed the radical racial separatists, BLM movement.

•
Just the other day ... The New York Times ran a piece suggesting that we knock down George Washington statues and purge our country's founder from our collective memory.

•
... the paper announced that we should consider closing Mount Rushmore because, of course, racism.

•
What else will they do if we don't stop them?
The Problem of 'Anti-Racism' (JWR 07/01/2020)
Nation's values under attack — we must do this to stop the left's socialist agenda (Fox 07/01/2020)
•
Our country is under attack from radical leftists. Mobs rampage through our streets, monuments are being destroyed, and the very law and order that ensures our communities' peace and security is being undermined.

•
For them, it's not about resolving race issues; it's about using racial discontent to forward their anarchist agenda.

•
While Americans of every color agree with the sentiment that black lives matter, Black Lives Matter (BLM) the organization actually advocates an agenda that is completely out of step with American values.

•
One look at the BLM organization's website shows that the idea of protecting black lives and seeking justice is merely a vehicle to advance a different, radical set of ideas.

•
The organization is more dedicated to gaining political power and remaking America according to Marxist ideology.

•
The group's platform includes planks unrelated to improving black lives, like trying to get the U.S. to divest from Israel, which it calls an "apartheid state" while accusing Jews of committing genocide against Palestinians.

•
The organization also has called for dismantling the family, saying, "We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure."

•
The breakdown of the black family and the rise of single-parent households is one of the root causes of poverty, crime, drug abuse and poor educational achievement in many black communities.

•
Why would anyone who's supposedly working for black progress want to tear down the very thing that helps to achieve it?

•
Just as disturbing is the fact that some of America's biggest corporations are giving hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars to this organization and others whose misleading names conceal a more expansive and dangerous agenda.

•
Groups like Antifa and the BLM organization want to impose an ideology on America that would only bring greater poverty, a loss of freedom, destruction to churches and civil society, and violent law enforcement tactics to enforce compliance — exactly what we've seen in places like Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.

•
In fact, we've already seen a vision of what their America would look like. We've seen videos of leftist protesters physically and verbally attacking police officers.

•
We've seen an entire neighborhood turned into a violent "autonomous zone" with spineless politicians telling the police to stand down and let anarchists rule over innocent residents.

•
We've seen violent mobs defacing and toppling statues of historical figures such as soldiers and abolitionists. Some are even calling for the removal of images of Jesus in which he is perceived as "too white."

•
We must stop the violence and destruction and bring those committing criminal acts to justice while protecting the rights of good people to protest peacefully.

•
We must support our police officers who risk their lives every day to protect us no matter our color, religion, sex or nationality — while also making needed reforms to weed out bad cops and end unacceptable policing procedures.

•
Calls to defund the police are calls for chaos, and calls to disarm them are lunacy.

•
Finally, we must combat the Marxist agenda. This agenda has wrought destruction on nations for generations. It expands government control and takes every opportunity to limit freedom — and it must not take root in the United States.

•
The most desperate communities in America have been run by the left for a generation or more. We've seen what that leadership has brought: generational poverty, fatherless families, worse educational outcomes, more disparity and higher crime rates.

•
Instead, we must implement policies to ensure America's promise of liberty and opportunity is a promise for all Americans.
Tucker Carlson: Voters need to demand change from the GOP (Fox 07/01/2020)
•
Braun ran for office two years ago as a conservative, but he has not governed like one.

•
... he sponsored legislation to make it easier for leftwing activist groups to sue and bankrupt individual police officers.

•
SEN. MIKE BRAUN, R-Ind.: I support that movement, because it's addressing an inequity that has not been solved, you know, from a grassroots level.

•
It's hard to imagine that many of Mike Braun's voters agree with any of that.

•
Black Lives Matter has said it wants to eliminate police departments, dismantle the nuclear family and install socialism in the United States.

•
... Mike Braun explained that he was pushing leftwing legislation because he was afraid of being criticized by Chuck Schumer, if he didn't.

•
The whole thing went like that. It was remarkable. Almost beyond belief really.

•
And by the way, Mike Braun doesn't seem like a bad person. If you live next door to him, you'd probably like him. Braun is just weak and he doesn't really believe in anything.

•
He is definitely not alone in that, an awful lot of Republican officeholders look very much like Mike Braun right now, probably most of them. That's a problem.

•
In a moment like this, it is a severe and dangerous problem.

•
Here's why. Republicans at all levels could lose this fall. If they do, there will be profound consequences for you.

•
There's never been an American political party as radical and as angry as the Democrats are now. Imagine them with unlimited power, and that's what they plan to get.

•
In their first year, Democrats will give voting rights to every illegal alien in this country, and then encourage many others to join them from abroad.

•
At a minimum, that means more than 20 million new Democratic voters overnight. No Republican will win nationally. Again, we will have one-party rule.

•
But Democrats don't plan to stop there. In Congress, they will abolish the filibuster. That means they'll be able to do whatever they want to do with just a simple majority, which they will have.

•
They plan to pack the Senate by making the District of Columbia a state.

•
Giving statehood to D.C. is unconstitutional, clearly, but they're not worried about that. They plan to pack the Supreme Court, too. They have said so.

•
So what will Democrats do with all of this untrammeled power? It's pretty easy to imagine. ... look around, you've got a pretty good idea of what's coming.

•
The point is, and it could not be clearer, non-Democrats in America are in peril. We're going to need someone with power willing to come to our defense.

•
... to remind the Republican Party that it is our only shield. Yes, the Republican Party, flawed and infuriating, though it often is.

•
The fact remains, the G.O.P. is the only institution still open to the rest of us, to Americans who want to live as they did just 15 years ago.

•
Quietly, productively, without being harassed and harangued by self-righteous lunatics who mean them harm and they do.

•
If you want to be left alone to do your job and raise your family in this country, you will need a protector. That protector must be the Republican Party. There are no other options, but it must be a very different kind of Republican Party.

•
Keep in mind, we're getting a new Republican Party no matter what happens.

•
Even now, vultures wait just off stage to swoop in and claim the G.O.P. for themselves once Donald Trump is gone. Former Governor Nikki Haley tops that list, but there are many others on it.

•
The moment Trump leaves, they will attack him. They'll tell you that Republicans lost power because they were mean and intolerant just like Donald Trump. And if you listen carefully, you can hear them say that even now. It's a lie.

•
Republicans are failing for a much more obvious reason, a more fundamental reason. They're failing because they haven't done much that is worth doing. They haven't tried very hard to improve your life.

•
When the crisis came, they fled. They did nothing to defend you. They did nothing to defend the country.

•
We're going to have to tell them what to do, and that will work. No matter what they may believe privately, politicians respond to organized groups of voters. They want to win, above all, so they head to where the votes are.

•
Going forward, Republican voters should demand three things from their candidates, and if they don't provide them, don't vote for them. Here they are.

•
First is vigorous defense of total equality under the law. We are equal because we are citizens. Every American has precisely the same rights as every other American. Period. That is the promise of America. It's why millions of people move here.

•
For a long time, we knew that; no one questioned it. It was obvious, but it no longer is obvious and there are many who are working in the opposite direction.

•
Republicans must counterbalance this. They must work as hard as they can to make America fair again. Wealth, appearance, ancestry can play no role whatsoever in the eyes of the law.

•
It means fighting to make this a colorblind meritocracy. A colorblind meritocracy. Say it again. The alternative to that is disaster.

•
Any system that punishes people for how they were born is immoral, always. Republicans must say that loudly.

•
Second, Republicans must defend our freedom of speech. We are not a free society without that. This is not simply a debate about the First Amendment and its limits. It's bigger than that and more important.

•
If you can't articulate something, if you're not allowed, you can't think it. And that's precisely why authoritarians try to control language. They're trying to control your mind.

•
Americans have the absolute right to tell the truth. This is not negotiable, nor by the way is it a theoretical concern, of interest only to intellectuals. Everything depends on it.

•
Most of us were taught that this debate was settled conclusively during the Enlightenment hundreds of years ago and reason vanquished dogma. But it wasn't settled.

•
The forces of superstition remain. They are stronger than ever. In fact, they are growing in strength. The Republican Party must fight them or it's not a party worth having.

•
And finally, we must never forget that in the end, the Republican Party exists to serve the interests of normal people, ordinary people.

•
Middle class families are the core of this country. They are our hope for the future — our only hope — and yet both parties have shamelessly abandoned them.

•
Middle-class families have no national spokesman. They have no lobby in Washington. Republicans pretend to be their champion, you know by now that they are not.

•
How did Peter Strzok's text messages become more important than saving American jobs from foreign nationals who are taking them? It is lunacy.

•
Because meanwhile, as we're talking about things that don't matter, life for the dwindling American middle class has become steadily worse.

•
Can republican officeholders change their party? Yes, they can. We just have to make them. These are not by and large, evil people.

•
Most of them are just empty, sad people, and politics is the way they fill the yawning void inside where a personal life should be — they are pleasers. They're searching for the approval of strangers.

•
Our job is to give them clear instructions about what we want. ... We have to lead and when we do, they will follow.

•
See related Immigration Politics (Sean Delonas, 01/12/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
Rushing into the future that has no past (INN 06/30/2020)
Can't happen here? It's happening (INN 06/30/2020)
•
For Leftists, any crisis will do so long as it gives them a cause; a sense of moral superiority, a touch of righteous indignation that sets the rest of us up for scolding.

•
The guilt trip imposed upon the rest of us, lasts so long as it is politically and culturally convenient, and then it is on to another crisis.

•
Realize this, that without a crisis, there are no Liberals. They have nothing else. They feed off the hysteria, which they create, enlarge, and promote.

•
Who could have imagined that in America, among the majority of decent citizens, there exists a population of brutes and savages, now let loose and on full display upon our streets.

•
The media are part of the problem, as instigators or as fools. Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, writes that some (Confederate} statues deserve to be taken down. Azoy. These, he says, should be "re-evaluated," and even Conservatives should support this.

•
Okay, Rich. Next, I suppose, you will let us know which books and movies need to be "re-evaluated" and torched. Yes, Lowry is a Conservative.

•
Of course, among Liberals, Israel is the most reliable crisis of all, since the Jewish nation is always doing SOMETHING to get them shrieking OMG.

•
Imagine this. These Israelis play for keeps. They won't budge. They intend to stay. They refuse to hand over their G-d-given Land, paid for in blood, to The New York Times.

•
Later we will try to figure this out, how overnight we got to be white supremacists. We will try to understand how our "white privilege" spared none of us from the gas chambers.

•
So once again the country has lost its mind, over a tempest produced and directed by Liberals, featuring a cast of thousands who now trample the land like locusts.

•
They can do it because there is no one to stop them. This too shall pass. So we think. So they thought in Germany when the Brown Shirts started Breaking Glass.

•
Can't happen here? It's happening.
The Present Moment Has Set Blacks Back a Half-Century (JWR 06/30/2020)
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According to the make-believe world of the left, we are experiencing a great moment in American racial history.

•
For the first time, the story goes, more whites than ever are coming to realize how racist America is, how racist cops are and how systemically racist everything in America is.

•
The bestselling book in America is about alleged "white fragility" — the term for any rational response to the irrational charge that all whites are racist.

•
Take the left-wing mantra that all whites are racist. If I wanted to obstruct Black progress, and especially damage Black children, I couldn't come up with a more effective idea.

•
To believe from early childhood that you walk through life held in contempt by all of your fellow citizens who are white is to walk through life with much more than a chip on your shoulder. It is more like a heavy boulder.

•
It means that you will walk through life with two paralyzing burdens: anger and victimhood. Either one is enough to ruin your life. Combined they're devastating.

•
It gives one an idea of how cynical the left is that it would want to cultivate both of these life-ruining emotions in as many Blacks as possible.

•
Anger and victimhood not only ruin the individual's life but also destroy one's relationships with others.

•
Everyone who has an angry individual in their family knows not only how unhappy that person is but also how much havoc they wreak on the rest of the family.

•
The same holds true for the relative who sees him or herself as a perpetual victim. Such people are both miserable and miserable to be around.

•
And since victimhood is a major cause of evil — people who see themselves as victims usually think they are not nearly as bound by moral rules as others are — they are more likely to hurt others.

•
The "protesters" who destroy and loot think their victim status allows them to destroy and loot.

•
The man identified as the president of the greater New York Black Lives Matter, Hawk Newsome, recently told ... "If this country doesn't give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking ... figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It's a matter of interpretation."

•
... quoted a protest organizer: "If this young man was robbing, that means his state and his government failed to provide him with the resources he needs." When you feel you are a victim, you are allowed to rob.

•
Take the constant, often absurd, charges of racism at the most benign comments. If you say, for example, that you see nothing wrong with the picture of Uncle Ben on a box of rice, you will be accused of racism.

•
As a result, most whites understand they can no longer speak truthfully or from the heart in the presence of a Black American.

•
It is hard to imagine a worse recipe for genuine relationships between the races.

•
Take the assault on merit-based advancement in the name of racial equality. Will this help or hinder Blacks? It will obviously help some Blacks in the short run.

•
But over the long term, telling any group they needn't meet a universal standard of excellence can only harm that group — not to mention harm the way their success will be viewed by others.

•
Moreover, it is difficult to imagine a more condescending view of a group than to argue that standards must be lowered for them to succeed.

•
The damage the left is doing to America may be mortal. When it is widely deemed OK to destroy statues of Abraham Lincoln, society is experiencing a moral earthquake which may eventually destroy it.

•
But the damage the left is doing to so many Blacks — to their moral compass, to their happiness and to their relations with their white fellow citizens — is not in the realm of "may do." It is done.
Heather Mac Donald calls Black Lives Matter movement 'extraordinarily reckless,' based on 'utter...' (Fox 06/30/2020)
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"The police are not systemically racist. They are the government agency that cares most about saving black lives"

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"I have never been to a police-community meeting in a high-crime minority neighborhood, whether it is in Harlem or on the South Side of Chicago, where I do not hear those good people of the community, the store owners, the community, begging for more police and not less."

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"This movement is extraordinarily reckless. That it is getting any attention from the nation's leaders and political elites is a scandal. And it shows, yet again, that the Black Lives Matter movement is utter hypocrisy. It does not give a d**n about black lives because, if it did, it would not seek to make illegitimate every essential institution of American law enforcement, whether it is the police, whether it is prosecutors, whether it is judges. The victims are going to be initially overwhelmingly minorities."
Thomas Sowell tells Mark Levin left-wing ideology 'falls apart like a house of cards' when you... (Fox 06/30/2020)
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"I think many, if not most, of the people who were in the movement that created the Soviet Union were probably idealists wanting a better world. They had no idea what kind of world they were in fact creating."

•
Sowell said that he has "no idea" what the proponents of the existence of "institutional racism" mean and that they themselves do not know "what they mean."

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"In a sense that you can't ask them a factual question and get a factual answer. For example, one of the things I came across in writing a previous book was the poverty rate between blacks and whites. If I remember the numbers correctly, something like 22 percent of blacks were in poverty, 11 percent of whites were in poverty. They're like ‘well, that shows the racism.'"

•
Sowell said that the poverty rate was 7.5 percent among black married couples.

•
"In other words, they not only have a lower poverty rate than blacks as a whole, they have a lower poverty rate than whites as a whole."

•
Sowell said he believes young people are influenced throughout their lives in the public education system, which leans to the left.

•
"You hear the same narrative and they are not taught how to test things against facts. They're just taught to repeat these slogans and when you try to talk to them in terms of facts, they think that you are trying to confuse them."
Tucker Carlson: Ordinary Americans stand up as politicians continue to cower to the rage mob (Fox 06/30/2020)
•
For more than a month, mobs of violent crazy people have roamed this country, terrorizing citizens and destroying things.

•
No one has stopped them from doing that, so they've continued and they've become stronger.

•
Politicians now cower before the mob. Corporate America mouths their slogans. The education cartel, enforced on your children, enforces their demands.

•
Police officers, emasculated and restrained, watch it all from the sidelines, unable to help.

•
Small groups of citizens are beginning to come forward to defend their laws, defend their history and their culture.

•
Antifa does not own these things, neither does Black Lives Matter. They have no right to destroy them.

•
The mob is not fearsome, it's pathetic. These are pampered children play-acting at revolution.

•
They are cowards. That's why they move in packs.

•
They have no skills. All they can do is destroy.

•
This is not about racial justice. It never was about racial justice. That's obvious to the rest of us now. The president understands it, too.

•
Last week, he issued an Executive Order to protect our monuments from the mob.

•
Oh but the overpaid corporate revolutionaries on cable news were outraged by that, enforcing the law? Enforcing the law is racist, they lectured us.

•
The governor could have announced that as long as he runs the state, no citizen will be prosecuted for exercising the most basic of all rights, the right of self-defense against the mob.

•
But the governor didn't do that. In fact, he did nothing. And so, sensing they were completely undefended, the jackals descended on the McCloskeys.

•
St. Louis's District Attorney, a woman named Kim Gardner announced that she was considering filing criminal charges against the McCloskeys for resisting the mob. — A mob that was threatening to murder them.

•
Gardner vowed to "Use the full power of Missouri law" to hold the McCloskeys accountable for the crime of self-defense, not the full power to defend them against people who were threatening to kill them, but the full power to crush them for resisting.

•
The media, meanwhile, immediately said about trying to show the McCloskeys were racists.

•
"President Trump on Monday morning retweeted a video of a white man and woman brandishing a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun at peaceful black protesters."

•
Almost every word a lie. In fact, the mob was not "black," whatever that means. And it definitely wasn't peaceful. It was murderous.

•
Nor did anyone explain what the McCloskey's race had to do with anything.

•
A white man? A white couple? OK. They are. So what? Why is that relevant? Why is it ever relevant in a situation like this?

•
The message to everyone else was crystal clear: The mob is in charge, their power cannot be curbed. Don't even consider defending yourself. Self-defense is racist.

•
You can see exactly what's coming. It's obvious what they're planning. What's fascinating is the people doing this know it, too.

•
They know the consequences of these plans, and they don't plan to live with those consequences.

•
... the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to abolish their city's police department.

•
The Minneapolis City Council isn't actually opposed to armed protection. They're opposed to you having it. They're opposed to the police protecting your family and your homes but they're not opposed to protecting themselves.

•
And that's why the three Minneapolis City Councilmen ... requested and received taxpayer-funded security guards.

•
You pay for them. They stand outside their homes.
Three Ideas to End the Rot on College Campuses (06/29/2020)
The silent American Jews (JWR 06/29/2020)
Johnny 'Joey' Jones: Don't ban national anthem – song inspires us to fight adversity, oppression (Fox 06/29/2020)
•
A semiprofessional soccer teams in Tulsa has decided to throw away our national anthem.

•
We live in a time where the history of things only matters if it's convenient.

•
For example, the Emancipation Proclamation monument is being threatened, not because of what it stands for, not because of its symbolism, and not because of who paid for it (former slaves), but because the untrained, ignorant passerby may mistake various nuanced aspects for an opposite message.

•
In such times it makes sense that a crowd of such spoiled, bored, misguided and angry people would take issue with a song so scared Americans have charged into battle to defend "their" rights with only its melody as inspiration.

•
A song that, to most Americans, paints a picture of surviving the unsurvivable ... written during a time when our nation was under attack ... simply because we are the "home of the brave" and "land of the free."

•
They want to abandon this song because some liberal professor provocateur has convinced them that digging up the ghost of Francis Scott Key and executing what is now much more than "his" legacy somehow solves today's problems.

•
I could care less what a semi-pro soccer team in Tulsa does. I can't imagine their fan base stretches beyond friends and family, so maybe the random woke anti-patriot will borrow money from their hardworking parents to attend a game in honor of this brave and righteous act.

•
Adopted as our national anthem in 1931, "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the song that inspired warriors charging Omaha Beach and Mount Suribachi, the song we were all able to have renewed pride in because of a generation of civil rights leaders who fought for equality.

•
Or imagine a country drafting you, shoving you off to Vietnam, quitting in defeat despite your sacrifice and then spitting in your face and calling you a baby killer.

•
Those men might've had an argument against this song, but their grace and wisdom prevailed.

•
I know what this song stands for. I know it doesn't discriminate or oppress, in fact, it inspires us to fight against those things.

•
We are better today than yesterday, we are eternally in search of, not just freedom, but fairness and equality in those freedoms, not in spite of our mistakes, but in light of them.?
Bolton's book reminds us what the 2020 election is really about - Trump versus the establishment (Fox 06/29/2020)
•
Do not underestimate the significance of the Bolton effect. This is not just a short-term swamp story that will soon be replaced by another.

•
From the start, the Republican establishment has been trying to take Trump down.

•
Their chosen tactic — put their own establishment stooges into key positions.

•
Once there, these self-appointed guardians of the national interest would inform, educate and guide President Trump away from the policies the American people actually voted for and towards the establishment ideology the voters rejected in the election — open borders, globalism and endless war.

•
There's a kind of breathtaking arrogance to it if you think about it. These establishment megalomaniacs genuinely believe they should be in power, regardless of actual elections. And they call Trump an authoritarian.

•
The president brought them in precisely because, as he put it in a tweet last week, he likes hearing differing points of view. But these establishment stooges aren't satisfied just giving their opinion.

•
These smug self-righteous elitists think they were defending America when they duplicitously took senior jobs for a president they despised and opposed.

•
But they weren't defending America or Americans. They were defending their own class and their own interests.

•
The globalist elite, the military-industrial complex — in a word, the "Swamp." That's what all of them — Bolton, Tillerson, Kelly, Mattis — really are — agents of the Swamp.

•
The establishment Republicans, the Never Trumpers — they are desperate to get power back so they can get back to doing what they love, exploiting American workers.

•
Now, they've jumped to Biden, where they will find a willing host for their destructive ideas.

•
Because Biden himself is the Swamp. He is the very figurehead of the failed ruling class that Bolton, Tillerson, Kelly, Mattis, and all the rest of them are members of.

•
The establishment wants cheap labor, open borders, a sellout to China. The unions want higher taxes, pension protection, more regulation. The loony left wants their cultural revolution — abolish the police, crush free speech, rule of the mob.

•
They don't just want to beat Trump; they want to crush the Populist Revolution.

•
... the election is a choice about the future. People power or the Swamp. Trump or the mob. American workers first or open borders forever. A growing free enterprise economy or stagnation, sclerosis and slump.
Arthur Herman: Don't underestimate Trump – here's how voters will judge this historic presidency (Fox 06/29/2020)
•
... will have to recognize that Trump has been engaged in a one-man balancing act unprecedented in American history, and all without a net.

•
It's hardly been a perfect performance and definitely not pretty to watch. But in fact, Trump has been doing the jobs that FDR, Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman each had to do, all at once.

•
Like FDR, Trump has had to deal with an unprecedented domestic crisis with global implications, one that has shattered people's confidence and certainty about the future.

•
In Roosevelt's case, the Great Depression; in Trump's, COVID-19 and the Great Confinement.

•
Like FDR, Trump has learned that the advice of so-called "experts" on dealing with the crisis has been largely worthless; while the opposition party has made every wild accusation (remember that FDR was denounced as both a Communist and a fascist dictator) and thrown every obstacle in his way, hoping that he would fail.

•
Like Truman, Trump has had to alert Americans to a growing threat from abroad, when most Americans are weary of global commitments and only want some peace and stability.

•
In Truman's case, it was the growing Soviet threat after World War II; in Trump's, it's China.

•
Trump's had to make us all aware that Beijing is not only responsible for the spread and severity of the COVID pandemic but uses every opportunity, including the pandemic, to displace America as the world's superpower and impose tyranny over freedom.

•
Finally, like Reagan Trump came into office determined to restore American pride and economic growth after a predecessor who discounted both.

•
In Reagan's case, it was the malaise of the Jimmy Carter years; in Trump's, it was the Obama administration's self-imposed mission of "managing American decline" and presiding over the slowest recovery from an economic recession in U.S. history.

•
Democrats and the media threw every possible scandal at Reagan in order to bring him down (remember Iran-Contra?).

•
They've done the same with Trump, while he took on the double burden of having to restore the American economy not once but now a second time after the COVID-19 lockdown – even as rioters and demonstrators bring our urban centers to the brink of anarchy.

•
Imagine a president confronting the Great Depression, the Cold War and the riots of 1968 in one fell swoop, and you have some idea of what Trump is dealing with in the run-up to the election in November.

•
How has Trump done? Certainly, Trump's bedside manner is not as reassuring as FDR's or Reagan's, but the challenges have been bigger.

•
Everyone, even Republicans, wanted to recover from the Great Depression. However, as the recent (and deleted) tweets of Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., reveal, Trump's blue state opponents are willing to break the economy if that's what it would take to stop his reelection.

•
And unlike Truman, Trump doesn't have a Deep State cadre who loyally served his predecessor (in Truman's case, FDR) to depend on.

•
Just the opposite: he's had to build a reliable team from scratch, through a trial-and-error process that's hurt his image and slowed his agenda.

•
... when voters wake up in October, they'll see a president who has managed not one, not two, but three heavy lifts, however imperfectly — while Democrats did their best to shutter the economy and let their radical offspring run wild in the streets.

•
The choice will look stark. Do you want Trump or Seattle? Voters may find the answer isn't so complicated, after all.
The Fall of Western Civilization (JWR 06/28/2020)
•
Wiping out history. This is what the Soviet Union did under the communist regime. This is what the Islamist terrorists do.

•
This is what all fascist authoritarians do with history that they don't happen to like or is "problematic" or inconvenient to their ideology.

•
They tear down the monuments and statues and rewrite the history books. We in America used to shake our collective heads over this and say, "Thank G od we live in the United States where that doesn't happen."

•
But now it's happening here. The desecration of monuments and the pulling down of the statues of our historic heroes and founding fathers, from Christopher Columbus, to Robert E. Lee, George Washington and even Abraham Lincoln is underway.

•
Calls for the removal of the Jefferson Memorial and Mount Rushmore are being taken seriously.

•
... a statue of George Washington was torn down by a group of people in Portland, Oregon. A U.S. flag was seen burning at the head of the statue before it was toppled using a rope.

•
Another U.S. flag was seen burning over the statue after it was toppled on the ground, according to video footage and images shared on social media.

•
The statue was spray-painted with the words "genocidal colonist," and "F** the cops." Police were reported to be at the scene.

•
This thing is going on all over our country, from sea to shining sea. Shocking enough that this is happening in the United States of America.

•
More shocking still that authorities appear to be allowing it to happen, and in many cases even supporting it.

•
Revisionist history has been going on in public schools for decades, either playing down the achievements of our founding fathers or eliminating them all together.

•
Ignoring context, the books are written in a way that judges their intentions and actions not within their time in history, but within our politically correct, multiculturalistic modern era.

•
Students have been and continue to be taught that white men are inherently evil and work to suppress all other people in the world.

•
Students are taught that white men have unfair "privilege" simply by virtue of being white.

•
Rewriting our history includes the erasure of cultural icons and symbols.

•
... any product that does not adhere to liberal politically correct guidelines will in all likelihood be pulled from the shelves. Lego has already announced it will no longer be promoting or marketing toy sets depicting police and fire fighters or it's White House set.

•
... the 1939 classic "Gone With the Wind" was set to be pulled from the HBO Max lineup, but due to some resistance from film fans it will remain, but with all sorts of disclaimers attached.

•
That famous quote from George Orwell's novel "1984" is not only prophetic, given what is happening today it is chilling and sad. It reads:

•
"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."
This time the 'regime change' is BY Americans AGAINST America (JWR 06/28/2020)
•
How else to interpret the mass anarchy and callous disregard for the rule of law now wreaking havoc upon America's greatest cities?

•
How else to assess the destruction wrought by the scofflaws and ingrates who patrol the land on a never-ending hunt to vandalize and topple memorials erected in honor of our noblest statesmen, such as George Washington?

•
There is no alternative way to comprehend the ardent desire of those insurrectionists who, channeling the very worst of Mao's Cultural Revolution, would deface and demolish societal tributes to the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence (Jefferson) and the man who brought to fruition its ideals (Lincoln).

•
We are now in the midst of a cold civil war between Americanists, proud defenders and preservers of the American regime and way of life, and the civilizational arsonists who seek to burn that regime and way of life into the ether.

•
Yes, we are in a fight for America's soul — but we are also in a fight for America itself.

•
... Republicans face a crossroads. On the one hand, the president and his party can continue the status quo, which entails rhetorical paeans to both law and order and "criminal justice reform" and "police reform."

•
On the other hand, Republicans can boldly rise up, paint a stark and unequivocal contrast with the civilizational arsonists, and offer a compelling defense of the moral primacy of the rule of the law and the American way of life.

•
From here through November, President Trump and Republicans must present themselves, as their partisan forebear Lincoln once did, as the defenders and preservers of the American regime.

•
They must call out the radicals of the modern left for what they are: unmitigated foes of an American order predicated upon the Declaration's truths about human equality, the Constitution's structural safeguards for ordered liberty, and the wisdom embodied in the Judeo-Christian moral tradition undergirding our entire governmental edifice.

•
Every single day until Election Day, Trump and Republicans should frame the choice facing the American people as between the American regime and insurrectionism.

•
But to credibly do so, Republicans must immediately pivot to a full-throated rhetorical and substantive defense of why the American regime is worth preserving.

•
Campaign trail speeches, congressional bills, and everything in between ought to revolve around unabashed assertions of America's inherent worth and dignity.

•
The New York Times' "1619 Project" should be denounced as a monstrous, ahistorical mendacity — and the spirit of 1776 should be channeled and lauded.

•
The rule of law, as well as law enforcement itself, must be heralded as indispensable elements of a just society conceived centuries ago and still worth defending today.

•
... there is still time to make the case. That case must be a forceful and unrelenting call to preserve the American regime and way of life against the threat posed by those seeking to destroy it — and celebrate in its burnt ashes.
Tucker Carlson: Trump could well lose the election - he must defend America's institutions (Fox 06/26/2020)
•
Not many people are saying it out loud on the right, but the fact is that President Trump could well lose this election.

•
In fact, unless fundamental facts change soon, it could be tough for him to be reelected.

•
If the president does lose, that would mean that just a few months from now, Joe Biden would become the president.

•
The United States government would fall under the control of the radicals who control Joe Biden, and they will remake the country.

•
Alone among national leaders, Donald Trump warned Americans for decades about China and the perils of globalization. Everything about the Wuhan coronavirus proved Donald Trump right. China really is our main global adversary. The Chinese government really does want to take over the world.

•
Meanwhile, the fact that we sent our manufacturing base abroad really has weakened us badly. The most powerful nation on Earth no longer makes antibiotics. Maybe we're not as powerful as we think.

•
All of that is very obvious now after the pandemic, but Donald Trump called it. You'd think voters would reward him for that. You'd think the riots would have increased their support for him.

•
An awful lot of people voted for Donald Trump precisely to avoid a moment like the one we're now in.

•
None of this arrived suddenly; we saw it coming. Social cohesion in America has been eroding for decades. People sensed that; it made them nervous. It should make them nervous.

•
Donald Trump seemed like insurance against the consequences of that. The core appeal of Trump was, if things ever started to fall apart, he would defend you.

•
Yes, he was loud and crude. Most bodyguards are. Only a man like Donald Trump was tough enough to fight the creeping authoritarianism of the education cartel in corporate America.

•
If Trump got elected, you could say what you really believed. The basic promise of America could be restored, you could live with dignity.

•
Under Donald Trump, you wouldn't be forced to mouth the lyrics to some repulsive little orthodoxy you hate.

•
You could declare out loud that all lives matter because all lives do matter. God made us all.

•
And if you can't say that, what's the point of living here?

•
Donald Trump never quite articulated any of this in a precise way. He's not an intellectual or an ideologue. But it was obvious, he felt it strongly. Trump's gut-level instincts were on the side of order and tradition and stability, and they still are.

•
And yet, when widespread looting and disorder arrived, the president did not act as decisively as many had hoped. He said little, he did less. Some voters felt undefended, some turned against him.

•
Why did this happen? Well, there are many reasons. Trump was exhausted, for one thing after three years of defending himself against "Russiagate," the most elaborate and effective hoax in American history, and his staff did not do very much to help.

•
Some of them were actively disloyal. Most were just confused. They definitely were not prepared for Chinese viruses or burning cities.

•
But the administration's main problems were conceptual. Few seemed to understand what was really happening.

•
Their first mistake was forgetting the primary rule of Washington: In an election year, everything that happens is about the election. There are no exceptions to that rule.

•
Washington is a political city; it's run by politicians. If the Chinese Navy sailed up the Potomac in the fall of an election year, the first thing most people in D.C. would wonder is, how is that going to affect turnout? That's who they are. It's how they think.

•
So only the naive were surprised when Democratic governors immediately used the coronavirus quarantines to punish people who didn't vote for them. Christian churches and small businesses were locked down. Weed shops and abortion clinics stayed open.

•
Most Trump voters seemed not to notice. They accepted the restrictions without question. This was a health crisis, and they wanted to do the right thing. So they obeyed.

•
The few conservatives who tried to organize resistance to the lockdowns were indicted or threatened with arrest. None of this had anything to do with public health, of course. It was electoral politics, an especially brutal form of it.

•
Republican leaders meanwhile, were remarkably slow to catch on to what was happening. Some of them aren't very bright, but most just couldn't imagine anyone acting with that level of cynicism and ruthlessness. Their good faith made them vulnerable to their opponent's lies. They were used.

•
In the days after George Floyd died, these same trends accelerated dramatically. It all happened so fast that it seemed like chaos at the time. But it wasn't chaos. There was design just beneath the surface.

•
Consider the targets that the mob chose. Law enforcement, obviously, but not all law enforcement. Local police departments must be eliminated, they said, but the FBI is just fine — and that was telling.

•
Then they claimed that capitalism was the enemy, but only certain kinds of capitalism. The mob burned independent businesses to the ground by the score.

•
They didn't say a word about those businesses' digital competitors, Google and Apple and Amazon. All of those companies were funding the destruction.

•
Then the mob told us that traditional Christianity was racist. They desecrated churches in the name of avenging slavery.

•
And yet Antifa did not touch a single mosque, despite the fact that historians say Mohammed owned slaves.

•
As all of this progressed, Democrats continued their lectures about gun control, as they always do, but they ignored the rifles in the hands of their own supporters in downtown Seattle.

•
The real threat, they told us, was rural Americans with their AR-15s. We better get the FBI on that — arrest more farmers.

•
In other words, what looked like protests were in fact highly effective attacks on Donald Trump's voters, his power base. ... No, this is not about George Floyd. It's not about police brutality. It's a power grab by violent extremists.

•
"They're on my car! They are on my car!" "Ma'am," comes the reply. "We would suggest you call up city hall to let them know about your frustrations."

•
A woman and her child were terrorized by a violent mob, and then they were intentionally abandoned by the state that has promised to protect them. It was the ultimate betrayal of citizenship.

•
You should know that the mayor of Fredericksburg, Virginia, a woman called Mary Katherine Greenlaw later apologized. But Greenlaw did not apologize to Tara Durant or her young daughter. The mayor apologized to the mob.

•
Police had tried to disperse them while they were rioting. "I am personally sorry," Mayor Greenlaw slobbered. "I want to apologize to those who went through this fearful experience."

•
Again to be crystal clear, Mayor Greenlaw said that to the rioters, not to the citizens she had cruelly abandoned.

•
... notice how the police respond to gunfire being fired in the open. The squad car just rolls on through. The cops don't even slow down. They've been told not to. They don't try to enforce the law. They can't enforce the law.

•
Keep in mind, decent people live in that neighborhood. Decent people live in every American neighborhood. How would you feel if you lived there?

•
You'd feel like things were falling apart. More than anything else, you would want someone to restore order. You'd want a leader to take back your neighborhood from armed children because armed children are far more threatening than even the worst rogue cop — always.

•
But local leaders are not doing that. They are not restoring order. They're ignoring the suffering of their people.

•
So, what is the White House doing about this? Well, the president announced two days ago that anyone who topples a statue on federal property will face 10 years in prison. That is a welcome start.

•
What we're living through right now, despite what people have told, you is not a local problem. This is a national crisis.

•
The riots are designed to produce a national result — the destruction of our system of government and the removal of Donald Trump.

•
People expect a president to respond to a moment like this, to fix it, and they have a right to expect that. The president runs the country.

•
If the rioters were Saudi nationals, it would be very clear that there was nothing local about what we're watching. We would understand immediately that it is terrorism.

•
The president would give a primetime address. Within hours, the feds would be hunting these people down and arresting them. If the rioters were white supremacist, they'd already be in prison facing life.

•
So the question is, why isn't the Justice Department responding like this? That's not clear.

•
The attorney general, Bill Barr, says he is overseeing 500 separate investigations into rioters. Good for him. Presumably one of them is into the destruction of the Albert Pike statue in Washington. It took place last Friday. It was on live television. So far, no one has been arrested for it.

•
It would change the course of this country's future if the Justice Department rounded up the leaders of Antifa tomorrow, along with every single person caught on camera torching a building, destroying a monument, defacing a church and put them all in shackles and then frog march them in front of cameras like MS-13 and call them what they actually are — domestic terrorists.

•
Not protesters, not civil rights activists, not CNN contributors, but domestic terrorists. That would be their new government-approved title.

•
Once they're charged, it's official. In fact, they are literally, as a factual matter, accused terrorists.

•
And that would change minds right away. The people destroying this country are criminals.

•
But watch what happens when you start calling them what they really are. Most people don't like terrorists. ... So charge them for the crimes they've committed and call them what they are.

•
Right now, the opposite is happening. The terrorists are more popular than the president of the United States.

•
And not just more popular than Donald Trump personally, but more popular than the system he represents and administers.

•
And it's obvious why. Our system is weak. It refuses to defend itself.

•
Weak institutions die. Citizens develop contempt for them, and then they get overthrown.

•
The same is true by the way, for heads of state. When you refuse to fight for the system you run, you're done.

•
The saddest part of all of this is that our system is very much worth saving. It administers justice more fairly than any system in the world.

•
If we want to keep that system, we have to use that system and that means enforcing America's laws with certainty, enforcing them right now, at the moment of greatest peril.

•
If we don't do it now, we never will do it. Ignore a law long enough and it becomes unenforceable.

•
Antifa's leaders would be shocked if they were arrested for destroying a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Just a month ago destroying statues was a felony. Now, it's allowed. What will we allow a month from now? What will we allow by November?

•
The point is, things change fast, and that includes social standards. They change very quickly, too.

•
Just a few weeks ago, defunding the police sounded like a crackpot idea. Now, it's happening. Millions of Americans support it.

•
Many Republican officeholders haven't thought very deeply about why this is. Even now, you'll see them grin at the latest insanity from the left. "Can you believe this? They've gone too far this time," they'll say. "There's going to be a backlash."

•
Really? When exactly will that backlash arrive? Because the opposite seems to be happening. What seemed awful the other day is normal now.

•
It turns out that if you don't bother to explain precisely why certain ideas are bad — if you don't defend your own worldview — then you lose.

•
Bad ideas spread. They quickly congeal into conventional wisdom, and then you're done. This is especially true right now, when everything in American life is up for grabs.

•
Once big things start changing, they tend to change more quickly than we expect. All of this means, this is precisely the time, right now, to defend the institutions that we desperately need to keep in this country.

•
Those institutions include the nuclear family, our freedom of speech, small independent businesses, absolute colorblindness under the law, the noble tradition of nonviolent protests.

•
Those are the things that make us proud to be Americans. Those are the things that make America a place worth living in.

•
We need to defend these things with everything we have, all of us must defend them, including the president. That is his hope of reelection.

•
For the rest of us, it's our only hope as a country.
Don't Feed the Fire (JWR 06/25/2020)
When the mob rules (JWR 06/25/2020)
•
Those who deny any standard and then appeal to the rest of us based on a standard of their own creation can't have it both ways, though they are trying.

•
The late evangelist and scholar Ravi Zacharias observed: "Pleasure without G od, without the sacred boundaries, will actually leave you emptier than before. And this is biblical truth, this is experiential truth. The loneliest people in the world are amongst the wealthiest and most famous who found no boundaries within which to live. That is a fact I've seen again and again."

•
As the Psalmist wrote long ago, "When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
2020 election will be a contest of the angry (JWR 06/25/2020)
Left-wing protesters are telling Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden to 'get out of the way'... (Fox 06/25/2020)
•
The left-wing protest movement sweeping the country has been decades in the making, fueled in part by liberal college campuses.

•
... many Americans have been "stunned" to see protesters calling for monuments to Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant to be removed.

•
"They can't imagine where this came from," ... the "seeds of cancel culture" were planted on campuses for the last 30 years and mostly ignored.

•
"It started on campuses when they enforced and instituted speech codes, which forbade a certain amount of words to be said by people. University presidents were complacent in that. Then they denied tenure to conservative professors who were balanced against groupthink."

•
"Then when the student started to attack their own liberal professors as racists, the universities stood aside, as did their liberal colleagues, and let that happen, too. That was the seeds of cancel culture, the irrational anti-history that we are seeing right now. Liberals in positions of leadership in our institutions stood by and let that happen."

•
"The progressives are saying 'you work for us, get out of the way, Joe Biden, get out of the way, Nancy Pelosi, we are taking over.' And people like Nancy Pelosi are basically saying 'no problem.'"

•
... "the quick collapse of America's elites under this left-wing offensive is striking and a historic event."

•
"Will it last? I think people across the political spectrum are shell-shocked by the events of these weeks, especially the Taliban-like smashing of monuments and the embrace of lawlessness as an official ideology, with no credible pushback from Joe Biden or other prominent Democrats. But if history teaches us anything, it's that the American electorate won't be pushed around permanently."

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Newt Gingrich: If liberty and justice for all do not prevail over anger, anarchy, expect this (Fox 06/25/2020)
•
One of the most dangerous trends of the radical Democratic Left is a pervasive desire (or ideological obligation) to vehemently protect people who break the law, contemptuously disregard the rights of law-abiding people, and actively hate those who work in law enforcement. When members of the radical Left talk about crime and punishment, they have a clear formula.

•
Today's radical Democratic Left insists that those who break laws are to be automatically regarded as victims of systemic flaws or intentional acts of oppression within our criminal justice system. Law-abiding citizens who begrudge people who break the law are heartless, privileged people who are simply too ignorant or self-absorbed to understand the plight of criminals. And police are all vicious, hateful agents of tyranny who are only trying to enforce the flawed system of oppression.

•
If we continue to treat police as the enemy, cut their budgets and erode public trust in our institutions, I'm afraid there simply won't be any courageous, self-sacrificing Americans left who are willing to do the job.

•
If police are not here to serve and protect us, criminals will rise to exploit and endanger us. History has shown us time and time again, criminals will not stand up to the organized forces of society.

•
But, if society refuses to stand up for itself, chaos and violence will reign. As a result, honest, law-abiding people will suffer. Liberty will be replaced by control, and justice for all will be replaced by vengeance for some.
Flynn Highlights New Strzok Notes in Urging Dismissal of Case (06/25/2020)
Trump's immigration wins — despite opposition, here's how he produced real results (Fox 06/25/2020)
•
Credit where credit is due. President Trump has broken through the traffic jam blocking immigration and border security reform — and produced tangible, constructive results.

•
And his new executive order covering immigrant and non-immigrant visas demonstrates he has no plans to slow down.

•
Current U.S. standards for legal immigration are antiquated. And non-immigrant visa programs like the H-1B visa program have been abused or misused. (The H-1B program allows U.S. companies to hire foreign post-graduate workers to fill job slots requiring highly specialized knowledge.)

•
Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama held all reforms hostage to a "comprehensive" legislative deal that would include a massive amnesty for illegal immigrants.

•
There was consistent opposition to this approach, and for good reason. Many feared granting mass amnesty would only incentivize more illegal immigration.

•
Along came Trump. The president's first smart move was to not commit to mass amnesty.

•
Then he proceeded to start fixing the problem, bit by bit, without the help or consent of his political opponents.

•
His first focus was making the border more secure. Here, he has succeeded remarkably well. By the end of the year, despite intransigent political opposition, the administration will have built a secure wall on the most important parts of the border.

•
The caravans of illegal immigrants trying to rush the border have stopped. Loopholes that allowed people to file false refugee claims and then disappear into the interior are now closed.

•
And enforcement is much improved. Homeland Security officials report that America is now deporting people here illegally at a faster rate than they are entering.

•
... the president made clear that he wants to move toward a more merit-based immigration system — one that concentrates on bringing in individuals and families that are least likely to require welfare and other assistance and most likely to help America become even stronger and more prosperous.

•
The administration also wants end abuses in non-immigrant visa programs. That's a laudable goal.

•
In addition to misuse, the?current visa system is complicated, unable to respond to labor market shocks, and arguably a contributor to illegal immigration.?It is past time to overhaul the country's byzantine maze of worker visa programs.

•
And what should drive that reform is the desire to grow the economy while keeping Americans prosperous and their intellectual property secure.
Gregg Jarrett: Michael Flynn case — court schools Judge Sullivan on law and the Constitution (Fox 06/24/2020)
The New Censors (JWR 06/24/2020)
•
Do you say what you think? That's risky! You may get fired!

•
You've probably heard about a New York Times editor resigning after approving an opinion piece by Senator Tom Cotton that suggested the military to step in to end riots.

•
Many Times reporters tweeted out the same alarmist wording, "Running this puts Black NY Times staffers in danger."

•
Really? How?

•
They learned this tactic from so-called woke professors and fellow activists at expensive colleges.

•
Last year, Harvard students demanded that law professor Ron Sullivan resign as a resident dean. Why? He'd agreed to be part of Harvey Weinstein's legal defense team.

•
A female student said, "I don't feel safe!" although Sullivan had been a dean for many years. Sullivan resigned.

•
At UCLA, business school lecturer Gordon Klein rejected a request to give black students different treatment on their final exam because of George Floyd's death. Klein pointed out that since the class was online, he had no way of knowing which students were black.

•
He also told students: "remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the color of their skin."

•
The activist group Color of Change ... launched a petition to have Klein "terminated for his extremely insensitive, dismissive, and woefully racist response."

•
UCLA quickly caved. Klein is on mandatory leave.

•
Now that many former college radicals have jobs at elite media companies, they demand that newspapers not say certain things.

•
When, in response to looting during George Floyd protests, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran the insensitive headline, "Buildings Matter, Too," 44 staff members claimed that "puts our lives at risk."

•
Their letter didn't give any evidence as to how it threatened their lives ... but they won. The editor resigned.

•
When activists decide that certain words or arguments are "offensive," no one must use those words.

•
"... We have to challenge dogma. What if we were still with the principle that you couldn't speak out against the King?! That's the history of the Middle Ages."

•
That's when authorities arrested Galileo for daring to say that the earth revolved around the sun.

•
"That's the condition that all humans lived under until just the last 300 years, and it was a much less happy place."

•
"Then we came to an idea that we improve society by having frank and sometimes difficult conversations about policy issues, philosophy, about how we're going to get along and live together."

•
Life has been much better since people acquired the right to speak freely.

•
When entitled leftists declare themselves the sole arbiters of truth, it's crucial that we all speak up for free speech.
Andrew McCarthy: Roger Stone House hearing – here's what's really going on (Fox 06/24/2020)
•
I continue to believe that what's going on here is a Democratic scheme to bruise up the AG in anticipation of possible indictments, or a damning report, in the Durham investigation.
The mob tearing down America's monuments is an arm of the Democratic establishment (Fox 06/24/2020)
•
... officials in New York announced that they are tearing down a bronze statue of Teddy Roosevelt. That statue has stood on Central Park for 80 years.

•
Antifa demanded its removal, so Mayor Bill de Blasio complied, and he is taking it down.

•
Few people ever could have imagined that Teddy Roosevelt would be canceled. Roosevelt was the most popular president in American history. He was also a war hero, a historian, a naturalist, a rancher, a chief of police, an author, conservationist, as well as a father of six.

•
At one point in Roosevelt's extraordinarily busy life, he was also the governor of New York. This morning, the current governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, weighed in on his removal.

•
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo: People are making a statement about equality, about community, to be against racism, against slavery.

•
... I think it's a healthy expression of people saying, "Let's get some priorities here, and let's remember the sin and mistake that this nation made, and let's not celebrate it."

•
Were you listening carefully to that? In the state of New York, the governor tells us ... Destroying public property is "a healthy expression of people saying, 'Let's get some priorities here.'"

•
Okay, so that's the standard set forth by a Democratic Party leader. Let's think it through for a minute.

•
... like the statues now lying smashed on the ground in parks across the country, the Governor's Mansion in Albany, N.Y. is suffused with the spirit of white supremacy. Its very existence as an object is an act of violence against marginalized people. It cannot stand.

•
Should the mob burn it down? Would torching the racist Governor's Mansion amount to a "healthy expression of people saying let's get some priorities here." What do you think?

•
Andrew Cuomo lives in the Governor's Mansion. You get within 20 feet of that building, and he'll have one of his goons shoot you to death.

•
Andrew Cuomo is all for destroying things, just not his own things. And by the way, hands off New York's a little latest monument, the Mario Cuomo Bridge, formerly the Tappan Zee, which Andrew named after his father. That's off-limits, too.

•
Okay, so what exactly is "a healthy expression of moral priorities" in a moment like this? Keep in mind, this is a big country and not everyone has the same priorities.

•
... can you spray paint obscenities on Martin Luther King's monuments if you don't like him? How healthy would that be? These are theoretical questions.

•
America has two standards of justice. When they do it to you, it is social justice. If you dare to defend yourself, it's a hate crime.

•
Consider what we've seen recently. How many stores and parks and statues and public buildings have been destroyed recently by rioters? How many churches and memorials and monuments to our fallen soldiers have been desecrated by them? Too many to count.

•
Now ask yourself, how many people have been held accountable for these crimes? Some? A few? No — hardly any.

•
Politicians applauded this destruction. Law enforcement has ignored it. Why is that exactly?

•
Rioting is a federal crime; so is arson. So far, two people have been arrested and charged in the burning of the Third Police Precinct in Minneapolis. Two.

•
Video footage, which is everywhere — you've seen it — shows clearly that scores of people were involved. Authorities could identify them and charge all of them.

•
We might have fewer riots if they did that. But no, the Justice Department isn't interested in doing that. What are they interested in?

•
Well, let's see. Recently, a NASCAR driver called Bubba Wallace claimed that someone left a noose in his garage in Alabama. The media reacted as if a war had broken out — wall-to-wall coverage. They made it precisely clear who the enemy was.

•
And of course, countless syrupy segments on the dopey morning shows framing the whole thing as a milestone in the march toward civil rights.

•
"These scenes of unity coming just 24 hours after a noose was found in Wallace's team garage stall, an area restricted to only essential personnel. NASCAR and the FBI are now investigating."

•
Unfortunately, no one covering this story ever bothered to ask the obvious questions. Where, exactly, was this noose — the actual noose Bubba Wallace kept talking about? No picture of it ever surfaced.

•
And by the way, haven't we heard this story somewhere before? Like repeatedly?

•
Between 2015 and 2018, there were six high profile so-called hate crimes involving nooses, all of them are promoted heavily by the media. Every one of them turned out to be a hoax, every single one of them. And that's not even counting Jussie Smollett.

•
The odds that this news hate crime was real were always very small. It's just not a very racist country, actually, in the end. Most of us know that.

•
But you'd never know it from listening to the authorities. The U.S. attorney suggested federal charges would be brought — brought against whom? That was never clear.

•
Meanwhile, the FBI swooped in by the vanload. The Bureau sent at least 15 agents to investigate this provocation against a millionaire racecar driver — 15 agents — at a time when mobs were roaming the country completely unchallenged by law enforcement, burning things, assaulting people.

•
In the end, as you may have heard, it was needless to say, yet another news hoax. There was no hate crime in Bubba Wallace's garage. What does it tell you, that the FBI and federal prosecutors fell for this hoax so completely? Well, it tells you everything.

•
At the very moment Bubba Wallace was doing his star turn as America's latest victim of injustice, lecturing his fans about the racism, being backed up completely by the morons who run NASCAR, a mob of violent lunatics was ripping down a statue of American patriot, Francis Scott Key, in San Francisco.

•
On Key's empty pedestal, they spray painted these words, which effectively are their slogan: "Kill the colonizers. Kill whitey."

•
In other words, murder Americans for the color of their skin.

•
Now, you can argue about whether hate crimes ought to exist as a category in American law, and that's an argument worth having.

•
But as long as they do exist, that would seem to qualify as one and that the FBI did not swoop in with 15 agents to investigate.

•
It's not clear if anyone ever investigated because no one in power cared. If anything, they agreed.

•
And that's the point. The mob does not operate independently from the Democratic establishment. The mob is an arm of the Democratic establishment.

•
In the city of Philadelphia, both the mayor and Larry Krasner, the district attorney we've told you about repeatedly, cheered as mobs set fire and destroyed public property there.

•
But when a group of working-class Philadelphians tried to protect the statue of Christopher Columbus from being destroyed, Krasner threatened to prosecute them.

•
Democratic politicians don't fear the mob. Notice that? Why? Because they don't need to.

•
They control the mob. The mob operates with their permission. These are their foot soldiers. This is their militia.

•
Federal law enforcement is entirely on their side. That's why there have been so few prosecutions of rioting and so much FBI attention to Bubba Wallace's fake hate crime.

•
Career bureaucrats in the federal agencies support the Democratic Party. That means they support the mob as well. It's their militia, too.

•
Ask yourself, who is being targeted for destruction right now? Anyone who is not on board with their program.

•
"We've known for 50 years that much of the poison in our society emanates from the universities. But we've done nothing whatsoever to fix that. We've continued to fund them. No matter what they charge, we keep sending our children there."

•
"We've known for more than three years that the federal government's intelligence and law enforcement agencies are dangerously corrupt."

•
"There has been no meaningful reform of the CIA or the FBI or any of the other terrifyingly powerful agencies that operate independently from our democracy and on the side of the Democratic Party."

•
"We know all this. We still pretend they're legitimate. We dutifully send in our taxes every quarter to pay their salaries."

•
"If there's any good to come out of this moment, and we hope there is, it's that we can no longer lie to ourselves about what is happening. Our institutions are not serving all of us equally. Some are actively trying to hurt us. When this is over, we need to do something about that, this time for real."

•
Our institutions are not serving all of us equally. Some are actively trying to hurt us. When this is over, we need to do something about that — this time for real.
Tucker Carlson: The real reason mobs across the country are tearing down American monuments (Fox 06/23/2020)
•
This is happening all over the country as you know and there's a reason for it.

•
... city officials announced their plan to remove the statue of Teddy Roosevelt from outside New York's Museum of Natural History.

•
The bronze statue has stood there in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda facing Central Park since before the Second World War. Soon it will be gone.

•
Roosevelt's virtues mirrored the values of America. He was physically brave. He was profoundly literate, highly self-disciplined and amazingly energetic. While still a college student, Roosevelt wrote a two-volume history of the War of 1812 that is still in print today. You can buy it on Amazon.

•
He was the youngest president in our history. He saved our economy from corporate monopolies. And by doing that, he made the American middle class possible.

•
He created the national parks. He created the Panama Canal, the Food and Drug Administration, and then he kept going.

•
The list of Teddy Roosevelt's achievements fills entire shelves of biographies. Those are in addition to the more than 40 books he wrote himself on topics ranging from Oliver Cromwell to cattle ranching to social justice.

•
Personally, Roosevelt was a famously decent man. In 1901, he invited his friend Booker T. Washington to dinner. No African-American had ever eaten in the White House. Democrats roared with rage at the idea.

•
For the crime of having a meal with a black man, they attacked Teddy Roosevelt and his wife for the rest of their lives. But Roosevelt never bowed. He gave the finger to the mob, and he continued cheerfully on.

•
Teddy Roosevelt was a hero to millions of Americans. He still is. That's precisely why they are tearing down his statue.

•
They know that if they can force you to watch as they topple your heroes, they have won. There's nothing they can't do next.

•
They can decide how you raise your children, how you vote, what you're allowed to believe.

•
Once they've humiliated you, they can control you and that's why across the country, mobs are tearing down America's monuments.

•
In the cities of Richmond and St. Paul, Minn., they've torn down statues of Christopher Columbus. They did the same thing in Boston. Boston's mayor now says it's time to remove a statue of Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed the slaves. It's racist.

•
In Dallas, they pulled the Texas Ranger statue out of the airport after more than 50 years. In Dearborn, Mich., they toppled the statue of the former mayor. They did the same thing in Philadelphia.

•
In Oregon, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were torn down. In San Francisco, the mob demolished statues of Ulysses S. Grant, Junipero Serra, and Francis Scott Key.

•
On the pedestal of the Key monument, they spray-painted, "Kill the colonizers" and "Kill whitey," just in case you missed the point.

•
One thing all of these Americans, now canceled, have in common: Not one of them fought for the Confederacy.

•
Democrats understand that very well, and they support all of it. In every place where the mob has destroyed public monuments, Democratic leaders have backed them as they did it.

•
But at the same time — and you should know this — so have many Republicans.

•
Last week a mob in downtown Washington, D.C. decided to tear down a statue of a man called Albert Pike. Pike was famous as a journalist and a poet and later as a prominent Freemason.

•
At least one prominent conservative tweeted his approval of this. Republicans in Congress said nothing at all, and they could have.

•
Elected Republicans, almost all of them, are in no hurry to stop the disorder. They appear to believe what we're watching is a version of the Rodney King riots from 1992. People saw an upsetting video on the internet, they're angry, and that's understandable. But they'll calm down soon, and we can get back to cutting capital gains taxes and sanctioning Bashar al- Assad. That's their view of it.

•
They are wrong. This is not a momentary civil disturbance. This is a serious and highly organized political movement.

•
It is not superficial. It is deep and profound. It has vast ambitions. It is insidious; it will grow.

•
Its goal is to end liberal democracy and challenge Western civilization itself.

•
This is an ideological movement. The ideas that fuel it have incubated for decades on college campuses. We paid for all of it, by the way.

•
The rest of us were so thrilled that our kids got into Duke that we decided to ignore what Duke was actually teaching them and are continuing to send big checks. That was a mistake. It was one of the greatest mistakes we've ever made.

•
We didn't appreciate the stakes involved at the time and as a result of that, we became easy marks for their lies.

•
Even now, so many of us continue to pretend that this is about police brutalities, about the death of a man called George Floyd in Minneapolis.

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We still imagine we can fix it by regulating chokeholds or spending more on de-escalation training. We are too literal.

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We're too good-hearted to understand what's really happening. Our decency is the mob's main weapon against us. We have no idea who we're up against.

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In every society, there are those who seek to destroy. ... Inflicting pain makes them feel powerful.

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We used to call people like that anti-social forces. They still exist. We just pretend they don't. Or worse, we excuse their behavior. We coddle them. We fund them.

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The rest of us just look on confused. We don't really know what's happening, but the destroyers know. They know exactly what's going on.

•
Never in American history have they been more emboldened than they are now.

•
... an activist called Shaun King issued the following demand on Twitter: "All murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus and his European mother and their white friends should also come down. They are a gross form of white supremacy created as tools of oppression, racist propaganda. They should all come down."

•
Before you dismiss that idea as absurd, the rantings of some crank on social media, keep in mind that Shaun King is the most famous Black Lives Matter leader in this country. Black Lives Matter is now more popular than either major political party.

•
So, don't be surprised when they come for your church. Why wouldn't they? No one is stopping them.

•
The forces of destruction have grand ambitions. It's not just about the Teddy Roosevelt statue. They plan to rule this country. What will happen if they do?

•
Antifa doesn't own the statues in your city's parks; it doesn't own your city. You do. You help pay for it.

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But what would happen if you tried to defend public property or even if you tried to defend your own property?

•
You know the answer. You'd be swarmed by federal agents, you'd be Roger Stoned with the help and complicity of CNN and NPR and so many others.

•
You'd be the criminal. There's no question. You've seen this happen before.

•
Meanwhile, actual hate crimes — brutal crimes in which Americans are gravely injured — are ignored completely. They take place on our streets with shocking regularity. The media don't cover them. They often go unpunished entirely.

•
That's the aim of this movement, of these riots — to overthrow the value, the principle of equality under the law.

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Can we convince millions of people to believe something that's completely absurd? Yes, we can. That's what they learned. That's the lesson. They'll do it again.

•
A few foolish souls will attempt to point out the obvious, what's true. Of course, there are racists here, as there are everywhere. But overall, this is the least racist country in the history of the world. Millions of Africans want to move here. Many already have. Our last president was black. What are you talking about?

•
Those people will be silenced. Anyone who defies the narrative will be silenced. By that point, the category of hate speech will have expanded to include anything they don't want to hear and will be criminalized, a federal offense. You watch. If they can tear down a Lincoln statue because it's racist, they can ban the First Amendment. You don't want to live in a place like that.

•
Who can save us from that? Well, as of right now, only Republicans can save us from that. Not because they are inherently virtuous, not because they want to — they don't — but because they're the opposition party to the extent they still have opposition to anything. We have no choice but to ask for their help. The Republican Party is the only power center-left in this country available to people who dissent.

•
It doesn't matter who you voted for last time. This is not an endorsement of anyone's policies. It's an acknowledgment of who holds power and who doesn't.

•
... asked the president why he hasn't sent federal troops to stop the chaos in cities like Seattle.

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Here's what the president answered: "Right now, I think it's great sitting back and watching this catastrophe."

•
We understand the point he was making. These are liberal cities, and they're destroying themselves. Their policies don't work. This is what you get when you vote for liberals.

•
But it's still the wrong answer. A president is responsible for all Americans, no matter where they live — for the country itself.

•
We need help, and we need it right now. These are not protests. This is a totalitarian political movement, and someone needs to save the country from it.
Victor Davis Hanson calls election 'a Manichean choice' about 'whether you want civilization' (Fox 06/22/2020)
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"I don't want to get political, but this election no longer is about Donald Trump's tweeting."

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"It's an existential question, a Manichean choice between whether you want civilization and you believe that America doesn't have to be perfect to be good and we are not ... going to destroy all that people died for, or [whether] you feel it was inherently flawed with a cancer and we have to use radiation and chemotherapy and kill the host to kill the cancer."

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"That's the choice we are looking at. and I'm going to vote for civilization."

•
... went on to say that the push by Black Lives Matter protesters and others to remove historic monuments and statues is less about the person depicted and more about "humiliation and power."

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"We are looking for one brave woman, a few brave men to say, 'It's not going to happen anymore, you're not going to do it, come into my neighborhood and you're not going to like what's going to happen,' We haven't had that."
Welcome to America's Cultural Revolution (JWR 06/22/2020)
•
We're in the dawn of a high-tech, bloodless Cultural Revolution, one that relies on intimidation, public shaming and economic ruin to dictate what words and ideas are permissible in the public square.

•
"Words are violence" has always been an illiberal notion meant to stifle speech and open discourse. Popularized by a generation of coddled and brittle college students, it now guides policy on editorial pages at newspapers such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times and most major news outlets.

•
The Times can claim that a harsh tone and a small factual error in Senator Tom Cotton's recent op-ed was the reason the entire paper had a meltdown, but the staffers who revolted initially claimed that Cotton's argument for bringing the National Guard into cities put black lives in "danger."

•
None of the Times' editors, all of whom are apparently comfortable with running fabulist histories or odes to Communist tyrannies, pushed back against the caustic notion that engaging in debate was an act of violence. They bowed to the internal mob and pleaded for forgiveness.

•
What editor at a major newspaper is going to stand up for ideals of open and free debate if doing so means putting "black lives in danger" and ends his career? Few, if any.

•
The Times has been cleansed of reactionary elements. The paper is in the hands of The People. Others will follow.

•
You may also have noticed another progressive slogan gaining popularity these days: "Silence is violence." It's no longer enough not to peddle wrongthink in the op-ed pages of the local paper, but now you must also actively champion woke progressive positions or you, too, are tacitly engaged in violence and racism.

•
This is a neat trick: To speak out in the wrong way is violence. Not to speak out is violence. Not to speak out in the way progressives dictate is violence.

•
This is why your apolitical local lawn care company is sending out emails promising to dedicate themselves to Black Lives Matter. No one wants to be accused of harboring counterrevolutionary sympathies.

•
By the time you read this, Saints quarterback Drew Brees will probably be on his 10th round of ritual public self-flagellation — his wife having already apologized as well — for saying the words: "I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country."

•
Without an apology, we're told, Brees would have been unable to work with teammates who are offended because there is no room for dissent on this issue. Brees promises to "listen." Brees implores all of America to "listen." "Listen" is a euphemism for groupthink.

•
Of course, everyone should genuinely listen. They should hear out Tom Cotton as well.

•
Black Lives Matter is a group that is not only home to an inspirational sentiment and good people but also various hard left-wing groups and sentiments that some of us reject. It should not get a dispensation from the rules every other movement lives by.

•
In a free and healthy nation, no issue should be above criticism or debate. We once called that liberalism.
The Silent Majority Can Be Silent No More (JWR 06/22/2020)
•
... the country is under siege, so we cannot indulge the luxury of being discouraged.

•
It wouldn't take a Christian fanatic or an excitable conspiracist to conclude that America is now the target of an intense spiritual onslaught — brought on by its own rampant descent into decadence.

•
The left has been at war with America as founded for decades, and it has made great progress in transforming our culture and institutions.

•
Leftists are activism-oriented and relentless. They pursue their goals 24/7, exhausting their less activist and less calculating opponents, and advance their agenda by sheer attrition.

•
But a more important factor in the left's success is the depressing naivete of too many conservatives about its ultimate aims. If you underestimate the extremism and determination of your opponents, how can you counter them?

•
Perhaps one silver lining emerging from the Democrats' enabling of the proliferating lawlessness in America is that unsuspecting patriots are finally awakening to the horrors facing us and the left's cynical exploitation of them.

•
The virus isn't red or blue, but the left immediately weaponized it against President Donald Trump, their endless efforts to remove him having failed. From the beginning of this scourge, it was obvious they were more interested in demonizing Trump than in defeating the virus. The media and the Democratic Party bludgeoned Trump instead of working with him to combat the virus.

•
They savaged him for defying the medical experts, when he was following their advice at every turn, including in shutting down the economy.

•
Though they have shut the economy down even more severely in their blue-controlled states, they preposterously blamed the inevitable economic downturn on him.

•
Though Trump and virtually all of America condemned the senseless killing of George Floyd, the extreme left seized the moment not merely to protest officer misconduct but to condemn the nation for "systemic racism," "white privilege" and "white supremacy."

•
Leftist activists converted the protests into riots, looting and violence, and Democratic leaders refused to condemn it and instead fanned the flames lit by the organized mob. They have joined the movement to topple monuments and erase all other unpleasant aspects of American history — as if they never occurred.

•
How can an entire political party give itself over to a lawless mob? How can it condone the systematic suppression of political speech by Hollywood, the corporate left and social media giants?

•
Do rank-and-file liberals want to live in a country whose culture destroys people who won't toe the leftist line?

•
Ironically, it will only be a matter of time before the mob they legitimized will turn on them, as surely as the French revolutionaries turned on their mastermind Maximilien Robespierre.

•
For an unquenchable mob hellbent on eradicating all traditions, systems and laws, nothing is sacred, and no one is immune.

•
Note to conservatives: If you have been casually dismissing leftist extremism, maybe now you will wake up. Can't you hear the alarms blaring?

•
Too many on the right also mistakenly believe that this Democratic frenzy and leftist unrest is all based primarily on their contempt for President Donald Trump. He has made them crazy, and they'll do anything to get rid of him. Then everything will return to normal.

•
Yes, he makes them crazier, more desperate and more unreasonable — mainly because he's fighting them hammer and tongs — but he didn't make them leftists, and leftists don't need any prompting to unleash their hell on America. It stands for everything they hate.

•
With or without Trump, their goals remain the same. But without Trump, their chances of finally undoing America immeasurably increase.

•
Let's wake up and rededicate ourselves to preventing the destruction of America. Don't ever lose hope. My bet is the silent majority is bigger than ever and that we'll see that in November.

•
Stay in the fight like your children's future depends on it — because it does.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Finally Got Him (Chip Bok, 03/31/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
How to Fall in Love With America Again (JWR 06/22/2020)
•
Everywhere one looks, law enforcement's ostensible "systemic racism" is decried (with barely an iota of tangible evidence).

•
Barack Obama's once-radical complaint that racism is ingrained in America's collective DNA has pervaded mainstream discourse.

•
Contemporary American society is suffering from many crises, but one stands out above all the others: We have a crisis of gratitude. It's time for Americans to fall in love with America again.

•
It is, of course, true that America has always been imperfect. But we have continually strived toward a greater and more inclusive union — a union, crucially, that actually fulfills the enunciated principles upon which the nation was conceived.

•
Quite literally, we have the battle scars to prove it — as the 600,000-plus deaths in the Civil War tragically evince.

•
Far too many young Americans grow up and ultimately graduate from high school without any underlying appreciation of America's structural and substantive virtues — or its unique role in the evolving history of Western civilization.

•
Our collective civic efficacy is appalling; a shockingly high percentage of adult Americans — an outright majority, according to reliable polling — cannot name all three branches of the federal government.

•
States should mandate that schools begin exposing children to the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, and the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville as early as the second or third grade.

•
Curricula should root out any and all vestiges of pedagogical self-flagellation that instills in impressionable youngsters the destructive lie that America was founded for the purpose of perpetuating chattel slavery.

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At the federal government level, we must develop a greater comfort in wielding the levers of government power to inculcate nationalism and civic unity.

•
In policy areas as seemingly disparate as immigration, trade and commerce, the overarching concern must be instilling a sense of cohesion, stability, order and collective national pride.

•
The reality is that America is the freest, most prosperous and most just nation ever conceived.

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Our medical schools, technological advances, financial market sophistication, rule of law and higher education institutions are all the envy of the free world.

•
Our Constitution is the greatest legal document ever devised for the governance of man over his fellow man.

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We truly have so much to be grateful for — and we need to make America grateful again.
KT McFarland: Trump and Bolton – this is when I knew it wasn't going to end well (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
I asked John if he had already voted, to which he replied, "Yes, for Trump. He's an idiot, but anybody is better than Hillary Clinton."

•
That's why I had my doubts when Bolton lobbied so aggressively for and became President Trump's national security adviser less than two years later.

•
I figured it would be a rocky ride for them both and predicted it wouldn't end well.

•
First, they had very different approaches to foreign policy. Trump's first priority was to rebuild the economy, then use it as leverage to renegotiate trade deals. He would use the bully pulpit to get our security allies to increase their contributions to our mutual defense.

•
What he would not do was get us bogged down in more forever wars.

•
I once asked Bolton whether his child had considered military service. He looked at me dismissively and said, "No, of course not." So, it was all right for other people's children to fight in his forever wars, just not his own.

•
Bolton and Trump clashed from the beginning – not just over policy, but in style and temperament.

•
Bolton pushed for preemptive military action against Iran, Syria, Venezuela and North Korea.

•
When the president took a different course, Bolton took to the phone. He became the "anonymous source" for reporters, dishing out tales of White House chaos and presidential incompetence.

•
Bolton was so convinced of his superior intelligence that he was condescending to everyone, including the president.

•
... Bolton spent most of his time – when he wasn't in the Oval Office – sitting in his office behind closed doors.

•
His staff wasn't sure what he did for those hours on end. Now we know – he was, in all likelihood, turning his copious notes into a manuscript, presumably in anticipation of getting a lucrative book deal, and rushing it into print quickly when the inevitable happened and he was fired.

•
... most of Bolton's complaints are about what President Trump said in the Oval Office, what he mused about doing when he was letting off steam or fantasizing about settling scores with fake news or the deep state. That's classic Trump.

•
President Trump uses those meetings as brainstorming sessions. He is not a passive recipient of information; he immediately takes charge of a briefing and takes it in the direction he wants.

•
He tosses out ideas, the more out-of-the-box the better, and expects others to do the same. These meetings are free-for-alls, with everybody weighing in.

•
If you argue with President Trump, he may grumble and argue back, but that is what his advisers are for: to lay out the flaws in his arguments and warn him if what he's proposing is illegal or out of bounds.

•
That is why presidents have "executive privilege," which is the right to keep discussions with top aides confidential.

•
What John Bolton has done is shred executive privilege for future presidents. There will no longer be such a thing as an off-the-record conversation between a president and his advisers. Everything, every speculation, every offhand remark will be fair game for the next kiss-and-tell book.

•
One thing I have learned in working for President Trump is to watch what he does, not necessarily what he says. Professional politicians have smoothed off their rough edges; they measure their words, in public and in private.

•
Donald Trump is no professional politician; he revels in his political incorrectness. He says a lot of things, he tweets a lot of things, he changes his mind, he cajoles one minute and criticizes the next, he rants.

•
According to Bolton, President Trump wanted to cut off aid to Ukraine unless they investigated Biden's ties to corruption. But did President Trump do it? No.

•
He threatened to pull out of NATO unless our partners ponied up for their fair share. But did he do it? No.

•
Some of the most serious accusations Bolton makes are that President Trump tried to enlist Chinese support to help him get reelected.

•
Yet, Bolton himself wasn't in those meetings, and those who were have since come forward to say Bolton is lying.

•
Furthermore, Bolton's claims don't make sense. Trump is the first American president ever to stand up to the Chinese.

•
Why would President Xi Jinping want him to be reelected? Surely his interests lie in a President Joe Biden, who just a few months ago scoffed at the suggestion China posed a threat to our interests.

•
One cannot help but wonder why John Bolton, who came to believe President Trump was "unfit for office," refused to come forward during impeachment.

•
He offered some flim-flam excuses, but perhaps his motivation was financial. Testifying publicly before Congress before his book was on sale would have undercut its shock value – and his profits.

•
No doubt John Bolton will get rich selling his White House story and will become the newest darling of the Trump-hating world.

•
But at what price to the nation? More division, more rancor, more hatred.

•
Washington has always attracted the venal and the vain, the ambitious and the arrogant, but even they must blanch at what John Bolton has done.
Longtime college professor warns students are taught 'contempt for ideas that don't fit' radical worldview (Fox 06/21/2020)
•
"The public sees the shout-downs and the near-riots with regard to visiting speakers, but it doesn't think about how that could happen."

•
"The reason it happens, of course, is you've got students largely doing it in those cases. But they're taught by radical professors."

•
"So the real source of the problem is ... in the classrooms where those kids learn their contempt for ideas that don't fit within what their professors are teaching them."

•
... conservatives were prevalent on the faculties of colleges and universities by about a three-to-two margin in the late 1960s.

•
By contrast, liberals outnumber conservatives by as much as thirteen-to-one in modern times.

•
"The real problem is way behind the scenes in the classrooms, which the public never sees."

•
... the often "incestuous" nature of college faculty members, in that they tend to only associate with and hire those who agree with their extremist ideologies.

•
... colleges will soon become a "complete monoculture," with unhealthy results for society.

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Political Correctness (Glenn McCoy, 11/11/2015) cartoon from USA picture album
Systemic racism in America is a canard (INN 06/20/2020)
•
Americans, and especially their young people, have been subjected to years of a systematic war of indoctrinaion against their own country.

•
... Obama's "Slavery is American Original Sin Doctrine" was nothing more than an opening volley launched across the bow of Liberty's Ship.

•
This condemnation of our nation, namely "America's Original Sin of Slavery Doctrine," morphed into the "Hate America Doctrine," which was then taught in schools and universities throughout our educational system.

•
White Americans were indoctrinated to hate their own race while all people of color were then taught to resent the white race.

•
Moreover, and more importantly, all races were taught to hate and disrespect America.

•
Obama's esprit de corps, liberal educators, infused in the minds of young Americans that they are the beneficiaries of an inequitable "white-privileged," free-market economy to which African Americans have been denied entry because of racism.

•
This would become the new and only acceptable version of American history.

•
This skewed narrative began with pockets of left-wing radicals being formed throughout our nation and then crept up into our educational systems and reached up into our very liberal institutes of higher learning.

•
This set the stage for the detrimental strategy to bring America to her knees perpetrated by Obama, Sharpton, Farrakhan, and the Democratic Party.

•
Obama and his associates continue to cast aspersions on America by focusing on past inequities that imply that America is not, nor ever was a "fair-shake nation," and casting doubt, in the minds of our impressionable and naturally rebellious youth, as to whether our nation has ever served a noble purpose in this world.

•
When Obama proclaimed that slavery was America's original sin, he branded us a nation of evildoers unworthy of Liberty's just cause.

•
Our quest is to keep the lamp of liberty lit so that every generation, every American, can survive the onslaught of those who promote the hatred of American values as the land of great opportunity.

•
Slavery did not begin in America. True, the period in which there was slavery in America is not one we can be proud of.

•
However, it did end here, in this glorious, freedom-loving country. The ensuing fight to end prejudice against people of color has never stopped.

•
Our stance against tyranny, with which the Constitution Rule of Law provides us, is the perfect solution to bridge the racial divide that is being encouraged to devour us all.

•
It is time for all Americans to reconnect with the original mission of our Founding Fathers, which is, was, and will always be, to free the world from the fear proliferated by the disciples of tyranny.

•
This mission, to stand up and abolish tyranny, is what drives our history. It underlies every battle we have fought since our inception.

•
The Founding Fathers fought the tyranny of the British Monarchy.

•
The Civil War was the result of the incompatibility between our mission to ensure that all men are created equal and the tyranny of slavery that denied citizens of color their American liberty for far too long.

•
In the twentieth century, our grandfathers fought the tyranny of Fascism;

•
Our fathers fought the tyranny of Communism, just as their sons and daughters now fight the tyranny of Islamic terrorism

•
What exactly are Obama, Sharpton, Farrakhan, and the rest of their America (and Jew-hating) cohorts talking about?

•
Are they talking about those who died in our Civil War, fighting against slavery? Or maybe they are speaking about those who have sacrificed their lives, in the civil rights movement? How about the Americans veterans who fought and died since the foundation of our republic to keep us free?

•
These heroes are the by-products of America's stance against tyranny, our Constitution's Rule of Law that guarantees all our citizens the freedoms that protect us from Fascists and totalitarians intent on denying all of us our God-Given Rights.

•
Thomas Jefferson asserted: " "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits."

•
Who in their right mind would describe the achievements in of those who fought for our freedoms the outgrowth of "America's Original Sin" ?

•
Those who do are the Jew Haters, the terrorist sympathizers, the shamers who label everyone as racist, and they bring dishonor to those who fought for their freedoms.

•
Rise from your knees to thank today's government for all it is doing to end poverty and joblessness in your communities; the issues you and your fellow Black Leaders have failed to address, and that your left-wing radicals created.

•
It's time for all African Americans to take a knee for the failure of Black leadership to adequately address the truly systemic Black-on-Black brutality in so many communities

•
That far outweighs the regretful and unforgiveable action of a handful of police officers and the false claim that all police are racists.

•
The residents in those devastated areas were very thankful for the cops that protected their community from the hoodlums, the thugs, and gangs that tried to take over.

•
Playing the race card only perpetuates the victim mentality, encourages government dependency, and thereby denies the youth a chance to achieve the American dream.

•
... continuing the original mission established when our Founders launched the greatest experiment in the history of the world:

•
The quest to secure liberty as the foundation to eternally ensure the protection of all peoples' God-given rights, to forever lock the door on tyranny and all who would release its deadly venom into the hearts of humankind.

•
We must keep America free, keep America great, keep America safe and help make America greater still.
Cuomo takes a bow after his deadly nursing home decision (NYP 06/20/2020)
•
Thousands of New York's elderly died likely because of his blunders — yet he heartlessly refuses to acknowledge a single mistake to grieving families.

•
His biggest blunder was the infamous March 25 Department of Health order that required nursing homes and rehabilitation centers to admit COVID-19 patients being discharged from hospitals.

•
It stands as one of the worst decisions in New York history because it condemned the most vulnerable to hellish deaths surrounded by strangers while no friends or relatives were allowed to visit.

•
The order gave nursing homes no warning, no help and no way to reject contagious patients.

•
To prevent discrimination, it even said the homes could not ask if the patients being forced on them had tested positive.

•
Officially, New York says the coronavirus claimed 6,200 lives in nursing homes, or about 25 percent of the state total of nearly 25,000 fatalities, but the actual total is certainly higher. Some estimate that nursing home deaths are closer to 12,000.

•
One reason for the gap is that many of those who died were never tested. Another is that officials changed counting methods in midstream. Residents who got sick in the homes but died in hospitals were initially counted with nursing home totals; later, their deaths were counted in hospital totals.

•
Although the order was wreaking havoc behind closed doors, the general public was in the dark until The Post broke the story on April 21, and the governor has been attacking The Post ever since.

•
Because the order took effect immediately, without inspections or even conversations with managers, the state had no idea which of the 600 long-term-care facilities had sufficient space and staff to segregate COVID-19 patients.

•
Nor did the state know if the facilities had any protective equipment for nurses and others who would care for infected patients.

•
"I am wondering who will hold Gov. Cuomo accountable for the deaths of so many older people due to his reckless decision. I am writing as a daughter who lost her beautiful 88-year-old mother who was receiving physical therapy at one such facility."

•
Their grief was exacerbated because Cuomo had forbidden families from visiting their loved ones since March 12, lest the visitors bring the virus into the nursing homes.

•
That decision, based on what happened in Washington state, Italy, China and South Korea, showed knowledge about the extreme danger the virus presented to the elderly.

•
Yet two weeks later, the Health Department order forcibly introduced the virus into those very same homes, where it spread like wildfire.

•
Despite the deadly consequences of his decision, Cuomo has resorted to an ever-shifting rationale that is a cheap, crude bid to blame anybody but himself. He has alternately pointed the finger at God, the Trump administration and nursing home owners.

•
Cuomo was also spectacularly — and expensively — wrong about the need for tens of thousands of additional ventilators and hospital beds.

•
Trump provided many of both, but most of the ventilators went unused, and the Javits Center and the naval hospital ship USNS Comfort both largely sat empty even as nursing homes burst at the seams with COVID-19 patients.
No one attempted to stop Democratic power grab, Republicans have let down millions (Fox 06/20/2020)
•
You can be forgiven if the events of the last month caught you by surprise. You didn't expect them. You'd become used to dismissing the American left out of hand as a joke, because they are.

•
And yet suddenly, out of nowhere, they roared back and took over the country. They did it in less time than it takes most people to go on spring vacation. What happened? How did they do that?

•
Well, it's simple. Nobody stopped them. There was no opposition to their power grab. The other side surrendered on Day One without a fight.

•
The rest of us watched all of this with our jaws hanging open in shock. It was the opposite of what we expected.

•
Millions of people regularly vote for the Republican Party precisely because they would like someone to protect this country from the crazed ideologues who seek to destroy it. There are many of them, you're watching them on television now.

•
There's not really another reason to vote for Republicans unless you happen to be one of those rare people who wants more pointless foreign wars and enjoys sucking up to banks. Most people don't.

•
You vote for Republicans to protect you from this. But when the moment of crisis came, Republicans ran away.

•
Major American cities were looted and burned on television. Citizens were beaten and murdered.

•
Works of public art were destroyed by the score. America's history – those shared experiences that bind us together as a nation – was plundered and completely rewritten by illiterate vandals.

•
Everywhere as they watched, Americans were afraid. Afraid not simply for their safety, but afraid for their jobs, their reputations, afraid for their families.

•
Many Americans were fired abruptly in the middle of a severe recession – doomed to ruin – for nothing. For saying the wrong thing, looking the wrong way, liking the wrong tweet.

•
Some of the accused were so terrified, they denounced their own families – wife, brother, daughter – in the end, they were destroyed anyway. Because that's what happens in purges. You're destroyed anyway.

•
Most Americans assumed they would never live to see a moment like this, but they have, it's still going on.

•
And the question that hangs in the air is: Where are our protectors?

•
At the height of the riots, the president of the Heritage Foundation – that's the nation's single largest conservative think tank... wrote an op-ed accusing America of being irredeemably racist.

•
Her name is Kay Coles James. You probably have sent her money. As America burned, Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation, piled on. And she wasn't alone in that. So many on the right did exactly the same thing.

•
Meanwhile, they did nothing, they didn't lift a finger to help the people they had promised – they had pledged – to protect, their voters and their donors.

•
Instead, they did everything possible to accommodate the demands of the people tormenting them – the rioters and the people who backed the rioters.

•
Congressional Republicans decided to make reining in law enforcement their top legislative priority. They blamed the cops, they didn't blame the rioters, they blamed the cops.

•
Then Republicans bragged about springing more criminals from jail. The last thing we needed.

•
Meanwhile, almost everywhere, ordinary Americans came under attack for the color of their skin – acts of actual racism, where people were being hurt for their race, something they can't control, something they were born with – and yet no Republicans rose to defend them.

•
Republicans refused even to defend the principle of equality under the law, the foundation of this country, the most important thing we have. Not defended.

•
Really, in the end, the only people who gained anything in the revolution were the ones waging it.

•
Our leaders – very much including our Republican leaders – shamefully, were focused on meeting their demands.

•
The message, unfortunately, could not be clearer: voting is for fools. You vote, you put these people into office with your votes, and in return they patronize you.

•
And when it matters, they abandon you. They have contempt for you. You know they do, you can smell it. It's obvious.

•
Voting doesn't work. But when your riot, and you burn things and you hurt people, you get a very different response.

•
When you do those things our leaders snap to attention. They tiptoe around your feelings, as Republicans are. They give you what you want, as Republicans are. Rioting works. That's the message they're sending.

•
Think about that. It's the most dangerous possible message you can send because it guarantees more violence.

•
We thought Republicans understood that. That's why we supported them.

•
But this crisis has revealed the truth. Now we know who they are.

•
It could not be clearer and now it's time to find new leaders.
James Carafano: George Floyd unrest – ignore the critics, there is no civilian-military crisis (Fox 06/20/2020)
Who’s behind the violent seditious anarchy across America? (INN 06/19/2020)
•
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was stopped by police in Minneapolis, MN because he allegedly attempted to use counterfeit money and appeared intoxicated. Videos show that Mr.

•
Floyd did not resist the arrest — yet he was brutally killed by a white police officer who held him down, with a knee to his neck for almost nine minutes, as he desperately pleaded, "I can't breathe."

•
The video of Mr. Floyd's senseless killing went viral, and huge protests broke out shortly afterwards in numerous cites by outraged citizens.

•
Initially, the protests were peaceful. They were depicted by participants as a reaction not just to the murder of Mr. Floyd, but also, to allegations of American police officers using excessive, unjustified violence against alleged criminals — especially black people — for many years.

•
Seemingly without a pause, soon after of the first reports of Mr. Floyd's murder, these peaceful protests were transformed into violent seditious anarchy, that: Quickly spread across America. Then, quickly spread throughout the Western world

•
... governmental figures from across the American political spectrum began asserting that this violent seditious anarchy was not occurring organically, even though it became increasingly clear that one or more here-to-for obscure organizations were inciting, orchestrating and supporting it.

•
The evidence of such coordination and conspiracy include the following, which were observed in dozens of U.S. cities, much of which was displayed on social media:

•
The pre-positioning of weapons caches, including bats, clubs, guns and pallets of bricks in strategic locations where the violence broke out

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The use of box trucks and other vehicles to position these caches, some incidents of which were captured on video

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The same tactical means by which to break into, loot and torch businesses, as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot described.

•
"Riots and protests across multiple metropolitan cities are coordinated... some of the leaders in the group were young white men all dressed up in black with military-grade radio communications, who were central command posts with earpieces."

•
"There's no question that both the people who were fighting who brought the weapons that was absolutely organized and choreographed. It seems also clear that the fires that were set both the vehicles and buildings... that that was organized. That wasn't opportunistic. Somebody driving up with a U-Haul, having crews jump out, breaking the windows going in and literally hauling out the merchandise in coordination... car caravans doing a similar thing, people jumping out using a metal device to pop the window, jumping into the stores and then loading up the cars on like an assembly line."

•
"We know that this is an organized effort. We're committed to try and identify those that are behind it... I think we can all understand attacking the symbols of the past and of the racist past. But when you look at trying to burn down a VCU dormitory, or burn down people's homes, or burn down and loot the stores that we depend on every day. Those things don't correlate at all. So, you know, I think there is a much more organized effort, and we're doing our very best to determine where that's coming from and who's pulling the strings."

•
An estimated 1,000 police officers across America have been injured by these violent seditious anarchists, and at least four have been murdered.

•
Tens of thousand of businesses, including many black and minority-owned, have been looted and burned to the ground.

•
A growing body of evidence shows that many if not most perpetrators of the violence we're witnessing are motivated by either far-left or Islamist propaganda.
Cal Thomas: Trump's Tulsa rally — This is the speech the president needs to give (Fox 06/19/2020)
Laura Ingraham: Recent weeks have shown us 'America has an intense spiritual and family problem' (Fox 06/19/2020)
•
"Political arsonists encouraged criminals to rampage through cities and spread fear to the suburbs. Peaceful protesters were used as cover for both Antifa and [Black Lives Matter] to push a corrosive anti-law enforcement narrative."

•
... elected officials from both parties "are too afraid or too weak to face the truth: America has an intense spiritual and family problem, not systemic racism in policing.

•
... we also had an economic system that helped multinational companies at the expense of working people."

•
"So instead of addressing these very difficult problems ... they want to convince kids that the entire criminal justice system is itself inherently abusive toward one group of people."

•
"You bet racism exists in the country and so does cynicism. The type of cynicism that says that black kids and their families don't deserve to have a choice in education and they don't deserve to have their job stay here instead of being shipped overseas."

•
"What the left is proposing, and what Biden is promising, would be disastrous for all. But I'm telling you, for African-Americans, they would suffer the most. Their economic policy would not only hamper job creation in the United States. It would restart the efforts to ship jobs offshore."

•
"For the last 60 years, American liberals have promised African-Americans that their policies would make things better. They were wrong and their policies have failed miserably."

•
"That's why the left has to spread hatred and division. And that's why they're lying about this country and its history. They have nothing positive to offer today. Their only hope is to persuade Americans to give up and turn on each other."
Seattle's CHOP and the radical left – Here's how cultural revolutions die, or not (Fox 06/19/2020)
•
Unlike coups or political revolutions, cultural revolutions don't just change governments or leaders. Instead, they try to redefine entire societies. Their leaders call them "holistic" and "systematic."

•
Cultural revolutionaries attack the very referents of our daily lives.

•
The Jacobins' so-called Reign of Terror during the French Revolution slaughtered Christian clergy, renamed months and created a new supreme being Reason.

•
Mao cracked down on supposed Western decadence like the wearing of eyeglasses and made peasants forge pot iron and intellectuals wear dunce caps.

•
Moammar Gadhafi's Green Book cult wiped out violins and forced Libyans to raise chickens in their apartments.

•
The current Black Lives Matter revolution has "canceled" certain movies, television shows and cartoons, toppled statues, tried to create new autonomous urban zones, and renamed streets and plazas.

•
Some fanatics shave their heads. Others have shamed authorities into washing the feet of their fellow revolutionaries.

•
But inevitably cultural revolutions die out when they turn cannibalistic. Once the Red Guard started killing party hacks too close to Mao, it began to wane.

•
If toppling Confederate statues is required, what then about Nancy Pelosi's own mayor father, who once as Baltimore's mayor dedicated honorific statues to Confederate generals?

•
If racists understandably do not deserve their names on national shrines, what to do with the iconic liberal graduate program at Princeton, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs?

•
It was named for a president who did more to further segregation and racial prejudice than any chief executive of the 20th century.

•
Stanford and Yale, coveted brand names of the progressive professional classes, are named after what protestors now deem racists.

•
Once a cultural revolution gets going, there can be no contextualization of the past, no allowance for human frailty, no consideration of weighing evil vs. good.

•
Eventually, the architects of cultural upheavals always make two miscalculations.

•
One, they presume that destroying things will never apply to themselves, given their loud virtue signaling.

•
Two, if they are fingered by the mob, they assume they can somehow use their clout and influence to win exemption.

•
In other words, once cultural revolutions turn anarchic and eat their own, they lose support. When quiet sympathizers conclude that they too may targeted, to survive they turn on their former icons.

•
When a liberal mayor or black police chief or progressive governor or white leftist who diverges from the party line is targeted by the mob, then who really is safe?

•
Answer? No one. And so the cultural revolution sputters to irrelevance.

•
What deflated the MeToo movement was the high toll that the accusations took among the Hollywood and cultural elite. Suddenly, progressive celebrities began demanding evidence and insisting on presumed innocence when their careers were destroyed.

•
What burns out these cultural upheavals is that today's revolutionary can be denounced as tomorrow's sell-out. No leader wants to share Robespierre's rendezvous with his own guillotine.

•
There is one caveat. Sometimes cultural revolutions don't die out – if they are hijacked by a thug or killer.

•
The National Socialist movement was an irrelevant nihilist mob of crazies until Adolf Hitler turned it into his personal genocidal cult. A murderous Stalin resuscitated the absurdities of Lenin's failing Bolshevism.

•
The present madness will wane like a virus, as it eats its own and terrifies its sympathizers that they may be next – unless, of course, a would-be Napoleon uses a "whiff of grapeshot" and turns the mob into his personal cult.

•
So far, we have seen no Napoleon emerge to claim that he is only the man who can lead today's urban revolutionaries to victory.

•
A final thought: cultural revolutions not only eventually die without cruel dictators, but they can spawn dramatic pushbacks. Ronald Reagan was the answer to the radical Sixties.

•
Revolutionaries are now sowing the wind, but they have little idea of the reactive whirlwind they may soon reap.
'Flagrant double standard' of lockdowns, protests was a 'ritual humiliation' of Americans (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
"That's what they told us and we believed them. We sat passively as they destroyed our country's economy, as they indicted Americans for trying to make a living. And then the ... riots started and we learned it was all fake. The very same officials who threatened us ... for going outside urged their own voters to flood the streets, and they did, and no one was punished. How could this happen?"

•
"Forcing people to accept mistreatment is a time-tested way to subdue them."

•
"'Of course we are not treating you fairly,' they are telling us. 'You don't deserve fairness. You deserve what you get.' That's the message. And after a while, the population accepts this. Some believe it. They blame themselves. That's the goal. But we should never accept it."

•
"Laws are designed to protect the weak, not the strong."

•
"At the moment, the people leading this revolution against our system are strong. That's why they are trying to subvert our laws. If they succeed, there will be nothing to protect the rest of us in this country. We cannot let them do that."

•
"In the United States of America, all of us are equal under the law. Period. Say that as loud as you can."
The Rayshard Brooks case is more than a fatal shooting but about whether mob justice rules (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
... charged former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe with murder in addition to 10 other criminal charges. If convicted, Rolfe faces execution.

•
Last Friday, Rayshard Brooks passed out drunk in the drive-thru lane of a Wendy's in Atlanta. Brooks's car was blocking traffic, so restaurant employees called the police. They arrived — Rolfe and his partner.

•
They woke Brooks and they asked him if he had been drinking. Brooks admitted that he had had been. Officers then move forward with a textbook DUI arrest. Nothing unusual.

•
But when they tried to take Brooks into custody, Brooks started swinging. He fought the officers to the ground and then snatched a Taser from one of them and tried to use it against Officer Rolfe.

•
When Brooks raised the Taser to fire, Rolfe shot and killed him.

•
After the shooting, Officer Rolfe tried to keep Rayshard Brooks alive. He performed CPR on the man he just shot. "Mr. Brooks, keep breathing." Rolfe said. "Keep breathing for me."

•
No matter how much you look at these videos of the incident between Rayshard Brooks and the officers, or how closely, it's a tragedy every time. A father of three girls is dead.

•
The question is, was it murder? Ask yourself how do you think you would do, regardless of what color you are. If you snatched a cop's Taser and tried to shoot him with it, most likely you'd be dead.

•
No one would march in your memory. No one would burn a building in your name. No one would consider your death controversial, much less a racial act. That's what happens when you attack police officers with their own weapons. Everyone knows that.

•
But in this case, things are very different. Officer Rolfe is facing the death penalty. He has been charged by a DA who is under enormous political pressure to prosecute. The mob wants vengeance now. They've expressed that by burning the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks died to the ground.

•
Howard is facing a runoff election soon. He is also being investigated for sexual harassment and for stealing money from a nonprofit. So, Paul Howard has every reason to change the subject and to bow immediately to the mob's demands and that's what he is doing.

•
Just two weeks ago, this very same prosecutor, the one you just saw, Paul Howard, noted at a press conference, "A Taser is considered a deadly weapon under Georgia law."

•
We know what's coming next. Guaranteed. They're going to tell us this was a racially motivated killing And maybe they can prove that it was — we're always open-minded.

•
In the absence of evidence, Paul Howard should not say things like this at press conferences. It makes people hate each other. It tears the country apart, which is the last thing we need right now.

•
Atlanta's police department is 58 percent black. That's a higher percentage of black people than the city of Atlanta itself. So explain how systemic racism is responsible for the shooting — and speak slowly so we can understand.

•
Who would want to enforce the law in a political environment like this? You make less than a plumber. Everybody hates you. You could very easily get killed. You try to defend yourself, and they charge you with murder. No way. No normal person would want that job.

•
So, who is going to take the job? Going forward, we are going to get a lot of very bad people becoming police officers. And that's one of the many things ironies here.

•
Pressure from the mob will not stop police brutality. It will almost certainly increase police brutality as the worst kind of people become police. Because who else would want it?

•
Protecting the public from criminals is not some feature of government we hope for. It's why we have government. It's the whole point of government. There is no reason to have government otherwise. It's the reason we pay taxes.

•
It's about whether we're going to have a justice system that treats all American citizens equally, regardless of what the mob demands.

•
It's about whether we can live peacefully in our own homes with our families without fear, confident that we are protected by the government that we pay for.

•
If the government will not protect us, we should stop paying for it, and that might finally get their attention.
Newt Gingrich: Three generations of brainwashing are paying off for the left (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
As we watch radicals tear down statues, deface monuments, intimidate people who want to stand for the national anthem, and demand the firing of people who write or say something deemed inappropriate to the Leftist Anti-American Theology, it is utterly clear that many Americans today hate America.

•
People ask me how we've gotten to this point. All of this is the result of three generations of brainwashing going back at least to Herbert Marcuse, the German-born University of California, San Diego professor who taught young Americans the philosophical foundation of Marxism in the 1960s.

•
As early as 1972, Theodore White was warning that the liberal ideology was becoming a liberal theology and dissent was less and less acceptable to the left.

•
We have watched the hard left, the America-hating totalitarians who want to define acceptable speech, as they took over the academic world. The college boards – made up of supposedly sound community leaders – refused to fight.

•
Public universities and colleges continued to hire vehement anti-American professors, the state legislatures and governors refused to fight.

•
Alumni continued to give to schools, which were teaching their own children and grandchildren to despise them.

•
We did not think through the eventual reality that graduates who had been taught systematic falsehoods would take those falsehoods into their jobs.

•
As President Ronald Reagan said, "the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

•
... this educated ignorance has now infested our news media, bureaucracies and corporate headquarters. These are sincere fanatics. It is this fanaticism that has been so visible in the last few weeks.

•
The uprising by the self-righteous fanatics of The New York Times got their opinion editor fired for the sin of publishing a conservative senator's op-ed.

•
The fanatics at The Philadelphia Inquirer got their editor fired for running the headline "Buildings Matter Too."

•
In case after case, the new fanaticism is imposing a thought police model reinforced by the Maoist tradition of public confession and group solidarity.

•
We were warned that this could happen. Having defeated Marxism in the Soviet Union, President Reagan was worried by the rise of anti-Americanism in our own country.

•
He warned of the collapse of support for America in his farewell address on Jan. 11, 1989.

•
"There is a great tradition of warnings in presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I'm proudest of in the past eight years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won't count for much, and it won't last unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge."

•
"An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions."

•
"If you didn't get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-60s."

•
"But now, we're about to enter the '90s, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs [protection]."

•
"So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important – why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, four years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who'd fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, `we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.'"

•
"Well, let's help her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual."

•
It would have been a struggle to win this fight for America 31 years ago when President Reagan warned us of the consequence of teaching falsehoods and anti-American lies. Now it will be much, much harder.

•
If we want America to survive as a constitutional republic under the rule of law, which protects the right of free speech and is dedicated to the belief that each one of us is endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we have no choice but to fight to defeat the anti-Americans and reassert our nation.

•
Reagan would understand. Lincoln would understand. Freedom itself is at stake.

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Political Correctness (Glenn McCoy, 11/11/2015) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related What Did They Teach You in School Today? (Sean Delonas, 09/30/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Gregg Jarrett: Michael Flynn’s prosecution is a shameful injustice – charges against him should be... (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty, so he must be guilty. This is the canard repeated ad nauseam by the multitude of Flynn critics on social media and among so-called elite journalists.

•
... why didn't the Times bother to mention that roughly 20 percent of exonerated defendants in the U.S. have pleaded guilty?

•
The answer is quite simple. The New York Times is so animated by its own liberal bias that it is blind to such trivial matters as facts, truth and innocence. Anyone associated with President Trump must be guilty of something, or so the Gray Lady would have its readers believe.

•
Among 2,551 known exonerations, more than 500 pleaded guilty. Like the Flynn case, the false pleas were often coerced under threat by ruthless and dishonest law enforcement.

•
The Justice Department has also filed a motion to dismiss all charges against Flynn. Unbelievably, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has signaled he is reluctant to grant the motion.

•
The Justice Department decided to drop the Flynn case when it discovered atrocious misconduct by the original prosecutors who suppressed extraordinary exculpatory evidence of Flynn's innocence.

•
Under the law, Sullivan cannot conduct an inquisition into the decision-making or motives underlying the motion to dismiss.

•
He can permissibly review the Justice Department's stated reasons in its 20-page brief that was supported by 86 pages of newly discovered evidence.

•
But even if Sullivan disagrees with those reasons and believes they are unwise or incorrect, he is constitutionally powerless to force the government to proceed with its prosecution.

•
The decision to bring charges or drop them is solely an executive branch function. It cannot be countermanded by the judicial branch without violating the constitutional separation of powers. Sullivan has no authority to pursue the case on his own accord.

•
Nevertheless, Sullivan appears to be under the mistaken impression that once a guilty plea has been entered, the case is closed and sentencing must proceed.

•
The defense brief cites no fewer than 32 federal court cases in which dismissals have been granted during sentencing or post-sentencing.

•
The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (Rule 11d) afford a defendant the absolute right to move to change his or her plea. Yet, Sullivan has now indicated he may charge Flynn for perjury contempt of court for exercising his legal right.

•
In essence, the judge wants to punish an innocent defendant for having the audacity to assert his actual innocence.

•
Were any of the aforementioned 500-plus innocent defendants who falsely pleaded guilty ever prosecuted for perjury? Of course not. It would be a bastardization of justice to do so.

•
But Sullivan doesn't care. He seems determined to punish a defendant for a crime he did not commit because he previously pleaded guilty under duress.

•
"Regrettably, our ‘justice' system has become a conviction machine so powerful that innocent people are regularly compelled to ‘confess' guilt they do not have and plead to crimes they did not commit."

•
"The prosecutor-dictated plea bargain system, by creating such inordinate pressures to enter into plea bargains, appears to have led a significant number of defendants to plead guilty to crimes they never actually committed."

•
Michael Flynn is one such victim. Evidence of his innocence was hidden from him for years. Unscrupulous prosecutors threatened to charge his son unless the father copped a plea.

•
They crushed him financially as he tried to defend himself. With mounting legal bills, he was forced to sell his home. He finally surrendered under the intense emotional strain and monetary pressures.

•
None of this seems to matter to either Judge Sullivan or the biased media. For them, the end justifies the means – even if the end constitutes a shameful injustice.
Now What? (JWR 06/17/2020)
Ben Shapiro: Is America falling apart? It can seem that way in this totalitarian moment (Fox 06/17/2020)
•
America feels like it's falling apart. That's because it is.

•
There are two ways to achieve unity in any group. The first is to set up a few serious standards of conduct, policed with the absolute minimum of compulsion, and then allow freedom in all other matters. This was the founding vision for our federal government.

•
In this vision, we agree not to infringe upon one another's life, liberty and property, and we create a government capable of preventing or prosecuting such infringements.

•
Then, so long as we abide by those simple standards, we are free to pursue our own paths.

•
Diverse ways of life can coexist within this broader group membership. Governance becomes largely a matter of localism – places with homogenous values setting further standards for their group membership.

•
The founding vision for unity presupposed a flawed human nature: People were capable of sin individually but capable of the greatest sin when backed with the power of federal force.

•
The founding vision for unity also presupposed an agreement on the nature of rights and liberty: No man had a right to demand anything from his neighbor.

•
Furthermore, the founding vision for unity presupposed that our strongest bonds would exist outside of government – in our families, our communities, our churches.

•
The founding vision has now been abandoned in pursuit of something more fulfilling: a communitarian vision of reality in which the will of the mob is perceived as virtuous; in which every man has the right to protect himself from the vicissitudes of life and the cruelties of history by demanding redress from his neighbors; in which our strongest bonds are forged at the most centralized level.

•
This second path toward unity requires purification. This path seeks homogeneity in place of diversity, top-down standards in place of localism. Standards for membership are not weak or broad – membership cannot be obtained simply by avoiding encroaching on others' life, liberty or property.

•
Membership can only be obtained and maintained through strict compliance with an increasingly arcane set of rules and standards.

•
Politically, this means a demanding legal regime with heavy coercion. Culturally, this means braying mobs of ideological enforcers, casting out unbelievers into the cornfields.

•
This second model of governance is promoted by the political left today. In this view, diversity of viewpoint cannot be allowed; unity of viewpoint in all things is the predicate for all serious change.

•
Once the group has been purified, change will require only the snap of a finger. No more gridlock; no more conversation. The collective can be activated quickly and powerfully.

•
This second model of governance is totalitarian in nature, and it is toward that model we are now moving as a society.

•
Politically, those who deny that the collective ought to have the power to override individual rights must be punished; culturally, they must be exiled. They must be deemed unworthy.

•
To stand up for individual rights in this climate means to be labeled a defender of privilege. To deny the systemic evil of the United States means to betray your moral unworthiness.

•
The great irony is that the second model of unity – the totalitarian purification rituals we watch before us – will never achieve unity.

•
It will achieve further division, as more and more people fall short of ideological purity, or refuse to bow before the ideological demands of the perpetual revolutionaries.

•
We could agree to live with one another, as individuals under the broader rubric of rights. If we don't, we won't be living with one another at all.
Cal Thomas: Forgetting our history – this happens when we reject the values that built a nation (Fox 06/16/2020)
•
"Americans are now expected to kneel for 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and disavow American history while swallowing whole a false, malicious new history that claims America has been a force for evil at home and worldwide since it was nothing more than a sparkle in a racist colonialist's eye."

•
Regimes in China and Iran, which violently repress even peaceful demonstrators, are mocking us and claiming we are no better than they when police and the National Guard put down street violence.

•
These are the inevitable consequences when a nation forgets who and what it is and when some of its citizens reject the values that built and sustained it.

•
Have we forgotten that the evil of slavery and Jim Crow laws throughout the South have been mostly corrected and, in some cases, atoned for in blood and legislation?

•
Perfect we have not yet become, but our journey is advancing, not retreating, or "sheltering in place."

•
The current anarchy started with justifiable outrage over the killing of George Floyd. After peaceful demonstrations, things turned violent. Political correctness and censorship of speech quickly followed as mob rule became the norm.

•
TV programs about the police have been canceled before a single complaint. "Gone with the Wind" is gone from HBO Max. Career journalists are being fired for writing headlines that "offend" certain employees who claim words can lead to physical harm.

•
Rioters and looters seem to think of themselves as second American revolutionaries and morally superior to the Founders, some of whose statues they are pulling down and others they are defacing.

•
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has called for the removal of Confederate statues from the Capitol. The irony is that most, if not all, of these notable men were Democrats, a party opposed to Reconstruction after the Civil War and the authors of Jim Crow laws.

•
Their racist descendants opposed civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Will these purists tear down the Richard Russell Senate Office Building, named for the senator from Georgia who opposed all such legislation?

•
Yes, reforms are needed as they always are in a pluralistic nation with competing ideas, especially because of our racial history.

•
But tearing things down, including history, does not help others rise. No life is improved, no family stabilized.

•
"Out of many, one" is our national motto. We seem to be practicing it today about as much as the unofficial one, "In God we trust."

•
Unfortunately, the tribalism unleashed on the land appears to have become out of one, many, and we are fighting each other with a zeal that would be better directed at real enemies.

•
As Abraham Lincoln observed in his first inaugural address: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

•
If only it were so today. The shame is ours that it is not.
2020 and Big Tech – Election isn't just about Trump vs. Biden. It's about fate of democracy (Fox 06/16/2020)
•
Big Tech has already made its choice for president in November. Social media companies have thrown their support to former Vice President Joe Biden.

•
They are doing it by disallowing President Trump from communicating with the American people.

•
It is the greatest form of censorship, not to mention election manipulation, this country has ever witnessed.

•
Twitter, which is used by 83 percent of journalists, recently added so-called "fact-checks" to presidential tweets so that it can further undermine his 81-million follower account.

•
Twitter's biases are legion. The site is fact-checking the president yet has allowed almost countless examples of foreign propaganda and flat-out lies against the president to flourish.

•
Twitter knows he used their platform to propel his candidacy in 2016. The censors are hell-bent on preventing him from communicating to his base this time around.

•
Snap, which runs the messaging app Snapchat, has joined with Twitter in the censorship campaign, adding character assassination to the mix. It has declared it "will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice."

•
The president's comments will no longer be included in Snapchat's "Discover" section, reserved for key content from news outlets and celebrities.

•
Facebook's leftist staffers are openly at war with CEO Mark Zuckerberg for not censoring Trump, publicly rebelling by holding a virtual walk-out.

•
According to Protocol, "many employees changed their social media icons to a white fist on a black background," while others took to Twitter to bash their boss.

•
... Zuckerberg announced Facebook is "going to review potential options for handling violating or partially-violating content." So, he might cave, as well.

•
Reddit, one of the most popular sites on the internet, has repeatedly restricted conservative content.

•
Wikipedia insists it be considered a nonpartisan platform. Nonsense. It has joined the effort to censor the president.

•
Even Wikipedia founder Larry Sanger acknowledged this. He wrote in May that "Wikipedia no longer has an effective neutrality policy."

•
The leftist censorship effort transcends the political arena. Last year, the knitting site Ravelry banned any pro-Trump commentary for its 8 million users under the "New Policy: Do Not Post In Support of Trump or his Administration."

•
There are numerous other examples — big and small — of President Trump being censored from the public conversation.

•
And that's just what we know about. The algorithms, the super-complex computer programs that run the sites, control everything about what everyone can see or post. And we don't know a thing about them.

•
... Big Tech companies like Google "can shift opinions and votes in numerous ways that people can't detect," such as limiting what you see on the first search page.

•
"When it comes to election manipulation, left-leaning American technology companies make the Russians look like rank amateurs."

•
... social media executives and their radical leftwing staffers ... are determined to choose the next president – or better put, prevent Trump's reelection.

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And if we let them, we'll never have another free election anywhere.

•
This year it's Trump. If they succeed, it'll be open season on the entire conservative movement.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Deroy Murdock: George Floyd unrest fuels white self-doubt (Fox 06/16/2020)
•
The unanimous national disgust at the killing of George Floyd beneath the knee of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin has devolved into something completely different.

•
In an apparent collective nervous breakdown, self-flagellating white Americans have concluded that Floyd's death somehow confirms their own racism, which they are busy exorcising.

•
Quasi-religious rituals have found whites on bended knees apologizing to blacks for being white.

•
Perhaps a thousand white people in Bethesda, Maryland, sat their backsides in a library parking lot, held their hands high, and vowed aloud: "I will use my voice in the most uplifting way possible...I will love my black neighbors the same as my white ones."

•
In Cary, North Carolina, white cops and community members knelt before and washed the feet of two black pastors.

•
Several young white friends tell me that they must embrace Black Lives Matter daily on social media, lest they endure accusations of racism.

•
One Turkish personality in mocha-colored body makeup offered this comment: "In a racist society, it is not enough to just say that you are not racist. One should be loudly against racism!"

•
Even graver cultural vandalism has involved the Red Guard-style defacement and destruction of monuments and sculptures including those of Christopher Columbus, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and idiotically, the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist Matthias Baldwin (thugs painted his face red and graffitied "colonizer" across his Philadelphia statue), and several tributes to Union Army soldiers who helped crush the slave-owning South.

•
Historically boneheaded barbarians painted profanities on Boston's memorial to the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, an all-black volunteer unit that valiantly battled the Confederacy.

•
Such mayhem should appall Professor Erin L. Thompson. She teaches art crime at Manhattan's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

•
Amid this devastation, she used Twitter Wednesday to address nihilists toppling a statue of Columbus at the Minnesota State Capitol:

•
"I'm a professor who studies the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage and I just have to say... use chain instead of rope and it'll go faster."

•
Thompson is no better than the Taliban, who infamously dynamited ancient Afghan Buddha statues in March 2001.

•
These recent, dramatic displays disparage a country that no longer exists.

•
If America runs on racism, as the left insists, why doesn't this country erase any trace of the black contribution to this society?

•
A white-supremacist nation would have sandbagged the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of African American History and Culture. Instead, the federal government spent some $270 million on this establishment before it opened in September 2016.

•
Why are so many black musicians, actors, and athletes worshipped, rather than reviled, by white fans?

•
How do millions of other non-famous blacks succeed in so many walks of life — quietly but concretely?

•
If America really is so deeply, systematically, irretrievably racist, why did 43 million white voters help elect Obama president in 2008?

•
Four ruinous years in office tarnished Obama's halo. Regardless, 36 million whites forgot their inherent racism long enough to help re-elect Obama, comfortably, in 2012.

•
If America is merely apartheid-era South Africa with four time zones, why did President Donald J. Trump bother to establish 8,760 Opportunity Zones to revitalize economically distressed communities, many of them black?

•
How did America's institutionalized racism let Trump provide school-choice options for black kids in K-12 schools, and long-term federal funding and other benefits for Historically Black Colleges and Universities?

•
Why didn't America's genetic prejudice stop blacks and Hispanics from achieving the lowest unemployment ever recorded, before a Chinese virus rolled in and junked the U.S. economy?

•
Shouldn't America's racist ways have sandbagged the First Step Act, a criminal-justice reform measure, before Trump signed it into law, which Obama and Biden utterly failed to do in eight years?

•
The president of a systematically racist nation never would have made black lives better. And if he did, he would shut up about it, rather than trumpet these policies at rallies full of his allegedly bigoted supporters.

•
Will this nation ever entirely expunge racism? Probably not.

•
If 99 percent of 330 million Americans suddenly became totally non-racist, 3.3 million bigots would remain — nearly enough to fill Connecticut.

•
So, as beautiful as it would be, racism is as unlikely to vanish from America as anywhere else.

•
But, for all the grief, pain, and even death that it still causes, is American racism widespread, systemic, and institutionalized?

•
No.
Greg Gutfeld: The narratives of madness (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
... the trigger for a repeat performance presents itself daily. And once it's pulled, such pandemonium will erupt again. All it takes is another video, or a not-guilty verdict for one of those cops, or even a Trump win in November. Because we've sanctioned the behavior of the mob, it's inevitable.

•
There are 10 million arrests every year. And out of that, roughly 1,000 people are fatally shot by police. Most of the dead are white. But it doesn't matter. One video with a racial difference and this will kick off again.

•
We are stuck in a repeat cycle, where the media selects the story offered up by the enraged and amplifies it even more. They ignore one crime but embrace another – to fulfill a narrative.

•
As long as we are at the mercy of many in the media's interpretation of the larger issue that these videos speak to — the chaos will never end.

•
There are some videos you don't see. Like the one of the death of Tony Timpa. If he were a black man you would know of him.

•
... the media focuses almost entirely on skin color – when there is a difference in that one variable among the police and the suspect.

•
... you didn't hear much about Timpa or any other white victims for that matter. This — as stark statistics undermine the racial narrative at many turns.

•
If the media took its foot off the racial gas pedal and put it on the training and policy lever, we would not only make real progress in policing, we might even save a country – the greatest country that ever was. And the key word of that previous sentence is "was."
Liz Peek: Left silences silent majority – but watch for this in November (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
The silent majority grows ever more silent. Tens of millions of Americans are aghast at what is taking place in our country.

•
Neighborhoods burned by angry mobs, an entire section of Seattle "occupied" by anarchists, the city council of Minneapolis voting to eliminate its police department, public monuments and statues trashed, popular TV shows canceled because they show law enforcement in a favorable light, over 700 cops injured during "mostly peaceful protests."

•
Most Americans are horrified by these offenses, but fearful. They know that objecting to the violence or challenging the overarching accusation from the Left – that our country is "profoundly racist" – is dangerous. The woke mob will shame you and get you fired.

•
No one will stand up for you; no one will protect you. It is safer to remain silent.

•
In 1969, Richard Nixon called on the "silent majority" to push back against anti-war activists protesting America's involvement in Vietnam.

•
President Trump tweeted those words recently, suggesting correctly that most of the country opposed the chaos in our streets.

•
The CEO of CrossFit, a Libertarian who refused to embrace Black Lives Matter, but who has no history of racism, was forced to resign from the firm he founded.

•
Editors of prominent newspapers and magazines have been forced to step down for the sin of bucking progressive dogma, or even publishing a contrary opinion.

•
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was slammed for supporting the American flag. Imagine.

•
The silent majority doesn't believe a country that twice elected a black man president – by a majority vote – is racist; they don't think a country that celebrates the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King is racist.

•
Most important, they search their own hearts, and do not find racism.

•
Those arguing the essential evil of America point to police brutality, epitomized by the ugly murder of George Floyd.

•
"A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing."

•
In 2019, only 0.1 percent of black homicides were of unarmed black men killed by police. The data shows that "...a police officer is 18? times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer."

•
Protesters, egged on by the liberal media, dismiss the facts; they celebrate emotion. Videos of Floyd and others killed by cops have alarmed the nation and spurred widespread support for sensible police reforms. As usual, however, the Left is going too far.

•
Our nation has always been divided on many issues, including those concerning race and policing. But today is different.

•
There has never before been such a concerted effort to shut down dissent. There have never been such all-out attacks on people, and not just their opinions.

•
Today, if you fail to stand up for Black Lives Matter, an organization now committed to defunding the police, according to their website, you are not only pummeled for being wrong, you are tagged as a bad person.

•
This is frightening. We hold the liberal media and also those managing our major social media companies accountable.

•
We also blame those kneeling reflexively to the faux arbiters of right and wrong.

•
They embrace diversity but they are fundamentally intolerant, intent on scuttling the prized American tradition of free speech.

•
If you doubt that Trump supporters are cowed by the hostility of the Left, ask yourself when you last saw a MAGA hat in Manhattan or a bumper sticker in Berkeley. No one would dare.

•
... if attacks on our cities, our cops and our public monuments continue, Trump will have the support of the silent majority in November. They will make their voices heard.
The Cancel Culture Mob (JWR 06/14/2020)
Newt Gingrich: If Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are in charge in 2021 get ready for this nightmare (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
Every time some supposed conservative or Republican explains why he or she can't vote for President Trump, I wonder if they have thought about the alternative – the Biden-Schumer-Pelosi machine.

•
Our choice in November will not be between President Trump and President Perfection. It will be between President Trump and a nightmare that would end America as we have known it.

•
If former Vice President Joe Biden wins, it means the turnout in favor of Democrats will be such that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., remains leader of a Democratic majority in the House. It also means that Democrats will almost certainly gain control of the Senate, making Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader.

•
Given control of all three instruments of power, what would the Biden-Schumer-Pelosi team do? This is not a question that requires wild speculation.

•
None of these examples are partisan exaggerations. They can all be found in bills, speeches, and articles by leading Democrats.

•
The next time someone suggests President Trump should not be reelected, ask the person if he or she has thought through what life will be like under a Biden-Schumer-Pelosi machine.
Nearly 3,000 African-Americans were murdered in US in 2018 – without police, more could die (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"Do you understand that the word dismantle, or police-free, also makes some people nervous? ... What if in the middle of [the] night my home is broken into? Who do I call?"

•
Bender equivocated: "I mean, I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors ... and I know that that comes from a place of privilege. Because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done."

•
Does Bender seriously believe doing away with the police and replacing them with her "model" will deter criminals, especially violent ones?

•
Shouldn't the emphasis be on controlling criminals and fighting crime more than handcuffing and putting new restraints on all police officers, who put their lives at risk every day?

•
How would such a "model" work? Will these new personnel have the power to arrest suspects? Will they be allowed to shoot back if fired upon? If suspects flee, can they be chased and tackled? Suppose they resist arrest? Will this new authority permit force to subdue them?

•
How many people will want to join such a force? It is difficult enough to recruit police officers given the increasing number of restraints on them.

•
That everyone now seems to be "armed" with cellphones capable of making videos that might be edited and used to intimidate officers also doesn't help.

•
Perhaps Bender should spend time in Chicago where last weekend 18 people were gunned down in 24 hours – or Brooklyn, where seven people were shot within 10 minutes in three separate incidents.

•
Living in a mostly white city within a mostly white state appears to have blinded her to the people (African-Americans) who are most victimized by crime.

•
According to FBI crime statistics, in 2018, 2,925 African-Americans were murdered in the U.S., and about 2,600 of the murderers were African-American.

•
Given these figures, it would appear that the problem goes deeper than racism and that dismantling the police – something that is now being considered by Democratic mayors in several other cities – invites more crime.

•
In 1968, during demonstrations and riots in major cities, some young people began calling police officers "pigs."

•
Politicians and protesters demanding police departments be defunded, or even eliminated, might wish to ask themselves who they will call when threatened by criminals.
Tucker Carlson: Don’t destroy America’s history and shared heritage (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
On Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., added language to the annual defense funding bill. Warren's amendment would order the Pentagon to rename all military bases currently named for Confederate Civil War generals.

•
The bases include many of the most famous in America. Among them: Fort Benning in Georgia, Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Many of the men who fought and won World War II were trained at these bases.

•
But Warren's amendment goes farther than that. Warren would require the desecration of war graves. This country is filled with national cemeteries that honor Americans who fought and died in our wars. Many of those cemeteries hold Civil War soldiers from both sides and contain monuments to their sacrifice.

•
Those Civil War soldiers, blue and gray, are buried alongside one another for a reason. One side was right, one side was wrong. But when it was over, they were all Americans. Allowing them to lie in the same cemeteries allowed this country to heal its deepest fissure.

•
Warren profits from hatred and division, no matter how mindless. How many dead Confederate soldiers owned slaves or even supported slavery? Warren doesn't know. She doesn't care.

•
The Massachusetts Democrat wants to humiliate these soldiers more than 150 years after they died, and humiliate their descendants now.

•
In Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington, there is a memorial to Confederate troops. Warren's amendment orders the Army to destroy it.

•
This is vandalism. But it's worse than that. Healthy societies do not destroy own their history.

•
A country is the sum total of its history, good and bad. Without it, you have no country, just a collection of banks and retail outlets.

•
This is obvious, but somehow it's not obvious to Senate Republicans. They support Warren's amendment. It easily emerged from the bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee. If President Trump doesn't veto it, Warren's desecration order will become law.

•
Republicans assume that if that happens, it will be enough. The destroyers will be placated, and the GOP can return to its preferred agenda of carrying water for finance. They're wrong.

•
Extremists are never placated. Each success makes them stronger and more radical.

•
That's why, around the country, they aren't waiting for a vote. They watched rioters loot and burn without being punished. They took the cue. Now, they're destroying history around the country.

•
In Richmond, they ripped a statue of Christopher Columbus from its pedestal and threw it in a lake.

•
In Philadelphia, they vandalized a statue of industrialist Matthias Baldwin. Why? It wasn't for civil rights. Matthias Baldwin was such a zealous abolitionist that, prior to the Civil War, Southern railroads refused to purchase his engines.

•
Doesn't matter. The Baldwin statue was old. So they wrecked it. Dozens of other monuments have suffered the same fate, often with the encouragement of our professional class.

•
Erin Thompson is a professor of "art crime" at New York City's John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her expertise is "the damage done to humanity's shared heritage through looting, theft, and the deliberate destruction of art."

•
Yet Thompson is, in fact, an enthusiastic supporter of destroying our shared heritage. "Use chain instead of rope and it'll go faster," she instructed on Twitter Wednesday night, before sharing even more tips for effectively destroying statues.

•
Nowhere does anyone in authority seem interested in protecting our history and public spaces from nihilists like this.

•
What are our leaders telling us by their negligence? It's a clear message: we don't care about you: your history, your monuments, your rights, your safety. Meanwhile, forces of hate and repression seek to destroy all of these things.

•
How many lives will be saved by destroying the Jefferson Memorial? How many are saved by desecrating war graves? None, of course. This is about political power, achieved by the oldest means of all: force.

•
This is an attempt to delegitimize you and the society you live in.

•
You think you live in a country with freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality under the law? Well, tough luck.

•
The documents celebrating those rights were written by bigots. We tore their statues down. Now we're in charge.

•
Even now, only 32 percent of Americans want Civil War statuary torn down. How about desecrating war graves? There isn't polling on the subject, but it's hard to believe there is a groundswell of support.

•
All this is happening because a violent mob is forcing its agenda down the throat of the country. Our leaders – very much including Republican leaders – are too cowardly to resist them.

•
When asked about the bill to desecrate national cemeteries, one congressional Republican told journalist Ryan Girdusky that "this isn't the hill to die on."

•
OK. Where is that hill exactly? What won't you let them do to the country? Let us know when you find it.

•
To be clear: This isn't a matter of defending the Southern Confederacy. Few Americans would do that.

•
But that's the point. The Civil War was the turning point in American history. It shaped who we are now.

•
Eliminating the past leaves us unable to say who we are. And that, of course, is exactly the point. It's why they're doing it.

•
See related P.C. (Glenn McCoy, 08/15/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Systemic racism and bigotry are the lifeblood of the Left (INN 06/12/2020)
•
We now are half a century into America's experiment with "Affirmative Action." As with all Left initiatives, words are distorted to mean things they are not because the Left refuses to call the Truth by the truth.

•
When an Arab Muslim terrorist murders Americans at a military base, the Left calls it "workplace violence."

•
Obamacare is called the "Affordable Care Act" even though it gyrated health-care prices through the roof and forced many to lose their preferred doctors and health plans.

•
Likewise with "Affirmative Action." Instead of honestly calling it "Quotas," they call it "Goals and Timetables." But it is quotas.

•
If the English language still has any words not yet deconstructed by the Left, that is the very definition of racism: admitting people to schools, supporting businesses, hiring for work... based on race. It is racism, and racism is the theological sacrament of the Left.

•
Fifty years of government programming to offset imbalances is ample. With Affirmative Action, many Americans in newly burned-out neighborhoods today now can look outside the window and see what it has wrought.

•
Fifty years of correcting an imbalance. Fifty years of college and graduate school degrees. Fifty years of government programs, government loans, government food assistance, government housing programs. Fifty years, paid with taxes collected from the "Haves" on all sides of the spectrum.

•
Fifty years of systemic largesse. If you live in Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, or even down the block from Macy's at Herald Square — look outside the window.

•
The only racism in America that is systemic — deeply ingrained into the system — is on the left.

•
It is shameful, and it exists for one reason only: for White leftists to grab votes, to attract more viewers to their television channels at a time that no Malaysian planes are missing so as to increase advertising revenue, to claw for power in whatever field they practice.

•
How low will they grovel to get power? They will kneel on the floor. They actually will kneel on the floor, groveling for power.

•
The Left kneels. They grovel. They bow down to others, as Obama — then holding the office of president of the United States — bowed down to Arab Muslim oil sheiks. That is their way. They bow. They kneel. They grovel.

•
And they hate.

•
If one wants to find systemic hate in America, you will find it among outliers on the right and within the very core and system of the left.

•
The hate that has been shown in burning down even minority-owned drug stores and clothing stores.

•
The looting and the physical violence that awaits us all if the Left and its Ocasio-Hyphen anarchists ever attain their dream of defunding ICE at the border and the police in our cities.

•
And when the mob strikes, nowhere do they let their hate demonstrate itself more manifestly than when they go after the Jews.

•
First they go after the Jews who will not bow, just as Stalin did. And eventually they get to the Schumers and Bernies just as Stalin got to the anti-Semitic Jewish apostates of another time like the Trotskys, Kamenevs, and Zinovievs.

•
The Left media have been so enthralled covering a few troubling but isolated cases of police roughness that they conveniently have refused to cover the anti-Jewish pogrom that took place in Los Angeles in the name of "Black Lives Matter."

•
The Black Lives Matter pogromists even — get this! — defaced a statue of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who lost his life during the World War II era by leveraging his diplomatic status to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from being gassed and cremated by Hitler's Nazis in Auschwitz.

•
Wallenberg issued thousands of falsified Swedish passports to Hungarian Jews and rented 32 buildings in Budapest, declaring those edifices to be extraterritorial Swedish national property protected by diplomatic immunity. He hid thousands of Jews safely inside them.

•
The haters of Black Lives Matter attacked Raoul Wallenberg's memory during their anti-Jewish pogrom. Did you see that on social media? Do you remember CNN or MSNBC or the New York Times reporting or commenting on the Black Lives Matter Nazi pogrom? No? Neither do I.

•
Know that the Black Lives Matter Pogrom was so violent and vicious that it even scared the Rabbinical Council of America, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and Yeshiva University into silence.

•
So RCA, OU, and YU all issued milquetoast lip service to Black persecution, and the mollified pogromists reciprocally did not smash their windows.

•
The Left is systemically racist. And we see that they welcome as brothers in arms those who are pathologically hateful.

•
They see everyone and everything in racial, gender, and ethnic categories. They cannot simply see people as people.

•
Their hate and violence reveals itself most manifestly when their target is history's perennial canary in the coal mine — the Jews. The coal miner watches the canary die of a lack of oxygen and knows who is next.

•
When Stalin went after the Jews, it was predictable what would come next for the rest of the USSR. When Hitler went after the Jews, it was not long before he targeted Holland, France, England, and even America, engulfing the entire world in flames and mass death.

•
But let us all know that history teaches repeatedly that, after Stalin is finished with the rabbis and the mohels, the yeshivot and the synagogues, he comes after the Kamenevs, Zinovievs, and Trotskys.
World welcomes its newest country — The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone once known as Seattle (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
Vandals are defacing our country. They're destroying our cities, our institutions, our civil society.

•
They have no right to do any of that. They don't own this country. They did not build it. The rest of us should not allow them to wreck it, but we are allowing them and it's infuriating to watch.

•
The last thing American needs right now is more anger, yet another red face screamer shouting about this or that.

•
We're also going to work to be calm and amused because, honestly, what's the option right now?

•
Keep your sense of humor. That's what they tell you when things get really dark. And it's good advice.

•
Humor brings perspective. All of us could use some perspective right now.

•
Ladies and gentlemen say hello to the latest addition to the global family of nations: the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone formerly known as downtown Seattle.

•
You should know that there are no beaches in CHAZ. This is a tiny nation. It's smaller than Liechtenstein.

•
The entire country extends only six city blocks. It was built on land that was formerly owned in part by the Seattle Police Department. But the founders of CHAZ wanted that land. So, they planted a flag and they stole it, just like the Conquistadores.

•
The first thing they did after they declared nationhood and this was a bit of a surprise given that these modern Conquistadores claim to be progressive ideologues.

•
But the first thing they did was establish rigid national borders. They built a wall around the place just like Donald Trump once said he would do.

•
Their wall is made from wooden barricades. A sign at the entrance to the country warns, "You are now leaving the USA."

•
And then there are armed border guards, not technically ICE agents but close enough — who question everyone seeking entry.

•
Countries have borders and the founders of CHAZ understood that. They don't want the place flooded with illegals, and by illegals, we mean the citizens of Seattle.

•
That's pretty smart. You can't let just anyone into your country, an uncontrolled flood of immigrants would tank the economy and the people of CHAZ know that.

•
They're not libertarians. They don't work for the Chamber of Commerce. They're not giving you some speech about how immigration makes you richer.

•
They want to make this work for the sake of their people and they don't have much to work with. What exactly is the economy of CHAZ? It's tough.

•
With limited natural resources and a population with virtually no skills of any kind, apart from spray painting the F-word on public buildings, they lead the world in that, the people of CHAZ don't have a lot of options for economic development.

•
So, they've gone with extortion through violence, again, just like the Conquistadores. It's a time tested formula and it's lucrative.

•
It's a country based on an idea rather than particular people. The founding idea in CHAZ, its Magna Carta, its Constitution, its raison d'etre is that cops are bad. Very, very bad. The police are bad and should be abolished.

•
So not surprisingly, CHAZ has banned police from its territory. The shining city of Seattle seems OK with that decision.

•
I mean, does the government of Italy dictate local policies within the Vatican City? No, of course not. It's autonomous. Same thing here.

•
What's amazing, though, is that the leaders of CHAZ would like to dictate policies in the City of Seattle and so they're demanding that Seattle get rid of its police force and close all jails and prisons.

•
... as the Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best explained, the country already has recognition from the Seattle City government.

•
... CHAZ is a nation without leaders. It's a flat system. It's anarchy.

•
How long can that continue? Probably not very long. Anarchy isn't built to last. In the end, the strong always dominate.

•
In one clip, the monarch's men assault a citizen of CHAZ for spray painting graffiti inside the zone.

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Just like the mafia, CHAZ doesn't put up with nonsense like that in their own neighborhood.

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So that's what's happening in Seattle on Thursday night. Not a big deal. A brand new nation within our own borders.

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... the last time that happened it did kick off a Civil War that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and lasted three years.

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But it's not a huge deal and that may be why Democrats in Congress seemed completely unaware that it's happening.

•
The president noticed though. On Wednesday night, he tweeted this: "Take back your city now, if you don't do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly anarchists must be stopped immediately. Move fast."

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The mayor of Seattle replied this way, simply saying, "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker." A clever social media wordsmith.

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The media haven't paid a lot of attention to CHAZ either. They are excited by anything that's new, but not this new country. It's kind of weird because just a month ago, they were very against demonstrators. The anti- lockdown demonstrators in Michigan for example were dangerous zealots.

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If you protest lockdowns in Michigan with guns, but don't commit any violence at all, it is a threat to the nation.

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But if you commit beatings and loot and burn down buildings you are, quote, "mostly peaceful." If you create an armed independent nation in downtown Seattle, it's amazing.

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"The New York Times" published a piece that described the nation of CHAZ as, quote, "A homeland for racial justice."

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By the way, how many of the people writing this stuff would go spend a week in CHAZ with their families?
Victor Davis Hanson: George Floyd unrest – when the revolution doesn't go as planned (Fox 06/12/2020)
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The ancient Greeks created new words like "paradox" and "irony" to describe the wide gap between what people profess and assume, and what they actually do and suffer.

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After a catastrophic plague and endless war, ancient democratic Athens was stripped of its majestic pretensions. Soon it was conducting mass executions – on majority votes of the people.

•
Throughout history, revolutions often do not end up as their initial architects planned. The idealists who ended the French monarchy in 1789 thought they could replace it with a constitutional republic.

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Instead, they sparked a reign of terror, the guillotine and mass frenzy. Yet the radicals who hijacked the original revolution and began beheading their enemies soon were themselves guillotined.

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It was not democracy but rather the dictator Napoleon who put an end to French domestic unrest.

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He assumed more powers than had the executed Bourbon King Louis XVI, who had set off the revolution in the first place.

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Social distancing and mandated lockdowns for months have been the source of endless fighting between the people and their governments.

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But the massive demonstrations and rioting saw hundreds of thousands of protesters jammed together and often without masks.

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That mass disobedience to quarantining will teach us, better than any university modeling, whether the virus spikes or is indifferent to thousands who congregate in the streets.

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The lockdowns were politically weaponized during this election year. Blue states thought the sinking economy would hurt President Trump's reelection bid. Red states wanted to open up as quickly as possible to get the economy back and running before November.

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Yet the mass progressive protests and violence forced an unplanned end to mass quarantining –and thereby inadvertently helped jumpstart the country back to business. Those who despise Trump may have done the most to help him.

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... progressive urban bastions like Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis and Philadelphia are also the ground zero sites of arson, violence and looting, where racial relations are the worst.

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Our recent protests started out idealistically by calling attention to the racism that had led to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. But that tragic killing sadly became overshadowed by protests and violence where cruel irony abounded.

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White Antifa arsonists occasionally helped torch black-owned small businesses – in the name of Black Lives Matter.

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Liberal New York Times senior editors were damned as sell-outs and racists for allowing free expression on their editorial pages – by their own younger woke staffers who claimed to be more ethical.

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Videos appeared of children screaming in cruel fashion that their own parents were racists. Professionals took a knee to own up to their supposed racist sins – in Maoist-like mass confessionals. NPR asked listeners to decolonialize their bookshelves.

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Quarterback Drew Brees one day declares that he is disturbed when the American flag is sullied. On the next, he is shamed into apologizing for his patriotism – as if he was reprogrammed in a reeducation camp.

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Zero-bail policies have released violent protesters hours after they were arrested – often to allow them to repeat the violence that got them arrested in the first place.

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Women shave their heads to curb their "whiteness," by clipping off their "straight" hair, as if in some fairy tale their self-confessed white privilege disappears with their bangs.

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Demands rise that colleges must spend more for racial administrators and programs as they face insolvency and faculty layoffs.

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Mayors who did not protect supermarkets and discount warehouse stores from burning and looting now demand that such terrified chains do not abandon their inner cities.

•
As these natural and mandate catastrophes continue, we see raw human nature stripped of its pretenses.

•
The result is tragically ironic and often not a pretty sight.
John Yoo: Seattle unrest – Does Trump have the power to intervene? Should he? (Fox 06/11/2020)
Tucker Carlson: We were lied to about coronavirus and the mass lockdowns. Here's the proof (Fox 06/11/2020)
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Millions of Americans remain subjected to unprecedented restrictions on their personal lives, their daily lives, their family's lives.

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As a result of this, tens of millions of people are now unemployed. A huge number of them have no prospects of working again. Many thousands of small businesses are closed and will never reopen.

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Some Americans will die of cancer because they couldn't get cancer screenings, some unknown number have taken their own lives in despair.

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Others have flooded the streets to riot because bottled up rage and frustration take many forms.

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The cost of shutting down the United States and denying our citizens desperately needed contact with one another is hard to calculate. But the cost has been staggering.

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We had no choice. We did the right thing. That's what they're telling us. Is it true?

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The answer to that question matters, not just because the truth always matters, but because the credibility of our leaders is at stake here. This is the biggest decision they have made in our lifetimes. They were able to make it. They rule because we let them. Their power comes from us.

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So the question, now and always is, are they worthy of that power? That's not a conversation they want to have. And right now, they don't have to have that conversation because all of us are distracted and mesmerized by the woke revolution underway outside.

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As a matter of public health, we can say conclusively the lockdowns were not necessary. ... States that never locked down at all — states where people were allowed to live like Americans and not cower indoors alone — in the end turned out no worse than states that had mandatory quarantines. The state you probably live in.

•
They're not making arguments, they're issuing decrees. They think they can. They no longer believe they need your consent to make big decisions to run the country. Once the authority stops trying to change your mind, even by deceit, it means they've decided to use force — and they have.

•
During the lockdowns, people whose loved ones died were not allowed to have funerals for them. Think about that. It's hard to think of anything crueler, but it happened to a lot of people. They claimed it was necessary.

•
It was not necessary. And we know that because now that a man has died whose death is politically useful to the Democratic Party, the authorities have given him three funerals and not a word about a health risk.

•
Nonessential businesses are allowed just 15 percent capacity. The effect of that is economic disaster. Most small businesses run on very small margins. They can't survive for long, and in fact, many have failed.

•
What should they do? They should join Antifa, obviously, because in King County, Wash., Antifa can do whatever Antifa wants to do. They have taken over an entire six-block section of downtown Seattle, and that's fine with health authorities. There is no social distancing required. They're essential.

•
Are you getting the picture? Is it adding up to a message? Yes, the message is we were played. We were all played.

•
Corrupt politicians scared us into giving up control over the most basic questions in our lives. At the same time, they gave more power to their obedient followers, like Antifa, while keeping the rest of us trapped at home and censored online.

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In other words, they used a public health emergency to subvert democracy and install themselves as monarchs. How were they able to do this? The sad truth is, they did it because we let them do it. We believed them, therefore, we obeyed them.

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If there's anything good to come out of this disaster, it's that none of us will ever make that mistake again.
Newt Gingrich: Democrats must apologize – here's how they've failed America's cities (Fox 06/11/2020)
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It is time for Americans to take back their cities from the failed policies and institutions of the Democratic Party.

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It is also time to win the argument that Democrats who have controlled our cities for 59, 53, 56, and 89 years are a lot more responsible for the terrible conditions in these cities than the first three years of a Trump administration, which created jobs and opportunity for Americans everywhere.

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So, the next time you see Democrats take a knee, thank them for apologizing for the disasters they have created.
Flynn prosecution should end – lawyer makes weak arguments trying to keep baseless case alive (Fox 06/11/2020)
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There is an old adage among lawyers: "If the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if the law is on your side, pound the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table."

•
On Wednesday, Gleeson filed a 72-page brief (an oxymoron, to be sure) that was stunningly feeble on both facts and law.

•
To compensate for his anemic arguments, he tortures the judges on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia with overwrought blather that bears little relevance to the main issue at hand.

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Perhaps Gleeson was hoping the court would simply weigh his submission on a scale and award him the prize for mindless verbosity.

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I don't recommend reading the document. A root canal sans Novocain would be less painful. But the core of Gleeson's argument can be found on Page 26, where he asserts – without a shred of credible evidence – that "prosecutors have offered pretextual reasons for dismissal," and "there is clear evidence of gross prosecutorial abuse."

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Gleeson's inane reasoning is that President Trump has tweeted about the Flynn case, so there must be corruption afoot.

•
Gleeson offers no real proof, of course. But he offers enough innuendo and supposition to fill a dumpster.

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Gleeson contends that the "decision to dismiss is based solely on the fact that Flynn is a political ally of Trump" (Page 38). In other words, guilt by association should be good enough to send Flynn to the hoosegow.

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Conveniently, Gleeson glosses over the real reasons the Justice Department decided to end the Flynn case: that special counsel prosecutors engaged in egregious misconduct by hiding exculpatory evidence of Flynn's innocence and that the government "no longer believes it could secure a conviction at trial."

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The Justice Department asked Judge Sullivan to drop the case against Flynn after the department conducted a comprehensive review and determined that the charges against the retired Army lieutenant general were without legal merit and should never have been brought in the first place.

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Gleeson couldn't care less. Never mind that the FBI had no legitimate basis to even interview Flynn, but snookered him into a conversation under false pretenses.

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Forget the fact that the two FBI agents who met with him determined that he was not lying at all and was not an agent of Russia. Those reasons more than justified a dismissal of the case.

•
There was no basis to believe Flynn committed a crime. Yet, Gleeson repudiates all these facts by cavalierly labeling them "preposterous."

•
Much of Gleeson's 72-page screed is an unconscionable smear of Flynn over his decision to capitulate to a coerced guilty plea.

•
Naturally, the ex-judge ignores how unscrupulous members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team of hyper-partisans threatened to prosecute Flynn's son under an inflated interpretation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

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But Gleeson doesn't stop there. In addition to declaring that "Flynn's guilt is plain" (who needs a jury trial?), he argues that the retired three-star general clearly committed perjury by attempting to withdraw his original guilty plea.

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Gleeson seems oblivious to the established doctrine that a coerced confession is no confession at all. And neither is an involuntary plea.

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To Gleeson, following the rule of law is "empty formalism and bureaucratese" (Page 43).

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The FBI's nefarious design to get Flynn to lie so he could be prosecuted or fired is not a "cognizable defense," Gleeson claims.

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Really? Since when is evidence that a defendant was set-up and framed by the government not a defense? It is truly frightening that Gleeson once served as a federal prosecutor and, later a judge.

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Gleeson is nothing if not a hypocrite. When he was on the bench he issued a memo and order stating that "the government has near-absolute power to extinguish a case that it has brought."

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Citing well-established case law, the then-judge maintained that "it is entirely clear that the refusal to prosecute cannot be the subject of judicial review."

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Neither the facts nor the law are on Gleeson's side – and he surely knows it. So, like a lawyer with a losing case, he has resorted to pounding the table.

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The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals should pay no attention to his contrived noise.
Ben Shapiro: George Floyd aftermath – These points we agree on drowned out in the chaos (Fox 06/10/2020)
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With the death of George Floyd – a heinous atrocity virtually every American decries – unity should have prevailed.

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Americans hate police brutality; Americans care about black lives; Americans despise looting and rioting; Americans want to protect citizens but preserve the ability of the police to stop crime.

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Instead, the country seems to be falling apart. That's because of the utterly chaotic political and media response to the Floyd tragedy: a response that demands agreement but, most of all, requires compliance. You must kneel.

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You must kneel because you cannot understand. You simply cannot. If you have to ask for a definition of systemic privilege, we are told, it's because your white privilege has blinded you to reality.

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If you point out that not all inequality is inequity, we are told, it is because your latent racism is leeching into your worldview.

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If you defend America's history, philosophy and culture – or, God forbid, her flag – you must apologize.

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And, if Drew Brees is any indicator, your wife must also apologize, and your second cousin once removed.

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You may not understand what is being demanded of you. You may see the wave of conflicting messages emanating from the press and wonder just what you're supposed to do. But the chaos is the point. You are supposed to be confused.

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Confusion is a political weapon. Clarity is a shield. If our media and political class can prevent clarity, they can prevent unity; if they can obscure, they can demand acquiescence.

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Thus, we hear messages that are obviously in direct conflict with one another. And, we are told, our inability to square those messages means that we must listen to the woke priesthood that can untangle these Gordian knots.

•
Thus, we hear that silence is violence, that being non-racist simply isn't enough and you must actively fight racism.

•
But we also hear that speech is violence, that if you oppose policies the political left supports, your words are a form of violence and you must be silenced. The only safe path, therefore, is parroting the messages of those initiated in the religion of "wokeness."

•
Thus, we hear that individuals ought not to be held responsible for the sins of those in their racial group, and that's why it's so wrong for the police to engage in profiling.

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But we also hear that white Americans bear full responsibility for the sins of both modern racists and historic racists, and ought to atone on behalf of their race and their country. And if you refuse, you must be considered racist.

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Thus, we hear that the police are the greatest threat to black Americans, and that's why they must be defunded.

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But we also hear that police absence, a product of racism, created the conditions that originally led to higher crime rates in black communities.

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Thus, we hear that the rioting and looting were exaggerated by the media, or that they were largely the product of white Antifa members.

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But we also hear that rioting and looting are the justified outgrowths of centuries of black rage. You cannot, therefore, oppose rioting and looting too strenuously, lest you be labeled a racist.

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Thus, we hear that COVID-19 is so extraordinarily dangerous that anti-lockdown protesters were endangering the lives of other Americans; in fact, they were racist...

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But we also hear that protesting racism is so extraordinarily important that we can freely ignore all restrictions surrounding COVID-19 – and, indeed, that we have an obligation to do so.

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Thus, we hear that journalists ought to be treated with the utmost respect because they are doing a difficult job and pursuing facts and the truth...

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But we also hear that journalists are actually activists and thus have a duty not to be objective...

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In the end, our republic runs only so long as we're able to hold some semblance of a logical conversation with one another.

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But the republic isn't running. Instead, we are battered with logically incoherent nonsense, a variety of messages that carry only one consistent bottom line: Shut up. Believe. Repeat.

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The chaos of the moment isn't a bug; it's a feature.

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And the more confused we are, the less we can possibly hold together, despite the fact that nearly all Americans agree on the most important issues.
A nation without police — If Dems get their way, this is how our communities will suffer (Fox 06/10/2020)
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It is ridiculous to suggest we don't need law enforcement. A nation without law and order isn't a nation at all.

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The United States is a nation of laws and those laws are useless if there is not someone willing to enforce them. Enforcement stands between a moral society and anarchy.

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People need a system of consequences and deterrents and need to be held accountable when they intentionally violate the laws that this country has created to protect its citizenry and property.

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The Minneapolis city council is hell-bent on dismantling its police department after four of the city's officers were charged in the death of George Floyd.

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But have they even asked the taxpaying homeowners of their community about this move? What will happen to home values there if they actually disband the police? How many people will buy a home where there is no police protection? Will more homeowners arm themselves?

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To give you an idea of what our country would look like without law enforcement, I took the yearly stats from the FBI 2019 Uniformed Crime Report and simply divided by 365 days.

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On average, every day the people in this country are victims of 47 murders, 372 rapes, 875 robberies, 2,221 aggravated assaults 1,154 child abductions, 3,561 home invasions, 3,836 DUIs and 6,849 burglaries.

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That's just one day.

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Those numbers are staggering, and they are happening WITH a system of consequences, deterrents and punishments. Those numbers are happening even with an abundance of professional law enforcement.

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My question to those calling to abolish or defund the police is simple: What would these numbers look like after defunding or abolishment? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the numbers would vastly increase.

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For instance, how many people don't have that last drink because they fear a DUI? If they knew there was no enforcement, would more of them take the chance? More than 10,000 people die each year in a DUI accident. How many more are we willing to accept? For me, none.

•
We've seen our country turned upside down the past two weeks. Besides the peaceful protests, which are one of the things that make this country great, we've also gotten a crash course in what happens when police don't respond in a timely manner or are held back by politicians. Violent rioters felt free to commit robbery, loot, assault, murder and commit arson.

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Most people will do the right thing, the morally correct thing, in situations but for the others, knowing there are consequences for bad behavior is a deterrent to criminal activity.

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Professional law enforcement systems and response capabilities prevent crime and save lives.

•
Bad police need to be held accountable, no question. But punishing all law enforcement officers for the acts of a few is an overreaction. It would increase crime and make our communities less safe.

•
If you were unfortunate enough to have to call 911 and seek police assistance at some point, you get it.

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If you were the victim of a serious crime and the police either protected you or arrested the perpetrator, you get it.

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If you were alone on a stretch of highway in the middle of nowhere and the police stood by you until a tow truck arrived to ensure your safety, you get it.

•
The vast majority of cops are the good guys. In my 34 years as a law enforcement officer, I have worked with and dealt with thousands of cops.

•
Were there some bad ones? Yes, and they were dealt with.

•
... we can hold officers accountable without tearing down the entire system. We don't have to put our communities at risk.

•
Many people are quick to opine on the police and they have that right. I can assure you, though, that many of those same people will call the police when they need help. And when they do, the help will come.

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How many of those who attack our officers would step up and put themselves in harm's way to protect people they don't know and property that isn't theirs? Not many.

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But the police will. The police are there, for people they don't know or will never meet, and even for those who despise them.
The Monumental Campaign to #CancelAmerica (JWR 06/10/2020)
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Across our looted plain, statues are under siege. Smashed. Spray-painted. Shrouded. Expunged.

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In the name of social justice, we are witnessing the systematic eradication of history.

•
It matters not whether the targets were guilty of the tired old charges of patriarchal oppression and institutional racism.

•
It only matters that marble and granite tributes to dead white men be replaced with garish "Black Lives Matter" street murals and St. George Floyd altars.

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Trillions of tax dollars have been spent on America's War on Poverty. We've had four decades of affirmative action.

•
A black president held the White House for eight years, with a black First Lady, black attorney general, black homeland security secretary, black transportation secretary, black education secretary, black U.N. ambassador, top black senior advisers, and more than 400 black presidential appointees. It's never enough.

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The current president has forked over criminal justice reform, expanded the "Opportunity Zones" money pit, increased funding for historically black colleges and universities and obsesses endlessly about the "black unemployment rate."

•
At the urging of his pandering son-in-law, Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump is now promising to deliver left-wing "police reforms" first — instead of protecting law enforcement officers and their families in the crosshairs of violent antifa and Black Lives Matter extremists.

•
But it's still not enough. The monuments must fall. Here are just a few examples of the indiscriminate ignorance fueling the "Topple the Racists" movement here and abroad:

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In the heart of downtown Colorado Springs, an elegant statue of the city's founder was defaced last week with multiple "BLM" graffiti tags. General William Jackson Palmer was an extraordinary engineer, railroad builder and philanthropist who fought for the Union in the Civil War as a 25-year-old cavalryman. He won a Medal of Honor for his leadership during a key battle in 1865. After moving to the Rockies and earning enormous wealth, he quietly gave half of his fortune away — including substantial donations to historically black Hampton University in Virginia, which was founded to educate freed slaves.

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In Denver, last week, agitators vandalized a 1909 monument standing outside the Capitol building with swastikas and "FTP" (f***k the police) slogans. The statue depicts a Union soldier and honors Coloradans who fought and died in the Civil War.

•
In the U.K., an anti-Trump outfit disseminated a hit list of statues that must be torn down, including one of former Prime Minister Earl Grey, who presided over the outlawing of slavery. The history erasers have already forced the University of Liverpool to rename its Gladstone Hall to remove reference to the former prime minister and Liberal Party leader William Gladstone.

•
His father was a slave owner, so the monument police have decided that nothing else Gladstone achieved or espoused in four terms in office matters because he did not adequately renounce, disavow and atone for the sins of his father.

•
How do we confront past history if we dismantle it? How does pretending away an entire generation of Americans and their progeny promote "healing"? And where will it end?

•
Virginia's governor, Ralph "Blackface" Northram, announced plans to tear down the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, despite the commonwealth's legal guarantee in 1890 to hold the statue and pedestal "perpetually sacred to the monumental purpose" and to "faithfully guard it and affectionately protect it." A circuit court issued a 10-day injunction against the landmark's removal on Monday. But liberal lawyers are outraged that the law might actually, you know, matter.

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A Texas Ranger statue was yanked from Love Field in Dallas. Jacksonville, Florida, is purging all Confederate monuments.

•
Yes, I am tired. Tired of watching Americans apologize for their founders and fighters.

•
Tired of thought police, speech police and memorial police imposing 21st-century standards on public and private figures from two and three centuries ago.

•
Tired of collective groveling that will buy no goodwill. Tired of ingrates who will not stop at "reimagining" America until there is no America left.

•
In the past, when once-mighty civilizations fell, their statues — like Ozymandias — outlasted them.

•
Now, the barbarians destroy the monuments before time can erode them. What a "colossal Wreck" are we.

•
See related P.C. (Glenn McCoy, 08/15/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Victim culture tears up Jewish moral norms (JWR 06/10/2020)
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The appalling rioting that followed the shocking death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer has left a trail of devastation across America.

•
Once again, however, Jews have found themselves singled out for particular attack.

•
In Los Angeles, Jewish-owned stores and synagogues in Beverly Hills and the heavily Orthodox Fairfax district were looted and defaced with anti-Jewish graffiti.

•
How could this Jew-hatred have occurred in what was repeatedly described as "protests" against racism? And why were so few Jewish voices raised against either this or the general destruction and violence?

•
In a statement by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, 130 organizations said they were "outraged" by the killing of Floyd, declared "solidarity" with the black community and called for an end to "systemic racism."

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Yet they expressed no outrage about the rioting during which police officers had been shot, businesses and buildings torched and looted, and innocent people beaten up. They made no protest against the specifically targeted attacks on synagogues and Jewish businesses.

•
In the Jewish Journal, Yonathan Reches was "pained" by the picture of "a predominantly white and highly militarized police force," which used "heavy handed tactics to protect a synagogue from a predominantly black crowd."

•
The riots, he asserted, were a "natural response" to "five centuries of unfathomable subjugation," which gave "communities of color" an "undisputed moral authority to call attention to their own oppression."

•
"Undisputed moral authority" — to riot, burn and loot, or make anti-Semitic attacks?

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... BLM is an anti-white, anti-capitalist and anti-Jewish hate group. Four years ago, its members accused Israel of "genocide" against the Palestinians.

•
Last weekend, BLM activists held a rally in Los Angeles at which they led chants of "disrupt white capitalism" and issued a string of expletives against Fairfax, Beverly Hills and other L.A. districts which were attacked and vandalized that night.

•
Floyd's death was horrific. But the rioting that followed was because Antifa, Black Lives Matter and others — some of whose organizers were white — seized upon the incident as an excuse for insurrection, violence and criminality.

•
This has all been excused or justified by those who claim it was an explosion of rage and despair against the racism of the police and white society.

•
Roughly a quarter of fatal police shootings are of African-Americans. This isn't surprising, even though they constitute 13 percent of the population, given the disproportionate number of armed black suspects encountered by the police.

•
In 2018, they made up 53 percent of known homicide offenders in the United States and committed about 60 percent of robberies.

•
Last year, the police fatally shot more than twice as many unarmed white people as those who were black.

•
... victim culture, the dominant orthodoxy of the age in which assorted groups claim to be victims of the rest of the world, turns morality upside down.

•
That's because victims are given a moral free pass for whatever they do. So, the rioters' callous indifference towards their own victims has been denied, while those condemning the riots are denounced.

•
Grossly slandering all white people as innately racist, Antifa or BLM activists can never acknowledge their own racism against white people.

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That's because victim culture derives from the Marxist dogma that everything is defined by power relationships. So, racism isn't prejudice but only prejudice with power.

•
The powerless can never be guilty of bad things. Black people are defined as powerless victims of white people. So black people can never be racist.

•
This moral impunity is why so many groups want to be considered victims. The one group that victim culture refuses to accept as victims, however, is the Jews.

•
That's because identity politics ideologues share the anti-Semitic belief that the Jews are all-powerful because they control the banks, the media, the professions and so on.

•
So the Jews, the most persecuted people the history of the world, are excluded from the definition of a victim.

•
The riots are a critical inflection point for America and the West. This unprecedented orgy of violent law-breaking been excused and even openly supported by the progressive circles which define and control Western culture.

•
These have displayed an inability to distinguish right from wrong, truth from lies, victim from oppressor. This moral bankruptcy has spread through American and Western society like a cultural coronavirus.

•
Copycat disorder spread to London this week, with demonstrations against American police "racism" descending into violence against British police guarding the prime minister's Downing Street office.

•
In response to the crowd's demand that the police "take a knee," the gesture of sinking to one knee pioneered by black American footballers in protest against police brutality, a number of British officers proceeded to do just that.

•
A sadder demonstration of the extent to which a demoralized British society has come off the moral and cultural rails could hardly be imagined.

•
Victim culture is based on an Orwellian moral reversal. It stands for intimidation, lies and violence masquerading as compassion and conscience. It also has the Jews firmly in its sights.

•
Western civilization is now hovering perilously in the balance. Too many Jews are supporting the twisted, amoral thinking of those who are on the way to destroying it.

•
Their stance is as lemming-like as it is a betrayal of Judaism and the values that lie at the West's ethical core.
Andrew McCarthy: Defund the police? Here's what Dems, BLM ignoring about crime (Fox 06/10/2020)
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It is a measure of how frightfully irrational our times are that the "defund the police" campaign led by Democrats and Black Lives Matter activists is thriving.

•
It has moved to the mainstream of progressive politics even as the need for effective policing becomes ever more palpable.

•
A new breed of progressive prosecutors, many of them backed by the George Soros network and other deep-pocketed leftwing organizations, has taken control in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and other urban centers.

•
Philosophically, they see policing, prosecution and imprisonment as triggers of crime, rather than deterrents against it.

•
They've targeted law-enforcement techniques rather than lawbreakers.

•
They adamantly reject the intelligence-based policing and broken windows policies that have given us a generation of record low crime.

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They've eliminated cash bail, which means mandatory release for nonviolent crimes – with a very elastic definition of "nonviolent."

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... we are seeing ... the phenomenon no one sensible ever wanted to see again: the one where the criminals are back out on the street making mayhem before the police can even finish the paperwork processing the last arrest.

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Pretty soon, the arrests slow to a trickle, even as the crime increases. Making arrests can be dangerous, and no one wants to take the risk over a pointless gesture.

•
Violent crime is on the rise, and was edging steadily up even before the mayhem of these last two weeks. Obviously, that trend is becoming a spike. On Sunday, May 31, there were 18 murders just in Chicago ... the bloodiest day since the University of Chicago's Crime Lab began keeping data over 60 years ago.

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To be sure, there are some corrupt police officers, some who engage in excessive uses of force. Congress, along with state and municipal legislatures, needs to explore how we can discipline, fire, sue and otherwise discourage them.

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... police encounter minority suspects at higher rates because they offend at higher rates. The stubborn fact is that this is particularly true of young black males. Though it is fashionable to speak of police departments and the criminal justice system as "institutionally racist," it is also specious.

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Over time, police departments more and more reflect the racial and ethnic composition of their communities. In many big cities, top political and law enforcement officials are themselves African-American.

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The notion that they would abide racism, much less thoroughgoing anti-black racism, in an institution they run would be laughable if the matter were less fraught.

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We know what offense levels are, not because police are too myopically focused on minority communities, but because crimes have victims. Those victims report crime, or are found injured or killed at crime scenes. This is not a statistical game fit for deducing racism on a dubious "disparate impact" theory. This is real life ... and death.

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While we obsess over the treatment of crime's perpetrators, it is crime's victims that merit our most urgent concern. Minority communities are the ones most targeted and most wronged by criminals.

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The people whose families, property and lives would be most under siege if police departments were defunded are minority communities.

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The places that would collapse are the cities run by the progressives who promote this lunatic fantasy.

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Societal peace and prosperity are dependent on the rule of law, on the order that police uphold. When that is lost, it takes many years to get it back. The damage wrought in the meantime would be incalculable.
Defund the police movement distracts from the left's policy failures with the poorest Americans (Fox 06/10/2020)
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As we've been telling you — not that you need to be told because it's so obvious — this is a dark moment in the history of the country.

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People will attack you if you dare to tell the truth. They'll denounce you. They'll target your family. They'll try to turn your friends against you and deny you the ability to earn a living.

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In the face of that — and we've said this repeatedly because it's true, nothing is truer — you cannot give in.

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Even if you do what the mob tells you to do, you will not be spared. The people on Twitter are predators. Predators are incited by weakness. They exploit it. The only solution in the face of something like this is to tell the truth unapologetically.

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... right now, the chief demand of the Black Lives Matter movement is to get rid of the police — defund them or abolish them entirely. Police, not criminals, they say, are the greatest threat to the well-being of African-Americans — and that is a lie.

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The number of unarmed African-Americans shot and killed by police officers in all of 2019 was 10. The number of African-Americans murdered in all other ways exceeded 7,000. So, if all police vanished from America's streets, that number will almost certainly get much, much higher.

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A Princeton University paper from 2018 estimated that for every 10 police officers added in this country, roughly one murder is prevented. And that, of course, makes sense. Why wouldn't that be true?

•
Robbery and other crimes went down as well, and that's not a small thing. This isn't because there were more arrests either. The sheer deterrence of more cops on the street kept people safer without sending more criminals to prison.

•
On May 31 in Chicago, the police force was completely overwhelmed trying to handle protests, rioting and looting all over the city. In the city's most vulnerable neighborhoods, the poorest neighborhoods, law enforcement just evaporated.

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A local pastor described what he saw: "I heard people saying all over, 'Hey, there's no police anywhere.' Police ain't doing nothing. I sat and watched a store looted for over an hour. No police came."

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So, for the people of Chicago — not the ones pretending to speak for them on social media or their hapless mayor — but the people who actually live there and don't have power, the police leaving was a disaster, and they were desperate for the police to return.

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On Sunday, May 31st of this year, the city of Chicago had 65,000 calls to 911. That's 50,000 more than the usual total.

•
With police gone from Chicago's poorest neighborhoods, the city had its deadliest day in at least 60 years. — maybe the deadliest day ever By midnight that night, 18 people in Chicago had been murdered.

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That's five more than the all-time record and eight more than the total of unarmed African-Americans shot dead by police last year — in one day.

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Should police officers who break the law be arrested and punished? Of course. Find a person in America who disagrees with that. There aren't any.

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The point is bad police — needless to say, there are some — but they are not the primary problem in American cities or in the African-American community.

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They are a distraction from the real problems. And the real problems are the destructive effects that bad policies have had and will have on the poorest Americans.

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At this moment, 65 percent of African-American children are growing up in single-parent homes. That's double the number from 50 years ago. You don't have to be an Evangelical or any kind of moralizer to think that's a disaster because it is.

•
... all of it shows that having two married parents in the home does more to improve a child's odds of success than any social program ever invented. That's just empirically true.

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Kids with two parents are almost twice as likely to finish high school, half is likely to go to prison. We know this. And yet instead of encouraging healthy, intact families, the left ignores the question or actively abets the destruction of families and instead promotes abortion like that's an answer.

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Thanks to coronavirus lockdowns, the black unemployment rate has exploded to almost 17 percent. Is that a concern? It should be. Just when people are allowed to go to work, Democrats allow their neighborhoods to burn down, to placate university-trained extremists and rich liberals in the suburbs who dominate Twitter and The Washington Post.

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A factory in Minneapolis has already announced that it plans to move its 50 jobs to a different city. That's their response to the riot — not empowerment, unemployment. How many other businesses will do the same? How many simply won't open again? A lot.

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So what's the left's big idea for saving our cities and turning things around? Oh, flooding black neighborhoods with drugs. That's the answer. Last year, congressional Democrats introduced legislation to support taxpayer-funded economically disadvantaged individuals looking to sell weed in their neighborhoods. Yes, more drug dealers.

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That's what's going on right now in countless cities — failing schools, drugs, debt. And that's why the mob censors criticism. That's why the Democratic Party hates free speech.

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No political party ever needed to use fear and intimidation to hide their successes. Of course, they're hiding their failures.

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They don't want to debate because they can't win the debate. Instead, what they want is you to shut up and hand them power.

•
They want to shift the blame for problems they created onto police — the police being the one urban institution that over the past 30 years has actually achieved something.

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And actually, it's the one institution the left doesn't already control.
Deroy Murdock: Looting and rioting after George Floyd killing draw shocking support from left (Fox 06/10/2020)
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The looting and riots that roared out of the George Floyd protests were surprising. The left's celebration of this violence is shocking.

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What follows are not the reckless rants of basement-dwelling, boxer-short-clad, baby Bolsheviks.

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Rather these are the words and actions of elected and appointed Democratic officials, top activists, and their comrades in the liberal establishment media.

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These leading leftists encouraged, enabled and empowered people who decided to riot after they saw four Minneapolis cops go low as one officer knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes and killed him on Memorial Day, while the other cops did nothing to stop the killing.

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All four now-fired officers face charges of second-degree murder or aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

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"A once in a lifetime opportunity," is how Democratic Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey described the subsequent rioting. "Yes, America is burning, but that's how forests grow."

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Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., seemed unconcerned about store shelves being vacuumed by marauders nationwide. "Young people, they have a whole new definition for ‘looting."

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Two days after looters devoured local stores, Democratic Seattle City Council member Teresa Mosqueda said: "Colleagues, I hope we're all saying we understand why that destruction happened and we understand why people are upset."

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"But what I don't want to hear is for our constituents to be told to be civil, not to be reactionary, to be told looting doesn't solve anything," said Mosqueda's socialist colleague Tammy Morales. "It does make me wonder why looting bothers people so much more than knowing that across the country, black people are being killed."

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Salmah Rizvi, Esq., a former intelligence official with Obama's Departments of State and Defense, bailed out Orooj Rahman, Esq. The New York City Police Department arrested Rahman on June 2 for allegedly hurling an ignited Molotov cocktail into a police vehicle. Rahman allegedly distributed Molotov cocktails to Floyd-related demonstrators in Brooklyn on May 30.

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Judge Brodie heeded Obama's former adviser and, on $250,000 bond, sprang the alleged gasoline-bomb thrower.

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At least 13 Biden campaign employees donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which paid cash bail for protesters and rioters arrested during the recent unpleasantness.

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"Burn It All Down," an Essence headline insisted. "Until these things disgust you, we riot, we protest and do whatever it takes to get your attention – including burning it all down."

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In The New York Times – the so-called "Paper of Record" – reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones argued that "destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence." Does that include this Pulitzer Prize winner's windows? Her home?

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"Please, show me where it says that protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful," CNN's Chris Cuomo demanded.

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Did Cuomo flunk high school civics? The First Amendment guarantees "the right of the people peaceably to assemble."

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"Riots are, at their core, a choice made by those in power, not people who participate in them," The Atlantic's Amanda Mull said via Twitter. "If you build a society that exhausts and abuses people and privilege [sic] capital over human life, I'm not sure which other imaginary ‘civil' options you expect people to exercise."

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"Burn that s** down. Burn it all down," ESPN alumnus and NBA analyst Chris Palmer cheered via Twitter on May 29, above a photo of 189 affordable-housing units that were under construction until Minneapolis rioters incinerated them.

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But rather than a revolutionary, Palmer echoed landed gentry when rioters reached his California home.

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"They just attacked our sister community down the street," Palmer ranted via Twitter on May 31. "It's a gated community and they tried to climb the gates. They had to beat them back. Then destroyed a Starbucks and are now in front of my building. Get these animals TF out of my neighborhood. Go back to where you live."

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After learning that walls work and expressing the Palmer Principle (trespassers should "go back to where you live"), Palmer wagged his finger at his visitors, saying: "Tear up your own s***. Don't come to where we live at and tear our neighborhood up. We care about our community. If you don't care about yours I don't give a s***."

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On June 1, BuzzFeed's Ajani Bazile published "19 Tips For Anyone Who Plans On Protesting." "Bring enough cash for food, transportation, or other necessities," Bazile recommended. "Bring snacks and water to keep your energy up."

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... he also counseled: "If you are worried about the possibility of being tracked by law enforcement, don't post on social media while you're there, turn off Face/Touch ID on your phone, or bring a burner phone."

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On Election Day, remember all of this and vote as if your life, liberty and property were at stake.
For president struggling on protests, ‘defund the police’ is a gift (Fox 06/10/2020)
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With the exception of a rebounding stock market, Trump has been battered politically by a raging pandemic, a calamitous economic shutdown, and two weeks of protests over the killing of George Floyd that have spread from the largest cities to the smallest towns.

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He has been castigated by a slew of former military men — from Jim Mattis and Mike Mullen to Colin Powell — while drawing sharp criticism from the Catholic archbishop and the Episcopal bishop of Washington.

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But now comes a phrase that could transform the debate: defund the police.

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Those words, being pushed by left-wing groups, are in my view political suicide, and the Trump team is already doing everything possible to tar Biden with the slogan.

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Kayleigh McEnany wasted no time in telling reporters the president is "appalled" by the movement.

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The White House press secretary said "the fact that you have sitting congresswomen wanting to defund the police — notably Rashida Tlaib; notably Biden advisor AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; former Clinton and Eric Holder spokesperson Brian Fallon wanting to defund our police across this country — it is extraordinary."

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... people who have watched their cities burn surely want law and order, even if they are disgusted by police mistreatment of blacks. And that's why "defund the police" is such a toxic slogan, except perhaps on the Minneapolis City Council. Without police, who would respond to robberies, domestic violence, gang shootings?

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Even Bernie Sanders tells ... "we want to redefine what police departments do," not defund them.

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For those who say they just want to replace the existing departments with better ones that have a new mission, I'd ask, why are you using the word defund? You want police reform, and you still need to hire and train officers.

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Some mayors ... are pushing to cut their police budgets and divert the money to social services, which may be good politics but doesn't get at the root problem.

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If Biden strongly opposes the defunding movement, he'll draw the wrath of left-wing activists. But they've opposed him since the day he got in the race.

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Both Trump and Biden will try to cast this election as a referendum on who is best equipped to protect the country — from a pandemic, from economic ruin, from police brutality, from rioters.

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The outcome may ride on how those terms are defined.
Why We Need the Police (JWR 06/09/2020)
The Four Horsemen of America's Apocalypse (JWR 06/09/2020)
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It takes a lot to build a civilization, and though it is much easier to destroy a civilization, it takes a lot to do that, too.

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But now we have four roots of evil that are guaranteed to do so.

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No. 1: Victimhood.

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The first is victimhood. The more people who regard themselves as victims — as individuals or as a group — the more likely they are to commit evil.

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People who think of themselves as victims feel that, having been victimized, they are no longer bound by normal moral conventions — especially the moral conventions of their alleged or real oppressors.

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Every parent, for example, knows that the child who thinks of him or herself as a perpetual victim is the child most likely to cause and get into trouble.

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And criminologists report that nearly every murderer in prison thinks of himself as a victim.

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On a societal scale, the same holds true — and being on such a larger scale, the chances of real evil ensuing are exponentially increased.

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That millions of black Americans regard themselves as victims — probably more so today than at any time in the past 50 years — can only lead to disaster for America generally and for blacks specifically.

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While victims generally feel free to lash out at others, they also go through life angry and unhappy.

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No. 2: Demonization.

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The second of the four ingredients of this civilization-destroying witches' brew is demonization — demonizing a group as inherently evil.

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That is being done now with regard to the white people of America. All — again, all — whites are declared racist. The only difference among them is that some admit it and some deny it.

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Former President Barack Obama ... described America as having racism in its DNA. That is as close to inherently and irredeemably evil as it gets; you cannot change your DNA.

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In that sense, not only are whites demonized, but America is, too. Unlike traditional liberals, the left regards America as a moral cesspool — not only racist but, according to The New York Times, founded to be so

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The New York Times has created a history of America that declares its founding not in 1776 but in 1619, when the first black slaves arrived. The American Revolution was fought, according to this malign narrative, not merely for American independence but in order to preserve slavery, a practice the British would have interfered with. This "history" will now be taught in thousands of American schools.

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The combination of victimhood and demonization alone is dangerous enough. But there are still two more horsemen galloping toward the looming apocalypse.

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No. 3: A Cause To Believe In.

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Most Americans throughout American history found great meaning in being American and in being religious — usually Christian.

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Since World War II, we have lived in a post-Christian, post-nationalist age.

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But people need something to believe in. The need for meaning is the greatest human need after the need for food. Leftism, with all its offshoots — feminism, environmentalism, Black Lives Matter, antifa — has filled that vacuum.

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No. 4: Lies.

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The fourth and most important ingredient necessary for evil is lies. Lies are the root of evil.

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Objective truth doesn't exist on the left. The universities have already declared "objective truth" as essentially an expression of "white privilege."

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The public self-debasement demanded of anyone who differs with the left ... happens almost daily.

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The only difference between this and what dissidents underwent during Mao's Cultural Revolution is that the self-debasement here is voluntary — thus far.

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Last week, when this Jew saw a store in Santa Monica with a sign reading "black-owned business" so as to avoid being destroyed, it evoked chilling memories.

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That's how bad it is in America today.
Black Lives Matter is now a powerful political party and has nothing to do with black lives (Fox 06/09/2020)
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America went insane over the weekend. That's barely an overstatement.

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This was without precedent in the modern era. A small group of highly aggressive emotionally charged activists took over our culture.

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They forced the entire country to obey their will. It all happened so fast and with such ferocity that virtually no one resisted it.

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People seem bewildered, even stunned by what was happening. Statements of fact and opinion that were entirely within the bounds of reasonable conversation just last Sunday, suddenly, a week later, were enough to get you fired from your job. And a number of people were fired.

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We're going to begin in Minneapolis, where the Black Lives Matter riots first began almost two weeks ago.

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As the violence there raged, some Democratic leaders in Minneapolis came to a conclusion that didn't, on the surface anyway, make intuitive sense. What their city really needs, they decided, is less law enforcement — in fact, no law enforcement.

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... Black Lives Matter is in fact a political party, maybe the strongest political party in the United States. Its members believe they can reshape this country and so far, they're proving to be right.

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You can always tell which political movements are ascendant, which are headed up, by how straightforward their members and sympathizers are about what they believe.

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Strong people say what they think out loud. They have no reason not to. They're not embarrassed about their beliefs. They think they're winning.

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Again, all of this probably strikes you as wild-eyed craziness, flat Earth stuff. Eliminate the police? Really? But things change fast. Look how quickly they changed just over the weekend.

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Well, as usual, the truth bears no resemblance whatsoever to what they're telling you.

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Think about it for just a second. Democratic politicians control the police departments of virtually every big city in this country. Now, they're telling you they want to get rid of those police departments. If they did, that would mean less power for themselves.

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So, right away, you know, there's lying going on. Democrats do not relinquish power voluntarily, ever. Period. Republicans frequently do. Democrats never do. So, that's the first thing to know.

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Democrats have no intention of abolishing the police. Listen carefully and you will hear them admit that. Instead, they want to replace the police — take the people who currently have badges, many of whom, by the way, voted for Donald Trump and swap them out for new people, people who hate Donald Trump and hate the people who voted for Donald Trump. That's what's actually happening here, and it makes sense.

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Law enforcement is one of the very few institutions remaining in this country that the left has not yet controlled. Democrats hate the police because they don't control the police. Very simple.

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Let's be clear: What Democrats are proposing isn't some form of radical libertarianism with the cops leaving citizens to police their own neighborhoods. No, it's the opposite of that. What they're proposing is a power grab.

•
Defund the police is a move toward authoritarian social control, cloaked in the language of identity politics.

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Already, in the middle of a total breakdown of law and order as we watch our cities burn, you are seeing new moves to prevent you from defending yourself and your family in the middle of it.

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In the future, the left envisions, the only people who will have guns are people on their team, and that's exactly what defund the police really means. It means a woke militia policing our cities, enforcing Democratic Party orthodoxy.

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Imagine if the Diversity Inclusion Department at Brown University had the power to arrest you. Imagine if the Black Lives Matter rioters had weapons and immunity from prosecution. That's what they're talking about.

•
Unfortunately for the rest of us — and it is unfortunate — Jeff Bezos and people like him are the only ones allowed to talk right now.

•
It's hard to overstate how vicious the crackdown on free speech and free thought has been in the last few days.

•
Here's the new rule and it defines everything: You are not allowed to question Black Lives Matter in any way. Full stop. That rule has been enforced without mercy everywhere and not just in this country.

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High school students who refuse to show affirmative support for Black Lives Matter on their Instagram accounts were shunned by their friends. Journalists who asked too many questions about the group were fired or silenced.

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The New York Times ran an op-ed demanding that people disown their own families if their families failed to support Black Lives Matter enthusiastically enough.

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"Tell your relatives, tell your friends. You will not be visiting or answering phone calls until they take significant action in supporting black lives through protest or financial contributions."

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Got that? Sorry, mom. I know you're old and alone and miss your grandchildren. But we are shunning you until you send more money to Black Lives Matter.

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Bowser has renamed a park near the White House "Black Lives Matter Plaza," and nobody criticized her for it.

•
... she also had Black Lives Matter painted in enormous yellow letters on 16th Street in downtown D.C. Kind of a bold move if you think about it, making a street partisan.

•
It's impressive, in a way, but Black Lives Matter wasn't satisfied by it, not even close. The D.C. Chapter of the group released a statement attacking Mayor Bowser for not giving them complete control of the city's police department: "This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police."

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Suddenly, it feels like all the adults have gone to St. Barts and turned off their cell phones. Who is running this country? Who is in charge? Anyone?

•
Bad ideas are like cancer. When you ignore them, when you pretend they're not there, when you just assume, just ride it out, they spread.

•
Democrats ... who are completely wrong, and in fact are leading us down a path that won't end well, are not ashamed in the slightest of what they believe.

•
Day in and day out, they brag about it. Just on Monday, they kneeled in Washington in submission before Black Lives Matter.

•
Before you comfort yourself with that thought, keep in mind it wasn't just Nancy Pelosi, not by a longshot.

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Members of the National Guard kneeled, too. So did a group of FBI agents. So did the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau...

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The police chief of Webster, Massachusetts went even further than that. He lay on the ground before them in complete submission.

•
And then things began to spin completely out of control, not just in this country but throughout the West.

•
In London, protesters vandalized the statue of Abraham Lincoln — because what did Abraham Lincoln ever do for black people?

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In Boston, a mob defaced a monument to the first all-black volunteer regiment in the Civil War. Because black people dying to end slavery sounds like white supremacy to us.

•
Right around the same time, a law professor from the University of Chicago called for an armed coup to overthrow the president of the United States, but that didn't get a lot of press because it didn't seem particularly newsworthy under the circumstances.

•
Even the outlines are blurry at this point, but we know this: No matter what they tell you, it has very little to do with black lives. If only it did.

•
If Democratic leaders cared about saving the lives of black people — and they should — they wouldn't ignore the murder of thousands of young black men in their cities every year.

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This may be a lot of things, this moment we're living through, but it is definitely not about black lives, and remember that when they come for you. And at this rate, they will.

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Anyone who has ever been subjected to the rage of the mob knows the feeling. It's like being swarmed by hornets. You cannot think clearly. And the temptation is to panic.

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But you can't panic. You've got to keep your head and tell the truth. Tell the truth. If you show weakness of any kind, they will crush you.

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At a moment like this, there is no advantage in cowardice, in being Mitt Romney. You think you're saving yourself? You're just empowering the worst people — people who hate you. Before you know it, you're confessing to crimes you didn't commit. Don't start.

•
Tell the truth — and the truth is, this is a good country. Better than any other. Of course, we are flawed, but we are trying, unlike most places. And we have nothing to be ashamed of — none of us.

•
Truth is a defense. No matter what they're telling you at this moment, this moment will pass. Remember that. All moments do.

•
When it does, we will look back at what we just saw in horror and disbelief.

•
But if you're honest now, you will keep your dignity, and ultimately you will be very glad about that. Life is not worth living without it.
Tom Del Beccaro, Steve Moore: Joe Biden's policies would push us into a deep depression (Fox 06/09/2020)
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Even with the good May job numbers, the economic recovery lies in the balance and with a historically high number of Americans unemployed, strong pro-growth policies – not the Biden job-killing plan to raise taxes – are necessary

•
Small business has been crushed by the lockdown era. For instance, as much as 30 percent of restaurants are likely to never reopen because of the steep financial losses of the past several months.

•
Given that small business has accounted for 61 percent of the job growth in this country over the last two decades, without healthy small businesses, we could see double-digit unemployment rates through the November elections and beyond.

•
Of course, the secret to capitalism is right there in the word – capital. In order to start a business, the prospective owner must accumulate capital (usually savings and often capital from investors or banks).

•
The entrepreneur then places that capital at risk. Whether the entrepreneur takes that risk depends on how easy it becomes to accumulate capital and the expected rate of return.

•
That brings us to Biden's economic strategy for the country. Especially in a down economy, business startups and expansions require low-cost capital, labor, energy, taxes and regulations.

•
Incredibly, Biden's entire platform is to raise those costs on business startups. His program is so bad that, if enacted, it could plunge the United States into a serious depression.

•
Of course, a Biden presidency would also likely mean a Pelosi House of Representatives – a recipe for even larger tax hikes than Biden is currently proposing.

•
The effect of the proposed Biden tax hikes, including his capital gains hike, would not only take money away from the employers that survive the shutdown, but he also wants to take savings/capital away from the very group of people most capable of starting up new businesses.

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Few logical people think taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of the private sector, in the form of tax increases, is the right thing to do when an economy is weak let alone with unemployment so very high.

•
Obviously, his plan isn't about job growth, it is all about satisfying the "fairness" crowd on the Left that wants to equalize incomes in a way that only ever makes everyone poorer.

•
Even if Biden was just going back to the Obama era tax and regulatory regimes, that is hardly a promising strategy.

•
Eight years of The Obama administration policy prescriptions produced the worst economic record of any modern president.

•
Going back to that now would result in deep unemployment, however long the Biden policies would be in place – which would hardly benefit working-class Americans.

•
Biden is also demanding that the minimum wage be raised across the country to $15 an hour – although he also said even that wouldn't be enough.

•
Obviously, raising the cost of labor in a weak economy, i.e. the costs for being in business, which will hit the restaurant industry the hardest, is a prescription for reducing business startups.

•
It doesn't end there for Biden. Now he says, "We have an opportunity now to take, in a recovery act, a real recovery. We can fundamentally change the science relating to global warming."

•
That is thinly veiled code for repeating his pledge to end the use of fossil fuels and adding monstrous regulations to the economy, i.e. raising the costs of energy, investment, labor, etc. – along with even higher taxes.

•
Biden's energy policies will also hit the profitable energy sector hard and thereby weaken the economy.

•
Overall, Biden wants to raise the costs of doing business in America and drain the private sector of much-needed startup capital.

•
Those are policies that he followed during the Obama administration and they were one reason their administration featured a rare moment in U.S. history: more business failures than startups.

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Victor Davis Hanson warns protest leaders: 'Today's revolutionary becomes tomorrow's counter-...' (Fox 06/09/2020)
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"These revolutionary movements are like a stream. and then all these other streams combine with these different agendas. careerist agendas."

•
"But what happens is. today's revolutionary becomes tomorrow's counter-revolutionary because you can never satisfy the mob and you have to get more and more extreme."

•
"There was this motive or this idea that [more] blacks were dying inordinately at the hands of the police than whites. and yet there was no data to support it. Then where do you go?"

•
"Then all of a sudden people were cutting their hair and saying 'I'm not black.' Children were accusing their parents of racism or suddenly it was 'defund the police' or you have to remove books from your bookshelf if they display inordinate attention to white authors."

•
"You'll never be able to satisfy the iteration as they get more radical, all we're waiting for now is a [French revolutionary Maximilien] Robespierre to come out and say, 'You know, I think we need to rename the months of the year or extend the weeks from seven days to 10 so we don't privilege Sunday, or we should start worshiping a new god'."

•
"A lot of this is a psychological mechanism of wealthy, privileged — white people, especially, but also wealthy and privileged minorities — of rhetorical penance so they don't have to ... rub shoulders with people they champion. It's very common in history."
Call them out! Dem pols and their Left-wing media comrades encouraged, enabled destruction and mayhem (JWR 06/08/2020)
The great threat to America, and to American Jewry (JWR 06/08/2020)
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Scattered among the thousands of cellphone videos depicting looting and destruction in the streets of America's greatest cities are clips of a different sort.

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In these short videos, we see throngs of white people on their knees, bowing before black people and asking for forgiveness for their "white privilege" and the "structural racism" in the deplorable, irredeemable United States of America.

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These videos point to a socio-political phenomenon that sparked the riots throughout the country following George Floyd's brutal death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

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They also make clear the reason that the liberal media in the United States continues to back the protests despite the fact that from the outset they have involved wide-scale violence, destruction and looting.

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Contrary to the narrative being pushed by the media and America's elites, the riots are not a consequence of increased police brutality towards African Americans.

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The violence we are seeing is a result of the steep radicalization of progressive white Americans. Biden gave voice to this radicalization last summer when, during a campaign appearance in Iowa he said, "We choose truth over facts."

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... between 2010-2019, white progressives became the only demographic group in U.S. history to prioritize the interests of other groups over its own interests.

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White progressives prioritize the advancement of the interests of minorities and immigrants over their own and over those of American society as a whole.

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Online platforms have created an information bubble that has created a warped presentation of reality to those inside the bubble. In this warped reality, race relations are far worse than they are in reality. Hence, those who inhabit this bubble prefer "truth" as presented in the bubble to facts.

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But the internet isn't the only source of the radicalization. The Obama presidency was also a factor.

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When Barack Obama won the presidential race in 2008, many Americans believed his victory was proof the United States had overcome its racist past.

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Obama however, did not support this view. Throughout his tenure in office, Obama used the power of his position to resonate and legitimize positions on race that until then had been relegated to the leftist margins of American politics.

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Obama cultivated the view that far from being a post-racial society, America is inherently racist and that American racism is structural — that is, it was baked in and impossible to overcome.

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In so doing, Obama gave credence to the false claim at the heart of the riots: that black Americans are under continuous, existential threat from the state as a whole and from law enforcement bodies first and foremost.

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A third cause of the radicalization of white progressives is the higher education system. The more radicalized campuses are, the more radicalized graduates become.

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As progressives, many American Jews share the views of their non-Jewish progressive counterparts regarding the need to prioritize the interests of minority communities over their own interests.

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Black Lives Matter, the radical group leading the demonstrations, is an anti-Semitic organization.

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One progressive Jew tried to square the circle writing in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, "Today Jews need to support Black Lives Matter; tomorrow we can talk about Israel."

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... as white progressives became radicalized on issues related to minorities and immigration, they also turned against Israel.

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Although New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio has prevented New York police from taking firm action against looters and arsonists, he did instruct them to use all necessary force to prevent ultra-Orthodox Jewish children from going to school.

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Earlier this week, police in Brooklyn chased a group of Hassidic children and their mothers off a playground in Williamsburg.

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Democrats believe the riots will wreck President Trump's reelection hopes. Polls this week indicate that at least in the short term, the unrest is hurting Trump's chances of being reelected.

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Then again, it's possible the chaos in the streets will strengthen public support for President Trump, who voters may view as the last bulwark separating them from national destruction.

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Whether Trump wins or loses in November, the radicalization of white progressives at the heart of the mayhem represents the greatest short and long-term threat to social cohesion in America.
America Is In A Cultural Civil War (Federalist 6/8/20)
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This is the week America woke up to a moment of clarity: we are in the midst of a great cultural civil war.

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The country was largely unified when we all saw the terrible video of George Floyd's tragic death – unified in anger and frustration, in wanting justice and punishment for a cop who, whatever his motivation, went too far and murdered a citizen for the crime of passing a counterfeit bill.

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Ever since then, we've been coming apart.

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The cultural civil war that has been simmering underneath the surface is now boiling.

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Consider that as much as the protests can largely be described as peaceful, they have now led to more than a dozen deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage and theft.

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Consider the image of Senator Tim Kaine, the former Vice Presidential nominee of his party, kneeling on the ground like he's a hostage, as if only the penitent white man will pass.

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Consider the footage from the Minneapolis mayor being shouted down for refusing to defund the police.

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It sets up a clash for the fall between the politics of revolutionary racial radicalism and defunding the police on the one hand, and law and order on the other.

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"The ‘abolish the police' movement is the final piece needed to replicate the mentality of the New Left in the late 1960s–positions so crazy that only people completely out of touch with reality can advocate them with a straight face."

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But farcical Maoism is still Maoist, and the struggle session doesn't become less so just because it's conducted by lunatics.

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The images of woke white protesters brought to their knees across the country, apologizing to the mob for sins they did not commit, is jarring and disturbing.

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At the heights of elite power – in the corporate board rooms that have decided to blast us with emails touting their payment of indulgences to cement their status as "allies" , and at institutions like The New York Times – leftist campus antagonism has now been made powerful and tangible as it entered the real world.

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Many of us warned this would happen after a decade of the Ivy Leagues churning out these aggressively woke children.
Trump's gains with African-Americans will be lost if he does not lead on police reform (Fox 06/08/2020)
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"We're now supposed to hate cops. No. Hate bad cops, help good ones. A great cop does as much to help society as a great doctor or nurse and it's in the line of fire."

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Across the media, people are telling you this is either/or — law and order or justice.

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But it's not either-or. It is first-then — first you have to restore order, then you have to bring justice. There was no progress with chaos.

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Yes, of course, they've got that toughest job in our society. They're the ones who put their lives on the line every day to protect us. If someone breaks into your house, if someone assaults you, if someone is brandishing a weapon, you call them, and they're there.

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But we need to be fair and balanced. There's been too much casual brutality by the police.

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Unprovoked violence like that is not just morally unacceptable. It's stupid because it gives people the chance to be anti-police.

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Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed — a Democratic mayor for 46 years. Not a single Republican on the city council this century.

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Minneapolis Democrats have been in charge of budgets, hiring, policies, practices. They could have done anything they wanted to reform policing.

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Who was stopping them? The governor — a Democrat for a decade. The state attorney general — a Democrat since 1971.

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Around the country, California was the state with the most black residents killed by police in 2019. Who is their governor? Democrat Gavin Newsom. Who is their attorney general? Democrat Xavier Becerra. It is practically a one-party state.

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And what about New York in 2019? The most black residents in the northeast killed by police. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Democratic Attorney General Letitia James.

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We keep talking about a small number of bad cops — rotten apples that spoil the barrel. Well, actually, we have the data on that. A study found that in Chicago, the worst 5 percent of officers account for a third of all civilian complaints.

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Sir Robert Peel in known as "the father of modern policing" ... Nine Principles of Policing from the early 1800s.

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I'm going to read to you the three most important ones. If every officer and every police force in America adhere to these principles, we will never again witness the scenes of the last few days.

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Number six: "Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient."

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Number seven: "Police at all times should maintain the relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police. The police being only members of the public, who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interest of community welfare and existence."

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Number nine: "The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it."

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President Trump is rightly proud of what he did for African-Americans — the lowest unemployment in history, opportunity zones to revitalize urban neighborhoods and long overdue criminal justice reform with the First Step Act.

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All those gains will be lost, politically speaking, at least, unless he now takes the next step — police reform.

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The president should lead this, a federal mandate to limit use of force, to bring policies, procedures and training in line with those principles Bill Bratton called his Bible.

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And to bring accountability by making sure every American has access to a serious independent police complaints commission, so we can use transparency to weed out the bad cops while supporting the good ones.

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Yes, the system is stacked against African-Americans, but who has been in charge of the system? Who runs the schools? Who runs the housing? Who runs the police in the places African-Americans most suffer poverty and injustice?

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Not the racist Republicans. Not the fascist Trump. But you, the Democrats. You're the ones doing this to black America.

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The answers to these problems are what Republicans and especially President Trump are all about — people power.

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African-American students at all levels do better in charter schools. ... In housing, transfer the assets to people. Give them ownership, a stake in society.

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Trump took on the establishment on China, on trade, on immigration. He freed up the economy like never before.

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All that's at risk, unless he steps up to this moment with a bold new plan to fight the education establishment, the housing establishment and yes, the policing establishment, to put real power in people's hands, especially African-Americans.

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Many this week are recalling the Civil Rights fights in the 1960s. JFK made the nice speeches, but it was LBJ who got it done.
Is America really racist? (INN 06/07/2020)
Black Lives Matter? All Lives Matter (INN 06/07/2020)
Dan Gainor: New York Times surrender — leftist takeover continues after Cotton op-ed (Fox 06/07/2020)
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Here's the money line to appease the mob: "we have concluded that the essay fell short of our standards and should not have been published."

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"Should not have been published!" Perhaps The Times should change its slogan and have those words appear on every edition of the paper.

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The appeasement continued by whining about "the tone of the essay," saying it "in places is needlessly harsh and falls short of the thoughtful approach that advances useful debate."

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Wow, "needlessly harsh?" Our cities are burning and being looted, including New York, where this travesty of journalism is published, but let's not be needlessly harsh.

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The paper didn't hide the reason for its wimp out. It's there in the first sentence: "this essay met strong criticism from many readers (and many Times colleagues), prompting editors to review the piece and the editing process."

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The paper had already capitulated Thursday night, claiming the Cotton op-ed "fell short of the newspaper's standards" in a separate article.

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Spokeswoman Eileen Murphy pretended "that a rushed editorial process led to the publication of an Op-Ed that did not meet our standards."

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The result is the far-left Times, one of the most influential news outlets in the nation, is being pushed into complete loony land.

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"They call it ‘safetyism,' in which the right of people to feel emotionally and psychologically safe trumps what were previously considered core liberal values, like free speech."

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America's left has radicalized in ways we've seen only in places like Cuba, Venezuela and the old USSR.

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It's not just the rioters in the streets. It's the people who claim to report on the news in an objective way.

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They have taken the knee and bowed to their woke employees, deciding that opposition voices are not welcome ... because they are scary.

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Every fight in the near future will be like this — one of safety vs. liberty.
Rep. Ken Buck: First lockdowns, then riots – here's how left's hypocrisy added fuel to the fire (Fox 06/07/2020)
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America is at a crossroads. Violent riots threaten our communities just as we begin to reemerge from months in lockdown.

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Now we face a choice between peace and fear, order and anarchy, light and darkness.

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Governors and mayors across the country acted in fear when they shuttered small businesses and closed houses of worship. As a result, millions remain out of work.

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In response, Americans from all over the country turned to faith and called for reopening while Leftist politicians shamed them.

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As New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy put it, those who disobey social distancing orders have "blood on [their] hands."

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Now more than ever, we need peace, order and faith as our country reels following the senseless death of George Floyd.

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But, as thousands of looters and rioters ransack stores, burn churches and spread violence across our nation, where are these same Leftist politicians that chided faithful and freedom-loving Americans just weeks ago?

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Where were they as St. John's Church in Washington, D.C., burned?

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... in no way is the behavior we are seeing a peaceful demonstration. The Constitution does not protect or condone setting churches ablaze, looting stores and destroying property.

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... as these vigilantes take to the street, I have yet to hear any state or local leaders cry "social distancing" and break up these mass gatherings out of coronavirus concerns.

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The Leftist media suddenly isn't concerned about the threat of coronavirus spreading among large crowds of angry protesters, when just weeks ago they lauded the arrest of hairdressers for reopening their shops.

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New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who recently ordered the arrest of courageous New Yorkers seeking to worship at synagogues over COVID-19 concerns, now stands in the streets as looters shatter windows and steal countless business owners' livelihoods.

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There is a difference between taking to the streets to peacefully protest the wrongful death of George Floyd and the destruction of property and entire communities that we are seeing.

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But the hypocrisy from Leftist leaders has only added fuel to this fire. The same politicians who once called for total lockdowns of their states are now allowing looters and rioters to destroy the communities they claim to love.

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It's sickening to see groups like ANTIFA use George Floyd's death as an excuse to tear down our nation's institutions and sow discord.

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New York's top terrorism official says anarchist groups initially planned to incite violence at protests nationwide.

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It takes a special kind of evil to take advantage of the nation's grief and organize riots that have destroyed communities across the country.

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This terrible situation has only been exacerbated by the poor leadership of governors and mayors who have chosen to lock up business owners instead of the violent rioters terrorizing their cities.

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Our governors and mayors need to refocus their priorities. They need to take a stand against violent anarchists burning cities to the ground, not hairdressers seeking to reopen their shops.
Von Spakovsky and Stimson: George Floyd rioters – use this federal law to punish violent criminals (Fox 06/07/2020)
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... the violence that has erupted around the protests over the death of George Floyd has nothing to do with democracy.

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Attacks on law enforcement officers and innocent civilians; looting and burning small businesses (often in minority neighborhoods) – this is criminal behavior.

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It is the work of anarchists and lawless mobs, instigated by those who want to take advantage of the tragedy that occurred in Minneapolis.

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State and local law enforcement are responsible for protecting the public – including those engaged in civil protests – and going after those engaged in criminal violence.

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If police forces need help, governors may call upon their state National Guard to lend a hand.

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U.S. Attorney General William Barr has said that federal law enforcement also has a role in "apprehending and charging the violent agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest and are engaged in violations of federal law."

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He added that the "violence carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly."

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The Federal Anti-Riot Act (18 U.S.C § 2101) allows the federal government to go after anyone who "travels in interstate or foreign commerce" or who uses "any facility of interstate or foreign commerce, including, but not limited to, the mail, telegraph, telephone, radio or television" to "incite a riot; or to organize, promote, encourage, participate in or carry on a riot; or to commit any act of violence in furtherance of a riot."

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Someone found guilty can be fined, imprisoned for up to five years or both for each violation.

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The law contains an unusual provision that shows Congress was quite serious about using it to stop the type of anarchy we are seeing in some of our nation's cities today.

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It directs the attorney general, when he believes that any person has violated the law, to "proceed as speedily as possible with a prosecution ... and with any appeal" that may result "from any decision adverse to the government resulting from such prosecution."

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Congressional intent is clear here: when riots break out, the executive branch must act as quickly as possible to go after those who are fomenting mayhem.

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The statute, 18 U.S.C. §241 prohibits conspiracies to "injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any person ... in the exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States."

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It also prohibits individuals from going "in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured."

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These rioters are arguably violating the rights of peaceful protesters, business owners and law enforcement officers to exercise their free speech rights, to own private property and protect their lives, and to carry out their duties to protect the public and enforce law and order.

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Violating this statute is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison. Ironically, the disguise language was inserted into the statute to go after the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

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It may be applicable here, as it seems obvious that Antifa and other radical groups have adopted the KKK's tactics of violence and masking.

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This type of criminal behavior has no place in a civilized, orderly society where we work out our problems peacefully through debate, political action and the democratic process.
David Limbaugh: Is there anything Trump's haters won't blame on him? (Fox 06/06/2020)
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Once again, President Donald Trump is being scapegoated for societal problems that he didn't cause.

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He didn't bring the coronavirus to our shores, and he has not created an atmosphere of racial disharmony in this country.

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Trump roundly condemned George Floyd's murder shortly after it occurred, but that wasn't enough.

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He condemned the organized thugs who hijacked the protests to vandalize, loot and endanger innocent people, but that was unacceptable.

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By condemning the anarchists, he was somehow chilling the peaceful protestors' free speech rights and showing insensitivity to their cause and their pain.

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People who viscerally hate Trump find fault in everything he does.

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Those wrongly accusing Trump of dividing the nation are themselves tearing us apart at the seams. He's working to restore law and order, and they're trying to undermine the peace.

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... when Trump denounces antifa terrorists for turning our city streets into war zones; torching and pillaging commercial establishments; and injuring and murdering innocent people, he is accused of trampling on the Constitution.

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No. He is doing precisely what a president should do. He is upholding the Constitution by restoring law and order; reestablishing domestic tranquility; and protecting American citizens, their property and their livelihoods.

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He is not on some power trip here; he is trying to prevent criminals from engaging in wanton destruction and dismantling our civil society.

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Just as one can simultaneously defend the right of citizens to peaceably protest while condemning rioters and looters, one can support the overwhelming majority of good and honorable law enforcement officers while condemning renegade cops.

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If we surrender to domestic terrorists and criminals, we won't have a nation anymore, which is apparently what the anarchists want. Stunningly, they're making substantial progress.

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It is indeed a sad day for America when people cheer on the disintegration of our society.

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Of course, decent and civilized people must denounce the murder of George Floyd and any other despicable incidents of police brutality, but that doesn't mean losing our heads and condemning all police officers by the very same type of stereotyping and antipathy that lie at the root of racism.

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We are all individuals and must be accountable for our own behavior, not smeared by a broad brush of indiscriminate condemnation.

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Couldn't Trump's opponents, who constantly accuse him of dividing the nation, just once try to join him in combating these deadly menaces threatening our society — the virus, the economic shutdown and the violence in our streets — instead of always focusing their energy on destroying him?

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See related Hates America Like Before (Jake Fuller, 2017)") cartoon from USA picture album
Like heroes of D-Day, National Guard members now defend us – this time from rioting in US (Fox 06/06/2020)
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Today we remember D-Day – exactly 76 years ago – as a signature achievement of the Greatest Generation.

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Still, D-Day was just one day. In addition to serving abroad, armed forces members from the citizen-militias of the colonial era to our modern-day warriors have safeguarded American communities faithfully and selflessly for two-and-a-half centuries.

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They saved San Francisco after the Great Earthquake and fire of 1906. They helped rescue New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

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Most recently, both National Guard and active-duty forces helped bend the curve during the COVID-19 outbreak.

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People marveled, for instance, at how quickly and efficiently they were able to convert New York City's Javits Center into a hospital and staff it with armed services medical personnel.

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Yet some would have you believe these servicemen and women have gone from heroic good guys to bad guys in less than a month.

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A chorus of critics – including some mayors, governors, activists, and journalists – are bemoaning the "militarization" of America.

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By this they mean employing troops to help restore peace in cities wracked by uncontrolled violence following the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

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"Today, more than 43,300 National Guard members in 34 states and D.C. are assisting law enforcement authorities with ongoing civil unrest, while more than 37,000 Guard Soldiers and Airmen continue to support the COVID-19 response."

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Complaints that the use of the National Guard creates a troubling "militarization" could not be more disingenuous.

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Let's start by considering what military troops actually do when used in the U.S. Typically, the primary role they are assigned is guarding property. This mission doesn't interfere with lawful protest in any manner.

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The presence of the National Guard is only a problem for people bent on destruction – those who want to break things, burn things and hurt people.

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In fact, people exercising their First Amendment rights – even those undertaking peaceful civil disobedience – are served as well. The military is there to protect them, too – and stop the violence and looting so they can peaceably demonstrate.

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The second mission the military usually performs in our country is supporting law enforcement. This is anything but "militarizing" the response.

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Rather, the military is freeing up, enabling and supporting police, fire, and EMT personnel so they can do their jobs. That makes our streets safer, not less free.

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Not bringing in the assets needed to safeguard the rights, freedom and property of all citizens is just wrong.

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When our soldiers are sent onto our streets, they are there to protect our freedoms, lives and property – not to take them away.

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Cities can use the military to help deal with rioting and looting without dishonoring the cause of peaceful protestors.

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These are facts conveniently ignored by people who decry "militarization" and insult service members who are willing to put their lives at risk to keep peace on our streets.

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As we remember those American heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy 76 years ago, we should also remember those soldiers here at home who stand guard on our street corners, protecting our individual rights as the nation works its way through an extraordinarily difficult season of division and disease.

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See related Generations (Michael Ramirez, 06/05/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: Cultural Revolution has come to America – brainwashing underway (Fox 06/06/2020)
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Every cult has the same goal: the utter submission of its members. Cult members surrender everything. They give up their physical freedom – where they can go, who they can see, how they can dress. But more than that, they give up control of their minds.

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Cult leaders determine what their followers are allowed to believe, even in their most private thoughts. In order to do this, cults separate people from all they have known before. They force members to renounce their former lives, their countries and their customs.

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They allow no loyalty except to the cult. The first thing they attack – always – is the family. Families are always the main impediment to brainwashing and extremism.

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If you're going to control individuals – if you're going to transform free people into compliant robots – the first thing you must do is separate them from the ones who love them most.

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In 1932, Soviet authorities began promoting the story of a 13-year-old peasant boy called Pavlik Morozov. Morozov, they claimed, had taken the supremely virtuous step of denouncing his own father to the secret police for committing counter-revolutionary acts.

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Once exposed as a traitor, the boy's father was executed by firing squad, supposedly for the safety of the state.

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Soviet dictator Josef Stalin elevated the boy to the status of a national hero for what he did. People wept in the streets when they heard his name. They worshipped him like a saint.

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Why are we telling you this? Because it's happening here. In the last 10 days, some of our most prominent citizens have sworn allegiance to a cult. Converts go by the term "allies."

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Like all cult members, they demand total conformity. They ritually condemn their own nation – its history, its institutions and symbols. It's flag. They denounce their own parents.

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If you've been on social media recently, you've likely seen videos that illustrate this – such as one showing a girl attacking her mother and father for the crime of insufficient loyalty to Black Lives Matter.

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In a video of a 15-year-old from Louisville called Isabella – and there are many like her – the girl is shown crying and saying: "I literally hate my family so much."

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She goes on to say her parents defended the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. And then she calls her parents racists, followed by an obscenity.

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"I hate my family so much." Just a week ago, it would have been hard to imagine that. Now, Isabella is a social media star. Celebrities tweet their approval. She may have her own cult before long.

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But the revolution is young. Children attacking their parents is just the beginning.

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"I think that the important thing for white parents to keep in the front of their mind is that if black children in this country are not allowed innocence and childhood without fear of being killed by police or marginalized in some other way, then our children don't deserve innocence."

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Happy childhoods are a sign of racism. The man saying this – and being affirmed by CNN anchors as he does – is a self-described "anti-racism activist." He has been saying things like this for a long time.

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How does Tim Wise make a living? In part, by lecturing students. Your kids may have seen him speak. They've almost certainly heard a lot from people like him. In America's schools, the revolution has been in progress for quite some time.

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Last February, to name one among countless examples, officials at schools in Rochester, N.Y., created a Black Lives Matter-themed lesson plan.

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The teaching materials dismiss America's bedrock institutions – indeed, America itself – as inherently racist.

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Suggested questions for students include: "How does mass incarceration function as a mechanism of racialized social control?"

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One specific racial group was singled out for exclusive blame. The curriculum promoted a book titled, "White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide."

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In other words, children, there's a reason hatred and inequality exist: these people did it! That's what your kids are learning right now.

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In Washington, D.C., an elementary school principal in the affluent northwest section of the city recently wrote a letter announcing: "We need more White parents to talk to their kids about race. Especially now."

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The letter singled out "White Staff and White community members," whom the principal alleged had committed "both macro- and micro-aggressions" against "Staff of Color."

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The principal did not specify what those crimes were. She didn't need to. Their skin color was their crime.

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Countless public schools are now using the 1619 Project from The New York Times as a curriculum. That project is the work of an out-of-the-closet racial extremist called Nikole Hannah Jones. Jones recently argued it's not violence to loot and burn stores – its justified.

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Her propaganda is now mandatory in public schools in Buffalo, Chicago, Newark and Washington.

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Many parents understandably deeply resent this. It's deranged, its racist. Others don't. They're "allies." They've joined in.

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One mother in London, where the cult is also spreading, posted a photo on Twitter of her daughter on blended knee, holding a sign declaring her "privilege."

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What will the effects of this be? Years from now, how will that little girl with the sign remember her childhood? Her mother took Tim Wise's advice. She no longer has innocence. Will she be grateful for that?

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It's hard to imagine she will be. She'll more likely feel bitter and used. Because she has been used. Many will feel that way.

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Is there a single person who believes this moment we're living through will end in racial harmony? Is that even a goal anymore? It doesn't seem like it.

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It seems clear that many in power are pushing hard for racial division. For hatred. For violence.

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Let's pray they don't get what they want. Tribal conflict destroys countries faster than any plague.

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But keep in mind as this insanity continues that it's not happening in a vacuum. Every action provokes a reaction – that's physics.

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We don't know where this is going. We don't want to know.

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The cult members should stop now – immediately, before more innocents get hurt – and they will, if they don't.

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See related What Did They Teach You in School Today? (Sean Delonas, 09/30/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Insurrection (JWR 06/05/2020)
What Is Fact-Checking without Facts? (06/05/2020)
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"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

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Senator Moynihan would not recognize that paragon of 21st century progressivism, the New York Times.

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The best part of the Times's apology, the instant classic, was the commitment to "expanding our fact-checking operation."

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You may believe a proposal to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to help police restore order in major American cities is a Know-Nothing stratagem that smacks of racism and fascism.

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Or you may not be unhinged but believe, nevertheless, that it is a bad idea. That, however, does not falsify the assertions of fact on which Cotton relied.

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The Insurrection Act has the force of law. It authorizes the president to use the armed forces of the United States — the National Guard as well as the other armed services, as needed — to suppress insurrections and wide-scale societal violence.

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Some provisions, consistent with Article IV of the Constitution, condition the president's authority to call the military into service for these purposes on the request of the state government.

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If the commander-in-chief assesses that a threat is sufficiently dire, unilateral action is authorized.

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Thus, the law provides: Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.

•
Another section, moreover, empowers presidents to use the armed forces based on their own judgment that doing so is "necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy" that threatens to deprive Americans of their rights.

•
The contentions that invocation of the Insurrection Act would be unconstitutional, unlawful, or unprecedented are legally and historically ignorant.

•
And how ironic is the notion that a president's doing so over the objection of state governments would be racist?

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Historically, the president's power has been deployed against the forces of racism that state governments either could not suppress or actually supported...

•
Relying on this detailed history and statutory law, Senator Cotton posited that deploying military forces to assist police and protect Americans besieged by rioters and looters does not establish martial law, much less end democracy.

•
That is true, as is his related assertion that such deployments do not violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 — a law that generally bars the military from civilian law-enforcement functions, but that expressly prescribes exceptions, which include the Insurrection Act.

•
Assuming we can be honest, we know, as the Times knew thanks to meticulous scrutiny, that Cotton was right ... about his underlying facts.

•
That doesn't make the opinion he formulates from them right. He could be well informed yet wrong.

•
Where it was reporting fact, Tom Cotton's op-ed was accurate. Cotton is a smart guy. The Times opinion editors are smart people.

•
The piece was published only because they mutually agreed on the rudimentary facts.

•
That is how it becomes possible for people, even people who disagree intensely, to have a dialogue and maybe make progress.

•
So what does the Times now mean about "expanding our fact-checking operation" ?

•
It can only mean that this "operation" will censor — or, better, further censor, to the point of exclusion — opinions that depart from modern progressive dogma.

•
Real progress is only possible, and real cohesion is only stable, if a society can agree that there are objective facts, and that they can be gotten at through reason and common sense.

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Only with that in place is it possible for us to work out our differences, or at least agree to disagree in peace.

•
You don't get to have your own facts. We used to know that.
The riots are not about George Floyd or racial justice. They're about Trump and seizing power (Fox 06/05/2020)
•
Most of us haven't been able to step back far enough to ask even the obvious questions. The most obvious, of course, is what is this really about? What do the mobs want?

•
Well, thugs looting the Apple Store can't answer that question. They have no idea. They just want free iPads.

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But what about Apple itself and the rest of corporate America, which is enthusiastically supporting the rioters? What about members of Congress, the media figures, the celebrities, the tech titans, all of whom are cheering this on. What do they want out of it?

•
Well, they haven't said. That's the central mystery.

•
Now suddenly, it is obvious. It should have been obvious on the first day. This is about Donald Trump. Of course, it is. We just couldn't see it.

•
For normal people, Donald Trump is the president. You may like him, you may not like him, but either way, there will be another president at some point, and we will move on as we always have.

•
But for Donald Trump's enemies, there is nothing else. Everything is about Trump. Everything.

•
Donald Trump defines their friendships, their careers, their marriages. Donald Trump affects how they raise their children. Trump occupies the very center of their lives.

•
As long as Donald Trump remains in the White House. They feel powerless and diminished and panicked. So they cannot be happy.

•
In everything they do, their overriding goal is to remove Donald Trump from office. And that's exactly what they're trying to do now. That's what these riots are about.

•
The most privileged in our society are using the most desperate in our society to seize power from everyone else.

•
Got that? That's the nub of it. The most privileged are using the most desperate to seize power from the rest of us.

•
They are not seeking racial justice. If they were seeking racial justice, they wouldn't be denouncing their fellow Americans for their race, which they are. It has nothing to do with it.

•
What they are seeking is total control of the country. And it goes without saying that none of this has anything to do with George Floyd.

•
They know exactly what's going on, and they know what they hope to achieve by it. With every night of rioting, they grow bolder. Now, they are openly defending violence on television.

•
If it all seems like yet another episode of the silly and fleeting hysteria that sometimes grips our culture out of nowhere, usually in lulls in the news cycle, you should know that it's not that.

•
This is entirely real. It is being pushed by serious people, and they are deadly serious about it.

•
Steve Fletcher represents the Third Ward in Minneapolis. He's on the City Council there. By this week, his city had been completely scorched by riots. At least 66 businesses were utterly destroyed by fire, 300 more had been vandalized or looted.

•
Fletcher didn't even mention that. Instead, he attacked the city's police department for trying to contain the violence: "Several of us on the Council are working on finding out what it would take to disband the Minneapolis Police Department."

•
You'd think people in the city would be shocked by that. But at least on the City Council, everyone else nodded their approval.

•
In the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti looks out across the worst rioting in the nation's second-largest city in a generation, in almost 30 years. His conclusion? We need far fewer police. It could have been better if they hadn't been there.

•
In New York, 48 separate Democratic candidates — and they were including in that the Manhattan district attorney — signed a letter demanding a $1 billion cut to the budget of the NYPD.

•
Why are they doing this? There are reasons, not the ones they tell you. They tell you it's about racism. They tell you that cops are racist and must be reined in.

•
Most Americans don't agree with that. That's not the experience they have. In fact, police departments are one of the most trusted institutions in the country.

•
According to Gallup polling last year, 53 percent of Americans said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the police. That was far more confidence than they had in almost any other institution... How many Americans trusted Congress? Eleven percent.

•
So, what would happen if we got rid of the police? Of all law enforcement? How would Americans feel if they actually defunded the police?

•
Well, terrified mostly. That's how we would feel. Things would fall apart instantly. It would take hours.

•
Here's the key. Eliminating the police does not mean eliminating authority. There is always authority. There are no vacuums in nature.

•
The only question is whether or not the authority is legitimate — whether or not the authority is accountable. Whether or not you can do anything if the authority abuses its power.

•
In the absence of law enforcement, the answer is no. It means thugs are in charge. The most violent people have the most power. They can do whatever they want to you.

•
That's the reality. Everyone obeys the violent people, or they get hurt. The mob literally rules.

•
That probably sounds like a nightmare to you, because it is.

•
But the people pushing this idea don't see it as scary because they don't fear the mob, because they control the mob. That's the key. And they see violence as an instrument of their political power.

•
With mobs in the streets that they control, they will finally get what they want — Donald Trump out of office and a hammerlock on the country. That's what's happening.

•
See related Hates America Like Before (Jake Fuller, 2017)") cartoon from USA picture album
Rioting, looting, arson and violence have become a civilization-destroying pandemic (Fox 06/05/2020)
•
The United States is calmer, though still threatening, following days of rioting that spread with lightning speed across the nation, with murderous assaults on police officers and civilians and the ecstatic annihilation of businesses and symbols of the state.

•
Welcome to a real civilization-destroying pandemic, one that makes the recent saccharine exhortations to "stay safe" and the deployment of police officers to enforce outdoor mask-wearing seem like decadent bagatelles.

•
This particular form of viral chaos was inevitable, given the failure of Minneapolis's leaders to quell the city's growing mayhem.

•
The violence began on May 26, the day after the horrifying arrest and subsequent death of a black man named George Floyd as he lay handcuffed on the ground.

•
On the night of May 28, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey ordered the city's Third Police Precinct evacuated as the forces of hatred, distinct from legitimate forms of protest, descended upon it for a third day in a row.

•
The building was promptly torched, sending a powerful sign that society would not defend its most fundamental institutions of law and order.

•
On May 29, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz explained his reluctance to mobilize the National Guard as an unwillingness to seem "oppressive."

•
Naturally, he apologized for his white privilege – "I will not patronize you as a white man without living [your] lived experiences" – and explained the feral violence as an understandable response to racial injustice.

•
"The ashes are symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish, unheard," Walz said. Few arrests were made after five days of rampant crime.

•
The media, visibly exhilarated by this latest explosion of black rage, had its own explanation for the chaos: people were upset that the white officer who had kept his knee on Floyd's neck for a sickening eight-plus minutes had not yet been arrested and charged.

•
But when that arrest came, along with murder and manslaughter charges after a lightning-fast investigation by the district attorney, the anarchy continued – not just in Minneapolis but across the country.

•
Political leaders elsewhere were just as reluctant to use the necessary force to quell the violence.

•
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called on police to use a "light touch" in response.

•
"The explosion we saw last night we'll probably see again tonight," Cuomo said – obviously confident in his own physical safety, if not the safety of the rest of the state's residents.

•
The attacks on local law enforcement were already happening out of sight of TV cameras before the most photogenic scenes of arson and the stomping of squad cars started showing up on network and cable news.

•
On May 26, and May 27, Chicago residents surrounded and threw bottles at Chicago police trying to arrest gun suspects. One suspect was the likely perpetrator of a shooting that had just hit a five-year-old girl and two teenage boys.

•
On Tuesday ... four St. Louis officers were shot, and a police captain was killed, amid looting in the city. The next night, in Brooklyn, an officer was stabbed in the neck and two others were shot.

•
Even worse is to come, because since 2015, the country has absorbed another five years of academically inspired racial victimology.

•
Facts don't matter to the academic victimology narrative. One facts is that whites are the overwhelming target of interracial violence.

•
Between 2012 and 2015, blacks committed 85.5 percent of all black-white interracial violent victimizations (excluding interracial homicide, which is also disproportionately black-on-white) ... That works out to 540,360 felonious assaults on whites.

•
Whites committed 14.4 percent of all interracial violent victimization, or 91,470 felonious assaults on blacks. Blacks are less than 13 percent of the national population.

•
If white mobs were rampaging through black business districts, assaulting passersby and looting stores, we would have heard about it on the national news every night. But it is not happening.

•
Why are the Minneapolis police in black neighborhoods? Because that's where violent crime is happening, including shootings of two-year-olds and lethal beatings of 75-year-olds.

•
Just as during the Obama years, the discussion of the allegedly oppressive police is being conducted in the complete absence of any recognition of street crime and the breakdown of the black family that drives it.

•
Once the violence began, any effort to "understand" it should have stopped, since that understanding is inevitably exculpatory.

•
The looters are not grieving over the stomach-churning arrest and death of George Floyd; they are having the time of their lives.

•
You don't protest or mourn a victim by stealing Oxycontin, electronics, jewelry and sneakers.

•
Fittingly, the ideological handmaiden of this violence – academia – has already sprung into action.

•
The chancellors and presidents of Harvard, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale – among others – released statements last weekend assuring their black students of their schools' commitment to racial equity, in light of the George Floyd death – an event wholly unrelated to academic institutions. No college leader denounced the violence.

•
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block – as well as the school's $400,000 a year vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and a parade of deans – announced that the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and the school's legions of equity advisers would be coming up with new programs for "virtual reflection spaces" in which to "humbly acknowledge the pain."

•
The academic diversity bureaucracy has now been given a whole new excuse for existence and can be assured that it will escape the cost-cutting chopping block, even as universities beg the federal government for more coronavirus bailout money.

•
Thanks to the magnificent infrastructure of the rule of law, we now take stability and social trust for granted.

•
We assume that violence, once unleashed in the name of justice, can easily be put back in the bottle.

•
It cannot.

•
It was a signal accomplishment of both politics and science to banish humanity's millennia-long fear of darkness.

•
That city dwellers are now re-experiencing that fear with each fall of night is a measure of how rapidly we are losing our hard-won progress.
Mattis 'should have picked up a couple of his history books' before denouncing Trump (Fox 06/05/2020)
•
"He begins by saying very nice things about the protesters, that they want equal justice under the law, we all want that. Then he has this amazing sentence, 'We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers.'"

•
"What? Are you kidding me? We are not just talking about a couple of people [who] broke away from peaceful protests, put a little bit of shaving cream of the windshield of a police car, something like that."

•
"We're talking about massive looting, attacks on everything from Target to Macy's to Rolex."

•
In response to Mattis' criticism that Trump does not even try to unite the American people, Murdock said the Republican is the first president in his lifetime who tries to unite the American people.

•
"Mattis, as a member of the Cabinet, was at the State Of The Union — he was sitting in the front row — when Donald J. Trump said this [in] 2018: 'I want to talk about what kind of future we are going to have, what kind of nation we are going to be. All of us together as one team, one people and one American family,' That seems like an effort to try to unify us."

•
"Then you look at the policies he supported. For example, supporting historically black colleges and universities, providing federal funding, finding corporate sponsors to help with their apprenticeship programs. I think the huge thing he's done is to try to unify the country."

•
"Criminal justice reform. This is something Black Lives Matter has screamed for, for years. Obama and Biden didn't deliver that, guess who did? Donald J. Trump. That seems like quite the effort to try and unify the country."

•
In response to criticisms of Trump's demeanor, Murdock explained that Trump has the right tone for the times he is in.

•
"Look, these are tough times and the other side is not polite to him. We've seen the other side's behavior out in the streets over the last few days. So he's supposed to be nice and sweet and gentle like Mr. Rogers while these other people call him names, call him racist, call him Hitler, worse than Hitler, somebody actually called him. I don't see a lot of politeness on that side."

•
"One important thing also that General Mattis brought up in his very, very flimsy article. He said, 'At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so on very rare occasions by state governors,' as opposed to federal governors, I suppose."

•
"This is the Insurrection Act of 1807. It's been used by 12 different presidents from Jefferson all the way to George H.W. Bush. One of those occasions was by the Democrat hero Lyndon Baines Johnson. He actually brought in the military — guess what? — to put down riots in Washington, D.C."

•
"So General Mattis really should have picked up a couple of his history books."
NY Times revolt over Republican op-ed forces paper to back down (Fox 06/05/2020)
•
We are getting a great insight into the culture of the New York Times.

•
The paper struck a blow for honest journalism — and that greatly upset many of its staffers.

•
At stake is whether the op-ed pages of a newspaper should be a forum for debate, or just a vehicle for reinforcing what its top editors and a majority of its readers already believe.

•
To choose the latter course is to reduce that precious real estate to predictable propaganda, which is not just one-sided but boring.

•
The Times did the right thing — well, until it didn't. The paper's editors chose to publish a piece by Tom Cotton, a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, titled "Send In The Military."

•
Cotton argues that it's perfectly appropriate for President Trump to use the military to restore order in cities wracked by violent protests after the brutal killing of George Floyd.

•
Well, there was an open revolt at the paper, led by black journalists who were offended.

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"As a black woman, as a journalist, as an American, I am deeply ashamed that we ran this."

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"Running this put Black @nytimes staffers in danger."

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"His piece was inflammatory and endorsing military occupation as if the constitution doesn't exist."

•
Editorial Page Editor James Bennet took to Twitter to defend his decision:"Times Opinion owes it to our readers to show them counter-arguments, particularly those made by people in a position to set policy. We understand that many readers find Senator Cotton's argument painful, even dangerous. We believe that is one reason it requires public scrutiny and debate."

•
Publisher A.G.Sulzberger added his support in a sensitively worded note to employees yesterday:

•
"It is clear many believe this piece fell outside the realm of acceptability, representing dangerous commentary in an explosive moment that should not have found a home in The Times, even as a counterpoint to our own institutional view. I believe in the principle of openness to a range of opinions, even those we may disagree with, and this piece was published in that spirit."

•
It's stunning to me that both men had to plead with their employees (and readers) to understand the essence of op-ed debate.

•
The Arkansas senator praised the editors yesterday, telling Fox: "They've stood up to the ‘woke progressive mob' in their own newsroom. So, I commend them for that."

•
But he spoke too soon. About two hours after I checked in with the Times PR office, the paper caved.

•
"We've examined the piece and the process leading up to its publication," the new statement said. ... "This review made clear that a rushed editorial process led to the publication of an op-ed that did not meet our standards." The paper said it would make changes, expand its fact-checking operation and publish fewer op-ed pieces.

•
Meanwhile, a similar controversy erupted at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and staffers were so angry that some of them walked out. In fairly short order, the paper apologized.

•
"... We're tired of being told to show both sides of issues there are no two sides of."

•
No two sides — there's that ideological stance again. Agree with us or your words shouldn't be published.

•
And this for a column that flatly declared black anger is justified — but lamented the senseless destruction of property.

•
... the notion that only one viewpoint is acceptable, and no contrary words should be published, even on an opinion page, gets at the heart of why journalism has lost so much credibility.
Mollie Hemingway: Trump and many Americans do not want unity with what the left believes (Fox 06/06/2020)
•
Many Americans, including President Trump, don't want unity with "leftist messages" like those spouting from Black Lives Matter.

•
"Well, I think a lot of people would say, 'Of course he's not a uniter. That's not what he was elected to do,' There are people who think that uniting with people who think that the country is irredeemably evil is not in our best interest."

•
"The big mood of the moment: the official group that names itself Black Lives Matter has an official position of defunding police nationwide. And, a lot of people say, 'You must unite with that movement.'"

•
"A lot of people say, 'I don't want to unite with a movement that says that we should defund the police nationwide.' To unite with that movement might even sound completely crazy. And yet, people say that...there should be unity on these things."

•
"Well, I think the issue is that when people see unity, they seem to think unity with leftist messages. And, a lot of people are saying, 'We don't want unity with leftist messages. We want someone willing to fight those leftist messages.'"

•
"You know, there are mobs out there saying ' you must bow down and be unified.' A lot of people are saying, 'I don't want to be unified. I don't think the country is irredeemably evil. I actually believe in the founding principles. I believe in equal justice under the law and individual liberty and individual responsibility,'"

•
"And so, when people say 'Oh, but he's not a uniter.' A lot of people say, 'Thank God he's not a uniter. Thank God he's willing to highlight what needs to be fought for.' And, that is not a message you get from a lot of people in the media who just sort of say, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. He should be a uniter,'"

•
"Well, unity is nice but you need to be united on the right principles. And, you need to fight for those principles."
Collective Guilt Is a Catastrophic Mistake (JWR 06/04/2020)
•
During my lifetime, the national conversation about race has gradually moved from culpability for individual behavior to culpability for ideology to collective culpability without regard to behavior or ideology.

•
This transition is significant. It is deliberate. And it is dangerous.

•
Focusing on "discrimination," as our laws have done for decades, places the emphasis on conduct, which can be clearly identified and prohibited.

•
Punishing an attitude of racism, however, is more problematic. It is one thing to condemn it. But how do you penalize or sanction it, apart from the conduct that reflects it?

•
Contemporary race theorists and activists have chosen to expand their definitions even further to encompass what they now call "systemic racism" and "white privilege."

•
According to these theories, one is culpable simply for having "benefitted" from a system in which blacks and other minorities were — and are — discriminated against.

•
... the current calls for "honest conversations" entail members of the "privileged" classes admitting to collective culpability. This is cast as a precursor to "healing," and many well-intentioned people are more than willing to do it.

•
I have read tweets and emails, and watched videos in which white Americans kneel, bow their heads in supplication, beg for forgiveness for the wrongs committed by other people or refer to themselves as "recovering racists" simply because they are white.

•
This is insulting, offensive and dangerous.

•
First, it runs completely counter to one of the most fundamental tenets of the American legal tradition: We do not punish people for the crimes or wrongdoing of others.

•
Second, there is no natural place where one can logically stop with the collective culpability racket.

•
Third, there is plenty of modern precedent to show us what happens when a country incorporates a system of collective culpability purportedly to remediate oppression.

•
The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution sent tens of thousands of innocent people to the guillotine.

•
Tens of millions were killed during Russia's and China's revolutionary upheavals of the 20th century, condemned as "bourgeois" or "running-dog capitalists."

•
Even in tiny Cambodia, nearly 3 million people — a fifth of the population — were murdered by the communist Khmer Rouge regime, which condemned anyone who was educated as an "enemy of the poor."

•
Fourth, a system that blames classes of people for things they have not individually done also exonerates classes of people for things they have individually done.

•
We need look no further back than the events of the past few days, as mobs of violent individuals have used justifiable outrage and lawful protests as a cover for vandalism, arson, looting, theft, destruction, brutal assault and even murder.

•
And yet there are voices in our "national conversations" that would excuse this behavior as an understandable response by the oppressed in a system that is rigged against them.

•
As we watch our cities burn, we cannot fool ourselves by thinking that what happened in France in the 1790s, in Russia in the 1930s, in China in the 1960s and in Cambodia in the 1970s cannot happen here.

•
We owe it to ourselves and our children to make sure that it doesn't happen here.

•
We can punish police brutality without smearing all police officers.

•
We can acknowledge destructive policies and practices of the past and present; work together to eliminate them; and improve conditions for those who have been most negatively affected.

•
But a move from individual responsibility to collective culpability will destroy our nation.

•
History has proven — amply — that a political system founded upon class resentment, blame, hatred and violence destroys everything and helps no one.
The George Floyd Riots: Where's Black Lives Matter When You Need Them? (JWR 06/04/2020)
•
Ostensibly, the protests are about the alleged "epidemic" of "widespread" and "race-based" police brutality against blacks and the lack of confidence, in the case of Floyd, that justice will be done.

•
The problem with these assertions is that they are false, not supported by the data.

•
The No. 1 reason for death, preventable or otherwise for young black men, is homicide, almost always at the hands of another young black man.

•
In 2018, there were approximately 7,400 black homicide victims, more than half of the nation's total number of homicides, out of a black population of 13%.

•
Of that number, the police killed a little over 200 blacks, and nearly all of them had a weapon or violently resisted arrest.

•
In recent years, the police have averaged killing about 1,000 Americans per year. ... Of the approximately 1,000 killed by cops, less than 4% involve a white officer and an unarmed black man.

•
"Regarding threats to blacks from the police: A police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer."

•
In Baltimore, where in 2015, a black man named Freddie Gray died in police custody, how could one, with a straight face, argue that resident blacks suffer from "institutional" racism?

•
The mayor was a black female; the top two officials in the police department were black; the city council was majority black; the state attorney who brought the charges against six officers was black; three of the six charged officers were black; the judge before whom two officers tried their cases was black; the U.S. attorney general was black, as was the president of the United States. Institutional racism?

•
Finally, why didn't President Barack Obama's administration deal with this alleged "systemic" or "structural" or "institutional" police brutality against blacks in his eight years in office?

•
Meanwhile, over Memorial Day weekend in Obama's adopted hometown of Chicago, 10 people were killed, and 49 were shot.

•
In a city where roughly one-third of the population is black, 70% of the city's homicide victims, according to the Chicago Police Department, are black.

•
When and where do the protests begin?
New Floyd Murder Charges Will Be Tough to Prove and May Imperil Good Cops (06/04/2020)
•
It is virtually never a good thing to have an ideological agitator as the prosecutor in a case where the mob is baying for blood, and where nothing less than the most severe charges will satisfy them ... even if such charges do not line up with the facts of the case.
Tucker Carlson: Is America being torn apart by a total, complete — but provable — lie? (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
For many of us, this has been one of the saddest, most painful weeks in memory. Depressing doesn't even begin to describe it.

•
We have watched as mobs of violent cretins have burned our cities, defaced our monuments, beaten old women in the street, shot police officers and stolen everything in sight — stealing everything.

•
How many innocent Americans have these people hurt? How many have they murdered? We don't know that number. But it's the country itself that so many of us worry about at this point.

•
After we've watched what's happened over the last week, how do we put the society back together? Can we? We don't know that, either.

•
If you're grieving for America right now, you are not alone. Millions feel the same way you do.

•
So many of our leaders, by contrast, are not grieving. They seem exhilarated. They feel nothing as our nation descends into anarchy.

•
They see chaos, instead, as an opportunity, a chance to solidify their control, to increase their market share to win elections.

•
They have no interest in talking about the details of what is actually happening out there on our streets.

•
In fact, they're hiding those details. They're demanding that you forget what you saw.

•
Don't forget it. Remember all of it — every bit — because it's proof of who they are.

•
What they're defending and encouraging has nothing to do with civil rights. It is violence, and the criminals you see on the screen are not protesters.

•
What they support is more power for themselves and they're willing to use gangs of thugs to get it.

•
Their latest demand is that we eliminate the police entirely. No more law enforcement in this country.

•
That would mean more power for the mob. They could do anything.

•
It would mean never-ending terror for you and for your family. That's why they want it.

•
Our leaders are kneeling before the mob, the atavistic ritual of self-abasement of defeat. Suddenly, many are performing this ritual, including police around the country.

•
The mob wants victory. But more than that, it wants the total humiliation of its enemies.

•
Why do we kneel? We kneel because we've lost. We kneel before our victors because they have won. We put down our resistance. We beg for their mercy.

•
But mobs rarely forgive. "We're on your side!" we shout. We're in solidarity, spare us. But they never do.

•
"We're on your side" as the rock comes through the window. You think the mob cares? No.

•
What's happening to this country? Why are Americans surrendering to violent mobs? Well, because they've been told they have to.

•
Everything we're now watching — the looting, the arson, the killing — has a purpose. The purpose we're told again and again is to end racist police violence against African-Americans.

•
We are told that that is the single greatest scourge in this country.

•
Demonstrators say repeatedly, "Stop killing us." Stop killing us — it's chilling. And if you believe it, and you're a decent person, you will be moved by it — because it's awful.

•
No American should ever be mistreated by those in authority, much less killed. The abuse of power is always and everywhere a sin, and it's increasingly common here. We should always work to end it.

•
In this case, the death of a man at the hands of police in Minneapolis turned out to be a metaphor for abuse of power.

•
That death has led to demands that we fire the nearly 700,000 police officers who work in the United States and that we free the million and a half criminals who are now behind bars.

•
In the words of Ben Crump, who is the lawyer representing George Floyd's family in Minneapolis, what we're witnessing here in America is "genocide." Genocide?

•
If you believe we were seeing genocide, then you might understand the riots now in progress. There's nothing worse than genocide.

•
But is it happening? Is any of this true? We should find out. Facts matter. What exactly are the numbers?

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Since 2015, The Washington Post has maintained a comprehensive database of fatal police shootings in this country. Last year, The Post logged a total of 1,004 killings.

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Of the 802 shootings in which the race of the police officer and the suspect was noted, 371 of those killed were white, 236 were black.

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The vast majority of those killed were not, in fact, unarmed; the vast majority were armed.

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And African-American suspects were significantly more likely to have a deadly weapon than white suspects, yet more white suspects were killed.

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Overall, there were a total of precisely 10 cases in the United States last year, according to The Washington Post, in which unarmed African- Americans were fatally shot by the police.

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Now, as we said, a lot is at stake. The country is at stake. So we want to take the time now to go through these case by case, into the specifics.

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That is the entire list from 2019, last year — 10 deaths. In five deaths, an officer was attacked just before the shooting occurred. That is not disputed.

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One allegedly was an accident. That leaves a total of four deaths during a pursuit or in a standoff.

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So out of four, in two of those cases — and fully half — the officer was criminally charged. Is it possible that more of these officers should have been charged? Of course, it's possible. Justice is not always served, that's for sure.

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But either way, this is a very small number in a country of 325 million people. This is not genocide. It's not even close to genocide. It is laughable to suggest it is.

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At the same time, this country remains a dangerous place for police officers. Forty-eight of them were murdered in 2019 according to FBI data. That's more than the number of unarmed suspects killed of all races.

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... for every unarmed African-American shot to death in the United States by police, more than 700 were murdered by someone else, usually by someone they know.

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Is our nation being ripped apart by a total and complete lie, a provable lie?

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A lie used by cynical media manipulators and unscrupulous politicians who understand that racial strife — race hatred — is their path to power, even if it destroys the country.

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You have the facts now and you can decide what's really going on.
Get Up Off Your Knees (JWR 06/03/2020)
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Dear law-abiding Americans: You have done nothing wrong.

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Being white is not a crime. Being a Trump voter is not a crime. Being a police officer sworn to "protect and serve" every day is not a crime. Being a non-white police officer proud to uphold and enforce law and order is not a crime. Being a black or brown or yellow American who rejects excusing criminal behavior is not a crime.

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Rejecting collective guilt is not a crime. Refusing to acknowledge "white privilege" when you were born poor, or in a broken home, or with physical or psychological challenges, is not a crime. Embracing the historic American nation, instead of erasing it, is not a crime.

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Enforcing your private property rights is not a crime. Teaching your wife and children to use a gun in self-defense is not a crime. Owning an AR-15 or two is not a crime.

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Do not let the media, Hollywood, academics or politicians gaslight you. Stop internalizing lies.

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Turn off CNN and tune into the facts on the ground. At least 25 Philadelphia cops have been hurt during mob violence this week. It's an all-out war on the thin blue line. At least 150 cops have been assaulted — four nearly murdered — in New York City as of Tuesday afternoon. Two Buffalo, New York, law enforcement officers were run over late Monday night. In addition, 51 members of the U.S. Park Police were injured; a Cincinnati cop was grazed by a bullet aimed at his head; four St. Louis officers were shot; one retired St. Louis police captain was killed; a Las Vegas Metro cop was shot; and a federal officer was shot and killed in Oakland — all in the name of peace, tolerance and reparations.

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"You walk through my door, you threaten my life, I'm aiming for the head."

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It is how armed small-business owners of all colors are now facing an onslaught of crazed, greedy and evil barbarians hell-bent on destroying every enforcement bulwark that protects our civil society — from our borders to our neighborhoods to the White House.

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It makes me sick to my stomach to see virtue-signaling police chiefs kneeling before barking rioters calling them "pigs."

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I am nauseated by the sight of sobbing white people groveling for forgiveness before sadistic Black Lives Matter demagogues — as if this will appease the unappeasable. It will not and never will.

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America, straighten your spines. Unbow your heads. No home or nation was ever saved by kowtowing to invaders or ransackers. Unless you are praying to G od, get up off your knees.
Is America burning? (INN 06/03/2020)
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... from our Wisdom of the Fathers, there is this: "Pray for the welfare of the government; if not for the fear thereof men would swallow each other alive."

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A generation has arisen that has no respect for the government, nor for laws, nor for religion, nor for neighbors, nor for elders, nor for decency, nor for property.

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From city to city, men are being stomped. Out in the open, women are being clubbed with baseball bats. Democrats call it Spring Break.

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In case you think I've switched the topic to Venezuela, no, still talking about America.

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For it is now obvious that the grieving for George Floyd through justified protest was soon overtaken by amateur and professional agitators...white and black alike.

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They swarmed out of the woodwork like termites. They were always there, biding their time, knowing that sooner or later the pretext will come, and it came by way of a brutish police officer...the one bad cop among the million good cops who make no headlines.

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The thugs taking over our streets...where do they come from? Do they have families, homes, jobs? Were they educated? Educated... yes.

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This is the generation that learned to despise America, if not through the schools, then through the news media.

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First lesson: Patriotism is bad. Anarchy is good.

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Second – the ABC's of the Left: "Always Be Complaining." Never be satisfied with the gifts and opportunities America has to offer.

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Third – always be resentful. Never blame yourself for your failures. Blame people who succeed. Blame the country.

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Think of this: Until the termites and locusts devoured our earth, and picked it clean, America was the envy of the world, the beacon on the hill.

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Today, for the first time in 244 years, we cannot say that with honesty. The mighty have surrendered to the mobs. Our leaders are complicit or fearful, and there is no respect for authority.

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A college student, speaking for her generation, asks, with derision, "Who is this Mozart?"

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So do not wonder why she knows nothing. In place of the classics, Bible, Homer, Shakespeare, the Canon, the foundation of Western Thought... she was fattened with Gender Studies.

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She would be a follower of AOC, the blathering moron. Her hero would be Michele Obama, whose own college papers show her to be barely literate.

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Here's what the elites, those who educate our young, think of us: MIT Economist Jonathan Gruber, architect of Obamacare, was caught saying that the measure passed only through the "stupidity of the American voter." How did we get so stupid?

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Ben Rhodes was part of Obama's inner circle, and he quipped: "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old... They literally know nothing."

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They know nothing, and then they multiply.

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See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
The 'revolution' being waged in the George Floyd mob violence is against the working class (Fox 06/03/2020)
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First they smashed the windows of police cars, and our elected leaders said nothing. It's a political protest, they told us. We stand with the protesters.

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Before long it grew. Mobs of menacing young men formed in the streets. They were clearly intent on violence, but no one in authority dared criticize them.

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We understand their frustration, our leaders told us. America is a sinful country. Their grievances are legitimate.

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And so the mobs grew larger, and they grew emboldened. Last Thursday, they came right to the front door of a police precinct in Minneapolis. The cops inside fled under orders from their mayor.

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The mob burned the building. But before they did, they looted the evidence room, and that ensured that many violent crimes will never be solved. They did this in the name of justice.

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Still, our leaders did nothing. Most of them never even mentioned it, like it never happened. Instead, they issued yet more statements in solidarity with the mob.

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Politicians, celebrities, corporate leaders, clergy, news anchors, professional athletes — almost every person in this country that we were raised from childhood to look up to, to respect, to listen to — all of them sided with the people burning police stations.

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The mob saw this and grew stronger. On Monday night, they began shooting cops.

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For 38 years, David Dorn was a police officer in the City of St. Louis. No one ever accused Dorn of racism. He was black. He is dead now.

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He was murdered Monday night by the mob. His killing was streamed live on Facebook, and then the violence accelerated from there.

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In St. Louis alone, four other active duty police officers were shot Monday night. In Las Vegas, an officer took a bullet in the head. He is still in critical condition.

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How many more nights like this can we take? How many more nights like this before no one in America will serve as a police officer? It's not worth it. The people in charge hate you. The job doesn't pay enough.

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At that point, who will enforce the laws? Who will be in charge? Well, violent young men with guns will be in charge.

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They will make the rules, including the rules in your neighborhood. They will do what they want.

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You will do what they say. No one will stop them. You will not want to live here when that happens.

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Chaos is the worst thing always, and wise leaders understand that. It's obvious.

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So the question is, how did murdering David Dorn advance the cause of racial justice exactly? No one explains; Biden didn't. Meanwhile, Biden's staff continues to send money to the rioters. Other Democrats followed in perfect sync.

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In Massachusetts, the state attorney general, Maura Healey, applauded the riots and did it explicitly. She described the killing and looting underway as "a once in a lifetime opportunity. Yes, America is burning, but that's how forests grow."

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The press isn't simply covering the riots, meanwhile, but assisting the riots.

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BuzzFeed, meanwhile, published a guide for rioters. It included helpful tips like this: Wear nondescript clothing, cover up tattoos, don't take photographs.

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... "Defund the police." That's the position of Black Lives Matter, the most popular group in America among corporate leaders. Defund the police. No more cops. That's what they're fighting for.

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So, if we did that, who would keep order? Well, The New York Times has an answer to that: "Rapid response, social workers would keep the peace."

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If you live in a gated community, it might sound like a good idea. You've got your own police force. You have no plans to replace them with rapid response social workers.

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But what about everyone else? What's going to happen to them? Don Lemon and Rashida Tlaib don't care at all. Your neighborhood is not their problem.

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They're in it for the revolution, and make no mistake, it is a revolution from above, aimed downward.

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This is the only revolution in history that's being waged not on behalf of the working class, but against them.
The ‘Institutional Racism’ Canard (06/03/2020)
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About twice as many white people as black people are killed by police. In fact, in about 75 percent of police shootings, the decedent is not black. Of course, that is not what you would grasp from consuming media.

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Ridiculous as this syllogism is (as we'll see, it conveniently elides more consequential factors), it still puts the lie to the slanderous narrative that police are hunting down black men.

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Even if we ignore the fact that an increasing number of police officers — obviously including those involved in encounters with black suspects — are themselves African Americans, the percentage of black deaths from police shootings would be much higher if blacks were being targeted.

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Police do not go looking for people to shoot. In shooting situations, police are confronting crime suspects, the majority of whom are armed. But given that George Floyd was unarmed, let's consider unarmed people killed in such encounters.

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Such unarmed decedents, too, were twice as likely to be white as black in 2019 — i.e., 19 unarmed whites, nine unarmed blacks.

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In stark contrast ... "a police officer is 18? times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer."

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The media, the bipartisan political class, the academy, and the commentariat concoct their "systemic," "institutional," "unconscious" racism fiction by statistical tunnel vision: We must conclude that African Americans — in particular, young black men — are being targeted by police because the percentage of killings of blacks significantly overrepresents the black population.

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While African Americans are involved in two times more police shootings than their percentage of the population would seem to warrant, they commit 53 percent of murders and 60 percent of robberies — well over four times their percentage of the population.

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The political establishment would have you assume this statistical disparity is caused by institutional racism that myopically beams police attention onto black men.

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But we know the statistics accurately reflect reality because crimes get reported by victims — a large percentage of whom are black (also outstripping their share of the overall population).

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... of 776 black–white homicides, blacks committed 533 and whites 243. Neither of these numbers, by the way, nor their combined total, comes anywhere close to the number of blacks killed by blacks: a staggering 2,570 — the overwhelming majority male.

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The most dangerous threat to the African-American community in America is not cops. It is liberals.

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The United States is not institutionally racist. The political system, the criminal-justice system, and academe overflow with political progressives.

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The notion that they would tolerate racism in their institutions would be laughable if sensible people were encouraged to think about it rather than mindlessly accept it.

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The African-American community is not a monolith. Like other segments of the American population, it is diverse and dynamic.

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The policies pushed by progressives damage the parts of it that need the most help. And the false narrative of racist police, which pressures law enforcement to back off from the communities most victimized by crime, is now destroying entire cities.
Some Facts Worth Knowing (JWR 06/03/2020)
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Imagine that you are an unborn spirit in heaven. God condemns you to a life of poverty but will permit you to choose the country in which you will spend your life.

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Which country would you choose? I would choose the United States of America.
Tucker bashes America's leaders, says they 'feel nothing as our nation descends into anarchy' (Fox 06/03/2020)
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"For many of us, this has been one of the saddest and most painful weeks in memory."

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"Depressing doesn't even begin to describe it. We have watched as mobs of violent cretins have burned our cities, defaced our monuments, beaten old women in the streets, shot police officers and stolen everything in sight."

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"How many innocent Americans have these people hurt? How many have they murdered? We don't know that number but it's the country itself that so many worry about at this point."

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... "so many of our leaders ... feel nothing as our nation descends into anarchy. They see the chaos instead as an opportunity to solidify their control; to increase their market share to win our elections."

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"They have no interest in talking about the details about what is actually happening out there on our streets. In fact, they are hiding those details, demanding that you forget what you saw."

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"That's what they're encouraging. It has nothing to do with civil rights, it's violent and the criminals you just saw on the screen are not protesters. The people cheering them on from their TV studios have no patience for real protests or real protesters."

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... showed two more video clips. One featured a protester torturing a dog.

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Another clip, filmed in New York City Monday, showed a man identifying himself as a Black Lives Matter "employee" and asking a white woman to get on her knees and apologizing for her "white privilege."

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"'No justice, no peace,' they chant as a man tortures a dog. These are the worst people in America and our leaders have let them do whatever they want. So of course they want more. Their latest demand is that we eliminate the police entirely. No more law enforcement in this country. That would mean more power for the mob. They can do anything. It would mean never-ending terror for you and for your family. That's why they want it."
Arthur Herman: Riots, looting and America burning — the end of the progressive dream (Fox 06/03/2020)
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There is a big debate about designating Antifa a terrorist group and what if any steps the federal government can take to stop the rioting.

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But we all know who the real culprits are for turning America's streets into a war zone: progressives and liberals.

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They have filled the mind of America's youth with ideological nitroglycerine that is now exploding in our streets, while also setting the conditions that make it almost impossible to stop it.

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... we have too many progressive mayors and governors who can't and won't protect their own citizens and their property and businesses — or in the case of Mayor Bill De Blasio whose own children join in the rioting.

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... since the 1960s, progressives have foisted on us a series of social policies that they promised would give us utopia but which have turned into a perpetual nightmare for America's inner-city residents and poorest and most vulnerable.

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From welfare and community policing to abortion rights and racial preferences, these policies were supposed to bring a new America based on racial harmony and equality.

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When that failed, progressives blamed capitalism and white privilege instead of their own incompetence and malfeasance.

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These progressive social experiments have been especially bad for black America. Ironically, it turns out Donald Trump has been the best friend African-Americans have had in a generation.

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The third failure has been the constant vilification of our police and law enforcement, to the point that they became targets for assassination.

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Worse, progressive policies have neutered urban police departments to the point they have been rendered impotent just when they are most needed.

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... progressives in Hollywood and the liberal media have portrayed cops as corrupt, racist and sexist brutal thugs. So the public sees incidents like the death of George Floyd as characteristic of police tactics instead of an aberration.

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No society can survive when its defenders are attacked as the villains and its violent enemies are treated as heroes and victims.

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Progressives may look at the broken glass, burning businesses and desecrated churches with a desperate satisfaction.

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They think this will finally spell the end of Trump. History shows they're wrong.

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The radicals and progressives who sparked the riots in 1968 also thought runaway violence would topple the establishment and sweep them into power.

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Instead, America defended itself from anarchy by giving its vote to the declared law and order candidates in the 1968 presidential election.

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America doesn't commit suicide so easily, then or now.

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Our progressive politicians and ideologues have sowed the seeds of what's happening in our streets.

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If they aren't willing to help solve the problem, then they must reap the whirlwind.
Tammy Bruce: Education gone wrong – riots reveal this about nation's colleges, professors (Fox 06/03/2020)
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Courtesy of our educational infrastructure having been transformed into leftist indoctrination centers, the result is politicians who care only about ideology where citizens are collateral damage in their march toward a leftist utopia.

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Our media is populated with news-actors who are similarly bound to their teachers' idols of social justice, political correctness and identity politics.

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All of our institutions are suffering from the twin masters of identity politics and woke philosophy.

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In New York City during the riots, two individuals were arrested for attempting to bomb a marked New York Police Department cruiser with a Molotov cocktail.

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Upon arrest, police found additional material in the car to make more Molotov cocktails, and the booking complaint alleges they intended to hand out the bombs to other rioters.

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One, Colinford Mattis, a 32-year-old man had been working with a corporate law firm in New York City, and is a graduate of Princeton University.

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The other, Urooj Rahman, a 31-year old woman, is a graduate of Fordham Law School and was admitted to the bar in 2019.

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On her Facebook page, she fashions herself a "human rights lawyer." His background as an "anti-poverty intern" for a mayor of San Francisco was listed on LinkedIn, as well as being president of the Princeton Black Student Union.

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Education went wrong, which is a dangerous realization, considering its importance not just as a conveyer of information, but as an important and formidable influence on character and values.

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With the breakdown of the American family, for many, the leftist indoctrination at the academy is the only instruction on life and principles to which they've been exposed.

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"Battle lines are more clearly being drawn these days, between those who clearly believe America is irredeemably evil and must be violently overthrown and those who believe America remains greatest country on earth, based on rule of law, individual liberty, inalienable rights. Decades of public education have given former group a huge advantage, reinforced by media that awards itself prizes to indoctrinate message. Seriousness of that side now being impossible to ignore, however, finally forces rule of law side to realize fight must be engaged."

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As leftists consumed public education, they accepted open-minded young people into their realm and are now vomiting them back up as heartless anarchists.

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In the midst of violent rioting in dozens of cities across the United States, and on the same night rioters set fire to Washington, D.C.'s historic St.

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John's Episcopal Church, Sarah Parcak, a faculty member of UAB went to Twitter encouraging people to topple a local monument she deemed a racist insult.

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"The crucial point in this maniacal tweet is that this professor has been honored by TED, the Smithsonian, and the Guggenheim," and asked, "Many advocates of disorder now occupy elite institutions that have in the past been the guarantors of order. Who let them in?"

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"... The middle and lower-middle-class families in this country paid millions to let the Weather Underground raise their kids in hopes they would climb the social ladder."

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Whoever Mattis' and Rahman's professors were, they weren't out fixing up Molotov cocktails Sunday night, but for some reason their young charges allegedly were.

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And Parcak was no doubt comfortable in a chair during the 10 p.m. hour on a Sunday as she was tweet-inciting others to put themselves and their futures at great risk.

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Why put yourself on the line when others who look up to you are too naive to know you're stuffing them into a cannon?

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Ben Shapiro: George Floyd's death, riots and the liberal media's nonsensical, dangerous game (Fox 06/03/2020)
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Members of our political class have decided that instead of rallying against obvious evil, Americans must be categorized as enlightened or benighted based on their answer to one question: Was America and is America rooted in racism and bigotry?

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If you answer in the negative, you are complicit in racism and bigotry, say our media, academic leaders and high-ranking members of the Democratic Party.

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If you answer in the affirmative, you may be categorized among the woke, the aware, the sensitive and the decent.

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So Americans are left with a choice. We can either think of one another with charity and accuracy, acknowledging the sins of America's past while recognizing that America remains a beacon of freedom and decency.

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Or we can continue to follow the path of those who would tear us apart.

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To follow the latter course isn't sensitive or moral. It places the very existence of our common republic at risk.
Rep. Andy Biggs: End riots, restore freedom – too many aiding bad behavior (Fox 06/03/2020)
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Peaceful protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis have been highjacked by people with malevolent intentions. Protests are acceptable, violent attacks on people and property are not.

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Like me, you may be wondering why so many people are justifying rioting and looting by mobs of Marxists and anarchists intent on burning America.

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Unfortunately, the focus of America is no longer on how to correct very real problems in our country; our focus is on whether we will continue as "one nation under God."

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Leftists and anarchists, such as Antifa, have highjacked the protests and incited rioting, wreaking murderous havoc around the country.

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These evil people seek the destruction of America. The crazy criminals who are attacking order, police and Americans are motivated by a philosophy that the world would be better off without the United States.

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These people are a small number of the violent mobs. They effectively use social media and Alinsky-like tactics. Saul Alinsky once said, "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)"

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At the same time, you have these Alinsky anarchists targeting police and business owners, you also have those who are simply criminals. They view these attacks on Americans as an opportunity to steal private property and greedily enrich themselves.

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... you have those who are racing out simply to be one of the "mob." Mob activity is almost always out of control. It is people who are not restraining their emotions and allowing their adrenaline to take over.

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Outrageous acts by so-called "leaders" in this country added fuel to the fire over the last week.

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... there was a directive to abandon the Minneapolis police precinct. This was the match that lit the fire of national rioting. It emboldened those with malevolent intentions to burn down that police station and carry their violence to the streets.

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Why are our political leaders acting like we have never seen this type of activity before? We need to regain control of our freedoms.

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The thin blue line tries to protect every person's rights. They need to show force. They need to make arrests. They need the support of the National Guard. They need the support of political leaders.

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... those who seek to destroy human lives and property, or loot Americans, must be caught, arrested and prosecuted.
Tom Homan: Message to all the good cops out there – Americans stand with you (Fox 06/03/2020)
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Like the rest of the nation, I was deeply disturbed by the video that captured George Floyd's final moments. It was a terrible thing that happened.

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Those responsible will be held accountable based on the facts presented through a criminal justice system that is one of the best in the world.

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Like the rest of the nation, I have been watching television and seeing what this country is going through since that day in Minneapolis.

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Many people in America are making their voices heard by peaceful protests and demanding attention and change. That is just one of the things that make this country one of the greatest in the world.

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However, when peaceful protests turn violent the message is lost. When protesters turn into criminals or are overshadowed by the rampant criminal activity of rioters, it is just plain wrong.

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I once had about 80 protesters at my home on a Sunday morning, yelling and chanting what a terrible person I was and calling for ICE and Customs and Border Protection to be abolished.

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I was being called a Nazi, a racist and a bigot. Of course, I was offended because I am not any of these things, but I knew they had the right to their opinion and a right to protest.

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I also thought they were directing their protest at the wrong person and institutions. If they didn't like the fact that CBP and ICE were enforcing the laws enacted by Congress, they should have been on Capitol Hill urging their elected representatives to change the laws.

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I have had similar feelings over the past week. Americans have the right to protest but the hate they are showing to the law enforcement officers monitoring the protests is uncalled for.

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Spitting on them, calling them names, shoving them, or worse, is not peaceful protest and detracts from any meaning the protest may have had.

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These officers were not involved in the incident in Minneapolis. They are standing there trying to keep the peace and do their jobs.

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Those who are using this tragedy to riot are not protesters, they are criminals.

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They are assaulting people, destroying property, stealing merchandise by looting and ruining the lives of innocent business owners who are trying to recover and survive after COVID-19 lockdowns pretty much devastated their businesses.

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There is absolutely NO JUSTIFICATION for rioting and these criminals need to be held accountable.

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They need to be arrested and charged. There should be zero tolerance for rioting.

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I agree with President Trump that we must restore law and order now with all legal means available.

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There may be thousands of rioters out there but there are millions of Americans who are disgusted by that behavior.

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Too many politicians are tying the hands of law enforcement, and not providing the resources these patriots need to do the job they have sworn to do.

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Some remained silent during the rioting and only spoke out when the president walked across the street from the White House to a church, which had been burned by rioters.

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Where is their leadership on this issue? They seem to want chaos because they think it hurts our president.

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I have said it many times and I will continue to say it: They hate this president more than they love this country.
Deroy Murdock: Trump should deliver Oval Office address on rioting tearing America apart (Fox 06/03/2020)
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President Trump should wield one of the biggest wrenches in his toolbox and do so with all deliberate speed.

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He should address his fellow Americans from the Oval Office on the burning and looting that are tearing this republic to pieces.

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"The biggest victims of the rioting are peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities, and as their president, I will fight to keep them safe," Trump said.

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"I will fight to protect you. I am your president of law and order, and an ally of all peaceful protesters."

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The president should ask the major broadcast networks and the major news channels for time to speak before the East Coast goes dark.

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Dusk unleashes the thieves and thugs who have converted legitimate protests into a devastating free-for-all.

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If these major media organizations – many of which earlier accused the president of staying silent throughout this crisis – air his remarks, he can rally the entire American people, who seek his guidance.

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Conversely, if liberal media outlets silence the president as he works to unify this country, they will deserve scorn for censoring America's leader exactly when his leadership is most needed.

•
Beyond that realm, the president should echo his beautiful and appropriate words from Cape Canaveral on Saturday, after SpaceX's successful, private, manned rocket launch.

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"The death of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis was a grave tragedy. It should never have happened. It has filled Americans all over the country with horror, anger and grief. "

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"Yesterday, I spoke to George's family and expressed the sorrow of our entire nation for their loss. I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace. And I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace. Healing, not hatred; justice, not chaos are the mission at hand."

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"I understand the pain that people are feeling. We support the right of peaceful protesters, and we hear their pleas. But what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or with peace."

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"The main victims of this horrible, horrible situation are the citizens who live in these once lovely communities. The mobs are devastating the life's work of good people and destroying their dreams. Right now, America needs creation, not destruction; cooperation, not contempt; security, not anarchy."

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"We cannot and must not allow a small group of criminals and vandals to wreck our cities and lay waste to our communities. We must defend the rights of every citizen to live without violence, prejudice or fear."

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"Those making excuses or justifications for violence are not helping the downtrodden, but delivering new anguish and new pain."

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President Trump also should present evidence of Antifa's role in this bedlam. He should expose this hideous drama's villains. Trump should cleave these domestic terrorists from George Floyd, whose lifeless body they defile as a human shield to perpetrate their nihilistic, far-left evil.

•
Trump's Cape Canaveral speech was splendid. But Americans need to hear the president of the United States address his people from the glory of the Oval Office. This should happen as soon as possible.

•
All upside. No downside. What the hell does President Trump have to lose?
Steve Levy: To stop NYC rioting, Cuomo and de Blasio must end feud and accept help from Trump (Fox 06/03/2020)
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"Any comments placing the blame for where we are, on the situation, on the backs of the men and women of this police department that are putting their lives on the line ... I think is disgraceful and [they] should be ashamed of themselves. Your World. There is politics and there is what is right and that is a disgraceful comment."

•
The governor also said: "You know how you stopped looting and rioting in the past? Do that again."

•
Actually, it was only Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, who knew how to control riots. He made it clear that he would not tolerate lawbreaking and violence.

•
The 1977 rioting wasn't a reaction to police brutality or any other ideological motivation. It was greed, pure and simple.

•
The lights went out in a massive blackout and it was an opportunity for the criminal element to start looting to get free stuff. The looters pounced. The cops watched.

•
The same thing has happened in numerous cities throughout the nation since Floyd was killed.

•
In one disgraceful situation in Minneapolis, the police – under orders of the mayor – actually abandoned their precinct to the mob, thereby sending a message that law enforcement simply could not provide an adequate level of safety to the public

•
The chaos in New York state is not confined to New York City. It was exemplified by a woman in Rochester trying to prevent looters from ransacking the store located below her apartment.

•
She was severely beaten with two-by-fours and metal clubs by eight looters. Her husband was beaten when he tried to come to her aid, armed with only a golf club.

•
If Cuomo can't stop violent attacks in Rochester, and if de Blasio can't stop police getting hit in the head with bricks in New York City, then why not seek the help of the federal government?

•
There is no justification for refusing President Trump's offer of federal assistance.

•
Wouldn't it be marvelous if these two feuding Democrats teamed together to reach out to a Republican president and in unison to helped put down the anarchy taking over New York City?

•
Now the riots in New York City are making it more important than ever for Cuomo and de Blasio to stop fighting with each and work together to protect the safety of the people they were elected to serve.

•
One day the mayor is rhetorically backing the police and the next day he is disciplining them for understandably using their tasers or pulling out their guns as they get attacked with bricks that could prove fatal.

•
The governor criticizes the mayor for allowing things to get out of hand without providing any leadership on his end.

•
But would Cuomo really support Giuliani‘s style of overwhelming force to subdue anarchists? Hard to believe when he just criticized the cops' defensive actions as "exacerbating the anger" of the protesters.

•
New Yorkers simply want Cuomo and de Blasio to do their jobs and work together to stop the destruction of our city and the violence that's been perpetrated against police and business owners throughout the state.
Tucker Carlson: Our leaders have dithered and lied about the riots as the nation goes up in flames (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
The nation went up in flames this weekend. No one in charge stood up to save America. Our leaders dithered. They cowered. They openly sided with the destroyers. In many cases, they egged them on.

•
This is how nations collapse. When no one in authority keeps the order, and when someone in our professional class encourage violence, American citizens are forced to defend themselves. They have no choice. No one else is going to defend them — they know that now.

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The worst people in our society have taken control. They did nothing to build this country. Now, they are tearing it down. They are rushing us toward mass suicide.

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So, how do we respond? We must protect ourselves and our families. Once again, we have no choice, but to do that. But we cannot allow ourselves to become like they are.

•
We are not animals, we are Americans. In the face of such indecency, we must resolve to be decent. We believe this country has a future. We intend for our children to live and thrive here. That is what we are defending.

•
All our leaders do is set us against each other. They stage a never-ending national cockfight for their profit and amusement.

•
We should start by being unsparingly honest about what is happening right now. Truth is our defense, and it's our country's last hope.

•
The point is, this is a national emergency. It's a profound national emergency. But you would never know that from listening to our elected leaders.

•
Almost all of them pretend this is not really happening or if it is happening, it is just part of America's long tradition of vigorous political discourse.

•
Politicians on both sides tell us that this is all about the death of a man in police custody in Minneapolis last week. The people burning down our country are "protesters". They're engaged in a legitimate "protest."

•
Okay, what exactly are those protesters' demands? What are they asking for? If Congress agreed to enact their program, what would the program be?

•
Not a single person even hints the answer because there is not an answer. No one has bothered to pull the guys beating up old ladies on the street or looting Gucci, but you've got to wonder how many of them have ever even heard of George Floyd.

•
And if they have heard of him, what difference would it make? Violence and looting are not forms of political expression.

•
If you were killed tomorrow, how many buildings would you want burned to the ground in your memory? How many old women smashed in the face on the street in your name? None, we hope, because you're not a vicious psychopath, like the people you've just watched.

•
... what we're watching is not a political protest. ... The rioters you have seen are trying to topple our political system.

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That system is how we resolve our differences without using violence. But these people want a new system, one that is governed by force. Do what we say or we will hurt you.

•
Some Democrats have openly embraced what is happening. Really they don't have much of a choice. These are their voters cleaning out the Rolex store. These riots effectively are the largest Joe Biden for President rally on record.

•
In gratitude for that, more than a dozen Joe Biden for President campaign staffers donated money to the rioters in Minneapolis, and then they bragged about it on Twitter.

•
No Democratic leader can directly criticize what is happening right now. And in fact, some have joined in. ... "Riots are an integral part of this country's march towards progress."

•
Celebrity after celebrity has weighed in to agree on social media.

•
Colin Kaepernick openly calls for violence. Here's a quote: "The cries for peace will rain down and when they do, they will land on deaf ears," he says approvingly.

•
Imagine shouting fire in a crowded theater, a theater with 325 million people in it called our country. That's what they've been doing and have been doing for days.

•
When the violence began, what we needed more than anything was clarity in the middle of this.

•
... as American cities were being destroyed by mobs, the vice president United States refused to say anything specific about the riots we were watching on television. Instead, Mike Pence scolded America for its racism.

•
Carly Fiorina, once a leading Republican presidential candidate tweeted that ... "It's white America that now must see the truth, speak the truth and act on the truth."

•
Meanwhile, Kay Coles James, who is the president of the Heritage Foundation — that's the largest conservative think tank in the country. You may have sent them money, hopefully for the last time.

•
Kay Coles James wrote a long scream denouncing America as an irredeemably racist nation: "How many times will protests have to occur?"

•
Got that? "Have to occur." Like the rest of us caused this by our sinfulness.

•
The message from our leaders on the right, as on the left, was unambiguous: Don't complain. You deserve what's happening to you.

•
No one jumped in more forcefully or seemed angrier in America than former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

•
"Tonight I turned on the news and I am heartbroken. It's important to understand that the death of George Ford was personal and painful for many. In order to heal, it needs to be personal and painful for everyone."

•
But wait a second, you may be wondering, how am I "personally responsible" for the behavior of a Minneapolis police officer?

•
I've never even been to Minneapolis, you may think to yourself. And why is some politician telling me I'm required to be upset about it?

•
What Nikki Haley does best is moral blackmail. During the 2016 campaign, she compared Donald Trump to the racist mass murderer, Dylann Roof.

•
In this case, Nikki Haley's wish came true. The riots were indeed "personal and painful" for everyone. And then the pain kept increasing.

•
A country already on the brink of recession suddenly faced economic collapse. An already fearful population locked down for months because of the coronavirus had been thoroughly and completely terrorized.

•
How did the Trump administration respond to the horrors going on around us?

•
"The president said that from the start, and we're with the family and as the President said, we're with the peaceful protesters."

•
Really? Can you be more specific about that? Who are you talking about exactly?

•
Is it the people spitting foam as they scream, "F the police"? Is it the one standing next to the arsonist doing nothing as they set fire to buildings?

•
Is it the kids laughing as they film the looting and the beatings on their iPhones?

•
Maybe it's the famous people in L.A. who are raising money online to support the rioters? They're all just peaceful protesters. Yes, we support that. It's who we are.

•
What about the president? Where is he during all of this?

•
On Twitter the next morning, the president reassured America that he and his family were just fine. The federally funded bodyguards had kept them safe.

•
He did not mention protecting the rest of the nation, much of which was then on fire. He seemed aware only of himself.

•
For people who like Donald Trump, who voted for Donald Trump, who support his policies, who have defended him for years and years against the most absurd kinds of slander, this was a distressing moment.

•
The first requirement of leadership is that you watch over the people in your care. That's what soldiers want from their officers. It's what families need from their fathers. It's what voters demand from their presidents.

•
People will put up with almost anything if you do that. You can regularly say embarrassing things on television. You can hire Omarosa to work at the White House. All of that will be forgiven if you protect your people.

•
But if you do not protect them — or worse than that, if you seem like you can't be bothered to protect them — then you're done. It's over. People will not forgive weakness. That's the one thing, by the way, that is not a partisan point. It is human nature.

•
Donald Trump's response to these riots, which is ongoing, is the singular test of his presidency. About an hour ago, the president announced that he's going to marshal all available forces — military and civilian — to stop these riots.

•
"If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them."

•
What Americans want most right now is an end to this chaos. They want their cities to be saved. They want this to stop immediately.

•
If the commander-in-chief cannot stop it, he will lose in November. The left will blame him for the atrocities they encouraged, and some voters will agree.

•
Donald Trump is the president. Presidents save countries. That's their job. That's why we hire them. It's that simple.

•
In 2016, Donald Trump ran as a law and order candidate because he meant it, and his views remain fundamentally unchanged today.

•
But the president's famously sharp instincts, the ones that won him the presidency almost four years ago, have been since subverted at every level by Jared Kushner.

•
As crime in this country continues to rise, Jared Kushner has led a highly aggressive effort to let more criminals out of prison and back on to the streets. This is reckless. At this moment in time, it is insane. It continues to happen.

•
The first thing to know is that we can no longer accept race-baiting from our leaders. Never. That has become so common now that we barely notice it. But it is dividing and destroying this country. We should make them stop.

•
Enforcing the law is not white supremacy. Insisting that everyone in the country follow the same rules is not racism. In fact, it's the answer to racism. It is equality — equality under the law. It is the one thing we must defend, and if we don't, it's over. Things fall apart.

•
Weakness invites aggression. That is true in nature and it's every bit as true in human society. Our leaders are weak. Predators know it. That's why this is happening.

•
If you let people spray paint obscenities in City Hall, pretty soon they are overturning cop cars. If you put up with that, they'll come right to the front door of the police precinct, and they will burn it down. The next thing you know, they are beating people to death in shopping malls.

•
And then what? What happens the next time the mob doesn't like something? What will the mob demand next?
Jim Hanson: Trump's Antifa declaration – this is how it helps US fight back (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
"The president's accurate description of Antifa?fits the definition?under federal law of a domestic terror group. Under that definition, such a group breaks laws ‘to intimidate or coerce a civilian population' or to ‘influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.'"

•
Most of the hardcore activists wouldn't even argue with the description or the goals, but previously they were dealing with a much smaller potential downside.

•
Now the array and severity of crimes and especially punishments just jumped exponentially.

•
Many of these wannabe revolutionaries are willing to spend a night in jail, but how many are willing to do 20 years in prison.

•
The immediate effect will be to change the dynamic for the radical Left and their "Burn it all down" wing and create a real deterrent.

•
They have been free to commit vandalism escalating up to violent acts and turn their protests into riots because even if they were caught the local charges were usually minor.

•
This will help slow their ability to grow a pack of angry activists into a howling mob burning buildings, beating bystanders and even killing people.

•
They rely on riding along with the other radical Left activist groups who are all too happy to have them do the dirty work.

•
But if those groups risk being swept up for supporting terror, they are much less likely to tolerate Antifa & friends in their midst.

•
It will also make the college student adventure activists wary and the folks just out for a quick looting consider whether a flat-screen is worth doing real time.

•
Those are real benefits and should not stop anyone who wants to peaceably assemble and petition their government for a redress of grievances.

•
But it will serve as a reminder the word "peaceably" is in there for a reason.

•
This won't deter the diehards who believe rioting is just a warm-up. They will be targets of the increased law enforcement and surveillance powers enabled by the terror designation.

•
This is important due to the very nature of an anarchistic movement like Antifa. They don't organize as much as they flock together in common cause. That makes identifying, tracking and catching them difficult.

•
A whole array of online surveillance and nationwide warrant capabilities allow our federal law enforcement agencies to watch and identify their members and plans as well as gather evidence if crimes have already been committed.

•
Without the designation the diffuse nature of Antifa makes it very tough to jump through all the hoops needed to make this happen.

•
Another major damage the designation has on their efforts is the prohibition of financing and material support for terrorism.

•
While Antifa operations are not particularly high budget, they do cost money and require some types of expertise. Anyone providing that type of support will now find themselves in jeopardy.

•
Antifa and other radical left organizers often pay protesters. Drying up that funding stream and ensuring other groups sympathetic to their cause can't financially support them will severely hamper their efforts.

•
One more positive aspect of this action is to show the vast majority of people in this country that this type of terror against them and their livelihoods will not be tolerated.

•
The avowed goal of Antifa and the other radicals with these riots is to create fear and force changes that will appease the attackers.

•
The governors and mayors have the still difficult task of reining in the current violence.

•
This action by the president will make it less likely another one will happen, or if it does, that those responsible pay a heavy price.
Trump Will ‘Designate’ Antifa a Terrorist Organization (06/01/2020)
•
Since we already have a slew of criminal laws for investigating terrorists, the only point of such a designation would be to permit the surveillance of Americans in the absence of probable cause that they have committed crimes.

•
But that's the very abuse these Trump supporters claim to find objectionable about FISA. Pardon me, but I'm confused.

•
We should absolutely treat Antifa as a terrorist organization.

•
Some (mainly) anti-Trump commentators claim that Antifa is too amorphous to be regarded as an "organization." That is specious.

•
Our law does not require conspiracies and racketeering enterprises to be regimentally organized and hierarchical.

•
Loosely knit groups that scheme to carry out violent criminal objectives qualify for enforcement action.

•
We can investigate Antifa as terrorists, prosecute them as terrorists, sentence them as terrorists, and give them harsh prison sentences befitting terrorists.

•
But there is neither a need nor a legal basis to "designate" them as terrorists.
Gregg Jarrett: Rod Rosenstein must be grilled by senators Wednesday about his abuse of power (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
It was Rosenstein who presided over the special counsel investigation of President Trump, all the while conspiring behind the scenes to overthrow him. The duplicity was classic Rosenstein.

•
He well knew that his appointment of Robert Mueller in May of 2017 was an illegitimate abuse of power and contrary to federal regulations governing the naming of a special counsel.

•
Months earlier in January of 2017, the FBI had debunked the anti-Trump "dossier" as little more than scurrilous lies, exaggerations and fiction. There was no other credible evidence of a collusion conspiracy. James Comey's FBI knew it, and so did Rosenstein.

•
The White House was understandably shocked. And so were other top officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

•
... he had launched — on his own authority — a national nightmare that would hobble the presidency for two more years, divide Americans over an unfounded scandal and inflict profound damage to our system of justice.

•
But hiring the special counsel was merely the first part of Rosenstein's nefarious scheme.

•
The moment Comey was fired by the president, Rosenstein began meeting secretly with Comey's temporary replacement, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe (who was later fired for lying).

•
McCabe decided to initiate a new FBI investigation of Trump simultaneous with Rosenstein's appointment of Mueller as special counsel.

•
In other words, they double-teamed Trump even though neither one had a scintilla of evidence to justify their actions.

•
At the same time, Rosenstein and McCabe convened repeatedly behind closed doors to discuss a plan to evict the duly elected president of the United States from office and undo the 2016 election results.

•
According to McCabe, it was Rosenstein's idea to depose Trump by secretly recording the president for the purpose of gathering incriminating evidence of something — anything.

•
Armed with such supposed evidence, he would recruit cabinet members to remove Trump under the 25th Amendment

•
Here is what McCabe later told: "The deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the White House. He said, ‘I never get searched when I go into the White House, I could easily wear a recording device, they wouldn't know it was there.' Now, he wasn't joking, he was absolutely serious, and in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had."

•
"Discussion of the 25th Amendment was simply, Rod raised the issue and discussed it with me in the context of thinking about how many other cabinet officials might support such an effort."

•
McCabe claimed that Rosenstein was already "counting votes" among cabinet members he had contacted surreptitiously. Government memos confirm this account, and those documents were handed over to Mueller.

•
Did he do anything about it? Of course not. The special counsel report made no mention of it.

•
The plot to carry out the equivalent of a coup would have been a lawless misuse of power.

•
The 25th Amendment provides for the removal of a president if he is incapacitated or "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."

•
Disliking a president or his decision-making is not a basis for evicting him from office under the amendment.

•
The FBI and Rosenstein relied almost entirely on the "dossier" composed by ex-British spy Christopher Steele. It was phony on its face. It was commissioned by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democrats.

•
Newly declassified documents show that it was nothing more than malicious Russian disinformation.

•
By January of 2017, the FBI knew this. Surely, Rosenstein knew it too. All of this was concealed from the judges.

•
"In order to get a FISA warrant, you need an affidavit signed by a career law enforcement officer who swears the information is true... And if it is wrong, that person is going to face consequences. You can face discipline and sometimes prosecution."

•
Rosenstein's words frame a prophetic indictment of his own wrongful and, arguably, illegal actions.

•
It is ironic that the man who so sternly lectured an audience about how imperative it was for every prosecutor to ensure that a spy warrant contained truthful information is the same man who may never have bothered to read the one he signed against Carter Page.

•
Rosenstein is far more guilty than others. As the highest-ranking official involved, he had a special and affirmative duty to ensure that the law was being scrupulously followed.

•
His chronic failures and malevolent actions, as described above, constitute an egregious breach of trust.

•
... senators in their questioning of Rosenstein should give no quarter in demanding honest answers from a man who has shown no regard for either honesty or justice.
How anti-Trump scofflaws keep getting away with it (INN 05/31/2020)
Trump is right – Antifa has hijacked protests of George Floyd’s death and turned them into riots (Fox 05/31/2020)
•
... when he placed blame Saturday for the riots tearing apart cities around the country on Antifa and other radical left-wing groups.

•
He should now go one step further and declare Antifa a domestic terrorist organization.

•
The rioting this past week was ostensibly sparked by the death of George Floyd – a 46-year-old black man who was arrested by Minneapolis police Monday for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes.

•
There is no question that Floyd's death was horrific and should never have happened.

•
But in fact, many of the rioters affiliated with Antifa simply and cynically have used Floyd's tragic death as an excuse to spread mayhem and destruction.

•
The officer who knelt on Floyd's neck – Derek Chauvin – was charged Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

•
Chauvin and any other officers who go on trial for Floyd's death should be punished to the full extent the law allows if convicted.

•
But Floyd's killing should not be used as an excuse by anyone to justify rioting and domestic terrorism...

•
"These are ‘Organized Groups' that have nothing to do with George Floyd. Sad! It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay the blame on others!"

•
The president's accurate description of Antifa fits the definition under federal law of a domestic terror group.

•
Under that definition, such a group breaks laws "to intimidate or coerce a civilian population" or to "influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion."

•
Antifa members have been advocating for and conducting violence to intimidate for a long time now, but the wave of terror they unleashed this past week makes taking action against them truly urgent.

•
"Domestic extremists, including anarchist extremists and other anti-government extremists, are using the unrest in Minneapolis to amplify and justify their calls for dismantling law enforcement agencies and carrying out attacks on law enforcement, government, and capitalist targets."

•
The nexus for violence at any leftist protest will always be a band of black-clad Antifa thugs burning, breaking windows and attacking anyone they see as part of the oppressive system.

•
Since all terrorist groups operate mostly in the shadows, we must empower our law enforcement and security agencies with all the tools possible to illuminate their malevolent and dangerous activities.

•
... the terrorist designation would make it a federal offense for Antifa to engage in terrorist attacks and other acts of violence against mass transportation systems.

•
A favorite tactic of Antifa members is to burn buses when rioting. As a terrorist group, they could face federal prosecution for this crime.

•
The terrorist designation would also ban aiding Antifa because that activity would be considered to be providing material support to terrorists and terrorist organizations under federal law.

•
Antifa members often work with other leftist groups, serving as their shock troops.

•
These other activist groups know that they can rely on Antifa to do the burning and breaking, but would themselves be held liable for these crimes if Antifa is officially designated as a terrorist group.

•
The bottom line we need to keep in mind is that peaceful protesting is a cherished American right – but violent attacks are criminal conduct.

•
By accurately labeling Antifa as a domestic terrorist group we can protect against its terrorist crimes without infringing on the rights of the rest of us to protest and exercise our rights of free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Our leaders have sided with the agents of chaos – we're told crimes of the mob are our fault (Fox 05/30/2020)
•
Here's a simple question: A police station in a major American city was occupied, looted and burned on Thursday night. Most of us assumed we'd never live to see something like that happen here. But it did happen.

•
So the question is, has anyone been arrested for doing it? Will anyone ever be arrested?

•
No one in authority seems especially interested in apprehending the people who did it. All of it happened on camera, but the perpetrators just walked away. And it's, maybe likely, that most of them will never be punished for it.

•
As Minneapolis burns and crowds grow in the streets of Atlanta and many other cities, the rest of us are continuing on as we always do — dutifully following the rules. There are many of those.

•
Every year, there seem to be countless new rules to follow. They multiply like insects.

•
We do our best to keep up. We get our permits, apply for our licenses, put on our reading glasses to check the latest regulations on the internet.

•
We wear our little masks. We keep our dogs on leashes. We drive sober. We don't eat on the subway. We never litter. We make orderly lines and patiently wait our turn.

•
In airports and government buildings, we remove our shoes and submit to body searches from strangers. We lose our dignity every time we do this, but they tell us we must, so we accept it without complaint.

•
In public, we hide what we really think. We bury our natural instincts. We keep our deepest beliefs to ourselves. We know the boundaries.

•
We understand we will be punished for telling the truth. This is the America the rest of us live in.

•
For the privilege of citizenship in a country like this, we work as hard as we can.

•
Now we know that other people have somehow negotiated a far better deal than the one we have.

•
They get to ignore the rules. There don't believe in order or fairness. They reject society itself.

•
Reason and process and precedent mean nothing to them. They use violence to get what they want immediately.

•
They live for themselves. They do exactly what they feel like doing. They say exactly what they feel like saying. They spray paint their opinions on buildings.

•
On television, hour by hour, we watch these people — criminal mobs — destroy what the rest of us have built.

•
They have no right to do that. They don't contribute to the common good. They never have. Yet suddenly, they seem to have all the power.

•
This is hardly the first time this has happened in America. Spasms of destructive violence are a recurring feature of our history — of every country's history.

•
The ideologues will tell you that the problem is race relations, or capitalism, or police brutality, or global warming. But only on the surface.

•
The real cause is deeper than that and it's far darker.

•
What you're watching is the ancient battle between those who have a stake in society, and would like to preserve it, and those who don't, and seek to destroy it.

•
Which side in that war have our leaders taken? Watch carefully. It's obvious.

•
The rioters in Minneapolis and in other places act as if they're allowed to loot and burn. In fact, they are allowed. No one stops them.

•
The authorities don't arrest them. Instead, they pander to them, flatter them, desperately try to win their love.

•
Why are masked lunatics setting fire to Wendy's? Because the rest of us are sinful.

•
That's what our leaders tell us. The crimes of the mob are the punishment we deserve. That's their argument. Many seem to buy it.

•
We should have seen this coming.

•
When you express an opinion our leaders don't like, they call it violence.

•
When criminals commit acts of actual violence, they call it speech.

•
In other words, the game is rigged.

•
So why are the rest of us still playing it? We have more power than we think we do. Our system only functions because dutiful normal people — people with self-control and decency, and a sense of responsibility toward others — created our system.

•
They sustain it. They pay the bills. None of the thugs looting Target, or the well-paid nihilists on television who are egging them on, have added a thing. Nothing.

•
Yet all of the destroyers expect this arrangement will last forever. For them, it's been a very good deal.

•
But what exactly are you getting in return for your contributions to this system?

•
During election years, sweaty politicians claim to be on your side. It's a lie. They're not.

•
They'll waste your time with hollow posturing. They'll feed you pointless symbolic victories and expect you to celebrate, like you've actually won something.

•
But when the mob comes, they're gone. You're on your own.

•
That's true. Those are the facts. We can't change them. All we can control is our own behavior.

•
Should you keep playing along with all of that? Ponder that the next time they demand you get a permit to put a deck on your own house.

•
Think about it even harder the next time you write a tax check.
Kayleigh McEnany gets vitriol hurled at her daily by liberal media — and it proves this (Fox 05/30/2020)
•
The level of vitriol the leftist media hurls at her daily — during and apart from the press briefings — conclusively proves she is doing a superb job.

•
Liberal journalists whip their long knives in her direction and seem shocked she doesn't grovel.

•
It would be different if the media were to use the briefings to help inform the viewing public.

•
But few of them ever ask questions that could better inform the citizenry. Instead, they serve up accusations not even thinly disguised as genuine questions.

•
The media's attitude is purely adversarial, yet they act appalled that McEnany returns fire, albeit calmly, respectfully and eloquently.

•
They uniformly dismiss this Harvard Law graduate as green and over her head, but she is remarkably polished, and it is driving them mad.

•
You see, you are not allowed to talk back to the sacrosanct Washington press corps, especially if you work for that unrefined, interloping president who stole the election and is still trespassing on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

•
As Trump's press secretary, McEnany is an accessory to his adverse possession of the White House who forfeited any expectation of civil treatment when she accepted the job.

•
Some television anchors and commentators are particularly offended by McEnany's aforementioned practice of parrying the hostile questions they volley at her with suggestions of other questions.

•
This just cannot happen because the press is holy and McEnany is their inferior who must curtsy while they abuse her and slander her boss.

•
It is odd enough these self-important journos believe they are above challenge, but it is even more so considering they draw first blood.

•
Do they actually believe McEnany is supposed to stand there passively in the face of their mistreatment, and not fire back and reasonably defend herself and President Trump?

•
I can guarantee you one thing: The tens of millions of Trump supporters don't agree, and they have her back.

•
We don't share the media's warped belief that they can behave rudely and then whine like innocent victims when they get a small dose of their own medicine.

•
The media can continue this sick charade that they are objective journalists, but half the nation knows better, and the other half probably does, too.

•
But many approve of the media's odious behavior because they applaud a media at war with a president they loathe.

•
Anyone familiar with media "fact-checkers" knows that today's left describes contrary opinions as lies.

•
Even if McEnany were completely deferential, the Trump-hunting media would never accept her unless she betrayed Trump.

•
They would accuse her of lying anytime she presented a position that differs from theirs.

•
The liberal media will continue to posture and complain about McEnany, and the rest of us can rest assured that in so doing, they further validate her in our eyes.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related He's Crazy! (Glenn McCoy, 05/16/2017) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related He Hit Back! (Glenn McCoy, 07/07/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Adriana Cohen: Twitter not only politically biased, it's crossed over into election meddling, too (Fox 05/30/2020)
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It's ironic that Democrats and their mouthpieces in media have been pounding the table the past few years about Russia, Russia, Russia and the importance of preserving the integrity of our elections while overlooking the fox in the henhouse of Silicon Valley.

•
A powerful tech sector, run by ultra-liberal political activists at Twitter and other social media networks, routinely censor conservatives and any voices that stray from its left-wing ideology.

•
Of course, Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO, denies any foul play while the rest of us see pervasive evidence of alarming political bias — and de facto election meddling.

•
This week, Twitter singularly targeted the president — in the midst of a presidential election cycle — effectively labeling his tweets as "fake news" despite ample evidence that mail-in voter fraud exists.

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Had Twitter administrators bothered to do a simple internet search, they would've found that federal prosecutors charged Thomas Cooper, a 47-year-old postal carrier, on Tuesday for fraudulently altering mail-in ballots from one political party to another.

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Or, heck, Twitter could've watched a 2004 video available on YouTube by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who warned: "Paper ballots are EXTREMELY susceptible to fraud... I can show you experience which would make your head spin."

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This is precisely what the president was warning us about in his tweets, but alas, Twitter's "fact-checkers" either didn't bother to do basic research or, worse, deliberately chose not to.

•
If you suspect it's the latter, then you are correct given the politically charged, anti-Trump tweets recently uncovered and outlined...

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Yoel Roth, Twitter's Head of Site Integrity has tweeted his disdain for our commander in chief and the millions of patriotic, law-abiding Americans who support him.

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In November 2016, Roth tweeted "I'm just saying, we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason."

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Roth has also compared the Trump administration to "ACTUAL NAZIS." This is who Twitter wants us to trust as a "neutral" fact-checker.

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... Twitter hasn't fact-checked any Democratic lawmakers, media outlets or blue check-marked "journalists" who've spent the past four years spreading malicious lies and misinformation about the Russia collusion conspiracy theory and propaganda campaign that was waged against President Trump and his 2016 campaign since debunked by a special counsel probe.

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Twitter is "fact-checking" the president — while turning a blind eye to his past and present political opponents who've spread malicious misinformation on its platform in an attempt to stop Trump from getting elected in 2016 and to block him from getting re-elected this November.

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Twitter has not only demonstrated rampant political bias for far too long — it's also crossed the line into election meddling — as studies have shown most voters get their news online.

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It's high time to right the ship.
In Russia collusion hoax, Rod Rosenstein must be held accountable for his flagrant misconduct (Fox 05/29/2020)
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Think of it this way: the boss was questioned by his subordinate, and then the boss played an instrumental role in deciding whether charges should be brought based, in whole or in part, on his own testimony.

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It does not take a genius to realize that the scenario was fundamentally wrong and unethical.

•
A lawyer cannot be an impartial investigator, witness, prosecutor and judge all rolled into one.

•
The then-deputy attorney general advised Trump how to get rid of Comey and then hired Mueller to investigate whether that decision constituted obstruction of justice by the president.

•
Rosenstein had not just one but two untenable conflicts of interest. He was tangled up in the "collusion" case, as well.

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He signed his name on the fourth FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant application to spy on Trump campaign associate Carter Page.

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The Justice Department subsequently determined that the warrant was unlawfully obtained without probable cause.

•
... Rosenstein should be grilled by senators over his leading role in what became known as the "attempted coup" – a disgraceful plot to secretly record the president and recruit Cabinet members to remove him from office under the 25th Amendment.

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There is a lot to this sordid story ... and many more questions for the reprehensible Rosenstein.
Tucker Carlson: Inconvenient facts threaten the racism scams our leaders and media are working (Fox 05/29/2020)
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... practically every day, we're told that white cops are a mortal threat to black men and some are, obviously. It's what started this whole thing. A black man was killed by the police. It's awful.

•
But what are the national numbers on this? Well, actually, we know the answer. A study from last year found that white police officers were less likely to shoot and kill nonwhite suspects than nonwhite police officers were.

•
In any given year, police kill more white suspects, armed and unarmed, than black suspects. And that's a fact, by the way. It's not political propaganda. It's probably true. Yet no one on television will ever say that because that fact threatens the scams they're working.

•
Eddie Glaude, Jr. might be the living embodiment of this phenomenon. If you've ever wondered whether yelling racist at the people you want things from its an effective business plan, Eddie Glaude is living proof that indeed it is.

•
By regularly screaming "racist," Glaude has been able to ride a mediocre academic career all the way to an endowed professorship at Princeton.

•
It's a job with such high pay and so few actual requirements that Glaude can dress like a British lord, and spend much of his day shuttling by limo between cable news hits.

•
Talk about a sweet gig. As long as Eddie Glaude continues to denounce people as racist — the right people — he can probably keep that job forever.

•
So naturally, Eddie Glaude has no interest in explaining how exactly racism makes people loot Target. It just does, okay? And if you disagree with that premise, you're a racist yourself. So shut up.

•
So, you've got to wonder how would Eddie Glaude, Jr. respond if something like this happened to him. If looters descended on his house, would Glaude gently describe them as "protesters" as they made off with his Hermes necktie collection?

•
If thugs with bandanas on their faces smashed the windshield of his BMW with rocks, would Eddie Glaude call the police? Or would calling the police be racist?

•
Just how long, in other words, could Edie Glaude maintain his fraudulent racial justice shtick in the face of the kind of violence that he routinely excuses on television?

•
The problem with outbreaks of mob violence is you really have no idea where they're going next. You can't know. Sometimes they subside; often, they metastasize. They're unpredictable, and they are mortally dangerous, and that's why you don't encourage them.

•
In St. Paul, signs have appeared in store windows announcing, "This is a black-owned business." In other words, we're the right skin color, spare us.

•
What does that tell you? Imagine if you saw a sign saying "white-owned business" in windows.

•
But Minneapolis has decided to just let their riot happen and damn the consequences.

•
"Our officers are being — have been through several hours here, Molotov cocktails thrown at them, rocks and other projectiles. And so obviously their safety is paramount, and so I don't want them going into an area where they're at risk of harm themselves."

•
But in fact, it's not at all obvious. In fact, it's perfectly backward. Society's first concern is the safety of citizens, especially the weakest citizens.

•
That's why we have police in the first place — to protect people who cannot protect themselves, the public.

•
Imagine if the Secret Service adopted the same attitude. Sorry, I can't protect the president today, too risky.

•
How about the military? We'd love to repel the invasion, but unfortunately, we might get hurt. Our apologies.

•
Things would fall apart. Things are falling apart in Minneapolis. And as they collapse, our leadership class seems thrilled. They're doing nothing to calm racial division. In fact, they're eagerly stoking it.

•
The New York Times wrote a piece Thursday morning with the title, "How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror."

•
The subhead read this way: "There are too many noosed necks, charred bodies and drown souls for them to deny knowing precisely what they are doing."

•
Wait a second. "Them"? What "they" are doing? Keep in mind, this didn't run in Louis Farrakhan's free weekly.

•
This was The New York Times, this country's most important newspaper, the high temple of American liberalism.

•
The New York Times is telling you that every single person of a certain color and sex has a hand in genocide.

•
They are stained by bloodguilt. They are murderers, every one of them. What do you do to murderers? You know the answer.

•
It's hard to believe our leaders are actually talking like this. But they are — a lot and loudly.

•
And if they keep it up, things will not end well. Yet, they show no signs of slowing down.

•
But the problem is much bigger this time than mere hypocrisy. We're very used to that. This problem is far more ominous.

•
Here it is in three sentences. There are 320 million of us in this country. A lot of us are very different from one another, yet we all have to live together. In fact, most of us want to live together. But suddenly our leaders are making that dangerously difficult.
Trump’s social media executive order is justified – protects free speech, combats censorship (Fox 05/28/2020)
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... President Trump and many conservatives have identified a serious problem.

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Twitter and some other social media companies want to be two things at the same time: common carriers where anyone can post comments, and news organizations that selectively fact-check some posts and determine which ones are accurate and which ones are not.

•
Making such determinations is an editorial decision that is often very subjective.

•
Right now social media companies enjoy protection from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for what is posted on their sites, because in most cases they allow people to post whatever they wish – as if they were posting on a giant virtual bulletin board.

•
In contrast, news organizations can be sued for libel if they publish false information with "'actual malice' – that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."

•
... Twitter has selectively targeted conservatives – most recently President Trump this week – and has either taken down their tweets or labeled them as misleading and added a fact check, as was the case with two of the president's tweets dealing with problems with mail-in voting.

•
Ironically, the president's tweets saying voter fraud can take place with mail-in voting were accurate.

•
Twitter's fact check claiming that the president's tweets were factually inaccurate was itself inaccurate.

•
What is crucial here is that by deciding to selectively review a tiny number of tweets on its site and running supposed fact checks on them, Twitter is exercising editorial judgment and deciding what people are told is true.

•
Even Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, told ... that social media companies should not act as the "arbiter of truth."

•
President Trump's executive order states that social media companies that remove or restrict content should be exposed to liability "like any traditional editor and publisher that is not an online provider."

•
Will Twitter now fact-check every tweet by former Vice President Joe Biden and every Democratic elected official in the nation?

•
Will it fact check every tweet critical of President Trump? Obviously not.

•
But by selectively running a fact check (which was actually inaccurate) on Trump's tweets, Twitter abandoned all pretense of being an unbiased common carrier.

•
Social media companies should be like trains that allow anyone to board.

•
As common carriers they should allow any ideas to be transported on their platforms without selecting which ones are permitted.

•
Once the companies start picking and choosing among the ideas, they should lose their status and liability protection as common carriers.

•
Telephone companies are appropriately designated as common carriers. You can call anyone you want and say anything you want without exposing the phone company to liability for what you say.

•
While a caller can be held liable for what he or she says on the phone – such as making a death threat, or plotting a terrorist attack – the phone company cannot be held liable because it does not censor calls.

•
President Trump's executive order doesn't restrict speech or require Twitter, Facebook or other social media companies to publish any particular speech.

•
It focuses on whether the companies act as publishers exercising editorial control or simply as unbiased platforms for content created by users.

•
The order also asks federal agencies to evaluate whether the companies are applying their terms of service in ways that do not match the published terms of service.

•
There is plenty of evidence showing that social media companies treat ideas and accounts differently based on political and ideological affiliation.

•
The order is an attempt to address the longstanding concern of many on the political right that the liberal activist nature of most social media company employees and the companies themselves has unfairly damaged conservative ideas and accounts.

•
The Federal Trade Commission could also look at the potential monopoly of the public information space by a handful of social media companies.

•
President Trump has been clear that he does not want to trade the control now exercised by the tech firms for the unsubtle hand of a government overseer.

•
But the social media censorship of our shared public information space in a way that discriminates against some ideas is an intolerable situation.

•
Let's hope the social media companies take the hint and change their ways.
Tucker Carlson: Big Tech authoritarians are willing to censor Trump, think nothing of silencing you (Fox 05/28/2020)
•
We're going to state the obvious: Donald Trump tweets an awful lot. Many wish he didn't do it. He does it anyway. It's often his preferred mode of communication.

•
Now, whether or not it's politically wise for him to do this, Donald Trump has an absolute right as an American to express what he actually thinks, even if every other person on Earth disagrees with him.

•
When they used to tell you this was a free country — and they often said that — that's what they were talking about, the freedom of speech.

•
Well, sadly, it's become a much less free country recently. Power has become radically concentrated in far fewer hands than at any time in the past 100 years at least.

•
And the people who wield that power have no interest whatsoever in your right to say something they disagree with.

•
In fact, they're delighted to silence you if you try. They're not embarrassed to admit that they do this. They don't pretend anymore.

•
Twitter, for example, now openly purges its users whose political views their executives don't like.

•
It's bewildering, if you think about it, that they're allowed to do this because, like all the Big Tech companies, Twitter only exists — its CEO is a billionaire — only because Twitter enjoys key exemptions from federal law, exemptions that you don't enjoy, and we don't enjoy here at Fox News.

•
It has those exemptions because Congress carved them out for the Big Tech companies, and that means Congress has the power to defend your free speech online.

•
The White House does, too. And yet they've done absolutely nothing so far to help you.

•
Until Tuesday, Twitter returned the favor by leaving the commander-in- chief's Twitter feed alone. And then Trump criticized mail-in voting.

•
The president tweeted that mail-in ballots could be "substantially fraudulent."As s a factual matter, that is true and we can prove it.

•
... mail-in ballots have been linked to numerous cases of election fraud. People have been criminally convicted for it. So, it's really not up for debate.

•
On Tuesday Twitter placed a so-called "fact check" on the president's tweet. "Trump falsely claimed that mail in ballots would lead to a rigged election," Twitter announced. "Fact checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud."

•
Now, again, as a factual matter, that is a lie. There's no other way to interpret it. But worse than a lie, it is a form of political censorship.

•
So, who decided to do this, to censor it? Well, Yoel Roth has the Orwellian title "head of site integrity "at Twitter — an irony-free zone where they don't understand that their titles alone are scary. That means he is one of the company's censors.

•
And not surprisingly, Roth is a political activist and not an especially subtle one.

•
So, these are the people controlling what you're now allowed to think and say in America. They're authoritarians.

•
If they're willing to censor the president, they will think of nothing at all of silencing you — and they don't. They gladly do it, and no one pushes back.

•
Traditionally, that role, the role of pushing back hard against censorship, was reserved for reporters.

•
Their job was to safeguard the First Amendment, which is designed to protect the weak, not the strong.

•
The weak are protected by the freedom of speech, and journalists are supposed to care about the weak, about the public — their readers and viewers.

•
They weren't supposed to be simply thugs hired to protect the powerful, but that's what they have become.

•
There's only one reason we have a free press — and that's to fight back against authoritarian power structures that demand we read from approved scripts.

•
And now CNN is writing those scripts. It's terrifying. And all of a sudden, it's everywhere.
Victor Davis Hanson: The spreading debt virus — 5 potential cures for $30 trillion problem (Fox 05/28/2020)
•
Americans may soon have to service a staggering national debt of about $30 trillion — nearly $100,000 of debt for every American.

•
Democrats and Republicans can blame each other, either for spending too much or for too little taxation, or both.

•
But both sides will agree that managing such an astronomical debt requires several frightening choices.

•
One, Americans would be forced to live with permanent near-zero interest rates, or perhaps even negative interest rates.

•
Two, Americans, who are already taxed heavily at the local, state and federal levels, would simply have to pay even more.

•
The problem with constant increases in taxation is the ensuing culture of even greater spending that inevitably follows and the destruction of individual incentive.

•
Three, the government could make draconian cuts in spending, focusing mostly on entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, along with defense, where the bulk of federal expenditures are found.

•
Cutting Social Security and Medicare is usually political suicide. In times of growing tensions with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, it would equally be foolish to slash defense spending.

•
Four, the government could fall into the bad habits of the 1970s and simply expand the money supply, fuel inflation and pay down the debt with funny money.

•
Rather than fooling with interest rates and the money supply, a mixture of increased revenue and spending cuts seems wiser.

•
Five, the government could hope that new deregulation and more tax incentives might spur GDP growth of 3 percent or more per annum and thus "grow" our way out of deficits by radically expanding the economy.

•
In the first two decades of the 21st century, the United States has faced three existential crises.

•
The first was the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which prompted a global effort to fight radical Islamic terrorism.

•
The second occurred in 2008, when the U.S. financial system and stock market nearly collapsed.

•
The third began earlier this year with the COVID-19 epidemic and a quarantine that reduced the economy to its most shaky state since the 1930s.

•
During the first two crises, we snapped back the economy with low interest rates, increased government spending and larger annual deficits — and passed the greater long-term debt to another administration, another Congress and another generation of Americans.

•
We are postponing another rendezvous with reality. But as we near $30 trillion in debt, what cannot go on much longer soon probably won't.
Twitter tries to censor Trump with ‘fact check’ but gets its facts wrong on voter fraud (Fox 05/28/2020)
•
Democrats want to force states to mail all registered voters live ballots, whether or not voters request ballots.

•
While this may seem like a good way to vote that allows everyone to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic, forcing states to use an entirely new vote-by-mail system comes with its own problems – especially less than six months before the presidential and congressional elections.

•
How can you send every registered voter a live ballot in the mail when you don't keep accurate voter registration lists?

•
The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requires states to have a uniform, nondiscriminatory voter registration list maintenance program.

•
But many states have simply ignored or not had the resources to comply with this requirement, leaving states with inaccurate voter registration lists and certainly ill-prepared for voting by mail.

•
Allowing states to send all of their recorded registered voters a ballot without making states update their lists of registered voters would unquestionably invite fraud into elections.

•
Ballots would be mailed to addresses of individuals who have moved or passed away.

•
The new residents may not be eligible to vote but could see the ballots in the mail and try to vote anyway.

•
At the beginning of May, California and Los Angeles County were required to remove 1.5 million inactive voters from their registration lists when a Judicial Watch lawsuit said Los Angeles County has more registered voters than citizens.

•
You read that correctly – Los Angeles County has more registered voters than citizens.

•
If Democrats can federally mandate a nationwide all-mail election in November, election officials will be sending out more live ballots than voters, which will lead to fraudulent ballots being returned.

•
What Democrats are also not telling you is that California allows for ballot harvesting – meaning that any individual can pick up any number of ballots for any reason, completely unchecked.

•
These harvesters picking up ballots don't have to show an ID, they don't have to be a citizen, and they don't have to be eligible to vote.

•
You expect Americans to believe that having someone who can't vote picking up ballots won't invite fraud in our elections?

•
No one is keeping track of who is picking up thousands of ballots, so how do we know they're being delivered?

•
How do we know the harvesters aren't altering votes or pressuring people on how to vote?

•
Also, why are Democrats pushing to allow for ballot harvesting when all these mail ballots will supposedly have prepaid postage?

•
If voters can mail ballots in for free, then they don't need "ballot brokers" coming to collect their ballots, unchecked.

•
Practices like these raise many red flags and leave our election systems ripe for fraud.

•
My message to Twitter: Before you decide to censor speech by throwing a label on the president of the United States – or any American – make sure you know the facts yourself.
Gregg Jarrett: Trump attorney accuses Mueller of 'monstrous lie and scheme to defraud' (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
"Mueller's scheme was the same one captured in the (newly released) FBI set-up notes pertaining to Flynn. They knew they had nothing, but using their official power they created and perpetuated the facade of an investigation."

•
... commitment of cooperation and transparency in dealing with Mueller was eventually turned against the president, as the special counsel "misled" Trump's legal team in order to manufacture a crime where none existed.

•
... Mueller learned early in his investigation that there was no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion to influence the 2016 presidential election.

•
So, Mueller shifted to a legally contorted interpretation of obstruction of justice in order to keep his investigation afloat.

•
"As I look back, we had the most perfect trusting relationship with Mueller based on his word and handshake, which held throughout. No paper. Word was solid. They received everything they asked for without a hitch or page missing, including the most intimate notes of conversations with and by POTUS (President of the United States). Every witness they requested testified truthfully. No lying. No grand jury testimony. Mueller affirmed all of this in our March 5 (2018) meeting. How could there be a whisper of obstruction under these circumstances?"

•
Despite no evidence of an underlying crime, Mueller insisted that the president be interviewed by the special counsel.

•
He was clearly angling for obstruction of justice and hoping to ensnare the president in the equivalent of a perjury trap if he consented to be interviewed.

•
But obstructing what? Mueller readily acknowledged that there was no underlying crime.

•
Moreover, Trump had encouraged every witness connected to his campaign and the White House to testify. He voluntarily produced more than a million pages of documents. The special counsel's investigation had proceeded unimpeded.

•
"That is when I knew he had lied to me in our original meeting (June 16, 2017) and every meeting thereafter. Robert Mueller — ‘D.C.'s great man' — completely and deliberately misled us in order to set up a perjury/false statement trap for POTUS. It was a monstrous lie and scheme to defraud."

•
... numerous documents and letters supporting his accusations against Mueller. They paint a vivid picture of a special counsel determined to damage the president with an investigation bereft of any credible evidence.

•
In the March 5, 2018, meeting, the special counsel suggested that maybe Trump's firing of Comey (Mueller's longtime friend, partner and ally) might constitute obstruction of justice.

•
This was especially ludicrous since both Comey and deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe had testified that no one had obstructed the bureau's investigation and that the probe had continued uninterrupted after Comey's departure.

•
... patiently explained to Mueller that the firing had been an exercise of presidential authority under the Constitution and could not, by definition, establish obstruction. Even Comey had confirmed this.

•
Trump had sacked the director for repeated violations of FBI regulations in his mishandling the Hillary Clinton email scandal and on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general, as well as several former attorneys general and deputy attorneys general from different eras and both political parties.

•
... Mueller became so desperate that he broached the absurd idea of how Trump's public criticism of the special counsel might be construed somehow as an obstructive act.

•
"They acted like crybabies who were offended that someone dared to criticize them, so they instinctively labeled it obstruction. It was insane."

•
... the FBI's counterintelligence investigation was predicated on Russian disinformation secretly fed to ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who composed a phony anti-Trump "dossier" that was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democrats.

•
... declassified documents were released proving that Kremlin-sponsored disinformation drove the collusion case. Comey and his confederates deliberately exploited what they knew to be untrue and discredited information.

•
They used it as a pretext to spy on the Trump campaign and investigate the president. This led to the illegitimate appointment of the special counsel, Bob Mueller, who launched an investigation in search of a crime that never occurred.

•
... called Mueller's investigation and report a sham. "They knew there was nothing there." Dowd said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also knew it and is "just as guilty."

•
... hopes that U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is currently investigating the Russia hoax, would hold all of them to account for their rampant corruption and dishonesty. "Their three-year investigation was all phony."

•
"They knew there was nothing to investigate. People subverted the system of justice. One corrupt act after another. It's staggering. The lies were monstrous. It was all pretense and fraud. Mueller should not walk. Rod Rosenstein should not walk."

•
And neither should James Comey, Andrew McCabe and disgraced ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok.

•
See related The Mueller Team (Glenn McCoy, 12/15/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related What's the Charge? (Glenn McCoy, 08/07/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Trump Interrogation (Sean Delonas, 02/10/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden bows to radical left by pledging to cancel Keystone XL pipeline – Americans would suffer (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
Former Vice President Joe Biden is continuing to move from the left, to the far-left, to the radical fringe in a desperate effort to capture the enthusiastic support of the followers of self-described socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

•
Nowhere is this more true than in Biden's dangerous positions on energy issues.

•
Biden's decision to put Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez in charge of formulating his energy policy is like putting two vegans in charge of overseeing all U.S. meat production.

•
The Keystone XL pipeline should not be controversial. The 1,210-mile oil pipeline would be just one of the many pipelines that keep America running.

•
Natural gas and oil crisscross our country in over 2.6 million miles of pipeline. That's enough to get to the moon and back 10 times!

•
Buried pipelines are out of sight and have an outstanding safety record. Without them, we'd have to move from a 21st-century lifestyle back to the 19th century.

•
Losing our northern neighbor's reliable, inexpensive oil to China or elsewhere in Asia would be a foreign policy nightmare, but if Biden wants to continue the Obama-Biden tradition, foreign policy nightmares are to be expected.

•
One thing is for sure: stopping the Keystone XL pipeline will not magically end our use of oil and other fossil fuels.

•
Supporting Keystone XL was a winning issue for Trump in 2016 and it can be again this year. His policies that have brought our country more jobs, a stronger foreign policy, a stronger economy, greater national security and energy independence have all made America great again.

•
Biden is foolish to attempt to make Keystone XL a political issue. America needs energy. America needs jobs.

•
Our nation doesn't need more Obama-Biden posturing and holding up vital energy projects to create a phony green legacy that will hurt the American people.
Respectfully Dissenting from Judge Luttig on Flynn Mandamus (05/27/2020)
•
It would be nice if participants in this drama could get beyond Trump derangement and remember what criminal cases are about. This matter is not about Judge Sullivan or the Justice Department.

•
It is not even about Michael Flynn as the former Trump administration official caught up in the Trump–Russia contretemps.

•
It is about Michael Flynn, the accused, who is presumed innocent and entitled to the full array of rights assured by the Constitution, federal procedural rules, and due-process jurisprudence.

•
The criminal-justice system's principal task is to provide due process to the accused.

•
It is human nature that judges and prosecutors often come to believe that the accused is guilty, is a rogue, is gaming the system, and so on.

•
Yet this does not change the judge's or the prosecutor's duty to ensure that a defendant is afforded every protection to which the system entitles him.

•
Regardless of how you feel about Flynn, think about what happened here — and what you'd say about it if politics were not inflaming the public debate.

•
The FBI serially flouted its own procedures in investigating Flynn — the lack of a basis for the investigation, the perjury trap interview, the willful decision not to advise him of all his rights or of the nature of the interview.

•
The original prosecutors then squeezed Flynn into a guilty plea on a charge they knew was flawed, withheld exculpatory evidence that would have made the flaws obvious, and concealed from the court the full details of the plea agreement.

•
... Judge Sullivan is laboring to deprive Flynn of the dismissal to which the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure entitle him when the Justice Department decides to dismiss a case with prejudice.

•
Worse, under Sullivan's apparent conception of due process, a criminal defendant must confront not only the government prosecutors and the Justice Department's bottomless budget, but additional scores of "amicus" prosecutors, as well as a prestigious former federal judge as the amicus-in-chief — whispering in the assigned judge's ear that the Trump Justice Department is acting corruptly and the defendant, though presumed innocent, is probably guilty of perjury and contempt, so the judge should just enter a judgment of conviction and sentence him anyway.

•
I don't think Judge Sullivan can defend what he has done here. I cannot imagine, moreover, that the Court of Appeals will look kindly on a judge so lacking in confidence about what he has done that he has retained a well-known criminal defense lawyer to try to explain it for him.

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If Judge Sullivan cannot convincingly explain why, in the face of binding D.C. Circuit precedent, he has encouraged amicus briefs, recruited a patently biased former judge to advise him, and refused to grant a dismissal that the Justice Department is within its authority to direct, then the Court of Appeals should, on its own, grant the Justice Department's dismissal motion. Or else it should order Judge Sullivan to grant it.

•
At stake is a straightforward legal issue: the Justice Department's authority to dismiss the case in a manner that protects Flynn's due-process rights.

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The law is clear that the Justice Department has this power, even if a district judge subjectively believes it should not be exercised.
Coronavirus shouldn’t take away our God-given freedoms – Los Angeles mayor doesn’t get that (Fox 05/24/2020)
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Discussing the severe restrictions he imposed on residents of his city in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Garcetti said: "let's continue to earn this freedom."

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Earn our freedom?

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Without a close competition for second place, this is the most outrageous and un-American statement I can remember coming from a major political figure.

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Our Declaration of Independence makes it crystal clear that we as Americans don't have to "earn" anything from the likes of Garcetti...

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The Declaration states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life- liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

•
The mayor clearly has confused the idea of English philosopher John Locke's natural law with Los Angeles' emergency ordinances and decrees.

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While the idea of natural law predates Locke (who was born in 1632) in various forms, it was Locke who made it front and center with regard to defining a just form of government.

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Locke made it clear that natural law applies to all people and can be discovered through reason. No revelation required, as is the case with Divine Law.

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Our right to life, liberty and property were "natural" under Locke's construct. He believed that virtually any limitation imposed by government upon our use and expression of those rights is a violation of the law, not an expression of it.

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Garcetti seems to think that his ideas and those of his advisers supersede natural law and our Constitution, and if we're good boys and girls, we might just be rewarded and have our fragile freedoms restored.

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The mayor is telling us that rights are not rights, but are simply state-granted privileges.

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... the near house-arrest measures were said to be likely extended another three months as directed by Dr. Ferrer.

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Doctor of what, by the way? ... I respect their experience, and value their counsel, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't question their conclusions.

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Ferrer, for example, is a doctor of social welfare, not medicine. She's supposed to be overseeing Los Angeles' growing homeless crisis.

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Instead, she's best known for starting the National Day of Racial ... as well as Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Centers on university campuses.

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And now Ferrer is known for advising Garcetti to extend Los Angeles' draconian lockdown measures all the way to Independence Day.

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Going back to President Woodrow Wilson and ever since, Democrats have ranged from expressing frustration to voicing open hostility for the limits that the Constitution places on government and their collectivist dreams of ordering society the way they believe is best.

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I have a message to Garcetti and Ferrer and to all the other mayors and doctors out here who are enjoying their moment of directing freedom-limiting public policy by edict, telling us what we have to do to "earn it back."

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Our freedom is not yours to give back to us. It is ours to take back from you.
Flynn Was Not Masked because the FBI Framed Him as a Clandestine Agent of Russia (05/24/2020)
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FBI officials — if they thought about it at all — figured Flynn need not be masked because they did not see him as an innocent American incidentally caught up in foreign surveillance.

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They purported to suspect that he was a clandestine agent of Russia. Of course, they had no proof of that. And they knew they had no proof.

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That's why they never sought a FISA-court warrant targeting Flynn. Doing so would have required showing probable cause that he was an operative of Russia; and as to Flynn, they didn't even have a fabulist "dossier" to rely on for such a smear.

•
Recall: McCabe was fired after the Obama-appointed DOJ inspector general found that he willfully misled investigators — multiple times, including under oath — in connection with a self-serving leak he had orchestrated and for which he had tried to shift suspicion to his fellow agents.

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The main problem here is that the story makes no sense — you know: The Obama administration, just three weeks away from leaving office, and after eight years of passivity in the face of the Kremlin's lies and provocations, was suddenly so puzzled by Putin's "no retaliation" announcement, and so worried about its possible national-security implications, that the White House felt compelled to investigate aggressively.

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Gimme a break. No rational person would have assumed, just because Putin said Russia would not retaliate, that it would not make mischief at some opportune time.

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Putin is a former KGB agent and a despot who has gotten unimaginably rich by pilfering his country's wealth. Lying is his business, and he does it more often than you change your socks.

•
No competent intelligence pro takes what he says at face value. In those rare times when Moscow is not making trouble for us, it is scheming to make trouble for us — that's a given.

•
Common sense would have told any savvy analyst that Putin simply did not think it was in Russia's interest, at that moment, to ratchet up tensions with the United States. He wasn't wounded by the new sanctions. They were completely consistent with Obama's fecklessness, which, by then, Putin knew only too well.

•
He knew he could rely on the media–Democrat alliance to peddle "no retaliation" as more "proof" that Trump was in Putin's pocket.

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That would sow more American discord and further undermine the new president's capacity to govern — outcomes very much in Putin's interests.

•
Here's a more plausible explanation of motive. The Obama administration was actively constructing the Trump–Russia collusion narrative.

•
Obama officials saw Putin's "no retaliation" pose as an opportunity to float the fiction that the Kremlin had cut a sinister deal with Trump to gut Obama's sanctions as a reward for Russia's hacking of Democrats during the campaign.

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Obama officials and the FBI hoped to conceal the Trump–Russia investigation from the incoming Trump administration for as long as possible, and to continue the investigation of Trump's campaign...

•
The Flynn–Kislyak call was intercepted because the FBI had FISA coverage on Kislyak, and both the Bureau and the Obama White House instantly recognized that hyping the call could advance all these objectives.

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Then, they really hit the jackpot: Even though Flynn had done nothing wrong, Trump officials amateurishly misled the public about the call — claiming that Obama's sanctions were not discussed, rather than that the topic came up but Flynn made no concessions to Moscow.

•
The point of all this was politics, not national security. It therefore makes perfect sense that Flynn's name would not have been masked.

•
The intelligence community tells Americans it deeply respects their privacy and realizes that collecting information about them — under the guise of monitoring foreign actors — is something that can only be justified by national-security needs and strict adherence to privacy guidelines.

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It is sweet-sounding twaddle. Sure, American identities are masked the majority of the time. On close reading, though, our intelligence agencies reserve the discretion to unmask pretty much whenever they wish.

•
... even if the FBI knows Flynn's job as incoming national-security advisor is to consult with foreign counterparts, and even if the FBI knows Flynn has said nothing improper in his conversation with Kislyak, the Bureau is free to claim that Flynn's name must be revealed in order to "assess the importance" of his conversations with Russia's ambassador — something that is not done to other U.S. officials whose job is to consult with foreign emissaries, because the FBI knows it has no business monitoring the conduct of American foreign policy.
During coronavirus pandemic, essentials are the new protected class (NYP 05/23/2020)
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For socialists and those who lean that way, pandemic time is boom time.

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Washington is printing and spending money like never before and both parties support sending cash to businesses and the unemployed.

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A time of great need and fear is shattering any stigma about being on the dole.

•
A logical conclusion is that politics will follow culture and Bernie Sanders- and AOC-types will call the shots in America.

•
Unless Republicans and conservatives get on board, they will be consigned to history's dustbin.

•
Perhaps. But pay attention to another potential reaction to the pandemic. Think of it as the revenge of the nonessentials.

•
"There are the protected and the unprotected. The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back, powerfully."

•
Happily, the unprotected and deplorables carried the day and gave themselves a fierce advocate in the 45th president.

•
The Trump revolution, for all its progress, clearly has more work to do. For by hook and crook, the protected managed to hang on to power. This time they call themselves "essential."

•
Just as the Founders and countless guardians of liberty warned, those with too much power inevitably go too far.

•
Just as inevitably, when government picks winners and losers, the unprotected are the losers.

•
Being designated an "essential" business or employee meant you could keep working, keep your paycheck and standard of living.

•
If you were unfortunate enough to be labeled "nonessential," you could lose your business, your home and your nest egg.

•
Unless you worked for the government. Despite shutdown orders in New York and other blue states, municipal and state workers continued to get paid even as most didn't have to work.

•
While most had nothing to do, some got the merciless tasks of making sure that nonessentials didn't work.

•
In an especially galling example, Post reporters caught city inspectors staking out upscale neighborhoods to catch contractors working despite a state ban.

•
The arbitrary distinction between essential and nonessential recalls the gag about the difference between a recession and a depression.

•
A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose your job.

•
Naturally, most of Big Media favor extreme shutdowns, which are happening primarily in states with Democratic governors.

•
It's possible the journalists are genuinely concerned about the health of their fellow Americans, but it's more likely they see economic catastrophe as bad for Trump.

•
The New York Times, which congenitally opposes good news with Trump in the White House, said in a recent Page One headline: "New Cases in U.S. Slow, Posing Risk of Complacency."

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Trump weighed in Friday and used the magic words to boost religious freedom, declaring that churches, synagogues and mosques are "essential places that provide essential services" and urging governors to open them.

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As the president put it, "In America, we need more prayer, not less." Finally, somebody in government sees the light: Praying is essential.

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Media and Corona (Gary McCoy, 03/12/2020) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Finally Got Him (Chip Bok, 03/31/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Coronavirus and the shocking abuse happening in nursing homes. This tragedy wasn't by accident (Fox 05/23/2020)
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Months from now, if and when we're finally able to assess the coronavirus pandemic rationally and honestly, it'll be clear that it was mostly a disaster for the old and the sick.

•
Thirty-year-olds in Brooklyn have made the most noise, flooding the Internet with their neuroses.

•
About a third of all deaths in this country so far have occurred in long-term care facilities. We told you a lot about the tragedy unfolding in New York.

•
As of Friday night, almost 6,000 nursing home residents have died there after Governor Andrew Cuomo forced facilities to admit infected patients.

•
In New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts for example, deaths in nursing homes account for more than half of the statewide totals.

•
Many nursing homes have banned all visits from relatives even those who have tested negative for the coronavirus.

•
That means for millions of aging Americans, lockdowns equal suffering alone, marooned in isolation, away from children and grandchildren, often in the final days of their lives.

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No visitors means no real supervision. No one who cares about the elderly can check-in and see how they're doing. This is an invitation to the most awful kinds of abuse.

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Take a look at this video. It's from the Westwood Nursing Center in Detroit.

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We warn you — and we don't say this lightly — it is highly upsetting. ... We think you should see it because it's real.

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VIDEO: A nursing center worker repeatedly punches an elderly man in a bed. It goes on like that for 90 seconds, but we'll spare you.

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The monster throwing those punches is 20 years old. The helpless resident he is smashing in the face is 75. Westwood Nursing Center says it had no idea the assault even happened.

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The video went up on social media and apparently, it was posted by the proud attacker himself. People saw it and called the police and they arrested him. He's in jail tonight.

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Police will not tell us his name. It's not clear why. He deserves to be famous.

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What is clear is that the Westwood Nursing Center was a scary place even before this assault took place.

•
This video is from a nursing home outside Peoria, Illinois. It was recorded in 2015. An elderly man beaten to the ground by a staff member.

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Imagine doing that to a man with a walker. The woman who did it, who committed that crime is free today. In fact, she is still in the health care business. You can look up her LinkedIn page online. We did it about 10 minutes ago and she looks perfectly content in her picture.

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And then there are these three nursing home employees in North Carolina. They're accused of staging fistfights between dementia patients for their own amusement.

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That happened just this fall. From what we can tell, none of these women is currently in jail tonight.

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Apparently the crime wasn't serious enough. It's not like they tried to open a gym in New Jersey or dared to walk on dry sand in Los Angeles.

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... the nursing home didn't even know what happened. They didn't detect the crime because no one was watching.

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In Texas, a nurse ... was arrested for murdering patients. Police say he killed more than 20 elderly people before anyone noticed.

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Again, all of that happened in a single year, last year, 2019.

•
So, what's happening in nursing homes right now? Well, we don't really know. And that's the point.

•
Family and loved ones aren't allowed in to see. Chances are, they would be heartbroken if they knew.

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It wasn't by accident. Our politicians did it. They did it to the most vulnerable people in our society, the ones who have earned the greatest respect. The Americans who actually did build this country.

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Now, our helpless elderly are locked in stinking cells, cut off from the only ones who love them. Some of them as we said, are raped and beaten. Thousands and thousands have died alone.

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They don't deserve this and the rest of us don't deserve the leaders whose neglect and bad judgment made it possible.
Dems Warning Trump Will Reject Election Results Should Look in the Mirror (JWR 05/22/2020)
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In a recent Washington Post column warning Americans to "prepare for the possibility of Trump rejecting election results" — one of media's favorite projections — ... asks a question: "If he loses, would it be more surprising if Trump graciously accepts defeat and congratulates his opponent or if he claimed to be the victim of a rigged election and a 'deep state' plot?"

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Considering Trump's temperament, it wouldn't be surprising if he blamed the "deep state" for an election failure.

•
Really, though, we have no need to speculate about what an attack on the sanctity of the electoral process would look like, since Democrats have been delegitimizing a valid election for the past four years.

•
These days, "democracy" is just another word for partisan victory. The last Democrat who lost a presidential race honorably was Michael Dukakis.

•
A stable two-party, right-left consensus has allowed us to avoid turmoil in the transition of power. It's a system that relies on trust from the electorate and good behavior from our leaders.

•
We learned about these magnificent norms from 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who, when conventional wisdom anticipated her victory, said: "We've been around 240 years. We've had free and fair elections and we've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them..."

•
But Clinton discarded any deference to results after the election, when she, and many Democrats, blamed the Russians, sexism, the unfairness of a 240-year process, James Comey's letter to Congress, and a slew of other bogeymen.

•
These concerted attacks were not only aimed at Trump's ideas, policies, or person — completely reasonable targets — but the validity of the election system itself.

•
Democrats now have an assortment of justifications for discrediting outcomes they may not like.

•
During the impeachment hearings, Nancy Pelosi maintained that "Let the election decide" was a "dangerous position" to hold because it was "jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections."

•
Adam Schiff's central rationale for impeachment was the notion that Trump had already cheated in 2020.

•
"Russia is interfering in our elections again. And Trump supporters are emulating Russian tactics," argues a Washington Post column this week.

•
Democrats know there's no genuine way, save wide-ranging censorship, to stop a foreign state from infiltrating our open information stream with their ineffective and amateurish social media accounts.

•
So we can speculate about what Trump might say if he loses — and let's hope he doesn't follow Hillary's precedent.

•
But we already know what Democrats will say if they lose: the election was rigged.
D.C. Circuit Orders Judge Sullivan to Respond to Flynn Mandamus Petition (05/22/2020)
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That was after Judge Sullivan not only declined to grant the prosecution's motion, but (a) invited non-parties to intervene in the case by filing amicus briefs (transparently, to make arguments that he somehow has authority to deny DOJ's motion); and (b) appointed one amicus, former federal judge John Gleeson, as a quasi-prosecutor to make arguments that prosecutors are declining to make in favor of entering a judgment of conviction and sentencing Flynn.

•
Sullivan's encouragement of amicus briefs, which are not authorized in criminal cases, flies in the face of Sullivan's own very firm orders previously declining to permit amicus briefs in Flynn's case — some two dozen times by Ms. Powell's count.

•
The appointment of Gleeson is equally astonishing and offensive to the principle of courts as impartial arbiters.

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Gleeson ... has co-written a Washington Post op-ed portraying the Justice Department's dismissal motion as an abuse of power.

•
... elaborated that decisions to dismiss pending charges "lie squarely within the ken of prosecutorial discretion," and that judges may not substitute their view that a defendant should be prosecuted in place of the Justice Department's determination that a case should be dropped.

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DOJ has made clear its view that the Flynn case should not have been charged and should be dropped...
Victor Davis Hanson: Coronavirus deepens divisions — except maybe this one bit of common ground (Fox 05/21/2020)
Judge Andrew Napolitano: What if the government has it wrong? (Fox 05/21/2020)
•
What if the government has it wrong — on the medicine and the law?

•
What if there are as many credible scientists and physicians who disagree with the government as those who agree with it?

•
What if the government chooses to listen only to scientists and physicians who would tell it what it wanted to hear?

•
What if the government silences scientists and physicians, and even fires one, who attempt to tell it what it didn't want to hear?

•
What if the government wants to stoke fear in the populace because mass fear produces mass compliance? What if individual fear reduces individual immunity?

•
What if government orders to nursing homes and assisted living facilities to accept the sick and contagious are insane?

•
What if the government makes health care decisions not on the basis of medicine or human nature but statistics?

•
What if we'd all be healthier and happier if we make our own choices with our own physicians rather than the government making choices for us?

•
What if it is un-American for the government to tell you how to care for yourself? What if it is equally un-American for you to follow the government when it intrudes into your personal choices?

•
What if the Supreme Court has ruled many times that your health care decisions are private, personal and to be made between you and your physician?

•
What if the Supreme Court has also ruled many times that your private health care decisions are none of the government's business?

•
What if we never elected a government to keep us free from all viruses, but we did elect it to keep us free from all tyrants?

•
What if the government — which can't deliver the mail, fill potholes, stop robocalls, or spend within its income — is the last entity on earth into whose hands we would voluntarily repose our health for safekeeping?

•
What if the government won't admit that its understanding of science is colored by politics?

•
What if — according to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence — government's first duty is to safeguard our rights?

•
What if there is no legal basis for the government to keep us at home or to close our businesses?

•
What if the government gave itself the power to interfere with our personal choices? What if that self-imposed power violates the basic constitutional principle that the government derives its powers from the consent of the governed?

•
What if the Constitution was written to restrain the government? What if all in government — local, state and federal — have taken an oath to uphold and comply with the Constitution?

•
What if these decisions about what is essential and inessential are for individuals — and not for the government — to make?

•
What if the government makes essential whatever serves its friends, enhances its wealth, maintains its stability and removes obstacles to its exercise of power?

•
What if the Constitution — with its protections of our rights to make free choices — is an intentional obstacle to governmental power?

•
What if America's founders and the Constitution's framers chose liberty over safety? What if the government doesn't like that choice? What if the government only nominally endorses it?

•
What if — when the pandemic is over — the government remains tyrannical?

•
What if we nullify the government that has nullified our rights?
Treasure of the West: Recklessness and ignorance has imperiled due process in America (JWR 05/20/2020)
•
What an appalling loss of our sense of national pride in something unique — the one great thing that should truly make us proud: due process of law.

•
It is both idiotic and immoral that we view an accusation like this, against Kavanaugh or Biden, through a partisan prism rather than a fairness prism.

•
This is as stupid as regarding scientific or medical evidence through a partisan prism.

•
And it is half-baked that some people say the press should "adjudicate" the Biden matter. Who gave the press such God-like power?

•
It is said that the four great inventions of Chinese culture are the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing.

•
The four great inventions of Western civilization are free speech, religious tolerance, freedom of association and due process of law — all explicitly enshrined in our Constitution.

•
The greatest of these is due process of law.
Hans von Spakovsky: Michael Flynn – appeals court should grant these two requests on case, judge (Fox 05/20/2020)
Victor Davis Hanson suggests Susan Rice email showed she 'was not going to be a scapegoat again'... (Fox 05/20/2020)
The Rice CYA Memo, Unredacted (05/20/2020)
Our leaders 'wasted literally years accusing each other of working for Putin' and China benefited (Fox 05/20/2020)
•
"The beauty of the Russia fable was that it allowed ... our ruling class to ignore the huge number of actual problems the United States faced, problems that in many cases they caused, or at the very least failed to solve."

•
"The drug addiction crisis that has killed tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands over time. The border that is essentially open. A disappearing middle class, the core of our country. The rise of China, and then, of course, any number of counterproductive foreign wars that should have ended long ago."

•
"For three years, nobody in Washington talked about any of this. In fact, failing to worry about Russia exclusively invited suspicion on you."

•
"Susan Rice, who seems smart — she went to Stanford — admitted later that she decided Michael Flynn was a Russian spy because he talked too much about China. 'That's what Russian spies do,'"

•
"Now, Donald Trump was elected, no one thought he would be, precisely because he talked about issues like these, the ones that mattered."

•
"That was a massive threat. So they derailed to a large extent, his first term agenda using a hoax concocted by the administration he replaced."

•
... "while our leaders in Washington wasted literally years accusing each other of working for [Vladimir] Putin, China grew more powerful."

•
"By the time this version of coronavirus spread west from Wuhan, China was calling many of the shots internationally. We didn't even know it until the crisis hit."

•
... "China's tentacles extend almost everywhere in our society," including higher education, Hollywood and sports.

•
"All of this has changed our lives in profound ways. But all of it happened with very little public notice. Why? Because the people making it possible didn't want to advertise it. They were getting very rich from it."
Technocrat establishment is all for democracy as long as it gives them more power (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
One of the most frightening things about the Russia revelations of the last few days is how the establishment and their media lackeys dismissed them.

•
They pushed the Russia conspiracy theory for years. And now we have actual evidence that the Russia collusion story was fantasy, that the Mueller investigation was an illegitimate fiasco, that leading Democrats like Adam Schiff, deliberately lied for years to the American people, that the fearsome apparatus of law enforcement was deployed by the state to take down political enemies on phony pretext.

•
That instead of upholding the centuries' long tradition of peaceful transition of power, the losing side in the last presidential election tried to cripple its successor, that the permanent Washington establishment aided and abetted by shameless propaganda arm, the establishment media, colluded in this orgy of norm-destroying and rule-breaking driven by condescending contempt for Donald Trump and his supporters.

•
Obama, Biden, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Holder — all of them used law enforcement against their political rivals.

•
This is the behavior of a police state. Sure they're all for democracy and the Constitution as long as it delivers the right result, more power to them.

•
It's not democracy. It's the tyranny of the technocrats — regardless of actual election results, power in the hands of a ruling elite who think they're smarter and better than you, but they're not.

•
Their ideology — globalism, open borders, endless war — it failed. That's why people voted for Trump in 2016.

•
Ever since then, the technocrats have been plotting to get their power back, first, with Russia, then with Mueller. After that, impeachment.

•
... look what actually happened. The reason we have a pandemic in the first place is because the outbreak was covered up by the authoritarian dictatorship in China.

•
Who spent the last 50 years sucking up to them? Not Trump, but the technocrats.

•
The reason we couldn't contain the outbreak and had to shut down our economy was because we didn't have tests that worked right at the start. Who screwed that up?

•
No, not the evil Trump, but the saintly public sector, CDC — the technocrats again.

•
Of course, for them, the 37 percent work-from-home elite, the economy isn't really shut down anyway. But for the majority of Americans who can't earn a living from their laptop, this is a disaster.

•
Here's an idea: No federal money for any state unless every public official who keeps the shutdown going agrees to have their pay stopped and given to local food banks for the duration of their shutdown.

•
They can apply for unemployment along with the rest of their victims. It's called "skin in the game."

•
We must fight back. Curb their power. Cut their pay. Kick them out. Beat them in November. That's the next revolution we need.
Barr’s Remarks on Obama and Biden Make an Important Point (05/18/2020)
The Permanent Emergency (JWR 05/18/2020)
David Limbaugh: Obamagate matters – media should focus on these facts, not conspiracy theories (Fox 06/06/2020)
•
No, President Donald Trump is not ranting and raving about Obamagate to keep himself center stage or to distract attention from COVID-19, as liberal media are suggesting.

•
Two recent columns contend that Trump has ulterior motives in harping on Obamagate – the notion that the Obama administration tried to destroy Trump with the myth that he colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election.

•
Wrong. How about we draw the most obvious inferences from Trump's statements instead of the liberal establishment's theories, which are far more outlandish than the Obamagate conspiracy they're ridiculing.

•
Everyone knows that Trump has long been outraged by the Russia hoax, and with good reason.

•
Even after he has been thoroughly vindicated of this frame job, the perpetrators have escaped accountability, and the left still pretends Trump is the guilty party.

•
Trump was effectively exonerated when the vaunted, high-powered and obscenely funded team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller couldn't find a shred of evidence to tie Trump to Russian election meddling.

•
Now, with the revelation that Obama administration officials and the FBI collaborated to incriminate former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, the retired Army lieutenant general, we have a smoking .357 Magnum in the hands of scores of those officials.

•
It is the liberal media – not Trump – who are trying to divert the public's attention from a story – the one showcasing the Democrats' complicity.

•
Trump wants us to focus on the virus and on out-of-work Americans because he is determined to prudently reopen the economy precisely to help the same people these journos claim he is ignoring.

•
... it is inconceivable that he could avoid virus-related issues during the campaign even if he tried. The media's diversion claim is patently absurd.

•
... Trump truly believes he was set up with the Russia hoax, and the evidence supports him. That's why he's ranting about it even while COVID-19 is still with us.

•
There must be a reckoning for the political party that abused governmental power to engineer a coup against the other party.

•
Progressives pounded the table for three years over Trump's alleged theft of the election, and they now expect us to shuffle docilely into the night when we have his opponents dead to rights doing the very thing they accused him of doing?

•
The left can smear Trump from their basements for not waving his wand and immediately accelerating our COVID-19 testing capacity to a billion per month and for the economic devastation caused by shutting down the economy.

•
But they show unprecedented audacity blaming him for a death count that would have been worse and for an economic shutdown that would go on indefinitely if they were in charge.

•
Unhappily for the media, President Trump is alert, engaged and proactively addressing a comprehensive range of issues affecting Americans.

•
He is fully capable of calling attention to this Democratic corruption of shocking magnitude without impeding his efforts to make America well and prosperous again.
Blame governors for the coronavirus deaths in nursing homes (NYP 05/16/2020)
•
An article ... several years ago explored the ways ancient cultures dispatched the elderly, a practice known as senicide.

•
Author ... recounted several gruesome rites that made the Inuit habit of putting Granny on an Arctic ice floe seem humane.

•
If they are honest, historians judging the American experience during the coronavirus pandemic will excoriate our barbaric failure to protect the elderly.

•
We think of ourselves as civilized, but mindless policies and bureaucratic indifference turned many nursing homes and rehabilitation centers into killing fields.

•
At least 28,000 residents and workers in long-term care facilities already have died from the virus, according to ... analysis done more than a week ago.

•
That represented one out of every three COVID-19 deaths recorded in the United States at the time and was likely an undercount because of reporting lags and varying state methods.

•
This massacre of a helpless population shames America and Washington must find out why it happened and who is responsible.

•
Elderly people in these institutions could not protect themselves, and because most states banned visitors early in the outbreak, the institutions, their regulators and elected officials were fully obligated to shield them against infection. They failed miserably.

•
Many if not most could have been avoided. The earlier outbreaks in Asia and Europe demonstrated that the elderly were easy prey for the virus, doubly so when they have underlying health conditions. Everybody knew that.

•
Florida got the message and implemented a model response. Despite its vast enclaves of long-term care homes, it reported under 750 deaths in them, or slightly more than one for each of its 615 facilities.

•
The striking contrast between Florida on one hand and New York and New Jersey on the other can be traced largely to policy decisions by their governors.

•
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey issued almost identical orders in late March requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients being discharged from hospitals.

•
The orders barred the homes from even asking if the patients had the virus, lest they be discriminated against.

•
Those politically correct orders quickly became death sentences as infections spread like wildfire.

•
Florida, thankfully, followed a different path. Gov. Ron DeSantis said his state moved early to protect the elderly because statistics from South Korea showed "that not all age groups were equally at risk" and that most deaths happened to "folks 65 and up."

•
As a result, he allowed his nursing homes to reject hospital referrals who were still infected. More recently, Florida started sending infected residents in the opposite direction, from nursing homes to hospitals.

•
"Our goal is to keep the virus out of our facilities. Hospitals are more concerned about their beds."

•
Because Cuomo and Murphy had the same information as DeSantis, their ruinous actions remain inexplicable. They can't say they weren't warned.

•
One of the worst is the state-run Veterans Home in Paramus, which has recorded at least 72 deaths. A man who lost his 91-year-old Army-veteran father there was quoted as saying the home should be demolished and replaced with a memorial park. "It's like a mass shooting," he said.

•
Despite the surging death count, Cuomo defended his directive for more than six weeks. He reversed himself only last Sunday, ruling that patients must test negative before hospitals can send them to nursing homes.

•
Yet he insisted that the initial policy "worked." If more than 5,000 dead was success, what would failure look like?

•
Despite the enormous consequences of Cuomo's arbitrary decision-making, only a few New York lawmakers have dared to call for investigations about what went wrong.

•
A designated US attorney, for example, could use a grand jury to demand answers about why so many elderly people were put in harm's way despite the warnings and simple common sense.

•
As for witnesses willing and eager to come forward, the feds should start with grieving families. For each of the 28,000 dead, there are relatives whose stories of heartbreak and rage will move the nation.

•
The families want answers and they want action. They deserve both.
Unmasking? The Real Story Is When Flynn Was Not Masked in the First Place (05/16/2020)
$3T coronavirus relief bill passed by House Dems funds most radical programs in US history (Fox 05/16/2020)
•
Democrats seem to take the position in the legislation that money is no object when it comes to spending trillions upon trillions of dollars under the cover of helping the American people deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

•
In reality, Democrats are using the pandemic to justify their wish list of far-left Big Government schemes more extreme than anything ever enacted in American history.

•
Perhaps if members of Congress spent as much time thinking about the impact of these free-spending bills as they did coming up with clever acronyms some of the most absurd provisions of both pieces of legislation could have been avoided.

•
Unbelievably, some House Democrats on the far-left fringe of the party actually complained that the House bill was too modest. They'd like to spend even more than $3 trillion.

•
Among the craziest provisions of the 1,800-page HEROES Act are a temporary elimination of the cap on state and local tax deductions on federal income taxes.

•
This is a move that would mostly benefit wealthy taxpayers in blue states – people like Nancy Pelosi, among other Democratic lawmakers.

•
The bill would also give an eye-popping $1 trillion bailout to state and local governments to deal with their budget shortfalls caused by the shutdown of businesses and stay-at-home orders designed to halt the spread of the pandemic.

•
Perhaps worst of all, the legislation would provide yet another round of $1,200 economic stimulus checks for most Americans, as well as an extension of the $600 weekly unemployment insurance bonus to jobless adults until the end of January 2021 – with an option to extend the bonus payments through March 2021.

•
The unemployment bonus – which is paid on top of other unemployment benefits – would provide jobless workers with as much as an additional $31,200 over the course of a year for doing absolutely nothing.

•
After adding the first and second rounds of stimulus checks and state unemployment benefits to the unemployment bonuses proposed by Democrats, it's clear that tens of millions of unemployed people in low-wage jobs could end up receiving significantly more money in government benefits than they earned while working.

•
Already, employers reopening their businesses have reported that they are having a hard time hiring employees for low-paying jobs because working would give so many people less money than they could collect in unemployment payments.

•
Discouraging people from working all the way through January 2021 or even longer is the last thing politicians should be doing in the midst of the most significant economic crash since the Great Depression, but that's exactly what House Democrats are clamoring to do.

•
The biggest reason for the proposal is likely driven by politics, not economic considerations.

•
It's no wonder then that Pelosi said at a press conference discussing the HEROES Act that it is "really quite an exciting time for us because we have a monumental need for our country at this sad time."

•
This sums up Democrats' view of the crisis: Sure, the coronavirus pandemic is a tragedy, but what an "exciting" tragedy for those of us looking to expand government at every turn!

•
They want to hook as many people on government aid programs as possible, instead of focusing on finding effective ways to get the country back to work as safely and quickly as they can.

•
The absurdity of sending $1,200 payments to millions of people who haven't lost their jobs and calling it "stimulus relief" proves just how outrageous this entire gargantuan cash giveaway has become.

•
... why would government try to "stimulate" the economy by infusing it with cash while at the same time keeping most of it closed?

•
You know what would actually stimulate the economy? Opening it!
Pelosi’s crazy $3T coronavirus spending bill may have secret purpose – Don’t underestimate her (Fox 05/16/2020)
•
There are a remarkable number of impossible-to-explain provisions in the bill. Some of them would:

•
Provide money to people in the country illegally.

•
Allow illegal immigrants to work when more than 30 million Americans are out of work.

•
Provide taxpayer funding for abortion, even though Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortions by 55 percent to 29 percent.

•
Block voter identification laws – even though 80 percent of Americans favor such laws.

•
Give state and local governments, which already collect your tax dollars, $1 trillion more of your tax dollars.

•
Give a tax cut to the richest Americans in blue states.

•
Impose a host of other liberal fantasies on Americans.

•
Pelosi is a survivor. She is tough. She is hardworking, and she has been through a lot of campaigns – and seen and executed a lot of maneuvers.

•
Therefore, you must assume there is a sound strategic reason for Pelosi to bring forward a bill that is this radical, expensive, and controversial.

•
First, Pelosi probably believes this is going to be a base turnout election, and she knows from all the polls that Republicans are more excited about the election than Democrats.

•
From Pelosi's perspective, mobilizing the cannabis users and liberal investors is a useful move.

•
Arousing the hardcore, pro-abortion activists helps Pelosi with turnout and donations.

•
Disciplined repetition of the word "diversity" appeals to her ideological activists and – to a lesser extent – minority communities.

•
Giving a tax cut to the richest people in the bluest states is a direct favor to her donor base and helps the public employee unions in those states by making state and local taxes more bearable.

•
Pouring extra cash into the worst-run blue states with the biggest pension debt (think Illinois and New Jersey) directly helps Pelosi's public employee union allies and the Democratic politicians in those states.

•
It is a major gamble on Pelosi's part.

•
If the Republicans have enough discipline and endurance, she will pay a substantial price for it.
Adriana Cohen: Apparent seditious anti-Trump conspiracy by Obama officials must be investigated (Fox 05/15/2020)
•
Our democracy is under fire, thanks to corrupt officials at the highest echelons of our government – including members of the Obama administration – who we're now learning conspired with former FBI Director James Comey and other "deep state" operatives to try to stop Donald Trump from getting elected.

•
And when that election meddling failed, members of Comey's cabal, with far-reaching tentacles across intelligence agencies and the Department of Justice, abused their power, spied on innocent American citizens and unmasked them.

•
That's just the tip of the iceberg.

•
These nefarious actors illegally leaked information to the media to smear President Trump and delegitimize and derail his administration.

•
These scurrilous actions triggered illegitimate investigations – including a 22-month special counsel probe into possible collusion with Russia – to effect a coup d'etat.

•
Make no mistake. What's transpired went far beyond a political hit job.

•
It's a toppling of a core pillar of a democracy, one that requires the peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next. A government system that respects the will of the voters in free elections.

•
When those time-honored principles and traditions break down, so does our electoral system and foundation of our democracy, because what separates the United States from a banana republic or a Communist regime is the peaceful transition of power.

•
Here's the alarming reality now coming to light: Newly declassified documents reveal that Obama administration officials, including then-Vice President Joe Biden, violated the peaceful transition of power by working alongside Comey's FBI and other operatives who engaged in illegitimate surveillance and unmasking of high-ranking members of the Trump administration, including former National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

•
"A stunning 39 separate officials snooped on Mr. Flynn's conversations with foreign actors, lodging nearly 50 unmasking demands between Nov. 30, 2016, and Jan. 12, 2017."

•
For the past several years, Democrats – led by documented liar Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. – and a complicit left-wing media have peddled the false narrative that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election from Hillary Clinton.

•
This massive, damaging lie, and subsequent disinformation campaign, has since been debunked by the costly Robert Mueller investigation.

•
Yet, nevertheless, it's still spun as factual in the mainstream media to take down Trump and his administration.

•
The list of abuses coming to light are downright chilling:

•
The brazen misuse of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to spy on Trump campaign associates using discredited opposition research paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee as a pretext.

•
An FBI lawyer who doctored evidence.

•
The reported withholding of exculpatory evidence by John Brennan, the former head of the CIA, to perpetuate the Russian collusion hoax and other troubling malfeasance.

•
All said, it's time for Attorney General William Barr to appoint a special counsel to get to the bottom of what appears to be a seditious conspiracy against a sitting president.

•
A failure to uncover the truth and hold bad actors to account will continue to sow damaging distrust in our justice system.

•
It'll also threaten to silence the will of voters now and in future elections – an unraveling of our democracy.

•
Mr. Barr, we can't allow that to happen.
Tucker Carlson: Leaders should be thrilled about ending coronavirus lockdowns. But they only... (Fox 05/15/2020)
David Bossie: Biden wrong on China his entire career – let's look at the record (Fox 05/15/2020)
•
In April, records from 9/11 mastermind Usama bin Laden's compound were disclosed detailing his plans to assassinate then-President Barack Obama.

•
Bin Laden's rationale for his horrific plot was telling: "Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis."

•
Now, a decade since U.S. Special Forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan, it's my guess that President Xi Jinping of China – our greatest geopolitical foe today – also wants former Vice President Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States.

•
... Biden and other establishment politicians in Washington have been instrumental in China's meteoric rise from a developing nation into a Communist power with global ambitions.

•
For decades, China has executed a foreign policy focused on replacing the United States as the world's leading economy.

•
... Biden gave a floor speech in September 2000 in support of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China.

•
"Finally, I would like to point out that my support for permanent normal trade relations with China is based not just on an assessment of the economic benefits to the U.S., not just on the prospects for political reform in China, but also on the impact on our national security."

•
Twenty years later, on each of the three prongs he laid out to justify his support for the legislation, it's clear that Biden was dead wrong.

•
Statistics show that 3.7 million American jobs have been lost to China since 2001 due to our horrendous anti-U.S. worker policies.

•
Furthermore, China has imprisoned upwards of one million Muslim Uighurs and other minorities in "re-education camps." It also, according to reports, jailed more than 48 journalists in 2019 alone just for seeking the truth.

•
And today we face a global pandemic with more than 80,000 Americans dying from COVID-19 because China chose to lie instead of help save lives.

•
So much for Biden's promises of economic prosperity, political reform and national security.

•
About a decade after his pro-PNTR vote, in 2011, Vice President Biden doubled down on his cozy rhetoric toward China in an op-ed he wrote for The New York Times.? Biden shamelessly reiterated his unwise support for the Chinese government, stating, "I remain convinced that a successful China can make our country more prosperous, not less."

•
Biden, who first visited China in 1979, couldn't see that the Communist leadership there was playing him for a fool.

•
"Some may warn of America's demise, but I'm not among them. And let me reassure you: based on my time in China, neither are the Chinese."

•
Biden is choosing to ignore the fact that President Trump singlehandedly changed the debate and rallied America around his get-tough-on Beijing policy.?

•
Exactly one year ago at a May campaign rally, Biden boasted, "China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man ... they can't figure out how they're going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. I mean, you know, they're not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they're not, they're not competition for us."

•
In our current reality, this statement personifies how wrongheaded Biden remains on China.?

•
A typical liberal like Sleepy Joe in the White House would return to failed globalist policies and China would pass the United States as the world's leading economic superpower and never look back.?

•
The bottom line is that Biden's disastrous policies would take us back to the days of economic stagnation.

•
Trump came into office with the goal of making America great again. It wasn't some poll-tested slogan that sounded good in speeches – it was a promise to the American people.?It was a promise that the failed economy of the Obama-Biden administration, characterized by slow growth and vanishing job opportunities, would not be tolerated.?

•
Upon entering office, President Trump confronted Chinese Communist leaders with his ironclad promise to the American people that he would bring our economy roaring back to life.

•
The idea that America's time was up and that China was the future simply did not sit well with the president.

•
China and who can best rebuild our economy will be the dominant issues on Election Day and that's bad news for Joe Biden.
A time to hate (INN 05/14/2020)
•
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: ... A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (KJV)

•
Through eight years, I accepted the rules of the game. Obama was president.

•
He won fair and square because the Republicans serially put up two milquetoast opponents who were incapable of offering a vision or articulating a message that inspired.

•
I accepted Obama. I never articulated his first name, and I never called him "president," but I accepted the results and accepted that this Pretender was our country's lawfully elected chief executive.

•
I watched his arrogance, the unctuous way he carried himself literally with his nose up, the way he never held a railing while walking a stairway because he was too cool, the kinds of human refuse he regularly invited as his White House guests, and I accepted it all with the soft whisper, "This, too, shall pass."

•
I watched the Corrupt Journalist Corps idolize him, crown him a king, admire him as a messiah and a deity, and I accepted the milieu.

•
This, too, in time would pass. It meant living through eight years of the deepest public corruption.

•
Amid my speeches and writings throughout the Wasted Obama Decade, I never published a piece aimed at bringing down Obama before his term was up.

•
He won. Although I saw him as despicable beyond words, the rules of the game, as set forth in America's Constitution, made him the U.S. president.

•
That meant Americans would die needlessly because of a commander in chief who was a Pretender and an Incompetent. But he won fair and square.

•
So ISIS grew from a small terror band to a caliphate. ISIS-inspired terror attacks occurred in our homeland. Western Europe sustained terrible deadly attacks.

•
The American economy went nowhere. Half a billion dollars ent down the drain with Solyndra while Obama tried to close down America's energy sector and maintain dependence on Arab oil, attacking the genius of hydraulic fracturing, obstructing oil exploration, blocking the construction of new pipelines that offered even more oil and more thousands of jobs.

•
Instead, America got "shovel-ready jobs" that were not ready but rather were chummy payoffs to union heads and other political insiders.

•
We got Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and Benghazi as testimonial to her vision.

•
We got Susan Rice, raised paradoxically to head of national security after spending a day lying on five television stations about Benghazi and later going on to describe Bowe Bergdahl, a coward and deserter, as a hero who had served with honor and distinction.

•
We saw the world's worst murderers freed from Gitmo so that they could rejoin the war against America.

•
We got eight years of Washington attacking and trying to humiliate Israel while supporting Mahmoud Abbas, even refusing to veto a Security Council resolution that denied Jewish rights to Jerusalem.

•
When Arab terrorists targeted and attacked a Jewish kosher-food market in France, Obama explained it away as an attack on a random deli.

•
And yet I accepted that under the rules, he was in charge. The waters did not stop rising on Obama's watch. The Earth was not healed.

•
On his watch, a country that finally had healed itself from the shame and scourge of imposing slavery on human beings more than a century earlier, a country that had atoned and that had created and institutionalized a new social infrastructure by which people no longer were denied because of their skin color or religion — a country that reflected that healing by electing a Black man president despite his manifest lack of personal achievement, close ties with an organized-crime felon, and questionable biography — suddenly erupted into a new era of racial bitterness.

•
Michael Brown and Ferguson aflame amid the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" lie promoted by Obama and by Eric Holder, but shot down by a Missouri grand jury.

•
Freddie Gray and Baltimore aflame followed by a series of outright judicial exonerations handed down by a Black judge who saw that every accused cop had acted properly and lawfully.

•
A lowlife killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, a thug whom Obama told us would have been the likes of his own son if he had had a son.

•
Eight years of racial divide, social division aimed at tearing us up as a color-blind and religion-blind American People, just to promote electoral successes.

•
And yet I accepted that Obama had won. No derangement syndrome for me. It was what it was.

•
But these past three years have been something different. Trump and Pence won fair and square. But there was no grace.

•
Advertisements urging electors to violate their Electoral College oaths. Fabrications of collusion with Putin. Investigations that hamstrung a presidency.

•
Lies and innuendoes leaked and published by the unindicted co-conspirators we call the "mainstream media."

•
A never-ending hunt to find scandals and Trump accusers: a bimbo who pole-danced at bars, her lawyer who now dances behind bars, another crooked lawyer who tape-recorded his own clients and now is locked up, disbarred from the Bar. One cartoon character after another.

•
I have come deeply to hate. I hate that Donald Trump never was given a chance to be president of the United States for even one day's honeymoon.

•
I hate that, long before he won the presidency — fair and square — corrupt crooks and criminals in the United States Department of Justice, its Federal Bureau of Investigation, were actively plotting to take him down.

•
I hate that there are so few outlets in the media that give voice to condemn the criminality and corruption that broke every accepted societal norm by which we play the game.

•
I hate that Obama was in on it, yet continues to pontificate on what is just and on what threatens freedom.

•
I hate that they all keep getting away with it. Every single one of them gets away with it. There is absolutely no price to be paid on the left for perjury, for conspiracy to overturn a legitimate election, for treason.

•
Lt. Gen. Flynn never deserved what was done to him. He was targeted for destruction by criminals and crooks in the FBI. They set out to destroy him.

•
The FBI is not allowed to bother law-abiding people like you and me, to set us up, and to induce us to commit a crime.

•
They are permitted to pursue criminal investigations only when they have a predicate before them.

•
They took advantage of a good man who suddenly found himself combating in a different kind of military theater outside his field of expertise.

•
He never should have been questioned about the call. He never should have been sucked into an interview without an attorney present. He never should have been lulled into what he said to the FBI.

•
Donald Trump has been the chief executive of this country for more than three years, and he has proven to be a great president in so many ways, but he sadly has proven incapable of cleaning the swamp.

•
He at least identified the swamp's existence, and he is fighting its effort to swallow him within its muck.

•
But he has proven that, despite the glorious slogan he inspired, he cannot drain it. Not one single slime in the swamp has been brought to justice.

•
There is something so evil in a society that tolerates a dual standard of justice, dual standards of everything.

•
On the one hand, we political conservatives harbor profoundly deep feelings, but we do not destroy people's lives based on abstract politics.

•
Yes, we oppose them and expose them, and we hope that contemporary society and history judge them for the evil they represent. But we do not destroy them in their lives.

•
They get away with everything. ... Not one single slime among them in the swamp has been brought to justice.

•
These animals destroyed the life of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. They drove him into such financial ruin that he had to sell his home to pay his legal bills.

•
They went after a good boy, Nick Sandmann, and they cruelly made him into the face of racism. His own Catholic diocese in eastern Kentucky sold him out and sold out all the boys who stood with him that fateful day in Washington, D.C., when he was harassed by a messed-up Indian with a drum.

•
And they did everything they could to destroy Brett Kavanaugh, a good man, a family man, a man who has devoted time throughout his life to his church and to the need. They endeavored through outright perjury to destroy him.

•
The liars destroy with impunity because they know they always will get away with it.

•
Republicans watch the character assassination and then go on Sean Hannity to sound brave for five minutes.

•
They all got away with it. Comey. Brennan. Clapper. Blasey Ford. Schiff. Hillary. Strzok. Page. McCabe.

•
If the Left truly believed in the truth of the slogans they chanted in their failed effort to destroy Justice Kavanaugh, does anyone truly believe that Biden still would be standing today?

•
There is a time to love and a time to hate. This is a time to hate.
Jenna Ellis: Flynn judge as prosecutor – Sullivan ignoring this basic rule of law concept (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
It's a blatantly malicious move by Sullivan to consider what criminal charge might be brought by the court itself, after delaying granting an unopposed motion from the actual prosecutors to dismiss the case.

•
Separation of powers requires that the executive branch is exclusively vested with power of law enforcement, while the judicial branch is constitutionally independent and impartial as to the dispute between the government and the defendant.

•
So, when the government decides they aren't going to prosecute, the judicial branch has no power to force them to, or even to suggest that they should.

•
Prosecutorial discretion allows the government to decline to prosecute and the law sometimes requires the government not to or to dismiss pending charges.

•
It's never the judge's province to comment on or advise the prosecutor what charges to bring or think of new, creative ways to try to punish the defendant.

•
So, what could these Watergate prosecutors and "friends of the court" provide in their amicus filing that would help inform Judge Sullivan on the government's motion to dismiss? Literally nothing.

•
It's a clear scam to get political statements into the record in Flynn's case so that after it's dismissed, Democrats can run with their fake narrative smearing the Department of Justice and Attorney General Bill Barr for doing their?job within the executive branch's province of enforcing justice.

•
As more of the dark truth of the setup and intentional targeting by the Obama administration and FBI of their political opponent begins to come out, the Democrats and their media cohort will push harder to spin the narrative and say anything to deflect from facing what actually happened.

•
Since Judge?Sullivan appears to be so invested in trying to force the?government to prosecute Flynn, he should?step off the bench and apply for a job as an assistant U.S. attorney.

•
He clearly wants to be a prosecutor, not a judge, so he's in the wrong branch of government.
Losing our fears, in war and plague (JWR 05/14/2020)
Amoral Obama administration creeps should be punished for ruining Michael Flynn's life (Fox 05/14/2020)
Michelle Obama, Netflix, and a gullible American audience (INN 05/13/2020)
•
"There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true." — Soren Kierkegaard

•
"The fools. But just because they are fools does not mean they are not a threat." — Kendare Blake

•
Netflix premiered one of its signature accomplishments this past week: It is Michelle Obama's "Becoming" – the story of the development of a woman who is universally seen as the most popular woman in America.

•
... beyond the fabrications and distortions that are endemic throughout, it is the self-absorbed, boastful and self-centered story of the Obama rise to fame.

•
It is an autobiographical revisionist account of its own version of the personalities who are still writing their own history in the way they want it to be told.

•
What is discernibly obvious, but lost to those not willing to see, is the reaction of the American audience that actually buys into this deception, one which is fraught with disingenuous rubbish.

•
The real story is the one no one seems to have noticed: It is the audience that the Obamas continue to play to, and have exploited so brilliantly.

•
The obvious question begs to be asked: Are the Obamas that smart, or have they simply manipulated those who are not?

•
Mark Twain answered that question over a century ago: "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."

•
Fifteen minutes into "Becoming" , we see that Michelle Obama succeeds in convincing the lemmings watching this documentary that she is smarter than they are.

•
As the cameras follow her from one interview to another on a 34-stop tour – questioned by sycophantic celebrity friends like Oprah Winfrey and conducted before audiences that have paid handsomely to sit and adulate – interspersed with the requisite stops to sign copies of her book for groupies who can say they "almost touched her", Michelle takes notice of her conquests

•
She is very carefully no longer the Michelle LaVaughn Robinson who, during her college days at Princeton, had expressed an unapologetic hatred for Whites.

•
The same Michelle Obama who confided with us publicly in February 2008 that it was the first time she was ever proud of being an American.

•
The same presidential candidate's wife who was kept completely out of the public's eye for so many weeks for fear that she might confess as much, again.

•
Americans, however, have long had a very short memory.

•
And, in "Becoming" – Michelle Obama authored a book that engendered a documentary that has now raised her to a level of veneration that Stalin or Kennedy would have gladly settled for.

•
Because of the audience. The easily fooled audience that can never be convinced that they have been fooled.

•
Well, there are actually two audiences here, and we ought to fear both.

•
The first is the one we see in this documentary serving as the backdrop to many of Michelle Obama's on-screen appearances.

•
Look closely, and carefully. Look at their faces. Their reaction to the haughty person who bemoans the fact that the trajectory of her own talented destiny was temporarily derailed by the birth of two children.

•
The other is the Netflix audience – the one envious of the figure on screen, those who were there in person.

•
Maybe she ought to get a Nobel Peace Prize herself for, well, something yet to be determined.

•
It comes down to this. With an audience as naive and unsophisticated as the one she has already conquered, and with the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden displaying a cognitive acumen that diminishes by the day, why not pursue that gullible vote and bring a second Obama into the White House, and an end to the Trump era? After all, useful idiots get to vote too.

•
A reasonable answer: She dares not, because it is easier to fool people when you write your own script. As a presidential candidate challenging the unpredictable Donald Trump, you might not always be able to do that. Just ask Hillary.

•
See related I Love Them so! (Mike Lester, 03/26/2016) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related China Vacation (Glenn McCoy, 03/25/2014) cartoon from USA picture album
The Politicized Order Inviting Amicus Briefs against the Flynn Case’s Dismissal (05/13/2020)
Flynn judge disagrees with own rulings by letting outsiders fight dropping charges (Fox 05/13/2020)
Let's Not Waste a Crisis (JWR 05/13/2020)
Flynn unmasking standoff – Who 'owns' classified info? Who gets to make it public? (Fox 05/13/2020)
Dr. Fauci has not been elected to anything. He should not be dictator during this coronavirus crisis (Fox 05/13/2020)
Escaping the kid's table – Why everyone got the pandemic wrong, especially the experts (Fox 05/11/2020)
Millionaire Hollywood leftists use coronavirus as excuse to justify socialist policies (Fox 05/10/2020)
•
What, exactly, do these Hollywood sages contend can save humanity from destruction? They don't spell out the details, but it sure sounds an awful lot like socialism to me.

•
For example, in order to avoid the "existential threat" of a "massive extinction of life on Earth," the signatories say we must give up the "pursuit of consumerism and an obsession with productivity" and instead embrace a "politics of social equity" – a strategy that would require a "radical transformation."

•
With Marxist phrases like "obsession with productivity" and "radical transformation," the letter sounds like something you might hear listening to one of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's riveting Instagram rants, or perhaps a call for a revolution at a Bernie Sanders campaign rally – before the millionaire socialist senator from Vermont was forced out of the presidential race by the Democratic Party establishment.

•
What makes socialist propaganda like the Le Monde letter so frustrating is that it's absolutely oozing with hypocrisy.

•
Elite leftists love to lecture the rest of us about the dangers of the "pursuit of consumerism" and cry about the alleged harm climate change imposes on humpback whales – or whatever the cause of the moment is.

•
But at the same time, they fly around the world in private jets and bask in luxury in their multimillion-dollar mansions while being pampered by low-wage servants.

•
When you are swimming in cash and aren't required to stand in line for 40 minutes just to enter the local grocery store – or at risk of joining the 33.5 million Americans who have filed for unemployment over the past seven weeks as a result of government-imposed economic shutdowns – it's easy to say that the world shouldn't "go back to normal."

•
After all, there aren't any Hollywood celebrities who are forced to spend their Saturday afternoons battling neighbors at Costco over the last pack of toilet paper.

•
The stars can send their servants shopping for everything they need and don't worry about having enough money to pay their grocery bills.

•
... the wealthiest elites on the left have no problem with using this tragic pandemic to force the rest of the world to live under Orwellian conditions in order to "save the planet" and promote economic "equity" among everyone except themselves.

•
As is always the case, society's most glamorous and powerful socialists are much too important to be subjected to the rules they have imposed on the "little people" who can't afford the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

•
However, what you won't hear from Madonna – or anyone else on the far left – is that history has proven repeatedly that the radical policies they have deemed to be vital to saving the planet and humanity have been nothing short of disastrous.

•
Nor will they tell you that it was free-market, pro-liberty policies – not collectivism – that built America into the most advanced economy in the history of human civilization, allowing people to become so wealthy that they could actually afford to strengthen environmental protection policies.

•
The key to improving human welfare and the environment isn't to force 99 percent of the world to live in ever poorer conditions while people like Madonna instruct the rest of us from her Lisbon palace about proper living standards.

•
The blueprint for healthier, wealthier societies was discovered long ago, and begins and ends with empowering individuals with property rights and civil liberties.

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No other strategy can better repair our broken world following the COVID-19 era.
Flynn and the Anatomy of a Political Narrative (05/09/2020)
•
The FBI coordinated very closely with the Obama White House on the investigation of Michael Flynn, while the Obama Justice Department was asleep at the switch.

•
While working on the Trump transition team in December 2016, Flynn spoke with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in conversations that were intercepted by our government (because Russian-government operatives, such as Kislyak, are routinely monitored by the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies).

•
Among the topics Flynn and Kislyak discussed was the imposition of sanctions against Russia, which President Obama had just announced.

•
Yates was taken aback when Obama explained that he had "learned of the information about Flynn" and his conversation with Kislyak.

•
She was startled because, she later told investigators, she "had no idea what the president was talking about."

•
Yates had to figure things out by listening to the exchanges between President Obama and FBI director Comey.

•
The latter was not only fully up to speed, he was even prepared to suggest a potential crime — a violation of the moribund Logan Act — that might fit the facts.

•
... Yates later said she was "so surprised by the information she was hearing that she was having a hard time processing it and listening to the conversation at the same time."

•
What matters, it turns out, is what "Obama advisers" and their FBI co-creators could imagine it into: There must be Trump collusion with Russia because we've concluded Putin would otherwise have retaliated.

•
This was nothing new for the FBI. Remember, at that point, they're already in the FISA court (and at that time, were about to go back for a renewal warrant) telling the judges they suspect members of Donald Trump's campaign are in a "conspiracy of cooperation" with the Putin regime.

•
Their proof of that? The Steele dossier — uncorroborated Democratic-party- and Clinton-campaign-sponsored propaganda that they already have immense reason to know is claptrap.

•
Meanwhile, with Yates at the helm, the Justice Department had major reservations about the FISA warrants' reliance on the Steele dossier, but swallowed hard and went along with it.

•
The Justice Department had major reservations about the Logan Act as a predicate for investigating Flynn, but Yates was too startled to speak up at the White House meeting.

•
So what did President Obama make of all this theorizing from the FBI and his "advisers" ?

•
Well, intriguingly, as she was leaving her office for the last time, Obama's top adviser, Susan Rice, decided that her last official act, moments after Trump was inaugurated, would be to craft — 15 days after the fact — an email memorializing Obama's directive at the January 5 meeting:

•
President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming [Trump] team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.

•
Hmm, you mean a reason like "Trump and his minions just might be colluding with the Kremlin" ?

•
You'd almost think the Obama White House and its intelligence apparatus was weaving a political narrative out of ... nothing.
David Limbaugh: Trump's critics in coronavirus crisis want to have it both ways. They can't (Fox 05/09/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Adam Schiff should resign – He will do or say anything to achieve power (Fox 05/09/2020)
•
The arrival of the Chinese coronavirus has killed tens of thousands of Americans and put tens of millions more out of work.

•
But the crisis has also forced to the center serious conversions about issues that matter to the future of the country.

•
Issues like: the dangerous rise of Chinese global dominance, the porousness of our domestic borders, America's crumbling infrastructure, and government corruption and incompetence.

•
Over the past two months, you may have asked yourself: Why weren't we talking about these things before? They're important. Good question.

•
There's a simple answer to that. We didn't have time to consider the fundamental health of America because we were busy talking about Russia.

•
In Washington, Russia is all we talked about for three years. All normal business in the capital city came to a halt, as we embarked on a bizarre scavenger hunt in search of Russian President Vladimir Putin's spies.

•
Even at the time, the whole thing seemed absurd. Now we know it was worse than absurd. This wasn't history's longest episode of mass hysteria.

•
It was instead an elaborate and intentional hoax, staged by the most unscrupulous and power-mad political operatives this country has ever seen. Sound like an overstatement? How do we know that? Because they have admitted it.

•
Jim Clapper, President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence, said: "I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting or conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election." Compare that to his Twitter feed.

•
Former Obama administration U.N. ambassador Samantha Power was asked by the committee if she had any evidence of collusion with the Russians. She replied this way: "I am not in possession of anything – I am not in possession and didn't read or absorb information that came out of the intelligence community."

•
Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice said: "I don't recall intelligence that I would consider evidence." Amazing.

•
And here's former Obama administration Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Asked if she saw evidence of Russian collusion, Lynch replied: "I do not recall that being briefed up to me."

•
Notice Lynch's word choice here: "I do not recall." For three years, our entire political system revolved around the hunt for Russian spies.

•
Of course, Lynch probably thought the transcript of those remarks would never be made public.

•
"We have very good intelligence on Russia," Farkas claimed. "We knew what we knew."

•
But she didn't know anything. Farkas was lying, as purely as a liar can lie. Once under oath behind closed doors, Farkas admitted that. "I didn't know anything," she said.

•
In 2016, during the campaign, someone stole information from the Democratic National Committee's email server. It wound up online and embarrassed Hillary Clinton.

•
Democrats quickly blamed the theft on Russian agents, and therefore Donald Trump, who was supposedly the pawn of the Russians.

•
The Democratic National Committee ... never allowed federal investigators to inspect their email servers. That's odd behavior for people who claim to be the victims of foreign espionage.

•
Instead, the party's servers were inspected by a third-party company called CrowdStrike. Adam Schiff's committee interviewed the CEO of CrowdStrike, Shawn Henry.

•
... reply, which we're seeing for the first time is this: "As it relates to the DNC, we have indicators that data was exfiltrated. We did not have concrete evidence."

•
Adam Schiff heard those words directly, he heard them from the one person who would know for certain. Schiff knew there was nothing substantial at the core of the Russian collusion story. At the very center, it was hollow, it was a sham.

•
Here are comments Schiff made on different occasions on several TV programs:

•
"So there's clear evidence on the issue of collusion and this adds to that body of evidence."

•
"There's ample evidence of collusion in plain sight and that is true."

•
"You can see evidence in plain sight on the issue of collusion. Pretty compelling evidence."

•
"And there is significant evidence of collusion."

•
"This is ample evidence and indeed there is of collusion of people in the Trump campaign with the Russians."

•
"I think there's plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy."

•
"All of this is evidence of collusion."

•
"There is significant evidence of collusion between the campaign and Russia."

•
Schiff never produced any of this so-called evidence. He just asserted its existence.

•
Adam Schiff is a sociopath. He will do or say anything to achieve power. He is unfit to hold office. He should resign.

•
And not just Adam Schiff. The entire apparatus of official Washington has been exposed by these transcripts, as well as by the documents just released in the Michael Flynn case.

•
This is not only of importance to Donald Trump. This is important to every American, because things fall apart when high-level officials do things like this for political reasons.

•
There's a reason nobody trusts the government anymore.

•
The vast majority of the Russian collusion investigation, including the testimony you just heard, occurred during the first two years of this administration.

•
At the time, Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and every single committee. They had the power to expose this hoax and to shut it down. But they did not.

•
We can only speculate why. Maybe they were too cowardly to tell the truth. Or maybe, deep down, a lot of them agreed with the aims of all of this.
Not to save himself, to save the United States of America (JWR 05/08/2020)
•
Anyone holding the office of chief executive who has to navigate his country through a massive shutdown of just about all services, all businesses, all recreational and sporting events, all public parks and beaches, all family get-togethers, and in effect, all things which represents normal, healthy life would be in the same position.

•
But in Donald Trump's case it's actually much worse than it would be for someone else.

•
Begin with the fact that most mainstream media hates his guts. They root for him to fail, they look for ways to bring him down even if it means killing fellow Americans.

•
The goal for the press is not how to work with the president to eradicate this pandemic; it is how can they use this tragic event to destroy Donald Trump.

•
Our country is in the throes of what could easily become the worse disaster in our history.

•
President Trump is fighting a war being waged from four fronts; (1) a devastating highly contagious viral pandemic; (2) the self-imposed American economic crash which could be worse than the Great Depression and actually destroy our country for decades; (3) a citizenry that has been panicked and scared, millions of people thrown into poverty, emotional anxiety, depression, and suicide; and on top of that (4) he's also fighting the news media and his Democrat foes.

•
He knows that given divergent paths, whichever path he chooses will be reported by the press to be the wrong one. He knows he can't win with them, there's no use in trying. All he can do is call them out right away when they start lying and making things up.

•
So Trump turns his attention to the other three fronts of this war, the war to save America. It's a delicate balancing act.

•
He cannot allow the Wuhan Virus to get out of hand, to flare up.

•
At the same time he cannot allow the country to continue in lockdown for months on end, keeping people away from loved ones, keeping workers from jobs, and keeping millions in fear of losing everything they have including their homes, their businesses, their marriages, their minds, and yes their lives.

•
Desperation can kill every bit as much as a disease can.

•
If anyone can get the country through this it's President Trump. Can you imagine a Hillary at the helm? Or Heaven forbid, Joe Biden? I believe Donald Trump is the right man for this job at the right time.

•
Trump's enemies want the economy to continue to sink right through the fall elections.

•
They're betting that if that happens the voters will be fed up with Trump and vote for the Democrat candidate (whomever that will be).

•
In the meantime, they want to keep businesses closed and people in lockdown as long as possible.

•
They need a disheartened and desperate populace to get as many people dependent on government support (food cards, stimulus money, welfare, housing, etc.) as they possibly can.

•
All that will set the stage for implementation of their New Green Deal and taking the country straight into socialism.

•
It's a perfect storm. They get rid of Trump and they destroy capitalism. Two birds with one stone.

•
This is why it is so important for President Trump to get it right. Not to save himself, to save the United States of America.

•
I'm waiting to hear the "all clear" siren. I'm waiting to hear that businesses are opening up all over the country.

•
I'm waiting to hear that people can go to the beach without fear of being fined or arrested.

•
I'm waiting to hear that kids can go to school and play in the park with their friends again.

•
I'm waiting to hear that toilet paper is back on the shelves.

•
See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Media and Corona (Gary McCoy, 03/12/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Deroy Murdock: Coronavirus crisis — Cuomo, de Blasio, Johnson bite the hands that heal New York (Fox 05/08/2020)
•
"If you don't have a health care crisis in your community, please come help us in New York, now," Gov. Cuomo said March 30.

•
Americans heeded his call. On April 2, he announced that some 21,000 health care workers from coast to coast rushed in to aid their countrymen on the Hudson.

•
"These are beautiful, generous people," Cuomo said, "and New Yorkers will return the favor."

•
Cuomo just returned the favor.

•
"We're not in a position to provide any subsidies right now because we have a $13 billion deficit," Cuomo said Tuesday. "We are in dire financial need."

•
Consequently, out-of-state medical personnel who earned wages back home while volunteering their talents for at least 14 days must pay New York state tax on such income. Albany also expects full compliance with its dense tax paperwork.

•
"Every day, President Trump resembles, more and more, Herbert Hoover, the president who ignored the Great Depression, who didn't care to put America back on its feet, who has been now remembered in history as someone who failed at the most basic responsibility, which is to protect the people he serves," de Blasio said.

•
De Blasio called President Trump "a former New Yorker who seems to enjoy stabbing his home town in the back," ... "I'll give him another chance to show that there's a beating heart there...."

•
"Are you going to save New York City or are you telling New York City to drop dead?"

•
The remarkably self-absorbed de Blasio seems unaware of the Niagara Falls of assistance that Team Trump cascaded into New York City:

•
They deployed the Army Corps of Engineers to erect temporary hospitals.

•
In just nine days, the Corps created a 3,000-bed pop-up facility at Manhattan's Javits Center convention complex.

•
It then fortified this installation with a 48-bed Intensive Care Unit.

•
Trump dispatched the 1,000-bed hospital ship USNS Comfort to Manhattan.

•
It arrived on March 30 to offer routine care, so onshore hospitals could focus on COVID-19 patients.

•
But Comfort soon was retrofitted to treat virus victims.

•
Of the 182 patients it welcomed, 70 percent were COVID-19-positive.

•
Trump projected 1,000 military personnel into New York City to hammer COVID-19.

•
Trump assigned 448 civilian physicians, nurses, and respiratory specialists to NYC's hospitals.

•
Trump devoted $1.3 billion in FEMA funds to support New York.

•
Trump gave FEMA 48 hours to provide New York City four large medical stations with 1,000 beds.

•
Trump instructed FEMA to supply New York 250 ambulances and 500 emergency medical technicians.

•
Trump, as of April 2, had steered 4,400 ventilators to New York.

•
As of Monday, FEMA Region 2 (which includes New York) had received 478,535 surgical gowns, 875,890 face shields, 4.3 million surgical masks, 9.2 million surgical gloves, 12.8 million N95 respirators and more.

•
The reliably partisan and relentlessly embarrassing de Blasio should thank Team Trump for this literal airlift and sealift of emergency support.

•
Instead, he most likely will bash Trump daily, between now and Election Day.

•
Samaritan's Purse has provided at least 333 New Yorkers with free care.

•
And, since its personnel have labored in the Empire State for more than a fortnight, they must pay New York state taxes on salaries earned as they mended Gothamites.

•
Unfortunately for Samaritan Purse's sake, it embraces traditional marriage, which makes it unfiltered evil to Johnson and other local leftists.

•
So, despite claiming that "NYC should be a city for all of us," Johnson demands that Samaritan's Purse fold its tents and get lost.

•
"It is time for Samaritan's Purse to leave NYC. This group, led by the notoriously bigoted, hate-spewing Franklin Graham, came at a time when our city couldn't in good conscience turn away any offer of help. That time has passed. Their continued presence here is an affront to our values of inclusion, and is painful for all New Yorkers who care deeply about the LGBTQ community."

•
So, a bunch of Christians waded into a disease-filled city chock full of gay people, treated 300+ patients — in cooperation with an historically Jewish hospital — without quizzing them about their sexuality or spirituality.

•
And Johnson tells them to bugger off. Who's spewing hate here?

•
Johnson would have been more principled had he blocked Samaritan Purse's trucks at the Holland Tunnel upon arrival. That stance would have been bold, albeit ugly.

•
But accepting this group's aid for one month and then telling them to scram is just plain mercenary.

•
This escapes Johnson. Rather than thank these volunteers for serving 333 New Yorkers, some of whom might be gay, the openly gay Johnson bullies these good Samaritans like the bigot that he is.

•
Samaritan Purse's Franklin Graham takes all of this remarkably in stride: "We were there to save lives. We weren't there to argue with people."
Gregg Jarrett: Ending Michael Flynn prosecution exposes and destroys Trump-Russia collusion hoax (Fox 05/07/2020)
Rosenstein ‘Scope’ Memo Confirms Baselessness of Trump–Russia Probe (05/07/2020)
During coronavirus crisis, biz owners like Shelley Luther are jailed while criminals go free (Fox 05/07/2020)
John Yoo: Dropping Flynn charges right call by Barr — important first step in FBI, DOJ clean up (Fox 05/07/2020)
Judge Andrew Napolitano: Coronavirus crisis — Does America still have a Constitution? (Fox 05/07/2020)
•
I have been taking some heat from friends and colleagues for my steadfast defense of personal liberties and my arguments that the Constitution — when interpreted in accordance with the plain meaning of its words, and informed by history — does not permit the government to infringe upon personal freedoms, no matter the emergency or pandemic.

•
For those who agree with me, worry not. We will persevere. For those who trust the government, worry a lot. You are not in good hands.

•
The purpose of the Constitution is to establish the government and to limit it. Some of the limitations are written in the Constitution itself. Most of the limitations that pertain to personal freedoms are found in the Bill of Rights — the first 10 amendments.

•
These amendments were ratified to restrain the federal government from infringing upon personal liberties.

•
So, the rights to thought, speech, press, assembly, worship, self-defense, privacy, travel, property ownership, interstate commercial activities and fair treatment from government are plainly articulated or rationally inferred in the first eight amendments.

•
The Ninth is a catchall, which declares that the enumeration of rights in the first eight shall not mean that there are no other rights that are fundamental, and the government shall not disparage those other rights.

•
The Tenth reflects that the states have reserved powers to themselves.

•
The Ninth was especially important to its author, James Madison, because of his view that natural rights –- known today as fundamental rights –- are integral to each person, and they are too numerous to list.

•
In the next century, the anti-slavery crusader Lysander Spooner would explain it thusly: "A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, ... or by millions, calling themselves a government."*

•
Natural rights collectively constitute the moral ability and sovereign authority of every human being to make personal choices — free from government interference or government permission.

•
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that government derives all its powers from the consent of the governed.

•
And Madison understood the Ninth Amendment to declare that our personal choices are insulated from government interference so long as their exercise does not impair another's rights.

•
Do governors have inherent power in an emergency to craft regulations that carry the force of law? The answer is no.

•
The Guarantee Clause of the Constitution mandates a republican (lowercase "r" ) form of government in the states.

•
That means the separation of powers into three branches, each with a distinct function that cannot constitutionally be performed by either of the other two.

•
Since only a representative legislature can write laws that carry criminal penalties and incur the use of force, the governor of a state cannot constitutionally write laws.

•
The second constitutional issue is: Can state legislatures delegate away to governors their law-making powers?

•
Again, the answer is no because the separation of powers prevents one branch of government from ceding to another branch its core powers.

•
The separation was crafted not to preserve the integrity of each branch but to assure the preservation of personal liberty by preventing the accumulation of too much power in any one branch.

•
Can a state legislature enact laws that interfere with personal liberties protected by the Bill of Rights, prescribe punishments for violations of those laws and authorize governors to use force to compel compliance?

•
Again, the answer is no because all government in America is subordinate to the natural rights articulated in the Bill of Rights and embraced in the Ninth Amendment.

•
We should rejoice that there is resistance to gubernatorial ignorance and arrogance that disregards the Bill of Rights. We need resistance to tyranny in order to stay free.

•
Power unresisted continues to grow and to corrupt. History teaches that most people prefer the illusion of safety to the cacophony of liberty.

•
The only reason we have civil liberties today is because generations of determined minorities — starting with the revolutionaries in the 1770s — have fought for them.

•
Today, we are governed by dangerous men and women. For they have taken away our ability to make personal choices, and they have used force to compel compliance.

•
In doing that, they have not only violated their oaths to uphold the Bill of Rights, they also have committed the criminal acts of nullifying our rights.

•
By using the powers of state governments to do this, they have made themselves candidates for federal criminal prosecutions when saner days return.
Rep. Michael Waltz: Chinese infiltration of US colleges results in massive theft of our research (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
The coronavirus pandemic is just the latest chapter in the story of Chinese dishonesty and propaganda – but there is a different disease silently creeping through American society: China's mass infiltration and theft of American research at our colleges and universities.

•
America's higher education system has long been regarded as a beacon of learning, creativity and academic excellence.

•
Our colleges and universities show the power that freedom of knowledge and information can harness in the fields of science, health care, our military operations and global development.

•
But while our universities are home to some of the best and brightest scholars, they are also plagued by Chinese espionage and intellectual theft that puts America at risk.

•
Two Chinese programs – the Thousand Talents Program and Confucius Institutes – have given mainland China's Communist regime the freedom to take full advantage of our academic openness and steal it – all to be used for a New World Order where China calls the shots.

•
China sends nearly 400,000 students to American universities every year – an enormous number and more than any other foreign country.

•
China's Communist Party uses American professors and Chinese national students as "nontraditional collectors" of valuable information.

•
Some are aware of this role and others are unaware. They convey American research and expertise to China for that nation's own economic and military gain.

•
These students are not all spies or bad people. But they have no choice but to provide the Chinese government with whatever information that government demands.

•
While China's government is mainly to blame for these programs, our colleges and universities have also failed to safeguard themselves from Chinese infiltration.

•
In January, Harvard University Professor Charles Lieber was indicted and accused of lying about his participation in the Thousand Talents Program.

•
Lieber wasn't just any professor, though. As head of Harvard's Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, he was entrusted with millions of taxpayer dollars from the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health.

•
Lieber was allegedly seduced by the high price China's Communist Party was willing to pay for American research.

•
The state-sponsored Wuhan University of Technology reportedly paid him $50,000 per month and gave him $1.5 million to establish a nanoscience research lab in mainland China.

•
The dollar amount is staggering – and it only illustrates the value of U.S. research and how China's government will do anything and pay any cost to get it.

•
The Chinese government deliberately fast-tracks information it gets through the Thousand Talents Program to develop military arms, pharmaceuticals, technology, energy and other important advancements.

•
Make no mistake: the Chinese government is stealing this information for later use against us.

•
Beyond taking our research and development, the Chinese government is also using our universities as sites to further its propaganda machine and subtly portray China's rise as benign and peaceful.

•
This wholesale theft is an attack on how America has maintained economic and military dominance through technological advancement.

•
This information is ours and our researchers have worked tirelessly to develop it.

•
China must not be allowed to skip ahead and steal its way to the top on the backs of American taxpayers.

•
Research conducted on behalf of the Defense Department has no business occurring on the same campus where our biggest foreign adversary has a presence.

•
To put an end to China's wholesale theft, I'm proposing legislation to prohibit the Defense Department from funding programs with any university housing Confucius Institutes or with faculty participating in the Thousand Talent Program.

•
America cannot stand idly by while our biggest foreign adversary takes advantage of us and the institutions that have made America strong.

•
The ideals of China's Communist government run completely contrary to the virtues we hold dear. They cannot be allowed to permeate our schools of free thought.

•
Our information is clearly precious. Right now, it is in grave danger of falling into the wrong hands. We must do all we can to protect it.
Tucker Carlson: Why we need to keep our guard up as the Tara Reade-Joe Biden story progresses (Fox 05/06/2020)
Gregg Jarrett: Flynn cover-up — FBI's Wray must go. Americans need director they can trust (Fox 05/05/2020)
•
Wray has once again proved the adage that the cover-up is worse than the crime.

•
It is clear that his only objective as director of the FBI is to hide evidence of wrongdoing while insisting that the bureau is incapable of lies and fraud.

•
We now know better. Americans are right to be fearful of the FBI.

•
The agency's chronic abuses of law and process, together with its thuggish tactics, present a frightening example of how power corrupts.

•
Director Wray had the opportunity to chart a new course for the FBI in the wake of the unscrupulous and unprincipled James Comey.

•
The vast majority of the honest and honorable agents who populate the bureau deserved a new leader who cares about truth, fairness and justice. They got Christopher Wray instead.
Trey Gowdy: Why fairness matters — always (Fox 05/05/2020)
•
It is important how we collectively define fairness, protect against the consequences of real or perceived unfairness, and have a long-overdue family discussion on who will assume the mantle of providing or arbitrating that fairness.

•
Fairness. What is it? How do we define it? Is it foundational?

•
What happens to victims of unfairness, externally and internally? What impact does unfairness have on the bystander, the interested observer?

•
Who do we trust, individually and collectively, to judge whether something is fair and mete out the consequences for unfairness?

•
Regardless of how we define the word "fair" we can agree it is an indispensable foundation of a culture worth living in.

•
We know it's the bedrock of our justice system. We miss it and notice its absence from our current political system. We recognize it when we see it, even if we may struggle to fully define it.

•
If someone treats me unfairly what keeps me from evening the score in my own mind? How do we even the score? We can either treat others unfairly or we can begin to judge ourselves by a different, more lax, standard.

•
I think the diminution of objective standards of fairness and the absence of a societal "referee" we can trust – even if we do not like – is among the most significant challenges our culture faces.
Why Bill de Blasio is unafraid of New York’s Jews (INN 05/02/2020)
Why science can't actually tell us what we must do (JWR 05/01/2020)
Nonessential People (JWR 05/01/2020)
Michael Flynn prosecution offers these important lessons on FBI, fairness and the rule of law (Fox 05/01/2020)
•
... the slow unraveling of his case holds some deeper lessons than simply "he never should have been charged."

•
"What is our goal," the notes read, "Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired."

•
How about an unstated goal of simply investigating and going where the evidence leads? How about a goal that does not reflect a heads-I-win, tails-you-lose outcome on prosecution?

•
Add in an unannounced ambush interview and even FBI shenanigans (at Flynn's potential expense) in trying to engage him during a defensive briefing, and it becomes clear the general, innocent or not, never had a chance of avoiding prosecution under Comey's watchful eye.

•
The U.S. Code includes a crime, in Title 18 Section 1001, for knowingly making a false statement to a federal law enforcement officer. The code says nothing about how federal agents and prosecutors should use this particular law.

•
Context is important here, too. Former FBI Director Comey had publicly announced that his agency would not "waste its time with 1001 prosecutions" during the Hillary Clinton email probe.

•
However, with the Russia-Trump investigation, false statement prosecutions were literally the coin of the realm.

•
While the FBI goal note will probably steal the headlines, there are other comments that damningly reflect the politicization of FBI investigations.

•
Recall that Comey's non-prosecution announcement of Clinton included his (unwarranted) legal assessment that the statute under which she could be prosecuted was simply a dusty old throwaway in the code –"nobody ever uses it."

•
Yet in the disclosed Flynn interview preparation notes, the agent refers to the Logan Act as their basis of pursuing the general. Wikipedia, at least, says only two people have ever been charged under the Logan Act – in 1802 and 1852 — and neither was convicted.

•
"If we're seen as playing games, the [White House] will be furious," say these notes.

•
No word on whether the anger would stem from maliciously targeting an innocent man or whether it's purely the "seen as" component that worried the politicians.

•
Add in the well-publicized information about Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page, and we see how lasting harm has come to an otherwise honorable institution, the FBI because people at the top decided that rules of fair play simply did not apply to them.

•
They were so supremely confident in their judgment of Flynn, or at least the need to bring him down, that they never paused to think about how wrong it is to marry political outlook with investigative pursuits.

•
Lying, usurping the role of prosecutors, texting over government-issued phones about "insurance plans" at Trump's expense, and taking an ends-justify-the-means approach to law enforcement have hurt the FBI seriously, even though it was only a cabal of politicized narcissists who did the damage.

•
If prosecutors and agents are to have prosecutorial discretion, we need them to be honorable and fair — one set of rules, pursued by people dedicated to truth, not looking for high-profile "skins" and not acting out of political animus.

•
The alternative, as we seem to be seeing in Flynn's case, reeks of unfairness toward individuals and it damages an important cornerstone of our civilization, the never-ending pursuit of fairness in our criminal justice system.

•
See related Hillary's Private Server (Mike Lester, 07/06/2016) cartoon from Government picture album
The Michael Flynn case sounds like something out of China — and it could happen to you (Fox 05/01/2020)
•
Like so much else that has happened recently in America, the Michael Flynn story lays bare the architecture of control that's been present just beneath the surface of this country for a long time.

•
For reasons we still don't fully understand, Michael Flynn deeply offended permanent Washington somehow. So they decided to destroy him.

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They pretended to believe he was a secret Russian agent, and then they entrapped him on a completely bogus perjury charge. When he resisted, they threatened to hurt his son until he signed a confession.

•
It sounds like something that happens in China. It happened here in the middle of our capital city, Washington. We've known that for a long time.

•
According to newly released documents, on January 4, 2017, FBI agents decided to close their investigation of Michael Flynn and his ties to Russia. After much searching, they had found "no derogatory information about Flynn." So, it was over. He was in the clear.

•
But it wasn't over. Corrupt FBI official Peter Strzok demanded that the investigation stay open until the Bureau could invent a crime and crush Michael Flynn. And in the end, that's what happened.

•
There's nothing worse than this. It's how the secret police operate in third world dictatorships.

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And it's exactly how Peter Strzok operated, and then he lied about it extensively.

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He should be in prison, literally. And in fact, if the FBI treated its own officials the way it treats its political opponents, Peter Strzok would be serving a multiyear sentence...

•
But that's not what happened. Instead, the FBI continued to let Peter Strzok meddle in American politics, in our democracy, the one they claim they're protecting.

•
It was Strzok who decided that Hillary Clinton's secret email server was merely extremely careless instead of gross negligence. The distinction was between a crime and not a crime; he let her off the hook.

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It was Strzok who bragged to his mistress about building an "insurance policy" against Trump's election and promising to "stop him," meaning Trump.

•
... it was Strzok who kept the bogus Russia investigation going. "Hey," he wrote to a colleague on January 4t, "don't close RAZOR" — that was the internal name for the Michael Flynn investigation.

•
That same day, Strzok texted his girlfriend, "RAZOR is still open. Serendipitously good, I guess. You want those chips and Oreos?"

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"Phew," she replied. "That's amazing that it is still open. Good, I guess."

•
At this point, it was over from Michael Flynn though he didn't know it. The FBI arranged an interview with Flynn at the White House. He had no idea what was coming.

•
According to handwritten notes, FBI officials plotted to "get him to lie so we can prosecute him or get him fired."

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It worked. Flynn misstated a fact about a meaningless phone call with the Russian ambassador. The FBI had spied on that phone call, so they knew. Flynn's life was over. His family was destroyed.

•
Destroying someone's life and destroying his family because they're in the way of the power you seek. You would have to be a dark cold person to chuckle about something like that, and Jim Comey definitely is the darkest and the coldest.

•
This isn't about one man. It's about our country.

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You don't want to live in a society where the most powerful agency in government imprisons people it doesn't like.

•
That is horrifying. People come to this country to escape it.

•
But it happened. And if it can happen to a three-star general serving as the national security adviser, it could definitely without question happen to you.
David Limbaugh: Is Trump reelection bid doomed because of coronavirus pandemic? ()
They're looking forward to America's next trauma (JWR 04/30/2020)
•
This country — like most — was formed by risk: the risks of separating from what was then the most powerful empire on the planet; the risks of instituting a form of government and an economy that depended upon the virtue, decisions and self-interest of free people; the risks of carving a nation out of a wilderness and climate that could be brutal and deadly; the risks of accepting from all over the world people who had neither language nor culture nor history in common but who sought the opportunity to fashion their own lives; the risks of new inventions; the risks of taking the human impulse to explore beyond the planet.

•
It isn't that our history is one of unvarnished success; many risks we have taken have failed — most notably (though not exclusively) our inclinations to meddle in the complicated affairs of other nations.

•
And some of our "successes" have come at great human cost, or with trade-offs we could not have foreseen at the time.

•
... the biggest risk, in my view, is gradually capitulating to a small class of people who don't know how to run a country any more than the rest of us do but who ask us now to trust them to run things until everything is safe again. Which will be never.

•
To be quite clear, that they don't know how to run this country is not a criticism; to the contrary, our country runs as well as it does precisely because no one person or handful of people run it.

•
If we lose sight of that fundamental, structural reality, we risk destroying the very things we seek to protect.

•
Even assuming (and I don't) that all those clamoring for the power to "protect" us have beneficent motives, those motives are irrelevant.

•
For good or for ill, to retreat to our beds and blankets and wait for "smart people" to "fix things" will inevitably result in disaster.

•
Even the smartest, kindest and wisest people make mistakes. They don't know everything. They're not God.

•
Being wrong is far less problematic when thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of people are working at the same time on their own theories, ideas, projects, products and services.

•
That's what makes medicine work. That's what makes science work. That's what makes business work. That's what makes an economy work.

•
Some ideas will be wrong, and some people will fail. But as a country, we can survive those failures because so many others are taking different approaches, and succeeding.

•
It's different when a small group of people has disproportionate power and control. When they make a mistake — and they will — the failure is catastrophic, systemic. At that point, it is no consolation that their intentions were good.

•
The impulse to defer to "experts" — especially in a climate of uncertainty — is understandable.

•
We should listen, of course. We should insist upon facts and evidence, where it's possible to get them. We should make prudent decisions and protect the weakest among us where we can.

•
But we cannot just crawl into our hobbit holes under the misimpression that it's possible to make life perfectly safe.

•
We must not hand control of our lives, our businesses, our larger economy or our political systems over to "experts" just because they promise to keep us safe.

•
Some of these people are poseurs, truly interested only in personal power. They must never be allowed to get it.

•
Others — most, I believe — are well-intentioned. But they, too, will be wrong at some point.

•
Either way, the risks of what people with too much power will destroy with their inevitable errors are far greater than the risks we face by allowing all Americans — flawed though we are — to run our own lives.
Coronavirus Pandemic + Trump Derangement Syndrome = Bad Math (JWR 04/30/2020)
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See related Working from Home (Antonio Branco, 03/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Targeting Michael Flynn — here's how the FBI entrapped and prosecuted an innocent man (Fox 04/30/2020)
•
Flynn's only crime was going to work for President Trump.

•
He became an unwitting pawn in the FBI's quest to find evidence of a nonexistent "collusion" conspiracy with Russia to steal the 2016 election.

•
It turned out to be the greatest mass delusion in American political history.

•
Current FBI Director Christopher Wray must also face scrutiny. He likely knew about the exculpatory evidence for the last two and a half years yet appears to have done nothing.

•
This is consistent with his other actions dedicated to protecting, at all costs, the FBI's reputation, which was sullied beyond repair by his predecessor, Comey. Wray should have been fired long ago.

•
The treatment of Gen. Michael Flynn is a cautionary tale of the danger to all Americans.

•
If the people we entrust to enforce and uphold the law are capable of persecuting an innocent three-star general while covering up their mendacious acts, imagine what they can do to any of us.
Cal Thomas: America as we know it may cease to exist if national debt keeps growing (Fox 04/30/2020)
Feminist movement is fake, only cares about power. That's why Gillibrand is friends with Biden (Fox 04/30/2020)
Big Tech is using coronavirus to increase its power - and the US is becoming more like China (Fox 04/29/2020)
•
That video has had more than 5 million views on YouTube.

•
In their presentation, the two doctors presented a flurry of data pointing to what we are currently learning about the coronavirus and how it spreads.

•
They cited pages of government statistics and then interpreted them in light of their own long clinical experience as doctors.

•
At one point, they noted that the newly adjusted death rate in their state of California, which is much lower than anyone expected it to be, and they asked if government officials there should change their policies based on this new science.

•
So, whatever your view of the mass quarantines — and maybe you're enthusiastically for them — the questions you just heard are valid questions. In fact, they're critical questions.

•
We should all be asking those questions, including and especially our policymakers.

•
But as Dr. Erickson pointed out later in the video, dissent of any kind is no longer tolerated in this country. Fact-based honesty, which is the soul of science, is under attack, even in hospitals.

•
Dr. Erickson described physicians being pressured to classify illnesses and deaths as related to coronavirus, whether they believe that to be true or not.

•
Not everyone was impressed by it. Some criticized the doctors' policy conclusions, and of course, that's fair.

•
Decent people have different opinions. We're not entirely certain what the perfect response to this pandemic is. Nobody is certain.

•
There's no objective answer at the moment. At best, we can plod along with open minds and good faith. More informed debate is exactly what we need to make wise decisions going forward.

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Unfortunately for all of us, informed debate is exactly what the authorities don't want. They want unquestioned obedience, so they're cracking down on free expression.

•
Last night, the doctors' video, the one you just saw, was pulled off of YouTube, the largest video hosting site in the world.

•
It wasn't an accident, YouTube admitted doing it. The company cited a violation of "community guidelines" and they did not apologize.

•
Looking back, when all of this is finally over and it will be, it's likely we'll see this moment — what YouTube just did — as a turning point in the way we live in this country, a sharp break with 250 years of law and custom.

•
The video was not pornographic. It didn't violate copyright or incite violence or commit libel. It didn't break any law.

•
The only justification for taking it down was that the two physicians on-screen had reached different conclusions from the people currently in charge. It was a form of dissent from orthodoxy.

•
YouTube and its parent company, Google have now officially banned dissent. The CEO of YouTube admitted that openly.

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"Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy. And so, remove is another really important part of our policy."

•
Consider that for a minute. As a matter of just science, it's ludicrous. Like everyone else involved in global pandemic policy, the WHO has often been wrong in its recommendations. A lot of people have.

•
In mid-January, WHO told us that coronavirus could not spread from person-to-person. In March, they told us that face masks didn't work. Those were lies, and they were welcome on Google's platforms.

•
Doctors who are actually treating patients with the virus, meanwhile, have just been banned.

•
So, no, this is not about science. Censorship never is about science. It's about power.

•
Big Technology companies are using this tragedy to increase their power over the American population. They're working in concert with politicians in order to do it.

•
Just on Tuesday, Facebook removed an events page for a political protest in Michigan.

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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook: "We do classify that as harmful misinformation, and we take that down."

•
"Harmful misinformation" — that is a phrase familiar to anyone who has watched totalitarian regimes in any country. It's now how Mark Zuckerberg describes political opinions he doesn't like.

•
Our free press exists to push back against obvious abuses of power like this one. It's the reason we have a First Amendment. It's the only reason we have a First Amendment.

•
Our media are no longer challenging power, they are colluding with power. And that may be why there's been so little critical coverage of the massive expansion of our surveillance state currently in progress.

•
In the name of fighting the coronavirus, tech companies are now following you through your cell phone. They're watching you from above with drones. Those sound like paranoid fantasies; they are not. It's happening as we speak.

•
So, what do we have here? We have Big Tech companies partnering with the government to spy on you without your knowledge.

•
Does that sound familiar? It sounds a lot like China.

•
Of all the many ironies of this moment, so many of them bitter, the hardest to swallow is this one.

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As we fight this virus, we are becoming far more like the country that spawned it. We're becoming more like China.

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It's horrifying. And it tells you everything that our professional class enthusiastically welcomes this.

•
Over the weekend, The Atlantic magazine published an article by two academics calling for an end to freedom of speech in America.

•
Their model for an ideal system? The totalitarian government of China. "In the debate over freedom versus control of the internet, China was largely correct and the U.S. was wrong."

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"Significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet and governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with society's norms and values."

•
"Norms and values." Whose norms and values? Well, our leaders' norms and values, of course, but mostly their interests.

•
Those in power are the ones our professional class seeks to protect, not the rest of the country.

•
Freedom of conscience never endangers the public. It only threatens the powerful. It endangers their control.

•
It hinders their ability to dictate election results, to loot the economy, to make policies based on whim for their own gain.

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No wonder our leaders have done such a poor job protecting us from China. They're on the same team.
Ben Shapiro: Biden assault allegations – media's double standard matters and this is why (Fox 04/29/2020)
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The media ignored the original allegation for weeks. Now, even while reporting on the new developments, they've found ways to downplay their importance.

•
Thus, The Washington Post –democracy dies in darkness! – wrote an article headlined "Trump allies highlight new claims regarding allegations against Biden."

•
Normally, headlines are designed to convey information about the underlying story.

•
This headline was apparently written in English, translated to Swahili and then to Punjabi via Google Translate and then back to English before printing.

•
Other news outlets skipped the revelations altogether. The New York Times, which ran a comprehensive piece two weeks ago attempting to debunk Reade's case, completely ignored the new information.

•
As of this writing, Biden has not been asked a single direct question about Reade by a television reporter.

•
Meanwhile, members of the media cheer their audacity in asking President Donald Trump questions like, "If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be reelected?"

•
Why does any of this matter? Not because Biden should be convicted in the court of public opinion without evidence. He shouldn't. The standards of due process should apply evenly, regardless of partisanship.

•
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh should not have been subjected to thousands of hit pieces, magazine covers and twisted accusations that his anger at rape accusations he disputed was mere evidence of his privilege.

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Christine Blasey Ford should not have been celebrated nationwide as a symbol of truth-telling without any corroborative evidence.

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BelieveAllWomen was always an idiotic slogan. Only now are members of the media admitting it.

•
That's why this matters.

•
Biden's candidacy will survive Tara Reade: Democrats aren't dumping Biden overboard based on a 27-year-old accusation of questionable veracity, and they certainly won't do so when running against Trump, who has his own checkered history.

•
But the media's pathetically hypocritical standard on due process and sexual assault allegations won't survive. Neither will their credibility.

•
The same media who laureled Democrats for cashiering Kavanaugh and now spend their days studiously avoiding any talk about Tara Reade deserve every ounce of skepticism the American people can muster.

•
... the media have spent so many years burning through their credibility that they have little left. That's their own fault.

•
If they wish to restore their credibility, they could start by apologizing for their Kavanaugh coverage – and by providing some fact-checking about their own political motivations.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Our Dress Rehearsal for a Police State (JWR 04/28/2020)
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The reason I believe this is a dress rehearsal is that too many Americans appear untroubled by it; the dominant force in America, the left, supports it, and one of the two major political parties has been taken over by the left.

•
Democrats and their supporters have, in effect, announced they will use state power to enforce any law they can to combat the even greater "existential" crisis of global warming.

•
If you love liberty, you must see that it is jeopardized more than at any time since America's founding.

•
And that means, among other things, that at this time, a vote for any Democrat is a vote to end liberty.
Cal Thomas: Amid coronavirus, Greatest Generation still has lessons to teach us (Fox 04/28/2020)
•
Some of us complain about having to line up to get into supermarkets, wear masks or practice social distancing.

•
Those earlier generations had ration books and did without a lot of food and conveniences they had once enjoyed.

•
And they endured it for 15 years, from 1930 when the Great Depression began to really grip the country to V-J Day in 1945. Some experienced hard times for several years after the war ended.

•
Part of this complaining, I think, is that those of us who have benefited from their sacrifices have never had to experience what they did.

•
That was one of the motivations behind their "doing without," wasn't it, so their children and grandchildren wouldn't have to?

•
That has been a blessing and a curse. Never having been required to sacrifice for anything and told we should always expect more and better of everything, we feel our right of entitlement has been unfairly stolen from us.

•
Not knowing what sacrifice looks like we are unable to react to it in a positive way, a way that is more likely to lift us from our current circumstances, or at least sustain us in them.

•
Those previous generations would shake their heads at how we are reacting to current economic challenges.

•
They dealt with smallpox and polio. Did they read in their newspapers and hear on radio people saying America would never be the same again?

•
No, they heard Franklin Roosevelt say, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" and Winston Churchill telling the British people, "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense."

•
President Trump is trying optimism, saying America will come back stronger than before the pandemic, but he is being drowned out by voices of pessimism and defeatism that would be foreign to those two previous generations.

•
To paraphrase the song, if we can't make it in America, where can we make it?

•
Kudos to those governors who are carefully reopening some businesses in their states. Results will take a while to determine whether their decisions have been good or bad, but these leaders are behaving in ways that those who have gone before would admire.

•
Attitude is key. That's what my parents and grandparents taught me, not so much in words, but by their example.
James Carafano: Coronavirus recovery — Trump's plan missing these key pieces (Fox 04/28/2020)
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... more and more Americans are getting anxious to get America back to work.

•
Protesters have rallied at statehouses in many parts of the country, demanding that governors start relaxing lockdown restrictions that have shuttered millions of businesses and left tens of millions of workers without jobs.

•
These protesters are not out of touch. They are the vanguard recognizing that the time has come to get to work.

•
Rightfully, they reject the false idea that our nation is faced with only one choice: either shelter in our basements until a cure is found or act as though the disease doesn't exist.

•
Some folks have been talking up the idea of making the U.S. economy completely self-contained. No need to rely on foreign suppliers for anything.

•
From I-phones to minerals to drugs, we'll make 'em all right here in the good ol' USA. That's a pipedream.

•
The reality is that, when it comes to restarting the economy, we have to work with the economy we have. Job number one is to get it up and running and get everyone back to work.

•
To make things go, we'll need to engage with some vitally important foreign partners — partners that, unlike China, share the American vision of free markets and free peoples.

•
... the U.S. economic recovery will hinge to a great degree on the economic recovery of the free world. We will have to come back from this crisis together, with the U.S. leading the way.

•
... Washington ought to be looking for investments, innovation, new supply chains and relationships that not only help bring our economies back quickly but also strengthen the bonds among free peoples.

•
Washington also needs to start thinking about how to prevent and mitigate the next pandemic.

•
Sadly, many on the left want to use this crisis to advance a socialist agenda, everything from government-run health care to redistributing national income.

•
The administration needs to have a plan to fight back. Battling future pandemics shouldn't undermine our freedoms, the virtues of federalism, and the instruments of a free market that create prosperity.

•
If the White House doesn't come up with a powerful program now to fill these policies spaces, progressives will be all too happy to fill the void.

•
They will deliver ideas that could be as dangerous as the plague.

•
Instead what we need is a plan from the president for American global economic leadership and a vision that will ensure this disaster never happens again.
Lt. Gen. Richard Newton: Coronavirus shows US national security will depend on this (Fox 04/28/2020)
•
President Trump was spot-on when he called the COVID-19 pandemic "our big war."

•
Our battle with it may not be the kind of war we are used to fighting, but when an enemy has killed tens of thousands of our fellow Americans, severely damaged our economy and upended our daily society – make no mistake we are at war.

•
And when this stealth invader respects no border or boundary, this new war needs a new kind of battle strategy.

•
To win this war, we must approach this national security crisis with a truly global response.

•
Viewing disease threats around the world as a national security threat is not without precedent.

•
In 2005, President George W. Bush presciently said, "a pandemic is a lot like a forest fire. If caught early it might be extinguished with limited damage. If allowed to smolder, undetected, it can grow to an inferno that can spread quickly beyond our ability to control it."

•
These words resonate with striking accuracy today. President Bush saw the global health threats on the horizon that could attack our country.

•
He invested in programs to combat them because he understood cutting off disease at its source was necessary to protect Americans in our interconnected world.

•
And the truth is these programs are not just good for these countries, they are good for America.

•
When we do not act to stop the spread of disease around the world, we not only put the health and safety of our people at risk, we put the primacy of American power in danger.

•
Right now, China is already exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to make power plays and extend its economic reach.

•
They know that putting a stake in developing nations and emerging economies means more opportunities for diplomatic and economic power in key markets for them and fewer for us.

•
When we disengage, China fills the void in an effort to weaken our strategic advantage on the global stage.

•
We must not cede our position to them, particularly when developing and emerging markets will be essential to our own economic recovery.

•
It is not only the Chinese we need to be concerned with during this crisis.

•
The coronavirus has the power to completely destabilize countries already teetering on the edge of collapse.

•
If these states fail, dangerous actors can fill the power vacuum, leading to refugee crises and creating breeding grounds for terrorism that can end up knocking on our front door.

•
These threats alone are enough to merit a global response, but COVID-19 also presents a real danger to our most valued national security asset, our military.

•
Now is the time for swift action. Throughout my career and beyond, I have seen how American intervention in the world responding to national security threats has made us stronger and safer at home.

•
And today, we are up against one of the greatest national security threats our country has ever faced.

•
I am confident we will defeat this enemy as we have others, but doing so requires us to lead a global response to COVID-19.

•
Our country's future and security depend on it.
Coronavirus response — compare Florida with New York, and look at the results so far (Fox 04/28/2020)
Andy McCarthy: 'Burden of proof' is on government to show why 'liberty' must be taken (Fox 04/28/2020)
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"We all know that preventing the spread of infectious disease is certainly a legitimate government interest, but if they're going to burden your fundamental rights, they have to show that they are using the least restrictive legitimate means to do that."

•
"It's not like you have to prove that your job is essential, they have to prove that there is no safe way of conducting your job before they can regulate it."
What do we have to do to get our leaders to follow the coronavirus data and science and end the... (Fox 04/28/2020)
•
As the coronavirus shutdown drags on, backed by the work-from-home elitists on TV, the majority of Americans who can't make a living from their laptop are screaming, "What do we have to do to get our leaders to follow the data and the science?"

•
The fatality rate, therefore, is not the 3.4 percent or 2 percent or 1 percent we were told. It's closer to 0.01 percent. Yes, seasonal flu is just more contagious.

•
Viruses don't disappear because we stay at home. They keep going until there's not enough people left to infect.

•
A vaccine is over a year away, they say, but millions of Americans have already had the virus.

•
Most didn't know they had it. Eighty percent have mild or zero symptoms.

•
Here's what else causes death: Millions of medical procedures cancelled because of wildly inaccurate coronavirus projections.

•
Twenty percent of U.S. coronavirus deaths are in nursing homes. In some states, it's over half.

•
We know who's at risk and how to protect them. Why aren't our leaders surging medical capacity and equipment to our nursing homes and care facilities, where the greatest generation is so obviously vulnerable?

•
I'll tell you why. Because they're too busy putting sand in skate parks, flying creepy surveillance drones, and worst of all, hiring armies of busybody contact traitors to implement this idiotic, unscientific reckless establishment groupthink that the only way we can open up is widespread testing, contact tracing and isolating.

•
Testing, contact tracing and isolating are great if you're trying to contain an outbreak at the start, where you have hundreds of cases.

•
It is totally absurd after a pandemic with millions infected, where you'll miss most of them anyway because they have no symptoms.

•
I beg you, Dr. Fauci, tell the governors, tell the mayors, how to protect the vulnerable in our nursing homes who are dying in droves because of inadequate infection control.

•
Tell them that if we properly protect the vulnerable, we don't need the costly, complicated, technocratic nightmare of testing and contact tracing.

•
And tell the American people so terrified by months of misinformation that many are scared to go out even if states do reopen.

•
Tell them that most Americans, according to the data, have nothing to fear from coronavirus.

•
Tell them that there is no scientific basis — as long as we properly protect the vulnerable — for this shutdown.
Tucker Carlson: Coronavirus crisis — Only science will free us from this pandemic (Fox 04/25/2020)
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Mass quarantines under the best circumstances are really just a stopgap. ... A single effective treatment would make all the difference right away.

•
You wouldn't have to cure every sick patient, but if you could cure a significant number of sick patients and lower the death rate, this would be a completely different country.

•
Hope would return. Fear would reside. We could begin to regard this as a manageable illness as we do so many other illnesses.

•
More than 600,000 Americans, for example, will die this year from cancer. That's a tragic number. You doubtless know some of them.

•
But we accept it, and we live our lives bravely in the face of it, in part because cancer, horrible as it is, isn't very mysterious anymore.

•
There are treatments for it. Those treatments, sadly, don't always work, but they work often enough that we can manage to live without panic.

•
It's been obvious from day one that the main goal here as we fight this pandemic has got to be finding effective treatments for the virus.

•
One of the first off-label drugs that doctors around the world used to treat the coronavirus was hydroxychloroquine.

•
Hydroxychloroquine is a cheap, decades-old medicine long recognized as a therapeutic for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis — autoimmune diseases.

•
Early evidence suggested that hydroxychloroquine might be promising. Physicians in the hardest-hit countries, Spain and Italy, fox example, reported that it was their preferred treatment for the coronavirus.

•
One day, from the podium, the president touted the drug as a promising lead.

•
From that moment on, precisely that moment, in the minds of the partisans in our media establishment, hydroxychloroquine was purely a political issue.

•
The drug was no longer a medicine or therapy. It was the medical equivalent of Vladimir Putin.

•
It was a cudgel they could swing in the air mindlessly to hit their ideological opponents in hopes of political gain.

•
They ignored evidence that hydroxychloroquine might be effective in some ways.

•
They waited anxiously for evidence that it might not be, and the other day they got it. Several recent studies suggested hydroxychloroquine is unlikely to help people who are already severely ill with the coronavirus.

•
For most Americans, this was disappointing news. They wanted it to work.

•
But at CNN, it was cause for celebration. The network produced a video for its website tallying up every time the president had mentioned hydroxychloroquine.

•
Over at The Washington Post ... a person called Philip Bump produced a 3,000-word timeline looking at "the rise and fall of Trump's obsession with hydroxychloroquine."

•
... ended that piece this way with a suggestion of a sinister conspiracy at work, writing, "Why promote that drug and why so energetically?" Hmm. He left the question hanging in the air.

•
... as usual, this was pure projection. What the creeps in big media accuse you of doing, every single time, they are fervently doing themselves. They're the ones obsessed with hydroxychloroquine.

•
Most people just want a drug that works. Those in the media are the ones with a weird, unspoken agenda that's obvious, and yet hidden.

•
Most people in this country just want a drug that works, and in fact, in some circumstances, this drug may work. Hydroxychloroquine is still being used to treat coronavirus patients.

•
Many doctors believe it can help if used early or in mild cases of the disease.

•
In real life, we are getting mixed results. We need to know more.

•
This is how science actually works. It's why we still haven't cured cancer despite decades of working on it. But we have prolonged the lives of cancer patients significantly.

•
These are the kinds of victories you get in this business. Real science is complicated and difficult and almost always incremental.
Will There Be Another Great Awakening? (JWR 04/24/2020)
Curtis Hill: Coronavirus and inmates — ACLU's bad idea ignores these realities about crime (Fox 04/24/2020)
•
In a perfect world, no one would ever get locked up in a jail or prison, because in a perfect world, no one would ever commit a crime deserving of such punishment.

•
... in America, most people locked up in jails or prisons are there for good reason.

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Quite apart from the current health crisis, however, let's remember that the ACLU has long implored government at all levels to release as many inmates as possible back onto our streets.

•
... the organization complains that "despite making up close to 5 percent of the global population, the U.S. has nearly 25 percent of the world's prison population ... Our prison system costs taxpayers $80 billion per year. This money should be spent building up, not further harming, communities. Investment, not incarceration, is how we improve safety."

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... ignores the reason the United States locks up so many people. Quite simply, too many people commit serious crimes.

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Even the alarming and disproportionate number of blacks in prison arises directly from the disproportionate amount of violent crime committed in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods — a pattern that also produces a disproportionate number of black victims.

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It's the crime itself — not holding offenders accountable — that is harming our communities.

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You think most people serving time are locked up for nonviolent offenses such as drug possession or dealing? If so, think again.

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... most state inmates are incarcerated for the crimes of murder (14 percent); rape or sexual assault (13 percent); robbery (13 percent); aggravated or simple assault (11 percent); and burglary (9 percent).

•
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, almost 40 percent of released state prisoners served less than a year in prison.

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Approximately 20 percent of murderers and 60 percent of rapists/sexual assaulters serve fewer than five years in prison.

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Such statistics hardly paint a picture of a society that keeps too many people locked up.

•
... also rightly highlights the significant role of plea bargaining in cases where offenders appear to be serving time for relatively low-level offenses.

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The most serious charges are often dropped in exchange for guilty pleas to less serious crimes — so conviction records often understate the seriousness of crimes committed by offenders.

•
Certainly, we all grieve to see people locked away in prison rather than leading productive lives. Rightfully so. But we grieve even more for the innocent victims of their crimes.

•
We must recognize that a very small percentage of people commits the large majority of crime in any particular community.

•
On average, someone arrested for a homicide or shooting in Chicago had nearly 12 prior arrests. And almost 20 percent of those arrested for these crimes had more than 20 prior arrests.

•
And these criminals typically operate in hardscrabble, low-income neighborhoods. So if we allow persistent lawbreakers to freely roam the streets, we are hurting those families and individuals already facing the steepest challenges. We are causing damage to the very people we should be trying our hardest to help.

•
Where is the compassion in that?

•
The best correctional models are those that hold offenders accountable for their crimes but that also help improve their character by addressing social, emotional, spiritual, educational and familial issues through targeted services.

•
... the ACLU's claim that the United States incarcerates too many people remains an exercise in delusion.

•
All those who believe in the rule of law must remain as vigilant in refuting the ACLU's argument with facts as the ACLU is persistent in propping it up with fallacies.

•
See related Stop Committing Crime (Michael Ramirez, 09/04/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: Coronavirus crisis has exposed how vulnerable and dependent the US is on China (Fox 04/24/2020)
•
If you're under the age of 100, you have never lived in a world where the United States was not the most powerful nation on Earth.

•
For a century, America's dominance has shaped the globe. Many of our most basic assumptions, which we think of as Americans — assumptions about democracy and culture and art and the value of human life — are now much of the world's assumptions, at least officially.

•
This has been an American century, but it could end. There's no mandate that we must lead the world forever. We could be replaced, and it could happen soon.

•
In countless ways, this coronavirus pandemic has showed us that. It has revealed how terrifyingly vulnerable we are.

•
We needed masks — we no longer make masks here. We needed specific medicines; we don't make those either.

•
Parts for ventilators and CT scans and an endless list of other critical medical devices — none of them are made here anymore.

•
All of these things are now made in China.

•
Just like our phones and our routers and our machine tools and our airplane parts, China makes an awful lot of what we use, and by the way, a lot of what our military uses.

•
China has grown rich from selling all of this to us.

•
And that's why when we need to raise money in a crisis — this crisis for example — we sell our debt to China.

•
If America goes bankrupt after this, bankrupt from the way that our leaders have responded to the pandemic — and that could happen — it will likely be the Chinese who bail us out. They're the only ones who can afford it.

•
All of this is real, and it's horrifying, and most of us are just waking up to it now.

•
So, the question is, how did it happen? How did the world's richest democracy become dependent upon a hostile foreign dictatorship?*

•
It's complicated. But there's one main reason: Our leadership class here in the United States allowed this to happen. Sometimes they did it in secret. They got rich from doing it.

•
... we told you about a consulting firm called McKinsey & Company. McKinsey is the recruiter of choice for many graduates at our most selective colleges.

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McKinsey makes money selling advice to companies and countries.

•
The country advised Saudi Arabia's crown prince, for example, on how to consolidate power there and silence all dissent in his kingdom. Many people disappeared after that.

•
In the 1980s, McKinsey urged banks to expand something called securitization — that's the practice of selling bundled loans. That practice led directly to the 2008 financial crisis.

•
And most of all, for decades McKinsey promoted a concept called outsourcing. Familiar now, not well known then.

•
U.S. companies, they argued, could increase short-term profits by sending many of their jobs overseas. ... Sending jobs overseas would make America richer. That was their claim. It didn't happen. Only China got richer.

•
McKinsey was right there to advise the government of China, and it got paid the whole time.

•
Early on, McKinsey even offered its services to the Communist Party of China at a discount while charging clients in the United States full freight.

•
So China rose and America declined, but McKinsey still found ways to make money here in the U.S.

•
In 2013, the company advised Purdue Pharma on how they could "supercharge sales of their addictive opioid painkiller, OxyContin."

•
McKinsey urged Purdue to use mail orders to bypass pharmacists who are trying to keep addicts from getting narcotics.

•
McKinsey consultants advised Purdue on how to "counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers that overdosed on opioids." Hard to believe they did that, but they did do it.

•
In fact, consider all the injuries this country has sustained over the past 40 years — the loss of manufacturing here, an unprecedented drug epidemic that has changed our demographics, leaders aligning with foreign dictatorships, a financialized economy in which bankers and private equity barons appear to reap most of the economic gains.

•
McKinsey & Company is directly implicated in every one of these disasters. The company's ties to the Chinese government are especially shocking.
Daniel Turner: AOC disrespects working people – this Tweet tells us where we stand with the left (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
"You absolutely love to see it," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said about the collapse of America's energy industry in a since-deleted tweet.

•
It's unfathomable that any American, let alone a member of Congress, would celebrate the loss of millions of jobs.

•
That's millions of salaries paying for dream homes and family dinners.

•
Millions of moms and dads in rural parts of our country falling into unemployment, in need of government assistance, unsure of what their future will be.

•
"You absolutely love to see it."

•
The congresswoman is able to be so callous because, like any arrogant New Yorker, she is clueless as to life outside of the big city and appears to have a certain disdain for it.

•
I absolutely don't "love to see it." I know people, friends, neighbors and family who work in this world and are sick with anxiety as they see their businesses slipping through their fingers and falling into financial ruin. I wouldn't celebrate that.

•
Good people don't have the ability to experience glee at the misery of others.

•
Smart people know better than to put such vile sentiments on Twitter.

•
But AOC apparently doesn't any know oil, gas, coal, fracking or pipeline workers.

•
And because they don't exist in her experience, because she can't see them, they don't matter.

•
We saw this same aloof disdain in a video also bewilderingly shared on social media, when AOC drove through an undisclosed rural area.

•
"Many votes here as you can see," she explained, adding that the lack of people was part of the "scam" of the Electoral College.

•
She was angry that this rural area had equal rights as her urban area. "Very efficient way to choose leadership of the country," she snidely commented.

•
Indeed. Let us be glad the Founders were not self-absorbed millennials.

•
Two years ago 15,897 people in Queens voted for her in a primary, anointing her the new representative to Congress from her overwhelmingly Democratic district.

•
Because of that, we're supposed to pretend AOC is an expert on farming, the Electoral College and the energy industry. She is not.

•
Unlike AOC, who tweets gleefully about the energy industry collapse, people who know better are worried about tomorrow.

•
The long-term ramifications are severe. It returns us to foreign dependence. It will make Iran and Russia more powerful, inviting hostilities in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. We will lose an advantage to Communist China. It will raise the costs of all goods and services. It will weaken our economy.

•
Right now, in the short term, the collapse hurts people. People suffering job loss. People running out of money. People running out of hope.

•
No one should find glee in that.
Oil crisis amid coronavirus – for AOC and the left, it's just another political opportunity (Fox 04/23/2020)
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"You absolutely love to see it. This along with record low-interest rates means it's the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet."

•
This tweet was too dumb even for her – an extraordinary bar, given her past commentary – and she deleted it.

•
... the Boston University economics major's faux pas merely underscores an uncomfortable truth regarding this pandemic and its aftermath: For the most partisan, every crisis is an opportunity to push political priors.

•
The most obvious agenda item for those on the political left has been the growth of government.

•
"For the first time, many Americans are looking to government for their very economic survival. In time, that could make them look at government differently."

•
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wrote ... that the "unequal impact of the pandemic and economic collapse are forcing us to rethink the assumptions of our system."

•
The New York Times termed the coronavirus a "new frontier in the fight for civil rights" and quoted race hustler the Rev.

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Jesse Jackson, who is calling for a government commission to investigate the "racism and discrimination built into public policies" that result in racial health disparities.

•
Precisely this attitude – that every crisis is a new weapon in the war for more expansive government, and in favor of a complete rethinking of the constitutional bargain – will lead more and more Americans to view shutdown orders with skepticism.

•
It is one thing to lock down populations on a bipartisan basis with clear goals – goals like preventing coronavirus patients from swamping the health care system.

•
Most Americans will go along with that, and most Americans are willing to grant policymakers the benefit of the doubt.

•
But when politicians begin to reveal ulterior motives for such shutdowns, Americans begin to ask questions.

•
When politicians simultaneously take measures that obviously do nothing to combat the coronavirus ... Americans begin to wonder whether their politicians are trustworthy. And when politicians meet such questions with hysterical accusations that the questioners simply don't care about human life, Americans grow even more suspicious.

•
Crises require trust in authority. But authorities must earn our trust with well-founded, sensible policy. They must be transparent about what they are doing and why they are doing it.

•
When authorities instead suggest openly that their agenda isn't solely curbing the coronavirus but remaking America along the lines of their own political priors, they lose our trust. And they should.
Not a single cent should be spent making rich universities richer during the coronavirus crisis (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
When Washington bailed out the finance world more than a decade ago after the most recent financial collapse, the government set limits on CEO compensation.

•
And they did it for a reason. Taxpayer bailouts should be used for saving jobs, not making corporate executives richer than they already are.

•
So, it's striking, by contrast, to see the Department of Education, which began dishing out $14 billion in bailout funds for the coronavirus pandemic for American universities this month, is not setting similar limits on how much university presidents get to pay themselves.

•
And they pay themselves more than you might think — a lot.

•
Columbia University, for example, is getting $12.8 million in bailout money, despite having an $11 billion endowment.

•
The president of that school, a person called Lee Bollinger, makes more than $2 million dollars a year.

•
In other words, Lee Bollinger is set to collect about one-sixth of the entire federal bailout.

•
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — a school you probably haven't heard of and probably for good reason — is getting $4.8 million dollars in bailout money, and amazingly, that's less than University President Shirley Ann Jackson pays herself every year.

•
The University of Michigan, which is a public school with more than $12 billion in the bank, still got a $25 million bailout. They plan to spend $8 million on their football coach this year.

•
They're still going to lose to Ohio State, which got $45 million in bailout money. That school pays its coaching staff $11 million.

•
Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania, a school for kids on the Harvard waitlist, received $9.9 million.

•
The president of UPenn, Amy Gutmann, makes nearly $3 million — that's about a third of the entire bailout.

•
If paying Amy Gutmann is such a priority, maybe the school could find that money in their $14.7 billion endowment.

•
We could go on and on and on. We could cite a dozen examples, in fact, a hundred examples.

•
Young people in this country are the poorest group in this country, but the schools that pretend to educate them are the richest institutions we have.

•
They are getting a bailout that young people could only dream of. Why?

•
Because universities are one of the most powerful political interest groups in the nation and young people are not, and you're not.

•
And that's why the government is blowing billions giving them cash they don't need at the same time that you're wondering how to pay your mortgage.

•
But it shouldn't take shame for Harvard to do the right thing. They should be decent enough to do it. That's a pipe dream; they're not even close to decent.

•
But in the absence of their decency, we need better laws. Not a single cent ever should be spent making rich universities even richer.

•
They do enough harm to this country.

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Political Correctness (Glenn McCoy, 11/11/2015) cartoon from USA picture album
Benefits vs. Costs and COVID-19 (JWR 04/22/2020)
Here's why Whitmer wants Michigan residents quiet and subservient during coronavirus crisis (Fox 04/22/2020)
Fred Fleitz: Here's what's behind the Senate-House disputes on Russian meddling in 2016 election (Fox 04/22/2020)
Liz Peek: Coronavirus reopening – Democrats resisting for this reason (Fox 04/20/2020)
•
Nancy Pelosi does not want Americans to go back to work. She and other Democrats will loft every possible excuse to prevent the nation from reopening, claiming that Trump's intention of doing so is "deeply frivolous and wrong."

•
They will insist that every single human being must be tested before a bricklayer, a piano tuner or professional golfer can safely earn a living, knowing that we are far from achieving that goal.

•
Who would have thought that rescuing the country from massive unemployment and collapsing incomes would become a political hot potato?

•
Who would have thought that Democrats would be willing to sacrifice the well-being of the nation in order to win an election?

•
Only someone who has watched Democrats try to topple President Trump for three years with no success but ever-increasing desperation.

•
Having failed to oust him by alleging conspiracy with Russia and then through a partisan and unfair impeachment, now they pray that a devastated economy will demolish his best argument for reelection.

•
That could happen, especially if blue and purple state governors around the country keep the lid on activity, demand that small businesses remain shuttered, and enforce the general misery, all in the name of keeping us "safe."

•
Trump's critics have jumped on him for the lack of available testing. The president was not directly responsible for the chaotic approach to making test kits available, of course, but the buck indeed stops with the White House.

•
The failures of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration can be laid at the president's door, and Democrats are eager to do that, all the while upping the supposed cost of the shortfall.

•
Dr. Anthony Fauci ... recently pushed back against Democrats' testing mantra, saying "The emphasis that we've been hearing is essentially ‘testing is everything' and it isn't."

•
Fauci also said that early problems with testing had largely been resolved and that there would in fact be enough tests to start reopening society.

•
"Every 1 percent hike in the unemployment rate will likely produce a 3.3 percent increase in drug-overdose deaths and a 0.99 percent increase in suicides, according to data from the National Bureau of Economic Research and the medical journal Lancet."

•
With 22 million losing their jobs, and unemployment approaching Great Depression-era levels of near 20 percent, those projections suggest thousands could be at risk.

•
Our policymakers must not only weigh the impact on Americans' health from the ongoing lockdown but must also examine the soaring costs of the rescue plans approved by Congress.

•
Trillions are flowing out the door to protect unemployed individuals and small businesses from losing everything – losses that if prolonged could cripple our economy for years to come.

•
Though the need for these emergency measures is undisputed, they cannot go on forever.

•
Already the U.S. has $18 trillion in debt outstanding, held by other countries like China as well as private investors.

•
According to the Wall Street Journal, that amounts to 89 percent of GDP, the most since 1947.

•
Given the health and economic costs of the ongoing lockdown, why are Democrats so opposed to a gradual reopening?

•
Simple. The coronavirus shutdown could undermine Trump's reelection prospects, and they don't want to give it up.

•
The coronavirus must seem heaven-sent to Democrats. Just as it bloomed, the economy was soaring and, despite being impeached by the House, President Trump's approval ratings were at all-time highs.

•
The disease is challenging Trump and the capabilities of government like nothing that has come before.

•
The president will almost certainly make mistakes as he walks the tightrope between keeping Americans safe and trying to reopen our society – errors that his critics will campaign on.

•
See related Finally Got Him (Chip Bok, 03/31/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Call for Another Investigation (Gary Varvel, 04/03/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
You wanted Socialism? Well here it is (INN 04/19/2020)
John James: Coronavirus and China – US must make these critical items here at home (Fox 04/19/2020)
•
Americans are dying from COVID-19 and hospitals are struggling to provide health care because they lack necessary equipment like masks and ventilators.

•
At the same time, U.S. companies in China have warehouses overflowing with the necessary equipment, but Chinese restrictions disrupt the supply chain and prevent that essential equipment from coming back to the U.S.

•
This is not the last crisis America will face. We cannot allow any nation to disrupt our supply chain on critical goods.

•
We need to ensure we have the manufacturing capabilities to deal with the next crisis. We need to repatriate the American dream.

•
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the danger of America's supply chain being reliant upon other nations, notably communist China, for the critical goods and services we need.

•
Masks and ventilators are just one example. Pharmaceuticals are another.

•
We cannot allow other nations to impede our ability to identify vaccines and cures, as well as have access to necessary medical treatments.

•
As ours is the most prosperous, innovative economy in human history, it is both possible and advisable that our nation becomes more economically self-sufficient to prevent these obstacles from dealing with COVID-19 and disasters in the future.

•
No longer can we dangerously permit communist China's – or any country's – predatory trade practices, currency manipulation, dumping, intellectual property theft, espionage, cyber and information warfare and worse to continue their assault on our national prosperity and, yes, security.

•
This is not a call for protectionism or isolation. It is a call for independence and patriotism.

•
We must repatriate the American dream from overseas and restore hope around the hearth of home for our working families.

•
At least, American companies should be able to supply essential goods to Americans without fear of foreign governments disrupting our supply chain.

•
That disruption can't happen if Americans are manufacturing in America.

•
First, buy American. The American consumer is the most powerful in the world. Entire markets bend because of them.

•
Next, like President Trump's recent landmark tax reform package, Congress must pass legislation to keep "in-sourcing" jobs back to our shores.

•
Continuing tax, tort and regulatory reforms are vital to incentivizing the repatriation and retention of America's "production independence" in manufacturing, energy, agricultural, pharmaceutical and every sector of our economy.

•
In the area of medicine, particularly, it is insane to rely upon communist China or any other bad international actors for pharmaceuticals.

•
As the COVID-19 pandemic grimly demonstrates, Americans' pharmaceutical self-sufficiency is necessary not only for our economic but for our physical health, as well.

•
In the wake of this pandemic, our nation was compelled to take unprecedented public health measures to protect people's lives. Tragically, this has led to record levels of unemployment.

•
These workers won't be getting jobs in communist China. They need American jobs – now.

•
American citizens deserve to have access to American personal protection equipment and American medicine.

•
What we need is for our nation to repatriate the American dream.
The Real Enemy (JWR 04/17/2020)
•
By now it should be crystal clear to all that the so-called news media is rooting not only for the demise of our country, but for the demise of western civilization itself.

•
Trump Derangement Syndrome has been obvious for a long while now, wherein anything President Trump says must be wrong simply because he said it.

•
But since the China Wuhan virus has hit, these leftist hacks who purport to be "journalists" have done everything in their power to make sure that they don't let a good pandemic go to waste.

•
Far from doing the right thing, like rallying behind our president in his fight to save American lives and the American economy, they have been engaged in lies and negative reporting in their ongoing attempt to bring down Donald Trump, even if it means bringing down the United States of America or the whole world along with him.

•
Who would have ever guessed that the media would be this evil, this willing to see millions of lives destroyed, families broken apart, and businesses go under just to tear down a president they happen not to like?

•
Day after day they look for ways to "get" Trump, show him up, catch him misspeaking about some detail, dragging up uncorroborated news sources to make him look bad. And if all else fails, they make it up.

•
Over the past weeks the reportage of the virus and its effect on American society has been shaped and spun to put the blame on Donald Trump.

•
They either play down or in some cases even support the lies coming out of China concerning how the virus got started as opposed to the facts coming from our own government.

•
The hack-press, gleefully it seems, reports daily infection numbers and death tolls without mentioning the numbers of people who were infected by it and got over it to become completely well.

•
Here's how it works with the fake news; when Trump acted quickly In January to take action, such as stopping travel coming in from China, he was portrayed as xenophobic, racist, and just plain wrong.

•
Now he is portrayed as not doing enough soon enough.

•
Why didn't he act in November, they ask.

•
Never mind that the entire world didn't know anything about this virus until the first of the year, Trump should have known they say.

•
When Trump and his team recommended a nationwide shut down, they said he was going too far, he was acting like an authoritarian fascist.

•
But when Trump says we need to explore ways of getting America back to work and back to normal again, they say he is ignoring the advice of the health experts and putting American lives at risk.

•
Any way Trump goes, anything he says they go against.

•
As bad and as wrong as I believe the Democrat party to be, I nevertheless can understand their deceit and underhanded tricks.

•
They are the opposition party, they want to gain control and implement their socialist policies to push America leftward.

•
I get it. We all know that's what the Democrats do for a living.

•
On the other hand the American press is supposed to be evenhanded truth seekers, not in one camp or the other.

•
That they pretend to be impartial, journalistic fact-finders when it has become so obvious that they are not, puts these disgusting liars in a class all their own.

•
President Trump has called the Coronavirus "the invisible enemy" in his war to save our country.

•
But the real enemy in this war is not invisible at all; in fact it is in clear view, on display daily to all of us.

•
The real enemy of the American people is the dishonest news media.

•
See related Media and Corona (Gary McCoy, 03/12/2020) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related He's Crazy! (Glenn McCoy, 05/16/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Media Is a Threat to the Country (JWR 04/17/2020)
•
And the national press wonders why it is mistrusted, and even despised?

•
Sen. Tom Cotton was among the first to suggest that the information China was releasing regarding the novel coronavirus emerging from Wuhan might be inaccurate.

•
Cotton raised the specter that the Chinese national virology laboratory in Wuhan could have played a role — even if inadvertent. For that, he was ridiculed.

•
Cotton is a Republican, so his statement was the press's cue to trot out the tropes: This was just some wacky conspiracy theory.

•
His accusations have already been "debunked." He's a war hawk pitching a "fringe theory" bought into by all the other right-wing kooks who also suspect foul play or grievous error in China.

•
None of that was journalism. That was just repeating Democratic National Committee talking points and dutifully disseminating the propaganda of the communist Chinese government.

•
Journalism would have been doing what National Review's Jim Geraghty, YouTuber Matthew Tye and Scientific American's Jane Qiu have done: digging through news reports from online Chinese news agency Caixin Global; going through scholarly journals to find papers on viruses in bats being studied at the Wuhan virology laboratory; discovering advertisements for research positions at that same laboratory that require expertise in coronavirus strains in bats; interviewing scientist Shi Zhengli (called "bat woman" or the "bat lady" ), who actually went into the caves in the Yunnan province (hundreds of miles from Wuhan, in the Hubei province) where the horseshoe bats that likely carry this virus live — a different type of bat than those sold in the Wuhan wet market, by the way.

•
All of that was discoverable through research. Discovering it would have been journalism. But actual journalism would have proven Sen. Cotton correct. And we can't have that.

•
It's so much easier to simply repeat what you've been told to say, and what all your politically simpatico friends in the business are saying.

•
And it's much more fun to nudge-nudge-wink-wink and laugh with one another at how morally and intellectually superior you are to the average American than it is TO JUST DO YOUR JOB.

•
The press is disbelieved — and even loathed — because it has lost its credibility. This has happened by virtue of its own actions.

•
Members of the press blame Trump for the public's antipathy toward them (big shock — they blame Trump for everything), but like most modern unpleasant political phenomena, this didn't start with Trump.

•
He simply made visible that which has been going on, largely unacknowledged, for decades.

•
The national press is pushing back. We should appreciate the press, it claims, because Trump is an aspiring fascist, and that's why it "covers" him like a swarm of hornets.

•
Dearest media: It's not that we don't want you to aggressively challenge the people in power. To the contrary, we'd like some equal opportunity aggression.

•
... the people you all like will skate. And they know it. ... No matter who they are or what they've done, as long as they're reliably leftist, they'll be held to a different standard.

•
You want to know why Americans don't trust you? Because you're arrogant. You're condescending. You're corrupt. You're hypocritical. You're shockingly ignorant.

•
You're pawns in a much bigger game, and your refusal to hold ALL powerful people to account is malfeasance that puts the country at risk. And not just from coronavirus.

•
Do you want to earn back the public's trust? Stop playing political favorites. Stop trying to shape the news instead of report the news.

•
Stop seeing everything through the lens of your personal politics.

•
Do your job.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Either We Heal as a Country or We Are Going To Crumble (JWR 04/17/2020)
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For the business community and those at the very top of America's economic ladder, China has been a godsend.

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They've made and saved billions and billions of dollars by outsourcing American manufacturing to China and offering goods and services to China's booming consumer market.

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Outsourcing our manufacturing and our corporate growth to China has done a lot to drive us to the two-class America we are becoming.

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The top tier of our country has thrived, in part by the efficiencies of incredibly cheap Chinese labor and access to the booming Chinese consumer market.

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The wealthy are having a good time, and China has been a big part of the reason why.

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At the same time, the loss of American jobs to China has harmed lower-income Americans.

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They get back cheaper consumer goods, but I'm not sure how many would trade their jobs for that.

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The transfer of American manufacturing and other jobs to China has had a big role in transforming us to the multitiered American society we have today, with so little in common between the tiers.

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Those in finance and top companies are getting rich by facilitating this transition. Others are suffering with lost jobs and lower wages.

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Now we all have to join together to fight a disease that started in China and grew, at least in part, due to secrecy and mismanagement in the Chinese government at the earliest stages of the virus — when the disease could have possibly been contained.

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Now as the price of dealing with this disease comes due, it's regular Americans who are paying it. More than 20 million have lost jobs. Most had very little savings coming into this.

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For those in the upper reaches of our society, including virtually every person making national- and state-level decisions about the way forward, quarantining has been a minor inconvenience.

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For the people at the other end of the economic spectrum, it's been a nightmare. In other words, the same people who have been hurt by globalization are now paying the highest price for this disease, fueled in large part by our increased globalization.

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There are two possible roads ahead. On one hand, we can make plans going forward with the needs of those hardest hit firmly in mind.

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We can also rethink a lot of huge issues, like the supply chain vulnerabilities we now face due to making very little medicine and other key equipment in our own country.

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More broadly, we can take a harder look at the loss of American manufacturing and the flight of so many good jobs overseas.

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If we follow this path, we may look back on this crisis as the birth of some level of much-needed national reconciliation.

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The other option is to continue ignoring the plight of those who have not fared so well these past couple of decades.

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If that happens, this crisis could go down as the final straw that broke this great country.

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What we need most is for those who hold power in America — those who have reaped massive financial benefit from our current system and who are not feeling much pinch today — to try to see the world through the lens of someone really hurting right now, who never saw any of the upside that got us into this mess in the first place.
Coronavirus — Trump-hating liberal media unable to see anything outside a partisan lens (Fox 04/17/2020)
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The liberal media are urging former Vice President Joe Biden to form a shadow government to upstage President Trump's crisis response effort, which illustrates its consuming partisanship — and its insufficient attention to the health and welfare of the American people.

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Some reporters seek to elicit facts that will help inform the public, but far too many are there to grandstand and to embarrass and shame the president.

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They sling their gotcha questions, hoping to trick Trump into admitting he didn't act quickly enough and isn't effectively overseeing the distribution of equipment and other aid to the states.

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Some have very nearly accused Trump of causing American deaths.

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Aside from the spuriousness of their claims, these questions are utterly inappropriate and counterproductive at briefings whose purpose is to update the American people on our battle against the coronavirus and on plans to reopen the economy.

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The idea of a shadow government is not just ill-motivated; it is absurd. Who are these clowns kidding?

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So what would these armchair quarterbacks hope to accomplish through their fantasy shadow team, other than keeping Biden in the limelight by presenting some bogus alternative to the administration's leadership?

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Even now while thousands of Americans have died and millions are suffering financially, they can't see past their unremitting contempt for him, and they can't apply their energy toward helping Trump solve these problems instead of scheming of ways to unseat him in November.

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Meanwhile, Trump has organized both his coronavirus task force and his Opening Our Country Council on a bipartisan basis, and he is working across party lines with businesses and state governments to address the crisis.

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While the media have failed to make their case against Trump for incompetence and partisanship, they have resoundingly demonstrated their own — and the public is not likely to soon forget it.

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Victor Davis Hanson: Coronavirus gut-check time – this information will help decide next steps (Fox 04/16/2020)
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In the coming days, the president will have to make a lose/lose decision to either inaugurate a graduated return to work or keep the country locked down for weeks longer.

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Economists will likely urge him to restart the economy as fast as possible. Epidemiologists will warn of a second viral spike if millions go back to work.

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Trump will either be praised for saving the American economy or damned for dooming thousands.

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Timelines grow shorter. The virus and the draconian reaction to it are wearing down a quarantined America.

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As the days pass, the November election also draws nearer. Every presidential decision concerning the epidemic will be inevitably politicized.

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Trump supporters will likely favor a quick return to work to avoid a November recession. His opponents prefer a longer shutdown.

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Both sides know, but will deny, that politics play a role in how they view the crisis.

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Nothing about this epidemic was ever static. But we are on the verge of learning a lot more about the virus that will result in as much disagreement as relief.
David Bossie: Coronavirus and Trump – biased media's attacks no match for this president (Fox 04/16/2020)
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The presidency of Donald Trump has been a historic one on many levels.

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Candidate Trump — the ultimate political outsider — defeated a powerful entrenched career politician to capture the White House when no one said it was possible.

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The president then stormed into Washington and exposed the Russia hoax and a corrupt deep state that spied on his campaign.

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And while dealing with relentless attacks from the liberal media, his pro-growth economic policies and supreme confidence in the American worker ushered in one of the greatest economic booms in our nation's history.

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Then, being faced with the prospects of heading into an election year with record low unemployment and historic job creation and no positive agenda of their own, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her lapdog Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., concocted a political tall tale about a routine phone call between President Trump and the president of Ukraine.

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This shameful impeachment stunt blew up in their faces.

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It's now been nearly five years since Trump came down the golden escalator. Since that day, the biased liberal media made the decision to destroy him.

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Sadly, that effort continues today with their coverage of Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Now there's always been bias in the media, but this president has exposed it in a way no one else could have.

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The liberal media's hatred for Trump has made it plainly obvious that many so-called journalists who cover him are political activists.

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The anti-Trump media has turned into the opposition. They attack whatever decision the president makes.

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This isn't journalism, and the president is right to criticize what's become of the once-respected fourth estate.

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Take, for example, the president's recent comments about his plans to reopen the greatest economy on Earth after the worst of the coronavirus crisis is behind us.

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The president clearly stated this enormous decision will be made in consultation with state governors. He was immediately attacked by the liberal media for acting like a monarch opposed to states' rights.

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The president has big-government liberals and left-wing reporters in knots. The same people who usually want power centralized in Washington, now are supporting states' rights.

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... with every decision Trump makes to combat COVID-19, the media formulates some rationale to oppose the decision, no matter what.

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And they definitely won't give him any credit, regardless of whether he decides on a state-by-state, regional or a national reopening approach. The political hacks covering the decision will attack it either way.

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Thankfully, the president has other outlets. He can speak directly to the American people with his press conferences, on social media and through conservative media outlets.

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The liberal media's reluctance to cover the president's daily COVID-19 press conferences is telling.

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It confirms the press conferences are an extremely effective method of communication for Trump and his adversaries in the media are bitter about it.

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But through it all, the American people see through the bias. Whether you voted for him in 2016 or not, you know by now that Trump will outwork the opposition forces in Washington and make the best decision he can for the country and people that he loves so dearly – regardless of party affiliation.

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The liberal media dug itself a deep hole during the Trump presidency. The coverage of coronavirus could have been the moment to stop digging, but the media's collective stubbornness knows no bounds.

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Members of the media simply refuse to pull out of their death spiral. We're in the midst of a global pandemic not seen in 100 years, and the liberal media still won't be fair to Trump.

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The liberal media has a partisan agenda, and Trump is making sure everyone knows it.

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They despise Trump because he's winning, and they're scared to death at the thought of unsteady Sleepy Joe Biden on a debate stage with him come October.

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The liberal media has tried to destroy this president since 2015 and has failed miserably.

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See related Who Did This? (Mike Lester, 04/04/2020) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Media and Corona (Gary McCoy, 03/12/2020) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Peggy Grande: Coronavirus decision — Trump weighs risks of putting America back to work (Fox 04/15/2020)
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President Trump has said that deciding when to reopen the economy will be the biggest and most difficult one he will make in his presidency.

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No one can deny the world is facing the most prolific challenge in our lifetimes.

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Since World War II, we as a nation have never faced decisions of global consequence like the ones we are facing today.

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In many respects, we are in the midst of a multi-front war. One is battling the virus, but others are perhaps even more dangerous; preserving the economy – and preserving our freedoms.

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And beyond the cliche that the cure could be worse than the disease, America's retreat from the world economy will cause untold death and turmoil across the globe.

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Do we as a nation have the courage for tough decisions? Are we mindful of the fragility of our prosperity and our liberties?

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It was our industry, our economy and the arsenal of democracy that helped win World War II. In fact, the United States was the only nation to see its economy grow during the war.

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It was this same U.S. industry that allowed the execution of the post-war Marshall Plan and the formation of most of the global institutions that have led to the prosperity of the last 75 years.

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That same economy will be what propels our recovery following this crisis, but it cannot do so if it remains in a self-induced coma.

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It's time to wake America's sleeping giant of economic growth – before it's too late.

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Another front of this war involves not only preserving life, but also preserving our very way of life.

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From every side, we are under attack by China and their execution of unrestricted warfare – a strategy that describes winning a global war against the United States without ever firing a shot.

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Much has already been written about China's role in the coronavirus and concerns about lack of transparency, with much still to uncover.

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However, one thing is irrefutable. China is taking advantage of the crisis, profiting from the outbreak, continuing their predatory mercantilism and accelerating the provision of goods and services to many suffering from the pandemic, such as sending 1,000 ventilators to New York City and attempting to re-sell to Italy some of the very products Italy donated to China.

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China is also buying up distressed assets around the globe. The virus has become China's economic weapon to destroy the economies of the U.S. and its allies.

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So far, it has worked, but it has to stop. Immediately.

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Part of winning the fight on this front is pushing back on China with the full weight of the American economy, not just for ourselves, but for a world that also looks to our strength for their strength, security and stability.

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We need to win this war on many fronts: restarting the engine of industry and preserving the values and freedoms of our country, while also protecting ourselves against further exploitation by an ever-aggressive China.

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If we allow ourselves to make decisions based exclusively on limiting or eliminating potential American loss of life, we are fighting this war on only one front, which is a flawed and short-sighted strategy.

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President Trump's instincts are correct, and many of the steps our president has taken have been bold, brave and infused with informed guidance and personal wisdom.

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We need to support the president in making the tough, correct decision to reopen our economy as soon as it is safe to do so.

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This is not an either/or decision between choosing life or livelihood.

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Those are two parts of a complex, achievable balance that will protect our liberties as Americans and recalibrate our relationship with China.

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This is the perfect equilibrium our president must find, and we all must support, knowing there will continue to be risks, but being willing to assume those risks together.
It looks like Putin conned the FBI into the 'Russiagate' probe (JWR 04/14/2020)
Fixing College Corruption (JWR 04/14/2020)
Coronavirus reopening — President Trump, here's what to ignore when making this decision ()
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The lesson for Trump: Beware of polls or pundits telling you in which direction to go: If you choose to reopen the country, and there's a huge second wave of infection in September, the same folks will blame you — for following their advice.

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And if you choose to keep the country shut, and other economies start to boom, the same will occur.

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You make the decision: if it works, you win. If it doesn't, well, yes, you lose.

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The judgment that counts — is the judgment voters make in November. They'll look back and decide whether the president took the right decisions in the face of an unseen enemy.

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They're willing to pay the price for now, so long as they see signs of victory at the end.

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As always, hindsight is 20-20, and in 2020 that hindsight will define the election.
Cal Thomas: Coronavirus response — reasons to stay positive, even now (Fox 04/13/2020)
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"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength" (Proverbs 17:22).

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"If you constantly experience negative emotions you will be subjected to stress and more sensitive to stressful situations. Being positive is the best defense against stress..." Stress, he added, can harm our immune systems.

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... having a positive attitude, along with (as the experts now tell us) washing hands, practicing social distancing, staying home as much as possible and wearing face coverings, can have immunological benefits.

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Let's "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative." We'll feel better and it might have a side effect of benefiting our immune systems.
Steve Hilton: How to reopen America safely, but soon (Fox 04/13/2020)
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More than 1 in 10 Americans thrown out of work, higher taxes to come, businesses collapsing, mental health declining, poverty rising and with it, life expectancy falling.

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President Trump's instincts on this have been right all along. He's the one that has to consider all the implications of any decision, including the social, economic, and yes, public health devastation of a shutdown.

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As the shutdown toll grows, so has the demand for a better, more sustainable antivirus plan.

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... the cure is worse than the disease. This cure is not even a cure.

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The minute you lift the lockdowns, the virus starts spreading again, whether that's May, June, July, August or Christmas.

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Anyone pushing the recurring shutdown idea has no clue about how the economy actually works. Uncertainty is a killer for business, for consumers and for workers. We need to reopen and stay open.

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Another terrible idea is the one we told you about last week. Governments in Europe are looking at immunity passports or certificates for those who've had coronavirus.

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Our own Dr. Fauci said on Friday that immunity certificates, "might actually have some merit under certain circumstances."

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Again, no. This has no merit under any circumstances. Of course, we respect Dr. Fauci's medical expertise, but this is a policy idea that would be an Orwellian nightmare, like the past laws they had in South Africa at the height of apartheid.

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Government antibody surveillance, leading to antibody passes would create a class of zero positive elites, and an incentive for people desperate for work to get infected.

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I hope no one in the White House is wasting one second on such a monstrous inhuman scheme.

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It would be totally unacceptable to the American people, let alone Trump supporters.

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... the latest data tells us that many millions of Americans have or will get the virus. The idea that the government can identify each of them, isolate them somewhere for weeks, trace all their contacts — it's insane.

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And now we know that Apple and Google are right behind it, ready to build their surveillance empires on the back of this crisis.

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To be effective, to bring certainty to business, to maximize our chances of getting that big bounce-back recovery working Americans so desperately need, the right plan to reopen America has to be safe, of course, based on science, but also simple.

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Step one: Get accurate data about how widespread and how deadly coronavirus really is. The statistics we're seeing right now are totally wrong. They reflect the number of tests, not the real number of infections.

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So, here's recommendation one: Instead of pursuing government antibody surveillance for every American, the White House should immediately commission continuous community antibody sampling nationwide, so we get a true picture of the spread of this virus.

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Second step: Get accurate data about who is most vulnerable. Just saying the elderly and those with underlying health conditions is too vague. How old? Which health conditions? How severe? How much virus were they exposed to?

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Don't waste time identifying, isolating and contact tracing everyone who has got the virus.

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The latest data shows there are multiple millions of them, and the vast majority will be fine.

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Instead, put the effort into tracing the medical histories of the people who so tragically died.

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Unbelievably, our hospitals are not collecting that data. So, there's the second recommendation: The White House should mandate the collection and publication of what's known as, "morbidity data" — detailed information about the health conditions of coronavirus fatalities. This is especially important.

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... it's likely that the shutdowns actually hurt the most vulnerable, infected, but asymptomatic people were sent back to multigenerational homes into close quarters with their elderly family members. We need better data on infection rates, better data on risk factors. That's what the next few weeks should be about.

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Then we go to step three in this science-based plan: Reopen America all at once, not bit by bit. Quarantine and protect the truly vulnerable.

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If we know that millions more Americans than we thought have already had coronavirus, we don't need to shut down the economy just for a lack of ventilators to take care of the truly vulnerable.

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Quarantine the most vulnerable — not everyone, not even everyone over 65, just those with the specific health risks that have tragically killed thousands already.

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Keep them inside, give them N-95 masks and make sure no one comes within six feet of them.

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Make sure local health services contact and support them, mobilize food banks to help them.

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Impose much tighter controls in nursing homes and continue to build our reserves of ventilators and PPE to make sure we can cope with anything that comes down the line.

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... it might be a while before we can fill up a football stadium, but the science-based plan we've outlined for you is simple, it is practical and it is the best way to reopen America safely, but soon.
Coronavirus tipping point – Trump must balance these concerns to safely reopen the country (Fox 04/13/2020)
Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and so many others think they could manage the coronavirus pandemic better than President Trump, and they all have a plan to get us out of this ()
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Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden (or someone) penned an editorial for the New York Times entitled "Joe Biden: My Plan to Safely Reopen America."

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In it he offers novel advice such as "we have to get the number of new cases of the disease down significantly."

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Also: "If I were president, I would convene top experts from the private sector, industry by industry, to come up with new ideas on how to operate more safely."

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If nothing else, it is conceivable that four years of a Joe Biden presidency could put the country into a stupor.

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Warren wants the government to manufacture scarce goods (not just press private companies to do so), to prohibit debt collections from numerous types of borrowers, to increase Social Security benefits, to adopt an Essential Workers Bill of Rights, to police private sector pricing and on and on.

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Warren does not want to let this crisis go to waste.

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This is but one of many reasons that President Trump must quickly lay out a plan for reopening our economy.

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The longer we dither, the greater the impulse to adopt measures that will crimp our eventual recovery, and long-term growth.

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That is not the only impetus to begin relaxing the social distancing rules now in place.

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As Trump has said, "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself."

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Too many businesses are failing and too many workers are unemployed.

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Much has been written about how rising unemployment can lead to higher levels of depression, suicide and drug use.

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Also, despite the excitement over the free-wheeling handouts coming from Congress, we know the country cannot be propped up indefinitely by the federal government.

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We have, as a nation, put our concerns about our debts and deficits on hold, but the trillions being spent to bolster businesses and workers will ultimately darken our already perilous fiscal future.

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We are at a tipping point; Americans want to get back to their prior lives, and back to work.

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At the same time, the doctors advising President Trump caution that relaxing the safety measures in place could cause the disease to surge again.

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There is extraordinary tension between these two voices.

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Skeptics, including many Trump supporters, have begun to question whether the White House medical advisers like Dr. Anthony Fauci have the president's best interests at heart. That is not helpful.

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Clearly, the social distancing recommended by Dr. Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and others is working; the curve is bending.

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Fauci and Birx are like corporate lawyers; their job is to say no. They are not paid to advise on the economy.

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They are paid to squash this bug, and they can best do that by putting the entire nation in a deep freeze for the next 18 months.

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President Trump has announced he will shortly form a panel to orchestrate bringing the economy back to life. That group will produce guidelines about how and when businesses can reopen and how to keep workers safe.

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They will have to find a way not only to protect employees but also business owners; if a store invites customers in and three weeks later one of those shoppers gets sick, the owner cannot be held liable. If a production line starts up and a worker falls ill, he cannot hold that company responsible. Otherwise, no business will consider it safe to reopen.

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Ideally, this gradual opening will be accompanied by more widespread testing or, better yet, a cure.

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Eventually, there will be a vaccine, though probably not before this time next year.

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President Trump carries an immense burden, keeping the country healthy and safe but also allowing some return to normalcy.

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The other day Trump said about the decision that may determine his political future: "I only hope to God that it's the right decision." So should we all.
Deroy Murdock: Coronavirus timeline — facts show good reasons to question WHO's response (Fox 04/12/2020)
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"It is a law of nature for liberals automatically to defend something that Trump opposes, even it's the W.H.O. mishandling the current pandemic."

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Trump did not distance himself from WHO until it emerged as whitewash artists for Red China's cover-up of COVID-19's toll on Wuhan.

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As for WHO's behavior, it got things very wrong, exactly when Trump-ophobes say — in high-resolution hindsight — that he should have ordered ventilators and envisioned today's kinder, gentler version of house arrest.

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The Left's sudden portrayal of WHO as flawless and omniscient is as much a smokescreen as WHO's efforts to camouflage the Chinese Communist Party's responsibility for what ails us.

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Likewise, President Trump's attackers, no surprise, employ similar deceit to ignore his immediate reaction to WHO's pandemic declaration and caricature his robust COVID-19 response as leisurely.

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In other words, just another busy day at Hate Trump Inc.

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See related China Syndrome (Antonio Branco, 03/25/2019) cartoon from Media picture album
Now is not the time to play the partisan blame game over coronavirus (NYP 04/13/2020)
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In a bid to make political hay out of the coronavirus pandemic, congressional Democrats want to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the federal government's response.

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Although Rep. Adam Schiff insists the idea is "not a political exercise to cast blame," it's impossible to imagine that he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn't use a commission to do exactly that.

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After all, they tried and failed to drive President Trump from office with Russia, Russia, Russia and then Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.

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Both times they concocted their own narrative by turning assertions into facts, and shouldn't be trusted with a third chance.

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Yet it is beyond dispute that America was not ready for this or any other pandemic.

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Already the impact of the virus recalls other great shocks to our nation, from the JFK assassination to the financial crash of 2008.

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Along with 9/11, each was followed by extensive examinations of what went wrong and how a repeat could be prevented.

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A prime requirement of such probes is that they be viewed as impartial.

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But equally important is timing — and now is not the time to play the blame game, especially one loaded with partisan agendas.

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The war against the virus is far from over. The body count continues to rise, some 16 million Americans have lost their jobs, the federal guidelines remain in place and nearly all states continue to impose harsh restrictions on commerce and social interactions.

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Thus, a finger-pointing exercise would only harden our political polarization.

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Most important, it would sap attention and energy from the all-hands-on-deck emergency America still faces.

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"Pearl Harbor was the greatest disaster in America's military history and was caused by an intelligence system that was broken from start to finish. The breakdown involved people in the Army, the Navy, the White House."

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"Those who made errors of judgement were unpunished, and they carried out their duties throughout the war. Many of these men had superb records in combat."

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"Meanwhile, the broken intelligence system was corrected and rebuilt during the war. This allowed America to prevail two or three years earlier than had been forecast in 1942."

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"The lesson for today is that instead of looking for people to blame for mishandling the disaster, stay positive, fix the problems at hand and win this war."

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His point, and mine, is not that we shouldn't find out what went wrong in the early days of the pandemic. Eventually, we must.

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But we don't have the luxury of doing it competently and fairly while the battle for lives still rages.

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Win the war first, and everything else can follow.

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See related Working from Home (Antonio Branco, 03/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: Vitally important coronavirus questions remain unanswered – here are some (Fox 04/11/2020)
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Wuhan, in central China, was the first place in the world to suffer an outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

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It's worth saying that out loud from time to time, both because it's true and materially significant, and because a lot of people would like you to forget it.

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Because Wuhan is the site of the longest-running coronavirus outbreak, we ought to study what happened there carefully.

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It's worth knowing as much as we can about how and why the disease started, and how it moved so quickly to the rest of the world.

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Early data from Wuhan led researchers to conclude that each infected person, on average, infected about 2.5 additional people.

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Now it looks like that assumption has been a profound understatement.

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Based on extensive case analysis, the researchers estimate that the average infected Wuhan resident infected 5.7 other people. That's enough to double the epidemic in fewer than three days.

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Is the estimate accurate? We don't know if it is.

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But for a moment, imagine this new number from Los Alamos is correct, and the size of the outbreak in Wuhan was doubling every three days.

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That would mean a huge number of people there were infected with the coronavirus.

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Here's the mystery: The Chinese government allowed 5 million residents to flee the city before they locked it down in January.

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Most of them presumably went to other places in China. And yet, according to the Chinese – as well as all available evidence we now have in the West – there were no other major outbreaks in China.

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Meanwhile, other cities all over Europe and the United States have been brought to their knees by the virus. How could this be? It doesn't seem to make any sense at all.

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For some reason, almost no one in the American media has even asked about it. That's strange.

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At this point, we have no real explanation for why the coronavirus spread throughout the West, but not throughout China.

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How about the most basic question of all: How deadly is it? We still don't know.

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... is it possible that some groups of people are more vulnerable to the illness than others? We know that genetics plays a major role in the way many diseases progress. Is that true here? We don't know.

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Is this virus seasonal? Will it recede in the summer, before returning in the fall and winter?

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If infected people get immunity, how long does that immunity last?

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There's mounting evidence that an awful lot of people may have the virus and not know it. Do they face long-term health consequences from that?

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Those are just some of the things we still don't know about this strange new virus from Wuhan, China. It would have been nice if authorities had learned a lot more before they took such dramatic steps in response to it.

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Our leaders had two examples to choose from as this pandemic bore down on America: The Swedish model of targeted restrictions coupled with voluntary distancing; and the Chinese model of total lockdowns, internal travel restrictions, and punishment for those who step out of line.

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Our leaders chose the Chinese model. With every passing day, their response becomes more restrictive: Requests that people stay indoors have become orders. People are being fined and arrested for driving alone, playing catch in the park and paddle boarding on the ocean.

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How are these measures keeping us safe? The short answer is, we don't know that they are.

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As noted, we still don't know much of anything. We're definitely not encouraged to ask about it.

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Dr. Tony Fauci, who has become the face of coronavirus response, is now suggesting that America could adopt a feature of life familiar to the population of mainland China: Internal passports.

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Imagine a country where illegal immigrants can work, drive, get welfare, and vote, all without a single authentic document.

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Meanwhile, 300 million legal citizens must produce government papers to prove their right to go outside.

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That's where we're headed, and with remarkable speed.

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For what has to the first time in our history, Easter services have been banned in many places.

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Authorities will allow citizens to go to the supermarket, but not to practice Christianity in public.

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The Chinese population would recognize that too.

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Where's the science that suggests this works? There isn't any. They feel like doing it, so they are.

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Politicians understand the only risk for them is in restraint. Authoritarian overreach is almost never punished.

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When the coronavirus has finally passed, our leaders want to be able to say they took it seriously.

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But there's nothing serious about reactions like this. They're mindless and destructive.

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Instead of arresting people for going to church, maybe they could pause and answer a few basic questions first.
In this coronavirus crisis, nothing is more important than staying connected to reality (Fox 04/10/2020)
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It's all happening very, very fast. But at this point, a couple of trends are coming into focus.

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First of them, an awful lot of people are getting sick from this illness. Tens of thousands of new infections every day; some of them are dying. It's horrifying to watch.

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But there is also a glint of brightness on the horizon, a forecast that many of us did not expect. Estimates of the final death toll have been revised dramatically downward.

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Sixty thousand deaths - that's a very big number. And if someone you love is among them, it's everything.

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This is one of those cases when we are grateful to be wrong, and not just wrong about the death toll.

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The number of infected patients who need to be hospitalized has also been way below early estimates.

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Instead, something completely unexpected appears to be taking place. Across the country, health care workers are being let go or furloughed. Elective procedures have been canceled. That means there aren't patients for them to care for. Hospitals are running short on cash.

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In Oklahoma City, an entire hospital has been closed, except for its emergency room.

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Almost everywhere except the New York metro area, Detroit and New Orleans, hospitals, many of them are sitting half-empty or empty. Thanks to a lockdown meant to ease pressure on hospitals.

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That's a story none of us expected to see. It's all pretty shocking, given what we expected. But the weirdest thing of all is how little attention this is all getting.

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In a crisis, nothing is more important than staying connected to reality.

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Facts change very fast, and it's easy to miss them, and instead get trapped in a storyline that you created weeks or months before.

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That's especially a temptation in the news business, but it's how terrible decisions get made.

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The people making those decisions don't look up long enough to notice that their assumptions were wrong. Something like that may be happening now.

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So 17 million people unemployed is actually a positive sign, they are telling you. It means Americans are doing, "what we need them to do."

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If you find yourself saying something like that out loud, pause for a moment and listen to your own words.

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Americans are tired and fearful. They're afraid from weeks of uncertainty and sadness.

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But that does not eliminate our obligation to think as clearly as we can, because at some point, we're going to have to pivot from our current lockdown to whatever comes next.

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And now is the time to figure out what that means.

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It's not enough to harangue the public about how they're immoral somehow if they don't like being shut inside all day.

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We ought to be working hard to determine which parts of American life can return to normal, which cannot, and when.

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How do you move a nation of 320 million people from isolation and joblessness back to something better?

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You don't hear many people talking about that right now in any detail, but you should be.

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This is a complex moment. You should be wary of anyone who claims to be able to fix it with a slogan. That is impossible.

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Other countries already well down this road. Per capita, Austria has been affected in very much the same way by coronavirus as we have here.

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Next week, the Austrian government will allow most small businesses to reopen. Hair salons and shopping malls will follow in early May, then restaurants and hotels.

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Now, America is not Austria. We can't copy every move the Austrians make and expect the same results.

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But we can watch carefully and learn from what they're doing and what other countries have done, and we should do that.
Tucker Carlson: What exactly is Joe Biden's position on the coronavirus pandemic? (Fox 04/09/2020)
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Ask yourself, is Joe Biden ready to lead this country?

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Could he find his car in a three-tiered parking garage? Could he navigate a salad bar?

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And by the way, what exactly is his position on the coronavirus pandemic?

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Those are the mysteries Democrats now face.

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It is hard to imagine a man like that making it through a presidential debate or even staying awake through the inaugural proceedings.

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It seems likely that at some point, Democratic leaders will try to find a way to replace Biden before the November election.

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Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972. That was the year Richard Nixon opened China to the West.

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As the threat from China grew larger and more threatening and much more obvious over the decades, Biden seemed to grow more accommodating to the Chinese government.

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In 2000, for example, the U.S.-China Trade Relations Act gave China normal trade status. What does that mean?

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Within three years of the bill passing, America lost its last aspirin factory, its last vitamin C facility, its last penicillin plant.

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Our ability to make critically vital antibiotics in this country vanished, and that was a serious blow to our national security.

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Eleven years later in 2011, Biden still didn't see the threat. In fact, he appeared to welcome it.

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That year, he said, "A rising China is a positive development not only for China, but for America."

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The day that Biden gave that speech, millions of Americans already lost their jobs. They've been shipped overseas to China.

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Chinese students were already flooding America's schools and research labs, crowding out Americans, stealing the data and information.

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And in the end that would boost the Chinese economy to where it stands today — larger than ours.

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Biden: "... This is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia to — and fear-mongering — to lead the way instead of science."

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"Xenophobia." It seems almost antique. Why? Because in a moment like this, in a moment of national crisis, irrelevant issues tend to recede.

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You've probably heard a lot less recently about how America is racist, how we need reparations for slavery and non-binary signs at every public men's room stall. It all seems insultingly frivolous now.

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What matters in moments like this are the big things, and at the top of that list is who should lead this world going forward?

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Should it be the United States or should it be the government of China?

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Anyone who has trouble answering that question probably won't be the president.
Is America a roaring giant or crying baby? (JWR 04/08/2020)
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As we struggle to defeat the coronavirus, an aroused America is talking grandly of restructuring the U.S. economy.

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Politicians promise that major industries — pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, rare earths, military technologies — will return home to create millions of new jobs and better protect the population in times of crisis.

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There are other vows to recalibrate our relationship with China to ensure that when the next successor to SARS and COVID-19 hits, American lives will not be jeopardized by the duplicity of the Chinese government.

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At the beginning of the outbreak, Beijing hid the origins, nature and transmissibility of the virus, then lied about its supposedly brilliant control of the epidemic.

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The American public is already asking tough questions.

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Does the U.S. really need almost 15,000 people flying in from China each day?

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At a time when American students owe $1.5 trillion in student loans, it is smart to have some 360,000 Chinese students enrolled in U.S. colleges?

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Is it safe to fund hundreds of labs on university campuses that conduct joint research with Chinese academics?

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Does the United States really wish to curtail fracking, which has made it the largest producer of natural gas in the world and ensured that a quarantined America has plenty of fuel?

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Post-virus America can awake from this epidemic and economic shutdown in one of two different ways.

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One, we can wake up as we did on December 8, 1941, to ensure that Americans control their own fundamentals of life — food, fuel, medicine and strategic industries — without dependency on illiberal regimes.

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The military can refocus our defenses against nuclear missiles, cyberwarfare and biological weapons.

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On the home front, diversity is fine, but in a national crisis as serious as this one, the unity that arises from confidence in shared American citizenship saves lives.

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Our other choice is to keep bickering and suffering amnesia, remaining as vulnerable as we were in the past.

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We can scapegoat and play the blame game.

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We can talk not of an America in crisis, but of the virus' effects on particular groups.

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We can decide that it is mean or even racist and xenophobic to hold the Chinese government accountable for its swath of viral destruction — and so we will not.

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We can ridicule the idea of Americans again making their own things and call it protectionism or economic chauvinism.

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We can conduct endless congressional inquiries about who said what and when about the virus, and perhaps reopen impeachment.

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Or we can have bipartisan commissions decide how best to return key industries to the U.S., prepare for the next epidemic, and pay down the enormous debt we have incurred to defeat COVID-19.

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In other words, the choice is ours whether America awakens as a roaring giant or a crying baby.
Time for blacks to acknowledge our being victims — of racial hoaxes (JWR 04/08/2020)
Bankrupting America (JWR 04/08/2020)
Newt Gingrich: Coronavirus — Get ready for life after COVID-19. Here's what to do today (Fox 04/08/2020)
Trump’s Critics Attack His Optimistic Case for Hydroxychloroquine (04/07/2020)
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President Donald Trump's foes are foaming at the mouth again.

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Trump discussed this 65-year-old anti-malaria drug at a daily briefing on this pandemic. "It's shown very, very encouraging early results" among researchers, Trump said. These two drugs "taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine."

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"Very encouraging" and "real chance" are words of aspiration, not prescription.

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And Trump repeatedly has said that these drugs ultimately might fail, but nonetheless should be investigated.

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"If we're going to go into labs and test all of this for a long time, we can test it on people right now who are in serious trouble, who are dying," Trump told journalists. "If it works, we've done a great thing. If it doesn't work, you know, we tried." Trump asked bluntly: "What the hell do you have to lose?"

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Never mind! The Trump haters practically sued him for medical malpractice.

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Scandalously, and with less evidence than there is of this drug's use against this pathogen, Brzezinski claimed, "A lot of people would say, ‘Follow the money.' There's gotta be some sort of financial tie to someone somewhere that has the president pushing this repeatedly."

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Brzezinski's baseless charge is rendered downright clownish by the fact that HCQ has been on the FDA's list of approved generic drugs (as Plaquenil) since May 1999.

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A five-day treatment reportedly costs a whopping $12. For such monetary crumbs, President Trump is breaking conflict-of-interest laws, daily, on live television? Really?

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Trump-hating Democratic governors then joined the onslaught.

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Fascinating: The same Democrats who would dive onto swords to defend a woman's right to choose to abort her child would hurl her doctor and pharmacist onto swords if she chose HCQ and Zithromax to prevent her death from COVID-19.

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For the "crime" of advocating that COVID-19 patients have access to a possible cure for what ails them, Galonski wants President Trump brought before the International Criminal Court.

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"I can't take it anymore. "I've been to The Hague. I'm making a referral for crimes against humanity tomorrow. Today's press conference was the last straw. I know the need for a prosecution referral when I see one."

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Crimes against humanity? There officially are 16 such offenses. These include rape, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, enslavement, torture, murder, and extermination. ... Representative Galonski offered no evidence that Trump has perpetrated any such violations.

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This is the ultimate in anti-Trump rage: The president thinks something might heal the sick. But der Orangienfuhrer is evil. Ergo, anything he likes must be crushed.

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One of those who has not died from COVID-19 credits Trump's "snake oil" for keeping him alive.

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"Yes. I had C-19," he recalled. "Within an hour of testing positive, they put me on what I call the Trump Treatment: HCQ and Zithromax. It works great. I went in with bilateral pneumonia. Within two to three days, I felt much better. No fever, no aches, and my appetite and energy were restored. I remained on oxygen, but at a lower level. I was released 10 days after being admitted, and I am still on oxygen at home. I want people who are sick at home to have access to the therapy that cured me.

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Just days after declaring their jihad against HCQ, President Trump's critics now have been exposed.

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On March 29, the FDA approved HCQ for "emergency use" against COVID-19.

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Among those treating this virus's victims, 37 percent considered it "most effective." While only 23 percent of American physicians placed HCQ atop this list of treatments, HCQ was the first choice of 44 percent of their Chinese peers, 53 percent of those in Italy, and 75 percent of Spanish clinicians.

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And the Old Gray Lady's hands must have quaked when she scribbled this headline Wednesday: "Malaria Drug Helps Coronavirus Patients Improve, in Small Study."

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Let's hope scientists also cure the psychopathology that enslaves those who believe that, between COVID-19 and the president, Trump is the bigger danger.
America must never again rely on China for our medical supplies (JWR 04/07/2020)
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A country learns about itself in a crisis, and one revelation in the coronavirus emergency is that we can't make our own penicillin.

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The first patient successfully treated with the antibiotic was a woman suffering from sepsis in a Connecticut hospital in 1942.

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Her treatment took up half the country's supply.

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Yet in short order we figured out how to mass produce the medicine, saving the lives of countless soldiers in World War II.

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Once, factories throughout the country made the stuff.

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The last US plant to make penicillin, a Bristol-Myers Squibb operation in Syracuse, shuttered in 2004.

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"Industry data reveal that Chinese companies formed a cartel, colluded to sell product on the global market at below market price, and drove all US, European, and Indian producers out of business."

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... it's not so easy to simply start up a penicillin fermenter — we were out of the penicillin-production business.

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The story of penicillin is the tale of US dependence on China-sourced pharmaceuticals and active drug ingredients writ large.

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China is a dominant force when it comes to generic drugs in particular, which account for the vast majority of medicines that Americans take.

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We rely on China for 90 percent of our antibiotics, and for drugs for everything from HIV/AIDS to cancer to antidepressants.

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China is fully aware of the leverage. It notoriously threatened via its state-run media to cut off our supply of drugs (except fentanyl, of course) and plunge the US into "the mighty sea of coronavirus."

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Even if China weren't a malign global competitor (it is), a remorseless dictatorship (it is) or a dishonest kleptocracy (it is), there would be risk inherent in having so many of our medications and their components coming from one country.

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We become vulnerable to any disruption of Chinese production, whether from disease, political unrest or war.

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Beijing is a particularly nasty actor, but the coronavirus has demonstrated that even friendly nations will keep medical supplies from one another if it is in their self-interest to do so.

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It is only prudent, then, that the United States begin a national effort to produce more of its own medicines.

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It's not as though China's advantage in this area is the result of a policy of strict laissez-faire.

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The US-China Economic and Security Review commission attributes China's success to "government subsidies, a robust chemical industry, IP theft, lax environmental protections and regulations favoring domestic companies."

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Unspooling supply chains that have developed over the course of the last two decades won't be simple.

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The US should create every incentive for drug companies to at least move out of China into other foreign countries, and ideally come back here...

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Eventually, federally funded health systems, including Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration, should buy only American-sourced pharmaceuticals.

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Prescient commentators have been warning of our growing dependence on China for medicines for years. After this, there's no excuse for not fixing it.
Tucker Carlson: There has to be a more balanced course on coronavirus than the one we're on now (Fox 04/07/2020)
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For most people, going to work cannot be more dangerous than buying produce at Safeway twice a week.

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And if it is more dangerous, tell us how it is more dangerous and be specific when you describe that.

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Otherwise, it's time to start caring about the entire population. Healthy people are suffering badly, too.
China's coronavirus reckoning – act now to end US dependency for drugs, medical supplies (Fox 04/07/2020)
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Having practiced medicine for nearly 30 years, I have seen how foreign dependence, specifically on imports from China, harms the medical supply chain and our readiness for an outbreak firsthand.

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Just five years ago, I noticed supply shortages even in the course of normal events.

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Surveying the problem, there was a common denominator: "Made in China."

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For years, China has created artificial medical supply shortages because they know we depend on their imports.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated problems that were already festering.

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As a result, the entire country is feeling the impact of our foreign dependence and a weak medical supply chain.

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It is threatening our long-term health as a nation and it must be confronted with real action.

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The Fair Trade with China Enforcement Act takes numerous steps to curb China's influence on our economy.

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It would bar China from receiving technology or intellectual property that could be sensitive to our national security.

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It would impose a shareholder cap on China's investments into American businesses.

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Just as I have seen the negative effects of depending on other nations for medical supplies and pharmaceuticals undermines our long-term health and security, I have seen how wrong Washington has been about China for years.

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A generation of leaders thought that strengthening our ties to China would moderate the Chinese Communist Party. How wrong they were.

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China's government silences dissidents in the name of projecting strength. It oppresses its citizens and assigns them so-called "social credit scores."

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It steals American intellectual property and forces companies to share their technology in exchange for business.

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It has milked its WTO status as a "developing nation" for all its worth, doing so while expanding its global influence and waging propaganda campaigns against America, including blaming us for COVID- 19.

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No one should be surprised that the Chinese Communist Party's first response to COVID-19 was downplaying the threat and making dissidents disappear.

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No one should be surprised that the Chinese Communist Party is actively waging a campaign to blame America for the crisis.

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However, the blame for COVID-19's spread from China's Wuhan province to a full-blown global pandemic lies squarely at the feet of the Chinese Communist Party and its pattern of dishonesty.

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Had they fought the spread instead of denying the problem, things would be much different today.

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Under the status quo, China is becoming less free and America is becoming much less safe.

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No one should expect China's behavior to change unless America takes action.

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And no one should expect us to be better prepared for the next pandemic unless we take action.

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These are intertwined problems with an intertwined solution. And that is the only option if we are to avoid this ever happening again.

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See related Thanks, China (Bob Gorrell, 03/19/2017) cartoon from World picture album
Fears, face masks and frugality: Adjusting to life in the midst of coronavirus (JWR 04/06/2020)
Capitalism at risk of 'radical transformation' if US economic shutdown continues... (Fox 04/06/2020)
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"Trump is not saying when we reopen our economy ... he is saying that he has to have that first and foremost in his mind."

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"One of the reasons why he is saying this is because, on the back of every crisis, there is an attempt to radically transform America. This happened in the aftermath of the Great Depression ... a radical transformation in the lives of Americans between the relationship of government — federal, state, local and human beings."

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"This happened in the aftermath of 9/11 with regard to our security ... in the aftermath of every crisis there is an attempt to radically grow government on a permanent level, and that is just a normal human response because you want to prevent the bad thing from happening again."

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"Well, in this case, where you have the largest government reaction in the history of the United States, the prospect of that being made into a permanent feature of the American landscape is pretty scary and it's one of the reasons why we should be looking to get out of this as fast as humanly possible."

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"If you don't want to see a vast underclass of Americans who are supported purely by the government, you need this economy up and running fast ... and not only that, you need people to rely on capitalism ... to get back to the model of 'Yeah, capitalism is great — it's what allows me to work,'"

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"What you don't want is government coming in, forcibly shutting down the entire economy, putting 30 million people out of work, and then those people have no choice but to vote for bigger government ... they have no choice but to vote for a government that's going to fill the gap created by the government in the first place."

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"That is the danger here. People are going to radically rethink capitalism, even though it wasn't capitalism that failed here. What failed here was a global health shock followed by heavy government action."
To save all lives in the coronavirus crisis, we must slow the spread, but speed the shutdown (Fox 04/06/2020)
So many to blame for coronavirus crisis, so don’t bother (NYP 04/04/2020)
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As a deadly virus sweeps across America, it was inevitable that we would also suffer an outbreak of the blame game.

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With the body count soaring and the economy collapsing, finger pointing is in full bloom.

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Never mind that all the blame in the world will not save a single life or create a job.

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The game must go on because politics is ultimately a zero-sum affair.

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Democrats and the media are ganging up to create a narrative that people died because Trump failed to act fast enough.

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... cite the president's reluctance in January and early February to fully grasp the threat of the coronavirus and delays in providing test kits.

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They have a point, especially about the testing fiasco. But they conveniently ignore their own culpability.

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First, the president was up to his neck in the flimsy Ukraine impeachment case Pelosi and the media cooked up.

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The final acquittal vote came on Feb. 6, but recall that the accusers, which included every Dem in Congress and the party's presidential candidates, demanded additional witnesses.

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Had they gotten their way, the trial would have run through the end of February and maybe into March.

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The second fact they ignore is that Trump already had declared a public health emergency over the coronavirus on Jan.

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31, barred entry for most people who came from or visited China and put American travelers under quarantine.

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At the time, there were only seven known cases in the US, with zero deaths.

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Trump's decisions rocked travel and tourism businesses and rattled stock markets, but also kept out infected visitors who would have accelerated the calamity here.

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The China restrictions were not popular among Dems, and the president's second ban, which covered Europe and was announced on March 11, also drew scorn from the usual cabal.

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The New York Times, which now insists the president acted too slowly, said then he acted "without evidence" in claiming European travelers were a threat.

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Reflecting its own bias and ignorance, the paper lumped Trump in with foreign leaders who shut borders and accused them all of xenophobia.

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"The same denigration of science and urge to block outsiders has characterized leaders from China to Iran, as well as right-wing populists in Europe."

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Most of the big media outlets disgraced themselves by falling for the early lies from China and the World Health Organization about a relatively small number of deaths and the claim the virus was probably not spread by human-to-human contact.

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In addition, the media mistakenly likened the coronavirus to the SARS outbreak of 2002, which also started in China and killed about 800 people worldwide. As of Saturday, the coronavirus has killed nearly 64,000 people.

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"This isn't our first rodeo," Cuomo said confidently on March 2. "We are fully coordinated, and we are fully mobilized, and we are fully prepared to deal with the situation as it develops."

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... with more than 20,000 cases in the state, the governor insisted on March 23 that "many people will get the virus, but few will be truly endangered."

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De Blasio ... an the health commissioner downplayed risk and urged New Yorkers to attend Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown.

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... said on Feb. 13 that fears of the coronavirus "are not based on facts and science. The risk of infection to New Yorkers is low. There is no need to avoid public spaces."

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Clearly, few people in public life will emerge unscathed from the blame game if we ask everyone the same questions: What did you know, when did you know it and what did you do about it?

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On the other hand, mutual destruction is neither required nor desirable, and there is a better option.

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We can just skip the blame game for now and work together to help America get through this worst of times.

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Think of that as the patriotic choice.

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See related Coronavirus (Mike Lester, 03/13/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
The real reason epidemiologists and economists keep arguing (JWR 04/03/2020)
The propaganda war with China over coronavirus has long-term consequences. We’re losing badly (Fox 04/02/2020)
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The Chinese government sees this moment as a battle in the struggle for control of the world.

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They're not distracted by impeachment or debates over pronouns. They think in sweeping terms.

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That's their advantage. It could be our undoing.
The dark hole of debt (JWR 03/31/2020)
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It is not cognitive dissonance — the impossibility of holding two or more contradictory beliefs simultaneously — to favor the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump while at the same time worrying about what the increasing national debt (nearing $24 trillion and counting) will do to the country.

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Are we mortgaging our future for the sake of temporary relief from the economic side effects of the coronavirus pandemic?

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Historically, debt has been a major contributor to the decline of great nations.

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It is why James Madison warned: "If Congress can employ money indefinitely, for the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of the public treasury. ... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America."

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We are ignoring the prophetic nature of Madison's statement at our peril. The philosophy of individual freedom is under assault.

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If Madison's warning isn't warning enough, how about this one from 18th-century Scottish lawyer, writer and historian Alexander Fraser Tytler: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."

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... whoever first said it correctly summarized the cycle of the world's great civilizations: "From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage."

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America, you have been warned by the ghosts of the past, but how many are listening and heeding those warnings?
How long? (JWR 03/27/2020)
Coronavirus challenges us to recover our physical and economic health – Here is what we can do (Fox 03/27/2020)
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As the coronavirus pandemic intensifies, some in the news media would like to pit economic recovery against public health.

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They write and talk as if you can have one or the other – but not both.

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This is a profound misunderstanding of the necessary connection between healthy Americans and a healthy economy.

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Public health measures and economic growth and prosperity measures can be adjusted like a thermostat, rather than a light that can be turned on or off with a switch.

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They can be moved to different intensities based on need.

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Even in the direst health emergency, a large part of the economy must function. Without electricity, water, sewage, trucked-in supplies, groceries, etc., the entire health system would collapse. The loss of life would be far greater.

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And even with a booming economy, there are public health aspects – including safe food, medicine, effective emergency drugs, and a host of other elements – that we blend to help Americans have healthy lives with good jobs.
NY's leaders more worried at first about being called racist than coronavirus threat (Fox 03/27/2020)
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New York City is the densest metro area in the country. That's the most obvious answer — probably the biggest problem. The city also has an awful lot of people traveling to and from other infected countries, and that's significant, too.

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But it's not the whole story. As this deadly virus that emerged from Eastern China and began to spread inexorably across the globe clearly headed here?

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Leaders in New York not only failed to shield their citizens from it, they took affirmative and aggressive steps to increase the risk to their population.

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Why would they do that? Well, because they were worried far more about being called racist than protecting human lives.

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... this video was from February 2nd of this year. That was long after the threat from the Chinese coronavirus was obvious to anyone who was paying attention.

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... New York City Health Commissioner: "The risk to New Yorkers for coronavirus is low and our preparedness as a city is very high. There is no reason not to take the subway, not to take the bus, not to go out to your favorite restaurant, and certainly not to miss the parade next Sunday. I'm going to be there."

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How could someone charged with protecting public health so recklessly endanger it?

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... State Sen. John Liu ... suggested that people who might be concerned in any way about contracting a deadly disease or who might be interested in where it came from must be — and you guessed it — bigots.

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State Sen. John Liu, D-N.Y.: "But there's really no need to panic and to avoid activities that we always do as New Yorkers. We are hardy people. As an Asian-American, I've been somewhat disturbed, if not outright appalled, at some of the comments or gestures that I have seen. Diseases originate from anywhere or from particular places in the world."

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In other words, as a member of a protected interest group, I'm ordering you to ignore this threat to your family on moral grounds.

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It was always the most brutal form of social control, masquerading as sensitivity and caring.

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Now, we know it was infecting the public with disease.

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But at the time, sentiments like this were universal among big city public officials.

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State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, for example, decided to embark on a crusade against what he called misinformation — a euphemism, as it so often is, for accurate information.

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Kavanagh encouraged people to head to Chinatown for a festival.

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State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, D-N.Y.: "It's very important that we recognize that this holiday and this festival is of tremendous significance for many communities in our state. And it is very important that we ensure that we don't have misinformation, and many in the media have been covering this issue as if it's, you know, a terrible plague that people have to avoid."

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"If you don't go to a crowded public place immediately, you're racist." Look at those people telling you that, demanding that you do that. Hectoring you, badgering you, exerting moral blackmail on you to expose yourself.

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By early March, coronavirus was clearly becoming a major problem in the United States. But for elected officials in New York, the only problem was their constituents' racist worries about staying alive.

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On March 2nd — this March 2nd — Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted this: "Since I'm encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives, plus get out on the town, despite coronavirus, I thought it would offer some suggestions. Here's the first. Thru Thursday, go see "The Traitor." If "The Wire" was a true story plus set in Italy, it would be this film."

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On March 11th, which, keep in mind, was barely two weeks ago, de Blasio was still insisting that "If you're not sick, you should be going about your life."

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That very same day, the NBA announced it was suspending its whole season. Italy was already several days into a national lockdown.

•
But the mayor of one of the world's most crowded cities was telling everyone to carry on, and so the Chinese coronavirus was just a racist myth.

•
Soon after that, people in New York inevitably started to get sick, in some cases very sick. In some cases, they died.

•
And then suddenly de Blasio was on "Meet the Press" shrieking that Donald Trump had abandoned the city. It was their fault.

•
All it did was help mediocrities like Bill de Blasio get elected to office.

•
But it was disgusting and cruel and divisive, and now we know it can get people killed.
Trump can defeat coronavirus, save economy and turn disaster into an American victory (Fox 03/26/2020)
•
The ancient Greeks believed that true leadership in crisis came down to what they called pronoia — the Greek word for "strategic foresight."

•
Some statesmen, such as Pericles and Themistocles, had it. Most others, such as the often brilliant and charismatic but impulsive Alcibiades, usually did not.

•
"Foresight" in crisis means sizing up a nation's assets and debt, then maximizing advantages and minimizing liabilities.

•
The leader with foresight, especially in times of irrational despair, then charts a rational pathway to victory.

•
Such crisis leaders do not fall into panic and depression when the media shouts "Catastrophe!" Nor do they preen when the same chorus screams "Genius!" in times of success.

•
The English poet Rudyard Kipling would have defined such a gift as, "If you can keep your head when all about you/Are losing theirs and blaming it on you," or, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same."

•
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln knew the overwhelming advantages of the Union could eventually defeat the South, but only if he could hold the nation together through disasters...

•
In World War II, Winston Churchill proved perhaps the most impressive wartime leader in history.

•
During Britain's darkest hours of nonstop German bombing of London, he knew that declining British assets were still greater than an ascendant Germany's advantages.

•
Eventually, despite razor-thin margins of error, these assets would ensure victory.

•
Churchill was assured that Britain had a great navy and Germany did not.

•
Britain would soon have as allies America and Russia, both far stronger than German partners Italy and Japan.

•
Churchill foresaw that the economies of those future allies would be far superior to those of the Axis. And Churchill grasped all this even as defeat loomed and some in his own party were calling for him to negotiate with Adolf Hitler.

•
Franklin D. Roosevelt likewise had foresight. In the nightmarish days after Pearl Harbor, FDR calmly unleashed private enterprise to rearm America at what he knew would be an astonishing rate.

•
Roosevelt promised victory not because he knew it would be quick, but because he calculated that if he just made the right choices, the ensuing advantages of the U.S. world surely ensure victory.

•
Even in the first bleak days of the war, FDR kept reminding the nation why and how America would win. That confidence was not based on fantasies but on rational calculation and justified optimism.

•
In the present crisis of the coronavirus, what will determine the effectiveness of President Trump's leadership is not what the media screams today or the polls say tomorrow.

•
The praise of his supporters or the predictable damnation of his enemies won't matter.

•
Rather, Trump will win or lose on whether he has strategic foresight.

•
If he panics and keeps the country locked down for too long, we will enter a depression that will cost more lives than the virus.

•
But if Trump prematurely declares victory and urges Americans to rush back to normal life, he may reboot the virus and reignite another cycle of panic.

•
Instead, Trump will have to possess the confidence to see how the world's greatest economy, greatest medical talent, greatest military and greatest energy and food production can all be marshaled in a symphonic fashion.

•
That correct formula could fend off a potentially biblical plague without destroying the largest economy in history.

•
If Trump exhibits such cunning and wisdom, then he can balance the consensus of his medical experts that the virus is existentially dangerous with the warnings of his economic advisers that shutting down a multitrillion economy can become even more ruinous — and lethal — for Americans.

•
Like Churchill, Trump must have the right information but also the instincts to determine which expert advice is suspect and which is inspired, and which orthodox recommendation is wrong and which unorthodox alternative is right.

•
Do that, and Trump can defeat the virus, save the economy and turn a disaster into a collective American victory over both infection and depression.

•
Such foresight can also remind the nation never again to outsource key industries to China, and not to listen to those who always predict catastrophe in bleak times, only to later take credit for others' victories.
Sen. Cotton and Rep. Gallagher: China stole US capacity to make drugs — we must take it back (Fox 03/25/2020)
•
Earlier this month, a Chinese Communist Party propaganda outlet insinuated that Beijing could cut off supplies of life-saving medicine to the United States at any time, dooming our country to "sink into the hell of a novel coronavirus epidemic."

•
Unfortunately, this isn't an empty threat.

•
The United States is dangerously dependent for pharmaceuticals on the very regime whose failures and coverups caused this deadly pandemic to spiral out of control.

•
We weren't always dependent on China for medicine, but we are now.

•
For two decades, the CCP has targeted America's domestic drug manufacturers for destruction, using cartelization, state subsidies and lax safety standards to flood our hospitals and pharmacies with cheap and dangerous Chinese medicine.

•
This strategy succeeded in shuttering American factories, robbing our workers of good-paying jobs and our patients of high-quality medicine.

•
Just years after the United States granted China special trade privileges in 2000, the last penicillin plant in America closed down.

•
American factories that made aspirin, vitamin C and other essential medicine closed after that, put out of business by China's predatory pricing.

•
China has come to dominate the world market for basic drugs as a result.

•
Dependence on our chief communist adversary for essential medicine is an obvious threat to national security.

•
... if the CCP cut the world off from its pharmaceutical ingredients, "military hospitals and clinics would cease to function within months, if not days."

•
This may seem like an extreme and remote possibility, but consider that multiple countries have already hoarded drugs and medical supplies in response to the China virus pandemic.

•
China itself is hoarding much of the world's supply not only of medical masks, but also of the materials to make those masks.

•
Emergencies like pandemics and wars break down previously dependable supply chains and relationships as nations start to fend for themselves.

•
It's sadly clear America gave up the ability to fend for ourselves in basic medicine long ago.

•
But dependence on China for basic drugs threatens our safety in a more basic way. The drugs China produces are notoriously low quality, even deadly.

•
This fact became tragically apparent in 2008, when more than 246 Americans were killed by a tainted batch of blood thinner that was made in China. Investigations later revealed that the blood thinner had been spiked with cheaper drugs to save money at unregulated labs and farms in China.

•
As the China virus pandemic clearly shows, the CCP has no business posing as the world's doctor and drugmaker.

•
... a Communist Party spokesman responded to the growing clamor in America for medical repatriation by saying that China's dominance in pharmaceutical manufacturing was the inevitable result of "market forces" that would be "unrealistic and insensible" to sever.

•
Set aside the irony of a Communist Party spokesman for a mercantilist regime lauding the power of market forces; there's nothing inevitable about our dependence on China for medicine.

•
That dependence was the result of the CCP's ruthless tactics, abetted by bad decisions by American policymakers and business people over many years.

•
We can begin to undo the damage now. The antidote to our dependence on Chinese drugs is to stop buying them and take back our ability to make basic medicine here in America.
Tucker warns America will face these three dangers after coronavirus pandemic passes (Fox 03/25/2020)
•
Global depression

•
"The finance moguls will be fine no matter what happens to the economy. Not much changes for poor people, either. But the middle class? The middle class could be wiped out by what we are watching right now."

•
"The service industry, middle management, small business, the independent contractors, people like those make this country work, and more importantly, they keep it stable. They are the ones in deepest peril tonight."

•
... a lasting hit to the middle class would result in an "impoverished country with a thin layer of rich people at the top."

•
"That's a recipe for suffering and for never-ending political volatility ... and suddenly, for the first time ever, it's a possibility here. Our first priority has to be preventing that or our grandchildren will regret it deeply."

•
China's economic dominance

•
"China ultimately is responsible for this virus. The threat extends far beyond the current pandemic. It's entirely possible that the Chinese coronavirus makes China stronger in the end, even as it weakens us in America."

•
"China already has a deeper manufacturing base than we do and has a far larger population ... soon it will have the biggest economy on earth."

•
"It's entirely possible that we could wake up a few years from now and find China in charge."

•
"Now, we've been headed to this place for a while. The crisis that we're currently going through could be enough to push us."

•
... called for a plan to prevent China "from taking advantage of the chaos they that have unleashed and [that] we are suffering through."

•
The threat to freedom of conscience

•
Individuals' freedom of conscience is under attack from multinational tech monopolies, who have been controlling the stream of information about the coronavirus.

•
"As we do all we can to fight this pandemic, we should make sure we don't lose the most important part of our birthright as Americans ... the right to think and say what we believe is true."

•
"Freedom of conscience may be undervalued right now, but it underpins everything we have. It is the foundation of a free and decent society."

•
"It's not a small thing. It's a trend, collusion between big multinationals and authoritarian governments to make you obey. It's not paranoid to talk. It's real. And you should worry about it."
Cal Thomas: Coronavirus has a lesson to teach us – It's about China (Fox 03/24/2020)
•
If anything good can come from the coronavirus pandemic, it is the revelation of America's over-reliance on China, especially when it comes to drugs.

•
"Basically, we've outsourced our entire industry to China. That is a strategic vulnerability."

•
... China knows "exactly what they're doing and they're incredibly good strategists... They select their industries for the future, and they've got a plan."

•
China has threatened to restrict drug exports to the U.S. following President Trump's accusation that the regime withheld news of the virus, which surfaced in Wuhan last December.

•
That's called leverage and Beijing could use it anytime they choose. It has recently threatened to do so.

•
For too long U.S. businesses have outsourced to China, exploiting their cheap labor to maximize profits.

•
"The pace of companies moving production out of China is accelerating as more than 50 multinationals from Apple to Nintendo to Dell are rushing to escape the punitive tariffs placed by the U.S."

•
If President Trump could promise to bring back jobs from overseas, as he did and has, why couldn't he do the same with drugs and other essentials made in China?

•
Many of the profits earned by China from U.S. businesses have gone to support its vast military and expand its reach in other parts of the world.

•
The U.S. views China's rapid expansion warily but seems unsure of what to do about it.

•
We had better pay attention to China's plans and take countermeasures, or "made in China" could eventually be stamped on the United States.
While Americans worry about dying from coronavirus, Dems focus on identity politics (Fox 03/24/2020)
•
It is a fearful time in American life, obviously, Americans are worried they could die from the coronavirus, that someone they love could die, that they might lose their jobs, and that the country that they grew up in could be crippled permanently in the wake of this disaster.

•
It's a terrifying moment, and in that moment, we need wisdom and steady guidance from our leaders. We need altruism.

•
They need to care more about you than they care about themselves. But in Congress, they don't.

•
The foremost concern of some members is saving their own investment portfolios or making stupid partisan points or indulging their creepy ideological obsessions.

•
Wondering why Congress hasn't yet passed a bill to help the country survive this? That's why.

•
Details of the Democratic plan became public on Monday. Huge parts of the proposal have nothing to do with fighting the pandemic we are suffering through.

•
Worse, the bill is suffused with the cruel bigotry of identity politics.

•
At a time when America so badly, desperately needs to come together, Democrats remain intent on splitting this country into warring tribes. It's shocking.

•
St. Nancy's coronavirus bill currently is more than 1,400 pages.

•
It's not that long because it's a finely tuned fix to help the country through this disaster. No.

•
It's that long because House Democrats have crammed it with totally unrelated political priorities, identity politics stoking racial division, as usual, global warming, open borders. You should read it.

•
The bill would require every corporation that receives coronavirus aid to have officers and a budget dedicated to diversity and inclusion initiatives for a minimum of five years after they get the money because that is going to keep America healthy and prosperous, just like it has.

•
More bean counters making sure you're the right color before they give you a job. Okay.

•
Companies will also have to produce elaborate racial reports for the government, listing the skin color and the sex of their officers and boards of directors.

•
They have to prove they give enough money to firms owned by women and non-whites, and of course, how much they spent on diversity initiatives.

•
In all, this bill uses the word "diversity" more than 60 times.

•
What does that have to do with a pandemic that might kill you? Not one thing.

•
It's just more ugly race politics, the kind they specialize in. Democrats think that's much more important right now.

•
The bill allocates $300 million for hiring experts to manage coronavirus preparation and response. Those are critical jobs.

•
But instead of looking for the most qualified people in a time of national emergency — and that's the only criterion that matters in the least right now, period: Are you qualified?

•
Instead of that, the bill orders that employees be chosen on the basis of their race and disability status.

•
This is insanity. It's dangerous insanity. Who cares what color your scientists are?

•
But it goes on. The Bill would mandate that all 50 states have an early voter period as well as same-day voter registration. Why?

•
Because Democrats believe those changes would give them an electoral advantage.

•
... the law would require that any airline that takes federal money offset their carbon emissions within five years because climate activism is way more important than a disease that could kill your family next week.

•
... we're staring down the barrel of the most profound employment crisis of our lifetimes — that's not an exaggeration.

•
And what are Democrats doing? They're trying to automatically renew visas and work permits for all immigrants here in the U.S. because their jobs are very important, way more important than yours.

•
Democrats want to make certain that people who are replacing you are secure and happy.

•
The Republican version of the bill is not that awful. Nothing could be that awful.

•
But we want to be fair and tell you everything that's going on on Capitol Hill.

•
... some Senate Republicans are trying to kill the requirement that companies that receive bailout funds stop sending American jobs overseas.

•
Why would they do something like that? We don't know. You'd have to ask the business groups like the Chamber of Commerce that are funding them.

•
See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Immigration Politics (Sean Delonas, 01/12/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
Deroy Murdock: Congress must fight coronavirus economic threat with backstops, not bailouts (Fox 03/24/2020)
Bennett & Leibsohn: Here's what nation must ask itself (Fox 03/24/2020)
•
President Donald Trump has called the efforts to combat COVID-19 "our big war." He has referred to himself as a "wartime president" and of his administration's efforts as a "war against the virus." Last week he spoke of the virus as "an invisible enemy."

•
And to provide confidence as well as calm, he has also iterated many times that this will not be forever, tweeting Monday: "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem, at the end of the 15-day period we will make a decision as to which way we want to go."

•
Still, state and local governments are also engaging with war-like statements by governors and mayors, several of whom have issued shelter-in-place orders, quarantines and travel bans. More will soon join.

•
Where businesses have not been ordered to close by governors, they have been greatly restricted. The National Guard has been mobilized and bailouts have been proposed in the trillions of dollars. Food and supplies are being both rationed and hoarded.

•
And the president is criticized hourly for doing too much, and not enough, at the same time.

•
For those who did not live through World War II, this is a small window into what America looks like when it goes to war. Or is it?

•
But the U.S. military is not invading anywhere, artillery is not being fired, ordnance is not being dropped.

•
This has all the domestic attributes of war, with much of life disrupted and an economy held in abeyance, but we know it's not really a war. Not really.

•
And our response is disproportionate.

•
Today, to paraphrase the Manhattan Institute's Heather Mac Donald, we have engaged in the volitional destruction of the economy and caused unbridled panic over a number we don't know we will reach but most think will not surpass the combined annual death toll of the regular flu and annual traffic deaths, to say nothing of opioid deaths.

•
We are being disproportionate. The measures being undertaken now will have far-reaching and potentially disastrous consequences.

•
We need to be attentive to isolation as potentially more dangerous than normal life, leading to more suicide, more opioid abuse and more domestic abuse – endemics we have waged other "wars" on.

•
We will soon start to see the consequence of lost wages.

•
And the elderly, who are most at risk for their physical health are also now most vulnerable from the economic consequences as their nest eggs and retirements evaporate.

•
"We have gone from a crisis from an act of nature to a crisis that is manmade from the stupidity of shutting down our economic engines. I don't know how serious this virus will be but I do know if the economy stays paralyzed for another month the carnage will be in the trillions of dollars. The health impact alone from bankruptcies, unemployment and isolation could be worse than the disease."

•
Rudyard Kipling warned: Don't lose your head when all about you are losing theirs. Let's conclude the 15-day period as the president advises. That will get us to next Monday. Then see where we are. Then maybe we can get back to normal.

•
Every war has its catchphrases and watchwords. Today, one important word and guidepost is missing: proportionality.
Liberty Vittert: How much of our liberty and privacy must we sacrifice in war on coronavirus? (Fox 03/21/2020)
Panic Pandemic (JWR 03/20/2020)
COVID-19's latest symptom: When Racist Media Accuses Trump of Racism (JWR 03/21/2020)
The virus, the media and the economy (JWR 03/17/2020)
Why the Remedy May Be Worse Than the Disease (JWR 03/17/2020)
Tucker Carlson: If you want to help people weather the coronavirus crisis, save their jobs (Fox 03/17/2020)
•
We haven't faced a medical crisis like this in living memory. We know that coronavirus constitutes a major threat to the country — of course, it does.

•
What we really don't have a clear picture of right now is what's coming next.

•
Our first obligation, everyone agrees, is to keep our people safe. If we can prevent Americans from getting the coronavirus, we should do that.

•
At the same time, though, we need to protect our economy, and that is not just something that Wall Street cares about, to be totally clear.

•
Economic decline is dangerous for everyone, especially at the bottom of the economy. It's a legitimate human concern. It's not just financial, it's about families.

•
Here's the problem. We've got two imperatives and they often conflict.

•
So if you ask an epidemiologist what we ought to do next, the answer is simple: Shut it down. Close every public space until the virus passes. Hospitals would get a pass, of course, but restaurants, bars, hotels, movie theaters, airlines — everything.

•
From a public health standpoint, that makes sense. But what would be the consequences of doing that?

•
Millions and millions of people would lose their jobs, some of them for good. We'd enter a severe recession with mass unemployment, and it could get worse from there. It's not a joke; that could happen.

•
You would see an awful lot of people in poverty in Middle America and that poses its own kind of public health risk. Poor countries are never healthy countries.

•
If you want great health care, you've got to pay for it, and you have to have money to do so.

•
So you see the problem. Responding to this epidemic requires balance. It does. It's a complex question.

•
You'll hear people claim they've got a simple answer that will fix everything. Ignore those people. Only fools pretend they can see the future.

•
Wise people admit uncertainty. That's the hallmark of wisdom.

•
As of now, here's what we do know. First, we're only at the beginning of all of this. We're pretty certain of that.

•
... we could use the military's expertise and manpower; it has a lot of both.

•
We have the most sophisticated armed forces on Earth and the best-funded. No doubt there are many other ways they can help — use your imagination.

•
And then there's our second priority, keeping our economy stable. Now, once again, this is not the same as using monetary policy to prop up the stock market.

•
The real imperative right now is saving jobs.

•
For government bureaucrats, university administrators and corporate HR Directors, talk show hosts, actually, a month out of the office constitutes a kind of vacation.

•
But for the classes below, it could be the beginning of a long spiral, a real one. ... a massive part of our economy could see their income drop to zero and not come back.

•
Countries with high unemployment are desperate countries and more ominous, they are unstable countries, always.

•
Some of the professional class have suggested a guaranteed basic income as a response to this threat.

•
That's likely a well-meaning idea. A lot of smart people are behind it. But it's also decadent and foolish.

•
Name a place that's become happier and more prosperous under a scheme like that? Indian reservations? The inner city? Rural areas where half the male population gets monthly disability checks?

•
People need to work. They want to work. Work gives them meaning and purpose and dignity.

•
That's not some hollow slogan. It's true. It's true in your life. It's true in the life of everyone.

•
... there is a model in progress for how we can save work. It's underway now in Germany.

•
Employees are encouraged not to lay off their workers but instead place them on reduced hours. The government then steps in to compensate some of those missing wages to help the companies with payroll.

•
... it may cost taxpayers more than Romney's grand a month program, but critically, it keeps people in their jobs.

•
That's the key as we look forward to turbulent times.

•
Employment, stability, meaningful work — if you want to help people weather this crisis, the one that's coming, save their jobs. It's that clear.
America needs its own ‘Christmas Truce’ to triumph over coronavirus (NYP 03/16/2020)
Tom Del Beccaro: Coronavirus is proof that US not ready for a serious disaster (Fox 03/15/2020)
•
... the experience indicates one thing is for certain: America is not ready for a major national crisis, such as the failure of an electrical grid a bioterrorist crisis or worse.

•
The silver lining of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic loss it involves, however, could be that wise leaders stop using government to buy votes and instead prepare for us future crises.

•
As bad the coronavirus is, in plain truth, much worse problems are possible for the United States.

•
The country's electrical grid is precarious and interconnected. It is quite vulnerable to foreign attack, and leading providers, like PG&E, have their database administration in India.

•
Experts know that if portions of the grid failed or were disabled by an attack, huge portions of the country could be in the dark for weeks or possibly months.

•
Those companies with their databases in foreign countries would, to say the least, have a difficult time accessing the Internet.

•
Those same experts fear the intense social disorder and economic dislocation that would follow.

•
No one should think we are ready for such a circumstance. The amount of economic dislocation occurring now is proof of that.

•
Returning to the coronavirus, ... yet another stark story: China hints at denying Americans life-saving coronavirus drugs.

•
The United States remains alarmingly dependent on foreign sources for critical drugs.

•
The economist Adam Smith would tell us the world works best when a country produces products and services for which it has an advantage to produce and sells its excesses to the world.

•
In our interconnected world, however, China – a stated enemy - has been the producer of many of the drugs critical to the health of Americans.

•
While Adam Smith is unquestionably correct in time of peace and in the absence of peril, the coronavirus and China are surely a prescription for danger.

•
Little wonder why American companies and doctors are currently scrambling to secure medicines for Americans to counter this pandemic.

•
We are fortunate that this pandemic has hit us after the dead of winter. It is likely that the warming weather will slow the coronavirus.

•
Even so, it has caused hysteria, the flames of which have been fanned by a partisan media.

•
Americans should demand that our politicians stop using government to buy votes.

•
We have real vulnerabilities with respect to the very infrastructure of America and critical drugs. It is time our government secures our safety before it is too late.

•
... our governments and their ardent advocates must stop being a roadblock to domestic production of essential items.

•
At the same time, America needs reliable communication in a crisis and our governments must secure our nation's infrastructure.

•
In plain terms, the warnings are clear. It is time for our leaders to do what is right, not what is political.
Andrew McCarthy: No to 'FISA reform' (Fox 03/15/2020)
•
... the president seems poised to fulfill one of the fondest dreams of Clinton and Obama Democrats: Government policy that regards international terrorism as a mere crime, a law-enforcement issue to be managed by federal judges rather than a national-security threat from which the officials Americans elect must safeguard our country.

•
I doubt the president realizes these ramifications of declining to reauthorize three Patriot Act security measures that are set to expire.

•
... the senators' agenda predates the Trump era, and it would do nothing to fix what's actually wrong with FISA.

•
Their aim is to dismantle the post-9/11 intelligence-based approach to counterterrorism, a strategy prudently adopted by President Bush, who recognized that when our most immediate threat is jihadist mass-murder attacks, prevention should take precedence over prosecution.

•
"FISA reform" is a shrewd way for them to accomplish this objective because it appeals to the president's vanity — his most destructive blind spot.

•
... the libertarian senators have always opposed intelligence-based counterterrorism on philosophical grounds that they root in the Constitution.

•
They are wrong, though their sincerity is not to be doubted.

•
... the distortion of the Fourth Amendment Paul has long championed ... bears little resemblance to the Fourth Amendment as written and originally understood.

•
If adopted, it would be a boon to both foreign terrorists and domestic criminals.

•
Washington's reluctance to court this potentially catastrophic outcome has long frustrated libertarians, as have the facts that jurisprudence and the terrorist threat have lined up against them.

•
But in recent years, things have started swinging in their favor.
Paul Batura: The biggest mistake everybody makes (Fox 03/14/2020)
•
... is assuming that tomorrow will simply be an extension of today.

•
We're either growing or declining. Staying the same is a mirage.
Who Stole our Culture? (The Standard, 03/13/2020 )
•
How did that America become the sleazy, decadent place we live in today – so different that those who grew up prior to the '60s feel like it's a foreign country? Did it just "happen"?

•
It didn't just "happen." In fact, a deliberate agenda was followed to steal our culture and leave a new and very different one in its place.

•
What happened, in short, is that America's traditional culture, which had grown up over generations from our Western, Judeo-Christian roots, was swept aside by an ideology.

•
Incredible as it may seem, just as the old economic Marxism of the Soviet Union has faded away, a new cultural Marxism has become the ruling ideology of America's elites.

•
The No. 1 goal of that cultural Marxism, since its creation, has been the destruction of Western culture and the Christian religion.
Coronavirus isn’t the last pandemic America will face — here are the lessons we should learn (Fox 03/13/2020)
•
Anyone who thinks coronavirus is the last global pandemic America will face lacks sufficient imagination.

•
There's no question this will happen again. In a world connected by jet travel that is guaranteed.

•
So as we suffer through this virus, maybe we should learn something useful for the next time.

•
Going forward, our leaders ought to be certain we have enough medicine and tests and hospital beds, at the least in case something awful happens unexpectedly - because it will.

•
There should be a plan to respond quickly in ways that assure the public that the people in charge know what they're doing.

•
Here are a few other things to think about. First, borders matter. It turns out that immigration isn't some boutique political issue that only activists need to care about.

•
The question of who lives in your country is the most basic issue that any nation faces ever.

•
Immediately after the coronavirus began to spread globally, sane countries started to secure their borders.

•
They wanted to know exactly who was coming in and out, and they wanted to control it. That was the first thing they did.

•
The Israelis did not want a single person who was even potentially infected to cross into Israel, and good for them.

•
Unfortunately, nothing like that could ever happen here in the U.S.

•
Democrats would denounce it instantly as racist and xenophobic. So maybe Nancy Pelosi will give us a stern lecture about how immoral Israel is.

•
Next, gun control takes on new significance when things fall apart. It doesn't take much for law and order to collapse.

•
Civilization itself can evaporate quickly and over the centuries; it often has.

•
... at times like this, we're reminded how precarious any society is. Given that, you've got to wonder about our leaders' demands that we disarm.

•
Anyone who increases the threat to you and your family, and at the same time tries to prevent you from defending yourself is your enemy — by definition.

•
It's scary when you think about that in the context of what is happening now. And apparently a lot of people have thought about it.

•
Ammunition sales jumped by hundreds of percent this week. If Americans really believed their leaders would protect them when it came down to it, that wouldn't be happening.

•
... if you want to know who's actually in control of anything, ask yourself this: Who can make you beg for mercy?

•
If one of your kids had a bad infection, you would do anything for antibiotics.

•
But our leaders don't control those drugs. China does.

•
The Chinese manufacture our entire supply of antibiotics, not to mention countless other goods your family literally could not live without.

•
And here's the worst news: The Chinese hate us and have threatened to withhold life-saving medicine from us.

•
Our most powerful enemy in the world has the power of life and death over our country.

•
We should not let a single day pass before fixing this.

•
But we should also recognize that not all of our opponents are foreign.

•
In the next few months, American hospitals are likely to overflow with the desperately ill. It's possible that many people who need immediate care will be turned away to suffer and die.

•
So does this seem like the right time to open our entire health care system to the rest of the world for free?

•
What would happen to sick people in America if we did that? It sounds like a form of sabotage.

•
Yet that's exactly what every Democrat who ran for president proposed in public.

•
What are they thinking? Well, they're not thinking. They're believing — believing fervently in the cult of identity politics.

•
Joe Biden released his plan for coronavirus on Sunday. The first bullet point proclaims this: "Acts of racism and xenophobia against the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community must not be tolerated." That's number one on Biden's list.

•
Is racism against the Pacific Islander community really our country's most urgent problem right now?

•
No, it is not. It is not even in the top 500 problems. You're not going to see angry mobs lynching people in the streets because of coronavirus.

•
You never will see that; it won't happen here. This is not that kind of country. America is a welcoming place filled with unusually kind and open-hearted people.

•
The merchants of wokeness cannot see that — they refuse to see it. As a matter of faith, they believe that all bad things emanate from America. They will always put America last. It's their creed.

•
People like this are dangerous. They're the reason things are falling apart. Suddenly, they seem to run everything.

•
But they are not in the majority in this country, and we should remember that.

•
If there's a threat to your kids, you don't pause to think of an excuse or pretend it's not happening.

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You act. You do whatever is necessary to protect them. Period. If you die trying, it is a life well spent.

•
Instead of protecting the people of this country, our leaders' top priority is condemning fake xenophobia and making certain they can't be called racist on Twitter.

•
Just so you're very clear about their priorities, they are.
Racist for saying 'Chinese coronavirus'? Now's not the time for the dumbest identity politics (Fox 03/12/2020)
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The World Health Organization has revised its assessment of the coronavirus threat. The virus from Wuhan is now officially a global pandemic.

•
So as of right now, the official count in this country is 1,100 cases of coronavirus. That figure is growing quickly.

•
But before you reach that conclusion, consider this: With the average annual flu, the one that goes around every year, every person who gets the virus spreads it to over 1.3 people.

•
In the case of this virus, the coronavirus, that number is almost double. Left unchecked, every infected person affects more than two people on average.

•
Of those who get the typical flu virus, about 0.1 percent die. So far in the United States, the coronavirus death rate appears to be over 2.5 percent, though experts say with undetected cases, it could go down. But that's small comfort.

•
To be clear, this is a virus that spreads twice as easily as the flu and is likely to be at least 10 times deadlier.

•
It's not something to take lightly. The country needs a clear plan to protect its people.

•
One of the reasons that Americans may have missed the significance of this virus is because unfortunately, it came enmeshed with politics.

•
On television, talking heads have wasted hours upon valuable hours yammering not about the virus and its potential victims, but how it is racist to tie the coronavirus to China, where it came from.

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Please. Now is not the time to indulge in the lowest and dumbest kind of identity politics.

•
In times of crisis, euphemisms kill. You need accuracy and clear language in the way you talk about the threat. It's essential.

•
And yet ingrained habits are hard to break, and among our professional class, no habit is more deeply ingrained than seeing the world through the lens of race, which they do.

•
Ayman Mohyeldin, MSNBC host: Now, I want to ask you about the back and forth between Democratic Congresswoman Grace Meng and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and she is demanding an apology for him referring to the virus in very derogatory offensive terms calling it the Chinese coronavirus.

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"Offensive and racist." These people are a joke, and they are more importantly a distraction.

•
China is watching all of this. The Chinese government knows that identity politics is America's greatest weakness.

•
It divides us. It makes us stupider. In times of crisis, it may even paralyze the national will at essential moments. It could do that now.

•
So Beijing has joined the chorus denouncing the West as racist for noticing where the virus came from.

•
Chinese embassies are now openly claiming the virus may have come from somewhere else, not China.

•
And the propaganda is working. Just a month ago, the American media thought nothing of calling the virus what it actually is.

•
That's not how they're describing it now. Why? Because China told them not to.

•
And the media were happy to comply, and by the way, to downplay direct threats to this country from China articulated out of the open clearly in print.

•
Just last week, China's official news service warned ominously that it might cut off drug exports to the United States in order to intensify the epidemic and cause even more deaths here.

•
Keep in mind that China makes 97 percent of the world's antibiotics. What would happen if they cut off supply to this country? Many would die.

•
*So our country's greatest rival is denying reality about a plague they unleashed on the world and is then openly threatening to kill American citizens in our country.

•
This is happening right now.

•
Our news media are ignoring all of it, which tells you which side they're on.
Bernie's Solution to Full Employment (JWR 03/12/2020)
•
The forces of militant ignorance are in motion again.

•
They are marching with Crazy Bernie Sanders and his spendthrift wife.

•
They are marching with Congressgirl Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the former bartendress.

•
They are rousing the drowsy forces of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the drowsy forces of the Occupy D.C. movement, who have been recumbent for the past decade.

•
They were the utopian socialists and parasites who provided so much hope to the left-wing Democrats back in 2011 and 2012.

•
They slept in parks. They hassled pedestrians. They, occasionally, relieved themselves on parked automobiles.

•
I called them then, and I call them now, the moron vote.

•
They believed that health care should be free.

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They were for free education, especially if, while experiencing the thrill of free education, they did not have to read a book or get out of bed before noon.

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They were for a guaranteed annual income.

•
Crazy Bernie also can supply the rest of the things that the moron vote believes should be free.

•
After he recites his list, he often growls to his audience of morons something about "the movement" that he is creating.

•
He calls it socialism and adds that "it has never been tried in America." But, he growls, it will be.

•
I only have one question: How are you going to change the whole economic system from capitalism (which works, though it is disparaged) to socialism (which never works, though it is admired) in the midst of President Donald Trump's economic miracle?

•
The promise of socialism is only thinly plausible when times are tough.

•
In America today — when times are very good — the case for socialism is hopeless.

•
Actually, when I hear Crazy Bernie sermonize about how what he is trying to do with socialism has never been tried before in America, I begin to believe that even he, the leader of the moron vote, is only semiliterate.

•
Or maybe he, too, is a moron. Is he not familiar with the likes of New Harmony, Indiana?

•
It was an Indiana community on the banks of the Wabash River that the Welsh textile magnate Robert Owen tried to turn into a utopian socialist paradise in 1825.

•
Like other dreamers of the day, he failed, and after two years, he returned to London a lot poorer but no wiser.

•
Another wealthy man who promoted socialism was Julius Augustus Wayland, who, in 1902, wrote of socialism, "It's coming like a prairie fire and nothing can stop it." ... But we are still waiting for that prairie fire.

•
Perhaps Bernie, another millionaire who made his millions while supping at the public trough, will be more successful than this millionaire socialist.

•
Let us face the facts, Bernie. The case for socialism is bleaker now than it was even back in Wayland's day or Owen's day.

•
By now, it has been tried all over the world, and it is a bust. A humanitarian bust and an economic bust — in every respect, it is the God that failed.

•
Before the Soviet Union fell, the Soviets had turned every country they controlled into a prison and every economy they controlled into a poverty zone.

•
Where today is the economic model for viable socialism? Is Bernie summoning up Venezuela? How about Cuba?

•
Actually, he is pointing to Cuba. The young people of Cuba have shiny white teeth and they can read, he claims.

•
Well, let them read Armando Valladares' "Against All Hope," a book about the author's existence for decades in a Fidel Castro prison for having done nothing wrong.

•
There are dozens of books like this written by brave Cuban freedom fighters. Many are still wasting away in Cuban dungeons.

•
When I turn to thinking about life in a Cuban hellhole today, I am reminded that Bernie Sanders' socialism is no joke.

•
See related Sanders (Glenn McCoy, 03/09/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Comrade Bernie (Mike Shelton, 02/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Gregg Jarrett: Judge who attacked Chief Justice Roberts is a biased liberal flamethrower (Fox 03/12/2020)
•
A federal judge in Wisconsin is making headlines by trashing Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

•
This is likely what he wanted.

•
The first thing you should know about U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman is that he is a zealous and habitual flamethrower.

•
His latest diatribe ... was designed to shock with the incendiary title, "The Roberts Court's Assault on Democracy."

•
Using the word "assault" was an invective guaranteed to conjure up images of criminal behavior, although that is nowhere in Adelman's article.

•
But his contention that democracy is on the precipice because conservatives hold a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court is his underlying thesis.

•
This is so, according to the 80-year-old jurist, because sometimes the Supreme Court rules in a way that is contrary to popular sentiment.

•
Never mind that there might be a legitimate or well-reasoned legal basis for such decisions.

•
The "will of the majority is ignored," bemoans the judge.

•
Adelman seems to be under the mistaken impression that justices are supposed to conform their decisions not to the law, but to public opinion at any given moment.

•
This is a profoundly distorted vision of how justice and the rule of law are designed to operate within our constitutional framework.

•
The other two branches of government – executive and legislative– are political in nature and do, indeed, reflect the public's will. That's why elections exist.

•
The judicial branch, however, is notably different. Its job is to interpret the law as written and/or intended.

•
That is how the framers constructed our tripartite government.

•
The duty of the Supreme Court is not to take the transitory temperature of its citizens or consult polling data and then rule on cases accordingly.

•
Adelman, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997, levels harsh criticism at a variety of Supreme Court decisions, including campaign finance, collective bargaining, health insurance, gerrymandering and voting rights (his hobbyhorse).

•
As constitutional law professor Josh Blackman remarked, "This screed could have come from a Bernie stump speech." He added, "It has no place in a publication by a federal judge."

•
Setting aside the dubious ethical propriety of a sitting federal judge lambasting the chief justice of the United States and his Supreme Court colleagues, it is the blatant partisan nature of Adelman's attack that undermines his own arguments.

•
To hear Adelman tell it, President Trump is an "autocrat" and the source of all imagined evil.

•
So, too, is the Republican Party, acting as a witting co-conspirator in the plot against democracy.

•
Sadly, this liberal federal judge gives no credit to the intellectual honesty of the justices who sit well above him on our nation's highest court.

•
Nor does he respect the judicial philosophies that inform their decisions.

•
We may not always agree with the Supreme Court. But publicly castigating the justices for their rulings and personally attacking the chief justice as disingenuous serves only to demean and diminish the federal bench.

•
Adelman certainly has a right to express his opinions.

•
But the caustic nature of those opinions makes one wonder if his own decisions are free of the kind of bias of which he so freely accuses others.
Rights Versus Wishes (JWR 03/11/2020)
Coronavirus lays bare China's power over public health, economy – Here's what must happen now (Fox 03/11/2020)
•
As the coronavirus continues its spread across the world – and the United States – the American economy faces the prospect of widespread shortages for the first time since the 1970s.

•
More than 40 percent of manufacturers in the American heartland have reported negative impacts on their business.

•
Now, the Food and Drug Administration has announced the first shortage of an essential drug.

•
This reliance wasn't some accidental byproduct of globalization but the outcome of a deliberate strategy by the Chinese Communist Party, which made biomedicine and high-end medical equipment a priority of its "Made in China 2025" plan.

•
The plan put in writing what had long been practiced by Beijing and further encouraged its companies' predatory practices while providing short-term bargains for foreign companies' presence in China.

•
Now, America must make rebuilding our domestic supply chain a priority of its own.

•
First, the U.S. government should empower our robust private business sector to expand in order to meet new demand for medical supplies.

•
Congress should cut taxes on manufacturers committing to new capital spending in America by making permanent the accelerated cost depreciation measures in the 2017 Republican tax law.

•
New medical structures and equipment should be temporarily singled out for additional reductions.

•
Second, agencies with lending operations like the U.S.

•
Small Business Administration should make low-cost capital available to businesses seeking to solve their supply chain problems by bringing production in-house to America, or otherwise buying from American small businesses.

•
For years, China has enticed American multinational corporations with access to its markets in exchange for off-shoring and sharing intellectual property.

•
Americans watched as Beijing captured critical portions of global supply chains, including in pharmaceutical drugs and medical equipment.

•
Today, up to 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in American drugs are sourced abroad.

•
Now, in the face of a pandemic, the absence of domestic capacity in critical medical sectors has critically endangered both the U.S. public health system and our economy.

•
The inability to quickly increase the production of key supplies, such as surgical masks, medical gowns, respirators and pharmaceutical drugs limits our ability to mitigate the worst effects of the disease in this emerging crisis and in any future pandemic.

•
It is unacceptable that China holds this much leverage over America's public health and economy, both essential components of our national security.

•
In exchange for commitments by U.S. companies to invest in America and take care of their employees, Congress and the Trump administration should take whatever steps possible to enable the private sector to expand.

•
Doing so will help stabilize the U.S. economy, potentially help save American lives, and strengthen our ability to mitigate the effects of disease.

•
Most importantly, it would be a high-return investment in our long-term capacity and independence from China during a moment when supply chains are up for grabs.
Daniel Turner: Trump's 'energy dominance' agenda will help America get through coronavirus (Fox 03/10/2020)
•
Coronavirus has given us good reason to be scared.

•
Stores are being overrun as people stock up on supplies.

•
Government officials have suggested "social distancing," including skipping events, concerts and airplanes.

•
Panic is psychological, and facts don't always rein in the psyche. One fact to prove it: In 2009, H1N1, or "swine flu," killed more than 12,000 Americans.

•
Were you stocking up on dry goods back then? No. But you still don't feel any better, right?

•
Here's another fact. This winter, an estimated 31 million Americans had the "regular" flu, with roughly 300,000 hospitalized and 12,000 dying.

•
Did you hoard toilet paper? No. But you are now, right?

•
Facts don't always assuage panic. You know there's no monster under the bed, but after watching a horror movie, sometimes you still look.

•
"The fear of the coronavirus is likely to be as or more destructive than the virus itself," former presidential candidate Andrew Yang tweeted.

•
But there is something else we should fear.

•
That's how much American political leaders have surrendered our sovereignty in the name of economic globalism.

•
In the age of coronavirus, globalism could be the real killer.

•
More than 90 percent of our medical supplies, antibiotics and vaccines are manufactured in China.

•
During last year's trade negotiations with China, a Chinese official suggested using their position of medical dominance as leverage.

•
Afraid of coronavirus? You should be more afraid of China cutting off our supply of penicillin because they could in an instant.

•
We already know we outsourced our manufacturing to China.

•
Apple proudly describes its products as "designed in California, manufactured in China."

•
In a manufacturing shutdown inspired by coronavirus, a lack of new products will hurt the economy, sure.

•
But it's going to really hurt when we can't get ibuprofen, or worse, anesthesia medicine.

•
So worrying is America's dependence on the Chinese medical industry that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced legislation to return much of it to domestic production.

•
"America first" isn't just a rallying cry. It's now a national health emergency.

•
No one intended to put America's health at risk by outsourcing to China. They did it because it was cheaper.

•
But globalism can only work when our international partners follow the same standards and practices as we do.

•
However, it's exactly because other countries do not follow these practices that companies move there.

•
Hygiene, lunch breaks, paid time off, hard hats, sensitivity training all cost money. Fair wages and safety cost money.

•
And in the age of climate change, protecting the Earth from pollution and contamination costs money.

•
So companies moved jobs from America's heartland to mainland China, Rust Belt workers be damned.

•
Tom Steyer, the billionaire, eco-warrior and former presidential candidate knew this. Energy investments made up a portion of the hedge fund he founded.

•
Did the green activist think coal companies in China were better stewards of the earth than coal companies in West Virginia?

•
No, but they were more profitable, Earth be damned.

•
Steyer's presidential candidacy was a marvel of un-American hypocrisy. A man who invested in fossil fuels in foreign countries ran on a platform of banning them here in America.

•
Luckily for Americans, we can't outsource our fossil fuels to China. Our vast supply of coal, oil and gas is found right here in America.

•
That is a blessing for us and a foil to the globalism enthusiasts. Fossil fuels are global commodities, and international players can try to manipulate the prices.

•
The days of the Arab oil embargo America suffered in the 1970s are long over.

•
In this industry, there are no supply chain fears. There are factory shut-down fears.

•
For decades, America watched as globalism masquerading as the "free market" outsourced jobs and industries to our adversaries.

•
It is frightening that China controls our medical supply chain. But, like our energy, it does not have to be this way. We can produce everything in America.

•
President Trump's "energy dominance" agenda will help America get through the coronavirus fallout.

•
Using domestic oil, gas and coal to produce our own energy and electricity, we can rebuild every sector of the economy by bringing products and jobs back from overseas.

•
Then America will truly be great again.
Electoral College on Colorado ballot – voters can support Constitution and stop big states' power... (Fox 03/10/2020)
•
Before them is the choice to keep the Electoral College or overthrow it with the National Popular Vote (NPV).

•
The NPV is nothing more than a power grab by Democrats in large urban states.

•
States would give their Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote, no matter how the citizens of the state voted.

•
With Democrats on the march in nine more states possessing 88 electoral votes, including Michigan, Maine, North Carolina and Virginia, their sights are set on an iron-gripped control of the federal government by large urban states.

•
The writers of our Constitution, beginning with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, did not stumble on the Electoral College by chance.

•
It was a deliberate choice to protect the rights of small states and stop larger states from simply imposing their will on the entire country.

•
It is not a mistake that we have a bicameral national legislature, with one chamber's membership determined by population and the other which treats states equally, giving them each two senators.

•
Progressives want to impose a standard of majority rule, as determined exclusively by matters of population size.

•
That is not what the Founding Fathers envisioned. They made a conscious decision to avoid the tyranny of the majority.

•
Abandoning the current Electoral College, which Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren support, would be surrendering to "tyranny of the majority" of coastal elites who believe changing to a national vote system is an easier path to the White House than having rural state voters cast judgment on out-of-step progressive agendas.

•
The NPV would be great for states such as California, New York and Illinois. It would be an opportunity for a very few large population hubs to essentially dictate the entire national agenda and push their policies and preferences on the majority of Americans, most of whom live outside those metropolitan areas.

•
For the majority of states without major population centers, the NPV would be a disaster.

•
Why any of the mid-size and smaller states would surrender their right to be heard is befuddling.

•
Presidential candidates would essentially be incentivized to ignore the issues facing not just Colorado, but virtually any state without large population centers

•
To tie this all together, the interests of Democrats in large population states are driving the national popular vote system.

•
Of the $1.8 million that has already been spent in Colorado in favor of the National Popular Vote, more than 99 percent has come from outside the state, with more than 75 percent coming from the state with the largest population and most to gain – California.

•
The famed Benjamin Franklin led the charge for the Declaration of Independence to call on us to "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

•
While it is a pledge all of us need to take seriously, a little of Franklin's common sense is what is needed in Colorado this year.
I intended to defend Chuck Schumer, but he just wouldn't shut up (JWR 03/09/2020)
Schumer's non-apology for Kavanaugh, Gorsuch threats makes first statement worse, not better (Fox 03/06/2020)
•
Arrogant Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., crossed the line in threatening United States Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

•
"I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price! You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."

•
It's one thing for members of the political branches to criticize judges after they've made decisions they disagree with, but to threaten them with consequences in advance of a decision is shocking.

•
He has no more right to threaten judges over a prospective decision involving the Democrats' holy sacrament of abortion than he does, say, over a pending immigration case.

•
Schumer said he shouldn't have used those words and they didn't come out as he intended.

•
He wasn't issuing a threat; he was referring to the political consequences the case could have.

•
I count six "yous" in addition to the naming of the justices. Is Schumer saying he meant for the justices to convey his comments to the congressmen? That's laughable.

•
"(Y)ou will pay the price" and "you won't know what hit you" are unambiguous threats, even if metaphorical. But how could these justices pay metaphorically?

•
Was Schumer threatening to impeach them? What for — following the Constitution?

•
At the very least, Schumer was fanning the flames of the abortion throng, and that itself is dangerous, given the left's penchant for violence these days.

•
There's no excuse for his comments or doubling down while pretending to apologize.

•
Schumer's non-apology makes his original statement worse, not better.

•
It confirms that he thinks it is appropriate to put political pressure on judges in advance of their rulings.

•
It shows that he believes the court should make a political decision in this case, rather than interpret statutes and the Constitution.

•
Schumer's lack of repentance appears in his defiant response to the normally mild-mannered Chief Justice Roberts calling his remarks "dangerous."

•
Schumer shot back, accusing Roberts of bias for not calling out President Donald Trump for criticizing Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg last week.

•
But Trump didn't threaten the justices. He simply pointed out they were biased against him and that Sotomayor had accused Republican-appointed justices of being biased in favor of Trump.

•
One fundamental difference between conservatives and progressives is that conservatives, like the framers, believe the judiciary is a non-political branch of government and that courts should interpret laws, not make them.

•
For progressives, everything is political, including the judiciary, and the court should decide cases based on political considerations.

•
This is all the more reason we should appreciate Trump's stellar track record in appointing two originalist Supreme Court justices and a host of other originalist appellate and district court judges.

•
Schumer's misbehavior is a glaring reminder of the importance of defeating the lawless party in November.
Schumer, the Supreme Court, and the Mob (03/05/2020)
•
... the Democrats' Senate minority leader stirred up the mob outside the Supreme Court, unabashedly threatening Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh: "I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."

•
Inside, the justices were then hearing argument on what ought to be a straightforward abortion case (i.e., one in which the "right" invented in Roe v. Wade is not up for consideration).

•
When called on his menacing remarks, rather than apologize, Schumer brazenly lied about what he had done.

•
This morning, he was still lying — a tepid apology, offered under pressure while insisting that "in no way was I making a threat."

•
In a rule-of-law society, that should rate censure. Case closed.

•
Except it's not closed, because we are not a rule-of-law society. We just pretend to be.

•
In a rule-of-law society, a mob would not gather on the steps of the courthouse in the first place.

•
Because nearly a half-century ago, the Supreme Court took on the mantle of super-legislature, weaving from whole cloth a right to terminate the lives of unborn children.

•
With Roe, the High Court decisively transformed itself into a political institution.

•
The worst kind of political institution, in fact: One that pretends to be something quite different — an apolitical arbiter of what the law says, an oracle of justice shorn of passion.

•
One that is politically unaccountable to the people whose lives it deeply affects — and affects not as a court deciding the private disputes of litigants, but as a ruler imposing national policy on a heretofore self-determining republic.

•
The mob is in front of the courthouse because we are inured to the unspoken reality that the Court is innately political.

•
Political entities can be moved by mobs, such as the one that gleefully cheered Senator Schumer on.

•
When President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Court, it was not for her legal acumen.

•
The salient argument made in her favor, as if there were nothing remarkable about advocating such an attribute as a credential, was that she is a model of "empathy" — a "wise Latina" who would bring a "perspective" outside the ken of your average staid old white guy.

•
There is, of course, a very appropriate place in our system for a person of such gifts. Justice Sotomayor would make a superb congresswoman.

•
In a pluralistic society, the legislature is where we want our diverse interests effectively represented.

•
That's the place where majorities must be persuaded to empathize with other interests if we are to have domestic tranquility.

•
But that is not what a court is for.

•
A court is for telling us what the law is, as opposed to what the judges wish it were, or think it had better be if the mob is to be appeased.

•
If a court does its job properly, and the people and their representatives do not like the result, they can try to change the law democratically.

•
No one would blame the judges. They are supposed to be the messengers, not the lawgivers.

•
That is the system we were bequeathed. It is no longer the system we have.

•
The Court is a political institution. And Senator Schumer is simply conducting politics the way the Left does politics.

•
The Left does what Senator Schumer did on Wednesday because it works. Censure? Perish the thought.

•
The demagogues are already telling us he's just passionate about women's health issues (the health of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh is obviously not a concern).

•
The Democrats will close ranks behind him — and use the publicity to raise money based on Schumer's heroic activism in protecting "choice."

•
The left-leaning legacy media will look the other way — there's no reason you need to know that the case at issue is not actually about the enduring legality of abortion, but rather about whether abortionists should have admitting privileges at local hospitals (which actually is a women's health issue), and whether abortion providers — rather than women purportedly harmed by such a requirement — have standing to sue.

•
No, better for you to be told the lie that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are scheming to consign women to back-alley quacks, and that Schumer had no choice but to call out the pitchforks.

•
When you're pressuring a political institution, a little extortion can go a long way.
Schumer's threat against Gorsuch, Kavanaugh exposes his hypocrisy, why we need to re-elect Trump (Fox 03/05/2020)
•
Shouting as he addressed a pro-abortion rally yesterday in front of the Supreme Court, while the justices heard an important abortion case, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. issued a threat that would be chilling enough if it came from a lone wolf.

•
"I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price," he said.

•
"You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."

•
The threat is far more chilling and irresponsible coming from Schumer, who knows his remarks will reach millions, including angry, unstable people who might interpret them as a call for violence.

•
This from a man who has accused President Trump of being responsible because of his tone for violence by extremists in Charlottesville and elsewhere.

•
Worst of all, the minority leader's remarks are a deliberate attempt to intimidate at least two Supreme Court justices.

•
That poses a grave threat to the Constitution's separation of powers, particularly coming from someone who has the power to potentially make good on his threats.

•
Think funding cuts for the Court, blocked Supreme Court nominations and a drawn-out Senate trial for any justice House Democrats decide to impeach.

•
Schumer's remarks are every bit as threatening to the separation of powers as, say, a judge suggesting he will lock up Congressional leaders if their legislation angers him.

•
This from a senator who repeatedly calls the president a threat to democratic norms and the rule of law.

•
Schumer's remarks were so over the top that Chief Justice John Roberts felt compelled to immediately respond. "[T]hreatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous."

•
Though Schumer was forced to backtrack a bit on Thursday, his immediate reaction to the letter was to double down and shamelessly lie.

•
"Schumer's comments were a reference to the political price Senate Republicans will pay for putting these justices on the court" and blamed Roberts for "follow[ing] the right wing's deliberate misinterpretation of what Sen. Schumer said."

•
The minority leader's pique against Roberts' response is all the more remarkable in light of Schumer's grandstanding last month when President Trump suggested that the judge handling Roger Stone's case is biased.

•
Schumer took to the Senate floor to call on the chief justice to rebuke Trump.

•
Why is Schumer so enraged at the Court's newest justices that he is driven to make threats he must later deny?

•
It reveals that what Schumer is really livid about is that Trump's election allowed him to appoint justices in the first place.

•
More generally, Sen. Schumer and the rest of the Left are apoplectic about the appointment of conservative justices because, for the last half of a century, they have relied on the Supreme Court to enact the many parts of the progressive agenda that lack a popular majority.

•
It should not be surprising that Schumer's threat, while particularly egregious, is but the latest instance in a recent campaign of attempted intimidation of the Supreme Court by Democrats and their allies.

•
One of the more brazen examples came last year, when a group of Democratic senators included a thinly-veiled threat in a legal brief submitted to the justices.

•
The amicus brief, filed in a gun case, accused the Court of being "not well," adding that "Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be 'restructured.'"

•
Unless those doing the intimidating are held to account, this campaign will only accelerate.

•
President Trump apparently agrees ... "There can be few things worse in a civilized, law abiding nation, than a United States Senator openly, and for all to see and hear, threatening the Supreme Court or its Justices. This is what Chuck Schumer just did. He must pay a severe price for this!"

•
Civil or criminal punishment of Schumer is not in the cards. Though his threat may lead to violence against a justice, it does not meet the relevant narrow First Amendment exception for words that incite "imminent lawless action."

•
Some have suggested that Schumer be expelled from the Senate. But expulsion would garner few Republican votes, no less the two-thirds majority of senators required.

•
Instead, Senate Republicans should seriously consider censure, which requires only a majority.

•
At the end of the day, the most effective way to teach Schumer a lesson is for Americans to re-elect President Trump and support his appointment of justices who will create a reliable and principled conservative majority on the Court.

•
That will dramatically demonstrate that trying to intimidate the Supreme Court is a losing strategy.

•
See related Who Are You Voting for? (Glenn McCoy, 08/03/2016) cartoon from USA picture album
Tim Graham: Chris Matthews' sudden crash (Fox 03/04/2020)
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... shedding a host that had become a liability with the Sanders socialists, who are a decent chunk of the MSNBC audience.

•
The host's insensitivity to women on the set played a part, but the offenses were verbal.

•
The larger part of this is Matthews falling out of step with the Democratic Party's lunge to the left in the Trump era.

•
The MSNBC star reacted badly by comparing the Sanders victory in Nevada to the fall of France to the Nazis during World War II.

•
He also ripped into Sanders for lauding Fidel Castro's literacy programs.

•
"I have an attitude towards Castro," Matthews announced. "I believe if Castro and the Reds had won the Cold War, there would have been executions in Central Park and I might have been one of the ones getting executed."

•
That's not just out of step with today's left.

•
Anyone who's watched the American media from the Bay of Pigs forward knows that top journalists from Barbara Walters to Dan Rather to Katie Couric have sounded just like Sanders in hailing Castro's alleged "workers paradise" with literacy programs and "free health care" and "one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world."

•
Because he worked at MSNBC, Matthews was never punished for comparing President Donald Trump with Hitler, Stalin or Satan.

•
Historical metaphors were endlessly mangled.

•
One night, he assailed Trump by blurring together Julius Caesar, Benito Mussolini and the cannibal-dictator Idi Amin.

•
He criticized the president for alleged dementia — and in rants like this, Matthews made people wonder about his own mental state.

•
Republicans were "North Korean soldiers," and Trump's children were "Uday and Qusay," the crazy, murderous offspring of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

•
The Washington Free Beacon counted that Matthews compared the Trumps with the "Russian royal family" the Romanovs — who were executed in the communist revolution — at least 15 times.

•
Chris Matthews could be seen as a sort of Joe Biden of the pundit class.

•
How could he get away with uncorking so many bizarre and over-the-top statements?

•
Because at some point, everyone dismisses it as a personality quirk.

•
Just as Biden's gaffes were just dismissed as part of being "wacky, lovable Uncle Joe," Matthews was just Captain Thrill Up the Leg.
The real reason Chris Matthews was fired from MSNBC (NYP 03/03/2020)
•
Chris Matthews didn't get fired for being a sex monster. He got fired for doing his job.

•
And what was that job? To represent the non-crazy, "No Kool-Aid for me, thanks" Left on television, while being entertaining and pointed and wacky.

•
One complaint was that Matthews would compliment women's looks.

•
True, men shouldn't talk this way around the office, ... But Matthews is 70.

•
Old guys flirt with young women as a way of telling themselves they're still in the game.

•
Young women used to be more forgiving, to recognize the pathos underlying the impulse and shrug it off.

•
Now they exaggerate their emotional reaction, pretend that they're "shaken" or "couldn't breathe."

•
Bassett writes that a couple of flirty comments from Matthews "undermined my ability to do my job well." That's hard to believe.

•
Why do these women pretend to be undone by a stray compliment? There's always some ulterior motive.

•
Bassett is utterly blatant about her real motive: She wanted Matthews fired for the way he interviewed Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.

•
She thinks Matthews damaged her political favorites, thinking (probably correctly) that when a prominent Democrat criticizes such candidates, he signals other moderate Democrats and centrists that it's okay to vote for someone else.

•
Matthews joked that Clinton is "witchy" and a "she-devil" and struck a skeptical tone when quizzing Warren about claims she made in debate against Mike Bloomberg.

•
All of this is very much part of his job. Matthews tries to be pointed, provocative, a bit unpredictable and funny.

•
Comparing Bernie Sanders to the Nazis overrunning France? Ridiculous.

•
Never compare anyone who hasn't murdered at least a million people to Hitler.

•
Still, hysterical analogies are exactly what drives viewership of "Hardball" and all the TV and radio shows like it.

•
Yet to assuage the Bernie Bros, MSNBC (which a couple of weeks ago was forced by market pressures to announce it would be hiring more Bernie-friendly voices) made Matthews issue a groveling apology for the Nazi joke.

•
This on a network where the comparisons of President Trump to Hitler are so unremarkable that it happened seven times in July alone.

•
Trump hadn't even taken office before Rachel Maddow told Rolling Stone, "Over the past year I've been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor ... because I think that's possibly where we are."

•
For two years Maddow built her MSNBC show around an actual conspiracy theory, that Trump was engaged in some kind of illegal collusion with Vladimir Putin, and issued one wild speculation after another: that there was a "continuing operation" involving Putin pulling strings here, that Putin was in a position to blackmail Trump into recalling troops from the Russian border, that a Trump-directed missile attack could have been ordered by Putin, that the Russians might be in a position to shut down our power during cold weather.

•
Conclusion: Saying crazy stuff doesn't get you fired from MSNBC. It's only saying stuff that annoys the Left that gets you fired from MSNBC.

•
It's possible Matthews did worse things than we know about so far, but as of today, it looks like he's been unfairly thrown into the same cultural ditch with actual predators like Harvey Weinstein.

•
He has been forever smeared as a sex abuser when what really cost him his job was being rude to Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.
Sanders is a threat to the Democratic establishment’s power - that's why it’s backing Biden (Fox 03/03/2020)
•
After much trial and error and a great deal of anxiety and frustrated harrumphing on cable news panels, the Democratic establishment finally has chosen the candidate to stop Bernie Sanders before he can take their money.

•
There's much relief in Washington right now. The Sanders threat is imminent and profound, and they've been sweating it.

•
It's one thing if your country falls apart - if 10th graders can't read and 9-year-olds are taking puberty-blocking drugs and downtown LA looks like Calcutta and another 10,000 more Americans just died of fentanyl overdose.

•
Whatever. Americans are dying - Democrats are fine with that. They can live with it. They do. They don't say a word.

•
But if there's a rogue candidate out there who might actually be serious about closing the carried interest loophole, and forcing private equity barons to pay the same effective tax rate that you do, well, that cannot stand.

•
It's totally and completely unacceptable. In fact, it's morally wrong.

•
And they have found their warhorse, a hero they imagined will carry them forth to victory against the wild-haired infidel from Vermont.

•
It is this candidate whom you should know is literally now the youngest man in the Democratic race.

•
This is the man they believe has the competence, the intensity, the intellect to repel the seething horde of Sandersites. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Joe Biden.

•
Yup, that's the man. ... he's running for the United States Senate in memory of the nearly half the country that's murdered by guns and only in the last few years, guided by the belief that other children are as bright and talented as white kids, not to mention clean and articulate, and in the hope that he can put three-quarters of a billion women back to work, whether they want to go or not.

•
If that's the kind of transformational candidate you're looking for, Joe Biden is your man.

•
He is a Renaissance man. As he himself will tell you, the Renaissance was an awful long time ago, back during the Carter administration, actually.

•
Running Joe Biden for president is like making your dog wear a dress. It may make for an amusing Instagram post, but it's wrong.

•
You can see the confusion in the dog's eyes. You can see the same thing in Joe Biden's eyes if you look closely.

•
"Why am I here? What are we talking about? Maybe if I make a lot of noise about pushups, no one will notice."

•
So far the only thing we've learned from Biden's candidacy is that there's no one around him who cares enough to make him stop. Instead, there are only enablers.

•
The Biden campaign isn't about ideas, much less ideals. The Democratic establishment's only concern is institutional control. That's where all of their power comes from — from holding together and running things.

•
If the Democratic coalition breaks down, they are, by definition, powerless. They have nothing.

•
And the real threat of Bernie Sanders is the threat he poses to the party. He could split it in half, and break it forever.

•
That cannot happen. Joe Biden is their last chance. That's why they're backing him.

•
Probably the only group sincerely cheering Biden are the credit card companies.

•
For decades, Biden was their paid lackey in Washington. They bribed him with cash. They gave jobs to his son.

•
In return, he carried their legislation through Congress dutifully for many, many years.

•
The average credit card interest rate in this country is 21 percent — 21 percent interest at a time when the Fed is giving banks billions of dollars nearly for free.

•
That's how low interest rates are for them. But you're paying 21 percent. This is a disaster.

•
How bad is it? Let's put it in perspective: Ask yourself how many people do you know personally who have been hospitalized for coronavirus, something we're all worried about and justly. Maybe none?

•
Now ask yourself, how many people you know personally whose lives have been diminished or destroyed by credit card debt.

•
Yes, maybe it's happened to you. It probably has. It's happened to so many people.

•
Joe Biden is one of the decision-makers who made that possible. It is not an overstatement.

•
But they don't care. Now, they're telling you that for the good of the country, you've got to vote for Joe Biden.

•
Keep in mind, they don't even believe it as they say it. They don't even like Biden.

•
But at this point, they'll say anything because they have to.
Democrats have always needed a boogeyman to run against – Here's who it is in 2020 (Fox 03/01/2020)
•
The Russians are like the devil. Each gets blamed (or credited) with more than they are responsible for.

•
Intelligence officials recently went to Capitol Hill where ... "they briefed the House Intelligence Committee about Russia interfering in the presidential race in an effort to get Trump re-elected."

•
The initial presumption was that Russian President Vladimir Putin favors Trump's reelection.

•
Why would he when he has someone more closely associated with his ideology than Trump?

•
That would be the self-described Democratic Socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

•
But wait. Following closely on this unspecific leak to (where else?) The New York Times, we now hear that Russia wants Sanders as the next president.

•
Perhaps it's out of gratitude because he and his wife honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Ah, nostalgia.

•
The intelligence briefing was classified, but as with charges that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, no details have emerged that prove the Russian "collusion" narrative.

•
Other than disinformation campaigns on social media (and plenty of disinformation has and will continue to be generated here at home through mainstream media) we have still not heard any specifics on how Russia managed to change a single vote in 2016, or how they supposedly intend to do so this time around.

•
The reason Democrats are again raising the prospect of Russian interference is to undermine the credibility of this year's election should Trump win again, as seems increasingly likely.

•
Democrats have been unable to stomach, not only his 2016 election but also his economic successes.

•
They fear their party will lose what remaining but dwindling appeal it might still enjoy.

•
That's why in the debates among Democratic presidential candidates one hears of an America that isn't recognizable to most citizens.

•
For them, America is a bad country, a place of racism, sexism, inequality and misery only they can fix, though previous Democratic presidents who have made similar diagnoses of America's "faults" have done nothing to repair the damage to which they have arguably contributed

•
This Russian interference claim seems like a setup and an invitation for the House to conduct even more investigations and possibly new articles of impeachment after the election, assuming Democrats maintain their House majority.

•
Democrats have also demagogued Republicans for not helping the poor and for being racist.

•
That is a harder sell with the African-American unemployment rate at record lows and wages rising for virtually all groups.

•
Russia has become the default boogeyman of the left.

•
That is what makes Bernie Sanders the ideal candidate for Russia and the other socialist-communist states he has praised, because in his heart he is at one with them.
Justin Haskins: Socialist Sanders is most dangerous major party presidential contender in US history (Fox 02/29/2020)
•
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the improbable current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is lying to the American people when he tell us that "democratic socialism" simply means he wants to give the vast majority of Americans new opportunities to succeed and wants millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes.

•
... comments Sanders has made going back decades shows he has warmly embraced not just socialism but communism, and praised tyrannical dictatorships that have trashed the freedoms Americans enjoy under the Bill of Rights that are part of our Constitution.

•
Sanders is not just another liberal Democrat who wants to expand social programs, in the tradition of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

•
He is the most radical candidate in American history with a real shot at winning the presidential nomination of one of our two major political parties.

•
While candidates have run for president in the past on radical platforms under the banners of socialist, communist and other fringe political parties, they have drawn only tiny percentages of the vote.

•
Sanders, elected in Vermont as an independent and not as a Democrat, is trying to convince the American people that policies implemented around the world by socialist and communist regimes that have resulted in death, destruction and economic mayhem are in our best interest.

•
... Sanders tries to disguise socialism. The socialist senator wants us to believe socialism is a kind and caring philosophy that is the embodiment of justice and equality for all.

•
Sanders thinks that by sticking the word "democratic" in front of the word "socialism" he can trick millions of Americans into supporting the horrific philosophy he espouses.

•
As the old saying goes, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

•
Communism and socialism give government far more power than our capitalist system does, enabling leaders to become tyrants.

•
This has been proven the case again and again in dozens of nations that have abandoned capitalism for communism and socialism.

•
The truth is that more than 167 million people were exiled, imprisoned, or killed by socialist and communist parties in the 20th century.

•
And, contrary to claims made by Sanders, his talking points about socialism's successes in countries such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark are completely false.

•
Those countries are not socialist nations and their citizens are, in many ways, not better off than most Americans.

•
Yet despite these well-documented facts, Sanders has managed to sell his socialist snake oil to many well-meaning, kind-hearted Americans who think that the only way to solve the world's problems is to give government far more power over their lives.

•
The following quotes from Sanders illustrate just how truly radical and disturbing his ideology is.

•
In a "special interview" in 1981 with a communist newspaper called The Militant, Sanders, who had just become mayor of Burlington, Vt., claimed there are American police departments "dominated by fascists and Nazis."

•
The attack Sanders made on police is not only outrageous, it's also incredibly ironic.

•
The Nazis were, in fact, socialists who believed in collectively managing property and most of the German economy.

•
Further, some of the most ruthless, murderous regimes to exist during the past 100 years were led by committed Marxists – not free-market capitalists devoted to defending individual rights.

•
Sanders has a long track record of supporting communist and socialist organizations.

•
For example, in 1980 and 1984, he endorsed Socialist Workers Party presidential candidates, and he even agreed to be an elector for the party.

•
In the 1980s, the Socialist Workers Party was mostly devoted to espousing radical Marxist and communist ideas, and it was widely known as being largely Trotskyite – an ideology made famous by Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, who promoted the necessity of global communism.

•
At the time Sanders lauded the "Cuban revolution," the ruthless dictator Fidel Castro had been in power for two decades.

•
During that period Castro stripped Cubans of their basic political and individual rights, murdered and imprisoned dissenters and welcomed Soviet missiles to his island nation.

•
That action led to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which brought the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war.

•
... in a speech Sanders delivered in May 1981 while introducing the head of the Socialist Workers Party, he explained that the "real debate of our time" and the "debate of our century" is "socialism versus capitalism."

•
Based on his own words, it is clear that the "revolution" Sanders is always talking about staging would spell the end of capitalism and economic freedom in the United States that made us the richest, most prosperous and most powerful nation on Earth.

•
And once economic freedom goes, history has shown that political freedom and many of our human rights go as well.

•
My question to each of you reading these words is simple: Do you really want to see America turned into a "workers' paradise" like China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and so many other failed communist and socialist nations?

•
See related Socialism (Gary Varvel, 02/21/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
President Trump: Genteel? No. A conservative juggernaut? Yes (JWR 02/28/2020)
•
Eastwood, 89, told ... that he liked "certain things that Trump's done," but wishes the president behaved "in a more genteel way."

•
Yes, Trump should use Twitter more selectively. And his name-calling often is counterproductive.

•
But it is baffling for Eastwood to abandon Trump, whom he backed in 2016, because the filmmaker wants a "more genteel" president.

•
Political gentility sounds lovely, but it must be a two-way street.

•
Eastwood and others who share his concerns crave gentility, even as Democrats and their Left-wing media allies call Trump a black-hating white-nationalist who ... "could arguably be worse than Hitler."

•
Even worse, at least eight artists have depicted, by turns, Trump's stabbing, shooting, rape, and decapitation.

•
How genteel!

•
The Trump-hating Left also displays its gentility by violently attacking conservatives and Trump supporters.

•
Conservatives tried "genteel" with Mitt Romney, Baby Bush, and Daddy Bush.

•
These "genteel" Republicans either lost to tougher Democrats or knuckled under and became their butlers: They brought Democrats fresh social programs, delivered piles of domestic spending, imposed new regulations, and adopted new entitlements.

•
In a land of inescapable tradeoffs, Americans should focus on President Trump's public policy.

•
If so, they will see a tough, energetic, and focused leader who delivers what conservatives and free-marketeers want, 90 percent of the time: Tax cuts, deregulation, energy independence, constitutionalist judges, dead terrorists, and more.

•
As for the other 10 percent, Trump raised import taxes. But now, they're yielding to new-and-improved trade deals with China, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Japan, and — in production — the UK and India.

•
Social spending is too high, but that was Democrats' ransom for freeing vital defense outlays.

•
Trump should have driven harder bargains here, but he chose national security over fiscal discipline.

•
Is having a 90-percent conservative president worth the trade-off in occasional Twitter outbursts and grade-school name-calling?

•
I say: Hell, yes!

•
Too bad all of this has eluded the Genteel Caucus, led by Clint Eastwood.

•
See related Shakesperian Actors (Glenn McCoy, 06/21/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Which One? (Mike Lester, 06/13/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Gets Me Where I Want (Michael Ramirez, 02/25/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Dem or Republican, What's the Difference? (JWR 02/28/2020)
•
The idea of a man like Bernie Sanders becoming president would have been absurd a decade ago. It would have been laughable.

•
It's not so funny anymore, because things have drastically changed in American society over the past two or three generations.

•
Through our public schools and universities American children have been slowly and surely indoctrinated into a liberal mindset that includes not only social progressive programs, but also political correctness and America bashing.

•
Two of Sanders biggest supporters have been Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Illan Omar, who are America haters and identity politics practitioners

•
This is not your grandfather's working-class union man socialism.

•
Today's "new and improved" socialism is attracting new recruits by drawing on the resentments of race, gender and sexual orientation.

•
America's typical socialist is very likely a Black Lives Matter activist, a transgender militant or a prophet of environmental apocalypse.

•
... there are many young people who jump on the socialist bandwagon by the promise of free college, forgiving student debt, legalized drugs, and free healthcare.

•
The other Democrat candidates in the race may not be as forthright as Sanders when it comes to their socialism plans and programs, but don't be fooled. They are still far to the left of traditional mainstream American values.

•
I can remember years ago when people were asked, "Who are you voting for, Republican or Democrat?" they would often say, "Oh, what's the difference? They're all alike."

•
Not any more. There's never been a greater difference between the two parties then we have right now in his election.

•
The Democrat party wants to remake America into something else.

•
In the words of President Obama, "fundamentally transforming the United States of America."

•
Sanders and the others are totally in with that.

•
The Republican Party is the party of American traditional values.

•
It's the party of individual freedoms and thought, not "group think."

•
The party of keeping our Constitution alive by honoring it's original intent and meaning and not, as the progressives would have it, "a living Constitution" that is subject to change and revisionism with current trends of the moment.

•
I want to believe that America will never go socialistic, as President Trump has promised.

•
But in our volatile, ever-surprising modern times I just can't rest easy with that notion.

•
One thing is for sure, this election will determine what kind of America we will have going forward.

•
The choice has never been more apparent and clear cut than it is this time.

•
See related Sanders (Glenn McCoy, 03/09/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
What collapse of Soviet Union can teach America about socialism: Bret Baier investigates (Fox 02/28/2020)
•
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, separating the citizens of Soviet-controlled East Berlin from the free people of West Berlin, and famously called on Russian General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."

•
At that point in history, the USSR was already well on its way to collapse and Gorbachev was instituting reforms in the hopes of rehabilitating the failing centrally planned Soviet system

•
"Can you imagine what it is getting an American driving license? It's quite difficult, quite a tedious process," he continued.

•
"Imagine doing it every day. This is what the Soviet life was. The whole system was based on people as we sat pretending that we worked and the government pretending that it pays."

•
In the interest of reform, Gorbachev pushed a policy called 'Glasnost' that made more information about the failing state available to the Soviet people.

•
"[The Soviet people] quickly began to discover how unjust, how inequitable, how stupid economically, the entire regime was."

•
Meanwhile, many of the Soviet satellite states began to assert their independence, while Gorbachev attempted to transform the centralized USSR into a confederation called the Union of Sovereign States.

•
A group of hardline communists pushed back. They staged a coup attempt in August 1991.

•
Gorbachev was placed under house arrest and tanks and troops flooded into the streets.

•
"Then something remarkable happened. Hundreds of thousands of citizens poured into the streets to resist. Many of the soldiers joined them."

•
The feared Soviet government apparatus, responsible for the murder of millions of its own citizens over decades, had no response.

•
"Nothing. All these mighty armies, the KGB, all those people held sway over the country for 70 years, they just hid, just ran away. There was nobody to defend it."

•
The fall of the Soviet Union coincided with European liberal parties pulling back from the tenants of social democracy and China instituting free-market reforms into their society, but those predicting the end of socialism would be sorely mistaken.

•
"Today, socialism is experiencing a revival. Many Americans, particularly the young, have become enthralled with a 78-year old avowed socialist, a democratic socialist. The independent senator from Vermont and two-time presidential candidate Bernie Sanders."
US is vulnerable to coronavirus because libs care more about identity politics than your life (Fox 02/28/2020)
•
Here in the U.S., we have our first coronavirus case of unknown origin; it's not linked to travel. That's an ominous sign.

•
The world is panicking over this, and there's a reason for that.

•
In China, the virus has already killed more than 2,500 people — but that's only if you trust China's numbers, which no sober person does. The actual number is likely much higher than that.

•
But that's just the beginning of what we don't know.

•
We're not really sure how coronavirus spreads.

•
We don't know what the mortality rate is over large populations, especially as health services become overstretched — and they will.

•
At this state, we're not even sure where it came from.

•
But there is something we do know and it's this: A lot of the people who should have been preparing to defend us from this have not been doing that.

•
The CDC, which is America's main line of defense against infectious diseases seem to be caught off guard by it.

•
So what was the CDC doing instead? Well, it was doing a lot of things.

•
According to information from openthebooks.com, two years ago, CDC gave Georgia State University three-quarters of a million dollars to study social determinants of health in a diverse neighborhood in Georgia.

•
Another $300,000.00 CDC grant funded to look at how an American Indian tribe in Washington State could improve health outcomes by eating traditional foods.

•
It's not their fault. It's our policymakers who cannot resist making everything ideological. Their main goal is not keeping you safe.

•
If it was, they wouldn't be letting rapists out of prison and pushing weed on your kids.

•
No, their real interest is getting richer and more than that, feeling good about themselves.

•
Protecting America does not make them feel good about themselves, it makes them feel guilty.

•
When President Trump imposed even mild travel restrictions on China last month, they attacked him as a bigot.

•
CNN, meanwhile, attacked the administration's Coronavirus Task Force as "another example of Trump administration's lack of diversity." As if the color of the doctors matters...

•
A month ago, CNN warned that the real threat of coronavirus was racism against Asians.

•
Again, counting by race. If there was ever a time to drop that dumb and dangerous tick, it's now as a global epidemic bears down in our country.

•
But they can't stop doing it, and they won't. Because in the end, they care more about identity politics than they care about your life.

•
Whatever weird guilt trip these people are on ought to be left to them and their psychiatrists to sort out — and it will take a while.

•
But under no circumstances should they be anywhere near power.

•
People will get hurt if they are because they don't care.

•
See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
American Socialists Don't Understand American Business (JWR 02/27/2020)
•
At the heart of the rapidly spreading support for "socialism" in the United States is some pretty profound ignorance about business in the country.

•
The excerpt is riddled with tired and outdated Marxist tropes about the "class struggle" between the "working class" and the "capitalist class" (the workers' enemy class ...); the need to pit "workers against bosses"; and, of course, the imminent "revolution" — which the authors insist could be bloodless, except that the "capitalists" will put up resistance to any efforts to eliminate capitalism.

•
That resistance "will turn violent," Day and Uetricht warn, in which case socialists will be justified in using self-defense.

•
The writers are stuck on the wrong continent and in the wrong century.

•
In true "Bernie Bro" fashion, they speak in broad, sweeping gestures about the presumed failures of democracy and capitalism in the U.S., and look back wistfully at the efforts of the Russian Revolution.

•
"This is a tricky situation to navigate. If the democratic capitalist state were less developed, it might be possible to convince people to simply storm the gates, tear up the old rules, and start fresh in a socialist society. This is what socialists tried to do in Russia in 1917: the state was weak and after centuries of autocratic rule it didn't have much legitimacy in the eyes of most Russians, so revolutionaries could get popular support for scrapping it and starting over."

•
Ah, yes, the glorious Soviet revolution, which enjoyed so much "popular support," reflected by widespread imprisonment and executions on a then-unprecedented scale.

•
"(T)here is very little in the record of human experience to match the violence unleashed between 1917, when the Bolsheviks took power, and 1953, when Joseph Stalin died and the Soviet Union moved to adopt a more restrained and largely non-murderous domestic policy."

•
Estimates of deaths caused by Soviet communists between 1917 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 range anywhere from 15 million to over 60 million.

•
Several million of these deaths took place in the gulags — Soviet prison camps for dissidents, the Orthodox religious, counterrevolutionaries and anyone condemned as "bourgeois" or an "enemy of the state."

•
It is bad enough to be willfully ignorant about the economic devastation and political oppression that characterized life in the former Soviet Union.

•
But all this talk of "workers versus owners" and a "capitalist class" betrays embarrassing — and dangerous — ignorance of real facts right here in these authors' own country.

•
To hear Day and Uetricht (and Sen. Bernie Sanders) talk, a handful of robber barons owns all the means of production — the land, the factories, the industries — while everyone else — tens of millions of the slaving, underpaid proletariat — struggles in Dickensian conditions.

•
This may have been true in Russia at the end of the 19th century.

•
It is most certainly not true of America in the 21st.

•
The "abolish capitalism" crowd uses the terms "business" and "business owner" as epithets — accusations, as if every business were Enron.

•
They aren't.

•
According to recent U.S.

•
census data, there are approximately 30.4 million firms — businesses of any sort — in the U.S.

•
Of that number, fully 81% — 24.8 million firms — employ only their owners.

•
But even if we look at the 5.6 million firms that have other employees, almost 90% employ fewer than 20 people.

•
And by the way, this same structure holds true if we look only at businesses that are incorporated.

•
Almost 90% of all corporations in the U.S. employ only the owners, or a small handful of employees.

•
In other words, huge numbers of Americans own their own companies.

•
Millions more work for very small companies.

•
And even when one looks at the relatively small number of large corporations that are publicly traded (fewer than 4,000), millions of their shares are held by small investors; 55% of Americans own stock individually or through participation in mutual funds or pensions.

•
What has made America so prosperous is the ease with which anyone can start a business.

•
In a country where over 600,000 new businesses launch every year, the everyman (and everywoman) entrepreneurs are the "capitalists."

•
The "bosses" are the "working class." The owners are the employees.

•
American business is an extraordinarily egalitarian enterprise, creating and distributing wealth.

•
Socialism only destroys it.

•
See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump’s court win denying sanctuary cities grants is major blow to liberal extremists (Fox 02/27/2020)
•
Despite their best attempts, pro-illegal alien extremists are failing to stop the Trump administration's efforts to restore law and order to the nation.

•
... ruled that the Department of Justice can indeed withhold grant money from local and state governments that purposely flout the law and put American lives at risk.

•
This ruling is obvious, sensible and just — at least to anyone who isn't a pro-open-borders extremist.

•
In question in this specific case was the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, which dispenses $250 million per year to support state local criminal justice efforts, and upon which many sanctuary jurisdictions rely in order to meet their budgetary needs.

•
One such jurisdiction is New York City, and the response to Wednesday's ruling from its mayor, Bill de Blasio, typifies the hypocrisy and outright absurdity of those who think releasing criminal illegal aliens onto the streets is the right thing to do.

•
"President Trump's latest retaliation against his hometown takes away security funding from the number one terrorist target in America," de Blasio said in a statement, "all because we refuse to play by his arbitrary rules."

•
Those so-called arbitrary rules are the literal law of the land, requirements specifically added by Congress for cities that want to receive Bryne grants, whether Mr. de Blasio likes it or not.

•
And the notion that a mayor who as a matter of policy refuses to hand over criminal illegal aliens to federal law enforcement — instead unleashing them to wreak more havoc on law-abiding citizens — would suddenly pretend to care about the security of his city is quite frankly offensive.

•
Yet to Mr. de Blasio and his allies, President Trump's efforts to enforce the law of the land and protect American lives amounts to "retaliation."

•
This is the essence of their position against the Trump administration's policy.

•
They truly believe that they have the right to take federal money intended to help them enforce the law while simultaneously refusing to assist federal law enforcement.

•
They actually have the gall to demand federal money intended for public safety while actively undermining public safety with their sanctuary policies.

•
In addition to highlighting the morally indefensible position of sanctuary jurisdictions and their supporters, the circuit court decision also highlights the importance of President Trump's efforts to reshape the judiciary.

•
We have seen the lengths to which proponents of sanctuary cities are willing to go to maintain their state of lawlessness and protect their reckless practices.

•
We have seen that there are activist judges on various courts willing to support them.

•
And we have just seen that sound, constitutionally-based legal judgments may be our last line of defense against those who wish to replace the American Dream with American Anarchy.
Dan Gainor: Can conservative speech online survive 2020 efforts to stop Trump? (Fox 02/27/2020)
•
The 2020 presidential election won't just be a battle about who wins the White House.

•
It's a fight to see if the idea of free speech can survive a full-on attack from the very forces that once claimed to support such freedom.

•
Social media sites — like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook — have become the most active political battlegrounds.

•
But this election, conservatives are battling for their right to simply stay on the platforms and spread their message.

•
The issue of Big Tech bias against conservatives escalated rapidly after the 2016 election.

•
The major media alleged a minor Russian influence operation had helped Trump win.

•
The narrative stuck and both journalists and tech staff have been having a collective freakout ever since.

•
What has followed has been an ever-growing battle over what people can say and do on social media.

•
Conservatives are fighting for free speech on platforms run by liberal executives with heavily liberal workplaces.

•
They have created policies that reflect their left-wing worldview and then have those same biased employees enforce them.

•
The companies have employed so-called "fact-checkers" who push left-wing opinion as fact and restrict traffic to conservative outlets that don't bow to their agenda.

•
The companies have expanded their so-called "hate speech" policies so much that they've grown to hundreds or even thousands of words.

•
The resulting documents are legalese only a lawyer could love and vague enough to ban everything from the Declaration of Independence to the Bible.

•
The pressure on social media companies to do even more is immense.

•
Actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who made a career with offensive speech and characters like "Borat," has decided that others should not be given the same opportunity online.

•
He has been at the forefront of those who want to limit what the platforms allow, using the slogan, "Freedom of speech is not freedom of reach."

•
In other words, the platforms don't have to allow whatever you say to be seen by anyone else.

•
Traditional media outlets have pushed the firms to restrict advertising and even shut down Trump's Twitter account.

•
Some of the companies gave in and restricted political ads.

•
Facebook didn't and has been bombarded by negative press.

•
... The Washington Post wrote a massive article ridiculously claiming that Facebook "has tilted rightward" because it refuses to restrict political ads.

•
And Zuckerberg, desperate for a way out of the conflict, wrote an op-ed in The Financial Times headlined: "Big Tech needs more regulation."

•
Conservatives have pushed for fair treatment. ... The goals are simple — to preserve the ability of people to share their opinions online without companies and governments stopping them.

•
The potential of social media remains incredible and gives every person the chance to share his or her views around the world.

•
... Google alone could influence up to 15 million votes this election simply by how it displays search results.

•
The other top social media companies have the power and reach to influence elections across the globe, not just here in the United States.

•
Most of these companies are based here in the United States.

•
They should be spreading American ideals of freedom and not trying to turn the online world into a global safe space.
Steve Hilton: Don't believe the pundits - Bernie Sanders is not a populist like Trump (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
I do admire the way he has pushed himself to the position he is in today, through sheer force of character and ideas.

•
I agree with many of the things he says are wrong with the country - the corruption of the establishment, the way working people lost power.

•
I used to agree with him on immigration until he totally changed his position.

•
No one should buy the pundits' lazy consensus that Bernie is a populist, like Trump. He is not.

•
First, Trump was an outsider. Bernie is actually an insider.

•
Before entering the presidential race, Donald Trump never ran for anything.

•
He was never in politics before and approached it like a problem-solving businessman.

•
He combined traditional conservative ideas with new, more populist ones.

•
Pro-business on tax and regulation, but pro-worker on trade and immigration; pro-America on defense; pro-family on paid leave and child tax credits; conservative judges and criminal justice reform.

•
And perhaps in the long term, his most significant policy shift of all — upending the establishment consensus on China.

•
Trump's original innovative policy mix is something only an outsider could have put together.

•
By contrast, Bernie has been a political insider all his life.

•
For almost four decades, he has collected taxpayer-funded paychecks as a mayor, a congressman and now senator.

•
But he's not even an effective insider. He has introduced 239 bills while in the Senate. Guess how many became law? Two.

•
Maybe for once, Hillary got it right when she said nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done.

•
Here's the second reason it's wrong to say Bernie is just a Trump of the left: Donald Trump's policies are mainstream, Bernie's are extreme.

•
The policy agenda President Trump ran on in 2016 that he has been implementing since is based on mainstream positions with majority support, whether that's strong borders, renegotiating trade deals, cutting taxes, or school choice.

•
But Bernie's positions, they are wildly out of the mainstream. They are extreme and have only minority support.

•
Here's the third big difference between Bernie and Trump: The president stands up to the establishment. ... That is a huge contrast with Bernie.

•
But here's the fourth and most important difference between Trump and Bernie and the thing that the pundits most infuriatingly get wrong.

•
They call them both populist — Bernie a populist of the left; Trump on the right.

•
No. Populism means taking power out of the hands of the elite and the establishment and putting it in the hands of the people. That's what Trump is doing.

•
Bernie wants to redistribute power alright, but he wants to take power from the private sector elite and give it to a new public sector elite — a new army of bureaucrats and busybodies running around telling you what to do once Bernie has told them what to do.

•
Populism is all about decentralizing power. Bernie is the direct opposite. He is for centralizing power.

•
He is not a populist; he is a socialist.

•
And by the way, don't believe the spin that socialism is nothing unusual, that it's normal in places like the U.K. or Sweden or Denmark.

•
That is rubbish. I know those countries. What they have is not Bernie's democratic socialism.

•
It is social democracy, and it is totally different.

•
Bernie is a Washington insider with extreme socialist positions who panders to the establishment when it suits his own political purposes.

•
See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Stone Sentencing Ends Russia Collusion, Part I (02/22/2020)
•
The Roger Stone sentencing farce is as fitting an end to the Russia Collusion saga as one could conjure up ... though it might be more fitting to call it the end of Russia Collusion, Part I.

•
No sooner did the first flick conclusively bomb than the media-Democrat complex was issuing the casting call for Russia Collusion, Part II.

•
In the sequel, you're asked to believe that Putin is manipulating the chesspieces to steal a second term for President Trump – somehow preferring an incumbent who beefs up the U.S. armed forces, pressures NATO allies to beef up theirs, imposes painful sanctions on Moscow, provides lethal aid to Ukraine, ramps up U.S. energy production, and seeks to thwart the Kremlin's coveted natural-gas partnership with Germany, over an unabashed socialist who honeymooned in the Soviet Union and whose policies would wreck the American economy, end the resurgence of American energy production, and hollow out the American armed forces.

•
It's a lunatic plot. But the scriptwriters no doubt figure that if they can peddle what they've been peddling for the last two weeks, they can peddle anything.

•
The severity of the trial team's recommendation was objectively absurd. It was, more to the point, merely a recommendation — as was Barr's milder but still stiff counter.

•
It had no legally binding effect whatsoever on the judge.

•
Not only is the sentencing court free to ignore any recommendation from prosecutors, which judges do with frequency; the court is free to ignore the guidelines...

•
Nevertheless, Barr's entirely reasonable position was castigated by Democrats, their media notetakers, and progressive lawyers who have transformed the organized bar into just another left-wing hack.

•
Understand: There was nothing to this. It was a total fabrication.

•
The partisans behind this frippery knew full well that the Justice Department's submissions had no legal effect.

•
Barr could not have slashed Stone's sentence even if he wanted to.

•
... the brute fact is that sending another human being to prison is the hardest thing judges have to do. No matter how loathsome the defendant is, there are almost always other lives — those of children, spouses, parents, loved ones, business associates — that are damaged by a sentence of incarceration.

•
It was a slander to claim that Barr was doing Trump's bidding.

•
The president wants Stone's case to disappear.

•
Barr, to the contrary, held firm that the seven felony convictions were righteous, and urged that a sentence of between three and four years for an elderly first-offender would be appropriate.

•
Of course, this would not be the Russia probe if Trump antagonists were not peddling the collusion narrative.

•
So Judge Jackson couldn't resist. Stone, she inveighed at Thursday's hearing, was not prosecuted "for standing up to the president," as his apologists maintain; no, "he was prosecuted for covering up for the president."

•
Covering up what? That the Trump campaign might have been hoping that an outside source like WikiLeaks might be planning to leak damaging information about an opponent, just as the Clinton campaign was giddy when someone leaked Trump's tax information to the New York Times?

•
So what? That wasn't the collusion narrative.

•
Judge Jackson is too smart not to know that when she pregnantly claims Stone was "covering up for the president," that will be twisted into a suggestion — from a federal court, no less — that there really was Trump–Russia collusion.

•
No wonder the judge had such praise for the trial prosecutors.

•
She was taking a page out of the Mueller playbook.

•
The Mueller prosecutors knew they had no evidence of a Kremlin–Trump conspiracy.

•
The indictments they filed against Russian actors elucidate that Moscow neither needed nor wanted American collaborators.

•
In each indictment, we're treated to pages and pages of big wind about Russians and WikiLeaks and emails; then, you flip to the end only to find that there's no rain — somebody lied about the date of a meeting, or threatened a dog, or just did his job as incoming national-security adviser.

•
And now we're on to Russia Collusion II.

•
Already it is shaping up like the original: a sprawling, incoherent, implausible mess of a plot, with a B-movie cast and the same ending
Tucker Carlson: Russia isn’t attacking our democratic system – our own ruling class is (Fox 02/22/2020)
•
The story of American decline is the story of an incompetent ruling class.

•
You'll hear many self-serving explanations for it. But the truth is, it's that simple.

•
The people in charge inherited an industrial superpower with unchallenged military dominance.

•
In a little more than a generation, they squandered all of it.

•
In exchange for short-term profits, bigger vacation homes and cheaper household help they wrecked what they did not build.

•
They outsourced entire sectors of our economy to China.

•
They imported a serf class to drive down wages, and they crippled the middle class while doing it.

•
They ran up trillions of dollars in unpayable debt.

•
They turned the finest universities in the world into a joke.

•
They watched from their decadent little bubbles of affluence as families, faith and public decency died in this country and they laughed because they didn't care.

•
... at this point, it's clear the population has grown tired of it. Donald Trump's election is one clear sign of that.

•
The ruling class in other words, is losing its grip on power and the ruling class members can feel it.

•
They stopped trying to convince the public of anything and instead decided to scare them.

•
Fearful people are easier to control.

•
"Lawmakers are warning that Russia is meddling to re-elect Trump," read the headline.

•
Inside the story, there was nothing – no evidence, no detail, not even a coherent set of accusations.

•
But it was enough to alert the morons on cable news.

•
On MSNBC, host Chris Matthews said: "It's official.

•
Russia has endorsed the reelection of President Donald Trump, who is trying desperately right now to keep that matter secret."

•
On CNN, host Don Lemon said: "So as bad as it is ... the Russians are back at it. Trying to help Trump get reelected. It's far worse that the president of the United States is – he is trying to cover it up."

•
On MSNBC, host Lawrence O'Donnell said: "The president is a Russian operative. That sounds like the description of a bad Hollywood screenplay, but it is real."

•
You see what's going on here? Yes, you do.

•
Our democratic system is in fact under attack. That much is true.

•
But it's not the Russians who are attacking it. It's not even the Chinese.

•
It's being attacked by our own ruling class.

•
They're undermining democracy because they have no choice.

•
If they left it up to voters to decide where to go next, they'd be out of a job tomorrow, because they've been terrible stewards of this country. Some of them would be in jail.

•
So they've got to subvert our system.

•
Their livelihoods depend on it.
Medicare for Some ... Depending on Their Politics? (JWR 02/20/2020)
I've been a professor for decades. Today's'institutions of higher learning' pose threats on several... (JWR 02/22/2020)
•
A recent Pew Research Center survey finds that only half of American adults think colleges and universities are having a positive effect on our nation.

•
The leftward political bias, held by faculty members affiliated with the Democratic Party, at most institutions of higher education explains a lot of that disappointment.

•
Democratic professors outnumber their Republican counterparts most in the humanities and social sciences, compared with the natural sciences and engineering.

•
The ratio is 42:1 in anthropology, 27:1 in sociology and 27:1 in English.

•
In the social sciences, Democratic registered faculty outnumber their Republican counterparts the least in economics 3:1.

•
The partisan political slant is most extreme at the most highly rated institutions.

•
The leftist bias at our colleges and universities has many harmful effects.

•
At American University, a history professor recently wrote a book in which he advocates repealing the Second Amendment.

•
A Rutgers University professor said, "Watching the Iowa Caucus is a sickening display of the over-representation of whiteness."

•
A Williams College professor said he would advocate for social justice to be included in math textbooks.

•
Students at Wayne State University no longer have to take a single math course to graduate; however, they may soon be required to take a diversity course.

•
Then there's a question about loyalty to our nation.

•
... former chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard, was arrested earlier this year on accusations that he made a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement about work he did for a program run by the Chinese government that seeks to lure American talent to China.

•
He was paid $50,000 a month and up to $158,000 in living expenses for his work, which involved cultivating young teachers and students...

•
... court records reveal that Emory University neuroscientist Li Xiao-Jiang was fired in late 2019 after being charged with lying about his own ties to China.

•
A jury found a University of California, Los Angeles, professor guilty of exporting stolen U.S. military technology to China.

•
... federal prosecutors say that University of Texas professor Bo Mao attempted to steal U.S. technology by using his position as a professor to obtain access to protected circuitry and then handing it over to the Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei.

•
The true tragedy is that so many Americans are blind to the fact that today's colleges and universities pose a threat on several fronts to the well-being of our nation.

•
See related Political Correctness (Glenn McCoy, 11/11/2015) cartoon from USA picture album
F.H. Buckley: Is America on the brink of a third secession? Here's what it would look like (Fox 02/16/2020)
•
Finally, there are the haters.

•
If progressives think that conservatives are deplorable, why would they want to be in the same country with them?

•
For that matter, why would you want to be in the same country with people who hate you?

•
That's where we are now.

•
Imagine what it will look like in a year's time if Trump is reelected and has several more seats to fill on the Supreme Court.

•
With their media outlets, with what they thought was a lock on the judiciary, progressives thought they had property rights in America, that any opposition to their ideas was illegitimate.

•
Along the way, they gave up on our Constitution, on the way in which we elect our presidents and nominate judges.

•
They're happy to live in a state of permanent and pointless impeachment.

•
For them, 2016 was a betrayal, a psychic wound that never goes away, and they're likely to find it will get worse.

•
"Our Union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war."

•
If that's the shape of things to come, maybe it's time we remember what we love about the country and try to mend fences.

•
If you despise most of your fellow Americans, don't be surprised if they tire of you.

•
If you want to cancel our history and heroes, maybe you're telling them they need their own country.

•
If you pretend that your policies trump the constitutional rules of the game, maybe you just want your own country, separate from America.

•
But if that's not really what you want, perhaps it's time for you to chill.
Dems demand harsh punishment for Roger Stone – Not violent criminals and illegal immigrants (Fox 02/15/2020)
•
The latest manufactured outrage from Democrats and the left-wing media emerges yet again from the Justice Department, an agency that lately seems more adept at producing scandal than justice.

•
This is the bureaucracy that cooked up an investigation of the 2016 Trump presidential election campaign on false pretenses, lied to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to spy on an innocent American and crucified former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

•
The Justice Department also withheld evidence and brought us feckless Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who spent millions of taxpayer dollars tormenting President Trump.

•
Now, four career Justice Department prosecutors are screaming bloody murder because higher-ups rejected their recommendation to throw the book at Roger Stone, a political gadfly and one-time Trump adviser caught in the Mueller dragnet.

•
These attorneys, two of whom were involved in the Mueller fiasco, asked for a seven- to nine-year sentence for this first-time offender convicted of nonviolent crimes — obstruction of justice, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress.

•
Remember, the "Russia collusion" caper that prosecutors were charged with investigating never happened.

•
But they needed to show something for the millions of dollars and man-hours they wasted, so they rolled Stone.

•
Of course, most Americans outside the Beltway have no idea lying to Congress is a crime. They know Congress lies to them all the time and figure turnabout is fair play.

•
Inside the Beltway, lying to Congress is business as usual.

•
Law firms, lobby shops and public affairs consultants coach clients on the best way to mislead, misdirect and conceal the truth from Congress and its designated hitters in the bureaucracy in order to extract maximum money from the government and taxpayers.

•
But it's the added elements of hypocrisy and irony that distinguish the Stone sentencing from previous episodes in the ongoing saga of selective enforcement of rarely prosecuted crimes.

•
While President Trump champions criminal justice reform by updating sentencing guidelines to end harsh prison terms for nonviolent offenders, Democrats are now demanding blood from a Stone.

•
This is the party that refuses to deport criminal illegal immigrants and proposes using tax dollars to bring those who have already been deported back to the United States.

•
Democrats pass laws to ensure those arrested for crimes including stalking, assault and manslaughter are released without bail.

•
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says Attorney General William Barr should be investigated for rejecting prosecutors' harsh sentencing recommendation for Stone.

•
But in San Francisco, the city she represents in Congress, Democratic politicians refuse to prosecute a host of crimes, including assault on police officers.

•
Selective enforcement of the law has become a familiar fixture in the Democratic firmament, as has selective outrage.

•
But now they're taking it to a new level.

•
The Democratic version of criminal justice – bloodlust for anyone associated with President Trump, coddling violent criminals and illegal immigrants – is short on justice and nothing short of downright criminal.
Rep. Ron Wright: Washington's spending is a serious problem, but Trump's new budget would help (Fox 02/15/2020)
•
At $23 trillion, our national debt now exceeds our annual GDP and is more than six times our yearly revenue.

•
The debt is increasing at an astonishing $100 million per hour.

•
It almost doubled during eight years of the Obama administration.

•
Many in Congress seem to think the best plan is to leave it to our children and grandchildren.

•
Those on the left seem to believe, as absurd as it sounds, that we can spend our way out of debt. Both are wrong.

•
One of our most significant responsibilities as members of Congress is to authorize spending for the federal government.

•
The typical American family produces some modicum of a family budget for the year.

•
Congress, to which the Constitution gives the power of the purse, should be no different.

•
Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her impeachment inquiry in September, our national debt has risen more than $500 billion, and we still have no budget resolution.

•
During my first year in Congress, Democrats were so focused on impeaching President Trump that they failed to fund the government through regular order.

•
Instead, they kicked the can down the road and waited until we were faced with another government shutdown. To govern this way is unacceptable.

•
In fact, it's irrational.

•
The Trump administration has released its budget proposal for fiscal year 2021.

•
I was thrilled to see that it included $4.6 trillion in deficit savings over 10 years and puts the federal government on a path to a balanced budget by 2035.

•
The budget also cuts wasteful government spending, reduces duplication and eliminates federally funded projects that do not produce positive results.

•
I applaud the president for including more spending reductions than any previous administration and coming through on his promise to tackle the national debt.

•
Democrats measure government assistance and entitlement programs by how much they grow; Republicans measure them by how much they are reduced when people can leave the entrapment of government assistance and enjoy the freedom of a good-paying job in a soaring economy.

•
Cutting federal spending is no easy task.

•
It's a long road ahead and will take significant courage and effort from people on both sides of the aisle.

•
A balanced budget is not unattainable, and the president's budget puts us on the right track.

•
It's time for Congress to get its financial house in order.
Impeachment and Amnesia (02/11/2020)
•
The president would not pretend to be either sorry or grateful for his reprieve. This is a big part of what ardent Trump supporters love about their man.

•
Alas, it is just as big a part of why the president's approval numbers languish in the 40s when they ought to be in the 60s, with a humming economy, record low unemployment, and the nation at relative peace.

•
As for the incumbent president, it is not in his DNA to admit anything.

•
This, inevitably, is fuel for his opposition's hysterical claim that he is, and remains, a clear and present threat to the integrity of the 2020 election.

•
If he will not acknowledge or cannot apprehend the wrong he has done, they say, why should anyone be confident that he won't do it again?

•
There's the rub. The president may or may not believe that his dealings with the Ukrainian government were "perfect."

•
But he is never going to make an admission that would instantly be reframed as a confession to the Democrats' delusional version of what it all means.

•
Nor is he going to dignify Washington's two-tiered system, in which his venial sins draw the hellfire while his opponents' transgressions are insulated from criticism, let alone expulsion.

•
Let's see if we can't navigate between perfect and impeachable. What wrong did he do?

•
Well, an American president should never encourage, much less pressure, a foreign government to investigate an American citizen for possible violations of that foreign country's laws.

•
That's basic. In the matter of Ukraine, the American citizens in question included a top political rival of the president; that makes matters worse, but it is not the main point.

•
Bottom line: Incumbent officials are not supposed to seek foreign law-enforcement assistance for domestic political purposes, only to aid ongoing American law-enforcement investigations.

•
So, yes, this was far from "perfect." Still, on these facts, for Democrats and Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah) to treat what President Trump did as a hanging offense was ridiculous.

•
Ukraine's criminal-justice system is so infamously corrupt that Biden would not have been hurt even if there had been an investigation — especially once it became clear that Trump's own Justice Department did not suspect Biden of violating American law.

•
No matter how you judge the president's intentions, nothing of consequence actually happened — and that is what matters most.

•
And we haven't even addressed the "pot calling the kettle black" problem.

•
Do Democrats really think the president and his supporters, or any fair-minded Americans for that matter, are not going to notice that the "how dare you invite foreign interference in our elections" storyline has been concocted by the party that recruited a foreign spy to dig up high-level Russian-government dirt on Trump?

•
Dirt that was often absurd on its face? Dirt that could easily have been discredited if the Obama-era FBI had chosen to investigate it, and yet was mendaciously supplied under oath to the FISA court again and again?

•
Did Democrats figure we'd all quietly abide their puling about "foreign interference in our elections" after the Obama administration collaborated with foreign intelligence services to run informants at Trump campaign officials . . . and then withheld from the FISA court the exculpatory evidence those contacts generated?

•
Do Democrats suppose it has slipped our minds that they wove a collusion fairy tale against Trump out of unverifiable foreign-intelligence streams, and demanded the appointment of a special counsel to pursue the fairy tale even as it was palpably collapsing — seven months after the Obama administration began seeking FISA court warrants under false pretenses?

•
And obstruction? We're going to be lectured to about obstruction by the people who defended to the hilt Hillary Clinton's private email server?

•
The sealing and burial of the Clinton–Obama emails, and the studious purging of any reference to President Obama in the description of Clinton's misconduct.

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Democrats may have suppressed their memory of the IRS scandal, the Benghazi scandal, and the Fast and Furious scandal — the first involving abuse of power in order to interfere in the 2012 election; the last two involving cover-ups after American officials were killed.

•
But rest assured, this convenient case of amnesia is not contagious.

•
Whatever you think of Ukraine, it doesn't hold a candle to this record.

•
Impeachment is a political remedy.

•
It is not just a matter of what may be legally, ethically, or morally wrong; it is a matter of how a particular wrong stacks up against current norms.

•
Sorry but Democrats do not get to blow up the norms and then tell us that President Trump has to be impeached and removed over a comparative trifle.
It’s pearl-clutching Democrats who got massacred by Trump impeachment trial (NYP 02/08/2020)
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... conventional wisdom got it right when it declared that Trump had one of the best weeks of his presidency while Democrats had one of their worst.

•
He beat impeachment, they screwed up the Iowa caucuses, he gave a roaring State of the Union address and Nancy Pelosi was reduced to being a paper shredder.

•
Friday's boffo jobs report was the icing on Trump's cake, then he got the cherry when a federal appeals court unanimously rejected a suit by 200 Dem lawmakers over foreign payments to his businesses.

•
But arrogance springs eternal in the land of nattering nabobs and expect media bigs to assure their fellow never-Trumpers that soon enough, the world will be set right.

•
Trump, they will say with certainty, can't sustain the momentum and Pelosi, she of the alleged brilliant political skills, will lead Dems back to their entitled supremacy.

•
Anything is possible and there is no denying that Trump has a bad habit of stepping on his own good stories.

•
But the larger notion that last week was an aberration strikes me as fanciful if not delusional.

•
The heart of the case is that Dems dug themselves into a hole and won't drop the shovel.

•
They have nothing to show for their 2018 House victory except a partisan impeachment that was rejected by the public before the Senate killed it.

•
Wonder of wonders, party leaders reacted by vowing to stay the course.

•
Pelosi, not a whit embarrassed by her shameful stunt of tearing up the president's State of the Union address, launched into another hateful rant.

•
Saying Trump looked "sedated," she called his speech a "manifesto of mistruths" and claimed he "shredded the truth in the speech, shredded the Constitution in his conduct, and so I shredded his state-of-mind address."

•
In other words, they learned nothing from last week, or the last three years for that matter. Blinded by their personal contempt for the president and his supporters and captive to the wacko wing of the party, Pelosi's team still acts as if there is a magic button that will persuade even the deplorables to turn on the president.

•
A November platform of resistance, rage and failed impeachment is a narrow base appeal, not an effort to win the middle.

•
The counting debacle in Iowa obscured a larger problem: the caucus turnout was about 25 percent below estimates.

•
This is all great for Trump, but the fact that he is in his strongest position yet is not owing solely to Dems' errors.

•
His policy successes are undeniable, starting with the economy.

•
Its continued expansion is simply remarkable and when the president says it is the envy of the world, he's not exaggerating.

•
... he gets a whopping 63% approval on the economy confirms that more and more people are seeing and believing the jobs boom.

•
Gallup also found that 90% of Americans, the highest ever, report they are satisfied with their personal lives, and that a record 65% say they are "very satisfied."

•
Those kind of numbers rip the heart out of the claim by Sanders and others that the economy is working only for the rich.

•
In fact, wages are rising faster at the bottom of the income ladder than at the top.

•
While Dems are busy feuding and feeding their base, the president is broadening his outreach by stealing some of their policies.

•
Paid family leave, curbing prescription-drug prices and prison reform all run counter to GOP orthodoxy, but Trump is embracing them while keeping near-unanimous Republican support.

•
To be sure, the election is a long way off and events, like Trump, are unpredictable.

•
But for now he is on a roll while the other team is stuck in a hole.
Sanders, AOC and other socialists are wrong – Socialism is a cause of poverty, not the cure (Fox 02/08/2020)
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... say the only way to end poverty in America is to destroy the economic system that made the U.S. the most powerful and prosperous country on Earth and the land of opportunity.

•
The claim by the senator from Vermont and the congresswoman from New York is a dangerous lie that ignores economics, history and reality.

•
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have become the most prominent faces of a radicalized Democratic Party that has moved further left than any time in American history.

•
Not long ago they would have been considered fringe extremists with no chance of winning election to a federal office.

•
AOC, a 30-year-old who worked as a bartender before being elected to the Congress in 2018, recently complained in a widely publicized interview that too many of her Democratic colleagues in Congress believe "we can capitalism our way out of poverty."

•
Instead, AOC, Sanders and other radical Democrats (some of whom deny they are socialists but really are) argue that they need to supersize government, send tax rates skyrocketing, and fundamentally transform America into a socialist state to enable people be able to escape poverty.

•
... that argument has been proven false on numerous occasions over the past 100 years.

•
Just look at world history since the Russian Revolution of 1917, almost 70 years after a compassionate-sounding theory of economic justice and equality was laid out by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in "The Communist Manifesto" in 1848.

•
When communism and socialism jumped from the pages of "The Communist Manifesto" to become the basis of government in Russia and elsewhere, tyranny and economic ruin followed.

•
In fact, Marx gave the world the most economically destructive, toxic, blood-soaked idea of the 20th century.

•
That idea was the Marxist belief that important economic decisions should be made by the collective, rather than by individuals.

•
While one socialist society after another collapsed in the post-World War II years, capitalist economies thrived and their people became healthier, wealthier, and happier than ever before.

•
This was true not just in the United States, but around the world.

•
Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and all of the Democrats now running for president – including those who don't identify as full-blown socialists – say that the best way to fix America's poverty problem is to confiscate wealth from business owners who create jobs, as well as other wealthy individuals.

•
Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and all of the Democrats now running for president ... say that the best way to fix America's poverty problem is to confiscate wealth from business owners who create jobs, as well as other wealthy individuals.

•
They sell themselves as modern-day Robin Hoods who supposedly want to rob from the rich to give to the poor – but this time via massive new government programs that would employ legions of taxpayer-paid bureaucrats to do the "robbing."

•
We know from experience that this doesn't work.

•
As the old saying goes, the best anti-poverty program is a job.

•
And as another old saying goes, you can't have employees without employers.

•
One of the keys to tackling poverty is improving education.

•
Study after study shows that young people who receive a high-quality education are far more likely to rise out of poverty than those who are trapped in failing schools.

•
The best and quickest way to improve the U.S. educational system ... would be to provide all children in the nation with the freedom to attend the school they and their parents choose.

•
The essence of the capitalist system that made America the great nation it is today is the belief that competition stimulates improved quality and lower prices.

•
If schools had to compete for students, they would have to offer improved educational opportunities – and those that failed to do so would close.

•
One of the biggest problems with government poverty programs is that they don't provide a way for people to escape poverty.

•
Instead, they often trap people in welfare systems by making it difficult or even impossible to stop receiving government aid without losing access to essential services, such as health coverage.

•
The way to lower the poverty rate in the United States isn't to embrace principles that have destroyed nations and led to economic turmoil, but rather to embrace the same ideals that made America the economic powerhouse it is today: free markets and individual liberty.

•
See related Potemkin Democrats (Taylor Jones, 01/31/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Tax (Taylor Jones, 01/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Socialism (Bob Gorrell, 04/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Arthur Herman: Romney's Trump impeachment vote - why Republicans should thank the Senator (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
His vote has demonstrated for all to see that the effort to remove Trump from office springs not from an aversion to what he does but to who he is and what he represents in the course of recent American history.

•
Romney's personal animus toward Trump is well known and documented, just as the illogic of Romney's pro-impeachment vote is obvious.

•
After all, if Romney really believed that Trump's phone call with the president of Ukraine was so egregious an abuse of power then why did he feel he had to vote to hear more witnesses unless it was a way to further embarrass and humiliate an embattled president?

•
But it is important to note that this anti-Trump animus which Romney shares with so many others in Washington runs much deeper than just a personal dislike of the man.

•
It springs from the fact that Trump has challenged, and largely disproved, a long-standing assumption in politics that dates back at least to John Adams.

•
It is that American democracy can't function without a ruling elite, a "natural aristocracy" in Adams's words, who would come from the right background and the right schools and provide leadership and continuity on policy while also riding herd over the American masses who can be, as Adams put it, "unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous, and cruel" unless the self-ordained best and brightest lead the way.

•
Trump has shown that's not true by a long shot.

•
In fairness, the Bush and Obama years seemed to demonstrate to most Americans that the more policy was left to the professional Washington elite class the more they mess it up whether it's triggering endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, doing nothing about illegal immigration or kowtowing to China and secretly shipping cash to the Iranian mullahs so they can fund their terrorist efforts.

•
But Trump's successful handling of U.S. domestic, as well as foreign policy, has been in defiance of that elite.

•
It has shattered forever their claims that without their constant guidance the result could only be chaos.

•
Even more important, Trump has also proved that when the elite are challenged they will band together to remove a president by any means fair or foul who has proved them to be impotent and wrong.

•
By his vote, and the media furor swirling around it, Romney has made this clash between Trump and our self-ordained elite more evident than ever.

•
We can see that Romney's strategy for his political future is, ironically, to join up with the very same people and media who wrecked his reputation and presidential campaign in 2012.

•
It demonstrates that whether they are Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, their claims to being an American aristocracy without whom the country cannot survive binds them together closer than any other loyalty — even a loyalty to the truth.

•
As for his future, voters in Utah may have different plans for Mitt.

•
But for now, he can enjoy his fifteen minutes of fame and adulation by the media.

•
Meanwhile, thanks to him the rest of us can see the present more clearly and the future with more insight and growing optimism about what comes next.

•
See related Impeachment (Bob Gorrell, 11/12/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Hans von Spakovsky: How history will view Trump's impeachment (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
Trump joins two former presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, in being impeached by the House of Representatives before being acquitted by the Senate.

•
The House failed to produce credible evidence that the president committed any "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" or engaged in any action that justified his impeachment by the House, let alone his conviction and removal from office by the Senate.

•
Impeachment was to be used only in the direst of circumstances to remove a president clearly guilty of such serious, substantial misconduct that he posed a danger to the nation, and who was clearly unfit to continue in office until the next election when the public could make its own choice.

•
House Democrats did not come even close to meeting that standard.

•
It seems highly likely that Pelosi and company will be viewed in the same manner as historians now view the "radical Republicans" who impeached Andrew Johnson, and who came within one vote of convicting and removing him from office.

•
Republicans personally hated Johnson, who became president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and they virulently disagreed with Johnson's decision to implement Lincoln's conciliatory policies toward the Southern states.

•
... in inflammatory rhetoric reminiscent of that heard from some Democrats today, radical Republicans claimed that Johnson was a "wild-eyed dictator bent on overthrowing the government."

•
Schiff was just as inflammatory when he called Trump a "despot" and the type of tyrant the Founders feared, while Nadler called Trump a "dictator."

•
Last time I checked the news, I didn't see any stories about despotic activities by this president, such as a refusal to follow court orders or the abuse of federal law enforcement power to spy on and investigate political opponents.

•
The latter is something only the prior administration did.

•
Liberals can certainly criticize the president for some of his policies that they may disagree with, but claiming he is a despot and a dictator is so over the top, so far from reality, that it helped destroy whatever credibility the House managers may have had at the start of the impeachment process.

•
Their wild exaggerations made it pretty clear this was a partisan, politically driven impeachment.

•
... during the impeachment proceedings, Johnson was subjected to "torrents of personal abuse" and other claims that Johnson characterizes as "nonsense." Seem familiar? It should, because Trump was also subjected to "torrents of personal abuse" by House managers during the impeachment trial.

•
Included among the impeachment articles adopted by the House in 1868 was a charge that President Johnson had "challenged the authority" of Congress and had criticized Congress with "intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues."

•
Sounds an awful lot like the House's claim in the impeachment resolution that Donald Trump "impeded" the House and engaged in "unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance" of Congress.

•
Although it was not in the impeachment resolution, Schiff and his compatriots spent an enormous amount of time going after the president for firing the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch (who was appointed by President Obama), as if that was an abuse of power.

•
This despite the fact that ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president.

•
Historians almost universally condemn the Johnson impeachment as "rash, reckless, and unwarranted ... no "constructive purpose was served by this vendetta, and the only political consequence was the discrediting of those who conducted it."

•
Now that the process is over, at least for now, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that this impeachment, which Democrats started talking about doing as soon as Trump was inaugurated, was the result of personal and political "vendettas" against the president.

•
Given that some polls show that Trump is now more popular with the public than at any time during his presidency, Democrats may also end up suffering the "political consequences" of their abuse of the impeachment process and the "discrediting of those who conducted it."
Gregg Jarrett: Trump acquittal in impeachment trial is a humiliating defeat for partisan... (Fox 02/05/2020)
Nancy Pelosi shamed herself at Trump’s State of the Union address (NYP 02/04/2020)
•
Here's a question for Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Have you heard of Albert Einstein's definition of insanity?

•
The one where he says it's "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"?

•
To judge by your conduct, I'm guessing you haven't.

•
Then again, maybe you're a secret Republican agent trying to re-elect President Trump.

•
You've been screwing up for three years, starting with the juvenile resistance where you refused even to negotiate over big national interests such as border control. Then, just when it seemed you couldn't sink any lower than that cheap, partisan impeachment you engineered, you hit a new low during the State of the Union.

•
Your mumbling and sneering smiles throughout President's Trump's powerful address were bad enough, but your decision to tear into shreds your copy of his speech and drop it like a dead fish was shameful beyond measure.

•
Coming immediately after he finished, and while he was still on the podium, you had to know the television cameras would catch you.

•
No doubt that was your goal — to display your disgust to the nation and the world.

•
Message received, and here's back at you: You disgraced your office and all of Congress.

•
If you had an ounce of decency and respect for something other than your own power, you would apologize.

•
Better yet, take a hike and give your job to somebody who wants to help make America better, not tear it up.

•
House Republicans must immediately demand a censure vote, making clear their strong disapproval of Pelosi's temper tantrum.

•
Let Democrats show where they stand on such reprehensible conduct.

•
In one sense, Pelosi's distress is understandable.

•
Trump's address was long because he had a long list of big accomplishments to cite, and every Republican standing ovation had to drive her closer to the edge.

•
She often seemed to be talking to herself, and finally snapped.

•
The economy is, naturally, at the heart of it, and his recitation of record low unemployment, rising wages, soaring consumer confidence and stock markets are so familiar that it is easy to forget how important they are to the health and welfare of millions of families.

•
Pelosi certainly has forgotten. She and many fellow female Dems wore white to protest — who knows what? — and most could not bring themselves to cheer the good news for their fellow Americans.

•
... the House speaker, who made a point of telling TV anchors Tuesday that she hasn't spoken to Trump since October, when impeachment began, demonstrated repeatedly that she hasn't learned anything from her failures and the president's success.

•
... Pelosi once again charged into the cannon fire after the speech, her only weapon her personal hatred of the commander-in-chief.

•
It's not proving to be much of a fight. The president is on a winning streak, and he had every right to brag about his record in his third State of the Union address.

•
And she's just led her party into another embarrassing dead end.

•
... the president is off to a roaring start for the campaign. We can add Pelosi's televised tantrum to the growing list of his achievements.
Why Senate is entirely right to vote down House’s impeachment charges (NYP 02/04/2020)
•
It is profoundly wrong to proceed with impeachment in the absence of egregious wrongdoing that galvanizes a public consensus that the president should be removed — wrongdoing so serious that it can move the required two-thirds of senators, regardless of partisan ties, to vote for conviction.

•
Pursuing impeachment for lesser wrongs is paralyzing for our governance and divisive for our citizenry.

•
House Democrats never had anything close to that high standard.

•
Instead, bullied by a hard-left base that has wanted the president impeached since the night he defeated Hillary Clinton, they viewed the convoluted Ukraine episode as a peg on which to hang their predisposition that Trump is unfit for office.

•
In this, they are aided and abetted still by the mainstream press, which has taken to mocking Senate Republicans for concluding, essentially: "Trump did it, but we're going to let him get away with it."

•
That's a gross distortion of what has happened.

•
The "it" in question is not an impeachable offense.

•
Merely saying the president "abused his power" is not enough. All presidents abuse their power from time to time. Recognizing that, the Framers made impeachment-and-removal difficult — available only for truly serious wrongdoing that threatens our security or system of governance. Hence, the two-thirds' Senate supermajority requirement for conviction.

•
Let's stipulate that a president should never pressure another country to investigate any American citizen, let alone a political rival, for violations of that country's law.

•
That said, the president's offense was minor, albeit worthy of our disapproval.

•
Hunter Biden's cashing in on his father's political influence and Joe Biden's extortion of Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was investigating the younger Biden's corrupt company is objectively suspicious.

•
American law encourages the president to encourage anti-corruption efforts in countries, such as Ukraine, on which US aid is lavished.

•
More significantly, nothing of consequence happened. The Ukrainians got their defense aid.

•
The Democrats' claim that Ukrainian and US security were compromised is laughable.

•
Kiev was required neither to conduct nor announce any investigations. Volodymyr Zelensky says he never felt coerced by Trump.

•
Plus, in just nine months, voters can decide Trump's fate for themselves.

•
There is no need for hyper-partisans in the political class to preempt our election.

•
That is why impeachment was not warranted.

•
It's also why there was no bipartisan buy-in for Trump's impeachment, in contrast to Bill Clinton's and (especially) Richard Nixon's.

•
In America, when a person is properly accused of serious wrongdoing, we insist on due-process protections so that any resulting conviction has integrity.

•
But accusers cannot afford due process when they knowingly bring an unworthy case.

•
The Senate is right to reject the House's unworthy case.
Trump's Senate impeachment trial will likely end in acquittal - that's the right verdict (Fox 02/03/2020)
•
Trump did not commit "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," as the Constitution requires for impeachment. He was not even accused of any such offense.

•
Instead, the House's first impeachment article charged that Trump "abused the powers of the Presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital national interests to obtain an improper personal political benefit."

•
In fact, however, politics-as-usual is an abuse of power for personal political benefit.

•
Nearly all the politicians accusing President Trump are guilty of it themselves.

•
They pander to their base, cater to special interests, place party before country, take dark money, horse-trade, collude, siphon taxpayer funds for pork-barrel pet projects, commit gerrymandering to rig elections, flip-flop on issues, misrepresent their records, conceal information, and just plain lie.

•
"Abuse of power" does not justify the impeachment of President Trump. If it did, it would impeach virtually every Democratic and Republican elected official in the United States.

•
The second impeachment article is equally absurd. It impeaches Trump merely because he resisted impeachment.

•
Specifically, it charges "obstruction of Congress" because Trump refused requests for information during House impeachment hearings.

•
Trump did this for two main reasons.

•
First, the House neglected to duly authorize its own "subpoenas."

•
Second, the House's impeachment hearings violated due process.

•
This raises an obvious question: Is the former national security adviser obtaining a personal financial benefit from selling books and making paid speeches while ignoring national security or other vital national interests?

•
This spectacle-driven impeachment shows how history repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce.

•
First, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton was a tragedy.

•
Clinton sexually exploited a 22-year old intern inside the Oval Office.

•
He lied about it under oath, committing perjury – a felony crime punishable with a prison sentence.

•
Nevertheless, the Senate persisted to keep Clinton in the White House.

•
Now, the impeachment of President Trump is a farce. It even started with an inside joke.

•
For theatrical effect, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., actually opened Congress's impeachment hearing with a comedic routine, delivering a funny impression of President Trump in a prank reenactment of the president's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

•
Comedian Schiff's parody impeachment hearing begat Congress's parody impeachment articles.

•
Schiff was even appointed lead impeachment manager so he could stage his show at the Senate impeachment trial.

•
Tough crowd, the Senate. It did not laugh at Schiff's show, and on Friday it voted against giving Schiff a do-over with a new season of witness hearings. That was a wise decision.

•
By distracting the president from his own job – and hijacking the attention of the public to promote a show trial when there are actual crises facing the nation – Democratic House members abused their power to obtain an improper personal political benefit at the expense of national security and other vital national interests.

•
This show must not go on.
Bernie Sanders & AOC seek disastrous socialist revolution that would devastate America (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
They want to launch a second American Revolution run by a gigantic government bureaucracy, supported by enormous tax increases, and featuring a massive number of intrusive new government regulations.

•
These revolutionary comrades would have you believe they would turn America into a utopian paradise where poverty would disappear, everyone could get "free stuff" including college degrees and health care, climate change would be halted, and on and on and on.

•
And they claim the only Americans who would suffer would be the super-rich – greedy capitalists whose pockets could be picked to get trillions of dollars every year to pay for all the free goodies for the rest of us.

•
"Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains," Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in "The Communist Manifesto" in 1848.

•
Sanders, AOC and some other far-left Democratic candidates would have you believe the vast majority of Americans are suffering today and in dire straits because of evil, exploitative capitalism.

•
But by any objective measure, that claim is delusional.

•
The U.S. is experiencing the longest period of economic growth in decades.

•
And we enjoy a standard of living that is the envy of billions of people struggling just to get by around the world.

•
At the same time, beginning just over 100 years ago with the Russian Revolution, communism and socialism have brought other nations dictatorships that took away the freedom of citizens, crippling poverty and food shortages that caused millions of people to die of starvation, and economic catastrophes.

•
It wasn't long ago that calling a political candidate in America a socialist or communist was the worst thing you could say about them – and would draw heated denials and even threats of lawsuits.

•
Yet incredibly today, Marx's disastrous philosophy is in vogue and popular with millions of Americans – particularly young people of my own generation.

•
Ocasio-Cortez once called capitalism "irredeemable," and recently lamented in an interview that too many people in Congress – including in the Democratic Party – believe "we can capitalism our way out of poverty."

•
(She also apparently wants to revolutionize the English language.)

•
Despite only being in Washington for a year after giving up her career as a bartender, AOC's ideology has already caused significant damage.

•
For example, her war to keep Amazon from building a second headquarters in the district she represents in New York City caused the city to lose as many as 40,000 jobs with an average annual salary of $150,000.

•
Gloating over her victory, Ocasio-Cortez boasted that she and her allies had "defeated Amazon's corporate greed and worker exploitation."

•
By this definition, everyone with a job is being exploited to benefit corporate greed, and we'd all be better off jobless and living off government handouts.

•
How to pay for all those handouts? Even if we literally took every penny from millionaires and billionaires we couldn't do it.

•
But please don't bother the congresswoman with little technicalities. She's a famous celebrity, after all.

•
If the 20th century has taught us anything, it's that socialist and communist policies – regardless of how well-intentioned their supporters are – don't fix poverty and, in fact, often make the problem much worse.

•
... consider the tens of millions of people who starved to death or were imprisoned by socialist and communist governments in the Soviet Union and China.

•
As tempting as it is to say the best way to resolve poverty is to steal money from the wealthy and middle class to build yet another massive government program, this strategy has proven to be a massive failure around the world and in the United States, especially over the past half-century.

•
In truth, relying on free-market capitalism, shrinking government, reducing regulations and cutting taxes will do far more to help people climb out of poverty and achieve the American Dream than socialism ever will.

•
See related In the Red (Antonio Branco, 02/19/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Socialism (Gary Varvel, 02/21/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
What is millennial socialism? (Fox 02/15/2020)
•
"The historical amnesia about the dangers of communism and socialism is on full display in this year's report."

•
"When we don't educate our youngest generations about the historical truth of 100 million victims murdered at the hands of communist regimes over the past century, we shouldn't be surprised at their willingness to embrace Marxist ideas. We need to redouble our efforts to educate America's youth about the history of communist regimes and the dangers of socialism today."

•
This is a stark contrast from older generations who witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the historic event that happened just weeks after Ocasio-Cortez was born and was regarded as a victory of capitalism over communism.

•
President Reagan, along with European leaders, negotiated policies that helped the American service-based economy grow on a global scale.

•
"Look at Venezuela today, or Cuba. Fidel Castro came to the U.S. after he came to power and met with [then-Vice President Richard] Nixon and said he wanted democracy, but then he went back to Cuba and began killing political opponents."

•
Socialism has become a sort of moral high ground for millennials, as Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the so-called "liberal left" faction of the Democratic Party, asks millions of her followers on social media why they wouldn't support ideals like equality and wealth for all Americans.

•
Meanwhile, capitalism, a term of endearment for older generations describing America's economic success, is now equated more with corporate greed and the increase of global carbon emissions.

•
Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal was to save young people's purportedly doomed futures from the global climate crisis.

•
And Sanders, along with his progressive counterpart Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), have proposed "taxing the hell out of the wealthy" to fund government initiatives addressing climate change, housing shortages, student loan debt and affordable health care.

•
See related Socialism Time! (Mike Shelton, 03/15/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Socialism (Bob Gorrell, 04/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Steve Hilton: Why is Trump hounded while Biden's alleged corruption gets a pass? The 'Swamp' knows (Fox 02/03/2020)
•
What we saw during the Senate trial confirmed what we've known for months: impeachment wasn't about the Constitution. It wasn't about abuse of power.

•
It was about the Democrats and the fact that they hate President Trump, are furious he won in 2016, and fear he'll win again this year.

•
Now, finally, this impeachment farce looks like it's coming to an end.

•
But it would be a massive injustice if we let things lie as they are.

•
For years, the alleged corruption and abuse of power by President Trump has been investigated over and over and over again.

•
But what about the alleged Biden corruption? Nothing. Not a single investigation. Why does he get a pass?

•
Why does President Trump have his administration blocked, probed and hounded for three years but nothing on the other side?

•
That is not fair. That is not justice. That is not the rule of law, but the law of the "Swamp" — and the king of the Swamp is Joe Biden.

•
So as impeachment comes to an end, let the investigation of Biden begin.

•
Are you listening, Senate Republicans? You and only you can do this.

•
We now need to hear from Joe Biden. How much U.S. taxpayer money went to Ukrainian gas company Burisma while your son Hunter was on the board of directors, and you sent billions of dollars to Ukraine's energy industry?

•
You said you didn't know about your son's ties to Burisma, but last year, he said he told you. So who's lying? You or your son?

•
And yes, let's call him, too. Hunter Biden, please summarize your expertise in energy matters in 2014 when you were hired by Burisma.

•
When you were wandering around a crack den in Los Angeles in late 2016 while on the Burisma board, was that on behalf of Burisma?

•
Let's call Burisma founder, Mykola Zlochevsky. Why did you hire Hunter Biden?

•
Was it his connections? Which connections? With strippers or crack dealers?

•
As a corrupt oligarch, perhaps you thought Hunter Biden might bring you judicial immunity.

•
Let's get the senators to testify. Senator Markey, Senator Shaheen — was it a coincidence that shortly after Ukraine energy sector lobbyist, David Leiter, gave you thousands of dollars in donations, you wrote to President Obama urging him to send more aid to the Ukraine energy sector?

•
And Sen. Blumenthal, was your decision to sponsor legislation alongside Sen. Markey that pushed more money towards Ukraine's gas sector influenced by Ukraine gas lobbyist David Leiter's donations to your campaign committee?

•
Let's call John Kerry. As you pushed for taxpayer cash to support the Ukrainian gas industry, your former chief of staff lobbied for a Ukrainian gas company, and your stepson's friend and business partner joined its board.

•
Is that not a blatant and corrupt conflict of interest?

•
Talking of corruption, let's call the whistleblower who started this all.

•
How many times have you met Joe Biden? Would you describe yourself as nonpartisan?

•
Why did you hire a lawyer who said right after President Trump's inauguration that a coup had started against him?

•
Please describe all contact you've had with Rep. Adam Schiff and anyone on his staff.

•
Let's call DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa. You were paid over $400,000 by the DNC. between 2004 and 2016. Please describe the work you carried out for them?

•
Did you seek information about Donald Trump from Ukraine, as asserted by the Ukrainian government?

•
And let's end, for now, with this one: If it's wrong for Republicans to solicit foreign dirt on Democrats, why is it okay for Democrats to solicit foreign dirt on Republicans?

•
Yes, there are a lot of questions. And the biggest one of all — the one we started with — why does every allegation against Donald Trump get endlessly investigated while Joe Biden's corruption, John Kerry's corruption, Ed Markey's corruption, Jeanne Shaheen's corruption, Richard Blumenthal's corruption — all of that outrageous and obvious Democratic corruption in the Ukraine cash for gas scandal — is completely ignored?

•
You know why. Because the Swamp looks after its own.
Leland Ben: Bernie Sanders is beloved by America's college students — Here's why (Fox 02/15/2020)
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While many Americans see through Sanders' charade of socialism, needing only to reference bastions of economic success such as Venezuela and Greece, America's youngest generations are more eager than ever to embrace empty socialist policy promises and platitudes for the sake of overthrowing, as they perceive, our gravely unjust capitalist system.

•
No group is more enticed by pie-in-the-sky promises of free stuff and redistribution than college students, the proverbial arbiters of morality and fairness as imparted unto them by the very much in-touch world of the academy.

•
... young socialist groupies might as well be on Mars and continue to miss the forest for the trees. Instead, recent socialist college grads like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seem more concerned with spending nearly $200 billion to make carbon-neutral public housing units outfitted with organic grocery stores and community gardens.

•
The absurdity of this is reminiscent of the "castle in Spain" promises made by Venezuela's Chavistas, a group that managed to turn the most oil-rich country on earth into a desolate, poverty-stricken dump.

•
Most luxury apartment complexes in the U.S., which people work hard to afford to live in, don't even have the amenities Sanders and AOC envision for producing climate-friendly public housing projects.

•
And, of course, don't even consider growing cauliflower in that community garden, because according to young socialists, cauliflower is now racist and embodies "colonial attitudes".

•
College socialists and Bernie fans can keep their word salad of socialist euphemisms, though, as it appears that not every young person is stuck in the academy's socialist ivory tower...

•
In the university bubble, college students have the luxury to pitch a conniption fit over Halloween costumes and the presence of Ben Shapiro.

•
Regrettably, their blinders prohibit their appreciation of problems facing everyday people and push them toward assured socialist self-destruction.

•
See related Potemkin Democrats (Taylor Jones, 01/31/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Socialism (Gary Varvel, 02/21/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Sanders (Glenn McCoy, 03/09/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
You want impeachment trial witnesses? OK, here are questions they should answer about the... (Fox 01/30/2020)
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If the Senate insists on making President Trump's impeachment trial an even bigger circus by calling additional witnesses, then let's call all the witnesses.

•
Why? Because this is about much more than President Trump; this is about who runs the country – the American voters, or the Washington Establishment.

•
The Democrats, the Never-Trump Republicans, the anti-Trump media, the administrative state, the permanent bureaucracy and the special interest groups still haven't gotten over the 2016 election.

•
They are horrified at the prospect that American voters could reelect Trump in November.

•
So these groups are trying everything they can think of to stop Trump.

•
They are raising questions regarding the Russia hoax, the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Trump's businesses, claims of women alleging affairs with Trump, his sometimes inappropriate behavior, character flaws, politically incorrect tweets, aid to Ukraine, telephone calls and Oval Office conversations.

•
In the Senate impeachment trial, Democrats realize they don't have the votes to remove the president from office, but hope they can rough him up enough that his supporters won't show up on Election Day to vote for him.

•
Let's not just find out what Trump thought, said and did in the Oval Office.

•
Let's find out the lengths the Washington Establishment was willing to go to stop Trump.

•
Let the American people see how people in Congress make common cause with all the Trump haters in the media, the foreign policy establishment, the permanent bureaucracy, special interest groups and the intelligence community.

•
Let the American people see how Washington really works: how the intelligence community leaks selectively to the media to advance their mutual interests, how lawmakers and their staffs work with National Security Council staff members to undercut a president's policies, how an official's family and friends get rich by that connection, and how government officials do special favors for donors.

•
To that end, let's hear from former National Security Adviser John Bolton about what Trump allegedly said to him in the Oval Office.

•
I suspect Trump said plenty of inappropriate things.

•
Let's hear what Bolton thought was going through Trump's head. It could be ugly.

•
But words and thoughts are not illegal. Certain deeds are.

•
It's not what people say – it's what they do that counts.

•
A key to understanding Trump is to watch what he does, not what he says or thinks.

•
I have heard Trump say a lot of things in the Oval Office when sometimes he was just venting or blowing off steam.

•
Other times he was speculating off the top of his head, or floating trial balloons.

•
Trump has opinions on just about everything and is eager to share them, regardless of who he insults. He revels in being politically incorrect.

•
Many of Trump's opponents are the opposite.

•
Their words don't match their deeds either, but it's the other way around.

•
They are careful never say offensive things in public. It's what they do – especially what they do in private – that matters.

•
Let's get them on the witness stand, too. Here are some questions I'd like to hear answers to:

•
What contact did the whistleblower have with staff members working for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.?

•
Why did then-Vice President Joe Biden take his son Hunter on an official visit to China, just a few weeks before Hunter Biden got a huge contract from a Chinese quasi-government company?

•
Why was Hunter Biden put on the board of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma while his father was in charge of the Obama administration's Ukraine policy?

•
Why did Vice President Biden brag that he got a Ukrainian prosecutor who was allegedly investigating corruption by Burisma fired?

•
Why did foreign companies and countries with business before Hillary Clinton's State Department donate generously to the Clinton Foundation?

•
Why did FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and others base their investigation of the Trump campaign on a dodgy dossier that was paid for by the Clinton campaign?

•
What role did former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper play in trying to bring down the Trump presidency?

•
Some argue that if witnesses are called, the impeachment trial will go on and on and make this into even a bigger circus.

•
The reality is that they are already preoccupied with partisan politics.

•
Let's take this opportunity to really drain the swamp.

•
Maybe once the American people see how Washington actually works they will get so fed up with the corruption, the hypocrisy and the mendacity of the Washington Establishment that they will insist on change.

•
Then maybe the country can move on, once and for all.

•
Then maybe we can get past the crippling partisan divisions that masquerade as responsible governance.
Democracy and Tyranny (JWR 01/29/2020)
The New York Times: Bolton vs. Mark Langfan (INN 01/29/2020)
Impeachment Questions That Need Answering (01/29/2020)
•
To the House Managers: What is the evidence that announcement of a Ukrainian investigation would have had any material impact on the U.S. election?

•
There is nothing conceivably improper in the Trump campaign's calling attention to the Bidens' record of self-dealing – of the likelihood that the former vice president's son Hunter, and perhaps other Biden family members, profited on Joe Biden's political influence.

•
There is, moreover, no problem whatsoever with the Trump campaign's pointing out that (a) Hunter Biden took a lucrative board position with a corrupt foreign company in a sector (energy) in which he had no experience, facts that powerfully suggest influence peddling; and (b) Vice President Biden knowingly operated under a blatant conflict-of-interest in playing point-man on Obama administration Ukraine policy – such that he may have been corruptly influenced, and even if he was not, he created the appearance of impropriety that government officials are supposed to avoid. (And Ukraine may not be the only country in connection with which Biden created this unsavory appearance.)

•
All of that is fair game. Campaign arguments could properly be made about it, wholly apart from whether the current Ukrainian regime took any investigative action.

•
What plausible evidence is there that this would have had any real impact on the 2020 election?

•
Bear in mind: Ukraine is a notoriously, pervasively corrupt country.

•
no sensible American cares what the Ukrainian government does.

•
... no sensible American cares what the Ukrainian government does.

•
... it is overwrought to suggest that a Ukrainian investigation of Joe Biden would have influenced the U.S. election.

•
Democrats have just concocted a Ukraine straw-man to impede Republicans and the Trump campaign from making perfectly reasonable campaign arguments about potential Biden corruption.

•
To the House Managers: What is the evidence that President Trump is actively corrupting the 2020 election?

•
Democrats claim that the sovereign, the American people, should not be permitted to decide President Trump's fate for themselves in the November election, just a few months away.

•
The political class must preempt a democratic election, Democrats say, because the president, right this minute, is actively plotting with foreign powers to undermine the election.

•
What is the evidence of that?

•
The Democrats have not presented a shred of evidence that the president has threatened the U.S. voting process.

•
The Democratic House impeachment managers nevertheless proclaim, as if it were established fact, that the president is actively undermining the November election.

•
We don't impeach and remove American presidents on supposition and surmise. What is the hard evidence?

•
For the President's Defense Team: Why not subpoena John Bolton for four hours of narrow testimony on a single aspect of his communications with President Trump, or alternatively draw a negative inference against the president?

•
For reasons that continue to baffle me, the president has not limited his defense to the positions that (a) the House has failed to charge impeachable offenses that approach the constitutional standard of egregiousness, and (b) nothing of consequence happened here – the Ukrainians got their defense aid; President Zelensky got an audience with the president; there was no undermining of Ukrainian security, much less of American national security; Ukrainian investigations were neither conducted nor announced; and the Ukrainians say they did not feel pressured.

•
The president and his supporters argue that (a) Bolton's testimony is covered by executive privilege and should be suppressed, and (b) if the impeachment trial is going to be extended by witness testimony from Bolton, the president should be entitled to call witnesses that were denied him during the House investigation.

•
... it is unlikely that anyone wants to see the trial extended when the outcome is not in doubt.

•
And it is certainly important to protect executive privilege – as Democrats would concede if a Democrat were in the White House.

•
On the other hand, the president has chosen (foolishly in my view) to make the quid pro quo question an issue in the trial; and he and his surrogates have chosen (foolishly in my view) to mount public attacks on Bolton's credibility.

•
Furthermore, legal confidentiality privileges are shields, not swords.

•
A litigant is not supposed to be able to inject an issue of fact into a case (e.g., there was no quid pro quo) and then deny the factfinder access to probative evidence on that same issue.

•
If you want to rely on your privilege, you need to steer clear of the issue.
In Trump impeachment trial, Senate Republicans should block testimony by Bolton and others (Fox 01/29/2020)
•
The American people know this entire pathetic impeachment undertaking is a political attack by radicalized Democrats out to meddle in the 2020 election.

•
Democrats know they have no answer for President Trump's success story and the great American comeback we've seen unfold over the past three years because of his leadership.

•
So House Democrats impeached him and put him on trial in the Senate to hurt his reelection chances.

•
First and foremost, in the spirit of transparency, the president did something no other chief executive would have done.

•
He proactively released the transcript of his July 25 routine phone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that showed no quid pro quo was discussed.

•
Second, the Ukrainian government never launched an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, or allegations that Ukraine interfered in our 2016 election.

•
Yet the U.S. government delivered $391million in security assistance to Ukraine nonetheless.

•
Furthermore, President Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials stated flatly that there was no pressure on them from President Trump to start any investigations. And the Ukrainian government didn't even know there was a hold on the U.S. aid at the time of the short Trump-Zelensky phone call.

•
Despite the obvious absence of facts, unhinged House Democrats rammed through the two weakest and most politically inspired articles of impeachment in our nation's history.

•
Then Democrats sang in unison that their case was rock-solid and claimed President Trump's guilt was a foregone conclusion – until they flip-flopped and started asking for more witnesses to rescue their weak case.

•
These desperate Democratic attempts to reignite the smear campaign against the duly elected president of the United States with more witness testimony are just a continuation of the Democratic abuse of power – using impeachment as a political weapon less than 10 months before the next presidential election.

•
This must come to an end. The American people should be able to decide on Election Day who their president will be for the next four years.

•
The Senate is the world's greatest deliberative body.

•
Senators should judge the evidence that House Democrats used to bring their indictment and nothing more.

•
Allowing Bolton – or any other additional witnesses – to testify would do nothing but kick-start another three-ring circus like the shameful nomination hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh last fall.

•
If the Democrats are given one witness, it will never be enough. They will keep asking for more and more and more.

•
They hate President Trump more than they love our country and will happily drag us all through the mud for as long as it takes to destroy him.

•
That's why this coup attempt needs to be put down by the Republican majority in the Senate once and for all.

•
Democratic impeachment managers know President Trump will be acquitted in the Senate.

•
So their only strategy going forward is to prolong the inevitable by feverishly pleading for the same witness testimony that a month ago they said they didn't need and wouldn't go to court to get.

•
... if the Democrats want to call down the thunder, they'll pay a heavy price for it.

•
... it's my firm belief that there should be no additional witnesses. Giving irrational people like Chuck Schumer an inch is a colossal mistake because he'll only try to take a mile.

•
Any Republican senator who may be considering voting with the Democrats to call more witnesses must understand the gravity of the situation.

•
This is their moment to set a precedent that partisan impeachment efforts will not and should not get any undeserved oxygen.

•
That will send the message that the hammer of impeachment should not be abused for political purposes in the future.
Parties must move on from Trump impeachment — or end in mutual destruction (NYP 01/29/2020)
•
As part of his closing remarks Tuesday, Jay Sekulow, a defense attorney for President Trump, urged senators to put themselves in Trump's shoes.

•
It was an odd but interesting challenge.

•
When you accept it, the view from there is a series of unhappy flashbacks.

•
It starts with Trump's 2016 campaign being investigated by the FBI.

•
Before he took office, then bureau Director James Comey showed Trump parts of the Steele dossier, calling it "salacious and unverified."

•
"It was so salacious and unverified, the FBI had used it to get FISA warrants" to spy on the campaign.

•
Within weeks of taking office, Trump fired Comey and special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed, starting a two-year probe that hung over the Trump White House like a giant cloud before coming up empty.

•
Along the way, FBI agent Peter Strzok and his office paramour, lawyer Lisa Page, became household names for their texts about an "insurance policy" in case Trump won and the "smell" of his voters.

•
Seizing on the Ukraine issue, he suggested, was just the latest stage of the relentless effort by Democrats to block Trump from getting to the White House, and then knock him out after he got there.

•
... making a larger point, namely about the disastrous impact the anti-Trump agenda is having on our nation, and will have, perhaps, for generations.

•
Never in modern times has there been such a nasty, permanent campaign to thwart and take out a president.

•
The effort has taught a new generation of Americans that Dems are ruthless and have two enormous advantages, and both have played major roles in the anti-Trump campaign.

•
That the permanent bureaucracy leans left has never been a secret. But the shockingly brazen role of the FBI, the CIA and others in the law enforcement and intelligence agencies convinced me that the term "deep state" is indeed appropriate.

•
The other Dem advantage is the media. It, too, has always leaned left, but the bias involved in demonizing Trump and his supporters is unlike anything we've ever seen.

•
Right out of the gate, it was obvious that the same media that had served as cheerleaders for the Obama administration were committed to stopping Trump.

•
That these two forces, the deep state and the left-wing media, would unite as they have is also unprecedented.

•
... if the Bolton leak doesn't drive enough GOP senators into the Dem camp for witnesses, expect another leak or line of attack to emerge.

•
That's the left's playbook, and as the confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh demonstrated, the deep state and the media will do anything they can to sink Trump.

•
But that alliance is up against a president who is willing — and eager — to fight back.

•
Those who doubt should remember that Kavanaugh was confirmed because Trump didn't buckle.

•
For all the talk of fighting corruption, the Biden family was getting rich from it.

•
Do Schumer and Pelosi want to sacrifice Biden in a bid to damage Trump?

•
Either the nation moves on to other business and the election, or the parties engage in mutual destruction over Bolton and the Bidens.

•
Acquittal and moving on is my hope. Mutual destruction is my fear.
Don't confuse demeanor and demeaning (JWR 01/27/2020)
•
Any fair-minded person who has been paying attention and actually looks at the domestic and foreign policy, economic actions, and executive decisions that President Trump has taken these past 3 years should see that he has done absolutely nothing wrong.

•
He has violated no rules, nor has he done anything illegal.

•
He has not gone beyond the bounds of what other past presidents have done throughout history.

•
Those of us who have a conservative bent are very satisfied with President Trump's administration.

•
But even those who may not agree with his policies or politics should, if they are being honest, understand that as president the man has acted within the legal power of his office.

•
So why do so many hate this man and want to see him not simply out of office but completely crushed? Why the rage?

•
It's not really about the actions he's taken or his politics or his leadership. It's really all about his personal style.

•
Never mind great judicial appointments or a roaring economy or low unemployment or getting people off food stamps.

•
None of that matters because, well, he calls people names.

•
He pokes fun at his opponents, he laughs at the democrats, and he brags on himself.

•
He exaggerates, he makes faces, he pushes back hard at those who take shots at him.

•
Donald Trump doesn't act "presidential" they say.

•
How ironic that the left complains about President Trump being uncouth and not acting "presidential" when those same people have been at the forefront of our disgusting, crude culture.

•
It wasn't Donald Trump that brought foulmouthed movies into the theaters.

•
It isn't Donald Trump who writes and records the disgusting, hate-filled songs in today's popular music.

•
It isn't Donald Trump who produces the vulgarity so prevalent on television these days.

•
Compared to all the rest of modern day society President Trump's demeanor is actually pretty tame.

•
Donald Trump is a product of New York, no doubt about it.

•
Yes, he's a braggart. His style is big, brash, over the top.

•
Everything about him is large and loud. But that's New York.

•
Now consider the things that President Trump is NOT.

•
He's not a politician, that's for sure. He's not a quitter. He's not a liar. He's not a crook.

•
He's not a say-anything, go along-to-get-along type. He's not politically correct.

•
And, no matter what the media tells you, he's not a hater. He likes people.

•
He doesn't need the presidency. He doesn't need the approval of the media. He knows who he is and he's quite comfortable being himself.

•
For all those reasons, the left hates him. The Democrats and "never Trumpers" really don't know how to deal with a person like this.

•
They can't understand a man who doesn't change his principles based on poll numbers.

•
They are completely flummoxed by a man who speaks (or texts) his mind out loud to anyone who is in earshot.

•
Not only doesn't he behave like all the rest of them, he calls them out and he makes fun of them. This drives them nuts.

•
In short, Donald J. Trump is not like them. He is not keeping the old status quo going.

•
And worse than that, he is succeeding in everything he does. Doing it "his way" and succeeding at it.

•
This is why they must destroy him.

•
Their only hope is to try to turn public opinion against him.

•
A booming economy, a soaring stock market, lowest unemployment in decades, high consumer confidence, a country at peace, and a president who keeps his campaign promises.

•
And they think they can turn the country against him?

•
Just how stupid do they think the American people are?

•
Better question is, just how stupid are they?

•
See related Hates America Like Before (Jake Fuller, 2017)") cartoon from USA picture album
Trump Senate trial — Democrat impeachment managers voted AGAINST military aid to Ukraine (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
"If the president cared about national security, he would not have blocked military assistance to a vulnerable strategic ally in the attempt to secure personal political favor for himself," said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

•
"We will show that he betrayed vital national interests, specifically our national security, by withholding diplomatic support and military aid from Ukraine."

•
President Trump's conduct "was inconsistent with and diverged from American national security and American values," according to Representative Zoe Lofgren of California.

•
"Those within the U.S. government responsible for America's security and for shaping and implementing U.S. foreign policy were caught off guard by the president's decision. Support for the aid and against the hold was unanimous, forceful, and unwavering."

•
"Ukraine remains at war with Russia," Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York wept. "It desperately needs our support."

•
So, given how pivotal these Democrats say Ukraine is to America's national security — a virtual lynchpin of this republic's survival — surely these members of Congress did everything within their power to speed military aid to Ukraine.

•
Not so fast, Jerrold, Zoe, and Hakeem!

•
In fact, Nadler, Lofgren, and Jeffries are working tirelessly to dislodge President Trump for delaying aid to Ukraine when they themselves voted to stop such relief, dead in its tracks.

•
On July 26, 2018, all three voted against the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which included $250 million in security assistance to Ukraine.

•
Despite Lofgren's assertions to the contrary, such funds turned out not to be "unanimous, forceful, and unwavering," with Lofgren herself among those undermining the very same unanimity that she ballyhoos.

•
In its time of need, these three impeachment managers told Ukraine to go to Hell.

•
Even worse, Nadler opposed $300 million in aid to Ukraine when he voted against the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.

•
Astonishingly, Nadler's vote was on December 11, 2019, two days after he chaired a Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing and exactly one week before he was the House floor manager for the December 17 debate and December 18 votes on articles of impeachment.

•
If Ukraine is a necessary condition for America's national security — so much so that President Trump's hold on this aid triggered Nadler to co-direct the effort to pry him from office — why didn't Nadler join 188 of his Democrat colleagues and vote Yea?

•
All told, Nadler resisted $550 million in sorely needed military assistance to Kiev.

•
This races past hypocrisy. Rather, it's shocking, outrageous, and disgusting.

•
Finally, while these three impeachment managers spurned this relief, President Trump on September 11 released to Ukraine the $391 million at issue, after a 55-day interval to confirm that newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky would keep his anti-corruption promises, rather than re-direct these U.S. taxpayer funds, say, to a numbered account in the Grand Caymans.

•
The backing that President Trump transmitted, 19 days before the September 30 legal deadline, included Javelin missiles — perfect for the high-speed recycling of Russian tanks into white-hot scrap metal.

•
In contrast, Democrat deity Obama sent Ukraine pillows, blankets, and hot cocoa.

•
And President Trump is the bad guy here?
Bolton Blows Up Trump Team’s Foolhardy Quid Pro Quo Defense (01/27/2020)
•
Don't build your fortress on quicksand.

•
That's been my unsolicited advice for President Trump and his legal team.

•
You always want the foundation of your defense to be something that is true, that you are sure you can prove, and that will not change. #

•
Instead, the president and his team decided to make a stand on ground that could not be defended, on facts that were unfolding and bound to change.

•
Trials and impeachment itself are unpredictable.

•
You don't know what previously undisclosed facts might emerge during the trial that could turn the momentum against you.

•
So you want to mount your best defense, the one that can withstand any damaging new revelations.

•
Here, the president's best defense has always been that Ukraine got its security aid, and President Volodymyr Zelensky got his coveted high-profile audience with the president of the United States (albeit at the U.N., rather than at the White House).

•
Kyiv barely knew defense aid was being withheld, the very temporary delay had no impact whatsoever on Ukraine's capacity to counter Russian aggression, and Zelensky was required neither to order nor to announce any investigation of the Bidens.

•
However objectionable the calculations that led to the delay may have been, nothing of consequence happened.

•
Therefore, there was no impeachable offense. Case closed.

•
If the Trump defense had taken the position that we should assume for argument's sake that the president put pressure on Ukraine but, in the end, he folded, the Bolton revelation would be a big nothing.

•
The president's team could have said it is just more of what we already knew.

•
They could have stayed on the ground where they are strongest: Nothing happened.

•
All foreign policy involves pressure and quid pro quo.

•
There is a good-faith basis to suspect the Bidens were involved in corrupt self-dealing.

•
It is ridiculous to suggest that Ukraine's defense, let alone American national security, was in any way compromised.

•
President Trump has done much more to protect Ukraine from Russia than President Obama and the Democrats did — indeed, some of the Democratic House impeachment managers voted against the very aid to Ukraine, the brief, inconsequential withholding of which they now feign outrage about.

•
The president's team could also have focused their energy on another key point that has gotten no attention: The claim that a Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens would have materially hurt Biden's presidential campaign is specious.

•
Ukraine is a pervasively corrupt country. ... That is how it goes in Kyiv, where the party in power routinely persecutes political adversaries and attempts to curry favor with its Western supporters.

•
Ukrainian investigations have no credibility.

•
Americans might care deeply if Biden's son is shown to have been cashing in on his father's political influence — which such investigative journalists as Peter Schweizer have been illustrating.

•
But Americans would put no stock in any Ukrainian investigation.

•
As best we can tell, even if they announced they were investigating Biden today, they'd be erecting a statue of him by next month if his polls improve. Who cares?

•
On Monday, the president's defense team is supposed to be arguing their main defense in the Senate impeachment trial. It should be focused on these ultimate issues.

•
They should be in a strong position to contend that all the witnesses and documents Democrats want to subpoena cannot alter the stubborn fact that nothing of consequence happened in Ukraine — certainly nothing worthy of impeaching and removing a duly elected president nine months before Election Day.

•
But they decided to contest the underlying facts, where the president's case is weakest.

•
They decided to fight on quid pro quo ... so now they will have to deal with John Bolton's account and the rising demands that he be called as a witness.
America's two constitutions — since the '60s, competing visions of a more perfect union (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
Not long after he left the White House, Bill Clinton gave what is still the best description of the fault lines that run through American politics.

•
"If you look back on the '60s and on balance you think there was more good than harm, you're probably a Democrat."

•
"If you think there was more harm than good, you're probably a Republican."

•
What could he have meant by that?

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Though Americans are reluctant to admit it, the legacy of the 1960s that most divides the country has its roots in the civil rights legislation passed in the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination.

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It was enacted in a rush of grief, anger and overconfidence — the same overconfidence that had driven Kennedy to propose landing a man on the moon and would drive Lyndon Johnson to wage war on Vietnam.

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Shored up and extended by various court rulings and executive orders, the legislation became the core of the most effective campaign of social transformation in American history.

•
This campaign was effective both for its typically American idealism and for its typically American ruthlessness.

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It authorized Washington to shape state elections, withhold school funds, scrutinize the hiring practices of private businesses and sue them.

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It placed Offices of Civil Rights in the major cabinet agencies, and these offices were soon issuing legally binding guidelines, quotas and targets.

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Above all, it exposed every corner of American social, business and political life to direction from judges.

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Americans assumed that solving the unique and extraordinary problem of segregation would require handing Washington powers never before granted in peacetime.

•
In this they were correct.

•
But they were also confident that the use of these powers would be limited in time (to a few years at most), in place (to the South), and in purpose (to eliminating segregation).

•
In this they misjudged, with fateful consequence for the country's political system.

•
Civil rights law may have started off as a purpose-built tool to thwart the insidious legalism of Southern segregation and the violence of Southern sheriffs.

•
It would end up a wide-ranging reinvention of government.

•
Civil rights became an all-purpose constitutional shortcut for progressive judges and administrators.

•
Over time it brought social changes in its wake that the leaders of the civil-rights movement had not envisioned and voters had not sanctioned: affirmative action, speech codes on college campuses, a set of bureaucratic procedures that made immigrants almost impossible to deport, gay marriage, transgender bathrooms.

•
In retrospect, the changes begun in the 1960s, with civil rights at their core, were not just a major new element in the Constitution.

•
They were a rival constitution, with which the pre-1964 one would frequently prove incompatible — and the incompatibility would worsen as the civil-rights regime was built out.

•
Our present political impasse is the legacy of that clash of systems.

•
Much of what we today call polarization" or "incivility" is something more grave. It is the disagreement over which of the two constitutions shall prevail: the pre-1964 constitution, with all the traditional forms of jurisprudential legitimacy and centuries of American culture behind it; or the de facto constitution of 1964, which lacks this traditional kind of legitimacy but commands the near-unanimous endorsement of judicial elites and civic educators, and the passionate allegiance of those who received it as a liberation.

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As long as the baby boom generation was in its working years, permitting the country to run large debts, Washington could afford to pay for two social orders at the same time.

•
A good civil rights movement led by the martyred Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been hijacked, starting in the 1970s, by a radical version that brought affirmative action and eventually political correctness.

•
But affirmative action and political correctness were not temporary. Over time they hardened into pillars of the second constitution.

•
Both affirmative action and political correctness were derived from the basic enforcement powers of civil rights law.

•
And this was the only civil rights on offer. If you didn't like affirmative action and political correctness, you didn't like civil rights.

•
The United States had not only acquired two codes of rules (two constitutions) — as people rallied to one code or the other — they also sorted themselves into two sets of citizens (two countries).

•
To each side, the other's constitution might as well have been written in invisible ink. Democrats were the party of rights, Republicans of bills.

•
Much happened this century to bring matters to the present boil.

•
Barack Obama, both for his fans and his detractors, was the first president to understand civil rights law in the way described here: as a de facto constitution by which the de jure constitution could be overridden or bypassed.

•
In this view, the old republic built on battlefield victories had been overthrown by a new one built on rights marches and Supreme Court jurisprudence.

•
The election of 2016 brought the change into focus. Today two nations look at each other in mutual incomprehension across an impeachment hearing room.

•
It appears we are facing a constitutional problem of the profoundest kind.
Democrats' case for Trump's impeachment is so thin, it can be rebutted in under 4 minutes (Fox 01/27/2020)
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On their first article, abuse of power. They say President Trump asked a foreign country to interfere in our election.

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No. If it's an American who is asking, that's not foreign interference; it is opposition research, like when President Bush asked the Brits for dirt on Bill Clinton or when Hillary paid for Russian dirt on Trump. How about that, Democrats?

•
In any case, of course Joe Biden should be investigated by Ukraine. He controlled billions of dollars of U.S. aid to the Ukraine energy industry while his son was on the board of a Ukraine energy company.

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We need to get to the bottom of that obvious corruption, and only the Ukraine government can do it.

•
They say Trump abused power because he put his personal political interest over national security.

•
That is total BS. The Javelin anti-tank missiles the Ukrainians needed to fight the Russians were never part of the delayed security assistance. Trump sent those weapons; Obama blocked them.

•
But you don't even need to make these arguments on the substance.

•
If you look closely at the Democrats' case, they're not actually saying that the president should be removed from office for delaying foreign aid or calling for investigations.

•
They're saying he needs to be removed from office because of his motive — not because of what he did but why he did it.

•
His motive, they say, is the impeachable abuse of power because it was self-serving, putting his personal political interest ahead of the national interest.

•
But on that basis, every U.S. president in history would be impeached. There is always self-interest in any political action or decision.

•
To pick a random example, like President Obama with the Russians over arms control in 2012.

•
It's hard to imagine a more ludicrous basis for impeachment than the wrong motive argument in the Democrats' first article.

•
But somehow they've pulled off that feat with their second article, obstruction of Congress.

•
They're saying Trump should be removed from office for not handing over information, including witnesses.

•
But that's literally part of checks and balances that is laid out in the Constitution.

•
Congress asks, the executive branch says no, the courts decide. It happens the whole time and has throughout our history.

•
You don't go straight for impeachment to shortcut the process. The obstruction of Congress Article is so obviously made up and stupid, it's barely worth discussing.

•
One more thing, the question of whether the president committed a crime. First, they said, you don't need a crime.

•
Now, they say they've got one because the Government Accountability Office says the delay on aid was illegal.

•
A) That's rubbish because the aid was paid in the specified accounting period, so no law was broken.

•
B) That same outfit said Obama broke the law seven times. I don't remember anyone wanting to impeach him over that.

•
C) Yes, you do need a crime because the actual Constitution says treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

•
It's kind of important, and also kind of inconvenient for the Democrats and their impeachment lapdogs on ruling class state TV.

•
So there's your rebuttal. It wasn't abuse of power; it was normal politics.

•
It wasn't obstruction of Congress; it was normal checks and balances haggling.

•
And yes, you do need to crime. But no, you haven't got one, Democrats.

•
That's it. We're done. Acquit the president. End this fast.

•
And for the love of God, spend your time working on real issues that affect the real lives of the actual people you're supposed to represent — like President Trump is doing every day, showing that giant contrast between Trump results and Democrat stunts.
Trump impeachment is an unproductive exercise in political rage – It’s time to end trial (Fox 01/25/2020)
•
So how much is enough? Relentless attempts to go after Trump's finances have had no end.

•
The Mueller report and Trump-Russia collusion theory lived on for years through a $32 million investigation.

•
Now, after holding up the entire government for months with this impeachment, Schiff's team wants the Senate to consider new witnesses and documents.

•
Tying up the entire government for an impeachment to nowhere is an unproductive exercise in political rage, not a solemn constitutional duty.

•
It's time to bring an end to this movie and let America hold an election.

•
Schiff and his team have convincingly shown that President Trump and his personal lawyer wanted Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and maneuvered in various ways to get this done.

•
Democrats have put a huge flashlight on it, but at the end of the day, U.S. aid to Ukraine was delivered. No investigation was initiated, and Ukraine's administration said it was never pressured.

•
On the other side, Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, have raised questions about how and why Hunter Biden received millions of dollars for a job he was unqualified for and was hired after his father — former Vice President Joe Biden — took on the position of heading Ukraine policy for the Obama administration.

•
Most voters think this raises serious questions worth further investigation.

•
My views are not about party or partisanship. They are based on a firm belief that impeachments need to be based on true bipartisanship. Otherwise, they have no place in our democracy.

•
We are all better off wrapping this impeachment up. The circumstances in question just don't rise to the level of an impeachable event, no matter how many times they are repeated.

•
Asking for an investigation of individuals who once held elected office on the basis of well-known facts may be poor judgment, but it is not criminal.

•
Exerting executive privilege, as almost all prior administrations have done, does not equate to obstructing Congress.

•
Remarkably, it is the Trump administration providing military aid to Ukraine.

•
The Obama administration did nothing to repel Russia, and it only provided non-lethal aid.

•
Some of the impeachment managers even voted against providing aid.

•
There is no current threat to national security, our democracy or any urgent matter reflected in these events.

•
And the impeachment prosecutors have undone themselves with overreach — they know they ran a completely rushed and partisan process in the House.

•
They could have fought for more witnesses and gone through a proper court process, but they didn't.

•
They called all of the senators who disagree with them (and who would be making the same judgments they did) participants in a "cover-up."

•
Trump was repeatedly called a "dictator," and then in closing, Schiff fabricated supposed threats from the president.

•
It boggles the mind that the leader of the House prosecution has repeatedly been exposed as peddling falsehoods.

•
It seems to be what qualified him for his job.

•
While complaining about Trump wanting Biden investigated, Schiff was caught on tape soliciting naked pictures of the president from allegedly foreign pranksters.

•
It was Schiff who claimed there was more than circumstantial evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, and that he had seen it.

•
It was Schiff who falsely claimed that the FBI's surveillance of Trump campaign associates was appropriate.

•
It is time for the country to move forward. More witnesses would only tie up the Senate and the country further.

•
This is all proper fodder for the election, not for three-day political ads at taxpayer expense.
The Democrats’ Burisma Bait and Switch (01/25/2020)
•
... the president was denied the right to have his counsel participate in the main investigative phase, run by Schiff.

•
So, even though Schiff began the House hearings with an absurd parody version of the Trump–Zelensky conversation, falsely suggesting that Trump had asked Zelensky to "make up dirt" about Biden, the House denied the president the opportunity to prove that he was actually asking for help investigating activity that, objectively, appears quite suspicious and potentially corrupt.

•
Even if such an investigation would have helped Trump politically, it is a much different scenario if there was a real basis to believe the Bidens' conduct should be scrutinized.

•
Joe Biden is not immune from investigation just because he is running for president — certainly no more than the president himself is immune (which, obviously, he's not).

•
The president has to be given an opportunity to prove his rebuttal case.

•
A trial is not a trial, not in the American tradition, if prosecutors are permitted to level a serious accusation and then deny the accused the right to mount a defense.
21 state AGs write letter condemning impeachment: House Dems turned Senate into 'kangaroo court' (Fox 01/23/2020)
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"To the Democrats out there that are cheering this impeachment and cheering for witnesses and everything, you are creating a very dangerous precedent that I promise will come back to haunt you."

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"This is a precedent that will basically subjugate the presidency of the United States to the whims of the opposition party for every future Congress for here and ever more."

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"As a prosecutor, I never went to trial without a complete and full investigation."

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"The Democrats had an opportunity to interview all the witnesses, the president invoked executive privilege, which nowhere in the articles of impeachment did they mention, they omit that completely and if they thought that the president had violated the law and they didn't want to use executive privilege, they could have taken him to court and sued him on that, they didn't do that, but they wanted to rush this to get him into the Senate and then go on a witch hunt at that point."

•
"From day one this was about Democrats being upset about the president's victory and this has been an impeachment march where the engine has been gassed up and a vehicle has been searched for to fill in the gap."

•
"[The] problem is, [it is] difficult to find the crime and so they continue to use these theories like corrupt motive suggesting that the president can do things legitimately legally, but if he has a corrupt motive as determined by Congress, well then we can go after him from an impeachment standpoint."

•
"What we did yesterday in the letter that we sent to the Senate was basically explain to both the Senate and the American people that in any other court of law around this country, these articles could not be had."

•
"You could not take this case in front of any judge and convict anyone based upon evidence that the House Democrats have presented to the Senate."
Ben Shapiro: AOC preaches economic nonsense leading to exploitation, tyranny and loss of our rights (Fox 01/22/2020)
•
So, how does AOC magically turn economic freedom into economic tyranny?

•
By suggesting that true freedom lies in collective control of the means of production: "If you're a billionaire, that means that you control a massive system. ... It means that you have a massive labor force under your control, and to be ethical if you're a billionaire today, the thing that you need to do is give up control and power."

•
But to whom would such power and control be given? AOC suggests that major companies be turned into worker cooperatives — companies whose workers own and control the business.

•
But, of course, that doesn't solve her problem: If workers own and control the business, they are properly classified as capitalists.

•
They will have to make decisions to make the business competitive, which means keeping wages competitive, for example.

•
This is precisely what has happened with one of the world's biggest worker collectives, the Spanish Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, whose worker-owners have "learned to think like the shareholders of any other global business."

•
In fact, most companies begin with a few workers who pool their capital and labor: Facebook, for example, handed out stock options to employees, resulting in a $23 billion valuation for their initial employees when the company went public.

•
Does that make those workers evil capitalists?

•
In the end, what AOC truly wants is government control. ... When AOC claims that capitalists merely leech off the true value of labor, she suggests that labor can be measured without reference to the market.

•
How would AOC measure the value of such labor? Presumably through appeals to "fairness."

•
There is only one problem with this method: It simply doesn't work.

•
Consumers determine the value of products; producers do not.

•
In fact, the greatest guarantee of the sort of poverty AOC decries is the destruction of the same system she decries.

•
But according to AOC, we have nothing to fear from government, and "the government is us."

•
The fact that Coates, one of the most prominent writers on the evils of Jim Crow, nodded along should demonstrate that those on the left do not understand the consequences of their own philosophy.

•
The government is not "us," because we are not a collective. We are individuals with rights.

•
But in AOC's world, we have no rights — we have only our role as members of a collective controlled by those who agree with her.

•
That is real exploitation and tyranny.

•
See related In the Red (Antonio Branco, 02/19/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
State AGs urge Senate to reject impeachment in stinging letter: 'A dangerous historical precedent' (Fox 01/22/2020)
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"If not expressly repudiated by the Senate, the theories animating both Articles will set a precedent that is entirely contrary to the Framers' design and ruinous to the most important governmental structure protections contained in our Constitution: the separation of powers."

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"Even an unsuccessful effort to impeach the President undermines the integrity of the 2020 presidential election because it weaponizes a process that should only be initiated in exceedingly rare circumstances and should never be used for partisan purposes."

•
The abuse of power article, they claimed, "is based upon a constitutionally-flawed theory" that is "infinitely expansive and subjective" because it relies on the motivation the president had for "exercising concededly lawful constitutional authority" (emphasis in original) that Democrats deemed to be corrupt.

•
"It cannot be a legitimate basis to impeach a President for acting in a legal manner that may also be politically advantageous. Such a standard would be cause for the impeachment of virtually every President, past, present, and future."

•
The attorneys general claimed that the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress, is "equally flawed," arguing that the House's theory means that a president can be impeached for invoking executive privilege.

•
Doing so would render the privilege "meaningless," they said, because it would place the privilege "under unilateral control of the House."

•
Rather than impeach Trump for using privilege to block witnesses from testifying before the House's impeachment inquiry, they should have gone to court to challenge the president and enforce subpoenas.

•
The precedent set by this impeachment, they warned, "will erode the separation of powers shared by the executive and legislative branches by subjugating future Presidents to the whims of the majority opposition party in the House of Representatives."

•
See related Impeachment (Bob Gorrell, 11/12/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Cal Thomas: America's Expiration Date — Will US collapse in 2026? (Fox 01/21/2020)
•
Must nations, like a library book, be renewed if one wishes to keep it beyond the date stamped in the back?

•
If you are too young to remember libraries and borrowing books, think of the date stamped on milk cartons, which indicate its sell-by date beyond which the milk can turn sour.

•
In my new book, "America's Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers ... and the Future of the United States," I examine eight empires that believed their economic strength and military power were enough to sustain them well into the future and in the case of the Roman Empire, eternally.

•
Nations are made up of people. While modes of transportation, hairstyles, clothing and other things change, human nature remains the same.

•
A nation's strength and sustainability require more than economic and military success.

•
There are issues of character and virtue that are stronger supporters and sustainers of any nation.

•
As the Psalmist asked, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" He isn't talking about money and a military.

•
The book is inspired by the late British diplomat Sir John Glubb, who found a pattern to the decline of nations. He said that pattern has not changed in the 4,000 years of history he studied and that the average age of great nations is 250 years.

•
Rome was an exception, but even Rome followed the same path to self-destruction.

•
The final stage before collapse is what Sir John calls "decadence."

•
This includes uncontrolled immigration without assimilation.

•
No nation can be sustained if it forgets its identity and fails to absorb new immigrants, requiring they learn the native language and understand the native history while leaving behind the agendas and issues of the country from which they came, while obeying the laws.

•
In the past, immigrants came to America to become fully American.

•
Now, in too many cases, we are becoming hyphenated Americans and have devolved into "tribes" that don't know or even speak to each other.

•
Massive national debt is another cause of the decline of superpowers.

•
The U.S. currently is $23 trillion in the red (and counting). Neither political party will do what is necessary to reverse course, though both parties know entitlement reform is a key to the restoration of financial stability.

•
A third contributor to national decline is military overreach.

•
The U.S. has troops all over the world. In some cases – especially in Afghanistan and now increasingly in the Middle East – the wars seem never to end. They are costly in blood and money and victory continues to elude us.

•
The loss of a shared morality and abandoning God are perhaps the greatest contributors to decline.

•
We live in an "anything goes" culture in which everything is to be tolerated, except those who disagree, who are denounced as intolerant and bigots.

•
A nation that does not have a transcendent sense of purpose beyond just existing will not exist for long.

•
Sir John Glubb calculated that the average age of empires and superpowers is 250 years. On July 4, 2026, the United States will be 250 years old.

•
We have been living off the inertia of past generations.

•
Ronald Reagan used to say we are only one generation away from losing it all.

•
Nations, like library books, must be renewed by each generation and sometimes within a generation if they are to survive or exist beyond mere shells of their former selves, like the United Kingdom, which is no more united, much less still a kingdom in its historic sense.

•
There is still time to turn things around, but that time is growing short. I offer some positive suggestions in the book for how this might be done.

•
It will be up to us now living to determine whether those alive on July 4, 2026 will be celebrating a renewed national life, or mourning as at a funeral.
Tucker Carlson: Republicans think a Trump victory in November is assured. Here's why that's a mistake (Fox 01/21/2020)
•
A year from now, we will be hosting this show from the National Mall as the next president of the United States takes the oath of office. Will that president be Donald Trump?

•
Well, as of now, Republicans in Washington feel confident that it will be. The official economic numbers are strong.

•
The Democratic primaries are a freak show. Elderly socialists accusing each other of thought crimes.

•
Republicans are starting to think that victory is assured — and that's a mistake.

•
America remains as divided as it was three years ago. So no matter what happens, nobody is going to win this election in a national landslide.

•
In 2016, Donald Trump defeated more than a dozen Republicans and then Hillary Clinton by running as an insurgent, a man from outside the system flipping the bird to the elites within. Virtually everything Trump said reinforced that message.

•
The people who run this country are clueless. They have no idea what they're doing. They don't care about you.

•
They've hollowed out our economy, crushed the middle class. They've screwed up our foreign policy. They left the door open on our southern border.

•
They are children playing leadership and they've gotten rich doing it. The result is a national catastrophe.

•
Now, Trump's campaign summed up that message in a single phrase, "Make America great again." In other words, let's not lie to ourselves — this is a disaster. The good news is, we can fix it.

•
Now, the people in charge hated to hear that, of course, because it implicated them. But voters responded; they knew it was true.

•
By the way, it's still true today. Things are a lot better, in a lot of ways, but they're not fixed.

•
For a lot of middle class people, wages are not keeping pace with expenses. Child care, housing, education, health care — they're all getting more expensive by the year.

•
The student loan bubble is still inflating. It's burdening young people with debts so large, they can't start families.

•
Now, these are economic problems, but they require a political solution. ... Improve people's lives, and they will vote for you. Period.

•
Republicans ought to write that on our hands. Otherwise, the temptation will be to focus entirely on the lunacy on display on the left right now.

•
Democrats have gone crazy, and it's definitely worth pointing that out repeatedly. ... But it's not enough to win.

•
Winning candidates come with their own program. They convince voters they will make things better.

•
... normal people know the social fabric is coming apart. A winning candidate will say that out loud, defend traditional values.

•
Don't be embarrassed about it. There's nothing embarrassing about it.

•
Democrats are waging the most aggressive possible campaign against everything normal people think is virtuous.

•
They are promising to undo our justice system, emptying our prisons, even as they undermine the police and strip you of your right to defend yourself. They're openly inviting chaos.

•
They want to give the vote to convicted felons, even murderers. They've said that.

•
They think so little of this country that they're pledging to open our borders to the world. Every impoverished nation on Earth welcomed here for free health care paid for by you.

•
They're opposed to free speech. They're stridently for subsidized abortion up to the moment of birth.

•
They want Americans sorted into creepy little categories by their DNA, judged, rewarded, punished on the basis of their sex and skin color.

•
They don't simply deny the existence of biological sex. They're trying to force you to deny it, too. You'll be fired if you disagree or have your kids taken from you.

•
Democrats aren't promising change. They are promising revolution.

•
Centuries of American history and custom, abolished. A nation starting over from scratch, year zero.

•
That's effectively what they're calling for, and most people are not for that. They may be frustrated with the state of the country — many are. They may be anxious about the future.

•
But they don't hate America. They don't want to topple George Washington and implement Maoism.

•
They are conservative in the most basic sense. They love their families, above all.

•
They distrust radical theories of anything because they know — and they're right — that when the world turns upside down, ordinary people get hurt.

•
They don't want to burn it down, they just want things to get better.

•
The candidate who promises to make them better, incrementally, but tangibly, will be inaugurated president a year from now.
Diversity and Inclusion Insanity (JWR 01/25/2020)
•
It's nearly impossible to have even a short conversation with a college administrator, politician or chief executive without the words diversity and inclusion dropping from their lips.

•
According to the Oxford Dictionary, diversity is "the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc."

•
The definition gratuitously adds, "equality and diversity should be supported for their own sake."

•
The standard definition given for inclusion is involvement and empowerment where the inherent worth and dignity of all people are recognized.

•
Here's my question to those who are wedded to diversity and inclusion: Are people better off the less they have in common with one another?*

•
Would anyone argue that a military outfit would benefit from diversity by including soldiers who can and those who cannot march 12 miles in five hours while carrying an 83-pound load?

•
You say, "Williams, the military is an exception!"

•
What about language? The International Civil Aviation Organization has decreed that all air traffic controllers and flight crew members engaged in or in contact with international flights must be proficient in the English language as a general spoken medium.

•
According to UNESCO, there are about 7,000 languages in the world.

•
The International Civil Aviation Organization could promote language inclusiveness by requiring language rotation. Some years, Cebuano (of the Malayo-Polynesian language family) and in other years Kinyarwanda (of the Niger-Congo language family) could be the language of pilots and air traffic controllers.

•
Keep in mind that it is claimed that the great benefit of diversity and inclusiveness is that it promotes and fosters a sense of belonging.

•
It values and practices respect for the differences in the talents, beliefs, backgrounds and ways of living of its members.

•
Another issue is what should be done when people who should know better praise nondiversity and noninclusiveness?

•
... The number of black NBA players was 82%.

•
In the face of these statistics ... the NBA's chief diversity and inclusion officer said, "Diversity, inclusion and equality are central to every aspect of our game and our business."

•
The same question can be asked about professional football where 70% of NFL players are black...

•
The thornier question and challenge is what can be done to make professional basketball and football look more like the American population?

•
Most of the diversity and inclusiveness insanity has its roots in academia.

•
The authors argue that science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs at colleges and universities lacking female enrollment can be attributed largely to harsh grading policies in these fields.

•
Their solution to increase the number of women's involvement in STEM is to standardize grading curves, in order to grade less "harshly." The insanity of this approach is to not only weaken standards for women but to weaken standards across the board.

•
This is more evidence that George Orwell was absolutely right when he said, "There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them."

•
See related Can\\\'t Discriminate (Mike Lester, 12/04/2007) cartoon from General picture album

•
See related Diversity Is Our Strength! (Sean Delonas, 12/01/2019) cartoon from Terror picture album
Ilhan Omar and Steve King – parties have different ways of handling their flamethrowers (Fox 01/19/2020)
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See related Let\\\'s Not Rush to Judgement... (Mike Shelton, 07/03/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Democrat backing for antisemitism is killing Jews (INN 01/18/2020)
•
After a black nationalist attack on a Jewish supermarket in Jersey City, a member of the Jersey City Board of Education defended the murder of two Jewish people and a Latino employee.

•
"Drugs and guns are planted in the Black community."

•
The two Black Hebrew Israelite killers, the former community organizer wrote, "went directly to the kosher supermarket. I believe they knew they would come out in body bags. What is the message they were sending? Are we brave enough to explore the answer to their message? Are we brave enough to stop the assault on the Black communities of America?"

•
The Hudson County Democratic Black Caucus argued that "her statement has heightened awareness around issues that must be addressed."

•
"She said nothing wrong. Everything she said is the truth," declared ... the head of the North Jersey Chapter of the National Action Network.

•
Unlike many contemporary hate groups, the National Action Network has the unique distinction of being the destination of choice for every major Democrat and for its role in the murder of 7 people.

•
Those were the 7 who died in the Freddy's Fashion Mart fire, 5 of them Latino women, who were killed when a black nationalist gunman ordered black people to leave before opening fire and burning the store.

•
The worst racist hate crime in New York City was preceded by Sharpton denouncing the store owner as a, "white interloper".

•
Morris Powell, who had been on trial for breaking a Korean woman's head during a previous protest, had headed the National Action Network's Buy Black committee.

•
Powell had chanted, "Don't give the Jew a dime", outside the store and praised the killer as, "A Black Man who struggled for his people to be free."

•
The New York Times headlined its piece on the black nationalist killer as, "A Life of Resistance."

•
... the New York Times quoted an Imam in the Believers Mosque in St. Petersburg who praised the racist arsonist as "the type of person who would encourage people to get involved."

•
A former senior advisor to the Mayor of Tampa and Democrat campaign consultant described the killer as one in "a long line of people who thought it was up to them to stop talking, stop begging and start acting."

•
Those comments closely echo Paige's justification of the Kosher market attack.

•
It's why it ought to surprise no one that she has not resigned from the Jersey City Board of Education. And isn't likely to.

•
Instead, John Flora, a Democrats running for Congress, defended her and urged other elected officials to "be prepared to demonstrate empathy. Was she still processing the event? Did it traumatize her?"

•
... running for Congress on a bold platform of the Green New Deal, gun control, legalizing drugs, abolishing the electoral college and hating Jews.

•
The underlying problem is that the Democrats don't oppose racism or racial nationalism.

•
They believe that under circumstances, such as a Jewish store in Harlem or in Jersey City, it might be justified.

•
They have one standard for white nationalism and another for black nationalism.

•
Had Dylann Roof been a black man shooting up a synagogue, we would be reading about his "life of resistance" in the New York Times.

•
Democrats have used racial hatred for two centuries to appeal to a fractured electorate convinced of its own superiority and the unfairness of the system.

•
... since 1828, the Democrats have gained and held on to power by convincing narrow groups that the deck is stacked against them and that only they can save them.

•
This poison killed numberless black and white people across two centuries.

•
It also brought countless wealth into the pockets of the politically connected.

•
Radical politics added an ideological motive. But all politics, whether radical or moderate, from the Dixiecrat to the Communist, is ultimately about the acquisition of money and power.

•
Racism, white or black, is just a means of tribalizing the struggle for money and power by playing on racial fear and hate.

•
The victims of identity politics, killed and wounded in random lynchings, are the collateral damage of progressive racism.

•
A few dead people, in this case Jews, are a small price to pay for power.

•
The rise in anti-Semitism is not mysterious. It is what happens when political factions back fringe groups convinced of the fundamental unfairness of society and the need to bring it down, whether it's black or white supremacists, or Islamists, as weapons in a political war for control of the country.

•
People are dying in racial violence across the country so that the Democrats can win elections
Newt Gingrich: Trump impeachment will bring Pelosi and House Democrats condemnation by history (Fox 01/18/2020)
•
"He's been impeached forever. They can never erase that."

•
However, Pelosi has it exactly backward. The Senate is going to refuse to convict President Trump.

•
He will be exonerated, and she and the Democrats will be condemned by history.

•
The wide repudiation of the House Democratic betrayal of the Constitution is already beginning.

•
As a historian myself, I think it's important to document these reactions.

•
"The new normal: Impeachment as a routine partisan tool, endless investigations, lying under oath with impunity, surveillance of political enemies, zero accountability."

•
"Americans prefer to choose their presidents with elections, and whenever impeachment is used in an attempt to nullify those choices, the results aren't happy for anyone."

•
"[Alexander] Hamilton said that the greatest danger would be an impeachment that was based on who had the most votes in the House or removal based on who had the most votes in the Senate. And that's precisely what we're seeing happen, and the reason we're seeing it is because of the use of open-ended criteria. Every controversial president since John Adams has been accused of abuse of power. And obstruction of Congress? That's part of our system of checks and balances. ... So I think the House of Representatives violated the Constitution when they impeached him on these two grounds."

•
"One can oppose President Trump's policies or actions but still conclude that the current legal case for impeachment is not just woefully inadequate, but in some respects, dangerous, as the basis for the impeachment of an American president."

•
... the Pelosi strategy is simply to "bruise President Trump with an unending stream of new impeachment allegations" in order to hurt his chances at reelection. ... we have entered the era of partisan impeachment that the Framers feared. This is what it looks like."

•
... Pelosi behaving in exactly the unconstitutional and narrowly partisan manner the writers of the Constitution hoped to avoid. Again, it is Pelosi – not Trump – who is undermining the Constitution.

•
... "Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff has been lying to the world for years in his nonstop campaign to smear President Trump." ... it is Schiff, D-Calif., – and not Trump – who has been a continuous serial liar.

•
... "further exposes how Democrats have defined impeachment down. The House hearings blocked GOP witnesses and limited cross-examination. Despite selective leaks and a pro-impeachment media, they failed to move public opinion or persuade Republicans that Mr. Trump committed impeachable offenses."

•
... "it was a transparently partisan performance from beginning to end."

•
... "blinded by factionalism, the House of Representatives would abuse the power of impeachment to serve nakedly partisan goals rather than the long-term interests of the American people and their Republic."

•
"With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views, or being personally obnoxious to or in the way of the prosecutor himself."

•
So no, Nancy. President Trump does not have to fear the judgment of history on this impeachment effort.

•
The judgment of history is going to be that a group of scoundrels in control of the U.S. House of Representatives placed partisan interests above the country, undermined the Constitution, weakened America in the world, and lied about the duly elected president of the United States.

•
This will become Pelosi's moment of shame, and Trump's moment of redemption.

•
See related The Adam Schiff Family (Michael Ramirez, 10/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Don't Need No... (Gary Varvel, 10/12/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Guilty and Sentenced (Gary Varvel, 09/24/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Curtis Hill: Trump impeachment not justified – He hasn’t committed any crime (Fox 01/15/2020)
•
The cornerstone of the American criminal justice system is "innocent until proven guilty."

•
It's the difference between being prosecuted and being persecuted.

•
I fear the process that has been followed to impeach President Trump is yet another sign that our collective sense of justice is fragile.

•
To be clear: I'm not here to defend Trump.

•
... something far more fundamental to the welfare of our nation is at stake. I'm here to defend fairness.

•
Fundamental basic fairness is at the very core of who we are, or at least who we are supposed to be, as a nation.

•
While we Americans have certainly fallen short of our ideals throughout our history, we have generally coalesced around constitutional rights such as the right to face your accuser; the right to know the charges and the evidence against you; the right to trial by jury; and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

•
In court, we call this due process. To the average everyday American, it's just plain fairness.

•
As a criminal prosecutor for most of my career, I have known the search for truth to be grounded in the legal axiom of "innocent until proven guilty."

•
We may investigate a suspect of a crime and gather evidence of guilt to be presented at trial, but we do so in a manner that safeguards the presumption of innocence.

•
Without that presumption, we lose fairness.

•
The overtly partisan nature of the impeachment process thus far would suggest that fairness has not been a priority.

•
From the moment the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, impeachment of the president has been a constant drumbeat — even without any clarity over what specific crime might have been committed.

•
There is no doubt that Congress has the constitutional authority to impeach the president.

•
But it requires an articulable crime — "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," to quote the Constitution.

•
When the long-anticipated Mueller report fizzled into nothing that contained evidence of a crime, however, Democrats kept the impeachment engine running while looking for another vehicle to drive their desired outcome.

•
Some might consider unwise the statements made by President Trump to Ukraine's president about investigations, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, and military aid.

•
Others say the statements represent typical behind-the-scenes banter among world leaders. In any case, they hardly qualify as high crimes or misdemeanors.

•
Congress ultimately reduced their investigation of the president to two articles of impeachment — 1) "abuse of power" and 2) "obstruction of Congress."

•
Neither of these vague "charges" is a crime.

•
While abuse of power is a serious allegation that can be considered at the ballot box, it is not defined as an actual crime.

•
Now some will say: "But this is not a criminal proceeding. The president is not entitled to due process as if he were in a court of law."

•
Where did I hear that before? Oh yes, the Senate hearings to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

•
There, we heard liberal senators and law professors alike claim that Kavanaugh was not entitled to due process because the Senate hearings were not a criminal trial. Suddenly, new standards of fair play were being applied.

•
No longer was Kavanaugh innocent until proven guilty. Rather, an accusation by someone deemed (by somebody) a credible witness was "enough" — whatever "enough" meant.

•
In those hearings, we saw the same slippery slope that we see today.

•
The process for considering accusations against public officials has turned into a political contest.

•
Those who didn't like his ideological bent considered the accusations to be "enough," and to hell with being fair.

•
These individuals would argue the ends justify the means, but I believe that how we do things still matters in America.

•
I support the president because of the results he has delivered.

•
He has unleashed a booming U.S. economy. He has appointed nearly 200 federal judges who respect the Constitution. He has implemented a foreign policy that puts American interests first.

•
I realize he is also a colorful character with a distinct way of communicating.

•
If others want to question his style and/or substance, then let's have that debate before we go to the polls in November.

•
But let's also repudiate the unwise rush to impeachment that has damaged our political discourse.

•
The principle of fairness is that the law applies equally to everyone, no matter who they are or what they are accused of doing.

•
Love him or hate him, President Trump has the same right to fairness as anyone else.
Ben Shapiro: For Democrats, every day is a perpetual test of one's submission to the 'Woke Police' (Fox 01/15/2020)
•
It must be difficult to live in an environment in which every day is a perpetual test of one's submission to the "Woke Police."

•
It must be difficult to know that no past act stands in favor of the accused — that each day must be lived fresh — and that all past omissions stand against the accused.

•
But the intersectional revolution requires continual struggle and continual sacrifice.

•
In Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon," communist lackey Rubashov is jailed and charged — of what crime, it does not matter.

•
The Soviet Union is purging members of the older generation and Rubashov is told that he must confess in order to uphold the sanctity of his own cause.

•
Eventually, Rubashov does exactly that. "There is nothing for which one could die, if one died without having repented and unreconciled with the Party and the Movement," Rubashov says in his confession.

•
"Therefore, on the threshold of my last hour, I bend my knees to the country, to the masses and to the whole people."

•
The choice between dying honestly, in repudiation of his own cause, was simply too much.

•
In the end, all revolutionaries will have to determine whether they, too, will bow before the cause — even if they go unjustly to the guillotine.

•
Because there is one basic rule of radical revolutions: Those who are first to launch them are often just slightly delayed in feeling their wrath.
Pensacola shooting – Trump is honest about radical Islam threat, Obama tried to ignore it (Fox 01/15/2020)
•
To solve a problem you first have to acknowledge it exists, accepting reality even when it isn't politically correct.

•
Attorney General William Barr did this Monday when he said the December triple-murder by Saudi Air Force 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani was "an act of terrorism."

•
This was a dramatic contrast to President Barack Obama's policy of closing his eyes to reality and absurdly pretending that another mass murder 2009 – by U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan – wasn't a case of radical Islamist terrorism, when it obviously was.

•
Barr's statement was just the latest example of reality-based policies embraced by President Trump, illustrating the president's determination to see the world as it is, rather than as some would like it to be.

•
Alshamrani, who was undergoing pilot training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, had a history of airing virulently anti-American, anti-Israel and radical Islamist views on social media.

•
He also showed mass shooting videos at a dinner party the night before the attack.

•
His Islamist motivation for his act of terrorism was crystal clear.

•
On November 5, 2009, Maj. Hasan – an Army psychiatrist – shot and killed 13 people and injured 30 more at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan, an American-born Muslim, yelled "Allahu Akbar!"("God is great" in Arabic) as he fired his gun.

•
Hasan was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in 2013 and sentenced to death. Incredibly, he was never charged with terrorism.

•
One would think the U.S. government would have quickly determined the obvious fact that the Fort Hood shooting was an act of terrorism – radical Islamist terrorism, to be precise.

•
Unbelievably, this didn't happen.

•
The Obama administration instead referred to the shooting as "workplace violence," supposedly because Hasan was not part of a terrorist organization and this attack was not proved to have been directed by a terrorist organization.

•
But the real reason Obama did not want to call the Fort Hood mass murder terrorism was that he refused to acknowledge radical Islam is a global threat that inspires its followers to commit acts of terrorism by spreading its violent ideology through the Internet.

•
U.S. government employees were actually barred from using terms like "radical Islam," "jihad" and "sharia" during the Obama years. Instead of radical Islamism, the Obama administration used the vague term "violent extremism."

•
President Obama stubbornly refused to use the term "radical Islam" through the end of his presidency, because he thought it somehow insulted Muslims or emboldened Islamist terrorists.

•
Fortunately, President Trump and his administration have rejected Obama's foolish positions on this issue and clearly named the enemy: radical Islam.

•
... facing the fact that a tiny percentage of Muslims embrace radical Islamist terrorism is not an act of prejudice – it is simply an act of seeing the world as it is, not in some idealistic vision based on fantasy.

•
Radical Islamists killed more than 91 people and injured over 370 on U.S. soil during Barack Obama's presidency. This includes the June 2016 Orlando nightclub attack that killed 49 people and the 2015 San Bernardino attack that killed 14 people.

•
Despite this carnage, President Obama never acknowledged radical Islam was a threat.

•
He never admitted that radical Islamist terrorism represents a global ideology at war with modern society.

•
Candidate Trump promised during the 2016 presidential campaign that he would reverse Obama's dangerously naive views of radical Islam, including with immigration policies to stop importing radical Islamists.

•
Attorney General Barr's acknowledgment that the Pensacola shooting was an act of radical Islamist terrorism is another confirmation that President Trump is keeping this important promise.

•
The American people are safer as a result.

•
See related Still Trying to Connect the Dots (Glenn McCoy, 12/08/2015) cartoon from Terror picture album
Democrats are siding with a genocidal terror state (INN 01/14/2020)
•
... America is in a national security crisis situation with Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

•
And, what are the Democrats doing? They are goading the Iranians into attacking American troops so that the Democrats can gain a "Trump has blown up the world" talking point.

•
In effect, the Democrats are actively colluding with terror-state Iran.

•
Instead of minimizing the military risk to our deployed soldiers, the Democrats are wantonly maximizing the military risk to our soldiers.

•
The Democrats are putting their attempt to gain a political advantage on Trump over the security of our soldiers.

•
... the Democrats seem to have joined forces with Iran against President Trump, in a sense against America, and soon against Israel.

•
Explaining how the Democrats see Iran as the heroic resister to President Trump doesn't make their colluding with the GI-murdering genocidal Iran any better.

•
It makes their actions infinitely more dangerous and deplorable.

•
If it was bad to have allegedly "colluded with Russia," then it is positively evil to collude with Iran.

•
Instead of the FBI opening a new investigation of alleged Russian attempts to interfere with the 2020 Election, it should open a counter-intelligence investigation of the Democrats open, inexcusable collusion with the terror-state of Iran.
On illegal immigration, Democratic presidential candidates should answer these crucial questions (Fox 01/14/2020)
Yes, Democrats will 'debate' each other. But Trump [and his rivals] should be asked about THIS (Fox 01/14/2020)
•
Politicians, including the president, should be asked serious questions during this year's election campaign, instead of the media's fixation on impeachment, polls and the horse race. Here are a few that come to mind:

•
1. Government is bigger than ever, far larger and more intrusive than our Founders anticipated and warned us about. Nonpartisan organizations have come up with proposals to rid government of programs that have outlived their usefulness, or don't work, or never worked. Would you be willing to identify them and if elected (or reelected) terminate them?

•
2. The national debt is $23 trillion and the deficit is at record highs. Everyone knows Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs are mainly responsible. There have been serious reform proposals, but politicians won't touch them for fear they will be smeared as anti-senior citizen. Do you have the courage to lead on this issue?

•
3. President Trump has wanted to pull American troops out of areas where wars never seem to end, but circumstances have prevented him from fully doing so. He has also tried, with some success, to get our allies more involved in "policing the world." Should the U.S. be policing the world and if so, why? If not, why not?

•
4. How do you see the moral state of the union? Abortion remains legal virtually everywhere; same-sex marriage, which was once illegal and considered immoral by some, is now the norm. Should government be addressing these issues, or should it be left to churches and individuals? Are there lines anymore and if there are, who gets to draw them and based on what standard?

•
5. We have gone a long way from President John F. Kennedy's inaugural admonition not to ask what your country can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for your country. The idea of individualism, personal responsibility and accountability for one's actions has appeared to have given way to grievance, envy and entitlement. Is there a cause for this? How can it be cured?
Steve Hilton goes off on 'establishment Republicans' criticizing Trump (Fox 01/13/2020)
•
"I don't think there has been proper recognition of the substance of what this president is doing. It's completely different than what we've seen before. It doesn't fit into the establishment traditional ideological boxes."

•
"That's why they waste our time with pointless political games with impeachment."

•
"We saw the new approach clearly with Iran. The Democrats, never-Trumpers and their lackeys branded him a warmonger. But his strategy has been consistent with day one. He's anti-war, but he's also anti-weak. He doesn't want to invade deserts of sand... but he doesn't want to put his head in the sand like the isolation nuts either."

•
"This is the Trump revolution. Pragmatic. Non-ideological. He approaches issues as a businessman. It's a revolution in ideas and it goes way beyond foreign policy. "
Gutfeld: 'The media will take any chance to call Trump a fascist' (Fox 01/12/2020)
•
"Here's the theory that is going to blow your mind: Why is it that when Trump uses any force, the critics go nuts?"

•
"Because, as even The New York Times admits, Trump has used military force less than any president since Jimmy Carter, which is why the media hysterically amplifies it because it's so rare."

•
"So, when it happens, they have to milk it for all it's worth."

•
"The media will take any chance to call Trump a fascist. Example: Iran shoots down a Ukrainian passenger plane and who do the media and Dems blame? Trump. I mean, Iran is not even blaming him."

•
"Unlike the media and Democrats, we aren't stuck in a prison of two ideas where it's either do nothing or it's World War III."

•
"In between those prisons is the turf that Trump navigates so well between nothing and everything. Trump chose a decisive action that solved a horrible problem."
Trump killing of Soleimani and action against Iran legal – Despite Democratic complaints (Fox 01/11/2020)
•
Nine other terrorists traveling with Soleimani were also killed in the U.S. drone strike near the Baghdad International Airport in Iraq last week.

•
Imagine how much better off we would be if U.S. forces had been able to kill Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden and nine of his fellow terrorist leaders while they were planning the horrific Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly than 3,000 people.

•
Can anyone seriously argue that preventing those tragic deaths would not have been the right thing to do if a past president had the opportunity?

•
We'll never know how many more people Soleimani would have murdered if he had lived longer, but it's a safe bet that the number would be a big one, and that Americans would be among the dead.

•
President Trump should be applauded for eliminating this very real threat.

•
... the "power of the President is at its zenith under the Constitution when the President is directing military operations of the armed forces, because the power of Commander in Chief is assigned solely to the President."

•
No law and no congressional resolution – such as the one passed Thursday by the House – "can place any limits on the President's determinations as to any terrorist threat, the amount of military force to be used in response, or the method, timing, and nature of the response. These decisions, under our Constitution, are for the President alone to make."

•
You can be sure that if Trump had done nothing and Soleimani had gone on to stage a nightmarish terrorist attack that claimed hundreds or even thousands of American lives, the president's critics would be screaming at the top of their lungs that Trump was incompetent and derelict in his duty for failing to prevent the mass murder.

•
The simple fact is that the authority of Congress to declare war does not limit the ability – in fact, the responsibility – of the president to direct the armed forces to respond either defensively or offensively to terrorist threats.

•
... the nonbinding resolution puts members of the House in the embarrassing position of seemingly defending a terrorist mass murderer.

•
It may give the rest of the world – including our most dangerous enemies – the impression that our government is in disarray and doesn't want to respond to attacks on our embassies, our citizens and our armed forces.

•
This, in turn, could invite further attacks.

•
Soleimani was unquestionably a legitimate target – someone who could have and should have been taken out years ago by a past president in the interests of our national security.

•
Had that happened, an untold number of innocent civilians and members of the U.S. armed forces whose deaths were caused by Soleimani would still be alive today.

•
... Trump's critics should be willing to sit down with the widows, widowers, orphans and parents who lost loved ones because of Soleimani's barbarism and explain to them why it was a good thing than an earlier American president did not rid the world of this monstrous mass murderer.
The Trump Doctrine: America First - and more (INN 01/09/2020)
The giant hole in Dems’ criticism of Trump’s attack on Qassem Soleimani: Goodwin (NYP 01/07/2020)
Rep. Slotkin, “Preemptive Surrender” is national suicide (INN 01/07/2020)
Adriana Cohen: Trump Derangement Syndrome is best treated with THIS (Fox 01/07/2020)
•
Bottom line: Plain and simple facts, not blind hatred fed by #FakeNewsMedia, should be one's guiding light leading into the next election.
Jews felt safe in Germany, too (INN 01/06/2020)
Gutfeld: Trump is sending a 'clear message' that he means what he says (Fox 01/05/2020)
•
"If there's one thing we've learned in three years is that Trump will always respond."

•
"A U.S. drone took out the guy who helped direct wars in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. A guy whose efforts led to the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq. He was a bad guy doing really bad things for a really long time."

•
"Iran already doesn't like us. Hasn't liked us for decades. Iran's been not liking us way before Trump was elected president."

•
"If you ask me Trump took action to stop a war, not start one."

•
"He's sending a clear message that Trump means what he says."

•
"That it's never a good idea to stake out your army in another country and plan attacks against the U.S. and think that you're going to get away with it. Not while he is president at least."

•
"Isn't the killing of old generals by drone preferable to sending waves of young men and women to their deaths on a battlefield?"

•
"So maybe this doesn't mean war at all, war is when the old generals send young people to die."

•
"Under Trump we just kill those old generals. He did it with a flying robot. That's progress."
Democrats still delusional about Trump even after Qassem Soleimani death (NYP 01/04/2020)
•
The notion that Trump was wrong to act, if followed to its logical conclusion, means America should play only a tit-for-tat game with terrorists everywhere and all the time.

•
This is the same screwy thinking that demands Israel hit its enemies only as hard as the enemies hit it.

•
What is the point of having a superior military force if it can't be used to defend its homeland and citizens?

•
... a counsel of timidity is now virtually the only voice heard on the left.

•
President Barack Obama's global apology tours shattered historic norms and his attempts to appease Iran's mad mullahs broke new ground in the worst possible way.

•
Iran took his concessions — and stacks of American cash — and used them to foment even more mayhem against our allies, including Saudi Arabia and Israel.

•
Soleimani was the spearhead of this violent expansion, and it is noteworthy that both Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, passed up opportunities to drone him, fearing the backlash.

•
Trump, too, was patient, even as he shifted our Iran policy 180 degrees by exiting Obama's misbegotten nuclear deal and using tough economic sanctions to try to force the regime to mend its ways.

•
But his offers to meet were met with threats, the slaughter of Iranian dissidents, repeated attacks on our allies and, finally, our Baghdad embassy.

•
Naturally, the president's decision that enough was enough led the celebrity sewer to open its mouth ... sputtering foul nonsense.

•
The vapid comments reveal that the Soleimani targeting is triggering the same strain of derangement that fueled impeachment.

•
If you hate Trump, every event is just grist for the effort to tear him down.

•
Whatever he says or does must be mocked and resisted. Don't let facts or even national security get in the way of your moral preening.

•
Their approach makes a virtue of weakness and invites further attacks.

•
Of course we should try to avoid war, but passivity in the face of evil has never yielded a durable peace.

•
Even the most plausible Dem criticism — that Trump acted without congressional approval — fails the test of common sense.

•
Should he have called for a public vote? Should he have trusted Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff to keep the mission secret?

•
The fact is that Soleimani deserved to meet his maker years ago but would be alive had he heeded warnings to stop spreading terror throughout the Middle East.

•
None of this is to deny there are risks associated with such a dramatic mission.

•
The mullahs will feel the need to avenge a key leader, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning the US that "harsh revenge awaits the criminals."

•
If nothing else, the last 40 years reveal that Iran's Islamic rulers are big on other people becoming martyrs but show remarkable restraint when their lives are at stake.

•
"We took action last night to stop a war, we did not take action to start a war."

•
He repeated his promise that the US is not seeking regime change, but urged Iran to end its "aggression."

•
He also warned it would pay a heavy price for any retaliation, saying, "If Americans anywhere are threatened, we have all of those targets already fully identified, and I am ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary."

•
That is what peace through strength sounds like.

•
Democrats and the mullahs would be wise to pay attention.
In ordering Soleimani killing, Trump acting correctly, decisively and constitutionally (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
President Trump ordered an airstrike that killed the notorious Iranian terrorist, Qassem Soleimani, who murdered hundreds of Americans.

•
The President was constitutionally empowered to do so.

•
Democrats, of course, reflexively whined that Trump abused his powers.

•
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's predictable, Pavlovian response was to complain that the president acted without authorization from Congress.

•
He did, indeed, because he needs no such authorization.

•
Article II of the Constitution vests "executive power" in the president of the United States.

•
As commander in chief of our armed forces, the president is granted broad and substantive authority to deploy military forces overseas to ensure U.S. national security and protect American lives.

•
On the president's orders and without congressional permission, our military can engage hostile forces for these purposes.

•
Exigent circumstances often demand immediate action. The delay caused by protracted congressional approval is both unworkable and dangerous.

•
Express consent from Congress is required only "to declare war."

•
Trump's action was entirely consistent with decisions made by his predecessors.

•
Presidents have a fundamental duty to act quickly in the face of foreign aggression that jeopardizes both lives and U.S. national security interests.

•
Until his hand was forced, Trump showed remarkable restraint. He did not retaliate with military action months ago when Iran shot down a U.S. drone or attacked oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman or fired rockets into an installation housing American military personnel.

•
One can argue that his forbearance only emboldened Iran's belligerence.

•
The equation changed when Soleimani directed his terrorist militias to lay siege to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, threatening American lives.

•
This was preceded by a militia attack on a military base that wounded U.S. troops and killed an American contractor – again, orchestrated by the terror leader.

•
Soleimani, who was there in Baghdad commanding these terror operations, was poised to murder more.

•
According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump's decision to take out the terror leader disrupted another "imminent attack" and "saved American lives."

•
Soleimani "was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq," the Pentagon revealed. The risk of doing nothing was enormous, Pompeo added.

•
Ordering a military attack without congressional permission is not without considerable historical precedent.

•
President Ronald Reagan launched air strikes against Libya in 1986, as did President Barack Obama in 2011.

•
President Bill Clinton undertook a bombing campaign in Yugoslavia in 1999.

•
More relevant, however, is the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress in 2001.

•
Given that Soleimani was head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force that was designated by the U.S. in 2007 as a foreign terrorist organization, and given that he was operating in Iraq directing terror attacks against Americans, President Trump would be on firm legal ground to assert justification for his killing under the AUMF.

•
Democrats like Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut are stricken with a combination of schizophrenia and hysteria.

•
While admitting Soleimani "was an enemy of the United States," Murphy suggested Trump was "knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war."

•
Does Murphy prefer that the terrorist leader, who is estimated by the Pentagon to have killed 608 American troops, remain at large to continue his murder spree?

•
Does the senator have no confidence that American military might is capable of deterring any retaliatory aggression by Iran and defending against future attacks? Apparently not.

•
He fails to comprehend that Tehran will continue its reign of terror until a strong leader and nation stands up to the malignant regime.

•
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who served combat tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq, knows better.

•
He adopted a more sensible view when he observed that Soleimani "got what he richly deserved, and all those American soldiers who died by his hand also got what they deserved – justice."

•
President Trump should be commended for acting correctly, decisively and well within his constitutional authority.
Lindsey Graham: Qassem Soleimani is dead because he 'miscalculated' President Trump (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
"The intelligence was that Soleimani was orchestrating chaos in Iraq at our expense and throughout the region."

•
"The president was informed of these potential attacks and he acted. This was a defensive strike to neutralize future attacks that were planned and executed by Soleimani and the popular mobilization front: the Shiite militias in Iraq."

•
"He's not dead today because of what he did in the past, he's dead today because he miscalculated what President Trump would do regarding future attacks."

•
"Their oil refineries are the last thing they have in terms of an economy."

•
"If Iran continues to attack America and our allies, they should pay the heaviest of prices, which includes the destruction of their oil refineries."

•
"To the Iranian government: If you want to stay in the oil business leave America and our allies alone and stop being the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world."

•
"Doing nothing in this region shows weakness. It emboldens Iran," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told...

•
"We're confident that our strategy...all the things that we have done to create the conditions for a more stable and peaceful and prosperous Middle East...we think this is a part of."

•
"Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!" the president tweeted on Friday morning.

•
"But now, what will change Iran's calculation? How we respond," Graham said.

•
"They are going to come after us with a vengeance if we do not reset the table quickly," Graham explained.

•
"And, if I were the president, I would put on the table targets in Iran — not Iraq and Syria. Economic targets that crush the economy."

•
Graham said that while the United States' maximum pressure campaign against the Iranian regime has worked, what would "take it to the next level" would be to threaten to "destroy the ability of the Iranians to refine oil and sell it."

•
"The president has to convince the ayatollah that if he retaliates, our response will be greater than the market will bear."
Trump right to order killing of Iranian Gen. Soleimani – Will make Americans safer (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
The force Soleimani led is responsible for exporting terrorism and political chaos for the Iranian regime.

•
Soleimani had the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hands, and was in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad planning attacks on more Americans throughout the Middle East.

•
Trump acted to prevent this bloodshed from occurring and also effectively retaliated for the failed attack by an Iranian proxy militia on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad Tuesday.

•
Responding to the killing of Soleimani, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Friday that "harsh retaliation is waiting" for the U.S.

•
Trump's Democratic opponents didn't even wait for our president to speak before they attacked him.

•
Far-left freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted: "So what if Trump wants war, knows this leads to war and needs the distraction?"

•
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., asked: "...did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?"

•
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential nomination, said in a statement: "President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox."

•
So much for rallying around our president at a time of crisis.

•
Instead, Democrats are busy implying Trump acted only to distract the public from the impeachment sham – which most Americans have already tuned out – or ordered the killing in haste and without sufficient provocation.

•
Let's look at the scoreboard since the Islamist regime came to power in Iran a 1979 revolution marked by capturing and holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

•
Iran's proxies then bombed our embassy in Beirut in 1983 and were responsible for killing 241 servicemen at our Marine barracks there. They took American officials hostage in Lebanon later that decade and tortured and killed some.

•
Iranian agents blew up the Khobar Towers dormitory used by U.S. Air Force personnel in Saudi Arabia in 1996. During the 2000s, Iran was responsible for the deaths of a major portion of the Americans killed in Iraq by Shiite militias.

•
Just in the past year, Iran has repeatedly targeted U.S. citizens and interests, ranging from killing a U.S. serviceman in Afghanistan, to disrupting shipping in the Arabian Gulf, to shooting down a U.S. Navy aircraft in international airspace.

•
Trump has hardly acted in haste. He canceled an attack on Iran last June because he thought the possible cost in human lives would have been disproportionate to the provocation. And he has prioritized financial sanctions over military force in trying to get Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

•
Trump finally had enough only after Iran was caught once again plotting American deaths and attacked our embassy in Baghdad.

•
For the first time, an American president has pushed back forcefully on Tehran and made it pay a clear consequence for its use of terrorism. Ultimately, that is what Democrats cannot countenance.

•
Singing from Tehran's song sheet, Democrats in Congress and on the campaign trail now all but promise Iranian retaliation.

•
Trump can hold Iranian territory at risk with little cost to the United States.

•
... we could strike Iran's vulnerable oil refineries with little risk and great impact on the Iranian economy.

•
Better still, we could seriously degrade Iran's nuclear weapons potential by disabling its uranium-processing centers and plutonium-yielding nuclear reactor.

•
None of this need entail an invasion or nation-building.

•
Most likely these steps will not be necessary, as the Iranian regime reels, facing strong new resistance to its foreign adventures and protests at home by Iranian citizens who want a different government.

•
Furthermore, don't think the importance of Trump's action will be lost in the capitals of other U.S. adversaries.

•
As for the Democratic naysayers, we once again should marvel at the wisdom of the Founding Fathers in investing nearly all defense and foreign policy power in the presidency.

•
As Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers:" "... the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand."

•
Members of Congress make statements; presidents take action.

•
And Trump's action will make the world safer for Americans.
Epidemic of attacks on Jews is an outgrowth of Democratic and liberal attitudes and policies (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
The epidemic of attacks on Jewish people in the New York City area and New Jersey is not an acute, unpredictable event, but a horrific outgrowth of Democratic Party and liberal establishment attitudes and policies.

•
The bizarre inability of Democratic leaders to admit their culpability in the spread of anti-Semitism is not surprising.

•
The constant effort by the Democrats is focused on reinforcing their preferred narrative – that white supremacism" is the scourge America is facing and that President Trump is the leader of this menacing monster.

•
It is this narrative that is to take precedence over everything, even if it means serving up a completely bogus explanation of what is happening and why.

•
"This is heartbreaking. White supremacy kills," Tlaib declared in the since-deleted tweet.

•
The suspects, in fact, were revealed to be African-American, and part of the so-called Black Hebrew Israelites, who subscribe to an extreme anti-Semitism.

•
"When questioned about the attack on the Jersey City kosher supermarket earlier this month, Mayor de Blasio ignored the motivations of the perpetrators, who belonged to a radical left-wing fringe group known as the Black Hebrew Israelites. Instead, he deflected in a bizarre maneuver, opting to discuss the scourge of white supremacy and private militias."

•
"Might it be that progressive encouragement of ‘The Squad' and of BDS is a dog whistle that has sent anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York City up 53% in one year?" Might it, indeed.

•
Any normal person, upon seeing their rhetoric targeting Jewish people manifesting in this manner would sit back in self-reflection, horrified at the result and contemplating how to stop the madness.

•
But not the Democrats. Instead, after the machete attack on a rabbi's house Saturday, the seventh night of Hanukkah, in Monsey, N.Y., the reaction among many leading Democrats was like a template: Yes, they would lament the rise in hate crimes against Jews, but hey, don't look over here, it's because of that evil orange man in Washington.

•
"Those who reflexively blame President Trump for any and all attacks, no matter how unrelated his administration, actions, or rhetoric are, have made a conscious choice: They would rather play politics than put an end to the violence."

•
"And worse, it seems they would like it to continue, in order to have more ammunition against the White House leading up to the 2020 election."

•
The frenzy to gaslight Americans into not believing their own eyes is not limited to the attacks on Jewish people.

•
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to try to blame Trump and the federal government for the continuing collapse of civil society in California.

•
Medieval diseases such as typhus and typhoid fever – in addition to outbreaks of hepatitis A and tuberculosis – stalk the people of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

•
Officials have recently expressed concern that conditions could invite a return of the plague.

•
It's all Bad Orange Man's fault, they tell us. We shake our heads and wonder what it will take for Democrats to admit their policies are failures and destroy people's lives.

•
"Baltimore could wrap up 2019 with its highest per-capita homicide rate on record as killings of adults and minors alike for drugs, retribution, money or no clear reason continue to add up and city officials appear unable to stop the violence."

•
"Baltimore, a once-great American city, has all but imploded thanks to decades of corrupt leadership, crime and the progressive policies now trumpeted by Democratic presidential hopefuls as solutions to the country's cultural and economic divisions."

•
... one must ask: Why do the Democrats in these places continue to deny the truth?

•
Perhaps it's because the only thing they value is their own power, to be preserved at any cost.

•
... what we can expect in 2020 is not complicated. It will be more of the Democratic establishment spending all its time and energy convincing you to not believe your lying eyes.

•
The only way these problems will be solved is for Americans to follow the lead of the British by sending an undeniable message in November rejecting those who promote Jew-hatred and policies that are meant to sow division and chaos.
Democrat leveraging of antisemitic attacks for political gain (INN 01/02/2020)
•
I did not intend to write on the recent anti-Jewish machete-wielding attack at a hassidic Rabbi's house in Monsey, New York.

•
The dirtbag had a criminal past, yet was free on De Blasio's streets.

•
My personal belief is that the proper answer to antisemitism is not to ask Mayor de Blasio to stop releasing violent convicted felons back onto the streets but to deal with them legally and directly.

•
So if the guy comes into the rabbi's house, the response should not be to complain about antisemitism but just to shoot the guy with a pistol...

•
If the hassidic community would respond to the spate of attacks by organizing for television media coverage a "Hanukkah Family Day at the Shooting Range" or publicly organizing campaigns to buy guns legally, that would change perceptions quite rapidly.

•
The right to bear arms is the best freedom to protect against those who bear arms anyway.

•
I much prefer the response of the congregants at the Texas church where a dirtbag arose to shoot worshippers.

•
The people in the congregation did not whine. They did not cry that there is too much anti-Christianism. They didn't even bother to blame Nancy Pelosi.

•
Rather, they got up, pulled out their guns, and the shooter was dead faster than a New York Minute.

•
In an America where every criminal gets so many rights that, even if he gets arrested, he does not get adequately punished for murder before he dies of old age anyway, there is no better deterrent than the instant justice of shooting the guy pronto.

•
For several weeks now, hassidic Jews have been getting attacked on New York streets.

•
In almost every incident, the attack has been caught on video from some store's street security system.

•
Each and every video has proven undeniably that the attacker is not a White Supremacist.

•
In the face of a spate of such attacks, invariably from the same non-White Supremacist group of attackers, what has been the response of Left Democrats and the Corrupt Journalist Corps?

•
Eric Smallwell, the meaningless California Congressman ... blamed President Trump for antisemitism.

•
The next one racing to speak up for the Jews? Jew-hater Rashida Tlaib herself, the one who experiences the calming feeling when thinking about the Holocaust.

•
Having that Jew-hater responding to antisemitism is like Yasser Arafat coming to defend Israel at the U.N.

•
And when one of the two primo Jew-haters in Congress comes out of her hole, the other one cannot be far behind.

•
So Ilhan Omar, queen of the Hitler Nazi-style anti-Semitic tropes, retweeted Smallwell's moronic burp.

•
These are the cynical Jew-haters who seek to leverage a Jewish tragedy in Monsey to attack President Trump.

•
And then come the Jewish apostates. ... "Just to be clear, I hold the Trump White House directly responsible for the increasing violent attacks on Orthodox Jewish people in America."

•
It's practically a psychological sickness. And "Orthodox Jewish people in America" do not want her suggestions, her help ... or her.

•
And so it goes. Cynics racing to take advantage of other people's misery to win brief minuscule political points.

•
It is despicable, watching the political vultures swooping in for prey and for points to score.
Americans are bargaining away their innocence (JWR 01/02/2020)
•
The presumption of innocence helps to combat prejudice and prejudging in the U.S. criminal justice system.

•
But because plea bargains have supplanted trials in our criminal justice system, that presumption does not apply to most cases in the United States.

•
To protect the innocent ... the law demands that incriminating evidence be presented in court.

•
The Constitution says every person accused of a crime has the right to an impartial jury trial.

•
If the jury is persuaded that a person is guilty, then that person can lose his liberty and be punished

•
That is a sensible procedure for a just system, and it is why Americans have taken pride in our Bill of Rights.

•
Unfortunately, the system that is described by our school teachers and that Americans see on television and in the movies is now defunct.

•
Jury trials are now rare events in the United States.

•
In fact, about 95 percent of the cases moving through the system will not go to trial.

•
The overwhelming majority of cases will be resolved by plea bargains.

•
In a plea bargain, the prosecutor typically offers the defendant a reduced prison sentence if he agrees to waive his right to a jury trial and admit guilt in a brief hearing before a judge.

•
Prosecutors use their power to pressure people who have been accused of a crime, and are presumed innocent, to waive their right to a trial and admit guilt.

•
"The focus of our entire criminal justice system has shifted away from trials and juries and adjudication to a massive system of sentence bargaining that is heavily rigged against the accused."

•
Maintaining one's innocence at sentencing will mean more, not less, prison time.

•
Candidates who express remorse for their past actions stand a better chance than those who claim they have been unjustly imprisoned because they never committed the crime.

•
Some say that the nightmare scenario of innocents behind bars is inevitable because the system has to be administered by people - and people make mistakes.

•
That truth should not be invoked to deflect consideration of reform proposals that can minimize unjust convictions.

•
A re-examination of plea-bargaining practices is long overdue.
Rachel Maddow, Robert Mueller's legal dream team, Paul Krugman all have lessons for 2020 (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
... one lesson is that conventional wisdom and groupthink tend to mislead, especially in the age of online echo chambers where an often sheltered and blinkered elite lives.

•
We forget that knowledge can be found at all ages, and in all places.

•
And ethics has nothing to do with degrees or pedigrees.
Cal Thomas: Why is socialism still so seductive to Americans? THIS is the surprising reason (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
Like swallows returning to Capistrano, socialism makes an appearance on a regular cycle.

•
Sanders has the luxury of condemning millionaires and billionaires from his comfortable life as a multi-millionaire.

•
Sanders appears to favor capitalism for himself, but he's against it for everyone else.

•
Socialism is a false doctrine. It sells itself to new generations who know little about it.

•
They promote it by promising "free stuff," along with envy of the successful.

•
Why does socialism continue to have appeal in America?

•
Part of the reason is adherents claim it is fairer than capitalism. It isn't fair, socialists say, that some people make more money than others.

•
Socialism and its twin sister liberalism have always been about feelings, rather than outcome
*.

•
That so many liberal programs have failed to achieve stated objectives does not matter to the left.

•
Apparently, it is intent, not success, that counts.

•
When liberals or socialists fail, they simply go on to new errors.

•
President Lyndon Johnson promised to end poverty in America, but ... "After the 1960s, official poverty stabilized at 10 to 15 percent. In fact, what the War on Poverty and the new flood of benefits DID do was the opposite of prevent — they established a new kind of poverty, a permanent sense of downtroddenness. They washed away hope."

•
"The public didn't understand that the freedom of markets was necessary to make companies like (General Electric) grow. America was, through its own social welfare measures, gradually heading toward socialism, and Americans didn't even know it."

•
"Just as the 1960s forgot the failures of the 1930s, we today forget the failures of the 1960s. Part of the trouble is what schoolbooks and history books omit."

•
As with much of the media, bias is not only expressed in how and what is covered, but even more in what is omitted.

•
Count on modern history textbooks to recall America's "original sin," slavery, a stain that can never be allowed to go away, rather than the much-improved lives and jobs experienced by contemporary African-Americans.

•
If neither Sanders nor Warren become president, that won't mean socialism will have lost.

•
There's another generation not yet born that could likely be seduced by it.

•
See related Socialism (Bob Gorrell, 04/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Anti-Semitism is on the rise but the left [and its media allies] play a dangerous game (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
... it's not a mere lack of focus and time preventing the media from taking anti-Semitism in New York seriously.

•
It's the identity of the attackers.

•
... correctly noted "that the victims are most often outwardly identifiable, i.e., religious rather than secularized Jews, and the perpetrators who have been recorded on CCTV cameras are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic."

•
This throws the media — and many left-leaning Jewish organizations — into spasms of confusion, since it cuts directly against the supposed alliance of intersectionality so beloved by the political left.

•
White supremacists attacking left-leaning Jews fits a desired narrative.

•
Black teenagers beating up Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg doesn't.

•
And so the left ignores the "wrong" type of anti-Semitism.

•
The same media that will ask whether President Donald Trump's executive orders designed to protect Jews on campus are "ackshually" anti-Semitic will ignore the fact that former President Obama sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years — the same Jeremiah Wright who railed against Jews and Israel routinely during those years; who said Jews kept Obama from talking with him after the election; and who avers that "Jesus was a Palestinian."

•
Democratic candidates who suggest that Trump has emboldened anti-Semites will make pilgrimage to Rev. Al Sharpton, who was instrumental in not one but two anti-Semitic riots.

•
The same commentators who will police Republican references to George Soros for hints of anti-Semitism completely excuse open anti-Semitism when it comes from Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

•
It's deemed completely vital by our intelligentsia to survey white Americans for signs of white supremacy and, by extension, signs of anti-Semitism.

•
Those same intelligentsia will patently ignore the fact that anti-Semitic attitudes among black Americans far outweigh similar attitudes among other racial groups, according to repeated polling by the Anti-Defamation League.

•
Anti-Semitism grows when the victims become secondary and the perpetrators become primary.

•
If you're only concerned about anti-Semitism from white supremacists but utterly blithe about Jews being beaten in the streets of one of the nation's largest cities by suspects who clearly are not white supremacists, you're part of the problem. And that goes for those who govern New York, from De Blasio to Cuomo.
Colleges Dupe Parents and Taxpayers (JWR 01/02/2020)
•
Colleges have been around for centuries. College students have also been around for centuries.

•
Yet, college administrators assume that today's students have needs that were unknown to their predecessors.

•
Those needs include diversity and equity personnel, with massive budgets to accommodate.

•
The University of Michigan currently employs a diversity staff of 93 full-time diversity administrators, officers, directors, vice provosts, deans, consultants, specialists, investigators, managers, executive assistants, administrative assistants...

•
Top college diversity bureaucrats earn salaries six figures, in some cases approaching $500,000 per year.

•
The Economist reports that University of California, Berkeley, has 175 diversity bureaucrats.

•
Diversity officials are a growing part of a college bureaucracy structure that outnumbers faculty by 2 to 2.5 depending on the college.

•
... diversity people assist in the cultivation of imaginary grievances of an ever-growing number of "oppressed" groups.

•
"The mission of campus diversity officers is self-perpetuating. Affirmative action (i.e., racial and ethnic preferences in admissions) leads to grievance studies. Increased recognition of LGBTQ rights requires ever-greater accommodation by the rest of the student body. Protecting 'vulnerable' groups from 'hate speech' and 'microaggressions' requires speech codes and bias-response teams (staffed by diversocrats). Complaints must be investigated and adjudicated (by diversocrats). Fighting 'toxic masculinity' and combating an imaginary epidemic of campus sexual assault necessitate consent protocols, training, and hearing procedures — more work for an always-growing diversocrat cadre. Each newly recognized problem leads to a call for more programs and staffing."

•
Campus diversity people have developed their own professional organization — the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.

•
They hold annual conferences — the last one in Philadelphia.

•
The NADOHE has developed standards for professional practice and a political agenda, plus a Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, which is published by the American Psychological Association.

•
One wonders just how far spineless college administrators will go when it comes to caving in to the demands of campus snowflakes who have been taught that they must be protected against words, events and deeds that do not fully conform to their extremely limited, narrow-minded beliefs built on sheer delusion.

•
Generosity demands that we forgive these precious snowflakes and hope that they eventually grow up.

•
The real problem is with people assumed to be grown-ups — college professors and administrators — who serve their self-interest by tolerating and giving aid and comfort to our aberrant youth.

•
Unless the cycle of promoting and nursing imaginary grievances is ended, diversity bureaucracies will take over our colleges and universities, supplanting altogether the goal of higher education.

•
"Diversity" is the highest goal of students and professors who openly detest those with whom they disagree.

•
These people support the very antithesis of higher education with their withering attacks on free speech.

•
Both in and out of academia, the content of a man's character is no longer as important as the color of his skin, his sex, his sexual preferences or his political loyalties.

•
That's a vision that spells tragedy for our nation.

•
See related Political Correctness (Glenn McCoy, 11/11/2015) cartoon from USA picture album

Documents Go to: List top | Prev sect (04/24/2024) | Next sect (12/03/2020) | List bot

The Constitution of the United States
Declaration of Independence (07/04/1776)
Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation (10/20/1864)
U.S. Code - Title 8 - Chapter 12 - Subchapter II - Part II - § 1182 - Inadmissible aliens
Trump Georgia indictment (08/15/2023)
How a “Cybersecurity” Agency Colluded With Big Tech And “Disinformation” Partners To Censor Americans (2023-06-26)
Read the full Durham report here (DOJ 05/12/2023)
US intel community warns of 'complex' threats from China, Russia, North Korea (Fox 03/08/2023)
Trump raid search warrant affidavit unsealed: Read the document (Fox 08/26/2022)
United We Stand [for Content of Character and againts Critical Race Theory] (Tea Party, 07/21)
Trump lawsuits against Twitter, Facebook, Google over alleged big tech censorship (Fox 07/07/2021)
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann on voting irregularities, and probably fraud, in Maricopa County... (05/12/2021)
The 1776 report (01/18/2021)
Pence letter saying he does not have 'unilateral authority' to reject electoral votes (Fox 01/07/2021)
A [fairly] complete list of [some of] the most significant claims of 2020 election miscounts, errors... (12/1/20)
Department of Homeland Security 2020 Homeland Threat Assessment (10/06/2020)
Transcript: 'Fox News Sunday' interview with President Trump (Fox 07/19/2020)
Resignation Letter (1/14/20)
Remarks by President Trump at South Dakota’s 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration (07/04/2020)
•
Today, we pay tribute to the exceptional lives and extraordinary legacies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. I am here as your President to proclaim before the country and before the world: This monument will never be desecrated — (applause) — these heroes will never be defaced, their legacy will never, ever be destroyed, their achievements will never be forgotten, and Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and to our freedom.

•
We gather tonight to herald the most important day in the history of nations: July 4th, 1776. At those words, every American heart should swell with pride. Every American family should cheer with delight. And every American patriot should be filled with joy, because each of you lives in the most magnificent country in the history of the world, and it will soon be greater than ever before.

•
Our Founders launched not only a revolution in government, but a revolution in the pursuit of justice, equality, liberty, and prosperity. No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America. And no people have done more to promote human progress than the citizens of our great nation.

•
It was all made possible by the courage of 56 patriots who gathered in Philadelphia 244 years ago and signed the Declaration of Independence. (Applause.) They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they said: "...all men are created equal."

•
These immortal words set in motion the unstoppable march of freedom. Our Founders boldly declared that we are all endowed with the same divine rights — given [to] us by our Creator in Heaven. And that which God has given us, we will allow no one, ever, to take away — ever.

•
Seventeen seventy-six represented the culmination of thousands of years of western civilization and the triumph not only of spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy, and reason.

•
And yet, as we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for, struggled, they bled to secure.

•
Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.

•
Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities. Many of these people have no idea why they are doing this, but some know exactly what they are doing. They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive. But no, the American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country, and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them.

•
One of their political weapons is "Cancel Culture" — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.

•
This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.

•
This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation's children, end this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life.

•
In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It's not going to happen to us.

•
Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.

•
To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.

•
Our people have a great memory. They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists, and many others.

•
The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats, in every case, is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions.

•
Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains.

•
The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.

•
This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore. They defile the memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.

•
Before these figures were immortalized in stone, they were American giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men whose intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the world has ever known.

•
From head to toe, George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people. From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on Earth.

•
After forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown, General Washington did not claim power, but simply returned to Mount Vernon as a private citizen.

•
When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and was unanimously elected our first President.

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When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary King George called him "the greatest man of the age." He remains first in our hearts to this day. For as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington.

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Thomas Jefferson ... was 33 years old when he traveled north to Pennsylvania and brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence.

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After serving as the first Secretary of State, and then Vice President, he was elected to the Presidency.

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He ordered American warriors to crush the Barbary pirates, he doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase, and he sent the famous explorers Lewis and Clark into the west on a daring expedition to the Pacific Ocean.

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He was an architect, an inventor, a diplomat, a scholar, the founder of one of the world's great universities, and an ardent defender of liberty.

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Abraham Lincoln, the savior of our union, was a self-taught country lawyer who grew up in a log cabin on the American frontier.

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The first Republican President, he rose to high office from obscurity, based on a force and clarity of his anti-slavery convictions.

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He served as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces during our bloodiest war, the struggle that saved our union and extinguished the evil of slavery.

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Lincoln won the Civil War; he issued the Emancipation Proclamation; he led the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery for all time — (applause) — and ultimately, his determination to preserve our nation and our union cost him his life.

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Theodore Roosevelt exemplified the unbridled confidence of our national culture and identity. He saw the towering grandeur of America's mission in the world and he pursued it with overwhelming energy and zeal.

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No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart. Can't have it. No person who remains quiet at the destruction of this resplendent heritage can possibly lead us to a better future.

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The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice. But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society. It would transform justice into an instrument of division and vengeance, and it would turn our free and inclusive society into a place of repression, domination, and exclusion.

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We will state the truth in full, without apology: We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth.

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We are proud of the fact — (applause) — that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and we understand — (applause) — that these values have dramatically advanced the cause of peace and justice throughout the world.

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We know that the American family is the bedrock of American life.

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We recognize the solemn right and moral duty of every nation to secure its borders.

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We remember that governments exist to protect the safety and happiness of their own people. A nation must care for its own citizens first. We must take care of America first. It's time.

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We believe in equal opportunity, equal justice, and equal treatment for citizens of every race, background, religion, and creed. Every child, of every color — born and unborn — is made in the holy image of God.

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We want free and open debate, not speech codes and cancel culture.

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We embrace tolerance, not prejudice.

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We support the courageous men and women of law enforcement. (Applause.) We will never abolish our police or our great Second Amendment, which gives us the right to keep and bear arms.

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We believe that our children should be taught to love their country, honor our history, and respect our great American flag.

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We stand tall, we stand proud, and we only kneel to Almighty God.

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This is who we are. This is what we believe. And these are the values that will guide us as we strive to build an even better and greater future.

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Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America's destiny.

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In toppling the heroes of 1776, they seek to dissolve the bonds of love and loyalty that we feel for our country, and that we feel for each other.

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Their goal is not a better America, their goal is the end of America.

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In its place, they want power for themselves. But just as patriots did in centuries past, the American people will stand in their way — and we will win, and win quickly and with great dignity.

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We will never let them rip America's heroes from our monuments, or from our hearts.

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By tearing down Washington and Jefferson, these radicals would tear down the very heritage for which men gave their lives to win the Civil War; they would erase the memory that inspired those soldiers to go to their deaths, singing these words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic: "As He died to make men Holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on."

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They would tear down the principles that propelled the abolition of slavery in America and, ultimately, around the world, ending an evil institution that had plagued humanity for thousands and thousands of years.

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They would tear down the beliefs, culture, and identity that have made America the most vibrant and tolerant society in the history of the Earth.

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My fellow Americans, it is time to speak up loudly and strongly and powerfully and defend the integrity of our country.

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It is time for our politicians to summon the bravery and determination of our American ancestors. It is time.

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It is time to plant our flag and protect the greatest of this nation, for citizens of every race, in every city, and every part of this glorious land.

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For the sake of our honor, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our union, we must protect and preserve our history, our heritage, and our great heroes.

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Here tonight, before the eyes of our forefathers, Americans declare again, as we did 244 years ago: that we will not be tyrannized, we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people. It will not happen.

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We will proclaim the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, and we will never surrender the spirit and the courage and the cause of July 4th, 1776.

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Upon this ground, we will stand firm and unwavering. In the face of lies meant to divide us, demoralize us, and diminish us, we will show that the story of America unites us, inspires us, includes us all, and makes everyone free.

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Above all, our children, from every community, must be taught that to be American is to inherit the spirit of the most adventurous and confident people ever to walk the face of the Earth.

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... we will teach our children to know that they live in a land of legends, that nothing can stop them, and that no one can hold them down. (Applause.) They will know that in America, you can do anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve anything.

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This country will be everything that our citizens have hoped for, for so many years, and that our enemies fear — because we will never forget that American freedom exists for American greatness.

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My fellow citizens: America's destiny is in our sights. America's heroes are embedded in our hearts. America's future is in our hands. And ladies and gentlemen: the best is yet to come.
READ: The Declaration of Independence (Fox 07/03/2020)
READ: Supreme Court opinion on Trump effort to end DACA (Fox 06/18/2020)
READ: Flynn, Kislyak transcripts of conversations during Trump transition (Fox 05/29/2020)
NY Department of Health: Hospital Discharges and Admissions to Nursing Homes (03/25/2020)
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ANDREW M. CUOMO Govenor - HOWARD A. ZUCKER, M.D., J.D. Commissioner - SALLY DRESLIN, M.S., R.N. Executive Deputy Commissioner

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Please distribute immediately to: Nursing Home Administrators, Directors of Nursing, Directors of Social Work, Hospital Discharge Planners

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There is an urgent need to expand hospital capacity in New York State to be able to meet the demand for patients with COVID-19 requiring acute care.

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As a result, this directive is being issued to clarify expectations for nursing homes (NHs) receiving residents returning from hospitalization and for NHs accepting new admissions.

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During this global health emergency, all NHs must comply with the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals to NHs.

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Residents are deemed appropriate for return to a NH upon a determination by the hospital physician or designee that the resident is medically stable for return.

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Hospital discharge planners must confirm to the NH, by telephone, that the resident is medically stable for discharge.

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No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.

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NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.
Read: Documents listing names of Obama-era officials who sought to 'unmask' Michael Flynn (Fox 05/15/2020)
READ: Trump's 'Opening Up America Again' guidelines (Fox 04/16/2020)
Read: Trump letter declaring coronavirus national emergency under Stafford Act (Fox 03/13/2020)
State AG letter to Senate on impeachment 1/22/20 (0
Letter from President Trump (12/17/2019)
Read: Dems introduce articles of impeachment (Fox 12/10/2019)
Read: House Democrats' impeachment report (Fox 12/03/2019)
Devin Nunes' opening statement in House impeachment inquiry hearing (Fox 11/19/2019)
White House letter announcing noncompliance with impeachment inquiry (Fox 10/08/2019)
Whistleblower complaint on Trump Ukraine call: read the document (Fox 09/26/2019)
Trump's Ukraine call transcript: Read the document (Fox 09/25/2019)
Comey’s violations: Read DOJ watchdog’s list of all the times ex-FBI boss broke the rules (Fox 08/29/2019)
Department of Justice instructs Mueller to keep testimony to information from his report (Fox 07/22/2019)
President Trump's speech at 75th D-Day anniversary in Normandy in full (Fox 06/06/2019)
White House Counsel Emmett Flood's letter to Attorney General Barr on Mueller report (Fox 05/02/2019)
Read the Robert Mueller report (Fox 04/18/2019)
Read the Mueller report findings: Barr’s letter to Congress (Fox 03/24/2019)
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... the Special Counsel noted that, in completing his investigation, he employed 19 lawyers who were assisted by a team of approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff.

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The Special Counsel issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.

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The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S.

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"[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."

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The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion - one way or the other - as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction. Instead, for each of the relevant actions investigated, the report sets out evidence on both sides of the question and leaves unresolved what the Special Counsel views as "difficult issues" of law and fact concerning whether the President's actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction.

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The Special Counsel's decision to describe the facts of his obstruction investigation without reaching any legal conclusions leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.

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After reviewing the Special Counsel's final report on these issues; consulting with Department officials, including the Office of Legal Counsel; and applying the principles of federal prosecution that guide our charging decisions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.

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Our determination was made without regard to, and is not based on, the constitutional considerations that surround the indictment and criminal prosecution of a sitting president.

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In making this determination, we noted that the Special Counsel recognized that "the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference," and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the President's intent with respect to obstruction.

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Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding.

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In cataloguing the President's actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct, had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent, each of which, under the Department's principles of federal prosecution guiding charging decisions, would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to establish an obstruction-ofjustice offense.

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... the Special Counsel regulations provide that "the Attorney General may determine that public release of' notifications to your respective Committees "would be in the public interest."

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I have so determined, and I will disclose this letter to the public after delivering it to you.
Read the prosecution's case against Jussie Smollett (02/21/2019)
READ: Trump's letter to Pelosi on State of the Union address (Fox 01/23/2019)
Read President Trump's letter to Nancy Pelosi about Egypt, Brussels, Afghanistan trip (Fox 01/17/2019)
Committee Republicans Report: Political Weaponization Of Ballot Harvesting In California (2018)
Congressional Republicans' second hearing with Comey (12/18/2018)
Michael Flynn interview documents (Fox 12/14/2018)
TRANSCRIPT: James Comey interview with House committees (Fox 12/08/2018)
Jeff Sessions' farewell message (Fox 11/08/2018)
United States v. Cesar Sayoc complaint (Fox 10/26/2018)
Read the IG report on Hillary Clinton email case (Fox 06/14/2018)
Democratic rebuttal to GOP FISA memo (02/24/2018)
Indictment of Russian nationals (Fox 02/16/2018)
House Intelligence Committee Report On FISA Abuses (Fox 02/02/2018)
Full Text: Trump's State of the Union address (Fox 01/30/2018)
DHS OIG Finds ICE’s Screening Protocol of Aliens Who May Be Known or Suspected Terrorists is Limited and Risks National Security (01/09/2018)
Non-Citizens Committed a Disproportionate Share of Federal Crimes, 2011-16 (01/10/2018)
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21% of those convicted of non-immigration crimes were non-citizens — 2.5 times their share of the population
Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States (01/16/2018)
Declaration of Independence - Intention to form the State of New California (01/15/2018)
National Security Strategy of the Unites States of America (12/18/2017)
Former West Point professor’s letter exposes corruption, cheating and failing standards (10/11/2017)
Some Thoughts and Advice for Our Students and All Students (Princeton University, 08/29/2017)
Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber (07/2017)
Jeff Sessions' prepared remarks to intelligence committee (Fox 06/13/2017)
Ex-FBI Director James Comey statement for the record to Senate Intelligence Committee (Fox 06/07/2017)
Text: Trump letter to Comey (Fox 05/09/2017)
Text of Trump's revised immigration order (Fox 03/06/2017)
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It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks, including those committed by foreign nationals.

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"Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate."

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Under these authorities, I determined that, for a brief period of 90 days, while existing screening and vetting procedures were under review, the entry into the United States of certain aliens from the seven identified countries — each afflicted by terrorism in a manner that compromised the ability of the United States to rely on normal decision-making procedures about travel to the United States — would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.

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Terrorist groups have sought to infiltrate several nations through refugee programs.

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While that order allowed for prioritization of refugee claims from members of persecuted religious minority groups, that priority applied to refugees from every nation, including those in which Islam is a minority religion, and it applied to minority sects within a religion.

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Each of these countries is a state sponsor of terrorism, has been significantly compromised by terrorist organizations, or contains active conflict zones.

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Any of these circumstances diminishes the foreign government's willingness or ability to share or validate important information about individuals seeking to travel to the United States.

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Moreover, the significant presence in each of these countries of terrorist organizations, their members, and others exposed to those organizations increases the chance that conditions will be exploited to enable terrorist operatives or sympathizers to travel to the United States.

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Finally, once foreign nationals from these countries are admitted to the United States, it is often difficult to remove them, because many of these countries typically delay issuing, or refuse to issue, travel documents.

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Iran has been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1984 and continues to support various terrorist groups...

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Libya is an active combat zone, with hostilities between the internationally recognized government and its rivals.

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Portions of Somalia have been terrorist safe havens.

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Sudan has been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1993 because of its support for international terrorist groups...

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Syria has been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1979.

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Yemen is the site of an ongoing conflict between the incumbent government and the Houthi-led opposition.

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Recent history shows that some of those who have entered the United States through our immigration system have proved to be threats to our national security.

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Since 2001, hundreds of persons born abroad have been convicted of terrorism-related crimes in the United States.

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The Attorney General has reported to me that more than 300 persons who entered the United States as refugees are currently the subjects of counterterrorism investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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Given the foregoing, the entry into the United States of foreign nationals who may commit, aid, or support acts of terrorism remains a matter of grave concern.

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I therefore direct that the entry into the United States of nationals of those six countries be suspended for 90 days from the effective date of this order, subject to the limitations, waivers, and exceptions set forth...

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I hereby proclaim that the entry of more than 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2017 would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and thus suspend any entries in excess of that number until such time as I determine that additional entries would be in the national interest.
Full transcript of Trump's remarks to Congress (Fox 03/28/2017)
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I will not allow the mistakes of recent decades past to define the course of our future.

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For too long, we've watched our middle class shrink as we've exported our jobs and wealth to foreign countries.

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We've defended the borders of other nations, while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross...

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... we've spent trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled.

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... the people turned out by the tens of millions, and they were all united by one very simple, but crucial demand, that America must put its own citizens first...

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Since my election, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Intel, Walmart, and many others, have announced that they will invest billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs.

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We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by imposing a 5 year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials –- and a lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign government.

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We have withdrawn the United States from the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership.

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I have further ordered the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, along with the Department of State and the Director of National Intelligence, to coordinate an aggressive strategy to dismantle the criminal cartels that have spread across our Nation.

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We will stop the drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth — and we will expand treatment for those who have become so badly addicted.

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By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone.

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... we will soon begin the construction of a great wall along our southern border.

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... we are removing gang members, drug dealers and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens.

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To any in Congress who do not believe we should enforce our laws, I would ask you this question: what would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or a loved one, because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?

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Our obligation is to serve, protect, and defend the citizens of the United States.

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We are also taking strong measures to protect our Nation from Radical Islamic Terrorism.

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According to data provided by the Department of Justice, the vast majority of individuals convicted for terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country.

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It is not compassionate, but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry from places where proper vetting cannot occur. Those given the high honor of admission to the United States should support this country and love its people and its values.

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We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America — we cannot allow our Nation to become a sanctuary for extremists.

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As promised, I directed the Department of Defense to develop a plan to demolish and destroy ISIS — a network of lawless savages ... We will work with our allies, including our friends and allies in the Muslim world, to extinguish this vile enemy from our planet.

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I have also imposed new sanctions on entities and individuals who support Iran's ballistic missile program, and reaffirmed our unbreakable alliance with the State of Israel.

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Finally, I have kept my promise to appoint a Justice to the United States Supreme Court ... who will defend our Constitution.

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Tonight, as I outline the next steps we must take as a country, we must honestly acknowledge the circumstances we inherited.

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In the last 8 years, the past Administration has put on more new debt than nearly all other Presidents combined.

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We've lost more than one-fourth of our manufacturing jobs since NAFTA was approved, and we've lost 60,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

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Our trade deficit in goods with the world last year was nearly $800 billion dollars.

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And overseas, we have inherited a series of tragic foreign policy disasters.

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Solving these, and so many other pressing problems, will require us to work past the differences of party.

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But to accomplish our goals at home and abroad, we must restart the engine of the American economy — making it easier for companies to do business in the United States, and much harder for companies to leave.

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We must create a level playing field for American companies and workers.

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Currently, when we ship products out of America, many other countries make us pay very high tariffs and taxes — but when foreign companies ship their products into America, we charge them almost nothing.

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I believe strongly in free trade but it also has to be FAIR TRADE.

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The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, warned that the "abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government [will] produce want and ruin among our people."

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Lincoln was right — and it is time we heeded his words. I am not going to let America and its great companies and workers, be taken advantage of anymore.

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It is a basic principle that those seeking to enter a country ought to be able to support themselves financially.

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According to the National Academy of Sciences, our current immigration system costs America's taxpayers many billions of dollars a year.

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I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals: to improve jobs and wages for Americans, to strengthen our nation's security, and to restore respect for our laws.

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If we are guided by the well-being of American citizens then I believe Republicans and Democrats can work together to achieve an outcome that has eluded our country for decades.

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America has spent approximately six trillion dollars in the Middle East, all this while our infrastructure at home is crumbling.

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With this six trillion dollars we could have rebuilt our country –- twice. And maybe even three times if we had people who had the ability to negotiate.

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To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking the Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in the infrastructure of the United States — financed through both public and private capital –- creating millions of new jobs.

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This effort will be guided by two core principles: Buy American, and Hire American.

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Tonight, I am also calling on this Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and at the same time, provide better Healthcare.

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Mandating every American to buy government-approved health insurance was never the right solution for America.

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The way to make health insurance available to everyone is to lower the cost of health insurance, and that is what we will do.

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Remember when you were told that you could keep your doctor, and keep your plan?

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Obamacare is collapsing –- and we must act decisively to protect all Americans. Action is not a choice –- it is a necessity.

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... the time has come to give Americans the freedom to purchase health insurance across State lines –- creating a truly competitive national marketplace that will bring cost way down and provide far better care.

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I am calling upon Members of both parties to pass an education bill that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth...

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... we must support the victims of crime.

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... to keep America Safe we must provide the men and women of the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war and –- if they must –- to fight and to win.

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Our veterans have delivered for this Nation –- and now we must deliver for them.

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Our foreign policy calls for a direct, robust and meaningful engagement with the world.

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We strongly support NATO, an alliance forged through the bonds of two World Wars that dethroned fascism, and a Cold War that defeated communism.

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But our partners must meet their financial obligations.

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My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America.

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We must learn from the mistakes of the past –- we have seen the war and destruction that have raged across our world.

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America is willing to find new friends, and to forge new partnerships, where shared interests align. We want harmony and stability, not war and conflict.

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The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us.

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I am asking all citizens to embrace this Renewal of the American Spirit.
Michael Flynn's letter of resignation as national security adviser (Fox 02/14/2017)
EXecutive order: Protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States (01/27/2017)
Text of Trump's executive order on interior immigration enforcement (Fox 01/25/2017)
Text of Trump's executive order on border security (Fox 01/25/2017)
Full text of President Donald Trump's inauguration speech (Fox 01/20/2017)
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... today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.

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For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.

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Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation's Capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

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What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.

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You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.

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At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction: that a nation exists to serve its citizens.

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Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves.

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But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

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This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

•
For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry;

•
Subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military;

•
We've defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own;

•
And spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

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We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon.

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One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind.

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The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world.

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From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

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From this moment on, it's going to be America First.

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Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.

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We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.

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I will fight for you with every breath in my body – and I will never, ever let you down.

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We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.

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We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world – but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.

•
We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.

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We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones – and unite the civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

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At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.

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When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.

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We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action – constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.

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The time for empty talk is over.

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Now arrives the hour of action.

•
... old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag.

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You will never be ignored again.

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Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams, will define our American destiny.

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And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

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... Together, We Will Make America Great Again. Thank you, God Bless You, And God Bless America.
Report on Russian activities and intentions in recent US elections (Fox 01/06/2017)
FBI letter to Congress on Clinton email probe (Fox 10/28/2016)
Rahami Federal Complaint (09/20/2016)
Summary of the Reengagement of Detainees Formerly Held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (07/15/2016)
Read the declassified files from 9/11 (Fox ry/0/2016)
Select Committee on Benghazi Releases Proposed Report (06/28/2016)
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81 New Witnesses, 75,000 New Pages of Documents Reveal Significant New Information.

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Fundamentally Changes the Public's Understanding of the 2012 Terrorist Attacks that Killed Four Americans

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"Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were heroes who gave their lives in service to our country. Their bravery and the courageous actions of so many others on the ground that night should be honored."

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"Now, I simply ask the American people to read this report for themselves, look at the evidence we have collected, and reach their own conclusions. You can read this report in less time than our fellow citizens were taking fire and fighting for their lives on the rooftops and in the streets of Benghazi."
Letter from Sen. Ron Johnson to Facebook regarding Orlando shooter's posts (Fox 06/15/2016)
Donald J. Trump foreign policy speech (04/27/2016)
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I would like to talk today about how to develop a new foreign policy direction for our country – one that replaces randomness with purpose, ideology with strategy, and chaos with peace.

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My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people, and American security, above all else. That will be the foundation of every decision that I will make.

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America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.

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Unfortunately, after the Cold War, our foreign policy veered badly off course. We failed to develop a new vision for a new time. In fact, as time went on, our foreign policy began to make less and less sense.

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Logic was replaced with foolishness and arrogance, and this led to one foreign policy disaster after another.

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It all began with the dangerous idea that we could make Western democracies out of countries that had no experience or interest in becoming a Western Democracy.

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We tore up what institutions they had and then were surprised at what we unleashed.

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Our foreign policy is a complete and total disaster.

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No vision, no purpose, no direction, no strategy.

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Today, I want to identify five main weaknesses in our foreign policy.

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First, Our Resources Are Overextended

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President Obama has weakened our military by weakening our economy. He's crippled us with wasteful spending, massive debt, low growth, a huge trade deficit and open borders.

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Ending the theft of American jobs will give us the resources we need to rebuild our military and regain our financial independence and strength.

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Secondly, our allies are not paying their fair share.

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Our allies must contribute toward the financial, political and human costs of our tremendous security burden.

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We have spent trillions of dollars over time – on planes, missiles, ships, equipment – building up our military to provide a strong defense for Europe and Asia.

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The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense – and, if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves.

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The whole world will be safer if our allies do their part to support our common defense and security.

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Thirdly, our friends are beginning to think they can't depend on us.

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We've had a president who dislikes our friends and bows to our enemies.

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He negotiated a disastrous deal with Iran, and then we watched them ignore its terms, even before the ink was dry.

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Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and, under a Trump Administration, will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

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In negotiation, you must be willing to walk. The Iran deal, like so many of our worst agreements, is the result of not being willing to leave the table.

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At the same time, your friends need to know that you will stick by the agreements that you have with them.

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Israel, our great friend and the one true Democracy in the Middle East, has been snubbed and criticized by an Administration that lacks moral clarity.

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We've picked fights with our oldest friends, and now they're starting to look elsewhere for help.

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Fourth, our rivals no longer respect us.

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In fact, they are just as confused as our allies, but an even bigger problem is that they don't take us seriously any more.

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Our president has allowed China to continue its economic assault on American jobs and wealth, refusing to enforce trade rules – or apply the leverage on China necessary to rein in North Korea.

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We've let our rivals and challengers think they can get away with anything.

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If President Obama's goal had been to weaken America, he could not have done a better job.

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Finally, America no longer has a clear understanding of our foreign policy goals.

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One day we're bombing Libya and getting rid of a dictator to foster democracy for civilians, the next day we are watching the same civilians suffer while that country falls apart.

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We have made the Middle East more unstable and chaotic than ever before.

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We left Christians subject to intense persecution and even genocide.

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Our actions in Iraq, Libya and Syria have helped unleash ISIS.

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And we're in a war against radical Islam, but President Obama won't even name the enemy!

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This will change when I am president.

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To all our friends and allies, I say America is going to be strong again. America is going to be a reliable friend and ally again.

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We're going to finally have a coherent foreign policy based upon American interests, and the shared interests of our allies.

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We are getting out of the nation-building business, and instead focusing on creating stability in the world.

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First, we need a long-term plan to halt the spread and reach of radical Islam.

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Containing the spread of radical Islam must be a major foreign policy goal of the United States.

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Events may require the use of military force. But it's also a philosophical struggle, like our long struggle in the Cold War.

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In this we're going to be working very closely with our allies in the Muslim world, all of which are at risk from radical Islamic violence.

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The struggle against radical Islam also takes place in our homeland. There are scores of recent migrants inside our borders charged with terrorism. For every case known to the public, there are dozens more.

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We must stop importing extremism through senseless immigration policies.

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And then there's ISIS. I have a simple message for them. Their days are numbered.

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Secondly, we have to rebuild our military and our economy.

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The Russians and Chinese have rapidly expanded their military capability, but look what's happened to us!

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Our military is depleted, and we're asking our generals and military leaders to worry about global warming.

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We will spend what we need to rebuild our military. It is the cheapest investment we can make.

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We will develop, build and purchase the best equipment known to mankind. Our military dominance must be unquestioned.

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We are also going to have to change our trade, immigration and economic policies to make our economy strong again – and to put Americans first again.

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This will ensure that our own workers, right here in America, get the jobs and higher pay that will grow our tax revenue and increase our economic might as a nation.

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A Trump Administration will give our service men and women the best equipment and support in the world when they serve, and the best care in the world when they return as veterans to civilian life.

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Finally, we must develop a foreign policy based on American interests.

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Businesses do not succeed when they lose sight of their core interests and neither do countries.

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Our foreign policy goals must be based on America's core national security interests, and the following will be my priorities.

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In the Middle East, our goals must be to defeat terrorists and promote regional stability, not radical change.

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We need to be clear-sighted about the groups that will never be anything other than enemies.

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And we must only be generous to those that prove they are our friends.

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We desire to live peacefully and in friendship with Russia and China. We have serious differences with these two nations, and must regard them with open eyes. But we are not bound to be adversaries.

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I believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia – from a position of strength – is possible.

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China respects strength, and by letting them take advantage of us economically, we have lost all of their respect.

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A strong and smart America is an America that will find a better friend in China.

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I will not hesitate to deploy military force when there is no alternative. But if America fights, it must fight to win. I will never send our finest into battle unless necessary – and will only do so if we have a plan for victory.

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Our goal is peace and prosperity, not war and destruction.

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The best way to achieve those goals is through a disciplined, deliberate and consistent foreign policy.

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I will also be prepared to deploy America's economic resources. Financial leverage and sanctions can be very persuasive – but we need to use them selectively and with determination. Our power will be used if others do not play by the rules.

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You cannot have a foreign policy without diplomacy. A superpower understands that caution and restraint are signs of strength.

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Finally, I will work with our allies to reinvigorate Western values and institutions.

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Instead of trying to spread "universal values" that not everyone shares, we should understand that strengthening and promoting Western civilization and its accomplishments will do more to inspire positive reforms around the world than military interventions.

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These are my goals, as president.

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The world must know that we do not go abroad in search of enemies, that we are always happy when old enemies become friends, and when old friends become allies.

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Americans must know that we are putting the American people first again. On trade, on immigration, on foreign policy – the jobs, incomes and security of the American worker will always be my first priority.

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No country has ever prospered that failed to put its own interests first. Both our friends and enemies put their countries above ours and we, while being fair to them, must do the same.

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We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism.

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The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony.

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I am skeptical of international unions that tie us up and bring America down, and will never enter America into any agreement that reduces our ability to control our own affairs.

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We will keep our jobs and bring in new ones. Their will be consequences for companies that leave the U.S. only to exploit it later.

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Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.

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I will view the world through the clear lens of American interests.

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The world is most peaceful, and most prosperous, when America is strongest.

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We will always help to save lives and, indeed, humanity itself. But to play that role, we must make America strong again.

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We must make America respected again. And we must make America great again.

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If we do that, perhaps this century can be the most peaceful and prosperous the world has ever known.
Boehner statement on resignation (Fox 09/25/2015)
Assessment of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (09/2015)
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The JCPOA will not prevent a nuclear Iran. No later than 15 years, the deal's major nuclear restrictions will lapse, Iran will stand on the brink of nuclear weapons capability, and once again the United States will likely have to devote significant resources and attention to keeping Tehran from attaining nuclear weapons.

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The JCPOA will give Iran the means to increase support for terrorist and insurgent proxies, aggravate sectarian conflict and trigger both nuclear and conventional proliferation cascades. It will provide the expansionist regime in Tehran with access to resources, technology and international arms markets required to bolster offensive military capabilities in the vital Persian Gulf region, acquire long-range ballistic missiles and develop other major weapons systems.

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Our long-standing allies feel betrayed – even angry – with the JCPOA, seeing it as a weakening of U.S. security guarantees and reversal of decades of U.S. regional security policy. The mere fact that such perceptions persist, regardless of their veracity, will undermine U.S. credibility, threatening to turn them into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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Simultaneously, sequestration is diminishing the ability of the United States to respond to Iranian aggression, mitigate security threats emanating from Iran and protect U.S. regional allies. Leaving it with fewer and older ships and planes as well as fewer and less well-trained troops, these cuts will severely damage the U.S. military's ability to project power in the region, even as the Iranian threat grows.

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The United States is in a far better position to prevent a nuclear Iran today, even by military means if necessary, than when the JCPOA sunsets. The strategic environment will grow much more treacherous in the next 15 years. Comparatively, Iran will be economically stronger, regionally more powerful and militarily more capable, while the United States will have a smaller, less capable fighting force, diminished credibility and fewer allies.

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Contrary to the false choice between support for the JCPOA and military confrontation, the agreement increases both the probability and danger of hostilities with Iran. Given the deleterious strategic consequences to the United States, implementation of the JCPOA will demand increased political and military engagement in the Middle East that carries significantly greater risks and costs relative to current planning assumptions.
Critical Law of Armed Conflict / Academy as Islamist Fifth Column (William Bradford, 07/2015)
•
Islamist extremists allege law of war violations against the United States to undermine American legitimacy, convince Americans that the United States is an evil regime fighting an illegal and immoral war against Islam, and destroy the political will of the American people.

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Yet these extremists' own capacity to substantiate their claims is inferior to that of a critical cadre of American law of armed conflict academics whose scholarship and advocacy constitute information warfare that tilts the battlefield against U.S. forces.

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These academics argue that the Islamist jihad is a response to valid grievances against U.S. foreign policy, that civilian casualties and Abu Ghraib prove the injustice of the U.S. cause, that military action is an aggressive over-reaction, and that the United States is engaged in war crimes that breed terrorists, threaten the rule-of-law, and make us less safe.

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Rather than lending their prodigious talents to the service of their nation, these legal academics, for reasons ranging from the benign to the malignant, have mustered into the Islamist order of battle to direct their legal expertise against American military forces and American political will.

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This psychological warfare by American elites against their own people is celebrated by Islamists as a portent of U.S. weakness and the coming triumph of Islamism over the West.
Trump's immigration plan (08/2015)
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When politicians talk about "immigration reform" they mean: amnesty, cheap labor and open borders.

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Real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first – not wealthy globetrotting donors.

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We are the only country in the world whose immigration system puts the needs of other nations ahead of our own.

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1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border.

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2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.

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3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.

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For many years, Mexico's leaders have been taking advantage of the United States by using illegal immigration to export the crime and poverty in their own country (as well as in other Latin American countries).

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The cost of building a permanent border wall pales mightily in comparison to what American taxpayers spend every single year on dealing with the fallout of illegal immigration on their communities, schools and unemployment offices.

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America will only be great as long as America remains a nation of laws that lives according to the Constitution. No one is above the law.

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The following steps will return to the American people the safety of their laws, which politicians have stolen from them:

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Triple the number of ICE officers. ... This will be funded by accepting the recommendation of the Inspector General for Tax Administration and eliminating tax credit payments to illegal immigrants.

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Nationwide e-verify. This simple measure will protect jobs for unemployed Americans.

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Mandatory return of all criminal aliens. All criminal aliens must be returned to their home countries, a process which can be aided by canceling any visas to foreign countries which will not accept their own criminals, and making it a separate and additional crime to commit an offense while here illegally.

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Detention — not catch-and-release. Illegal aliens apprehended crossing the border must be detained until they are sent home, no more catch-and-release.

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Defund sanctuary cities. Cut-off federal grants to any city which refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement.

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Enhanced penalties for overstaying a visa. Millions of people come to the United States on temporary visas but refuse to leave, without consequence. This is a threat to national security. Individuals who refuse to leave at the time their visa expires should be subject to criminal penalties.

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Cooperate with local gang task forces. ICE officers should accompany local police departments conducting raids of violent street gangs like MS-13 and the 18th street gang, which have terrorized the country. All illegal aliens in gangs should be apprehended and deported.

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End birthright citizenship. This remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration.

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Decades of disastrous trade deals and immigration policies have destroyed our middle class.

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"If the middle-class is the economic backbone of America, then the country is developing osteoporosis."

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The influx of foreign workers holds down salaries, keeps unemployment high, and makes it difficult for poor and working class Americans – including immigrants themselves and their children – to earn a middle class wage.

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... we need to stop giving legal immigrant visas to people bent on causing us harm. From the 9/11 hijackers, to the Boston Bombers, and many others, our immigration system is being used to attack us.

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Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs. ... as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program. More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program's lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas.

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Requirement to hire American workers first. Too many visas, like the H-1B, have no such requirement. In the year 2015, with 92 million Americans outside the workforce and incomes collapsing, we need to companies to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed.

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End welfare abuse. Applicants for entry to the United States should be required to certify that they can pay for their own housing, healthcare and other needs before coming to the U.S.

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Jobs program for inner city youth. The J-1 visa jobs program for foreign youth will be terminated and replaced with a resume bank for inner city youth provided to all corporate subscribers to the J-1 visa program.

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Refugee program for American children. Increase standards for the admission of refugees and asylum-seekers to crack down on abuses. Use the monies saved on expensive refugee programs to help place American children without parents in safer homes and communities...

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Immigration moderation. Before any new green cards are issued to foreign workers abroad, there will be a pause where employers will have to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed immigrant and native workers.
Summary of Nisman’s thoroughly detailed 500 page report
Nisman investigation files
Executive Order on Hostage Recovery Activities (06/24/2015)
America’s Most Wasted (05/2015)
Immigration Reforms Needed to Protect Skilled American Workers (03/17/2015)
Federal judge's order to block Obama's immigration executive action (02/16/2015)
Senate Commitee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program (12/09/2014)
Senate report on CIA torture program (CNN activ/inte)
Documents from the Ferguson grand jury (CNN activ/inte)
Transcript: President Obama's immigration address (CNN 11/20/2014)
Ensuring a Strong U.S. Defense for the Future (National Defense Panel, 07/31/2014)
Transcripts: President Obama's 2014 State of the Union address, GOP rebuttal (CNN 01/28/2014)
Supreme Court rules on Voting Rights Act (CNN 06/25/2013)
Supreme Court rules on affirmative action (CNN 06/24/2013)
Holder's letter to senator (CNN 05/22/2013)
Obama inaugural speech (CNN 01/21/2012)
Obama on curbing gun violence: 'Now is the time' (CNN 01/16/2012)
Election 2012: Results (CNN 11/07/2012)
Transcript of Wednesday's presidential debate (CNN 10/04/2012)
Health care Supreme Court ruling (06/28/2012)
Archive chronicles TV's take on 9/11 (CNN 09/08/2011)
Understanding 9/11 (Television News Archive)
Transcript: President Obama delivers State of the Union speech (CNN 01/24/2012)
Transcript of Boehner's speech: Washington's spending binge is over (CNN 07/26/2011)
Transcript of Obama's speech: 'Make your voice heard' (CNN 07/26/2011)
Transcript: Obama announces the death of Osama bin Laden (CNN 05/02/2011)
Full text of the president's address on Lybia (CNN 03/28/2011)
Obama's remarks about Ground Zero mosque (Washington Post, 08/13/2010)
Obama's first State of the Union speech (CNN 01/27/2010)
Obama wants to freeze discretionary spending for 3 years (CNN 01/26/2010)
Dick Cheney's remarks on national security (CNN 04/21/2009)
Obama's remarks on security (05/21/2009)
Cicero's Prognosis (10/1996)
From Household to Nation (Chronicles, 03/1996)
Attorney's letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Facts (12/03/2020) Go to: List top | Prev sect | Next sect | List bot

This Election Stinks (JWR 12/03/2020)
•
At a hearing in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 25, an expert testified to the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Committee that a batch of ballots recorded 570,000 votes for Joe Biden and only 3,200 votes for Donald.

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That would be 99.4% of the votes going to Biden, and with that batch, he won the election. The batch came in, by the way, late.

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On Nov. 4 in Michigan at roughly 6:30 a.m., 141,258 votes came in for Biden, and only 5,968 for Trump.

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In Wisconsin at 3:42 a.m., also on Nov. 4, 143,379 votes came in for Biden and a puny 25,163 for Trump.

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On the same day in Georgia at 1:34 a.m., 136,155 votes came in for Biden, and only 29,115 votes came in for Trump.
How much of the United States does China really own? (Fox 06/30/2020)
Take the 'Racist Xenophobe' Quiz: Who Said This About Illegal Immigration? (JWR 02/08/2018)
•
Try to guess who is quoted below, then click a check-box after quote to see who said this. Click again to close answer; reload page to close all answers.

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"Those who enter the country illegally and those who employ them disrespect the rule of law, and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law. We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented (and) unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants in this country."
— Sen. Barack Obama, news conference, 2005

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"Our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens."
— President Clinton, State of the Union address, 1995

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"If making it easy to be an illegal alien isn't enough, how about offering an award to be an illegal immigrant. No sane country would do that, right? Guess again."
— Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate floor, 1993

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"In approaching immigration reform, I believe we must enact tough, practical reforms that ensure and promote the legal and orderly entry of immigrants into our country."
— Sen. Barack Obama, Senate floor, 2007

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"We all agree on the need to better secure the border, and to punish employers who choose to hire illegal immigrants."
— Sen. Barack Obama, 2005

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"All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers."
— President Clinton, State of the Union address, 1995

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"We will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace."
— President Clinton, State of the Union address, 1995

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"I continue to believe that we need stronger enforcement on the border and at the workplace. And that means a workable mandatory system that employers must use to verify the legality of their workers."
— Sen. Barack Obama, Senate floor, 2007

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"If you break our laws by entering this country without permission and give birth to a child, we reward that child with U.S. citizenship and guarantee full access to all public and social services this society provides — and that's a lot of services. Is it any wonder that two-thirds of babies born at taxpayer expense (in) county-run hospitals in Los Angeles are born to illegal alien mothers?"
— Sen. Harry Reid, Senate floor, 1993

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"We need to start by giving agencies charged with border security new technology, new facilities and more people to stop, process and deport illegal immigrants."
— Sen. Barack Obama, 2005

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"Right now we've got millions of illegal immigrants who live and work here without knowing their identity or background."
— Sen. Barack Obama, 2005

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"We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it."
— President Clinton, State of the Union address,1995

•
"Let me repeat: We need strong border security at the borders."
— Sen. Barack Obama, 2005

•
"If only everyone (in the Middle East) could be like Scandinavians, (achieving peace) would all be easy."
— President Barack Obama, 2016

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"There are too many (migrants) now. ... Europe, for example, Germany, cannot become an Arab country. Germany is Germany. ... From a moral point of view, too, I think refugees should only be admitted temporarily."
— Dalai Llama, 2016
An open letter to Senator Chuck Schumer (Fox 02/01/2017)
•
The examples of terrorists who have infiltrated into the US under the guise of the refugee or visa programs are numerous. Here are just a few examples out of many:

•
On November 18, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Issa Doreh was sentenced to ten years in prison for "conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist, conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and providing material support to foreign terrorist organization." Doreh was admitted to the United States as a refugee from Somalia.

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On January 31, 2014, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Mohamud was admitted to the United States as a refugee from Somalia.

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On April 20, 2015, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, Abdurahman Yasin Daud, a Somalian refugee was charged (along with six others) with conspiracy and attempt to provide material support to ISIS.

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On February 18, 2015, Al-Hazmah Mohammed Jawad was arrested as he attempted to boarda flight to Jordan to join and fight with ISIS in Iraq. Jawad was admitted to the United States in 2013 as an Iraqi refugee and he subsequently obtained a green card.

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On January 29, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi was sentenced to life in prison for a number of offenses related to terrorism. Hammadi is a native of Iraq who was admitted to the United States as a refugee in 2009.

•
In 2009, Ramadan Alwan, an al Qaeda-Iraq terrorist living as a refugee in Bowling Green, Kentucky — later admitted in court that they'd attacked U.S. soldiers in Iraq. An ABC News investigation of the flawed U.S. refugee screening system, which was overhauled two years ago, showed that the men were mistakenly allowed into the U.S. and resettled in the leafy southern town of Bowling Green, Kentucky.
The Clinton Record (10/14/2016)
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Clinton's Private Email Server & the Espionage Act

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The Clinton Foundation Scandals

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Clinton's Support for the Iran Nuclear Deal

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Clinton Helps Russia Gain Control of 20% of All U.S. Uranium

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The Benghazi Debacle, and Clinton's Role in Arming Jihadists in Libya and Syria

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The Radical Islamist Affiliations of Clinton's Closest Aide

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The Deadly Consequences of Clinton's Absurd Fictions About Islam & Terrorism

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Clinton's Role in the Rise of ISIS and the Stratospheric Growth of Worldwide Terrorism

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Clinton's Role in Squandering America's Victory in the Iraq War

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Clinton's Horrible Judgment Regarding Another Terrorist Enemy

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Clinton's Empty Talk Regarding Russia and China

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Clinton's Reprehensible Treatment of Israel

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Clinton Turns Libya into a Terrorist Hell Hole

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Clinton's Plan to Import 65,000 Syrian Refugees into the U.S. As Quickly As Possible

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Immigration: Clinton Explicitly Favors Amnesty, Sanctuary Cities, and "Open Borders"

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Clinton's Opposition to Gun Rights

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Clinton's Plans to Expand Obamacare into a Government-Run, Single-Payer System

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Rejecting School Vouchers for Poor Minority Children in Failing Urban Schools

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"Criminal Justice Reform": Going Soft on Crime, and Filling America's Graveyards

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Fighting Voter ID Laws As "Racist" Schemes to Disenfranchise Minorities

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Clinton's Affiliation with Al Sharpton & Black Lives Matter

•
Clinton's View of the Supreme Court and Its Purpose

•
Clinton Supports Partial-Birth Abortion

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Clinton's Personal Persecution of a Young Rape Victim
Most Donations To Clinton's Super PAC Come From These 20 Donors
Who is Merrick Garland? Fast facts on Obama's Supreme Court nominee (Fox 03/16/2016)
Trump and Muslims, by the numbers (JWR 12/15/2015)
Fact check: Claims 'no refugees' since 9/11 took part in terror plots ring (Fox se/0/2015)
•
The noted publication The Economist proclaimed: "750,000 refugees have been resettled in America since 9/11; Not one has been arrested on domestic terrorism charges."

•
In fact, several refugees have been convicted in high-profile terrorism plots, and several more were "asylees" — people allowed to stay in the U.S. for the same reasons as refugees, but who do not go through the same screening process.

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In one case, two Iraqi refugees in Kentucky were convicted after it turned out they had used IEDs to attack U.S. soldiers in Iraq and were plotting other attacks. An FBI agent recalled that they bragged about that and said they had soldiers "for lunch and dinner... meaning that he had killed them."

•
... one of those refugees, Waad Ramadan Alwan, left fingerprints on unexploded IEDs in Iraq and that he was sentenced to 40 years in prison after he "pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill U.S. nationals abroad; conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives) against U.S. nationals abroad; distributing information on the manufacture and use of IEDs; attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to [Al Qaeda in Iraq] and conspiring to transfer, possess and export Stinger missiles."

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His conspirator, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, was also let in through the refugee program and is now serving a life sentence.

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In another recent case, an Uzbek refugee in Idaho was found guilty of conspiracy and attempting to support a terrorist organization, after he had allegedly been stockpiling explosives.

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"There are serious security concerns.The vast majority of Syrian refugees are legitimate victims of terror and persecution, but it only takes a handful of ISIS infiltrators hiding among them to bring the carnage we saw in Paris to our streets."

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"Moreover, polls show that while the vast majority of refugees oppose ISIS, about 13 percent support the terror network."

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Other high-profile terrorists entered the U.S. first and then applied for asylum, which can be granted to people who "meet the definition of refugee."

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That includes the Boston marathon bombers, who came from Chechnya and were granted asylum in the U.S. before killing three and injuring more than 250 people.

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Members of the "Fort Dix 6," who were convicted of conspiracy to murder U.S. military personnel, also entered seeking asylum; they were never granted it, but were never removed from the country, either.

•
... while it is important to help desperate Syrian refugees — for instance by creating "safe zones" in the Middle East — the refugee program is not the best way to help.

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"We need to help these people, but admitting them into the U.S. is not the best way to do it."
40% of Millennials OK with limiting speech offensive to minorities (11/20/2015)
Fact Check: Which Republican candidates actually cut spending? (Fox 08/28/2015)
1,000 'criminal aliens' released by ICE committed new crimes, Grassley says (Fox 01/31/2015)
•
"The Obama administration claims that it is using ‘prosecutorial discretion' to prioritize the removal of criminal aliens from this country. But this report shows the disturbing truth: 1,000 undocumented aliens previously convicted of crimes who the administration released in 2013 have gone on to commit further crimes in our communities."
Immigration Statistics Fast Facts (CNN 11/06/2013)
Your neighborhood branch is making $1 million a year in hidden fees (06/25/2014)
Here's why the middle class feels squeezed (CNN 10/14/2014)
What happened when Michael Brown met Officer Darren Wilson (CNN 08/26/2014)
We know how to stop school shootings (JWR 12/20/2012)
'There Will Be Blood': Union Violence in the Age of Obama (JWR 12/12/2012)
Restoring a True Safety Net (National Affairs, Fall 2012)
E-mails: White House knew of extremist claims in Benghazi attack (CNN 10/24/2012)
Fact Checking the Final Debate (JWR 10/23/2012)
Romney against 2014 deadline in Afghanistan before he was for it (CNN 10/23/2012)
1 trillion in defense cuts: What you need to know (CNN 10/23/2012)
Checking the candidates' facts on Iraq, China, al Qaeda and more (CNN 10/23/2012)
Is al Qaeda's core decimated or is group growing? (CNN 10/22/2012)
What about the security in Benghazi? (CNN 10/12/2012)
Iran and the Bomb (CNN 10/12/2012)
Wind power, electric cars and the stimulus (CNN 10/12/2012)
What? (JWR 10/01/2012)
Job creation versus unemployment (CNN 10/04/2012)
Oil and natural gas production under Obama (CNN 10/04/2012)

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Top 9 driving distractions that contribute to accidents, according to experts (NYP 04/23/2024)
Beach safety tips: What to do in a rip current and how to stay safe near the water (Fox 07/01/2023)
U.S. Inflation Rate by Year: 1929–2023 (05/17/2023)
7 things you should never throw away [or you could be in legal trouble] (Fox 10/13/2022)
Midterms 2018 (11/2018)
How to Report Consumer Fraud (2016)
Trump’s Team: Who’s who in president’s Cabinet, White House (Fox 12/21/2016)
United States presidential election, 2016
Donald Trump / Issues (2016)
Terminal Confusion? DHS push could make some IDs invalid for flying (Fox 12/29/2015)
America's 50 worst charities, ranked by money blown on soliciting costs
Contacting the Congress

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Don’t buy the left’s gaslighting — ‘outside agitators’ aren’t behind campus antisemitism (NYP 04/25/2024)
DC judge points out pervasive hypocrisy hell that’s permeating every corner of the federal government (NYP 04/24/2024)
This is no 1960s love-in during anti-Israel rallies at elite universities (NYP 04/23/2024)
Jewish students say Columbia is failing them terribly by coddling protesters. They’re right (NYP 04/23/2024)
Patriots owner Robert Kraft calls tenured Columbia professors one of the ‘biggest problems’ as anti-Israel protests roil campus (NYP 04/23/2024)
•
"We have professors who, instead of teaching how to think, are trying to tell our young people what they should think."

•
"We can't have this intimidation that's filtering through all these colleges, and the hate, continue to grow and multiply the way it is."
Sen. Fetterman blasts ‘a–hole’ anti-Israel protests, Dem’s ‘crazy’ response to Iran attacks (NYP 04/22/2024)
Privileged Columbia protester who ‘killed’ elderly couple in crash should be in jail, not on campus, furious family says (NYP 04/22/2024)
Police storm Yale University’s campus with riot gear, arrest students as hundreds stage anti-Israel protest (NYP 04/22/2024)
‘Moscow Marjorie’ Taylor Greene, GOP rebels defeated as House passes $61B in Ukraine aid package (NYP 04/20/2024)
Jewish alums warn Columbia prez that ‘violence against Jewish students is imminent’ (NYP 04/20/2024)
•
"It is clear to us that Columbia is now under mob rule – a mob, by the way, that is only interested in attention and chaos, rather than thoughtful dialogue or reasoned debate."
Universities like Columbia must end the double standard and stop tolerating campus antisemitism (NYP 04/18/2024)
Columbia anti-Israel protests turn violent: Provactoeur arrested for repeatedly hitting officer, cops say (NYP 04/18/2024)
NYPD cops in riot gear swarm Columbia, arrest anti-Israel protesters after president finally tells cops to clear campus (NYP 04/18/2024)
Deranged ‘Get Trump’ Democrats only boost ex-president with their constant attacks, insults (NYP 04/17/2024)
NPR editor Uri Berliner resigns after bombshell expose reveals network’s pervasive left-wing bias (NYP 04/17/2024)
Anti-Ukraine Republicans like J.D. Vance and Marjorie Taylor Greene don’t speak for most voters (NYP 04/17/2024)
Pols who let lunatic protesters tie up the nation’s traffic are as bad as them (NYP 04/17/2024)
Rampaging DEI and rampant antisemitism show the rot at US colleges (NYP 04/14/2024)
Son of Hamas founder blasts student supporters in US: ‘Those pro-Palestine need to go to a mental asylum’ (NYP 04/08/2024)
RIP, Joe Lieberman — the Democratic Party went insane without you (NYP 03/28/2024)
Dem lawfare puts Trump through hell, but he hardly breaks a sweat (NYP 03/25/2024)
With Purim near, rioters threaten Jews in Teaneck, NJ: ‘You’re not safe here — or anywhere’ (NYP 03/22/2024)
Democrats mustn’t be allowed to bankrupt Trump before he even gets to appeal $454M judgment (NYP 03/18/2024)
The only bloodbath in America right now is the bowels of liberal hypocrisy splattered all over social media (NYP 03/18/2024)
Private US lunar lander Odysseus touches down on the moon for first time since 1972 (NYP 02/22/2024)
Greg Abbott: Texas has the constitutional right to defend itself from invasion (NYP 02/18/2024)
Kevin O’Leary slams Trump’s civil ruling as ‘un-American’ and a shock to the entire real estate industry (NYP 02/16/2024)
Why is noting married people are happier and kids do better with married parents so controversial? (NYP 02/15/2024)
Alleged Times Square shooter arrested: Letters to the Editor (NYP 02/16/2024)
Putin’s plans for space nukes should wake up the left and right (NYP 02/15/2024)
The Hostile Takeover of the Air Force Academy (Brownstone Institute, 02/09/24)
White House vents at America’s top banker Jamie Dimon for backing MAGA: ‘No Oval Office invites’ (NYP 02/09/2024)
What Exactly Is Meant by 'America First'? (JWR 02/02/2024)
Deport NYC’s cop-beating migrants — if we can find them after they were let loose on no bail (NYP 02/01/2024)
Ex-senior Boeing manager warns flyers to avoid 737 MAX 9 jets: ‘I would absolutely not fly a MAX airplane’ (NYP 01/31/2024)
Joe Biden now doing what he does best — weaseling out of the blame for US border crisis (NYP 01/29/2024)
New Jersey Bag Ban Followed By Increased Use Of Plastic (Forbes 1/25/24)
Chinese Communist Party billionaire secretly purchased 200K acres of US land a decade ago, sparking bipartisan outrage (NYP 01/13/2024)
The Silent Death by a Thousand Cuts in Manufacturing (JWR 01/09/2024)
Harvard board facing probe over Claudine Gay cover-up and censorship demands (NYP 01/09/2024)
The elites who funded anti-Israel bridge and tunnel blockage ‘protest’ in NYC must be stopped! (NYP 01/09/2024)
Jewish family faces 'horrific' antisemitic harassment at NJ mall over teen's IDF jacket (Fox 01/04/2024)
Houston grand jury declines to charge man who shot and killed robber inside taqueria (Fox 01/03/2024)
Harvard's Claudine Gay resignation shows 'final corruption of most elite institutions,' says William Bennett (Fox 01/02/2024)
Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns amid plagiarism and antisemitism controversies (1/2/24)
Maine GOP state lawmaker moves to impeach state secretary over Trump ballot removal (Fox 12/29/2023)
Young single mother shoots intruder breaking into her daughter’s room, receives eviction notice... (12/28/23)
Hamas supporters declared war on Christmas (INN 12/27/2023)
•
People have been killed for merely drawing cartoons of Mohammed, but Muslims feel empowered to shout down Christian hymns before Christmas a few miles from Ground Zero.

•
They shout about "occupation", but they're the ones doing the occupying. They're occupying Christmas tree lightings and public celebrations, shouting down prayerful songs with hate, and using the season to call for death and destruction to be visited upon the enemies of Islam.
Surgeon says 'toxic' DEI in medicine has led to 'erosion' of quality care: 'Dangerous to our patients (Fox 12/27/2023)
•
"The tool kit is an exhaustive, some might say exhausting, compilation of everything related to pushing the narrative of systemic and structural racism as the source of disparities including minority representation within the ACS and clinical outcomes in minority surgical patients."

•
"The traditional tenets of Hippocratic medicine, which focus on the individual in front of the physician, have been, for all intents and purposes, abandoned. Any disparity in outcomes of care of minorities is proof of racial discrimination."

•
"There is a finite amount of time in residency training to mold a competent surgeon from a fumble-fingered intern. To assume that we can continue to turn out excellent surgeons and simultaneously burden surgical education with the degree of time-consuming indoctrination in anti-racism and DEI demanded by the ACS tool kit is, at best, foolish and futile, and, at worst, dangerous to our patients."
2023 was the year campus antisemitism finally got its reckoning after college students cheer for terrorism (Fox 12/26/2023)
•
"The barbarity and pure evil of the unspeakable acts committed by these terrorists against civilians - men, women, and children - shocked the world. But what was just as shocking was what we saw next: college students and faculty cheering these attacks."

•
"Students for Justice in Palestine and its related groups have not only repeatedly cheered antisemitic terrorism, they have advocated importing it to America."

•
"Their presence on campus inarguably leads to more hostility towards Jews, and their unrepentant embrace of violence should disqualify them from every campus in the country."

•
"We must defund the rot in America's higher education. It is unacceptable and unAmerican that any taxpayer dollars are going to universities propping up their promulgation of antisemitism by supporting professors, students and staff many who have openly called for the genocide of Jews."

•
See related Poison Ivy (David Hitch, 10/20/2023)) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Hamas Influence (Dick Wright, 11/02/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
IDF veteran turned NY GOP pick to replace George Santos vows to take on 'Squad,' slams Suozzi as fake moderate (Fox 12/23/2023)
As Democrats lean on Jan 6, critics argue Biden's party is the real threat to democracy (Fox 12/21/2023)
•
"Democrats cynically used the COVID-19 pandemic to radically undermine long-standing election laws on the fly and then started pushing for non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections."

•
"Now the left is working to remove political opponents from the ballot in a shocking display of disregard for the American people's right to choose their candidates."

•
"It is also difficult to claim the mantle of the defender of democracy when your party is actively fighting for the censorship and blacklisting of those with opposing views."

•
"The best way to defend democracy is to practice it by supporting both the right to vote and to free speech in others, including those who hold opposing viewpoints."

•
"There is no greater threat to democracy in our republic than the Democrat Party. When Donald Trump was sworn into office, he never went after Hillary Clinton. He didn't go after Barack Obama. He didn't go after his political opponents. We didn't have state attorneys general and state secretaries of state and district court judges trying to get Joe Biden off the ballot."

•
"Democrats fight commonsense safeguards to prevent voter fraud, encourage activist DAs to throw leading political opponents in jail, and empower unelected judges who interfere in presidential elections."

•
"To prevent the further takeover of our elections, it's imperative that every state remains vigilant in defending actual democracy rather than just protecting Democrat rule."
College admissions consultant in 'complete shock' as multiple students reject Harvard early acceptance offers (Fox 12/20/2023)
Dem-appointed Colorado justice says Trump ballot ban undermines 'bedrock' of America in fiery dissent (Fox 12/20/2023)
The Multifront Attack on Elon Musk (12/18/23)
Ex-FBI Intel Chief Who ‘Investigated’ Trump-Russia Collusion Gets 4 Years in Prison for Colluding with Russia (12/17/23)
Harvard president's handling of antisemitism has cost school more than $1 billion: Ackman (Fox 12/11/2023)
MIT, Harvard face mounting pressure on 'choice to defend terrorist sympathizers' after UPenn president resigns (Fox 12/10/2023)
•
"Since the executive board responded to this pathetic congressional hearing of our President Sally Kornbluth by stating that they support Sally for her 'excellent moral compass,' I have to ask all of you about this continuous obsession with context."

•
"I want someone to tell me, when is the right context to come and urinate on the window of the prayer room of MIT Hillel in front of the Jewish praying students inside there? Tell me, when is the right context to respond to reports of students facing blatant antisemitism by telling them, well, you can try talking to the police, you can go to therapy or you can go back to where you came from? I want to know when a dozen students are allowed to storm in and harass individual staff members that work or are Jewish and are Israeli."

•
"Somehow there's a context in which you can tell Jewish students not to come to the entrance of MIT and to go to the back door to their classes. There is context where it makes sense that 70% of Jewish students at MIT do not show any sign of that they're Jewish because they're scared. There is a context where a chaplain advisor is allowed to stop an event four times to say that Israelis are European racists, white colonizers, right before asking who in this room eats kosher?"
Biden administration's push to forgive student loan debt is almost 'un-American': Kevin O'Leary (Fox 12/08/2023)
•
"Why would one cohort of graduates in this particular time be forgiven their loan when everybody else that came before them or after them potentially has to pay back their debt?"

•
"I find this [is] just something that many people are going to find offensive because it's so unfair."
UPenn president Liz Magill called to resign by Wharton board following disastrous testimony on antisemitism (Fox 12/08/2023)
Billionaire and Harvard grad Bill Ackman suggests Harvard president was a DEI pick (Fox 12/07/2023)
•
"Shrinking the pool of candidates based on required race, gender, and/or sexual orientation criteria is not the right approach to identifying the best leaders for our most prestigious universities."

•
"And it is also not good for those awarded the office of president who find themselves in a role that they would likely not have obtained were it not for a fat finger on the scale."

•
"I don't think it will be long before we look back on the last few years of free speech suppression and the repeated career-ending accusations of racism for those who questioned the DEI movement."

•
"We are all shortly going to realize that the DEI era is the McCarthy era Part II."
UPenn donor withdraws $100M donation after president's congressional testimony on antisemitism (Fox 12/07/2023)
•
... Penn's "permissive approach to hate speech calling for violence against Jews and laissez faire attitude toward harassment and discrimination against Jewish students would violate any policies of rules that prohibit harassment and discrimination based on religion, including those of Stone Ridge."

•
Stevens' letter to Penn indicated that he and Stone Ridge would be willing to reconsider the withdrawal of his donation only after the university has replaced Magill in the role of president.
UPenn board of trustees holds emergency meeting amid calls for president to resign over antisemitism hearing (Fox 12/07/2023)
Trump visits Manhattan court to blast NYAG case, praises appellate ruling in his favor (Fox 12/07/2023)
•
"This is something that nobody's ever seen to this extent is called election interference. It's a sad day for our country that if things like this can take place."
House reps announce investigation into Harvard, MIT, UPenn after 'morally bankrupt' testimony on antisemitism (Fox 12/07/2023)
•
"After this week's pathetic and morally bankrupt testimony by university presidents when answering my questions, the Education and Workforce Committee is launching an official Congressional investigation with the full force of subpoena power into Penn, MIT, & Harvard and others."

•
"We will use our full Congressional authority to hold these schools accountable for their failure on the global stage."

•
"Committee members have deep concerns with their leadership and their failure to take steps to provide Jewish students the safe learning environment they are due under law."

•
"The disgusting targeting and harassment of Jewish students is not limited to these institutions, and other universities should expect investigations as well, as their litany of similar failures has not gone unnoticed."
Trump calls out immigration crisis during Iowa caucus rally, says he will keep world peaceful, safe (Fox 12/02/2023)
•
"If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you sympathize with jihad[ists], then we don't want you in our country, and you're not going to come into our country."
Federal judge denies Trump's claim of presidential immunity in Special Counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 case (Fox 12/02/2023)
•
"Radical Democrats, under the direction of Crooked Joe Biden, continue to try and destroy bedrock constitutional principles and set dangerous precedents that would cripple future presidential administrations and our country as a whole, in their desperate effort to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election. The corrupt leftists will fail and President Trump will keep fighting for America and Americans, including by challenging these wrongful decisions in higher courts."
Lindsey Graham torches antisemitism in Democratic ranks: We would've told post-9/11 critics to 'go to Hell' (Fox 11/30/2023)
•
"Senator Schumer made an eloquent presentation about the rise of antisemitism, and he's right about that. So what happened here is thirty 9/11's for Israel occurred on October 7."

•
"Twelve hundred Jews were slaughtered in their homes: The biggest killing of the Jewish people since the Holocaust – and you have in Oakland, California, people praising Hamas."

•
"This call for a cease fire is nuts. What would we have said to a group that asked us to have a ceasefire after 9/11: we'd have told them to go to Hell."

•
"Allow them to destroy Hamas before it's too late for the Jewish state. Stand with Israel. Reject Hamas. Tell all these crazy people to shut up."
Sweeping Plan for Global Censorship Started in 2018, New Documents Show (11/28/23)
NY official demands resignation of college president who claimed 'complex history' after Hamas terror attack (Fox 11/27/2023)
•
"I was shocked by the comments made by Dr. Poser concerning the barbaric and cowardly attack on innocent women and children by Hamas, a vicious terrorist organization."
President Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation proved the power of gratitude when life gives us hardship (Fox 11/23/2023)
Grid operator sounds alarm as coal plant shutdown threatens power for millions (Fox 11/22/2023)
SNL alum unleashes on 'disgusting' Bernie Sanders, 'horribly antisemitic' Dem Squad over Israel opposition (Fox 11/22/2023)
•
"You know the difference between a communist and a Democratic Socialist? A Democratic Socialist is somebody you vote for, and then they take all your money and give back what they think you need. A communist- they just appoint themselves. There's no election and they do the exact same thing. That's the only difference."

•
"... So you're telling all the people of your generation don't have kids. Then in 50 years, there's nobody left on the Earth, moron!... This is what you're dealing with! Don't have kids. Okay. There'll be no one left to breathe your clean air. It's moronic!"

•
"... 'Cease-fire!' How can you have a cease-fire against Hamas when Hamas says we're never stopping til you're all gone..."
UCLA professor rips school's 'gutless' response to antisemitism on campus: 'Complicit with Hamas' (Fox 11/22/2023)
•
"I met UCLA graduate students who had never heard of the Holocaust. My husband was stalked, photographed and threatened by a UCLA graduate student at the headquarters of his own Israeli company."

•
"I have always been against guns, yet now we own a weapon, as well. When will universities realize that their gutless policy and the inability to recognize a logical falsehood — supporting everyone except Jews — make them complicit with Hamas and the countries that align with it?"

•
See related Hamas Influence (Dick Wright, 11/02/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
Univision CEO defends Trump interview after uproar, says network won't be 'deterred by partisan interests' (Fox 11/22/2023)
•
... the network embraced the responsibility "to provide our audience the information to make decisions based on accurate coverage of the election process."

•
"We will reject all efforts to destabilize this vision, including from partisans within the press or the political machinery. Univision is not a tool of any party or organization. Univision is an independent news organization, and we will not be deterred by partisan interests and agenda-driven advocacy."
Army sends letter to troops dismissed for refusing COVID vaccine amid military's recruitment woes (Fox 11/21/2023)
•
"The US Army has sent letters to soldiers that were discharged for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, offering to correct their records. Most, if not all, of the soldiers that were kicked out for not getting the vaccine were given a discharge that was other than honorable."

•
"The letter indicates that the Army is hoping these soldiers will apply to return to service."

•
"The military in general has been going through a major recruiting crisis for the past two years. ... The Army, Navy, and Air Force all missed their targets by a long shot."
Texas attorney general opens investigation into Media Matters for 'potential fraudulent activity' (Fox 11/20/2023)
NYU cancer doctor sues hospital, school over pro-Israel posts, says he's a 'sacrificial lamb' (Fox 11/20/2023)
•
"We believe Dr. Neel is the first person to lose their job and have their reputation besmirched for re-posting content on his private social media account that challenged those individuals who are seemingly celebrating the death of innocent people in Israel."
Oregon opioid deaths increase 13x after drug decriminalization law: 'We have to do something different' (Fox 11/20/2023)
Ohio man allegedly fakes hate crime, claims he was hit by car by person who yelled, 'kill all Palestinians' (Fox 11/18/2023)
•
"We call on state, local and federal law enforcement authorities to monitor and investigate crimes related to the rising Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism."
Sen. Mike Lee calls for investigation of J6 committee after tapes released: 'Deliberately hid from us' (Fox 11/18/2023)
New York judge lifts Trump gag order in civil fraud trial over free speech concerns (Fox 11/16/2023)
Pro-Palestinian group posts NYC map of locations 'tied' to 'Genocide' in Gaza: 'Globalize the Intifada' (Fox 11/16/2023)
Pro-Palestinian protester arrested in death of Jewish man Paul Kessler (Fox 11/16/2023)
•
Alnaji is a full-time professor teaching computer science at Ventura County Community College's Moorpark campus.
Ted Cruz goes off on alma mater Harvard, elite colleges: 'The Wuhan lab of the woke virus' (Fox 11/15/2023)
American multimillionaire couple fund Marxist group coordinating anti-Israel protests (Fox 11/15/2023)
Republican AGs rally to probe, prosecute groups with Hamas ties (Fox 11/15/2023)
•
"We need to root out the evil that is Hamas wherever it exists, at home or across the globe, and the nation's Republican attorneys general are doing their part to hold terrorists and terrorist sympathizers accountable."

•
... "urges state attorneys general to use the legal tools at their disposal to investigate and, where applicable, prosecute organizations within their jurisdictions that provide aid or funding to Hamas or other organizations which provide support to terrorists."

•
"To say I am disgusted by statements of support for Hamas that we've seen in recent days is an understatement. Celebrating, excusing, or downplaying the horrific rape, torture, and murder of innocent people is the same thing as supporting violence, or even calling for it."
GOP lawmaker reveals backstory after nearly coming to blows with union boss at Senate hearing (Fox 11/15/2023)
Rashida Tlaib member of secret Facebook group where Hamas terrorists glorified (Fox 11/15/2023)
•
See related Blinders (Michael Ramirez, 11/10/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
Armed homeowner who defended home in shootout unloads on liberal politicians: 'not gonna care' (Fox 11/12/2023)
Over 1,600 Jewish alumni demand Harvard crack down on antisemitism in scathing letter (Fox 11/11/2023)
•
"These horrific events were met with acclaim by over thirty Harvard student groups, who called the intentional slaughter of civilians 'justified' and claimed that Israel was 'solely responsible.' This deluded romanticization of violence has been matched by calls for more violence and the obliteration of the state of Israel 'by any means necessary'."

•
"We never thought that, at Harvard College, we would have to argue the point that terrorism against civilians demands immediate and unequivocal condemnation. We never thought we would have to argue for recognition of our own humanity."

•
"Around the country we are seeing the intense cyberbullying of Jewish students calling for the death of all Jews, screaming at and targeting Jewish students, death threats on Jewish students, disruptive rallies that involve incitements to violence, projections of antisemitic messages onto campus property, and at times, open hostility toward Jewish students and Israeli students by professors and faculty in the course of class."
Bill Maher scolds Obama's 'moral equivalency' on Israel-Hamas: He 'disappointed me' (Fox 11/11/2023)
•
"... the Israelis are now on the four-hour pause for people to get out. So people say 'oh, wow, how big of them.' Ok, but it is a war that the other side started! It's so interesting. When they fired [at] Israel. It's a war. When Israel fires back, it's a war crime. Little crazy... Also, would Hamas do that? Would they give four-hour pauses? No, no pausing."
Political cartoonist speaks out after Washington Post pulls his work mocking Hamas (Fox 11/10/2023)
Back Before Things Got Ugly (JWR 11/10/2023)
Alan Dershowitz calls out Obama's 'deep hatred of Israel': 'He should be ashamed' (Fox 11/10/2023)
•
"I think he always had a deep hatred of Israel in his heart. He hid it very well. He called me to the Oval Office and he said to me, 'Alan, you've known me for a long time. You know I have Israel's back.' I didn't realize he meant to paint a target on it."

•
"He's never been supportive of Israel. And finally, his true feelings have come out now that he's no longer president and doesn't have to be elected."

•
"To compare those disputed claims with the rapes, beheadings, burnings, kidnappings, it's just obscene and despicable. And what it does is it lends support to those students basically, who are saying, 'Well, what Hamas really did was not so bad... It was in response to the occupation.'..."

•
"Although he said that the attacks by Hamas are not justifiable, he made them justifiable because if life really is unbearable, as it's not, then you can do anything you want."

•
"What he did was contribute to the risks to not only Israelis, but Americans, because it's coming to a theater near you. If Hamas is not stopped in its tracks from doing the terrorist acts, they will bring them to the United States."
Stefanik hits Trump NY trial judge with formal complaint over 'bizarre behavior' and 'bias' (Fox 11/10/2023)
•
"This judge's bizarre behavior has no place in our judicial system, where Judge Engoron is not honoring the defendant's rights to due process and a fair trial."

•
"These serious concerns are exacerbated by the fact that the defendant is the leading candidate for President of the United States, and it appears the judicial system is being politicized to affect the outcome of the campaign."

•
"Judge Engoron has gone on to gag and fine President Trump for merely criticizing Judge Engoron's law clerk, which is core political speech protected by the First Amendment."

•
"If anyone in America must have the constitutional right to speak out against the judge, his staff, the witnesses, or the process, it's a defendant going through a process he believes is politicized and weaponized against him."

•
See related Trump NY Trial (Dick Wright, 10/03/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
House votes to censure Rashida Tlaib over anti-Israel comments (Fox 11/08/2023)
•
The punishment, while largely symbolic, was a formal public rebuke of her most recent anti-Israel comments made in the wake of the Jewish nation's war against terror group Hamas.

•
"If this is not worthy of censure, what is? When you can call for the annihilation of a country and its people, if that's not worthy of a censure, what is?"

•
... accused Tlaib of "promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."
Jewish professor confronts student who said Israel supporters will 'burn in hell' (Fox 11/07/2023)
•
... a junior at the Schenectady college said on social media that everyone who attended a campus bingo night to "benefit Israeli victims of terror" has "a free guaranteed spot in hell."

•
"The vice president of academic affairs was in the audience. She heard it. She didn't do anything. At the end, she got up and made a what I thought was a self-serving speech and did not rebuke the students."

•
David Harris, Union College president, said in a statement, "We do not condone the student's words. We also do not condone the manner in which this student was confronted in a public setting, nor how she has been portrayed in social or traditional media."

•
"What Edmund Burke said several centuries ago is right. The only thing for evil to triumph is when good men and women do nothing."

•
"Don't be frightened of bigotry... This is the United States of America. And you have to stand up and have one last point on the stage. When you say, 'Burn in hell,' you know what that means to people who are Jewish and people who are sensitive here? We burned in hell and, dammit, we're not going to hear that again."
Elderly Jewish man dies after confrontation with pro-Palestinian protester at California rally (Fox 11/07/2023)
From a major donor: A letter to the President of Harvard University (INN 11/06/2023)
Billionaire Bill Ackman calls out Harvard campus antisemitism in forceful open letter (Fox 11/06/2023)
•
"If you were managing a business, would you hire someone who blamed the despicable violent acts of a terrorist group on the victims? I don't think so. Would you hire someone who was a member of a school club who issued a statement blaming lynchings by the KKK on their victims? I don't think so."
Trump calls to ban US entry for immigrants wanting to abolish Israel: 'Not going to get in' (Fox 11/05/2023)
•
"If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you sympathize with jihadists, and then you don't want your country to do well, you don't want your country to be successful, you're just not going to get in, you're not getting in, you're not coming into our country."

•
"On day one, I will restore the Trump travel on entering from having people that like to blow up our shopping centers and kill our people and do lots of bad things. Entry from plagued countries. We will not allow people to come in and will implement strong ideological screening for all immigrants."

•
"We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people," Trump said in 2016. "The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today."

•
Trump's comments come after he promised to deport immigrants who are publicly supporting Hamas during an Iowa campaign speech Oct. 16.
Tlaib accuses Biden of supporting 'genocide' of Palestinians, warns: 'We will remember in 2024' (Fox 11/03/2023)
•
"She's inching towards telling us how she really feels. She's still holding back. She wishes she were in southern Israel on October 7, but can't bring herself to say it out loud."
VP Harris blasted for 'tone deaf' post announcing anti-Islamophobia plan amid Israel-Hamas war (Fox 11/03/2023)
•
"Anti-semitism is at the highest level since NAZI Germany and the Biden admin decides to launch an anti-Islamophobia effort."

•
"I have absolutely no idea how anyone who cares about the survival of Jewish people could vote for any member of the Democratic Party."

•
"Timing is everything & is itself a statement. This as Jews are being threatened, hunted, & attacked worldwide. Tells you everything you need to know about the moral depravity and corruption of the Democratic Party and especially of the people in the White House. Shame on them."

•
"After the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and a breakout of pro-Hamas activism on campus, the White House is claiming Islamophobia is our top concern."
Antisemitism has billionaires bailing on Ivy League donations (Fox 11/02/2023)
Elon Musk rips George Soros for eroding 'fabric of civilization,' says he rescued Twitter from 'far-left' (Fox 11/01/2023)
•
"He's doing things that erode the fabric of civilization," Musk said. "Getting [district attorneys] elected who refused to prosecute crime, that's part of the problem in San Francisco and L.A. and other cities. So why would you do that?"

•
"The lowest value for money is a presidential race. Then next lowest value for money is a Senate race, then a Congress. But once you get to sort of city and state district attorneys, the value [is] extremely good. Soros realized that you don't actually need to change the laws. You just need to change how they're enforced."

•
... bought Twitter because it was being "controlled by the far-left," which he felt was having a "corrosive" influence on society.

•
"I mean, this is going to sound somewhat melodramatic, but I was worried that it was having a corrosive effect on civilization."

•
"That it was just having a bad impact and, I mean, part of it is that it's where it was located, which is, you know, downtown San Francisco. And while I think San Francisco is a beautiful city and we should really fight hard to kind of right the ship of San Francisco, if you walk around downtown San Francisco, right near the X/Twitter headquarters, it's a zombie apocalypse. I mean, it's rough."

•
"A philosophy that would be ordinarily quite niche and geographically constrained, so that sort of the fallout area would be limited, was effectively given an information weapon, an information technology weapon to propagate what is essentially a mind virus to the rest of Earth, and the outcome of that mind virus is very clear if you walk around the streets of downtown San Francisco. It is the end of civilization."

•
"If you take environmentalism to an extreme, you still have to view humanity as a plague on the surface of the earth. Like a mold or something... but this is actually false."

•
"They've gone way too far. If you start thinking that humans are bad, then the natural conclusion is that human should die out."

•
See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Haley calls for pro-Hamas protesters in US to be ID'd to warn future employers (Fox 11/01/2023)
•
"I expected this from the UN, you expect all kinds of ridiculous things at the UN. I fought this battle every day for two years. What I don't expect is to see what's happening in our cities and what's happening on our college campuses, because these protests that we're seeing."

•
"... every one of them is dangerous to our country... because that's what Hamas preaches, is ‘death to America'. So when they get up there, and they hold those signs, or they get upset on why people won't hire them: it's because companies don't want to hire someone who wants to destroy our country."

•
"That's why I think every name needs to be ... published. Every face needs to be published. And we need to call this out for the hate that it is."

•
In terms of banishing the United Nations from New York or the United States, Haley warned proponents that doing so would put malign member-nations like China and Russia in charge...

•
... the best tact would be to partially defund it, as the United States as recently as 2017 purportedly contributed about 22% of the United Nations budget.

•
"Why do Republican and Democrat presidents stay in? They stay in because on the Security Council we're one of five vetoes. And if we don't veto these bad things from happening, these bad things happen to us."

•
See related All You Can Eat (Mike Lester, 12/22/2017) cartoon from World picture album
Cornell students react to suspected 'Hamas fighter' arrest by DOJ: 'Terrifying to be on campus right now' (Fox 11/01/2023)
•
"It's both scary and sad that a member of our own campus community could be so hateful... To see that a student believes and was willing to make comments such as these shows that Jew-hatred can be anywhere and everywhere, even among our fellow students."

•
"Upon discovering that the suspect was, in fact, a fellow student at Cornell, rather than an anonymous individual unaffiliated with the university, the situation took on a heightened sense of reality."

•
"It's a stark acknowledgment that harmful ideologies and antisemitic rhetoric persist and spread. This includes the propagation of untruths, the denial of atrocities, the tolerance of hate speech under the guise of free speech, the repetition of propaganda by some professors, and the falsehood that anti-Zionism is anything other than a form of hatred against the Jewish community."

•
"It's no secret that the Jews have always been hated. It's not anything new. It's scary to think that the world said never again. And I've never bought it. [But] you want to think that in [it couldn't happen in] America, land of the free, this supposed beacon of liberty."

•
"To see not only a generic antisemitic sentiment but an antisemitic threat that's directly targeted at a building that you've been to frequently go to. I mean, that was horrifying."

•
"[The Jewish people] suffered this horrible massacre. Every one of us... knows somebody who's either a hostage, was murdered or is a soldier going to defend the state of Israel. And after suffering something like that... [we have] hate speech being thrown [us] on campus, whether that be from a professor or not from students is, I mean, its horrible. There's no other way to put it."

•
"... Look at these antisemitic comments, and how can someone say this? And the response [from progressive circles is], 'No, no, no, you don't understand. This is not antisemitism."
Students detail 'horrible' reality at top US colleges with surge in antisemitism, say they don't feel safe (Fox 11/01/2023)
•
"So we've had a plethora of incidents happen at UC Berkeley, everything from two physical assaults of students getting physically hurt on campus. We've had professors offering bonus and extra credit to students for attending pro-Hamas rallies. But the most concerning is Jewish student leaders getting an email from administration telling us to avoid certain parts of campus, to avoid showing our faces, to avoid filming these incidents and at these events, due to a fear of our safety."

•
"Going into UC Berkeley, i was really hopeful of four years of education and learning and being alongside my peers. And now I'm looking at peers that are supporting terrorists, that are supporting violence, that are supporting innocent Israelis getting murdered."

•
"There have been multiple anti-Israel rallies at NYU where I've heard students chanting 'Death to Jews,' chanting 'death' to anybody that supports the Zionist state. I mean, these are horrific things to say at a so-called peaceful protest. I've heard students chant, 'globalize the intifada,' just horrific things in classrooms. Professors are spewing absolute misinformation. And it's just it's a horrible situation."

•
"People know who I am. I get death threats daily on Instagram. It's very scary. In class, I sit next to my peers who cheer on Hamas and support the murder of over 1,400 innocent Israelis."

•
"I feel unsafe sitting in classes next to peers that are supporting these terrible acts and listening to professors that are also supporting this..."
Maine shooter thought local businesses attacked in shooting were spreading 'pedophile' rumors about him (Fox 10/31/2023)
Muslim immigrant running to unseat Ilhan Omar, speaks out from Israel: 'We are not like her' (Fox 10/31/2023)
•
"I'm telling you, Hamas is a terrorist group, and whoever supports these terrorists don't belong to the United States of America, the land of the free."

•
"When they call for a free Palestine and call 'from the river to the sea,' this is a call for a genocide. Black Lives Matter and all these far-left progressives have no clue what they're chanting about."
We have one word for terror supporters who abuse our broken visa system (Fox 10/30/2023)
•
These things are happening here, in America, because a foreign terrorist organization called for a "day of jihad," inciting violence across the country and overseas.

•
Some of those demonstrating are Americans who've never taken shelter from a barrage of terrorist rockets.

•
Others, though, are in America as guests. They presumably came to America to enjoy our freedoms, benefit from our economy, and escape dangers back home.

•
But now they are taking to the street to support foreign terrorists who murder innocent civilians and who hate America and the State of Israel.

•
We have one word for them: LEAVE.

•
The Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits entry of anyone who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization."

•
That includes people who defend or support Hamas by calling for intifada, jihad, or other similar actions to eliminate the Jewish state of Israel.

•
Those who incite violence or endorse terrorist activity by supporting Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and attacks against Jews are in violation of the terms of their visas and should no longer be welcomed as guests of America.

•
And to Americans who support Hamas — think twice. It is your right to think it and even to say it, but if you act on those feelings to incite violence or provide material support, you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Cornell University Jewish community threatened in online posts; police, FBI investigate (Fox 10/30/2023)
Biden's pick for ambassador to Israel is so awful, it's hard to believe what he's done (Fox 10/30/2023)
Oliver North calls on DOJ to indict Hamas leaders for murdering Americans: Use Interpol to halt their travel (Fox 10/28/2023)
Wall Street CEOs standing up for Israel and against pro-Hamas colleges (Fox 10/27/2023)
‘Mao’s America’ bears a terrifying resemblance to China that took 20 million lives. I know, I lived through it (Fox 10/23/2023)
•
The storm was Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). It lasted 10 years, covering most of my school years.

•
Overnight, we were told the country we lived in was rotten to the core and needed to be dismantled.

•
Instead of looking for racists, we were ordered to look for "counterrevolutionaries." Just like the term racist now has an ever-changing, fluid definition, such was the term "counterrevolutionary."

•
The term was applied to anyone Mao did not like, anyone we thought Mao would not like, anyone who dared to question, and anyone who was not enthusiastically participating in the revolution.

•
Everyone frantically joined the ranks of the revolutionaries. To be left out meant ending up an enemy of Mao. People turned against each other in search of enemies and in defense of Mao.

•
Cancel culture ensued, and on its path anything that was not pure Maoist was literally destroyed. Statues were toppled by mobs. Books and art were burned.

•
In the course of the Cultural Revolution, artifacts, symbols, traditions and customs of 3,000 years of Chinese civilization were removed from our daily lives.

•
By the death of Mao in 1976, up to 20 million lives were lost, and China as we once knew it was burned to the ground by the flames of the revolution.
Billionaire Leon Cooperman pulling Columbia funding amid student protests: These kids have ‘sh** for brains’ (Fox 10/26/2023)
•
"Now, the real shame is, I've given to Columbia probably about $50 million over many years. And I'm going to suspend my giving. I'll give my giving to other organizations."

•
"I told [Columbia] that they should fire this professor that made the comments he made. I mean, war is hell. This war is not good for anybody. But to praise what Hamas did is disgraceful. Disgusting."

•
"Columbia made a big difference in my life, which is why I've been generous with them. But the recent developments regarding the Middle East, they should stay out of it."
Wall Street CEOs standing up for Israel (Fox 10/21/2023)
Bill Maher mocks Ivy League schools for ‘indoctrination’ and anti-Israel hate... (Fox 10/21/2023)
•
"As an Ivy League graduate who knows the value of a liberal education, I have one piece of advice for the youth of America: Don't go to college."

•
"And if you absolutely have to go, don't go to an elite college, because as recent events have shown, it just makes you stupid."

•
... the tragedy in Israel revealed "how higher education has become indoctrination into a stew of bad ideas, among them the simplistic notion that the world is a binary place where everyone is either an oppressor or oppressed, in the case of Israel, oppressors being babies and bubbes."

•
"The same students who will tell you that words are violence and silence is violence, were very supportive when Hamas terrorists went on a rape and murder rampage worthy of the Vikings."

•
"They knew where to point the finger, at the murdered, and then it was off to ethics class."

•
"They don't know much of anything actually, but it doesn't deter them from having an opinion."

•
"They've convinced themselves Israel is the most repressive regime in history because they have no knowledge of history or even a desire to know it. And actual history doesn't come up in their intersectionality of politics and genderqueers identities class."

•
"... college life today is a day spa combined with North Korean re-education camp. It's a daycare center with a meal plan, except the toddlers can fire the adults."
NY Times defends rehiring Gaza journalist who praised Hitler: He's 'maintained high journalistic standards' (Fox 10/20/2023)
•
"The @nytimes has just rehired a NAZI. Let that sink in," Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan reacted.

•
"We all saw how the NYT immediately parroted Hamas' lies regarding the al-Ahli hospital (which Hijjy contributed to) and still refuses to retract these fabrications. Spreading Hamas propaganda and rehiring a Holocaust-praising terror supporter, actively stokes antisemitism. Every Jew must understand that not reading or advertising in Hamas mouthpieces is an integral part of our right to self-defense."
Ivy League school slammed after professor calls Israel attack 'exhilarating': 'A much deeper problem' (Fox 10/20/2023)
•
... said the Ithaca, New York, institution has become "balkanized by an aggressive focus on racial, ethnic, religious, gender and other identities through an 'anti-racist' and 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion' agenda imposed on the campus by the senior administration."

•
"Almost everything now is viewed through an identity lens, pitting groups against each other, pitting colleagues against one another, and pitting students against their peers."
Republicans press DOJ for not investigating widespread pro-Hamas activity after probing parents (Fox 10/20/2023)
GOP lawmakers call for pro-Hamas student visa holders to be deported: 'Not welcome here' (Fox 10/20/2023)
•
"We write to request information regarding the potentially unlawful presence on U.S. soil of non-immigrant foreign nationals who have endorsed terrorist activity."

•
"... praising mass murder as 'creative' or 'valiant' and glorifying the perpetrators of such atrocities as'"martyrs' are clear endorsements of terrorism and terrorist organizations."

•
"If you're a visitor to our country and support Hamas' gruesome murder of innocent babies and killing people while they sleep, then you do not get to remain in America and enjoy freedoms that are antithetical to the terrorist extremists you support."

•
"Americans refuse to allow antisemitic terrorist sympathizers to create home-grown terrorist cells on our soil. Americans should never support terrorists over innocent people fighting for freedom from oppression."
Ted Lieu accuses NY Times of 'intentionally' writing false headline for Gaza hospital report to draw clicks (Fox 10/20/2023)
•
"I agree the nytimes didn't 'botch' the Gaza hospital story. They did something worse. They intentionally wrote an attention grabbing headline that falsely pointed the blame at Israel to generate clicks during breaking news, without waiting for confirmation or the actual facts."
Democrat congressman condemns 'disgusting display' by media reporting on Gaza hospital blast (Fox 10/20/2023)
University of Pennsylvania grapples with donor crisis after 'Palestine Writes' event causes uproar (Fox 10/20/2023)
•
"There is no action anyone at Penn can take to change that. I'm not asking for any actions. You have shown me who you are. My only remaining hope is that all self-respecting Jews, and all moral citizens of the world, dissociate themselves from Penn."

•
"I feel your firing is unnecessary, because it is wholly inadequate. If in fact the University of Pennsylvania as an institution has such a misguided moral compass that it can fail to recognize evil when it is staring us all in the face, I don't think replacing you will accomplish anything. Frankly, I don't think there is anything anyone can do to redeem the school, short of rebuilding its moral foundations from the ground up."

•
"Of course, most distressing to me was your first statement making vague equivalences between the intentional murder of children (and others) by terrorists and the accidental injury to children that sadly occurs when murdering terrorists hide behind children to escape justice. There is no semblance of equivalence. I must believe this equivalence was not your goal. But it clearly reads that way to me."
Tlaib faces calls to be barred from Israel briefings after 'misinformation' about Gaza hospital explosion (Fox 10/19/2023)
•
"I demand that Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib be prevented from participating in any classified briefing about Israel's ongoing military operations, Israel's self-defense efforts, or any American military movements in and around the region."

•
"We must not allow Hamas sympathizers in this body to serve as the mouthpiece for Palestinian terrorists. Rather than condemn the attacks by Hamas, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has chosen to side with Hamas by spreading misinformation."

•
... it had "become clear that Congresswoman Tlaib's allegiance lies with Hamas," and that she couldn't be trusted with sensitive information that could "put American and Israeli lives at risk."

•
"I demand that her security clearance be revoked immediately and that she be prevented from participating in any relevant briefings."

•
"I don't know what's more concerning, that we have Members of Congress who are antisemites and support Hamas, or that we let those Members of Congress attend classified briefings on the war in Israel."

•
"You do not let the enemy know your plans, and letting Representative Tlaib into these briefings is doing exactly that. Furthermore, this anti-American, anti-Jewish sentiment from elected 'leaders' must STOP, it is dangerous!"
Republicans outraged by Rashida Tlaib's 'vile' anti-Israel rhetoric: 'She has no business' serving in Congress (Fox 10/19/2023)
American survivor of Hamas attack on music fest returns to see anti-Israel protests in US: 'I don't feel safe' (Fox 10/19/2023)
•
"... this is not about Israel-Palestine. This is about Hamas, a terrorist organization who is just as complicit in the deaths of these innocent Palestinians as they are in the deaths of innocent Israelis."

•
"This is about a terrorist organization attacking the Jews and killing innocent people, killing innocent people at a music festival, killing innocent grandmas who survived the Holocaust, just to be killed by Hamas, burning babies alive."
Mark Levin goes off on Democrats' 'Hamas wing': 'They're all around us' (Fox 10/18/2023)
•
The Democrat Party has a problem, and it's affecting the entirety of the United States. They have a Hamas wing in the Democrat Party. Tlaib is one of them, but there's more than one.

•
They call themselves Democratic Socialists, they had a massive rally or whatever they call it, about a week ago with all the anti-Semites and Jew haters, and I might add, America haters, they're the same ones.

•
And people need to understand she is the result, as are many of these others of a 30, 40-year effort by Hamas and their various terrorist surrogates to infiltrate our college campuses through Students for Justice in Palestine.

•
We have allowed our college campuses to get away from us under this rubric of free speech and academic freedom, which of course they don't support.

•
We've allowed our media pretty much to hire a number of these individuals as hosts and bring them on as guests.

•
We have given tenure to professors, many of whom come out of the Middle East and are part of this movement or surrogates for this movement, and they're all around us.
Hawley pushes Mayorkas on encounters of 'special interest aliens' into US amid terror fears (Fox 10/18/2023)
•
"I write with alarm regarding the uptick in potential terrorist-linked illegal aliens encountered at the southern border. This development follows the barbaric attack perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on innocent American and Israeli civilians."
Tim Scott blasts media, 'The Squad' for becoming 'disgusting' extension of 'Hamas propaganda machine' (Fox 10/18/2023)
•
"Frankly, I know we shouldn't expect more from the Squad, but the Squad becoming an extension of the Hamas propaganda machine, it is disgraceful, and it is costly."

•
"It's just disgusting, to be honest with you, I can't think of a clearer word. Not only is it misinformed and wrongheaded, but it's deadly."

•
"This morning, I started thinking about the fact that now Israel's going to have to fight a war, a second war, but it is a war against information, and this could be the most dangerous war, because this war has real consequences, and we're seeing the consequences immediately taking the word of an evil, lying terrorist organization."

•
"These are dangerous times, and part of that being led by members of Congress, having one flying the Palestinian flag the last time I checked in the halls of Congress, paid for by the American taxpayers."
U Penn professor says colleges have 'failed' anti-Israel students: 'We are fearful of offending them' (Fox 10/18/2023)
•
"When a coalition of 34 student organizations at Harvard can say that they 'hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence' and students at other elite universities blame Israel alone for the attack Hamas carried out on Israelis on Oct. 7 or even praise the massacre, something is deeply wrong at America's colleges and universities."

•
"Those of us who are university leaders and faculty are at fault. We may graduate our students, confer degrees that certify their qualifications as the best and brightest. But we have clearly failed to educate them. We have failed to give them the ethical foundation and moral compass to recognize the basics of humanity."

•
"We in the academy need to look more deeply at how it is possible that so many undergraduates, graduate students, law students and faculty at our nation's finest colleges and universities could have such moral blinders."

•
"At the same time, academia has become more hesitant," he wrote. "We often avoid challenging our students, avoid putting hard questions to them, avoid forcing them to articulate and justify their opinions. All opinions are equally valid, we argue. We are fearful of offending them."
GOP Chariman fed up with students' anti-Israel stance wants to make colleges pay: 'Disgusted' (Fox 10/18/2023)
•
"To say I am disgusted by statements of support for Hamas that we've seen in recent days is an understatement. Celebrating, excusing, or downplaying the horrific rape, torture, and murder of innocent people is the same thing as supporting violence, or even calling for it."

•
"Some organizations that have celebrated the unspeakable acts of terror that claimed the lives of 30 Americans and hundreds of Israeli men, women, and children currently enjoy tax-exempt status in the United States, and their statements call into question the academic or charitable missions they claim to pursue."

•
"University administrators, for example, have weaponized their institutions to attack speech and free inquiry as 'violence,' yet fail to condemn actual violence that threatens our way of life all while their institutions enjoy lucrative federal tax-exempt status."

•
"Congress and the American people will not forget on what side these institutions stood the day the largest number of Jewish people were killed since the Holocaust, and they must be held to account for their implicit, vile support of Hamas terrorists and violence against the people of Israel."
Veteran voice actress fired from animated show over Israel-Hamas posts: 'Just found out on Twitter!' (Fox 10/18/2023)
•
"For those who support the actions of #Hamas; when they infiltrate your hometown, on your soil, break into Jewish homes, raping, beheading innocent babies, will you applaud them? Will you wave their flag while they slaughter Christians & Muslims who don't believe their ideologies?"

•
"World's gone crazy. People ARGUING online about whether or not the mass raping, shooting & kidnapping of innocent young women from around the world at a music festival is justified! Could happen at ANY music festival! Supporting terrorists empowers them & that's globally terrifying."
Retired Gen Petraeus gives scathing review of Afghanistan exit but backs Biden's Ukraine response (Fox 10/17/2023)
GOP senator calls for ‘immediate’ halt of US aid to Palestinians, says it will end up ‘in the hands of Hamas’ (Fox 10/17/2023)
•
"The USA should not be placing conditions on our support for Israel because of demands from the 'Squad.' Humanitarian aid repeatedly ends up in the hands of Hamas terrorists who use it to build rockets & kill more Israelis. We should immediately halt U.S. aid for the Palestinians."

•
International aid for Gaza is currently blocked at the Egypt-Gaza border, with the Egyptian government keeping the Rafah connection closed.

•
Egypt and other nearby Arab nations have repeatedly refused to accept any Gazan refugees.
Sen. Cotton urges DHS to deport foreign nationals who support Hamas: 'No place in the United States' (Fox 10/17/2023)
•
"I write to urge you to immediately deport any foreign national — including and especially any alien on a student visa — that has expressed support for Hamas and its murderous attacks on Israel. These fifth-columnists have no place in the United States."

•
"Federal law is clear that any alien who 'endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization' is inadmissible and must be deported."

•
"Swiftly removing and permanently barring from future reentry any foreign student who signed onto or shared approvingly the anti-Semitic letter from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee on October 7 would be a good place to start."

•
"The appalling explosion of anti-Semitism in the United States over the past few weeks should disturb anyone who shares American values. While American citizens may have a First Amendment right to speak disgusting vitriol if they so choose, no foreign national has a right to advocate for terrorism in the United States."
Berkeley law professor asks employers not to hire 'my antisemitic law students': It’s ‘your duty’ (Fox 10/16/2023)
•
"... while terrorists were still killing Israelis in their homes, 35 Harvard student organizations wrote that they hold 'the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,' with not a single word denouncing the horrific acts by Hamas."

•
"The student conduct at Berkeley is part of the broader attitude against Jews on university campuses that made last week's massacre possible. It is shameful and has been tolerated for too long."

•
"If a student endorses hatred, it isn't only your right but your duty not to hire him. Do you want your clients represented by someone who condones these monstrous crimes?"
Drinking a cup of Starbucks is drinking a cup of Jewish blood (INN 10/15/2023)
•
Starbucks Union, representing almost 9,000 baristas, Starbucks Workers United, shockingly expressed "solidarity with Hamas" following the heartbreaking Hamas attack on innocent Israelis, where over 1,200 lives were tragically lost in the most barbaric and murderous ways including shooting infants, young children,the elderly, burning whole families of human civilians alive and taking over a hundred hostages.
GOP Harvard graduates send scathing letter blasting school's response to pro-Hamas students: 'Abhorrent' ()
•
"What we are seeing at campuses across the United States is disgusting, but it speaks to a deeper long standing post-modernist rot in academia..."

•
"These same students probably scream about microaggressions and implicit bias, but now celebrate actual aggression based on [antisemitism] against women, children, and the elderly. At Harvard, students should be learning the university motto, truth - but in reality they are propagandizing for terrorism, and they should be denounced for their actions."

•
"Sadly, there are few places on earth with more vicious antisemitism and hatred of Israel than American 'elite' universities. It's disgusting, and it's dangerous. I'm particularly ashamed that student groups from my alma mater, Harvard, blamed Israel for the genocidal war that Hamas terrorists are brutally waging."
John Fetterman roasted for saying America isn't sending 'best and brightest' to DC: 'Pot met kettle' (Fox 10/12/2023)
Joe Rogan derides ‘woke’ military practices, jokes ‘inclusion is really important when you’re killing folks’ (Fox 10/06/2023)
•
See related Military Readiness (Antonio Branco, 10/20/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Letitia James' 'trophy pledge' against Trump an 'embarrassment' to the NYS bar: Legal expert (Fox 10/05/2023)
•
"[N]ot mentioning what he might be charged with, [James said] I'm just going to charge him with something."

•
"She's really developed the signature that she will use all of the levers of her office to go against political opponents."
Biden White House Goes Full Orwell – Denying Vaccine Mandates Ever Happened (10/04/2023))
Trump says Biden sees the country being 'invaded,' warns of 'terrorists' already inside the US (Fox 10/04/2023)
•
"Biden sees our country is being invaded. What is he going to do about the 15 million people from prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums, and terrorists that have already come into our country?"

•
Trump last month vowed, if re-elected, to carry out "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," and promised to begin a second term by "immediately" terminating "every Open Borders policy of the Biden Administration."
Trump lays into 'corrupt' New York AG Letitia James for being 'stuck' off campaign trail at fraud trial (Fox 10/04/2023)
•
"I'm here, stuck here, and I can't campaign. I'd rather be right now in Iowa. I'd rather be in New Hampshire or South Carolina or Ohio or a lot of other places. But I'm stuck here because I have a corrupt attorney general that communicates with the DOJ in Washington to keep me nice and busy, because I'm leading Biden in the polls by a lot."

•
"This is election interference. They made up a fake case, these fraudulent people. And the judge already knows what he's going to do. He's a Democrat judge. In all fairness to him, he has no choice."

•
"I know this city better than anybody who knows this city. Nobody knows it like I do. He's a Democrat judge out of the clubhouses, he's controlled, and it's a shame. What's going on here is a shame. Our whole system is corrupt. This is corrupt, Atlanta is corrupt, and what's coming out of D.C. is corrupt."
House votes to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker in a historic first (Fox 10/03/2023)
New COVID vaccine push is ‘anti-human,’ says Florida surgeon general: ‘Major safety concern’ (Fox 10/03/2023)
Pastor was booted from board meeting for bashing school-approved book: These are 'snowflake adults' (Fox 10/01/2023)
•
"This book right here is recommended reading. It's a book called 'Flamer' by Mike Curato. It's recommended reading for students in Las Vegas. But when you read from that book, when you talk about the things that's in the book, when you show them that is evil and corrupt to put perverted material before kids, they get angry. And the adults, the snowflake adults don't want to hear it in the school board meeting, it's hypocrisy."

•
"This is an intentional plan where atheists, Marxists are pushing an agenda to corrupt the minds of our kids. I call it mental rape. Some people call it indoctrination or grooming, but I like to call it mental rape because it assaults the soul, it stains the brain and it robs children of their innocence."

•
"... there is a corrupt plan to dissolve the mind and diminish the minds of our kids in America. And I'm not going to sit back and allow it to be done."

•
See related Public School Libraries (Dick Wright, 05/25/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump demands court ignore DOJ request for gag order (Fox 09/26/2023)
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"The prosecution would silence President Trump, amid a political campaign where his right to criticize the government is at its zenith, all to avoid a public rebuke of this prosecution. However, 'above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content'."

•
"The prosecution may not like President's Trump's entirely valid criticisms, but neither it nor this Court are the filter for what the public may hear."
Indiana schools move to arm teachers with guns kept in biometric safes: 'A line of defense' (Fox 09/26/2023)
•
"The reality is, if you've got somebody who's entered your facility with the intent to do harm, or even kill, as heavy as that is, we want to make sure that they're met with resistance."

•
"Team members are explicitly authorized to use deadly force to protect students, staff members, or others from what is reasonably believed to be an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury due to violence."

•
"Most of the time the event is over before law enforcement is able to get there. So that's kind of a critical security gap. And we just want to make sure that we have a line of defense between our students and our staff, and any one that would want to do them harm."
Sen. Bob Menendez bribery charges are 'monster' indictment and 'serious problem' for Democrats, says Turley (Fox 09/22/2023)
Menendez slammed by New Jersey Republican challenger after bribery indictment: 'Gold Bar Bob' (Fox 09/22/2023)
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The alleged bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low- or no-show job, a luxury vehicle and "other things of value."

•
... Menendez denied any wrongdoing and said prosecutors "misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office"...
Dem senator charged with bribery once claimed Trump could be 'compromised' by Russian government (Fox 09/22/2023)
•
... alleged the senator and his wife took bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car for a range of corrupt acts, including having the Democrat use his influence over foreign affairs to benefit the authoritarian government of Egypt.

•
A search of the couple's home turned up $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash...
Trump alleges Pelosi turned down 10,000 soldiers ahead of Capitol riot: 'She’s responsible for Jan 6' (Fox 09/17/2023)
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, Disney is through... and we won't let it destroy our kids any more (Fox 09/15/2023)
On 9/11, Biden and his team want us to forget about the jihadists who attacked us (Fox 09/11/2023)
Karma comes for a Minnesota ‘defund the police’ politician (09/08/2023)
Oberlin College coach berated for stance on trans athletes in women's sports says she never... (Fox 09/06/2023)
Democrats' climate change blame game for Hawaii fire confronted by reality after Maui identifies cause (Fox 08/28/2023)
Trump's return to X would be 'best thing' for site, experts say: 'I'm sure Elon Musk has been...' (Fox 08/25/2023)
Vivek Ramaswamy shares 10 commandments of 2024 campaign, starts with 'God is real'... (Fox 08/18/2023)
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1. God is real.

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2. There are two genders.

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3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.

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4. Reverse racism is racism.

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5. An open border is no border.

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6. Parents determine the education of their children.

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7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.

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8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.

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9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.

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10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.
Newt Gingrich blasts 'absurdity' of new Trump charges: This will nominate him 'by a landslide' (Fox 08/16/2023)
•
"Let's just be clear what's going on. The left is afraid of Donald Trump. He is the one outsider who has shaken their whole system and they're willing to destroy the law in order to destroy Trump."
Massachusetts mom dies trying to save drowning son, father rescues brother at NH state park (Fox 08/16/2023)
Joe Rogan bashes 'creepy' teachers pushing gender ideology with 'cartoon pornography'... (Fox 08/15/2023)
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"Those adults are with your children more than you are during the day. They're there for hours and hours with the undivided attention of your kids and some of them are f***ing loons."

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... "some of them think that they have a job to do, to remove the programming of the parents that they don't agree with."
Georgia prosecutor showed 'no semblance of restraint' against Trump, says Turley: 'Excessive and dangerous' (Fox 08/15/2023)
•
"There's no sort of limiting principle in this document. They are charging things like the president saying publicly, we need to have a recount. Democrats and Republicans challenge these elections routinely."

•
"... She indicted everyone for everything she could think of. It is sort of the Jackson Pollock school of prosecution. She threw it all against the canvas and I think she is hoping that some of these other co-defendants will flip."
Trump says Georgia indictment comes during 'dark period' for US, vows to fix it by winning (Fox 08/15/2023)
•
"Nineteen people were indicted, and the whole world is laughing at the United States as they see how corrupt and horrible a place it has turned out to be under the leadership of Crooked Joe Biden."

•
"The racist and corrupt district attorney of Fulton County, which has turned out to be a murder capital of the world with among the highest violent crime levels anywhere in our country, just opened a fundraising site in order to benefit off the things she most campaigned on, 'I will get Donald Trump'."

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"Just like she has allowed Atlanta to go to hell with all of its crime and violence, so too has Joe Biden allowed the United States of America to go to the same place with millions of people invading our country, inflation, bad economy, no energy, and lack of respect all over the world."
Georgia district attorney gives Trump, others until Aug. 25 at noon to surrender (Fox 08/15/2023)
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"Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states."

•
The 97-page indictment contains 41 felony counts against Trump and the 18 defendants and alleges they "unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere."
Handyman who turned the tables on squatters claims he's hacked their system and can handle yours too (Fox 08/11/2023)
Witness to Sikh employees 'a** whooping' thief at 7-Eleven during calls it 'courageous' as police launch probe (Fox 08/08/2023)
Trump indictment would ‘bulldoze’ the First Amendment if it succeeds: Turley (Fox 08/05/2023)
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"In order to secure convictions for this, Special Counsel Jack Smith would need to bulldoze through not just the First Amendment but also existing case law holding that even false statements are protected."

•
"Trump is allowed to seek out enablers who tell him what he wants to hear. All presidents do this. (Joe Biden, for example, ignored virtually unanimous legal opinion and relied upon a single law professor's say-so to justify an obviously unconstitutional executive action that later had to be reversed.)..."

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"There is no limiting principle to this indictment. The government would choose between which politicians are lying and which are lying without cause."

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"So, even assuming that Smith can prove Trump lied, there would still be constitutional barriers to criminalizing his false statements."
Trump allies cry election interference after former president arrested over 2020 race (Fox 08/03/2023)
Trump pleads 'not guilty' to charges stemming from special counsel's Jan. 6 probe (Fox 08/03/2023)
Alan Dershowitz pushes back on Bill Barr's defense of Trump indictment: 'He's dead wrong' (Fox 08/03/2023)
Indictment of Donald Trump is a 'terribly tragic day' and shows speech is now 'criminalized'... (Fox 08/01/2023)
•
So now we have the criminalization and the weaponization of public policy and political speech by one political party over another."

•
"... We now have a political incumbent who is attacking Americans for their beliefs, attacking Americans for their speech and attacking Americans for their politics. This has never happened in the history of our country, and it's playing out right now."

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See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump indictment won't fulfill Democrats' ineligibility bedtime story, Smith 'stretched law': Legal experts (Fox 08/01/2023)
Trump indicted on charges out of Special Counsel probe into Jan. 6 (Fox 08/01/2023)
Woke culture has pushed this mom too far (Fox 08/01/2023)
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See related Push Comes to Shove (Antonio Branco, 06/05/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump says Mar-a-Lago security tapes ‘were not deleted,’ accuses special counsel of 'prosecutorial fiction' (Fox 07/30/2023)
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"Same as the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. They knowingly accuse you of a fake crime, a crime that they actually make up, you fight these false charges hard, and they try and get you on 'obstruction.' We are dealing with sick and evil people!"
Activists allegedly threaten to 'dismember' school board president, kill her kids over trans student policy (Fox 07/26/2023)
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"[Things like] 'you're going to die' with other inappropriate words, 'your children are going to die,' and 'your animals are going to die'..."

•
See related Coming for Your Children (Mike Lester, 06/27/2023) cartoon from USA picture album
CA school board throws out state official as he protests for secret transgender policies: 'Pervert children' (Fox 07/24/2023)
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"I appreciate you being here tremendously. But here's the problem. We're here because of people like you. You're in Sacramento proposing things that pervert children."

•
"You may have a seat. You're not going to blackmail us. You already sent us a blackmailing letter on the previous point of order. You'll not bully us here in Chino."

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Left's favorite 'woke' initiative under serious threat after court's controversial ruling (Fox 07/23/2023)
•
"If I was advising major corporations and law schools and medical schools and everything else, I would tell them to immediately get out of the business of racial preferences and out of the business of racial quotas."

•
"Because what we see is the writing on the wall. We see the fact that there is no tolerance amongst the majority of Supreme Court for these types of divisive programs."
Law professors urge Biden to defy 'mistaken' rulings by 'MAGA' Supreme Court justices (Fox 07/23/2023)
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"We urge President Biden to restrain MAGA justices immediately by announcing that if and when they issue rulings that are based on gravely mistaken interpretations of the Constitution that undermine our most fundamental commitments, the Administration will be guided by its own constitutional interpretations."

•
"In this particular historical moment, MAGA justices pose a grave threat to our most fundamental commitments because they rule consistently to undermine democracy and to curtail fundamental rights, and because many of their rulings are based on misleading and untrue claims."

•
"What is most striking about these professors is how they continue to claim they are defenders of democracy, yet seek to use unilateral executive authority to defy the courts and, in cases like the tuition forgiveness and affirmative action, the majority of the public. They remain the privileged elite of academia, declaring their values as transcending both constitutional and democratic processes."

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"In other words, they are calling for Biden to declare himself the final arbiter of what the Constitution means and to exercise unilateral executive power without congressional approval. He is to become a government unto himself."
Declassified Richard Nixon letter to President Clinton proves prophetic on Russia (Fox 07/22/2023)
Ex-deputy blames anti-law enforcement 'bias' after jury acquits man who beat, shot at her: 'Knife in the back' (Fox 07/21/2023)
Conservatives, legal experts erupt over Trump claim he is Jan. 6 grand jury target: 'Makes no sense' (Fox 07/18/2023)
Trump's 2024 GOP rivals react to former president's potential third indictment: 'Dangerous precedent' (Fox 07/18/2023)
Trump says he is DOJ Jan. 6 grand jury investigation target (Fox 07/18/2023)
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"Deranged Jack Smith, prosecutor with Joe Biden's DOJ, sent a letter (again it was a Sunday night!) stating that I am the TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury Investigation, and giving me a very short four days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an arrest an indictment."

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"So now, Joe Biden's Attorney General, Merrick Garland, who I turned down for the United States Supreme Court (in retrospect, based on his corrupt and unethical actions, a very wise decision!), together with Joe Biden's Department of Injustice, have effectively issued a third indictment and arrest of Joe Biden's NUMBER ONE POLITICAL OPPONENT, who is largely dominating him in the race for the Presidency."

•
"Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before, or even close."

•
"They illegally spied on my Campaign, attacked me with a totally Fake "Dossier" that was funded by Hillary Clinton's Campaign and the DNC."

•
"They failed on the Mueller Witch Hunt (No Collusion!), they failed on Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the 51 'intelligence' agents fraud, the FBI/Twitter files, the DOJ/Facebook censorship, and every other scam imaginable."

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"THIS WITCH HUNT IS ALL ABOUT ELECTION INTERFERENCE AND A COMPLETE AND TOTAL POLITICAL WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT. It is a very sad and dark period for our Nation!"

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See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Dan Crenshaw shreds Dem colleagues defending child sex change surgery: 'We are not the crazy ones' (Fox 07/15/2023)
•
"... Doing a double mastectomy on a 12-year-old girl. That's cruel. Castrating a ten-year-old boy. That's cruel. Putting them on permanent hormone therapy and puberty blockers that could prevent them from ever having children permanently changing their physiology. There's a cruelty to that for sure."

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... detailed what he said was a 45,000% increase in transition surgeries at hospitals that conduct the procedures... "peer influence" was a major factor in the increase.

•
"And when every single piece of evidence shows that there's not a clear benefit associated with it, you just press pause. Heck, we're not even pressing pause. We're saying don't fund institutions that are actively doing it. We're doing way less than pressing pause."
DC business owner condemns 'disgusting' plea deal for gunman he fought off while 4-year-old son watched (Fox 07/13/2023)
Grassley, Johnson demand answers after FBI said Hunter Biden probe advanced Russian disinformation (Fox 06/30/2023)
New Jersey parents call out Gov. Murphy after state sues their schools: 'He's suing the taxpayers' (Fox 06/29/2023)
•
"They're suing the parents, and they're suing the taxpayers who support the Board of Ed with wanting to know what's going on with their kids in school."

•
"I get a phone call if my kid is absent. I have to sign permission slips for everything, whether it be medicine or whether it be field trips or a syllabus."

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"And for the attorney general to turn around and say that we can be involved in all that but not involved if our child decides to go by a different gender or a different name? That it's okay to keep from us?"

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... the only way to win against government overreach in your child's education is "to deprive the system of resources," and unenroll kids from government schools.

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"Your child is healthier, safer and better sitting at home doing nothing rather than being in that government building and in a public school in New Jersey, or anywhere else for that matter."
Army veteran GOP rep says US trying to 'out-pronoun our enemies' in push to end military DEI program (Fox 06/29/2023)
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"There's too much time being spent on the ideas of correctly identifying pronouns than prioritizing things like increased lethality, readiness and being properly equipped."

•
"This whole push towards being able to out-pronoun our enemies, to be able to out-he/him, she/her, they/them, I can tell you is not what the priorities are of our adversaries like China and Russia."

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See related Bombshells (Antonio Branco, 10/22/2021) cartoon from World picture album
The stunning revelation in Durham hearing should chill us to the core (Fox 06/22/2023)
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"The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research, such as the Steele dossier. The FBI relied on the dossier and FISA applications, knowing there was likely material originating from a political campaign or political opponent."
Soros cash fuels big wins for progressive prosecutors in Virginia primaries (Fox 06/22/2023)
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See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Ohio moms react to 'vicious' school reporting them to FBI after exposing critical race theory (Fox 06/22/2023)
•
"... an overreaction of calling the police on us, alerting almost 900 faculty members that they had alerted the FBI that we were dangerous."

•
"One teacher stated, on the first day of class, that he would not communicate with any student who supported President Trump. Politically charged issues were regularly taught and discussed in the classroom without opposing viewpoints presented."

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Levin: If relevant law applied to Trump, 'Bill Clinton would be doing 50 years with his wife' (Fox 06/17/2023)
Rod Blagojevich attacks 'Soviet-style politics' behind Trump charges: 'Stalin is dancing in the streets' (Fox 06/15/2023)
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"Abraham Lincoln is rolling over in his grave and Joseph Stalin is dancing in the streets." ... "Soviet-style politics has now found a place in the United States."

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"A free society cannot survive without a free press, and the job of a free press, whether you like someone or not, is to try to be as fair as you possibly can be and to be able to give both sides an opportunity to air their differences. The press today... they're supposed to be a watchdog. They've become an attack dog for the people against Trump, and it's wrong, and it's scary. I think the American people need to wake up."

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"You could just bring accusations from the Department of Justice that I know from my own experience is corrupt, dishonest and that they rig the system... and do something like this to a president of the United States, who is the leading presidential candidate of the party that's not mine."
Alan Dershowitz says Trump court proceedings must be televised: Americans 'have a right' to see it (Fox 06/14/2023)
Marco Rubio warns US will pay 'terrible price' for Trump indictment: 'You think this ends here?' (Fox 06/13/2023)
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"This is a sad and terrible day, I know there are people in the press that are giddy about it, Democrats and partisans that are giddy about it, but this is really bad for America, this indictment."

•
"It was a bad decision to bring it. I don't think it was justified or merited and we are going to pay a terrible price for it."

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"It's incredibly damaging to the country. This is further polarizing us at a time when we need to be united... instead we're focusing on an indictment that has no harm, no victims."

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"These documents of this nature don't belong at Biden's garage, they don't belong on Hillary Clinton's server, they don't belong at Mar-a-Lago, but there's no allegation here, even if you read the indictment nowhere does it say 'and as a result the national security of the United States was harmed in this way,'..."

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"You have to weigh that with an indictment that now is going to put our country [an] already divided and polarized country in a really dangerous place."

•
"Now all of our institutions are being undermined, now this whole country is watching this spectacle play out and it will for the next year and a half, not to mention there are real questions whether the president can get a fair shake here."

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"You think this ends here? The next Republican president is going to be under tremendous pressure to bring charges and indict Joe Biden, his family, crackhead son, whoever. The pressure will be extraordinary."
Trump pleads not guilty to 37 federal felony charges in classified records case (Fox 06/13/2023)
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"The targeting prosecution of a leading political opponent is the type of thing you see in dictatorships like Cuba and Venezuela."

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"It is commonplace there for rival candidates to be prosecuted, persecuted and put into jail."
Gaetz grills DOJ over Trump prosecutor's donations to Biden, alleged misconduct (Fox 06/13/2023)
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"While there are innumerable valid legislative purposes for this request, it should be obvious that doing due diligence in vetting an office that has apparently done no vetting of its own personnel, or worse, might affirmatively be seeking to staff with sanctioned lawyers and partisan hatchet-men (and women), is an entirely appropriate purpose and one small reason I am requesting this information."

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"Today, I'd like to announce that I'm writing an appropriations rider to defund Jack Smith, special counsel, his office and the investigation. This is a weaponized government attempt to take down the top political enemy and leading presidential candidate of the United States, Donald J. Trump."

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"It's no surprise that the bogus indictment of President Trump is coming from far-left prosecutors Jack Smith and Karen Gilbert. Smith has a long history of trying to use the courts to target conservatives and Gilbert has a record of unethical misconduct. Every American deserves to know who else is working on their team, as they are interfering in the 2024 election."
McCarthy rips CNN for hiring James Clapper, Andrew McCabe: ‘Are you prepared to defend your network?’ (Fox 06/12/2023)
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"So, your network hires Clapper, who literally lied to the American public – one of 51 other individuals that had briefings and used it politically to tell the American public that a laptop was Russia collusion, even though it had all this information about the Biden administration."

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"Are you prepared to get rid of those people from your network? Because my concern as a policymaker is that when [you] weaponize government, and now you're weaponizing networks, that is wrong."

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"I have a real problem that your network actually pays people who did classified information and then lied to the American public to try to influence a presidential election, and then you put them on your network to give an opinion."

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"It is unconscionable for a president to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades."

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"I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable."
Alan Dershowitz slams Trump indictment, shares one ‘damning piece of evidence’ in the DOJ's case (Fox 06/11/2023)
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"He was assigned only one job — to get Trump. If you put aside all your resources and do what Justice Jackson warned about 80 years ago, where he said it's a question of picking the man and then searching the law books or putting investigators to work to pin some offense on him. That's what they did."
Trump rails against Biden, 'deep state' at first speech after classified docs indictment: 'Political hit job' (Fox 06/10/2023)
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"The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration's weaponized Department of Justice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country. This vicious persecution is a travesty of justice."

•
He also took aim at President Biden directly, accusing him of "trying to jail his leading political opponent and opponent that's beating him by a lot in the polls, just like they do in Stalinist Russia or communist China."

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"Either we have a deep state or we have a democracy. We're going to have one or the other. And we're right at the tipping point. And either they win or we win. It's very simple. They win or we win."
Trump indicted on 37 federal counts out of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into classified records (Fox 06/09/2023)
Alan Dershowitz: Trump indictment doesn't pass the Richard Nixon test (Fox 06/09/2023)
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"It has to be at least as strong as the case against Richard Nixon, which we will remember led not to Democrats to demand his resignation, but Republicans, his own colleagues came to him and said, this case is so strong that we can't support you. I haven't seen any suggestion that Republicans agree with this indictment."

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"If this indictment is as weak as it appears to be, from what has been disclosed so far, it may be the most dangerous indictment in political history. As everybody knows, it's the first time that a man who is the leading candidate against the incumbent president has been indicted by the incumbent administration in an effort to prevent him from running."

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"It's an extraordinarily dangerous indictment, potentially dangerous to the rule of law, dangerous to the neutral application of criminal justice, and dangerous to establishing a precedent that each side will weaponize the criminal justice system against their political opponents. That's not America."

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"Look, I voted, myself, against Trump twice. I have a constitutional right to vote against him a third time on the merits, and that right shouldn't be taken away from me by politicians, by attorneys general, by judges, by jurors."

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"If this becomes a politically divided prosecution, where the Republicans are on one side, the Democrats are on the other, it moves the election out of the polling booth to the courthouse. And that's not where elections ought to be held."

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"If I were a Republican leader, what I would do is draft a potential indictment against Biden and his son based on the information that's now available, and present that in the court of public opinion in juxtaposition with the indictment that will come down on Tuesday, and let the public judge whether or not there's a single standard of justice."
Gregg Jarrett rips into AG Merrick Garland over Trump indictment: 'He doesn't care about the law' (Fox 06/09/2023)
•
It's two systems of justice; one for Donald Trump and one for everybody else. Merrick Garland, the attorney general, is criminalizing a civil dispute over documents that's governed exclusively by civil statutes, the Presidential Records Act.

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That act means anything created during a presidency, whether it's classified or not, can be maintained by a former president, period.

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But instead of seeking an injunction, let's say, or production of records in a civil court, and let a judge hash it out, Garland chose to bastardize the law by raiding Trump's home and then seeking an indictment today.

•
And it didn't matter that Trump was following the very same standard established by the Department of Justice itself a decade ago in the Bill Clinton case, who kept classified documents.

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That was a standard endorsed by a federal court in Washington. The president can keep what he wants, but Garland didn't like that, and he doesn't care about the law.

•
So he abandoned his own precedent because it's Donald Trump. This is selective prosecution. It is unequal justice.

•
Yeah, it's okay for Hillary to mishandle classified documents. No charges for Joe Biden to do the same. But if Donald Trump does it, it's a high crime.
Musk suggests Trump is being targeted after indictment: ‘Far higher interest in pursuing Trump' than others (Fox 06/09/2023)
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"There does seem to be far higher interest in pursuing Trump compared to other people in politics. Very important that the justice system rebut what appears to be differential enforcement or they will lose public trust."
'Biden just secured Trump's nomination,' 'War on the republic': GOP unites in outrage over Trump indictment (Fox 06/08/2023)
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"... I want the American people to know, to make no mistake, this is the executive branch tonight trying to take out their number one opponent for the presidency of the United States in 2024."

•
"Everyone's held to a different standard but Donald Trump, and that's wrong. And, I do believe tonight that Joe Biden just secured Donald Trump's nomination for Republicans in 2024."

•
Levin contended that the true date of insurrection is June 8, 2023, the day Democrats indicted their chief political opponent.

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He said that Attorney General Merrick Garland is in essence a "mob lawyer" and that Smith is following in the footsteps of Communist prosecutors from the former Soviet Union.

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"This is a disgusting mark on American history... by these bandits in the White House, by the Democrat party that don't play fair anymore."

•
"They don't just want to win elections they want to take control of this country, they want one-party rule and they have used the DOJ and the FBI to get what they want."

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One of Trump's Republican primary opponents, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, said the indictment appears to undermine the American standard that justice is blind. ... "What we've seen over the last several years is the weaponization of the Department of Justice against a former president."

•
"We've seen people either try to keep him from office or to remove him out of office. And the same thing is happening right now. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the left looks at Trump's polls increasing," Jeffress said.

•
"He is going to be the GOP nominee, as Nancy Mace said – And I'll go one step further. They know he will be the next president of the United States. They know they can't defeat him at the ballot box."

•
"I think evangelical Christians are going to turn out in droves now to support this president. And I'm saying tonight this is a reset... It's time for all Republicans to get behind the candidate who has the best chance of defeating Biden and turn out in record numbers."
EXCLUSIVE: Trump says indictment is 'election interference at the highest level' (Fox 06/08/2023)
•
"This is the most corrupt administration in history — there has never been an administration so corrupt, and they're just starting to find it right now. They are trying to deflect all of their dishonesty by bringing this ridiculous boxes hoax case."

•
"The reason that they did this today, at this time, is because of the fact that the $5 million was found out in the document, and that's just the beginning."
Joe Biden allegedly paid $5M by Burisma executive as part of a bribery scheme, according to FBI document (Fox 06/08/2023)
•
Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin.

•
At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and at the time, Hunter had a highly-lucrative role on the board receiving thousands of dollars per month.

•
"I said, 'You're not getting the billion. I'm going to be leaving here in,' I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: 'I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money,'" Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

•
"Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."

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In 2019, then-President Donald Trump, pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family's actions and business dealings in Ukraine — specifically Hunter Biden's ventures with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and Joe Biden's successful effort to have Shokin ousted.

•
Trump's request was regarded by Democrats as a quid pro quo for millions in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen.

•
Democrats also claimed Trump was meddling in the 2020 presidential election by asking a foreign leader to look into a Democratic political opponent.

•
Trump was later impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — all stemming from the phone call and the question about the Bidens' dealings. The Senate voted for acquittal in February 2020.
Daniel Penny: Marine vet accused of fatal subway chokehold reveals why he stepped in (Fox 06/08/2023)
Biden admin is preparing to target Americans' gas furnaces amid stove crackdown (Fox 06/07/2023)
North Dakota parents rage at school board for defying law on kids' gender identities: 'Whose kids are these?' (Fox 05/28/2023)
Franklin Graham at Christian media convention: Every 'demon from hell' has been 'turned loose' in society (Fox 05/23/2023)
•
"The world has deteriorated so quickly. We cannot be deceived and we can't be fooled. We need to get ready and be prepared."

•
"We're living in a cancel culture, and [big corporations] want to destroy Christian organizations. They want us to shut our mouths. They don't want to hear from us."
Russiagate government figures exposed in Durham report were rewarded with cushy TV gigs, lucrative book deals (Fox 05/23/2023)
Jordan takes on Dems in contentious exchange over whistleblower testimony (Fox 05/18/2023)
•
"If you're a parent attending a school board meeting; if you're a pro-lifer praying at a clinic, or you're a Catholic simply going to mass, you are a target of the government, a target of the FBI."
Witness to Jordan Neely chokehold death calls Daniel Penny a 'hero' (Fox 05/18/2023)
•
"This isn't about race. This is about people of all colors who were very, very afraid and a man who stepped in to help them. Race is being used to divide us."

•
"I miss the city under the law and order of Giuliani. When it comes to exposing people or subjecting them to violent behavior, the people who are in power and supposed to protect us are not."
Elon Musk defends bashing Soros in exchange with reporter: He bought ‘pet prosecutors’ (Fox 05/17/2023)
•
"Soros astutely identified a massive arbitrage opportunity in district attorney elections, where a relatively small amount of money has outsized influence."

•
See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Angel families unload on Biden as Title 42 ends: 'Worse than a third world country' (Fox 05/12/2023)
Soros-backed St. Louis attorney refuses to charge Cinco De Mayo shooting suspect on lack of evidence 5/11/23 https://www.foxnews.com/us/soros-backed-st-louis-attorney-refuses-charge-cinco-de-mayo-shooting-suspect-lack-evidence-reportsOcasio-Cortez fumes at CNN for Trump town hall: 'Should be ashamed (Fox of/0/2024)
FBI doesn't share document GOP subpoenaed alleging 'criminal scheme' involving Biden (Fox 05/10/2023)
CIA 'may have assisted in obtaining signatories' for letter discrediting Hunter Biden laptop: House GOP report (Fox 05/09/2023)
[Don’t] Take the F Train (American Thinker, 05/07/2023)
Riley Gaines urges female athletes to boycott competing against trans girls: 'Don’t run ... don’t swim' (Fox 05/07/2023)
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky stepping down (Fox 05/05/2023)
Fauci, Weingarten try to rewrite history on disastrous COVID-19 lockdowns: 'Show me a school that I shut down' (Fox 05/05/2023)
7th-grade student fights back after school told him to change his ‘There are only two genders’ t-shirt (Fox 05/05/2023)
•
"The reason that I wore it is because, well, everyone has a right to their opinions and I want to be able to voice mine on a subject that a lot of people were talking about."

•
"I definitely don't like that they violated what is basically the first thing that the people who were in charge of America at the time stated we were allowed to do and nowadays it feels like that's being taken away a lot, which is why some people choose to speak up about it. It's not just me."
Riley Gaines challenges Dem fathers opposed to sports bill: You want your daughter in a locker room with men? (Fox 05/05/2023)
•
"This is another question I tend to find myself asking, specifically and thinking about fathers... when every single Democrat voted in opposition of protecting women and girls in sports. In particular, I think of those dads who did that. Those dads, do they want their daughters sharing locker rooms with men?"

•
"Do they want their daughters losing out on opportunities being asked to kindly step aside and smile and give away their trophy to a man? Is that what they want?"

•
"I truthfully believe in my heart the answer is no. Yet, they are willing to throw that out of the window and say yes. That is what they want. And It's because they are spineless. They have no backbone, no morals, and they are cowards."

•
"It seems to be whether that be at the state level, the federal level, across the general public, it seems that it's women who are fighting the sex-based protections....it's mind-boggling."

•
"It's something I truly don't understand. Again, this is something that we are seeing almost unanimously. I think we can agree that women typically tend to be more agreeable. They tend to not want to ruffle feathers they don't want to step on toes. But that's how we have gotten here by being agreeable. By being quiet, by not being bold and using our voice......"

•
"It just shows the war on women is underway, and the Democrats will pay for this in 2024."
Soros-backed prosecutor mired in scandal resigns from office (Fox 05/04/2023)
Female high school student scorches school district for allowing biological male student... (Fox 05/04/2023)
•
"Firstly, the question we must address is: Why are we affirming the mental confusion of this boy and putting the safety of women in jeopardy by allowing mentally confused men to use women's spaces?"

•
"Why don't we ever get a say in whether or not we are comfortable with this? The truth is, we aren't, the majority of us aren't, and yet nothing has been done to protect the safety of these women."
Jonathan Turley assesses allegations against Blinken: Nothing 'more serious than this' (Fox 05/01/2023)
Indiana councilman comes out as 'lesbian woman of color,' faces death threats and doxxing... (04/30/2023)
Judge shreds Soros-backed prosecutor, moves to hold her in criminal contempt: ‘Rudderless ship of chaos‘ (Fox 04/29/2023)
•
"It appears that Ms. Gardner has complete indifference and a conscious disregard for the judicial process."

•
"There is sufficient evidence of disdain and disrespect for the judicial process to determine that both Ms. Gardner and Mr. Desilets' conduct support a finding of indirect criminal contempt. Furthermore, any attorney's violation of a court's order constitutes an intentional disobedience and shows a clear intent to disregard the power and authority of the judicial system process."
Parents sued for speaking out against sexually explicit books in library: 'It's disgusting' (Fox 04/28/2023)
•
After they spoke out at a board of education meeting about sexually explicit books in the school library, Roxbury High School librarian Roxana Russo Caivano filed a lawsuit against them, arguing that the parents had defamed her by challenging her choice of content and alleging that they had labeled her a "child predator" and accused her of "luring children with pornography."

•
"We were arguing [that] we're in the fight against the sexualization of our children in America and especially in New Jersey."

•
"And we feel that this content should not be made available to minor children, especially in the school district where our children are quickly rising. And that's what we spoke to. We spoke to the fact that these are our children, nobody else's. And we have the right to direct their upbringing and those books do not match the morals and values that I teach in my home."

•
"We have one chance to get this right with our children and we are their last line of defense against this agenda."

•
"And I say speak out. Who cares what they call you. You know your truth. You are on the right side of history. And, again, we are the last ones. We have parents, grandparents, teachers reaching out to us saying thank you. We have watched this go on in Roxbury for years. And we're disgusted, and thank you for speaking out. So speak your truth and don't be – don't let anybody silence you. This is about the kids."
Arguing COVID came from China could land you on Minnesota's government bias registry... (Fox 04/27/2023)
•
"It seems very clear, based upon their focus on motivation, that they're more concerned about what's going on in people's heads, which is protected speech, and that's thoughtcrime."
Alvin Bragg's deputy says prosecutors have 'power' to change justice system by declining to charge criminals (Fox 04/26/2023)
•
"... if [prosecutors] don't charge a crime, a judge can't sentence to that crime. If police officers make certain arrests, they [can] declin[e] to prosecute... And police officers can keep making... arrests but if the prosecutor decides not to prosecute that then that's it."

•
"At the federal level, talking about getting legislation passed in Congress to not have mandatory minimums or not... prosecutors unilaterally in each jurisdiction can do that on their own without any type of legislation statutorily not required. And they can choose what they want to charge and what not to charge, how they want to charge it, what to prosecute, what outcomes should be. They really have all of that power in their offices. But nobody understands that."
Elon Musk goes off on gender surgery that can sterilize minors: ‘Should go to prison for life’ (Fox 04/25/2023)
•
"This is super messed up. Mature, consenting adults should do as they wish, so long as they do not harm anyone else, but this child was too young for any kind of consent."

•
"Every child goes through an identity crisis, but leaping to a permanent solution that sterilizes them for life before they could possibly consent for themselves is wrong. Plain and simple."

•
"I repeat my statement that any parents or doctors who do this should go to prison for life."
FOX News Media, Tucker Carlson part ways (Fox 04/24/2023)
Riley Gaines points out double standards in criticisms of Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act (Fox 04/24/2023)
•
"Checking birth certificate and/or ensuring everyone has a routine physical before competing = egregious violation of personal dignity."

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"Forcing girls to undress in front of an intact and exposed male = NOT an egregious violation of personal dignity, but rather kind and inclusive."

•
"This should be bipartisan, yet not (sic) democrats in the House voted in favor of HR 734. I'll stand with anyone, regardless of party affiliation, who vows to protect girls and women in sports."

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House passage sends the bill to the Senate, where Democrat leaders are unlikely to take it up, and President Biden has said he would veto the bill if it made it to his desk.
Conservative college grad who walked out of Merrick Garland's commencement speech 'would do it again' (Fox 04/23/2023)
Fmr Anheuser-Busch exec on Bud Light's marketing VP taking leave of absence... (Fox 04/23/2023)
•
... arguing that counting on conservative consumers to forget the controversy is the "wrong bet to make."

•
"...We're not going to get involved in the environmental social governance movement, because that's not what the customer wants."

•
... the formerly traditional "apolitical brand" became engrossed in controversy when investment companies started pushing them to be accountable to "all these so-called stakeholders, political organizations, activist organizations."

•
"There's a more fundamental problem that's going on right now where Anheuser-Busch has to choose who it's going to be accountable to... Will it be its shareholders? Or its so-called stakeholders?

•
"... But unfortunately, when you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being accountable to no one."

•
"What the customer wants with Bud Light ... They want the things that bind us together as co-equal citizens here, not necessarily having Bud Light get involved in political controversies that tear us apart. Heck, this is one of the most apolitical brands out there, shared by Democrats and Republicans alike."
Biden campaign, Blinken orchestrated intel letter to discredit Hunter Biden laptop story, ex-CIA... (Fox 04/21/2023)
Elon Musk reveals US intel agencies had 'full access' to private Twitter DMs, discloses new... (Fox 04/17/2023)
•
"The degree to which government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind. I was not aware of that."

•
If the encryption option is selected, "no one at Twitter can see what you're talking about." "You could put a gun to my head and I couldn't tell you. That's how it should be."

•
"If I got something that was unconstitutional from the U.S. government, my reply would be to send them a copy of the First Amendment and just say, 'What part of this are we getting wrong?'..."

•
"Since I've been a heavy Twitter user since 2009, it's sort of like I'm in 'The Matrix.' I can see things, do things feel right, do they not feel right, what tweets am I being shown as recommended?... I started to get more and more uneasy about the Twitter situation. I started to feel like something feels wrong...I couldn't place it exactly."

•
"Just, it felt like it was drifting in a bad direction and my conversations with the board and management seemed to confirm my intuition about that, basically. But I was convinced these guys do not care about fixing Twitter and I had a bad feeling about where it was headed based on the conversations I had with them. So then I was like, you know what, I'll try acquiring it and see if acquiring it is possible."
NYC mother says Alvin Bragg's office treated her 'like garbage' after 'brutal ... slaughter'... (Fox 04/17/2023)
•
Bragg has let "all types of criminal elements free to do what they want, when they want, however they want, to whomever they want, with no consequences – no deterrence."

•
"Millions and billions of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars are going to fund organizations that are doing absolutely nothing to deter this crime."

•
"I propose that not another dime of our federal tax dollars be pumped into [soft policing organizations] until they can produce measurable outcomes of the effectiveness of what they are doing with our tax dollars."

•
"And as for this district attorney's office, if he is receiving one penny of federal dollars, you need to pull that funding until he starts doing his damn job and prosecuting crime."

•
Brame's son, Army Sgt. Hason Correa, was stabbed nine times in front of his father in 2018.
Mother of NYC murder victim shouts down Democrat lawmaker: 'Don't insult my intelligence' (Fox 04/17/2023)
•
Goldman attempted to use the time granted to him to question Brame to instead criticize the hearing itself, arguing it was a "coverup" for Republicans attempting to defend former President Donald Trump.

•
Goldman, who served as impeachment counsel during Trump's first impeachment, sought to explain his view of the situation to Brame after other Democrats had stated that Republicans were using the witnesses as "props" to defend Trump.

•
"Don't insult my intelligence. You're trying to insult me like I'm not aware of what's going on here. I'm fully aware of what's going on here, OK? That's why I walked away from the plantation of the Democratic Party."

•
Brame had testified earlier about Bragg's mishandling of her son's murder case. Her son, Army Sgt. Hason Correa, was beaten and stabbed nine times by multiple people in 2018.

•
The prosecution for the cases dragged on for more than four years, and Bragg ultimately removed the indictments against two of the suspects in favor of lesser charges. Two others ended up receiving life sentences.

•
Brame argued that Bragg's office has only served to escalate the city's crime problem, showing no "measurable results" in lowering the city's violent crime rate.
‘It presumes to replace us’: Concerns of bias in AI grow after Elon Musk issues new warning (Fox 04/16/2023)
•
"What's happening is they're training the A.I. to lie. It's bad. A.I. is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production."

•
"In the sense that it has the potential, however, small one may regard that probability, but it is non-trivial, it has the potential of civilization destruction."
Elon Musk jumps into transgender debate, says prison for parent, doctor who 'sterilizes' a child (Fox 04/16/2023)
•
"Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life."
Anheuser-Busch sheds over $5 billion in value since Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney pact sparked outrage (Fox 04/12/2023)
Texas dairy explosion leaves at least 18,000 cattle dead, 1 person critically injured (Fox 04/12/2023)
Trump sues former attorney Michael Cohen for $500 million (Fox 04/12/2023)
•
"This is an action arising from [Cohen's] multiple breaches of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, conversion and breaches of contract by virtue of [Cohen's] past service as [Trump's] employee and attorney."

•
The lawsuit alleges Cohen breached his attorney-client relationship by "spreading falsehoods" about Trump that were "likely to be embarrassing or detrimental, and partook in other misconduct," while also breaching contractual terms of a confidentiality agreement he signed as a condition of employment with Trump.

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"Such continuous and escalating improper conduct by [Cohen] has reached a proverbial crescendo and has left [Trump] with no alternative but to seek legal redress through this action," the lawsuit states, adding that Trump has "suffered vast reputational harm as a direct result of [Cohen's] breaches."

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"[Cohen's] improper, self-serving, and malicious statements about his former client, his family members, and his business constitute repeated and substantial violations of his continuing fiduciary obligations as an attorney."

•
"[Cohen] chose to capitalize on his confidential relationship with [Trump] to pursue financial gain and repair a reputation shattered by his repeated misrepresentations and deceptive acts, fueled by his animus toward [Trump] and his family members."
ChatGPT falsely accuses Jonathan Turley of sexual harassment, concocts fake WaPo story to support allegation (Fox 04/10/2023)
Former AG issues chilling warning that left's agenda is 'leading to horrific crimes' (Fox 04/09/2023)
Greg Abbott working to 'swiftly' pardon Army Sergeant convicted of murder in Black Lives Matter riot (Fox 04/08/2023)
•
Army Sergeant Daniel Perry was convicted of murder on Friday for shooting and killing a Black Lives Matter protester holding an AK-47 after the gun was raised toward him. The Austin Police Department concluded at the time that Perry acted in self-defense.
Texas AG Paxton slams 'Soros-backed' prosecutor after jury convicts Army sergeant for shooting protester (Fox 04/08/2023)
•
"Self-defense is a God-given right, not a crime. Unfortunately, the Soros-backed DA in Travis County cares more about the radical agenda of dangerous Antifa and BLM mobs than justice."

•
"When Garrett Foster pointed his AK-47 at Daniel Perry, Daniel had two tenths of a second to defend himself. He chose to live."

•
"It may be legal in Texas to carry an assault rifle in downtown Austin. It doesn't make it a good idea. If you point a firearm at someone, you're responsible for everything that happens next."
Prosecutorial abuse isn't just limited to Trump, but there is a silver lining (Fox 04/06/2023)
Pompeo torches Kirby after White House shifts blame to Trump for deadly Afghanistan withdrawal (Fox 04/06/2023)
•
"I am outraged by the fact that the 13 Americans that were killed there didn't have to happen. And President Biden made the political decision to announce the date of withdrawal, to publicize it, and then to withdraw – in spite of the fact that the military clearly had told him that was a likely outcome. I don't know what they're talking about."

•
... former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was a "corrupt scoundrel" who was likely to flee and destabilize the country's government, and that ceding Bagram Air Base would be a geopolitical catastrophe with long term, far-reaching consequences.

•
"This was entirely predictable. We (the Trump administration) didn't constrain them at all. The Biden administration has demonstrated their willingness to break up good plans that the Trump administration had."

•
"The American people and every veteran who served there should be incredibly proud of our 20 years of work there. We saved American lives. But for Kirby today to say that he's somehow proud of the way we departed, that this wasn't an unmitigated disaster ... we should just all believe our own eyes."
Alan Dershowitz warns there's 'no chance' Trump gets acquitted in NYC: Judge, jurors 'don't have the courage' (Fox 04/06/2023)
•
"Any decent judge would change the venue immediately, but this judge won't do that. Any decent judge would throw the case out on the statute of limitations. This judge won't do it. He doesn't want to ruin his career... Remember, judges in New York are elected."
Maoist survivor issues chilling warning to those celebrating Trump arrest: 'Cheering for your own demise' (Fox 04/06/2023)
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"You are cheering for your own demise, because... April 4th, 2023, would be remembered as one of the darkest day[s] in America when the Democrats made our country... a banana republic of communism."

•
"When the totalitarian wins, no one is safe, we will all become victim[s]. After the cultural revolution, what happened is China was brought to ruins and 20 some million lives lost. American people need to learn the history of the communism and to see that it is repeating right here in America."
Donald Trump indictment changes 2024 race, but not the way you think (Fox 04/06/2023)
TUCKER CARLSON: This is the boldest election interference ever attempted (Fox 04/04/2023)
Bragg's timeline of Trump election-influence allegations doesn't add up: Ex-federal prosecutor (Fox 04/04/2023)
Trump slams Bragg after pleading not guilty: 'I never thought anything like this could happen...' (Fox 04/04/2023)
•
"I never thought anything like this could happen in America. I never thought it could happen. The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defending our nation from those who seek to destroy it."

•
"From the beginning, the Democrats spied on my campaign — remember that they attacked me with an onslaught of fraudulent investigations Russia, Russia, Russia; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; impeachment hoax number one; impeachment hoax number two; the illegal and unconstitutional raid on Mar-a-Lago right here; the lying to the FISA court; the FBI and DOJ relentlessly pursuing Republicans; the uncontested judicial changes to election laws by not getting approvals from state legislatures."

•
"A local failed district attorney charging a former President of the United States for the first time in history on a basis that every single pundit and legal analyst said there is no case — there's no case. But it's far worse than that, because he knew there was no case."

•
The indictment alleged that Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election."

•
"Our justice system has become lawless. They're using it now, in addition to everything else, to win elections."
Barr warns Trump’s legal team what not to do during possible trial (Fox 04/02/2023)
•
"I think the case, based again on what's been reported, the case lacks any legal basis. There's nothing inherently wrong or illegal about making a hush payment... The idea that this was a campaign finance violation is simply wrong, it's wrong on the law."
Defiant Trump announces Florida event just hours after Tuesday's court appearance in New York (Fox 04/02/2023)
Mike Pence: I know Trump can 'take care of himself' (Fox 03/31/2023)
•
"I'm sure [Trump will] prosecute this case in the courtroom as his lawyers will, but at the end of the day, this just is one more example of this two-tiered justice system that has so many Americans literally questioning the fundamental fairness of the administration of justice in our country and I think it's deeply unfortunate."

•
"It's a political prosecution by a Manhattan DA who literally campaigned for office on a pledge to indict the former president. The attorney general of New York campaigned for office on a pledge to go after that same American, and this is not an expression of equal treatment under the law that every American deserves, and I think that's why the American people aren't having any of that."

•
"The American people believe in fairness. They believe in equal treatment before the law, and I think they're going to be electing people from local prosecutors' offices to the highest office in the land that will stand on that principle of the rule of law."
Former AG Barr says Trump indictment designed to spoil GOP’s shot at the White House in 2024 (Fox 03/31/2023)
•
"I think the impetus is really to help Trump get the nomination, focus the attention on him for two years, have this thing swirling around, plus whatever else comes which I think will be damaging to whoever gets the nomination."

•
"We don't know exactly what's there. But judging from the news reports ... it's the archetypal abuse of the prosecutorial function to engage in a political hit job."

•
"And it's a disgrace if ... it turns out to be what we think it is. Politically, it's going to be damaging, I think, to the Republican Party, simply because, I think, it's a no-lose situation for the Democrats."

•
"And legally, I think ... from what I understand, it's a pathetically weak case."
Glenn Beck slams indictment of Donald Trump: The America that we knew is finished (Fox 03/31/2023)
•
"Donald Trump is not even a person anymore. He is a symbol. He is a symbol of the average, everyday guy that keeps getting screwed every single time [and who] watches other people screw up big banks, screw up their companies and get away with it."

•
"This guy has been taking the bullets for the average person now for years. And people on the right feel like he's the only guy that really gets what the people are feeling. And it's not going to end well for the Democrats in the next election."

•
... argued that the indictment of Trump was meant to "inflame" the country and stir up violence from the right. "They want you to strike out. Why? Because then they can close the cage."

•
"What do you think this Donald Trump thing is really all about? The America that we knew, the fundamental transformation that started in 2008, is finished."

•
"By 2025, we are going to be at war. We are going to have a new dollar, a currency that probably is coming from the central bank. We'll have a currency collapse, and we will live in a virtual police state."

•
"I know that might sound crazy to a lot of people. It's not far off. The Bill of Rights is gone. Nobody is paying attention. Where are the Republicans? Where are the decent Democrats that can see this is insanity?"
Trump warns that he 'cannot get a fair trial in New York' after indictment on 'disgraceful' charges (Fox 03/30/2023)
•
"They only brought this Fake, Corrupt, and Disgraceful Charge against me because I stand with the American People, and they know I cannot get a fair trial in New York!"

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Top House, Senate Republicans outraged about Trump indictment: 'A dark day in American history' (Fox 03/30/2023)
Trump says DA Bragg's 'obsession' with trying to 'get Trump' will 'backfire' after grand jury indictment (Fox 03/30/2023)
•
"You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this."

•
Trump said Democrats "have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever."

•
He slammed Bragg, saying he was "hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stop the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he's doing Joe Biden's dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on."

•
"I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it."

•
See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump indicted after Manhattan DA probe for hush money payments (Fox 03/30/2023)
•
"This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history," Trump said in a statement.

•
"From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats- the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country- have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement."

•
"The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to 'Get Trump,' but now they've done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference. Never before in our Nation's history has this been done."
Washington Post mocks parents requesting transparency on gender identity curriculum: 'I want to vomit' (Fox 03/30/2023)
•
"Parents, community members and even taxpayers have a right to access and critique school curriculums without being smeared."

•
"If school districts can expend excessive funds on politicizing controversial issues, such as $1,500 an hour for liberated ethnic studies professional development or $15,000 for race consciousness training, why can't they just comply with simple public records requests from parents?"

•
"The solution to a burdensome influx of public records requests... is academic transparency in public school. All the time schools now spend responding to public records requests can more wisely be spent on posting public information so that... requests are no longer needed."

•
"I don't know what they're hiding, but they're definitely hiding information. Why make it so difficult for parents to get [public records] if they don't have something to hide."

•
"School need to return to politically neutral zones, with curricula transparency restored and proper vetting of all books and texts. Parents see their children weaponized and adversely influenced by the constant barrage of bizarre content, it is their obligation and right to speak up and demand accountability. If schools are mired down by parental concern. Oh well, this is the hill we all die on."
Nashville congressman responds to radical trans group: Turning shooter into 'martyr' is 'beyond disturbing' (Fox 03/29/2023)
•
"Any attempt to turn a mass murderer into a martyr is beyond disturbing. The notion that someone would try to justify this atrocity disgusts me to my core."

•
"March 27, 2023, was not a dual tragedy as this radical group wrote. It was a targeted attack on children attending a Christian school perpetrated by a hate-filled domestic terrorist. There is no place for accepting or justifying the actions of The Covenant School shooter."
Transgender Shooter Kills Six At Nashville Christian School, Just Days Ahead Of Planned ‘Trans Day Of Vengeance’ (03/28/2023)
Cotton slams Jean-Pierre's 'shameful' comment 'blaming Republicans' for Nashville Christian school shooting (Fox 03/28/2023)
•
"It doesn't get much lower than blaming Republicans in Congress for a transgender killer who targeted a Christian school. Shameful."
Alan Dershowitz eviscerates Alvin Bragg's potential Trump indictment: 'I have never seen a weaker case' (Fox 03/23/2023)
This will be the end to Fauci's NIH as we know it (Fox 03/23/2023)
Christian who escaped Chinese persecution warns US descending into 'communist-style of governance' (Fox 03/22/2023)
•
"The similarities are very, very striking between the Chinese Communist way of persecution and the American leftist way of restriction and even discrimination."

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... said he has observed with concern how the left in the U.S. is increasingly exhibiting "dictatorial" attitudes both culturally and politically by censoring speech, enforcing "woke" culture and not tolerating dissent.

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... pinpointed the alleged political weaponizing of federal law enforcement agencies as a worrisome escalation of such trends.

•
"It is very shocking and horrible to see American society's transformation evolving from its constitutional basis."

•
"I saw the governor of California basically proscribe and order the church to shut down and say not only when they can worship, but how. The ways that he threatened to punish those churches and pastors sometimes were word-for-word exactly the same as what the CCP is using against the Chinese churches."

•
"I feel America is descending into a Chinese communist-style of governance. The media propaganda is exactly the same as in communist China, where I was born and educated in the trend."

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Much of U.S. mainstream media ... has become "the mouthpiece of one party, one ideology, by twisting and even lying and using all their so-called reports to promote one ideology."
Trump forcefully disputes ‘fake’ ABC News report he 'misled' his attorneys concerning classified documents (Fox 03/21/2023)
•
"These leaks are happening because there is no factual or legal basis or substance to any case against President Trump. The deranged Democrats and their comrades in the mainstream media are corrupting the legal process and weaponizing the justice system in order manipulate public opinion, because they are clearly losing the political battle."
Trump addresses potential Stormy Daniels indictment in late-night video address on Truth Social (Fox 03/21/2023)
Trump-Manhattan DA case: Bob Costello testifies to grand jury, says Michael Cohen is a 'serial liar' (Fox 03/20/2023)
No handcuffs: Ex-prosecutor says Secret Service, NYPD could arrange polite Trump surrender (Fox 03/20/2023)
Marjorie Taylor Greene says Republicans don't need to protest potential Trump arrest (Fox 03/19/2023)
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"These idiots are sealing their own fate in 2024 because the silent majority has two feelings right now about the current regime. Fear and anger."
Progressive DA Alvin Bragg's case against Trump hinges on witnesses with 'credibility problems': Andy McCarthy (Fox 03/19/2023)
Twitter's Elon Musk predicts Trump will win re-election in 'landslide victory' if arrested (Fox 03/18/2023)
Trump says biggest threat to America is not Russia but 'USA-hating people,' including 'godless' Marxists (Fox 03/17/2023)
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"... the greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia. It's probably more than anything else ourselves and some of the horrible, USA-hating people that represent us."

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"It's the abolition of our national borders. It's the failure to police our own cities. It's the destruction of the rule of law from within. It's the collapse of the nuclear family and fertility rates, like nobody can believe is happening."

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"It's the Marxists who would have us become a godless nation, worshipping at the altar of race and gender and environment."

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"And it's the globalist class that has made us totally dependent on China and other foreign countries that basically hate us."

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"These forces are doing more damage to America than Russia and China could ever have dreamed."
Republican 2024 hopefuls respond to Tucker Carlson's questions about their stance on Russia-Ukraine war (Fox 03/13/2023)
Dick Fosbury, Olympic gold medalist who revolutionized high jump with 'Fosbury Flop,' dead at 76 (Fox 03/13/2023)
Brothers in Jussie Smollett hoax break silence, say actor wanted to be 'poster child for activism' (Fox 03/13/2023)
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See related One of His Better Performances (Tom Stiglich, 02/18/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
St. Louis homicide detective blows whistle on Soros-backed DA's 'concerted effort to break down the system' (Fox 03/13/2023)
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... refusal to prosecute and charge cases was part of an intent to destroy the system in place. "You really cannot be that incompetent unless it was a concerted effort to break the system down."

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"They actually got to the point where we had to start bringing in the criminal histories of our victim. They gave more weight to the victim's criminal history..."

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On the other hand, with career criminals ... "We got to disregard this guy's 15 prior felonies, and three prison sentences that he's done, and he's been released early. And we're only going to judge him on this one little case."

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See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Elderly Philadelphia man running errands turns tables on would-be robbers, emptying his gun (Fox 03/12/2023)
Home Depot co-founder torches ‘woke’ Silicon Valley Bank collapse, warns recession may be here already (Fox 03/11/2023)
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"I can't wait for Biden to get on the speech again and talk about how great the economy is and how it's moving forward and getting stronger by the day. And this is an indication that whatever he says is not true. And maybe the American people will finally wake up and understand that we're living in very tough times, that, in fact, that a recession may have already started. Who knows? But it doesn't look good."

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"I feel bad for all of these people that lost all their money in this woke bank. You know, it was more distressing to hear that the bank officials sold off their stock before this happened. It's depressing to me. Who knows whether the Justice Department would go after them? They're a woke company, so I guess not. And they'll probably get away with it."

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"I think that the system, that the administration has pushed many of these banks into [being] more concerned about global warming than they do about shareholder return. And these banks are badly run because everybody is focused on diversity and all of the woke issues and not concentrating on the one thing they should, which is, shareholder returns."

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"Instead of protecting the shareholders and their employees, they are more concerned about the social policies. And I think it's probably a badly run bank. They've been there for a lot of years. It's pathetic that so many people lost money that won't get it back."

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"The Fed keeps raising rates and inflation keeps going in the wrong direction. It's not staying where it should be. People are struggling. People can't pay their bills. They can't fill their tanks with gas. And if you think that's a good sign, I don't think it is. And we have an administration that's obtuse to this. They just keep talking about the great times and how good it is. It's not good."

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"Somebody with a sane head has to come in and understand that you can't do two things. Number one, you can't keep raising rates. You can't keep inflation as strong as it is. And you can't tax people more than they are.[Biden's] proposal to tax the middle class and the rich is about as dumb as I've heard it a long time. In a recession like this, you don't do things like that."
Gold Star moms enraged after wounded Marine's shocking testimony on Kabul suicide bombing (Fox 03/09/2023)
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... claiming he was never explicitly granted permission to shoot a suspected ISIS member. ... said he believes that suspect was the bomber who took the lives of 13 service members during the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

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"Pointedly, we asked him for engagement authority and permission. We asked him if we could shoot. Our battalion commander said, and I quote, I don't know, end quote. Myself and my team we asked very harshly, 'Well, who does?' Because this is your responsibility, sir. He again replied he did not know, but would find out. We received no update and never got our answer. Eventually, the individual disappeared."

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"To this day, we believe he was a suicide bomber."
These top colleges scam you and your kids as woke insanity soars (Fox 03/09/2023)
Tucker Carlson talks exclusively with key Capitol Police officer ignored by Jan. 6 panel amid footage release (Fox 03/08/2023)
Elon Musk torches House Jan. 6 committee for 'misleading the public,' withholding evidence: 'deeply wrong' (Fox 03/07/2023)
Tucker Carlson releases exclusive Jan. 6 footage, says politicians, media lied about Sicknick, 'QAnon Shaman' (Fox 03/07/2023)
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Capitol police officers were seen escorting Jacob Chansley, a Navy veteran widely referred to in the liberal media as the "QAnon Shaman," around the building without incident.

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At one point, at least nine police officers were seen in close proximity to Chansley, and none of them slowed him down, as Carlson noted.

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Chansley was later arrested and federally charged for "knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds." He was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

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"If he was in fact committing such a grave crime, why didn't the officers who were standing right next to him place him under arrest?"

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"You can see the way those people were walking through the Capitol... they are walking meekly, politely queuing, very peaceable. They don't mean any harm. They are treating the Capitol with reverence."

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"That doesn't excuse the others, the minority of the protesters who did break windows and fight police and injure police and cause mayhem. But the people who are now being picked up and some of them have been jailed without trial for months, even years on end, did not commit violence. They walked through open doors, they were escorted by police, they felt that this was okay. And I think Jacob Chansley is a classic example of that."

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... batch of footage addressed the widely promoted narrative by Democrats and the media that the events of Jan. 6 was a "deadly insurrection," often citing the death of police officers, most of whom who died by suicide after the riot, while others died of natural causes.

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Only one person, an Air Force veteran and Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer.

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... the one person who became a household name was Officer Brian Sicknick, whom the media alleged was "attacked" by the mob and once falsely claimed was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.

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Sicknick was seen walking normally while guiding Trump supporters out of the building as he wore a helmet, which appears to contradict the media narrative that he died of a head injury.

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"They lied about the police officer they claimed to revere. If they were willing to do that, then their dishonesty knew no limits."
Vivek Ramaswamy reveals the 'dirty little secret' of climate religion: 'All about power, control' (Fox 03/05/2023)
This is the biggest scandal in American history (Fox 03/05/2023)
Texas homeowner turns the tables on burglar who shot his dog, leaves him 'yelling for help' (Fox 03/05/2023)
The grimly hilarious reason New York is paying BLM rioters over $6M (American Thinker, 03/04/2023)
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Thugs, intent on burning and looting, were found to be more sympathetic and deserving to the courts of New York than the victims of their mayhem.
Doctor sounds the alarm on push to hire based on race, not qualifications: This is 'just wrong, criminal' (Fox 03/01/2023)
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"When I went to medical school, diversity meant groups of different people all over the country, different backgrounds and whatnot. All we wanted to do was get good grades and be the best doctor[s] that we possibly could and take the best care of patients."

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"Suddenly, we fast-forward now, and we don't even hear about getting good grades. All we hear about is, 'Oh, a Black patient should have a Black doctor.' Well, that is so wrong. A Black patient should have a good doctor. And that's what all patients want."

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"If you get rolled into an emergency room, you don't want a patient having to look up at that doctor sideways and think, 'Hmm. Is this one of those evil White devils, or is this a good doctor who's going to take care of my stab wound to the abdomen?'. This is so wrong, and it's being pushed on people."

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... only 47% of physicians are in private practice and the other 53% are employed by big health systems. "They're afraid. They're afraid to lose their jobs. And it's kind of hard to blame them. When you're in private practice, and you're taking care of your own patients for your own self, you know, you can say what you want. And your patients, when they love you, they love you, and they don't care what color you are. They're just glad that you give them good treatment."

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"Having so much focus on race and bringing back the kind of focus that we fought for so many years to be gone, to look at people as individuals and their talents, their personality, their compassion – and they're wiping it away. And it's just wrong. It's criminal."
Thiessen explains why media covered for China on lab leak: 'The goal was to blame Trump' to win an election (Fox 02/28/2023)
COVID leaked from a Wuhan lab. Here's how we hold China & Fauci accountable (Fox 02/28/2023)
Trump rolls out 2024 trade policy that would 'tax China to build up America,' reward US producers (Fox 02/27/2023)
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"Joe Biden claims to support American manufacturing, but in reality, he is pushing the same pro-China globalist agenda that ripped the industrial heart out of our country."

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"Very simply, the Biden agenda taxes America to build up China. My agenda will tax China to build up America."

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Trump said if re-elected, he will move the country to a new system that "rewards domestic production and taxes foreign companies and those who export American jobs."

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... said countries devalue their currency and "subsidize their industries, or otherwise engage in trade cheating and abuse, and they do it now like never before."

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"As tariffs on foreign producers go up, taxes on American producers will go down, and go down very substantially, that means a lot of jobs coming in."

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... said that as a matter of "both economic and national security," his plan would also "implement a bold series of reforms to completely eliminate dependence on China in all critical areas."

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"We will also adopt new rules to stop U.S. companies from pouring investment into China, and to stop China from buying up America, allowing all of those investments that clearly serve American interests."

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"Biden will never get the job done," Trump said. "He is weak on China because the corrupt Biden family has received millions and millions of dollars from entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party."

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"My cutting-edge trade agenda will revitalize our economy by once again putting America first. And by the way, we'll get along very well with China again, and you know what the reason is? They'll respect us again, like they did just two years ago."
Virginia Dems claim that teaching about evils of communism will offend Asian Americans. How offensive (Fox 02/27/2023)
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As a survivor of communism, I'm greatly troubled by survey after survey showing that more American youth prefer communism and its close cousin, socialism, over free market capitalism.

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I don't blame these young people, but I fault our nation's education system for failing to teach them the evils of communism/socialism.

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... do the teachers' union, and the Democrats assume all Asians are communists? Or are the teachers' union and the Democrats unaware that most victims in these four communist regimes were Asians?

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The claim that teaching communism would offend Asians is offensive to all Asian Americans. Not teaching the evils of communism dishonors millions of victims and does a disservice to all students...
These 51 big businesses target conservatives. Here’s what you can do to stop them (Fox 02/27/2023)
This is what Democrats’ soft-on-crime insanity does to American families (Fox 02/25/2023)
Laid off: Newspapers drop office cartoon 'Dilbert' over creator's racial remarks (Fox 02/25/2023)
'Oddball' Trump grand jury foreperson Emily Kohrs dealt a 'terrible blow' to prosecution, Andrew McCarthy says (Fox 02/25/2023)
University of North Carolina moves to ban ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ statements in anti-woke backlash (Fox 02/24/2023)
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The board stated the university "shall neither solicit nor require an employee or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement."

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An employee or applicant also can't "be solicited or required to describe his or her actions in support of, or in opposition to, such beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles."

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"Practices prohibited here include but are not limited to solicitations or requirements for statements of commitment to particular views on matters of contemporary political debate or social action contained on applications or qualifications for admission or employment included as criteria for analysis of an employee's career progression."

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"We believe in a race blind, meritocratic society with high standards and that's what has traditionally produced excellence in the United States."

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"When we saw wokeness and DEI infiltrating the medical profession, that's when we became concerned because medicine is the one place where everybody knows, liberals, conservatives, independents, that you need the most qualified doctor to get the best outcome."

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"In the final analysis, it is a decision that is in the best interest of all our children who will come to appreciate that EXCELLENCE (not phenotypes or ethnicity) should be the ultimate standard in their lives."

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"The catastrophic failures in our educational system are predicated in many ways on a decades-old absence of a banner of excellence in the collective and individual learning experiences of many of our children who sadly, live in a cultural milieu that fosters a diabolically pervasive psychology, promoting self-hate, entitlement, and mediocre aspirations."

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"We are working to support a culture of respect, debate, and discovery. It won't be easy and will often feel simply uncomfortable. Yet these are the skills our students, and we as citizens, need to be stewards of our democracy."
NoKo defector describes being mugged in Chicago and called a 'racist': 'It was crazier than North Korea' (Fox 02/24/2023)
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... she was attacked by several Black women who punched her and took her wallet while she was with her 2-year-old child.

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... they were screaming at me and calling me a racist because I was trying to call the cops on these criminals."

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"I literally thought this is crazier than North Korea. Even in North Korea, if there's a victim getting robbed, we are going to help them."

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"I have almost White privilege, and therefore I cannot be a victim, even though I was being victimized by these Black women punching me and taking my wallet away." "I don't deserve any compassion and justice in their mind because of my skin color."
If you want to see media bias, look at how the press covered this crazy Biden handout (Fox 02/23/2023)
Biden’s latest whack at the suburbs will change your neighborhood for the worse (Fox 02/23/2023)
School district forced to pay over 100K in legal fees after banning moms from exposing pornographic materials (Fox 02/23/2023)
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The Mama Bears settled a federal lawsuit against the Georgia school district after one of the group's members was barred from reading sexually explicit excerpts at school board meetings.

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FCS will pay the Mama Bears' attorneys $107,500 and the plaintiffs nominal damages of $17.91.

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"Fee shifting is an important feature of our civil rights laws; and successful plaintiffs who are able to show that government officials censored them are entitled to having their attorneys' fees paid by the wrongdoers, just like for any other form of illegal discrimination. We hope that school-board members and their lawyers take note."

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A year ago in February, Mama Bears member Alison Hair read pages from a book that was available at her son's middle school library.

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Hair was interrupted by one of the board members from reading more text from the book. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"...

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Hair demanded to use her allotted time to speak during the public comment period since she was cut off by the board member.

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Her actions prompted the board to send her a letter, banning her from school board meetings until she complied with school board policies. The district claimed that Hair's actions had violated their public participation policy at school board meetings.

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The lawsuit underscores the phenomenon of parents across the country paying closer attention to school boards by challenging progressive curricula and contesting books they deem inappropriate.

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See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Vivek Ramaswamy says he'll repeal Affirmative Action 'without apology' on day 1 if elected president (Fox 02/22/2023)
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"I will repeal Lyndon Johnson's Executive Order 11246 which mandates race-based quotas. Every Republican since Johnson had the opportunity to do it. I'll do it on Day 1 without apology."

•
"America's strength is not our diversity but the ideals that unify us across our differences. Merit. Free speech. Truth. Accountability..."

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"The thing that distinguished Reagan is he did what he needed to do in his era. He stood up to the orthodoxies of his party and led a national revival at a time when America was in the middle of its last national identity crisis in the late 1970s. I think we're in a late 1970s moment now."

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"I think 2024 could be a landslide election if we actually make it about those basic American ideals of merit, free speech, open debate."
Schools' war on merit is a real threat to our kids' futures (Fox 02/21/2023)
DeSantis just launched his biggest effort yet to rein in woke corporations (Fox 02/21/2023)
Violence spiked in our failing schools thanks to these policies (Fox 02/21/2023)
James O'Keefe ousted from Project Veritas, accuses group of 'lying' about his removal (Fox 02/20/2023)
Shocking Court Disclosure Shows Undercover Cops Urging Jan. 6 Protesters ... To Rnter... (02/19/2023)
2nd Amendment steps in after cops step back in wake of defund movement in Chicago (Fox 02/16/2023)
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"It's the reason why you've seen the increase in gun sales. Because people realize that the police and law enforcement broadly isn't being allowed — the criminal justice system isn't being allowed — to go and do its job."

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"And the people know that they ultimately have to be responsible for protecting themselves and their families."

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"Thank God I had my gun, or I'd probably be dead right now," the woman told ... noting a suspect "looked surprised" when she pulled out her gun and sent the criminals running.
Alaska board members brawl over silencing dad exposing book on kinks and sexting: 'I'm going to interrupt you' (Fox 02/16/2023)
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"We hear so much about diversity, inclusion and equity and how it's one of the... main objectives of the school board in the school district."

•
"We don't often see specific examples of what diversity, inclusion and equity looks like, though. So today I brought an excellent representation. This is like the archetype of diversity, inclusion, equity material that it's one of the books that was just recently purchased for our libraries."

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The example of diversity, equity and inclusion the father raised was a book with pornographic imagery and sex advice called "Let's Talk About it."

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"There's nothing wrong with enjoying some porn, it's a fun sugary treat," the book said. "When consumed right, porn can help you discover new aspects of your sexuality."

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"A great place to research fantasies and kinks safely is on the internet," the book said. "There's tons of people and communities out there who share your interests and have all kinds of advice."

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The dad read from the portion of the book which provided tips to kids on sending naked pictures to their peers. ... "So before you start sending your naughty masterpieces around the world, take some time to get friendly with photo editing, software and apps," the book stated.

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At that point the vice president of the board, Carl Jacobs, interrupted the father. Jacobs demanded McDonald stop his comments against the book. ... The majority voted against the father speaking. School board members Jacobs, Pat Higgins, Margo Bellamy, Kelly Lessen and Dora Wilson voted to silence the father.

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The father told ... that he yanked his kids from the district's schools, and currently homeschool them. He wants to alert parents about the materials available to their kids. Fox NewsHis daughter has already learned about gender identity when she was in kindergarten and first grade.

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"We came to realize that they had already been talking to her at that point about the gender stuff. It sounds harmless and innocuous, but... what it does in their little minds, it's very confusing to them. And I'm glad that we got her out of school when we did."

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"It's not about one book or two books or ten books. This is a much larger push. They're pushing critical gender theory on kids starting in elementary school. They're encouraging them to get what they call 'gender creative,' and they're transitioning them in the public schools, and they're doing it without prior notification or consent from the parents. And in some cases they never tell the parents. So I'm encouraging people, like if you're not able to homeschool, please just sit down with your kids and talk to them about what they hear in school."
Parkland dad slams Biden: 'Don't use my daughter's death to advance your political agenda' (Fox 02/15/2023)
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"... Because of your politicized FBI, failed Obama-era school discipline policies, and a sheriff that cared more about his image in the community than enforcing the law, a maniac was allowed to attack a school. Try learning what really happened."
Ted Cruz calls out Clapper for flip-flop on Biden laptop being Russian disinfo: 'Trying to cover his own rear' (Fox 02/15/2023)
Physicians like me aren't racist, no matter what the government says (Fox 02/15/2023)
Elon Musk declares cancel culture over since Twitter takeover: 'You won't be missed' (Fox 02/14/2023)
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"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."

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... Musk commented on Twitter that, "cancel culture needs to be canceled," prompting Twitter-users to rejoice over the billionaire stance on free speech in the midst of cancel culture.
Columbia med students chant 'New Hippocratic Oath' to 'confront unconscious prejudices' in resurfaced video (Fox 02/14/2023)
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CriticalRace.org, which monitors critical race theory (CRT) curricula and training in higher education, has expanded its Medical School Database and found that 58 of the nation's top 100 medical schools have some form of mandatory student training or coursework related to the polarizing idea that racism is systemic in America's institutions.
Photo goes viral of Kari Lake refusing to stand during Black national anthem before Super Bowl (Fox 02/13/2023)
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"We are ONE NATION, under God. Francis Scott Key's words ring true for every single American Citizen regardless of their skin color. James Weldon Johnson's 'Lift Your Voice' is a beautiful song, but it is not our National Anthem."
North Korean defector shocked at what she learned at 'woke' Ivy League school: 'Brainwashing' (Fox 02/13/2023)
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"The things that I was learning at Columbia University really shocked me because it was the exact same thing that my North Korean teachers were brainwashing me in the classroom."

•
"At Columbia University they were literally saying that all the problems that we have is because of capitalism, because of white men, and the solution for all these problems is a communist revolution in the name of equity."

•
"They were saying that we need to destroy this country, and we need to rebuild the country in the name of equality of outcomes, and that same ideology drove my home country into what it is that state North Korea."

•
"It's really funny to this day to me that somehow not having a problem is a problem. They literally create a problem out of nowhere and create injustice out of thin air... Their oppression is that somehow we cannot catch up their ever-growing non-grammatical pronouns, and that's the biggest oppression they face."

•
"And they'll continue somehow that there's no free health care, no free education, no free house, no universal income, nothing is free in this world. And... I ask them like, what is it about America that you hate so much? And they said that they hate America because there's inequality."

•
"Inequality is a sign of progress. Inequality means you can rise, and there are other people in North Korea like me, watching my family members who are poverty, the enemies of poverty, and they don't say that."

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... called out politicians and business moguls like Nancy Pelosi and Jeff Bezos for refusing to call out communist China for "modern-day slavery" while routinely addressing slavery in America that happened "hundreds of years ago."

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"They do not want to stand up against China's Communist Party because they want the money. They want to make the money from this evil regime."
Disney World was our destination. What I found could be the end for a beloved American company (Fox 02/10/2023)
Musk tweets platform’s new ‘values’ after senator jokes about being sent to Twitter jail for hunting photo (Fox 02/07/2023)
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"Going forward, Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values, rather than trying to impose its own specific values on the world," Musk tweeted.
House Judiciary subpoenas FBI Director Wray on targeting of parents at school board meetings (Fox 02/03/2023)
China threatens takeover of our universities unless Biden does more to stop it (Fox 02/03/2023)
Ilhan Omar gets the boot: House votes her off Foreign Affairs Committee as Democrats cite 'racism' (Fox 02/02/2023)
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"Representative Omar, by her own words, has disqualified herself from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a panel that is viewed by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national security."
China is ‘laughing’ as US culture war erodes combat readiness, says former defense secretary (Fox 02/02/2023)
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"Hardly anybody joins the military to be part of the culture wars. They join the military because they want to serve their country and, if necessary, defend our country in real war — not culture war."

•
"The Chinese must be laughing hysterically as our political system and as our senior officials and senior leaders in the Pentagon get caught up in it. We're just hurting ourselves."

•
"I just have to think the Chinese are laughing as we basically consume ourselves in these silly political fights within our military."

•
"We defeated the Soviet Union in the Cold War by outspending them. We were more technologically sophisticated, and they just couldn't keep up with us. And my concern right now is we have the Chinese almost doing the same thing every time."

•
"They have hypersonic weapons, all of these extremely exquisite weapons systems, and we are constantly trying to defend against those.

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See related Bombshells (Antonio Branco, 10/22/2021) cartoon from World picture album
Hunter Biden finally admits infamous laptop is his as he pleads for criminal probe (NYP 02/01/2023)
China's communists don't have food, so now they want to control ours (Fox 01/31/2023)
Biden should deport illegal immigrants who refuse to leave Manhattan (Fox 01/31/2023)
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One has to ask, are these genuine asylum seekers who would do anything to escape the punishing and unlawful conditions of their homeland, or tourists set to give Mayor Adams a poor Yelp review?
Musk gives inside look at Twitter HQ: A 'flaming dumpster rolling down the street’ (Fox 01/30/2023)
4 outrages we aren't allowed to talk about (Fox 01/27/2023)
George Soros-funded DAs represent 20% of Americans after $40M was funneled into races, report finds (Fox 01/24/2023)
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"We've known for a long time that George Soros is dedicated to destroying our nation, and this is just further proof of that."

•
"... He is a globalist, and globalists don't want local and state police and law and order. They want a global order, and so how do you get that? Well, you create chaos at the state and the local level because chaos breeds more control."

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See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Retired top FBI counterintelligence agent who led Trump-Russia probe arrested for own ties to Russian oligarch (Fox 01/23/2023)
Get your kid the heck out of traditional public schools: Journalist exposes teachers hiding CRT (Fox 01/21/2023)
Home Depot co-founder warns the 'woke generation' is ignoring the economy's 'bottom line' (Fox 01/19/2023)
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"I certainly don't want to see the woke generation coming up, especially the leaders. I'm watching Davos, what happened in Davos, and they're recommending spending more money on climate control when we don't have it."

•
"We've already overspent. And if anything, climate control has caused most of the problems we have today."

•
"We need leaders who are basically thinking about the shareholders and their employees, and how well the shareholders are doing and their employees. And I think today it's all about woke diversity, things that don't hit the bottom line."

•
"I can tell you right now, after some meetings I had yesterday, you can't hire people. They don't want to work. Nobody wants to work anymore, especially office people."

•
"They want to work three days a week. It's incredible. How do you have a recession when you have people that don't want jobs?"

•
"They're entitled, they're given everything. The government, in many cases, if you don't work, you get as much money as when you did work... And so you get this laziness, which you have, and it's basically a socialistic society."

•
"Then you throw in all these absurd rules that you have to follow, and every state has some dumber and dumber [regulations]. New York, in fact, leads the country in dumb, but maybe not, maybe they're second to California."
Supreme Court leak: Conservatives react to court's inability to find leaker in historic abortion ruling (Fox 01/19/2023)
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"The Supreme Court's report indicates that they cannot isolate the culprit among the over 80 possible suspects for the Dobbs leak. It is an admission that is almost as chilling as the leak itself."

•
"It will likely revive concerns over whether the FBI should have been asked to take the lead on the investigation. The Court is only a few blocks from the world's leading forensic investigatory body. What is clear is that any hope for a deterrent on such unethical conduct has been dramatically reduced. Thus far, the culprit succeeded in not just leaking the opinion but evading detection."
Kamala Harris is Biden's 'shrewd insurance policy' against impeachment, Boebert says (Fox 01/18/2023)
Husband of fallen officer says wife died in unsuccessful attempt to rescue daughter in house fire (Fox 01/16/2023)
Sen. Ron Johnson battles Chuck Todd over Hunter Biden in tense exchange: ‘Part of the problem’ (Fox 01/16/2023)
Iowa gun-toting mother stops duo from kidnapping her son: reports (Fox 01/15/2023)
Republicans open investigation into botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal (Fox 01/13/2023)
Hunter Biden, China, classified documents: Mystery swirls around Penn Biden Center (Fox 01/12/2023)
Greg Gutfeld: Will the media call Biden's classified documents debacle 'treason' or 'worse than Watergate?' (Fox 01/10/2023)
Trump questions when FBI will raid Biden homes to look for more classified documents (Fox 01/10/2023)
WaPo admits Russian trolls 'had little influence on 2016 voters' after years hyping their role in Trump's win (Fox 01/09/2023)
Elon Musk agrees Russiagate among 'most deranged and unhinged conspiracy theories' spread by mainstream media (Fox 01/09/2023)
TUCKER CARLSON: Lies about January 6 have enabled unscrupulous people to make a mockery of our Bill of Rights (Fox 01/06/2023)
Twitter Files Part 11 shows how 'PR crisis' following 2016 election allowed company to embrace intel community (Fox 01/03/2023)
•
"This cycle – threatened legislation, wedded to scare headlines pushed by congressional/intel sources, followed by Twitter caving to moderation asks – would later be formalized in partnerships with federal law enforcement."
Remember the hysteria over Trump's tax returns? (Washington Examiner, 1/3/23)
DeSantis calls Florida 'land of sanity,' slams Biden policies in his inaugural address (Fox 01/03/2023)
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"Freedom lives here in our great Sunshine State of Florida." "When the world lost its mind, when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue, Florida was a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for our fellow Americans, and even for people around the world."

•
"In captaining the ship of state, we choose to navigate the boisterous sea of liberty rather than cower in the calm docks of despotism."

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"We face attacks, we take hits, but we weather the storms. We stand our ground, and we do what's right."

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"Leaders do not follow, they lead. We have articulated a vision for a free and prosperous state. We have, through persistence and hard work, executed on that vision. We have produced favorable results. And now we are here today because the people of Florida have validated our efforts in record fashion."

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"We will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence," DeSantis said. ... Florida "will always support law enforcement, and we will always reject soft-on-crime policies that put our communities at risk."

•
... referred to Florida as a "land of sanity," as states across the nation embraced policies that, he said, are "coddling criminals and attacking law enforcement."

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"They've imposed unreasonable burdens on taxpayers to finance unfathomable levels of public spending. They have harmed education by subordinating the interests of students and parents to partisan interest groups."

•
"They have imposed medical authoritarianism in the guise of pandemic mandates and restrictions that lack a scientific basis."

•
"This bizarre but prevalent ideology that permeates these policy measures purports to act in the name of justice for the marginalized. But it frowns upon Americans detentions. It rejects merit and achievement and it advocates identity essentialism."

•
DeSantis said he and Floridians "reject this woke ideology." "We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy." "Florida is where woke goes to die."

•
... attacked Biden administration policies that "recklessly facilitated open borders, making a mockery of the rule of law, allowing massive amounts of narcotics to infect our states, importing criminal aliens, and greenlighting the flow of millions of illegal aliens into our country, burdening communities and taxpayers throughout the land."

•
... hit the Biden administration's energy policy, which he said has "crippled our nation's domestic production and causing energy to cost more for our citizens and eroding our nation's energy security, and in the process, our national security."

•
... the Biden administration "wields its authority through a sprawling, unaccountable and out of touch bureaucracy that does not act on behalf of us, but instead looms over us and imposes its will upon us."

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"We have rewritten the political map. While our country flounders due to failed leadership in Washington, Florida is on the right track."
What life was like 50 years ago in America, compared to now in 2023 (Fox 01/02/2023)
In 2023, we cannot tolerate intimidation of our judiciary (Fox 01/02/2023)
Elon Musk's most interesting tweets of 2022 (Fox 12/31/2022)
Home Depot co-founder ignites firestorm on Twitter over 'socialism' comments: 'Poster child for Privilege' (Fox 12/30/2022)
•
... said in a recent interview that he was "worried about capitalism" because "socialism" has crushed the work ethic of Americans.

•
... warned America that the success that he had as a founder of Home Depot and the success that "millions of people have earned" for themselves and their families was built on capitalism, not socialism.

•
"Just give it to me. Send me money. I don't want to work — I'm too lazy, I'm too fat, I'm too stupid," Marcus said, summing up the current anti-work attitude he saw in America today.
Elon Musk calls out 'legacy media' and 'corporate journalism': 'We have only just begun' (Fox 12/28/2022)
•
"Why is corporate journalism rushing to defend the state instead of the people?" Musk wrote...
What Biden's woke military has wrought (Fox 12/27/2022)
•
See related Bombshells (Antonio Branco, 10/22/2021) cartoon from World picture album
Twitter Files expose government influence on suppressing COVID messages that contradicted WH (Fox 12/26/2022)
Twitter Files part 9: Vast web of coordination between tech giant and CIA, State Department, other agencies (Fox 12/24/2022)
Zelenskyy channeled Ronald Reagan in speech to Congress: Petraeus (Fox 12/22/2022)
•
"In the same way that I think Ronald Reagan was enabled by his acting career to very sincerely and powerfully convey particularly important points during the final years of the Cold War that, in large measure, was brought to an end because of the efforts in his administration and then the one that followed."

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"We must enable the Ukrainians ... together with our NATO allies and other Western partners, to hasten the moment where President Putin recognizes that this is not sustainable either on the battlefield or on the home front."

•
"This is democracy versus autocracy or kleptocracy or dictatorship. Yes, the Ukrainian democracy was far from perfect. But again, this is really the West versus the East. It is the principles that we treasure: sovereignty, territorial integrity and the rest."
House Republicans release counter report on Jan. 6 security failures at Capitol (Fox 12/22/2022)
Zelenskyy makes direct appeal to GOP critics, arguing no country is safe if Ukraine falters (Fox 12/21/2022)
•
"The struggle will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live. This battle cannot be frozen or postponed, it cannot be ignored hoping that [an] ocean or something else will provide protection."

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... the world is "too interconnected and interdependent" for the U.S. to "stand aside and at the same time feel safe when such a battle continues."

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"Your money is not charity. It's an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way."

•
... said that U.S. support is crucial not only for Ukraine's victory but also to show Russia and China that "no one can succeed in breaking national borders" or committing atrocities...

•
"Ukraine never asked that American soldiers fight on our land instead of us. I assure you that Ukrainian soldiers can perfectly operate American tanks and planes themselves."

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"More cannons and shells are needed. Russia can stop its aggression if it wanted, but you can speed up our victory."

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"I know that everything depends on us, the Ukrainian armed forces, yet so much depends on the world. So much in the world depends on you."
Democrats release report on Trump tax returns, revealing income, taxes paid, IRS audit (Fox 12/21/2022)
Musk fires his best employee… himself. Can next Twitter CEO keep free speech alive? (Fox 12/21/2022)
Armed Amazon employee stops shooter who opened fire at Arizona facility: 'good Samaritan' (Fox 12/17/2022)
Twitter Files Part 6 reveals FBI's ties to tech giant: 'As if it were a subsidiary' (Fox 12/16/2022)
Musk calls out 'activist employees' on Twitter, makes strongest statement yet against woke politics (Fox 12/12/2022)
•
"The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters," Musk tweeted on Monday morning.

•
"Under pressure from hundreds of activist employees, Twitter deplatforms Trump, a sitting US President, even though they themselves acknowledge that he didn't violate the rules."

•
"Ultimately, the concerns about Twitter's efforts to censor news about Hunter Biden's laptop, blacklist disfavored views, and ban a president aren't about the past choices of executives in a social media company. They're about the power of a handful of people at a private company to influence the public discourse and democracy."
Progressive teachers vs conservative families: School choice can help level the playing field (Fox 12/12/2022)
Burlington, Vermont, reeling from highest number of homicides in decades after defunding police (Fox 12/12/2022)
US scientists make major breakthrough in ‘limitless, zero-carbon’ fusion energy: report (Fox 12/12/2022)
Brother of man killed in Lockerbie bombing attack issues direct plea to Biden: 'Don't deflect this' (Fox 12/11/2022)
Retired Navy SEAL made famous after coming out as trans announces detransition: 'destroyed my life' (Fox 12/11/2022)
•
"Everything you see on CNN with my face, do not even believe a word of it. Everything that happened to me for the last ten years destroyed my life. I destroyed my life. I'm not a victim. I did this to myself, but I had help."

•
"I take full responsibility," he continued. "I went on CNN and everything else, and that's why I'm here right now, I'm trying to correct that."

•
"I was used ... I was very naive, I was in a really bad way, and I got taken advantage of. I got propagandized. I got used badly by a lot of people who had knowledge way beyond me. They knew what they were doing. I didn't."

•
"There are thousands of gender clinics being put up over all of America. As soon as [kids] go in and say, 'I'm a tomboy or this makes me feel comfortable' and then a psychologist says, 'oh, you're transgender'. And then the next day you're on hormones – the same hormones they are using for medical castration for pedophiles. Now they are giving this to healthy 13-year-olds."

•
"I walked into a psychologist's office [and] in one day I have a letter in my hand saying I was transgender. I was authorized for hormones. I was authorized all this other stuff."

•
"I had so much going wrong in my system when I started taking those. Some of that was paid for by the VA, and I'm sorry to the American people that I did that."

•
"This is a billion-dollar industry between psychologists, between surgeries, between hormones, between chemicals, between follow-up treatments," he continued.

•
"There are thousands of gender clinics popping up all over our country. And each of those gender clinics is going to be pulling in probably over $50 million."
Twitter Files reveal Trump ban came after Michelle Obama, others pressured the company (Fox 12/11/2022)
•
"Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior — and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technologies from being used by the nation's leaders to fuel insurrection," Obama wrote in a lengthy statement...

•
She added: "And if we have any hope of improving this nation, now is the time for swift and serious consequences for the failure of leadership that led to yesterday's shame."

•
In addition to the former first lady, the Anti-Defamation League, among several other prominent people and organizations called for Trump's ban.

•
"In 2018, 2020, and 2022, 96%, 98%, & 99% of Twitter staff's political donations went to Democrats."
Twitter Files Part 3 reveals what led to Trump's removal from social media platform (Fox 12/09/2022)
Detransitioning woman left 'heartbroken' after irreversible surgery: 'I was manipulated' (Fox 12/09/2022)
•
"It wasn't like a medical condition that you needed to be treated that was sad or serious. It was like a fun thing like you're trans now and it's celebrated and you're wonderful and you're a hero and all of that. And you know, that attention is what I was looking for."

•
... is using her experience to encourage other young girls to consider their mental health before making physical alterations to their bodies.
Twitter Files flashback: Jack Dorsey testified under oath Twitter does not censor, 'shadow-ban' conservatives (Fox 12/09/2022)
•
See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Twitter ablaze as Elon Musk fires lawyer involved in suppressing laptop story, ‘Russian collusion hoax’ (Fox 12/07/2022)
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"Baker is the former FBI general counsel who was knee deep in the Russian collusion hoax & instrumental in suppressing NY Post's bombshell stories on contents of Hunter Biden's laptop."

•
"Ex-FBI general counsel Jim Baker (*coincidentally involved in phony Steele dossier & Alfa Bank hoax) magically ended up as Twitter's Deputy General Counsel & left his fingerprints on everything."

•
"It's a bit difficult to maintain the US Security State had no role in Twitter's censorship regime when the General Counsel of the FBI - centrally involved in Russiagate and all sorts of politicized abuses - ended up as Twitter's Deputy General Counsel, with paws in everything."

•
"Twitter is one tech company and this is the amount of effort the regime and its emissaries are exerting to keep the truth from coming out."

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Twitter Evolution (Gary Varvel, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler fired after grand jury report on handling of sexual assaults (Fox 12/07/2022)
Death of elderly Home Depot worker who tried to stop robbery sparks outrage: 'Where are the reparations?' (Fox 12/07/2022)
College degree value plummets as woke insanity spikes (Fox 12/06/2022)
•
Colleges are run for the benefit of the employees, not students, and certainly not the taxpayers. President Joe Biden wants to saddle with unpaid college loans. It's a racket.

•
President Barack Obama proposed rating colleges based in part on how well their graduates earn a living and pay back their loans. The powerful higher education lobby crushed the idea.

•
Regardless of majors, students are being saddled with the soaring cost of noninstructional bureaucracy. Call it the higher education gravy train. Students are merely the pack mules hauling in the federal loan money to keep the train running.

•
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion officers are a big part of the cost. A survey of 65 prominent universities found they have more DEI officers than history professors.

•
On average, there are 45 DEI officers at each school. That's enough to form a human chain if a conservative attempts to speak on campus.

•
Caveat emptor to all buyers, including parents and taxpayers stuck with the unpaid loans.
Elon Musk fires Twitter deputy general counsel Jim Baker amid Hunter Biden laptop fallout (Fox 12/06/2022)
Concealed carry holder shoots 2 would-be robbers in Chicago: police (Fox 12/06/2022)
DeSantis spox return fire after ‘mainstream media’ hit piece: ‘Conservatives have to fight back’ (Fox 12/06/2022)
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"When your options are rabidly partisan legacy media, Democrat activists posing as a Capitol Press Corps, a pay4play Lincoln Project blog, and 'new media' like Semafor (allegedly owned by Sam Bankman-Fried), of course it makes sense to cultivate an alternative."
Hunter Biden revelations in Twitter Files prompts media reckoning for insiders, critics: 'Sorry episode' (Fox 12/06/2022)
•
"I think those people should be looking in the mirror and wondering why they were deceptive. Why did they deceive the American public?," Musk asked.

•
"And instead of trying to redirect blame to Matt Taibbi, they should be accepting some responsibility themselves for not being truthful to the American public."
Elon Musk says 'more smoking guns' are on the way from Twitter after Hunter Biden laptop expose (Fox 12/04/2022)
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"We're just gonna put all the information out there try to get a clean slate we will be iteratively better and it will force other media companies to also be more truthful or else they'll lose their readership."

•
... went on to say that, while he has not inspected the documents personally, it appeared that there was "a very different standard applied to Republican candidates in the U.S. versus Democrat candidates" by those who used to be in charge at Twitter.

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"It's frankly the behavior that is to be expected from an organization that is based in San Francisco which is far left."
Musk declares New York Times ‘lobbying firm for far left’ after reportedly ignoring ‘Twitter Files’ story (Fox 12/03/2022)
Elon Musk reveals what led to Twitter suppressing Hunter Biden story in 2020 (Fox 12/02/2022)
•
"Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly."

•
"By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: 'More to review from the Biden team.' The reply would come back: 'Handled'."

•
"Both parties had access to these tools. For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored. However... This system wasn't balanced."

•
"It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right."

•
"The resulting slant in content moderation decisions is visible in the documents you're about to read. However, it's also the assessment of multiple current and former high-level executives."

•
Twitter famously blocked its uses from sharing the New York Post's reporting of Hunter Biden's laptop in tweets and in direct messages.

•
At the time, Twitter Safety alleged that the articles were in violation of its "hacked materials policy." Twitter's then-CEO Jack Dorsey admitted his companies actions were a mistake.

•
Many critics believe the suppression of the Hunter Biden scandal by Big Tech and the media at large was enough to sway the election in favor of his father.
Elon Musk says he'll reveal 'what really happened' with Twitter suppression of Hunter Biden story on Friday (Fox 12/02/2022)
Elon Musk gives Kanye West the boot from Twitter over offensive posts: 'I tried my best' (Fox 12/02/2022)
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"Jesus taught love, kindness and forgiveness," Musk said... "I used to think that turning the other cheek was weak & foolish, but I was the fool for not appreciating its profound wisdom."
Elon Musk declares ‘cancel culture needs to be canceled,' Twitter users cheer: 'Free all the banned accounts' (Fox 12/01/2022)
Biden wants your retirement savings to go woke. Here are 3 ways to protect yourself (Fox 11/29/2022)
NYC heiress says mom paid big bucks ‘deprogrammer’ after daughter 'brainwashed' by liberal college... (Fox 11/27/2022)
•
... her mother paid a $300-a-day "deprogrammer" after believing her daughter had been "brainwashed" by attending an all-female elite liberal college that left the young woman "totally indoctrinated" and estranged from the parents who raised her.

•
"I left school very anxious, very nervous, very depressed and sad. I saw everything through the lens of oppression and bias and victimhood. I came to the school as someone who saw everyone equally. I left looking for injustice wherever I could and automatically assuming that all White men were sexist. My thoughts were no longer my own."

•
"This professor tells me about the patriarchy. I barely knew what the word meant. I didn't know what she was talking about. I wasn't someone that into feminism. I just knew that I felt I had always been free to do what I wanted. I never experienced sexism. But I was told there's the patriarchy, and you don't even understand it's been working against you your whole life. You've been oppressed, and you didn't even know it. Now you have to fight it. And I just went down this deep rabbit hole."

•
That's when she said her relationship with her mother, whom she once considered a best friend, changed. "I felt I had to teach her how she was wrong and expose her and to do that with everyone who didn't see things correctly."

•
"The professors encouraged alienation [from parents] and even offered their homes to stay in. They'd say, like, don't go see them, come stay with us for the holiday. Most of my classmates believed all this stuff, too. If you didn't you were ostracized."

•
Her mother, Melinda Rockwell, told ... she believed her daughter had been brainwashed. "It was like walking a tightrope. I couldn't push too hard or I'd lose her, but if I let go I felt I might not see her again. It was as bad as trying to get a child off the streets who's on heroin. Everyone is so sure it won't happen to their child. But it will. [Professors and older students] tell the students they are special — it's like they are anointed — then they tell them how oppressed they are and what victims they are and how they have to go out in the world and be activists to stop the oppression."

•
Another former Mount Holyoke College student... "If you send your kid there you're signing them up to hate the patriarchy and White people and the founding stock of our country."

•
"It's a bastardization of higher education for the sake of weaponizing naive young women for the sake of advancing a toxic agenda."

•
"If my mom had not kept harping at me and not given up I know where I would be right now. Mount Holyoke met its match in my mother. If it wasn't for her, I'd probably be living in Massachusetts, working for some super-progressive politician, hanging out with people I had nothing in common with except ideology and drinking all the time. And I'd be miserable. But I'd be too stubborn to look at myself in the mirror. I had to really humble myself to admit that I was wrong. And that everything I was told was so hypocritical."

•
"My social media feed was an echo chamber of everything I'd been taught at Mt. Holyoke. Everyone had the black square and it was all 'no justice, no peace.' But I was starting to think to myself, 'Why are we burning down businesses in the name of empowerment? How is this helping Black people? It just doesn't make sense.' It just began to click in that moment about how hypocritical it was."

•
... said her intention is not to smear other classmates, recognizing how they were all "young and impressionable" in a campus environment where "diversity of opinion was never allowed."
Pentagon defends cutting nuclear missile program in national defense strategy amid Russian tension (Fox 11/27/2022)
Portland store shuts down, posts blistering note on front door slamming rampant crime: 'city is in peril' (Fox 11/27/2022)
•
"... We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished..."
United Furniture fires thousands by text days before Thanksgiving (Fox 11/26/2022)
Elon Musk says he'd consider 'alternative phone' if Twitter is booted from Apple and Google app stores (Fox 11/25/2022)
•
"If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?"

•
"I certainly hope it does not come to that," Musk replied, "but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone."
Elon Musk swipes another news outlet for 'misinformation,' after striking down 'flat wrong' reports yesterday (Fox 11/24/2022)
Owner of Big Dog Ranch Rescue on a mission to save canines left at the border: 'It's a huge problem' (Fox 11/24/2022)
Vaccinated Americans a majority of COVID deaths for first time in August: analysis (Fox 11/23/2022)
Elon Musk housecleaning at Twitter HQ finds #StayWoke t-shirts, pledges to 'earn trust' (Fox 11/23/2022)
•
Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey wore a "#StayWoke" t-shirt during an interview... Dorsey said the meaning has evolved over time but "to me... it's really being aware, and staying aware, and keep questioning." "Being awake, and eyes wide open around what's happening in the world."

•
See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
'RIP Twitter' and other crazy liberal reactions to Musk's social media smackdowns (Fox 11/23/2022)
Media still trying to trick Americans about Hunter Biden (Fox 11/21/2022)
Pentagon promotes critical race theory, gender identity 'insanity': GOP report (Fox 11/21/2022)
Republicans secure majority in House of Representatives (Fox 11/16/2022)
Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner impeached by Pennsylvania lawmakers in GOP-led effort: 'Crisis of crime' (Fox 11/16/2022)
This Veterans Day, let’s listen to what our veterans say is wrong with our woke military (Fox 11/11/2022)
Elon Musk: 'I recommend voting for a Republican Congress' (Fox 11/07/2022)
•
"To independent-minded voters: Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic."
El Salvador president says US now feels less safe than his third-world country: 'It's unthinkable' (Fox 11/06/2022)
•
"The demise of the U.S. has to come from within. No external enemy can cause this much damage. When you're watching internal operations here you can see cities that were pristinely beautiful 30 years ago [and] are a wasteland right now."

•
"I mean, I'm from El Salvador, a third-world country in Central America, and I myself see cities here and say I wouldn't live here. That would be unthinkable three decades ago, that a Salvadoran wouldn't want to live in a U.S. main city."

•
"When you look how the cities are eroding so fast, this has to be by design. I mean who would make so many stupid decisions? They're literally giving some people drugs in some us cities, or they say we're going to give you money if you don't work. They make all these laws that make no sense. If they have high crime, they say okay I have a solution, let's defund the police."

•
"They make these decisions openly. It's not even [a] secret and we all know what will be the consequences of it. The defunding of the police, allowing shoplifting, giving drugs to drug addicts, giving money to people to stop work[ing], what will be the consequences? You'll destroy society, you'll destroy the city, you'll destroy the economy... and it's already happening."

•
"You would think how could they be so dumb. Of course, they're not. They're very smart. It's by design. There's no other logical explanation."
SAFE-T Act: Illinois sheriff warns prosecutors not to be ‘overzealous’ targeting victims stopping criminals (Fox 11/02/2022)
Dr. Phil guest shocked by the dumbing down of America's children: 'a coverup within the... system' (Fox 11/02/2022)
Florida dad sues Palm Beach school after teacher allegedly posted gay pride flags, 'proselytized' to students (Fox 10/27/2022)
Drag queen story hour for 1st graders at Philadelphia public school outrages parents (Fox 10/26/2022)
•
"Our schools need to get back to the basics of education, not indoctrination. It's absurd for anyone to think that a sexually-charged story-hour with drag queens is appropriate for young children."
America's crime epidemic keeps growing thanks to radical leftist prosecutors and their social experiments (Fox 10/25/2022)
Alito says Supreme Court leak made him a 'target for assassination' (Fox 10/56/2022)
Former Levi's exec says 'woke capitalism' has taken over corporate boardrooms (Fox 10/25/2022)
•
"Corporate leaders want us to believe they are do-gooders, not money-grubbers. They'll get rich, too, but they don't want you to think that is their mission."

•
"Today's executives reared these kids with an 'I'm not your Dad, I'm your friend' parenting philosophy, and they chase their children's approval. They want to impress their woke kids with their own progressive bona fides."

•
... called the younger generations of workers "ideological terrorists" who are "policing their peers and elders relentlessly," and she said that company leaders are unwilling to stand up to them.

•
"Most CEOs lack the moral courage to hold their ground. Because they know, deep down, that they aren't do-gooders, and they don't want that curtain lifted."

•
"So they kowtow to the very vocal minority — the scant few employees marching outside of headquarters or emailing the head of Human Resources. These CEOs are frauds and have no actual courage."
New York Supreme Court reinstates all employees fired for being unvaccinated, orders backpay (Fox 10/25/2022)
America's 'most dangerous' law? Illinois candidate warns of 'anarchy' after criminal justice overhaul (Fox 10/25/2022)
•
"I think we can project that if criminals are allowed to run free and police officers can't protect citizens, citizens are going to start protecting themselves and take the law into their own hands."

•
"The whole thing is concerning to me because it was just a potpourri of everything, and it didn't bring into consideration law enforcement, judges or all the stakeholders in place. It was basically to allow criminals to go free."

•
"We create potential anarchy because law enforcement can't do their job and then people feel that they have to do that job. People aren't trained in the use of force. They're not trained to de-escalate situations."
Salman Rushdie attack results in loss of eyesight in 1 eye, use of 1 hand: report (Fox 10/23/2022)
National debt spikes to $31 trillion, but we can stop it before it nears the abyss (Fox 10/19/2022)
Video of all-ages drag show in front of children ignites outrage: 'This is clear child abuse' (Fox 10/19/2022)
•
"And what is the best way to confuse children? Confuse them about their sexuality, confuse them about their gender, expose them to things that their little brains are not ready for yet."

•
"It is leading to chaos, and big daddy government, of course, can be there to pick us all up and take care of us at the end of it."
The Dems' insurrection theater is not going to jail Trump, it's going to get him re-elected (Fox 10/15/2022)
TUCKER CARLSON: The Democratic Party is replacing parents with itself (Fox 10/14/2022)
Trump writes blistering Jan. 6 committee response, doesn't say if he'll testify (Fox 10/14/2022)
Tulsi Gabbard: The Democratic Party is controlled by fanatical ideologues who don't believe in freedom (Fox 10/15/2022)
Parents blast Dearborn, Michigan school board for 'sexually explicit books' at heated meeting (Fox 10/14/2022)
•
"How did these books even end up in our library–I mean these books are really bad. When I am looking at it, I cringe. They don't belong in the hands of 13, 14, 15-year-old kids."

•
... highlighted that the school library has over 300,000 books, and the current opt-out process places the burden on parents to know the content of all the books.
California mom obliterates school board over 'family-friendly' Halloween drag show: 'Pimping out our kids' (Fox 10/14/2022)
•
"What is it about a grown man costumed in a sparkly bra with augmented boobs busting out and wearing a miniskirt barely covering his twerking a* with duct tape on his front while spreading his fish-netted legs as he writhes on the ground, grinding his groin next to a minor, family-friendly?"

•
"You all played the activist pimp for Align Surgical center and for a 21-plus gay bar. It makes you groomers and activist pimps and we won't have those sitting on a school board that oversees the education of our children."

•
"I want to make it really clear that this is not an isolated incident. This is coming to every school across the nation. And if you think it's just going to stay in California, you're dead wrong. This is coming everywhere. It's why we stood up and said we're going to nip it in the bud, we're not going to play by the rules, that we're supposed to be afraid, that we're going to be punished if we don't speak up now."

•
"I hope this breeds courage for parents all over the nation who see this trend starting to change where our kids are not being educated in the fundamentals. They're being hyper-sexualized and were done with this."

•
"You can slap labels on anything, you can make anything 'family-friendly' that you want. And that's the danger of this ideology - is that were being told to use new terms and new language. I think we do a disservice when we play by those rules."

•
"We need to stand up and use the words that we know what they mean. They're pimping out our kids...it's coming all over the nation, and we need to now use brave words and words with meaning and call it like it is."
Tulsi Gabbard speaks out after leaving 'woke' Democratic Party: My 'loyalty' is to the country, not the caucus (Fox 10/11/2022)
•
"... when you look at this party, the today's Democratic Party, it's controlled by fanatical ideologues who hate freedom. They despise the Constitution. They actively find ways to undermine our God given rights enshrined in the Constitution, like freedom of speech, if you say something and I say something that they don't like."
Jonathan Turley lays out concerns Hunter Biden probe not looking at 'full scope' of potential crimes (Fox 10/07/2022)
At least 12 armed citizens have thwarted crimes in just the last 60 days (Fox 10/05/2022)
Texas nurse fired for refusing 'implicit bias' training: 'Very degrading to the profession' (Fox 10/03/2022)
•
"Implicit bias training does operate on the concept that all health care workers are implicitly biased against their patients and must make decisions at the point of care based on things that don't have anything to do with the medical care of the patient."

•
"This type of training and other radical ideologies that are infiltrating health care, are really causing divisiveness between the relationship of trust between doctors and nurses and their patients."

•
"Nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals in these states where the training is mandated, are not able to obtain their licenses without taking this training, which tells them that they are unconsciously biased against their patients and make poor decisions based on those biases that result in poor patient outcomes."

•
"The idea of implicit bias is grounded in the belief that white people treat those who aren't white worse than those who are. It's part of the woke assumption that society, including health care, suffers from 'systemic racism.' Accordingly, my own supposed implicit bias, which is a euphemism for ingrained racism, must be rooted out. Not only that, it must be replaced with preferential treatment for the nonwhite. I fail to see how real racial discrimination is justified by my nonexistent racism."
America’s military and our country won’t survive if wokeism continues to rule (Fox 09/28/2022)
Larry Kudlow: Another series of utterly irresponsible and unserious statements by the far-left progressives (Fox 09/22/2022)
Scalise wants Biden to condemn 'leftist violence' after death of North Dakota teen (Fox 09/22/2022)
Horowitz: Martha’s Vineyard affair shows how easily states could fight the border invasion (9/21/22)
Top bank CEOs decline radical climate demands from Rep. Tlaib: 'That would be the road to Hell for America' (Fox 09/21/2022)
•
"... Please answer with a simple yes or no, does your bank have a policy against funding new oil and gas products, Mr. Diamond?" Tlaib asked.

•
"Absolutely not, and that would be the road to hell for America," Dimon responded.

•
"Yea. That's fine. That's fine," Tlaib responded. "Sir, you know what, everybody that got relief from student loans [that] has a bank account with your bank should probably take out their account and close their account."
New York AG Trump lawsuit a 'political hit job' driven by left's desire to 'punish' him: Bill Barr (Fox 09/21/2022)
New Orleans becomes murder capital of America, overtaking St. Louis (Fox 09/17/2022)
Bill Maher roasts woke 'presentism': 'A magic moral time machine' where you always win (Fox 09/17/2022)
Martha's Vineyard's 'humanitarian crisis' is just 0.000025% of the border crisis (Fox 09/16/2022)
Department of Defense launches review of equity chief after disparaging posts about White people exposed (Fox 09/16/2022)
What Gavin Newsom and his woke California flunkies want to do to the news (Fox 09/16/2022)
Gov. Youngkin introduces new model policy for Virginia transgender students (Fox 09/16/2022)
•
... "parents have the right to make decisions with respect to their children" and that the "policies shall be drafted to safeguard parents' rights with respect to their child, and to facilitate the exercise of those rights."

•
The policies go on to cite the 14th Amendment in the Constitution which gives parents a "fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children."

•
"Polling consistently shows that when it comes to the topic of gender in schools, parents worry about fairness, safety, and the preservation of parental rights – and that these concerns transcend both racial and political lines. Today, Virginia has shown that it is listening to parents through its new proposed guidelines, and we are grateful for their responsiveness."
GREG GUTFELD: Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are making 'phony politicians' in sanctuary states walk the walk (Fox 09/16/2022)
Martha's Vineyard's 'humanitarian crisis' statement ridiculed on social media: 'Screw them, send more' (Fox 09/16/2022)
Texas gov's office blasts White House after it calls migrant bussing an 'illegal stunt': 'hypocrites' (Fox 09/16/2022)
•
"The White House is full of a bunch of hypocrites, led by the Hypocrite-in-Chief who has been flying planeloads of migrants across the country and oftentimes in the cover of night."

•
"These migrants willingly chose to go to Washington, D.C., having signed a voluntary consent waiver available in multiple languages upon boarding that they agreed on the destination. And they were processed and released by the federal government, who dumped them in small Texas border towns."

•
"Instead of their hypocritical complaints about Texas providing much-needed relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities, President Biden and Border Czar Harris need to step up and do their jobs to secure the border — something they continue failing to do."
Durham probe: Trump team says Americans should be 'waiting for the next shoe to drop' ahead of Danchenko trial (Fox 09/15/2022)
TUCKER CARLSON: Why no one in Martha's Vineyard - including the Obamas - celebrated the migrants (Fox 09/16/2022)
Media to blame for parade of fake racism stories (Fox 09/14/2022)
House Republicans investigate Education Dept for allegedly using COVID relief to fund critical race theory (Fox 09/14/2022)
GREG GUTFELD: Democrats think you're the real enemy (Fox 09/14/2022)
SEAN HANNITY: Democrats have dipped back into their 'election year playbook' (Fox 09/13/2022)
Justice Department says it supports one of Trump's nominees for special master (Fox 09/12/2022)
Texas teen shoots, kills two suspects breaking into Harris County home (Fox 09/10/2022)
•
Upon arrival, deputies located two men unresponsive from apparent gunshot wounds on the lawn to the side of the home. Both men were pronounced dead at that location by EMS personnel.

•
The investigators determined both victims and a third unidentified male, while armed and wearing masks, had attempted to break into a home occupied by an adult female, a 12-year-old boy and two 17-year-old boys.

•
One of the 17-year-olds retrieved a shotgun and discharged it several times, striking two suspects. The third suspect fled in a dark four-door sedan.
Supreme Court could echo photographer’s free speech victory over mandated LGBT wedding support (Fox 09/10/2022)
Biden 'looked like he was in the depths of Hell' demonizing 'half the country': Haley (Fox 09/09/2022)
Biden ignores China's infiltration of US universities (Fox 09/06/2022)
GREG GUTFELD: Biden made a wartime speech for Americans against Americans (Fox 09/03/2022)
Trump slams 'Third World' raid on his home, says FBI agents rifled through Barron's, Melania's belongings (Fox 09/03/2022)
•
"The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent who is absolutely destroying him and everybody else in the polls."

•
"On a phony pretext from a highly political magistrate who they hand-picked late in the evening just days before the break-in and trampled upon my rights and civil liberties as if our country that we love so much were a third world nation, we're like a third world nation."

•
"The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters controlled by radical left scoundrels, lawyers, and the media who tell them what to do."
Trump blasts Biden's anti-MAGA speech: 'He's the enemy of the state' (Fox 09/03/2022)
•
"This week, Joe Biden came to Philadelphia to give the most vicious, hateful, and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president."
GREG GUTFELD: Biden has declared war on Americans like you and me (Fox 09/01/2022)
Trump slams DOJ's filing opposing 'special master,' allegation he tried to 'obstruct' probe: 'I Declassified!' (Fox 08/31/2022)
Oklahoma mom says former teacher should face ‘criminal charges’ over kids' access to ‘pornographic’ book (Fox 08/29/2022)
•
"This is pornographic material. No one would be allowed to disseminate this to children, much less a teacher in our public schools systems. [Teacher Summer Boismier] has access to children and to minors."

•
"The woman should not have access to children now, or in the future. She should be stripped of her certifications. To be perfectly frank with you, she should have criminal charges against her."
Gordon Chang: Biden 'abrogating his constitutional duty' by failing to confront China threat (Fox 08/29/2022)
Communist China survivor issues warning to Americans: Socialism is only the first stage (Fox 08/27/2022)
•
I just want to say it's so ironic. 36 years ago, I run away from socialism when I left China to come to this great country for freedom.

•
Today, so many Americans [are] abandoning freedom and arriving into socialism. They have no idea what socialism is about.

•
Socialism becomes such a diluted word and it's intentional. I can tell you, China is a socialist country. Cuba is a socialist country and so is North Korea. They are a socialist country run by communist parties. And what's the difference? What's the difference between socialism and communism? Not much. Socialism is the initial stage of communism, according to Karl Marx.
Oklahoma parent sounds the alarm on teacher directing students to 'pornographic' books (Fox 08/25/2022)
•
"These books that are being disseminated to our children have nothing to do with educational content, or literary content. It is pushing pornographic material on our children."

•
"People are simply not aware of this. They're not aware of actually what's going on, and who has access to their children."

•
See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump slams Biden student loan handout as 'election enhancing money grab': 'Stop voting for Democrats!' ()
Christian school refuses to change long-held policy excluding sexual behavior despite alleged death threats (Fox 08/21/2022)
•
"Maybe God has picked us for this particular time to just encourage [like-minded people] that, 'Hey, there are things worth standing up for, and we're going to do that'."
Wisconsin school board votes to ban pride, BLM flags from classrooms (Fox 08/21/2022)
•
"Teachers and administration will not have political flags or religious messaging in their classroom or on their person."
Greg Gutfeld: The narrative is falling apart (Fox 08/17/2022)
Biden’s federal overreach started with Obama (Fox 08/17/2022)
Sean Hannity: They simply want you to close your eyes, cover your ears and trust them completely (Fox 08/16/2022)
Tragedy in Afghanistan was result of Biden's 'America Last' philosophy (Fox 08/16/2022)
COVID-19 gain-of-function research too dangerous for Fauci to work with China (Fox 08/16/2022)
•
Shockingly, with over 1 million Americans killed and trillions of dollars spent, last Wednesday was the first congressional hearing on the dangerous, virus-enhancing research known as gain-of-function and its relation to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

•
... gain-of-function research is a controversial scientific research method involving the manipulation of pathogens to give them a new aspect or ability, such as making viruses more transmissible or dangerous to humans.

•
"Gain-of-function research of concern involves the creation of new health threats – health threats that did not exist previously and that might not come to exist by natural means for tens, hundreds, or thousands of years."

•
Why in the world would we willingly create a more-transmissible or more-dangerous virus that has the potential to unleash a global pandemic that threatens the lives of millions?

•
... the Global Virome Project's goal aims to "collect the estimated 500,000 unknown viruses that are capable of infecting humans and bring them back to a laboratory near you. What could go wrong?"

•
... scientists "never considered that these advances in technology ... would allow a single skilled terrorist to unleash more pandemics at once than would naturally occur in a century."

•
We reconfirmed that Fauci is not being honest with us. Yes, the NIH funded gain-of-function research. Yes, it was dangerous. And yes, nobody looked over or reviewed the research.

•
We may never know whether the pandemic arose from a lab in Wuhan or occurred naturally, but the emergence of COVID-19 serves as a reminder that dangerous research conducted in a secretive and totalitarian country is simply too risky to fund...
Health care workers fired over vaccine mandate awarded $10 million in settlement (Fox 08/15/2022)
Trump 'will do whatever' he can to 'help the country' after FBI raid: 'Temperature has to be brought down' (Fox 08/15/2022)
•
"The country is in a very dangerous position. There is tremendous anger, like I've never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one — years of scams and witch hunts, and now this."

•
"There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country — at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times."

•
Trump, reflecting on the "years of fake witch hunts and phony Russia, Russia, Russia schemes and scams," said that "nothing happens to those people who perpetuate that — nothing happens with them."

•
Trump said FBI agents told his team on the Mar-a-Lago premises to "turn off the camera," and said "no one can go through the rooms." "They could take anything they want, and put anything they want in. My people were asked to stand outside."

•
"People are so angry at what is taking place. Whatever we can do to help — because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn't, terrible things are going to happen."
Americans have good reason to think the FBI treats Republicans differently than Democrats: Gowdy (Fox 08/14/2022)
FBI raid on Trump latest proof of Democrat war on rule of law (Fox 08/12/2022)
Greg Gutfeld: The Dems are poking the 'beast' going after Trump (Fox 08/11/2022)
Hunter Biden laptop repairman rips DOJ's 'blatant double standard' after Trump raid: 'He's beyond reproach' (Fox 08/11/2022)
•
"There's been a plethora of criminal activity that has come off that laptop and the FBI has been in possession of that laptop since December 9th, 2019."

•
"And the son of the president of the United States continues to wave from the balcony of the White House. He continues to fly on Air Force One. He's beyond reproach."

•
"It's a blatant double standard. My family and I have witnessed the bias in the FBI going back as far as October of 2019, when they refused to touch the Hunter Biden laptop with a ten-foot pole until finally in December, they came in, and they took it, and even then they seemed to be reluctant."

•
"I'm not surprised that the Chinese government probably has a copy of Hunter Biden's laptop. He was very careless with his electronic devices, so whether they're using that as leverage over the Biden administration, it's really hard to tell."

•
"It just seems like... between lithium mines in Afghanistan and how we've handled Taiwan, it just seems like we're going soft on China."

•
"And it begs the question, is it because they know something we don't? Are they holding something over the Bidens? It's hard to tell."
Whole Foods founder says socialists are 'taking over' the US, threatening liberties (Fox 08/11/2022)
•
"My concern is that I feel like socialists are taking over. They're marching through the institutions. They're...taking over education. It looks like they've taken over a lot of the corporations. It looks like they've taken over the military. And it's just continuing."

•
"You know, I'm a capitalist at heart, and I believe in liberty and capitalism. Those are my twin values. And I feel like, you know, with the way freedom of speech is today, the movement on gun control, a lot of the liberties that I've taken for granted most of my life, I think, are under threat."

•
Mackey has argued repeatedly that capitalism is the "greatest thing humanity has ever done." He has also targeted the academic community for spreading socialist ideas, saying it is "generally hostile to business."
Trump targeted: A look at the investigations involving the former president; from Russia to Mar-a-Lago (Fox 08/11/2022)
FBI searched Melania’s wardrobe, spent hours in Trump’s private office during Mar-a-Lago raid (Fox 08/10/2022)
Parents will call the shots in November’s elections and reclaim our culture (Fox 08/10/2022)
•
See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
GOP Rep. Banks says Trump 'fired up' after FBI raid, 'made up his mind' on 2024: 'Going to like his decision' (Fox 08/10/2022)
Sen Lindsey Graham demands attorney general explain raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home (Fox 08/09/2022)
McConnell addresses raid on Trump's home, says the 'country deserves a thorough and immediate explanation' (Fox 08/09/2022)
FBI would not let Trump attorneys in rooms as agents raided Mar-a-Lago, warrant focused on NARA: source (Fox 08/09/2022)
Larry Kudlow on FBI raiding Trump's Mar-a-Lago home: There is a deep state in DC (Fox 08/09/2022)
GOP slams 'weaponization' of DOJ after Trump's Mar-a-Lago raided by FBI; Dems call it 'accountability' (Fox 08/08/2022)
Former Trump official Michael Caputo blasts FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid: 'Full-blown constitutional crisis' (Fox 08/08/2022)
•
"America is in a full-blown constitutional crisis. The American people have endured a slow, creeping attack on our nation. I had a front row seat in the Russia hoax, and I've watched it get steadily and methodically worse ever since."

•
"With this militant raid on President Trump's home, we have become Russia. The FBI is the KGB. I should know. I've seen them both in action and I see no difference at all."

•
"With all the disagreements over presidential documents across almost ever single presidency in history, there was never a military-style raid on a former president's home. Today Joe Biden just guaranteed he will be indicted in 2025. And his son. And his brother."
Trump says Mar-a-Lago home in Florida 'under siege' by FBI agents (Fox 08/08/2022)
•
"Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate."

•
"It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don't want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections."

•
"Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before."

•
"What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States."

•
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Countless times we have examples of Democrats flouting the law and abusing power with no recourse."

•
"Democrats continually weaponize the bureaucracy against Republicans. This raid is outrageous. This abuse of power must stop and the only way to do that is to elect Republicans in November."

•
Per sources familiar with the matter, the FBI raid is related to the alleged taking of potential classified information upon leaving Washington on January 2021 – not the January 6th investigation.
Proposed curriculum in Wisconsin school includes gender identity, sexual orientation in elementary school (Fox 08/08/2022)
•
... would include gender lessons for children as young as kindergarten, and lessons for third-graders about gender identity, sexual orientation and pronouns.

•
"It really goes against what parents want for their kids. This shouldn't be an opt-out, this should be an opt-in."

•
"... parents need to know that they're not alone. Parents are terrified that their kids are going to get canceled, and they don't want to speak up."

•
See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Pennsylvania moms react to education dept suggesting kids may use 'ne, ve, ze/zie and xe' pronoun (Fox 08/05/2022)
•
"They need to focus on the terrible reading scores in this state, the terrible math scores in this state... [Instead,] they're focused on indoctrinating this next generation to change the fabric of our country."
Universities embrace academia's woke insanity to crush free speech (Fox 08/04/2022)
Elderly California store owner who shot would-be robber speaks out: 'I did a lot of hunting when I was a kid' (Fox 08/03/2022)
•
"I would always protect my employees, my customers, myself. This instance, fortunately, I was here by myself, so I only had to worry about that. I took care of it and that was that."

•
"I did a lot of hunting when I was a little kid. I'd put food on the table. So, I still remember things from a long time ago."

•
"And when they're letting people out... and we've got bad people, let's face it. There's bad people, bad people we don't need. We need to get them locked up because this is a scary situation when that happens."

•
"Everybody works hard. They got bills to pay. These guys are going to come in and take it away from you. Not here."
Parents' rights group sues Iowa school district over gender transition policies (Fox 08/03/2022)
•
... these policies authorize "children to make fundamentally important decisions about their gender identity without any parental involvement and to then hide these decisions from parents."

•
The policy also states that "The district shall not disclose information that may reveal a student's transgender status to others including but not limited to other students, parents, and school staff...," and directs school staff to check with students about which pronoun the staff should use when communicating with a student's parents.

•
"It is unconscionable that school bureaucrats are actively seeking to undermine the relationship between a parent and their child, implying that these officials are a "safer" option compared to his or her family and codifying a practice of deliberately excluding families from significant life decisions."

•
"While Linn-Mar administrators may play a role in a child's life for a period of time, their presence ends when a student graduates - but meanwhile, mothers and fathers will always be there for their children, consoling them in their hour of need and picking up the pieces long past high school. Parents have clearly-established rights to be involved in decisions related to their children's welfare, and we intend to defend the rights of Linn-Mar parents to do so."
Mom threatens Texas House meeting with 'ambulance-chasing' lawsuits over CRT: 'Ya'll are trippin' (Fox 08/03/2022)
•
"If my daughter is taught CRT at all, I will sue you. If my daughter is taught [social and emotional learning] at all I will sue you. I am encouraging every parent I know to sue you; to sue every teacher, every principal, every system, everybody up the chain... because we're tired of y'all."
Elderly California store owner fires at armed robbery suspect who shouts, 'He shot my arm off!’ (Fox 08/02/2022)
•
"In this case, a lawfully armed member of our community prevented a violent crime and ensured their own safety, while being confronted with multiple armed suspects."

•
Surveillance footage ... shows the masked suspect pointing a rifle at the store owner moments before the owner reached behind the counter, grabbed a shotgun and fired in the suspect's direction.

•
The suspect is then heard screaming "he shot my arm off!" as he ran out of the store and into a getaway vehicle outside.

•
The 23-year-old gunman – who has not been publicly identified – was later tracked down at a local hospital "suffering from a gunshot wound consistent with a shotgun blast."

•
The BMW SUV they were traveling in was previously reported stolen and found to contain numerous stolen firearms...

•
The 80-year-old store owner, meanwhile, is recovering at a hospital after suffering a heart attack shortly after the attempted robbery...
Sen. Marsha Blackburn's back-to-school tips include warnings for parents about 'woke policies' ()
Father, attorney blast Maine school district that banned him from meetings: 'Power drunk' (Fox 07/25/2022)
•
"Government apparatchiks can't banish people from public life because they don't like being challenged."

•
"Serving in the government means you have to accept criticism. If you can't do that, you have no business in that position. I'm very impressed with how much work the judge put into her ruling, upholding the First Amendment rights of someone with whom I presume she does not personally agree. But that's what a principled judge does."
US transgender Admiral ... & Deputy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy ... (07/24/2022)
•
See related Bombshells (Antonio Branco, 10/22/2021) cartoon from World picture album
Concerned moms reveal deciding-vote issues: Inflation 'hitting pocketbooks,' education 'excellence, choice' (Fox 07/24/2022)
•
See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Lee Zeldin's running mate Alison Esposito slams alleged attacker's release (Fox 07/22/2022)
LA schools adopt radical ‘trans affirming’ agenda to attack ‘gender binary’ (Fox 07/22/2022)
•
The Los Angeles Unified School District governs the educational life of 600,000 children, the majority of whom are racial minorities from poor families.

•
The implicit cynicism of the district's gender-ideology programming is sickening: highly educated, well-paid bureaucrats promote fashionable academic programming that will do nothing to provide a basic education for these children or help them move up the economic and social ladder.

•
It will only keep them trapped in a morass of confusion, fatalism, and resentment — while the bureaucrats keep collecting their paychecks.
Alleged Lee Zeldin attempted attacker charged with felony, immediately released just as congressman predicted (Fox 07/22/2022)
•
A man who allegedly attacked Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., with a sharp object at a campaign stop in Perinton, New York, Thursday evening was charged with a felony and released from custody within hours of his arrest...

•
"His words as he tried to stab me a few hours ago were 'you're done', but several attendees, including @EspositoforNY, quickly jumped into action & tackled the guy."

•
"Law enforcement was on the scene within minutes. The attacker will likely be instantly released under NY's laws."

•
Zeldin was giving a speech about bail reform at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post when the alleged assault happened.

•
"His right hand came up, I assume out of his pocket, and he had a blade on his hand. His fingers were like two finger holes in the blade and lunged at the congressman. And Congressman Zeldin blocked the first lunge. And then as he tried to lunge again, I grabbed him from behind and tackled him down to the ground and held him on the ground."
Gabbard says 'system is rigged' after public conjecture over Paul Pelosi stock buy (Fox 07/22/2022)
Houston man turns the tables on would-be carjacker, suspect dead (Fox 07/20/2022)
Indiana police say 'Good Samaritan' took out mall shooter in 15 seconds, landed 8 of 10 shots (Fox 07/20/2022)
•
"The time lapse between the moment that Jonathan Sapirman exited the restroom and began shooting, and when he was shot by the civilian was only fifteen seconds..."

•
"The surveillance video shows Sapirman exit the restroom at 5:56:48pm. He was neutralized by Dicken at 5:57:03 pm."

•
... a preliminary autopsy report on the gunman showed that he was struck eight times and died of his wounds, meaning Dicken only missed the shooter twice despite engaging the threat from a distance.

•
Police say the gunman was armed with two rifles, a Glock pistol, and was carrying at least 100 rounds of ammunition with him.

•
He killed three people before being quickly neutralized by Dicken, who began closing the distance on the shooter as he waved for bystanders to flee behind him.

•
"Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen who took action within the first two minutes of this shooting."

•
"He is a true American hero who saved countless lives during a horrific event that could have been so much worse if not for Eli's courage, preparedness and willingness to protect others."
Abortion decision exposes how woke corporations are hostile to American families (Fox 07/19/2022)
Liberal zealots want to cancel mothers, replace them with birthing persons (Fox 07/19/2022)
Indiana Greenwood Park Mall shooting: Victims, bystander who killed gunman identified (Fox 07/19/2022)
•
"He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun and was very proficient in that, very tactically sound. And as he moved to close in on the suspect, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him."

•
Dicken fired 10 rounds from his handgun, according to the chief, and that as he fired, the gunman "attempted to retreat back into the restroom and failed, and fell to the ground after being shot."

•
"He is a true American hero who saved countless lives during a horrific event that could have been so much worse if not for Eli's courage, preparedness and willingness to protect others."

•
... found on the deceased gunman a handgun, a waistband holster and several magazines that contained more than 100 rounds of ammunition.
Uvalde mom who rescued sons from school shooting reacts to police response: ‘Turn in your badge’ (Fox 07/18/2022)
•
Angeli-Rose Gomez, placed in handcuffs outside Robb Elementary School on May 24 before hopping a fence and pulling her two sons out of the building herself...

•
Despite a robust response of at least 376 law enforcement officers, the new report notes a chaotic and uncoordinated scene, stressing how police officials prioritized their own safety over the lives of students and teachers and waited more than an hour to confront 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos.

•
"Message to the cops: turn in your badge, this isn't the job for you, you aren't willing to protect and serve. If you can't own up to your job, turn in your badge. You let everyone down."

•
"All need to turn in their badge. All the cops mistreating us outside need to be punished. If they would've just left all the parents would've done way more than they would've done."

•
"I don't know where I got that bravery. I just kept thinking I am not going to stand here and wait for my kids to die and wait for them to tell me hours later that my kid is dead."

•
"Everything has been rough now that the video has been released. Feel like we are back at square one with the fact that cops didn't do anything like I had always been saying. It is just horrific."

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"My one son who was at recess during the shooting, he is now seeing him [the shooter] in the actual view — seeing who he was, sees him walk around the school, seeing how cops didn't help his friends and how they ran away. It is just unforgiving."

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"I just keep thinking about how my kids weren't going to get saved. I am just so grateful that I could get my sons. Now seeing the video, I know my sons would've been screaming inside and they [cops] wouldn't have done anything. Devastating they didn't do anything."

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"I don't know how they just didn't react the way I did and the other parents. I don't know how they couldn't do anything. Horrible just seeing them standing there, one getting hand sanitizer, another on his phone. Other police officers being held back."

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"Just shows that they've been lying to us from the start — at first said they didn't have the right equipment. I just don't understand, how they were mistreating us outside, holding us back, tased us, but they didn't do anything like that to the shooter."

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"I'm like what the hell, we had so many parents willing to go in, and they were standing in the hallway hiding. I didn't see any cops crying or getting outraged. No sympathy, no sign of them trying to save the kids."
Uvalde victim's uncle on 'horrendous' police response to school shooting: 'Get out of law enforcement' (Fox 07/18/2022)
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"It's horrendous to hear these things," Renfro told co-host Todd Piro. "Three hundred and seventy-six officers, approximately 400 officers, stood by and failed our community, failed the state of Texas, and failed the children."

•
"I stand behind the law enforcement officers that surely worked for the badge. These guys, they didn't do their job, so they must be held accountable."

•
The report revealed 376 law enforcement officials responded to the school shooting on May 24, including around 150 border agents and 91 state police officials.

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"Get out of law enforcement. People have turned their backs on you. You no longer have the support of the community."
Uvalde police release bodycam footage showing controversial school shooting response (Fox 07/18/2022)
Indiana shopping mall shooter shot dead by armed 'good Samaritan,' police say (Fox 07/17/2022)
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Greenwood Chief James Ison said "a good Samaritan with a handgun" at the scene killed the shooter. ... The shooter has only been described as an adult male. Police said he had a long rifle and several magazines of ammunition.
Dr. Birx Praises Herself While Revealing Ignorance, Treachery, and Deceit (Brownstone Institute, 07/16/2022)
Florida sheriff releases video of armed home intruders fleeing when intended victim fires back with rifle (Fox 07/15/2022)
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"He did absolutely nothing wrong. If someone breaks into my front door, barges and attacks me or my family, they're going to get shot, and I afford that same consideration to the residents of my county."
Greg Gutfeld: Dems only care about a crisis if there's an American villain (Fox 07/13/2022)
Alvin Bragg, liberal DAs 'turned the criminal justice system on its head', says former NYC police commissioner (Fox 07/13/2022)
Average American worker has lost $3,400 in annual wages under Biden thanks to inflation (Fox 07/13/2022)
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See related Inflation (Mike Shelton, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Florida sheriff says man will 'absolutely not' face charges for defending home with 'AK-47-style' gun (Fox 07/13/2022)
Read the private email Obama sent his former doc after he questioned Biden's cognitive health (Fox 07/13/2022)
•
"Biden was on TV again, making crazy statements and concerning mental gaffes; he didn't know what state he was in or what office he was campaigning for," Jackson recalls of the 2020 campaign season.

•
"He apparently thought at one point that he was running for the Senate and later couldn't remember what state he was campaigning in. This had been going on for months and was getting worse."

•
For years, the media had accused Trump of being mentally unwell, and in 2018 many commentators mocked Jackson for saying that a cognitive evaluation Trump had taken showed he was in "excellent" mental shape and "had absolutely no cognitive or mental issues whatsoever."

•
"Trump never made crazy statements like the ones Biden was making almost every day, but these people were jumping up and down: 'He's not fit to be president; he needs a cognitive test!'..."

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"Remember the cognitive test that I gave realDonaldTrump? The one he aced! Sounds like somebody else might need some testing done!! Scary!!" Within 20 minutes of that tweet, Jackson received a "scathing" email from President Obama.

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"I have made a point of not commenting on your service in my successor's administration and have always spoken highly of you both in public and in private. You always served me and my family well, and I have considered you not only a fine doctor and service member but also a friend."

•
"That's why I have to express my disappointment at the cheap shot you took at Joe Biden via Twitter. It was unprofessional and beneath the office that you once held. It was also disrespectful to me and the many friends you had in our administration. You were the personal physician to the President of the United States as well as an admiral in the U.S. Navy. I expect better, and I hope upon reflection that you will expect more of yourself in the future," Obama told Jackson.

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"So, upon reflection, I thought, You know what? Screw that guy! I'm not doing it. I just walked away from it, which was the last time I had any contact with [Obama]," Jackson wrote.

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"It's awfully ironic now, considering [Biden's mental fitness] is all anyone, including the liberal media, can talk about."

•
"Let it be known, as the White House physician for the last three presidents, I was the first to say that we have a serious problem with this man's cognitive demise, and he will not make it four years in office. I've always said there would come a point where it wouldn't be just me talking about it, but his own party, and sadly, that has proven to be the case. Joe Biden's cognitive failures are on full display for the whole world to see."

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Uvalde surveillance footage shows police response as gunman murdered 19 children and 2 adults (Fox 07/12/2022)
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"Three minutes after the suspect entered the west building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract, and neutralize the subject."

•
"The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111, and 112, was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children."

•
"This video provides horrifying evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary on May 24 was an abject failure."
Our kids' schools told us to 'cease and desist' but we're fighting back (Fox 07/12/2022)
•
For years, as parents, we wrongfully assumed the public schools were on our side — that they were doing their best to teach our kids to read and write and leave personal politics out of it.

•
But for many parents across the U.S., the pandemic exposed that public schools were teaching critical race theory, progressive sexual and gender agenda materials and other age-inappropriate concepts to our kids.

•
While some parents were struggling before the pandemic, virtual education enlightened many parents about where the public-school establishment's loyalty really lies.

•
Parents and taxpayers across the country deserve to know what is happening in their local schools.

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Our districts should publish complete lists of library books and curriculum on their websites and districts should work with parents to find what is best for the students.

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Public schools are no longer spaces where we can passively rely on the districts' judgement. We need to be involved, and we need to speak up because, as parents, we are the ones who know what's best for our children.

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Florida dad speaks out after school board cut his mic for reading ‘pornography’ books he found in district (Fox 07/12/2022)
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A Florida school board cut off a dad's microphone, saying that the content he was reading was "pornography" as he tried to expose the materials he said were in schools.

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"These books are so vile that reading any excerpt that I captured will end this interview." ... "Somebody failed drastically in their mission to protect children."

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"As soon as I announced that I was going to read from some books that parents... found in the public school libraries that are clearly pornographic, [they] had the mic cut off."

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... Friedman began to read from one of the books. "I'm going to read things; if there's children watching, cover their ears," he said at the meeting.

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"I'm going to stop you right there, sir," Friedman was told. "Turn off his microphone, please." "Why?" Friedman asked.

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"The problem is, sir, that these meetings are broadcast, there are people at home that are watching it on YouTube. There are people that are watching it on community television. Are you going to listen? Or are you going to run your mouth?"

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The dad was told by the school board that he would not be allowed to read "pornography" on the broadcast, as it violated the law.

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"There are federal and state laws that prohibit you from saying the things that you're getting out to say on television. There are state laws that prohibit in federal communications laws that prohibit you from publishing these things to a child. You don't have the ability at this point to determine who's watching the television show. And for you to say, 'everybody cover your ears' just doesn't cut it," the dad was told.

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Friedman then protested, stating he would want the floor back. "You'll get it back, but you'll get it back to talk about something besides reading pornography into a public television set," the dad was told.

•
Friedman became an advocate to protect children in schools from curricula he deems to be "poison" because he "has skin in the game." He wants his 15-year-old son to be in the public school system and come home unharmed.

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"In my experience, people don't get off the couch until it's on fire. People don't work to protect their children until they're harmed. In my case, the same applies. I sent my son to New York... public school for kindergarten and first grade – they did considerable harm to my boy."

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"That is why I'm here – I never shook it off. I never stopped fighting. We got him into a private school promptly after first grade, but the damage was done. It took five years, in my opinion, to put him back on the right track."

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The dad describes his son as "bright," "gifted," and "a fine young man who is considerably smarter than I am."

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"He makes me proud, but I am not going to stick him in a school with groomers and pedophiles and twisted sick people that think these... books and many like them are okay to present to a child. They are not okay. There's no literal literary value to any of this. It's poison."

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"People are arguing about things like drag queen story hour, whether or not is it appropriate for children to learn that other kinds of persons and lifestyles exist."

•
"I saw this recently, so I'm going to repeat it. We shouldn't be asking whether or not it's okay for our children to sit in on a drag queen story hour, we should be asking why the drag queens want an audience of children_."

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In addition to schools around the county introducing sexual topics to kids, Friedman said he was concerned about critical race theory. "In my opinion, [it] is the worst piece of any curriculum to ever be presented to an American child."

•
"It is so much worse than anyone could possibly believe that it's mind-boggling. To be prepared for that battle, I took courses as if I was going to be required to teach critical race theory. I know it that well. I know exactly how bad it is, and it is bad for children of every color."

•
Friedman said that CRT has alternative names such as diversity, equity, and inclusion; as well as intersectionality and inclusivity.

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"All of that is the same junk. And all of it is designed to divide us and make us hate each other. Our children deserve better. They should be taught reading, writing, arithmetic. Put them on the bus and send them home safe. Do your job. Stay in your lane."

•
"The destruction of the nuclear family is one of their goals. Anything that sterilizes children, weakens the family, or otherwise overwhelms and burdens society to the point where people would be desperate and would fall naturally to rely on their government is their goal. Their further goal is power – power over the parents, power over their children."

•
"I don't believe that the unions... have children as number one in their mission statement. Their first goal is to maintain the status quo at any cost. And if children suffer, well, life's unfair."

•
"They won't be happy until we're all equal; socialism is shared misery. [But] we're going to do better. We have a constitution."

•
See related You Better Shut up! (Mike Shelton, 06/28/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Visitor to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate calls out new 'woke' tours: 'Depressing and demoralizing' (Fox 07/11/2022)
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... toured Monticello on July 4 to pay homage to Jefferson, who advocated for emancipation and the separation of church and state.

•
"Instead I got exactly the opposite. They were just debunking his history, his reputation, putting him down, demoralizing everybody on my tour."

•
"We had a great nation. It is being destroyed now by people who hate America. Nothing constructive and positive will come from this effort."

•
"I just thought that maybe Monticello would be protected from this disease of 'wokeism,' but I was sadly wrong."
Energy expert sounds alarm on Biden selling oil to China: 'Worthy of congressional investigation' (Fox 07/11/2022)
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... his is pretty remarkable. Of all the gin joints in the world, of oil companies in the world, we chose to use one company in China that Hunter Biden is a part-owner and investor.

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See related Biden Crime Family (Dick Wright, 04/27/2022) cartoon from General picture album
Cruz requests Garland testify on DOJ steps to protect Supreme Court justices after abortion decision (Fox 07/11/2022)
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... requesting that Garland come before the panel to "detail the steps the Department of Justice is taking to protect our Supreme Court Justices in the wake of an unprecedented harassment and intimidation campaign."

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Cruz referred to 18 U.S.C. 1507, which criminalizes any attempt to influence a judge in the exercise of his or her duties by picketing them at their home — a law passed in order to allow judges the "freedom to exercise their judicial power free from outside influence or intimidation."

•
Cruz also cites Article III of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees judicial independence by granting judges life tenure and salary protection to ensure they are not influenced by anything other than the law and facts in the case before them.

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"Unfortunately, despite clear evidence that federal law was violated by mobs of protesters at the Justices' homes, the head of the Department of Justice, and chief law enforcement officer of the United States, flatly refused to enforce federal law."

•
"Intimidation attempts have also occurred at the homes of Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, Justice Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts. In response to these threats, Attorney General Garland merely stated, 'The Justice Department will not tolerate violence or threats of violence against judges or any other public servants at work, home or any other location.'..."

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Cruz added: "Attorney General Garland's refusal to act, however, calls into question the sincerity of this statement."

•
In a shot at the attorney general, Cruz said he was "quick to condemn parents who attended school board meetings to protest radical policies pushed by some board members."

•
"Yet he has shown little urgency to protect Supreme Court Justices despite calls from the Supreme Court Marshal and multiple governors to do so."

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"Attorney General Garland should be asked, under oath, why he refused to act in this instance, as well as detail his plans to uphold judicial independence and the rule of law in the face of future such intimidation campaigns."
Trump rips Biden on crime at Las Vegas rally, hints at 2024 run: 'We are a failing nation' (Fox 07/09/2022)
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"We will not have a country left if this growing barbarism is not quickly reversed and stopped, the wave of lawbreaking must be immediately ended, and we must really get this crime wave ended immediately. If we are going to make America great again, our first task is to make America safe again."

•
"We're gathered tonight to discuss what we must do to stop the deadly wave of lawlessness and chaos that has been sweeping across our land like we've never seen before."

•
"The rule of law has been collapsing before our very eyes under the weak on crime policies of the Biden administration, the Pelosi-Schumer Congress, radical left Democrats at the state and local level." ... "Civilization itself is right now under siege and we can't be just politically correct."

•
"Last year, sixteen US cities set an all-time homicide record. Murders nationwide reach their highest rate in 25 years and are soaring to levels that we've never seen before." ... "People are leaving these [Democrat-run] cities" as "organized mobs are pillaging small businesses."

•
"Our border is in a state of brutal and violent anarchy as people totally unvetted and unchecked flow into our country by the millions. To put it simply, we are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation."

•
"We've never had anything like what's going on right now. Our country has been knocked to its knees, humiliated before the world. Yet we presume to lecture other people in other countries on their democracies. All the while, the streets are flowing with the blood of innocent crime victims, as we lecture others."

•
"This was a man with tremendous moral courage, a fantastic person. Prime Minister Abe was a friend of mine, an ally, an incredible patriot, he was a tireless champion for peace and for freedom and for the priceless bond between the United States and Japan. And his assassination is not only a grievous atrocity, it's a devastating loss for the entire world."

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"We will miss him greatly. And based on this being a speech about law and order, I hope that the man who committed this crime will pay a swift and steep price for the greatness he has taken from our planet."
Parent rips NEA proposing use of 'birthing parent': Americans not ready for 'radical agenda' of 'K-12 cartel' (Fox 07/07/2022)
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"I don't think we can put anything past the unions at this point. I don't believe that they represent parents and children and what we need in the future of America."

•
"We believe that they don't actually represent the 3 million members that they have in their organizations. So while they may not have voted on it, I certainly think it's just perhaps a reaction to the fact that they know how far away they have come from what the American public wants and needs."

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"There are many other things that the NEA proposed, and I really suggest to people, get out, look at those proposals because you will be shocked at what this radical agenda the union is pushing across this country."
Highland Park shooting attack: There is 'something very troubling' about suspect's parents, Ted Williams says (Fox 07/07/2022)
Uvalde police officer had gunman in his rifle sights before he entered school but didn't fire, report says (Fox 07/06/2022)
•
... police officer armed with a rifle spotted the gunman outside of Robb Elementary School before he entered the building and asked his supervisor for permission to shoot, but the supervisor either didn't hear the request or didn't respond in time, allowing the suspect to enter the school...

•
The gunman would go on to murder 19 children and two teachers before a Border Patrol tactical team eventually breached the classroom and took him out over 70 minutes later, a delay that has been sharply criticized by lawmakers, state law enforcement officials, and the Uvalde community.

•
It's unclear why the initial Uvalde police officer did not immediately fire at the gunman, who had already started shooting into classrooms as he walked along the perimeter of the school.

•
"In this instance, the UPD officer would have heard gunshots and/or reports of gunshots and observed an individual approaching the school building armed with a rifle. A reasonable officer would conclude in this case, based upon the totality of the circumstances, that use of deadly force was warranted."

•
The officer told investigators that he was concerned about putting children in danger if he missed, but ... "an individual is justified in using deadly force when the individual reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary to prevent the commission of murder."

•
The officer was about 148 yards away from the exterior door that the gunman entered, which is well within the range of an AR-15 platform rifle, though patrol rifle qualifications in Texas do not require officers to fire at targets farther away than 100 yards...
National Education Association teachers union proposes resolution to change 'mother' to 'birthing parent' (Fox 07/06/2022)
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"Normal people don't use the term chestfeeding or birthing person or any of this stuff. I think it just further underscores how completely out of touch the teachers' unions... are from the concerns of normal parents."

•
"They are arrogant. They are dismissive of the family, the parents. It's beyond Orwellian. Even in science fiction, I don't know if you can have such a script of complete destruction of human society."
Biden admin sues Arizona over law requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections (Fox 07/05/2022)
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"In addition to free rooms and transportation for those illegally entering our country, the DOJ now wants to give them a chance to vote."
Highland Park 4th of July shooting person of interest: Who is Robert Crimo? (Fox 07/04/2022)
Highland Park shooting person of interest Robert Crimo captured after manhunt (Fox 07/04/2022)
Highland Park shooting suspect description released after July 4 parade attack kills at least 6 (Fox 07/04/2022)
Chicago crowds attack police, shoot fireworks in late-night unrest (Fox 07/04/2022)
100-year-old WWII vet breaks down, says this isn't the ‘country we fought for’: ‘I am so upset’ (Fox 07/03/2022)
•
"People don't realize what they have. The things we did and the things we fought for and the boys that died for it, it's all gone down the drain."

•
"We haven't got the country we had when I was raised, not at all. Nobody will have the fun I had. Nobody will have the opportunity I had. It's just not the same and that's not what our boys, that's not what they died for."
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in, becoming first Black woman on high court (Fox 06/30/2022)
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See related What a Woman Is? (Dick Wright, 03/24/2022) cartoon from USA picture album
Supreme Court deals Biden climate agenda serious blow with EPA decision (Fox 06/30/2022)
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... ruling Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency cannot pass sweeping regulations that could overhaul entire industries without additional congressional approval.

•
"... A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body."
Greg Gutfeld: 'We discriminate against the burdensome' (Fox 06/28/2022)
NY Supreme Court strikes down law allowing noncitizens to vote (Fox 06/27/2022)
Rick Perry urges Biden to unleash American energy: Whiplash they're causing is 'stunning' (Fox 06/27/2022)
Student loan forgiveness scam is already Biden policy (Fox 06/27/2022)
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See related Can\\\'t Believe... (Michael Ramirez, 02/14/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Graham tells abortion protesters to stop 'trying to burn down America': 'Constitutional anarchists' (Fox 06/27/2022)
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"So these constitutional anarchists, here's my advice to you: Quit trying to burn down America and work like we did, in the fields, elect people who agree with you at the ballot box."

•
"When Roe came out, we didn't burn down the Capitol as conservatives. We didn't go to liberal justices' homes and try to intimidate them. The radical left are constitutional anarchists, they're literally trying to change this country from top to bottom."

•
"They want to pack the court because they don't like this decision. They want to abolish the electoral college so California and New York can pick the president in perpetuity."

•
"I appreciate President Biden saying to the left, don't use violence. What I worry about is this protest going unchecked at judges' homes is giving a green light that there are no rules anymore. If we don't watch it, somebody's gonna get killed out here."

•
"Now I'm urging Merrick Garland to start putting people in jail who show up at the justice's home to try and intimidate them and their family. If we don't reset here pretty soon, somebody's going to get killed."
Webb calls out 'pop culture princess' AOC over SCOTUS impeachment push: 'Do your job' (Fox 06/27/2022)
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"Aren't you sick of being lectured by people who are pop culture princesses, which is what she is? She hasn't written a piece of legislation, passed a piece of legislation, yet she lectures America on how it should work. Do your job."
School districts pricing out parents on record requests by charging tens of thousands in 'exorbitant fees' (Fox 06/27/2022)
Rubio responds to protesters claims abortion is now illegal nationwide: 'Nothing has been banned' (Fox 06/25/2022)
•
... in reality "nothing has been banned" – as the ruling simply reserved the regulatory power over abortion laws to the state legislatures, as prescribed by the 10th Amendment for those powers not explicitly enumerated in the Constitution.

•
"What we've seen over the last few hours is how, unfortunately, American political coverage has become childish and unserious."

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... the 6-3 decision expressed the Constitution gives people the right to "decide through their elected representatives in each individual state whether they want to allow abortion prohibited or and how they want to regulate it.

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"The reason why they're having this left-wing meltdown... is that as long as they had Roe v Wade, they didn't have to worry about having that debate."

•
"There were still abortions today. Tragically, there'll be abortions tomorrow because abortion is not banned." "[Liberals] can't run on that. So they have to lie to people and say there was just a ruling that almost bans that that's what they're telling people."
The Federal Bureau Of Tweets: Twitter Is Hiring An Alarming Number Of FBI Agents (06/24/22)
Tammy Bruce on Roe v. Wade reversal: The left is desperate, 'doesn't know how to persuade' (Fox 06/24/2022)
Former Gorsuch law clerk: The left never has a problem when SCOTUS overturns a conservative precedent (Fox 06/24/2022)
10 key quotes from Justice Alito's opinion overturning Roe v. Wade (Fox 06/24/2022)
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"Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies, and it allows women on both sides of the abortion issue to seek to affect the legislative process by influencing public opinion, lobbying legislators, voting, and running for office. Women are not without electoral or political power. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so."

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"Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives."
Supreme Court gun decision shoots down NY rule that set high bar for concealed carry licenses (Fox 06/23/2022)
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"In this case, petitioners and respondents agree that ordinary, law-abiding citizens have a similar right to carry handguns publicly for their self-defense. We too agree, and now hold, consistent with Heller and McDonald, that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home."

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"Because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the State's licensing regime violates the Constitution."

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"This ‘special need' standard is demanding," Thomas wrote. "For example, living or working in an area ‘noted for criminal activity' does not suffice."

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"[W]e do think respondents err in their attempt to characterize New York's proper-cause requirement as a ‘sensitive-place' law," Thomas wrote, explaining that New York viewed "sensitive places" as anywhere "where people typically congregate and where law-enforcement and other public-safety professionals are presumptively available."

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"Put simply, there is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a "sensitive place" simply because it is crowded and protected generally by the New York City Police Department."

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"We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need. That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes to a defendant's right to confront the witnesses against him. And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for self-defense."

•
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote an impassioned dissenting opinion in which he referenced present-day fervor over gun violence, as well as recent events. Joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, Breyer cited statistics including 45,222 Americans killed by firearms in the U.S. in 2020, the number of mass shootings that have already taken place in 2022, and how gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and adolescents.

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"Does the dissent think that laws like New York's prevent or deter such atrocities? Will a person bent on carrying out a mass shooting be stopped if he knows that it is illegal to carry a handgun outside the home?" Alito asked.

•
"And how does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop that perpetrator."
Indiana attorney general blasts transgender bathrooms: Common sense is hard for the 'America-haters' to fathom (Fox 06/21/2022)
Democrats ignore threats against justices, churches, pregnancy centers and it's deeply disturbing (Fox 06/21/2022)
Texas official: Uvalde classroom door unlocked during shooting as officers waited for keys: 'Abject failure' (Fox 06/21/2022)
•
"Three minutes after the suspect entered the west building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract, and neutralize the subject."

•
"The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111, and 112, was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children."

•
"The officers had weapons, while the children had none. The officers had body armor, the children had none. The officers had training, the subject had none."

•
"One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That's how long the children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued. And while they waited, the on-scene commander waited for radio and rifles. And he waited for shields, and he waited for SWAT. Lastly, he waited for a key that was never needed."

•
... officers with rifles stood and waited in a school hallway for nearly an hour while the 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack using an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.

•
Eight minutes after the shooter entered the building, an officer reported that police had a "hooligan" crowbar that they could use to break down the classroom door...

•
Nineteen minutes after the gunman entered, the first ballistic shield was brought into the building by police, the witness testified.

•
... police and sheriff's radios did not work within the school; only the radios of Border Patrol agents on the scene worked inside the school, and even they did not work perfectly.

•
... publicly admitted that Arredondo made "the wrong decision" when he chose not to storm the classroom for more than 70 minutes, even as trapped fourth graders inside two classrooms were desperately calling 911 for help and anguished parents outside the school urged officers to go inside.
Pence says he won’t let Dems use Jan. 6 ‘to distract’ from their 'failed agenda,' praises Trump record (Fox 06/20/2022)
Uvalde shooting: Officers with rifles and a ballistic shield were inside school for 58 minutes (Fox 06/20/2022)
•
Multiple officers were inside Robb Elementary School armed with rifles and at least one ballistic shield by 11:52 a.m. on May 24, but they didn't breach a classroom door and take out the gunman who killed 19 children and two adults for nearly an hour...

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Officials have also said that law enforcement held back while they tried to find a key to open the classroom door, but San Antonio Express-News reported last week that the classroom door was unlocked and no one ever checked the door before breaching it at 12:50 p.m. and taking out the gunman.
Ginni Thomas says she cannot wait to meet with Jan. 6 committee to 'clear up misconceptions' (Fox 06/18/2022)
Pennsylvania mothers file lawsuit to stop transgender lessons at elementary school (Fox 06/12/2022)
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In addition to the district, the suit names the district's superintendent and school board, as well as first-grade teacher Megan Williams. It also names other school officials and an elementary school principal.

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The lawsuit points out the "unique perspectives and views" that Williams might have as the mother of a transgender child who is the same age as her students, but noted that such a fact "does not give her the right to impose those views on a captive audience of six- and seven-year-old children."

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The mothers allege Williams did not respect their parental rights with her "direct classroom instruction" on gender dysphoria and use of books on the subject.

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"Williams also began the process of interjecting her own personal life and views into the classroom, explaining that her child had worn an ‘Elsa dress' for Halloween," the complaint also said, alleging that Williams "explained to her students that sometimes ‘parents are wrong' and parents and doctors ‘make mistakes' when they bring a child home from the hospital."

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"This lawsuit is not about politics. It is not anti-transgender. It is not about censorship. It is not about banning books. It is not about precluding appropriate DEI initiatives."

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"Rather, it is about Plaintiffs' parental rights and each of their respective decisions not to want their six- or seven-year-old child to receive first-grade classroom instruction on gender dysphoria or transgender transitioning from their first-grade teacher."

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See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Mark Levin: Democrats' 'dehumanization' of Kavanaugh, Thomas; court-packing plans call-backs to Stalin (Fox 06/12/2022)
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"Democrat Party and media mouthpieces said things about this court and about Kavanaugh that would cause the blood to boil of any kook or psychopath. We've never had a persistent, constant threat on the justices of the Supreme Court."

•
"What the Democrat Party is doing: Reaching back to Donald Trump — this is what third-world types did. This is what Stalin and the other genocidal maniacs have done, that is, try to take people who are out of political power and destroy them so they can never come back."

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"[Schumer] encouraged their mob to go to those houses, break federal law, commit felonies and influence the outcome of a Supreme Court decision... No handcuffs and no leg irons like Peter Navarro."
Arizona woman trying to rescue dog held onto tree in canal for 18 hours (Fox 06/12/2022)
Mom dead in Massachusetts river after trying to save kids, search for son continues (Fox 06/10/2022)
Mom blasts Maryland teachers' association for claiming standardized tests are 'dangerous' and 'white-centered' (Fox 06/09/2022)
Progressive San Francisco DA recalled by voters in one of nation's most liberal cities (Fox 06/08/2022)
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... said he grew up in two worlds — one where he had every opportunity, and another in which he was "shackled to an existence mired in degradation and humiliation, one known to far too many Americans because of our addiction to caging human beings."

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His father, David Gilbert, a former member of the left-wing extremist Weather Underground group, spent 40 years in prison for second-degree murder and first-degree robbery charges before being granted parole last year.

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His mother, Kathy Boudin, who was also a member of Weather Underground, spent more than 20 years in prison before being released in 2003.

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Boudin was raised by left-wing activist Bill Ayers, who was a co-founder of Weather Underground.

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Another recall effort is in the works against Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, and the organizers believe Boudin's loss should be a warning sign.

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"Tonight showed that voters from every community and every walk of life, regardless of political ideology, are rejecting pro-criminal policies that are masked as criminal justice reform."

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"George Gascon and Chesa Boudin's failed social experiments have destroyed communities while doing nothing to meaningfully reform the system. If LA County voters sign and return their recall petitions, Gascon will be walking the same plank in the near future."
Ilya Shapiro resigns from Georgetown Law after prolonged cancel culture controversy, calls it 'den of vipers' (Fox 06/06/2022)
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"Georgetown is not a place that values intellectual diversity, freedom of speech, tolerance, respect, good faith."

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"A place that excludes dissenting voices, that undermines equal opportunity. It's not a place that anyone who dissents in any way from prevailing orthodoxies can thrive."
Steve Hilton calls out Biden: Has there ever been a more pathetic excuse for president? (Fox 06/05/2022)
Trey Gowdy: What can we learn and what can we change in the wake of another mass shooting? (Fox 06/05/2022)
Los Angeles DA Gascon's office lands 5-month probation camp sentence for teen who mowed down mom and infant (Fox 06/03/2022)
•
"I thought those were the last moments of our lives; we were dead. That feeling, along with the memory of a car accelerating directly into us, will haunt me forever."

•
Multiple videos show the car veering directly at the mother and child while speeding the wrong way down a narrow backstreet with no sidewalks.

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After mowing them down, the driver attempts to drive away, only to be stopped by another driver who rams the stolen sedan with a pickup.

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"As the car approached me and my child, I stopped walking and moved the stroller and myself up against a building on the right side of the road to ensure that we gave the reckless driver plenty of room to pass."

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"As the car got dangerously close to us, [the juvenile suspect] turned the wheels in our direction and accelerated as he aimed to kill us."

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"I was also told that his record would be wiped clean when he turns 18. How on earth can that be? He tried to murder two innocent pedestrians. Murder. And we have video evidence. My child would be dead if I hadn't been there to protect him."

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"George Gascon doesn't value my life or the life of my child, or any other victim out there and would rather reward the monsters like [the juvenile suspect] by demonstrating to them that their actions have no consequences."

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"DA Gascon is telling him and every other thug in LA County that it doesn't matter if you try to murder people. Why are Gascon's policies prioritizing the livelihood of rotten monsters when my child, my baby, who is incapable of protecting himself, is left to fend for himself, and is essentially being told his life doesn't matter?"
Parents rally as Fairfax school board punts controversial vote on changes to sex-ed classes (Fox 06/01/2022)
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"... starting at a very young age and preying upon young children. Grooming young children. Having pornographic, pedophilia literature in schools. That's very problematic. And also doing that and focusing so much effort on that, when kids are falling behind in academics."

•
"Also, I think the Family Life Education course, it's so important for parents to have to opt-in versus opt-out. That's absolutely key. Especially when they're expanding upon information that students are hearing here at school, but you would never even dream of mentioning in an adult working environment. Some of the things that kids are being told in school or even literature that they're receiving in school, is, if you sold it on the street, or you had it on the street, you'd be criminalized for it."

•
"Beware the mother bears. Mother bears and Papa bears are coming out because we care about the future of our country. We care about our children."

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"I think what they're attempting to teach the children is dangerous in terms of even their psychological wellbeing. To teach a child they have an option to whether they're female or male, is first of all wrong. We don't, we're born one way or the other. And to start giving children who don't even know which is their right, which is their left hand, tell them they have a choice as to their sex is abuse, child abuse in my book."

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See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Uvalde hero Border Patrol agent speaks out on 'complete chaos,' rushing in to save students (Fox 05/31/2022)
West Virginia woman with pistol shoots, kills man firing at graduation party: 'Saved several lives' (Fox 05/28/2022)
•
A woman in West Virginia fatally shot a man Wednesday night who had begun firing an AR-15-style rifle into a crowd of dozens.

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"Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night."
Government unions divert dues to leftist politics (Fox 05/27/2022)
Trump says 'existence of evil' is why law-abiding Americans need Second Amendment (Fox 05/27/2022)
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"The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens and that is why one of the core missions of the NRA is to train, prepare and equip responsible American men and women with the knowledge and tools they need to defend themselves."

•
"Let's not pretend that those on the left are just talking about limiting one class of gun or one category of ammunition. They're not doing that."

•
"We all know they want total gun confiscation, we know that this would be a first step. Once they get the first step, they'll take the second step, the third, the fourth, and then you'll have a whole different look at the Second Amendment, which is, by the way, totally under siege. But we stopped it for four years. We stopped it."

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Trump also told the NRA members that "schools should be the single-hardest target in our country" and noted the need to mend the issues surrounding "broken families" and mental health. He also suggested that some teachers should be able to "conceal carry."
Parkland shooting victim's father says focus on gun control, not solutions, is why this 'happens' (Fox 05/27/2022)
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"They didn't learn anything from what happened in Texas at that school shooting, they didn't learn anything from what happened in Parkland at that shooting, they didn't learn anything from what happened at Sandy Hook. When you focus on just gun control this is what happens. It's happened again."

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... went on to say that every school should have armed guards with one point of entry as well as mechanisms in place to address the mental illness that many school shooters exhibit.

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"I guarantee you this kid didn't just wake up one day and say I want to kill my grandma. There had to be red flags that went off and it's a big problem."

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... local school districts and governments need to determine kids who are "mentally sick" and "evil" and "put it on their backgrounds so they can't purchase a rifle."

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... the shooter in Uvalde, Texas, who killed 19 children on Tuesday, displayed many signs of mental instability, including slashing his own face with a knife, getting into fistfights at school, fighting with his mother to the point where police were called, and posting pictures of guns online.

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"There's gun laws in place, there's so many gun laws in place. If they don't have a background, not one gun law is going to make a difference. You can't focus on guns. Nothing gets done."
Rep. Tony Gonzales responds to Beto O'Rourke's outburst during Greg Abbott's Uvalde shooting update (Fox 05/25/2022)
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"It's sad to see politicians try to capitalize politically off of the death of innocent children."
Uvalde, Texas school shooting: 18 students, one adult killed, suspected shooter dead (Fox 05/24/2022)
State Farm accused of pushing LGBTQ+ books on kids, Consumers’ Research launches ‘Like a Creepy Neighbor’ (Fox 05/23/2022)
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The internal email ... was sent by State Farm corporate responsibility analyst Jose Soto. It urges Florida agents to take action and provide LGBTQ+ books to children.

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"State Farm looks to be targeting five-year-olds, kindergartners, in fact, in the public schools for inappropriate discussions around sexual identity."

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"We want to call them out for that activity and to notify parents and customers of State Farm's activity, so they can hopefully get them to cut it out. But at the very least, make sure that their kids were not approached by State Farm on these issues."

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"That's what State Farm is doing, asking employees to donate guides to being transgender to public schools, books aimed at kindergartners questioning their identity. It's textbook indoctrination."

•
"These books don't belong in elementary schools and State Farm shouldn't be putting them there. Like a creepy neighbor, State Farm is there."
Trump reacts to testimony that Clinton spread Russia allegations: 'Where do I get my reputation back?' (Fox 05/21/2022)
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"This is one of the greatest political scandals in history," Trump told... "For three years, I had to fight her off, and fight those crooked people off, and you'll never get your reputation fully back. Where do I get my reputation back?"

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"I had to fight them off. And if we had real leadership, instead of people like Mitch McConnell, they would do something about it. And guys like Bill Barr. They would have done something about it."

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Trump said that the law enforcement and intelligence community resources devoted to investigating him and members of his 2016 campaign distracted officials from what "could have been a real danger with Russia."

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The FBI, in July 2016, opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether candidate Donald Trump and members of his campaign were colluding or coordinating with Russia to influence the 2016 campaign.

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That FBI investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, was handed off to Special Counsel Robert Mueller after Trump was elected. Mueller was appointed on May 17, 2017.

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After nearly two years, Mueller's investigation yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.

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Durham was tapped in 2019, shortly after Mueller announced his findings, by Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the origins of the FBI's original investigation into the Trump campaign, which led to the appointment of Mueller as special counsel.

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... notes from then-CIA Director John Brennan after briefing then-President Obama on July 28, 2016, memorializing Clinton's purported "proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."

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"Per FBI verbal request, CIA provides the below examples of information the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE fusion cell has gleaned to date."

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"An exchange [REDACTED] discussing US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server."
Hillary Clinton is the nexus to all the Trump-Russia lies, but she thinks she's immune: Victor Davis Hanson (Fox 05/21/2022)
Clinton campaign manager drops 'bombshell' exposing Clinton and media mob's years-long Russia hoax (Fox 05/21/2022)
NSBA concludes review of letter asking Biden's DOJ to investigate parents under 'domestic terrorism' laws (Fox 05/20/2022)
•
"As a result of the NSBA's internal investigation, the American people now know that Biden Administration officials did indeed work with NSBA on the since-retracted letter requesting federal intervention in school board issues."

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"It is inexcusable that a senior White House advisor would have the audacity to collaborate on a public request to use the Patriot Act against families; this is, quite literally, a betrayal of trust by the highest levels of government. While a number of questions remain – including the extent of Secretary Cardona's involvement in this scandal – it is our hope that the individuals involved are held accountable for this betrayal of public trust."

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See related AG Garland Threatens Free Speech (Dick Wright, 10/28/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Virginia mom criticizes school board for 'totalitarian' rule that could punish students for misgendering peers (Fox 05/20/2022)
Hunter Biden saga: NBC News joins NYT, WaPo, Politico in verifying laptop dismissed as Russian disinfo in 2020 (Fox 05/20/2022)
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See related Biden Crime Family (Dick Wright, 04/27/2022) cartoon from General picture album
New York Times issues correction after wrongly reporting 4,000 children have died from COVID-related condition (Fox 05/20/2022)
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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Princeton moves to fire tenured professor who criticized school's woke politics: report (Fox 05/20/2022)
Durham-Sussmann trial: Baker briefed Comey, McCabe on alleged covert communications between Trump Org, Russia (Fox 05/19/2022)
Ben Carson slams the left’s insistence that America is 'systemically racist' (Fox 05/19/2022)
Left seethes as Elon Musk calls Democrats ‘the party of division and hate:’ ‘TERRIBLE AMERICAN’ (Fox 05/19/2022)
•
"In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican."

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Musk also warned that they'd come after him for such statements, adding, "Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold ..."...

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Earlier that day Musk had made a similar claim, predicting, "Political attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months."

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... Musk slammed progressive activists, which he called "Wacktivists," with a sarcastic tweet. He wrote, "What I love most about wacktivists is their incredible sense of humor."
Chris Rufo uncovers jarring details of trans conference that Philadelphia teachers were encouraged to attend (Fox 05/18/2022)
Virginia governor to DOJ: Prosecute SCOTUS home protesters, the statute is 'clear' (Fox 05/18/2022)
Elon Musk lights up Twitter after declaring he'll vote GOP next election: 'The left should reflect on why (Fox 05/18/2022)
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"I have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, historically – overwhelmingly. Like, I'm not sure, I might never have voted for a Republican, just to be clear. Now this election, I will."

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"The issue here is that the Democrat Party is overly controlled by the unions and by the trial lawyers – particularly the class action lawyers."

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"And generally if you see something that is not in the interest of the people on the Democrat side, it's going to come because of unions – which is just another form of monopoly – and the trial lawyers."
JPMorgan shareholders reject $52M payout to CEO Jamie Dimon (Fox 05/17/2022)
Indiana homeowner shoots 2 suspected armed intruders, holds others at gunpoint until cops arrive (Fox 05/17/2022)
Elon Musk calls out Twitter employee caught in Project Veritas video mocking his Asperger's (Fox 05/17/2022)
Greg Gutfeld: The parodies we've created are now real (Fox 05/17/2022)
Sussmann-Durham trial: Prosecution says Clinton lawyer used FBI to create an 'October surprise' against Trump (Fox 05/17/2022)
Clarence Thomas says Supreme Court leak has eroded trust in institution (JWR 05/16/2022)
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"... The only people with whom I've had difficulties are white, liberal elites who consider themselves the anointed and us the benighted..."
Antiracist 'radicalization' in medical field is causing new discrimination: physician (Fox 05/16/2022)
•
"... the reason we have a crisis is because of personal behaviors, understanding of the risks of illnesses, and access to the health care system. This is the nature of the crisis ... It will only get worse if we put all our resources into the wrong solution to the medical problem."

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"We began [Do No Harm] in order to provide a voice for physicians, for patients [and] for any individuals in the health care world who are confronted with [things like] ... institutions demanding that they take on anti-bias training, the creation of protocols that seemed to favor one group of patients over another simply based on their skin color, their race, [or] even ... issues ... where the government is trying to ... bribe physicians into creating anti-racism protocols in their practices in order to increase their payment from Medicare."

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"The language of anti-racism is Ibram Kendi's language. And he's spoken to the idea that past discrimination ... requires future discriminations in order to make some sort of equity achieved."

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"This undermines the whole idea of a trusting physician-patient relationship. And that's what we're trying to combat."

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... "there are individuals who actually believe that these kinds of racist approaches are going to benefit patients. But in fact, they're wrong. They're really wrong. And they haven't considered the ... consequences of these kinds of ideas."

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"This sort of radicalization that we've seen occur in colleges has manifested itself now in medical schools. Many medical educators now get degrees from schools of education, which are hotbeds of basically – to call it by its real name – Marxist-sort-of-thinking about health care and about society in general."
Parents riled up after Montana school hands out questionnaire regarding students' sexual orientation: Report (Fox 05/16/2022)
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See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Clarence Thomas rips media: I'll leave my job when I do it as poorly as you do yours (Fox 05/16/2022)
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"One of the things I'd say in response to the media is when they talk about, especially early on, about the way I did my job, I said ‘I will absolutely leave the court when I do my job as poorly as you do yours — and that was meant as a compliment really."

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"I do think that what happened at the court is tremendously bad... I wonder how long we're going to have these institutions at the rate we're undermining them."

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Thomas is the longest-tenured member of the Supreme Court, having served since 1991.
Legally-armed Philadelphia man taking smoke break 'turned the tables' on armed would-be robber (Fox 05/12/2022)
Elon Musk criticizes pitch by 'disinformation czar' to allow verified Twitter accounts to edit others' tweets (Fox 05/12/2022)
•
"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy."
Texas dads arrested after getting vocal at school board meetings sue school district for violating free speech (Fox 05/12/2022)
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See related You Better Shut up! (Mike Shelton, 06/28/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
It's time to end economic handouts for woke corporations (Fox 05/12/2022)
Legal group releases guide on how parents can fight back against 'illegal woke education' (Fox 05/12/2022)
Whistleblowers: FBI targeted parents via terrorism tools despite Garland's testimony that it didn't happen (Fox 05/11/2022)
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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Youngkin, Hogan send letter to Garland urging him to prosecute demonstrators outside Supreme justices' homes (Fox 05/11/2022)
•
... pointed to federal U.S. code 1507, which states that any individual who "pickets or parades" with the "intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer" near a U.S. court or "near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer" will be fined, or "imprisoned not more than one year, or both."

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"The statute is incredibly clear. It basically says if you are parading or picketing in order to try to influence a judge, it's punishable with up to a year in prison. That sounds illegal to me. Of course, this leak was done in order to influence and intimidate our justices. And that's exactly what these parades and picket lines are trying to do."

•
"The state police are at the ready to support local resources and federal resources. We have substantial resources ready to go. Local police, I have asked them to create a perimeter around each of the justices' homes with support from state police as needed."

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"And then, we asked Attorney General Garland to enforce the law, and to make sure that these demonstrators are not allowed to try to intimidate justices like they're trying to do."
Tucker: Karine Jean-Pierre is furious at America, despite her ample privilege (Fox 05/10/2022)
Elon Musk would reverse Trump Twitter ban, calling it morally wrong (Fox 05/10/2022)
•
"Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts... I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump."

•
"I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice."

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"I would reverse the permanent ban. I don't own Twitter yet. So this is not like a thing that will definitely happen, because what if I don't own Twitter?"

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"I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH," Trump told... "I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it, and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH."
Hawley introduces bill to strip 'woke' Disney of special copyright protections (Fox 05/10/2022)
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"The age of Republican handouts to Big Business is over. Thanks to special copyright protections from Congress, woke corporations like Disney have earned billions while increasingly pandering to woke activists. It's time to take away Disney's special privileges and open up a new era of creativity and innovation."
Levin: The New York Times 'worse than fake news' (Fox 05/08/2022)
•
"It's worse than fake news. It tried to take down an elected president, Donald Trump. It tried to push him out of office, supported both impeachments, supported criminal investigation, still supports these various prosecutors who are investigating the former president. And on and on and on. [It has also pushed] [t]he 1619 project, which seeks to undermine our nation's history."
Gowdy: Our rights should be debated at ballot boxes and in Congress, not by 'five lawyers in black robes' (Fox 05/08/2022)
Outrage over leaked Supreme Court draft exposes just how 'unhinged' Biden and the left have become (Fox 05/08/2022)
Former AG Bill Barr 'appalled' by White House response to Supreme Court doxxing (Fox 05/07/2022)
•
"... confidentiality is critical to the functioning of the judiciary. They need to be able to have, you know, discourse within the court in deciding the case and make sure that it's kept confidential until an opinion comes out. And so this was an obstruction of the judicial process. It was an interference in the due administration of justice.

•
"So I think that it's a crime that was done. It appears to have been done. And I think eventually it will be shown to have been done in order to derail the opinion and upset the deliberations of the court. And so I think ultimately it belongs in the criminal justice side of things. And the person who did this should go to jail. Now, there could be some preliminary review of this thing to see if they can figure out quickly who it is and then turn it over to the Department of Justice for prosecution."
Clarence Thomas references Roe v. Wade draft opinion leak, says Supreme Court can't be 'bullied' (Fox 05/07/2022)
•
"We can't be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want. The events from earlier this week are a symptom of that.."
John Roberts: Supreme Court draft leak 'absolutely appalling' (Fox 05/06/2022)
•
"A leak of this stature is absolutely appalling. If the person behind it thinks that it will affect our work, that's just foolish."
South Dakotans flame school board meeting over 'pornographic' books: 'This is the Marxist global revolution' (Fox 05/06/2022)
•
"The person or persons responsible for bringing this book into the schools with the intention of assigning this book ... needs to be under investigation."

•
"I just don't know what guidelines, what allowed this particular book to be put through the public K-12 schools. The sex acts in these books are clearly pornographic, and it's why it's on the list to be removed."

•
"It's not this little issue. It's not this little book or this little school or this little district. This is all going on all over. And these books are not here by accident."

•
"Our education system has been taken over to a large extent from the federal level ... and we need to start saying no at the local level. We're not going to do this to our kids. We're not going to do this to our community."

•
"Where's all this coming from? ... This is the Marxist global revolution – it's the Cultural Revolution – and this is what is coming into our schools. It is Marxist propaganda. It's designed to divide the kids from their parents, divide the kids from their country, divide the kids from their culture, and even in many cases, divide them from their very selves. So it is very dangerous."

•
See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
School attempts to hide student's gender transition from parents, pushes LGBTQ+ content for middle schoolers (Fox 05/06/2022)
•
"It is unconscionable for any teacher to go behind a parent's back to meddle in a child's mental, physical and emotional health."

•
"While us concerned parents get called domestic terrorists, it's the radical ideologues who actually threaten, harass, and intimidate parents who object to their woke agenda."

•
See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Rand Paul grills Mayorkas on disinformation: 'I don't trust government to figure out what the truth is' (Fox 05/05/2022)
•
"I mean, think of all the debates and disputes we've had over the last 50 years in our country. We worked them out by debating them. We don't work them out by the government being the arbiter. I don't want guardrails. I want you to have nothing to do with speech. You think we can't determine, you know, speech by traffickers is disinformation. Do you think the American people are so stupid they need you to tell them what the truth is? You can't even admit what the truth is with the Steele dossier. I don't trust government to figure out what the truth is. Government is largely disseminating disinformation."
Biden's disinformation board is authoritarian and reminds me of my life in China (Fox 05/05/2022)
Hunter Biden laptop repairman sues Adam Schiff, CNN for defamation: 'I was called a hacker and Russian asset' (Fox 05/05/2022)
•
"It was pretty quick out of the gate that I was labeled a hacker and then, after Adam Schiff and 51 intelligence experts decided to pen a letter and tell the rest of the American people I was a Russian asset, things have gone downhill from there."
Democratic, Republican lawmakers speak out against Biden's disinformation board: 'Cancel this whole thing' (Fox 05/05/2022)
Fox News Poll: Majority favors ban on sex, gender discussions for young children in schools (Fox 05/04/2022)
Elon Musk challenges billionaires, pols funding groups attacking his Twitter buy (Fox 05/04/2022)
•
"Who funds these organizations that want to control your access to information? Let's investigate," Musk tweeted. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

•
Twitter and Musk reached a $44 billion deal late last month to take the social media giant private, stoking fears among the far-left that Musk would transform Twitter into free speech free-for-all.
Parents fume over Biden's remark students are teachers' children: 'We do not co-parent with the government' (Fox 05/04/2022)
•
"You have heard me say it many times about our children, but it is true," Biden said to a group of teachers... " They're all our children.

•
He added, " They're not somebody else's children. They're like yours when they're in the classroom."

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"That's just false," Moms for Liberty Tiffany Justice told... "We are willing to partner with our children's schools, but we do not co-parent with the government. And every parent has the right to direct the upbringing of their children."

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"There is no way that my child, or children, are any other person's child," Army of Parents co-founder Elicia Brand similarly said... "They are mine and my husband's. It is appalling what President Biden has said. We have a fundamental right to decide on the upbringing and the schooling of our children. And I am the primary person in my child's life."

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"Never will there be a teacher, and administrator, or any public servant that is in charge of my child's life. And I will tell you that there are parents all over this country that will die on a hill to say that we do not co-parent with the government."

•
Quisha King, Senior Director with Moms for America, shared their displeasure... "Biden or any teacher for that matter, has some nerve to think that at any time of the day, I become irrelevant as a parent and that my child belongs to the state."

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"This kind of thinking is exactly why some teachers and administrators believe they do not have to inform parents when there are issues going on with our children."

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"We birth them, we clothe, feed and shelter them, we kiss knees when they get scraped and bruised. That's just a small part of what parents do. If a teacher, administrator, or elected official does any of this to my child, I'm calling the police, I'm not offering praise!"

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"In loco parentis" is a Latin term meaning "in [the] place of a parent" or "instead of a parent," referring to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to perform some of the functions or responsibilities of a parent.

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Ashley Jacobs, executive director and co-founder of Parents Unite, felt it apt to reference the concept in her response to the president.

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"Going back to the in loco parentis concept that we have, we would expect that teachers would do what's in the best interests of children to make them the best versions of themselves."

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"But that does not mean keeping secrets from parents, trying to pretend that they're their own and instilling their own values on children, that is not acceptable."

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"I have family members who are teachers, teacher supervisors, and they all talk about that there's a bigger responsibility to a teacher than simply just the academic instruction," local father Benjamin Orr... "I think we all understand that. The difference is, when you try to assert control over the parent-child relationship, when you become essentially instead of just a partner, but you try to replace the parent. That's where we all have an issue. And if there is ever a discrepancy, of course I believe parents comes first."

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"It is absolutely appalling that the President of the United States would effectively claim that the constitutional rights of parents to raise their children ends at the schoolhouse door," Fight for Schools Ian Prior told...

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"It's frightening that Joe Biden is taking his talking points from failed gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and AFT President Randi Weingarten, but at least parents now know exactly where he stands - against them and their fundamental liberty right to makes decisions on the education and upbringing of their children."

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Bari Weiss calls out the 'ideological minority' that has 'captured' the New York Times, other institutions (Fox 05/04/2022)
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"An ideological minority who does not believe in all the news that's fit to print, that believes in pushing a particular political agenda and looking askance at people whose curiosity tends in the wrong direction."
Repairman who revealed Hunter Biden laptop sues Schiff, CNN, Politico and the Daily Beast (NYP 05/03/2022)
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The former shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, decided to fight back after losing his business and being harassed for 18 months by Big Tech, the media and Delaware locals in President Biden's home state.

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"After fighting to reveal the truth, all I want now is for the rest of the country to know that there was a collective and orchestrated effort by social and mainstream media to block a real story with real consequences for the nation."

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"This was collusion led by 51 former pillars in the intelligence community and backed by words and actions of a politically motivated DOJ and FBI. I want this lawsuit to reveal that collusion and more importantly, who gave the marching orders."

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Mac Isaac came to legally own the laptop after Biden's son Hunter dropped it off at his store for repairs in April 2019 and never came back.

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The material on the laptop has raised serious questions about what Biden knew of his son's overseas business deals, during which he and the president's brother Jim Biden often invoked his powerful name.

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Mac Isaac handed over a copy of the laptop's hard drive to the FBI in December 2019, and eight months later, alerted then-President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who provided a copy of the hard drive to The Post.

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When The Post's first story broke in October 2020 — just three weeks before the presidential election — Twitter and Facebook moved to censor it. Then Schiff (D-Calif.) and 51 former intelligence officials labeled the laptop Russian disinformation.

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"Twitter initially labeled my action hacking, so for the first day after my information was leaked, I was bombarded with hate mail and death threats revolving around the idea that I was a hacker, a thief and a criminal."

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"Without any intel, the head of the intel committee decided to share with CNN and its viewers a complete and utter lie. A lie issued in the protection of a preferred presidential candidate."

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Mac Isaac said he's since endured false accusations of being a Russian spy and a "stooge" for Russian President Vladimir Putin. "The fight to get to the bottom of who told everyone this was Russian disinformation is far more important for the nation than me clearing my name."

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"Well, we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That's been clear for well over a year now that they've been pushing this false narrative about the vice president and his son," Schiff told...

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Mac Isaac was forced to close his computer repair business near the Biden family homes in Greenville, Delaware, after people started throwing vegetables, eggs and dog excrement at his store. He went into exile in Colorado for a year.

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The suit claims CNN knowingly broadcast the "false and defamatory story" that the laptop was linked to a Russian disinformation campaign, causing Mac Isaac significant damage, including the closing of his repair shop.

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"CNN's broadcast of the false statement accuses the Plaintiff of committing an infamous crime, i.e., treason by working with the Russians to commit a crime against the United States of America by attempting to undermine American democracy and the 2020 Presidential election."

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The Daily Beast claimed the laptop was "purloined" — which Mac Isaac says alleges that he stole the computer — in an article headlined "FBI Examining Hunter's Laptop as Foreign Op, Contradicting Trump's Intel Czar."

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And in an infamous story on Politico, the website reported dozens of former intel officials believed the laptop to be "Russian disinfo." "The article was written by journalist Natasha Bertrand, who seemingly has a history of transforming speculation into fact in the stories upon which she reports."

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Mac Isaac has "suffered immensely at the false statements spread about those who brought the information on Hunter Biden's laptop to everyone's attention."

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"He has lost his business, friendships, and his honorable standing in his community. This lawsuit is to attempt to repair a small portion of that damage caused by the defendants in the suit ... We intend to show that their actions were intentionally malicious."

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See related Election Interference (Antonio Branco, 10/16/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Elon Musk calls out groups pressuring major brands to force Twitter to uphold content policies amid purchase (Fox 05/03/2022)
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A letter to brands signed by more than 25 groups, including Media Matters for America and the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, said marketers should make sure advertising deals made with Twitter are contingent that it will keep in place policies to police hateful conduct, transparency and enforce civic integrity or risk losing advertising dollars.

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"As top advertisers on Twitter, your brand risks association with a platform amplifying hate, extremism, health misinformation, and conspiracy theorists."

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"Under Musk's management, Twitter risks becoming a cesspool of misinformation, with your brand attached, polluting our information ecosystem in a time where trust in institutions and news media is already at an all-time low."

•
... Musk tweeted "Who funds these organizations that want to control your access to information? Let's investigate..."

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Other organizations involved in the letter campaign include Accountable Tech, a technology advocacy group, the feminist group UltraViolet.

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The Center for Countering Digital Hate, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Free Press digital rights group also signed the letter in support.

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Musk has been a staunch advocate of free speech and allowing any context that doesn't run afoul of the law.
Ohio school board votes down school's 'Diversity Day' (Fox 05/03/2022)
Supreme Court chief justice directs marshal to investigate leak, calls out 'egregious breach of ... trust' (Fox 05/03/2022)
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"Justices circulate draft opinions internally as a routine and essential part of the Court's confidential deliberative work. Although the document described in yesterday's reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case."

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"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way."

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"We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce – permanent employees and law clerks alike – intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law," he said. "Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here."
Disinfo Board depicts Biden as most anti-free-speech president since John Adams: Turley (Fox 05/02/2022)
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"When the secretary says, ‘She has a long background here' — Well, it's the wrong background. It's like saying a book burner has a background in literacy: Yeah, he works with books, but that's not the background you're looking for."
Guidelines for health are meant to guide, not mandate (Fox 05/02/2022)
Elon Musk goes scorched-earth on NBC after Peacock host's attack, notes network's worst scandals (Fox 05/02/2022)
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"NBC basically saying Republicans are Nazis... Same org that covered up Hunter Biden laptop story, had Harvey Weinstein story early & killed it & built Matt Lauer his rape office. Lovely people."

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See related NBC Loses Credibility (Robert Ariail, 02/06/2015) cartoon from Media picture album
Illinois school district offers curriculum for K-3 kids to 'break the binary' of gender (Fox 05/02/2022)
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"When we show whether we feel like a boy or a girl or some of each, we are expressing our gender identity. There are also children who feel like a girl and a boy; or like neither a boy or a girl. We can call these children transgender."

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The kindergartners read two books that affirm transgender conversions, study photographs of boys in dresses, learn details about the transgender flag, and perform a rainbow dance.

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At the end of the lesson, the students are encouraged to adopt and share their own gender identities with the class.

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"Now you have a chance to make a picture to show how you identify. Maybe you want to have blue hair! Maybe you want to be wearing a necklace. Your identity is for you to decide!"

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In third grade ... students are told that white European "colonizers" imposed their "Western and Christian ideological framework" on racial minorities and "forced two-spirit people to conform to the gender binary."

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The teacher tells students that "many people feel like they aren't really a boy or a girl" and that they should "call people by the gender they have in their heart."

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Students are encouraged to "break the binary," reject the system of "whiteness," and study photographs of black men in dresses and a man wearing lipstick and long earrings.

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"It is a myth that gender is binary," the lesson explains. "Even though we are all given a sex assigned at birth, you are not given your gender. Only you can know your gender and how you feel inside."

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At the end of the lesson, students are instructed to write a letter to the future on how they can change society. "Society right now is very unfair," reads a sample letter. "I see a lot of marches on the T.V. and I even went to a march last summer."
DC elementary school gave 4-year-olds ‘anti-racism’ ‘fistbook’ asking them to identify racist family members (Fox 05/02/2022)
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"As part of this work, each student has a fist book to help continue the dialogue at school and home. We recognize that any time we engage topics such as race and equity, we may experience a variety of emotions. This is a normal part of the learning and growing process. As a school community we want to continue the dialogue with our students and understand this is just the beginning."

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"If you are a white person, white privilege is something you were born with and it simply means that your life is not more difficult due to the color of your skin."

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"Put differently, it's not your fault for having white privilege, but it is your fault if you choose to ignore it."

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The "Fistbook for Kids" says anti-racism "isn't a spectator sport" but requires "being loud, uncomfortable, confrontational and visible to ensure change is made."

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A series of questions in the book asks children, "Where do you see racism in yourself? This requires true soul-searching. Be real with yourself, don't feel guilt/shame and own it. It's the first step in becoming an anti-racist."

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Under a section titled, "How to deal with racism from loved ones," the book teaches children that "just because someone is older than you doesn't mean that they're right all of the time."

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"If someone doesn't believe that people should be treated equally based on the color of their skin, then they are the problem. Parents need to stop making excuses for that behavior if they truly believe in anti-racism."

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"Who in your family has racist beliefs? Do you think you can change their ways? What is your strategy for dealing with them?"

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"If you hate Kaepernick now, you'd hate Dr. King if he was alive today. And do you know what's funny? In 50 years from now, white people will probably talk glowingly of Kaepernick as they are with Dr. King now. Stop using his quotes to benefit your racism."

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"DC Public Schools provides joyful and rigorous academic experiences for our students and is committed to advancing educational equity."

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Commenters claiming to be parents at Janney Elementary complained about the Nov. 30 presentation and the "Fistbook for Kids" on the "DC Urban Moms and Dads" online forum.

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"Anyone else's Kindergarten kid freaked out by an anti-racism assembly today? My kid needed to sleep with a light on and the door open tonight."

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"Anyone know what specifically was talked about? My kid couldn't relay much except that she was scared."

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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Critical race theory curriculum in K-12 schools is going 'horribly wrong,' teachers say (Fox 05/02/2022)
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... there should be a bipartisan push against CRT because it is "adamantly opposed" the foundation of liberty – "free speech, equality, individuality, and the concept of merit."

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"[M]y school is asking me to embrace ‘antiracism' training and pedagogy that I believe is deeply harmful ... [for] any [teacher] who seeks to nurture the virtues of curiosity, empathy and understanding."

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"[Students] report that, in their classes and other discussions, they must never challenge any of the premises of our 'antiracist' teachings, which are deeply informed by Critical Race Theory."

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... the left-wing media works overtime to flatly deny the prevalence of CRT in the U.S. education system and to silence debate on the matter.

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Hawley says Americans are not 'confused' about disinfo board, it's about 'censorship' (Fox 05/02/2022)
Legal group urges probe into whether Missouri schools gathering personal student info without parental consent (Fox 05/02/2022)
Florida mom filing suit after child transitioned at school without her consent: 'Happening all over' US (Fox 05/02/2022)
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"This is happening all over the nation. This same protocol is in place in many, many schools across districts everywhere, and even the guides being used to dictate these transgender support plans that cut parents out even have the same language."

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"So this is a very systematic way that parents are being excluded from important decisions occurring with their children, and further, social transition is a medical intervention that schools are grossly unqualified to be taking these steps without parental involvement."

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"Eventually we did see the transgender support plan, which was a six-page document that they completed with my daughter, that was 13 at the time behind closed doors, where they asked her questions that would have absolutely impacted her safety, such as which restroom she preferred to use and which sex she preferred to room with on overnight field trips."

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"There are lawsuits in Wisconsin, Maryland, Oregon, California. This is a national agenda, and parents need to recognize they have the right to direct the upbringing, education, care, medical decisions, mental health decisions of their child. They need to assert that right with their school."
Mark Levin rips Democrats' 'war' against Donald Trump: 'Horrific' 'Stalinist' 'farce' (Fox 05/01/2022)
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... listed three Democrat-elected prosecutors who had targeted the Trump Organization for purely political motives, before he laid into the "so-called January 6 Committee" as a "Stalinist" "farce."

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"[It's] nothing more than a front politburo type committee set up by Nancy Pelosi loaded with the most radical leftist Democrats you can imagine and two of the worst never-Trumper reprobates that you can imagine. There's not a single lawyer on that committee's staff, not a single representative on the committee's staff to raise any objections to what that committee is doing. It is very Stalinist in its makeup."

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"Congress has two responsibilities... one, to legislate, two, to appropriate. They have no authority whatsoever to conduct ‘criminal investigations.' That's a separation of powers issue. That's what the executive branch does. The whole thing is a horrific set-up. It's absolutely un-American."

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"Wouldn't you be interested in knowing the extent to which The New York Times and The Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC and all the rest of the corrupt news platforms have been colluding with this committee...leaking the information to this committee?"

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"If this isn't Stalinism, if this isn't injustice, inequity, I don't know what the hell is. This is a disgrace, what's taking place here."
Randi Weingarten accuses Rufo of 'using lies to undermine America's public schools' in TIME op-ed (Fox 05/01/2022)
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"Randi Weingarten says the campaign to give parents a choice in their children's education is equivalent to Hitler's "Big Lie" that set the stage for the Holocaust. The teachers unions are bleeding support and lashing out desperately and incoherently. Keep pressing them."

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"She instructed all of her goons to artificially amplify her deranged op-ed. It's a transparent and pathetic attempt to shift the blame from her own failed policies: shutting down schools, masking children, and pushing radical race and gender ideologies."

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"Hitler murdered millions of innocents, perpetuated an ethnic genocide, and attempted to put the world under tyranny. Shame on @rweingarten for trivializing these atrocities and comparing parents who want a better education for their children to Nazis. Repulsive behavior."

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See related CRT Bully (Gary McCoy, 07/07/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Tulsi Gabbard suggests Obama behind 'Ministry of Truth,' says Biden just 'front man' (Fox 05/01/2022)
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"Biden is just a front man. Obama, April 21: social media censors 'don't go far enough,' so the government needs to step in to do the job. Six days later, Homeland Security rolls out the 'Ministry of Truth' (aka Disinformation Governance Board)."
Biden thinks student loan borrowers deserve a blank check from taxpayers (Fox 04/29/2022)
DHS 'Orwellian' disinformation board should 'shock the core' of American belief system: AG Eric Schmitt (Fox 04/29/2022)
Lauren Boebert leads effort to defund Biden Administration's 'disinformation' board (Fox 04/29/2022)
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"This kind of stuff is terrifying. We in Congress have the power of the purse. It is our duty to shut down this department immediately."

•
"I'm calling on leadership in the Republican Party — Leader [Kevin] McCarthy, Whip [Steve] Scalise and others — to join me in calling for this department to be shut down and defunded."

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"No tax dollars should go to where Biden can use the power of the federal government to silence truthful stories like Big Tech did with the Hunter Biden story."

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... compared the effort to government surveillance from George Orwell's "1984" novel. "Democrats took that [book] not as a warning, but as a guide."

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"This really is a department of propaganda. To say that the federal department has a say in what's right and what's wrong. What's truth and what is not. This is a very dangerous place that we've come to."
Republicans accuse Mayorkas of discrediting 'legitimate criticism' with 'disinformation' board, demand info (Fox 04/29/2022)
Tweets from 'disinformation czar' reveal history of dubious claims on COVID, Hunter Biden and Russia (Fox 04/29/2022)
Elon Musk tells AOC to 'stop hitting on me' after Twitter purchase criticism (Fox 04/29/2022)
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"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."

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"I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."
Rep. McCaul torches Biden admin after Mayorkas hearings: 'This is just insanity' (Fox 04/29/2022)
Liberals melt down after Musk claims the Democrat Party was ‘hijacked by extremists' (Fox 04/29/2022)
DeSantis hits back at Biden's ‘book burning’ comment: ‘We want education, not indoctrination’ (Fox 04/29/2022)
Republicans accuse Mayorkas of discrediting 'legitimate criticism' with 'disinformation' board, demand info (Fox 04/29/2022)
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See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
DeSantis blasts Disney execs’ attack on parents: 'Walt Disney would not want that' (Fox 04/29/2022)
Parents are chanting: 'Whose kids? Our kids.' And they're winning (Fox 04/28/2022)
Trump joins TRUTH Social: 'I'M BACK! #COVFEFE' (Fox 04/28/2022)
Time for Biden to do his job: Secure our border (Fox 04/26/2022)
Twitter accepts Musk's $44 billion deal (Fox 04/25/2022)
Trump will not return to Twitter even as Elon Musk purchases platform, will begin using his own TRUTH Social (Fox 04/25/2022)
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"I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH. I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH."

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"We're taking in millions of people, and what we're finding is that the response on TRUTH is much better than being on Twitter," Trump said. "Twitter has bots and fake accounts, and we are doing everything we can." He added: "The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter."

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"I think it is good. We want liberty and justice and fairness in our country, and the more we can have open, the better," Trump said. "But no, I don't view that as a competition for what I am doing."

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"This is a platform for my voice. TRUTH is a platform for my voice and for my supporters. But I want everybody to come over to TRUTH — conservatives, liberals, whatever."

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"I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means," Musk tweeted.
America's boardrooms have been bullied by entities like BLM into going 'woke': Former McDonald's CEO (Fox 04/22/2022)
Florida releases 4 examples of CRT textbook content rejected for public schools (Fox 04/22/2022)
Obama's speech on misinformation shows Democrats 'want to control what is said and what is not said': McEnany (Fox 04/21/2022)
Colorado Dem gov slams DeSantis for ‘socialist attacks’ on Disney, GOP gov hits back at ‘baseless allegations’ (Fox 04/21/2022)
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"It would be prudent for all politicians to educate themselves on the definition of socialism before weaponizing such baseless allegations."

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"Socialism IS: an authoritarian system where the state controls the means of production and the entire economy."

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"Socialism is NOT: [p]assing legislation to create a more even playing field for all businesses [or] [s]elling shares of a corporation due to evidence that corporation is not acting in shareholders' best interests and therefore creates unnecessary risks to investors."

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"... it was unfortunate that Disney decided to wade into a political debate and attempt to overturn a common-sense law, enacted by a duly elected legislature and signed by a duly elected governor, with the support of the vast majority of Floridians."

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"In fact, it was Disney that ‘retaliated' by publicly vowing to ‘repeal' or have the law ‘struck down'."
Florida House passes bill stripping Disney of self governing status (Fox 04/21/2022)
Biden and progressives won't apologize to border patrol agents because they think cops are always guilty (Fox 04/21/2022)
NJ parents must fight back against Gov. Murphy’s outrageous woke sex agenda (Fox 04/18/2022)
Florida rejects 41% of math textbooks for including CRT, most aimed at K-5 students: 'Impermissible' (Fox 04/17/2022)
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See related Grooming Children (Gary McCoy, 04/11/2022) cartoon from USA picture album
Ohio public university to pay $400,000 in damages after punishing professor over preferred pronoun controversy (Fox 04/16/2022)
Biden administration resumes oil and gas leases on federal lands as gasoline prices soar (Fox 04/15/2022)
Bill Bennett says young children should not be taught about gender identity in schools: 'This is madness' (Fox 04/15/2022)
Tucker: Elon Musk seems to be our last hope (Fox 04/13/2022)
Joe Rogan, Bill Maher bash politicization of Wuhan lab-leak theory: Why was that 'the conservative view?' (Fox 04/12/2022)
School systems are 'usurping family responsibility,' Betsy DeVos says (Fox 04/12/2022)
The New York Times must come clean about its own dark history reporting on Ukraine (Fox 04/12/2022)
Liberal NowThis News ripped for 2018 video mocking Trump’s prediction about Germany (Fox 04/12/2022)
Elon Musk scares liberals, Twitter as he pursues free speech (Fox 04/11/2022)
Sacramento sheriff: Downtown shooting that killed six is result of 'treating criminals like victims' (Fox 04/11/2022)
Gov. Murphy doesn't respond to questions about NJ gender identity lessons for 2nd graders (Fox 04/09/2022)
Big Tech 'censored' Air Force veteran who shared story of rising from poverty to a college education (Fox 04/09/2022)
Chris Christie on New Jersey schools teaching 2nd-graders about gender identity: 'This should not be going on' (Fox 04/09/2022)
Rufo blasts Disney as it doubles down against parental rights law: CEO Chapek 'degrading himself' (Fox 04/08/2022)
•
"You saw the video. CEO Bob Chapek, someone who earns $32.5 million a year as his base salary, is just absolutely degrading himself every day, day in and day out."

•
"In D.C., conservatives have said, 'We're not going to extend the Disney copyrights for Mickey Mouse and other characters that are set to expire next year,'"...

•
"That's a multibillion dollar hit against the company and conservative parents and families all over this country are in revolt against the mouse because they don't want their kids to be an experimental ground for the kind of sexual engineering of children that is clearly Disney's gambit."
Texas begins dispatching buses to the border to transport illegal immigrants to DC (Fox 04/08/2022)
Biden is creating the worst illegal immigrant crisis ever (Fox 04/08/2022)
Department of Education ‘waging war’ on charter schools with new regulations, school choice advocate says (Fox 04/08/2022)
Good will for Mayor Eric Adams fading as New Yorkers fear woke empty suit (Fox 04/08/2022)
DeSantis vs Disney: What is the Reedy Creek Improvement Act? (Fox 04/08/2022)
Obama blasted for ‘self-serving’ ‘revisionist’ Russia comments during conference on disinformation (Fox 04/08/2022)
New Jersey to require 2nd graders learn about gender identity in fall, alarming parents (Fox 04/07/2022)
•
According to the standards, New Jersey students should, by the end of second grade, understand the "core ideas" that all "individuals should feel welcome and included regardless of their gender, gender expression or sexual orientation."

•
Additionally, the standards listed "performance expectations" for second graders, which includes discussing "the range of ways people express their gender and how gender role stereotypes may limit behavior."

•
"The shocking, graphic materials taught to children barely old enough to read and write fly in the face of the Democrats' insistence on the campaign trail last fall that critics of these new standards were exaggerating or even bigoted for raising concerns in the first place."

•
"Democrats lied to parents, belittled and shamed them for wanting a say in their children's education, and they're about to find out this November what happens when you mess with other people's kids."

•
... these lesson plans are what happen "when you let [New Jersey Education Association] radicals and far-left wackos take control of your children's education."

•
See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Waukesha school board election: GOP-backed candidates take 3 seats after critical race theory controversy (Fox 04/07/2022)
•
See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Time for Biden, Dems to quit demonizing our energy sector and embrace American natural gas and oil (Fox 04/07/2022)
Ingraham: The Left is 'obsessed' with teaching kids about gender identity (Fox 04/07/2022)
•
Gone are the days when they're just teaching about human reproduction. Now by fifth grade, they're taught about sexual expression.

•
By the time the kids get into middle school, they're then bombarded by efforts to undo any semblance of traditional values that their parents might have taught them.

•
Teachers and administrators — often with very fun personalities, by the way — are eager to share their own experiences with sexual and gender identity.

•
Why are these people so invested in pushing these concepts on children of any age? Now they seem to forget that parents pay the salaries of these teachers and the school board members, and now it's up to parents to get informed and speak up.

•
See related New Teacher (Antonio Branco, 10/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
All eyes on Florida, DeSantis – from fighting COVID to stopping wokeness, state is leading the way (Fox 04/07/2022)
•
"Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate."

•
The videos were extremely creepy, with Disney execs openly promising to indoctrinate children into gender theory.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directs use of buses to drop off migrants at steps of Capitol in DC (Fox 04/06/2022)
Sean Hannity: The Biden family syndicate is in deep trouble (Fox 04/06/2022)
Mark Levin rips media for ‘trying to destroy’ Elon Musk because he's an ‘independent’ mind (Fox 04/06/2022)
•
"[The media] have a long history of trying to destroy him – he's another guy like Donald Trump who's from the ‘outside' and comes in as his own man – his own independent thinker, whether you agree with everything or not."
Kenosha County ravaged by BLM riots flips red after decades of Dem leadership (Fox 04/06/2022)
Durham releases former Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann's text message, says he put 'lie in writing' (Fox 04/05/2022)
A most damaging leak: Biden wants Trump prosecuted (Fox 04/05/2022)
•
When an attorney general of your party won't bring charges against someone you like, he is serving the cause of justice and refusing to kowtow to the mob.

•
When an attorney general of the other party declines to bring an indictment against someone you don't like, he is a wuss who must be beaten up until he does the right thing.

•
Since Garland has thus far brought no criminal charges against Trump or his top aides or allies in connection with the Capitol riot, he is now being pressured to do so by Democrats and some media liberals.

•
Let's be clear: When partisans demand indictments, it means they only care about securing an outcome that is favorable to their side. They haven't seen all the evidence, they have no access to grand jury testimony, they just want a political opponent behind bars.

•
... DOJ officials don't keep Biden "abreast of any investigation," which is as it should be. That will add to the credibility of the final decision on whether to charge Hunter Biden.

•
The president is entitled to his opinion on whether his predecessor crossed a legal line in the events leading up to Jan. 6.

•
But his allies did him a disservice by leaking those comments and trying to prod the Justice Department toward the outcome they've been fantasizing about since the days of Bob Mueller.
I'm a mom and Disney has me rethinking everything about it (Fox 04/05/2022)
Disney stars canceled over negative cultural or political views (Fox 04/04/2022)
Levin calls for special counsel to investigate Biden family: 'We need to know what the hell is going on' (Fox 04/03/2022)
•
"The media here during the last election, when they were confronted with a true story about Hunter Biden's laptop,... the media covered it up. What did Big Tech oligarchs do, they not only covered it up, but they banned New York Post, they banned other media outlets or any individual who dare to refer to it."

•
"This is the state of media in America," Levin continued. "We do not have a free press. We have a corrupt media. We have a media that sings from one sheet, a media that regurgitates down the line."

•
"Ladies and gentlemen, we need a federal special counsel. We cannot leave it to Garland and the political appointees at the Department of Justice. We need an experienced, competent, independent federal prosecutor who puts together a team to investigate Joe Biden, his family, the dealings with communist China, the dealings with Ukraine and Russia, and Romania, the dealing with all of these governments."

•
"We need a Biden crime family committee, and we need one now, We need to know what the hell is going on. China is our biggest enemy, they're staring us down, and it is my contention we have a man in the Oval Office who is corrupt."

•
See related Election Interference (Antonio Branco, 10/16/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Trump slams Dems for 'waging war on reality' with their 'extremist sex and gender ideology' (Fox 04/03/2022)
•
"With their extremist sex and gender ideology, the Democrat Party is waging war on reality, war on science, war on children, war on women."

•
"Can you imagine a child and then they grow up and they say ‘why the hell did you do that to me mom or dad or government?'"...

•
Trump called for a Republican congressman "to stand up for parental rights" and noted he was "proud" to ban critical race theory programs within the federal government when he was in office.

•
"Joe Biden rescinded that order immediately. But when we retake Congress, Republicans must ban critical race theory in our schools, ban it in our military and ban it in every part of our federal, state, and local governments."
SCOTUS cases show Americans 'one vote away' from losing fundamental rights: Sen. Cruz (Fox 04/03/2022)
•
"Over and over again, the big landmark cases are 5-4. We're one vote away on issue after issue after issue from losing our fundamental rights."

•
"At the end of the day, when you have senators who say they don't support abolishing the police, when you vote to confirm justices [who] will release violent criminals and endanger our communities, then you are supporting abolishing the police, and repealing the Second Amendment, and taking away our free speech rights, and taking away our religious liberty rights."
Disney shareholder tells CEO Chapek to stop wasting money on 'political crusades' (Fox 04/02/2022)
•
"Here's a suggestion for Disney CEO Bob Chapek: Get back to business, that is, excellence in storytelling, and stop wasting shareholder's money on political crusades that have nothing to do with Disney's business."

•
"We all have the right to have our voices heard on issues, but not on the shareholders' dime."

•
"Disney's management succumbed to political pressure from activists on the Left, and now it's getting hit from the Left and the Right. If I weren't a shareholder, I'd find it amusing."

•
Nothing in the Florida legislation itself mentions the word gay. It states that "classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."
Woke Disney: 10 families who are swearing off Disney due to its left-leaning politics (Fox 04/02/2022)
•
"Walt Disney most often cited his most important lesson as that of ‘goodwill always triumphs over evil.' Today's Disney promotes a full spectrum of lifestyles that rarely align with the biblical values of good and evil, which God calls us to."

•
"It has been said before and it bears saying again, ‘Walt would turn over in his grave' to see what his beloved company has become."

•
"It's no longer a safe haven for families to promote good over evil, but rather an environment without a moral compass."

•
"Christians should wake up to the fact that this isn't your grandmother's Disney. In fact, Disney is now devoted to confusing your children."

•
"As a new father, I have decided not to expose my baby to any of Disney's products — anything they stream, or the theme parks. There are so many other wholesome options for her."

•
"I will let her watch the older Disney films on DVD that I was raised on — they taught values that kids need and can understand, things like loyalty, friendship, working through obstacles, and the love of family."

•
"Disney doesn't seem to understand that parents have so many options now. Ultimately, I think they're going to lose on this wokeness gamble."

•
"I gave up on Disney years ago when they started opening the parks up for gay pride activities while families were there."

•
"A children's theme park is no place for this. You can't promote both innocence and sex at the same time. This was a clear signal to families about where they are headed as a company."

•
"Parents are deeply frustrated because we have to fight so hard to raise our kids with important values like honesty, integrity and learning the Golden Rule."

•
"Disney used to offer us wonderful content that reinforced good values. When I read about ‘woke Disney,' my friends and I all felt the same way — clearly the executives at Disney live in some kind of bubble and don't know everyday moms and dads like us."

•
"For conservatives who are longtime Disney fans, the company's sharp left turn presents a real conundrum."

•
"... They've tarnished their brand with their most recent political activism targeting Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act — a bill most Americans support."

•
"My hope, is that the company comes to its senses, remembers who their customers are and gets back to doing what they do best: Entertain ‘dreamers of all ages.'"...

•
"... placating a small subset of the loudest [Disney] employees who obviously haven't even read the Florida bill sets a really dangerous standard. But it's the same standard, that we've seen from progressives over the last 20-30 years. In this scenario, the loudest, squeakiest, most annoying wheel gets the grease."

•
"What is really sad, though, is that instead of focusing on real atrocities such as what is happening in the kingdom of Disney's ‘blood brother,' the Chinese Communist Party, they have chosen to engage in the destruction of the childhood of those they seek to entertain."

•
"Disney has surrendered to the woke mob and is using its platform to indoctrinate the children of America into becoming the woke activists of tomorrow."

•
"Kids need entertainment that is a refuge from this crazy culture, where they can be entertained with just great stories and fun characters. And parents should have confidence that their children are seeing and hearing stories that are good and true."
House votes to decriminalize marijuana at federal level (Fox 04/01/2022)
•
"Record crime, record inflation, record gas prices, record number of illegal immigrants crossing our southern border. And what are Democrats doing today?"

•
"Legalizing drugs, legalizing drugs and using American tax dollars to kick-start and prop up the marijuana industry. Wow. Such a deal for the American people."

•
See related Let\\\'s Legalize Pot (Michael Ramirez, 08/31/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
I'm a mom and I'm saying goodbye to Disney (Fox 04/01/2022)
•
For those who loved the magic of Disney as children and have seen the wonder in our children's eyes Disneyworld, it's disconcerting to see the company that animated our childhoods, and now our children's childhood, slowly become more progressive.

•
Upon watching its newest movie with Pixar entitled "Turning Red," it's clear that the clock has finally struck midnight for Disney's era of whimsical fairy tales with moral lessons.

•
Gone are the innocent days of "bibbity-bobbity-boo;" Disney has now transformed into a political propaganda machine that grooms children for abortions and sexual promiscuity — and nothing showcases their regression into a progressive pumpkin better than their new movie.

•
Disney clearly is no longer interested in being a guardian of the innocence of childhood. Instead, by their own admission, Disney leadership is actively pushing children out of Neverland and directly into an adult's sexualized world, where they can be groomed for others enjoyment.

•
Whatever Disney's future might be, it's a sad reality that the company is losing its credibility through movies like "Turning Red."

•
For parents who proactively monitor what their child is viewing, it's likely time to say goodbye to today's Disney if you want to protect your children from the grooming tactics of the left.

•
We're not dealing with Mickey Mouse anymore.
Disney employee issues dire warning about the economic consequences of new 'leftward lurch' (Fox 04/01/2022)
Georgia mom scolded by school board says parents in deeply red county afraid to speak up (Fox 04/01/2022)
Sean Hannity: America has figured out Biden is causing the oil and gas crisis (Fox 04/01/2022)
Watters investigates the Biden family's business dealings (Fox 03/31/2022)
Mainstream media's 'independent fact-checkers' are in lockstep and they always tilt left, never right (Fox 03/31/2022)
Gutfeld calls out media, Hollywood hypocrisy in Florida parental rights bill (Fox 03/31/2022)
•
The bill bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, with children in third grade or younger, or "in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

•
That's it. The bill doesn't ban the word gay, nor does it ban casual discussions of topics relating to sexual orientation or gender.

•
And teachers under this bill, they can't teach about being straight either, and that's the only group with no parades.
Wikipedia co-founder says left's 'relentless' takeover of mass media ruined the website he helped build (Fox 03/31/2022)
•
"We promulgated a policy, the neutrality policy. And it was very clear in the beginning. And I think I really hammered it a lot. In the two years that I was with the organization, I really drove that neutrality policy. And I articulated a defense."

•
"There isn't an open system anymore, and therefore, the kinds of people that are allowed to have any influence on Wikipedia have been narrowed down greatly to essentially people who agree with the establishment left."

•
"The left, frankly, is relentless when it comes to stating their point of view and using the organs of mass media — and Wikipedia is part of their mass media I think — to shape the world. And so it became another one of the institutions that they had to capture."
Portland rioter who threw Molotov cocktails at police sentenced to 10 years in prison (Fox 03/30/2022)
Watters: Washington Post authenticates Hunter Biden's laptop in 'bombshell' release (Fox 03/30/2022)
Greg Gutfeld: The higher the stakes, the more Biden screws up (Fox 03/29/2022)
Biden's subpar national security team is a real threat to America (Fox 03/28/2022)
•
The Russian president remains a military threat and still has energy as a weapon of blackmail, coercion, profit and influence. Biden doesn't have a long-term response for either.
Florida's DeSantis signs Parental Rights in Education bill, hits back at Hollywood critics (Fox 03/28/2022)
•
DeSantis hit back at his critics in Hollywood, saying, "If the people who held up degenerates like Harvey Weinstein as exemplars and as heroes and as all that, if those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents' rights, I wear that like a badge of honor."

•
"They don't want to admit that they support a lot of the things that we're providing protections against. For example, they support sexualizing kids in kindergarten. They support injecting woke gender ideology into second grade classrooms... And so what they're doing with these slogans and these narratives is they are trying to camouflage their true intentions."
Virginia Republican slams 'mind-control poison' infiltrating schools in new ad (Fox 03/28/2022)
•
"Leftist congressional leadership like Education Committee Chair Bobby Scott are more concerned with race and gender identity, instead of reading, writing, and arithmetic. They are NOT teaching our children HOW to think but WHAT to think."

•
"Since the 1960s Leftists have gradually overtaken the education system, spreading their anti-American vision through the destruction of families."

•
"Bobby Scott believes school choice is racist and supported H.R. 5 which mandates schools & churches to recognize ‘chosen gender' forcing females to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities with biological men who ‘identify' as women."

•
"Career politicians like Bobby Scott are coming for our freedom and using our children to take it. By removing God and parental authority, we are losing everything that made this country the most free and successful economic engine in history."

•
"We cannot lose this generation to the mind-control poison that has permeated our schools. Our fathers and grandfathers did not die in battle only to lose our freedoms to soul-less Marxism... We need leaders who love, honor, and respect our nation and are unashamed of its Christian values and traditions."

•
See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
This school district might be the worst violator of parental rights (Fox 03/28/2022)
•
Three candidates for school board shared a teacher-training presentation that proclaimed: "Facilitators, guide this discussion [about sexual and gender identity]. Remember, parents are not entitled to know their kids' identities. That knowledge must be earned."

•
... "facilitators" — a title that smacks of 1984 — should also, according to the training, have no qualms about steamrolling parents who have religious objections to gender transition. We're told those objections are nothing more than "the weaponization of religion against queer people."

•
"When the conversation turns to navigating parents' faith-based rejection of their student's queer identity," the training continues, "it's critical to remember that we must not act as stand-ins for oppressive ideas/behaviors/attitudes, even and especially if that oppression is coming from parents. Never forget that you may be the only supporting person in that student's sphere. Guard and preserve that responsibility."

•
Unfortunately, ideological trainings such as this one aren't just sitting on the cloud — Eau Claire teachers are enthusiastically embracing them. For example, one teacher recently put up a poster in her classroom that brazenly lectured students: "If Your Parents Aren't Accepting Of Your Identity, I'm Your Mom Now."

•
The Supreme Court has long held that "choices about marriage, family life, and upbringing of children are among associational rights this Court has ranked as of basic importance in our society, rights sheltered by the Fourteenth Amendment against the State's unwarranted usurpation, disregard, or disrespect."

•
In fact, it has declared that "parental interest in the care, custody, and control of their children is perhaps the oldest of fundamental liberty interests recognized by [the Supreme Court]."

•
To fight back against woke school districts like Eau Claire, parents must press for every single piece of information, including all instructional materials and teacher trainings.

•
To do this, they must use Freedom of Information Act requests, state right-to-know laws, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which provides parents with a federal right to access and inspect virtually all material involving the education of their children.

•
Speaking at school board meetings, writing letters to the editor, and participating in the electoral process is crucial.

•
But with primary-source material comes immense power to confront the educational-industrial complex — by exercising your constitutional and statutory rights in the courts.
Time to hold unelected federal employees accountable for not doing their jobs (Fox 03/27/2022)
Florida Republicans condemn 'woke' Disney, urge more boycotts by conservatives against the 'activist machine' (Fox 03/26/2022)
Georgia parent speaks out after confronting school board about sexually graphic book (Fox 03/26/2022)
•
Georgia parent Michelle Brown recently confronted her local school district over a sexually graphic book made available to students in its library.

•
"Excuse me, we have children at home," one board member interrupted, to which Brown responded, "Don't you see the irony in that?"
The mainstream media's political activism is this country's greatest threat to freedom of speech (Fox 03/25/2022)
GOP Rep. Scott Perry says 'weakness is provocative,' warns Biden foreign policy 'encourages' adversaries (Fox 03/25/2022)
•
"When an adversary senses your weakness, it provokes them and encourages them to see how far they can push it."

•
"We're seeing that with the Chinese in Taiwan; we're seeing that with Iran and the Iran nuclear deal; and we're seeing it very up close, in front, with Russia and Ukraine."

•
"Whether or not you liked the delivery of President Trump, what you knew for sure was that, you didn't know what he was going to do."

•
"And, unfortunately, while that makes some leaders and some Americans uncomfortable, it is really important for national security that your adversaries do not know what you are going to do."

•
"Whether it is Russia, whether it is Iran, whether it is North Korea or China, he keeps on telling them what we won't do. So, they're going to continue to test and it is very dangerous for us."
Disney's left-wing activism creates 'environment of fear' that is 'damaging morale,' some workers say (Fox 03/25/2022)
•
"The Walt Disney Company has come to be an increasingly uncomfortable place to work for those of us whose political and religious views are not explicitly progressive."

•
"We watch quietly as our beliefs come under attack from our own employer, and we frequently see those who share our opinions condemned as villains by our own leadership."

•
"... Left-leaning cast members are free to promote their agenda and organize on company time using company resources. They call their fellow employees ‘bigots' and pressure TWDC to use corporate influence to further their left-wing legislative goals."

•
"The company's evolving response to the so-called ‘Don't Say Gay' legislation in Florida has left many of us wondering what place we have in a company actively promoting a political agenda so far removed from our own."

•
"Over the last few weeks, we have watched as our leadership has expressed their condemnation for laws and policies we support."

•
"We have watched as our colleagues, convinced that no one in the company could possibly disagree with them, grow increasingly aggressive in their demands. They insist that TWDC take a strong stance on not only this issue but other legislation and openly advocate for the punishment of employees who disagree with them."

•
"Employees who want TWDC to make left-wing political statements are encouraged, while those of us who want the company to remain neutral can say so only in a whisper out of fear of professional retaliation."

•
"The company we love seems to think we don't exist or don't belong here. This politicization of our corporate culture is damaging morale and causing many of us to feel our days with TWDC might be numbered."

•
The employees praised Chapek's original response to the Florida law. "As we have seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds," Chapek had written. "Instead, they are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame."

•
"Disney is far more important and impactful to the world by avoiding politics than it will ever be by embracing a political agenda," the employees wrote.

•
"Disney shouldn't be a vehicle for one demographic's political activism." They argued that "the world needs things that we can unite around" and urged the company's leadership not to "let Disney become just another thing we divide over."

•
"Disney is certainly taking sides on political issues in inexplicably radical ways," Scott Shepard, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project, told...

•
"Polling shows that even a majority of Democrats in Florida support this anti-groomer law that would simply stop public school teachers, who are paid with all taxpayers' money, from talking about sex — of any kind — to 5- to 9-year-olds who themselves want to talk about dinosaurs or Frozen, and who anyway should be talking about silent Es and subtraction at school in these years."

•
"Coming out as hard-left partisans in this way makes Disney a hostile place for sensible, middle of the road employees to work."

•
"When added to Disney's ongoing sponsorship of anti-white, anti-male employee programming, Disney has made itself, in contravention of a raft of anti-discrimation laws, rightly the target of significant and terribly costly litigation, which it will lose."

•
"As shareholders, we are horrified, and so think that the current executive leadership must go, to be replaced by a slate that understands that no discrimination has any place in the Mouse House."
Trump sues Hillary Clinton, DNC, officials involved in Russia probe (Fox 03/24/2022)
•
The suit alleges that "acting in concert, the defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent Donald J. Trump was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty."

•
"The lawsuit filed today outlines the defendants' nefarious plot to vilify Donald J. Trump by spreading lies to weave a false narrative that he was colluding with Russia."

•
"For years, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts attempted to shield themselves from culpability by directing others to do their dirty work for them."

•
"This action exposes the remarkably devious tactics employed by the Defendants, who were so blinded by their political ambitions that they acted with callous disregard for the damage they have caused."

•
"Clinton and her team weaponized the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal agencies by instigating an investigation they knew had no merit."

•
"Among other things, they fabricated evidence, deceived federal authorities, and abused access to highly-sensitive databases."

•
The suit also was brought against former FBI officials – Comey, McCabe, Strzok and Page – all of whom served on the FBI's original team investigating whether Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign were colluding with the Russians.
Judge Jackson dodges critical race theory, abortion questions during Senate hearing (Fox 03/24/2022)
Levin blasts 'Napoleon' Dick Durbin for treatment of Republicans at Supreme Court hearing (Fox 03/24/2022)
•
"You're simply not allowed to use [Jackson's] own writings and words to raise questions about her radicalism. The same writings and words that the White House and the Democrats embraced in order to support her nomination in the first place."

•
"You can accuse Justice Kavanaugh, who I've never liked, of gang-rape, and on and on to destroy the man... but if you ask Ketanji Brown Jackson to define ‘woman,' apparently you're a racist."

•
"Nobody should serve on the Supreme Court who cannot define the word ‘woman'. And Dick Durbin finds this a ‘conspiracy theory'."
Tom Homan hammers Biden admin's border, immigration policies: 'Forcing ICE agents to violate the law' (Fox 03/24/2022)
Left is creating culture of 'exclusion' in the name of inclusion, diversity: Vivek Ramaswamy (Fox 03/24/2022)
Georgia parent reading sexual content from library at school board meeting is cut off: 'Inappropriate' (Fox 03/24/2022)
•
"Excuse me, we have children at home," Cherokee County School Board Member identified as Patsy Jordan told the angry mother after she read a sexually-charged passage from the book "Homegoing."

•
The school board member pointed out that the meeting was being livestreamed and said reading the passage was "inappropriate."

•
"Don't you find the irony in that?" the parent responded. "You're exactly saying exactly what I'm telling you! You're giving it to our children! I would never give this to my children!"

•
"All this happened under your watch. Maybe if you spent more time reading these books instead of calculating the statistical demographics of those submitting the books, you wouldn't grooming our children. You're saying that we're embarrassing you? Well, you're embarrassing us and our kids. It's not okay! You are supposed to be giving them a safe space in school. These books? If I can't email them to you, if I can't say them, they shouldn't be in the school!"
Former Olympian slams Ketanji Brown Jackson's refusal to define 'woman' amid Lia Thomas controversy (Fox 03/24/2022)
•
"Despite being a woman, Joe Biden's pick for the Supreme Court could not define a woman because she ‘is not a biologist,'"

•
"In a world where Lia Thomas, a biological male, is robbing biological female athletes of their titles and scholarships, how should any woman feel that their rights will be protected under Joe Biden's Supreme Court?"

•
"Defining a female in sport is the core issue of women's rights in sport, which have been federally protected by the federal government for the last 50 years."

•
"With biological males threatening women's rights to compete it is not unlikely that Title IX comes before the Supreme Court."

•
"If Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed, I have no confidence in her ability to protect women. After all, how can you protect something that you cannot define?"
Bongino: Ketanji Brown Jackson disqualified herself with this single claim (Fox 03/23/2022)
•
Jackson said she couldn't provide a definition for the word "woman" and argued it was because she was not a biologist.

•
"You can't hear this enough: There is nobody on Planet Earth who should sit on the bench if they can't describe in simple terms what a woman is – How do you not know what a woman is? How can you not define what a woman is? Ketanji Brown Jackson is a woman. I know that. She doesn't know? She's unaware she's a woman?"
UnAmerican Express: Critics launch campaign against ‘racially divisive policies’ at credit card giant (Fox 03/23/2022)
•
"American Express has all of these racially divisive policies, well, that sounds pretty un-American. In fact, they don't deserve the name upon which their card is printed. So we've decided that we are going to start a new campaign called the UnAmerican Express campaign."

•
"Color Us United is an organization dedicated to the idea that Americas just want race out of their personal and professional lives, you know, we want a colorblind America."

•
"What I've discovered is that about a third of the Fortune 100 companies that I can verify are promoting the principles of CRT, including systemic racism, White privilege, this idea that whiteness is synonymous with evil, exploitation and oppression. And one of the companies that actually was the one of the worst offenders was American Express."

•
"American Express is teaching its employees that the country was fundamentally racist, that capitalism was fundamentally oppressive and that their White employees were guilty of White privilege and internalized White supremacy. All of these horrific crimes based solely on their skin color."

•
"American Express is definitely not on an island, they are just one of the many, almost all of the Fortune 500 companies right now are engaging in some form of corporate wokeness ... but American Express has taken it that step further that I think is the direction that other companies are going to go if we don't stop this."

•
"They're giving bonuses to hiring managers who hire more Blacks and fire White Americans. You get a financial incentive to be racist."

•
"That has bureaucratized, and after George Floyd it has metastasized. Now it is all over these Fortune 500 companies and American Express is particularly egregious."
Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden's Supreme Court pick, refuses to define the word 'woman' (Fox 03/23/2022)
•
"Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman?'" the senator asked.

•
"Can I provide a definition? No," Jackson responded. "I can't."

•
"You can't?" Blackburn asked.

•
"Not in this context, I'm not a biologist," the judge replied.
Ted Cruz questions Ketanji Brown Jackson's answers on sex offender cases: 'Disturbing pattern' (Fox 03/22/2022)
•
"When she was asked about it, she couldn't give a good explanation about why repeatedly she gave light sentences, lenient sentences to sex offenders when the law didn't support that."

•
"They claim not to know anything about whatever they believe, and then they get on the bench and they vote hard, hard-left."

•
"And I think there's real reasons to have concerns that that if Judge Jackson becomes Justice Jackson, that we will see a vote on the far left, very possibly the furthest left of any of the nine justices, particularly on criminal justice issues."

•
... Jackson was treated with exponentially more deference and respect than previous GOP nominees like Judge Robert Bork and Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh...
Gingrich slams Kamala Harris' 'rambling' speeches in Louisiana, abroad: 'Total humiliation' (Fox 03/22/2022)
•
Gingrich replied that Harris is one "strong reason" to pray for President Biden's health.

•
"You are reminded again today that that reason is the vice president. She's not only totally incoherent — You know, he may or may not have cognitive decline problems at his age, but at her age, she's just dumb."

•
... said that Reagan would've given Ukraine's forces "ship-killing missiles" to fend off the Russians' siege of Mariupol and threats toward Odessa.

•
"We could give the Ukrainians cruise missiles and surface-to-surface missiles and make a clear statement if the Russians are going to bomb civilians, we have every right to bomb."
Jesse Watters: Biden wants you to forget this (Fox 03/22/2022)
Bill Barr says Joe Biden lied to Americans about Hunter Biden laptop: ‘I was very disturbed’ (Fox 03/21/2022)
FLASHBACK: MSNBC, CNN, CBS told viewers Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation (Fox 03/21/2022)
GOP Leader McCarthy slams Biden for continued 'mistake' on Ukraine (Fox 03/20/2022)
•
"What he did say was to help us, and he weaved in themes of America from 9/11 to Pearl Harbor to Martin Luther King. It was a very moving talk, but he never asked to send American men and women into war. All he asked was allow us to have the weapons to defend ourselves."

•
"This is where President Biden has continued to make a mistake. It wasn't just how he pulled out of Afghanistan. It wasn't that he said in a press conference that if Putin took a little of Ukraine it would be okay. He was too slow in providing the weapons, so that Ukraine could defend itself."

•
"I think there's a bipartisan support to supply the weapons to Ukraine to defend themselves. The difficulty here is that Biden has waited so long the supply chain is not just there yet, the routes to get it to the locations. And it's all throughout Ukraine."

•
"If he had taken action sooner, maybe Putin would have not invaded Ukraine, but we need to supply them the weapons to defend themselves."

•
"At this moment in time, it's really the actions you should have taken before. I would continue to help Ukraine, but I'd take a different action going forward. I would look to Taiwan. Don't make the same mistake twice. Do not let China become stronger in their ability to take Taiwan. Sell Taiwan the weapons to defend themselves, so America is not getting asked the question to go to war."

•
"Peace through strength we have seen time and time again works in this world. And when you have Ukraine who wants to defend themselves, don't have them fight with sticks. Give them the weapons, so they can be able to win and deter Putin from every moving forward and bring the rest of the world together against Putin for these horrific actions and the murders that he has taking place right now."
Ukraine's Zelenskyy gave a powerful address to Congress but 'what's next?' is the big question now (Fox 03/17/2022)
Ukraine war has Biden paralyzed by ineptitude and making major mistakes on energy (Fox 03/15/2022)
Watters condemns Biden admin, says it's mimicking Putin-style 'propaganda' (Fox 03/15/2022)
•
"Instead of inviting American energy CEOs to a White House meeting to figure out what the hell's going on with gas prices, Joe's inviting teenagers over for a little propaganda party."

•
"See, kids are very easy to manipulate, and Biden knows that. So instead of fixing problems, Biden just gets puppets to point fingers."

•
With the Chinese communist government having a large stake in TikTok, even "Biden's propaganda is made in China."
Mississippi Gov. Reeves signs bill targeting critical race theory (Fox 03/15/2022)
•
... no public institution should teach "that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior" or "that individuals should be adversely treated on the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin."

•
... said critical race theory is "running amok" in schools across America. "It threatens the integrity of education & aims only to humiliate and indoctrinate."

•
"There has been a push from radical leftists across the nation to teach children a vicious lie: that this country is fundamentally racist and that your skin color makes you inherently racist."

•
"Those two core principles form the foundation of a philosophy known as Critical Race Theory. It is destructive to young children. It runs contrary to basic history."

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Ohio Gov. DeWine signs bill allowing people to carry concealed firearms without a permit (Fox 03/14/2022)
COVID lockdown lessons learned – Fauci amendment would mean no more health 'dictator in chief' (Fox 03/14/2022)
Sen. Steve Daines: Biden, Democrats using Russian oil ban as a 'fig leaf' to cover up 'radical' Green New Deal (Fox 03/12/2022)
•
"I think the Democrats are using this ban as a fig leaf to cover up their radical Green New Deal priorities because it's not just about banning Russian oil. They want to ban all oil."

•
"Banning Russian oil is great but it's not enough. Instead of turning to dictators and adversaries we should ramp up production here in the United States. We have an abundance of energy and we should use that as a tool, not only for our own energy security but also to support our overseas allies and partners."

•
"President Biden and the Democrats need to abandon their radical, woke Green New Deal priorities and support Made in America energy for the sake of American families and our national security."
Republicans call on Yellen to investigate whether Russian money financed USA green groups (Fox 03/12/2022)
•
"Russia spent millions promoting anti-energy policies and politicians in the U.S.," Banks said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Now, thanks to Biden's war on domestic energy, U.S. oil production has dropped 10%, pushing up prices and enriching and emboldening Putin before he invaded Ukraine."

•
"Unlike the Russia hoax, Putin's malign influence on our energy sector is real and deserves further investigation."
Bill Maher: Why Putin invaded Ukraine under Biden, not Trump, is 'worth asking' (Fox 03/12/2022)
•
"... if Putin thought Trump was really that supportive of him, why didn't he invade when Trump was in office? It's at least worth asking that question if you're not locked into one intransigent thought."
Sen. Graham: 'Dishonorable' Biden admin is folding to Russia again (Fox 03/10/2022)
•
I'd give this administration a ‘D' in the following areas — they've been dishonest, disingenuous and dishonorable.

•
They're dishonest when they say the Keystone Pipeline would not make a difference... They're disingenuous when it says that the oil companies are responsible for not producing enough oil.

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Do you really believe that? They're dishonorable when they deny the Ukrainians the weapons they need to defend themselves......
Alabama Gov. Ivey signs 'constitutional carry' bill, repeals need for permit to carry concealed pistol (Fox 03/10/2022)
•
"Unlike states who are doing everything in their power to make it harder for law-abiding citizens, Alabama is reaffirming our commitment to defending our Second Amendment rights."

•
"I am deeply thankful to my colleagues in the Legislature for passing this constitutional carry measure, which allows Alabamians to exercise their fundamental rights without first having to pay a gun tax in the form of permit fees."

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"Those who still wish to purchase a permit for reciprocity with other states or other reasons continue to retain that option under this law."

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"Here in Alabama, we dare defend our rights. And we will ALWAYS defend the right of Alabamians to keep and bear arms. Alabama Free. Alabama Strong."

•
With Alabama included, there are now 22 "constitutional carry" states in America. Most recently, Iowa and Texas implemented similar measures. Last month, a Georgia Senate committee approved a bill that would allow gun owners to carry their firearms in public without a permit.
Republicans press intel officials on US belief that sending fighter jets to Ukraine would be escalatory (Fox 03/10/2022)
Former Obama adviser: Don't blame Russia, blame Biden for inflation rates (Fox 03/10/2022)
House Republicans demand answers from environmental groups over allegation of collusion with Russia (Fox 03/10/2022)
•
"Any action by President Putin, the Russian government, or Putin's allies to undermine American energy security must be addressed."

•
... asked the groups if they have received funds or took a particular action after a request "from the Russian government or anyone connected with the Russian government."
McCarthy slams Biden for 'America-last energy policies' as inflation hits new 40-year high in February (Fox 03/10/2022)
Biden's misleading spin about oil production under him vs. Trump (Fox 03/08/2022)
US is running out of time to prepare for a Russian cyber attack (Fox 03/08/2022)
Republicans push 'No Oil From Terrorists Act' to ban Biden from buying Iranian energy (Fox 03/08/2022)
Cruz blasts Biden admin for 'war on energy,' says Dems would 'rather fund terrorism' over energy independence (Fox 03/08/2022)
1776 Project PAC aims to bring sanity to school boards and beyond (JWR 03/07/2022)
ABC's Jonathan Karl baffled by Biden sanctioning 'everything but' Russian oil: 'Extraordinary' (Fox 03/06/2022)
•
"John McCain used to say that Russia was a gas station masquerading as a country. And it was a great line. That's all they have."

•
"First and foremost, President Biden needs to restart America's energy production and quit funding Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine by continuing to purchase crude oil from Russia."

•
See related We Are Stupid! (Mike Lester, 03/02/2022) cartoon from USA picture album
American Express suspends operations in Russia, Belarus over Ukraine invasion (Fox 03/06/2022)
Zelenskyy appeals to crowds via video at pro-Ukraine rallies across Europe: 'Please don't be silent' (Fox 03/06/2022)
•
"If we will fall, you will fall – so please don't be silent, do not turn the blind on eye on this. If we win, and I'm sure we'll win, this will be the victory for the whole democratic world."
US must stand with Ukraine for 'long term' battle with Russia: Rep. Krishnamoorthi (Fox 03/06/2022)
Manchin supports leaving Ukraine no-fly zone an option, banning Russian oil imports despite soaring inflation (Fox 03/06/2022)
Hawley pledges to support Ukraine's Zelenskyy: 'Indefensible' the US is importing Russia's 'blood oil' (Fox 03/05/2022)
•
Zelenskyy "emphasized that getting tougher on the sanctions was very important," Hawley said. "And he said repeatedly that an embargo on Russia and particularly their oil and natural gas, was absolutely critical."

•
"I couldn't agree more on the need to sanction oil and natural gas on the need to stop the United States importing it."

•
"And I cannot believe that the Biden administration continues to keep our energy production turned off and allow the Russians to move forward."

•
... said he will "continue to try and open up U.S. energy production and continue to try to get stops, American imports of Russian oil and natural gas. And I amazed at every passing day that this administration will not sanction their energy sector and will not open arms up. I just think it's indefensible, indefensible that we were importing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day from Russia. This is blood oil and this is financing the war."

•
"And yet Joe Biden won't do anything about it, and he will not turn on our energy production. And it is absolutely indefensible that is costing the people of Ukraine. It is costing them lives. At this point, it is costing the American people, our security and both in terms of our national security as well as economic security. And it is the president has got to reverse course on this. His position is totally indefensible."

•
"... Russia thinks that they could just destroy Ukraine, and they won't be any worse for it. And we've got to make sure that that doesn't happen, that Russia finds that this is going to be an unending insurgency, that the Ukrainian people are not going to give up, that we're going to harm them and that we are going to punish Russia severely beginning with their energy sector."
Ukraine's military desperately needs more lethal aid and Congress must step up (Fox 03/05/2022)
•
The Russian military is three times the size of Ukraine's, and they have an even greater weapons advantage over Ukrainian forces.

•
Putin bet against the Biden administration's resolve to proactively shield the American economy from Russian influence, to reverse course on a doctrine of appeasement that drove our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, and, ultimately, our president's will to support and defend an agreement-bound partner.

•
... Ukraine was still fragile, working through the challenges of establishing and sustaining democratic government while sitting atop the world's third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons abandoned in the final days of the Soviet Union.

•
... the United States intervened. In exchange for protection by the greatest superpower in the history of the world, Ukraine dismantled and surrendered its entire nuclear armament.

•
That agreement — known as the Budapest Agreement — made the world safer, and Ukraine became an economic and security partner to the United States.

•
Last week, Putin challenged the United States on the Budapest Agreement. Putin gambled that America's treaties and obligations are no more valuable than the pieces of paper they're written on.

•
America is the greatest nation on the face of the planet. We stand for freedom. But our greatness and standing on the world stage are only as strong as our word.

•
The Biden administration's inactivity before the invasion is inexcusable. They saw the Russian buildup on the Ukrainian border. They closely watched Putin's addresses to the Russian Parliament calling for the reunification of Russia and Ukraine.

•
In the days before the invasion, they openly admitted that Putin would roll over the Ukrainian border. Despite rock-solid intelligence, this administration failed to prevent a war or sufficiently arm our partner to defend themselves.

•
Nearly two weeks beyond the invasion, the United States' response remains tepid, halfhearted, and impassive to the Russian bear clamping down on a free and independent partner — even as American energy costs, food production and prices, and retirement accounts are feeling the impact of Putin's invasion.

•
Time is of the essence. Every day we do not provide additional ammunition to the Ukrainian army, lives are lost, and the cause of freedom is diminished.

•
Instead of taking immediate action to provide lethal support to the people of Ukraine this week, Senate Democrats were focused on postal reform and an abortion on demand bill, while Ukrainians were dying by the hundreds.

•
The Pentagon knows we have capabilities bought for the Afghans that could be loaded and flown to Poland and put in the hands of Ukrainians who are fighting for their lives and the future of their country...

•
Every member of Congress takes an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'

•
That vow compels us to protect the homeland, honor our commitments abroad, stand with freedom, and do what the American people sent us here to do.
Supreme Court reinstates death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber (INN 03/04/2022)
Joe Piscopo: 'Gangster' Putin 'took over the whole neighborhood' with 'nobody in Oval office' (Fox 03/04/2022)
•
"Look where we are. It is because there is nobody in the Oval Office – there's nobody in charge."

•
"It's really like a gangster in the neighborhood back in the day. And if you just placated that gangster and let that gangster get away with anything, he's going to keep going. And they're going to take over the whole neighborhood – and indeed that happened. Until someone steps up and stops him."

•
"The analogy, I think, is just. Putin is just out of control, and I don't care how corrupt Ukraine is, you don't just kill innocent people."

•
"When Donald Trump said to Vladimir Putin, you know, we're going to take out Moscow [if] you make one move toward Ukraine — Putin is nuts, and say what you will about Donald Trump, you know, maybe he was a little off himself, God bless him, but we needed that. We needed that the Oval Office."

•
... a widely-circulated video posted to Instagram appeared to show Trump telling professional golfer John Daly over speakerphone that he once told Putin, "Vladimir, if you do it we're hitting Moscow – we're going to hit Moscow. And he sort of believed me."

•
"If you have someone in charge in the number one country in the world, which America used to be — and you stand up and you go, ‘You make one move, and I'm taking out Moscow.' If the person that you're telling that to is crazy, he's gonna think you're crazier."
Congress can talk a lot about Ukraine, but its power to act is limited (Fox 03/04/2022)
•
Sen. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., offered one option. "Is there a Brutus in Russia?"

•
"If (Russian President Vladimir Putin) attacks a NATO nation, we'll have World War III. I'm hoping somebody will understand that he's destroying Russia, and you need to take this guy out by any means possible."

•
Bipartisan lawmakers went on the attack against Graham, arguing the U.S. shouldn't advocate assassinating heads of state.
Elon Musk calls for increase in US oil, gas production to combat Russia despite negative effect on Tesla (Fox 03/04/2022)
•
"Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures."

•
"Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil & gas exports."
Pence in upcoming speech: 'There is no room in the party for apologists to Putin' (Fox 03/04/2022)
•
"There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin. There is only room for champions of freedom."

•
"To those who argue that NATO expansion is somehow responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, ask yourself where would our friends in Eastern Europe be today if they were not in NATO."

•
"Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom?"

•
The speech comes after some Republicans have objected to NATO's expansion and seemingly downplayed the need for the United States to get involved in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

•
The former vice-president will call on Republicans to demand that the Biden administration increases military spending "immediately", arms Ukraine with more lethal weapons, and sanction "all" financial institutions in Russia.

•
"From day one President Biden has shown weakness on the world stage and the world is a more dangerous place as a result."

•
"It's no coincidence that Russia waited until 2022 to invade Ukraine. Weakness arouses evil and the magnitude of evil sweeping across Ukraine speaks volumes about the president. I say this not as a partisan but as an American."
Biden's disastrous energy policies must be reversed and American energy independence restored now (Fox 03/04/2022)
•
With complete and total energy independence, we can ensure that American commuters, farmers, families, and workers are protected from shocks while paying lower prices at the pump. Without dependence on foreign energy, we can stand up to aggressors on our own terms.

•
The crisis unfolding in Ukraine was exacerbated by Biden's weakness. With each passing hour, the Ukrainian people are showing their strength. It's time for our country to show our own.

•
To punish Putin and weaken aggressors like him the world over, we must power our own nation — and become the dominant energy producer in the world. We have the manpower, and the resources, to do it. Now we must use them.
DHS chief Mayorkas: Ukrainian citizens in US granted temporary protected status (Fox 03/04/2022)
Russian oil imports to US ‘stained with Ukrainian blood,' says Rep. Nancy Mace (Fox 03/04/2022)
Georgian commander takes on Russian forces in Ukraine: 'We'll hold on until the end' (Fox 03/03/2022)
Russia-Ukraine war: GOP senators demand Biden sanction alleged Putin cronies plotting Zelenskyy assassination (Fox 03/03/2022)
Newt Gingrich: Biden's State of the Union remarks ‘really frightening’ (Fox 03/02/2022)
Sen. Tim Scott: Biden doesn't understand national security is synonymous with energy independence (Fox 03/02/2022)
'Drowning' Biden is an 'economic illiterate,' Rep. Byron Donalds says in response to SOTU speech (Fox 03/02/2022)
Trump slams Biden’s energy policies amid Russia-Ukraine war: US oil situation 'worst' it's ever been (Fox 03/02/2022)
•
... Trump stressed that the United States should stop buying Russian oil and encouraged the country to "'open up your own oil," arguing that Biden can help stop the conflict overseas by increasing U.S. oil production.

•
"Our country is run by fools," Trump told ... adding that the war in Ukraine would have "never happened" if he were president, especially since the U.S. would have been exporting oil to all countries, which he argued "would have kept it from happening in itself because Russia wouldn't have been making a fortune on oil."

•
He went on to blast the U.S. for paying Russia "all of this money" for their oil. "It's crazy, and we have more oil than they do," Trump stressed.

•
"We were energy independent one year ago. We were exporting energy for the first time ever in the history of our country," the former president added, noting that the U.S. was on track to "double the size this year." "It would be double the size of Saudi Arabia and Russia combined."

•
... Trump argued that, had the U.S. retained its energy dominance, America would have "been selling to everybody in Europe."

•
He reiterated that Biden should increase oil production in the U.S. and should stop buying oil from Russia in an effort to end the conflict overseas and reduce energy prices.

•
"It will take a while. That's the problem," Trump warned, arguing that "our country would have made an absolute fortune" under his administration's energy policies.
Biden’s SOTU ‘reflection of poor leadership,' says Rep. Jim Jordan (Fox 03/02/2022)
Nikki Haley rips Biden's 'bizarre' SOTU remarks on Russia-Ukraine war: 'He followed the Europeans' (Fox 03/02/2022)
Man whose brother was killed by illegal immigrant: Biden's SOTU pledge is 'smoke and mirrors' (Fox 03/02/2022)
Top five takeaways from Biden's State of the Union address (Fox 03/02/2022)
President Biden's State of the Union report card: Experts give their grades (Fox 03/02/2022)
State of the Union: Biden touts courage of Ukraine, makes 'clear' US troops won't engage in conflict (Fox 03/02/2022)
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivers GOP response to Biden's SOTU address: 'Enough is enough' (Fox 03/01/2022)
•
"Instead of moving America forward, it feels like President Biden and his party have sent us back in time to the late ‘70s and early ‘80s."

•
"When runaway inflation was hammering families, a violent crime wave was crashing on our cities, and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map."

•
"Even before taking the oath of office, the president told us that he wanted to ‘make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home.' He's failed on both fronts."

•
... noting Biden's "too little, too late" approach to foreign policy, discussed the ongoing turmoil in Europe, calling Russia's "full-scale" invasion into Ukraine "an attack on democracy, freedom, and the rule of law."

•
"Now all Americans must stand united in solidarity with the brave people of Ukraine as they courageously defend their country against Putin's tyranny."

•
"They were warned that spending trillions would lead to soaring inflation. They were told their anti-energy policies would send gas prices to new heights. But they plowed ahead anyway, raising the price at the pump by 50% and pushing inflation to a 40-year high."

•
"... you don't have to check groceries to see what high inflation does to people. You just need to step outside the D.C. bubble. Talk to Americans about what's on their mind. Ask them: What are your concerns? What keeps you up at night?"

•
"Thankfully the president's agenda didn't pass, because even members of his own party said enough is enough. Well, the American people share that view. Enough is enough."

•
... said Americans are tired of a "political class" attempting to "remake this country into a place where an elite few tell everyone else what they can and cannot say" and what they "can and cannot believe."

•
"They're tired of people pretending the way to end racism is by categorizing everybody by their race."

•
"They're tired of politicians who tell parents they should sit down, be silent, and let government control their kids' education and future. Frankly, they're tired of the theater. Where politicians do one thing when the cameras are rolling and another when they believe you can't see them."

•
"This is not the same country it was a year ago. The president tried to paint a different picture tonight, but his actions over the last twelve months don't match the rhetoric. It's not what he promised when he took office. But it doesn't have to be this way. There is an alternative."

•
"Republican governors faced the same COVID-19 virus head on. But we honored your freedoms and saw right away that lockdowns and school closures came with their own significant costs – that mandates weren't the answer. And we actually listened to the science, especially with kids in masks and kids in schools. What happened – and is still happening – to our children over the last two years is unconscionable. Learning loss. Isolation. Anxiety. Depression. In so many states, our kids have been left behind and many will never catch up."
Pompeo warns of 'cascading set of calamities around the world' amid Russia's war on Ukraine (Fox 03/01/2022)
•
Russian President Vladimir Putin has "always had a dream of a greater Russia. That hasn't changed – that's been a constant since he's been in charge in Russia. What changed was American leadership."

•
... under the Trump administration, there was "a deep understanding that we were going to put America first" and were "prepared to protect the things that mattered to us."

•
"And when someone crossed that, when someone did something that risked an American life or put our economy at risk that we wouldn't have jobs, or prosperity, we responded."

•
"Those are the things that leaders come to see — they come to see that America must be realist and serious. We don't need to send 50,000 soldiers every place, but we need to use the things that America has."

•
"We need to be fearless in using it. And when you are weak, when you allow the debacle in Afghanistan to result in the death of 13 Americans, this is precisely what bad guys will see."

•
"I'm confident the Ukrainian people will fight, but we could have Xi Jinping see a weakness. We could have Chairman Kim see weakness."

•
... urged the Biden administration to "think about allowing American crude oil and natural gas to travel the world to support the Ukrainian people and the people of Europe."

•
"It would reduce the price of crude oil and gasoline — that'd be good for the United States — but, importantly, it would deny $50 a barrel to Vladimir Putin."

•
"We are, by shutting down American energy, we are fueling a communist invasion. We should take away the resources from the Russians, just like we did the Iranians and Chinese during our time in office."

•
"Those are the kind of things that change the calculus for thugs like Vladimir Putin."

•
... Putin and China's Xi Jinping "share some common characteristics." "Neither of them gives a whip stitch about human life, and both have grand intentions for the building of greatness for their own nation. They have things they disagree on, but for the moment, they are going to find common cause."

•
"We need to make sure we focus on the primary challenge to the United States of America over the next 50 years — which will turn out to be the Chinese Communist Party, inside the gates, impacting us here at home."

•
"The most important differences are that we were fearless about protecting America everywhere in the world. We wanted religious freedom to be one of the things we worked on deeply. They've chosen to lead with climate change."

•
"When you put climate change at the top of your agenda, when the conversation isn't about power, but about carbon footprint, the world thinks of you in a deeply different way."

•
"I sadly think that the change in priorities and a lack of focus on America First has driven Vladimir Putin to think that he had this opportunity."
Russian 'spies' among us: A look at the New York compound that houses Kremlin 'intelligence officers' (Fox 03/01/2022)
Ukraine crisis: US must lead again on energy before it is too late (Fox 03/01/2022)
RT America continues to air as Europe, Canada shut down affiliates of Russian propaganda network (Fox 03/01/2022)
•
As the Kremlin-backed Russia Today network is banished and dropped in Europe and Canada following the invasion of Ukraine, the American affiliate of RT continues to broadcast from Washington, D.C.

•
"They don't just wage propaganda in a time of war, during a conflict. They wage it during peacetime. They constantly malign the United States and misrepresent foreign policy objectives ... I'm just saying that tilts the level playing field towards Russia when we allow their propaganda channels to broadcast in an unfettered [way]."

•
RT America isn't unsubtle pro-Vladimir Putin propaganda 24 hours a day, as it also airs celebrity and sports news, but the editorial content unquestionably skews to put a shine on a Russian version of events. In 2017, the U.S. government required RT to register as a foreign agent.

•
"RT is 100% a Russia government-controlled channel and its sole intent is to predispose the American population and wherever they are broadcasting towards the Russian point of view and to present the events on the ground as the Russians want the rest of the world to see them, so if the United States did not want that to happen then it would be appropriate to shut down the channel."

•
Much of RT.com's website reads like Kremlin press releases, with headlines Monday like, "Putin slams West's ‘empire of lies'," and "No plans to occupy Ukraine, Russia tells UN." The website did report on arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia, however.

•
On television on Monday, one RT show's chyron simply read, "DEMILITARIZE AND DENAZIFY," repeating the Kremlin line that the invasion was meant to free Ukraine from Nazi rule. Ukraine's president is Jewish and some of his relatives died in the Holocaust.

•
Last week, journalist Dan Cohen told RT America viewers it was "absolutely false" that Russia was the aggressor toward Ukraine and said Putin's depiction of the conflict as a "denazification campaign" was "absolutely accurate."

•
"I believe in freedom of the press, even if the press outlet is the propaganda arm of the Russian government," McFarland told...

•
"However, I strongly encourage dissident Russians, Ukrainian freedom fighters and others around the world who are standing up to Putin's aggression to counter with their own online podcasts and programming."
Former Pentagon chief of staff rips Biden over US intel report: 'It’s a colossal failure of leadership' (Fox 02/27/2022)
•
... slammed President Biden for his "colossal failure of leadership" after reports surfaced he shared intelligence on the potential U.S. response to Russian aggression with China, who then shared the information with Russia.

•
"It's a colossal failure of leadership, and it shows another distinction yet between the Biden administration and the Trump administration."

•
"The fact that the commander in chief wouldn't answer that question and that no one is covering leads me to believe that he took classified intelligence and the reporting is accurate now from multiple sources and handed it over to our world's biggest enemy, U.S'., his biggest enemy, China."

•
"And then, of course, China was going to turn around and give it to Russia because Xi Jinping and Putin have paired up and teamed up against the United States of America."

•
"The fact that this commander in chief did not know that was going to happen is outrageous. But what is tantamount and disrupts American national security is that we're actually doing that."

•
"We, as a United States are actually sharing classified information that jeopardizes Ukrainian National Security Assistance, European national security interests and Americans lives. It's being shared with our enemy who is sharing it with the next biggest enemy of America.

•
"It is just something that never happened under Trump, and the fact that it's happening under Biden needs to be fully investigated.
Las Vegas bar owner and patrons pour Russian vodka down the drain in show of support for Ukraine (Fox 02/27/2022)
GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty: Biden must ‘show a spine’ and ‘demonstrate resolve’ to stop Putin (Fox 02/26/2022)
•
"I think the thing that will be most potent to stopping the advance right now will be people that show a spine, [such as] people like [Ukrainian] President Zelenskyy is [doing]. The folks that show resolve. We're going to [have to] increase the cost to Putin of moving against Kyiv and against the entirety of Ukraine."

•
"It's very regrettable the way we got here, and I think American weakness has been a big part of the situation. We created a void, particularly after Afghanistan. I think Putin saw an opportunity and weakness."

•
"We have authoritarians around the world, and they take this, and they see it as an opportunity because, again, lack of resolve. What we need to do right now? We need to demonstrate resolve and the best thing we could do right now is re-open the Keystone XL Pipeline, start drilling again in America, make ourselves energy independent [and] lower the price of global energy — that would take a lot of the air out of the sails of Vladimir Putin."

•
"It would also demonstrate our resolve to make America stronger again, put us in the position of being able to go to the aid of our allies who are being choked off using gas as a geopolitical weapon, the way Putin is doing. That would empower America to come to the aid of our allies again."

•
"What Biden has done is kowtow to the far-left wing of his party, using these naive green energy positions that put us in a terrible position, from a strategic standpoint in respect to our allies and with our own local economy. Inflation is through the roof, and a big portion of that is due to the energy crisis."

•
"I will give this nomination every consideration. What I'm looking for is someone who actually interprets the Constitution as it is written, not as they think it ought to be written. Someone who will not legislate from the bench. So I will take a very careful eye in terms of the experience and track record of the nominee [that Biden has] put forward."
Trump warns 'world war' could be next as Russia continues invasion in Ukraine (Fox 02/26/2022)
•
"It is a horrible thing. It would never have happened under any circumstance, and it is what it is. But there's great bravery being shown, and I think they're doing one hell of a job — much more so than anybody would have thought possible."

•
"I just think it's a shame that this is going on. It's something that should not be going on."

•
"But sanctions are not, you know, Putin — he understands how to avoid sanctions, and he goes through other countries. He goes to China as an example."

•
... the sanctions "have to be strong, and they have to be swift, OK, to use a word, because that is a very powerful sanction, as you know, SWIFT."

•
"Getting out was a good thing. I had it down to two thousand soldiers. We were going to get out with strength and dignity, but to take the soldiers, the great Army out first — we took our Army and Marines — we took them out first to do that and leave the Americans behind, leave other people behind, leave $85 billion worth of equipment behind."

•
"I really think that was the most embarrassing — one of the lowest points in the history of our country. And President Xi and Putin, they watched that, and I think they probably came up with ideas that they didn't have before seeing it, because it was grossly incompetent."

•
Trump criticized social media companies for allowing "stone-cold murderers and thugs and dictators at a very dangerous level" on their platforms, but "the President of the United States and other people are not allowed to be on."

•
"It's a disgrace. And you know, I had hundreds of millions of people, but I think that TRUTHSocial is going to be a way of getting out our voice."
Biden Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson could face scrutiny for overturned decisions (Fox 02/26/2022)
•
"She's only actually published a single decision as an appellate judge, and that came out in the last 24 hours."

•
"She has some opinions as a district court judge. They're quite lengthy opinions. She has been reversed, and the D.C. Circuit [Court of Appeals] reversed her for basically judicial overreach in a couple of cases."

•
"Judge Jackson's record of reversals by the left-leaning D.C. Circuit is troubling for anyone concerned about the rule of law."

•
"Cases like these suggest that Jackson might be willing in politically charged cases to ignore the law to deliver a particular policy outcome, and that's not what we want to see from a Supreme Court justice."

•
"Expect to hear from Biden and his supporters that Judge Jackson is 'in the mainstream.' That's liberal speak for a judge who will deviate from the text of the constitution and statutes without hesitation to ensure the Left's preferred policy outcomes."
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is a threat to Constitutional rights (Fox 02/25/2022)
•
If confirmed, Americans can expect a Justice committed to continuing her career of liberal activism on the bench.

•
According to her record as both an attorney and a judge, Jackson lacks the dispassionate and unbiased disposition that Americans expect of Supreme Court Justices. Instead, her career is marked by far-left political activism.

•
Her commitment to progressive causes is so well-known (and appreciated) that she has earned the endorsement of just about every far-left association there is...

•
Jackson's record shows hostility toward constitutional values like free speech, religious liberty, and the sanctity of life.

•
Pro-life advocates often engage in silent prayers outside abortion clinics. Jackson labeled these activities as "chaotic scenes" that should be stripped of First Amendment protections because they "are not pure speech, but rather are a form of expression analogous to labor picketing."

•
Americans can disagree on the issue of abortion and even dispute the efficacy of peaceful protests, but Jackson's brief lacks the even-handedness one would expect of a future Supreme Court Justice tasked with protecting the First Amendment freedoms of all Americans.

•
Reading Jackson's brief, one quickly concludes that she has quite firmly chosen sides. ... In short, Jackson is not the neutral arbiter of the law one should expect to see on the Supreme Court.

•
With such a record there is little surprise that so many far-left activist organizations would endorse Judge Jackson's judicial appointments.

•
Judge Jackson's record speaks for itself. President Biden's nomination is not merely substituting one liberal jurist for another. It is an aggressive move to push the Supreme Court hard in the direction of the political left.

•
If confirmed, Americans can expect a Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson to bring a lifetime of political activism to the court of last resort for so many of our freedoms, including free speech and religious liberty.
Mike Pence calls on Biden to hit Russia harder, restart Keystone Pipeline: 'Putin only understands strength' (Fox 02/25/2022)
•
"Now is the time: less talk and more action. We ought to put punitive sanctions on their economy including oil exports and demonstrate our commitment to use America's vast energy resources. And not just prayers but provide resources and material support and weapons to those extraordinary and courageous people of Ukraine that are fighting for their independence at this very hour."
Dan Crenshaw blasts Hillary Clinton's 'appalling' claims on Russia: 'Shame on her' (Fox 02/25/2022)
•
... let's talk about how Trump dealt with NATO and dealt with Russian aggression. He was the one who was constantly telling our NATO allies they had to increase their defense spending.

•
He was the one telling our NATO allies, and Germany especially, 'stop relying on Russian oil and gas, this is removing leverage from you.

•
Don't ask us to be protecting you when you're relying on them for energy. Rely on us for energy.'

•
But what does Germany do? They cancel import terminals. France cancels contracts with Texas LNG companies.

•
So there's a long history of failures here, but it is not the Trump administration.

•
Shame on her for being so partisan right now when we all need to be united with our allies against Russia. That's what needs to be happening right now.

•
See related Russian Conspiracy (Gary Varvel, 10/22/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Georgia GOP candidate, a retired Marine colonel, urges military to reverse transgender policy amid Ukraine war (Fox 02/25/2022)
•
"A strong military is essential to preventing escalating situations like Ukraine and Afghanistan. Allowing transgender individuals to serve sends a message to our adversaries that we are more focused on social experimentation than on the defense of our nation."

•
"For over 246 years our American Armed Forces have fought to defend freedom at home and abroad; earning a reputation globally for military professionalism, courage and ferocity in the process."

•
"That reputation was developed by more than two centuries of inherent American military culture, not American woke culture."

•
"While we have the best military equipment and technology of any nation, what makes us truly unique among all the militaries of the world is our manpower diversity."

•
"There is no other nation, aside from America, that has the vast mixture of ethnicity, religion, citizenship, education, and language in its ranks. For that fact, Americans should feel great pride."

•
... noted that "serving in the military is not a right," so the military holds "strict ‘selective service' standards."

•
"In fact, many individuals with certain conditions, such as bedwetting and sleepwalking are disqualified from military service."

•
"They are not disqualified because they are bad people, but because these symptoms are considered mental and emotional issues that are not conducive to combat environments. Gender dysphoria is no different and should be treated the same; that it is not conducive to enhancing military performance or unit morale."

•
"Military recruiting needs to be focused on readiness. The military cannot afford to recruit a transgender individual who will need mental and physical attention over someone who is ready to fight from day one."

•
See related Bombshells (Antonio Branco, 10/22/2021) cartoon from World picture album
Ted Cruz: Russia invaded Ukraine because of 'catastrophic' mistakes by Biden administration (Fox 02/24/2022)
•
"Every enemy of America across the globe looked at America and was emboldened. They looked at the Oval Office and took a measure of the man in the Oval Office, and unfortunately, they concluded that the president was weak and feckless and ineffective."

•
"President Biden made an enormous mistake when he waved the sanctions on Nord Stream 2, the pipeline that Putin was building to get his natural gas to Europe without having to go through Ukraine."

•
"Thankfully yesterday, after over a year of my battling him the Senate to try to get the sanctions imposed, Joe Biden finally did the right thing and imposed sanctions on Nord Stream 2. It's the right decision but far too late because he does not believe it's credible, does not believe that it will stay."
KT McFarland on the 'single most important thing' Biden can do to counter Russia's war in Ukraine (Fox 02/24/2022)
•
The single most important thing that President Biden can do, forget the sanctions and all the others he could... tell the American people, I am reopening the American energy industry.

•
In fact, Providence has given us the greatest stockpile and supplies of oil and natural gas of any other region in the world.

•
I'm going to open that up, and then he could go to the Germans and the Europeans and say, I'm going to give you energy security. Buy cheap, clean American natural gas. Forget about the Russians. He could then go to the Asians and say, I'm going to supply you with energy as well.

•
Not only would that take away the leverage of Russia and China, it would also drive the prices of energy down and bankrupt Russia. They need high revenues from oil, or they can't pay for anything else.
Russia-Ukraine crisis: Biden's twin failures on energy and foreign policy gave Putin tools to invade (Fox 02/24/2022)
•
When it comes to both foreign policy and his liberal energy agenda, President Joe Biden has embarrassed our nation. I can sum up President Biden's incompetence in these areas with one simple story: a tale of two pipelines.

•
On one hand, Biden blocked the crucial Keystone XL Pipeline, signaling to the world that American energy independence is no longer a priority. On the other hand, he green-lit the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, strengthening Russia's energy hold on Europe.

•
Until last year, getting tough on Russia was one of the few issues that seemed to unite conservatives and progressives...

•
... President Biden took a shortsighted approach to appease his liberal base. Americans are seeing the results at the pump. Gas prices continue to rise. And we have lost our ability to counter Russian energy policy because we are significantly weakened from an energy production standpoint.

•
I hope that Biden will someday explain why Canadian oil causes global warming, but Russian gas doesn't.

•
Biden lost the confidence of the American people thanks to the chaotic manner in which he withdrew American troops from Afghanistan.

•
As bad as the optics were in Afghanistan, the current Ukraine crisis may be worse because he is emboldening Russia, our longtime geopolitical foe.

•
In this tale of the two pipelines, President Biden's disastrous foreign policy and energy agenda intersect. His twin failures are putting our nation, and the entire free world, at risk.
Idaho school board group joins 21 states severing ties with NSBA after 'domestic terrorism' letter to DOJ (Fox 02/23/2022)
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See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Gutfeld: Didn't Dems promise a 'return to normalcy' after Trump? (Fox 02/23/2022)
Gascon recall: Nearly 98% of Los Angeles prosecutors voted in support of effort to oust DA (Fox 02/22/2022)
Virginia mom's takedown of school board over mask hypocrisy goes viral: 'We the parents are fed up' (Fox 02/22/2022)
•
"We the parents are just fed up with the hypocrisy. Our kids have had to suffer for two years. These masks have caused isolation, depression, it hurts their ears."

•
"It's just been such a harm to our kids, and then we see these school board members get on and just flaunt openly with no mask on, and it just seems a little bit hypocritical. So I thought that the board needed to know that."

•
"I said, we're coming for your seats, all of them, because we are. We the parents are fed up, and we're getting these liberals off of our school board."

•
See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Supreme Court rejects Trump effort to shield White House documents from Jan. 6 committee (Fox 02/22/2022)
•
The Supreme Court's decision not to hear Trump's challenge of a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling came as part of list of orders, without explanation or comment from any of the justices.

•
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in January that denying Trump's claim of privilege essentially eliminates the existence of such privilege.

•
"A former President must be able to successfully invoke the Presidential communications privilege for communications that occurred during his Presidency, even if the current President does not support the privilege claim."

•
"Concluding otherwise would eviscerate the executive privilege for Presidential communications."
Trump's social media venture to launch on Monday (INN 02/20/2022)
Online outrage as school board member confronted by maskless photo storms out of meeting (Fox 02/20/2022)
•
"Senate bill 739, as you guys probably know, is going to be signed into law very soon, so we're taking the power out of your hands and putting it back with the parents the way it should be. And it's very concerning that you guys would take the power away from the parents."

•
"When you were saying, introducing the public address comment, you said this is the time we get to hear from the students, from the staff and from the community members. You didn't mention parents. Not one bit."

•
"We sat here last year and listened to you guys preach about Gov. Northam's executive orders and how we must follow them. Here's a governor who comes into office, but yet you don't want to follow his orders."

•
"Here's a picture of you, right here, on Facebook with a crowd of people with no mask on," the parent said, pointing to a photo displayed on her smartphone.

•
The board member featured in the photo quickly shut down the parent's accusations, claiming her words were ineffective and libelous while she claimed she did not use her time to focus on issues pertinent to children.

•
"If you are going to sit there and disparage a member of our school board, then you can sit down," the board member said.

•
The pro-mask board member requested that a police officer escort the parent out of the building as she continued firing off her accusations, but another member interjected on the parent's behalf before she could be removed.

•
After participating in a heated exchange with her colleague who rushed to the disgruntled parent's defense, the pro-mask board member stormed out of the meeting and time was called to conclude the exchange.

•
Support for the parent poured in, with many decrying the board member's alleged hypocrisy while praising the parent for taking a stand for the district's children.

•
"This is impressively arrogant behavior by this school board member," Sen. Jim Perry, the Republican Majority Whip in the North Carolina Senate, tweeted. "The parent should not have been interrupted."
Ingraham: 'Concerned citizens' should 'push back with logic and common sense' against transgender athletics (Fox 02/19/2022)
•
"As we've seen from Virginia though, to California and everywhere in between: When concerned citizens get together, unafraid, and push back with logic and common sense, basic biology - parents and neighbors say 'this just isn't what we want for our future, our kids' futures' - you could all make a difference."

•
"The issue of what's going on in the pools, track and field, girls' sports, women's sports, college athletics - deserves the same passion."

•
"These fellow swimmers know this entire exercise is a charade. So why won't they stand up and refuse to participate? Well, I'll tell you why: They're intimidated because the entirety of society is weighing against them. The coaches are cowards."

•
... the media "cheerleads the perversion of sex roles" and "the most powerful liberals in America ... encourage [transgender athletics]."

•
"But what about the rights of the girls, the young women who've trained for years, sometimes decades in pursuit of their greatness - pursuit of pool records?"

•
"Too bad, according to the White House and pretty much all of the culture. Just like everything else in the past two years, it's left to GOP governors to stand for principles."
Kudlow: Putin is smiling as Biden kills the world's greatest energy industry (Fox 02/18/2022)
Judge rejects Trump's request to dismiss January 6 lawsuits (Fox 02/18/2022)
Supreme Court to hear Biden admin's appeal to end Trump-era ‘Remain-in-Mexico’ policy (Fox 02/18/2022)
North Carolina dad goes viral for calling out CRT lies: 'We're tired of it' (Fox 02/18/2022)
•
"We're raising our kids to be dynamic in so many ways. Then here comes the left telling them that they're not dynamic. They can't be. You're black. You can't do [it], and I think we're all just tired of it."

•
... noted that parents are "the most powerful group in the country" who are "taking back the wheel" to drive policy changes nationwide.

•
"We're taking back the wheel from government officials, from radical leftist, the media. The fact is ... every policy is a parenting issue...when you talk about CRT, when you talk about the taking away of liberties with mask mandates. That's a parenting issue because we're all wanting the world to be a great place for our children."

•
He added that parents are "coming together in thought, not skin color."

•
"[Parents are] seeing how [CRT] affect[s] our homes, the confidence of our children, the way they interact in the world they're going to live in, and we're taking back that wheel. We're saying we're going to live a life that we work for and provide a better one for our children. No one's messing it up."
Amazon suspends Black Lives Matter from charity program as controversy swirls around group's finances (Fox 02/17/2022)
Fauci says it's 'risky' to 'take masks off the kids' (Fox 02/17/2022)
•
See related Lord Fauci (Dick Wright, 12/26/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Kathryn Limbaugh says Rush would be 'furious' at state of US, but would say 'never give up' (Fox 02/17/2022)
McConnell slams Louisville BLM for helping bail out man who 'tried to literally murder a politician' (Fox 02/17/2022)
•
"This far-left Black Lives Matter activist and defund-the-police cheerleader walked into a Jewish Democrat's campaign headquarters and opened fire."

•
"A left-wing bail fund partnered with BLM Louisville to bail him out. Less than 48 hours after this activist tried to literally murder a politician, the radical left bailed their comrade out of jail."

•
"I'm confident that if activists claiming to be conservative tried to assassinate a politician, whatever his mental state,the media would open a 24/7 national conversation about rhetoric on the right."
Sean Hannity marks one year since death of Rush Limbaugh: 'He had a gift nobody else had' (Fox 02/17/2022)
Texas' Patrick vows to ban critical race theory at publicly-funded universities (Fox 02/17/2022)
•
"I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory."

•
"We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That's why we created the Liberty Institute at UT."
Tucker Carlson: Every speed bump for Democrats is a full-blown catastrophe (Fox 02/17/2022)
Mark Levin: 'No accident' Trudeau instituting 'totalitarianism' after speaking with Joe Biden (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
"Look at the spread of totalitarianism, look at it. This has to be taken seriously."

•
"Thomas Jefferson talked about the tyranny of the legislature — and I don't think it's any accident that Trudeau is instituting all these things after he spoke with Joe Biden."

•
"Trying to threaten — more than threaten people who dared to truly exercise their rights peacefully - They go after the parents, not the thugs that run these unions, not that thugs that run the school systems, the parents who dare to organize who dare to speak out on behalf of their own flesh and blood against this American Marxist movement, which takes many forms."

•
"I notice they don't even talk about the vaccine anymore and yet are mandating it and trying to impose their will, whether in our country or in Canada."

•
"You will do what we tell you to do. They have tasted raw rogue power – it's, like a domesticated dog, tasting blood – they can't get it off their tongue."
Texas professor blasts faculty as they pass resolution promoting critical race theory: video (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
"If you wanted to be neutral we could just put in the Chicago Principles and the Kalven Report and it would be a neutral statement in favor of academic freedom."

•
"This is entirely one-sided and you're promoting the idea that academic freedom is the collective right of the faculty to decide which ideas are allowed on campus, not the individual right of faculty to express their own ideas. That is not what academic freedom means."

•
Lowery also accused the school of "stunning" hypocrisy for implementing a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy that applies a "political test" for new hires and promotions regarding their adherence to critical race theory while at the same time is "complaining" about attacks on academic freedom from those who oppose the controversial theory.

•
"From an academic perspective it basically assumes its conclusion. There's no reason to do research when you've already assumed that everything is driven by this one particular thing. They assume everything is driven by racism so you go back and figure out how things are driven by racism and that's not actual research. It's not falsifiable. It has no scientific basis."

•
"It's very destructive to society because the only answer to every question is that we've got to pit groups against each other. So, in addition to being nonsense from an academic perspective, it's damaging to society. It's not even a philosophy. It's an activist program that focuses on silencing its opponents and reaches its conclusion before it does any research. It's not an academic exercise in any meaningful sense."

•
See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Dem standard-bearer David Axelrod bucks progressives over schools, says parents should have say (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
"Parents should absolutely be involved in the schools their kids attend. Politicians absolutely should not!"
Young Kim on fighting Harvard's admission policies, crime targeting Asian Americans: 'Let's not be complacent' (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
"... we need to judge individuals based on their own merits, and we cannot be looking at their races or different ethnicity just to cater to meet the minority people that say, you know, we need to be giving opportunity for different races or individuals who may not even have the qualification. Everyone needs to work hard, and that's what America is."

•
"... DA Gascon's inability to do his job has, I think, attributed to the uptick in crimes in our communities, especially in my district... So I really commend those individuals that are working hard to recall DA Gascon, and I'm one to really believe that we need a better person to fill that position, and maybe he can go back in being a public defender."
Trump says DOJ should 'absolutely' declassify remaining Trump-Russia probe records, after Durham filing (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
"They have the declassification order. And they should declassify, absolutely, especially in light of what has just happened and what has just been revealed."

•
Trump, in May 2019, following the completion of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, told then-Attorney General Bill Barr to begin a declassification process of records related to surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016.

•
The order gave the attorney general the "full and complete authority to declassify information" pertaining to the investigation, "in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information."

•
Trump's comments come after Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson on Tuesday wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, saying he has "failed" to follow Trump's order to declassify all records related to the FBI's original Trump-Russia probe.

•
The senators demanded that Garland "produce those records to Congress and the American people without improper redactions."

•
"Our oversight efforts are based on our unyielding belief that the American people deserve to know the complete truth about the Crossfire Hurricane investigation."
Here are 10 times legal gun owners recently thwarted crimes in life-threatening situations (Fox 02/16/2022)
San Francisco recalls 3 school board members: 'a clear message' (Fox 02/16/2022)
•
"Talk is not going to educate our children, it's action. It's not about symbolic action, it's not about changing the name on a school, it is about helping kids inside the school building read and learn math."
Kudlow: Raskin is a far-out radical (Fox 02/15/2022)
The military vaccine mandate's unforeseen costs (Fox 02/15/2022)
Trump Russia hoax was a diversion from Clinton campaign's 'real wrongdoing' (Fox 02/15/2022)
Senator calls for Hillary Clinton accountability: 'They spied and they lied' (Fox 02/15/2022)
•
"They spied and they lied. We need accountability. We need accountability for the Clinton campaign."

•
"We need accountability for Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler because they were complicit in this. So the media needs to start doing their job."
Sen. Hawley demands answers on FBI, AG Garland school board memo: 'Silence must end' (Fox 02/15/2022)
•
"Yet again, reports have revealed even more concerning details about your infamous school board memorandum from last October."

•
"In light of those new revelations, you must promptly disclose how much coordination your Department – at any level – had with outside groups."

•
"Your memo instructed the FBI and federal prosecutors to investigate parents who were speaking at school board meetings."

•
"Although you admitted that you issued the memo in direct response to a Sept. 29 letter by the National School Boards Association, which smeared parents as 'domestic terrorists,' you claimed in testimony before Congress that you did not know whether your office had other communications with that group. Specifically, you said, ‘I have no idea whether there were conversations with the School Board Association.'"...

•
"To its credit, the NSBA has since apologized for its letter and disavowed it, saying there was 'no justification' for it and that the letter ‘directly contradict[ed] our core commitment to parent engagement,'"

•
"But nobody has yet received a public apology from you or Secretary Cardona. And you have continued to stay silent on questions about your office's coordination with the NSBA."

•
"That silence must end. The American people deserve answers. You said last fall that you did not know whether members of your office coordinated with the NSBA, but since then you have had plenty of time to find out. You must immediately explain your own role in this affair, as well as how intimately involved the NSBA and other groups were in shaping the official actions of your office."

•
See related My Son-in-Law\\\'s CRT Business (Mike Shelton, 10/07/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Stefanik calls for ‘criminal prosecution’ over Durham probe revelations (Fox 02/15/2022)
•
"I have worked from the beginning to expose the Democrats' Russia collusion hoax. National Democrats, Hillary Clinton and current Biden appointees were at the center of the biggest criminal political corruption story in our lifetime."

•
"There must be criminal prosecution for this illegal spying. If they can do this to a sitting president, they can do it to any American."
Sen. Blackburn accuses DHS of 'policing' speech, thoughts of Americans through anti-terrorism bulletin (Fox 02/15/2022)
•
Her letter came in response to a portion of the department's "National Terrorism Advisory Bulletin" released last week, which urges Americans to report "potential threats" online and "maintain digital and media literacy to recognize and build resilience to false or misleading narratives."

•
The bulletin notes the spread of "false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19" online as "[k]ey factors contributing to the current heightened threat environment."

•
"I am concerned about the appearance of the Department of Homeland Security policing the speech, thoughts, and opinions of American citizens."

•
"In issuing this Bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security appears to endorse particular narratives regarding controversial issues that are at the center of our national political conversation."

•
... the bulletin "cheapens the horrors of actual terrorism, and dilutes the perceived danger of violent extremism."

•
"It's an insult to the memories of those who died in the September 11th attacks and the Oklahoma City Bombing, and to those who were held at gunpoint at a Colleyville, Texas synagogue."
Indiana teachers predict mass exodus over CRT-inspired bill granting parental oversight (Fox 02/15/2022)
•
"I cannot imagine that we're going to have anything other than a huge exodus of teachers if this legislation goes through...

•
House Bill 1134 would prohibit educators from promoting "certain concepts as part of a course of instruction" that "compel a school employee or student to adhere to certain tenets relating to the individual's sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or political affiliation."

•
... would ban educators from teaching that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin or political affiliation is superior or inferior to another, or that any individual should feel psychological distress due to their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin or political affiliation.

•
It would also prohibit schools from requiring students to participate in surveys that reveal or attempt 'to affect the student's attitudes, habits, traits, opinions, beliefs, or feelings without parental consent."

•
If the bill is passed, parents could file complaints if teachers break any of the restrictions, which in some cases could lead to lawsuits against schools. Additionally, the bill would allow the state's secretary of education to suspend or revoke teaching licenses if educators "willfully or wantonly" violate its provisions around promoting divisive concepts...

•
"The overriding intent of this bill is to provide curricular transparency. As well as to empower parents by returning them the opportunity to participate in the curriculum process of selecting and approving instructional materials to be used by teachers in the classroom."

•
Hundreds of teachers gathered outside the Indianapolis Capitol last week to protest the bill. Others are warning that the state will see a mass exodus of educators if the bill is signed into law.

•
"It's the last nail in the coffin," Suzanne Holcomb, an elementary school teacher in northern Indiana, told the Star. "I don't know how we would move forward from this. It would just make teaching impossible."

•
Holcomb added that the bill "feels like an attack on education," "an attack on our integrity," and "Quite frankly, it's insulting."

•
Democrats and activists argue that critical race theory isn't actually being taught in schools. But to parents reviewing their children's lessons, that couldn't be further from the truth.

•
One Indiana mom, Monica Hutton, is fighting back against the lessons her ninth grade son is receiving within the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville. "If we don't get in charge, it's communism. It's here."
Kudlow: This is the 'root cause' of inflation (Fox 02/14/2022)
Levi's brand president quits, says she was forced out over her opposition to COVID-19 school closures (Fox 02/14/2022)
•
Jennifer Sey, Levi's brand president, wrote a post in Bari Weiss' "Common Sense" Substack on Monday saying that Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Charles Bergh had informed her in recent weeks that it was "untenable" for her to remain at the firm where she had worked for more than two decades, and that she turned down the severance because she did not want to "have to sign a nondisclosure agreement about why I'd been pushed out."

•
Sey, a mother of four, explained in the post that she had long been an advocate for children and that Levi's had always supported her in the past when she expressed other political views, but that all changed after Sey refused to stop speaking out against California shutting down public schools in the name of safety due to the coronavirus pandemic.

•
"I've been a Democrat my entire voting life. I feel the party has abandoned their principles and I find myself quite politically homeless."

•
"Free speech and kids are not ‘right wing' issues and it should not be considered beyond the pale to stand up for these things or even be ‘right wing' for that matter. It certainly shouldn't make one unemployable."

•
Sey and her family moved from San Francisco to Colorado in order to return her children to in-class learning, and she continued to speak out against the closures in the media.

•
She says her appearance on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" to discuss her views "was the last straw" for Levi's.

•
After that, Sey says, she was accused of being racist despite being a longtime supporter of racial equity and the mother of two Black children. Levi's head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion asked her to go on an "apology tour," but she refused.

•
... last fall, Bergh told her that she "was on track to become the next CEO of Levi's" and that "the only thing standing in my way, he said, was me. All I had to do was stop talking about the school thing."

•
"It's wrong to stifle speech and dissent. This isn't a Levi's issue, it's a broader cultural issue. We seem to have lost the ability to converse, to disagree, to debate and still respect each other."

•
When asked how she believes Levi's should have handled the situation, Sey said, "I think it was possible to support my speaking out without necessarily sharing all of my views. And in doing so, create a culture that is truly inclusive, and where everyone feels they can use their voice and contribute without holding pieces of themselves back."

•
The Levi's veteran says she has heard from people both inside and outside of Levi's in reaction to her post, including "those who have left and those in other companies who feel afraid to speak up about issues they care about" who "feel there is one right answer and that anything that goes against the current orthodoxy – on COVID or other issues – would be considered an HR violation."
White House refuses to answer question on Durham probe revelations (Fox 02/14/2022)
Durham probe has 'accelerated,' with more people 'cooperating,' coming before grand jury (Fox 02/14/2022)
KT McFarland rips 'complicit' media for ignoring bombshell Durham probe report (Fox 02/14/2022)
Former DNI Ratcliffe told Durham intelligence supports ‘multiple’ indictments in probe: sources (Fox 02/14/2022)
•
"Per Durham, this arrangement was put in motion in July of 2016, meaning the Hillary Clinton campaign and her lawyers masterminded the most intricate and coordinated conspiracy against Trump when he was both a candidate and later President of the United States while simultaneously perpetuating the bogus Steele Dossier hoax."
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears: Lawlessness in America 'coming from the highest levels' (Fox 02/13/2022)
•
"There is right and wrong, and you can't look at what's happening in the streets and smash-and-grab and say, ‘Well, it's just social justice.' No, it's theft, and it's destroying our economy."

•
"The governor fulfilled his campaign promise and he told everybody if you want to wear a mask, wear a mask, but allow the parents to make that decision for their own children because, as far as we can tell, the children still belong to their parents. They don't belong to the state, not just yet, not if we can help it."
Durham motion alleges Trump Tower ‘wiretapping’ Mark Levin discovered in 2017: 'Real insurrection' (Fox 02/13/2022)
•
"How many phone calls of Donald Trump, if any, have been intercepted by the administration and recorded by the Obama administration? This. ladies and gentlemen, is the real scandal."

•
... the Obama administration scrambled to "spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election and about possible contacts between the associates of President-Elect Donald J. Trump and Russians."

•
"And I even said at the time, whether it's eavesdropping of some other form or another, they're spying. Or they're spying on his campaign, or they're spying on the transition team, and that this has been going on for some period of time."

•
... the alleged spying that took place ahead of 2016 morphed into an effort to change voting laws in 2020 in order to "do anything humanly possible to stop Trump."

•
"This was the beginning of the greatest insurrection. And I would argue that even in the election between what happened between 2016 and 2020, on top of this, the changing of the election laws and violation of the federal Constitution. That's an add on."

•
"They will do anything humanly possible to stop Trump, to stop his supporters and to promote their agenda period."

•
"The latest pleading from Special Counsel (John) Durham proves indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia," Trump wrote...

•
"This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution."
Rooftop Revelations: 'They’re not black, they’re criminals' (Fox 02/13/2022)
•
"It pains me to see so many young men and women who are black and locked up. But you know what else pains me even more? To see the bodies of their victims. So I'm always going to choose the side of the innocents, day and night."

•
"I support criminal justice reform. I've seen too many men taken out of the homes for offenses, such as possession of marijuana, offenses that we have now legalized. I understand those efforts and I support fixing our criminal justice system. That's the beauty of America, that's we always have the tools of correction at our disposal."

•
"But hardcore criminals? Hardcore killers? We have to lock them up. We have to lock them up to protect the working people in this community. It is our right to have security. We pay taxes like anyone else and without security we cannot function as a community."

•
"I'm so disgusted with our city's leadership. They've let so many criminals out. And we have leaders who believe that reducing the number of blacks in prison is the way to go. We have leaders who put black before criminal actions, and that's a lie that gets people killed."

•
"They're not black, they're criminals. And I shouldn't have to say the most obvious thing in the room: not all black people are criminals. Not all white people are criminals. So we need to stop with this racial politics and start calling these people the criminals that they are."
Only 45% of Democrats want Biden as their 2024 nominee; just 50% of Republicans want Trump: poll (Fox 02/13/2022)
Austin DA launches over 20 grand jury cases against cops who responded during George Floyd riots (Fox 02/12/2022)
•
... prosecuting the police is the platform that Garza, whose campaign was backed by over $500,000 from liberal megadonor George Soros, ran on.

•
"He literally ran on, I'm going to put cops in jail. And that's what he's doing so that's what that's what tells me it's politically motivated."

•
See related Soros Supported DAs (Dick Wright, 08/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
House GOP plans to intervene in Washington D.C. to push back against mayor's policies, combat crime (Fox 02/12/2022)
•
"For years on end, the left has continuously demanded D.C. statehood, a politically motivated and wholly unconstitutional proposal that would radically revolutionize the balance of power in Congress to consolidate Democrats' control over Americans' lives. But beyond the conventional concerns, D.C.'s unseemly and declining status proves its leaders are unfit to properly maintain our nation's capital."
Trump says he understands impetus behind GOP bill to link Ukraine military aid to US border security (Fox 02/12/2022)
•
"I certainly understand how people feel., We had the strongest border we've ever had, our southern border. We were three weeks away from finishing the wall after going through two and a half years of lawsuits with the Democrats and winning them all."

•
"We had the best numbers in the history of our country on the southern border, very little was coming in, very few people were coming in, other than coming in legally, we had the best drug numbers in 32 years, and they were getting much better rapidly — and all of a sudden this guy takes over, and the border is open."

•
"We're like a dumping ground, so I can certainly understand how people feel when they say let's try and tie one to the other. We fight for other people's borders, but we don't fight for our own border."
Elon Musk warns of skyrocketing national debt: 'Something has got to give' (Fox 02/12/2022)
•
"True national debt, including unfunded entitlements, is at least $60 trillion – roughly three times the size of the entire US economy. Something has got to give."
Clinton campaign paid to 'infiltrate' Trump Tower, White House servers to link Trump to Russia: Durham (Fox 02/12/2022)
•
Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to "infiltrate" servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an "inference" and "narrative" to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from Special Counsel John Durham says.

•
Former President Trump reacted to the filing on Saturday evening, saying Durham's filing "provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia."

•
"This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution," Trump said.

•
"In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death." Trump added: "In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this."

•
Former chief investigator of the Trump-Russia probe for the House Intelligence Committee under then-Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., Kash Patel, said the filing "definitively shows that the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers at Perkins Coie to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia."

•
"Per Durham, this arrangement was put in motion in July of 2016, meaning the Hillary Clinton campaign and her lawyers masterminded the most intricate and coordinated conspiracy against Trump when he was both a candidate and later President of the United States while simultaneously perpetuating the bogus Steele Dossier hoax," Patel told ... adding that the lawyers worked to "infiltrate" Trump Tower and White House servers.

•
The anti-Trump dossier, authored by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS, was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign through Elia's law firm, Perkins Coie.

•
Patel added that Sussman relayed the "false narrative" to U.S. government agencies "in the hopes of having them launch investigations of President Trump."

•
Mueller's investigation found no evidence of illegal or criminal coordination between Trump or the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016.

•
Barr, in December 2020, before leaving the Trump administration, tapped Durham as special counsel to continue his investigation through the Biden administration.

•
In the scope order, Barr stated that Durham "is authorized to investigate whether any federal official, employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III."

•
Under U.S. code, the special counsel would produce a "confidential report" and is ordered to "submit to the Attorney General a final report, and such interim reports as he deems appropriate in a form that will permit public dissemination."
DeSantis, first lady vow to 'change the narrative' on kids' mental health, keep politics out of classroom (Fox 02/12/2022)
Gutfeld tells liberals wanting to take credit for COVID end: 'Nice try' (Fox 02/12/2022)
Dr. Robert Malone tells Tucker Carlson why his comments about COVID upset Washington bureaucrats (Fox 02/11/2022)
Massive crime spike stems from social unrest, COVID lockdowns destabilizing communities: expert (Fox 02/11/2022)
One US education dept. supports BLM activism week stressing end of nuclear family, just 3 reject it (Fox 02/11/2022)
•
"Parents of young students in particular must understand, while the tenets of Critical Race Theory are meant to stir resentment and drive racial wedges between them, Action Civics is about then turning them into protesters and marchers. It's inappropriate and frankly creepy, and every American who rightfully believes in strengthening actual civics education must understand the difference."
CIA has been secretly collecting data on Americans in bulk, senators say (Fox 02/11/2022)
Kudlow: The harder you work, the less you're taking home (Fox 02/10/2022)
Biden showered with 'Let's Go Brandon' chants and 'Build Crack Better' signs on Virginia roadway (Fox 02/10/2022)
Deep blue state wants to teach race to school children; not all parents agree (Fox 02/10/2022)
•
"I send my child to school to be taught math, reading, writing, not another ‘R,' which is race. I don't value somebody telling me what to teach and how to teach my child about how to get along with other people."

•
"If my child doesn't do that, well, that's on me. I'm the one who has the credentials to teach my children how to treat other people."

•
"We're 51st in education in this state, now that they count D.C., and they go and lay out social studies standards that are not designed to fight our literacy issues, not designed to fight our math issues or writing issues. They're designed to divide kids, and it makes no sense."

•
"When I started to understand what it was, it frightened me because I have two children of color. I've always taught them that this is America, and whether you fail or succeed has nothing to do with the color of your skin, but everything to do with how hard you're willing to work."

•
"These people that are teaching this stuff are teaching kids how to be racist, really. I don't even think that ... should be part of the curriculum. Reading, writing and arithmetic should be what they're teaching, Not this kind of stuff."
Los Angeles deputy DAs slam George Gascon for declining their invitation to defend himself against recall (Fox 02/09/2022)
Professor, economist Glenn Loury candidly opens up about race relations in the US (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
"The metaphor that Al Sharpton invoked at George Floyd's funeral, ‘America take your knee off of our neck,' is fiction," Loury said. "It's a lie. It's not an apt description of the actual circumstance. For a Black person to fear going out of their door, that the police might somehow... inappropriately treat them, it's like not going outside because you're afraid of being struck by lightning."

•
"Blacks yield vastly more political clout at all levels of government today than was the case four decades ago, yet it is arguable that conditions are much worse. The prisons of the nation overflow with young Black men. Two-thirds of Black babies were born to unwed mothers nationwide."

•
"I speak now about African Americans. This is basically a level playing field that we are dealing with right here. In the freest, most prosperous, most dynamic society on the planet, that millions of people are willing to risk everything just to get into, we are birthright citizens here. The ball is in our court."

•
"Outsize rates of criminal participation of violence, of the kinds of uncivil behavior that get you locked up in prison, that's why the jails are overflowing with African Americans, not because there is a conspiracy in the state legislature or in several police departments to go around locking up Black people, but because too many of our youngsters, of our young men, are behaving in ways that end up leaving them in confrontation with the law and leaving them susceptible to imprisonment."

•
"There's space for appealing to people at the level of their spiritual responsibilities and urging them to look differently at how it is that they should live their lives."

•
"I said in (a past) essay: ‘What program could be more effective at encouraging parents to take responsibility for their children than persuading them that they're God's stewards in the lives of their children?' A clever economist could come up with all kinds of schemes to motivate them financially, but if they embrace that idea, that this is a precious responsibility, this is a sacred obligation, they're going to get the job done that we want them to get done."
Trump 'TRUTH Social' launch expected by end of March, sources say (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
The servers for former President Donald Trump's TRUTH Social are up and running and will have the platform fully operational by the expected end-of-quarter launch date...

•
... beta testing for the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) TRUTH Social is also underway, and that the average user in the United States can expect to download the app and create accounts by the end of March.

•
... TMTG is not relying on any traditional big tech companies for infrastructure needs, sources said, but rather on its cloud services partnership with Rumble.

•
... Rumble is positioning itself as an alternative to both YouTube and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

•
TMTG CEO Devin Nunes was the first elected official to use Rumble's video platform in 2020. Nunes joined TMTG as CEO in December, after retiring from Congress after nearly two decades.

•
"We want to be very family-friendly, we want this to be a very safe place, and we are focused on making sure any illegal content is not on the site," Nunes said...

•
... Trump teased the new platform, saying that "TruthSocial will fight back against Big Tech so we can protect our rights to free expression."
Human rights org applies Middle East anti-radicalism strategy to combat critical race theory in US (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
"Divisive curriculums and teacher training programs based on CRT and similar frameworks that are currently being sold to schools are rooted in Marxism and discriminatory ideas."

•
"From my work around the world and my extensive human rights background, I've seen firsthand that this only leads to more division and hate, and worsens existing problems."

•
"We are countering that with what we have seen work: a framework based on the freedom that we are all inherently hardwired for that is rooted in the same values that America was founded upon."

•
The initiative aims to provide "support for concerned parents, grandparents, elected officials, teachers, and others in our community who want to act, but need the resources to support change in their local schools."

•
The initiative will train teachers across the Commonwealth of Virginia "to counter divisive curriculum with a pedagogy grounded in America's founding values – inalienable rights, human dignity, freedom of conscience, speech and expression."
Don't buy the hype, 'rogue' prosecutors driving violent crime surge, not guns (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
"Guns don't commit crimes, neither do knives and hammers, people do. It's a red herring to focus on guns rather than the harder issue of how to enforce the law fairly and hold criminals accountable."

•
"It is not true that crime is rising in every big city — it's true that it's rising in cities that have elected rogue prosecutors."

•
They have all argued that most misdemeanors should not be prosecuted, lobbied for lighter sentences for serious felonies and pushed for the elimination of cash bail.

•
The result has been mass shoplifting, open prostitution, drug markets and, in many cases, record numbers of shootings and murders ... giving a pass on lower level crimes breeds more serious misconduct.

•
Officers have stopped arresting suspects for certain crimes like resisting arrest or possession with intent to distribute because many DAs no longer prosecute them.

•
With bail reform, suspects are immediately released and sometimes commit new crimes eroding the public's confidence and trust in law enforcement...

•
... the end result of these lenient crime policies will be disastrous for big cities. "They're going to be hellholes until people, the people most impacted by these crimes. the Black and the Brown people, realize this, These policies are resulting in more deaths and more violence and they've had enough."
Former California officer 'lost everything' after left terrorized him and his family (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
... used a low level of force against a Black man who had allegedly assaulted the officer in May 2020.

•
"I describe it to people that I've lost everything, to be honest. "I've lost my career. My family was under this terror for the last year and a half now. Thankfully, we've come out victorious on that end... And also on top of that, ... my wife [and I] were set back about $100,000 in legal fees. So we've been put through the wringer in the name of justice."

•
... he was forced to sell his house due to Black Lives Matter protesters marching by. "It was terrifying for my whole family. It wasn't a safe place for me to be in or for my family to be anymore. You never think that your home is going to be somewhere that is going to be under attack."

•
"My focus is getting back into uniform, and that's something that I have [focused on] and still am doing."

•
"My wife and I are fighting to do that. We still are going through the court process to get me reinstated, to get my back pay, to get basically my life back and to really clear my name from any wrongdoing here."
DeSantis slams Big Tech and media for 'whitewashing' the 'genocide Olympics,' says Biden is weak on China (Fox 02/09/2022)
Republicans urge Biden to take cognitive test, say his 'mental decline' has 'become more apparent' (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
See related Answer to Cognitive Question (Gary Varvel, 01/23/2022) cartoon from Government picture album
Fauci says ‘full-blown’ COVID-19 pandemic is almost over in US (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
See related Lord Fauci (Dick Wright, 12/26/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Black History Month is about more than just Black Americans (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
Those who portend to care about Black issues, such as proponents of critical race theory or Black Lives Matter, seem to always be silent when it comes to evidence-based solutions to address the pandemic of broken homes, crime in Black communities, or other such ills.

•
Their only analysis of such unfortunate phenomenon is to blame them on racism, without evidence, thus making these issues outside the realm of practical solutions, and unsolvable...
Gutfeld asks why crime isn't at the top of Mayor Adams's priorities (Fox 02/09/2022)
Hannity: Trump was right, the Deep State's abuse of power is real (Fox 02/09/2022)
Mark Meadows calls for 'safeguards' against spying technology (Fox 02/09/2022)
Biden: Florida bill addressing sex, gender conversations in classrooms is 'hateful attack' on gay children (Fox 02/08/2022)
•
"I want every member of the LGBTQI+ community — especially the kids who will be impacted by this hateful bill — to know that you are loved and accepted just as you are."

•
"I have your back, and my Administration will continue to fight for the protections and safety you deserve."

•
The Senate Education Committee in Florida approved SB 1834 ... which says schools "may not encourage discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students."

•
"Some discussions are for (having) with your parents. And I think when you start having sexual-type discussions with children, you're entering a very dangerous zone. Your awareness should pop up right away, this isn't teaching."
Kudlow: COMPETES Act has nothing to do with competing with China (Fox 02/08/2022)
•
It's a terrible waste of taxpayer money for industrial policies, corporate subsidies – more Green New Deal spending, more unionization, and more central planning and controlling by the federal government in Washington, D.C.
Crack pipe distribution funded by HHS, prioritizing 'underserved' communities (Fox 02/08/2022)
•
"Government-funded drug paraphernalia is a slap in the face to the communities and first responders fighting against drugs flowing into our country from a wide-open southern border."

•
"If this is the president's plan to address drug abuse, our nation is in serious trouble."

•
See related Let\\\'s Legalize Pot (Michael Ramirez, 08/31/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Mother of Hason Correa calls on DA Bragg to do his job or step down: 'Not interested in your social justice' (Fox 02/08/2022)
•
"Victims on top of victims. Bodies on top of bodies. The mothers, the families of these victims care nothing about social justice theories. We care about restoring law and order to our city."
DOJ may allow safe injection sites for heroin use (Fox 02/07/2022)
•
"Instead of stopping the deadly drugs streaming over our border, putting drug dealers behind bars and helping people receive the long-term treatment they need to overcome addiction, Democrat leadership is enabling illegal drug use."
Rep. Massie refuses to meet with the 'morally bankrupt' who enforce vaccine mandates (Fox 02/06/2022)
•
"NOTICE: I will not take a meeting with any executive or manager of any company that is subjecting its employees to a COVID vaccine mandate or discriminating against employees or customers based on COVID vaccination status."

•
"The tyrants dictating COVID vaccine mandates are scientifically illiterate, morally bankrupt, inhumane abusers."
Hannity: China is a 'shining' example of the left's ideology (Fox 02/05/2022)
•
"There is no freedom in China. There['s] no freedom of religion, no freedom of speech, no freedom of thought, no freedom at all. You can be thrown in jail for using the wrong words, believing the wrong things or sharing the wrong links online. Censorship — that rules the day."

•
China "is a shining, real-world example of the left's ideology in practice — authoritarianism, we call it. If Bernie Sanders had his way, this is what the [United States] eventually would look like. This is why we are so adamantly opposed to censorship, cancel culture, boycotts, all the things we discuss often."

•
"... Facebook has been hemorrhaging traffic ever since Zuckerberg decided to meddle in the 2020 presidential election. Remember, he was also responsible for censoring a very true and damaging report about Joe and Hunter Biden in the days leading up to the election. Maybe Zuckerberg could be more worried about creating a usable platform, [and] less worried about the political opinions of Americans who are not from Silicon Valley and don't share his radical left-wing views."
Gutfeld: The death of legacy media is upon us (Fox 02/05/2022)
•
They ignore crime and inflation and the border. Things that affect you, but not them. They created Russian collusion to help Hillary.

•
They laughed off the crime wave to protect the progressives. They denied that Hunter's laptop was real.

•
They claimed racism is now a health hazard, which shouldn't matter since we'll all be dead in eight years — thank you, climate change.
Trump responds to Pence rejecting idea he could overturn election (Fox 02/05/2022)
•
"Just saw Mike Pence's statement on the fact that he had no right to do anything with respect to the Electoral Vote Count, other than being an automatic conveyor belt for the Old Crow Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected President as quickly as possible. Well, the Vice President's position is not an automatic conveyor if obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities exist. That's why the Democrats and RINOs are working feverishly together to change the very law that Mike Pence and his unwitting advisors used on January 6 to say he had no choice. The reason they want it changed is because they now say they don't want the Vice President to have the right to ensure an honest vote. In other words, I was right and everyone knows it. If there is fraud or large scale irregularities, it would have been appropriate to send those votes back to the legislatures to figure it out. The Dems and RINOs want to take that right away. A great opportunity lost, but not forever, in the meantime our Country is going to hell!"
San Francisco DA Boudin's office 'threatened' investigator multiple times to withhold evidence: transcript (Fox 02/04/2022)
Biden's 'guns first' approach to violent crime ignores basic facts (Fox 02/04/2022)
Former VP Mike Pence rejects Trump claim he could have intervened in 2020 election, calls it 'un-American' (Fox 02/04/2022)
•
"There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject electoral college votes."

•
"And this week, our former president said I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump is wrong... I had no right to overturn the election."

•
"The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president."

•
Pence explained that "under Article II Section One, elections are conducted at the state level, not by Congress" and that "the only role of Congress with respect to the electoral college is to open and count votes submitted and certified by the states. No more, no less."

•
The former vice president added that he understands the "disappointment" that many feel about the outcome of the last election.

•
"I share it. Whatever the future holds, I know we did our duty that day. As John Quincy Adams said, Duty is ours, Results are God's...

•
Pence then said that it is time to "move on" and that if "we lose faith in the Constitution, we won't just lose elections, we'll lose our country."

•
"The Vice President did have this right or, more pointedly, could have sent the votes back to various legislators for reassessment after so much fraud and irregularities were found," Trump said."If it were sent back to the legislators, or if Nancy Pelosi, who is in charge of Capitol security, had taken my recommendation and substantially increased security, there would have been no ‘January 6' as we know it!"
Hunter Biden's 'disgusting' laptop: Computer repairman reveals what made him call FBI (Fox 02/04/2022)
Democrats, teachers unions fight to keep parents from learning what their kids are taught (Fox 02/04/2022)
•
Democrats and teachers unions are working to block bills proposed in at least a dozen states that would require curriculum transparency in schools across the country, arguing that parents' access to their children's learning materials online could lead to undue censorship and backlash against educators.

•
Parents are entitled under federal law to request their children's curriculum for review if they attend a federally funded school, but schools are not required to post the materials online.

•
Lawmakers in at least 12 states have introduced legislation to require schools to post lists of all their teaching materials online, including books, articles and videos.

•
... but Democrats say curriculum transparency bills would only further embolden parents to censor certain materials and trainings, like those pertaining to critical race theory...

•
... the Parents' Bill of Rights, would also require schools to allow parents receive notifications whenever a teacher intends to teach a "divisive or controversial topic" that may conflict with a "parent's belief that all persons, regardless of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, or ancestry, should be treated equally."

•
"Parents have a fundamental right, responsibility and authority when it comes to their children."

•
"Transparency is key to good governance. This applies to our schools especially where our youngest minds are being informed and influenced. Teachers unions, activists and the ACLU are on the wrong side of history as try to block transparency in schools."

•
"The far left went from saying that there is no critical race theory or gender identity grooming in schools, to now trying to hide what is going on in schools. That tells you all one needs to know about what is happening in America's classrooms."

•
"Government is supposed to be transparent except in very limited circumstances. Parents shouldn't need a security clearance to see what their children are learning in the schools that the parents pay for with their tax dollars."

•
"It's insane that there is any opposition at all to curriculum transparency in schools - of course parents should be able to review in detail what their children are learning in our schools. What are they hiding?"

•
"The purpose of this endeavor from America First Legal is to let parents know what their current rights are under federal law – the kind of thing that groups like the ACLU should be doing but aren't doing because they have fallen prey to a political agenda. They're no longer in the business of defending civil rights and civil liberties."

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Parents (Mike Shelton, 11/05/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Rooftop Revelations: Booker T. Washington predicted Black Lives Matter (Fox 02/03/2022)
•
Cancel me, do whatever the heck you want, but I'm always going to state the truth. And the truth today is that Black Lives Matter exploited the death of George Floyd and made millions off what they call the pain of black people. This is simply reprehensible.

•
What makes me especially mad is that we have had blacks like these who milked black pain for money ever since we came out of slavery. We called them trickster figures.

•
When Booker T. Washington wrote these words over 100 years ago, he was describing BLM: "There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs."

•
It shames me to see brothers and sisters exploiting our pain. It truly does. Let that be a dark mark on the heads of BLM.

•
See related Booker T. Washington (Tom Stiglich, 06/11/2021)") cartoon from USA picture album
Gutfeld: Whoopi would never defend me, but I'll defend her (Fox 02/03/2022)
Inside US raid that killed ISIS leader: 'Incredibly complex,' on same scale as bin Laden operation (Fox 02/03/2022)
Holocaust survivors' message to Whoopi Goldberg: ‘Shame on you’ (Fox 02/02/2022)
Rand Paul: COVID edicts that make no scientific sense deserve a 'massive boycott' (Fox 02/02/2022)
Kudlow: This is a make-or-break moment for America (Fox 02/02/2022)
Stephen Miller's America First Legal launches guide for parents to obtain school curricula under federal law (Fox 02/02/2022)
Schools across America implement BLM Week of Action that calls for 'disruption of Western nuclear family' (Fox 02/01/2022)
•
"Most rational thinkers agree that public schools should not be home to political activism, from any side of the political divide, but public schools across America, from Boston to Seattle, have opened their doors for activist teachings from the divisive Black Lives Matter political organization."

•
"Under the cover of a week of action, called ‘Black Lives Matter at School,' children as young as five years old are being trained how to be political activists."

•
"What we are witnessing is state-sponsored political indoctrination, using coloring books, downloadable slide shows and contests to teach a next generation ‘social justice activism,' in the program's own words."

•
"We need radicalization out of schools, especially as children struggle with learning loss from the pandemic, and reading, writing and arithmetic back in schools."
Philadelphia store clerk allegedly shot during armed robbery returns fire: 'Brave, young woman' (Fox 02/01/2022)
•
An armed Philadelphia store clerk who is in critical condition early Tuesday fought back against two armed robbers despite being wounded during a gun battle with the suspects...
Joe Concha: Whoopi Goldberg's Holocaust remark was 'antisemitism in broad daylight' (Fox 02/01/2022)
Governors grade Joe Biden: ‘Solid’ D, and ‘I’m trying to be generous there’ (Fox 02/01/2022)
How Joe Rogan became Public Enemy No. 1 to media liberals in the battle over COVID 'misinformation' (Fox 02/01/2022)
•
"Joe Rogan is a liberal, but it almost doesn't matter what he is politically. The biggest difference between Rogan and the consensus pushers in the legacy media is that he's curious - he approaches topics with humility and interest, and brings deep conversations to his audience without drilling into their heads how they should think."

•
"It's the antithesis of our arrogant gatekeepers, who spend so much energy attempting to convince their audience how they should think and feel, to the detriment of their own credibility."

•
"Has Rogan hosted conversations on his podcast where guests, or he, have made dubious statements? Absolutely. But the difference between Rogan and the establishment press is these statements are made not in the context of a veneer of absolute truth, but in a free-flowing exchange of ideas and conversation."

•
"The anti-speech activists in the media hate Rogan because they fear him. Because if an audience can be empowered to think for themselves by a media personality who refuses to tell people what to think, what do they need the mainstream press for?"

•
"While unsurprising, it's still amazing that someone like Joe Rogan has become the subject of such hatred and venom from the leftists media and their allies in academic and public medicine. Rogan has drawn such strong levels of invective for simply going against the ruling class on issues such as COVID-19 and, more broadly, the classically liberal principles of free, open, and rigorous debate with diversity in thought."

•
"Despite having had a long career in Hollywood and supported politicians like Bernie Sanders, none of his past behaviors are enough in the eyes of today's left. It's conform or be silenced. It's twisted and, quite frankly, lame brained for them to voice support for free speech and the First Amendment but insist Rogan shouldn't be allowed to have a prominent platform."

•
"It's not only important to point out how he's not to be confused with a conservative, but it's almost an imperative to illustrate just how authoritarian and close-minded too many on the left have become."
Rep. Jim Jordan: Second Amendment under attack by Biden administration (Fox 02/01/2022)
Ingraham rips Biden's 'incompetence' in managing tensions between Ukraine and Russia (Fox 02/01/2022)
Sean Hannity reacts to the Joe Rogan Spotify controversy (Fox 02/01/2022)
Glenn Greenwald: If liberals force Spotify to dump Joe Rogan, nobody is safe from ‘petty-tyrant tactics’ (Fox 01/31/2022)
•
"American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard."

•
"The only two choices are unthinking submission to their dogma or acting as an agent of ‘disinformation.' Dissent does not exist to them; any deviation from their worldview is inherently dangerous — to the point that it cannot be heard."
Cotton threatens to block DOJ nominees over refusal to defend US Marshals in 2020 Portland Antifa riots (Fox 01/31/2022)
•
"These courageous officers were attacked by left-wing street militants with weapons such as mortar fire, ball bearings, and blinding lasers."

•
"A refusal to represent these Deputy Marshals would violate the Department's long-standing practice – not to mention its moral duty – to defend law-enforcement officers when they're sued for actions in the line of duty."
Biden voter 'disgusted' with the president, says Dem party has become 'unrecognizable' (Fox 01/29/2022)
•
"A year in and I'm disgusted with them both. I'm disgusted with [Vice President] Kamala Harris and Joe Biden." ... "I did more than I've ever done in my entire life for any candidate whatsoever, and I'm disgusted."

•
"I don't like critical race theory. Critical race theory is a Trojan horse that has a lot of darker elements hiding inside."

•
"I don't like the idea of kids – Black kids, White kids, whatever – separated by race and then made to feel like one group is oppressed and the other group is not."

•
On Afghanistan, Carter said, "I'm not upset that we left, I'm upset about how we left." ... "The video of refugees dropping from C-17s to their deaths will haunt this presidency and will haunt this country for decades to come."

•
... Biden's use of Title VII and IX to promote progressives' gender identity agenda has harmed women's rights and has negatively affected young children who are being subjected to gender ideology discussions in schools across the country.

•
"If I had known Biden was this much of a genderist ... there's no way I would have voted for that man."
Fallen NYPD Det. Jason Rivera's grieving widow calls out Manhattan DA Bragg in heartbreaking eulogy (Fox 01/28/2022)
Biden's weak-kneed appeasement provokes Putin, America's enemies (Fox 01/28/2022)
Substack defends free expression as critics call for censoring vaccine skeptics (Fox 01/28/2022)
•
"... we don't make moderation decisions based on public pressure or PR considerations. An important principle for us is defending free expression, even for stuff we personally dislike or disagree with. We understand principles come at a cost."

•
"People already mistrust institutions, media, and each other. Knowing that dissenting views are being suppressed makes that mistrust worse. Withstanding scrutiny makes truths stronger, not weaker."

•
"We made a promise to writers that this is a place they can pursue what they find meaningful, without coddling or controlling. We promised we wouldn't come between them and their audiences. And we intend to keep our side of the agreement for every writer that keeps theirs."

•
"I respect that writers on Substack are people who like to think for themselves. They tend not to be conformists, and they have the confidence and strength of conviction not to be threatened by views that disagree with them or even disgust them. This is becoming increasingly rare."

•
"Who should be the arbiter of what's true and good and right? People should be allowed to decide for themselves, not have a tech executive decide for them. I wouldn't want someone to pick out my clothes for me, much less my ideas... If everyone who has ever been wrong about this pandemic were silenced, there would be no one left talking about it at all."

•
"While we have content guidelines that allow us to protect the platform at the extremes, we will always view censorship as a last resort, because we believe open discourse is better for writers and better for society."

•
"We are living through an epidemic of mistrust, particularly here in the United States. Trust in social media and traditional media is at an all-time low. Trust in the U.S. federal government to handle problems is at a near-record low. Trust in the U.S.'s major institutions is within 2 percentage points of the all-time low. The consequences are profound."
Florida father sues school after daughter's suicide attempts, says gender counseling hidden from parents (Fox 01/28/2022)
Newt Gingrich: Biden gets to nominate, he does not get to approve SCOTUS nominee (Fox 01/28/2022)
US scientists who downplayed COVID-19 lab leak origins theory sang a different tune in private, emails show (Fox 01/28/2022)
Gutfeld: The Biden admin is non-transparent 'to hide corruption, incompetence and worse' (Fox 01/28/2022)
Ingraham: Democrats use 'dark money' for radical-left political aspirations within Supreme Court (Fox 01/28/2022)
Pennsylvania pizza delivery driver shoots armed suspect attempting to carjack him (Fox 01/28/2022)
ICE agents forced to coordinate travel for illegal immigrants, some with criminal records: source (Fox 01/27/2022)
Leaked video shows federal contractors flying migrants to suburban NY: 'Betraying the American people' (Fox 01/27/2022)
Joe Concha: Fact-checkers no different than politicians, media they're supposed to hold to account (Fox 01/27/2022)
Marc Thiessen on covert migrant flights: Biden admin is 'trapped' on immigration (Fox 01/27/2022)
Gutfeld: When did the rebels become the establishment elite? (Fox 01/27/2022)
Sick City (JWR 01/26/2022)
San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin sued for turning back on Asian attack victim as anti-AAPI hate crimes soar 567% (Fox 01/26/2022)
GOP senators press Biden admin for answers on 'politically motivated' attacks against parents (Fox 01/26/2022)
•
... Education Secretary Miguel Cardona solicited the much-criticized letter from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to President Biden that compared protesting parents to domestic terrorists.

•
President Biden's Department of Justice relied on the NSBA letter, which suggested using the Patriot Act against parents, in creating its own memo directing the FBI to mobilize in support of local education officials.

•
"The Biden administration & the nation's largest teachers union coordinated politically motivated attacks against concerned parents — all on the American taxpayer's dime."

•
"While we remain concerned that parents who are peacefully protesting continue to be threatened by the failure of the Attorney General to rescind his memo, we are equally disturbed that the NSBA and NEA used taxpayer dollars – collected as dues from member schools – to carry out politically motivated attacks against concerned parents at the direction of the Biden Administration."

•
"These actions must be investigated as threatening and intimidating concerned parents should never be tolerated. Parents deserve to know the complete truth on this matter. Just because someone disagrees with you does not give you the right to silence them."

•
See related AG Garland Threatens Free Speech (Dick Wright, 10/28/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

•
See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Pennsylvania parents respond to school board member op-ed: 'If he doesn't work for us, who does he work for?' (Fox 01/26/2022)
•
York Suburban School Board member Richard Robinson said in a York Dispatch op-ed published last week he was "elected by people who voted to represent you" and called parents who publicly questioned mask mandates "charlatans."

•
In his op-ed, Robinson wrote: "With all due respect to the men and women who snarl, ‘I'm a taxpayer! You work for me!' No, I don't work for you."

•
"If you're an elected official, whether it's a school board, whether it's, you know, all the way up to the president, you do work for your constituents."

•
"You work for the people that elected you. Whether I voted for you or not, you still technically work for me."

•
Robinson also wrote: "Finally, with all due respect to the charlatans who claim health and safety measures are responsible for destroying the mental health of children simply to justify their own social agenda, you are the most offensive and vile of all."

•
"If you want to change the trajectory of what's going on in your schools, it's not going to happen overnight, but I can't think of anything better to advocate for than your children's future."

•
"And so the road's not going to be easy, but you need to get back in there, and you need to be involved."
Democrats' Ukraine bill touts 'inviolability of borders,' while party ignores US border crisis (Fox 01/26/2022)
•
... includes a plan "to bolster support for Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders..."...

•
... a White House deputy national security adviser, was asked on CNN why Americans should care about what is happening in Ukraine.

•
"Because it goes to a very fundamental principle of all nations, that our borders should be inviolate, that our sovereignty should be respected."

•
The statements immediately drew comparisons with what is going on at the southern border, where congressional Democrats have supported the rolling back of border security measures and further restrictions on interior enforcement.

•
... conceded that "you can't directly compare a flood of lethal drugs and economic migrants to the Russian military."

•
"But when fentanyl coming across our southern border is killing American adults 18-45 more than anything else and China is undoubtedly our biggest threat, this effort is certainly worthy of outrage."

•
... accused the White House and congressional Democrats of avoiding using similar language on the U.S. border and U.S. sovereignty, and of being "very serious about Ukraine's borders but ... wholly disinterested in preserving ours."

•
"Ukraine is a nation state. The United States is a nation state. Nation states need borders. They must control those borders to preserve those borders. It's that simple."
Ari Fleischer on NYC councilwoman's condolences to accused cop killer's family: 'This is the madness we're in' (Fox 01/26/2022)
•
... a New York City councilwoman tweeted condolences to the families of two slain NYPD officers, as well as the accused killer.

•
Democrat Socialist Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan has also called for the NYPD to be shut down, calling it a "racist, rogue military force."

•
"This is the madness we're in now. This is what's happening when you abandon morality, and then you try to find justifications for the killing of police."

•
"There are times that we need to have a system that helps people who have had difficult upbringings. We want compassionate Americans. But when you kill a cop, the book needs to be thrown at you. End of sentence. That is simple."

•
"That is all for anybody in public life to express sympathy to her killer? I wish we had recalls, that person should be thrown out of office."
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire (Fox 01/26/2022)
South Carolina bill would make it illegal to ask vaccine status (Fox 01/25/2022)
•
"We have people in South Carolina that are losing their jobs because they have to report to their employer that they're unvaccinated."

•
"We also have people who are having their insurance rates put in a different category. They're charging up to an extra $100 a week more than the vaccinated people. It is absolutely insane to do this kind of thing."

•
The legislation, H. 4848, was introduced on Jan. 20. The bill would make it a criminal offense for any employer, business, nonprofit or public entity to ask about someone's COVID-19 vaccination status.

•
"I'm your employer, and I asked you if you're pregnant. I can't do that, I can't ask you if you're thinking about getting pregnant. I can't ask you if you got STDs or HIV. I can't ask any of those private medical questions, but somehow it's alright to terminate people's employment because I didn't take this emergency-use-only vaccine. This is ridiculous."

•
The legislation makes asking vaccination status a misdemeanor, that carries a fine of up to $14,000 and/or one year in jail.

•
While the Supreme Court recently banned the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test federal mandate on certain employers with over 100 employees.

•
The legislation, if enacted, would block South Carolina employers from voluntarily implementing vaccine requirements.
Biden admin withdraws COVID-19 vaccine and testing rules struck down by Supreme Court (Fox 01/25/2022)
•
"The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is withdrawing the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard issued on Nov. 5, 2021, to protect unvaccinated employees of large employers with 100 or more employees from workplace exposure to coronavirus."

•
"Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule."

•
"The Supreme Court made it clear that the President Biden administration's attempt to federalize the nation's workforce is blatantly unconstitutional."

•
"OSHA had no choice but to withdraw its unlawful ETS, but it needs to completely put an end to this dangerous government overreach. We will continue to fight on behalf of our clients and the American people to protect them from being forced to violate their faith."

•
"Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly."
Democrats treat criminals as victims and it's killing our cities (Fox 01/25/2022)
Rand Paul continues pressing Fauci for answers on NIH gain-of-function funding (Fox 01/25/2022)
•
"The American people deserve to know how this pandemic started, to know if the NIH funded dangerous gain-of-function research that may have caused this pandemic, and to remove from office anyone, such as Dr. Fauci, who let this happen."

•
"In these questions, I am demanding simple ‘yes' or ‘no' answers that aim to get us closer to the truth about the origins of COVID-19."
Police groups slam Black Lives Matter chapter for complaining shot police officers treated as 'heroes' (Fox 01/25/2022)
•
"It's nothing new for them. As far as I'm concerned, they're irrelevant. Most people see through their, for lack of a better term, BS. It's all about money for them. They've proven that time and time again they really don't care about Black lives. If that was the case, they would be out there protesting all shootings, not just those by police. It's silly to even give them any credit for anything, knowing what their agenda is."

•
"The recent erosion of respect for law enforcement coupled with public figures spewing anti-police rhetoric have fueled more aggression towards police officers than what has been seen in previous years — undoubtedly emboldening violent criminals to commit brazen acts of violence against law enforcement."

•
"The attacks on law enforcement are a harsh reminder that our officers are not just in harm's way due to the dangerous nature of their profession, but that they are the targets of cowardly individuals whose sole motivation is to injure or kill a law enforcement officer."

•
"Law-abiding citizens are seeing the real-life consequences of what happens when elected officials embrace pro-criminal, revolving-door policies and make decisions that put the interests of violent offenders ahead of public safety. These decisions — failures to prosecute violent offenders for their crimes or, even worse, releasing repeat offenders arrested for crimes who show a propensity for escalation of violence — make our communities less safe. These rogue prosecutors are putting innocent lives at risk. When there are no consequences for breaking the law, more people will break the law and crime will increase."

•
"Our criminal justice system is fundamentally broken: Criminals are now targeting law enforcement officers nationwide without fear."

•
"Despite the risks, these law enforcement officers continue to put their uniforms and badge on each day to protect you and me, knowing that this could be the last days of their lives. They are truly heroes."

•
"BLM is more concerned with promoting extreme anti-police rhetoric than in improving conditions for black Americans."

•
"Polling consistently shows that blacks bear the greatest burden of violent crime victimization. BLM's childish tweets ignore the fact that the majority of black Americans appreciate the work of law enforcement and would actually like to see more policing, not less."
COVID — facts, fiction and fear (Fox 01/25/2022)
Criminals are targeting cops at historic levels following calls to defund the police (Fox 01/25/2022)
Ingraham: Biden and media seek Russia conflict to cover for failing presidency (Fox 01/25/2022)
•
"More than a month ago, President Biden assured a very war-weary nation that putting troops in or around Ukraine was not on the table. Well, now it looks like that's right up there with the other promises he made, like if you get vaxxed, you can go back to normal and just 100 days of masking."

•
"Anyone paying attention to Biden's presser last week heard the sounds of the war-drums beating [as] the media desperately wants to get off the raging crime, raging COVID, raging inflation story that's driven Biden to another new low in the polls today."

•
... some of Biden's media allies couldn't do a better job of trashing and undermining the United States if it were Vladimir Putin himself.

•
"Putin doesn't even need to spend money crippling Washington, D.C. when our own press corps does it for free."

•
"The media has helped Putin by supporting policies to increase the price of oil and gas. Now, most Americans understand that cheap energy is bad for Russia. But the media doesn't want Americans to have cheap energy. They've done everything possible to stop drilling and to smear the fracking revolution that promises energy independence."

•
"Soaring energy prices are helping Putin buy more weapons. The media have undermined our military readiness now for years, we suffered disaster after disaster in Afghanistan, capped by the utter failure to successfully end that war."

•
"America cannot and must not dilute the strength she has left on another hopeless crusade urged on by the same people who screwed up in Afghanistan."

•
"Our real threat militarily and economically is the [Chinese Communist Party], which loves it when we squander our resources on pointless foreign ventures and quagmires – it makes them thrilled."

•
"Of course, the CCP can always count on the America haters, though, to downplay the threat they pose. Two days ago, the New York Times published what can only be described as a fawning personal tribute to President Xi."

•
"We have enough failed war baggage in the GOP. And for the rest of us, we have to focus on finding leaders in both parties who can build this country up instead of always tearing her down."
Sean Hannity: Biden once promised to restore civility (Fox 01/25/2022)
•
"This administration is providing cover for criminals, all while supporting groups like ... Black Lives Matter."

•
"The reality is this: defund, dismantle, no bail is all responsible for this major wave of violence. In city after city police budgets have been slashed, including a billion-dollar cut to the New York Police Department. Now, to make matters worse, [there are] far-left prosecutors – they've stopped prosecuting crimes in the name of equality and equity. You have some jurisdictions now even eliminating bail for many crimes and turning jails into revolving doors and our streets into a violent free for all."

•
"We [have] dozens of Americans dead, thousands of cops injured, billions in property damage, arson, looting. Kamala Harris actually promoted the bail fund to get violent criminals out of jail. She praised the LAPD police cuts. You know, protecting the peaceful, law-abiding Americans. Why don't we protect them?"

•
"Cops all across the country, they're being targeted at an alarming rate, according to the FBI."

•
In a recent case, "a career criminal of viciously targeted two NYPD officers, killing one critically injuring another ... [T]he deranged killer ‘kept firing' at the wounded cops even as they lay helplessly on the floor, a complete execution."

•
"As the Biden White House implodes, poor Joe Biden, he's lashing out ... He called our own Peter Doocy a 'Stupid son of a b****.' Oh, now it's angry, Joe."

•
"Biden once promised to restore civility, telling his appointees he would fire them on the spot if they disrespected others. Of course, the rules don't apply to Joe."
Greg Gutfeld: Elites like to make rules for other people so they don’t have to abide by them (Fox 01/25/2022)
•
As long as you talk about climate, you can still fly in private jets. You can still sail on $100 million dollar yachts.

•
You can fill your hot tub with panda tears and tulle around Brentwood in a vehicle that could house Mitt Romney's entire family.

•
Elites like to make rules for other people, so they don't have to abide by them. It's why people get into politics. The first thing you do after introducing a law is violate it.

•
You can see it, especially in liberal bastions. They're the ones that love restrictions most because they figured out how to live above and beyond them, either by working in politics or in the media.
Marine denied of religious exemption says DoD enforcing vax mandate 'to the detriment of national defense' (Fox 01/25/2022)
•
The U.S. military is on the verge of dismissing hundreds of trained fighter pilots for refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine...

•
Lt. Col. Scott Duncan is just one of the many aviators who was denied a religious exemption after the Department of Defense's mandate on all active-duty service members went into effect on Nov. 28. If Duncan's appeal is denied, he will be discharged from the military for choosing to forego the vaccine. Duncan has flown over 300 combat missions, including 200 carrier landings for the Marine Corps.

•
"I am not unique in my situation. There are many incredibly qualified individuals with a tremendous amount of experience, and we believe that that can be a detriment to national defense in the event we separate that many aviators."

•
More than 200 Marines have been booted and thousands more face the same fate for refusing to submit to the vaccine.

•
"We also believe we have an inherent right to our own body. We believe that is our right, it is conferred with us from the maker and creator and that is the foundation of the Constitution which we defend. So those are all the bases primarily of the religious accommodation that has been both requested, denied, and then subsequently appealed."

•
"We absolutely believe everything we've done up to date in honorable service, as well as what we're doing now, is consistent with those views."

•
"That view is just not shared by some leadership within the Department of Defense and so we believe this is a very reasonable and above reproach way to express our concerns."
Trump 'TRUTH Social' developing content moderation practices to ensure 'family-friendly' community (Fox 01/24/2022)
•
Both Nunes and former President Donald Trump separately have told Fox Business that TRUTH Social is expected to be up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

•
But those involved in the final stages of the platform's development told Fox Business that they anticipate that malign actors will target the site and attempt to "flood" the platform with "illegal content," especially during and immediately after their formal launch.

•
"We want to be very family-friendly, we want this to be a very safe place, and we are focused on making sure any illegal content is not on the site," Nunes said...

•
... AI model will be used for TRUTH Social to offer content moderation for posts to ensure sexually-explicit content, and posts that include violence, bullying, hate speech, and spam never make it to the platform.

•
... technology has the ability to identify content like "nudity, drugs, violence, hate speech, spam and bullying."

•
"This is not political. These are not things that are left or right or have any political baggage. When you think about these bigger companies, what they have put in place around things like misinformation, what they deem that to be, for instance, that's their prerogative."

•
"They are not doing things like trying to censor any political talk — we don't have models for that or models for misinformation. We focus on a problem that is more objective."

•
Nunes doubled down on that point, reminding that TRUTH Social will be "open for all ideas, all political debate from the left to the right."

•
"We're not going to censor anybody because they have a different opinion about, for example, a COVID vaccine."

•
"That is what the open internet is all about — it should be for the free flow of debate and ideas all over the globe, so that people can learn from one another and debate with one another."
Marine sent to brig over Afghan remarks rips Lloyd Austin's COVID focus: 'Wanted to put my head through wall' (Fox 01/24/2022)
•
Scheller said the military has many fundamental problems, including in the fields of procurement and education, and that coronavirus is nowhere near the top of that list.
Biden has made America a laughingstock: Hilton (Fox 01/24/2022)
•
"They told us ... the pandemic would be shut down, ... [Biden would] revive foreign policy, [America] would be in safe hands, legislation would be passed, [and] the country's divisions would be healed. But a year into the restoration of establishment rule, what have we got?"

•
"... Biden did not have a very good year. Instead of more competent, humane government – we've got a humanitarian disaster at the border. And of course, in Afghanistan, too, where Biden's narcissism and vanity led directly to the deaths of 13 of our brave soldiers."

•
"Biden has made America a laughingstock as rogue regimes run amok in the face of his weakness. And instead of the unity he promised, Biden fanned the flames of hate and division, even stoking racial tensions for partisan ends with his disgusting, cynical rant in Atlanta."

•
See related Can You Believe... (Michael Ramirez, 01/19/2022) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Presidential Portrait (Gary Varvel, 01/19/2022) cartoon from Government picture album
Dan Crenshaw: Voter suppression from election laws a 'lie,' 'myth' (Fox 01/24/2022)
•
"Elections are competitions, and in a competition, you have to be very certain who won. You have to be. And if you're not certain of who won, well then you get consternation, you get division, you get the kind of years that we've had in this country. When Democrats lose, they say the election is illegitimate. Then Republicans do the same thing."

•
"... It is clear the Democrats are setting this up because they know that they're going to get blown away in 2022. They absolutely know that. And they want to be able to say that the only reason they lost is because they couldn't pass these laws that basically mean you can drive through at 3 AM and vote."

•
"My question to Democrats is what's your counterproposal? Do you think we should just accept mail-in applications if the IDs don't match? I mean honestly, what kind of election system do you think that would be? They don't offer counterproposals because they don't want fair elections."
New York college student, a Cuban immigrant, calls out the 'leftist propaganda' he sees in US (Fox 01/22/2022)
•
It's hard to watch your fellow college students — or any Americans, for that matter — make terrible mistakes of judgment.

•
"The thing that they are very confused about is the idea of how life is in Cuba and how does that work."

•
"They think that because there is free health care and free education, that life is easy and happy — but in reality that's not true."

•
"We pay dearly for those things. We pay with our freedom. We pay with our human rights. We don't have any opportunity to have a life with dignity and basic human rights."

•
"A lot of people are pushing this leftist propaganda [here in the United States] and creating an ambiance in which [if you say something different than that], then you become isolated, you become kind of politically incorrect, and they put you on the wrong side of history, let's say."

•
"Because Cubans have always been indoctrinated in the notion that the U.S. government is the sole force behind all attempts to overthrow the communist regime, people naturally assume that most Americans have the same political position as their government, or at least, that they are informed of what is happening on our island."

•
"What struck me the most at first was the number of people who had a distorted idea of what it was really like to live in Cuba. Many could only think of the palm trees on a beach, but the first impulse of others was to repeat the magic words with which the international left justifies the tyranny: ‘free health care, free education, American embargo.'"...
Rand Paul: Democrats’ COVID mandates will end when business owners push back (Fox 01/22/2022)
Graham, after meeting with Trump, says Russo-American relations won't be the same post-Biden (Fox 01/22/2022)
•
"Biden cannot adjust his policies on energy, he cannot adjust his policies on borders because of the left. He can adjust his policies on the Ukraine — but we're running out of time."
Bill Maher torches Sotomayor for botching COVID facts: 'That's really ignorant for a Supreme Court justice' (Fox 01/22/2022)
•
"We were told you get the vaccine, you get the vaccine and you get back to normal. And we haven't gotten back to normal. And it's ridiculous at this point," Weiss said.

•
"I know that so many of my liberal and progressive friends are with me on this and they do not want to say it out loud because they are scared to be called anti-vaxxed or to be called science denial or to be smeared as a Trumper."

•
"I'm sorry, but if you believe the science, you will look at the data that we did not have two years ago and you will find out that cloth masks do not do anything. You will realize that you can show your vaccine passport at a restaurant and still be asymptomatic in carrying Omicron. And you realize, most importantly, that this will be remembered by the younger generation as a catastrophic moral crime."

•
"This is I think where Democrats look bad. Like, 'We're the people of science' and then a lot of what they do has nothing to do with science like suggesting you wear masks outside. There's no science to that."

•
"Or that the virus can get me when I'm walking in a restaurant but not when I'm sitting down. There's so much mindless bureaucracy! [NBA star] Kyrie Irving can play on the road but not home games!' That- it's just stupid!"

•
... pivoted to the recent Supreme Court hearing that challenged the Biden administration's vaccine mandate and how Justice Sonia Sotomayor made wild assertions about COVID, like claiming over "100,000" children were currently in serious condition at hospitals with the disease and that COVID was a "blood-born virus."

•
"They were all listening to NPR," Weiss quipped. "Exactly," Maher replied. "I mean, that's really ignorant for a Supreme Court justice. So don't be the ‘We're the people who believe in science,' but you don't have the facts! I read this before, like 41% of Democrats last year thought that over 50% of people who got COVID were hospitalized. It was less than 1%."

•
"But I'm sorry, if you're watching cable news all day, right? That's what you're gonna think," Weiss said. "There is misinformation and not just on podcasts and the internet. It's also on cable news. I think the biggest thing to me about the Democrats is... the Democrats is supposed to be the party of the little guy... You know what the Democrats are now comfortable with, or seemingly comfortable with? A two-tiered system in which the haves get to go into a restaurant, laugh with their friends for hours and the people serving them are masked and wearing gloves. Where they get to walk, as AOC did, at the Met Gala while in the background the staff looked like they were in 'The Handmaid's Tale.' I mean, this is, this is a look that is unbelievably detrimental to them."

•
"And jobs," Maher added. "The people with, you know, the consulting jobs, whatever bulls** they do, they get to stay at home and order the food out and do s** by Zoom and whereas the working-class people who are breathing their s****y air all day. It's going to create class resentment. I mean, it looks like the liberals are always suggesting sacrifices they themselves don't have to take part in."
Progressives are re-segregating American institutions under the guise of 'racial equity' (Fox 01/21/2022)
Sen. Kennedy blasts 'racial demagoguery' from Biden, Harris: 'Americans are getting pretty tired of it' (Fox 01/21/2022)
Apple’s Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai working Capitol Hill together to stop Big Tech bill (Fox 01/21/2022)
•
The legislations is co-sponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and sets forth antitrust measures that would only apply to tech giants Apple, Amazon, Alphabet-owned Google, Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft.

•
The legislation would prohibit the handful of major tech companies from favoring their own services on their own platforms, which the firms deny doing. Several competitors to the major companies have already come out in favor of the legislation.

•
Tech giants have been bolstering their government affairs teams in anticipation of such fights, as Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike continue on a warpath against Big Tech – albeit for different reasons.

•
The right has long been furious about social media behemoths stifling conservative voices and banning reports unflattering to Democrats, while the left has urged the companies to ramp up their campaigns against "misinformation" and accuses them of unfairly hindering competitors.

•
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pushed for breaking up several of the major players.

•
See related Hang Em' High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Michiganders say children are 'not the government’s' after viral Dem Party Facebook post backlash (Fox 01/21/2022)
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"I think that a lot of times bad stuff happens at schools and bad things are taught because everybody has a different opinion."

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"But I'm responsible for my kids and I want to instill in them my values. I don't think that's up to other people."
Gutfeld: Biden is making Republicans more popular than they've ever been (Fox 01/21/2022)
Hunter Biden, former Biden aide invested in Chinese company tied to Communist Party, NBA China (Fox 01/20/2022)
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See related Biden the Criminal (Dick Wright, 11/24/2021) cartoon from General picture album
The January 6 Narrative is Starting to Unravel (American Thinker, 01/20/2022)
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After the Republicans win the midterm elections, they should keep the January 6 committee in place — but under new management.

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San Fran Nan's committee set a few precedents that should be very useful. The minority party has no rights. Committee members are subject to the approval of the Speaker of the House. Executive privilege is a thing of the past. Any member of the opposing party is also fair game.

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The Republicans should subpoena Merrick Garland, Christopher Wray, and Nancy Pelosi. I'm dying to see how Granny Boxwine does under questioning from Ted Cruz.
Trump on Biden's first year, says he had 'no idea' the country could 'go down so badly and so quickly' (Fox 01/20/2022)
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Former President Trump, one year after leaving the White House, said he had "no idea the country could go down so badly and so quickly," criticizing President Biden for everything from the supply chain crisis to foreign policy and more.

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... pointing to the supply chain crisis, Trump said during his administration, "it wasn't even a thought."

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"The words supply chain never really came up, It was something that we had, nobody had any problems, these were not two words in the vocabulary."

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"They were not in the vocabulary of the administration, because everything was running like a fine-tuned machine, And we didn't have any problems with supply chain."

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Trump said he had traveled to Los Angeles and "saw the massive containers, thousands and thousands of them where they dock the ships, in the loading and unloading areas and I will tell you, I've never seen anything like it."

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"As an example, I did a book and the book turned out to be a tremendous success, and we sold over 200,000 copies of the book, which is much more because this is a picture book."

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"Now, what we're doing is going out for 300,000 more books, and they don't even have paper. They have no paper, they have no glue, they have no leather, you know the outside binding. This is a company that's been in business for many years, I think the largest or second-largest printer in the country, and they said they've never seen anything like this, they've never had anything like this."

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Meanwhile, reflecting on his own first year in office, Trump said his administration "accomplished so much."

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"We accomplished very early on the greatest tax cuts in history, the greatest regulation cuts in history, Space Force, we rebuilt the military over a period of time and rebuilt the military."

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"We did things that nobody thought — Anwar, we got Anwar approved. Ronald Reagan tried to get it done, everybody did, nobody could get it done, we got it. Would have been perhaps the biggest drilling site, energy site in the world, and it was terminated by Biden and Lisa Murkowski made it possible to have it terminated."

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"You know, all of these things, we've done so much, and now I'm watching what's happening to our country and our country is being absolutely destroyed. Destroyed. Our dignity, our strength, it is being sapped and destroyed. It is hard to believe."

•
"China is dictating terms to us. Russia on Ukraine. China with Taiwan. Kim Jong Un as you know of North Korea is sending up missile after missile and very importantly, Iran is having a lot of fun doing whatever they want. And our country looks like it is just weak and incompetently run."

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Trump slammed the Biden administration for the botched withdrawal of the U.S. military from Afghanistan, for losing "energy independence," rejoining the Paris climate accord, "breaking up trade deals" and more.

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He added: "I never thought I'd see our country look so weak and ineffective."

•
"In my opinion, the prestige of the United States now is lower than its ever been in history — in our history — it is the lowest it's ever been."

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He added: "I would be able to bring it back and bring it back quickly."
Ingraham roasts Biden's 'quicksand' presidency after press conference: He's 'completely delusional' (Fox 01/20/2022)
Biden has no answers, gives no cause for hope in presidential news conference (Fox 01/20/2022)
Biden, Dems' disastrous first year – Americans suffering and they want change (Fox 01/20/2022)
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See related Let’s Go Brandon (Antonio Branco, 10/23/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden's first year was a year marked by crises (Fox 01/20/2022)
Biden’s first year: President struggles to make any significant progress on key initiatives (Fox 01/20/2022)
Mark Levin blasts Biden's 'outrageous' press conference: 'The James Buchanan of our time' (Fox 01/20/2022)
Biden revealed for two hours why he is an unpopular president: Conway (Fox 01/20/2022)
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"So for two hours today, Joe Biden reinforced why he's an unpopular president ... After one year, [his approval] is the lowest on record. Yes, lower than Donald Trump's, who did not have the mainstream media pushing for him, covering for him, and, of course, voting for him."
Supreme Court denies Trump request to block Jan. 6 Committee subpoenas (Fox 01/19/2022)
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"The questions whether and in what circumstances a former President may obtain a court order preventing disclosure of privileged records from his tenure in office, in the face of a determination by the incumbent President to waive the privilege, are unprecedented and raise serious and substantial concerns."

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"Because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump's claims would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court's decision."

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Justice Clarence Thomas would grant Trump's motion. Justice Brett Kavanaugh released a statement along with the ruling.

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"A former President must be able to successfully invoke the Presidential communications privilege for communications that occurred during his Presidency, even if the current President does not support the privilege claim."

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"Concluding otherwise would eviscerate the executive privilege for Presidential communications."
LA county deputy DA rips progressive crime policies: ‘My boss, George Gascon, has a soft spot for criminals’ (Fox 01/19/2022)
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"We are not focused on victims, we are not focused on public safety, and in Los Angeles County you know, my boss, George Gascon, has a soft spot for criminals."

•
"He has created an environment where crime thrives here in Los Angeles County by explicitly telling the criminal community you can commit crimes, certain crimes I will not prosecute you at all."

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... added that Gascon has made a number of prosecutorial decisions that have made the city less safe, including, "down-charging" violent crimes, failing to prosecute theft crimes, gun crimes, and advocating for people to be released with minimal or no bail. "It's just a mess here in Los Angeles County and it happened so quickly."

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After a homeless man identified as Shawn Laval Smith allegedly knifed 24-year-old Brianna Kupfer in an upscale California furniture store, longtime LA prosecutor Jon Hatami also spoke out, urging voters to pay close attention to D.A. races in their communities and choose qualified candidates.

•
"When you say, ‘here's a list of crimes I'm not going to prosecute,' — Yeah, you are not a good D.A. And you are not a good prosecutor. That shouldn't be the first thing you do when you become D.A."

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See related Woke DA\\\'s (Dick Wright, 01/06/2022) cartoon from USA picture album
Pennsylvania Senate leader calls for impeachment of liberal Philly DA: 'We have a real crisis' (Fox 01/19/2022)
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"We have a real crisis in our city, and it's part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Those people who live in Philadelphia deserve protection. Those people who work in Philadelphia deserve protection."
Virginia's new AG Miyares outlines Day 1 investigations, rebuffs 'far-left,' 'woke' crowd (Fox 01/19/2022)
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"I like to say Virginia is not a red state or a blue state — it's really just a common-sense state."

•
"Voters felt like the far-left monopoly had really gotten off the rails pushing a lot of issues that were way outside where most mainstream Virginians were, and that's probably the biggest reason that propelled it."

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"You had a bunch of far-left social justice warriors that had gotten control of the parole board and were implementing a victim-last mindset, letting out cop killers, murderers and rapists, some of them with decades on their sentence, out back on the street without notifying families."

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"In Virginia, the parole board is required by law to get input from the victims before letting out folks on parole."

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Miyares referenced a case in which Patrick Schooley Jr., who was released from prison in April after receiving three life sentences for the brutal 1979 home invasion, rape and murder of 78-year-old Bessie Rountree.

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The victim's family says they were never notified, and Miyares pledged to hold the Virginia State Board accountable for that decision and several others.

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"In the Loudoun County school system, the idea that they would have somebody who committed a violent sexual assault against an innocent 14-year-old girl and then transfer that individual to another school where a second alleged assault took place is just tragic."

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"The fact that they just decided to essentially not disclose and not report some of this that is alleged, we're going to get to the bottom of it and understand what happened."

•
Around the same time the investigations were being announced, newly elected Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin rolled out 11 executive actions, including a ban of critical race theory, removal of mask mandates for children in schools, authorizing Miyares to launch his investigations, and cutting job regulations by 25%.

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Miyares also didn't waste any time making personnel moves in the attorney general's office... "My far-left Democratic predecessor had a very different view on how the office should be run."

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"He bragged that he turned his office into a progressive powerhouse, and Virginians ultimately saw that and voted for change. So, implicit in that is that our transition team is bringing our own team of very smart, capable individuals and attorneys that are going to help me keep that same promise I made to Virginians. And I don't think that's a surprise, and this type of turnover apparently is very common for a new attorney general."

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Shortly after news of the office shakeup broke, prominent Democratic Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas and others claimed that Miyares had fired the entire Civil Rights Division of the attorney general's office, which Miyares says is incorrect and "laughable."

•
"Mark Twain said that a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth puts its pants on in the morning. In a division of 12 attorneys, we said that two are not going to be rehired as part of the new administration and are going to be replaced."

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Miyares, whose mother fled communist Cuba in 1965, says he recognized at a very early age what a special country the United States is by recognizing the reasons his mother fled the Castro regime and ultimately became an American citizen.

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"Lincoln called us the last best hope of earth, it's true. She was desperate to live in a country that recognized her rights didn't come from a government official. That Bill of Rights, that Constitution that guarantees these liberties give me such great appreciation for them. It shaped so much of my worldview and my unique view of what this country is, that it gave her a second chance, and for that, I'm forever grateful."

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"Winsome has become a pretty broad target for some on the far left, which does not like her message of empowerment. I think she's been a fantastic running mate and a fantastic lieutenant governor so far, and we work great as a team."

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"We had some of the far-left woke social justice warriors saying that it was a racist electorate which by the way just insulted the millions of Virginia voters who had just voted for Joe Biden."

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"At the same time it was Republicans that nominated and won the most diverse ticket in Virginia history."

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As for the goals he hopes to accomplish in his first term as attorney general, Miyares told Fox News that public safety and consumer protection will be major focal points as well as "pushing back on overbroad federal laws."

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"Where we see the federal government overstepping its bounds and impeding on Virginians, we are going to go ahead and challenge that in court."

•
"That includes regulations as well, it kills jobs. You've got all these unelected regulatory bodies out of Washington, D.C., to pass all these regulations, and your congressman or your senator never vote on them, and the only ones who can challenge them are your state attorney general. So that's why you're seeing state AGs be more active over the years. So, we're going to do a lot of good, and we're excited to get started."

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See related Thus Always to Tyrants (Antonio Branco, 11/04/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Virginia Kickes out Marxism (Dick Wright, 11/03/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Kudlow: Glenn Youngkin's agenda is a distinct contrast to Biden's radical left law enforcement progressivism (Fox 01/18/2022)
McCarthy accuses Biden admin of 'downplaying' Texas 'terrorist attack' (Fox 01/18/2022)
Senate Republicans probe Education Department, DOJ over NSBA letter (Fox 01/18/2022)
US murder rate highest it's been in 25 years as big cities shatter records (Fox 01/18/2022)
GOP lawmakers ask FDA for answers in Pfizer COVID-19 booster approval process for children: 'Quite troubling' (Fox 01/18/2022)
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"This is extremely puzzling and, frankly, quite troubling. Children are still growing and developing, and these are relevant factors for consideration to ensure that this additional vaccine dosage is appropriate, especially as early teens in the 12 to 15 age group are at extremely low-risk for death and hospitalization from COVID-19."

•
Lawmakers additionally questioned whether the White House or Dr. Anthony Fauci were involved in the authorization-making process.

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"We owe it to Americans to stand up against bureaucrat-driven policies that take away power and information from parents to make good choices for their children."

•
"The FDA's unusual decision to bypass their normal committee approval process puts children at risk. The accumulation of mistaken federal policies carried out by executive fiat in response to the pandemic — from lockdowns, to perpetual masking, and rushed vaccine policies — deeply concern me."

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See related Final Approval (Mike Shelton, 08/24/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Side Effects (Mike Shelton, 11/01/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Greg Gutfeld: It's a great time to be alive if you're criminally deranged (Fox 01/18/2022)
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It's a glorious day, if you haven't been murdered yet by a nut bag. It's true: We have an epidemic of crazy people what we used to call the criminally deranged...

•
... they're everywhere. On the streets, on the subway... But they're also in our city halls, our governments and our district attorney's offices, from New York to Chicago to L.A. to Baltimore.

•
It's not funny anymore. On Saturday morning, a maniac waited as a train entered the Times Square subway station before he happily pushed an Asian woman to her death.

•
The killer stuck his tongue out at the police like a third-grader out the window of a school bus. The perfect metaphor for bail reform or any other garbage that passes as social justice reform.

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But if you dare ask, why was he out on the street? Well, you're probably racist or worse, a Republican.

•
Meanwhile, another punk just murdered a teenager, allegedly, in a Bronx Burger King. It's his idea of having it his way under the new attorney general. In a video, he was seen shouting about reparations and slavery.

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He sounds like every Democrat member of Congress when they're on Twitter. And if you disagree with him, well, you're probably racist, too.

•
Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, a UCLA grad student was fatally stabbed by - you guessed it - a deranged creep. Brianna Kupfer, age 24, was alone working when a man, believed to be homeless, knifed her to death.

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Why was he out on the streets with a knife? That's probably your fault, because you just don't care enough.

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There's also Sandra Shells, a hardworking nurse who died after being attacked by a homeless man near the L.A. Union Station. He's probably just down on his luck.

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Then there's George Gascon, the city's woke D.A., who says he doesn't want to send another deranged maniac, a 26-year-old transgender woman, to jail for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl over fears that the deviant will be attacked. Oh yeah, God forbid a guard uses the wrong pronoun.

•
... those woke prosecutors may not be criminally deranged, but... The only thing that separates them from the psychos they're setting free is a trip to the men's warehouse and a thesaurus.

•
The victims of this violence are almost entirely non-Whites living in the poorest parts of the city. But if you plead for solutions, you'd probably be called a racist because lots of those killers are also Black.

•
Of course, there's the hostage crisis at the synagogue in Texas, where an anti-Semitic fiend took a rabbi, among others, hostage in order to free a terrorist.

•
Initially, the FBI said this attack wasn't related to the Jewish community. Probably, they were waiting to pin it on a White supremacist.

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Of course, even mentioning the maniac's religion makes you Islamophobic, and we don't want to make the squad cry again.

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What a great time to be alive if you're criminally deranged because you got us. You paralyzed our weak leaders with the fear of being smeared as racist or worse, a Republican if they try to fix anything.

•
So they now accept the idea that random crazies can murder innocent people, especially on the streets where homelessness is the go-to choice by unhinged people and an unhinged person will likely commit unhinged activity.

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No one in power makes this connection. The person who chooses to live crazily is more likely to do crazy things.
Concha rips Jen Psaki for criticism of Youngkin's school mask order: 'He was elected, she was selected' (Fox 01/18/2022)
Jesse Watters on Texas synagogue hostage situation: 'There's a lot of suspicious things about this story' (Fox 01/18/2022)
•
"This guy wasn't on your radar? Mr. President, you gave him a visa two weeks ago to come into this country. What kind of visa was it? Did you vet him? Was he on a watch list? Usually, the Feds are all over these people."

•
"And then they do a raid immediately in England with associates or people affiliated with them. So Scotland Yard didn't know anything about this? MI6 had no clue about this guy?"

•
"This guy buys a hot gun off the street two weeks after he gets here? Who is the guy who he bought the gun from? They don't even know how he died. Who shot him? There's a lot of suspicious things about this story and a lot of unanswered questions. And hopefully, Joe has at least one of those answers in the next 48 hours because he should be asked about this."
Here are 6 common sense ways Republicans can win in 2022 (Fox 01/18/2022)
Virginia's new AG Jason Miyares announces major investigations within hours of taking office (Fox 01/17/2022)
•
Virginia's newly sworn-in Attorney General Jason Miyares announced investigations into the Virginia Parole Board and Loudoun County Public Schools within hours of taking office.

•
"One of the reasons Virginians get so fed up with government is the lack of transparency - and that's a big issue here."

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"The Virginia Parole Board broke the law when they let out murders, rapists, and cop killers early on their sentences without notifying the victims. Loudoun Country Public Schools covered up a sexual assault on school grounds for political gain, leading to an additional assault of a young girl."

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In addition to the investigations, Miyares notified about 30 staff members that they will no longer be employed by the office of the attorney general.
Byron Donalds slams Maxine Waters' 'completely outrageous' attack on Manchin and Sinema (Fox 01/17/2022)
Biden's new COVID-19 policy is not what Martin Luther King dreamed about for America (Fox 01/17/2022)
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As former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who is also a neurosurgeon, said ... adding a racial element into a list of otherwise science-based health requirements is absurd and discriminatory.

•
"I remember the people, the millions of people of all races who worked so hard to get rid of discrimination. And here we are trying to bring it back. It's unbelievable... [Minority communities] have those [conditions] anyway. You don't have to throw race into this. All you have to do is treat the people that need to be treated."

•
The Biden administration's discriminatory COVID-19 treatment policy is particularly offensive as we honor the life of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who famously said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

•
The more overt efforts by state-level officials to use this discrimination in response to past discrimination is even more antithetical to Reverend King's message.

•
"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction."
Rep. Burgess Owens: Biden agenda doesn't represent MLK's hopes, 'dreams' (Fox 01/17/2022)
•
"Black Americans, just like Italian Americans or Polish Americans, all we want is fairness. We want to know that our vote counts. To say that we're the only race of the whole country... that if we have to get an ID that we cannot pull it off – I cannot articulate how demeaning that thought process is."

•
Today's Black Lives Matter activists are far different... They're angry. They don't build, they destroy. They don't unify, they divide. It's a totally different strategy. And it's unfortunate."

•
King "was not about dividing us. He was about unifying us. And it was because, at the end of the day, his source was God."

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King "was articulate. He was brave. He was bold. He was respectful. He could persuade people to listen to him. That was the Black community and that was our dreams and hopes at that time."

•
"That is not the dreams and hopes of the Biden Administration. Look at everything they do and the policy they put together. It's demeaning. It's divisive."

•
"At the end of the day, you have more Black people hating people today than they did when Martin Luther King was around."

•
"They are being trained to hate other people based on their race. Martin Luther King was saying, let's come together regardless of race."
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears: 'Too many of our political leaders' use race 'to divide us' (Fox 01/17/2022)
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"I think I am a visible success story that says to people, ‘You can do it. You will do it. No matter your gender, no matter your color, even no matter where you were born.' Because here I am, this is not my country, not my culture. I came from Jamaica and here, I have made it," Sears said ... noting that she is now the number two official in what was once the capital of the Confederacy.

•
"Are you going to look at the glass as half full or as half empty? Because if it's half empty that's a negative view of life."

•
"That's where too many of our political leaders come from and all it does is serve their, I think, nefarious agenda to divide us and to say you're a victim, you're always going to be a victim, and the other people are the oppressors and so you need us."

•
Following the same philosophy of not wanting to divide, new Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order on his first day in office banning the teaching of "divisive concepts" like critical race theory in public education.

•
"We need to know where we were wrong so that we can move forward and right things. The way to right things is to have that opportunity to have a good education. It is to give parents choice. We're going to teach everything, we're not going to sugarcoat anything, because the one thing we've learned from history, as someone once said, is that we don't learn from history."
How the media pushes a misleading narrative on the filibuster debate (Fox 01/17/2022)
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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Democrats will use election overhaul legislation to 'cheat' in future elections: Sen. Rick Scott (Fox 01/16/2022)
•
"If you look at the Democrat Party now, they are the ones that are anti-democracy, they talk about packing the Supreme Court. They don't want you to show your I.D. to vote...and by the way, your signatures don't have to match if you use mail-in voting, and we'll have ballot harvesting....and the unmonitored ballot boxes that is good, because that could help us cheat," he said. "What the Democrat Party is they are the anti-democracy party. That's what they've become."

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"I think we'll take the House, and we're gonna take the Senate. Joe Biden is cratering, looking at what you list, border, killing Keystone pipeline, inflation, the withdrawal of Afghanistan debacle, defunding police. Not letting parents be involved in schools, they are unpopular."
Fauci, COVID-19 origins to be investigated if House flips back to GOP control in 2022: Jim Jordan (Fox 01/16/2022)
'Corrupt' FBI should be 'eliminated' for statement on Texas synagogue hostage taker: Critics (Fox 01/16/2022)
•
"The FBI is now an organization solely focused on destroying the domestic enemies of the Democratic Party."
Heritage Foundation scholar breaks down 'absurd' federalization of elections in Democrats' bill (Fox 01/16/2022)
Trump delivers what sounds like a 2024 stump speech at his first rally of 2022 (Fox 01/16/2022)
Trump, in Arizona, says Biden more destructive 'than 5 presidents put together' (Fox 01/16/2022)
Virginia Gov. Youngkin's day-one executive orders include investigating Loudon County officials, CRT ban (Fox 01/15/2022)
McCarthy outlines GOP priorities if Republicans take control of House in midterms (Fox 01/15/2022)
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"Republican priorities when we regain the majority next year: 1 - Hold the Biden Administration accountable 2 - Secure the Border 3 - Make our cities safe again 4 - Rein in the out-of-control inflation 5 - Stop the overreach of government mandates."
Gutfeld: Government health agencies put their reputations over your life (Fox 01/15/2022)
National School Boards Association ripped apart after letter comparing parents to domestic terrorists (Fox 01/14/2022)
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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli banned from drug industry for life, ordered to pay nearly $65M (Fox 01/14/2022)
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Martin Shkreli, the so-called "Pharma Bro" known for jacking up medicine prices, has been banned from the pharmaceutical industry for life and ordered to pay almost $65 million...

•
... sued Shkreli, his former company Vyera and a business partner Kevin Mulleady two years ago accusing him of "monopolizing" the life-saving drug Daraprim...

•
For a long time, Daraprim was the only treatment with approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

•
When Shkreli and his firm purchased the rights to the drug in 2015 they jacked up the price by more than 4,000% — increasing the cost for a single pill from $17.50 to $750. Generic versions did not reach the U.S. market until 2020.

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The embattled former executive is also serving a seven-year prison term for securities fraud after losing millions of dollars from investors in bad trades and reimbursing them with profits from another drug company.

•
The judgment comes on top of a previous $40 million judgment against Vyera.

•
See related Shkreli Fraud Charges (Dave Granlund, 12/17/2015) cartoon from USA picture album
Massive California train looting prompts intense criticism of Democrats, Gavin Newsom: 'This is America?' (Fox 01/14/2022)
•
"Nice work [Democrats]! This is the end result of many of your 'policies.' You let people steal up to $950 worth of merchandise, you let people live on the street (many criminals), you defund police so they don't have the force to stop this and kill our supply chain; [this] happens."

•
"California is the 5th wealthiest state in America, with an average net worth of 160k per resident. Where the hell are the tax dollars going? This looks like a third world country. Anyone who entertains the idea of [Gavin Newsom] running for anything nationally should see this."
Supreme Court saves Americans from Biden COVID vaccine mandate — but the fight is not over (Fox 01/14/2022)
•
Last year, President Joe Biden launched an unprecedented assault on Americans' constitutional liberties by imposing unlawful COVID-19 vaccine mandates on millions of individuals.

•
... the Court released its opinions on both cases, striking down the OSHA mandate and allowing the CMS mandate to proceed. Because of the OSHA ruling, tens of millions of Americans who are employed at private businesses were saved from this mandate.

•
... the federal government doesn't get to be your nanny, and it shouldn't get to be your doctor. It has used this COVID-19 emergency to commandeer too many liberties that are solely afforded to sovereign states and free Americans.

•
History has taught us that once a government takes rights from its citizens, they are almost never recovered.

•
States must be vigilant and always ready to challenge a federal government that is growing too fast and too powerful.

•
Ultimately, this fight is about far more than these mandates. It's about the direction of this country and the future we will leave for our children.

•
The Biden administration believes that we cannot exist without a centralized government that will make the best decisions for all of us.

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The COVID-19 vaccine mandates were not the first, and certainly won't be the last step in this authoritarian direction.

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We refuse this outcome for the United States. We believe that all of us are given unalienable rights by our Creator — not by the government.

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We believe that the government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. That's why we have — and will continue to — fight these mandates and protect your liberties.
DOJ charges Oath Keepers founder, 10 others with seditious conspiracy related to Jan. 6 riot (Fox 01/14/2022)
Pennsylvania Republicans to draft bill to relocate migrants on Biden DHS flights to Delaware (Fox 01/13/2022)
Matt Walsh: The left thinks they own your kids, but parents are starting to wake up (Fox 01/13/2022)
•
"This is outrageous, but now it's very obvious that this was a plan. This was a concerted effort by the Biden administration in coordination with the school boards and with now Big Tech to silence really threatened parents with being labeled domestic terrorists. This is outrageous."

•
"In some ways, I'm glad that the Biden administration labeled us domestic terrorists because that was a wake-up moment for a lot of parents who had been asleep up to that point."

•
"We also have to keep in mind, why do they consider us domestic terrorists? Well, the answer is: why do they consider this a threat at all? It's because ... The school system, the federal government, Big Tech – they think that they own our kids, that our kids belong to them, and how dare we try to have any say over what our kids are taught [and] what kind of values are instilled in them. That's what this is really about. It's about who owns your kids. And they think that they do. And how dare you step in the way."

•
"I don't want my kids to be able to sign up for a sport or any extracurricular without my parental oversight, and yet you're going to allow them to make arguably the most consequential decision, irreversible decision that they will make in their lives without any consultation of parents. This is one of the scariest things I've seen."

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related My Son-in-Law\\\'s CRT Business (Mike Shelton, 10/07/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Jesse Watters lists the things more popular than Joe Biden (Fox 01/13/2022)
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"Dentists are more popular than Biden... Bugs are more popular than Joe Biden. The Confederate flag is more popular than the president. Broccoli is more popular than the President. Donald Trump - two weeks after January 6, more popular than Joe Biden. And Nancy Pelosi - by a hair - is more popular than Joe Biden."

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"If you make Americans' lives more expensive, more dangerous and more inconvenient - and then you don't inspire them at all - yeah, you're going to have terrible poll numbers."

•
... Jeanine Pirro also took Vice President Kamala Harris to task... "This from the same administration where the head of the Department of Education contacts the Department of Justice and the FBI and the White House so that they can turn parents into domestic terrorists and then go after parents. But then they stand up ... in front of the American public and say, 'We're out there trying to protect children and affordable child care' when basically they're trying to turn our children into little Marxists."
Supreme Court hands Biden COVID vax mandate defeat, sparking fury from liberals (Fox 01/13/2022)
The Court ruled that OSHA lacked the authority to impose such a mandate because the law that created OSHA "empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health ()
Supreme Court blocks Biden OSHA vaccine mandate, allows rule for health care workers (Fox 01/13/2022)
Laura Ingraham suggests running mate for Hillary Clinton's potential 2024 presidential campaign (Fox 01/13/2022)
•
"Hillary and Liz Cheney, they do have a lot in common. Both these gals are committed globalists. They favor open borders and are pro-China... They're both pro-Big Tech and both benefited hugely from nepotism. But most importantly, they both have dim views of ... grassroot Republicans."

•
"The Democrats have no intention of sharing power with the never-Trumpers. They never did. The whole point of their lies was to create a dynamic where they can discredit everything that's normal and shift the country radically to the left. That's why they want to undermine our constitution, our elections, our culture and our history. So they can replace it with hard-left control."

•
"And things are only going to get worse for Biden this year because inflation's already at seven percent."

•
"Teachers still don't want to return to the classroom in blue states. And thanks to Fauci's freakout and Biden's crippling mandates, they can't get people to return to work."
Mainstream media resorts to shaming, insulting unvaccinated Americans as COVID surges (Fox 01/13/2022)
•
... Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik encouraged readers to publicly mock the deaths of anti-vaxxers, calling attacks of this nature a "necessary" evil to tamper vaccine skepticism.

•
In a column titled, "Mocking anti-vaxxers' deaths is ghoulish, yes — but necessary," Hiltzik declared the deaths of unvaccinated America are "teachable moments" for the nation.

•
"... those who have deliberately flouted sober medical advice by refusing a vaccine known to reduce the risk of serious disease from the virus, including the risk to others, and end up in the hospital or the grave can be viewed as receiving their just deserts."

•
"Anyone who calls to shame another human being is resorting to a substandard approach and not a humane approach to helping us increase our connection, our human connection through good communication."

•
"What really is effective is highly effective, you know, interpersonal connection on a human level where we're listening to one another and shaming isn't listening. Shaming is talking down to and denigrating and that won't be effective."

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Dr. Marc Siegel ... was hesitant to address the recent rhetoric by outlets such as the Post, MSNBC and L.A. Times because "anybody that would make a statement like that is disqualifying themselves from serious discourse," and dismissed the polarizing columns as "insensitive and purely political."

•
"Whether you want to decrease your risk of ending up in a hospital, that's a personal choice. I, as a health practitioner, certainly hope you make the right choice because I don't want to have, you know, the hospital flooded, but I have the hospital flooded with smokers who are getting lung cancer and I take care of them," Siegel told... "I don't shame them."

•
"It's not about public health. It's all about power and control. Joe Biden promised to contain COVID, and he has failed miserably, so they are using the unvaccinated as a scapegoat," Boothe told...

•
"I don't know if they have noticed, but everyone is getting COVID. Did the vaccine prevent Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Jen Psaki, AOC or Lloyd Austin from getting COVID? The answer is no."
As COVID rages, Biden shows true colors – and his administration's incompetence (Fox 01/12/2022)
Loudoun County teen at center of school sexual assaulTucker Carlson: Biden's speeches reveal what he thinks of Americanst cases sentenced (Fox 01/12/2022)
Kudlow: Biden is going to suffer another massive defeat as his presidency continues to unravel (Fox 01/12/2022)
NEA urged social media giants to fight anti-CRT 'propaganda' stoking 'violent' 'radicalized' parents (Fox 01/12/2022)
•
"It's unsurprising that NEA leadership is demonizing parents and concerned citizens who've expressed their concerns about the state of America's schools – after all, over the past two years it's become abundantly clear that union leaders' primary objective is to maintain their iron grip on power – student achievement and welfare be damned."

•
"Learning loss has disproportionately impacted disadvantaged students, and mental health of students and parents alike have suffered. Yet when individuals try to raise these points, they are smeared as ‘radical' and ‘extremist' in an attempt to shame, silence, and marginalize families."

•
"It's ironic that the NEA would reference 'radicalized parents' who falsely believe that critical race theory is anything but a graduate level course. It was the NEA that introduced measures this summer to support the implantation of critical race theory in K-12."

•
"The NEA owes concerned parents an apology for accusing them of being violent, 'radicalized,' and controlled by ‘conspiracy theories,'"...

•
"Creating a scary strawman while failing to address the actual worries of parents is a typical tactic for these special interest groups."

•
"Social media platforms are key for parents who are trying to organize resistance to the NEA's agenda — the NEA's call for suppressing so-called misinformation sounds like another name for censorship."

•
... parents "are not going away. This year, we are committed to challenging these radical special interest groups and exposing each and every one of them for secretly trying to silence us and hijack our parental rights."
Cotton uses Schumer's own words in defense of the filibuster on Senate floor (Fox 01/12/2022)
•
"The nuclear option is being pushed largely by the radioactive rhetoric of a small band of radicals, who hold in their hands the political fortunes of the president."

•
"Constitutional scholars will tell us that the reason we have these rules in the Senate — unlimited debate, two-thirds to change the rules, the idea that 60 have to close off debate — is debate in the spirit and role of the Constitution. That is what the Constitution is all about. We all know it."
Western Carolina students face death threats, faculty mockery for speaking out against 'woke' training (Fox 01/12/2022)
•
Students who spoke out against mandatory racial and gender training at Western Carolina University were mocked online by faculty who boasted about being "proud" to be "woke" and subjected to death threats and calls to be fired.

•
... Resident Assistants were forced to undergo racial sensitivity training with slides warning them about "denying" the "racial experience" of another person if they say "When I look at you I don't see color."

•
They were also told that referring to America as a "melting pot" can be deemed offensive and be interpreted as saying "you should assimilate to the dominant culture."

•
The RAs were also introduced to a "gender unicorn" which outlined the many variations of "gender identities" and "gender expressions" that students might identify by...
Rand Paul rips Fauci following latest hearing fireworks: He doesn't want debate because he 'is science' (Fox 01/12/2022)
•
"[Fauci] funded the lab. He tried to obscure the idea that he was giving money to the lab and then he steadfastly, for two years, said it wasn't gain of function, that they weren't taking viruses that don't exist in nature, creating them and creating viruses that are so dangerous that they could actually wipe out a portion of humanity."

•
"He continues to deny that if this came from the lab — yes, he's culpable. So when you ask him to investigate it, he's not exactly interested. He has a conflict of interest because it came from the lab."

•
"Dr. Fauci doesn't want to debate. He wants to squelch debate because ‘he is science'. If you criticize him, you're criticizing science."

•
"To say that I'm responsible for death threats on him would be equivalent to myself or Steve Scalise saying that the Bernie Sanders supporter that shot us, that it was Bernie Sanders' responsibility."

•
"I was 10 feet from a young man who was shot. I was about 20 yards from Steve Scalise, who was shot. Not one Republican came forward and said it was Bernie Sanders' fault because this was a supporter of his. And so when Democrats say that and falsely is a Democrat partisan, when he says it, [Fauci] is trying to deflect."

•
"He says that he is science and that if you question him or oppose him, you're opposing science. But this kind of arrogance also led him and Dr. Collins to say they would take a takedown of three epidemiologists who started the Great Barrington Declaration there from Stanford, Oxford and Harvard."

•
"[Collins and Fauci] called them fringe. They orchestrated a takedown campaign in the lay media, not in the scientific journals on the merits, but in the lay media. And so he didn't want to answer my question, so he accuses me of fomenting violence. But it's a misdirection because he doesn't want to accept that basically, he's become a political animal and that everything he does every day is to further his political agenda, not the science."

•
"The idea that someone like yourself would represent science, and that any criticism of you would be a criticism of science itself is quite dangerous."

•
"Central planning, whether it be of the economy or of science, is risky because of the fallibility of the planner."

•
See related Fauci Doubt (Gary McCoy, 06/17/2021) cartoon from General picture album
McConnell fires back at Biden's 'profoundly unpresidential' speech: 'Deliberately divisive' (Fox 01/12/2022)
•
... Biden "called millions of Americans his domestic enemies" in the speech and "shouted that if you disagree with him, you're George Wallace."

•
"George Wallace? If you don't pass the laws he wants, you're Bull Connor, and if you oppose giving Democrats untrammeled, one-party control of the country, well you're Jefferson Davis."

•
... slammed Biden for invoking the Civil War "to demonize Americans who disagree with him" and pointed out that the president compared "a bipartisan majority of senators to literal traitors."

•
"How profoundly, profoundly unpresidential. Look, I've known, liked and personally respected Joe Biden for many years. I did not recognize the man at the podium yesterday."

•
"A president shouting that 52 senators and millions of Americans are racist unless he gets whatever he wants is proving exactly why the Framers built the Senate to check his power."

•
... also called Biden's speech a "rant" that was "incoherent, incorrect and beneath his office," and said the president's speech on Tuesday was the "perfect case study" as to "how Sen. Biden was right about the filibuster and President Biden is wrong."
Fauci on hot mic calls Republican senator a 'moron' after question on investment disclosures (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
"I understand that Anthony Fauci had a very frustrating day: having a bombshell report show he in fact did award U.S. tax dollars for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and being called out about his personal financial disclosure during the COVID pandemic NOT being publically available must be very frustrating."

•
"Calling me a moron during a Senate hearing may have alleviated the stress of the least trusted bureaucrat in America, but it didn't take away from the facts."

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See related Lord Fauci (Dick Wright, 12/26/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
NYC man accused of attacking man for wearing Israel Defense Forces hoodie arrested, charged with hate crime (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
I'm going to court in Brooklyn tonight to make sure this hate crime suspect doesn't waltz out of jail quicker than he went in for his violent attack.

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We want the judge to stop the merry-go-round of justice from turning so this man won't pose a danger to Jews.

•
"Our justice system these days is more interested in ... the criminal than the victim. The victim doesn't even count that much."

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"If this guy just walks ... what kind of message does that send?"
Kudlow: Biden's presidency has unraveled in just under a year (Fox 01/11/2022)
Greg Gutfeld calls out Biden for comments during speech about Democrats' voting bill (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
Biden warned of a stark dichotomy between the proponents and opponents of the Democrats' election law overhaul bill... asking a crowd in Atlanta on Tuesday whether they wanted to be "on the side of Dr. King or [former Alabama Democratic Gov.] George Wallace."

•
Wallace notably proclaimed in his 1963 gubernatorial inauguration address, "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

•
... Wallace, a 1972 presidential candidate, was a prominent Democrat during Biden's early years in the U.S. Senate.

•
"It's just great when he mentions George Wallace because, whose side was George Wallace on? He was on Joe Biden's – Joe Biden bragged about the fact George Wallace liked Joe Biden."

•
"Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware tells Southerners that the lower half of his state is culturally part of Dixie. He reminds them that former Alabama Gov. George Wallace praised him as one of the outstanding young politicians of America," read the report in the Detroit Free Press.

•
"I don't know why all the activists are upset about Joe because ‘Moderate Joe' is dead. He's buried." "What you saw there [in Georgia on Tuesday] was a guy who wants to federalize elections. He's splitting the country in half with divisive, earsplitting rhetoric like it dementia-riddled transient shouting at clouds."
Questions about 'gender identity' for an 11-year-old don't belong in public school (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
... imagine how furious I was to find out that my son, let me repeat that, my SON, was recently asked what his gender identity is on, of all things...

•
Let's set to one side the abject absurdity of 11-year-olds even filling out teacher evaluation forms. Though it is related.

•
As the online form flows to the bottom, the questions become demographic in nature. What is your race? Do you feel people like you are represented in the lessons? That kind of thing.

•
Then finally, boom. "What is your gender identity?" The options being "Boy," "Girl", "I use another word," or opting not to answer.

•
... personally I no more believe that a man can become a woman, or the reverse, than that Joe Biden can play for the Lakers.

•
But even if I'm wrong about that, gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition, and as such, it requires medical diagnosis, not self-identification by pre-teens on a Department of Education survey form.

•
Obviously, this question is not only leading, but expresses as reality something that many, and let's be honest, its probably most, Americans do not believe is real.

•
The question, "What is your gender identity," on an official form plants a dangerous seed in the minds of children. It encourages gender confusion.

•
After all, "trans," "non-binary," "Demi-Fem" or whatever new nonsense term they pick up on TikTok, are way more special than "normal" or "cis," and middle schoolers crave being special, unique and important. This is not a question so much as an invitation.

•
Teaching tolerance in a host of areas, from race, to religion, to disability and myriad others is a proper function of a public school system. But, nudging kids toward a lifestyle by propagating progressive propaganda is not.

•
I count myself lucky that my son brought this question to his parents' attention with the 11-year-old version of "What the hell is this?" But that he had to bring it to our attention at all is disgraceful and dangerous.

•
We send our kids to school to learn math, science, history and a general love of learning, not to be indoctrinated with some religion of gender transubstantiation.

•
What began as a legitimate demand to treat those who identify as trans with dignity and respect has turned into an Orwellian requirement that Americans be compelled to accept a metaphysical assertion that is simply not provable in any scientific way.

•
That's bad enough in adult contexts such as workplaces and newspaper style guides, but to force it upon children verges on abuse.

•
For many who object to these practices, private school for their own kids is the answer. But it's not good enough.

•
The vast majority of our children attend government schools and until that is no longer true we all have a responsibility to protect those students.

•
Every day the excesses of the trans movement become more apparent. A biological man smashes records in Ivy League women's swim meets, J.K. Rowling is barred from celebrations of her own novels, people with penises are housed among women in prisons and shelters.

•
Now, 11-year-olds are asked to assign themselves genders by the mighty, all knowing state.

•
Let children be children, not perilous pawns on the chessboard of our current culture wars. There will be time enough for that.

•
Let us not replace their innocence with the indoctrination of identity politics. They are children, not experiments.

•
If we must, in defiance of the knowledge of thousands of years, now debate the nature of gender, so be it. But if it be so, for God's sake, leave my 11-old-year out of it.
Progressives scold SCOTUS for possibly striking down Biden's vaccine mandates: 'Very wrong' (Fox 01/11/2022)
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"While the conservative justices are willing to protect themselves from getting sick at work, however, they're unwilling to extend those protections to the American worker."
Education Secretary Cardona facing calls to resign after email shows he solicited controversial NSBA letter (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
"The truth comes out. Woke @SecCardona asked @NSBAPublicEd to write the letter @TheJusticeDept used to mobilize the FBI to begin treating parents like domestic terrorists. Cardona should resign."

•
"It appears Biden's Education Secretary may have helped initiate the NSBA's now-retracted letter to the DOJ requesting they spy on parents under the Patriot Act. If true, he needs to resign."
Ted Cruz slams podium over reporter's mask questions: 'Just once' I'd like you to ask Biden, Psaki about that (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
"And by the way, on the question of hypocrisy, you just asked, you people at the podium are speaking without masks. Just once, I'd like to see a reporter say to Joe Biden when he stands at the damn podium in the White House without a mask, 'Mr. President, why aren't you wearing a mask?'" Cruz said angrily.

•
"Just once, I'd like to see you say to Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary, when she stands at the podium with no mask, ‘Ms. Psaki, why don't you have a mask?' The questions are only directed at one side, and I got to say that the American people see the hypocrisy."
Women can beat the odds, but we can't beat biology. Keep men out of women's sports (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
... the International Olympic Committee's new transgender athlete guidelines... include an interesting — and really hypocritical — statement, in which committee members recognize "the need to ensure that everyone, irrespective of their gender identity or sex variations, can practice sport in a safe, harassment-free environment that recognizes and respects their needs and identities."

•
By "everyone," it seems clear the committee only means people who identify as a sex different than the one they were born with — because by allowing men to compete against women, the committee is pretty much ensuring that female athletes will have to compete less safely and fairly.

•
And, for any women who object to that, it's clear that many authority figures — coaches, administrators, sports officials, elected officials, and even the Olympic Committee itself — will not only harass them, but refuse to respect their needs and identity.

•
Any female athlete can tell you how defeating that is. Being a competitive athlete is about so much more than showing up for the race, or even doing all the workouts and practices. It's about everything you give up for your sport — the day-after-day of getting up early, the parties you skip because you can't stay out that late, the family and school events you can't attend because you're competing or working with the team. All of that feels trampled underfoot by that male runner pulling ahead of you.

•
My fellow female athletes and I are not supposed to notice that, suddenly, we're running against people who aren't like us — who are naturally stronger and faster, who are suddenly winning all the prizes we've worked so hard to obtain, and who now have access to all the scholarships and athletic recognition we've legitimately earned.

•
We're supposed to smile and cheer and clap and pretend that we're all very happy about this — that we don't object to seeing our years of effort and lifelong dreams go up in so much smoke, and that we don't mind denying reality as long as it pleases the woke crowd and keeps our school safe from a lawsuit.

•
As an athlete and a biology major, I find it fascinating that the same sports authorities who would think it crazy to put a heavyweight boxer in the ring with a flyweight — just because the first guy "identifies as a flyweight" this week — think it's perfectly natural to put a male on the running track or soccer field next to a woman and declare that "fair."

•
Putting male athletes in women's sports isn't fair. Not physically — because biology and common sense both tell us that men and women are different, whether some want to admit it or not.

•
It's reducing athletic competition to two categories: men's and co-ed. It's taking away women's chances not only of winning, but even of fairly competing in sports.

•
Think of all the women competing in just those two events: of their combined years of practice, sacrifice, and self-denial — all of that gone, the moment the male athlete stepped into the next lane.

•
We can beat exhaustion, frustration, even a tough team. We can beat the clock. We can beat some pretty tough odds. But in the end, we can't beat biology — or officials more concerned with pleasing the wokes than "respecting our needs and identities."

•
See related Poor Sport (Antonio Branco, 06/25/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Fauci, Paul clash over accusations of 'cheap politics' regarding alleged 'takedown' of other scientists (Fox 01/11/2022)
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"In an email exchange with Dr. [Francis] Collins, you conspire, and I quote here directly from the email, to ‘create a quick and devastating published takedown' of three prominent epidemiologists from Harvard, Oxford and Stanford."

•
"Instead of engaging them on the merits, you and Dr. Collins sought to smear them as fringe and take them down, and not in journals in lay press. This is not only antithetical to the scientific method, it's the epitome of cheap politics, and it's reprehensible, Dr. Fauci."
Reps. Comer, Jordan expose new Fauci emails they say point to COVID-19 lab leak 'cover up' (Fox 01/11/2022)
Education Secretary Cardona solicited NSBA letter comparing protesting parents to domestic terrorists (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
President Biden's Department of Justice relied on the NSBA letter, which suggested using the PATRIOT Act against parents, in creating its own memo directing the FBI to mobilize in support of local education officials.

•
See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Dr. Ben Carson, in response to Biden COVID treatment policy, recalls racial discrimination of his youth (Fox 01/10/2022)
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"They have those [underlying conditions] anyway. You don't have to throw race into this. Treat the people that need to be treated. Probably a higher number of those individuals will be treated because they have a greater incidence of it."
What is human trafficking? (Fox 01/11/2022)
RNC sues NYC Mayor Adams over law allowing noncitizens to vote (Fox 01/10/2022)
•
"American elections should be decided by American citizens. If Democrats can subvert elections this flagrantly in America's largest city, they can do it anywhere."

•
"The RNC is suing to protect the integrity of our elections, and we stand ready to do the same wherever Democrats try to attack the basic security of your ballot."
Brandon Brown signs '8-figure' LGBcoin sponsorship despite NASCAR ban (Fox 01/10/2022)
•
... LGBcoin said Brown is now a "holder" of the currency and his spokesperson confirmed ... that he is being paid in "both cash and coin."

•
The meme coin was inspired by the "Let's Go Brandon" saying that has become popular among critics of the Biden administration after an NBC Sports reporter misinterpreted the crowd at Talladega Superspeedway chanting "F** Joe Biden" during a televised interview with race winner Brown.

•
LGBcoin says its product "allows owners to digitally voice their support for America and the American dream" but cautions that it has "no intrinsic value."

•
"I'm working to achieve my own American dream," Brown said... "I'm humbled and thankful for LGBcoin.io's reaffirmed support for my professional journey and their commitment to maintain a patriotic message."
Ricky Gervais sounds off on 'virtue signaling' prior to Golden Globes (Fox 01/10/2022)
•
Gervais was famous for his irreverent approach to the awards show. Last year, he mentioned the former financier Jeffrey Epstein. The crowd groaned and he said: "Shut up. I know he's your friend."

•
He told the British paper that he believes his approach was embraced by the public because so many viewers at home are struggling and they think, ‘Why are these people lecturing me? They're going to an awards ceremony in a limo and are telling me to recycle."

•
He said people just got sick of the "virtue signaling" and celebrities "were like a beacon to aim their wrath at."

•
"You have to make a decision as a comedian. Do you pander to the 200 most privileged people in the world in the room or the 200 million watching at home?"
Trump helps thrust once-ignored secretary of state campaigns into big donor spotlight (Fox 01/10/2022)
•
Outside groups are heavily targeting these races. Robert Reich, a former labor secretary, warned in a fundraising pitch for the liberal group MoveOn that Trump wants to "install himself in the White House in 2024" by electing secretaries of state.

•
"His plot centers around using the 2022 elections to install right-wing loyalists to one of the most obscure, but important, jobs in politics: Secretary of State — the officials who control voter registration, oversee the counting of the votes, and declare the winners and losers of elections."

•
"If Trump's plot succeeds, Trump-backed secretaries of state in key battleground states will have the power to disregard the will of the people and throw out the necessary number of ballots — thousands or perhaps millions — to ensure that Trump is declared the winner."

•
Republicans are focusing less on Trump as they contend that Democrats want administrators to change the rules of elections for their own advantages.

•
"Republicans will be successful in these races because Americans across the country understand now more than ever the importance of having strong secretaries of state who will make it easier to vote and harder to cheat."

•
"National liberals are ramping up their investments in secretary of state races because they see control of these offices as a way to change the rules to compensate for their inability to win elections with their failed socialist agenda."
Devin Nunes all in on Trump 'TRUTH' social media platform, says he is still 'doing a public service' (Fox 01/10/2022)
•
"It is not a Republican company, but it is going to be a company open to all Americans. It is going to be the freest platform, for sure, because we are not going to be using these algorithms."

•
"We are going to get the technology right, there is no question. The key will be, can we handle the growth. This has to be built without the use of any of these companies that would cut us off."

•
"We can't use any of the woke corporations, or private woke corporations, so all of this has to be developed from scratch."

•
... pointed to the House Intelligence Committee's bipartisan China probe, which he said is still ongoing. "I think that one is the one where we were most out on front, we were doing a really good job, but what happened with the Russia hoax, it destroyed us."

•
"This is not Trump's fault or Republicans' fault, it is the left's fault for derailing the whole country and taking our focus off of what we should have been focusing on, which is this China problem."
Florida school bans teaching CRT, gender fluidity, and 'mainstream narrative surrounding Covid' (Fox 01/09/2022)
•
"As a school, we do not subscribe to or promote Critical Race Theory, Gender Fluidity, or the mainstream narrative surrounding Covid, all hot topics that many schools are now choosing to teach as factual rather than as the theories they are."

•
"The repeated messaging from the media shapes cultural norms and the way we view social and cultural issues."

•
"Rather than jump on board with the mass media's storyline, we challenge our students to question, research, analyze and consider issues from multiple perspectives before coming to their own conclusions."

•
"Instead of teaching students what to think, we teach them how to think."
Walensky says Sotomayor's pediatric COVID hospitalization number was off 96.5% (Fox 01/09/2022)
•
"We have over 100,000 children, which we've never had before, in serious condition and many on ventilators," Sotomayor said.

•
That figure is more than 96.5% higher than the number of children actually hospitalized with COVID-19, according to Walensky.

•
Walensky also pointed out that numbers of COVID hospitalizations generally include patients who go to hospitals for other reasons and just happen to test positive while they are there, as opposed to those who go to the hospital because they are sick with COVID.

•
"In some hospitals that we've talked to, up to 40% of the patients who are coming in with COVID are coming in not because they're sick with COVID but because they're coming in with something else and have had COVID or the omicron variant detected."

•
Walensky did not have a number of how many children are on ventilators. Urging Americans to get vaccinated, she said she believes many hospitals do not have any vaccinated children on ventilators.

•
"While pediatric hospitalizations are rising, they are still about 15-fold less than hospitalizations of our older demographics."
Son of Texas woman stabbed to death by man arrested 67 times and out on bail urges change: 'No accountability' (Fox 01/08/2022)
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Rosalie Cook, 80, was walking to her car in a Walgreens parking lot just before 10 a.m. on May 16, 2020 after having purchased birthday cards when Randy Lewis pushed her to the ground and stabbed her to death.

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Lewis, 38, was shot and killed by police at the scene after having charged at an officer with a knife.

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"If I could sue a judge, I would do it," Cook's son, Chuck Cook, told... "There is no accountability. There's just a lot of fronts that I'm really angry about in terms of the (criminal justice) system."

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Cook, a grandmother of six, was among at least 156 people who have been killed since 2018 by offenders out on multiple bonds in Harris County, Texas, the state's most populous county...

•
"We were seeing really violent, violent habitual offenders being released on either no bond or ridiculously low bonds, and we said, ‘This is going to wreak havoc'. It's the epicenter for bail reform run amok."

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The monster who stabbed, murdered, robbed an innocent 80 yr old grandmother over the weekend, has been arrested 67 times! And was out on 2 felony PR bonds! The colossal failure of bail and CJ reform in Houston is on full display here. Innocent people are dying. This has to STOP!!
Nearly twice as many military members died from suicide July-Sept than from coronavirus since pandemic's start (Fox 01/08/2022)
The arrogance of Anthony Fauci (Fox 01/07/2022)
•
The classical liberal economist Friedrich Hayek foresaw this debate when he wrote: "Most scientists realize that we cannot plan the advance of knowledge, that in the voyage into the unknown — which is what research is — we are in great measure dependent on the vagaries of individual genius and of circumstance, and that scientific advance, like a new idea that will spring up in a single mind, will be the result of a combination of conceptions, habits, and circumstances brought to one person by society, the result as much of lucky accidents as of systematic effort."

•
Anthony Fauci's fundamental decision to ignore natural immunity has led to a cascade of bad decisions, the effects of which have seeped into all of our lives.

•
If Fauci was simply one family doctor in Peoria, his mistakes would not be so catastrophic. But since Fauci's status approximates that of a medical czar, his errors are amplified throughout the land.

•
When Fauci creates algorithms that prohibit monoclonal antibodies from being given to hospital patients, he consigns those most at risk to struggle for recovery without one of our most effective treatments.

•
When Fauci decides that he alone will define and fund dangerous ‘gain-of-function' research, his disregard for the possibility of a lab leak is felt worldwide.

•
Arguments for the dispersion of power are essentially arguments for limiting the damage that one man's fallibility can create.

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We should oppose the concentration of power in any one person's hand not simply because they might have bad intent but because all men are fallible.

•
My father often said that liberty brings people together because it respects others' opinions and a truly free society doesn't allow for anyone to inflict their opinion on others.

•
Contrast the arrogance of so-called experts who argue that newborns must be forcibly vaccinated with the opinion that children are at such low risk from COVID that vaccines aren't advisable.

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The opinion not to vaccinate children for COVID can be accepted or not. It is merely a suggestion that can be accepted or rejected by parents.

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But the mandate that a newborn be vaccinated decimates parental choice. When parental rights are squelched by mandates, rather than bringing people together to fight COVID, a wedge is formed and anger leads us to fight each other.

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This rift is the fundamental contrast between the collectivism of Fauci and those who wish to be left alone.

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While those of us who wish to be left alone are not intent on making anyone accept our beliefs, the central planners and advocates of the mandates won't be content unless they can inflict their beliefs on everyone.

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The debate over vaccine mandates is a war between individuals who wish to be free to choose their own medical regimen and collectivists who will not be content until everyone is made to submit to the diktats of the government planners.

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Let's hope Americans will, once again, rally to the cause of freedom and reject medical tyranny and allow each individual to live their life as their own conscience dictates.

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See related Lord Fauci (Dick Wright, 12/26/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Time to finally put Biden's vaccine mandates behind us (Fox 01/07/2022)
•
The Biden administration spent their first year in office overreaching into every aspect of American life, the most dangerous of which is its unconstitutional vaccine mandate for private businesses.

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Vaccination revolutionized medicine. Vaccines ended terrible diseases that plagued humankind for centuries, and they continue to protect us today.

•
However, vaccines are not infallible. They are not an option for everyone, and they should never be forced on someone who doesn't want them.

•
The Biden administration's single-track focus on vaccination rather than therapeutics for COVID is telling. We know that none of the COVID vaccines prevent you from contracting the disease, and they don't prevent you from passing it on to someone else.

•
Now, Biden admits ... the federal government does not have the solution for COVID. This comes after Biden repeatedly promised on the campaign trail that he had a plan to shut down the virus and criticized President Donald Trump for leaving many decisions to local leaders.

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Coercion, manipulation, and lies have never been the tools of the righteous. Mr. President, we know that individuals have the right to control their own public health decisions.

•
It's not too late to abandon failed strategies and end the overreaching federal mandates.
Former prosecutors call Manhattan DA's soft on crime policies 'definition of insanity' (Fox 01/07/2022)
•
"This will encourage would-be robbers to bring weapons to their crimes as they won't be punished any worse than if they didn't bring weapons."

•
"Let's say somebody puts a gun in your face and threatens to blow your brains outs, if the gun is unloaded, presumably there is no ‘genuine risk of physical harm' which under the memo would appear to be subject to prosecution as a petit larceny."

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"You're basically creating a whole special class of people who are non-citizens or here illegally, and you're going treat them more favorably than American citizens."

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... the public outcry over Bragg's memo is unwarranted given that he ran for district attorney on this progressive platform. "People are shocked that he's actually keeping his word, which admittedly is rare for any politician."

•
"The people of Manhattan have spoken. They want felons back on the streets."

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See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Ingraham rips 'Cheney Democrats' who don't trust democracy, doing China's work (Fox 01/07/2022)
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"How weak these Cheney Democrats have proven themselves to be. They control all levers of power in America, and yet their message to the world is we can't govern and our democracy is about to collapse. Once again, China has to be laughing. They're doing its work."

•
"[Members of the Bush-Cheney bipartisan regime] really care more about promoting democracy abroad than preserving it at home."

•
"They're the ones who don't really trust democracy because they know that when the people get their way, it means things like border enforcement, ending unlimited immigration, keeping politics out of schools and protecting women's sports. They simply can't risk another repeat of 2016."

•
Vice President Kamala Harris compared last year's Capitol riot to the attack on Pearl Harbor and September 11... By contrast, in the wake of the George Floyd riots, "almost all of the Democrats' ... real emotion was reserved for George Floyd and his family and the protesters themselves."... They characterized the riots as "courageous demonstrations infiltrated by perhaps a few bad apples."

•
"All of the emoting and hyperbole [were] really the last gasp of the old guard. The dinosaurs of the Pelosi-Schumer age are about to go extinct. They know their political con game is coming to an end in November, and they're so petrified that Trump or someone with similar views will win the presidency in 2024 that they're even willing to team up with an old nemesis[, Dick Cheney]."

•
"Now today was just another act in their dramatic effort to save their dying species. Yet none of it's going to distract from their own failures on inflation, COVID, the border, these wars, [and] Afghanistan. And the GOP is never, ever going back to the Bush-Cheney playbook. No, thank you. To preserve democracy, you actually have to trust your people. But they don't. And they're ruthless."
Chuck Schumer's hypocrisy (JWR 01/06/2022)
•
In 2005, Schumer claimed that eliminating the filibuster would turn the country "into a banana republic, where if you don't get your way, you change the rules. Are we gonna let them (presumably he meant Republicans)? It will be doomsday for Democracy if we do."

•
Well, then, has "doomsday" arrived and is Schumer its captain?

•
The Schumer initiative is a power grab. The left, which now controls the Democratic Party, wants to federalize elections, removing from states their right to decide how they wish to conduct their election procedures.

•
Democrats are framing this as a civil rights and "fairness" issue, but it is not difficult to see what their true goal is: the creation of an electoral system that will allow them a permanent majority at the federal level.

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See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Thiessen slams COVID class cancellations: 'Any teacher that refuses to teach should not be teaching' (Fox 01/06/2022)
Kudlow: Biden wants to deflect and distract from his failed agenda and the unraveling of his presidency (Fox 01/06/2022)
•
There's no question that the year-ago assault on the Capitol was a national disgrace and a national calamity.

•
But we still have a bill to kill, a rabid inflation to vanquish, a Mexican border to bolster, as well as a faltering national security posture after the Afghanistan catastrophe and in the next week or so, a possible confrontation with Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine.

•
These are today's problems, and they're going to be tomorrow's problems regardless of one's opinion about last Jan. 6.

•
As I have said before, I wish President Trump had not spoken to the rally that day, but he did not directly incite violence, and he did urge a peaceful protest, and though it gets scant attention, the FBI has found no evidence of a grand scheme or conspiracy regarding President Trump or anybody near him.

•
This was not an insurrection, but it was a damaging riot. To my way of looking at things, this Jan. 6 investigating committee is essentially an anti-trump, anti-GOP fishing expedition. Completely one-sided.

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Nobody wants to explain what happened to the Capitol police. Why they were completely unprepared, sending only 200 of their ranks, though they have over 2,000 officers. Or why didn't Pelosi call in the National Guard?

•
Or why is New York socialist AOC making the ludicrous claim that 'We came close to half of the house nearly dying.' Nonsense.

•
... I believe President Trump's response today to Joe Biden's attack on him that the Biden Democrats would much rather talk about Jan 6 than their failures on open borders, disastrous energy policies, unconstitutional mandates, devastating school closures, inflation, and of course the unraveling of foreign policy.

•
I agree with Trump that Biden wants to deflect and distract from his failed agenda and the unraveling of his presidency.

•
... Biden and the Democrats are really spending more time talking about nationalizing presidential elections rather than getting to the bottom of the many difficult questions regarding last Jan. 6.

•
Chuck Schumer, as always, taking his cue from socialist AOC wants to end the 60-vote filibuster Senate process in order to pass a radical election law that would stop voter IDs, continue unlimited mail-in ballots, and void cleaning up cluttered election registrations such as dead people and many other problems.

•
I think most common-sense folks think endless elections should be stopped, but the woke democrats want to overrun state legislatures for their own ends and keep those mail-in ballots and harvesting with no ID going forever.

•
... make no mistake about it, the Democratic Party is using the Jan. 6 riot in order to undermine the integrity and constitutionality of sound election reform. That's their agenda.

•
Not only did these radical left unions want to teach woke critical race theory garbage in their schools and keep parents out of the curriculum — they don't want to work.

•
They shake down federal, state, and local governments for more and more money in return for less and less work.
Trump: Biden destroying US, election was stolen (INN 01/06/2022)
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"Biden, who is destroying our Nation with insane policies of open Borders, corrupt Elections, disastrous energy policies, unconstitutional mandates, and devastating school closures, used my name today to try to further divide America. This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed. Our Country no longer has Borders, has totally and completely lost control of Covid (record numbers!), is no longer Energy Independent, Inflation is rampant, our Military is in chaos, and our exit, or surrender, from Afghanistan was perhaps the most embarrassing day in the long and distinguished history of the United States — and so much more. Why is it that the Unselect Committee of totally partisan political hacks, whose judgment has long ago been made, not discussing the rigged Presidential Election of 2020? It's because they don't have the answers or justifications for what happened. They got away with something, and it is leading to our Country's destruction. They want all conversation concerning the Election 'Canceled.' Just look at the numbers, they speak for themselves. They are not justifiable, so the complicit media just calls it the Big Lie, when in actuality the Big Lie was the Election itself...

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"The Democrats want to own this day of January 6th so they can stoke fears and divide America. I say, let them have it because America sees through theirs lies and polarizations."
MSNBC's Chuck Todd grows heated with Republican guest on 1/6 anniversary for still supporting Trump (Fox 01/06/2022)
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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Florida's DeSantis: Comparisons of Jan. 6 to 9/11 'insult to the people that were going into those buildings' (Fox 01/06/2022)
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"They are going to take this and milk this for anything they could to smear anyone who ever supported Donald Trump."

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"... let's just be clear here: When they try to act like this is something akin to the September 11 attacks, that is an insult to the people that were going into those buildings."
Jan. 6: Trump hits back, saying Biden trying to 'further divide America' to distract from failures (Fox 01/06/2022)
•
Biden "used my name today to try to further divide America," Trump said in a statement. "This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed."

•
"Our Country no longer has Borders, has totally and completely lost control of Covid (record numbers!), is no longer Energy Independent, Inflation is rampant, our Military is in chaos, and our exit, or surrender, from Afghanistan was perhaps the most embarrassing day in the long and distinguished history of the United States — and so much more."

•
Trump concluded by claiming that Democrats "want to own this day" in order to "stoke fears and divide America."

•
"I say, let them have it," Trump said, stating that "America sees through" their words and actions.
Biden in Jan. 6 speech sharply criticizes Trump as spreading 'web of lies,' stoking riot (Fox 01/06/2022)
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"Our Constitution faced the gravest of threats. Outnumbered in the face of a brutal attack, the Capitol Police, the D.C. Metropolitan Police, the National Guard and brave law enforcement officials saved the rule of law."

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"Our democracy held. We the people endured. We the people prevailed," Biden said. Biden, quickly, shifted to Trump – never mentioning him by name, but instead, referring to him only as "the former president."

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"For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election. He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol. But they failed."

•
"The Bible tells us that we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. We shall know the truth."

•
"Well here is the God's truth of Jan. 6, 2021. Go back to that day. What do you see? Rioters rampaging, waving, for the first time inside the Capitol, Confederate flags that symbolize the cause to destroy America – to rip us apart. Even during the Civil War, that never happened. But it happened here, in 2021."

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"A mob, breaking windows, kicking in doors," Biden continued, recalling individuals using "American flags on poles" as "weapons, as spears."

•
... Biden went on to invoke Trump again – noting that he "had just rallied the mob to attack," and watched the riot on television, and did "nothing for hours as police were assaulted, lives were at risk, the nation's Capitol under siege."

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Biden said the rioters were "not looking to uphold the will of the people," but instead, "looking to deny the will of the people," and "overturn" a "free and fair election."

•
Pointing again to Trump, Biden said he "created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election."

•
"He has done so because he values power over principle; he sees his own interest as more important than America's interest; his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution."

•
"He can't accept he lost, even though that's what 93 U.S. senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors, state officials in every battleground state, have all said. He lost."

•
"He has done what no president in the history of this country has ever done. He refused to accept results of an election and the will of the American people."

•
"The big lie being told by the former president and many Republicans who fear his wrath is that the insurrection in this country actually took place on Nov. 3, 2020. They want you to see Election Day as the day of insurrection."

•
"At this moment, we must decide what kind of nation are we going to be? Will we be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies?"

•
Biden went on to slam new election laws in Republican-led states across the nation – but did not name the states to which he was referring.

•
"The only way for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections. It is wrong. It is undemocratic, and frankly, it is un-American.

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... defending the results of the 2020 presidential election, Biden said that "no election in American history has been more closely scrutinized."

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"Every legal challenge questioning the results in every court in this country was made and was rejected," Biden said, noting that, often times, Republican-appointed judges rejected the challenges.

•
"He is not just a former president. He is a defeated president." ... "You can't love your country only when you win. You can't obey the law only when it is convenient. You can't be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies."

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"Those who stormed this Capitol and those who instigated and incited, and those who called on them to do so, held a dagger at the throat of America and American democracy."

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Biden, shifting back to insurrectionists, said they "didn't come here out of patriotism or principle." "They came here in rage. Not in service of America, but rather, in service of one man. Those who incited the mob, the real plotters who were desperate to deny the certification of this election, defied the will of the voters. But their plot was foiled."

•
"Congress finished the work, honored their oath to defend the Constitution, against all enemies – foreign and domestic."

•
"I believe the power of the presidency and purpose is to unite this nation, not divide it. To lift us up, not tear us apart."
Texas restaurant refuses to apologize for 'misogynistic' Pelosi, 'Let's go Brandon' signs: Never 'busier' (Fox 01/06/2022)
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"No mask needed," one sign at Preslee's read. "Unless you look like Nancy Pelosi." ... The sign was updated this month to also include "Let's Go Brandon!" at the bottom of its jab at Pelosi...

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People slammed them as misogynistic on social media, and others left voicemails for the owners saying they "hope their business loses all their employees" and they go bankrupt...

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The owner added that most of the negative reviews are coming from people who had never dined at Preslee's "but feel the need to jump on the bandwagon."

•
But "in the last few days, we've received overwhelming support from local and also other cities. We have never been busier!"

•
"I think it's pretty safe to say our current government has failed us and other small business owners. More than 150,000 small businesses have shut down from mandates, but this is not about politics. It's about basic rights that some have seem to have forgotten. If we can make it through a pandemic and actually thrive we can surely handle this."

•
Other restaurants have posted similar signs in recent months... "If you voted for and continue to support and stand behind the worthless, inept and corrupt administration currently inhabiting the White House that is complicit in the death of our servicemen and women in Afghanistan, please take your business elsewhere."
Voters fed up with Democrats' obsession with race (Fox 01/06/2022)
The Dems' Exploitation of January 6 Gives Away Their Game (JWR 01/05/2022)
•
One need not downplay the events — the horrifying image of rioters bashing police officers with metal poles, storming through the halls of Congress shouting for Mike Pence — in order to recognize Jan. 6 for what it was: an ugly but not pivotal moment in American history.

•
The event resulted in one direct death — rioter Ashli Babbitt was shot by a Capitol police officer — and some $1.5 million in property damage to the Capitol building; the Capitol was cleared within hours of the riot, and Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promptly presided over the certification of the 2020 election. Those who broke into the Capitol or even trespassed have ended up in jail.

•
Meanwhile, by contrast, the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 resulted in some $2 billion in insured property damage (and likely billions more in uninsured property damage), two dozen people died, and the resultant political movement against the police led to an unprecedented nationwide spike in homicides in major cities.

•
Jan. 6, to opportunistic Democrats, is the all-purpose excuse to use the entire weight of their party to push for a radical revision of Senate rules and federal elections.

•
New York Times editorialized, "Every Day Is January 6 Now," arguing, "the Capitol riot continues in statehouses across the country, in a bloodless, legalized form that no police officer can arrest and that no prosecutor can try in court."
AG Merrick Garland says Justice Department has 'no higher priority' than investigating Jan. 6 Capitol riot (Fox 01/05/2022)
•
"We understand the questions about how long the investigation will take and about what exactly we are doing."

•
"The answer is, and will continue to be, the same answer we give with respect to any ongoing investigation, as long as it takes and whatever it takes for justice to be done consistent with the facts and the law."

•
"To ensure that all those criminally responsible are held accountable, we must collect the evidence."

•
"We follow the physical evidence, we follow the digital evidence, we follow the money, but most important we follow the facts, not an agenda or an assumption. Facts tell us where to go next. The actions we have taken thus far will not be our last."

•
During his speech, Garland failed to mention the abundance of violence perpetrated by members of Antifa, during which rioters repeatedly attacked law enforcement officers and federal government buildings and even attempted to set up breakaway zones in Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Ore.

•
See related Enemies List (Antonio Branco, 06/17/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
As COVID spikes, our leaders have neglected the need for patient-focused, clear communication (Fox 01/05/2022)
•
Time and again, people who ought to be getting it right have circulated inaccurate information or tainted the truth with ideology.

•
President Biden was wrong when he said, "If you're vaccinated, you're not going to be hospitalized, you're not going to be in the IC unit, and you're not going to die."

•
As with any contagious illness for which there's no current worldwide path of complete elimination, there needs to be a serious focus on therapeutics, getting people well, and saving lives.

•
... there are FDA-approved drugs, which "do no harm," that countless qualified physicians have attested as helping thousands recover. Political players don't want to say this, but a good doctor will.

•
While I'm in favor of vaccines (and opposed to government vaccine mandates), I also believe we can do more to establish the benefits of natural immunity for those who have recovered from COVID-19.

•
The science of immunity has been around for centuries, and everyone should discuss this with a good doctor. It is the American way to be educated, not indoctrinated.

•
Your personal health status and your medical decisions should be between you and your physician – the provider that you know and cares about you. The good doctor.

•
Doesn't a consultation with a caring physician sound better than a government executed vaccine mandate that comes with the threat of losing your livelihood?
Families of NY nursing home victims slam Manhattan DA for dropping Cuomo probe: 'Shady and fishy' (Fox 01/05/2022)
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"What I would say to the new D.A. is start out with why was the strategy of the Cuomo administration to send positive patients to nursing homes as the only strategy rather than the absolute last?"

•
See related Whistling Past... (Michael Ramirez, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Salon owner who opened to Pelosi during lockdown rips California's liberal policies: My American dream is gone (Fox 01/05/2022)
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"It was a slap in the face that she went in, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can't work."

•
See related How Was Your Day? (Chip Bok, 09/04/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Legally armed citizen thwarts California smash-and-grab attempted robbery (Fox 01/05/2022)
New year, same failed Biden policies at our southern border — and things will only get worse in 2022 (Fox 01/05/2022)
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg paving way for bigger bloodbath: critics (Fox 01/05/2022)
•
"It's going to be deadly. Not prosecuting crime and standing with socialists, advocating to release more violent criminals with blanket release mandates, when murder rates are up, what, 45% over the past two years ... is not the message that we want to be sending."

•
"There are already too many people who believe that they can commit crimes, resist arrest, interfere with police officers and face zero consequences."

•
"Start using common sense in these reforms and stop issuing blanket release mandates that are a detriment to society, and start including victims as well."
Manhattan DA gives many misdemeanors a pass even as new mayor vows to combat growing crime (Fox 01/05/2022)
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"The data show that the overwhelming majority of those released pretrial do not commit a violent crime while at liberty."

•
"Police officers don't want to be sent out to enforce laws that the district attorneys won't prosecute. And there are already too many people who believe that they can commit crimes, resist arrest, interfere with police officers and face zero consequences."

•
Nearly 100,000 accused criminals in New York City have been released back onto the streets due to the controversial 2019 bail reform law, and 3,400 of them, about 4%, were rearrested for a violent felony while awaiting trial.

•
See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Democrats brought us a year of fear in 2021. In 2022, let us be not afraid and reclaim our American spirit (Fox 01/04/2022)
Dr. Robert Malone on Joe Rogan interview censorship, Twitter ban: 'You can't suppress information' (Fox 01/04/2022)
Media and Biden administration cover up these three scandals in 'scandal-free' year (Fox 01/04/2022)
Manhattan DA closes probe into nursing home deaths without charging Cuomo: attorney (Fox 01/03/2022)
•
See related Whistling Past... (Michael Ramirez, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Kerry Kennedy's Hypocrisy: Release Killers Of Other Fathers, But Not Sirhan (JWR 01/03/2022)
Rand Paul quits YouTube, citing censorship (Fox 01/03/2022)
•
"Many in Congress, on the Left and the Right, want to break up or regulate Big Tech, but few of these loud voices have actually stepped up and quit using Big Tech."

•
"So today, I announce that I will begin an exodus from Big Tech. I will no longer post videos on YouTube unless it is to criticize them or announce that viewers can see my content on rumble.com."

•
"Why begin with YouTube? Because they're the worst censors."

•
"The gall to delete constitutionally protected speech! It is indeed ironic that the censors likely think of themselves as progressive but their actions are more suggestive of the diktats of the Medieval church. Think about it. In the U.S. in 2021, you are being told there are ideas or opinions that are too ‘dangerous' for you to see. It is ‘disinformation' they admonish, so if you want to stay on their platforms you must conform to their approved opinions."

•
"About half of the public leans right. If we all took our messaging to outlets of free exchange, we could cripple Big Tech in a heartbeat. So, today I take my first step toward denying my content to Big Tech. Hopefully, other liberty lovers will follow."
Facebook 'permanently' locks account of conservative children's book publisher (Fox 01/03/2022)
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Facebook has "permanently disabled" the ads account of a conservative children's book publisher, claiming that Heroes of Liberty – which has published books about Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, former President Ronald Reagan and author Thomas Sowell – violated the company's rules against "Low Quality or Disruptive Content."

•
"We are not in politics, we are in the business of creating beautiful stories about great people that will entertain children and give them life lessons."

•
"To cancel children's books because they celebrate American values that 90% of Americans believe in isn't even anti-conservative bias, it's anti-American. Pure madness."

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"This ad account, its ads and some of its advertising assets are disabled because it didn't comply with our policy on Low Quality or Disruptive Content," Facebook said...

•
"There was a small but noisy group of responders to our ads who didn't like the fact we published books about Ronald Reagan, Thomas Sowell and Amy Coney Barret; people we called Heroes of Liberty."

•
"They made nasty comments, especially about Reagan, and about us for publishing these books and even shared their desire to burn them."

•
"It's very likely those same people reported to Facebook that our content is disturbing, because it doesn't sit well with their radical worldview."

•
"These are the same people who riot and take down statues of our founding fathers in the real world, and they want to strip us of our ability to honor our Heroes in the digital sphere and in children's books."

•
"Our problem is that it seems that Facebook went with the mob judgment call and not with common sense."

•
... said that the publisher has "received a warm welcome, sold tens of thousands of books and learned that many Americans are looking for a wholesome alternative to the current contemporary woke children's literature."

•
"We learned our lesson, and won't risk building our business relying on the whims of Big Tech again."

•
"We are very happy with our initial decision to create a subscription model that will allow us to create a more meaningful one-on-one connection with families that can't be disrupted by a censor."

•
See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

•
See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
2024 Watch: Trump enters 2022 as clear frontrunner for next GOP presidential nomination (Fox 01/02/2022)
Marjorie Taylor Greene's personal Twitter account permanently suspended over COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ (Fox 01/02/2022)
•
"When Maxine Waters can go to the streets and threaten violence on Twitter, Kamala and Ilhan can bail out rioters on Twitter, and Chief spokesman for terrorist IRGC can tweet mourning Soleimani but I get suspended for tweeting VAERS statistics, Twitter is an enemy to America and can't handle the truth."

•
"That's fine, I'll show America we don't need them and it's time to defeat our enemies."

•
See related Twitter Evolution (Gary Varvel, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Tom Homan: 'The whole world knows our borders are open' (Fox 01/01/2022)
Tammy Bruce: New York's race-based COVID treatment plan has 'horrible irony' (Fox 01/01/2022)
Chief justice calls for judicial independence amid growing political criticism of federal courts (Fox 12/31/2021)
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"Decisional independence is essential to due process, promoting impartial decision-making, free from political or other extraneous influence."

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"The Judiciary's power to manage its internal affairs insulates courts from inappropriate political influence and is crucial to preserving public trust in its work as a separate and co-equal branch of government."
Bias by omission: 10 major controversies the media avoided covering or downplayed in 2021 (Fox 12/31/2021)
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See related Biden\\\'s Glory (Mike Shelton, 01/22/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Former education chief: Parents should pull kids out of school before 'surrendering' them to remote learning (Fox 12/30/2021)
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"Children come first, not last. They have been a very neglected group over the last couple of years."

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"There is a certain kind of surrender we are not allowed to practice in front of the young. We cannot surrender ourselves. We cannot surrender our liberty and our freedom, and we cannot surrender them. Find the best education you can for your child that can you provide."

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"See if you can go elsewhere. If this is the kind of regard they have for you and your children, knowing the circumstance it puts you in as a parent, particularly a single parent, and what this distance learning does for most children, they must not have much regard for you. Think about homeschooling. Think about a charter school. Think about sending your child elsewhere."

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"We have forgotten some of the first things that we need to now remember. That schools are there to teach children how to read and write and count and think ... The American people are saying, ‘We're not taking this anymore.'"...

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"I do think the great re-learning is beginning. I think it's beginning in earnest. People are tired of surrendering to the experts who have been so wrong."
Kim Potter's juror: She made an honest mistake but is still responsible (Fox 12/30/2021)
The mainstream media's top 10 missteps in 2021 (Fox 12/30/2021)
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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Three ways parents can keep fighting the good fight in 2022 (Fox 12/29/2021)
Biden still blameless on COVID in the eyes of our liberal media (Fox 12/28/2021)
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On MSNBC, John Heilemann proclaimed, "We know the president is not responsible for this ... We know presidents get blamed for things that they don't deserve to get blamed for."

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But early in 2020, Heilemann said the exact opposite on the same channel: "I don't think it's actually an overstatement to say that Donald Trump has — there are tens of thousands of people who will die in the country, or some of them have already died more are still going to die because of Donald Trump's incompetence and lack of leadership."

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On March 12, 2020, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell announced: "More people are sick in America tonight because Donald Trump is president. More people are dead and dying in America tonight because Donald Trump is president."

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Jonathan Alter offered this extravagant Trump take on MSNBC: "He's a public health menace, and he has rivers of blood on his hands."

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Joe Scarborough was especially rabid: "Nobody's ever done so much to kill so many people."

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Just a few weeks ago, as the death toll passed 750,000, Smeary Scarborough was still blaming Trump for everything.

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Even just a few weeks ago, MSNBC regular Steve Schmidt was still blaming Republicans alone: "They have killed hundreds of thousands of people with the lies about a pandemic, about a disease that can be controlled."

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If it's so controlled, then why hasn't it stopped? At the final presidential debate on Oct. 22, 2020, Biden said the death toll stood at 220,000, and, "Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president." By that standard, shouldn't he resign?

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But his enablers in the press (including the "fact-checkers") only evade, elide and excuse.

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Leftist media outlets such as MSNBC spent 2020 treating COVID like it was easily fixable — if voters simply put Democrats in charge.

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Their complete lack of humility demonstrates that this was always politics first, science later.

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See related Biden\\\'s Glory (Mike Shelton, 01/22/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Homan: Biden systematically dismantled the most secure border America ever had (Fox 12/28/2021)
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"I have worked for six presidents starting with Ronald Reagan and every president had their opinion on how to secure the border. But, every president wanted a secure border. Now, understand this. We have the first president in the history of this nation when Joe Biden who came into office and systematically dismantled the most secure border we've ever had. No president has ever done that."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Liberal media largely give Biden a pass for claim COVID gets solved at state level after scolding Trump (Fox 12/28/2021)
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"For months, the liberal media blasted President Trump as irresponsible for arguing states had any role of value in helping to wind down and/or defeat the pandemic."

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"There's zero shame or admission of guilt. If anything is referenced in terms of a change, you can bet the press will chalk it up to simply that they now know so much more about the virus and thus they were never inconsistent or partisan."

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"By embracing the backlash to the coronavirus restrictions, Mr. Trump is tapping into a powerful well of political energy as he seeks re-election this year. The president is also trying to deflect anger about his response to the virus away from him and toward Democratic governors, who he hopes will shoulder the blame for keeping the restrictions in place and for any deaths that occur after states reopen," The New York Times reported...

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... Biden criticized Trump's handling as "meager and insufficient" while vowing "to fully use the federal government's powers once inaugurated to speed the production and dispersal of vaccines and protective equipment."
Critics slam 'hypocrite' Biden for claiming 'no federal solution' to pandemic after vow to 'shut down' COVID (Fox 12/28/2021)
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"Joe Biden claimed he would shut down the virus. Now a year later when he failed to do so, he says there is no federal solution to COVID. Joe Biden is a hypocrite."

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"When Joe Biden says ‘there is no federal solution,' he's trying to avoid blame for his incompetence. If he really believes this, he should rescind his unconstitutional federal mandates."

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"There is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level," Biden said during a call with American governors...
Rand Paul pins blame for thousands of monthly COVID deaths on Fauci over longstanding biases (Fox 12/28/2021)
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"I would venture to say that thousands of people die in our country every month now from COVID because [Fauci's] deemphasized the idea that there are therapeutics."

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"I think Fauci is of the philosophy that vaccines are incredibly successful and are the way to go versus therapeutics, for example. So with regard to AIDS, he was involved as the AIDS epidemic came up, he wanted to develop a vaccine."

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"There's nothing wrong with that. He wanted to develop a vaccine. Vaccines can be great for polio or smallpox or wonderful. It didn't actually work for AIDS."

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Paul has previously said that monoclonal antibodies "are one of the most promising treatments for the virus" after a person has been infected, but that misinformation on the antibody treatment plagues "government bureaucrats."

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"Recent data showed that monoclonal antibody treatment cuts the risk of death and hospitalization by 70% in high-risk patients and reduces the chance of infection among a household by 80%."

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"Monoclonal antibodies have only just begun to be mentioned by the mainstream media, and misinformation still plagues government bureaucrats when discussing this scientifically-backed treatment."

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"The reason he [Fauci] won't bring up natural immunity is because it foils his plans to get everybody possible vaccinated. He thinks it might slow down vaccination. And I'm for people getting vaccinated, particularly people at risk, but the thing is, if you ignore naturally acquired immunity then you're saying we don't have enough people, you have to force it on younger people."
Harvard prof's conviction over China ties should be wake-up call to US scientists, universities (Fox 12/28/2021)
Why did Joe Manchin just say No to Build Back Better? It stinks! (JWR 12/27/2021)
Race-Based Bias: Never the Answer to Racism (JWR 12/27/2021)
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This isn't noble or self-sacrificing; It is, rather, racist to the core – treating inherent racial markers as the most significant characteristic in evaluating candidates for top office in politics (and, presumably, in business), rather than a reform agenda, or a personal history of integrity or achievement.

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One of the aspects of European life that America's founders emphatically rejected was the idea of granting power – in some cases absolute power – based on who your father was rather than who you are; anointing princelings born to the right clan rather than seeking self-made strivers who have won the confidence of the people they aim to serve.
Indiana mom on a mission against group that bailed out son's alleged murderer (Fox 12/27/2021)
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... her son was killed in October, allegedly by a man who was out on bond with the help of an organization called The Bail Project.

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Dylan McGinnis, 24. was allegedly shot and killed on Oct. 1 by Travis Lang, who was previously being held in jail for possession of cocaine in addition to three other felony charges, including breaking and entering, resisting arrest and burglary... Lang is now being charged with murder.

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"When I first learned about (The Bail Project), I needed to learn more about what their mission was, I didn't know what they were doing. But then when I found this out, honestly, I was shocked."

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... said she felt a desire to raise awareness of what this organization does so other families don't have to go through the pain of losing a child in the way she did.

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"And then it became a mission for me to spread the awareness that there is an organization nationwide that is supporting violent offenders to get out and helping them get out of jail by bailing them out."

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"But you know, if I can help prevent this from happening to any other family, then I would say that, you know, my life has been purposeful and also carrying out the legacy of my son, who was always so helpful to other people."

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"At the time we interviewed Mr. Lang, his grandmother and fiance had already secured part of his bail through a bail bonds agent, but they could not afford the rest. We provided assistance so they could bring him home while he waited for the court to decide his case. We denounce violence in all its forms, and it is never our intention to put anyone at harm," David Gaspar, the director of operations for The Bail Project, said.

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The organization's website states that it combats "mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system — one person at a time."

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"We restore the presumption of innocence, reunite families, and challenge a system that criminalizes race and poverty. We're on a mission to end cash bail and create a more just, equitable, and humane pretrial system."

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Joe Gamaldi, national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police and an active-duty sergeant in the Houston Police Department, told ... that while there is a role for charitable bail funds to play in society, The Bail Project isn't helping communities.

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"They are allowing people to donate and then they're bonding out violent criminals who are repeat offenders. I mean, this is not the shoplifting a candy bar from Wal-Mart. These are people who are committing murders, aggravated assault."

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"You know, I'll be honest, I don't think they give a damn about public safety, They know exactly the people that they are bailing out. They know that these individuals that are out on already multiple felony bonds and they're helping them get another one. They know that some of these are very violent individuals, and you cannot look at this with a straight face and tell me that you care about the community that you're operating in."
NASCAR driver who unintentionally sparked ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ chant says corporations don’t want to sponsor him (Fox 12/26/2021)
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"It got extremely difficult for us... If you're a national corporation, that means you sell to all consumers ... and unfortunately, when you get dragged into the political arena, people want you to take a side,'"...

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"It's hard for a brand to want to attach to somebody who might be kind of divisive in their consumer base. If I'm going to divide Coca-Cola, why would they want to talk to me?"

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The phrase "Let's Go Brandon" took over social media In October after an NBC interview with Brown. Fans of NASCAR were chanting "F** Joe Biden" during the interview, and in an apparent attempt to steer the interview away from politics, reporter Kelli Stavast said they were chanting "Let's Go Brandon" in support of Brown.

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Just on Christmas Eve, controversy was sparked when a dad of four called to speak with Biden and the first lady during a holiday-themed event and said the phrase live on the call.

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"I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas as well. Merry Christmas and Let's go, Brandon!" the dad, identified as Jared Schmeck from Oregon, said at the end of the call.

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Biden responded: "Let's go, Brandon, I agree."
Marine who criticized Afghan withdrawal, called for accountability discharged (Fox 12/24/2021)
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The firestorm began Aug. 26 when Scheller, dressed in uniform, posted a video on social media slamming military brass for an ISIS-K suicide bombing at Kabul airport that left 13 service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians dead.

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"I'm not saying we've got to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it's a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone?'"

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"Did anyone do that? And when you didn't think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up?'"...
Major corporations had 'woke' trainings exposed in 2021 (Fox 12/24/2021)
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Disney, Coca-Cola, American Express, Bank of America, Lowe's and Pfizer faced accusations that they trained employees on certain "woke" ideas, such as putting "marginalized" staff above "privileged" staff, learning to "decolonize" their minds" and combating aspects of an alleged "White supremacy culture," such as perfectionism, individualism and objectivity.

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The modules tell employees that they must "take ownership of educating [themselves] about structural anti-Black racism."

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The modules claim that the U.S. has a "long history of systemic racism and transphobia" and that White employees must "work through feelings of guilt, shame, and defensiveness to understand what is beneath them and what needs to be healed."

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Another module encourages employees to reject "equality" focusing on "equal treatment and access to opportunities," and instead strive for "equity," focusing on "the equality of outcome."

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... American Express subjected its employees to a series of critical race theory training sessions that encouraged staff to rank themselves on a hierarchy of "privilege" and apply that hierarchy in the workplace, with the more "privileged" employees deferring to staff from "marginalized groups."

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... urged Amex employees to construct their own intersectional identities, mapping their "race, sexual orientation, body type, religion, disability status, age, gender identity [and] citizenship" on an official company worksheet. Employees could then determine whether they have "privilege" or are members of a "marginalized group."

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Whites, males, heterosexual people, Christians, able-bodied people and citizens would presumably count as "privileged."

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The training sessions also warned White employees to avoid certain phrases, such as "I don't see color," "We are all human beings" and "Everyone can succeed in this society if they work hard enough," as "microaggressions."

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In a high-profile "anti-racism" event, Amex executives invited Khalil Muhammad, a great-grandson of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, to speak on "race in corporate America."

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He argued that capitalism was founded on racism and that "racist logics and forms of domination" have shaped Western society since at least the Industrial Revolution.

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He even argued that the credit card company should reduce standards for Black customers and sacrifice profits in the interest of race-based reparations.

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"If American Express cares about racial justice in the world, it can't simply say the market's going to define how we price certain customers, who happen to come from low-income communities."

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... Bank of America, Lowe's and Truist Financial Corporation sponsored a United Way critical race theory "Racial Equity 21-Day Challenge" claiming that America is systemically and institutionally racist, encouraging participants to "decolonize" their minds and get "woke at work" and urging white people to "cede power to people of color."

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... document also claims that people of color cannot be racist: "Racism is used to justify the position of the dominant group, White people in this case, and to uphold White supremacy and superiority. Everyone can be biased, and engage in bigoted and belittling behavior that is intolerant of other perspectives. But racism is by definition a form of oppression exercised by the dominant racial group (Whites)."

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The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has set goals to fill a percentage of leadership positions with Black and Hispanic candidates by the year 2025, in the name of fighting "systemic racism."

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... goals include "increasing our minority representation from 19% to 32% and doubling the underrepresented population of African Americans/Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos."

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... includes a letter from Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chairman and CEO, in which Bourla says he is "proud" of having "set concrete goals to address systemic racism and gender equity challenges by reviewing and augmenting our plans to increase diversity and opportunity parity by 2025, particularly focusing on increasing female and U.S. minority representation at leadership levels."

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See related The Woke Skies (Antonio Branco, 04/23/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Virginia school district 'indoctrinating' kids with critical race theory, parents claim in lawsuit (Fox 12/24/2021)
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"A public school should not, and in this case under the law cannot, indoctrinate kids in a destructive, race-based ideology."

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The kids are "being told that they are defined by their race and nothing else. They're being told that they fit into groups of oppressors or groups of subordinate oppressed based entirely on their race and nothing else, that their success in life or their lack of success in life will be determined by their race."

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"Those are pernicious ideas that directly contradict what these students are told by their parents." ... Albemarle Public Schools is "implementing a destructive and harmful ideology and embedding it in the school's curriculum."

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"The program identifies as aspects of racism such things as ‘colorblindness,' claiming we live in a ‘post racial society,' asserting that ‘[i]t doesn't matter who you vote for,' and ‘claiming reverse discrimination'."

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A diagram depicting "Active/Covert Racism" and "Omissions/Passive Racism" describes "Denial of White Privilege" and "Self-Appointed 'White Ally'" as forms of passive racism.

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"In short, the program instructs white students that if they fail to adopt and forcefully advance a radical ideological political program, they are racist, regardless of whether they individually harbor any racial animus or bias."

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"The policy is labeled an anti-racism policy, but in fact what the policy does is it incorporates critical theory ideology that promotes race-based division and race-based resentment."

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"It redefines the concept of racism to include having opinions that don't align with the race-based indoctrination program of the policy and the curriculum. Even worse, it labels dissent from that program as racist."

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"If students disagree with the ideology laid out in this program, they will be labeled racists."

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The parents and students suing the school board claim that the CRT "indoctrination" violates: (1) their right to freedom from governmental discrimination, (2) their right to freedom of speech under the Virginia Constitution through viewpoint discrimination, (3) their right to freedom of speech under the Virginia Constitution through compelled speech, (4) their right to freedom from discrimination on the basis of religion, (5) their right to due process under the Virginia Constitution, and (6) their parental rights under the Virginia Constitution, Virginia Code, and Virginia Common Law.

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... the plaintiffs ask the court to declare that when school officials "inculcate racial stereotypes and treat students differently based on race, that constitutes unconstitutional racial discrimination," and that "demeaning, punishing, and threatening to punish students for articulating dissenting or differing viewpoints is unlawful viewpoint discrimination."

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The lawsuit seeks a "preliminary and permanent injunction" restraining the school board and school district officials from pushing the CRT curriculum, and permitting parents to opt-out their children. It also seeks compensatory damages, nominal damages, and attorney's fees.

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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
GOP congressman calls on LA DA Gascon to resign over 'diversion' program for teens accused of sex crimes (Fox 12/24/2021)
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"I'd like for him to step down. He's not going to change his ways if he's truly interested in public safety. We'll find someone who's on the side of the victim, rather than the criminal."

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"The whole point of law and order and the whole point of the criminal justice system and having punishments is to deter people from committing crimes."

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Gascon is "behaving like the penguin from Gotham City, who's enabling the criminals. He's giving them the incentive, and then he's not holding them accountable."

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"It's a perfect storm on the heels of BLM and the defund police movement and the riots that we saw even in L.A. County last year. Zero bail policies being initiated and now Gascon. You know what we've created as a perfect environment for crime."

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"A young girl, age 15, who is sexually assaulted now has to go face this 17-year-old guy who may have had problems in the past and most certainly will have problems in the future."

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"And it's in an effort to help him instead of helping her, and there's no thought being put into the victim's rights."

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Gascon's "policies are letting people to get away with breaking the law and putting everyday citizens at risk. They continue to embolden criminals, undermine victims, hurt our communities. His policies along with zero-bail policies in California like Proposition 47 are endangering workers, families and businesses."

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"I think a lot of these politicians frankly don't have to be very far left to make that mistake. These politicians, including my political opponents, who I'm running against marched in these defund the police movement, and they need to be held accountable. I guess it's no coincidence that now they're all trying to do a 180 on this issue because it's election season, and they know the average voter really doesn't like this idea."

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"The average American doesn't necessarily care about the Republican Party or the Democrat Party. They care about their own security," Garcia said.

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"They want to know that when they dial 9-1-1, the cops are going to show up and help them. When these progressive, woke politicians start bending the knee to organizations that are fighting for the rights of criminals, that's when we get into this trouble."
Parents outraged after teacher mocks 'bigots,' 'evangelicals' in Dr. Seuss-style poem at school board meeting (Fox 12/24/2021)
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"After parents spoke out against CRT & books containing pornographic content, this teacher demeaned them with a Dr. Seuss parody. Unhinged"

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Krista Tyler, instructional technology specialist at Grisham Middle School in the Round Rock Independent School District (ISD) read the poem at the Leander ISD school board meeting...

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"Everyone in Leander liked reading a lot/ but some evangelicals in Leader did not. These kooks hated reading, the whole reading season./ Please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason./ It could be perhaps critical thinking causes fright./ It could be their heads aren't screwed on just right./ But whatever the reason, their brains or their fright,/ they can't follow policy in plain black and white."

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"These bigots don't get to choose for us, that's clear. Then how, I am wondering, did we even get here./ They growl at our meetings, all hawing and humming,/ ‘We must stop this indoctrination from coming!'/ They've come for the books and the bonds and what for?/ Their kids don't even attend Leander schools anymore./ Bring back our books, maintain decorum, good grief./ Wouldn't it be nice to have a meeting in peace?"

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"I'm disgusted and disheartened that there are teachers in our school district who think it is OK to mock parents for their religious beliefs, and for demanding that children not have access to books in the library or classroom that have pornographic illustrations and graphic descriptions of sex acts."

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"The opinions of the teacher who recently spoke at the board meeting illustrate the utter disconnect some teachers have with their communities."

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"Parents such as myself, are increasingly participating in school board meetings because we see firsthand the detrimental effects that ‘woke-ism' has had on our schools and our children."

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"Superintendents, school board members, and educators are spending an inordinate amount of time teaching children about what bathrooms to use and when it's appropriate to lower their face masks, and not enough time teaching our children reading, writing, and arithmetic."

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"She is trying to lump all parents who oppose pornographic books into the ‘evangelicals-bigots-brainless' category that hates reading, but the fact of the matter is we are a group of very diverse, highly-concerned parents who do not want pornographic books in our schools," Trang said.

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"The fact that that statement came from a teacher who could be teaching my children at Round Rock ISD is very concerning."

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"I might have opposing views, but I don't call anyone on the opposing side ‘bigots' or brainless. That is reprehensible and despicable. She shouldn't be teaching."

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"This is not a matter of ‘banning books' but one of community representation. And as long as we're paying taxes to the LISD, we the people deserve to be heard."

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"That a classroom teacher – who, by the way, has the ability to prescribe ‘book club' events and vacation reading activities – has such disdain for the very people who pay her salary is mind-boggling. But it does paint a picture of the overall cluelessness we find ourselves up against."

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Elderly man shoots and kills half-naked home intruder who assaulted his wife (Fox 12/23/2021)
Residents call for Milwaukee DA's removal after Waukesha parade attack: 'Ultimately, he's responsible' (Fox 12/23/2021)
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"The devastation resulting from Chisholm's dereliction of duty to protect the public has reached outside the borders of Milwaukee County. Therefore, it is incumbent upon you as Governor of the State of Wisconsin to immediately investigate and remove Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm."
Biden's legacy after Build Back Better – soaring inflation, rising crime, surging illegal immigration (Fox 12/22/2021)
Antifa finally facing consequences, but ready for a new fight (Fox 12/22/2021)
Harvard professor Charles Lieber convicted of hiding ties to China (Fox 12/21/2021)
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... Lieber's trial was a major test for a controversial U.S. government initiative to safeguard sensitive American technology and research.

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... a report detailing dozens of American universities receiving millions from the Pentagon and other federal agencies and their ties to Chinese universities that support China's military.

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Federal prosecutors say Lieber signed a contract with the Wuhan University of Technology for $50,000 a month and more than $150,000 in living expenses. Lieber is an expert in nanotechnology.

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The Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health gave his research group at Harvard $15 million in grant funding...

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... federal prosecutors called Lieber's case "a small sample of China's ongoing campaign to siphon off American technology and know-how for Chinese gain."

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... Lieber called that evidence "pretty damning" and then described traveling from Wuhan to Boston with bags of cash, including tens of thousands of dollars, which he never declared.

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Lieber's attorneys argued the scientist was careless, a complete workaholic and that the federal government does not have evidence, such as bank records and documents, to convict him.

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Hundreds of academics at other universities have criticized the Justice Department's China Initiative and have requested Attorney General Merrick Garland end it.

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In September, 177 faculty members from Stanford University signed a letter to the attorney general, asking him to "develop an alternative response to the challenges posed by our relations with the People's Republic of China, one that avoids racial profiling and discouraging beneficial and important collaborations and influx of talented personnel."
Kudlow: Save America, kill the bill ... and defend the 'deplorables' (Fox 12/21/2021)
San Francisco dad of slain 6-year-old slams liberal DA Chesa Boudin: Making 'justice system a complete joke' (Fox 12/21/2021)
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"I am so angry with Chesa Boudin right now. He makes San Francisco's criminal justice system a complete joke," the boy's father said.

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"The killer of my 6-year-old son will likely serve less time than the age of my son because of Chesa's campaign promise. Boudin's campaign promises do not protect San Franciscans and ensure justice – they only allow criminals, and in this case, murderers, to return to the community."
Scott Atlas: I was 'shocked' Trump never fired Fauci, Birx (Fox 12/21/2021)
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"The question 'why weren't these people fired?' will go down in the history books as an unanswered question. I can tell you my impression was, first of all, I was shocked that it wasn't done, because President Trump is not afraid of firing people. I mean this is obvious, and he's certainly not afraid of I don't think anything really, he showed that. He did understand the common-sense logic of the targeted protection policy, and he understood the destruction of the lockdowns.

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"But it was allowed to continue, and my belief is that it was, from what I heard inside, which was it was an election year. The political side of his advisors were saying 'don't rock the boat' ... It's a political year, we're close to an election.' Fauci and Birx had high public approval, possibly in part due to the fact that they disagreed with the president, but this was part of a strange logic to keep them on."
Tom Cotton urges the Biden administration to reduce reliance on the Chinese Communist Party (Fox 12/21/2021)
Kim Foxx lied about contacts with Jussie Smollett's sister, violated legal ethics, investigation finds (Fox 12/20/2021)
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... included a breach of its "obligations of honesty and transparency by making false and/or misleading statements to the public regarding the nature and reasons for the dismissal" of the initial case and said it was a "major failure of the operations."

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Smollett's sister told investigators that Foxx told her, "Your brother should be fine as long as he stays consistent," the report says. Foxx denied saying that.

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Retired Judge Sheila O'Brien, who successfully filed the motion as a private citizen to have a special prosecutor assigned to the case, slammed Foxx, calling her a "liar."

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"Kim Foxx should resign. This report shows she is a liar, that her administration is in chaos and that she's blaming everyone else."
Trump warns inflation 'snowballing worse than ever': Cost of energy 'biggest problem' (Fox 12/20/2021)
Manchin killing BBB likely saved US from economic 'disaster,' experts say (Fox 12/20/2021)
Musk says his tax bill for 2021 was over $11 billion (Fox 12/20/2021)
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Last week, Musk lashed out at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, after she claimed that he does not pay enough in taxes and is essentially "freeloading off everyone else."

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Musk has argued that the fundamental problem is that government spends too much money. "Eventually they run out of other people's money, and then they come for you."
Omar, Sanders slam Manchin for rejecting Build Back Better: ‘I think it’s bull****‘ (Fox 12/19/2021)
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... Manchin said that between ongoing inflation, the national debt, "geopolitical unrest" and the COVID-19 pandemic, the bill being pushed by his fellow Democrats was too much.

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"What we need to do is get our financial house in order but be able to pay for what we do and do what we pay for."

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"BREAKING: Joe Manchin on Build Back Better: ‘This is a no on this legislation.' America has dodged a serious bullet. BBB is dead. Merry Christmas!" tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas.
Manchin says he 'cannot vote' for Build Back Better: 'I've done everything humanly possible' (Fox 12/19/2021)
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Manchin acknowledged that there were aspects of the bill he was in favor of, but it was just too hefty for him to justify voting for it.

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... said that instead of trying to pass such a large spending bill, Congress should be more focused on tackling the omicron variant of COVID-19 that has led to rising case numbers.

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He also said the government should be addressing inflation that has "harmed a lot of Americans."

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"What we need to do is get our financial house in order, but be able to pay for what we do and do what we pay for."
Trump calls McConnell 'disaster,' says GOP needs new leadership (Fox 12/19/2021)
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... Trump told ... that McConnell made a mistake by allowing President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law to pass in the Senate.

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"I call it un-frastructure, not infrastructure. It's only 9% infrastructure," the former president said.

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"There was no way that should have been passed. It should have been 100% for infrastructure. So what's happening is, we had a thing called the debt ceiling, and he could have used that to win everything, and he chose not to."

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"Mitch McConnell's a disaster. The Republicans have to get a new leader."

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Trump added that Congress does not need any more "Mitch McConnell-type guys" and that voters should elect "tougher people" to represent conservatives in the 2022 midterms.
California inclusion student senator blasted for 'kill' zionists tweet: 'High level of hypocrisy' (Fox 12/18/2021)
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"I don't like speaking in absolutes, but it seems like it's always the people who stand for ‘inclusion' that harbor the most hate in their hearts."

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"While students are being forced to go through a virtual ‘diversity' training, DEI senators are tweeting how they want to literally end the lives of humans who support the Jewish people. It's dark and severely twisted. I can't imagine how every Jewish person feels in the presence of Yasmeen."

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"If a student senator in the DEI department tweeted that they wanted to ‘kill every BLM supporter,' the LA Times and Daily Trojan would milk that headline for weeks, and USC's campus would be swarmed with protesters — rightfully so. However, it's a different story every time when the Jewish people — or anyone supporting the Jewish people — are attacked."

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"I'd say it's not really something that anyone should be saying, but especially not someone of that position," another student, who wished to remain anonymous...

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"Yasmeen Mashayekh's role as Diversity Equity and Inclusion Senator at USC Viterbi is farcical. After Canary Mission's expose of her extreme anti-Semitism, Yasmeen has not shown any remorse."

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"Instead, she has doubled down, engaging in an anti-Semitic Twitter frenzy. Her tweets, retweets and likes include a far-right conspiracy theory, justification for the murder of Israeli tour guide Eli Kay and multiple examples of dehumanizing Jews - likening Israelis to Nazis and that ‘every motherf**king zionist' supports genocide."

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"Repeated threats of murder and harm based on race, religion, ethnicity, country of origin, gender, sexual orientation, etc. are not acceptable discourse, even in the context of heated debates on difficult political issues. The absence of explicit condemnation amounts to tacit endorsement. This is a slap in the face to USC students, staff and faculty who are Jewish and to anyone who supports the right of the State of Israel to exist."

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A USC spokesperson told Fox News that the statements are "disturbing" but legally protected. "The individual is a member of a graduate student group that is self-organized, elects its own council members and does not set the university's policies. Even though the statements at issue are legally protected, we understand they are disturbing. USC rejects and condemns hatred in all its forms."

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See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Ingraham: Biden 'isn't listening' to Americans, has 'failed on almost every front' (Fox 12/18/2021)
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"... Inflation is skyrocketing. Violence is on the rise. There is a needless omicron freakout and tens of thousands of illegals are flooding across the border and the Left's agenda is stalling out thankfully."

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"[F]orget the trillion dollars in spending and stop dividing the country along racial lines and stop the COVID hysteria — they will stay the course."

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"After damaging our children and families with previous COVID restrictions, the administration is threatening them again because of the omicron variant when data shows to be mild."

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"I remember candidate Joe Biden pledged to bring unity to America after four years of Trump. Today he doubled down on division throwing this with the anti-American forces that see America as a nation rife with racism."

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"Biden trashed Trump and returned to the well of Charlottesville and Jan. 6. With the agenda collapsing, his speechwriters are out of ideas. They send Biden out to repeat a lie — that mail-in ballot verification is racist."

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"A man who pledged to lift us up dragged us down. A man who pledged to shut down the virus prolonged the pain. A president who promised to make us respected around the world turned us into a laughingstock. An administration that downplayed inflation has refused to lift a finger as it gobbles up family incomes."

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"I fully expect the White House will roll omicron into 2022 to justify the push for national mail-in ballots and internet voting to try to rig the next election."
Newly constructed Texas border wall will 'cost less' than Trump-era wall, Gov. Abbott says (Fox 12/17/2021)
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... for Texas [this] is going to cost less than it did for the Trump administration for one reason. And that's because in Texas, unlike the Trump administration, we're not having to devote money to acquire the land ...The state of Texas owns [land] on the border itself.

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Secondly, there are property owners of massive acreage on the border who are fed up with Biden's open border policies, and they are donating their land to Texas for us to be able to use that land for free to build a wall on their property.
Heart inflammation cases emerge among 5- to 11-year-old kids after COVID-19 shot: CDC (Fox 12/17/2021)
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Despite the newfound inflammatory side effects, the CDC continues to encourage all parents to get their children 5-year-old and older vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the long term effects of the virus outweigh the side effects of the shot.

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See related Side Effects (Mike Shelton, 11/01/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Why DeSantis' bold critical race theory move matters to all of us (Fox 12/17/2021)
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... outlined the "Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act," which would ban critical-race-theory indoctrination in public schools, prohibit racially abusive training programs in the workplace, and provide parents and workers the right to sue institutions that violate these prohibitions.

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The governor framed the rise of critical race theory as a mortal threat to the United States. "I think what you see now with the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions."

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"And they basically want to replace it with a very militant form of leftism that would absolutely destroy this country."

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... it provides parents with a "private right of action," which allows them to sue offending institutions for violations, gain information through legal discovery, and, if they win in the courts, collect attorney's fees.

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... it tackles critical race theory in corporate "diversity, equity, and inclusion" training programs, which, DeSantis says, sometimes promote racial stereotyping, scapegoating, and harassment, in violation of state civil rights laws.

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At heart, the battle against critical race theory is a fight against entrenched bureaucracies that have used public institutions to promote their own racialist ideology.

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"This is an elite-driven phenomenon being driven by bureaucratic elites, elites in universities, and elites in corporate America, and they're trying to shove it down the throats of the American people," DeSantis said. "You're not doing that in the state of Florida."

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The battle is ultimately about shaping public policy in accord with public values. "I think we have an ability [to] just draw a line in the sand and say, ‘That's not the type of society that we want here in the state of Florida,'" said DeSantis...
Florida sheriff praises homeowner for shooting home invader: 'Only Santa Claus gets to come in your house' (Fox 12/17/2021)
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"The homeowner did exactly what he should have." "He had a gun, he knew how to use it, it was loaded, and he shot him a lot," Judd said. "He gave him an early Christmas present. Only Santa Claus gets to come in your house — and Santa Claus is invited."

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According to police, the homeowner says an intruder tossed a flower pot through the glass French doors of the home in an attempt to gain entry from the back porch. The homeowner then shot the intruder three times.

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"I'm proud of our homeowner for defending himself," Judd added. "It's called a ‘Castle Doctrine.' He has the right to protect himself and his home from unknown intruders."

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Police arrived on the scene and found 42-year-old Steven Stillwell shot on the living room floor. Stillwell was rushed to the hospital and was in critical, but stable condition.
Wreaths Across America brings people together, deserves support not derision (Fox 12/16/2021)
Fentanyl overdoses become No. 1 cause of death among US adults, ages 18-45: 'A national emergency' (Fox 12/16/2021)
Parent group files petition to remove Fairfax County school board member (Fox 12/16/2021)
Salvation Army 'Red Kettle' donations lagging after posting racism guide (Fox 12/16/2021)
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The sagging fundraising numbers come the month after the organization pulled a guide called "Let's Talk About Racism" from its website that contained racially charged language instructing white people and Christians to "evaluate" racist attitudes and practices.

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Additionally, the guide said "White culture" has challenges it needs to overcome, including "denial of racism" and "defensiveness about race," and states that "White Americans" need to "stop trying to be ‘colorblind.'"...

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"Elements of the recently issued ‘Let's Talk About Racism' guide led some to believe we think they should apologize for the color of their skin, or that The Salvation Army may have abandoned its Biblical beliefs for another philosophy or ideology. That was never our intention, so the guide has been removed for appropriate review."
Elon Musk fires back at MSNBC's Joy Reid for knocking Warren digs, calls her a 'lobbyist for Sen Karen' (Fox 12/16/2021)
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The dustup began Monday when Warren took aim at the newly-declared Time magazine's "Person of the Year," tweeting, "Let's change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else."

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"Stop projecting," Musk told Warren, including a link to a 2019 opinion piece calling out her false claims of Native American ancestry.

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The world's richest man also tweeted, "And if you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year."

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See related Sitting Bull (Sean Delonas, 10/15/2018) cartoon from General picture album

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See related Joyless Agenda (Antonio Branco, 11/08/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Twitter suspends pro-family think tank director after tweet opposing 'chemical castration' of children (Fox 12/16/2021)
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"We ought to break them up," Hawley said of the Big Tech companies. "At the end of the day, here's the deal: The last thing America needs is another Big Tech robber baron who doesn't care anything for free speech, and that's exactly what Twitter is giving us."
Former NFL player Brewer: NBC’s Michele Tafoya was right to take a stand against Kaepernick (Fox 12/16/2021)
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... applauded NBC reporter Michele Tafoya after she pushed back on Colin Kaepernick's comments comparing the NFL draft and training camps to slavery.

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"I think it was a lot of her choice. I think that was an awakening for her. I think it uplifted her to take a stand for conservative principles and for her love for this nation."

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Brewer hypothesized that Tafoya probably "doesn't feel like she belongs" on the sidelines of a league that "supports the kind of mess" that Kaepernick pushes.

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"I applaud her for it. I hope she goes on and does more great things and becomes a leader in the movement for righteousness in this nation."

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During his Netflix special "Colin in Black & White," Kaepernick said this: "What they don't want you to understand is what's being established is a power dynamic. Before they put you on the field, teams poke, prod, and examine you searching for any defect that might affect your performance."

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A line of actors playing NFL prospects, all of them Black, then walk by Kaepernick before morphing into slaves at an auction with shackles on while White slave owners bid on them.

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Brewer had previously called Kaepernick's documentary "sick and disgusting" and asserted that the former quarterback had an "evil, anti-American spirit."

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"No one pressures them," Tafoya said. "They're not forced to go into the NFL." "I thought comparing it to the slave trade was a little rough... These guys enter willingly. They are the most well-cared-for people. Yes, they play a hard sport, and every one of them – Black, White, Latino, whoever's playing the sport – will tell you how much they love it, and they're willing to do it, and they make a damn good living."

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Several weeks later it was revealed that Tafoya would no longer be the sideline reporter for NBC's "Sunday Night Football" after this season. The upcoming Super Bowl is expected to be her final appearance.

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See related And That's Why We Are Letting You Go (Mike Lester, 06/14/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
'Woke' retailers who asked Congress for help amid smash-and-grabs supported left-wing police reforms (Fox 12/16/2021)
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"Many corporate leaders jumped on the woke bandwagon and wrote big checks to organizations that still continue to advocate to defund the police. They did not think of anything beyond not being labeled a racist," Sean Pritchard, president of the San Jose Police Officers Association, told...

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Nearly two dozen CEOs signed the letter to Congress asking for support as theft crimes rage, including the chiefs of Target, Nordstrom, Levi Strauss, Ulta Beauty and Home Depot.

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... many of the companies supported left-wing groups such as Black Lives Matter, the Equal Justice Initiative and the ACLU, which advocate to defund or reform policing in the U.S.

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CEO Erik B. Nordstrom signed his name to the letter asking for Congressional support, but earlier this year, the company doubled down on its support for Black Lives Matter.

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Black Lives Matter led the charge last year in rallying Americans to support defunding the police. Co-founder Patrisse Cullors, a self-described "trained Marxist," said that the way "we actually get real accountability and justice" is through the "demand of defunding law enforcement."

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The calls set off a cascade effect of liberal cities moving millions in funds from police departments and an increase in anti-police sentiments followed by corresponding increases in police resignations and early retirements.

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This year, as some cities reversed course and called for more police officers amid crime spikes, police leaders are taking issue with reform advocates who are now softening their position on defunding the police and spreading "amnesia" on the anti-police sentiment of last year.

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"We urge President Biden to move at warp speed to create a vaccine to address our emerging Amnesia virus that has infected politicians, organizations and individuals who are now claiming they never advocated to defund the police, they just wanted to re-imagine policing," Craig Lally, President of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told...

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"That is a lie, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles literally advocated to cut the LAPD budget by over 90%, reducing the number of police officers to under 1,000 from a force of 9,700. That means 90% of the rapes, homicides, assaults, follow home and smash and grab robberies would simply not be investigated. We wonder if BLMs Melina Abdullah was going to tell these victims they simply don't matter. We don't have amnesia and neither will voters when it's election time, we will make sure of it."

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Lally was referring to Los Angeles BLM leader Melina Abdullah's recent comments saying that "When we say, ‘Defund the police,' it doesn't mean we don't want public safety. It means we want resources for communities."

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But Black Lives Matter wasn't alone in its calls to overhaul and change policing. Other organizations such as the Equal Justice Initiative, the National Urban League and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law advocate for reforms such as how reimagining "public safety and community health," changing "divisive policing policies" and pushing for bail reform.

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In 2020, Target announced a $10 million commitment to "advancing social justice," including donations to the National Urban League.

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While famed denim brand Levi Strauss & Co. announced last year it would donate $100,000 to its "longstanding partner, American Civil Liberties Union," following Floyd's death.

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The ACLU describes itself as "our nation's guardian of liberty." But to police leaders on the West Coast coping with the spike in retail crimes, it is the organization to blame for the rampant smash-and-grabs.

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"All one has to do is log onto www.ACLU-watch.com and click a category such as ‘Sexual Offenders', ‘Weakening Public Safety' or ‘Dangerous Bail Reform' to see exactly how this organization has contributed to the crime wave enveloping our nation."

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"Many in corporate America have blindly supported the ACLU, maybe not realizing the devastating impact their policies are having on our safety. I would be interested to hear why some corporations are supporting the weakening of rights of rape victims or releasing repeat offenders out on bail to harm again because that is what the ACLU has been fighting for."

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California's Proposition 47, passed in 2014, has also come under severe scrutiny amid the spike in crimes because it reduced shoplifting charges regarding the theft of $950 or less from felonies to misdemeanors. Among its supporters were the ACLU and then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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Home Depot also pledged $1 million to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which has taken issue with bail laws in the U.S., while Ulta Beauty announced it would donate to the Equal Justice Initiative.

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The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was established in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy, and outlines under its criminal justice web page that it works "to challenge racial disparities within the criminal justice system that result from the criminalization of poverty and contribute to mass incarceration."

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The Equal Justice Initiative lays out on its website that "tough on crime" policies have led to mass incarceration "rooted in the belief that Black and brown people are inherently guilty and dangerous."

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An Ulta spokesperson told Fox News Wednesday that the company is proud of its work with EJI and its commitment to end mass incarceration and excessive punishment...

•
Now, as the CEOs ask for help in combating widespread crime in their stores, some in Congress are hitting back.

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"Help them directly? Hell No. They should be ashamed of themselves," Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy told...

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"The days of crony capitalism are about to come to an end. But unlike the unprincipled woke corporations bowing down to the altar of so-called ‘environmental, social, and governance' (ESG) investment to enrich themselves, I will always fight for the rule of law, which will help everyone — including them."

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Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar also said he will not support congressional efforts to assist retailers that "backed BLM during their ‘summer of love protests' and efforts to defund the police."

•
"These woke companies made their bed, now they can sleep in it." "This is what happens to the woke, they reap what they sow. What did they expect would happen?"

•
Police leaders have voiced similar sentiments, saying corporate leaders rushed to make donations in 2020 out of fear of being labeled racist and are now coping will the fallout of fewer officers and more crime.

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"Unfortunately, the result of these defund efforts has these CEOs waking up to a retail theft smash and grab nightmare, rampant violence on our streets and a fear of disassociating themselves and their companies from the very individuals and organizations intent on destroying the safety of our communities."
California medics refuse to enter care center to help man in cardiac arrest due to 'some COVID-19 law': police (Fox 12/16/2021)
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"After a few moments, an unknown employee of the location yelled out to fire personnel ‘Please come help, he's having cardiac arrest,'" the officer wrote.

•
"Fire personnel responded by insisting the patient had to be brought outside the facility before they could provide any sort of treatment... due to an unspecified COVID-19 law."

•
After about a minute, the officer went inside himself and was almost immediately greeted by frantic hospital staff.

•
"They are not going to come in," the officer told the staff as he started to run to the room where the man was in cardiac arrest. "They're saying it's a state law that they cannot come in."

•
The officer then encountered multiple staff members performing CPR and other life-saving measures on the patient. The bed he was in did not have wheels, so the officer got behind the bed and pushed it.

•
As the officer navigated the wheel-less bed through the hallways, they eventually came into view of the paramedics.

•
"Despite being in their line of sight, fire personnel still insisted on [redacted] being brought to them outside before they began life saving efforts and made no effort to assist me in getting [redacted] outside."

•
Once they finally got the man outside, several other emergency medical personnel had arrived and started treating the man as one of the original paramedics peppered staff with administrative questions.

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The man was transferred to a local hospital and pronounced deceased about 30 minutes later.
North Carolina store employee shoots armed robbery suspect dead, police say (Fox 12/15/2021)
Trump's media company to partner with Rumble (Fox 12/14/2021)
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"As part of our mission, TMTG [Trump Media & Technology Group] continues to align with service providers who do not discriminate against political ideology."

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"Therefore, I have selected the Rumble Cloud to serve as a critical backbone for TMTG infrastructure. TMTG has already launched Truth Social on the Rumble Cloud for invited guests only, and the initial Beta launch has been excellent. America is ready for TRUTH Social, and the end to cancel culture."

•
Rumble will also provide video and streaming services for Truth Social as part of the agreement, while the companies are still in negotiations for Rumble to provide additional infrastructure and video delivery for TMTG's subscription service, TMTG+.

•
"Rumble is excited to provide technology and cloud services to TMTG," Rumble Founder and Chief Executive Officer Chris Pavlovski said in a statement.

•
"We continue to build the infrastructure to deliver a free, open, and neutral internet. Rumble was designed to be immune to cancel culture, and we are at the forefront of a movement that believes everyone benefits from access to a neutral platform that hosts diverse ideas and opinions."
Kudlow: We sure don't need any more government spending (Fox 12/13/2021)
Americans worry about soaring crime rate — Democrats respond by standing up for criminals (Fox 12/13/2021)
Sen. Hawley calls BLM's corporate sponsors 'anti-American' for silence on Christmas boycott (Fox 12/13/2021)
•
"They are anti-American in so many ways. They treat American workers terribly, they treat American consumers terribly, they bad-mouth our culture and try to run it down."

•
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the movement's national arm, launched a campaign on Nov. 24 to exclusively shop at Black-owned businesses through the New Year.

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The campaign seeks to "shake off the chains of consumerism and step fully into our own collective power, to build new traditions, and run an offense as well as a defense."

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It also calls for people to "move your money from white corporate banks (that finance gentrification, prisons, and environmental degradation) to Black-owned ones."

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"This kind of nonsense is what you've chosen to make yourself a part of," Hawley said of the supporting corporations, calling them "increasingly anti-American."

•
"What they wanted to do is contribute money to BLM [and] say, 'We're woke, you know, we get it, don't come after us.' They want to have this credential from this far-left extremist group."

•
"And then they want to go right on ahead and keep doing stuff that actually hurts American workers, that actually drives up prices for American consumers, and it hurts the middle class."

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"[A]t every turn, white-supremacist-capitalism is telling us to spend our money on things that we don't need, to reap profits for corporations," the announcement launching the campaign read.

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"Let's harness our economic power to disrupt white-supremacist-capitalism and build Black community."

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"As BLMLA organizer, Jan Williams, reminds us, 'Capitalism doesn't love Black people.' In fact, white-supremacist-capitalism invented policing, initially as chattel-slavery-era ‘paddy rollers,' in order to protect its interests and put targets on the backs of Black people."

•
"This is what you get," said Hawley, referring to the corporate sponsors that contributed to Black Lives Matter. ... Airbnb, Amazon, Intel and Microsoft...

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See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Newt Gingrich: Democrats trying to 'pay off their allies' before 2022 midterm 'catastrophe' (Fox 12/13/2021)
Texas woman shoots, kills man during attempted robbery: authorities (Fox 12/12/2021)
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The sheriff's office said a woman was arriving home when three Black men approached and tried to rob her.

•
The woman shot and killed one of the suspects while the other two fled the scene in a white, four-door sedan.

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The sheriff's office described the two suspects who fled as Black, with an average height and build.
California would-be victim manages to get robbers' gun, uses it against them shooting one dead (Fox 12/12/2021)
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A man near the University of Southern California fought back against three armed would-be robbers, killing one of them with a gun they dropped during the altercation.

•
An altercation broke out after the victim resisted complying with the suspects. One of the suspected robbers then dropped his handgun, and the victim picked it up and shot the suspect.

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The two other would-be robbers fled. The man who was shot was pronounced dead at the scene.

•
Los Angeles police are also warning residents of the continuing trend of follow-home robberies. Suspects in follow-home robberies target victims in affluent areas of Los Angeles, follow them until they are in a remote area and rob them.

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Police are investigating a video of one such alleged incident, where a group of reported thieves wearing "police-type" gear attacked a group of victims outside a home before forcing their way inside.
Cook County DA Kim Foxx facing renewed criticism following Smollett verdict for dropping charges last year (Fox 12/11/2021)
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"Let's remember how Michelle Obama and the corrupt Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx almost got Jussie off the hook," conservative speaker and author Dinesh D'Souza tweeted following the verdict.

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"These two slimy characters are complicit in the attempt to cover up Jussie's hate crime, even if they weren't charged and found guilty for it."

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"I hope someone prosecutes Kim Foxx now for letting a Michelle Obama crony talk her out of prosecuting Jussie Smollett's obvious crimes..."

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"George Soros gave more than $2 million to elect Kim Foxx. Every Soros prosecutor needs to be recalled, removed, and replaced."

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Smollett, who is both gay and black, was found guilty on five charges of staging that attack and lying to police this week.

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He was found guilty of telling a police officer he was a hate crime victim, telling an officer he was a battery victim, telling a detective he was a hate crime victim, telling a detective he was a battery victim and then telling a detective again he was battery victim. He was not found guilty on a sixth charge of telling a second detective he was an aggravated battery victim.

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See related One of His Better Performances (Tom Stiglich, 02/18/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Michigan school shooting suspect posted direct threat on social media day before tragedy: lawsuit (Fox 12/09/2021)
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Plaintiffs allege that Principal Steven Wolf and Superintendent Tim Thorne made "the student victims less safe" before shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley, 15, allegedly brought a weapon to school and opened fire on his classmates.

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"Previous to the November 30, 2021 incident, Ethan Crumbley posted countdowns and threats of bodily harm, including death, on his social media accounts, warning of violent tendencies and murderous ideology prior to actually coming to school with the handgun and ammunition to perpetuate the slaughter."

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Crumbley allegedly posted this statement to his Twitter account on the night before the shooting, according to the lawsuit: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. See you tomorrow Oxford."

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On or around Nov. 16, parents apparently voiced their concerns to Wolf about Crumbley's threats made on social media.

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In a Nov. 16 email to parents, Wolf allegedly wrote, "I know I'm being redundant here, but there is absolutely no threat at the HS...large assumptions were made from a few social media posts, then the assumptions evolved into exaggerated rumors."

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The complaint also alleges that Thorne "sent correspondence and emails to parents at Oxford High School reassuring them that their children were safe at Oxford High School."

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Thorne apparently "warned the students, via loudspeaker, to stop spreading information over social media and to stop relying on information on social media, reiterating that there were no threats that posed any danger to students at Oxford High School."

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The four students who died in the shooting are 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin and 15-year-old Justin Shilling.
Hillary Clinton gave 'masterclass in delusion' with emotional reading of 2016 'victory speech': Devine (Fox 12/09/2021)
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"... it is quite hilarious. What is most hilarious is she has billed this as some sort of masterclass that people are supposed to pay for – and it just looks like a masterclass in self-pity and delusion,...

•
"Or maybe it's a masterclass in how to lose an election. That speech is just shocking, and you have to notice that she is very emotional about this loss from five years ago, but she wasn't as emotional — she was quite callous, actually – when she was testifying about Benghazi."

•
"I had the misfortune of watching all of [the speech]. It was pathetic and embarrassing. And actually nauseating. I kept thinking – ‘what kind of a person does this?'"...

•
"Well, a person who yearns for relevance, to be sure, but an embittered person who refuses to accept personal responsibility for her own failure. She lost because she ran a hideous campaign with unpopular policies and came across as unlikable, and yet she is obsessed with blaming others."

•
"She wrote an entire book blaming everybody else but herself. People like this can't stand defeat [or] criticism. She seems like a classic case of narcissistic personality disorder, this overwrought sense of entitlement, an exaggerated sense of self-importance, and no sense of self-awareness, but on top of it, as you point out, scandal and malfeasance followed her everywhere she goes."

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"She didn't give a damn about the murdered Americans in Benghazi. She said what difference does it make? She disseminated a Russian hoax and lied about it."
Texas dads arrested after getting vocal at school board meetings say superintendent aims to 'silence' them (Fox 12/08/2021)
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"I believe I was arrested on 9/17/21 to intimidate me and other parents and community members from continuing to speak out against the superintendent and five of the school board members."

•
"We believe we were intentionally targeted for arrest to silence our voices because we were speaking out against the school district for illegal activity."

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"The superintendent was using school district police to keep community members out of the meeting while talking about raising their property taxes," Clark told Fox News regarding the incident.

•
"I asked the board to stop the meeting and let the people in. My arrest seems to be a clear tactic to silence me and other community members."

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See related You Better Shut up! (Mike Shelton, 06/28/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related My Son-in-Law\\\'s CRT Business (Mike Shelton, 10/07/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Fairfax County library puts 'Gender Queer' and 'Lawn Boy' next to Bible in 'holiday reading display' (Fox 12/08/2021)
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"The Dolley Madison Library holiday reading display was intended to highlight the freedom to read and the fact that many library patrons have more time during the holidays to do so."

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"It's so outrageously offensive," Stacy Langton, the Fairfax County mother who confronted the school board with images from the books in September, told...

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"It was intentional, it was meant to be offensive," Langton told... She called the display "pretty brazen." ... the staff told her that Mary Prisbrey, the branch manager at the library, had approved the display.

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Langton noted that she and other concerned parents spoke at the school board meeting last Thursday – addressing "Lawn Boy" and "Gender Queer" – and she said a library staffer told her that the library had set up the "holiday reading display" "a couple of days" ago.

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"The timing on this – it's an intentional dig," she said. "It's a dig on the parents who object to pornography and pedophilia-themed materials in the library, and it's a dig on Christians as a whole. I think everybody knows where Jesus stands on pedophilia."

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"They're saying that we're not entitled to want a library space that is free of porn and pedophilia."

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"The tolerant Left is giving you guys some holiday hate," she quipped. "Merry Christmas, taxpayers of Fairfax County, Merry Christmas."
Fox Square's All-American Christmas Tree burned in fire, suspect arrested (Fox 12/08/2021)
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Fox News security spotted the suspect, later identified as Craig Tamanaha, climbing the 50-foot-tall tree at the center of Fox Square just after midnight.

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NYPD officers arrived at the scene and saw the suspect running from the location. They took him into custody before filing charges that included criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and arson. City firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze.

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Crews will rebuild the tree this month, Fox News has confirmed.

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Tamanaha, 49, had three prior arrests: two for drug possession and one for public intoxication. He was said to be homeless with a last known address in Brooklyn.

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There were no reported injuries in the fire. Police said the investigation was ongoing. They said it was not clear whether the suspect may have used accelerant to quicken the spread of the fire.

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The red, white and blue-themed tree was 50 feet high, decorated with 10,000 glass ornaments and 100,000 lights. It took workers 21 hours to assemble the decorations.
Kim Potter trial: Daunte Wright's victims remember slain Minneapolis 20-year-old, 'Karma's a b****' (Fox 12/07/2021)
10 Antifa members charged for alleged attacks on California pro-Trump protesters: 'Criminal acts' (Fox 12/07/2021)
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"Video evidence analysis shows that overwhelmingly the violence in this incident was perpetrated by the Antifa affiliates and was not a mutual fray with both sides crossing out of lawful First Amendment expression into riot and violence."

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They're accused of using tear gas, sticks, flag poles and other items to attack the Trump supporters...

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See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Former WH chief of staff Mark Meadows will cease cooperation with Jan. 6 committee (Fox 12/07/2021)
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"It is well established that Congress's subpoena authority is limited to the pursuit of a legitimate legislative purpose," he wrote.

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"Congress has no authority to conduct law enforcement investigations or freestanding 'fact finding' missions."
Ilhan Omar part of 'systemic' anti-Semitism, a 'civil rights issue of epic proportions': Human rights lawyer (Fox 12/05/2021)
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"There is an alarming rise of Jew hatred to the point where it has become systemic ... I use the word systemic for a reason because Jew hatred is no longer on the fringes of society – it has become systemic. [It comes from] politicians like Ilhan Omar, who accuse Jewish Americans of having dual loyalty." ... "This is coming from someone in the United States right now in a position of power."

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"The FBI has recently reported that Jewish people are three times more likely to experience a hate crime than any other ethnic group. That's 2.6 times more likely than the black community and 2.2 times more likely than the Muslim community. And over one-third of Jewish Americans have personally experienced a hate crime an anti-Semitic hate crime. These are alarming numbers, and people will like to pretend as though this is a political issue – that this has to do with Israel – [but] it [does] not." ... "This is a civil rights issue of epic proportions."
MSNBC anchor appears to downplay Bob Dole's accomplishments after his death because of his support for Trump (Fox 12/05/2021)
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"Bob Dole, who endorsed and voted for Trump twice, and called himself a 'Trumper' as recently as July, has passed away," Hasan tweeted.

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American Conservative Magazine contributing editor Sohrab Ahmari tweeted, "Mehdi Hasan, who has said non-Muslims are like animals, has once more beckowned himself on Twitter... Actual thing Hasan has said — look it up."

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"He was also a hero who served his country proudly in WWII. But what does that matter, right?," conservative radio host Tony Katz said.

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Former Democratic congressional candidate Christopher Hale hit back at Hasan saying, "Bob Dole fought and was paralyzed in World War II so television pundits could trash him freely after his recently deceased body was still warm."

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President Biden released a lengthy statement that read "Bob was a man to be admired by Americans. He had an unerring sense of integrity and honor. May God bless him, and may our nation draw upon his legacy of decency, dignity, good humor, and patriotism for all time."
Trump: Biden could bring US 'to a point where we can't come back' (Fox 12/05/2021)
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... warned that President Biden and the Democratic Party's heavy-handed pivot toward a far-left-wing and globalist governance could reach a point where future elected officials cannot course-correct and the republic as-founded will be lost.

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... Trump has said Biden will go down as the worst president in history, with other critics claiming his policies thus far have led to an economic downturn that eclipses fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter.

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"If you look, President Obama was very divisive, but people were more quiet about it. They didn't want to insult him, but he was very divisive."

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"But the Biden administration is far worse. In fact, I noticed the other day where Obama said ‘this is very dangerous'; all of these — you know, what they've done. It's too much for him."

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"But when they look at his top economic people are looking at this inflation, and they're seeing these bills that are being passed for trillions and trillions of dollars where it's like throwing money out the window."

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"These are Obama people telling Biden people 'you can't do this, - but they push forward anyway. Let's see what happens."

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While Trump expressed that Youngkin's win should be a wake-up call for the left, he added that either way the nation must return to policies of strong borders, free enterprise, a fair press, and more platforms he said Biden has abandoned.

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"Who wouldn't want voter ID, as an example? Who wouldn't want a strong military, or a border? Who wants to have millions of people flowing into our country?"

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"If you did a sample of 1,000 people, typical, good, American people that love our country, they can't believe what they're witnessing at the border, and some of the people are really bad."

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"This country has tremendous potential, tremendous, but we're giving it away, and there'll be a point where the country can't come back, and we can never allow that point to be reached."
Greg Gutfeld: The media intentionally misreads things because they get away with it (Fox 12/04/2021)
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The sitting president was laundering corruption from our largest enemy through his son - and we have texts, emails and photos and suddenly they're not curious. Because they went out of their way to pretend that story didn't exist. In order to win an election.

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They said Smollett was real before they checked. They thought Andrew Cuomo was God before they checked. They said hunter's laptop was fake before they checked.
George Soros is the 'common thread' linking cities with rising crime rates: Watters (Fox 12/04/2021)
Hannity rips US jobs report: Biden was supposed to shut down virus, not economy (Fox 12/04/2021)
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"Wait – I thought Biden promised to shut down the virus, not the economy — what happened? One big problem for Joe, you can't lie your way out of a crisis."

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"The two most powerful jobs in America are filled by people who can barely form a cogent sentence. This is scary."
Loudoun County schools charge mom $36,000 to respond to open records request on ‘sexual assault,’ ‘rape’ (Fox 12/03/2021)
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"The fact that there are potentially 100,000 documents responsive to this request is extremely concerning."

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"But it is equally concerning that Loudoun County Public Schools would put up a $36,000 roadblock in front of parents trying to find out the extent of sexual assaults occurring in our schools, especially since LCPS has not been reporting those sexual assaults to the state as is required by law."
GoFundMe removes page supporting Army sergeant who shot and killed armed Black Lives Matter protester (Fox 12/03/2021)
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A United States Army sergeant facing a murder charge after shooting a Black Lives Matter protester who approached his vehicle with an AK-47 had his GoFundMe page removed from the site by the company.

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On the night of July 25, 2020, at about 9:50 p.m., authorities say Sgt. Daniel Perry was driving for Uber when he encountered a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Austin, Texas.

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... he was swarmed by a group of Black Lives Matter protesters and a masked man, later identified as Garrett Foster, approached his vehicle armed with an AK-47 in the "ready position" as protesters began banging on Perry's car and throwing bricks.

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Believing that Foster was beginning to raise the rifle and that his life was in danger, Perry fired the handgun he kept in his car console multiple times at which point another protester opened fire on him.

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The man with the AK-47, Garrett Foster, was fatally wounded.

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Roughly a year later, Perry was indicted on murder and aggravated assault charges by Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza...

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"Garrett Foster either intentionally or accidentally pointed his rifle at Daniel Perry's head and Daniel Perry fired in self-defense. And as a practical matter he had no ability to retreat nor was he required to."

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"You have the right to defend yourself in a crowd and you feel like you're in imminent danger of being shot."

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"That's what it's all about. I ask people to put themselves in Sgt. Perry's position and you have this masked man with an assault rifle ready starting to raise it. I think anybody that had access to a firearm would react the same way."
University of Nebraska-Lincoln faces criticism for anti-racism plan, appears to remove Ibram Kendi reference (Fox 12/03/2021)
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"[T]he Chancellor announced UNL would embark on a Journey For Anti-Racism and Racial Equity. In this context, our journey for anti-racism utilizes Ibram Kendi's definition on becoming ‘actively conscious about race and racism' and taking ‘actions to end racial inequities'."

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An internet archive shows that as of Dec. 1 the reference to Kendi was gone. So was another portion Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, criticized in his column on Nov. 30.

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The governor's column disputed Kendi's definition of anti-racism and criticized its assertions about structural racism.

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"UNL's plan is also based on the flawed assumption that differences in outcomes among racial groups are the result of systemic racism and how people are treated based on skin color."

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"The data, however, doesn't support this conclusion. The University's plan makes the claim that racism is 'often structural and embedded into systems,' however, it does not spell out specific examples of what this looks like at UNL besides vaguely stating there are "different outcomes for different groups."

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In August, the university's board of regents rejected an anti-CRT resolution from regent and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Pillen.

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"This plan is simply wrong. It can't be fixed by changing or deleting some words. You cannot rename this, expand it across campuses, or talk to more Nebraskans about it. No more of this ‘journey.' No more Critical Race Theory. This ends now."

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The controversial plan also contains language indicating it would consider race in hiring. It reads: "Begin a comprehensive review of hiring practices and retention data of tenure-track, non-tenure track faculty, extension faculty, and staff in the context of race and ethnicity."

•
UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green similarly said in a Nov. 17 op-ed: "[W]e are committed to fostering an environment where we better recruit, retain, and support the success of students, faculty and staff who are people of color."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related The Woke Skies (Antonio Branco, 04/23/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
John Schneider rails against Alec Baldwin for claiming he 'didn’t pull the trigger' (Fox 12/03/2021)
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"Three weeks ago, it was a prop gun. Four weeks ago, nobody knew how in the world this real weapon was loaded on the set. Today, he didn't pull the trigger."

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"Guns do not go off by themselves. Let us not forget this was a single-action – it was not a Colt, it was a replica ... – a single-action weapon needs to be cocked and fired. So what kind of idiots do you take us for?"

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"There is just no world in which guns go off by themselves... Hutchins is still deceased. And their family is not getting an apology, they're not getting any – in my opinion – they're not getting any justice, they're not getting any answers."

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"First they're going to say, ‘I didn't know. I didn't know what was going on.' Then if that doesn't work – which, by the way, it still doesn't work because you are supposed to check the weapon, you fellow – but then you have the audacity to say, ‘I didn't pull the trigger.'"...

•
It wasn't just Baldwin that the actor took aim at, however. He called ABC's Stephanopoulos "the poster boy for leftist propaganda." ... "Why in the world anyone would look at an interview with George as being anything enlightening or having a modicum of truth, I don't know."
String of violent crimes committed by career offenders leaves communities nationwide outraged (Fox 12/03/2021)
31-year Chicago police commander slams department in going-away message: 'Disdain' and 'lack of respect' (Fox 12/02/2021)
Nikki Haley to shred Biden at GOP group's award dinner: 'America is retreating' (Fox 12/02/2021)
•
"America is retreating – and our enemies are rushing into the gap. We have a total lack of courage and commitment from our commander-in-chief."

•
"Joe Biden isn't leading from behind. Joe Biden is sleeping from behind. This year has been one embarrassment after another."

•
"The fall of Afghanistan sent a message to the world. It said America doesn't stand by our friends. That's exactly what our enemies wanted to hear."

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"Joe Biden is the greatest gift to America's enemies since Jimmy Carter. And just like Carter, we're going to make Joe a one-term president."

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... alleges the Biden administration has "turned against a colorblind society" and shunned the country's founding values, citing clashes over critical race theory and alleged censorship by tech firms.

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"Anger toward America is now the party line in the classroom, the boardroom, the media green room, and the backrooms of governments."

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"This is America, not socialist Europe. The sooner Joe Biden and Democrats lose their jobs, the sooner we can set the stage for new jobs and bigger paychecks for American families."
Fairfax County parents demand school board resign after 'doubling down' on 'porn in schools' (Fox 12/02/2021)
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"They've doubled down on porn in the schools. They've all got to go. Who's in favor of porn in the schools?"

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Fairfax County Public Schools announced that it had restored the books to libraries after two committees — consisting of librarians, administrators, parents and students — had reviewed them. The committees claimed the books are not obscene and do not contain pedophilia.

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"We're here because we don't want any porn in the schools. We're sick of them trying to put labels on it and call it what it isn't. Stop playing word semantic games. It's ridiculous and insulting."

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"The attendance is down, the grades are down, children are being subjected to sexual surveys that are completely out of line."

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During the school board meeting, some students and parents spoke in favor of the books, arguing that they provide important representation for LGBTQ students. Other parents said that doesn't justify "porn" in schools.

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... argued that such books "violate the FCC's regulations on obscenity," so media outlets cannot carry them, but FCPS allows them in libraries.

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"How is it that these materials, which cannot be shown to America, magically become legal when you step inside a school library?"

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... "the parents tonight reveal that we are not an overnight political operation. We are here to stay. Parents are wearing ‘Momma Grizzly' t-shirts because we are fierce."

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Jim Jordan seeks subpoenas in DOJ memo based on letter comparing parents to domestic terrorists (Fox 12/02/2021)
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"We are investigating the troubling attempts by the Department of Justice and the White House to use the heavy hand of federal law enforcement — including federal counterterrorism tools — to target concerned parents at local school board meetings and chill their protected First Amendment activity."

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Jordan requested subpoenas for NSBA President Dr. Viola Garcia, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

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"This information is scandalous and we have good reason to believe that the Biden Administration and the NSBA possess additional material that is necessary and important for our investigation."

•
The Republican faulted Nadler for failing to help in this investigation previously. "We have also repeatedly asked that you convene hearings on the Biden Administration's targeting of parents, but you have failed to act."

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"Last Congress, when you aggressively pursued politicized and debunked allegations against President Trump, you promised that the Committee would ‘not rest' until it obtained the material it sought. We ask that you remain consistent in applying this standard."

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See related My Son-in-Law\\\'s CRT Business (Mike Shelton, 10/07/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Federal Case (David Hitch, 11/10/2021)) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Republican senators introduce bill to block settlement payments to separated illegal immigrants (Fox 12/02/2021)
Hunter Biden, foreign agent plotted investment meeting with Serbian president and oligarchs, emails show (Fox 12/02/2021)
Trump torches Biden in 'Fox & Friends' interview, says admin ‘knowingly destroying our country' (Fox 12/02/2021)
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"We have a group of people. I don't know if it's Biden. It might not be. But we have a group of people that are destroying our country and perhaps knowingly destroying our country."

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"If Joe Biden would have just come in and gone to the beach he would have been successful in many ways."
Michigan school shooting prosecutor 'doesn't have words' after watching footage of attack (Fox 12/02/2021)
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... the video of the attack showed Crumbley enter a bathroom in the school with a backpack and exit with a gun.

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"At that point, he deliberately aimed the gun at students and began firing at students. After students started running he continued down the hallway pointing the gun and firing (at them) and firing in classrooms and at students who were unable to escape."
Sen. Tom Cotton: Biden is in denial about what his policies have done to America (Fox 12/01/2021)
Cruz hammers Biden judicial nominee who described himself as 'wild-eyed leftist' (Fox 12/01/2021)
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... the president has "made a pattern of nominating extremists, partisans and radicals" for administrative and judicial positions and that he believes Ho's "record reflects that same pattern of finding someone who has been an extreme partisan" and "a radical."

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"I would note at the outset, that that's not just my characterization. You yourself have described yourself as ‘a wild-eyed Leftist.' Further, as someone ‘accused sometimes of seeing discrimination everywhere you look.' Is that right?"

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"So in the last 12 months, you have engaged — or the last about 18 months — you have engaged in partisan attacks on multiple members of this committee."
Kudlow: In the Biden philosophy, success is penalized and failure is rewarded (Fox 12/01/2021)
Hawley says Democratic rhetoric amid SCOTUS abortion hearing ‘really dangerous’ (Fox 12/01/2021)
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"We're seeing a predictable ramp-up already in rhetoric from Democrats, including Democratic senators about how it will be a revolution if the court overturns Roe. This is really inappropriate and dangerous rhetoric."
Sen. Tom Cotton says DOJ quiet on Waukesha while actively 'chilling free speech' of parents (Fox 12/01/2021)
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"The defendant in this case has spent more than two decades committing crimes, including a number of violent and sexual felonies, and had also reportedly shared anti-Semitic posts and called for violence against white people."

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"In October, you issued a memorandum to all United States Attorneys and to the FBI, directing them to bring a federal law enforcement presence to local school board meetings all across the country, despite a lack of any apparent federal crime or national outbreak of violence."

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"Yet, while you seemed to have no hesitation to prioritize chilling free speech from concerned parents, neither you nor the Department of Justice appear to have even issued a public statement about the mass murder in Waukesha. You have also issued no statements about the lenient bail policies that appear to have allowed this attack to take place."

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Cotton concluded his letter by demanding that Garland explain what the DOJ is doing to investigate or assist in the Waukesha investigation.

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Cotton also asked to know if the Civil Rights Division plans to look into Brooks' alleged racist posts on social media, and he also asked if Garland has directed federal investigators to "take any actions to fill gaps in the criminal justice system left by soft-on-crime policies like the weakening or elimination of cash bail."

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See related My Son-in-Law\\\'s CRT Business (Mike Shelton, 10/07/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Federal Case (David Hitch, 11/10/2021)) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Michigan school shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley charged with terrorism, murder: 'Not just an impulsive act' (Fox 12/01/2021)
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"He methodically and deliberately walked down a hallway, aimed the firearm at students and fired it. After children started running away from the defendant, he continued down the hallway, again at a deliberate and methodical pace, pointing and aiming inside classrooms and at students who hadn't had the opportunity to escape."

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... recorded videos on his phone the night before the incident in which he "talked about shooting and killing students the next day at Oxford High School."

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"Further, a journal was recovered from Ethan's backpack also detailing his desire to shoot up a school to include murdering students."

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Crumbley's parents went to Oxford High School about two to three hours before the shooting to meet with their son and school officials over behavioral issues in the classroom.

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Crumbley also had to meet with school officials the day before the shooting "over behavior in the classroom that they felt was concerning."

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Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald noted that the terrorism count is not a "typical" charge, but she said that it is necessary to get justice for all the victims in this shooting.

•
"The children that I have just listed and those that were injured, they're the victims in the first-degree murder charges and assault with intent to murder."

•
"But what about all these other children? What about all the children who ran, screaming, hiding under desks? What about all the children at home right now who can't eat and can't sleep and can't imagine a world where they could ever step foot back in that school. Those are victims too."

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The suspect used a 9mm Sig Sauer, according to police, which the boy's father bought on Black Friday...

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McDonald said that her office is looking at charging the parents and "that decision will be made swiftly."

•
At least 30 shell casings were found at the scene and the suspect still had 18 live rounds when deputies apprehended him. Crumbley was apprehended by police within five minutes of the first 911 call...
Gutfeld: 'It's going to be a war' between armed citizens and criminals (Fox 11/30/2021)
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"Gun control is dead, and it was killed by the leftists and the media," ... the left "killed it by pushing riots as protests and pushing the defunding and the demoralization of law enforcement."

•
"All that's left is the Second Amendment, and it's dawning on everyone like a giant red nuclear pill that...was detonated over America, that the only thing between you and anarchy is self-protection."

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"The problem with the Democrats...[is] they don't understand human nature and the incentivization of human nature."

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... they "have been incentivizing gun purchases by decriminalizing crime" and using no cash bail to "[put] the criminal on a pedestal while putting victims in jeopardy."

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... a law-abiding citizen's "only recourse is to protect [him]self. This is why you can no longer crack down on legal guns because it's going to be a war."
Ben Domenech calls out mainstream media 'hypocrisy' on COVID coverage during Biden presidency (11/30/2021)
Greg Gutfeld on Waukesha attack: The soft bigotry of low expectations turns deadly (Fox 11/30/2021)
Beat Biden's bunk back: Energy Price Inflation IS his Goal (JWR 11/29/2021)
Down with foreign-citizen voting in American elections (JWR 11/29/2021)
Rittenhouse's Offense: Insufficiently Respecting Rioters (JWR 11/29/2021)
•
Why the hatred of Kyle Rittenhouse? Why was there such widespread dishonest news coverage of the case against him that his acquittal by the Kenosha, Wisconsin, jury came as an unwelcome surprise to so many?

•
For example, so-called comedian Stephen Colbert's recent comment ("If he didn't break the law, we should change the law") shows he's ready to jettison the ancient right of self-defense.

•
Maybe it's because so many in the media have been portraying those violent rioters in multiple cities in the summer of 2020 as virtuous peaceful protesters and those who tried to prevent violent destruction of property as vicious white supremacists.

•
Jacob Blake, the Black man shot by police in Kenosha, was not killed, despite what many recent stories have said, but grievously wounded and paralyzed. He was also not unarmed but armed with a knife, which, up close, is definitely a deadly weapon.

•
Nor was Blake an innocent accosted at random by trigger-happy cops. There was an outstanding warrant for his arrest for an alleged sexual assault.

•
Nonetheless, President Joe Biden took time to talk to him on the phone and visit his relatives as he was campaigning for president in Wisconsin.

•
It was odd ... to hear the lamentations and cries of dismay when the Kenosha jury voted unanimously to acquit Rittenhouse of murder and the other charges against him.

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See related Leftists Seek to Destroy Justice System (Dick Wright, 11/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Lemmings 2021 (Mike Lester, 11/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Democrats' rush to judgment in Smollett case could blow up in their faces (Fox 11/29/2021)
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Democrats and media figures were quick to condemn what they described as a racist and homophobic attack against actor Jussie Smollett in 2019, blaming it on a culture of hate fostered by then-President Trump, but their words may come back to bite them now that Smollett faces up to three years in prison for allegedly fabricating the assault.

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Smollett originally told police that on Jan. 29, 2019, two masked men attacked him outside his apartment at 2 a.m. in Chicago, hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him, threw chemicals on him, looped a noose around his neck, and told him he was in "MAGA country."

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Police alleged weeks after he made his report that Smollett paid two friends to help stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary on the TV show "Empire."

•
Shortly after his initial arrest, the Cook County State Attorney's Office on Mar. 7, 2019, filed a 16-count felony indictment against Smollett on charges that he staged the hate crime attack and made numerous false statements to police.

•
But then just three weeks later, the CCSAO dropped those charges in exchange for 15 hours of community service and the agreement that Smollett would forfeit his $10,000 bond to the City of Chicago.

•
Months after the prosecutors dropped the charges with little explanation, a judge appointed a special prosecutor, former U.S. attorney Dan Webb, to look into the original investigation.

•
Webb eventually determined that Smollett "planned and participated in a staged hate crime attack, and thereafter made numerous false statements to Chicago Police Department officers on multiple occasions, reporting a heinous hate crime that he, in fact, knew had not occurred."

•
Smollett pleaded not guilty and his defense team filed a motion to dismiss the latest charges over double jeopardy, but a judge shot that down in June 2020. Smollett still claimed he did nothing wrong...

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See related One of His Better Performances (Tom Stiglich, 02/18/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Rand Paul blasts Fauci: 'Astounding and alarming' to declare 'I represent science' (Fox 11/28/2021)
"The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural ()
'More money than God:' Chinese titan lavished Hunter Biden with 3-carat gem, offer of $30 million (Fox 11/28/2021)
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See related Made in China (Antonio Branco, 08/28/2020) cartoon from World picture album
Smash-and-grab thieves attack stores around the country, California security guard shot dead as crime rages (Fox 11/28/2021)
•
"I think what happens now is there's no accountability for it anymore, and the liability for the stores if they try to apprehend these guys. They just stand by and watch."
Injured Waukesha girl’s uncle shares horrifying parade details, lashes out at suspect Darrell Brooks (Fox 11/28/2021)
•
"To hear him start crying when the judge mentioned that these [charges] carried a life sentence, to me it was selfish that he did that, that he was worried about himself."

•
"But I hope that he spends the rest of his life in jail, in isolation, because I don't think he'll ever see general population [inside prison] because they're afraid of what they might think will happen to him."

•
"I hope he has a lot of time to sit in there and think about how he negatively impacted all of these people's lives in this community for the rest of his life."

•
"I was standing there with my kids and ... I saw a red car break through the barricade on Main Street and he was a red SUV, he was right in front of us."

•
"He had stopped for just a moment, a cop had tried to stop him. He didn't listen to the police officer and he just gunned it down the street."

•
"Then I watched him speed from right to left, praying that he would turn off on one of the side streets. He had an opportunity to, and he didn't.

•
"My daughters, what they saw was indescribable. It was what you hear from veterans. There were bodies everywhere. There were clothes abandoned. Chairs, everything. Everybody was screaming, ‘Oh my God!,' yelling for their children, yelling for their loved ones."

•
"So then I looked over and I saw my sister over Jessalyn on the ground. I approached her, and what I saw terrified me and I lost it for a couple of seconds. And then I heard my kids scream after they had seen her and I just tried to get them away from her as quick as possible.

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Jessalyn suffered multiple serious injuries, including a fractured pelvis, fractured skull, detached kidney, contusions to her lungs, and lacerations on her liver.

•
"After hearing everything that he had, when they read out all the charges that he had prior to what he did on Sunday, it made me sick to my stomach."

•
As of late Saturday eight children were still hospitalized after last week's tragedy after one child was released Thursday and another child earlier Saturday.

•
None of the children still being treated were in critical condition anymore, with four in serious condition, two in fair condition and two in good condition...
From my dad's death in Afghanistan 20 years ago to Taliban retaking the country. How did we get here? (Fox 11/27/2021)
Romanian immigrant to Americans who favor communism: ‘If you don't learn from history, nothing will save you’ (Fox 11/27/2021)
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"I'm not saying that every system in the world is perfect, but to be in favor of communism, considering history and everything that has been documented throughout the years, it's sad. It's really sad."

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... after a decade in the U.S. he said he feels, "very grateful, very honored to be here and to have the opportunity to live in America."

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"People all across the globe see America as a beacon of freedom and a beacon of hope."

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"If anybody would have told me before I came to America there would come a day when I would encounter or meet American citizens in favor of communism, I probably would have laughed in their face."

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"In my 24 years of living in Romania, I have not heard one person talk positively about communism."

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"But when you talk with people here about it and you tell them about ... the lived experiences of people that lived under communism and how life was there ... they tell you that you don't know what you're talking about."

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"We're not talking about socialism here. We are talking about actual leftists that are in favor of communism and everything that that entails ... because they read a theory."

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"It's very important for us to learn history. And not just a part of history that suits our narrative."

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"A lot of people are just woke because it's trendy, because it's popular ... rather than having a little bit of critical thinking and acknowledging everything that this country is offering."

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"The system is not perfect. I'll be the first one to admit that. It's not perfect. But if you put your mind to it, the impossible can happen."
From mob looting in San Francisco to deaths in Waukesha these shocking crimes should be a wake-up call (Fox 11/26/2021)
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Soon, the American people are going to grow tired of being sacrificed on the altar of Big Government Socialist fanaticism.

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The sooner that happens, the sooner we can eliminate lawlessness and return to peaceful civilization.
Trump torches Biden admin over COVID, inflation, the border, Afghanistan, and other crises (Fox 11/26/2021)
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Trump told ... that he had hoped President Biden would do well in managing the coronavirus, but pointed out that "significantly" more Americans have died from the virus under Biden's watch than his own "despite all of the vaccines and the therapeutics" that are now widely available.

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"Look, I wanted [Biden] to be successful on the on the whole thing on COVID – or as I call it, the China virus. I wanted him to be successful. He's been totally unsuccessful. It's a disaster what's happened."

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The former president said that he was proud to take the COVID-19 vaccine and "very proud" of the development of the inoculations in nine months under Operation Warp Speed, and said he believes people should take the vaccines.

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Trump added ... that he is against Biden's vaccine mandates, saying, "I want people to go out and want to get [vaccinated], but I don't want to force it into them," and blamed vaccine hesitancy on people's distrust of Biden.

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Trump went on to say that Biden "lied so much" ahead of the election, pointing to Biden originally saying he would not impose vaccine mandates, and noting that Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline nearly immediately after taking office when he had previously signaled that he would consider keeping the project going.

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"What's happening with energy, nobody's ever seen it. In California – [gas] is $7.77 in certain areas of California....People remember in a debate, also, I said, you're going to have $5, $6, $7 gasoline, and even more than that, I just didn't know I was going to be right so soon."

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Trump referred to both the Biden administration's handling of the border crisis and the way the Afghanistan withdrawal was handled as "a disgrace," and the Republican says he believes that if he decides to run for the White House again, he will win.

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"The whole world looks at us differently today than they did a year ago. A year ago, they had great respect for this country. Now they look at us like we're a bunch of wimps which they can't even believe."
Flashback: Biden suggested Trump's coronavirus travel ban was 'xenophobic' (Fox 11/26/2021)
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President Joe Biden has imposed travel restrictions into the United States due to coronavirus fears despite previously slamming former President Trump as xenophobic for doing the same thing in 2020.

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"We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus," Biden tweeted as a presidential candidate last year the day after Trump imposed travel restrictions from several countries including China into the United States.

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"We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency."

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"A wall will not stop the coronavirus," Biden tweeted in March of 2020. "Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it. This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet — and we need a plan to combat it."

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"Trump further diminished the U.S. in the eyes of the world by expanding his travel ban. This new "African Ban," is designed to make it harder for black and brown people to immigrate to the United States. It's a disgrace, and we cannot let him succeed."

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Vice-President Kamala Harris also criticized Trump on that issue calling the move "Un-American." "Trump's extended un-American travel ban undermines our nation's core values. It is clearly driven by hate, not security."

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On Friday, the Biden administration announced it is restricting travel into the United States from several African countries in response to a new strain of the coronavirus known as the Omicron variant.

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The travel restrictions will apply to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi.
Indiana critical race theory whistleblower: Classes founded with 'racial equity priority' (Fox 11/26/2021)
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"Every single class at Indianapolis public schools is founded on two strategic priorities. One is the official academic priority that we're all supposed to encourage, and the second is the racial equity priority, which sounds really great, but it actually pits our students against each other based on color."

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"It suggests to all of our students who aren't Black or Brown that they are responsible for centuries of horrible oppression that the United States has built. And no matter what class you're in, you are required to look through that lens, and that's really quite horrifying."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Lincoln Project's desire for Trump to run again leaves observers disgusted, surprised: 'Utterly desperate' (Fox 11/26/2021)
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See related The Lincoln Project (Mike Shelton, 02/04/2021) cartoon from Adult picture album
'Dukes of Hazzard' star John Schneider on General Lee, cancel culture: 'We don't belong in that country club' (Fox 11/26/2021)
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"Cancel culture is very short-sighted and it's very much against everything I believe in concerning freedom of speech and freedom of expression. I'm looking forward to the day when the wind finally comes out of the sails of all that nonsense."

•
"I saw something on Facebook that was just astonishing. Someone had put a Bible verse with praying hands like the picture your grandparents used to have in their homes. And over this picture, it said, "Some may find these words and this picture offensive." But you have to click on it to see the picture. It was praying hands and it mentioned "God." There's just no way in the world that a free society is going to allow that to continue any longer. It has gotten way out of hand."

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"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – they are at the foundation of our country. That's why people from all over the world are trying to come to this country. I do believe we are the city on a hill. We are the living example of a free society. That's why I believe we have to go against the notion that we are not a free society. That we are not free to show praying hands and mention the word "God" on a public platform. We've got to eliminate that."

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"I tell people that is up to us. It's not going to happen on its own. I believe freedom is something that is maintained and achieved. Our national anthem reminds us of that. Our flag must wave over the land of the free and home of the brave. It's up to each one of us to make sure that remains. The world is depending upon that. We are what people look up to as a free society. We are a country of opportunity, love, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's what's so great about America. It gives the world something to strive for."
Trump's Thanksgiving message teases 2024 presidential run (Fox 11/25/2021)
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"A very interesting time in our Country, but do not worry, we will be great again — and we will all do it together."

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"America will never fail, and we will never allow it to go in the wrong direction. Too many generations of greatness are counting on us. Enjoy your Thanksgiving knowing that a wonderful future lies ahead!"
Newt Gingrich highlights Biden's incompetence 'in virtually every area' (Fox 11/25/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Americans are focused on the crime wave, the left is focused on language (Fox 11/25/2021)
Career criminal accused of shooting two NYPD officers; de Blasio blames guns (Fox 11/25/2021)
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... president of the Police Benevolent Association, also agreed at the press conference that there are too many guns on the streets of New York but noted the problem is due to criminals being unafraid to carry firearms.

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"But perps aren't afraid to carry them. They're not afraid to put it in their belt, put it in their pocket and pull it out on a police officer. That's the problem."
Waukesha parade attack: Meet the official who agreed to $1K bail for Darrell Brooks ahead of Christmas carnage (Fox 11/25/2021)
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... it was a court commissioner, not a low-level prosecutor, who agreed and cleared the way for Brooks' release.

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... bail seemed too low for the crime: allegedly punching a woman, stealing her phone and running her over with the same SUV believed to have been used weeks later to cause carnage at a family-oriented holiday parade.

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He also had charges for another firearms felony pending an active warrant out of Nevada and a record of skipping bail.

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Even the suspect's mother allegedly claimed she regretted buying his freedom... "She's wrecked that people were killed as a result and she's like, ‘I'm blaming myself, because had I not bailed him out, this wouldn't have happened.'"

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On the same day he set bail for Brooks, he set bail at $500 for a man accused of strangulation, battery and domestic violence, court records show.

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And a day earlier, he set bail for a woman facing three felony charges, including one for child abuse, at $1,000.

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He had the authority to set higher bail for Brooks but did not despite a 50-page rap sheet spanning three states and stretching back to 1999, with numerous convictions for violent felonies — and the open warrant out of Nevada.
Owner of fake hitman website used by Michigan woman looking to kill ex-husband says it’s a ‘personal mission’ (Fox 11/24/2021)
Critical Race Theory taught at many of America’s 50 most elite private K-12 schools, according to new study (Fox 11/24/2021)
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"The election results in Virginia showed that opposition to CRT in its various forms is motivating a diverse, multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition of parents to act against the racialization of education."

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"Our survey of the Top 50 most elite private K-12 schools proves how deeply the racialization of education has penetrated."

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"While many schools run from the term ‘critical race theory,' the ideology is present through an obsessive focus on viewing almost everything through a racial lens."

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"The economic elites who send their children to these schools at great expense have voluntarily surrendered their children to an activist and consultant educational class that sees exploiting race as a way to power and riches."

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"At some point these parents are going to have to put their children ahead of the prestige and alumni connections of these schools."

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"The next step in this elite private school database project is to connect with parents who can add more details and documents as to what is going on that may not be available on the internet."

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CriticalRace.org is a project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to campus free speech and academic freedom.
Indiana teacher who exposed CRT teaching put on leave, has email locked, banned from school buildings (Fox 11/24/2021)
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"As of one hour ago, Indianapolis Public Schools has suspended my access to email & Google Drive."

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"I've been required to work from home the last two weeks, as staff reportedly have 'clinical anxiety' over working with me."

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"When I came to get books from my office, phone calls were made to each team member so they'd be clear of the building."

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Kinnett added that he has been banned from going to any school building or from hosting professional development while also pledging to continue to release more information that he has already downloaded from the district.

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"It's a good thing I downloaded all of the other racist documents & videos from the public server weeks ago."

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"They've apparently gotten tons of emails and texts and calls from people who have refused to work with me, if they have to work with me they will walk."

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"I have been banned from coming into their buildings and they are terrified I am going to pull out my phone and record their classes."

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"Regardless of my position and whether I'm employed or not, parents still deserve to know what's going on in Indianapolis. Whether they support it or they disagree with it they deserve to know."
Tulsi Gabbard: Ahmaud Arbery verdict shows America isn't a racist country (Fox 11/24/2021)
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"If America is a racist country, Arbery's killers would not have been found guilty by a nearly all-white jury in Georgia."

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"Most Americans (of all colors) believe in Dr. MLK's adage that as God's children we should be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin."
Darrell Brooks' Facebook posts called for violence against White people, support for Hitler (Fox 11/24/2021)
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"LEARNED ND TAUGHT BEHAVIOR!! so when we start bakk knokkin white people TF out ion wanna hear it...the old white ppl 2, KNOKK DEM TF OUT!! PERIOD..."

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He also shared a meme titled "Hitler knew who the real Jews were!" The message claimed that Adolf Hitler had warned that his genocide was partly prompted because he knew "the negros ... are the true hebrews," appearing to promote the views of the Black Hebrew Israelites.

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The post added that America had moved "false white Jews into a state of Israel," and that World War III would unfold when people "learn Hitler was right" and "did the world a favor by killing" Jews.

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His amateur rap career also included lyrics saying he was a "terrorist" and a "killer in the city."

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Police have not yet released a motive behind the attack on Sunday night, but the criminal complaint against Brooks shows witnesses describing the attack as one with "intent."

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One detective spoke with a witness who recounted that the SUV that hit the parade attendees zig-zagged through the crowd, describing he felt it was "a direct intent to hit as many parade participants."

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Brooks, 39, also has an extensive criminal record stretching back to 1999, and made bail twice in Wisconsin this year despite having an active sex crime warrant in Nevada.
Wealthiest 1% get richer under Dems' reckless tax-and-spend package (Fox 11/24/2021)
Donald Trump slams prosecutors' 'misconduct' in Kyle Rittenhouse trial after meeting with teen in Mar-A-Lago (Fox 11/24/2021)
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"[Rittenhouse] should not have had to suffer through a trial for that. He was going to be dead if he didn't pull that trigger, that guy that put the gun to his head in one-quarter of a second he was going to pull the trigger. Kyle would have been dead."

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"He's a really good young guy ... just left Mar-a-Lago a little while ago, and he should never have been put through that. That was prosecutorial misconduct, and it's happening all over the United States right now with the Democrats."

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"I was an innocent 17-year-old who was violently attacked and defended myself," Rittenhouse said...

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"I feel my life has been extremely defamed ... I don't think I would be able to go out and get a job and not have to deal with harassment. But I'm at a place now ... where I have to have people with me because people want to kill me just because I defended myself – and they're too ignorant to look at the facts of what happened ... I see some of the threats. Some of the things people say it's absolutely sickening."

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The media's coverage of the trial has come under fire for getting facts distorted, including the falsehood that Rittenhouse brought the rifle across state lines. Some outlets have corrected their reporting.

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The former president slammed the media and reaffirmed that they are the "enemy of the people." He cited their coverage of the debunked Steele dossier as one of many examples of "fake news."

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"They are the enemy of the people and we could have a country that would be able to heal and get together, except the media foments it. They're so corrupt. The fake news [media], but it's really the corrupt news. It's corrupt what they do. I had to devote a lot of time to fake investigations."

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"He was out on bail and he was a rough cookie," Trump said. "This guy was crazy and a real professional criminal and a bad guy. And the good news is he hated Trump, OK? He hated Trump – based on early reporting – and he should."
Woke culture has hit our police hard and now it threatens our safety (Fox 11/24/2021)
Fort Worth School District offers teachers a course on 'critical race theory' (Fox 11/24/2021)
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"The superintendent and the bureaucracy are doing a disservice to the students by teaching them that color is everything, that America is oppressive, and that White supremacy is everywhere."

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"Last time I checked, critical race theory doesn't help kids learn how to pay the bills, pay their taxes, or pass that job interview."

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The course offers "a working understanding of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its central tenets" including "the permanence of racism, whiteness as property," and "critique of liberalism."

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It also offers "an understanding of the endemic nature of racism and white supremacy to US society at its founding and into the present" and "the ability to read, understand, and apply CRT as an analysis tool in their current roles."

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"As a culminating activity, participants will develop their own Racial Equity Strategic Plan to move more deeply into critical self-reflection and work towards implementing their plan into the participants current roles."

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... an instructor discusses "internalized racism," by which "we internally believe that White is supreme, and it requires a constant process of ridding ourselves of this colonized mentality."

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"All of this has allowed a toxic environment to be built, where parents have been threatened with a thousand soldiers ‘locked and loaded,' where parents have been doxxed, an environment of bullying, an environment of elitism, and an environment of failure."

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"The superintendent should resign, and several directors should resign as well."

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... pointed to the shocking statistic that only 28% of third to eighth grade students met grade level on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness math and reading exams.

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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump slams Biden administration for inflation, price increases: 'Nonsense' (Fox 11/24/2021)
Georgia university system refuses to rename buildings, insists 'history' teaches 'important lessons' (Fox 11/24/2021)
Waukesha parade horror made possible by left-wing district attorneys' attempts at bail reform, critics say (Fox 11/23/2021)
Joe Biden may have to 'pony up some dough' for 'libelous' comments about Kyle Rittenhouse: Jesse Watters (Fox 11/23/2021)
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"The mainstream media has now moved from demonizing politicians to demonizing regular people. I have never seen anybody look so different than what they're portrayed on in the media."

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"[The media] go[es] after the McCloskeys, they go after the Nick Sandmanns. They go after Kyle Rittenhouse. They go after parents for speaking out, and the American people have seen that – they're repulsed by it."
Oil reserves released by Biden expected to primarily go to China, India (Fox 11/23/2021)
Waukesha locals furious after learning Christmas parade suspect was out on $1,000 bail (Fox 11/23/2021)
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"I think the judge should go to jail." "I think [the judge] let a guy out that shouldn't have been out on the street, and it's happening too much, People who are already criminals shouldn't be getting off as easy as they are."
US COVID-19 deaths in 2021 surpass 2020's toll (Fox 11/23/2021)
Meet the 'progressive' prosecutor who gave Waukesha parade suspect Darrell Brooks 'inappropriately low' bail (Fox 11/23/2021)
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The horrific events in Waukesha – which left five dead and dozens injured – have prompted questions about how law enforcement might have failed to protect the Wisconsin town.

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In recent days, public attention has shifted to the fact that the suspect who plowed his SUV into a crowd gathered for a Christmas parade on Sunday, Darrell Brooks, was released from jail earlier this month on ... an "inappropriately low" bail amount.

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"The state's bail recommendation in this case was inappropriately low in light of the nature of the recent charges and the pending charges against Mr. Brooks."

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A self-described "progressive," Chisholm has championed left-leaning reforms and previously acknowledged that his proposals could result in a person being let go and committing murder.

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"Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into treatment program, who's going to go out and kill somebody?" he reportedly told ... in 2007. "You bet. Guaranteed. It's guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach."

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Following Sunday's parade, Chisholm's office said it would conduct a review of the state's bail recommendation for Brooks... "This office is currently conducting an internal review of the decision to make the recent bail recommendation in this matter in order to determine the appropriate next steps."

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Brooks was out on a $1,000 bond after running over the mother of his child earlier this month.

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"He tried to run over his girlfriend with his car — that's attempted murder. If you're a danger to society, you should have to work hard to get out."

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See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Greg Gutfeld: Looking at issues through prism of race takes real thinking off table (Fox 11/23/2021)
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A Black man, Andrew Coffee IV, was acquitted of attempted murder charges last week after 12 jurors found he had reason to believe he was being attacked during a SWAT team raid.

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And there is no mass outrage from conservatives over that. Because as long as you view this through the prism of self-defense, there is no racial angle.

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... CNN reports there's nothing more frightening in America than an angry White man. The writer, a racist, states, "a vision of white masculinity... Allows some white men to feel as if they can rule and brutalize without consequence."

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So does that vision include the white guys who were trying to kill Rittenhouse? Doubt it.

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But if that's true, why do they still have White men working and running CNN? Shouldn't they step down — those racists? Meanwhile, a Virginia university chemistry department says the Rittenhouse acquittal hampers the progress of science.

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A university in Massachusetts hosted segregated processing spaces after the verdict. Because to solve their deliberate racial division — is more racial division. It's not just for their admissions standards.

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You see how one filter creates this idiocy — race. How long before we see a math problem on a test that asks "how many times do ten white supremacists go into fifty Black peaceful protests?" And it can never be done in reverse.

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See related Joyless Agenda (Antonio Branco, 11/08/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Kyle Rittenhouse recounts Kenosha riots, reacts to media portrayal of trial in first interview since acquittal (Fox 11/22/2021)
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"It was the right to self-defense on trial. If I was convicted, no one would ever be privileged to defend their life against attackers. Apparently to many people on the left, it is criminal to protect your community."

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"Mr. President, if I could say one thing to you, I would urge you to go back and watch the trial, and understand the facts before you make a statement." "It's actual malice; defaming my character for him to say something like that."
Liberals attack Supreme Court after it puts off ruling in Texas abortion case (Fox 11/22/2021)
Waukesha Christmas parade: Career criminal out on bail Darrell Brooks questioned by police (Fox 11/22/2021)
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Brooks' most recent court appearance came on Nov. 5 for charges including reckless endangerment, battery, domestic abuse, resisting arrest and bail jumping. He was out on $1,000 bail for those charges at the time of the attack.

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In July 2020, police charged him with three other felonies – including reckless endangerment and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He's also listed as a Tier 2 registered sex offender in Nevada.

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A background check from Wisconsin's Department of Justice came back with over 50 pages of charges against Brooks stretching back decades.
Back to back flash mob lootings in San Francisco area alarming experts (Fox 11/22/2021)
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"I think what happens now is there's no accountability for it anymore, and the liability for the stores if they try to apprehend these guys. They just stand by and watch."
Waukesha parade horror: Person of interest in custody, fatalities reported (Fox 11/22/2021)
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... red SUV plowed into Christmas parade marchers and spectators Sunday, striking more than 20 adults and children.

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Authorities have identified the person of interest as Darrell Brooks, and say he has a long criminal history.

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Gunshots were heard in the area but authorities said they came from a police officer who was trying to stop the vehicle...
Kyle Rittenhouse's mother speaks out following son's acquittal: 'It's not about winning or losing' (Fox 11/21/2021)
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"It's not about winning or losing. There were two people that did pass away and families have grieved."

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"He does have remorse. He would have never went down there if this would have ever happened again. He would never."

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Asked what's next for Kyle now that he's a free man, Wendy said he wants to go to school, to play with his dog, and just be a "normal kid."

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She said it's "going to be different for him" because there are going to be people out there who "want to hurt him."

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Rittenhouse was enrolled in Arizona State University prior to the trial.
Rittenhouse lawyer rips CNN, MSNBC for false reporting, botching 'basic facts' (Fox 11/21/2021)
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See related Enemy of the State-Run Media (Antonio Branco, 11/15/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Fauci vague on changing definition of 'fully vaccinated': 'We might modify' (Fox 11/21/2021)
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See related Faith in Fauci (Gary McCoy, 10/29/2021) cartoon from General picture album
Patriotism especially important in current political climate where it's 'demonized,' says Lara Logan (Fox 11/21/2021)
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"There is no country in the world that comes close to the U.S. as a symbol of freedom."

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"We have, unfortunately, entered a political age where patriotism has been demonized and equated as being indistinguishable from nationalism or White supremacy. And that is a lie."

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"Unfortunately, there are people who don't believe in America who seem to be really anxious to see the end of this country."

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"What [patriotism] really stands for is a reminder to all of us that what unites us as Americans is much stronger than anything that divides us."

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"There is no greater ideal in human history than the ideal of freedom and the right to live as free men with free will."
Trump calls Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal 'single most embarrassing moment in the history of our country' (Fox 11/21/2021)
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"I was all set up to withdraw with dignity and tremendous strength. Nobody was going to be killed. We weren't leaving $85 billion behind; we weren't leaving 10 cents behind. I said, ‘Every bolt, every screw, every nail comes out.'"...

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He added that he does not think "there's ever been anything so terrible" and that "nobody" discusses the soldiers injured in the Kabul bombing.

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He said he met with "many of the parents" of the 13 soldiers killed and they "cannot believe this happened to their child."

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Trump also knocked Biden for high gas prices, saying that "[i]nflation is eating our people alive."

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As for the crisis at the southern border, "nobody's had borders like this," even in "the most remote places in the world."

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He cited "millions and millions of people...just coming in here unchecked," claiming that "countries are emptying out their jails into the United States...[,] like a dumping ground."

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By contrast, Trump saw his presidency as "a beautiful period of time[,]...made more beautiful by the catastrophic events that have taken place over the last 10 months."

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Trump's first post-presidency book, "Our Journey Together," is a coffee table photo book hitting shelves next month. The book's dedication reads, "To my great parents, Mary and Fred, my wonderful wife, Melania, the incredible patriots of our nation, all members of my spectacular family and, importantly, the deplorables, because you got me here!"

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See related No Man’s Plan (Antonio Branco, 08/30/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Jesse Watters: Rittenhouse verdict a massive loss for corporate media (Fox 11/21/2021)
Disney World pauses COVID-19 vaccine mandate (Fox 11/20/2021)
Rittenhouse's acquittal confirms left's anti-Americanism: Ingraham (Fox 11/21/2021)
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"[I]gnore the brainwashed zombies in the streets tonight" ... "[t]hese are bitter, angry people who hate America and who are constantly looking for confirmation of their anti-American views."

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... called liberals' defamation of Rittenhouse "poisonous lies." "They're untrue, and they're words that demoralize young people and encourage millions of people to simply give up on America, After all, why work hard to play by the rules to get ahead in a disgusting, racist nation? Who would do that?"

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"The fact is, Democrats gave their tacit approval to all the damage that was inflicted on American cities after George Floyd. They made excuses for criminality, and they celebrated the passion of young people in the streets."

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"In the end, facts do matter whether we're talking about the economy, gas prices or a trial of a then 17-year-old who acts in self-defense against an angry mob."
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN skip DOJ whistleblower revealing 'threat tag' targeting parents at school board meetings (Fox 11/20/2021)
Bill Maher calls out AOC for dismissing 'wokeness' critics, challenges her to appear on his show (Fox 11/20/2021)
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"What?! This is a term folks like you brought out very recently, had been proudly displaying it every march since. Just last year, The Guardian declared ‘woke' the ‘word of our era.' I guess they didn't get the memo from the Mean Girls Club."

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"What a great strategy, never missing an opportunity to remind voters how lame and clueless and hopelessly cool they are, especially since those are the ones who actually vote."

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"But OK, fine. What word would you like us to use for the plainly insane excesses of the left that are not liberalism but something completely different? Because you can't have that word ‘liberal' from us and think it should cover things like canceling Lincoln. And teaching third-graders they're oppressors. That's all your new-think."

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"If the word only made you think of rational, deserved causes like teaching a less whitewashed version of American history, AOC would still want to own it. But it's a joke because it makes you think of people who wake up offended and take orders from Twitter. And their oversensitivity has grown tiresome."

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"... there's a reason why the term ‘woke' has come to signify going too far. And doing things that don't make sense."

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"I keep saying this to the Democratic Party. The reason why you're so toxic is because you've become the party of no common sense. And people see this on their newsfeeds."
Trump praises Rittenhouse acquittal, calls the case 'prosecutorial misconduct' (Fox 11/20/2021)
Abigail Shrier: Audio exposes California teachers’ efforts to subvert parents and recruit kids to LGBTQ+ clubs (Fox 11/19/2021)
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California educators are engaged in a calculated and strategic effort to subvert parents and recruit middle school students into LGBTQ+ clubs...

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"We are seeing coaching and deliberate confusion of our young kids when it comes to gender identity," Abigail Shrier, author of "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters".

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"Parents can never underestimate the level of deception and manipulation that activist teachers are willing to go to on issues of gender."

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... provided best practices workshops that encouraged teachers to "have the courage to create a safe environment that fosters bravery to explore sexual orientation, gender identity and expression."

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Listening to the audio from the event, Shrier found that teachers "among other things, were given instruction on the surveying of students and the deceptions of parents for encouraging their inclusion in LGBTQ+ clubs."

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"These were sixth-graders we're talking about surveilling. We're talking about targeting kids as young as about 11 years old for personal invitations to the LGBTQ club based on these children's internet searches."

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"The fact that they were targeting children for these personal invitations to their club is very concerning, and that they were coaching other teachers in the surveillance of students for this purpose is really not something we usually see."

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Attendees of the conference spoke in depth about ways to subvert parents, suggesting changing the name of the club from "Gay Straight Alliance," to another name like "Equity Club."

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... two teachers led a seminar about "How we run a ‘GSA' (Gay-Straight Alliance club) in Conservative Communities," and discussed their strategies for how to "get the bodies in the door" and ensure kids keep coming back when "we saw our membership numbers start to decline."

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"Much of the discussion was recruitment: ‘How do we get students to stay and discuss these things the way we want them to?'"...

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... the teachers spoke openly about their motivations for creating this coalition of gender-obsessed students.

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"They said, effectively, if you want to bring a new society into existence, it seems the way to start that is with children."

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"And so activist teachers are looking to recruit other people's children in their revolution."

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"You have to ask yourself if teachers are willing to make these remarks in a broad address — a sold-out conference — what are they doing that we don't know about?"

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"Parents really need to tell their middle school students or high school students, ‘No teacher should ever tell you to keep a secret from your parents.'"...
Josh Hawley blasts Big Tech after Rittenhouse verdict: 'Think they're above the law' (Fox 11/19/2021)
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"Big Tech think they're above the law. They made up their minds on this case months ago, sought to deny Kyle Rittenhouse the presumption of innocence and censored those who disagreed."
Biden calls for calm but says Rittenhouse 'not guilty' verdict leaves him 'angry and concerned' (Fox 11/19/2021)
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"While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken," Biden said.
Rittenhouse could have potential defamation case against Biden over White supremacist tweet, expert says (Fox 11/19/2021)
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"When I saw that I was shocked, I was angry. President Biden don't know my son whatsoever, and he's not a White supremacist."

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"He's not a racist. And [Biden] did that for the votes. And I was so angry for a while at him and what he did to my son. He defamed him."

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"Let me give Joe Biden advice: Be very careful what you say because you're subject to a possible defamation lawsuit," Terrell said after the verdict. "This was a statement that Joe Biden is going to have to pay for and justify."

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"I think Rittenhouse may be able to do the same thing when commentators on MSNBC say he's a school shooter, a White supremacist, even a vigilante."

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"Lots of media people said he was a murderer, and I think that's actionable because that suggests that he committed a crime, and we now know that he didn't."
Rittenhouse family spokesman blasts critics after verdict who he says 'didn't want to admit the facts' (Fox 11/19/2021)
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"He was dealt a lot of crappy cards and he stayed strong and his family stayed strong. There were ups and downs and finally after all this time he's a free man."
Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty on all counts in Kenosha trial (Fox 11/19/2021)
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Jurors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Friday declared Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts, capping off an intense trial surrounding the deadly unrest in that city last summer.

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Rittenhouse, 18, would have faced a mandatory life sentence if found guilty and convicted of first-degree intentional homicide.

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"I couldn't have asked for a better jury to work with and it has truly been my pleasure," Judge Bruce Schroeder said after delivering the verdict.

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"I think, without commenting on your verdict, the verdicts themselves, just in terms of your attentiveness and the cooperation that you gave to us, justifies the confidence that the founders of our country placed in you so I dismiss you at this time."

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"You're never under any obligation to discuss any aspect of this case with anyone. You're welcome to do so as little or as much as you want."

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The verdict came on the fourth day of deliberations and 15th day of the trial.

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Jurors deliberated for a total of 26 hours and found Rittenhouse not guilty on five counts including first-degree reckless homicide, two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment.

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Judge Bruce Schroeder had previously dismissed two additional counts related to his weapon.
Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Identity of mysterious 'jump kick man' revealed (Fox 11/18/2021)
New Hampshire mom breaks silence after son suspended for saying there are 'only two genders' (Fox 11/18/2021)
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"This case shows that schools increasingly not only think that their role is to instill the correct ideological beliefs in students but to enforce those beliefs."

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"Fortunately, they have no constitutional ability to do that, and it's important they be reminded of that."
Christian florist settling with same-sex couple after nearly a decade fighting iconic religious liberty case (Fox 11/18/2021)
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As part of the agreement, Stutzman will pay the couple – Rob Ingersoll and Curt Freed – $5,000 and they will cease pursuing damages against her business and personal assets.

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"We're all in trouble – whether we're religious or not – when we don't have the freedom to live consistent with our faith and our beliefs, when I don't have the freedom to run my business according to my beliefs, live my life according to my beliefs."

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"Rob and Curt have every right to live the way they do and the way they feel with their beliefs, and I'm just asking for that same [right]."
Rittenhouse judge bans MSNBC from courtroom after person accused of trailing jury bus (Fox 11/18/2021)
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"I have instructed that no one from MSNBC news will be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial."

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"This is a very serious matter and I don't know what the ultimate truth of it is, but absolutely it would go without much thinking that someone who is following the jury bus – that is an extremely serious matter and will be referred to the proper authorities for further action."

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The Kenosha Police Department said ... "Last night a person who is alleging to be affiliated with a national media outlet was briefly taken into custody and issued several traffic related citations. Police suspect this person was trying to photograph jurors."

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"This incident is being investigated much further," police added. "There was no breach of security regarding the jury, nor were there any photographs obtained. This investigation remains active and open, no further information."
Jim Jordan blasts AG Garland after whistleblower email: 'Sure looks like he misled the American people' (Fox 11/18/2021)
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"As he made that statement, the counterterrorism division at the FBI was sending an email to FBI agents around the country saying ‘put a threat tag on parents' names,'" Jordan said. "He's got, I think, a lot of questions to answer."

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Jordan said the fundamental question is, "How many Americans? How many parents? How many moms? How many dads now have this tag, this label put on their name?"

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The directive for threat tags came after the NSBA requested that concerned parents be equated with domestic terrorists and coordinated with the White House on a letter asking for the FBI to look into local school board meetings.

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The NSBA later apologized and withdrew the letter. "Why won't Merrick Garland do the same thing? He needs to stop this in its tracks. He needs to stop tracking parents with whatever label, whatever they're going to call it," Jordan said.

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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Florida Gov. DeSantis trolls President Biden, will sign bills limiting vaccine mandates in Brandon, FL (Fox 11/18/2021)
Wisconsin parents sue school district over gender pronoun policy (Fox 11/18/2021)
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One student's parents said they had their daughter removed from the Kettle Moraine School District to "protect her mental health and preserve their parental role" after the student asked to be called a different name and go by male pronouns at school...

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The parents claimed the school had violated their constitutional rights because parents have an "inherent right" to be the primary decision-makers in their children's lives.

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Another student's parents said they joined the lawsuit so the same thing couldn't happen to their child...

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"Schools cannot override parents when it comes to decisions about their children. Gender identity transitions are no exception. Schools must defer to parents about what is best for their child."

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"We are asking the court to respect the serious concerns of these parents by ensuring Kettle Moraine School District swiftly changes its policy that is undermining parents and harming children."
NYPD officer rips judge who freed attacker on bail after attacking another cop: 'Insane' (Fox 11/18/2021)
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... accused of randomly assaulting Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the Bronx, approaching him from behind and smashing him over the head with a metal safe that was inside a backpack...

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But Judge Audrey Stone released him without bail on six charges including felony assault — despite a prior attempted murder conviction for the brutal ambush...

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"It's insane. I'm angry. These judges are letting these people go and they're violent. They're not looking out for us or the people that we serve. They're looking out for the criminals."

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... cop caught Thompson smoking weed in a playground inside a Forest Hills park June 6, 2008, and escorted him to his cruiser, where he told him to put his hands on the hood.

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"That's when he just turned around and started shanking me in the stomach. I didn't have time to pull my gun. I started punching his arm that held the knife to get it out of his hand. It finally fell and he ran away."

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Thompson knifed Raptis six times in the abdomen and fled — but the protective vest blocked all but one of the hits. "If the vest wasn't there I would have been dead 100 percent."

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... since controversial bail reforms were enacted in New York in 2020, suspects are routinely released for serious crimes. "Everybody is getting out. They're out in a few hours. They're out before we even finish the paperwork."
Tucker Carlson: We never had a better country be run by worse people (Fox 11/18/2021)
Watters: Rittenhouse protesters ignore facts as Democrats put their political agenda over individual rights (Fox 11/17/2021)
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"These protesters and BLM activists don't care about justice either — they only care about mob justice."

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"I have said this before – it's this is a clear-cut case of self-defense. So what's taking so long? Why haven't the jurors reached a verdict? The speculation is they are afraid of the fallout: They are afraid that if the angry mob doesn't get its way there is going to be a price to pay."

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"And that's exactly what these bloodthirsty prosecutors want."

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"[The media] have managed to twist this entire case. Even the judge is fed up with it."

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"It's been a fake news media circus with the kid at the center of it. But this trial is just one example of what Democrats are willing to do to take down their political opponents."

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"The left doesn't care if an innocent individual's freedom is at stake. They are on a mission to destroy you and the foundation of this great nation."

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"Anyone who gets in their path is dust. But it shouldn't be that way this time. Tonight, all eyes are on this jury and whether they hold the line."
Rep. Boebert raises Swalwell Chinese spy scandal on House floor: 'Sleeping with the enemy' (Fox 11/17/2021)
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"My colleague and three-month presidential candidate from California, who is on the Intelligence Committee, slept with Fang Fang, a Chinese spy."

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"Let me say that again. A member of Congress who receives classified briefings was sleeping with the enemy."

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"The Jihad Squad member from Minnesota has paid her husband, and not her brother-husband, the other one, over $1 million in campaign funds. This member is allowed on the Foreign Affairs Committee while praising terrorists."

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"A Democrat chairwoman incited further violence in the streets outside of a courthouse," she said of Waters before mentioning Swalwell as the "cherry on top."

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See related Top Secret (Mike Shelton, 12/11/2020) cartoon from Adult picture album

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See related I'm ... Anti-Semitic (Bob Gorrell, 02/13/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Not Peaceful or Patriotic (Antonio Branco, 04/21/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Kyle Rittenhouse verdict: Jury's first requests not unexpected for complicated case, expert says (Fox 11/17/2021)
Senate Republicans to formally challenge Biden OSHA vaccine mandate (Fox 11/17/2021)
Threats of more lawlessness in New York (JWR 11/16/2021)
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"Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy." – Thurgood Marshall...
Loudoun, Virginia teacher speaks out after court win over transgenderism critique (Fox 11/16/2021)
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A Northern Virginia school teacher said ... he will continue to provide a safe and educational environment for all students after his school district agreed to a permanent injunction against retaliation for his critique of a pro-transgender policy called 8040.

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Policy 8040 requires school staff to refer to students by their preferred pronouns, to open activities to students according to their gender identity, to allow students access to facilities corresponding to gender identity, and to complete training on topics related to LGBTQ+ students.

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"I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it's against my religion it's lying to a child, it's abuse to a child and it's sinning against our God," Cross said at that meeting.

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As part of the legal settlement, the Loudoun County school board has also agreed to pay his legal fees in the case.

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"I'm so glad to be back with my students, and my students are happy that I'm there. You know, I feel vindicated."

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"I just hope other teachers feel confident as I do now with this huge victory and maybe they'll go advocate for their students."

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"I can't say anything harmful or lying to a child. I will continue to create an environment where there's always respect and dignity and love and care to my students."

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In the settlement, the school board, Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler and interim Assistant Superintendent Lucia Villa Sebastian agreed to remove any reference to Cross's suspension in his record, to abide by an injunction preventing them from retaliating against him for his speech against 8040 and to pay $20,000 in legal fees.

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The settlement is not an admission of guilt on the part of the defendants.
FBI whistleblower reveals agency created 'threat tag' to track alleged harassment of education officials (Fox 11/16/2021)
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See related Bark of the Beast (Antonio Branco, 10/29/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Prosecution in Rittenhouse case couldn’t be trying ‘any harder’ to reach acquittal: Law professor (Fox 11/16/2021)
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"The prosecution could not be working harder for acquittal. You can only imagine what it's like to be a Kenosha juror sitting there and saying whose counsel are you? Who are you representing here?"

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"[Binger] has contradicted his statements so often, presented evidence that was not borne out, he's really begging for reaction from this jury. I would be very surprised if they could eke out a single conviction on this rather appalling record."

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"When you say that Rittenhouse chased down [Rosenbaum] and shot him in the back, they expect to see it. And, in fact, they didn't... You saw one count drop and a number of the assertions made in the opening statement were gone by the closing argument."
Laura Ingraham: America is in danger by a mentally deteriorating president (Fox 11/16/2021)
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"America is truly in danger, under a president who is physically and mentally deteriorating before our eyes ... real chaos is unfolding."

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"Chaos is inevitable when you assemble a team of incompetents – people chosen not because they were the most experienced for the job, but because they checked the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion box."

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"The internal chaos might not be reported on, but the voters know what's happening. The havoc the Biden administration has caused in 10 short months is astounding. But he had a lot of help from the most incompetent White House team in history."
Biden's tax breaks for local media an effort to turn them into 'versions of leftist NPR or PBS,' critic says (Fox 11/15/2021)
CRT defender tells parents he's got 1,000 soldiers 'locked and loaded,' some see as threat (Fox 11/15/2021)
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"Absolutely, it made me feel threatened," Hollie Plemmons, a stay-at-home mother of three, told Fox News on Sunday. "I'm scared and I'm afraid he's going to do something."

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In the Fort Worth Independent School District board meeting on November 9, Malikk Austin turned to address the parents who had spoken up about critical race theory.

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"For those who got an issue with this critical race theory equity, this is something I fight for, for my children."

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"How dare you come out here and talk about the things that my daddy and my grandparents went through, the lynching, the oppression, Jim Crow, and my kids are still being afflicted by this."

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"We are not our ancestors. I got over a thousand soldiers ready to go."

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As people in the crowd shouted that Austin should address the school board, not the audience, he responded by referencing, "My First Amendment rights!"

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After Austin's one minute to speak had run out, officers came and escorted him out of the room. During this time, he shouted, "I'll bring my soldiers with me next time... locked and loaded."

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Plemmons responded, asking, "Did you just threaten me?" He repeated, "Locked and loaded." ... "I felt it was completely inappropriate that the board did not stop that."

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"Let's be honest, in my opinion, when anyone turns toward an audience of mothers and yells ‘I have 1,000 people' & ‘we're locked and loaded' it is difficult to misconstrue the intent of those words as anything else but a threat."

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... described Austin as a "leftwing militia activist," and claimed that he "threatened all of us since we were criticizing the practice of CRT."
Inflation already hurting Americans, and Biden's Build Back Better will make things even worse (Fox 11/15/2021)
Judge questions Rittenhouse gun charge, raising doubts about prosecution's case (Fox 11/15/2021)
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... the judge drilled down on the law. He told the prosecutors, "I have been wrestling with this statute with, I'd hate to count the hours I've put into it, I'm still trying to figure out what it says, what's prohibited. I have a legal education." He added that he failed to understand how an "ordinary citizen" could understand what is illegal.

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It is hard to understand how the count could be given to the jury without a clear understanding of what it means. It is also hard to instruct a jury on an ambiguous statute.

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Criminal laws are supposed to be interpreted narrowly. It is called the "rule of lenity" and has been around in the English system for centuries.

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For example, in 1547, the court was faced with a law making it a felony to steal "Horses, Geldings or Mares." Given the use of plural nouns, the court ruled that it did not apply to stealing just one horse.

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The problem with the Wisconsin statute is not a problem of pluralization but definition. It is not clear that the statute actually bars possession by Rittenhouse.

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Indeed, it may come down to the length of Rittenhouse's weapon and the prosecutors never bothered to measure it and place it into evidence.

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In Wisconsin, minors cannot possess short-barreled rifles ... Rittenhouse used a Smith & Wesson MP-15 with an advertised barrel length of 16 inches and the overall length is 36.9 inches. That is not a short barrel.
Mark Levin calls out the liberal media for not viewing Americans as individual human beings (Fox 11/15/2021)
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"The press, for the most part, are corrupt. They're utterly corrupt ... This relates to what goes on in our country today, how the media distort and lie and spin."

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"It is my contention that many of the major media platforms in this country are racist and anti-Semitic. And that's part of the problem we have in this country."

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"The New York Times and Russia collusion, it was the point of the spear pushing a story that we now know was a lie from beginning to end planted by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC."

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"The Marxist left likes to throw that word around racist to anybody who supports the Constitution, who loves this country, who believe in the flag and the national anthem, the United States military, [and] police officers. These Marxist reprobates throughout the media, throughout the Democrat Party – and of course, radicals who are part of the BLM and Antifa movements – ... call everybody else racist."

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"This is an extraordinarily diverse nation. It's the most diverse nation on the face of the Earth. It's the freest nation ... You can do whatever you want to do, become whatever you want to become. Get whatever kind of education you want to get. It's up to you as an individual human being. [Liberal media] doesn't view you as individual human beings, [they] dehumanize[e] you ... And ...pushes ... pablum ... which is very, very dangerous and evil. New York Times, MSNBC and so many more ... of these platforms are racist and anti-Semitic."
Axios warns about 'reckoning' on news outlets that touted the Steele dossier (Fox 11/15/2021)
I'm a conservative immigrant ready to challenge the woke left – and, no, I won't 'go home' (Fox 11/13/2021)
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The woke left has long professed that they love immigrants. But in truth, their love is conditioned on whether the immigrants accept its woke ideology. For those immigrants who reject its doctrine, the woke left has only detestation.

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Twenty-five years ago, I came to the U.S. all by myself with less than $100 in my pocket. Today, I have a wonderful family of my own. I'm neither rich nor famous, but I get to do things I love every day, especially things I would never have been able to do in Communist China – freely speaking my mind.

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My experience is not an outlier. Millions of immigrants share similar journeys and have achieved much more significant successes than mine.

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But we all live in our American dreams because the American dream is never about obtaining material means.

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It is always about having the liberty to take charge of one's own destiny, including maintaining independent thinking and the freedom of speech.

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We are grateful for America's free-market economic system, which has created abundant opportunities for people willing to work hard and take risks to succeed.

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That's why many of us oppose high taxes and the expansive welfare state because we had first-hand experiences living in countries that were ruined economically by these socialist policies.

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We are grateful for America's political system, which despite its shortcomings, is still the most tolerant and welcoming for all who come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

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We're incredibly grateful for the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, which enshrined the universal values of liberty and human dignity.

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Many of us reject critical race theory (CRT) because it is divisive, repressive and hateful. ... Rather than uniting us, it divides us based on external factors such as skin color that we have no control of.

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Rather than creating an inclusive environment for all, CRT intensifies hate and intolerance. Rather than eliminating racism, it ends up replacing one form of racial discrimination with another.

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... we immigrants reject the thinking that assumes we owe our gratitude to a particular group who claim they love immigrants and demand our political allegiance to their ideology. To us, such thinking is no different from the bigotry of racism.

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Let's have a healthy, open and honest debate on how to make our country better. But do not tell us, immigrants, to go back to where we came from because you don't like us disagreeing with you.

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The United States is our home. We are not going anywhere and we won't stop speaking up either.
Rittenhouse trial judge receiving threatening messages, reports say (Fox 11/13/2021)
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The threats have included some aimed at the judge's family members... The messages also include accusations of racism against the judge and demands that he withdraw from the case...

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The judge claimed during the week that he planned to "deal with" those who've sent him the threats... "I wouldn't want to be those people."

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Closing arguments in the trial are expected to be heard Monday after testimony – including from Rittenhouse, in his own defense – concluded this week.

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The defendant has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide and two counts of endangerment with a deadly weapon...
Arizona parents rip spying school administrator: 'We the parents are the people' (Fox 11/13/2021)
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"We the parents are the people and [the school board is] the government and the Constitution and the laws are there to protect us against the very thing that they're doing and trying to accuse us of doing and potentially wanting to charge us for."

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"This latest scandal in Scottsdale...is proof...who[m] the label ‘domestic terrorist' really belongs to. It's not the parents."

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The Scottsdale dossier reflects a concerning trend nationwide in which school boards and the government at-large weaponize themselves against dissenting parents.

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Recent reports indicate that the National School Boards Association collaborated with both the Department of Justice and the White House before sending the letter comparing parents to domestic terrorists.

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"[T]he emails confirm that there is a lot of collaboration going on here, but no one to stand up for the average parent."
Arizona school board president kept sensitive personal information on protesting parents, documents suggest (Fox 11/12/2021)
Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Defense rests its case, jury expected to begin deliberations Monday (Fox 11/11/2021)
NSBA coordinated with White House, DOJ before sending notorious 'domestic terrorists' letter: emails (Fox 11/11/2021)
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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Kyle Rittenhouse spokesperson slams Biden for casting defendant as a White supremacist (Fox 11/11/2021)
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"Don't forget the candidate for the U.S. president himself last year prior to the election called Kyle Rittenhouse a White supremacist. Joe Biden called him a White supremacist; that is appalling. I can't even gauge how wrong that is."

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"The media has been absolutely irresponsible and purely abhorrent with this entire situation. They are parroting the same false information time after time. They even do it to this day. No, he didn't cross state lines with a weapon. That was known last year. Apparently, the media doesn't care for accurate information. It's appalling."

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"It's almost as if they don't want to know the facts. Then they will have to stay the truth."

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"I didn't do anything wrong. I defended myself," Rittenhouse said while on the stand. "I did what I had to do to stop the person who was attacking me."

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Rittenhouse always planned to take the stand ... "He has a story and the facts are entirely in his camp. The truth is that in his camp and you can't go wrong when every single fact lines up in your camp, right? So he wanted to get on the stand and he wanted that. And I thought he did a fantastic job."

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The judge admonished the prosecution on multiple occasions, including for raising the fact that Rittenhouse chose to remain silent after he was charged.

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The Fifth Amendment protects those accused of crimes from incriminating themselves – they do not have to reveal any information to police, prosecution, or a judge.

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Judge Bruce Schroeder said he was "astonished" when prosecutor Thomas Binger began his examination of Rittenhouse "by commenting on the defendant's post-arrest silence."

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Binger had said, "Since Aug. 25 2020 this is the first time you have told your story ... I'm making the point that after hearing everything in the case now he's tailoring his story to what has already been introduced."

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"This is a very grave constitutional violation for you to talk about the defendant's silence," the judge said.

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"That was just an utter embarrassment for the prosecution," Hancock said.

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"It is clear that this district attorney's office should have never brought charges. I mean, they did [bring charges] without any meaningful investigation and I think what the nation has learned was the state still doesn't know what version of events they want to go with."
DeSantis floats sending migrants to Delaware in response to Biden admin's migrant flights to Florida (Fox 11/11/2021)
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"If they're going to come here, we'll provide buses," DeSantis said of the migrants on the flights. "I will send them to Delaware and do that."

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"If he's not going to support the border being secure, then he should be able to have everyone there."

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But the situation in Florida was highlighted last week when the New York Post reported that a 24-year-old Honduran national who has been charged with the murder of a Florida man reportedly entered the U.S. illegally claiming to be an unaccompanied minor.

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"We're looking at what we can do. I think that they use these private contractors. So what we're looking at is how can we fight back against the contractors. We can obviously deny them state contracts, which we will do. Can we deny them access to Florida's market generally? Can we tax them? Can we do things to provide disincentives so they can't do it? So we're going to do whatever we can to do it."
Missouri law would require drunk drivers to pay child support if they kill parent: 'Bentley's law' (Fox 11/11/2021)
Jordan on Durham indictments: 'We told you so' (Fox 11/11/2021)
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"... what they were accusing President Trump of doing, they were actually doing – they were working with the Russians and it goes right to the Clinton campaign."

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Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians during the 2016 election.

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... Durham "is authorized to investigate whether any federal official, employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III."
10 times the media declared the discredited Steele dossier was not 'disproven' (Fox 11/11/2021)
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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Prosecutors could be barred from re-trying Rittenhouse if prosecutors intentionally caused mistrial: Expert (Fox 11/10/2021)
Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Did Rittenhouse need to testify? (Fox 11/10/2021)
Biden Treasury nominee Saule Omarova says energy industries going 'bankrupt' will help 'tackle climate change' (Fox 11/10/2021)
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Naming the coal, oil and gas industries, specifically, Omarova said "a lot" of the "small players" in those industries "are going to probably go bankrupt in short order," adding: "At least we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change, right?"

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Omarova during her presentation was making the case for a U.S. National Investment Authority – a proposed federal agency that would work with the Treasury and the Fed to allocate public and private capital to green infrastructure companies...

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"Calling to bankrupt the fossil fuel industry that drives nearly our entire economy is dangerously misinformed," Jones said.

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"Yet the Biden administration is nominating zealots like Saule Omarova to serve in our government as they attempt to destroy American energy jobs and stifle innovation."
American Medical Association pushes pro-critical race theory materials in 'Health Equity' guide (Fox 11/10/2021)
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"This is just the latest front in the Left's campaign to inject Critical Race Theory into every corner of America."

•
"This document, published by the largest medical association in the country, is a brazen attempt to politicize the medical field and subject health care workers to far-Left speech police."

•
"While the Left continues to falsely claim that CRT isn't real, Americans are noticing what's happening, and they're fighting back. From the waiting room to the classroom, families are standing up to reject this racist ideology."

•
AMA President Gerald Harmon explained the reasoning behind the guide ... "As with science, our language must change and evolve over time based on new revelations and a deeper understanding."

•
"The dominant narratives in American medicine and society reflect the values and interests of the historically more privileged socioeconomic groups — white, heterosexual, able-bodied, cisgendered, male, wealthy, English-speaking, Christian, U.S.-born."

•
"These narratives have been deeply rooted in value systems and ingrained in cultural practices that have given preference to the interests of society's most powerful social groups. But they can also be wielded as a weapon to oppress others."

•
"That is the case, for example, with the use of adjectives that dehumanize individuals by reducing them to their diagnosis — simply referring to a patient living with diabetes as a ‘diabetic' — or that unfairly labels groups of people as ‘vulnerable' to chronic disease while ignoring the entrenched power structures, such as racism, that have put them at higher risk."

•
"The AMA is working to dismantle racist policies and practices across all of health care – and our nation. To achieve these goals, the AMA does not endorse or embrace any single theory or perspective – we look at the significant body of evidence on how we can reduce health disparities of Americans."

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"A health equity narrative grounded in equity and a social justice framework also would... Expose the political roots underlying apparently 'natural' economic arrangements, such as property rights, market conditions, gentrification, oligopolies and low wage rates."

•
The guide says doctors should not say "Low-income people have the highest level of coronary artery disease in the United States."

•
Instead, it says, doctors should phrase the same idea like this: "People underpaid and forced into poverty as a result of banking policies, real estate developers gentrifying neighborhoods, and corporations weakening the power of labor movements, among others, have the highest level of coronary artery disease."

•
The preface to the document adds: "The AAMC and AMA also acknowledge the extraction of brilliance, energy and life for labor forced upon millions of people of African descent for more than 400 years."
Hannity: I blame Joe Biden, Energy Sec. Granholm for rising energy prices (Fox 11/10/2021)
•
"Joe Biden has finally realized Americans are not happy with the economy. But according to Joe, the only fiscally responsible way to make things better is to pass the Build Back Better new Green Deal socialism plan and spend a couple trillion more dollars that we don't have and rob our kids and grandkids blind and put it on social welfare projects that are pretty much destined to fail."

•
"But Joe Biden, he knows best. He's the smartest person in the room. And now he believes that spending two trillion dollars is going to magically fix inflation and fix our supply chain crisis."

•
"Donald Trump gave you energy independence, and we were a net exporter of energy. We were supplying our Western European allies. Biden, he'd rather give the waiver to Vladimir Putin's pipeline than keep building out our own Keystone XL pipeline."

•
"This could all easily be resolved. We can fix all of this, except we have one problem: Joe Biden is president. The only silver lining [is], you, the American people, can vote all of these people out."
Glenn Greenwald torches 'amoral sociopath' Adam Schiff for remaining defiant after hyping Steele dossier (Fox 11/09/2021)
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"You defended, promoted and even read into the congressional record the Steele dossier. We know last week the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?"

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"You may have helped spread Russian disinformation yourself for years by promoting this. I think that's what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the intel committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all this."

•
"Look at what an amoral sociopath Adam Schiff is," Greenwald reacted. "He spent years promoting the Steele Dossier. He read it into the Congressional Record. He lied about the ‘smoking gun' evidence he saw (that Mueller never found). Watch how he worms his way around to avoid even an iota of mea culpa."

•
"Notable that Adam Schiff — who appears on every CNN, MSNBC and Sunday morning network news program as often as possible — just had his first truly adversarial questioning about his pathological Russiagate lies not on any of those networks but from Morgan Ortagus on the View."
Loudoun School Board meeting erupts into shouting as parent group files petition to oust board chair (Fox 11/09/2021)
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"By the way, Denise, Brenda, Ian, Atoosa, we are well over 100 percent of required signatures for the petitions," Megan Jenkins said during the public comment period.

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"So I'm not going to encourage any of you to resign because when you are recalled and removed from office, it will be much more satisfying. See you in court."

•
In order to remove an elected official in Virginia, petitioners must acquire a number of signatures equal to 10% of the votes cast in the previous election for that office.

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"I have the privilege of telling you that we are finished collecting signatures for your removal."

•
"I used to think that there was no point in speaking at these meetings. There was no point in trying to have a voice because you never seem to listen, anyway. But I had it all wrong. It wasn't you who needed to hear our voices. It was all those parents, grandparents and neighbors listening at home, horrified at your actions or inactions. They were the ones who needed to hear us, and they were the ones who sign petitions, see you in court."

•
... accused the school board of spending taxpayer money to inculcate "critical theory of the Marxist philosophy."

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"You have activist teachers using to indoctrinate their kids who are at the mercy of their authority."

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"That is child abuse. And you have no right to brainwash children into believing that their skin color determines their purpose."

•
Parents have also confronted school board members with sexually explicit images from the books "Lawn Boy" and "Gender Queer," which parents say aim to normalize pedophilia.

•
Education issues in Loudoun County took center stage in the Virginia governor's race, which Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin won in part by championing parental rights in education and pledging to ban CRT in schools.

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump unloads on 13 Republicans who backed infrastructure bill (Fox 11/09/2021)
Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Defense 'hit it out of the ballpark' with Gaige Grosskreutz testimony, experts say (Fox 11/09/2021)
•
"When you were standing three to five feet from him with your arms up in the air, he never fired," defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said during his cross-examination.

•
"It wasn't until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him with your gun, now your hands down, pointed at him that he fired, right?"

•
"Correct," Grosskreutz responded. He later added that he did not mean to point his gun at Rittenhouse.

•
Wisconsin's law surrounding self-defense only allows a person to use deadly force if doing so is "necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm."

•
Despite Grosskreutz's statement that he did not intent to point his gun at Rittenhouse, ... the question of intentionality should not impact the self-defense argument.

•
"It's hard to imagine that someone pulls out a gun, un-holsters it, points it and then says they didn't intend to point it."

•
"But the important thing is in what's in the mind of Rittenhouse. And if you follow the law, you know, they have to decide whether Rittenhouse believed he was in peril and whether the belief was reasonable under the circumstances."

•
"He's not expected to read the mind of the person pointing the gun at him and go, ‘Oh, he didn't intend to point it at me, so I can't shoot him.'"...

•
"He's on the ground, someone's pointing a gun at him – how does he know if it's intentional or unintentional and what this guy is thinking? He is seeing danger."

•
"And guess what he's going to do? The gut reaction, the visceral reaction of any human being is to defend himself."

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... described Grosskreutz as having been chasing Rittenhouse with his gun in his hand, which Grosskreutz denied.

•
... alleged that Grosskreutz once told a roommate, that he regretted "not killing the kid and hesitating to pull the gun before emptying the entire mag into him." "No, I never said that," Grosskreutz responded.
National Security Adviser Sullivan is 'foreign policy advisor' in former Clinton lawyer indictment: sources (Fox 11/09/2021)
University of Austin dedicated to free speech will counter colleges 'hijacked by maniacs,' founding prof says (Fox 11/09/2021)
•
Hundreds of college professors pleaded to join a new university dedicated to free speech just hours after it was announced...

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The University of Austin ... is committed to "freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse," according to the school's website. Its primary founders are vocal critics of the direction traditional academic institutions have taken.

•
"One fellow even said ‘I'm caught in an insane asylum, everybody's gone crazy, I will work for half," a founding faculty fellow and former Portland State University professor, Peter Boghossian, told Fox News in an exclusive interview. "They're desperate to get out. They can't stand the illiberalism."

•
"They can't stand the censoriousness, they can't stand the diversity statements," he continued.

•
"They can't stand pretending to believe something that not only do they not believe, they just know it is false, but they can't do anything about it lest they receive accusations of bigotry or discrimination."

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Boghossian said the new school is not conservative. "The purpose of the university, it's based upon free speech, free inquiry, the open exchange of ideas. It is an on-ground campus."

•
"This has people from all over the intellectual, political, moral spectrum. When I say intellectual spectrum, I mean they've published different things, scholarly outlooks, different epistemologies, different ways to approach problems, and it's needed because our institutions now have been hijacked by maniacs."

•
"It's not liberals who have taken over the institutions. It's authoritarians who have taken over the institutions–traditional academic institutions."

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"We are done waiting for the legacy universities to right themselves," University of Austin President Pano Kanelos wrote in the article posted in Weiss' newsletter. "And so we are building anew."
Trump warns Biden administration taking the wrong approach to China: 'It shows such weakness' (Fox 11/09/2021)
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"China respected this country when I was president. China does not respect our country any more. It is very sad."
Hannity: Biden solution to US supply chain crisis is live with less and suffer in silence (Fox 11/09/2021)
•
"Nearly two-thirds of all voters do not want Biden to run for a second term. A vast majority of Americans are seeing what we have all known for years: Joe and Kamala are two deeply incompetent individuals who desperately want to please their party's radical, socialist base at all costs."

•
"One of the only people who probably can't comprehend the supply chain crisis is the MSNBC columnist who was mocked online today for his article that attempted to sell inflation as ‘a good thing'."

•
"The supply chain crisis is not hard to understand. First, Joe Biden paid people not to work, then he then forced Americans out of the workforce through vaccine mandates – which are now in legal jeopardy."

•
"At the same time, he drove up shipping costs with new regulations and restrictions on oil and gas and then lo and behold, a supply chain nightmare."

•
"The only so-called ‘solution' from the Biden administration? Just learn to live with less – and suffer in silence."

•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Video shows Tennessee pastor tackling gunman to floor during church service (Fox 11/08/2021)
•
The suspect is seen pulling a gun from the back waistband of his pants and waving the weapon in the air. Some congregants in the back pews begin to duck in an effort to get out of the way.

•
He reportedly claimed he was Jesus and said all churches and schools need to be "shot up."

•
The man is seen talking to the congregation when the pastor circles the right of the suspect and comes up from behind to tackle him to the floor.

•
Other church members helped disarm him and hold him down until police officers arrived.
Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Shooting victim Gaige Grosskreutz says he was pointing his gun at young man (Fox 11/08/2021)
•
"It wasn't until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him ... that he fired, right?" "Correct," Grosskreutz replied.

•
The defense also presented a photo showing Grosskreutz pointing the gun at Rittenhouse, who was on the ground with his rifle pointed up at Grosskreutz.

•
During his testimony, 27-year-old Grosskreutz explained how he thought Rittenhouse "was an active shooter."

•
Prosecutors have portrayed Rittenhouse as the instigator of the violence. His lawyers have argued that he acted in self-defense.

•
Wisconsin's self-defense law allows someone to use deadly force only if "necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm."

•
The jury must decide whether Rittenhouse believed he was in such peril at the time and whether that belief was reasonable under the circumstances.

•
Last week at Rittenhouse's trial, witnesses testified that the first man shot and killed, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, was "hyperaggressive" and "acting belligerently" that night and threatened to kill Rittenhouse at one point.

•
One witness said Rosenbaum was gunned down after he chased Rittenhouse and lunged for the young man's rifle.

•
Rosenbaum's killing set in motion the bloodshed that followed moments later, with Rittenhouse fatally shooting Anthony Huber, a 26-year-old protester seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse then wounded Grosskreutz.

•
The prosecution is expected to rest its case on Tuesday, at which point Rittenhouse defense team will begin calling its own witnesses.
Virginia mom barred from son's public school library after complaining about pornographic books (Fox 11/08/2021)
•
... has been blocked from entering her son's public high school library weeks after she complained about books in the collection being pornographic...

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... Fairfax Principal Maureen Keck told her she was not allowed to enter the library anymore.

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One day after checking out a book with her son, Langton said she got a call from Keck telling her that parents were not allowed in the library and that this was school policy.

•
Langton's impassioned school board address went viral after the moderator cut her off before her two minutes were up and tried to introduce the next speaker.

•
The two books she complained about – "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison and "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe – were taken off the library's shelves pending a review...

•
Langton told ... that since speaking out publicly she and her family have received countless threats.

•
"I'm not getting a lot of sleep right now, nobody's sleeping in my house because we can't be sure that we're safe."
Trump says 'hats off' to Special Counsel Durham, predicts indictments are 'early building blocks' (Fox 11/08/2021)
•
"Those are big things that are happening, and what it really shows is what a hoax it was. What happened here is incredible, going on for years, and we still did more than any administration, just about ever."
Trump to be 'very involved' in 2022 Midterms, says he 'will stay busy for good people' (Fox 11/07/2021)
Trump slams Biden's 'surrender' of Afghanistan, warns China could take Bagram (Fox 11/07/2021)
•
"They don't talk about it anymore. They don't talk about it, purposely. It was so bad that it was killing him. Two, three days after it ended, they stopped even mentioning it."

•
"What they did with the so-called withdrawal, which was really a surrender, what they did, it was the most embarrassing, horrible thing, and I don't know that we ever psychologically recover from that."

•
"Don't forget, I'm the one that brought it down to 2,500 troops. I would have been out too, but we would have been out with strength. We would have come out with strength."

•
Trump told ... that even while he planned to eventually withdraw from Afghanistan, he would have maintained hold over the Parwan Detention Facility — a military prison at the Bagram Air Base.

•
"We would have kept Bagram because it is next to China. And it is one hour away from their nuclear facility, and we gave that up too." "And now China's going to take over Bagram, in my opinion."

•
"We would have gotten all the people out, we would have brought all of our equipment out, we wouldn't have had dead soldiers, we wouldn't have soldiers missing arms and legs — because people don't even talk about that — we lost 13, but we have many that have been gravely wounded. None of that would have happened."

•
"It was time to get out, but the way he got out was such a disaster." ... went on to say that he holds "the generals responsible because they should have never allowed that to happen."

•
"They must have been able to talk [Biden] into reason. But you have to hold them responsible also for allowing that to happen."

•
Top military officials — head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley — testified in September that they recommended maintaining a presence of at least 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

•
Biden and White House officials have said repeatedly that no military leaders advised him to leave a small military presence behind, with the president, himself, telling ... that "no one" recommended a 2,500 troop presence that he could "recall."

•
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was asked whether the president received the personal recommendations from his top military advisers like Milley and McKenzie.

•
"Their input was received by the president and considered by the president for sure," Austin testified...

•
See related The Buck Stops Where? (Antonio Branco, 10/01/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
‘Let’s Go Brandon’ irks the left, but liberals were celebrated for vulgar rhetoric during prior administration (Fox 11/06/2021)
•
The liberal media and Democratic politicians have melted down over the anti-Biden rallying cry "Let's Go Brandon" but the left didn't always object to insults being hurled at the president.

•
The phrase became an internet sensation last month after an NBC reporter at a NASCAR Xfinity Series race incorrectly reported that fans in the stands were chanting "Let's Go Brandon" following a victory by driver Brandon Brown, when they were really shouting "F**k Joe Biden!"

•
The "F**k Joe Biden!" chants at sports venues across the country have now been replaced with the significantly cleaner "Let's Go Brandon" chants.

•
However, the chant's popularity has infuriated the left, resulting in an onslaught of angry tweets, columns and hot takes from liberal pundits.

•
"Let's Go Brandon" has been labeled "vulgar," "vitriol" and has even been compared to declaring "Long live ISIS."

•
The outrage from the left over the PG, anti-Biden phrase has caught conservatives by surprise after liberals spent five years using actual profanity to criticize Biden's predecessor.
Joe Concha: Migrant families could be paid more than Gold Star families under Biden plan (Fox 11/05/2021)
'Build Back Better'? Beware of the 'free' gifts of socialism, America: Fred Sievert (Fox 11/05/2021)
•
Most people don't realize how devastating socialism can be to our collective financial security and to their personal financial security.

•
Socialism will negatively impact all of us in the future if currently proposed programs are enacted into law.

•
... in a purely socialist system, all legal production and distribution decisions are made by the government, and individuals rely on the state for everything from food to health care.

•
When a government pays everyone's bills, it leads to excessive spending, which leads to annual federal deficits and ultimately to high levels of annual inflation.

•
The ultimate consequences of excessive government spending and increasing annual deficits can prove to be disastrous for each of us as individual consumers.

•
"Most of the programs in the plan are a redistribution of wealth programs that undermine job-creating free market activity. Expert economists agree that the Biden plan will massively expand an already too big federal government in a way that will be impossible to reverse."

•
... the bill's intent is to "transform America into a Western European-style democratic socialism, massively expanding the welfare state with lots of costly provisions.

•
Beware of the " free gifts" of socialism. They are far from free.
Boebert celebrates Republican win with her own version of AOC's Met Gala dress (Fox 11/05/2021)
Tulsi Gabbard to Democrats: 'Stop trying to divide us' (Fox 11/05/2021)
•
"My fellow Dems: if you want people to vote for you, stop calling millions of Americans dogs — only dogs respond to 'dog whistles'."

•
"Stop trying to divide us by the color of our skin. End your open-border policy. Treat us all with the respect we deserve as Americans & God's children."
Virginia parent responds to writer who labeled female Youngkin voters racist 'scorned Karens' (Fox 11/05/2021)
•
... mom of three responded Friday to Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali after the writer headlined his latest commentary "You Damn Karens Are Killing America" and lamented the assertion that White women who voted for Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin acted on the "white hot rage anxiety and resentment of a Karen scorned."

•
... Ali claimed many Americans thought such women ... "will always turn on people of color on a dime to uphold oppressive systems that ensure they remain influential and powerful handmaidens of White supremacy."

•
"I don't see how what we were taught in the principles of Martin Luther King Jr. and judging people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin – I'm curious to know how proponents of critical race theory, or whatever they want to call it, squares with this what they're trying to push now in the kids' schools."
Progressive House Democrats oppose resolution to support Cuban protesters (Fox 11/05/2021)
•
... to express "solidarity with Cuban citizens demonstrating peacefully for fundamental freedoms, condemning the Cuban regime's acts of repression, and calling for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained Cuban citizens."

•
The House passed the measure in a vote of 382 to 40, with all no votes coming from Democrats. Included in the list of Democrats who voted against the resolution are all members of the left-wing House "Squad," as well as Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. Four lawmakers voted present, while five did not vote.

•
A report by Human Rights Watch found that the Cuban government "systematically engaged in arbitrary detention, ill-treatment of detainees, and abuse-ridden criminal prosecutions in response to overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests in July 2021."

•
"When thousands of Cubans took to the streets in July, the Cuban government responded with a brutal strategy of repression designed to instill fear and suppress dissent."

•
"Peaceful protesters and other critics have been systematically detained, held incommunicado and abused in horrendous conditions, and subjected to sham trials following patterns that indicate these human rights violations are not the actions of rogue agents."
Trump slams Biden spending bills as 'Green New Deal,' warns Democrats will lose dozens of House seats in 2022 (Fox 11/05/2021)
•
"It is hard to believe they won't do it, but I think if they do it, it's going to cost [Biden] a lot in the election."

•
"Because the people don't want it. It is a rip-off for America. It is a big tax increase."

•
"We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party. We have some bad ones, like everything else, but we have some tremendous people."

•
"The one thing I'll say is, the Democrats, they're vicious, they have horrible policy, but, they stick together. This is the first time I have seen it in a long time."

•
"If they vote on this bill, I think we'll pick up an extra 30 seats. Because people don't want a tax increase, and they don't want a Green New Deal, and that's what this is."

•
Biden's social spending package, once valued at $3.5 trillion, is now down to a leaner $1.75 trillion after progressives and moderates agreed to cut programs, including universal community college.
Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Shooting victim lunged toward Rittenhouse's rifle, witness says (Fox 11/04/2021)
•
The first man who was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during a night of destruction and unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin lunged for Rittenhouse's rifle in an attempt to take it away just before the 17-year-old fired, a reporter who took video of the events testified...

•
"I think it was very clear to me that he was reaching specifically for the weapon," said McGinniss, who had been called to the stand by the prosecution.

•
In an attempt to undo some of the damage done by his own witness, prosecutor Thomas Binger said McGinniss' testimony about what Rosenbaum was intending to do was "complete guesswork." "Isn't it?" he asked.

•
"Well," McGinniss replied, "he said, 'F** you.' And then he reached for the weapon."

•
Prosecutors have portrayed Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed, while his lawyer has argued that he acted in self-defense, suggesting among other things that Rittenhouse had reason to fear his weapon would be taken away and used against him.

•
In his testimony, McGinniss said that as Rosenbaum lunged, Rittenhouse "kind of dodged around" with his weapon and then leveled the gun and fired.

•
"He was lunging, falling. I would use those as synonymous terms in this situation because basically, you know, he threw his momentum towards the weapon."

•
The defense also has said that a shot fired by someone in the crowd moments before Rittenhouse began shooting made Rittenhouse believe he was under attack.
Chris Rufo calls media denial CRT exists in schools a 'deliberate strategy': 'They have no choice' but to lie (Fox 11/04/2021)
•
"... if you have hard evidence, if you have a supple mind and if you have a sophisticated strategy, one person with very little institutional support can expose the most powerful institutions in the country, can beat the really dishonest press that attempts to silence you and then provide a model for other people who know intuitively that something is wrong in our country but are not sure how to fight back..."

•
"We shouldn't be afraid of them. These people are resting on borrowed prestige from the past. They're lighting on fire- the credibility of their institutions. And a side benefit of this campaign against critical race theory is accelerating the conflagration of our prestige institutions that I think are losing their credibility on a daily basis."

•
"It's a deliberate strategy of obfuscation and denial because they can't defend critical race theory on the merits."

•
"They're following the strategy of the partisan politicians, people like Terry McAuliffe, who have no substantive counter-argument against forcing children to confess racial guilt, that they just say 'It doesn't exist. It's Bigfoot, it's the Loch Ness Monster.' And they lie through their teeth because they have no other choice."
Sen. Rand Paul, MD: NIH lied and continues to lie about 'gain of function' research and COVID (Fox 11/04/2021)
•
What we are arguing is that the techniques that the NIH funded in Wuhan to create enhanced pathogens may also have been used to create COVID-19.

•
Fauci's sophistry is a straw man argument to avoid a fact that even the NIH now admits: that a recombinant virus created in the Wuhan lab and funded by the NIH did display increased lethality.

•
... the NIH admitted in a letter to two members of Congress that research supported by the NIH in Wuhan did create viruses that gained function or gained in lethality.

•
On the same day, the NIH removed its previous definition of gain-of-function research from its website and replaced it with another term: "enhanced potential pandemic pathogen" research.

•
So what explains the change in terms? To avoid contradicting Dr. Fauci's testimony that NIH does not fund gain-of-function research, the NIH is compelled to change the topic.

•
Defining away gain-of-function research by saying it doesn't exist unless you know in advance it will occur is the very essence of hubris.

•
Why so many machinations and word manipulations? Because ultimately, we're talking about culpability here.

•
NIH, under Dr. Fauci's tutelage, funded research in Wuhan that used recombinant genetics to merge unknown bat coronaviruses with a known pandemic pathogen, the SARS virus.

•
And Dr. Fauci still claims it isn't "gain-of-function" research because the scientists didn't know in advance that the newly created virus would be enhanced or more deadly.

•
But isn't that the very purpose of the experiment, to see if the newly created virus has gained function?

•
Under Dr. Fauci's word salad guidance no experiment combining viruses would ever be denied funding.

•
The American people deserve to know how this pandemic started, to know if the NIH funded research that may have caused this pandemic, and to remove from office anyone, such as Dr. Fauci, who let this happen.
Rand Paul accuses Fauci of changing 'gain-of-function' definition to 'cover your a**' in fiery clash (Fox 11/04/2021)
•
"Dr. Fauci, I don't expect you today to admit that you approved of NIH funding for a gain of function research in Wuhan, but your repeated denials have worn thin."

•
"The facts are clear. The NIH did fund gain of function research in Wuhan despite your protestations ... persistent denials ... are not simply a stain on your reputation but are clear and present danger to the country and to the world."

•
"Will you today finally take some responsibility for funding gain of function research in Wuhan?"

•
"There's the preponderance of evidence now points towards this coming from the lab and what you've done is change the definition on your website to try to cover your a**."

•
"You won't admit that it's dangerous. And for that lack of judgment, I think it's time that you resign."
Gabbard celebrates McAuliffe loss as rejection of efforts to 'separate us by race': 'Victory for all' (Fox 11/04/2021)
•
"McAuliffe's loss is a victory for all Americans. Why? Because it was a resounding rejection of efforts to divide us by race, the stripping of parental rights, and arrogant, deaf leaders. This benefits us all."
Brandon Judd: Dems' plans to offer amnesty in spending package will ramp up border chaos (Fox 11/04/2021)
Asra Nomani blasts media narrative about VA parents: I'm a Muslim woman of color, not a white supremacist (Fox 11/03/2021)
•
"What the parents of Virginia have done is send a clear message to every single person who has treated us like dirt. They are all here, all of the moms and dads. We are mama bears and papa bears and we have said loud and clear: Get your hands off of our cubs."

•
"You are going to lose more races if you continue to treat us like dirt and we have risen. We are loud and we are strong And we are saying very clearly, we are not going to allow you to claim our babies. None of this nonsense is going to be acceptable anymore."

•
"I am a liberal Democrat and for the first time ever, I voted for [a Republican] Glenn Youngkin for governor... And CNN, all these people [in the media], they are trash-talking us."

•
"I am a Muslim woman of color and I'm telling you, we are not white supremacists. If this is what a white supremacist looks like, then ... all of you need a timeout."
Slate of conservative candidates declare victory in hotly contested Denver suburb school board race (Fox 11/03/2021)
Asra Nomani calls out examples of woke books in Virginia schools, explains why parents are pushing back (Fox 11/02/2021)
•
The first book she showed, titled "A is for Activist," features an image of an individual in a ski mask. The book was reportedly part of a lesson plan from the Virginia Department of Education for third-graders.

•
"This is the book that then becomes what our children get in our school system. And you can see here, this subtle image of a militant. And this is what they are turning our children into – militants."

•
Other books she highlighted were "Woke Baby," "Gender Queer," and "Not My Idea," which talks about whiteness being a "deal with the devil."

•
"They came after my son's school. They came after the idea of merit and the American dream. I came here as a four-year-old girl from India believing in the American dream."

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Yvette McKechnie, a mother in Loudoun County, believes that Youngkin stands for teachers and supports the ideals of parents.

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"No politics belong in schools at all. I believe that that's a parent's job. And absolutely parents do belong in education."

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Some parents, like Jessica Mendez, have faced backlash for standing up for their beliefs "I want to fight for my children. I want them to have a good curriculum that teaches them how to think and not what to think."

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Mendez said she's been cursed at and called a racist by a neighbor because of her stance. "We were friends for years. And as soon as I decided to stand up for what I believe in and take a stand, then she had a problem with me."

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Demis Christophy's children also attend school in Loudoun County. He criticized the school board for being dismissive of parents and inserting their ideologies into the curriculum.

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"My job as a parent is to protect my kids against any tyranny, doesn't matter what it is. You cross that line, you're dealing with me now."

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... said the education system has become a "propaganda system" and called for the Department of Education to be eliminated. "The school system should be locally controlled."

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The parents all expressed displeasure with the current trajectory of the education system in their state. They voiced a desire for a governor who will listen to them and remove woke political agendas from schools.
Dan Gainor: Biden, lefty media just can't handle 'Let's go, Brandon' (Fox 11/02/2021)
Lawmakers, alumni groups call for free speech on campuses: ‘There has to be some legal action’ (Fox 11/01/2021)
•
The Chicago principles state that "it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable or even deeply offensive."

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"Although the University greatly values civility, and although all members of the University community share in the responsibility for maintaining a climate of mutual respect, concerns about civility and mutual respect can never be used as a justification for closing off discussion of ideas, however offensive or disagreeable those ideas may be to some members of our community," the rules state, according to the University of Chicago.

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"If you're a university that's signed the Chicago principles, and you allow a student to be bullied ... you have a right of action against that college because you went to that college, and ... you had the right to rely on those rules."

•
"And if they don't enforce those rules ... you have a right of action against that university."

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See related Tolerance (Michael Ramirez, 02/06/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
DeSantis rips Biden for potential $450K payments to illegal immigrants: 'Slap in the face' (Fox 11/01/2021)
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"Paying illegal immigrants hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for 'damages' is a slap in the face to hardworking Americans and individuals who legally immigrated to our country."

•
"I've seen a lot in my day — I've seen a lot that's happened over the last nine or ten months that I didn't think I'd ever see — but this takes the cake."

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"If that is done, that is going to be a slap in the face to every American who works hard and plays by the rules."

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"And it will especially a slap in the face to people that have immigrated legally to this country. That should not be allowed to stand. It's wrong, and whatever we can do in Florida to fight back against it, we will do."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Dan Gainor: Media covers for Lincoln Project, faux Republicans who can be counted on to bash GOP (Fox 11/01/2021)
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See related The Lincoln Project (Mike Shelton, 02/04/2021) cartoon from Adult picture album
Sen. Tom Cotton: Dems' 'DACA-For-All' amnesty plan must be stopped (Fox 11/01/2021)
Sen. Josh Hawley on censorship, Section 230 and Democrats' 'love' for Big Tech (Fox 11/01/2021)
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"I've been asking witnesses for years now, name me a Democrat member of Congress who has ever been suspended or had a warning applied to them based on speech, it just never happened. So the censorship reality is that conservatives are targeted and the liberals are not."

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"I think what the Democrats don't want to do is they don't really want to see tech broken up. They don't really want to see that power split apart. They kind of love that power, and they want to bring government and tech together."

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"So what I'm pushing for on Capitol Hill is let's put some real teeth into our antitrust laws. Let's give the American people control over their speech, control over their personal information. And let's get some competition back into these markets."

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"These companies are too powerful, they are too big. I think that we would be a lot less concerned about their censorship if they had less power and if you had an alternative."

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"If I said, ‘Well, look, I can go to someplace other than Facebook and have a meaningful social media platform or I can do something other than Twitter, and reach the sort of people that you can,' then I think conservatives would, I certainly would ... More importantly, voters would, parents would, but there aren't those alternatives because they're monopolies. So I think the answer is to break them up."

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"I think you want to give people the right to sue if these platforms violate their own terms of service. Here's what I mean. Facebook, Google, Twitter, they all loudly say, and they've told me this, by the way, under oath, they said, 'We don't censor on the basis of political viewpoint. It's in our terms. We say that, you know, we treat everybody equally.' Oh, really? Well, let's make those enforceable."

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"Let's allow people to sue you if they get discriminated against on the basis of political speech. Now, as soon as you say that, the company says, ‘Oh, it could possibly break the internet.' But that's because they actually do censor. They actually do discriminate. They don't want to be held accountable."

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"So I think we have to get people the right to go to court, you'd have to change Section 230, or just get rid of it. I mean, the truth is Section 230 has far outlived its usefulness. You know, it was written in the 1990s. That was a different world. That was a different time before these monopoly companies. These monopoly companies use it now to make billions of dollars a year to steal our data and our information and pay us nothing for it. So I think we could just do away with Section 230 for all I care but above all, give people the right to enforce their rights in court and to enforce the Terms of Service accord."

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"I think that after this year what we saw on January, February, March of this past year, where these companies went on a rampage deplatforming conservatives beginning with, at the time, the sitting president of the United States, is pretty hard to argue after what they've done that there is some horror show yet to come or what would happen if they really discriminate against conservatives."

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"Well they've done that, you know, we've seen what they can do. And by the way, they're just going to get more powerful, and they're just further consolidating control."

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"Take Amazon for just a second. You know, Amazon's most important platform isn't probably the Amazon where we all buy stuff on it. It's Amazon Web Services is the cloud you know, they increasingly own the cloud, what's going to happen when Amazon does to some conservative outlet ... 'You know what, we're not gonna allow you to be hosted on our services anymore.' I mean, they could shut down whole swaths of the internet and that's what consolidation is, and that's why I think we got to break these companies up."

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See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related 1984 (Bob Gorrell, 01/14/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Marine officer blasts major general for calling him 'narcissistic' in reprimand letter (Fox 11/01/2021)
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"I have accepted responsibility and accountability for my actions. I hope you ensure the same degree of accountability is exacted from those who ... failed in their duties to ensure that 13 service members did not have to die needlessly."

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The firestorm began Aug. 26 when Scheller, dressed in uniform, posted a video on social media slamming military brass for an ISIS-K suicide bombing at Kabul airport that left 13 service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians dead.

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"I'm not saying we've got to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it's a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone?'"

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"Did anyone do that? And when you didn't think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up?'"...

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The next day Scheller was relieved of his command at one of Camp Lejuene's infantry training battalions...
Hawley says Garland will go down as 'one of the worst' AGs in US history (Fox 11/01/2021)
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"I think the scrutiny is just beginning for Merrick Garland, who can I just say is turning out to be a historically awful attorney general. He is going to go down at this point as one of the worst attorneys general in American history."

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See related Enemies List (Antonio Branco, 06/17/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Hawley tears into media's goal as 'gatekeepers' of free speech: They'll regret their 'bargain' with Big Tech (Fox 11/01/2021)
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"The liberal media want to be the gatekeepers for speech in this country, what you can or cannot say that's acceptable speech. And what we found is the American people don't want them to be the gatekeepers."

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"They want them, the media, just to report on the facts. Tell us what is actually happening and let the American people draw their own conclusions. So that's not what the left-wing media wants."

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"And the media doesn't like the power that the American people have now to choose among different media outlets. They don't like the proliferation of different voices. They want to control it all themselves. This is why they love the power of Big Tech because it centralizes control again. So, I ignore all of those media folks who tell me, you know, what I can and cannot say or tell me ... what the right answer is or not. You know, they shouldn't have that kind of power."

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"I think the media has made a dangerous bargain with tech because tech wants to and – if something doesn't change – will eat the existing media platforms alive."

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"Tech wants to own the news industry, tech wants to own the entertainment industry, they want to own the sports industry. So I think that some of these liberal journalists who are cheering on Big Tech's war on conservative speech, I think that they're going to be sadly disappointed when tech turns around and gobbles up their platform and starts telling them what they can print and starts telling them what to do."

•
"And we know they'll do that because Facebook has been trying it. You know, Facebook has said you need to pivot to video. Oh no, you need to ... use this format for your news stories. Google doing the same thing. I mean, Google is the most powerful publisher in America now. So I think that the left's bargain with Big Tech is going to turn out to be a fool's bargain."

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
NYC vaccine mandate: Thousands of police officers, firefighters, city workers to go on unpaid leave (Fox 11/01/2021)
Lindsey Graham told police to 'use' their guns against Jan. 6 rioters: 'Take back the Senate!' (Fox 11/01/2021)
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"What are you doing? Take back the Senate! You've got guns. Use them," Graham told Capitol police ... which described Graham as "irate" that senators were forced to leave their chambers during the storming of the Capitol. "We give you guns for a reason," he said. "Use them."

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Graham's office confirmed the quotes are "accurate"... "Graham was quite clear on this point, noting that the backpacks and other items brought into the Capitol could have contained bombs and explosives. The damage could have been much, much worse."

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Graham also called Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump's oldest daughter, multiple times and gave suggestions on what the then-president should say, according to the report.

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"You need to get these people out of here. This thing is going south. This is not good. You're going to have to tell these people to stand down. Stand down.

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Graham has also long slammed the storming of the Capitol, saying on Jan. 7 that "warning shots" and "lethal force should have been used once they'd penetrated the seat of government."

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"Yesterday they could have blown the building up. They could have killed us all. People coming through the windows had backpacks, as big as my desk on the Senate. They should have been challenged, warning shots should have been fired and lethal force should have been used once they'd penetrated the seat of government. Those backpacks could have had bombs chemical agents, weapons. We dodged a major bullet yesterday."
Liz Peek: The Great Biden Slowdown – here's how he stifled growth, discouraged consumers in just 9 months (Fox 11/01/2021)
Cruz blasts CNN analyst over ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ post (Fox 11/01/2021)
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... over her post about a Southwest Airlines pilot who is accused of saying "Let's Go Brandon" over a plane's intercom system.

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The saying has gained traction among some Republicans and critics of President Biden and is code for a derogatory message to the president.

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Asha Rangappa, the analyst and senior lecturer at Yale's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, took to Twitter to consider how the pilot's alleged comment would be received if he had said, "Long live ISIS" instead.

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"My guess is that 1) the plane would be immediately grounded; 2) the pilot fired; and 3) a statement issued by the airline within a matter of hours."

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Cruz responded to her post by saying "CNN is deranged." "And no, as a factual matter, supporting genocidal religious zealots is not the same as disagreeing with the current President."
Loudoun County mom says 6-year-old asked her if she was 'born evil' because she's white (Fox 10/31/2021)
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A Loudoun County, Virginia, mom said at a school board meeting this month that she pulled her children from the public school system after her 6-year-old asked her if she was "born evil" because she's white.

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"We had specifically moved them out of LCPS due to the swift and uncompromising political agenda of Superintendents Williams, Ziegler, and the school board had forced upon us. First, it was in the early spring of 2020 when my six-year-old somberly came to me and asked me if she was born evil because she was a white person. Something she learned in a history lesson at school."

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"Then, you kept the schools closed for a year-and-a-half, despite the science indicating it was safe for kids to return."

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"Now, you've covered up a rape, and arrested, humiliated, and falsely accused parents of being domestic terrorists."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden scratches head when asked about possible payments to illegal migrants (Fox 10/31/2021)
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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Rep. Mike Gallagher: Let's get to the truth on China, COVID – Biden, Fauci must be honest with American people (Fox 10/30/2021)
Rep. Byron Donalds gives fiery speech to Dems defending First Amendment, energy producers (Fox 10/29/2021)
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"... this is not about defending big oil, or defending big anything. It's about defending the ability of people in our country to be free: say what they want, think what they want, spend their money how they choose. And if we are not going to be any better than the Chinese, how do we ever expect to beat them on the world stage when we're cutting our neck when it comes to energy production while they are burning more coal, burning more oil, they're increasing their emissions and they're not showing up in Scotland."
Trump: 'Not even believable' that Biden admin considering 450K for families separated at border (Fox 10/29/2021)
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"One of the things we were doing is, you know, separation, which was done before us."

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"When people heard that, they didn't come because if a parent fears they're going to be separated, they didn't come."

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... payments of "around $450,000 a person in compensation" could be issued to immigrants affected by Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy in an effort "to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma."

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"No country can sustain what's happening to our country," Trump said, touting immigration court battles his administration had successfully won while noting his work with the Mexican government to prevent the flow of migrants to America.

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Trump said other countries are "emptying their prisons into the United States," claiming that America has become a "dumping ground."
North Carolina middle school art assignment infuriates parents over sexual imagery (Fox 10/29/2021)
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Sixth-graders in a North Carolina school were instructed to study an image featuring a sexually explicit act as part of an art assignment, enraged parents claim.
Crenshaw slams Biden for considering payments to migrants, compares treatment to military: 'Let that sink in' (Fox 10/29/2021)
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"Biden wants to pay illegal immigrants $450,000 for their hardship while breaking our laws."

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"For perspective, if a service member is killed in action, their next of kin gets an insurance payment of $400,000. Let that sink in."

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... the potential $450,000-per-person payments would come as the government is trying fight with lawsuits filed over alleged hardship stemming from the policy of separating parents from minors.

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"Pres Biden reportedly wants to pay a billion dollars to illegal immigrants in the middle of a record-setting border crisis What in the world is he thinking???" Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted.

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Greg Gutfeld: The only thing not racist are actual racists (Fox 10/29/2021)
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... diversity quotas end up harming those it's supposed to help. It's adopted the rhetoric of equity in exchange for competence.

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It's about making yourself feel better instead of making things better. Like scratching a rash instead of applying the ointment. (God I hope it's just a rash.)

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According to the woke, conservative Blacks are actually white supremacists. Yeah, black is the new white! Which has to confuse the hell out of the KKK. I guess we'll find out when Joe Biden gets invited to their next funeral.

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... if our White racists are so hard to find that we must recruit colorblind Black leaders, how awesome is that. We killed racism by confusing it to death.

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... a Black guy beats a White woman with a song about a terrible White old president. When will he be called a white supremacist for that?

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... identity politics is now segregating not just people - but ideas, skills, and talents. Which always ends in bad ideas, lack of skill, and zero talent.
House Judiciary Republicans launch probe into National School Boards Association communications with DOJ (Fox 10/27/2021)
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"We are investigating the troubling attempts by the Department of Justice and the White House to use the heavy hand of federal law enforcement to target concerned parents at local school board meetings and chill their protected First Amendment activity."

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The members of Congress went on to ask the NSBA to offer documents and communications that took place between the organization and the Biden administration in the lead-up to the Sept. 29 letter.

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The NSBA was also asked to answer whether it will urge Garland to withdraw or rescind his Oct. 4 memo.
Jesse Watters torches AG Merrick Garland as 'corrupt puppet of the radical left' after Capitol Hill hearing (Fox 10/27/2021)
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"What a puppet. He is such a puppet of the radical left, and dumb. He's not articulate. He couldn't answer a single question. He is a dumb puppet and he's a corrupt puppet because his family makes money on pushing CRT."

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"The letter blows up. Instead of just dropping it, he continues the FBI task force. What does this remind you of? It reminds me of when the dossier was determined, early, to be debunked, and they continued to use it to spy on Trump."

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"Imagine you are the attorney general and you think about the threat matrix coming in. What do we have to worry about? Sex trafficking, gun tracking, Chinese espionage, ISIS sympathizers, counterfeiters, corporate fraudsters ... but no. A lib sends a letter to the attorney general and he says, 'We are going to stick the FBI on angry parents.'"...
Cruz clashes with AG Garland over 'abusive' memo instructing DOJ involvement in local school board matters (Fox 10/27/2021)
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"There is a difference between law and politics, and General Garland, you know the difference between law and politics."

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"Law is based on facts. It is impartial. It is not used as a tool of political retribution. This memo was not law. This memo was politics."

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"In the letter, which you told the House of Representatives was the basis of this abusive memo, how many incidents are cited in that memo?"

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"You don't know," Cruz said. "There's a reason you don't know. Because you didn't care, and nobody in your office cared, to find out... During this hearing, I counted 20 incidents cited. Of those 20, 15 on their face are non-violent."
Virginia mother says feds, helicopter showed up at school board meeting and she's received 'daily threats' (Fox 10/27/2021)
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... federal agents, including unmarked vehicles and a helicopter, were present at a recent local school board meeting.

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She believes the threats are also a result of her public statements criticizing her children's school curriculum, which she said included the distribution of pornographic materials to students.

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"I have threats against my children by name, I have been followed in my car with my children, they have my vehicle, they know where I live, and I don't know who's putting somebody up to this, but it's obviously meant to intimidate me."

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"Will FBI agents be attending local school board meetings?" asked Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

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"No, FBI agents will not be attending local school board meetings and there's nothing in this memo to suggest that," Garland responded.

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"I'm not getting a lot of sleep right now, nobody's sleeping in my house because we can't be sure that we're safe. So, I understand Merrick Garland is actually testifying today at the Senate and he's gonna talk about mobilizing the FBI against parents. Maybe he should mobilize the FBI into who's threatening my family."
Loudoun County school board member calls for superintendent to resign for pushing trans policy (Fox 10/27/2021)
Arizona Marine vet who disarmed robbery suspect accepts heroism award in 'Let's go Brandon' T-shirt (Fox 10/27/2021)
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Kilcer credited his Marine Corps training's muscle memory of knowing what to do in such incidents in addition to being "mentally prepared" when the attempted robbery occurred.
'Rust' movie shooting broke number one rule of gun safety, expert says (Fox 10/27/2021)
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"Rule number one is you treat all guns as though they're loaded all the time."

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"Number two rule is don't point a gun at anything you're not willing to destroy."

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"The world of movie sets is a little different and there's a trust factor that probably is going to get reevaluated at this point when someone, an armorer [or someone else] hands an actor a gun and says it's hot or it's cold, meaning it's loaded or it's not loaded. In firearms circles, we would never, ever do that."

•
"If I see my friend unload a gun and he shows me it's unloaded and hands me the gun, I will immediately open the action and verify that the gun is unloaded. I don't trust anyone. You verify for yourself."

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... anyone who handles a gun must "confirm" it's unloaded by "opening the action and looking into it... Are there any cartridges in the firearm? Anything less than that is, unfortunately, a form of negligence."

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"If you're not in immediate control [of the firearm], it needs to be unloaded and put away. You never, ever leave a gun lying around. I don't care if it's a movie set or any other place, that's just that's a violation of the very basic tenets of firearm safety."
Tom Cotton to AG Garland: 'Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court' (Fox 10/27/2021)
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"That letter and those reports were the basis for your directive. This is shameful. Judge, this is shameful. This testimony, your directive, your performance is shameful. Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court. You should resign in disgrace, judge."
Minnesota surgeon loses his job after telling school board to let parents make decisions about masking kids (Fox 10/27/2021)
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"Who does God put in charge of these kids? Their parents. God gave each one of these kids... to their parents and they speak for them. They may be wrong, they may be dumb, they may be perfect in their decisions. But it's still their responsibility. It's not yours. God gave it to them. Honor their wishes, either side of the fence."

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Nine days after that school board meeting, Horak said he was told his "views were no longer congruent with that of Lake Region Healthcare" and he was asked to either resign or be terminated.

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"We live in America where freedoms are held close. I am a man who believes individuals have the right to do their research and decide what is best for them and their children when it comes to their health. I don't believe governments or institutions should dictate that."

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Dr. Greg Smith, the president of the Medical Group Board, said they made the "decision to discontinue Dr. Jeff Horak's employment contract after a thorough review process."

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"The reasons for Dr. Horak's separation are a confidential matter. To be clear, this was a decision that was made by Dr. Horak's peers who serve on the Medical Group Board, not by Lake Region Healthcare, the community-based hospital where Dr. Horak practiced General Surgery."
Garland to face questions about politicization of the Justice Department (Fox 10/27/2021)
Loudoun County parents demand superintendent, school board resign after alleged sexual assault email (Fox 10/27/2021)
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"You are so concerned with pushing race and gender that you sacrificed our children. A girl was sexually assaulted in May, and you all knew about it. The predator was put back in schools to sexually assault another girl. You all should be fired."

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"You just had hundreds of Loudoun County students walk out in protest because they feel unsafe in schools. Did any of you even respond to this email on May 28 from Dr. Ziegler? Was that email alarming to anyone?"

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"Fire Scott Ziegler for his gross negligence, and if you haven't hired an attorney yet, I recommend you all find one."

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"Loudoun County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Chief Judge Pamela Brooks found the evidence presented yesterday to be sufficient to sustain two charges of sexual assault. The boy remains in detention and is due back in court in November."
Rand Paul on new call for Dr. Fauci's firing: Evidence overwhelmingly points to COVID originating in lab (Fox 10/26/2021)
Levin slams Obama-McAuliffe 'clown show' as ex-Gov. Wilder rips Terry's record on race (Fox 10/26/2021)
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"Barack Obama came here and made an ass out of himself; it was quite the clown show."

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"The pathological liar came to Virginia [and] he hasn't changed at all – all you parents out there concerned about [allegations in Loudoun County schools], you're a bunch of clowns and right-wingers [to him]."

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"These people are hucksters and fraudsters and they don't give an ‘s' about your kids or the seriousness you're dealing with with critical race theory and transgenderism as a movement."
Virginia parents slam Obama's 'tone-deaf' dismissal of education issues amid alleged sexual assault (Fox 10/25/2021)
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"First and foremost, everything that has come up with the cover-up in Loudoun County has to do with a sexual assault on girls. To say that this is trumped-up as a political thing is laughable."

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"Any parent, regardless of our political views – Republican, Democrat, Independent – wants our kids to go to school and be safe."

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"People are upset because Loudoun County covered up that they knew about sexual assaults and the question is, what else do we not know about?"

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"Parents are fed up with politics being forced down the throats of our kids. Parental rights is on the ballot in Virginia. This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue – it's a parents issue."

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"Parents in Virginia are very real mama bears and papa bears expressing a mighty roar for their cubs. They are not some kind of circus animal doing tricks for a master of ceremonies."

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"They are immigrants from China and India who care about merit education, and regular moms and dads who want to get porn out of school libraries and protect kids from sexual assault."

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"Virginia's mama bears and papa bears will likely decide the 2021 gubernatorial election, and politicians on both sides of the aisle would be well served by understanding the power of parents – and valuing them."

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"Although the former president's false statements have gotten plenty of coverage, what is truly notable is the former president acknowledging there is a turning point in Virginia. That's something we all can agree on — it is a turning point because Virginians are so tired of what Terry McAuliffe and the left liberal progressives have done to Virginia."
Facebook employees tried to suppress conservative news outlets, report shows (Fox 10/24/2021)
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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
National School Boards Association apology 'too little, too late': Parents Defending Education president (Fox 10/23/2021)
Hawley calls for AG Garland to resign after he 'mobilized the FBI to intimidate parents without legal basis' (Fox 10/23/2021)
Issa slams ‘betrayal’ as State Dept admits number of Americans still in Afghanistan higher than prior claims (Fox 10/23/2021)
Letter calling parents domestic terrorists has 'thrown gasoline' on the fire, parent activist says (Fox 10/23/2021)
GOP calls for Fauci investigation, resignation mount after NIH admits funding gain-of-function research (Fox 10/22/2021)
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"For the past year and a half, critical decisions for the whole country have hinged off of Dr. Fauci's advice and decrees. Two presidents have used his advice as the basis for our nation's response to COVID-19."

•
"Yet here we have incontrovertible proof that he has been intentionally lying to Congress. Dr. Fauci must resign and should face prosecution for perjury."

•
"The facts are clear: federal funds were misspent on dangerous studies on coronaviruses and taxpayers were misled."

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"Instead of getting to the bottom of this, Dr. Fauci has repeatedly dismissed or denied what we now know to be true. There must be consequences, and the American people deserve a full investigation."
Loudoun email reveals superintendent notified school board on day of alleged sexual assault (Fox 10/22/2021)
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"In this case, the superintendent sent an email message to the board on Friday, May 28, 2021. A copy of that email message is attached. In the message, board members were informed in a general fashion that an alleged incident took place and that the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office was conducting an investigation of the incident."

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On June 22, Ziegler said that, to his knowledge, "we don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms."
Greg Gutfeld: Racism is a public health crisis, if you're a racist (Fox 10/22/2021)
Betsy DeVos: Our nation's Report Card is in, and it's bad. All students need education freedom right now (Fox 10/22/2021)
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You might think another sobering Nation's Report Card might force the education establishment and the union bosses to implement ideas to improve literacy and numeracy. But, of course, they're not.

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Instead, they're spending their time defending critical race theory-infused teaching and calling the FBI on parents who voice opposition to their children being indoctrinated.

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The seminal education report "A Nation at Risk," issued by the Reagan administration in 1982, warned of this very phenomenon:

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"Our society and its educational institutions seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling, and of the high expectations and disciplined effort needed to attain them... If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves."

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Our rising generation cannot bear this any longer. The time for education freedom is right now.
Sen. Tom Cotton: Biden's national emergency at border – US needs real leadership to tackle crisis (Fox 10/22/2021)
Sean Hannity says Biden 'not well': 'This man should not be our president' (Fox 10/22/2021)
Rand Paul blasts Anthony Fauci after NIH admits gain-of-function funding (Fox 10/22/2021)
•
Despite repeated denials by NIAID Director Anthony Fauci that his agency used American taxpayer money to fund Chinese gain-of-function research on bats infected with coronaviruses, the National Institutes of Health – which oversees NIAID – admitted in a letter to House Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer, R-Ky., that a "limited experiment" was indeed conducted.

•
Earlier this year, Paul accused Fauci of "obfuscating the truth" and at one point asked if he wished to rescind prior remarks given that it is a felony to lie to Congress.

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The Brooklyn-born doctor responded that "if anyone is lying, it is you."

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"Five million people died from a virus that came out of a lab — wouldn't we want to know, wouldn't we want to prevent this from happening again? This virus is very deadly, what if we had a virus that had a 15% mortality rate?"

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"They still to this day are trying to get around the truth," Paul said. "They say ‘well it was unexpected that it gained function'."

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"In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic? Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario – however remote – should the initial experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision?," Fauci said back in 2012.

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"Scientists working in this field might say – as indeed I have said – that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks," he continued...

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Paul said he and other lawmakers have already referred Fauci to the Justice Department for investigation – but noted that he is not expecting much given the inordinate resources being allocated by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to "go after moms complaining about what they are teaching in school."

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"I don't know if they have time to go after Dr. Fauci for lying. He should be held accountable because what we have developed as a system of health care in our country where doctors are afraid to speak out because they will cut out their research funding, doctors who have talked about innovative treatment to try to help people survive COVID are being lectured and told we will take your license. This is the kind of thing, this top-down centralization of medical authority, it's not good for our country and it's not good for innovation."

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Paul said he fears that an apolitical doctor will stumble across a life-saving treatment to another disease or virus – but instead discard or not publicize his work for fear of retribution from the medical establishment and people like Fauci, whose office allocates millions of dollars in grant monies.
Jonathan Turley: Biden family corruption is an elephant the media works to 'disappear' (Fox 10/21/2021)
Carrie Lukas: I'm a Virginia mom and I don't trust my local public school (Fox 10/21/2021)
Trump's 'Truth Social' platform deal draws strong interest from investors (Fox 10/21/2021)
Afghan evacuee charged with rape in Montana, governor says, demanding resettlement halt (Fox 10/21/2021)
Department of Labor proposes rule to add political directives to retirement savings (Fox 10/21/2021)
GOP lawmakers warn 'unconstitutional' Biden asylum rule will fuel migrant surges at the border (Fox 10/21/2021)
Professor Dorian Abbot: I was canceled for basing admissions on merit (Fox 10/21/2021)
•
"I practice fair admissions: I select students and postdocs on the basis of scientific ability and promise, and I do not discriminate against any applicant based on anything else. Period. I encourage freedom of expression and the creative exploration of ideas in my group".

•
"So if I develop theory, I'm a theorist. If I develop theory, I make a prediction, and somebody tests it — and I'm wrong sometimes. I'm actually wrong a lot. It's not — it's OK to be wrong as long as you're being creative and coming up with new ideas."

•
"[O]n campus, I was uncomfortable with the variety of, sort of, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that to me, appeared to be discriminating against certain groups of people. And I felt that didn't treat them as individuals worthy of dignity and respect. And to me, that has to be the fundamental of any moral system that we're implementing."

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"And what I mean by that is I was uncomfortable with with ideologies that discourage discourse. Because when you can't speak with the other side, the only recourse is violence [to them]."
Thomas Jefferson statue to be removed from NYC Council was gift from Jewish officer (INN 10/20/2021)
Trump to launch new social network (INN 10/20/2021)
•
"I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon. TMTG was founded with a mission to give a voice to all. I'm excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back against Big Tech. Everyone asks me why doesn't someone stand up to Big Tech? Well, we will be soon!"
Walmart stands by CRT training as 'thought provoking' and 'instructive' (Fox 10/20/2021)
•
Walmart has stood by a diversity training that claims that White people have "internal racist conditioning," that Americans today are inheriting a racist legacy, and that ideas such as perfectionism, worship of the written word, individualism, and objectivity are aspects of "White supremacy culture" that "promote White supremacy thinking."

•
"Walmart began offering the Racial Equity Institute (REI) training sessions in 2018 for corporate leaders to share analysis and encourage reflection on the history of race in America as well as systemic racial inequity in its institutional and structural forms."

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"... the program was designed for corporate officers and salaried managers, not frontline hourly associates."

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"If you are a citizen of the United States, part of the legacy you have inherited is the historical, systematic, and pervasive way in which white race and the benefits, privilege and power for those who came to be known as white have been constructed in this country."

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The materials claim that in order for "oppression" to succeed, "we must collude or cooperate." White people "cooperate" by following their "internal racist conditioning," which leads them to say, "I'm not racist, I'm a good White person."

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One passage lists "characteristics" of "White supremacy culture," including "perfectionism," "worship of the written word," "individualism," and "objectivity."

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Among the problems with "objectivity," the document lists "the idea that there is such a thing as being objective or ‘neutral,'" and "requiring people to think in a linear (logical) fashion."

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Civil rights veteran Bob Woodson ... condemned the training... "It is the most insulting proposition that I ever heard."

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"I don't know how a black person could hold their head up and sit through someone saying this about them."

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"It is the height of insulting and if people do not express outrage at this insulting, demeaning, patronizing, approach of Walmart, then there's something sick about them."

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Justin Danhof, a Walmart shareholder through the National Center for Public Policy Research, also condemned the training.

•
"As a Walmart shareholder, I really want to know how much money the company is spending to indoctrinate its employees with this racist propaganda."

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"I also want to know if Walmart staffers were given an opportunity to object to this madness without fear of reprisal."

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"Telling company managers - in a mandatory training - that they are guilty of ‘white supremacy thinking' is beyond insane."

•
"But that's the exact state of play with corporate America as more and more companies adopt racist and Marxist training programs."
Superman colorist quits over comic's embrace of wokness: 'Tired of this s***' (Fox 10/20/2021)
'Left-wing' state officials could have prevented Philadelphia train rape: Gutfeld (Fox 10/20/2021)
•
"Everybody is disgusted by the story, but it is not just about the ghoulish thug, it is about the DA's [District Attorney] and the judges who could have prevented this, who could have kept this guy behind bars."

•
"We have a father of a rape victim get arrested because he was pointing out the rapist had been free to assault his daughter after previously assaulting someone else."

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"We had a woman murdered by her ex after he was released after beating her up, that was in Virginia. Again, another left-wing DA responsible for that."

•
"You have mentally ill and drug-addicted individuals beating up elderly people in Manhattan, often saying very hateful things, but that does not register in the legacy media because it is not the right skin color."

•
"The only crime that racism fuels is a deliberate ignorance of this rising homicide and rising crime rates by guilty White leftist leaders, and we've got to stop this because I just don't know how a country can survive when we basically look at lawlessness as a weather pattern."
Hannity: Biden's Afghanistan failures an 'international disgrace'; approaching recession a 'massive crisis' (Fox 10/20/2021)
Navy probe reveals failures that fueled arson fire and destroyed USS Bonhomme Richard (Fox 10/20/2021)
Senate Minority Whip John Thune rips Dem proposal to expand IRS, snoop into bank accounts (Fox 10/19/2021)
•
"This proposal, which would double the size of the IRS – literally double the size of the IRS – and allow them to snoop into every American's bank transactions ... is something that is so sweeping we've never seen anything like it before, where you're literally talking about an IRS dragnet across the bank accounts of every single American."

•
"This is one of many really bad ideas in the Democrat proposal, but this one in particular needs to be killed for all the reasons that have been mentioned, and not the least of which is the huge invasion into Americans' privacy."

•
"It's unfortunate that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claims this new IRS proposal would only be implemented to stop billionaire tax dodgers."

•
"In reality, any American with over $600 in their bank account or $600 in annual transactions would be left vulnerable to being snooped on by the IRS."

•
"After years of politically motivated leaks and hacks, why should we trust the IRS not to snoop on Americans or silence political opponents?"

•
"The truth is, the Biden administration is weaponizing the IRS against anyone who uses the American financial system, and now the Secretary of the Treasury is coming out in support of this radical proposal."
Gen. Keith Kellogg: Our military and the alarming disappearance of accountability (Fox 10/19/2021)
RNC Chairwoman McDaniel: Americans deserve answers about Hunter Biden (Fox 10/19/2021)
Hannity: Biden 'vilifying' police, medical professionals for not complying with vaccine mandates (Fox 10/19/2021)
•
"He was handed three vaccines, monoclonal antibody treatments, [yet] over 353,000 people now have died in 2021. That's more than the number of people in 2020 when we knew far less about COVID-19 than we do now under Donald Trump."

•
"Now, Donald Trump was in office, the coverage on fake news CNN, three networks, MSDNC (sic), it could be apoplectic every single day. It would be the COVID death counter... How come they did not do that when Joe Biden was president?"
Midnight runs: Biden secretly flying underage migrants into NY in the dead of night (Fox 10/19/2021)
Trump suit against Jan. 6 Committee seeks to block release of records (Fox 10/18/2021)
•
"Today, President Donald J. Trump filed a lawsuit in defense of the Constitution, the Office of the President, and the future of our nation, all of which the sham Unselect Committee is trying to destroy."

•
"The fact is America is under assault by Pelosi's Communist-style attempt to silence and destroy America First patriots through this hyper-partisan and illegitimate investigation."

•
In the statement, Trump's office argued that the committee is a "partisan sham" that Democrats are using to distract from policies that are "killing and robbing Americans."

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Some of the policies cited include the border crisis, which the state said is "flooding our communities with drugs and gangs" and "costing taxpayers billions."

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The statement also took issue with what it called a "mismanagement of COVID," rising crime because of efforts to defund police, and failure of economic policy.

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"The media is complicit in advancing the Committee's unconstitutionally flawed request."

•
"This committee exposed itself as a sham by requesting documents which serve no legitimate legislative purpose — what does President Trump's campaign polling data from Florida have to do with an investigation into January 6th."
Bari Weiss tells Brian Stelter how 'the world has gone mad,' lists 'people who work at' CNN as a cause (Fox 10/18/2021)
•
"Where can I start? Well, when you have the chief reporter on the beat of COVID for The New York Times talking about how questioning or pursuing the question of the lab leak is racist, the world has gone mad. When you're not able to say out loud and in public there are differences between men and women, the world has gone mad. When we're not allowed to acknowledge that rioting is rioting and it is bad and that silence is not violence, but violence is violence, the world has gone mad."

•
"When you're not able to say the Hunter Biden laptop is a story worth pursuing, the world has gone mad. When, in the name of progress, young school children, as young as kindergarten, are being separated in public schools because of their race, and that is called progress instead of segregation, the world has gone mad. There are dozens of examples."
Robert Gates seems to double down on claim that Biden's been wrong on top foreign policy issues for decades (Fox 10/18/2021)
Fauci allegedly misled Trump administration on gain-of-function research in Wuhan: Book (Fox 10/17/2021)
•
"Fauci's public persona as a cautious, careful medical professional is contradicted by his central role in kickstarting exceptionally fraught gain-of-function research in the United States after the ban introduced in the Obama era, along with his role in funding coronavirus research in China in unsafe laboratories. Laboratories that intelligence agencies suspect may have sparked the pandemic."

•
Former President Barack Obama had paused federally-funded gain-of-function research in 2014, but the NIH lifted the ban in 2017.

•
NIH Director Francis Collins formalized collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Military Science in 2015...

•
... Collins emailed Fauci in April of 2020 saying any claims of a laboratory leak of the virus was a conspiracy.

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"... The United States was well aware of the inherent risks of the type of dual-use research in which Xi Jinping was engaging. It seemed the health, science and even defence community turned a blind eye to these grave national security and biosafety concerns, along with China's blatant theft of American intellectual property."

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"... the health professionals at the United States that were supervising these American researchers going to this lab also knew that this lab did not meet rigorous safety standards..."

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... senior White House officials were shocked to learn that Fauci had lifted the ban on gain-of-function research back in 2017, and "they were even more astounded to discover he knew so much about the research in Wuhan, but never said a word as the pandemic unfolded."

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Trump's acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who was present for all meetings during the early stages of the pandemic, "said Fauci did not once mention the gain-of-function research that his agency had funded at the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

•
"Fauci was clearly concerned in the very earliest days of the outbreak that his agency had funded gain-of-function work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, maybe even funding the laboratory that caused the pandemic. He had cause to be extremely worried, given scientists were telling him Covid-19 may have been genetically altered."

•
"You take an animal virus and you increase its transmissibility to humans. You're saying that's not gain-of-function?" Paul asked Fauci during a Senate hearing...

•
"That is correct, and Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially," Fauci responded.
Ingraham: Biden 'asleep at the wheel' amid supply chain crisis (Fox 10/16/2021)
Biden seeks refuge from Connecticut hecklers: 'I like kids better than people' (Fox 10/16/2021)
Rikki Schlott: Parents have had a wake-up call about kids and tech. Here's advice from a Gen Z-er (Fox 10/16/2021)
Andrew McCabe, FBI official fired by Trump administration, gets pension restored (Fox 10/15/2021)
Loudoun County superintendent apologizes, board member resigns as backlash grows over alleged sexual assaults (Fox 10/15/2021)
•
"We will continue to shine a light on Loudoun County Public Schools and will keep fighting until we have a school board of common sense, non-partisan members and a superintendent who is accountable to parents and tells the truth."
Big Tech, media suppression of Hunter Biden laptop story lingers a year later: 'Looks even worse now' (Fox 10/14/2021)
•
"I don't think there's any story that's as telling about where our media is, where our culture is, than that one."

•
"The media and Big Tech suppressed it so completely that you couldn't even talk about it on social media. It is a meddling in elections unlike anything we have seen before, and it was done throughout the entire information environment."

•
"This was obviously an effort to get candidate Biden over the finish line. And it worked."

•
"This was the culmination of years of problems the media have had where they invented fake news stories about Donald Trump and they suppressed news stories that they thought would hurt his political opponents, but there was never anything as explosive or obvious or bad as what they did with the Hunter Biden story."

•
"Anybody in a position of power who's dealing with the corrupt media need to treat them like the propagandists that they are. Don't treat them like they're operating in good faith. This is not the first time they've done this."

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"Big Tech needs to have its power against the American people constrained somewhat. They meddled in a gross fashion in this election to the tune of billions of dollars. They're violating the freedom of information that we have a right to have, and they need to be taken on."

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See related Helping Biden (Gary Varvel, 11/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Election Interference (Antonio Branco, 10/16/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Greg Gutfeld: When Democrats are in charge, they can get away with anything (Fox 10/14/2021)
Gen. Stanley McChrystal says Afghanistan a humiliation, but ‘civil war’ at home is of concern (Fox 10/14/2021)
•
"Both al Qaeda across the globe and the Taliban in Afghanistan have gone to school on the American experience. Each seeks to communicate that the risks of continuing to actively oppose them on battlefields in the region aren't worth the sacrifice."

•
"The message that is being taken away from everybody involved in Afghanistan – not just the Taliban – is that the West got beaten again."

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... "it's a real humiliation to have stuff that the American taxpayers paid for end up claimed by the enemy – apparently so easily."

•
"You know, I don't want to be more alarmist than I should be, but what stops a society from just completely fragmenting in that case? What stops a civil war? We all say, ‘It could never happen here again,' and unlike 1860 there's not this overriding economic issue of slavery ... but now we've got this tribalism that I would argue may be as strong as it was back then."

•
"So, what's to stop people from no longer identifying themselves as Americans and starting identifying themselves as liberal Americans, or conservative Americans, or this American or that American and then saying, 'Well, why don't we have our own state or our own nation?' I don't think it's at all impossible that we would start to hear that."
San Diego-area school district may ban critical race theory (Fox 10/14/2021)
•
"This policy does not restrict your ability to educate, it is restricting your ability to indoctrinate."

•
"As a teacher, your job is to provide a proper education, not indoctrinate with your personal opinion. Teachers forfeit all their First Amendment rights when they accept employment."

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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Gov. Kristi Noem: We can't rely on a debt-ridden federal government to take care of us (Fox 10/13/2021)
Babbitt shooting internal police docs reveal 'no good reason for shooting,' according to Judicial Watch (Fox 10/13/2021)
Loudoun County father arrested at school board event says school tried to cover up daughter's bathroom assault (Fox 10/12/2021)
•
... is accusing the district of trying to cover up an alleged bathroom sexual assault by a gender-fluid individual against his daughter in order to further its transgender rights agenda.

•
Scott Smith was found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in August after he was filmed being dragged by police from the Loudoun County School Board meeting on June 22.

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He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, all suspended, contingent on a year of good behavior...

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Smith's image went viral among left-wingers as an example of parents run amok, and the National School Boards Association cited his arrest in a letter last week requesting the Department of Justice to provide federal law enforcement to respond to an increase in violence against school officials across the country.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland later pledged to have the Department of Justice and the FBI investigate harassment of school board members.

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Now, Smith says there's much more to his story, telling ... that his behavior at the June 22 meeting stemmed from an incident weeks earlier at his ninth-grade daughter's school ... in which he said a boy wearing a skirt entered the girls' bathroom and assaulted his daughter on May 28.

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"This case is still pending court proceedings. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office is not able to provide any documents that pertain to a pending case."

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The sheriff's office confirmed that the case involved sexual assault. ... The suspect was arrested two months later following an investigation by the sheriff's office.

•
Minutes before Smith's arrest at the June 22 board meeting, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Superintendent Scott Ziegler declared that "the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist," and that to his knowledge, "we don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms."

•
Smith told the outlet that he flew into a rage at the meeting after Ziegler's comments, and after a local progressive activist said she did not believe his daughter's story.

•
... nearly two months after Smith's arrest, the school board voted to approve its transgender rights policy...

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Smith said he received a letter before the vote informing him he was banned from the school board building.

•
Then on Oct. 6, the sheriff's office said a 15-year-old boy was charged with sexual battery and abduction of a fellow student at Broad Run High School in Ashburn.

•
... the boy accused in the Broad Run case had the same name as the student who allegedly assaulted Smith's daughter.

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... the school district had "quietly" transferred the boy to Broad Run High School after the alleged May 28 incident at Stone Bridge. It is unclear whether any disciplinary action was taken against him.

•
"It has been so hard to keep my mouth shut and wait this out. It has been the most powerless thing I've ever been through."

•
"I don't care if he's homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, transsexual. He's a sexual predator."

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See related You Better Shut up! (Mike Shelton, 06/28/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
DeSantis Columbus Day proclamation pushes back against those who 'defame' the explorer (Fox 10/11/2021)
•
"Christopher Columbus displayed courage, determination, and perseverance when he sailed the ocean blue more than 500 years ago. Happy Columbus Day!"

•
"Individuals who seek to defame Columbus and try to expunge the day from our civic calendar do so as part of a mission to portray the United States and Western history in a negative light as they seek to blame our country and its values for all that is evil in the world, rather than see it as a force for good."
Cancel culture backfires when banned lecture by Princeton professor at MIT draws thousands (Fox 10/11/2021)
•
"I am a professor who just had a prestigious public science lecture at MIT cancelled because of an outrage mob on Twitter."

•
"This is not a partisan issue. Anyone who is interested in the pursuit of truth and in promoting a healthy and functioning society has a stake in this debate. Speaking out now may seem risky. But the cost of remaining silent is far steeper."
Tesla's Elon Musk suggests Texas HQ move inspired by tweet from California Democrat (Fox 10/10/2021)
•
... the billionaire engineer responded to an article from Tesla news website Tesmanian.com titled, "Tesla Moved its HQ to Texas Following Explicit Offer from California Assemblywoman," saying, "Exactly."

•
Musk has been hinting at the move since May of 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions temporarily shut down Tesla's operations in Fremont.

•
He called the restrictions "fascist," prompting harsh words from a Democratic state assemblywoman. "F**k Elon Musk," California state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez tweeted on May 9, 2020.

•
"I probably could've expressed my frustration in a less aggressive way. Of course, no one would've cared if I tweeted that."

•
Musk responded on May 10, saying her message had been received.

•
Musk noted in December of 2020 during a Wall Street Journal summit that Tesla is the last remaining auto company manufacturing cars in the state, and SpaceX is the last aerospace company "still doing significant manufacturing in California."
North Carolina Lt. Gov. who called transgenderism 'filth' 'will not back down' amid calls for resignation (Fox 10/10/2021)
•
"Let me tell you plainly right here and right now: I will not back down. I will not be silenced and I will not be bullied into submission. I will continue to fight for the rights of our children to receive an education that is free from sexual concepts that do not belong in the classroom."

•
"There's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth."

•
"And yes, I called it filth, and if you don't like that I called it filth, come see me and I'll explain it to you."

•
... "the media and the left" are trying to change the focus of his comments from education to the gay community and his alleged "hate" for them.

•
"I will fight for and protect the rights of all citizens, including those in the LGBTQ community to express themselves however they want. That is their right as Americans and I don't think that the government has any role in telling them otherwise."

•
"However, the idea that our children should be taught about concepts of transgenderism and be exposed to sexually explicit materials in the classroom is abhorrent."

•
Robinson, the first Black person elected lieutenant governor in North Carolina's history, has been a fierce critic of Democrats and the Biden White House in recent months.

•
He's accused President Biden of working to turn the U.S. into a "socialist hellhole." He's also slammed Democrats for labeling Georgia's recent voting laws "racist" for requiring identification for both in-person and absentee voting.

•
"Am I to believe that Black Americans, who have overcome the atrocities of slavery, who were victorious in the civil rights movement, and now sit in the highest levels of this government, cannot figure out how to get a free ID to secure their votes? That they need to be coddled by politicians because they don't think we can figure out how to make our voices heard? Are you kidding me? The notion that Black people must be protected from a free ID to secure the vote is not just insane, it is insulting."
Hawley: Biden administration is using federal law enforcement to intimidate parents into silence (Fox 10/10/2021)
•
"The idea that they would use the FBI to intervene in school board meetings with the purpose of, let's be honest, intimidating and harassing parents is just unprecedented."

•
"This isn't about violence. We all know if someone threatens violence the local police will book this person. They will charge that person. They'll get them out of there. This is about using federal law enforcement to try and intimidate parents because these parents are daring to stand up and criticize critical race theory."

•
The DOJ memo followed a letter from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to President Biden that said some rhetorical clashes between school boards and parents may amount to "domestic terrorism."

•
The NSBA letter and the DOJ memo are meeting fierce pushback from parents and Republican lawmakers.
GOP senators bash weak jobs report, Biden's talk of 'progress' (Fox 10/09/2021)
Devin Nunes: Hunter Biden art plan is 'outrageous' — and 'the American people know it' (Fox 10/09/2021)
•
"This was supposed to be the most transparent administration in history and clearly they went to an area that's known for fraud and money laundering."

•
See related Hunter Art Sale (Dick Wright, 07/16/2021) cartoon from General picture album
Greg Gutfeld: Once again the media and Democrats are in cahoots (Fox 10/09/2021)
Andy Puzder rips WH narrative on gas spike: 'How does using OPEC instead of US prevent emissions?' (Fox 10/08/2021)
Alec Ross: COVID unleashes robots – and the hit on America's workforce will be enormous (Fox 10/08/2021)
Betsy DeVos slams DOJ's 'over-the-top' action to probe school board threats (Fox 10/08/2021)
•
"It is a completely disproportionate, over-the-top response to real and valid concerns that parents across this country are having, and they need to have the opportunity to express their voices, their opinions. School board meetings are the appropriate place, and of course, no one is condoning any violence. But local law enforcement is there to address those issues should they arise."

•
"[Parents'] voices are not heard, they're considered a nuisance, and the whole effort is essentially right out of the Marxist playbook to separate parents from their kids and control kids' futures."

•
DeVos championed school choice during her tenure in the Trump administration... said that school choice entails "the resources following the children." Such resources need to be funneled to the children so that the families can determine the most suitable type of education environment for their children...

•
"I use the metaphor of the backpack. Kids take the stuff that they need to school every day. They should be able to metaphorically take the resources that are already being spent on them — over $750 billion for K-12 education annually alone. Put those resources directly behind each child and let the families determine what their best fit and what their best environment is going to be."
Donald Trump calls for McConnell's ouster after giving Dems debt 'lifeline': 'Mitch is not the guy' to lead (Fox 10/08/2021)
•
"Mitch is not the guy, not the right guy, he's not doing the job. He gave [Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and his Democrats] a lifeline – it's more than a lifeline, he gave them so much time to figure out what to do because they were in a big bind; they were unable to do anything."

•
"He had the weapon and he was able to use it. It's a shame. That's not a good thing that happened today. He made a big mistake."

•
"All they [had] to do was leave [the border] alone. The wall was almost complete... [and] one thing you didn't see was drugs. Drugs were at their lowest point – in particular fentanyl, which is a brutal drug. It was stopped, it was at a level we had not seen in a long time."

•
"Now it's coming in at levels that we have never seen: three, four, five times more than we ever had coming in... There's something wrong. You wouldn't believe you could even say this, but somebody doesn't love our country."

•
"When they allow this to happen to our country, we have hundreds of thousands of people pouring in every two weeks."

•
Trump surmised that Central American nations, in particular, are "emptying their prisons into the United States" as the Biden administration refuses to vet many of the illegal alien migrants for criminal or terrorist ties.

•
"Some of the toughest people on earth are being dumped into the United States because they don't want them. They don't want to take care of them for the next 40 years. These people that are the roughest prisoners, anywhere, are being dumped into the United States for us to take care of them. What are they doing? They are destroying our country."
Ingraham: Left-wing Democrats turn on Dave Chappelle, Sen. Sinema because 'the mob never sleeps' (Fox 10/08/2021)
•
"The fact is there is no satisfying the insane left but today's Democrat Party's spawned and projects. There's no point in anyone trying to placate them or even paying attention to them, because there will always come a day when you'll fall short of their constantly moving woke goalposts."

•
"Now, Kyrsten Sinema should know this by now. It doesn't matter that she's a 'first' that she wears fun outfits or that she voted to impeach Trump twice. That's not enough. Now that she's standing in the way of Democrats passing the multitrillion-dollar plan to fundamentally remake this country, well, she is leftist enemy number one."

•
"Unless you are 100% compliant and ready to compromise your beliefs for every leftist crusade, they will eventually come for you anyway..."
USA Today op-ed blasts Biden DOJ for getting involved in school board meetings: 'Outrageous' (Fox 10/08/2021)
•
"On Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland released a memorandum describing how the Federal Bureau of Investigation will coordinate with law enforcement agencies across the country to address threats to school administrators and school board members."

•
"Alas, there is no evidence of a rise in the memorandum or references to where one could find evidence of it."

•
"These acts are disruptive and inappropriate, but democracy is not a graduate school seminar, and parents are allowed to express themselves to elected school board members. Schools should want parents invested in the well-being of their children."

•
"... it is outrageous for the attorney general to meddle in situations that are local in nature and, so far, have led to incredibly few acts of overt violence, certainly not with the character of domestic terrorism."

•
"The threat, in short, appears to be mostly a figment of Democratic imagination." ... "Without more evidence of real threats, Biden's political appointee appears to be making a political decision rather than a prudent one."
McConnell slams Garland for school board memo, says parent protests are 'democracy, not intimidation' (Fox 10/08/2021)
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"[Y]ou directed federal law enforcement to partner with state and local governments to address ‘threats of violence, and other forms of intimidation and harassment' of ‘school administrators, board members, teachers and staff' in public schools."

•
"The memorandum purports to respond to a ‘disturbing spike' in threats and harassment against these officials – although it's silent as to the supposed perpetrators or any actual predicates for this action."

•
"Your memorandum's ominous rhetoric doesn't reflect the reality of what we have seen at schoolboards across the country in recent months."

•
"Parents absolutely should be telling their local schools what to teach. This is the very basis of representative government."

•
"They do this both in elections and – as protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution – while petitioning their government for redress of grievance. Telling elected officials they're wrong is democracy, not intimidation."
Fight against critical race theory will be 'long and bitter struggle,' says NC lieutenant governor (Fox 10/08/2021)
•
"If public education is not working for your child, you don't have a choice, you have to pull your child out and put your child in a place where they're going to get an education that's going to help them be successful in life, and that's what we're seeing across the board."

•
... a former school board member criticized the current board members for "peddling porn," "making children hate each other," and teaching "revisionist history."

•
"Let's just be honest about it, there are many, many news agencies out there that are not fair and balanced. Those publications are, of course, going to come after me because I am trying to break up what is a left-wing cabal that has moved into education to use it as their own personal playground."

•
"This is not something where we're trying to demonize educators or teachers or administrators. This is something we feel like needs to be handled because the people of this state are calling for something to be done about it."

•
"This is not an hour-long episode of a television show where the good guys win at the end and everything's great. It's going to be a long and bitter struggle."

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Tulsi Gabbard: The Attorney General is weaponizing federal agencies to intimidate Americans into compliance (Fox 10/08/2021)
Mom gets standing ovation after calling for 'mass exodus' from public schools (Fox 10/07/2021)
•
... called for a "mass exodus" from the public school system, arguing that school systems left parents with no other choice for fighting left-wing ideas.

•
"I really think at this point the only thing to do is have a mass exodus from the public school system – that's it," King said. In response, she received prolonged applause, and many in the audience stood to their feet...

•
"With this FBI thing, it just made me realize – what else are we supposed to do? Standing up to these people doesn't seem to matter. I mean, we have – all of us – we've been at these school board meetings, we've been voicing our opinions, we're writing articles, we're emailing teachers – we're doing all that stuff. And they don't care. I'm like the only thing left to do is to just peace out."

•
She added that "it has to be us doing it together" in order to "really send the message that you do not have the right to indoctrinate our children."
Marine who criticized military leaders on Afghanistan exit charged with six crimes (Fox 10/06/2021)
•
Scheller is accused of displaying contempt toward officials, disrespecting superior commissioned officers, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, dereliction in the performance of his duties and failure to obey an order or regulation, and displaying conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

•
The Marine Corps contends that members should use their chain of command to voice concerns, not publicly criticize leadership on social media.

•
"All our son did is ask the questions that everybody was asking themselves, but they were too scared to speak out loud."
Tucker blasts Dr. Fauci’s ‘exhibition of authority flexing’ (Fox 10/06/2021)
Peter Navarro calls Fauci ‘evil,’ says he twice urged Trump to fire him (Fox 10/06/2021)
•
... it was a mistake for the republic because that man is evil. Make no mistake about this. He is evil because he was at the American bureaucracy that used taxpayer dollars" to pursue gain-of-function experiments...
Karol Markowicz: Who do your children belong to — you or your government? (Fox 10/06/2021)
•
Indoctrination thrives in silence — and the left understands this. Communist societies always separate the children from the parents. Parental influence trumps all other influence, and the brain-washers know this.

•
American public schools teach kids only from a far-left perspective, and when parents fight back, those taxpayers are threatened with FBI action and called terrorists.

•
But parents must keep up the fight. They cannot unsee what the union-led lockdown has shown them. They have to understand that the current battle is one of control — control over who is in charge of what their children learn and internalize. It should always be parents at the front lines.

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Larry Kudlow: If parents don't object to woke education, who will? (Fox 10/05/2021)
•
There's this whole new controversy, started by the National School Board Association, asking the Department of Justice that parent protests at school board meetings be treated as possible acts of domestic terrorism. That's right. Parents are domestic terrorists.

•
Parent protests, at this enormous leftward swing in our culture and particularly what the left-wing teacher's unions are teaching their kids in school, is a bad thing? I'm not buying it.

•
And this business about threats is also nonsense. For one thing, any physical threats to teachers or school board members, or anybody else involved in public schooling is already against the law.

•
Now, actual violence in schools is minuscule, certainly, nothing compared to the violent protests we've seen over the last couple of years in our nation's cities, organized by left-wing groups — and we know who they are and they never seem to get prosecuted, do they?

•
The vast, overwhelming majority of parents are law-abiding folks who just don't like the direction public schools are going.

•
... President Biden and Attorney General Garland simply weaponizing the Justice Department against parents.

•
But not all parents, mind you. Just parents who happen to object to the teachings of critical race theory and other interpretations of American history that have been proven time and again to be factually wrong.

•
These teachers are spreading crazy left-wing ideologies that will do great harm to minority students. It is divisive.

•
It's a bunch of dumb finger-pointing, and most of all, it's not teaching all the kids reading, writing and arithmetic to recoin an old phrase. It fosters racial divisions in the classroom and that is nothing but poison.

•
Now, during the pandemic, as kids stayed home, their parents watched Zoom and they saw what was going on in these classrooms. And they didn't like it one bit.

•
So when the pandemic starts to clear up, parents start to show up at school board meetings. Well, good for them.

•
Any sane person of any color would be justified in doing it because it sounds like school board members forget that they are elected by the community, including most of all parents.

•
So they should heed the idea that democracy requires the consent of the governed. Government is never all-powerful in our system.

•
... the teachers and others, well, they're playing a cat and mouse game. We don't teach critical race theory, they said, and they hide behind a hundred different excuses, which is just a cover to dodge the truth.

•
Now, of course, parents who have watched these Zoom classes, they know otherwise.

•
... just going to quote this: "supporting and leading campaigns that result in increasing the implementation of culturally responsive education, critical race theory and ethnic studies curriculum in pre-K to 12 and higher education." All right. Sounds pretty clear to me.

•
... quote, "critiques empire, White supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, capitalism," ... "and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society."

•
... I'm just going to leave it to viewers to make their own judgment about the appropriateness of this kind of teaching in today's classrooms and the appropriateness of parents of all races to step in and try to stop this nonsense.

•
America has its flaws. But America's long history of freedom and democracy and market-oriented prosperity is unparalleled in world history.

•
These teachers aren't teaching that. And if the parents don't object, well, then who will?

•
See related You Better Shut up! (Mike Shelton, 06/28/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Rapper Pitbull says 'f*** you' to critics of America, tells them to go to Cuba (Fox 10/03/2021)
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"If you don't like the United States of America, go back to the countries that we the f** from, and you'll see how much you appreciate the United States of America."

•
"They knew what this country had to offer is that you could control your own destiny. You had opportunity. And you had the number one thing which was and which is freedom."

•
Patriotism has come under fire in the U.S. in recent months. The perception of the American flag as a divisive symbol has spread into mainstream culture, while various videos on college campuses show students struggling to say whether they are "proud" to be American and even saying the U.S. Constitution should be abolished.
Professor sues UCLA after refusing to grade Black students more leniently than peers (Fox 10/03/2021)
•
"Recently, I was suspended from my job for refusing to treat my black students as lesser than their non-black peers."

•
A white student emailed Klein asking for a "no harm" final for Black students, meaning low grades would not be counted, in response to "unjust murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd."

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Klein described the proposal as "deeply patronizing and offensive" to Black students and said the email left him "shocked."

•
He then responded to the student, who was not named, saying: "Are there any students that may be of mixed parentages, such as half black half-Asian?"

•
"What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half? Also, do you have any idea if any students are from Minneapolis? I assume that they are probably especially devastated as well. I am thinking that a white student from there might possibly be even more devastated by this, especially because some might think that they're racist even if they are not."

•
His response was slammed by students as racist, and a petition circulated calling for his termination that garnered about 20,000 signatures over two days...

•
The dean of UCLA's business school launched an investigation, put him on leave and nearly terminated him...

•
"It was around that time that I started to receive death threats on voicemail and email. One email, dated June 11, read: ‘You are a typical bigoted, prejudiced and racist dirty, filthy, crooked, arrogant Jew k**e mother f**ker! Too bad Hitler and the Nazis are not around to give you a much needed Zyklon B shower,'"...

•
Klein said he was reinstated after nearly three weeks of suspension, "But this story is not over."

•
"You see, most of my income comes not from teaching at UCLA but from consulting to law firms and other corporations. Several of those firms dropped me after they got wind that I'd been suspended — the better to put distance between themselves and a ‘racist.' That cost me the lion's share of my annual income. The students involved in this escapade may have moved on to other causes. I have not. I'm not sure I ever will."

•
"No employee should ever cower in fear of his employer's power to silence legitimate points of view, and no society should tolerate government-sponsored autocrats violating constitutional mandates."
Levin: 'The Democrat Party is a very diabolical political organization' (Fox 10/03/2021)
Andy Puzder: Biden, Dems still eager to transform America into a welfare state (Fox 10/02/2021)
•
The folly of the progressive policy formula should be obvious to everyone at a time when the country is experiencing both an inflation and a labor crisis.

•
There are currently millions of job openings going unfilled because employers cannot entice workers back into the work force.

•
The simultaneous spike in demand-induced inflation makes clear that the fault lies with government programs designed to absolve people of the need to work full time to maintain their standard of living.

•
We don't have to look far to find contrary examples, either – 2019 was arguably the most incredible year in the history of the American labor market.

•
At just 3.5 percent, the unemployment rate was at its lowest point since 1969, with record employment levels for women and minorities.

•
There were more jobs available than there were workers to fill them, putting upward pressure on both wages and benefits.

•
Inflation was low and steady, keeping spending power high. As for child poverty, well it decreased to the lowest percentage since 1973 – down from 3.6 percentage points from the end of the Obama/Biden era.

•
All of this was due to the Trump administration's pro-growth policy environment characterized by low taxes on individuals and businesses, aggressive elimination of unnecessary regulations, and political acceptance of government's limited role in the private lives of citizens.

•
Today, the Biden administration and Progressive Democrats are intent on taking the polar-opposite approach, and if they succeed, nobody should be surprised if we experience polar-opposite results.

•
I wish — and our children and grandchildren may one day wish – that we had all taken more seriously the Left's proclaimed desire to fundamentally transform our country.
Trump asks Florida judge to force Twitter to restart his account (Fox 10/02/2021)
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Twitter "exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate," Trump's lawyers said in the filing.

•
Before he was blocked, Trump had more than 88 million followers on Twitter and used it as his social media megaphone.

•
In the court filing, Trump argued Twitter allowed the Taliban to tweet regularly about their military victories across Afghanistan, but censored him during his presidency by labeling his tweets as "misleading information" or indicating they violated the company's rules against "glorifying violence."

•
In July Trump sued Twitter, Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, as well as their chief executives, alleging they unlawfully silence conservative viewpoints.

•
See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Rep. Michael McCaul: What Del Rio crisis tells us about Biden's immigration strategy (Fox 10/01/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Bureaucrats, experts and media wusses have thrown an entire gender under the bus out of fear (Fox 10/01/2021)
Bongino: 'Flush your money down the toilet' before the government gets it (Fox 10/01/2021)
Alito denies Supreme Court is 'dangerous cabal' (Fox 10/01/2021)
Parents of Marine imprisoned for criticizing Afghan crisis slams 'act of cowardice': 'Shame on Austin' (Fox 09/30/2021)
Trump blasts Milley as 'weak sister' on Afghanistan (Fox 09/30/2021)
•
"China was very concerned about what I was doing economically and nobody has to get in and say, ‘Oh, don't worry about things, things will be just fine.' Not good. Not appropriate."

•
The former president also addressed opinions that Milley's actions were treasonous. "Well, I would certainly say it borders on it because I didn't know about it, and I'm the one that's supposed to know about it."

•
"He was afraid to come in and talk to me, He was a weak sister. I found that out. He was a weak man."

•
"Regardless of anything, who would take the military out first? No agreement says that," Trump said.
Sen. Kennedy: Biden's infrastructure bill will 'turn America into Cuba' (Fox 09/30/2021)
Manchin stares down Biden, Democratic leaders, declaring he cannot support 'trillions in spending' (Fox 09/29/2021)
•
... said he has "made clear to the President and Democratic leaders" that it would be the "definition of fiscal insanity" to greenlight more spending despite funding shortages for social security and Medicare.

•
"While I am hopeful that common ground can be found that would result in another historic investment in our nation, I cannot – and will not - support trillions in spending or an all or nothing approach that ignores the brutal fiscal reality our nation faces."

•
"If there is one final lesson that will continue to guide me in this difficult debate ahead it is this: America is a great nation but great nations throughout history have been weakened by careless spending and bad policies."
Milley says resigning would be 'incredible act of political defiance,' under Cotton pressure (Fox 09/28/2021)
Retired Gen. Bolduc on 'Kilmeade Show': Top military leaders Milley, Austin and McKenzie 'have got to go' (Fox 09/28/2021)
Jim Jordan: Gen. Milley's actions 'so inconsistent with our constitutional system' (Fox 09/28/2021)
Milley defends 'absolute' loyalty to US, says Trump officials knew of calls with China (Fox 09/28/2021)
Milley, McKenzie say they recommended 2,500 troops stay in Afghanistan, after Biden claims he was never told (Fox 09/28/2021)
Justin Haskins: If Democrats pass radical $3.5T bill, America may never recover (Fox 09/28/2021)
Christopher Rufo: The media is lying about CRT — parents of every race oppose teaching it in schools (Fox 09/28/2021)
Liz Peek: Biden lying about taxes, inflation, Dems' massive spending but voters catching on (Fox 09/27/2021)
Mark Levin: Democrats are running 'Ponzi scheme' with $3.5 trillion spending bill (Fox 09/26/2021)
Hannity rips Biden demanding 'fair share' amid report he may owe IRS $500K and Hunter's tax evasion probe (Fox 09/25/2021)
Nancy Pelosi defends Democrats' abortion bill after San Francisco archbishop calls it 'child sacrifice' (Fox 09/24/2021)
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See related St. Joe the Devout (Mike Shelton, 01/26/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Jason Snead: Democrats are about to launch their next attempt at a federal takeover of elections (Fox 09/23/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: The media will bury the border crisis like the Hunter laptop until they can impugn America again (Fox 09/26/2021)
NY Post Editorial Board: Biden admin lying about how many illegal migrants it's welcomed (Fox 09/23/2021)
Russiagate media critics react to Sussmann indictment: 'Regurgitation' of collusion claims discredits industry (Fox 09/23/2021)
•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Collusion Charges (Glenn McCoy, 10/30/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Liz Peek: Biden, Blinken failing – weak, feckless leadership creating series of disasters, hurting US (Fox 09/20/2021)
Milley, Army chief displayed 'pattern of behavior' defying authority: former senior military official (Fox 09/20/2021)
•
"It was in and around the riots in D.C.. Gen. Milley, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – first thing to know, is he is a staff officer, he is an adviser, he's not a commander – he ordered elements of the 82nd Airborne and the 10th Mountain Division to fly overnight to D.C. to Fort Belvoir and Andrews without consulting the Army chain of command and reaching around the chain of command to do that. I know that for a fact."

•
... went on to detail two separate occasions when McConville told him that he "would not be obeying any illegal orders from the president" amid several violent riots across the nation in the summer of 2020, particularly in D.C.

•
"That's not something in 30 years of service in that uniform I thought I'd ever hear. My interpretation of that was he was talking about any use of the Insurrection Act by the president."

•
The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows a president to deploy U.S. militarized forces and National Guard troops should there be extreme civil disobedience or an insurrection.

•
"There was a lot of talk about governors and mayors not enforcing the law."

•
"A lot of Secret Service agents were hurt at the White House, a lot of national guardsmen were hurt at the White House, at one point it was reported that they evacuated the president to the emergency operations center, and of course Milley ordered these two units flown to D.C."

•
"My impression is, for some time, these people had no intention of supporting the president. Milley, in staff meetings, was routinely a bully. He would sit at the head of the table with the secretary, the secretary would say we're going to do the following, and Milley would look at the gathered staff and tell them, ‘Let me tell you what the secretary just said' and it was pretty much something different."

•
... Milley "summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order — but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved."

•
... arguing that high-ranking officials, in his view, have only been "promoting themselves."
Pompeo slams Biden admin for ‘failed’ Kabul strike, says military was under 'enormous' political pressure (Fox 09/19/2021)
•
"You could see the political pressure and if there was one thing that drove this failed evacuation was the arbitrary political deadline that President Biden set, the arbitrary cap on the number of troops that could be there so we could secure [the] American departure and the departure of our equipment."

•
"Those things, these were all political decisions driven down to the military and I'm confident that the military was under enormous pressure."

•
"This was a takeover by a group of terrorists and we should make doubly sure that we never recognize the Taliban as the rightful leaders of Afghanistan."
Cruz slams Biden's 'unconstitutional' vaccine mandate: 'They want to change the topic from Afghanistan' (Fox 09/19/2021)
•
"They want to change the topic from Afghanistan, It's why Biden issued this completely illegal and unconstitutional vaccine mandate, because he wanted to change the topic from the disaster in Afghanistan."

•
"The vaccine mandate is going to be struck down in court. They know that, But the president is defying the law because he wanted the press to start defending him and stop talking about the disasters in Afghanistan. And he's counting on a bunch of big businesses, in particular, forcing their employees to comply before the matter is ever adjudicated and before the order is struck down."

•
... went on to argue that every policy decision by Biden, foreign and domestic, has been driven by "pure politics."

•
"When it comes to Afghanistan, Joe Biden and his administration presided over the worst foreign policy catastrophe in a generation."

•
"They put politics in front of everything else. They abandoned Americans behind enemy lines, and it was a disaster. We were routed there, because Joe Biden surrendered."

•
"He fled and left hundreds if not thousands of Americans in harm's way and we are going to be paying the price – our nation is going to pay the price for our president's weakness and incompetence for years to come."

•
"Unfortunately, I believe the chances of a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan have increased tenfold in the last month. If that happens it would be utterly disastrous, but weakness invites aggression."

•
"When you have a president who rolls over for everything, it only invites the bad guys to do worse and worse things."
Greg Gutfeld: Media pit vaccinated and unvaccinated against each other to distract America from real problems (Fox 09/18/2021)
James Jay Carafano: Biden's drone disaster gives Americans a bigger problem to worry about (Fox 09/18/2021)
Clarence Thomas blasts media, defends Supreme Court after Texas abortion decision (Fox 09/17/2021)
•
"I think the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference. So if they think you are anti-abortion or something personally, they think that's the way you always will come out. They think you're for this or for that. They think you become like a politician."

•
Last weekend, newest Justice Amy Coney Barrett defended her colleagues, saying they were not "partisan hacks." She also blamed the media for making judicial decisions "seem results-oriented."

•
"Sometimes, I don't like the results of my decisions. But it's not my job to decide cases based on the outcome I want, Judicial philosophies are not the same as political parties."

•
Thomas agreed with that sentiment. "You do your job and you go cry alone," he said. But he also warned against judges acting politically. "The court was thought to be the least dangerous branch and we may have become the most dangerous."
Former tech CEO: Bombshell Facebook report proves policies, procedures 'just a ruse to dupe the public' (Fox 09/16/2021)
•
"I think the essence of the story was the smoke screen dimension. The way in which all of the policies, procedures, oversight boards they've created are really just a ruse to dupe the public."

•
... feels widespread "institutional dishonesty" from Facebook and its top executives after the WSJ report indicated that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg personally make a lot of the company's content moderation decisions.

•
... the high-powered duo have claimed in public that Facebook has "some sort of generalized process that abides by some generic terms and procedures, terms of service that has general procedures that govern it," but that doesn't seem to be the case.

•
"These are not only human decisions, they're decisions by the very human beings atop these organizations, kind of confirming the worst fears that you're really seeing out the head of a corporatocracy exercising quasi monarchical power about what can and can't be discussed."

•
"Furthermore, those very people in bed with their counterparts in the federal government able to actually do through the back door what could the federal government can't do through the front door."

•
"Partly what was revealing here was the way in which this was actually concentrated decision making in a way that didn't follow any sort of procedure, but was really just a matter of willy-nilly censorship on a given day with the chief executives at the very top decided they wanted to."

•
"Under the guise of procedures, under the guise of shunting accountability from actual human beings to processes, what we realize is that those processes were really just a sham."

•
"What we learn in that reporting was that those procedures are really just a smokescreen to deflect accountability for what is actually a nefarious, coordinated censorship in the classical sense."

•
"It's been clear for some time that Facebook picks and chooses when to enforce their ‘rules' and who to enforce them against. None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who has watched the treatment of conservatives on Facebook."

•
"No one on the left has ever been held accountable for spreading disinformation and hoaxes and yet conservative news outlets like Human Events — an outlet I wrote for — are demonetized and singled out for the crime of being conservative."

•
"I don't trust the government. I want to be careful about not replacing one two-headed monster with a one-headed monster. Right now, it's a two-headed monster with big business and the government. Having a one-headed monster, big government, step in to sort of solve that problem is not something that I'm particularly sanguine about."

•
See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

•
See related The Circle of Life (Glenn McCoy, 03/30/2016) cartoon from Government picture album
NYC council candidate slams city for 'wasting time and money' on 'ideological training, critical race theory' (Fox 09/16/2021)
Piers Morgan to join FOX News Media, News Corp in global deal that includes TV show, columns, book (Fox 09/16/2021)
Retired general calls for Milley's resignation: Actions 'somewhere between treason and dereliction of duty' (Fox 09/16/2021)
•
"... his actions are irresponsible and they fall somewhere between treason and dereliction of duty. We never would tolerate that in our subordinate officers. We would remove them immediately."

•
"He needs to do the right thing, have some moral courage, step aside. We need to conduct an investigation and he needs to be held accountable for this either treasonous or somewhere between dereliction of duty."
Greg Gutfeld: Twitter doesn't care about the spread of misinformation if they're the one spreading it (Fox 09/16/2021)
Durham's Russia 'origins' probe: Request for grand jury indictment may be hours away (Fox 09/16/2021)
Arizona attorney general suing Biden administration slams 'complete hypocrisy' of COVID vaccine mandates (Fox 09/15/2021)
Judge Pirro blasts Milley after report on his calls to China: 'Get him the hell out of the Pentagon' (Fox 09/15/2021)
Gen. Milley should go to jail if accusations true, Rep. Ronny Jackson says (Fox 09/15/2021)
•
... the allegations go "beyond resignation," adding that he does believe Milley should "resign immediately" and that there should be a "congressional inquiry" into what happened.

•
"And if this is true, he needs to be held accountable. And when I say ‘held accountable,' I'm not talking about just resigning or quitting," the Texas congressman said.

•
"I'm talking about potentially going to prison if this is true. I mean, this is treason. These are high crimes."

•
The congressman said he could not "fathom" how a member of the American military could "undermine the commander in chief" and put the country "at risk by telling the Chinese... that we will let them know what's going on in the White House."

•
"If that happened, we need to know about it and he needs to be put in jail."

•
A former Trump-era senior Defense Department official told ... that the calls were not a secret and were civilian-led at the behest of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper to cool Chinese intelligence reports that the U.S. was gearing up for an attack.

•
The former official also noted that the top brass at the Pentagon often talk with their counterparts in China and Russia to dampen the possibility of miscommunications and misunderstandings that could lead to war.

•
"If Milley is actually telling his counterpart in the Chinese military that he will give them a heads up if we're planning to go to war with them, that's not acceptable on any front."

•
"If it was other, more benign conversations that were just trying to maintain relationships and to make sure nothing went awry, that's a different situation," he said, adding that the nation needs "the truth" about what happened in the phone calls.

•
A senior Defense Department official pushed back on the report and told reporters on Wednesday that Milley's message to his Chinese counterpart was in line with the Defense secretary's message.

•
"Milley was absolutely not going rogue. Esper took the initiative on this in October, Esper asked his own policy folks to backchannel the message," the official said. "Milley's message followed Esper's."
Colorado parents create 'no-politics' public school with focus on traditional studies (Fox 09/15/2021)
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"Not only do we want a traditional classical education, but we want there to be a focus on character development."
'Hannity' on accusations of treason against General Milley (Fox 09/15/2021)
Trump acting Defense Secretary Miller says he 'did not' authorize Milley China calls, says he should resign (Fox 09/15/2021)
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"The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking military officer whose sole role is providing military-specific advice to the president, and by law is prohibited from exercising executive authority to command forces."

•
"The chain of command runs from the President to the Secretary of Defense, not through the Chairman."

•
"If the reporting in Woodward's book is accurate, it represents a disgraceful and unprecedented act of insubordination by the Nation's top military officer."

•
... if the story of Milley's "histrionic outbursts and unsanctioned, anti-Constitutional involvement in foreign policy prove true, he must resign immediately or be fired by the Secretary of Defense to guarantee the sanctity of the officer corps."

•
"Pursuit of partisan politics and individual self-interests are a violation of an officer's sacred duty and have no place in the United States military."

•
... "a lesser ranking officer accused of such behavior would immediately be relieved of duty pending a thorough and independent investigation."

•
Miller went on to explain that "the reason" he agreed to serve as former President Trump's Secretary of Defense was "because of his commitment to our service members, veterans and their families and his focus on ending our involvement in overseas operations that lacked strategic coherence."

•
"Any accusations that President Trump was intent on starting a war with China are completely unfounded."

•
"President Trump absolutely believed and advocated for a more aggressive approach to China, but he was elected to end our Nation's wars, not start new ones. I was proud to play a small role in achieving those goals."

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"I look forward to a full, non-partisan investigation of the accusations made by Woodward to guarantee that the genius of our Founders and following generations that established a system and culture of the subservience of our military – the most powerful force in our Nation – to civilian control endures."

•
And former chief of staff for the Department of Defense Kash Patel told Fox News that "the law governing the Joint Chiefs of Staff specifically forbids the chairman from exercising any operational command authority."

•
"Congress put this in the statute because the U.S. military is to be led by a civilian, the commander-in-chief."

•
"Furthermore, by law, the national command authority goes from the president to the secretary of Defense to include anything relating troop deployments, operations in theaters of war, and nuclear command."

•
"Calling a foreign counterpart and discussing operational capabilities against that enemy is literally treasonous."

•
"The White House, nor the Office of the Secretary of Defense authorized the chairman to conduct any calls with Chinese officials regarding operations."

•
And deputy chief of staff to the Department of Defense Joe Francescon also told ... that it was "the policy at the time that there was no senior government engagement with China, owing to their bad acts and efforts."
Tom Cotton: Gen. Milley needs to testify to Congress on report of secret call to China (Fox 09/15/2021)
Mike Huckabee: Biden's incompetence moving 'way beyond comedy' and gaffes (Fox 09/15/2021)
The No's have it - Gov. Gavin Newsom survives in California recall election (Fox 09/15/2021)
Trump doubts report of Milley calling Chinese general but says it's 'treason' if true (Fox 09/14/2021)
•
"So, first of all, if it is actually true, which is hard to believe, that he would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack, that's treason."

•
Acknowledging he was tough on China regarding trade and COVID-19, he went on to describe the idea that would unilaterally attack China as "totally ridiculous."

•
... Trump called on Milley to step aside, floating a theory that Milley came up with the story himself and leaked it to Woodward and Costa, whom he described as journalists "who write fiction, not fact."

•
"For the record, I never even thought of attacking China — and China knows that. The people that fabricated the story are sick and demented, and the people who print it are just as bad. In fact, I'm the only President in decades who didn't get the U.S. into a war — a well known fact that is seldom reported."
Bipartisan legislation seeks to freeze funding for gain-of-function research (Fox 09/14/2021)
Senator demands to know 'who is in charge' at White House after Biden cut off mid-sentence (Fox 09/14/2021)
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"One of the things we need to get to the bottom to is who is responsible for this? Who made the decisions? [Biden] can't even speak without someone in the White House censoring it or signing off on it."

•
"This is a puppeteer act, if you would, and we need to know who's in charge and who is making the decisions."

•
"Somebody in the White House has authority to press the button and stop the president, cut off the president's speaking ability and sound. Who is that person?"
Immunologist regrets voting for Biden after 'draconian' vaccine mandate: 'Destructive and divisive' (Fox 09/14/2021)
•
... the mandate as it stands, essentially has opened the door to discrimination against about 80 to 100 million Americans who are naturally immune.

•
... they would be forced at the risk of loss of employment or educational opportunities, I think it's completely draconian. It goes in the face of medical necessity. And frankly, I think it's a constitutional violation.
Kevin McCarthy on AOC's 'Tax the Rich' dress at Met Gala: This is the 'leader of the Democratic Party' (Fox 09/14/2021)
Army officer resigns over Biden vaccine mandate, 'Marxist takeover of the military' (Fox 09/14/2021)
Former teacher tells Tucker he 'was separated' from school after objecting to CRT, split Zoom sessions by race (Fox 09/13/2021)
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See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump on whether he will run for president in 2024: 'I don't think we're going to have a choice' (Fox 09/13/2021)
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"I don't think we're going to have a choice. It is disgraceful."

•
"When you look at Afghanistan and what happened, and the death for no reason, just for no reason," Trump said, adding that military "parents – they want to speak with me – they don't want to speak with Biden. They're just devastated."

•
"It is getting to a point where we really have no choice."

•
"They keep telling everyone how they want to get together, to be inclusive – they're not inclusive. They are very, very dividing and divisive."
Progressives want to stop paying cops, start paying criminals 'not to kill us': Gowdy (Fox 09/13/2021)
Levin: Joe Biden is the closest thing to a dictator America has ever had (Fox 09/12/2021)
•
"He does not treat you as a citizen, he is yelling at you, condemning you, he's filled with scorn, you are not doing what he told you to do, 80 million of you are unvaccinated. You are the reason people are dying, you are the reason there is a spread, you're the reason there are these variants, not him."

•
"Remember he used to use blame Donald Trump for every death from Coronavirus. How many new vaccines have been developed under Joe Biden, none? And either therapeutics? Many under Donald Trump, none that I'm aware of right now."

•
"Now, it is your fault, not Biden's fault for having the southern border open, and potentially 2.5 million people coming across the border in his first year, many of whom have all kinds of diseases and issues that include the Coronavirus."

•
"This is a man who is out of control. This is a fool with enormous power."
Nebraska Gov. Ricketts rails against vaccine mandate: Biden 'pretty ignorant of what's going on' (Fox 09/12/2021)
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"The president should look at the data, and maybe the president should attend one of the weekly calls his administration has with all the governors – he's not been on one yet, since he's been President — and maybe talk to some of the governors and ask them about what's going on in their states because he appears to be pretty ignorant of what's going on in places like Nebraska."

•
"First of all, we have been encouraging people to get vaccinated. We've been providing information and encouraging people to reach out to their neighbors because vaccines work and they will help people."

•
"But it should be a personal health care choice. This is not something that the government should mandate and somebody shouldn't have to make the choice between keeping their job and getting a jab in the arm. I mean, it's just wrong."

•
Host Chris Wallace pointed out that Nebraska schools already require students to get vaccinated against illnesses such as measles, chicken pox, polio, and hepatitis B. Ricketts said those vaccines are different because they have a long history that parents are able to look at.

•
"This is an egregious overreach of federal authority. And as we see what these rules are we will be able to know exactly how we will be able to challenge them in court. I'm also talking with my colleagues around the country as well the other governors who feel the way I do, and we'll be working on other strategies."
Anti-critical race theory org taking aim at Loudoun County School Board in half million dollar ad buy (Fox 09/12/2021)
•
"Loudoun County, Virginia spent nearly half a million to develop a divisive curriculum promoted by political activists."

•
The narrator added that "when parents spoke up, officials threatened to silence them."

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See related You Better Shut up! (Mike Shelton, 06/28/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump pays tribute to 9/11 during visit to New York police precinct, hints at 2024 run (Fox 09/11/2021)
•
When asked by a NYPC officer whether he'd run for president a second time, Trump responded, "That's a tough question."

•
"Actually, for me, it's an easy question. I mean, I know what I'm going to do, but I'm not supposed to be talking about it yet from the standpoint of campaign finance laws, which, frankly, are ridiculous."
Callista and Newt Gingrich: Remembering 9/11 20 years later (Fox 09/11/2021)
Trump honors brave first responders on 9/11, takes shot at Biden's Afghanistan 'incompetence' (Fox 09/11/2021)
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"This is a very sad day. September 11 represents great sorrow for our country. Many things were displayed that day, including most importantly the bravery of our police, fire and first responders of every kind. The job they did was truly unbelievable. We love them and we thank them."

•
"It is also a sad time for the way our war on those that did such harm to our country ended last week. The loss of 13 great warriors and the many more who were wounded, should never have happened."

•
"We had $85 billion of the finest and most sophisticated military equipment, taken from us without even a shot being fired. The leader of our country was made to look like a fool."

•
"This is the 20th year of this war, and should have been a year of victory and honor, and strength. Instead, Joe Biden and his inept administration surrendered in defeat. We will live on, but sadly our country will be wounded for a long period of time. We will struggle to recover from the embarrassment this incompetence has caused. Do not fear, however, America will be made great again."
Pence reflects on 9/11: Biden admin's 'failings' cannot diminish the heroism and service of US military (Fox 09/11/2021)
•
"We are going to mark tomorrow, 20 years to the day since 9/11, without having had a major terrorist attack on American soil."

•
"That is owing, entirely, to the men and women who stepped forward to defend freedom in Afghanistan and in the War on Terror."

•
"And so, the failings of the Biden administration in Afghanistan cannot diminish the heroism and service of all those who brought us to this day."
Hannity: Biden gone from pledging unity to using Americans as political scapegoats (Fox 09/11/2021)
Kellogg, Ratcliffe, Wolf: US faces new threats 20 years after 9/11 thanks to disastrous Afghanistan exit (Fox 09/11/2021)
More kids shot in Chicago than have died from COVID-19 across US this year (Fox 09/10/2021)
Trump slams 'rushed' Afghanistan withdrawal, blames 'incompetent' Biden (Fox 09/10/2021)
•
"To have that embarrassment to take place in Afghanistan with the same people who did the damage 20 years ago — it is the greatest embarrassment in the history of our country."

•
"There has never been anything like this. It looks like we fled, and it is all because we have an incompetent person as the leader of our country."

•
Trump, who brokered a deal with the Taliban as president for a May 2021 troop withdrawal, said this "never would have happened" under his administration.

•
"I didn't even stick to it because I wanted to get out by May 1, and when they violated conditions, we bombed and did a lot of things. They adhered to one condition — don't kill Americans or soldiers."

•
"We hadn't lost a solider or an American in 18 months in Afghanistan. It was going along very well."

•
"They never would have come anywhere near us. It wouldn't have happened, they wouldn't have taken over anything. They knew that if they did, they would be bombed into hell."

•
"They knew that — and that's why they never would have come in to fill this vacuum."

•
Trump said that when the Biden Administration began drawing back U.S. forces, "we created this big open wound, a void, and the Taliban just came in and filled it, and within 24 hours, they controlled the whole country."

•
"When I heard they were taking the military out, I thought, that's inconceivable," Trump said.

•
When asked whether he had words of comfort for Gold Star and military families and veterans, Trump replied: "It would be easier, and probably more politically correct, for me to just say, ‘hang in there,' and just, ‘something will happen.'"...

•
"But they should be very angry," Trump said. "They cannot feel even a little bit good or optimistic, because we have an administration that doesn't know what they're doing."

•
"They should have never taken the military out first — you take the military out last, after all of the people are out."

•
... the White House announced the safe evacuation of Americans from Kabul to Qatar, and said the Taliban was "cooperative" and have been "businesslike and professional"...

•
Reacting, Trump said that the Biden Administration "looks like fools," calling their rhetoric "sad and pathetic."

•
"These are the people that knocked down the World Trade Center. These are the people who have treated people so inhumanely, so badly."

•
"I mean, we have been fighting them for 25 years, and to think that they're now reliable?"

•
The former president went on to slam the Biden Administration for leaving behind what he estimated was $85 billion worth of military equipment. Trump predicted that the Taliban is sending any damaged U.S. equipment to China and Russia for repair.

•
"We had tremendous airpower, which they now have, and it's not even believable," Trump said, questioning why the Biden Administration left U.S. aircraft in Afghanistan.

•
Trump went on to tout the military's success under his administration in bombing and killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and in destroying the ISIS caliphate.

•
"I got rid of 100% of the ISIS caliphate, Soleimani, al Baghdadi," Trump said. "Everybody gone."

•
Asked about his administration's success in brokering the Abraham Accords, the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that normalized relations, Trump replied: "We would have had peace in the Middle East."

•
"But the U.S. looks like a bunch of fools right now. We look like we surrendered," he said. "We look like we ran."

•
Looking to the future, Trump said that the United States has to "move forward." "We have no choice — we have to do what we have to do. We're an embarrassed country, and we've never had anything like this."

•
"We're not respected anymore... We're disrespected all over the world. I can't tell you how serious that is."
9/11 remembrance: Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden warns about America’s greatest threat now (Fox 09/10/2021)
•
"My biggest concern is the division in this country. Most people are good to each other. But the anger and the division gets the ratings, and that's what people hear. A lot of people know if they keep people divided they can stay in power and it's wrong."

•
"We can disagree with each other but we're on the same team when it all comes down to it."

•
"There were people running out of the towers to live, and there were policemen and firemen running up to die. And we have those people there and it's very, very important to realize that."

•
"Those are the good guys and they're out there. When the demons come, someone's going to be there to defend you and America should realize that."

•
"People do need to realize that, you know, as opposed to yelling at each other on social media – there's an enemy out there that wants to kill all of us. And it doesn't matter, really doesn't matter, what you look like – it's your ideology. You don't believe what they think you should believe and they're going to kill you."

•
"One of their sayings is, 'The Americans have the clock, but we have the time,'" he added, warning against the threat of a future attack. "They're going to adapt."

•
"One of my friends Dakota Meyer always says, 'I don't want another 9/11 but I'll take another 9/12 because it united all of us,'"

•
"And not just Americans, but our way of life, because I think it was 84 countries lost people in the twin towers."
Trump tells Gutfeld ‘I think you’ll be very happy’ with 2024 plans (Fox 09/10/2021)
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"I love our country. I think you'll be very happy. I would say two, three years ago you might not have been that happy but now I think you'd be happy... I'll make a decision in the not-so-distant future."

•
"I watch the evening news and they talk about everything they can but they don't like to talk about Afghanistan."

•
"Look at Chicago where they say 113 people were shot at and 28 died. That's worse than Afghanistan. We didn't lose, I told you, a soldier in many, many months and here they have 28 people died over a weekend? It's a disgrace."

•
"Woke means you're a loser. I'm watching parents in Virginia – they're tired of it. They don't want it. They're finally getting it... They're throwing these maniacs out and it's been great to watch."

•
"It's so sad for our country. I got to know Putin and President Xi of China and Kim Jong Un and all of them very well. They're at the top of their game. When they see the scene at the meetings that they've had where [Biden's] wife, who's lovely, is screaming, ‘come here, Joe...' When they see that, I can't imagine they're inspired."
Trump deplores removal of Richmond's Robert E. Lee statue (Fox 09/08/2021)
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"Our culture is being destroyed and our history and heritage, both good and bad, are being extinguished by the Radical Left, and we can't let that happen! If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan, that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago. What an embarrassment we are suffering because we don't have the genius of a Robert E. Lee!"

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See related P.C. (Glenn McCoy, 08/15/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Portland State professor resigns, says university became 'Social Justice factory' (Fox 09/08/2021)
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... a philosophy professor and well-known critic of "woke" ideologies, said Wednesday that the university had created a "Social Justice factory" where students were taught "to mimic the moral certainty of ideologues."

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"I never once believed — nor do I now — that the purpose of instruction was to lead my students to a particular conclusion."

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"Rather, I sought to create the conditions for rigorous thought; to help them gain the tools to hunt and furrow for their own conclusions. This is why I became a teacher and why I love teaching."

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"But brick by brick, the university has made this kind of intellectual exploration impossible. It has transformed a bastion of free inquiry into a Social Justice factory whose only inputs were race, gender, and victimhood and whose only outputs were grievance and division."

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"Students at Portland State are not being taught to think. Rather, they are being trained to mimic the moral certainty of ideologues. Faculty and administrators have abdicated the university's truth-seeking mission and instead drive intolerance of divergent beliefs and opinions. This has created a culture of offense where students are now afraid to speak openly and honestly."

•
"Portland State University has failed in fulfilling this duty. In doing so it has failed not only its students but the public that supports it."

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"While I am grateful for the opportunity to have taught at Portland State for over a decade, it has become clear to me that this institution is no place for people who intend to think freely and explore ideas."

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"This is not the outcome I wanted. But I feel morally obligated to make this choice. For ten years, I have taught my students the importance of living by your principles. One of mine is to defend our system of liberal education from those who seek to destroy it. Who would I be if I didn't?"
Gold Star mom invites Trump to son's funeral: 'Would be such an honor' (Fox 09/08/2021)
Larry Elder says he would support legislation banning critical race theory in schools (Fox 09/08/2021)
Tom Cotton on Fauci's links to Wuhan lab funding: 'One of the biggest scandals in modern times' (Fox 09/08/2021)
ACLU denounced pandemic mandates before COVID-19 (Fox 09/08/2021)
•
"Far from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties. They protect the most vulnerable, people with disabilities and fragile immune systems, children too young to be vaccinated, and communities of color hit hard by the disease."

•
... argue that vaccines are a "justifiable intrusion on autonomy and bodily integrity" while acknowledging that "may sound ominous" but "the fundamental right to bodily integrity is not 'absolute" and does "not include the right to inflict harm on others."

•
Journalist Glenn Greenwald responded to the piece by saying it sounds like an "NSA official justifying the need for mass surveillance" and pointed out that the ACLU has been opposed to vaccine mandates in the past.

•
"What makes the ACLU's position so remarkable — besides the inherent shock of a civil liberties organization championing state mandates overriding individual choice — is that, very recently, the same group warned of the grave dangers of the very mindset it is now pushing."

•
"In 2008, the ACLU published a comprehensive report on pandemics which had one primary purpose: to denounce as dangerous and unnecessary attempts by the state to mandate, coerce, and control in the name of protecting the public from pandemics."

•
In the ACLU's 2008 report, the group warned that "not all public health interventions have been benign or beneficial, however. Too often, fears aroused by disease and epidemics have encouraged abuses of state power. Atrocities, large and small, have been committed in the name of protecting the public's health."

•
"The ACLU's New York Times op-ed this week repeatedly stressed that coercive mandates are justified whenever ‘the disease is highly transmissible, serious and lethal.' But its 2008 report argued exactly the opposite. The report was critical of forced vaccinations and other mandates in prior outbreaks of smallpox — certainly a highly contagious and lethal disease — but then argued that when the disease reappeared in the late 1940s, New York City handled it much better by offering voluntary vaccines and education programs rather than coercive measures."
Amid Big Tech fight, web hosting company gives conservatives a cancel-proof alternative (Fox 09/08/2021)
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... saw the need for a web hosting alternative in January when Amazon Web Services shut down the servers of Parler – a conservative social media alternative to Twitter – over alleged breaches of its terms of service on hate speech. That came days after Apple had blocked its app from its App Store.

•
"That was the actual physical real estate that's very hard to replicate and very hard to understand what it is. The physical real estate of the servers, the access to power and processing and storage was being taken away, the ability to create the internet and exist on the internet was being taken away by a company."

•
"So you could be rendered unable to exist online and they did that, so what we saw as the opportunity was to solve for that."

•
"Parler did a great job, built a social media platform that had I believe 15 million users and they were starting to hit an inflection point where you would have started to see more people go there and they really could have been a competitor, but what happened?"

•
"The infrastructure, Amazon Web Services and the app stores, that was what crushed them, and so I think conservatives who are seeking to build that baseline foundation of the internet like what RightForge is doing, are playing a really critical role and they'll actually allow for something like Parler to have a better shot at success later on."

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See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Trump tells Bongino Afghanistan 'catastrophe' is the 'dumbest,' 'most embarrassing' thing to ever happen in US (Fox 09/07/2021)
Rand Paul says new Wuhan documents show Fauci lied (Fox 09/07/2021)
Son of 9/11 victim to Biden: Do not come to Ground Zero memorials (Fox 09/06/2021)
•
"I am demanding that President Biden do not show his face at Ground Zero on 9/11. It is now holy ground and I really don't think he has a place there."

•
"Today I call out Biden as the killer-in-chief. It's not just 13 killed or the thousands of Americans and Afghanistan supporters left to die. I believe he is complicit in a coming genocide of Americans and Afghans."
Richmond's Robert E. Lee statue to be taken down Wednesday (Fox 09/06/2021)
•
The move comes after the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in a 7-0 decision last week that the statue could be removed.

•
The decision followed lawsuits against Gov. Ralph Northam last year, claiming that the deed that transferred the statue to the state came with an agreement that the state would "faithfully guard" and "affectionately protect" the statue forever.

•
"Those restrictive covenants are unenforceable as contrary to public policy and for being unreasonable because their effect is to compel ... the Commonwealth to express, in perpetuity, a message with which it now disagrees," the justices wrote in their decision.

•
The state justified its decision to remove the statue by arguing that it was installed as part of a movement that "sought to undo the results of the war."

•
"The statue will be placed in a secure storage at a state-owned facility until a decision is made as to its disposition."

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See related P.C. (Glenn McCoy, 08/15/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Florida sheriff calls shooting suspect a 'coward,' deputies would have 'shot him up a lot' (Fox 09/06/2021)
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"It would have been nice if he would have come out with a gun. We would have shot him up a lot. But he didn't because he was a coward. When someone chooses to give up, we take them into custody peacefully."

•
Bryan Riley, 33, a former Marine sharpshooter, is accused of killing 40-year-old Justice Gleason, a 33-year-old woman, and a 3-month-old infant boy. A 62-year-old woman, who was believed to be the grandmother of the infant, was also found dead in the apartment next door. The family's dog, Diogi, was also shot and killed. The killings were random...

•
... Riley wore body armor and engaged in a gunfight with police and deputies before surrendering with his arms up.

•
Riley even attempted to strip a gun from a police officer while the suspect was on a hospital gurney.

•
When he was interrogated, he allegedly told authorities that they "begged for their lives" and he "killed them anyway."

•
Officers heard cries for help inside the home but were unsure whether there were additional shooters and feared the home was booby-trapped.

•
A brave sergeant rushed in and grabbed the 11-year-old girl, who had been shot at least seven times.

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She told deputies there were three dead people inside ... adding that she was rushed into surgery and was expected to survive.

•
Riley allegedly told police that he had been taking methamphetamine.

•
"It was an evil, evil, evil act by a very well-trained military person who knew better and still did it."

•
"What makes it so gut-wrenching is that these innocent people died and they were randomly picked out. This wasn't a fight that went bad, this wasn't a disturbance that escalated."

•
"When you see a 3-month-old, little, beautiful baby boy deceased in the arms of his mother, where she's trying to protect him, and she's murdered, he's murdered, and his daddy's murdered — that's pretty rough."
Gowdy discusses how 9/11 changed America: Death and grief can bring clarity about what’s important in life (Fox 09/05/2021)
•
"Death and grief and pain can bring clarity about what's important in life and precisely what it is we are willing to fight to preserve and from that can come unity. Death and grief and pain can be unified."

•
"We need to remember at the moment why we went into Afghanistan to begin with. Because that's where the terror came from, that's where bin Laden trained the fighters, that's where all the planning originated, and that's where the attack came from. We were in Afghanistan because we asked the Taliban to give up Bin Laden and stop supporting him. They said no."

•
"Now we got to look at Afghanistan. Is that again going to be a breeding ground for terrorists? Because if it becomes a breeding ground for terrorists again, if Al-Qaeda or ISIS or any of those planning attacks against the homeland again, we're going to have to send troops back in. There's no question about it."
RNC Chairwoman McDaniel: If Joe Biden had an ounce of human decency, he would resign (Fox 09/05/2021)
•
By haphazardly withdrawing from Afghanistan with no plan and no preparation, President Joe Biden put our troops in harm's way.

•
Thirteen American families have been devastated as a direct result of Joe Biden's complete and embarrassing incompetence.

•
This is not about whether or not to stay in Afghanistan. This is not about judging the success of our nation's longest war in history. This is about the sacrifice that our brave service members and veterans have made over the course of two decades to protect us.

•
Throughout this crisis, the Biden administration's pattern of failure and incompetence has been on full, horrifying display.

•
Biden told America that it was "highly unlikely" that the Taliban would overrun Afghanistan. He told us that our withdrawal would be "secure and orderly" and that he "planned for every contingency" before leaving Afghanistan.

•
These were despicable lies. The Taliban did overrun Afghanistan. Our withdrawal was chaotic and deadly, not "orderly."

•
The man who claimed to plan for every contingency left the Taliban billions of dollars of American military equipment — including Blackhawk helicopters. And hundreds of Americans remain trapped behind enemy lines.

•
The scale of Biden's failure is nearly incomprehensible. It's been reported that this pathetic excuse for a commander-in-chief even gave the Taliban a list of Americans remaining in Afghanistan, similar to how he commissioned this radical terrorist group to provide security for American citizens.

•
Negotiating with terrorists and losing spectacularly — at the cost of American lives, and an entire nation's future — is unacceptable.

•
Biden has betrayed the American people. He lied, he failed, and he has proven himself fundamentally unfit to serve as our president.

•
If Biden had an ounce of human decency, he would resign. Sadly, he doesn't. He likely doesn't even fully understand the catastrophic, tragic events that he set in motion.

•
In his few appearances throughout this crisis, he has appeared defiant and without remorse.

•
Our enemies around the globe are taking note. This president is incapable of living up to the gravity of this crisis.

•
Thirteen American heroes should not have died as a direct result of Joe Biden's failed leadership. This tragedy is completely his doing.

•
He has failed our troops, he has failed the Afghan people, and he has failed America. Biden's Afghanistan crisis proved beyond a doubt that he is not up to the task of leading this nation.
Group inspired by Trump's 1776 Commission launches 'Patriotic' campaign to combat CRT (Fox 09/04/2021)
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One Colorado father, Derrick Wilburn, went viral for remarks during a school board meeting last month, when he said he "can think of nothing more damaging to a society than to tell a baby born today, that she has grievances against another baby born today, simply because of what their ancestors may have done two centuries ago."

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"There's simply no point in doing that to our children, and putting critical race theory into our classrooms in part does that. Putting critical theory into our classrooms is not combating racism. It's fanning the flames of what little embers are left. I encourage you to support this resolution. Let racism die the death it deserves."

•
Meanwhile, in Connecticut, one teacher resigned from her position over her school district's "equity" curriculum.

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"After 6 years as a teacher in CT, I decided to resign from what I thought would be my forever career bc I felt more like a political activist than a teacher in my own classroom."

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"They're so young and naive and that to me was the hardest part about all of this." ... "We're taking away that innocence because we're trying to make them so obsessed with race and a characteristic that they can't control. I feel so sorry for them. It breaks my heart and I just didn't want to be a part of it anymore."

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Another teacher in Kansas, Josiah Enyart, resigned from his school district this summer over its critical race theory push...

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"... Why wouldn't the public school system want the parents to know everything that their child is being exposed to? Why aren't the parents being asked before these decisions are being made? And when they do, why do the board decisions not match the data on the surveys? As a district that prides itself on being ‘data driven,' they do not seem to be following any real data on any of the issues."

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Enyart subsequently pulled his own children from the district after resigning and will homeschool them this coming school year.

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1776 Action was launched earlier this year after President Biden signed an executive order abolishing Trump's 1776 Commission, which worked to "restore honest, patriotic education" but was panned by liberals and the media as "racist" and warping history.

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"When I was asked to serve on President Trump's 1776 Commission to help restore truthful, patriotic education I was full of hope," read an email signed by Ben Carson in April. "Then, it was canceled by President Biden on Day One."

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"A setback for sure, but thankfully our solutions are much closer to home than Washington, D.C. The real power for positive, lasting change is in the hands of parents and other concerned citizens — if only we're willing to put in the effort this truly deserves."

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See related New Fathers Day (Gary McCoy, 06/17/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Greg Gutfeld: What's really missing from the Left is compassion (Fox 09/04/2021)
CA school board faces intense backlash over 'Antifa' teacher: 'Where does the f***g buck stop?' (Fox 09/03/2021)
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"This is bigger than one teacher ... there were so many red flags. The man had an Antifa flag behind his desk. He had Chairman Mao in the f***g corner. Are you kidding me?"

•
"The reason why my daughter is standing behind me is because my job as a parent is to protect her from anybody that has ill will towards her."

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"In two weeks and 13 days, he was allowed to change my daughter's mind about some fascist crap that y'all have let in this school."
Greg Gutfeld: People pretending to fight for victims are ruining the lives of everyone (Fox 09/03/2021)
Hannity: OSAC alert shows State Department leaving Americans 'hostage' to Taliban (Fox 09/03/2021)
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"He wants to pretend like it never happened. But this crisis is far from over. Hundreds and hundreds of Americans are still trapped hopelessly abandoned by Joe behind enemy lines. And ask yourself this question tonight. If it was you or someone you loved, cared about, if they were abandoned by a president of the United States behind enemy lines, hostage to the whims of terrorists, would you want your president and your country to move on and pull up stakes and say you're on your own?"

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"... Every day that goes by the risk gets higher and higher. The terrorists and the Taliban; they have not been keeping their word – well, that is, ever since Joe Biden became president. And they're, in fact, now going door to door, as we speak, executing anyone and everyone that they know that worked with the United States in the last 20 years."

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The federal government "still do[es]n't know exactly how many of our fellow Americans are actually trapped in Afghanistan." ... "I'm hearing estimates as high as a thousand, maybe more. There's no plan whatsoever to get them out. There's no military help, there's no diplomatic help and they're even saying you're on your own, our own State Department – no extraction efforts."

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"... that was just one of six major lies Biden told us about Afghanistan. The second lie? That was about our Afghan allied partners. On August 20th, Biden said, quote, we're making the same equipment to get out those Afghans who worked alongside us. Now, there are thousands of our partners with no way out. Maybe as many as 10,000 plus, I'm told."

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"Even Biden's own Afghan interpreter who saved his life ... is hopelessly trapped. Wow, Joe, you have all the great ways to say thank you."
California superintendent not sure Antifa teacher had been reported before Project Veritas exposed him (Fox 09/03/2021)
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The superintendent said the district conducted a thorough investigation in just a few days and found enough evidence that Gipe had violated the school's code of conduct to warrant his firing. That included looking at his classroom and sifting through his district email account.

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They also found rubber stamps dedicated to Kim Jong-un, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro that he allegedly used to mark students' work complete.

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"It's a free country, and people have a right outside of their professional lives to support whatever side they want. You just can't bring it into the classroom — and he did."
Parole for Sirhan B. Sirhan? RFK’s help for Israel drove his assassin (INN 09/02/2021)
Retired military leaders demand mass resignation of Biden team: Milley, Austin, Blinken, Sullivan (Fox 09/01/2021)
•
"I think it's very fair to ask for accountability for senior leaders, and that includes the military leaders as well as the national security advisor and the secretary of state. Somebody needs to be held accountable."

•
"I think it's up to them to resign. If not, I think the president should remove them. It would help the American people if he changed out his national security team because we don't know what ground truth is."

•
... noted that ... Biden said it was "the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned."

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"If it was unanimous, that means all of them are accountable for the action. If they all thought it was a good idea and it's a bad idea, then maybe they should all leave."

•
"I am a firm believer that those in charge who are given the authority to make decisions should also accept responsibility for their actions when things don't go as planned."

•
"They all had a role in this failure. Everyone who was a yes-man for Biden and played a part in this incompetence needs to take responsibility and resign."

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... "thoroughly disgusted by the Biden Administration's attempt to spin what has been an unmitigated disaster as a win. Joe Biden is patting himself on the back and declaring victory as terrorists are parading around in U.S. military equipment and American citizens are trapped behind enemy lines. This administration is a disgrace."

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"What's really troublesome and almost frightening to know is that we have a commander in chief who does not see the imperative of bringing the Americans home. That's a longstanding ethos, not just of the military, but of America. That is meaningless to him."
Clay Travis: Footage of pro-Antifa California teacher is exactly what many parents fear (Fox 09/01/2021)
Former Dem VP candidate on 'Kilmeade Show': 'We are all going to pay' for Biden's botched Afghanistan exit (Fox 09/01/2021)
Graham hammers Biden: He really believes Afghanistan exit was a success and it 'scares the hell out of me' (Fox 09/01/2021)
Colorado woman whose husband was killed in Miami Beach, shielding son from gunman, recalls his final moments (Fox 09/01/2021)
Ingraham: America has diminished under President Biden (Fox 09/01/2021)
•
"Think about it this way, over the past 50 years, Biden never said anything significant or meaningful, never, and it was the same today."

•
"His speech was supposed to mark the end of our longest war. And yet he literally sounded like any random liberal pundit."

•
"It's almost as if Joe Biden's disappearing before our very eyes. He's just not all that relevant. The real political debate will continue between the hard left and the rest of us who want to save America from socialism and decline."

•
"The fact is, the rest of the world doesn't take Biden seriously. His own people don't even take him seriously. Either they don't let them answer questions or they carefully choose the reporters he'll take questions from."

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"... a real president, a real man, wouldn't have left ten percent of Americans behind in Afghanistan. He wouldn't have left one behind. Unfortunately for us, for America, we won't have a real president for at least another three years and five months."
Feeble Joe is the neighborhood arsonist bragging about how many fires he's put out (JWR 08/31/2021)
Biden pins partial blame on Trump during first address to nation since Afghanistan withdrawal (Fox 08/31/2021)
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"Oh, now he's blaming Trump of course. Biden says Taliban was in its strongest position ever when he came into office in Jan, controlling more than half the country."

•
"Then how is it that he insisted just a few weeks ago that the Taliban we're not going to take over the country?"

•
"The Taliban onslaught started coming once Joe Biden got into the White House. The Taliban knew they couldn't make the move when Trump was in office."

•
"How many times did he blame Trump? Mr. Biden, YOU ARE THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF! STOP blaming Trump for your FAILURES! You're a FAILED President and you need to RESIGN!"
Biden repeatedly misled American public about Afghanistan withdrawal (Fox 08/31/2021)
Connecticut teacher resigns over racial curriculum, says it was stealing kids' 'innocence' (Fox 08/31/2021)
•
"They're so young and naive and that to me was the hardest part about all of this." ... "We're taking away that innocence because we're trying to make them so obsessed with race and a characteristic that they can't control. I feel so sorry for them. It breaks my heart and I just didn't want to be a part of it anymore."

•
... verified a teacher training exercise ... asked teachers to reflect on the purportedly racial aspects of daily activities like brushing their teeth.

•
"After only six years as a teacher in Connecticut, I decided to resign from what I thought would be my forever career because I felt like more of a political activist than a teacher in my own classroom."

•
... "unfortunately, what's going on in classrooms across our country is pitting students against each other based on the color of their skin."
Rep. Banks blasts Pentagon's 'astonishingly idiotic' claim about American weapons in hands of Taliban (Fox 08/31/2021)
Rep. Mike Turner: Amid Afghanistan horror show, Biden seems completely oblivious to his own failures (Fox 08/31/2021)
Wounded Marine rips Blinken, Gen. McKenzie on Taliban praise: 'How dare you do that' (Fox 08/30/2021)
•
"I will tell you I believe in the men and women I served with I believe in the pureness of our intent: And when the secretary of state stands up there and tells me that the people who killed my brothers and took my legs can earn our trust? Well, thank God this is television news and not just a casual conversation because I would have words for him nobody wants to hear."

•
Jones explained that blood is essentially an international "currency" – the "easiest to acquire... [but] the interest on that lasts a lifetime – and that because it was so freely offered up over the last 20 years, Americans should hold their politicians to account when they commit to a new war.

•
"I don't know what political pressures are on his shoulders, but I know what it means to be a Marine."

•
"I know what it means to bleed with men and women, and to hold their hand when they're taking their last breath and to do everything I can, everything in me. If it means walking down and lean everything a bomb and taking a damn good guess to keep them alive even if that means I get blown into pieces that's OK."

•
"Even if it's some partisan war, if it can keep our enemy at bay one more day that's worth it – and how dare you think that you can lead troops, and stand up there and speak glowingly about the people have tried to kill us for 20 years. Just how dare you do that?"

•
Jones added that Gen. McKenzie's comments praising the Taliban were a "betrayal" to those who served.
Marine who criticized military leaders over Afghan exit said he was ordered to undergo mental health screening (Fox 08/30/2021)
•
"Everyone is scared that the weight of the system is crashing down on me. But I know something you don't... it's the system that's going to break. Not me."

•
"I am moving forward with my resignation. I, like many of you, am very scared. But courage isn't the absence of fear, it's the ability to overcome it. At the end of the day, if I stand with accountability and integrity, the system can't beat me."
Gutfeld: Calling Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan a success is like 'polishing a turd' (Fox 08/30/2021)
Army unit posts photo of last US soldier to leave Afghanistan (Fox 08/30/2021)
•
... a photo of Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division, boarding a plane at night, marking the last soldier to depart from the country.

•
CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie announced Monday that the last U.S. service members had departed Afghanistan, ending America's longest-ever military conflict at close to 20 years.
Rep. Crenshaw on Afghanistan evacuation: State Department ‘has a lot to answer for’ (Fox 08/30/2021)
Jen Psaki says she hasn't read Washington Post report that Taliban offered to let US secure Kabul (Fox 08/30/2021)
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"Taliban offered to stay out of Kabul and let the United States forces secure the city," but the U.S. said it only needed the airport for its mission.
Biden breaks promise to 'stay' in Afghanistan until every American evacuated (Fox 08/30/2021)
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Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. announced Monday evening that the last of the U.S. troops stationed at the Kabul airport had left, completing the military's drawdown in the country, even though hundreds of Americans likely remain.

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McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said some American citizens who wanted to leave Afghanistan remain in country. "We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out."

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The announced end of the withdrawal comes less than a day before the official deadline agreed to by the Taliban, which was 3:29 p.m. EST Tuesday – 11:59 p.m. local time in Kabul...
Liz Peek: Biden's weakness vs. Trump's strength – here's what the difference means to our enemies (Fox 08/30/2021)
Graham claims Afghanistan war 'has not ended' despite withdrawal: 'We've entered into a new, deadly chapter' (Fox 08/29/2021)
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"President Biden said that he wanted to take this, Afghanistan, off the plate for future presidents. He's done the exact opposite."

•
"For the next 20 years, American presidents will be dealing with this catastrophe in Afghanistan. This war has not ended, we've entered into a new, deadly chapter. Terrorists are now in charge of Afghanistan."

•
"The parade of horribles are about to unfold. We're leaving thousands of Afghan allies behind us. We're going to leave hundreds of American citizens behind. The chance of another 9/11 just went through the roof."

•
"I think it's dereliction of duty to leave hundreds of Americans behind enemy lines, turn them into hostages, to abandon thousands of Afghans who have fought honorably along our side, to create conditions for another 9/11 that are now through the roof."

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"I don't think he got bad advice and took it, I think he ignored sound advice. And this is Joe Biden being Joe Biden. He's been this way for 40 years but now he's the commander in chief, he's not a senator, he's not the vice president."
Marine fired for criticizing military leaders resigns, says chasing stability makes ‘slave to the system’ (Fox 08/29/2021)
•
"I could stay in the Marine Corps for another three years, but I don't think that's the path I'm on. I'm resigning my commission as a United States Marine, effective now."

•
"I am forfeiting retirements, all entitlements, I don't want a single dollar. I don't want any money from the VA. I don't want any VA benefits [even though] I'm sure I'm entitled 100%."

•
"I'm not saying we need to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it's a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone'?"

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"Did anyone do that? And when you didn't think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up'?"

•
... warned that going after "stability and money" makes one a "slave to the system" and makes you compromise on your principles.

•
"I don't need a single dollar. I just need every single person that's willing to go back outside the wire every single day to wear a blue-collar and just go into work every single day and feed their families. Those are the people that I need."

•
"Follow me and we will bring the whole f***ing system down. I am honorable and you can ask any Marine who served with me for 17 years. I dare you to ask them all and find out what I'm made of. We're just getting started."
Twitter permanently suspends Alex Berenson over coronavirus tweets (Fox 08/28/2021)
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"The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules."

•
In that tweet, he wrote that the coronavirus vaccine does not stop infection or transmission. "Don't think of it as a vaccine. Think of it – at best – as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS."

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The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention say that COVID-19 vaccines "are safe and effective" following tens of thousands of clinical trials and that side effects are rare.

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Berenson, 48, made national headlines last year for his criticism coronavirus lockdowns and mandates, drawing the ire of Big Tech, the mainstream media and others who sought to bury his writing.

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"Information has never been more plentiful or easier to distribute. Yet we are sliding into a new age of censorship and suppression, encouraged by technology giants and traditional media companies. As someone who's been falsely characterized as a coronavirus ‘denier', I have seen this crisis firsthand."

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"Since June, Amazon has twice tried to suppress self-published booklets I have written about Covid-19 and the response to it."

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"These booklets don't contain conspiracy theories. Like the scientists who wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, I simply believe many measures to control the coronavirus have been damaging, counterproductive and unsupported by science."

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Berenson worked at the New York Times from 1999 until 2010, before becoming a full-time novelist. He also published nonfiction, including a controversial 2019 book that argued against the legalization of marijuana.

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See related Unabomber II (Mike Shelton, 01/19/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Tucker Carlson: We don't know who the Afghan refugees are (Fox 08/28/2021)
Bill Maher blasts 'woke' left for losing 'perspective' on 'real oppression': 'We're not the bad guys!' (Fox 08/28/2021)
•
"Blind hatred of America is just as blinkered as blind love. And we Americans should really get some perspective about where we live."

•
Watching this s** go down in Afghanistan, I was reminded lately of every conversation I've ever had with an immigrant, almost all of which if we got to really talking, included the notion, ‘Oh, you people have no idea. All you do is b*** about and badmouth your own country, but if you knew about the country I came from, you'd stop s****ing on your own'."

•
"Last week, the Taliban murdered a comedian," Maher said, referring to Afghan comedian Nazar Mohammad, who was tortured and executed. "A comedian, a thing like that really hits close to home for me. I've had two presidents up my a — ... Neither experience was pleasant, but I never had to worry about being dragged 'til I'm dead behind a Toyota Tacoma. Have a little perspective about the stuff we howl about here."

•
"I'm sorry your professor said something you didn't like. That won't be a problem with the Taliban because you're not allowed to go to school. In Saudi Arabia, grown women can be jailed for doing the kind of things we think of as routine without the permission of a male guardian. China rounds you up if you're the wrong religion and puts you in camps."

•
"If you think America is irredeemable, turn on the news or get a passport and a ticket on one of those sketchy airlines that puts its web address on the plane. There's a reason Afghan mothers are handing their babies to us. And we should take them. Americans, right now, should take in Afghan refugees into their homes and into their neighborhoods."

•
"We're not the bad guys. Oppression is what we were trying to stop in Afghanistan. We failed, but any immigrant will tell you we've largely succeeded here. And yet, the overriding thrust of current ‘woke' ideology is America is rotten to the core, irredeemably racist from the moment it was founded and so oppressive, sexist and homophobic we can't find a host for the Oscars or 'Jeopardy!'"...

•
"And this is where your new [Afghan] roommates that you took in will prove so valuable because they'll turn to you and say ‘Have you people lost your f***ing minds?!?... Have you ever heard of honor killings, public beheadings, throwing gay men off of roofs, arranged marriages to minors, state-sanctioned wife-beating, female genital mutilation, marriage by capture? Because we have.'"...

•
"What's the lesson of Afghanistan. Maybe it's that everyone from the giant dorm room b*** session that is the internet should take a good look at what real oppression looks like."

•
"Ask your maid, ask your Uber driver, ask the Asian woman giving you a massage... America may not be the country of your faculty lounge and Twitter dreams, but no one here tries to escape by hanging on to an airplane. No, we wait 'til we get inside the plane to fight – and only because they cut off the beverage service."
Hannity: US 'suffering consequences of Biden's weakness' with 13 fallen military, untold stranded Americans (Fox 08/28/2021)
Gen. Jack Keane: I don't agree with Biden's stubborn self-righteousness on Aug. 31 (Fox 08/27/2021)
Veteran US Navy SEAL blasts Biden on Afghanistan: 'I haven't seen his heart in any of this' (Fox 08/27/2021)
•
"I feel like people are using him to say a thing, and he can barely keep it together. They need to keep it short before he loses his composure, I haven't seen his heart in any of this."

•
"... We need to return to the truth. At some point we must get back," he said. "There's a war on decency right now."
Marine demands senior leaders accept 'accountability' for Afghanistan, gets removed from position (Fox 08/27/2021)
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"I'm not saying we need to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it's a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone'? Did anyone do that? And when you didn't think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up'?"

•
... he had been "relieved for cause based on a lack of trust and confidence." ... "To all the news agencies asking for interviews... I will not be making any statements other than what's on my social platforms until I exit the Marine Corps."

•
"America has many issues ... but it's my home ... it's where my three sons will become men. America is still the light shining in a fog of chaos. When my Marine Corps career comes to an end, I look forward to a new beginning. My life's purpose is to make America the most lethal and effective foreign diplomacy instrument. While my days of hand-to-hand violence may be ending ... I see a new light on the horizon."

•
Scheller concluded by saying that service members did potentially "die if vain if we don't have senior leaders who own up and raise their hand and say, ‘We did not do this well in the end.'"...

•
"Without that, we just keep repeating the same mistakes ... I want to say this very strongly. I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders: I demand accountability."
GOP Rep. Ellzey, former Naval aviator, wants to know 'who's behind the curtain' at White House (Fox 08/27/2021)
Ingraham: Afghan crisis results in 'Biden's body bags' as 'band of incompetents' affects real lives (Fox 08/27/2021)
Officer who shot Ashli Babbitt gives first public interview to NBC News (Fox 08/26/2021)
Biden's Afghan 'Alamo': Mark Levin says Democrat 'blew up half a century of US national security' (Fox 08/26/2021)
•
"The ramifications of this are absolutely unbelievable. First, we lost more men in this outrageous boggled, messed up withdrawal than we lost in the last 18 months in Afghanistan."

•
"The idea that you would create basically the Alamo – you'd have no airpower, you'd have no external military support so the enemy knows where to hit you, so the enemy knows where to hit anybody who tries to get there."

•
"I do not know what kind of generals we have, I do not know the kind of advice the president is getting, but this president is a disaster. He's always been a disaster, he's reckless, he's dangerous, he stubborn, and he is stupid. And now it's just cost us some lives."

•
"This cabinet which is a joke if they're not looking at the 25th amendment, we've got a man in the White House now who has blown up more than half a century of American national security."
'We're conceding': Former special forces flight surgeon discusses 'treacherous' Afghanistan evacuation (Fox 08/26/2021)
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"It's pretty devastating. All American forces are currently being moved out and Kabul airport is being evacuated as we speak. We're conceding."

•
"The Taliban will own the entire country by Sunday. We are probably going to be out of there before the deadline of the 31st and in doing so, we will be leaving many Americans and allies in country."

•
"What logical government gives their enemy a list of people who are loyal to them? I mean, it's a target list. It's not in any way I think gonna be used to evacuate Americans... That's treachery and treasonous."

•
... "leaving hundreds of vehicles with top-secret, classified technology, including encryption technology" for others to investigate after the fact is "foolish and just as treasonous and treacherous."

•
... took aim at Biden specifically, saying his "taking orders from the Taliban and complying with them" is "alienating our friends and emboldening every enemy the US has ever had."

•
"Congress sits by and does practically nothing except argue over a $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill of which probably 10 percent or less is going to infrastructure and the rest of it to special interests."

•
"I just don't understand what's happening to our country, not just the presidency and not just this administration, but Congress as well."

•
"Legislators are sitting by, empowering and enabling it."
Jesse Watters: Trump killed terrorists, Joe Biden takes orders from them (Fox 08/25/2021)
•
"He's thanking the Taliban for letting Americans get to the airport; Americans are getting beaten on the way to the airport."

•
"I don't see how this shakes out right now. I mean, say what you want about Trump, at least Trump killed terrorists. Joe Biden takes orders from terrorists."

•
"Joe Biden chose a hostage crisis. He thought that that was the best option. He said we're not going to extend the deadline. He says we're not going to do search and rescue. So this is going to dog Joe Biden for the rest of his term. Jimmy Carter only had a year of a hostage crisis. Joe Biden's going to have three years of a hostage crisis..."

•
"And now he's kind of blaming the Americans that are still there for not getting rescued. [Biden says] we're going to bring back everybody that wants to leave. Who wants to stay?"
CIA, US troops conduct missions outside Kabul Airport to extract Americans, allies (Fox 08/25/2021)
Loudoun residents ask judge to remove controversial school board member amid battle over critical race theory (Fox 08/25/2021)
New NY Gov. Kathy Hochul adds 12,000 deaths to COVID death count (Fox 08/25/2021)
•
New York now reports nearly 55,400 people have died of COVID-19 in New York based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC, up from about 43,400 that Gov. Cuomo had reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office.
Secretary Blinken puts a number on Americans currently stuck in Afghanistan (Fox 08/25/2021)
Lindsey Graham on 'Hannity': Biden 'signed death warrant' for thousands of Afghans who helped us (Fox 08/25/2021)
•
"It's the most dishonorable thing a commander-in-chief has done in modern times. What he's said today, he's going to leave the August 31 deadline because the Taliban told him he had to get out."

•
"There's no way in hell we are going to get all American citizens out. We are going to leave thousands of Afghans who fought along our side behind, and we're setting the table for the rise of al Qaeda and ISIS to attack us down the road. The ISIS fighters have doubled in the last ten days. The jailbreak led to thousands of ISIS fighters in jail now on the battlefield."
Pentagon orders COVID-19 vaccinations for all service members begin immediately (Fox 08/25/2021)
Rep. Michael McCaul: Biden has 'blood' on his hands for leaving Americans behind in Afghanistan (Fox 08/24/2021)
Kevin McCarthy: There is 'no possible way' we can evacuate Americans from Afghanistan by Aug 31 (Fox 08/24/2021)
•
"At no time should America ... allow the Taliban to tell us when we have to stop bringing Americans out. We should stay until every single American is able to get out of Afghanistan."
Arizona AG warns of potential border threat from terrorists freed by Taliban in Afghanistan (Fox 08/24/2021)
•
"I firmly believe that it is a national security crisis. Immigration is just a subcomponent of it, and right now, it's just a cover for massive amounts of smuggling going across the southwest border — to include TSDBs at a level we have never seen before. That's a real threat."

•
TSDBs refers to migrants whose names match those on the Terrorist Screening Center Database.

•
"We need to take decisive action to secure our border and prevent terrorists, gang members, and hardened criminals from accessing our ports of entry."
Retired Navy SEAL’s post about Afghanistan, imagining he was president, goes viral (Fox 08/24/2021)
•
"If I were president, and I had put our country into the current situation in Afghanistan, I would tell America, our allies, our enemies, and the world, something like this..."

•
"In the next 48 hours, America will be in control of most major airports in Afghanistan. Any resistance we meet from the Taliban or otherwise — when we seize these airports — will be destroyed completely and without mercy."

•
... control of these airports will allow U.S. forces to conduct swift rescue missions throughout the country. "Any person who interferes with these operations will be killed."

•
... he would order troops to either retake or destroy weapons and equipment left behind by fleeing Afghan troops.

•
"Any person utilizing, guarding, or located in close proximity to these weapons or equipment will be killed."

•
... once the Americans and Afghans are extracted and the weapons either retrieved or destroyed, the U.S. will leave the country.

•
But he vowed to keep a close eye on possible terrorist activities or human rights violations by employing surveillance technology.

•
He also said the U.S. will support freedom fighters in the country through airstrikes and with Special Forces units.

•
... the U.S. will continue the support until the enemy is no longer a threat to America or "the good people of Afghanistan."
Greg Gutfeld: The swirling swamp mixture of media and government elites gave us Afghanistan (Fox 08/24/2021)
Bank of Amerika: The financial giant teaches that the United States is a system of 'white supremacy'... (JWR 08/23/2021)
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In its very name, the Bank of America Corporation claims to represent the United States. Yet instead of promoting American ideals, the company's executives have adopted the radical, pseudoscientific concepts of critical race theory.

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They are pushing intensely ideological messages on their employees, from race-based collective guilt to abolishing the police.

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Let the American public know and judge accordingly.
Top New York ICE official speaks out after resignation: Biden 'endangering the public' (Fox 08/23/2021)
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"As a member of the Senior Executive Service, a service entrusted by the public to ensure whatever administration is in charge follow the law, we currently are not. To fight and argue every day about not arresting or releasing horrible criminal aliens to the street, quite frankly, is disgusting."

•
"Most of the people that I've removed in my career, even illegal aliens don't want in their community, and that says a lot. Because those types of criminal aliens prey on them as well."

•
"We're not talking about farmworkers who are here to make a better life for themselves or nothing like that. We're talking about murderers, rapists."

•
"I worked with every president since Papa Bush. The highest award I've ever gotten in my career was from the Obama administration. So, a lot of people want to come at me: 'You're a Trumper. You're a Republican' – No, I'm just an American."

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"[I] want[ed] the laws enforced that were passed by Congress in 1996 and signed by President Clinton. You know, everyone wants to talk about [how] the immigration system's broke. It's not broke. It's just not being enforced. And, you know, that's the biggest deal."

•
"Some ICE officials will tell you, ‘Well, the Biden administration isn't telling us to break the law but they're definitely telling you not to enforce it'. So if that's what you're going to split hairs on, we're pretty much screwed as a country going down this road."

•
"I had a case who the guy was a convicted arsonist and they called me and said, ‘Hey, Mr. Feeley. One of our criteria is if the guy hasn't been arrested in the past 10 years we need to let them go and we'd like you to release them.' And I said, ‘I totally get what you're saying, but... he's been in prison for 12 years. That's why he hasn't been arrested.' And the answer I got was, ‘We don't really care'. And I had to cut him loose."
Ayaan Hirsi Ali blasts White House response to Afghanistan: ‘Incompetence taken to cartoonish levels’ (Fox 08/23/2021)
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"We entered this rabbit hole of microaggressions and then make a decision like this one [Afghanistan]. It's one of a macroaggression. The Taliban means business. They are really cruel people. They're bad people with a terrible ideology. We're not prepared for it because our Navy is being told to read Ibram X. Kendi's ‘How to Be an Antiracist,'"

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"This is the thing that we've been talking about over and over again the last few years. No one took us seriously. Now the world is looking at America, looking at this conflict, and thinking about good guys and bad guys. The Taliban are the bad guys. Look at the White House and what do you think? Tweedledee and Tweedledum. It is incompetence taken to cartoonish levels."

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"It's absolutely true that if you ask the average American, ‘should we get out of that war?' They say, ‘please.' Americans don't want to wage continuous wars. When the calling comes, when they see these images, Americans will give everything they have to rescue, to resuscitate, to help. So this whole notion that we're a racist country, bigoted, all of that, Throw that out of the window. What is true and what is really alarming is the people we elected to run our government are totally incompetent. The general American public, everyone here, just wants this to end. They want to help as much as they can."

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"It's this White House that started it, it's absolutely unnecessary. Seven months into their tenure there was no need to pull out of Afghanistan and no need to pull out of Afghanistan the way they did. That is a stain on them. Shame on them."
Veterans blame Biden for turmoil in Afghanistan, say troops were 'betrayed politically' (Fox 08/23/2021)
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"... it's heartbreaking after 20 years in Afghanistan to see the blood, sweat and tears that have been spent there now evaporating into this debacle."

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"It's really gut-wrenching to watch this. So much sacrifice. So much commitment. So much blood, sweat, and tears. And for nothing. It was squandered."

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"I was thinking about the future of everyone that we worked with over there. Knowing that someday, somebody was going to come for them, and not just them, but their families."

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"It's almost as if we were trying to make a mess of this. We could not have done this worse had we been actively trying to do the worst job we actually could."

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"That's not leadership. When you lead, you do what's right, not politically expedient."

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"Al Qaeda or an organization like al Qaeda will certainly be back. They don't have to get on planes and fly into buildings this time. They will just walk across our southern border. You can't have an unsecure southern border and an unsecure haven for terror."

•
"I can assure you, a terrorist attack in the future is imminent if we don't do something now to stop the bleeding."

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"I just want to remind soldiers out there, and airmen, Marines, sailors, anyone else that served, your service was not in vain. You answered a call when so few were willing. And so, although we were betrayed politically, militarily, you did your job honorably, with distinction, and you made a difference while you were there."

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"We were able to fight terror abroad so that they would not come here to harm us for the past 20 years."
Ariz AG Mark Brnovich: HR4 another Dem election power grab (Fox 08/23/2021)
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What do the two bills have in common? Both are deeply misguided attempts by radical Democrats to commandeer states' constitutional roles in our election processes. It doesn't matter to them that this would be the exact type of centralization of power in the federal government that our Founders absolutely detested and made every effort to avoid.

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The Democrats see these bills as an opportunity to centralize the power of the ballot box in the D.C. swamp, where one political party, not individual state legislatures, can determine what is best for the entire nation.

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... any centralized approach to elections, like the ones that are currently being proposed in D.C., are the opposite of what is needed. A one-size-fits-all solution that is forged and maintained in the Swamp would only give rise to reduced participation, decreased transparency, and far less confidence in our election process.

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The states created the federal government and not the other way around. States should never abdicate their constitutional powers and responsibilities to set and conduct their own elections.

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Every state must maintain commonsense laws that encourage voter participation while also ensuring confidence in the results.
Huckabee slams Biden's 'stunning' reliance on Taliban: Who does he think they are? (Fox 08/23/2021)
Sen. Cotton calls Biden Afghanistan withdrawal 'disastrous,' warns of long-lasting impacts (Fox 08/22/2021)
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"You already see countries like China threatening Taiwan, saying America won't come to their aid, So this is going to reverberate, unfortunately, for many years to come."
Bush press secretary: Biden ‘all around clueless’ on Afghanistan (Fox 08/22/2021)
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"I don't know that I've ever seen a politician, particularly at a perilous moment like this, be so in denial, out of touch, out to lunch and all around clueless."

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"Joe Biden's judgment on so many issues, for so many decades, has been so wrong, and we're seeing it play out right now."

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"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that the United States of America would be dependent on the tender mercies of the Taliban."

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"Our security at that airbase, our ability to have planes take off and land, is totally dependent on the Taliban's restraint."
Trump targets Biden over Afghanistan but gets booed briefly on vaccines at Alabama rally (Fox 08/22/2021)
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"One year ago this month in my nomination speech, I warned the entire country of the disastrous consequences of a Biden presidency."

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"I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you gotta do what you gotta do, but I recommend take the vaccines. I did it. It's good," Trump said, eleciting brief boos from his supporters.

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"That's okay, that's alright, But I happen to take the vaccine. If it doesn't work, you'll be the first to know. But it is working. You do have your freedoms, you have to maintain that."
The 30th anniversary of the Crown Heights Pogrom (INN 08/21/2021)
Former CEO sounds alarm on 'woke' capitalism, says hypocrisy is rampant (Fox 08/21/2021)
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"One of the things I've learned is the unspoken truth about 21st Century modern American capitalism ... [is] you pretend like you care about something other than profit and power precisely to gain more of each."

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"At some point, when virtue signaling is your priority, signaling your virtue becomes more important than virtue itself."

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"And I think that is the poison at the heart of this game... In the name of being virtuous, these companies have sacrificed true virtue."

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"Cancel culture is the use of force to replace free speech and open debate as the mechanism for settling political questions."
Daniel Hoffman: Biden thinks he's kicked Afghanistan's 'endless war' to the curb. He's so wrong (Fox 08/21/2021)
Hannity rails Biden over Afghanistan: We 'don't have a president seemingly aware and capable of leading' (Fox 08/21/2021)
16 GOP senators urge Biden to use all means necessary to rescue Americans in Afghanistan (Fox 08/20/2021)
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"From the very beginning, when you announced the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Members of Congress — along with your top military advisors — advised you that a complete, unconditional U.S. withdrawal would be catastrophic."

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"Now, we have seen what we predicted come to pass, The situation in Afghanistan has gone from bad to worse in a matter of weeks, and we are facing the worst-case scenario — a total Taliban takeover in Afghanistan."

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"We are particularly perturbed that your administration is failing to guarantee the safety of Americans and our Afghan partners still in the country."

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"Press reports indicate that while American citizens are being urged to make their way to Hamid Karzai International Airport, the United States Government cannot guarantee their security, and has offered no support or guidance other than wishing them luck."

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"We urge you to use whatever means necessary to provide safe and secure passageway through any Taliban barriers for all American citizens and all eligible Afghan partners to appropriate evacuation points and then move them via safe corridors to exit the country."

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"You must devote all means necessary to ensure every American citizen and all eligible Afghan partners are successfully evacuated."

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"In addition, you must make it clear to the Taliban and every other terrorist group that they will face severe consequences if they attempt to interfere with this process."
Biden defends handling of botched Afghanistan withdrawal, says can't guarantee outcome (Fox 08/20/2021)
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"There'll be plenty of time to criticize and second guess when this operation is over, but now I'm focused on getting this job done."

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"I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or that it will be without risk of loss, but as commander in chief I can assure you I will mobilize every resource necessary."

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"We've established a flow of flights and we've increased the number of people we're moving out of the country," Biden said.

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Those looking to get out amid fears of reprisals have faced Taliban checkpoints, as well as a sluggish effort to get people out.

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Biden on Friday made a pledge to U.S. citizens still in the country: "Any American who wants to come home — we will get you home."

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"I don't think it could've been handled in a way that- we're going to go back in hindsight and look but the idea that somehow there was a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens," Biden told...

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"No way to avoid this chaos? That's a bald-faced lie. Joe Biden is as dishonest as he is impotent," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., went a step further: "If we leave any Americans behind, or if we leave thousands of Afghans who fought bravely alongside us behind, President Joe Biden deserves to be impeached for a High Crime and Misdemeanor of Dereliction of Duty."

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"To see their commander in chief call into question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran. It's shameful," Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said... "Those who have never fought for the colors they fly should be careful about criticizing those who have."
Black father tells board CRT keeps racism on 'life support', moments later they vote to ban it (Fox 08/20/2021)
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"... "racism in America would by and large be dead today if it were not for certain people and institutions keeping it on life support. Sadly, one of those institutions is the American education system."

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The father of three went on to say that he "can think of nothing more damaging to a society than to tell a baby born today, that she has grievances against another baby born today, simply because of what their ancestors may have done two centuries ago."

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"There's simply no point in doing that to our children, and putting critical race theory into our classrooms in part does that. Putting critical theory into our classrooms is not combating racism. It's fanning the flames of what little embers are left. I encourage you to support this resolution. Let racism die the death it deserves."

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Wilburn went on to say in the video that his three children "are not oppressed, either, though they are victims."

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"I taught my children they were victims of three things: Their own ignorance, their own laziness and their own poor decision making. That is all."
Taya Kyle blasts Biden's Afghanistan 'atrocity': Who would want to partner with us after this? (Fox 08/18/2021)
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"I cannot imagine how dehumanizing they have to be at the White House to just not even consider the human impact of this, It's awful."

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"This is an atrocity on so many levels... All of our allies, all just left. I don't know who would want to partner with us after this."
Mark Levin torches 'disastrous' Biden on 'Fox & Friends' as Americans remain stranded in Afghanistan (Fox 08/18/2021)
RNC Chairwoman McDaniel: Biden's Afghanistan catastrophe proves beyond a doubt he is a failed president (Fox 08/18/2021)
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Biden's disastrous decision-making has empowered an evil terrorist organization, put millions of Afghan women and children at risk of rape and murder, betrayed the tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers who fought in Afghanistan, and sullied America's global image.

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This moment will go down not only as one of Biden's worst failures in office, but as a horrifying low point in the history of American foreign policy.

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Regardless of how one feels about America's extended presence in Afghanistan, there's no question that our Biden-led exit has been an unmitigated disaster.

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As the Taliban moved with dangerous speed, Biden's administration broadcast their total ignorance of the situation on the ground.

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Weeks ago, Biden said it was "highly unlikely" that the Taliban could overrun Afghanistan. He added that there would be "no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy." Just three days ago, on August 13th, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby described the situation in Kabul as "not an imminent threat."

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Then on August 15th, 48 hours after Kirby's comments, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

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America re-committed thousands of new troops to hastily evacuate our officials and ordered sensitive diplomatic material destroyed as the Taliban captured Kabul.

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Just 48 hours. That's how long it took for the Taliban to prove — with horrific violence and brutality — that Biden and his officials were totally unaware of the life-and-death consequences of their actions.

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Biden has betrayed our allies and our own military in the wake of his failure.

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Thousands of translators and Afghan Special Forces who bravely fought alongside American troops now risk being executed in the streets.

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And the sacrifices made by our military men and women – who have fought, been wounded, and died in Afghanistan for decades – have been disrespected beyond measure.

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America's finest sons and daughters valiantly fought and served in Afghanistan to protect our country and keep terrorism at bay. With his bungling, Biden undid their hard work, essentially telling them that their sacrifice meant nothing...

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Millions of dollars worth of American weapons and vehicles have fallen into the hands of the Taliban.

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More than 10,000 Americans still remain stranded in a nation now run by brutal, America-hating terrorists.

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This has been a failure on every front — thanks to Biden, the Taliban will now use taxpayer-funded weapons to subjugate Afghanistan's citizenry.

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Given the scale of this devastating international embarrassment, one would expect America's president to be front-and-center, working to solve this self-inflicted crisis.

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Not Joe Biden. He failed to address the American people or the press for days about the developing crisis in Afghanistan.

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Why? He was on vacation: he spent the last several days holed up at Camp David, enjoying the luxurious benefits of the presidency as abandoned Afghans die in the streets of Kabul.

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Only after immense pressure, Biden returned to the White House – but only to cast blame and refuse responsibility before quickly returning to Camp David.

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Americans should be disgusted. It takes a unique and repulsive level of arrogance to create a humanitarian crisis and then avoid any responsibility for its fallout.

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Take note that this is the Biden playbook – he's handled the Southern border crisis the exact same way.

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As Joe Biden's vacation stretched on, Americans saw him for who he really is: a failed leader utterly confident in his ability to avoid responsibility for his actions.
Newt Gingrich: Biden's Afghanistan debacle reminds us that when the world gets tough, Joe hides from reality (Fox 08/18/2021)
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The gap between the television scenes of thousands of panic-stricken Afghans desperate to leave their country and Biden's calm, almost subdued speech was enormous.

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He stoically defended his decision to surrender and blamed everyone except for his own administration for the disastrously chaotic, dangerous U.S. exit from the country.

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Meanwhile, the rest of the world witnessed a clearly massive failure of leadership in which the American government turned its back on a 20-year ally.

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How could Biden say, "I have been clear that human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery," as the Taliban begins to oppress every woman and girl in the country and institute a policy of seizing women and girls to force them to marry Taliban fighters?

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Does Biden truly not understand that the Taliban victory is a massive victory against women by a medieval movement rooted in the ideas of the 7th century?

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How could Biden smear the courageous Afghans who had risked their lives for decades fighting against the Taliban and allying with the United States?

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This is among the most cowardly lies any American president has said about an ally. While some 2,448 Americans have been killed in the 20-year war, the Afghan military has lost nearly 30 times as many (an estimated 69,000).

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This by no means diminishes the sacrifice and bravery of American troops – but it refutes Biden's callous denigration of our Afghan allies.

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Further, to suggest that the interpreters, guides, and informants who risked their lives – and their family's lives – helping American troops were unwilling to sacrifice for their own future is a vicious lie told by a failing leader who is trying to mask his own incompetence.

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Contrast Biden's words Monday with his words in July, when he told reporters a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was not inevitable. At that time, he said, "the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped — as well-equipped as any army in the world — and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable... Do I trust the Taliban? No. But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more re- — more competent in terms of conducting war."

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See how quickly Biden turns his back on allies when he's trying to save face? Can you also see how dangerous this is for America? With the world watching the Biden decision to chaotically cut and run on an ally, why should Taiwan, the Europeans, South Korea, or any other ally trust and rely on President Biden?
Sean Hannity: Biden has destroyed America's credibility around the world as Afghanistan falls to Taliban (Fox 08/18/2021)
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"Joe Biden is finally coming back from Camp David and gearing up for a restful night at the White House...all while thousands of Americans are living through hell on earth in Afghanistan."

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"Biden's state department is telling them just to shelter in place and when notified find their own way to the airport in Kabul, The Taliban have a ring outside of the airport and won't let anyone inside."

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"Now, planes are taking off mostly empty because the Taliban is not allowing passage into the airport."

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"Taliban terrorists are going door to door searching for Americans, our allies, interpreters, and anyone else who assisted the United States in any way over the last 20 years." ... every day "we grow closer and closer to a hostage situation, or worse, the murder of Americans on a colossal scale."

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"Biden has destroyed America's credibility around the world, This is a disaster on a massive scale with no end in sight.
Trump rips Biden's Afghan actions: 'Our country has never been so humiliated'; 'blows Vietnam away' (Fox 08/18/2021)
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"It is a terrible time for our country. I don't think in all of the years our country has ever been so humiliated. I don't know what you call it – a military defeat or a psychological defeat, there has never been anything like what's happened here: You can go back to Jimmy Carter with the hostages."

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"You are dealing with thousands and thousands of Americans and others that are stranded and very dangerously... in Afghanistan. So it's something that you can't even believe."

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"I looked at that big monster cargo plane yesterday with people grabbing the side and trying to get flown out of Afghanistan because of their incredible fear – and they're blowing off of the plane from 2,000 feet up in the air, nobody has ever seen anything like that."

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"That blows the helicopters in Vietnam away. That is not even a contest. It has been the most humiliating period of time that I've ever seen."

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Trump said that he warned presumed Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in discussions last year that the United States will strike back tenfold if an American was harmed or the militants encroached on unapproved areas.

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That deal, he said, appears to be mooted as the Taliban raged through the country and took Kabul within a matter of days; while Americans and Westerners are trapped within.

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"I told him upfront ... 'let me just tell you right now that if anything happens to Americans or anybody else or if you ever come over to our land, we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before. A force so great to that you won't even believe it.'"...

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Trump claimed he never had any confidence in the now abdicated government of President Ashraf Ghani, claiming the politician was in it for the money and to "wine and dine" foreign legislators.

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That description was proven true, Trump claimed, following Ghani's reported escape in which he took several vehicles and an untold amount of cash.
Black conservative group pens open letter urging schools to drop CRT, adopt 1776 Unites (Fox 08/17/2021)
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"The prevailing narrative of racial grievance has been corrupting the instruction of American history and the humanities for many decades, but has accelerated dangerously over the past year."

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"The most damaging effects of such instruction fall on lower income minority children, who are implicitly told that they are helpless victims with no power or agency to shape their own futures."

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"Embedded within the achievements of American history are the tools of self-betterment and self-renewal that our country has always deployed on the journey to become a more perfect union."

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"Our children deserve an authentic vision of that story, one that will help them to achieve their own human flourishing."

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"We ask you, as stewards of public school systems around the country, to lead by example and embrace materials that will inspire the next generation, like those before them, to overcome challenges, achieve their goals, and live in a spirit of service to the common good."

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"We ask that your schools instead adopt curricula that, rather than completely reject our founding values, instead embrace the ideas of family, faith, and entrepreneurship that have enabled all Americans – including black Americans – throughout history to move from persecution to prosperity, and will continue to do so for generations to come."
Daniel Hoffman: After Biden's Afghanistan debacle, he's got to tell us how he'll defend our national security (Fox 08/17/2021)
Rep. Brian Mast: Biden's Afghanistan catastrophe proves he does not deserve title of 'commander in chief' (Fox 08/17/2021)
•
Each person that the administration dismissed as "falling through the cracks" was issued a death sentence by President Joe Biden for the crime of being an ally to the United States of America.

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In their moment of need, President Biden abandoned our allies and betrayed the thousands of men and women who sacrificed everything they had in pursuit of peace.

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The president has not learned the most important commitment of our soldiers: we do not leave men behind. As a result, he does not deserve to have the words "commander" or "chief" anywhere in his title.
Vivek Ramaswamy blasts Twitter's 'staggering' hypocrisy on Taliban and Trump (Fox 08/17/2021)
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"the fact that they are now advancing the Taliban's ability to stage a coup while the 45th president of the United States cannot access the same platform says how far we've come since 20 years ago."

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"I was in U.S. history class when those two planes hit the twin towers on 9/11 in 2001. I cannot imagine that 20 years later platforms in the United States would censor the president while enabling the Taliban to fly their flag over the U.S. embassy on the 20th anniversary of 9/11."
Rep. McCarthy hammers Biden on Afghanistan: Lack of leadership will cost America for decades (Fox 08/17/2021)
Sen. Cotton: Biden rushed troops out of Afghanistan for 9/11 symbolism and created a 'debacle' (Fox 08/17/2021)
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"I think you can distinguish between the decision to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, about which reasonable people disagree, and the way Joe Biden has executed that decision. It has been impotent and incompetent and is a strategic catastrophe for America. Certainly, there is no reason why Joe Biden had to rush our troops and our contractors and other support personnel out of Afghanistan in the middle of the fighting season aside from the fact that he wanted the political symbolism of having all Americans out by September 11. Now, the political symbolism will be the Taliban flag flying over what once was the U.S. Embassy on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. This is entirely a debacle of Joe Biden's making."

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"When he was a senator or vice president, there were no real consequences for his terrible judgment. Now that he's the president, you see the awful consequences playing out in real time in Afghanistan, a strategic catastrophe that adversaries like China are already using against us."
Romesha and Owens: One question haunts Afghanistan vets most – what was it all for? (Fox 08/17/2021)
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Everyone has heard the figures: 20 years and $1 trillion.

•
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, this generation of young Americans went to war. It's the only normal many of us have known. We were asked to volunteer to defend our nation that was suddenly attacked, and millions of our best and brightest signed up in the years that followed, knowing the risk.

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The war was real; it wasn't a story on TV. For hundreds of thousands of American service members, the memories are still vivid: the scenes and smells, the smiles and pain, the mortar explosions and whirling helicopter blades, as well as the hurt and the unfulfillment.

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Yet this week, seemingly in an instant, Afghanistan was given back to the Taliban with barely a whimper.

•
The U.S. provided a level of stability in Afghan lives for two decades while trying to reduce the risk of terrorism to our country. Seeing this investment of money and effort and human lives crumble now is heartbreaking.

•
It's impossible to know the full extent of those sacrifices, from being away and missing the birth of a child, their first steps, and birthdays, or the toll it has taken on families and marriages, all the way to our veterans returning with hidden wounds such as post-traumatic stress, or amputations, or the 2,372 Americans who were killed in action.

•
Despite the immeasurable sacrifice, there was never a clear definition of victory. Neither the commanders on the ground nor policymakers in D.C. could clearly articulate what winning looked like or how it could be achieved.

•
This placed our troops in a difficult situation, tasked with fighting a patient enemy that dissolved into the populace and winning a war without clear objectives.

•
Now, most of the troops are home, ordered to withdraw overnight in the middle of fighting season and the enemy that so easily hid among the desolate canyons in rural Afghanistan has morphed back together and pulled apart the hard-fought gains of the last 20 years.

•
Even without a "Mission Accomplished" banner, all those who served in uniform can take pride in serving our nation. Questions will continue as the situation evolves in Afghanistan, but we must always be grateful and care for those who we had the honor to serve alongside.
Lindsey Graham slams Biden Afghanistan speech: 'No one to blame but himself' (Fox 08/16/2021)
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"President Biden chose a dangerous and dishonorable path in Afghanistan, and he has no one to blame for this debacle but himself."

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"With today's speech, President Biden reinforced the view he still does not understand the War on Terror or how to protect America from the threat of radical Islam."

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"The speech was a pathetic attempt to shift blame and an unnerving analysis of the situation he – and he alone – created. Contrary to what he may say or think, President Biden has not ended the war in Afghanistan. He is simply creating a new chapter – one that will be filled by Taliban thugs and al-Qaeda murderers."

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"By standing by his decision to withdraw, President Biden is standing by to allow the slaughter of thousands of Afghans who have faithfully stood by America's side. He is standing by to allow the rise of al-Qaeda, in collaboration with the Taliban, to threaten America."

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"President Biden made these decisions against sound military advice, and everything he was warned about is now coming true. The situation we see today is bad and getting worse. I fear the worst is still to come."

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"Finally, given his record, President Biden is a poor defender of human rights and democracy, These two causes could not have a worse champion than Joe Biden."
Two more Loudoun County teachers seek to join lawsuit over district's trans pronoun policy (Fox 08/16/2021)
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The remedy being sought is that teachers will use address transgender individuals by their names rather than the pronouns that they prefer.

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"All we're asking for really is accommodation for all teachers to be able to speak without being forced to speak things that they believe are untrue and that are harmful to students."

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"The accommodation they're seeking is they would use whatever name students want, they just want to be able to avoid using pronouns that are inconsistent with a student's biological sex."
Mark Steyn tells Tucker Carlson leftist worldview is all ‘power calculation’ (Fox 08/16/2021)
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"The whole point about the leftist worldview is it doesn't have to cohere. Because they have the power calculation."

•
Steyn used Canada as an example, referencing the recent burning of Catholic churches across the North American country.

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"It's not a story in Canada. Dozens of churches burned, and it's not a story. Whereas if you, for example, left rashes of Canadian bacon on the step of a Mosque, that would be a story for weeks."

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"So the leftist worldview is always the power calculation – what belongs to the past, traditional ideas about traditional churches, traditional institutions and what belongs to the rainbow coalition of the future."
Biden tells nation he stands 'squarely behind' decision to exit Afghanistan (Fox 08/16/2021)
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"I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I've learned the hard way, that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces."

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"American troops cannot, and should not, be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves."

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"We gave them every chance to determine their own future, What we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future."

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"Here is what I believe to my core. It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan's own armed forces would not."

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"How many more generations of America's daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan's civil war when Afghan troops will not?"

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Biden went on to blame his predecessor, former President Trump, for his 2020 agreement with the Taliban, which would have seen a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country by May 1, 2021.

•
"The choice I had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that agreement, or go back to fighting the Taliban."

•
"I've been clear — human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery. But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments — it is through diplomacy, economic tools, and rallying the world to join us."

•
Biden said that the United States' "diplomatic presence is consolidated at the airport," and committed to evacuating thousands of American citizens who have been living and working in Afghanistan from the country this week.

•
"We will defend our people with devastating force, if necessary, Our current military mission will be short in time, limited in scope and focused in our objectives: get our people and our allies as quickly and as safely as possible.

•
"And once we have completed this mission, we will end America's longest war after 20 years of bloodshed."

•
"I am President of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me. I'm deeply saddened by the facts we now face, But I do not regret my decision to end America's warfighting in Afghanistan."
Pentagon leaders repeatedly praised Afghan army that collapsed in days (Fox 08/16/2021)
•
For years, American generals have claimed that Afghan forces were improving and developing their ability to handle themselves against the Taliban.

•
"The Afghan army is increasingly effective," Gen. James Mattis told Congress in July 2010 at his confirmation hearing when he was nominated for commander of U.S. Central Command. He added that the Afghan military – alongside U.S. forces – were "the worst nightmare for the Taliban."

•
In December of that year, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters that Afghan troops were "responsible for security in Kabul," "performing well" and would "continue to improve."

•
Cut to 2012, and Gen. John Allen, then the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, told the House Armed Services Committee, "We remain on track to ensure that Afghanistan will no longer be a safe haven for Al Qaida and will no longer be terrorized by the Taliban."

•
Allen went on to say that "as the potential unifying influence in Afghanistan, the Afghan forces are better than we thought they were, and they're better than they thought they were when tried in combat."

•
In November 2014, Gen. John Campbell told ... that "whenever the [Afghan security forces] get involved with the Taliban, the Taliban cannot hold ground, they can't hold terrain."

•
"I'm telling you what I've seen, the change from a couple of years ago to today. They do have the capability to protect themselves. They are the strongest institution in Afghanistan."

•
That same month, Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson touted the success and capability of the Afghan military. "The Afghan National Security forces are winning, and this is a hugely capable fighting force who have been holding their ground against the enemy."
Chad Wolf: Biden ‘had no plan' in Afghanistan and created a crisis just like on the border (Fox 08/16/2021)
•
"... the safe haven of Afghanistan is going to reemerge for terrorists and would-be terrorists and then how is that impacting the homeland?"

•
"We had intelligence and assets there that could monitor that as we withdraw them as we draw down the embassy, that capability is no longer there..."
Rep. Crenshaw on Afghanistan fall: Real world just got a lot more dangerous due to Biden's 'incompetence' (Fox 08/16/2021)
•
"The incompetence of the Biden administration on this is really overwhelming. There need to be resignations, there need to be firings. They couldn't have done this in a worse way. We have American citizens left behind..."

•
"The Biden administration screwed this up beyond belief, but this was always going to be the case with any kind of withdrawal like this."

•
"There's a lot of intelligence that demonstrates that the people there do want to commit terrorist attacks here on the homeland. They always have. This is what they do. They hate Western civilization. They're ideologically opposed to us."

•
"Just because you want to end our endless war doesn't mean they want to. ... the real world now just got a lot more dangerous because of this kind of incompetence."

•
"To say this is an endless war? We haven't had a combat casualty in Afghanistan for 18 months."
Retired Navy SEAL calls for resignations of top Biden admin officials: 'They've abjectly failed' (Fox 08/16/2021)
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"You've got Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin. They need to tender their resignations right now. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Milley, he needs to go peel potatoes in the galley for about a month and then resign also. These folks' primary duty is to advise the president of the United States on diplomatic and military matters and they've abjectly failed that."

•
"We truly understand now that the emperor has no clothes. As a matter of fact, we don't even know if he's wearing clothes right now because he has disappeared from the public. The president of the United States, in clearly the most dramatic foreign policy crisis in the United States in a very, very long time, probably since Sept. 11, 2001, has disappeared. Jen Psaki has taken the week off too."
Liz Peek: Biden failing – as crises mount, Americans turn gloomy. Here's why (Fox 08/16/2021)
Trump barred from Twitter, but Taliban spokesman tweets away (Fox 08/16/2021)
•
"Freedom and democracy are not doing well when Twitter continues to ban Trump's account but relays the Taliban spokesperson's without any second thoughts."

•
On Jan. 8, Twitter announced on its blog that Trump's account, which had over 80 million followers, was permanently suspended. The reasoning was that keeping the @realDonaldTrump account active would increase the risk of "further incitement of violence."

•
The decision came after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Twitter pointed to a tweet from the former president on Jan. 8 that read: "The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!"

•
The Taliban swept into Afghanistan's capital Sunday after the government collapsed and the embattled president joined an exodus of his fellow citizens and foreigners, signaling the end of a costly two-decade U.S. campaign to remake the country.

•
Trump, for his part, issued a statement on Sunday calling for Biden to "resign in disgrace."

•
"It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan, along with the tremendous surge in COVID, the Border catastrophe, the destruction of energy independence, and our crippled economy," the former president wrote in a statement.

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Iranian immigrant dad slams indoctrination in schools: ‘They’re making our kids dumber’ (Fox 08/15/2021)
•
"They're dumbing down the children. They're not making them smarter. They're just distracting them with all this dumb ideology stuff. They just want to push their agenda. I have no idea what the end result is going to be, but this has to stop."

•
"We need to show these people that they don't run the community. We run the community. We are the people."
Greg Gutfeld: Media uses name-calling because it's easier than facts (Fox 08/14/2021)
McCarthy slams Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal as 'embarrassment to our nation' (Fox 08/14/2021)
•
"The White House has no discernable plan other than pleading with the Taliban, The bungled withdrawal, reminiscent of his failed withdrawal from Iraq, is an embarrassment to our nation."

•
"President Biden must continue to provide the close air support necessary for the Afghan government to protect themselves from the Taliban and make sure al Qaeda and ISIS do not gain a foothold due to the Biden administration's disastrous policies."
Former Navy SEAL says US policy in Afghanistan has been 'like a Star Trek cosplay convention' since 2002 (Fox 08/14/2021)
•
"It's the same collection of national security elites in Washington that has failed for that entire 20 years. They took what was a brilliant victory by special operations and the CIA and the first six months after 9/11 and turned it into a massive failed nation-building exercise."

•
... said that officials from the Bush administration forward have continued to ignore that Afghanistan is not a traditional country and instead tried to install "central government Nirvana" in Kabul, and mimic Western democracy.

•
In doing so, the Pentagon engineered a replication of the U.S. military in that country, while ending up being beaten by a much less organized foe.

•
"They're the most expensive military in the world... and we have been beaten by weapons that were designed in the 1940s carried by largely illiterate goat-herders"

•
"If there is any shame in Washington, there should be a lot of people resigning and if not, they should be fired."

•
"The really disgusting thing is the people that made those decisions in the comfort of their Beltway offices don't have to live with a lost limbs, lives, marriages, the real damage."

•
"The Taliban never disavowed Al Qaeda, the cosplay diplomacy that's been going on in the United States thinking they're going to make a deal with the Taliban – whether it's the Trump Administration, Obama administration or Biden administration, the same knuckleheads getting really bad advice at the national security level have gotten away with the same failed approach."

•
... the blame for U.S. policy failures indeed fall on domestic military officials including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, a U.S. Army general from Massachusetts.

•
"Joe Biden told us is that in Afghanistan, we can rely on the Afghan security forces to keep the savages at bay. They've gotten billions in U.S. tax dollars over 20 years and by the way, they were trained by Mark Milley," Carlson said.

•
"He's now the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff so we are good, don't worry. Last month, let his personal stamp of approval to the Afghan security forces."
Kansas math teacher resigns over CRT training and renewed mask mandates, gets fined (Fox 08/14/2021)
•
"What a 12th grader has to know and get done to graduate is what a 5th grader had to do 40 years ago."

•
The 13-year teaching veteran is also pulling his own children from the district and will homeschool them this coming school year.

•
"I'm not going to continue to have my kids bossed around by these people and have no power as a parent, no power as a teacher, and for my kids to have no say."
All eyes on Biden's response to COVID variants, Afghanistan, border crisis, inflation (Fox 08/14/2021)
•
"His dereliction of duty is as undeniable as ever: From the disaster at the southern border to rising inflation to rising gas prices and rising crime all across the country, Joe Biden is failing on every front."

•
"And overseas, the Biden Doctrine appears to be more interested in appeasing our enemy than it is for standing up for the American people. Frankly, it is an absolute disgrace."

•
"This rapid and haphazard withdrawal of American troops — before we knew that our embassy would be safe, before we had our Afghan interpreters and other friends out of Afghanistan — to allow it to fall like this without any sort of plan or recourse, it is shameful. Again, it is all on President Biden"
Sen. Joni Ernst, first female combat vet in Senate, laments Afghan collapse: 'It is all on President Biden' (Fox 08/13/2021)
Rep. Lauren Boebert: COVID vaccine mandates vs. personal freedom – here's how to decide what's right for you (Fox 08/13/2021)
•
The government isn't your doctor and neither is the news media or your employer. Life comes with plenty of risks.

•
Have a private conversation with your medical doctor and make a personal decision that is right for you and your family.

•
I'll do my best to keep everyone else out of the way.
Vivek Ramaswamy's Fox News special explores scam of the century: 'Woke capitalism' (Fox 08/13/2021)
Loudoun, Virginia teacher has no regrets about resigning: I 'was a cog' in a critical race theory 'machine' (Fox 08/12/2021)
•
Morris shocked attendees of a school board meeting Tuesday when she said she had had enough of the district's curriculum, which she argued had been injected with a transgender and critical race theory-centric emphasis.

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Morris told ... that she felt like a piece of a political machine that had no intention of teaching young children the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic and instead sought to indoctrinate with a racially charged political mindset.

•
"I wanted them to know why I was leaving. I'm glad to see that people saw that action as something important, and maybe they'll be inspired to do something."

•
"Within the last year, I was in one of my so-called equity trainings that White, Christian, able-bodied females currently have the power in our schools and ‘this has to change'."...

•
"Clearly, you've made your point. You no longer value me or many other teachers you've employed in this county. So since my contract outlines the power that you have over my employment in Loudoun County Public Schools, I thought it necessary to resign in front of you."

•
Morris has since accepted a position at a private Christian school after being deluged with job offers across the U.S.
Ariz AG Mark Brnovich: Biden's broken border – his policies fuel crisis. Here's why we must uphold rule of law (Fox 08/12/2021)
Joe Biden 'put his foot on the neck' of the energy industry, now he wants more oil: Salena Zito (Fox 08/12/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Oregon is the latest state to decide reading, writing and math are racist (Fox 08/12/2021)
Cuomo resigns: New York Democrat whom governor promised to 'destroy' calls for nursing home accountability (Fox 08/10/2021)
Greenwald sounds off on 'repulsive' delayed discourse on Cuomo: 'They're pretending to be horrified' (Fox 08/10/2021)
•
"Few things are more repulsive in liberal discourse right now than the Andrew Cuomo saga. They're all now lamenting that he's everything they claimed Trump was: as if they just found out. They always knew it, yet they all supported & championed this dynastic heir for decades."

•
"Like his brother ChrisCuomo, Andrew Cuomo has a career for only one reason: his dad was Mario Cuomo. He's always been an authoritarian bully and sleazy scumbag — the kind that comes from life-long entitlement. Yet Clinton put him in his Cabinet and Dems cheered him for years."

•
President Joe Biden, who last week called for Cuomo's resignation, previously praised him as the "gold standard" in leadership. Cuomo was even awarded an Emmy for his daily televised coronavirus press conferences.

•
"Democrats did not discover a single thing about Andrew Cuomo they haven't always knows about him — not one thing."

•
"All that changed is too much proof finally seeped out to the public and made ongoing support for him unsustainable, so they're now all pretending to be horrified."
NY Gov. Cuomo resigns amid sexual harassment scandal (Fox 08/10/2021)
Leo Terrell slams Oregon governor's 'insulting' education policy: Progressive left is 'dumbing down kids' (Fox 08/10/2021)
•
"They have eliminated a measuring tool to determine quality and competency in these skills. It is a victory for teacher unions because now the teachers don't have to teach."

•
"You lower the standards, you dumb down kids. I think it's embarrassing, insulting and more importantly, it's racist because it implies that just because of skin color, you can't pass a test."

•
"You are taking away the only tool to get to break the poverty cycle: education. It is a way to move up in society."

•
"You no longer have to read or write or count because of — just because of your skin color. It's insulting to anyone in this country."
Parents in America's heartland push back against critical race theory: 'We are the last line of defense' (Fox 08/10/2021)
•
Parents in the heartland hardly expected to find themselves battling critical race theory at their doorstep.

•
But while critics focused on fighting the polarizing ideology in places like New York, California and Virginia, CRT advocates have been making a quiet push to implement K-12 curriculums in suburban towns across the midwest.

•
Amy Cawvey, a-stay-at-home mom from Lansing, Kansas, registered as a School Board candidate when she noticed a troubling pattern in her daughter's school.

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After a grueling, months-long primary race, Cawvey and two other parents managed to land the top three spots.

•
"We are the last line of defense against the indoctrination of our children."

•
The mom-of-three said she noticed a drastic "shift" in the quality of education that was provided to her two older children, versus her youngest.

•
"I have two that are older, they're in their late 20s and ... I've seen their years in school and I never had this problem like this. I'd seen slight issues coming up but nothing like critical race theory. And then my daughter started school in 2010 and it's only progressively gotten worse."

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At first, it began with "little things that we could handle at home," Cawvey continued. "But now it snowballed into other things."

•
For other parents in the heartland, Cawvey's story is not uncommon. Robynn Hora, a mom from Slinger, Wisconsin, was shocked to discover a "treasure trove of CRT propaganda for teachers" as part of a required course to volunteer-substitute at her children's school.

•
After raising her concerns at a public board meeting, she and several other parents formed a CRT audit group to regularly review their children's grade school curriculum. What they found startled them.

•
"What we are finding is that there are some courses that are heavily laden with it already, We're also seeing a significant amount of CRT embedded in the resources that are made available to the teachers, which they get from the state, from the government, and from the teachers' unions. They're just laden with gender issues and racial issues that they're creating themselves."

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"The Department of Education has lost the trust of Nebraskans by pushing critical race theory and comprehensive sex education. We're educating Nebraskans how to spot nice-sounding CRT buzz words like ‘equity' and ‘anti-racism.' Critical Race Theory is really Critical Racist Theory."

•
See related Alligator in the Pool (Dick Wright, 07/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Oregon governor signs bill suspending math, reading proficiency requirements for HS graduates (Fox 08/10/2021)
•
Gov. Kate Brown, the Oregon Democrat, signed a bill last month with little fanfare that drops the requirement that high school students prove proficiency in reading, writing or math, before graduation...

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In June, state lawmakers voted to approve the bill that suspended the requirements for students for three years...

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... said in a statement at the time that the bill is intended to "truly reflect what every student needs to thrive in the 21st century."

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Supporters of the bill insist that considering math and reading essential skills has been an unfair challenge for students who do not test well.

•
... the deputy communications director from Brown's office, told the paper in an email that staff from the governor's office informed legislative staffers about the bill's signing on the day it was passed.

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He also said that the new standards for graduation will help benefit the state's "Black, Latino, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color."

•
See related Math (Mike Lester, 02/17/2010) cartoon from USA picture album
Michael Goodwin: Gov. Cuomo only has a few weeks left in office. Here's how I think it will end (Fox 08/09/2021)
•
In a bit of political grandstanding in 2019, he signed a bill saying anyone then-President Donald Trump pardoned under federal law could still be prosecuted for the same crimes in New York.

•
"No one is above the law and New York will not turn a blind eye to criminality," Cuomo declared. The new law "gives prosecutors the ability to stand up against any abuse of power."

•
Pot, meet kettle.
Gregg Jarrett: Gov. Cuomo still denies allegations against him. It won't work. His demise is inevitable (Fox 08/09/2021)
•
There is still time for the insufferable Andrew Cuomo to voluntarily vacate the governorship and spare the people of New York from the ugly ordeal of an impeachment trial.

•
But it's not in his DNA to do the right thing. That would require a conscience. Cuomo has never had one.
9/11 family member says Biden's 'silence is deafening' as docs purport to show Saudi tie to attacks (Fox 08/09/2021)
Burgess Owens blasts Cori Bush's 'defund police' rhetoric: Liberal policies 'bringing misery' to cities (Fox 08/09/2021)
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"When you look at her district, there's no traditional family, there's no business... This is the American culture, the American strain of Marxism. And so do not expect anything but what we see."

•
"Their creation is misery. You look at the urban communities they represent, they have never changed anything for decades."

•
"Don't expect anything different with trying now to change the image of our great country into the image of what they put into these urban communities."
Alveda King: Critical race theory – why it's absolutely critical to know these facts (Fox 08/09/2021)
•
So when I hear the term critical race theory, I say what's critical to know is that human beings share 99.5 percent of our DNA. That's what our students should hear from pre-school on.

•
We are more alike than we are different. We are one blood. We are one human race.
Gowdy blasts government for 'inconsistent' coronavirus recommendations: 'Just tell us the truth' (Fox 08/08/2021)
•
"Give us the evidence, give us both sides of the argument, convince us you have considered less intrusive means to accomplish the objective. Get rid of the hypocrisy and the politics."

•
"And if you don't know something, tell us that too. We don't expect you to be perfect, just be honest. Do not tell us to wear masks on one side of the street but not the other side. Or we can dance at a wedding on the side of the state line but not a few feet away on the other side of the state. That is politics. It is not science... if you want me to follow the science, give me the science. And stop mixing it with politics."
Levin: BLM and Antifa are the 'militia wing' of the Democrat Party (Fox 08/08/2021)
•
"You see the demands when it comes to vaccines. You see bureaucrats shutting down businesses purposely. You see Democrats and Republicans in Congress getting together on an infrastructure bill. Twenty-seven hundred pages, one point two trillion dollars. You have people on television, so-called Republicans, promoting it who have no idea what's in it and all the social manipulation and social engineering that they attach to these spending bills. That's not a representative republic. That's not a constitutional republic. That's not a federal republic. You know what that is? It's what Thomas Jefferson called it. That's tyranny by legislature."

•
"We have tyranny by the executive branch. They don't want to know what we think. They don't ask for our input."

•
"We have a House of Representatives where the Speaker of the House rules like she's some kind of a fascist, She has proxy voting so members don't have to show up. They don't even have to show up."

•
"These autocratic regimes, in these Marxist and fascist regimes. What do they have? They have their thugs. And all through last summer, their thugs were burning cities, attacking cops, assaulting people, killing people, and the media supported it."

•
"The media celebrated it. Their candidate for president could barely utter words that it was a bad idea. Their vice-presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, she was helping support a movement to get these people off."

•
"Now, this is not a constitutional republic when this sort of thing is happening. What's happening is we're empowering the Democrat Party. We're empowering this one force. And this is what they do in autocratic regimes."

•
"They have one party systems. Look at California, look at New York, look at Illinois, look at some of these other states....that's going to be America if they get their way."
Matt Schlapp: Biden’s ‘new normal’ includes socialism, inflation, racial divisions (Fox 08/07/2021)
Mike Huckabee: If elected Democrats don’t want to do their jobs, they should just resign (Fox 08/07/2021)
Rep. Madison Cawthorn slams libs' 'swampy backdoor tactics' in surprise speech to North Carolina school board (Fox 08/06/2021)
•
"You knew it would never withstand the scrutiny of the public. I've witnessed swampy backdoor tactics from bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., but what you have done here today puts that all to shame."

•
He said the mask mandate amounted the board's "sacrifice" of the emotional, social and psychologic development of district students "on the altar of wokeness."

•
"This school board has no right to rip personal responsibility away from the hands of its citizens. The family should always come before the government. You do not know better than the parents in my district... You do not have a right to slam down mandates upon children ... that fly in the face of scientific reasoning."

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He added that the greatest threat to schoolchildren today doesn't come from the coronavirus. "It comes from woke government officials like you who think they are all-knowing and all-wise."
Miller: Biden 'doesn't want ICE to do anything,' made 'corrupt bargain with Marxists' (Fox 08/06/2021)
•
... while many Biden critics attribute some of his policy proposals to claims he has failing personal faculties, the Gonzalez nomination shows he instead has simply invited the far left to usurp control of the administration's directives.

•
"I wish I could say, 'Oh, well, Joe Biden is just mentally unable to do anything, and that's why it's all falling apart.' But it's worse than that. He's made a corrupt bargain with the Marxists in his administration where he is letting them do literally everything they want to do."

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
DeSantis skewers president's 'Governor who?' snark: 'What else has Biden forgotten?' (Fox 08/06/2021)
•
"I guess I'm not surprised that Biden doesn't remember me. I guess the question is what else has he forgotten?"

•
"Biden has forgotten about the crisis on our southern border I can tell you that. Biden has forgotten about the inflation that's biting the budget's of families all throughout our country. Biden has forgotten about the demonstrators who are fighting for freedom down in Cuba. Biden's even forgotten about the Constitution itself as we saw with what he did with this moratorium."

•
DeSantis added that he is "the governor who protects parents and their ability to make the right choices for their kids' education" as well as the governor who "answers to the people of Florida not to bureaucrats in Washington."

•
"If you're coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I'm standing in your way. If you're trying to deny kids a proper in-person education, I'm gonna stand in your way and stand up for the kids in Florida. If you're trying to restrict people and impose mandates and ruin their jobs and livelihood, if you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way. I am standing for the people of Florida."
Greg Gutfeld: Fascists get into politics to gain power over you and exempt themselves from rules (Fox 08/06/2021)
Rep. Jim Jordan: Loving America shouldn't be controversial. So why do Dems want you to be ashamed? (Fox 08/06/2021)
•
We should honor and appreciate the qualities and values that make us the greatest country in the history of the world.

•
While we should always work to achieve a more perfect union, we must protect our fundamental American freedoms.

•
And, most of all, we should never be ashamed of our great country.
Two women plead guilty to hate crime for attacking Trump supporters (Fox 08/05/2021)
Rand Paul slams 'obscene' op-ed on unvaccinated, calls Fauci's advice 'very dangerous' (Fox 08/05/2021)
DeSantis fires back at Biden: 'Every COVID variant on this planet' is coming through his open border (Fox 08/05/2021)
•
"This is a guy that ran for president saying he would shut down the virus. He was not going to shut down America or the economy. He would shut down the virus. Yet what is he doing? He is bringing in people from over 100 different countries across the southern border."

•
"Every variant on this planet – some we don't even know about — are absolutely coming into our country that way."

•
"He is lecturing people about imposing COVID restrictions and lockdowns and not only doing nothing to stop the border surge but actually facilitating it on the on the other hand, he just loses all credibility when it comes to COVID."

•
See related Welcome (Gary Varvel, 03/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
After decades in woods, New Hampshire man forced from cabin (Fox 08/04/2021)
Iranian immigrant cut off at board meeting for slamming CRT: 'My motherland was ravaged by communism' (Fox 08/04/2021)
•
A Pennsylvania school board president is facing calls to resign after confiscating the microphone from a woman who was speaking out against critical race theory...

•
Iranian immigrant and mother of three Anita Edgarian told ... that, at first, she had "no intentions to talk."

•
But, after a long, daunting meeting and many remarks giving praise to the retiring superintendent, she got up and expressed to the school board concerns about critical race theory.

•
During her allotted time to speak, she told them she grew up during the Iranian Revolution and witnessed her "motherland" being "ravaged by communism."

•
She accused the retiring superintendent ... of creating divisions and "leaving a mess."

•
When she proceeded to ask whether or not teachers were being taught critical race theory, the West Chester school board president Chris McCune said, "Anita, you're at time."

•
She pushed back, "No, no," prompting him to angrily say, "Yes you are." McCune approached Edgarian at the podium, took the microphone, faced Anita, and told her to leave.

•
McCune told Edgarian, "This is shameful," as she was being removed from the building by police officers.

•
"We've had a respectful meeting up until you. You bombarded up there, and now you want to monopolize the meeting. Not happening. You're gone."

•
Edgarian told ... "By the time I asked that question, he was already coming toward me. And so that's a clarification because my parents have raised me better."

•
"I have friends on both sides of this aisle. Friends and, you know, close friends sometimes. And you know, so I don't want my kids to grow up feeling that they cannot talk to this person or that person. And I just wanted to know and, you know, the best thing is to come out and frankly ask the question."

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Sen. Rand Paul: Mask mandates and lockdowns from petty tyrants? No, not again. Choose freedom (Fox 08/04/2021)
•
We don't have to accept the mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and feckless bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again.

•
Speaker Nancy Pelosi — you will not arrest or stop me or anyone on my staff from doing our jobs. We have all either had COVID, had the vaccine, or been offered the vaccine. We will make our own health choices.

•
We will not show you a passport, we will not wear a mask, we will not be forced into random screening and testing so you can continue your drunk with power rein over the Capitol.

•
President Biden — we will not accept your agencies' mandates or your reported moves toward a lockdown. No one should follow the CDC's anti-science mask mandates.

•
And if you want to shutdown federal agencies again — some of which aren't even back to work fully — I will stop every bill coming through the Senate with an amendment to cut their funding if they don't come to work.

•
Local bureaucrats and union bosses — we will not allow you to do more harm to our children again this year. Children are not at any more risk from COVID than they are for the seasonal flu.

•
Every adult who works in schools has either had the vaccine or had their chance to. There is no reason for mask mandates, part time schools, or any lockdown measures.

•
Children are falling behind in school, and are being harmed physically and psychologically by the tactics you have used to keep them from the classroom last year. We won't allow it again.

•
If a school system attempts to keep the children from full-time, in-person school, I will hold up every bill with two amendments. One to defund them, and another to allow parents the choice of where the money goes for their child's education.

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Do I sound fed up to you? That's because I am.

•
I'm not a career politician. I've practiced medicine for 33 years. I graduated from Duke Medical School, worked in emergency rooms, studied immunology and virology, and ultimately chose to become a surgeon.

•
I have been telling everyone for a year now that Dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health officials were NOT following science, and I've been proven right time and time again.

•
We are at a moment of truth and a crossroads. Will we allow these people to use fear and propaganda to do further harm to our society, economy, and children?

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Or will we stand together and say, absolutely not. Not this time. I choose freedom.
Robert O'Neill knocks New York Times book review referring to Osama bin Laden as 'devoted family man' (Fox 08/03/2021)
•
Robert O'Neill, the former U.S. Navy SEAL who shot and killed Osama bin Laden, took a swipe at The New York Times over a book review that labeled the infamous terrorist as a "devoted family man."

•
"Family man. He used his wife as a human shield," O'Neill reacted, adding, "Lucky for me he was taller than her."
Tammy Bruce: Smug Cuomo will never resign despite sexual harassment probe. He should be impeached (Fox 08/03/2021)
Gregg Jarrett: Once feared Andrew Cuomo has been left weak and impotent (Fox 08/03/2021)
Missouri governor pardons St. Louis couple Mark, Patricia McCloskey after guilty pleas in gun-waving incident (Fox 08/03/2021)
Trump-appointed appeals court judge slams critical race theory in Texas discrimination case (Fox 08/03/2021)
•
Disparate impact is a judicial theory developed in the U.S. that allows challenges to policies that are nondiscriminatory on their face but appear to have a disproportionately negative effect on certain groups.

•
"There's a big difference between prohibiting racial discrimination and endorsing disparate impact theory."

•
"It's the difference between securing equality of opportunity regardless of race and guaranteeing equality of outcome based on race."

•
"It's said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That's why we have laws on the books ... that simply forbid the 'sordid business' of 'divvying us up by race' — no matter what our intentions."

•
"If we are to adopt disparate impact theory as a matter of national policy, it must be done by Congress — not 'by judicial or administrative fiat'."
Jason Rantz: Dems silent as Seattle's homeless terrorize residents with homicide, attempted rape (Fox 08/03/2021)
•
A fatal stabbing. A brutal attack against a senior walking his dog. An attempted rape of a woman seven months pregnant.

•
Over 200 instances of debris, rocks, and rebar launched at drivers from freeway overpasses as they were commuting to work. And, of course, the fights and overdoses.

•
In the last several months, Seattle's homeless have grown more aggressive, violent, and deadly. They haven't just taken over city parks and streets, but they're terrorizing Seattle citizens.

•
City Hall Park, located next to the county courthouse in downtown Seattle, is completely overrun with the homeless. It's an encampment that mirrors a refugee camp or something you'd find in a Third World country.

•
Dozens of tents have taken over the park, there is trash everywhere and the stench of human waste permeates the air for blocks.

•
This claim is standard for sweeps: it lacks compassion and humanity to compel the homeless to live in open shelters (which now even include converted hotels).

•
Instead, Democratic politicians believe it's compassionate and humane to allow people to sleep outdoors in the elements, surrounded by trash and human waste, living with untreated mental health and drug addiction.

•
Perhaps these leaders can show equal compassion and humanity to the victims attacked by the homeless? What will it take for Democrats to act?

•
Murder or attempted rape? Well, that has already happened.
Jussie Smollett's lawyers granted more time to prepare legal arguments (Fox 08/03/2021)
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See related One of His Better Performances (Tom Stiglich, 02/18/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Ingraham battles GOP senator who backs Biden infrastructure plan: 'You guys got played on this' (Fox 08/03/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Our challenge isn't simply COVID, but overcoming those who politicize it to divide US (Fox 08/03/2021)
Leo Terrell slams protesting US athletes: 'Who are the oppressed people you speak of?' (Fox 08/02/2021)
Jonathan Turley slams UNC journalism dean who asked ABC News to 'protect' Nikole Hannah-Jones (Fox 08/02/2021)
•
"The request from the dean of the UNC shows how casual journalism professors have become with these ethical lines between reporting and advocacy."

•
"Reporters and academics continue to destroy the core principles that sustain journalism and ultimately the role of a free press in our society."

•
"This is part of a chilling trend we're seeing across universities, a leading professor at Stanford a while back denounced the concept of objectivity in journalism and said that journalists must be advocates."

•
"This model of advocacy journalism has taken hold. Hannah-Jones, herself, recently declared, ‘Yes, I believe journalism is advocacy.' We recently had the Times justice reporter calling all Trump supporters ... all 74 million, enemies of the state, so we're seeing more and more advocacy in the media and it's open and it's being embraced."

•
"All of this is building in to a very serious challenge for journalists. What it will do is undermine further confidence in journalism."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Facebook whistleblower on Big Tech breakups, Section 230 and the fight against bot networks (Fox 08/01/2021)
•
"It's certainly true that social media is a natural monopoly because people look for social media networks that all their friends are on," Sophie Zhang told FOX Business Friday.

•
"And that means that once there's an established company, it's really hard to introduce a competitor."

•
But unlike other "natural monopolies," like utilities companies, social media giants are not subject to tight government regulations...

•
"On the Internet, a single person can pretend to be a crowd, There's no way to do that in real life – I don't know how anyone can go out on the street and suddenly pretend to be 100 people."

•
And when people try to force a crowd to support something, that can have unexpected results for the organizers, she said, giving the example of Romania's former Communist dictator Nicolae Ceau?escu.

•
"He gave a speech to 100,000 people in Bucharest who were bused in and given signs to support him."

•
"And the crowd turned on him during the speech, and suddenly, what had [began as] a display of strength for the Romanian Communist government became a national revolution."

•
Four days later, on Christmas in 1989, Ceau?escu and his wife were tried and executed, according to the Associated Press.
Bill Maher shreds cancel culture: 'It belongs in Stalin's Russia' (Fox 07/31/2021)
•
"Young people have to stop flattering themselves that they're Nostradamus and would have foreseen had they been around back then everything that is unacceptable now."

•
"Why do we allow the people who just want to b*tch always win?... This is called a purge. It's a mentality that belongs in Stalin's Russia."

•
"How bad does this atmosphere we're living in have to get before the people who say cancel culture is overblown admit that it is in fact an insanity that is swallowing up the world?"
Soviet immigrant, registered Democrat warns critical race theory resembles Marxist curriculum (Fox 07/30/2021)
•
"Never could we have imagined that decades later the same ideology and concepts that we escaped would show up in all places."

•
"In that [CRT] model, what we have is a paradigm where kids, human beings, are either an oppressor or a victim."

•
"And anytime you put human beings into two boxes and then pit them against each other, especially by the color of their skin, nothing good is going to come out of that."

•
"I firmly believe that if the vast majority of Californians and Americans knew about this, and about the content of this type of curriculum, this would not be happening. We would not be having this conversation."
Greg Gutfeld: Police 'reforms' put people’s lives in danger, by pretending not to (Fox 07/31/2021)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali rips NPR for new policy allowing reporters to protest: 'Stop calling it journalism' (Fox 07/30/2021)
•
NPR announced ... that reporters could participate in activities that advocate for "freedom and dignity of human beings" on social media and in real life.

•
"I think stop calling it journalism. If you want to engage in activism, go ahead. But to call it journalism, it's a joke. It's not journalism. It's not reporting, it's not analyzing, it's not investigative reporting because for all of those activities, you require an open mind, you require a kind of philosophy that you follow the facts to where they lead and then you have to have that disposition of honest, impartial reporting. That's not what activism is about."

•
"It's just such a shame that NPR is doing that with taxpayer money. That's entertainment, it's activism. It's something else, but it's not journalism."

•
The Media Research Center's Dan Gainor was just as outraged, agreeing that the outlet being taxpayer funded makes their announcement all that worse.

•
"It's not news that NPR is leftist, but that they won't even try to hide it anymore is astonishing. This is a taxpayer-funded ‘news' organization. Why do we give it a penny?"

•
"The question journalists used to ask themselves was: ‘Are you an activist or a journalist?' At NPR, we know the answer. And they're sure as hell not journalists."

•
"Can't wait to see how the studiously non-partisan and steadfastly non-ideological NPR interprets which protests count as ‘advocating for the freedom and dignity of human beings' and which ones don't," journalist Glenn Greenwald reacted.

•
"The woke young journalists have completely taken over the field and are destroying what little remains of major media credibility," Gainor said.

•
"The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, CNN, are all like watching one of those clown cars in the circus. Every single journalist that climbs out of the car is in makeup and clown shoes. This is what journalism has become and it's why media trust is in the toilet."

•
"Some of the leading media corporations, they've decided what sells is divisiveness, and hatred and sensationalism, and that's how they make their money, and I think that the general public is seeing that," Ali said.

•
"And that's why poll after poll after poll shows there is very, very low trust in media, because it's not media anymore, really."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Navy charges sailor in connection with USS Bonhomme Richard fire that destroyed warship (Fox 07/30/2021)
•
The fire caused billions of dollars worth of damage on the amphibious assault ship, which raged over four days and was the Navy's worst U.S. warship fire outside of combat in recent memory.

•
The ship was eventually decommissioned. Repairing it would have cost $2.5 billion to $3 billion and take five to seven years...
Fauci, top scientist called to brief House committees; phone call questioned (Fox 07/30/2021)
•
A top scientist emailed Dr. Anthony Fauci during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak that the virus seemed like it may have been engineered.

•
The following evening, the scientist joined other experts on a call with the top disease doctor and days later dismissed the idea of an engineered virus as a "crackpot" theory.

•
Two top House Republicans now want to know how a scientist can have such a dramatic change in opinion — so quickly — about a virus that continues to baffle top experts.

•
The email read, in part, "The unusual features of the virus make up a really small part of the genome (<0.1%) so one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered."

•
The following evening, Andersen and "several other international virologists" were on a call with Fauci. ...

•
... the contents of the call remain a mystery, but between the conversation and Feb. 4, 2020, Andersen sent ... an email that called the man-made idea one of "the main crackpot theories going around at the moment." "This is demonstrably not the case," Andersen wrote...

•
"In three days, with no explanation as to why, you flipped your perspective entirely and began calling a theory you lent credence to only days earlier a ‘crackpot theory,'"...

•
"It would appear the primary intervening event was the February 1 conference call with Dr. Fauci. We are very interested in understanding what happened on that call or what science came to light that caused such a dramatic change in your own hypothesis as to the engineering of COVID-19..."

•
A statement from the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee called on Fauci to join Andersen to discuss gain-of-function research conducted at the Wuhan lab.
Greg Gutfeld: The media doesn't want to help vaccine holdouts, they enjoy the conflict too much (Fox 07/30/2021)
Former police chief who rescued baby pleads guilty to assaulting man who allegedly tried to kill her (Fox 07/29/2021)
•
Hallgrimson pleaded guilty ... after he was indicted in 2019 of violating the civil rights of Jonathon Zicarelli.

•
The incident unfolded in December 2018 outside of Kansas City when Zicarelli walked into the Greenwood police station and said he drowned his daughter in a pond.

•
Hallgrimson and another officer responded to the pond and found the young girl floating face up and unconscious with her lungs filled with water, police said.

•
Hallgrimson and the officer worked to revive the girl and warm her until paramedics took her to the hospital. She was treated for severe hypothermia and lived.

•
Upon returning to the police precinct, prosecutors said the former police chief threw a handcuffed Zicarelli to the ground, punched him and said, "You deserve to die."

•
He was put on administrative leave after being accused of assaulting Zicarelli and resigned from the force in 2019.
Some college students say they won't root for Team USA at Olympics: 'I don't like being an American' (Fox 07/29/2021)
•
"Nowhere else in the world are our own citizens taught to hate their own country."

•
"There used to be a time where the Olympics would unite all of us, regardless of whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. With everything that's happened in the past year and a half, with a global pandemic and so much political division, you would think that the Olympics would be that thing that unites all Americans. But unfortunately, according to these woke college students, the Olympics are seeming to divide us even more."

•
"We don't have a common enemy, so we're turning our attacks on each other... Campuses are not a good place if you're patriotic."
Contradictions from Fauci, CDC throughout COVID pandemic outlined in viral Twitter thread (Fox 07/29/2021)
Biden confuses Trump with Obama, calls it 'Freudian slip' (Fox 07/28/2021)
Tom Homan: DHS hiding true number of migrant apprehensions at border (Fox 07/28/2021)
National Police Association slams Jan. 6 probe as ‘dog and pony show,' calls for investigation of Floyd riots (Fox 07/28/2021)
•
"People need to see that police officers go through horrible things, and Jan. 6 was a horrible thing for some of those officers. But, quite frankly, I find this whole Jan. 6 Commission, frankly, a dog and pony show. It doesn't tell the whole story."

•
"Myself, like millions of Americans, sat there watching the testimony thinking, ‘Wait, where are the police officers who appeared – appeared – to let some of the protesters in?"

•
"Where is the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt? In fact, why aren't we talking about Ashli Babbitt? I mean there's so much more here."

•
... those officers have been "politicized by Congress," and that while their stories are important, the American public also deserves to hear the stories of the "more than 2,000" men and women in law enforcement who were injured during last year's violent protests.

•
"... we have a Las Vegas police officer who is still paralyzed from the Black Lives Matter riots. We have thousands of police officers around the country who are retiring because of post-traumatic stress because of the riots."

•
"... that's what cops have to deal with and then watch these four weeping men talk about their experiences, ignoring thousands and thousands of police officers, ignoring their feelings and their experiences and their injuries."

•
"It's heartbreaking. I have some cops who would rather go back to Iraq than continue to work on the street, just because of the massive amounts of blood and bodies and everything they deal with that people don't see."

•
"It's taking its toll. We already had a police officer mental health crisis in this country before George Floyd, and now the uptick in police officer suicides is reaching a crisis level."

•
"The veracity of the defund the police movement is directly related to crime in that area. We're not saving Black lives by defunding the police, by reimagining police, by vilifying the police. And that's what I think is so disingenuous, and I think it's confusing for people. Because I think a lot of Americans say, of course, black lives matter. I mean, who doesn't believe that black lives matter? But yet these policies in the name of Black Lives Matter are actually killing more Black people, damaging the lives of Black people than the police ever have."
Kate Obenshain: 12 steps to raising a conservative daughter – from my very wise daughter (Fox 07/28/2021)
Sen. Tom Cotton: Biden's border crisis is a national emergency. Dems' shocking amnesty ploy must be stopped (Fox 07/27/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Family is good, peers are bad, and school is a prison (Fox 07/27/2021)
US athletes are more concerned with scoring 'woke points' than actual ones: Tammy Bruce (Fox 07/26/2021)
•
"Failure, misery, resentment, victimhood, hatred for the country... that's what fuels the left... and it's penetrating nearly every corner of society."

•
"Ask yourself... could this shift in attitude and a shift away from national pride be present in team USA's stumbling start at the Olympic games?"

•
"I contend, for some, this is the conscious and sub-conscious result of choosing resentment and grievance over pride and optimism ... translating into an embarrassment to even be an American and to represent our nation."

•
"The Olympics and sports are about bringing people together beyond the issues of the day... there is no unity when team members are judged as good or evil based on skin color... just as there's no unity in the nation itself if this malignant scheme prevails."
Minnesota fourth graders told to hide ‘equity survey’ questions from parents (Fox 07/26/2021)
•
A Minnesota fourth grade student and her mother expressed concern to their local school board after her class was given an "equity survey" and students were told not to tell her parents about the activity.

•
"The survey asked questions that some students didn't understand. Even after hearing an explanation from their teacher, some still couldn't comprehend the survey questions."

•
"... the administration and Equity Alliance of Minnesota instructed them to make sure the children did not share this information with their parents and that should pose a great concern in any parents' eyes."

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
‘Hypocrite’ Rep. Bush wants to defund your police, while dishing out $70k on private security: Gowdy (Fox 07/25/2021)
•
"Do you feel safe? Could your neighborhood benefit from a greater police presence? Is your place of work armed with metal detectors or guard dogs?"

•
"Are the streets you walk and drive down lined with police cars? Do you have personal security when you travel? I understand full well why members of Congress spend money on their personal safety. I just don't understand why some members of Congress don't feel the same way about your safety. If their safety is the highest priority, shouldn't your safety be too?"

•
As Bush's campaign dished out tens of thousands on private security, a luxury most Americans won't ever be able to afford, the Missouri Democrat was publically demonizing law enforcement, crowning herself one of the most ardent advocates in favor of defunding the police...

•
"She wants to defund the police — she wants to defund your police, but not her police."

•
"She spent nearly $70,000 on her own personal security last year. I don't know about your city or state, but $70,000 would get your own personal police officer in South Carolina. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Corey Bush tells us he is she is Progressive, the better word might be hypocritical."

•
"She wants to defund your police while she has a robust personal security detail in Washington and St. Louis."

•
"You look at neighborhoods where the violent crime is taking place it's not country clubs and gated communities, it is neighborhoods that cannot afford to pay $70,000 for their own personal protection."

•
"If you care about the poor, help keep them alive. And keep their homes from being burglarized and property from being stolen. Funding your own police force while you advocate to cut police...is not Progressive, that's hypocritical."

•
"If you really want to defund the police, start with your own."
Trump slams Critical Race Theory as ‘flagrant racism’ that has ‘no place’ in our country (Fox 07/25/2021)
•
"We shouldn't be apologizing to the world. We're apologizing for America, just like Obama apologized. Remember, he apologized. They should be apologizing to America for what they've done to it. That's who I think should be apologizing to."

•
"The Biden administration's ‘America last' philosophy ... is also making a mockery of our country right here at home."

•
"Earlier this year, Biden signed an executive order pushing toxic, critical race theory into our children's schools and into our military. How about our military? This poisonous left-wing doctrine is flagrant racism, plain and simple, and it has no place in our schools, no place in our military and no place in our country."

•
"If you remember, I ended it very rapidly with a very powerful executive order, but that executive order was immediately repealed and terminated by the radical left."

•
"A Republican Congress will defund it and ban it once and for all. They're going to ban it. They will get it done."

•
Trump also blasted the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, who last month defended the military's examination of critical race theory, which Trump referred to as "a Marxist ideology."

•
"Can you believe it? He said he wanted to quote, 'understand White rage.' He wants to understand White rage. What the hell is he talking about that for? Our generals should not be focused on learning left-wing ideology. They should be focused on defeating America's enemies and winning our future wars. Hopefully, we don't have them, but if we do, we have to win them."

•
"They're still coming after me because I will never stop fighting and winning for you. Going through it for five years, five years. From the very beginning of our movement, we have been fighting against some of the most corrupt, powerful and entrenched forces imaginable. The professional political class, the deep state, the fake news media, the Russia hoaxers, the globalists, the socialists, the communists, the lobbyists, the corporate special interests who are absolutely terrible, and now the critical race theorists – all of them oppose our movement for a simple reason: We believe in putting America first."

•
"It's very simple. We believe in strong families, strong borders and strong sovereign nations. We believe in fair trade for the American worker."

•
See related Woke General Milley (Dick Wright, 06/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Virginia Republicans raise alarms after radical left, Democrats team up in 'let them die' pro-CRT rally (Fox 07/25/2021)
•
"I think probably the more startling thing isn't what was said, it's the fact the crowd cheered."

•
"In other words, it wasn't just a misstatement – that seemed to be a sentiment that at least those in the crowd largely agree with."

•
"The Democrats have been taken over by the radical left for sure, This is acceptable speech to them. This is the way that they want things to be."

•
"The challenge for us, the challenge for everyone, is that any time anybody disagrees with this type of educational approach, they're branded as a racist or a heretic or what have you, and the ad hominems start to flow, And a reasoned discussion never takes place."

•
"Claiming that those who stand against critical race theory are ‘anti-children,' ‘anti-teacher,' and ‘anti-education', among other things, shows how much animosity she has for those who do not agree with her — these actions and words are extremely divisive and disappointing."

•
"Wishing death on those who do not agree with you only causes more harm, and it is not the way we work toward a brighter, more hopeful nation."

•
"The great irony we're facing right now is, in my mother's homeland in Cuba, you have people marching in the streets of Havana waving the American flag."

•
"But then you have people here that are essentially saying that flag isn't worth standing for, that flag isn't worth holding your hand over your heart for. And we can't survive as a nation if we're having that mentality."
DC police chief blasts justice system after latest shooting: 'You cannot coddle violent criminals' (Fox 07/23/2021)
Wikipedia co-founder says he's 'embarrassed' over politicization of his creation (Fox 07/23/2021)
•
"What results is basically that establishment views are the ones that you find pushed, and they have completely abandoned the neutral point of view [on the site]."

•
"What I want to see, actually, is a new, basically knowledge-comments, a network of all the encyclopedia articles in the world collected together and made it easily searchable."

•
"I'm embarrassed, to be quite honest, and I've said so for a long time. I've been a leading critic of Wikipedia for over a decade now."

•
"I've been trying various things to try to improve on it and I'm sorry to all the people whose reputations have been sullied by what I got started 20 years ago."
Leo Terrell: Critical race theory is a racist theory (Fox 07/23/2021)
•
"People of all colors, including myself, oppose critical race theory because it's based on a lie. This country was founded on liberty and freedom. And the idea that people should be looked at by skin color is insulting to everything that America stands for..."

•
"I'll tell you right now, these white liberals on the Democratic side, they do not speak for America. I think the strategy should be what's going on right now. Families across the country of all colors should challenge this school board, demand to see the curriculum, demand to see the lesson plan, demand to see the stated objective, to see if this critical race theory is in the school curriculum."

•
See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
More journalists admit and embrace bias, dismissing 'fairness' in new era of media (Fox 07/23/2021)
•
"Everyone in America with two eyes and a brain knows most of the establishment, legacy media isn't objective and hasn't been for a very long time. It's good they are finally admitting the obvious — to the public and to themselves."

•
"Objectivity as a standard at least requires that outlets try to see and reconcile their own biases. Without it, we risk sinking even deeper into an environment where advocacy and partisanship get laundered as straight news to everyday Americans who see the media as honest brokers."

•
"There's a whole group of people out there who want reporters to be partisans, and are very critical whenever people who do what I do try to basically do our jobs ... to be fair and balanced."

•
"It's like a sin, like, ‘How dare you talk to Steve Scalise? He voted to challenge the electoral votes.' Yeah, he's also the number two Republican in the House and he's an important political figure. You've got to cover him."

•
"A U.S. news organization's position needs to be skepticism, skepticism of what you hear from official sources, Don't just take it on face value; check your facts."

•
"We live in a dangerous time today, however, when professional journalists want to blend opinion and reporting into the same place."

•
"This presents several problems, not the least of which is that the public can no longer trust many traditional news outlets to present news fairly and fully. This had led to broad declines in media credibility."

•
"Further, this notion that all journalists must necessarily be activists reveals a smugness and condescension that people in the journalism industry are smarter and know better about all topics than the people they are supposedly serving."

•
... colonial and early American newspapers and pamphlets were "openly partisan and did not employ objectivity," but there were so many competing publications that readers were able to gather multiple perspectives and draw their own conclusions.

•
"Objectivity in journalism resulted from, quoting an item by the American Press Institute, a growing recognition that journalists were full of bias, often unconsciously. Objectivity called for journalists to develop a consistent method of testing information – a transparent approach to evidence – precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of their work,'"...

•
"In other words, people are not objective, but with rigor, they can do objectivity."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Florida Gov. DeSantis weighs in on Ben & Jerry’s Israel boycott, requests state action (Fox 07/22/2021)
•
"As a matter of law and principle, the State of Florida does not tolerate discrimination against the State of Israel or the Israeli people, including boycotts and divestments targeting Israel."
Texas considers banning Ben & Jerry's over Israel boycott (Fox 07/22/2021)
•
"Texans have better options for a sweet treat this summer, Blue Bell was founded in Brenham, Texas, and, for my money, tastes much better than the stuck-up stuff made by a foreign-owned company started in Vermont."
DeVos: Biden Education Dept 'as far left as they come' with promotion of radical 'anti-Whiteness' 'guide' (Fox 07/22/2021)
•
"This notion that it was a mistake is an absolute falsehood," said DeVos, who served under President Trump.

•
"Having been there at the department for four years and working through the approval processes for anything that is put out from the department, I know full well that there were eyes on and full knowledge of this going on."

•
"We saw earlier this year, the grant process the department put out that basically was trying to bribe schools into using the 1619 Project in their materials."

•
"So this is just another reflection of the true nature of the Biden Department of Education."
Losing before the match even kicked off: US Women's team takes knee during anthem, promptly loses 3-0 (Fox 07/22/2021)
•
"This is such a disingenuous maneuver, like it's all about promotion of personal brand for fame, notoriety, to appease the organization and liberal endorsements and sponsorships"...

•
"What is systemic racism? It is all the policies that are designed to prevent one demographic from excelling over another demographic in our country."

•
"I implore anybody to find one statute or U.S. Code or even business corporation that has policies that meet that criteria."

•
"People are exhausted with hearing these privileged athletes politicizing sport, the one thing that can unify our country and showcase our exceptionalism which is what the Olympic games were designed for."

•
"U.S. Soccer is not just left but radical left," he said. "The wokeness is permeated all throughout their entire organization, and it affects the few patriots — actually, the voices that are discriminated against are conservative."
California homeowner shoots would-be burglars; 1 dead and 1 injured (Fox 07/22/2021)
•
An attempted burglary in California turned sour for a pair of intruders when the homeowner shot them, killing one and injuring the other.

•
... unnamed homeowner said he saw headlights in his driveway, which gave him time to get his firearm and stand ready when the suspects tried to break in...
Conservative leaders say Biden admin is ‘ripping the U.S. Constitution to shreds’ in scathing open letter (Fox 07/22/2021)
•
"We, the undersigned, demand Big Tech firms immediately and publicly announce that they will not comply with calls from the federal government to censor dissenting viewpoints. Not on COVID-19 and not on any other topic. Furthermore we call on those companies to resist further demands for such outrageous censorship of dissenting voices."

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"The Biden administration is guilty of violating the most basic fundamental principles of a free and open society. President Joe Biden shockingly claimed Facebook is ‘killing people' because it doesn't completely censor its site in ways the administration approves."

•
"Though he later backed off this claim a bit, multiple members of the administration are moving to quash free speech on social media following that autocratic rationale."

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"Those who comply and do not speak out are guilty of being complicit in a creepy and repugnant form of Orwellian ‘thoughtcrime.' We are fast approaching the nightmarish reality of 1984 or worse."
Anti-critical race theory parent blasts Biden administration for promoting Abolitionist Teaching Network (Fox 07/22/2021)
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"Parents who are waking up to this and this crazy ideology that they're injecting into the school system will always stand up and fight for their kids."

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"If you don't agree with them, and what their beliefs are, they will come after you and attack you."

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"We should not be focusing on activism and things like this in the schools, We need to be just focusing on the subjects and teaching them how to be critical thinkers, and not what to think."
CRT group promoted by Biden admin has ties to top Education Department officials (Fox 07/22/2021)
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... the keynote speaker for a "discussion on addressing anti-Blackness and achieving educational freedom," according to the NEA's promotion for the event.

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Love, in a webinar her group hosted, said: "I want us to be feared."

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"Dr. Love will discuss Abolitionist Teaching ... and methods of abolitionists to demand and fight for an educational system and world where all students are thriving, not simply surviving."

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"Select staff will participate in a book study with Bettina Love's book ‘Students need to thrive not survive,' as a means to lead reform to breakdown oppressive systems and racial biases that live within the school system."

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A description of Love's book on Amazon states: "She argues that the US educational system is maintained by and profits from the suffering of children of color."

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"The Department does not endorse the recommendations of this group, nor do they reflect our policy positions. It was an error in a lengthy document to include this citation."

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See related CRT Bully (Gary McCoy, 07/07/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Republicans push back on Ben & Jerry's following Judea and Samaria boycott (INN 07/21/2021)
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"I think it's really important that Americans here send a message to Ben & Jerry's by not buying their ice cream..."
Leo Terrell: Texas Democrat's slavery comments over DC trip are wrong and deeply insulting (Fox 07/21/2021)
Cotton calls on Biden to 'publicly condemn critical race theory' after admin promotes radical group (Fox 07/21/2021)
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"It's not defensible to say that America is systemically racist – that we should treat people differently because of the color of their skin."

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"That's exactly what Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement advocated against."
Jason Chaffetz: Hunter Biden keeps cashing in on his family name – there's only one way to paint this scheme (Fox 07/21/2021)
•
Hunter Biden is a novice artist. Yet his work is being priced as high as $500,000.

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Meanwhile, an actual genuine Picasso painting recently discovered in the closet of a Maine home just sold at auction for $150,000.

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Unfortunately, this has been the pattern of the Biden family – to monetize the political value of the Biden name for personal gain.

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For his part, Hunter Biden has made a career out of hanging onto his father's coattails. In 2006 he was appointed to the board of Amtrak, despite having no transportation experience. But his father's colleagues in the Senate approved the nomination, with Delaware Senator Tom Carper summing up Hunter's qualifications: "Hunter Biden has spent a lot of time on Amtrak trains." No kidding.

•
Hunter Biden was able to parlay that experience in corporate governance into a sweet $50,000 a month gig on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. Again, he had no experience in the energy sector, in foreign relations, or in that part of the world.

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He went on to write a memoir, "Beautiful Things," which was published in 2021 and for which he received an undisclosed advance and payment. Even with the famous Biden name, it has sold less than 25,000 copies since publication...

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The grift continues now in the art world, which the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations identified as an "ideal playing ground for money laundering."

•
See related Hunter Art Sale (Dick Wright, 07/16/2021) cartoon from General picture album
Rand Paul: Fauci intimidates scientists from contradicting him because 'he controls all the funding' (Fox 07/20/2021)
Afghans who helped US being evacuated to Virginia Army base (Fox 07/19/2021)
Helen Raleigh says critical race theory is ‘Marxist ideology,’ harmful to Asian-American community (Fox 07/19/2021)
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"CRT is a Marxist ideology, It's basically replaced the class divide with racial divide. Our country is going in the wrong direction."

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"They overly simplify, to divide the society between oppressors and the oppressed, and all white people just naturally are oppressors and all people of color are naturally being oppressed."

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"I see what's happening, what's happening in China and other socialistic countries. So I know where this is going. The CRT activists will not to stop, the woke left will not stop until they totally transform the United States of America."
Jen Psaki should have been banned on social media for 'misinformation': Joe Concha (Fox 07/19/2021)
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"... you have the government, an administration, a presidential administration, working with a private company — a powerful one, maybe the most powerful communications platform in the world — determining what is misinformation and what isn't."

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"This is the same Jen Psaki who posted misinformation about Russian bounties on US troops. ... She also said that Hunter Biden's laptop, that was the product of Russian disinformation."

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"So based on Jen Psaki s own rules, she should have been banned from social media because she was posting misinformation."
Amid increasing calls for mandatory vaccines, critics note past anti-vax rhetoric by press, Dems (Fox 07/19/2021)
'Canceled in the USA': Dan Bongino hears from celebrities, everyday Americans targeted by cancel culture (Fox 07/19/2021)
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"Cancel culture looms around every corner, And if you think it isn't changing the fabric of the country, you need to think again."
Blackburn slams Biden on Facebook censorship, suggests First Amendment violation (Fox 07/19/2021)
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Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote a letter to President Biden slamming his administration's collaboration with Facebook to rid the platform of vaccine "misinformation" and suggesting the work could violate the First Amendment.

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"These revelations are deeply concerning. The blatant actions by your administration to work with Big Tech companies to censor Americans' free speech are shocking - and arguably a violation of the First Amendment."

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"What criteria are you directing social media platforms to use to flag and remove posts? What criteria are you directing social media platforms to use to ban users?"

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"What is the legal basis for your Administration's decision to direct social media platforms to flag and remove posts from their sites?" and "Does the White House have staff dedicated to searching social media for content to flag for removal?"

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"The Biden Administration just announced they are working with Facebook to censor more Americans," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted.

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"Big Tech and Big Government want the same thing > to control you. As a reminder, America is a land of FREEDOM."

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See related The Circle of Life (Glenn McCoy, 03/30/2016) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Rep. Kat Cammack blasts Biden's 'asinine,' 'dangerous' Big Tech censorship push (Fox 07/19/2021)
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"No matter what your political ideology is, censorship is bad, The First Amendment protects your right to your opinion, but also someone's ability to be offended by it but it doesn't mean you can shout someone down and shut them out. So I think there is room for a bipartisan discussion about this because we are at the precipice where it's going to get to a point of no return. It's very dangerous."

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"We need to be respectful of opinions whether we like them or not. And I think that the left forgot about that a long time ago."
Blackburn, Tuberville send NEA letter asking for additional information on pro-CRT efforts (Fox 07/19/2021)
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"We are deeply concerned that the NEA, the nation's largest labor union representing over 3 million school faculty, is proposing to ‘fight back against anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) rhetorics' by collecting and publicizing information about opponents of CRT."

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In a resolution this month, the NEA committed to researching organizations "attacking educators doing anti-racist work and/or use the research already done and put together a list of resources and recommendations for state affiliates, locals, and individual educators to utilize when they are attacked."

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Blackburn's and Tuberville's letter maintained the importance of learning "unpleasant aspects of American history," but argued "the teachings promoted by CRT, such as the ‘1619 Project,' contain historically inaccurate information in an effort to divide Americans. The central tenet of CRT, which encourages individuals to think of themselves as ‘oppressors' or ‘victims' is counterproductive to creating an effective learning environment."

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"Accordingly, may we know what information the NEA is collecting on critics of CRT? Are you conducting research on American children? For what purpose will this research be used? Why were mentions of New Business Item 2 and New Business Item 39 removed from the NEA.org website?"

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New Business Item 2 referred to the resolution geared toward researching CRT opponents. New Business Item 39 conveyed the NEA's desire to "fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric."

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See related CRT Bully (Gary McCoy, 07/07/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Trey Gowdy: Remember the images of those who would give everything they have to just be here (Fox 07/18/2021)
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"We've seen images from Haiti, Cuba and Afghanistan, images of people in other countries carrying our American flag as they fight to secure their own fundamental freedoms. We see images from our own country of our flag burned or shunned. We hear countries calling for U.S. to send our police, our soldiers to help them even as there are calls here-by our own politicians-to denigrate the same institutions. We're asked to keep peace in parts of the world that some of us can't even find on a map, even as some police struggle to keep the peace on their very own streets."

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"America is one of those rare nations where you are free to even burn your own flag. You are free to turn your back on your own flag. Even as you are vying to compete on the world stage under that same flag."

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"America is a country where you are not only free to call for the police and the military to be defunded but you will be protected by police and military while you call for them to be defunded. America is a rare experiment in freedom where you can criticize the very country which gave you the very freedom to criticize is in the first place."

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"I have been to Africa, Europe, Middle East, South America, Central America, when you travel you sometimes see things differently, you gain a new perspective, you experience the beauty of the other countries and their cultures, and experience almost universal kindness people give you, you have a sense of history, this duel sense of how small you are and how interconnected the world circumstance but most of all, but you grow to appreciate America more."

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"There are people who risk their lives to come here, they would give everything they have and own to live here, there are people who would say good-bye to their own children or parents to live in America, we won the lottery by being here."

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"So yes, if you are an American, you are free to turn your back on the flag. You are free to burn it you are free to walk on and disrespect it and wear it on your uniform in a sporting events. You are free to call for police to be defunded even as the police protect you, your home and your place of business. You are free to call for the military to be defunded, even as the military serves and sacrifices and sometimes dies to defend your rights. You are free to do it. You are just wrong to do it."
Rep. Byron Donalds tears into CNN, Brianna Keilar following tense interview: 'They have a political...' (Fox 07/18/2021)
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"... look, our border is a mess, people aren't going back to work, you see what's going on in Cuba, you have the vaccine situation going on, there's is plenty of things to be talking about, not to mention mismanagement the federal level of massive overspending and inflation going on, but they wanna do is talk about Trump..."

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See related Addicted (Antonio Branco, 02/09/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Sen. Graham says he'll follow the lead of Texas House Dems who fled state and leave for vote on... (Fox 07/18/2021)
Cruz accuses Biden of being 'in bed' with Big Tech amid vaccine misinformation controversy (Fox 07/18/2021)
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".. clear that everything we thought about the Biden administration – about their willingness to trample on free speech, to trample on the Constitution, to use government power to silence you, everything we feared they might do, they are doing and worse."

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"The Supreme Court has long recognized a line of cases when government uses a private company as a tool, as an arm to implement a government policy – in this instance, when government explicitly asks a private monopoly ‘censor the following speech we disagree with,' that that private company can be treated as a state actor."

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"Among the biggest funders of the Democratic Party are the giant corporations. And many of the giant corporations, the Fortune 50 and the Fortune 500, are in bed with the Chinese communists."
Arizona sheriff blasts Biden on border crisis: ‘It is an epidemic in my state’ (Fox 07/18/2021)
NY officials say dashcam proves woman's allegations she was assaulted by cops are 'false' (Fox 07/18/2021)
Texas Democrats are 'lying' about voting rights bill, positive COVID tests a 'gimmick,' state rep says (Fox 07/17/2021)
White House doubles down on its harsh criticism of Facebook following Biden's 'killing' remarks (Fox 07/17/2021)
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"Normalizing government collusion with Big Tech to censor anything they deem to be misinformation actually puts our First Amendment rights in jeopardy."
AG Garland violates pledge to remain nonpolitical in fiery statement blasting states' election laws (Fox 07/17/2021)
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"I'm telling you what I think an attorney general ought to do — which is to look at the facts before making a decision. I'm also telling you that I will never make a decision in the department based on politics or partisanship."
Greg Gutfeld: Cubans waving American flags offends students, pro athletes and Olympic hammer throwers (Fox 07/17/2021)
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See related Why Are You?.. (Mike Shelton, 07/13/2021) cartoon from World picture album
Former CIA officer on Psaki's 'alarming' announcement: We're moving slowly from 'freedom to tyranny' (Fox 07/16/2021)
California's GOP Reps push back on state's controversial 'equity in math' program (Fox 07/16/2021)
Tammy Bruce: 'Classic fascism' for government to work with corporations to censor 'misinformation' (Fox 07/16/2021)
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"This is more than just the First Amendment. I have to say, to have corporate America work with the government, that is the core of fascism."

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"That is the only way that fascism can work is when you've got a corporate bolster and they're in the pool with you in order to make that kind of control functional."

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"So this moves us into quite an authoritarian framework where it's also messaged very casually. If you notice, like ‘this is totally normal.'"

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"It's not only not normal, it not only is a violation of the First Amendment, clearly, but it sets a very different approach when it comes to what the founders had in mind, which was a representative republic. Democracy, right? This is very classically fascism."
Texas Gov. Abbott calls out Biden for 'lying' about border: 'Zero credibility in the White House' (Fox 07/16/2021)
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"It underscores one very important point that your audience as well as all Americans need to understand and that is President Biden doesn't really care about the people in Texas or the citizens of the United States of America. President Biden is catering to people who are coming from the 150 countries across the globe. He cares more about people who are outside America than those who are inside America."

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"He's completely wrong and lying to America. And what they are saying about the border – there is zero credibility in the White House because they are destroying America."

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"One of the fundamental responsibilities of the president of our country is to protect our sovereignty. And Biden has now abandoned his responsibility to protect the sovereignty of the United States of America."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Coca-Cola blowing 'woke smoke' to hide their own hypocrisy: Vivek Ramaswamy (Fox 07/16/2021)
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"It's a lot easier for them to talk about voting laws in Georgia than it is to reduce their own reliance on slave labor in China."

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"It's a lot easier for them to teach their employees how to be less White than it is to reckon with their own role in fueling a nationwide epidemic of diabetes and obesity, by the way, in the Black community that they profess to care so much about."

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See related Born to Be Red (Mike Shelton, 04/07/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger blasts site for left-wing bias: ‘The word for it is propaganda’ (Fox 07/16/2021)
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"You can trust it to give a reliably establishment point of view on pretty much everything. Can you trust it always to give you the truth? Well, it depends on what you think the truth is."

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Sanger feels Wikipedia has changed considerably since he founded it alongside Jimmy Wales in 2001 and has been a critic for more than a decade.

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He said the site is no longer committed to neutrality and doesn't feature different points of view.

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"Wikipedia is known, now, by everyone to have a lot of influence in the world ... so there is a very big, nasty, complex game being played behind the scenes to make the articles say what somebody wants them to say."

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"The Biden article, if you look at it, has very little by way of the concerns that Republicans have had about him."

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"So if you want to have anything remotely resembling the Republican point of view about Biden, you're not going to get it from the article."

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Sanger, who left the site in 2002, pointed to a short paragraph about concerns related to Biden and Ukraine on his lengthy Wikipedia entry.

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"What little can be found is extremely biased and reads like a defense counsel's brief, really."

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Sanger has made similar comments in the past and penned a 2020 blog post declaring that the site is "badly biased," "no longer has an effective neutrality policy" and clearly favors left-wing politics.

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He wrote it has long forgotten its original policy of aiming to neutrally present information, and nowadays the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia reliably covers politics from a liberal point of view.

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"There is a rewritten policy, but it endorses the utterly bankrupt canard of journalistic ‘false balance,' which is directly contradictory to the original neutrality policy. As a result, even as journalists turn to opinion and activism, Wikipedia now touts controversial points of view on politics, religion, and science, Examples have become embarrassingly easy to find."

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"The word for it is propaganda."
BLM is a Ponzi scheme shaking down corporations: Sen. Marco Rubio (Fox 07/15/2021)
Hawley hammers White House as ‘really scary’ for pushing Facebook to 'censor' COVID posts (Fox 07/15/2021)
Critics slam the White House after Psaki reveals it's consulting with Facebook to 'flag misinformation' (Fox 07/15/2021)
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"We are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team — given as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue, of misinformation, specifically on the pandemic."

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"Within the Surgeon General's Office, we're flagging posts for Facebook that spread disinformation."

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"We're working with doctors and medical professionals to connect medical experts with people, who are popular with their audiences with accurate information and boost trusted content. So, we're helping get trusted content out there. We also created the COVID Community Corps to get factual information into the hands of local messengers."

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"Psaki says the White House has been flagging ‘problematic posts' on Facebook they believe are misinformation about Wuhan coronavirus. Reminder: Fauci worked with Facebook to ban the lab leak theory, which is factual, for more than a year."

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"If you don't find it deeply disturbing that the White House is ‘flagging' internet content that they deem ‘problematic' to their Facebook allies for removal, then you are definitionally [sic] an authoritarian. No other information is needed about you to know that."

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"... the Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment's free speech guarantee is violated when government officials pressure or coerce private actors to censor for them. That is exactly what the Biden WH is doing with Facebook."

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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Bill Bennett: 'We need to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorists like Al Qaeda' (Fox 07/15/2021)
Seattle mother explains how to protect kids against cultural indoctrination: 'It is war' (Fox 07/14/2021)
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"They don't have to be cultural victims. You can equip them, you can train them, and they can actually be forces for good in the world."

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"Parents, you cannot sit this one out. Whether it's socialism or racism or pornography or sex or transgenderism, you have to get to your kids first."

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"I know what you're saying is, ‘I'm not ready to talk to my fourth grader about this. Well, the world is talking with your fourth grader, so you have to get to them first, right, in an age-appropriate way."

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"Everything is against you: the schools, the media, the government, social media."

•
"You don't need special curriculum. You just need to invite your kids into what you're already watching and seeing and listening to. Day by day, moment by moment, you're going to strengthen their worldview."

•
"People are not our enemies. Bad ideas are the enemy. And that is what we need to equip our kids to fight against."

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"The bright red line that we cannot cross is: Do not lie. Even if you're not going to rebut and refute all of the bad ideas, at minimum, don't lie."

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"Conservatives have had more kids on average than people on the political left for decades. We've allowed the other side to raise our kids. That needs to end."
Reuters slammed for saying Cuban protests 'risk exacerbating COVID-19 spike' (Fox 07/14/2021)
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"DHS secretary Mayorkas (Cuban immigrant who fled with his family in 1960) says no refuge for Cubans fleeing the country."

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"I wonder why... Could it be because they are likely to naturalize, seek citizenship, and vote AGAINST all of the commie bulls** the Democrats are pushing?"

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"DHS Secretary Mayorkas does not want legitimate asylum-seekers fleeing Cuba to come to the US despite his family having done just that."

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"Apparently he only wants people pretending to need asylum because those people will still vote for socialist Democrats!"
Janice Dean: Gov. Cuomo's scandals and the memorial he really ought to consider (Fox 07/14/2021)
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The latest headline that got my attention said: "Cuomo delays COVID essential workers memorial in Battery Park in fierce opposition."

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And I thought to myself: maybe someone should propose a memorial for the over 15,000 seniors that died in New York nursing homes? Just to remind people that we still don't have the answers or any accountability from our governor about what should be one of the biggest stories of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Maybe that someone might be me? I can guarantee that on the plaque to commemorate all the precious lives we lost, our governor would never dare put his name on it.

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Olympic medalists respond to USOC flag proposal: 'Old Glory doesn't need rebranding' (Fox 07/14/2021)
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"What irritates me out of this whole thing is that there is some marketing or branding firm out there that has already been paid a lot of money for these drafts even and these resources, couldn't they be better applied by supporting our athletes or giving it to an anti-doping agency to catch cheaters?"

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"The greatest honor of my life was in Montreal in 1976 when I was selected to carry the American flag for the U.S. Olympic team leading into Montreal Stadium, And the American flag is iconic. It doesn't just represent the greatest country in the world. It represents and symbolizes millions of Americans who have worked hard, who have sacrificed, some of them, with their own lives."

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"No one has the right to change that other than U.S. Congress, and to me, it's disrespectful to even consider changing the American flag."
Texas’ Abbott says Biden, Dems must stop ‘misinformation’ spread on voting bill (Fox 07/14/2021)
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"Once again, President Biden ignores the facts, The fact is that Texas is passing a law that expands — not reduces — the hours of early voting. That's more than many states, including President Biden's home state of Delaware, which has zero hours of early voting."

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... the law will help prevent mail-in ballot fraud in the state and will "uphold the integrity of our elections and ensure that Texas who do qualify to vote by mail will have the ability to do so."

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The Texas state senate approved the election reform bill on Tuesday, but the legislation is stalled due to the absence of a quorum in the House.

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See related Joe Crow (Mike Shelton, 04/06/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Greg Gutfeld: Dems' ideas sprout from the reflex to not be associated with you (Fox 07/14/2021)
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Imagine if the Republicans acted like Democrats - and rejected any idea associated with their opposition party. Maybe that's the way forward.

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Problem is, the Dems don't have any ideas, except to hate your ideas. Without us to hate, they got nothing. No ideas, no solutions.

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We can't even debate them, cuz we're just debating a child screaming, "I despise you!" As they side with criminals, authoritarians and neo-racists.
Ingraham slams Biden's Philadelphia voter rights speech: 'As usual, liberals are at war with the facts' (Fox 07/14/2021)
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"Democrats want to rig every election going forward to make it nearly impossible for a conservative to win again."

•
"They're now effectively arguing that the very voting rules that delivered two two-term victories for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are essentially just like Jim Crow 2.0."

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"So this leaves them really with only one option in their mind, which is to promote racial fear-mongering in pretty much everything around them. We already know what they're doing in our schools, to our workplaces, the military, even to now our system of voting."
NYC journalist targeted by Iranian operatives in twisted kidnapping plot, feds say (Fox 07/14/2021)
Dems' All-Star Game antics – MLB fell for Georgia election spin but rest of US catching on (Fox 07/14/2021)
•
Democrats, enabled by their allies in the mainstream media, built a cynical narrative of lies about Georgia's election laws to bully Major League Baseball into moving its All-Star Game out of Atlanta.

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The Georgia election reforms in question actually make it easier to vote and harder to cheat, and most of its initiatives are widely popular.

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See related MLB Rips It... (Mike Shelton, 04/05/2021) cartoon from General picture album
Betsy DeVos: Let's liberate kids from race indoctrination with school choice (Fox 07/13/2021)
•
There's good reason to oppose CRT and other racially charged ideas entering our schools. These concepts, which until recently had been confined to a far-left academic fringe, include objectively false and deliberately devious elements.

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CRT isn't a demonstrably better way to understand American race relations: It's instead a Trojan horse used to introduce Marxist concepts into classrooms, framing some Americans and the country as a whole as irredeemably racist and others as permanent victims.

•
Likewise, the 1619 Project, part of a related wave of historical revisionism, has been repudiated by dozens of eminent historians, many of them liberals...

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Of course, America's failures should be taught. Understanding America requires understanding the sins of our past, not least slavery.

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But it also requires appreciating the ways generations of Americans have worked together to form a more perfect union.

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It requires teaching the whole of our history, with an eye toward appreciating what's good about America.

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A thoroughly self-loathing account of our history is poisonous. It's also false.

•
... Americans should continue to declare independence from the monopoly of government-run, union-controlled schools.

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Schools should exist to serve the needs of students and parents, not the other way around. When schools fail to meet that mandate, parents should have the power to take the tax dollars allocated for their child to different schools.

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Choice not only gives parents control, but also forces the public-school monopoly to be more responsive to its customers: parents and taxpayers.

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Public-school leaders would probably be a lot less likely to jam political agendas down the throats of young students if they knew parents had agency to enroll their children elsewhere.

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Fifteen states have passed new or expanded school-choice programs this year, and the unions' behavior is a big reason why support for these programs is at an all-time high.

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Parents know what's best for their kids, and they want the power to ensure their children are educated in ways that align with their values and expectations.

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I've long advocated for education freedom, the idea that students should be free to learn wherever, whenever and however works best for them. That includes freedom from forced indoctrination.

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Our kids deserve to have their minds challenged and horizons expanded, not their perspectives narrowed by the political preferences of the adults who run their schools.

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related What’s in a Name (Antonio Branco, 06/24/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Gutfeld rips Biden as 'pathological liar' injecting race into election law speech amid Texas standoff (Fox 07/13/2021)
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Speaking in Old City, Biden claimed proponents of election security measures are engaging in a "21st century Jim Crow assault."

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"It's unrelenting. It's unrelenting. And we are going to challenge it vigorously. Are you on the side of truth or lies?... Stand up, for God's sake, and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election.'

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Biden went on to claim Republican-led election security reforms in states such as Texas, Georgia and Pennsylvania are akin to " facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War."

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Gutfeld said Biden believes he is making a "moral case" for voting rights as if such rights don't exist.

•
"Every American has the right to vote, except the left's favored voting blocs, which are felons, illegal immigrants, and the dead."

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See related Joe Crow (Mike Shelton, 04/06/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Leo Terrell rips liberal actor's critical race theory rant: 'He's not qualified to give his opinion' (Fox 07/13/2021)
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"Why should we listen to an actor? Is he qualified? Is he a former professor? Is he a lawyer? Why should 340 million Americans, parents, teachers, students listen to him?.."
Critics slam Biden administration's reported plan to monitor vaccine misinformation in text messages (Fox 07/13/2021)
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"Biden allied groups, including the Democratic National Committee, are also planning to engage fact-checkers more aggressively and work with SMS carriers to dispel misinformation about vaccines that is sent over social media and text messages."

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"Biden's regime has announced they'll be working with SMS providers to stop vaccine ‘misinformation' spread via text messages. This is on the same day the White House said they support local officials who implement mandatory vaccines. No wonder they can't condemn Communism."
Crenshaw slams 'delinquent' Texas Democrats who fled to DC on private jet: 'You guys are pathetic' (Fox 07/13/2021)
•
"Hard to imagine a more delusional group of people - thinking that lying about these bills, hopping on a chartered flight, sipping beer, and skipping work is ‘sacrifice,' You guys are pathetic. Totally pathetic."

•
"These delinquents are doing this to kill a bill that does things like make voting hours across counties the same, There isn't a single thing in these bills that is ‘voter suppression.' This a giant charade. Texans should be furious, and vote all of these children out of office."

•
"Democrats to Texans: we won't enforce any criminal laws, we will open your southern border, and we will throw a tantrum and leave on a chartered jet when we get upset."
Miami mayor blasts far-left silence on Cuban protests, says crisis exposes fallacy of socialism (Fox 07/12/2021)
•
"[It] has failed not just in Cuba but in the history of humanity — this is an ideology that promises to create equality. The only equality it has delivered is equal misery for all of its citizens in every country that its been tried."

•
"It's time for the United States to understand that. It's time for us to understand this could affect American cities if we're not careful."

•
"The truth of the matter is, it's never worked and never going to work and the United States has to start intervening and finding a way, whether it's through humanitarian aid, military intervention, whatever means necessary to protect the sovereignty of the Cuban people and the sovereignty of the United States in this hemisphere."

•
... the communist regime is a "drug-trafficking dictatorship" that sponsors terrorism and exports its dangerous political system throughout the world.

•
"And so, it affects U.S. interests. That's something that sometimes is not emphasized enough: How this affects U.S. National security policy."

•
"And I think the U.S. has to understand that these kinds of regimes that are enslaving not just Cubans, but Nicaraguans and Venezuelans... impact our sovereignty and our security."

•
"The U.S. has a vested interest and a right to intervene on behalf of the Cuban people but also on behalf of the United States and creating an international coalition is important."

•
"The Cuban people have no food as was stated by [Keating]. They have no access to medical care, particularly being devastated by the coronavirus and most importantly they want freedom. What we have in this country, they want the hope for a better future."
Nikki Haley calls for every governor in America to ban funding for critical race theory in schools (Fox 07/12/2021)
•
"Think about a 5-year-old that starts kindergarten and they don't know anything about color. If she's white, you're telling her she's bad. If she's brown or black, you're telling her she will never be enough and she's always a victim. That's harmful for the well-being of our children."

•
"I remember getting teased when I was younger in rural South Carolina and my mom would say, your job is to show them how you're similar and not how you're different," Haley said.

•
"Every governor in the country needs to ban funding for critical race theory. Governors can decide this. They decide what money they take from the Department of Education. Don't take this money."

•
"They don't need to be told what label they are when they walk in the school. We need to treat kids as the opportunities they're going to be to fix America, not break them before they start."

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Malliotakis reacts to Cuban protesters calling to end socialism: 'A reminder of how fortunate we are' (Fox 07/12/2021)
Marsha Blackburn renews criticism of media, Big Tech, Fauci for suppressing coronavirus lab-leak theory (Fox 07/12/2021)
Former President Trump in Fox Nation interview: 'You have to give police back their authority' (Fox 07/12/2021)
Woodson: 'Character' is what propels people from 'poverty to prosperity' (Fox 07/12/2021)
•
"... 'I am convinced that life is 10 percent of what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.' We are in charge of our attitude."

•
"It is more important than the past, than education, than circumstances, than failure, than success, than any of the thing that people would say or do about this. In other words, it is character that is, it represents the principal means by which people excel and move from poverty to prosperity."
Fighting critical race theory – here's who's leading charge and how you can help (Fox 07/11/2021)
•
Critical race theory continues to permeate our classrooms and infect our children's minds with outrageous ideas about their nation's history.

•
But a growing number of Americans are standing up to fight back against its false tenets and demand its removal from K-12 education.

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Political candidates who sign the pledge commit to restoring "honest, patriotic education that cultivates in our children a profound love for our country" and to promoting a curriculum that "teaches that all children are created equal, have equal moral value under God, our Constitution, and the law, and are members of a national community united by our founding principles."

•
The pledge also seeks to prohibit any curriculum that divides students by race and sex – or sets out to infuse harmful ideologies into course material.

•
... "is nothing more than the materialist philosophy of Marxism substituting racial antagonism for class antagonism. It posits all the same things as traditional Marxism." Barr said.

•
Like other forms of Marxism, CRT is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity and other traditional religions. This is because CRT and other progressive orthodoxies constitute a secular religion.

•
"There's nothing more fundamental, than the right of parents to pass religion to their children. And it's monstrous for the state to interfere in that by indoctrinating students into alternative belief systems."
Globalization hits home: Mylan pharmaceuticals and the Mountain State (Fox 07/11/2021)
•
It would be easy for Americans to shrug off what is happening in Morgantown as simply an unfortunate local story.

•
But the reality is that America has lost millions of manufacturing jobs over the past few decades.

•
What's happening in Morgantown has played out in community after community, as manufacturing went overseas and workers who spent decades loyal to the same company were left jobless.

•
See related Multinational Corporate Pledge (Kevin Tuma, 11/2003) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Trump speaks at Dallas CPAC conference, promises to 'defeat the radical left' and 'critical race...' (Fox 07/11/2021)
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"With the help of everyone here today, we will defeat the radical left, the socialists, Marxists and the critical race theorists."

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"We will secure our borders, we will stop left wing cancel culture, we will restore free speech and free elections and we will make America great again."

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Trump added that "the people in this room have been some of the staunchest and fiercest supporters" of "the greatest political movement in the history of our country."

•
"We deported criminal aliens by the thousands... and we built almost 500 miles of the border wall."

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"Now the Biden administration has turned the border into the single greatest disaster in American history."

•
"Unfortunately this was an election where the person that counts the vote was far more important than the candidate."

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"It's a disgrace to our nation and we are truly being scorned and disrespected all over the world."

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See related It\\\'s Who Counts the Votes (Gary Varvel, 11/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump easily wins CPAC 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll (Fox 07/11/2021)
Trump speech, CPAC straw poll, put 2024 GOP presidential race in Sunday spotlight (Fox 07/11/2021)
Rep. Ronny Jackson: Biden admin cannot make COVID vaccines mandatory for Americans (Fox 07/09/2021)
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"It is not the goal of the government or the job of the government, it shouldn't be the goal of the government to mandate whether or not we get this vaccine. Let's not lose track of the big picture here. Let me just start by saying, I got the vaccine. I looked at my own personal situation, decided my risk-benefit and got the vaccine."

•
"It should be a personal choice for every single American. Let's not lose sight of the fact that this is still an experimental vaccine being used under emergency use authorization."

•
"The federal government does not have the right to tell Americans they have to get this vaccine and it is none of their business who has had it and who hasn't had it."

•
"It's another government overreach that fits right in the narrative that the Democrats do everything else with the Socialist Marxist Communist way they want to control your lives. I'm absolutely opposed to that."
Laura Ingraham: Left's indoctrination tactics have parental rights, Judeo-Christian values under siege (Fox 07/09/2021)
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"Forces are working overtime to undermine parental rights and their Judeo-Christian values." "It's often said that the children are our future, and of course that's exactly why the Left wants to take them from parents who don't buy into their twisted agenda."

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"From teachers unions to gender activists, to Biden's vaccine pushers," a joint effort is actively being pursued to indoctrinate children into a "dark mindset of anti-Americanism."

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"This new normal requires the undermining of American history... it involves teaching concepts directly at odds with the ideal of the nuclear family."

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... slammed left-wing "educrats" whom she said "relish pushing the sexual envelope and redefining gender." The host insisted these liberals have no regard for "parental boundaries."

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"Totalitarian societies depend on propagandizing – and their leaders ruthlessly enforce its dissemination. We can't afford to give our would-be cultural totalitarians four more weeks with our kids, let alone four more years."

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... quoted Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, who once declared, "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."
Mark Steyn raises concerns about the American Intelligence community (Fox 07/09/2021)
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"... you have a dark, bloated bureaucracy with massive powers to violate the privacy of anyone they want to..."

•
"We know so little about our Afghan adversaries that we've taken twenty years to lose to goatherds with fertilizer."

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"In the broader geopolitical picture, China knows everything about us, we know nothing about them."
Hannity: Biden is portraying weakness on the world stage (Fox 07/09/2021)
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"This administration is unraveling far faster than we even expected and worst of all no one knows who is in charge..."

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Steve Scalise torches 'Squad' member calling to defund ICE, CBP, DHS as border crisis rages (Fox 07/08/2021)
Kevin Sorbo rips Hollywood for reaching 'new level of insanity' with Captain America's anti-American... (Fox 07/08/2021)
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"I think that America is still a pretty darn good place to live and a pretty darn good place to come to pursue your dreams, This country is built on individuals. It was never built on big government."

•
"Walt Disney said back in the 1950s... movies and television will influence our youth, Look at what's going on in the streets across America today, especially in all the blue states and the blue cities, and all the anger and hate and violence going on out there."

•
"I think people that really think this is a horrible country really should go spend a year in other countries where they think their utopia is and find out what socialism and communism truly is all about."

•
"If they knew it was going to be just as bad as where they were leaving, why do we have so many people in the world that still want to flock to this country?"

•
"I don't see anybody taking boats from Key West to Cuba. I don't see anybody rushing to get down to Venezuela."
Hannity: Biden called Georgia voter law 'Jim Crow' but here's the truth about his home state (Fox 07/08/2021)
'Woke, Inc.' author on Trump's Big Tech lawsuit: Imagine the response if 'facts were reversed' (Fox 07/08/2021)
Chicago student calls out Mayor Lightfoot's 'blatant lie' about crime following classmate's death (Fox 07/08/2021)
Obama ethics chief blasts secret Hunter Biden art scheme arranged by White House (Fox 07/08/2021)
•
"... instead of disclosing who is paying outrageous sums for Hunter Biden's artwork so that we could monitor whether the purchasers are gaining access to government, the WH tried to make sure we will never know who they are."

•
"The idea's that even Hunter won't know, but the WH has outsourced government ethics to a private art dealer."

•
"We're supposed to trust a merchant in an industry that's fertile ground for money laundering, as well as unknown buyers who could tell Hunter or WH officials? No thanks."

•
"Instead, the president should be begging his son not to go through with this sale, even if that means threatening to banish him from the family's Thanksgiving table this fall and publicly condemning his actions."

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See related Quid Pro Art Show (Antonio Branco, 06/18/2021) cartoon from General picture album
Trump lawsuit against Big Tech could ‘break new ground’ on First Amendment protections... (Fox 07/08/2021)
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... "originally the First Amendment was designed to protect freedom of speech in the public sphere" ... then the "public sphere literally meant the soapbox," which meant "standing on a street corner, talking about whatever you want [and] handing out pamphlets."

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... in the present time "this starts to get murky," pointing out that currently the Internet is used as a forum to speak publicly "and these companies control that world with an iron fist."

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"So the question becomes, where is public speech and who now has First Amendment protection?"

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"This idea of prior restraint normally applies when the government prevents somebody from speaking. Now we're talking about a private entity and the extension of that doctrine of freedom of speech under the First Amendment to a private person speaking on a private entity would be an extension of First Amendment protections."

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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Greg Gutfeld: Media the most egocentric fools on the planet (Fox 07/08/2021)
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Only they could say they're traumatized by one day in January where an unarmed protestor died, as they ignore the victims of crime around them right now every day.

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But if they didn't see it, it didn't happen. Especially if it happened to you.
Hannity slams Big Tech for censorship: if they can do it to the president, they can do it to you (Fox 07/08/2021)
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"There's something fundamentally wrong with a company that bans a duly elected president of the United States but gives it an enormous platform to America's foreign enemies and other disreputable individuals."

•
"As President Trump just stated, well, if the tech giants can censor of the president, then there's nothing stopping them from doing it to you. As a matter of fact, they are."
Tucker Carlson: NSA has been reading my private emails, planned to leak the contents (Fox 07/08/2021)
Jesse Watters on Trump’s lawsuit against Big Tech: Hunter Biden, Wuhan lab stories were 'suppressed' (Fox 07/07/2021)
Nebraska Gov. Ricketts calls out China, warns leftists in declaring Victims of Communism Month (Fox 07/07/2021)
•
"... whenever communism has been implemented across this world, what he have seen is a lot of human suffering."

•
"And China really is no different, the Chinese Communist Party we can see till this day continues to oppress people like the Uighurs."

•
"We need to keep putting pressure on the Chinese Communist Party to really play by international norms and to treat their people with respect the way we would expect countries who are part of the world community to behave."

•
"For those on the left who don't think communism's a bad thing, go look at history, We can see case after case after case, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to declare July as victims of communism month to really remind people of the horrible things that have happened under communism everywhere it's been implemented."

•
"People need to understand it is really fundamentally against what we stand for here in America, In America our aspirations are to uphold the individual and to allow for human flourishing. And that's not what communism's about."

•
To do that, the governor recommended that people learn from those who escaped from communist governments in the Soviet Union or China.

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"Those are the people we should be listening to because they know it firsthand."
Parler cheers on Trump's lawsuit against Big Tech companies (Fox 07/07/2021)
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"First, there is something very wrong normatively about these platforms' biased, authoritarian content-moderation policies. Individuals should not be outsourcing their critical thinking skills to anyone — much less agenda-driven tech executives."

•
"Second, given these problems have been worsened due to an overbroad interpretation of Section 230, combined with pressure from politicians and bureaucrats to exploit Section 230 immunity in service of a particular political agenda, there is censorship taking place, and Parler believes some form of government intervention is appropriate to rectify the situation."

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"Because a lawsuit like President Trump's has the potential to result in a narrower interpretation of Section 230... and to do so without the unintended consequences of establishing a further entanglement between politicians and tech platforms, it is perhaps the perfect vehicle by which this problem can be solved. We wish President Trump and his legal team all the best and would be happy to offer Parler's assistance in any way."

•
Parler, which is a favorite among Trump supporters, was similarly the target of Big Tech as it was de-platformed by Amazon, Apple and Google after Jan. 6.

•
See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Trump to sue Facebook, Twitter, Google over alleged censorship, says they've 'ceased to be private' (Fox 07/07/2021)
•
"I stand before you this morning to announce a very important... development for our freedom and freedom of speech, In conjunction with the America First Policy Institute, I'm filing, as the lead class-action representative, a major class-action lawsuit against the big tech giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as their CEOs."

•
"There is no better evidence that big tech is out of control than the fact that they banned the sitting president of the United States earlier this year, If they can do it to me they can do it to anyone."

•
Trump said the lawsuit will be filed in the Southern District of Florida, seeking "injunctive relief" against "shameful censorship of the American people." There were three separate complaints filed in Miami federal court under Trump's name Wednesday, one against each of the social media giants.

•
"While the social media companies are officially private entities, in recent years they have ceased to be private with the enactment and their historical use of Section 230, which profoundly protects them from liability."

•
"It is in effect a massive government subsidy, these companies have been co-opted, coerced and weaponized by government actors to become the enforcers of illegal, unconstitutional censorship."

•
Trump called social media companies "the de facto censorship arm of the U.S. government."

•
He added that "this was especially clear during the pandemic," citing policies against contradicting health experts and the fact that those companies suppressed information alleging that the coronavirus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

•
See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Chicago university student dies after hit by stray bullet while riding train home from internship (Fox 07/07/2021)
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Max Lewis, 20, was commuting on the city's Green Line during rush hour on July 1 from his internship at an investment firm in downtown Chicago... While sitting inside the train, a bullet pierced the window and struck the back of his neck...

•
Authorities said Lewis wasn't the intended target and it wasn't clear where the gunfire came from.

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... said her son was alert, but the bullet caused catastrophic damage. He was paralyzed from the neck down and would likely need a ventilator for the rest of his life...

•
He reportedly communicated with doctors and family by blinking. He spelled out on a letter board, "If I have to live like this, pull the plug please. Seriously."
Greg Gutfeld: We use to fight Big Brother, now Big Brother wants you to be an informant (Fox 07/07/2021)
Air Force Academy professor pushes for military academies to teach critical race theory (Fox 07/07/2021)
•
... associate professor of political science Lynne Chandler Garcia published an op-ed titled "Why U.S. military academies should teach critical race theory." Agreeing with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, Garcia claimed that critical race theory "is not unpatriotic" and does not "promote division among our military members."

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"As a professor of political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I teach critical race theories to our nation's future military leaders because it is vital that cadets understand the history of the racism that has shaped both foreign and domestic policy."

•
This was in reference to Gen. Milley's defense of studying critical race theory back in June during a congressional hearing. The general argued it was important for cadets "to be open-minded and be widely read" regarding the nation's history.

•
"So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend? And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned, non-commissioned officers of being, quote, ‘woke' or something else, because we're studying some theories that are out there."

•
... notable opponent of critical race theory Chris Rufo explained ... "They're teaching concepts like white privilege, white fragility, internalized white supremacy, white guilt, spirit murder. They're teaching the idea that that even elementary school kids can be labeled as oppressors. It's a really deeply disturbing phenomenon that we're seeing all over the country."
Biden admin launching 'door-to-door' push to vaccinate Americans, sparks major backlash (Fox 07/06/2021)
•
"Now we need to go community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood and often times door-to-door- literally knocking on doors, to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus," Biden said.

•
"How about don't knock on my door. You're not my parents. You're the government. Make the vaccine available, and let people be free to choose. Why is that concept so hard for the left?" Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, reacted to the president.

•
"Vaccine education and conversation should be between a doctor and patient, not by a grassroot government door knocker," ... Dr. Nicole Saphier wrote.

•
"A lot of people have big government antibodies. Don't knock on those doors," Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote.
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett says fight against critical race theory in schools is 'worth it' (Fox 07/06/2021)
•
"I hate to say that I told you so, but I told you so. When I became secretary of education I said the teachers' unions were the worst force in America except for organized crime, and it was a close call."

•
Critics say CTR is a racist philosophy that encourages stereotyping and labeling while highlighting divisiveness and anti-American rhetoric rather than unity and the virtues of the founding documents.

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Republicans fire back after Chinese state media mocks July 4th violence (Fox 07/06/2021)
•
... it is "increasingly difficult to distinguish Chinese Communist Party propaganda from the progressive left's anti-American incitement."
Mainstream media, Democratic lawmakers bash America throughout Fourth of July weekend (Fox 07/06/2021)
•
"Conservatives have said for years that the left hates America. Now the left comes out and blatantly admits that it does ... on July 4 weekend no less."

•
"It is utterly bizarre that the same crowd who yells ‘sedition,' ‘traitor,' or ‘treason' at any Trump supporter is the same crowd that goes to insane lengths to undermine and marginalize anything that celebrates this country."

•
"The truth is that they are simply saying the quiet part out loud these days, The fundamental ideological underpinnings of left wings politics has always been centered around a belief that the US is an evil place."

•
"Liberal politicians and commentators took special joy in celebrating July 4th by denouncing America. The Statue of Liberty was not a symbol of freedom but a symbol of hypocrisy. The flag was polarizing. The national anthem doesn't speak for everyone (or anyone). Even fireworks are racist. Hot dogs are safe for now, but give it time — considering Brandeis University is already banning the word ‘picnic,'"...

•
"One thing's for certain: You're sure to get plenty of clicks for saying everything that used to be patriotic is now proof the United States is bigoted, no matter that we live in one of the most diverse nations on earth."

•
"This is who they are. They just finally own it, This crusade to depict America as evil isn't accidental."

•
... hatred of America is tied to their world view and content such as what he called "the lies of The New York Times' 1619 Project" that grounds the nation's founding in slavery.

•
"Instead of reality where our nation was founded in freedom and has spread that freedom to all of its citizens and has lost hundreds of thousands of lives defending freedom around the globe."

•
"The left's goal has long been to undermine America. They feel they are close enough to success to be honest about it."
Girl, 14, sentenced in death of Uber Eats driver Mohammad Anwar (Fox 07/06/2021)
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"Is the law protecting us or them?" she asked. "Why was she not in a facility that day?"
Ex-acting ICE director: Root cause of border 'chaos' is reversal of Trump’s immigration policies (Fox 07/05/2021)
GOP lawmakers split over mandatory vaccines for US military members (Fox 07/05/2021)
Cruz excoriates Cori Bush's 'stolen land' tweet as 'divisive lies' (Fox 07/05/2021)
•
"Hateful, divisive lies, The Left hates America. Believe them when they tell you this."
Dems' 'Defund the Police' – here's their desperate ploy to escape blame for rising crime rates (Fox 07/05/2021)
Mike Pompeo: On July 4, celebrate what makes America great (Fox 07/06/2021)
Trey Gowdy: America's 'beauty and uniqueness' is her relentless pursuit of the impossible (Fox 07/04/2021)
Jason Chaffetz: July 4, 2021: 5 reasons to be grateful for America this Independence Day (Fox /20)
Former White House physician says Democrats should follow through on cognitive demands and test Biden (Fox 07/03/2021)
•
Following speculation on Trump's mental aptitude one year into his presidency, he agreed to take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) – a 30 point exam that tests for memory impairment.

•
"The far left and the mainstream media were demanding that be the new standard for anybody who's going to lead our country and be our Commander-in-Chief and our head of state."

•
"I'm just saying I agree with them at this point — we need to get it done."

•
... argued that Trump set a new precedent regarding a president's mental assessment – a sentiment at one point shared by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

•
In October 2020, Pelosi introduced a bill that would create a bipartisan commission of health advisors to evaluate the ability of a president to serve in the highest office in the U.S.

•
"This legislation applies to future presidents, but we are reminded of the necessity of action by the health of the current president," she told reporters last year. "It's not about any of us making a judgment about the president's well-being."

•
Republicans have voiced their shared concerns when it comes to Biden.

•
"I think he's demonstrating every single day that there is something going on, You don't need to be a physician to look at this behavior and see there's something concerning happening."

•
"You can go back – there's forty years of tape of this man – he's always made gaffes and stuff but these are different, he's confused, he's disoriented."

•
"I'm just asking them, when you do the physical exam include the cognitive assessment, As far as I'm concerned the standard precedent has been set and they need to follow and do the same."

•
See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Egyptian man charged in Boston rabbi stabbing overstayed student visa, was in US illegally: ICE (Fox 07/03/2021)
•
Khaled Awad, 24, allegedly approached Rabbi Shlomo Noginski with a gun and demanded his car keys, at which point Noginski ran across the street to a park, where Awad stabbed him in the arm multiple times.

•
He entered the United States two years ago for college, but his legal status recently lapsed.

•
Noginski, a father of 12 who moved to Boston from Israel to serve the city's Russian-speaking Jewish community, was released from a local hospital on Thursday night after being treated for his injuries.

•
Awad allegedly pointed what appeared to be a firearm at police when they located him shortly after the stabbing. Three officers then drew their guns and told him to drop his weapon, which he did.

•
As police were arresting him, Awad allegedly kicked one of the officers in the stomach.
Massachusetts police arrest 11 men after standoff with armed group that 'does not recognize our laws' (Fox 07/03/2021)
•
The men said they have reassured the police they are not sovereign citizens, black identity extremists, anti-police or anti-government.
'Proud' to be American? Students struggle to answer (Fox 07/03/2021)
•
"I feel sorry for those young students. They remind me of my past, living in communist China for 23 years, and I was indoctrinated to believe everything the government told me and that Chairman Mao [Zedong] told me."

•
... added that "there are millions of people who would like to switch places with them."

•
None of the people interviewed in the video would say the United States is the "greatest country in the world," but none named another "better country than the United States."

•
... several interviewees said they would be willing to give up their U.S. citizenship. Some of the interviewees also said their college educations influenced how they view the United States.
Thomas, Gorsuch say court should revisit libel standard for public figures (Fox 07/02/2021)
Mumford and Sons' Winston Marshall talks decision to quit band after political backlash: A 'moral...' (Fox 07/02/2021)
•
... he quit the band after sparking a social media storm in March by tweeting admiration for "Unmasked," a book by right-wing writer-activist Andy Ngo that attacked far-left militant groups collectively known as antifa.

•
"I feel like I got my integrity back and I feel like I got my soul back. I feel good now."

•
"It was a really difficult thing, but I didn't see another way out of this sort of moral conundrum that I found myself in. And so this felt like the right way forward."

•
... Marshall said he had ultimately decided to leave so that he could "speak freely without them suffering the consequences."

•
Despite stepping away from the band to more easily talk about political issues, Marshall previously apologized for his praise of the book in a lengthy statement shared in a since-deleted tweet.

•
"Over the past few days, I have come to better understand the pain caused by the book I endorsed. I have offended not only a lot of people I don't know but also those closest to me, including my bandmates and for that, I am truly sorry. As a result of my actions I am taking time away from the band to examine my blind spots."

•
"For now, please know that I realise how my endorsements have the potential to be viewed as approvals of hatred, divisive behavior. I apologize, as this was not at all my intention."

•
... noted how his apology merely led to more backlash. "Rather predictably another viral mob came after me, this time for the sin of apologising."
Trump’s company charged on narrow grounds despite 3 years of investigation (Fox 07/02/2021)
Fed banks vs Sen. Toomey in war of words over climate and social justice issues (Fox 07/01/2021)
•
Mr. Toomey believes research by the Fed banks on climate and social justice issues doesn't fall within the U.S. central bank's mandate to promote price stability and maximum sustainable job growth.
COVID unmasked the public education cartel and teachers, school boards, unions can't handle it (Fox 07/01/2021)
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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump adviser Jason Miller to launch GETTR, a 'cancel-free' social media platform (Fox 07/01/2021)
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"The District Attorney is supposed to be apolitical, but everyone knows that the only reason they are proceeding with this case is because it is ‘Trump'."
Trump Organization, CFO Weisselberg plead not guilty to tax charges (Fox 07/01/2021)
North Korean defector says US Olympian Gwen Berry's flag protest 'unthinkable' (Fox 07/01/2021)
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"If she did the exact same thing at this very moment, if she was North Korean, not only herself will be executed, [also] eight generations of her family can be sent to political prison camp and execution."

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"I was a slave," Park said. "I was sold in China in 2007 as a child at 13 years old. The people actually called slavery under Chinese Communist Party in North Korea. There is actual injustice."

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"And the fact that she's complaining about this country, the most tolerant country, she doesn't really understand history."

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"In North Korea, people who are actually oppressed don't even know they're oppressed. The fact that she's complaining about oppression and systemic racism – she does not understand that she's so privileged."

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"I just hope they go to North Korea, China and see how humans are being oppressed. And they will truly understand how valuable the freedom that we have is."
Sean Hannity: Biden told migrants to 'surge the border' and results have been catastrophic (Fox 07/01/2021)
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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump Organization CFO Alan Weisselberg surrenders to Manhattan DA ahead of expected tax-related... (Fox 07/01/2021)
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Weisselberg is expected to be indicted Thursday afternoon. The Trump Organization itself is also expected to face charges of fraud over perks Weisselberg received that were not counted as income, and thus, allegedly criminally evaded taxes.

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"Allen Weisselberg is a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who has worked at the Trump Organization for 48 years. He is now being used by the Manhattan district attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President," a Trump Organization spokesperson told...

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"The district attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other District Attorney would ever think of bringing. This is not justice; this is politics."

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Vance's office has been investigating former President Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and the Trump Organization for nearly five years for alleged tax fraud.

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In a separate case, New York Attorney General Letitia James last month informed the Trump Organization that their investigation has transitioned to a criminal one, after initially being a civil matter.
President Trump addresses Biden reversing border security policies: ‘It was over’ (Fox 07/01/2021)
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"It was over, We stopped a lot of the drugs that were coming in, which is very tough to do. And they have some real criminals bringing this stuff in. They have the toughest people, these cartels. These are tough, smart people."

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Trump called the uptick in human and drug trafficking a "disgrace" since his administration had it "largely stopped" for months, as well as catch and release.

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"We in Texas have been left to our own devices to fend for ourselves, just like we're some outpost somewhere along some territory that the federal government doesn't care about anymore," Abbott said.

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"It's not like it was with President Trump. He cared about Texas. He stepped up to Texas. He built the wall in Texas."

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Abbott argued that the first mistake the Biden administration made was neglecting to enforce immigration laws already passed by Congress, leading to an open border system.

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Since the state of Texas has declared a disaster, the governor announced that migrant arrests will be made.

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"The penalties have increased for anybody trespassing, anybody who vandalizes anything, and they're going to go to jail."
Tucker joins calls for probe into NSA spying on him; says Biden 'redefining' dissidents as extremists (Fox 07/01/2021)
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"I don't have to listen to your phone calls to know what you are doing. If I know every single phone call you made, I am able to determine every single person you talk to. I can get a pattern about your life that is very, very intrusive," Biden told CBS News in 2006.

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Biden said at the time he would explicitly not trust that "the president and the vice president ... were doing the right thing" – referring to Republicans George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

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"Joe Biden is in charge of the national security apparatus, and his administration has it turned on Americans who he has redefined as combatants domestic terrorists, and White supremacists. Where does this go from here?" Carlson said. "We think we know and we are deeply concerned about it"...

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"Now, here we are after the Trump years in the Democratic Party and journalism, in general, has aligned with the CIA, NSA, and FBI ... and so in response to the resort you did, they would think other journalists – just out of self-interest even if they dislike ideology and you – would say we want to know using your powers in order to spy on journalists they dislike," said Greenwald.
Laptop shows Joe Biden attended meetings between Hunter and his Mexican business partners (NYP 06/30/2021)
Trump, at U.S.-Mexican border, slams Biden for ‘open, really dangerous’ border (Fox 06/30/2021)
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"There has never been a border so secure as the southern border that we had, and now it's opened up."

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"We had all these great polices going and they were ended. One day, they were all ended. This didn't take place over three months or five months. This took place in the first week, they were ended. It was almost like they were ended because I did it," Trump argued...

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Speaking ahead of Trump, Abbott called the former president "a great friend to Texas" who "stepped up and he secured our border and kept Texas and America safe."

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Abbott charged that "things have changed so quickly and so dramatically under the Biden administration. It has been amazing and disastrous."

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"The people of Texas have been pleading for us to be able to step up and help restore safety and security in their lives and is exactly why Texas is stepping up and doing a job that is truly the federal government's job – a job that you did but a job that the Biden administration is completely failing us on."

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"There is one place to solve all the problems on the border and that is on the border and that's exactly where the Biden administration needs to devote their resources to get the job done," Abbott stressed...

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Bill Cosby released from Pennsylvania prison after sex assault case thrown out (Fox 06/30/2021)
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See related A Tale of Two Bills (Glenn McCoy, 07/09/2015) cartoon from Adult picture album
Tucker on NSA surveillance claim: 'No denial' from White House; agency response 'infuriatingly dishonest' (Fox 06/30/2021)
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"Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air."

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"NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States. With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting."

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"Last night on this show we made a very straightforward claim: NSA has read my private emails without my permission. Period. Tonight's statement does not deny that," Carlson said.

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Carlson called Nakasone a "highly-political left-wing four-star general," and recounted that an NSA receptionist refused to connect his team to Nakasone's office during a call...

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... "Nakasone's assistant seemed shocked that someone whose email the NSA is reading would dare to call the director himself."

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"Shut up, serf. Obey," he remarked in characterizing the dynamic. "They claimed Nakasone wasn't there."

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"Did the Biden administration read my emails? NSA officials refuse to say," Carlson said. "In a very heated follow-up conversation 20 minutes ago, they refused even to explain why they won't answer that simple question."

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The message NSA was sending him, he said: "We can do whatever we want." "We can read your personal texts and emails. We can send veiled threats your way to brush you back if we don't like your politics. We can do anything. And there's literally nothing you can do about any of it. We're in charge, and you're not."

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... the American people writ large will likely have to get used what he characterized as the federal government targeting dissidents ala China, noting that earlier this month, President Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland "classified tens of millions of patriotic Americans as potential domestic terrorists [and] White supremacist saboteurs."

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"Some faceless hack in a powerful government agency decides he doesn't like what you think, so he's going to hurt you and there's nothing you can do about it? That could happen to you. And when it does — trust us — NBC News will call you a delusional Q-Anon conspiracy theorist for complaining about it."
House votes to remove Confederate busts and statues from the Capitol (Fox 06/29/2021)
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Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., condemned the Confederate statue removal effort as an infringement on states' rights and blasted "cancel culture" and Democrats' "intolerance."

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Brooks defended his home state of Alabama's statute of Joseph Wheeler at the Capitol. He pointed out that Wheeler was the only Confederate general to later become a United States general and earned burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

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"We have a lot of people serving in the Capitol right now, who in my judgment, are highly racist against Caucasians," Brooks told ... of some of his Democratic colleagues who push critical race theory. "But that does not warrant their expulsion."

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"Let me state a simple fact: all the statues that are being removed by this bill are statues of Democrats," GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in announcing his support for the bill.
Trump: Media, Big Tech 'went crazy' on me for saying coronavirus emerged from Wuhan lab (Fox 06/29/2021)
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"When I said it came from the lab in Wuhan people went crazy. Now, it could be it's probably that I said it ... No matter what you do, they want to go against ... These people, I don't believe they love our country, I'll be honest with you. But with the lab ... even if you were weren't sure, why would they be so vociferous? As you remember, they went crazy when I said that. Now, they're all saying that I was right."

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... poked fun at CNN for its ratings collapse this year ("it's probably the only good thing about me not being in office").
Tucker Carlson: NSA is spying on this show (Fox 06/29/2021)
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"... we heard from a whistleblower within the US government who reached out to warn us that the NSA, the National Security Agency, is monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air."

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"It's illegal for the NSA to spy on American citizens. It's a crime. It's not a third-world country. Things like that should not happen in America."

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"But unfortunately, they do happen, and in this case, they did happen. The whistleblower who is in a position to know repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on that could have only come directly from my texts and emails. There's no other possible source for that information, period."

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"The NSA captured that information without our knowledge and did it for political reasons. The Biden administration is spying on us. We have confirmed that."

•
"Only Congress can force transparency on the intelligence agencies and they should do that immediately. Spying on opposition journalists is incompatible with democracy."

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"If they are doing it to us, and again, they are definitely doing it to us, they are almost certainly doing it to others. This is scary and we need to stop it right away."
Guardian Angels' Sliwa, NYC GOP nominee: I'll end 'All-Out-Crazy' AOC's, de Blasio's 'handcuffing'... (Fox 06/29/2021)
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"AOC-All-Out-Crazy by the way has armed security officers with her at all times like the rest of her Democrat Socialists of America."

•
"The justice warriors, who are sanctimonious hypocrites, would deny public safety to average people by defunding the police, by not wanting prisons and by putting handcuffs on the police instead of the criminals. So I decided to run because I've always been battling crime, I never surrender, I never retreat."

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"You remember last summer when the rioters and looters and shooters took over the city streets as "Comrade" de Blasio told the police officers to stand back, I was out there [with the Guardian Angels] battling them: no property, no product, and we knew [protesters] would be attacking people and they continue to do it as such."

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"The big problem we have here is we not only need more police and need to refund the police but there is an issue that affects police all over the country, qualified immunity. It is being taken from them."
Leo Terrell slams professors who claim 'standard English' is racist: 'I find it insulting' (Fox 06/29/2021)
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"... these far-left professors are somehow claiming that teaching proper English is racist and that we should embrace ebonics, poor English, improper English. In essence, they are trying to claim that improper English is proper and I find that absolutely insulting and it calls for lower expectations of Black kids. It's very racist in and of itself."

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"I can't say this clearly enough. There is absolutely no systemic racism in this country," he said, adding there is "no data" to support the liberal professors' views in this case.
GOP congressman says Biden's infrastructure plan is '5-lane highway' to socialism (Fox 06/29/2021)
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"When Americans think of infrastructure they think of roads, bridges, and airports, Not unrealistic climate goals that increase our dependence on communist China or social welfare programs that the Far Left deems ‘human infrastructure.'"...

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Illinois teacher sues school district, claims 'equity' push violates US Constitution (Fox 06/29/2021)
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"By vowing to define its teachers and students solely by their race, District 65 promotes and reinforces a view of race essentialism that divides Americans into groups based solely on their skin color."

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"District 65 teaches its teachers and students that their whole identity comes from the color of their skin. It teaches them to hate each other. It teaches them not only how to be racist, but that they should be racist. This is illegal, wrong, and must be stopped."
Kristi Noem slams Biden admin's Mount Rushmore fireworks ban, says decision is political payback (Fox 06/29/2021)
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"Our belief is truly that it was political. I believe that Biden administration pulled the fireworks from us to be punitive. They did not like us hosting it last year in the middle of COVID. They did not like the fact that President Trump was here celebrating with us, and that they had the ability to stop us from doing it this year. And they're doing it for arbitrary reasons."

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"They don't want to celebrate America by honoring these founders on our mountain that led our country through challenging times, They have been taking down monuments across this country, and South Dakota has stood here and proudly held up our former leaders, recognizing that we can learn everything from everybody in the past that has led us. We never once said they were perfect, but we did say they were important to the foundation of this country, our freedoms and the constitution that still keeps America special."

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"The Biden administration is trying to prevent us from recognizing how unique, special America is and from truly celebrating the honest history of this country."
Georgia AG Carr responds to Biden lawsuit: Americans should be concerned about 'weaponized' DOJ (Fox 06/28/2021)
National Archives criticized by Republicans over report labeling Rotunda example of 'structural racism' (Fox 06/28/2021)
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"America should be celebrated, not reviled — especially by our own federal government. This report is a prime example of government waste. Taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund a woke agenda seeking to revise America's history."

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"This task force's report is another outrageous example of how the Left's toxic ‘woke' cancel culture has seeped into America's federal government."

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"Our Founding Fathers gave us a set of principles and aspirations that have enabled America to make tremendous strides towards equality and justice for all."

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"Every time the left inappropriately uses the word, they are cheapening and lessening the real significance of the actual definition. One thing is abundantly clear; everything America represents is racist and evil to Democrats."

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"They will continue to tarnish this nation until they successfully change it. My goal is to make them unsuccessful."

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"History provides perspective and lessons learned — some hard lessons. Rewriting or erasing history is a dangerous game that sets a perilous precedent, We ought to look to our past as a guiding compass to improve our future."

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"The woke left wants to fundamentally dismantle the fabric of the United States, They know that if they can reimagine the literal structure encapsulating our founding documents, they are just steps away from deconstructing the founding documents inside."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed for calling concern over spike in crime 'hysteria' (Fox 06/28/2021)
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"AOC is mocking ordinary people as 'hysterical' who are afraid of violent crime in their neighborhood: people who, unlike her, don't have reams of private security."

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"Yet she just acted to ensure $2 billion more in spending on the police that protects her."

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See related Almost Died... (Michael Ramirez, 02/09/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Critical race theory spreading – but parents pushing back and here's how conservatives can help (Fox 06/27/2021)
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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Rep. Andy Biggs: Kamala Harris 'visits' border – here's the real reason she went (Fox 06/27/2021)
Every banned phrase and terrified administrator is a feather in the cap of the mindless woke (Fox 06/26/2021)
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Every banned phrase and every terrified administrator is a feather in the cap of the mindless woke.

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And the more we indulge them, the more insatiable they become. It's the tyranny of the few vs the cowardice of the many.

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My rule of thumb: let them destroy each other. While we go to a picnic.
Facebook could be held liable for sex trafficking on its platform, court rules (Fox 06/26/2021)
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Facebook contended that it is protected under Section 230 – an internet law that says online platforms are not responsible for third-party content posted on the service's site.

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"Holding internet platforms accountable for words or actions of their users is one thing, and the federal precedent uniformly dictates that section 230 does not allow it."

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"Holding internet platforms accountable for their own misdeeds is quite another thing. This is particularly the case for human trafficking."

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During the Trump administration, the GOP started taking aim at Section 230, which it believes unfairly permits political dominance by Democrats on social media platforms, contributing to what has been dubbed "cancel culture."

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But Democrats on the Hill have recently shown a bipartisan interest to more heavily regulate social media companies and overhaul Section 230, following the attack on the U.S. Capitol in January.

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Reforming Section 230 could mean that large companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google are held to more stringent standards regarding what is published on their platforms.

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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Republicans demand apology after Democrat calls congressman 'racist' for CRT questions (Fox 06/25/2021)
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"Virginia is proof that the politicized, factually bankrupt curriculum, which Biden's Department of Education seeks to finance and nationalize around the country is a waste of money and is spreading a dangerous ideology."

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"Critical race theory is dividing communities and teaching children that their race, not their character, is what defines who they are and their relationship to others. This ideology has no place in our classrooms."

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"The comments in the congressional hearing is indicative of the division and hate this close-minded ideology promotes."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
McAfee widow disputes reported suicide (Fox 06/25/2021)
Sen. Marsha Blackburn: Question Fauci on COVID, China – here's what Senate must do to learn the truth (Fox 06/25/2021)
Joint Chiefs chair defends study of critical race theory: 'I've read Lenin. That doesn't make me a communist' (Fox 06/23/2021)
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... Milley argued it was important for military cadets and officers "to be open-minded and be widely read" about concepts across the ideological spectrum. He also referenced the need to study the root causes of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol amid a broader effort in the Defense Department to address extremism.

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"As a professor of political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I teach critical race theories to our nation's future military leaders because it is vital that cadets understand the history of the racism that has shaped both foreign and domestic policy," Garcia explained.

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... notable opponent of critical race theory Chris Rufo explained ... "They're teaching concepts like white privilege, white fragility, internalized white supremacy, white guilt, spirit murder. They're teaching the idea that that even elementary school kids can be labeled as oppressors. It's a really deeply disturbing phenomenon that we're seeing all over the country."
Jesse Kelly calls for 'razing' the US public education system, as nation suffering from... (Fox 06/23/2021)
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"It sounds hokey, but the reason we are in this predicament in this country is simply patriotism. We have a patriotism problem. If you have enough a high enough percentage of your population that loves their country, you're going to have a good country."

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"Why? Because if you have so many people, if there are 100 people in the country, and 85 of them wake up every day saying this is a great place. Well, why do I feed my kids? Because I love my kids. Therefore, I feel like I have a duty to do right by my kids. Same way works in a country you wake up in every single day."

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"If 85 out of 100 people wake up every day and think this place sucks, well, then you're in a lot of trouble and we're in a lot of trouble."

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"That's where they're learning the anti-patriotism. That's where they're learning the anti-Americanism... What do you learn in grade school? Well, slavery and, of course, we slaughtered the Native Americans wholesale, and that was pretty much America."

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
New in-depth interview sees Trump call out Dems, WHO, mainstream media on Wuhan lab dismissal (Fox 06/23/2021)
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"The Democrats fought it all the way — I don't know why, it doesn't make them look better or worse if it was Wuhan or someplace else, but they fought it."

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"Maybe because, that's what I thought. If it was somebody else, they would have let it go forward."

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"They love to cancel out certain people — I guess I'd be at the top of the list."
Tech entrepreneur John McAfee found dead hours after Spanish court approves extradition to US (Fox 06/23/2021)
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"In a democracy, power is given not taken," McAfee said in his last tweet on June 18. "But it is still power. Love, compassion, caring have no use for it. But it is fuel for greed, hostility, jealousy... All power corrupts. Take care which powers you allow a democracy to wield."
George Floyd statues are 'racist,' used by Biden, Dems as Marxist ploy to 'denigrate' Black men: Whitlock (Fox 06/23/2021)
Critical race theory is 'designed to divide' and parents are right to call it out: Douglas Murray (Fox 06/23/2021)
Rep. Lee Zeldin: Critical race theory's radical politicization of education undermines who we are as Americans (Fox 06/23/2021)
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Our American system can only survive if our children have a foundation of respect for our fundamental rights, our Constitution, and our uniqueness as individuals who do not derive their personhood from membership in socially constructed identity groups.
Native American business owner rips 'hypocritical' protesters for disrupting pipeline work in Minnesota (Fox 06/23/2021)
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"It's very hypocritical to travel somewhere to protest oil when you're using... gas and diesel-powered vehicles," Gordon remarked.

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"Then when you do get there, you end up destroying equipment, leaving debris and garbage all over, most of them plastic products from water bottles and packaging."
Indiana AG releases 'Parents Bill of Rights' to counter influences like critical race theory (Fox 06/23/2021)
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"Education policy and curriculum should reflect the values of Indiana families while meeting the mandatory requirements set forth in law."

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"The single, most effective way to ensure school accountability is for parents to engage in their children's education. The Parents Bill of Rights empowers them to do just that."

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The six "rights" include things like "the right and expectation to participate in the selection and approval of academic standards for the State of Indiana."

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Another reads: "You have the right and expectation to question and review the curriculum taught in your child's school by questioning local school board and school administrators."

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"Parents have a fundamental right to know what is being taught in the classroom."

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"In a time when many public schools districts are adopting divisive and pseudoscientific ideologies such as critical race theory, parents must have open access to the curriculum, training programs, and enrichment activities. They deserve a Parent's Bill of Rights that protects their right to conscience and their children's right to a decent education that reflects their values. This is a necessary first step."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Whitlock: Veneration of George Floyd is racist and must be stopped (06/22/2021)
Iowa critical race theory docs show educators pushed program before state ban: 'Indoctrination not education' (Fox 06/23/2021)
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Iowa has declared critical race theory "discriminatory indoctrination," and a ban on it is set to take effect in just over a week – but leaked documents show that a large area education agency meant to support special needs students was workshopping how it might implement the controversial program even as lawmakers were finalizing the prohibition.

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"This is indoctrination not education, And it's exactly why I took action to ban teaching divisive concepts and critical race theory in Iowa schools. Kids need to be taught how to think and not what to think."

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"We absolutely should not be indoctrinating our children to judge one another by the color of one's skin, gender, or sexual identity, and I'm glad Gov. Reynolds has taken action to prevent that."

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"Critical Race Theory teaches students to label, stereotype, and demonize people based on their race, gender or sexual identity rather than judge people based on their character, We cannot fight racism with more racism."

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Virginia's Loudoun County School Board silences public comment after raucous meeting, 2 men arrested (Fox 06/22/2021)
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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
More than 30,000 American veterans, service members have died by suicide in post-9/11 wars, report says (Fox 06/22/2021)
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A staggering 30,177 American active military personnel and veterans involved in post-9/11 wars are estimated to have died by suicide – a figure at least four times greater than the 7,057 service members who were killed in combat during that time, a new research paper says.
Senate confirms Kiran Ahuja, nominee with critical race theory ties, to run federal personnel office (Fox 06/22/2021)
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"This is the position responsible for making hiring, payroll and training decisions that affect millions of federal employees," McConnell said last week.

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"The president's nominee has made statements expressing sympathy for the discredited, ahistorical claims about our nation's origins that form the backbone of so-called ‘critical race theory.'"...
New e-book aims to help parents 'combat' CRT in schools (Fox 06/22/2021)
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"Rejecting critical race theory is one of the most important fights for conservative grassroots since the Tea Party movement."

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"The name of the game is transparency. What we're calling on parents ... to do is to start by researching their schools, and the toolkit walks through how to do this; submitting [Freedom of Information Act] requests to school board members, superintendents, principles. All of this information is available to them."

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... states like Oregon and Virginia have come under fire for promoting ideas about racist structures in mathematics.

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One program, in particular, alleged that white supremacy infiltrated math classrooms and manifested itself in the focus on finding the "right answer."

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It similarly blamed white supremacy for objectivity as "the belief that there is such a thing as being objective or ‘neutral.'"...

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Garbage in... (Bob Gorrell, 05/16/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
'Miracle on Ice' captain couldn't believe US Olympian said she'd burn flag: 'I thought it was a prank' (Fox 06/22/2021)
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"I actually couldn't believe it. I mean, first of all, burning the American flag anywhere is disgusting. To use your forum on the podium of the Olympic Games, I was like really, could someone actually think about doing that? ... I just couldn't even imagine the mindset of someone thinking that made sense."
Minnesota girl slams school board over BLM posters after 'no politics' promise (Fox 06/21/2021)
Peter and Daniel Arbeeny: We are COVID orphans. Here are 12 Qs for Dr. Fauci on Cuomo's nursing home moves (Fox 06/21/2021)
Sen. Blackburn slams Fauci over COVID-19 lab leak theory dismissal, says he 'shielded' China from scrutiny (Fox 06/21/2021)
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"Whether intentional or not, Dr. Fauci's statements shielded the Chinese Communist Party in covering up its role in creating this deadly pandemic by downplaying the possibility that the virus leaked from a lab."

•
"Fauci, along with the mainstream media, refused to take the lab leak theory seriously, and until recently, went to great lengths to portray it as ‘nutty.' Big tech companies like Facebook went so far as to censor discussion about the origins of COVID. No amount of revisionism will change these facts."

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See related Wizards of Billowing Bovine Fodder (Antonio Branco, 06/15/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Obama ethics chief: Hunter Biden selling art at 'obviously inflated prices' to mystery buyers feels 'grifty' (Fox 06/21/2021)
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"The notion of a president's son capitalizing on that relationship by selling art at obviously inflated prices and keeping the public in the dark about who's funneling money to him has a shameful and grifty feel to it."

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See related Pro Art Show (Antonio Branco, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Quid-pro picture album
Levin: Don't be fooled, the Squad is nothing more than a 'cabal of Marxists who hate this country' (Fox 06/20/2021)
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"They talk about the Squad. This is not a Squad, this is a cabal of Marxists who hate this country — some of them first, second-generation immigrants into the country, who bring their attitudes, who bring their indoctrination into the country and are at war, right there in the halls of Congress, against our own country."

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"They have found a home in the Democratic party. The Democratic party has no intention of doing anything about this. What has [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi done? She has...been weak."

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As long as the United States allows unvetted immigrants to enter through Biden's open border policy, Marxism will continue to pervade American institutions...

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"You have people in our country who welcome them by trashing America from elementary school to middle school, to high school and beyond, trash America, the media, the President of the United States, who trashes his own country in the most devilish and vile terms, well, people aren't gonna assimilate into our culture when our culture is under attack from within."

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"The media won't say it, they are just peaceful protesters trying to bring in racial justice...this has nothing to do with racial justice."

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"This is a full-scale multi-level intersectional attack on or system of government, on our founding, on our principles. "And the biggest political party in the country — the Democratic party represents this movement. The media in this country with very few exceptions represents this movement."
Michael W. Smith: Father's Day lessons – 6 principles Dad taught me about life, love and parenting (Fox 06/20/2021)
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser blasts Biden, Sanders for associating with 'Marxists': 'It starts from the top' (Fox 06/20/2021)
•
... described as the "Marxism" of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and the physical and political "embrace" by President Joe Biden of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. – the latter a member of the far-left "Squad."

•
"Look at Bernie Sanders. Nobody dares to seriously question Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is a Marxist, If you were to ask Black Lives Matter members or leaders if they support any politician, it would be Bernie Sanders."

•
He contrasted the relative silence in the media and those in Washington about shooter James Hodgkinson and his vocal support for Sanders with the treatment of "every single Trump supporter as a White Supremacist" in the time since right-wing activists broke into the U.S. Capitol and assaulted law enforcement on January 6.

•
"When there's violence done by Bernie Sanders supporters, the media basically squelch it ... [but Attorney General Merrick Garland then] gives this outrageous speech [this week] where he draws in the media to his own employees at the Department of Justice, where I was once chief of staff," said Levin, who worked in that role under Attorney General Ed Meese.

•
"There's a lot going on in this country in terms of a movement towards tyranny that concerns me greatly."

•
Jasser said such a disparate dynamic "starts with Biden from the top." "He had a tarmac staged embrace of Rashida Tlaib in what he called her a fighter, called her courageous. And she is no different than [Palestinian Leader Mahmoud] Abbas's Fatah in her secularism and her embrace of Hamas."

•
Jasser also described fellow far-left "Squad" member Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis as "basically a Hamas supporter. At the end of the day, the Democratic Party is embracing them. You see now sort of an unleashing of jihadis."

•
On the regional level, Jasser said this emergence of extremism was evidenced earlier this month when Fairfax County, Va., school board member Abrar Omeish gave an incendiary speech to the graduates

•
The president of the student government introduced her, noting that she campaigned for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and that her father, Esam Omeish, was a "leader and board member of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center" – the namesake of a mosque attended by two 9/11 hijackers in 2001, the radical imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, and Nidal Hasan — the 2009 Fort Hood shooter.

•
At another point in the address, Omeish, 24, told the students in Arabic to remember their "jihad."

•
When asked by Levin why Democrats are embracing these types of individuals, Jasser replied that they are ideologically "collectivist."

•
"They're anti-American. They really don't appreciate or love the institutions. But in America, which is based on our founding fathers, our constitutionalism, our classic liberalism of liberty, if you will, but at the end of the day, Mark, they're afraid of them."
Georgia plans to remove 100,000 'outdated' names from voter rolls (Fox 06/20/2021)
•
"... Bottom line, there is no legitimate reason to keep ineligible voters on the rolls."
Ex-top cop Bill Bratton: Passionate hatred of police and policing is over the line (Fox 06/20/2021)
•
Implicit bias training does not prevent murder. It cannot make an honorable human being out of someone who is not one. It is incumbent upon the police department to staff itself with the members of the public who deserve the position.

•
Some cops should not be cops. There has been a torrent of examples of bad cops doing bad things, which has led to the national outcry against police officers and policing in general.

•
While granting that horrific individual acts of cruelty and abuse have occurred far more often than is acceptable, I think the passionate hatred of police and policing is over the line. And when the retaliation against police officers gets violent, no matter how historically understandable the righteous rage, that is not only unacceptable but illegal.

•
You can't stone cops and firebomb their squad cars and think, one, that it is acceptable because of past grievances, and two, that you're going to get away with it.

•
Unlike with other professions in which bad people do terrible things, we have a tendency in our society to paint all police officers with one brush. But there are corporate executives who milk their companies of millions of dollars and engage in stock fraud; this doesn't define every corporate executive as a thief. There are priests who rape children, yet it is accepted that not every clergyperson is a pedophile. There are Major League Baseball players who cheat to win, but it doesn't mean that every major leaguer is a cheat.

•
No matter that statistics prove them wrong, the community is now doing exactly what we train our officers and officials not to do: stereotyping and lumping all people of one background into the same group.

•
This is a component of the modern tragedy.
Illinois father goes viral for speech against critical race theory: 'Bunch of nonsense' and virtue... (Fox 06/18/2021)
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"To me it's a whole bunch of nonsense, virtue signaling, playing off people's emotion. The only race there is the human race."

•
"We know as children grow, they just see other kids and they will immediately start playing."

•
"How do I have two medical degrees if I'm sitting here oppressed?" ... "How'd I get where I am right now if some White man kept me down?"

•
"When it comes down to it people are people. My sons never had to talk about White or Asian people. They know they were people. They were their friends, they played with them. They never once came home and said said ‘Dad, my White friend across the street.' They just said ‘my friend.'...

•
"The fact that people want to focus so much on race; I don't get why they try to focus so much on that. What is so important about the color of my skin?"'...
Critical race theory is as racist as 'the Klansman in white sheets': Ted Cruz (Fox 06/18/2021)
•
"Well, it's a theory that derives from Marxism. Carl Marx viewed the entire world as a conflict between classes, between the owners of capital and the working men and women, the proletariat. A fundamental battle in society."

•
"Critical race theory takes that same Marxist concept except it replaces ‘class' with ‘race,'" he continued. "And it says all of America and all of the world is a battle between the races."

•
... critical race theory "seeks to turn us against each other" and looks to stoke hatred among people if they have "different-colored skin."

•
"And let me tell you right now: critical race theory is bigoted. It is a lie, and it is every bit as racist as the Klansman in white sheets."

•
The senator said that, "as a Christian and an American," he loves his neighbor regardless of the color of their skin, sex, faith, creed or ethnicity, adding that "we are commanded to love."

•
"Period. The end, And those who would divide us, those who would spread lies. It is evil."
Supreme Court made 'powerful statement' by unanimously siding with Catholic foster agency (Fox 06/17/2021)
St. Louis couple Mark, Patricia McCloskey pay fines, lose guns in guilty plea over encounter with... (Fox 06/17/2021)
•
"They dropped all the weapons charges and they charged me with the lowest level of misdemeanor, which is something called assault four, which alleges that I purposely placed at least one other person in apprehension of immediate physical injury."

•
"I said, ‘Well, I guess I did. That was all point of the guns.'"

•
"It's kind of humorous for me at any rate, the charge they finally settled on for me, because it's exactly what I did do. That's the whole point of the Second Amendment. We stood out there with guns, and that placed them in imminent fear of physical injury, and they back off."

•
"The good news is we're not in front of charges now, so I don't have any problem getting myself another AR."

•
"If we didn't have somebody named George Soros in the world, we never would have been charged with anything."
Hunter Biden's art scam – with his work selling for $500K, we need to know who's buying (Fox 06/17/2021)
•
... Hunter's art is being priced between $75,000 and half a million – an impressive sum for a neophyte, particularly one with no formal training.

•
But before anyone gets too impressed, let's think for a minute how convenient this arrangement might be for anyone wanting to buy access to the president of the United States.

•
Art is subjective. Who is to say just how much any piece is worth? The purchases are confidential. Who is to know if it's a foreign government, a drug cartel, or a Ukrainian oligarch buying access to the artist or his family?

•
Given the history of this particular son of this particular president, who could blame an oligarch for wanting to try?

•
We already know Hunter Biden has a history of leveraging his relationship with his father to score lucrative business deals and board positions.

•
We already know President Biden has a history of meeting with his son's clients and lying about it.

•
Even if everything about this were above board, it's a magnet for corruption. And I don't think for a minute that everything about this is above board.

•
With an art show scheduled in New York this fall, Hunter Biden's new status as a serious artist is an open invitation to influence buyers.

•
Just last summer, a U.S. Senate report detailed how Russian oligarchs are using the art world to launder money.

•
"Secrecy, anonymity and a lack of regulation create an environment ripe for laundering money and evading sanctions."

•
Asked what his father thinks of his art, Hunter Biden told ... "My dad loves everything that I do, and so, I'll leave it at that." No doubt.

•
After four years of unending exasperation from Democrats about the dealings of the Trump legitimate businesses, established before Donald Trump entered the political world, it would be reasonable to expect Hunter Biden to get some level of scrutiny. A few questions perhaps?

•
Have we heard a Democrat mention the "emoluments clause" yet? I don't think so.

•
Hunter Biden started marketing his art after daddy was running for president. Now that dad is the president, suddenly critics are gushing about how good it is, and it's value will certainly rise.

•
With money flowing by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, it's time for Hunter Biden to show some responsibility and accountability by disclosing who is writing these big checks.

•
See related 15 Million Dollar Minimum... (Mike Shelton, 10/15/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Atlanta community moves to separate from city over crime spike: 'People have had enough' (Fox 06/17/2021)
Portland's police riot team resigns after officer indicted over alleged assault on photographer (Fox 06/17/2021)
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All 50 of Portland police's highly trained rapid response unit voted unanimously to resign on Wednesday during a union meeting in response to the recent indictment of Officer Corey Budworth for allegedly assaulting a photographer with his baton during as an overnight riot broke out last August.

•
"Unfortunately, this decorated public servant has been caught in the crossfire of agenda-driven city leaders and a politicized criminal justice system," the Portland Police Association said in an initial statement...

•
That night, according to the police union, a group of about 200 demonstrators – many equipped with tactical helmets, faces covered, and armed with a variety of weapons – descended on the Multnomah Building in southeast Portland.

•
Multiple dumpsters were set on fire, buildings were defaced, and windows were broken. A riot soon was declared at the planned event after someone from the crowd launched a Molotov cocktail into the Multnomah Building, setting it ablaze.

•
"After nearly 75 consecutive nights of violence, destruction, and mayhem, a small group of RRT (Rapid Response Team) officers — including Officer Budworth — were again tasked with dealing with the riot."

•
"Per PPB Command Staff orders, RRT officers cleared the rioters from the area to allow the Fire Bureau to extinguish the blaze. But the rioters were not satisfied."

•
According to the union, rioters re-amassed and began marching back toward the building. As the Rapid Response Team was working to clear the area, Officer Budworth "was forcefully knocked to the ground" and officers deployed pepper spray and less lethal munitions as the crowd grew more aggressive.

•
"RRT officers, including Officer Budworth, used their Police Bureau-issued batons to try and stop the crowd's criminal activity."

•
"Per his training and in response to the active aggression of a rioter interfering with a lawful arrest, Officer Budworth used baton pushes to move a rioter, now known to be Teri Jacobs, out of the area."

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"Reasonably believing that she was getting back up to re-engage in her unlawful activities, Officer Budworth employed one last baton push to try and keep her on the ground, which accidentally struck Ms. Jacobs in the head."

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"The location of Officer Budworth's last baton push was accidental, not criminal. He faced a violent and chaotic, rapidly evolving situation, and he used the lowest level of baton force — a push; not a strike or a jab — to remove Ms. Jacobs from the area."

•
A Portland Police Bureau (PPB) statement indicated that the resignations were effective Wednesday, and it's unclear what implications would be for law enforcement response to future demonstrations in Portland.

•
The union stressed that Budworth did exactly as he was trained, arguing that the Portland Police Bureau's own experts reviewed his actions and found them "reasonable, permissible, and in accordance with his training."

•
"Teri Jacobs, was brutally beaten in the head, neck, back, and face with a baton by Corey Budworth at a protest. Officers nearby did not intervene to stop him," her attorney ... said in a statement...

•
The city of Portland agreed to pay Jacobs $50,000 in a civil settlement related to the incident. She was reportedly wearing press credentials at the time.
Supreme Court sides with Catholic foster agency that excludes same-sex couples in 9-0 ruling (Fox 06/17/2021)
•
"CSS seeks only an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the children of Philadelphia in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs; it does not seek to impose those beliefs on anyone else," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a majority opinion.

•
"The refusal of Philadelphia to contract with CSS for the provision of foster care services unless it agrees to certify same-sex couples as foster parents cannot survive strict scrutiny, and violates the First Amendment."
Biden to sign bill making Juneteenth a national holiday after 14 House Republicans vote no (Fox 06/17/2021)
•
"Juneteenth should be commemorated as the expression of the realization of the end of slavery in the United States - and I commend those who worked for its passage."

•
"I could not vote for this bill, however, because the holiday should not be called 'Juneteenth National Independence Day' but rather, ‘Juneteenth National Emancipation [or Freedom or otherwise] Day.'"

•
"This name needlessly divides our nation on a matter that should instead bring us together by creating a separate Independence Day based on the color of one's skin."

•
"Juneteenth is more debunked Critical Race Theory in action. I reject racism. I reject the racial division people are promoting. I voted no because this proposed holiday does not bring us together, it tears us apart."

•
"I cannot support efforts that furthers racial divisions in this country. We have one Independence Day, and it applies equally to all people of all races."
Cuomo, COVID and nursing home deaths – this new report puts blame where families knew it belonged (Fox 06/17/2021)
•
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that admitting over 9,000 COVID patients into nursing homes for 46 days would increase the number of deaths, but if a report from the New York State Bar Association proves Gov. Andrew Cuomo lied and people died, so be it.

•
And don't forget, our reckless governor not only infected nursing homes with COVID recovering patients, but he never used the resources provided to him by the federal government, including the Javits Center and the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship provided by the Navy that went virtually empty.

•
While this was all happening, Cuomo and his administration actively hid the true death toll of seniors so that he could shop his $5.1 million book on "leadership."

•
And yet, with all of this evidence piling up against him, the governor continues to celebrate himself with a fireworks display last night across New York to mark the lifting of pandemic restrictions.

•
But for thousands of New York families who lost loved ones in nursing homes last spring, we won't celebrate until the day Cuomo is officially out of office.

•
See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related A Deity (Mike Shelton, 01/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Supreme Court upholds Obamacare law, dismissing challenge from red states (Fox 06/17/2021)
Trump rails against Biden's 'good day for Russia' summit with Putin, highlights Hunter's alleged ties (Fox 06/17/2021)
•
"We gave a very big stage to Russia, and we got nothing. We gave up something that was unbelievably valuable. I stopped the pipeline, NordStream II, and the pipeline was stopped, and it was given back [to Germany and Russia] and nothing was gotten for it." ... "I think it was a good day for Russia. I don't think we got anything out of it."

•
"For five years, from the day I came down the escalator, we have been under investigation, and it turned out to be all full stuff. It was a terrible thing with the Russia, Russia, Russia, which actually made it difficult to deal with Russia."

•
"It was a phony deal created by [California Rep. Adam] Schiff and [Hillary] Clinton and all of these people. It was a disgrace, an absolute disgrace that it should happen, and it really was dangerous and very bad for our country."

•
Trump added that Hunter Biden was reportedly paid $183,000 per month for being a member of the board of a Ukrainian energy company. "But he admits that he knows nothing about energy. The whole thing is just terrible. The money from Russia, $3.5 million from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow."

•
When asked about whether Biden is showing signs of frailty as of late... "[H]is age is not the problem," said Trump, who himself turned 75 this week. Trump said his good friend and Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus is 92 and still at "100 percent."

•
"Look, I hope [Biden] has no problems. I want him to do well. I want him to go out and do well. I think the election was unbelievably unfair, but I want this guy to go out and do well for our country."

•
"We no longer will be energy independent – within a matter of weeks," lamented Trump. "They are closing down everything. What's happening is not to be believed."

•
"They will make Russia so rich because of what is happening. When I left it was $1.87 a gallon for a gallon of gas, now it is over $3. It's going to up to $5, $6, or $7, mark my words, and that is bigger than a tax increase."

•
"We are being led very, very stupidly, and I said this during the debates and people didn't listen..."

•
"This is far worse than Bernie was ever going to be. Bernie Sanders would have never even thought to suggest some of the things that are happening right now."
NC Rep. Murphy's Campus Free Speech and Restoration Act aims to send 1st Amendment back to school (Fox 06/16/2021)
•
"There are many instances that are going on on college campuses these days, where conservative views are not being tolerated – they're being attacked by other students and by professors, And that nonsense needs to stop."

•
"There were even college campuses in North Carolina that had days of mourning after President Trump became president. Just utter nonsense that this that were sanctioned by the college presidents."

•
"College presidents shouldn't be tweeting out political partisan gestures, It's not their place, because then what it does is it sets up a system of fear, just like in Red China: If you do not abide by the party line, there will be retribution."

•
"And I know on campuses, students fear this, professors fear this, They won't get the right committee assignments. They won't get tenure. It's a real issue."

•
"This is a real issue and we're not going to let the progressive left win on this, It's time that they stop polluting our children's minds."

•
"How much we value the right of free speech is put to its severest test when the speaker is someone we disagree with most," the ACLU says on a portion of its website dedicated to free speech at universities.

•
"Speech that deeply offends our morality or is hostile to our way of life warrants the same constitutional protection as other speech because the right of free speech is indivisible: When we grant the government the power to suppress controversial ideas, we are all subject to censorship by the state."
Over 200 rabbis blast Pelosi's failure to strongly reprimand Minnesota Rep. Omar for her anti-Israel... (Fox 06/16/2021)
•
"We reiterate that the mob attacks on American Jews today are directly attributable to the rhetoric of Rep. Omar and those who stand with her within and beyond Congress."

•
"To protect Jewish Americans and, moreover, safeguard the integrity of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we thus insist upon the removal of Rep. Omar from her appointment."

•
"Rep. Omar's unfounded assertion that Israel committed ‘unthinkable atrocities' by defending lives against an openly genocidal terror organization is not merely offensive, it is pernicious..."

•
"Without anything resembling a forceful response from the Democratic Party, tolerance of anti-Jewish hatred has proliferated."

•
"When 12 Jewish Democrats in the House rightfully denounced Rep. Omar's abhorrent bigotry, the Congressional Progressive Caucus stooped to playing identity politics, cravenly claiming that the motivation for the condemnation was opposition to Rep. Omar as a ‘Black, Muslim woman' rather than her anti-Semitic animus."

•
See related I'm ... Anti-Semitic (Bob Gorrell, 02/13/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Greg Gutfeld: Hunter Biden masks himself as injured party to create sympathy for his sleazy actions (Fox 06/16/2021)
Hannity: Administration 'scared' Biden will embarrass himself with Putin (Fox 06/16/2021)
Ingraham exposes 'who's really terrorizing Americans', Biden administration efforts to 'frighten' voters (Fox 06/16/2021)
•
"The Biden Administration is working to stoke division and resentment, by obsessing on phantom threats — all as a pretext to crackdown on individual freedoms."

•
... Garland and Biden are greatly exaggerating their perceived threats in order to cow the public into assenting to a radical political agenda they cannot force through Congress.
Lindsey Graham: China should be held accountable for COVID by the American people (Fox 06/16/2021)
NYC’s Spence School showed video that ‘tarred and feathered’ white women: ex-trustee (Fox 06/15/2021)
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"Over the last several years my husband and I have grown increasingly concerned about certain trends at Spence, including what we believe is a de-emphasis of academic rigor and a single-minded focus on race, diversity and inclusion that is now driving the School and everything that goes on within its walls,''...

•
"Had the video derided and ridiculed Asian women, Black women or Hispanic women, the Spence community would declare with one voice that it was blatantly racist."

•
"In fact, had a similar video been shown making fun of ANY OTHER racial group, Spence, its faculty, the Board and the entire community would be whipped into a frenzy,'' Baron said.

•
... showing of the video to its middle-school students on their special day earlier this month was only the final straw for her and her husband at the PC-obsessed all-girls institution — which has a task force to make sure it is "the anti-racist institution it aspires to be."

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Leo Terrell on North Korean defector's warning: We're in trouble if left's agenda isn't challenged... (Fox 06/15/2021)
•
"No one in America is oppressed or held back due to the historical sins of our colonial ancestors. No one. But that's what's being taught in American colleges and university."

•
"And the whole game plan here is to rewrite American history. I am not oppressed or held back by anyone based on historical ancestry. It's impossible, but that's what's being taught by the left."

•
"This is a hatred toward America's values and a chance to rewrite history. Apparently, the extreme left, this is what you call the cancer of socialism, of communism being allowed to be taught in our college and university, which we ignored and now has been funneled down to our elementary schools. And if we don't stop it, if we don't challenge it, we are in trouble because they want to rewrite American history."
Kevin McCarthy: Ilhan Omar's remarks are not just 'anti-Semitic,' they're 'anti-American' (Fox 06/15/2021)
•
"I will promise you this. If [Republicans] are fortunate enough to have the majority, Omar would not be serving on Foreign Affairs or anybody that has an ant-Semitic or anti-American view."
Former CDC director Redfield explains why he believes COVID-19 emerged from lab, WHO 'compromised' (Fox 06/15/2021)
VA parents furious after graduation speaker's 'incendiary' warning on racism and white supremacy (Fox 06/15/2021)
•
Abrar Omeish, the school board's lone Muslim member, delivered the keynote address before a graduation ceremony...

•
The president of the student government introduced her, noting that she campaigned for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and that her father, Esam Omeish, was a "leader and board member of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center" – the namesake of a mosque attended by two 9/11 hijackers in 2001, and the radical imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, and Nidal Hasan, the 2009 Fort Hood shooter.

•
"I think it's important for your viewers to know that Abrar Omeish's comments here are incendiary comments are not the first example of divisive and anti-Semitic rhetoric."

•
... several weeks ago, Omeish posted "vile anti-Semitic tweets on her social accounts," which were linked to her official "non-partisan Fairfax County school board page."

•
"That desecrates the Holy Land and kills Palestinians. And this caused huge outrage amongst over 250,000 Jewish Americans here in Northern Virginia and it sparked outrage across all political lines and there were calls for her to apologize. She offered no apology. She doubled down on it."

•
The county school district said in a statement that Omeish's comments were her First Amendment right and that her "personal views ... do not reflect the views" of the school board or district.

•
"It was just really depressing. It was indicative of this radicalization that is happening within school boards and school districts and schools across the country, from principals to teachers to political operatives like [Omeish]."
Judge Jeanine rips 'frightening trend' of judges bowing to 'woke culture' (Fox 06/14/2021)
•
"Governor Cuomo and company have created the perfect recipe for disaster, violence, and death with their criminal justice reforms."
Former NY assemblyman claims 'radical' Dems like Rep. Omar responsible for surge in anti-Semitic attacks (Fox 06/13/2021)
•
The reason he doesn't speak out and stand up in spite of the fact that he says, ‘I'm a proud Jew and I'm a defender of the Jewish people', [is because] he is terrified that AOC will run against him for the Senate. So what does he do? He acts like a coward."

•
"I use the word ‘coward' because that is exactly how I describe the leaders of the Democratic Party, Where are they to do the right thing? That is all I'm asking. Do the right thing."

•
"I'm sick and tired of the hate that is being spread by the Democrats, They are responsible for the attacks upon Jews in this country, the Likes of Omar, Tlaib, AOC, [and] Cori Bush."
America's Crime of the Century: Stealing children's youthful innocence (INN 06/13/2021)
Sen. Johnson warns of 'unequal application of justice' as Capitol riot suspects sit in jail, vs Antifa, BLM (Fox 06/13/2021)
•
"But I don't want the media and I don't want Democrats and politicians painting with a broad brush that just because, you know, in a hundred or a couple of hundred people assaulted law enforcement, that somehow 75 million Americans that voted for Donald Trump are somehow suspected domestic terrorists."

•
Johnson also voiced concern over the death of Ashli Babbitt, a veteran and protester who illegally broke into the Capitol among the rest of the suspects on Jan. 6.

•
"She wasn't carrying a weapon. She wasn't threatening anybody. She was in the Capitol building and she was killed." ... the law enforcement officer who shot and killed her has not been identified and reportedly cleared of wrongdoing.

•
"Well, we certainly didn't hear that when the tables were turned, Again, it's the concern about the unequal application of justice and a lot of concern."

•
"Black Lives Matter is a violent Marxist, anti-American organization and has done precious little to go into the Black communities and help Black communities build; help Black communities with school choice, [and] help Black communities at all." ... "It wants to overthrow the country."

•
"When you have mayors painting the name of Black Lives Matter in the streets, when you have the [President Joe Biden] saying the gravest threat we face as a nation is White supremacy, and then you see how they're treating these could be up to 400 people at the Department of Justice [arrested after the Capitol riot] as if they're all Klansmen or they're all neo-Nazis."

•
See related Smear Job (Antonio Branco, 02/08/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Petition calls for NJ school board members to resign after holidays removed from calendar: 'Cancel culture' (Fox 06/12/2021)
Dan Bongino: Mainstream media are 'useful idiots,' promote 'Chinese propaganda' (Fox 06/12/2021)
•
"Folks, new questions are emerging about the coronavirus and the lab leak theory, They are serious questions that serious people in our media should have been asking, and didn't, because they practiced a bunch of Chinese propaganda and pumped it down your gullets."

•
"Did they create a super virus, the Chinese Communist Party? Did they use the media to cover it up? Folks, the evidence is out there. You can see it yourself."

•
"Did we finance, I can't ask this enough, did we finance dual-research programs to finance Chinese bioweapons, and if so, did government insiders and Dr. Fauci know?"
Jesse Watters blasts liberal media for pushing lies in 2020 to help Biden win the election (Fox 06/12/2021)
•
"All the lies were designed to install Biden. The media actually broke itself dragging Joe across the finish line. The press died from all the lies. That's one of the side-effects of Trump derangement syndrome. Now that Biden's been installed, the truth is finally coming out. It has a way of doing that. And it's stunning."

•
See related Mount Surigaffle (Antonio Branco, 07/02/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Critical Race Theory: These states are already cracking down on the controversial concept (Fox 06/12/2021)
Biden admin dismantles VOICE, Trump office for reporting crimes by immigrants (Fox 06/12/2021)
Critical race theory: Diverse group of mothers from across the country speak out (Fox 06/12/2021)
•
"When these dedicated moms hear from their children how they are afraid to speak up in class for fear of harassment, discipline, or being reported in the new LCPS online 'bias reporting' system, this motivates them to get out there and fight like hell for their children."

•
"We are teaching our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history," said Xi Van Fleet at a Virginia school board meeting this week.

•
"Growing up in China, all of this sounds very familiar. The Communist regime uses the same critical theory is to divide people. The only difference is that used class instead of race. This is indeed the American version of the Chinese cultural revolution."

•
These moms' anger translates into more than just mic-drop moments at school board meetings – they're organizing, too.

•
Since CRT started becoming more prominent, moms have started or leveraged grassroots organizations to oppose CRT and its related ideas. Dads like Ian Prior and Scott Mineo are also joining the fight, each starting anti-CRT organizations in the past year.

•
In Loudoun, perhaps the most prominent CRT battleground, the controversy has pitted residents against each other. Many of them have criticized alleged intimidation by others in the Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County Facebook group.

•
Members of the Facebook group allegedly tried to dox CRT opponents, amplifying national attention on the county. Some LCPS board members belong to the group, although the extent of their involvement with various activities remains unclear. They've been accused of tacitly allowing efforts to intimidate CRT opponents.

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"There are people out there who want to see these people recalled, they are tired of having this agenda placed on our children and they can't continue to politicize our children."

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"These are our kids and this is their education and we need to keep being able to teach them ethics, morals, and values that are shared at home, not in the schools."
AOC’s aunt says blame Puerto Rico pols, not Trump, for ‘abuela’ misery: report (Fox 06/12/2021)
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"It's a problem here in Puerto Rico with the administration and the distribution of help, It is not a problem with Washington. We had the assistance and it didn't get to the people."
Repressive Progressives (JWR 06/11/2021)
•
Everything these people do actually demonstrates the opposite of what they profess to believe in.

•
Their rhetoric is of hope, yet they traffic in hate and despair. They speak of elevating people, but their actions divide people, pitting group against group.

•
They talk of freedom, yet everything they push for involves stripping people of their basic human rights.

•
Controlling the masses through division, fear, and social stigma is really what the left is all about.

•
They call themselves progressive, but they are quite the opposite, in fact. Repressive would be closer to the truth.

•
There's no question that the left is a joyless, angry vindictive lot with no regard for human life, never mind human liberties.
Sen. Cotton grills Defense Secretary Austin in testy exchange over 'woke' military (Fox 06/11/2021)
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"Do you believe that any member of the military should be treated differently based on their skin color and sex? Again yes or no will do," Cotton asked during the hearing.

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"No, I do not believe that and that is why we have diversity equity and inclusion focus in the military," Austin responded.

•
"We aren't demanding oversight of ‘diversity training,' Waltz said... "We are demanding that divisive seminars like ‘How to Deal with Your White Rage' to our future military leaders not continue."

•
"This isn't about ‘cultural wars.' This is about keeping our military merit-based & mission focused."

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"The only color that matters on the battlefield is the flag on your uniform because that's all our enemies are concerned with, Our military should be open to all Americans and only worried about standards needed to win wars."

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During the heated exchange on Capitol Hill Thursday, Cotton warned, "We're hearing reports of plummeting morale, growing mistrust between the races and sexes where none existed just six months ago, and unexpected retirements and separations, based on these trainings alone.''...
NYC dad who pulled daughter from private school over 'antiracist' teachings launches parent support site (Fox 06/11/2021)
•
"There has clearly been some positive momentum on this. We're still at the beginning of this fight nationally. We're losing terribly in New York City and probably every one of the blue states."

•
"... My daughter's school never used the term ‘CRT.' They used ‘antiracism initiative' or ‘diversity, equity and inclusion initiative.' Collectively, as a country, for better or for worse, we're calling this critical race theory. That's just a name that has stuck now.'"

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"I don't care what you call it, What is happening is an obsession with race, a demonizing of children because of the color of their skin, a segregation of everything into victims and oppressors and, even if it were well-meaning... it is incredibly divisive and segregating and counterproductive."

•
CRT is also an abandonment of "the core principles of freedom of speech without fear" and "equality of opportunity."
Black mother slams critical race theory at Florida school board meeting: 'Not teaching the truth' (Fox 06/11/2021)
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"... I don't know about you, but telling my child or any child that they are in a permanent oppressed status in America because they are Black is racist – and saying that White people are automatically above me, my children, or any child is racist as well. This is not something that we can stand for in our country."

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"... If this continues, we will look back and be responsible for the dismantling of the greatest country in the world by reverting to teaching hate and that race is a determining factor on where your destiny lies."
VA parent who survived Mao: Scholastic critical race indoctrination 'a replay' of Mao's 'cultural revolution' (Fox 06/11/2021)
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"We are teaching our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history. Growing up in China, all of this sounds very familiar. The Communist regime use the same critical theory is to divide people. The only difference is that used class instead of race. This is indeed the American version of the Chinese cultural revolution."

•
"I just want to let the American people know that what is going on in our schools and in our country is really a replay of the cultural revolution in China," she said, calling the similarities "terrifying."

•
"[Critical race theorists] use the same ideology, the same methodology, even the same vocabulary. The ideology is cultural Marxism."

•
At school in Maoist China, Van Fleet recalled being divided into groups of "oppressor" and "oppressed' based on what social class the student came from. The same is happening today in schools and other institutions, except it is based on White and non-White races...

•
Chinese dissenters from the Maoist doctrine were labeled "counterrevolutionary", as dissenters in America are labeled "racist" – a moniker that in both regards is "like a hat that fits all" that can ruin one's life and livelihood.

•
Van Fleet added that the left's intent on "cancel culture" and "canceling" everything from public statuary to references to uncomfortable historic events, to historic figures they deem flawed is the same thing that Mao sought when he essentially erased thousands of years of Chinese cultural history.

•
"We basically canceled the whole Chinese civilization pre-Communism and we changed our school names, street names, store names, even our personal names. Wokeness – to be specific – we used class wokeness in China."

•
"Your level of wokeness determines your chance to get a promotion or to get benefits and who decides your level of wokeness? The party leaders," she said, implying the same can be said in the United States for people and workers who do not ascribe to their moral superiors' intended ideologies.

•
Van Fleet added that she knows from experience that "freedom is fragile" and that many other Chinese-Americans also know the struggle and see the parallels between the left's cultural Marxism and the Maoist revolution of the 1960s.

•
"[C]ritical race theory is not antiracism. It itself is racist. It is divisive, destructive and it is dangerous."

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: Young people are being forced to get COVID vaccine, but it may harm them more than COVID (Fox 06/11/2021)
•
If statistical trends observed in Israel hold here, as many as 150,000 young Americans will develop a potentially fatal heart disorder because of the COVID vaccine.

•
That's not alarmism or some kind of anti-vaxxer conspiracy theory. It's real. Just this afternoon, the CDC confirmed what appear to be dangerous side effects.

•
Virginia's state university system announced that vaccine exemptions will be nearly impossible to get. An exemption, "will not be granted based on a philosophical, moral, or conscientious objection."

•
In other words, your conscience is irrelevant. Personal autonomy means nothing. It is no longer your body, it is no longer your choice. When it comes to the vaccine, there is no escape.

•
You wonder, watching this, how it could happen in a free country. It's hard to believe it is happening. As a medical decision, it's reckless. What are the long-term effects of forcing these drugs on millions of young people, many of whom don't need it?
Please let Biden endure until 2024 (JWR 06/10/2021)
Cotton presses defense secretary on 'anti-American indoctrination' as Austin defends diversity push (Fox 06/10/2021)
•
Cotton said he'd seen reports of "plummeting morale, growing mistrust between races and sexes where none existed just six months ago and unexpected retirements and separations based on these trainings alone."

•
He said one Marine officer had said that military history training was replaced with training on police brutality, White privilege and systemic racism.

•
Another claimed his unit was required to read "White Fragility" by Robin DiAngelo, which claims White people in the West have internalized White supremacy.

•
Austin said the military was seeking to be "welcoming to everyone who can qualify and who is fit to serve." "We ought to look like the America we support and defend, and senior leadership should look like what's in the ranks."

•
When asked by the senator, Austin agreed that the military was not a fundamentally racist organization, that members should not be treated differently based on the color of their skin and that race or gender should not be a "key component" in choosing leadership.

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"The military for decades has been one of the institutions in society where you are most likely to get ahead based on your own performance, your own merit, irrespective of the color of your skin, where you came from, who your parents were," Cotton said.

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Austin said the military has done a "great job" at diversity within its ranks but needs to be "a bit better" to be "absolutely inclusive" so that it could be "the most effective and lethal fighting force in the world."

•
"Diversity, equity and inclusion is important to this military and it will be important in the future," Austin said.

•
"This is not about diversity, this is about a very specific kind of anti-American indoctrination that is seeping into some parts of our military based on the whistleblower complaints we have received," Cotton replied.
Florida mother and school board member slams critical race theory as 'anti-American' curriculum (Fox 06/10/2021)
Eighth-grade girl blasts school board for policy allowing 'boys into girls locker rooms' (Fox 06/09/2021)
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Grover is an eighth grader whose mom pulled her out of an LCPS school last year after seeing various controversial policies emerging. She is currently homeschooled.

•
"Everyone knows what a boy is – even you," she added, looking up at the board members. "Your proposed policies are dangerous and rooted in sexism. When woke kids ask me if I was a lesbian or a trans boy because I cut my hair short, it should tell you these modern identities are superficial."

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"Now, boys are reading erotica in the classroom next to girls, and you want to give them access to girls' locker rooms and you want to force girls to call those boys 'she.'"

•
"You do this in the name of inclusivity while ignoring the girls who will pay the price. Your policies choose boys' wants over girls' needs."

•
See related Fundamentally Transforming America (Glenn McCoy, 04/12/2016) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related So much for OUR 'safe space' (Glenn McCoy, 05/16/2016) cartoon from Government picture album
WH budget office approves Biden's plan to retract insulin, epipen discounts: report (Fox 06/09/2021)
•
The White House this week gave President Biden the greenlight to move forward with removing a Trump-era health care policy designed to bring down the price of insulin.

•
President Donald Trump focused on lowering the price of drugs during his tenure. Biden has made similar promises, including calling for allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs.
Iowa governor signs bill banning critical race theory, rails against 'discriminatory indoctrination' (Fox 06/09/2021)
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"Critical Race Theory is about labels and stereotypes, not education. It teaches kids that we should judge others based on race, gender or sexual identity, rather than the content of someone's character."

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"I am proud to have worked with the legislature to promote learning, not discriminatory indoctrination."
Keystone Pipeline officially terminated after 13-year bid (Fox 06/09/2021)
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"President Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline in the name of ‘clean energy' but waived sanctions in order to allow the construction of Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline. His decisions killed American jobs and put the security of our European allies at risk."

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See related Keystone Jobs (Mike Shelton, 01/25/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Teacher confronts Loudoun County school board's apparent progressive agenda in fiery speech... (Fox 06/09/2021)
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"Parents, the longer that you wait and don't have your child's schools accountable, gives these guys more time to dictate what's best for your child's physical, mental, and emotional health."

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"Students, you are on the front lines of these indoctrination camps. Challenge the staff when you are presented with a ludicrous statement, and do not allow anybody to tell you that you cannot accomplish anything because of your skin color, or to hate yourself because of your skin color."

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"Students, it is up to you to be the next generation of victims, or victors."

•
Vanetsyan's final message was for the school board: "And finally, to the board, this isn't over. And your policies as just as -" she's heard saying before her mic cut out.

•
"These children are the future of this country. And if you love this country, you will do anything and everything to stand up for the vulnerable population and that is our children."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Virginia school board meeting explodes as members face backlash for suspension of Tanner Cross (Fox 06/09/2021)
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"Where is your regard for our freedom of speech? When I saw a teacher express an opinion and suspended for expressing his religious beliefs, I could no longer stay silent. When did it become acceptable to be tolerant only when someone expresses a view that we agree with? When did it become appropriate to silence those that hold Christian, biblical views just because you don't? When did it become appropriate to allow the school board – I don't know who you think you are – but it is not appropriate, it is not allowable to silence, bully, or dismiss our views."

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"Even being threatened with termination for simply speaking one's opinion creates a culture of fear and silence – and this does not help anyone on either side of the aisle."

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... "first and foremost, I am a Christian. What is most important? We live in truth, not lies. We look at character, not skin color. We love our lord and we love others. Know this – We will not yield. We will not let you have our souls or the souls of our children."

•
Cross sparked an uproar last month when he told the school board he wouldn't "affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it's against my religion. It's lying to a child, it's abuse to a child, and it's sinning against our God."

•
Just days after that speech, Cross was told in a letter not to come on the school's premises. The letter vaguely stated the school district was investigating "allegations that you engaged in conduct that has had a disruptive impact on the operations" of his school.

•
A judge ordered LCPS on Tuesday to reinstate Cross, arguing it violated his right to free speech.
Greg Gutfeld: Mob action always starts with Twitter trends (Fox 06/09/2021)
Lindsey Graham says lab leak theory coverup 'stinks to high heavens' (Fox 06/09/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Mainstream media thinks Kamala Harris is a god, Latin America disagrees (Fox 06/09/2021)
Texas GOP lawmaker clashes with CNN anchor on critical race theory, slams network's 'slanted view' (Fox 06/09/2021)
•
"Critical race theory is not about not teaching the egregious things that happened in the past. Critical race theory is about blaming children today in the classroom for things that happened in the [past]. Years ago, we said stereotyping, racial profiling, we said that was the wrong thing, and yet that's what is being taught in our classroom."

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"How about we start talking to kids about what brings us together instead of the things that make us different and separate us?... We need to teach the egregious things in the past while we don't blame this generation for them."
NJ prep school teacher quits over critical race theory (Fox 06/09/2021)
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"The school's ideology requires students to see themselves not as individuals, but as representatives of a group, forcing them to adopt the status of privilege or victimhood."

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... alleged that on two occasions in 2017 and 2018 the Head of School Rodney De Jarnett "told the entire faculty that he would fire us all if he could so that he could replace us all with people of color."

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... she expressed concern about "negative experiences among hostile and doctrinaire colleagues" — but said her complaints fell on deaf ears.

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As a result of the school's "anti-racist" teachings, she said her students have become obsessed with power structures and group identity.

•
"This fixation has stunted their ability to observe and engage with the full fabric of human experience in our literature."

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Students "have become rigid and closed-minded, unable or unwilling to consider alternative perspectives." ... "In our school, the opportunity to hear competing ideas is practically non-existent."

•
"I reject D-E's essentialist, racialist thinking about myself, my colleagues, and my students. D-E claims that we teach students how to think, not what to think. But sadly, that is just no longer true."

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See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Prominent Black voices hit NYT's Mara Gay for playing ‘race card’ amid backlash over American flag comments (Fox 06/08/2021)
•
"... that right of expression works both ways and she should not hide behind her race."

•
"When liberals and progressive have no argument they resort to the race card in an effort to turn down the heat."

•
"If the American flag makes her so sick, she should move to another country, where she won't have to see it."

•
"Should she make that decision, I hereby pledge to buy her a one-way plane ticket to whatever nation will make her happier than the United States of America."
Conservative think tank creates 'A to Z guide' for stopping critical race theory in schools (Fox 06/08/2021)
Dan Bongino: 'Tonight, the great awakening is starting in America' (Fox 06/06/2021)
•
"Kids are being taught critical race theory. This is racist. This is a racist theory being taught to your kids right now in school. Our kids aren't oppressors. Our kids are the future."

•
"And parents have had enough. With everything from ridiculous mask mandates to the endless indoctrination of their children...if we can't teach our kids about freedom and liberty and personal responsibility, then how the hell are we going to make the case to politicians? And that's exactly what parents are doing now, standing up in their own communities."

•
See related Critical Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 04/22/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Mark Levin asks what happens when the government becomes 'a criminal enterprise' (Fox 06/06/2021)
•
"What happens when one individual, a prominent individual, is focused on and targeted by an entire political party, including their prosecutors?"

•
"We're used to seeing that sort of thing in the old Soviet Union or the modern-day Russia under Putin."

•
"We're used to seeing that sort of thing happen in communist China and in other totalitarian regimes. But what if we were to tell you it's happening in the United States of America as I speak?"

•
... noted that historically, after an election, those in power don't "chase down" defeated candidates to "punish" or "destroy them." But, he said, "That is exactly what's happening to former Donald Trump."

•
"Doesn't his counsel have a right to attorney-client privilege, attorney work, product confidentiality, all which is to protect the client, in this case, Donald Trump?"

•
... Trump "has faced a criminalized political system that never wanted him elected and never wants him elected again."

•
"He was investigated, as was his family, as were his friends, as were his actions, as were his campaign compatriots and so forth."

•
"Under the Mueller investigation, when it comes to Donald Trump and his family and his organizations, they found nothing."

•
... the IRS, media, and Congress have all investigated the former president, and "haven't come up with a damn thing."
Trump declines to commit to running with Pence in 2024 (Fox 06/06/2021)
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"Mike and I have a good relationship, we continue to have a good but it's too early to be discussing running mates certainly."

•
"I'll make a decision in the not too distant future, maybe sooner than people think. And I think they're going to be very happy."
Manchin breaks from Dems on S1 election bill: 'Wrong piece of legislation' to unite US (Fox 06/06/2021)
•
"It's the wrong piece of legislation to bring our country together and unite our country, and I'm not supporting that because I think it would divide us more. I don't want to be in a country that's divided any further."

•
"Do we really want to live in an America where one party can dictate and demand everything and anything it wants, whenever it wants? I have always said, ‘If I can't go home and explain it, I can't vote for it.' And I cannot explain strictly partisan election reform or blowing up the Senate rules to expedite one party's agenda."

•
"With that in mind, some Democrats have again proposed eliminating the Senate filibuster rule in order to pass the For the People Act with only Democratic support. They've attempted to demonize the filibuster and conveniently ignore how it has been critical to protecting the rights of Democrats in the past."
Trump demands 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, debt cancellation, and $10T in reparations for... (Fox 06/05/2021)
•
"All nations should work together to present China a bill for a minimum of $10 trillion to compensate for the damage."

•
"As a first step, all countries should collectively cancel any debt they owe to China as a down payment on reparations."

•
"Fauci said powerfully at the beginning, no masks, Then he became a radical masker."

•
"He's a nice guy, not a great doctor, but a great promoter, He's been wrong on almost every issue."
Three charged in murder of Israeli in Baltimore (INN 06/05/2021)
•
"It was not a robbery that went wrong, but a murder with an anti-Semitic background. My brother wore a kippah and had a beard. Three people ambushed him as he returned home. They didn't take any money - they just shot him in the stomach and fled."
Biden's Disgraceful Exploitation of the Tulsa Race Massacre (JWR 06/06/2021)
PA father says he’s pulling youngest child from public schools over critical race theory (Fox 06/04/2021)
•
"I believe it's the content of people's character that matters more than the color of their skin. Critical race theory teaches the opposite. Personally, I'm removing my youngest child from our public school system over this very issue here in Pennsylvania."

•
"Marxism depends on this idea. It's a loaded word but depends on the notion of oppressed and oppressor. Who are the oppressors? That must mean who is running the system. It means anyone with light skin. It automatically assumes anyone with White skin is an oppressor and because you have dark skin you are instantly oppressed."

•
"It is purposely divisive. It is the most divisive, cancerous thing we can teach people and it breaks my heart."
The media has no compassion and needs vulnerable people to watch rage-creating clickbait (Fox 06/02/2021)
•
Sometimes you use other people's problems to avoid your own. You display compassion for refugees, but you haven't spoken to your parents in years. Instead of building your resilience to overcome life's problems.

•
You fail. But at least it's not your fault. It's those damn sweatshops in Sri Lanka! It's prison lunches full of gluten! It's anywhere but here. It's anyone but you.

•
... the media has no compassion for your current state and they use it to their advantage. Legacy media needs vulnerable people to watch their rage-creating clickbait.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Maine father fights critical race theory in daughters' school: 'We need education, not indoctrination' (Fox 06/01/2021)
•
"I can't speak for Martin Luther King Jr., but I think he'd be extremely ashamed of what this administration is doing."

•
"They're teaching young kids as young as kindergarten to essentially hate their white skin."

•
"And frankly I was brought up as the content of your character is the biggest piece, it doesn't matter what the color of your skin is."

•
"The woke mob, the trolls, they go after everybody, I got pushed and I pushed back pretty hard."
Biden's China problem – president won't dare confront Beijing over COVID origins. Here's why (Fox 06/01/2021)
Reporters admit dismissing Wuhan lab leak theory in part because Republicans proposed it (Fox 05/31/2021)
•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Biden received funds from top Russia lobbyist before Nord Stream 2 giveaway (Fox 05/29/2021)
Pompeo says Wuhan lab was engaged in military activity alongside civilian research (Fox 05/29/2021)
Saddest part of Biden causing massive inflation is effect on children, next generation (Fox 05/29/2021)
COVID science perverted by elites for ideological and financial gain: Victor Davis Hanson (Fox 05/28/2021)
Facebook whistleblower fired after leaking 'vaccine hesitancy' censorship documents to Project... (Fox 05/28/2021)
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See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Sister of pilot killed on 9/11 slams comparison between Capitol riot and 2001 terrorist attacks (Fox 05/28/2021)
•
"These two events are fundamentally different in nature, scope and consequences. Mentioning them in the same breath not only diminishes the horror of what happened on 9/11; it tells a false story to the generation of Americans who are too young to remember that day nearly 20 years ago."

•
"Members of Congress might have had a frightening day on Jan. 6, but on 9/11 some 200 people in the World Trade Center towers chose to jump from 80 to 100 floors above the ground rather than be consumed by fire."

•
"More than 3,000 children lost parents. Eight young children were killed on the planes. Recovery personnel found 19,000 human remains scattered all over lower Manhattan from river to river, including on rooftops and window ledges."

•
The attacks shut down the nation's aviation system and the New York Stock Exchange for days, and destroyed acres of Lower Manhattan and a section of the Pentagon.

•
She noted that rebuilding at Ground Zero is still incomplete and U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan nearly 20 years later.

•
"On Jan. 6, Congress resumed its session that evening," she wrote, pointing out the drastic difference in long-term effects between the two days.

•
"It is deeply offensive and sad that the brutal and harrowing memories of the worst terrorist attack in American history are being deployed by political partisans."

•
"They are using 9/11 not as an example of what the American people endured and overcame together, but explicitly to divide, to stoke hatred and to further a political agenda aimed at stigmatizing the other party and marginalizing ordinary Americans from participating in the political process. That is the real threat to democracy."

•
Efforts to create a special commission on the Capitol riot would be destructive theater, she argued.
Senate Republicans slam brakes on bill to create commission probing Capitol riot (Fox 05/28/2021)
•
"I do not believe the additional, extraneous ‘commission' that Democratic leaders want would uncover crucial new facts or promote healing," McConnell said... "Frankly, I do not believe it is even designed to."
Media reversal on Wuhan lab leak – will this massive embarrassment cause them to change anything? (Fox 05/28/2021)
•
It feels like the liberal media has suddenly decided the theory saying the deadly coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan is now considered plausible, when, in 2020, they aggressively dismissed it as a "fringe theory."

•
It's not a mystery why this happened. The Democrats thought the coronavirus was going to be that silver bullet that would remove former President Trump from office.

•
Their arrogant belief that Trump was an ignoramus led them to shame anyone or any theory that Trump endorsed concerning the year's biggest story.

•
It's not a mystery why this happened. The Democrats thought the coronavirus was going to be that silver bullet that would remove former President Trump from office.

•
Their arrogant belief that Trump was an ignoramus led them to shame anyone or any theory that Trump endorsed concerning the year's biggest story.

•
This explicit reversal — this undebunking — exposes the ridiculousness of the media's assertion that they represent facts, truth and science, and aren't emotionally blinded by Trump hatred.

•
It also exposes the "independent fact-checkers" and their clients such as Facebook who squashed this theory because the liberal knee jerked at every presidential utterance of "China virus" and "Wuhan flu."

•
One easy way for the media to build trust with a larger readership is to dial down their arrogant belief that they know everything, especially regarding highly important matters on which we were woefully underinformed. Will this massive embarrassment cause them to change anything?

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
When Obama put Biden in charge of foreign policy, Hunter got paid: Andy McCarthy (Fox 05/27/2021)
•
"These guys were not in business to produce value. They were in business because they were related to or had close relationships to high-ranking people in the United States government and they provided access."

•
"China is our biggest geopolitical problem. How is it that we don't have a thorough investigation into what the Bidens' financial relationship is with China? Which was one of the big issues in the campaign that get swept under the rug."

•
"It should have been a curiosity for American reporters and it should have been a curiosity for American voters."

•
"The bottom line, and this was completely confirmed by what we learned about Hunter's laptop, which they never really questioned the authenticity... So what you get is every time Barack Obama, as president, puts Joe Biden in charge of American foreign policy, with respect to a country — whether it's Ukraine or Russia or China — those countries see some reason, who knows why, to pay millions of dollars to Hunter Biden."

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See related Biden Bible (Fuller, 12/2020)") cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Election Interference (Antonio Branco, 10/16/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Outsted Space Force commander warns of 'playbook Marxism' in US, compares it to Mao's cultural... (Fox 05/26/2021)
•
"You have people in uniform on their social media accounts threatening the American people if they voted for Donald Trump."

•
"You have people in uniform, I should say that wear the uniform of their country who are on their social media accounts, saying we're coming for you and you cannot hide...welcome to the new America. Now if that's not extremism I don't know what is."

•
"The kinds of things you see in the cultural revolution, in Mao's cultural revolution 1966 are a mirror reflection of what we saw over the past year in this country."

•
"You have people standing in the streets with raised fists demanding that others bow down and apologize for their privilege, apologize for what race or group they belong to. They shut down schools, all the while allowing people to gather in so-called peaceful protests. And when they do that they claim that they are all peaceful, then they inevitably turn violent because the shouting gets peoples' blood boiling of course and that's the whole intent of all the shouting... and so everything that you see taking place in this country is playbook Marxism."
NYC father says parents must fight critical race theory: Country 'will fracture' if it's not reversed (Fox 05/26/2021)
•
"It's been crazy. My life changed after I sent that letter. I never expected it to be read from anybody other than the parents of my daughter's school and it got read by the whole world."

•
"I have gotten thousands and thousands of emails to me and in one sense they've been overwhelmingly supportive, which is great. People have said they feel now empowered to speak up for their kids and their kids' education."

•
Gutmann penned a letter to fellow parents back in April, criticizing his daughter's school and saying that their obsession with race must stop. ... was surprised by the reaction to his letter and had no idea so many other parents were in similar situations.

•
"The flip side of that is I had no idea how entrenched and pervasive this critical race theory and anti-racism initiatives were in schools across the country. I knew it was in New York and California. I had no idea it was in public, private, religious schools in all 50 states. That's really the scary part. We really need to fight this to get it out of our schools."

•
"... she is using this view that this white fragility, this white supremacist view that everybody is racist and this is the founding doctrines of our country which I think is ridiculous."

•
"The founding doctrines of our country are ones of freedom of speech without fear, which we've lost. Equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome, the Marxist concept. This is what we're teaching to kids as young as five years old and they're coming home to their parents saying how could you have raised me so racist. This will destroy this country and we'll fracture and have ethnic strife if we don't reverse it."

•
"There has been enormous media coverage to this issue the last five or six weeks which is good. I think we're at the very beginning stages of this. It is moving so quickly in our schools and public schools' curriculums throughout the country. I think we need to fight this at all different levels but we really need to fight this. This is really dangerous."
Biden State Department quietly shut down team probing COVID origin (Fox 05/26/2021)
•
The Biden State Department shut down an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that was investigating whether the virus stemmed from a leak out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology...

•
"It is U.S. law to engage in effective arms control and nonproliferation, not facilitate it via ‘scientific cooperation' in the name of threat reduction or refusal to engage in effective compliance with Communist countries that openly aim to incorporate synthetic biology into the future of warfare (apparently with our naive material and scientific assistance)."

•
"We don't know for certain what happened in Wuhan but we had every reason to investigate and ask questions," Asher continued. "As the State Department's Jan. 15 statement said – and as additional disclosures and expert analyses of the last few months have underscored – there is probable cause for deep suspicion."

•
"The coverup continues via refusal to allow WHO access, accept CDC offers to assist, and simply tell the truth of this pandemic's endemic dangerous, incessant and pernicious injurious traits, which has caused huge injury to the American people and citizens of the world, Chinese citizens included. Does anyone sane doubt that?"

•
... added that he doesn't "know why the Biden team would doubt an effort to carry out a fair and accurate investigation into a subject that increasing numbers of leading scientists are now also calling to study."

•
"At the State Department in the last months of the last administration we didn't draw or assert any conclusions, but we worked successfully to reveal certain facts and raise significant questions about the clear plausibility of a lab leak origin."

•
"This was a global public service, and it is good that experts and journalists are increasingly turning their own attention to the issue, albeit belatedly."

•
"Getting further information about this, getting it from honest researchers, honest investigators and press inquiries and getting it from the U.S. government is absolutely essential to finding out what happened in the origin of COVID, which is not only important for understanding what we're still living through and for basic questions of responsibility, but most importantly, it's absolutely essential to the future."

•
See related Foreign Affairs (Antonio Branco, 05/16/2019) cartoon from World picture album
Trump tells Dan Bongino he has 'very little doubt' coronavirus leaked from Wuhan lab (Fox 05/25/2021)
•
"Now everybody is agreeing that I was right when I very early on called Wuhan as the source of COVID-19, sometimes referred to as the China Virus," the former president said...

•
"Take a look at the fact that I closed the country to China very early at the end of January and Dr. Fauci - I'm not against him, we get along very well actually, but I usually did exactly what he said, the opposite, in other words...he said things that were just wrong. He didn't want to close to China, he later admitted that I saved tens of thousands of lives by closing early."

•
"They say that I played it down...well I don't want to alarm, I don't want to have people running around scared to live, to breathe to do anything. I'm an optimistic person, and tough. I was very tough on the FDA...had that not happened we would have lost millions of people."
Rand Paul blames Richard Marx tweet for Anthrax scare, calls for Republicans to leave Twitter... (Fox 05/25/2021)
•
"This is a private company that hates conservatives, hates Republicans. They don't want us on there and ultimately maybe the answer is Republicans need to just quit. We need to leave it. Because every day they allow hundreds if not thousands of people to wish me and my family violence. And frankly, I'm tired of it."

•
"I'm just tired of them allowing this and tired of them blaming it on the right. I was at the ball field when a Bernie Sanders shooter almost skilled Steve Scalise... so I'm sick and tired of the violence coming from the left."

•
"I have been targeted multiple times now, it is reprehensible that Twitter allows C-list celebrities to advocate for violence against me and my family. This must stop. Just this weekend Richard Marx called for violence against me and now we receive this despicable powder filled letter."

•
"I had six ribs broken. Three of them dislocated where they rubbed on each other for weeks and weeks till they healed. They damaged my lung. I had pneumonia twice. A year later I was coughing up blood. I had to have a portion of my lung removed, then got an infection between the lung and the chest wall and almost died from and have permanent scarring of my lung and he's offering a guy to buy drinks to somebody that will do it again and finish the job. That sounds like he's advocating violence."
Wokeness at Fed's regional banks puts central bank independence at risk (Fox 05/25/2021)
•
The Federal Reserve's mission statement mandates the central bank to achieve maximum employment and stable prices while being free from political influence. Experience has shown that countries with independent central banks achieve better outcomes for their citizens.

•
Pursuing a highly politicized social agenda unrelated to monetary policy is inflicting "reputational damage" on the Minneapolis, Atlanta and Boston Fed banks and the Federal Reserve as a whole...

•
The three banks recently spearheaded a series that was participated in by all 12 regional banks, which centered on the belief that "racism forms the foundation of inequality in our society."

•
Toomey has asked all three regional Fed banks to provide documents on their recent "racial justice" activism, an issue that falls outside their scope...

•
"We have received the inquiry from Sen. Toomey's office, and we look forward to discussing with him how better understanding racial inequality helps the Federal Reserve reach its mandate of maximum employment and ensure economic gains are widely experienced across the population, regardless of race," a spokesperson for the Atlanta Fed told...

•
The politicization of the Fed's regional banks comes as so-called "wokeism" has been seeping into governmental departments, corporate boardrooms and universities across America as the Biden administration pushes the narrative that the United States has a long history of systemic racism.
Minneapolis police leaving force in droves: Former officer says cops feel ‘helpless’ (Fox 05/25/2021)
DeSantis shuts down reporter's suggestion that Big Tech bill is 'for' Trump (Fox 05/25/2021)
•
"When you deplatform the president of the United States, but you let Ayatollah Khamenei talk about killing Jews, that is wrong."
Friedman: People in our own government are ‘fueling the flames’ of anti-Semitism (Fox 05/24/2024)
•
"... when people maliciously and falsely call Israel an apartheid state, a racist state, I mean, what do they think is going to happen? They are stoking the flames of anti-Semitism."

•
"And we have, you know, in places like New York and in Los Angeles, we have Holocaust survivors, their children, their grandchildren, who never thought that they would live to see this again. And we're seeing this vicious, toxic form of anti-Semitism."

•
"... when you bring up that type of a malicious libel against the only Jewish state in the world and you have the following that she [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] has, what did she think was going to happen?

•
"... this is somebody who has been very free to criticize the intemperate language of others. What she has done more to stoke the flames of anti-Semitism by that quote than anyone, anyone that I'm aware of."
Jon Voight speaks out about rise in anti-Semitism in US: 'Can’t you see this horror?' (Fox 05/24/2024)
•
"What are you? You liberal fools. That's right, fools. What have you been taught to do? Ruin lives, steal, distort the idea of freedom? Freedom was the American dream. The Jewish man was taught to love, honor and respect the morals of the Ten Commandments. What are you liberals teaching? Taking down Israel? You claim to be good, you're a disgrace to this planet Earth."

•
"We, we as a nation, will stand with Israel and we will not allow your barbaric words of injustice to destroy God's land. His holy land where Jesus crossed over."
Pompeo says it's 'outrageous' US officials, including Fauci, dismissed lab leak theory (Fox 05/24/2024)
Los Angeles DA George Gascon could face recall over progressive policies (Fox 05/22/2021)
•
Tania Owen, co-chair of the recall campaign, said in a news release that "Gascon has turned his back on victims and is failing to protect his constituents, so we are taking matters into our own hands."

•
Owen, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy, lost her husband, Sgt. Steve Owen, a 29-year veteran of the force, when he was killed execution-style on Oct. 5, 2016, while responding to reports of a burglary.
Ocasio-Cortez providing 'quasi-intellectual basis' for anti-Semitic hate crimes: Jewish activist (Fox 05/21/2021)
•
"While anti-Zionist gangs beat up Jews in her city, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was providing a quasi-intellectual basis for their actions, defaming Israel as an apartheid state employing indiscriminate force in what she seems to think is a capricious quest to murder as many Palestinian children as possible, instead of a highly restrained military operation tightly targeted on terrorists."

•
"It turns out, if you ignore all evidence, turn Israel into the villain in your morality play, and insist that Americans have a ‘responsibility' to do something about Israel, the thing that they will do is beat up American Jews, throw rocks through the windows of American synagogues, and harass Jews who try to speak up on social media."

•
"As a weak and sclerotic Democratic leadership cowers before the anti-Israel zealotry of the Squad and its acolytes in the House of Representatives, American Jews are getting a glimpse of what the future may hold: a return to a not-so-distant past in which Jews stood alone to face either slaughter or survival."

•
"Hamas, they now have their defenders in Congress, They wrap it around a concern for Palestinian civilians."
Biden insists that 'my party still supports Israel' (Fox 05/21/2021)
•
"Until the region says unequivocally they acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as an independent Jewish state, there will be no peace."

•
"There is no shift in my commitment to the security of Israel. Period. No shift, not at all. But I'll tell you what there is a shift in. The shift is that, we still need a two-state solution. It is the only answer. The only answer."
California Democratic lawmakers look to remove penalty for possessing firearm during crime (Fox 05/19/2021)
Investigation of ousted Space Force Commander elevated to IG (Fox 05/19/2021)
•
"I don't believe I was being partisan. It is not politically partisan to expose or attack critical race theory or Marxism," Lohmeier said.

•
"The reason I say that is because critical race theory and Marxism are antithetical to American values. Critical race theory fuels narratives that attack America's founding documents."
Barr rails against 'militantly secularist' public schools in 1st speech since leaving Justice Department (Fox 05/19/2021)
•
"The time has come to admit that the approach of giving militantly secularist government schools a monopoly over publicly funded education has become a disaster."

•
... "it may no longer be fair, practical or even constitutional to provide publicly funded education solely through the vehicle of state-funded schools."

•
On the subject of Critical Race Theory, Barr called it "Marxism substituting race for class antagonism." "It's monstrous of the state to indoctrinate students into alternate belief systems."
Border Patrol has released more than 60,000 migrants into US under Biden (Fox 05/19/2021)
•
See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Lieberman on Israel-Gaza conflict: Sanders, 'Squad' are ‘furthest’ from American values (Fox 05/19/2021)
•
"They seem to be unable to distinguish between Hamas — a group that has been put on the foreign terrorist list by the U.S. State Department and an enemy of the United States and our ally, Israel — and on the other side, Israel, one of our closest allies in the world and a democratic country. To jump on Israel, to threaten removal of arms sales to Israel in this kind of conflict is just outrageously unfair."
Charlie Kirk: Biden's national child care scheme – yes, Democrats are targeting families (Fox 05/19/2021)
Republicans scramble to stamp out 'woke' political bias, cancel culture in the US military (Fox 05/19/2021)
•
"Freedom of speech is one of the founding principles of our country, and right now, our military servicemembers' careers are in jeopardy if they dare to be conservative."

•
"This cancel culture is getting out of control and it's seeping into every aspect of American life."

•
"The military monitoring social media content of its servicemembers is extremely problematic and anyone who believes in freedom of speech should be outraged."

•
"Call me old fashioned, but I think the military should be 100% focused on being the best fighting force it can be to counter our adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party or Russia and stop entertaining Left-wing social experiments."

•
"... America cannot survive if we care more for social justice warriors than our actual warriors."
State AGs ask Biden to withdraw education proposals supporting 1619 Project, critical race theory (Fox 05/19/2021)
Colonial Pipeline CEO tells why he paid hackers a $4.4M ransom (Fox 05/19/2021)
•
... because executives were unsure how badly the cyberattack had breached its systems or how long it would take to bring the pipeline back.

•
The Colonial Pipeline provides roughly 45% of the fuel for the East Coast, according to the company.

•
"I know that's a highly controversial decision, I didn't make it lightly. I will admit that I wasn't comfortable seeing money go out the door to people like this."

•
For years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has advised companies not to pay when hit with ransomware, a type of code that takes computer systems hostage and demands payment to have files unlocked. Doing so, officials have said, would support a booming criminal marketplace.

•
But many companies, municipalities and others debilitated by attacks do pay, concluding it is the only way to avoid costly disruptions to their operations.

•
U.S. officials have linked the ransomware attack on Colonial to a criminal gang known as DarkSide, believed to be based in Eastern Europe, which specializes in crafting the malware used to breach systems, and shares it with affiliates — for a cut of the ransoms they obtain.

•
In return for the payment, made on the night of May 7 in the form of bitcoin, according to a person familiar with the matter, the company received a decryption tool to unlock the systems hackers penetrated.

•
While it proved to be of some use, it was ultimately not enough to immediately restore the pipeline's systems...

•
... the cyberattack was akin to the Gulf Coast hurricanes that often force segments of pipelines and refineries to shut down for days or weeks. However, it was in some ways more devastating. The Colonial Pipeline had never before been shut down all at once, he said.

•
Though the pipeline's flow of fuel has returned to normal, the impact of the hack hardly ended with the ransom payment. It will take months of restoration work to recover some business systems, and will ultimately cost Colonial tens of millions of dollars...

•
"We were perfectly happy having no one know who Colonial Pipeline was, and unfortunately that's not the case anymore, Everybody in the world knows."
'Woke' corporations called out in ad campaign; Nike, Coca-Cola in the firing line (Fox 05/18/2021)
•
"America Airlines shrunk legroom for passengers and laid off thousands of employees during the COVID pandemic while receiving billions in taxpayer bailouts."

•
"Coca-Cola and Nike have both been exploiting foreign, potentially forced, labor in China while American workers suffer."

•
"It is time these corporate giants were called to task. We are giving consumers a voice. These companies should be putting their energy and focus on serving their customers, not woke politicians."
RNC Chairwoman McDaniel: Big Tech silenced a president. Could you be next? (Fox 05/18/2021)
•
Have you heard the news? In Joe Biden's America, Big Tech oligarchs can take away your constitutional right to free speech.

•
These decisions certify what many conservatives have unfortunately come to know: Big Tech companies are partisan actors who silence right-leaning voices for the crime of speaking up against the left's orthodoxy.

•
It's even more concerning when you consider who Big Tech DOES allow on their platforms. Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, who has tweeted outright Holocaust denialism? He's still posting away.

•
Louis Farrakhan, who has repeatedly called for violence and tweets open anti-Semitism? Twitter's fine with him, too.

•
... they are a near-universal presence in American life, drawing millions upon millions of users and representing the modern public square.

•
With this extensive power, they have chosen to take political sides and brazenly attack those who stray from their hard-left, partisan line.

•
Every American needs to understand the lesson behind Facebook's recent ban of President Trump: if they can do it to an American president, they can do it to you, too.
Leo Terrell on fired Space Force officer: 'Very scary' to see 'racist dogma' infiltrating our military (Fox 05/18/2021)
Hannity calls out Prince Harry: We don't need First Amendment 'lectures' from you (Fox 05/18/2021)
•
"I have a message for Harry, who is now attacking one of America's most sacred rights, the freedom of speech under our First Amendment. Harry, we really don't need you coming from England to give us lectures on the First Amendment."

•
"And if he can understand the importance of free expression and the importance of constitutional principles that allow for a free exchange of ideas and ideals and opinions that have made America the greatest country on Earth. Maybe it's time for you to move to a place more compatible with your restrictive ideas."
Reps. Scalise, Rouzer: Pipeline cyber attack – shutdown shows where we must invest our energy resources (Fox 05/18/2021)
•
The planned Constitution Pipeline would have transported natural gas produced in Pennsylvania to consumers in the northeast but was canceled due to permitting concerns.

•
At the same time, the New England region was importing Russian natural gas.
Greg Gutfeld: I salute Alec Baldwin’s stand against cancel culture, even if he doesn't support us (Fox 05/18/2021)
New group aims to fight cancel culture by giving 'woke left' a 'dose of their own medicine' (Fox 05/17/2021)
•
"These corporations go woke because they have pressure from shareholders, they have pressure from the liberal media, they have pressure internally from within."

•
"What we want to do at Unsilenced Majority is to provide a counterbalance. And so these corporations understand that if they go woke there's gonna be consequences from everyday Americans."
Bongino rips Bernie Sanders, AOC, Squad members: Israel vs. Hamas 'not complicated to understand' (Fox 05/17/2021)
Hannity calls media to issue retractions for working 'hand-in-hand' with Fusion GPS (Fox 05/17/2021)
Ousted Space Force officer says he's been 'misportrayed', received 'thousands' of notes from troops (Fox 05/17/2021)
Piers Morgan slams Prince Harry over First Amendment comments, calls it 'Meghan-inspired psychobabble' (Fox 05/17/2021)
•
"I don't want to start sort of going down the First Amendment route because that's a huge subject and one in which I don't understand because I've only been here a short period of time," Harry told the hosts.

•
"But, you can find a loophole in anything. And you can capitalize or exploit what's not said rather than uphold what is said."

•
"I've got so much I want to say about the First Amendment as I sort of understand it, but it is bonkers," he concluded.

•
His comments seemed to incite a big reaction from Piers Morgan... "The First Amendment is one of the things I most admire about the United States, especially coming from a country like Britain where free speech for journalists like me is now heavily regulated," Morgan, who recently left his job at "Good Morning Britain" after ripping into Markle, 39, over comments she and Harry made during an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

•
"Like so much of the absurd Meghan-inspired psychobabble that spews out of [Harry's] mouth, none of this makes any sense, and he clearly doesn't understand what he's saying either."

•
"Though we can safely assume that he just hates anything which affords any protection to journalists to say things he doesn't like because that has been a familiar theme from the indignant media-loathing Prince for the last few years," Morgan wrote.

•
"It's the same mindset that makes Meghan think she can complain to the bosses of TV networks when presenters like me refuse to believe her lies - and have them removed from their jobs if we don't apologize for our impertinence."

•
"All that Americans will take away from Harry's outburst about the First Amendment is a posh, privileged British royal slamming their Constitution and their unalienable rights to freedom of speech and expression."

•
"It takes an extraordinary amount of entitled arrogance to mock the most revered building block of your adopted country's history."

•
See related Kissed a Prince! (Mike Shelton, 01/15/2020) cartoon from World picture album
Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips: How I became the face of ‘rights of conscience’ litigation in US (Fox 05/17/2021)
•
This could happen to anyone in the current legal atmosphere of religious intolerance. Government officials across America are increasingly coming after anyone who pledges a higher allegiance to God (and their own conscience) than to the current social dogma.

•
In just the last few years, officials have used the law to persecute photographers and videographers, a floral artist, a T-shirt printer, a nationally respected fire chief ... for nothing more than quietly holding to the tenets of a faith practiced by millions for thousands of years.

•
That should concern every citizen of this country, whether you hold religious beliefs or not. It's a government overreach that threatens not only our nation's legal foundations, but the very soul of what it means to be an American.

•
Yet – incredibly – many seem convinced that we can take away the most basic freedoms of people we disagree with ... and somehow keep our own.

•
It doesn't work that way, no matter how you slice it. Freedom, I've found, is a lot like cake: You can't have it and eat it, too.
Mike Pence: Biden's China-first tax plan – Americans come last in president's jobs plan (Fox 05/17/2021)
•
See related Make China Great Again (Gary Varvel, 11/17/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
The Inscrutable Catholic Support for Biden (JWR 05/16/2021)
•
See related St. Joe the Devout (Mike Shelton, 01/26/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Veteran who was harassed by Antifa over flag says riots have become part of Portland’s landscape (Fox 05/16/2021)
Biden kills Trump plan for ‘American heroes’ sculpture garden: report (Fox 05/16/2021)
•
"We worked hard with the Mexican government, we worked hard with the government in Guatemala and El Salvador and Honduras. We had real relationships with those people. We negotiated. We got to a place that made life better for their people and secured our southern border," Pompeo said.

•
"And to watch [the Biden administration] come in and just flip the switch and the tragedy that we now see. ... These people are trying to come through Mexico to get into the United States because President Biden greenlighted this. It's absolutely tragic."

•
See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Father Fauci says the pious must wear masks, but why not go a step further to plastic bags? (Fox 05/15/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: CDC isn't catching up to science, it's catching up to American people (Fox 05/15/2021)
What is critical race theory? (Fox 05/14/2021)
•
"Critical race theory is a grave threat to the American way of life, It divides Americans by race and traffics in the pernicious concepts of race essentialism, racial stereotyping, and race-based segregation — all under a false pursuit of 'social justice.'"...

•
"Critical race theory training programs have become commonplace in academia, government, and corporate life, where they have sought to advance the ideology through cult-like indoctrination, intimidation, and harassment."
Don't let Biden, Fauci, Dems skirt big questions on COVID's origins – it matters to us all (Fox 05/14/2021)
•
... sometimes uncomfortable questions are necessary questions. If we want closure in the aftermath of this pandemic — and if we want to avert the next one — we must learn about its origin. That means we must look at the lab in Wuhan and the experimental research its scientists performed.
Biden's war on suburbs – here's how admin hopes to control you, your community (Fox 05/14/2021)
•
In case you missed it in all the political jargon, "exclusionary zoning policies" is the rebrand from what we all know as single-family zoning – meaning your neighborhood and mine.

•
In fact, Booker's press release defines it here: "exclusionary zoning laws, for example, are local ordinances that ban apartment buildings from certain residential areas."

•
If you live in a home that dares to have a yard, trees, space between you and a neighbor, and you work hard to pay a mortgage, you are likely a target.

•
Owning a home is one of the best ways to build and accumulate generational wealth. But in liberal states, stopping the growth of single-family neighborhoods has already begun to take root.

•
As a former mayor, I know that zoning, grants and local control don't make for sexy headlines, but it is this kind of foundational planning that has empowered generations of working families with the opportunity of home ownership.

•
Rather than demonize and begin a federal assault against our suburban communities, we would be far better served as a nation by focusing on policies to expand generational wealth accumulation and home ownership and revitalize urban areas.

•
The strength of our communities lies in their differences, and the ability of people to choose the kind of city where they want to raise their family or retire.

•
It means stopping the heavy hand of federal social engineering from taking away local control and destroying the single-family zoning that has made our suburbs affordable and attractive for all kinds of families.

•
After suffering severe losses during the 2020 election in suburban districts, Democrats believe they have found a solution to improve their election prospects: urbanize the suburbs.

•
Using language like "The American Jobs Act" to disguise another federal power grab is becoming a common theme with the Biden administration. Or calling this a transportation bill when only 6% actually funds highways, roads and bridges.

•
And let's not forget that "exclusionary zoning" is nothing more than a smokescreen to eliminate single-family zoning and break the burbs.

•
Democrats know this must be done before their own primary fights start and they find themselves back on the campaign trail trying to win over the same suburbs they desperately want to dismantle.

•
Their desire to restructure America using single-family zoning reveals clear differences between America's political parties: Republicans want you to own your home and control your money, while Democrats want to own your home and control you.
Biden's inflation crisis – here's the price we'll pay if we don't get spending under control (Fox 05/14/2021)
Ingraham: Liberals use your problems and 'shiny object's' to push their ideology (Fox 05/14/2021)
Tucker Carlson, YouTuber Hickok45 smash stereotype that AR-15's are ‘weapons of war’ (Fox 05/13/2021)
•
"They're just a semi-automatic rifle. The same technology has been around for 100 years, over 100 years."

•
AR-15's dubbed "weapons of war" are not issued by the military and are not commonly connected to homicides.

•
According to FBI crime statistics, homicide victims are more likely to be killed with a knife than a rifle – AR-15's being even less likely...
The COVID-19 mystery – we've lost 3 millions lives and critical questions need answers (Fox 05/13/2021)
Virginia parents blast school board over graphic books, critical race theory: 'Pretty despicable' (Fox 05/13/2021)
•
"[Critical race theory] is not an honest dialogue — it is a tactic used by Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan on slavery very many years ago to dumb down my ancestors so we could not think for ourselves."

•
... called for critical race theory to be banned from the school system and told the school board to "think twice before you indoctrinate such racist theories."
Pete Hoekstra: Colonial Pipeline attack — what's the rest of the story? Urgent answers needed (Fox 05/13/2021)
America under siege on Biden's watch as cyberattackers cripple the country (Fox 05/13/2021)
•
They cut off a pipeline to the Eastern Seaboard for days, tried to poison a Florida water-treatment plant, held hospital IT systems hostage and stole an undetermined trove of information in the SolarWinds hack – all as the Biden administration searches for a way to respond.

•
Cyberattacks are on the rise, and they're increasingly targeting major infrastructure installations, like transportation hubs, energy facilities and utility companies.

•
"U.S. public and private sector entities increasingly face sophisticated malicious cyber activity from both nation-state actors and cyber criminals."

•
"These incidents share commonalities, including insufficient cybersecurity defenses that leave public and private sector entities more vulnerable to incidents."

•
... according to former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., who spent 20 years in intelligence for the military, the National Security Agency and in private industry. "We need to pick the first country that f*** with us in a cyber way and bring them to their knees."

•
His solution is dramatically ramping up spending for offensive cyber capabilities, and then using them disproportionately in response to any future attacks, especially when they are linked to the governments of Russia, China, Iran or North Korea.

•
"We choose a target that we have access to, and once we identify that target, we take out that target – and we then we [should] take it another step."

•
"If you want to come in and hit the Colonial Pipeline, which only serves several states, we're going to hit your major hub and want to take down half your country for a week."

•
Nongovernment hackers should be treated like terrorists and squashed as well, he said, because cyberattacks targeting major points of infrastructure have similar effects as terrorism, even if they're motivated by profit.

•
"If we had 96 hours with 10 states without gas and power, people would be raiding houses in 72 of those hours."

•
"The worst cascading effect is the way people react, right? When they don't have power, they don't have water, they don't have energy. It's scary stuff."

•
Creating that kind of asymmetrical deterrent should pair the increase in cyber offensive spending with funding to modernize the cyberdefenses of U.S. infrastructure, which appears to be glaringly exposed in the wake of numerous recent cyberattacks.

•
"It's gonna take a flip in resolve, and I would hope that the Biden administration has that resolve."

•
"I think what you need to do is an audit – and if you see things that look ridiculous, we have to come to a point where mission-specific objectives override political objectives as some might define as woke or whatever."

•
And there's no excuse for critical infrastructure facilities that feel the need to have armed guards, locked gates and secured perimeters to overlook their cybersecurity...

•
The solution ... is to lock down the direction in which information flows. "Water can't go up the waterfall – given there's a physical barrier, which is exactly what we do."

•
But water, like encrypted data, can still go down, allowing infrastructure facilities to send out information freely to the cloud without being at risk of a cyberattack in the opposite direction.

•
"You have armed guards and security all around it... But you can hack through the firewall and you're in and can do practically whatever you want."

•
As Republicans and Democrats try to negotiate what could be a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure deal in Washington, D.C., experts say whatever they agree upon should acknowledge cybersecurity in all critical new infrastructure projects.
Ransomware gang behind Colonial Pipeline attack, gas shortage motivated by spin and money – not politics (Fox 05/13/2021)
Karol Markowicz: It's our patriotic duty to shop local and quit Amazon (Fox 05/12/2021)
Scalise, GOP lawmakers demand to know why FBI designated baseball shooting 'suicide by cop' (Fox 05/12/2021)
Rand Paul: Dr. Fauci lied to Congress about Wuhan lab research funding (Fox 05/12/2021)
•
When pressed ... on why Dr. Fauci would lie about the funding, Paul said that the NIAID director was afraid of "culpability," since he allegedly sent the money to the same people who may have caused the outbreak.

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"So, Dr. Fauci came to Congress yesterday and lied. We can't prove the virus came from the lab. I'm not saying it did. I'm saying there is very much suspicious evidence that it might have," said Paul.
Ted Cruz fires back after Joy Reid's 'Django' attack: 'Why is MSNBC ok with hosts using overt...' (Fox 05/12/2021)
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"I appreciate MSNBC lecturing me on how people of 'my race' are supposed to vote. This arrogant condescension is a big reason Hispanic voters are moving right in large numbers. Also, why is MSNBC ok with their hosts using overt racial slurs ('Stephen from Django')?"
Ingraham: Biden is out of gas, is now America's problem denier (Fox 05/12/2021)
Florida Gov. DeSantis touts bonuses for policemen, beating lockdowns and banning 'Zuckerbucks' (Fox 05/12/2021)
Tucker Carlson: The White House approves gasoline shortage, it's their Green New Deal (Fox 05/12/2021)
Reps. Cawthorn, Foxx introduce bill to prevent federal funds from being used to push critical race theory (Fox 05/11/2021)
•
"The Ayatollahs in Iran train their children to hate America abroad, now the radical left wants to save Iran the trouble and teach our next generation to hate America at home."

•
... the United States was "built on a dream of freedom and opportunity" rather than "hate and division," and that "this dream still echoes through the halls of American Democracy, although far too often it is relegated to the shadows by those on the left."

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"This legislation will ensure that Critical Race Theory is dismantled and that American children are taught true American history, not false anarchical hysteria."

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"We are a collection of the failures and successes of past generations to create a nation grounded in the idea that all people are created equal."

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"That is what our schools should be teaching our youth, that no matter your background, there is room for you to succeed in America."
Democrats' HR1 election bill boosted by liberal dark money group financed by foreign national (Fox 05/11/2021)
Rand Paul, Fauci again spar over COVID origins, controversial Wuhan lab (Fox 05/11/2021)
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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Dr. Anthony Fauci sparred once again at a Senate hearing Tuesday, this time over the funding of the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology — the Chinese lab that is believed to have played a role in the initial outbreak of COVID-19.

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... Paul zeroed in on gain of function research — which works on making pathogens deadlier or more easily transmissible.

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He alleged that a U.S. virologist had been working with the Chinese institute on such research and said it was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH).

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"Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding of the NIH funding of the lab in Wuhan?" he asked the NIH chief.

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"Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect," a clearly irritated Fauci shot back. "The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

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He said that the doctor in question does not conduct gain of function research, and if he does, it is in line with guidelines and conducted in North Carolina, not China.

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Paul pressed on, saying it is gain of function and that the Wuhan Institute was previously funded through a sub grant.

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Fauci replied that it would have been irresponsible of the U.S. not to have investigated the bat viruses and their serology in China, of which COVID was one.

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"Or perhaps it would be irresponsible to send it to the Chinese government that we may not be able to trust with this knowledge and with this incredibly dangerous viruses," Paul interrupted, before accusing Fauci of supporting gain of function — a claim Fauci then called "incorrect."

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"Will you in front of this group categorically say that the COVID-19 virus could not have occurred by serial passage in a laboratory?" Paul asked Fauci.

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Fauci did not explicitly rule out such a possibility: "I do not have any accounting of what the Chinese may have done, and I'm fully in favor of any further investigation of what went on in China," he said.

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"However, I will repeat again, the NIH and NIAID categorically has not funded gain of function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
Vatican sounds alarm over US bishops' potential plan to deny Biden communion in pro-life fight (Fox 05/11/2021)
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See related St. Joe the Devout (Mike Shelton, 01/26/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Homan on Fox News video of migrant crossings: This is Biden's 'open borders' agenda in action (Fox 05/11/2021)
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"I was a Border Patrol agent. They either ran from you or they hid from you. This is unbelievable where we're at as a nation. But look, they've been invited, right? Joe Biden made promises. They won't be deported, they won't be detained. They'll get free health care."

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"What they're doing now, release them as quickly as possible without going to see a court — they're not even getting a court date. They're getting a brand new cell phone, a brand new smartphone, compliments of the taxpayers. They get released with those, no court date."

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"... Meanwhile, they're ignoring the border and the thousands coming across every day. Their actions speak louder than the words... This is open borders agenda. This is open borders. And this is what the Bush administration meant. This is by design. This isn't by accident."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Varney: Colonial Pipeline attack could be 'act of war' (Fox 05/10/2021)
Senate Democrats press ahead with election reform bill described as 'power grab' by GOP (Fox 05/10/2021)
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"Talk about shame. If anybody ought to be feeling any shame around here, it's turning the FEC into a partisan prosecutor, the majority controlled by the president's party, to harass and intimidate the other side, That's what you ought to be ashamed about."

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See related House-Senate Conference (Mike Shelton, 02/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Idaho school shooting: Teacher who disarmed student felt like angel was guiding her, father says (Fox 05/07/2021)
Voter suppression? Dems flat-out wrong. Census data gives real story about US elections (Fox 05/07/2021)
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There is no suppression going on of anyone's votes anywhere in the country. Anyone who says otherwise is just making it up.

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The bottom line of the Census Bureau's survey is that Americans are easily registering – when they want to – and they are turning out to vote when they are interested in the candidates who are running for election.
Left's revolution of 'systematic radicalism' can only be accomplished by changing how we teach kids (Fox 05/07/2021)
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"... it was never about standing up for equal justice for Black Americans. It was always about a full blown revolution, a series of moves designed to completely upend American society. And the only way to really accomplish that is by changing how and what we teach our kids. They want to control language, instill fear, and enforce rules with explicit and implicit threats, and of course in some cases life-altering punishment."

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"Enter the twisted notion of what the "Anti-Racist Curriculum" really is. It's largely the brainchild of people like Ibram Kendi. It embodies their supposed aim of promoting "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" in our schools. The acronym D-E-I. In this case stands for Divisive. Erroneous and Insidious or Insipid or Invidious take your pick."
Lindsey Graham to corporate America: 'Have you lost your mind?' (Fox 05/07/2021)
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"Don't you realize that the only thing between you, and your companies, and your shareholders and the Democratic agenda of high taxes, incredible regulations, and unbelievable spending is the Republican Party?"
Greg Gutfeld: The Left doesn't care about free speech, it cares about control (Fox 05/07/2021)
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When the Dems come up against something they disagree with, the instinct always is to ban it. They're not happy sticking their fingers in their own ears. They want to stick them in your ears, too.

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... it's not about free speech. It's about control. The intolerant left has the media. They got the entertainment industry. They got academia. Now they got big tech.
Idaho school shooting: 3 wounded before teacher disarmed 6th-grade student, authorities say (Fox 05/06/2021)
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A female student opened fire at an Idaho middle school Thursday morning, wounding a custodian and two other students before being disarmed by a teacher and taken into custody...
DeSantis signs Florida election bill limiting drop boxes, mail-in voting live on 'Fox & Friends' (Fox 05/06/2021)
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"I have what we think is the strongest election integrity measures in the country, We're making sure we're enforcing voter ID... We're also banning ballot harvesting. We're not gonna let political operatives go and get satchels of votes to dump them in some drop box."

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"We're also prohibiting mass mailing of balloting. We've had absentee voting in Florida for a long time. You request the ballot. You get it. And you mail it in. But to just indiscriminately send them out is not a recipe for success."

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"Drop boxes must be geographically located so as to provide all voters in the county with an equal opportunity to cast a ballot," the bill says, and "must be monitored in person."

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"The drop boxes will be available only when they're monitored and during regular voting hours. You can't just leave these boxes out where there's not supervision all hours of the night."

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"Every Floridian can request a mail-in ballot, vote early, or cast a ballot on Election Day. Anyone who reads this new law will see that it keeps voting easy, and makes cheating harder."

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"Maintaining a robust election system is a constant process of learning and improvement... Voters deserve the best election system we can deliver, and as Florida has shown, that work is never complete."

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See related Count Fraudula (Antonio Branco, 03/30/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Lawmakers want billions in government spending on unusual pet projects, Fox News investigation... (Fox 05/06/2021)
Facebook vs. Trump — Big Tech's censorship regime out of control. Here's how we fix it (Fox 05/05/2021)
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As Justice Clarence Thomas noted in a recent Supreme Court opinion, common carriers — such as trains or telephone networks, which are essential to everyday goings-on in connecting people and information — have historically been subject "to special regulations, including a general requirement to serve all comers" without discrimination.

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Telephone companies do not shut off your phone line based on what political views you express during calls. The same logic should apply today to Big Tech.

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A series of court decisions has limited the extent to which political figures can delete comments or bar users from interacting with their social media posts, noting that the First Amendment does not permit politicians to pick and choose who interacts with them in the public square.

•
Likewise, we should not allow Big Tech to decide which political figures are allowed to participate in the public square: it is absurd that President Trump is legally prohibited from limiting individual Twitter users' comments to him, while Twitter is permitted to ban President Trump from the platform entirely.

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Since it was passed in 1996, Section 230 has been stretched well beyond its original intent — which was to promote the free exchange of ideas online and specific types of family-friendly moderation — into a license for companies like Facebook and Twitter to censor.

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In its effort to encourage family-friendly moderation, Congress specifically permitted moderation of obscene, lewd, or excessively violent content.

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It also permitted moderation of "otherwise objectionable" content, and Big Tech has exploited this vague term, using it as a license to censor whatever it pleases.

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This was not Congress's purpose, nor could Congress have then imagined the behemoth tech corporations that now dominate our ability to communicate.

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The 21st Century FREE Speech Act would: (1) abolish Section 230's license to censor, (2) treat Big Tech platforms with more than 100 million active monthly users worldwide like a common carrier that must provide reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to all consumers to prevent political censorship, and (3) require Big Tech platforms to disclose their content management and moderation practices to users, so that consumers can better assess the information they receive.

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Specifically, my bill would abolish Section 230 in favor of a liability protection framework that restores that section's original intent, updated based on the effects of the enormous technological change over the past 25 years.

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This legislation provides the liability protection necessary to drive continued innovation, without giving companies a license to censor speech on political, religious, or other grounds.

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Ultimately, the 21st Century FREE Speech Act is about promoting free speech, thought and exchange of ideas.

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It's about trusting Americans — rather than Big Tech companies and their "independent oversight boards" — to determine what information to consume, share, and believe.
Lara Logan: The ‘tyrannical elite’ are using smart technology to surveil the ‘monitored class’ (Fox 05/05/2021)
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... we are becoming the monitored class. That's where the separation lies. We talk a lot about left and right, and right now things look like that's where the divide is, but the real divide is coming, between the monitored class, where we are surveilled 24/7, and the tyrannical elite.

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We are giving up our brains. We are giving up our patterns of behavior. We are telling them exactly where our vulnerabilities are. How we can be exploited. And, most importantly, we are just laying the groundwork for some kind of social justice system like they have in China where we can be denied access to college or to school based on our political views. They know everything that you are doing because they have surveillance with you every minute of the day. It's not a phone. It's a surveillance device that makes calls.
St. Louis man in viral standoff with BLM protesters praises armed Louisville diner: ‘That guy’s...’ (Fox 05/05/2021)
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"He's got my tremendous respect, I've been saying for 10 months now that that's what everybody needs to do. They've got to stand up for their rights and not get bullied – and that's what the Second Amendment is there for."

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"I think if you're sitting there having a nice lunch and people storm in, and they're armed, you've got every right to stand up and defend yourself."

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"Boy, that guy's a champion," McCloskey said. "He's got a heck of a lot of courage, and I wish everybody else in the country would stand up and not take it sitting down."

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He said he worried that the government is no longer protecting citizens from violent protests – nor is the mainstream media. "The media mob will kill you if the armed mob does not."
Freedom of speech is from the Constitution not 'Facebook's Oversight Board,' RNC says of Trump ban (Fox 05/05/2021)
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"We've known for multiple cycles that Facebook, Twitter and Big Tech have become an extension of the left's woke mob. The First Amendment and our freedom of speech is a right granted to all Americans from the Constitution, not from Facebook's ‘Oversight Board,'"...

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"If Big Tech can ban a former President, what's to stop them from silencing the American people next?"
NJ police officer says she was fired over Facebook post calling Black Lives Matter protesters... (Fox 05/05/2021)
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Erwin reportedly wrote in the post: "Last night as I left for work I had my two kids crying for me not to go to work. I don't think I've ever felt the way I did last night. And then I watched people I know and others I care about going into harms way. I love my police family like my own. So when you share posts and things on Facebook I'd really appreciate if you'd THINK before doing so. I've seen so many black lives matter [sic] hashtags in these posts. Just to let you know — they are terrorists. They hate me. They hate my uniform. They don't care if I die."

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See related And That's Why We Are Letting You Go (Mike Lester, 06/14/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Trump ban: Republicans threaten to break up Facebook after Oversight Board decision (Fox 05/05/2021)
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"It is a sad day for America. It's a sad day for Facebook because I can tell you, a number of members of Congress are now looking at: Do they break up Facebook, do they make sure that they don't have a monopoly? And I can tell you that it is two different standards, one for Donald Trump and one for a number of other people that are on their sites."

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"Facebook and Twitter and others have clearly established two different sets of rules. One if you're a conservative or a Republican or have a different ideology than them and one if you're a liberal."

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"Facebook's decision to uphold its ban on President Donald Trump is extremely disappointing. It's clear that Mark Zuckerberg views himself as the arbiter of free speech."

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"Facebook is more interested in acting like a Democrat Super PAC than a platform for free speech and open debate, If they can ban President Trump, all conservative voices could be next. A House Republican majority will rein in big tech power over our speech."

•
"Big tech thinks it can control everything. Companies that censor Americans while giving brutal dictators a pass should not have free rein over your personal data to use for their benefit. I introduced the DATA Act to hold big tech accountable."

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"Disgraceful. For every liberal celebrating Trump's social media ban, if the Big Tech oligarchs can muzzle the former President, what's to stop them from silencing you?"

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"Facebook and Twitter ban a former U.S. President, yet, some of the world's worst dictators, terrorists, and bad actors still have a platform, This is a gross double standard and it's why most Americans don't trust big tech."

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"The Facebook Oversight Board is a dumb distraction from the actual issue of Facebook's hegemonic control over global political speech, reinforced today by the platform anointing itself with the moral authority to memory hole future world leaders at their own discretion."

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Private school parents pressured to become BLM activists, NYC dad says (Fox 05/05/2021)
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"We already do a horrific job in this country teaching history, and now we're going to make that ten times worse, we're going to eradicate that."

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"Our country doesn't survive not teaching history and civics, and it sure as hell doesn't survive teaching our children to hate their country and their history."

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Left-wing activism was the norm at the the school, according to Gutmann, who said family were pressured to "advocate for Black Lives Matter."

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... said his takeaway from the school's messaging was: "We want you, we want your daughter, from kindergarten to 12th grade, we want your family to be an activist."

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... described the pressure to conform as so intense that "if you just stay silent, you're racist. You have to be an activist for that. If you're not an activist for an antiracism initiative, for Black Lives Matter, for example, you are racist, you are a bad person, you are an oppressor, you are not doing the right thing."

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The school "made it sound like they're going to integrate this racial curriculum, this anti-racism curriculum, into everything - every class, into math, into gym, P.E., it was shocking that they were taking that degree of integrating it into everything," Gutmann said, describing the issue as "pervasive."
Aren't spies supposed to have secret identity, not identify openly as 18 different things? (Fox 05/05/2021)
Unequal application of justice, law by administration should ‘frighten every American’ (Fox 05/05/2021)
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"I referred to the Obama administration as a lawless administration, this is in the face of President Obama declaring there wasn't a scintilla of proof of any scandal in his administration, but completely false. But it's just a continuation of this. When you see the unequal administration application of justice in the law, that should frighten every American and we're continuing to see it."

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See related The Shadow President (Gary Varvel, 02/01/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Joe Concha: It appears that 'wokeness is everywhere,' including the CIA (Fox 05/04/2021)
Trump launches new communications platform months after Twitter, Facebook ban (Fox 05/04/2021)
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The platform, "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump" appears on www.DonaldJTrump.com/desk. The space will allow Trump to post comments, images, and videos.

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The technology appears to be powered by Campaign Nucleus — the "digital ecosystem made for efficiently managing political campaigns and organizations," created by his former campaign manager, Brad Parscale.

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... the new platform does not have a feature to allow users to "reply" or engage with Trump's posts.

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"This is just a one-way communication. This system allows Trump to communicate with his followers."

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... the former president planned to "move forward" to create a social media platform of his own after being banned from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat after the Capitol riot.

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It unclear, at this point, if this platform is part of those plans, or if there is a separate project underway.

•
The rollout of the platform also comes just a day before Facebook's Oversight Board is expected to announce its decision on whether to indefinitely suspend Trump from Facebook and Instagram.

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Facebook moved to block Trump "indefinitely" after the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying that they "believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great."

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Regardless of Facebook's decision Wednesday a Twitter spokesperson told Fox News that Trump is permanently suspended from tweeting.
Cuomo warns unvaccinated people could kill grandmas (Fox 05/03/2021)
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"He has some nerve shaming others for possibly endangering their grandparents. Over 15,000 elderly are no longer with us thanks in part to his deadly policy to re-admit infected patients into nursing homes. If anyone knows how to kill a grandma, it's Andrew Cuomo."

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See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Dershowitz on FBI raid of Giuliani home: US comparable to a banana republic (INN 05/03/2021)
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"In banana republics, in Castro‘s Cuba, in many parts of the world, when a candidate loses a race, they go after [them], they go after their lawyers, their friends, That's [what's] happening in America now. They're going after Rudy Giuliani."

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"A search warrant on a lawyer or a doctor or a priest? You don't use search warrants, You don't use search warrants when people have privileged information on their cellphones and in their computers. You use a subpoena. The difference between a subpoena and a search warrant is like night and day."
Rudy Giuliani slams raid on apartment as 'out of control,' says feds trying to 'frame' him (Fox 05/03/2021)
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"At about 6 a.m., there was a banging on my door — a very loud banging, and outside there was a group of an endless number of FBI agents."

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"Usually a person who has been a former assistant U.S. attorney, a U.S. attorney, a mayor, the associate attorney general, usually they receive a subpoena — not have their home raided."

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"The only lawyers they raid are lawyers for Donald Trump. I can't think of another lawyer that has been raided other than lawyers for Trump, Trump is in a special category because he doesn't have constitutional rights."

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"They showed me a warrant that sought the electronics in my apartment and purported to be about an alleged violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, FARA, for failure to file as a foreign agent on behalf of an unnamed Ukrainian official."
Deroy Murdock: Biden's 'Jim Eagle' vs. Jim Crow – here's what Democrats get so profoundly wrong on race (Fox 05/02/2021)
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See related Joe Crow (Mike Shelton, 04/06/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Hawley: Left wants to 'combine the power of government and the power of' Big Tech corporations (Fox 05/02/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Portland mayor learns bitter lesson of appeasing Antifa (Fox 05/01/2021)
Justin Haskins: Banks and Biden – here's how they'll team up to adopt AOC's Green New Deal (Fox 05/01/2021)
McConnell, Republicans say Biden administration embrace of 1619 Project needs to stop: 'Divisive...' (Fox 04/30/2021)
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"Americans do not need or want their tax dollars diverted from promoting the principles that unite our nation toward promoting radical ideologies meant to divide us."

•
To counter the 1619 Project, former President Trump formed a "1776 Commission" that issued a report meant to support what Trump called "patriotic education."

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Shortly after taking office, Biden disbanded that commission that his team said: "sought to erase America's history of racial injustice" and removed the 1776 report from the White House website.

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McConnell's letter to Cardona stresses broad concerns that schools are diving into culture wars to the detriment of teaching students factual history and civics lessons.

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... certain schools and, now the federal government, are trying to inject "divisive, radical and historically-dubious" propaganda into the classrooms, the senators wrote.

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"Taxpayer-supported programs should emphasize the shared civic virtues that bring us together, not push radical agendas that tear us apart."
National Park Service calls for volunteers to kill bison at Grand Canyon (Fox 04/30/2021)
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"Shooting animals accustomed to a non-threatening human presence — the park attracts nearly 6 million visitors a year — is a betrayal," the Humane Society of the U.S. wrote in a 2017 blog post.

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"The charges against the bison are trumped-up and best characterized as fake ecological news."
Liz Peek: Joe Biden, after 100 days, finally talks truth — cutting US carbon emissions won't matter (Fox 04/30/2021)
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This is what he said, according to a New York Times transcript of the president's remarks: "The United States accounts, as all of you know, for less than 15 percent of carbon emissions. The rest of the world accounts for 85 percent. That's why I kept my commitment to rejoin the Paris Accord, because if we do everything perfectly, it's not going to matter."

•
This is not a "gotcha moment", where a politician is caught embellishing his life story or fabricating excuses for some misdeed. On the contrary, Joe Biden was being honest.

•
And, for once in his life, Joe Biden was completely correct. Even if the Biden White House clobbers our economy, puts every last coal miner and oil driller out of work and drives down U.S. fossil fuel production and consumption, it will barely bend the curve on rising global emissions.

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Why? Because the rapid growth in emissions from China and India, and other developing countries, will dwarf any action taken by the U.S. and will continue to push global carbon output higher.

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... over the next thirty years, even if Uncle Sam does not demand Americans switch to electric cars or stop eating steak, our emissions will still be 20% below the peak total in 2007. It is the rest of the world we must be concerned about.

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It is worth noting that at the recent global climate summit, at which Biden opened the proceedings with a fervent call to action and offered up an unrealistic pledge to cut U.S. emissions 50% by 2030, other leaders were noticeably mute.

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... Biden is willing to roll the dice for a policy that, as he admitted, won't make much difference.
Biden's first 100 days: Experts hit press for 'overwhelmingly favorable, polite, and gentle' coverage (Fox 04/30/2021)
Rudy Giuliani joins 'Tucker' after FBI raid, claims agents showed no interest in Hunter Biden hard drives (Fox 04/30/2021)
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Giuliani recalled being woken by a loud "bang" at 6 a.m. Wednesday and being greeted by seven FBI agents at his door with a search warrant.

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"I looked at the warrant, and I said, 'You know, this is extraordinary because I offered to give these to the government and talk it over with them for two years,'"...

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The agents remained in Giuliani's apartment for nearly two hours, seizing several electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones...

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Federal authorities are investigating whether Giuliani violated the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) by failing to report his alleged activities on behalf of Ukraine to the Justice Department.

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Giuliani has denied any wrongdoing. "The search warrant is on one single failure to file for representing a Ukrainian national or official that I never represented."

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"I never represented a Ukrainian national or official before the United States government. I've declined it several times. I've had contracts in countries like Ukraine. In the contract is a clause that says I will not engage in lobbying or foreign representation. I don't do it because I felt it would be too compromising."

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"At the end of the search, when they had taken about, I would say, seven or eight electronic items of mine ... they weren't taking the three hard drives, which of course, are electronic devices. They just mimic the computer. I said, 'Well, don't you want these?' And they said, 'What are they? I said, 'Those are Hunter Biden's hard drives. And they said 'no, no, no."

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Giuliani said he offered to turn over the hard drives three times before the agents got visibly "perturbed." "I said, 'Are you sure you don't want them? I mean the warrant required them to take it,'" he explained, and they said, 'No, no, no.' One last time, I said, 'Don't you think you should take it?' And they said, 'No.'"

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Giuliani added that the agents were "completely content to rely on my word that these were Hunter Biden's hard drives. I mean, they could have been Donald Trump's. They could have been Vladimir Putin's. They could have been anybody's.

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"But they relied on me, the man who had to be raided in the morning, because — I'm going to destroy the evidence? I've known about this for two years... I could have destroyed the evidence."

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"The evidence is exculpatory. It proves the president and I and all of us are innocent. They are the ones who are committing — it's like projection. They are committing the crimes."

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Giuliani accused the Biden Justice Department of fabricating a FARA allegation against him instead of honing in on Hunter's "dozen or more violations of FARA that is spelled out completely."

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President Biden earlier Thursday denied having advance knowledge of the FBI raid on Giuliani's apartment, claiming that he learned of the operation "when the rest of the world learned about it."

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"Maybe he doesn't remember," Giuliani said. "I'm not sure if he can retain anything for more than about the time it takes to read it, but in any event, who cares if he knew or not."

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While the investigation continues, Giuliani said he hopes those at the top of the Biden DOJ who ordered the raid will "be investigated for blatantly violating my constitutional rights."

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"If that doesn't result in their being sanctioned, the case being dismissed, and it stopping, this is no longer — we might as well be in, you know, East Berlin before the Wall fell. This is tactics only known in a dictatorship where you see a lawyer's records right in the middle of his representation of his client. You should be prosecuted and disbarred for that. They're a disgrace to a great department."
Cruz: Minorities like Tim Scott who don't 'sit down and shut up and obey' 'enrage' the left (Fox 04/29/2021)
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"I think it's disgusting. I think Tim gave a fantastic speech. Tim is a good friend, and he understands the miracle of opportunity that is America, that there's no nation in the history of the world that has enabled so many people to start with nothing and achieve the American dream."

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"That's why Tim is a conservative. That's why I'm a conservative. And, you know, and I think it was particularly important that Tim made the point, which is right, that America is not a racist country. And in fact, we have an incredible legacy of fighting for the equal rights of all. It hasn't been a perfect journey, but no journey is. And we're moving toward a more perfect union. And I think Tim articulated that beautifully. Twitter, on the other hand — listen, the left is intolerant, the left believes in cancel culture, and there are few things that enrage the left more than minorities that don't sit down and shut up and obey."

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"And they get very angry at African-Americans like Tim who dare to be a conservative. They get very angry at Hispanics like me, who dare to be a conservative because their view is that especially minorities, you either agree with their leftist orthodoxy or you are a traitor. And so the nastiness of the racial slur, unfortunately, that is a recurring feature of the left."
Tim Scott speech triggers radical reaction from liberal media mob. Did they even listen to it? (Fox 04/29/2021)
Tucker Carlson: The Biden administration will use the force of law to crush political dissent (Fox 04/29/2021)
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Today, Joe Biden gave his first address to a joint session of congress. The speech amounted to a mushy casserole of cliches designed to calm your suspicions that anything weird or scary might be going on and to reassure you that everything's going to be just fine, in fact, better.

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In that way, it had the same narcotic intent of the Biden campaign itself. Remember that? "Don't worry. We're moderates. We'll make everything normal again."

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Whatever you think of Joe Biden, that turned out to be one of the greatest lies ever told. In four months, this White House has changed America more quickly and more radically than any before it.

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They've moved so fast and with such stunning aggression that even people who are paid to keep track of it, like us, can barely keep up. Every change they've forced has moved the country in the same direction: away from democracy where every voter has the same power as a voter, and toward something very different, toward tyranny.

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Most ominous of all, they haven't hesitated to use the force of law to punish their political opponents. Here's the latest, which may be the scariest:...

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At 6 a.m. on Wednesday, federal agents raided the home of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. They seized his personal property, including his electronic devices, which included all of his digital communications and records.

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... Rudy Giuliani is not a political ally of the White House. He was the personal attorney of the former president — whose communications the Feds are of course now reading.

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That was Giuliani's offense: being Trump's lawyer — that, and having the gall to try to learn more about what exactly Joe Biden and his son were doing in Ukraine several years ago.

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The Justice Department announced today that asking too many questions about Biden's dealings in Ukraine is now a crime. They called it something else, but that's what Giuliani did.

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The FBI's pretext for investigating Giuliani is that he violated something that no one in America even heard of a few years ago called FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
John Kerry and Iran – American people deserve an explanation from former secretary of state (Fox 04/29/2021)
Newt Gingrich: Biden's first 100 days — among the most radical in all of American history (Fox 04/29/2021)
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The Biden administration has already proven to be insufferably, deliberately, and totally dishonest. The past 100 days have been a tale of two stories.

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One is propped up by the elite media and based on big lies and the arrogance that crazy radical policies are empathetic. The other is rooted in the reality of the concerns and interests of real Americans.
More than 200 Seattle police officers quit over the last year, many citing anti-police climate (Fox 04/29/2021)
Sean Hannity blasts Biden's speech; it was addressed to his 'radical, socialist base' (Fox 04/29/2021)
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Of course, tonight, shortly after congratulating himself on his COVID response Joe then quickly moved to address the concerns of what is his radical, socialist base – that is the new Democratic Socialist Party - outlining his very own green new deal including a fully clean "green" power grid, environmental renovations for thousands of homes and schools and buildings, and 500,000 electric charging stations for electric cars that Americans have not shown much interest in. A massive expansion of Medicaid, and apparently massive new government subsidies for wind turbines and other forms of green energy.

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Now, the logical question is, how much? And who's paying for it, Joe?...Biden's green infrastructure investment plan alone costs $2.3 trillion. Add that to his social welfare plan, his new COVID spending package, and we're talking about over $6 trillion in new spending. And you, the American people, you will be covering that tab.

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... everyone that pays taxes will be forced to pay for these massive spending bills. I say it over and over again, corporations don't pay taxes. They will pass the tax loss to you, and you'll pay more for goods and for services and for energy, all at the same time. You will pay for it, let's be clear. America does not have a revenue problem...we have a government spending problem, and Joe wants to make it far worse.

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Biden\\\'s Brain Trust (Gary Varvel, 07/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Andrew Giuliani blasts FBI raid on dad's home: 'This is absolutely absurd' (Fox 04/28/2021)
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"Anybody, any American, whether you are red or blue, should be extremely disturbed by what happened here today, by the continued politicization of the Justice Department. This is disgusting. This is absolutely absurd."

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"Our Justice Department should be independent of politics. Enough is enough, ladies and gentlemen. We cannot stand for this anymore. If this can happen to the president's lawyer, this can happen to any one of us."

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"The only piece of evidence that they did not take up there today was the only incriminating evidence that is in there and it does not belong to my father, It belongs to the current president's son."
Idaho Senate passes bill banning critical race theory in public schools, liberals protest (Fox 04/27/2021)
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The Idaho Senate on Monday passed "nondiscrimination" legislation to prohibit schools from forcing students to "personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to" certain critical race theory teachings.

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"This bill is Idaho's statement that we will not tolerate discrimination and we are reserving education policy and curricular choices to the state and local institutions and schools."

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... the bill contains the "same principles that have been the foundation of the Civil Rights movement."

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"It's that every individual should be treated equally under the law, that no one should be compelled to believe something just because someone else does."

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"It is a preventative measure. It does not indicate that we have a rampant problem in Idaho. But we don't want to get one."
New York attack: Man arrested for allegedly pushing Chinese immigrant to the ground, kicking him... (Fox 04/27/2021)
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Yao Pan Ma, 61, was collecting cans in East Harlem when he was pushed to the ground and kicked in the head. He was still in a coma as of Tuesday morning.

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Video of the incident shows the attacker stomping and kicking Ma in the head at least six times while he was on the ground.
Ingraham: The Left's war on policing makes America less safe (Fox 04/27/2021)
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"Why would anyone sign up today for the abuse that police officers go through every time they have to make a good faith, split-second, life or death decision?... Even the most conscientious, the most compassionate and the most experienced officers – they can't guarantee that they're going to get past the woke, cop-hating left's ever-changing training rules. So to be a police officer on patrol today — you're kind of damned if you do, you're damned if you don't."

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"If you save a black teenager from getting stabbed, and a billionaire basketball player makes you an instant target. But if you let her get stabbed, you're accused of letting a black girl die. The media are the ultimate co-conspirators in all of this in the continuing defamation of police..."
Blue states are 'hemorrhaging people, shoving them away' as Dems continue to raise taxes (Fox 04/27/2021)
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"... the blue states are hemorrhaging people, shoving them away and what's crazy is in the middle of all of this, the answer of the liberals is to raise taxes. So you have everybody who is productive, who has resources, who pays taxes beginning to leave and instead of trying to figure out how to keep them, they're going to accelerate the transition out of the blue states to the states that are run overwhelmingly by Republicans."

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"You've never seen a clearer contrast between a high tax big bureaucracy unionized machine system in all of these states run by Democratic governors and a free enterprise small business entrepreneurship, low tax system as we are seeing in almost all the Republican states — and the result is exactly what human nature tells you it would be, people leave the pain, they go to the pleasure and the migration is just going to continue."

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"... issue now in New York mayor's race is crime and it's rising steadily. We're back in a pre-Giuliani disastrous area of crime and if that sinks in, the combination of crime being anti-police, being pro-criminal, being for huge bureaucracies and raising taxes that can come together in a way that's very powerful."
Biden's environmental czars – Obama's playbook is back and here's why you should be worried (Fox 04/26/2021)
Ted Cruz says VP Harris' 'GPS got confused,' sending her to wrong border (Fox 04/25/2021)
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"Welcome to the WrongBorder, [Vice President Kamala Harris]!" the New Hampshire GOP wrote... "As you travel over 2,300 miles away from El Paso, our country would be better served with an official visit to our southern border, not a campaign trip for [Hassan]."
John McWhorter: 'The Elect' are the 'hyper woke' and they are trying to 'ruin' America (Fox 04/24/2021)
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"There really is a genuinely alarming takeover of education happening right now, which is based on idea that black kids and also Latino kids should not be expected to actually get the answer, should not be expected to be precise, and to impose the strictures of math upon them is racist. That somehow, being precise, not to mention being on time and cherishing the written word, is a white thing, that we have to decenter whiteness."

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"Oddly enough, [progressives] are racists in a new guise, where they think of themselves literally as Jesus."
Trump to Hannity: Big Tech should face antitrust scrutiny, slams CNN over leaked video (Fox 04/24/2021)
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"I'm getting the word out because we are doing [press] releases," Trump said of being banned by Twitter and Facebook. "Every time I do a release, it's all over the place. It is better than Twitter. Much more elegant than Twitter and Twitter is really boring."

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"When I started with Twitter years ago, it was like a fail concept, a platform, fail. And it became exciting. And I think I had a lot to do with it to be honest with you, it became exciting. Now it is boring. It is no good anymore."

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"With all of the things you said, look, the Democrats lie, cheat and steal. They are vicious."
DHS scraps fines for illegal immigrants who fail to leave, moves to cancel existing debts (Fox 04/24/2021)
Montana governor signs bill to protect Second Amendment from federal gun restrictions (Fox 04/24/2021)
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Earlier this year he signed a bill into law that allows concealed firearms to be carried in most places without a permit.

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It also expands where guns can be carried, including university campuses and the Statehouse.
HuffPost slammed as 'propaganda,' 'stupid liars' for claiming Republicans 'engaged in court packing' (Fox 04/23/2021)
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"We had a Republican president, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House," Cruz said. "We didn't do this. We could have ... You didn't see Republicans when we had control of the Senate try to rig the game. You didn't see us try to pack the Court."

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At no point did HuffPost show Republicans had done anything but fill vacancies, which does not fit the definition of "court-packing."

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"HuffPost is apparently partaking in the new liberal trend to redefine words – they have erroneously conflated filling judicial vacancies with ‘court packing' and then based on that conflation, accused Sen. Cruz of gaslighting. It's patently absurd and if anyone's guilty of gaslighting, it's the editors at HuffPost."

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Columbus police shooting prompts media pundits to offer 'TV-inspired nonsense' on police tactics (Fox 04/23/2021)
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"Can an officer shoot the leg, can they shoot somewhere that would not result in a fatal wound?" asked the unidentified reporter, noting that observers have asked the same question.

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"We don't train to shoot the leg because that's a small target. We train to shoot center mass, what is available to stop that threat ... There was a deadly force threat that was going on, so the officer is trained to shoot center mass."

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"Because gunshot wounds have a high chance of being deadly, shooting at someone is only ever justified if the shooter or someone nearby is facing an imminent deadly threat."

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"If you are facing a deadly threat, you want to shoot at an area you are most likely to actually hit the assailant and stop them. That was clearly the case in this incident since the officer was confronting an imminent threat of a stabbing against a young woman."

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"It's very difficult to shoot a moving target — a person who can go in any direction — so you aim at center mass (the torso) because it's the biggest part of the body and easiest to hit. This ensures that internal organs are hit and the person stops coming at you or the victim."

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"Center mass also helps to decrease the chance that missed rounds - which are likely in a high stress situation — hit a bystander."

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"Saying cops should be firing off warning shots when that's prohibited by every agency and flies in the laws of physics? What goes up must come down. You have people weighing in on these issues that aren't doing their research. They're talking about being able to karate chop the knife away or roundhouse kick it. This is ridiculous crap that isn't grounded in facts."
Media cheer Biden climate speech, but will it turn out to be hot air? (Fox 04/23/2021)
NYC dad says daughter 'recognized' private school was 'trying to make her feel guilty' about... (Fox 04/22/2021)
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"She completely understands and supports the decision to pull her out of school, If she had expressed a strong desire to stay, we would have let her and tried to fight the antiracism initiatives from within. Like myself, she recognized the indoctrination tactics being used by the school. She also recognized the school was trying to make her feel guilty for her skin color."

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In his letter to parents ... Gutmann condemns Brearley for displaying a "cowardly and appalling lack of leadership by appeasing an anti-intellectual, illiberal mob," adding that the school judges his daughter by her skin color and "instructs her to prejudge others by theirs."

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Brearley also requires at least one parent or guardian to participate in "required anti-racist training and ongoing reflection." Application forms require parents to share how one's "family values align with the School's commitment."

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"I object to Brearley's vacuous, inappropriate, and fanatical use of words such as 'equity,' 'diversity' and 'inclusiveness,'"

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"If Brearley's administration was truly concerned about so-called 'equity,' it would be discussing the cessation of admissions preferences for legacies, siblings, and those families with especially deep pockets."

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He added that if the "administration was genuinely serious about 'diversity,' it would not insist on the indoctrination of its students, and their families, to a single mindset, most reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution" and would instead "foster an environment of intellectual openness and freedom of thought."

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But because of the school's recent antiracism initiatives, some "parents say they are now less likely to make playdates with kids of other races or reach out socially with parents of other races because they are fearful of 'saying the wrong thing' or because they just want to avoid any discussions of race."

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"I believe these antiracism initiatives are incredibly divisive and counterproductive, lead to more segregation, and have severely damaged the sense of community."
Oregon teacher: White educators should be 'as bold' as Capitol rioters in anti-racism push (Fox 04/22/2021)
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... she indicated opponents of anti-racist ideology should be punished like child abusers are in the school system.

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"If you're not evolving into an anti-racist educator, you're making yourself obsolete in this field of profession," said Watkins.

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"Our district is only getting browner and browner with our children and so obviously you can't change your melanin, alright? But you can change your mind so that you can actually function in a district that is full of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] children."

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"So, if you're being resistant, I understand that, but you're going to have to eventually come to the light – because if you're going to keep with those old views of colonialism, it's going to lead to being fired because you're going to be damage to our children, trauma. And so, as we fire the teachers who sexually abuse our children, we will be firing the teachers who do racist things to our children and traumatize them."

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The district ... said: "Katherine Watkins does not speak for the Beaverton School District" ... They added that beyond "being a teacher in the district and a member of the planning team for this particular summit, she has no official role in the equity efforts of the district."

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"The bullying by a teacher in Beaverton public schools against other educators reveals a growing problem in school districts as 'equity warriors' lay siege on our schools," said PDE's Asra Nomani.

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"Teachers and staff who self-describe as 'equity warriors' harass colleagues until they submit to the new ideological indoctrination of critical race theory, the controversial philosophy that looks at all societal issues through a racial lens and pits people against each other. It's dangerous and it's destructive. Parents Defending Education investigated the case, and it's appalling the school district simply told us that the teacher doesn't have the authority to threaten the jobs of other teachers. The teacher's threat should be publicly renounced by the school district."
Greg Gutfeld: The media game of 'us versus them' won't stop with Chauvin's conviction (Fox 04/22/2021)
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... as Democrat-run cities devolve into crime-infested horror shows, your evening anchors will still push defunding. As it gets worse, they will blame you, the cops and anyone who thinks for themselves. This as blue cities continue to have the greatest disparities in wealth, opportunity and safety.

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So people will leave and the poor among us — White, Black and Brown alike — will stay behind in their police-defunded hellholes, and CNN will say it's systemic racism that's causing the spikes in crime. It's perfect. You don't need proof.

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If you live in a city run by Dems where a police force made up of working-class sons and daughters are treated like [expletive] while English majors in expensive black hoodies play vigilante, it's on you.

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But the rising crime stats from the past year are clear. When you defund the police, you're funding suffering. That's why, if you can, you'll be leaving for that part of the country run by Republicans sooner than you think.
Ingraham: Left's goal isn't justice, it's revolution; they want to 'convict America' (Fox 04/22/2021)
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... the most powerful forces in America fueling the current rage against police they are playing everyone... and they're using grieving families to perpetrate their fraud on all of us.

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Their goal isn't "justice," it's revolution. They don't even care about convicting police officers who commit crimes – what they really want to do is to convict America.

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Evidence, facts, crime statistics — none of that matters to the Race Patrol. They need you to believe that crimes aren't actually committed by individuals – they're caused by a racist society.

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And the fact that there was no evidence of racial animus in Chauvin's actions didn't matter either. He was White, the victim was Black. It wasn't his knee on the neck of Mister Floyd, it was America's.
Victor Davis Hanson accuses Democrats of using George Floyd's death to ‘indict all of America’ (Fox 04/22/2021)
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"They see this as useful for a larger agenda that does not have public support, So whether it's open borders or reparations or redistribution or the end of the Second or First Amendment... It doesn't really matter. They want to use this crisis to indict all of America."

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... this deeply-driven movement has little to do with class warfare since it's driven by a majority of coastal White and Black elites like the Obama's or Oprah Winfrey.

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"They know this existential problem, Why 7,000 African Americans are killing themselves in inner cities and they're poorly run and the schools are bad. And yet, they do not want to put their kids in the public schools. They do not want to get on the ground in a concrete fashion and say to people, ‘Let's preserve the African nuclear family...' No, it's virtue signaling in the abstract."
Hannity blasts Biden, other leftists for 'stoking racial hatred for political gain' (Fox 04/22/2021)
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Everyone on the left from ... Joe Biden to everyone in between is actively now stoking racial hatred for political gain. That's what "Jim Crow 2.0" was all about with Joe Biden, when it seems the voting law in Georgia is far more accessible than that in Delaware.

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Delaware has no seventeen days of early voting in person. Georgia does. Both have voter ID, and there are no drop boxes in Delaware. Why didn't Joe [Biden] fix that in fifty years?
Columbus police shooting 911 caller said someone ‘trying to stab us’ before officer killed knife-... (Fox 04/21/2021)
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The caller, who has not been identified by police, said amid a commotion in the background, "[indistinguishable]...trying to fight us, trying to stab us, trying to put their hands on our grandma. Get here now."

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Footage from his body-worn camera shows that as soon as he pulls up, a young female with an apparent knife in her hand is forcing another female to the ground.

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She then turns and charges at another female nearby, while still holding the apparent knife, at which point Rearden fires multiple shots, fatally striking her.

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"I understand the outrage and emotion around this incident. A teenage girl is dead and she's dead at the hands of a police officer. Under any circumstances, that is a horrendous tragedy. But the video shows there is more to this. It requires us to pause, take a close look at the sequence of events, and though it is not easy, wait for the facts."

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... police officers are trained to use deadly force to stop a deadly assault on an officer or third party from happening.

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"When officers are faced with someone employing deadly force, deadly force can be the response the officer gives."
Head of US nuclear arsenal rejects calls to scrap ground-based missiles (Fox 04/21/2021)
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Admiral Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command said Tuesday that for the first time in the country's history, the U.S. is now facing two nuclear powers at the same time: Russia and China – and he can't do it with today's aging stockpile.

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"I cannot deter with the leftovers from the Cold War forever in the future," Richard, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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Richard testified that he needs to replace — not update — his fleet of 50-year-old Minuteman III missiles.

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"That is a 70s-era weapons system that I am going to have to employ against 2030-level threats."

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"We are down to two of a particular switch that is required to go in the launch control centers, Nobody knows how to make it anymore. It's obsolete."

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"We must account for the possibility of conflict leading to conditions which could very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option."

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The nuclear triad consists of ground-based missiles, ballistic-missile submarines, and strategic bombers. The U.S. stopped keeping nuclear-capable bombers on 24-hour alert in 1991. Richard says the U.S. really has a "dyad" today, not a triad.

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"If you don't have intercontinental ballistic missiles, we can't meet that criteria. You are completely dependent on the submarine leg. I've already told the secretary of defense, under those conditions, I would request to re-alert the bombers."

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"A larger arsenal of ICBMs is critical for deterring a nuclear attack. An attacker faced with fewer US ICBM silos would have an easier time disarming the United States."

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"Eliminating one hundred ICBMs would free up additional enemy weapons to target US cities, increasing damage to the United States."

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"We have to work to make sure that our nuclear weapons convince our enemies that the United States has the will and ability to make them regret doing anything really, really stupid."

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"We hear from some misguided and misinformed people on the left who might want to eliminate a leg of our triad or eliminate the entire nuclear forces," Cotton said.

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"We have used them every single day for 76 years to deter another war like the terrible wars of the first half of the 20th century."

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... that Russia will have modernized over 88% of its nuclear weapons by the end of this year.

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Richard said the U.S. hasn't started the process. "The threat is only getting worse rapidly."
Norfolk fires police lieutenant who donated to accused vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse (Fox 04/21/2021)
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... anonymously gave $25 to a fundraiser for Rittenhouse in September, using his city email address...

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The donation reportedly came with a comment that read: "God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You've done nothing wrong."

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"Every rank and file police officer supports you," the message continued. "Don't be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership."

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Norfolk City Manager Chip Filer on Tuesday said he'd reviewed an internal investigation of the incident and determined that Kelly violated city and departmental policies...

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"His egregious comments erode the trust between the Norfolk Police Department and those they are sworn to serve," Filer said in a statement...

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In his own statement, Police Chief Larry Boone said that the force doesn't "want perceptions of any individual officer to undermine the relations between the Norfolk Police Department and the community."

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Kelly was an 18-year veteran of the department and had been the executive officer of internal affairs for the last two months...
Maxine Waters', Biden’s pre-Chauvin verdict comments come under scrutiny as defense eyes appeal (Fox 04/21/2021)
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Waters, who had visited Minnesota before the verdict was announced, said that if Chauvin is not convicted of murder, protesters should "stay in the street," "get more active," and "get more confrontational."

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... former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy warned that this alone would be grounds for appeal. "Because of her, this isn't over," McCarthy wrote.

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McCarthy said that Waters, who represents California, went to Minnesota "to interfere in its judicial system" in violation of a curfew. He argued that "her remarks can only be interpreted as an incitement to violence" and that she "ought to be under investigation."

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Biden had also weighed in on the case before the verdict was announced, telling reporters that he was "praying that verdict is the right verdict" and that "I think it's overwhelming, in my view."

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The president claimed that he only said this because the jury was already sequestered, but McCarthy argued that this "is no excuse" for making those remarks.

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"He is a lawyer and former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who well knows that sequestration does not make jurors impervious to prejudicial publicity."

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"And if he's been following the case as he claims to have been, he knows trial judge Peter Cahill has pleaded that public officials stop commenting on the trial — under circumstances where, even before the Bidens and Waters piped up, there was already substantial reason to doubt that Chauvin could get a fair trial in Minneapolis."

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See related Weighing the Options (Antonio Branco, 04/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes after Jan. 6 riot, examiner says (Fox 04/19/2021)
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The chief medical examiner, Francisco Diaz, said Monday that an autopsy of Sicknick found no evidence the 42-year-old suffered an allergic reaction to chemical irritants.

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... ruled the Sicknick, 42, died from "acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis."

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Federal officials arrested and charged two men last month with assaulting Sicknick with bear spray during the riot.

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... each faced an array of charges, including assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to injure an officer, although authorities stopped short of charging them with his death.

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Each assault charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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Law enforcement officials initially said that Sicknick was struck by a fire extinguisher — an idea perpetuated by The New York Times in a February report that was quietly updated one month later.

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U.S. Capitol Police later said Sicknick had "succumbed to his injuries" after defending the building, although questions lingered about the cause of death.

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Sicknick, who joined the force in 2008, "was injured while physically engaging with protesters," Capitol Police said. "He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries."
NY Post editorial calls for Maxine Waters' impeachment over 'confrontational' rhetoric (Fox 04/19/2021)
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... blasted Waters, D-Calif., for her hypocrisy during former President Trump's second impeachment trial, claiming he incited violence and was "trying to create a civil war", while seeing nothing wrong with her own rhetoric about getting "more confrontational" if ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was acquitted of George Floyd's murder. ... by her own standards, Waters should be impeached.
Billboard campaign declares Gov. Cuomo's Emmy should be revoked over NY nursing home crisis (Fox 04/19/2021)
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"At a time when corporations are expected to make statements about social justice causes and move out of states that are deemed politically incorrect, the Academy has been silent about giving an award to a man whose policies were directly responsible for thousands of nursing home deaths, and who covered it up."

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"Let's record an accurate record of the pandemic and demand the Academy revoke his Emmy now — the victims and their families deserve it."

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump tells Hannity ‘horrible situation’ along southern border could ‘destroy’ America (Fox 04/19/2021)
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"They're playing it down as much as they can play it down. It's a horrible situation, could destroy our country."

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"People are pouring in. But you'll see something as the months go by like you've never seen before. Already it's like you've never seen before. There's never been anything like what's happened at our border."

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"People are coming in by the tens of thousands. They're walking in. They — we had — all they had to do was leave it alone."
Officers resign from team that polices protests: 'Tired of being managed by politics' (Fox 04/19/2021)
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Police Officer Union President Shaun Willoughby also noted ... that officers don't feel supported and "don't trust their leaders." He stressed that Albuquerque officers are "tired of being managed by politics."

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Seventeen officers, one lieutenant, and two sergeants resigned from the team that handles protests following a counter-protest earlier this month...
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for Rep. Waters' expulsion from Congress for inciting riot in... (Fox 04/18/2021)
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"I'll be introducing a resolution to expel Rep. Maxine Waters from Congress for her continual incitement of violence."

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"Her orders recorded on video last night at the Brooklyn Center, directly led to more violence and a drive by shooting on National Guardsmen in Minnesota early this morning."

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"As a sitting United States Congresswoman, Rep. Maxine Waters threatened a jury demanding a guilty verdict and threatened violence if Chauvin is found not guilty. This is also an abuse of power, Rep. Maxine Waters must be expelled from Congress!"
White House says Biden will increase refugee cap this year, after Dem fury over original target (Fox 04/16/2021)
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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Ron Johnson says extent of Biden-China ties still unknown: 'We haven't unraveled all those' (Fox 04/16/2021)
Virginia teacher says critical race theory has damaged community as frustrated parents demand changes (Fox 04/16/2021)
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"We're told that we're living in a county that's suffering from systemic racism and I think that that whole notion has done nothing but damage our community and our school since they began pushing equity."

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She added that teachers were told to "disrupt and dismantle this systemic racism. And I can tell you, one thing that's for sure, it has been disruptive because there are parents who disagree with this ideology, there are teachers who disagree with it, there are students who disagree with it — and it is harmful."

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At one point in Tuesday's meeting, an educator accused the school board of being "fascists" in their pursuit of racialized curricula. "You are racists now, you are the fascists, you are the oppressors," said Jeremy Wright, a teacher at Douglass School.

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At an equity meeting last week, one of the group's members, a middle school teacher named Andrea Weiskopf, seemed to suggest that parents were racist for opposing equity trainings.

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"Over the past few weeks, a small group of Loudoun residents have put their racism on display for the nation," said the speaker, who was identified as Weiskopf.

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... "a more accurate reflection is that [Weiskopf] is supporting School Board policies that encourage racism towards White America, the Caucasian people in our community. Her comments were inflammatory and paint a false picture of our school environment as a dangerous and violent place for our minority students."

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"I was disgusted to learn last week that a Loudoun teacher whose salary is paid for by us and our tax dollars had the gall to phone into an equity meeting and call parents racist for being against this program."

•
"Bigotry comes in many forms and the fact that an LCPS employee can freely use such derogatory words to describe parents is a perfect example of what's wrong with this county's decisions."
Brian Stelter confronted by Project Veritas about CNN staffer admitting network's liberal bias (Fox 04/16/2021)
Burgess Owens blasts paper's 'pathetic' cartoon comparing him to KKK: 'Woke racism’ (Fox 04/16/2021)
Media critics erupt after Russia bounty story fizzles: 'Nonsense from the beginning' (Fox 04/16/2021)
•
In yet another example of a dramatic mainstream media narrative imploding, the intelligence community has backed off reports that Russia placed bounties on the heads of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

•
A senior Biden administration official said Thursday the intelligence community only had "low to moderate" confidence in the Russian bounty story, meaning it is unproven and possibly untrue, due to a reliance on "detainee reporting."

•
The revelation came as the administration announced a new series of sanctions against Russia for a host of reasons, but the bounty story was not among them.

•
In a press that already fixated on Russia collusion accusations since 2016, the story went wild last year, and critics are furious over another example of legacy press outlets corroborating one another on an anonymously sourced story that turned out to be, at best, doubtful.

•
A New York Times report last June said American intelligence "concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan," amid peace talks to end the war there.

•
Former President Donald Trump and some officials pushed back on the story at the time as an unverified rumor, but that only fueled media narrative that the Trump administration was in Russia's pocket and hanging troops out to dry.

•
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany reminded Twitter followers she said the intelligence was "not verified" at the time, although then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he confronted Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov last year and told him Moscow would have a price to pay if the story was true.

•
As the story broke in the middle of the 2020 presidential election fight, it had political consequences as well. Then-candidate Joe Biden blasted Trump for saying there was low confidence in the intelligence and continuing to have calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Kamala Harris even brought up the story during her vice-presidential debate with Mike Pence.

•
Numerous other Democrats also used the story to go on the attack, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and left-wing advocacy groups like the disgraced Lincoln Project.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Daunte Wright shooting: Is progressive push putting due process in jeopardy? (Fox 04/16/2021)
•
Brooklyn Center City Manager Curt Boganey was fired for arguing at a press conference that the officer should receive due process, and the police chief, Tim Gannon, offered his resignation after publicly suggesting the same.

•
"All employees working for the city of Brooklyn Center are entitled to due process with respect to discipline," Boagney said at the press conference... "This employee will receive due process and that's really all that I can say today."

•
Boagney had worked for the city of Brooklyn Center since 2003 — including 15 years as city manager.

•
In a matter of hours, Brooklyn Center City Council held an emergency meeting and voted 4-1 to relieve the city manager of his duties, which had included responsibility and command over the police department.

•
... Council Member Kris Lawrence-Anderson said she felt compelled to vote to remove Boganey as city manager because she feared retaliation by protesters.

•
Meanwhile, Potter, a 26-year veteran of the force who once led the local police union, and her husband, who is a police officer in another town, had to "flee their home" in the Minneapolis suburb... The couple had been doxed and their home address was posted on social media.

•
"When you talk about due process, she's already been arrested and will make her first court appearance. But she can't even be in her own home."

•
"These are just subdivisions, so if you're Kim Potter's next door neighbor, what is your life going to become? Here we have two police officers who live in this house and they can't even protect themselves."

•
"We're entering into this bizarre mob rule, I believe it's really the minority but it's that loud, boisterous minority and unfortunately it's being politicized... Antifa isn't afraid to be violent."
GOP state legislatures move ahead with election security bills amid outrage over Georgia law (Fox 04/16/2021)
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"States across the nation are working to secure their elections and restore voter trust. Grassroots activists and state lawmakers alike are hard at work making it easy to vote and hard to cheat."

•
"I am thrilled to see so many states advancing laws that will inspire confidence in our elections, the bedrock of our democracy."
FOX CEO Lachlan Murdoch praised for defending Tucker Carlson after ADL urges host's firing (Fox 04/15/2021)
Who is Jonathan Pentland? South Carolina Army drill sergeant charged in viral altercation with... (Fox 04/15/2021)
Turley blasts Democrats for planning 'hostile takeover of the Supreme Court' with court-packing... (Fox 04/15/2021)
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"He [Biden] equivocated throughout the campaign, he didn't want to admit that he viewed court-packing, as he did in 1983, as a bone-headed idea, a dangerous idea."

•
"Instead he fueled these demands to simply change the court so it would effectively carry out a more liberal agenda."

•
"We need a president to say, 'This is enough. This is pure and raw court-packing,' The public has been always against court-packing. The polls are very high. They've never been equivocating in their own right. The public sees it for what it is. Liberal justices have opposed this. This is called a hostile takeover of the Supreme Court against the wishes of the public, even liberal justices, and against the weight of history."
Facebook censors New York Post report on BLM co-founder's pricey property purchases (Fox 04/15/2021)
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Users of the social media giant noticed on Thursday they could not share the link to a story that shed light on Cullors' multi-million-dollar splurge on homes. ... an error message alleges that the article "goes against our Community Standards."

•
Twitter took similar action last week, locking the account of sports journalist Jason Whitlock after he criticized the BLM co-founder.

•
See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Unabomber II (Mike Shelton, 01/19/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Twitter accused of protecting CNN after tech giant bans James O'Keefe: 'They're all on the same...' (Fox 04/15/2021)
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"In case you haven't figured out how it works by now... CNN spreads propaganda to elect Democrats[.] And then Twitter runs interference to protect CNN. They're all on the same team."

•
"At this point, both CNN and @Twitter should have to register with the FEC as Democrat Super PACs."

•
"After the latest round of hidden camera videos embarrassing to CNN were released, JamesOKeefeIII has been permanently banned from Twitter. The Project_Veritas account was also recently banned. This is how big tech works with liberal corporate media to take down challengers."

•
See related Twitter Evolution (Gary Varvel, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Cotton warns the Supreme Court 'will lose all legitimacy' if Dems' plan to expand it happens (Fox 04/15/2021)
•
One reason that we respect the rule of law is that our constitution created an independent judiciary to protect the rights of Americans and create a final tribunal. It makes its decision in accordance with the law and statutes and previous cases.

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President Biden and every Democrat needs to be asked and must answer whether they support this radical proposal that would fundamentally alter the structure of American law and life.
Ted Cruz: Big corporations becoming ‘the woke enforcers of the Democratic Party’ (Fox 04/15/2021)
•
"Do all of them oppose voter ID? Are all of them willing to be the woke enforcers of the corrupt Democratic Party? And do all hate the 75m who voted for Trump?"

•
"We're seeing multiple CEOs making the decision to weigh in on political matters and to use their corporate power to punish anyone who doesn't agree with the Democrats' radical plans to transform the country."

•
"In this case, weighing in in favor of radical proposals by the Democrats to take over elections and change the rules so that Democrats can never lose again..."
McConnell says Dems' court-packing threats are 'hostage-taking' effort to coerce favorable rulings (Fox 04/15/2021)
•
"It's not just about whether this insane bill becomes law, Part of the point here are the threats themselves. The left wants a sword dangling over the justices when they weigh the facts in every case."

•
"As the Democrat leader threatened just two years ago, Democrats want the justices to know that they will, quote, 'pay the price,' end quote, for rulings that Democrats don't like."

•
... "the far left cannot even wait for the fake theatrics of the fake study to play out. Today Democrats in the Senate and the House have announced that they will once again threaten judicial independence from the steps of the court."

•
"If Republicans had introduced a bill to add four Supreme Court seats for the last president to full, there would have been weeks of wall-to-wall outrage on every newspaper and cable TV channel."

•
"Now it seems the main strategies are to either shrug off and look the other way ot to actively pay along and somehow lend credence."
'Cancel' student debt? Sorry, Sen. Warren, but I don't want to burden others with my choices (Fox 04/15/2021)
•
Eight years after graduating – and still working my butt off – I have paid off a majority of my debt, and am blessed to have family support in doing so. But I still have a long way to go.

•
Yet I still don't expect anybody else to pay off my obligations. And certainly not average taxpayers, the vast majority of whom have not earned a college degree.

•
But that's what "canceling" student debt means. The Biden-Harris administration doesn't have a magic wand to make money owed disappear without any repercussions.

•
"Canceling" student debt means spreading it out to a larger pool of people. It will be working people – all of us – who will be paying off these debts if they are "canceled" for individual borrowers.

•
A typical college graduate out-earns his peers by an average of $1 million over his career, according to the Brookings Institute.

•
Thus Warren's proposal would reward the already well-to-do, with 65% of the benefits going to workers in the highest 40% of households by income. How "progressive" is this?

•
What President Biden and Warren are really doing is something that Democrats are masterful at: creating a new special-interest group that will win them votes. All this, while simultaneously enriching the already well-off.

•
Eighteen-year-olds go to war. They go to work. They vote. And some are lucky enough to go to school.

•
At 18, I made key decisions that I have had to live with, and they were worth it to me. But they were mine alone. I am living with them – and paying for them. I don't need anybody else to do that for me.
Biden the green radical – 'infrastructure' spending binge tells you this about who's in charge (Fox 04/15/2021)
Fifth of Americans refuse to get coronavirus vaccine as Johnson & Johnson shot is put on hold (Fox 04/15/2021)
Texas dad drowns while saving two sons from riptide: ‘My soul has been ripped from my body,'... (Fox 04/14/2021)
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"He died a hero saving our two oldest boys from drowning in a riptide in Surfside Beach, TX. I am torn to pieces and my soul has been ripped from my body."
Tucker responds to Fauci's calling his vaccine questions a 'conspiracy theory': What are you telling... (Fox 04/15/2021)
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For months now, we have been asking a very straightforward question about the coronavirus vaccine. Why do people who take it — and by the way, why do people who have been previously infected and show high levels of antibodies — have to live under the restrictions that the vaccines were supposed to eliminate?

•
... is Fauci telling Americans who have been vaccinated or who have been recovered from the coronavirus itself, that they aren't protected against future infections?

•
If the coronavirus vaccine prevents you from catching the coronavirus, why are you wearing a mask? Why can't you eat in a restaurant? And if it doesn't prevent you from catching the coronavirus, why are we taking it in the first place? Both can't be true.
‘Madness of Crowds’ author: NYC teacher 'has blown the whistle' on school indoctrination (Fox 04/14/2021)
•
"He was led, as so many teachers are at the moment in America, into this racist, so-called anti-racist labyrinth where the school authorities had Whites-only faculty meetings at which people like him were indoctrinated into their new woke ideology."

•
"And this guy, Mr. Rossi, said, 'no, I've got some problems with this' and for saying that he was put through a communist-style set of denunciations by his own authorities. It's worth just reflecting on this, he said at one point after his own brushing down by the headteacher and so on, he says that the head of school ordered all high school advisers to read a public reprimand of my conduct out loud to every student in school."

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"And he describes walking down the school corridors, hearing himself being denounced from every classroom. This is something that used to happen in communist Eastern Europe, in Pol Pot's Cambodia. And it is disgraceful that it is going on in 21st century America."
Daunte Wright shooting: Ex-Minnesota police officer Kim Potter to be charged with second-degree... (Fox 04/14/2021)
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Washington County Attorney Pete Orput is expected to announce the second-degree manslaughter charge... The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison...

•
Both Potter, who had worked for the Brooklyn Center Police Department for 26 years, and Police Chief Tim Gannon resigned...

•
Police said officers pulled Wright over for expired tags, but after running his driver's license, leaned he had a warrant for his arrest.

•
Body-camera footage shows Wright struggling with police when a female officer shouts, "I'll Tase you! I'll Tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!"

•
She draws her weapon after the man breaks free from police and gets back into the car. After firing a single shot, the car speeds away, and Potter says, "Holy (expletive)! I shot him."
Capitol riot: Police officer won't face charges in fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt, prosecutors say (Fox 04/14/2021)
•
... determined "that there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution."

•
"Specifically, the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber."

•
"Eventually, the three USCP officers positioned outside the doors were forced to evacuate. As members of the mob continued to strike the glass doors, Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out."

•
"An officer inside the Speaker's Lobby fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor."

•
Video clips posted online depict Babbitt, wearing a stars and stripes backpack, stepping up and beginning to go through the waist-high opening of an area of the Capitol known as the Speaker's Lobby when a gunshot is heard. She falls backward.
Sen. John Kennedy tells 'defund the police' supporters: 'Next time you get in trouble, call a...' (Fox 04/13/2021)
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"Unlike some of my colleagues, I do not believe that America is a racist nation. We are not perfect, but I think we are good. We have racists in our country, just like everyplace else. There are people in our country, there are people all over the world, that are going to judge you and not like you because of the color of your skin."

•
"Without order, there is no justice. We can't have a society without order, and we have decided to hire law enforcement officials to maintain order. We hire Whites, Blacks, Browns, men, and women to maintain order."

•
"I'll put it this way: If you hate cops just because they are cops, you don't know a thing about them. The next time you get in trouble call a crackhead."

•
"... family formation. Nobody wants to talk about it. I'm not saying a single parent can't be a good mom or dad, but a child who grows up in a single-parent family is six times more likely to grow up in poverty than a child that grows up in a two parent family. And that is just a fact."
Daunte Wright shooting: Brooklyn Center city manager fired after call for due process for police... (Fox 04/12/2021)
•
"Effective immediately our city manager has been relieved of his duties, and the deputy city manager will be assuming his duties moving forward."

•
"All employees working for the city of Brooklyn Center are entitled to due process with respect to discipline," Boganey said. "This employee will receive due process and that's really all that I can say today."
Lahren: Forced vaccines could be the latest in 'shifting propaganda campaign' of 'tyrants' (Fox 04/12/2021)
•
"A new report shows nearly 40% of our United States Marines have declined getting a COVID vaccine and guess what, that is every bit their right to refuse."

•
"It's plain as day the Democrats have been playing a very inconsistent game with their COVID messaging, protocols, and infringements."

•
"From Day 1 it has been a propaganda campaign that has continually shifted to fit whatever agenda these tyrants want to push at the time."

•
"Biden himself even call[ed] President Trump's decision to halt travel from China racist and xenophobic," she said, as Trump responded in that way following infections in Washington state and elsewhere.

•
"But their laissez faire approach to coronavirus swiftly ended when they realized they could use it to abuse their power and attack Trump — that brought us to the '2 weeks to flatten the curve' big-lie."

•
"That too quickly changed after Democrat tyrant leaders realized they could enforce a new infringement."

•
"Yeah, their love affair with masks coupled with their new COVID fear mongering buzzwords like 'new normal', 'quarantine', 'essential workers and businesses', 'safer apart' and 'social distancing' kicked their power trip into full gear."

•
... the Marines aren't the only service branch declining the jab in large numbers, pointing to a February report showing about one-third of all military personally refusing it.

•
"Luckily, the vaccines have not yet become mandatory and service members can still be deployed without it but I imagine that'll change any day now."

•
"If there's one thing we know about the Biden Administration — besides the fact Biden isn't in charge of it — it's that they prioritize government control above all else."

•
"But I don't care what the Democrats say, How could a forced vaccine be constitutional? What happened to informed consent? What happened to the USA being a free country wherein Americans are in charge of their own health decisions?"

•
"I'm not saying we can't trust the vaccine but I also find it a little concerning that in November, the FDA itself recommended those who received the investigational COVID vaccines not donate convalescent plasma due to 'uncertainty regarding the quality of the immune response produced by such investigational vaccines' — um, OK, make of that what you will."

•
"I personally will not get the COVID vaccine and I personally will not be forced to get it. If you want to get it, by all means please do."

•
"If you are terrified of returning to the 'old normal' and people gathering makes you uncomfortable, by all means stay home."

•
"But how dare the government or anyone else tell me how to live my life or mandate I take a shot to live and work in what I thought was this free country."
Critics erupt on Fauci after he says to not eat indoors, even after getting vaccine (Fox 04/12/2021)
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See related Why You Need 2 Masks... (Chip Bok, 02/25/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Marines' vaccine hesitancy presents early test for Biden as commander-in-chief (Fox 04/12/2021)
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Nearly 40% of U.S. Marines who have been offered the coronavirus vaccine declined...
GOP Sen. Cornyn questions if Biden is 'really in charge' (Fox 04/12/2021)
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See related Perfect Match... (Mike Shelton, 08/14/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Gingrich: Kamala Harris put in charge of border 'because they knew she wouldn’t do anything' (Fox 04/12/2021)
Trump goes after McConnell, Fauci in off-script Mar-a-Lago speech (Fox 04/11/2021)
Trump to rally GOP at Mar-a-lago and preview pathway for Republican victories (Fox 04/10/2021)
•
"Illegal Border crossings are now higher than at any point since 2006, On this issue alone, we can win the House, the Senate, and the White House."

•
"It is one of the greatest self-inflicted disasters anywhere in the world. By putting radical open borders liberal Kamala Harris in charge of border security, Joe Biden sent a resounding message to every migrant on earth that America's borders are now wide open for trespassing."

•
"I stand before you this evening filled with confidence that in 2022, we are going to take back the House and we are going to reclaim the Senate — and then in 2024, a Republican candidate is going to win the White House," Trump says in the prepared remarks...

•
Trump is expected to accuse Biden of putting "America Last," sowing cancel culture wars and not delivering on his promise to unite the country.

•
In his draft speech, Trump rails against "ridiculous woke" corporations and accuses Biden of leading Delta, Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball to punish the state of Georgia for the new voting law.

•
Trump also implies that Biden is trying to hide from the American people by failing to deliver a Joint Address to Congress within his first weeks in office, which is typical for American presidents.

•
"The Fake News doesn't want to say it, but Joe Biden doesn't have the energy, the capacity, or the stamina to give that speech and face the American people," Trump says...
McConnell: Biden Supreme Court commission 'direct assault on our nation's independent judiciary' (Fox 04/09/2021)
•
"This faux-academic study of a nonexistent problem fits squarely within liberals' years-long campaign to politicize the Court, intimidate its members, and subvert its independence."

•
"This is not some new, serious, or sober pivot away from Democrats' political attacks on the Court."

•
"It's just an attempt to clothe those ongoing attacks in fake legitimacy, It's disappointing that anyone, liberal or conservative, would lend credence to this attack by participating in the commission."
Karl Rove slams Biden's pick to head Supreme Court commission as 'political hack' (Fox 04/09/2021)
Biden border crisis comes at ‘massive cost’ to American people: Former Trump adviser (Fox 04/09/2021)
CA man whose brother was killed by illegal immigrant sends message to Biden (Fox 04/09/2021)
•
"If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it's not a cow, it's a duck, So don't sit there and tell me there's not a crisis down at the border, because there is."

•
... the influx of migrants is "destroying" communities in California, with border crossings in the month of March hitting historic levels.

•
"All you hear is law enforcement agencies screaming for help and there's nothing being done."

•
... recently proposed legislation in the state of California, specifically bill AB 937, would essentially make it nearly "impossible" to deport illegal immigrant felons.

•
"These illegal immigrants are committing crimes — felonies. Getting caught with pounds methamphetamines, weapons on them, firearms, nothing's happening to them. I mean they're doing literally hours in jail and getting released."

•
Jones' eldest brother, Rocky Jones, was shot and killed at a Tulare County gas station in 2018. He was 51.

•
"He was murdered by Gustavo Garcia. He was an illegal immigrant. He was a criminal. He was deported twice before. The second time, he actually did federal time. He was arrested two days prior for being under the influence."

•
Jones said that because the last arrest only warranted a misdemeanor charge in California, the county sheriff's department released Garcia within 10 hours.

•
Two days later, Garcia went on a "reign of terror," killing Rocky and several others.
Trump, other potential 2024 GOP contenders, gathering at major retreat (Fox 04/09/2021)
Arizona's Ducey signs bill protecting state gun laws from federal legislation (Fox 04/09/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: America teeters on edge of mayhem, with CNN ready to push us over (Fox 04/09/2021)
•
Remember, while you watched those screaming, petulant creeps shout at the stoic police, somewhere across town, a bodega was being robbed or burned.

•
Because officials reduced prison populations to prevent inmates from getting COVID, innocent citizens were attacked by violent thugs who were either released early or just never detained.

•
Overcrowded court systems postponed the justice system altogether as even the dumbest thugs realized accountability for their actions no longer existed.

•
Turns out, COVID has been the best thing to happen to criminals since Democrats.

•
Welcome to clown world: Violent criminals released so they won't get COVID and business owners arrested for trying to keep the lights on.

•
The Ferguson effect made it worse, when police pull back on policing because they knew if they even try to do their job, they would lose their job or go to jail.

•
This, along with low police morale, boosted crime rates in cities with already high rates of crime, meaning cities with a large minority population.

•
Once again, the people the woke pretend to help, they end up hurting, and the clowns leading this phony crusade get ratings and raises.

•
The media just set the table for more ungodly mayhem. I just hope it doesn't ruin Don Lemon's dinner.
Tucker: Every time Democrats 'import a new voter,' they dilute Americans' political power (Fox 04/08/2021)
•
The far-left policies driving illegal immigration to the United States favor those who display "absolute contempt for our customs, our laws, our system itself — and they are being treated better than American citizens."

•
"I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term 'replacement,' if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate of voters now casting ballots with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World."

•
"If you change the population, you dilute the political power of the people who live there, So every time they import a new voter, I become disenfranchised as a current voter."

•
"White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question, I have less political power because they are importing a brand new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that the power that I have as an American — guaranteed at birth as one man, one vote — they are diluting it. They are not allowed to do it."

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See related Demand Work (Paul Nowak, 04/04/2006) cartoon from USA picture album
Joe and Hunter Biden and 'red flag' gun laws – here comes the next big test for liberal media (Fox 04/08/2021)
Group inspired by Trump's 1776 Commission seeks to combat 'anti-American indoctrination' in education (Fox 04/08/2021)
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... asks citizens to commit to "replace elected officials, school board members, education commissioners, principals, deans, and university presidents who promote a false, divisive, and radical view of America and our fellow citizens with new leaders who respect our history, our values, our rights, and the God-given dignity of every person."

•
"When I was asked to serve on President Trump's 1776 Commission to help restore truthful, patriotic education I was full of hope, Then, it was canceled by President Biden on Day One."

•
"A setback for sure, but thankfully our solutions are much closer to home than Washington, D.C. The real power for positive, lasting change is in the hands of parents and other concerned citizens — if only we're willing to put in the effort this truly deserves."

•
The commission report was released but quickly removed from the White House's website in January. It leveled criticism at the 1619 Project and critical race theory, calling for a rejection of "any curriculum that promotes one-sided partisan opinions, activist propaganda, or factional ideologies that demean America's heritage, dishonor our heroes, or deny our principles."
Nevada Mayor John Lee: Why I'm leaving the Democratic Party (Fox 04/08/2021)
Dr. Alveda King to Georgia voter ID critics: 'Identify me, I know who I am' (Fox 04/08/2021)
Biden's Real Goal (JWR 04/07/2021)
Biden's California Dream (JWR 04/07/2021)
Suspect in Capitol riot allegedly 'severely beaten' by DC jail guards (Fox 04/07/2021)
Oklahoma Gov. Stitt says dangerous criminals walking free thanks to 'horribly wrong' Supreme Court... (Fox 04/07/2021)
•
Stitt – a fourth-generation Oklahoman and Native American by heritage – compared the ruling as "coming into Manhattan, New York City, and people claiming that is now Indian reservation"...

•
"So, literally, we have two million people living in eastern Oklahoma – a million people in the MSA of Tulsa have grown up – and now it's called an Indian reservation," said Stitt. "So, nowhere else is it like this in the United States."

•
Stitt said a "true reservation" is land that is commonly held by a tribe and that there are people from all walks of life in eastern Oklahoma on land the governor says "has been sold 100 times."

•
"The murderers and criminals being let loose is the biggest thing that's happening in our state."

•
"It's a public safety issue that our district attorneys are pulling their hair out [over]. The district attorneys are telling me they're having to set up agreements with the tribes to house Indians now in our county jails."
Pence launches new advocacy organization to promote 'pro-freedom policies of the last four years' (Fox 04/07/2021)
•
"Advancing American Freedom plans to build on the success of the last four years by promoting traditional Conservative values and promoting the successful policies of the Trump Administration."

•
"Conservatives will not stand idly by as the radical Left and the new administration attempt to threaten America's standing as the greatest Nation in the world with their destructive policies."

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"Under the leadership of President Trump and Vice President Pence, Americans experienced unprecedented prosperity. The policies that led to those accomplishments are now under attack by the radical Left and the Biden Administration, and the foundation of our Nation is under siege."

•
"Advancing American Freedom will push back against the Left's agenda and champion policies across the country that advance American liberties, American strength and security, and American prosperity."

•
... expected to "oppose the expansion of government" under the Biden administration — which they say is pushing a "radical Left policy agenda from Washington, D.C., into communities across the country."
Nikki Haley: Biden's border crisis – here are lessons he can learn from Trump's immigration example (Fox 04/07/2021)
Hannity: Fake news has real consequences (Fox 04/07/2021)
Kudlow slams Biden, MLB, and Delta Airlines for criticism of Georgia election law (Fox 04/06/2021)
•
"... Delta's Ed Bastian seems to object to Georgia's new law that requires, in part, a photo ID for voting absentee. And yet, to fly on one of his Delta airplanes, you need to show a photo ID to board."

•
"By the way, Delta's always bragging about its great business with China. So I'm going to assume by inference, Mr. Bastian approves of Chinese human rights violations – slaughtering Uyghurs – and China's overthrow of Hong Kong democracy."
Friend of Pakistani immigrant Uber Eats driver killed in DC: 'All lives are precious' (Fox 04/06/2021)
Donald Trump’s net worth dropped by one-third during his presidency (Fox 04/06/2021)
Woke politics being 'crammed down our throats' by corporations: Former diplomat-author (Fox 04/06/2021)
•
"It's increasingly clear that the sharp increase in corporate virtue signaling after George Floyd's death wasn't a passing trend but a sea change. Perhaps it's time for conservatives to boycott companies that hate us."

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"Really, I mean, does Coca-Cola want to be the official beverage of the Democratic Party or what are they going for here?"

•
"Tell me about your services. But please don't tell me who to vote for. Don't tell me what to think. And above all else, don't insult me and alienate me as one of your customers."

•
"I mean, really look at their Twitter feeds, look at their social media and find out what are they selling. Are they selling a product or are they selling a service or are they selling politics?"
Ben Carson blasts Omar's 'disgusting' Georgia-Apartheid comparison, says Biden doesn't understand... (Fox 04/06/2021)
•
"It's so disgusting that people would try to take something as horrible as Apartheid and try to equate it to this and not to explain it."

•
"This is the worst part. They make these accusations, they all get on the bandwagon and they will not sit down and explain it."

•
Carson said Omar's comments are indicative of a major problem in the U.S. as of late, wherein people can make firebrand allegations without backing up their claims with facts — only invective accusations like "racist" and "Jim Crow."

•
"We're not each other's enemies. Trying to create Black victimhood and White guilt does not lead us to a good place."

•
Regarding Jim Crow, the segregationist laws passed by Southern Democrats after the end of Reconstruction, Carson said it was also problematic to see President Biden toss the term around with abandon.

•
Biden has called the Georgia law "Jim Crow on steroids" and has called Republican efforts to strengthen election laws "mak[ing] Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle."

•
"It's very sad that the leader of the free world would be involved in disseminating information that is untrue. I wonder if these people understand the history."

•
"Do they know what Jim Crow laws actually were? They were a mechanism to diminish the rights that many Blacks had gained during reconstruction and they enforced segregation. The things that people went through in those days were horrendous."

•
"I find it rather funny that the CEO of Delta and American Airlines would be saying that requiring voter I.D. is racist. Trying to get on a Delta flight or American Airlines flight without an official I.D: You're not going to get on there."
Erickson: Conservatives must fight back, show corporations if you go woke, you'll 'go broke' (Fox 04/06/2021)
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"One easy way to do it is to start pushing Republican governors to stop giving special interest tax breaks to corporations. The woke corporations need to understand, if you're going to go woke, we're going to make you go broke by taking away your tax incentives."
California threatens cops' rights – here's how bill silences police, attacks 1st Amendment (Fox 04/06/2021)
SR1, Senate version of House voting rights bill, will silence generations of American voices (Fox 04/05/2021)
•
Democrats in Congress are trying to force dangerous and wildly unpopular legislation through Congress in an attempt to override state election laws.

•
SR1 seems designed to facilitate election fraud, further undermining the confidence of Americans in our elections.

•
See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Rand Paul on MLB-Georgia controversy: 'If they want to boycott us, let's boycott them' (Fox 04/05/2021)
•
"... It's the only thing that will teach them a lesson. If Coca-Cola wants to only operate in Democrat states and wants only Democrats to drink Coca-Cola, God love them. We'll see how they do when half the country quits drinking Coca-Cola and half the country quits using Delta. They're all woke, but they're doing something against the financial interest of every business. Publicly traded businesses usually don't get involved in politics because it hurts their bottom line."

•
"It's isn't the right or Republicans using race. It's the left using race and saying everything is about racism. So any kind of grievance they have — they say the filibuster is somehow racist now, even though most minorities always supported the filibuster because it defended specifically minority rights."

•
"... they're boycotting the Georgia state law and they do business with China. China has never seen a free election. China is putting people in jail for over a year at a time for speech violations. Yet they [MLB] do business with China."

•
"These people holding up Jim Crow signs need to remember it was the Democrats that instituted Jim Crow across the south."

•
"... the Democrats cost Georgia $100 million in revenues because they complained about something that they didn't read and they said something that wasn't true."

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See related Taking a Knee (Glenn McCoy, 09/25/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
McConnell warns of 'serious consequences' for businesses that help 'far-left mobs' (Fox 04/05/2021)
•
"Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order."

•
"Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box."

•
"Wealthy corporations have no problem operating in New York, for example, which has fewer days of early voting than Georgia, requires excuses for absentee ballots, and restricts electioneering via refreshments."

•
"There is no consistent or factual standard being applied here. It's just a fake narrative gaining speed by its own momentum."

•
"This disinformation has a purpose. Washington Democrats want to pass a sweeping bill that would let them rewrite all 50 states' election laws and turn the Federal Election Commission into a Democrat-run partisan body. This power grab is impossible to defend, so the left wants to deflect. Instead of winning the debate, they want to silence debate by bullying citizens and entire states into submission."
Lindsey Graham tells Fauci to go to border and see 'biggest super spreader event in the nation' (Fox 04/04/2021)
Tom Homan slams 'outright lies' by Biden, DHS secretary about Border Patrol agents (Fox 04/04/2021)
Gingrich: Biden lied about Georgia election law and he owes the people an apology (Fox 04/04/2021)
President Biden said Hunter laptop was Russian disinformation, but son now says it 'could' be his (Fox 04/04/2021)
Tucker Carlson: 'I'm infuriated by the lying' about Biden's 'infrastructure bill' (Fox 04/04/2021)
Vermont GOP governor opens up COVID vaccines for those who identify as Black, Indigenous or... (Fox 04/02/2021)
•
"Vermont's program of racially separated standards, which denies medical services to a specific racial group, is a flagrant violation of the Fourteenth Amendment."

•
"It follows the logic of critical race theory, which demands that society practice racial discrimination to rectify racial disparities, but is not compatible with American law. Sadly, Vermont is another example of state neo-racism that has gained in popularity in recent years. Public interest lawyers should immediately file suit against the governor."
NPR issues major correction after falsely claiming Hunter Biden laptop story was 'discredited' by intelligence (Fox 04/02/2021)
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"A previous version of this story said U.S. intelligence had discredited the laptop story. U.S. intelligence officials have not made a statement to that effect," the NPR correction stated.

•
NPR senior editor and correspondent Ron Elving initially wrote, "The laptop story was discredited by U.S. intelligence and independent investigations by news organizations."

•
The updated version of the NPR story said, "Numerous news organizations cast doubt on the credibility of the laptop story."

•
Last year, Ratcliffe said Hunter Biden's laptop and the emails on it were "not part of some Russian disinformation campaign," despite claims from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

•
"Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn't believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that, And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff, or any member of Congress." Ratcliffe went on to say it was "simply not true."

•
Hunter Biden confirmed late last year that he is under federal investigation for his "tax affairs" surrounding his overseas business dealings. The FBI has since been in possession of his laptop.

•
Twitter and Facebook famously suppressed sharing of the New York Post's original story about Hunter Biden's laptop last year, in an unprecedented example of Big Tech censorship.

•
See related Election Interference (Antonio Branco, 10/16/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
McConnell says Biden's infrastructure package won't get GOP support, will oppose it 'every step...' (Fox 04/02/2021)
•
"You're either alarmed about the level of national debt and the future impact of that on our children and our grandchildren, or you aren't."

•
"My view of infrastructure is we ought to build that which we can afford and not either whack the economy with major tax increases or run up the national debt even more."
Corporations line up to condemn Texas voting legislation (Fox 04/02/2021)
•
"I am stunned that American Airlines would put out a statement saying ‘we are strongly opposed to this bill' ... just minutes after their government relations representative called my office and admitted that neither he nor the American Airlines CEO had actually read the legislation."

•
See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Border crisis result of Biden decisions, 'never seen it close to this bad': Cruz (Fox 04/01/2021)
•
"Joe Biden made the strange choice to pivot hard left, I think he is captive to AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders."

•
"I've been to the border many, many times over the past ten years and I've never seen it even close to this bad," Cruz said.

•
"The numbers are through the roof and it is the direct result of decisions Joe Biden made in his very first week as president."

•
"Last year, we had the lowest illegal immigration in 45 years and on week one, Joe Biden ripped that agreement to pieces and caused the border crisis we're seeing right now."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Experts giving COVID 'lab leak' theory second look after mainstream media cried it was 'debunked' (Fox 04/01/2021)
•
"Tens of millions of Americans have had their lives upended over the last year. They have lost jobs. Their businesses have closed."

•
"They have lost loved ones. I don't think those Americans want to simply turn the page and let bygones be bygones. We need to get to the bottom of what happened in Wuhan and how the Chinese Communists unleashed this plague on the world and we need to hold them accountable."
Former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins hits back at Biden on voter suppression claims: 'Learn to read' (Fox 04/01/2021)
New York Times slammed for glowing coverage of Biden infrastructure plan: ‘Straight-up propaganda’ (Fox 04/01/2021)
•
"Brazen, cartoonish, straight-up propaganda. As if written by White House staff for the most gullible and easily controlled idiots in the country."

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See related Biden\\\'s Glory (Mike Shelton, 01/22/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Sean Hannity: Biden unveils another far-left spending spree under guise of 'infrastructure' (Fox 04/01/2021)
Georgia's election law – Ignore Dems' false attacks. Here are the facts about bill I signed (Fox 03/31/2021)
Rep. Green slams AOC's 'surge' pushback: 'I'm offended' and border agents should be too (Fox 03/31/2021)
•
"If I say cancer is bad, AOC is going to say that I'm a racist. That's everything that comes out of their mouths these days. It's ridiculous. Those CBP agents, they are there trying to do their best to take care of those children. It is absolutely insane to say that by their pointing out the fact that there is a 400-percent increase, it's somehow racist. That's absurd."

•
"And it's very clear that Joe Biden's canceling of policies that Trump put into effect has caused this mass whatever you want to call it. I call it a tragedy."

•
"She wants to call it something else and then those of us that are calling it out racist. That's absurd. It's just the typical mantra from these leftists that are running the administration today and that are running the House of Representatives. It's absurd. I'm offended and those CBP agents should be too."
Facebook removes video of Trump interview with daughter-in-law Lara Trump (Fox 03/31/2021)
•
A group of Trump officials were sent an email from a Facebook employee, warning that any content posted on Facebook and Instagram "in the voice of President Trump is not currently allowed on our platforms (including new posts with President Trump speaking)" and warned that it "will be removed if posted, resulting in additional limitations on accounts that posted it."

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"This guidance applies to all campaign accounts and Pages, including Team Trump, other campaign messaging vehicles on our platforms, and former surrogates."

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"We are reaching out to let you know that we removed content from Lara Trump's Facebook Page that featured President Trump speaking."

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"In line with the block we placed on Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, further content posted in the voice of Donald Trump will be removed and result in additional limitations on the accounts."

•
Facebook moved to block Trump "indefinitely" after the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying that they "believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great."

•
Trump was also permanently banned from Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube after the riot.

•
But Trump senior adviser Jason Miller earlier this month said Trump would be back.

•
"I do think that we're going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here, with his own platform."

•
"And this is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media, it's going to completely redefine the game, and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does."

•
... was unable to provide details, but he did reveal that Trump had been having "high-powered meetings" at Mar-a-Lago with various teams regarding the venture, and that "numerous companies" had approached the former president.

•
"This new platform is going to be big," Miller said, predicting that Trump will draw "tens of millions of people."

•
See related Thanks (Chip Bok, 01/12/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Trump, Biden, Fauci, Birx: Why finger-pointing is surging as COVID-19 cases rise (Fox 03/31/2021)
Dr. Scott Atlas blasts 'despicable' Birx and Fauci 'trying to overtly rewrite history' on... (Fox 03/31/2021)
•
"We are witnessing something incredible which is people trying to overtly rewrite history. It's the most insane thing I have ever seen. Of all the insanity I saw in the White House, this is the most despicable."

•
"What they are doing — these are people that advocated for curfews, lockdowns, school closures, the business restrictions, the lack of group visits for your own family and those were implemented. Those were the policies on the ground of almost every single state including the ones that Fauci just mentioned."

•
"Now they are saying the people who criticize the policies that were implemented are responsible for the failures of the policies that were implemented."

•
"This is insane, it is despicable. I'm shocked but I shouldn't be... These people don't know the truth if it hit them in the head."

•
"You're blaming people for criticizing what was done and those are the people on your show who wanted what was done. They ought to look in the mirror and they ought to go on TV and apologized if they think 500,000 people died, they were the cause of the policy, they recommended the policy."

•
"I'm speechless, again they don't understand what they advocated was done. I was the one brought in because I was the only one who cared what was happening by shutting down medical care, closing schools, closing businesses, destroying low income families, sacrificing our children."
Sen. Ron Johnson: Biden border policies facilitating business of the 'most evil people on the planet' (Fox 03/31/2021)
Ingraham slams Democrats for opposition to Georgia election laws: It's a 'threat to their power' (Fox 03/31/2021)
Ted Cruz reflects on what he saw at the southern border: Biden is creating ‘public health menace’ (Fox 03/31/2021)
Sen. Kennedy rips WHO Director-General: 'He is a fawning, obsequious suck up to the Communist...' (Fox 03/31/2021)
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See related Assurance (Chip Bok, 04/10/2020) cartoon from World picture album
Pentagon diversity chief 'reassigned' after comparing Trump to Hitler on social media (Fox 03/30/2021)
NYPD cop-killer is now helping reform the police in New York (Fox 03/29/2021)
•
"We're completely shocked that the man who murdered my father is being trusted to create police reforms."

•
"My father dedicated his life to serving and protecting New Yorkers. He should be the one serving on a panel to help reimagine policing, but he'll never get that chance."

•
As the hero off-duty officer identified himself as a cop and reached for his gun to try to stop the robbery, Rivera shot him in the shoulder.

•
Rivera then walked over to the officer as he lay helplessly wounded on the floor, pressed his gun to the cop's head and blasted him again, authorities said.

•
The teenage killer spent 39 years behind bars for the cold-blooded killing, before being released in 2019.
Trump launches '45 Office' website amid speculation about his future (Fox 03/29/2021)
Colin Reed: Biden, Dems' spending spree – country's future depends on conservatives doing this (Fox 03/28/2021)
•
Imagine a world where generous government giveaways are incentivizing workers to stop showing up for work, even for good-paying jobs.

•
Or where employers cannot find applicants for the 6.9 million unfilled jobs in the United States because of the all the free money flowing.

•
All of these scenarios could be unfolding right now as the tentacles of the Biden administration's $1.9 trillion relief package take hold.

•
It may be too late to put the brakes on Biden's first bloated bill, but his spending spree is just getting started. His next legislative priority is a $3 trillion...

•
All this spending comes as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that our national debt will be the double the size of our economy by 2051. China is laughing all the way to the bank.

•
Republicans are never going to be able to outspend the Democrats. If they cannot do a better job communicating with voters about the perils of government spending run amok, they only have themselves to blame if the voters reelect the party with the more generous handouts. Why shouldn't they?
Graham: 'Sick' for Biden to 'play the race card' on Georgia election law, filibuster (Fox 03/28/2021)
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"What's sick is for the president of the United States to play the race card continuously in such a hypocritical way."

•
"Every time a Republican does anything, we're racist, They use the racism card to advance a liberal agenda, and we're tired of it. H.R. 1 is sick, not what we're doing in Georgia."

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See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump slams Biden immigration policies: ‘There’s nothing, there’s no leadership’ (Fox 03/28/2021)
•
"Thousands and thousands of people are coming up right now as we speak. And you're going to have millions of people pouring into our country. And it's going to destroy our country. I don't know what they're doing. And they don't know what they're doing. It's a very, very dangerous situation. I'd love not to be involved. Somebody else is supposed to be doing it."

•
"Over the next few weeks, I guess I'll go [to the border]. And I'm not sure that I really should do it ... other than the fact that I have such respect for the Border Patrol and for ICE. And these people they're dying for leadership. There's nothing. There's no leadership. You have to see the squalor, the children and, frankly, people that have come in to the country when you look at what's happening, the dirt and the filth of those places. That's why they're not letting the press in."

•
"And, frankly, if that were me the press would be going crazy. It's a very dangerous situation. It's horrible for our country. They're going to destroy our country."
Trump rips Biden for halting border wall construction, says countries are losing respect for US (Fox 03/28/2021)
•
"We're not getting along with Mexico any longer. You have a great president of Mexico who was fantastic to me. Soldiers on our border, 28,000 soldiers stopped people from coming in. You know, one of the big things, not only people, but drugs are pouring in at a number that we've never seen before now. We stopped it largely. And, you know, we were — the wall is just a few weeks away from being completed. [Biden] didn't want to complete it."

•
"They should finish the wall, number one. And they should have the [Remain in Mexico] policy reinserted, because if you don't have that, this is going to be a disaster...The wall should be completed by now if he let — he stopped it almost at his first day. He stopped construction of the wall."

•
"... We had to leave certain areas to get everything back in as we completed it. And they didn't finish it up. It was just a very simple thing to do. It would have taken a very short period of time and so you have gaps."

•
"Now, with — they cover the gaps easily with the Border Patrol. But you don't even have to do that. They should finish the wall immediately and that has to be number one. "Stay in Mexico" policy has to get reenacted, which isn't that easy anymore because now, Mexico is angry at us. Now, the other countries are not respecting us. And now, you can go a step even further and bigger. China has never spoken to me the way they spoke to our representatives a week ago."
Trump says he will probably visit the southern border soon, in exclusive interview with Fox News (Fox 03/27/2021)
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"We proudly handed the Biden Administration the most secure border in history, All they had to do was keep this smooth-running system on autopilot. Instead, in the span of a just few weeks, the Biden Administration has turned a national triumph into a national disaster. They are in way over their heads and taking on water fast."

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Tim Scott blasts Biden, Democrats for filibuster flip-flop: They cry 'racist whenever they want to...' (Fox 03/26/2021)
•
"Here's what we know about the Democrats. They were for the filibuster before they were against the filibuster. I keep asking myself, 'Will the real Chuck Schumer please stand up?' Is it the one who was for the filibuster or is it the new one who is now against filibuster?"

•
... Democrats "use the word 'racist' whenever they are trying to scare people into their corner. It has nothing to do with race. But they don't care. Winning at all costs means losing at some point."

•
... "every single part" of the measure "is designed to maintain power at all costs ... even if they have to do things that are unethical."

•
"[H.R. 1] eliminates all voter ID laws. They are going to allow for ballot harvesting to become the law of the land, Legalized ballot harvesting, taxpayer-funded campaigns and prohibition of state voter ID laws should be a big, loud 'fraud alert.'"...

•
"They are literally on the prowl for a liberal takeover of everything and then codifying it permanently by bringing in new states that have the overwhelming Democrat approach to governing."
Special Counsel Durham is still 'living' (Fox 03/26/2021)
•
"Where's Durham? Is he a living, breathing human being? Will there ever be a Durham report?"
‘GRINCH Act’ introduced to protect children's books from cancel culture: ‘No one is safe’ (Fox 03/26/2021)
•
"The reaction has been so positive...the cancel culture is rapidly attacking our American institutions, our libraries, our school. I'm alarmed at the left's attempt to cancel historic books characters."

•
"If you find that these books are offensive to your children, then the parents should be the ones who make that decision. Government should not be making that."

•
"We have to understand that we cannot turn back and ban great historic people, great historic images that are part of our childhood, There are important lessons in these books."

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See related Forget Cancel Culture... (Michael Ramirez, 03/03/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Rep. Byron Donalds rips Biden for invoking Jim Crow in filibuster debate: 'Irresponsibly...' (Fox 03/26/2021)
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"In 2005, then-Sen. Biden said, 'At its core, the filibuster is not about stopping a nominee or a bill; it is about compromise and moderation. That is why the Founders put unlimited debate in. That is what it is about, engendering compromise and moderation,'"...

•
"Fast-forward to today, and now President Biden is irresponsibly injecting race and the travesty of Jim Crow to oppose the filibuster, Time after time, Democrats resort to the race card to shield them from having to answer for their hypocrisy and radical policies."

•
"Jim Crow might not mean anything to President Biden, considering he joined segregationists in opposing bussing and eulogized known racists like Robert Byrd, but that dark stain on our republic is personal to me and many Black Americans like me."

•
"Ensuring elections take place legally and adequately isn't racist; it is righteous," Donalds told... slamming H.R. 1, the For the People Act, as a "direct assault on our Constitution and the sanctity of our election system" while saying, if passed into law, it would "do irreparable harm to the future of our republic."

•
"The Constitution outlines the responsibility of administering elections, and that power is for the states, not the federal government."

•
"Abolishing voter I.D. laws, ending signature verification, and putting into place taxpayer-funded campaigns is detrimental to every American's right to a free and fair election — and the harmful rhetoric of President Biden cannot evade this fact."

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See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Scalise blasts Big Tech, social media execs over censorship: 'These aren't mistakes' (Fox 03/26/2021)
•
"... we saw bipartisan frustration and anger with tech CEOs and the way they're abusing their platforms, the way they're hiding behind Section 230 of the law that gives them immunity from prosecution..."

•
"... they're not just acting like the town square, they're literally censoring and picking winners and losers in a forum where they thought they were going to just exchange information with friends and be able to put ideas out there. Now you see they selectively block certain people..."

•
"It seems like conservatives are being targeted more by some of these social media platforms and Twitter's probably had the worst abuses on this. I mean they just took Marjorie Taylor Greene off of Twitter last week for probably 12 hours and they said it was a mistake."

•
"Who's making these mistakes and is it really a mistake? Why aren't people being held accountable and I asked him that twice and he refused to answer who's doing this and if they're even being held accountable. These aren't mistakes."

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Twitter Mad Man (Gary McCoy, 01/15/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Scalise grills Dorsey about blocking NY Post article on Hunter Biden (Fox 03/26/2021)
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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Tim Graham: The Pro-Biden press corps is deeply embarrassing – just look at these follow up questions (Fox 03/26/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Biden teases and titillates reporters in break from dividing the nation (Fox 03/26/2021)
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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Hannity blasts Biden press conference performance: 'Our enemies are watching, this is embarrassing' (Fox 03/26/2021)
Tim Graham: The Pro-Biden press corps is deeply embarrassing – just look at these follow up questions (Fox 03/26/2021)
Trump, post-Twitter, says he prefers less frequent news releases, ‘may’ create own platform (Fox 03/26/2021)
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"I think I do like it better, We're issuing press releases. We're no longer constrained by a certain number of characters. We're no longer put under ... the magnifying glass. And frankly, you do it less and you can do it better."
Trump responds to Biden claim he left children 'starving' on Mexican side of border: 'Outrageous' (Fox 03/25/2021)
Stephen Miller slams Biden for 'detestable lie' and 'smear' about Trump border policy (Fox 03/25/2021)
•
"What Joe Biden said at that press conference is a detestable lie. It's not just a smear against President Trump. It's a smear against the patriotic border agents who saved the lives, who rescued unaccompanied minors and got them safely back home. That was our policy. If you came here as a 15-year-old from Honduras and Border Patrol apprehended you, they would then process you, put you on a chartered flight paid for by the U.S. Government, send you back to your home country, meet up with social services in Honduras, work with our State Department to get you back with your own family. Joe Biden is separating these families, stranding them in the United States, and sending the message not just to Central America, but to the whole world that if you split off your family, if you send someone here 17 or younger alone, they will stay here for life..."

•
"His [Biden's] administration, in writing, terminated the reunification policy we had in place to send unaccompanied minors back to their home countries wherever they may come from. And that's why last year we had record low numbers of unaccompanied minors in custody, because we weren't releasing them. He [Biden] terminated that policy in writing, that's not in dispute. I guess he doesn't know, or his staff is lying to him so that he then can mislead the country. As for access to facilities, his answer that he'll give people access once his mystical plan is in place, this plan that no one has ever heard of, that no one knows what's in it, and no one knows what it's going to do, isn't transparency. It's a cover-up. You are saying, 'Unless and until I am ready, you won't get to see what's going on.' I cannot believe the media is going along with that."

•
"We built a safe, orderly, humane infrastructure to accomplish the end goal of border security, which is an orderly return and removal to the place you come from. We didn't need surge facilities to hold tens, hundreds of thousands of people the way that we are going, because we had a process for returning them — be it to Mexico, Central America, or elsewhere. He [Biden] dismantled that process, invited the surge, and now he has nowhere to put them."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Concha: Biden news conference was 'disgrace' for White House press corps and president (Fox 03/25/2021)
Ari Fleischer rips Biden over border access comments: Like a 'co-conspirator hiding evidence'... (Fox 03/25/2021)
New York Post editorial board blasts reporters for sucking up to Biden during press conference (Fox 03/25/2021)
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See related Biden\\\'s Glory (Mike Shelton, 01/22/2021) cartoon from Media picture album
Tom Cotton introduces legislation to banish critical race theory from military (Fox 03/25/2021)
•
"Our military's strength depends on the unity of our troops and the knowledge that America is a noble nation worth fighting for," Cotton said.

•
"Critical race theory teaches that race is a person's most important characteristic, and that America is an evil, oppresive place. That idea may be fashionable in left-wing circles and college classrooms, but it has no place in our military. Not only will such racist ideas undermine our troops' faith in each other, they'll also erode their trust in our country's guiding principles. The United States military shouldn't be promoting such divisive, un-American ideas."

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The legislation would specifically ban ideas like the U.S. "is a fundamentally racist country" or that "[a]n individual, by virtue of his or her race, is inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously."

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"America's public institutions, especially the military, should not promote the principles of race essentialism, collective guilt and racial segregation, which are anathema to American ideals. That this legislation is even necessary is a sign of how pervasive these ideas have become, even in ostensibly apolitical environments like the military."
Biden set up for ‘clever diversion’ on border during first press conference: Gingrich (Fox 03/25/2021)
Cuomo's controversial nursing home order was issued a year ago today (Fox 03/25/2021)
•
It has been exactly one year since New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a directive that has led to critics blaming him for thousands of nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic.

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"No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19," the order said.

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"[Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission."

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See related Nursing Home Massacre (Mike Shelton, 09/04/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Whistling Past... (Michael Ramirez, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Homan blasts Kamala Harris as 'worst' possible choice to lead Biden border crisis response (Fox 03/25/2021)
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"... you couldn't get a worse pick. Look, she supports sanctuary cities, she wrote legislation to reward those who illegally entered into the United States..."

•
"She vilified the men and women of the Border Patrol during the last surge, saying they are mistreating immigrants. She's an open borders advocate. She wants to abolish ICE and she compared immigration officers to the KKK during the Senate hearing, and you want to put her in charge of immigration enforcement on the border? I couldn't think of a worse choice."
Cuomo COVID nursing home mandate 1 year anniversary – what grim milestone means for families (Fox 03/25/2021)
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"Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died."

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Meanwhile, the governor continues to blame and deny all wrongdoing. ... you know who cares, Governor Cuomo? We do.

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Dana Loesch slams media handling of Atlanta, Boulder mass shootings: 'They’re tied to an...' (Fox 03/24/2021)
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"There is no free press because they're not behaving like a free press, they're tied to an ideology."

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"There were verified journalists ... these people were out there opining on the race of this suspected murderer. They're out there obsessed with the race of this murderer before we even knew anything about this guy."

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"All we had was this shirtless dude with blood running down his leg, and from this blurry image, all of these blue checks decided to assume this guy's race and run with that, as if that was the most pressing details about this story, which is just mind-boggling to me, and still is, because they all spent half the day yesterday and this morning trying to excuse it."

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"I think it speaks to their bigotry more than the bigotry that they all just assume of the rest of America, because this shouldn't even be an important detail."

•
"I guess their deaths don't count if it doesn't push forward a media narrative, That's not about reporting, at that point you're just a propaganda pact. That has nothing to do with reporting and you're betraying the purpose of a free press."

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"I don't know what else to conclude after watching this behavior that these people demonstrated after not one, but two tragedies."

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"Before people were even identified and families were notified they were absolutely certain that Robert Byrd had come back from the dead and was reigning terror on everyone in Atlanta and Boulder."

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"They don't trust the people that they see on television, they don't trust a lot of the bylines that they read anymore, and if anybody is to blame for this, it is the so-called free press itself."
Ohio man, 20, accused of raping teen, living under her bed for 3 weeks (Fox 03/24/2021)
New Trump super PAC filing coming as early as April, Lewandowski says (Fox 03/24/2021)
Boston Marathon bombing victim urges SCOTUS to reinstate death penalty for Dzokhar Tsarnaev (Fox 03/24/2021)
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The Supreme court announced Monday that it is set to consider whether to reinstate the death penalty for Dzokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.

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Marc Fucarile was standing next to the finish line when one of the bombs went off during the race in 2013. He was the last victim to be released from the hospital a little over three months after the event.

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"I think he should get the death penalty. If this doesn't justify a death sentence, what does in our country?"

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"I have to put a leg on every day. I get in a wheelchair, put my prosthetic on. I'm in constant pain in my left leg, it's a salvaged left limb, 80 percent burn on the lower half of my body. Shrapnel in my heart."

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Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan killed three people at the Marathon and injured 264 others.

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Dzhokar was ultimately convicted after Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police four days after the attack.

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In a press conference on Monday, press secretary Jen Psaki said "President Biden has made clear... that he has grave concerns about whether capital punishment...is consistent with the values that are fundamental to our sense of justice and fairness"...

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The decision to seek the death penalty in the case was made by the Obama administration, while Biden held the office of vice president.

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In July 2020, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston found that prospective jurors had not been properly vetted, and overturned the death penalty sentence handed to Tsarnaev in 2015.

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In August of 2020, the DOJ under former president Trump brought the case to the Supreme Court, which, on Monday, agreed to hear the case in the fall of 2021.

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Fucarile just wants justice for himself and the other victims, and expressed his anger with, "living this again and again with the person or people responsible for what happened. It's sad that criminals... have more rights than the victims. It's really sad and scary."
Hannity: The left using Colorado shooting 'for political purposes' to push new gun bans (Fox 03/24/2021)
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"Sadly many on the left want to use this horrific event for political purposes. Within minutes of the shooting, without knowing anything, many taking to Twitter again, as usual predictably rushing to judgment. In a now deleted tweet, the vice president's adult niece tweeting, 'Violent white men are the greatest terrorist threat to our country!' One editor for Deadspin wrote, 'Extremely tired of people's lives depending on whether a white man with an AR-15 is having a good day or not.' A race and inclusion editor at USA Today responded, 'It's always an angry white man. Always.' I could go on and on and on with tweets just like this."

•
"But now that the shooter has been identified, a Syrian-born Muslim, the left simply moved on to another political tactic. That is, okay, never let a crisis go to waste, now the hysteria surrounding gun control has predictably taken over Washington, DC. Chuck Schumer vowed to bring new gun control restrictions to the senate floor. Joe Biden, he's now promised to ban so-called bad assault rifles to rule by executive fiat, once again bypassing that co-equal branch of government known as the legislative branch. Barack Obama's weighed in, who loathes the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights in general. He's speaking out, he's making an impassioned plea for new gun bans. And of course, the media mob — the extension of all things radical socialist democrat — they are demanding broad new gun bans."
Laura Ingraham blasts leftists for 'race-baiting' over Boulder shooting, warns against gun control push (Fox 03/24/2021)
•
"Every single one of those people chose to inflame an already horrific situation with the kind of race-baiting that sadly a lot of Americans have gotten used to."

•
"[Alissa] seemingly disliked President Trump, referring to him as 'the D-word' over his handling of immigration refugees, A former teammate in high school told the Denver Post that Alissa had an explosive temper, saying he yelled out in the wrestling room that he was going to kill everybody. My question: Why didn't anyone report him?"

•
"The left likes to use the phrase 'angry White male' to denigrate millions of American men, whether they have committed wrongdoing or not, Today we heard no 'angry Middle Eastern man'."

•
Instead, the host noted, the president's handlers "shuffled Biden to the camera to push for immediate gun control."

•
"You will hear that a lot over the next few weeks, the phrase 'common sense gun laws'. The Democrats want you to think that they really truly care about violence in America and saving lives."

•
"We know the real truth. The fact is their real priority is taking guns from law-abiding Americans, not stopping future violence."

•
"If they cared so much about violence, they would demand more, not less immigration enforcement when illegal immigrants are released into America unchecked. We have no idea what their real background is. In some cases they are going to rob, murder and rape."

•
"If Democrats cared about violence they would've demanded last summer that Antifa be called a domestic terror group."

•
"The ultimate inconvenient truth is that our government doesn't like many of us. They believe that about half of America is racist, maybe more [and] that our movement should be severely restricted."

•
"They vet our National Guard and military for extremism when a few veterans turned up at the Capitol on January 6, but these same Democrats drawn no conclusions and take no meaningful action about crime committed by their own supporters or special interests."
Trump congratulates Project Veritas on 'big win' in ongoing lawsuit against New York Times (Fox 03/24/2021)
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A New York judge denied the paper's motion to dismiss the suit by the right-wing guerilla news outlet over the Times' portrayal of Project Veritas' reporting on alleged voter fraud in the congressional district represented by Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. last fall.

•
Times reporters Maggie Astor and Tiffany Hsu described Project Veritas' reporting as "deceptive," "false," and "with no verifiable evidence."

•
"The facts submitted by Veritas could indicate more than standard, garden variety media bias and support a plausible inference of actual malice," Supreme Court Justice Charles Wood wrote in his ruling last week.

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"There is a substantial basis in law to proceed to permit the plaintiff to conduct discovery and to then attempt to meet its higher standard of proving liability through clear and convincing evidence of actual malice."

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"If a writer interjects an opinion in a news article (and will seek to claim legal protections as opinion) it stands to reason that the writer should have an obligation to alert the reader, including a court that may need to determine whether it is factor opinion, that it is opinion."

•
"I want to congratulate Project Veritas on their big win on the New York Times," Trump said. "Now the suit will continue and whatever you can do for their legal defense fund, we're with them all the way. They do incredible work, they find things nobody would even believe possible. So James, congratulations."
Sen. John Kennedy: 'We do not need more gun control, we need more idiot control' (Fox 03/23/2021)
•
"These killings were terrible. They were horrible. I'm reminded, though that, you know, America is a big country. We're free and one of the prices we pay for that freedom is that you're always going to have some people who abuse it. Freedom is risk. What we have got to concentrate on is how to control that risk. You're not going to stop the killings until you stop the killers. But you don't stop drunk drivers by getting rid of all sober drivers, which is what many of my Democratic friends want to do with respect to the Second Amendment."

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"In my judgment, we do not need more gun control, we need more idiot control. How do we do that? ... We regulate gun ownership in America. If you're convicted of certain crimes, if you have a tendency to violence, if you're mentally ill and you want to buy a gun, your name has to run through a database."

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"Grassley and Cruz's bill, which I support, would have tightened up the database and it would have cracked down on people who have guns who shouldn't have guns. Do you know why the bill didn't pass? Many of my Democratic colleagues filibustered it."
Boulder shooting suspect Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa: What we know (Fox 03/23/2021)
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... he wrote messages that criticized former President Donald Trump's response to immigration and refugees...

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"... he actually lost his match and quit the team and yelled out in the wrestling room that he was like going to kill everybody." ... "Nobody believed him. We were just all kind of freaked out by it, but nobody did anything about it."

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... Alissa "would talk about him being Muslim and how if anybody tried anything, he would file a hate crime and say they were making it up."

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... Alissa was often paranoid. "He was always talking about [how] people were looking at him and there was no one ever where he was pointing people out."
Boulder mass shooting suspect identified, charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder (Fox 03/23/2021)
Ted Cruz ‘fighting for’ media access at southern border (Fox 03/23/2021)
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"It's getting worse and worse every day. It is the direct result of political decisions made by the Biden administration. As soon as Joe Biden was sworn in, he halted construction on the border wall. He reinstituted the failed policy of ‘Catch and Release' — so they're releasing illegal immigrants who are detained now. They're doing that in many cases without COVID testing them. And he repealed the ‘Remain in Mexico' policy, which was a tremendous foreign policy and immigration victory that the Trump administration had negotiated with Mexico. Joe Biden tore that apart. And the result is we're seeing a crisis..."

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"... if Donald Trump had done this and said, ‘No reporters are allowed on the border,' the media would have rightly lost their minds. And y'all would have been right to. Right now, too many of the reporters in the mainstream media, they view their job as being cheerleaders for the Biden administration and apologizing for it. I think the media has a right to be there. And I'm fighting for the media to be able to go and see what's happening and get pictures and see the crisis that's happening."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tom Homan: Our border is not closed or secure. That's a lie. Why aren't we being told the truth? (Fox 03/23/2021)
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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump returning to social media with 'his own platform' in 2-3 months: adviser (Fox 03/21/2021)
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"I do think that we're going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here, with his own platform."

•
"And this is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media, it's going to completely redefine the game, and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does."

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"This new platform is going to be big," Miller said, predicting that Trump will draw "tens of millions of people."
Trump slams Biden over border 'crisis', accused him of causing 'death and human tragedy' (Fox 03/21/2021)
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"We proudly handed the Biden Administration the most secure border in history, All they had to do was keep this smooth-running system on autopilot. Instead, in the span of a just few weeks, the Biden Administration has turned a national triumph into a national disaster. They are in way over their heads and taking on water fast."

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Trump took aim at the "pathetic, clueless performance" of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, writing that "Even someone of Mayorkas' limited abilities should understand that if you provide Catch-and-Release to the world's illegal aliens then the whole world will come."

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"It's clear they are engaged in a huge cover-up to hide just how bad things truly are, The only way to end the Biden Border Crisis is for them to admit their total failure and adopt the profoundly effective, proven Trump policies."

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Trump urged Biden to "immediately complete the wall, which can be done in a matter of weeks."
Biden response to border crisis 'isn't incompetence', but 'is by design', Tom Homan tells Mark Levin (Fox 03/21/2021)
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"You're correct, The Biden administration is still trying to blame President Trump for what's going on the border right now. They're ignoring the fact that — I don't care if you love President Trump or hate him — you cannot deny the fact that he gave us the most secure border in my career, which is almost thirty-five years."

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"I started in 1984 as a Border Patrol agent, I spent my entire career on border enforcement, immigration enforcement, and President Trump got it right. He had unprecedented success on that border."

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... Trump "understood that 90% of the Central Americans that come to our border to claim asylum never get relief from U.S. courts. They simply don't qualify. That data's easily available on the Department of Justice website; anybody can look at it.

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"I doubt President Biden has looked at it or [DHS Secretary] Alejandro Mayorkas has looked at it, because if they did, then they're facilitating immigration fraud on the border."

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... ecalled that during Barack Obama's second term, when Biden was vice president and Mayorkas was deputy homeland security secretary, "we built detention facilities, thousands of them. We held people long enough to see a judge. We let ICE remove them and we took away the enticements."

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Now, however, "Joe Biden has sold out this country to the progressive left to win an election," Homan claimed. "He's a different person ... Alejandro Mayorkas is a different person."

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As a result, Homan concluded, migrants detained at the border are being released "as soon as they can, within three days. ICE has been decapitated. They lost 90% of their authority. They're not executing judges' orders, and we keep throwing out more enticements.

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"This isn't incompetence. This is by design. This is an open borders agenda that we all knew was coming."

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See related Undocumented Voter Drive (Antonio Branco, 03/17/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Gretchen Whitmer may soon face Cuomo-like scrutiny over nursing homes, lawsuit plaintiffs say (Fox 03/21/2021)
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"It shouldn't take a lawsuit to obtain this critical data, Gov. Whitmer made the same policy choice as Gov. Cuomo, forcing contagious senior citizens into close proximity with other medically vulnerable people. In fact, her policy, a similar version of which is still in effect today, went even farther, forcing some non-senior patients into nursing homes, including a 20-year-old. Michigan citizens deserve to know why she did this, and whether our governor is telling the truth about the consequences."

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... under Michigan law, Whitmer has the advantage of being legally exempt from Freedom of Information laws.

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"Thanks to this exemption, the governor [Whitmer] has no obligation to produce any records whatsoever, despite making decisions affecting the lives of every Michigander."

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Earlier this month, Michigan Attorney General Danna Nessel, a Democrat, declined a request by state Republicans to investigate Whitmer's nursing home-related actions, saying a probe wasn't needed "at this time."

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"I appreciate that you and your colleagues have policy disagreements with Gov. Whitmer's response to COVID-19, But an investigation by my office is not the mechanism to resolve those disagreements."

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Cuomo is facing an investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, N.Y., regarding his nursing home policies...
Andrew Sullivan blasts media for 'grotesquely' distorting Atlanta shootings to push hat (Fox 03/20/2021)
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"This story's coverage is proof, it seems to me, that American journalists have officially abandoned the habit of attempting any kind of 'objectivity' in reporting these stories, We are now in the enlightened social justice world of 'moral clarity' and 'narrative-shaping.'"...

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"Here's the truth: We don't yet know why this man did these horrible things... That's why we have thorough investigations and trials in America."

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"We only have one solid piece of information as to motive, which is the confession by the mass killer to law enforcement: that he was a religious fundamentalist who was determined to live up to chastity and repeatedly failed, as is often the case. Like the 9/11 bombers or the mass murderer at the Pulse nightclub, he took out his angst on the source of what he saw as his temptation, and committed mass murder. This is evil in the classic fundamentalist sense: a perversion of religion and sexual repression into violence."

•
"Treating the individual as unique, granting him or her rights, defending the presumption of innocence, relying on provable, objective evidence: these core liberal principles are precisely what critical theory aims to deconstruct. And the elite media is in the vanguard of this war on liberalism."

•
"The media is supposed to subject easy, convenient rush-to-judgment narratives to ruthless empirical testing. Now, for purely ideological reasons, they are rushing to promote ready-made narratives, which actually point away from the empirical facts."

•
"To run sixteen separate pieces on anti-Asian white supremacist misogynist hate based on one possibly completely unrelated incident is not journalism. It's fanning irrational fear in the cause of ideological indoctrination. And it appears to be where all elite media is headed."
Maher blasts cancel culture over Teen Vogue editor's ousting: Woke 'brats' control the media now (Fox 03/20/2021)
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"I swear to God, I don't want to talk about cancel culture and this nonsense every week, but I just think people understand how this is a tsunami and how fast the goalposts change almost on a weekly basis."

•
"Literally, on the top of my head ... I wrote down three things that I could think of — not just what you do now... it's anything you've ever done... Not just what you say, it's now what you listen to, they can catch you for that. What you order, who you say you like, anything sort of association, if you retweet something."

•
"People go to parties now and they don't want to talk. They're like, 'Can I talk? I don't know your girlfriend. She might be woke.' Really. I'm not making this up."

•
"This informant thing, it's not just what you do, it's what you don't report. That's another way the goalpost moved."

•
"'Over the past few days, I have come to better understand the pain I caused by the book I endorsed.' What? Did you hit someone over the head with it?"

•
"'I have offended not only a lot of people I don't know but also those closest to me, including my bandmates.' What a bunch of p***ies they must be. 'And for that, I am truly sorry.' It's so Stalinesque. You know what, how about, 'I can read what I want! I'm a musician!'"...

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See related Gone with the Wind (Chip Bok, 06/12/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Federal judge warns 'dangerous' media has 'very close to one-party control' in blistering libel... (Fox 03/19/2021)
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"The increased power of the press is so dangerous today because we are very close to one-party control of these institutions."

•
"Although the bias against the Republican Party — not just controversial individuals — is rather shocking today, this is not new; it is a long-term, secular trend going back at least to the '70s."

•
"Two of the three most influential papers (at least historically), The New York Times and The Washington Post, are virtually Democratic Party broadsheets. And the news section of The Wall Street Journal leans in the same direction. The orientation of these three papers is followed by The Associated Press and most large papers across the country (such as the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Boston Globe). Nearly all television — network and cable — is a Democratic Party trumpet. Even the government-supported National Public Radio follows along."

•
He accused Silicon Valley of filtering news "in ways favorable to the Democratic Party" and fueling censorship, citing the suppression of the New York Post's bombshell reporting on Hunter Biden in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election.

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"It is well-accepted that viewpoint discrimination 'raises the specter that the Government may effectively drive certain ideas or viewpoints from the marketplace,'"

•
"But ideological homogeneity in the media — or in the channels of information distribution — risks repressing certain ideas from the public consciousness just as surely as if access were restricted by the government."

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"It should be borne in mind that the first step taken by any potential authoritarian or dictatorial regime is to gain control of communications, particularly the delivery of news. It is fair to conclude, therefore, that one-party control of the press and media is a threat to a viable democracy. It may even give rise to countervailing extremism."

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"The First Amendment guarantees a free press to foster a vibrant trade in ideas. But a biased press can distort the marketplace. And when the media has proven its willingness — if not eagerness — to so distort, it is a profound mistake to stand by unjustified legal rules that serve only to enhance the press' power."
Biden comment mocking Trump's walking resurfaces after president stumbles, falls boarding Air Force... (Fox 03/19/2021)
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President Biden, who tripped Friday while boarding Air Force One, drew scrutiny from conservatives who pointed out he once mocked former President Donald Trump's slow walk down a ramp during a trip to West Point.

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"Look at how he steps and look how I step," Biden said at the time. "Watch how I run up ramps and he stumbles down ramps."

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"I remember the press bashing Trump for touching the rail once. Biden falls repeatedly but I'm sure he's the picture of health," Trump Jr. wrote.
Ingraham: Why Rand Paul 'schooled' Fauci, mainstream media on mask-wearing 'theater' (Fox 03/19/2021)
Flashback: Biden fall conjures up memories of media hysteria when Trump walked slowly down a... (Fox 03/19/2021)
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President Biden fell three times when attempting to board Air Force One on Friday, conjuring up memories of the mainstream media hyperventilating over former President Donald Trump cautiously walking down a ramp last year.

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Reporters and pundits sounded the alarm about Trump's well-being for what they believed were signs of declining health...

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A clip of Trump's cautious walk shared on Twitter by left-wing journalist Aaron Rapar accumulated over 13.1 million views.

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The footage essentially dominated an entire news cycle and liberal pundits even used it as the impetus to question if something was wrong with Trump neurologically.

•
It remains to be seen if 78-year-old Biden's triple fall will receive a fraction of the attention Trump received for walking gingerly.

•
"Honestly no one would care that much about an old man tripping but the NYT, CNN and others went all in on speculative coverage about Trump walking down a ramp so here we are with the media having to eat their own hostile and corrosive coverage."

•
The New York Times ran the headline, "Trump's Halting Walk Down Ramp Raises New Health Questions."

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"Mr. Trump — who turned 74 on Sunday, the oldest a U.S. president has been in his first term — was recorded hesitantly descending the ramp one step at a time after he delivered an address to graduating cadets at the New York-based academy on Saturday. The academy's superintendent, Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, walked alongside him. Mr. Trump sped up slightly for the final three steps, as he got to the bottom." Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote.

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"Serious question: what is going on with him? His supporters have tried so hard to get the media to question Joe Biden's mental and physical fitness but they so often engage in projection it seems worth inquiring," MSNBC host Joy Reid tweeted at the time.

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"The matter of a President's health is of great importance to the American public," Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire said on MSNBC, noting that Trump regularly questioned Biden's fitness for office.

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"It is absolutely harder to make the case when we see video like this where the president himself, he's having momentarily stumbles, momentary lapses, straining for a word or whatever it might be."

•
"Maybe he just has a hard time going down a gently sloping ramp," she said before asking Dr. Sanjay Gupta, "But do you see something, possibly neurological that could be throwing off his balance?"

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CNN anchor John King said Trump looked "a little shaky" on the ramp.

•
Biden even got in on the act, mocking Trump on the campaign trail in a moment that will presumably come back to haunt him.

•
"Look at how he steps and look at how I step. Watch how I run up ramps and he stumbles down ramps. Come on," Biden said.

•
White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield explained that Biden was uninjured from the triple fall. Another spokesperson said it was due to the strong wind.
Biden stumbles multiple times, falls as he scales Air Force One stairs (Fox 03/19/2021)
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"I know folks have seen that President Biden slipped on his way up the stairs to AF1, but I'm happy to report that he is just fine and did not even require any attention from the medical team who travels with him. Nothing more than a misstep on the stairs."
White House says Biden is 'quite busy' after Putin invites president for 'live' chat (Fox 03/19/2021)
Gaetz: Everyone in DC knows that when Harris shakes Biden's hand 'she's checking his pulse' (Fox 03/19/2021)
Jim Jordan: 'Do you have free speech when only the left can define what can be said?' (Fox 03/18/2021)
DeSantis condemns critical race theory, says it won't be taught in Florida classrooms (Fox 03/18/2021)
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"Florida's civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory and other unsubstantiated theories."

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"Let me be clear: There is no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory, Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money."

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... instead, Florida "will invest in actual, solid, true curriculum and we will be a leader in the development and implementation of a world-class civics education."
Lindsey Graham takes aim at Mayorkas, tells DHS chief to 'change course or change jobs' (Fox 03/18/2021)
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"It is clear to me the Biden Administration has lost control of the border. Under its current leadership, it doesn't have either the will or capability to fix the problem."

•
"The solutions are obvious but will require an understanding that the Biden Administration's early policy choices – to abandon Trump's successful border policies – was a mistake. It is time for DHS Secretary Mayorkas to change course or change jobs."

•
"The situation is bad and only going to get worse, Unless there is immediate and drastic change, the worse is yet to come — by far."
COVID relief is not about funding Planned Parenthood, that's why I fought Dems' radical agenda (Fox 03/18/2021)
Cuomo order to take in COVID-19 patients 'petrified' New York nursing home administrator (Fox 03/18/2021)
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"Many facilities vocalized it, They were petrified, but they were more petrified of the Department of Health ... once it [my concern] was shot down, I never spoke [about it] again."

•
More than 15,000 people are confirmed to have died in New York state nursing homes and long-term care facilities from COVID-19.

•
However, as recently as January 2021, the state reported a fraction of that number — around 8,500 deaths.

•
The matter is reportedly under investigation by the FBI and the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office.

•
Cuomo has admitted that things "should have been done differently," but stopped short of issuing an apology for the fiasco.

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See related Whistling Past... (Michael Ramirez, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Schatz, Thune roll out bipartisan plan to make 'significant reforms' to Section 230, Big Tech... (Fox 03/17/2021)
Biden 'may not be tough enough' to stand up to AOC, Bernie Sanders on filibuster: Tom Cotton (Fox 03/17/2021)
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"If they don't want to change the rules, but what they want to change the practices and require people to be on the floor for extended periods of time, I've got news for them. I can be there around the clock for days on end. If it's required to stop things like amnesty for illegal aliens or statehood for Washington, D.C. or packing the Supreme Court, that's ultimately what the Democrats want. It's their far left..."

•
"They're angry that they don't have popular support for their agenda. So they're trying to change the rules and ram it through in this fleeting window when they have power before we win back the Senate and the House next year. That's ultimately what this is about. And that's why the Republicans are going to stand up firmly against that radical agenda..."

•
"You can imagine how much the pressure is coming from the White House, people like Ron Klain and others over there on the Democratic senators because they are beholden to their far left. Now look, Joe Biden may not be tough enough to stand up to people like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, but Joe Manchin and other Democrats have been so far."

•
See related Stayin’ Alive (Antonio Branco, 02/22/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
McConnell on 'Faulkner Focus': Dems do not have mandate to 'completely transform' the country (Fox 03/17/2021)
•
"So I guess where [Democrats] stand depends on where they sit, When they're in a position to advance the ball they don't care."

•
"So let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues. Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like."

•
"None of us have served one minute in a Senate that was completely drained of comity and consent. This is an institution that requires unanimous consent to turn the lights on before noon, to proceed with a garden-variety floor speech."

•
"I want our colleagues to imagine a world where every single task, every one of them, requires a physical quorum. Which, by the way, the vice president does not count in determining a quorum. This chaos would not open up an express lane for liberal change ... The Senate would be more like a 100-car pileup, nothing moving."

•
This proposal would end the ability of a minority to stop any legislation and essentially set up a test of wills between the minority and majority over whether a certain piece of legislation passes.

•
See related House-Senate Conference (Mike Shelton, 02/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Arizona sheriff says Biden border crisis worse than Obama years: 'Like the Wild West' (Fox 03/17/2021)
•
"... this is just as bad as it was back in the Obama days, probably worse and on target to be worse."

•
... the halting of Trump's border wall has allowed the Mexican cartel to smuggle people and drugs through gaps in the now-abandoned border construction sites in alarming numbers.

•
See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Chuck DeVore: Americans move to freedom – people fleeing these 5 states. Here's why (Fox 03/17/2021)
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When people vote – with a moving van or a U-Haul truck – they vote for lower taxes and smaller government.

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The least-free U.S. state is New York. West Virginia, Alaska, California and Vermont round out the bottom five.

•
The do-it-yourself mover pays people to drive empty trucks back to states people are fleeing in droves, leading them to charge more to leave California for Texas than heading the other direction, for example.

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Renting a 26-foot truck from Austin to San Francisco will set you back $1,085 – but moving from the land of blackouts, wildfires and high taxes to Texas will cost the migrant $5,371, almost five times as much!

•
If you do manage to get on the road to head out of California, you'll pay the nation's highest state gas tax at 62.5 cents per gallon as a parting gift. Texas levies a 20 cent per gallon gas tax.

•
... a breakdown in public safety, unreliable electricity, a non-responsive government caused by "California's intolerant far left, which would rather demonize opponents than discuss honest differences of opinion," and high housing costs made worse by government regulation.

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Govs. Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo may be rescued by the Biden administration in Washington, D.C., as they deploy the crushing might of federal regulations to flatten the competitive differences between the states.

•
How? For instance, the move to rejoin the Paris climate accords will produce volumes of federal regulations that will increase energy costs in Texas, Florida and other states with affordable fuel and electricity costs while inflicting little additional pain on liberal states.

•
Freedom only survives if people are able to choose it.
Trump on rumors Meghan Markle will run for president: 'I hope that happens' (Fox 03/16/2021)
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"I hope that happens. If that happened, I think I'd have an even stronger feeling toward running."

•
He did however tell ... that he is "not a fan" of Markle because of the way "she talks about — the royal family, and the Queen.

•
"I happen to think, I know the Queen, as you know. I have met with the Queen and I think the Queen is a tremendous person, and I am not a fan of Meghan."
Donald Trump hints he will consider running for president again (Fox 03/16/2021)
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"Based on every poll, they want me to run again but we're going to take a look and we'll see."

•
"First steps first, we have to see what we can do with the House. I think we have a very, very good chance of taking back the House."

•
Trump explained once voters take into consideration that under his presidency the coronavirus vaccine was developed and distributed – while Biden has so far destroyed energy independence and border security – Republicans will have a positive outlook for the future.

•
"When you add it all up, I think we'll do very well in two years and I think we're going to do very well in four years."

•
The Democrats' election regulation bill, the For the People Act, has raised a red flag with Republican lawmakers, and Trump agreed the act would be "a disaster for our country."

•
He said if the legislation were to pass into law, Republicans would have a "very hard time" being elected into future office.

•
"It would be very unfair, The Democrats used COVID in order to do things that they can't believe they got away with... The state legislatures did not approve these changes. Therefore, they're not allowed."
Trump credits Washington Post for correcting Georgia election report: I'm 'very happy' they 'had...' (Fox 03/16/2021)
•
"I will say this. I was very happy that the Washington Post had the courage or whatever you want to call it for at least admitting their mistake. I hope it was a mistake."

•
"They were told something that didn't exist and it made me sound bad and when I heard it, I said, 'That's ridiculous. I never said that.'"...

•
"The Washington Post did a correction. A lot of pressure was put on them but they did a correction because they realized what they did was wrong."

•
The Post published a lengthy correction to its story: "Correction: Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump's December phone call with the state's top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump's comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to 'find the fraud' or say she would be 'a national hero' if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find 'dishonesty' there. He also told her that she had 'the most important job in the country right now.' A story about the recording can be found here. The headline and text of this story have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump."
Gutfeld on the Washington Post admitting to misquoting Trump (Fox 03/16/2021)
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See related He's Crazy! (Glenn McCoy, 05/16/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Glenn Greenwald blasts liberal media for 'deceitful playbook' of 'corroborating' false stories (Fox 03/16/2021)
•
"With liberal media outlets deliberately embracing a profit model of speaking overwhelmingly to partisan Democrats who use them as their primary source of news, there is zero cost to publishing false claims about people and groups hated by that liberal audience."

•
The Post's mea culpa set off a firestorm of criticism, given it passed off things Trump never said as direct quotes. But it also raised questions about why so many other outlets "confirmed" Trump's language.

•
The implication is troubling, Greenwald wrote. Rather than truly providing "corroborating" evidence for another outlet's claim, other outlets merely reached out to the same misinformed source and fed it to the public. The effect is to misleadingly enhance the credibility of the original report.

•
"The reason this matters is because the term 'independently confirm' significantly bolsters the credibility of the initial report because it makes it appear that other credible-to-some news organizations have conducted their own investigation and found more evidence that proves it is true. That is the purpose of the exercise: to bolster the credibility of the story in the minds of the public."

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"This 'correction' is more than a correction, it calls into question the pervasive reliance of the liberal media on anonymous sources in order to attack and undermine Republicans," Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told...

•
"Almost the entirety of the Russia collusion media effort was based on anonymous sources which turned out to be overblown at best, false at worst, after the Mueller Report was released."
Former President Donald Trump tells 'Fox News Primetime' massive migrant influx will 'destroy our country' (Fox 03/16/2021)
•
"[Lopez Obrador] is a great gentleman. We had a very good relationship. They had 28,000 soldiers on our border while we were building the wall ... and they were also stopping them at their northern border by Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala."

•
"Today, they are coming in. You take a look. They are coming in from foreign countries. I see they are coming in from Yemen. They are coming in from the Middle East. They are coming in from everywhere, They are dropping them off and they are pouring into our country. It is a disgrace."

•
"They are going to destroy our country if we don't do something about it."

•
"Frankly, our country can't handle [the increase in migrants]. It is a crisis like we have rarely had and certainly we have never had on the border. But it is going to get much worse."

•
... asked the former president if he would recommend his supporters voluntarily receive the coronavirus vaccine, noting that a sizeable swath of Republicans remain uneasy or opposed to getting the shot at this point.

•
"I would," Trump responded. "I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly."

•
"But again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by them and I agree with that also. But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works."

•
During his interview, Trump also lambasted Biden and the Democrats over the near-$1 or more hike in gas prices since the new president's executive orders curtailing American energy production and transport.

•
"When I look at what is happening, we were energy independent. Gas prices are going up at a far more rapid rate than anyone has seen in a long time. We had gas prices very low and yet we had more energy jobs than we have ever had."

•
Trump said that, while Biden and his party are seeking massive tax hikes, the spike in gas prices amounts to an even more onerous 'tax' in his mind.

•
"[T]hey will be going up by $1, $2, $3, when you look at that, and it's bigger than a tax increase to the consumer, [If] you get a dollar increase in gasoline, that is bigger than a big tax hike. So, it's a terrible thing that is happening."

•
Trump predicted Democrats will raise taxes to the "highest number that we have ever seen" and that it will "devastating" for the economy.

•
"Our border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden. Our great Border Patrol and ICE agents have been disrespected, demeaned, and mocked by the Biden Administration," Trump said in a statement released earlier this month.

•
"A mass incursion into the country by people who should not be here is happening on an hourly basis, getting worse by the minute. Many have criminal records, and many others have and are spreading covid. Interior enforcement has been shut down — criminals that were once promptly removed by our Administration are now being released back onto the street to commit heinous and violent crimes."

•
"ICE officers are desperate to remove these convicted criminals, but Biden won't let them."

•
"The Biden Administration must act immediately to end the border nightmare that they have unleashed onto our Nation. Keep illegal immigration, crime, and the China Virus out of our country!"

•
See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
'Total disgrace': Dems want to open borders while churches and schools are closed, says Sarah Sanders (Fox 03/16/2021)
NJ Gov. Murphy office warned 'patients will die' before ordering COVID patients into nursing homes: report (Fox 03/15/2021)
•
Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's office was warned that ordering nursing homes to readmit residents recovering from COVID-19 would lead to unnecessary deaths...
Arizona mayor outraged as feds plan to drop off illegal immigrants in his community (Fox 03/15/2021)
Democrats leaned on false WaPo 'find the fraud' quote in impeachment hearings (Fox 03/15/2021)
•
"Trump urged him, 'Find the fraud,' and claimed the official would be a national hero if he did. Let's call this what it is. He was asking the official to say there was evidence of fraud when there wasn't any," Dean said, referring to Watson as a "he" when she should have said "she."

•
In addition, the Georgia secretary of state's office launched an investigation into Trump's phone calls to state election officials before the second attempt to impeach him...
Eric Swalwell 'compromised' by Chinese spy, doesn't belong on House Intel Committee: Wenstrup (Fox 03/15/2021)
•
"You know, in the military, we get vetted on whether we are able to get classified materials, top-secret material and it's extensive. They go back into your background, through your whole life. But, we don't do that in Congress. So, you're allowed to get elected and put into a position of really great responsibility and Eric Swalwell's been compromised..."

•
"He was either naive or gullible, but either way, he didn't recognize what this woman was doing, which to me would say you don't belong on the Intelligence Committee. But, when you're compromised you've done something which you shouldn't have done and in the military when that happens you're removed from the military..."

•
"f you think about what he's been engaged in the last four years was pure politics. He's been out there advocating for this Trump-Russian collusion scheme that was brought on by Democrats and to this day he has not even admitted that the dossier was false. So it seems that he's incapable of recognizing foreign intel schemes and therefore he shouldn't be on the committee."

•
See related Shagged (Antonio Branco, 12/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Top Secret (Mike Shelton, 12/11/2020) cartoon from Adult picture album
Washington Post panned for massive correction to Trump-Georgia election story: 'So, they made up...' (Fox 03/15/2021)
•
"Correction: Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump's December phone call with the state's top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump's comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to "find the fraud" or say she would be "a national hero" if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find "dishonesty" there. He also told her that she had "the most important job in the country right now." A story about the recording can be found here. The headline and text of this story have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump."

•
While news outlets often cite sources who paraphrase conversations they participated in or overheard, using quotes indicates to the reader a subject said those exact words.

•
"Our media are so, so, so breathtakingly corrupt, They always mischaracterized this call — in a corrupt and fraudulent way. But to actually make up quotes in service of that? We are so screwed. By our disgustingly corrupt and unaccountable media."

•
"I'm assuming you're joking that mild update months after it matters is a self-policing win. Regurgitating and mischaracterizing quotes sans evidence from anon sources is ALWAYS wrong, particularly after hurting country by doing so w/ Russia collusion hoax and Ukraine phone call."

•
"This kind of mistake is beyond serious. There's zero accountability in major corporate media anymore, yet they continually insist they're the ones holding the line on the truth. And always remember what should scare you about the media is what 'doesn't get exposed.'"

•
"Also note headline on the Post's follow-up story is a sort of maliciously anodyne 'Recording reveals details of Trump call to Georgia's chief elections investigator.' It's not 'Trump's Remarks Grossly Misrepresented Across Media, Because We Credulously Fall For Political Ops.'"

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Tom Homan slams Biden, Dems for blaming Trump for new border surge: 'They planned this crisis' (Fox 03/15/2021)
•
"In 2020, the alien children numbers were down 70% from the year prior. Illegal immigration was down 50-80% depending on what month you looked at. Last month, Joe Biden's policy created a 300% increase in alien children..."

•
"The border is not secure because the Biden administration has undone all the success of the Trump administration. You got a job to do, educate yourself, give me a call I'll tell you how to fix it, but you can't go on national TV and say this is President Trump's fault..."

•
"They can't admit to the American people that they planned this crisis. When Joe Biden made those promises during the campaign of ending ICE detention, ending the Remain in Mexico program, giving amnesty and DACA and healthcare..."

•
"When you make those types of promises you know they're going to come. So they can't go on national TV and say we sold out America to win an election. Joe Biden can't say I folded to the left to get votes and gave up the security of the border. Again, the most secure border we've ever seen under President Trump."
Andy McCarthy: 'Obviously inappropriate' for Cuomo vaccine czar to ask county officials for allegiance (Fox 03/15/2021)
Migrants stuck at Mexico border thought they'd get easier entry: 'Biden promised us!' (Fox 03/15/2021)
•
"Biden promised us that everything was going to change, He hasn't done it yet, but he is going to be a good president for migrants."

•
... coyotes and cartel alike continue to promise migrants that the U.S. is open under Biden, seizing on the more immigrant-friendly policy changes the president has already undertaken.

•
The administration has already ended the Migrant Protection Protocols, which kept migrants south of the border while waiting for their hearings, and narrowed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's priorities for arrests and deportations.

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Remembering COVID victims – We care and we will honor them. Here's how you can join us (Fox 03/15/2021)
•
"Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died."

•
That quote is one I will never forget from Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he was responding to the attorney general's report released in January revealing his administration deliberately undercounted the number of nursing home residents that died from getting COVID in their long-term care facilities.

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I hope his words are used against him in the ongoing federal, FBI and Justice Department investigations.

•
And while it's true that he deserves to be punished for what he did to all the young women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations over the years, I pray what he did to families with loved ones in nursing homes is never forgotten. The over 15,000 elderly whose deaths I believe could've been prevented.

•
We still don't know why the governor issued the March 25 order or why he never sent the infected patients to the Comfort ship or the Javits Center instead.

•
Our grief turned to rage seeing him celebrate his book about leadership, the awards and the poster he sold featuring all the things he loved about himself.

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While we're not allowed to have funerals or wakes to celebrate the lives of our family members.

•
"Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died."

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We care, Governor.

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Our governor doesn't care, but we do.

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See related A Deity (Mike Shelton, 01/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Biden out of touch – this is what he doesn't get about Americans on COVID lockdown anniversary (Fox 03/15/2021)
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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Alabama GOP gives Trump framed resolution calling him one of the ‘greatest’ presidents in history (Fox 03/14/2021)
Michael Levin: Daylight Saving Time – it's time to get rid of this foolishness in 2021… but we won't (Fox 03/14/2021)
Trump said Meghan Markle is ‘no good’ following bombshell Oprah interview (Fox 03/14/2021)
•
Trump reportedly told Miller, "I'm on team Piers." "Piers Morgan is the best, he's the greatest, and they went and tried to cancel him simply because he criticized Meghan Markle."

•
Responding to her comments in a 2019 interview with The Sun, Trump reportedly said he was "shocked" by Duchess Meghan's past remarks.

•
"I didn't know that. What can I say? I didn't know that she was nasty," Trump reportedly told the outlet.

•
And during the run-up to the 2020 Presidential Election, when asked about Markle and Prince Harry's endorsement of Biden, Trump said, "I'm not a fan of hers."

•
"And she probably has heard that," Trump said. "But I wish a lot of luck to Harry because he's going to need it."
Pelosi blames Donald Trump for ‘humanitarian challenge’ at border, inheritance of ‘broken system’ (Fox 03/14/2021)
•
"This is a humanitarian challenge to all of us, What the administration has inherited is a broken system at the border and they are working to correct that."

•
... Trump pointed to his border policy wins as president, saying that the US-Mexico border under his watch was "in great shape" and was "stronger, safer and more secure than ever before."

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"We ended Catch-and-Release, shut down asylum fraud and crippled the vicious smugglers, drug dealers and human traffickers," wrote the former president.

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"The Wall, despite horrendous Democratic delays, would have easily been finished by now, and is working magnificently."

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Trump concluded: "Our country is being destroyed at the Southern border, a terrible thing to see!"

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Sens. Lankford & Rubio: Daylight Saving Time should be permanent. Spring ahead and lock the clock... (Fox 03/13/2021)
Trump makes surprise appearance at Mar-a-Lago event, hints at Lara Senate bid (Fox 03/13/2021)
Rand Paul: Fauci sees himself as 'Greek philosopher' whose 'lies are noble lies' (Fox 03/13/2021)
•
"He's not telling you this because he's a mean man, He's telling you this because he feels sorry for you, because you don't understand and Americans aren't smart enough to make informed decisions."

•
"Later on, he said all masks do work, but that is a lie also because really only the N95 masks work. It is a compilation of lies, but they're all done to protect you because he doesn't think you are smart enough to make any of these decisions on your own."

•
"You can sequentially look at the date when each mandate was passed and when it got ratcheted up. You can look at the incidence of the disease, and what you find is they were proportional, meaning the more mandates we got, the more disease we got."

•
"The mandates did not cause the disease but there is no evidence the mandate slowed down the disease at all."
Laura Ingraham: The truth is catching up to the 'Diabolical Duo' of Biden and Fauci (Fox 03/13/2021)
Biden admin suspends probe into school allegedly segregating students by race; Rep. Owens blasts... (Fox 03/11/2021)
Farmers react to billions in COVID-19 relief bill for Black farmers: 'Where did common sense go?' (Fox 03/11/2021)
•
"Just because you're a certain color you don't have to pay back money? I don't care if you're purple, black, yellow, white, gray, if you borrow money you have to pay it back."

•
"My reaction is, Where did common sense go? We can't strike. We can't stop. That's the part that really sucks. These people in Washington who make decisions for us and our livelihood have probably never stepped foot on a real farm."

•
"What happened to equal protection under the law? This is wrong and un-American. I'm sure there are a lot of Americans out there that would love to have our tax dollars pay off all their debts. This is targeted to a very select few."

•
The racial justice in farming provisions in the massive relief package were based on a bill spearheaded by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., called the "Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act."
Border Patrol union chief says daily migrant surge worst he's witnessed in 24 years (Fox 03/11/2021)
•
"I'm going on 24 years as a Border Patrol agent and I can tell you that I've never seen a day-to-day, week-over-week increase like what we are seeing right now. We've dealt with these kind of numbers in the past, we've dealt with them in the early 2000's, we dealt with them in 2014, we dealt with them in 2019. But, what we didn't see during that time is we didn't see the rapid increase like what we're seeing right now..."

•
"So we've got this very serious problem – the American public should be very concerned about what is currently going on at the border because if this increase continues to go on, we will apprehend more people than we've ever apprehended in any year in the history of the United States Border Patrol..."

•
"This is going to be a referendum item in 2022, it's going to be an item in 2024. The Democrats could potentially lose the House and the Senate solely based on this issue alone. I mean, they didn't learn anything from 2016 and it's amazing that they didn't."

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
White House 'increasingly run' by VP Harris, Schumer and Pelosi: Newt Gingrich (Fox 03/11/2021)
•
"When you're dealing with a president who forgets the name of his Secretary of Defense and forgets the name of the Pentagon? ... I think we really underestimate the degree to which he's detached from reality and the degree to which people will, later on, look back and say, gosh, there were terrible consequences, why didn't we know better?"

•
"I really do think this is becoming the ‘Harris-Biden' administration and you can tell that every time you see him in public. Why would you think that he's dramatically better in private than he is when he can't take any questions in public, he can't remember what he's talking about, he can't remember his own nominees. My assumption is he is a very minor force inside that building and that the White House is increasingly run by Harris, Pelosi, and Schumer."

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Stayin’ Alive (Antonio Branco, 02/22/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
'Cancel culture' doesn't go far enough to describe left's tactics against political opponents (Fox 03/11/2021)
•
"I don't think that term fully encapsulates what's going on. We're dealing with a phenomenon of people who have powerful ties who are working to systematically close minds and to silence voices."

•
"They're doing this entirely without throwing a punch, without any legislative change, that's what makes it quite shocking... and insidious."

•
"I think all of these campaigns work to undermine American norms and to undermine civil society. This particular musician has been made to suffer pretty severe consequences for a pretty innocuous tweet about enjoying my book."

•
... it's very clear that anyone who challenges "reigning orthodoxy" will be "made to suffer" the consequences of left-wing tactics.

•
"Particularly if you are vulnerable profession, such as entertainment or culture, you will stand to lose, potentially, everything."

•
"I feel a lot of pain for this individual, I mean, it looks like it was written under duress and I'm very disappointed that his bandmates... they've been together for I think more than 13 years, instead of standing by their bandmate and longtime friend it seems they threw him under the bus."

•
"But this is to be expected. This is the cultural revolution that we're experiencing... I think this is the undoing of American civilization."

•
See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Gone with the Wind (Chip Bok, 06/12/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Exporting California's worst ideas – Democrats want to take radical policies nationwide (Fox 03/11/2021)
Cancel culture strikes again: Mumford & Son banjoist steps away from band after praising... (Fox 03/10/2021)
•
... Winston Marshall announced he would step away from the popular band after backlash over simply complimenting an anti-Antifa book by conservative author Andy Ngo.

•
"Over the past few days, I have come to better understand the pain caused by the book I endorsed. I have offended not only a lot of people I don't know but also those closest to me, including my bandmates and for that, I am truly sorry. As a result of my actions I am taking time away from the band to examine my blind spots."

•
"For now, please know that I realise [sic] how my endorsements have the potential to be viewed as approvals of hatred, divisive behavior. I apologize, as this was not at all my intention."

•
In a now-deleted tweet that sparked outrage, Marshall congratulated Ngo for writing "Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy." Marshall ... called the book "important" and praised the conservative author.

•
"Finally had the time to read your important book. You're a brave man," Marshall wrote in the now-deleted tweet.

•
It appears he has deleted all of his previous tweets, too, as only the apology remains on his timeline.

•
Over the past few years, Ngo has gained national attention over his reporting on Antifa violence in Portland, Oregon.

•
"I grieve for those who are made to suffer because they dare to read my work, or talk to me," Ngo wrote.

•
"The danger of Antifa & their allies is not only their willingness to carry out or support maiming, killing & terrorism — but also how they close curious minds from independent thought."

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See related Gone with the Wind (Chip Bok, 06/12/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Sen. Rand Paul: A mountain of debt, 'free money' is not the answer to our problems. Here's what is (Fox 03/10/2021)
•
Instead of printing more money and making believe that this money will retain its value as it is sprinkled across the land, we could remove the government shackles that have caused a depression in the restaurant, retail, and entertainment sectors of our economy.

•
Instead of passing out ‘free' money, we should simply end the lockdowns. The daily incidence of COVID is in free fall. In addition, there is no evidence that the government lockdowns have worked.

•
... I hope soon that enough voters will decide that there is no such thing as a free lunch and debt today becomes massive interest payments tomorrow.

•
The economist John Maynard Keynes famously said that stimulus works in the short run and he didn't much care about the future because we'd all be dead.

•
I will vote against any more ‘free' money because I care about my kid's future and the future of our great country.
HR1 voting expansion bill 'written in hell by the devil himself,' says Mike Lee (Fox 03/10/2021)
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"I think I disagree with every single word in HR1, including the words ‘but,' ‘and,' and ‘the.' Everything about this bill is rotten to the core. This is a bill as if written in hell by the devil himself. This takes all sorts of decisions that the federal government really has no business making. It takes them away from the states, makes them right here in Washington D.C. by Congress."

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"Apparently in an effort to ensure an institutionally, revolutionary-democratic party of sorts. One that can remain in power for many decades to come. It does this by taking away these decisions. Elections in America have always been conducted at the state and local levels..."

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"They are completely flipping that principal on its head so that all these things can be micromanaged from Washington. That's wrong. That's really wrong, it's bad policy. As much as anything else, it's wildly unconstitutional."
Trump blasts Biden's handling of border crisis: 'Our country is being destroyed' (Fox 03/09/2021)
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"We ended Catch-and-Release, shut down asylum fraud and crippled the vicious smugglers, drug dealers and human traffickers."

•
"The Wall, despite horrendous Democratic delays, would have easily been finished by now, and is working magnificently."

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"Our country is being destroyed at the Southern border, a terrible thing to see!"

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See related Welcome (Gary Varvel, 03/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Sen. Lindsey Graham: Reckless immigration policies – Biden team has no one to blame but themselves (Fox 03/09/2021)
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Whether it is the Biden administration's reversal of the Remain in Mexico policy, upcoming modifications to Title 42 allowing for expulsions because of COVID concerns, putting the moratorium on deportations, or stopping construction of the border wall, the stage is being set for a return to the lawlessness and chaos we saw at our southern border in 2018 and 2019.

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One of the Biden administration's first actions upon taking office was to eliminate the Remain in Mexico policy implemented by President Trump.

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Instead of trying to enter the United States by stealth, migrants were emboldened by the ease in which they could simply walk across the border into the United States and remain here.

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They would travel to the U.S.-Mexico border, locate a Customs and Border Protection official, turn themselves in, and request asylum.

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They would be processed as an asylum applicant and eventually released into the United States, with employment authorization, to wait for a court hearing years away.

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Most of these individuals claiming asylum at the border never show up for a court hearing –90% do not meet the criteria for asylum.

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This led to hundreds of thousands of people paying smugglers thousands of dollars to come to the United States, often with children in tow, and claiming asylum at our southern border. Simply put, it was a huge mess.

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The Trump administration, understanding the gravity of the problem and the opportunity for abuse, made some important changes in policy.

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They negotiated with the Mexican government and required asylum seekers to Remain in Mexico until their court hearing.

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Migrants soon learned they would no longer be processed in the United States.

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No migrant wants to pay thousands of dollars to sit and wait in Mexico on a U.S. asylum hearing that would likely find they were ineligible for relief, so the flow of migrants dramatically decreased – a change for the better.

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Unfortunately, believing that anything done by President Trump on immigration must be bad, the Biden administration immediately rolled back the Remain in Mexico policy. Those waiting in Mexico are currently being escorted into the United States.

•
Barely six weeks into the new administration, we already see an uptick in the number of adults and unaccompanied minors showing up at our southern border.

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The Biden administration is allowing unaccompanied minors to stay in our country rather than sending them back to their country of origin.

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President Trump drew some tough lines in the sand when it came to dealing with migrants seeking to game the system. And the fact of the matter is what he did worked. The Biden administration should acknowledge and accept that fact instead of trying to undo his policies.

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By their words and actions, the Biden administration is emboldening smugglers and enticing migrants to come. I fear that we will soon see caravan after caravan again forming in the Northern Triangle countries and headed toward the United States.

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Cuomo won't quit despite demanding others do so: GOP lawmaker (Fox 03/07/2021)
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See related MeToo for Dummies (Mike Lester, 07/24/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
Floyd’s cause of death, ex-cop’s force will be keys at trial (Fox 03/07/2021)
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A Minneapolis police officer was swiftly fired and charged with murder after bystander video showed him pressing his knee into the neck of George Floyd, ignoring the Black man's cries that he couldn't breathe.

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Jury selection ... is expected to come down to two key questions: Did Chauvin's actions cause Floyd's death, and were his actions reasonable?

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"It's hard not to watch the video and conclude that the prosecutors will not have any trouble with this case, But it's not that simple."

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The second-degree murder charge requires prosecutors to prove Chauvin caused Floyd's death while committing or trying to commit a felony — in this case, third-degree assault.

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The manslaughter charge has a lower bar, requiring proof that Chauvin caused Floyd's death through negligence that created an unreasonable risk, and consciously took the chance of causing severe injury or death.

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Exactly how Floyd died is shaping up as a major flashpoint of the trial.

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Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, argues in court documents that Floyd likely died from fentanyl he consumed, or a combination of fentanyl, methamphetamine and underlying health conditions — not as a result of Chauvin's knee on his neck.

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... Chauvin will likely have to take the stand to explain why he felt he had to hold Floyd down for so long.

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... he'll likely say he followed his training, and that it was necessary because his experience with other suspects under the influence of drugs shows that things can suddenly become erratic and dangerous.

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"You hear on the video the passersby, the onlookers saying, ‘Dude, he can't breathe. Let him up. What are you doing? You are killing him,'"...
Sen. Blackburn on massive coronavirus package heading to House without GOP support (Fox 03/07/2021)
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... only nine percent of the Senate's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package "had anything to do with COVID," saying the bill is "not fair to people who are truly hurting" during the pandemic.

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"The other 91% is money for the arts, humanities, transportation, abortion, loan forgiveness for students, loan forgiveness for socially disadvantaged farmers."

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... there is also "a provision of 15 weeks of paid vacation leave for federal employees and then you've got earmarks in there for hospitals in New Jersey, Rhode Island [and] Delaware."

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"Plus the big $350 billion blue state bailout."

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"This bill is not fair to people who are truly hurting because of COVID, It is not fair to our children and grandchildren and future generations because they're the ones that are going to see their tax rates go up when the bill comes due."
Callista and Newt Gingrich: America needs Dr. Seuss – and our children deserve him (Fox 03/07/2021)
Jason Whitlock tells 'Life, Liberty & Levin' too many Americans take their freedoms for granted (Fox 03/07/2021)
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"I think as we move further and further away [from the civil rights era], people have taken those freedoms for granted."

•
"They don't appreciate them. We've stopped asking people to ante up. I mean, just think about JFK, the inauguration speech. Ask not what the country can do for you. Ask what you can do for the country ... now we've moved to this whole thing of asking the country what it can do for us."

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... "fat and happy and ... looking for their piece of the power pie. Our politicians are."

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... the only explicit guarantees in America's founding documents are of "freedom and the [right to the] pursuit of happiness."

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"Now we're starting to ask the government to take care of us, This has been going on for a long time, but now it's just full-blown."

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"That's about a feeling. 'I feel like I'm a woman, therefore you have to enact laws that that satisfy my feelings.' I'm not trying to denigrate or blast transgender people and their feelings, but a country can't operate on feelings."

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"A country can't set up laws based on feelings. They have to be based on facts, data. It has to serve the entire country. It can't be this emotional thing."

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"There were laws in America that needed to be changed to ensure freedom for Black Americans. We changed those laws."

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"Martin Luther King Jr. and that generation fought for that liberation ... Now we have a generation that thinks America is at a place where we can start serving people's feelings ... We're creating laws to satisfy feelings, but a government can't do that. You can't sustain a society where we're just serving people's feelings, because people's feelings are irrational."
Cuomo sexual harassment scandal may be overshadowing NY's nursing home deaths, some critics worry (Fox 03/07/2021)
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State officials now estimate that more than 15,000 residents of New York's nursing homes and long-term-care facilities may have died of the coronavirus — a much larger number than the 6,400 estimate state officials previously reported...

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"Cuomo should face impeachment & calls to resign because 15,000 people died in nursing homes while he helped his donor shield nursing home execs from legal consequences & withheld casualty data."

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Some critics claimed the nursng home scandal wasn't receiving the proper level of attention compared to the sexual harassment scandal.

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I didn't see ‘Taken down by a sex scandal' outperforming ‘Killed thousands of elderly Americans in nursing homes,'...

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"... I didn't see ‘Taken down by a sex scandal' outperforming ‘Killed thousands of elderly Americans in nursing homes'..."

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"The Democrats are going to kick Cuomo out of office for sexual harassment, not the avoidable death of 15,000 senior citizens."

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Sen. Josh Hawley: Democrats' policies have forced American workers to compete with 'slave labor' (Fox 03/05/2021)
•
"Working folks, communities have suffered as the jobs are shipped off to China and shipped overseas to the lowest bidder."

•
"Look at how Donald Trump grew the party and made it the most racially diverse in [terms of] numbers of votes. How did he do it? He focused on the concerns of the working people."

•
"We have to be the party of working folks and be the party to get jobs back, of new opportunities."

•
"If we are not the party of working people, we won't have a future as a party. That is what Donald Trump shown us and that is path forward."

•
"We need policies to bring jobs back to this country. Immigration is another one. We need to quit prioritizing illegal immigrants over American workers. We need a pro-job, pro-worker policy in this country."
Trump tears into Biden for 'spiraling tsunami' at the border, amid spike in migrant numbers (Fox 03/05/2021)
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"Our border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden."

•
"Our great Border Patrol and ICE agents have been disrespected, demeaned, and mocked by the Biden Administration. A mass incursion into the country by people who should not be here is happening on an hourly basis, getting worse by the minute."

•
"The spiraling tsunami at the border is overwhelming local communities, depleting budgets, crowding hospitals, and taking jobs from legal American workers."

•
"When I left office, we had achieved the most secure border in our country's history. Under Biden, it will soon be worse, more dangerous, and more out of control than ever before. He has violated his oath of office to uphold our Constitution and enforce our laws."

•
"The Remain in Mexico Policy was incredible, but immediately abandoned by Biden, probably because it worked so well. Likewise, our Safe Third Agreements in Central America were extraordinarily successful, so Biden foolishly ditched them too."

•
Trump ... called on Biden's administration to "act immediately to end the border nightmare that they have unleashed onto our Nation."

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"Keep illegal immigration, crime, and the China Virus out of our country!"

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Welcome (Gary Varvel, 03/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Canceled by Amazon: Clarence Thomas, Michael Brown documentaries, books on gender top growing list (Fox 03/04/2021)
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In recent memory Amazon has removed books from its online store, used its web services to deplatform a social media app popular with conservatives an even blocked a film about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from its streaming service.

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Here are some of the examples so far: "Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words"*

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The documentary about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas vanished from Amazon's streaming service during Black History Month.

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The film, which chronicles Thomas' journey from "the depths of poverty" to the Supreme Court and everything in between, features archival footage of then-Sen. Joe Biden grilling Anita Hill during the infamous confirmation hearings.

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"When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment"

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"When Harry Became Sally," which had previously been on Amazon's bestseller list, aimed to provide "thoughtful answers to questions arising from our transgender moment" and offered a "a balanced approach to public policy on gender identity, and a sober assessment of the human costs of getting human nature wrong."

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A search of Amazon for "When Harry Became Sally" doesn't find Anderson's book, instead suggesting books with the opposite view such as "The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society," "Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture" and "Let Harry Become Sally: Responding to the Anti-Transgender Moment."

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Parler

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Parler, a social media platform popular with conservatives because of its emphasis on free specch, was booted off Google Play and the Apple App Store following the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Soon after, Amazon Web Services disconnected Parler from its servers with just 24 hours notice.

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"Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns"

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The former New York Times reporter quickly launched a protest on Twitter, calling the move "outrageous censorship from a company that gained hugely from lockdown" as millions were forced to shop online. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and other prominent journalists defended Berenson, and Amazon eventually allowed the book to be sold on its platform. It became the No. 1 best seller in Amazon's Kindle Store once the online retailer allowed it to be available.

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"What Killed Michael Brown?"

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Filmmaker Eli Steele said last year Amazon blocked his film about the death of Michael Brown from appearing on its platform and he feels it was simply because his story "is not the politically correct narrative."

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Brown's 2014 death sparked massive demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., and around the country, helping solidify the Black Lives Matter movement in the process.

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Amazon told Steele via email that the film did not meet the tech giant's "content quality expectations" and would not be eligible to appear on the service. "We will not be accepting resubmission of this title and this decision may not be appealed."

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"Our side is not the politically correct narrative, We speak the truth... we make no assumptions, no conspiracy, we don't do any of that. It's an intellectual film, it's not a conspiracy film or anything that would warrant being blocked."

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Ads for "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters"

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A prominent conservative publisher alleged last year that Amazon suspended a paid ad campaign for one of its books, claiming that it contains objectionable content about sexual orientation.

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The book was written by Abigail Shrier, who has been outspoken on the issue, and, according to its description, it warns that ideas surrounding gender are prompting teenage girls to "disfigur[e] their bodies" with courses of testosterone.
Rubio trolls Biden over 'Neanderthal' comment, tells him to 'seek training on unconscious bias' (Fox 03/04/2021)
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"President Biden's use of an old stereotype is hurtful to modern Europeans, Asians & Americans who inherit about 2% of their genes from Neanderthal ancestors."

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"He should apologize for his insensitive comments and seek training on unconscious bias."
Texas Lt. Gov slams Biden's ‘Neanderthal thinking’ comment on lifting COVID restrictions (Fox 03/04/2021)
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"How dare him attack Texas for our policies when he is allowing the border to be overrun by people coming in here by the hundreds, by the thousands and testing positive and coming on a bus to your state wherever you happen to live in the United States of America, What a hypocrite."

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More than 100 illegal immigrants released by the Border Patrol into Texas since January have tested positive for COVID-19 following their arrival...

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"What I would call ‘Neanderthal thinking' would be Governor [Gavin] Newsom in California telling his people not to come out of their cave for a year."

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"I would call 'Neanderthal thinking' the Democrat Governor [Andrew] Cuomo of New York sending patients with COVID to nursing homes where he covered up 12,000 people dying."

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"I would call ‘Neanderthal thinking' of allowing people to cross the border illegally with COVID."

•
"We're not telling people not to wear masks. We're just removing a mandate."

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson explains why he was only Dem to vote against massive HR 1... (Fox 03/04/2021)
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Thompson, of Mississippi, joined with all Republicans late Wednesday to vote against the House Democrats' top legislative priority, known as the For the People Act of 2021.

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Thompson's vote was surprising since he was a co-sponsor of the legislation along with the rest of the Democratic caucus.

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But Thompson said ... his constituents weren't supportive of the election overhaul, so he stood with them rather than his colleagues.

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"My constituents opposed the redistricting portion of the bill as well as the section on public finances, I always listen and vote in the interest of my constituents."
Families of NY nursing home coronavirus victims say Cuomo sex scandal shouldn't overshadow... (Fox 03/03/2021)
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"It seems like the focus and the outcry of the Democrats in New York State have brought on so much reaction of outrage on the sexual harassment, and they have totally ignored what he has done involving the nursing home scandal, his cover-up, his disregard for their attempts to have hearings."

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"That's a bit overwhelming because I don't think that was expected to come out around the same time, People are more outraged regarding the sexual claims rather than the thousands of people who passed away in nursing homes. It's unfortunate."

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"We still want the truth about why [Cuomo] put COVID-positive patients into the nursing homes and, ultimately, the cover-up that came afterward."

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"We feel overshadowed to a degree, Yes, sexual harassment claims are very important, but when we compare that to 15,000 lives lost, not able to be returned to their families, that should not be overlooked."

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Pence rails against HR 1, laments Capitol riot prevented 'substantive discussion' on election... (Fox 03/03/2021)
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"While legislators in many states have begun work on election reform to restore public confidence in state elections, unfortunately, congressional Democrats have chosen to sweep those valid concerns and reforms aside and to push forward a brazen attempt to nationalize elections in blatant disregard of the U.S. Constitution."

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... supported the need for states to be able to set their own election laws, claiming that "voting irregularities" in November's presidential election occurred in large part in states where existing laws had been "set aside ... in favor of sweeping changes ordered by governors, secretaries of state, and courts."

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... claimed that H.R. 1, which Congress is scheduled to vote on later this week, "would increase opportunities for election fraud, trample the First Amendment, further erode confidence in our elections, and forever dilute the votes of legally qualified eligible voters."

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"The tragic events of Jan. 6 — the most significant being the loss of life and violence at our nation's Capitol — also deprived the American people of a substantive discussion in Congress about election integrity in America."

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... cautioned that H.R. 1 would only exacerbate the public's lack of confidence because it "mandates the most questionable and abuse-prone election rules nationwide, while banning commonsense measures to detect, deter, and prosecute election fraud."

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Those measures include universal mail-in voting, same-day voter registration, ballot harvesting, and automatic registration for people in government databases such as motor vehicle departments – which ... would lead to illegal immigrants being registered to vote.
108 illegal immigrants released by Border Patrol in Texas test positive for coronavirus (Fox 03/03/2021)
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... does not have the authority to prevent those who test positive from traveling elsewhere in the U.S. — and are advising them to quarantine, follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines and socially distance.
Seth Jahn has no plans to apologize for stance on anthem kneeling, plans to stand up for... (Fox 03/02/2021)
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"I am in no way minimizing the horrors of slavery in our country's history. My point was that we have these social justice warriors and vapid athletes talking about slavery that transpired hundreds of years ago, which we should never forget. But we have tens of millions of people enslaved today – more so than any point in history. And we're squandering our platform by not recognizing the real atrocities that are transpiring right now."

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He said he's been in countries where slavery goes on and has tried to help as many enslaved individuals as possible.

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"Meanwhile, these ignorant and pompous athletes who attempted to cancel me who in this case kick around a ball for a living kick me off the athletes' council for bringing up relevant and historical facts in my desire to illuminate misplaced focus and comparison to the current atrocities happening today."

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"They can continue to virtue signal because it's trendy and it gets them likes and in the meantime I'm going to continue to fight for those who are persecuted all over the world. In this case, I'm going to go fight for those who don't have a voice in our country."

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"I am resolute in this fact that the only mass discrimination in our country is that of conservative voices – whether White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native [American], gay, straight conservative. They are shamed for the ideals they hold and their voices are suppressed and I'm tired of it."

•
"That's what happens when you're speaking somebody who has relevant life experience, who's formidable in their positions as they default to that indefatigable race card. It's their go to ‘we don't really have a response so he's a racist, he's a misogynist, he's a xenophobe.' They created a monster, I feel, when they labeled me a racist."

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He said he wants to be a "voice" for those who have been silenced.
Capitol security scrutinized in wake of riot as lawmakers question who watches the watchers (Fox 03/02/2021)
Arizona State settles with student who sued school after being fired from job following social... (Fox 03/02/2021)
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"I was reading through it and I just thought it was super interesting and enlightening and a part of the story we haven't been told yet."

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"I was just trying to do A, what I was assigned to do, and B, what I thought was my job as a journalist, which is to share an important part of the story."

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See related And That's Why We Are Letting You Go (Mike Lester, 06/14/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Families of crime victims push to recall LA DA Gascon, calling his policies a 'slap in the face' (Fox 03/02/2021)
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"I have always believed in the justice system, but with my husband not only murdered ... executed, this new district attorney has turned this justice system that does work completely upside down."

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"It just takes you right back to the scene, We were robbed, robbed of her husband, robbed of a dad, robbed of my son and then for this attorney to do this, it's just like robbery all over again."

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A gunman first shot and wounded Owen before standing over him and pumping four bullets into his body in 2016...

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The 53-year-old was shot while responding to a report of a burglary in progress at an apartment building...

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"Within really minutes of him being sworn in, he adopted a number of ... policies that really are the wholesale abandonment of crime victim's rights, You can no longer seek capital punishment, you can no longer seek life without the possibility of parole."
Trumpism and the GOP's future – how will the deeply split Republican Party come together? (Fox 03/01/2021)
•
Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States got a white-hot welcome at CPAC on Sunday and delivered a rousing speech heavy on policy. It was all good.

•
Yet the larger question of how to square the circle of unity in a now deeply split Republican Party remains unanswered.

•
Trump Republicans clearly understand that without fair trade, American jobs and factories will continue to be America's number one export. Without secure borders, America's blue-collar workers, particularly in low-paying occupations which require the least amount of formal education, will continue to sweat and toil in a Hobbesian world of stagnant wages.

•
On the other hand, traditional Republicanism is an ideology largely financially supported by large donations from the kind of corporate interests that benefit from offshoring American jobs to the sweatshops and pollution havens of the world.

•
Many of these corporate interests likewise benefit in their domestic production facilities from harnessing the cheap labor of illegal immigrants, a source of labor supply at the marginalized margin which has the added benefit of depressing real wages of American citizens and thereby boosting bottom lines.

•
Of course, it was Donald Trump that ripped the Band-Aid off what has been a festering free trade and open borders wound for America's working classes for decades.

•
While it certainly didn't hurt to have evangelical Christians and Second Amendment enthusiasts embrace Trump for his pro-life and pro-gun policies, it was Donald Trump's position on fair trade, and to only a slightly lesser extent his position on secure borders, that closed the deal in 2016 by toppling the Democrat's Blue Wall.

•
As POTUS 45 said Sunday: "We believe in standing up to China, shutting down outsourcing, bringing back our factories and supply chains, and ensuring that America, not China dominates the future of the world."

•
Surely even Traditional Republicans can unify around that.
Jordan calls on Nadler to hold House Judiciary hearing on 'dangerous trend' of 'cancel culture' (Fox 03/01/2021)
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"The wave of cancel culture spreading the nation is a serious threat to fundamental free speech rights in the United States."

•
"From newsrooms to college campuses to social media giants, we have seen a dangerous trend toward silencing and censoring certain political speech."

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"As the committee entrusted with upholding the Constitution and our fundamental liberties, our first full committee hearing for the 117th Congress must examine this cancel culture sweeping America."

•
... the First Amendment, which "guarantees to all Americans the right to speak freely," has "allowed our country to develop and maintain a political discourse fueled by the free exchange of ideas."

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"This freedom has empowered risk-takers and innovators. It has shaped bold new ideas and given us a prosperous democracy, Quite simply, it has made the United States the envy of the world."

•
... in the current climate, "our shared commitment to free speech principles is eroding under demands for the censorship and silencing of certain speech."

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"Cancel culture is a dangerous phenomenon whether you agree or disagree with the views being censored, Our society must always promote the free exchange of ideas, not cancel the ideas with which we disagree."

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... warned that "if cancel culture continues unchallenged, it is not just the unpopular or controversial viewpoints that are at risk."

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"Every viewpoint and every idea — whether widely accepted now or not — runs the risk of eventually falling into disfavor with the ever-changing standards of cancel culture."

•
... cancel culture's "long-term consequences to our democracy and constitutional framework are serious and substantial."

•
"We must fight this trend before it is too late, There is no better issue on which Republicans and Democrats can work together to address in our first full committee hearing than to address the scourge of cancel culture in the United States."

•
Trump also spoke at CPAC, and addressed cancel culture. "For the next four years, the brave Republicans in this room will be at the heart of the effort to oppose the radical Democrats, the fake news media and their toxic cancel culture."

•
"And I want you to know that I am going to continue to fight right by your side. We will do what we have done right from the beginning which is to win."

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Unabomber II (Mike Shelton, 01/19/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related And That's Why We Are Letting You Go (Mike Lester, 06/14/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Seth Jahn eviscerates US Soccer's decision to remove him from council, reveals death threats (Fox 03/01/2021)
•
Hours after he was removed, Jahn wrote a statement saying he wouldn't apologize and that his words were not a reflection on U.S. Soccer or the U.S. Extended Teams.

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"I will never apologize for the statements I made, and will never bow down to the mob mentality of intimidation, bullying or the social media warrior's gestapo tactics. I'm embarrassed to represent a hypocritical federation that conducts a complete assault on diversity of thought without even seeking clarifying statements from me in their smear campaign. I'm embarrassed at the cowardice of so-called friends who bent over to the mob, knowing very well the quality of my character, in order to preserve their own image."

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"The overwhelmingly (sic) support I received from a number of people within the federation compared to the 30+ death threats I received from the insignificant rabid key board warriors was appreciated, but I implore you to speak publicly in your support in the future for those bold enough to challenge the status quo and not just privately. Nothing I said was racist and I've done more for people of color all over this planet at risk of my own life throughout the entirety of my 17 year career than the entire athletes counsel (sic) have done cumulatively, and I will continue to do so."

•
"The one point I will clarify is that when I stated that a small percentage of people in our country are responsible for the terrors of slavery hundreds of years ago, of which 400,000+ men died to abolish under our nation's flag, I was in no way minimizing the horrors of slavery, I was simply illuminating the misplaced rage and squandered opportunities to bring to light the tens of millions of people who are enslaved TODAY ... more so than any point in history. Persecuted people who I readily put my life on the line to recover from the predacious dregs who prey on them. I welcome any and all respectful debates void of emotion, and will gladly have an open dialogue publicly within (sic) anyone who was brace enough to place unwarranted labels on me from the safety of their mobile device."

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Jahn is a forward on the 7-a-side team but before that he was in the U.S. Army. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan three times and was injured in 2010.
Investigating Cuomo – sorry, governor, but here's why you don't get to run this probe (Fox 03/01/2021)
•
Calls for impeachment are growing louder over the horrific 15,000 nursing-home deaths and Cuomo's effort to hide them from the public and the FBI.

•
Even louder are the calls from both Democrats and Republicans for him either to resign or face an independent probe into the harassment claims.

•
The crises share common roots: Cuomo centralized power like no governor in modern times and came to see himself as untouchable.

•
When the Legislature granted him emergency power early in the pandemic, he used it to fight critics as well as the virus.

•
The clamor against him has been slow to build largely because New York is run exclusively by Dems, most of whom would have instantly called for Cuomo's head if he were a Republican.

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Their hesitancy is also owing to the governor's reputation for taking retribution on even the mildest critics.

•
Strictly speaking, Cuomo doesn't have a political problem. His chief flaw is akin to the Achilles heel of his former friend Donald Trump. It's his personality, stupid.

•
He was riding high at the start of his third term and then came the pandemic. He initially downplayed the possible effects, but soon pivoted into an arbitrary command-and-control approach.

•
On March 25, his office quietly issued the disastrous order that forced nursing homes to accept infected COVID-19 patients being discharged from hospitals.

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The order, which contradicted federal guidelines calling for isolation and testing, gave nursing homes no grounds for refusing patients and barred them from asking if the patients were COVID-positive.

•
Despite his absurd defense, Cuomo's actions showed he knew the order was a deadly mistake. He withdrew it in May and, as the bodies piled up, secretly changed the way his office reported fatalities.

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The magnitude of the coverup turned out to be breathtaking. In days, the total deaths in nursing homes and similar facilities surged from 8,700 to more than 15,000.

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Then, in a flash, the bombshell allegations of sexual harassment became public. Both women claim the governor abused his power to try to seduce them.

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See related A Deity (Mike Shelton, 01/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump slams 'establishment' Republicans McConnell, Cheney in CPAC speech (Fox 03/01/2021)
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"Now more than ever is the time for tough, strong and energetic Republican leaders who have spines of steel," Trump said in his first public address since leaving office.

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"We cannot have leaders who show more passion for condemning their fellow Americans than they have ever shown for standing up to Democrats, the media and the radicals who want to turn America into a socialist country."

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"The Republican party is united," Trump said. "The only division is between a handful of Washington, D.C., establishment political hacks and everybody else all over the country."

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"Instead of attacking me and more importantly the voters of our movement, top establishment Republicans in Washington should be spending their energy in opposing Biden, Pelosi, Schumer and the Democrats."

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Trump accused the members of Congress who voted to impeach him or convict him of the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection of being "grandstanders." The CPAC crowd booed as he named those members.

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"That's why I am announcing that I will be actively working to elect strong, smart and tough Republican leaders, We want Republican leaders who are loyal to the voters and who will vote proudly for the vision that I've laid out today."

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"I don't think we have to blindly support, you know, establishment candidates that don't do anything,' Trump Jr. said. " I think that's a mistake and I think we've seen too much of that from the establishment, where they blindly throw cash, time, money and energy to help failing candidates who have no charisma, no personality, no political chops, get over the line simply because they've been there a few years."
Trump says he requested 10K National Guard troops at Capitol on day of riot (Fox 03/01/2021)
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Trump told ... that his team alerted the Department of Defense days before the rally that crowds might be larger than anticipated and 10,000 national guardsmen should be ready to deploy.

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He said that — from what he understands — the warning was passed along to leaders at the Capitol, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — and he heard that the request was rejected because these leaders did not like the optics of 10,000 troops at the Capitol.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ... that he is in favor of a 9/11-style commission to examine key details that contributed to last month's deadly riot at the Capitol.

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Republicans have signaled that evidence could show that Democrat leaders were aware of the threat and did little to prevent the Jan. 6 attack.

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Trump told ... that contrary to reports that have been circulating, he was not watching the riot in real-time and only began following the events later on when he heard about the chaos.

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Trump said he hated to see the riot but compared it to unrest that occurred in cities like Portland and Seattle. "I hate to see any of that, but it is a double standard."
Trump uses CPAC speech to tear into Biden on border crisis, says he won't create new party (Fox 02/28/2021)
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Former President Donald Trump on Sunday tore into President Biden on issues ranging from the brewing crisis at the border to foreign policy — while mapping out what he believes is the future of the conservative movement, and pledging not to create a new party.

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"Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history," Trump said, calling the new administration "anti-jobs, anti-families, anti-border, anti-energy, anti-women and anti-science."

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"In one short month we have gone from America First to America Last."

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... focused predominantly on the escalating border crisis, which he returned to frequently as he ripped into Biden's rollbacks of a number of Trump-era policies — which has in turn seen a surge in migrants at the border.

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"It took the new administration only a few weeks to turn this unprecedented accomplishment into a self-inflicted humanitarian and national security disaster."

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"By recklessly eliminating our border, security measures, controls, all the things we put into place, Joe Biden has triggered a massive flood of illegal immigration into our country like we've never seen before."

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"Joe Biden has shamefully betrayed America's youth and he is cruelly keeping our children locked in their homes, no reason for it whatsoever."

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"On behalf of all the moms and dads, I call on Joe Biden to open the schools and get them open now."

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"Your family can still not go out to eat at local restaurants, but Joe Biden is bringing in thousands upon thousands of refugees from all over the world, people who no-one knows anything about."

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Trump also hit Biden on energy policies, saying his would lead to them being reliant on Russia and the Middle East, as well as foreign policy — where he scolded the standdown on Iran sanctions by the Biden administration.

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"Leave the sanctions, negotiate, does anybody understand what I'm saying here?"

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Trump did not declare a 2024 run, although he did say he might consider beating Democrats "for a third time" — in reference to his claim that he won the 2020 election. Biden won the Electoral College 306-232.

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"We are not starting new parties, they kept saying 'he's going to start a brand new party' we have the Republican Party, it's going to unite and be stronger than ever before — I am not starting a new party, that was fake news."

•
While promising unity, he targeted by name a number of Republicans who had opposed him or voted for him to be impeached.

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Names included Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., — who he called a "warmonger."

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"We cannot have leaders who show more passion for condemning their fellow Americans than they ever have for standing up to Democrats, the media and the radicals who want to turn America into a socialist country."

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"The mission of our movement and the Republican Party must be to create a future of good jobs, strong families, safe communities, a vibrant culture and a great nation for all Americans and that's what we are creating."

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... called for "comprehensive election reform" and for conservative to work to break up Big Tech monopolies.

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"Republicans and conservatives must open up our platforms and repeal section 230 liability protections — and if the federal government refuses to act, then every state in the union, where we have the votes...Big Tech giants like Google and Facebook must be punished with sanctions whenever they silence conservative voices."

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... predicted that a "Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House."
Trump delivers much-anticipated speech at CPAC, after winning 2024 straw poll (Fox 02/28/2021)
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His speech was preceded by the CPAC straw poll, which polled attendees about who they would see on the ballot.

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Attendees overwhelmingly chose Trump for a 2024 run, while voting for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a separate poll for if Trump did not throw his hat in the ring.
Rep. Andy Biggs: Fight for election integrity – here's how Americans can defeat Democrats' HR1 (Fox 02/28/2021)
•
While the Biden administration is as busy as beavers killing American jobs with the Keystone pipeline cancellation and then opening the southern border and allowing thousands to enter our country daily without vetting or COVID testing, the administration and its Democrat congressional allies remain focused on their main objective: nationalization of American elections.

•
They hope to make America a one-party nation. They want to squelch opposition and dissent. They want to make elections irrelevant. They prefer that all power and control reside in the Democrat party and in Washington, D.C.

•
The Leftists, who are authoritarians with a DNA that leans toward tyranny, believe that loading up the nation with unskilled workers from underdeveloped nations will provide Democrats with voters.

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While Congress is doing very little, except trying to remove from office President Trump – after he had already left office – and watching President Biden rule by executive order instead of governing, Democrats are focusing on their capture of the election apparatus.

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Besides giving the uni-party in the swamp power, funding politicians with taxpayer dollars, and preventing the use of voter identification laws, Democrats will permit ballot harvesting and mandate nationwide mail-in balloting. Democrats are so enamored of power that they want to legalize cheating in elections.

•
If that isn't enough for you, they want 16-year-olds to be able to register to vote, as well as felons in prison (don't worry, they want to let all of them out of prison), and illegal aliens. What could possibly go wrong?

•
While most of the country has some doubt as to the integrity of our elections, the Democrats want to ensure that we never have an honest election again.

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It is a dubious path on which they wish to embark, and if we do not stop it again, it will become increasingly difficult to depart to a better road that actually restores trust in American elections.

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While we watch the Biden administration and its congressional cronies try to reroute our American dream, be vigilant to their underlying goal of maintaining power by the takeover of our elections.

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See related Democrat Knee (Sean Delonas, 05/31/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Dreamer (Glenn McCoy, 09/15/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Leading the Caravan (Sean Delonas, 10/22/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden's $1.9T coronavirus relief bill is 'Trojan horse,' will use as 'slush fund' to buy votes (Fox /20)
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"This is a slush fund in order to buy votes that Biden can use over the next four years, It's a Trojan horse with $2 trillion in it so they can build things like a goofy high-speed rail that they haven't even completed."
Rep. Lauren Boebert had this response to MSNBC host comparing her gun display to Osama... 2/27/21 (Fox s:/en/2022)
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"I'm not bowing down to this cancel mob, I'm here to represent the American people. I'm here to represent the people of Colorado's 3rd District, and I promised them that I'd be their defender between these radicals and the heavy hand of government and these overreaching policies. So I'll take whatever hits are coming as long as I'm protecting the people that I swore to stand in front of and guard."

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When asked if she had a message for Hayes, Boebert replied: "Well, I'd have to know who he is first."
Ingraham: Dems justify Capitol lockdown with ‘vague warnings’ about ‘terrible people’ (Fox 02/27/2021)
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"While Democrats insist on serious fencing and barricades around their place of work, they're throwing open our southern border so any migrant, any criminal, or frankly any terrorist who wants to illegally cross the southern border, can essentially waltz right in now."

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"But any American, who just wants to bring their family to visit the capital and speak with his representative is treated like a terrorist."

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Democrat leaders Pelosi and Schumer ... are using the January 6 Capitol Hill riots to stoke the fears of Americans in order to "solidify their grip on power."

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"Those barricades and fences, assault vehicles and troops, are what you could be facing next year if you attend an anti-lockdown or a pro-second Amendment rally, You'll be the next suspect in their domestic terror drama."

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"Every opportunity, from now on, GOP members of Congress have to start asking members of the Biden administration whether they believe that China or Trump is a bigger threat to America." ... "Is it the CCP or the GOP and its supporters that we should be worried about?"
The five biggest moments of CPAC's first full day of events (Fox 02/26/2021)
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"The Republican Party is not the party just of the country clubs. The Republican Party is the party of steelworkers and construction workers and pipeline workers and taxi cab drivers and cops and firefighters, and waiters and waitresses and the men and women with callouses on their hands who are working for this country. That is our party and these deplorables are here to stay," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said to loud cheers...

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"Let me tell you this right now: Donald J. Trump ain't goin' anywhere," Cruz said to a standing ovation.

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"Speaking of people who should lose primaries, if Liz Cheney were on this stage today she'd get booed off of it. The leadership of our party is not found in Washington, D.C.," Rep. Matt Gaetz told the crowd.

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"Now, the fake news media and their allies in Silicon Valley made Governor Cuomo out to be some iconic cross between King David and Tom Brady — What a big lie that turned out to be," Gaetz remarked.

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"Meanwhile, they were 'stripping' Granny out of the COVID ward at the hospital and tossing her in the nursing home in just enough time to infect everybody and then go back to the hospital so that deaths could be recategorized for politics."

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Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., the youngest House member at 25, told the crowd that "brutal and vicious Democrats" want to turn the U.S. into a "Communist ash heap."

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... U.S. is "walking down a road very near socialism. They are trying to turn this country into a Communist ash heap. It is not enough take on the status quo and say, I'll just patiently wait for my time."

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"It is time to stand up and say we are no longer just going to react to what the Democrats do when they try to when they try to do all of these major spending bills."

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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark... "Conservatives should never apologize for backing the blue, Whether it's a child mob at The New York Times or a social media mob or an actual mob in our streets, we will never bend the knee to a politically correct mob ever."

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The Missouri Republican said he'd brought forth an objection to Pennsylvania's electoral votes to "have a debate over election integrity." Allegations of mass voter fraud had already been shot down in court.

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"What was the result of that? I was called a traitor," he told the crowd, "I was called seditious, the radical left said I should resign," or be forced out, he said, to boisterous cheering.

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"I thought it was an important stand to take, and for that, the left has come after me. They tried to silence me. They canceled a book."
Biden should not give up his sole nuclear authority, GOP lawmakers say (Fox 02/25/2021)
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"Democrats' dangerous efforts suggesting a restructuring of our nuclear command and control process will undermine American security, as well as the security of our allies."

•
"These proposals, if enacted, would leave Americans vulnerable, destabilize the nuclear balance, and shake our allies' confidence in the nuclear umbrella."

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"The ability to take action during an attack is imperative to deterring a preemptive strike from our adversaries. America should never adopt policies or create bureaucratic impediments that would give our adversaries an advantage."
Anti-Trump sentiment, not science, may be behind Dems’ school closures, liberal NY Times... (Fox 02/25/2021)
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"Many Democrats seemed to be more suspicious of in-person schooling last summer when President Donald Trump called for it, We shouldn't let ourselves be driven by ideology rather than science."

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"The blunt fact, is that it is Democrats – including those who run the West Coast, from California through Oregon to Washington State – who have presided over one of the worst blows to the education of disadvantaged Americans in history."

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"Some things are true even though President Trump says them, Trump has been demanding for months that schools reopen, and on that he seems to have been largely right. Schools, especially elementary schools, do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission, and remote learning is proving to be a catastrophe for many low-income children."
University of Chicago students push back on cancel culture, launch newspaper promoting conservative... (Fox 02/25/2021)
Dan Gainor: Press cover for calamity-plagued Cuomo with propaganda, censorship (Fox 02/25/2021)
Daughter of NY nursing home victim calls on Dems to break from Cuomo: 'Do the right thing' (Fox 02/25/2021)
Biden's student loan giveaways – these families, students will be hurt by this scheme (Fox 02/25/2021)
•
Under Biden's plan, many tax-paying graduates of private schools – as well as tens of millions of students who have already graduated from college – would be required to pay the tuition bills of the people they have to compete with in the job market.

•
Even worse, millions of young people never attend college at all, and yet they or their families would be forced under Biden's plan to cover tuition costs for others.

•
Further, under Biden's proposal, many families with lower incomes would be required to subsidize the tuition costs amassed by students from families with greater amounts of wealth. Where is the equity or fairness in that?

•
Some would surely be better off under his proposal, but only at the expense of many others, including countless working-class and impoverished families.

•
See related Can\\\'t Believe... (Michael Ramirez, 02/14/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Citizens United rolls out anti-Biden campaign to 'fight back' against agenda, defend Trump's record (Fox 02/25/2021)
•
... Biden "did not receive a mandate to impose his radical agenda on America and we won't let him undo the successful America first policies of Donald Trump without a fight."

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"Since the Never-Trump resistance warriors and fake news liberal media refuse to cover how the Biden administration's radical, liberal agenda will impact the lives of everyday Americans, we decided to launch this project to educate the American people."
Hannity reacts to Dems' letter pressuring Biden to give up nuclear authority: 'Must be totally...' (Fox 02/25/2021)
•
A letter signed by three dozen House Democrats reportedly asks the 78-year-old Biden to renounce his sole authority to launch nuclear weapons.

•
"Now, first of all, it's unconstitutional. That's first of all. There is one commander-in-chief. It is not the U.S. Congress. There is zero constitutional ambiguity here. But second of all, what do these Democrats know about Joe Biden that maybe the rest of us don't?"

•
"They didn't propose this even when Donald Trump was president — and they all hated Donald Trump."

•
"Let me also be clear, I'm not making any medical diagnosis about Joe Biden and this is not about his age. For example, Bernie Sanders is a year older than Joe Biden here and he has way more energy, way more stamina, way more mental alertness, fighting every day for his insane socialist utopia. Donald Trump, similar age, boundless energy and alertness."
John Kerry meetings with Iran and Michael Flynn talks with Russian officials: Two different treatments? (Fox 02/24/2021)
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"In terms of what Secretary Kerry was doing and other members of the Biden administration, in my judgment is appalling and it's reckless and significantly irresponsible."

•
"What we're not used to is previous government officials actually colluding and talking to our enemies, and I emphasize enemy because that is who Iran really is. In the past 40 years, there is no nation-state that has killed more Americans than Iran."

•
... there is a "considerable difference" between Flynn's and Kerry's situations, adding that "Gen. Flynn, as the incoming national security advisor, certainly talking to the Russian ambassador is part of his responsibility... which is normal protocol."

•
Biden administration officials, including John Kerry and Robert Malley, had meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif during the Trump administration that were orchestrated to undermine President Biden's predecessor...

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Kerry has been open about the fact that he met with Zarif at least twice during the Trump administration, prompting Trump to say he should be prosecuted under the Logan Act because of the meetings.

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The Logan Act bars private citizens from engaging with foreign nations in unauthorized talks that undermine U.S. foreign policy.

•
"What was not routine is that Gen. Flynn was investigated, the investigators recommended to close the case based on no evidence of wrongdoing, but the top FBI leadership kept it open."

•
... while former President Donald Trump's attempts to set up a back channel with Iranian officials, meant to defuse tensions, fizzled, Democrats like Malley were meeting with Zarif.

•
"We don't know exactly why he rejected it, but we can speculate that Malley, who's now a part of the Biden team, was possibly telling Zarif that he should wait out the Trump administration and get a better deal."
Louisiana GOP Rep. Higgins challenges Biden 'to live without oil & gas' (Fox 02/24/2021)
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"American innovation, not job-killing government mandates, is driving emissions reductions, However, if President Biden truly believes in his radical climate agenda, then he should lead by example starting at the White House."

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H. Res. 149 begins by "calling on President Biden to immediately implement his radical climate agenda at the White House by prohibiting use of petroleum-based products and energy sources."

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Such items include smartphones, cameras, computers, coffee makers and surgical masks, among other common objects – as well as oil and gas energy.

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To accomplish the latter, Higgins suggested "immediately detaching the White House from the electric grid" and installing wind mills and solar panels on the presidential lawn.

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The resolution also calls on Biden to replace Air Force One and Marine One with electric-powered aircraft and the presidential limousine with an electric car.

•
"Modern life is not possible without the oil and gas industry, These energy sources fuel the world, and petroleum-based products are found in virtually everything everywhere."

•
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

•
"In the first two weeks, we've seen the administration revoke permits for the Keystone XL pipeline, enact a drilling moratorium for federal lands and waters, rejoin the misguided Paris Agreement, and begin implementing Green New Deal standards."

•
"The resurgence of these Obama-era policies will have the same outcome now as they did then, the destruction of American jobs, higher energy costs, and undermining global security interests. Those who will benefit the most include China and Russia."
Bongino highlights double standard over Biden using same migrant facilities press criticized under Trump (Fox 02/24/2021)
•
"For the liberals who seem to have all the answers on immigration, well, what other laws can we ignore if immigration laws don't really matter?"

•
"Can I just ditch Obamacare or taxes? It's a real question. I mean, you seem to think immigration laws don't matter."

•
"Second question: What's your answer for immigration? And third: What about Americans? Do we matter? I mean, we actually pay taxes. We follow the law."

•
"... what about legal immigrants who came here through the legal process? Should we just sideline them too? Of course, they don't have answers to these because they don't have answers for anything. They just make it up as they go along."

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See related Fixed It! (Mike Shelton, 02/10/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Hawley decries 'outrageous' Honore appointment: 'He has no business leading a security review' (Fox 02/23/2021)
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"This is a guy who did what we've seen the liberals do time and again — he blamed the police first, He had no facts, no idea what actually went on and is out there blaming the police and saying they are complicit, that they helped the rioters."

•
"It is absolutely outrageous, but if you look at his history, he has over and over again blamed law enforcement, criticized law enforcement who were responding to rioters all last summer."
Rebecca Grant: Biden, Kerry and climate – 5 dirty secrets behind their decarbonization plans (Fox 02/23/2021)
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1. Wind and Solar Can't Meet US Electricity Demand Now or in 2050

•
2. China's Not Ready to Go Green and is Still Building Coal-Fired Electricity Plants

•
3. Biden Ordered the Military to Tackle the Climate Crisis

•
4. Clean Energy Is Big Business, If the Fossil Fuel Gang Can Be Pushed Aside

•
5. Pushing Wall Street Money to Renewables
Ingraham slams public health officials over changing COVID message: 'Liars in lab coats' (Fox 02/23/2021)
Trump to claim he is ‘presumptive 2024 nominee,’ leader of GOP in CPAC speech: report (Fox 02/22/2021)
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... 46% of Trump supporters would abandon the Republican Party and join a Trump party should he decide to create one, versus 27% who would stay with the GOP.
Trump: Supreme Court tax return decision a ‘continuation of the greatest political witch hunt’ (Fox 02/22/2021)
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"It never ends! So now, for more than two years, New York City has been looking at almost every transaction I've ever done, including seeking tax returns which were done by among the biggest and most prestigious law and accounting firms in the U.S."

•
Trump said that the Supreme Court "should never have let this ‘fishing expedition' happen, but they did."

•
"This is something which has never happened to a President before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State, completely controlled and dominated by a heavily reported enemy of mine, Governor Andrew Cuomo."

•
The former president said that "the new phenomenon of ‘headhunting' prosecutors and AGs — who try to take down their political opponents using the law as a weapon — is a threat to the very foundation of our liberty."

•
"That's what is done in third world countries. Even worse are those who run for prosecutorial or attorney general offices in far-left states and jurisdictions pledging to take out a political opponent."

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"That's fascism, not justice — and that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our Country won't stand for it."

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Trump went on to slam crime in New York City, saying elected officials "don't care," but instead, "all they focus on is the persecution of President Donald J. Trump."

•
"I will fight on, just as I have, for the last five years (even before I was successfully elected), despite all of the election crimes that were committed against me, We will win!"

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See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
NY Dem says Cuomo nursing home scandal is impeachable offense, as governor blames Trump for... (Fox 02/22/2021)
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"Cuomo abused his powers to hide life and death information from the Department of Justice that prevented lawmakers from legislating – like fully repealing corporate immunity for nursing homes. That is an impeachable offense."
Tom Cotton calls out Disney for 'appalling' double standard toward China (Fox 02/22/2021)
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"Just last year they thanked an agency of the Chinese Communist Party that is responsible for concentration camps and genocide in Xinjiang Province, China, for helping them film a movie."
Trump administration deserves credit for 'breathtaking' Operation Warp Speed success: NIH director (Fox 02/22/2021)
Garland sees ‘no reason’ why Durham shouldn’t be left in place for Russia origins probe but... (Fox 02/22/2021)
•
"Will you commit to providing Special Counsel Durham with staff, resources and funds needed to thoroughly complete his investigation?" Grassley asked.

•
"I understand that he has been permitted to remain in this position and sitting here today, I have no reason to think that was not the correct decision," Garland said, adding that he does "have to have an opportunity to talk with" Durham.

•
"I don't have any reason, from what I know now, which is really very little, to make any determination on that ground," Garland said. "But I have no reason to think he should not remain in place."

•
Grassley noted that during the confirmation hearing of former Attorney General Bill Barr, he said it was "vitally important" that then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller be allowed to complete his investigation.

•
Grassley pressed Garland again, this time, on whether he would commit to allowing Durham's report to be made public.

•
"I am a great believer in transparency. I would, though, have to talk with Durham and understand the nature of what he's been doing and the nature of his report," Garland said.

•
Durham's investigation began in May 2019, shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller completed his yearslong investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election.

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Mueller's investigation yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election.

•
Barr, last October, tapped Durham as special counsel to ensure he could continue his investigation during the Biden administration.

•
In the scope order ... Barr stated that Durham "is authorized to investigate whether any federal official, employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III."

•
Under U.S. code, the special counsel would produce a "confidential report" and is ordered to "submit to the Attorney General a final report, and such interim reports as he deems appropriate in a form that will permit public dissemination."

•
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., questioned Garland on FISA, and on Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on abuses of FISA during the origins of the Russia probe.

•
"There were certainly serious problems with respect to the FISA applications for Carter Page," Garland said, adding that the inspector general had a "substantial" number of recommendations for how the FISA system "could be fixed and must be fixed."

•
Garland said that, if confirmed, he intends to speak with Horowitz and FBI Director Christopher Wray "to make sure these and any other things necessary" with regard to FISA reform "be done."

•
"I am always very concerned, and have always been concerned that we be very careful about FISA," Garland said, calling it a "very useful and important" tool for investigations.

•
Graham pressed Garland on whether he felt Durham's investigation was legitimate, to which Garland said: "I don't know really anything about the investigation."

•
"I do think that somebody should look at what happened with respect to those FISAs and I believe the inspector general has done that," Garland said.
Biden's big con – here's what president, Democrats afraid to tell you about COVID, the economy (Fox 02/22/2021)
•
Joe Biden's White House may be the first in history to cover up – not bad news – but good news. Either way, it's a con.
Justin Haskins: Texas energy crisis – AOC, Green New Deal to the rescue? Here's the truth (Fox 02/21/2021)
•
In fact, the only reason the power outages were not much worse is because Texas still relies primarily on fossil-fuel-powered energy – the very thing Ocasio-Cortez wants to eliminate.

•
Without reliable energy sources like oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear, all of which would be mostly banned by Congress if AOC had her way, the U.S. electric grid would struggle to function when extreme weather events occur.

•
If AOC's Green New Deal dream were to become our nightmarish reality, you should not expect a better energy system.

•
Instead, prepare for Texas-like energy disasters to routinely come to a community near you.

•
See related Frozen New Deal (Antonio Branco, 02/17/2021) cartoon from General picture album
Andrew Cuomo has 'got to go,' bipartisan opposition building: GOP's Lee Zeldin (Fox 02/22/2021)
•
"You know you're in trouble when you're Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat governor of New York, and you got AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and Alec Baldwin and members of your own party who smell the blood in the water and they're coming after him."

•
"His bullying has finally caught up with him and people are no longer pretending they're afraid of him, and they're speaking out. I think his time is limited. He may finish his term, but I think this is the last thing he'll do politically."

•
"The degree to which the media is treating him like some kind of hero, treated him like some kind of hero from the beginning ... We're talking about thousands of people who died because of a directive he issued forcing COVID patients — highly-transmissible, infectious COVID patients — into nursing homes, into rooms with our most vulnerable people in the country."

•
"His arrogance is so overwhelming that he refuses to say, ‘I was wrong.' People will forgive you for being wrong, they will not forgive you for being arrogant and unwilling to accept responsibility when you have that job."

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related A Deity (Mike Shelton, 01/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Cuomo nursing home deaths scandal should lead to resignation or impeachment – it's that simple (Fox 02/19/2021)
Biden administration created new border crisis 'out of whole cloth': Chad Wolf (Fox 02/19/2021)
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"We heard from hundreds of border communities along the border in 2019 where we had a massive crisis, an influx of individuals, and we put together a patchwork of policies and procedures that reduce that flow significantly. And in just a matter of weeks here, since Inauguration Day, there's been a number of executive orders and policies that have created a border crisis..."

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"They have created this out of whole cloth. It didn't need to occur. It was under control. But again, a number of these policies continue to be very, very concerning. And then, of course, the bill, the legislation that we're talking about further incentivizes folks with amnesty."
Cuomo slammed by ex-Democrat lawmaker: New Yorkers finding out 'their governor is a fraud' (Fox 02/19/2021)
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... the people "defending Cuomo are very intimidated by him," adding that he "intimidates people and is a bully."

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"They work for him. They're scared out of their skins, for God's sake. He is a person who everybody knows, people in government who have dealt with him. This is not a great secret. The public is now finding out that their governor is a fraud."

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... Cuomo's "bullying and behavior resulted in thousands and thousands of people dying unnecessarily."

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"We're not talking about a minor issue where we disagree. We're talking about people's lives. We're talking about seniors, grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers, fathers, people who never found out exactly why they lost their loved ones."

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"The governor was lying from the beginning and he still doesn't have the guts to do the right thing. By the way, he will never apologize because one of his lessons of leadership. Imagine, he was teaching us about leadership in his book. Well, one of his lessons in leadership is always to blame someone else. Always find someone else to blame."

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See related A Deity (Mike Shelton, 01/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars (Fox 02/18/2021)
Bob Woodson: Black History Month – here's how we celebrate resilience and the promise of 1776 (Fox 02/18/2021)
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America remains the most successful, prosperous multiethnic society in history.

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We have never been a perfect union, but we have always strived to become more perfect today than we were yesterday.

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And that belief – put into practice by Americans of all races – is our best path forward.
Vietnam vet, 82, fights off armed home intruder who attacked wife: cops (Fox 02/18/2021)
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A Vietnam veteran bludgeoned an armed home intruder with a shotgun on Monday after the suspect forced his way inside the South Carolina home and attacked his wife with a large knife. The suspect ... later died from his injuries.
Dr. Ben Carson: Black history is American history – and this is why it's all worth celebrating (Fox 02/17/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Why Rush Limbaugh mattered (Fox 02/17/2021)
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What he believed most of all was that America is a good and decent place and worth preserving.

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Here he is in 2009, explaining what he believes about Americans as human beings: "We're no different than the human beings anywhere else in the world. And there have been [people] thousands of years on this planet longer than we have. We're barely 250 years old and we have outdone everybody in almost everything that ... raises the standard of living in the history of the world. It's not because our DNA is different, not because we're special human beings. It's because of our freedom. It's because of the founding documents and those rights that we have, where they come from."
Rush Limbaugh's final show featured impromptu look back at his career, warning to Biden (Fox 02/17/2021)
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"What do you think the Democrat Party is? It's clear as a bell they have no desire to enhance your life — theyre taking jobs away from you."

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"This is what Biden and his admininstration are hellbent on doing. They want you to become dependent on them, a ward of the state. You're not supposed to have enough power to oppose them."

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He was informed the guest host waiting in the wings had been frequent guest host Mark Steyn.

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"Thanks for standing by today, Mr. Steyn," Limbaugh said. "We'll be back soon."
Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk radio pioneer, dead at 70 (Fox 02/17/2021)
The Lincoln Project's spectacular downfall: A timeline (Fox 02/17/2021)
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See related The Lincoln Project (Mike Shelton, 02/04/2021) cartoon from Adult picture album
Crenshaw on wind turbines: Texas learned 'too many renewable energy lessons from California' (Fox 02/17/2021)
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"A mix of over-subsidized wind energy and under-investment in gas power" led to an insufficient supply of baseload energy to meet "a massive spike in demand."

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... some wind turbines in West Texas had to be "de-iced," leading to a drop in wind power from 31 gigawatts to 6, and the existing wind energy stored in batteries was also depleted because the batteries could not handle the cold weather.

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Additionally, one of four nuclear reactors in Texas turned off "due to a safety sensor freezing" and oil and gas could not be transported because of frozen pipes...

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"Can we ever rely on renewables to power the grid during extreme weather? No, you need gas or nuclear, And subsidizing investment in wind has pushed gas and nuclear out. Now we live with the consequences."
Jonathan Turley: The Lincoln Project scandal is shocking and so is the role of lawyers supporting it (Fox 02/16/2021)
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See related The Lincoln Project (Mike Shelton, 02/04/2021) cartoon from Adult picture album
Trump trashes Mitch McConnell in searing new statement (Fox 02/16/2021)
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McConnell has said Trump bears responsibility for the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot and suggested he voted not to convict Trump on an impeachment count of inciting the riot only because he is no longer president.

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Trump, in his statement, said that Democrats and Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. plays "McConnell like a fiddle" and blamed McConnell for the GOP's Senate losses in Georgia for not offering big enough stimulus checks.

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Trump also insisted that Republicans lost in Georgia because they hadn't maintained election integrity.

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The former president repeated a claim sometimes proffered by McConnell's opponents that the senator is soft on China because he has business ties in the country through his Taiwanese wife...

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Trump and McConnell found themselves at odds in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when McConnell urged his colleagues to vote to certify the election for President Biden as Trump continued to assert that the election had been stolen from him.

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McConnell eviscerated the former president on the Senate floor Saturday, after voting to acquit him in the impeachment trial.

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He argued the Senate didn't have the Constitutional authority to convict a private citizen, but left the door open for a criminal trial.

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McConnell said the attack "was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth."

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"President Trump is still liable for everything he did while in office, He didn't get away with anything yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation."

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See related Congratulation (Mike Shelton, 12/18/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Cuomo's nursing home deaths cover up — it's time for impeachment proceedings to begin (Fox 02/16/2021)
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Adding to the pain already inflicted on family and friends of those who died because Cuomo had allowed — some critics say "forced" — many elderly people with COVID-19 into nursing homes, was the governor's callous statement: "Who cares if they died in the nursing home or in the hospital? They died."

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"(Cuomo's) executive order on March 25, 2020, allowed hospitals to transfer over 6,000 COVID positive seniors into their long-term care facilities ... at least 15,049 seniors have died after contracting COVID in their nursing homes. That's an increase of more than 63 percent from what our governor and his health department were officially reporting."

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger receives letter from 11 family members disowning him over Trump opposition (Fox 02/16/2021)
Trump without Twitter: A sense of relief, carefully controlled messages (Fox 02/16/2021)
Sen. Johnson says riot at Capitol did not seem like an ‘armed insurrection’ (Fox 02/16/2021)
Trump Jr. vows father will 'keep pushing that America First agenda' after impeachment acquittal (Fox 02/16/2021)
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"[Trump] is going to keep pushing that America First agenda, fighting for the American worker, He's going to be pushing for candidates who will do that, not the random establishment guys."

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"And we're going to continue doing to conservatism what my father has done, which is bring it from the dead back into real life with people who love this country and who are willing to go to bat for her."

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"Republican leadership will do nothing ... because that's what they do best. Nothing, Imagine any prosecutor in America was caught manufacturing evidence against a witness. That would be a jail-able offense."

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"[Democrats] are used to being able to get away with it and, more importantly, they're used to Republicans who don't have the guts to actually ever push back."

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"He's taught conservatives and Republicans that they don't need to be steamrolled, that they can push back, They don't just have to roll over and die because the other side would like them to."

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"That's the difference between Donald Trump and Republican leadership for the last few decades which has done nothing but cede ground to the radical left."
Comey email reveals FBI, DOJ made 'premeditated effort to dislodge' Trump from office (Fox 02/16/2021)
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"Not only did our own Justice Department set up the president on the Russia hoax, they did it with rotten information and they knew the information was rotten when they did it."

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"... there's not going to be accountability under the Biden Justice Department, because none of the career people there think the way to move up in the Biden Justice Department is to expose the Russia hoax. Instead they're going to be targeting the President [Trump], his family members and the supporters of the America First movement."

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"She's been charge for years, She hasn't learned how to protect herself, members of Congress, the Capitol complex. The National Guard was ready to go, why didn't those things happen?"

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"The Speaker is running out of excuses, She has surrounded the United States Capitol with a fence and a wall, but at the same time Biden and the administration is getting rid of the wall on the Southern border."

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"We now have a capital city wrapped in barbed wire, crisscrossed in barricades and it is not what our country deserves. So let's not help Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats build a predicate for that extended occupation."
'Sanctimonious' McConnell, other Republican lawmakers are way 'out of touch with the GOP' base (Fox 02/16/2021)
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"... Where's the sanctimonious Mitch McConnell, John Thune, demanding that Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters — when is he going to give a speech on the Senate floor and hold those Democrats accountable for their incitement of insurrection and their insurrection-like language? The time is now coming for new leadership in the U.S. Senate."
Parler announces it's back online with new hosting service (Fox 02/15/2021)
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See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Gutfeld on Cuomo's COVID nursing home disaster (Fox 02/15/2021)
Let us now praise other presidents (JWR 02/15/2021)
Jason Chaffetz: Speaker Pelosi, when will you answer these 13 security questions? (Fox 02/15/2021)
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1. What was your role in authorizing or denying National Guard support before and after Jan. 6?

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2. Reps. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and James Comer R-Ky., on Feb. 15 asked you five pointed questions about your role in Jan. 6 and your preservation and compliance with document requests. Will you answer them?

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3. After the 2011 shooting of now former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., what changed with regard to security?

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4. After the shooting of Republican House Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., were any changes made to security?

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5. What happens when a member of Congress' life is threatened? How are they expected to protect themselves?

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6. In 2018, $25,000 was allocated to each Member's Reimbursement Allowance (MRA) for security. Did that work?

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7. Do you have enough cameras in the public spaces inside and outside the Capitol?

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8. Why can't law enforcement secure doors in the Capitol and why isn't there bulletproof glass?

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9. Why were known COVID-infected members allowed on the grounds of the Capitol?

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10. You insisted members should be fined $5,000 if they failed to pass through metal detectors. Should you be fined for not passing through the metal detector?

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11. You said the enemy is within. What did you mean and who specifically are you afraid of in Congress?

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12. How do you respond to the Feb. 1 letter from former Capitol Police Chief Sund?

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13. Your own home was vandalized this year on Jan.y 1. Yet nobody was arrested. The San Francisco Police Department was quoted saying, "Unidentified suspect(s) had painted graffiti on the garage door and left a pig's head on the sidewalk." How does this happen to the speaker of the House?
Lincoln Project founders became 'media darlings' by bashing Trump just like Michael Avenatti (Fox 02/15/2021)
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"Yeah, you couldn't find bigger media darlings in 2020. It was as if Michael Avenatti had cloned himself, and then what came out were multiple Avenattis like Steve Schmidt or George Conway or Rick Wilson."

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"The reason why these guys are booked so much is for not just the anti-Trump soundbite, but the vicious anti-Trump soundbite that goes viral. And the funny thing is, whenever they're introduced, in the way they're positioned, they're called ‘principled conservatives, forget the fact that the Lincoln Project endorsed Democrat after Democrat after Democrat."

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See related The Lincoln Project (Mike Shelton, 02/04/2021) cartoon from Adult picture album
House Republicans demand answers from Pelosi on security decisions leading up to Capitol riot (Fox 02/15/2021)
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"As you are aware, the Speaker of the House is not only the leader of the majority party, but also has enormous institutional responsibilities, The Speaker is responsible for all operational decisions made within the House."

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"When then-Chief Sund made a request for national guard support on January 4th, why was that request denied?"

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"Did Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving get permission or instruction from your staff on January 4th prior to denying Chief Sund's request for the national guard?"

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... request for national guard support and said it "took over an hour for his request to be approved because the SAA had to run the request up the chain of command," saying that chain "undoubtedly included" Pelosi and her "designees."

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... "detailed two occasions that he briefed you on the situation on the Capitol campus — the first occurring at 5:36 p.m. and the second at 6:25 p.m., both on January 6th."

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"Lastly, your hyperbolic focus on fabricated internal security concerns has taken critical resources away from the real threat, which is from outside the U.S. Capitol."
Alex Berenson: Cancel culture beyond Orwellian — this is why I won't give in to it (Fox 02/15/2021)
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Even George Orwell couldn't have imagined it: in the country where free speech first became a constitutional right, left-wing journalists and frightened media companies are desperately censoring people with views they consider unpleasant.

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So far this month, New York Times columnists have called for a federal "reality czar" and asked cable companies to keep viewers from seeing Fox News as easily as CNN or MSNBC.

•
The left seems frantic to stop any debate – about how to handle COVID, global warming, whether "trans" women should be allowed to compete in women's sports.

•
Worse, it is no longer content to try to shout down views it does not like. It wants to punish the people who hold them.

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When this strategy was used against Communist sympathizers in Hollywood in the 1950s, it was called blacklisting.

•
Blacklisting seemed to have ended. But it's back. Today it goes by the name cancel culture. And instead of being pushed in secret by a handful of politicians, the effort is loud and public and comes from the very people whose livelihoods depend on the protection of the First Amendment.
Daughter of NY nursing home COVID-19 victim: Cuomo sentenced 'thousands' to death with policy (Fox 02/15/2021)
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"With the stroke of Gov. Cuomo's pen, he sentenced thousands of people like my father to death, and he sentenced us, the families, to a lifetime of heartache, anguish and pain. He needs to answer for what he's done, so we need an independent investigation."

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Cuomo's directive, signed into law on March 25 and rescinded in May, required nursing homes to accept coronavirus-positive patients released from hospitals.

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"I don't know what they were thinking, We knew from the beginning that this [coronavirus] was most deadly to the elderly. So why would you put a disease that's most deadly to the elderly in with them? It makes absolutely no sense at all."

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"The only thing that's been worse than losing my father has been the continual disrespect that the Cuomo administration has shown us families."

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Whistling Past... (Michael Ramirez, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump celebrates acquittal in Senate trial, foreshadows political future: 'Much to share' (Fox 02/13/2021)
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Former President Donald Trump on Saturday thanked his lawyers and senators who voted against his impeachment conviction and foreshadowed his political future in a statement following the 57-43 Senate vote to acquit him of inciting an insurrection.

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"I want to first thank my team of dedicated lawyers and others for their tireless work upholding justice and defending truth," Trump said.

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"My deepest thanks as well to all of the United States Senators and Members of Congress who stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country."

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"This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it, and it continues because our opponents cannot forget the almost 75 million people, the highest number ever for a sitting president, who voted for us just a few short months ago."

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"Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun, In the months ahead I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people. There has never been anything like it!"
Trump acquitted in second impeachment trial on charge of inciting Jan. 6 Capitol riot (Fox 02/13/2021)
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Former President Trump was acquitted in an unprecedented second impeachment trial on the charge of inciting an insurrection for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, making him the first and only president to impeached and acquitted twice in history.

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A majority of senators found Trump guilty on Saturday in a 57-43 vote, but the number fell short of the supermajority needed to convict the president.

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Had Trump been convicted, the Senate would have moved to bar the 45th president from holding federal office ever again.

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The seven GOP senators who joined with all Democrats in finding Trump guilty were: Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

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The acquittal means that as of now Trump can leave the door open to another White House bid in 2024, though senators have hinted they may still try to bar him from office in a separate 14th Amendment measure.

•
The vote capped a wild Saturday in Washington with numerous plot twists.

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In a surprise move, the Senate Saturday morning voted 55-45 to allow witnesses at the trial after lead impeachment manager said Rep. Jamie Raskin said they wanted to hear from GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler during a Zoom deposition.

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Trump's legal team blasted the decision to call witnesses and threatened to depose 100 people in the case if the door is open.

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But just as quickly as the Senate went down the path of witnesses, lawyers then reversed course on Saturday. Trump's legal team agreed to allow the damaging statement from Beutler to be entered into the trial as evidence.

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Armed with her statement, House lawyers then abandoned their demand that Beutler be called as a witness altogether.
Media encouraged Cuomo to 'promote himself,' didn't hold him accountable for nursing home deaths (Fox 02/13/2021)
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"It was infuriating because not only did they [the media] protect Cuomo, but they encouraged him to promote himself."

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"All of the major news networks were showing fluff pieces of him and his family, his book. He sold a poster showing that COVID mountain and the fact that he had flattened the curve. He was promoting himself and making money off of the deaths of 40,000 New Yorkers."

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"We were in quarantine so we weren't able to see them, The people who worked at the nursing home were eyes and ears for us. We didn't even know he was sick. We got a call saying he wasn't feeling well and three hours later we got a call back saying he was dead. We didn't know he died of COVID until the death certificate."

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"From the very beginning, Cuomo does not listen to science, I think he listens to people who line his pockets and I think that this is a corrupt administration. There needs to be a lot of investigation into how he leads, why he has so much power."

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See related A Deity (Mike Shelton, 01/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump impeachment trial curveball: Senate wants to hear from witnesses (Fox 02/13/2021)
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The Senate voted 55-45 to extend the trial by subpoenaing witnesses to testify, with five Republicans joining all Democrats.

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The Republicans were Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who changed his vote in the final minutes.

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The request for witnesses came from lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who cited the "breaking news" overnight about details of a heated phone call that Trump had with GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy during the Capitol attack.

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Raskin said he wanted the opportunity to depose Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., over Zoom for "about an hour or less" to discuss her contemporaneous notes that she made when McCarthy relayed the details of the tense call that took place in the midst of the insurrection.

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Beutler, who was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in House, released her account of the call Friday, confirming a CNN report that Trump dismissed McCarthy's pleas to call off the riot and instead told McCarthy that the rioters were "more upset about the election" than the House leader.

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"When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol."

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Trump's legal team blasted the decision to call witnesses and threatened to depose 100 people in the case if the door is open.

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A visibly angry and animated Michael van der Veen said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Kamala Harris would "absolutely" need to be deposed, too, but not by Zoom.

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"These depositions should be done in person in my office in Philadelphia," van der Veen told the senators, which drew audible laughter from the Senate chamber.

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Van deer Veen shot back: "I haven't laughed at any of you. And there's nothing laughable here."
Pete Hegseth reacts after Ilhan Omar named vice chair of House foreign affairs subcommittee (Fox 02/13/2021)
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"The idea that Ilhan Omar is even on the foreign affairs, foreign relations committee, is absurd, Now she's a vice chair of a subcommittee ... This is the modern-day Democrat Party – anti-Americanism writ large."

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... recounted some past controversies involving Omar, including her "Some people did something" comment about 9/11, other remarks about the "Black Hawk down" tragedy in Somalia that involved U.S. service members and her "all about the Benjamins" quote about Israel.

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"We know who she is... Her view of foreign policy is, it's all Jewish-financed American imperialism. We're the problem in the world."

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"Minnesota welcomed her, housed her, fed her, educated her, empowered her, elevated her and then elected her, and ultimately when she sees the United States, she sees a racist, oppressive or torturous country. When she looks back at Somalia, it's blissful. Those are her words, not mine."

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"And unfortunately ... her district in Minnesota has sent more of its residents to go fight with ISIS, on their side, than any other district in America... So she's got a little bit of a terrorism problem in her backyard that she hasn't addressed. But you can ‘fail up' in the United States House – and get a vice chairmanship."
Cuomo’s nursing home death coverup one of NY’s worst scandals: Ex-Gov. George Pataki (Fox 02/13/2021)
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"Writing a book about how great your leadership was when in fact you're aware you're covering up thousands of deaths ... Then continuing this charade about what a tremendous response there was. It's incomprehensible."

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump's impeachment defense rests after three hours: 'There was no insurrection' (Fox 02/12/2021)
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Former President Trump's legal team took just about three hours Friday of their 16-hour allotted time to mount a defense for his impeachment charge of "incitement of insurrection" for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

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"Clearly, there was no insurrection, Insurrection is a term of art, defined in the law it involves taking over a country, a shadow government, taking the TV stations over and having some plan on what you're going to do when you finally take power. Clearly, this is not that."

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Castor said Trump and his entire legal team denounce the violence that day and believe the actions of individual criminals were "horrific." Still, they argued Trump had nothing to do with inciting violence and his true supporters understand he wouldn't want that.

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"President Trump is the most pro-police, anti-mob-rule president," Castor said, pointing to Trump's previous statements where he denounced rioters burning down cities last summer. "His real supporters know this. He made it clear throughout his presidency."

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Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans, however, have characterized the attack on the Capitol as an insurrection.

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"This failed attempt to obstruct the Congress, this failed insurrection, only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our Republic," McConnell said on Jan. 6 after the attack.

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Trump lawyers also argued the former president's political speech is protected by the First Amendment and his words on Jan. 6 to his supporters to "fight like hell" were not meant literally.

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To drive home that point, Trump's defense played an 11-minute video of nearly every Democrat in the chamber using the words "fight" in their past speeches and interviews.

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Trump's team painted the trial as a political witchhunt designed to silence Trump and his supporters.

•
"This trial is about far more than President Trump, It is about silencing and banning the speech the majority does not agree with. It is about canceling 75 million Trump voters and criminalizing political viewpoints."

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See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
NY lawmaker Tenney calls on Gov. Cuomo to resign for covering up nursing home deaths (Fox 02/12/2021)
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"I've called for Governor Cuomo's resignation, I think this is probably going to look like criminal behavior."

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"The inspector general needs to go in and force the counting of these deaths and the reason why you would put COVID-positive patients in a nursing home with the most vulnerable people in our communities."

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
NY Rep. Tom Reed will file criminal complaint against Cuomo aide for alleged COVID-19 nursing... (Fox 02/12/2021)
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"I'm going to be looking at filing a personal criminal complaint against this individual today in local law enforcement offices as well as federal offices because she needs to be arrested today."

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"Now we have Gov. Cuomo's second-in-command essentially on a taped confession to fellow Democratic lawmakers admitting she committed criminal activity to cover up for what they were hiding from the federal officials that were responsible to get to the bottom of this, and make sure that skilled nursing homes and nursing homes themselves learned what happened with the COVID-19 positive order that sent 15,000 people to their death that Cuomo issued back in March."

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The New York Department of Health reported that as of Jan. 27, 2021, there were 5,957 confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 in nursing homes and an additional 2,783 presumed deaths.

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In assisted care facilities, there were 160 deaths and 52 presumed deaths.

•
But on Wednesday, the state revealed the number of deaths was actually 15,049 residents in elder care facilities (nursing homes and assisted living/adult care facilities), according to a letter from the State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker sent to Senate Democrats

•
Meanwhile, Cuomo is expected to travel to Washington, D.C., on Friday in the midst of the scandal in his first visit to the White House since President Biden took office to discuss the federal American Rescue Plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
Tucker Carlson: Why the left wants to shut down Fox News for good (Fox 02/12/2021)
•
Why are the Democrats so angry? They seethed for years while they were out of power, but winning seemed to enrage them even more.

•
You would have thought they'd get to work fixing the country they inherited, as they promised. Instead, they set about breaking things and hurting people.

•
What is going on here? Maybe it's intrinsic. There's a certain sort of low-character person who becomes more vicious in victory. Power makes them mean.

•
The Ottomans destroyed the cities they captured, though there was never a good reason to do this. They did it because they enjoyed it.

•
Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi have a little bit of that in them, it seems. Imagine being anyone at their command. Imagine how they treat the staff at a restaurant.

•
They're the kind of people who flatter the boss and scream at the interns. They suck up and they spit down. Jeff Bezos is a god to them, you mean nothing.
Laura Ingraham: 'Rabid partisan' Raskin anointed as latest anti-Trump hero by media (Fox 02/12/2021)
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... recalled that Raskin was among those Democrats who objected to the certification of the 2016 Electoral College result, challenging the slate of electors sent by Florida.

•
... noted that Raskin had used the supposedly incendiary phrase "fight like hell," notably uttered by Trump on Jan. 6, in remarks Raskin gave in February 2017.

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... objected to Raskin's attempt to align himself with the interests of law enforcement after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, charging that during the summer he had "defended the BLM and Antifa arsonists torching cities like Portland on a nightly basis, even calling Portland police trying to tamp down on the rampant violence a 'banana-republic-style secret police unit'.

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"... in Portland, the federal law enforcement presence was dangerous, but on Jan. 6, it was necessary because Congress was being protected. So protecting Congress, good. People of Portland, businesses there, not so much."

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"His constituents and small businesses are suffering under the boot of COVID tyrants, 87% of the public school kids in his district, which includes much of Frederick and Montgomery counties, are still stuck with remote learning, with devastating consequences for some groups of students. In Montgomery County, the failure rate is five and six times higher than it was last year. I may have missed it, but I haven't seen Congressman Raskin speak about this insanity at all."

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... "the real Jamie Raskin is, well, like a lot of his fellow Democrats, [a] rabid partisan abusing the impeachment process to bar Trump from future public office."
Cuomo aide tells NY Democrats administration hid nursing home data to keep it from Trump DOJ (Fox 02/11/2021)
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Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., wants the Department of Justice to open an obstruction of justice investigation.

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"The families of thousands of dead New York seniors deserve accountability and justice for the true consequences of Governor Cuomo's fatally flawed nursing home policy and the continued attempts to cover it up. It's clear what's happening here is criminal."

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"We were in a position where we weren't sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation."

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"The second most powerful person in state government and top aide to Gov. Cuomo admitted on video to the premeditated and willful violation of state laws and what clearly amounts to federal obstruction of justice."

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"Andrew Cuomo has abused his power and destroyed the trust placed in the office of governor. Prosecution and impeachment discussions must begin right away."

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Freedom of information data released Wednesday revealed that the nursing home death toll was far higher than previously reported. And those numbers emerged just two weeks after the state's attorney general found that numbers released before the end of January were also underreported.

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"It seems every decision coming out of the governor's office is about Team Cuomo protecting its own image and own interests."

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"More than 15,000 seniors died in adult-care facilities, but the governor was clearly more worried about a DOJ investigation and political finger-pointing."

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"This administration intentionally withheld information from the public, from the press, from lawmakers and from the thousands of families who lost loved ones."

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"This is why closed-door conversations won't cut it. If this doesn't make it painfully obvious that we need to issue subpoenas and hold public hearings, I don't know what will."

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Nursing Home Massacre (Mike Shelton, 09/04/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Janice Dean: People 'should go to jail' over New York nursing home death cover-up (Fox 02/11/2021)
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"This is the biggest bombshell we have had so far," said Dean, who lost both her parents-in-law to the pandemic last year.

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"We had a trickling in of the numbers. We knew the numbers were much bigger than the governor was admitting. Over 15,000 residents died from getting COVID in their nursing homes ... and now the biggest bombshell coming from the New York Post that his secretary, Melissa DeRosa admitted that they covered it all up."

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DeRosa claimed the cover-up was a direct response to former President Trump's criticism of Cuomo's handling of the pandemic.

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"He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes," she said. "He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer."

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"We were in a position," DeRosa added, "where we weren't sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys ... was going to be used against us."

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"I would like to thank whoever that Democratic lawmaker that was the leak yesterday that gave did us that information because I believe all of them should go to jail," a tearful Dean told...

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"Justice needs to be served, We don't have our loved ones here today, but by God, I am here to be a voice for all of them.

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"I have never been a political person in my entire life [but] it affected my family. I'm speaking on behalf of them. It is their 60th wedding anniversary today ... and the angels won."

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See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Hawley rips Trump impeachment proceedings as ‘kangaroo trial’ (Fox 02/11/2021)
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"It is totally unconstitutional and it is incredibly selfish on the part of the Democrats who are pursuing their own personal political vendettas here. This is a total kangaroo trial."

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"You're not going to get anything but condemnation from me for what happened with those criminals at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but that doesn't make the trial any more legitimate than it is, which is totally illegitimate — no basis in the Constitution."
Erin Hawley: The recent assault on our home and attacks on my family are not civil discourse (Fox 02/11/2021)
Jim Jordan: Dems ignoring that Trump urged DC crowd to protest ‘peacefully and patriotically’ (Fox 02/11/2021)
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"The one line from the president's speech that wasn't in the Democrats' video is the line that's most important, and that's where the president said, ‘Peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,'"...

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"They left that out, which I think kind of shows where the Democrats want to go with this and what they've been up to."

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"The First Amendment argument [made by Democrats against Trump] is very dangerous... The president is engaged in constitutionally protected speech – speech that is protected by the First Amendment, the very document ... that we take the oath to uphold and they're going to try to impeach him for that."

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"How does this unify the country?" Jordan asked about the Democrats' impeachment effort. "How does this bring the nation together, which is what Joe Biden said he wanted to do on Jan. 20?"

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"Democrats last summer – Democrat members of the Congress — said there needs to be more unrest in the streets, while there was unrest in the streets — and somehow that's not incitement?"

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"But when the president says ‘peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,' they're going to impeach him?"

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"This is what Americans so despise, There's a lot of things they hate about this town [Washington]. They hate when we spend their money on crazy things. But what they mostly hate is the hypocrisy and the double standard that the elite in this town get to have."

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"Right now there's a wall around the Capitol to protect the politicians but, no, we can't secure the border to protect the country?"

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"That's what ticks Americans off more than anything else and that's why they so appreciated President Trump because he came here and did what he said and fought for the things American families care about and right now they're seeing ... this crazy circus of an impeachment."
Graham asks about what Pelosi knew prior to the Capitol riot (Fox 02/11/2021)
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... an internal document, reported last month that prior to the deadly Jan. 6 riot, the FBI office in Virginia issued a warning that extremists were headed to Washington, D.C. for "war."

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"Here's what I want to know: What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it?"

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"The whole storyline, originally, was Trump created this with his speech, Now we know that people had this on their mind before he spoke. So now they're playing this bizarre game of trying to get Trump in on it before Jan. 6...This is why you don't want to have snap impeachments."
Democrats' second Trump impeachment is unconstitutional, hypocritical, and divisive (Fox 02/10/2021)
•
The Democrats are once again abusing their favorite constitutional clause – the Article of Impeachment – as a political weapon against President Trump.

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Their second round is not only as divisive and hypocritical as the first, but it is also unconstitutional.

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In their final attempt to disqualify and permanently silence their political opposition, Democrats are abusing the power of impeachment to prevent a private citizen from running for public office in the future.

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This unprecedented and dangerous action transforms the 150-year precedent of impeachment into just another partisan political tactic.

•
The constitutional provision, cited in the Article of Impeachment, claims the ‘President shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for...'.

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The answer lies in the words themselves. President Trump no longer holds office; the Senate is presently unable to remove him.

•
Democrats claim this action is to punish former President Trump for alleged incitement of violence.

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But in a moment exposing the sheer weakness of their case, Democrats shamelessly edited the video of President Trump's remarks on January 6th by deleting "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

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... Democrats refused to censure, punish, or impeach members of their own party who are consistently on record encouraging violence by their own supporters, and have repeatedly failed to condemn the violence after it occurs.

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When violent left-wing anarchists conducted a sustained assault on a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not call it an insurrection; she called the federal law enforcement officers protecting the building "stormtroopers."

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And when violent mobs destroyed public property, she said, "People will do what they do."

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The Democratic Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts Maura Healey stated last year, "Yes, America is burning, but that's how forests grow."

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Rep. Ayanna Presley, D-Mass., declared, "There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there's unrest in our lives."

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While still a California senator, Vice President Kamala Harris urged supporters to donate to a fund that bailed violent rioters and arsonists out of jail.

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She then said of the violent demonstrations: "Everyone beware. They're not gonna stop before Election Day in November, and they're not gonna stop after Election Day...They're not gonna let up, and they should not."

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And let us not forget that Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., never faced push back or repercussions from her Democratic Party colleagues for her blatant incitement of violence against Trump administration officials, when she yelled to her supporters through a megaphone: "Let's make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere."

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Waters later doubled down on her remarks ... saying, "The people are going to turn on them. They're going to protest. They're going to absolutely harass them."

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The Senate should swiftly reject the Article of Impeachment as unconstitutional.

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This nation must not set a precedent where former public servants, including the President, can be politically persecuted after completing their term in office.
Trump War Room fires back at House Dem impeachment managers who used 'fight like hell'... (Fox 02/10/2021)
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... the impeachment managers spent hours attempting to convince enough senators to convict the former president that he incited the insurrection on Capitol Hill last month. Much of their argument relied on Trump's rhetoric, including when he told his supporters on the National Mall on Jan. 6 to "fight like hell."

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The Trump campaign account pointed to a "FLASHBACK" of Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the leading impeachment manager, who said during a 2019 interview with The Atlantic he'd "fight like hell" for the Constitution on the subject of the conservative-controlled Supreme Court and judiciary.

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A tweet made by Raskin from September 2020 urges his Twitter followers to "fight like hell" amid the Supreme Court battle following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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In 2017, Raskin similarly said, "We've to wake up every day and fight like hell for liberal democracy, not just in Maryland, not just in the United States, but all over the world..."

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During the Russia invesigation, Raskin also tweeted, "This is our Democracy — fight for it."

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Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., who has been widely praised as the breakout star of the impeachment trial, was similarly called out by the Trump campaign for a tweet from April 2018 touting the endorsement of then-Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

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"Humbled to have the support of such a fearless leader as we fight to take back Congress and make Colorado history!" Neguse exclaimed.

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"I'll fight like hell to make sure that we see this report whether it's organizing again, whether it's using my lungs, whether it's out-maneuvering with our minds, the American people are going to see this report," Swalwell told Don Lemon about the Mueller report.

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... retweeted criticism at Swalwell's appointment as an impeachment manager by pointing to his dismissal of the threats Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, received amid the bitter Supreme Court confirmation battle of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

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"Boo hoo hoo," Swalwell reacted. "You're a senator who police will protect. A sexual assault victim can't sleep at home tonight because of threats. Where are you sleeping? She's on her own while you and your @SenateGOP colleagues try to rush her through a hearing."

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Trump's team also knocked Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., who in a November 2017 exchange with another Twitter user appeared to dismiss former First Lady Michelle Obama's 2016 mantra of "When they go low, we go high."

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"I like that. But I like better, 'when they go low, we fight back,'" Lieu responded.
Meadows accuses House impeachment managers of 'conveniently leaving out' one line from... (Fox 02/10/2021)
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"There's one line from President Trump's January 6th speech that Democrats keep conveniently leaving out," Meadows wrote on Twitter. "Peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."
Gingrich pans Trump impeachment lawyers' 'absolute lack of a coherent defense' (Fox 02/10/2021)
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"I don't think I've ever seen as bad a defense team as the president sent up, and I have no idea what they thought they were doing."

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"There's a good case to be made. I thought they were going to make it. I think it's amazing that they only lost one Republican given the absolute lack of a coherent defense."

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"The fact is that to say to [74.2 million] Americans we're going to dictate to you who you are allowed to vote for is just not sustainable."

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"But on the other hand the Democrats are trying to scar up Trump to weaken him .... Trump's greatest ally is Joe Biden, and every time Biden does something that is destructive, it further reminds the Trump voters why it's unacceptable to allow the Washington politicians to dictate to the rest of us."
Sharing Seattle's drug-policy pain – this legalization plan will hurt Washington state, nation (Fox 02/10/2021)
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... the intent is to simply legalize drugs and then offer free treatment for the addicts the legislation creates. That's honestly what this bill seems to do, merely wrapped in the auspices of a just goal of helping addicts.

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More importantly, we've already seen the results drug legalization has had on the state's biggest city. Why would we want to bring that misery statewide? Blind ideology.

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See related Let\\\'s Legalize Pot (Michael Ramirez, 08/31/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump impeachment trial's opening day leaves former president furious: sources (Fox 02/10/2021)
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... he was particularly incensed with the effort thus far by his attorney Bruce Castor. Trump believes Castor gave a rambling opening argument...

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"The American people just spoke and they just changed administrations," Castor said at one point. He said the public was smart enough to "pick a new administration if they don't like the old one, and they just did."
Hannity: Democrats have 'obsessive-compulsive' need to impeach Trump (Fox 02/10/2021)
Physician slams YouTube's 'extremely misguided' decision to pull Senate testimony about COVID... (Fox 02/09/2021)
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"YouTube is not interested in allowing breaking medical information to be disseminated on its platform apparently. Terrible and harmful missed opportunity."

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"It thus places the risk of medical misinformation more important than preserving the benefits of new, benficial information. It also assumes that medical misinformation cannot be assessed in an accurate way by private citizens and thus they have to 'protect' us from ... information? Wow, is that not only a slippery slope but in contradiciton to one of our most valued founding principles as a country."

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See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Will Donald Trump launch his own social media platform? Will he buy one? (INN 02/09/2021)
Dems in Trump trial use graphic video of Capitol attack; Trump lawyers' video shows 'lust' for... (Fox 02/09/2021)
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Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a constitutional scholar, took just three minutes into his opening arguments in Trump's second impeachment trial to cue up graphic video of the mob attack that instantly took senators back to that fateful day.

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Trump's attorney's responded with their own video to make a point that Democrats have an "insatiable lust" for impeachment and that's why they pursued a "snap" process against Trump in his final days.

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"We are really here because the majority in the House of Representatives does not want to face Donald Trump as a political rival in the future," Bruce Castor, a Trump attorney, said. "That's the real reason we're here."

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The Democratic video mashup of Trump's own words encouraging his supporters to "fight like hell" was followed by graphic images of rioters then breaking down barricades at the Capitol and yelling profanities at officers, such as "f**k D.C. police."

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In the most uncomfortable moments of the video, rioters were seen berating and beating Capitol police officers as they were trying to stop the mob from entering the Capitol.

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One officer is heard yelling out in pain as he's fighting off attackers. One officer died directly from his injuries, while another 140 officers were injured in the siege.

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"You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our Constitution. That's a high crime and misdemeanor," Raskin said. "If that's not an impeachable offense, then there is no such thing."

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Trump's attorneys said the trial is unconstitutional because he's now a private citizen and can't face removal.

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"President Trump is no longer in office. The object of the Constitution has been achieved. He has been removed by the voters."

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The Senate, however, voted Tuesday to move ahead with the unprecedented impeachment trial after listening to nearly four hours of arguments on whether it is constitutional to try a president who is already out of office.

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The vote was 56-44. Six Republicans joined with the Democrats on voting to continue the trial: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

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David Schoen, another Trump attorney, framed the impeachment trial as an attempt to tear the country apart and to "disenfranchise" Trump's 74 million voters.

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He mocked the Democrats' effort to relive the Capitol riot with well-edited video clips "designed by experts to chill and horrify you." He said Democrats are interested in "bloodsport" because they have "hatred" of Trump's base.

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"They don't need to show you movies to show you that the riot happened here. We will stipulate that it happened and you know all about it," Schoen said.

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"This is a process fueled irresponsibly by base hatred." Schoen said Democrats are "willing to sacrifice our national character to advance their hatred and their fear that one day they might not be the party in power."

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See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Senate votes Trump impeachment trial is constitutional (Fox 02/09/2021)
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The Senate voted Tuesday to move ahead with the unprecedented impeachment trial of former President Trump after listening to hours of arguments on whether it is constitutional to try a president who is already out of office.

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The vote was 56-44.
Sen. Kennedy on impeachment trial: Dems want to equate Trump voters with ‘nutjobs’ who stormed... (Fox 02/09/2021)
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... does not believe former President Donald Trump will be convicted in the Senate and that his trial is a "poorly-camouflaged" attempt by the Washington establishment to equate Trump voters with the "nutjobs" that broke into the Capitol.
Mike Lee: Senate impeachment trial will end in Trump's acquittal (Fox 02/09/2021)
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"It begins with a lengthy diatribe against the former president and I think it ends in his acquittal. Look, one of the things that we'll be beginning with today is talking about the fact that there is a constitutional jurisdictional question in front of us. The constitutional text itself is ambiguous. It could be read one way or the other. I think it should be read in an abundance of caution to make sure that it's not abused for partisan political purposes in future congresses with future presidents and future ex-officials..."

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"If we start saying right now that there is no time limit on the appropriate time frame for impeaching a president, you can impeach a former president. I think it will take us to a place that's not good for the country. What we need right now is unity and this doesn't help."

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"The fact that he was still president while he was impeached ignores a couple of facts. First of all, they didn't actually send the articles of impeachment over to the Senate, thus the trial couldn't even begin until after he had left office. If they had really wanted to make sure this continued they should have sent them over immediately. They didn't do that. Moreover, the interpretation that they're using, one that says it doesn't matter when we try the president ... the Constitution doesn't make any meaningful distinction between someone who has just left office and someone out who has been out of office for a year or two years or much longer."
As impeachment trial starts, Marjorie Taylor Greene rips Capitol rioters who 'ruined' objection plans (Fox 02/09/2021)
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"The attack RUINED our objection that we spent weeks preparing for, which devastated our efforts on behalf of Trump and his voters."
Trump's impeachment trial: Everything you need to know (Fox 02/09/2021)
Under Biden, you need a negative COVID test to enter US — unless you're an illegal alien (Fox 02/08/2021)
Hannity: Democrats are addicted to impeachment 'like a drug' (Fox 02/08/2021)
Trump lawyers rail against impeachment trial as ‘political theater’ on eve of proceedings (Fox 02/08/2021)
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"Instead of acting to heal the nation, or at the very least focusing on prosecuting the lawbreakers who stormed the Capitol, the Speaker of the House and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the moment for their own political gain."

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"Mr. Trump spoke for approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. Of the over 10,000 words spoken, Mr. Trump used the word 'fight' a little more than a handful of times and each time in the figurative sense that has long been accepted in public discourse when urging people to stand and use their voices to be heard on matters important to them; it was not and could not be construed to encourage acts of violence."

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"Notably absent from his speech was any reference to or encouragement of an insurrection, a riot, criminal action, or any acts of physical violence whatsoever... Mr. Trump never made any express or implied mention of weapons, the need for weapons, or anything of the sort. Instead, he simply called on those gathered to peacefully and patriotically use their voices."

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"Conviction at an impeachment trial requires the possibility of a removal from office. Without that possibility, there cannot be a trial. In the civil law analogue, this case would be summarily dismissed under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), for 'failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted,'"...

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"This impeachment trial is being pursued solely to preclude Mr. Trump, a private citizen, from holding any future office. However... the Constitution only grants the Senate the additional power to remove a person's right to run for office as part of the process of removal from office."

•
"The allegations of other 'statements' alleged to contribute to an 'incitement of insurrection' are bereft of detail, and even as expanded upon in the House Managers' Trial Memorandum, amount to no more than Mr. Trump's advocating his position that he won the Presidential election in November 2020."

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"Mr. Trump then spent approximately thirty to forty (30 – 40) minutes recapping some of his accomplishments as President and his beliefs on the outcome of the election, including the voting irregularities he attributed to the changes made in various states purportedly in response to the pandemic, and his conversation with Georgia's secretary of state."
Glenn Greenwald slams 'junior high hall-monitor tattling' reporters at CNN, NBC and New York... (Fox 02/08/2021)
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"Its primary objectives are control, censorship, and the destruction of reputations for fun and power. Though its epicenter is the largest corporate media outlets, it is the very antithesis of journalism."

•
"I've written before about one particularly toxic strain of this authoritarian ‘reporting.' Teams of journalists at three of the most influential corporate media outlets — CNN's ‘media reporters' (Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy), NBC's "disinformation space unit" (Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny), and the tech reporters of The New York Times (Mike Isaac, Kevin Roose, Sheera Frenkel) — devote the bulk of their ‘journalism' to searching for online spaces where they believe speech and conduct rules are being violated, flagging them, and then pleading that punitive action be taken (banning, censorship, content regulation, after-school detention)."

•
"These hall-monitor reporters are a major factor explaining why tech monopolies, which (for reasons of self-interest and ideology) never wanted the responsibility to censor, now do so with abandon and seemingly arbitrary blunt force: they are shamed by the world's loudest media companies when they do not."

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"Darcy has built his CNN career by sitting around with Brian Stelter petulantly pointing to people breaking the rules on social media and demanding tech executives make the rule-breakers disappear."

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"The little crew of tattletale millennials assembled by NBC... spend their dreary days scrolling through 4Chan boards to expose the offensive memes and bad words used by transgressive adolescents; they then pat themselves on the back for confronting dangerous power centers, even when it is nothing more trivial and bullying than doxxing the identities of powerless, obscure citizens."

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... declared "the worst of this triumvirate is the NYT's tech reporters," which he said "quickly donned their hall-monitor goggles and Stasi notebooks to warn that the Bad People had migrated to Signal and Telegram."

•
"These examples of journalism being abused to demand censorship of spaces they cannot control are too numerous to comprehensively chronicle. And they are not confined to those three outlets. That far more robust censorship is urgently needed is now a virtual consensus in mainstream corporate journalism: it's an animating cause for them."

•
As a result, Greenwald feels America is in a bizarre situation where "journalists are not the defenders of free speech values but the primary crusaders to destroy them."

•
"They clearly get aroused — find otherwise-elusive purpose — by destroying people's reputations and lives, no matter how powerless, Whatever the motive, corporate media employees whose company title is ‘journalist' are the primary activists against a free and open internet and the core values of free thought."
Trump impeachment conviction? 'Zero chance,' Republicans say, as Dems move forward with case (Fox 02/08/2021)
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"Forty-five Republicans have said it's not even a legitimate proceeding so it's really over before it starts. As far as witnesses, I think unlikely to be witnesses; if they do want witnesses, there's going to be so much evidence that the president had nothing to do with this."

•
"They know that this has no chance of winning. There's no chance of the president actually being convicted here."

•
"This is designed to try to implement political pain, so to speak, over the course of a week, maybe a week and a half, and then they're going to move on. They're not even taking this seriously."

•
"Let's face it, the House did an incredibly poor job of building a case before the impeachment vote. There was no process. I mean, it's almost like, you know, if it happened in the Soviet Union, you would have called it a show trial."

•
... the trial is "designed for nine House Democrats to do two things — to get political vengeance and have a viral moment."

•
"Impeachment is a political process. We've never impeached a president once they're out of office. I think this is a really bad idea. Forty-five-plus Republicans are going to vote early on that it's unconstitutional. It's not a question of how the trial ends. It's a question of when it ends."

•
See related The Pipe Dream (Michael Ramirez, 08/24/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Big Fish Little Fish (Chip Bok, 01/23/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
George Shultz, former Reagan secretary of state who helped negotiate end of Cold War, dead at 100 (Fox 02/07/2021)
Trump impeachment is 'partisan farce,' Schumer would deserve to be impeached too: Rand Paul (Fox 02/07/2021)
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"If we're going to criminalize speech, and somehow impeach everybody who says, 'Go fight to hear your voices heard,' I mean really we ought to impeach Chuck Schumer then."

•
"He went to the Supreme Court, stood in front of the Supreme Court and said specifically, 'Hey Gorsuch, Hey Kavanaugh, you've unleashed a whirlwind. And you're going to pay the price.'"...

•
"This inflammatory wording, this violent rhetoric of Chuck Schumer was so bad that the chief justice, who rarely says anything publicly, immediately said this kind of language is dangerous as a mob tried to invade the Supreme Court."

•
"People are going to have to judge for themselves ... are we going to potentially prosecute people for political speech?"

•
"Justice Roberts said heck no, I'm not coming across the street because you're not impeaching the president, This was a strong signal to all of us that this was going to be a partisan hearing with a Democrat in the chair, who's already voted for impeachment."
Time report touts 'cabal of of powerful people' behind 'conspiracy,' 'shadow campaign' to shape... (Fox 02/06/2021)
•
A report published by Time magazine Friday has delved into a "secret shadow campaign" that, in the publication's words, "saved the 2020 election."

•
... the "second odd thing" that happened after the election was that "corporate America turned on" Trump.

•
"It was all very, very strange... Within days after the election, we witnessed an orchestrated effort to anoint the winner, even while many key states were still being counted," Ball quoted Trump as saying Dec. 2.

•
"In a way, Trump was right. There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans. The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day. Both sides would come to see it as a sort of implicit bargain – inspired by the summer's massive, sometimes destructive racial-justice protests – in which the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump's assault on democracy."

•
"Their work touched every aspect of the election. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears. They executed national public-awareness campaigns that helped Americans understand how the vote count would unfold over days or weeks, preventing Trump's conspiracy theories and false claims of victory from getting more traction. After Election Day, they monitored every pressure point to ensure that Trump could not overturn the result."

•
The report described American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CFO) political director Mike Podhorzer as the "architect" of this effort, in partnership with "resistance" organizations.

•
"That's why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream – a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information."

•
"They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system's fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures."

•
"According to Time the election was 'Fortified' but not rigged. Definitely not rigged," Donald Trump Jr. reacted. "This is insanity, but everyone should read to learn exactly how bad it was."

•
"Dear God, did they just validate what Trump was saying the whole time??" asked journalist Andray Domise.

•
"So the election wasn't rigged. There was only a secret cabal of powerful elites and corporate interests that worked together to overhaul election laws, influence media coverage, and convince big tech to crush dissent," The Daily Caller's Greg Price concluded.

•
"Turns out many of Trump's "conspiracy theories" about how the country's most powerful forces conspired to remove him were... true," GOP strategist Blair Brandt tweeted.

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See related Steal Team Six (Antonio Branco, 10/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Helping Biden (Gary Varvel, 11/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
A month after Capitol riot, autopsy results pending in Officer Brian Sicknick death investigation (Fox 02/06/2021)
•
Exactly one month since rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick's official cause of death has not been released and no one has been charged with his death.

•
Exactly how Sicknick died still remains a mystery to the public, as an official cause of death has not been released.

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Media reports have been conflicting — unnamed law enforcement sources initially told outlets Sicknick was bludgeoned in the head by a fire extinguisher, while others speaking on condition of anonymity countered those claims, arguing there was no immediate evidence showing that Sicknick suffered any blunt force trauma.

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As the autopsy results remain pending, investigators are also weighing the possibility that Sicknick could have died from exposure to a chemical irritant, such as bear mace or pepper spray. It also remains unclear whether Sicknick had any pre-existing conditions.

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In the only public statement issued by U.S. Capitol Police describing the circumstances surrounding his death, the department said Sicknick "passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty." He died at the hospital at approximately 9:30 p.m. the evening of Jan. 7.

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Sicknick "was responding to the riots" on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol and "was injured while physically engaging with protesters," the statement said.

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"He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries."

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His eldest brother ... told ... that Sicknick had texted him on the night on Jan. 6 to tell him he had been pepper-sprayed but felt fine.

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He told the outlet his brother was dead by the next night, after suffering a stroke.
Biden says 'no need' for Trump to receive intel briefings: 'What impact does he have?' (Fox 02/05/2021)
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"I just think there's no need for him to have intelligence briefings, What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?"
US coronavirus deaths surpass 450,000 (Fox 02/05/2021)
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The U.S. leads the world in both deaths and cases, with the country recording nearly 27 million cases to date...
Biden administration’s CBP revives ‘catch and release’ policy at border amid COVID concerns (Fox 02/05/2021)
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... forcing the agency to begin releasing newly arrived illegal immigrants back into U.S. cities as part of a policy known as "catch and release."

•
The move has raised two concerns. Unlike those arriving at airports from abroad, illegal immigrants do not arrive with a negative COVID test and CBP does not test unless symptoms are obvious.

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So even though officials know nothing about the migrants' travel or medical history, they're being dropped off at the nearest bus station and could be spreading the virus.
Democrats set 'alarming new precedent' with vote to boot Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees (Fox 02/05/2021)
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"Apparently voters and electons, they no longer matter to them, Hannity According to those who voted to remove Congresswoman Greene from committees, a standard they won't apply to themselves, the people in Georgia, those that voted for her by a whopping 74% of the vote, don't matter to the people who voted today."

•
"Think about that. Their votes just discounted. Lawmakers outside of her district, they're calling the shots, including many truly insane conspiratorial Democrats, the ones that have never apologized for their past radical views, anti-Semitic statements and so much more."

•
"Every Democrat that pushed the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, the lies, they should all be stripped of their committees if we are going to have a one standard fits all."

•
"Mark my words, today's political stunt will backfire for Democrats ... this action does absolutely nothing to improve the lives of you, the American people. This is nothing more than yet another political ploy."
NJ police chief rescues mother and child, 2, from icy river (Fox 02/05/2021)
Pompeo on Biden declaring 'America is back': 'Back to when ISIS controlled a caliphate'? (Fox 02/04/2021)
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"When he [Biden] says 'back,' when America is back, does he mean back to letting China walk all over us, destroying millions of jobs in places like Kansas and South Carolina, that we know so well? I hope that's not what he means by back. He talked about allies, when he said go back, does he mean back to dissing allies and friends like Israel and treating the terrorists in Iran like friends by giving them $150 billion in pallets of cash? I don't think the American people can afford to go back to eight more years of Barack Obama's foreign policy. I hope they'll move forward with a foreign policy look much more like our America first foreign policy."
Why is the National Guard still in Washington? (JWR 02/04/2021)
Trump will not testify in 'unconstitutional' Senate impeachment trial (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
"We are in receipt of your latest public relations stunt," Trump's attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen wrote. "As you certainly know, there is no such thing as a negative interference in this unconstitutional proceeding."

•
"Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations against the 45th President of the United States, who is now a private citizen."

•
The request from impeachment managers came after Trump's legal team filed an answer to the Article of Impeachment denying what managers call "incontrovertible facts about the president's conduct on and leading up to" the Capitol riots.

•
Trump's legal team responded saying that "the 45th President of the United States performed admirably in his role as president, at all times doing what he thought was in the best interests the American people."

•
Trump's legal team's answer denies that Trump violated his oath of office while also saying that he was protected by the First Amendment in response to claims he incited an insurrection.
What is Trump being accused of in the Senate impeachment trial? (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
The upcoming impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump is set to be highly politicized, and decisions by senators on both sides about how they vote are almost certain to be made more fundamentally on political calculations rather than on the facts.

•
But the proceeding technically is meant to be quasi-judicial. The House impeachment managers will have a chance to make the case that Trump did what they accuse him of in their article of impeachment in both briefs and in person. And Trump's legal team will have a chance to rebut those arguments.

•
Further, the senators are sworn in ahead of the trial to do "impartial justice" as they sit as essentially jurors.

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"Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, former president of the United States, now pending, you'll do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help you God?"

•
Here's a guide to what Trump is accused of in his impeachment trial.

•
Incitement of insurrection. Incitement of insurrection is the fundamental charge behind the impeachment article.

•
Lying about the election results. ... "In the months preceding the joint session, President Trump repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by state or federal officials."

•
"President Trump's responsibility for the events of Jan. 6 is unmistakable. After losing the 2020 election, President Trump refused to accept the will of the American people. He spent months asserting, without evidence, that he won in a 'landslide' and that the election was 'stolen,'"

•
"He amplified these lies at every turn, seeking to convince supporters that they were victims of a massive electoral conspiracy that threatened the nation's continued existence. But every single court to consider the president's attacks on the outcome of the election rejected them."

•
Trump's defense team, Bruce Castor Jr. and David Schoen, denied that Trump lied about the election results in their response to the impeachment article, saying that it was an opinion protected by the First Amendment and that his statements can't be proven false.

•
"Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th president's statements were accurate or not, and he, therefore, denies they were false."

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"He also willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged – and foreseeably resulted in – lawless action at the Capitol, such as: 'if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore,'" the impeachment article also says...

•
"Thus incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed... unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced members of Congress, the vice president, and congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive and seditious acts."

•
"Surveying the tense crowd before him, President Trump whipped it into a frenzy, exhorting followers to 'fight like hell [or] you're not going to have a country anymore.' Then he aimed them straight at the Capitol, declaring: 'You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.'"...

•
The fight "like hell" quote, Trump's lawyers said, was "clearly about the need to fight for election security in general, as evidenced by the recording of the speech."

•
They added that it's "customary" for members of Congress to challenge Electoral College results "to debate whether a state's submitted electoral votes should be counted."

•
Trump did say that his followers would be "marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard," but Democrats have said that on the balance that one mention of peace does not offset the rest of his rhetoric over the course of months.

•
"Trump brought the full power of his office to bear on state officials, pushing them to overturn and block certification of the election results by any means necessary. He pursued this agenda through tweets, phone calls and meetings with officials, seeking at every opportunity to reverse the election so that he could remain in office."

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"It is denied President Trump made any effort to subvert the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election. It is denied that the word 'find' was inappropriate in context, as President Trump was expressing his opinion that if the evidence was carefully examined one would 'find that you have many that aren't even signed and you have many that are forgeries,'" Trump's defense team said.

•
Convincing Republicans that the trial is legitimate will be step one for the impeachment managers, as it takes a two-thirds vote to convict at an impeachment trial.

•
That would require at least 12 Republicans to change their minds about the trial's legitimacy.

•
See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Pence joining Heritage Foundation as distinguished fellow (Fox 02/04/2021)
Democratic impeachment managers ask Trump to testify under oath (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
"If you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021."
Trump resigns from Screen Actors Guild: ‘I no longer wish to be associated with your union’ (Fox 02/04/2021)
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"I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!" Trump wrote...

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"While I'm not familiar with your work, I'm very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice — to name just a few!"

•
Trump ... said he has "also greatly helped the cable news television business (said to be a dying platform with not much time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among many others."

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"Which brings me to your blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as a union."

•
"Your organization has done little for its members, and nothing for me — besides collecting dues and promoting dangerous un-American policies and ideas — as evident by your massive unemployment rates and lawsuits from celebrated actors, who even recorded a video asking, ‘Why isn't the union fighting for me?'"...

•
"I no longer wish to be associated with your union," Trump wrote. "As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resigning from SAG-AFTRA."

•
He added: "You have done nothing for me."

•
Trump had been a member of SAG since 1989. His disciplinary hearing was set to take place this week.
Ben Carson to launch conservative think tank as his next move (Fox 02/04/2021)
Gingrich rips Kerry, Pelosi, Newsom, de Blasio over 'contempt for mere citizens' (Fox 02/03/2021)
Gutfeld on the media hyping a left-wing funded censorship study (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
Did you hear about that big study claiming that Big Tech really doesn't favor liberals? It was funded by a big tech liberal.

•
... having a Big Tech liberal fund a study on whether Big Tech is biased -– that's like me funding a study on how great I am!

•
So, before you see a study that says there's no massive crime wave — I'd check first to see if it was funded by criminals. Or worse CNN.
Parler CEO John Matze says he’s been terminated by board: ‘I did not participate in this...’ (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
"On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision," Matze wrote.

•
"I understand that those who now control the company have made some communications to employees and other third parties that have unfortunately created confusion and prompted me to make this public statement."

•
"Over the past few months, I've met constant resistance to my product vision, my strong belief in free speech and my view of how the Parler site should be managed. For example, I advocated for more product stability and what I believe is a more effective approach to content moderation."

•
"Over the past few weeks, I have worked endless hours and fought constant battles to get the Parler site running but at this point, the future of Parler is no longer in my hands. I want to thank the Parler employees, the people on Parler and Parler supporters for their tireless work and devotion to the company. They are an amazing group of diverse, hardworking and talented individuals and I have the utmost respect for them. Many of them have become my second family."

•
"After that, I'll be looking for new opportunities where my technical acumen, vision and the causes I am passionate about will be required and respected, I want to thank all the people of Parler that supported me and the platform. This has been the true American Dream: an idea from a living room to a company of considerable value. I'm not saying goodbye, just so long for now."

•
See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Senate Republicans will be 'very united' against convicting Trump after he left office: Graham (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
"I think the Republican Party is going to be very united around the idea that impeaching a president who lives in Florida, who's out of office, is unconstitutional."
Limbaugh slams Washington Post argument Trump shouldn't have presidential library: 'They're in...' (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
... art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott published a column last week demanding that Congress deny former President Donald Trump a presidential library.

•
"It's a long story, it goes on, it's filled with 'blah, blah, blah.' They're deathly afraid that Trump will triumphantly return to public life."

•
"Theyre not going to be able to stop this. They're not going to be able to stop Trump from having a public life, if he wants it."

•
"Who are these people to decide if an ex-president deserves a library or not? If he can raise the money for it, then he can have the library."

•
Limbaugh added that the left is further terrified that a Trump Presidential Library and Museum would quickly become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the nation.

•
"I know you have the 'Clinton Library and Massage Parlor' in Arkansas, but can you imagine what the traffic is? Not much."

•
"They're worried that it would become the biggest tourist attraction in the country, and it would."
Biden's big government approach – here's how he'll hurt businesses, workers, families (Fox 02/03/2021)
Nikki Haley hits AOC for 'dangerous' call to rein in media, says it's a 'clear shot' at... (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
"AOC is calling for a federal commission to "rein in our media," in a clear shot at any outlet that isn't liberal. Few ideas are more dangerous than a govt agency overseeing the media. Apparently, AOC never read the First Amendment's guarantee of press freedom."
Jim Jordan calls out Dem ‘double standard’ amid Greene scrutiny (Fox 02/03/2021)
Ingraham accuses Fauci, Gates of being 'apparently fine with a forever pandemic' (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
"And now we find out it was a complete fraud. The men pulling his strings are apparently fine with a forever pandemic, as long as it allows them to stay on TV and as long as it gives the medical establishment unlimited power and resources again."
BLM 'week of action' school website quotes Assata Shakur [aka fugitive JoAnne Chesimard] (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi, author of the best-selling 2019 book "How to Be an Antiracist" is "shoving [a] radical vision of race down the throats of our children and getting paid handsomely for it."

•
... a coloring book that is being distributed in New York City and Washington D.C. schools as part of Black Lives Matter's "week of action". One page, the host noted, encourages kids to be "transgender affirming."

•
"When we teach our kids to be anti-racist, when we teach that brown or Black girl that there's nothing wrong with you because of the color of your skin or when we teach that White boy that there's nothing right about you because of the color of your skin, when we teach America's history of racism, we're protecting our children," Kendi told...

•
... described Kendi as the most prominent of a class of "diversity-industrial complex entrepreneurs [who] have created a problem."

•
"They have convinced everybody, from school age on up, that we have inherent racism in every sector of our economy [and] in our lives, And then they have created a market based solution for it, which is, 'If you pay me, I will come and teach you.'"...

•
"It's almost like a form of the mob, If you're a corporation, it's protection money. And if you want to avoid having strikes, if you want to avoid having trouble in your workspace, you will pay this consultant. And to be clear, this isn't the old once-a-year sexual harassment training that everybody had to sit through. Today's version ... is a constant process. If your work is never over, to use this term, you have to constantly be bringing in these experts to come in and host and provoke these conversations."

•
"And now, they're reaching into the schools with some fairly horrifying concepts that most parents are not aware of that are being pushed, So those are dangerous business."
Hannity accuses Democrats of using same 'impeachable' rhetoric as Trump: ‘All rules should apply...’ (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
... leaders on the left have spoken in a similar fashion with few to no consequences.

•
Trump's exhortation to his supporters to "fight like hell" prior to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol has come under scrutiny, ... even though the common phrase has been used on both sides of the aisle.

•
"If this is the new standard for incitement to insurrection, then when will we begin the process of holding everyone in the Democratic Party and the left accountable for their words and actions? Because the list is long."

•
... Democrats, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have frequently encouraged their own supporters to "fight like hell" as well.

•
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., "physically threatened" Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on the front steps of the Supreme Court back in March.

•
"Based on his standards, Chuck Schumer needs to be impeached."

•
In addition, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., encouraged her supporters to "create a crowd" and harass White House employees in public, while on March 20, 2018, Biden said he would have taken then-President Trump "behind the gym and beat the hell out of him" if they were in high school.

•
"Republican members now need to apply the same standards to all elected officials. That's one way to end this madness."

•
"Should they really? No. But if they're going to play that game and that's their standard, all the rules should apply equally."
DeSantis bracing for 'big fight' over Big Tech crackdown: 'We're buckled up' (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
"There has always been the question, 'What do you do about this? 'A lot of us have thought there was something wrong for a long time but to sit back and hope it gets better, that clearly wasn't going to work. So we're leading and I think it will be good."

•
In an effort to keep Big Tech out of Florida's political sphere, DeSantis proposed a number of measures including a $100,000 daily fine for companies that deplatform political candidates.

•
Additionally, actions taken by companies to effectively promote a candidate will be considered campaign contributions.

•
The governor proposed measures to enhance user rights as well, including allowing individuals and the Florida attorney general to sue companies over violations of individual protections, as well as requiring companies to provide full disclosures of actions taken against individuals for violating policies.

•
"It's not just being banned from Twitter. As we've seen, these companies can colude, They can deny you, if you're a small business ... payment processing, the ability to use email and text. So you go to a rally that they don't like or you engage in wrongthink, and all of a sudden, your flower business is decapitated for a month because they take action."

•
"Hopefully, we can get a lot of support, Most folks do want protections for their privacy and data. Most folks want protections from being de-platformed. I think it will be very positively received, but we're buckled up. We know there are always fights over these things, so stay tuned."

•
See related 1984 (Bob Gorrell, 01/14/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
China accused of trying to indoctrinate American children (Fox 02/02/2021)
•
"It's deeply alarming to see the propaganda being taught to American students, but it's even more alarming to see the way that the institutions that students depend on their schools, their teachers, their principals, administrators, how these institutions and these leaders are being molded and shaped to accept the Chinese government's incursions and even to promote them in the name of globalism and intercultural communication."

•
"American students do need to learn Chinese, they need exposure to Chinese culture, but not on the Chinese government's terms. Confucius classrooms are an inappropriate tool and it's time to let them go."

•
"What has happened is the Chinese Communist Party uses these institutes to push their propaganda. They say and claim that this is all for language and cultural education, But what they have admitted is this is a part of their soft power and their propaganda."

•
"They want to make certain that they are causing children today to be more friendly to the socialist Marxist ideas that they espouse in the Chinese Communist party, and that these children will grow up being more friendly and accepting of Chinese Communist party propaganda or of Chinese culture."

•
The State Department recently estimated that there were about 500 Confucius classrooms operating in the U.S.

•
... "it's important that we separate the Chinese people from the actions of the Chinese Communist party, and as we know that they have pushed forward with trying to expand these institutes and we know they're very frustrated with us, that now we're requiring transparency."
Sen. Kennedy blasts 'immeasurably foolish' Biden orders that will 'gut Louisiana like a fish' (Fox 02/02/2021)
•
"Here is President Biden's new energy policy: 'We are not going to produce our own oil. Instead, we are going to buy oil from countries that hate us so they will have more money to buy weapons to try to kill us.'"

•
"It's immeasurably foolish, Most Americans support an all-of-the-above energy policy: Oil, gas, wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, hydrogen. But they also understand that we can't run the greatest economy in all of human history without oil and gas."

•
"I think President Biden has decided to adhere to the edicts of Congresswoman [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez, who worships at the altar of open borders, and I think it's a big mistake, and I don't think the American people will support it."

•
"Unless you have the IQ of a sloth, you know the difference between legal and illegal immigration ... Vetting people at the border, as every country does, is not racist, it's prudent, it's how we enforce our immigration laws."

•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump impeachment lawyer calls out Senate Dems, says ex-president has no chance of 'fair and full trial' (Fox 02/02/2021)
•
"I think it's also the most ill-advised legislative action that I've seen in my lifetime, It is tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that."

•
"Can you imagine any American citizen considering it to be a trial in which the judge and jury has already announced publicly that the defendant must be convicted in this case?"

•
"And in fact, Senator Leahy called on, demanded that Senator McConnell vote for a conviction also ... how can we possibly have a fair trial? Chuck Schumer, Senator Schumer promised a fair and full trial. You can't, when you know that the jurors and the judge are biased going in."

•
See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Graham warns Dems about calling witnesses during Trump impeachment (Fox 02/02/2021)
•
"If you open that can of worms, we'll want the FBI to come in and tell us about how people pre-planned this attack and what happened with the security footprint at the Capitol. You open up Pandora's Box if you call one witness."

•
"Democrats do not get to score political points in an unprecedented act of political theater on one hand while also trying to claim the mantle of good government on the other."
Gutfeld on the Washington Post saying Trump shouldn't have a presidential library (Fox 02/01/2021)
Censorship of Trump supporters, conservatives is 'very dangerous’: Hugo Gurdon (Fox 02/01/2021)
•
"If people are not allowed to actually express their opinions and have their opinions heard ... historically, they turn to other things like violence, Free speech is a guarantor of the safe transition of power."
Tom Del Beccaro: Recall Gavin Newsom – 8 reasons why the California governor must go (Fox 02/01/2021)
Cuomo participated in 'coverup' of New York nursing home coronavirus deaths: Rep. Lee Zeldin (Fox 01/31/2021)
•
See related Nursing Home Massacre (Mike Shelton, 09/04/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Nunes: 'Russia hoaxers' at 'top echelons' of Biden administration (Fox 01/31/2021)
Hawley defends election objection, claims Dems trying to 'grab power' with 'lie about our motivations' (Fox 01/31/2021)
•
"I think we need election reforms. I think we need to ban ballot harvesting. I think we need to take a hard look at how the mail in balloting was administered in many of these states, including Pennsylvania, which did not follow their own law."

•
"What the liberals have said is, 'Because you did that, you effectively incited violence [Jan. 6],' That's a lie. They know it's a lie. They said, 'He wanted to overturn the election.' That's a lie. They know that it's a lie. They said that, you know, 'It's equivalent to a violent insurrection, the objection you raised.' That's a lie. They know that it's a lie."

•
"AOC and [Rashida] Tlaib and [Ayanna] Pressley and others on the Democrat side in the House, it appears they can say just about anything they want to say to about anybody."

•
"They can make these outrageous allegations about this country. They can make outrageous allegations about their colleagues, honestly. They can make outrageous allegations about the state of Israel for which there's no pushback, for which their colleagues don't seek any kind of recrimination whatsoever."

•
"I think what we're seeing now is an attempt by the left to lie about our motivations, to lie about our actions in order to grab power."

•
"They want to silence dissent. They want to silence me. And I tell you right now, I am not going to back down before a liberal mob."
Facebook wants you to comment on its Trump ban. Here's how. (Fox 01/30/2021)
•
The first post was a video Trump posted as members of both parties called for him to speak out against the riot and urge the mob to stop.

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"This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home," he urged.

•
"We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace."

•
Facebook removed the post for violating its community standard on "Dangerous Individuals and Organizations."

•
In a statement the same day, Trump wrote in a second post: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love in peace."

•
Facebook removed that post under the same standard but has not clarified specifically what aspect of the policy it violated.

•
The social media giant then put a temporary 24-hour ban on the president's accounts, before indefinitely suspending his access on Jan. 7.

•
Facebook has yet to clarify the nature of the restrictions against Trump, but cited the use of their platform "incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government."

•
The board noted under the post descriptions that Facebook had said the decision to suspend Trump was "take in extraordinary circumstances" but that they believe it was "necessary and right" when weighted against their Community Standards.

•
See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Media coverage of New York nursing home deaths would be 'triple' if governor was Republican (Fox 01/29/2021)
Andrew Cuomo is the 'essence of incompetent government': Judge Jeanine (Fox 01/29/2021)
•
"New York was the epicenter of the virus. New York had the highest number of deaths compared to any other state in the union, and he wants to blame it on the government? You're the government, Andrew Cuomo. You're the one that was killing people."

•
See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Siegel rips Gov. Cuomo after bombshell report on NY nursing home deaths: Like 'setting a fire' (Fox 01/29/2021)
•
"You weren't allowed into the nursing home. Remember, you couldn't see your mother, your father, you couldn't even look at them through a glass. So, to not know if they're getting COVID-19 or even dying is the worst possible idea and that's what was going on in New York."

•
See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
New York nursing home deaths topped 12K, Cuomo health chief reveals (Fox 01/29/2021)
•
The staggering number is only slightly less than the 13,000-plus... report said data from 62 nursing homes showed the death toll of residents was 56 percent higher than publicly acknowledged by by the Department of Health.

•
More than 6,300 "COVID-positive residents" were admitted to nursing homes before Cuomo rescinded the policy in May...

•
See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Hannity challenges Biden to ground government jets to support climate change agenda (Fox 01/29/2021)
•
"Shouldn't Biden officials lead by example? Stop flying on the private jets that we, the American taxpayers, are paying for?"

•
"I want Joe to issue an executive order grounding the entire government fleet, This kind of heartless hypocrisy is disgusting. If you want to be leaders, lead by example."

•
... Kerry, the former secretary of state who has been named Biden's special climate envoy, has been flying his private jet "all over the world."

•
... went on to suggest that instead of stripping thousands of Americans of their livelihood by canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline, Kerry should ground his plane permanently and recycle the pieces.

•
"That jet pollutes more in a given year than most Americans in their entire lives, How about he orders that his private jet be grounded and ... he should have it disassembled so it can never be used again."

•
"And remember, these job-killing policies didn't go through Congress. [At the] stroke of a pen – thousands and thousands unemployed because Joe Biden is listening to the radical left that controls him."

•
See related Jet Setters (Antonio Branco, 12/28/2018) cartoon from World picture album

•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden has signed 40 executive orders and actions since taking office (Fox 01/29/2021)
Lara Logan: Biden WH 'expecting thousands and thousands of people to come into the United States' (Fox 01/29/2021)
Tucker Carlson rips CNBC's Sorkin as 'professional hedge fund shill' after Robinhood restricts... (Fox 01/29/2021)
Trump meets with McCarthy in Florida to plan GOP House takeover in 2022 (Fox 01/28/2021)
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"President Trump has agreed to work with Leader McCarthy on helping the Republican Party to become a majority in the House."

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"They worked very well together in the last election and picked up at least 15 seats when most predicted it would be the opposite. They will do so again, and the work has already started."

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"For the sake of our country, the radical Democrat agenda must be stopped, A united conservative movement will strengthen the bonds of our citizens and uphold the freedoms our country was founded on."
Rush Limbaugh: GameStop saga mirrors politics as elites attempt to prevent regular people from benefiting (Fox 01/28/2021)
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... the establishment censors or cancels anything that doesn't benefit the ruling class, whether it's free speech or even attitude.
New York coronavirus nursing home report reveals ‘massive corruption,’ ‘coverup scandal’ (Fox 01/28/2021)
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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Cruz blasts Kerry for 'arrogant' statement that solar power job is 'better choice' for workers (Fox 01/27/2021)
Joe Concha: 'Big Tech is more powerful' than government in terms of speech (Fox 01/27/2021)
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Big Tech companies have amassed more "power" than anyone could have imagined, especially as many people rely on social media platforms for news...

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"Here is the bottom line. 70 percent of adults get their news from social media. It's like what radio and television was in the 20th century. That's how they get their news."

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"Big Tech is more powerful than anybody ever could have imagined, more powerful than government, certainly in terms of speech."

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"And we're seeing it now in terms of YouTube, which is owned by Google, is now basing their bans based on ... the potential of [Trump] possibly putting a video out there as opposed to an outright violation."

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"So now you have the ex-president of the United States, who had 89 million followers on Twitter, countless followers on Facebook, YouTube views, all that has been completely suppressed and shut down by Big Tech. That's how powerful they've become."

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See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Nikki Haley: 'Good first week for Russia' after Biden shuts down Keystone pipeline (Fox 01/27/2021)
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"I can tell you [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has to be pretty ecstatic right now." ... "One of the things that bothered him [Putin] the most was how energy independent we had become."

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... also pointed out that on Thursday Biden had proposed extending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries by five years, saying it is "something that gave Russia a lot of advantage."

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Russia has long proposed to extend the pact without any conditions or changes, but President Trump's administration waited until last year to start discussions and made the extension dependent on a set of demands...

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On Friday, the Kremlin welcomed Biden's proposal. Putin's spokesman said that Russia stands for extending the pact and is waiting to see the details.

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... outlined a series of questions for Biden, asking why he didn't "sit down and talk with those governors" before halting the Keystone XL oil pipeline project and banning fracking.

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"Why aren't you using leverage if Iran is producing nuclear weapons? Why before just jumping back into the Iran deal why aren't you using those sanctions as leverage?"

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"With China, why aren't you calling them out on the human rights issues that they have instead of jumping back into the Human Rights Council?"

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"This is about strategy, This is about being smart and what Biden is showing is he's more interested in reversing everything President Trump did than being strategic in how we keep America strong going forward."
Sen. Tom Cotton: Our National Guard's Capitol mission is complete – it's time to send home the troops (Fox 01/27/2021)
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Last summer, as left-wing mobs rioted in the streets and threatened to overwhelm local police and even the National Guard, I wrote an op-ed in The New York Times titled "Send in the Troops."

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I argued that the president should deploy federal troops, if necessary, to restore and maintain order.

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My position was grounded in federal law, based on many historical precedents, and supported by a majority of Americans.

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But this argument outraged many on the left, so much so that the editor of the New York Times opinion page lost his job for publishing it.

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But when a different mob chanting different slogans threatened our Capitol, many of my critics sang a different tune.

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With the inauguration complete and threats receding, now it's time, yes, to send home the troops.

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I sit on the Intelligence Committee, but I'm aware of no specific, credible threat reporting — as distinguished from aspirational, uncoordinated bluster on the internet — that justifies this continued troop presence.

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Thus, I believe the rest of these soldiers should also go home to their families and civilian jobs.

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The lesson of the Capitol riot is not that we should quarter a standing army at the Capitol just in case, but rather that our security measures should be calibrated to the actual threats.

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The senior leaders of the Capitol security forces failed to do so in the days leading up to January 6.

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Despite threats of violence on social media, the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms rejected a request for National Guard backup in the days before the riot.

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Washington's left-wing mayor, Muriel Bowser, insisted that the small detachment of National Guard soldiers who deployed to assist with traffic control come unarmed.

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She also pandered to anti-police radicals by sending a letter to the acting Attorney General discouraging additional deployments of federal law enforcement.

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As a result of these failures, both sergeants-at-arms and the chief of the Capitol Police have rightly resigned. (Mayor Bowser, for her part, remains in office.)

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Rather than drawing the right lesson from these failures — that security measures should be calibrated to actual threats — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Capitol Hill security overreacted, egged on by excitable cable news pundits and Democratic partisans eager to portray President Donald Trump's 74 million voters as "domestic terrorists."

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Virtually overnight, the Capitol and National Mall transformed into a so-called "Green Zone" protected by no-scale fencing, razor wire, and 26,000 soldiers.

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These security measures were plainly disproportionate to the threat — indeed, they would have been disproportionate even if another violent mob had in fact attempted to disrupt the inauguration. With the inauguration behind us, the Capitol should return to normalcy.

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Today, thousands of soldiers are protecting a Capitol that is mostly empty as a result of both security measures and pandemic precautions.

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Though access to the Capitol will remain limited for a while longer because of the pandemic, it should not become a fortress because of security fears.

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... the Capitol is the seat of our Republic; it belongs to the people. And absent an extraordinary threat, all Americans should be able to see it for themselves, walk its grounds, and — once the pandemic has abated — meet with their elected representatives.
GOP lawmakers request briefing on continued National Guard presence at Capitol (Fox 01/27/2021)
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"Our intention is for the briefing to cover ongoing threats to the Capitol, justification of the decision for a significant troop presence through mid-March, and plans for troop utilization during the time period."

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Roughly 13,000 guardsmen still remain in D.C. supporting federal agencies with security efforts.

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"The National Guard should be used as an option of absolute last resort, We are seeking clarification and justification on behalf of the National Guard men and women that have kept us safe over the past month and year."
Cruz: Second Trump impeachment was 'exercise in political rage' by Democrats: 'It was their...' (Fox 01/27/2021)
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Congressional Democrats' push to convict former President Donald Trump of impeachable offenses is "driven by the partisan rage and the partisan anger that the Democrats feel."

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"They hate Donald J. Trump and they are engaging in an act that I think is petty retribution and that is vindictive and a waste of time, and so I think it's time to move on."

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... he heard the 46th president call for unity in his inaugural address, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., must not have gotten the message.

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"Unfortunately, congressional Democrats weren't listening to a word he said, And the very first step that they took is to charge down the road of a partisan and divisive and angry impeachment trial."

•
"They didn't pretend to follow due process, they didn't have hearings, they didn't pretend to look at any facts or any evidence."

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"This was an exercise in political rage. It was their id speaking ... look, these are the same Democrats who four years ago, in 2017 — actually in December of 2016, before Trump was sworn in, said they wanted to impeach him. They've wanted to impeach him from the beginning. They did it a year ago."

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Turning to Biden's decision last week to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline, Cruz described the modern Democratic party as "the party of Hollywood celebrities and big technology billionaires and the incredibly wealthy coastal elites."

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"But if you are a working person, if you're a union member, if you're blue collar, if you have callouses on your hands, if you are a cop or a firefighter ... this Democratic Party doesn't care about you."

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See related Working from Home (Antonio Branco, 03/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Graham warns Dems will ‘blow up’ Senate by moving forward with impeachment trial, calling witnesses (Fox 01/27/2021)
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"I'd like to get this trial over sooner rather than later, Hannity To my Democratic colleagues, if you try to call one witness, you're going to blow up the United States Senate. Don't do that."

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... pointed out that not only is Trump's second impeachment "unconstitutional and ill-conceived" but it has not been carried out legally.

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"The President of the United States was impeached in 50 hours without one witness being called and he didn't have a lawyer."

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"We need to make sure this thing never goes anywhere ... because I don't want to legitimize the impeachment process used in the House. I think it's a danger to democracy and the presidency itself."

•
Graham explained that on day one of the trial, there will be a motion to dismiss which he expects to occur.

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But if it goes to trial and the House managers attempt to call witnesses who were not present during the deliberation in the House, the entire process will be dragged out for "weeks if not months."

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Meanwhile, President Biden has been a "huge disappointment" in carrying out his message of unity, said Graham, who noted it would be pretty simple for him to end the entire impeachment debacle and put the past behind everyone.

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"It tells you a lot about Biden's ability and desire to bring us together by the fact that he's sitting on the sidelines and his only comment has been, ‘I don't think they have the votes.'"...
Dr. Scott Atlas fires back at Birx over 'bizarre' claim he gave Trump 'parallel data streams'... (Fox 01/27/2021)
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... to respond to former White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx's claim that he provided former President Trump with "parallel data streams" about the pandemic.

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"I'm shocked to hear anyone that thinks that they own a monopoly or should be the sole purveyor of information to the president."

•
"Here you have somebody who's a government bureaucrat for 30 years, who's pontificating in front of 10 to 30 people in meetings multiple times a week, none of whom know a thing about medicine or science, for eight months."

•
"The second point I want to make is that it is a sick, vicious lie for anyone to say or imply that I ever gave the president of the United States false information, misleading information, some kind of strange information that was concocted out of nowhere."

•
"What are they complaining about? The country did exactly what they were advocating ... the shutdowns, then the school closures, then the restrictions on groups. Did the mask mandates. If they don't like the results of those policies, the first thing that these specific people should do is look in the mirror and loudly say they were wrong."
Rand Paul calls Trump impeachment trial ‘dead on arrival’ after 45 GOP senators vote against it (Fox 01/27/2021)
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"If you voted that it was unconstitutional, how in the world would you ever vote to convict somebody for this? This vote indicates it's over. The trial is all over."

•
"One of Bernie Sanders' supporters came to the ballfield, nearly killed Steve Scalise ... but nobody talked about impeaching Bernie Sanders. Maxine Waters has said, 'Get up in their face' — so has Cory Booker — 'Become a mob, we want you to mob them at restaurants and cause mayhem.' That sounds like an incitement to violence but nobody's talking about impeaching Maxine Waters, nobody's talking about impeaching Bernie Sanders or Cory Booker for saying 'Get up in their face.'"

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"So it's a significant hypocrisy and double standard that they're putting forward and they should be called out on it. Nobody should be shy about calling them out on their hypocrisy."

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The only five GOP senators who supported placing Trump on trial were longtime critics of Trump — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mitt Romney of Utah. They voted along with 50 Democrats in the 55-45 tally.

•
... Paul also claimed that the absence of the chief justice of the Supreme Court also made a Senate impeachment trial unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts said he would not preside over the trial because Trump was no longer president.

•
"Impeachment is for removal from office and the accused here has already left office, Hyper-partisan Democrats are about to drag our great country into the gutter of rancor and vitriol the likes of which has never been seen in our nation's history."

•
"This impeachment is nothing more than a partisan exercise designed to further divide the country. Democrats claim to want to unify the country, but impeaching a former president, a private citizen, is the antithesis of unity."
Gabbard doubles down on slam of Schiff, Brennan as greater dangers to America than Capitol rioters (Fox 01/27/2021)
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"We recognize that those who stormed the Capitol on January 6 trying to stop Congress from fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities, they were acting as domestic terrorists undermining our Constitution."

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"[However,] those like John Brennan, Adam Schiff and others are also acting as domestic terrorists because they are also undermining our constitution by trying to take away our civil liberties and rights that are guaranteed to us."

•
"The mob who stormed the capitol to try to stop Congress from carrying out its constitutional responsibilities were behaving like domestic enemies of our country."

•
"But let us be clear, the John Brennan's, Adam Schiffs and the oligarchs in Big Tech who are trying to undermine our constitutionally-protected rights and turn our country into a police state with KGB-style 'surveillance' are also domestic enemies — and much more powerful, and therefore dangerous, than the mob which stormed the capitol."

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Gabbard pointed to a video of Brennan telling MSNBC that Biden's nominees and appointees "are now moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can" regarding activities that he said were reminiscent of "insurgency movements" that have risen up in other countries.

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In the same interview, Brennan likened libertarians to "religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, [and] nativists."

•
"This is the extent that they are going to try to undermine the rights and freedoms that are guaranteed to every one of us, and it's incredibly dangerous."

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"Big Tech is culpable in this that they are using their monopolistic power to pick and choose whose voices are heard and whose voices are squelched, whether it's based on who they agree with, disagree with, political affiliation, who you voted for."

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The former congresswoman urged viewers to "take a stand and unite around these principles in our constitution and continue to speak freely."

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Citizens committed to upholding their constitutional freedoms "need to urge President Biden and every member of Congress how critical it is they take a stand and denounce the likes of John Brennan and Adam Schiff's actions.

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"If we do not and if they do not, then this country that we love and cherish will no longer exist."

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See related Torquemada (Antonio Branco, 01/21/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Rubio doubles down on criticism of Trump impeachment trial: 'It's not even constitutional' (Fox 01/26/2021)
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"The automatic consequence of impeachment and trial, if you're convicted, the automatic consequence of it is you're removed from office, That's the automatic consequence of this process."

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"How can you put someone through a process where the automatic consequence is impossible? You cannot remove Donald Trump from office [because] he's not in office."

•
"This is a country that's already deeply divided, Politics has become very emotional. People literally hate each other in this country over politics. And now on top of that fire, we're going to pour all of this gasoline and really get it going hotter ... It's all about the left's demand for revenge."
Forty-five Republicans vote against proceeding with Senate impeachment trial (Fox 01/26/2021)
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... the Senate voted 55-45 to end debate on Sen. Rand Paul's point of order arguing that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional now that Trump is out of office.

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Five GOP senators voted not to dismiss the impeachment trial of President Trump: Susan Collins, Maine, Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Ben Sasse, Neb., and Pat Toomey, Pa. They voted with all 50 Democrat senators to table the point of order.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has indicated he has an open mind on whether Trump should be convicted, voted against ending debate.

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Paul, R-Ky., had told reporters earlier that he would make a point of order alleging that the trial is contrary to the Constitution — an argument that multiple Republican senators have made.

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That forced a vote on the point of order, requiring senators to go on the record about whether they believe the trial is constitutional.

•
Paul said he expected his resolution to prove there would be "no chance" of impeaching the president in the Senate.

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"I think there will be enough support on it to show there's no chance they can impeach the president, If 34 people support my resolution that this is an unconstitutional proceeding it shows they don't have the votes and we're basically wasting our time."

•
The Senate would need a two-thirds majority, or at least 67 votes, to convict the president.

•
Republicans have called to "move on" from impeachment now that Trump is out of office, adding that to continue pursuing the matter would further divide the country.

•
The Constitution says, "When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside."

•
Chief Justice John Roberts let it be known that he would not preside over the impeachment now that Trump is no longer president.

•
"Impeachment is for removal from office and the accused here has already left office. Hyper-partisan Democrats are about to drag our great country into the gutter of rancor and vitriol the likes of which has never been seen in our nation's history."

•
"Instead of doing the nation's work with their new majorities in the House, Senate, and the executive branch, Democrats are wasting the nation's time on a partisan vendetta against a man no longer in office."

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Pual argued ... that "45 Senators agreed that this sham of a 'trial' is unconstitutional. That is more than will be needed to acquit and to eventually end this partisan impeachment process."
Federal judge blocks Biden’s 100-day moratorium on deportations (Fox 01/26/2021)
Jason Rantz: I was inside Antifa riots in Tacoma — this is what I saw (Fox 01/26/2021)
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... the radicals destroyed the storefronts of local businesses, smashed cars, tried to break fencing around the local jail with demands prisoners be set free, torched an American flag, and threatened to kill cops.

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After months of ignoring, downplaying, or even justifying left-wing violence, these radical, criminal activists feel empowered. Can you blame them? They're seeing policy wins, while avoiding serious consequences for their criminality.

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The latest "peaceful protest" was instigated by a dramatic, viral video showing a Tacoma Police officer driving out of a mob of people that swarmed his patrol SUV.

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The moment the officer pulled in, the mob of mostly young adults swarmed him, pounding on the hood of the car and his windows.

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After warning the crowd with his siren and horn, they wouldn't stop. He drove through them, running over one male, knocking over several others.

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When he retreated to safety, he called for medics. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured.

•
Antifa and other anti-police activists immediately declared Tacoma would become the next flashpoint. They organized on Twitter and Facebook, cancelled another planned protest for that Sunday, and assembled in Downtown Tacoma.

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About 150 activists dressed in black bloc, to protect their identity and evade arrest, met at Frost Park and quickly occupied the intersection.

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They dragged trash bins and street signs into the intersection and started a bonfire with whatever trash they could find.

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After leaders riled up the mob, they started to march. And when Antifa marches, their goal is to be loud, intimidating, and destructive. They lived up to their promise.

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As they passed homes, the mob shined flashlights on residents who looked through their windows, curious about the commotion.

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They'd chant, "Out of your homes, and into the streets!" demanding the neighbors join them. But they didn't. In fact, the locals mostly shouted at the Antifa mob, scolding them for trashing their neighborhood.

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The marchers would routinely stop to allow vandals to spray paint anti-police messages and anarchist symbols on street signs and poles, businesses, and sidewalks. They were surrounded by activists who use umbrellas to shield them from video or photos.

•
... there are coordinated harassment efforts on Twitter to protect Antifa thugs and weed out media outsiders.

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Police were absent for most of the night, but around 9:45pm they finally advanced and ordered the mob to disperse.

•
They ignored the orders at first. Instead, Antifa shouted insults and threats, burned American and Blue Lives Matter flags, and flaunted their lawlessness.

•
Soon, however, they got tired and didn't want to risk arrest. There were no more windows to break, businesses to destroy, messages to tag. Just after 10pm, the majority of the crowd dispersed.

•
The criminal activism continues to spread because Democrat politicians mostly refuse to condemn it. In fact, rather than punish rioters, they're rewarded.

•
Many Democrats support the underlying ideology that informs the riots, so they are reticent to condemn the movement.

•
If Democrats were truly interested in ending the scourge of political violence, recognizing the destructive actions Antifa seems like a good start.

•
The radicals organize out in the open over Twitter and Facebook and declare their intentions to wreak havoc.

•
They show up to protests-turned-riots in black bloc uniforms, wave flags, and quite literally chant "Antifa!"

•
They're not hard to find. More alarmingly, they have no qualms using violence to attain their radical political agenda. It's the textbook definition of domestic terrorism.

•
But Democrat's interest in domestic terrorism is singularly focused on right-wing extremism. Democrats are already using the January 6 Capitol riot to justify an assault on conservatives: there are threats to monitor Trump supporters, purging conservatives from social media, and declarations that 74 million voters were radicalized and in need of deprogramming.

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In other words, the issue is being politicized. That gives Antifa and the violent actions of other like-minded radicals a pass. It also guarantees the violence won't just continue, it will spread.
Tulsi Gabbard slams Schiff, Brennan, Big Tech as more 'dangerous' than Capitol rioters (Fox 01/26/2021)
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"The mob who stormed the Capitol on January 6 to try to stop Congress from carrying out its constitutional responsibilities were behaving like domestic enemies of our country."

•
"But let's be clear, the John Brennans, Adam Schiffs and the oligarchs in Big Tech who are trying to undermine our constitutionally protected rights and turn our country into a police state with KGB-style surveillance are also domestic enemies — and much more powerful, and therefore dangerous, than the mob that stormed the Capitol."

•
Since the Jan. 6 riot, lawmakers in Washington have once again been considering a domestic terrorism bill, leading civil rights groups to push back, claiming that federal authorities already have the tools they need to stop criminals without giving them additional powers.

•
At the same time, social media companies like Twitter and Facebook have been blocking accounts that they say have posted inflammatory comments, including those of former President Donald Trump.

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"President Biden, I call upon you & all of Congress from both parties to denounce efforts by Brennan & others to take away our civil liberties endowed to us by our Creator & guaranteed in our Constitution. If you don't stand up to them now, then our country will be in great peril."
Republicans slam Twitter's crowdsourced fact-checking program 'Birdwatch': 'What could go wrong?' (Fox 01/26/2021)
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"Empowering self-proclaimed 'fact checkers' and leftist Silicon Valley billionaires to dictate what is 'misleading,' only confirms what the American people already know to be true: Big Tech is designating itself to be the sole arbiter of truth and is using its power to silence dissent."

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See related Twitter Evolution (Gary Varvel, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Hannity says Biden’s policies will 'fail’ while media takes ‘sycophantic vacation’ (Fox 01/26/2021)
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... correctly predicted that President Biden's first week in office was going to be disastrous. ... socialism has been proven to be a failed approach to governing.

•
... accused the media mob — and 99% of journalists — of being on a "sycophantic vacation" for not recognizing and reporting the warning signs of Biden's first executive actions.

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"Biden's radical agenda is literally taking thousands of American jobs, hurting American families, all while economic stress is the norm for way too many of our fellow Americans because of COVID and, of course, the subsequent, oppressive lockdowns."

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Meanwhile, the Democrats are still pushing to impeach Trump for a second time even after his departure from office. ... said everyone knows the trial is already "dead on arrival," yet the president refuses to implement his message of unity by letting it go.

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"If Biden really cared about unity, he could put a stop to the ‘Schiff Show' right now, So much for that unity B.S. – words, no meaning – just, you know, smoke and mirrors."

•
... predicted that cancel culture will only worsen under Biden, calling it an "embrace of authoritarianism, as the left continues to censor free speech over social media."

•
And even though Biden continuously blamed Trump for the severity of the coronavirus pandemic on the campaign trail, the new president is now faced with the fact that the crisis is out of his control.

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This week the administration extended Trump's travel restrictions to stop the spread of the virus – the same restrictions Biden called fear-mongering and "xenophobic" almost one year ago.
Trump creates 'Office of the Former President' in Florida (Fox 01/26/2021)
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... the Office of the Former President will be responsible for his "correspondence, public statements, appearances, and official activities."

•
"The Office will also "advance the interests of the United States and ... carry on the agenda of the Trump Administration through advocacy, organizing, and public activism."

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The House prosecutors delivered the sole impeachment charge of "incitement of insurrection," making the ceremonial walk across the Capitol to the Senate.

•
... Republicans are presenting a tangle of legal arguments against the legitimacy of the trial and questions whether Trump's repeated demands to overturn Joe Biden's election really amounted to incitement.

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Arguments in the Senate trial will begin the week of Feb. 8, and the case against Trump, the first former president to face an impeachment trial, will test a political party still sorting itself out for the post-Trump era.

•
Republican senators are balancing the demands of deep-pocketed donors who are distancing themselves from Trump and voters who demand loyalty to him.

•
Speculation about Trump's post-presidency has ranged from him possibly starting his media company to running for a second term in 2024.

•
Trump's 2020 campaign senior adviser Jason Miller on Sunday ruled out the possibility of Trump running in future elections on a third-party ticket, saying that his immediate focus is to help Republicans win back the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms.
Sen. Rand Paul clashes with ABC's Stephanopoulos: 'You're forgetting who you are as a journalist!' (Fox 01/26/2021)
•
Stephanopoulos began the contentious interview by asking Paul if he accepts the "fact" that the "election was not stolen."

•
Paul responded by insisting that the "debate" over voter fraud should occur and acknowledged how evidence from various claims was never examined since legal cases were "thrown out" by the courts.

•
While Paul listed off various irregularities that could be challenged or overturned by the Supreme Court, including secretaries of state unilaterally changing election laws by skipping the legislative process, Stephanopoulos had enough.

•
"Senator Paul, I have to stop you there," Stephanopoulos interrupted. "No election is perfect but there were 86 challenges filed by President Trump and his allies in court, all were dismissed... The Department of Justice led by William Barr said there was no widespread evidence of fraud. Can't you just say the words, 'This election was not stolen?'"...

•
"What I would suggest is if we want greater confidence in our elections and 75 percent of Republicans agree with me is that we do need to look into election integrity and do need to see if we can restore confidence in the elections."

•
"Well, 75 percent of Republicans agree with you because they were fed a big lie by President Trump and his supporters to say that the election was stolen," Stephanopoulos fired back.

•
"George, where you make the mistake is that people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say everything's a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything," Paul told the anchor.

•
"Historically what would happen is if I said that I thought there was fraud, you would interview someone who said there wasn't, but now you insert yourself in the middle and say that the absolute fact is that everything I'm saying is a lie without examining the facts."

•
"There has been no examination, thorough examination of all the states to see what problems we had and see if we can fix them. Now let me say, to be clear, I voted to certify the state electors because I think it would be wrong for Congress to overturn that, but at the same time, I'm not willing just to sit here and say 'Oh, everybody on the Republican side is a liar and there is no fraud.' No, there were lots of problems and there were secretaries of state who illegally changed the law and that needs to be fixed and I'm going to work hard to fix it."

•
"I won't be cowed by people who say, 'Oh, you're a liar.' That's the problem with the media today is that they say all Republicans are liars and everything we say is a lie. There are two sides to every story. Interview somebody on the other side, but don't insert yourself into the story to say we're all liars because we knew there was some fraud in the election."

•
"There are not two sides to the story," Stephanopoulos pushed back. "This has been looked at in every state and it was certified in every state."

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"You're forgetting who you are! You are forgetting who you are as a journalist if you think there's only one side!"

•
"You're inserting yourself into the story to say that I'm a liar because I want to look at election fraud and I want to look at secretaries of state who illegally changed the voter laws without the permission of their state legislatures. That is incontroverible. It happened. And you can't just sweep that under the rug and say oh nothing to see here and everybody's a liar and you're a fool if you bring this up! You're inserting yourself into the story. A journalist would hear both sides and there are two sides to this story."

•
The ABC anchor insisted he was "standing by facts" and that there are "no two sides to facts."

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Lap Dog (Gary Varvel, 10/17/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Democrats 'using and abusing the troops' for 'political theater' after condemning Trump proposals (Fox 01/26/2021)
•
... Democrats are misuing American servicemembers for "political theater" just months after they roundly condemned Donald Trump for considering deploying National Guardsmen to quell left-wing riots in major cities across the country.

•
... played a montage of top Democrats ... claiming at the time that Trump was misusing military and government assets for his own advantages.

•
Fast-forwarding to present day ... will hold National Guard troops in Washington until at least March.

•
Thousands of troops were called to action in town earlier this month in advent of President Biden's inauguration.

•
"Did they really think that insane animal skin guy was planning to return to D.C. with other furry friends to make a stand?"

•
"This is political theater directed by Democrat leadership. They are using the military to ratchet up the drama of their kangaroo impeachment trial of former President Trump."

•
"It allows them to play the victim despite evidence of any serious on-going threat. It furnishes them with a back door way to execute their next agenda item: purging the military of any political opponents."

•
"The broader and more opaque the language, the easier it is to cancel military members and other government personnel who don't call in line politically or even culturally."

•
"Most people would agree that generally dangerous extremists should not be allowed to serve and join the military. We don't want members of ISIS in our ranks and obviously KKK, of course not. That's not who the Democrats are talking about."

•
... Biden ordered the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to execute a "comprehensive threat assessment coordinated with the FBI and DHS on domestic violent extremists."

•
"This assessment will draw on the analysis from across the government and as appropriate, nongovernmental organizations," said Psaki.

•
... warned that it is worth considering what NGOs Psaki is referring to. "What non-governmental organizations is she talking about that will report on their fellow Americans? The ACLU, Black Lives Matter, Planned Parenthood? Anti-gun rights organizations?"

•
"Presumably, they think anyone who disagrees with their far-left goals are extremists. From what we have already heard the Biden administration say, it's clear that they are going to use the power and surveillance of the U.S. Government to keep tabs on a lot more people than we ever would have thought would have been embedded in government agencies as domestic terrorists."

•
"What if someone complains on Facebook that the federal government wastes money or says Roe V. Wade should be overturned. Or what if they are conservative baptists and believe sex outside of marriage is immoral? Will they now be considered extremists or even terrorists? We deserve to know."
Gutfeld on the media going easy on President Biden (Fox 01/25/2021)
•
This weekend, we learned two important things from the White House and their enablist media.

•
First, Joe's favorite flavor of ice cream: ... "and his favorite ice cream was chocolate chip. So that is my update for all of you on that."

•
And, second, we also learned what Hunter Biden had for breakfast. (Hint: bagels)

•
Can't wait for the daily report on regularity. I hope they're both getting enough fiber!

•
But isn't it adorable how fast and obvious the media can change the rules?

•
After a week in which we saw the white house banish the national guard to a parking lot, the obliviousness toward the ANTIFA riots, the lies about Trump not leaving a vaccine plan, a moratorium on natural gas and drilling ... We get ice cream and bagels.

•
... things are boring now, CNN... as 12,000 more Americans die from COVID, since Biden took office. Remember how "not boring" such numbers were under Trump?

•
I guess when Democrats are in charge, the body count suddenly becomes reasonable — just like everything else under their watch.

•
See related Lap Dog (Gary Varvel, 10/17/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
DOJ IG investigating whether officials tried to overturn 2020 election (Fox 01/25/2021)
•
Clark denied to the Times that he was involved in any plan to have Rosen removed, and said details of the talks he had with Trump had been distorted.

•
"There was a candid discussion of options and pros and cons with the president, It is unfortunate that those who were part of a privileged legal conversation would comment in public about such internal deliberations, while also distorting any discussions."
House Oversight GOP says any FBI probe into Parler 'role' in Capitol riot 'should include'... (Fox 01/25/2021)
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... "should include" Facebook and Twitter, calling the recent request for an FBI probe from committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney "evidence" of the "growing alliance between Big Tech and Democrats."

•
... requested that the FBI investigate Parler's "role" as a "potential facilitator" of planning or inciting the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

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"Like you, we were disturbed and angered by the riot and we believe those responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law, But casting blame on a single social media company known for its conservative username while simply ignoring other social media companies known for sympathizing with liberal causes is blatantly and overtly partisan."

•
"Moreover, your letter is additional evidence of the growing alliance between Big Tech and Democrats to muzzle certain viewpoints, opinions, and perspectives."

•
... claim that Parler was a "potential facilitator" of planning for the Capitol chaos "completely omits the fact that other social media platforms were also facilitators of the January 6 riot."

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"A cursory search of other social media platforms yields identical, disturbing posts, from across the political spectrum, advocating for a wide swathe of positions, demonizing an equally diverse group of people."

•
The GOP congressmen went on to slam Big Tech companies, claiming Facebook and Twitter "appear to have profited off of the January 6 riot," citing commentary suggesting "political turmoil drives increased engagement" on social media platforms.

•
"Rather than limiting its investigation to Parler, then, perhaps the Committee should include Facebook and other social media companies in its request for an investigation into the antecedents of the January 6 Capitol riot."

•
"Of course, doing so may upset Big Tech, which in turn could turn off the spigot of campaign contributions to Democrats."

•
"During the 2020 election cycle Facebook employees contributed over $5 million in federal elections — 92.79% of which went to Democrats."

•
"Twitter employees were even more generous to Democrats, with 98.41% of all federal contributions in the 2020 cycle going to Democrats."

•
"While Facebook, Twitter, and Parler seem to all share blame in allowing their platforms to be used to plan for the January 6 riot, one main difference between the three platforms is that Parler is the only one that hasn't given generously to the Democrats."

•
... went on to call Maloney's request for an FBI investigation into Parler "a transparently political ploy taking advantage of the tragedy that occurred on January 6 to shut down speech Democrats dislike."

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"Perhaps more disturbing is a Silicon Valley willing to oblige these impulses, We request you amend your request for an FBI investigation to include Facebook and Twitter and the roles those companies played to contribute to the January 6 riot."

•
Meanwhile, Maloney sent a letter to the FBI last week requesting that the bureau also review whether Parler facilitated planning for the riot and questioned whether it is "a potential conduit for foreign governments who may be financing civil unrest in the United States."

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"It is clear that Parler houses additional evidence critical to investigations of the attack on the Capitol."

•
... Maloney went on to point to questions raised about "Parler's financing and its ties to Russia."

•
"The company was founded by John Matze shortly after he traveled to Russia with his wife, who is Russian and whose family reportedly has ties to the Russian government," Maloney wrote, adding that "concerns about the company's connections to Russia have grown" since the company "re-emerged on a Russian hosting service, DDos-Guard, after being denied services by Amazon Web Services."

•
Maloney said DDos-Guard "has ties to the Russian government and hosts the websites of other far-right extremist groups, as well as the terrorist group Hamas."

•
Comer and Steube slammed Maloney for discussing Matze's travel, calling it an "irrelevant" and "offensive."

•
"It is neither illegal nor suspect to either travel to Russia or have a Russian spouse, After four years of peddling bogus — and later disproven — conspiracy theories about Russia, Committee Democrats are now resorting to outright xenophobia to deride both conservatives and social media platforms not approved by Democrats."

•
Meanwhile, Parler COO Jeffrey Wernick responded to Maloney's call for an FBI probe, saying the company "welcomes" a "robust examination of our policies and actions" by the bureau.

•
"Parler welcomes Rep. Maloney's call to have the Federal Bureau of Investigation conduct a robust examination of our policies and actions."

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See related Thanks (Chip Bok, 01/12/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

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See related Twitter Evolution (Gary Varvel, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Hawley calls for ethics investigation into Dems who filed complaint against him (Fox 01/25/2021)
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... called for the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the seven Democrats who filed the complaint against him and Cruz, R-Texas, accusing the senators of filing "an unprecedently frivolous and improper ethics complaint... [w]ithout citing any relevant evidence or offering any good-faith argument."

•
Hawley on Jan. 6 joined a House member's objection to the Pennsylvania Electoral College votes, triggering two hours of debate in each chamber over the validity of the slate and votes on whether Congress should reject them. Cruz objected to Arizona's electors.

•
"The complaint against me does not suggest that my objection to Pennsylvania's electoral votes was legally improper. No Senator could make such a suggestion with a straight face. Federal law expressly authorizes Senators to object that a State's electoral votes were not 'regularly given,'"

•
"Democrats have repeatedly invoked this provision. Indeed, in every presidential election since 2000 that a Republican has won, Democrats have sought to object to electoral votes on that ground, regardless of whether any good-faith basis existed for such objections."

•
... further defended his decision to object to Pennsylvania's electoral votes as having a "strong legal basis."

•
The objection followed the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob after former President Donald Trump held a fiery rally in Washington, D.C., earlier in the day.

•
The mob, which before the attack Hawley was caught in a photo raising his fist to in an apparent gesture of solidarity, forced hundreds of lawmakers and former Vice President Pence into hiding, ransacked the building and was the worst encroachment on a U.S. government institution since the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812.

•
Hawley and Cruz condemned the violence, as did Trump. But the former president was impeached in the House of Representatives for his role in stoking the crowd.

•
The ethics complaint against Hawley and Cruz, meanwhile, says that Cruz and Hawley "lent legitimacy to President Trump's false statements" and "to the mob's cause."

•
Hawley, a firebrand senator who has enthusiastically embraced Trump's brand of populism and is considered to be a potential 2024 presidential candidate, railed against the Democrats for that specific accusation.

•
He said their complaint was a "manifestly partisan exercise" and called for an ethics investigation into the Democrats who filed the complaint against him and Cruz.

•
"Most astonishingly, the Democrats who filed the complaint against me insinuate — without any evidence whatsoever — that I or my staff may have conspired with the criminals who stormed the Capitol."

•
"In most jurisdictions, such statements would constitute defamation per se, and if offered during debate they would constitute a clear violation of Senate Rule XIX.2."

•
Hawley specifically asked the Ethics Committee to investigate whether the seven Democrats had coordinated with a handful of outside groups, Democratic leadership, including the Biden administration, and whether or not they've been in contact with lobbyists and corporations who have said they will no longer donate to Hawley or Cruz.

•
Hawley also sent a letter directly to the Democrats who filed the complaint against him, accusing them of adopting a "woke-mob mentality that you should cancel anyone who disagrees with your views."

•
He said the accusation that he and Cruz may have worked with the insurrectionists was "shamefully false. And you know it to be so."

•
"In light of the shameful abuse of the ethics process you have deliberately engaged in, I have considered whether I should call for you to resign or be expelled from the Senate."

•
"But I continue to believe in the First Amendment, which the US Supreme Court has repeatedly said protects even 'offensive' and malicious speech, such as yours."

•
"I will not be intimidated by your efforts to silence me, the people of my state will not be intimidated by you, and you should be ashamed to have so grossly abused your office and the Senate."
John Fund: Change how we conduct elections — undecided NY congressional race shows what’s wrong (Fox 01/24/2021)
•
The race remains undecided due to a combination of flawed rule changes, overworked or incompetent election officials, and a dithering judge.

•
The race has national implications because it lays bare just how the wholesale rewriting of election laws in 2020 was able to create chaos that undermines public confidence in voting.

•
A full recount of disputed ballots in the eight counties in the congressional district has been completed. It shows former Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney defeating former Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi by just over 30 votes out of more than 311,000 cast.

•
But the recount is only one step in a grueling process that will probably keep the House seat vacant for weeks longer. On Monday, State Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte will begin going through 1,028 disputed ballots and rule on which should be counted.

•
Two weeks ago it was discovered that Oneida County's elections board had failed to process 2,418 voter registration forms from voters who signed up on time through the Department of Motor Vehicles.

•
When many of those voters showed up at the polls they were told they weren't registered. Hundreds left without voting, while some 300 filed provisional ballots that weren't counted.

•
Now Justice DelConte says he will decide which of the new ballots will be counted. Whatever his ruling, it will be appealed.

•
Ultimately, the closely divided House of Representatives controlled by Democrats will decide if it will seat the winner or conduct its own second-guessing investigation.

•
How did this election count become such a meltdown? It started last year when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued executive orders changing the state's election law in late August, with just over two months to go before Election Day.

•
Without consulting the state Legislature, Cuomo added an unverified online portal for anyone to request an absentee ballot. It has since been taken down due to concerns over its complete lack of security.

•
Cuomo's order also added a requirement that defective absentee ballots could be "cured" by contacting the voters involved. This created huge burdens for local boards of elections and controversy over how each ballot was "cured" or not.

•
... Officials acknowledged they didn't know if the ballots were mailed or dropped off at the polls. The outside envelopes accompanying the ballots have been thrown away. No chain of custody can be established.

•
... election workers who testified they believed the ballots were valid — providing his own "cure" for disputed ballots even though none is allowed in state law.

•
Backdating documents is clearly a fraudulent act in business and private life. But election officials were essentially being nudged by the court to backdate ballots so they can be counted.

•
It's important that everyone's valid vote be counted. But invalid votes as defined by the law shouldn't be counted.

•
There are lessons for the entire country from the chaos in New York's election and those in other states.

•
Sudden changes in election laws during 2020 created chaos and undermined public confidence in the process. Some 40 percent of voters still don't accept the 2020 results.

•
In addition, the whole notion that the country had to move to a mail-in voting system because of COVID-19 was found to be erroneous last November as millions of people voted safely at polling places.

•
Safeguards against fraud that were dispensed with in many states during 2020 — such as having voters request and sign absentee ballot applications — must be restored.

•
Signatures of voters on absentee ballots should be compared to the signature of the voters on their registration record before they are accepted.

•
The deadline in every state for receipt of a completed absentee ballot should be Election Day itself.

•
Vote harvesting should be banned in every state. Giving campaign staffers and party activists the ability to pick up and handle the ballots of voters can subject voters to coercion and intimidation.

•
If there is one thing we learned in the 2020 election, it is that we have to do more to build public confidence in our elections.

•
That means giving our election officials better resources and training and restoring the safeguards against chaos and fraud that so many states dispensed with last year.

•
See related It\\\'s Who Counts the Votes (Gary Varvel, 11/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Stacey Abrams Harvesting (Gary McCoy, 01/04/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Voted Today... (Chip Bok, 01/06/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden's executive order blitz has done nothing but 'spit into the eye of normal Americans' (Fox 01/24/2021)
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... a total of 30 executive orders signed by Biden since entering the Oval Office last Wednesday. The orders reversed a number of Trump administration policies and covered areas Biden identified as his priorities on the campaign trail, including the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.

•
"We all wish Joe Biden the best, we want him to succeed and we would love it he could unify the country, but every action he's taken since he was sworn in, has been to spit into the eye of normal Americans who are not protected by great wealth or by protected jobs."

•
"They are exposed to such policies as dismantling border protection, a super-spreader event, to use one of the Democrats' favorite phrases, coming over the border from our South and things like killing jobs with the killing of the Keystone pipeline. Those things are not unifying."

•
Experts fear that the Keystone XL oil and gas pipeline project on environmental grounds would kill jobs and lead to higher energy costs for struggling Americans.

•
In other action, Biden ordered a stop to building the wall along the southern border, ended Trump's so-called "Muslim travel ban" and reversed one of Trump's early executive orders that made anyone in the country illegally a priority for deportations.
Trump adviser claims former president has no plans for third political party (Fox 01/24/2021)
Flashback: Nancy Pelosi praised unionists storming Wisconsin State Capitol (Fox 01/24/2021)
•
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has gone on record praising the storming of the Capitol as an "impressive show of democracy in action" — the 2011 invasion of the Madison, Wis., state capitol, that is.

•
Pelosi's previous comment's resurfaced following the disturbing assault on the U.S. Capitol earlier this month at the hands of a right wing-mob who stormed the halls of Congress hoping to prevent the certification of the U.S. presidential election.

•
The assault drew forceful condemnations from both sides of the political aisle — including Pelosi — who wasted little time introducing former President Trump's second impeachment in the House for "inciting" the violence.

•
Ten years earlier, unionists stormed the Wisconsin State Capitol in an attempt to block a vote on collective bargaining reform.

•
Thousands of demonstrators managed to enter the building by violently breaking down doors and shattering windows — but the attack garnered much praise from Pelosi and other prominent Democrats at the time.

•
The occupiers were praised publically by Pelosi for their "impressive show of democracy in action." The House Speaker took to Twitter to express her "solidarity" with the activists as they attacked the Capitol, and sent senators into hiding until police managed to remove them from the building.
'Unleash this monster and one day it'll come for you': Glenn Greenwald sounds alarm over cancel culture ()
•
Nobody will be immune or exempt from the cancel culture mob as long as the media continues to wield it as a weapon to silence their critics and limit free speech...

•
"In the prevailing climate, the rational choice is to avoid social scorn and ostracization no matter how baseless the grievances one must appease."

•
You may believe yourself to be above the fray, but it's a matter of time before the media mob "will come for you."

•
"Unleash this monster and one day it will come for you, And you'll have no principle to credibly invoke in protest when it does."

•
"When that doesn't work, what they're doing now is a third response, which is trying to censor their critics and those who are actually inspiring trust by saying kick these people off the Internet, their audience is too big, censor these people, throw their platform out the Internet."

•
What the media has failed to ask is "what it is that they've done that is causing the public to lose faith and trust."

•
"And rather than do that, they're now at the point where they're advocating censorship to force the audience to listen to them."
Sen. Cotton: China sanctions are 'insidious escalation' of 'effort to influence American policy' ()
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China imposed sanctions Wednesday on more than two dozen former Trump administration officials, including outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, just as President Biden was sworn into office.

•
Aside from Pompeo, other officials tagged with sanctions included Trump administration trade advisor Peter Navarro, former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, current national security adviser Robert O'Brien, former national security adviser John Bolton and former Trump aide Steve Bannon.

•
"On Wednesday, just moments after Joe Biden took office, a couple of dozen Trump administration officials were sanctioned by China," Cotton said, adding that "at first, one might just laugh them off."

•
... however, that "these sanctions apply not just to these individuals, they apply to any company or institution that associates with them."

•
"This is not designed so much to punish Trump administration officials for taking a tough line on China, but to send a shot across the bow to Biden administration officials."

•
"A lot of government officials are lawyers, they leave big firms, they go back to big firms, even if they have no clients with any business in China, that law firm probably does."

•
"And what if China goes to one of those big corporations and threatens to cut off their access if they don't cut off that law firm?"

•
"This is the kind of unspoken, insidious effect these sanctions can have on senior government officials, We cannot tolerate it."

•
"We cannot tolerate China trying to influence government officials at the highest levels of American government."

•
On his last day on the job, Pompeo released determinations that China committed crimes against humanity and "genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs."

•
"Forcing men, women and children into concentration camps, trying to in effect re-educate them to be adherents to the Chinese Communist Party – all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide."

•
"But what we really need to hear is from the top, President Biden needs to condemn these sanctions. He needs to condemn the actions that China is taking against Hong Kong in the South China Sea, just recently threatening Taiwan again."

•
"It's important that the president say that, not just the president's spokesmen, not just his cabinet officials, but the president himself."
Russia, China benefitting from a Biden presidency, not America: Rep. McCarthy (Fox 01/24/2021)
•
... went on to say that Biden is putting "America last" and has "now put China first."

•
McCarthy pointed out on Saturday that halting the Keystone XL oil pipeline project cut union jobs "and hurt our greatest ally within Canada."

•
He also noted that the Paris climate agreement "only benefits China." ... "We've lowered more emissions than any country, You could add up all Europe together."

•
McCarthy then said that Biden also went forward with a "movement of not making new American jobs."

•
"Remember what he said just less than a week ago about unity? None of those actions have taken place."

•
... went on to say that "what would unify this nation is exactly what we are working on, the Republicans, in Congress," which he said is getting Americans back to work.

•
"Not 11 million new illegal immigrants having citizenship, What about those 10.7 million Americans who need a job?"

•
The "pause" on deportations, which means many illegal immigrants with criminal convictions and charges will not be deported in that timeframe, caps a slew of immigration moves by the new president, reversing many of the policies of former President Trump.

•
... Biden signed an executive order that halted the construction of the wall at the southern border while the administration studies whether it can redirect money that has been assigned to additional wall mileage.

•
The slew of immigration moves has led to the expectation that thousands of migrants will reach the U.S.-Mexico border in the early weeks of the Biden administration.

•
"What the last administration was able to do was stop it [illegal immigration] and get Mexico to do something they've never done before, to not let them even through their country."

•
"Now they believe this new president is welcoming it and that's exactly what he's doing — stopping the wall, telling them to come because he's going to provide them citizenship instead of providing the jobs to those more than 10 million Americans who are out of work."

•
See related Make China Great Again (Gary Varvel, 11/17/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump impeachment trial is 'stupid,' 'bad for the country': Rubio (Fox 01/24/2021)
•
"Well, first of all, I think the trial is stupid. It's counterproductive, We already have a flaming fire in this country, and it's like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire."

•
"Second, I look back at a time, for example, Richard Nixon, who had clearly committed crimes and wrongdoing, and in hindsight I think we would all agree that President Ford's pardon was important for the country to be able to move forward. And history held Richard Nixon quite accountable for what he did as a result."

•
"I think the president bears responsibility for some of what happened. It was most certainly a foreseeable consequence of everything that was going on."

•
"All I'm arguing is we have some really important things to work on. ... We're gonna jump right back into what we've been going through for the last five years, and stirring it up again with a trial, and it's just going to be bad for the country."

•
Rubio said it was "arrogant" for Democrats to pursue a Senate conviction in order to bar Trump from running for office again.

•
"I think that's an arrogant statement for anyone to make. Voters get to decide that. Who are we to tell voters who they can vote for in the future?"

•
"The GOP is the party that nominated Donald Trump and the reason why it did — and ultimately got him elected, and he got 75 million votes — is because you have tens of millions of Americans that feel this economy isn't working for people like them, that feel socially displaced, even like strangers in their own country."

•
"That's what I hope we'll be a party of, I hope we can do it in a way that keeps the people who believe we're fighting for them and brings back some of the people that perhaps didn't vote for Republicans or didn't vote for the president because they may not like, you know, the way it was said or the way it was done."

•
"I think that's quite possible, and I think that's the future of the Republican Party, because, frankly, on that depends the future of the country."
Newt Gingrich: What’s next for Parler? A company executive reveals comeback strategy (Fox 01/24/2021)
•
Parler, the social networking app, was started for two main reasons. First, Parler's founders wanted to compete in a free market to address the problems with their competitors at Twitter and elsewhere.

•
One such problem was — and remains — that too many people felt like the commodity on other platforms, with their personal data being mined and used for profit.

•
In other words, the goal of Parler was simply to present to the public an alternative to the social media giants to better protect their privacy.

•
Second, Parler's founders wanted to create a platform that allowed for the maximum amount of freedom of expression within the limits of the law.

•
That sounds like an innocent, even noble enterprise. Certainly not controversial, let alone a threat to American democracy.

•
And yet, Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores earlier this month. Amazon quickly followed suit, kicking Parler off its cloud servers. The latter decision pushed the app offline, effectively halting its operations and posing an existential threat to the company.

•
Apple, Google and Amazon claim they acted because Parler didn't do enough to police violent and threatening content.

•
Of course, we know the actual truth: Big Tech moved to crush what it deemed a right-wing platform that had the audacity not to censor conservatives during a time of intense political polarization.

•
This was a cancel culture mob — the same mob that is now pushing for American publishers not to sign book deals with officials who served in the Trump administration.

•
Disturbingly, 500 authors and literary professionals signed a letter calling for this anti-American suppression.

•
Parler has filed a lawsuit against Amazon Web Services, which cut ties with the app abruptly and without any notice.

•
Amazon's "decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus," according to the complaint.

•
"It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter."

•
Parler also accused Amazon of breaching a contract between them.

•
We are approaching the edge of what will become a kind of Orwellian dictatorship, in which monopolistic companies allied with powerful politicians will silence you in the public square if you say the wrong thing.

•
Whether Parler's executives know it or not, they are on the front lines of the fight to prevent this from happening.

•
See related Hang Em’ High-Tech (Antonio Branco, 01/11/2021) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Brian Harrison: Trump program to develop and distribute COVID vaccines was a historic success (Fox 01/24/2021)
•
It is disappointing that with less than a full week in office, the Biden administration seems intent on misrepresenting Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration program to develop and distribute safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics — a program with success unparalleled in the history of public health.

•
"There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch." This statement is demonstrably false.

•
Throughout the fall of 2020, Biden supporters exhorted us not to politicize the vaccine development process — yet this is precisely what those officials are now doing.

•
This does nothing to enhance vaccine confidence. In fact, it undermines it.

•
The Biden transition team was provided the most comprehensive briefing legally permissible at the time. Top operational leadership of Operation Warp Speed detailed the exact topic the Biden team is now discrediting: vaccine distribution planning.

•
In the days leading up to Biden's inauguration, states and jurisdictions reported having vaccinated around 1 million Americans per day.

•
The U.S. has vaccinated more citizens than any other nation in the world by a long shot, despite the fact that the United Kingdom and others had a head start of several weeks on getting vaccines approved for emergency use.

•
It should be noted that when the Trump administration left office we were positioned to have approximately 250 million vaccine doses available by the end of President Biden's first 100 days — even without the benefit of additional vaccines still in development with the help of Operation Warp Speed.

•
After that initial Operation Warp Speed transition meeting with the Biden team, the Department of Health and Human Services proceeded to hold over 300 additional transition meetings.

•
Concerns about distribution and vaccine administration plans were never once raised to me by Biden representatives.

•
In hindsight, some things could have been improved, such as managing certain expectations with governors or better articulating differences between estimated and actual vaccine doses. That notwithstanding, we handed the Biden administration much more than just a plan.

•
We delivered two extraordinarily safe and effective vaccines, with more in the pipeline; a pace of vaccinations surpassing aspirations of the Biden team; incredible delivery logistics; multiple authorized COVID-19 treatments; a testing capability that is the envy of the world; and a nimbleness to mobilize and adapt not experienced since World War II.

•
Impulses to centralize all activity with the federal government, while tempting, would inhibit what has been a truly exceptional all-of-America endeavor exceeding anything like it in the world, and should be rejected.

•
The new White House COVID -19 coordinator recently said that "what we're inheriting is so much worse than we could have imagined," and Biden's chief of staff said the new administration is "inheriting a huge mess."

•
Perhaps members of the Biden team are simply trying to lower expectations for themselves. The truth is that they are neither starting "from scratch" nor are they inheriting "a mess." However, hubris and a belief that Washington alone knows best could create one.

•
I hope the Biden administration will build on — not disparage — the successes we left them. And when they identify areas for improvement, they should improve.

•
That, as opposed to distortions and finger pointing, will speed our victory over COVID-19 and be a win for all Americans.

•
See related Operation Warped Deeds (Antonio Branco, 12/10/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden quickly purges Trump allies from Voice of America, parent agency: reports (Fox 01/24/2021)
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Voice of America's director, Robert Reilly, and deputy director, Elizabeth Robbins, were removed from the government-funded broadcaster... were escorted from the building by security, agency...

•
Jeffrey Shapiro, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, another U.S. funded outlet that reports news to Cubans, also resigned...

•
The CEO of USAGM, Michael Pack, followed suit Wednesday, resigning at the request of the Biden administration.

•
See related Speech on Unity (Mike Lester, 11/13/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Left-wing riots rattle US cities even after President Biden's inauguration (Fox 01/24/2021)
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"I'm waiting for Pres Biden to condemn violence/looting/arson last two days in Oregon & Washington state."

•
See related Endorsements (Sean Delonas, 08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Nile Gardiner: Biden wrong to evict Winston Churchill bust from Oval Office — signals weakening of... (Fox 01/23/2021)
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In his inaugural address, President Biden pledged to "repair alliances." Yet one of his first moves in power was to remove a bust of the late British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, as President Barack Obama did in January 2009.

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This was a slap in the face for Great Britain on Day One of Biden's presidency, and sends the wrong signal to America's closest friend and ally.
'We'll do something': Trump offers first remarks since leaving office (Fox 01/22/2021)
Ari Fleischer: 'Big government is back' under Biden (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"He [Biden] said we're going to grow the economy with these investments. Big spending has never grown the economy. It's grown the government. It hasn't solved people's problems. If you want to solve people's problems now, do it by going after COVID to reopen the economy as fast as possible ... The president is empathetic and that's good, but empathy is not what people need. They need their jobs back."
Madison Cawthorn delivers pizzas to National Guard troops in parking garage, vows they 'deserve...' (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"I just visited the solders who have been abandoned & insulted by our leaders. I brought them pizza and told them that they can sleep in my office."

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"No soldier will ever, ever sleep on a garage floor in the US Capitol while I work in Congress. Our Troops deserve better."

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"No soldier ought to be treated as expendable, or used as a political prop to be cast aside when the cameras leave the room," he continued.

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"Last night, I heard that our National Guard troops had been relegated to the underbelly of the peoples' house. I instantly called my staff, ordered as many pizzas as we could carry, and we headed out to thank them for their service."

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"Hey guys, my name is Madison Cawthorn, I heard they kicked your a***s down here so we brought some pizza if anybody wants any," he says, drawing applause from the troops.

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The Guardsmen, who had been resting inside the Capitol between 12-hour shifts, were moved to a nearby parking garage, where photos obtained by Politico and other outlets showed members crowded together on the ground — some resting their heads against cement pillars.

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One Guardsman told ... that on the day of the inauguration dozens of lawmakers had taken photos with them, shook their hands and thanked them for their service.

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"Within 24 hours, they had no further use for us and banished us to the corner of a parking garage. We feel incredibly betrayed."
Joe Biden putting 'Saudi Arabia first' by halting Keystone XL pipeline: Sen. Daines (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"This is a major infrastructure project that President Biden killed six hours into his presidency, It's outrageous and it's going to get worse."

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"It's already beginning to be implemented, We're seeing it before our very eyes — it's going to kill jobs. It's going to raise energy prices."

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"Thank God that we've had this revolution in energy in America to reduce our dependency on the Middle East."

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"[Biden's action] reverses that course and places the dependence back on the Middle East. That is terrible policy for our country."

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... these policies show Democrats are "no longer a friend" to the American worker. "They are friends with the radical left, Green New Deal side of the party. This is a huge mistake."
Jonathan Turley: America 'living in a new age of yellow journalism' (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"We have previously discussed how American journalism has been destroyed by years of openly partisan coverage in an age of echo journalism. Not surprisingly, the public has lost faith in what was once the leading nation in terms of journalistic practices and ethics."

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"We are living in a new age of yellow journalism at a time when real journalism has never been more needed."

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"The plunging level of trust reflects the loss of the premier news organizations to a type of woke journalism. We have been discussing how writers, editors, commentators, and academics have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including President-elect Joe Biden and his key advisers."

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"During President Biden's inauguration Wednesday, the networks repeatedly reminded Americans of the horrible violence from Trump supporters two weeks ago, storming the Capitol over the election results. But, overnight, violent leftists took to the streets, rioting in at least two different cities in ‘protest' over Biden's election, and the networks couldn't care less."

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Turley observed that one of the "lowest moments" was last summer when the New York Times apologized for publishing an opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., calling for the military to be used to quell anti-police rioting.

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He contrasted that with the Times later printing an op-ed by a pro-China Hong Kong official who dismissed pro-democracy protesters.

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"The great tragedy is that we need a legitimate media now more than ever. Citizens are facing deep and violent divisions without trust in what is being reported in our newspapers, television programs, and Internet sites."
Biden executive orders the 'wishlist of the far left,' Rubio says (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"An important thing to point out this morning. President Biden is talking like a centrist, he is using the words of the center, talking about unity, but he is governing like someone from the far left."

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"He has ordered more executive fiats than anyone in such a short period of time — ever. More than Obama, more than Trump, more than anyone."

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"These aren't just normal executive fiats. This is literally going down the wishlist of the far left and checking them all off, Some of them are incredibly dramatic and far-reaching in real life."

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"At the stroke of a pen, he literally put thousands upon thousands of hardworking, blue collar union members out of work."

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"These are people that were working on Monday — that were working on Tuesday — and then the president goes into the Oval Office and signs an executive order wiping out the Keystone Pipeline and they're out of work."

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"These folks now have to go back to their families in the middle of a pandemic and tell them, ‘we just lost our job and I don't know where I'm going to go work next' That's a far left agenda there, The list goes on."

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... pointed to a number of other executive actions — specifically the Biden Administration's 100-day moratorium on deportations, warning that "there are some incredibly dangerous criminals that are going to be able to stay in this country."

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"The bottom line is this — I want everyone to be aware of it, We now have a president who talks like a centrist but is governing from the far left, and we're not going to just be able to sit around here in a honeymoon period and watch these things happen."

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... it is "important everyone is aware that that is the direction it appears we're headed."

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"And it's not going to be good one for the country and its not going to be a good one for people and for working Americans or your jobs."

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President Biden signed 17 executive actions during his first day in office — many of which reversed Trump administration policies and directives — like cancellation of border wall funding and construction, a reversal of President Trump's travel ban, re-joining the World Health Organization and more — while others restored Obama-era programs like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, re-joining the Paris Climate Accord, and a number of other moves focused on the economy, racial equity and the coronavirus.

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Sen. Chuck Grassley: Don't let Biden, Democrats exploit COVID to enact liberal laundry list (Fox 01/22/2021)
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Using COVID-19 to masquerade a liberal policy agenda won't get far in a narrowly divided House and Senate. It's reckless to borrow another $2 trillion on top of $4 trillion already in the pipeline.

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While more pandemic relief is needed, some of the line items are a political pipe dream for progressives.

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Candidate Biden campaigned on a platform to heal America and bridge the partisan divisions tearing our country apart.

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I look forward to working with the Biden administration to get the pandemic behind us and grow the economy back bigger and better than ever.

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One last bit of advice as our 46th president takes office. "Go big or go home" could turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

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Ramming through a liberal laundry list without building consensus and winning bipartisanship is more than likely a one-way ticket for a one-term presidency.
Angel mom slams Biden immigration order as 'spitting on the faces of every legal immigrant' (Fox 01/22/2021)
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... whose son Ronald da Silva was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant in 2002...

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"I feel as a legal immigrant that this government is spitting on the faces of every legal immigrant in this country that contributed to this nation. As of January 20th, [the] United States officially became the socialist United States of America. We are no longer citizens. We are second-class citizens, and it's a disgrace."

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"We have a COVID issue in this country. We need money to to help our country. But no, let's bring thousands more into our country who are not going to be able to contribute. You know, in 1986, President Reagan gave an amnesty. Why don't we investigate those three million people and see how much they contributed to the economy of this country, see how many are in prison, see how many returned to their country of origin, and then decide if we're going to open the gate to let [in] a flood of millions of millions of people. That's going to become a burden on taxpayers. Our taxes are going to go up to maintain them. That's not right."

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"I think about him [her son] every day. Next Thursday will be his 49th birthday ... I celebrate his birthday at the cemetery. No mother or father should go to celebrate their child's birthday caressing a cold stone on the ground. He should be here so I could hug him, so he could hug me back, so he can tell me Happy Mother's Day. I buried my son a week before Mother's Day. Does anybody in Congress, does anybody ever care about it?"

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"We went to Pelosi's office. I left a picture of my son, of his gravesite. I left my cell phone, my email. I said, 'Would you please call me?' Do you think she called me? No, I don't have representation in Congress and none of us do. This is the true fact. It's a sad fact."
Grassley calls on Biden to condemn rioting in Oregon, Washington (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"I'm waiting for Pres Biden to condemn violence/looting/arson last two days in Oregon & Washington state."

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Spray painted messages left behind on the vandalized buildings left messages, such as "F-Biden" and the anarchy sign.

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Images circulated on social media showing protestors walking with signs that read "We don't want Biden, we want revenge" and "We are ungovernable."
Republicans from western states pan Biden order to revoke Keystone XL Pipeline permit (Fox 01/22/2021)
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"It's only day one, and with the stroke of a pen, Biden has already taken steps to kill American energy projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline which is critical to energy producing states like Montana."

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"This project will create thousands of jobs, generate tax revenue for local communities, promote North American energy security and independence, and it is the safest and most environmentally friendly way to transport oil."

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Biden's executive order, however, cited U.S. "national interest" to end the pipeline so that other countries can see America moving away from fossil fuels.

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"The Keystone XL pipeline disserves the U.S. national interest," Biden's executive order reads.

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"The United States and the world face a climate crisis. That crisis must be met with action on a scale and at a speed commensurate with the need to avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory."

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It continues: "Our domestic efforts must go hand in hand with U.S. diplomatic engagement... The United States must be in a position to exercise vigorous climate leadership in order to achieve a significant increase in global climate action and put the world on a sustainable climate pathway. Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration's economic and climate imperatives."

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Added Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.: "President Biden's executive order will rob both American and Canadian workers of good-paying jobs... Currently, one thousand union workers are busy constructing the Keystone XL pipeline. When completed, the pipeline will ship oil from the Canadian and Bakken oil fields to American refineries along the Gulf Coast and across the Midwest."

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"In revoking this permit, the Biden Administration has chosen to listen to the voices of fringe activists instead of union members and the American consumer on Day 1," Mark McManus, the general president of the AFL-CIO-affiliated union, said in a statement.

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"Let me be very clear: When built with union labor by the men and women of the United Association, pipelines like Keystone XL remain the safest and most efficient modes of energy transportation in the world."

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"KeystoneXL is a critical part of putting together an all-of-the-above strategy for North American energy independence. Failure to construct the pipeline would mean more dependence on overseas energy sources as well as fewer jobs and less property tax relief for Nebraskans."

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The action to revoke the Keystone permit was one of many on Biden's first day, and wasn't the only action on climate change. Biden ordered that the U.S. rejoin the Paris climate agreement.
National Guard says there were 'no confrontations' with protesters during Biden inauguration (Fox 01/21/2021)
Hawley rips Senate Democrats for ethics complaint, says they're 'trying to silence dissent' (Fox 01/21/2021)
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In a complaint filed with the Senate Ethics Committee, a group of seven Democrats said Hawley and Cruz "lent legitimacy to the mob's cause" and should be investigated for potential conduct violations.

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"Joe Biden and the Democrats talk about unity but are brazenly trying to silence dissent, This latest effort is a flagrant abuse of the Senate ethics process and a flagrant attempt to exact partisan revenge."

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"Democrats appear intent on weaponizing every tool at their disposal — including pushing an unconstitutional impeachment process — to further divide the country. Missourians will not be canceled by these partisan attacks."
Publishing exec defends plans to publish Sen. Hawley's book amid industry 'blacklist' trend (Fox 01/21/2021)
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"Blacklisting is becoming a form of virtue signaling, almost a badge of honor, America's Newsroom It is getting to be like junior high school. Who are you not going to talk to?"

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The power of the "blacklisting lobby" is so strong that it managed to pressure Simon and Schuster into doing "something that I think is plainly against their economic interest [and] against their business interest."

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A letter titled ‘No Book Deals for Traitors' put forward by 500 junior employees of major publishing houses declares that books written by members of Trump's administration shouldn't see the light of day.

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"It is pretty scary language, The only consolation you can take is that the people who signed that letter, it's about 500 I think at last count, are as far as I can tell, mostly junior employees. I don't know that the publishers at Simon & Schuster or Random House or other publishers would explicitly sign onto that."

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Spence said Hawley "took a generally unpopular political stand to contest the electoral vote," but added that it was "entirely within his legal and constitutional right, and he thought he was serving his constituents."

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"The woke mob equated that with storming into the Capitol with a gun."

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Simon & Schuster would have published Hawley's book, "The Tyranny of Big Tech." in June. Regnery says it will be released in spring 2021.

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"My company Regnery Publishing picked the book up very quickly after Simon canceled it," Spence said, crediting the publishing house for giving him "the publicity campaign we couldn't have paid for."

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Regnery was founded in 1947 and has published authors such as William F. Buckley Jr., Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Xavier Becerra nomination – here's why Senate should reject culture warrior for HHS post (Fox 01/21/2021)
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As we fight to defeat the coronavirus, America deserves a professional at HHS – not a partisan culture warrior.

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Becerra's zeal for lockdowns, radical politics and abuse of power won't distribute a single vaccine or improve health care for a single citizen.

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But he will threaten on-the-job health insurance and persecute disfavored political opponents.
Tom Cotton: Antifa rioters won't stop because Joe Biden is president (Fox 01/21/2021)
Biden urges end to ‘uncivil war,’ asks for media truth, but can he pull it off? (Fox 01/21/2021)
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Almost all presidents talk about unity; the real test comes with governing.

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The political polarization that has gripped this country, fueled in part by the media, didn't start with President Trump and won't end with President Biden.

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His challenge now is to make measurable progress toward the elusive goal he promised in the campaign: normalcy.
Biden removes Churchill bust from Oval Office as part of redesign (Fox 01/21/2021)
Greenwald sounds alarm over Biden domestic terror war: 'Literally nothing that could be more...' (Fox 01/21/2021)
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"There is literally nothing that could be more dangerous, and it's not fear-mongering or alarmism to say it."

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Biden pledged to confront the threat of domestic terrorism in his inaugural address, vowing to defeat "political extremism, [and] White supremacy" in light of the deadly riot at the Capitol Jan. 6.

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Biden's commitment earned him praise from former CIA Director John Brennan, who likened libertarians to "religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, [and] nativists."

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"There are bills pending by Adam Schiff that would simply take the existing war on terror legislation always aimed at foreign governments and foreign actors, and simply amend it to say we can do that within the United States."

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"There is a ruling class elite that is extremely comfortable with the establishment wings of both parties ... who they fund equally because those are the people who serve their agenda.
Conservatives must oppose 'ruinous and divisive' Biden with 'passion, resolve, and good cheer' (Fox 01/21/2021)
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The "ruinous and divisive" policies of the Biden administration will have a galvanizing effect on conservatives over the next four years...

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"China couldn't care less about historic firsts or diversity or Lady Gaga ... but they do know that with Trump out of the White House, they are poised to soar past the U.S. in wealth, military might, and global influence."

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"The 2020s will probably be known as the decade where China became the most powerful country on Earth. The CCP is giddy because it knows the American Democratic Party, especially one led by an aging globalist like Biden is not really willing or able to stand up to them, or for that matter to stand up for freedom around the world."

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"They want Republicans to be vetted, surveilled, shamed, and deplatformed. That is the agenda that the CCP can certainly get behind."

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"[H]ow is a nation supposed to unite when one side is essentially calling the other side systemically racist and evil?"

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The new president ... "wants us to unite behind the idea that America is a racist country. No way. What makes America the most incredible country on Earth is not unity or diversity. There's nothing wrong with that, but the animating principle of America is liberty, freedom."

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... clarified that she doesn't believe Biden actually thinks the U.S. is a racist country dominated by White supremacists. However, the 78-year-old commander-in-chief is "too weak to stand up the Marxists in his party."

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As for conservatives, "we are going to stand up without fear — and, of course, without violence — but with passion, resolve, and good cheer knowing the facts are on our side even if John Legend and Tom Hanks aren't."

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"Over time, as the ruinous and divisive policies and sentiments of the Biden administration sweep across the nation, I predict that millions more will join the America First movement, After all, Biden did say he wanted unity. On our side, we'll have it."
Texas attorney general pledges to 'fight' Biden administration 'illegal actions' (Fox 01/20/2021)
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"Congrats, President Biden. On Inauguration Day, I wish our country the best. I promise to my fellow Texans and Americans that I will fight against the many unconstitutional and illegal actions that the new administration will take, challenge federal overreach that infringes on Texans' rights, and serve as a major check against the administration's lawlessness. Texas First! Law & Order always!"
Hannity pans Biden's 'truly unremarkable, totally forgettable' inaugural address (Fox 01/21/2021)
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"Joe predictably meandered his way through a truly unremarkable, totally forgettable, prerehearsed set of remarks."

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"The rest of the media mob were flat out lying to the American people, as usual. This was not in any way, shape, or form a memorable speech."

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"After four years of outright lying, conspiracy theories, witch hunts, one hoax after the other, vitriol, nonstop hysteria, two impeachments, including one that is still unconstitutionally ongoing, Biden's hollow calls for unity ... [are] total and complete B.S."

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If the 46th president truly wanted to begin healing the divide in our nation, the host said, "he would've started by ending the vitriol in his own party."

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"For example, he could've stopped comparing Republicans to Nazis, like he did a week ago. He could ask his colleagues to stop referring to 75 million peace-loving Trump supporters as domestic terrorists that support insurrection when they absolutely do not. He could call for an end to the unconstitutional post-presidential impeachment charade. He could also apologize for the Russia hoax and all those lies and the Ukrainian impeachment."

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"Mark my words this will never happen. Biden and his radicals in power and his party, they don't give a rip about unity. Slogans, bumper stickers, flat-out lies, and smears continue."

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... announced that the vast majority of the media mob in this country "have officially started what will be pretty much a four-year-long vacation.

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"The hard-hitting questions will be gone, The combative press conferences over. That will be a thing of the past"...
Gutfeld on the media fawning over President Biden (Fox 01/20/2021)
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Meanwhile, as the corporate press drools for Joe, they frantically spit on President Trump, the outgoing guy, trying to outdo each other on who's more relieved that our national nightmare is over.

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See related Mount Surigaffle (Antonio Branco, 07/02/2020) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Biden reversing travel ban for Muslim countries ‘very disappointing’: Chad Wolf (Fox 01/20/2021)
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"I had hoped that his team would come in and really take a look at what the department has done," Wolf said, noting that there was "never any Muslim ban" as the travel restrictions were "not based on religion."

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"Instead, what the department has done over the course of four years is spell out very specific criteria that these countries need to meet."

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"We're very up front with them about how to meet that and in the process, we are getting more information today... known and suspected terrorist travel patterns today because of this process than we ever have."

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"And to come in and to reverse that without a thoughtful process is very concerning."

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Separately, Biden is ending construction of the wall at the southern border — one of Trump's signature policies, which has seen 450 miles of wall built since 2017.

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Biden has promised to stop wall construction, even though Trump officials said that an additional 350 miles is funded.

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"What President Trump did, what the department did and leadership even before me is listen to our operators on the ground."

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"So my concern is, again you're fulfilling a campaign pledge, which I understand politics, but you are making the country less safe."
Why did Amazon wait until Biden’s inauguration to offer help with vaccine distribution? (Fox 01/20/2021)
Biden's call for unity flies in the face of media vitriol toward Trump supporters (Fox 01/20/2021)
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See related Speech on Unity (Mike Lester, 11/13/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Biden says Trump left him a ‘very generous’ letter in the Oval Office (Fox 01/20/2021)
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"The president wrote a very generous letter. I'm not going to talk about it because it was private, so I will not talk about it until I talk to him, but it was generous."
Kirstie Alley slams Katie Couric over comments about needing to 'deprogram' Donald Trump's... (Fox 01/20/2021)
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"Wow @katiecouric we've known each other for 35 years but if U really think I need to be deprogrammed along with 80 million conservatives ur gonna need to organize massive deprogrammers. Curious who they would be. Shrinks or Nazis? I hear both were good at it, yet still failed."

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"PS it's not new to call people who disagree with you CULTS.. Christianity was called a cult for 300 years. Using the word CULT is the buzzword to create fear , hatred and chaos. Kinda obvi.. consider it a compliment. It means they are desperate to shut you up."
Trump gets warm Florida greeting from supporters after arriving from DC (Fox 01/21/2020)
Trump departs White House, tells supporters in final address as president: 'We will be back...' (Fox 01/20/2021)
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President Trump on Wednesday morning told supporters that "we will be back in some form" after he departed the White House for the final time as president, just hours ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Biden.

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"We left it all on the field," Trump said of his time as president. "What we've done has been amazing by any standard."

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Trump mentioned the Space Force, tax cuts, judicial appointments, stock market record highs and more. First Lady Melania Trump also made brief remarks.

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... Trump left a note for Biden in the White House. He also wished the incoming Biden administration well in his Wednesday remarks.

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"I wish the new administration great luck and great success," Trump said. "I think they'll have great success."

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"You're gonna see incredible numbers start coming in if everything is left alone, Trump said. "Be careful. I hope they don't raise your taxes, but if they do I told you so."

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Potentially foreshadowing more involvement in politics to come, Trump said "we will be back in some form." There's been speculation that Trump could run for president in 2024, or that he may start his own political party.

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The outgoing president also lamented the coronavirus pandemic, saying that "The first thing we have to do is pay our respects and our love to the incredible people and families who suffered so gravely from the China virus. It was a horrible thing that was put into the world."

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Trump added: "We put it in a position like it's never been before despite the worst plague to hit since, I guess you'd say 1917, over a hundred years ago."

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Trump thanked Vice President Pence, Congress and his family, saying, "people have no idea how hard this family works." He also praised the American people.

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"I just want to say you are amazing people. This is a great, great country. It is my greatest honor and privilege to have been your president," Trump said. "I will always fight for you."

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Trump also made brief comments to reporters as he left the White House one final time on his way to Joint Base Andrews. He said that being president was the "honor of a lifetime" and "we love the American people."

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Trump will land in Florida before Biden is sworn in on Wednesday.

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The reason Trump is leaving so early ... is so that the plane he touches down in Florida on is "Air Force One" — the name given to whatever airplane the president is flying on. If Trump waited until Biden is sworn in, the aircraft would be called "Special Air Mission 28000."

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Trump's decision not to attend Biden's inauguration is unprecedented in modern American history.

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Trump figures to remain a force in Republican politics for some time. With his loyal following making up a significant portion of the Republican base, it will be difficult for Republicans to win primaries without his endorsement or at least embracing him publicly.

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"Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning," Trump said in his farewell message, released Tuesday.

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"There's never been anything like it. The belief that a nation must serve its citizens will not dwindle but instead only grow stronger by the day."
Biden to sign 17 executive actions, orders to reverse Trump policies, restore Obama-era programs... (Fox 01/20/2021)
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President-elect Joe Biden will sign 17 executive actions and orders in the first hours of his presidency on Wednesday.

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The moves are expected to restore a number of Obama-era policies and reverse some of what the Biden team calls "the gravest damages" of the Trump administration.

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Biden is expected to sign the executive actions from the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon after the inauguration, which is set to lay out a "forward-looking" vision for his presidency.

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Biden will declare an "immediate termination" of funding for the border wall construction — putting an end to a key Trump campaign and administration promise to "build a wall" along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Biden will also sign an executive order that revoking Trump's previous order that directed aggressive immigration enforcement.

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Next, Biden is set to sign an executive order that will put an end to Trump's "Muslim ban," which Sullivan said was rooted in "religious animus and xenophobia." ... in an effort to "restore fairness and remedy the harms caused by the bans."

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As for the census, Biden will sign an executive order Wednesday to revoke the Trump administration's plan to exclude non-citizens from the census and apportionment of congressional representatives.

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Biden also will take action Wednesday to re-engage with the World Health Organization, after Trump's decision to withdraw in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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Biden will sign the instrument to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord — after the Trump administration officially left the agreement last year. The Paris Agreement was a global pact created during the Obama administration to combat climate change.

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Next, Biden is expected to sign an executive order that will roll back Trump's environmental actions...

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"He will sign a broad executive order that takes steps that are imperative to address our climate crisis and will create good union jobs and advance environmental justice," ... Biden will also reverse "more than 100 of the previous administration's harmful policies."

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With regard to the coronavirus pandemic, Biden, on Wednesday, will launch a "100-day masking challenge," and sign an executive order requiring masks and physical distancing in all federal buildings, on all federal land and by federal employees and contractors.

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... Biden "supports Congress acting immediately to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt per person."

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... Biden on Wednesday will put "racial justice and equity at the center of our agenda," and will build a "whole of government approach to racial justice."

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Biden will sign an executive order to "define equity as the consistent and systemic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals" including those who "belong to underserved communities..."

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Biden will also sign an executive order that prohibits against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity...

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Biden will also sign an executive order to "restore and maintain public trust and government," and will order every appointee in the executive branch to sign the "ethics pledge," which will ensure that employees act in the interest of the American people and not for personal gain.

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... in the coming days and weeks, Biden will be "announcing additional executive actions that confront these challenges and deliver on the President-elect's promises to the American people, including revoking the ban on military service by transgender Americans, and reversing the Mexico City policy."

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The Mexico City policy forbids the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in foreign countries.

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump pardons Steve Bannon, Lil Wayne, dozens of others; also commutes sentences (Fox 01/20/2021)
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President Trump issued 73 pardons and 70 sentence commutations early Wednesday as he prepared to leave office.

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The White House's announcement came after it released a farewell video Tuesday of Trump in which he praised his administration's efforts on a variety of issues.

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"We promoted a culture where our laws would be upheld, our heroes honored, our history preserved, and law-abiding citizens are never taken for granted."

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"Americans should take tremendous satisfaction in all that we have achieved together. It's incredible."
Cotton: Democrats being 'very sore winners' toward Trump supporters ahead of Biden inauguration (Fox 01/20/2021)
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Many Democrats have likened the president's supporters to terrorists... "That kind of rhetoric ... is obviously exaggerated and overheated and it needs to stop now, The Democrats are being very sore winners."

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... Democrats are still being "angry and aggressive" toward Republicans because their own agenda isn't all that popular with the American people.

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"Democrats and liberals ... control our media. They control business, increasingly. They control Big Tech. They control education, Politics and government is the one place where conservatives can have their voice heard."

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"So what the Democrats want to do is use their narrow and probably fleeting majority to try to silence all opposition ... while also radically changing the rules of our democracy."

•
Those rule changes, Cotton said, would include granting statehood to Washington D.C., eliminating the legislative filibuster and nationalizing voting laws.

•
"Seventy-four million Americans ought not to be slandered based on the action of a couple thousand who participated in a violent mob at the Capitol two weeks ago."

•
"What those people need ... are Republicans and conservatives in the Congress, in the state legislatures, to stand up for their rights. And I promise you I will do that."
Gutfeld on left-wing hypocrisy surrounding violence in US (Fox 01/19/2021)
VP Mike Pence skipping Trump send-off to Florida (Fox 01/19/2021)
•
Vice President Mike Pence is not expected to attend Wednesday morning's farewell ceremony for President Trump at Joint Base Andrews...

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Pence aides tell ... that it would be logistically challenging for the vice president to show up at both the presidential inauguration as well as the Trump farewell ceremony, which is being held four hours earlier.

•
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon – on the eve of his final hours as vice president - Pence wrote "Thank you for the privilege of serving as your Vice President these past four years, it has been the greatest honor of my life. On behalf of our Wonderful Second Lady, Karen Pence, and our entire Family, Thank You and God Bless America."

•
Trump will depart Joint Base Andrews at around 8am ET Wednesday for his home in Florida.

•
He will become the first president in more than a century and a half to not attend his successor's inauguration.

•
Besides Pence, the top two Republicans in Congress will also not be attending the president's send-off.

•
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy are not expected to attend, as they've been invited to join Biden for a pre-inauguration church service in the nation's capital.

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Trump's military send-off is expected to attended by the president's family, close aides and some supporters.
President Trump releases farewell message on eve of White House departure (Fox 01/19/2021)
•
President Donald Trump Tuesday released a farewell video condemning political violence, calling on Americans to "rise above the partisan rancor," and touting some of his administration's greatest accomplishments.

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"To serve as your president has been an honor beyond description," Trump said in a nearly 20-minute video shared by the White House. "Thank you for this extraordinary privilege."

•
Trump touted his administration's tax cuts, trade deals and economic foreign policy.

•
He also touted the domestic economy, the stock market's performance and the quickly-developed COVID-19 vaccines.

•
"They called it a medical miracle," he said. "Another administration would've taken three, four, five, maybe even up to 10 years to develop a vaccine. We did it in nine months."

•
Additionally, he praised his administration's efforts to revive the U.S. economy amid the pandemic and to secure the southern border.

•
"We proudly leave the next administration with the strongest and most robust border security measures ever put into place," he said.

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"As I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning."

•
Other accomplishments the president noted were the creation of the Space Force, the first launch of astronauts aboard an American rocket since the end of the Space Shuttle program more than a decade ago, and the slayings of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

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"I am especially proud to be the first president in decades who has started no new wars, Above all, we have reasserted that in America, the government answers to the people."

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Trump also doubled down on his populist message and praised everyday Americans.

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"I did not seek the easiest course, by far it was actually the most difficult, I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices, because that's what you elected me to do."

•
In a shift toward the future, Trump condemned censorship and groupthink.

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"Shutting down free and open debate violates our core values and most enduring traditions, In America, we don't insist on absolute conformity or enforce rigid orthodoxies and punitive speech codes. We just don't do that."

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He said the work of his movement would continue, even as his term comes to an end.

•
"The movement that we started is only just beginning, There's never been anything like it. The belief that a nation must serve its citizens will not dwindle."

•
He praised individual liberty and said it was in that spirit that American pioneers settled the West, that inspired U.S. troops in battle, and that sent astronauts to the moon.

•
"America is not a timid nation of tame souls who need to be sheltered and protected from those with whom we disagree, That's not who we are. It will never be who we are."
Boebert blasts Cohen for 'irresponsible' claim she led Capitol tour before riot (Fox 01/19/2021)
•
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., blasted Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., on Monday for suggesting she took rioters on a tour of the U.S. Capitol shortly before Jan. 6...

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"During your interview on CNN today, you made false, slanderous statements that have threatened the safety of my family, my staff and me," Boebert wrote in a letter to Cohen.

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"It's unfortunate that you have connected my family being in D.C. for my swearing-in with the Capitol riots ... I have never given a tour of the U.S. Capitol to any outside group."

•
"As I previously stated, I brought my family to the Capitol on Jan. 2 for a tour and on the 3rd for pictures to commemorate the day I was sworn in as a member of the U.S. Congress."

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"Again, the only people I have ever had in the Capitol with me during the 117th Congress are my young children, husband, mom, aunt and uncle."

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"Your false statements are extraordinarily irresponsible during this period in time."

•
More than 30 House Democrats signed a letter last week claiming their Republican colleagues may have aided Capitol rioters by providing them with "reconnaissance" tours of the U.S. Capitol but have yet to flesh out their accusations.

•
House Democrats last week requested an immediate probe from Capitol Police and the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms into "suspicious behavior."
Waltz: Dems' 'insulting' statements on troops posing threat to Biden is 'definition of racism' (Fox 01/19/2021)
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... blasted Rep. Steve Cohen for his "disgusting" and "insulting" comments the day before where the Democratic lawmaker ominously suggested that President Trump supporters within the National Guard charged with helping protect Joe Biden "might want to do something" to the president-elect. ... "it's the definition of racism to stereotype an entire group based on their skin color and their gender."

•
"It's just offensive all around," he added, also noting that Cohen's comments reflect "a real ignorance of how the military thinks and works."

•
"I think every veteran, every Guardsman is offended by those comments, It's not about the person, it's about the oath they take, the same oath as every member of Congress."

•
"I got to tell you when you're out there conducting those missions, there is no politics," Waltz said. "There's just your brother, your sister, your left, your right and their fellow Americans."

•
"You don't even have a clue who anybody voted for. That doesn't even come into the equation."
Publishing exec slams industry's 'blacklist' trend, defends plan to publish Josh Hawley's book (Fox 01/19/2021)
•
"Some 250 self-described 'publishing professionals' – mostly junior employees of major houses – have issued a statement titled ‘No Book Deals for Traitors,' a category in which they include any ‘participant' in the Trump administration."

•
The 250 people "oppose any Trump administration official from publishing a future book – including the outgoing president, who is rumored to be considering a memoir."

•
"Readiness to silence someone because of who he is or whom he associates with is often called the ‘cancel culture,' but I prefer an older term – blacklisting – whose historical associations expose the ugliness of what is going on."

•
"Not so long ago, publishing professionals would have been horrified to be accused of it. Today they compete to see who can proclaim his blacklist with the fiercest invective."

•
... Hawley "invoked his legal right to object to Congress' certification of electoral votes" and reasonable people can disagree with him but that doesn't mean he has to be blacklisted.

•
"No one can reasonably argue that he intended to incite that afternoon's invasion of the Capitol by a lawless mob. He immediately and forcefully condemned the attack. But the next day Simon & Schuster canceled his forthcoming book."

•
"We're proud to publish Mr. Hawley's book, which his original publisher has made more important than ever. We don't have to agree with everything – or anything – Mr. Hawley does. We ask only if his book is well-crafted and has something true and worthwhile to say, The answer is yes."

•
"The statement of the 250 ‘publishing professionals' shows that today's censors recognize no limits. I appeal to the real professionals of publishing, some of whom may be the bosses and mentors of those who signed that mindless rant: Remember that you are Americans. Americans argue, write, preach, campaign and vote. They don't blacklist."
Huckabee pushes back on calls for 'deprogramming' Trump voters: 'The cult of the left' (Fox 01/19/2021)
•
"The first thing would be to get some of these leftist loons [to] take their boot off my neck. I don't need that, I'm supposed to be a free American with the capacity to think for myself. If my views are as horrible as they think they are, then nobody will follow them."

•
... asserted that there is "no cult" of Trump supporters, but rather people who "appreciate the many" actions that President Trump made for the country such as "standing up for the sanctity of life, standing with Israel by moving an embassy into that country, and resetting the Middle East."

•
"I'm glad he cut taxes, deregulated for businesses so that people had the highest number of jobs among Hispanics, Blacks and women in the history of the country. I'm glad that he pushed back against China so we're not rolling over as these Communists continue to steal everything, including our information and our data and every single secret and innovation we've created."

•
"There are some things that even a leftist ought to be able to look at and say, 'You know what? President Trump has done some good things,' but they can't. And they're the ones who are following the cult, the cult of the left, that thinks somehow that they're always right, they're never wrong, and the rest of us are crazy."
Wyoming Republicans censure Cheney over Trump impeachment vote (Fox 01/19/2021)
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"Representative Cheney has violated the trust of her voters, failed to faithfully represent a very large majority of motivated Wyoming voters, and neglected her duty to represent the party and the will of the people who elected her to represent them."

•
"By announcing her decision to vote for impeachment Representative Cheney denied President Trump due process; she judged the 'evidence' before it was presented and refused to listen to the arguments made."
Hannity: Democrats' 'deprogramming' rhetoric the opposite of Biden's calls for 'unity' (Fox 01/19/2021)
•
"Reeducation camps, deprogramming, OK. According to the press wing of the Democratic-Establishment Socialist Party, you, we the people, we need to be deprogrammed or put in reeducation camps because our political opinion differs from theirs."

•
Hannity added that while the effort by the liberal press establishment to censor or quash dissenting or conservative voices is not new, it shows some on the left believe their debate opponents are "outright evil."

•
"They are little totalitarians. Their one goal is to shut you up; shut us up."

•
... the danger is compounded by Democrats in Congress seeking to enact a "radical platform" , including open borders, curtailing the Keystone XL pipeline, and the Green New Deal regulations.

•
"[It's] everything we warned you about. Noticeably missing from the Biden-Harris agenda, anything actually related to unity."

•
"After an extremely close and contentious election, no one on the left actually wants to bring 75 million Trump voters into the fold. Quite the opposite."
Trump rebuts NY Times '1619 Project' with '1776 Report' urging schools to reject 'ideological poison' (Fox 01/18/2021)
•
In the report, the commission argues that schools "should reject any curriculum that promotes one-sided partisan opinions, activist propaganda, or factional ideologies that demean America's heritage, dishonor our heroes, or deny our principles.

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"Neither America nor any other nation has perfectly lived up to the universal truths of equality, liberty, justice and government by consent."

•
"But no nation before America ever dared state those truths as the formal basis for its politics, and none has strived harder, or done more, to achieve them."

•
"The most common charge leveled against the founders, and hence against our country itself, is that they were hypocrites who didn't believe in their stated principles, and therefore the country they built rests on a lie."

•
"This charge is untrue, and has done enormous damage, especially in recent years, with a devastating effect on our civic unity and social fabric."

•
"Many Americans labor under the illusion that slavery was somehow a uniquely American evil, It is essential to insist at the outset that the institution be seen in a much broader perspective."

•
"Critical race theory, the 1619 Project and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda, ideological poison, that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together, will destroy our country," Trump said at a press conference last September announcing plans for the commission.

•
The 1776 Commission's report identifies the "1619 Project" as an example of a "radicalized challenge" to past views of American history that sought to "diminish our shared history and disunite the country by setting certain communities against others."

•
"Such works do not respect their students' independence as young thinkers trying to grapple with social complexity while forming their empirical judgments about it."

•
"They disdain today's students, just as they doubt the humanity, goodness or benevolence in America's greatest historical figures. They see only weaknesses and failures, teaching students truth is an illusion, that hypocrisy is everywhere, and that power is all that matters."

•
The report adds that U.S. colleges are "often hotbeds of anti-Americanism, libel, and censorship that combine to generate in students and in the broader culture at the very least disdain and at worst outright hatred for this country."
Greenwald fires back at CNN's Tapper over 'lies' rant, notes network peddled 'unhinged' Russia 'conspiracy' (Fox 01/18/2021)
•
"That is what is so amazing, They really do believe that only they are responsible enough to disseminate information to the public, and everybody else is essentially all too stupid or too dishonest to have the ability to disseminate information."

•
"That is the same network that spent four years, maybe five years, telling Americans that Moscow had infiltrated control of the United States government because of sexually compromising videos they were using over President Trump, Completely deranged, unhinged conspiracy theory for which there was no evidence."

•
"It is all about power and this hatred they have that they believe they are the only ones who ought to be heard and ought to have a platform."
Democratic lawmakers, liberal media didn’t always condemn violence (Fox 01/18/2021)
Massachusetts mom punched at Capitol rally loses hospital job (Fox 01/18/2021)
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... after her teenage daughter publicly shamed her for being at a violent pro-President Trump rally has now lost her job of 15 years — and fears she'll never get another.

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"I did nothing wrong," Duke insisted... "I was the one who was assaulted."

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The nurse said that since then she has been "getting threats" and UMass Memorial Health Care confirmed online that she is "no longer a part of our organization."

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"Anybody can Google me," she told... "Nobody will hire me."

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She believed "no one wanted violence" and stressed that none of her group were involved in the next day's riots or storming of the Capitol.
Parler CEO John Matze says platform will welcome users 'back soon' in new status update (Fox 01/17/2021)
Gordon Chang: China 'might still have leverage' over Rep. Swalwell amid spy scandal (Fox 01/17/2021)
Nikki Haley: ‘Harsh reality’ is Bernie Sanders will be Budget Committee chairman (Fox 01/16/2021)
•
"Time to face the harsh reality, socialist Bernie Sanders will become the chairman of the Sen Budget Committee. He has vowed to use his position to enact his progressive agenda on healthcare, climate, infrastructure spending, & cutting defense spending."

•
"Hold onto your wallets. Biden's 1.9 trillion "stimulus" package is filled with wasteful spending & bailouts. An even larger spending blowout will follow. Even middle-of-the-road media outlets are calling Biden's agenda "radical.""
Ingraham: Republicans must press Biden for hard timeline of post-COVID reopening (Fox 01/16/2021)
•
"They [Democrats] are comfortable with the lockdowns and Zoom classes and government stimulus checks and want them to continue."

•
"Now they have control of the federal government. All of its resources will be used to promote more masks, more lockdowns and other measures that will hurt the working class."

•
"They will send out Dr. Fauci to talk about new virus mutations and scare us about how much worse things will be if we don't do what Biden and Dr. Fauci say."

•
"No Republican should vote for any more relief until Biden puts his cards on the table about reopening with exact details of how we will get our freedoms back. The GOP should ask for details about how long the security measures will stay in place."
NRA files for bankruptcy, announces it's ditching New York for Texas (Fox 01/15/2021)
Ari Fleischer slams Twitter's Dorsey for continuing to do 'damage' with account purges (Fox 01/15/2021)
•
"I literally went on this device, a phone, and I put in the hashtag on Twitter #killTrump, and lots of stuff came up. So how in the world can Twitter, with a straight face, say their policy is to stop speech that promotes violence while they allow #killTrump to be on their site. The hypocrisy of Twitter is profound. The damage they're doing to a republic in which there should be freedom, there should be speech and as much as they are a private group with a right to do this, when you exercise your right in wrongful ways you divide America. Twitter is standing now for the division of America..."

•
"America is being turned into a college campus where if you don't adhere to the proper political orthodoxy you can be banned and silenced. This is inherently divisive and it made our nation deal with political difficulties. The society breathes. We're allowed to talk and air our differences without being shunned. We're no longer that type of country, I'm afraid. That's why these types of censorship actions are so dangerous..."

•
"Why is there so much anti-Semitism on Twitter? Why is there so much threats of violence on Twitter? It is only conservative activists they target. I'm sorry, Jack, you're not allowed to muse about the damage you are doing when you continue to do the damage."
Goya CEO says economic shutdowns were politically motivated: 'It killed our spirit' (Fox 01/15/2021)
•
"The problem is it's a political year. They weaponized coronavirus. Unfortunately, they shut down this economy."

•
"The worst thing we could do is shut down our economy, it killed our spirit. We need a reason to get up in the morning: God, family and work. And they are taking away our spirit, they're taking away our ability to work."

•
"It's the worst thing we could have done. Just for political gain, I think it is criminal, I think it is immoral to shut down this economy for this ... basically political reason."

•
"We're one nation under God. We're not one nation under Twitter, we're not one nation under big media and or under essential government. We're trying to have media and big tech control our lives — the government control our lives. We need to not move away from God. We need to move closer to God. They want to cancel God. They want to cancel speech, our speech. They want to cancel our culture, our history, our liberty."
The late test pilot Chuck Yeager, first to break sound barrier, makes his last flight (Fox 01/15/2021)
Arrest of left-wing activist in Capitol riot shows need for 'full and transparent investigation' (Fox 01/15/2021)
•
"The mob, the media, Democrats rush to judgment and they allowed their Trump rage to guide their every action. Now the country has been let down again."
Left-wing activist charged in Capitol riot after saying he was just there to 'document' (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
Inside the building, he told rioters that "We gotta get this s** burned."
CNN's Don Lemon 'doesn't get to choose his own facts' or 'justify violence': Devine (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
"Political violence is never justified, no matter what the cause, but there you have Don Lemon saying that it is justified, that you can use violence."

•
"He doesn't get to choose his own facts and he doesn't get to justify violence and continue on CNN, which should be ashamed of itself, to stoke those fires."

•
"It is so divisive and it is such a hypocritical double standard. It really just causes more division and begets more violence."

•
"Republicans and conservatives have been consistent the whole time. They were against the violence all last year and could not believe, the same people now who are ushering in the National Guard to protect them in Washington were calling the president, President Trump, a fascist for calling in the National Guard."

•
"You have to stop stoking and condoning and welcoming and nomalizing violence, and we saw that for months and months and months last year."
More 'Russiagate' documents set for release, Senate source says (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
A trove of documents related to the origins of the "Russiagate" probe, the U.S. intelligence community's widely scrutinized investigation of alleged collusion between members of the Trump administration and Russia, will be declassified on Friday...

•
The declassified documents will include depositions, transcripts and interviews... The release is expected to include hundreds of documents.

•
In October, the president tweeted that he had "fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax."

•
"All Russia Hoax Scandal information was declassified by me long ago," Trump said at the time. "Unfortunately for our Country, people have acted very slowly, especially since it is perhaps the biggest political crime in the history of our Country."

•
See related Russia Hoax (Gary Varvel, 10/07/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Varney rips Twitter over Trump ban: It’s ‘censorship, plain and simple’ (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
"Dorsey justifies this by saying the president incited violence, I'd like to be the judge of that. I can decide for myself. I want to see and hear what the president has to say."

•
"He's trying to justify censorship, but he seems confused, He says banning the president was ‘the right decision' and then he tweets that it ‘sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation.'"...

•
"Do we really want a couple of billionaires who run near-monopoly businesses, dictating what we may see and hear?"

•
"The recent events in Washington have brought into full view the dangers of monopoly power when applied to public speech."

•
"It doesn't matter whether it's the government or a private company that's telling us what we can see and hear. Big government or big corporation — censorship of political opinion by a monopoly is wrong."

•
... Americans must never accept limits on free speech or allow themselves to be forced into an "acceptable" way of thinking.

•
"This is America, and we are not sheep! We will always be divided if one side thinks their point of view is being suppressed by the corporate elite."

•
See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Google bans political ads ahead of Biden inauguration (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
"Effective Thursday, [Jan.] 14, we will be expanding that designation to include all political ads, While this policy is in place, advertisers will not be able to run ads referencing candidates, the election, its outcome, the upcoming presidential inauguration, the ongoing presidential impeachment."
Rep. Donalds: House Dems 'weaponized' race to make Trump impeachment case (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
"They always try to bring race into something in order to weaponize their arguments, to make people just frankly be quiet, to shut up and to sit down."

•
"When Ayatollah Khamenei can have a tweet go out calling for the genocide of Israel and Twitter doesn't flag it and take it down, that just shows you where Twitter's standards are. They have no standards. Their standards are basically what they feel politically..."

•
"It's very very clear that if you have a dissenting political speech from the conservative side of the aisle from the right, quote-unquote, in America, you are supposed to be quiet, you are supposed to be removed from the public square, but, the left can foment riots, they can do just about anything that they want."
Scalise slams Dems for 'ratcheting up rhetoric,' says Biden should call for end to impeachment trial (Fox 01/14/2021)
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"They just want to keep kind of ratcheting up the rhetoric, Fox & Friends We need to be focused on toning down the rhetoric right now because people are afraid ... very much on edge."

•
Scalise, who opposed impeachment, said he called for a commission to investigate the Capitol Hill riot.

•
"There's been no investigation into this. They literally did an impeachment without even a hearing in committee. That's never happened in the history of our country. If they really wanted the facts, if they think the facts are on their side, they would've done that."

•
"When you see all these Democrats that are only calling it out now, they did not call it out during the summer. In fact, some of them were encouraging some of the violence we saw over the summer, fanning those flames. You can't have it both ways, You've got to be consistent in calling out violence. None of us should support that."

•
Scalise said this is the "moment" for President-elect Joe Biden to call for an end to the impeachment trial in the Senate to "heal" the country.

•
After a "non-ending barrage for four years" against Trump, Scalise said, "we need to be focused on diffusing, not continuing to add gasoline to a fire."
US energy independence is on the way out (Fox 01/14/2021)
Matt Gaetz pushes back on Crenshaw over Cheney impeachment vote defense (Fox 01/14/2021)
Hannity urges McConnell to reject impeachment 'madness' in Senate: 'You should know better' (Fox 01/14/2021)
•
... urged Republican senators to "stop enabling these psychotic, mentally unhinged Democratic socialists," and reject their impeachment "madness" when it reaches the Senate next week.

•
"Senate Republicans, you want to go along with this nonsense, 75 million Americans went to the polls, [and] I'd argue they went there more for Donald Trump than for Republicans, They should think about why people voted for Donald Trump, why they support his agenda."

•
"And Mitch McConnell, you should know better ... This nonsense in the Senate will get this country nowhere. It will not heal divisions, it will not improve the lives of Americans, it will only further divide a country that is weeks out from one of the hotly contested races in history."

•
"Liz Cheney, I have a message for those ten Republicans, good luck in your new Democratic Party, I used to like you, liked your dad. You voted for impeachment. You're clearly out of step with Republicans and conservatives in this country. You don't belong in leadership."
Trump calls on Americans, Big Tech to help ensure peaceful transition: 'NO violence' (Fox 01/13/2021)
•
"In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind."

•
"That is not what I stand for and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You."
McCarthy says impeachment would divide: ‘Censure resolution would be prudent’ (Fox 01/13/2021)
•
"I believe impeaching the president in such a short timeframe would be a mistake. No investigations have been completed. No hearings have been held. What's more, the Senate has confirmed that no trial will begin until after President-elect Biden is sworn in."

•
... impeachment would further divide the nation and "fan the flames of partisan division."

•
"That doesn't mean the president is free from fault. The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding."
Flashback: Nadler's Clinton impeachment comments from 1998 surface as he leads Trump efforts (Fox 01/13/2021)
•
"There must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment supported by one of our major political parties and opposed by the other," Nadler said when Clinton was in office.

•
"Such an impeachment will produce a divisiveness and bitterness in our politics for years to come and will call into question the very legitimacy of our political institutions."

•
Nadler and his staff released a report explaining why Trump "is unfit to remain in office a single day longer" on Tuesday.

•
"President Trump committed a high Crime and Misdemeanor against the Nation by inciting an insurrection at the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election."

•
However, Nadler said politically motivated impeachments "call into question the very legitimacy of our political institutions" when President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, faced such a threat from House Republicans.

•
"The effect of impeachment is to overturn the popular will of the voters," Nadler said on the House floor during the Clinton impeachment hearings more than 20 years ago.

•
"We must not overturn an election and remove a president from office except to defend our system of government or constitutional liberties against a dire threat, and we must not do so without an overwhelming consensus of the American people."

•
... Nadler had a very different reaction to plotting against the U.S. Capitol when he pushed for a pardon for former Weather Underground member Susan Rosenberg. In 1988, Rosenberg was charged for her role in the 1983 Senate bombing that killed no one but caused roughly $250,000 in damage (the charges were later dropped).

•
She was already in prison because of her connection to a robbery that resulted in the murder of two police officers and faced a 58-year sentence before she was pardoned thanks to Nadler's help...

•
Trump 'would have standing to challenge' his impeachment trial: Turley (Fox 01/13/2021)
•
... President Trump "would have standing to challenge" his impeachment trial potentially taking place after he is no longer in office "and the court could rule on it."

•
"It is going to get even more bizarre once the president leaves office, You will be trying to remove a president who has already left. It's like grounding a plane that's landed and can't take off again."

•
Turley then pointed out that "the president, as a former president can argue in court that he is no longer subject to impeachment."

•
"The impeachment provision refers to the purpose as the removal of the president, The added penalty of barring him from future office is something that occurs after conviction and removal."

•
"This is one of the few impeachment issues that actually could be resolved by the courts, If they did impose this penalty in a type of retroactive impeachment, the president would have standing to challenge it and a court could rule on it."

•
Turley also stressed on Wednesday that he didn't think Democrats should go forward with the "snap impeachment."

•
He also made the point earlier in the week, explaining that the process is supposed be "deliberative," not impulsive.
Liz Cheney faces backlash from some GOP lawmakers after backing Trump impeachment (Fox 01/13/2021)
•
"I don't think she should be the chair of the Republican conference anymore. The reality is she's not representing the conference; she's not representing the Republican ideals."

•
"When Representative Cheney came out for impeachment today, she failed to consult with the Conference, failed to abide by the spirit of the rules of the Republican Conference, and ignored the preferences of Republican voters."

•
"She is weakening our conference at a key moment for personal political gain and is unfit to lead. She must step down as Conference Chair."

•
Cheney said in an earlier statement, "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."

•
Biggs said he voted against the resolution urging Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. He said ... "individuals who committed the crimes at the U.S. Capitol last week are solely to blame for their violent actions.

•
"And yet, Democrats want to blame President Trump for the violence that took place at the Capitol – a continuation of a years-long effort to undermine and overthrow the 45th President of the United States. Their partisan and spiteful actions are shameful, serving only to tear our nation further apart and shatter our Constitution."
Pence uses Pelosi's own words to justify not invoking the 25th Amendment (Fox 01/13/2021)
•
"Last week, I did not yield to pressure to exert power beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election."

•
"And I will not now yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our nation."

•
"Just a few months ago, when you introduced legislation to create a 25th Amendment Commission, you said, [a] President's fitness for office must be determined by science and facts'," Pence wrote.

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"You said that we must be very respectful of not making a judgment on the basis of a comment or behavior that we don't like, but based on a medical decision. Madam Speaker you were right."

•
Pence urged her to reconsider pushing forward with actions that he believes would further "divide and inflame the passions of the moment."
Vivek Ramaswamy & Jed Rubenfeld: Twitter and Facebook censorship is a free-speech violation (Fox 01/13/2021)
Twitter silent after Pelosi tweet declaring 2016 election was 'hijacked' resurfaces (Fox 01/12/2021)
•

•
Mueller's investigation ultimately found no evidence of collusion and a 2018 report from the Senate Intelligence Committee that there was no evidence that Russia changed vote tallies in the 2016 election.

•
"This tweet by @SpeakerPelosi from 5/7/17 is an illustration of how months after the 2016 election, leading Dems were still sowing doubt about the integrity of the election just as they did after FL 2000. This rhetoric paved the way for the other side to do the same."
McConnell furious with president, supports move to initiate impeachment proceedings: sources (Fox 01/12/2021)
•
... McConnell has not made up his mind about what to do about impeachment, and does not see this as a partisan exercise like the previous impeachment effort against Trump.

•
Another source told ... that McConnell told associates that impeachment will help rid the Republican Party of Trump and his movement.

•
The New York Times first reported that McConnell was pleased that House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against Trump.

•
Part of McConnell's anger, according to sources, is that the Senate Majority was lost to the Democrats just last Tuesday in the Georgia Senate runoffs, but sources said that McConnell is extremely upset about the president's actions Wednesday leading up to the riot at the Capitol.
Trump says 'I kept my promises' as he marks 450 miles of border wall, amid riot fallout in DC (Fox 01/12/2021)
•
"For years, politicians ran for office promising to secure the border – only to get elected and do the absolute exact opposite, they even promised a wall."

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"But unlike those who came before me, I kept my promises. Today, we celebrate an extraordinary milestone: the completion of the promised 450 miles of border wall."

•
... Trump described the group that stormed the Capitol as a "mob" and said they "trashed the halls of government. We believe in the rule of law not in violence or rioting," he said.

•
He also brushed off calls for Trump's cabinet to remove him via the 25th Amendment, saying it would hurt President-elect Joe Biden more than him.

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"The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me, but it will come back to haunt Joe Biden. Be careful what you wish for."

•
... also warned of a resurgence in illegal immigration if Biden reverses many of his policies on immigration. Specifically, on the wall, Biden has promised that he would not allow "another foot" to be built under his administration.

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Trump warned that ending his policies and increasing incentives would lead to "a tidal wave of illegal immigration, a wave like you've never seen before" and that there were already signs of increased flows.
Democrats' China connections keep piling up (Fox 01/12/2021)
Parler CEO blasts AOC, elected officials who called to ban his app (Fox 01/12/2021)
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"I think it's sick, That's not what the Constitution said. That's not what the Constitution stands for, banning 10-plus million U.S. voters from the internet, barring people from free speech. When people do things like that, it shows that they don't understand the meaning of the Constitution or this country and what it stands for."

•
"Frankly, I would call it evil, because my definition of evil is ‘forcing your will upon others,' he said.

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He usually doesn't take threats directed at him too seriously, he said. But this time he's gone into hiding with his family.
Swalwell, Boebert feud heats up as accusations fly on Twitter (Fox 01/12/2021)
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"In the past 5 days, the left has shown us what vile hypocrites they truly are," Boebert tweeted... "They are driven by hate, projection and endless conspiracy theories."

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Swalwell responded "Like any citizen who has committed a crime, Lauren Boebert has the right to remain silent. I suggest that she use it."

•
See related Top Secret (Mike Shelton, 12/11/2020) cartoon from Adult picture album
Gingrich: Pelosi-led Trump impeachment effort driven by 'fear' he could win in 2024 (Fox 01/12/2021)
•
"Trump has to be impeached to stop him from running again, Pelosi fears the American people might pick him if they were allowed to. What a formula for expressing Washington's contempt for the people."
Forbes op-ed warns companies about hiring 'fabulists' from Trump administration (Fox 01/12/2021)
•
"This is just the latest example of cancel culture and the great purge that we're seeing come from the left and never-Trump Republicans."

•
"This dangerous cancel culture, which wants to ban any American who had the audacity to support President Trump or work in his administration from being able to do something as basic as have a new job."

•
"It is going to divide us and, of course, there is a huge double standard to talk about here where this is coming from the same media that peddled the idea that the 2016 election was hijacked from the Russians."

•
"Nancy Pelosi tweeted that the 2016 election was hijacked and faced no sort of repercussions. The media partook in peddling that narrative. They don't hold themselves accountable but yet they want to turn around and tell us that anyone who worked in the Trump administration does not deserve to have a job."
Twitter, Facebook, others, here's how to crush tech giants' tyranny (Fox 01/12/2021)
•
The mob that stormed the Capitol last week was a grave threat to our democracy but just as serious were actions taken by social media companies days later when Twitter shut down President Trump's accounts and Google and Amazon ousted Parler, a site favored by millions of conservatives.

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Big tech, which is run by the left, is robbing Americans of their access to a free marketplace of ideas.

•
If social media can silence the president of the United States, think what they'll do to you. It's tyranny.

•
The nation's founders wrote the First Amendment, to guarantee us freedom of speech and association and protect us from government censorship.

•
They had no way of anticipating that tech companies would grow more powerful than governments, and have the monopolistic ability to suppress or cancel political viewpoints.
Parler CEO on 'shocking' restrictions by Amazon, Apple and Google: 'You just never think it...' (Fox 01/12/2021)
•
"You just never think it will happen, right? You know? What is really interesting is that they all did on the same day, those three [Apple, Google and Amazon] without any prior warning. We woke up on Friday thinking business, business as usual."

•
On Friday, Google dropped Parler's app from its Google Play Store. Apple followed suit Saturday by removing the app from the App store, while Amazon Web Services cut off Parler from its web hosting services.

•
... when Google dropped Parler, "we didn't get a notice from Google. We read it online in the news first. That is shocking."

•
While a non-partisan company, Parler has become a refuge for Trump supporters and others who have been either been kicked off Facebook and Twitter or have left those social networks in protest.

•
"People are threatening my life, I can't go home tonight. So this is really a lot, you know. This is not just our civil liberties. [Big Tech] can shut down a billion-dollar company, half-a-billion dollar company overnight."
Ari Fleischer warns Big Tech wrong to believe censorship works: 'It creates a dangerous underground' (Fox 01/11/2021)
•
"This is a slippery slope that leads all of us into a worse place, Censorship never works. Censorship doesn't get rid of the ideas. It creates a dangerous underground. That's what we're seeing. It won't end well."

•
... noted that synidcated radio host Rush Limbaugh had told his audience Monday that "we" — meaning conservatives and the conservative movement — are "being censored out of existence."

•
"This ends in a terrible place, This ends in even more anger and recrimination. If you have one side that this is being done to, if you realize the only way you can communicate is to lash out, you will lash out."

•
"The president has put himself in this position, But still, Twitter erred. This is what Kamala Harris called for when she ran for the presidency, isn't it? She urged Twitter to ban the president. Now [that] the Biden-Harris administration is coming in, Twitter acts in accordance with their wishes. This doesn't look good and it ends worse."
Trump bans by Twitter, Facebook will trigger Big Tech giants' 'downfall,' says... (Fox 01/11/2021)
•
"They just pulled the trigger on what now amounts to them saying, ‘We do feel accountable for content,'"...

•
"I think the fact that all these companies have made the moves to ban Trump proves that they now realize they are responsible for the content and now it's time to talk about Section 230."

•
"I do believe this will be the beginning of the downfall of social media as we know it. I don't think social media is going away, I think what's going to happen is between this stuff which will get us deep into Section 230, the antitrust cases and all this other litigation being brought up against Big Tech, I do think we are going to see the downfall of these companies. There is a giant net being cast over these companies that is going to drag them down."
Parler sues Amazon for suspending app from cloud service, claims antitrust violation and breach... (Fox 01/11/2021)
•
"AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus, AWS is violating Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act in combination with Defendant Twitter. AWS is also breaching it[s] contract with Parler, which requires AWS to provide Parler with a thirty-day notice before terminating service, rather than the less than thirty-hour notice AWS actually provided. Finally, AWS is committing intentional interference with prospective economic advantage given the millions of users expected to sign up in the near future."

•
"Last month, Defendant Amazon Web Services, Inc. (" AWS") and the popular social media platform Twitter signed a multi-year deal so that AWS could support the daily delivery of millions of tweets. AWS currently provides that same service to Parler, a conservative microblogging alternative and competitor to Twitter."

•
"When Twitter announced two evenings ago that it was permanently banning President Trump from its platform, conservative users began to flee Twitter en masse for Parler. The exodus was so large that the next day, yesterday, Parler became the number one free app downloaded from Apple's App Store."

•
"Nobody has presented any credible piece of information or evidence that, you know, there is anything problems on Parler that don't exist on other platforms, This really is a double standard. ... We see all sorts of nasty threatening content on Twitter, much more of it actually, in our opinion, and, actually, a lot of content that's deleted from Parler still remains on Twitter to this day in the form of screenshots. So I don't understand, you know, what this is really about. Because it is not about holding everybody to account equally. It is about giving preferential treatment to certain people."
Rep. Nunes calls for racketeering investigation into Amazon, Apple, Google following Parler ban (Fox 01/10/2021)
•
... Nunes said Amazon, Apple and Google's suspension of Parler is "clearly a violation'" of antitrust, civil rights and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is a federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

•
"I don't know where the hell the Department of Justice is at right now or the FBI."

•
... "there should be a racketeering investigation on all the people that coordinated this attack on not only a company, but on all of those like us."

•
"I have 3 million followers on Parler, Tonight I will no longer be able to communicate with those people and they're Americans."

•
"The effect of this is that there is no longer a free and open social media company or site for any American to get on any longer."

•
He went on to say that Apple, Amazon and Google "just destroyed" Parler.

•
"Republicans have no way to communicate, it doesn't even matter if you're Republican or conservative."

•
He stressed that there is no social media platform left for those who "don't want to be regulated by left-wingers that are at Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, where you get shadow banned, nobody gets to see you, they get to decide what's violent and not violent."

•
"These CEOs that are doing this should be prosecuted criminally," Nunes added.

•
"I've been talking to many of my colleagues, Republicans on the House side and a couple senators, We're going to look for legal options, do we have any legal options? Do we have our First Amendment rights? Are they being violated?"

•
"Legislatively, you have to understand, this is not about Big Tech and that they're just in Silicon Valley and they're just trying to make money, no they're working for the Democratic socialist party, They're being cheered on by this. They are state-run media and really it's the communication system."

•
"That's how people are receiving their information is through this funnel of very few companies that are being controlled by the Democrat socialist party."
Post-Capitol riot censorship shows 'unelected' companies have 'monopoly power': Rubio (Fox 01/10/2021)
•
"This is also an opportunity for [the left] to go and put pressure on social media companies to literally not just erase the president but erase everybody."

•
"We are now living in a country where four or five companies, unelected, unaccountable, have the monopoly power to decide, we're gonna wipe people out, we're going to erase them, from any digital platform, whether it's selling things and the like."

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Rubio described rioters who breached the Capitol as a "rogue's gallery" and "wackos," but he said tech companies' eagerness to censor pro-Trump voices is a "cynical" ploy.

•
"It's also very cynical, Facebook, Twitter, these are not moral champions here. The reason why these guys are doing it is because Democrats are about to take power, and they view this as a way to get on their good side to avoid restrictions or any sort of laws being passed that hurt them."

•
"We could be talking about how we all agree that this is terrible and what is it that got in people's heads and what are the things that people believe in, conspiracy-wise ... that caused them to do these actions that we all reject."

•
"Instead, what we are now engaging in [is] a new front: who should be censored by five companies who no one's elected and have the power to wipe you out? As far as China's concerned, their fundamental argument is democracy doesn't work, it's messy, it's chaotic. ... Can you think of a better talking point for them?"
Jon Voight praises Trump, calls for unity in new video following Capitol riots: 'It's not over' (Fox 01/10/2021)
•
"My fellow Americans. We shall not weep, but let us give thanks to President Trump for his four years of hard work and love for America. Let us not put our heads down, let us rise and look to a better future. Let us praise God. Let us understand that His plan is far greater."

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"I know all are disappointed, but this violence is not who we are, We are love, respect, honor. The ones who destroyed will be accountable but the ones who truly wanted to share love and respect will be heard.

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"Let us put aside our differences and let America grow. Let us stand again with pride and we as a nation will hold on to the love that President Trump shared with us all. It's not over. The truths of justice will prevail for God's glory shall as well. Love to you."
Kirstie Alley condemns Twitter for banning Trump in series of tweets (Fox 01/10/2021)
•
"Hey jack Why didn't you suspend these four people's accounts for inciting riots for months? 30 people died ... billions of property destroyed ... millions terrorized? Bueller Bueller?" ... along with a retweet that showed controversial comments from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

•
She asked President-elect Joe Biden in another tweet what his take is on the "TOTAL censorship of conservatives?"

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"I know that many times you have said you're going to be the president of both parties. I really wish you would speak out and object to censorship on behalf of all people. Thank you."

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"If you don't think this is scary stuff & by U I mean all of US from whatever political persuasion then U are complicit to communism & DICTATORSHIPS. I trust that none of us on this timeline R OK with this purging and canceling. For those of you who think it's Ok ur next. U'll see."

•
She also likened big tech censorship to "slavery," saying that companies like Twitter, hold "the keys to the chains."

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"Remember all the fires, killing, terrorizing, destruction and yes, at FEDERAL buildings? It was HIDEOUS & ILLEGAL.Remember how these criminals got FUNDED & bailed out? NO ONE WAS OUSTED FROM PLATFORMS including politicos who ENDORSED the VIOLENCE. Remember?"

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"Breaching the CAPITOL was a treasonous criminal terrifying act and those people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, I do not condone VIOLENCE, TREASON, CRIMINAL ACTS OR DESTRUCTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY."

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Levin: Media 'exploiting' Capitol riot to 'silence conservatives' as Democrats work to 'choke the system' (Fox 01/10/2021)
•
"The New York Times: 'Trump Incites Mob'. This is projection, This is projection. He never did that. Or The Washington Post: 'Trump mob storms Capitol'. There were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people there ... That's an awfully broad brush. Or the [New York] Daily News: 'President Incites Insurrection' ... or USA Today: 'Pro-Trump Mobs Storm US [sic] Capitol'. How about 'Thugs Storm U.S. Capitol'? How about 'Lawbreakers Storm U.S. Capitol'?"

•
"So they double down, they triple down, they quadruple down. They're not going to change at all. On one side of their mouth, they talk about unity. Out of the other side of their mouth, they spit on people, Seventy-four million [Trump-voting] people and more, they're not going away. Their concerns still exist."

•
Meanwhile ... House Democrats are working toward their goal to "choke the system even further" by passing a rules package for the 117th Congress that makes it "virtually impossible for Republicans to even propose legislation or amend legislation, even though [they] only has a 10- or 11-person majority in the House."

•
"Nancy Pelosi ... eliminated 100 years of tradition ... and the media are trying to intimidate conservatives and constitutionalists by projecting onto them the violence that occurred by reprobates and others who need to be tracked down and punished."

•
"So it seems that the lessons have not been learned, They certainly haven't been learned by the left, they certainly haven't been learned by the media, and they certainly haven't been learned by the Never Trumpers."

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
If Biden halts border wall, it could cost taxpayers billions, CBP chief warns (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"So in addition to the 450 that we've already got on the ground, we've got funded 350 miles of wall system to go in the ground."

•
"The overwhelming amount of those miles, that funding, the contracts have already been awarded."

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However, the wall faces a grim future under Biden, who has promised that not "another foot" would be built.

•
It seems unlikely, therefore, that he will allow a new 350 miles - nearly equal the amount of wall built under his predecessor.

•
"It'll cost taxpayers billions of dollars, billions of dollars in settlement fees, We're going to walk away from areas of the wall that have already been constructed."
Lindsey Graham calls Twitter's Trump ban a mistake: 'Ayatollah can tweet, but Trump can’t' (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"Twitter may ban me for this but I willingly accept that fate, The Ayatollah can tweet, but Trump can't. Says a lot about the people who run Twitter."

•
Graham and numerous other conservative voices on Twitter griped that the social media company went too far by banning Trump, while still allowing dictators from murderous regimes to use the site.
Conservatives, others claim Twitter removed thousands of followers (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"Twitter, the 'public forum' for free speech, has deleted 15,000 followers from my account in the last few hours. "

•
"There is no point engaging in a national conversation on a "forum" that is in actual fact a propaganda organ."

•
"Those cheering the suppression of people with whom they disagree might remember the pendulum always swings."

•
"Be careful what you wish for. It's often what you also deserve."
Nikki Haley says Trump Twitter ban is 'what happens in China' (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"Silencing people, not to mention the President of the US, is what happens in China not our country."
Rep. Cawthorn: Big tech censorship of conservatives sets 'dangerous precedent,' 'trust-busting' needed (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"These 60,000 conservative accounts on Twitter that have now been permanently banned ... this sets a very dangerous precedent. It's something we have to fight against."
Trump supporters ditch Twitter en masse after president's suspension (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"Goodbye Twitter" trended during the early morning hours Saturday as people continued to come to grips with the leader of the free world being banned from the social media platform.

•
Moments after Trump was dumped by Twitter, the website for Parler crashed, likely as a result of a crush of new users overwhelming their servers. The outage lasted less than an hour.

•
Google, however, has suspended Parler from its Play Store, saying Parler failed to remove "egregious content" inciting violence. Apple has warned Parler it will remove the app from its App Store if it does not comply with its content-moderation requirements.
After Trump Twitter ban, CBP chief says conservatives are 'constantly being censored' by Big Tech (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"... we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service."

•
... not impressed by that claim, and said that when the Hatfield Courthouse was being sieged by protesters in Portland over the summer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saw no consequences for calling federal agents "stormtroopers."

•
"Now my opinion is that is hateful, that is irresponsible and that is inciteful, but that's my opinions and even how irresponsible that is I still support her right to say that because that is what America is about, that is what we stand for... and that is what makes us different from any other nation in this world."

•
Morgan himself was briefly suspended in October 2020 for a tweet about the wall on the southern border... "Every mile helps us stop gang members, murderers, sexual predators and drugs from entering our country," the tweet had said. Twitter initially locked the account for violating rules governing "hateful conduct."
NY Post Editorial Board: Why Twitter ban of realDonaldTrump proves it's not 'just a platform' (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
So Twitter has "permanently banned" President Donald Trump's account. While this will please Democrats, and perhaps lessen the (justifiable) heat the company is taking from regulators, it just proves again that Twitter's claims that it is "just a platform" are hogwash.

•
Some of Trump's tweets were untrue and incendiary, but so are the Ayatollah Khamenei's. His account is still up.

•
The difference is Twitter is run by American liberals, who only really police one type of person, of one political persuasion.

•
It's a little ridiculous that what finally did Trump in was tweeting that he wouldn't be attending Joe Biden's inauguration.

•
Twitter twisted that to mean that he still won't accept the results of the election — which just shows they were looking for an excuse. Rather than let the readers judge, they pulled the plug.

•
If Twitter was a private publisher, this would be annoying but unavoidable. But it isn't.

•
It's a "platform" that, thanks to Section 230, faces no responsibility for what is tweeted.

•
Twitter gets to censor whomever it likes, but throws up its hands at hate speech and libel with a "not our problem!"

•
Either Section 230 needs to be repealed, and Twitter must responsibly police who it hosts, or Twitter needs to step back and let the public decide what is acceptable or not.
Trump a Twitter rival? After ban, president says he's in talks with other platforms — or may launch... (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me."

•
"Twitter may be a private company, but without the government's gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long."

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"We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!"

•
Finally, he accused Twitter of working against free speech and instead "promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely." "STAY TUNED!" he added.

•
Twitter quickly removed the tweets from the @Potus account, citing its policy on banned users trying to circumvent it via other accounts.

•
Gab, a Twitter alternative that launched a few years ago and calls itself a "social network that champions free speech, individual liberty and the new free flow of information online," quickly took advantage of the moment.

•
Gab founder and CEO Andrew Torba, a Trump supporter, wrote on the platform that the site has seen record traffic since the president's social media ban.

•
"More servers are being spun up as we speak. Record traffic. Remember: we own our server hardware, it's not as easy as pressing a button on a cloud hosting provider, but we can't be banned from servers that we own! Please be patient. God is in control."
Conservatives flee to Parler following Twitter's permanent suspension of Trump (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
"Now Apple & Google are threatening to ban Parler to stop people from going to any alternative platform. They are creating a monopoly."

•
"They want NO IDEAS or CONVERSATIONS that they are not able to control. They do not want conservatives communicating with one another."
Trump supporters, lawmakers react to Twitter ban (Fox 01/09/2021)
•
President Trump for years has used Twitter to speak directly to the American people – sidestepping media gatekeepers and garnering tens of thousands or more reactions to his posts.

•
... potential long-term lockout of Trump from his social media platforms would "be a huge crushing blow to his prospects to being a kingmaker in the future because those are his go-to platforms. "It will be difficult to be much of an influencer without those platforms."

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"What happened on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol is as wrong as wrong can be," tweeted Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. "But canceling conservative speech will not promote ‘unity and healing.'"...

•
Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz warned, "Big tech tyranny is playing out before our very eyes."
Twitter suspends @realDonaldTrump account permanently (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

•
Sharing two tweets from the president Friday, including one in which he said he would not attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20, the company argued that they had to be viewed in part of a greater context.

•
The other read: "The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!"

•
"The mention of his supporters having a 'GIANT VOICE long into the future' and that 'They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!' is being interpreted as further indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an 'orderly transition' and instead that he plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election."

•
"These two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President's statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks."

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"After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service."

•
"The use of the words 'American Patriots' to describe some of his supporters is also being interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at the US Capitol," Twitter said.

•
Jason Miller, a senior advisor to Trump's 2020 campaign, called the move "disgusting."

•
"Big Tech wants to cancel all 75M @realDonaldTrump supporters, If you don't think they're coming for you next, you're wrong."

•
See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Mike Huckabee: Trump’s policies have made life better for every American (Fox 01/08/2021)
Biden promises to work closely with Bernie Sanders on ‘shared' economic agenda (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
'No president has been able to dominate the media, social media, culture more than Trump' (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
"You go back to FDR's use of radio, John F. Kennedy's mastery of television, Ronald Reagan's theatrical skills, Obama's hope and change, and no president more than Donald Trump has been able to dominate media coverage, social media and the culture itself through the force of his personality, changing the Republican Party much more than on any particular issues that he is putting at the top of his agenda."

•
"Yeah, I agree the media have been completely and totally obsessed with everything Trump does. You can't expect that to suddenly fade at a time when even some conservatives are saying he incited his supporters to conduct that awful, heartbreaking attack on the Capitol and when people are resigning from his administration."
Capitol riots will be used to 'deplatform' Trump supporters: Ben Domenech (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
"This is going to be the moment that is used as an excuse to shut down, to shutter, to undermine, deplatform everyone, not just people who are political actors ... just regular human beings who happen to support the president or be members of the Republican Party."

•
"They are going to see their businesses libeled, They're going to see themselves deplatformed, undermined, and make it impossible for them to run advertising, engage with people in a normal manner."

•
"It's ridiculous. It's absurd, and frankly, it's unAmerican, It's something that I think is really terrible for our public debate, but it's going to happen, unfortunately."
Haley tells GOP not to ‘shy away’ from Trump-era gains, but calls his recent conduct 'deeply...' (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
"He was badly wrong with his words yesterday. And it wasn't just his words. His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history."

•
"It's deeply disappointing. And it's a real shame, because I am one who believes our country made some truly extraordinary gains in the last four years. President Trump and Republicans deserve great credit for that, We should not shy away from our accomplishments."

•
"If we are the party of personal responsibility, we need to take personal responsibility, We can and should talk about our major differences. But we must stop turning the American people against each other – and this Republican Party must lead the way."

•
... said that Republicans had suffered a "disaster" in Georgia this week, where they lost two Senate runoffs. It now means Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House.

•
"We can whine about it. We can complain about it. We can blame each other for it. Or we can do something about it."

•
... Haley said it was possible to acknowledge that President-elect Joe Biden won the election, while also calling for better election security. She also called the recent omnibus spending bill a "disgrace" filled with wasteful spending — such as a study on if hot tubs reduce stress and funding for gender programs in Pakistan.

•
"It's insulting. America's national debt is $28 trillion and counting. Congress needs to remember whose money they're spending. It's not their money, It's the American people's money."

•
She repeated her assertion that 2020 was the year "socialism went mainstream," and accused Democrats of not trusting the American people to run their lives, and urged Republicans to push back against those who call America a racist country.

•
"We need to speak out with more conviction than ever before. We must proudly declare that America is the freest, fairest, and most just country the world has ever known. Our fellow citizens still believe it, even if the left has forgotten."
Ingraham: Biden-Harris double standard in response to riots ‘glaring and pathetic' (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
"All violence is wrong, no matter what the politics are, supposedly, of the instigators, But the double standard here is glaring and pathetic."

•
On Thursday, Biden referred to the pro-Trump demonstrators as a mob of "thugs" and called for the agitators to be brought to justice.

•
... the president-elect never used this kind of rhetoric when referring to BLM protesters who ripped down public property, looted stores and "brutally" assaulted Americans.

•
"The violence, by the way, continued all summer long, with many of the thugs emboldened as the media pulled their cameras back."

•
"Biden and Harris are signaling the coming period of retribution against President Trump's supporters. But soon enough, I think they're going to see that demonizing tens of millions of Americans – trying to de-platform them, silence them – none of this is going to work."

•
"After Biden is inaugurated and starts waging the usual Democrat war against the working class, conservative populism will be poised to make a huge revival of a comeback."
Capitol riot: Leo Terrell says blaming Trump for destruction is 'Democratic Kool-Aid' (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
"All Donald Trump said yesterday was go down to the Capitol building ... All President Trump did, and he has the First Amendment right ... is to express his disappointment. He did not order those individuals to go down there and destroy that Capitol."

•
"There were criminals who invaded the Capitol building and they should be prosecuted, but the Democrats sat on their hands during the summer when rioters destroyed Democratic cities."

•
"For Joe Biden to play the race card today and say that there would have been different treatment for Black protestors, those are criminals. Criminals should be treated one way."

•
"Come on now, I'm a lawyer for 30 years. If you go down and say, ‘Go down to the Capitol building and express your disappointment,' that is not a criminal act."

•
"You know that, Geraldo, and the nation knows that. What those people did [to[ go inside the building, damage the property, that is criminal activity. Donald Trump never recommended, suggested or told those people to go in and break into the Capitol building."
Trump condemns 'heinous attack' on Capitol, calls for 'healing and reconciliation' (Fox 01/07/2021)
•
"Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem," Trump said, adding that he had "immediately" deployed the National Guard.

•
"Emotions are high now, but tempers must be cooled and calm restored, We must get on with the business of America. My campaign rigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results. My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote."

•
"My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition," Trump said, acknowledging that "a new administration" would be inaugurated Jan. 20. "This moment now calls for healing and reconciliation."

•
He noted the struggles ahead mitigating the coronavirus and rebuilding the economy, calling for unity. "It will require all of us working together. It will require a renewed emphasis on the civic values of patriotism, faith, charity, community and family."

•
"To the citizens of our country, serving as your president has been the honor of a lifetime," he continued. "To my incredible supporters I know you are disappointed ... our incredible journey is only just beginning."
Pompeo says Capitol riot has not turned US into 'banana republic' (Fox 01/07/2021)
•
"The slander reveals a faulty understanding of banana republics and of democracy in America."

•
"In a banana republic, mob violence determines the exercise of power. In the United States, law enforcement officials quash mob violence so that the people's representatives can exercise power in accordance with the rule of law and constitutional government."

•
"I have traveled to many countries and always support the right of every human being to protest peacefully for their beliefs and their causes."

•
"But violence, putting at risk the safety of others including those tasked with providing security for all of us, is intolerable both at home and abroad."
Capitol rioting: Rep. Crenshaw blasts fellow Republicans for 'lying' to Trump supporters (Fox 01/07/2021)
•
"Let me be as clear as possible here. Senator Cruz and Hawley, I disagree with them in a fundamental way about the constitutionality of this process on January 6th, [and] the ability of Congress to overturn any electoral votes, period."

•
"But, let's be very honest. Senator Cruz and Senator Hawley were not hyping up January 6th. They were not calling for people to fight in the streets. They were not saying this is the last stand. That being said, many members of Congress did do that. Many commentators did do that. Many in the media have been doing that, for the last few weeks, saying constantly [that] this is our time to fight."

•
"I'm going to tell you where we have to do the hard work and we have to change these laws at the state level because these laws are loose. They don't give people confidence."
Removing Trump by 25th Amendment could set 'very dangerous' standard: Turley (Fox 01/07/2021)
•
"You have to be very careful with this. When you start to remove presidents by what you perceive as a mental disability, it is a standard that can easily be abused."

•
"This is about constitutional faults, not character faults, And it's very dangerous if you start to say, 'Well, I just view him as unstable' unless you've got very strong ground."

•
While Trump could be removed by the 25th Amendment, Turley said it is "extremely unlikely" and noted the president could object and lead to an 8-day process period, which "would effectively remove him within a couple of days of leaving office ... and that's assuming you have the merits."
Biden’s Electoral College victory certified — hours after Capitol chaos (Fox 01/07/2021)
•
... the White House deputy chief of staff, posted a statement from President Trump on Twitter that seemed to call for calm among Americans and demonstrate a functioning government for adversaries.

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"Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th."

•
"I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"

•
The political fallout from Wednesday's mayhem seemed to cast serious doubt on President Trump's future as leader of the Republican Party.

•
Sen Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican, addressed the Senate, saying Trump has been a "consequential" president over four years in office "but today ... count me out. Enough is enough."

•
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram temporarily suspended the president from posting on to their platforms.

•
Trump's supporters noted the president had called for calm. They say Trump never had his day in court and there were enough voting irregularities to warrant further inspection.

•
They also criticized the media coverage of the unrest at the Capitol and criticized news outlets to essentially turning a blind eye to the violence that broke out in major cities last summer.

•
Donald Trump Jr. also called for calm... "This is wrong and not who we are. Be peaceful and use your 1st Amendment rights, but don't start acting like the other side. We have a country to save and this doesn't help anyone."

•
The woman who was shot was Ashi Babbitt, a U.S. Air Force veteran from San Diego, Calif... D.C. police confirmed she had been shot by one of their officers. The other three deaths were medical-related...

•
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News last Sunday that the Supreme Court was a "better forum" than Congress for vetting election concerns but the court did not take the cases.

•
Cruz wanted a 10-day audit of the results by an electoral commission. "Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed." "By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes."

•
The senator condemned those who stormed the Capitol... He said the Constitution "protects peaceful protest, but violence — from Left or Right – is ALWAYS wrong."

•
He issued a statement early Thursday that called the incident a "despicable act of terrorism and a shocking assault on our democratic system."

•
He said he called for the electoral commission to give millions of Americans confidence in the election and "very much wish Congress had not set aside these concerns."

•
But he said he respected their positions. "Debate in the two houses of Congress is the proper way to resolve our political differences, not through violent attacks."
Hannity condemns Capitol violence, calls for perpetrators to be 'arrested and prosecuted' (Fox 01/07/2021)
•
"Let me ... be crystal clear: Those who support President Trump and believe they are part of the conservative movement in this country, we do not support those who commit acts of violence."

•
"We don't believe people should be vandalizing our nation's Capitol and attacking the brave men and women who keep us safe in law enforcement. We don't place pipe bombs at the RNC. All of today's perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted."

•
... Wednesday's events shouldn't overshadow the fact that the 2020 presidential election was a "trainwreck." ... "83% of Republicans and millions of others don't have faith in the election results.

•
"You can't just snap your finger and hope that goes away. These are real Americans. Tens of millions of them. The only way we can create a more perfect and peaceful union is through peaceful, lawful action. Violence is never acceptable."

•
"For most of this year you have the media mob and Democrats making excuse after excuse and flat-out refusing to condemn what we saw over the summer."
DC police say 4 dead, 52 arrested after chaos at Capitol (Fox 01/07/2021)
Graham calls Biden 'lawfully' elected, says 'enough is enough' following breach of Capitol (Fox 01/07/2021)
Sen. Paul decries Capitol riot as 'chaos and anarchy that needs to be stopped' (Fox 01/06/2021)
•
"Conservatives should know that the Electoral College is something we support because it supports state rights to run the elections."

•
"When there is a problem, it is going to have to be fixed by the states. The fix isn't up here [in Washington]."

•
"Can you imagine what would happen to this country if every four years we had Congress overturning an election? It would be chaos," said Paul, who went on to blast the demonstrations as "chaos and anarchy that needs to be stopped."

•
"I have a lot of the same complaints [as Trump]," he said. "I want the elections to be better, but, I'll spend the next two years lobbying state legislators to try to fix the election law so that this doesn't happen again."
Trump says election was 'stolen' and 'these are the things and events that happen' tells people to... (Fox 01/06/2021)
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"These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long," Trump tweeted. "Go home with love & peace."

•
He added: "Remember this day forever!"

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"We had an election that was stolen from us, It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace, we have to have law and order we have to respect our great people in law and order. We don't want anyone hurt."

•
The president went on to say that it is a "very tough period of time — there has never been a time like this where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us — from me, from you, from our country."

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"This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people," Trump said. "We have to have peace."

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"So go home, we love you, you're very special, you've seen what happens, you've seen the way others are treated that are so bad, so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace."

•
Earlier, the president urged protesters to "stay peaceful" on Twitter. "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!"

•
Minutes later, he said he was "asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful." "No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order — respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!"

•
The president spoke earlier in the day in Washington D.C., to supporters, who later marched to the Capitol, and mounted further pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to act on his own to decertify the results of the election and send them back to the states for recertification.

•
Pence, before the joint session of Congress began, said he did not believe, under the Constitution, that he had the authority to "unilaterally" accept or reject electoral votes.

•
The president slammed Pence, saying he "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify."
President Trump urges protesters to be peaceful after they clash with police, breach Capitol (Fox 01/06/2021)
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"I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!"

•
"This is wrong and not who we are. Be peaceful and use your 1st Amendment rights, but don't start acting like the other side. We have a country to save and this doesn't help anyone," Trump Jr. wrote...
GOP politicians condemn violence at Capitol, call for an end to riots (Fox 01/06/2021)
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"Those storming the Capitol need to stop NOW," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

•
"The Constitution protects peaceful protest, but violence — from Left or Right — is ALWAYS wrong. And those engaged in violence are hurting the cause they say they support."

•
"I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful," Trump tweeted. "No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!"
GOP congressman who objected to election results condemns protesters breaching Capitol... (Fox 01/06/2021)
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"This is despicable, The Daily Briefing. This is not who we are as a country. We were debating this, through debate and discussion from our interpretations of the Constitution ... There is no place for violence."

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Waltz is one of many Republican members of Congress who announced they would object to certifying electors in states won by Biden.
McCarthy condemns 'un-American' breach of US Capitol by pro-Trump demonstrators (Fox 01/06/2021)
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"First of all, this is so un-American. I condemn any of this violence. I could not be more disappointed in the way our country looks at this very moment. People are getting hurt."

•
"Anyone involved in this, if you're hearing me, loud and clear, this is not the American way."

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"This is not protected by the First Amendment, This must stop now. As a nation, we have to come together. This is so unacceptable, what I see happening at this very moment. We can disagree, but we don't take it to this level. We don't do what is happening right now."

•
"I cannot thank the Capitol Police enough for the job that they have to do right now ... Things that are happening that I probably shouldn't say right now. This is unacceptable. We can have differences of opinion. People can protest. You don't do what is happening right now. People are being hurt. People are being — people are being hurt, there's been shots, this is unacceptable."
McConnell: Trump election claims include 'sweeping conspiracy theories' (Fox 01/06/2021)
•
"We cannot simply declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids, The voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken ... if we overrule them it would damage our republic forever. This election was not unusually close."

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Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz called for "a bit less certitude" on "both sides," as he led the effort to contest the election results.

•
Instead of tossing the presidency back to Trump, Cruz proposed "door number three," a compromise between the two sides — appointing an electoral commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the results and any evidence of fraud.

•
"We are supposed to protect our country and support our Constitution," Trump said. "States want to revote. The states got defrauded, they were given false information and now they want it back."
Huckabee says 'cloud' will be over Biden presidency if election fraud isn't fully investigated (Fox 01/06/2021)
•
"If they [Democrats] truly believe this election was absolutely done with integrity, then they ought to be the ones standing up and insisting that there be a full audit."

•
"I think too many of our politicians take the easy way out. They don't want to rock the boat. They don't want to be controversial, but they were elected to make tough decisions and a tough decision would be to call for a full accounting and absolute transparency."

•
... stressed ... that millions of people "are not real certain about how this thing went down," saying that "that's not a good thing for the country" and "it's not good for Joe Biden." "He should demand that we have an absolute top-to-bottom audit."

•
... pointed to a Washington Post article, which said "President Trump has refused to concede the election while alleging widespread voter fraud, without evidence..."

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"That's simply a lie. There is evidence and that's what hasn't been looked at," Huckabee said.
Independent contractor or employee? Final federal rule brings clarity to gig economy (Fox 01/06/2021)
•
The rule asks whether a worker depends on a business or organization for the opportunity to work, or if instead she's essentially in business for herself.

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If the former, she's an employee; if the latter, an independent contractor.

•
To get at that difference, our rule focuses primarily on who is in control of the work, and whether the worker has the opportunity for profit or loss resulting from her own initiative or investment. Other factors considered by the courts can come into play, too.
Laura Ingraham sounds alarm over 'media-driven electoral fraud' (Fox 01/06/2021)
•
"From the China virus to Hunter Biden, to the goals of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, to the writings of Kamala Harris the press was either actively concealing the truth, or just conveniently incurious."

•
"Now, when Republicans run for office, what do they do? They scour their writings, as they should, Remember when the D.C. press corps went nuts on ... Melania Trump's RNC speech?"

•
"No one bothered to comb through the writings of a woman who's a heartbeat away from the presidency," the host continued, "or maybe they did and they just decided to keep it quiet? I don't put anything past these people."

•
"They will probably get more blatant and worse, It will be our job to expose and resist these fraudsters every step of the way. They're not journalists, they are propagandistic tools of the neo-socialist forces who are intent on remaking America from top to bottom. We are not going to let them succeed. We will fight them, but not by showing up at people's houses to terrorize their little kids."

•
"We will make sure in the coming weeks, months, and years, that Americans know who lied to them and what they did and when they did it and, when we needed the truth most, who denied it."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Democrats sought to win 2020 election by 'hook or by crook' with help of 'non-legislature officers' (Fox 01/06/2021)
•
"In ... Pennsylvania, which has [a] Democrat governor, Democrat secretary of state, Democrat majorities of justices on the state Supreme Court they used all of these non-legislature officers to change the laws in Pennsylvania to assist the Democrats. So the legislature was cut out."

•
In Georgia ... Democrats "went after the signature requirement. They watered it down to the point where it really doesn't work anymore."

•
... blasted Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as "weak" and claimed they "capitulated" by entering a consent decree with former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams that "violated the Constitution."

•
"The Michigan secretary of state issued seven million ballots, The problem is, under Michigan law, you have to request a ballot. You need some identity requirements."

•
... the Founding Fathers specifically rejected the direct election of the president as well as the idea that governors or the judiciary would be involved in the process of selecting electors.

•
"Yet in all four of those states, the executive and the judiciary had more impact and more input into the election laws leading up to this election than the state legislatures did, They were utterly cut out. So here we have a problem. We have a constitutional crisis that nobody wants to talk about."
Sen. Ron Johnson vows to investigate 2020 election results if GOP keeps Senate majority (Fox 01/05/2021)
•
"I will guarantee that I'm going to dig into this, I'm going to investigate, and I'm going to find out what the truth is. And again, what we can explain, we'll explain, set that aside, but where there's problems, we really do need to fix them."

•
"The main problem, from my standpoint, is you have so many people in the mainstream media, certainly Democrats, that just want to sweep this under the rug, that just want to dismiss these very serious, legitimate concerns of what happened during the 2020 election."

•
"When you have tens of millions of Americans who simply don't believe this is a legitimate outcome — we've just gone through four years where Democrats and the extreme left simply did not acknowledge President Trump as the legitimate president — and now here we are, because of COVID, because of a more than doubling of the number of absentee ballots, while at the same time Democrats pushed the envelope, relaxing standards."

•
"There are some real problems here and the problem's not going away, The only solution I can come up with is investigate, explain, be transparent, but sweeping this under the rug, as many people want us to do, simply won't work."
Kyle Rittenhouse pleads not guilty to Kenosha shooting charges (Fox 01/05/2021)
•
"If what happened in Kenosha is not self-defense for Kyle Rittenhouse, the right of self-defense does not exist anymore in America, He acted in pure, absolute, perfect self-defense."

•
After turning himself in, he told investigators that he had been hit in the head and neck with a baseball bat and skateboard...

•
"The charges should be dropped immediately, If the prosecutors have such poor judgment that they are intent on taking this case to trial, we will prove Kyle's innocence and we will win."
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio arrested as DC preps for pro-Trump rallies, Electoral College... (Fox 01/05/2021)
•
Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio was arrested in Washington, D.C., on Monday for allegedly burning a Black Lives Matter banner outside a historic Black church during demonstrations last month.

•
The police department said in December that it was investigating the offense as potentially being motivated in whole or in part by hate or bias, though Tarrio has not been charged with a hate crime.

•
John Pierce, the high-profile attorney representing 17-year-old Kenosha gunman Kyle Rittenhouse, said in a statement... "Chandler and Enrique are both patriotic Americans who have bravely and consistently defended our way of life over the past year."

•
"As the globalist Marxists attempt to destroy America and our way of life from within, they are taking more and more political prisoners like Kyle Rittenhouse, Chandler Pappas and Enrique Tarrio. This is extremely dangerous and needs to stop immediately. All freedom-loving Americans must do everything they can to fight back."

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... Rev. Dr. Ianther Mills, senior pastor at Asbury, said the church community is "in some ways of course feeling some relief" following Tarrio's arrest. "We just want to see justice be done." ... adding that "we still remain concerned"...
GOP congresswoman Boebert defends decision to carry gun in DC: 'I am my own security' (Fox 01/05/2021)
•
"It's right there in our Constitution. It's an amendment to our Constitution, and there's an absolute uproar over people wanting to defend myself," the 34-year-old mother of four said.

•
"I mean, come on. I'm 5-foot, 100 pounds. I am now in one of the most dangerous cities in America. The violent crime rate here is 158% times the national average. I will be walking alone a lot."

•
"Just like I say in my ad, being a member of Congress is pretty basic. I don't go to work in an armored vehicle. I don't have personal police escorts. I am my own security here and my most basic right is my right to defend myself."

•
"I have gone through the concealed carry courses that Washington, D.C., requires to obtain a concealed carry permit, and I think it's very interesting that he wants to ensure that I understand Washington, D.C.'s, firearm laws."

•
"Maybe I should make a video announcing that I plan to drive a car in Washington, D.C., and then the chief of police will say that he's going to inform me of Washington, D.C.'s, traffic laws. Is this what he does to everyone who comes into the District of Columbia? Inform each and every person of their laws? I don't think so."

•
"Educated, law-abiding gun owners are the safest people in America to be around. So when anyone comes in to limit my rights and safety of my family, I'll tell them exactly what this mom thinks."

•
"Not only is it my right, but it's a right I was sent here to protect from Rifle, Colorado. So if you see me in DC, say hi, you're safe with me."
Rep. Steve Scalise: Georgia Senate runoffs – Voters, turn out to hold the line and protect America (Fox 01/05/2021)
•
Control of the United States Senate is at stake. If Warnock and Ossoff win, Republicans will lose their Senate majority.

•
As one of her first moves in this new Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is changing the House rules to exempt leftist activists' schemes, like "Medicare-for-all" and the Green New Deal, from budget restrictions.

•
Speaker Pelosi is throwing the door wide open for multi-trillion-dollar budget-busting legislation because radical leftists demand it. That's how Democrats operate — pass rules that apply to you and me, but exempt themselves so those same rules don't apply to them.

•
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has all but promised that he'll get rid of the filibuster if Ossoff and Warnock are elected. This would allow Democrats to ram bills through the Senate without the support of a single Republican.

•
The filibuster has existed in the Senate since 1806 but Democrats are determined to destroy this institutional practice in order to pass legislation that otherwise wouldn't have a chance.

•
In fact, it's hard to think of an institution Democrats wouldn't destroy if they controlled the Senate. They'd destroy our health care system with "Medicare-for-all." They'd destroy working families' livelihoods with the Green New Deal. And they'd destroy the Supreme Court's legitimacy by expanding the number of seats with unlimited liberal activist judges.

•
Imagine what else Democrats would ram through the Senate if they get rid of the filibuster: they'd open our borders, raise our taxes, legalize late-term abortions, get rid of the Hyde Amendment and give Washington, D.C. statehood.

•
Democrats' schemes are radical and their candidates are radical.

•
Ossoff said federal agents should make sure illegal immigrants are paid minimum wage.

•
Warnock called to end bail and said America should "repent for its worship of whiteness" after President Trump was elected.

•
Campaign finance records show that 95 percent of Ossoff and Warnock's donations are coming from liberal out-of-state cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, not from Georgia.

•
A Republican Senate, in partnership with President Trump, has acted as a firewall against these insane far-left schemes. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff wouldn't just bring an end to that firewall, they'd act as fuel on the fire of the progressive lunacy that's running rampant across America.

•
We cannot entrust the Senate to the same party that let cities across America burn over the summer.

•
Georgians know what's at stake and I encourage them to turn out in historic numbers to hold the line and protect America.
Georgia Senate runoffs – Send Perdue, Loeffler back to DC, send Pelosi, Schumer a message (Fox 01/05/2021)
•
Reelecting Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler will stop the Democrats' radical, left-wing agenda dead in its tracks and help preserve President Trump's many accomplishments.

•
Sending radical liberals Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to Washington would make Chuck Schumer the next Senate Majority Leader and pave the path for him and his allies to turn America into a socialist nation.

•
Let's send Senators Perdue and Loeffler back to Washington and send Pelosi and Schumer the message that their socialist agenda is now dead on arrival.

•
See related Take and Change (Chip Bok, 11/12/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Hannity: Democrats have ensured there is 'plenty of precedent' for Electoral College challenge (Fox 01/05/2021)
•
Democrats who are up in arms about Republican plans to object to slates of electors from key swing states set the very precedent for the actions they are now decrying...

•
"We have major institutional failures. They are right." ... there is "plenty of precedent for this challenge. Democrats have contested results four times."

•
"Now we are supposed to believe everything they say about the integrity of our elections, Why aren't we listening to the [alleged election fraud] whistleblowers?"
Rep. Chip Roy: If Democrats control Senate, country will face 'full-scale hot conflict' (Fox 01/04/2021)
•
"If we have a Democratically-controlled Senate, we are now basically at full-scale hot conflict in this country, whereas right now we're at a cold Civil War."

•
"We have a major problem where the American people, the regular people out there that are working every day, hard-working Americans, they are getting trampled by a system that is rigged against them."
Ben Shapiro mocks Democrats over 'amen and a-woman' prayer: 'Dumbest s*** I have ever seen' (Fox 01/04/2021)
•
"'Amen' is a Biblical Hebrew word... It is a word simply meaning 'may it be so.' It has nothing to do with the word 'man' or 'woman' because it is FROM HEBREW. This is some of the dumbest s** I have ever seen in my life."

•
... mocked "leftists" for the "radically stupid" belief "that the word, because it is spelled a-m-e-n and includes the word 'men' somehow is gendered language."

•
"Not only is that stupid on that level, it would also then be meaningless. Why would you end any prayer and just say 'man?' It's idiotic."

•
... Cleaver's word choice comes amid a push by Democrats to remove gender-specific pronouns from House bills.

•
The rules, if passed, would change father and mother to "parent," daughter and son to "child," brother and sister to "sibling," and aunt and uncle to "parent's sibling."
New Jersey Democratic governor accused of 'taking a break from killing seniors' to attack congressman (Fox 01/04/2021)
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"It's good to see Phil Murphy taking a break from killing seniors in nursing homes and destroying our friends and neighbors' livelihoods long enough to refer to hundreds of thousands of his constituents as crackpot conspiracy theorists simply because they want to have the confidence he continues to deny them in the outcome of our elections."

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... Van Drew "has been clear from day one that his opposition to certifying the results of the Electoral College isn't about who won or lost the presidency, but rather a rejection of the status quo and a no-confidence vote in politicians like Phil Murphy, who rather dismiss Americans as naive, stupid, or conspiracy theorists in comments exactly like the one he gave today rather than doing the job they were elected and continually fail to do."
Cruz-led group to object to certification of election results in at least one state, push electoral... (Fox 01/04/2021)
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"It's not a question of if objections to disputed states' electors will be raised, it's a question of which and how many."

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"The group is committed to pushing the electoral commission here to get the facts."

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"... we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given' and ‘lawfully certified' (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed."

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"Look, we've got a vote on January 6 on certification, and every member of Congress faces a dilemma, frankly two pretty lousy choices."

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"That's why when in assembling this group of 11 senators, I was looking for a third option. An option that was really moored in the law."

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"What I'm arguing for is Congress ought to do the same thing, We ought to have a fair inquiry, a fair audit into these results, and we and we ought to resolve these claims – not just dismiss them out of hand."
Georgia Senate runoff results are going to 'set the course for the future of our country' (Fox 01/04/2021)
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"We're the firewall here to stop socialism, to keep from handing the keys of power over to [Nancy] Pelosi, [Chuck] Schumer, AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], and Bernie Sanders."

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"Tomorrow, quite honestly, is going to set the course for the future of our country, and in many ways, hopefully save this great republic, this great capitalist economy that we have and a lot of the great things that have been going on over the last four years."

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"What I've been telling everybody is, don't get distracted, don't believe what is in the media, don't believe the polling."

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"The only thing you need to believe [in] is going out to vote ... I don't think there's any doubt the Republicans got to have a huge turnout on Election Day to win these two races."
Fauci: Vaccinations are increasing in a 'glimmer of hope' (Fox 01/04/2021)
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Biden's "goal of vaccinating 100 million people in the first 100 days is a realistic goal," Fauci said.

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See related Now Giddyup! (Chip Bok, 01/01/2021) cartoon from USA picture album
Lankford insists lingering questions about 2020 presidential election 'need to be answered' (Fox 01/04/2021)
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"None of us are trying to overthrow an election. We are trying to say, 'Hey, there are still lots of questions from millions of people out there, and we think those questions need to be answered,' so we are asking for a pause."

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"Pull a commission together quickly, like what was done in 1877 when there were three states challenged then, pull this 15-member commission together, give it 10 days to pull the results back, and then give it back to the states."

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"If the Republican senators don't object to enough states, the entire effort on Jan. 6th is worthless, To have any chance of impacting the outcome of the 2020 election, the Republican senators must join Republican House members in objecting at least three states and ideally all six states ..."

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"That is not Congress' job, that's the state's job. But, we do think there is information that has not been addressed, and we should pause and be able to address that, because these issues are not going away. For the sake of the country coming together at the end of the election, let's address these issues now."
Janice Dean: The tragic rise of Andrew Cuomo amid COVID-19 — a real American crisis (Fox 01/04/2021)
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Your mistakes cost us the lives of our family members, governor. But rest assured, we, the People will be strong in our fight for answers and accountability. And the more you try to silence us, the louder our voices will become.

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See related For Leadership... (Mike Shelton, 11/23/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Reps. Brooks and Jordan on GOP group challenging Electoral College results (Fox 01/03/2021)
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"We've called for hearings and investigations in Congress, [House Judiciary Committee Chairman] Jerry Nadler and [Oversight Committee] Chairwoman [Carolyn] Maloney won't hold them here in the United States House of Representatives so we have to have this debate on the 6th of January, on this Wednesday, so the American people can see what was done in an unconstitutional fashion."
GOP senators want election commission similar to what decided disputed 1876 race (Fox 01/03/2021)
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Unlike what was called for by a failed lawsuit from Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, the suggestion here is not to simply overturn the election results outright and award a second term to President Trump, but rather to have an independent investigation of those states' elections.

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While out of the ordinary, it would not be the first time for such a process, as it is what happened following the 1876 election, allowing Rutherford B. Hayes to become president.

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"We should follow that precedent, To wit, Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the commission's findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed."

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"We've asked a very simple question: Can we put together an electoral commission, have five senators, five House members, five members of the Supreme Court?"

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"This is exactly how it was set up in 1876 when there was three states that had all kinds of fraud issues. And so the election commission was set up at that time in 1876, just like this, to be able to study it, look at it, make recommendations. We think that's a good plan. Obviously, there are millions and millions of Americans that think there are major issues with the election."

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... wants a commission to get to the bottom of how the election played out in these states, regardless of who the true winner is.

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"No matter how this turns out, we want the facts to come out, We want to make sure every legal vote is counted and votes that aren't legal are not counted. But regardless of where it goes at the end of it, it goes wherever the American people chose."
Mark Levin sends message to Georgia voters ahead of runoffs: 'You are our last line of defense' (Fox 01/03/2021)
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"If you have any inclination to sit at home [and not vote], you'd better stand the hell up."

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"We're not asking you to go to war, We're not asking you to put your lives on the line. We have brave young men and women who do that every single day. We are asking you to vote, not just for Georgia, but for the rest of us."

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"Whether you like these Republican candidates or not, it doesn't matter," said Levin, who added that he would "vote for an orange juice can over these radical, left-wing kooks."

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... went on to blast Warnock as "an anti-Semite" and "a race-baiter who clearly hates this country."

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"Then you have the other kook [Ossoff], who's basically a trust-fund candidate, He's 33 years old, he's looking to run for offices, his financial activities with communist China he will not reveal. ... Do we have to wait until after the election to find this stuff out?"

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... rounded on President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris for campaigning on behalf of Warnock... "They're campaigning for him because the Democrat Party has an anti-Semitism problem. But they don't want to recognize it and, of course, the papers are going to defend him."
GOP senators, led by Cruz, to object to Electoral College certification, demand emergency audit (Fox 01/02/2021)
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... will object to the Jan. 6 certification of the presidential election results next week unless there is an emergency 10-day audit of the results by an electoral commission.

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Cruz and the other senators claim the Nov. 3 election "featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud and illegal conduct."

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Joining Cruz are Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; John Kennedy, R-La.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Mike Braun, R-Ind.; as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Roger Marshall, R-Kansas; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.

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Their effort is separate from one announced by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who said this week that he will object to what he claims was the failure of some states — most notably Pennsylvania — to follow their own election laws.

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"Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed, By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes."

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The lawmakers say there is a precedent of Democrats objecting to election results in 1969, 2001, 2005 and 2019. "And, in both 1969 and 2005, a Democratic Senator joined with a Democratic House Member in forcing votes in both houses on whether to accept the presidential electors being challenged."

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The senators and senators-elect are calling for Congress to appoint a commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the election returns in states where the results are disputed.

•
They cite as precedent the 1877 race between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford Hayes in which there were allegations of fraud in multiple states.

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"In 1877, Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy."

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"Instead, Congress appointed an Electoral Commission — consisting of five Senators, five House Members, and five Supreme Court Justices — to consider and resolve the disputed returns."

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"We should follow that precedent. To wit, Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission's findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed."

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"Accordingly, we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given' and ‘lawfully certified' (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed."

•
While the lawmakers note that most Democrats and some Republicans will vote to certify the results, they argue that an audit would increase the public's faith in the process.

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"These are matters worthy of the Congress, and entrusted to us to defend. We do not take this action lightly. We are acting not to thwart the democratic process, but rather to protect it."

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"And every one of us should act together to ensure that the election was lawfully conducted under the Constitution and to do everything we can to restore faith in our Democracy."

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Senate GOP leaders are against efforts to challenge Biden's win, with McConnell urging Republicans behind closed doors not to contest the election results.

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But if the group of GOP senators object, along with a similar effort by House Republicans, the joint session of Congress would be dissolved, and the House and Senate would then meet separately to debate any contested state's electoral votes.

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Afterward, each body would vote whether to accept or reject any contested votes. Then the House and Senate would reconvene the joint session.

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In the House, at least 10 incoming House GOP freshmen are expected to back a move by Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., to object to certification.

•
The last time this happened (and only the second time in U.S. history) was in January 2005, following President' George W. Bush's narrow re-election victory over Democratic challenger John Kerry of Massachusetts.

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One Senate Democrat – Barbara Boxer of California – and one House Democrat – Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio – objected.

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In 2017, a handful of House Democrats objected to Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton, but no Senate Democrats joined them.

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A state's slate of electoral votes would only be thrown out if both the House and Senate vote to do so — something that is unlikely given the Democratic majority in the House, and the push by GOP Senate leaders to certify.
Rebecca Grant: Congressional override of Trump’s defense bill veto was inevitable. So why did he veto? (Fox 01/02/2021)
Hawley says he'll object to Electoral College certification of Biden victory on Jan. 6 (Fox 12/30/2020)
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"I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws."

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"I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden."

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"At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act."

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He pointed out that "following both the 2004 and 2016 elections, Democrats in Congress objected during the certification of electoral votes in order to raise concerns about election integrity. They were praised by Democratic leadership and the media when they did. And they were entitled to do so. But now those of us concerned about the integrity of this election are entitled to do the same."

•
The president has repeatedly claimed he beat Biden, who topped the president by more than 7 million votes. Trump has charged that widespread voter fraud aided Biden's victory.

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Trump has unsuccessfully urged states with GOP governors or Republican controlled legislatures to overturn Biden's victories in their states.

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And dozens of legal challenges by the president and his allies have been shot down. Plus, Attorney General William Barr, who has since stepped down, said last month that his Justice Department has not seen fraud on the kind of scale that could flip the election.

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Senate GOP leaders are against this effort to challenge Biden's win, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recognizing the former vice president's victory, and behind closed doors urging Senate Republicans not to contest the election results.

•
But with Hawley joining the small group of House Republicans in objecting, the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 would be dissolved and the House and Senate would then meet separately for two hours to debate a contested state's electoral vote.

•
Each body would then vote whether to accept or reject that state's slate of electoral votes. Then the House and Senate reconvene in the joint session.

•
The last time this happened (and only the second time in U.S. history) was in January 2005, following President' George W. Bush's narrow reelection victory over Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

•
One Senate Democrat – Sen. Barbara Boxer of California – and one House Democrat – Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones – objected.

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In 2017, a handful of House Democrats objected to Trump's victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but no Senate Democrats joined them.

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A state's slate of electoral votes would only tossed if both the House and Senate vote to do so.

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But with the Democrats controlling the House and most Senate Republicans not expected to back the push to contest the results, it's extremely unlikely there would be enough votes to reject any state's certification.

•
While Hawley is the first GOP senator to say he'd object to the certification, Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas could potentially join their colleague from Missouri.
Nikki Haley says Americans should be worried about ‘woke left’ when Biden is president (Fox 12/29/2020)
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"Liberal elites have been conquered by the ‘woke.' They demand freedom, but want to silence & control anyone who disagrees with them."

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"They demand equality, but want to build a new society based on discrimination. They are set on using the full force of govt to achieve their vision."

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"The left is forcing its anti-American worldview into classrooms. It's taking over corp boardrooms, pushing businesses to make decisions based on politics & not what's best for consumers & communities.Big Tech is censoring conservative voices & forcing its leftist views on society."

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"With Biden as Pres, we should all be worried about the woke left. They will stifle free speech in the name of ‘freedom' & enact discriminatory policies in pursuit of ‘equality' & do it with a vision that has no resemblance to the America we know & love."

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Former President Barack Obama last year cautioned young people about the dangers of a woke mindset that sets a purity test for others.

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"This idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're politically woke, and all that stuff — you should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Nikki Haley dubs 2020 'the year socialism went mainstream' (Fox 12/28/2020)
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Calling socialism a "dangerous ideology" the former governor of South Carolina noted it "has failed everywhere it has been tried & ruined countless lives."

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Worse, she also wrote, "it is on its way to becoming the default economic policy of the Democratic Party. This terrifying trend threatens the future of every American."

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"The left believes that government knows best. If the past year has taught us anything, it's that when govt dictates how the economy is run, Americans suffer."

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"With the Biden administration set to take power, now is the time to renew the fight for capitalism and opportunity for all — and against socialism and its suffering."

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"Now is the time to rally our fellow citizens to ensure that every American can achieve their dreams and bring our country and people to new heights of achievement. The only way socialism wins is if we don't show up. So let's show up, stand up, and speak out, for the sake of America's future."
Matt Gaetz compares Eric Swalwell to this ex-congressman (Fox 12/28/2020)
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"Keeping Eric Swalwell on the Intelligence Committee is like putting Anthony Weiner on the Ethics Committee."

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"I'm old enough to remember when Lev Parnas showed up and made a few donations at Republican events. That was wall-to-wall coverage from the media, but when Eric Swalwell engages in a very close relationship with — clearly — an agent of Communist China ... Well, that's deemed as something we can just accept and move on."

•
"When Democrats are targeted by foreign intelligence, they get a defensive briefing, When Republicans are targeted, they get impeachment, investigations ... and threats of jail time, so it really is a double standard."

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See related Top Secret (Mike Shelton, 12/11/2020) cartoon from Adult picture album
Rubio says Fauci 'lied' about coronavirus mask guidance in March, as criticism of health... (Fox 12/28/2020)
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"Dr. Fauci lied about masks in March[.] Dr. Fauci has been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity."

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"It isn't just him Many in elite bubbles believe the American public doesn't know 'what's good for them' so they need to be tricked into 'doing the right thing.'"

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"We have to realize that we have to be humble and realize what we don't know. These are pure estimates," Fauci said...

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"The calculations that I made... it's a range... The reason I first started saying 70-75... it was really based on calculations and pure extrapolations from measles."
Rep.-elect Victoria Spartz, raised in Soviet country, says it's 'crazy' for Americans to... (Fox 12/28/2020)
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"Of all of the countries in the world, our country put so much against this utopic socialistic idea that it's crazy for me to see how quickly we made the turn to the left."

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... says she's alarmed by young people freely calling themselves "Marxists" and preaching "collective responsibility" and "collectivism."

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She finds it "strange" that young people would welcome more government and suppression of individuality when youth typically desire freedom and "no one telling them what to do."

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Young people may not understand that big government is what creates the income inequalities they loathe, she said. Too many regulations and taxes are barriers for entry for middle-class individuals to start their own businesses and to find prosperity.

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"It's just strange to me how quickly these ideas can [take hold] especially for young people."

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"A lot of those kids [say], 'I'm Marxists.' I'm like, 'Are you kidding me? Do you even know what it means?'"...

•
"I think the Republican Party has to do a better job delivering policies because what's happened when we do a lot of talk, like in health care, and don't do the work and don't deliver a solution ... we know then people get frustrated with us. They say, 'Well, all these people just talk' and then they vote for the other side."

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"A lot of people on the Democrat side move to the very extreme left, to very crazy ideas, And I think it's important for us to do a better job so people trust us and not really get brainwashed with utopic crazy ideas. They are easy to sell, but when they fail, it hits hard."

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"We have a monopoly problem in health care, we don't have a competition problem."

•
Her overall belief is that the federal government should relinquish control over health care and allow states to have more flexibility to set up innovative models for care.

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"A government takeover of health care ... is very bad, I mean it's fatal to quality. The government can control price but it will be terrible for innovation and quality. Only competition brings more innovation and value."

•
"We can have the greatest legislation in the state of Indiana, but 85% of health care is controlled at the federal level right now."
President Trump and first lady wish Americans a Merry Christmas (Fox 12/25/2020)
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"... At Christmas, we thank God for sending us his son to bring peace to our souls and joy to the world."

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"We are battling a global pandemic that has affected all of us. Yet, through this great challenge, we have been inspired by the kindness and courage of citizens across this country. Teachers have worked extraordinarily hard to keep our children learning. Students have delivered groceries to elderly neighbors. Communities have found new ways to stay connected to one another. Courageous first responders, doctors, and nurses have given everything to save lives. Brilliant scientists have developed treatments and vaccines."

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"We are delivering millions of doses of a safe and effective vaccine that will soon end this terrible pandemic and save millions and millions of lives."

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"We're grateful for all of the scientists, researchers, manufacturing workers, and service members who have worked tirelessly to make this breakthrough possible. It is truly a Christmas miracle."

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"During this wonderful time of year, we also give thanks for the brave and selfless Americans who keep us safe. We are forever grateful for the men and women of law enforcement and the heroes of the United States military."

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"In this holy season, we thank God for his infinite love and we pray that the light of his glory will forever shine on this magnificent land. On behalf of Melania and the entire Trump family, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
Rep. Buck: Mueller set 'precedent' that demands Hunter Biden special counsel (Fox 12/25/2020)
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"I think the precedent is clear with Robert Mueller. I think when you look at the activities of Hunter Biden and his father, at the time his father was vice president, it's clear corruption; a number of statutes implicated."

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"It would really relieve the Biden administration of the conflict-of-interest burden if a special counsel was appointed right now."

•
"Americans have the right to know whether Mr. Biden's reported ties to foreign governments will make him the subject of blackmail attempts or other nefarious efforts to undermine U.S. national security or otherwise improperly influence American foreign policy."

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"I think that he may very well be cleared. If he's clear, so be it. Let the investigation do that. If he's not cleared, I think it's all very important that we have independent prosecutors and not prosecutors that are ultimately working for his father in this case."

•
"I don't think Barack Obama appointed attorney generals who enforced the law and I don't think this president is going to do that. They're going to appoint attorney generals that will enforce the law the way they see it."

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"In the case of a criminal investigation like this — that could very well implicate the president — they will not aggressively pursue this investigation."
Justin Haskins: COVID relief bill is reckless, disgusting – who will save our economy? (Fox 12/23/2020)
NY Times claims leftists in Biden’s Cabinet are centrists — reporters sound like Dem politicians (Fox 12/23/2020)
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The New York Times ... is engaged in political spin, trying to put a spoonful of centrist sugar on the national palate to help the socialist medicine go down.

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Dan Gainor: Cuomo acts like New York is his kingdom, not a state, in dealing with COVID (Fox 12/23/2020)
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When did New York become its own country? Apparently, this week, when media favorite Gov. Andrew Cuomo's delusions of grandeur prompted him to try to restrict travel from the United Kingdom to what Cuomo seems to believe is the Kingdom of New York.

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... told international airlines Monday: "I said you have 120 countries on the list that require testing, please add New York to those 120 countries."

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It was typical grandstanding for a man who actually made plenty of mistakes in responding to the coronavirus pandemic...

•
As a result of that order, between March 25 and May 8 about 6,300 people with the disease were admitted to New York nursing homes. What followed was disastrous.

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The state reported 37,500 people in nursing homes were infected with the coronavirus between March and early June.

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... 7,440 people have died of the disease in New York nursing homes, but that figure understates the number of deaths, because the state only counts deaths that occur in nursing homes.

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"Residents or staff members [in nursing homes] who were transported to a hospital and died there are not included in the total."

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"To say that introducing patients [to nursing homes] who had COVID did not cause problems is ridiculous."

•
Months later, the liberal media are still looking the other way as Gov. Cuomo is making COVID jokes. This time, it's about requiring Santa to obey restrictions.

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Just a few days before Christmas and Cuomo is acting like he's the hero from "It's a Wonderful Life."

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But the reality is not nearly as cozy as that — it's much more sinister and sad.

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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
New York leads US in population drop, could lose House seat (Fox 12/23/2020)
Trump puts GOP on its heels with 11th-hour stimulus demands, throws wrench into Georgia Senate race (Fox 12/23/2020)
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"I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple."

•
"I'm also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a package, and maybe that administration will be me."

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"A few months ago, Congress started negotiations on a new package to get urgently needed help to the American people. It's taken forever."

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"However, the bill they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated. It really is a disgrace."

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"For example, among the more than 5,000 pages in this bill, which nobody in Congress has read because of its length and complexity — it's called the COVID relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID."
Tomi Lahren: Enough with the stimulus checks, let us earn our living (Fox 12/21/2020)
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"They think pretty highly of themselves for saving you, but let's get real here, our anointed swamp leaders would never allow themselves to go without a paycheck."

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"I am glad Americans will get some relief via the 11th-hour coronavirus relief package but still I say the best relief we could ask for would be to reopen and get back to normal."

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"Sure, that $300 supplemental [unemployment] check is gonna help a lot of folks, but how many of those same folks would rather earn their living rather than wait for a taxpayer-funded government stimulus check?"

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The deal is little more than "robbing Peter to pay Paul, and pretty soon Peter is gonna go broke, too ... then what? Who is gonna foot the bill?"

•
"Contrary to what most, if not all Democrats believe, you can't tax your way out of everything. That money doesn't drop from the sky. We are on month nine of this insanity with no end in sight."

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"Most Americans don't want your handout, but we do want your tyrannical hands out of our businesses and livelihoods."
Americans need to 'wake up,' realize China wants to 'dominate world': Haley (Fox 12/21/2020)
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"I think all you have to do is look back several months ago when Biden said China was no competition to us, and that we didn't need to be worried about them."

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"I think you look at Nancy Pelosi in Chinatown, saying we were being racist and overreacting."

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"The problem is wake up, America. This is nothing small. China has wanted to dominate the world for a long time. They want to bring down America and they almost did that with the coronavirus."

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"What we have to do is understand we've got to quit talking about China and we've got to do something about China. They are trying to go and spy on our satellites and trying to build up their military. They are the biggest human rights abusers. They're trying to control communication. They're getting involved in elections. We have to stop talking about China and we have to start doing something about it and that's just not happening."
Barr says he has 'no plan' to appoint election, Hunter Biden special counsels (Fox 12/21/2020)
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"I think to the extent that there's an investigation, I think that it's being handled responsibly and professionally, To this point I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel and I have no plan to do so before I leave.
Vote Loeffler and Perdue – Georgia, here's what's at stake in Jan. 5 runoff elections (Fox 12/21/2020)
Suspected Russian hack against US is 'grave' threat, cybersecurity agency says (Fox 12/18/2020)
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... the perpetrators had used network management software from Texas-based SolarWinds to infiltrate computer networks. Its new alert said the attackers may have used other methods, as well.

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... identified more than 40 government agencies, think tanks, non-governmental organizations and IT companies infiltrated by the hackers.

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... four in five were in the United States — nearly half of them tech companies — with victims also in Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

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"This is not ‘espionage as usual,' even in the digital age. Instead, it represents an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world."

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"This is looking like it's the worst hacking case in the history of America, They got into everything."

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The intentions of the perpetrators appear to be espionage and gathering information rather than destruction, according to security experts and former government officials. If so, they are now remarkably well situated.

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"The actual and perceived control of so many important networks could easily be used to undermine public and consumer trust in data, written communications and services."

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... the hackers are now "omniscient to the operations" of federal agencies they've infiltrated "and there is viable concern that they might leverage destructive attacks within these agencies" now that they've been discovered.

•
Among the business sectors scrambling to protect their systems and assess potential theft of information are defense contractors, technology companies and providers of telecommunications and the electric grid.

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See related A More Effective Method... [Michael Ramirez, 07/21/2018] www.gocomics.com/michaelramirez (, ) cartoon from World picture album
Where is the media's 'breathless hysteria' over Swalwell entanglement with suspected Chinese spy? (Fox 12/18/2020)
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"Imagine the outrage the mob, the media, Big Tech and the Democrats would have if he was a Republican or had the last name Trump."

•
"The reaction would be apoplectic. It would be filled with breathless hysteria, every second of every day. But because he is a Democrat from California, he's gotten now a free pass, and continues to have one. The corrupted media mob does not serve we, the American people. It only serves their agenda."

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"It raises the question: What, if anything, did he divulge in terms of state secrets, being on the House Intel Committee, to this spy that he was hanging out with an awful lot? We don't have an idea, and this hs been hidden from the American people for a long time."

•
"Swalwell must be removed from the Intel Committee, He's had a long relationship with a Chinese spy. She placed an intern in his office, his judgment is lacking, he can't be trusted with state secrets."
Graham vows to hold Dems, media accountable over Hunter Biden: 'We're not going to sweep this under the rug' (Fox 12/17/2020)
•
"I know Joe and Jill. And I have no joy in my heart that Hunter Biden is going through difficult times."

•
"But we can't live in a country where for three, two-and-a-half years, you go after Trump and the Trump family and Russia. We are not going to sweep this under the rug. My big fear is that the media could give a damn about this investigation and Democrats would gladly sweep it under the rug if they could."

•
"I am convinced, that the only avenue available is either special counsel or a Republican Senate to get to the bottom of this."

•
"I like him. I have a lot of respect for him, but I find it hard to believe that if you are in charge of overseeing corruption in the Ukraine as vice president under the Obama administration, you didn't know your own son was on the board of Burisma, one of the most corrupt gas companies in Ukraine."

•
"All of this chatter about the family being involved to impress the Chinese, could you imagine if this were Trump emails, if you had information of the Trump family trying to impress the Chinese to get a joint venture with the Chinese energy company?"

•
"So, the American media is pathetic when it comes to investigating allegations against Democrats. The rule of law in this country apparently is that if you are Republican, you are assumed to be guilty."

•
"What I am trying to do is tell Democrats you should care, You came to me and you asked me to support legislation to protect Bob Mueller from being fired without cause to get to the bottom of all things Russia and Trump. I agreed."

•
"I thought it was important that somebody outside of politics look at the accusations against President Trump and his family when it came to Russia."

•
"I feel very strongly that the evidence in the Biden case is a mountain compared to what they had regarding Trump and Russia and the same Democrats are completely ignoring this."

•
The question remains whether "Hunter Biden's business dealings and his attempts to do business with the Communist Chinese Party through their associates, has compromised Joe Biden's ability to effectively wage foreign policy."

•
"Somebody outside of politics should look at this just like they looked at Trump. To give Biden a pass after what happened with the Trump family would set a scenario in this country [where] it is not about what you did, it's about the party you are in."
Gowdy blasts Pelosi as Swalwell stays on House Intel: She can't find a single Dem who didn't date... (Fox 12/17/2020)
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"There are 230 [House] Democrats, and you mean to tell me she cannot find a single one that didn't date a Chinese spy?"

•
"He berated Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. for meeting with a Russian lawyer — not dating one, meeting with one, And then he berates Devin Nunes for a phone call with Lev Parnas, and he calls the president an agent of Russia."

•
"Meanwhile, for four years, the guy is not smart enough to know he's being played by a Chinese spy?"

•
"That's the best Nancy Pelosi could do? At 230 members, the best you can come up with is a former city councilman in California who's not smart enough to know when a woman is expressing interest in you, [whether] she's a spy?"

•
"Unfortunately I know him. This is the same guy that ran for president so he's not known for his self-awareness, I need to hear from the FBI and the director of national intelligence. What did you all have? I mean, you went to a sitting member of Congress [and] said, 'Look, you probably should not be having any new faces in your life.' What did they tell him?"

•
"And I don't think Swalwell has denied having a relationship with her [suspected spy Fang Fang]. He said it was classified. I'll be damned if I know what that means: All you've got to say is 'I didn't sleep with her', Eric. That's all you got to say."
Trump says he has 'nothing to do' with 'potential prosecution' of Hunter Biden (Fox 12/17/2020)
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"I have NOTHING to do with the potential prosecution of Hunter Biden, or the Biden family. It is just more Fake News. Actually, I find it very sad to watch!"
Ingraham: Biden naming ex-Disney boss Iger China ambassador would be latest 'bow to Beijing' (Fox 12/17/2020)
DeVos pleads with Education Department staff to 'be the resistance': report (Fox 12/16/2020)
•
"Let me leave you with this plea: Resist, Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what's right for students. In everything you do, please put students first – always."

•
"Ultimately, our aim in everything we accomplished was to do what's right for students, That's a notion that, from the beginning, I hoped would unite everyone in education. And it should. Four years later, it's still my focus and it's still my hope for all of you."
Mike Rowe reveals why he thinks student loan forgiveness is a bad idea (Fox 12/16/2020)
•
"My reasons for opposing student loan forgiveness are not a secret. I've written at length on this page about the fundamental unfairness of doing such a thing — especially to the millions of Americans who have paid their college debts, and sacrificed much to do so."

•
"I've also said that forgiving student debt would send a terrible message to the very same universities that already gouge their customers with sky-high tuition. Tuition will never come back to earth if we bail out those who borrowed more than they could repay."

•
"I pity every young man and woman who is struggling today under the yoke of a crushing student loan. I sincerely do. You were quite possibly sold a bill of goods. You were very likely pressured by your friends, your parents, or your guidance counselor, to attend the 'right' school."

•
"... But that's not my fault. Nor is it the fault of the American people. The fault belongs to you, and so does the debt."
Hunter Biden in 2017 sent 'best wishes' from 'entire Biden family' to China firm chairman... (Fox 12/16/2020)
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... shows President-elect Joe Biden's son extending "best wishes from the entire Biden family." and urging the chairman to "quickly" send a $10 million wire to "properly fund and operate" the Biden joint venture with the now-bankrupt Chinese energy company.

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"I hope my letter finds you well. I regret missing you on your last visit to the United States." Hunter Biden wrote in the attached letter, dated June 17, 2017.

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"Please accept the best wishes from the entire Biden family as well as my partners. We are all hoping to see you here again soon, or in Shanghai."

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"I am sure you have been well briefed by our dear friend Director Zang on the political and economic connections we have established in countries where you are interested in expanding during the coming months and years, I look forward to our next meeting."

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"I am glad to hear from you! Time flies and it has been months since we met in the US. It seems that we were always on a rush when we were together." Ye wrote to Biden, adding that "the consensus we made last time has been materialized in a timely manner."

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"I will continue to pay attention and give my support, I have arranged Director Zang and Gongwen Dong to expedite the charter capital input to SinoHawk.

•
"I look forward to meeting you in the near future and discussing our joint undertaking. If there is anything I could do please do not hesitate to write to me." Ye wrote. "Please accept my best regards to you and your family."

•
See related 15 Million Dollar Minimum... (Mike Shelton, 10/15/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Laura Ingraham: Chinese officials know Biden win was ‘huge victory’ for Communist Party (Fox 12/16/2020)
•
"Every Chinese official knows that Biden's victory was a huge victory for the CCP, and that our new leaders will worry more about offending President Xi than standing up for American workers."

•
"Biden's advisers have a proven track record of advancing the CCP's interests, Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti was a key player in establishing permanent normal trade relations with China back in 2000. [National Security Adviser-designate] Jake Sullivan has called for more cooperation with Beijing."

•
"And Biden's nominee for secretary of state, Tony Blinken? His own consulting firm helped American universities court big, big donations from Beijing. So do you really expect him to counsel Biden against letting the CCP continue its conquest of higher education?"

•
"All Americans who care about liberty, including Republicans in Congress, should be warning about the dangers of the CCP, There will be a lot of muscle-flexing by China in the coming months and the ground will shift away from liberty."
Hannity slams New York Times for ignoring Swalwell entanglement with suspected Chinese spy (Fox 12/16/2020)
•
"Over the course of the last few weeks, we did notice a sudden, dramatic change of heart among so-called journalists in the press. After spending four years hyperventilating every second, every minute, every hour of every day over foreign election interference, all of which has been proven to be false, the so-called journalists no longer seem to care."

•
"Swalwell sits on the ever-so-important House Intel Committee, and he knows secrets and nobody else is supposed to know about China. Was there any pillow talk?"

•
"Now, let me be very clear, I don't really give a rip about his personal life, The real question is, is he compromised? ... Did he reveal secrets? Did she use his computer, perhaps when he was sleeping? But The New York 'toilet paper' Times does not ask any of these questions. In fact, they 'have not covered the story at all, not one single report, nothing."

•
"Does that shock you? I wonder if his name was Trump, how they would react."
Rush Limbaugh gives update on cancer battle: 'Every day remains a gift' (Fox 12/15/2020)
•
"It's tough to realize that the days where I do not think I'm under a death sentence are over."

•
"When you have a terminal disease diagnosis that has a time frame to it, then that puts a different psychological and even physical awareness to it."

•
"But I continue to look at this and live this as a day-to-day proposition... And so the bottom line is that every day is a gift.
Kayleigh McEnany scolds reporters at briefing for ignoring Eric Swalwell, Hunter Biden stories (Fox 12/15/2020)
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"We found out that Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell was infiltrated by an alleged Chinese spy, this spy cozied up to Swalwell, raised funds for his 2014 campaign and even planted an intern in his office and that relationship continued until the FBI briefed him in 2015..."

•
"But after entangling with this spy for years, Swalwell hypocritically went on to be one of the lead instigators of the Russia collusion hoax and the impeachment sham."

•
"When the Swalwell story broke, guess how many minutes of coverage it got on ABC, NBC, MSNBC and CBS? Zero. CNN devoted three minutes and 16 seconds to it"...

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Republicans backing Trump fraud claims even as Biden wins Electoral College (Fox 12/15/2020)
•
If tens of millions of Republicans believe Joe Biden is an illegitimate president — Trump actually used that phrase — it could well damage his administration.

•
And at a deeper level, if much of one political party believes an election is being stolen — and next time it could be the Democrats — that seriously damages democracy.
Gutfeld on the expanding Hunter Biden investigation (Fox 12/14/2020)
•
Let's note the contrast, between an investigation into someone they hate vs. someone they love.

•
First: There's the Steele dossier:

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CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota: "The dossier has been corroborated by the intelligence community."

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CNN's Jim Sciutto: The dossier in fact is far from bogus...

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MSNBC: So far nothing in this dossier has been disproved...

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CNN: Increasingly, it's the accurate dossier.

•
Now, let's compare this to the coverage of Hunter Biden.

•
CNN's Brian Stelter: We do know that this is a classic example of the right-wing media machine...

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ABC's George Stephanopoulos: Talking about Biden's personal corruption, a little bit about Hunter Biden, most of those charges unverified.

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MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire: "...peddling baseless conspiracy theories about Joe Biden and his son.

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CNN's Christiane Amanpour: As you know, I am a journalist and I follow the facts, and there has never been any issue with corruption......

•
It's worth noting the contrast since the Hunter evidence is actually real. No one paid for a phony dossier and then had the media pass it around like a crack pipe — so that it got "re-verified" by other jackasses.

•
No wonder President Obama asked Joe: Are you sure you wanna do this?

•
But sadly, China now has Joe over a barrel that's filled with a lot of dirt.

•
And what a relief for Xi Jinping after four years of dealing with Trump, who had China's number and fought on our behalf, instead of chasing popularity.
Biden’s message to nation: ‘It’s time to turn the page’ (Fox 12/14/2020)
•
"In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed. We the People voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact."

•
And Biden urged that "now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal."

•
Biden highlighted that amid the coronavirus pandemic, "we saw something very few predicted, even thought possible – the biggest voter turnout in the history of the United States of America."

•
And he spotlighted that the election "now ranks as the clearest demonstration of the true will of the American people, one of the most amazing demonstrations of civic duty we've ever seen in our county. It should be celebrated, not attacked."

•
... spotlighted the record 81 million votes that he and Vice President-elect Harris won. He noted that the tally is "more than any ticket has received in the history of America. It represents a winning margin of more than 7 million votes over the number of votes cast for my opponent."

•
Biden also mentioned his 306-232 Electoral College victory over the president, which was the same margin that Trump defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

•
"At the time President Trump called his Electoral College tally a landslide. By his own standards, these number represented a clear victory then and I respectfully suggest they do so now."

•
... also said in his speech that "the flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know that nothing — not even a pandemic — or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame."

•
And he repeated his pledge from his White House campaign that "I will be a president for all Americans. I will work just as hard for those of you who didn't vote for me, as I will for those who did."

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See related Mourning in America (Michael Ramirez, 11/10/2020) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Steal Team Six (Antonio Branco, 10/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Draining the Swamp (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Attorney General William Barr announces resignation (Fox 12/14/2020)
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"Just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!" Trump tweeted.

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"As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family."

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Barr, who served as attorney general for former President George H.W.

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Bush, wrote in his resignation letter that he is "greatly honored that you called on me to serve your Administration and the American people once again as Attorney General."

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"I am proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people." Barr wrote.

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Barr noted that he discussed the Justice Department's review of voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election with the president on Monday, and "how these allegations will continue to be pursued."

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"At a time when the country is so deeply divided, it is incumbent on all levels of government, and all agencies acting within their purview, to do all we can to assure the integrity of elections and promote public confidence in their outcome." Barr wrote.

•
Earlier this month, Barr said that the Justice Department had not yet found widespread evidence of voter fraud.

•
In his letter, though, Barr went on to tout Trump's record, calling it "all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance."

•
"Your 2016 victory speech in which you reached out to your opponents and called for working together for the benefit of the American people was immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds."

•
"The nadir of this campaign was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your Administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia, Few have weathered these attacks, much less forge ahead with a positive program for the country."

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Barr touted Trump's economy, calling it "the strongest and most resilient" in American history, and one "that brought unprecedented progress to those previously left out."

•
"You have restored American military strength. By brokering historic peace deals in the Mideast you have achieved what most thought impossible." Barr wrote.

•
"You have curbed illegal immigration and enhanced the security of our nation's borders. You have advanced the rule of law by appointing a record number of judges committed to constitutional principles."

•
Barr also praised the administration for Operation Warp Speed, saying the president "delivered a vaccine for coronavirus on a schedule no one thought conceivable." calling it a "feat that will undoubtedly save millions of lives."

•
Barr said that during his time at the Justice Department, officials have worked "tirelessly to protect the public from violent crime; worked closely with leaders in Mexico to fight drug cartels; cracked down on China's exploitation of our economy and workers; defended competition in the marketplace, especially the technology sector; and supported the men and women of law enforcement who selflessly — and too often thanklessly — risk their lives to keep our communities safe."

•
His resignation also comes less than a week after President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden confirmed he was under federal investigation for his "tax affairs."

•
The president, over the weekend, called Barr a "big disappointment." noting that the nation's top lawyer knew about the federal probe into his opponent's son and did not disclose it before Election Day.

•
"Why didn't Bill Barr reveal the truth to the public, before the Election, about Hunter Biden. Joe was lying on the debate stage that nothing was wrong, or going on - Press confirmed" Trump tweeted over the weekend. "Big disadvantage for Republicans at the polls!"

•
A source told ... though, that the president did not ask for Barr's resignation.
Shocking video emerges from NYC cathedral shooting (Fox 12/14/2020)
•
... the gunman, who was dressed in black, can be heard shouting, "kill me, kill me," before he is fatally shot on the steps of the cathedral.

•
During the incident, at least one officer was seen taking cover behind some garbage cans, as he pleaded with the man to drop his gun...

•
At least one of the shots struck the gunman in the head. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and was later pronounced dead.

•
"I can tell you from the preliminary body camera – and again, this is quick – that we watched, you see three officers acting heroically, sergeant, detective, and police officer, engaging an armed perpetrator, putting themselves in harm's way to pull people that are literally hiding behind these poles behind me caught in the crossfire. So it is by the grace of God today that we don't have anyone struck."

•
Police recovered two semi-automatic firearms owned by the suspect at the scene. In addition, police found a bag nearby believed to be owned by the suspect, which contained a full can of gasoline, rope, wire, multiple knives, a Bible and tape.

•
The Christmas performance was the cathedral's first public event since the coronavirus pandemic hit the Big Apple...
New York City business owners haunted by Amazon loss amid pandemic (Fox 12/14/2020)
•
"It's really crazy what's going on. The city has no solutions. We have a do-nothing mayor"...

•
"I'm watching AOC selling ‘tax the rich T-shirts' for $58 while businesses are leaving New York. That's AOC's solution. Who is going to pay $58 for a T-shirt when you're out of a job?"

•
See related In the Red (Antonio Branco, 02/19/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Tax (Taylor Jones, 01/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Rep. Jordan raises 'fundamental questions' in Swalwell scandal (Fox 12/13/2020)
•
"She [Pelosi] gets all kinds of briefings." he told host Maria Bartiromo. "She gets briefings I don't get. She gets briefings you don't get certainly, so what did she know when she made that selection?"

•
... the other "key question" he has is, "Why is it that it's always the Democrats who get defensive briefings?"
Trump tells 'Fox & Friends' election challenges 'not over' ahead of Electoral College vote (Fox 12/13/2020)
•
"No, it's not over. We keep going and we're going to continue to go forward. We have numerous local cases."

•
When asked about Monday's Electoral College vote, which is when the country officially elects the president, Trump recognized that he is under a time crunch.

•
"We're going to speed it up as much as we can, but you can only go so fast, They give us very little time. But we caught them, as you know, as fraudulent, dropping ballots, doing so many things, nobody can even believe it."

•
The president said it was "a rigged election" and attributed this to local Democrats who "outsmarted" their Republican counterparts.

•
"What happened to this country is we were like a third world country."

•
When asked whether he would attend Biden's inauguration, Trump would not say. "I don't want to talk about that."

•
"The Supreme Court, all they did is say we don't have standing, So they're saying essentially the president of the United States and Texas and these other states, great states, they don't have standing."

•
"Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections."
WSJ op-ed on ‘Dr.’ Jill Biden gets writer ‘canceled’ by Northwestern University (Fox 12/13/2020)
•
The essay, titled, "Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D.." appeared Friday in The Wall Street Journal. It was written by Joseph Epstein, an author and editor who was a lecturer at the university, which is located near Chicago.

•
Epstein wrote that Jill Biden – the wife of President-elect Joe Biden — using "Dr." before her name "sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic." because her doctorate is in education, not medicine or science.

•
He also argues that earning a Ph.D. "may once have held prestige, but that has been diminished by the erosion of seriousness and the relaxation of standards in university education generally."

•
... a statement from Northwestern regarding Epstein, in which the university said it does not agree with Epstein, whom it accused of having "misogynistic views."

•
"While we firmly support academic freedom and freedom of expression, we do not agree with Mr. Epstein's opinion and believe the designation of doctor is well deserved by anyone who has earned a Ph.D., an Ed.D. or an M.D."

•
"Northwestern is firmly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, and strongly disagrees with Mr. Epstein's misogynistic views."
Acting US defense secretary's chief of staff Kash Patel files $50M defamation lawsuit against CNN (Fox 12/13/2020)
•
"Defendants harbored extreme professional and personal animus, bias, spite and ill-will towards Kash as a result of Kash's revelations of CNN's corrupt business practices and deceitful misreporting."

•
"Because of this malice and desire to injure Kash, Defendants knowingly and recklessly ignored the probable falsity of the story and printed it."
Utah Rep.-elect Burgess Owens, former NFL player, compares Antifa, Black Lives Matter to Ku Klux Klan (Fox 12/12/2020)
•
"As someone who came out of the NFL and lost everything and was a chimney sweep for a few months, a security guard at night. If I can do it, you can do it."

•
"That's the difference in the conservative message and those who are in the socialists and Marxists area. They want to keep you hopeless, so they get the power, and they get the benefit of you not believing in yourself."

•
"Whether it be Antifa, a terrorist group, whether it be, BLM, a terrorist group, I tell you one thing they have in common with the KKK: They're cowards and bullies."

•
"They hide their face. They go out every single night. They do it in gangs. Their goal is to destroy things, to intimidate people, to hurt people and to do all the things that are totally against the American way."
Trump tells ... he's 'so disappointed' in Supreme Court for turning aside Texas election suit (Fox 12/12/2020)
•
The president repeatedly has insisted that he was denied a second term by widespread voter fraud.

•
However, states have stood by their results and courts repeatedly have rejected Trump's legal claims that Democrat Joe Biden's victory by a margin of more than 7 million votes nationwide should be tossed out.

•
"We've proven it [fraud], but no judge has had the courage, including the Supreme Court — I am so disappointed in them." Trump said.

•
"No judge, including in the Supreme Court of the United States, has had the courage to allow it to be heard."

•
The Texas lawsuit argued that the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin unconstitutionally changed their election statutes via judiciary or executive fiat rather than their legislatures.

•
The order issued Friday by the Supreme Court stated that the Texas motion "for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution.

•
Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections."

•
"The Supreme Court, all they did is say we don't have standing." Trump said. "So they're saying essentially the president of the United States and Texas and these other states, great states, they don't have standing."
Trump legal team loses federal case in Wisconsin, argues another in state's Supreme Court (Fox 12/12/2020)
•
U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig, who President Trump appointed to the bench, dismissed a federal lawsuit that would have forced the state Legislature to declare Trump the winner of the state's Electoral College votes over President-elect Joe Biden.

•
The president's legal arguments "fail as a matter of law and fact." Ludwig said.

•
"I WON THE ELECTION IN A LANDSLIDE, but remember, I only think in terms of legal votes, not all of the fake voters and fraud that miraculously floated in from everywhere." the president claimed. "What a disgrace!"

•
"This is a great and disgraceful miscarriage of justice. The people of the United States were cheated, and our Country disgraced. Never even given our day in Court!"
Judge Rules Pennsylvania Ballots Without Proof of Voter ID Can’t be Counted (LifeNews 12/12/20 )
Texas GOP Chair Allen West says SCOTUS setback may call for new 'union' of 'law-abiding states' (Fox 12/12/2020)
•
Texas asserted it had a right "to demand that all other States abide by the constitutionally set rules in appointing presidential electors to the electoral college."

•
It claimed that other states suffered whenever one state "violates federal law to affect the outcome of a presidential election."

•
But the court dismissed the case based on that issue... It said that Texas "has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections."

•
"The Supreme Court, in tossing the Texas lawsuit that was joined by seventeen states and 106 US congressman, [has] decreed that a state can take unconstitutional actions and violate its own election law — resulting in damaging effects on other states that abide by the law, while the guilty state suffers no consequences."

•
"This decision establishes a precedent that says states can violate the U.S. Constitution and not be held accountable, This decision will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of our constitutional republic."

•
"Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the Constitution."

•
West's proposal echoed a similar sentiment expressed earlier in the week by Texas state Rep. Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg, who called for a referendum that would allow voters to decide if Texas should break off from the U.S.

•
"The federal government is out of control and does not represent the values of Texans. That is why I am committing to file legislation this session that will allow a referendum to give Texans a vote for the State of Texas to reassert its status as an independent nation."

•
"I actually think — and I've referenced this, I've alluded to this a couple of times because I've seen others allude to this — I actually think that we're trending toward secession." Limbaugh said...

•
"It can't go on this way, There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs. We can't be in this dire a conflict without something giving somewhere along the way."

•
... Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said the president's legal team isn't done with its elections challenges.

•
"The people of this country are entitled to a hearing on this. They should have at least given us a hearing so that we can present our facts and not just pushed it off to the side so no one would ever get to hear these facts."
McEnany argues Supreme Court ‘hid behind procedure' in rejecting Texas election lawsuit (Fox 12/12/2020)
•
The Supreme Court justices who rejected Texas' bid to overturn the election results in four key states "hid behind procedure" instead of reviewing the "facts of the case" that "still stand."

•
"They dodged, they hid behind procedure and they refused to use their authority to enforce the Constitution, You know, we've gone state by state, Sean, outlining the egregious equal protection violations, the due process claims that were entirely ignored."

•
"None of those justices gave a view on the facts of the case, which is that there were 174,384 ballots in Michigan not tied to a registration number. That is in the case, it is still a fact at this moment."

•
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the case — without granting other relief, like issuing an injunction on electoral proceedings. They added that they expressed "no view on any other issue."

•
"So, they did not get to the merits of the case. Those facts still stand and the indictment on this election and its integrity still stands despite this procedural ruling."
Supreme Court ruling probably dooms Trump attempt to block Biden election as president (Fox 12/12/2020)
•
Texas filed a motion Monday asking the Supreme Court for permission to file a lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin over changes the four states made in their election rules.

•
All four of those states were carried by Biden in the election, but the Trump campaign sought to invalidate those results as improper.

•
Under procedural rules, a state cannot sue another state directly without first getting the approval of the Supreme Court. That approval was denied by the high court Friday night.

•
The crux of the proposed lawsuit, which was attached as an exhibit to the motion filed by Texas, claimed that the changes made in election rules by executive branch officials of the four state governments and by judges — largely governing absentee ballots, which increased in volume this year due to the coronavirus pandemic — violated the Electors Clause of the Constitution.

•
The Electors Clause gives state legislatures — not other state officials — the authority to set the rules governing the selection of electors in a presidential election in their states.

•
Texas also claimed that Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin violated the one-person, one-vote standard of the Equal Protection Clause...

•
Finally, Texas alleged that the four states violated "substantive due process" requirements because their election practices were fundamentally unfair.

•
The four states "acted unconstitutionally to lower their election standards ... with the express intent to favor their candidate for president."

•
... the order issued Friday by the Supreme Court in Texas v. Pennsylvania denied the motion by Texas.

•
The very short order said the high court was denying the request to file a complaint "for lack of standing."

•
Texas, said the court, "has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections."

•
The doctrine of standing requires you to demonstrate to a court that you have an actual injury in fact.

•
Here, the Supreme Court said that Texas cannot establish that it has a cognizable injury by the way elections were conducted in the four other states.

•
Texas had argued that because the election of a president is "the shared enterprise of the entire nation." the violations of the Constitution by the actions of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin adversely affected the voters of Texas by diminishing the value of their votes. But the Supreme Court obviously did not buy that argument.

•
There are still other lawsuits pending in some states, but they have so far been uniformly unsuccessful in changing the outcome of the presidential election.

•
What they have done is highlight the many problems we have throughout our election system that need to be addressed and remedied, certainly before our next federal election.
Fox News Poll: Most Republicans say President Trump was robbed (Fox 12/11/2020)
Cheney, Buck lead House resolution backing Trump legal efforts: 'Must protect the integrity...' (Fox 12/11/2020)
•
"When non-legislative actors in other states encroach on the authority of the 'Legislature thereof' in that state to administer a presidential election, they threaten the liberty, not just of their own citizens, but of every citizen of the United States who casts a lawful ballot in that election – including the citizens of amici states"...
It's a 'historic crime and disgrace' for media to avoid Hunter Biden story during election (Fox 12/11/2020)
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"We need to recognize what a historic crime and disgrace this is. not only in journalism, but as soon as these [Hunter Biden] documents became known, the operatives in the intelligence community, the CIA, [former CIA Director] John Brennan, [former Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper, [former NSA Director] Michael Hayden — all of the standard professional liars — issued a letter claiming that this material was the hallmark of Russian disinformation, even though they had no basis for thinking that."

•
"And that gave the media permission to lie to the public continuously and Silicon Valley [permission] to censor these materials"...

•
"So not only did the public not become aware of them, they were lied to. Not only by claiming Russia was involved, even though there's zero evidence that they were and no one thinks that, but by calling it disinformation, the implication was that these documents were forgeries, when now we know that the criminal investigation that's been ongoing is about the very transactions that these documents cover"...

•
"This is an incredible crime by the corporate media [to] lie to the public and bury information before an election, but [it's] also again domestic interference on the part of intelligence agencies in order to manipulate the outcome of our election."

•
... intelligence services have "partnered" with the media as part of an effort to block the Trump agenda "on the premise that Trump presidency was dangerous."

•
"If the media really wants to believe that the Trump presidency poses a danger, that's their prerogative, but what they don't have the right to do is to become disinformation agents. And the CIA and all of those guys in the intelligence community, they were all open to the fact that they wanted Donald Trump to lose and they wanted to sabotage his presidency."

•
"Remember, Chuck Schumer told Rachel Maddow in early 2017 that the CIA was going to sabotage Trump's presidency if he continues to criticize them and that was the story for the last four years, a union between the intelligence agencies that fed lies to the media that mindlessly repeated them for their own interests."
Hunter Biden scandal spotlights myriad ways media elites shut down journalism they don't like (Fox 12/11/2020)
•
Our media elite pretend that they're all for the free and democratic exchange of information, and for holding powerful people accountable.

•
But the suppressed Hunter Biden scandal story underlines that they have been shaming anti-Democratic narratives by engaging in character assassination of the conservative media.

•
That and using the rulings of "independent fact-checking groups" to shut down journalism they don't like.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Hannity: Texas election lawsuit is 'an uphill battle', but 'it's right on the law' (Fox 12/11/2020)
•
"We know that very specific election laws ... were totally and completely and utterly ignored [in] Georgia, Pennsylvania, many other battleground states. [They] just decided to change things on their own ... Other laws [were] changed in the middle of the game, all of which are unconstitutional without any state legislative approval, which is required by, yes, that document known as the Constitution."
Tom Cotton: Hunter Biden's taxes are 'least damaging' part of probe into China dealings (Fox 12/10/2020)
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"The Biden campaign released details of a tax fraud investigation in Wilmington. I think that was just to show maybe the least damaging part of the investigation. There are allegations of securities fraud, money laundering related to Hunter Biden's Chinese businesses, a crooked hospital deal with Jim Biden, Joe Biden's brother out in western Pennsylvania. These investigations span multiple jurisdictions"...

•
"If Joe Biden becomes president, then all those prosecutors are in line to be fired next month. If there were ever circumstances that create a conflict of interest and call for a special counsel, that's here."

•
"I think it's very serious. The Biden family has been trading on Joe Biden's public office for 50 years. ... Do we really think that will change if Joe Biden becomes president, the highest office in the land? If they did it when he was vice president and he was senator, of course it's going to happen when he has even more power"...

•
"Look, we know Joe Biden has misrepresented his family's business dealings in the past. Hunter Biden flew all over the world with him. Joe Biden said they never talked about their business, Hunter Biden said they did. Emails from his laptops showed they did as well. And really on two 14-hour flights two and from China, do we really think Joe Biden never once said to Hunter Biden, 'so, what are you doing in China, son?' To borrow from one of Joe Biden's favorite phrases, come on, man."
Sarah Sanders says liberal media covered up for Hunter Biden during father's presidential... (Fox 12/10/2020)
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"It's not surprising, but it's frankly very disturbing. President Trump spent days and weeks and months talking about trying to get the liberal media to cover this, and it's not shocking that they absolutely, not just refused to cover it, but frankly I think covered it up in many cases and refused to hold the fire on Biden and certainly on these business dealings."

•
"Look, at the end of the day, China is one of our biggest national security threats and also our greatest economic competitor."

•
"This is absolutely, I think, very disturbing and very alarming to see this type of relationship between Hunter Biden and our greatest competitor, our greatest national security threat. That is something that everyone should be paying attention to and another reason that it is so important to make sure that what took place in this election between Big Tech and the liberal media, refusing to cover key and important issues and favor one candidate over another, absolutely can never happen again."

•
See related Evening\\\'s Top Story (Jake Fuller, 10/2019)") cartoon from Media picture album
Ingraham: Virginia school board bows to 'perjurers of history' by renaming buildings (Fox 12/10/2020)
•
The board voted 7-0 Tuesday night to change the names of George Mason High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, despite 56% of the district voting against the changes.

•
"The petty tyrants on the board simply ignored this and sided with the perjurers of history."

•
"Look, if these folks really cared about traditionally marginalized people, [like] students, kids, they would be spending their time working on opening these schools."

•
... encouraged viewers to "start running for these seats and knocking out these goofballs" taking over school boards and local education departments.

•
"I bet after seeing this, millions of Americans are appalled because they don't really know, they aren't thinking about how politicized education has become"...

•
"It's clear that children aren't the concern. For these neo-Marxists that are running education, it's all about remaking America."
Portland’s ‘Red House’ protesters ready ‘for the long haul,’ guest tells Tucker (Fox 12/10/2020)
Hunter Biden’s China business deals leading up to 2018 probe detailed in Senate report (Fox 12/10/2020)
•
"Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and the People's Liberation Army. Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in cash flow."

•
"Ye's connections to the Communist government are extensive and ... Ye was also financially connected to Vice President Biden's brother, James Biden."

•
"Thus, there exists a vast web of corporate connections and financial transactions between and among the Biden family and Chinese nationals."

•
See related 15 Million Dollar Minimum... (Mike Shelton, 10/15/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Hannity: Texas is leading the charge to restore election integrity with latest lawsuit (Fox 12/10/2020)
•
"If we don't fix what is a broken, corrupt election system, the country is in deep trouble."

•
"Let's be clear. No state's attorney general, you've got to understand politics here, would ever put their name or reputation on the line over a case that lacks merit on the law or [is] without a strong constitutional basis. Definitely not 17 attorneys general. That is what happened. Eighteen total when you include Texas, no matter what political alliances they have or don't have."

•
... it will ultimately be up to the Supreme Court to "provide clarity on an election process that now millions recognize they can no longer have trust and confidence in."
Texas AG Paxton breaks down last-ditch election challenge before Supreme Court, claims 'unreliable...' (Fox 12/09/2020)
•
"If other states don't follow the Constitution and if their state legislature isn't responsible for overseeing their elections ... it affects my state."

•
"Our job is to make sure the Constitution is followed and that every vote counts. And in this case, I'm not sure every vote was counted. Not in the right way."

•
"It is the responsibility of state legislatures, per the Constitution to set the rules for the election of electors. And in this case, those were overridden, in the four states we're talking about ... by other officials."

•
"That's not the way our Constitution works and that's the challenge we have in front of the court. Can this be overridden by people who are not responsible under the Constitution for doing this?"

•
"Part of the genius of what the founders put in place is making sure that everybody in a state was at least treated the same. In this case ... we have county by county distinctions that treated voters differently and we, therefore, have unreliable results."
Pompeo warns of Chinese threat to US colleges, says many 'basically bought' by Beijing (Fox 12/09/2020)
•
... warned that the Chinese regime is "poisoning the well of our higher education institutions for its own ends" and that they "degrade our freedom and America national security."

•
"If we don't educate ourselves, if we are not honest about what is taking place, we'll get schooled by Beijing."

•
The top diplomat said that many American scholars have been "lured" into its recruitment programs and they are paid to do research in or for China, while others are easy targets for their anti-American messaging due to their own anti-American bias.

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"We see it too seldom, but why, why do schools censor themselves? They often do it out of fear of offending China"...

•
"We see too often on American campuses that the silence and censorship driven by the Chinese Communist Party usually boils down to something far less idealistic — so many of our colleges are bought by Beijing"...

•
Pompeo cited instances where universities reportedly refused to defend their students due to multi-million-dollar deals with China.

•
"What more bad decisions will schools make because they're hooked on Communist Party cash?"

•
He made a distinction between the Chinese government and innocent Chinese students, who are often the victims of the government's repression.

•
"American students talk about safe spaces as shelter from ideas they dislike. Chinese students need safe spaces to learn of ideas that they love — what a stark contrast"...

•
"... The Chinese Communist Party wants what we have and they will do whatever they must do to take it and get it, they will steal our stuff, they will pressure critics of the Chinese Communist Party to keep quiet, they will do whatever it takes."

•
... Chinese leader Xi Jinping is seeking to make China a top power abroad and to "build a high-tech repressive state like the world has never seen" while building up the People's Liberation Army, manipulating international organizations and engaging in "vast influence campaigns abroad."
Missouri joins 'fight' alongside Texas to challenge election before Supreme Court (Fox 12/09/2020)
Eric Swalwell's reported entanglement with Chinese spy ignored by CNN, broadcast networks (Fox 12/09/2020)
Jason Chaffetz: Swalwell should be thrown off intelligence committee (Fox 12/09/2020)
After entanglement with Chinese spy, Eric Swalwell warned of 'influx of Russians' in US politics... (Fox 12/09/2020)
Gutfeld on the mall Santa refusing the request for a Nerf gun (Fox 12/09/2020)
Kyle Rittenhouse’s mom says teen gunman was ‘helping people’ in Kenosha (Fox 12/08/2020)
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"If he did not have that gun, he would have been dead." ... "When I heard the charges, I was like, how? You look at the videos. It's all self-defense. My son didn't go down there to hurt anybody. He was there to help people."
Tom Cotton says senators 'across the spectrum' have reservations about Biden's defense... (Fox 12/08/2020)
Cruz explains why he agreed to argue Pa. election case if Supreme Court takes it up (Fox 12/08/2020)
•
The plaintiffs argue that the state does not have grounds to allow non-absentee vote-by-mail without a constitutional amendment. Nearly 30 Republican members of the state legislature have signed a document...

•
"We supported passage of Act 77 because we believed every Pennsylvanian should have more opportunities to participate in our democratic process"...

•
"The legislation was carefully drafted to protect the integrity of our elections and included specific provisions relating to deadlines and signature verification."

•
... the State Supreme Court later "overrule[d] the will of the legislature and governor by changing deadlines and eliminating provisions requiring signature verification, thereby applying much looser standards to mail-in ballots than are applied to ballots cast in person."

•
... "at a time when this country is so divided, when people are so angry, I think we need a sense of resolution, and we need the Supreme Court to step in and ensure that we're following the Constitution and following the law."

•
"Right now, it is not healthy for democracy, what we're seeing, and in Pennsylvania, the problem was made worse because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is a partisan Democratic court that issued multiple decisions just on their face contrary to the law. That's not how elections are supposed to work."

•
"When you look at a country where 39% of Americans right now believe this last election was rigged, that's a real problem for confidence in the integrity of our electoral system."

•
"So, I'm hopeful the Supreme Court will step forward to its responsibility and resolve this case and resolve other cases as needed."
Hannity tells Georgia voters: You have 'every right to be disgusted' but 'we need you' (Fox 12/08/2020)
•
"Make no mistake, this upcoming runoff election is about so much more than just Kelly Loeffler or Senator Perdue"...

•
"The balance of the Senate is at stake here. This impacts every American in profound and deep ways. [If] Republicans lose in Georgia, every gain that the president has made, every historic achievement will be in serious jeopardy. And the last four years of hard work [will go] down the tubes."

•
"People of Georgia, we need you. We've got radical Democrats ... far-left individuals who would love nothing more to repeal and replace every one of President Trump's pro-growth policy with their own scary, socialist vision of America."

•
"This election is critical. Georgia and the people of Georgia, even though they have every right to be disgusted and may not have all the answers, they need to go to the polls for the sake of the country. We need you."

•
Trump made a similar argument at a rally Saturday, telling supporters that "If you don't vote, the socialists and the communists win" control of the U.S. Senate.
Goya CEO says AOC was named 'employee of the month' after her boycott call led to sales spike (Fox 12/08/2020)
•
... Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was named 'employee of the month' after the company's sales spiked in response to the progressive Congresswoman's call for a boycott of its products earlier this year.

•
"When she boycotted us, our sales actually increased 1,000%. So we gave her an honorary, we never were able to hand it to her, but she got employee of the month for bringing attention to Goya and our adobo."

•
Ocasio-Cortez's call came after Unanue declared at a White House event that the United States was "blessed" to have "a leader like President Trump who is a builder."

•
"Oh look, it's the sound of me Googling 'how to make your own adobo,'" Ocasio-Cortez wrote to her 10.7 million followers on Twitter after social media backlash prompted #BoycottGoya."

•
... it was interesting to see AOC as one of the first people to boycott Goya and "go against her own people," adding that she is 'naive' when it comes to her support of policies like the Green New Deal.

•
... Goya has doubled its production with an $80 million facility in Texas to meet increasing demand.

•
"We're controlled by social media. Anything that doesn't go along with their agenda and narrative is not permissible."

•
"We've lost our courage. We are the greatest country on earth but we've lost the freedom and we have to get back to work."

•
He lamented that politicians have blamed the coronavirus on Trump and "weaponized" it against the American worker.

•
He also argued that politicians should be fired instead of the millions in the restaurant industry who are now unemployed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

•
"They turned their weapons, in a political year, on the masses. This is discrimination against the working class. We're not teaching our children. We're not working."
GOP Rep. Ken Buck calls for Hunter Biden special counsel in letter to Barr (Fox 12/07/2020)
•
"This investigation is critical to defending the integrity of our republic and ensuring a potential Biden Administration will not be the subject of undue foreign interference."

•
"Americans have the right to know whether Mr. Biden's reported ties to foreign governments will make him the subject of blackmail attempts or other nefarious efforts to undermine U.S. national security or otherwise improperly influence American foreign policy."

•
... the attorney general has the ability to appoint a special counsel to "investigate and prosecute any matter that would present a conflict of interest for the Department or other extraordinary circumstances."

•
"Similar to when the DOJ appointed Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, it is critical that this investigation continue free from political interference, no matter who is in the White House. We must guarantee the integrity of our government and the security of our republic."

•
"As such, I urge the DOJ to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Hunter Biden's actions and the potentially incriminating contents of his laptop to ensure this important investigation will be completed."
Barr intends to stay on as attorney general 'as long as the president needs him': source (Fox 12/07/2020)
•
... said that U.S. attorneys and FBI officials have been working to follow up on specific complaints and information they have received, but have not uncovered enough evidence that would change the outcome of the election.

•
"To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election."

•
"Some media outlets have incorrectly reported that the Department has concluded its investigation of election fraud and announced an affirmative finding of no fraud in the election."

•
"That is not what ... the Attorney General stated. The Department will continue to receive and vigorously pursue all specific and credible allegations of fraud as expeditiously as possible."

•
Last month, Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue any "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities if they existed, before the results of the 2020 presidential race were certified.

•
"On May 13, 2019, I directed John Durham, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, to investigate certain intelligence and law-enforcement activities surrounding the 2016 presidential election."

•
"Although I had expected Mr. Durham to complete his work by the summer of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as additional information he uncovered, prevented him from doing so."

•
"In advance of the presidential election, I decided to appoint Mr. Durham as a Special Counsel to provide him and his team with the assurance that they could complete their work, without regard to the outcome of the election," Barr wrote, adding that he appointed Durham with "the powers and authority of a Special Counsel" on Oct. 19.

•
"... Durham as special counsel "is authorized to investigate whether any federal official, employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III."

•
Under U.S. code, the special counsel would produce a "confidential report" and is ordered to "submit to the Attorney General a final report, and such interim reports as he deems appropriate in a form that will permit public dissemination."
Newt Gingrich: Georgia Republicans must turn out more votes than Stacey Abrams can 'steal' (Fox 12/07/2020)
•
"They need to vote because the key to a Republican victory is to have more votes than the left can steal"...

•
... there were 1.2 million unverified absentee ballots in the 2020 election and in 2018, 3.5 percent of absentee ballots were thrown out.

•
"This year [it] was [0.3 percent]. The difference is three times Biden's margin, and nobody can explain it. The agreement the Secretary of State [Brad Raffensperger] made with Stacey Abrams was crazy. They have their back now once again with these boxes where you can drop off ballots, which are an invitation to going out and gathering votes, which is illegal under Georgia law"...

•
Georgia officials are investigating several groups, including one founded by Abrams, for illicit voter registration practices.

•
... said, "Republicans have learned they are spending an enormous amount of energy monitoring every one of these drop boxes" and said in his entire career in Georgia politics, he had never seen an election "blatantly in favor of being stolen and unorganized."
Vote-fraud evidence mounts as 'No evidence!' chants grow louder (JWR 12/06/2020)
SpaceX launches space station supply mission (Fox 12/06/2020)
Rep. Steve Scalise: Open schools now — kids are suffering and face little risk from COVID (Fox 12/06/2020)
Haskins & Talgo: Coronavirus school closings are hurting students — it’s time to reopen (Fox 12/06/2020)
Ingraham: Elites, political class seek a post-pandemic world that is 'never normal again' (Fox 12/06/2020)
•
"Remember, this is what they are saying after we will have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on vaccines, lost trillions in wealth, lost years off our children's development and education, but still not going back to normal?"

•
"So what do you think is going on here? ... This is all about achieving the globalists' goal of a 'great reset' of our world economy."

•
"The proponents of which, by the way, use Biden's 'Build Back Better' model to push their idea of forced wealth equalization."

•
"Don't let the experts wave you off by saying, 'This is what the science says,' because I bet most of them either don't know or don't care about what the U.S. Constitution says."
Walter Williams, conservative economics professor, columnist, dead at 84 (Fox 12/05/2020)
•
"Very sad news. Walter Williams was legendary," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote. "He was brilliant, incisive, witty, and profound. I grew up reading him, and he was a ferocious defender of free markets and a powerful explainer of the virtues of Liberty."
Trump files latest lawsuit in Georgia challenging election result (Fox 12/04/2020)
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"Due to significant systemic misconduct, fraud, and other irregularities occurring during the election process, many thousands of illegal votes were cast, counted, and included in the tabulations from the Contested Election for the Office of the President of the United States, thereby creating substantial doubt regarding the results of that election"...

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"After Fulton County Elections Officials lied and defrauded the Republican poll watchers and members of the press, whereby in reasonable reliance the Republican poll watchers and members of the press left the State Farm Arena (where they had been observing the ballots being processed), without public transparency Fulton County Elections Officials continued to process, handle, and transfer many thousands of ballots"...
Project Veritas Strips CNN Naked (JWR 12/04/2020)
Trump doubles down on defense bill veto threat over Section 230 (Fox 12/04/2020)
•
... the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has indicated that he agrees with Trump that Section 230 should be repealed, but the "place for repeal is not the defense authorization bill."

•
"Very sadly for our Nation, it looks like Senator @JimInhofe will not be putting the Section 230 termination clause into the Defense Bill. So bad for our National Security and Election Integrity. Last chance to ever get it done. I will VETO!"
Georgia Gov. Kemp claims GOP secretary of state has yet to order signature audit (Fox 12/04/2020)
•
... was referring to surveillance video that allegedly showed poll watchers being led out of a room at State Farm Arena, the state's largest vote-counting center, after being told that the vote count was complete for the night.

•
Once they left, a woman could be seen pulling out suitcases from underneath a table that allegedly contained ballots. The votes were allegedly counted for hours, with no election supervisors present...

•
Kemp told ... that he has called for a signature audit, but the power in the state to make the order lies with the secretary of state's office.

•
"I think it should be done. I think especially [given] what we saw today... it raises more questions"...

•
... one of the lawyers on the Trump campaign's legal team, responded to the Kemp interview on Twitter, "@TrumpTeam requested signature verification FIVE TIMES."

•
Kemp has been severely criticized by Trump who said he was "ashamed" for endorsing him for governor.

•
"Look, I'm frustrated like [Trump] is, a lot of people are," said Kemp, who added he still supports the president and his policies. "Like he said, he's a fighter, we had a few battles but nobody worked harder for Donald Trump before Nov. 3 and I continued to help his efforts in the legal campaign and I will continue to do that."
Hannity: New video shows suspicious suitcases in Georgia, gift cards for voters in Nevada (Fox 12/04/2020)
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"Witnesses testify ... backed up by the newly-released surveillance footage, [that] shortly after observers were asked to leave the room, several large, mysterious suitcases — yeah, they believe filled with ballots, were rolled out from under a table"...

•
... another video, taken near Sparks, Nev., shows people in pro-Biden attire "offering Visa gift cards, jewelry and other swag" to Native Americans at the Reno-Sparks colony who could "show [they] voted."

•
"This is about our constitution. This is about free, fair elections ... that people should have confidence in."

•
"The judge in Nevada announced that he will review the evidence before making a decision. These could be game-changing allegations. They should be."
Trump lawyers claim 40,000 double votes in latest Nevada lawsuit (Fox 12/04/2020)
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... 1,506 votes received in the general election came from deceased voters...

•
... 42,284 voters voted twice, roughly 20,000 voters were found to have voted without a Nevada mailing address and 2,468 voters had changed their address to another state.

•
"We have testimony from multiple witnesses reporting that the usb drives used in the election would show that vote tallies changed overnight."

•
"That means in the dead of night, votes would appear or disappear on these voting machines during early voting and Election Day."

•
"This election was unfortunately stolen. We cannot turn a blind eye with evidence like this. We cannot allow an election to be stolen."
DOJ accuses Facebook of discriminating against American workers, giving high-paying jobs to... (Fox 12/03/2020)
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... alleges that the tech giant refused to recruit, consider, or hire qualified and available U.S. workers for the positions that Facebook reserved for temporary visa holders.

•
"Facebook intentionally created a hiring system in which it denied qualified U.S. workers a fair opportunity to learn about and apply for jobs"...

•
The positions at issue offered an average salary of around $156,000. The department is seeking unspecified civil penalties and back pay on behalf of U.S. workers denied employment.
Dr. Mark Goldfeder: House should censure anti-Semitic Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Fox 12/03/2020)
•
Tlaib's toxic anti-Semitism is dangerous. According to the FBI, the majority of religiously motivated hate crimes in the United States are committed against Jews.

•
That number is on the rise, despite the fact that Jews make up less than 2% of America's population.

•
... use classic anti-Semitic tropes including, but not limited to, false accusations of Jewish conspiracies; blood libels; accuse Jews of dual loyalty, and engage in Holocaust revisionism.

•
The truth is that Israel is the birthplace and homeland of the Jewish people going back thousands of years to biblical times, and is central to Judaism.

•
False claims that the Jews have no right to their ancient homeland and hate-filled calls for destroying the Jewish state and its inhabitants can't be called anything other than anti-Semitism.
Walter E. Williams 1936-2020 (JWR 12/03/2020)
•
We may not see his like again. And that is our loss.
McCarthy slams Democrats for delayed coronavirus relief: 'They're picking weed over the workers' (Fox 12/03/2020)
•
"Thirty-eight times since the summer, the Democrats have voted against any COVID relief. With all the challenges America has right now, we think COVID relief should be on the floor. But instead, the Democrats put cats and cannabis – this week they're going to outlaw big tigers, and they're going to legalize cannabis. They're picking weed over the workers. They're picking marijuana over the much-needed money we need to go forward, the small businesses that are closing."

•
"I don't understand the double standards of what we see from these Democratic leaders. How many times did Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi tell us we would not leave Congress until we got some COVID relief bill? That was months ago."
Rubio: Americans are tired of coronavirus hypocrisy from Democrats, media (Fox 12/03/2020)
•
"When people took to the streets dancing, tightly-packed crowds celebrating because of [Biden's election win,] nobody said a word, and it's the same with the stuff now."

•
"We've got these people that own a business that put their whole life's work into it, and you got some guy behind a Zoom camera on television who gets paid to work from home, lecturing them about how they need to close their business, and not work and not employ people until they tell them it's OK to do it, so it's an enormous amount of hypocrisy and people are tired of it."

•
"Governor [Ron] Desantis in the state of Florida is often characterized in the legacy media as some sort of COVID disaster but New York has less people than Florida, more cases, more deaths, and nonetheless their governor wins an Emmy because of his press conferences. I mean this is stupid and the kind of hypocrisy, again, people see this stuff and they realize it."
WV cop shot in the face pulled from life support, organs to be donated (Fox 12/03/2020)
•
... police officer Cassie Johnson, 28, was responding to a traffic complaint on Garrison Avenue around 3 p.m. Wednesday when 38-year-old Joshua Phillips allegedly shot her in the face...

•
She was hospitalized in critical condition and underwent surgery until it was determined her body could not long sustain life by itself and she would be taken off life support.

•
Investigators believe Johnson also fired at Phillips, who was sent to the hospital with gunshot wounds.
Giuliani appears with witnesses alleging voter fraud in heated Michigan hearing (Fox 12/03/2020)
Michael Goodwin: AG Barr's Russia probe move means there will be justice (Fox 12/02/2020)
AG Barr support for special counsel backed by surprise Democratic author of 1987 law review article (Fox 12/02/2020)
Betsy DeVos rips Democrats who push free college tuition: 'We know somebody has to pay for it' (Fox 12/02/2020)
Goya CEO: Greatest economy on Earth is losing its freedom (Fox 12/02/2020)
•
"Here we are, sitting, the greatest economy on the Earth led by President Trump and that's why we're blessed, with regulations at bay, but the problem is we're in an election year"...

•
"We're controlled by social media. Anything that doesn't go along with their agenda and narrative is not permissible. We've lost our courage. We are the greatest country on earth but we've lost the freedom and we have to get back to work"...

•
"They turned their weapons, in a political year, on the masses. This is discrimination against the working class. We're not teaching our children. We're not working"...
Georgia group founded by Stacey Abrams under investigation for seeking out-of-state, dead voters (Fox 12/02/2020)
Trump says he’ll veto defense bill unless Section 230 is terminated (Fox 12/02/2020)
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"Section 230, which is a liability shielding gift from the U.S. to 'Big Tech' (the only companies in America that have it — corporate welfare!), is a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity. Our Country can never be safe & secure if we allow it to stand."

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"Therefore, if the very dangerous & unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), I will be forced to unequivocally VETO the Bill when sent to the very beautiful Resolute desk. Take back America NOW. Thank you!"

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The Department of Justice sent a letter to Congress in October that advocated for changes to the 25-year-old law that essentially protects these companies from being sued by content posted on their sites.

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"Today's large online platforms hold tremendous power over the information and views available to the American people. It is therefore critical that they be honest and transparent with users about how they use that power."
Rubio blasts Twitter for inaction on Chinese official's tweet with doctored image of Australian soldier (Fox 12/01/2020)
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"Twitter has had over 36 hours to investigate & flag a tweet by Zhao Lijian,a deputy director of #China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs that contained a doctored image that could inspire deadly violence. They have done nothing[.] But Trump tweets get flagged within minutes".

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"It defies belief that Twitter is unaware of the image, which falsely portrays an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife to the throat of a young Afghan child, as Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison requested the image be taken down."

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... posed the following questions to Dorsey: "When was Twitter made aware of Zhao's tweet? Did Twitter conduct a review of the tweet? If so, what was the nature of that review and why was no action taken as a result? If not, why was the tweet not subject to review? Do you stand by the process and the decision? If not, what steps have been taken to avoid such mistakes in the future?"

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... went on to ask Dorsey if Twitter wants to "operate in China in the future" and if so, "has it had any conversations with relevant officials or entities in China?"

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"The American people increasingly see mainstream social media, especially Twitter, as little more than a liberal echo chamber inclined to censor conservatives."

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"I share their concern, especially when enemies of America are allowed to post falsified and dangerously misleading images with no consequence."

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Back in October, Twitter censored a tweet by President Trump that compared the coronavirus to the flu.

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"Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!"

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Not long after that tweet was sent, Twitter slapped it with a label that initially shields users from reading what was written by the president.

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"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."
Barr appoints John Durham as special counsel to investigate origins of Russia probe (Fox 12/01/2020)
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"In advance of the presidential election, I decided to appoint Mr. Durham as a Special Counsel to provide him and his team with the assurance that they could complete their work, without regard to the outcome of the election," Barr wrote, adding that he appointed Durham with "the powers and authority of a Special Counsel" on Oct. 19.
283 law enforcement officers shot, 44 fatally wounded as year end nears, stats show (Fox 12/01/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Fauci admits what we all knew months ago — schools must stay open (Fox 12/01/2020)
Trump campaign to file Wisconsin lawsuit, claiming 'abuse' of absentee voting affected 220K ballots (Fox 12/01/2020)
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"Exposing exactly how the election processes were abused in Wisconsin holds enormous value for this election beyond a victory for President Trump, but the fact is, our state's electoral votes likely won't change the overall outcome."

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"Regardless, we're demonstrating that the results of this election unequivocally ought to be questioned."

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The campaign claims officials on the Wisconsin Election Commission and the City Clerks of Milwaukee and Madison "willfully disregarded the current statute and made conscious efforts to circumvent Wisconsin election law," resulting in tens of thousands of votes cast "well outside of the bounds of Wisconsin law."

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It also asserts the law was violated "on several occasions" through what it described as altered-certification absentee ballot envelopes, a lack of required absentee ballot applications, unlawful claims of indefinite confinement and voting events called "Democracy in the Park."

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"If the certificate or envelope is missing a witness address, the ballot cannot be counted until the voter corrects the error — plain and simple. Instead, election officials decided to take the law into their own hands."

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"These ballots were fraudulently completed and counted, and the illegal ballots should not count toward the certified vote totals."

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... the campaign also alleged that the city of Madison created "unlawful polling locations at over 200 locations throughout the city's Democracy in the Park voting events" and said the ballots accepted at the events "were illegally cast."

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"What's truly alarming about these events is that not only did they not follow the law, but Joe Biden's campaign encouraged this unlawful voting," ... the Biden campaign "advertised these events as opportunities to vote, telling voters to bring their completed ballot to turn in or their incomplete ballot to have a so-called ‘poll worker' serve as a witness before you fill it out and turn it in."

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"This highlights inappropriate coordination between the Biden campaign and the city's election officials," ... voters "are not allowed to turn in their absentee ballots anywhere other than designated polling locations."

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"I've been doing this for 40 years, representing plenty of Democrats and Republicans, and I will not back down when it comes to upholding the law or protecting the integrity of our elections. We, as good lawyers, don't back down, and if we do, our republic is done."
Hannity: 'Depraved' media mob can save their 'phony BS lectures' about election results (Fox 12/01/2020)
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"We, frankly, don't need lectures about truth, about integrity, from what is a depraved group of Democratic donors, the media mob, and Democrats that never accepted the results of 2016 election"...

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... President-elect Joe Biden was "shielded" by the mainstream media, who enabled him to hide from the coronavirus in his basement for most of the campaign. By contrast ... the same group "were Biden's attack dogs [and] did the bludgeoning of Trump for Biden."

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"The sanctimonious, high-minded, phony concern all of a sudden about American democracy — I don't care what they think. They lied to you and us for four years on the most spectacular level. They dragged this country through hell with Russian lies, conspiracy theories, and a hoax they pushed for years. It was all a lie."

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"All of you in the media mob [saying] 'Oh, this is a threat to democracy, asking questions about election irregularities,' save us your phony, B.S. lectures"...

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"They are meaningless to the rest of us. You dragged this country through hell. You did it again with your phony Ukrainian impeachment witch hunt, and you totally ignored, and protected, the real quid pro quo."
Taxpayer-funded Islamic terrorists sent millions to US colleges (INN 11/30/2020)
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Open question: Is there any enemy nation or power, from Communist China to Qatar, that isn't buying up academia?

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It's one thing when wealthy enemy nations like China and Qatar do it, but the whole thing reaches a new level of obscene absurdity when it's a terrorist entity that we fund with our tax dollars that's doing it.

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The PLO and its defenders keep claiming that they're struggling with a state of miserable poverty. Meanwhile they're funding chairs at American universities.

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Forcing colleges to address their foreign funding sources was another important Trump administration initiative.

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And the more we learn about the money that colleges are getting from China and Qatar, and now Islamic terrorists, the worse their treason becomes.
Gaetz warns Republicans will never win ‘another national election again’ if mail-in balloting persists (Fox 11/30/2020)
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"If we accept this universal mail-out balloting to people who didn't even request ballots, I don't think Republicans will ever win another national election again. That's why we have to stand and fight now."

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"President Trump has an obligation to the country, to his supporters, and to the movement that he has built to ensure that we count the legal votes and reject the illegal ones."

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"We have not seen an active DOJ interested in protecting the civil rights of Americans who want to have their legal votes not diluted by illegal votes"...
Gutfeld on the media's hard hitting take on Joe's pets (Fox 11/30/2020)
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After four years of trying to convince America that Donald Trump was two parts Hitler, three parts Godzilla and one part the daddy who didn't love them — the media has turned over a new leaf, which is really an old leaf.

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They're writing about Joe Biden's pets — as opposed to his petting.

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Leftwing crap-poster the Daily Beast website reports that a pet psychic claims Biden's dogs are happy over the election and that their master will be a great president.

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"And now some breaking news! President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill won't just be bringing their German Shepherds, Major and Champ, to the White House. The Bidens tell us exclusively that soon they'll be joined by a cat."

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And that's the nature of a true politician — they shine at the easy things. The surface level. The pat on the back, the ribbon-cutting... Getting a pet. Pleading for unity from people you hate.

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This was why Trump was so refreshing. He's none of that! I mean, how would he look walking a dog on the White House lawn?"

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"How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn? ... Feels a little phony, phony to me. A lot of people say, 'Oh, you should get a dog,' ‘Why?' ‘It's good politically.' I said, ‘Look, that's not the relationship I have with my people.'"
Georgia Senate runoff spurs election probe of groups trying to register out-of-state voters (Fox 11/30/2020)
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... "voting in Georgia when you're not a resident of Georgia is a felony. And encouraging college students to commit felonies without regard for what it might mean for them is despicable. These third-party groups have a responsibility not to encourage illegal voting. If they do so, they will be held responsible."

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See related Take and Change (Chip Bok, 11/12/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Arizona certifies Biden as election winner, with Wisconsin expected to follow (Fox 11/30/2020)
Trump presses 'hapless' Georgia governor to overrule secretary of state on signature matching (Fox 11/30/2020)
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"Why won't Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes. It will be a "goldmine" of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state..."

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"Also, quickly check the number of envelopes versus the number of ballots. You may just find that there are many more ballots than there are envelopes. So simple, and so easy to do. Georgia Republicans are angry, all Republicans are angry. Get it done!"
Senator Rand Paul claims statistical 'fraud' in states where Trump lost, calls out Big Tech (Fox 11/29/2020)
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"Interesting ... Trump margin of "defeat" in 4 states occurred in 4 data dumps between 1:34-6:31 AM. Statistical anomaly? Fraud? Look at the evidence and decide for yourself.(That is, if Big Tech allows u to read this)"
District judge halts 3 Georgia counties from erasing Dominion voting machine data (Fox 11/30/2020)
Obama's warning about Biden – this is why so many Americans are worried about the president-elect (Fox 11/30/2020)
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Half the country eagerly awaits the Biden-Harris administration, hopeful that President-elect Joe Biden will "Build Back Better."

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The rest of us ponder Barack Obama's reported warning: "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f** things up."
Media bias in Trump era 'more extreme' than we've ever seen: Karl Rove (Fox 11/30/2020)
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"The animosity, the hostility towards the president and his party are enormous, and not only just at the president and his party, but at the voters who supported him"...

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See related Hate Them Too (Chip Bok, 11/10/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Glenn Greenwald: Trump's hint of peaceful White House exit negates media's 'false hysteria' (Fox 11/30/2020)
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"It's astonishing that the media people who tried scaring the s** out of everyone by saying there'd be coups & civil wars are now claiming this didn't happen only because they stopped it with their tweets & columns — instead of admitting they — again — spread false hysteria"...

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"Same way they spent 3 years screeching Mueller was coming to expose and arrest the criminal Trump/Russia ring. Then — after Mueller closed his investigation saying he found no evidence to prove it & charged nobody with conspiring with Russia — insisted they were right."

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"The last 5 years of US politics has been driven by a huge sector of the media spreading hysteria, endorsing unhinged conspiracies, predicting coups and civil wars, warning of impending collusion arrests — all for their own benefit — then never admitting they were wrong."
Jon Voight says Trump is the 'only man who can save this nation' in anti-left video message (Fox 11/29/2020)
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"We're heading down a street that has no name now. We must not allow our nation to crumble. Let me warn you all that we are in great danger if we fall under a Biden administration."

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"Our state, California, is being ruled by a leftist mob. Gov. Newsom is taking away our freedom, your freedom. He is a disgrace to mankind — he and his relative, Nancy Pelosi, who has tried to bring President Trump down."

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"He is a lie like all the left that are trying to destroy the USA. I ask us all to fight this battle now to get them out"...

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"The left are burning and destroying our cities. We are willing to fight for freedom, not freedom to burn down our flag but to raise her up with the glory of this land of the free"...

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"Let the truth show itself that President Trump is the only man that can save this nation."

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See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump: DOJ 'missing in action' on alleged election fraud (Fox 11/29/2020)
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"You would think if you're in the FBI or Department of Justice, this is the biggest thing you could be looking at. Where are they? I've not seen anything."

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"All I can say is I haven't heard, with all of the fraud that's taken place, nobody has come to me and said, ‘Oh, the FBI has nabbed, you know the people that are doing this game. The FBI is looking at Dominion,' which nobody even knows where they're based, which nobody even knows where the votes are counted."
NASA starts assembling Artemis Space Launch System rocket (Fox 11/29/2020)
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... marking an important milestone ahead of future missions to the moon. ... NASA's Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the moon in 2024.

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The U.S. is the only country to have placed astronauts on the moon, having last done so in December 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission. Only 12 men, all Americans, have set foot on the moon.
GOP views Georgia Senate runoffs as 'firewall' against Biden's agenda (Fox 11/27/2020)
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"We are the last line of defense. These two seats here will determine the majority in the Senate. Because of that, we're going to deny [Sen. Chuck] Schumer that majority, protect everything that President Trump has accomplished in the last four years, and make sure that the people of Georgia know that."

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"We have a battle on our hands right now, folks. It's going to be a long one. We are the firewall. Not just for the Senate, but the future of our country."
Rev. Franklin Graham praises 3 Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices after New York... (Fox 11/27/2020)
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"This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for President @realDonaldTrump's appointment of 3 conservative #SCOTUS justices who ruled last night in favor of churches & against gov't overreach in the state of New York."

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Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote: "It is time...to make plain that, while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores & bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues, & mosques."

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The order was also the first in which Justice Amy Coney Barrett played a decisive role.

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Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — conservatives who were appointed before Trump took office — also sided with the majority opinion.

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In the dissenting opinion, Roberts and the three liberals — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer — asserted that the court had acted rashly.
Pa. poll watcher, a Navy vet, alleges missing USB cards, up to 120,000 questionable votes (Fox 11/27/2020)
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A U.S. Navy veteran and data scientist from Pennsylvania alleged this week that 47 USB cards used during the state's Nov. 3 election have gone missing – and asserted that as many as 120,000 votes cast in the election should be called into question.

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... poll watcher Gregory Stenstrom of Delaware County identified himself a former commanding officer in the Navy and a forensic computer scientist with expertise on security and fraud issues.

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"I personally observed USB cards being uploaded to voting machines by the voting machine warehouse supervisor on multiple occasions. This person is not being observed, he's not a part of the process that I can see, and he is walking in with baggies of USBs."

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Stenstrom alleged the cards may have been used to add illegal votes to the state's vote count — and claimed there was a lack of proper oversight on how state election workers handled ballots.

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"In all cases the chain of custody was broken. It was broken for the mail-in ballots, the drop-box ballots, the Election Day USB card flash drives. In all cases they didn't follow any of the procedures defined by the Board of Delaware County of Elections."

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The witness also told lawmakers that law enforcement personnel failed to act after he reported the alleged mishandling of ballots.

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"I literally begged multiple law enforcement agencies to go get the forensic evidence from the computers. It's a simple process. It wouldn't have taken more than an hour to image all 5 machines. That was never done despite my objections and that was three weeks ago."
Sidney Powell demands Georgia Zoom meeting where officials refused 'real audit' (Fox 12/04/2020)
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"The defendants are going to be folks in Georgia who are responsible for, supposedly, making sure that the elections in Georgia are done properly. And there are just countless incidents of voter fraud and election fraud writ large in Georgia."

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"Please consider this an open records act request for the #Zoom meeting of today's date with electors & your refusal to perform a real audit to include envelopes & all documents required. #Trumplandslide."

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... the Trump campaign and state Republicans called for an audit of the vote in addition to the recount to essentially "double-check the signature matching efforts of local election workers."

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... the manager of the state's voting system, told the paper that such an audit is possible, but "we can't open investigations based on generalized, ‘we're not happy with the outcome ‘" of the election.

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... under the state's law, signatures on absentee ballots are checked twice, but once counted, they cannot be traced back to their envelopes.

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Powell insisted that it is "clear that there was foreign intrusion into our voting systems and that will be where the rubber meets the road."

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"The evidence is so overwhelming it's almost as though they were blatant about it. They expected us to catch it, maybe it's a diversion from something else that is going on, I don't know."
Trump announces pardon of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (Fox 11/25/2020)
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"It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!"

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The White House later in the day sent out a statement saying that Flynn "should never have been prosecuted" and that the pardon ends "the relentless, partisan pursuit of an innocent man."

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"While today's action sets right an injustice against an innocent man and an American hero, it should also serve as a reminder to all of us that we must remain vigilant over those in whom we place our trust and confidence."
Pompeo fires back at 'dead wrong' Mattis criticism of 'America First' foreign policy (Fox 11/24/2020)
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"I have a lot of respect for Jim, but he's just dead wrong on that. 'America First' has been at its heart, a recognition that when America is secure at home, when America does good things for our own economy, for our own prosperity, that America will be a force for good."

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"It was us doing it with our friends and allies based on shared interests and a reality that recognized central facts about what is and not pretending that things are we would like them to be."
Pete Hegseth slams Kerry after Biden taps him for climate post, says China will 'play him like a fiddle' (Fox 11/24/2020)
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"They [China] will use people like John Kerry, play him like a fiddle to continue to lie and deceive the world to try to become the preeminent power."
Gutfeld on the media’s treatment of Biden’s Cabinet (Fox 11/24/2020)
Cotton slams Obama-Biden 'A-Team' for past foreign policy failures (Fox 11/24/2020)
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"The liberal media is swooning over the 'A-Team' of 'hyper-competent' and 'incredibly kind' Obama-Biden alums getting back together."

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"These reporters and pundits were swooning over the same people a decade ago while they presided over absolute chaos abroad."

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"These are the same people who knocked over Libya in 2011, leading to a decade of nightmarish civil war and jihadi terror. A case study in 'competence.'"

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"While China militarized the South China Sea and openly revealed its ambitions for global dominance, this team wagged their fingers and fretted about the need for Beijing's cooperation on climate change. As Kerry's appointment shows, they'll make the exact same mistake again."

•
"The same Obama-Biden experts stood by while ISIS established a caliphate and broadcast beheadings in the Middle East. They famously treated ISIS as the 'JV team.' Maybe they were busy at the Aspen Ideas Festival while this situation got out of hand?"

•
"This team spent its days toasting CCP officials and arranging Brookings internships for their kids, then seamlessly moved to the private sector to consult for companies shipping jobs from Ohio to Xinjiang."

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"One thing's for certain: Joe Biden's Democratic dream team has a lot of fancy titles. They've worked in Washington a long time. But credentials are not the same thing as achievement. If this is the A-Team, we need walk-on tryouts immediately."
Huckabee: 'Gridlock' with GOP Senate ‘better than a runaway train’ left-wing agenda (Fox 11/24/2020)
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"We've seen what happens if one party has everything. They just run ram-shod over, not just the other party, but over the American people, half of whom may not agree with those policies."

•
"So that's why it becomes an important thing to the American people to have some balance, to have a firewall, to have some semblance of saying, ‘Hey, you guys may have won the election slightly, but you didn't win over half the American population, and you shouldn't just ignore them,'"

•
"If you get everything you want all the time, it leads to corruption," he said.

•
"The best government is a government that requires both sides to give a little, sit down, negotiate, work things out because the American interest is not just one radical point of view. There are many points of view."

•
"And if you have that divided government, I'll be honest with you, gridlock is better than a runaway train. So that's why this Georgia Senate race becomes so important."

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"Gridlock keeps us from doing stupid things that happen if a party gets arrogant and thinks they don't have to be accountable to anybody."
AOC, Ted Cruz spar over coronavirus aid stalemate as clock ticks for Congress to make deal (Fox 11/24/2020)
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"People across the country are going hungry, COVID is set to explode, and Mitch McConnell dismissed the Senate last week," Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted Monday. "I don't know how these people can sleep at night. I really don't."

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"Why is your party filibustering $500 billion in COVID relief?" the Texas Republican asked. "And Joe Biden is cheering them on. Thinking that blocking relief somehow helps Dems win Georgia."

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"The House doesn't have filibusters, @tedcruz," she shot back. "We also passed several COVID relief packages to the Senate that not only include >$500 billion, but also prioritize helping real people as opposed to Wall St bailouts the GOP tries to pass off as 'relief.' Nice try though."

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Cruz replied: "AOC seems not to know there are Democrats in the Senate. Or that Joe Biden (also a Dem) is publicly calling on Senate Dems to continue filibustering COVID relief because he thinks it will help them win Georgia."
Graham warns Biden, Pelosi and Schumer would form 'trifecta from hell' if Democrats take Senate (Fox 11/24/2020)
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"I may not be your cup of tea out there," Graham told... "But let me tell you this, I'm a hell of a lot better than Bernie Sanders when it comes to your money."

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... added that a Democratic majority in the Senate would create what he called the "trifecta from hell" in all the key positions of power, a reference to President-elect Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

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With Democrats holding both houses of Congress and the White House, Graham warned, "a nightmare for conservatism" would follow.

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"It's the end of checks and balances. It would fundamentally change the country as we know it. The fate of the Republic really lies in the hands of our friends in Georgia... I'm worried as we speak tonight."

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"I just don't believe the people in Georgia are going to allow this country to be turned into a socialist nation. That's really what's on the ballot for these Senate seats."
GSA chief informs President-elect Biden that formal transition process can begin (Fox 11/23/2020)
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U.S. General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy informed President-elect Joe Biden on Monday that her agency has formally ascertained him as the apparent winner of the 2020 presidential election and would move ahead with transition proceedings.

•
The letter effectively ends a weeks-long standoff in which the Biden transition team accused Murphy and her agency of withholding critical transition resources needed for a smooth transfer of power. President Trump has yet to concede the 2020 election.

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"Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts," Murphy said in a letter to Biden.

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"I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official — including those who work at the White House or GSA — with regard to the substance or timing of my decision. To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination."

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The GSA and Murphy have faced intense bipartisan criticism in recent weeks over the decision to hold off on recognizing Biden as president-elect.

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The Biden transition team had threatened legal action, accusing the GSA of threatening national security and hampering preparations to combat the coronavirus pandemic by failing to provide support for the incoming administration.

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Murphy said her decision was based on "recent developments involving legal challenges and certifications of election results."

•
In a series of tweets, President Trump thanked Murphy for her handling of the ascertainment process since Election Day. The president pledged to continue his legal challenge of election results.

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"I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country," Trump wrote...

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"She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA. Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good fight, and I believe we will prevail!"

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"Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same."
NY Post columnist warns 'lunatics are running the asylum' as crime surges in NYC (Fox 11/23/2020)
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"Anyone who rides the subway these days has these dreadful thoughts: Will today be the day I'm attacked? Will this be the day I'm shoved off the platform into an oncoming train? And: Where the hell is our mayor?"
Trump investigations will be used to 'satisfy' hard-left progressive base in Biden admin (Fox 11/23/2020)
Ex-NYPD detective on sharp uptick in violent crime: 'A law that isn't enforced is not a law' (Fox 11/23/2020)
•
"It's a convenient narrative to lay the blame on the doorstep of COVID, granted, COVID is a contributing factor, there is no doubt about it. But, riots for fun and profit, a desecrated police department in both morale and operationally, and a completely destructed and destructed rule of law relative to the adherence to it are the main drivers here — they're the catalyst. COVID is just a first cousin that was a cause and effect."

•
"The reality is a brand new term has come to light, it is called de-arresting, where someone is lawfully placed under arrest for probable cause and then they are de-arrested because police commanders, under pressure from politicians, under pressure from the media, are saying certain crimes are no longer illegal so people get a free pass. So, how does that affect it at all?"

•
"We have commercial burglaries up in New York City — 42%. Car thefts 66%. A lot of this is directly related to the COVID, right, there is a lot more homeless, a lot more emotionally disturbed folks, but, the reality is this free-for-all sense that there is no sanction, there is no penalty, it is all carrot and no stick."
Rep. Collins rips 'outside money flooding into Georgia' for Senate runoffs (Fox 11/22/2020)
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"Outside money is flooding into Georgia right now because they want Chuck Schumer to fundamentally change the Senate. They want fundamentally to take away the investigative powers of Ron Johnson and Lindsey Graham and others into the things that we know have been happening. They do not want Big Tech oversight. They do not want these things that are actually happening."
Biden adviser: Trump seeking to 'subvert the democratic system' with legal challenges (Fox 11/22/2020)
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"No, he does not have any concern," ... saying that the Trump campaign's cases "have been laughed out of court after court all across the country" and "are getting absolutely no traction."

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"It's all about the signatures on the envelopes. Why are the Democrats fighting so hard to hide them," Trump tweeted.

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"We will find massive numbers of fraudulent ballots. The signatures won't match. Fight hard Republicans. Don't let them destroy the evidence!"

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Georgia Secretary of State ... however, has said such a comparison would be impossible at this point because the ballots are separated from the outer security envelope during the counting process...

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... went on to accuse Trump of trying to "subvert the democratic system," and said his challenges amount to a "PR stunt" and a "sideshow."
Congresswoman-elect starting 'Freedom Force' as counterweight to Dems' 'Squad' (Fox 11/20/2020)
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A Cuban-American, Salazar called out the "socialist nightmare" created by former dictator Fidel Castro.

•
"I was born in Miami — a community built by survivors. My parents fled Castro's socialist nightmare. We can't just let the socialist left destroy the American Dream for our children!"

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"I want to create a force within my freshman class that will have to be reckoned with. A force of reason, a force for freedom, a force for democracy."
Protect American political system by toughening federal penalties against rioters (Fox 11/20/2020)
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"This year, we've seen an unprecedented amount of violence from riots organized by ANTIFA and other radical leftist groups."

•
"In order to truly restore unity in this country, Congress must support efforts like this to stop the violence perpetrated by the far left. We need to restore the livelihoods of our communities and hold these criminals accountable for their large-scale destruction once and for all."

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The BRICKS Act would increase the penalty for crossing state lines to incite or engage in rioting from five years to 10 years, increase penalties to 25 years if the rioting results in "serious bodily injury" and life in prison if a person rioting results in death of another.

•
The law prohibits interstate organizations that engage in rioting, but it doesn't have a severe penalty, and so this law would increase the penalties for those that are engaged in rioting cross across state lines.

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... it's unbelievable in this day and age in this country, with all the different forms of communication that people feel they need to burn down buildings and commit assaults and other dangerous acts.

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I've been a prosecutor for 25 years, and I know that criminals take into account the penalties when they make a decision to engage in certain conduct. And these penalties will be enhanced. And the result will be that criminals will think twice before they commit these crimes.

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Most rioters are charged by local authorities because they look at the crime as something that is an arson in a local community or an assault in a local community.

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But this is different when we have a group like Antifa or other organized groups that are operating across the country and their members are traveling across the country.

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This is a federal crime, federal jurisdiction and the federal government should be prosecuting these.

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They're actually moving from the West Coast to the East Coast to the middle of the country. It's the same people that we are seeing crisscross the country that are engaged in these.

•
They're getting money from somewhere. They're getting direction from somewhere. And as a result, the federal government needs to step in.

•
I think that's absolutely appropriate for Americans to protest. I think it's absolutely appropriate for Americans to express their opinion and to engage in positive change in this country. ... I'm all in favor of people feeling that they can redress their grievances with the government.

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It's when these activities turn violent. And it's not all the people that engage in the protests that are engaging in the violent activity. When the activity turns violent, it should be met with a swift legal response.

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I want to make sure the statute is used to prosecute anybody who violates the law. I don't care if they're from the right or the left.

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But I think it's absolute nonsense to suggest that somehow out of an anti-defund the police protest, that there are conservatives out there that then decide to burn down buildings and other things.
Trump calls Romney a 'RINO' after GOP senator targets president's 'undemocratic action' (Fox 11/20/2020)
•
"Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election," Romney emphasized in a statement...

•
"It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President."

•
Trump fired back ... slamming Romney as a "RINO," which stands for Republican In Name Only, and suggesting that Romney "feels he got slaughtering by Obama 'fair and square.'"

•
Trump for years has attacked Romney for "choking" in the days before the 2012 presidential election, when the then-GOP presidential nominee was neck and neck with President Obama in the polls before Obama won the election.

•
Romney lost to Obama by a bigger electoral count – 332 to 206 – than Biden's 306 to 232 current lead in the Electoral College count over Trump.

•
But Romney lost the popular vote to Obama by roughly 5 million votes. Biden currently holds a roughly 6 million vote lead over the president in the national popular vote.

•
See related The New Maverick (Antonio Branco, 02/12/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Bernie Sanders: 'Enormously insulting' if Biden ignores progressives in his administration (Fox 11/20/2020)
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"It seems to me pretty clear that progressive views need to be expressed within a Biden administration. It would be, for example, enormously insulting if Biden put together a 'team of rivals' — and there's some discussion that that's what he intends to do — which might include Republicans and conservative Democrats — but which ignored the progressive community. I think that would be very, very unfortunate."

•
In a nod to the left wing, Biden's transition team has hired Analilia Mejia, a Sanders adviser who served as his presidential campaign's political director, to work on progressive outreach. It's unlikely, however, that mid-level hires during the transition will be enough to satisfy progressives.

•
"It's safe to say that Elizabeth Warren has definitely earned the trust and the ear of Joe Biden, and will surely have an influential role in agenda setting going forward whether it's being a very powerful senator or a more formal role in his administration."

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Hannity: Election controversies point to a 'system that is broken' and had 'better be fixed' (Fox 11/20/2020)
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"... it's no surprise that so-called journalists now have no interest in looking into cases of American citizens saying that these are serious abuses of power here. They got the outcome they wanted ... They don't really care what happened."

•
"Every American should be tired and fed up at the double standard. It's gone on for four years: the lies, the conspiracy theories, breathless hysteria reporting and corruption. They don't trust America's powerful institutions and you shouldn't."

•
"Does that not rub you the wrong way? They all point to an election system that is broken – you would think every American cares – one that better be fixed or it's going to keep happening."
Graham tells Georgia voters: 'Let’s make the Squad’s life miserable by holding on to the Senate' (Fox 11/19/2020)
•
"They want to steal Georgia, they will do everything they can," Graham claimed...

•
"[Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate] Stacey Abrams is inviting people from California to move to Georgia — she said this openly — 'so we can win these two Senate seats,'"

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"This is insane. They don't want to verify signatures, they want to pass them through."

•
Graham also accused Abrams ... of "trying to take over the election system."

•
"She conned the secretary of state into a consent decree that is bad for the Georgia election system. I'm glad Trump is fighting back and I am going to fight with him."

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"Let's make the the Squad's life miserable by holding on to the Senate. Let's tell Sen. [Chuck] Schumer [D-N.Y.] you're not going to run the place by keeping the two Georgia Senate seats Republican."
Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis unloads on media during fiery news conference: 'Your opinion doesn't...' (Fox 11/19/2020)
•
... accusing reporters of failing to serve as "unbiased jurors" in the court of public opinion while reminding them their personal views are irrelevant.

•
"What you have heard, I'm sure, in the fake newspapers tomorrow will be one of two things. Either there was not sufficient evidence that we presented, or we spoke too long."

•
"What you've heard now is basically an opening statement. This is what you can expect to see when we get to court to actually have a full trial on the merit, to actually show this evidence in court and prove our case. This is not a ‘Law & Order' episode where everything is neatly wrapped up in 60 minutes."

•
"This is basically an opening statement so the American people can understand what the networks have been hiding and what they refuse to cover, because all of our fake news headlines are dancing around the merits of this case and are trying to delegitimize what we are doing here."

•
"Let me be very clear that our objective is to make sure to preserve and protect election integrity."

•
"... You are not unbiased jurors and until you step out of your role as a journalist and actually go into a courtroom and you are a judge on a bench, that has sworn an oath to be unbiased in our separation of powers, then your opinion doesn't matter."

•
"The facts matter, the truth matters and if you are fair reporters, you will cover that fairly and appropriately and you will allow coverage... of our legal team."

•
"I've seen all of you taking pictures right now and I can anticipate what your headlines are going to be. If you are not willing to talk about the evidence that has been presented, then that is absolutely unacceptable for journalistic standards. The American people deserve to know what we have uncovered."

•
"You, the press, should cover this fairly and should know that this matters to election integrity and it matters to the future of our nation."
Giuliani presses Trump election challenge case in fiery news conference with legal team (Fox 11/19/2020)
•
... aggressively made the case for the Trump campaign's legal challenge of the 2020 election results, alleging in a firery news conference that there was a "centralized" plan to carry out voter fraud around the country.

•
This is a different approach than the campaign has recently taken in court, where they have primarily focused on the validity of ballots and counts without asserting fraud.

•
While Giuliani did not present any direct evidence of a massive fraud scheme, Giuliani asserted that this is the "logical conclusion" reached as a result of incidents he said took place in several states.

•
The former New York City mayor spoke to incidents in Pennsylvania where Republican poll watchers claimed they were not allowed to observe the counting process because they were kept too far away.

•
A judge had ruled in their favor and ordered that they be permitted six feet away from the counting at a center in Philadelphia, but that was overturned after officials appealed.

•
Giuliani also claimed that while Pennsylvania does not allow absentee voters to fix any errors with their ballots, some were given that opportunity — but not those from Republican areas.

•
He cited sworn affidavits from cases in Pennsylvania and Michigan from poll workers who spoke about instructions from supervisors.

•
One affidavit said that workers in Pennsylvania were instructed to assign ballots without names to random people, resulting in thousands of people in Pittsburgh showing up to the polls to find that votes had been cast in their names.

•
Another affidavit said that in Michigan a supervisor instructed workers to change the dates on absentee ballots to show that they arrived earlier than they had.

•
An affidavit also claimed that workers were told not to request photo identification from Michigan voters, even though state law requires it.

•
Giuliani also said that approximately 100,000 absentee ballots in Wisconsin should have been deemed invalid because there were no applications for them. President-elect Joe Biden leads President Trump in that state by roughly 20,000 votes.
Rove warns Republicans in Georgia to match Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts in all-important... (Fox 11/19/2020)
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"Bank that vote before Election Day. That's exactly what the Democrats are doing and the Republicans better do the same."

•
If Democrats win the seats, Rove warned, they will pass a "nutty" agenda, leaving the country locked in with a Democratic, left-leaning governing majority for decades to come.

•
"The only way to rein in the excesses of a Democratic White House and the Democratic House of Representatives is to have a Republican Senate ... this is the last line of defense for conservative values."

•
"Republicans can't take it for granted. Demographics are changing. Particularly, the Atlanta area ... it's increasingly people from out of state, younger people, more liberal people."
Dozens of Georgia veterans call on Warnock to drop out of Senate race over past comments (Fox 11/19/2020)
•
... after his nearly a decade-old comment saying "nobody can serve God and the military" resurfaced.

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"Raphael Warnock's comments about military men and women are despicable and flat-out wrong. Here in Georgia, true leaders recognize the service and sacrifice of all who have courageously defended our nation's freedom."

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... added that is is "sad to see Raphael Warnock is more interested in insulting and condemning our military than in building communities that support and protect them."

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"We stand together in calling on Raphael Warnock to drop out immediately, and we remain grateful to those who honor our fellow men and women in uniform — and our Creator."

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"This is an insult to everyone who served," Cotton tweeted. "Raphael Warnock should withdraw."
Georgia Republican Sen. Perdue urges voters to reelect him and 'save America' (Fox 11/19/2020)
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"This is the fight of our lives to make sure that we continue to have a balanced approach to government in America."

•
"We know what the Democrats want to do. They want to defund the police, they want to take away our private health insurance and they want to stack the court. That's not what our government has always been about. It's been about checks and balances."

•
"I think there are a lot of voters who were Trump voters in Georgia who are disheartened, they are angry because they think the president did not get a fair shake in Georgia."

•
"We know there are improprieties in Georgia and they are being investigated right now. What we are trying to do is make sure that those same opportunities for impropriety are not there for the Jan. 5 election."

•
Our job right now is to make sure that the base gets out and votes and knows how important this is."
Georgia Senate race — With Loeffler, Perdue we can hold the line, keep America free (Fox 11/19/2020)
•
Right now, we're at a critical crossroads in our great nation. The majority in the Senate is up for grabs and the choice could not be clearer.

•
Do we want the government to take control of our lives, to raise our taxes, and to fundamentally change our country?

•
Or do we want to maintain our individual rights and liberty, keep more of our hard-earned dollars, and get Washington off our backs?

•
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Democratic leader in the Senate, has already said the quiet part out loud: "First, we take Georgia, and then we change America."

•
That's exactly what will happen if we don't hold the line in the Senate and re-elect David and Kelly.
New York Times op-ed admits 'Trump was right,' Democrats 'wrong,' about keeping schools open (Fox 11/19/2020)
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"Some things are true even though President Trump says them," Kristof began.

•
"Trump has been demanding for months that schools reopen, and on that he seems to have been largely right. Schools, especially elementary schools, do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission, and remote learning is proving to be a catastrophe for many low-income children."

•
Kristof complained how the debate over keeping schools open was "politicized" after Trump "blustered" in July about schools needing to open while "trying to project normalcy" while "too many Democrats instinctively lined up on the other side" and noting how then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden, as well as Democratic mayors and governors, expressed "extreme caution."
Wayne County GOP members rescind votes to certify election, claim Dems 'bullied' them (Fox 11/19/2020)
•
Both Republicans say they were called racists and subjected to threats for raising concerns about ballots that Democrats said were from predominately Black communities...

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... said in the affidavit that he observed about 71% of Detroit's 134 Absent Voter Counting Boards "were left unbalanced and many unexplained."

•
He said he voiced his concerns and said if the votes did not match, there should have been some kind of explanation. Powell said she spotted the same discrepancy.

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"I voted not to certify, and I still believe this vote should not be certified. Until these questions are addressed, I remain opposed to certification of the Wayne County results."

•
"After the vote, my Democratic colleagues chided me and Mr. Hartmann for voting not to certify. After the vote, the public comment period began and dozens of people made personal remarks against me and Mr. Hartmann. The comments made accusations of racism and threatened me and members of my family. The public comment continued for over two hours and I felt pressured to continue the meeting without a break."

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The pair said state officials indicated they would not honor an earlier compromise to audit the ballots, which contributed to their decision to rescind. It was unclear if their decision to rescind could change their earlier vote to certify.
House Republicans call for hearings into violence against Trump supporters at MAGA march (Fox 11/19/2020)
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"We respectfully request a hearing on the violence directed at supporters of President Trump on November 14, 2020. These supporters were exercising their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble within the District of Columbia."

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"The failure of the city's leaders to afford basic protections to persons who may hold different political viewpoints from their own appears to be another concerning example of viewpoint discrimination in the District."

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Trump supporters ... were harassed, doused with water, and saw their MAGA hats and pro-Trump flags snatched and burned, while counterprotesters cheered.

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Videos show anti-Trump demonstrators shouting at families, sucker-punching people in the street, and harassing an elderly woman carrying a Trump flag.

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Other videos show counterprotesters marching in the streets and tossing what appeared to be fireworks into an outdoor seating area of a restaurant while diners were seated.

•
"Despite the violence, the mainstream media and liberal establishment were quick to minimize the seriousness of the use of violence against Trump supporters by deriding them for failing to wear masks in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and asserting that they were infiltrated by ‘white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, and far right activists,'"

•
"City leaders have remained silent on the violence. This growing level of violence directed at others for holding different views is simply unacceptable."
'Squad' members demand Lindsey Graham's resignation (Fox 11/18/2020)
•
"I must be doing something right when the most radical liberal politicians and media pundits in America are calling for my resignation!"

•
Graham has taken issue with how Georgia verifies the signatures on mail-in ballots, which reportedly compares the voter's signature to the ballot request form, a process the senator believes leaves room for fraud if the signatures are not also compared to a driver's license or legal document.
Registered Florida Dem arrested for making online threats to kill DeSantis, Rubio and Scott: deputies (Fox 11/18/2020)
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"DeSantis, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio are looting my state. Imma shot them."

•
Jones made the remark online after retweeting a reporter from The Washington Post who shared a story by the Miami Herald about DeSantis backing "anti-mob" legislation that would bolster Florida's Stand Your Ground Law.

•
Unique to self-defense laws in other states, the statute does not require a person to retreat before using deadly force to prevent bodily harm to themselves or others or to prevent a felony.
Ted Cruz rips CNN's Chris Cuomo in Twitter spat on Trump's election challenge, coronavirus (Fox 11/18/2020)
•
"Here's a radical proposition — elections are decided when the results have been counted and the legal proceedings are over. That didn't use to be a controversial proposition," Cruz summarized.

•
"Wrong," Cuomo reacted. "You have been empowering the notion that there are problems with the count that justify delaying transition in the middle of figuring out how to distribute a vaccine in a pandemic." ... Own it...because the position owns you and will be remembered."

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"Senator, you have people on lines for food in your state. Focus on them...on those children. Every day you delay relief the line grows," Cuomo said.

•
"In the past 2 months, we've voted TWICE on $500 billion in COVID relief. Both times, Senate Dems filibustered the bill. You should call on your own party to stop blocking relief. EVERY SINGLE Dem voted to filibuster. I suspect you never reported on that fact to your viewers," Cruz told Cuomo.

•
"You are a Covidiot, Senator Cruz," Cuomo said. "I know you went to Harvard, I know you're really smart. You just try really hard not to act that way too often, especially when Trump is involved."

•
"There is something disgusting that Democrats are doing, that Joe Biden does, and that you do, which is you try to blame the people who've lost their lives on your political enemies," Cruz continued.

•
"And that's just not right... It's not right at all and it's particularly not right, Chris, when your brother has presided over the state with the highest death rate in the country."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Hannity: 'What the hell is happening in Georgia?' (Fox 11/18/2020)
•
"Moments ago, the state of Georgia hand recount magically — how many days after Election Day — uncovered yet another 2,700 uncounted ballots, the majority of which shockingly cast for President Trump."

•
"Last night, same story, another 2,600 uncounted ballots were discovered and again, most of those ballots in favor of the president."

•
"What the hell is happening in Georgia, in our country? Why are we still finding thousands of ballots weeks after the election?"

•
Though President Trump has decried alleged voter fraud, the accounted ballots will likely do little to close the 14,000-vote gap with President-Elect Joe Biden.

•
"How many more ballots will they find tomorrow... thousands of missing votes showing up weeks later, that are now just turning up out of thin air?"
Trump campaign loses Pennsylvania Supreme Court challenge to Philadelphia election observers (Fox 11/17/2020)
•
The Pennyslvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Philadelphia Board of Elections acted within its authority in regulating the positioning of election observers, striking another blow to the Trump campaign's post-election legal challenges.

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"[W]e conclude the Board did not act contrary to law in fashioning its regulations governing the positioning of candidate representatives during the pre-canvassing and canvassing process, as the Election Code does not specify minimum distance parameters for the location of such representatives."

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"Critically, we find the Board's regulations as applied herein were reasonable in that they allowed candidate representatives to observe the Board conducting its activities as prescribed under the Election Code."

•
The Trump campaign responded by blasting the ruling as "contrary to the clear purpose of the law."

•
"The lower court rightly recognized that the intent and purpose of the Pennsylvania law is to allow election watchers from both parties to actually see the ballots close enough to inspect them, and thus prevent partisan ballot counting in secret."

•
... "there is no other reason except fraud to exclude Republicans from actually seeing the ballots close up. It's inexplicable that five justices on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would conclude that watchers observing from distances up to 100 feet away is reasonable. We are keeping all legal options open to fight for election integrity and the rule of law."
Former Antifa activist: ‘Antifa hates the Democratic Party’ (Fox 11/17/2020)
•
"Joe Biden is actually not the preferred candidate of Antifa. This was a myth that was perpetrated by a lot of people in the mainstream left because they saw Antifa as their ally, because they made it seem like it was primarily against President Trump. But Antifa is a much older movement and hates American values and the Democratic Party because they're against all American institutions."

•
"And the first step to stopping Antifa is to acknowledge that it is a threat. But unfortunately, people like Joe Biden, they don't even want to admit that Antifa exists."
Hawley presses Zuckerberg on whistleblower complaint alleging Facebook coordination... (Fox 11/17/2020)
Sen. Lee blasts Big Tech GOP censorship as 'deceptive trade practice’ (Fox 11/17/2020)
•
"They lure their customers in, thinking that they're going to have an unbiased experience. In practice this is not how it works."

•
"In practice what they're doing is steadily putting their thumb on the left side of the scale. That's a problem."

•
"That's a deceptive trade practice and they need to be held accountable for that."

•
... asked Lee what he would say to the critics "who say these hearings tend to be long on confrontation but very short on consequences."

•
"This time that's not going to be the case for the simple reason that the more we uncover about how they're operating their businesses, the more we can see that these big social media platforms are in fact offering one service and providing another."

•
"In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group 'Stop the Steal,' which was creating real-world events," Facebook said in a statement to the Associated Press. "The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group."

•
"What I say to that is you don't see the same type of action occurring on the left," Lee said

•
"The difference here is that you do have some people upset on the left, yes, but they're upset mostly because they want Facebook and Twitter to be doing more of their censoring, not less."

•
"People who are actually getting censored with some rare and less visible exceptions are overwhelmingly Republican, conservative, pro-life individuals and organizations. You don't see that happening on the left."
Cruz shoots down Dorsey explanation of voter fraud disclaimer: 'You're a publisher when...' (Fox 11/17/2020)
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"... You put up a page that says, quote, ‘voter fraud of any kind is exceedingly rare in the United States.' That's not linking to a broader conversation, that's taking a disputed policy position and you're a publisher when you're doing that. You're entitled to take a policy position, but you don't get to pretend you're not a publisher and get a special benefit under Section 230 as a result."

•
"Section 230 defines an information content provider as anything that any person or entity that is responsible in whole or in part for the creation or development of information provided through the internet or any other interactive computer service."

•
While Twitter used a policy against spreading hacked material as a reason for not allowing the spread of the Post article — despite no evidence of hacking — it had no problem allowing users to share a New York Times article containing information from President Trump's tax returns, which were confidential.

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Cruz also asked if Twitter blocked stories about Edward Snowden's leak of sensitive information. Dorsey said he did not have that information. "The answer's no," Cruz said.
Rep. Crenshaw says Dems pretend ‘Antifa doesn’t exist,’ calls out media 'double standard' (Fox 11/17/2020)
NASA astronauts become latest space station residents in historic SpaceX Crew Dragon mission (Fox 11/17/2020)
Mark Levin: Biden plans to 'immediately' sell out America, 'eviscerate civil liberties' (Fox 11/17/2020)
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"If there was ever any doubt, dimwitted Biden says it is his intention to immediately sellout America by joining the Paris Peace Accords, impose $15 an hour minimum wage, impose unionism throughout the country on workers who don't want it, wipeout student debt."

•
"Rejoin the Iran deal, pay millions to Palestinian terrorists, open the floodgate to illegal immigration, massive increase in taxes, killer regulations, reimpose critical race theory training throughout the federal government, ignore BLM and Antifa violence, force taxpayers to pay for infanticide — and that's just for starters."

•
"Biden is prepared to lockdown the country and eviscerate civil liberties. He has a target on the suburbs, private health care, non-government schools, undermining the judiciary, etc."

•
"Biden's talking more now than he ever did as a candidate and purposely so. He was protected by the Praetorian Guard corrupt media and Big Tech and still is."

•
"This is why we fight. This is why we insist that the Constitution be upheld in every state. This is why we reject the usual Republicans who've already surrendered."

•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Gutfeld on the violent attacks on the MAGA march (Fox 11/16/2020)
Trump hits back at WaPo over report saying campaign scrapping key part of Pennsylvania lawsuit (Fox 11/16/2020)
•
... the new complaint "absolutely still makes an issue of" more than 600,000 ballots that were allegedly processed without proper observation.

•
"The Washington Post forgot to read the complaint," Trump tweeted. "Fake News. Poll Watchers, and the way they were treated, are a very big deal in the complaint!"

•
"They didn't read para 132-150 which repeat all the allegations of the 680,777 mail in votes which were deliberately concealed from Republican inspectors," Giuliani said.

•
"It is estimated that 680,770 ballots were processed by the Allegheny and Philadelphia County Boards of Elections when no observation was allowed," the new complaint says.

•
"Our poll watchers were denied meaningful access to watch the vote counting and we still incorporate that claim in our complaint."

•
"Unfortunately, fake news activists rushed to print their clickbait headlines, apparently without even reading the lawsuit. That's lazy journalism at best, but more likely intentionally misleading."
Trump touts coronavirus vaccine announcements 'on my watch': 'Great discoveries' (Fox 11/16/2020)
•
"Another Vaccine just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective. For those great "historians", please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!"

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Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar lauded Moderna's vaccine as part of "President Trump's vision"... "This is really a historic day."

•
"More good news today from #OperationWarpSpeed: The Moderna/NIH vaccine candidate is now the second vaccine to show the potential for very high efficacy in Phase 3 trials," Azar wrote ... adding that this is a "stunning result of President Trump's leadership."

•
Trump launched Operation Warp Speed in the spring as a multiagency partnership between the federal government and private drugmakers to produce and distribute effective vaccines and therapeutics. ... Warp Speed has put around $2 billion to support the Moderna vaccine.

•
The U.S. government has previously struck a deal with Moderna for 100 million doses, with an option to buy an additional 400 million doses.

•
Dr. Anthony Fauci told ... that the Moderna vaccine data are "striking" and "quite impressive," and that its efficacy "foretells an impact on this outbreak."
GOP congresswoman-elect who fled Soviet Union: 'Not pretty when socialism runs out of money' (Fox 11/16/2020)
•
"I grew up in a socialistic country, the Socialist Republic of Ukraine. I saw what happens when it runs out of money and it is not pretty."

•
"And now, I came to America 20 years ago with a suitcase after meeting my husband on a train in Europe. He's a raised and born Hoosier. And now we're building socialism. I'm kind of going full circles. I can tell you what is going to be next. It's very sad for me to see that."

•
... encouraged Americans to "be good students of history" because they would know that since socialism is an "unsustainable system," every country that practiced it failed.

•
"I took my kids to the beaches of Normandy and you can see how many young kids died fighting for freedoms. How many wars were fought and were won."

•
"This system creates a lot of destruction and misery so we have to be smarter than that. You know, we're not going to change. There are only two systems: you have freedom and free enterprise and you have a system where the government decides and political elites on top [decide] how we're going to lead, what we're going to do."
Trump criticizes John Bolton for pushing election loss as legal fight continues (Fox 11/16/2020)
•
"John Bolton was one of the dumbest people in government that I've had the to work with. A sullen, dull and quiet guy, he added nothing to National Security except, Also, illegally released much Classified Information. A real dope!"
Jordan argues ironing out voting irregularities is 'important,' 72M Trump voters have concerns (Fox 11/15/2020)
•
"It's important we get to the bottom of exactly what happened in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, all these key swing states."

•
"On election night, it seemed like every state that kept counting, President Trump won. But all the states that halted counting for a while, he wound up losing. Why did that happen?"

•
"And then maybe the most important question: Why don't Joe Biden and the Democrats want to find out?"
NASA makes historic SpaceX Crew Dragon launch (Fox 11/15/2020)
Candace Owens slams intelligence agencies over allowing domestic terror to run rampant (Fox 11/15/2020)
•
"We're supposed to believe that our intelligence agencies can track and take out an Iranian terrorist (Soleimani) overnight but they can't manage to get to the root of ANTIFA and black lives matter — well-funded domestic terrorist cells that have been operating unchecked for YEARS."
Ivanka Trump slams media for ignoring violence against conservatives (Fox 11/15/2020)
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"The media's near total silence about the physical violence being perpetrated against conservatives is shameful & dangerous."

•
"Just image [sic] the outrage and indignation if this went the other way. Violence is never the answer and instigators must be condemned and prosecuted."

•
Her brother, Donald Trump Jr, likewise slammed the "media's silence"... "The media's silence on the violence against Trump supporters is deafening. After four years of calling them Nazis, at this point they might as well just dox them all or add the to AOC's lists for the Gulags. They are complicit in the violence. They are the worst of the worst."
Jason Miller slams 'shameful' media coverage of Antifa viotelence at MAGA rally (Fox 11/15/2020)
•
"I really think it's shameful that some of the competing networks, whether it be CNN or MSNBC, have not covered it the way that they should."

•
"Whether it be the D.C. police or the DOJ, there have to be immediate crackdowns on these groups like Antifa. Because this isn't how society is supposed to work."
Starr on Trump legal challenges: 'Allow this litigation to run its course' (Fox 11/15/2020)
Perdue, Ossoff cast Georgia Senate runoff as battle for control of the nation (Fox 11/15/2020)
•
"We heard [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer say just last week if we take Georgia we change America."

•
"We heard [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] say they have to have these two seats because they don't want to negotiate. They want total control, and so what's at stake is this: that Schumer will change the rules in the Senate so they can do anything they want."

•
"That is the Green New Deal, they want to defund the police, open borders, they want to have sanctuary cities, they want to cut the military spending after we've just begun rebuilding it after [President] Obama's decimation of it and then take away our private health insurance."
Georgia hand recount: How does it work and when will it be done? (Fox 11/15/2020)
Media takes heat for ignoring violent attacks on Trump supporters at MAGA rally (Fox 11/15/2020)
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"I want to hear Joe Biden and Kamala Harris condemn Antifa/BLM criminals who assaulted and harassed peaceful demonstrators in DC today, including elderly and families. Of course they won't. And 'media' won't make them."

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"Watching video of people being assaulted and mobbed by BLM/Antifa in DC tonight brings back awful memories. Want an example of media bias? When Rand Paul and I spoke out about our mob assault, the AP reported our claim was 'without evidence' despite 10 minutes of video."

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"The President's supporters have a right to peacefully rally supporting POTUS just like his opponents have that same right. The physical assaults today by violent leftists targeting his supporters is abhorrent. The near total media blackout of the violence is terrible... [and] telling." ... calling members of the media "Antifa propagandists."

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"Black Lives Matter and Antifa represent the absolute vermin of our society. They were created as the marxist foot soldiers of the Democrat Party and given a pass by the leftist-controlled media..."

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Multiple confrontations appeared later in the day as small groups of Trump supporters attempted to enter the area around Black Lives Matter Plaza, about a block from the White House, where several hundred anti-Trump demonstrators had gathered.

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In a pattern that kept repeating itself, those Trump supporters who approached the area were harassed, doused with water and saw their MAGA hats and pro-Trump flags snatched and burned, amid cheers.

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
McEnany: Claims of election fraud in key states 'deserve to be heard' (Fox 11/15/2020)
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... the Trump campaign has located plenty of "people who are really willing, in their own handwriting, to write down their allegation, put their name down, sign their allegation with a notary there [and give] sworn testimony under penalty of perjury."

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"What is remarkable is the consistency with which the affidavits read of poll watchers being pushed out in Michigan, literally physically pushed."

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"One young woman [was] called the c-word. Another one of our poll watchers, who was a man of Chinese descent, [was] being yelled at and [told], 'Why are you here? You're not an American.' And when he said, 'I am an American,' he was ... shouted down for five minutes. These people deserve to be heard."

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"[Hillary Clinton] said over and over again — and I got that she conceded right after the [2016] election — But then she went on a four-year public therapy tour talking about how the president of the United States is illegitimate," Concha reminded...

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""And then she had this to say just a couple of weeks ago [in August]: 'Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances, because I think this is going to drag out, and eventually, I do believe he will win if we don't give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side is' ..."

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"Now, President Trump is literally conducting himself and his campaign and his legal team in that exact fashion and he's being told, 'You need to concede now, this is bad for the country.'..."
Trump says for first time that Biden 'won,' adds that he is not conceding (Fox 11/15/2020)
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"He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!"

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On Friday, a federal appeals court rejected an effort to block about 9,300 mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day in Pennsylvania.

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The judges noted the "vast disruption" and "unprecedented challenges" facing the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic as they upheld the three-day extension.

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In Michigan, a judge Friday refused to stop the certification of Detroit-area election results, rejecting claims the city had committed fraud and tainted the count with its handling of absentee ballots.

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It's the third time a judge has declined to intervene in a statewide count that shows Biden up by more than 140,000 votes.

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And in Arizona, a judge dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit seeking the inspection of ballots in metro Phoenix after the campaign's lawyers acknowledged the small number of ballots at issue wouldn't change the outcome of how the state voted for president.
Trump blasts 'ANTIFA SCUM,' media after violence mars MAGA marches in DC (Fox 11/15/2020)
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"Radical Left ANTIFA SCUM was easily rebuffed today by the big D.C. MAGA Rally crowd, only to return at night, after 99% of the crowd had left, to assault elderly people and families. Police got there, but late. Mayor is not doing her job!"

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"ANTIFA SCUM ran for the hills today when they tried attacking the people at the Trump Rally, because those people aggressively fought back. Antifa waited until tonight, when 99% were gone, to attack innocent #MAGA People. DC Police, get going — do your job and don't hold back!!!"

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Trump also accused the "Silent Media" of ignoring the Washington clashes, retweeting a message from Republican U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York... "The President's supporters have a right to peacefully rally supporting POTUS just like his opponents have that same right. The physical assaults today by violent leftists targeting his supporters is abhorrent. The near total media blackout of the violence is terrible... & telling."

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Authorities said one male demonstrator was stabbed multiple times near the intersection of New York Avenue and 11th Street, and sustained injuries that were not considered life threatening.

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Anti-Trump demonstrators allegedly hurled eggs at Trump supporters — or stole signs, hats and banners, and lit them on fire.

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Videos show them shouting at families, sucker-punching people in the street and harassing an elderly woman carrying a Trump flag.

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At least two police officers were injured and authorities confiscated seven firearms...

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In some places, police physically stood between groups of Trump supporters and counterprotesters, chanting or carrying signs and banners emblazoned with Antifa and Black Lives Matter slogans, to keep them separated.

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... an altercation escalate with a mob of alleged "BLM-Antifa thugs" swarming and punching a man from behind in an intersection.

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Moments earlier, he attacked someone holding a megaphone. He shoved people away until someone carrying a "Trump/Pence Out Now!" sign finally knocked him out with a sucker punch.

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When he rose a few moments later, there appeared to be a gash on his face and a lot of blood. Another angle of the attack showed someone stomping on his head while he was down.

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... showed "a group of purported Antifa members" burning a flag near Black Lives Matter Plaza, just north of the White House.
Violence mars MAGA marches in DC as Antifa, BLM counterprotesters lash out (Fox 11/14/2020)
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Left-wing counterprotesters moved in during a pro-Trump "Million MAGA March" in Washington, Saturday, leading to scattered confrontations and violence as police tried to keep opposing groups separated.

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Anti-Trump demonstrators allegedly hurled eggs at Trump supporters — or stole signs, hats and banners, and lit them on fire.

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Videos show them shouting at families, sucker-punching people in the street and even harassing an elderly woman carrying a Trump flag.

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City police said they'd made at least 10 arrests – at least three of which involved assaults...

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... chaos broke out as mobs heckled and in some cases attacked Trump supporters – including some walking with children.

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... a group of purported Antifa members burning a flag near Black Lives Matter Plaza, just north of the White House.

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A National Park Service permit for the rally was issued for up to 10,000 people, although several thousand more appeared to show up.
Darrell Issa: Trump on par with Lincoln, Reagan with value added to the Republican Party (Fox 11/14/2020)
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"I believe that Donald Trump has added to the Republican Party just as Lincoln did and Reagan did and Goldwater did."

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"These are lasting people still mark each of those historical figures in a very special way. And so I think when you take the party of Reagan, and then you add Lincoln, then you add Trump you get our party."

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"President Trump — I stand with you, just as you have stood with me from 2016 until today. The fact that poll watchers are not being allowed to adequately supervise certain recounts is completely unacceptable. This is America. Election integrity comes first."
Geraldo talks to Trump on election results, says president is 'frustrated' but still 'strong' (Fox 11/13/2020)
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"He told me he was a realist, he told me he would do the right thing." ... "Every impression he gave me ... was if the process went against him and he was satisfied that every legitimate vote had been counted and every illegitimate vote had been thrown out... he would surrender."

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"For years the Dems have been preaching how unsafe and rigged our elections have been. Now they are saying what a wonderful job the Trump Administration did in making 2020 the most secure election ever. Actually this is true, except for what the Democrats did. Rigged Election!" Trump tweeted...

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"He's a frustrated man, he's wounded but still strong, he wants to do everything he can to make sure this is a fair result."

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"If this thing goes against him ... I have no doubt this man will rise to the occasion again and run in 2024."

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"I think it's fair to say he's frustrated over the timing of the Pfizer vaccine and how didn't they know two weeks ago this thing was going to be so effective, and it was going to go to the FDA for emergency approval, and why this announcement a week after the election. I think there's great frustration."
Nikki Haley takes on AOC, Squad, ‘ultra-liberal’ policies, rejecting civility (Fox 11/13/2020)
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"AOC & her fellow "Squad" members are saying that Dems fell short because they aren't liberal enough and should push harder to enact ultra-liberal policies. AOC criticized the idea of "playing to civility," preferring confrontation. What's right for the Squad is wrong for America."
Rick Scott campaigns in Georgia for Loeffler and Perdue as big names descend on Peach State (Fox 11/13/2020)
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"... what Chuck Schumer said. He says, first we're going to take Georgia then we're going to change this country."

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"Which means, for the Democrats, pack the Supreme Court so they can take away our religious freedom, our Second Amendment rights, cut the funding for the police, socialism. 'Medicare-for-All' is going to kill private health insurance for 150 million Americans. And the 'Green New Deal' that will kill fossil fuels and our economy and spend, what, some $90 trillion dollars? This is crazy."
Biden should call for 'complete clearing of all the ballots to make sure they're legit' (Fox 11/13/2020)
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"I would suggest that what Joe Biden should do if he wants to bring unity and bring these 71 million Trump voters together, let him be the one to call for a full ... investigation, a complete clearing of all the ballots to make sure they're legit."

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"And you know what? If that turns out to show that he did, in fact, get more votes and won the Electoral College, then we all go quietly into the night, licking our wounds. But what you can't have is an election that has lots of dark clouds hanging over it because this election is too important."

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"... I'm afraid that sometimes these reporters and news agencies have been so anxious to try to get this result agreed to by everybody before we know what the results really are. That's what I hope people will understand."

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"I have no faith they are going to be tough on Joe Biden ... Joe Biden can skate. He can get by if the press lets him get by and that has been the pattern with him all along."

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"They throw pitches at him like you would throw at a five-year-old in a peewee game. when Donald Trump gets up to the plate, they aim for his head every time and they're throwing heat at 90 miles an hour."
Trump floating multiple unlikely survival scenarios as he weighs political future: report (Fox 11/13/2020)
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... while there's no master plan or overall strategy, Trump is reportedly seeing how far he can go against his defeat in order to ensure continued support from his base.

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A scenario Trump has reportedly looked at with serious consideration is an announcement that he plans to run again in 2024.

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Trump has reportedly told some advisers that if the presidential race is certified for Biden, the president will announce a 2024 campaign shortly afterward.

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Advisers have reportedly pushed the president to stop talking about "fraud" due to the legal implications of the term that his team has not yet been able to back up. As a result, Trump has instead taken to calling the election "rigged."
Candace Owens blasts 'despicable' Obama book claiming Trump election was racist reaction (Fox 11/13/2020)
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In his forthcoming memoir, "A Promised Land," Obama claims Trump's presidency was the result of "millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House."

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"Barack Obama became the president of the United States because White Americans supported him. And rather than show some unity, rather than show some respect for this country that gave him literally everything he has, he turns his back ... and says, ‘Look at this despicable country. It's broken.'"

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"He is the first president that has ever sat in the White House and come out ... hating America."

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"Do you think that [Democrats] could have the humility to pause for a second and say, ‘You know what? Maybe it's not because every single person in America is a racist,'"

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"People are standing behind Donald J. Trump because he is an effective and good leader who tells the truth and doesn't ... run on identity politics."

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See related Miss Me? (Glenn McCoy, 02/28/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Nikki Haley warns of Bernie Sanders as next Senate budget chair if Dems win Georgia races (Fox 11/12/2020)
Laura Ingraham sounds alarm over Georgia Senate runoff elections: 'It's all on the line' (Fox 11/12/2020)
Trump slams delay in North Carolina vote count, presses for Arizona audit (Fox 11/12/2020)
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"Pennsylvania & Michigan wouldn't let our Poll Watchers & Observers into counting rooms. Illegal!"

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Twitter flagged that tweet with a warning that stated: "This tweet about election fraud is disputed."

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"From 200,000 votes to less than 10,000 votes," Trump tweeted, referencing an article from Arizona Central Politics that shows Biden's lead in the state shrinking. "If we can audit the total votes cast, we will easily win Arizona also!"

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The president is not yet giving up, and will continue to fight. However, sources close to him told ... that he would concede and commit to a peaceful transfer of power if the campaign's legal challenges fail to open up a path for a second term.

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Some Republicans have already hinted that Trump will run for president again in 2024.
Portland attacker Marquise Love sentenced to nearly two years in protest beating (Fox 11/12/2020)
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"The video of this assault is violent and shocking. It outraged our community and nation. We are fortunate that the victim's injuries were not as severe as it first appeared they may have been."

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Love expressed remorse for his actions and apologized to Haner. He also wished him a speedy recovery, prosecutors said. Haner said he does not seek revenge against his attacker and hopes Love learns from what happened.

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In addition to prison time, Love will serve 36 months of probation and participate in an alcohol abuse evaluation.
Andrew McCarthy: Trump's post-recount legal options depend on 'how much fraud you can prove' (Fox 11/11/2020)
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"It depends on how much fraud you can prove and whether you can put the outcome in doubt by showing there was so much fraud that the whole thing is tainted or there was enough that you can close the gap."

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"I think there's a lot of people talking past each other. Some people say there's not a shred of fraud and there are other people saying there's overwhelming fraud. There's always some fraud in an election. It depends on how much you can prove."

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... Trump's chances of taking back Georgia hinge on whether or not there was empirically so much "impropriety" that the entire election there might have to be thrown out or if his tight margin with Biden can be closed.

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Democrat Joe Biden currently leads Trump by a little more than 14,000 votes out of nearly five million ballots cast.

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"Just because something bad happens in one place doesn't necessarily bleed over anyplace else," he said before noting that potential issues with computer programs used by several states could be an example where more than one jurisdiction is affected.
Cotton warns Democrats will nix Electoral College, pack Supreme Court if they win Georgia runoffs (Fox 11/11/2020)
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"It's so vital that we hold the Senate majority. Chuck Schumer said it very well last weekend on the streets of New York, when he took a bullhorn and said, 'First we take Georgia and then we change America.'"

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"If Georgia elects Jon Ossoff, a trust fund socialist, and Raphael Warnock, Jeremiah Wright's biggest supporter in Georgia, they really will try to transform America."

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... if Democrats control the Senate, "they will pack the Supreme Court, they'll make Washington, D.C. a state, they will outlaw anything but mail-in balloting with ballot harvesting, without any signature verification."

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... "they will eliminate the Electoral College, they will raise your taxes, they will take your guns, they will use your tax dollars to fund late-term abortions."
Veterans Day is a time to thank and appreciate heroes who have preserved our liberty (Fox 11/11/2020)
NASA has certified Elon Musk's SpaceX to carry astronauts, ending its reliance on Russia (Fox 11/11/2020)
Ex-US attorney calls Andrew McCabe testimony a 'disaster': 'He tried to keep his lies straight' (Fox 11/11/2020)
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"This is a prime example of someone who has inconsistencies, lies, deception during a period of time that has been uncovered and then trying to keep it all straight. I mean, this testimony was a disaster."

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"I did not know that we could systematically endure what we have both on the individual level, people's lives were destroyed, but, also on the organizational level. Right, now the FBI is reeling, still, from 2016 and the country has absolutely lost its confidence that the FBI won't be political going forward."
Gutfeld on the Democrats’ desire to name and shame Trump supporters (Fox 11/10/2020)
•
As the media and Democrats preach healing, their loudest voices are planning something else. They call it accountability, but it's actually retribution.

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... former Clinton administration labor secretary Robert Reich got the ball rolling, suggesting that the left name and shame anyone connected to Trump.

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The bearded Bozo exposed the sinister underbelly of the so-called tolerant left, salivating at the chance for revenge.

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Then there's Hari Sevugan, a former spokesman for President Barack Obama, who touted the Trump accountability project, which vows to keep anyone Trump employed from getting work. Their motto: "Remember what they did."

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Others have joined the vengeful mob. MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes jumped in. So did the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Nation magazine. And the always delightful Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y.

•
And before the election, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin said this of people who she described as President Trump's enablers: "Shunning, shaming these people is a statement of moral indignation that these people are not fit for polite society.... It's not only that Trump has to lose, but that all his enablers have to lose. We have to collectively, in essence, burn down the Republican Party. We have to level them because if there are survivors, if there are people who weather this storm, they will do it again."

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The side of peace wants to tear you to pieces. It's never been about compromise.

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... this ain't new. It began years before this election: shutting down speakers, banning people from media platforms, cancel culture. The delusional woke-ism that energizes the mob in the streets, in politics and in media.

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Imagine the reverse: After a Trump win, his fans vow to create a MAGA inquisition! You can't imagine it, because we're normal. We see people before we see power.

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And this is all about power. For us, power is just a controlled substance.

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But for the left, once they get a whiff, they freebase the whole stash. Then in their feverish high, they get the munchies...

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See related Love Trumps Hate (Sean Delonas, 11/10/2016) cartoon from USA picture album
America ‘cannot survive’ Biden presidency with Democratic majority in House, Senate (Fox 11/10/2020)
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"The country might survive, for a while, Joe Biden, but it can't survive Joe Biden with the Senate and the House."

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"They can end the [legislative] filibuster. They can add states ... They can immediately pack the court."

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"He's going to have to do something, because he can't stay in the basement anymore. If he says he's president-elect, people are going to want to know, who's he going to appoint, what are his policies, what are his agendas and positions. That's going to have a bearing."
McConnell blasts Dems for accepting Biden win after questioning validity of 2016 election (Fox 11/10/2020)
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"Until the Electoral College votes, anyone who is running for office can exhaust concerns in counting in any court of appropriate jurisdiction."

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"It's not unusual and should not be alarming. At some point here we'll find out, finally, who was certified in each of these states and the Electoral College will determine the winner."

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"Let's not have any lectures, no lectures, about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election and who insinuated that this one would be illegitimate too if they lost again – only if they lost."

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"The people who push this hysteria could not have any more egg on their faces than they do right now."

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"The president has every right to look into allegations and to request recounts under the law and, notably, the Constitution gives no role in this process to wealthy media corporations."

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"The projections and commentary of the press do not get veto power over the legal rights of any citizen, including the president of the United States."
Republicans flip 9th seat as California Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda concedes (Fox 11/10/2020)
GOP congresswoman-elect says her district rejected Pelosi's far-left agenda: Her values... (Fox 11/10/2020)
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"She's so off-base. We're very much a pro-life, pro-God, pro-business, pro-family district, and the values that Nancy brings to Washington are her own and they don't mesh well with the values ... throughout the country."

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"Police are so important to our communities ... especially in the rural parts of the nation. It just doesn't work. ... The oil and gas situation really got people out to the polls because that is such a huge part of New Mexico industries – that's our largest industry."

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"The people of America deserve to have their voices heard. We need to move far away from this radical left agenda and start doing the work of the people."
Cal Cunningham concedes to Thom Tillis in North Carolina Senate race (Fox 11/10/2020)
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Tillis' win means Republicans now take the lead in the battle for the Senate, with the GOP holding 49 seats, and Democrats holding 48.

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Three seats are left: Alaska, where Republicans are leading, and in Georgia, where there will be two runoff elections in January.

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Republicans are angling for at least two of those to keep control.

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Tillis, 60, had the odds stacked against him — North Carolina voters are "brutal" to their incumbent senators, rejecting nearly all modern senators after just one term.
Tucker Carlson: Rampant polling errors 'amounted to voter suppression' (Fox 11/10/2020)
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"Bad polling has an effect, a big effect at many levels. ... It's significant. Research shows that polls influence voting behavior."

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"So, effectively, all those errors amounted to voter suppression, and it's really clear why. When people believe that their candidate can't win, and that's what the polls told us, ... they're less likely to vote for that candidate and much less likely to send them money."

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"Polls may lead people not to vote for a given party because that party is perceived to be unlikely to win."

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"Didn't need researchers to show us that. That's obvious. Maybe that's why they did it. We don't know. We should find out."

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"We don't know how many votes were stolen on Tuesday night. We don't know anything about the software that many say was rigged. We don't know. We ought to find out, but here's what we do know. On a larger level, at the highest levels, actually, our system isn't what we thought it was. It's not as fair as it should be. Not even close. Sorry. Hate to say that."

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... pointed to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who said, "Now we take Georgia and then we change America" in the middle of a crowd celebrating Biden and Harris after they were projected to the win the presidential election.
Ex-ICE chief Homan: 'It's terrible what's about to happen' at border under Joe Biden (Fox 11/10/2020)
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"President Trump has had unprecedented success on this border" ... "illegal immigration is down between 60 and 80%," which he noted is "unprecedented by any president I've worked for, starting with Ronald Reagan."

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... pointed out that Trump achieved that success "despite the fact that Congress fought him every step of the way."

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"No one has had this success and it all goes away under a Biden administration."

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"We lose the border under a Biden administration because he made promises to stop deportations, end ICE detention, get free health care. Who wouldn't want to come to the greatest country on Earth if you know you can't be arrested, you won't be detained, you won't be deported and we'll give you free health care?"

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... in August Biden said, "There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration."

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"First of all, he [Biden] voted for the Secure Fence Act in 2006 as a senator. That would have spent up to $50 billion building border barriers so obviously he knows they work."

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"And before he makes the decision to stop building the wall you would think he'd take the time to look at the data."

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"The data is clear. Every place they put a border barrier and border wall, it has resulted in decreased illegal immigration and decreased drug flow."

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... even though Biden "believed in border security once before, he is owned by the progressive left" and is going "to do what they push him to do."

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"If someone touches that wall or climbs that wall Border Patrol knows about it. That's technology the Border Patrol wants and needs and he's [Biden's] ignoring that."

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See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
COVID changed everything this year – including voting. Here's how we restore trust (Fox 11/10/2020)
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Right now, we are seeing what happens when that trust disappears and the legality and integrity of our elections remains uncertain.

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The reality is that Democrats across the country have created an electoral system that Americans believe is not fair.

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No, this is not a talking point; it's a fact. ... Why would any Supervisors of Election reject efforts to promote transparency? If they have nothing to hide, stop hiding.

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The American people deserve a result on Election Day that they can trust. They can't wait weeks or months to find out the results of an election.
Georgia Republican Party head casts new doubt on election transparency (Fox 11/10/2020)
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"No one disputes that Fulton County elections officials falsely announced that the counting of ballots would stop at 10:30 p.m. No one disputes that Fulton County elected officials unlawfully resumed the counting of ballots after our observers left the center."

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... said media outlets are "gaslighting you" when they claim there was no evidence of "irregularities in the election."
Gutfeld on the plea for healing (Fox 11/09/2020)
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... after four years of pushing hoaxes, calling Trump a Russian asset — we must "accept" this outcome ASAP.

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This, after four years of demonizing anyone not in the resistance! — Calling us racist... Accosting people in restaurants... Showing up at our homes and vowing harm, if Trump wins again.

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So, now we're old friends, again. Weird.

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The good news? Since the rioters are happy, we can now take down the plywood!

•
Because that wasn't protecting us from rioting Trump supporters if he lost. It was for rioting leftists if Trump won.

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Can you imagine if it were Biden on the short end of these state election returns?

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You wouldn't have Biden going to court. You'd have a mob going door-to-door. And the media would call it "mostly peaceful."

•
So now they say, "time to unify." That's like telling a victim of abuse to "just kiss and make up."

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Too harsh? Well, when you compare a president to Hitler and accuse him of killing a quarter-million COVID victims, forgive us for hyperbole.

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You painted targets on millions of backs — and they're still there, as leading Democrats vow to name and shame Trump supporters.

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I guess that's how you unify — if you're a Brown Shirt.

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The fact is, you want unity now that you're winning. If you didn't win, you'd burn the place down. It's very Hitler.

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So forgive us if we're fine with a legal process. And if it doesn't work out, Republicans will just get back to work.

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But if you lose, dear Dems, I wonder how fast your calls for unity will dissolve... Since they were never there to begin with.
McConnell backs Trump legal fight in election results (Fox 11/09/2020)
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"The core principle here is not complicated: in the United States of America, all legal ballots must be counted, any illegal ballots must not be counted, the process should be transparent or observable by all sides and the courts are here to work through concerns."

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"If any major irregularities occurred this time of a magnitude that would affect the outcome, then every single American should want them to be brought to light."

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"If the Democrats feel confident that they have not occurred, they should have no reason to fear any extra scrutiny. We have the tools and institutions we need to address any concerns."

•
"Let's not have any lectures, no lectures about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election."
Graham encourages Trump to mount presidential bid in 2024 should election challenges... (Fox 11/09/2020)
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"I would encourage President Trump if, after all this, he does fall short. We just can't quite get there to not let this movement die, to consider running again, to create an organization, platforms over the next four years. To keep this movement alive, growing the Republican representation in minority communities."

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... added that Trump and Republicans should "talk about economic populism and just, basically, keep it alive, and keep fighting for the 2020 vote."
Trump ‘has a duty’ to supporters to fight for ‘transparent’ review of ballots: Miranda Devine (Fox 11/09/2020)
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President Trump "has a duty" to the "half of America which voted for him to look into" ballot-counting in the 2020 presidential election "so that it's all transparent."

•
"This is what Joe Biden should be saying: ‘Let's open up everything, let's open up the vote counting and the tabulation,'"
Mike Huckabee: Trump team must be allowed to examine voting machines, ballots (Fox 11/09/2020)
•
"How was it that 450,000 ballots in five states only had Joe Biden and not one single person down-ballot even marked. That is highly unusual."

•
... there is a "real effort" to declare the race over though President Trump does not have "any reason to walk away."

•
"70 million people voted for him. I think he owes it to all of us to make sure the election was fair. I am not saying it wasn't, I don't know. But we need to know, we have to have an answer to the questions that linger."

•
"The most important thing is to be able to get to the evidence. As long as people are sitting on it, not letting the observers from the Republican side even look at what was going on, have a chance to see the voting machines, examine it, we don't have the evidence. So, you know, when people say to 'produce the evidence,' you've got to get to the evidence to produce it."
Cuomo says it's 'bad news' that Pfizer coronavirus vaccine progress came during Trump... (Fox 11/09/2020)
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"The good news is the Pfizer tests look good and we'll have a vaccine shortly. The bad news is it's about two months before Joe Biden takes over, and that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan."

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"You have two months, and we can't let this vaccination plan go forward the way the Trump administration is designing it because Biden can't undo it two months later, we'll be in the midst of it. And I'm going — I've been talking to governors across the nation about that; how can we shape the Trump administration vaccine plan to fix it, or stop it before it does damage."

•
"What on earth is Governor Cuomo talking about? This is great news and everyone - Republicans and Democrats and apolitical folks - should all be jointly thrilled about the possibility of an effective vaccine," Sasse said.

•
"After this nasty virus has killed hugondreds of thousands of Americans and put millions out of work, it is beyond disgusting that Governor Cuomo would use a glimmer of hope for another worn-out ‘Trump is bad' talking point. When we get a vaccine, we're going to need all hands on deck distributing it as fast as possible - shamelessly politicizing this is dangerous and stupid."

•
Cuomo himself has come under fire for how he handled the early stages of the pandemic in New York, particularly when it comes to a policy that had required nursing home patients who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 to return to their facilities after being discharged without regard for whether they were still contagious.

•
The March directive, which was rescinded in May, told nursing homes that residents cannot be denied admission or readmission based solely on a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 diagnosis.

•
It also said that facilities could not require people to be tested before being admitted or readmitted if they were in stable condition.

•
Thousands of nursing home patients died in their facilities after the directive had been issued, but Cuomo has so far failed to release statistics of patients who were infected with coronavirus while at their facilities who then died in hospitals.

•
See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album

•
See related Flattened the Curve... (Mike Shelton, 09/11/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Biden coronavirus adviser Dr. Zeke Emanuel once argued it's not worth living past 75 (Fox 11/09/2020)
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... "by 75, creativity, originality and productivity are pretty much gone for the vast, vast majority of us" in his 2014 essay "Why I Hope to Die at 75."

•
"Since 1960, however, increases in longevity have been achieved mainly by extending the lives of people over 60. Rather than saving more young people, we are stretching out old age."

•
"It is true that compared with their counterparts 50 years ago, seniors today are less disabled and more mobile. But over recent decades, increases in longevity seem to have been accompanied by increases in disability — not decreases."

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"A member of Biden's new coronavirus task force is a lockdown enthusiast who has written that living past 75 isn't worth it," Cotton wrote... "Americans want our country opened up, not creepy bioethicists who enjoy playing God."

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Emanuel was special adviser for health policy to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to 2011.
Biden should support push for transparency in vote as ‘ultimate presidential act’: Turley (Fox 11/09/2020)
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Joe Biden, the presumptive president-elect, would make the "ultimate presidential act" by calling on his own party to support the push for transparency and scrutiny into the 2020 election.

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... there is "currently no evidence of systemic fraud in the election but there is ample reason to conduct reviews."

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Biden has been projected as the next president after narrowly winning key swing states. President Trump and his campaign have questioned what they see as possible voting and counting irregularities.

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"We have a series of localized affidavits and allegations of intentional fraud. ... These initial allegations may or may not be indicative of a more systemic problem. Let's find out."
Trump campaign taps Rep. Doug Collins to lead recount team in Georgia (Fox 11/08/2020)
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"Republicans stand by the ideal that every eligible voter should be able to vote legally and have it be counted."

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"During the coming recount, we are confident we will find evidence of improperly harvested ballots and other irregularities that will prove that President Trump won Georgia fairly again on his way to re-election as President. Georgians deserve a free and open process, and they will get one."

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"In order for Americans to have full faith and confidence in our elections, every legal vote must be counted and every illegal or fraudulent vote must be excluded."

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"We look forward to guaranteeing that our elections are safe and secure, just as we look forward to President Trump winning Georgia."
Graham: If GOP doesn't fight, there will 'never be another Republican president elected again' (Fox 11/08/2020)
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"If Republicans don't challenge and change the U.S. election system, there'll never be another Republican president elected again."

•
"President Trump should not concede, we're down to 10,000 votes in Georgia, he's going to win North Carolina, we've gone from 93,000 votes to 20,000 votes in Arizona, where there are more votes to be counted. There are allegations of system failure, fraud."

•
"So to my Republican colleagues out there: We have to fight back or we will accept our fate. I want Pennsylvania to explain to the American people how six people after they die can register to vote in Pennsylvania. I want the computer system in Michigan that flipped votes from Republicans to Democrats to be looked at."

•
... went on to say that "there's a lot of shenanigans going on," and that President Trump should indeed fight in court.

•
"The post office is the new election center. It's the wild, wild west when it comes to mail-in balloting, everything we worried about has come true."

•
"So if we don't fight back in 2020 we're never going to win again presidentially. A lot's at stake here."
Ken Starr: Pennsylvania three-day extension to mail-in ballot deadline a 'constitutional travesty' (Fox 11/08/2020)
•
"In fact, to count every vote may be a crime ... under federal law. It's definitely a crime under state law, if — and here's the key word — illegal."

•
"It's shameful that Vice President [Joe] Biden's people and the vice president himself are saying 'Count Every Vote' and selling a lot of T-shirts. That is ... an invitation for absolute lawlessness."

•
"I know of a situation ... where a recently widowed woman knew how her late husband would vote. He was deceased, that's a human tragedy. What's a travesty is she cast his vote for him. We [don't] call that absentee ballots. No, we call that an illegal ballot."
Trump vows more legal moves, as top Republicans mum on projected Biden win (Fox 11/08/2020)
•
"THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS," Trump tweeted Saturday. "I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE."

•
"Here's how this must work in our great country: Every legal vote should be counted. Any illegally-submitted ballots must not," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted Friday.

•
"All sides must get to observe the process. And the courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes. That's how Americans' votes decide the result."

•
"Far from over. Republicans will not back down from this battle," House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy said.

•
Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas, got into a war of words with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro... "When you're breaking the law, ignoring court orders, counting ballots in secret & threatening to steal the presidency, it's not "PA's business." It's America's business, and we have the right to expect votes will be counted (1) fairly, (2) w/ transparency & (3) NOT in secret."

•
"I'm here tonight to stand with President Trump. He stood with me," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Friday, adding that "the allegations of wrongdoing are earth-shattering."

•
"Every single LEGAL vote must be counted in this Election," the Republican Party tweeted, calling for donations to an election defense fund.

•
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on whether or not mailed ballots received after Election Day should count, which may or may not affect that state's outcome.

•
State law says that ballots should not be counted after Election Day, and Republicans claim that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court acted outside its authority when it extended this year's deadline by three days.

•
If the Supreme Court were to rule in Trump's favor and it resulted in the state going to the president, he would still need a significant number of ballots to be invalidated in other states.
Trump would commit to peaceful transfer of power, keeps refuting results on Twitter (Fox 11/07/2020)
•
The Trump campaign has filed suits in several battleground states where Biden led by a razor-thin margin, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

•
It claimed instances of illegally counted votes from up after Election Day and that poll watchers were blocked from observing counting.

•
"The observers were not allowed into the counting rooms. I won the election, got 71,000 legal votes. Bad things happened which our observers were not allowed to see."

•
... sources close to President Trump told ... he plans to graciously concede and commit to a peaceful transfer of power, if the campaign's legal challenges fail to open up a path for a second term.

•
"The American people are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots," Trump said.

•
"It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters."

•
"Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access."
Pennsylvania GOP lawmaker claims Democratic officials worked to 'tip the scales' to Biden (Fox 11/06/2020)
•
"The integrity of this election is called into question. I don't have evidence of any misdoing. but all their actions are leading to us wondering why they didn't want people watching this process and didn't allow poll watchers in the pre-voting, or getting close enough to see what was going on."

•
"[D]ue directly to these issues I am requesting that a full audit be conducted of the 2020 general election prior to the certification of any results."

•
"... changing a lot of the rules over how this is done, and doing everything they could to tip the scales in favor of Joe Biden."

•
"If [Wolf] would have allowed everyone to watch it the way we normally are we would have more faith."
Sunny Hostin, others in media lied about Trump and his supporters for five years (Fox 11/06/2020)
•
"What has happened for the last five years was that we had major media basically lie about Donald Trump and his supporters."

•
"And at this point it is undeniable - and it has been for many years - that these are intentional lies told about Donald Trump and his supporters, and a refusal to even try to come to terms with why so many people would support the most successful Republican president since Ronald Reagan."

•
... argued that Trump's success is "based a little bit in his personality, while more so being based on his " policies."

•
While minorities unexpectedly embraced Trump's " conservative populism," as indicated by the presidential election, major media outlets " refused" to bring that narrative into the spotlight.

•
"These voters include unprecedented numbers and percentages from groups that are historically quite hostile to Republicans."

•
"Groups like Black people, Hispanic people, Native Americans, the reason why people voted for him is that they like these policies, they like conservative populism, they like reorienting our foreign policy."

•
"This is something that people like Sunny Hostin, but, really pretty much almost everybody throughout major media have refused to even begin to think about, instead deciding to lie about the successes of this Republican president, to hide all of the problems with other candidates, to rig polls for months leading up to elections so that it sets a narrative that nobody could possibly like Donald Trump in Wisconsin."

•
"It's really disappointing to see people like Sunny Hostin continuing in these false claims, even at this point when more than 69 million Americans have shown their support for President Trump after witnessing his four years as president."

•
See related He's Crazy! (Glenn McCoy, 05/16/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Kirstie Alley hints Trump may not be 'bad guy'; questions election legitimacy (Fox 11/06/2020)
•
... struggling to grapple with the unprecedented nature of this current election. Specifically, she called for there to be more transparency in the process than there already is.

•
... insisted that those who speak up aren't necessarily "bad" people. Without naming names, Alley's tweet suggests Trump's outspoken behavior doesn't make him a disruptor in the election and that Joe Biden's calm demeanor may be fooling Americans.

•
"The loud guy always looks like the bad guy. REAL bad guys are stealth and as you've heard a million times about killers 'He seemed like such a nice guy. He was very quiet,'"

•
"I believe in fair elections. SEEMS monkey business is at play. It either is or isn't. That's when we dig in & find out. It's not conspiracy theories. It's due diligence."

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"Unlike the "due diligence" DEMS have done for 4 years to take down POTUS for invented crimes. DIG IN FIND OUT."

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"I'm voting for @realDonaldTrump because he's NOT a politician. I voted for him 4 years ago for this reason and shall vote for him again for this reason. He gets things done quickly and he will turn the economy around quickly. There you have it folks there you have it."
Trump 'undermining' his legal team with claims of stolen election: Turley (Fox 11/06/2020)
•
"He has an army of lawyers who are preparing to litigate these questions. He needs to leave it to them."

•
"It makes judges less likely to take these issues seriously or approach them aggressively, so he needs to just tap down the rhetoric and focus on the theme that he wants all legal votes to count. That's fine, and leave the specifics to his lawyers."

•
"We will not allow corruption to steal such an important election — or any election for that matter," Trump said. "We can't allow anyone to silence our voters or manufacture results."

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The president said many polling places wouldn't let "legally permitted observers" watch the ballot counting. "This is a case where they're trying to steal an election — trying to rig an election."

•
Turley points to Nevada as ripe for a legal challenge due to people voting from out of state and other potential issues with mail-in voting.

•
"The question in Nevada was whether there was a systemic problem with mail-in voting ... You're relying on voter lists that are notoriously unreliable. Also, you have sketchy authentication systems, including signature machines that were set at lower levels of discrimination in confirming signatures or changes in state laws that say if the signature doesn't match it doesn't matter. All of those things exist in a variety of states, not just Nevada."

•
"What does a court do if thousands of votes of ineligible voters may have been counted? That may be where we're heading and it's not just a problem in Nevada."
Trump has no plans to immediately concede election as Biden leads in battlegrounds (Fox 11/06/2020)
•
The Trump campaign has already filed lawsuits in a number of states this week, seeking access to poll watching, as well as a federal lawsuit in Nevada urging officials to stop counting "illegal" ballots, claiming thousands of ballots were sent to non-residents and the deceased.

•
The president will almost certainly ask for a recount in Pennsylvania ... in addition to the one he and his campaign announced in Wisconsin.

•
He will also likely ask for a recount in Georgia as well, and if he doesn't overtake Biden, he will likely request a recount in Arizona, too.

•
The president ... vowed that he and his campaign would "not allow corruption to steal" the election, while maintaining that he will win the 2020 presidential race.

•
The president said that his "goal is to defend the integrity of the election." "If you count the legal votes, I easily win," the president said.

•
"We will not allow corruption to steal such an important election — or any election for that matter. We can't allow anyone to silence our voters or manufacture results."

•
The president said many polling places wouldn't let "legally permitted observers" watch the ballot counting. "This is a case where they're trying to steal an election — trying to rig an election."

•
The president said that he is "hearing horror stories, absolute horror stories, and we can't let that happen to the United States of America."

•
"It's not a question of who wins, Republican or Democrat. Joe, myself," Trump said. "We can't let that happen to our country. We can't be disgraced by having something like this happen."

•
"So it will be hopefully cleared up maybe soon. I hope soon, but it'll probably go through a process, a legal process, and as you know, I've claimed certain states and he's claiming states. So we can both claim the states. But ultimately, I have a feeling judges are going to have to rule."

•
The president went on to say there have "been a lot of shenanigans and we can't stand for that in our country."

•
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in several states throughout the nation this week, seeking access for poll watching.

•
Poll watchers were initially required to remain at least 25 feet away from tables where people were carrying on the task of scanning mail and absentee ballots inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center...

•
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon issued an order requiring "all candidates, watchers, or candidate representatives be permitted to be present for the canvassing process" and "be permitted to observe all aspects of the canvassing process within 6 feet, while adhering to all COVID-19 protocols, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing."

•
The city of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party appealed the ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which will decide whether to grant or deny the appeal.

•
"They're appealing — I wonder why they're appealing," Trump said. "All we want is to have people watch while they do the tabulation."

•
"There is absolutely no legitimate reason why they would not want to have people watching this process, because if its straight, they should be proud of it," Trump said. "They're trying, obviously, to commit fraud and there is no question about that."

•
"I challenge Joe and every Democrat to clarify that they only want legal votes — they say the word votes — we want legal votes to be counted," Trump said. "Openness and transparency, no illegal votes cast after Election Day."

•
Biden, earlier in the day, said that he believed that "each ballot must be counted" and urged supporters to stay "calm."

•
Trump maintained that he and his campaign "want an honest election, we want an honest count and we want honest people working back there."
Trump and supporters wage legal battles across US to defeat Biden — here’s a rundown (Fox 11/06/2020)
The media 'cried wolf' for four years about Trump and people stopped listening (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
"How many times can you call someone racist, how many times can you call a party racist, how many times can you call people racist before people stop listening and actually push back the other direction?"

•
Meanwhile, regardless of who wins the presidential election, there was no blue wave, no overwhelming anti-Trump surge, and the current president was not rejected as a racist bigot.

•
"The media were wrong because it was a mixture of wishful thinking and propaganda designed to influence the result. The people they most influenced were themselves and their leftist allies."

•
... the mainstream media spent four years "pretending they were neutral" while "spouting lies" about Trump — even calling him an agent for Russia.

•
"The press promoted polls they told us were absolutely showing Trump and the GOP were going to get destroyed. Yet, here we are with a close election once more. Polling and especially ‘news' based on it is like looking in a crystal ball, in a dark room, at night while wearing a blindfold."

•
"The big loser tonight are the pollsters and most of the media who no one will ever believe anymore."

•
"They never stopped talking about racists. It's the least racist country in the world. It's 2021 in two months. You think we're living in a racist nation? What they are saying is divisive and insane and insulting. We should be insulted that these idiots are calling our country racist."
NY Times columnist tells truth — says paper 'not good at capturing rightward half of the country' (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
"Our job in the media is to capture reality so that when reality voices itself, like last night, people aren't surprised. Pretty massive failure. We still are not good at capturing the rightward half of the country."

•
This hilariously self-unaware statement was immediately mocked by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who commented, "Maybe don't fire your editor for publishing conservatives."
Ingraham: GOP outperformed expectations on Election Night while pollsters 'crashed spectacularly' (Fox 11/05/2020)
•
Republicans were on track to retain key Senate seats Wednesday night, outperforming the projections of the "fat cat consultants and pollsters who cashed in, yet crashed spectacularly."

•
"They should go into another line of work and we should not give most of them the time of day ever again."

•
"The billionaires and other bankers backing the Democrats, they don't know the country outside their own liberal metropolitan area."

•
"They don't know it at all. Republicans did much better than every expert predicted ... it's unreal that the Democrats fell for these frauds again and again."

•
As for the fate of the presidential election ... "whatever happens, Donald Trump is the current and future leader of the Republican Party.

•
"Just remember this. You're going to be able to tell your kids and grandkids that at one time, we had a president who fought for the little guy — they threw everything at him — and at the end of it, he still grew support for his movement."
Joe Biden wants to ‘suppress’ capitalism, Home Depot’s Langone says (Fox 11/03/2020)
•
"We had 3,000 young people that came to work for us out of high school in the parking lot pushing carts." ... they "are multimillionaires today."

•
"Ask those kids about capitalism, ask all the people in our stores now about how they like working for Home Depot and more importantly they are Home Depot, that's capitalism. This is what Biden, I believe, wants to suppress."

•
"There's no way in the world Joe Biden can raise the kind of money that he wants to raise by stopping at a $400,000 income. The big money in tax revenue is the middle-income people."

•
"He's lying to you if he tells you he can achieve these numbers and leave the middle-income people alone. That's where the numbers are. It's that simple."
Trump — 'the greatest thing since sliced bread' (INN 11/02/2020)
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"The Man [President Trump] do what he says he going to do. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Everything the man say he's going to do he do it. ... The man is a GENIUS."

•
President Trump is a businessman, he understands "the bottom line, it's all about accounts payable and accounts receivable."

•
"That criminal.[Biden], that criminal, in 47 years he's done nothing for the Black man He's [Biden's] done nothing for the black man except to make a crime bill, and to brag about it. And he comes and brags about it. And he comes around and doesn't not even apologize about it, he's[Biden] a crazy kid. 47 years, he's done nothing for America and we find out he's been stealing for China. China! 47 years in the place and he want to do everything the man says he's going to do. Everything he says he's doing the president is already doing. He's blaming the president for the virus" .

•
"How can you blame the president for the virus? Nobody knew at the time. The man[Trump] moved so fast that he came up with treatment. Now, if you get tested in time your life can be saved. Nobody knew. And they come: VIRUS, VIRUS, VIRUS. Corona, corona, corona. Like the President brought it here. I can't believe these sick people. That's why they tried to debate

•
"The Communism will never work. And, I'm watching the American people They ain't going to take away the people's Second Amendment, I know this is America and you can't touch that, but that's all they want to do, take away the [Second] Amendment. They[people] have to vote for Trump. If they don't vote for Trump its[America] is finished, brother

•
"G-d sent him [Trump] at the right time I've been here 47 years, and he's[Trump's] the best, the best, he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, sliced bread"

•
Barry seems to have more common-sense, and love of America than all the main-stream media pundits combined.

•
Let's hope America listens to Barry.
Trump's got my vote and it's OK for you to vote for him, too: Andy Puzder (Fox 11/02/2020)
•
Perhaps the best evidence of President Trump's character lies with his children. The president's children are all decent, intelligent, hardworking individuals.

•
That's not a coincidence. As all moms understand, you can fake a lot of things in life, but you can't fake good kids.

•
None of us can really know national politicians or celebrities in any depth. Much of what we know is what the media presents to us and the media has deliberately presented an unbalanced view of the president.

•
Yes, Trump reacts very strongly and sometimes intemperately when attacked — and he is relentlessly attacked.

•
But ask yourself what the public would think of Trump if the press had liked him. They could easily have presented the president as a fighter for the common man and woman against the entrenched Washington establishment who shows his temper when his critics treat him unfairly – as a man with a thin skin but a big heart. That's who he is.

•
Bottom line: despite what you may hear in the media, it's OK to vote for Donald Trump — he's not only an extremely effective president, he's also a good guy.
Nigel Farage tours the ‘horrifying scenes’ of boarded-up downtown DC ahead of Election Day (Fox 11/02/2020)
•
... businesses are not preparing for violence from President Trump's supporters but from mobs of far-left protesters who might loot and riot should Trump win a second term.

•
"I can see what's happening here in D.C. The place is being boarded up. And this is in anticipation of real violence following the result – or even an inconclusive result – of the election on Tuesday."

•
"Let's just be straight about this. Why are they boarding up D.C.? What are they scared of? Are they scared of Trump supporters?"

•
"Are they scared of some of these slightly crazy groups out in America? No. What they fear is that Trump wins and that we get from little groups like this, large scale violence, looting, and rioting."

•
"What we now have got with a new radical left, is a belief that they and their views are morally superior to those on the conservative right. And they are quite prepared, if they get a result they don't like, to try and overturn it with violence."

•
"And I fear we're teaching people that one side's good and one side's evil. And that's leading to much of this process that we say. Let's hope and pray there isn't violence in D.C. on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning. But I think you can see from a city that is completely boarding up that something bad may well happen."

•
Farage appeared on stage with Trump at a rally in Arizona last week, telling the crowd that if they voted for Trump, they'd be voting for "the only current leader in the free world who has got the guts to stand up and fight for the nation's state."
Dem cities boarding up 'all the proof you need' the left shouldn't have 'federal power' (Fox 11/02/2020)
•
"Notice what those cities have in common. They're all Democrat cities," the Trump 2020 campaign senior adviser told... adding it is "all the proof you need that the left should not be given federal power."

•
"They're saying if you don't choose the left's chosen candidate, we will send the left out to attack you. That's as close to extortion as you can get and Joe Biden has the power to say, 'Stand down,' to the mob. Will he do it?"

•
"We deserve the great American tradition of democracy, of peaceful elections, of accepting the vote of the American people, but the boarded-up windows, the closed down stores tell you all you need to know about the modern American left. The violence is unacceptable and they are not deserving of federal power."

•
See related Blame Republicans for Shooting (Sean Delonas, 06/15/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Ingraham urges Biden to call off 'his rioters' on Election Night: 'Stop the intimidation...' (Fox 11/02/2020)
•
"I call on Joe Biden to urge his supporters not to commit acts of violence and destruction on Election Night. The Ingraham Angle Stop the intimidation campaigns, Joe."

•
... showed several eerie images of Washington, D.C. hair salons, restaurants, clothing stores, and banks whose windows are covered in plywood as business owners prepare for a possible repeat of the violent riots and looting seen over the summer.

•
"It's not boarded up because [Washington D.C.] Mayor Muriel Bowser thinks MAGA supporters will rampage if they don't get their way."

•
"No one can stop you from casting your vote on Election Day. They wanted to demoralize you, but look at these [Trump] rallies."

•
"Look at them. Look at these caravans. Look at the boat parade. Trump supporters weren't fazed at all by the left's intimidation or social media censorship. They showed up for their man in Washington."
‘Angel Families’ react to President Trump’s National Day of Remembrance for Americans killed... (Fox 11/01/2020)
•
Family members whose loved ones have been killed by illegal immigrants praised President Trump's declaration to make Nov. 1 a National Day of Remembrance while bemoaning the fact that too many Americans still remain unaware of the problem.

•
"We solemnly stand with their families — our Angel Families — who have endured what no American family should ever have to suffer."

•
"Today, we recommit to ensuring that those responsible for these tragedies face justice, while taking every action to prevent these horrific acts from occurring in our Nation."

•
In his statement, President Trump blasted "our politicians and leaders" who have "met the pain and plight of Angel Families with silence and indifference."

•
"Under my watch, the voices of our Angel Families no longer fall on deaf ears. Americans who are killed by illegal aliens are no longer forgotten, and we are ensuring that they will not have died in vain."

•
"Our Nation solemnly stands alongside the mothers and fathers who are no longer able to see their children grow up and have families of their own and for the sons and daughters who have lost a parent or loved one at the hands of someone who never should have been inside our country in the first place."
Trump campaign hits back at Buttigieg's claim that Trump 'took credit' for Obama economy (Fox 11/01/2020)
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"They can't revise history now and claim it was something that it wasn't. We all lived through the Obama years. We know what was happening there. It was not a vibrant economy, it was stagnant. The president is the one who lit the fuse and the economy took off like a rocket ship. Everyone knows that."
WH fires back at Obama ‘reality show’ comment: Trump's not the one who hosted 'celebrity...' (Fox 11/01/2020)
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"With all respect to President Obama, who if I recall hosted Jay-Z and Beyonce, Will Farrell, Demi Lovato at the White House during his presidency, Ariana Grande, I think we saw more celebrities come through for no policy aims in the President Obama administration than this president."

•
... asserting that Trump is "doing the job — not hosting celebrity get-togethers like we saw under the Obama-Biden administration."

•
"He has been busy defeating the ISIS caliphate, brokering three historic Middle East peace deals, working to defeat this virus, [and] building the best economy in modern history until the pandemic came in."

•
"If I could just note, a President Trump rally is a, you know, 10,000-strong plus group of people, 90 minutes of speaking, high energy, this isn't, you know, a 50- person car engagement scripted on a teleprompter like vice president Biden has been doing."

•
"Our commander-in-chief is out there fighting for the American votes saying these are the issues that matter, 'I'm going to rebuild this economy, I'm going to get Americans back to work, and we're going to defeat this pandemic once and for all.'"

•
See related The Presidency (Glenn McCoy, 01/26/2015) cartoon from Government picture album
Gov. Huckabee believes President Trump will get reelected by a 'substantial' margin (Fox 11/01/2020)
•
"I think voters are starting to pay attention." ... "For 47 years he's been in Washington and he's not going to suddenly, in year 48, come up with ideas that he failed to come up with in 47 years."

•
"They look at Donald Trump's record, they say, ‘This man has accomplished something.' He's not a politician. He's not owned by anybody. He's not obligated to anybody except the American people."
Trump campaign adviser Lewandowski predicts clear election winner with Trump victories... (Fox 11/01/2020)
Trump reacts after Facebook removes 'NJ Women for Trump' group: 'Put them back NOW! (Fox 11/01/2020)
Rep. Jim Jordan: Reelect President Trump — he’s delivered on his promises (Fox 10/31/2020)
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As president, Donald Trump has done what he promised to do. He will deliver on his promises again in a second term. That's why he should be reelected. Just look at his record.

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President Trump said he'd cut taxes and he did. He said he'd reduce regulations and he did.

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He said he'd build a roaring economy and he did. He said he'd get out of the Iran nuclear deal and he did.

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President Trump said he'd put the U.S. Embassy in Israel in Jerusalem and he did. He said he'd build a wall on our southern border and he did.

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He said he'd bring hostages home and he did. He said he'd bring many of our troops home and he did. He said he'd defeat ISIS and he did.

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The president said he'd win approval of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade and he did.

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He said he'd put out a list of potential Supreme Court justices and he did. He said he'd choose Supreme Court justices from that list and he did — and all three have been confirmed by the Senate.

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While Democrats focused on their impeachment hoax, President Trump took early action to combat COVID-19. He cut off much of the travel from China, even when Democrats like former Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California opposed it.

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The president built the world's leading coronavirus testing system from the ground up. He provided economic support to workers and businesses. He developed public-private partnerships to make ventilators and personal protective equipment for hospitals.

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President Trump worked with companies to introduce new therapeutics and drugs to combat COVID-19. He held the World Health Organization accountable for lying to the American people. He started Operation Warp Speed to develop a vaccine. He paved the way for our nation, businesses and schools to safely reopen.

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The great American comeback is already happening. A vaccine is coming soon. President Trump is leading the fight against COVID-19. Joe Biden has been hiding from it in his basement.

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Another four years of the Trump administration will bring more promises made and more promises kept.

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President Trump works for the forgotten men and women of our country, not the D.C. swamp. He's done more in 47 months as president than Joe Biden has done in 47 years in office.

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We must keep America, America. We must preserve and uphold the values, principles, and institutions that make America great. Joe Biden and the Democrats are ashamed of our country, its history, and our way of life. President Trump isn't, and he knows the best is yet to come for our country.
Trump pillars of growth in ‘sharp contrast’ to Biden, Harris: Navarro (Fox 10/30/2020)
'Anonymous,' the New York Times and the jaw-dropping hypocrisy of America's liberal media (Fox 10/30/2020)
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^MEDIA ANONYMUS Anonymous (Mike Lester, 09/07/2018) www.gocomics.com/mike-lester
Reelect me and I will continue to deliver safety, prosperity and opportunity for all Americans (Fox 10/30/2020)
Mark Zuckerberg paying for election operations, vote counting across U.S. (Washington Times, 10/29/2020)
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"We've invited billionaires into the counting room and it will undermine the integrity of our elections. It's unprecedented."

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"We are headed toward a situation in which Big Tech controls the flow of information and the election process. These are the first things any oligarchy wants to control when it takes power."

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"Irrespective of whether the court rules in our favor or not, we believe it is still illegal and improper for state election officials to take money in the manner they are giving it out."

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... likened the project, which involves "money being sprinkled around the country in an inequitable manner," to an "invisible hand" that could influence how ballots are collected and counted.

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"They're betting the law won't respond in time to stop this project. And they're probably right, but they know it's wrong."
Glenn Greenwald quits The Intercept, which he co-founded, claims editors censored... (Fox 10/29/2020)
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Glenn Greenwald is walking away from The Intercept, citing widespread "repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity" from liberal editors who support Joe Biden as the reason he resigned from the media outlet he co-founded

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... explained his decision in a scathing blog post that blasted his now-former company for censoring an article that was critical of the Democratic presidential nominee.

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He called the current iteration of The Intercept "completely unrecognizable when compared to that original vision" because it no longer offers a venue for airing dissent, marginalized voices and unheard perspectives.

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"The same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles."

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"The final, precipitating cause is that The Intercept's editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression."

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"Not content to simply prevent publication of this article at the media outlet I co-founded, these Intercept editors also demanded that I refrain from exercising a separate contractual right to publish this article with any other publication."

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"I had no objection to their disagreement with my views of what this Biden evidence shows: as a last-ditch attempt to avoid being censored, I encouraged them to air their disagreements with me by writing their own articles that critique my perspectives and letting readers decide who is right, the way any confident and healthy media outlet would."

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"But modern media outlets do not air dissent; they quash it. So censorship of my article, rather than engagement with it, was the path these Biden-supporting editors chose."

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"This was not an easy choice: I am voluntarily sacrificing the support of a large institution and guaranteed salary in exchange for nothing other than a belief that there are enough people who believe in the virtues of independent journalism and the need for free discourse who will be willing to support my work by subscribing."

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"I could not sleep at night knowing that I allowed any institution to censor what I want to say and believe — least of all a media outlet I co-founded with the explicit goal of ensuring this never happens to other journalists, let alone to me."

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He feels The Intercept censored the article because it was "critical of a powerful Democratic politician vehemently supported by the editors in the imminent national election," but doesn't think the behavior was unique to The Intercept.

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"These are the viruses that have contaminated virtually every mainstream center-left political organization, academic institution, and newsroom," Greenwald wrote.

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"I began writing about politics fifteen years ago with the goal of combatting media propaganda and repression, and — regardless of the risks involved — simply cannot accept any situation, no matter how secure or lucrative, that forces me to submit my journalism and right of free expression to its suffocating constraints and dogmatic dictates."
Flint City Council member Maurice Davis, a lifelong Democrat, says he is backing Trump (Fox 10/29/2020)
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"Right now, the narrative [has] been spent — President Trump is full of hate. Let me tell you something, the Democrats are full of hate. I'm tired, I've been a Democrat, I am a Democrat all my life, 64 years," said Davis, who is Black.

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"Last four years I voted for Hillary Clinton. This year I decided to go with President Trump. I'm not a bootlicker, I'm not an Uncle Tom."

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"I'm none of those things, I'm somebody that's in a poor, impoverished community."

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"When Mr. Trump say ‘what the hell you got to lose' he was talking to me," the councilman continued.

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"But this is what I got to gain — instead of being divided state of America it's time to be the United States of America."

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"When they say go vote, they mean vote Democrat. All over the nation, we as Blacks are labeled Democrat. If the Democrats can't help, we're going to go to whoever can help."
Former Democrat Rubin on why he is voting for Trump: 'No feeling of patriotism' on the left... (Fox 10/29/2020)
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"As most of your audience knows, I have been a lifelong Democrat. I have voted for Obama twice, I voted for Gore, I voted for John Kerry, this is the first time I ever voted for a Republican president."

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"But, I see Trump, basically, as the last bulwark to stop the radical left."

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"Joe Biden, himself, may not be radically left. It is a little unclear what Joe Biden is and what he stands for at this point, but, what is coming behind him, what the future of the Democratic Party is is this progressive left, this collectivist left, the AOC-Ilhan Omar Democrats, and he is just the guy that they are smuggling it in with."

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"I think that that is the worst set of ideas. Possibly, it is counter to everything that America is all about. And, on top of that, by the way, this isn't just a counter vote, I think Donald Trump has actually done a lot of good."

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See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Joe Biden is a 'Trojan Horse' for socialism, says Tammy Bruce (Fox 10/29/2020)
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"I think from the start, here, it was clear that the fringe left has taken control of the party and, yet, they can't win an election. The American people don't want what socialists are offering."

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"They don't want collapsed economies, they don't want riots in the streets, they don't want violence, they don't want cancel culture. So this became about America First versus America canceled and we've seen what has happened around the world with socialism and with what Bernie Sanders supports and we see it in Venezuela."

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"Folks, my name is Joe Biden, and I'm Jill Biden's husband and I'm Kamala's running mate," he quipped during his second campaign stop in Georgia.

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"For the Democratic Party, it is a shame. This is a fraud being perpetrated against the American people."

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"Joe Biden is being presented effectively as a Trojan Horse. Just like Donald Trump is working for the vote of the forgotten man and woman, for minorities in this country, people who haven't been represented, the Democrats can't win without the far left, without that fringe framework, so you got Sen. Harris campaigning with Bernie Sanders."

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Marine vet Joey Jones slams media's 'abhorrent' double standard after Tony Bobulinski's... (Fox 10/29/2020)
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"Listen, the Washington Post, the New York Times, OK, they're not going to touch it, but Adam Schiff or someone in Congress shouldn't be calling this man, you know, a treasonous person without even as so much as opening the laptop and seeing for themselves."

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"What it shows is the same party whose political ideology allow them to spit on troops that were drafted into Vietnam are now giving us some sort of self-righteous reverence because they happen to support their partisan attack, and then they're completely silent or even worse, attacking, this lieutenant from the Navy, who seems to have some pretty obvious motivations and we should at least listen to it, find out if this is true or not."

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"Vindman got an entire hearing, nationally televised in the middle of an impeachment, and every word out of his mouth, we were supposed to believe because he said it in uniform."

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"And then to say this for some reason Tony Bobulinski is a Russian disinformation person. Like maybe, respect his service just a little bit and hear what he has to say, and then check it out."

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"What I find abhorrent about this is the way they're trying to use my brothers' and sisters' military service in their favor one day and against them the next."

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"John Kelly is a good example of this. He was the devil incarnate when he worked for the president, and now he's Jesus Christ the savior because he doesn't like the president."

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"You can't act that way about our service. We serve honorably, take us for that, but once we step into politics, hey, we're politicians now. Now we're being partisan, so you can have it one or the other, not both."

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See related Evening\\\'s Top Story (Jake Fuller, 10/2019)") cartoon from Media picture album
Biden 'wants America to be permanently defined and changed' — and will use COVID-19 to do it (Fox 10/29/2020)
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"Of course, he is talking about COVID. Ingraham Angle Neither the president nor his team has given up on anything. But Biden has. Everything about his presentation and his tone reeks of surrender. It is so bleak. He wants America to be permanently defined and changed and he's all in for using this Chinese virus to do it."

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"Is that what we all want? Most Americans probably don't realize what their lives will become in a Biden-Harris presidency. The media know the Democrat Party will be hurt politically if Joe's coming shutdowns are widely reported now, thus they only report skewed data to scare grandma and suburban women into supporting Biden."

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"When Clinton ran in 1992, his campaign theme was, 'Don't stop thinking about tomorrow.' For Obama, it was all about 'Hope and change.' Beautiful. But for Biden? It's all doom and gloom, the long dark winter ..."

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"On Tuesday we will choose a future of prosperity and freedom and happiness or one of decline, despair and lockdowns. I still think Americans are a lot smarter."
Sean Hannity: Only voters can prevent Democrats from enacting 'radical extreme socialist agenda' (Fox 10/29/2020)
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"It is more obvious than ever that very powerful forces – the media mob, 99% [of] big tech companies, almost all of them, the Democratic-Socialist party, the establishment never-Trumpers, weak establishment Republicans and the deep state – now are all aligned against this president and his reelection. Hannity The only thing that can stop that from happening is you, the American people."

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"Your vote, if you believe this, is critical and everybody takes it seriously. Yes, you can shock the world again... That is your power. You get to decide. You are the ultimate jury."
Promised Biden 'transition' from oil, fossil fuels would be death blow to Texas economy (Fox 10/29/2020)
House GOP Leader McCarthy: I’m voting for President Trump. Here’s why he deserves 4 more years (Fox 10/29/2020)
'Damning' Hunter Biden documents mysteriously vanish in transit to Los Angeles, Tucker says (Fox 10/29/2020)
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"On Monday of this week, we received from a source a collection of confidential documents related to the Biden family. We believe they are authentic, they're real and they're damning."

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"... shipped the documents overnight to California with a large national carrier, a brand-name company that we've used, you've used, countless times with never a single problem."

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"Tuesday morning we received word from the shipping company that our package had been opened and the contents were missing. The documents had disappeared."

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"The company security team interviewed every one of its employees who touched the envelope we sent."

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"They searched the plane, and the trucks that carried it, they went through the office in New York where our producer dropped that package off, they combed the entire cavernous sorting facility, they used pictures of what we had sent, so that searchers would know what to look for."

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"They went far and beyond, but they found nothing. Those documents have vanished. As of tonight, the company has no idea and no working theory either about what happened to this trove of materials, documents that are directly relevant to the presidential campaign just six days from now."

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... executives at the company were "baffled and deeply bothered by this, and so are we."
Chicago cop killer gets life sentence in death of Cmdr. Paul Bauer (Fox 10/29/2020)
Houston police sergeant's funeral set for Thursday after fatal shooting (Fox 10/29/2020)
Twitter CEO Dorsey pressed by Cruz on restricting Hunter Biden stories: 'Who the hell elected you?' (Fox 10/28/2020)
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"Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear, and why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs?"

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Dorsey claimed that this was not the case. He also denied that Twitter has the ability to influence elections, a claim that Cruz derided as "absurd."

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"You're testifying to this committee right now that Twitter, when it silences people, when it censors people, when it blocks political speech, that has no impact on elections?"

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"People have choice of other communication channels," Dorsey claimed.

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"Not if they don't hear information," Cruz shot back. "If you don't think you have the power to influence elections, why do you block anything?"

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"Do either one of you have any evidence that the New York Post story is part of Russian disinformation or that those emails aren't authentic?" Johnson asked Dorsey and Zuckerberg.

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"We don't," Dorsey said. He then reiterated that they believed it violated their hacking policy, only for Johnson to point out that the emails were not hacked.

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Zuckerberg claimed that Facebook did not censor the story, but that they did flag it for fact-checking and held it back during that process.

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Lawmakers looking to strip those protections claim that by selectively censoring posts due to their content — beyond typical terms of service prohibiting offensive or harassing statements — the tech companies are taking an active approach akin to a publisher instead of merely providing a platform where individual users post whatever statements they want.

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See related Jack (Gary Varvel, 10/19/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
ICE says court order forced them to release 250 immigrants with criminal histories (Fox 10/27/2020)
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See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Severino blasts claims Barrett should recuse from election cases: 'Never been the historical standard' (Fox 10/27/2020)
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"You had, for example, Justices [Sonia] Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan [who] sat on numerous cases that President Obama was involved in during [an] election year, same thing for [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg and [Justice Stephen] Breyer."

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"It has never been the standard that you have to recuse yourself in cases that involve the president who appointed you, including election-year cases."
Evening newscasts are negative about Trump 92 percent of the time: study (Fox 10/27/2020)
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"It's obvious that the networks are pouring their energy into confronting and criticizing the President, not equally covering both campaigns."

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"Four years ago, the Big Three broadcast evening newscasts tried to destroy Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign with historically negative press coverage. This year, those newscasts are doubling down, with coverage that is even more hostile to the Republican."

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Tony Bobulinski tells Tucker: Joe Biden denials of involvement in son's business 'a blatant lie' (Fox 10/27/2020)
National Guard deployed to Philadelphia (Fox 10/27/2020)
Sen. Lee rips Democratic colleague for 'worst' criticism he's heard yet of Justice... (Fox 10/27/2020)
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"If you think about what he is really saying there, Sen. Markey has essentially said that our Constitution is racist. And an effort to understand it, understand it's words at the time they were written is itself racist and bigoted. I can't think of a statement that has a greater tendency to undermine the foundation of our Constitutional Republic. I hope, expect, and demand that Sen. Markey retract his statement. It is irresponsible; he can't defend that."

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"Originalism is racist. Originalism is sexist. Originalism is homophobic. Originalism is just a fancy word for discrimination," Markey wrote...

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"They don't want the courts to be limited to judging institutions. They want them to be institutions of social change, of social policy, they want them to take debatable matters beyond debate and, so, that is why this isn't satisfying to them," Lee said.

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"They want something much bigger, much grander than what the Constitution actually allows. Justice Barrett sees the elegant simplicity of the fact that you want judges to interpret the law based on what it says."
Ingraham: 'COVID is Biden's true running mate' as Democrats push 'the virus panic button' (Fox 10/27/2020)
Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell: Biden has done nothing for Black community 'other than...' (Fox 10/27/2020)
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"Donald Trump has signed executive orders to reform police, he has lowered Black unemployment, he has funded historically Black colleges."

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"I see all these things that Donald Trump has done, and I've been a civil rights attorney for 30 years, I don't know what Joe Biden has done for Black people other than insulting Black people."

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Earlier this year, Biden told a New York City morning radio program that if African Americans were unsure whether to support him or Trump, they "ain't Black."

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Terrell, a lifelong Democrat, says his support for the president is driven by Trump's record and the media's hostility toward his administration.
Philadelphia police shooting of armed Black man sparks violent clashes, at least 30... (Fox 10/27/2020)
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The fatal police shooting of a Black man allegedly armed with a knife in the western side of Philadelphia sparked violent protests overnight, with at least 30 officers reported injured early Tuesday – including one sergeant who was reportedly struck by a pick-up truck.

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Hundreds of people took to the streets to protest the Monday afternoon shooting of 27-year-old Walter Wallace, calling it another example of police officers killing a Black man.

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Cops cars and dumpsters were set on fire as police struggled to contain the crowds.

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Thirty officers were injured, most of them from being struck by projectiles such as bricks and rocks, according to preliminary information from police. A 56-year-old sergeant was hospitalized in stable condition with a broken leg and other injuries after she was struck by a pickup truck...

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Officers were called to the Cobbs Creek neighborhood and encountered the man, later identified as Walter Wallace, who was holding a knife.

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Officers ordered Wallace to drop the knife, but he instead "advanced toward" them. Both officers then fired "several times."

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A graphic video emerged that purportedly showed the moments leading up to the shooting. ... He walks toward the officers as they back away from him in the street, guns still aimed at him.

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They yell at him to put his knife down. The two officers then fired several shots and Wallace collapses in the street.
Tucker Carlson: Tony Bobulinski is about to tell us what he knows about Joe and Hunter Biden (Fox 10/27/2020)
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... at its core, this story is not about Hunter Biden. It's about his father, the man who made Hunter Biden's decades-long lobbying career possible. Joe Biden also made an almost-50 year lobbying career possible for his brother, Jim.
Trump is 'criss-crossing the nation' while Biden goes in for his 'later afternoon nap' (Fox 10/27/2020)
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What's most concerning ... is that even at this late point in the campaign, the former vice president maintains a bare-bones schedule, making headlines just for leaving "his basement bunker".

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"Yesterday, another day in hiding. Last week, he barely went outside at all, taking four days off to prepare for the final presidential debate."

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" On Sunday, he held one virtual event from the comfort of, yes, his basement bunker. Sadly it was one more than he could handle."
Graham: Often-maligned conservative women are the 'big winner' after Barrett confirmation (Fox 10/27/2020)
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"To all those conservative women who go through hell for being conservative, who get beat up by the mainstream media for embracing your faith, being pro-life, being traditional in your family structure, you're a winner tonight."

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"There's a seat at the table for you. This is not a glass ceiling being broken. It's a concrete barrier being broken. Amy Barrett represents every aspiration of a young conservative woman. She's going to do awesome [and] I cannot wait for her to be on the Supreme Court tomorrow."

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"She's not from Harvard, she's not from Yale, she is a normal person."

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However, Graham went on to warn viewers that Barrett's effect on the high court may be short-lived if a Democratic Senate and White House is able to expand its size.

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"They're going to do it. The only reason they won't do it is if the American people stop them. We must maintain control within the United States Senate."

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"We cannot turn over the entire government to this radical left. [Chuck] Schumer's speech tonight was disgusting. He's the guy that started the filibuster with Bush 43. He's the guy, along with Sen. [Edward] Kennedy who declared war on all things conservative. It's Alito, it's Kavanaugh, it's Thomas, it's Bork. It's not the process. They tried to destroy Judge Kavanaugh's life."
Sen. John Kennedy lauds Barrett Supreme Court confirmation as 'victory for our founders' (Fox 10/26/2020)
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"It was never ... about her qualifications. Tucker Carlson Tonight You would have to be barking mad to think that she is not qualified in terms of intellect, in terms of temperament, in terms of integrity. This fight was about who's going to make social policy in the United States, the Congress or the unelected federal judiciary?"

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Kennedy praised Barrett for valuing the distinction between the legislative and judicial branches and accused liberals of corroding the system by legislating from the bench.

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"It's called judicial restraint. Judge Barrett understands that. Our founders intended it. That's why this was a victory tonight for our founders."
Sen. Mike Braun: Amy Coney Barrett will protect our freedoms as the founders intended (Fox 10/26/2020)
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... Justice Barrett understands our values of faith, family, community and respect for the law and will be a strong advocate for religious liberty, which is one of the pillars of our great country.

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... she is a strong Constitutionalist who will not cut the American people out of their own government by treating the Supreme Court as a third policymaking chamber of Congress.

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This is especially important to those who believe in the First Amendment, which includes the right to religious liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and to petition the government.

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Additionally, law-abiding gun owners like myself can be confident that the new Supreme Court Justice will protect our Second Amendment right to bear arms, which is under threat from coastal elites...
Sen. Joni Ernst: Amy Coney Barrett has just made history and I am proud to have voted to confirm her (Fox 10/26/2020)
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Not only is Justice Barrett accomplished and qualified to serve on the highest court of the land, but she has also proven that she will not legislate from the bench and instead will follow our Constitution.

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As the newest member of the Supreme Court, Justice Barrett will protect our First Amendment rights, which includes the "right of the people peaceably to assemble," but will draw a distinction between the anarchists – who Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has worked to set up bail money for – who want to burn down our cities.

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Thankfully, the Constitution clearly states the "right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed," and Justice Barrett will interpret those words as written, which is a win for law-abiding Americans, including myself.

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While it is hard to predict the future, one thing is certain: Amy Coney Barrett will be an excellent jurist for all Americans. She will defend our religious liberties and our individual freedoms.

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Justice Barrett will only need one document to rein in the radical movement: our Constitution.

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See related AOC Green New Deal (Gary McCoy, 02/11/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Amy Coney Barrett sworn in as Supreme Court Associate Justice at White House ceremony (Fox 10/26/2020)
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Judge Amy Coney Barrett, fresh off her confirmation to serve as associate justice on the nation's highest court, took her Constitutional Oath on Monday at the White House.

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The Supreme Court said in a press release that Barrett will be able to start her new role after Chief Justice John Roberts administers her Judicial Oath on Tuesday.

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Justice Clarence Thomas administered the Constitutional Oath at Monday's ceremony.

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"It is the job of a senator to pursue her policy preferences," Barrett said to an audience on the South Lawn of the White House.

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"In fact, it would be a dereliction of duty for her to put policy goals aside. By contrast, it is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences. It would be a dereliction of duty for her to give into them. Federal judges don't stand for election. Thus, they have no basis for claiming that their preferences reflect those of the people."

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"This separation of duty from political preference is what makes the judiciary distinct among the three branches of government. A judge declares independence not only from Congress and the president, but also from the private beliefs that might otherwise move her."

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"The judicial oath captures the essence of the judicial duty. The rule of law must always control. My fellow Americans, even though we judges don't face elections, we still work for you. It is your Constitution that establishes the rule of law and the judicial Independence that is so central to it. The oath that I have solemnly taken tonight means at its core that I will do my job without any fear or favor, and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences. I love the Constitution and the democratic republic that it establishes, and I will devote myself to preserving it."
Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court, cements 6-3 conservative majority (Fox 10/26/2020)
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The Senate voted 52-48 on Monday night to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court...

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The last president to nominate three new justices to the Supreme Court was Ronald Reagan.

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Barrett is expected to be sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas at the White House on Monday night.

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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was the only Republican to vote against Barrett after expressing objections to moving a Supreme Court nomination before an election after Republicans blocked Obama nominee Merrick Garland ahead of the 2016 election.

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has also expressed the same concerns as Collins and voted against a procedural motion to advance Barrett's nomination on Sunday, but she voted for the nominee Monday after saying she would not hold her process objections against Barrett.

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All 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats voted against Barrett's confirmation.

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"This is something to really be proud of and feel good about. We made an important contribution to the future of this country," McConnell said...

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"A lot of what we've done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election ... They won't be able to do much about this for a long time to come."
Trump mocks Biden to Pennsylvania crowd over oil comment: 'He blew it' (Fox 10/26/2020)
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"Last week, Sleepy Joe Biden made perhaps the most shocking admission ever uttered in the history of presidential debates. In other words, he blew it."

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"He will eradicate your energy and send Pennsylvania into a crippling depression."
NYPD's suspension of ‘Trump 2020’ cop is ‘double standard,’ union says (Fox 10/26/2020)
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"The NYPD has a history of officers making political & outside the norm statements & ignoring it. Suspending, this officer is unnecessary & way over the top. Chief of Departrnent took a knee with protestors no disciplinary action was issued. What if the officer supported Biden?"

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"... you said nothing when Captains & Chiefs took a knee with violent protesters who injured members of the NYPD. You say nothing to those who sing & dance in uniform."

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"Now your little itsy-bitsy balls are in DeBlasio's palm & you tweet nonsense. Relax & take a knee!" the union raged.

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"The Democratic Party has abandoned police officers, encouraged violence and lawlessness. People are being murdered in Democratic run cities."
Voters leaning toward Trump in hope of return to 'normalcy' amid coronavirus pandemic (Fox 10/26/2020)
Liz Peek: Biden's very bad week shakes up race against Trump (Fox 10/26/2020)
Jewish leaders pen open letter in support of President Trump ahead of election (Fox 10/25/2020)
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"We write to express our deepest gratitude to you, Mr. President, especially in light of your recent declaration that houses of worship should be considered ‘essential,'"

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"You have given a powerful voice to what all good people know beyond any doubt: that now, more than ever, we must turn to Almighty G-d, fortifying our faith and staying true to our values in the face of these current tribulations."

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"During any time of crisis people of all backgrounds beliefs and denominations look for leadership, to help them steer a course through the turbulence and uncertainty. Yet, not every era is blessed with the same caliber of leadership, as becomes evident in the extent to which a nation retains its integrity through times of upheaval."

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"It is precisely with this in mind that we feel so grateful that you, Mr. President, are indeed expressing that leadership we need so urgently, standing up for the first amendment rights which is critical to help us weather to storm of the current pandemic."

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"You have exemplified that leadership with your commitment to the essential importance of religious entities. You understand Mr. President, that it is our faith in God that will lift us out of this calamity."
Family describes horror as violent maskless rioters throw rocks, attack 'Jews for Trump' convoy (Fox 10/25/2020)
Tim Murtaugh: The choice in 2020 is between a 'political outsider' and the 'consummate DC insider' (Fox 10/25/2020)
•
... said, "Almost five decades of working in the swamp and we see that now," referencing the "Hunter Biden scandal."

•
... Biden is "feeling the heat now because America is learning about Biden Inc., and that's the Biden family enterprise, of selling access to Joe Biden while he was vice president and afterwards selling access to power and really these scandalous revelations that Hunter Biden was on a world tour selling access to his father via businessmen from foreign countries."

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"The president built the world's best economy once, he's already doing it a second time. Joe Biden has been an economic failure and now, would raise taxes by $4 trillion on more than 80% of American taxpayers."

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"President Trump has accomplished more in 47 months than Joe Biden has in 47 years of failure."
Rep. Jim Jordan on reviewing and authenticating purported Hunter Biden emails (Fox 10/25/2020)
Hundreds gather for Trump caravan rally across Long Island (Fox 10/25/2020)
Anti-protesters attack 'Jews for Trump' vehicle convoy in New York City (Fox 10/25/2020)
•
See related Love Trumps Hate (Sean Delonas, 11/10/2016) cartoon from USA picture album
Joe Biden 'has been caught in repeated lies over Biden Inc': Sen. Johnson (Fox 10/25/2020)
•
"... a Chinese company, CEFC, transferred about $5 million to businesses controlled by Hunter Biden. $5 million, so no, he's lying. He's lying about the fact he said he never spoke to his son Hunter about his overseas business connections."

•
"The vice president has been caught in repeated lies over Biden Inc. about his family's businesses."

•
"We've sent out two letters to invite Hunter Biden and requesting information from him. What I get is some pretty nasty letters back from his attorneys referring to Joe McCarthy and everything else."

•
"You have the Biden family financial scandals, you have the news media suppressing the story, and you have the deep state not providing the types of documents that we need in legitimate congressional oversight."

•
"Take a look at all of these glaring conflicts of interest and all these foreign entanglements. At a minimum, it is grotesquely sleazy and that's who the American people are going to pose voting for or against."
RNC Chair McDaniel calls out Biden for energy comments: 'He's lying to the American people' (Fox 10/25/2020)
•
"Joe Biden is saying whatever it takes and he's lying to the American people." ... "When he's in Pennsylvania he's for fracking. When he's outside of Pennsylvania he's against fracking."

•
... claimed, a win for Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., would be the "most progressive, radical takeover of our country."
Former ICE director blasts Biden for Obama administration’s immigration policy (Fox 10/24/2020)
•
"First of all, I don't call them cages. They are chain-linked dividers that kept children separate from unrelated adults which we should have done, you know, to protect the children. But, if they want to call them cages, fine, but, they got to admit they were approved, funded, constructed, and utilized under the Biden administration."

•
"... You want to talk about family separation? Now, what happened at the border, they will be separated because a parent was prosecuted. That happens to American families across this country every day. If I get arrested tonight for a DUI with a child in the car, I am getting separated. That is a necessary thing to happen when a parent gets prosecuted at the border."

•
... Trump "understands the immigration issue better than any president he ever worked for."
Trump's top ten (INN 10/24/2020)
Joe Biden's energy comments are a mix of incoherent and terrifying: Sen. Kevin Cramer (Fox 10/24/2020)
•
... one must ask, is he lying? Or does he not understand what he's saying? Put together, Joe Biden's proposals are dangerous and disconnected from reality.
NPR slammed for dismissing coverage of Hunter Biden laptop scandal as a 'waste of time' (Fox 10/22/2020)
•
"We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' time on stories that are just pure distractions. And quite frankly, that's where we ended up, this was ... a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way."

•
"Defund NPR. American taxpayer dollars should not be out there being utilized to push false propaganda and cover up for Joe Biden's corruption! It's been corroborated with a third-party witness who is on the emails what a disgrace NPR has become," Donald Trump Jr. responded.
Ed Rollins: Trump is presidential debate underdog. If he loses to Biden, he's toast. Here's... (Fox 10/22/2020)
•
Here's what Trump needs to say: "My fellow Americans, it has been the privilege of my life to lead you — in good times and bad. Together, we have accomplished a great deal — from sky-high economic growth and record-low unemployment to bipartisan criminal justice reform and a clampdown on illegal immigration."

•
The closing message is this: "Re-elect me, and we will accomplish even more. Together, we will rebuild the COVID-19 economy, on behalf of white- and blue-collar Americans. Together, we will produce a COVID-19 vaccine and minimize the public-health risks of a novel virus. Together, we will support the U.S. military, which is the finest collection of fighting men and women in the world. Together, we will continue strengthening our judiciary branch, headlined by the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett."

•
That is the winning message that Americans need to hear Thursday night.

•
If they do, President Trump can reverse his fortunes and secure his re-election.

•
In the final stretch of the campaign, the greatest test for President Trump is to forcefully make a case for re-election without resorting to petty attacks against Biden and the Democrats.
If Biden wins and Dems control Congress, SCOTUS will be expanded: Graham (Fox 10/22/2020)
•
"The last thing we need to do is turn the Supreme Court into just a political football, whoever has the most votes gets whatever they want," Biden said. "Presidents come and go. Supreme Court justices stay for generations."

•
Graham responded Thursday morning: "I've known Joe for 25 years. What he said, to me, was just gibberish. I don't know what it means."

•
"Here's what is going to happen. If they get the House, the Senate, and the White House, they're going to expand the Supreme Court."

•
"Look at what happened to Dianne Feinstein for hugging me. The people who want to destroy her life for giving me a hug are going to insist that they expand the court from nine to probably 13 to make it liberal, and Joe Biden is along for the ride."

•
"He's no more in charge of the Democratic Party than I am. The people who are trying to destroy Dianne Feinstein's life are in charge of the party. Voters, if you don't get that, you're making a mistake, and what Joe said make zero sense constitutionally."
Jim Jordan: Joe Biden must answer questions about Hunter's emails (Fox 10/22/2020)
•
"The answers to those three fundamental questions: Is the laptop Hunter Biden's? Yes. We have the drop slip, we now have a guy who is a business partner who will testify to it. Are the emails accurate? Yes. The guy who was business partner just told you that these emails are accurate and, of course, the big guy reference is in fact to the former Vice President Joe Biden."

•
"And then the more important question: 'Why won't you say so? Why won't you answer those questions', but, they won't do it and, frankly, over the last few days. They haven't had a chance to do it because he won't come out of the basement to even talk to the press."
Comedian who traveled country speaking to voters says polls don’t reflect ‘unprecedented support'... (Fox 10/22/2020)
•
"The silent majority is alive, well and growing in America — and they are staying silent or flat-out lying because they're afraid they'll be attacked or canceled by the left if they speak out."

•
"I just kind of talk to everyone around the country when I'm traveling about what they think about the polls, how COVID has affected them and I asked if anyone had been given a poll, and the barber spoke up and said he and his wife had been called by pollsters and they lied."

•
"They said that they were voting for Joe Biden because just down the road there were a lot of riots, not just in Minneapolis but in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and they were afraid."

•
... the barber and his wife were not only concerned about violent mobs, but they also feared that their business could be targeted if they admitted to being Trump supporters.

•
... predicted a "crazy blowout" victory for President Trump on Election Day. "I think we're gonna see a lot of folks in the media cry a lot more."
Hunter Biden business partner calls email 'genuine,' says Hunter sought dad's advice on deals (Fox 10/22/2020)
•
"I've seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I've seen firsthand that that's not true, because it wasn't just Hunter's business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line."

•
"The Biden family aggressively leveraged the Biden family name to make millions of dollars from foreign entities even though some were from communist controlled China."
Trump downplays Obama's return to campaign trail, says he was 'all over the place' for... (Fox 10/22/2020)
•
"If Biden wins, China will own the United States. The media and the big tech are desperately trying to cover up this massive scandal."

•
"I'm not just running against Joe Biden. I'm running against the corrupt media. They're corrupt. The corrupt media, the big tech giants and I'm running against the Washington swamp."

•
"It's time to deliver a message to these wealthy liberal hypocrites by delivering Joe Biden a thundering defeat on Nov. 3."

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Ben Shapiro: Joe Biden's communications department is now officially the mainstream media (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
Twitter banned tweeting of the link and suspended accounts that tried to spread it, including that of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

•
Facebook announced that even though the story hadn't been fact-checked or found to be false, the company would suppress its reach in anticipation of such fact-checking.

•
There is no doubt that Big Tech's decision was political — or that the media's hesitancy to cover the Biden allegations is similarly political.

•
Both Big Tech and the media, staffed thoroughly with Democrats, are gun-shy about the prospect of turning the election toward President Donald Trump.

•
This is all deeply dangerous. At a time when our trust in media is already low, the media have thoroughly debunked themselves as neutral arbiters of fact.

•
At a time when social media has consolidated unprecedented power to control the information seen by Americans, social media overseers have decided to bottleneck information they don't like.

•
The result of journalistic and social media overreach will not be Americans' quiet acquiescence to the new Informational Elite. It will be frustration and anger.
Karl Rove: Trump campaign should focus on the economy, not Hunter Biden (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"We do know that Hunter Biden is a bad actor" and allegedly "used his father to make money with [Ukrainian energy firm] Burisma. ... I just don't think that in the last 13 days it's as effective to talk about this than it is to talk about how Joe Biden is going to raise your taxes, diminish your savings, slow down the economy, attack our energy independence, raise your utility bill, all the stuff that Trump could spend the time between now and the election talking about."

•
... if he was advising President Trump on his debate strategy, he would tell him to "lead with the economy and if the other issue comes up, fine."

•
... the focus needs to be "on the pocketbook because that's what people are going to be voting on."

•
... Trump should "make a sharp contrast between his policies and the policies of Joe Biden."
Biden would return to Obama-era immigration policies if elected, report says (Fox 10/21/2020)
'Mistake' for Trump to focus so much on Hunter Biden allegations, says Mike Huckabee (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"... it is a mistake because the average person doesn't understand it, it is too complicated, and, frankly, it doesn't matter to them."

•
"They care about their health care costs, they care about their taxes, they care about safety and their neighborhood on their block and in their yard. Focus on that and he wins the election by a landslide."
These five people are allowed to tweet but one of America’s oldest newspapers can’t (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
Alexander Hamilton must be rolling over in his grave. The New York Post, one of America's oldest newspapers, founded by America's first monetary expert-turned pop culture icon, has been muzzled on Twitter for reporting a bombshell that could affect the presidential election.

•
But while the Big Apple tabloid is gagged online, Twitter allows the likes of Louis Farrakhan, Richard Spencer, Ali Khamenei, Nicolas Maduro and O.J. Simpson to tweet freely.

•
Farrakhan is the leader and most prominent figure of the Nation of Islam, a militant Black supremacist and nationalist group that formed in the 1930s.

•
Spencer's highly protested public speeches often include attendees making Nazi salutes and he was a scheduled speaker at the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., that led to deadly violence.

•
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has emerged as one of the most powerful Iranian leaders of the last century and wields control over all aspects of the country's government, military and media.

•
O.J. Simpson joined Twitter last year on the 25th anniversary of his wife's murder. Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman were stabbed outside her Los Angeles home in 1994 and soon after Simpson became the prime suspect in the murder investigation which became an international phenomenon. In October 1995, he was found not guilty in one of the most controversial jury decisions in American history.

•
An explosive UN Human Rights Council-commissioned report unveiled last month, detailed the extensive and systematic human rights abuses orchestrated by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's inner circle, which amount to crimes against humanity. ... Maduro tweets regularly from his verified account.

•
"It's pretty obvious that Twitter is trying to influence the election. And the press are more than OK with it. Some of the worst people in the world are active on Twitter."

•
"But a U.S. news organization is blocked because Jack Dorsey supports Joe Biden. Imagine the media outcry if Twitter had blocked the phony New York Times 1619 Project."

•
"Every journalist in America would be demanding they back down. But since this story makes Biden look bad, the news media are thrilled that Twitter and Facebook shut it down."
Biden counting on press, Big Tech to protect him from answering questions: Cruz (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"If you look at what Twitter did, if you or I or anybody tried to tweet either of these New York Post stories laying out evidence of Joe Biden's corruption, your tweet would be blocked. You'd get a warning sign that says this is potentially harmful."

•
"And Big Tech is their willing henchmen, and whether or not you agree with Big Tech politics, who in their right mind would want a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires, American oligarchs, having total monopoly control over who's allowed to speak, what media is allowed to report, what stories you're allowed to write and who's allowed to read it? It is dangerous and it's a real threat to our freedoms."

•
"Right now, the Biden strategy is count on the press and count on big tech to protect him from answering even basic questions."

•
... clarified that the issue is not with the former vice president's son, whom he admits has led a "very troubled and challenging life."

•
"This whole inquiry is about Joe Biden, who wants to be president of the United States, and about whether Joe Biden was personally corrupt."

•
"The China e-mails are offering to pay over a million dollars to the big guy, to Joe Biden himself, cash in his bank account."

•
"Did the deal go through? Did he take the money? How much money did Joe Biden take from communist China? What did he do for it?"

•
"Those questions, to the best of my knowledge, haven't even been asked much, much less answered."
Confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The Second Amendment is at stake (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
The best way to protect the Second Amendment is by defeating Democrats at the ballot box this fall. The second-best way is by confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

•
Lawful gun ownership is our right as Americans but for many years the courts denied it. Activist judges treated the Second Amendment like a "second-class right," to quote Justice Alito, ignoring its plain text or else contorting its meaning...

•
During these dark days, it was common for liberal cities to ban virtually all guns within their jurisdiction.

•
One of the worst offenders was the District of Columbia, which made it almost impossible to possess a legal firearm — and suffered some of the nation's highest rates of violent crime as a result.

•
Gun-rights supporters can be hopeful about the future, however, because President Trump has selected a rock-solid Supreme Court nominee in Judge Barrett.

•
Barrett proved at her confirmation hearings last week that she has all the legal acumen and charm of her mentor, Justice Scalia.

•
She's also equally as strong a conservative, with a firm commitment to interpreting the law as written, not as she or anyone else would like it to be. That includes the Second Amendment.

•
Judge Barrett's respect for the Constitution and our historical tradition as a nation make her a worthy addition to the Supreme Court.

•
Confirming her nomination could cement a solid majority of justices who are committed to defending our constitutional right to bear arms.
Joe Biden’s tax plan will put middle class in 'peril,' Home Depot’s Langone says (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"I don't know if there's any of us that have done well that will have a problem with paying more taxes, but it's a ruse to think that hitting us and us alone is going to get the job done."

•
"It won't and the middle class will be in peril and when you take money out of the hands of the middle class, you do a dramatic impact negatively on the economy."

•
"The middle class will not be exempt. Tragically, it will punish them. It isn't going to punish us."

•
"You aren't going to get the revenue numbers by just taxing the rich."

•
"The only way a tax increase will generate revenues is to go after the middle class. That's where the numbers are."

•
... stressed that "it is absolutely a fraud to suggest that all the money that's going to be needed is going to come from the rich and the super-rich."

•
"The problem is, when you go after the middle class, you begin to attack the backbone of the economy and we will have a bad recession. We will have a very bad recession."

•
... pointed out that Biden's "pitch" is "based politically on the notion" that "we'll get only the rich people" and the "middle-class people are going to be fine."

•
"These are very precarious times and not the time to be screwing around."
Gianno Caldwell: Social media giants using censorship to help Biden become president — regulation... (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
Over the past week ... we have seen Big Tech not only engage in censorship but also do something much more sinister: attempt to tip the scales of the presidential election in favor of their preferred candidate.

•
In short, Facebook and Twitter have meddled in the election now underway to help former Vice President Joe Biden defeat President Trump.

•
Section 230 has profoundly shaped today's Internet. It shields companies that act as platforms or virtual public forums — such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — from liability for content placed on their sites.

•
In other words, social media giants can't be sued and held legally responsible for content posted by users.

•
The problem is that in recent years these companies have been behaving like publishers, not platforms, by choosing to block certain content like a publication.

•
And the content they choose to block is almost always supportive of conservatives and critical of the political left.

•
So Big Tech has been able to have it all — enjoying legal immunity as a platform under Section 230 while acting as a publisher by deciding what content stays up and what content gets blocked.

•
Both Democrats and Republicans have complained about Section 230 for different reasons.

•
Democrats want better policing of hate speech on social media, and Republicans don't want to see people targeted for their political views.

•
It's time for both parties to work together to end this insanity and use that dirty word — regulation — to bring clarity to the chaos.
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agrees to plead guilty in $8B opioid settlement (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"The agreed resolution, if approved by the courts, will require that the company be dissolved and no longer exist in its present form."

•
OxyContin is a powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off the opioid epidemic that resulted in nearly 450,000 American deaths between 1999 and 2018.

•
... the company admits it violated federal law and "knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with others to aid and abet" the dispensing of medication from doctors "without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice."
Piers Morgan blasts media silence over Hunter Biden scandal: Imagine if it was Don Jr.'s laptop (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"[I]t doesn't matter what side you're on here. Journalism, freedom of speech, dictates — the First Amendment dictates — that when a story like this drops, and it's not being denied by the people it's accusing for six days now, clearly there is something there that they want to hide."

•
"The job of a newspaper, of a television network, of anybody, frankly, in the media, who believes in freedom of speech and believes in journalism is to go and investigate the allegations the New York Post has made."

•
"Imagine if we switched the names around. Imagine if the story was about Donald Trump Jr. and Donald Trump. What would be happening? Do you think that the tech giants would be suppressing the story would the mainstream media be ignoring the story and say that it's all just an unfair smear on the Trumps?"

•
Morgan remarked that he considers himself a "liberal" but often wonders what has happened within the left-wing political movement.

•
"What is going on when liberals want to attack and suppress freedom of speech?" he asked, calling the situation a "conspiracy" to make Hunter's story go away.

•
"If Joe Biden was to win does he think the story goes away? Of course it doesn't," he continued, calling on the elder Biden to speak openly about the scandal — adding that he sees similar incidents occur in his home United Kingdom.
Ben Carson blasts Biden's plan for American suburbs: 'We want people to be able to have choice' (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"The left brings everything back to identity politics, but the fact of the matter is, what the president is talking about here is local control, federalism. I get to visit all kinds of communities all over the country all the time. And there are beautiful mixed-income and ... mixed-use complexes but it's under local control. People have an opportunity to discuss it, to decide where they want to put things, and that's the way the United States of America was designed."

•
"We want people to be able to have choice. They can stay where they are, they can move, but let the people be the ones who make the decisions. That doesn't mean we are backing off of civil rights. We have a strong record in civil rights."

•
"The 'suburban housewife' will be voting for me," Trump tweeted... "They want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighborhood. Biden would reinstall it, in a bigger form, with Corey Booker in charge!"

•
Carson acknowledged that while his communication style drastically differs from that of the president, "we need to be talking about the message and not the messenger."

•
"Look at the big picture. Look at the future of our children and our grandchildren and what kind of country we want to live in. What are the principles we espouse? Forget about who is saying it ..."

•
"It's not what America is about. America is about freedom. It's the reason people came here in the first place. It's the reason it's a destination place for people all over the world right now. People form caravans to get in here. That would not be happening if we were this horrible place that people characterize us as. It's about freedom of choice."
Ingraham: Biden alliance with teachers' unions should alarm women wary of Trump (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"... Biden and his handlers don't care about the kids. They keep concerning themselves with what their political allies think: The teachers' union. They need to keep them happy."

•
"What he or she learns online about America will be left-wing propaganda courtesy of the 1619 Project."

•
"Under President Biden this scenario might be great for Black Lives Matter and the NEA but horrendous in every other way. How can any parent, especially any mom, support this?"

•
"I think women are naturally protective of our children. That's just the way we are. For this reason alone, female voters should drop their old hang-ups about Trump. He is not the heartless or mean force in this race. He is the opposite. He wants your sons and daughters in school and learning. He wants you to be free to work for your family."
Law professor explains why court packing is a threat to the Supreme Court’s credibility (Fox 10/21/2020)
•
"You should be extremely reluctant under these circumstances to take out something that's worked for a 150 years."

•
"If you do it, then the situation may be when the Democrats lose power and the Republicans came in, now you're going to have a court of 15 people to flip it over again. This is extremely dangerous."
Seattle police officers’ exit interviews site lack of support, ‘political agenda’: report (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
"I refuse to work for this socialist city council and their political agenda. This agenda sacrifices the health and well-being of the officers and ultimately will destroy the fabric of this once fine city."

•
"You could pay me twice what you're paying me now and I would not work for Seattle under this current political mayhem, Marxist collaborations, and lack of government and police leadership."

•
One patrol officer who had worked for the department for six to 10 years said they decided to resign because of the "current hostile work environment."

•
"In a precinct that is under civil unrest by a small group that is constantly committing multiple felonies and attempting to murder peace officers."

•
Another outgoing officer said department morale has been negatively impacted by "the council wanting to defund us and gaining ground doing it. Rioters not being charged even when they assault officers."
Trump on Limbaugh's cancer update: 'Never going to be a voice like Rush' (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
"... he is an incredible man, and that's very sad to hear that. However, he will continue to fight. That's the one thing I know about him. He's incredible."

•
"From the day I came down the escalator, he was supportive of me. I didn't have to talk to him, I didn't have to meet with him and wine him and dine him. He was just with us because he liked what I was saying. And I became friendly with him."

•
"The Rush Limbaugh Show" first aired in 1988 and has earned a variety of awards and honors.
Big Tech 'manipulated' Americans, may be 'too late' to address 2 weeks before election (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
"The idea that the story has to be sourced in a specific way for it to be OK on Twitter is crazy. Let's not forget there were two and a half years of a Russian collusion hoax that everybody on Twitter was tweeting about all the time that turned out to be totally false."

•
"If we were banning or suppressing views on Twitter related to whether every single comment was true or not, I mean, basically everybody would be banned from Twitter, so, it's that sort of asymmetry that people are fed up with."

•
"Is there anything that the government can possibly do in two weeks to clean up the mess? I don't know, because I think the way we've been manipulated at this point ... We're really, the rubber is meeting the road here and it might be too late."

•
"... Ted Cruz is right. We don't know what's going on. We don't know what the algorithm is delivering us. We don't know if we are being shadowbanned ... because they don't line up with whatever is politically correct in the day."

•
"I think something is happening and it's just not reflected in the polls. I think people have had it. People have just had it with the idea that the streets are going to be overrun with violence, that they can't say what they think, and really reject the far left and Trump, in a bizarre sense, is the only thing standing up against it."
Trump slams debate moderator Welker as 'terrible,' 'totally partisan' (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
"Kristen Welker is terrible. I mean she is totally partisan; her father and mother are big supporters of Joe Biden for a long time. They're supporters of the Democrat Party, and she deleted her entire account."

•
"There are people out there that can be neutral. Kristen Welker cannot be neutral at all."
Trump says choice is 'American Dream' or 'socialist hellhole' in 2020 race (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
"So many individual things. whether it's Second Amendment or energy or all of these things — they want to raise your taxes, I want to lower your taxes, regulations, all of that. But the bottom line: the American Dream. The great American Dream versus being a socialist hellhole."

•
He added that the U.S. would be "no different than Venezuela" under a Biden administration.

•
"Venezuela 20 years ago was unbelievable. And now they don't have water, they don't have food, they don't have medicine. The only difference is, we'd be much bigger. But that's what it is. It's the American Dream versus a socialist hellhole."

•
"They want you to go to a hospital if you have a cold — take away your health care. ... I mean, you can go down a list forever. They want to take away your guns, defund your police, or at least radically change your police. Look what they're doing in Minneapolis — in Seattle."

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump urges Barr to 'act fast,' 'appoint somebody' to probe Hunter Biden business dealings (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
"This is the laptop from hell. Even if he didn't get all of this money, you can't go to China and have the son walk out with $1.5 billion. ... You can't go to Ukraine with $83,000 a month. ... You can't get $3.5 million from the mayor of Moscow's wife."

•
"And you didn't have a job before your father was vice president. You can't go and go with your father and every stop you make, you pick up $1 billion."

•
"The vice president got a kickback, and everybody knows it, and they've known it a long time."

•
"We've got to get the attorney general to act. He's gotta act, and he's gotta act fast, and he's gotta appoint somebody. This is major corruption, and we have to know about this before the election. The attorney general has to act."

•
The president's calls on Barr come after nearly a dozen House Republicans ... penned a letter to Barr urging him to appoint a special counsel.

•
"These alleged revelations raise serious questions about former Vice President Joe Biden's reported participation with his son's business, dealings, specifically whether the former vice president (1) received foreign monies during his tenure in the Obama administration and (2) if former Vice President Biden allowed his son to peddle access to his father with foreign business entities."

•
"We request that the Department of Justice immediately appoint an independent, unbiased special counsel to investigate the issues that we have raised — as well as any corresponding legal or ethical issues that might be uncovered from the former vice president's 47 years in public office."
Glenn Greenwald trashes media 'cone of silence' around Hunter Biden email scandal (Fox 10/20/2020)
•
"I don't think that the emails — so far — reveal a huge scandal. They so far just establish standard sleaze and DC [sic] corruption. The huge scandal to me is the blatant rank-closing and cone of silence — a prohibition — erected by journalists around this story to defend Biden."

•
... challenged journalists "to say with a straight face they believe the emails relating to the Bidens are either fabricated or otherwise fraudulently altered," underscoring the fact that "the Bidens just aren't saying so. There has to be some limits to your willingness to go to bat for them."

•
"When you report a huge archive, there's no way to prove the negative that none of it is altered. You investigate & confirm as much as you can, then use your journalistic judgment. The only way you get confirmation is when the subjects of the reporting don't deny the authenticity."

•
"As a journalist publishing private communications & docs that are incriminating, you know the subjects of the reporting will immediately claim they're fake if the[y] are*. Of course they will: that would kill the reporting! There's a reason the Bidens aren't claiming they're fake."

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... also accused the media of "allowing the CIA ... to be manipulating our politics by taking cover for the Biden campaign by claiming anonymously that the Russians are behind the story ... even if the Russians were behind the story, why does that alleviate the responsibility of journalists to evaluate the emails and examine whether or not Joe Biden engaged in misconduct?"

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Instead ... journalists have banded together with a common goal to "defend Joe Biden ... working with the FBI, CIA, and the NSA not to manipulate our adversaries or foreign governments, but to manipulate the American people for their own ends."

•
"It's been going on for four straight years now. and there's no sign of it stopping anytime soon."
Gutfeld on the San Francisco school board trying to change school names in the pandemic (Fox 10/19/2020)
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While parents worry about getting their kids back to school, what do school officials worry about more?

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The San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee has named 44 schools that need their names changed due to troubling links to the past.

•
It's just more radical destruction by delusional scolds who have as much interest in helping kids as COVID itself.

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Schools include Abraham Lincoln High School, George Washington high, Roosevelt Middle School. But also, Dianne Feinstein Elementary School.

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Why? Because she once replaced a vandalized Confederate flag. Why isn't she on death row?

•
So all these schools must come up with new names, while they deal with COVID. Which is like trying to iron your socks, during a house fire.
Cancer-stricken Rush Limbaugh says he can no longer deny he's 'under a death sentence' (Fox 10/19/2020)
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"From the moment you get the diagnosis, there's a part of you every day, OK, that's it, life's over, you just don't know when," Limbaugh said.

•
"So, during the period of time after the diagnosis, you do what you can to prolong life, do what you can to prolong a happy life. You measure a happy life against whatever medication it takes."

•
"It's tough to realize that the days where I do not think I'm under a death sentence are over."

•
"Now, we all are, is the point. We all know that we're going to die at some point, but when you have a terminal disease diagnosis that has a time frame to it, then that puts a different psychological and even physical awareness to it."

•
"I feel very blessed to be here speaking with you today. Some days are harder than others. I do get fatigued now. I do get very, very tired now. I'm not gonna mislead you about that. But I am extremely grateful to be able to come here to the studio and to maintain as much normalcy as possible — and it's still true."

•
"You know, I wake up every day and thank God that I did. I go to bed every night praying I'm gonna wake up."

•
"Someone told me — I think this is good advice, may be helpful — the only thing that any of us are certain of is right now, today. That's why I thank God every morning when I wake up."

•
"I thank God that I did. I try to make it the best day I can no matter what. I don't look too far ahead. I certainly don't look too far back."

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"It is of immense value, strength, confidence, and that's why I'm able to remain fully committed to the idea that what is supposed to happen will happen when it's meant to. There's some comfort in knowing that some things are not in our hands."
Hunter Biden scandal — How the NY Times, CNN, others, run protection for the Biden campaign (Fox 10/19/2020)
Ben Shapiro wants mainstream media to question Biden on Burisma report: ‘It's not too much to ask’ (Fox 10/19/2020)
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"I feel like after a three-year media-led campaign to portray the Steele Dossier as vitally important intelligence and Trump-Russia collusion as fact, it's not too much to ask media members to focus on the content of the Biden allegations rather than the @nypost."

•
"... this isn't that hard. Ask Joe Biden if the emails and texts are real, and if there's any truth to the email/text suggestions that he received any money or that any money has been held by Hunter for him."
Ratcliffe says Hunter Biden laptop, emails 'not part of some Russian disinformation campaign' (Fox 10/19/2020)
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Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Monday said that Hunter Biden's laptop "is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign," amid claims from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff suggesting otherwise.

•
"It's funny that some of the people who complain the most about intelligence being politicized are the ones politicizing the intelligence."

•
"Unfortunately, it is Adam Schiff who said the intelligence community believes the Hunter Biden laptop and emails on it are part of a Russian disinformation campaign."

•
"Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn't believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff, or any member of Congress."

•
"Hunter Biden's laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign."

•
"Ratcliffe is 100% correct," the senior intelligence official told... "There is no intelligence at this time to support Chairman Schiff's statement that recent stories on Biden's foreign business dealings are part of a smart campaign that 'comes from the Kremlin.' Numerous foreign adversaries are seeking to influence American politics, policies, and media narratives. They don't need any help from politicians who spread false information under the guise of intelligence."

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Ratcliffe went on to say that the laptop is "in the jurisdiction of the FBI." "Without commenting on any investigation that they may or may not have, their investigation is not centered around Russian disinformation and the intelligence community is not playing any role with respect to that."

•
Ratcliffe went on to say that his role as director of National Intelligence, which he assumed earlier this year, is "to not allow people to leverage the intelligence community for a political narrative that's not true."

•
"In this case, Adam Schiff saying this is part of a disinformation campaign and that the intelligence community has assessed and believes that — that is simply not true."

•
"Whether its Republicans or Democrats, if they try to leverage the intelligence community for political gain, I won't allow it."
Celebs vowing to flee country upon Trump reelection ‘really think they’re that important’: comedian (Fox 10/19/2020)
•
"They really think they're that important. They really think we're walking around going, ‘Wait, what? Springsteen's going to leave? And Tommy Lee? Oh, I'm changing my vote!'"

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... said there's no way Springsteen, Lee, or any celebrities who have vowed to flee in the past would ever follow through with it.

•
"We knew these celebrities were self-centered. We knew they were stupid. We just didn't know how cowardly they were. With Springsteen saying this, I guess it gives new meaning to ‘Born to Run.'"

•
"When celebrities declare they're going to leave, we should have some new kind of candyman law. Meaning, if you declare it three times, you have to leave. Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya."

•
See related Don't Have the Addresses... (Mike Lester, 12/21/2016) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Celebrity Exit (Michael Ramirez, 11/16/2016) cartoon from USA picture album
Big Tech 'should be ashamed' for censoring Hunter Biden report: Rep. McCarthy (Fox 10/18/2020)
•
"Just as China's trying to influence our election, we now find that Twitter and Facebook are doing the exact same thing and they should be ashamed and the American public is outraged about this."

•
... pointed to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act saying, "it is time now that we scrap Section 230 and we start over."

•
Section 230 states that "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

•
It has been pivotal in the rise of social media by allowing not only Internet service providers, but also Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others to be shielded from liability from content posted on their platforms by third parties in most cases.

•
"The American public desires free speech, so the federal government created a liability protection for tech companies to have a platform like Facebook and Twitter for liability protection where they cannot be sued so they just let information out and people are able to say what they want."

•
"But now, we're watching that Big Tech is using this and censoring individuals," he continued, adding that the social media platforms are "censoring" the federal government, newspapers and Americans "based upon what they believe."

•
... Big Tech "want to influence you for what you can think and what you can say."
Casket outside Brooklyn nursing home filled with 6,500 covers of Cuomo’s book (Fox 10/18/2020)
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See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Twitter removes top White House coronavirus adviser tweet claiming masks don't work (Fox 10/18/2020)
•
In a statement ... Twitter said the doctor's tweet "was in violation of our COVID-19 Misleading Information Policy" that "prohibits sharing false or misleading content related to COVID-19 which could lead to harm."

•
The removal of Atlas' tweet is the latest in a series of actions the company has taken to either remove or flag posts by members of the Trump administration, including the president himself, that it says are misleading or false when it comes to issues ranging from the coronavirus pandemic to the upcoming presidential election.

•
"It's a disaster. We've already seen the near obstruction of journalism. When you start censoring science you are removing fact, removing the basic way that we decide what is truth in what is not. This has been done I think historically in various countries and you know, we are sort of teetering on the edge of what is done in third world countries — the countries we used to be proudly distinguished from."
Free speech rally marred by violence as counterprotesters storm event, beat pro-Trump... (Fox 10/18/2020)
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See related Love Trumps Hate (Sean Delonas, 11/10/2016) cartoon from USA picture album
Sen. Ron Johnson presses Wray on validity of Hunter Biden laptop claim (Fox 10/18/2020)
•
"The FBI has a duty to inform us. If they believe this was maybe Russian disinformation, they should give us a defensive briefing."

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"Sunday Morning Futures." #"If, for example, they also believe that what information this whistleblower gave us is fraudulent, that would also be a crime, and FBI should tell us that."

•
"Why did they sit on it? Are they covering up just because Hunter Biden might be engaged in things that also maybe should have been investigated and possibly prosecuted? Do we have two systems of justice: one for Democrats and one for Republicans? One for the well-connected versus one for the rest of the Americans?"

•
"The Biden campaign, all they've done to refute or deny any of this is to say that the meeting one of these emails revealed that Vice President Biden had with the No. 3 in control of Burisma never showed up on his official calendar."

•
"There's all kinds of meetings that didn't show up on his official calendar. This wouldn't surprise me if this one didn't."

•
Johnson mentioned the possibility that the information could be the result of foreign election interference, in which case a defensive briefing would be appropriate.

•
He also acknowledged that if the whistleblower knowingly provided false information, that could be a crime.

•
"For these reasons, the committee must know whether the FBI has assessed the validity of materials the whistleblower has provided, and what, if any, actions the FBI has taken since obtaining this information."

•
The letter included a series of questions Johnson would like the FBI to answer regarding the laptop, including whether the FBI does indeed "possess material from Hunter Biden's laptop," and, if so, when and how they acquired it, whether the FBI has determined whether the records on the computer are genuine or were altered at all, whether they determined whether the records were authored by Hunter Biden, or if there is evidence that the computer had been hacked.
Trump is strengthening border security, keeping violent criminals and illegal drugs out of US (Fox 10/17/2020)
•
With the wall and other long-sought improvements to the border infrastructure, the Border Patrol is making tremendous gains in the fight against drugs and the brutal cartels that smuggle them into our country.

•
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of violent gang members, including members of the vicious MS-13, have been evicted from our country.

•
If you support border security — no matter what your reason — then you should take comfort from the knowledge that we are now closer than ever before to solving what once seemed like a politically intractable issue.
Police rip Biden's repeated advice to shoot suspects 'in the leg' (Fox 10/17/2020)
•
"Shootings are dynamic situations and we shoot to stop the threat. It's incredibly difficult to hit a moving target."

•
"If an individual is coming at you with a knife and you shoot for the leg and you miss, he's on you."

•
"Police officers use firearms as a last resort."
Trump's composure vs. Guthrie's almost maniacal hostility at NBC's Town Hall tells us this (Fox 10/17/2020)
•
... despite — or perhaps because of — Guthrie's almost maniacal hostility, President Trump's composure should be encouraging to all Republicans and conservatives.

•
In other words, it was President Trump at his best — defending his indisputably strong record and agenda in a considered, controlled way. He just needs to keep it up.

•
What makes the president's composure so striking is that he had the perfect excuse to get into a slugfest with Guthrie, who was on the attack the entire night.

•
A town hall is supposed to be an event where voters ask questions. The moderator should just keep things running smoothly. That's because, unlike a debate, a town hall provides the people the opportunity to engage candidates directly.

•
His job is not to entertain but to govern. And he has done a great job of governing the country with effective policies. He should focus on this and not get pulled off course by an embittered, hostile media.
Big Tech CEOs called to testify Wednesday before Senate amid censorship uproar (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
The Senate Commerce Committee has called the leaders of Facebook, Twitter and Google to testify Wednesday amid outrage over censorship of articles damaging to former Vice President Joe Biden.

•
The chair of the committee, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., announced the hearing will examine whether Big Tech should still be afforded liability protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act or whether the federal shield "has outlived its usefulness in today's digital age."

•
The announced witnesses for the 10 a.m. hearing on Oct. 28 are Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google.

•
The hearing comes as Twitter took extraordinary steps to stop the social media spread of New York Post articles on purported emails from Hunter Biden that allegedly link the former vice president to his son's business dealing in Ukraine.

•
Twitter went so far as to lock the account of the newspaper and the Trump campaign for tweeting about the New York Post's findings, claiming the article violated Twitter rules. Twitter has since backed off and announced new policies.

•
The section has been pivotal in the rise of today's social media giants by allowing not only Internet service providers – but also Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others – to be shielded from liability from content posted on their platforms by third parties, in most cases.

•
But some critics on the right feel that tech giants should no longer benefit from protections of Section 230 if they censor conservative viewpoints, including controversial postings by Trump.

•
"It is clear that section 230 in its current form is no longer working," Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said... "It is time to scrap the law and start over."

•
Wednesday's scheduled appearance for the tech executives may be just the beginning.

•
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Tuesday on a subpoena for Dorsey to testify before the committee on Friday, Oct. 23. And Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is pushing for Zuckerburg to be included too.

•
The focus of that hearing would be on election interference and whether social media companies violated campaign finance law by suppressing the articles critical of Biden.

•
"The attempt to rig an election, which is what we're seeing here by monopolies, is unprecedented in American history. They have a lot to answer for."
Rudy Giuliani: Purported Hunter Biden emails will 'shock the hell out of you' (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
"This is Hunter Biden's emails, texts, and really the photographs will shock the hell out of you."

•
The former New York City mayor said Friday that Hunter Biden's lawyer made a "very big mistake."

•
"Before this was even out, they were just called about it. The first thing he does is call that merchant and he says can I have my client's hard drive back? So, he is basically admitting for his client as his client's agent, that's Hunter Biden's hard drive."

•
"It's authentic as hell. Some of those pictures on it can only have come from him, and I'll tell you why I know it for sure. I have about 10 pieces of confidential information nobody knows except me and Hunter Biden. Kept it that way. I investigated cases for 50 years. Every one of those hits the mark."

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... the photographs "make him a national security risk... because every photograph I have, China has plus a lot more. They reveal federal crimes... they reveal numerous times where he was totally gone on crack."
RNC files FEC complaint against Twitter, claims company made 'illegal in-kind contribution'... (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
"[Twitter] is acting as Biden's media operative, taking proactive steps to shield Biden from negative news coverage by blocking its distribution and muzzling those who try. If [Twitter] charged for this service, Biden no doubt would gladly pay a significant price."

•
"[Twitter's] feud with President Trump is well known, as are its frequent efforts to censor the President's tweets and the ‘shadow banning' of prominent Republicans, including RNC's Chair, Ronna McDaniel, and several Republican members of Congress," the complaint states, while adding that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and other executives "are prolific donors to the Democrat party and other left-wing causes, with 98.7% of the company's total political contributions going to Democrats."

•
The complaint also claims there is a "revolving door between the Biden campaign" and Twitter, saying Twitter's public policy director recently left the company to join the Biden transition team, and Sen. Kamala Harris' former press secretary is now serving as a senior communications manager at Twitter.

•
"Twitter's decision to censor news articles that harm Joe Biden's candidacy is so transparently biased it would make even the governments of China or North Korea blush."

•
"Fortunately, in this country, we have tools at our disposal to fight back against this type of censorship. The RNC is calling on the Federal Elections Commission to investigate whether Twitter's actions amount to an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to the Biden presidential campaign."

•
"Twitter's flagrant bias and direct support for one presidential candidacy over the other should result in the proper financial ramifications under our campaign finance laws."
Trump debates moderator while Biden gets cover from mainstream media: Joe Concha (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
... counted 43 questions from Guthrie, whom he called Trump's "sparring partner," compared to the 10 questions from the audience, "the whole reason we were having this event."

•
"Savannah Guthrie was there not to inform voters, but instead to pacify NBC employees who were mad that the town hall was even being held in the first place, and Hollywood celebrities, 100 of them, who even wrote a letter saying this event cannot go on."

•
"It was a farce as we probably expected because this is the movie we've seen over and over again at these town hall debates."

•
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was asked on ABC how his Justice Department would handle the Trump-Russia probe, but moderator George Stephanopoulos failed to bring up the Hunter Biden emails...

•
... called it the 11th Commandment: "Thou shall not bring up Hunter Biden in any shape or form, and the thought police over at Facebook and Twitter are making sure of that."

•
"This is censorship that would make George Orwell blush in these situations."

•
... pointed out that Biden was asked about packing the Supreme Court, which he said he would answer before Nov. 3, while Trump was pressed once again on denouncing White supremacy, something he has repeatedly done.
Fact-checking guru blasts Twitter, Facebook as dangerous 'arbiters of the truth' after censoring... (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
"It seems like Facebook and Twitter have decided to assume the position they've been avoiding for so long. Less than a month from Election Day, both companies finally became arbiters of the truth on the internet. Naive are those who believe this isn't dangerous."

•
"What methodology do Facebook employees use in those situations? How do they identify what needs to be less distributed? What sources do they rely on to decide that something may be false? And... in those decisions, are the employees really nonpartisan?"

•
... "both Facebook and Twitter gave over 90 percent of their political contributions to Democrats for the 2020 cycle so far."

•
"The decision to reduce or prevent the distribution of the New York Post's article based on some mysterious, non-transparent criteria and an unknown methodology is a serious mistake. It is a step that brings these companies closer to the slippery slope of censorship."
Trump mocks Steve Scully after ex-debate moderator gets suspended for lying about Twitter hack (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
"I was right again! Steve Scully just admitted he was lying about his Twitter being hacked. The Debate was Rigged! He was suspended from @cspan indefinitely. The Trump Campaign was not treated fairly by the 'Commission'. Did I show good instincts in being the first to know?"
Hawley: Americans ought to be able to sue Twitter, Facebook over blocking Hunter Biden report (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
"If you've been locked out of Twitter or if you can't distribute this New York Post article on Facebook, you ought to be able to sue them."

•
"That's how they've gotten so big and powerful. They haven't done this on their own. They've gotten to be these monopolies because the government 20 years ago gave them this sweetheart deal and it's time for it to end."

•
... ripped the mainstream media for "howling ... about the fact that the emails that the New York Post published, they said, 'Oh, we don't know exactly where those are from.'

•
"I didn't hear any such howling when The New York Times published Trump's tax returns, which they almost certainly got illegally."

•
"If the New York Post emails are fake, why isn't the Biden campaign out there denying it?"

•
More importantly, Hawley said, is the question of why Facebook and Twitter are "doing the bidding" of the Biden campaign?

•
"Why is it that Joe Biden can snap his fingers and these monopolies, the biggest monopolies in America, just do his bidding and refuse to allow this story to be reported?"

•
"You've got these tech companies trying to control journalism, trying to control news, trying to control what Americans can talk about in a presidential election."

•
"It's unbelievable. It's a racket. It's collusion between Biden and the big tech companies and it's got to stop."
Levin rips 'Biden mob family,' says purported emails to Hunter from Burisma brass 'sound like...' (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
"I want to get into this corrupt family, the Biden mob family; the patriarch Joe Biden, who doesn't know anything that's going on. Everything is going on around him. All kinds of countries involved, all kinds of businesses. Millions and millions of dollars coming into his family, but Joe doesn't know anything. Does anybody believe it?"
Sean Hannity calls out Savannah Guthrie for 'serving as a Joe Biden surrogate' at Trump-NBC... (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
"NBC fake News did their best to ambush President Trump at tonight's town hall. He pretty much debated Savannah Guthrie and what we all witnessed was not journalism, it was a political debate with the morning host of the 'Today' show serving as a Joe Biden surrogate and it didn't really work out well for her.

•
"Questions, topics, tactics all reeking of nothing but pure political bias."

•
"President Trump has condemned, Savannah, white supremacy over and over and over and over again. And if you didn't know, you should have known."

•
"At this point. the abusively biased MSNBC is using the White supremacy lie once again to smear the president. They don't care about facts, they don't care about research, they don't care about truth, they don't care about fundamental fairness, especially not MSDNC news, which is completely corrupt, as we saw tonight."
Twitter announces new policies after Hunter Biden report imbroglio (Fox 10/16/2020)
Giuliani: Hunter Biden emails prove family 'has been selling Joe's office to the highest bidder' (Fox 10/15/2020)
•
"My argument is this is a racketeering case that went on for 30 years."

•
"Joe Biden, while vice president, was negotiating with China — and I might say getting his head kicked [and] losing on every point in China."

•
"[Meanwhile,] his son, the secretary of state's stepson, and the nephew to one of the biggest organized criminals in America got a $1.5 billion commitment to their totally useless private equity fund."

•
"That was at a time when — the emails and the pictures will demonstrate — Hunter Biden was seriously suffering from drug addiction."

•
Giuliani claimed the deal was achieved when both Bidens traveled on Air Force Two to negotiate with Beijing about reducing their footprint on islands whose possession was part of a dispute with Japan.

•
"Joe came back with nice, good words about China. He's the one who said China is not a threat, China is not a competitor. He's the only man in the world who would say that. Was that influenced by the fact that the son, who was a serious drug addict, got $1.5 billion in commitments from China?"

•
... discussed one of the published emails, which shows a reference to leaving 10 percent of an investment "held by H. for the big guy." The mayor claimed the "Big Guy" is undoubtedly Joe Biden.

•
Giuliani also said that he doesn't celebrate referring to Hunter Biden's past dealings with illegal drugs, but noted that the left has so often claimed the Trump family could be subject to blackmail that the subject cannot be avoided.

•
"I hate bringing up the fact that he's a drug addict because I feel sorry for him as a drug addict," he said.

•
"But there is something really important about that ... it's a national security risk."
Twitter, Facebook 'deserve' heavy regulation after restricting Hunter Biden report, ex-acting AG says (Fox 10/15/2020)
•
... Big Tech's efforts to stop the widespread dissemination of an explosive New York Post report about emails purportedly found on Hunter Biden's laptop represents "the power of Facebook and Twitter to put their thumb on the scale" and censor what can be shared among users.

•
... "a really sad example of the power of social media and how ultimately they are going to deserve the regulation they get from Congress and from the executive branch."

•
"Instead of answering speech with more speech or sort of entering a marketplace of ideas, they suppressed speech and showed the worst of the power of their platforms."

•
"I think ultimately we may look back at this as the golden age of social media before Washington, D.C., heavily regulated them."
House Republicans ask FBI if it had Hunter Biden's alleged laptop during Trump's impeachment (Fox 10/15/2020)
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"If the FBI was, in fact, in possession of this evidence and failed to alert the White House to its existence that would have given even more weight to the president's legal defense, this was a gross error in judgement and a severe violation of trust."

•
"A large portion of the president's legal defense case revolved around strong evidence that former Vice President Biden's son Hunter was peddling his influence to his father to land lucrative jobs overseas that he might not have otherwise been qualified for."

•
The lawmakers ask whether the FBI was in possession of the laptop and drive as documented in the Post, whether it took steps to authenticate the drive and the data, and if anyone at the FBI briefed officials at the Department of Justice or White House after December.

•
"Why did the New York Post have the information about this laptop and hard drive before the American people?"
Jordan says Twitter's move to 'stop the dissemination' of material 'helps' Biden, biased against... (Fox 10/15/2020)
•
"Despite the article's obvious relevance to public policy, congressional investigations, and the upcoming presidential election, Twitter prevented its users from sharing the link to the Post's article and appended a warning notice when users clicked on the link, calling the material ‘unsafe,'"

•
... Twitter "censored the official House Judiciary Committee website," where committee staff reposted the Post article "in an effort to enable the public to access the article around Twitter's information control."

•
"Twitter's intervention to stop the dissemination of election-related information in a way that helps Vice President Biden's candidacy raises serious questions about election interference and reinforces the fact that Big Tech is biased against conservatives."

•
"Twitter even locked out the Post from its account, preventing the paper from providing additional information to its followers. Twitter claimed that it censored the Post article because it violated Twitter's ‘Hacked Materials Policy,' without any indication that information was obtained through a ‘hack' — in fact, the Post reported specifically about how it came to obtain the emails."

•
"Notably, neither Hunter Biden nor the Biden campaign have denied the authenticity of the emails reported by the Post."

•
"Twitter's decision to affirmatively restrict the availability of election-related information — and in a matter that helps Vice President Biden avoid scrutiny — raises serious questions about Twitter's interference in free and fair elections."

•
"In addition, Twitter's decision to censor the link to an official website of the United States Congress shows that Twitter may censor any American, anywhere, at any time."

•
Jordan went on to demand answers from Twitter on why the policy was employed, and whether any Twitter employee "has had any communication with any individual affiliated with the Biden campaign or the Democrat National Committee about Twitter's decision to reduce the dissemination of the New York Post article on its platform."

•
Jordan also asked for Twitter to explain whether it "intends to report its actions to the Federal Election Commission as an in-kind contribution to the Biden campaign."

•
... the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday that it plans to subpoena Dorsey to appear to testify before the panel on Oct. 23.
Trump: If Biden wins, 'China will own the United States' (Fox 10/15/2020)
•
"If Biden wins, China will own the United States. You know that, I turned that all around."

•
Trump said that 10 years ago, "everybody projected by 2019 the economy of China was going to be bigger than the U.S."

•
He continued, "Except that didn't happen because I got elected. It turned out the opposite way."

•
Trump also said that his administration would make China fund a U.S. stimulus bill.

•
"We're going to take it from China, I'll tell you right now it's coming out of China. They're the ones that caused this problem."

•
"There is a lot of ways okay, there's a lot of ways and I'll figure every one of them out."

•
Trump again said he would go "higher" than the $1.8 trillion bill the White House offered, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected.

•
"Republicans will too. Because we like stimulus, we want stimulus, we think we should have stimulus. Because it was China's fault. It was not the American workers' fault."

•
Varney asked Trump why he didn't just agree to Pelosi's $2.2 trillion deal.

•
"Because she wants all sorts of goodies, she wants to bail out badly run Democrat states and cities. She wants money for things that ... just your pride couldn't let it happen. It should be COVID-related."
Ben Shapiro shreds 'dumbass' Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over blocked Hunter Biden report... (Fox 10/15/2020)
•
... described the platform as "a leftist garbage heap" whose attempt to block the report critical of Hunter Biden exposed an "egregious" political agenda.

•
"The Hunter Biden story? That's bad, but it's just a predicate to the actual story here, which is the attempt to stop you, the American people, from being able to access information that you want and an overt attempt to stop you from seeing bad information about Joe Biden in the three weeks running up to the election. That's madness."

•
"This is insane and it's a clown show," Shapiro said, taking direct shots at the "dumbass head of Twitter."

•
"The problem is not your communication strategy. The problem is that you blocked the material without any actual rationale as to why you would block this material as opposed to any other leaked material. Virtually every major story is an unauthorized leak of information."

•
... just further evidence of what Republicans have suspected all along, that Twitter and Facebook have become "overt organs of the Democratic Party" and have involved themselves in "censorship of mainstream media outlets, like the New York Post, because they don't like the story."
Trump says Twitter, Facebook acting as 'third arm of the DNC' by censoring Hunter Biden story (Fox 10/15/2020)
•
Trump ... said his administration is "looking at a lot of things" with regard to the social media companies after White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's Twitter account was locked due to sharing the story.

•
"When they take down Kayleigh McEnany, who is just an honorable — she's an incredible person, when they don't want to put up the Biden story ... the whole thing is crazy."

•
The president was asked for comment on his campaign's account being suspended — which he had not heard prior to the interview.

•
"I haven't heard that, but if it is, it is. It's all going to end up in a big lawsuit."

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"Things can happen that are very severe, that I'd rather not see happen, but it's probably going to have to."

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"It is out of control. And it's like a third arm, maybe a first arm, of the DNC — Twitter, and Facebook, they're all, they're — like really, it's a massive campaign contribution."

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"This is a third arm of the DNC. The radical left movement — and that's the biggest problem our country has. It's not with the right. It's with the left. The radical left is the biggest — Antifa and that scum — is the thing that's hurting our country."

•
The president went on to say that "if you get rid of Section 230, that's the end of them."

•
Trump was referencing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that states "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
Trump says Biden family 'protected' by Big Tech, threatens platforms 'unless they shape up' (Fox 10/15/2020)
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"He and his family are crooked, and they got caught. And now they are being protected by Big Tech. We must immediately strip them of their Section 230 protection."

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Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 states "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

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... tech giants should no longer benefit from protections of Section 230 if they censor conservative viewpoints, including controversial postings by Trump.

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"Big Tech got something years ago that let them become Big Tech," Trump said of social media platform's liability protections. "We're going to take away their Section 230 unless they shape up."

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"Believe it or not, Democrats agree," Trump continued. Democrats on the Hill have threatened to break up Big Tech, questioning whether the companies violated U.S. antitrust laws and stole from competitors.

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"Big tech is censoring these stories to get Biden out of an impossible jam. Hunter Biden left his laptop somewhere... the guy that had his laptop said 'wow this is criminal stuff.' He brought it to the FBI."
Sen. Mike Lee rips Big Tech for censoring NY Post article on Hunter Biden (Fox 10/15/2020)
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"It's certainly a stunning display of hypocrisy and favoritism. Now look, you've got Twitter and Facebook providing alternating explanations for what happened. First, they said that this is misinformation so we didn't want to run with it."

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"Of course, [Big Tech has] been running with misinformation for years, but, let's set that aside for a minute. And then, at least in the case of Twitter they switched later in the day yesterday saying that ‘Well, this wasn't [legally] obtained.' Well, that's not an explanation. That's certainly not a distinction. They've printed all sorts of things on Trump that was itself illegally obtained, so, what we see going on here is a blatant display of favoritism and hypocrisy among these tech companies and it is deeply disturbing."

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Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and Josh Hawley on Thursday called on the heads of Twitter and Facebook to testify, and said a subpoena was in the works, as critics claimed the social media platforms have been censoring reporting critical of Democrats.

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"The fact that the New York Post put up this article yesterday and then it was immediately taken down and people who were posting it had their accounts blocked is a rather brazen display and almost inexplicable act of loyalty toward one presidential campaign and against another. I would really like some answers on this."
Trump slams Biden over reports Hunter Biden introduced Burisma exec to VP dad: 'Totally corrupt' (Fox 10/15/2020)
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"The whole thing is insane. Joe Biden is a corrupt politician. I've been saying it for a long time."

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"All you have to do is look at the son's server. I can't believe they found his laptop. It's incredible."

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Asked by Varney how he could be certain the New York Post story isn't a "setup," Trump said: "Oh, I don't know what a setup is. Look, they have the guy's laptop. Hey, Hunter was a disaster. Hunter didn't have a job. Hunter got thrown out of the military — you know why he got thrown it — didn't have a job, didn't have anything. His father becomes VP, and then Hunter starts making millions and millions of dollars a year. And the father gets some of that too."

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(Hunter Biden's discharge was administrative, which is standard procedure for failed drug tests, rather than dishonorable, as Trump has previously claimed).

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The owner of the store ... could not definitively identify the customer — who never retrieved the laptop — as Hunter Biden.

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Isaac told the New York Post that he determined the individual was Hunter Biden because the laptop had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, named for his late older brother.

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Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, in 2014 — around the same time that his father, then vice president, was helping to conduct U.S. foreign policy in the country.
Twitter locks official Trump campaign account over sharing Hunter Biden video (Fox 10/15/2020)
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"Your account has been locked. What happened? We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically, for: Violating our rules against posting private information."

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"You may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorization and permission."

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The Trump campaign tweet in question read: "Joe Biden is a liar who has been ripping off our country for years."

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"This is election interference, plain and simple. For Twitter to lock the main account of the campaign of the President of the United States is a breathtaking level of political meddling and nothing short of an attempt to rig the election."

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"Joe Biden's Silicon Valley pals are aggressively blocking negative news stories about their guy and preventing voters from accessing important information. This is like something from communist China or Cuba, not the United States of America."

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"This is chilling censorship of a sitting President's re-election campaign 19 days from an election, plain and simple."

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"Twitter is interfering in the election and trying to stop the public from learning damning information about the Biden family's corruption at all cost, but our campaign and our supporters will not be silenced."
Jonathan Turley: Dems trying to get Barrett to recuse herself to 'influence' case outcomes (Fox 10/15/2020)
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"The judicial rules on recusal are meant to deal with issues where you have a personal or financial interest in the case or you were involved in the underlying litigation. None of those apply."

•
"It would be facially ridiculous for a nominee to take herself out of a major challenge later just because she was nominated, confirmed before an election. and you wouldn't want that because ... what the Democratic senators were doing was trying to influence the outcome of any case by getting her to remove herself and reduce the court to eight."

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He added, "That, by the way, could result in a tie, which is not what you want in a major traumatic moment for this nation."

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Turley slammed the Democratic senators for bringing in "highly inappropriate" photos of individuals who allegedly benefited from ObamaCare.

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Democrats, he said, were trying to make Barrett look like "some type of judicial serial killer like they were her victims. They're not. Those pictures are based on a wildly misrepresentation of the ACA case."

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"So, it was really unfair to her but many of her cases were being misrepresented and it was hard for her to deal with that but I thought she did a very good job."
Twitter censors House GOP press release after lawmakers post Hunter Biden story in full (Fox 10/15/2020)
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Twitter is suppressing an official press release from the House Judiciary Committee Republicans after they reposted verbatim the New York Post story that purported to show emails between Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, and a Ukrainian energy executive indicating that the younger Biden introduced the executive and the then-vice president.
Hawley wants Twitter, Facebook to come before Senate following censorship of Hunter Biden report (Fox 10/15/2020)
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"It's basically Big Tech versus democracy. These tech companies ... want to control what we read. They want to control journalists in this country. They want to control the news. And we just can't let them."

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"That's why I will be inviting Facebook and Twitter to come testify under oath to my subcommittee in the United States. The American people deserve answers."

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Hawley said Facebook and Twitter must explain what specifically led them to censor the report from the venerable tabloid.

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"This looks like an in-kind campaign contribution to the Biden campaign. This just stinks — it reeks."

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He also dismissed a late evening statement from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that described the company's "communication" about its censorship decision as "not great."

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... called Dorsey's response "insulting" and accused Twitter and Facebook of rushing to the aid of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, and using their "monopoly" over social media to affect a major political election.
Sen. Ron Johnson: Hunter Biden traded on his last name 'to make millions of dollars' (Fox 10/15/2020)
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Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family used their last name "to make millions of dollars" in shady overseas deals.

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"... [Hunter Biden received] $4.2 million from Burisma, $3.5 million transferred from the former wife of the now-deceased mayor of Moscow."

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"The intricate web, the vast web of financial connections and money, cash going back and forth between Hunter and his businesses and Chinese nationals that have connections to the Chinese Commuist Party as well as the People's Liberation Army.

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"When you engage in such an obvious and glaring conflict of interest ... you're just asking for trouble. This represents such an enormous conflict of interest, counterintelligence and extortion threat, just what we already know, and I think we're just scratching the surface."
Hunter Biden tried to cash in big with Chinese firm, emails suggest (Fox 10/15/2020)
Hannity: Hunter Biden emails expose 'damning information', 'corrupt practices' of Biden family (Fox 10/15/2020)
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"In December 2013, Hunter Biden flew with his father aboard Air Force Two. They took a trip to China."

•
"Hunter admitted he met with Chinese businessmen during the trip ... Hunter had zero experience in the country of China, zero experience with Chinese investments. But only 10 days later ... Hunter signed on to a very lucrative, sweetheart deal with a Chinese state-backed investment fund, netting Hunter a massive amount of money and equity and revenue and a partnership with the Bank of China."

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A few months later ... Hunter Biden "got a $3.5 million wire transfer from a corrupt Russian oligarch once referred to as the 'first lady of Moscow.' Again, 'Zero Experience Hunter' with no experience in the country of Russia."

•
... Hunter Biden claimed "nobody buys this idea that I was unqualified" to sit on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma. "I was vice chairman of the board of Amtrak for five years," he said at the time. "I was the chairman of the board of the U.N. World Food Program. I was a lawyer for Boies Schiller Flexner, one of the most prestigious law firms in the world."
Hunter Biden email story: Computer repair store owner describes handing over laptop to FBI (Fox 10/15/2020)
Twitter, Facebook censor Post over Hunter Biden expose (NYP 10/14/2020)
Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad (NYP 10/14/2020)
St. Louis couple who waved guns at protest have spoken to Trump about their case, lawyer says (Fox 10/14/2020)
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"They were going to be beat up badly, if they were lucky," Trump said. "And these people were standing there, never used it [weapons] and they were legal, the weapons. And now I understand somebody local, they want to prosecute these people. It's a disgrace."

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St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged the couple — both personal injury attorneys in their 60s — in July. She said the display of weapons heightened the risk for potential violence.

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The McCloskeys maintain they were merely defending themselves. No shots were fired and no one was harmed.

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Nine protesters involved in the confrontation were cited last month for trespassing but prosecutors later dropped the charges.

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The McCloskeys are due back in court Oct. 28. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said last week he will pardon the couple if they are convicted.
Amy Coney Barrett tells Democratic senator: 'I hope you aren’t suggesting I don’t have my own mind' (Fox 10/14/2020)
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"I hope that you aren't suggesting that I don't have my own mind, or that I couldn't think independently or that I would just decide like, 'Let me see what Justice Scalia has said about this in the past.' I assure you I have my own mind."
Trump, Republicans slam Twitter, Facebook 'blackout' of Hunter Biden article (Fox 10/14/2020)
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"So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of 'Smoking Gun' emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in the [New York Post]."

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"It is only the beginning for them. There is nothing worse than a corrupt politician. REPEAL SECTION 230!!!"

•
Trump was referencing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that states "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

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The section has been pivotal in the rise of today's social media giants by allowing not only Internet service providers – but also Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others – to be shielded from liability from content posted on their platforms by third parties, in most cases.

•
But some critics on the right feel that tech giants should no longer benefit from protections of Section 230 if they censor conservative viewpoints, including controversial postings by Trump.

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"If these emails are authentic, they would demonstrate definitively that now-candidate Biden lied when he said in 2016 that he had 'never spoken to [his] son about his overseas business dealings," Cruz wrote...

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"Twitter has apparently decided to preemptively censor this report," Cruz continued. "Twitter is not only prohibiting users from sharing this story on their own accounts, it is prohibiting the New York Post itself from posting its own content."

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Hawley also requested a formal investigation from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) into possible campaign finance violations, charging that Twitter and Facebook have essentially contributed to the Biden campaign by suppressing a negative story from being circulated.

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Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., accused Facebook and Twitter of meddling in the presidential election. "Big Tech is trying to steal the election."

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"Four years ago BuzzFeed posted the Steele Dossier, filled with lies and misinformation, and twitter and Facebook happily spread their fake news," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said of the anti-President Trump document.

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"Now these platforms are blocking transmission of a New York Post story critical of a Democrat. The hypocrisy is not sustainable."
Sen. John Kennedy: New Hunter Biden report as serious as 'four heart attacks and a stroke' (Fox 10/14/2020)
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"We are talking about a major party nominee for president of the United States of America with an election right around the corner."

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"Every single solitary responsible news organization needs to be investigating the veracity of these allegations and these emails."

•
"The New York Post is a responsible, reputable news organization. It is subject to the libel laws and the defamation laws of our country. If social media is playing favorites and trying to pick winners and losers and discriminating against the New York Post because it doesn't like the article — that is wrong, if that's what's going on."

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"Here's what we do know and it's important. President Obama put Vice President Biden in charge of America's foreign affairs with two countries, Ukraine and China — and in both cases, his son, Mr. Hunter Biden walked away with millions of dollars of contracts."

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" I'm not accusing anybody of anything. but I'm telling you this: This is the message that is sent to the rest of the world. The foreign policy of the United States of America can be bought like a sack of potatoes, and that's a disservice to America and to the world."
Cruz slams court packing, uses Democrats' words against them in impassioned argument (Fox 10/14/2020)
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"I will read you some quotes," Cruz said. "Joe Biden in 1983, quote, FDR's court packing idea was quote 'a boneheaded idea, it was a terrible, terrible mistake to make. And it put in question for an entire decade the independence of the most significant body ... in this country.'"

•
Cruz then used a 2017 quote from fellow Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who said, "‘The Judiciary Committee once stood against a court packing scheme that would have eroded judicial independence. That was a proud moment."

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The Texas Republican then cited another Democratic committee member. "Sen. Durbin, in 2018, quote, ‘Seventy-five years ago we went through this and I think the Congress was correct in stopping this popular president named Franklin Roosevelt from that idea,'"

•
"If anything would make the court look partisan it would be that," Cruz said, quoting Ginsburg, continuing, "Nine seems to be a good number, it has been that way for a long time. I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court."

•
"[W]hat we've seen this past week is, we've seen with a messaged discipline that is really quite remarkable, Democratic senators all making a new argument: that what Republicans have done for four years is packing the court. With all due respect, what utter nonsense."

•
"Filling judicial vacancies is not what that term means and they are endeavoring to redefine the language to set the framework, to set the predicate for a partisan assault on the court."

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"That's the next fight we're facing if Democrats win the majority," Cruz said at the end of his time. "I hope that we don't see that come to pass."
Amazon bans 'What Killed Michael Brown?' documentary, director says (Fox 10/14/2020)
Ex-White House doctor questions Biden's 'mental capacity' to be president (Fox 10/13/2020)
•
"As a citizen of this country, I watch Joe Biden on the campaign trail and I am concerned that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability to serve as our commander in chief and head of state."

•
"I'm concerned, like so many other people in this country are right now, that he is not up for the job. Like I said before, this is a demanding job from a cognitive standpoint."

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"You have to stay locked on. You have to be articulate. You have to process lots and lots of information and multitask. Right now, he's having a really extreme time just focusing, you know, the one task at hand when he stands up in front of voters and tries to explain something."
Pelosi lashes out at CNN's Wolf Blitzer as GOP 'apologist' during testy exchange on stalled... (Fox 10/13/2020)
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"I hope you'll ask the same question of the Republicans on why they don't want to meet the needs of the American people."

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"But let me say to those people because all of my colleagues — we represent these people ... and their needs are not addressed in the president's proposal. So when you say to me, 'Why don't you accept theirs?' Why don't they accept ours?"

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Blitzer interjected, telling Pelosi that Americans "really need the money now" and quoted Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who recently said, "People in need can't wait until February. $1.8 trillion is significant & more than twice the Obama stimulus ... Make a deal & put the ball in McConnell court."

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"What I say to you is I don't know why you're always an apologist — and many of your colleagues [are] apologists for the Republican position."

•
The contentious exchange continued when Blitzer pressed Pelosi again about Trump's $1.8 trillion proposal, asking her, "why not work out a deal with him and don't let the perfect, as they say here in Washington, be the enemy of the good?"

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"Well, I will not let the wrong be the enemy of the right," Pelosi fired back.

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"What's wrong with $1.8 trillion?" Blitzer asked.

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"You know what, do you have any idea what the difference is between the spending that they have in their bill and what we have in our bill?"Pelosi asked before ticking off a list of her issues with the proposal.

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"That is precisely why, Madame Speaker ... it's so important right now," Blitzer responded "Yesterday, I spoke to [former Democratic presidential candidate] Andrew Yang, who says the same thing. It's not everything you want but there's a lot there."

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"But you know what? Honest to God!" Pelosi complained. "You really - I cannot get over it because Andrew Yang, he's lovely. Ro Khanna, he's lovely. They are not negotiating this situation. They have no idea of the particulars. They have no idea of what the language is here..."

•
The tension carried on until the very end, when Blitzer attempted to wrap up the interview after the speaker accused him of "defending the administration all this time."

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"We'll leave it on the note that you're not right on this, Wolf, and I hate to say that to you. But I feel confident about it and I feel confident about my colleagues and I feel confident in my [committee] chairs."

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Blitzer responded, "It's not about me, it's about millions of Americans who can't put food on the table, who can't pay the rent, and who are having trouble getting by."

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"And we represent them, we represent them," Pelosi repeated several times over Blitzer.

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"As we say, don't let perfect be the enemy of the good," Blitzer reiterated.

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"It is nowhere near perfect ... we're not even close to the good," Pelosi shot back.

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"Thank you for your sensitivity to our constituents' needs."

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"I am sensitive to them because I see them on the street begging for food, begging for money," the anchor said.

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"Have you fed them?" Pelosi blurted out. "We feed them, we feed them."

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See related Pelosi Fiddles (Sean Delonas, 03/24/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Barrett Should Reject the Democrats’ Recusal Gambit (10/13/2020)
•
If the last few years have taught us anything, it is that top public officials should not disqualify themselves from exercising their high responsibilities based on hypothetical conflicts of interest.

•
They should always wait until a case or controversy arises, so that any purported conflict can be assessed concretely.
Barrett says she knew ‘faith would be caricatured,’ ‘family would be attacked’ if nominated... (Fox 10/13/2020)
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"We knew that our lives would be combed over for any negative detail. We knew that our faith would be caricatured. We knew our family would be attacked. And so we had to decide whether those difficulties would be worth it because what sane person would go through that if there wasn't a benefit on the other side?"

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Barrett continued to say that the benefit is "that I'm committed to the rule of law and the role of the Supreme Court in dispensing equal justice for all. And I'm not the only person who can do this job. But I was asked, and it would be difficult for anyone. So why should I say someone else should do the difficulty if the difficulty is the only reason to say no?"
Barrett cites 'Ginsburg Rule' of 'no hints, no previews' when pressed by Dems on... (Fox 10/13/2020)
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"Justice Ginsburg with her characteristic pithiness used this to describe how a nominee should comport herself at a hearing: no hints, no previews, no forecasts. That has been the practice of nominees before her, but everybody calls it the 'Ginsburg Rule' because she stated it so concisely and it's been the practice of every nominee since."

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"Senator, I completely understand why you are asking the question, but again, I can't pre-commit or say, 'Yes, I'm going in with some agenda,' because I'm not."

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"It would actually be wrong and in violation of the cannons for me to do that as a sitting judge," Barrett added.

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Barrett said that she would not be able to make any commitment on recusing herself until a case came before her, citing Ginsburg's past description of when a justice should recuse herself.

•
When a court decides a part of a law is unconstitutional and must be overturned, it then decides whether the rest of the law can stand without that part, or if the entire law must fall because the unconstitutional part was too central to its purposes.
Amy Coney Barrett stresses role of Supreme Court, says it's 'not designed to solve every problem' (Fox 10/12/2020)
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"Courts have a vital responsibility to enforce the rule of law, which is critical to a free society."

•
"But courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life."

•
"The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the People. The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try."

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"It was the content of Justice Scalia's reasoning that shaped me. His judicial philosophy was straightforward: A judge must apply the law as written, not as the judge wishes it were. Sometimes that approach meant reaching results that he did not like."

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"When I write an opinion resolving a case, I read every word from the perspective of the losing party. I ask myself how would I view the decision if one of my children was the party I was ruling against: Even though I would not like the result, would I understand that the decision was fairly reasoned and grounded in the law?"

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"I believe Americans of all backgrounds deserve an independent Supreme Court that interprets our Constitution and laws as they are written. And I believe I can serve my country by playing that role."
Criticism of Barrett faith is 'attempt to bring back to days of the religious test': Hawley (Fox 10/12/2020)
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"This freedom of conscience and religious liberty undergirds all of our other rights because it tells the government that it cannot tell us what to think or who we can assemble with or how we can worship."

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"This bedrock principle of American liberty is now under attack. That is what is at stake when we read these stories attacking Judge Barrett for her faith. That's what is at stake when my Democratic colleagues repeatedly questioned Judge Barrett and others about their religious beliefs."

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"That is an attempt to bring back the days of the religious test. That is an attempt to bring back the veto power of the powerful over the religious beliefs and sincerely held convictions of the American people."

•
"I call on you and every member of the Democratic caucus to publicly reject Sen. Dianne Feinstein's egregious personal attacks on Judge Barrett's Christian faith during her previous confirmation hearings, and to pledge you will abstain from that kind of anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, anti-faith vitriol in the hearings to come. You owe it to the country."

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"As you will recall, Sen. Feinstein, the most senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told Judge Barrett in her previous hearings that 'the dogma lives loudly within you,' a clear and condescending disparagement of Judge Barrett's Catholicism."
Trump claims Nov. 3 'will be the most exciting day in US election history' (Fox 10/12/2020)
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"November 3rd. will be the most exciting day in U.S. Election History, even more so than 2016. Tremendous excitement and enthusiasm, like perhaps never seen before."

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"Nobody showing up to Sleepy Joe Rallies. Places are DEAD. Stiff!!!"

•
On Saturday night, Trump's physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said the president has been cleared to return to an active schedule... "This evening I am happy to report that in addition to the President meeting CDC criteria for the safe discontinuation of isolation, this morning's COVID PCR sample demonstrates, by currently recognized standards, he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others."

•
The president mocked Biden's "rallies," however, Biden has not been holding rallies or large campaign events amid the coronavirus pandemic.

•
Meanwhile, the president added Monday: "Remember, I wouldn't be President now had Obama and Biden properly done their job."
Trump rails against Portland's 'Biden fools', 'Antifa radicals' after Lincoln, Roosevelt statues toppled (Fox 10/12/2020)
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"These are Biden fools. ANTIFA RADICALS. Get them FBI, and get them now!"Trump tweeted...

•
The president also responded to another video depicting a statue of Roosevelt, who is shown riding horseback, as someone in the crowd is heard shouting, "F** all you colonizers. Every one of you that's against Black Lives Matter can f** the f** off."

•
The statue is wrapped in rope and the crowd in Portland shouts as it shifts back and forth, before toppling to the ground.

•
"Put these animals in jail, now. The Radical Left only knows how to take advantage of very dumb ‘leadership' fools. This is Biden! Law & Order!" Trump wrote.

•
Additional videos showed smashed out windows at the Oregon Historical Society and the Portland State University Campus Public Safety building.

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"The Radical Left fools in Portland don't want any help from real Law Enforcement which we will provide instantaneously. Vote!" Trump said, adding in a separate tweet: "Taking advantage of fools. Law & Order! Portland, call in the Feds!"

•
Closing out his message on Portland, Trump wrote: "The FBI and Law Enforcement must focus their energy on ANTIFA and the Radical Left, those who have spent the summer trying to burn down poorly run Democrat Cities throughout the USA!"

•
See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Liz Peek: Trump vs. Kamala Harris – here's how Pelosi blunder helps reelect president (Fox 10/12/2020)
•
With much fanfare, Pelosi, D-Calif., introduced a bill that would facilitate removing a president from office should a bipartisan group of legislators agree that he or she was no longer capable of carrying out the duties of his position.

•
But Pelosi's move backfired. President Trump hinted that the bill's real purpose was to make it simpler for Democrats to shove Joe Biden aside, should he win in November, and replace him with his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

•
This was a goof by Pelosi. Many probably believe Trump's assertion, as they watch Biden struggling with what they see as cognitive impairment.

•
Harris does not seem to reject this possibility. She has on more than one occasion referred to the "Harris administration," as though she's already dumped poor Joe.

•
Harris is an easier target for Trump than Biden, and he could do well to focus voters on her possible ascension to the Oval Office.

•
But President Trump's best path forward is not attacking Biden or Harris.

•
Rather, it is to tell voters what he wants to accomplish in the next four years, and remind them of his considerable past achievements.

•
With the economy under stress, his high ratings on that issue alone should give him four more years.
John Yoo: If senators attack Amy Coney Barrett's faith, here's the reply she must give (Fox 10/12/2020)
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"I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic." "I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me."

•
Democratic senators can worry that Barrett would vote to overturn Roe or Obergefell, but they should at least do her the honor of challenging her on the merits of her legal analysis, rather than presume that her religion dictates her conclusions.

•
John F. Kennedy, and the American people, would expect no less.
Anti-Semitic Democrats blame Orthodox Jews for the coronavirus (INN 10/11/2020)
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"I have to say to the Orthodox community tomorrow, ‘If you're not willing to live with these rules, then I'm going to close the synagogues,'" Governor Andrew Cuomo told religious Jews.

•
His basis for the decree was a photo of mourners who weren't practicing social distancing at a funeral.

•
But the photo of a crowd of Orthodox Jews on Cuomo's slide was from 2006.

•
Medieval bigots blamed the Black Plague on Jews poisoning wells. Modern Democrats blame the coronavirus on the Jews.

•
The media won't stop claiming that Orthodox Jews spread the virus because they make a convenient boogeyman for its hipster readers who despise traditional Judeo-Christian religions.

•
Bigotry isn't just about the pleasures of hate. It's how those in power redirect blame for their crimes and failures, and a means for those who hate to gain a false sense of power and control.

•
Blaming the upsurge on an outside group creates a false sense of security for everyone else.

•
Best of all, none of the newfound bigots will blame Governor Cuomo or Mayor Bill de Blasio.

•
The two top Democrats who mishandled the pandemic in the worst ways possible, while spewing lies, excuses and smears at their serial press conferences, won't be held accountable.

•
And that's why every time things get worse, Cuomo and De Blasio will blame the Jews.

•
See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump: Packing Supreme Court would 'permanently destroy the Court' (Fox 10/11/2020)
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"FDR's own party told him you cannot PACK the United States Supreme Court, it would permanently destroy the Court."

•
"But now the Radical Left Democrats are pushing Biden to do this. He has zero chance against them!"

•
Meanwhile, Biden said on Friday that voters don't deserve to know if he would attempt to pack the Supreme Court if he wins in November and Barrett is confirmed.

•
Biden, who had opposed court packing in the primary, refused to answer the question on Thursday, saying "you'll know my position on court-packing the day after the election."
Tucker Carlson: Expanding Supreme Court the one thing President Joe Biden is certain to do (Fox 10/10/2020)
NYPD ranks shrink to thinnest in a decade amid anti-cop protests (Fox 10/09/2020)
Kyle Rittenhouse's lawyers fight extradition in protest of turning him 'over to the mob' (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
"This is a very unique, extraordinary situation. There is a massive amount of video evidence that shows beyond a shadow of a doubt this is not a legitimate criminal prosecution, it is a political prosecution."

•
"Adding to that concern is the fact that a former vice president of the United States and a sitting United States senator who are running for president in what is arguably the most heated presidential election, perhaps in American history ... has now chosen to use him as a political pawn to suggest falsely that he is a white supremacist."

•
"And to suggest falsely that he is one of the people that is responsible for the arson, looting and insurrection in Kenosha and Portland."

•
... Rittenhouse's mother, Wendy Rittenhouse fumed ... "I am angry. My son is not a white supremacist. He is not a racist. He is not in no militia. Former Vice President Biden, how dare [he] use my son for a political ad for his campaign."

•
... despite reports that she had driven her son into Kenosha the night of the shooting, Kyle had actually worked as a lifeguard in Wisconsin the day before and then stayed with a friend overnight.

•
The next day, he and his friend cleaned up graffiti in the morning before making their way into the area that had been stricken by violence and riots over the two previous nights.

•
There, they encountered a business owner who was "desperate" to ensure his business was safe.

•
"A former or current employee, who happens to be friends of Kyle and his friend, desperately wanted to help protecting what was left."

•
"And of course, he had a firearm with him because otherwise he would have been killed."

•
... insisted the gun belonged to a friend and was not Kyle's. They said it was never kept at their Antioch home and Kyle only ever used the gun in Wisconsin.

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"If there's somebody hurt, I'm running into harm's way. That's why I have my rifle because I need to protect, obviously, but I also have my med kit."

•
Shortly after 11:30 p.m., Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and 26-year-old Anthony Huber died as a result of the shooting. Gaige Grosskreutz, who was allegedly holding a handgun at the time, was wounded but survived.

•
... several cell phone videos show Rittenhouse "running southwest across the eastern portion of the Car Source parking lot ... holding a long gun."

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Rosenbaum, who was not armed, is seen on video trailing behind him and then throwing an object – later identified as a plastic bag – at Rittenhouse.

•
"The defendant and Rosenbaum continue to move across the parking lot and approach the front of a black car parked in the lot," a second video shows...

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"A loud bang is heard on the video, then a male shouts, ‘F** you!', then Rosenbaum appears to continue to approach the defendant and gets in near proximity to the defendant when 4 more loud banks are heard. Rosenbaum then falls to the ground."

•
Third and fourth videos show Rittenhouse running after he allegedly shot Rosenbaum, as people running after him can be heard yelling, "Hey, he shot him!" and "Beat him up!" and "Get him!."

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"Then a male in a light-colored top runs towards and the defendant and appears to swing at the defendant with his right arm. This swing makes contact with the defendant, knocking his hat off. The defendant continues to run."

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But when Rittenhouse trips and falls, a man "jumps at and over" him, at which point Rittenhouse allegedly fires two shots, but does not appear to strike the man.

•
... Huber, who is holding a skateboard, then approaches Rittenhouse "who is still on the ground, on his back."

•
When Huber gets to Rittenhouse, "it appears that he is reaching for the defendant's gun with his left hand as the skateboard makes contact with the defendant's left shoulder," the complaint states, adding that it appears Huber is trying to take the gun, which is pointed at his body.

•
Rittenhouse "then fires one round which can be heard on the video. Huber staggers away, taking several steps, then collapses to the ground."

•
The teen then allegedly sat up and pointed his gun at Grosskreutz, who had put "his hands in the air" when he said Huber had been shot.

•
But when Grosskreutz advanced toward Rittenhouse holding what appeared to be a handgun, Rittenhouse fired a single shot, striking him in the right arm.

•
... the teen tried multiple times to surrender to Kenosha authorities before ultimately opting to return home.

•
Wendy, a single mom who also has two daughters – one younger and one older than Kyle – left her apartment and drove into Kenosha to try to find Kyle or his friend, looking for his friend's car which she said she would have recognized.

•
"When I got back home, he was already there," she said. "All I did was hug him, tell him I love him. He was crying. He was pale."

•
Rittenhouse went to turn himself in to Antioch Police within 20 to 30 minutes later, she said.

•
In the weeks since the Aug. 25 shooting, Wendy Rittenhouse said she has tried to watch the full footage of the attack.

•
"I get to the point where the first guy was chasing him to the gas station ... And I see this mob chasing my son. The guy hitting my son in the head with a skateboard."

•
"Looking at my son's face ... I just cry, I was sick to my stomach. This mob was chasing my son to try to kill him."

•
She said she had given Rittenhouse permission to learn how to use the gun at his friend's home in Illinois and added: "If he didn't have that gun, he would've been dead."

•
... vehemently rejected any notion that Rittenhouse was a member of a white supremacy or militia group.

•
Wendy has since taken a leave of absence from her job at a local nursing home. She and her daughters have relocated to an undisclosed location, she said, explaining that she no longer felt safe at home.

•
"We can't even go back home. We don't even have a home because the fear of them breaking in my house, killing my daughters, killing me, and if Kyle was there, to kill him."
Trump says he's disappointed in Barr over status of Durham probe (Fox 10/09/2020)
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"The Republicans, they don't play the tough game. If this were the other side you would have had 25 people in jail for the rest of their lives with what they found."
Trump hits back at Pelosi's 25th Amendment move, says her real target is 'Sleepy Joe' (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
"Crazy Nancy Pelosi is looking at the 25th Amendment in order to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris."

•
"The Dems want that to happen fast because Sleepy Joe is out of it!!!"
Sen. Loeffler calls for probe into China's use of US nonprofits to meddle in election (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
"Although publicly available assessments of the Chinese government efforts do not elaborate on how they are carrying out these efforts, it is clear that the Chinese government has experience using nongovernmental entities to execute the Chinese government's policy goals."

•
"In the United States, laws such as the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) and campaign finance restrictions on foreign donations are designed to ensure transparency and prevent foreign influence in our political processes."

•
"Because nonprofit organizations receive donations from foreign individuals and entities, however, they represent a potential loophole for through which the Chinese government could influence American policies and elections."

•
The Trump administration has been ramping up its efforts to crack down on Chinese influence at home and abroad in recent months, particularly since the outbreak of COVID-19, which originated in China.

•
Among the various measures the administration has taken is a State Department move in August to designate the Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS) as a Chinese foreign mission.

•
The statement described the CIUS, which is funded by the Chinese government, as "an entity advancing Beijing's global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms" and one that is part of its communist party apparatus.
US to collect tariffs on $1.96B worth of aluminum sheet goods: Wilbur Ross (Fox 10/09/2020)
In 2020, will Left Coast voters let government revert to making judgments based on skin color? (JWR 10/08/2020)
•
Californians did a great thing in 1996 when they amended their constitution to ban government discrimination.

•
Proposition 16 invites them to turn that achievement on its head — to revert to judging people not by the content of their character, but by the color of their skin.
Harris showed 'what the Biden campaign has been trying to hide' in vice presidential debate (Fox 10/08/2020)
•
During the debate, Pence repeatedly questioned Harris over whether Democrats would expand the size of the Supreme Court should they win the White House and the Senate in November.

•
Harris' refusal to answer Pence, coupled with Joe Biden's unwillingness to comment on the matter, shows Democrats have become a "party of radicals, by radicals, and for radicals."

•
"Kamala Harris struggled to lie away Biden's real agenda on lockdowns and his true plan to, for instance, abolish the fossil fuel industry."
Wisconsin police close hate crime investigation for lack of evidence (Fox 10/08/2020)
•
Althea Bernstein, 18, told Madison police four white men had shouted a racial slur at her while she was stopped at a red light around 1 a.m. June 24 and threw lighter fluid at her through her car window and set her on fire.

•
Madison police on Friday released more than 150 pages of reports detailing the investigation. Traffic and surveillance camera footage shows Bernstein's vehicle stopped only once and that no one was around the car. The footage also shows that her window was closed throughout and that she was traveling in the right lane, not the left as she told investigators.

•
Investigators found footage indicating Bernstein wasn't downtown at the time she said she was attacked.

•
The FBI, the United States Attorney's Office and the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice had conducted extensive interviews, reviewed the available video and analyzed forensic evidence and concluded: "Authorities could not establish that the attack, as alleged by the complainant, had occurred."

•
The alleged attack happened the same night protesters tore down statues in Madison and attacked a state senator heading to the capitol.

•
... isn't recommending charges against Bernstein for filing a false police report.
Trump 'fever-free' for four days, 'symptom-free' for 24 hours in coronavirus fight, White House physician says (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
"The President this morning says ‘I feel great!'. His physical exam and vital signs, including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range."
Michael Flynn filing says Judge Sullivan's 'disqualification is mandatory,' seeks his recusal... (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
"The circumstances of this case lead any reasonable observer to believe that the current judge has a personal interest in the outcome, is irreparably biased against general Flynn, and is actively litigating against him. His continued presence in the case has become a national scandal undermining confidence in the impartiality of the federal judicial system and faith in the rule of law writ large. The Constitution compels, and all statutory bases require ('shall recuse'), that Judge Sullivan recuse himself from any further proceedings even if he has granted the motion to dismiss with prejudice."

•
"Judge Sullivan satisfied that standard when he actively litigated against General Flynn. He has since far exceeded it — rising to the level of demonstrating actual bias."

•
"Judge Sullivan's increasingly hostile and unprecedented words and deeds in what has become his own prosecution of General Flynn mandate his disqualification from further participation in these proceedings and the referral of his conduct to the D.C. Circuit Judicial Council. The appearance of bias here is terrifying and mandates disqualification."
ICE arrests 128 illegal immigrants in Calif.; 96 percent had criminal charges or convictions (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
... for crimes including murder, child sex offenses and domestic violence.

•
The operations all targeted sanctuary cities, where local law enforcement are restricted in their ability to cooperate with federal law enforcement.

•
That frequently involves ignoring ICE detainers, which are requests that an illegal immigrant about to be released be held until ICE can take them into custody.

•
"Instead of fulfilling our shared mission to protect our communities they would rather play politics with the law by enacting so-called sanctuary city policies to the detriment of our country's safety."

•
Wolf rejected the claim that such policies are compassionate: "There is no compassion for the Americans whose lives have been ended or destroyed by these policies, which shield violent criminal aliens at the expense of American lives."

•
The Trump administration has vociferously opposed sanctuary policies and has sought to defund those areas that enact them, while repeatedly highlighting heinous cases of illegal immigrants who have been sprung from prison, only to go on and hurt or kill Americans.

•
"Our obligation to protect American citizens from illegal aliens who rape, murder and otherwise commit violent crimes against our communities does not stop at the borders of a so-called sanctuary city."

•
Last month, ICE announced that it arrested more than 2,000 illegal immigrants from 20 countries in a series of operations in July and August — with the vast majority of those arrested having criminal charges or convictions.

•
About 85 percent of the immigrants caught in the operations, which lasted from July 13 through Aug. 20, had pending or criminal convictions — for manslaughter, assault, domestic violence, extortion, robbery, sexual offenses with a minor and other crimes.
NYPD arrests 24 ‘spoiled brats’ during Jonathan Price protest, Commissioner Shea says (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
The group blocked the street, scrawled graffiti, set garbage fires and broke the glass of a Bank of America on Canal Street as well as Lazaro SoHo, a men's clothing boutique on West Broadway.

•
The graffiti included hammer-and-sickle symbols, various anarchist signs and the words "Jonathan Price Was Here" and "BLM."

•
"Breaking windows, property damage, graffiti, lighting fires. I mean, that is the last thing that we as New Yorkers need right now. And that's last night in New York City — 24 more arrests, you know, at a time when we have diminished resources, and we have a violent uptick with the courts and everything else going on."

•
"We don't need officers pulled away for these, sometimes I don't know what you call them — peaceful protesters — maybe spoiled brats at this point."
Emphatic Trump Jr. rails on mainstream media, Democrats after latest Russia probe... (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
"Given what I went through because of that for three and a half years, I'm obviously pretty upset."

•
"It's sort of what we knew was going on all along. It's why I was so belligerent at the time and wasn't going to be quiet and let it go because I knew it was nonsense."

•
"But what's really frustrating is that now that we know that this was, again, a set-up. now that we know all of them knew: the CIA, the upper levels of the FBI, the Obama Administration, Obama, and Biden himself, they all knew, and they let this go on for four years. They let it happen knowing that it was nonsense because it would hurt Donald Trump."

•
... it's "scary" that the media doesn't seem to care about the story because it is negative about Obama and "their darling candidate Joe Biden," despite the story grabbing headlines and breaking news over the past several years.

•
"Now that it's against them, they don't want anything. They are actually outraged that we would want transparency."

•
"They're outraged that the American people should be able to see all of the information and, by the way, the upper levels of the FBI and the CIA are still doing whatever they possibly can to make sure that those documents don't get out."

•
"They will say well, you know, there is secret stuff in there — no, it's not secret. It's nonsense. It's that you were all involved and you guys are protecting your failed corrupted bureaucratic institutions rather than the Constitution, which is the pattern we have seen for the last four years and it needs to stop now."

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related Mueller Report and CNN (Sean Delonas, 03/24/2019) cartoon from Media picture album
Sen. Cotton calls out Obama-Biden admin, Clinton on Russia collusion hoax (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
The declassification of former CIA director John Brennan's notes proves Hillary Clinton colluded with foreign entities to inject disinformation into the 2016 campaign.

•
"Throughout the summer and fall of 2016, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats were accusing Donald Trump and his campaign of colluding with the Russians. We now know that that collusion hoax was false and that it was Hillary Clinton and the Democrats who were actually colluding with foreign intelligence officers."

•
The declassification of the documents revealed Brennan briefed former President Obama on Clinton's purported "plan" to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia as "a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server" ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

•
"[Clinton] hired a foreign spy, who had sources in Russia, probably Russian intelligence officers themselves, to dig up dirt on Donald Trump and to spread it around the American media. Of course, the Kremlin would have gotten wind of that effort by Christopher Steele, a former British spy to try to identify that information and, of course, they were trying to use that as a way to inject their own disinformation into the American political debate."

•
"The person and the campaign responsible for that is Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. Barack Obama knew about it as early as the summer of 2016. I think it's safe to say Joe Biden knew about it as well."

•
"It's not surprising that the media wing of the Democratic Party is in overdrive to protect Joe Biden in a partisan cacoon over these last four weeks of the campaign. They've been waging a nonstop political battle against the president for five years, and they're not going to let up in the final four weeks of the campaign.."
McConnell: Attacks on Barrett's faith by Dems, media 'are a disgrace' (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
"Our coastal elites are so disconnected from their own country that they treat religious Americans like strange animals in a menagerie."

•
"The ongoing attacks by Senate Democrats and the media on Judge Barrett's faith are a disgrace. They demean the confirmation process, disrespect the Constitution, and insult millions of American believers."
Trump's call to declassify Russia collusion, Clinton documents sparks fierce debate online (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
"All Russia Hoax Scandal information was Declassified by me long ago. Unfortunately for our Country, people have acted very slowly, especially since it is perhaps the biggest political crime in the history of our Country. Act!!!"

•
... revealed former CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Obama on Clinton's purported "plan" to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia as "a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server" ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

•
Grenell, a vocal Trump supporter, tweeted that the report was "proof" that Obama and Joe Biden, his vice president at the time, "directed their administration to use the powers of government to attack" Trump's campaign and transition team.

•
... in late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained "insight" into Russian spycraft alleging that Clinton, who was running for president, had "approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against" Trump.

•
Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, tweeted, "Let me get this straight: Hillary Clinton planned, financed, and executed the Russian hoax. The intel agencies knew about & briefed Obama on it... and no one seems to care. Where is Adam Schiff? Where is Rachel Maddow? This is a bombshell and they're completely ignoring it."
Gregg Jarrett: Declassification of Russia probe documents could prove Hillary Clinton... (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
"It demonstrates just how immoral, unscrupulous, devious and corrupt Hillary Clinton was."

•
... declassified documents revealing that then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed President Obama in 2016 on Hillary Clinton's "plan" to stir up a scandal tying then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia and distracting from the controversy over her private email server.

•
... Clinton may have committed a felony in disseminating false information, depending on "how it [the information] was leaked and to whom."

•
"I hope that the president's declassification and removal of the redactions shed light on that because this does appear to be a criminal conspiracy."

•
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski asked when former top national security officials in the Obama administration would be held accountable.

•
"When do [former FBI Director James] Comey and [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper and Brennan, the guys that perpetuated the greatest crime in American history, get held accountable?"

•
"There's been two tiers of justice in this country: one if you're a Donald Trump supporter and you get the book thrown at you, and one if you're a Hillary Clinton supporter and you get away with it."
Trump says he'd sign off on specific coronavirus relief measures after halting talks (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
"The House & Senate should IMMEDIATELY Approve 25 Billion Dollars for Airline Payroll Support, & 135 Billion Dollars for Paycheck Protection Program for Small Business. Both of these will be fully paid for with unused funds from the Cares Act. Have this money. I will sign now!"

•
"If I am sent a Stand Alone Bill for Stimulus Checks ($1,200), they will go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY. I am ready to sign right now. Are you listening Nancy?"

•
See related Pelosi Fiddles (Sean Delonas, 03/24/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
How much did the Russia and Hillary Clinton email probes cost taxpayers? (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
In total, the investigation up until Sept. 30 2018 amounted to roughly $25.2 million. On average, the office spent roughly $8.4 million per each six-month period.

•
However, the report for October 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 shows the final eight months of the probe cost about $6.56 million in additional taxpayer funds, putting the final tally at nearly $32 million.

•
In comparison, the two and a half-year Benghazi investigation led by the House Select Committee on Benghazi spent more than $7 million in total
DNI declassifies Brennan notes, CIA memo on Hillary Clinton 'stirring up' scandal between... (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
... declassified Brennan's handwritten notes – which were taken after he briefed Obama on the intelligence the CIA received – and a CIA memo, which revealed that officials referred the matter to the FBI for potential investigative action.

•
"The following information is provided for the exclusive use of your bureau for background investigative action or lead purposes as appropriate," the CIA memo to Comey and Strzok stated.

•
"This memorandum contains sensitive information that could be source revealing. It should be handled with particular attention to compartmentation and need-to-know. To avoid the possible compromise of the source, any investigative action taken in response to the information below should be coordinated in advance with Chief Counterintelligence Mission Center, Legal," the memo, which was sent to Comey and Strzok, read.

•
"It may not be used in any legal proceeding — including FISA applications — without prior approval..."

•
"An exchange [REDACTED] discussing US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server."

•
... the Obama administration obtained Russian intelligence in July 2016 with allegations against Clinton, but cautioned that the intelligence community "does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the text to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication."

•
... the intelligence included the "alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016, of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services."

•
"This is not Russian disinformation. Even Brennan knew, or he wouldn't be briefing the president of the United States on it. There is a high threshold to orally brief the president of the United States and he clearly felt this met that threshold."

•
... "this information has been sought by hundreds of congressional requests for legitimate oversight purposes and was withheld for political spite — and the belief that they'd never get caught."

•
Meanwhile, last week, during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey was asked whether he received an investigative referral on Clinton from 2016, but he said it didn't "ring any bells."

•
"That's a pretty stunning thing that it doesn't ring a bell," Graham fired back. "You get this inquiry from the intelligence community to look at the Clinton campaign trying to create a distraction, accusing Trump of being a Russian agent or a Russian stooge."

•
"This has been a very difficult task for us to get to the bottom of, because you have corrupt officials," Nunes said.
Gutfeld on the media attacking Trump for going back to work, Part 2 (Fox 10/06/2020)
•
President Trump said Monday night after leaving the hospital and returning to the White House: "We have the greatest country in the world. We're going back, we're going back to work, we're going to be out front, as your leader I had to do that. I knew there's danger to that but I had to do it."

•
On CNN, anchor Erin Burnett said: "It's like something out of North Korea, the dear leader comes out."

•
On MSNBC, historian Michael Beschloss said: "I thought it was a strongman balcony scene."

•
On CNN, veteran White House official from past administrations David Gergen told anchor Wolf Blitzer: "I wake up some days, Wolf, practically feeling like we're in the grips of a madman."

•
On "The View" on ABC, co-host Joy Behar said: "This one just got out of the hospital with a million drugs in his system. I don't think he looked very good."

•
The worst came from Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who demanded defunding of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where President Trump was hospitalized.

•
Walter Reed is a place that treats our war casualties. She remains employed to make her peers appear sane by comparison

•
As low-info anchors cite 200,000 dead, we know that number was forecast if everything was done right.

•
Not doing anything? Up to 2 million dead — a path, had impeachment lasted longer.

•
So imagine if Dems cared as much about America as they do about hating Trump. No impeachment, no collusion, no witch hunts, no bombshell hysteria. Instead, it could have been all COVID-19.

•
Yeah, they care now. But it's not about you. It's about them. And their sad Trump obsession.

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
McCloskeys indicted on gun charges stemming from standoff at St Louis mansion (Fox 10/06/2020)
•
The charges related to an incident that occurred in June, when hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters marched onto a private street the McCloskeys live on.

•
The McCloskeys went outside to confront the protesters. Mark McCloskey had an AR-15 rifle, while Patricia McCloskey had a semiautomatic pistol.

•
The couple contends that protesters broke through an iron gate, ignored a "No Trespassing" sign, and screamed threats of arson and rape at them, while protest leaders say that the march was peaceful and no threats were made.

•
"Every single human being that was in front of my house was a criminal trespasser. They broke down our gate. They trespassed on our property. Not a single one of those people is now charged with anything. We're charged with felonies that could cost us four years of our lives and our law licenses."

•
Nine protesters were charged with misdemeanor trespassing last month, but the city counselor's office eventually dropped the charges.
Trump calls for pause on coronavirus stimulus talks until after the election (Fox 10/06/2020)
•
"Nancy Pelosi is asking for $2.4 Trillion Dollars to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States, money that is in no way related to COVID-19. We made a very generous offer of $1.6 Trillion Dollars and, as usual, she is not negotiating in good faith.

•
"I am rejecting their request, and looking to the future of our Country. I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business.

•
"I have asked Mitch McConnell not to delay, but to instead focus full time on approving my outstanding nominee to the United States Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett."

•
"Our Economy is doing very well. The Stock Market is at record levels, JOBS and unemployment also coming back in record numbers. We are leading the World in Economic Recovery, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!"

•
See related Pelosi Fiddles (Sean Delonas, 03/24/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Systemic racism and today's California — Why voters should reject restoring racial preferences (Fox 10/06/2020)
Eric Trump questioned under oath in Trump Organization investigation (Fox 10/06/2020)
•
"The NYAG's targeting of my family violates every ethical rule she was elected to protect."

•
"Last month alone there were over 240 shootings in NYC, yet the NYAG's sole focus is an anti-Trump fishing expedition that she promised during her campaign. New York is so lost."

•
"Justice and the rule of law prevailed today," James said ... after a judge ordered Eric Trump to appear for questioning...

•
"To be clear, no entity or individual is allowed to dictate how or when our investigation will proceed or set the parameters of a lawful investigation. The court's order today makes clear that no one is above the law, not even an organization or an individual with the name Trump."

•
"We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well," James told ... after her 2018 election.
Ingraham: Mainstream media show they're ‘unhappy people’ with coverage of Trump illness (Fox 10/06/2020)
•
"... what kind of people seem visibly disappointed when a president of the United States, admitted to an Army medical hospital, seems to be turning a corner?"

•
... if Biden had tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered enough to be dismissed from a hospital after a three-night stay, the same media personalities would have "marveled at his strength and his perseverance."

•
The real reason why the liberal media is so unhappy with Trump's progress ... is that they hoped the virus would take him off the campaign trail and finish his reelection hopes for good.

•
"What Mueller and impeachment couldn't achieve, they hoped coronavirus would. And it sounds like they still hope it does."

•
Not only are Democrats angry that Trump is recovering ... but they're also "enraged" that the economy is improving after spring predictions that the U.S. would experience a long-term recession due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
Trump discharged from Walter Reed, returns to White House (Fox 10/05/2020)
•
President Trump was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and returned to the White House on Monday evening to continue his fight against the novel coronavirus, after his medical team warned that he "may not entirely be out of the woods yet."

•
Dressed in a navy suit and tie and wearing a face mask, Trump walked out of Walter Reed on his own.

•
Upon walking out the doors of the hospital, he made a low fist pump and gave a thumbs up to the press as he got into a black SUV to head to Marine One.

•
The president teased his return to the White House Monday afternoon, saying he is "feeling really good!"

•
"Don't be afraid of Covid," the president tweeted. "Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge."

•
He added: "I feel better than I did 20 years ago!"

•
Upon arriving to the White House, the president walked out on the balcony overlooking the South Lawn, surrounded by American flags, and saluted military officers and Marine One as it departed.

•
The president arrived back to the White House after his physician, Dr. Sean Conley, hosted a press conference detailing the president's progress and condition as he battles COVID-19.

•
"The president may not entirely be out of the woods yet," Conley said, but said that his "clinical status supports the president's safe return home," where he said he will be surrounded by medical staff "24/7."

•
"We all remain cautiously optimistic and on guard because we're in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to a patient who received the therapies he has."

•
Conley stressed that Trump will receive "world class medical care" at the White House, saying "we're not going to miss anything we would have caught up here," while maintaining that the president is "back."

•
Conley said over the weekend that the president had received an antibody cocktail, as well as zinc, Vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and a daily aspirin, along with his five-day course of Remdesivir.

•
Meanwhile, First Lady Melania Trump, who also tested positive for COVID-19, tweeted Monday, saying she is "feeling good."

•
"My family is grateful for all of the prayers & support! I am feeling good & will continue to rest at home."

•
"Thank you to medical staff & caretakers everywhere, & my continued prayers for those who are ill or have a family member impacted by the virus."
Trump’s tweets during coronavirus battle show he’s back to his routine (Fox 10/05/2020)
White House releases new photo of Trump from Walter Reed (Fox 10/05/2020)
Meadows 'optimistic' Trump will leave Walter Reed, return to White House Monday... (Fox 10/05/2020)
Conservative group releases pledge prodding Democratic senators not to attack Barrett on faith (Fox 10/05/2020)
Trump delivers video message saying he thinks he is 'doing very well,' after testing positive... (Fox 10/02/2020)
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"I want to thank everybody for the tremendous support. I am going to Walter Reed Hospital."

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"I think I'm doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work out. The first lady is doing very well."

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"So thank you very much. I appreciate it. I will never forget. Thank you."
White House coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas reacts to Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, says... (Fox 10/02/2020)
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Dr. Scott Atlas, a special adviser on coronavirus to President Trump, said Friday he expects the president and first lady to make a "complete, full and rapid recovery" after the two tested positive for COVID-19, adding, "there is zero reason to panic."

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... said the novel coronavirus is an infection "that is very difficult to avoid."

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"It is no surprise that people get the infection, even with precautions. I anticipate a complete and full and rapid recovery back to normal after his necessary confinement period. I anticipate he'll be back on the road and in full swing."

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... called the president a "super vigorous man," adding that he has "never seen anyone with more energy and more vigor, at any age, but particularly at his age."

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"He is a very, very healthy guy. And the overwhelming majority of people, even at his age, do fine with this. He is very healthy, and so I anticipate the same for him."

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When asked about the first lady, Atlas also maintained that "she is not a high-risk person at all and I anticipate she will do perfectly well."

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"This is a widespread, highly contagious infection, and this is going to be very mild or asymptomatic for the overwhelming majority of people, especially if you're a healthy person."

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"And if you can, do your best at the usual mitigation — hand washing, social distancing, the usual masks, if you are in very tight spaces and you cannot socially distance, or are with high-risk family members."

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"This is a disease that spreads, we anticipate that people get this infection, and it does not go away by isolating or locking down."

•
"There is zero reason to panic. There is nothing different here. The president and his wife are human beings."

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... stressed that the president "always" takes precautions, following social distancing guidelines, and said he is tested regularly, and "wears a mask in appropriate settings."

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"We know the severe harms of locking down with prolonged isolation and prolonged closures of schools and businesses, and nothing has changed about the message — which is, this is a widespread infection, the vast majority of people do well, we need to protect the highest risk people and open schools up and society and get back to functioning."
President Trump, first lady test positive for coronavirus, set to quarantine at White House (Fox 10/02/2020)
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"Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately."

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"We will get through this TOGETHER!"

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"As too many Americans have done this year, @potus & I are quarantining at home after testing positive for COVID-19. We are feeling good & I have postponed all upcoming engagements. Please be sure you are staying safe & we will all get through this together."

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Dr. Sean P. Conley, the president's physician, also confirmed Trump and the first lady's positive COVID-19 tests.

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"The White House medical team and I will maintain a vigilant watch, and I appreciate the support provided by some of our country's greatest medical professionals and institutions."

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"Rest assured I expected the President to continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering, and I will keep you updated on any future developments."

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"Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family," Biden said.

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"Karen and I send our love and prayers to our dear friends President @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS Melania Trump," Pence tweeted.

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"We join millions across America praying for their full and swift recovery. God bless you President Trump & our wonderful First Lady Melania."

•
... most West Wing officials and staff who are in close proximity to the president are tested for COVID-19 daily.

•
The president and first lady's positive coronavirus tests came just hours after news surfaced that senior White House adviser Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19.

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Trump participated in a presidential debate with Biden on Tuesday before he or Hicks began showing symptoms or tested positive for the virus

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"America stands united. Our country stands strong," McEnany tweeted. "Your President will continue to put the People first!"

•
... the president should be planning to delegate his authority should his symptoms become severe and his situation become extreme, citing continuity of government provisions in the 25th Amendment.

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"Whenever the President transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President," the 25th Amendment reads.

•
The internal White House group called "Continuity of Government Operations Team" is currently working to prevent a mass outbreak of the coronavirus among White House staff and relocate staff to multiple locations to contain exposure.
Dave Rubin slams Biden on Antifa: 'An idea doesn’t assault people on the street' (Fox 10/01/2020)
•
After Joe Biden called Antifa an "idea, not an organization" at the first presidential debate, Dave Rubin shared his firsthand experience with the far-left group's violent protests at his events on "Fox & Friends."

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"An idea doesn't burn down buildings. An idea doesn't throw Molotov cocktails at people. An idea doesn't assault people on the street. People do that."

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"... I've done many public-speaking events, usually about free speech and free markets, capitalism, good stuff, no bigotry, no racism or hatred involved and Antifa has shown up and violently protested, pulled fire alarms."

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... pointed to a video on Twitter showing an elderly woman trying to cross the street to get to one of his events in Canada as protesters are blocking it and calling her a Nazi.

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"These are bad people and by design they are decentralized, so when Biden is saying they are an idea, it's because he's afraid that so much of his base, his radical base is actually in line with Antifa and if he says something about them, they will end up coming for him."
Sean Hannity tells mainstream media: 'Spare us your phony indignation' over debate fireworks (Fox 10/01/2020)
•
"Let me address the media mob, Democrats, Hollywood elites that are just so upset, so bothered by the contentious nature of the debate."

•
"I know you have the vapors, please spare us your phony indignation, spare us the selective, feigned, phony outrage, because ever since Donald Trump descended that escalator at Trump Tower with his wife Melania, all of you holier-than-thou idiots have been waging nonstop the most disgusting, deceitful, dishonest smear campaign we've ever seen in American history."

•
... accused the media of "unloading all of your vile — and bile for that matter [in] repulsive unprecedented attacks on this president, his family, his supporters and people who voted for him.

•
"You have lied to us for years, you have dragged this country through hell with your Russia conspiracy theory, lies and hoax — and it's all been a lie the whole time."

•
"Innocent people's lives have been ruined and as a result, all of this is now disproven. None of you have apologized. I see no corrections from the media mob because they don't care. Because they aren't honest people."

•
... "civility is about you having amnesia surrounding the various lies they've been peddling, the hell they've dragged the country through for four years."

•
"It's about rewarding the people who attempted a coup on a duly elected president."

•
"They have lacked basic decency for four years. But when they get a dose of it back to them, they want to know where is civility all of a sudden. OK. Democrats, media mob, Hollywood, same names, different day — please spare us your phony outrage over the tone and tenor of a presidential debate. We know what civility looks like to the left, we've watched you for the last four years."
Herschel Walker claps back at Biden's Antifa is ‘an idea’ comment (Fox 10/01/2020)
•
"... I was confused why [debate moderator] Chris Wallace would ask the president about the Proud Boys. ‘Cuz I've never seen the Proud Boys break any windows, assault any police officer, kill anyone. Never seen them destroy a business, try to intimidate anyone, destroy a restaurant, but I have seen BLM and Antifa do that."

•
"When you bail an 'idea' out of jail, do you do it with Monopoly money?"
Former Twitter CEO says some capitalists 'going to be the first' to be 'shot in the revolution' (Fox 10/01/2020)
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"Me-first capitalists who think you can separate society from business are going to be the first people lined up against the wall and shot in the revolution. I'll happily provide video commentary."

•
"Tech companies used to welcome lively debate about ideas and society. It was part of the social contract inside the company, and it's what differentiated tech culture from, say, Wells Fargo culture. Now it's considered a distraction."
Compton shooting: Charges filed in ambush of 2 deputies earlier this month (Fox 10/01/2020)
•
Murray, 36, was taken into custody after a lengthy standoff three days after the deputies were shot, though his arrest was unrelated to the attack on the deputies...

•
At the time of his arrest, Murray, who has suspected gang ties, was charged with one felony count each of carjacking, second-degree robbery, and assault with a semiautomatic firearm - personal use of a firearm.

•
The charges also included allegations of association with a criminal street gang, discharging a rifle inflicting great bodily injury, and personal use of an AR-15.
Corrupt Comey conveniently claims no memory of parts of FBI’s Trump-Russia ‘collusion’ probe (Fox 10/03/2020)
•
Like a broken record, Comey responded to questions with the same pat answers: "Not that I recall ... I don't know ... I don't remember ... I never knew ... that doesn't ring a bell."

•
To hear Comey tell it, he was an empty suit at the helm of one of the most important investigations in modern American history, examining whether Donald Trump conspired with Russians to steal the 2016 election.

•
Even though Comey swore under oath that the evidence he submitted was true and verified, it was not.

•
His defense Wednesday was that he was clueless, not corrupt. He claimed he had no independent knowledge of anything.

•
When the "collusion" hoax was eventually revealed and the malevolent acts of the FBI exposed, Comey feigned abject ignorance.

•
He never apologized for the national nightmare that he and his confederates launched that cost taxpayers more than $25 million.

•
In one puzzling moment during the hearing Wednesday, Comey quipped: "I don't regret my role, I regret that it happened." Try to make sense of that. I double-dare you.

•
Much of Comey's spy warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was based on a dossier composed by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who had a known hatred of Trump.

•
The dossier was paid for by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and Democrats.

•
Comey knew all this but hid these vital facts from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Other evidence demonstrating Page's innocence was also concealed.

•
Yet Comey falsely told judges on the court that Page was a Russian spy, although there was not a scintilla of credible evidence or probable cause backing up this baseless allegation.

•
"How can it be that the FBI finds out that the dossier's sub-source was a Russia spy and it doesn't get to you?" Comey issued his standard reply, "I don't know." Right.

•
Did Comey know that his own agents debunked the contents of the dossier as nothing more than gossip, rumors, and unfounded innuendos about Trump when they interviewed Danchenko, rendering Comey's spy warrant legally unjustified?

•
"I don't remember anything about that," Comey said.

•
A follow-up question was blunt: "How could all of that happen and not get up to you?"

•
Without batting an eye, Comey replied: "I can only speculate, but it didn't happen."

•
Was Comey even in charge at the FBI? Of course he was, but his only way out is to pretend that he wasn't.

•
Clinton's role in instigating the Russia hoax is corroborated by public records if anyone ever bothered to examine them.

•
... "it was Clinton's campaign that 'colluded' with Russia to falsely accuse Trump of 'colluding' with Russia."

•
"There are only two possibilities — either you were deliberately corrupt or woefully incompetent." Cruz paused and added: "I don't believe you're incompetent."

•
Cruz nailed it. Any reasonable person who examines the facts honestly can reach only one conclusion. James Comey is corrupt.

•
His bout of amnesia and/or dementia is nothing but a cleverly contrived act to avoid taking responsibility for his malign acts.

•
See related A Higher Loyalty (Michael Ramirez, 04/23/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
Jim Daly: Amy Coney Barrett and Scalia – she shares this with the legendary justice (Fox 09/28/2020)
Sally Pipes: Supreme Court and ObamaCare – here's what to expect if law is not upheld (Fox 09/28/2020)
Amy Coney Barrett's record – clues on what kind of Supreme Court justice she'd be (Fox 09/28/2020)
Trump takes press to task for skipping over Hunter Biden scandals (Fox 09/28/2020)
•
"If we had a media that was fair — even just reasonable — this would be the biggest story for years and years. Then you'd be entitled to real Pulitzer Prizes, not the fake committee that gives away these fake awards."

•
"Hunter Biden received $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the billionaire widow of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow a known associate of Vladimir Putin. Where are our fearless " journalists" now that there's a real Russia connection?"

•
"Why did he get $3.5 million? I'll tell you why: Because Joe Biden was in on it. Joe was in on it. There's no way that he wasn't."

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Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia, "became Russia's only female billionaire when her plastics company, Inteko, received a series of Moscow municipal contracts while her husband was mayor."
Liz Peek: Biden and the debate – this could shake up the race as former VP finally gets grilled (Fox 09/28/2020)
Sen. Johnson urges Barr to release Durham findings if report delayed until after election (Fox 09/27/2020)
•
"The bottom line, that means the American people might go to the polls without knowing the whole extent and all of the detail of all of the corruption, again of the FBI investigation, and the corrupt transition process."
Sen. John Kennedy to Dem colleague on Barrett criticism: 'Sell crazy somewhere else' (Fox 09/27/2020)
•
"My Democratic friends think that the Supreme Court ought to be a mini-Congress. They don't even need to hear cases; they already know how they're going to vote. And that's part of the problem. That's not how I view the appropriate role of the Supreme Court. And I don't think that's how it operates."

•
"Here's — as best as I can tell – here's the rule: when the Democrats are in charge of the process, they do what they think is right consistent with the Constitution; when the Republicans are in charge of the process, they do what they think is right."

•
"And I think that's what our founders intended; I think our founders intended elections to have consequences, and when they send people to Washington of a particular party they expect them to represent their voters."

•
"If the shoe were on the other foot, then I can assure you [Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer would do what the Republicans are doing right now."
Sen. Tom Cotton: Senate will confirm Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court, despite Democratic threats (Fox 09/26/2020)
•
There's nothing unusual or unexpected about the Senate filling a Supreme Court vacancy. The Senate has every right to consider — or not consider — the president's nominees, however it sees fit.

•
If Chuck Schumer really wants to learn more about the Senate's "right" to confirm judges, he can start by reading the Constitution — specifically Article II, Section 2, where it states that the Senate shall provide "advice and consent" on the president's judicial nominees.

•
A lot of Democrats are threatening to blow up the process, the Senate, and the Supreme Court itself if they don't get their way, just as they've done in the past.

•
For example, Reza Aslan, a former CNN commentator, encouraged his fans to burn the country down if the Senate even tries to confirm a Supreme Court justice before the election.

•
Not that liberals need much encouragement; anti-police rioters and Antifa radicals are already working hard to burn down cities across the country.

•
And of course, the left-wing media already are doing their part to stoke the fire by spreading vile smears about Judge Barrett.

•
Judge Barrett is a brilliant legal mind and strong conservative. She also happens to be a Christian mother of seven children. But Democrats and the media have insinuated with no evidence that she wants to turn America into a patriarchal theocracy...

•
It is laughable that the Democrats are accusing a woman who graduated summa cum laude from Notre Dame Law School and edited its law journal, received tenure at her alma mater as a professor, was confirmed as a federal appeals court judge, and is now a nominee for the Supreme Court of being a secret agent of patriarchy.

•
It's even more ridiculous when you look at Judge Barrett's record, which makes clear she is a constitutional conservative who believes her role is to interpret the law, not to impose her personal opinions on the rest of the country like the activist judges so common on the left.

•
But the liberal media don't see their role as reporting the truth. They just want to destroy the reputation of whoever the president dares to select. They seem to think if they repeat their smears long enough, the smears will become true.

•
Some have suggested, in the face of these threats and smears, that it would be better to postpone voting on a Supreme Court nominee until next year, following the presidential inauguration.

•
They seem to think the best way to prevent further discord is to just surrender and give the Democrats what they want.

•
But if there's anything we've learned the past few years, it's that you can't appease those in the radical base of the Democratic Party.

•
If you give them a special counsel to investigate the president, they'll impeach the president even though the special counsel comes back emptyhanded.

•
If you nominate a judge with impeccable legal credentials, they'll stoop to any depth to destroy his character and derail his nomination.

•
Instead of wringing our hands about what the Democrats will or will not do, it's time for Senate Republicans to roll up our sleeves.

•
The left will stomp and storm all it wants. It's our job to be the adults in the room by confirming Judge Barrett as the next justice to the Supreme Court.
McConnell calls Amy Coney Barrett ‘exceptionally impressive,’ Schumer will ‘strongly’ oppose nomination (Fox 09/26/2020)
•
"Despite her unsurpassed character, reputation, and intellect, this confirmation process will be nasty. Why? Because too many on the left (and sadly some on the right as well) want judges who will substitute their own will for the law," Sasse said.

•
" Judge Barrett is not that kind of judge. She believes her duty isn't to arbitrarily slop applesauce on stone tablets and declare new laws — her duty is to cloak her personal views under a black robe and to faithfully uphold the Constitution. That makes her a problem to rabid partisans, and an ally to the rule of law."
Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court (Fox 09/26/2020)
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"Today it is my honor to nominate one of our nation's most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the Supreme Court. She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution — Judge Amy Coney Barrett."

•
Barrett has long been considered a front-runner for the seat after she was closely examined to potentially replace former Justice Anthony Kennedy on the high court.

•
Trump eventually selected Justice Brett Kavanaugh for the slot; news outlets reported that Trump at the time said he was "saving her for Ginsburg."
Ohio manufacturers: Biden's $400B pledge for made-in-America overshadows call to end Trump's tax cuts (Fox 09/26/2020)
•
"We'd rather have a better business climate. ... We don't want help from the government, because when the government comes in to help you, all they do is destroy everything that you do."

•
"I think that the tax cuts that were imposed did wonders for the middle class. I know personally in my paycheck, I felt that. I felt that a lot."
Pennsylvania sheriff, lifelong Dem, decides to back Trump amid unrest (Fox 09/26/2020)
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"I didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left me."

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"The past few months with the goings-on in the news media with the protests, the riots, the looting, burning, assaults on law enforcement ... the silence of the Democratic Party was deafening."

•
"I always considered myself a conservative Democrat. As the time went on and the party moved to the left, I started to see I was more in line thinking as a Republican."
Judge Napolitano on Trump's third Supreme Court nominee: 'This is a moment of triumph' (Fox 09/26/2020)
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"For Donald Trump, this is a moment of triumph. Three justices in the three and a half years — all of a similar intellect and all of a similar attitude about the Constitution."

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"Very few presidents have had this many nominees and Donald Trump is still in his first term. He has been utterly faithful to his promises with respect to the intellect and ideological orientation of the people that he has nominated."

•
"She has already argued that Roe v. Wade, the abortion decision, was wrongfully decided. She has also said she will respect stare decisis, laws that are well-settled and would not vote to change them other than in the most profound and significant situation. So she's going to be grilled on that."

•
... also reacted to a draft bill introduced Friday by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., proposing 18-year term limits for the Supreme Court, among other changes.

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"Representative Ro Khanna's problem is not with Donald Trump, and it's not with the electorate. It's with the Constitution ... legislation can't change the Constitution. prescribes that federal judges ... serve for life."

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"I can't imagine Rep. Ro Khanna would be doing this if Joe Biden were appointing, fill-in-the-blank, a liberal justice."
Joe Lieberman slams 'un-American' criticism of Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Catholic faith (Fox 09/25/2020)
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"You can disagree with somebody based on whether they're pro-life or pro-choice."

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"But when you start to say that you're against them because their religion, in this case, their Roman Catholicism determines their point of view. you're doing something really abhorrent that I think is bigoted, is un-American, and incidentally, is unconstitutional."

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... emphasized that "Article VI of the Constitution says that you can't apply a religious test for any office of public trust in America. That's how wise and fair the people who wrote the Constitution were."

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"There's no reason why a religiously observant person should be accused more of dogma than somebody who is particularly ideological in a secular way."
Trump signs 'born alive' executive order aimed at protecting abortion survivors (Fox 09/25/2020)
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"Every infant born alive, no matter the circumstances of his or her birth, has the same dignity and the same rights as every other individual and is entitled to the same protections under federal law."

•
... "some hospitals refuse the required medical screening examination and stabilizing treatment or otherwise do not provide potentially life-saving medical treatment to extremely premature or disabled infants, even when parents plead for such treatment."
Louisville officer who criticized Black Lives Matter and Antifa in email relieved of command... (Fox 09/25/2020)
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A Louisville police officer who criticized Black Lives Matter activists and Antifa supporters in an email last month was relieved of her command and will retire.

•
The email starts off by saying: "I know it is hard to keep our thoughts and opinions to ourselves sometimes" amid protests over the death of Breonna Taylor and others killed by police.

•
She said the public sometimes criticizes "what we do without even knowing the facts."

•
"These ANTIFA and BLM people, especially the ones who just jumped on the bandwagon ‘yesterday' because they became ‘woke' (insert eye roll here), do not deserve a second glance or thought from us. Our little pinky toenails have more character, morals, and ethics, than these punks have in their entire body."

•
"Do not stoop to their level. Do not respond to them. If we do, we only validate what they did. Don't make them important, because they are not. They will be the ones washing our cars, cashing us out at the Walmart, or living in their parents' basement playing COD [Call of Duty] for their entire life."

•
"There is currently no recourse we have for incidents involving the doxing of officers or their families. What we can do is speak up against them and put the truth out there. Through the PIO office and the LMPD FB page, we will come back at them on their own page to let them and everyone else know they are lying. We will print the facts. I will see to it."

•
... also encouraged officers to come to her office to "vent together" if they need to.

•
The email comes after Louisville Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly emailed 1,000 of his colleagues and blamed Mayor Greg Fischer and other officials for failing "all of us in epic proportions for their own gain and to cover their a****."

•
Mattingly was one of the officers involved in the raid on Breonna Taylor's home that ended with her fatally shot six times. He also was shot during the March 13 operation.

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"You DO NOT DESERVE to be in this position. The position that allows thugs to get in your face and yell, curse and degrade you. Throw bricks bottles and urine on you and expect you to do nothing."
Trump fires back after Cindy McCain endorses Biden (Fox 09/23/2020)
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"I hardly know Cindy McCain other than having put her on a Committee at her husband's request."

•
"Joe Biden was John McCain's lapdog. So many BAD decisions on Endless Wars & the V.A., which I brought from a horror show to HIGH APPROVAL. Never a fan of John. Cindy can have Sleepy Joe!"
'Tucker Carlson Tonight' airs never-before-seen footage from deadly Kenosha shooting (Fox 09/22/2020)
•
"His attorneys argue that Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. Prosecutors in Wisconsin charged him with first-degree murder."

•
"That was the day that he found himself in downtown Kenosha in the middle of a riot. He wound up face-to-face with a convicted child molester called Joseph Rosenbaum, apparently committing arson."

•
The footage shows Rittenhouse running with a fire extinguisher. Rosenbaum appears and appears to chase after Rittenhouse when a single gunshot is fired.

•
A surrounded Rittenhouse squeezed four shots in Rosenbaum's direction. Seconds later, three additional shots were reportedly fired by an unknown shooter.

•
One bullet grazed Rosenbaum's head while another penetrated his right groin, his left thigh, and his back.

•
"Kyle Rittenhouse fired four shots initially that night. Another four were fired. We still don't know who fired them, no one else has been arrested or charged."

•
At this point, according to the video's narration, an unidentified protester strikes Rittenhouse in the head, causing him to fall to the ground.

•
Another protester attempts to jump on Rittenhouse, who then fires two shots into the air.

•
Yet another protester then strikes Rittenhouse in the back of the head with what appears to be a skateboard while reaching for the teen's rifle. Rittenhouse fires a single shot, striking the man in the chest.

•
The video appears to show still another protester advancing with a handgun aimed at Rittenhouse, who fired off a round and struck the armed man in the bicep.

•
"... only Kyle Rittenhouse has been charged, so the question before the court is, did Kyle Rittenhouse commit first-degree murder or was it something else? Was it self-defense? "
Rep. Doug Collins rails against 'anti-American' Hollywood over Amazon promoting Stacey Abrams doc (Fox 09/22/2020)
•
"Some say there's not an anti-family, pro-abortion agenda in Hollywood? Amazon has made the fawning Stacey Abrams documentary their default video for their millions of users logging into their platform."

•
"Hollywood is a moral cesspool where murder, violence, pedophilia and anti-American views are celebrated while life, family and patriotism are denigrated."

•
"Make no mistake about it. These companies are trying to live out President Obama's wish to ‘radically transform' America by brainwashing our children into worshipping the likes of AOC and Stacey Abrams. We should demand that pro-life movies such as 'Unplanned' get the same front-page treatment."
Toomey supports moving ahead with filling Supreme Court seat vacated by Ginsburg (Fox 09/22/2020)
•
"Four years ago, I noted that my decision to oppose moving forward with the Supreme Court confirmation process for Judge Merrick Garland was related to the circumstances present at the time."

•
"In 2016, the White House and the Senate, which share equally the constitutional authority for filling a Supreme Court vacancy, were controlled by different parties. ... The circumstances surrounding the current vacancy are, in fact, different. While there is a presidential election this year, the White House and the Senate are currently both controlled by the same party."

•
"The Senate's historical practice has been to fill Supreme Court vacancies in these circumstances. ... I will evaluate President Trump's nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg based on whether the nominee has the character, intellect, and experience needed to serve on our nation's highest court. These are the same objective, non-partisan criteria that I have used to evaluate judicial nominees under both President Obama and President Trump."

•
The only two Republicans to say that they will do not support moving ahead with a confirmation so close to the election are Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

•
"In order for the American people to have faith in their elected officials, we must act fairly and consistently — no matter which political party is in power," Collins said...

•
"I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election. In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the President or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the President who is elected on November 3."
Mitt Romney says he supports moving ahead with Trump Supreme Court nominee (Fox 09/22/2020)
•
"My decision regarding a Supreme Court nomination is not the result of a subjective test of ‘fairness' which, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder."

•
"It is based on the immutable fairness of following the law, which in this case is the Constitution and precedent. The historical precedent of election year nominations is that the Senate generally does not confirm an opposing party's nominee but does confirm a nominee of its own."

•
The senator, who voted to remove Trump from office earlier this year, continued: "The Constitution gives the President the power to nominate and the Senate the authority to provide advice and consent on Supreme Court nominees. Accordingly, I intend to follow the Constitution and precedent in considering the President's nominee. If the nominee reaches the Senate floor, I intend to vote based upon their qualifications."

•
"We may have a court that has a more conservative bent. But my liberal friends have over many decades gotten used to the idea of having a liberal court. And that's not written in the stars."

•
"It's also appropriate for a nation that's if you will center-right to have a court which reflects center-right points of view. Which again are not changing the law from what it states but instead following the law and following the Constitution."
Patricia Heaton warns Christian followers about an 'onslaught' of ignorance as Supreme Court... (Fox 09/22/2020)
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"Friends, be prepared for social media to be filled with an onslaught of arrogant pronouncements based on breathtaking ignorance of religion in general, Christianity specifically and Catholicism in particularly by people who wouldn't recognize God if He bit them on the bum."
Battle lines drawn over Ginsburg vacancy as Trump teases weekend announcement (Fox 09/21/2020)
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"In the last midterm before Justice Scalia's death in 2016, Americans elected a Republican Senate majority because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president's second term. Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president's Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year," McConnell said

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"By contrast, Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary."

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What is clear is that the 2020 presidential and U.S. Senate elections are no longer chiefly about the coronavirus pandemic or the economic crisis or race riots or the perceived morality of Biden or Trump.

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They are but a battleground in a massive culture war the scale of which is likely to be exacerbated by all of those factors.

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See related Who Are You Voting for? (Glenn McCoy, 08/03/2016) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump fires back after Dems indicate impeachment could be used to block court nominee... (Fox 09/21/2020)
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"I heard if I [nominate], they're going to impeach me. So they're impeaching me for doing what constitutionally I have to do. If they do that, we win all elections."

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"I think we'll win the entire election. I think we're going to win back the House, I think we're going to win the House anyway."
ICE deportation flight, objected to by Omar over COVID fears, included convicted murderer... (Fox 09/21/2020)
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"This week, ICE removed 39 Somalia nationals, 36 of whom have criminal histories. These crimes include murder, rape, domestic violence, assault, sexual assault, crimes against children, drug trafficking, and conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization."

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"ICE is cooperating with the Government of Somalia's requirement to test all Somalia nationals being repatriated."

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"Any ICE detainee who fails to pass screening by a flight medical provider and/or is suspected of having a health condition potentially contagious to other detainees, staff and/or third parties is denied boarding and referred to an ICE-approved facility for further screening and evaluation."
Tom Cotton says Senate will move forward on confirming Ginsburg successor 'without delay' while... (Fox 09/20/2020)
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See related Merrick Garland (Chip Bok, 03/22/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dead at 87 (Fox 09/19/2020)
Kenosha shooting's suspect Kyle Rittenhouse receives $50G donation from gun rights group (Fox 09/18/2020)
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... video from that night shows Rittenhouse "running for his life from an armed mob who were shouting, ‘Beat him up!" and ‘Get that dude!'"

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"The left is doing everything in their power to portray a 17-year-old kid as the villain. We believe Kyle acted legally and defended himself from a dangerous group of armed thugs whose clear intent was to cause permanent harm."
Undercover journalist suing Planned Parenthood for over $75G in new defamation lawsuit (Fox 09/18/2020)
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"Planned Parenthood admits my videos are true when under oath in federal court, but when speaking to the public, Planned Parenthood lies and calls the videos fake."

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"I have put my life on hold for five years to report, with video evidence, the trafficking of aborted infants that I and others witnessed at the highest levels of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. It is time for Planned Parenthood to face the truth."
Trump opens Wisconsin rally blasting Biden for 'disastrous global sellouts' that 'surrendered' US jobs (Fox 09/17/2020)
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"Joe Biden devoted his entire career to offshoring Wisconsin jobs, outsourcing your factories, throwing open your borders, dragging us into endless, ridiculous foreign wars and surrendering your children's future to China."

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"Frankly you would not have a Second Amendment if I had not gotten elected."

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"Biden has supported every disastrous global sellout for half a century, including NAFTA, ... [and] China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) — he supported them all."

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"If Biden wins, it's very simple, China wins. If Biden wins, the mob wins. If Biden wins, the rioters, the anarchists, arsonists, and flag burners — they win."

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... remarking that in some places, people are not allowed to worship in church, but can "rip the hell out of the streets" if they desired.

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In that regard, the president self-characterized his gathering — several dozen miles west of Green Bay — as not a "rally" but a "friendly protest."

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He said that by characterizing it as such, attendees are essentially able to use the same loophole that left-wing groups do when they assemble in major cities.
Department of Education to investigate Princeton after president admits to 'systemic racism' (Fox 09/17/2020)
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If "racism and the damage it does to people of color persist at Princeton" as Eisgruber wrote, then the school may be violating a portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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The DOE also sent a formal records request and is investigating whether Princeton lied about its adherence to the Civil Rights Act to receive federal funds.

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"Based on its admitted racism, the U.S. Department of Education ... is concerned Princeton's nondiscrimination and equal opportunity assurances in its Program Participation Agreements from at least 2013 to the present may have been false."

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"The Department is further concerned Princeton perhaps knew, or should have known, these assurances were false at the time they were made."
Attacks on police must end — they are America’s heroes and protect us all, regardless of race (Fox 09/16/2020)
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Law enforcement officers protect and serve people they don't know and may never meet — including people who despise them. If there was a day with no cops, everyone would realize what they do.

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I respect our police, and I believe police officers are generally decent and honorable men and women who are doing a difficult, dangerous and often thankless job.

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They risk their lives every time they go to work and they bear the added burden of listening to insults shouted at them by ungrateful people and those who think they are entitled or who will say they are "offended."

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The truth is that today there are those who live to be offended. They call themselves progressives.

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They will always be offended until we give them what they think they are entitled to, such as free college, free housing and no police.

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They also want no bail, no courts and no system of consequence for bad behavior.

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As I said when I recently testified before Congress, "you work for me!" We are taxpayers and these politicians are accountable to us. Not the other way around.

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The politicians are accountable to us for the violence in their cities and their failure to act and allow the police to do the job they are trained for. They are accountable for the failure to accept help from President Trump.

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Hold them accountable. And finally, vote in the upcoming elections. Not just the presidential election but for races for state and local elected offices as well.

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Take our country back step by step. Don't just watch TV and remain angry. Take action and live in the country that you want.

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We have a free country and you can decide on how it is run.

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In fact, our country is so free that people like democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan can badmouth it every day and get away with it.

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Time for us to be just as loud.
Barr says rumors Trump would refuse to leave office if he loses election are 'crap' (Fox 09/16/2020)
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"You know liberals project. You know the president is going to stay in office and seize power and all that s***? I've never heard of"

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"Increasingly, the message of the Democrats appears to be ‘Biden or no peace'."

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"As an attorney general, I'm not supposed to get into politics. But... I think we are getting into a position where we're going to find ourselves irrevocably committed to a socialist path. And I think if Trump loses this election — that will be the case."

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"Just think about the way we vote now. You have a precinct, your name is on a list, you go in and say who you are, you go behind a curtain, no one is allowed to go in there to influence you, and no one can tell how you voted. All of that is gone with mail-in voting."

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"There's no more secret vote with mail-in vote. A secret vote prevents selling and buying votes. So now we're back in the business of selling and buying votes."

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"And the capricious distribution of ballots means harvesting, undue influence, outright coercion, paying off a postman, here's a few hundred dollars, give me some of your ballots."

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"They're creating an incendiary situation where there will be loss of confidence in the vote," Barr claimed.

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"It'll be a close vote. People will say the president just won Nevada. ‘Oh, wait a minute! We just discovered 100,000 ballots! Every vote will be counted!' Yeah, but we don't know where these freaking votes came from."
Lancaster protesters' arrests long overdue; 'about time' rioters pay: Lawrence Jones (Fox 09/16/2020)
LA county sheriff says protesters calling for ambushed deputies' death is ‘almost worthy of ISIS’ (Fox 09/15/2020)
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"It's just a new low for the hatred that I don't think anyone in this nation has ever seen before."

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"We just don't expect it on our own shores and we have been here fighting to save people's lives across the county – it doesn't matter who you are and it is not something we are going to expect or tolerate."

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... he had yet to hear from LeBron regarding his challenge, but that the NBA star needs "to take some ownership of exactly what he said in terms of propagating the idea that people are being hunted" due to the color of their skin.
Protesters blocking ambushed LA deputies' hospital is 'new low,' shows 'lack of humanity' (Fox 09/14/2020)
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"There is some that is a part of this anarchist movement that spew hate, they incite violence, and so now taken to the level of blocking emergency entrances to a hospital for others that might need immediate medical attention is horrible."

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"I've got to tell you. the escalation of violence toward our men and women in uniform, I have not seen it like this in 44 years in this business."

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"When you think about what happened there in L.A. County, the fact that you have two officers sitting in a car, they are ambushed, they are shot for no reason other than wearing a uniform, then you show up at a hospital and you chant, ‘We hope you die,' while you block the entrance of the hospital, depriving people of medical services, it's such a lack of humanity."
Candace Owens tells LeBron James: 'If you're suffering through racism, please give me some of that' (Fox 09/13/2020)
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... Owens noted that the Los Angeles Lakers superstar — who has spoken out about his "tough" life as a Black man in America "lives in a one hundred million dollar mansion in Bel Air."

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"He's got a White gardener, a White chef, all various White people that work for him, White driver."

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"So if that's racism, LeBron, please, please share some of that with the rest of us."

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"There is something shaking and something happening in this country, and more and more people are awake and alive to what is really at risk, which is really the values and the principles that this country was built upon."

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See related LeBron James Sports Basketball (Sean Delonas, 06/02/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump calls for swift justice in shooting of ambushed deputies as manhunt intensifies in LA (Fox 09/13/2020)
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"We're looking for him... and when we find that person, we've got to get much faster with our courts and we've got to get much tougher with our sentencing."
Candace Owens warns conservatives have 'lost the education battle' to left, are 'guaranteeing them...' (Fox 09/13/2020)
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"If you are a Black American and you go through the public school system like I went through, you come out and you are basically a propagandist for the left and you don't realize it."

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"I started on the left, although I was not politically active. I believed in all of the indoctrination. I believed, just four short years ago, that Republicans were racist, that conservatives were racists, and that being a Black person and being a woman disadvantaged me in life. And I'm a pretty smart person. These were things that I learned actively."

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"It wasn't because I wanted to be anti-American. It wasn't because I wanted to believe these things. It was because it was taught to me via the public school system."

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"If we continue to allow the Democrat Party to control education, we are guaranteeing them the future because the youth is the future."

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"In California, 75% of Black boys cannot pass a basic literacy exam. That is astounding. You will never hear Black Lives Matter talk about that. You will never hear a Democratic candidate talk about that ... In Baltimore, across five schools, they couldn't find a single child that was proficient in reading and writing and math ... People should be talking about that."

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Those failures, Owens claimed, are part of what she called the "modernized techniques of the slave replantation" practiced by Democrats and the left.

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"What is the one thing black Americans were not allowed to do? Learn to read. Learn to write. The punishment would have been severe for that. And the reason for that is simple. It's because an educated mind cannot be enslaved. And what we're seeing today ... [is] this dumbing down of the education system where kids are learning feelings and they're not learning facts, they're not learning practical skills ... It's problematic and it's something that we need to have a meaningful discussion about. It needs to be more than a discussion. It needs to be action that is taken."
Trump slams Bill de Blasio for telling New Yorkers to enjoy ‘beautiful’ day in NYC (Fox 09/13/2020)
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"But people don't want to get mugged, beaten up, or killed. Let New York's Finest (who proudly endorsed me!) do their job. Rehire crime squad and fired police. They will bring safety back to NYC, FAST!!!"
Bernie Kerik says DOJ must put an end to BLM, Antifa: ‘This is an anti-government movement’ (Fox 09/13/2020)
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"Bottom line is, this has to stop. The Justice Department has to go after Black Lives Matter, after Antifa and put an end to this."

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The anti-police movement is only worsening in some cities as two deputies were shot in California and protests raged in New York City over the weekend, shutting down the George Washington Bridge.

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Kerik said city and state officials must step in and re-administer law and order.

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"Every one of them are responsible for allowing this stuff to happen. Blocking vehicular traffic, pedestrian traffic is a crime. Resisting arrest is a crime. Obstructing justice is a crime. Assault on cops is a crime. Every single person on that bridge should have been arrested. Period."

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"I think you have to educate the American public because they're stupid. They have no conception of what the organization stands for. They have no conception of who the leaders are, how they were inspired, what they believe. They have no idea. So the bottom line is you have to educate the American public on what reality is."

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"This is an anti-government, anti-police Marxist movement that people are supporting because they're ignorant."
Bongino on shooting of LA deputies: Some protesters practicing 'pure unadulterated savagery' (Fox 09/13/2020)
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"They're not animals because I have a dog now and my dog knows right and wrong."

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"So you have savages that show up at the hospital while the mother of a six-year-old is fighting for her life for the very act of showing up and protecting your community, is shot and nearly killed and they're screaming that we want her dead or whatever kind of savagery."

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... "we live in a strange time ... where there's this perception that all ideas are worth hearing."

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"Your garbage, and you're not worth hearing out. they don't even have a basic semblance of what's right and wrong."

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"What happens at night, 99% of the time, it's not peaceful, it's not even a protest."

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"What are you protesting? How do you negotiate with people who are practicing pure unadulterated savagery?"

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"How the hell do you negotiate with a group of people outside of the hospital with two heroic cops fighting for their lives, who just showed up for work, people screaming that they want them dead?"

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"Please tell me how you sit down at the table and smoke the peace pipe with them? I'm open to hearing it. Let me have it."
Carter Page innocent victim of attempted anti-Trump coup by Dems, media and team Obama (Fox 09/13/2020)
DOJ should target Netflix over 'despicable' 'Cuties' film: Rep. Banks (Fox 09/13/2020)
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"With all due respect to Ted Cruz, we're past the point where we need investigations. That's why Sen. Tom Cotton and I have called on the Department of Justice, to call this what it is, it's trafficking child pornography on Netflix and Netflix should be penalized, they should be gone after by the DOJ with charges brought against them for distributing child pornography."
Ex-Vegas police lieutenant on ambush of LA deputies: 'There is a war on cops' (Fox 09/13/2020)
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"This is a reality check for America. There is a war on cops. It truly exists, and the fact that this individual was so emboldened as to walk up to this patrol car and open fire and ambush these two deputies is a stark reminder of that fact."

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A handful of anti-police protesters showed up at the hospital where the deputies were being treated.

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Protesters were blocking the entrance to the hospital emergency room and yelling, "We hope they die," referring to the two deputies.

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... went on to say that the protesters who showed up at the hospital displayed "some of the most disgusting human behavior that I could possibly imagine."

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"Think what kind of human being it takes to show up where two officers are fighting for their lives and say something as horrendous as, ‘We hope you die,'"

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"This is behavior that has become all too common in America, and this is the evidence of the war on cops."

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The deputies, a 24-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, were both in critical condition as they underwent surgery following the attack.
Compton 'ambush' leaves 2 LA County sheriff's deputies 'fighting for their lives' (Fox 09/13/2020)
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A manhunt was underway in California early Sunday after two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were shot in their patrol car Saturday by a suspect who "opened fire without warning or provocation," authorities said.

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The deputies, a 24-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, were both in critical condition and "fighting for their lives" as they underwent surgery following the attack.

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"They are both still fighting for their lives, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers."

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"Animals that must be hit hard!" Trump wrote, referring to criminals who target law enforcement. Trump later tweeted, "If they die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this!"

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... while authorities don't have a detailed suspect description, one of the deputies described the shooter as a "dark-skinned male."

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"Every week across the nation someone is losing their life in the line of duty. It pisses me off, it dismays me at the same time. There's no pretty way to say it."
Universal mail-in voting a 'Democrat-concoction,' 'total disaster,' Deroy Murdock says (Fox 09/12/2020)
Ex-cop on wealthy NYC rioters: 'Taking advantage of Black struggle ... protesting their White guilt' (Fox 09/12/2020)
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"They're taking advantage of BLM, they're essentially protesting their parents, they're protesting their White guilt that has been brainwashed into them by the institutions that we call the educational system that is occurring today with all these leftist teachers."

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"It has nothing to do with police brutality. It has almost everything to do with parents not teaching their children about responsibility."

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"People have to understand this. When you have wealth, somebody worked hard to get to that point, and we are not translating that well to the next generation of these communists who want to destroy everything and think everything should be free."
NJ business owner apologizes for sign: ‘Speak English or pay $10 extra’ (Fox 09/12/2020)
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Last month a business owner in Clifton, N.J., posted a hand-scrawled sign in his window reading, "Speak English or pay $10 extra."

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"When in Rome, do as the Romans do," Dave Feinberg, owner of Cutters Edge, a knife-sharpening business, since 1995, told...

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Feinberg said he posted the sign after a frustrating encounter with a customer.

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"Guy comes in with some product. Wants me to go over it. I have a hard time understanding him because he refused to speak English or make an attempt to speak English," Feinberg told...

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"I was very frustrated. And the thing that frustrated me was making no attempt to speak English."

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He has since posted a new sign, reading: "Sorry about the speak English sign. Please except [sic] our heartfelt sadness it may have caused. [sic]"

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Mohammad Mussalam, owner of a nearby hair salon, predicted that Feinberg may see repercussions from the sign showing up in his sales figures.

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"He's going to lose a lot of customers," Mussalam said through a translator, the report said. "It's racist. It's prejudice. It bothers me."

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... some suggested Feinberg picked the wrong location for setting an English-only policy.
Netflix should face DOJ action over 'Cuties,' some members of Congress say (Fox 09/12/2020)
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The critics included U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. — as well as U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.

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"There's no excuse for the sexualization of children, and Netflix's decision to promote the film ‘Cuties' is disgusting at best and a serious crime at worst."

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"I urge the Department of Justice to take action against Netflix for their role in pushing explicit depictions of children into American homes."

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In the film, the main character, Amy, ends up joining a clique of girls who call themselves the "Cuties" – and perform highly provocative and eroticized dance numbers while scantily clad – as a way of rebelling against her conservative Muslim parents.

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"As a father of young daughters, I find it sickening. Not only is this movie fodder for pedophiles, it encourages very young girls to defy their parents' wishes and share pornographic images of themselves with strangers. Our culture has come a long way in recent years, recognizing the power of television, movies and magazines to affect young girls."

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"The lessons taught in this film are not ones I want my daughters learning. The DOJ should be readying charges against Netflix for distribution of child pornography."
St. Louis BLM protesters from McCloskey confrontation cited for trespassing (Fox 09/12/2020)
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The McCloskeys aimed their weapons at the marchers and have since been charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon.

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The incident landed the couple an appearance during the first night of the Republican National Convention last month, where they asserted their Second Amendment right to defend themselves.

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"The radicals are not content just marching in the streets. They want to walk the halls of Congress. They want power. This is Joe Biden's party. These are the people who will be in charge."
Rep. Brian Mast: Never forget Sept. 12, 2001 and our response to terrorism of Sept. 11 (Fox 09/12/2020)
Trump pays tribute to the 'extraordinary sacrifice' of Americans who lost their lives on Sept. 11 (Fox 09/11/2020)
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President Trump paid "tribute to the sacrifice" of nearly 3,000 Americans who lost their lives on September 11 and honored the "extraordinary sacrifice" of first responders on that fateful day 19 years ago.

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During a solemn ceremony in Shanksville, Pa., the president delivered an address focused on unity and dedicated to the 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93 who lost their lives 19 years ago, saying "nothing could have prepared them for that dreadful morning."

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The president said the passengers "did not hesitate" and "did not waver," saying the "40 towering patriots took charge and changed the course of history forever."

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"To the family members of Flight 93: Today every heartbeat in America is wedded to yours. Your pain and anguish is the shared grief of our whole nation. The memory of your treasured loved ones will inspire America for all time to come."

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"The heroes of Flight 93 are an everlasting reminder that no matter the danger, no matter the threat, no matter the odds, America will always rise up, stand tall, and fight back."

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The 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93 are believed to have prevented a larger attack by fighting back against the terrorists who hijacked the plane. The field in Shanksville, where the plane crashed, is just a 20-minute flight from the U.S. Capitol.

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"Every passenger and crew member on that plane had a life filled with love and joy, friends and family, radiant hopes and limitless dreams."

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"When the plane was hijacked, they called their families and learned that America was under attack. Now, they faced the most fateful moment of their lives."

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"Through the heartache and tears, they prayed to God, they placed their last calls home, they whispered the immortal words, ‘I love you,' Today, those words ring out across these sacred grounds and they shine down on us from heaven above."

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"When terrorists raced to destroy the seat of our democracy, the 40 of Flight 93 did the most American things: They took a vote, and then they acted."

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"Together, they charged the cockpit, they confronted pure evil, and in their last act on this earth, they saved our capital."

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The president said that those 40 passengers "died as heroes."

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"Their momentous deeds will outlive us all," the president said.
Former NYSE CEO: 9/11 is day of reflecting on what made America great (Fox 09/11/2020)
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"We can never forget those 403 brave souls who never returned home that day to their families, their children."

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"The fact today that there are people who suggest we defund, we eliminate police departments, and defund first responder fire departments, let them answer a very simple question," he said.

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"If on 9/11 there were no police officers, fire firefighters, would it be social workers, as they would suggest ... running into those towers and up those stairs?"

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"My people who were coming down the stairs of the second tower, those who would talk about the experience, would only say one thing: 'We were heartened, our strength was given to us by those young, brave firefighters and police officers who were running up the stairs and telling us, 'Don't worry. You're going to be fine. Keep going. You're going to get out of here,' and of course ... virtually all of those who ran up those stairs, in the South Tower, perished moments later."

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"I think today is a day of reflecting on what made America great. It wasn't Democrats. It wasn't Republicans. It was Americans, Americans coming together, putting aside their traditional political ideologies and saying we will respond."

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"You've killed people, you've destroyed property, but the American way of life can never be destroyed. It will rise and we did."

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"At a time of a great tragedy. At a time of great calamity, calm voices are so important."

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"Today, when we look at the China virus and the reactions of both sides of the aisle, I compliment the president for not getting on the tube and causing greater panic and he didn't."
America marks 19 years since 9/11, under coronavirus precautions (Fox 09/11/2020)
Defense Secretary Esper: Since Sept. 11 attacks, our heroic military has successfully fought... (Fox 09/11/2020)
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Exactly 19 years ago, Al Qaeda launched a vicious attack on our homeland by using four hijacked airlines as tools to murder nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children at New York City's World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and on a quiet field near Shanksville, Pa.

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No one could have fathomed on that bright and clear September morning just how much the world would change in the wake of the darkest and most vicious terrorist attack in our nation's history.

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It was an evil assault on our citizens, our institutions, and on our fundamental ideals themselves — freedom, human rights and respect for the American way of life.

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In their attempt to break the spirit of our people and fracture the foundation of our republic, the terrorists underestimated Americans' resilience, resolve and determination to fight for our values.

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Almost two decades after that fateful day, we have dealt devastating blows to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups around the world by eliminating key leaders, cutting off resources, and crippling their attempts to orchestrate future attacks.

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In doing these things, we not only protect our nation's people and everything they represent, but also continue to honor the rarified valor that emerged out of the devastation on Sept. 11, 2001.

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That day, the very best of America triumphed over the worst of atrocities, as Americans from every class, race, and creed united against evil with an outpouring of courage, compassion and sacrifice.

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Every Sept. 11 we reaffirm a solemn vow to the victims and their loved ones that we will never forget their loss, and to do everything in our power to deter and defeat our every enemy.
Rep. McCarthy: Dems want to inflict 'more pain' under COVID-19 just because 'they despise' Trump (Fox 09/11/2020)
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"Democrats despise this president so much, they want to inflict pain. They'd rather watch America suffer than see the president succeed at something."

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"You watch Nancy Pelosi, no one can get their hair done but her. You watch Governor Pritzker of Illinois, no one can go out but his wife, or in Michigan, you can't put the boats in but her husband wants to."
Trump says Michigan's Whitmer 'doesn't have a clue' after she calls him 'biggest threat' to US (Fox 09/11/2020)
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"Michigan has already gained and regained more than half of the jobs that it lost — and if your state was ever allowed to safely reopen by your governor, who doesn't have a clue, just like Joe [Biden], you would have gained far more than that."

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Michigan would be better off if it "had a governor who knew what the hell she was doing," Trump added.

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Trump described Whitmer as a "liberal hypocrite who lives by a different set of rules."
Trump rally attendees open up to Lawrence Jones about their support: 'He tells it like it is' (Fox 09/11/2020)
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"Why are you supporting the president?" Jones asked one woman wearing a "MAGA" hat.

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"Because he tells it like it is," she answered. Two other women told Jones that "he's real." One man indicated that Trump "tells the truth."

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"If you ask me, I think we've been surrounded by a bunch of people that aren't telling us the truth."
Here's what 9/11 and now COVID-19, have taught us about leadership in a crisis (Fox 09/11/2020)
Laura Ingraham alleges Democrats trying to keep Americans from 'pursuit of happiness' (Fox 09/11/2020)
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... the folks "pulling the strings in the Biden puppet show" have forgotten that the rights of Americans to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are unalienable, "meaning government can't take them away, or at least shouldn't be able to take them away.

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"Yet everywhere you look in blue-state America, they are trying to keep you from living, from exercising your freedom, from deciding your own path to happiness."

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"In [that] case you are free to set fires, beat people up, harass diners in restaurants, or harass suburbanites as they sleep."

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"Remember the hustle and bustle of New York City? Broadway, the galas, New York City Marathon, the hopping restaurant scene. How many 'I Love New York t-shirts are vendors selling these days?"

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"Democrats are like perpetual bad parents. They treat everyone like children and ground us for absolutely no reason at all."
Trump speech at Michigan rally interrupted by ‘We love you’ chant (Fox 09/11/2020)
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"Don't say that. "I'll start to cry and that wouldn't be good for my image. We don't...you don't want to see me cry."
Tucker Carlson warns of anarchists 'working to tear down our country,' says 'we have to fight' (Fox 09/10/2020)
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"Riots don't heal wounds, they create them. The violence that Barack Obama and his brigades have unleashed on this country, if anything, increased racial bigotry and distrust."

•
"Someday. Obama and many leaders like him may flee ... and an island off the coast of Massachusetts won't be far enough. They'll be in Switzerland by then, or Austria or New Zealand or somewhere where they don't have to live with the consequences of a society they created."

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"For the rest of us who plan to stay, we have no choice, we have to fight. Anarchism goes by many names. Right now, it's called Antifa and BLM. They're working to tear down our country. That's all we need to know."
Ken Buck sends letter to DOJ asking for investigation into funding of recent riots (Fox 09/10/2020)
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"We write to share our deep concerns regarding the ongoing violence that has gripped American cities and threatened the rule of law across our nation."

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"ANTIFA and other left-wing anarchist groups have unleashed a barrage of totalitarian attacks on our country in recent months, including accosting a sitting U.S. Senator, hijacking peaceful rallies, organizing armed riots, destroying property, burning buildings, stealing livelihoods, and spreading hate."

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"As you know, 18 U.S. § 2101 makes it a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison to incite a riot; organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a riot; commit any act of violence in furtherance of a riot; or aid or abet any person in inciting or participating in a riot."

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"It is readily apparent that these individuals were outfitted for war and were clearly part of a planned effort to infiltrate peaceful protests, provoke violence, and further subvert our system of government."

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"Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents. Well-organized factions of ANTIFA and other anarchist groups have taken advantage of peaceful protests to sow division, threaten free speech, and enflame tensions throughout the nation for more than 90 days."

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"I hope [we get results before November]. I think it's really important to send a message to those who are funding these terrorist activities, that they're being watched. Even if they're not being prosecuted before the election they're being watched. And I think that there is some publicity about that, but hopefully, they recognize that they're facing criminal penalties."

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"[Political pressure] is only noticeable when you care. I don't let it bother me. The great thing is, leadership knows I'm a Republican and I'm going to do my very best to support the Republican party when it stays on the conservative path. When it veers off the conservative path, they know they just took 20 votes and put them aside, because they're not going to get our votes. They'll get other Republicans, and they may get some Democrats, but there's a group of us who are never going to support liberal policies, no matter what. If they're under the Republican banner or Democratic banner... I'm just not going to go for it."
Josh Hawley calls on Congress to investigate 'critical race theory' training scandal after Trump's... (Fox 09/10/2020)
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"Bottom line is: No taxpayer money ought to be spent on pushing this kind of Marxist influenced nonsense, that is racially divisive."

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... single out Sandia National Laboratories, which designs nuclear weapons, and held a mandatory retreat titled, "White Men's Caucus on Eliminating Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in Organizations."

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"This is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue," the president tweeted on Saturday. "Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish!"

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"... West Point — for heaven's sake — is having its cadets go through this kind of training."

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... leaked documents indicated that racial sensitivity training has been held a the Treasury Department, the FBI and Homeland Security.

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"As for how much money has been expended, we don't know that yet. But we need to find out and we need to find out if there've been any federal law violations."
‘Whole entire country would look like Portland’ under future Democratic administration (Fox 09/09/2020)
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"Guess what? When you defund police officers in New York and Los Angeles, you will see more violence when there are no police officers on our streets answering the phone."

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"We know that it is the responsibility of governors and mayors to control their streets. but look at what happened when mayors and governors came to the president for assistance. In Minneapolis, within 24 hours, there was peace on the streets, in Kenosha, within 24 hours of National Guard coming in, there was peace."

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"This president offers action to secure our communities and keep our families safe versus the Democrats who have been silent for far too long."
2,200 American troops leaving Iraq this month, US general says (Fox 09/09/2020)
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"The United States has decided to reduce our troop presence in Iraq from about 5,200 to 3,000 troops during the month of September."

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"This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat."

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The long-planned decision means more than 40% of U.S. troops will exit Iraq in the next three weeks.

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"Unlike previous administrations, I have kept America out of new wars and our troops are coming home," Trump said last month while accepting the Republican presidential nomination at the White House.
Chicago murder rate cut 'roughly in half' since before Operation Legend: AG Barr (Fox 09/09/2020)
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"Bringing federal charges is significant because defendants arrested for violent crimes are often detained before trial, unlike state defendants who are too often released."

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"In addition, federal defendants will face serious sentences if convicted, with a real possibility of long-term imprisonment ... knowing that, many of the arrestees cooperate with the government and lead to even more violent offenders."

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Operation Legend is an ongoing government effort to combat surging crime in parts of the country.

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The operation began in July, shortly after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, for whom the program is named, was fatally wounded in Kansas City, Mo., while he was sleeping after he was struck by a bullet meant for somebody else.

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"The increase in violence that has plagued Chicago and other cities is what prompted the department to launch Operation Legend two months ago in Kansas City, Mo.."

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"The purpose of the operation was to make clear that his life mattered, his name should be remembered and other innocent victims like him, including the 8-year-old girl killed in Chicago on Labor Day, should not suffer such senseless death."

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... violent crime in Kansas City decreased by 32% since the operation's launch, with murder dropping by 18% and aggravated assault down 47%.

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St. Louis has seen a 47% decrease in murders since Operation Legend began four weeks ago.

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Murders in Detroit have dropped by more than 25%, while nonfatal shootings ... have decreased by more than 45% since the operation began seven weeks ago.
Police chiefs are stepping down because they’re put in 'impossible jobs': Lawrence Jones (Fox 09/09/2020)
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"What do you want them [police] to do? Do you want them to just let America burn?"

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... said Biden "was once known as the greatest retail politician," but "he has turned into more of a political chameleon changing his view on things based on who's in the room."
Democratic sheriff on why he left party: 'Unbelievable' that Democratic leadership condones rioting (Fox 09/09/2020)
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"What I've witnessed across the United States is shocking. As a law enforcement leader, I can't imagine 101 days of rioting, and it is condoned by the Democratic leadership. It's unbelievable that they can do that to a law enforcement professional. As a sheriff, I could not imagine putting my deputies on the front lines of these riots night after night with no relief in sight."

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... said that he sees that President Trump supports law enforcement because the commander-in-chief offered cities "under siege federal aid."

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"They're not smart enough to take that aid to try to end the siege of their cities."
Trump rips Cuomo, Rochester mayor after top police officials step down (Fox 09/09/2020)
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"Police Chief, and most of the police in Rochester, N.Y., have resigned. The Democrat Mayor and, of courses [sic], Governor Cuomo, have no idea what to do. New York State is a mess – No Money, High Taxes & Crime, Everyone Fleeing. November 3rd. We can fix it!"
Trump accuses Dems of allowing 'thuggery' in response to Pittsburgh diner video (Fox 09/08/2020)
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President Trump responded to a viral video in which protesters in Pittsburgh appear to be disturbing an elderly white couple dining at a restaurant outdoors, blaming Democrats for allowing such behavior from their supporters to go on.

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In the video, several individuals can be seen shouting at the couple, some from close range. One woman can be seen walking over to their table, picking up a beverage, and drinking it. Local authorities said they are investigating the incident.

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"BLM Protesters horribly harass elderly Pittsburgh diners, scaring them with loud taunts while taking their food right off their plate. These Anarchists, not protesters, are Biden voters, but he has no control and nothing to say. Disgraceful. Never seen anything like it. Thugs!"

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"And because of weak and pathetic Democrat leadership, this thuggery is happening in other Democrat run cities and states. Must shut them down fast. Biden and his most Liberal in Senate running mate, Kamala, won't even talk about it. They won't utter the words, LAW & ORDER!"
Wisconsin's agricultural, manufacturing jobs would be 'devastated' under Biden leadership (Fox 09/07/2020)
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"This president not only can relate to the forgotten men and women — many of whom are everyday hardworking people, many of whom are in labor unions as well as non-union workers — but this guy's delivered."

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"You look before the pandemic, we had the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. The lowest ever recorded obviously for African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, people with disabilities and veterans."

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"Donald Trump is the guy who got them back to work in the past and he is going to get them back to work again right now."

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"Kamala Harris is one of the cosponsors of the so-called Green New Deal. Manufacturing and agricultural jobs would be devastated by that radical plan that Bernie Sanders and others are pushing and that Joe Biden has got to give a wink to it."

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"We saw the numbers the last few years. Barack Obama, when Joe Biden was the vice president, was talking about how jobs weren't going to come back....we have seen the jobs come back since Donald Trump and Mike Pence have been in office."

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"We are going to see them come back again. Wages are going up. People can see it with their own eyes."
Michigan GOP says headquarters vandalized with 'radical anti-police statements' (Fox 09/07/2020)
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"Sunday night our building was vandalized with radical anti-police statements. We will not be intimidated, and we will continue to work hard to ensure President @realDonaldTrump is re-elected!"

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"This vandalism is emblematic of the chaos sweeping through our nation's Democrat-run cities, as the radical left uses criminal tactics to try and extort weak politicians into defunding the men and woman who keep us safe."

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"Republicans will not be intimidated. President Trump will not be intimidated. And this November, the American people will show the world they will not be intimidated when they reelect President Donald Trump."
Trump says a Biden-Harris administration would 'destroy' country, economy (Fox 09/07/2020)
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President Trump touted the United States' economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, claiming his administration could create up to 10 million new jobs in 2021 — while slamming his Democratic rival Joe Biden, calling him a "pawn" for China, saying he "doesn't have a clue" and warning that he would "destroy" the economy.

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... pointing to Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., whom he called "the most liberal person in Congress," saying that a potential Biden-Harris administration "would destroy this country and the economy."

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"If Biden wins, China wins, because China will own this country. And hopefully you're not going to be able to find that out. ... This is the most important election in our history."

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... went on to say that, if re-elected, he will "make America into the manufacturing super power in the world," and will "continue to unleash American energy."

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"We are totally energy independent right now. Joe Biden and the radical socialist Democrats would immediately collapse the economy."

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"If they got in, they would crash it, you'll have a crash, the likes of which you've never seen — your stocks, the 401ks...Those stocks will crash like you've never seen before."

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"He's been so easy, they dream about him. If Joe Biden becomes president, China will own the United States."

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"I know my customers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Leader [Chuck] Schumer, they don't want to make a deal. These are people, I don't have a lot of respect, they don't have a lot of respect for the American people, and I know who I am dealing with."

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"They don't want to make a deal because they know that's good for the economy, therefore it is good for me on November 3, therefore, they're not going to make a deal."

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"They think if the country does as badly as possible, even though a lot of people are being hurt, that's good for the Democrats. I'm taking the high road by not seeing them. And if I thought it would make a difference, I'd do it in a minute."

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Negotiations over a potential fourth coronavirus stimulus package have been stalled for weeks, as Pelosi, D-Calif., and Democrats have urged Republicans to spend at least $2.5 trillion on the package, while the White House and Republicans are looking to spend less.

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"The vaccine will be very safe and very effective. We want to save a lot of lives. With me, it's the faster the better... I am saying this in terms of this is what we need."
Georgia senator whose event was disrupted by Black Lives Matter says she's holding rioters, DAs... (Fox 09/07/2020)
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"The most important thing is that we have law and order in this country. We have to hold them accountable."

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"Black Lives Matter rioters came in and they were protesting and trying to break it up, but we didn't stop because, look, this is one thing that our country is built on."

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While the disruptors shouted and police refused to intervene because it was in a public park building, Loeffler's supporters shouted her name and chanted "USA" in response.

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... says the incident shows the "stark contrast" voters have in November, giving them a clear choice between order and chaos.

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"Do they want the opportunity to have free expression, to have the rule of law, safety, and security in their communities? This is the type of legislation I have been introducing to help the president to make sure that we have a strong, safe economy."

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"Or do we have the chaos and pandemonium that they want to create just to consolidate power in the radical left?"

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... her bill would hold rioters and district attorneys accountable for their actions, including when they don't prosecute rioters and looters.

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... points to Portland, where "dozens and dozens have been released without being held accountable for burning down businesses, many minority-owned businesses, destroying jobs, livelihoods."
Dan Bongino 'terrified' of big tech interference in 2020 election (Fox 09/07/2020)
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"There are so many things that they are doing. It's not just one thing — from the censoring of Donald Trump's posts, suggesting they are doing some kind of fact-check and then they do the manipulated media thing as well. Yet, when Joe Biden's campaign and Democrats do the same thing, they don't get the same label."

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"We've literally quoted Nancy Pelosi and they fact-checked the quotes and said that it's not an accurate quote."

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"It's a quote, I don't think they know what quotation marks mean. I'm really worried about it. They've got their fingers in this and I think there is going to be a big backlash. People are totally ignoring them right now."
Trump warns schools teaching 1619 Project 'will not be funded' (Fox 09/06/2020)
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The project is based on the premise that American history began in 1619 — cited as the date African slaves arrived in Virginia — and that everything following this should be viewed through that lens.

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Trump's tweet echoes the sentiment of a bill Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced in July. That bill proposed denying funds to any school that uses the 1619 Project in its curriculum.

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... schools in areas including Chicago and Washington, D.C., had already amended their history curricula to reflect the project's messages.

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The project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

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However, multiple historians have criticized the series of articles for multiple inaccuracies, including the argument that the American Revolution was fought not to achieve independence from Britain, but to preserve the institution of slavery.

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... Cotton called the project "a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded."
Steve Hilton: Trump is no intellectual, but he wins 'the battle of ideas' (Fox 09/06/2020)
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"Real power in politics is not just the office you hold and the policies you introduce, all of that is fleeting and temporary. Real power is when you change the way people think, you change the climate of opinion, you win the battle of ideas."

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... fired back at "establishment Republicans" who criticize the president — among them former National Security Adviser John Bolton who recently called Trump's presidency an "aberration" during an interview...

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"What arrogance. What idiocy. What do they give us, these establishment Republicans, two unwon wars in Afghanistan that killed over 400,000 people, disastrous trade deals that sent millions of jobs overseas and gutted the heartland. Open borders that even Bernie Sanders used to say destroyed jobs and lowered wages for the working class, and total surrender to the loony left campus authoritarians."

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... called Trump the first Republican president to " actually stand up to them and fight for America.

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"These never Trumpers and establishment Republicans are utterly delusional if they think anyone except their smug friends in the media bubble wants to go back to how it was before Trump," he said.

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"They're so shallow and superficial that they can't see beyond their own prejudice."
Violent protests setting up Trump for 'landslide' win: Star Parker (Fox 09/06/2020)
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... the protesters' purpose in continuous unrest is to "destabilize our society" and push the idea that the foundations of America are inherently "evil."

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"They are after our founding principles. They think that America is inherently evil because it was rooted in Christianity and capitalism and a constitution, a rule of law where we get to elect our officials and they don't like this."
Ex-Democrat, WalkAway member describes BLM confrontation: They 'chased us down the street' (Fox 09/06/2020)
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"We were minding our own business. ... They immediately started screaming at us, throwing things at us and then chased us down the street to where there was a group of cops ... that we were trying to get to protect us."
Devine: Dems have no intention of accepting second Trump term (Fox 09/05/2020)
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"If you think that they were sore losers in 2016, you ain't seen anything yet. ... Democrats have no intention of accepting defeat at the ballot box."

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... called it "information warfare" to benefit the Biden campaign, citing a Washington Post op-ed by Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks, who says Americans should prepare for war if the election result is anything short of a Biden landslide.

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"It's just a variation on the theme ... when [Biden] said if you don't vote for him, you ain't safe. It's pretty despicable, but that is everything you need to know."

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"Because the scenarios they put together show that actually the Democrat proxies in the street are supposedly peaceful protesters, we've heard that before."

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"And yet the Republicans are supposed to send in a whole bunch of violent agitators, which is exactly the opposite of what's been happening."

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"They are being encouraged now by the Democrats to take to the streets by whatever means necessary to make democracy happen, and democracy ... from their point of view is only if Joe Biden wins. They will not tolerate another Trump win."
Trump ends 'critical race theory' training for federal employees, calls it a 'sickness' (Fox 09/05/2020)
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The Trump administration is halting "critical race theory" training in federal agencies, with White House officials calling it "anti-American propaganda."

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"This is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue. Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish!"

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... wrote a memo informing agencies of Trump's instruction to stop using controversial forms of training on "critical race theory," "white privilege" and "any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either...that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or...that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil."

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"It has come to the President's attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date " training" government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda."

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... cited reports of executive branch employees being taught in the classes — designed to educate employees about "white privilege" and other concepts — that "virtually all White people contribute to racism" and that it is racist to believe that America is a land of opportunity.

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"These types of ‘trainings' not only run counter to the fundamental beliefs for which our Nation has stood since its inception, but they also engender division and resentment within the Federal workforce."

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... Sandia National Laboratories — which designs nuclear weapons — held a mandatory retreat titled, "White Men's Caucus on Eliminating Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in Organizations."

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... a series of "examples of white male culture." Those included "golf," "quick decisions," "self-confident," "risk taking," "brave," and other attributes that the document notes were "generated by participants."

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... the federally-created National Museum for African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) faced a wave of backlash for publishing a graphic that linked things like the nuclear family and "decision-making" to whiteness.

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In his memo, Vought warned that the training "seeks to undercut our core values as Americans and drive division within our workforce."

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"The President has directed me to ensure that Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions."
Jacob Blake makes first court appearance via video from hospital bed (Fox 09/05/2020)
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Jacob Blake appeared in court Friday via video for the first time since he was shot in the back by a Kenosha, Wisc., police officer, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

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From his hospital bed, Blake pleaded not guilty to a previous felony, third-degree sexual assault, as well as misdemeanor criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.

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Blake, 29, is accused in court documents of sexually assaulting a woman in her home on May 3, stealing her Ford Explorer and debit card, and making two fraudulent ATM withdrawals for $500.

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... police say the initial 911 call was about Blake, who was reportedly attempting to take keys to a vehicle that wasn't his. Responding officers said they were aware that Blake had an open warrant for sexual assault.
Tucker Carlson accuses Silicon Valley of doing 'all it can' to support 'compliant' Democrats... (Fox 09/04/2020)
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"Silicon Valley is doing all it can to help the Biden-Harris ticket, and this is just the beginning."

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"This year, for example, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and other billionaires threw major financial support behind an organization called Acronym. Reportedly, Acronym has set up bogus news sites in swing states to portray Democrats in a positive light."

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... also recalled leaked footage of Google co-founder Sergey Brin lamenting the results of the 2016 presidential election during a company meeting.

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"At the same meeting, Brin suggested that Google change its algorithm, the very core of its search business, to promote 'better quality of governance and decision-making.' What does that mean? In other words, they want to subvert democracy and everyone in the room knew exactly what he was saying and they got to work doing it."

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"Two years later [in 2018], video of that company-wide meeting leaked. Any other company would have been ashamed of it. The head of America's most powerful corporation caught on camera planning to manipulate voting in elections. But Google was not embarrassed. They didn't stop either, no one made them stop, so they continued."

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... referenced a video of Google executive Jen Gennai saying that "we all got screwed over in 2016. Again it wasn't just us, it was — the people got screwed over, the news media got screwed over, like, everybody got screwed over so we've rapidly been, like, 'What happened there and how do we prevent it from happening again?'"

•
"As long as people were distracted by identity politics, as long as they were fighting about unresolvable issues like race and gender, you might be able to distract them long enough that you could pull this off."

•
"So there's a reason Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are now the standard bearers of the Democratic Party. It's not because Democratic voters loved them so much — they didn't. It's because they're compliant. Joe Biden has trouble formulating sentences clearly. He's not posing a threat to tech monopolies. Of course not, after 50 years of shilling for corporations."
Suspect in Portland fatal shooting killed as federal task force moved in (Fox 09/04/2020)
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An avowed Antifa supporter suspected in the deadly shooting of a Patriot Prayer member in Portland, Ore., last month was killed Thursday night as a federal task force moved in to arrest him.

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The suspect was shot by law enforcement after drawing a gun on officers... "Initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers. Task force members responded to the threat and struck the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene."

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"They're out hunting me," Reinoehl, 48, a father of two, told an independent reporter...

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Reinoehl told ... that he had no regrets about firing his weapon last weekend. "I was confident that I did not hit anyone innocent and I made my exit."

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Reinoehl was a frequent participant in the nightly protests in Portland that have been occuring since the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis — and reportedly was involved in several confrontations.

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Videos shot by bystanders appear to show a man resembling Reinoehl firing two shots at Danielson and then walking away.

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In an online post from June 16, Reinoehl described himself as being "100 % ANTIFA all the way!"

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"Every Revolution needs people that are willing and ready to fight. There are so many of us protesters that are just protesting without a clue of where that will lead. That's just the beginning that's that where the fight starts. If that's as far as you can take it thank you for your participation but please stand aside and support the ones that are willing to fight. I am 100 % ANTIFA all the way! I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters! ... We do not want violence but we will not run from it either! ... Today's protesters and antifa are my brothers in arms."

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Around the same time Thursday night that news reports were breaking about Reinoehl being killed, President Trump tweeted his frustration that police hadn't yet made an arrest in the death of Danielson.

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"Why aren't the Portland Police ARRESTING the cold blooded killer of Aaron Danielson. Do your job, and do it fast. Everybody knows who this thug is. No wonder Portland is going to hell!"
NPR issues mea culpa, says 'In Defense of Looting' interview 'did not serve NPR's audience' (Fox 09/03/2020)
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"In the midst of protests and uprisings, there is often a loud call to denounce riots and looting. But in her new book, author Vicky Osterweil argues that looting is a strategic resistance tactic that has been used for centuries to fight injustice."

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"When I use the word looting, I mean the mass expropriation of property, mass shoplifting during a moment of upheaval or riot. That's the thing I'm defending. I'm not defending any situation in which property is stolen by force," Osterweil said.

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"Most stores are insured; it's just hurting insurance companies on some level. It's just money. It's just property. It's not actually hurting any people."

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"One of the ones that's been very powerful, that's both been used by Donald Trump and Democrats, has been the outside agitator myth, that the people doing the riots are coming from the outside," Osterweil said.

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Metropolitan Police Department Chief Peter Newsham said that most of those arrested in Washington were from out of state. "From Thursday until early this morning, the large majority of arrestees, over 70 percent, are not from the District of Columbia. So they appear to be folks who are coming into our city, our peaceful city, with the intent of destroying property and hurting folks."

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The police department in Kenosha, Wis., where protests swept the city after the shooting of Jacob Blake, said that 102 out of 175 people who were arrested for looting and rioting were from outside the city.

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"Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police," Osterweil said.

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"And also, it provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure, and helps them imagine a world that could be. And I think that's a part of it that doesn't really get talked about — that riots and looting are experienced as sort of joyous and liberatory."

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See related Democrat Voter Registration (Sean Delonas, 06/04/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tucker Carlson: Biden campaign ‘surely’ benefiting from Antifa, website connection (Fox 09/03/2020)
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best steps down, claims cuts left her 'destined to fail' (Fox 09/03/2020)
Pelosi claim of hair salon 'setup' is 'absolutely false,' business owner says (Fox 09/03/2020)
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... said she decided to share the now-viral security camera footage when she saw Pelosi indoors without a mask in what she called a "hurtful" display of hypocrisy amid the deadly pandemic.

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Pelosi addressed the backlash earlier in the day, claiming she frequented the salon "over the years many times," and demanding an apology from the owner "for setting me up."

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"There was no way I could've set that up. I've had a camera system in there for five years. I mean, I didn't go in there and turn cameras on as soon as she walked in and set her up. So that is absolutely false."

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"He can't have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City," Cuomo said. "Forget bodyguards, he'd better have an army if he thinks he's going to walk down the streets in New York."

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"He is persona non grata in New York City, and I think he knows that, and he'll never come back to New York, because New Yorkers will never forget how gratuitously mean he has been."

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Cuomo later clarified he was not threatening the president but rather expressing how disliked he believes Trump is by New Yorkers.
Barr says it's a 'false narrative' that there's an 'epidemic' of cops shooting unarmed black men (Fox 09/03/2020)
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"At the same time, I think it would be an oversimplification to treat the problem as rooted in some deep-seated racism generally infecting our police departments."

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"It seems far more likely that the problem stems from a complex mix of factors, which can be addressed with focused attention over time."
McCloskeys: ‘There’s a real army of secret Trump voters out there’ (Fox 09/02/2020)
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"We're out to dinner the other day and the waitress put in our bill a note that said ... ‘I just wanted to say I saw you on TV. I have been waiting to serve you ever since. 100% stand behind you. Trump 2020! I didn't want to say anything out loud because most of my co-workers are very liberal.'"

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"I think that there is a real army of secret Trump voters out there that are just being suppressed by social ridicule by their co-workers and by their employers. They're going to come forward and really make a difference in this election. It is very encouraging."
NPR slammed over tweet that Trump claimed 'without evidence' that Kenosha gunman acted in self-... (Fox 09/01/2020)
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"You saw the same tape as I saw. He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like. And he fell, and then they very violently attacked him, and it was something that we're looking at right now, and it's under investigation, but I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed but it's under investigation."

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NPR responded ... "President Trump declined to condemn the actions of the suspected 17-year-old shooter of 3 [sic] protesters against police brutality in Kenosha — claiming, without evidence, that it appeared the gunman was acting in self-defense."

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"There is no legitimate argument for @NPR to exist as a tax
Trump visit site of 'anti-American' riots in Kenosha, promises to help businesses rebuild (Fox 09/01/2020)
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"Kenosha been ravaged by anti-police and anti-American riots. These are not acts of peaceful protests, but domestic terror."

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His visit was also met by protesters, with a large group raising their middle fingers at the president as the motorcade passed.

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"To stop the political violence we must also confront the radical ideology that includes this violence. Reckless far-left politicians continue to push the destructive message that our nation and our law enforcement are oppressive or racist — they'll throw out any word that comes to them."
Anonymous Democrat operative's account of how election fraud is allegedly committed was... (Fox 09/01/2020)
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... the operative "knows this because he's been doing it, on a grand scale, for decades."

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The Democratic operative "said fraud is more the rule than the exception."

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"His dirty work has taken him through the weeds of municipal and federal elections in Paterson, Atlantic City, Camden, Newark, Hoboken and Hudson County and his fingerprints can be found in local legislative, mayoral and congressional races across the Garden State."

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"Some of the biggest names and highest office holders in New Jersey have benefited from his tricks, according to campaign records The Post reviewed."

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"The whisteblower — whose identity, rap sheet and long history working as a consultant to various campaigns were confirmed by The Post — says he not only changed ballots himself over the years, but led teams of fraudsters and mentored at least 20 operatives in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania — a critical 2020 swing state."

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... the operative would say is the "voter is mailed the ballot and then once the ballots go out, they just fan out and they knock on doors and they convince people to hand over completed ballots."

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"He says a shocking number of people will just hand over completed ballots."

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"This is a real thing. And there is going to be a f**king war coming November 3rd over this stuff ... If they knew how the sausage was made, they could fix it."

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... the anonymous source explained that voter fraud is also connected to nursing homes, where the nurses are allegedly "paid operatives: and fill out absentee ballots for the seniors."

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"This has been called ‘granny harvesting' in the past. They don't even have to steam it open because the nurse is on the payroll and then they just go and the nurse gives a stack of ballots, it's like, ‘Hello, we're going to do the ballot together' and then it's both fraud and it's elder abuse frankly."

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... according to the operative, "sometimes postal employees are in on the scam."

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"You have a postman who is a rabid anti-Trump guy and he's working in Bedminster or some Republican stronghold ... He can take those [filled-out] ballots, and knowing 95% are going to a Republican, he can just throw those in the garbage."

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"The takeaway for me and his [the operative's] takeaway, too is ... the answer here is not to abolish mail-in voting, but that there are some very, very easy ways to just make it a lot safer. Things like having a watermark or bar code."

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"He was saying treat a ballot with the same security you treat the money. I could never take a $20 bill, put it into a copy machine and come out with a new $20 bill that I could just go spend at the store because that's a one-way ticket to jail."

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"Don't hand your ballot to a random person that knocks at your door saying he will deliver it for you. Do it yourself."
Mike Tobin describes seeing rioters ‘pre-party in the parking lot’ before 'big show of destruction' (Fox 09/01/2020)
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"These things do start to fit a pattern when you see there will become a point where the line is drawn. It started out in in Minneapolis [after George Floyd's death] at the 3rd Precinct, and then it moved out ... But in Kenosha, it was that courthouse at the public safety building where the demonstrators were trying to get in every day and the police said, you know, 'You're not coming in here.' That's where the line is and that's where the trouble starts."

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"And what we also saw there that we've seen in other places is once they move the demonstrators from that location, they go somewhere else and something else happens."

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"The first night, they moved the demonstrators away from the from the courthouse, a lot of them actually just left on their own volition. That's when all the fires started around Kenosha. The second night, that Tuesday night, when they moved the demonstrators away from the courthouse, that's when the gunfire happened."

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"A lot of those kids who were out there at these demonstrations, it's a big game for them. I've heard people say things like, 'Looting is fun.' And in Minneapolis [and] some other locations, I've watched them pre-party in the parking lot for hours and then come out for the big show of destruction. So for some of them, it's a game. And things got real serious that Tuesday night in Kenosha, and it changed the parameters of it."

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"I think the strength of Antifa is that they are so nebulous, they're without organization ... if they stood for one thing, well, then people could disagree with what they stand for.

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"But you get these Antifa protesters who fancy themselves somewhere between the [civil rights] marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the rioters from the 'Joker' movie. And they can take their own motivation because there isn't anything to disagree with, with Antifa.

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"So ...they show up, they do their thing. They enjoy the destruction. They enjoy shaking their fist at the man. They enjoy pushing back at the societal structure, and they can be very efficient ... You can work very fast if all you want to do is be destructive."
Protests erupt in Southern Los Angeles after Black man killed by deputies, report says (Fox 09/01/2020)
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The man allegedly punched a cop in the face, dropping the clothes he was holding along with the firearm.

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"Our suspect was holding some items of clothing in his hands, punched one of the officers in the face and then dropped the items in his hands."

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"The deputies noticed that inside the clothing items he dropped was a black semiautomatic handgun. At which time a deputy-involved shooting occurred."
St. Louis couple who brandished guns during BLM protest make first court appearance (Fox 08/31/2020)
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"The radicals are not content just marching in the streets. They want to walk the halls of Congress. They want power. This is Joe Biden's party. These are the people who will be in charge."
GOP lawmaker argues left is 'funding, in a huge way,' protests and riots across US (Fox 08/31/2020)
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"The same time the left is talking about defunding the police, the left is talking about funding, in a huge way, these protests."

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"They're coming from all over the country. They are having transportation costs, housing costs, food costs paid for and perhaps salaries and other things. So It's important to know when you're dealing with organized crime like this, where the funding is coming from."
Gowdy fires back at Wisconsin gov over Trump Kenosha visit: 'That's what presidents do' (Fox 08/31/2020)
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"80% of Americans do not view this issue as Black-and-White, Republican-Democrat, it is an American issue."

•
The argument can be separated into "people of good conscience versus who are not of good conscience, and people of good conscience did not mind when President Obama came and helped us heal in Charleston [after the Emanuel AME Church shooting in 2015]. I don't think they will mind if President Trump makes the effort to show respect to Jacob Blake and his family. That's what presidents do."

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"Whether people like it or not, Donald Trump is the president, and ... he went to Louisiana and Texas [after Hurricane Laura]. Did the Democrats have a problem with that in the aftermath of the hurricane? That's what presidents do."

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"The reality is, they just don't want him to be the president."
Trump blasts Portland leaders as 'terrible,' 'incompetent' after latest violence, says residents... (Fox 08/31/2020)
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"So if it weren't 'Donald Trump's America,' to just use the expression, as I'm president, you would have riots like you've never seen. The Democrats have lost control of the radical left ..."

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"Don't forget, Biden wasn't going to come out of his basement until the election. Now, he had to because the polls are so good for me. Now, he had to because the polls are different."

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"Well, these are terrible and very incompetent people ... I've offered to send in the National Guard. I've offered to send in anybody they want."

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"I could put that [unrest] out in 45 minutes and it would stop. And I think the people of Portland and the people of Oregon, I know it's a liberal state — considered liberal — they're tired of it. They're tired of having of living with this curse."

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The president added that he does not want his supporters to get involved in confrontations with left-wing protesters, but would rather they "leave it to law enforcement.

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But my supporters are wonderful, hardworking, tremendous people. And they turn on the television set and they look at a Portland or they look at a Kenosha before I got involved and stopped it."

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"[I'm going] because I am a tremendous fan of law enforcement and I want to thank the law enforcement. They've done a good job," he said.

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"And when the governor says that I shouldn't come or he'd prefer that I not come. I'm the one that called him and said, 'Tony, you got to bring out the National Guard.' [And he said] 'Well, I don't really want to do it.'"
Biden condemns rioting, blasts Trump's response in fiery post-convention speech (Fox 08/31/2020)
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... "as predicted, Joe Biden today failed to condemn the left-wing mobs burning, looting, and terrorizing American cities. He failed to condemn Antifa. He failed to condemn people who called the police a ‘cancer' or people on his campaign staff who called them ‘pigs.'" ... "you won't be safe in Joe Biden's America."
Ken Buck doubles down on Rand Paul's call for investigation into funding of violent protests (Fox 08/30/2020)
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"The Justice Department needs to open an investigation into who is funding these violent riots."

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"If the Tea Party threatened a Democratic Senator and assaulted police officers like this, it would be leading CNN. Every conservative politician would be asked to condemn it. Where is the outrage?"

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He revealed some of the protesters were actually staying in the same hotel — and on the same floor — as he and his wife. Some were even as close as the next room.

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"My question is: Who are these people? Who paid for their hotel rooms? Who flew them in? Law enforcement needs to look at the funding of violent criminal activity like this. And national Democrats need to confront it. It's organized. It's paid for. It's violent. It's not about Black lives or any lives; it's about anarchy and destruction."

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"The American people are starting to catch on and grow tired of it. So I ask Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris this: Will you stand up finally and denounce this violence and destruction? Will you quit inciting it and urge other leaders to do the same?"

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"The mob swarmed me and my husband, Sen. Rand Paul, in a tight circle, screaming expletives, threats, and shouting, 'Say her name,'"

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"We rushed up to two police officers, and I believe that is the only thing that kept us from being knocked to the ground. Even pressed against the officers, we were greatly outnumbered."

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"The Associated Press is reporting that Rand used the word 'attack' to describe our ordeal 'without evidence,' This is disgusting and utter proof of their bias. When you are surrounded by throngs of people screaming in your face and preventing you from getting away, that is an attack."
Trump Jr accuses Biden of having 'liberal privilege' to 'lie and flip-flop' but be called a 'moderate' (Fox 08/30/2020)
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"... no one talks about liberal privilege, which is the ability to lie, to flip-flop, to have a terrible record like Joe Biden and then to be able to be pushed by the media as though moderate."
Lara Trump: Democratic mayors 'have not protected their citizens' (Fox 08/30/2020)
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"You've seen sadly that throughout this country in Democrat-run cities, the people that are in charge — the mayors of these cities — have let their citizens down."

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"They have not upheld the laws, they have not protected the citizens, they have not protected small businesses."

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In Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler openly rejected help from the National Guard, even posting an open letter online expressing his refusal, despite more than 90 straight days of protests which have often featured violence.

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Hours after Wheeler's letter, a man who appeared to be a Trump supporter was killed during a clash between a conservative group and Black Lives Matter protesters.
Laura Ingraham sees Democrats 'drowning' in 'riptide of radicalism': 'They have nothing to offer...' (Fox 08/29/2020)
•
The Democrats were trying to convince you that poor old Joe [Biden] should be put in charge. They refused to address the rabid donkey in the room: The violence playing out in blue cities, the Portland riots and destruction and looting in Chicago. Did they think people would not see the video on social media of all of the burning?"

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"I actually don't believe that poor old Joe likes these scenes ... but he's too weak to stop it. By the same token, I think a lot of Democrats are embarrassed about the party's unsavory alliances, their devil's bargain with their donor class, outsourcing American jobs and placating China. They chose Joe Biden, one of the weakest candidates in modern history, as their nominee."

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"A riptide of radicalism is drowning the Democrats. They have nothing to offer the voters."
Pro-Trump Dem Vernon Jones calls for congressional investigations after being hounded by 'mob'... (Fox 08/28/2020)
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"I believe there are going to be people who are involved with the attack on us that actually were paid to come here, are not from Washington, D.C., and are sort of paid to be anarchists."

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"This is disturbing because really, if you're inciting a riot that's a crime, but if you're paying someone to incite a riot that person needs to go to jail as well."

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"Congress should also pass immediately, to include in the federal hate crime law, that it becomes a hate crime when someone assaults you based on your political ideology and party affiliation," Jones said. "Let's start prosecuting these people for hate crimes."

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"This is not about voting because the same thing could happen to any one of them, Black or Democrat. Doesn't matter. This is about peoples' First Amendment. And this is about citizens' safety. Every citizen's safety."

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"And it shouldn't be a litmus test that if you fail to support a particular candidate or party that you're not safe on the streets of America."

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"Where are the athletes boycotting a game for all of us who've been under attack by these mobs, that are members of the Black Lives Matter?" ... "Where is LeBron James calling out those terrorists last night?"

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"I applaud those men and women, both Black and White, who really put their lives on the line to protect me."

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"When they talk about defunding the police department, that was a prime example. Because they were undermanned by that mob. And that's what it was, a mob. But they held the line and they used their bicycles and their courage to protect me. I'll never forget them. I owe them a debt of gratitude. I owe all law enforcement officers across this country a debt of gratitude for standing up protecting those very folks, including Democrats, who failed to protect police officers."
Dan Bongino describes being harassed outside White House by 'paid, organized mob of lunatics' (Fox 08/28/2020)
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"The minute you walked out ... they were all waiting right there, alleged protesters."

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"You have to be careful. We're not the violent ones. I'm not gonna be the one who initiates any type of violent action, ever. It's not what I do. It's never what I did. However, like any sane human being, I will defend myself if you put your hands on me. Nobody did that."

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... he and his wife walked "two or three more blocks being called 'racist'" and estimated receiving "50-60 middle fingers."

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"These guys and women are total cowards and chumps. They attack in packs ... It's like they have this hive mind ... they know they have to attack in packs because they are legitimately chumps. When you stare them in the face, they look down, they won't do anything ... They're total cowards when you confront them. Totally. Mark my words. They don't have a shred of courage or dignity, but they do attack in packs and it gives them, like, collective power because they know that if it breaks bad for them, their friends will hit you with a skateboard."

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... the ordeal went on for "a half an hour" and roughly 20 protesters gathered around them.

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"These are not protests. Not only are these not peaceful protests, throw that out the window. These are not protests! They're not protests! We saw these people, some of them, leaving our hotel we were staying at this morning at six o'clock. Why are they staying at a hotel? How did they get there? The hotel we stayed at wasn't cheap! Did we not see three of them this morning, Paula, walking out? Yes we did! These are not protests. This is a paid, organized mob of lunatics. This is not a protest."
Sen. Rand Paul: My wife and I were attacked by a mob — Dems would worsen problem by bowing to... (Fox 08/28/2020)
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My question is: Who are these people? Who paid for their hotel rooms? Who flew them in? Law enforcement needs to look at the funding of violent criminal activity like this.
Trump attacks Biden, Democratic leaders at rally, says DC police took 'tremendous abuse'... (Fox 08/28/2020)
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"The mayor should be ashamed for that kind of display of incompetence. It's happening all over when you have Democrat-run cities."

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"Police took tremendous abuse. Rand Paul was in big trouble last night. He's a good guy."

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... claiming Democratic presidiential nominee Joe Biden is a "puppet" to the radical left who "doesn't even know he's alive." "I believe I have the honor of running against the worst candidate ever put up by the Democratic Party."

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"They are not protesters. Those are anarchists, agitators, rioters, looters. It has nothing to do with George Floyd. They have no idea who he is. If you ask them ‘Who's George Floyd?' they say ‘I don't know.'"

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"You better vote for me or you're going to have the greatest depression you've ever seen," he said after claiming the next president will get to appoint up to 5 Supreme Court judges.

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"We are one movement, one people and one nation under god and we don't take the beautiful word God out of our Pledge of Allegiance."
Accused Kenosha shooter's lawyer claims self-defense amid new video (Fox 08/28/2020)
Sen. Rand Paul thanks DC cops for saving him from 'crazed mob' after RNC (Fox 08/28/2020)
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"Just got attacked by an angry mob of over 100, one block away from the White House, he wrote on Twitter early Friday.

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Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the White House on Thursday evening as President Trump prepared to give his speech from the South Lawn.

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Protesters yelled, "No justice, no peace!" and "Join us!" while holding anti-Trump and Black Lives Matter signs, beating drums and playing other music.

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The demonstration was complete with a band, what appeared to be a "party" school bus and a character dressed as the infamous Baby Trump holding a cell phone.

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Images showed attendees taking photos of a guillotine with an effigy of Trump.

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Video posted by the Daily Caller purportedly showed protesters hurling expletives at attendees leaving Trump's speech.

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An elderly couple was confronted as they crossed the street by at least one protester who screamed at them while making an obscene gesture.

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The demonstration outside the White House had three stages and five DJs for the "Drown Out Trump Live GoGo Show and Noise Demo" planned to coincide with Trump's speech.
Trump vows ‘security’ as he accepts GOP nomination, warns Biden would end ‘American greatness’ (Fox 08/28/2020)
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... the president emphasized that "Joe Biden is not the savior of America's soul – he is the destroyer of America's jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness."

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... Trump vowed that "in a new term as president, we will again build the greatest economy in history – quickly returning to full employment, soaring incomes and record prosperity."

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... claimed that "at no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas. This election will decide whether we save the American dream, or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny."

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... argued that "this election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it."

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... charged that "Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites who drive their cities into the ground while fleeing far from the scene of the wreckage."

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... added that Biden "is a trojan horse for socialism."

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... argued that "Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of radical, economic, and social injustice. So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country."

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"Our country wasn't built by cancel culture."

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... vowed that "as long as I am president, I will defend the absolute right of every American citizen to live in security, dignity, and peace."

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... charged that "if you give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will defund police departments all across American. They will pass federal legislation to reduce law enforcement nationwide...No one will be safe in Biden's America."

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... touted that "we launched the largest national mobilization since World War II. Invoking the Defense Production Act, we produced the world's largest supply of ventilators. Not a single American who has needed a ventilator has been denied a ventilator. We shipped hundreds of millions of masks, gloves and gowns to our front line healthcare workers. To protect our nation's seniors, we rushed supplies, testing kits, and personnel to nursing homes and long term care facilities. The Army Corps of Engineers built field hospitals, and the Navy deployed our great hospital ships."

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... vowed "we will create 10 million jobs in the next 10 months. We will hire more police, increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement, and surge federal prosecutors into high-crime communities. We will ban deadly sanctuary cities, and ensure that federal health care is protected for American citizens, not illegal aliens."
Ex-NSC official warns election will determine whether 'we have civilization or not' (Fox 08/27/2020)
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"America continues to burn and it seems like everyone in power, except the president and his closest allies, wants to let it happen, thinks it's a great thing, or just can't find the will to stop it."

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... if we have a Democratic administration that thinks exactly like these Democratic mayors and governors, I'm afraid the country will plunge further into chaos that will make the last three months look relatively mild."

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"Some of them really do just hate the civilization, they feel like it hasn't been right for them, hasn't done justice by them. It'll never work for them. They want to tear it down."

•
"Some of the rhetoric that you hear out of Antifa and other rioters doesn't suggest a positive goal at all. They're nihilists that want to burn our country down. The first duty of government is to protect law and order, protect lives, protect property."

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See related Can't Breathe (Sean Delonas, 06/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Gen. Keith Kellogg rips Biden's reported opposition to Bin Laden raid, calls Bolton 'architect of...' (Fox 08/27/2020)
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"Here's the one that is not really mentioned. This one is pretty important. When one of the most critical decisions made in the Obama Administration was made, to go after the architect of 9/11, Usama bin Laden, after they found him, the individual in the room that recommended that operation not take place was Joe Biden."

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"When you look at what we [the Trump administration] have done, we reacted when [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] used nerve gas against its citizens. We reacted. This president eliminated the ISIS caliphate. Killed [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi in an operation called Operation Kayla named after an American woman that he had killed, Kayla Mueller."
Trump says he will send federal law enforcement, National Guard to Kenosha after Jacob Blake... (Fox 08/24/2020)
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"We will NOT stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets."

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"My team just got off the phone with Governor Evers who agreed to accept federal assistance. (Portland should do the same!)"

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"TODAY, I will be sending federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha, WI to restore LAW and ORDER!"
Rep. Crenshaw: Hillary Clinton telling Biden not to concede is 'eerie' (Fox 08/26/2020)
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"How bold she is with just laying out their plan like that. And we all know that's the plan, right? Create as much chaos around elections as possible."

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... people should find it "very suspicious" that "Democrats don't want any regulation" on "our institution of voting."

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"They've started to build a narrative that if Donald Trump gets elected it will be illegitimate, and now they're laying out their plan."

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"If we're all being honest and got a bunch of problem solvers in a room and say, ‘We want an election that is verifiable and secure so we all know that our vote counts,' obvious elements of that is in-person voting and voter I.D.."

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"Everybody would agree on those common-sense elements so you should find it very suspicious that these are the things that Democrats fight against the most."

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"It's very, very strange and it's because they want to create chaos in the elections. They want to be able to tinker with the chaos and claim victory even when they didn't win."
Rep. Brian Mast: RNC celebrates nation's spirit of heroism – serve, sacrifice and strive (Fox 08/26/2020)
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The spirit of America is a spirit of heroism: risking for others even if the ante is your life, never being broken no matter how hurt you are, and fighting with a grin of determination that widens as the challenge you face grows.

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... this November's election presents a clear choice between a vision of big government actively seeking to extinguish the flames of our heroic spirit and a vision of limited government that looks to empower America's everyday heroes.

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Heroism is not found in the violent mobs looking to destroy our cities.

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Unity is not found in the hateful speech of Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Congressman Bobby Rush.

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Liberty is not found in the servitude of policies demanding Americans put their hand out to the government.

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Morality is not found in denying the presence of God.

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As a career Army bomb technician, I have seen real heroism in the Ranger warfighters I stalked Afghanistan with each night and in the injured combatants whom I healed alongside in Walter Reed Army Medical Center after losing the two legs God gave me.

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Some were men and some were women. Some were officers and some enlisted. They came from all different backgrounds – various races, ethnicities and creeds.

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Their commonality was that they loved America enough to give their life for her, and knowing the sacrifices to their body, would still go back and do it all again to defend the spirit of our great nation.

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These heroes are examples of what Americans have always known. We are not glass statues. If we fall, we do not just shatter and break into hundreds of little pieces. We are resilient and gritty. We are at our best when we are up against the worst.

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These heroes also show the world the power of liberty and true freedom. No matter the level of pain endured by the flesh and by the mind, we all wake up as Americans each new day with the same opportunity.

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That is the guarantee that comes with the freedom to govern ourselves, and it is this belief that underlies the Republican Party's vision for our nation.

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There is no bill, law or lawmaker that can make us more capable than our will alone because government has never been the spirit of America.

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The spirit of America is the same as the spirit of heroism: service in pursuit of justice and sacrifice for causes bigger than ourselves.

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Above all, let us remember to be united in our determination to strive, to advance, to push and to achieve like no other!

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See related Resist! (Antonio Branco, 07/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Joe Concha: Nick Sandmann is 'getting the last laugh' but left still attacking him (Fox 08/26/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Kenosha riots prove urban unrest is 'class war masquerading as a race conflict' (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
The McCloskeys spoke out against protest violence in suburban neighborhoods and claimed Democrats have declared war on the middle class.

•
"The usual all-moron panel swung into action to denounce them, [saying] 'everything the McCloskeys said was totally untrue' ... And then nightfall came, and once again the mob descended on Kenosha, Wisconsin."

•
"And we learned that the CNN panel was lying to us. Joe Biden's voters really are a threat to you and your family."

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"It was almost exclusively young people in the street committing violence, it always is. As the fires burn, normal people in Kenosha cowered in their homes."

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"As if we needed more evidence that this is actually a class war masquerading as a race conflict. That's exactly what it is designed to [do]: crush America's middle class. And it's working."

•
Kenosha storeowners woke up Tuesday morning to their livelihoods destroyed, with one owner saying how "wrong" it is since her business services everyone, regardless of race.

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"You can hear the confusion in her voice [asking] 'Why did they do this to me?'"

•
"And the short answer is because they could. Nobody stopped them from burning down her business or burning down the city. The Kenosha County Democratic Party didn't stop them. The Democratic Party of Kenosha decided to embrace the mob."
Covington Catholic teen Nick Sandmann slams media, left for 'cancel culture' after viral video (Fox 08/25/2020)
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"I wouldn't be canceled. I fought back hard to expose the media for what they did to me and won a personal victory. While much more must be done, I look forward to the day that the media returns to providing balanced, responsible and accountable news coverage. I know President Trump hopes for that too."

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"In November, I believe this country must unite around a president who calls the media out and refuses to allow them to create a narrative instead of reporting the facts. I believe we must join with a president who will challenge the media to return to objective journalism."

•
When the video was initially released, many perceived Sandmann to have been mocking Phillips by smirking inches from his face, while the Omaha tribe leader sang and played a drum.

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But full footage showed a more complicated image where the Covington students were not the instigators: Phillips had actually walked up to the Covington school kids after another group began taunting the teenagers.

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"I learned that what was happening to me had a name. It was called being cancelled. As in annulled. As in revoked. As in made void."

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"Canceled is what's happening to people around this country who refuse to be silenced by the far left. Many are being fired, humiliated or even threatened. Often, the media is a willing participant."

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"I'm proud to say that throughout my media nightmare I have had President Trump's unwavering support."

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"I know you'll agree with me when I say no one in this country has been a victim of unfair media coverage more than President Donald Trump."
Ben Shapiro slams NY Times coverage of Wisconsin riots: 'Fires don't break out on their own' (Fox 08/25/2020)
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... mocked The New York Times Tuesday over their coverage of the unrest in Wisconsin, including one article describing "peaceful marches" that "gave way to fires and destruction."

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"Oh, they just gave way, did they? Fascinating!" ... "Weird, because it seems like fires don't break out on their own. It seems like it prompted a bunch of violent maniacs to go out and do a bunch of violent maniacal things ... but the system is always to blame for bad things happening."

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"In the far-left way of thinking, the angrier you are at the system, the more the system is to blame, therefore, your anger is always justified ... which of course is an outright lie."

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"We've moved from ... a view that racism is a barrier to people making free decisions, to people making free and bad decisions is a result of racism. That's the way all these headlines are phrased from the New York Times."
Ari Fleischer: Violent rioters are 'slice of America that has given up on our country' (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
"This rioting is nothing new. It has nothing to do with George Floyd."

•
"They hate the police, they hate so much of America institutionally. That's the violent people in Portland, right now."

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"If you cross the line at the violence like they're doing, trying to burn down police stations, burn it down with people inside of it. No, there are people inside of it. No, this is anarchy and it is a threat to all of us. This type of anarchy is a thing when you watch it on TV, you do say 'could this happen where I live?'"

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"It's one of the reasons gun sales go up around the U.S. when there is times of violence. Public safety is a huge issue, it's interesting that it has become a matter in this election campaign. It hasn't been, frankly, since the Clinton-Biden years when they had a very different philosophy about guns and safety in the streets. Now, it's all turned around and it is a real vulnerability for the Democrats and it is something people care about; it resonates."
Parkland victim's father praises Trump's shooting response, claims media 'didn’t want to cover' it (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
Media outlets should have focused less on gun control and more on President Trump's actions after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. according to Andrew Pollack, whose daughter died in the massacre.

•
"I think a lot of people forget that Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland shooter, was a student with years of behavioral and emotional problems — aggression, threats — and he was allowed to stay at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School because — it's well-documented — because of liberal policies that were put in place."

•
"You hit it right out of the park. It's very true," Pollack responded. "And the media didn't want to cover that side of the story, just like they didn't want to cover what President Trump did for school safety. And that's why I thought it was important for me to speak out, telling the country what the president did and what happened in Parkland. It was very important to me to get that story and that message out."

•
Pollack addressed the Republican National Convention Monday night and touted Trump's response to the tragedy.

•
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter also died in the shooting, appeared at last week's Democratic convention, where he praised former Vice President Joe Biden's willingness to take on the National Rifle Association (NRA).

•
The president has been criticized for refusing to push for gun control measures meant to prevent future shootings.

•
But Pollack said Trump he was right to address federal guidance cautioning against involving law enforcement in student discipline.

•
"After my daughter's murder, the media didn't seem interested in the facts," Pollack said Monday night.

•
"So I found them myself. I learned that gun control laws didn't fail my daughter. People did. The gunman had threatened to kill his classmates before ... but the school didn't just miss these red flags. They knowingly ignored them."
Guy Benson: Tim Scott 'delivered toughest body blows' to Biden (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
Scott slammed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on his record on race Monday night and defended Trump's Tuesday morning reaction to Sen. Bernie Sanders' claim he is the most racist president in history.

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"A racist president does not provide the highest funding for HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] in the history of the country and he certainly does not make that funding permanent."

•
"A racist president does not take Opportunity Zones and provide up to $75 billion of private-sector dollars for the most distressed people in the country. A racist president simply does not create 7 million jobs and make sure two-thirds of those jobs go to African-Americans, Hispanics and women."

•
... Scott's speech was "really well-crafted and delivered." ... "Not saying oh he is sleepy or he is too old and he is not up for the job and he is senile. He said let's look at what Joe Biden has said and let's look at what he has done over 47 years."
Nikki Haley: Trump has 'always' put the 'American people first' (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
"Joe Biden is a very good guy. I know him, I mean he's just as nice as they come. But that's just the problem."

•
"We saw what happens when you try and be nice at the United Nations. Basically everybody was running over America when Obama and Biden were in there."

•
... went on to say that Biden is "weak on foreign policy, he wants to raise taxes, which is going to hurt 82% of Americans if we go through what he's doing, they want to put all these regulations down on small businesses."

•
"Before Biden was listening to Obama, now we know he's listening to [self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie] Sanders and [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren and ‘the Squad' so we have to really look at what is going to be the difference with a Biden presidency versus a Trump presidency."

•
"Their vision for America is socialism and we know that socialism has failed everywhere. Joe Biden and the socialist left would be a disaster for our economy. But President Trump is leading a new era of opportunity."

•
"We've seen what the president can do with the economy. We are going to see him do it again."

•
"We've watched what Obama and Biden have done for decades and that's not where we want to go."

•
"In much of the Democratic Party, it's now fashionable to say that America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country."

•
"I was a brown girl and in a black and white world. We faced discrimination and hardship, but my parents never gave in to grievance and hate."

•
"They want to call us a racist country and I will tell you, ask my parents, they do not believe this is a racist country. Me, elected as the first female, first minority governor of South Carolina, this is not a racist country. Ask [South Carolina Republican Sen.] Tim Scott, this is not a racist country."

•
"Last night showed a lot of hope, a lot of optimism and a lot of success," she said, noting that "last week it was gloom and doom, the sky is falling."

•
"What we did last night was say, ‘Look, here we have a president that pre-COVID was breaking barriers left and right with the economy, that has taken on foreign policy and made such a difference, that has really put America first in a way that Americans feel put first, whether it's African Americans, whether it's Hispanics."

•
"You look what the president has done from criminal justice reform, from school choice, from the idea that we're constantly trying to improve the lives of everyone. That is exactly what we need four more years of. We have to build on that progress."
Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan hit back at Pelosi for calling GOP 'enemies of the state': Democrats... (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
"They want that chaos, they want the confusion because they know the president of the United States is going to win on Election Day, but, they want to keep counting just like they did in New Jersey four weeks after their primary election."

•
"Imagine if it takes six weeks to figure out who won one congressional primary. Now they're talking about live ballots being mailed out to everyone and then counting ballots."

•
"Enemies of the state and all of this — that's the hypercharged language that led a gunman trying to kill every Republican on the ballfield. Why don't we talk about issues? They don't want to talk about issues."

•
"In Louisiana, we sent an election commissioner to jail for voter fraud. This idea that it doesn't happen. If you mail millions of ballots to people who aren't even legally on the rolls and that's what would happen. You ask any secretary of state. Everyone one of them has about 10% or more of people on their voting rolls that aren't properly registered; whether they moved or something else. This idea that you're just going to have millions of ballots sitting around weeks and weeks later."
Cuban-born Maximo Alvarez warns against socialism in emotional RNC speech (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
"I've seen movements like this before. I've seen ideas like this before. I am here to tell you – we cannot let them take over our country," Alvarez said.

•
"I heard the promises of Fidel Castro. And I can never forget all those who grew up around me, who looked like me, who suffered and starved and died because they believed those empty promises. They swallowed the communist poison pill."

•
"The country I was born in is gone, totally destroyed. When I watch the news in Seattle and Chicago and Portland, when I see history being rewritten, when I hear the promises — I hear echoes of a former life I never wanted to hear again. I see shadows I thought I had outrun."

•
"President Trump is fighting the forces of anarchy and communism. And now he will continue to do just that. And what about his opponent and the rest of the DC swamp? I have no doubt they will hand the country over to those dangerous forces."
Sensationally effective Republican Convention opening impossible for mainstream media to grasp (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
America's opinion leaders loathe Donald Trump so much that it remains a great puzzlement to them how he can retain the support of even 42 percent of the population, rather than, you know, zero.

•
The implicit theory they share is the "deplorables" theory — that anyone who wants Trump to be and remain president is, at root, a bad person or someone too easily tempted by false promises and evil lies.

•
If they had ears to listen, they might be able to understand it better after Monday night. The message of Night One was twofold.

•
First, the case was that Trump has done many things to help individual people in extremis — working to release hostages, deregulating certain types of medical treatments, fighting entrenched interests, and leading a strong economy until COVID-19 came along to kill it.

•
And second, the case was that Democrats are supporters of urban chaos and socialist policies that will make American lives less safe and will help immiserate the American middle class.

•
Nowhere was that clearer than in the joint speech of the St. Louis couple who were seen in a Twitter clip standing in front of their house brandishing guns against a Black Lives Matter march. They pointed out that the BLM people were undisturbed by the cops, while they found themselves under arrest.

•
Their message — this could happen to you, homeowners — surely struck a chord with Americans who own guns as protection. Stats tell us that 43 percent of all Americans live in a gun-owning household.

•
The Democrats also may have done Trump a favor in spending four days last week talking about America's supposed grave sins — structural racism, polluting, and the like.

•
Most effective was Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, whose speech concluded with these words about his grandfather:

•
"Growing up, he had to cross the street if a white person was coming. He suffered the indignity of being forced out of school as a third grader to pick cotton, and never learned to read or write. Yet he lived to see his grandson become the first African American to be elected to both the United States House and Senate. Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime. And that's why I believe the next American century can be better than the last."

•
Nikki Haley, child of Indian immigrants, elaborated: "America isn't perfect. But the principles we hold dear are perfect. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America ... We seek a nation that rises together, not falls apart in anarchy and anger."
Tim Scott slams Biden on race record, says Democrats want ‘cultural revolution’ (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
"Make no mistake: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want a cultural revolution. A fundamentally different America."

•
... warned that if a Biden-Harris ticket is successful, they will "turn our country into a socialist utopia."

•
"While this election is Donald Trump and Joe Biden... It is not solely about Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It's about the promise of America. It's about you and me... our challenges and heartbreaks, hopes and dreams."

•
"Do we want a society that breeds success, orYet, a culture that cancels everything it even slightly disagrees with?"

•
He quipped: "Trust me, after spending seven years in the Senate, I know I'm not the only one in Congress who failed civics."

•
"Because of the evolution of the southern heart, in an overwhelmingly white district... the voters judged me not the color of my skin, but on the content of my character," Scott said, noting that we "live in a world that wants you to believe in the bad news — racially, economically and culturally-polarizing news."

•
"The truth is, our nation's arc always bends back toward fairness. We are not fully where we want to be, but thank God we are not where we used to be."

•
"We don't give into cancel-culture, or the radical — and factually baseless — belief that things are worse today than in the 1860s or the 1960s."

•
Painting a contrast between the two, Scott referenced Trump's criminal justice reform law, which he said "fixed many of the disparities Biden created and made our system more fair and just for all Americans."

•
"So, when it comes to what Joe Biden says he'll do, look at his actions. Look at his policies. Look at what he already did and didn't do while he's been in Washington for 47 years."

•
"... he lived to see his grandson become the first African American to be elected to both the United States House and Senate."

•
"Our family went from Cotton to Congress in one lifetime. And that's why I believe the next American century can be better than the last."

•
... added that "supporting the Republican ticket gives you the best chance" of making the American dream "a reality."
President Trump defends school choice from attacks by Democrats and teachers’ unions (Fox 08/25/2020)
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The goal of the Democrats? The complete elimination of educational diversity and choice.
Herschel Walker explains he spoke at RNC because 'people don't really know Donald Trump' (Fox 08/25/2020)
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"I don't think people really know Donald Trump. I think they look at Donald Trump from a tweet or look at from what he says, and they're not looking at what he does."

•
"Donald Trump has done more in three years than almost most presidents have done in eight, and what's so special about him is he cares about people and that's what I wanted people to do."

•
"I've had a personal friendship with Donald Trump for 37 years, and during all this time he has never, never, never asked Herschel Walker to speak for him, and after they've called him all types of names, and I know Donald Trump."

•
"I've been with him in very, very special moments and I've never seen that in him and that's why I wanted to speak for him."

•
"What this president has done for America needs to be known, and I think it's not being known. People do not want to mention even the things he's done in three years ... normally when you run for a political party, you don't know what you say. This president here has done almost everything he said that he was going to do and that counts."

•
"We have a Democratic Party, today, not telling anyone where they stand on anything. That is the honest truth, but they want you to go to a voting booth and make an emotional decision."

•
"I was raised Democrat, and I didn't know any better, and what's strange is I'm not saying the Democrat Party is bad, I'm saying it doesn't fit what I believe."

•
"First of all, I believe in God, I believe in family, I believe in the American flag, I believe in the national anthem. I believe in law and order. While the Democrat Party has not said that they believe in any of those things. That's what made America beautiful."

•
"It seems like we have a political civil war right now where people are afraid to speak their mind and that's sad."
Baltimore candidate Kim Klacik puts Dems on notice over Black support: ‘Ignored us for too long’ (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
"Joe Biden believes we can't think for ourselves — that the color of someone's skin dictates their political views. We're not buying the lies anymore — you and your party have ignored us for too long."

•
"... the Democrats still assume that Black people will vote for them, no matter how much they let us down and take us for granted."

•
"Nope. We're sick of it and not going to take it anymore. The days of blindly supporting the Democrats are coming to an end."
Trump accuses Democrats of 'using COVID to steal our election' in defiant RNC remarks after... (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
"What they're doing is using COVID to steal our election," Trump said... warning also against potential widespread fraud with regard to mail-in ballots for the election.

•
"We are fighting off this horrible thing that was delivered by China. And I let them know, we're never going to forget it."

•
"We're going to do better economically than last year — but we can never forget the 175,000 people — which will go up."

•
"I put the ban on highly, heavily infected people coming to our nation from China that everyone told me not to do."

•
"You'll soon see vaccines pouring out years ahead of what they would have been under a more traditional, let's use that term because it's nicer, a more traditional administration, where they would have taken years to come up with this stuff."

•
"The small election can't even handle the mail-in vote," Trump said, referring to primary elections for states like New Jersey and New York.

•
"Bad things happened last time with the spying on our campaign ... and this time they're trying to do it with the whole post office scam. ... Be very careful and watch it very carefully."

•
"We have to win. This is the most important election in the history of our country."

•
Trump touted his efforts in securing the border, building the wall — a 2016 campaign promise — bringing back American manufacturing jobs, and "defeating the entire ISIS caliphate."

•
"We appointed 300 new judges. It's an unheard of number."

•
The president went on to warn that if Biden wins the election, the Supreme Court will be at risk.

•
"The radical left will demand that he appoints super radical left wild crazy judges. This is so important, we have to win."

•
Trump added: "Our country will never be a socialist country."

•
The president went on to tout his efforts in the Black community, saying that he has done more for historically Black colleges and universities than any president before, touted his administration's efforts with criminal justice reform and opportunity zones.

•
"This is going to be, and I really believe this, this is the most important election in the history of our country."

•
"Don't let them take it away from you."
Republicans officially renominate Trump, Pence to lead GOP ticket in November (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
"Bad things happened last time with the spying on our campaign ... and this time they're trying to do it with the whole Post Office scam ... be very careful and watch it very carefully. We have to win. This is the most important election in the history of our country."

•
"We did the exact right thing, we shut it down and then we reopened. If we didn't shut it down at that point we would have had millions of people dead."

•
Pence ... rejected the suggestion made at the DNC that "democracy is on the ballot." He said that "the economy is on the ballot. Law and order is on the ballot. Our most cherished ideals of freedom and free markets are on the ballot that's why we need four more years of President Donald Trump in the White House."

•
"I never thought I would agree with Hillary Clinton, but she is right about one thing. We have to vote like our lives and our country depend on it in November," Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said...

•
... she accused Democrats of advancing radical policies, but obscuring their agenda by arguing that Joe Biden is simply "nice." "Policies that force jobs to flee our country or allow abortion up until the point of birth are not nice."

•
... criticized the recent riots in many cities and said the unrest is "just a preview of what would happen nationwide if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win this election ... Donald Trump will always stand for the rule of law."
McCloskeys warn violence and riots will come 'to a neighborhood near you' (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
"We have a God-given right to defend ourselves. The right of self-defense is one of the most basic civil rights — one of the most basic human rights"

•
"You cannot have freedom and an opportunity to advance unless you have basic safety and security, and that it is not just limited to big cities. They are bringing it to a neighborhood near you."

•
"In a quite neighborhood you think you have a right to defend yourself and your family, and it is shocking that we are still having the fallout and we're being pursued. And we will have years of having this follow us."

•
"The lack of law and order and lawlessness is something which is out of control in this country now. But I think they are just protecting themselves."

•
"This is a prosecutor who has a remarkably low prosecution rate, a remarkably low conviction rate, and I think she is just trying to make an example out of anybody who is willing to stand up against inherent violence and lawlessness in St. Louis."
Dan Bongino: Biden 'surrounded by radical leftists,' admin would be 'most radical left' in history (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
"People are politics, and people are policy. In other words, who you surround yourself with is in fact your policy especially with the growth of the regulatory state where people can just interpret what the law is."

•
"If people are policy, who is Joe Biden surrounding himself with? What people?"

•
"Biden is an empty vessel. He's a blank slate ... meaning all of these radical leftists he has surrounding him are just going to write on him like a blackboard and just going to put on him all of these taxes and environmental policies. It's going to be a total disaster."
Giuliani: If you want a look at 'Biden's America,' look at Portland riots, NYC crime surge (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
"If you want to take a look at Joe Biden's America, take a look at Portland last night where they had a riot, take a look at the woman who punches the other woman in church yesterday, take a look at the 51 shootings in New York and the four murders."

•
"Who is better equipped to rejuvenate this economy, which is going to be a very complex task."

•
... went on to note that the race is between "Joe Biden, who has never had a job, who basically has made his money off the government and his family getting money for his office" and "Donald Trump, who has shown that he is able to convert his business genius into being one of our best presidents."

•
"Our economy was the best ever when the pandemic hit," Giuliani continued. The unemployment rate in September, prior to the pandemic, was 3.5%, a 50-year low. There is no reason to believe he [Trump] can't get it right back there and every indicator is we're way ahead of schedule."

•
"We can be as great as we want to be. We don't have to be a socialist country like Europe. We don't have to be a country that has a riot a day and has unbelievable numbers of murders like we used to have when we had Democrats running this country."
Trump: If Biden is elected, 'China will own our country' (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
President Trump told ... that he would be open to completely decoupling the U.S. economy from China, before warning: "If Biden is elected, China will own our country."

•
"There has been no country that has ripped us off more than China.... We lose billions, hundreds of billions of dollars. We get nothing from China. Yes, we get some goods that we could produce ourselves....[but] we get nothing. All we do is lose money."

•
"China owns Joe Biden. His son got a billion and a half dollars. His son with no experience, no brainpower, no anything, never did it, not only Ukraine, he got hundreds of thousands of dollars of money from Ukraine and the upfront payment and then with China he walks up with a billion and half dollars in fees. It's ridiculous."

•
"They own Joe Biden. They own him and they want me to it lose so badly."
Tom Homan: 'There’s no vaccine for the rising crime in Democrat-controlled cities' (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
"Let the police officer actually do their job, they can end this stuff, but that's not happening because you got a mayor that don't let them do their job, you got a governor that don't think there is a problem and you got a prosecutor that refuses to prosecute."

•
"This is a failure of the Democrat party, Democrat governors and Democrat mayors and it's not a coincidence every one of these cities started out as a sanctuary city that walked away from immigration enforcement years ago. So it really wasn't about immigration, it was about walking away from law enforcement."

•
"This is a winning message for this president because he's a law and order president, unlike Joe Biden."

•
... stressed that "our streets are safer because of President Donald Trump. You can't take that away from him. He has done more to secure our border than any president in my lifetime, stone-cold fact."

•
"President Trump has got illegal immigration down 60 to 85%, depending on what month you look at because of the actions he's taken."
Sen. Lindsey Graham: Trump delivered – why I'm voting to reelect the president (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
There are some Republicans who will vote for President Trump because they rightfully fear the radical policies coming from the modern Democratic Party.

•
But most Republicans will enthusiastically support President Trump because he has delivered on policies and priorities that matter to them and their loved ones.

•
To some, President Trump's style and behavior are problematic. Others believe President Trump is just what the doctor ordered – a bull in a china shop. Not only do they approve of what President Trump is doing, they approve of the manner in which he's doing it and believe it should have been done a long time ago.

•
While I've had my differences with the president in terms of policy and style, I will be enthusiastically voting for Donald Trump in 2020 – not just against Joe Biden.

•
President Trump has been a disruptive force for good, changing the status quo in a way that will benefit working Americans in every corner of American society.

•
President Trump, in my view, has earned the right to four more years. With his reelection, America's standing in the world will be solidified for generations to come, and our economy will be rebuilt better than ever before.
Kellyanne Conway to leave post in the White House to focus on her family (Fox 08/24/2020)
Tennessee mom says parents asked to sign 'ridiculous' waiver they will not eavesdrop on kids'... (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"It's ridiculous. It's so hypocritical because they've been data mining our children for years, compliments of common core."

•
"What are they trying to hide? What is the problem? Why won't they let us sit in?"

•
"We have had a major problem in education, not just here in Tennessee, but across the country where they are indoctrinating our children with propaganda."

•
... questioned why the school would encourage parents to snitch on one another and what would happen if a parent violates the waiver.

•
"Does that mean somebody from the school district is going to knock on my door and pull my kid out of my home, his virtual classroom?"

•
"Or is it going to be my tax dollars that fund my child's public education, my child won't get to participate in education because of it?"

•
... this is because teachers are pushing "social justice" instead of reading, writing and math, and they don't want to be held accountable to the parents.
Jessica Curtis: If Democrats can ruin New York, they can ruin anywhere (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
Nearly 200,000 more residents left New York in 2019 than moved to the state. Thanks to Governor Cuomo's botched handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, that number could rise even higher in 2020.

•
There is no better example of how Democratic rule can cause destruction and harm to citizens, particularly in an age where woke shouting on Twitter drives policy.

•
They say if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere. Well, if Democrats can ruin New York, one of the great cities in the world, they can do it anywhere.

•
Remember that as you head to the ballot box this November.
NYPD officer says anti-police sentiment is sinking morale nationwide: 'The job is dead' (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"The term for the NYPD that is going around in every command in the city is 'the job is dead.' You would be crazy to take this job at this day and age."

•
"When I became a police officer many years ago, I never thought that I would have to put this uniform on and be looked at as the enemy and to be hated."

•
"And it's not fair because we sacrifice ourselves every day. No matter what your skin color is, it's sad. In my tenure here at NYPD I can never ever imagine that it would be this bad, as far as not being supported."

•
"People who allow these protesters to talk about how they want to defund the police department, we're there to make sure that nothing happens to them, but they are the ones saying that they want us dead."

•
The officer — who said he used to be a Democrat and is now a Republican — blames New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, the City Council and district attorneys, who he said create a "revolving door" of crime by releasing criminals back into the streets.

•
"[De Blasio] does not care about the police. He doesn't care about Black lives. You know, he is more concerned with painting murals."

•
According to the NYPD, shootings in the city have increased by more than 80% compared to the same period last year, with the number of victims jumping from 581 to 1,095.

•
The officer said crime in the city has become so bad he now advises tourists — and his own relatives — to stay away. He no longer wants his son to be a cop when he gets older.

•
"It's not just in NYPD, it's across the United States. It's sad that that's where we are at right now. People who are saying that we're afraid, we're not afraid. We just want to be supported."

•
Seven people were shot — one fatally — in a three-hour period on Tuesday night, police said. A 20-year-old woman was also stabbed to death in the bloodshed that spanned Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, police said.

•
The recent rash of violence in the city, including six deaths and 51 shootings last weekend, comes after widespread anti-police protests in New York and other major cities following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

•
"These things are happening in these cities because the Democrats have pro-criminal, anti-police policies. The reason it's happening is not Donald Trump. Donald Trump didn't release 8,000 people from prison. De Blasio did," Giuliani said, also blaming Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. "I mean, there are children living next to sexual predators as a result of these two idiots."
Trump accuses 'deep state' FDA of thwarting efforts for coronavirus treatments until after election (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics."

•
"Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!"

•
"Well, I hear great things about [plasma]...That's all I can tell you. And it could be a political decision, because you have a lot of people over there that don't want to rush things because they want to do it after November 3rd. And you've heard that one before."
Democratic Party chairman predicts ‘chaos’ at next week’s GOP convention (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"... While Republicans put together their chaos convention, the DNC war room will be working around the clock to speak truth to power, to expose the disastrous consequences of Trump's chaos presidency, which has led only to crisis after crisis after crisis."

•
... "unity is clearly not the message for them. Division is the message for them. The only way he (Trump) succeeds is to divide and conquer. That's his only play in the playbook."

•
Vice President Pence painted a very different picture of what to expect at next week's convention, which like the Democratic confab will be mostly virtual.

•
"We're going to talk about what this president has done to revive this economy, rebuild the military, strengthen the constitutional liberties with conservatives to our courts at every level."

•
The vice president claimed that Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his party have "been overtaken by the radical left and while they didn't talk about it very much, their agenda is higher taxes, socialized medicine, open borders, abortion on demand, and efforts to cut and reduce support to law enforcement at a time when there's rising violence in our streets. And that's a choice we're going to make clear to the American people next week."

•
... Pence vowed that "we're going to bring law and order to our cities. You're going to hear about that next week."

•
... Trump is expected to have a "heavy in-person presence" all four nights of the convention and that "his preference is to be live," not taped.

•
"I think we're going to have more of it live than what they [the DNC] did. I think it's pretty boring when you do tapes. I'm going to go live and do mine live."
Joe Concha pans DNC as a 'show about nothing' featuring an 'airing of grievances' (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"If the theme [of Biden's acceptance speech] is 'I'm a decent man' — we are not voting for a priest, we are voting for president."

•
"This was a convention of grievances, an airing of grievances ... and therefore a 'show about nothing.'"

•
"Republicans are looking at this and and saying, 'OK, we need a message with teeth in it drawing contrast between Democrats and Republicans, Biden and Trump,'"

•
"'Democrats will raise taxes and there will be anarchy in our streets if we continue allow this ticket to actually get to the White House.'"
Limbaugh dismisses Biden DNC speech as 'meaningless pap' from a Beltway 'insider' (Fox 08/21/2020)
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"The speech was a list of every political bromide and cliche ever written: 'Light is more powerful than dark,' 'Love is more powerful than hate,' 'Green energy is more powerful than fossil fuels,' It was just one little slogan after another."

•
"What we got from Joe Biden last night was 100% pure, inside-the-Beltway politics. It's what people expect of politicians, a bunch of meaningless, banal, open-ended bromides and cliches that don't commit the politician to anything, they just establish him as a good guy with character and good manners."
Trump rips Biden for not talking about police, violent protests in DNC acceptance speech (Fox 08/21/2020)
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"Didn't talk about law enforcement, didn't talk about what's happening in all these Democrat-run cities like Chicago, New York, Portland and many others. I thought that would have been a big — big factor."

•
The president also claimed "China owns Joe Biden," pointing to Biden's son Hunter's past business dealings in the country.

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"They own him. And they want me to lose so badly."
Steve Scalise: Joe Biden has failed to solve America's problems in 47 years (Fox 08/21/2020)
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"Ultimately, you got to look at what [Biden] said and has delivered. I mean, for all of the list of things that he said he would solve, every problem in the world he said he would solve, he hasn't solved any of them in 47 years."

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"You look at President Trump's record in just three years, he's delivered on all the promises that he has made," Scalise said, pointing to Biden talking about bringing back American jobs from China.

•
"President Trump was doing all of those things, he's getting regulations under control so we can actually build America back up again, every income level was benefitting, by the way."
Hans von Spakovsky: Trump suggests we may need to redo presidential election. Is that possible? (Fox 08/21/2020)
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"You can't take millions of ballots, send them haphazardly all over the country, or all over a state, and expect it to come out properly.... It'll end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome. They'll have to do it again, and nobody wants that."

•
"And I don't want that," the president added.

•
As Trump correctly stated ... problems with all-mail elections are "not a political issue, it's really about a correct vote."

•
"Win, lose, or draw, we have to get it right ... we have to have honest voting," the president said.

•
This should be something all Americans should agree on, regardless of political party.

•
Yes, we have to have honest voting. Neither the president nor the electorate at large wants to have a chaotic election with problems caused by the misdelivery of ballots, fraud, and rejection of absentee and mail-in ballots.

•
These problems would cause a long delay in determining the winner of the presidential race, resulting in a lack of public confidence in the validity of the outcome of the election.

•
... the vulnerabilities of voting through the mail. Such ballots are voted outside the supervision (and protection) of election officials and outside the observation of poll watchers. They are the easiest ballots to steal, forge, alter and falsify.

•
Mail-in ballots also make voters — particularly elderly and low-income voters — subject to coercion, intimidation, and pressure by candidates, campaign staffers, party activists and political consultants.

•
Mail ballots also make elections subject to the efficiency and effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the U.S. Postal Service.

•
In New York's recent primary, one in five ballots was rejected — an enormous and unacceptable disenfranchisement rate for voters.

•
The president also expressed his concern ... about "millions and millions of ballots sent all over the place, sent to people that are dead."

•
The way to avoid that kind of chaos is for election officials to open the same number of polling places as they have opened in prior presidential elections, with all of the health safety protocols recommended by experts, so Americans can vote in-person.

•
Those who are too sick or disabled to vote in-person, or most vulnerable to COVID-19, should be able to vote by absentee ballot.

•
But we don't need all voters to cast their ballots by mail, because that opens the door to too many problems.

•
The rest of us should keep our right to vote in-person and to see our ballot dropped into a ballot box.

•
That's far preferable to hoping a mail carrier delivers the ballot in time, and taking the risk that the ballot will be otherwise intercepted, changed or altered on its way back to election officials.
Tom Homan says Dems 'want chaos' because they think it helps them beat Trump (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"They're putting their election hopes ahead of the safety and security of America. I find that disgusting."

•
"Nancy Pelosi doesn't talk about it. Chuck Schumer doesn't talk about it. I truly believe they want chaos in this country come November, whether it's violence in the cities or slowly opening cities or not reopening the cities out of COVID ... because they think it helps their election chances."

•
"We can fix this easy... Let the cops — let the police do their job. Let them do the job they are trained for. They joined the police force because they want to serve the community. Let them do it. Don't defund them. Don't reimagine them. Don't take their equipment away. Don't vilify them. Let them do their job."

•
"People like [New York City Mayor Bill] de Blasio who wants to defund and take a $1 billion from the police, defund your protective detail first."

•
"Show what a true leader you are. Defund the 22 men that protect you 24/7. If you want to take safety and security away from the communities, take your safety and community away first."

•
... slammed Biden for his immigration stance compared to the president's, saying the former vice president wants to open borders, offer free health care and get rid of ICE, nixing Trump's successes on day one.

•
"President Trump should take a victory lap. Illegal immigration is down 60 to 85% from the high last year. No other president has been able to achieve that especially when Congress and the courts are fighting him every step of the way."
Trump campaign sues NJ over mail-in voting order: 'a recipe for disaster' (Fox 08/19/2020)
Trump: 'If you can protest in person, you can vote in person' amid mail-in ballot controversy (Fox 08/19/2020)
•
... Dr. Anthony Fauci said there is "no reason" Americans can't vote in person for the 2020 presidential election, so long as voters follow proper social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic.

•
"I think if carefully done, according to the guidelines, there's no reason that I can see why that cannot be the case."

•
"If you go and wear a mask, if you observe the physical distancing, and don't have a crowded situation, there's no reason why [people] shouldn't be able to do that."

•
Fauci added that individuals who are "compromised physically or otherwise" and who are not interested in physically going to the polls on Election Day, can use mail-in voting.

•
But Fauci doubled down, saying, "there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to vote in person or otherwise."
Liz Cheney slams John Kerry's DNC remarks: Surprising to see Dems 'highlight so many failed...' (Fox 08/19/2020)
•
"John Kerry was the architect of the Iran deal, the Iran deal which had absolutely no verification mechanisms in it, which gave the Iranians a pathway toward a nuclear weapon."

•
Cheney said Kerry traveled around the world effectively acting as the "head of the Chamber of Commerce for the mullahs in Iran," trying to help the country with foreign investment.

•
"What President Trump has done is absolutely the opposite, he has said we're not going to be part of a deal that gives us false comfort and gives the mullahs a pathway to a bomb. We're going to impose strict sanctions, we're going to have a maximum pressure campaign."

•
"I am, frankly, pretty surprised that the Democrats have chosen to highlight so many failed leaders of the past at their convention this week."
Tammy Bruce: AOC, DNC speakers offering no specifics, only anti-Trump 'platitudes' (Fox 08/19/2020)
•
"There was absolutely nothing there. This is Joe Biden's problem of telling people exactly what you are going to do. Biden and Obama had eight years, we saw the economic destruction, we saw the social destruction, we certainly saw the foreign policy dynamic of pallets of cash to Iran."

•
"Last night at the convention, you have this young woman who can put a sentence together. These days, apparently, it's a very big thing in the Democratic Party that you can sound coherent but we've got to have more than platitudes and things from textbooks that people don't necessarily know how it is going to be implemented."

•
"The fact of the matter is Donald Trump is delivering and, so, it's good to know that all they got is 'vote for us we're not that guy' but you can't run the free world with that kind of an attitude."
Michelle Obama's DNC address fact-checked by AP over 'distorted' immigration talking point (Fox 08/18/2020)
•
"Michelle Obama assailed President Donald Trump on Monday for ripping migrant children from their parents and throwing them into cages, picking up on a frequent and distorted point made widely by Democrats."

•
"She's right that Trump's now-suspended policy at the U.S.-Mexico border separated thousands of children from their families in ways that had not been done before."

•
"But what she did not say is that the very same ‘cages' were built and used in her husband's administration, for the same purpose of holding migrant kids temporarily."

•
The former first lady said Americans "watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages."

•
... the "reference to cages is misleading and a matter that Democrats have persistently distorted" and Obama's speech included the same misleading talking points.

•
"Trump used facilities that were built during the Obama-Biden administration to house children at the border. They are chain-link enclosures inside border facilities where migrants were temporarily housed, separated by sex and age."

•
... photos famously circulated by Democrats "at the height of the controversy over Trump's zero-tolerance policy at the border" were famously taken "in 2014 and depicted some of the thousands of unaccompanied children held by President Barack Obama."

•
The former first lady touted Biden's record as vice president, arguing that "he knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic, and lead our country."
Trump hits back at Michelle Obama after searing DNC speech, says he 'would not be here' if not for... (Fox 08/18/2020)
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"Somebody please explain to @MichelleObama that Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House, if it weren't for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama. Biden was merely an afterthought, a good reason for that very late & unenthusiastic endorsement."

•
"My Administration and I built the greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved millions of lives, and now am building an even greater economy than it was before. Jobs are flowing, NASDAQ is already at a record high, the rest to follow. Sit back & watch!"

•
"The ObamaBiden Administration was the most corrupt in history, including the fact that they got caught SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, the biggest political scandal in the history of our Country. It's called Treason, and more. Thanks for your very kind words Michelle!"

•
The president's Twitter broadside came after the former first lady slammed the president in prerecorded remarks, where she stressed the "awesome power of the presidency," while saying the job "requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a moral compass and an ability to listen."
Portland, liberal city violence puts law and order at center of election — what are Dems' plans? (Fox 08/18/2020)
•
November will be the most important election of our lifetime. Either we are a country of law and order or we are not. Your choice.
Trump pledges tax credits for US firms that bring jobs back from China (Fox 08/17/2020)
•
"We will create tax credits for companies that bring jobs from China back to America and we'll impose tariffs on countries that leave America to produce jobs overseas."

•
Trump reiterated his pledge to "make our critical drugs and supplies right here in the United States" following shortages during the early days of the pandemic.

•
Companies that outsource jobs in "critical industries" will lose their federal contracts, he added.

•
"With the help of Minnesota workers, we will be the premier medical and pharmaceutical manufacture anywhere in the world."

•
"My administration also understands that economic health is vital to public health," Trump added.
Doug Collins blasts Ayanna Pressley for 'fanning the flames of anarchy' with call for more civil unrest (Fox 08/17/2020)
•
"When you're wanting to have more unrest but yet you're wanting to take away our police and our security, I think that shows exactly what they're wanting to do is keep everything up in the air because they want to get at this election and they want to blame it all on Donald Trump."
China's anti-Trump election meddling raises new alarm, as DNI calls country biggest threat (Fox 08/17/2020)
•
"China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation – economically, militarily and technologically. That includes threats of election influence and interference."

•
"China is concerned that President Trump's reelection would lead to a continuation of policies that they perceive to be ‘anti-China,'"

•
"Fair and free elections are a bedrock of American democracy, and the IC remains vigilant against the various activities by China, as well as other threat countries and actors, which seek to affect our electoral process."
Trump pushes back on Dem claims he's trying to 'sabotage' the election by 'manipulating' Postal... (Fox 08/17/2020)
•
"We have a very, very good business guy running it, and ... I want to make the post office great again."

•
"And we're making it so it is going to be good and we're going to take care of our postal workers above all. We're not firing people."

•
"This isn't a Trump thing. This has been one of the disasters of the world, the way it's been run. It's been run horribly and we're going to make it good."

•
"What am I supposed to do? Let it continue to run badly? So if you fix it they say, ‘Oh, he's tampering with the election,'"
Trump knocks Biden for not answering reporters' questions: 'He can't come out of his basement' (Fox 08/17/2020)
•
"We have a guy that doesn't come out of his basement and the media covers."

•
"When they ask me questions, I have these people — there is fire coming out of their eyes. They're asking me questions. I see the fires burning in their eyes and I am looking at some of them. I said boy, how could you have so much hatred and we're having such success."

•
He said reporters "throw bombs" at him every day while Biden refuses to answer questions.

•
"And somebody like Biden, he doesn't know what to do. He doesn't come out because he can't. He doesn't take any questions from reporters. ... This guy doesn't come out of his basement, and he hasn't taken one question."

•
"If he were a president, he's dealing with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, Kim Jong Un."
Dean Cain says cancel culture in Hollywood is ‘a cancer’ (Fox 08/16/2020)
•
"This cancel culture within Hollywood, it is a cancer. It's McCarthyism and it's threatening people [by saying] ‘look, I'm going to take away your ability to make a living, your livelihood if you don't toe the party line.' And it's not going to end well, I promise you."

•
"So often it's those who preach tolerance and acceptance and love and understanding that are the ones trying to cancel everybody."
Robert Trump, brother of President Trump, dead at 71 (Fox 08/16/2020)
•
"It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight."

•
"He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace."
North Carolina boy Cannon Hinnant, 5, laid to rest after senseless murder: You 'can't imagine...' (Fox 08/14/2020)
•
"[You] can't imagine what it's like to hold your son in your arms with a gunshot wound to the head, and his blood is running down your arms."

•
Darius Sessoms, 25, has been charged with walking up to the boy late Sunday afternoon and shooting him in the head at point-blank range...

•
Cannon was killed as he rode a bike in his father's front yard in Wilson.

•
... he and Sessoms were next-door neighbors.
Justice Department says Yale illegally discriminates against Asian and White students in admissions (Fox 08/13/2020)
•
"Yale grants substantial, and often determinative, preferences based on race to certain racially-favored applicants and relatively and significantly disfavors other applicants because of their race."

•
"Yale's race discrimination imposes undue and unlawful penalties on racially-disfavored applicants, including in particular Asian American and White applicants."

•
As a condition of "receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer funding," the letter said the Ivy League university must agree to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in programs and activities receiving financial assistance from the federal government.

•
"The likelihood of admission for Asian American and White applicants who have similar academic credentials is significantly lower than for African American and Hispanic applicants to Yale College. For the great majority of applicants, Asian American and White applicants have only one-tenth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials."

•
Yale has discriminated for decades, according to the DOJ, and it appears the university "intends to continue discriminating on the basis of race, apparently in perpetuity.

•
Indeed, Yale admits that it intends to continue its race-based admissions process for the " foreseeable future."
Democrats slammed federal presence in US cities, but they want to 'send the feds to yell at you...' (Fox 08/13/2020)
•
"Are the same people complaining when federal law enforcement is sent to stop destruction of federal property now proposing we send the feds to yell at you about masks?"
Johnson says subpoenas ‘forthcoming’ in Russia probe, despite prior pushback from colleagues (Fox 08/13/2020)
•
"The clock is ticking, I understand folks on our side see what Democrats have done, but I am not a Democrat. I do not lie, I do not create false information, I do not create a false narrative."

•
"We are dealing in facts and truth. And I hope our base wouldn't want us to do the exact same thing – when you see what Democrats have done, with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the impeachment."

•
... Johnson acknowledged that some Republicans were "highly concerned" about how the investigation and the issuing of subpoenas would look "politically."

•
"There was an initial reluctance. Members of my committee had legitimate concerns, and I am not being critical of them."

•
"We addressed the concerns, we narrowed the subpoena requests, and I agreed to do as much as possible to obtain testimony on a voluntary basis."

•
"I have conducted myself as my committee members conveyed to, which was we would appreciate if you would try and obtain testimony and documents on a voluntary basis."

•
"And that's not an unreasonable request. I would much rather do things on a voluntary basis. Subpoenas are a pain."

•
"I am contemplating calling all of those people," he said, referring to the list of Obama officials. "At this point, we are considering subpoenaing any and all on that list."

•
"I have tried the voluntary route, and now I am ready for the compulsory process."
Trump lays down gauntlet for Barr on Durham probe: Either 'greatest attorney general' or... (Fox 08/13/2020)
•
"I hope he's doing a great job, and I hope they're not going to be politically correct. Obama knew everything. Vice President Biden, as dumb as he may be, knew everything, and everybody else knew."

•
"And [former FBI Director James] Comey, and [former CIA Director John] Brennan, and [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper, they were all terrible, they lied to Congress."

•
"They spied on my campaign, which is treason. They spied, both before and after I won, using the intelligence apparatus of the United States to take down a president, a legally elected president, a duly elected president of the United States. It is the single biggest political crime in the history of our country."

•
"Bill Barr can go down as the greatest attorney general in the history of our country, or he can go down as an average guy. We'll see what happens."

•
"They have all the answers. It goes all to Obama, and it goes right to Biden."

•
"As for President Obama and Vice President Biden, whatever their level of involvement based on what I know, I don't expect Durham's work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man," Barr said. "Our concern of potential criminality is focused on others."
Tom Homan calls on Oregon DA to resign after attending anti-ICE protest: 'Direct conflict of...' (Fox 08/13/2020)
•
"It is disgusting. He is in direct conflict of his duties as a district attorney to, number one, protect his community. Number two, protect law enforcement and the rule of law."

•
"What really irritates me is the district attorney of that county ... is supposed to be about law enforcement protecting the community, enforcing the law and prosecuting criminals, that's what ICE is doing in his county. He should be thanking them, not saying he's disgusted with them."

•
"The law enforcement activity in Bend, Oregon is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's mission to arrest criminal aliens presenting a danger to public safety and take them off the street. The two individuals arrested each had a history of criminal violent behavior."

•
"Men and women of ICE are American patriots. They are enforcing laws that Congress enacted... ICE isn't making this up. Nine out of 10 people ICE arrests are public safety threats. They either have a pending conviction or pending criminal charges. They're enforcing the law, protecting this country, and to compare them to the KKK is ridiculous."
Tucker rips lack of coverage of DC mass shooting, claims media silent to help Biden campaign (Fox 08/11/2020)
•
"Twenty-one people were shot in this single incident ... more than half of them were women. One was a D.C. Police officer. It was the single biggest mass shooting in America this year and yet you probably heard nothing about it."

•
"Members of Congress didn't lock arms on the House floor to demand an end to the gun violence, CNN didn't book a procession of weepy teenage gun-control activists ... news organizations barely touched the story and when they did, they moved fast."

•
"It wouldn't help the Biden campaign to talk about it, so they didn't talk about it."

•
"... Twenty-one African-Americans shot by gunmen and yet the media spent all weekend telling you about how Simon Cowell fell off his electric bike in Malibu because really, Black Lives Matter."
Portland protests move into ‘usually quiet nighttime streets,’ report says (Fox 08/13/2020)
•
"Lots of people worked hard to make our little neighborhood pleasant and to help local businesses stay open. Now it's trashed. This was not a BLM [Black Lives Matter] protest, this was a tantrum by a bunch of entitled kids."

•
"What I saw last night was violence; these people did not care about property. Talk. Work your problems out, and vote. If you don't like what's happening vote them out, vote for change, that's democracy."

•
"Portland, which is out of control, should finally, after almost 3 months, bring in the National Guard," Trump tweeted Monday. "The Mayor and the Governor are putting people's lives at risk. They will be held responsible."
Bill Bennett claims 'ambitious' Harris showed 'rough ... even vicious' side during Kavanaugh... (Fox 08/11/2020)
Trump slams Kamala Harris after VP pick, claims 'she was my number one pick' (Fox 08/11/2020)
•
"The Fake News Media is trying to portray the Portland and Seattle 'protesters' as wonderful, sweet and innocent people just out for a little stroll. Actually, they are sick and deranged Anarchists & Agitators who our great men & women of Law Enforcement easily control, but who... would destroy our American cities, and worse, if Sleepy Joe Biden, the puppet of the Left, ever won."

•
"Markets would crash and cities would burn. Our Country would suffer like never before."
Trump says media would embrace border wall, hydroxychloroquine if he opposed them (Fox 08/11/2020)
•
"It seems like every time you come out, like, you say schools should open, and the media immediately says, ‘Oh, schools can't open,'"

•
"But, if you had said, ‘Hey we can't open schools,' I feel like the media would have said, ‘Oh we gotta open schools, the president is crazy.'"

•
"I could have had the wall built very easily... we're building a wall, but getting it was like pulling teeth... if I would have said, ‘I don't want a wall," they would have given it to them immediately."

•
"A lot of doctors swear by it, by my saying, ‘It's good.' I took it for two weeks. There was a little outbreak around Washington and I said, ‘Let me have something,' and I took it for two weeks and it was fine."

•
"It was great, I didn't have it, I didn't get it, and I had no problem whatsoever with it... as soon as I came out with it, they said, ‘Oh, it doesn't work,' and they went crazy. They still are."

•
"If I would have said, ‘I don't believe in hydroxychloroquine, it's terrible... I don't believe in it, it doesn't work,' it would be the hottest thing going right now."

•
"The agitators and anarchists, you know, they call them protesters, they tried to burn down a church. I held a Bible up in front of the church and they said it was a terrible thing I did."

•
"I hold a Bible in front of a church that they tried to burn down, the day before, and they say, ‘Isn't he a terrible human being?'"
Philadelphia public school teacher worries about 'conservative' parents listening in on virtual... (Fox 08/11/2020)
•
... Matthew Kay, who teaches English at the Science Leadership Academy...

•
"So, this fall, virtual class discussion will have many potential spectators — parents, siblings, etc. — in the same room. We'll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse. What does this do for our equity/inclusion work?"

•
"How much have students depended on the (somewhat) secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability? How many of us have installed some version of ‘what happens here stays here' to help this?"

•
"While conversations about race are in my wheelhouse, and remain a concern in this no-walls environment — I am most intrigued by the damage that ‘helicopter/snowplow' parents can do in the host conversations about gender/sexuality."

•
"And while ‘conservative' parents are my chief concern — I know that the damage can come from the left too. If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kid's racism or homophobia or transphobia — how much do we want their classmates' parents piling on?"

•
See related Child Abuse (Antonio Branco, 09/24/2019) cartoon from General picture album
Black Wisconsin officer says protesters ‘tried to kill me’ during physical assault at girlfriend’s... (Fox 08/10/2020)
•
The protesters began vandalizing the home. Officer Mensah, who was unarmed, tried to establish a dialog with the protesters outside but was physically assaulted.

•
"Last night, protesters came to my girlfriend's house while I was there, and tried to kill me. I was unarmed and tried to defend my property and the property of my girlfriend. We were both assaulted, punched, and ultimately shot at several times. A shotgun round missed me by inches. Not once did I ever swing back or reciprocate any the hate that was being directed at me. I am all for peaceful protests, even against me, but this was anything but peaceful. They threw toilet paper in her trees, broke her windows, and again, shot at both of us as they were trying to kill me. There are children that live there any the knew that. The irony in all of this is that they chanted Black Lives Matter the entire time, but had zero regard for any of the black children that live there or me, a black man."

•
As Mensah retreated back into the house, an armed protester fired a single blast from a shotgun into the backdoor.

•
Mensah has been involved in the shooting deaths of three people while in the line of duty.

•
Two of the shootings, one in 2015 and another in 2016, were ruled justified.

•
But Mensah was suspended last month for the shooting death of 17-year-old Alvin Cole in February.

•
"Last night's event was not a peaceful protest; it was criminal behavior. If the perpetrators of this criminal behavior are identified, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

•
... Mensah said he had fired his weapon in self-defense, and that he believes he was suspended to appease protesters.
College student faces potential disciplinary action over Trump photo, political Facebook post (Fox 08/10/2020)
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... is facing student-conduct charges of disruptive behavior; discrimination; harassment; hostile environment; harm; and bullying and cyberbullying.

•
"I have gotten to the point that I have to say something. I love this country. We are a diverse, yet assimilated population from all backgrounds. I believe all must have the same opportunities and I commit to make that a priority."

•
"Beyond that, I am done with the leftist agenda of BLM and the white self haters. I have seen it in action in my doctoral classes at Stockton and the general media. I'm not backing down. If we can't get past this, ok, I'm ready to fight to the death for our county and against those that want to take it down. I believe there are also many like me."

•
The school then received complaints saying that the Trump photo on the Zoom call made students "feel offended, disrespected, and taunted" and that the response to Dailyda's post made some students feel "concerned that Mr. Dailyda may have similar views and thoughts of violence."

•
... a silent display like the Trump photo is broadly protected under the First Amendment, notably by the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, which allowed students at a high school to wear anti-Vietnam War armbands.
Janice Dean, who lost in-laws to coronavirus, says she was pulled from testifying at hearings... (Fox 08/10/2020)
•
See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump urges Portland to bring in National Guard amid unrest, warns officials they will be 'held...' (Fox 08/10/2020)
•
"Portland, which is out of control, should finally, after almost 3 months, bring in the National Guard. The Mayor and Governor are putting people's lives at risk. They will be held responsible. The Guard is ready to act immediately. The Courthouse is secured by Homeland!"
Why KT McFarland says FBI Director Christopher Wray, James Comey are in 'big trouble' (Fox 08/10/2020)
•
"These are actual crimes. These are not just leaks to the media. These are actual crimes where people knowingly lied to other government officials and to the people."
CNN’s Brian Stelter called out over 'tone-deaf' criticism of conservative media for questioning... (Fox 08/10/2020)
•
"Stelter spent weeks wildly spreading baseless conspiracy theories about Trump's mental health and now he has the audacity to question others asking questions about Biden?"

•
"Has Brian Stelter ever watched CNN, which demeans Trump around the clock as a racist, mentally unstable Putin puppet? Or any of the other major networks that spread Russia collusion conspiracy theories for years, and whose reporters go to White House press conferences for the sole purpose of trying to bait Trump into a reaction so they can get retweets on Twitter?"

•
"If Brian Stelter wants to improve the quality of dialogue in the nation he should start with his own network."

•
"Is the president of the United States a racist? Stelter asked to open an episode of his show in 2017. "Is he suffering from some kind of illness? Is he fit for office? And if he is unfit, then what?"

•
"Brian Stelter spends every show like he's trying to do a remake of the movie ‘Clueless' but for a much smaller audience. He complains about ‘negative partisanship' when he runs the most negatively partisan show in the history of television."

•
Stelter has also declared we can't "tiptoe around" the president's mental health, booked a psychiatry professor to claim Trump is a more lethal leader than former Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong and regularly packs his show with guests who agree with an anti-Trump agenda.

•
"This is the same Stelter who said Trump's actions could be described as ‘crazy."

•
"Now he's incensed that anyone might question Biden's diminished mental ability and calls such comments ‘offensive and otherworldly.' What's offensive is that Stelter claims his show is about journalism."

•
Stelter then said that "entire media companies essentially exist to tear down Joe Biden," and asked if there is "an equivalent to that on the left to tear down Trump."

•
"The bigger problem in the media today lies with outlets that posture rhetorically as ‘news' organizations when they are essentially doing much the same thing in terms of negative partisanship."

•
"Coverage of Trump has been overwhelmingly negative throughout his term, including on Stelter's channel. It should be kept in mind, also, that while Stelter is concerned about offensive partisanship during this election season, it was his own show that gave a platform to a foul-mouthed actor to criticize Trump last fall."

•
"It is sad that the nation is so polarized, but that polarization is not coming from just one direction. Further, it can't be surprising that conservative talk radio is going to engage in ‘Biden bashing."

•
"It is a rough and tumble political environment in which the nation lives today and that is not likely to change soon. But for the left-of-center media outlets to protect Biden as a victim after displaying their own negative partisanship for several years comes off as insincere and hollow."

•
"CNN pretending that they don't bash Trump 24/7/365 and claiming that Joe Biden is some sort of victim because Republicans attack him is mind-blowing. If this were a segment from three years ago, I might be willing to believe that they simply live in an echo chamber and it's tone-deaf, but now, just before the 2020 election, I believe they are intentionally setting up a narrative that Joe Biden is somehow a victim and Republicans are so paranoid that they spend all day criticizing him."

•
"They aren't this stupid or ignorant. This is being done on purpose as part of their political advocacy for Biden."
Barr accuses media of 'projecting a narrative' in coverage of unrest: 'People are being told a lie' (Fox 08/10/2020)
•
... accused the media of pushing their own "narrative" instead of reporting facts on the ground when it comes to coverage of civil unrest in cities...

•
"They are projecting a narrative. When the word ‘narrative' came into currency I knew we were in trouble, because the word narrative suggests that there's no objective truth."

•
"There's no real story of what happened, it's just everyone has their own narrative. And you get to where the press can justify presenting a story that doesn't really correspond to objective truth but ‘it's our narrative, we have a narrative you have a narrative.'"

•
Barr went on to say that he was "appalled" by coverage of the violence because "it's happening right out in the streets," in public view.

•
"Anyone with eyes can see what's happening. They see the violence, they see these groups of agitators in their black outfits, and their helmets, and their shields, which incidentally have the – have the hammer and sickle on them most of the time, rushing the police, causing violence, throwing rocks, people showing up with the rocks and frozen bottles. That's happening. It's happening in front of people."

•
"You don't see it on any of the national news. You don't see it on the networks, you don't see it on the other cable stations. And yet you hear about these peaceful demonstrators. So it's – it's a lie. The American people are being told a lie by the media."

•
Barr claimed that the media is "extremely monolithic," saying that the content of many different news outlets "is all the same," even down to the language and talking points used in discussing events.

•
He blamed this on the media being "wedded" to the Democrats. "It's a partisan press, largely."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Coronavirus negotiation 'makes me wonder' if Democrats want to tank economy: Navarro (Fox 08/09/2020)
•
"There is this theory ... that the Democrats would prefer to see the economy go into the tank for another 90 days because that harms the president."

•
"I hope that Capitol Hill hasn't become that cynical. But watching these negotiations makes me wonder, because we've been willing to bend."

•
See related Finally Got Him (Chip Bok, 03/31/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
AG Barr: US facing new form of 'urban guerrilla warfare' driven by left's 'lust for power' (Fox 08/09/2020)
•
"They are a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism. They're essentially Bolsheviks. Their tactics are fascistic."

•
"The way the guerrilla...hides out among the people as a fish in the ocean...what they do is they are essentially shielding themselves or shrouding themselves in First Amendment activity."

•
"They go into the demonstrations, which are exercising First Amendment activity, and they insinuate themselves in there to shield themselves. That's where they swim. And what they do is they hijack these demonstrations and they and they provoke violence."

•
The group's radical leanings are reflective of the Democratic party's far-left shift in recent years.

•
"The left has "pulled away from the umbrella of classical liberal values that have undergirded" America and made a "secular religion" out of seeking "complete political victory."

•
It began the day Trump won in 2016, "and from that point forward, there's been the resistance."

•
"They were trying to impeach him from Day One. They have done everything they can..and I think it's because of the desire for power that the left wants."

•
Power has become a "secular religion of the left," Barr asserted. "They want to run people's lives so they can design utopia for all of us...and it's the lust for power. And they weren't expecting Trump's victory. And it outrages them."

•
Barr later condemned the media for "projecting a narrative" and selling a "lie" to the American people in their watered-down coverage of the civil unrest.

•
"You don't see it on the networks. You don't see it on the other cable stations. And yet you hear about these peaceful demonstrators. So it's you know, it's just it's a lie. The American people are being told a lie by the media."

•
The media has become "extremely monolithic," he concluded, "and it's wedded in many ways to the Democratic Party."
Newt Gingrich: New York City crime skyrockets as Mayor de Blasio sides with criminals against cops (Fox 08/09/2020)
•
Riots and anarchy continue to rule the day in so-called progressive areas like Portland and Seattle, where spineless politicians have submitted to mobs and enfeebled the police.

•
While Giuliani was mayor of New York from 1994 through 2001, all forms of crime in the city plummeted to a degree — and at a speed — that few thought possible.

•
The trick was a focused form of policing that dramatically transformed law enforcement in this country for the better.

•
... applied the "broken windows" strategy, under which police enforce the laws against minor crimes strictly in order to prevent major crimes.

•
The theory is that tolerating too much minor crime and disorder creates a permissive environment in which dangerous, violent crime becomes more likely.

•
... the results speak for themselves: New York City's streets became safer, cleaner, and more comfortable, even at night.

•
That is, until now. Today, America's largest and most iconic city is experiencing an alarming surge in violent crime.

•
Amid this chaos, New York City's radically left-wing mayor — Democrat Bill de Blasio — sided with the criminals over law enforcement, cutting $1 billion from the police department's budget.

•
It's no coincidence that violent crime continued to surge.

•
Under de Blasio's administration, New York City has also effectively done away with bail, a mindless policy that just puts criminals back on the streets.

•
... de Blasio is repudiating all the sound principles that Giuliani applied, recreating the disaster that was in New York in the early 1990s.

•
Indeed, the current mayor is basically saying to everyone: Break the law and nothing will happen to you.

•
To quote Giuliani, de Blasio seems to be "pro-criminal."

•
This left-wing ideology extends beyond New York to other Democratic-controlled cities, where there is an insidious effort to undermine law enforcement and support criminals.

•
Soros and his vast network of influence are working to elect candidates who share de Blasio's hostility toward law enforcement and sympathy for criminals.
Trump orders $400-per-week unemployment payments amid COVID crisis, hits Dems for stonewalling (Fox 08/08/2020)
•
See related Pelosi Fiddles (Sean Delonas, 03/24/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump order requires government to 'buy American' for certain essential drugs (JWR 08/07/2020)
•
Trump said he had "a lot of very, very rich enemies out there, and they are not happy with what I am doing."
Debate commission rejects Trump push for extra showdown with Biden (Fox 08/07/2020)
•
"For a nation already deprived of a traditional campaign schedule because of the COVID-19 global pandemic, it makes no sense to also deprive so many Americans of the opportunity to see and hear two competing visions for our country's future before millions of votes are cast."

•
"By the time of the first presidential debate on September 29, 2020, as many as eight million Americans in 16 states will have already started voting."

•
"The Commission on Pres. Debates needs to add a fourth debate and/or make the debates start earlier!"

•
"We must insist on a commitment that the two candidates will definitely appear on stage, in person – whether in a television studio without an audience or elsewhere – and not through separate, online transmissions where Mr. Biden could rely on notes, teleprompter, or handlers."
Dan Crenshaw blasts Teen Vogue op-ed advocating end to private property rights (Fox 08/07/2020)
•
"Just wondering if anyone sees any issues with our next generation reading Marxist propaganda in popular teen magazines...?"
Portland mayor condemns rioters for 'attempting to commit murder' (Fox 08/07/2020)
•
A riot was declared Wednesday evening when agitators descended upon the Portland Police Bureau's East Precinct building, spray-painted over security cameras, broke a glass door with a 2x4, lit a fire using an accelerant and threw fireworks and other objects at officers.

•
Police said that a truck also attempted to run over officers.

•
The front doors of the precinct were barricaded before the fire was started with more than 20 officers and civilian employees inside.

•
Wednesday night's violence in a residential neighborhood on the east side of the city began after a group of about 100 people gathered in a nearby park for a rally advertised on social media by the group Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front with the slogan "No cops. No prisons. Total abolition." The group then marched to the precinct.
DHS chief details attacks by rioters on law enforcement in Portland with sledgehammers, IEDs (Fox 08/06/2020)
•
"Our federal officers have faced assaults from bricks, baseball bats, sledgehammers, Molotov cocktails, mortar-style commercial-grade fireworks, accelerants, IEDs and other violent weapons."

•
... law enforcement officers have experienced 277 separate injuries from minor to serious, including three officers who may have suffered permanent eye damage from being attacked by lasers.

•
"Unfortunately, what we saw in Portland was a lack of that, that allowed these violent individuals to attack a federal facility night after night with no repercussion, no one holding them accountable so they became more emboldened night after night."

•
"Then they come back with commercial-grade fireworks, then they come back with IEDs, then they come back with power tools. They keep coming back because there's no accountability."
Sean Hannity: How Deep State works hand-in-hand with Democrats to attack Trump ()
Cruz slams Dems after contentious hearing on Antifa: 'They want to encourage these radical leftists' (Fox 08/05/2020)
•
Democrats are "facilitating" riots and violence in major American cities and encouraging "radical leftists" who are threatening Americans.

•
"What's happening, unfortunately, is not free speech. and those who are peaceably protesting are seeing their protests hijacked by violent anarchists, by Marxists who are engaged in acts of terror."

•
"At the end of the day, none of this is complicated. Don't assault your fellow citizens. Don't firebomb a police car. Don't loot and destroy small businesses. Don't murder police officers."

•
"Seven Democrats spoke and ... questioned the witnesses. Not a single one dared to ... criticize Antifa in any way, because they're making a cynical decision that they want to encourage these radical leftists who are assaulting and threatening American citizens."

•
"Most of the party is really held captive to the extreme angry voices, whether it's Antifa, whether ... it is AOC or Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren."

•
"And you see them denying reality. You'll also see them using rhetoric, I mean, calling federal police officers 'storm troopers' like Nancy Pelosi did, or 'Gestapo,' as Clyburn did ... Cops are not Nazis, and it is grotesque. It is offensive."
Tucker reacts to leaked George Floyd footage: 'Why haven't we seen the rest of the video...' (Fox 08/05/2020)
•
The footage shows four Minneapolis police officers struggling with Floyd this past May 25 before one of them, Chauvin, ultimately pins Floyd to the ground in a scene that sparked protests worldwide.

•
"The catechism has been written and it's in stone. 'George Floyd is a martyr, period' ... Tucker Carlson Tonight But in America, that's not good enough. It's not a real answer. In free societies, citizens have a right to know why things are changing so quickly."

•
"Floyd's death has been used to justify a nationwide convulsion of violence, destruction, looting, in some cases killing ..."

•
"In addition to unprecedented levels of political upheaval, the wholesale reordering of our most basic institutions, Floyd's death changed everything. It was a pivot point in American history. No matter what your side you're on, that's very clear at this point. So with all of that in mind ... it's striking how little we really know months later about how exactly George Floyd died."

•
"You can decide for yourself what you think of that video. And we hope you will. That's the whole point of having a news network, to bring you the facts and allow you to decide what they amount to. We hope that takes place in this case."

•
"So the question is, why haven't we seen the rest of the video until right now? The video seems relevant, particularly considering all that happened next."
Trump rips athletes kneeling for anthem, calls Black Lives Matter a 'Marxist group' (Fox 08/05/2020)
•
"Black Lives Matter, when did it start? Marching down the street screaming 'pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon.' They were talking about policemen and women."

•
"All of sudden, this is taking on this air of great respectability. Well, how does it start there? It's a Marxist group. It's a Marxist group that is not looking for good things for our country and now I see these leagues all kneeling down."

•
"When I see people kneeling during the playing and disrespecting our flag and disrespecting our national anthem, what I do personally is turn off the game and the ratings for basketball are way down."

•
"I hear some others are way down too, including baseball. All of a sudden now baseball is in the act. We have to stand up for our flag, we have to stand up for our country, we have to stand up for our anthem and a lot of people agree with me. Hey, if I am wrong, then I am going to lose an election and that's OK with me. I am always going to stand for our country and flag."

•
See related Taking a Knee (Glenn McCoy, 09/25/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
FBI has opened 300 'domestic terror' investigations as a result of riots, attorney tells Capitol... (Fox 08/04/2020)
Gutfeld on Biden ducking the debates (Fox 08/03/2020)
•
According to Lockhart, Trump tells so many lies it's pointless for Biden to "enter the ring with someone who can't follow the rules or the truth."

•
The moment Biden faces off with Trump, and the cognition starts malfunctioning, he's dust.

•
But also — wouldn't you want to debate a liar? Because you could come armed with facts and kick the liar's butt.

•
And clearly, if Joe can't handle a debate, how can he handle being president?*

•
It makes you wonder if he really is the actual candidate at all.

•
And it says something that a media company, one that should champion transparency and so on, would push to suppress a public forum to evaluate the candidates in real-time.
Seattle police chief implores council to do what is right after protesters visit her home (Fox 08/03/2020)
•
"These direct actions against elected officials, and especially civil servants like myself, are out of line with and go against every democratic principle that guides our nation."

•
"Before this devolves into the new way of doing business by mob rule here in Seattle, and across the nation, elected officials like you must forcefully call for the end of these tactics."
Minnesota lawmaker speaks out on BLM protesters at his home, decries 'loud profane mob' (Fox 08/03/2020)
•
"We were watching it on my Ring doorbell and ... you get a different feeling when you see people slithering up to my front door, opening it and then pounding and yelling, demanding that I come out to greet the mob."

•
"And it really isn't anything – that type of thing, no one in America should experience."

•
Protesters chanted: "1-2-3-4, murder, genocide and war. 5-6-7-8, America was never great."

•
"You will come and talk to us, otherwise you will never run in (sic) office again," one man, who was shirtless and wearing what appeared to be a swim cap, yelled as he banged on Limmer's door.

•
Later in the video, a man started banging on a drum while a woman yelled into a loudspeaker "make some noise!" then said the protesters would be there "all night."

•
When some police showed up, the protesters chanted, "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11, f** 12."

•
As the police were chased off, one woman said "the reason we're saying f** 12 is because y'all have constantly violated and disrespected us. So don't come here for nothing. We don't need you, we're not doing anything wrong. We're protesting a man that won't pass a bill and do the right thing."

•
"Compare that today to Black Lives Matter, when much of those rights that were fought for back in the 1960s have already been given, but now you have nothing but a loud, profane mob coming to people's houses."
First-time gun ownership skyrockets amid riots, increased violence across country: 'You can't...' (Fox 08/03/2020)
•
"With everything going on in both the world and politics and everything, you can't really be too safe."

•
"... I think with a lot of the riots and such like that, it's important to – if your First Amendment isn't protected, I guess you always have the second, right?"

•
"Overall, our country is a little bit on edge right now."

•
"We all have our own political standpoints and things like that, but these movements to, you know, defund the police, and these movements of Antifa and what they bring, it's definitely on the back of my mind."

•
"Do I feel threatened every day? No. But I would say that I did contribute to our decision of finally pulling the trigger, no pun intended, on purchasing."

•
At the beginning of June, the National Shooting Sports Foundation announced that more than 2.5 million people had become first-time gun owners in the first half of 2020.

•
"Times are getting bad right now. Of course, it's good to make sure that you protect yourself..."

•
"Crime is rising, I feel like people are getting more bold to do more things now."

•
... recently been teaching people who told her they "never would have thought of buying a gun until recently."

•
"Couples are bringing their kids, ages 14, 15, 16, all the way up to their 20s and want them all to know how to use the same gun that they're going to keep in the house ... A lot of them came in afraid of guns, and came in to try shooting before they went out and purchased a gun."

•
... stressed the importance of someone being properly trained in using a gun and noted, "There's no such thing as accidents. It's negligence."

•
"Finger is always off the trigger, muzzle is always in a safe direction. And if you're going to use it, know what's behind your target. You've got to be very aware."
Like a 'Batman comic': Bongino says it's 'sad to watch' what's happening to Dem-run cities (Fox 08/03/2020)
•
"[They] show up at people's houses, intimidate public officials, intimidate the police chief. The only question is when are people going to have enough?"

•
"Do we really believe there is a future for America if we turn the streets over to Antifa and BLM? Some of them have no respect for the public."

•
... agitators are "lining up outside of the homes of far-left liberal mayors."

•
"These groups destroy and cannibalize themselves every single time because nobody is pure enough."

•
"This is not a Democrat-Republican thing; this is a human being thing. There are people being shot in New York like we're in a Kabul..."
Steve Hilton warns Trump campaign is 'sleepwalking into a Biden presidency': 'Wake Up' (Fox 08/03/2020)
•
"We need to see a major Trump policy announcement or policy speech every week between now and November. Nothing else will do. Get on with it, or the country is sunk."
Cory Mills: What's next for police — and our country — as unrest continues? (Fox 08/02/2020)
'Russia experts' too busy railing on Trump to see real threats right in front of us (Fox 08/01/2020)
•
Hey Russia experts — please stop trying to convince us President Trump is a Kremlin foil, and dig in on the real Russia challenges springing up all over the world.

•
... the highly respected Brookings Institute had a supporting cast role in the now-debunked Steele dossier, which propelled FBI investigations of Trump's campaign.

•
A major source of the faux dirty gossip was Igor Danchenko, a Ukrainian-born American resident who once worked at the Brookings Institute.

•
As you recall, the Clinton campaign paid for the dossier via front law firms, and FBI agents then used it to get surveillance warrants.

•
... smart people in Washington have become so mesmerized by their dislike of Trump that they ignore the real-world problems Russia is creating. We're getting rants instead of scholarship.

•
Libya is in a civil war, and Russia is supplying weapons to a paramilitary band known as the Wagner group, whose operatives have fought in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.

•
Huge Russian military cargo planes are flying in supplies, and Russian fighter jets have also been spotted in Libya.

•
Last Sunday, July 26 was Navy Day and Russia celebrated with a nautical parade of 200 warships in St. Petersburg.

•
Back in mid-July, Putin had the gall to preside over the keel-laying of new navy ships in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

•
And as Putin is keen to point out, Russia's ships and planes will deploy hypersonic weapons. These are bad, dangerous systems built to undercut American missile defenses.

•
Hypersonic missiles popping up on Russian places and ships forces new challenges on U.S. military defenses around the world and makes U.S. home territory more vulnerable, too.

•
The real Russia rot is not in the Oval Office.

•
It lies with those hung up on chasing the Trump/Kremlin mirage to the point they can't give us straight critiques of Russia's misdeeds – and the real threats they pose to America and allies around the world.
Tucker Carlson: Equality under law is slipping away (Fox 08/01/2020)
•
With America's institutions under relentless attack — and in some cases crumbling — it's worth thinking through what we'd like to save from the ashes.

•
In other words, what are our best traditions? There are a lot of them. At the very top of the list is equality under the law.

•
Equality is the most basic of all American ideals. It's the very first principle articulated in the Declaration of Independence. It's why the founders broke with England.

•
In America, all citizens would be subject to the same rules: The same standards. The same penalties. Rich or poor. Black or White. All of us are equal under the law.

•
That's the promise. It's easier to explain than to achieve, of course. But we've tried hard. We should be proud of that.

•
Yet some in power are no longer trying. Equality, the thing we've fought to keep for centuries, is slipping away.
Dr. Alveda King on John Lewis' funeral: The left will 'grab at any opportunity' to politicize (Fox 07/31/2020)
•
"I have chosen not to politicize the death of Congressman Lewis, but to remember him as a peaceful, nonviolent warrior and encourage everyone to resolve our conflicts peacefully."

•
"President Trump is not trying to suppress the vote. We do want people to vote safely. And, we need the voting process to be fair. And so, to politicize the funeral of a peaceful warrior — I mean, I guess they grabbed at an opportunity to be political."
Andy McCarthy: 'Absurd' to claim Trump's election delay tweet was impeachable offense (Fox 07/31/2020)
•
"The tweet was very ill-advised. If he wanted to get people talking about the potential of voter fraud then talk about voter fraud. Don't talk about delaying the election."

•
"The suggestion that it was impeachable is almost as absurd as the tweet."

•
Federalist Society co-founder Stephen Calabresi said that Trump's tweet suggesting postponing the election is "fascistic" and "grounds for the president's immediate impeachment."

•
"Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats' assertion that President Trump is a fascist."

•
"But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president's immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate."

•
McCarthy said the people concerned about Trump's tweet should take a "deep breath" and recognize that the presidential election is decentralized into 50 state elections.

•
... rejected the idea of "talking down the election before it even happens and suggesting the mail-in process is going to delegitimize the result."

•
"Let's play the game before we start to worry about how it was carried out."
Director Oliver Stone says he’d be ‘vilified’ and ‘attacked’ if he made films now due to cancel... (Fox 07/31/2020)
•
"I would have had to step on so many sensitivities. You have to have some freedom to make a movie, unfortunately. You have to be rude. You can be bad. And you're going to have to do these things like step on toes."
Laura Ingraham: Teachers unions may prove 'nonessential' to parents (Fox 07/31/2020)
•
"By refusing to teach, by politicizing curricula, by jeopardizing our childrens' mental and physical well-being, they are showing us how nonessential they are becoming."

•
"But one gets the sense the virus fearmongering is beginning to wear thin. More families see the need to move on to preserve what we have while still protecting the most vulnerable."

•
Pediatricians have stated how important the classroom experience is to children's well-being while online learning further widens the class divide in the country.

•
... while wealthy families will be able to hire tutors and sitters or simply "take up new hobbies" while their kids go to school in cyberspace, long-term online learning will cause mayhem for lower-class parents trying to hold down jobs and balance the scheduling and educational needs of their children.

•
"Pretty much every pediatric specialist that I have seen believes this '100 percent distance learning' approach is a total disaster. It is terrible for all children and all parents, but especially for at-risk kids from single-parent families."

•
"How can Democrats endorse keeping kids at home full-time when the virus poses a minuscule threat to young Americans? After all, daycare centers for essential workers never shut down and grocery store employees, they show up every day to work — as do bus drivers and nurses. So why do educators get a special stay-at-home pass?"

•
"Lockdowns plus trillions in welfare spending — until apparently there is zero virus in America — That is realistic."

•
"Remember the justification for stay-at-home orders was the need to preserve the hospital system. I can kind of understand that. But now they are using these lockdowns or pauses to preserve Biden's chances to beat Trump. It is truly disgusting."
Portland mayor 'intentionally confusing' people, not telling truth about violent protesters (Fox 07/31/2020)
•
"The violent criminal activity that the mayor, again, is not telling you the truth about occurs between midnight and 5 AM every morning and it is violent criminals and other violent opportunists attacking that courthouse and that's what we're concerned about."

•
A riot was declared in Portland just after midnight Thursday morning after Mayor Ted Wheeler's tense visit with protesters — where he was booed, told to resign, given a list of demands and tear-gassed by federal agents.

•
His visit ended with his security detail engaging in a struggle with protesters late Wednesday night as they worked to get the mayor to safety.

•
Earlier, he moved with protesters to the fence outside of the federal courthouse where he stood at the front and was tear-gassed along with the crowd.

•
"There are no peaceful protests going on at 3:30 and 4 A.M. in the morning at that courthouse. That occurs earlier in the day and there are no issues."

•
"It's very disappointing. What we've been doing in Portland is securing our federal property there. We take a very defensive posture in doing that but we do have to come out and engage the violent individuals to push them back away from the fence line."
8 indicted in Pittsburgh's May riots: 'Throwing IEDs and bricks at police officers' (Fox 07/30/2020)
•
"Throwing IEDs and bricks at police officers, throwing projectiles at and striking police horses, and setting police cruisers on fire are not the protected First Amendment activities of a peaceful protest. They are criminal acts that violate federal law."
DAs backed by Soros, other liberal activists join fray in clash with police (Fox 07/30/2020)
•
Soros, through the Justice & Public Safety PAC and other groups, has been spending millions of dollars on prosecutorial races in recent years, with a number of beneficiaries making headlines since their elections.

•
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who was boosted by Soros in her campaign, drew controversy when she announced her office was bringing felony charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who brandished guns outside their home as protesters marched by in June.

•
Another high-profile prosecutor who has been backed by Soros in the past is Cook County, Ill. State's Attorney Kim Foxx. Foxx drew national attention when she dismissed the case against actor Jussie Smollett, who had been accused of faking a hate crime attack against himself. The case was later taken over by a special prosecutor who filed new charges.

•
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, another beneficiary of Soros-tied contributions, recently defended the movement to defund police.

•
Boudin is also one of a number of district attorneys participating in "Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions," teaming with the Grassroots Law Project, an organization co-founded by activist Shaun King that calls for defunding police.

•
The other district attorneys who are participating in these commissions are Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner and Suffolk County, Mass., DA Rachael Rollins, who have both benefited from Soros' support.

•
Krasner, who was elected after Soros put $1.45 million into a political action committee that supported him, has also taken a public stance regarding events that have spun out of the protests over Floyd's death, particularly the federal response to violent demonstrations in cities like Portland.

•
"Should Trump send federal agents who engage in the same illegal vigilante activities, unlawfully assaulting and kidnapping people, they will face criminal charges from our offices."

•
In Contra Costa County, Calif., District Attorney Diana Becton – also backed by Soros – changed how her office handles police shooting cases... announced earlier this month that she was filing hate crime charges against Nichole Anderson and David Nelson, White people who were allegedly caught painting over a Black Lives Matter mural.

•
Orlando State Attorney candidate Monique Worrell is also backed by a group linked to Soros... calls for an end to cash bail, which would result in more defendants being released before their trial. She also says that incarceration should be a "last resort," and that those who do not pose "a threat to the physical safety of others" should not be placed behind bars.

•
Worrell's opponent Ryan Williams has cited the Soros connection as a point of attack, and Worrell has accused Williams of playing on anti-Semitic tropes by mentioning Soros' involvement.

•
Real Justice PAC, also co-founded by Shaun King, has supported 29 head prosecutors and state attorneys general since 2018, including several who were also backed by Soros, such as Gardner, Boudin, Rollins and Becton.

•
The organization is also backing the 2020 campaigns of Foxx and 13 other candidates seeking office.

•
The organization's goals include electing – and recruiting – candidates who would make changes to criminal justice systems such as ending cash bail and "rolling back practices that lead to mass incarceration."

•
"We're not going to prosecute low-level drug offenses. We're not going to prosecute crimes that are an extension of someone being in poverty, basically."
Restaurant has food permit suspended for violating health order months after posting... (Fox 07/29/2020)
•
... initially kicked up controversy by posting a sign on March 24 blaming China for the coronavirus. "CLOSED you can thank CHINA!!" the sign read.

•
"I stuck up that little-bitty sign that explained my thoughts about the communist Chinese government and the way they treat their people," Jackson said.

•
Jackson later put up a different sign, "CLOSED you can thank the CHINESE GOVERNMENT (Look it up)."

•
"We have no reason to apologize for anything. If you're a communist sympathizer, I can't help you. But none of these people (who have complained about the sign) ever contacted me and asked me what I think."
Jim Jordan says Dems cut off GOP video at Barr hearing: Here's the full version (Fox 07/29/2020)
•
"They wouldn't let us complete our video, they wouldn't let him answer questions..."

•
"Yeah, it wasn't all the way through. We had more to show. They wouldn't let him answer the questions. And there was a point where they weren't even going to let him take a restroom break."

•
... the video shows a woman holding a sign that says, "Good Cops Quit" while rioters smash the windows of an Amazon store in the background, then a person yelling at the individual filming to "put your phone down!"

•
It then shows a cardboard police officer wearing a Klan hood being burned in effigy while a person holds a "Black Lives Matter" sign nearby and others loudly cheer the burning.

•
There is also film of a 7-Eleven being looted, fires being burning and other stores being looted for big-ticket items, including an 85-inch Sony television.

•
The video, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., was out of order.

•
"I hope that Mr. Jordan will never complain about the length of my opening statement," Nadler said after Jordan's video was cut off.

•
"I am going to insert the committee's audio-visual policy into the record of this hearing. And note that the minority did not give the committee the 48-hour notice required by that policy."

•
"[U]nder your leadership, the department has endangered Americans and violated their constitutional rights by flooding federal law enforcement into the streets of American cities, against the wishes of the state and local leaders of those cities, to forcefully and unconstitutionally suppress dissent," Nadler said in his opening statement.

•
In Portland specifically, the city banned its police from working with federal law enforcement.

•
"Federal courts are under attack. Since when is it OK to burn down a federal court?" Barr said.

•
"If someone went down the street to the Prettyman Court here, that beautiful courthouse we have right at the bottom of the hill and started breaking windows and firing industrial-grade fireworks in to start a fire, throw kerosene balloons in and start fires in the court, is that OK? Is that OK now? No, the U.S. Marshals have a duty to stop that and defend the courthouse, and that's what we are doing in Portland. We are at the courthouse, defending the courthouse."
Barr maintains independence from Trump, defends law enforcement as riot tensions flare at hearing (Fox 07/28/2020)
•
... emphatically stated that Trump "has not attempted to interfere" in decisions regarding the handling of criminal matters.

•
"On the contrary, he has told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call I think is right. That is precisely what I have done."

•
While acknowledging the tragedy of Floyd's death, he defended the criminal justice system by arguing that in the past 50 years progress has been made and that any racism on the part of individual officers is not due to "some deep-seated racism generally infecting our police departments."

•
He noted that "[p]olice forces today are far more diverse than ever before."

•
The attorney general also spoke out against "violent rioters and anarchists" that he said have "hijacked legitimate protests," specifically mentioning the ongoing unrest in Portland as an example.

•
... Barr defended the effort, arguing that these are not peaceful protests, but "an assault on the Government of the United States."
Austin police release man who says he fatally shot protester (Fox 07/27/2020)
•
... the vehicle turned into a crowd of protesters and was honking its horn, witnesses observed Foster holding an AK-47-type assault rifle and approach the driver's side window as some protesters pounded on the vehicle.

•
After the gunfire, another person with a gun opened fire on the vehicle as it sped away.
Steelers' Stephon Tuitt: 'I'm not kneeling for the flag' (Fox 07/27/2020)
•
"Also I'm not kneeling for the flag and screw anybody who have a problem with that." "My grandmother was a immigrant from the Carribean and ... worked her ass off to bring 20 people over the right way. She had no money and educated herself to be a nurse. She living good now."
Rifle ammunition, Molotov cocktails found by Portland police responding to shooting (Fox 07/27/2020)
DHS Secretary Wolf says Portland protests different from 'normal criminal activity' (Fox 07/26/2020)
•
"They're coming armed with rocks, bottles, baseball bats, power tools, commercial grade fireworks, eliciting that violence and targeting their violence on federal courthouses and federal law enforcement officers."

•
"That's very different than what's going on in Chicago, places like Chicago, Albuquerque, Kansas City. That is where you see normal criminal activity, street crime, what we say regarding gangs and drug dealers."

•
"We see city leadership there has fostered an environment that allows these criminals to do this throughout the night, untouched, absolutely untouched. It's time for Portland to join other responsible cities around this country working with federal law enforcement to address this violence."

•
"We need Portland to step up to the plate, do their responsibility and work with us to address violent criminal activity occurring every night."
Rep. Nunes on secret source for anti-Trump Steele dossier: 'expanded our investigation' into... (Fox 07/26/2020)
DHS’ Cuccinelli: Goal of 'violent anarchists' participating in riots is 'destruction' (Fox 07/26/2020)
•
"Burning the American flag is almost an emblem for these people, that appears to be their goal, just destruction."

•
"These are not peaceful protesters, these are violent anarchists. That's what we're dealing with."

•
"Many on these politicians on the left think that they can appease these folks. Even though they're violent, they're part of their political base somehow. They're far more destructive than people are giving them credit for, if you will."

•
... federal officers "are left to defend the courthouse and federal buildings without local cooperation, which is very rare to not have local cooperation at the law enforcement level."

•
... there have been "two straight months of violence every single day in Portland, partly because their own mayor ... ties the hands of his own police."

•
"The people being terrorized in Portland are the citizens and business owners down there " ... "There are people afraid to go to work there now and understandably so."
Cruz accuses Democrats of coordinated effort to keep schools, businesses closed to hurt Trump (Fox 07/17/2020)
•
"We're 100 days out from the presidential election — the only objective Democrats have is to defeat Donald Trump."

•
"And they've cynically decided [the] best way to defeat Donald Trump is shut down every business in America, shut down every school in America."

•
"The policy that [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are pushing adds an additional $600 a week of federal money to unemployment."

•
"Except, the problem is, for 68 percent of people receiving it right now, they are being paid more on unemployment than they made in their job."

•
"And I'll tell you, I've spoken to small business owners all over the state of Texas who are trying to reopen and they're calling their waiters and waitresses, they're calling their busboys, and they won't come back," Cruz continued.

•
"And, of course, they won't come back because the federal government is paying them, in some instances, twice as much money to stay home."

•
"What we ought to focus on, instead of just shoveling trillions out the door, we ought to be passing a recovery bill. Now, what's a recovery bill? A recovery bill would be lifting the taxes and the regulations that are hammering small businesses so that people can go back to work. A recovery bill would suspend the payroll tax, which would give it a — a pay raise to everyone in America who's working. That actually gets people back to work."

•
"One of the most, in fact, the most significant foreign policy consequence of this pandemic is people are understanding the threat China poses."

•
"And in particular, this virus originated because of communist China's deliberate cover up. They arrested, they silenced the heroic Chinese whistleblowers that tried to stop this at the outset."

•
See related Finally Got Him (Chip Bok, 03/31/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Mike Ditka: 'If you can't respect our national anthem, get the he** out of the country' (Fox 07/26/2020)
•
"If you can't respect our national anthem, get the he* out of the country. That's the way I feel. Of course, I'm old fashioned, so I'm only going to say what I feel."

•
"You don't protest against the flag and you don't protest against this country who's given you the opportunities to make a living playing a sport that you never thought would happen. So, I don't want to hear all the crap."
American protests: Demonstrations, violent riots expected to continue throughout the country (Fox 07/26/2020)
•
"These people have nothing to do with Black lives. Our Black community leaders need to stand up and lead because what's happening is they're letting a group of terrorists that don't represent me use me, and that's not right."

•
At least one rioter broke through a fence line at the police department's East District precinct and threw an explosive device that left an 8-inch hole in the side of the building.

•
Rocks, bottles, fireworks, and mortars were thrown at officers as they attempted to clear the area, authorities said.

•
At least 45 people were arrested for assaults on officers, obstruction, and failure to disperse.

•
Antifa also has reportedly been present in Seattle, where members allegedly made a list of businesses to target and destroy.
Mississippi sheriff’s deputy drowns in Florida after saving 10-year-old son from rip current (Fox 07/26/2020)
Portland rioters used metal spikes to target federal vehicles: CBP leader (Fox 07/25/2020)
•
"Early this morning, metal spikes were used by criminals in Portland to puncture the tires of CBP vehicles."

•
... rioters using power tools to saw through a fence protecting the federal courthouse in Portland.

•
... another night of violence that included rioters throwing rocks, launching fireworks, attacking officers with mortar-style fireworks and lasers, and igniting a fire inside the fence.

•
"During the evening's violence a CBP officer suffered a chemical burn resulting from a substance thrown by rioters, one suffered a severe blow to his face from a hard object, and another suffered a possible broken bone."

•
"These are not the actions of peaceful protesters. These are the actions of violent anarchists who are looking to harm federal law enforcement and federal property. This violence must end. Local leadership needs to step up, denounce these actions, and regain order."

•
... 28 federal law enforcement officials have been injured during the rioting, including broken bones, hearing damage, eye damage and a dislocated shoulder.

•
"The most serious injury to an officer to date occurred when a protester wielding a two-pound sledgehammer struck an officer in the head and shoulder when the officer tried to prevent the protester from breaking down a door to the Hatfield Courthouse."
Feds clash with Portland protesters again, hours after judge denied Oregon's request to restrict...' (Fox 07/25/2020)
•
Among various organized groups, including Healthcare Workers Protest, Teachers against Tyrants, Lawyers for Black Lives and the "Wall of Moms," was Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who spoke to protesters outside the Justice Center.

•
People, pressed shoulder to shoulder, packed the area and overflowed into the streets as they chanted "Black Lives Matter" and "Feds go home" to the sound of drums.

•
As the night carried on protesters vigorously shook the fence surrounding the courthouse, shot fireworks towards the building and threw glass bottles. Many times these actions were met by federal agents using tear gas and flash bangs.

•
Protesters in Portland have been targeting the federal courthouse, setting fires outside and vandalizing the building that U.S. authorities say they have a duty to protect.

•
... at least 43 people have been arrested on federal charges at that point. ... All the defendants are local and were released after making a court appearance.
Respected Milwaukee community figure, Trump and Black Lives Matter supporter, fatally shot... (Fox 07/25/2020)
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Bernell Trammell, 60, was shot and killed Thursday afternoon in front of a storefront with signs in the window supporting Trump's reelection...
NYPD releases video of violent assault, injuring woman and her father (Fox 07/25/2020)
•
The NYPD has released disturbing surveillance video showing a man and his 22-year-daughter cowering in fear as they are being beaten by thugs in a bodega.

•
At one point the video shows one of the assailants grabbing a beer bottle from the store's refrigerated case and cracking it over the woman's head.

•
... the vicious attack knocked the man unconscious, sending him to the hospital.

•
"I just started to feel punches all over. They just grabbed me ... everything is fuzzy. (My wife) says I was thrown on the floor, and I don't even remember that. I just remember them coming and starting to punch and kick me."
DHS chief slams Pelosi for calling federal law enforcement ‘stormtroopers’ (Fox 07/24/2020)
•
"One, it's disgusting, two it's an assault on every federal or civilian or state and local law enforcement officer who has taken an oath to protect their communities, to protect, in our case, federal facilities, to do their jobs and I think it's very very dangerous."

•
"The fact that you're going to call any law enforcement, whether it's 'stormtroopers,' we've heard them referred to as ‘thugs' or ‘Gestapo' – that is absolutely absurd."

•
"They are enforcing law, they are enforcing statute passed by Congress, passed by individuals like Speaker Pelosi and others, who have voted on legislation that gives the Department of Homeland Security the authority to protect federal facilities and make arrests on individuals that are targeting, criminal acts targeting federal facilities and federal law enforcement officers."

•
"What we are doing is a specific mission, protecting the federal courthouse and other federal property."

•
"What we know is these violent criminals ... they operate between midnight and 5 a.m. every morning and their number one goal is to destroy that building and set it on fire."
Allen West slams Chicago leaders: 'Didn't know Columbus was responsible' for recent murders (Fox 07/24/2020)
•
"If you look at all the murders and the situation going on in Chicago, I didn't know that Christopher Columbus was responsible for that."

•
"So, obviously, you had to take down his statue and that's going to solve all the murders and the crime that is occurring."

•
Workers arrived under cover of darkness early Friday to remove a Christopher Columbus statue from Chicago's Grant Park – a week after rioters clashed with city police as they attempted to tear the statue down.

•
The statue was being removed partly to de-escalate tensions between protesters and police as unrest continues in the nation's third-largest city.

•
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made the decision to remove the statue — as well as another Columbus one in Little Italy...

•
... liberal and progressive public officials are joining forces with "mobs and the cancel culture."

•
"I can't understand what Christopher Columbus has to do with George Floyd, but, yet, I guess Rahm Emanuel, the previous Chicago mayor, said never let a good crisis go to waste. We continue to see the actions and activities of the left regarding that mantra."
Former North Carolina professor who resigned after controversial tweets found dead in home (Fox 07/24/2020)
•
The university said in a statement that the decision to retire came, "in light of the public attention generated by comments he made on his personal social media channels."

•
The professor of criminology at UNCW, and author of "Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts 'Womyn' on Campus," was scheduled to retire Aug. 1 after 27 years at the school.

•
In one tweet on May 28, Adams wrote: "Don't shut down the universities. Shut down the non essential majors. Like Women's Studies."

•
On May 29, Adams tweeted: "This evening I ate pizza and drank beer with six guys at a six seat table top. I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina. Massa Cooper, let my people go!" he said referencing the state's Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

•
Adams later defended his tweets, saying they had nothing to do with race and were jabs at Cooper's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictive lockdown measures.

•
Petitions to fire Adams garnered more than 25,000 signatures. At the time, he filed a complaint with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, saying he received a death threat from someone he offended.

•
In 2016, he posted on Twitter: "Black Lives Matter supporters are either racist, emotionally unstable, or suffering from severe intellectual hernia. Or all of the above."

•
In a separate post that year he wrote, "When someone kills a cop you know his last words were probably either ‘Allahu Akbar' or ‘Black Lives Matter.'"
Dozens of federal law enforcement officers in Portland doxed amid riots, officials say (Fox 07/24/2020)
•
"That's another thing that's absolutely disgusting. So they're not only jeopardizing the lives of the agents, they're also jeopardizing the lives of their families as they [are] putting out their home information and they're suggesting that individuals go to their homes.

•
"So yes, as acting commissioner, I have authorized and supported removing their names from their uniforms."
Tucker warns: Dems making Americans 'miserable' to boost Biden's election chances (Fox 07/24/2020)
•
"Democrats understand that the unhappier Americans become, the more likely they are to win. Unhappy people want change, it's not complicated."

•
"Every ominous headline about the state of the country makes it more likely that Donald Trump will lose his job. The more the people suffer, the greater Joe Biden's advantage. Democrats have a strong incentive therefore to inflict as much pain as they can and that's what they are doing."

•
"Above all though, and this was the point, they made Americans miserable. Prescriptions for antidepressants rose 21 percent in a single month. By the end of April, the right track/wrong track numbers inverted. And yet for the people pushing Joe Biden for president, that number was still too high so we had riots. As the entire country watched in real time, mobs looted and burned at the police station and Minneapolis. We saw people dragged from their stores and beaten on camera, some were killed. Most people watching were horrified by this of course, but professional Democrats were thrilled."

•
"With the election just months away at America's suffering had to be intensified. So schools across the country announced they would stay closed in the fall. No one bothered to explain the science behind this because there wasn't any."

•
See related Democrat Voter Registration (Sean Delonas, 06/04/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tom Cotton escalates NY Times feud with bill blocking federal funds from schools using '1619 Project' (Fox 07/23/2020)
•
Multiple school districts, including in Chicago, and Washington, D.C., have already updated their history curricula to incorporate material from the "1619 Project," which argues that America's defining year was 1619, the year of the first slave ship's arrival in the New World, and not 1776.

•
The project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

•
However, multiple historians have criticized the series of articles for multiple inaccuracies, including the argument that the American Revolution was fought not to achieve independence from Britain, but to preserve the institution of slavery.

•
In a statement, Cotton called the project "a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded."

•
"Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage."
Sean Hannity says Democratic leaders 'have failed and people are dying' in response to Chicago... (Fox 07/23/2020)
•
"Democratic mayors, Democratic governors. They have failed in their most basic duty. And that is the most basic responsibility, to maintain law and order."

•
"They have failed and people are dying and being shot as a result, they have failed to keep their neighborhoods safe. They have failed to prevent violent crime."

•
"Until these reckless, irresponsible Democratic mayors and governors do their job and or allow the help they're being offered, they are allowing innocent people to die. That is all on them."
Geraldo Rivera fires back at Biden's 'flamboyant' Trump racism claim (Fox 07/23/2020)
•
... if Trump uttered a similarly "unhinged" comment about Biden, Democrats and the mainstream media would be quick to "blow him up."

•
"He's not a racist. I've known him 45 years," Rivera asserted.

•
"For Biden to say he is the first racist ever elected, that shows how disconnected Joe Biden is. Twelve United States presidents were slaveholders."

•
"Joe should do a little research before he makes flamboyant charge like that. So unhinged from reality."

•
Biden ... said Trump is engaged in the "spreading of racism, the way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they're from, is absolutely sickening."

•
Biden went on to stress that "no sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We've had racists and they've existed and they've tried to get elected president. He's the first one that has."

•
"This man is a good-hearted man," Rivera shot back, "and I really do believe that in terms of the economic opportunity zones and the criminal justice reform, he really has done more than any recent president for integration and the advancement of everybody regardless of their race, color, religion."

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Biden Social Distancing (Sean Delonas, 04/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
President Trump Announces a Federal ‘Surge’ against Violent-Crime Wave in Cities (07/22/2020)
•
President Trump announced Wednesday afternoon a "surge" in the federal effort to quell the violent crime that is spiking in major American cities.

•
... there was no need to re-create the wheel here. There is abundant law that gives federal agencies jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute violent crime.

•
Given the demagogic media commentary portraying federal law-enforcement agents in Portland as "stormtroopers" and "militia," administration officials are understandably stressing that the new initiative is simply an augmentation of existing federal-state collaborations.

•
Critics will be quick to note that there was a political edge to the White House announcement. The president asserted that "lawlessness" was being "pushed by the radical Left," that the "far Left" is pushing to "break up" and "defund" police departments, and that city governments almost uniformly run by Democrats had adopted policies that contributed to the rise in crime.

•
... Trump and Barr emphasized that local elected political leadership is primarily responsible for keeping law and order.

•
The president repeated his ongoing theme that cities in need of federal help "should call" to ask for it.

•
But he also made clear that the federal government is obliged to act to protect citizens, whether asked to do so or not.
DHS chief promises ‘we will not retreat’ from Portland despite criticism, tells rioters ‘find...’ (Fox 07/21/2020)
•
"If you are a violent rioter looking to inflict damage on federal property or law enforcement officers, you need to find another line of work."

•
"We will not retreat, we will continue to protect our facilities and our law enforcement officers."

•
Federal officers have reportedly been attacked, doxxed and injured by rioters, with DHS officials saying weapons including hammers, fireworks and fecal matter have been used against law enforcement.
Missouri AG Schmitt reacts to charges against armed St. Louis couple: 'Enough was enough' (Fox 07/21/2020)
•
... Missouri has "one of the strongest Castle Doctrines in the country." "And, what it says is that you have the right to defend yourself, the lives of your family members, your home, and your property. That extends to your property. So, this is on private property."

•
"And, I felt like enough was enough. So, I'm stepping in to enter into the case here and have the case dismissed," he said.

•
"These individuals were, you know, protecting their property and this has broader implications too, Bill. If you have a high-profile prosecution like this, it could have a chilling effect on other citizens exercising, again, their fundamental rights of self-dense. And, so, we decided to take a stand."

•
"She has a track record of making political decisions when it comes to the law. And, my job is to stand up for the rule of law."

•
"The fact of the matter is, the Castle Doctrine, defending your property, it's not even an affirmative defense that you raised. It means that under these circumstances and the charges that were brought – the unlawful use of a weapon – it's not even a crime."

•
"If Missourians feel like they cannot exercise their fundamental right of self-defense, that's a serious problem. [This] is why as attorney general, the state's chief law enforcement officer, I decided to step in here."

•
"So, this will play out over a period of weeks, I'm sure. But, we're right on the law and we look forward to the day that the charges are in fact dismissed."
California city washes away BLM mural after Trump supporter requests ‘MAGA 2020’ display (Fox 07/21/2020)
•
Then, local real estate attorney Maria Rutenberg, who reasoned that the street was now a public forum, asked the city if she could paint her own "MAGA 2020" sign on the same street.

•
"I saw 'Black Lives Matter' sign appearing on Broadway Street on the asphalt and I figured that's gonna be a new public space, open for discussion, and I wanted to get my message out, too."

•
The city did not respond but promptly removed the Black Lives Matter mural...
Chicago police video shows 'ambush' of officers at Grant Park Columbus statue, authorities say (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
... shows demonstrators dressed in black using umbrellas to shield themselves while hurling frozen water bottles and cans, rocks, explosives and other items at officers.

•
The footage also captures people distributing items to throw at police, while others used sharpened PVC pipe to stab officers.

•
Brown said 49 police officers were injured, including one with a broken eye socket and another who had a broken kneecap.

•
Twelve people were arrested for mob action, damage to property and attacking police officers.

•
"We cannot be a city that thinks mob action of a crowd is acceptable behavior."

•
... when chaotic protests occur, the department is forced to divert manpower from policing high-crime areas. The city reported 63 people shot and 12 killed over another violent weekend.

•
... ordered all officers to wear "any and all protective gear" when policing demonstrations. "We cannot assume that protests are going to be peaceful, based on these actions and others."
Mark McCloskey, St. Louis man charged after pointing gun at crowd outside home, slams... (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
"It seems like the only person in the United States who thinks we did something wrong is our [city's] circuit attorney. She is the same person that let out of jail everybody that was responsible for the looting and fires and destruction, following the George Floyd death, in the city of St. Louis."

•
"It's a totally upside-down world. The people who broke into my neighborhood were all trespassing. The guy that recruited them, that planned this event, said the next day that he intended to break the law; that he needed to break laws in order to send his message."

•
"None of those people are arrested. None of those people are charged. The circuit attorney has apparently decided her job as a prosecutor isn't to keep us safe from criminals but to keep the criminals safe from us. It's a bizarro, upside-down world. I've been a little irritated by this process until today and now I am just flat out pi**ed off. This has gotten to be outrageous."

•
"I'm not going to be bullied. I'm not going to be intimidated. The left, the mob, uses social intimidation and threats to get people to knuckle under and apologize for doing what's right. We are not going to apologize for doing what's right. We are not going to back down and we are not going to move."

•
"People need to stand up, wake up and recognize this for what it is: It's a concerted effort to destroy our way of life, to change the fundamental basic social contract: to do away with capitalist democracy and replace it with mob rule — Encouraging violence, protecting criminals from prosecuting people to try to defend themselves against it."
Missouri AG moves to dismiss charges against couple who pointed guns at crowd (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
"It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner — that is unlawful in the city of St. Louis," Gardner said in a statement. She added that she was recommending a diversion program as an alternative to jail if the McCloskeys are convicted.

•
Gardner declined to discuss to why Missouri's "castle doctrine," a law that justifies deadly force for those who are defending their homes from intruders, didn't apply.

•
Within hours of the ruling, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a brief seeking to dismiss Gardner's charges against the McCloskeys on the grounds that their Second Amendment rights are being violated.

•
"The right to keep and bear arms is given the highest level of protection in our constitution and our laws, including the Castle Doctrine, which provides broad rights to Missourians who are protecting their property and lives from those who wish to do them harm."

•
"Despite this, Circuit Attorney Gardner filed suit against the McCloskeys, who, according to published reports, were defending their property and safety. As Missouri's Chief law enforcement officer, I won't stand by while Missouri law is being ignored."
Who is Kimberly Gardner, St. Louis prosecutor investigating gun-toting couple? (Fox 07/20/2020)
Anti-cop 'mob' swarms Back the Blue event in Denver, bloodying several before shutting things down ()
•
"We're exercising our constitutional right to peacefully assemble, and we have no intention of giving up that ground to these domestic terrorists."

•
"This chief of police is the guy who walked hand-in-hand with Black Lives Matter."

•
"If you agree that the domestic terrorists don't own the streets and our parks in my birthplace, once beautiful Denver Colorado, please join me."

•
"These tyrannical, left-wing anarchists hate free speech. If you do not agree with them, they believe you must be beaten down – literally."

•
The counter-protest was organized by Party for Socialism and Liberation, and other Black Lives Matter supporters, including the Afro-Liberation Front

•
"The idea that these people have been around for the last six weeks going out and terrorizing different neighborhoods for a couple hours at a time, that's not acceptable."

•
... police Chief Pazen, "who marched with BLM last month, let pro-police patriots get beaten and silenced."
KT McFarland says she expects indictments from Durham probe by end of summer (Fox 07/20/2020)
Varney: What happens to your 401[k] if Biden wins? (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
"Ask yourself: what will you do with your money if it looks like we're heading for a Biden/Warren presidency?"
New York pastor responds after church is targeted by BLM protesters for gun-giveaway, divisive... (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
... protesters can be seen screaming at a woman holding a child and two others in tow as a man is pulled aside and punched repeatedly...

•
"Your church is going up in flames tonight," a protester can be heard yelling off-camera...

•
"We're not changing our message, the same gospel message that Jesus said you must be born again, to soothe the wicked, evil conscious of these savages that hate God, hate the Bible."

•
"This Marxist group BLM and Antifa, they're all for violence in the overthrow of a peaceful republic."

•
After the threats to burn down the building and alleged death threats, the church has ramped up security.

•
"I don't apologize for anything I've taught. I don't apologize for anything I've preached."
Acting DHS secretary hits back at Portland mayor's 'completely irresponsible' claim that feds are... (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
"The facts don't lie and the facts are that these violent anarchists and extremists were violent well before DHS surged federal assets into Portland."

•
... pointed out that there have been "over 50 nights of violent activity targeting federal facilities and federal law enforcement officers."

•
"It's what Congress told us to do time and time again and so we're going to do that. We're going to investigate and we're going to hold those accountable. We're going to arrest them and hold those accountable that are doing this destruction."

•
... "local leaders in Portland have fostered this environment that allows" people to "attack the courthouse" and do "violent" and "destructive" acts "night after night after night."

•
"They congregate around midnight and they go until about 4:00 to 4: 30 a.m. every single night [for] over 50 nights, while the Portland leaders there do nothing about it."

•
He stressed that DHS officers and other federal agents are protecting federal property and as they come across people performing criminal acts, "we're going to investigate and we're going to arrest them and we have the authority to do that."

•
"We're not trying to escalate, we're trying to hold those folks accountable. What we're not going to do is allow them to attack a courthouse and then simply step across the street on to city property and say you can't touch me. That's not how this works."

•
... "almost all of our activity has taken place in the one, two or three blocks around that courthouse and will continue to do so."

•
"There are other parts of city and other parts of Portland that are having destructive acts taking place. DHS is not anywhere near that."

•
"We're focused on protecting federal facilities, that is our mission and we're going to continue to do that."
Portland politicians ‘condoned’ destruction of city, police union boss says (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
"The elected officials have condoned the destruction and chaos. They have placed their political agenda ahead of safety and welfare of the community. This must stop."

•
The paper said that most of the crowd was comprised of women who marched chanting, "Moms are here, feds stay clear."

•
"This is no longer about George Floyd, racial equity, social justice reform or the evolution of policing. This is about violence, rioting and destruction. Our city is under siege by rioters."
Huckabee slams Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's 'political theater' accusation over feds in Portland... (Fox 07/19/2020)
•
"That is lunacy. It is just plain lunacy for her to say something like that. Fox & Friends Weekend. I don't know where people get the ideas that their states are better off, that their citizens are happy with the idea of anarchy and mobs controlling. Elected officials are elected to keep peace, to create a sense of social order, and they are not there to see that they can applaud and say dumb things."

•
"Federal government has every right, they have the responsibility to protect that property, and to keep some semblance of the civil rights of all American citizens in place. If the local officials weren't doing it, then the federal government has to do it."

•
... the federal government had "not just the right but they have the responsibility to protect the property that doesn't belong to the people of Oregon — it belongs to the people of America."

•
"I have an interest... you have an interest in what's happening in Portland on federal property, and frankly, I want my property protected. I don't want these goons going and burning stuff down and breaking windows, cuz guess what, you and me, we have to pay for it to get replaced."
Black woman dumps paint on more Black Lives Matter murals in NYC: 'We want our police' (Fox 07/19/2020)
•
"Jesus matters. We're taking our country back. We're taking it back, and let me tell you something, the police need our help. They can't stand alone. Don't just sit by idly and watch your country go to the ground."
Dan Gainor: A long-needed conservative movie studio is being created to counter far-left Hollywood (Fox 07/19/2020)
Trump pushes back against critics on coronavirus, addresses whether he will accept election results... (Fox 07/19/2020)
•
"... This is a very tricky deal. Everybody thought this summer it would go away and it would come back in the fall. Well, when the summer came, they used to say the heat — the heat was good for it and it really knocks it out, remember? And then it might come back in the fall. So they got that one wrong."

•
Trump then addressed perceived tension between him and Fauci... "He's a little bit of an alarmist. That's OK. A little bit of an alarmist."

•
The president insisted that he and Fauci have "a great relationship," but claimed that "he was wrong" early in the pandemic by saying it would pass and that Trump's ban on travel from China was a mistake.

•
"He then admitted that I was right," Trump said.

•
When confronted with the notion that he, too, has made errors, Trump did not push back.

•
"I guess everybody makes mistakes," the president said, then added, "I'll be right eventually. I will be right eventually," referring to his past prediction that the virus would eventually go away. "It's going to disappear and I'll be right."

•
In the meantime, Trump says that he takes responsibility for what happens to the nation during the pandemic, as critics claim that the U.S. does not have a national plan.

•
"Look, I take responsibility always for everything because it's ultimately my job, too. I have to get everybody in line." ... while stating that governors have to lead as well. "Some governors have done well, some governors have done poorly."

•
Trump downplayed the recent rise in national case numbers, claiming that it is the result of increased testing.

•
"No country has ever done what we've done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world."

•
The Trump administration announced that they are supporting a lawsuit to overturn ObamaCare.

•
When asked why he would oppose something that people are relying on during a pandemic, Trump said he will be replacing it soon, and is "signing a health care plan within two weeks."

•
Shifting to how Washington will help Americans facing an ongoing economic crisis that has developed due to the pandemic, Trump warned that he may not sign a new stimulus bill if it does not include certain provisions.

•
"Well, we're going to see. But we do need protections because businesses are going to get sued just because somebody walked in. You don't know where this virus comes from. They'll sit down at a restaurant. They'll sue the restaurant, the guy's out of business."

•
Trump then said he "would consider not signing" a bill that did not include the payroll tax cut.

•
Another bill that Trump has threatened to veto is the National Defense Authorization Act, because it includes a provision for renaming military bases currently named for Confederate generals, even ... if the military supports it.

•
"I don't care what the military says. I do – I'm supposed to make the decision. Fort Bragg is a big deal. We won two World Wars, nobody even knows General Bragg. We won two World Wars. Go to that community where Fort Bragg is, in a great state, I love that state, go to the community, say how do you like the idea of renaming Fort Bragg, and then what are we going to name it? We're going to name it after the Reverend Al Sharpton?"

•
Trump said he did not want to erase the names of bases used in those past wars, and claimed "most other people are" against it as well.

•
"I think the economy is expanding and growing beautifully. Now, the Democrats want to keep it closed as long as possible because they think that's good for elections. But I think the economy is doing very well. Now we're coming back and we're coming back at a level that nobody would have thought possible."

•
... a turn toward a recent wave of violent crime in several major U.S. cities. Trump said that the cities in question are led by Democrats and "are stupidly run. It was always bad but now it's gotten totally out of control and it's really because they want to defund the police."

•
When asked if he understands why Black people are angry about being disproportionately shot and killed by police compared to White people, Trump said he does. "Of course I do. Of course I do," Trump said.

•
At the same time, the president noted that "many Whites are killed also," and that "this is going on for a long time, long before I got here."

•
"Biden wants to come in and ruin our country, triple your taxes," Trump said, claiming that if he becomes president, Biden will be pushed to the left.

•
"He will destroy this country, but it won't be him. It will be the radical left. The same type ideology that took over Venezuela, one of the richest countries in the world. They now have no water, they have no food, and they have no medicine."

•
"Biden can't put two sentences together. They wheel him out. He goes up — he repeats — they ask him questions. He reads a teleprompter and then he goes back into his basement. You tell me the American people want to have that in an age where we're in trouble with other nations that are looking to do numbers on us."

•
"... I'd say he's not competent to be president. To be president, you have to be sharp and tough and so many other things. He doesn't even come out of his basement. They think, ‘Oh this is a great campaign.' So he goes in, I'll then make a speech, it'll be a great speech, and some young guy, starts writing, ‘Vice President Biden said this, this, this, this.' He didn't say it. Joe doesn't know he's alive, OK? He doesn't know he's alive."

•
Asked about the possibility of losing, however, Trump noted that he does not handle losing well, and may not handle it well if it happens in November.

•
"I'm not a good loser. I don't like to lose. I don't lose too often. I don't like to lose."

•
When asked if he is gracious, Trump said, "You don't know until you see. It depends."

•
He then claimed that mail-in voting, which Democrats have pushed as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, "is going to rig the election."

•
Asked if this means that he will not accept the election results, Trump said, "No. I have to see."

•
Asked again if he would accept the results, Trump said, "No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no, and I didn't last time either."
President Trump calls Mary Trump's tell-all 'stupid' and 'vicious' (Fox 07/19/2020)
•
... she said President Trump's father Fred Trump Sr. damaged the whole family. "He learned to become the killer you mentioned. The man who needs to succeed at all costs ... who will do anything to get attention, financial rewards and to win."

•
"My father liked to win," Trump said in response. "My father was a very good man. He was a strong man."

•
"It's disgraceful that she said that," he continued, then noting that she was "not exactly a family favorite" and "we didn't have a lot of respect or like for her."

•
"I would've never said that except she writes a book that's so stupid and so vicious and it's a lie. My father was a great, wonderful man."

•
Mary Trump is a clinical psychologist and the daughter of the president's older brother, Fred Trump, Jr. who died in 1981.

•
The president stressed that his niece is "not a person that I spent very much time with," adding that now he is "glad" he spent "very little time" with her.

•
Wallace then noted that the president has "developed a pretty thick skin over the years from decades of attacks in New York tabloids" and the press as well as his political opponents in Washington, D.C.

•
"But even for Donald Trump, does it hurt you at all to be attacked in such personal terms by a member of your own family?"

•
"Yeah," Trump said in response. "It hurts me more about attacking my father, not being kind to my mother. I have a mother who was like a saint. She was incredible. She was an incredible woman and she [Mary Trump] was nasty even to my mother."

•
"She's a very scarred person," he continued. "She was not much of a family person."

•
... went on to say that he thinks his father was "the most solid person I've ever met and he was a very good person. He was a very, very good person. He was strong, but he was good."

•
Trump acknowledged that his father "was tough on me" and "tough on all of the kids," but stressed he was tough "in a solid sense, in a really good sense."

•
"For her to say – I think the word she used was psychopath – what a disgrace. She ought to be ashamed of herself. That book is a lie."
Ben Shapiro tells Mark Levin US is going through 'French Revolution in real time' without guillotines (Fox 07/19/2020)
•
"The fact is that what we have seen over the last several weeks is the full flowering of an ideology of disintegrationism that has been running roughshod over our universities, through our media, through our major cultural institutions for years."

•
"The idea [of disintegrationism is] that America has never had any ties that bind us and that American history is a story of one group clubbing another group over the head, [and that] America's philosophy is really just sort of a pasteboard mask ... covering up for hierarchies of brutal power dynamics, and that our culture of rights is really a lie."

•
... that belief also implies that our rights "ought to be thrown out in favor of an orthodoxy that rules from above and tells you how you ought to think."

•
"You can see all of this coming to fruition in everything from the riots and looting to the [New York Times'] 1619 Project."

•
"I think that [Trump] provides a point of commonality in which no matter how radically left you go, you're going to find allies in the old, falling-apart, liberal school who will side with you just to get rid of Trump."

•
"I think that the real story of what's happening here is not even right versus left. It's radical left versus everybody else."

•
"You're seeing a battle that's breaking out inside the Democratic Party between Nancy Pelosi, who's now, quote-unquote, moderate [but] who's radically left, and people like Ilhan Omar. And you're seeing who's winning that battle."

•
... noted that many people wrongly believed that this brand of "facism" would go away or be tempered once some of its advocates entered public office.

•
"It turns out that ... when they entered the halls of power, they just decided to uproot all the systems and take it over."
Biden would dangerously increase illegal immigration and drug smuggling if elected president (Fox 07/18/2020)
•
There's no doubt that former Vice President Joe Biden's election as president would spark a dangerous and massive new wave of illegal immigration and drug smuggling into the U.S.

•
In a move to win the support of advocates of open borders on the Democratic Party's far-left wing for his presidential campaign, Biden has made it clear that he would throw a giant welcome mat across our southern border for illegal immigrants.

•
The former vice president and Democratic partisans want to see millions more illegal immigrants enter the U.S. and — along with millions of illegal immigrants already here — ultimately become U.S. citizens, with the expectation that they would vote Democratic out of gratitude.

•
So it's clear that Biden's position on illegal immigration isn't about what's best for this country — it's about future political power for Democrats.

•
... Biden has said he would stop all deportations of illegal immigrants on his first day as president.

•
He has also said that only illegal immigrants with serious felony criminal convictions should be deported.

•
These two statements alone are music to the ears of anyone wanting to come to the U.S. illegally and to the criminal cartels that can and will expand their organizations.

•
In addition to promising an end to deportations for all but violent criminal illegal immigrants, the former vice president has promised to provide free medical care to illegal immigrants.

•
That's quite an enticement, especially to foreign nationals suffering from serious illnesses who want access to the best health care system in the world, with U.S. taxpayers picking up the tab.

•
Illegal immigrants would also be eligible for a slew of federal welfare assistance payments under a Biden administration.

•
And Biden would increase the eligibility of illegal immigrants for asylum to include convicted criminals.

•
And by now, you've probably figured out that the border wall President Trump is building to protect our national security would be stopped dead in its tracks in a Biden administration...

•
Add all these policies together and you have what amounts to an end to enforcement of all immigration laws.

•
In fact, under a Biden administration there would — for all practical purposes — no longer be any such thing as an illegal immigrant.

•
Anyone who wanted to enter the U.S. could do so, without fear of legal consequences.

•
This November is the most important election in my lifetime and in the lifetimes of all of you reading this.

•
It will determine if the United States of America is a sovereign nation or not, and if we have a secure border or don't.
Ted Cruz blasts Democrats for 'facilitating and cheering' violent protests in Portland (Fox 07/18/2020)
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"This is not Fallujah. This is not Beirut. This is America. And Dem politicians are facilitating & cheering them on."

•
"Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti. These are not the actions of a democratic republic. HSgov's actions in Portland undermine its mission. Tump & his stormtroopers must be stopped." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

•
"Cops are not stormtroopers. Arrests are not kidnappings. ANTIFA terrorists are not protestors."

•
"Dems are making the cynical political decision to stand with violent criminals trying to destroy America."

•
See related What Do We Want? (Sean Delonas, 07/12/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
Washington officer fatally shot by partner in ‘tragic crossfire’ during attack on cops... (Fox 07/18/2020)
Border chief fires back at Portland mayor, defends 'absolutely necessary' policing tactics (Fox 07/18/2020)
•
"The argument that the mere presence of federal officers and agents causes violence, that is outrageous and it's ridiculous, and I believe that most American people do not believe that."

•
"What's happening right now are absolute criminals. They are willfully organizing, planning and coordinating, and preparing themselves and bringing weapons to these areas with the intent to destroy federal property and harm federal agents and officers. That is criminal and that cannot be justified."

•
"They go out, they have reasonable suspicion or probable cause that these individuals have committed a federal crime by destroying federal property, or intentionally trying to physically harm a federal agent or officer, and they are going out and they are absolutely trying to apprehend those individuals."

•
"That's what they should be doing as to ensure law and order. These are criminals — they should be held responsible. As the acting commissioner, I support the men and women 100 percent in what they're doing. These are not weird tactics. These are absolutely necessary tactics to hold these criminals responsible for criminal behavior."
LAPD 'top shot' officer sued for shooting, killing man who advanced with a 'box cutter' (Fox 07/18/2020)
•
... McBride and her partner responded to a multiple-vehicle collision, with a suspect carrying a "folding utility-type knife" confronting her and ignoring commands to drop the weapon...

•
She then shot him twice more after he collapsed because he still had the weapon in his hand.
US attorney calls for probe into federal crackdown on Portland riots; DHS chief promises ‘we will...’ (Fox 07/18/2020)
•
The U.S. Attorney for Oregon on Friday called for an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security's conduct in cracking down on the riots that have plagued the city of Portland for weeks — just as DHS chief Chad Wolf said his agency would ‘never surrender" to extremists.

•
... after a video emerged of federal law enforcement detaining protesters and putting them into unmarked vehicles.

•
Civil rights groups accused the agency of "kidnapping" and the state's congressional lawmakers and attorney general also demanded an investigation over fears that civil rights had been violated and that it was exacerbating tensions.

•
... DHS said that the video of one protester being bundled into an unmarked car came after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents had information that the individual was suspected of assaulting agents or destroying property, and as a mob approached.

•
"Once CBP agents approached the suspect, a large and violent mob moved towards their location. For everyone's safety, CBP agents quickly moved the suspect to a safer location for further questioning."

•
"The CBP agents identified themselves and were wearing CBP insignia during the encounter. The names of the agents were not displayed due to recent doxing incidents against law enforcement personnel who serve and protect our country."

•
Portland has been plagued by violence and rioting since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and businesses have reported tens of millions of dollars in losses.

•
Law enforcement, both federal and local, have been attacked with hammers, fireworks and other weapons, while protesters have released the personal information of officers online.

•
"Our men and women in uniform are patriots," Wolf said on Twitter after meeting with officers on the ground on Friday. "We will never surrender to violent extremists on my watch."

•
The timeline released by DHS describes how anarchists tried to "ambush" a Portland Police Department officer during a shift change, only for it to be foiled by a DHS team.

•
It also noted the continued attacks on federal buildings such as the Hatfield Courthouse — one of a number of buildings damaged by rioters.

•
But, despite violence that has engulfed the city for 48 days, Oregon's lawmakers have sounded the alarm instead at the actions by federal law enforcement, saying they are illegal and excessive, and are only escalating the situation — even though federal forces were only deployed to the liberal city only after it had already suffered weeks of violence.

•
"These valiant men and women have defended our institutions of justice against violent anarchists for 48 straight days," Wolf said. "We will prevail."
Sen. Blackburn blasts 'cancel culture' after former Hillary adviser tells her to 'f*** off' (Fox 07/17/2020)
•
"The life of every African American matters. But Black Lives Matter is a 501(c)(3) organization run by 'trained Marxists.' We cannot allow our great country to be destroyed under the pretense of social justice."

•
... Parkhomenko responded to that commentary by calling the senator "inbred racist trash" and asking her to "please, f** off."

•
"This is one of Hillary Clinton's inner circle and I think that's what surprised many people," Blackburn said.

•
The senator added that Parkhomeko's remark is another example of the virulent response to people who oppose leftist orthodoxy.

•
"We know that they don't apologize and they don't make excuses. What they try to do is just make a mess and not try to clean up."

•
Turning to a discusson of "cancel culture" in general, Blackburn described the phenomenon as "what happens in socialist and Marxist societies."

•
"If you disagree with anyone on anything with some of these leftists, then all of a sudden everything to do with you ... is considered all bad and canceled out."
Black professor blasts 'dehumanizing condescension' of bestselling book 'White Fragility' (Fox 07/17/2020)
•
"DiAngelo's outlook rests upon a depiction of Black people as endlessly delicate poster children within this self-gratifying fantasy about how [W]hite America needs to think."

•
"Or, better, stop thinking. Her answer to [W]hite fragility, in other words, entails an elaborate and pitilessly dehumanizing condescension toward Black people."

•
"A corollary question is why Black people need to be treated the way DiAngelo assumes we do. The very assumption is deeply condescending to all proud Black people."

•
"In my life, racism has affected me now and then at the margins, in very occasional social ways, but has had no effect on my access to societal resources."

•
"The sad truth. is that anyone falling under the sway of this blinkered, self-satisfied, punitive stunt of a primer has been taught, by a well-intentioned but tragically misguided pastor, how to be racist in a whole new way."
Democratic Party may have a date with 'cancel culture,' Princeton professors argue (Fox 07/17/2020)
•
"Shall we also change the names of months? We might start with July, which honors Julius Caesar, who by common standards committed genocide against the Gauls, and August, named after the man who put the last nail in the coffin of the Roman Republic and declared himself emperor — both were also slave owners themselves as well as leaders of vast slave empires."

•
... looked at the history of the Democrat Party that up to the 1960s "was the party of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, lynching, poll taxes, and literacy tests for voting."

•
... listed other offenses that Democrats committed in the previous decades — including President Franklin D.

•
Roosevelt's treatment of Japanese-Americans during WWII — and noted that the party has "been able to redefine itself over the past half-century as the champion of minorities."

•
But they concluded that the party's "divide-and-conquer approach concerning race, ethnicity, sex, and sexual preferences has advanced their political ambitions to the detriment of our unifying motto E pluribus Unum."
McCarthy warns if GOP doesn't win in November, Democrats 'will change the rules of the game' (Fox 07/17/2020)
•
"They will change the rules of the game. How we vote, they will change — you know, in California they allow people who are not even citizens to vote in school board races. You know, in California, they lowered the voting age to 17. Do you know, in California, that you could turn your ballot in 17 days after the election?"

•
"Those are things they're doing right now. That's what they'll do across the country ... they'll expand the Supreme Court, there won't be 50 states, there will be 52 states ..."

•
"We want to focus on bringing this country back. Rebuilding it, restoring it, and renewing it, and that means and law and order and justice."

•
"When you watch [San Francisco's] St. [Junipero] Serra [statue] get torn down or you watch Ulysses S. Grant's [statue vandalized], you watch Christopher Columbus, you watch Frederick Douglass, this is a real challenge because we have local officials who have a responsibility for the rule of law."

•
"Why don't they have greater regard for the rule of law instead of encouraging the mob to tear it down? If they do that, if they allow that to happen then why should federal dollars flow to that city?"
Jason Chaffetz: 'Disgusting' how liberal-run cities are handling protests against police (Fox 07/16/2020)
•
"America does not have to be this way. It looks foreign to us and it's allowed to continue for weeks. People should not have to live in fear in their own neighborhoods and their own country."

•
"There is some coincidence here: they all happen to be run by liberal Democrat mayors and governors. That is the common denominator and that is, I think, why the Democrats are going to pay a heavy political price coming into the election in November."
Conservative group launches ‘DivestU’ to redirect donations away from liberal colleges (Fox 07/16/2020)
•
"For years I have grown frustrated at how center-right philanthropists and business people continue to write big checks to these universities."

•
"We encounter a lot of these colleges that feel emboldened by their multibillion-dollar endowments and steady flow of capital from alumni and donors."

•
"For decades the radical left has used divestments as a tactic to try to push for divisive, Marxist ideas – conservatives have never used divestments as a tactic."

•
"We're telling donors they should no longer be writing these seven-figure checks to institutions that are, essentially, the root causes for a lot of the cultural regression we have seen in recent months."

•
"Harvard: for decades we admired your Noah's Ark of cultures and ideals – but then you filled your hallowed halls with ideological arsonists and as your ivory tower burns you have the audacity to ask alumni to pay for the firemen! You're not getting another dime from us, Harvard!"

•
"The first thing I had to do was choose to not support a mechanism that wasn't teaching or educating my children, but was instead subverting them and changing them through ideology."

•
"Let's just say, they're done. They no longer want to have their hard-earned capital go toward colleges that are reinforcing the exact opposite of their world view and what is good for our country."

•
"Let's just say, they're done. They no longer want to have their hard-earned capital go toward colleges that are reinforcing the exact opposite of their world view and what is good for our country."

•
President Trump last week tweeted that schools could be stripped of their tax-exempt status if they engage in "Radical Left Indoctrination."

•
Kirk argued that universities need to "feel some form of loss for this kind of culture they have allowed to continue toward conservative students and students with dissenting opinions."

•
"These colleges need to be put on notice. ... You hit ‘em in the pocketbook. We are confident this will be the best way."

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
DC museum criticized for saying 'delayed gratification' and 'decision-making' are aspects of... (Fox 07/15/2020)
•
For example, under "future orientation," the graphic lists "delayed gratification" and planning for the future as ideas spread by white culture.

•
Others aspects of whiteness include: "Objective, rational linear thinking" ; "cause and effect relationships" ; hard work being the key to "success" ; respect for authority; "decision-making" ; a "steak and potatoes" aesthetic; children having their own rooms in a household; and the idea that "intent counts" in justice.

•
"It's not just crazy, it's evil and counterproductive," conservative author Ben Shapiro tweeted.

•
"It suggests that all pathways to success — hard work, stable family structure, individual decisionmaking — represent complicity in white supremacy. Which incentivizes all the paths to failure, of course."
DOJ spokesperson calls Portland mayor 'a disgrace' for rejecting federal help amid protests (Fox 07/15/2020)
•
... "particularly dismayed ... considering that just over the weekend, a protester went after one of our U.S. Marshals with a hammer, hitting him over and over again. Protesters were surging federal buildings, armed with sledgehammers, with slingshots, with lasers."

•
"I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat, but if you're an elected official and you're prioritizing your own personal politics and violent anarchists and agitators over the safety and security of the very people who elected you, that's not leadership. That's a disgrace."
Dan Gainor: Bari Weiss, Andrew Sullivan depart and leftist journalism sacrifices two more careers... (Fox 07/15/2020)
CNN's Jim Acosta, Anderson Cooper called out for partisan commentary after Trump's Rose Garden... (Fox 07/15/2020)
•
"CNN is a collection of the least self-aware people on the planet. Their 24/7 rants about Trump speak more about themselves than they do about the President."

•
"CNN, long ago, dropped any pretense of being an actual news organization, opting instead for some sad resistance performance art."

•
"This isn't the behavior of a news anchor. This is the behavior of a juvenile pundit firing off grievances with generalizations against people they don't like."
Trey Gowdy hits back at AOC on NYC crime wave: 'Go check the criminal histories' (Fox 07/15/2020)
•
"Republicans are all upset that I'm connecting the dots between poverty and crime," the progressive tweeted...

•
"I know most of them haven't experienced or seen these issues first hand, but I have. This may be hard for them to admit, but poverty and crime are highly linked, both violent & nonviolent alike."

•
"God forbid my two decades in a courtroom compare with her experience as a bartender," Gowdy remarked.

•
"Was the 1-year-old killed in New York because that child was holding a loaf of bread?"

•
" I mean, poor people are no more likely to cause you harm than rich people are. That is not the line of demarcation. It is not whether or not you are rich or poor; it is whether you are law-abiding or not law-abiding."

•
"So, the spike in murder cases, the spike in auto theft, the spike in burglaries: what in the hell does that have to do with being hungry?"

•
"Go check the criminal histories of the people committing these murders. See how many of them are committing their first criminal offense since the pandemic started and see how many of them are career offenders, where this is just the culmination of a lifetime of crime that resulted in murder. I'll bet you they are not first-time offenders."

•
"You can't be evicted in New York. So, how can you be killing people because you are being evicted?"

•
"This is a state, a city run by Democrats. So, if they are having a hard time getting bread, she needs to look at her own party and not blame Republicans. We don't run New York; she does."
Rachel Campos-Duffy on backlash against Goya CEO: 'He's giving people courage' to stand up to the... (Fox 07/15/2020)
•
... the mob is trying to "intimidate CEO's, executives, board rooms, and business owners" into accepting left-wing viewpoints.

•
"This is the mob. These are the people who are encouraging the tearing down of statues and they are teaching our kids to hate America. I am so proud of this CEO because they tried to make an example of him and say you are a dissenter, you're not allowed to do that, and he stood strong and he said no, I have the right as an American to stand in the Rose Garden with Donald Trump, just as I did with President Obama."
CNN, MSNBC avoid on-air coverage of Bari Weiss' dramatic exit from The New York Times (Fox 07/15/2020)
•
"But the lessons that ought to have followed the election — lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society — have not been learned."

•
"Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn't a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else."

•
"As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history."

•
"Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative."
NYPD union leader calls out de Blasio, NYC council; accuses them of giving 'the street back to the...' (Fox 07/15/2020)
•
"Our city council, our mayor's office, and the state legislature have handcuffed police officers and given the street back to the criminals."

•
"Remember just a few short years ago, the city was out of control. Police officers literally took our street corners back block-by-block because our leadership asked us to, and we presented the neighborhoods back to the good, hardworking people that were in them."

•
"Well, this administration decided that's not good. They demonize police officers, they change the rules, where it's impossible to do our job, and the criminals take advantage. When a criminal hears from City Hall there's going to be a 'soft touch' on crime, they know exactly what that means. It means there's a smorgasboard on the street, and we're going to take advantage of it, and they have."

•
"They're not going to stop at a billion dollars [cut from the NYPD budget], they don't want police officers on our streets. defund the police They don't want them taking the guns out of perps' belts. What's next? What's the next slogan we are going to chase?"
Katie Pavlich decries potential indictment of armed St. Louis couple as a 'miscarriage of justice' (Fox 07/14/2020)
•
"So this idea now that this couple — who was obeying the law, following the rules, defending their lives and their property from the mob — are now being politically persecuted by these prosecutors in St. Louis."

•
"It is a disgrace, a disgrace. It's an atrocity. It's a miscarriage of justice. And although they know they have no evidence to prove that they committed a crime, they're going to drag them through the legal system anyway and make an example of them that you better not stand up to the mob because this is what's going to happen to you."

•
"And it's pretty clear the prosecutors are on the side of the criminals here. not on the side of the innocent victims who were poor victims of a mob going onto their lawn and threatening their lives."
Trump lashes out at Biden in Rose Garden: 'There's never been a time when two candidates were so...' (Fox 07/14/2020)
•
"Biden has gone radical left. There's never been a time when two candidates were so different."

•
"So Joe Biden and President Obama freely allowed China to pillage our factories, plunder our communities and steal our most precious secrets," Trump said, adding, "I've stopped it largely."

•
Trump added that Biden's entire career in politics had been a "gift to the Chinese Communist Party."
Former NYC detective slams de Blasio: 'He has empowered the criminal and desecrated the NYPD' (Fox 07/14/2020)
•
"And the reason they can is because [de Blasio] has empowered the criminal and he has desecrated the NYPD. That intersection of those disbarred elements has created an absolute avalanche of shootings because no one is stopping them [the criminals.]"

•
"They are shooting each other because they can. This is the worst I've seen [New York City] and I was there in the rock and roll 80s and 90s for the opening day of crack and I am here to report that this is significantly worse."

•
"The reality is the bad guys never left... and guns are almost infinite." "A gun from 1920 with minimum care and maintenance will still discharge a round with similar accuracy 100 years later."

•
"The guns were always here, but Mayor [Mike] Bloomberg, Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani, through their police commissioners and aggressive police reform, kept everything in check, but these guys were biding their time, they were waiting and the time now is at hand."
Bari Weiss quits New York Times after bullying by colleagues over views: 'They have called me a...' (Fox 07/14/2020)
•
... "Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times," but social media acts as the ultimate editor.

•
"As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history."

•
"Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative."

•
In her resignation letter, Weiss noted that her own "forays into Wrongthink" have made her the subject of "constant bullying by colleagues" who disagree with her views. "They have called me a Nazi and a racist."

•
"I certainly can't square how you and other Times leaders have stood by while simultaneously praising me in private for my courage. Showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery."

•
"Part of me wishes I could say that my experience was unique. But the truth is that intellectual curiosity — let alone risk-taking — is now a liability at The Times."

•
"Why edit something challenging to our readers, or write something bold only to go through the numbing process of making it ideologically kosher, when we can assure ourselves of job security (and clicks) by publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world? And so self-censorship has become the norm."

•
"Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome. Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets."

•
"Op-eds that would have easily been published just two years ago would now get an editor or a writer in serious trouble, if not fired."

•
"The paper of record is, more and more, the record of those living in a distant galaxy, one whose concerns are profoundly removed from the lives of most people."

•
"This is a galaxy in which, to choose just a few recent examples, the Soviet space program is lauded for its "diversity"; the doxxing of teenagers in the name of justice is condoned; and the worst caste systems in human history includes the United States alongside Nazi Germany."

•
"Rule One: Speak your mind at your own peril. Rule Two: Never risk commissioning a story that goes against the narrative. Rule Three: Never believe an editor or publisher who urges you to go against the grain. Eventually, the publisher will cave to the mob, the editor will get fired or reassigned, and you'll be hung out to dry."

•
"I can no longer do the work that you brought me here to do — the work that Adolph Ochs described in that famous 1896 statement: ‘to make of the columns of The New York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.'"
Tucker fires back at AOC, says pols who support defunding police 'will never suffer the consequences' (Fox 07/14/2020)
•
"Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the voice of the street, actually grew up in an idyllic town 45 miles north of New York City. It's called Yorktown Heights. You never know it from listening to her recent race-baiting but the population of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez' home is over 90 percent white."

•
"It's not Queens. It's a nice place. Yorktown Heights is so affluent and so peaceful, in fact, it doesn't need its own police department. Instead, it relies on the 59-man force that protects the larger town [Yorktown] around it. This is the hood that spawned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the country's most privileged revolutionaries."

•
"She called herself Sandy Cortez back then. She imagined that every place could be just like Yorktown Heights if only we got rid of the police. Apparently, she still believes that."

•
After suggesting that the crime surge was caused by an increase in shoplifting from residents struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 30-year-old lawmaker declared: "When people ask me 'What does a world where we defund the police look like?', I tell them it looks like a suburb."

•
"It looks like a suburb ... unfortunately not everyone lives in a suburb as placid and protected the one Sandy Cortez grew up in."

•
"We know very well how it will end. More poor children will die. It will not affect [New York City Mayor] Bill de Blasio, though. His family will remain protected by armed security paid for by taxpayers. So will Sandy Cortez. So will Barack Obama. So will the rest of the politicians calling for taking away our protection. They will never suffer the consequences. That's why they are for it."
Gutfeld on the Texas ambush murder of police (Fox 07/13/2020)
•
How long will we endure this?

•
Until we decide enough is enough.

•
So we report this story, not to make you angry, or sad.

•
But to help you decide, when enough is enough.
Ricky Gervais said anyone 'mildly conservative' on Twitter is labeled as 'Hitler' (Fox 07/13/2020)
•
"There's this new weird sort of fascism of people thinking they know what you can say and what you can't say and it's a really weird thing that there's this new trendy myth that people who want free speech want it to say awful things all the time, which just isn't true. It protects everyone."

•
"The two catastrophic problems with the term ‘hate speech' is, one, what constitutes hate speech? Everyone disagrees. There's no consensus on what hate speech is. Two, who decides? And there's the real rub because obviously the people who think they want to close down free speech because it's bad are the fascists. It's a really weird, mixed-up idea that these people hide behind a shield of goodness."

•
"Social media amplifies everything. If you're mildly left-wing on Twitter you're suddenly Trotsky. If you're mildly conservative you're Hitler and if you're centrist and you look at both arguments, you're a coward and they both hate you."

•
"What's not in place and what should never be in place is, you mustn't say something that someone, somewhere might find offensive because someone, somewhere might find anything offensive. And I've always said, ‘Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right.'"

•
"Offense is good because it makes you think and it makes you come up with an argument. And what's happened recently is that ‘I'm offended' has replaced an argument."

•
"So you've just got to do your thing. Sleep at night and know you're doing a decent job at work and stuff."
Thomas Sowell says concept of systemic racism 'has no meaning,' warns US could reach 'point of no...' (Fox 07/12/2020)
•
"You hear this phrase, 'systemic racism' [or] 'systemic oppression'. You hear it on our college campuses. You hear it from very wealthy and fabulously famous sports stars. What does that mean? And whatever it means, is it true?"

•
"It really has no meaning that can be specified and tested in the way that one tests hypotheses."

•
... added that the currency of the phrase reminds him of the "propaganda tactics" of Nazi Germany, where Sowell claimed that if a lie was "repeated long enough and loud enough" it would be widely believed.

•
"They're absolute hypocrites. They claim they want equality for all. They claim that there'll be the withering away of the ... police departments ... and yet every time you look at a Marxist state, it is an authoritarian, top-down, centralized police state."

•
"If the election goes to [Joe] Biden. there's a good chance that the Democrats will control [Congress] and considering the kinds of things that they're proposing, that could well be the point of no return for this country."
Corey Lewandowski praises Goya Foods CEO: 'This guy stood up to the left' (Fox 07/12/2020)
•
"I hope every person supports this president, love their country, goes out and buys some of their products."

•
"He was a CEO that everyone should admire and respect. He goes and sees President Trump in the Rose Garden and all of a sudden, you know, the left want to boycott him. This is the hypocrisy of the media. And I think the Trump train is going to come through and Goya's profits are going to go through the roof because of it."

•
"There's a carrot approach and the stick approach and the Democrats always want to use the stick, which is we're going to go after you if you even step out of line or you have an independent thought."

•
"Here's what the president has said: 'I'm going to deregulate the government so you can grow your business, regardless of how you own it. I'm going to have empowerment zones and we're going to put more money into minority communities.' This president uses the carrot. It's two very different ways of doing things."

•
"We know the president's way works but if you're not on Team Liberal, you're not on team [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], not on team Hate Trump — then we're going to use the stick against you. And you'll be penalized for not supporting the Democratic line."
Missouri couple’s gun rights defended in letter to AG Barr from 12 GOP lawmakers (Fox 07/12/2020)
•
"At this crucial time in history, our nation needs the Department of Justice to exert strong leadership to ensure that none of our constitutional protections are eroded by mob rule."

•
"Charges against this couple will have a chilling effect on the entire nation, sending the message that American citizens no longer have the right to protect themselves at their own homes."
West Virginia mail carrier admits attempted election fraud (Fox 07/12/2020)
Matt Gaetz: War on America's monuments is 'attempted cultural genocide' (Fox 07/12/2020)
•
"They're tearing down Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Frederick Douglass."

•
"So this isn't about slavery or fascism or even race. There is an attempted cultural genocide going on in America right now, and it calls for patriots to stand up and say, 'This is a great country. It is worthy of our pride and our defense.'"

•
"The left wants us to be ashamed of America so that they can replace America. I love this country and I think that we ought to do a lot more to push back against the hate that we're seeing."

•
"I am proud that President Trump has substantially increased enforcement and prosecutions."

•
"There are more than a half a dozen Antifa members from up in Portland [Ore.] that are going to be facing a federal judge and I think prison time as a consequence of organizing these things."

•
"But the great irony ... is that the organizers of Black Lives Matter — who pledge allegiance to the destruction of America — have a lot more in common with the Confederate generals that they hate than they would like to admit."

•
"Because it was, in fact, the Confederacy that initially wanted to kick out federal officials who wanted to destroy America and change it to something different."

•
"I think America was worth defending in the 1860s, and she's certainly worth defending today."
Dr. Atlas: Coronavirus surges linked mostly to protests — and proximity to US-Mexico border (Fox 07/12/2020)
•
Spikes in Texas, Florida and Arizona don't essentially line up with reopening but with Mexico's surge and the recent protests that have gripped the U.S., Atlas said.

•
"By the way. California didn't really reopen. Yet they have cases coming up. Why is that? I mean, that's because these cases don't really correlate to that."

•
"They correlate mainly to two things — the big thousands and thousands of people with protesting, sharing megaphones, screaming. That's a setup to spread cases."

•
"And also when you look at the analysis of the border counties, there's a tremendous amount of cases coming over the border and exchanging with families in the northern Mexico states."
Missouri couple who defended home have rifle seized during police search: report (Fox 07/11/2020)
•
"[They said] that they were going to kill us. They were going to come in there. They were going to burn down the house. They were going to be living in our house after I was dead, and they were pointing to different rooms and said, 'That's going to be my bedroom and that's going to be the living room and I'm going to be taking a shower in that room'."

•
"My clients didn't sit on their front stoop with guns. ... No firearms were on them at the time that they, were, as property owners standing in front of their home."

•
"It was not until they basically were in a position of seeing and observing violence, recklessness, lawbreaking, and knowing that the police were not going to be doing anything."
Giuliani hammers 'stupid,' 'communist' de Blasio, says Black Lives Matter 'is not a benign...' (Fox 07/11/2020)
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"I thought he was the worst mayor in the history of the city, now he will have written that like a headline in history."

•
"Just think of the contradiction. I mean, everybody else can't march. We have to wear masks. We have to separate ourselves. But if you are protesting, you can stand together, you can spit in each other's face, you can hug and squeeze and you're not going to get COVID-19."

•
"Black Lives Matter. is an organization run by three Marxists and financed by a convicted terrorist — who I happened to have convicted, who got 58 years in jail and got a corrupt pardon from Bill Clinton."

•
"This is not a benign organization. I can't say yet that we can prove it's a terrorist organization. It's certainly a violent organization, and I believe in the course of time it will be shown to be a terrorist organization."

•
"He's putting 'Black Lives Matter' in front of the president's personal residence. The president he wants to ... help bail out New York — [he] not only is a communist but is a stupid one."
Corey Lewandowski: Roger Stone's treatment should scare every American (Fox 07/11/2020)
•
"They used more men to go and get Roger Stone than I think they used on the Usama bin Laden raid. It just so happened that one of the networks was there to watch the whole thing."

•
"Look, Roger Stone was clearly targeted by an unfair prosecution. Look, I'm not the biggest fan of Roger Stone. I think you guys know that. But, the way he was treated by this government should scare the hell out of every American."

•
"You know, they could do it to anybody. What they've done to Mike Flynn and Roger Stone: this president saw an injustice. He commuted the sentence. Which is the right thing to do to make sure Roger has a fair trial and has a fair hearing – it's very important in our system."

•
"Comey, Brennan, Clapper, McCabe: all the names we know have never been brought to justice. It's time. Justice is blind, but those people need to be held accountable."

•
"If Obama did it, [it] must be fine. When Trump does it, it's wrong. That's the Trump Derangement Syndrome that the media and the left has had since he came down that big, beautiful, golden escalator."
Harmeet Dhillon: Roger Stone was victim of political prosecution — Trump right to commute... (Fox 07/11/2020)
•
This is a prosecution that should have never happened, and one that was motivated entirely by ego, politics and hatred of President Trump.

•
The saga began with a predawn SWAT team raid on Stone's Florida home, televised by a gleeful CNN crew that — by an amazing "coincidence" – happened to be on the scene.

•
It looked like a bad made-for-TV movie about the takedown of an armed and dangerous terrorist leader of the caliber of Usama bin Laden — when, in fact, Stone was unarmed and posed no danger to anyone.

•
Thankfully, President Trump has now acted in the interests of justice so that the 67-year-old Stone — who is not in the prime of good health — has been able to avoid a potential death sentence due to his vulnerability COVID-19 if he were imprisoned.

•
Ironically, our prisons are being emptied of dangerous criminals at the very same time that the harmless Stone was about to be committed to life-threatening confinement.

•
I say the Stone's ordeal is only nearly over — and not finished — because the next chapter will inevitably be a chorus of Trump-hating partisan Democrats fulminating impotently about the president's "abuse of power" and demanding "answers" and an investigation.

•
The melodramatic and false Democratic claims are by now familiar because we've heard them so many times. "Russian collusion! Treason! Betrayal! Obstruction!"

•
Prosecutors working for anti-Trump Special Counsel Robert Mueller were under intense pressure to deliver on the hyped Russia collusion narrative in what is tantamount to an attempted coup against the president.

•
The prosecutors seized on Stone's contradictory statements about contacts with Assange as a thread they could unravel to lead them back to the prize of proving that the Trump campaign somehow colluded with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton

•
In truth, the Mueller investigation came up empty, other than persecuting Roger Stone, former Trump campaign head Paul Manafort, a couple of clueless low-level campaign volunteers, and a passel of conveniently absent and unreachable alleged Russian spies.

•
... the prosecution of Trump supporters was meant to send a message to conservatives: if you dare support Trump, you will be targeted with a no-holds-barred and merciless political prosecution.

•
And indeed, many got the message. To this day the abhorrent treatment of Stone, Manafort and others incidentally caught up in a rigged witch hunt starring Special Counsel Robert Mueller has caused many talented Republicans to sit on the sidelines rather than play any role in the Trump administration or reelection campaign.

•
Who wants to risk prison, the blackening of their good name, or bankruptcy caused by enormous legal defense costs for supporting your favored candidate for president?
Ayaan Hirsi Ali blasts Ilhan Omar over call to remake US, says 'I don't think we need a revolution' (Fox 07/10/2020)
•
"Why flee from Mogadishu, why flee from anarchy, why flee from oppression — and then come to the United States and do all your best to turn Minnesota and the U.S. into Mogadishu? It's one of the things I'd like to ask her."

•
"I don't think we need a revolution, I think what we have — the American Declaration [of Independence], the American Constitution, American values — our system gives us the tools to address social injustice, to address inequality, to address all the issues we face."

•
"And I think these movements — and Ilhan is just one of these people symbolizing that — I think we need to resist and to say, 'Look, you've come to America in search of freedom, you've come to America in search of equality, we find it here. Our system is not perfect, we can fix it and we do it through conversations.'"

•
"What we are seeing. is a very loud minority who is saying 'Let us not seek solutions to the system we have, but let's dismantle it' and I am passionately against it."
Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence, days before prison term set to begin (Fox 07/10/2020)
•
... the president had made the decision to commute Stone's sentence "in light of the egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial." "Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency."

•
"There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia. Such collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to accept the result of the 2016 election. The collusion delusion spawned endless and farcical investigations, conducted at great taxpayer expense, looking for evidence that did not exist."

•
... Mueller's office "resorted to process-based charges leveled at high-profile people in an attempt to manufacture the false impression of criminality lurking below the surface."

•
"These charges were the product of recklessness borne of frustration and malice."

•
... he worked for nearly 50 years as a consultant for high-profile Republican politicians, including former President Ronald Reagan, Sen. Bob Dole and others, while noting that Stone is also known for "his outspoken support for President Donald J. Trump and opposition to Hillary Clinton."

•
McEnany went on to blast Mueller's prosecutors for the fashion in which they arrested Stone, noting he is a "67 year old man with numerous medical conditions, who had never been convicted of another crime, and that they used " dozens of FBI agents with automatic weapons and tactical equipment, armored vehicles, and an amphibious unit to execute a pre-dawn raid of his home, where he was with his wife of many years."

•
"He has appealed his conviction and is seeking a new trial. He maintains his innocence and has stated that he expects to be fully exonerated by the justice system."

•
"Mr. Stone, like every American, deserves a fair trial and every opportunity to vindicate himself before the courts."

•
"The President does not wish to interfere with his efforts to do so. At this time, however, and particularly in light of the egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial, the President has determined to commute his sentence."

•
... Stone's attorney Grant Smith said: "Mr. Stone is incredibly honored that President Trump used his awesome and unique power under the Constitution of the United States for this act of mercy."

•
"Mr. and Mrs. Stone appreciate all the consideration the President gave to this matter."

•
"The president, who I've known for 40 years, has an incredible sense of fairness. He is aware that the people trying to destroy Michael Flynn, now trying to destroy me, are the people trying to destroy him," Stone said.
Trump threatens tax-exempt status, funding for universities and schools over 'radical left...' (Fox 07/10/2020)
•
"Too many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education."

•
"Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status... and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues. Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!"

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Goya Foods CEO won't apologize in face of boycott, backlash for pro-Trump remarks: 'Suppression...' (Fox 07/10/2020)
Trump accuses Biden of ‘plagiarizing’ him over 'buy American' push (Fox 07/10/2020)
•
"He plagiarized from me, but he can never pull it off," Trump said.

•
"It's a plan that is very radical left. But he said the right things because he's copying what I've done, but the difference is he can't do it."

•
"And he knows he's not doing that — can't be the same, because he's raising taxes way too much. He's raising everybody's taxes."

•
"He's also putting tremendous amounts of regulations back on. And those two things are two primary reasons that I created the greatest economy we've ever had. And now we're creating it again."
Maryland Governor Hogan rips Pelosi for statue comments, says she's ‘lost touch with the Baltimore...’ (Fox 07/10/2020)
•
"It's disappointing that Speaker Pelosi has lost touch with the Baltimore community that her family served. While efforts towards peaceful change are welcome, there is no place in Maryland for lawlessness, vandalism, and destruction of public property. Our state and our nation need room for more constructive dialogue, not destruction. We will not let mobs 'do what they do.' They do not represent Baltimore."

•
"While we welcome peaceful protests and constructive dialogue on whether and how to put certain monuments in context or move them to museums through a legal process, lawlessness, vandalism, and destruction of public property is completely unacceptable. That is the antithesis of democracy and should be condemned by everyone, regardless of their politics."

•
Baltimore Mayor Bernard Young said there would be consequences for those who tore down the Columbus statue, saying "if we identify them, they will be brought to justice."

•
"I am disgusted by Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey's vile remarks about removing the public memorial saluting Baltimore's fallen police officers, which was funded and championed by their family members."

•
"Though recent weeks have prompted discussion about how we should remember controversial historical figures, there is nothing controversial about honoring heroes who have lost their lives protecting the rest of us."
Trump says Seattle acted on CHOP only after warning about federal action (Fox 07/10/2020)
Bill Bennett warns Supreme Court ruling could let DAs 'go after presidents ... and tie them up...' (Fox 07/09/2020)
•
"This election will be decided by the things we know about — the economy, the effects of COVID on things like the economy and school, the state of our cities, civil unrest, and, of course, the bottomless, irrational contempt of Democrats for Donald Trump, which is the main reason they are going to the polls."

•
"It's not that the president can be subpoenaed. We've had that before, but you've got 2,300 of these district attorneys who could, in the present or in the future, go after presidents and tie them up and tie them up in knots. And I think that's a very strong argument that the administration has."
Judge refuses to dismiss Flynn case, petitions full appellate court (Fox 07/09/2020)
Mainstream media 'crossed the Rubicon' with flagrant lies about Trump's Mount Rushmore speech... (Fox 07/09/2020)
•
... liberal members of the press distorted the president's July 3 speech, inserting their own narrative about an "unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of White domination."

•
"Which I'm guessing means that Trump-defending pundits aren't the only ones troubled by the Rubicon we've crossed when mainstream press outlets and a U.S. senator flagrantly lie about the content of a presidential address."

•
... WSJ Editorial Page deputy director Daniel Henninger wrote Wednesday that the president's Fourth of July speech was "a detailed, articulate defense of American history and values" the "evening news" ignored in favor of "downer-ism" following "unprecedented events."

•
"You saw a catalog of weekend violence, killings and more protests. Not least was the toppling in Rochester, N.Y., of a statue of Frederick Douglass, a founding father of Black American pride."

•
"These are times – and emotions – that don't lend themselves to conventional political analysis."

•
"With the election near, the Trump-wallowing media has decided its commitment to 'truth' requires distortions of reality, such as that his Mount Rushmore speech was 'dark,' the protesters are voices of light (really), and the reviving economy is actually sinking."

•
"But much of the media is propagating this doom-to-the-horizon scenario – the threat of death or limitless systemic racism – when the public is focused on finding an upside and an exit from what they've just been through."
Barr: FBI has made 150 arrests, launched more than 500 investigations related to rioting (Fox 07/09/2020)
•
"We already arrested over 150 people on federal charges, and we have over 500 investigations underway going on across the nation focused on these hardcore instigators involved in this rioting."

•
"We have to support, provide more support, more training, and more resources to the police, not defund the police," Barr said, stating that "over the last few decades a lot of progress has been made in reforms."
Trump rips Supreme Court, claims ‘political prosecution’ after rulings on financial records (Fox 07/09/2020)
•
"The Supreme Court sends case back to Lower Court, arguments to continue. This is all a political prosecution. I won the Mueller Witch Hunt, and others, and now I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York."

•
"President is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers nor entitled to a heightened standard of need," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court's majority opinion in the New York case.

•
The court limited its ruling and the arguments before it to whether Trump has "absolute immunity" and state prosecutors are required to show a "heightened need" in order to obtain documents as part of investigations into a president.

•
Roberts also authored the opinion in the House case. "Without limits on its subpoena powers, Congress could 'exert an imperious control' over the Executive Branch and aggrandize itself at the President's expense, just as the Framers feared."

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"We have a totally corrupt previous Administration, including a President and Vice President who spied on my campaign, AND GOT CAUGHT... and nothing happens to them." Trump tweeted.

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"This crime was taking place even before my election, everyone knows it, and yet all are frozen stiff with fear."

•
"No Republican Senate Judiciary response, NO 'JUSTICE', NO FBI, NO NOTHING. Major horror show REPORTS on Comey & McCabe, guilty as hell, nothing happens. Catch Obama & Biden cold, nothing. A 3 year, $45,000,000 Mueller HOAX, failed - investigated everything."

•
"Won all against the Federal Government and the Democrats send everything to politically corrupt New York, which is falling apart with everyone leaving, to give it a second, third and fourth try."

•
"Now the Supreme Court gives a delay ruling that they would never have given for another President."

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"This is about PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT. We catch the other side SPYING on my campaign, the biggest political crime and scandal in U.S. history, and NOTHING HAPPENS."

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See related Draining the Swamp (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
NYC closes 5th Avenue ahead of Black Lives Matter painting in front of Trump Tower (Fox 07/09/2020)
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... has been a sore spot for the president, who charged the "big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue" with "denigrating this luxury Avenue."

•
"This will further antagonize New York's Finest, who LOVE New York & vividly remember the horrible BLM chant, " Pigs In A Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon". Maybe our GREAT Police, who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates & disrespects them, won't let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York's greatest street," Trump tweeted last week.
Nikki Haley makes the case to reelect Trump, warns 'we will lose our rule of law' if Biden wins (Fox 07/09/2020)
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"If we go with a President Biden. we will lose our rule of law, we will have the progressives really running away with everything, getting all of what they want and we will get closer and closer to the socialist countries that we have fought so hard not to become."

•
... "we've had true results with President Trump. You don't have to like him but look at the results that he's done and [how he's] raised the quality of life for so many people."

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"Then look at the results of Biden with President Obama. The African-American community, women, Hispanics, none of us felt those results like we have with President Trump. So facts matter. Results matter."

•
... also questioned the credibility of the Black Lives Matter movement, which she accused of "picking and choosing which lives really do matter."

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"Why don't the Black police officers that have been shot or have been chastised, why don't their lives matter?"

•
"How about the Black store owner whose business burned down? His life matters."

•
"What about the families who are in threatening areas that need law enforcement to keep them safe? What about those six children that died [in shootings across America] over the weekend? Those Black lives matter. So why are we picking and choosing which ones matter?"

•
"I'm telling you, if they want to turn into Venezuela, defund the police."

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"At the U.N., I saw what made America special and what separated us from other countries was the rule of law. It's what allows us quality of life. It's what allows us our freedom."
Sen. Loeffler stands by opposition to 'divisive' Black Lives Matter amid row with WNBA players (Fox 07/09/2020)
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"This week, they threatened to burn the system down — literally and figuratively if they don't get what they want. I mean, this is an organization that seeks to destroy American principles and I had to draw the line. I had to speak out for those [who] disagree with this movement because our country's too important."

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"You've seen anarchy and riots. You've seen murders in Atlanta. This organization didn't come out and protest the murder of an 8-year-old girl in our streets as a result of this mob rule that was happening in this autonomous zone. Where are the voices on that?"

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"We have this cancel culture that is threatening America and the foundation of it is that Americans are afraid to speak out because of the cancel culture. And, I'm not going to be silenced by it."

•
"And, I encourage other Americans to speak out. And, I'm going to stand for them because I am taking a tax from the left and they're not just attacking me; they want to destroy me."
Seattle held 'segregated' training session on 'undoing whiteness,' encouraged staffers to forfeit... (Fox 07/08/2020)
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... this is exactly the kind of thought-policing they want to implement everywhere."

•
"The new cultural revolution is being fought via corporate HR, city diversity training, and public school curriculums. When you find something like this in your community, expose it, criticize it, mock it, and reject it."

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See related And That\\\'s Why We Are Letting You Go (Mike Lester, 06/14/2020) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Not All black lives matter — to Black Lives Matter (JWR 07/08/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Kids should go back to school — guess who is opposed to that simple idea (Fox 07/08/2020)
•
So, who is opposed to opening schools? Take a guess. The teachers unions.

•
The teachers unions' position on every question is always the same. They would like less work, no accountability, and much more pay.

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America's teachers' unions are some of the most stridently partisan organizations in our country. They are the biggest backers of the Democratic Party.

•
This is an election year. They believe more chaos and more displacement will help them win. Maybe they're right, but it's sick.
Venezuelan refugee hits back after Ilhan Omar calls for dismantling America's 'system of oppression' (Fox 07/08/2020)
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"Their goal from the beginning with the protests has always been to push a socialist agenda. They think that profit is bad. Profit is good. Profit means that businesses should produce more of what they're doing. If there is no profit, we get to what happened to my country in Venezuela where businesses just shut down and everybody is jobless."
Andrew McCarthy: Supreme Court ruling upholding religious liberty is good news, but should go farther (Fox 07/08/2020)
Trump says ‘we are in a culture war,’ Republicans need to ‘toughen up’ (Fox 07/08/2020)
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"We are in a culture war. If the Republicans don't toughen up and get smart and get strong and protect our heritage and protect our country, I think they're going to have a very tough election."

•
He also pushed back against "cancel culture," wherein people have been shaming others for past social media posts they disagree with, and in some cases threatening their livelihoods by trying to use the posts to get them fired from their jobs.

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"This is the very definition of totalitarianism. and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America."
Newt Gingrich: Trump carves a place in history, picks up Reagan's patriotic dream (Fox 07/08/2020)
Michael Goodwin: Gov. Cuomo, New York's nursing home deaths are on you, not someone else (Fox 07/08/2020)
New report argues perils of mail-in voting go beyond fraud (Fox 07/07/2020)
Chicago police trying to combat violence limited by politics-driven policy: former chief (Fox 07/07/2020)
Mollie Hemingway: Democrat-run cities are allowing 'chaos to flourish' (Fox 07/07/2020)
•
"And, these are the natural results of policies that a lot of people have been bullied into accepting, regarding defunding the police, not persecuting rioters, and it has horrifically tragic consequences."
FBI Director Wray says half of bureau’s 5,000 counterintelligence cases are related to China (Fox 07/07/2020)
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"And at this very moment, China is working to compromise American health care organizations, pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions conducting essential COVID-19 research."

•
"If you're an American adult, it is more likely than not that China has stolen your personal data."

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Wray said that the Chinese Communist Party "uses a diverse range of sophisticated techniques — everything from cyber intrusions to corrupting trusted insiders," and even "outright physical theft."

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... in some cases, China uses social media platforms used by Americans "to identify people with access to our government's sensitive information and then target those people to try to steal it."

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... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration is considering restricting United States' users' access to the Chinese social media application TikTok over concerns it is potentially being used by the Beijing government as a means to surveil and propagandize people.

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Pompeo warned Americans that they should be cautious in using the video app, lest they want their private information "in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party."
Sen. Loeffler on Atlanta shootings, death of girl: 'Radical movement to defund police is creating havoc' (Fox 07/07/2020)
Radical Dem surrenders New York City, and more, to the mob (JWR 07/06/2020)
Gutfeld on the bloody 4th (Fox 07/06/2020)
Kayleigh McEnany scolds reporters for not asking about deadly weekend of violence across America (Fox 07/06/2020)
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"I'd end with this, I was asked probably 12 questions about the Confederate flag, this president is focused on action and I'm a little dismayed that I didn't receive one question on the deaths that we got in this country this weekend."

•
"I didn't receive one question about New York City shootings doubling for the third-straight week... not one question. I didn't receive one question about five children who were killed."

•
"I'll leave you with this remark by a dad. It broke my heart, a dad of an 8-year-old last in Atlanta this weekend, ‘They say Black lives matter. You killed a child, she didn't do nothing to nobody.'"

•
"We need to be focused on securing our streets, making sure no lives are lost, because all black lives matter, that of [retired St. Louis police captain] David Dorn and that of this 8-year-old girl. Thank you."

•
See related Unmasking (Glenn McCoy, 04/04/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Gingrich and Rep. Reed: Cuomo's coronavirus nursing home disaster – Hold governor accountable (Fox 07/06/2020)
•
New York owes each of the grieving families who lost a parent or grandparent an explanation as to why the state was unable to protect our most vulnerable population – and what it is doing today to ensure their safety moving forward.

•
For 46 days, Cuomo and his staff forced nursing homes to receive COVID-positive patients.

•
As cries for help and dire questions quickly mounted over the state's order, the governor opted to avoid meeting with stakeholders and instead go on television to joke around with his brother.

•
Though the record is clear, Cuomo has claimed the Trump administration is at fault, and the state merely did what it was told.

•
Given the lack of concrete information available to the public regarding Cuomo's decision-making process, we are left to wonder what exactly encouraged New York to make the choices it did.

•
The governor's ties to the powerful advocacy group, the Greater New York Hospital Association, are certainly worth reviewing.

•
Think this is some imagined conspiracy? It was the Guardian that methodically exposed Cuomo's move to quietly provide medical executives with immunity after receiving massive campaign donations.

•
It is no coincidence, then, that other states with high nursing home deaths also happen to be run by Democratic governors...

•
If we are going to protect our nation's parents and grandparents moving forward, we need to move past the deceit, get to the truth and put the best policies in place to ensure their safety.

•
Blanket bans on visitation are also not a viable policy. Our nation's parents and grandparents are bearing the burden of this crisis alone, and the toll of extended isolation is severe.

•
For months, the media has done little to shine a light on the horrific and failed policies of states like New York. The American people deserve answers and real solutions.

•
See related The Joker (Gary Varvel, 05/19/2020) cartoon from Government picture album
Missing July 4th in America (INN 07/05/2020)
Fourth of July weekend marked by violence as girl, 7, among dead in Chicago, cities see deadly... (Fox 07/05/2020)
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"Chicago and New York City crime numbers are way up. 67 people shot in Chicago, 13 killed. Shootings up significantly in NYC where people are demanding that @NYGovCuomo & @NYCMayor act now. Federal Government ready, willing and able to help, if asked!"
Gianno Caldwell: Trump – not Biden – has made black lives better (Fox 07/05/2020)
Rep. Dusty Johnson on need to preserve US history: Dems forget how lucky they are... (Fox 07/04/2020)
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"... I love this country. It's the greatest country in the history of humankind. And I think there is an incredibly powerful story there to tell to our young people about the aspirations of this country."

•
"Not about the flaws of Abraham Lincoln, but about the steps he took to become the great emancipator."

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"Yes, by all means, let's not ignore the flaws. But I'm concerned that some of my friends on the other side get so enamored talking about the imperfections of America they forget how unbelievably lucky we all are to be living in this country in this century."
At Mount Rushmore, Trump right to highlight danger leftist radicals pose to America (Fox 07/04/2020)
•
"The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice. But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society," the president said.

•
"It would transform justice into an instrument of division and vengeance and turn our free society into a place of repression, domination and exclusion. They want to silence us, but we will not be silenced."

•
Our democratic values are being challenged by increasingly intolerant radicals. These leftists misrepresent our history and seek to impose socialism and censorship on those who disagree. As we have seen over the last two months, the radical left is prepared to do this through mob rule and violence.

•
On the final day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin, was asked: "What do we have, a republic or a monarchy?" He replied: "A republic, if you can keep it."

•
Although most Americans reject the radical leftist attacks on our country and history, the views of the extremists will take root unless we forcefully refute them.

•
This means not just rejecting the recent lawlessness led by radical leftist groups like Black Lives Matters (BLM) and Antifa, but actively speaking out to defend our history of freedom.

•
This must include keeping the left's America-hating, socialist narrative out of our schools.

•
We live in a dangerous world with enemies who would like to end the American experiment and our status as the world's superpower.

•
America's adversaries are encouraging BLM and Antifa to undermine our country. China is openly using BLM to bash the U.S. government and discredit liberal democracies to deflect criticism of Chinese human rights violations.

•
China is and likely will remain the most serious security threat to the United States and the world. China's ruling Communist Party is not interested in peaceful co-existence or free and fair trade.

•
Fortunately, we have a president who recognizes foreign threats and is taking steps to defend our security and freedom. President Trump has built up and modernized our military, greatly improving readiness.

•
As we celebrate the birth of our nation this weekend, we honor an exceptional nation that is a global beacon of freedom, liberty and opportunity.

•
But the success of the American experiment will not continue unless we aggressively defend our democratic ideals, history of freedom and our national security.
Trump gives optimistic Independence Day message, says US is ‘coming back’ after ‘terrible plague...' (Fox 07/04/2020)
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"I just want to wish everybody a really Happy Fourth of July. We're on the way to a tremendous victory, it's going to happen and it's going to happen big, our country will be greater than ever before."

•
... began the short message by saying that July 4 is about many different things, "but more than anything else — freedom."

•
"We were doing better than any country had ever done in history and not just us, any country, and then we got hit with this terrible plague from China and now we're getting close to fighting our way out of it."

•
"Our country's coming back, our jobs numbers are spectacular, a lot of things are happening that people don't quite see yet but you'll see over the next couple of months."

•
"We will state the truth in full, without apology: We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth."

•
"We are proud of the fact that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and we understand that these values have dramatically advanced the cause of peace and justice throughout the world."
Trump, in fiery Mount Rushmore address, decries rise of 'far-left fascism,' calls on Americans to... (Fox 07/04/2020)
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"This monument will never be desecrated. These heroes will never be defaced. Their legacy will never, ever be destroyed. Their achievements will never be forgotten. And Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and to our freedom."

•
The president asserted that recent attacks on the nation's monuments, alongside "cancel culture" and the rise of the Marxist ideology of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, were symptoms of a "left-wing cultural revolution" that was threatening to "overthrow the American Revolution."

•
BLM explicitly advocates the destruction of the "nuclear family structure," which Trump said was in fact the "bedrock of American life."

•
"We only kneel to Almighty God," Trump remarked, in a clear shot at athletes who kneel in protest during the national anthem. "We will not be intimidated by bad, evil people. It will not happen."

•
... Trump characterized endemic efforts to terminate and humiliate dissent as a form of "totalitarianism" and an "attack on our magnificent liberty" — and promised that it "will be stopped very quicky."

•
"The violent mayhem we have seen in our streets and cities are run by liberal Democrats in every case is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism and other cultural institutions."

•
"Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it weren't heroes, but villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies."

•
"This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore," Trump said, referring to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

•
"They want to silence us," Trump said, as cheers of "U-S-A!" broke out. "But we will not be silenced. ... We want free and open debate, not cancel culture. ... Their goal is not a better America. Their goal is to end America. ... But just as in centuries past, the American people will stand in their way."

•
"As we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for, struggled, and bled to secure," Trump said, warning of a concerted attempt to "wipe out our history" and "indoctrinate our children."

•
"They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive," the president continued, to applause, "But no, the American people are strong and proud. And they will not allow our country and its values and history and culture to be taken from them."

•
"Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America's destiny."

•
"From head to toe, George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people. From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on Earth. Through eight long years, through the brutal winter at Valley Forge, through setback after setback on the field of battle, he led those patriots to ultimate triumph. When the Army had dwindled to a few thousand men at Christmas of 1776, when defeat seemed absolutely certain, he took what remained of his forces on a daring nighttime crossing of the Delaware River."

•
"They marched through nine miles of frigid darkness, many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in the snow. In the morning, they seized victory at Trenton. After forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown, General Washington did not claim power, but simply returned to Mount Vernon as a private citizen. When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and was unanimously elected our first president. When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary King George called him 'the greatest man of the age.' He remains first in our hearts to this day. For as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington. He will never be removed, abolished, and most of all, he will never be forgotten."

•
Trump went on to praise Thomas Jeefferson, saying he "brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence," and Abraham Lincoln as the "savior of our union." Theodore Roosevelt, Trump added, "exemplified the unbridled confidence of our national culture and identity. He saw the towering grandeur of America's mission in the world and he pursued it with overwhelming energy and zeal."

•
"We will never surrender the spirit and the courage, and the cause of July 4, 1776. Upon this ground we will stand firm and unwavering."
As an immigrant, I celebrate America this July 4th and goodness of the American people (Fox 07/04/2020)
Alveda King: Independence Day aspirations — the challenge to strive for that more perfect union (Fox 07/04/2020)
•
We don't celebrate the completion of that experiment or the perfection of our union. We celebrate its aspirations that its people would prosper in liberty and justice.

•
We were an imperfect union then, and we are an imperfect union still. That's to be expected because while we are made in the image of God, we are not God.

•
We are human beings, flawed sinners capable both of great evil and extraordinary righteousness, every one of us, from our Founding Fathers and mothers to all of us alive today at this perilous moment for our nation.

•
Our union, that grand experiment still unfolding, is in grave danger right now. We are challenged not only by a global pandemic that is sickening and killing more people every day and whose end we cannot predict, but also by a social upheaval the likes of which we have truly never seen.

•
I hope and pray we can withstand our current challenges but we won't without God's help, and without being able to find a way to listen to each other.

•
I am not enamored of statues, and I have made my feelings known before. My faith tells me not to worship idols, and a statue can become an idol. ... I loved and revered my uncle, the man, but I would not worship his statue.

•
Still, it pains me to watch these unruly people, many of them ignorant of history, tearing down statues as if that's an answer to our problems.

•
And it pains me to know that our First Amendment rights to free speech are being trampled by a politically motivated Twitter mob that decides what sentiments can be spoken and which must be stifled.

•
The extremism of our newly anointed "cancel culture" is terrifying.

•
We have political differences we will never overcome but we are all Americans, whether we believe that's something worth celebrating or not.

•
We need to relearn civility, to remember when we could disagree without scorching the earth between us.
Trump critics enraged over his Mount Rushmore visit – But Obama and Hillary went earlier (Fox 07/03/2020)
People, officers left trapped in vehicles by swarms of protesters — but officials mute on how... (Fox 07/03/2020)
•
A recent 911 call from a frightened Virginia woman who dialed for help when protesters pounded on the hood of her vehicle and blocked her path – all while her young daughter cried in the back seat – has left many questioning what to do should police officers not intervene on their behalf.

•
"If you're sitting in that police car and suddenly you're blocked, what is your response to this crowd banging on the car and climbing on the car and trying to get at you?"

•
"A male protester ran to the SUV on the passenger side, pointed a handgun at the driver, and shot one round through the window."

•
The driver was struck by a bullet then "hit the gas trying to leave the situation," according to police. The gunman then ran after the SUV and fired a second-round that went through the rear passenger window. He then "conceals the firearm and continues to protest."

•
The same protester "later approached another vehicle at 500 North and University Avenue, striking and breaking the window with the handgun"...

•
The gunman has since been identified as Jesse Taggart, 33, of Salt Lake City, and has been booked at the Utah County Jail on several charges, including attempted aggravated murder, aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, rioting, threatening use of a weapon in a fight or quarrel, criminal mischief and firing a weapon near a highway.

•
A second protester, Samantha Darling, 27, of Ogden, was arrested for investigation of obstruction of justice and rioting in connection to the incident.

•
"When you talk about training, if you run into an ambush situation the proper course is to get out for your safety and that is exactly what these officers opted to do."

•
Dash camera footage from two police vehicles showed protesters surround the SUV, jump on the hood, and cover the windshield with signs before the driver accelerates forward.

•
... a woman named Tara Durant dialed 911 last month to report protesters began harassing her – and her young daughter – while driving through town running errands.

•
"They're on my car, alright. They're on my car right now," Durant tells the 911 dispatcher.

•
"So we would suggest you slowly drive through the area. Don't hit anyone with your vehicle," the dispatcher responds. To that, the woman says: "I can't. I cannot get out of here, okay?"

•
The dispatcher responds, "We can't do anything, ma'am. The city told us this is a sanctioned event."

•
"Get out of my car! You know, this is going to get dangerous. I got a kid here," the woman shouts.

•
But the dispatcher only calmly replies: "Yes, ma'am. We would suggest you call up the city hall to let them know about your frustrations."

•
Durant is then heard yelling: "Get out of the way! Get out of the way! This is getting scary! They're on my car! They're on my car! And, I've got a little girl in the car crying. Are you kidding me?!"

•
Fredericksburg Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw apologized to protesters after police tried to disperse the crowd, writing "I am personally sorry. I apologize to those who went through this fearful experience."
Riot declared in Portland, cops order protesters to leave or face arrest (Fox 07/03/2020)
Wisconsin police officer fatally shoots black man allegedly wielding knives, family says race... (Fox 07/03/2020)
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... after authorities say he chased a woman with a pair of knives and then advanced on the officer.

•
... the responding officer tried to talk to him and fired his Taser before Ruffin allegedly charged him with the knives, "forcing the officer to use a firearm."

•
"But because he was black, he was considered as a threat from the beginning."

•
"This stuff has been going on all around the world, this is why everyone is protesting, this is why we are upset. The color of our skin should not determine whether we are taken into custody or taken to the morgue."

•
"We need to know why Sheboygan police killed Mr. Ruffin instead of handling this in a nonviolent way," Chris Ott, the ALCU Wisconsin Executive Director said...
Unpredictable John Roberts (JWR 07/02/2020)
Newt Gingrich warns US faces two 'dramatically different futures' after November election (Fox 07/02/2020)
•
... this November's presidential election is "the most important" since 1860, when Abraham Lincoln became the first president from the Republican Party.

•
"The scale of the choice that the country faced in 1860 between Lincoln, who was determined to stop the spread of slavery but also determined to keep the union together, and three other candidates on the Democratic Party who were pro-slavery and who wanted to somehow appease the South ... was enormous."

•
"But it was a clear, decisive choice. And as the country was growing tired of putting up with slavery, the country would not tolerate secession. And as a result, in the end, America survived."

•
"[If] we end up with a President [Joe] Biden, [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and [Senate] Majority Leader [Chuck] Schumer, in the first year or so, the amount of stuff they're going to do will amaze you."

•
"By contrast, I think President Trump believes that his policies were working, that lower taxes, less regulation, greater opportunity for people to go out and start small businesses, encouraging people to go to work ... to have more of what they earn in their pocket, giving them freedom from bureaucrats and regulations ... These are two dramatically different futures."
Seattle radio host Jason Rantz mocks newly dispersed CHOP protesters: 'We should give them to...' (Fox 07/02/2020)
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"We're talking about a whole bunch of 20-something, imbecilic, progressive, white-privileged dudes who think that they basically don't have to work for a living. They can just turn to socialism and everything will be handed to them. Do we really even want them in Seattle? I think we should give them the Portland."
Newt Gingrich: The country faces two 'dramatically different futures' in 2020 election (Fox 07/02/2020)
Trump administration puts American workers first in line as jobs come back (Fox 07/02/2020)
•
From his first days in the Oval Office, President Trump has prioritized the American worker.

•
His policy decisions reflect this: Broad tax cuts, commonsense deregulatory actions, and bold trade deals that brought millions more jobs and rising wages by re-invigorating America's business sector — a "blue-collar boom," until a virus from China forced us to hit pause.

•
Last week the president took an important step to help Americans who have been put out of work by the virus. He signed a Proclamation to guarantee that the millions of Americans seeking to return to the workforce are first in line to fill the jobs coming back online.

•
The Proclamation temporarily halts, through the end of the year, entry into the U.S. of certain temporary foreign workers, and extends the President's suspension on certain immigrant visas.

•
The Proclamation also directs the Department of Labor to make long-term reforms and enhancements to the H-1B visa program, a program that was intended to supplement the U.S. workforce with exceptional, high-skilled foreign workers, but which has often been misused as a source of cheap foreign labor.

•
More than 20 million Americans have been put out of work since February, when we were enjoying record-low unemployment.

•
And while we are on the road to recovery — in May, 2.5 million jobs were filled — many Americans remain unemployed and eager to return to work.

•
The president's order ensures that these unemployed men and women have the first crack at available jobs.

•
The Proclamation also directs longer-term reforms that will support business growth and American workers by re-aligning guest worker programs with their original purpose.

•
H-1B visas were intended to be a pipeline for highly skilled and specialized foreign talent that could complement and bolster the work being done by American employees.

•
But today many visas go to nonimmigrant workers whose skills are not particularly specialized and who are paid an entry-level wage that undercuts the pay of American workers.

•
The H-1B program was never intended to create a pool of foreign labor that displaces Americans' opportunities for good-paying jobs.

•
At the president's direction, the Department of Labor will be reforming the H-1B visa program to protect American jobs and wages.

•
We are strengthening wage protections for American workers and putting an end to abuses of the program, such as when non-U.S. workers are hired by one company to displace U.S. workers at another company.

•
The Labor Department is also increasing its cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security to identify businesses that misuse the H-1B program to the detriment of American workers.

•
American workers and businesses have flourished under the pro-growth policies of the past three years. The administration will continue to support economic expansion that increases opportunities for American workers.
Dale Wilcox: Stop abusing visa system — Corporate America must hire homegrown talent (Fox 07/02/2020)
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Education has long been one of the building blocks to achieving the American Dream. Go to college, get a degree and you'll be on your way to a successful career and a prosperous life.

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Today that time-tested maxim is faltering, thanks in part to Corporate America's addiction to cheap foreign labor and its love for unfettered immigration.

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Greek poetry and Nietzsche may be the stuff of Starbuck's baristas, but the country will always need IT professionals and lab researchers, right? Not exactly.

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At various times in America's rise as an enduring global economic superpower, our industries have needed specialists who were not available among our population.

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For that reason, the federal government created programs like the H-1B visa, which allows employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.

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Sadly, profit has subsumed principle. Foreign workers continue to be hired for American jobs under H-1B, not because of a dearth of skilled native workers, but because foreign workers can be hired at often a fraction of the cost of their U.S. counterparts.

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This pattern has continued even through the mass unemployment of the coronavirus pandemic.

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... there are 583,420 H-1B skilled workers in the country at a time when tens of millions of Americans are out of work. Are we to believe that no skilled workers are among that pool of job seekers?

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This is fundamentally wrong during better times. Today it is a gross injustice.

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Corporations that want to enjoy low U.S. corporate taxes and have access to the American market show utter contempt for American workers.

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This can be seen in numerous accounts of American workers who were asked to train foreign workers and then received pink slips when the trainees turned out to be their replacements.

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To be sure, this obsession with foreign labor is not about a lack of homegrown talent. As of 2014 there were more than five million native-born Americans with STEM undergraduate degrees, but they were working in non-STEM occupations.

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Why is that? Maybe because many of them have been squeezed out of the career they trained for as employers prefer foreign labor that can be paid substandard wages.

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That is not capitalism; it's exploitation and using yet another government program as a form of corporate welfare.

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These maneuvers may be smart for a company's balance sheet, but they are decidedly bad for America and its citizens.

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At a time when many corporations are extremely image-conscious and virtue signal their political correctness, many have no shame about proclaiming their unquenchable thirst for cheap labor at the expense of Americans.

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Even at the height of the pandemic-related economic fears, 324 of America's largest employers sent a letter to President Trump, warning that any attempt by him to limit their access to cheap foreign labor would likely result in more financial hardship.

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Who advocates for our sons and daughters who played by the rules, worked hard and earned a degree in a growing field?

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They are mere collateral damage to the corporate giants and the politicians who carry their water in exchange for campaign funding.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan: Stop demonizing New York Police Department, for God’s sake (Fox 07/01/2020)
Media narrative of peaceful Seattle CHOP zone turned upside down as mayor sends in police to... (Fox 07/01/2020)
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"CHOP violently seized six blocks of downtown Seattle, guarded the area they stole with semi-automatic rifles and appointed a leader who called himself a warlord and the media spun it as a fun time with ‘free snacks,'"

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"That's as insane as saying Boko Haram was just trying to start a dating service when they kidnapped nearly 300 women in Nigeria a few years ago. And those liberal outlets probably still can't figure out why people call them fake news."

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Since it was established, there have been at least four shootings, two of which left a 19-year-old and a 16-year-old dead in separate incidents.

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Seattle police made more than a dozen arrests after Mayor Jenny Durkan declared the gathering an unlawful assembly – a far cry from how it was originally portrayed by the media and by Durkan herself.

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"The CHOP has become lawless and brutal. Four shootings – two fatal – robberies, assaults, violence and countless property crimes have occurred in this several block area."

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"Most mainstream media outlets have bent over backward to portray the civil unrest as peaceful actions supporting the general aims of justice. That narrative gets largely disrupted if those news organizations now focus on the chaos in places like Seattle."
Florida sheriff rips media, defends police amid nationwide unrest: ‘We swore an oath’ (Fox 07/01/2020)
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"Don't fall victim to subjecting yourself to this conversation that law enforcement is bad, that law enforcement is the enemy of the citizens that we're sworn to protect and serve."

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"We swore an oath, and in that oath we swore to support, protect and defend the Constitution."

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He said that his department would uphold the constitutional rights of all peaceful protesters, but he condemned "lawlessness" and what he described as groups that make themselves "a spectacle."

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He also noted that the oath his deputies take ends with "so help me God," which he said is "absent from the media's message or Black Lives Matter."

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"I just wanted to take a stand with these men and with these women who feel the same way that I do: Lawlessness, that's unacceptable in this country."

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... he cautioned that if his department were to be overwhelmed by violent protesters from out of town, he would deputize "every lawful gun owner" in the county "to stand in the gap between lawlessness and civility."

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Daniels is the first African-American sheriff in his county's history...
Seattle Mayor Durkan asks City Council to investigate, possibly expel socialist councilwoman over... (Fox 07/01/2020)
Seattle police retake precinct in CHOP, arrest multiple protesters following Durkan orders (Fox 07/01/2020)
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"Our job is to support peaceful demonstration but what has happened on these streets over the last two weeks is lawless and it's brutal and bottom line it is simply unacceptable."

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City workers were dismantling wooden and concrete barriers while police remained on the scene.

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Best said police and other city organizations will clean the area and the precinct before beginning operations as soon as reasonably possible.

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Police also investigated several vehicles circling the CHOP zone after officers saw people inside them carrying firearms and wearing body armor. The vehicles had no visible license plates.

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... executive order comes after a series of late-night shootings in the area killed two teenagers and seriously wounded three other people.

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Police said other violent crimes have been documented in the area since demonstrators took over several blocks in the Capitol Hill neighborhood last month.

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"Officers enforcing today's order are wearing a higher-level of protective gear. Police are utilizing this equipment because individuals associated w/the CHOP are known to be armed and dangerous/may be associated with shootings, homicides, robberies, assaults & other violent crimes."

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"The CHOP has become lawless and brutal. Four shootings – two fatal – robberies, assaults, violence and countless property crimes have occurred in this several block area."
DC is already a 'state' (JWR 06/30/2020)
St. Louis couple who brandished guns being investigated after clash with protesters (Fox 06/30/2020)
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"There were people wearing body armor. One person pulled out a loaded pistol magazine, he clipped them together and said, ‘You're next,'" McCloskey told...

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"We were threatened with our lives, threatened with the house [being] burned down."

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"Once through the gate, the victims advised the group that they were on a private street and trespassing, and told them to leave," the police summary further states.

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"The group began yelling obscenities and threats of harm to both victims. When the victims observed multiple subjects who were armed, they then armed themselves and contacted police."

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... an attorney for the McCloskeys, said the protest was largely peaceful and the pair did not bring their guns outside the home until two men in particular, both of whom were white, started menacing them.

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"My clients were not arming themselves against peaceful protesters, they were arming themselves about people with a really bad motive, a motive that runs afoul of the fundamental tenets of our country."
'Blood is on their hands': Rep. Banks says NYT revealed sensitive details on Russia bounty intel (Fox 06/29/2020)
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"Sad, but many in the media & Congress rushed to judgement before learning the whole story. We should treat anonymously sourced @nytimes stories about Russia w/ skepticism."

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"Having served in Afghanistan during the time the alleged bounties were placed, no one is angrier about this than me."

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"Now it's impossible to finish the investigation. All b/c the @nytimes will do anything to damage @realdonaldtrump , even if it means compromising nat'l security."

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The White House said Monday that Trump wasn't briefed on U.S. intelligence assessments concerning the bounties because the information had not been verified.
Armed St. Louis protesters broke iron gate, threatened couple before they drew their own guns (Fox 06/29/2020)
Michael Goodwin: Worst. Mayor. Ever. De Blasio is digging the city's grave. This is how (Fox 06/29/2020)
Trump says intel doesn’t back up report on Russian bounties against US troops (Fox 06/29/2020)
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"Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP. Possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News @NYTimesbnooks, wanting to make Republicans look bad."

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The White House said neither Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence was briefed on such intelligence.

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"This does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York Times story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this matter."

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The paper said that Trump was briefed on the intelligence and the administration's National Security Council considered issuing a diplomatic complaint to Moscow.

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The report said that Russia is conducting what is referred to as a hybrid war with the U.S. — which consists of cyberattacks and military operations that can be denied.
Nunes: Twitter, Google, Facebook are 'tech tyrants' that censor conservatives (Fox 06/28/2020)
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"Google, Facebook, and Twitter, okay; they're the tech oligarchs, they're tech tyrants."

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... accusing them of furthering a left-wing agenda by controlling which media ends up being seen by their users — while the media is mostly "not only left-wing but it's owned now by billionaire left-wingers."

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"There's very few in the news media that are actually trying to get the facts out there."

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"When you have 92 percent of the searches going through Google, you might have a problem because when you plug that content into those three giant tech companies, it's really starting to have an influence and an effect on the politics in this country."

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... claimed that people are "getting funneled this garbage and fake news," while "Republicans and conservatives are being driven out and off of" the Internet.
Leo Terrell: Black Lives Matter is 'profiting' on a 'false narrative' (Fox 06/28/2020)
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"This is why Black Lives Matter is basically, in my opinion, the Al Sharpton of the 21st century. They're profiteers. They are profiting on trying to give a narrative, a false narrative that is white racist cops, deaths destroying the black community."

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"You point out Chicago. No [BLM] presence walking through the neighborhood protesting to stop black-on-black crime. Al Sharpton goes to the George Floyd funeral. You use a funeral to launch a campaign speech attacking Donald Trump. I don't see Al Sharpton in Chicago. That 3-year-old kid who was killed. You know why? Because it's not profitable. There's no money to be made."

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"And we talk about Chicago. You talk about Atlanta. You talk about Washington, D.C., and L.A., this big lie ... of systemic discrimination. How can you have systemic discrimination in Chicago when the leadership of minority?"

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"I know systemic discrimination is, it does not exist. But yet this is the narrative that the Black Lives leadership portrays."

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"Black Lives Matter have [sic] dominated social media... and the perception is that they control the Democratic Party."

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"I'm hoping, I'm begging I'm praying that they don't control the Democratic Party. But the current status right now, it is, it has controlled the Democratic Party. It has muted Democratic leadership. The Democratic leadership is afraid of Black Lives Matter for a variety of reasons."

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"Let me be clear, Black Lives Matter does not speak for Leo Terrell. And there is no representative, there is no monolithic group like Black Lives Matter that speak for African-Americans."

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"We are individuals and we have our own individual opinion. I can assure you those African-Americans in these Democratic cities, they want law and order."
Trump tweeting to identify Andrew Jackson statue vandals (Fox 06/26/2020)
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"MANY people in custody, with many others being sought for Vandalization of Federal Property in Lafayette Park. 10 year prison sentences!"

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"I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison, per the Veteran's Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent....."
Facebook slaps warning label on RNC video about 'left-wing anarchists' as platform unveils new... (Fox 06/26/2020)
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"This video may show violent or graphic content," the warning on the GOP post reads. "We covered this video so you can decide if you want to see it."

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"It's about destroying America," the RNC video caption says. "Left-wing anarchists are using CHAOS to destroy America."

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The video opens with footage of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors saying "we are trained Marxists."

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It also contains undated footage of Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying "I don't even know why there aren't uprisings all over the country," as well as footage of "Squad" members Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling to defund the police and Rep. Ilhan Omar calling to "completely dismantle" the Minneapolis Police Department.
Trump signs federal skills-based hiring executive order (Fox 06/26/2020)
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"Today, I'll sign an executive order that directs the federal government to replace outdated...degree-based hiring with skills-based hiring."

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"The federal government will no longer be narrowly focused on where you went to school but the skills and the talents that you bring to the job."
Pastors vow to ‘defend’ houses of worship, ‘not allow Christian heritage to be erased’ (Fox 06/26/2020)
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"The call from Black Lives Matters leaders to destroy images of Christ and deface houses of worship is nothing less than a terroristic threat to people of faith."

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"Christians across America must stand against this violent religious discrimination and stand to protect sacred ground."

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"This threat particularly targets the Catholic Church, and every Christian, despite denomination, and every person of the Good Book, should stand together in unity against this evil."

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... churches will prosecute any vandals or agitators to the full extent of the law, including seeking hate crime designations for any attempt to desecrate church property or religious symbols.

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Trump is expected to sign an executive order protecting monuments and statues that are being torn down.

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... also would hold government leaders responsible who refuse to respond to church and property attacks, as well as assert the rights of churches to use physical force to protect their property and safety if absolutely necessary.

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"Next they'll go for the cross. They'll claim the cross is 'whatever,' and then they'll require you and me to remove the crosses from our churches or the crosses from our homes."
Cuomo, de Blasio wrong to limit worship services, condone mass protests: federal judge (Fox 06/26/2020)
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"Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio could have just as easily discouraged protests, short of condemning their message, in the name of public health and exercised discretion to suspend enforcement for public safety reasons instead of encouraging what they knew was a flagrant disregard of the outdoor limits and social distancing rules."

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"They could have also been silent. But by acting as they did, Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio sent a clear message that mass protests are deserving of preferential treatment."

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"Suddenly, the limit on ‘mass gatherings' was no longer necessary to ‘save lives,' Yet they were continuing to ban high school graduations and other outdoor gatherings exceeding a mere 25 people."

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"This decision is an important step toward inhibiting the suddenly emerging trend of exercising absolute monarchy on [the] pretext of public health. What this kind of regime really meant in practice is freedom for me, but not for thee."
Lindsey Graham: William Barr cleaning up 'sewer that was the Obama Justice Department' (Fox 06/26/2020)
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"Handwritten notes from Peter Strzok disclosed by DOJ in federal court yesterday show that the operation against Michael Flynn was ordered by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office on January 5, 2017."
Trump blasts Bolton, Seattle, Democrats in 'Hannity' interview (Fox 06/25/2020)
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"He didn't do a good job," Trump said of Bolton. "He wasn't smart. He wasn't sharp."

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"He's the only man I think I ever met — I knew him for a year — I don't think I ever saw him smile once. I said to him, ‘John, do you ever smile?' And it tells you something about somebody.'"

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"If they don't do something with Seattle, we're going to do that — we're going to go in there. Because what's happening, they're taking over American cities."

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"We have [Charles] Schumer and [Nancy] Pelosi and people that are bad people that I honestly believe don't love our country. What they do to our country and what they've done with this scam, the whole scam — [Michae] Flynn is a piece of it. The Mueller scam."

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"Now it came out that Mueller should have announced in the first week that we did nothing wrong. They had evidence in the first few days that there was no collusion with Russia. There was nothing to do with Russia. They knew that immediately."

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See related What's the Charge? (Glenn McCoy, 08/07/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Christian figures, symbols targeted amid ongoing protests (Fox 06/25/2020)
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"They're looking at Jesus Christ, they're looking at George Washington, they're looking at Abraham Lincoln, they're looking at Thomas Jefferson," Trump said... "It's not going to happen."

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"You can take down the images and the art of depicting Jesus, but you can never take the true spirit of Jesus Christ out of the lives of his followers. And historically, under oppression and persecution, the true faith begins to show even more dramatically. It's because in the midst of darkness, light becomes more obvious," Huckabee said.
Missouri woman filmed saying she'll teach grandkids to hate BLM, vowing 'KKK belief' apologizes... (Fox 06/25/2020)
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"I will teach my grandkids to hate you all," she shouts to protesters off-camera, before standing up and draping the flag over her shoulders. "Suck on this."

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The exchange took place on Sunday as Black Lives Matter protesters gathered outside a Branson Dixie Outfitters store, which specializes in Confederate flags, clothing and other merchandise, in Branson.

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Jenkins joined the group of counter-protesters displaying Confederate flags in front of the store.

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... called into ... radio station to issue an apology ... explaining that she has since lost her job and left Branson after the video went viral.

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"I'm so, so sorry. I mean, if it would help for me to stand with Black Lives Matter, I absolutely would do that."

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"I hadn't said anything until they came into my face. It's like I blacked out. I don't even remember saying half the stuff that I said."

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Branson Dixie Outfitters thanked supporters on Facebook on Wednesday before blaming socialists and anarchists for coming to their store under the guise of a peaceful protest only to instigate violence.

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"These socialists & antarchists [sic], that hate America, hate Christian values, came to our town, While we were closed, trying to instigate violence! Claiming to be peaceful protestors, but the part you did not see in the " media", was anything but that!"

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"You cannot believe the media folks! These "peaceful" protestors have burned churches, taken over police departments, dragged people from their cars, looted, destroyed towns, torn down historical statues... yet the media & weak-minded politicians STILL call them "peaceful protestors"!"

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"They will not be happy, until they have taken all of the freedoms you enjoy! Until every bit of American pride and patriotism is gone!"

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"Until every small town, bows down to there [sic] socialist/communist ideology! Until anything that could possibly offend them, is gone. This is not about our little T-shirt shop....this is about FREEDOM!"
Trump hits back at de Blasio plan for BLM mural outside Trump Tower (Fox 06/25/2020)
KT McFarland: Targeting of Flynn was about stopping Trump and 'will' of voters (Fox 06/25/2020)
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"It was way bigger than this. It was about targeting Donald Trump. Why? Because he promised to drain the swamp. Who targeted him? The swamp."

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"From the get-go and as more documents come out we realize that it was broad, the group that wanted to get rid of him and prevent him from governing, they knew exactly what they were doing, they did it from the start, and they kept doing it."

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"This was about a whole lot more than General Flynn. This was about taking the will of the American people who elected a man to be president and undoing their decision."

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"And again, they knew from the beginning, they knew even on January 5th, there was nothing to collusion with the Russians. There was nothing to any of this stuff. There was nothing to the Logan Act. But, what did they do?"

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"They dragged the country, and the people who work for President Trump, and President Trump himself — they dragged us for three years through this divisiveness that made us a dysfunctional nation."

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"So, shame on them for what they did because they set us up now for the perfect pandemic, lockdown, and now social unrest storm that is ripping the country apart today."
‘I hope it’s true’: Trump responds to claim he was chosen by God (Fox 06/25/2020)
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"I almost don't even want to think about it. Because you know what, all I'm gonna do is, I hope it's true. All I'm going to do is, I'm going to do my best."

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"There's a lot of hidden support. People in our country that don't riot, don't protest, that don't, you know, they work hard."

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"They're smart, they have everything, but they were forgotten by the politicians. They showed up in '16. I think they're going to show up in larger numbers in '20."

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Trump vowed to protect statues as some activists are calling for the toppling of monuments to former presidents, controversial historical figures, and Jesus Christ, after initially targeting Confederate figures.

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"They're looking at Jesus Christ, they're looking at George Washington, they're looking at Abraham Lincoln, they're looking at Thomas Jefferson. It's not going to happen."
DOJ hits back at Nadler threat of Barr impeachment: It’s a ‘political thing’ (Fox 06/25/2020)
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"If people have a problem with Bill Barr coming back to the Department of Justice to restore one system of justice, not a two-tiered system, I think that says a lot more about the critics than it does about the attorney general. Because that is what he has done again and again."

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"He approaches all cases with an open mind. He judges them according to the facts and the law without regard to political consideration."

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"This is what he promised to at his confirmation, this is what he has done throughout his tenure as attorney general, and that is what he will continue to do until his last day as AG."
The angry children toppling statues nationwide are not protesters - and are utterly stupid (Fox 06/25/2020)
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These are not protests. This is not about George Floyd. It's not about "systemic racism," whatever that is. America is not a racist country. You are not a bad person for living here.

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These are definitely not protesters. They're not even rioters. They're the armed militia of the Democratic Party.

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They're working to overthrow our system of government. They're trying to put themselves in power.

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That's all obvious now. It's genuinely sinister. We're worried about it. We've said that. We mean it.

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But in the process of saying that, we may have missed something else that is also true as well as highly amusing. These people are idiots — for real.

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The angry children you watched set fire to Wendy's and toppled statues and scream at you on television day after day are truly and utterly stupid. There's probably never been a dumber group gathered in one place in all of American history.

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They say they oppose racism, and then they rip down monuments to abolitionists. They don't see the contradiction in that because they have no idea who the abolitionists were. They think it's a band from the 80s.

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Yes, they're supposedly impressive, but they're not impressive at all. They're incredibly dumb. They fall for any lie, no matter how preposterous.

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The New York Times has profiled a group of people just like this, sympathetically, of course. This group lives in an affluent part of Minneapolis.

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After watching hours of CNN, they pledged to stop calling the police. Calling the police, they decided, was racist, so they didn't call police.

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Almost immediately, hundreds of mentally ill homeless drug addicts showed up and erected a tent camp in their park. Then prostitutes arrived. Then caravans of drug dealers showed up to service the addicts.

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Meanwhile, neighbors cowered in their own homes, unable to sleep.

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One resident ... found himself cornered by two thugs who put a gun into his stomach and demanded his car keys.

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So, Erickson finally broke down. He called police.

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And then he deeply regretted it. "I put those boys in danger of death by calling the cops," Erickson told the paper, apparently not joking.

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For the rest of us, the question is, can people this damaged, this weak, actually run a country?

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And the answer is no, of course not. And we definitely should not let them.

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But in the meantime, we also should not pass up an opportunity to let them amuse us, because they do.
Supreme Court hands Trump administration win on deportation powers (Fox 06/25/2020)
Mark Levin fires back at Black Lives Matter leader: 'What exactly are you gonna burn down...' (Fox 06/24/2020)
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"This is a civil society. It's a great country. You don't like it? Pick up your a* and leave. We have people trying to get into this country by the millions, from every continent on the face of the earth."
Newt Gingrich blasts Cuomo's response to Roosevelt statue removal: 'What he said is a disgrace' (Fox 06/24/2020)
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"I don't know if he intended to, but Governor Cuomo now made clear what the choice is. Outnumbered Overtime You want to live in a country with looters and people who tear down statues, you ought to vote Democrat."

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"If you think that we ought to have law and order, that people should not tear down statues, that people should not loot, people should not establish independent zones in Seattle, then you ought to vote Republican."

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"I think every American should be deeply offended by Nancy Pelosi's comment [implying] that Sen. [Tim] Scott [R-S.C.] and Republicans killed George Floyd."

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"I think she is losing her mind. How could any responsible person say something like that?"

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"In the end. we're going to have to start arresting people. We have no choice. Once the mob is out of control, if you don't stop, it just gets bigger, more vicious, more bloody."
Appeals court orders Flynn case dismissal, after years-long legal saga (Fox 06/24/2020)
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A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered a lower court to allow the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to be dismissed, as requested by the Justice Department...

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"What is our goal?" one of the notes read. "Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?"

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Another note read, "If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ + have them decide."
South Dakota Gov. Noem vows to protect Mt. Rushmore: We won't stand for 'radical rewriting...' (Fox 06/24/2020)
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"This is no longer about equality. This is a radical rewriting of our history and in South Dakota we won't stand for it."

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"The more we focus on the flaws of these men that are on our mountain, the less likely we are to recognize the virtues and the lessons we can learn from their lives."

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"This is obviously a federal mountain, it is a national monument, it is something that we will partner with them and use the resources of the state to make sure that we have security measures in place."

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"We're prepared to be there and be diligent about protecting it."

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President Trump on Tuesday warned that those involved in vandalizing statues could be jailed for up to 10 years.

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"I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison, per the Veteran's Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent."

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"This action is taken effective immediately, but may also be used retroactively for destruction or vandalism already caused. There will be no exceptions!"
Charlie Hurt: Trump will have to do more than just criticize protesters destroying statues... (Fox 06/24/2020)
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"And, the problem with the president, though, is [that] he strikes a correct line in talking about wanting to protect and preserve these things. But, at some point, something has to be done."

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"In elections, people always vote [for] economic security and it's usually the number one thing. But, the one thing that always trumps that is physical security. And, while obviously images on TV don't necessarily translate into a threat to physical security, it can."

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"And so, at some point, the president has to do something more than just talking about it. He has to do something that shows that he is actually stopping this stuff, that people are getting arrested for tearing down statues and defacing historical treasures in this country."

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"This is lawlessness. This is an attack on all of us and people should be arrested and put in jail and be made to pay for the damage that they committed. They should be made to pay for the security required to protect [these monuments] going forward, as far as I'm concerned."
Tom Cotton: 'Mob violence' against historic sites must be met with arrests and prosecutions (Fox 06/24/2020)
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"There couldn't be a more clear cut, open and shut violation of the law, called the Veterans Memorial Preservation Act. That law makes it a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years, to deface or tear down or attempt to tear down a statue commemorating someone's military service on federal property."

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"The Department of Justice and the FBI should investigate, arrest, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. There has to be legal consequences for this mob violence. Otherwise, it is only going to get worse with every passing day," Cotton said, adding that the "mob vigilantes hate America."
Kellyanne Conway: Focus on statues 'a convenient way' for Pelosi, Dems to ignore years of failed... (Fox 06/24/2020)
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"There's a huge difference — to the president and the rest of us — between peaceful... protesting and violence and vandalism."

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"So, it also seems to just be a convenient, easy way for some people to not do their jobs; to actually help people the way President Trump has helped all Americans, including the forgotten man, woman, and child in our communities of color."

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"I'll tell you, the president said, even as a candidate five years ago, that if we can dig out the Panama Canal, put a man on the moon, win two World Wars. we ought to be able to as a nation to provide a quality education for each child. This empowers parents."

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"So, my message to those who want to rip down statues and remove portraits in the capitol: where is your vote to actually help people? Easy, convenient, but also vandalism and violence. And, who is it helping?"
Police, National Guard to handle 'savage' situation of toppling monuments, interior secretary says (Fox 06/24/2020)
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Speaking at a "Students for Trump" event Tuesday inside a church in Phoenix, President Trump railed against the "oppressive left-wing ideology" and criticized the calls to remove statues of and monuments to controversial historical figures.

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"The radical left hates our history, hates our values. This is not the behavior of a peaceful movement. It is the behavior of a totalitarian movement."

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Bernhardt also reacted to new video of protesters in Washington, D.C.'s Lafayette Square Park showing abusive behavior directed at law enforcement preceding the president's controversial walk to St. John's Episcopal church, adding that he is expanding efforts to protect the monuments.

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"But here is the reality: Many were injured... many are back on the job. And we are bringing in additional supplemental efforts and people and personnel, just like I mentioned, the Guard, to ensure that we provide all of the force and all the resources they need to do their job, which is to protect us and our property."
Christian Whiton: John Bolton is the mouse that roared (Fox 06/24/2020)
•
It's clear from Bolton's book that he kept meticulous records: he refers not only to dates but hour-by-hour accounts of various proceedings.

•
One wonders whether Bolton might actually have accomplished something in office if he had devoted his full efforts to helping the president, rather than preparing a tell-all book.

•
In truth, Trump's team has been far more effective without Bolton.
Tucker Carlson: 'The mob' is controlled by Democrats, and 'this is their militia' (Fox 06/23/2020)
•
"How many stores and parks and statues and public buildings have been destroyed recently by rioters? How many churches and memorials and monuments to our fallen soldiers have been desecrated by them? Too many to count."

•
"Now ask yourself, how many people have been held accountable for these crimes? Some? A few? No, hardly any. Politicians applauded this destruction. Law enforcement has ignored it. Why is that exactly?"

•
"Democratic politicians don't fear the mob. Why? Because they don't need to. They control the mob. The mob operates with their permission. These are their foot soldiers. This is their militia. In unguarded moments, Democrats make it very clear that they know this."

•
"Career bureaucrats in the federal agencies support the Democratic Party. That means they support the mob as well. It's their militia too. Virtually every American power center now stands on one side of the political divide."

•
"What you're watching in the streets is an attempt to crush the holdouts. Ask yourself who is being targeted for destruction right now? Anyone who's not on board with their program."

•
"It's the people standing in their way. There's a reason that Black Lives Matter leader Shaun King yesterday called for the desecration of churches ... None of this should surprise, as we should have seen it coming, it was obvious."

•
"We've known for 50 years that much of the poison in our society emanates from the universities. But we've done nothing whatsoever to fix that. We've continued to fund them. No matter what they charge, we keep sending our children there."

•
"We've known for more than three years that the federal government's intelligence and law enforcement agencies are dangerously corrupt."

•
"There has been no meaningful reform of the CIA or the FBI or any of the other terrifyingly powerful agencies that operate independently from our democracy and on the side of the Democratic Party."

•
"We know all this. We still pretend they're legitimate. We dutifully send in our taxes every quarter to pay their salaries."

•
"If there's any good to come out of this moment, and we hope there is, it's that we can no longer lie to ourselves about what is happening. Our institutions are not serving all of us equally. Some are actively trying to hurt us. When this is over, we need to do something about that, this time for real."
Washington DC cops keep their cool while protesters taunt, provoke them in viral video (Fox 06/23/2020)
•
... a viral moment caught on video shows officers keeping their cool as protesters pepper them with insults and provocations.

•
A protester got pushed to the ground by D.C. Police after putting his hands on an officer, according to an eyewitness. The protester got in the officer's face and ranted at him.

•
"You're a piece of sh**, you really are," a white protester tells a black officer, pointing a finger in the officer's face shield.

•
"You're part of the f***** problem. And I hope that your children treat you the way you deserve to be treated."

•
The black officer, outfitted in riot gear, stands his ground and stays quiet as the white protester continues to rant, video shows.

•
When the protester approaches within inches of the officer's face again, the officer calmly asks him to "move along."

•
The protester then gets in the face of a white officer, whom he tells he is "peacefully protesting" and is allowed to be in the officers' faces as part of his "free First Amendment rights."

•
In one video, a black protester also taunts police outside Lafayette Park, singing "you gonna lose your job, you gonna lose your job" in a taunting fashion. He says, "I'm serious as f***, you gonna lose your job. Touch me, touch me."

•
A second video shows three white protesters yelling and cursing at police outside the White House after an apparent altercation.
Hundreds ‘ambush’ Tampa police responding to report of shots fired, 2 officers injured... (Fox 06/23/2020)
•
As offices searched for a possible victim, ... hundreds of people blocked all four ends of the intersection and became aggressive.

•
The crowd surrounded officers, threw bottles and glass, and jumped on a police vehicle.

•
"It's an ambush. I have no other way to describe it. When there are that many people out there and clearly no one had been shot. It was just a set up to get the cops there. There were hundreds of them."

•
"Hundreds. We actually ended up having to call every single police officer that was available that night to respond there, from New Tampa to South Tampa."

•
"Just by doing your job, whether you're right or wrong, it doesn't matter right now. No one is listening. Any justified action is getting twisted."

•
"The police, we always have everyone's back. Nobody has ours right now."
Trump vows no ‘Autonomous Zone’ in DC, after protesters cleared (Fox 06/23/2020)
•
Demonstrators on Monday had blocked off an area that they called the "Black House Autonomous Zone," or "BHAZ."

•
"There will never be an 'Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!"

•
Protesters also had defaced and attempted to tear down a statue of Andrew Jackson near the White House, and the historic St. John's Episcopal Church, often called the Church of the Presidents, was vandalized with "BHAZ" spray-painted on its pillars.

•
... Trump warned protesters who damage federal property that they could be arrested and imprisoned.

•
"A lot of states are weak. A lot of people are weak and they're allowing it to happen."
Brit Hume rips push to remove statues as 'empty gesture' that doesn't 'sit well with the American...' (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
"Look, I don't think these statues make all that much difference one way or another. I don't think tearing them down is making a practical difference in the lives of very many Americans black or white. It seems an empty gesture. In many cases, it's illegal. It's vandalism. I don't think it is going to sit well with the American public."
Ted Williams warns 'criminals are taking over' amid troubling crime surge, calls to defund police (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
"I can tell you it's as simple as this: The criminals are taking over. Law enforcement officers are really in a pickle these days. They're scared to do their jobs because if they do their job they may see themselves either arrested or terminated from the police departments in which they serve ... this is the reason a lot of the criminals are running wild in these major metropolitan cities."

•
"You cannot have a functioning society without police. The police department in Seattle needs to do their job. City officials in Seattle need to do their job. And that is to allow police officers to go in there and take over of the zone."
Trump to sign order expanding immigration restrictions to include H-1B, other guest-worker... (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
"No one brings sand to the beach, there are a lot of good Americans workers so why are you bringing in foreign workers that, at this moment in time, aren't necessary."
Immigrant owner of small business ransacked by looters speaks out: 'We are innocent victims' (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
"At the end of May, here at the Santa Monica Promenade, 80 businesses were looted, ransacked, and destroyed while police did nothing. Laura and Raymond. In all, 225 businesses suffered damage."

•
Kristen Rotblatt, the manager of the Santa Monica Homoeopathic pharmacy, which had been in business for 75 years, said the store was trashed and the owner was nearly killed.

•
"Three gigantic people jumped him and started pummeling him on the back of the head, kicking him to the ground."

•
"When they got distracted, he was able to jump in his car and get away. He's still recovering... they could have killed him."

•
"They broke in, [I] immediately, got a call from [the] alarm company to notify us that the police officers are not showing up."

•
"They pretty much took everything [and] damaged whatever was left," she said of the crowd, adding that she and her husband rushed down to the store, but were helpless to stop the destruction.

•
"They had guns. You never think such a thing [would happen] in the city of Santa Monica, [in] broad daylight and no police officer is showing up.
Sarah Sanders slams Bolton as man 'drunk on power,' in her forthcoming book (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
"Bolton apparently felt too important to travel with the rest of us. It was a running joke in the White House."

•
"Bolton was a classic case of a senior White House official drunk on power, who had forgotten that nobody elected him to anything."
Mick Mulvaney: Hard to watch 'classless display' by John Bolton as he tries to sell a book (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
"I imagine former chief of staffs, former national security advisers, former cabinet members from all administrations cringed to watch the sort of betrayal of confidence last night from John Bolton. It was really a classless display."

•
... ‘what ever happened to honor in public service?' Clearly, John Bolton doesn't have any left."
Steve Hilton: Why a second Trump term is so important (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
Russia, Mueller, impeachment — the bureaucracy, the establishment media, the Democrats, never-Trump Republicans, John Bolton with his book — they are desperate to show that Trump was a one-off, short-term event, a historical aberration.

•
We have to show that Trump's election was not a short-term aberration, but the start of a long-term change to right the wrongs of the establishment's 50 years of failure.

•
Their ideology of open borders, globalism and endless war devastated working people and the American dream.

•
We can't go back to the Democrats or the establishment GOP. We must show that this is a new, enduring conservative populism — pro-business on tax and regulation, and pro-worker on trade and immigration, pro-America on defense and pro-family on paid leave and tax credits. Conservative judges and criminal justice reform — law and order and justice.

•
They will abolish the legislative filibuster so they only need a simple majority in the Senate.

•
They'll use that to give statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico for a permanent Senate majority. They'll gerrymander districts in 2021 to shut Republicans out of power in Washington and state capitals.

•
And they will pack the Supreme Court to gain permanent control of the judicial branch, destroying the Constitution and giving unlimited power to the administrative state.

•
You think this kind of establishment fascism couldn't happen here? President Trump has driven them all crazy. It will happen here unless he wins. To do that, the Trump campaign needs a new message and a clear plan for the second term.
Lewandowski takes swipe at Trump campaign over Tulsa rally crowd size (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
"I think a fundamental mistake was made. Over promising and under-delivering is the biggest mistake you can make in politics."

•
"I lived this as you know, I did this when candidate Trump was running. We won 38 primaries and caucuses under my stewardship, obviously all due to Donald Trump, but we never did something like this."

•
"And what that means is we have to go back and re-evaluate the system in which people were getting those tickets and determining if they were real, if they were robots, and putting additional protocols in place so this doesn't happen again."
AG Barr on tech companies censoring viewpoints: 'There's something very disturbing about what's...' (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
He went on to say the tech companies got their "strong market position" by marketing themselves as "open to all comers."

•
... when the companies first surfaced "they built up all their membership and their networks [by] saying, ‘We have a wide variety of views. People can come in and post their views and their positions and their statements.'"

•
"Then they've switched. Now they're being more selective and they're starting to censor different viewpoints."

•
... there is a "concentration of these very large companies that have that kind of influence on the sharing of information and viewpoints on our society."

•
... that is a "fundamental problem" because "our republic was founded on the idea, and the whole rationale was that there'd be a lot of diversity of voices and it would be hard for someone to be able to galvanize, big faction in the United States that could dominate politically and oppress a minority, and yet now we have with the Internet and with these big concentrations of power, the ability to do just that, to quickly galvanize people's views because they're only presenting one viewpoint and they can push the public in a particular direction very quickly."

•
... "our whole Constitution insists the system was based on not having that and having a wide diversity of voices."

•
... "one way this can be addressed is through the antitrust laws and challenging companies that engage in monopolistic practices."

•
The Department of Justice is pushing Congress to pass new legislation that would hold Facebook, Twitter and other tech behemoths accountable for what is posted on their platforms – a move that if passed would roll back protections Silicon Valley has had for decades.

•
"During the early days of the Internet, we wanted to encourage platforms to take off obscene material or harassing material or other kinds of offensive material like that and so what we said was in the law, Section 230, if you take that down, that doesn't make you a publisher, if you take down objectionable material like that."

•
"Unfortunately, they [tech companies] started taking down viewpoints and started really being selective and based on whether they agreed with a viewpoint or not taking it down and that should make them a publisher, but they said under Section 230, they weren't."
Federal government offices should move if DC becomes state, Grenell says (Fox 06/21/2020)
•
"DC was designed to be a temporary place where politicians would go for a short period of time — and then go back home to live under the laws they created."

•
"DC is too big, too entrenched, too insular, and too out of touch."

•
"If DC becomes a State then the Federal Government bureaucracies and offices should move to other States."

•
"No one State should get all the federal jobs."
Trump mocks Seattle 'anarchists,' touts 'law and order' presidency in Tulsa rally marking campaign relaunch (Fox 06/20/2020)
•
... using the fiery and freewheeling appearance to mock Democratic foe Joe Biden, criticize those tearing down monuments to controversial historical figures and decry what he described as the "disaster" demonstration in Seattle.

•
"We're not talking about some little place, we're talking about Seattle," Trump said, tearing into the Democratic officials in Seattle and Washington state. He said he had a standing offer that "any time you want, we'll come in" and straighten out the issues in Seattle "in an hour or less."

•
But, he said: "I may be wrong, but it's probably better for us to just watch that disaster."

•
Trump added that a congressman on the flight to the rally told him he shouldn't step in to end the CHOP occupation in order to let people see "what radical left Democrats will do to our country."

•
He also mentioned "radicals" that targeted statues of Thomas Jefferson and Christopher Columbus in recent days and said that a law should be passed that burning the American flag should result in a year in jail.

•
... Trump repeatedly used examples of protesters tearing down monuments and the Seattle CHOP zone as a foil for his "law and order" message — while insisting Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, would always "cave" to such "radical" parts of his party.

•
"Do you want to bow before the left-wing mob or do you want to stand up tall and proud as Americans?"

•
"I stand before you today to declare that the silent majority is stronger than ever before. Five months from now we're going to defeat sleepy Joe Biden... We're going to stop the radical left. We're going to build a future of safety and opportunity ... Republicans are the party of liberty, equality and justice for all. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln and we are the party of law and order."
Steve Levy: Defund the police? Tried that in the '60s and '70s. Here's how it worked (Fox 06/20/2020)
FCC commissioner claims Big Tech has 'weaponized' federal law to push 'partisan political agenda' (Fox 06/19/2020)
•
... social media companies have amassed more control over more speech than any other entity in human history.

•
... those companies are making "a big bet that they can get away with exercising that power in a biased way for two reasons. One, if they cozy up to left-leaning causes, progressives won't take action and ... Republicans will just sit on their hands and do nothing."

•
However, the commissioner added, those days are "over."

•
"We're now seeing bipartisan consensus to take action, whether it is from an antitrust perspective, competition perspective, or, reforming this piece of legislation known as section 230," said Carr, referring to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

•
"When 230 was first adopted, remember, it was a shield to, sort of, frivolous litigation and now what we're seeing. is that social media companies that have weaponized Section 230 and are using it as a sword to carry out their own partisan political agenda."

•
"These entities get to have their own political views. What no business gets to do though is run rough shot over their own terms of service to go after politicians on the left or right."

•
"I think this goes to a broader issue which is you have all sorts of world leaders using these platforms whether it is [Iran Supreme Leader] Khamenei or Chinese Communist propagandists, and it seems like these platforms are narrowly focused on taking these actions against Trump."
Trump warns ‘anarchists’ not to disrupt Tulsa rally, after threat prompts emergency order (Fox 06/19/2020)
•
"Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene."
Columbus, Ohio, to remove Christopher Columbus statue (Fox 06/19/2020)
•
"For many people in our community, the statue represents patriarchy, oppression and divisiveness. That does not represent our great city, and we will no longer live in the shadow of our ugly past," Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said.

•
"Now is the right time to replace this statue with artwork that demonstrates our enduring fight to end racism and celebrate the themes of diversity and inclusion."

•
He said the statue's removal will take away "one more barrier to meaningful and lasting change to end systemic racism."

•
"We as an Italian Community (Columbus Italian Club and Abruzzi Club included) have been COMPLETELY locked out of this conversation and completely ignored considering we facilitated the statue's acquisition, delivery, and dedication in 1955."

•
"Furthermore, considering that we celebrate the anniversary of its unveiling every year on the site since 1955 and are not even given the courtesy of a mention in the press release of its removal."

•
"From an administration that preaches inclusion and diversity, we as a community find this extremely ironic."

•
The statue will be placed in storage until the city can decide where to place it and how best to use it to educate people about where it fits into the city's history.

•
See related P.C. (Glenn McCoy, 08/15/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
10 Takeaways from the Anti-Police Brutality Protests (JWR 06/18/2020)
Student journalist fired for calling institutional racism a ‘myth’ speaks out: ‘I stand by my analysis’ (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
If your views don't align with the progressive left they attempt to silence your voice.

•
Several conservative speakers... have been "canceled" because they dare to defy the narrative written by the left.

•
The solution for this could come from two sources, one being far more likely than the other.

•
Either Twitter users mature overnight and stop the childish "cancel party" hashtags or those with power can stop listening.

•
I doubt the mob will stop tweeting any time soon so the best solution is to ignore them.

•
Media outlets shouldn't be dictated by twitter hashtags nor should politicians.

•
Cancel culture is only powerful if we give in to their ignorance.
Messages call for NYPD July 4th strike to protest anti-police climate (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
"NYPD cops will strike on July 4 th [sic]. To let the city have their independence without cops."

•
"The people and this city doesnt honor us why honor them."

•
"So its easy to loot and riot without repercussions but its not easy to do our job because the city will hang us."
Former Atlanta officer and current officer charged in Rayshard Brooks' death both surrender to... (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
Rolfe's lawyers argue that the officer feared for his and others' safety and only opened fire after he heard a sound, "like a gunshot and saw a flash in front of him," which apparently came from the Taser Brooks had gotten ahold of.

•
"Mr. Brooks violently attacked two officers and disarmed one of them. When Mr. Brooks turned and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer would have reasonably believed that he intended to disarm, disable or seriously injure him," Rolfe's lawyers said in a statement.
Philadelphia woman charged with torching police cars in George Floyd unrest (Fox 06/18/2020)
Bongino blasts DA over murder charge in Rayshard Brooks shooting: 'What they did was outrageous' (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
"They've drawn absolutely no investigative conclusions whatsoever about this incident. Again, albeit tragic with Mr. Brooks. But, no conclusions whatsoever. Do you understand how unprecedented that is?"

•
"So, now you're telling me if you're a police officer and you're engaged in a use of force incident in the course of your job...that results in the death of a subject that before an investigation's even concluded and, might I add has barely started, that you are subject to imprisonment without bail and charges that could result in the death penalty?"
Trump calls for ‘new justices’ on Supreme Court, as conservatives rage at Roberts (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
"The recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court. If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and ... Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!"

•
"By ruling that President Trump cannot terminate DACA in the same manner that President Obama used to start it, the Court's decision creates two standards of executive power: one for President Obama and another for President Trump."

•
"Today's decision binds the Trump Administration to the politically-expedient policy decisions of President Obama, and hampers efforts to meaningfully restore sanity to our immigration system."

•
"As President of the United States, I am asking for a legal solution on DACA, not a political one, consistent with the rule of law. The Supreme Court is not willing to give us one, so now we have to start this process all over again."
Trump slams Bolton book as ‘pure fiction,’ says he’s ‘trying to get even’ after firing (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
"Bolton's book, which is getting terrible reviews, is a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad. Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction."

•
"Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is!"
Mollie Hemingway: Why Google's claims about The Federalist 'don't pass muster' (Fox 06/18/2020)
Judge Napolitano on Rayshard Brooks case: Murder charge against Atlanta officer is 'catastrophic...' (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
... Napolitano stated that the 11 charges against 27-year-old Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe — including the felony murder charge, which could potentially lead to the death penalty — are "grossly inflated."

•
"Look, if there's a jury trial, here's what the judge is going to say to the jurors before they start deliberating. If that police officer reasonably believed that Mr. Brooks was using or was about to use deadly force on him, the police officer, then the police officer is permitted to use deadly force to protect himself."

•
"Secondly, the determination of what was in the police officer's mind is not what a reasonable civilian would do, but what a reasonable police officer would do."

•
"[Do] you know what's going to happen? [Rolfe] is going to be found not guilty, and that's going to produce a tremendous uproar amongst the people of Atlanta."

•
"They should have charged some far more reasonable charge rather than one that exposes him to the death penalty. It's just not going to work."

•
"There is one legitimate legal reason for overcharging. That's to get him to plead guilty to a lesser charge."

•
"But, I don't know if this D.A. would accept such a guilty plea because he is determined to make a clear example out of this guy. This is not the right way to make an example."

•
"Listen, if this was a standard-issue Taser — and I have no reason to believe it was anything other than that — it produces 50,000 volts of electricity. That's enough to stop an elephant and it's enough to kill a human being."

•
"But, the test is not, 'is the Taser a deadly weapon?' The test is: 'did the police officer reasonably believe that a deadly weapon was being aimed at him?' It could have been an elastic band and paper clip. But if he reasonably believed it was a deadly weapon, then he was authorized to use deadly force."

•
"Without that law, the cops can't do their jobs."
McEnany slams John Bolton: He's taken over for James Comey as 'most disliked man in America' (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
"He is a misguided hawk on foreign policy and a weak dove of an author."

•
"This man is someone who praised President Trump as being strong on foreign policy, for not making the mistakes of previous administrations."

•
"He's discredited on both sides of the aisle and if you thought James Comey was the most disliked man in America. I think John Bolton has taken that title."
Bolton memoir discusses possibility of replacing Pence, 'cool' Venezuela invasion, and more (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
"Wacko John Bolton's "exceedingly tedious"(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories. Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him. A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!"

•
"He broke the law, very simple. I mean, as much as it's going to be broke. This is highly classified. That's the highest stage. It's highly classified information and he did not have approval. That's come out now very loud and very strong."
Ex-NYPD commissioner knocks Atlanta DA over Rayshard Brooks case: 'There was no grand jury...' (Fox 06/17/2020)
•
... accused Howard of hypocrisy by stating that the Taser Brooks took from one of the officers before he was shot wasn't considered a "deadly weapon," making Rolfe's shooting of Brooks "not justified."

•
... earlier this month, five Atlanta officers were charged with aggravated assault after using a Taser on college students who were attempting to leave a protest.

•
At the time he announced the charges, Howard claimed a Taser was classified as a deadly weapon under Georgia law.

•
"If you watch the video, the body cams from start to finish, they were collaborative, they were professional, they were courteous, they were nice, everything under the sun until they went to put handcuffs on him."

•
"I think at that point [Brooks] made a decision, he's going to fight. He resisted, he assaulted, he attacked, he took their weapon — basically took the weapon right out of the cop's hand — and took off. And at some point in time, he attempted to shoot the cop with the taser and the cop returned fire."
Sen. Tom Cotton: Twitter tried to censor me – and they lost (Fox 06/17/2020)
Trey Gowdy slams Bolton book: 'For $29.95, he's going to save you from this existential threat' (Fox 06/17/2020)
•
"If you really think he's unfit to be the leader of the free world, why didn't you say anything?"

•
"Now, he had a chance to go before the House, he didn't do it. He had a chance to go before the Senate, he didn't do it. He had a chance to come on your or some other host's show and answer tough questions."

•
"But no, for $29.95, he's going to save you from this existential threat to our republic."

•
Bolton alleges in his upcoming 592-page memoir, due out next week, that Trump regularly gave "personal favors to dictators he liked," backed the idea of more concentration camps in China, and asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him in the 2020 election.

•
"He ain't being cross-examined, he's sitting in his pajamas pecking away on his iPad. The power of cross-examination is you actually have to withstand the cauldron, withstand the heat of being questioned on it."

•
"Anybody can write a book and make assertions. Can you answer questions under cross-examination from the House or the Senate? Apparently he couldn't."
Rush Limbaugh calls Supreme Court's LGBTQ decision 'biggest sellout of conservatism by conservative...' (Fox 06/17/2020)
•
"The people that wrote the Civil Rights Act had no intention of including transgenders in it because there weren't any that anybody knew."

•
"Yes, the Justices of the United States Supreme Court decided to include LGBTQ people... it's gonna be a mess. It's an absolute mess."

•
"I started thinking what must that have done to sitting justices? How might that have scared the hell out of them? In other words, what if the harassment of Kavanaugh, the making up of the fact that he was a serial rapist running rape trains at college parties and bars. What if all of that was simply designed to tell conservative justices, ‘You want this? You want to get this same kind of treatment? Guaran-damn-tee you can have it if you don't vote the way we want you to vote."

•
"So I'm saying, is it possible that there was some intimidation that succeeded in the way Kavanaugh was treated, and what was attempted to do with his nomination? Was a message in fact being sent to sitting justices, ‘Hey, if you don't want your dose of this, don't make us mad?'"

•
"I throw it out there as a possibility I don't really know if there is anything to it, but it would make sense to me, knowing what we know about how the left operates, how Black Lives Matter operates and how their modus operandi is primarily intimidation and threatened use of force."

•
... noted that Kavanaugh himself "voted the right way" but other conservative justices might be afraid of going through the treatment that he went through.
Black Georgia sheriff says shooting of Rayshard Brooks by Atlanta police was 'completely justified' (Fox 06/16/2020)
•
"This is the third law enforcement agency I've been head of. Every agency I've gone to, I've required every officer who carries a Taser to be Tased with it, so that you understand the incapacitation."

•
"Five seconds; 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, 1,004, 1,005. That's five whole seconds [when] if an officer is hit with that Taser that he, all of his muscles will be locked up and he'll have the inability to move and to respond. And yet he is still responsible for every weapon on his belt.

•
"So, if that officer had been hit, he still has a firearm on his side and the likelihood of him being stomped in the head or having his firearm taken and used against him was a probability. And so he did what he needed to do. And this was a completely justified shooting."

•
"There's nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved."

•
"It's very unfortunate that the law enforcement leaders in the state of Georgia have not come out and stood together on this case. I think it's political and it's senseless."

•
"We're sending the wrong message to our black youth. We're telling them that it's OK, that they can run from the police, that they can take a weapon from the police, they can fight with the police, and point their weapon at the police, and expect nothing to happen. That is the wrong message to send to black youth."

•
"I'm saying that what happened in the Brooks case is completely justified, 100 percent. And an officer generally goes to work every day, he's not concerned about whether a perpetrator is black or white. He's there to do a job."
Trump to sign executive order on policing to 'build trust' in law enforcement (Fox 06/16/2020)
•
"The overall goal is we want law and order. It's about justice also. It's about safety."
Man shot in New Mexico at protest over statue of Spanish conquistador (Fox 06/16/2020)
•
... where protesters attempted to topple a bronze conquistador's statue outside an Albuquerque museum.

•
Protesters reportedly wrapped a chain around the statue and started tugging on it amid chants of "Tear it down."

•
At least one person swung a pickaxe at the statue of New Mexico's 16th-century colonial governor.

•
About five shots were fired by a single gunman after protesters started advancing on him.

•
"We are receiving reports about vigilante groups possibly instigating this violence. If this is true [we] will be holding them accountable to the fullest extent of the law, including federal hate group designation and prosecution."

•
... the city will be "removing the statue until the appropriate civic institutions can determine next steps," in order to limit the public safety risk.

•
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said in a statement that the armed individuals were there to menace protesters.
Black Lives Matter 'enjoys almost complete immunity from criticism,' US is at a 'dangerous moment' (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
"As of tonight, Black Lives Matter may be the single most powerful party in the United States."

•
"Nobody says that out loud but politicians understand it perfectly well. If nothing else, they understand power — they can smell it at great distances. That is why they are lining up to bow before Black Lives Matter."

•
"Republican leaders brag about their strong conservative convictions, but mostly they just want to be on the winning team, whatever that is."

•
"That is why they pause before offending China. It's why when Black Lives Matter tells them to take a knee, they do."

•
"It's all pretty strange when you think about it. If the leaders of Black Lives Matter are political actors, and they are, then by definition you are allowed to have any opinion you want to have about them."

•
"Black Lives Matter now enjoys almost complete immunity from criticism. This is unprecedented for an American political movement but Black Lives Matter is more powerful than that. It has singlehandedly revised our moral framework ..."

•
"Affirming the fundamental equality of all people is now considered hate speech. You can be fired for saying it. Again, many people have been. This is a dangerous moment."
Gutfeld on the media's complicity in ginning up the racial divide (Fox 06/15/2020)
Writer Matt Taibbi: ‘American left has lost its mind,’ journalism a victim (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
"On the other side of the political aisle, among self-described liberals, we're watching an intellectual revolution. It feels liberating to say after years of tiptoeing around the fact, but the American left has lost its mind."

•
"It's become a cowardly mob of upper-class social media addicts, Twitter Robespierres who move from discipline to discipline torching reputations and jobs with breathtaking casualness."

•
... the leaders of the left's new movement "are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats and intimidation."

•
"They've conned organization after organization into empowering panels to search out thought crime, and it's established now that anything can be an offense."

•
"It's been learned in these episodes we may freely misreport reality, so long as the political goal is righteous."

•
"... press activism is limited to denouncing and shaming colleagues for insufficient fealty to the cheap knockoff of bullying campus Marxism that passes for leftist thought these days."
Cities call on cops to work overtime to quell unrest, despite ‘defund’ rallying cry (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
In Chicago, officers were reportedly ordered to work 12-hour shifts with no days off until further notice. All the while, critics — including elected officials — want to strip them of funding.

•
"This police system in Chicago and in the country is beyond repair, and so it's absolutely within reason for people to say that we should tear this system down and start over."

•
Over the last two weeks, thousands of demonstrators have been gathering regularly in downtown Phoenix to protest police brutality, as the city has faced calls from critics to disband police or redirect funding from law enforcement operations to community development programs.

•
"Phoenix is not Minnesota. We're not Minneapolis. That incident occurred 1,200 miles away. You can't blame everyone for that incident."
Police unions face harsh scrutiny in wake of Floyd death: 'We're being demonized' (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
"We're being demonized," ... ripped the police chiefs for "blaming police unions for all the ills of law enforcement."

•
"Police unions don't do background checks. We don't investigate new recruits. We don't hire people. We don't train them. We don't set policy. We don't discipline them. And we don't fire them. That is all under the control of police chiefs. And it's just funny that they would blame us, when they really should be looking in the mirror."
Mike Huckabee: Weak Seattle leaders are allowing a 'summer of crime' (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
"What the police and the mayor and the governor, if they have any brains at all, they would make it so that people who want to get the heck out of there, the law-abiding citizens that are stuck in this incredible hellhole, would be allowed to get the heck out, but they are not allowed to And these people have taken over."

•
... does not understand how the Seattle occupiers think their protest is the "summer of love."

•
"This is the summer of crime. Outright insurrection and crime. It's going to last as long as these weak, wuss officials in Washington state allow it to happen."
Sgt. Rob Pride on Rayshard Brooks shooting: Atlanta officer appears justified in using force (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
"I don't see how this would not meet a deadly force encounter by most agency standards."

•
"With the current training that we have, and I can say for across the country, most agencies, this would be a deadly force encounter because of the incapacitating capabilities of the Taser."

•
"We can look through history and see how many officers in policing history have been killed when they were disarmed of their own firearm and when a Taser is used against officers, it has that capability."

•
"It has that capability of incapacitating an officer and having them disarmed and killed with their firearm and so I don't know of many agencies that this wouldn't be a deadly force encounter and it will be interesting to see what comes out of the investigation in regards to whether policies were met or not."

•
"The officers did not start firing when Mr. Brooks initially just started running away. He ran for a short distance. You can't hear what orders they were giving him, but they did not shoot when he started to run."

•
... "the shooting occurred" when Brooks "turned around with, who knows what they [the officers] thought it was, but we all know now that it was a Taser, and deployed it, and that's when they delivered the deadly force."

•
"If they let this gentleman go and he gets in his car and he kills somebody, then they're on the hook for that and if they make an arrest and there is resisting and then this tragedy occurs."

•
"... when folks resist arrest like this and try to escape, the outcomes are unpredictable."
Watch company's ad defends cops amid push to defund police: 'I felt the need to speak up' (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
"We're allowing extreme narratives to become the norm because the media perpetuates them and we become so scared to speak up it goes unchallenged by the masses."

•
"I really feel like our country itself is at a breaking point and we are going to lose a lot of things we hold dear, especially the police and so I felt the need to speak up for them at this time."

•
"We know how much of your sacrifice goes unnoticed, but we know that the worst of you get the spotlight instead of the best."

•
"So many of you have given your lives to protect ours, to keep us safe. We will not stand by and let your work go unnoticed."

•
... acknowledged that "it's good to be critical of the police who do bad things," adding that "that's necessary and improving things is always necessary."

•
"But you can't dismantle or defund the entire police force. These are, in my opinion, they're insane concepts and I don't want to live in a world without police."

•
... "these are the same people who ran into buildings on 9/11. They need to be celebrated."

•
... if he is worried about backlash. "I'll be honest with you, I'm scared of backlash in the sense of I'm scared of some degree of potential physical harm or something along those lines."

•
"But I can't hold myself back from speaking the truth. I can't be censored because of fear of backlash. I have to face it. We all have to face it because that's how they win. They win by silencing."

•
... he thinks "it's so necessary for people right now to stand up, despite the backlash."

•
"So yeah, I'm scared of it, but I'll still go out and say what I have to say," he continued.

•
"I think it's important and, you know, it's nothing compared to what the police are going through right now." ... "they are so completely broken and they feel so abandoned."
Atlanta cop who shot Rayshard Brooks could face felony murder: DA (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
"The fact that it would escalate to his death seems unreasonable," ... "There are really three charges that are relevant: One would be the murder charge in the state of Georgia. That charge is a charge that is directly related to an intent to kill."

•
"We don't know what was in the mind of the officer when someone turns around and points a weapon at him. Is he absolutely sure that's a non-lethal weapon? This is not a clear-cut circumstance."
Las Vegas officer shot in head during George Floyd protest likely paralyzed: report (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
... paralyzed from the neck down, on a ventilator and unable to speak...

•
Prosecutors have charged a 20-year-old man with deliberately shooting Mikalonis during the protest, one of hundreds being held across the nation. ... police video shows Edgar Samaniego "walking by, taking out a gun and firing ... at officers."
Dan Bongino on how Atlanta officers handled Rayshard Brooks case: 'There was a bad and a worse...' (Fox 06/14/2020)
•
"The worse option is to let this subject continue to engage in use of force against them [the officers], without stopping the episode."

•
"Sadly, it resulted in his death, but make no mistake, the use of force was controlled by one person, the individual who resisted arrest, stole the weapon, ran away and then pointed it at the officers, which is clear on the video."

•
"Obviously a man died. That's tragic. Nobody wants to see that, whether it's on the police side, on the community side, anywhere, we get that."

•
"Having said that, I always ask the question when it comes to law enforcement issues for the people who are sadly ignorant of them, many of whom haven't lived in the shoes of a law enforcement officer themselves: ‘Well, what would you do?'"

•
"You have an individual suspected of being intoxicated... what do you do? You want to just let him go? Get him back in the car and mow down a family on the streets because he's potentially drunk? So, let's eliminate that as a really bad idea."

•
"Now you're going to arrest him and the subject clearly does not want to be arrested. OK, so let's walk through, what do you do?"

•
"Well again, we can't let him get back in the car, so we have to arrest him using force. Keep in mind, not force the police officers wanted, they don't initiate it, the subject did."

•
"The bad choice was to have to engage in a use-of-force episode with this individual who pointed a Taser back at a law-enforcement officer he had just punched in the face."

•
"It wasn't a good option to have to engage with your firearm. There were no good options. He's dead."

•
... explained that the "worse option" would have been to let the man "continue to engage in use of force against them, without stopping the episode."

•
"... nothing good came out of this [incident in Atlanta] yesterday, but you jumping down these cops and firing them without looking at it through a sane lens and saying, ‘What would I have done?'"
Professor explains why he's 'a bit skeptical' of idea of 'systemic or institutional racism' (Fox 06/14/2020)
•
"... very often this phrase simply means there is a difference in performance between two groups [that] we're going to attribute to racism.'"

•
"I don't think any serious person would believe that [the NBA is majority-black] because white jocks just don't get a fair shake in American society. The reason is that there's what you might call a cultural variable."

•
"There were a lot of, quote-unquote, 'variables' involved. African-Americans are a younger population. The most common age for a black man is 27. The most common age for a white man is 58. Obviously, people earn more later in life when they've had the chance to move into executive roles."

•
"You could argue that some of those things are tied into class and whatnot, but there's no pattern of businesses paying an absolutely equally qualified black guy and an absolutely equally qualified white guy different amounts in general."

•
"If you look at the Bureau of Justice Statistics crime report, the African-American crime rate for violent crimes where you encounter the police — whites dominate corporate crime — is 2.4 times the white rate. So you would expect there, unfortunately, to be more encounters between African-Americans and the police."

•
"And when you look at this narrative about black people and the police being in constant conflict, not only does a lot of the structural element ... disappear if you adjust for crime rate, the figures themselves that are often used strike me as very, very inflated in terms of police violence."
Ex-NYPD commish Bernie Kerik on Atlanta shooting: Tell 'thugs' to not 'attack our police' (Fox 06/14/2020)
•
"I hear the attorney said that using the taser against the officer is not deadly force — yet the city of Atlanta, the mayor of Atlanta, had six cops fired last week, a week-and-a-half ago for using a Taser on a couple in a car — and the district attorney charged them with using deadly physical force."

•
"Five of those cops, of the six, were black. This wasn't a black and a black-and-white issue. They fired them, saying they use deadly force. So that conflicts with what these guys said already."

•
"I think some of the reforms need to be talked about. And I think the mayors, these radical, left-wing, you know, progressive mayors and governors, they could start with reforms."

•
"Like, tell lthe thugs in your community don't attack our police, don't assault our police, don't resist arrest, don't obstruct or interfere with that arrest, don't run from the police."

•
"Don't run cops over with your car. Don't take their tasers, don't take their weapons, don't take their guns. Because if you do, we're going to use force and we're not going to lose if we use force."
Ted Williams on Atlanta chaos: Riots and low police morale a 'dangerous concoction' (Fox 06/14/2020)
•
"And there is some question, I'm sure, on their minds as to why the chief of police stepped down. So therefore, you've got a morale situation and it's a dangerous concoction where you've got a morale situation, you've got rioters and probably protesters out there ... without a leader. That's that's a very dangerous concoction."

•
"I wish that the mayor would have put this officer on administrative leave, that she would not have spoken out and said that the officer had acted in a wrong manner."

•
"I wish she would have waited for a report because the question is, did the officer act reasonable under the circumstances in which he was faced. So that is, the jury is clearly still out on that and an investigation clearly is ensuing to make that determination."

•
... the deadly confrontation started with officers responding to a complaint that a man was sleeping in a car blocking a restaurant drive-thru lane. ... Brooks failed a field sobriety test and then resisted officers' attempts to arrest him.
Atlanta erupts after Rayshard Brooks death prompts police chief to step down (Fox 06/14/2020)
Rudy Giuliani blasts Democrat-led states following George Floyd protests (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"The pandemic was mishandled in some of these blue states. The riots were mishandled now. And you're really seeing how liberal governance plays out if you just let people run wild."

•
"If you study the states that had the worst riots, the most destruction, the least effective law enforcement, and the most people killed and injured, everything comes back to one thing: they're governed by Democrats who'd like to think they're progressives."

•
"I think that they're regressives because they're using old methods that have failed. Or you're seeing this even further way-out socialist group that actually wants to appear to secede from some parts of the country."

•
"This is very, very dangerous. It can't be allowed. The American people have to really note this as we come up to this election," Giuliani said.

•
"For the good of this country, this is the time that Democrats should take a bad, bad, beating so they go back and reform their party and get it back to a party where we have agreement at least on fundamental principles."
Lt. Col. Allen West on desecration of Confederate monuments: 'History is not there for you to...' (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"The right thing is for everyone to understand those — and George Santayana once said — those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

•
"History is not there for you to like or dislike... It is there for you to learn from."

•
"I did not think about them as Confederate generals. I thought about the honor of being able to serve on those military installations."

•
"And, one of the things that has me absolutely incensed right now is the fact that you had these individuals [who] went up and defaced the monument, the memorial to the 54th Massachusetts regiment there in Boston."

•
"That was the first Black organized unit to wear the uniform of the United States of America and fought in the Civil War."

•
"And, I would challenge people this weekend to go back and look at that movie and understand: these were former slaves. These were freedmen [who] stood up and fought for this country."

•
"And now, here we are not even 200 years from that moment when they stood up to that challenge. We destroyed their monument."

•
"No. History is about learning from it. I don't want to see us become like the Taliban or ISIS. Those are the people [who] destroyed history."

•
See related Erasing History (Robert Ariail, 08/03/2015) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump tells West Point graduates America's institutions endure against 'passions and prejudices of...' (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"To the eleven hundred and seven cadets who today become the newest officers in the most exceptional Army ever to take the field of battle, I am here to offer America's salute. Thank you for answering your nation's call."

•
"This premier military academy produces only the best of the best — the strongest of the strong — and the bravest of the brave," he said.

•
"West Point is a universal symbol of American gallantry, loyalty, devotion, discipline, and skill."

•
"What has historically made America unique is the durability of its institutions against the passions and prejudices of the moment. When times are turbulent, when the road is rough, what matters most is that which is permanent, timeless, enduring and eternal."

•
"We are ending the era of endless wars. In its place is a renewed, clear-eyed focus on defending America's vital interests. It is not the duty of U.S. troops to solve ancient conflicts in faraway lands that many people have never even heard of."
Dr. Alveda King: Joe Biden 'stirring the race card up' comparing uncle's death to George Floyd's (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"President Trump says that we all bleed the same. We are one nation under God. Uncle Joe, as they call him — many do — is in his basement missing the mark. And, he is out of touch with reality."

•
"So, I look at the message that is right at the heart of it — which Uncle Joe doesn't want you to see, by stirring up the race card. America needs sanity. America needs peace. America needs love."

•
Instead, King accused Biden of "bowing his knee to tyranny, anarchy, confusion," [and] "fighting over skin color."

•
"You know, we are one race — [the] human race — one blood. We can see you, Uncle Joe. And, we're listening. But you, have the wrong message, Uncle Joe."
Tom Homan: 'Sad day in America' when people can't support police without fear of violence (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"It's a sad day in America, when an American taxpayer cannot support our men and women in law enforcement without fear of violence. ... And it's a sad day when people that want to go show their support for law enforcement are afraid to do so out of fear they may be attacked and may be called racist."

•
"There is no reason we can't denounce racism – it's a terrible thing. Denounce racism, but at the same time defend the men and women who defend this nation and our communities, and protect us every single day across this country."
Andrew McCarthy: In Flynn case, next move will likely still come from Judge Sullivan (Fox 06/13/2020)
This company is daring to defend police amid cancel culture (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"At a time when we should be humanizing each other... we are vilifying each other."

•
"At a time when we should be unified with each other... we are segregating each other. Our great country is at a time of crisis and yet we are frozen with fear to even express ourselves."

•
"We know how much of your sacrifice goes unnoticed, and we know that the worst of you get the spotlight instead of the best."

•
"So many of you have given your lives to protect ours, to keep us safe. We will not stand by and let your work go unnoticed. We will speak truth."

•
"Over 60 million Americans have police interactions per year. Many of which result in lives being saved. #speaktruth."
10 Florida SWAT officers quit unit over ‘political climate’: report (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
... complained of being "minimally equipped, under trained and often times restrained" in performing their duties.

•
The officers – who were leaving the SWAT unit but not resigning from the force — wrote that they were concerned that city officials were "placing the safety of dogs over the safety of team members."

•
... write that they feel unsupported by the city's leadership – as well as the command staff of the city's police department.

•
They write that they were displeased that top officials with the Hallandale Beach police kneeled with protesters during a Monday demonstration.

•
"Until these conditions and sentiments are rectified and addressed. we cannot safely, effectively and in good faith carry out duties in this capacity without putting ourselves and our families at this needless increased level of risk."
Tulsa police major warns of coming law enforcement exodus: 'Every officer you talk to is looking...' (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"I wouldn't wish this job on my worst enemy. I would never send anyone I cared about into the hell that this profession has become ... I used to talk cops out of leaving the job. Now I'm encouraging them. It's over, America. You finally did it. You aren't going to have to abolish the police, we won't be around for it."

•
"As everybody knows, President Obama's administration found no evidence of wrongdoing in Ferguson even though the narrative is quite different ...."

•
"We were making a resurgence in recent years and this [George Floyd's death and the aftermath] has been devastating. This has been Ferguson times 1,000. Every department, every officer you talk to is looking to leave."

•
"The officers with 15 years on can't leave yet. I've heard from hundreds of people that are discouraged. They love the job, they love the community, they love the people, but all this chaos is wearing them every single day."

•
"All of their research says we are shooting African-Americans 24 percent less than we probably ought to be based on the crimes being committed."
Molotov-throwing Lawyer in Brooklyn Was Intern for Soros-funded Anti-Israel Group (Breitbart 6/12/20)
Trump touts 'fantastic' economic rebound, rethinks China relationship after coronavirus (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"I think we're going to have a great third quarter. I think we're going to have a very good fourth quarter."

•
"I think next year is going to be a fantastic year, other than you can never replace the lives that were lost by this horrible thing that came to us from China. But from an economic standpoint, we can have a fantastic year next year."

•
"We're going to gain economically. We're going to be great next year. We will have a fantastic third quarter. But you can never replace the lives."

•
"They're buying a lot as part of the deal, $250 billion, first time anybody's ever done with China and they're paying and living up to it."

•
"But you know what? I feel differently about it now than I do when I made it. I said, ‘This is a fantastic thing.' Now I view it differently. I think what happened with China was a very, very sad and terrible thing."
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens bashes paper's handling of Tom Cotton column (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"Serious journalism, complete with a vigorous exchange of ideas, cannot survive in an atmosphere in which modest intellectual risk-taking or minor offenses against new ideological orthodoxies risk professional ruin."

•
"It is a violation of the principles that are supposed to sustain the profession, particularly our obligation to give readers a picture of the world as it really is."

•
"And, as the paper dismisses distinguished journalists along with controversial opinions, it's an invitation to intellectual cowardice."

•
"Cotton isn't some nobody you'll never hear from again. He has the pulse of his party, the ear of the president and an eye on higher office. Readers deserve an unvarnished look at who this man is and what he stands for."

•
... feels the "value of Cotton's op-ed doesn't lie in its goodness or rightness," instead it "lies in the fact that Cotton is a leading spokesman for a major current of public opinion."

•
"To suggest our readers should not have the chance to examine his opinions for themselves is to patronize them."

•
"To claim that his argument is too repugnant for publication is to write off half of America — a remarkable about-face for a paper that, after 2016, fretted that it was out of touch with the country we live in."

•
"The most serious criticism is that publication of the piece puts black lives at risk, including members of the Times staff."

•
"As important as it is to try to keep people safe against genuine threats, it is not the duty of the paper to make people feel safe by refusing to publish a dismaying op-ed."
Trump mocks Seattle mayor’s ‘summer of love’ comment: ‘These liberal Dems don’t have a clue’ (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"Seattle Mayor says, about the anarchists takeover of her city, 'it is a Summer of Love'"

•
"These Liberal Dems don't have a clue. The terrorists burn and pillage our cities, and they think it is just wonderful, even the death. Must end this Seattle takeover now!"

•
"If there were more toughness, you wouldn't have the kind of devastation that you had in Minneapolis and in Seattle. I mean, let's see what's going on in Seattle."

•
"I will tell you, if they don't straighten that situation out, we're going to straighten it out."
Trump responds to Milley apology for Lafayette Square photo op (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"I think it was a beautiful picture. And I'll tell you, I think Christians think it was a beautiful picture."

•
The president was asked whether he felt the pushback he later got from Milley and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper over that photo op was "significant."

•
"No, no, I mean, if that's the way they feel, I think that's fine," he said, before touting his bond with the military.

•
"I have good relationships with the military. I've rebuilt our military. I spent two and a half trillion dollars — nobody else did."

•
He went on to claim that "when we took it over from President Obama and Biden, the military was a joke. The military was depleted. They had planes that were 50, 60 years old. They had old broken equipment. Our mil — we had no ammunition. We had no ammunition."

•
"Now, we have the greatest military we've ever had. I have a very good — and we have a Space Force — I mean, I just did something that wasn't done in almost 80 years. It's a new force. And that's where the future is — in space."
Rep. Steve Scalise questions Dem governors on decision to send coronavirus patients to nursing... (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"The decision of several governors to essentially mandate COVID positive patients go back to their nursing homes ended up being a death sentence."
Kerik tells Seattle leaders how to handle CHAZ protesters: 'Tell them to move ... or make them...' (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"And I have to believe these radical, leftist anarchists — we have people in Congress that are just like this. We have mayors that are just like this. We have governors that are supporting it."

•
"This is a criminal haven already, and it's something that has to be addressed, and if the mayor and the governor don't have the courage to do that, then the president has to do it."

•
"Because those citizens have rights; they have constitutional rights and civil rights."

•
"The mayor and the governor have a constitutional obligation to enforce the law. I don't understand how they just get away with not doing anything."

•
"You tell them to move. You tell them to disperse. And when they refuse to do so, you go in, and you lock them up, or you make them disperse."

•
"In this case, you have, basically, armed revolutionaries who have AR-15s. These people want to take your guns [yet] they are carrying guns to secure their area."

•
"They don't want to be suppressed or harassed by some police, but they are searching everybody going into the occupied zone."
Gregg Jarrett: Why Dems are using 'inane reasoning' on maintaining case against Michael Flynn (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"The inane reasoning here by the Democrats is that, ‘Gosh, the president tweeted about the Flynn case and therefore, the decision by the DOJ to dismiss the charges must be corrupt,'"

•
... Democrats "offer not a scintilla of evidence, no proof whatsoever" in the brief, adding that "they completely gloss over the real reasons the Department of Justice upon a review of the Flynn case decided to move to dismiss."

•
... those reasons include the fact that "exculpatory evidence of Flynn's innocence was concealed from the court [and] concealed from the defendant."

•
... "the FBI, [former FBI director] James Comey, [former acting FBI Director] Andrew McCabe [and former FBI agent] Peter Strzok had no legal or legitimate reason to even interview Flynn, which means that anything said was not material and that's an essential element of a false statement case."
Pete Hegseth on Seattle protest zone: We're getting a 'scary glimpse' into what the leftists want (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"The question is, do you send in the troops? Do you say, ‘hey, this isn't going to happen anymore, or do you let Seattle sort of implode on itself? It's a scary glimpse into the minds of leftists right now."

•
... America's public schools and universities are teaching that the country is defined by its "sins" and should be blamed for the problems in the world.

•
"If you teach that, then these protests are seen as patriotic. Declaring autonomous zones that get out of the United States and American all together, replaces cops with restorative justice which is really just code for reparations. That all makes sense."

•
"The other side that says ‘wait, we know America is flawed. No country is perfect. Humans are not perfect, we're all sinful, but, we learn from our past and improve and become the most free, most diverse, most tolerant, most prosperous country in human history, why can't you appreciate that?"
Cornell law professor says calls for his firing over protest criticism almost 'totalitarian' (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
... he's "never seen" anything like the backlash he's facing from some students and staff at his school, who are calling for him to be fired for blog posts he wrote that fact-checked and criticized elements of the George Floyd-related protests.

•
"This is so far beyond political correctness. The Ingraham Angle. This I almost a totalitarian type of mentality that everything you say and everything you do is watched and, if you don't tow the party line completely, you're ostracized."

•
Jacobson wrote two posts on the subject of police brutality. One explained why the "hands up don't shoot" mantra was based on a "lie," and the other featured Jacobson explaining why he believes the nationwide protests and the death of Floyd had long been brewing, charging that the founders of Black Lives Matter are "anti-American, anti-capitalist activists" who aim to dismantle capitalism and seek revenge.

•
... pointed out on his website that the "hands up, don't shoot" rallying cry associated with Black Lives Matter protests – which is based on the idea that Michael Brown, a black man who was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, was shot while he had his hands up saying "don't shoot" – actually never happened.

•
"That's a complete fabrication. It's not a fabrication because I say it's a fabrication. It's a fabrication because after an exhaustive investigation by the Obama, Eric Holder Justice Department, they found that never actually happened."

•
The phrase was based on rumors and witness accounts that were recanted, a Washington Post fact-checker reported in 2015.

•
"I did not cast aspersions on people peacefully protesting. I cast aspersions on the violence and the looting and the tearing down of society."

•
... Cornell faculty, who say the "craziest, most offensive things from a left-wing perspective," are never called out for their statements. "It's only the one conservative in the law school, me, who gets singled out and it's almost like an attempted public shaming."

•
... compared his situation to that of China's 20th century Cultural Revolution, in which intellectuals who had "wrongthink" were shamed by the community.

•
... said there are many professors supportive of his right to free speech but they usually speak "very quietly. They talk to you in hushed tone behind closed doors. It's a very repressive atmosphere on all campuses."
Graham: 'If you care about the rule of law, you should want me to get to the bottom' of Russia... (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"Here's what I can tell you for sure, that the [FISA] court was lied to repeatedly and that the people had a bias against Trump. They acted on that bias and it should never happen again."

•
"And all I can say, if you care about the rule of law, you should want me to get to the bottom of this."

•
... Rosenstein's testimony "tells me that Rosenstein signed a warrant application having no idea what he was signing, that he trusted the system and the system should not have been trusted."

•
"It tells me that the scope memo in August of 2017 allowing Mueller to investigate the Trump campaign was written by the same people who lied to the court."

•
"I'm going to call every person who signed a warrant and ask them, 'Did you know about the doctored email?' 'Did you know that the FBI had learned that the dossier was no longer reliable?' And I am sure most of them are going to say 'no.'"

•
"I don't believe McCabe and Comey could have possibly not known that the dossier had been rejected by the sub-source."

•
"I can't believe the FBI is that poorly run, that [during] the most important investigation in 30 years of a sitting president that nobody told the top of the FBI, 'Oh, by the way, our case fell apart.'"

•
"And finally, I'm not gonna let four people who interviewed the sub-source for three months get blamed for this. It's not fair to blame it on the underlings, if in fact, the people at the top knew."
Seattle mayor, police chief deny making call to abandon police precinct (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
... he city's embattled mayor called the protesters who took over an "autonomous zone" in the city "patriotic" while the official who ordered police to flee the nearby precinct has refused to come forward.

•
She claimed that Trump was wrong to call the protesters "domestic terrorists." "It's simply not true. Lawfully gathering and expressing first amendment rights, demanding we do better as a society, and providing true equity for communities of color is not terrorism. It's patriotism."

•
... has tweeted that the protest is "a peaceful expression of our community's collective grief and their desire to build a better world."

•
... demonstrators moved barricades near the police station and threw rocks and "improvised explosives" at officers on several occasions. ... 25 cops were injured since the protests began.

•
... insisted that CHAZ was "not a lawless wasteland of anarchist insurrection," but a peaceful expression of the community's grief following the death of George Floyd...
Laura Ingraham bashes 'Marxist' demonstrators, says 'they want you to think that all hope is lost' (Fox 06/12/2020)
•
"Local and state authorities, all Democrats here, they cower when the Birkenstock Bolsheviks occupy huge swaths of a city like Seattle. They send free vegan pizzas to all the angry squatters."

•
"There's nothing about this bunch that's liberal because the old liberals started the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964 and it was devoted to reversing the prohibition on political activities on campus."

•
"Now, don't get me wrong, they were radicals, but at least they actually believed in free expression. I think they generally liked the country."

•
"Well, not so with the neo-Marxists of today. They're sledgehammering statues and smearing anyone who doesn't bow down, open their wallets or make a confessional on social media."

•
"These performance activists who've marinated in anti-Americanism online [and] in the classroom, they don't believe in free speech or freedom of worship or even academic freedom for anyone who disagrees with them. They didn't really learn anything in-depth and positive about the Constitution."

•
"Imagine all the old statues, the monuments, all those offending flags are all gone. All politically incorrect songs and movies pulled. All workplaces, all classrooms will enforce speech codes. Police departments will be defunded or disbanded."

•
"Imagine all that's taken place ... Does any of that create jobs for the least among us, for anybody? How does any of that raise wages? How does any of that make our neighborhoods safer? How will it improve race relations?"

•
"Patronizing symbols or gestures might feel good in the moment, but they don't end up putting food on the table or paying your kids' tuition bills."

•
"They want you to think that all hope is lost. They want you to think that America's best days are over. They want to stop Trump's rallies and even use a virus threat to keep you out of church and separated from your family and friends."

•
"Well, tonight, I say don't let them. Don't give in to this campaign of demoralization."
Tom Cotton addresses Seattle protesters: 'The occupation of critical government buildings cannot...' (Fox 06/11/2020)
•
"When you look in Seattle and you see all these far-left activists that have declared some kind of autonomous zones, I guess the Democratic Party has gone back to their roots of secession once again, since it was the Democratic Party that seceded and formed the Confederacy."

•
"We want to see a peaceful resolution to this standoff, but this can't be allowed to continue indefinitely."

•
Seattle police say they have received reports of armed guards and potential extortion in a self-declared autonomous zone that includes a now-closed precinct.

•
"We've heard, anecdotally, reports of citizens and businesses being asked to pay a fee to operate within this area. This is the crime of extortion. If anyone has been subjected to this, we need them to call 911."

•
Cotton said that turning off building utilities such as water and electricity may cause the activists to "go home" after a few hours. "Those kinds of non-violent steps would be appropriate."

•
"No government can allow an angry mob to take over its buildings and refuse or prevent the people's government from doing the people's business."
Chris Wallace shares warning on 'cancel culture': It could turn around real quick (Fox 06/11/2020)
•
"It may be what somebody you don't like is saying and you are OK with the cancel culture, but tomorrow it might be something that you say or something that you believe that's being canceled out."

•
"So be careful about cancel culture, because it could turn around real quickly."

•
... cancel cultural could include "the meer questioning of the Black Lives Matter platform or demands" as well as comments "praising police [which] is generally good, [but now] could mean getting suspended or terminated from your job."

•
"The left is emboldened right now — and you see this among fundamentalists — religious and political movements throughout history that they attack elements of the culture."
Don Lemon, Joy Reid spread 'lies' about Trump economy, black political consultant says (Fox 06/11/2020)
•
... accused the journalists of spreading "lies about the economy" — before coronavirus stay-at-home orders forced buisnesses to close — including the claim that the Obama administration deserved credit for gains made during Trump's time in office.

•
"That's just factually not true. I have a degree in accounting. I keep up with the economy. They're lying."

•
Commentators such as Lemon, Reid and Martin are "putting more poison" into the black community than any drug dealer," Jackson alleged.

•
He charged that the liberals had "killed more black folks than any white person with a sheet ever their face," in a likely reference to the Ku Klux Klan, whose history of violence and intimidation against African-Americans is well known.

•
... also called out CNN and MSNBC, asking if the liberal networks were "afraid to have real black Republicans [on] who know what the hell they're talking about?"
Trump blasts ‘radical left’ Dems in Seattle, says ‘domestic terrorists’ take hold of city (Fox 06/11/2020)
•
"Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great Country has never seen before."

•
"Take back your city NOW. If you don't do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stooped (sic) IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST!"

•
Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, took a swipe at Trump, and responded, "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker. #BlackLivesMatter."

•
Attorney General William Barr told ... that on May 29 the unrest was tense near the White House and "the Secret Service recommended the president go down to the bunker. We can't have that in our country."

•
Gov. Jay Inslee also fired back at Trump on Twitter, posting, "A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state's business. 'Stoop' tweeting."

•
Hundreds of protesters stormed Seattle's City Hall Tuesday night to demand Durkan's resignation, just days after seizing a six-block downtown zone that includes a shuttered police precinct.

•
The city just suffered a weekend of unrest, where officers used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse demonstrators in the area after they say they were assaulted with projectiles.

•
... the area in the Capitol Hill section of the city has been called CHAZ and it is "free of uniformed police."

•
... the nearby police precinct that was shuttered during the protests had a new sign on Tuesday that read, "THIS SPACE IS NOW PROPERTY OF THE SEATTLE PEOPLE."

•
House Judiciary Committee member Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told ... that "Antifa has now designated Seattle their capital" after the protesters declared a six-block neighborhood around the precinct a "Cop Free Zone."
Laura Ingraham accuses far left of waging 'relentless propaganda war' on American values, history (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"When you see 20-somethings carrying signs that spell America with the KKK, yelling in the faces of police officers or National Guardsmen, remember they learn this behavior from either their radical parents for their Progressive teachers, or maybe activist celebrities."

•
"What we are witnessing is a relentless propaganda war against the old teachings about America. It's an effort to smear our history and our patriotic spirit."
Mark Steyn blasts activist generation that wants to 'destroy everything it doesn't understand' (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"This generation is a hyper-present-tense generation and unfortunately, it's determined to destroy everything it doesn't understand, which is quite a lot."
Dan Bongino warns House Judiciary Committee that defunding police will lead to 'chaos and...' (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"Removing these heroes from your communities and my community will do nothing but ensure chaos and destruction."

•
"Police officers are the front lines, putting themselves between the evildoers among us and the honest, hardworking Americans just yearning for some security and prosperity in a small slice of Americana."

•
... said that Americans "should commit to police accountability," but said that "we can do it without shredding the thin wall between civilization and chaos."

•
He went on to discuss how he regularly learns about officers who have been killed or injured and warned that other people could find themselves in harm's way if departments are defunded.

•
"I ask you please, with the greatest of respect and humility, please stop this defund the police abomination before someone gets hurt."

•
"Listen I get it, there are serious issues with qualified immunity. There's no question about that. We're in full agreement. The problem is if you were to repeal qualified immunity, have you considered the ‘and then what?'"

•
... explained that if police officers are open to more lawsuits, legal bills — even for good cops — could be "so oppressive that you won't have police officers."

•
He also warned that cops, out of fear of litigation, could be "afraid in the street to go and do their jobs and be proactive in communities that need it most."

•
"The ‘then what' matters here, folks. Qualified immunity has issues, you can work around the edges but the margins matter here."
Sister of slain federal protective officer tells Congress calls to defund police 'ridiculous' (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"It is a ridiculous solution to claim that defunding police departments is the solution to police brutality and discrimination because it's not a solution. It gets us nowhere as a nation and removes the safety net protection that every citizen deserves from their communities elected officials."

•
... Patrick Underwood, was stationed in front of the U.S. Courthouse in Oakland Calif., on May 29 when a vehicle pulled up the building and opened fire at him and another contract security officer...

•
"The actions of a few are dividing us as a nation. We will never solve generational systemic injustice with looting burning, destruction of property and killing in the name of justice."

•
"When those in a position of authority choose to abuse their power, that is a very definition of oppression. And when innocent people are harmed in the name of justice, no one prevails. We all lose."

•
"Police brutality of any kind should not be condoned, however, it is blatantly wrong to create an excuse out of discrimination and disparity to loot and burn our communities, to kill our officers of the law."
NYC detectives' union turns the tables, vows to sue George Floyd rioters who attack officers (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"If you assault a New York City Detective and there are no consequences from the criminal justice system, we have to have other means to protect our detectives."

•
"It's heart-wrenching because they are out there doing a job under very difficult circumstances, trying to protect the innocent people that are protesting while the criminal element is within that group, assaulting, looting and victimizing not only police officers and detectives out there, but also the people of the city."

•
"They've had urine thrown at them, rocks thrown at them, shot at, assaulted. I don't know how much more they could take a day of putting up with a lot out there. And, you know, they are the finest in the world and they are doing a fabulous job, but they are being demonized by the elected officials."
Kayleigh McEnany blasts 'ludicrous, nonsensical' push to dismantle police forces (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"Under President Trump, we're seeing decreases in crime, but under blue state governors and blue state mayors, we're seeing the exact opposite with this proposal."

•
"When the LA mayor said, ‘I'm going to remove $150 million from LAPD [The Los Angeles Police Department],' well, what happened the next week? We saw homicides go up in LA by 250 percent and shootings go up by 56 percent."

•
"It is anarchy, it is chaos when we don't recognize that police serve a valuable function in this society."

•
... "the vast majority" of police officers "are good domestic heroes out there protecting us each and every day."

•
... President Trump will soon have a list of police reform proposals that can be accomplished through a combination of executive and legislative action — and that the effort could have some crossover with Democratic proposals.

•
"There's been tremendous work done on this and a lot of progress over the last few days. The president has been reviewing proposals."
Trump says his administration 'will not even consider' renaming military bases named for... (Fox 06/10/2020)
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"These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom."

•
"Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations. Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!"

•
The president's insistence that the names of the military bases remain unchanged comes just two days after U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said he is open to the idea.
Gianno Caldwell calls out Chicago mayor for abandoning African-American residents amid riots (Fox 06/10/2020)
Dan Crenshaw: No community has ever become safer with less policing (Fox 06/10/2020)
NYC police union president defends officers: The media is portraying us as the enemy (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"We are portrayed in the press and everywhere else as the enemy and we want people to know that we take our jobs seriously, we're professional, and the vast, vast majority of the time we act appropriately and honorably and that's what we do and that's not being portrayed right now in the media and in the world."

•
"Our legislators in New York — we have had a partnership with our legislators in New York for years and years and years. I know many of them personally. And, they dropped us like a hot stove when this happened."

•
"99.9 percent of the cops are good and honorable people, but we have to change everything and diminish their civil rights and diminish what they do and scrutinize them more than anybody on Earth is scrutinized. I mean, it just makes no sense to us."
Jordan seeks DOJ briefing on Antifa, slams 'defund the police' push as 'complete insanity' (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"The murder of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department is an injustice. His death has rightfully sparked protests throughout the country."

•
"While most Americans have exercised their constitutional right to protest peacefully, Antifa and other left-wing extremists have exploited these protests to commit acts of violence and death that have devastated local communities."

•
"Antifa and other left-wing groups have misused lawful protests about Floyd's death as cover to advance their goals of death and destruction."

•
"Americans understand how terrible and what a tragedy it was in what happened to George Floyd."

•
"Americans understand that law enforcement, the vast majority of law enforcement, are heroic individuals doing their job. And Americans understand that this concept of defunding the police is crazy."

•
"This is complete insanity — the idea that you're not going to have a police department in your city, that you're going to defund the very people who risk their lives to protect all of our communities, makes absolutely no sense to me and my guess is it makes absolutely no sense to the 330 million people in this country."

•
Jordan also requested Barr provide information about "the likely consequences to public safety of any successful effort to defund or disband federal, state or local law-enforcement agencies."

•
... called the damage to property "especially in minority communities" "tragic," and noted that in Minnesota alone, an estimated 220 buildings were damaged and nearly 500 businesses had been vandalized, looted or damaged.
Doug Collins on Barr's Fox News interview: We were right about FBI wanting to 'get' Trump (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"You said [Rod] Rosenstein [was] being a crossing guard; Rosenstein was complicit. I mean, he actually signed these things without – he's admitted [he] probably didn't read them and didn't go into them."

•
"And, Comey and Strzok and McCabe and all these – Durham – I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes out with because I do believe people need to be held accountable."

•
"Because, if they're not held accountable, then what keeps future people who have a political agenda at [the] DOJ or FBI from doing this to somebody else or to you or to me?"
Laura Ingraham says Democrats don't care about violence in Chicago because there's 'no political...' (Fox 06/10/2020)
•
"Most Democrats will go to great lengths to say how much they care about black people."

•
"Yet, weekend after weekend of horrific killings of African-Americans in Chicago and nary a peep from them, no demands that leadership be improved, that cases be solved, that murder charge charges be filed. No visits to family members usually. And why? Because there is no political leverage in those situations. That's why."

•
Chicago recorded 18 murders on May 31, making it the city's deadliest day in 60 years.

•
"It's just embarrassing and how utterly ineffective disadvantaged communities have been drowning in liberal rhetoric for years. But what are the results? Over the media coverage, politicians like D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser will order government employees to paint streets with the 'woke' message de jure."

•
"Yet what she does not want to defend is her party's opposition to school choice in the district, which relegates black youth to underperforming schools."

•
... demanded that Lightfoot develop a plan to stabilize Chicago's neighborhoods for five days, calling his Southwest Side ward "a virtual war zone" where armed gang members were threatening to shoot black people.

•
When he demanded she respond to the remarks, Lightfoot told him he was "100 percent full of s**t."

•
"Mayor Lightfoot, remember, she was harassing people for not social distancing and the like, hanging out and doing picnics and gatherings in their homes. But now she's demonizing anyone who questions her and her results."

•
"But I was thinking that conversation kind of sums it all up. If Democrats get in control really in November, we'll all be told just how dumb we are."
Rosenstein calls Durham appointment ‘reasonable’ in testimony on Russia case (Fox 06/10/2020)
Barr says familiar names among those DOJ is investigating in Durham probe, calls findings 'very...' (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"I think before the election, I think we're concerned about the motive force behind the very aggressive investigation that was launched into the Trump campaign without, you know, with a very thin, slender reed as a basis for it."

•
"It seemed that the bureau was sort of spring-loaded at the end of July to drive in there and investigate a campaign."

•
"We can't discuss future charges. But I have to say that I do find a little irritating."

•
"You know, the propensity in the American public on all sides of the political spectrum when they see something they think could be a criminal violation, I say, why hasn't this person been indicted again? And, you know, there's the old saying that that the wheels of justice grind slow and they do run slow because we have due process and we follow the process. But people should not draw from the fact that no action has been taken that taken yet, that that means that people or people are going to get away with wrongdoing."

•
"For the first time in American history, police organizations and the national security organizations were used to spy on a campaign, and there was no basis for it."

•
"The media largely drove that — and all kinds of sensational claims were being made about the president that could have affected the election. And then and then later on, in his administration, there were actions taken that really appear to be efforts to sabotage his campaign. And that has to be looked at. And if people want to say that I'm political because I am looking at those potential abuses of power, so be it. But that's the job of the attorney general."

•
"The other area of concern is that after the election, even though they were closing down some of that, as we've seen in the Flynn case, and say there's nothing here, for some reason, they went right back at it, even at a time where the evidentiary support or claim support like the dossier was falling apart."

•
"And it's very hard to understand why they continued to push and even make public testimony that they had an investigation going when it was becoming painfully obvious or should have been obvious to anyone that there was nothing there."

•
"You know, unmasking is not by itself illegal, but the patterns of unmasking can tell us something about people's motivations at any given point of time. So we're trying to take a look at the whole waterfront on unmasking what was done, especially in 2016."
UCLA professor suspended, under police protection after threats (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
A California college professor reportedly is being investigated for discrimination and under police protection after refusing a request to exempt black students from final exams in the wake of George Floyd's death.

•
... Dean Antonio Bernardo sent an email to students on Monday calling Klein's behavior "troubling" and reportedly extended the time students have to complete exams given the "difficult circumstances."

•
The Malibu Police Department reportedly has an increased police presence outside Klein's home after multiple threats.

•
Klein was asked for a "no-harm" final exam, shortened exams, and extended deadlines for final assignments and projects due to "traumas" that put students in the class "in a position where we must choose between actively supporting our black classmates or focusing on finishing up our spring quarter."

•
Klein asked how he would be able to identify the black students given that the class is online and noted that the teacher's assistant is from Minneapolis.

•
"One last thing strikes me: Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the ‘color of their skin,'" Klein added. "Do you think that your request would run afoul of MLK's admonition?"

•
In another message to students, Klein allegedly said his understanding of university rules said he should only allow "rare exceptions" but didn't feel this was the case.

•
Klein's classes were transferred to Professors Brett Trueman and Judson Caskey, who also serves as the Anderson school's diversity committee chairman.
Ben Carson on defunding police: People will 'realize how irrational it is' (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"Well, it's low-income communities where the police are needed the most."

•
"Places where there's a lot of criminal activity, obviously you need to police. So, as usual, when people make decisions when they're emotional, and they're angry. They don't think it through, and that's what this, it will go away. When people have time to think it through and realize how irrational it is."

•
"Social programs are important. And they're part of the entire system, but they're not the front line, when somebody is committing a crime, that's just silly."
LA official slammed for having LAPD security detail amid calls to defund police (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"It's kind of ironic. Here she is demanding $150 million be reallocated from the police budget, but yet she has security at her house by the Los Angeles Police Department."

•
"Cutting the LAPD budget means longer responses to 911 emergency calls, officers calling for back-up won't get it, and rape, murder and assault investigations won't occur or will take forever to initiate, let alone complete."

•
"At this time, with violent crime increasing, a global pandemic and nearly a week's worth of violence, arson, and looting, ‘defunding' the LAPD is the most irresponsible thing anyone can propose."
Republican AGs come out in force against defunding police (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"Will the same liberals who want to 'defund the police' also be willing give up their security details?"

•
"In a world where police are powerless and anarchy reigns free, the wealthy could afford to hire — and, as night follows day, certainly would hire — private security forces to protect themselves and their palatial estates. And what about the rest of society?"

•
"The truth of the matter is that the ‘elites' promoting the ‘Defund the Police' movement are too busy peddling lies about law enforcement and our country to care about the effects of the ideas they advance."
Mike Huckabee: Get rid of Democrats running big cities, not police officers (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"What we need to do is get rid of some of these Democratic mayors who are running the cities where the most problems are. That's what I think is missing here in the analysis."

•
"Most of the cities where there is real trouble are completely run and have been for decades by Democrat mayors with liberal ideas."

•
"It doesn't work. And, maybe they ought to wake up to that."
Judge Napolitano explains: Can cities actually get rid of police departments? (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"You want to put restraints on the police from abusing their power, of course you can do that."

•
"The real task in framing a government is to have a government that is capable of governing, strong enough to govern, but not so strong that it abridges the rights of the people and so you have to have power, but you also have to have controls on that power," Barr said on Monday.

•
"In the case of the government, for example, excessive police force, law and order means that the government is bound by law and people have to be accountable for abusing their power."

•
Napolitano said Barr is "quite right." He noted that when James Madison "wrote the Constitution, [he] wanted just the right balance between a government strong enough to do its job, but not so strong that it would take the rights away from people, as George Floyd's right to live was taken away from him, but to abolish the police department would actually harm the most the people calling for its abolition because they would be the most likely to be victims of crime with no redress."

•
Napolitano explained ... that "when the Constitution was formed and the states retained to themselves under the Tenth Amendment the power to provide for safety, expressly safety, it's not only the power to provide for safety, it's the obligation to provide for safety."

•
"So if people want to make a political statement in Minneapolis, they can make their political statement, but if they actually take cops off the street, it would be the duty of the Minnesota legislature to remedy that."
Chicago mayor: Will take 'Herculean effort' to get businesses to come back (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"I've been on calls and text messages with people all day who fought hard to bring economic development to areas of the city, only to see the Walgreens, the CVS, the grocery store, everything vanish in an eye blink."

•
"It's going to take a Herculean effort on the part of all of us to convince businesses not to disappear, to come back. We're prepared to fight that fight."

•
Walmart can't confirm it will reopen its Chatham location on the city's South Side after it was ransacked. ... Target couldn't confirm it would reopen a nearby location either.

•
Looting damage in metropolitan areas, including Chicago, between May 29 and June 3 totaled more than $400 million, according to an estimate...

•
"I haven't seen s**t like this before. The number of places all over the South and West sides in particular that have been hit today has just been off the charts. Literally hundreds, if not thousands, of locations. Big stores, small stores, strip malls, many corner places, it is all over the city."
Distraught Chicago officials heard on tape fuming over looting, riots: 'My ward is a s**t show' (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"My ward is a s**t show," one alderman says. They are shooting at the police."

•
"How do businesses recover and why would they want to recover in our community?"

•
Lightfoot herself recognized what she described as a "massive, massive problem." Earlier she described rioters as just f*****g lawless right now."

•
"I don't know about you, but I haven't seen s**t like this before, not in Chicago," Lightfoot said.
Ex-acting DNI Grenell calls politics in 2020 'a fight between Washington and the rest of America' (Fox 06/09/2020)
•
"The fact of the matter is. we have a real problem in Washington, D.C., because it's a system that it no longer is Republicans and Democrats pushing against each other to create good policy. It's a fight between Washington and the rest of America."

•
"What we have [is] a system in Washington where people get jobs if you're there, if you know someone and you work your way up, and it's like musical chairs from one agency to another. There is no outside thought, there's no outside perspective."
Tim Graham: Rosenstein testifies – and suddenly mainstream media say this about Russia collusion (Fox 06/08/2020)
•
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was at the red-hot center of the Robert Mueller probe into the phantom menace of Donald Trump's collusion with the Russians. He testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 3.

•
You may not know that happened. ABC, CBS and NBC ignored it that night. PBS gave the story 55 seconds. NPR gave it four minutes, but those minutes sounded bizarre.

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"May I start with an observation? Does this seem a little out of left field? With everything going on in the country right now, senators are focused today on the Russia investigation?"

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"The short answer for that is, politics."

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The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts devoted 2,202 minutes of coverage to the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory from Jan. 21, 2017, to Feb. 10, 2019.

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When the Senate Intelligence Committee announced on Feb. 12, 2019, that there was no collusion? There was zero coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC.

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These networks, alongside the "prestige" print press, CNN and MSNBC, obsessed about Russian-collusion claims 24/7 for more than two years. It was never "out of left field." It was the fiercely beating heart of the "news" product.

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The media repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of President Trump's election and even welcomed bald-faced lies about Trump being a Russian agent.

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"Bombshell" after "bombshell" led to claims that collusion was going to end Trump's presidency early. Now the papers bury the story on the inside pages.

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The crowning audacity after the Rosenstein hearing came from MSNBC star Rachel Maddow, the Collusion Queen and Duchess of the Dossier.

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Without uttering the words "dossier" or "Rosenstein," she complained that 53 new subpoenas would be issued to investigate the origins of this get-Trump conspiracy.

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... she lamented this is designed to "create an air of criminality around Vice President Biden and the whole Obama administration in time for the election in November."

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A politicized "air of criminality" still wafts over the Trump administration, thanks to the "objective" media.

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But they offer no apologies, no retractions, no admissions of fault on the overall Russia mess. Their drumbeat of collusion "news" turned out to be ... "fake news."

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Barr blasts 'canard' that Park Police cleared out protesters to let Trump visit church: 'Totally...' (Fox 06/08/2020)
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"On Monday, we were reacting to three days of extremely violent demonstrations right across from the White House."

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"[We had] a lot of injuries to the police officers, arson — things were so bad the Secret Service recommended the president go down to the [White House] bunker and we can't have that in our country. So the decision was made: We had to move the perimeter one block and that is what we were doing."

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"I found out later in the afternoon [Monday] he might go outside of the White House."

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"But like I said, the decision to move outside of the perimeter was initially made Sunday night by the [U.S.] Park Police; in the early morning hours."

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"The image [of Trump and the Bible] has somewhat been created and miscreated in [the] sense that I haven't seen any videos on TV of all the violence that was happening preceding that."

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The attorney general said he went to Lafayette Park before the perimeter was expanded and was targeted by projectiles thrown by several protesters, causing his security detail to prevent him from moving in certain directions.

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"Projectiles had been landing in a certain area — things like rocks and bottles."

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Barr emphasized that the decision for Trump to go to the church was separate from the decision to move the perimeter, and insisted that both decisions were proper.

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"The president of the United States should be able to walk one block from the White House out to the Church of the Presidents."

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"And this canard that this exercise was done to make that possible is totally false."
Minneapolis mayor's humiliation shows 'Black Lives Matter is, in fact, a political party' (Fox 06/08/2020)
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Protesters grew agitated at Grey's answers, with one unidentified person on stage demanded a "yes or no" answer from Frey as to whether he would support dismantling the police department.

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"I do not support the full abolition of the Minneapolis Police Department," Frey responded.

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"All right, then get the f** out of here," the person yelled at Frey. "Go home, Jacob, go home," demonstrators yelled, while others booed and chanted "Shame, shame, shame," as the mayor walked with his head down through the crowd.

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"It tells you that Black Lives Matter is, in fact, a political party. Maybe the strongest political party of the United States as of tonight."

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"Its members believe they can reshape this country and so far, they are proving to be right."
Kayleigh McEnany says CNN's Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon encouraged non-peaceful George Floyd... (Fox 06/08/2020)
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"The president is sorry about the fact that Antifa wreaked havoc in our streets, and the failure of some members of the media to note that, like CNN's Chris Cuomo said, ‘Show me where it says protestors are supposed to be peaceful.' Well, I point him to the First Amendment where it is said you have the right to ‘peaceably assemble.' He should go back and read the Constitution."

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"There are many others out there, Don Lemon saying that rioting is a ‘mechanism to restructure our country,' The actions of the rioters were not in keeping with the First Amendment and I think the media needs to recognize that there is a discernment between the peaceful protestors, many of whom I have seen, and the rioters."
Owners of looted NYC deli recall night the rioters came: 'It was like a movie, a scary movie' (Fox 06/08/2020)
White House claps back after AOC claims Kayleigh McEnany dissed her (Fox 06/08/2020)
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"Wouldn't be the first person to mistake a women of color for having a lower position or title than she does, but Kayleigh - in case you haven't picked up a newspaper in two years, I'm a Congresswoman," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
Minnesota man hit with arson charge after police precinct burned down in George Floyd riots (Fox 06/08/2020)
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Rioters broke into the precinct around 10 p.m. and sparked a fire after police officers on the roof were rescued by helicopter.

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... St. Paul police officers were called on June 3 to a Menards home improvement store after Wolfe was seen wearing body armor with his name written on duct tape, a law enforcement belt and a baton in the store. The belt had handcuffs and a knife attached.
Barr, in FNC interview, confirms 'focused investigations' of Antifa, hammers 'dangerous' push to... (Fox 06/08/2020)
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"It's a very loosely organized group, and they have an unusual system of communication and organization. There are people who can be characterized as leaders in any given situation."

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"There appear to be sources of funding, and we are looking into the sources of funding. And, you know, there is clearly some high degree of organization involved at some of these events and and coordinated tactics that we're seeing. And we're looking into that as well. And some of it relates to an Antifa. Some of it relates to groups that act very much like Antifa. As I said, there's a witches' brew of extremist groups that are trying to exploit this situation on all sides."

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"The image has somewhat been mis-created, in the sense that I haven't seen any videos on TV of all the violence that was happening preceding that. I personally saw projectiles thrown, and two were thrown at me and the police officers there. And my security detail made me move back because they said that projectiles had been landing in a certain area — things like rocks, bottles were thrown at me."

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"As I've said, the president of the United States should be able to walk one block from the White House out to the 'church of presidents,'"

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"He should be able to do that. And, you know, this canard that this exercise was done to make that possible is totally false. I don't see anything wrong with the president walking over to the church."

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"Demonizing police" is "wrong" and "dangerous," Barr asserted. "We put these individuals into highly charged, dangerous situations where their own life is at stake ... and we have to make sure we treat them fairly in those circumstances."

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Should police be defunded, Barr said, "You would have increases in vigilantism and increases in chaos in the city." Barr added it's "been shown" that more killings would result.

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Barr indicated that the federal government should help set standards that abolish the use of police chokeholds and similar techniques.

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After kneeling for several minutes, top Democrats on Monday introduced a sweeping criminal justice reform bill, which includes a limitation on police officers' qualified immunity to certain forms of lawsuits for misconduct on the job.

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Critics say qualified immunity, a judge-made doctrine, is necessary to protect police from complaints that would punish officers for reasonably executing their duties in stressful situations, or complaints intended to harass officers.

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"I think given the uncertainty involved and the very fast pace of the infection, especially in certain areas, the original 30-day or so — and even maybe with some extensions — measures were appropriate."

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"But I think that as time has gone by, the degree of impingement on fundamental liberties has never been anything like this in the United States nationally, forbidding people from engaging in their livelihood, telling them to stay home. It's just sort of a form of house arrest in many places."

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"There have never been more pervasive or widespread limitations on American liberty than this since slavery. I'm not saying this is a form of slavery. I'm just saying that these are extremely broad limitations. And I think the time has come to restrike the balance and be more limited in what we did and more critical."
Gutfeld on defunding the police (Fox 06/08/2020)
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CNN anchor: What if, in the middle of the night, my home is broken into. Who do I call?

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Minneapolis City Council president: Yes, I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors. And I know — and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege.

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What an idiot! That was the president of the Minneapolis city council, who's planning a formal vote to defund the police. So after days of violent unrest, that's their next step.

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If you do not believe that we are in the middle of a mass delusion, where humanity is willfully rejecting what works for what destroys, I don't think I can't help you.

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... let's pick two cities and observe the outcomes. Because the Minneapolis city council is voting to defund, let's go with them first.

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And for comparison, let's do Hollywood, where some celebs, who signed an open letter demanding defunding, actually live.

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The comparison eliminates race from the equation and sits it squarely on something else: wealth and class.

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While citizens of Minneapolis will fall prey to chaos and roving gangs of violence — last week being the prequel — Hollywood will rely on private security, which many of its fabulous inhabitants already enjoy.

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... with Minneapolis, the hard left zombies on that council are ready to see their delusions through, citizens be damned — or killed.
Tom Cotton blasts NYT leaders for failing to stand up to 'woke children' in newsroom (Fox 06/08/2020)
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"Let's be clear, this all goes back to the publisher and his own willingness to stand up to a bunch of 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds who were raised on social justice seminars on our campuses."

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"They need to behave like grown-ups not like children, who are confronted with an opinion that they don't like."

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"Fortunately more and more cities and states called in the National Guard through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of last week," Cotton noted, saying invoking the Insurrection Act was ultimately "not necessary."

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"But The New York Times actually asked me to explain in further detail that exact point I made, they even defended it, the publisher defended the decision to publish that column after it was published."

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"Within a day it turned into something like a struggle session from the cultural revolution in Mao's China, where the adults had to prostrate themselves and apologize in front of the woke children that apparently now run The New York Times newsroom and now you have the opinion page editor have to resign."

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Michigan judge orders state to stop trying to hold barber in contempt for not closing shop... (Fox 06/08/2020)
Air Force sergeant ID’d as suspect in 'ambush' killing of California deputy (Fox 06/08/2020)
New York City murders, shootings spiked last week, report says (Fox 06/08/2020)
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey rejects city council's push to defund police, despite veto-proof... (Fox 06/08/2020)
Flynn judge Emmet Sullivan set to explain why he has not dismissed case (Fox 06/08/2020)
Dan Bongino rips 'insanity' of defunding police departments: 'I assure you chaos will result' (Fox 06/08/2020)
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... defunding the police would be "the single most catastrophic deadly public policy decision we have seen in the modern history of the United States."

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"People will die. Real people, not Hollywood nonsense, not movie types, real people, kids, teenagers and adults will die."

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... called defunding the police an "abomination," asking, "What kind of a message do you think this sends to a murderer or a terrorist or a gang member or a drug dealer slinging crack on the corner of a neighborhood?"

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... acknowledged that social workers "do great work," but explained that "they are entirely, completely 1,000 percent unprepared to go face to face with a murderer or a terrorist and try to use Maslow's hierarchy of needs to talk them out of killing people."

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"I lived through the exact opposite with [former New York City Mayor] Rudy Giuliani when he bumped up the police force and said we're going to take care of every low-level crime and cut off the high-level crime."
Oh, grow up, Mayor Frey (NYP 06/08/2020)
De Blasio will be remembered for turning NYC into 'war zone' in George Floyd riots, ex-NYPD... (Fox 06/07/2020)
New York Times editorial page editor's resignation a terrible omen for freedom of expression (Fox 06/07/2020)
Tom Cotton calls out 'false and offensive' NY Times tweet after editorial page editor resigns (Fox 06/07/2020)
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"This is false and offensive. I called for using military force as a backup — only if police are overwhelmed — to stop riots, not to be used against protesters. If @nytimes has any decency left, they should retract this smear."
David Dorn shooting: Arrest, murder charge announced in killing of retired St. Louis police... (Fox 06/07/2020)
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He was killed by people who had broken into Lee's Pawn & Jewelry, and his body was found on the sidewalk at about 2:30 a.m., investigators said.

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His death came on a violent night in St. Louis, where four officers were shot; officers were pelted with rocks and fireworks; and 55 businesses were burglarized or damaged, including a convenience store that burned.

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Dorn was a friend of the pawn shop's owner and frequently checked on the business when alarms went off.
NYC man who threatened to burn down Diamond District charged with ‘making terroristic threats’ (Fox 06/07/2020)
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During the live interview Saturday afternoon, a man who identified himself as "Ace Burns" threatened to burn down the Diamond District if New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio did not meet with protesters and give the youth "some direction."

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"But if they don't, then [the] next stop is the Diamond District. And gasoline, thanks to Trump, is awfully cheap. So, we're giving them a chance right now to do the right thing."

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Burns, 34, whose real name is Israel Burns, has been charged with one count each of making terroristic threats, aggravated harassment, and false reporting
Sen. Tom Cotton blasts New York Times for caving to 'woke child mob' of staffers over op-ed (Fox 06/07/2020)
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Cotton's piece, headlined "Send In the Troops," supported the idea of using the military to help quell violent protests – an opinion apparently not appreciated by individuals on the Times' staff.

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The Republican senator blamed complaints from the paper's newsroom for the Times' changing their stance.

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"The New York Times editorial page editor and owner defended it in public statements but then they totally surrendered to a woke child mob from their own newsroom that apparently gets triggered if they're presented with any opinion contrary to their own, as opposed to telling the woke children in their newsroom this is the workplace, not a social justice seminar on campus."

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"They still haven't identified any facts that are wrong in the op-ed, they haven't identified what was so rushed about this process. They've only prostrated themselves in front of their young children who are acting like children[.]"

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... the Times published an op-ed by the Taliban earlier this year, and in the past has published pieces by Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler.

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"It just goes to show you the moral rot inside some of our media and academic institutions that they don't get outraged about the Taliban but they do get outraged about conservative opinion."

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While businesses remained shuttered and religious services have been barred or restricted to small groups, protesters have marched en masse and unpunished.

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"It cannot be the case that thousands of Americans can exercise their First Amendment right on the street, while dozens of Americans can't exercise their First Amendment rights in churches."

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"It cannot be the case that you can be arrested for opening a business but not for looting one."
Rep. Ken Buck: First lockdowns, then riots – here's how left's hypocrisy added fuel to the fire (Fox 06/07/2020)
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America is at a crossroads. Violent riots threaten our communities just as we begin to reemerge from months in lockdown.

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Now we face a choice between peace and fear, order and anarchy, light and darkness.

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Governors and mayors across the country acted in fear when they shuttered small businesses and closed houses of worship. As a result, millions remain out of work.

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In response, Americans from all over the country turned to faith and called for reopening while Leftist politicians shamed them.

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As New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy put it, those who disobey social distancing orders have "blood on [their] hands."

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Now more than ever, we need peace, order and faith as our country reels following the senseless death of George Floyd.

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But, as thousands of looters and rioters ransack stores, burn churches and spread violence across our nation, where are these same Leftist politicians that chided faithful and freedom-loving Americans just weeks ago?

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Where were they as St. John's Church in Washington, D.C., burned?

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... in no way is the behavior we are seeing a peaceful demonstration. The Constitution does not protect or condone setting churches ablaze, looting stores and destroying property.

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... as these vigilantes take to the street, I have yet to hear any state or local leaders cry "social distancing" and break up these mass gatherings out of coronavirus concerns.

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The Leftist media suddenly isn't concerned about the threat of coronavirus spreading among large crowds of angry protesters, when just weeks ago they lauded the arrest of hairdressers for reopening their shops.

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New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who recently ordered the arrest of courageous New Yorkers seeking to worship at synagogues over COVID-19 concerns, now stands in the streets as looters shatter windows and steal countless business owners' livelihoods.
Trump rails against Biden, 'Radical Left Democrats' over movement to defund police (Fox 06/07/2020)
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"Sleepy Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats want to ‘DEFUND THE POLICE,' I want great and well paid LAW ENFORCEMENT. I want LAW & ORDER!"

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The calls to defund police departments come as uniformed law enforcement officers across the nation suffered injuries during George Floyd protests that turned violent in some cities, with officers being pelted with bricks and bottles.

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A police officer in Las Vegas was shot in the head; police in New York and New Jersey were injured by bricks and rocks; in Los Angeles, one officer suffered a fractured skull; officers in other cities suffered injuries in hit-and-run incidents.
Federal Protective Service officer killed in Oakland shooting during George Floyd protest identified (Fox 06/07/2020)
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The shooting occurred on Friday after a vehicle pulled up outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building at about 9:45 p.m. and a person opened fire at two contract security officers who worked for Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service.

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Underwood was killed while the second officer was wounded and remains in critical condition.

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"When someone targets a police officer or a police station with an intention to do harm and intimidate — that is an act of domestic terrorism."

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"An assassin cowardly shot two federal protective contractors as they stood watch over a protest."

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Protests in California raged on overnight into Sunday, while some riots saw buildings damaged with smashed windows, graffiti on the walls and fires lit.
Massachusetts Trump supporter, 82, ‘violently assaulted’ by motorist, 27, police say (Fox 06/07/2020)
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... man says he was holding a Trump sign and wearing a Trump hat when suddenly a motorist allegedly got out of his car and charged toward him.

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"Give me the (expletive) sign!" the suspect said, according to police.

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"The guy, when he came at me, I had never seen a horror story ... that the face was so filled with hate and anger, as his was."

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"According to the other fella that was with me, I didn't know that [the suspect] had lifted me up, but he apparently lifted me up and flung me down on my back to the ground."

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The suspect, identified as Aidan Courtright, 27, of Fall River, also grabbed Chase's Trump sign, tore it in half, and threw it on the ground.

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After Chase landed on the ground, the suspect allegedly kicked the elderly man in his ribs and legs before returning to his vehicle and driving away.

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The offices saw visible bruising on Chase's lower back and he was treated at a local hospital.
NYPD says 292 officers injured during George Floyd protests, as police across US come under siege (Fox 06/06/2020)
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The 292 figure provided by police gave some initial context to the fallout of how the protests, lasting over a week, have impacted law enforcement — which has faced threats of violence, defunding and harassment in the streets.

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Messages like "F**k the police," acab (all cops are b***ards) and descriptions of cops as "pigs" have been painted across buildings and monuments in U.S. cities, and held up on protesters' signs.

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The unrest has become so dangerous that President Trump threatened to deploy the armed forces to help police officers and the National Guard.
D-Day anniversary — We must continue the fight to maintain the legacy of sacrifice (Fox 06/06/2020)
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See related Generations (Michael Ramirez, 06/05/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Dr. Marc Siegel on faulty hydroxychloroquine data: 'This is a political hit job' (Fox 06/06/2020)
Tom Cotton hysteria shows cowardice from The New York Times (NYP 06/06/2020)
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... if reporters can dictate what opinions the Times runs, how long before they start deciding what news is worthy of publication and not based on their own political beliefs?

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That's a trick question. They already do.
Philadelphia gun shop owner 'justified' in shooting burglars, killing one, DA says (Fox 06/05/2020)
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"The facts we know and the law are clear that the business owner's use of force while inside his own property against a burglar accompanied by others who was entering with a gun in his hand was justified."

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"It is fortunate for the City of Philadelphia that this large cache of guns and ammunitions were not taken and sold on the street."
Utah National Guard confirms they were kicked out of DC hotel, mayor claims budget issue (Fox 06/05/2020)
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Bowser, who wants all non-D.C. troops out of the city, blamed the National Guard relocation on a budget issue and said the city will not pay for the accommodations — amid days of protests over racial injustice, some of which have been violent.

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Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah ... has slammed Bowser as an "ungrateful mayor" over the situation.

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"Evicting Utah National Guard personnel from their hotels after a late-night shift risking their lives to protect Washington is a shameful, petty, discrediting decision by Mayor Bowser."

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"They [the soldiers] came here at the request of their country and now, in the middle of it, in the middle of a deployment, in the middle of their fourth consecutive all-nighter, they're being told they're not welcome there. That is unpatriotic; that is unacceptable."

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President Trump slammed Bowser over the issue on Friday. "The incompetent Mayor of Washington, D.C., @MayorBowser, who's budget is totally out of control and is constantly coming back to us for "handouts", is now fighting with the National Guard, who saved her from great embarrassment over the last number of nights. If she doesn't treat these men and women well, then we'll bring in a different group of men and women!"

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Trump announced from the White House on Monday that if "a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them."
Minneapolis City Council members aim to 'dismantle' police department, 'rethink' public safety (Fox 06/05/2020)
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"We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. And when we're done, we're not simply gonna glue it back together. We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response. It's really past due."

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Meanwhile, the president of the Minneapolis police union wrote a letter calling the riots in the city a "terrorist movement" and calling elected officials' efforts to find fault in the police department "despicable."

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"Our chief requested 400 more officers and was flatly denied any. This is what led to this record-breaking riot."

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"I've worked with the four defense attorneys that are representing each of the four terminated individuals under criminal investigation, in addition with our labor attorneys to fight for their jobs. They were terminated without due process."
Cleveland bakery owners arm themselves to defend business amid riots: 'We had no choice' (Fox 06/05/2020)
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... bakery owner said her family and her employees had "no choice" but to brandish rifles to defend their business from rioters earlier this week.

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At one point, an African-American man with his arms raised kneeled on the brick sidewalk in front of the barrel of the rifle — until a window was broken and the crowd quickly dispersed

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"So, we had to protect ourselves and we had to protect our business. We work too hard for it...to, you know, let anything happen. Our business is our life, you know?"

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"I was there with my children — two of my three sons and my husband. And, all we thought about was to protect ourselves and our business."

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"We really weren't thinking about anything else, to be honest with you. You know, were we nervous? Of course. Were we scared? Of course. But, you know, we thought we had no choice."

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"We work 60 [to] 70 hours a week. You know this is our life. So, we couldn't let it be destroyed. I mean, what if this happened to your door? You know, they came to your home or your business? You know, what would you do?"

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"You have to protect yourself. You can't just allow it to happen."
Dan Bongino: I'm 'genuinely worried' where growing anti-police sentiment will lead (Fox 06/05/2020)
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"I'm genuinely worried [about] where we're going with this. This anti-police, fomenting, festering attitude that is now exploding. I don't know where the general population of the United States thinks this is going to go."

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"Do you understand that there's this paper-thin line between mass chaos and civility? And I mean paper-thin. In the last week, you got a taste of how thin that is, you got a taste of the chaos."

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"Obviously police departments all over the country and all over the world have always had issues where, you know, occasionally bad apples do really dumb things. But, you know, we are in the middle of a really bad situation right now."

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"And," Bongino added, "you know, is he going to apologize as well for the three-day delay of the NYPD management in conjunction with Mayor de Blasio that got a lot of people's businesses destroyed and a lot of people hurt in Manhattan as well?"

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"I'm not sure about what he was saying about apologizing for [a] history of racial bias as if it is a systemic problem [within] the NYPD. I will be honest with you, that was not my experience when I was there."

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"Every department has [its] bad apples and that's a shame. You need to do your best to get rid of them – your absolute best. But, I did not experience in any way, shape, or form some mass form of racism in the NYPD when I was there at all."
Tom Cotton’s office baffled by New York Times’ backpedaling over op-ed on George Floyd riots (Fox 06/05/2020)
Pete Hegseth serves with National Guard amid DC unrest: A 'dicey scene' that could have been... (Fox 06/05/2020)
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Some protesters "would have defaced every monument, they would have looted every business they could, and they would have gone all the way to the White House."

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Recalling the violence he witnessed on the ground, Hegseth called it a "dicey scene" as rioters assaulted police and members of the Guard with frozen water bottles, bricks, and fireworks. He said there were many peaceful protesters, but also violent groups mixing in.

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"The vile things said to them as they stood on the line...it was an honor to serve with them. If the National Guard had not been called up, I can't help but think where Washington, D.C. would be right now."

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Heavily armed National Guardsmen in tactical gear have been on the district's streets for days, after demonstrators set fires, broke store windows and stole items from the shelves, leaving police officers injured and in need of backup.

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"I watched bottles and bricks and rocks be thrown at us throughout. This was a violent anti-cop, anti-American riot at many levels that would have gone much further without the additional federal support."

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"I'm so proud of these young men and women. I stood there with a shield and mask on and heard people scream at me. I have heard it all so I'm used to it. but imagine a young kid, 19, 20, 21, a black kid from Washington, D.C... standing on that line, and the utter hatred being screamed at them..."

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"We were standing outside Lafayette Park with the White House in the backdrop. It was surreal watching."

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"People didn't want to just protest outside of the gate...they wanted to go further, take down the country, defund the cops...what they want to do is destroy America. I'm talking about the hardcore members — not protesters — trying to use this to destroy our union. It's so clear on the ground what their mission is and it's scary."

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Hegseth later slammed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for his failure to call on the Guard, calling him "a fool" for citing logistics as an excuse to use a show of force and contain the violent protests in his city.

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"That show of force was part of why we got to Wednesday, the last night that I was there. where it was largely peaceful because it was understood we have the numbers and the ability to contain this."
Chicago man arrested for shooting, killing innocent bystander amid looting, police say (Fox 06/05/2020)
Ex-NYPD commissioner Kelly admits NYC may need National Guard 'if this continues for a couple...' (Fox 06/05/2020)
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"The NYPD has 38,000 police officers, and I would think enough police officers to do the job. but I'm starting to think if this continues for a couple more nights, we are going to need the National Guard."

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"That was not my initial position. but something has got to be done."

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Kelly, the longest-serving commissioner in NYPD history, said NYPD officers are exhausted from working extended shifts, "being assaulted in every possible way, run down [by cars], hit by bricks, trashed."

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On Wednedsay evening, an NYPD officer was randomly attacked and stabbed in the neck while patrolling in Brooklyn, which resulted in a struggle that caused two additional officers to suffer gunshot wounds.

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... a shocking video posted on social media early Tuesday showed a NYPD officer being struck by a vehicle in what appeared to be a deliberate hit-and-run.

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"The mayor mentioned the other day that he was on the phone with them 50 times [one] night. That is way too much, way too much involvement from City Hall. [You] have to let the police professionals do their job."
Secret Service says it did not use tear gas when Lafayette Park was cleared before Trump church visit (Fox 06/04/2020)
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"The Secret Service has determined that no agency personnel used tear gas or capsicum spray during its efforts to secure the area near Lafayette Park on Monday, June 1st, 2020."

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"At approximately 6:33 pm, violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids," the USPP said in a statement.

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"The protestors also climbed onto a historic building at the north end of Lafayette Park that was destroyed by arson days prior. Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street."

•
"As many of the protestors became more combative, continued to throw projectiles, and attempted to grab officers' weapons, officers then employed the use of smoke canisters and pepper balls when protestors did scatter from the area."
Mike Lee: Rod Rosenstein made a 'stunning' admission about Russia probe, Carter Page (Fox 06/04/2020)
The Los Angeles Pogrom That No Jewish Organization Will Talk About (ZOA 06/04/2020)
•
At the latest count, at least 5 synagogues in the area were vandalized, as were three Jewish schools.

•
One would think that the hateful vandalism of 8 Jewish institutions and a mob screaming slurs after trashing Jewish businesses would lead to some sort of meaningful response.

•
But that would be the optimistic perspective of people who haven't experienced the unmitigated level of cowardice and appeasement that comprises Jewish institutional life at virtually every level.

•
The Rabbinical Council of America put out a press release describing Floyd's death as a "murder" while claiming to "stand together with all who fight racism, bigotry and hatred." Perhaps the RCA could also take a minute to stand with their Jewish brethren.

•
Major synagogues in the Los Angeles area have piously condemned racism, but not the hatred that defaced synagogues and schools.

•
Not only have Jewish organizations failed to call out the anti-Semitism of Black Lives Matter, they've effectively jumped on to its hateful cause. And they have maintained a hushed silence about the devastation wreaked on the Jewish community.

•
The same folks lecturing us on the dangers of remaining silent in the face of hate are silent when the hate is directed toward Jews.

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That is the sad legacy of American Jewish civil rights activism which fights anti-Semitism by joining together with anti-Semites to fight racism.

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Decency and self-respect alone compel us not to remain silent. And if we do remain silent, while chanting the cause of those who vandalized our houses of worship and shops, we will have neither decency nor respect.

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We will have become as contemptible in our own eyes as we already are in the eyes of the Black Lives Matters pogromists who did this knowing that there would be no response.

•
A Jewish organization or synagogue that takes a knee before brutal thugs and refuses to speak up when Jews are attacked is not worthy of claiming to speak for Jews.
Violent, armed looters overrun Santa Monica Music Center: 'They took everything from us, and...' (Fox 06/04/2020)
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... from every direction, there were hundreds of people barreling toward them in a scene she depicted as "pandemonium."

•
There were cars speeding up to the center – including brand new luxury Mercedes SUVs and Infiniti vehicles – with trunks popping open ready to be filled with loot, and while it was mostly young men, every ethnicity and age assaulted the building before her eyes.

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"I saw 16-year-old girls in designer clothes stealing, I saw a woman with a small child in the back drive up and push her 13-year-old son, who looked nervous, out of the car to go in and steal."

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"There were just so many groups of people there who had nothing to do with the George Floyd protests. Parents there stealing with their children."

•
Calling 911 proved to be futile. According to the frightened Music Center owner, they were informed that police could not get to the scene, and if they were registered gun owners, they could protect their private property.

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"There were gunshots fired, and those trying to help us had guns pulled on them. One of the guys got out of his car and looked at my friend's baseball bat and said, 'what the f*ck you going to do with that?' and pulled out his gun. Another friend had a gun put in his face and was called a f**got-ass b*tch."

•
Tons of bricks were also used to smash windows in and around the area.

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... bricks are typically placed underneath trash cans earlier in the day ahead of scheduled protests, and when the looters arrive, they know where they are and put them to use to terrorize.

•
In the end, and over the course of many hours, criminals had a field day taking dozens of cellos, trumpets, bases, amplifiers, speakers, and random merchandise...

•
But if that wasn't enough, the looters also went about destroying the cash registers, smashing display cases and busting up furniture.

•
"It wasn't just about taking the stuff. It was absolute anarchy."

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... the police still had not come to take a report. "They told me it would take two or three weeks. And I even have a cell phone here from one of the looters."

•
She also pointed out that cellos and other instruments they believe to belong to them have started cropping up on Craigslist.

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"I'm struggling, and I have a family to feed too, and we don't qualify for any help from the government."
Ted Cruz calls Drew Brees' anthem-kneeling apology 'sadly predictable,' rips pro sports (Fox 06/04/2020)
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"Sadly predictable. Pro sports have become PC speech police, terrified of offending the angry Left. Words you can no longer say in today's NFL: ‘I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...'"
Barr: Evidence shows foreign actors, Antifa trying to 'hijack' George Floyd protests (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
... the feds have seen signs of "very organized" coordination from "professional" agitators, some linked to Antifa.

•
Barr made it clear Thursday that there was a "witches brew" of extremists with varying ideologies, including anarchists and those seeking to incite a civil war.
Jim Jordan: Rod Rosenstein 'caved' to pressure from politicians and the media (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
"So, the top guy at the Justice Department is saying there wasn't anything there. But yet, he signed the FISA [and] named Bob Mueller as special counsel and broadened the scope of Mueller's investigation. For goodness sake, that's the main problem here."

•
"Remember what the town was like in 2017? Everyone in the press was clamoring for a special counsel: ‘We have got to do this.' All the Democrats were pushing for it. Sessions had recused himself because he was afraid. I think, in the end, Rod Rosenstein was afraid, he was nervous, and he just caved to the pressure."

•
"So, Rod Rosenstein did the easy thing. Instead of doing the tough thing and saying ‘I'm going to dig into this and figure out what actually happened,' he says ‘I'll just put it to Bob Mueller.'"

•
"And... the special counsel investigation then became the insurance policy. Because then they knew they had two years of this investigation, two years [further] out where they could cover up all the things that took place at the highest levels of the FBI."
Franklin Graham not offended by Trump’s Bible photo, slams other clergy (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
... Trump "made an important statement that what took place the night before in the burning, looting, and vandalism of the nation's capital — including this historic house of worship — mattered, and that the lawlessness had to end."

•
"I'm disappointed that some of the President's harshest critics about going to the church were clergy."

•
"They should be thanking him rather than criticizing him! They are nitpicking his gesture, also saying he should have prayed while he was there. So critical."

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"Well, maybe they should invite him back and pray for him as he leads this country through a very difficult time in our history."
Tom Cotton on liberals slamming NYT for printing his op-ed: This exposed hypocrisy of 'woke...' (Fox 06/04/2020)
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"I will commend The New York Times leadership. You know, we obviously don't agree on very much. But, in this case, they ran my opinion piece with which they disagreed. And, they've stood up to the 'woke progressive mob' in their own newsroom. So, I commend them for that."

•
Cotton's op-ed called on the president to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 in order to protect communities from "nihilist criminals" rioting after Floyd's death.

•
"These rioters, if not subdued, not only will destroy the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens but will also take more innocent lives."

•
"This venerable law, nearly as old as our republic itself, doesn't amount to 'martial law' or the end of democracy, as some excitable critics, ignorant of both the law and our history, have comically suggested."

•
"In fact, the federal government has a constitutional duty to the states to 'protect each of them from domestic violence.' Throughout our history, presidents have exercised this authority on dozens of occasions to protect law-abiding citizens from disorder."

•
"But, the bottom line is, on a four-to-one measure Americans support using the National Guard to put down riots and looters. By a two-to-one measure, they support using the active-duty troops if necessary."

•
"That's the simple case [that] I made in this op-ed. That there is both a legal basis and long historical precedent for using our National Guard and, if necessary, federal troops to put down domestic violence."

•
"And, in fact, it is the constitutional duty of the federal government to protect the states from this kind of insurrection violence."

•
"These woke progressives have not engaged with any of these arguments or these historic examples. They are simply throwing a temper tantrum."
Lindsey Graham fires back at Gen. Mattis: You're buying into an 'unfair' narrative (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
"It is so fashionable to blame President Trump for every wrong in America."

•
Graham said Mattis seems to be "missing that the liberal media has taken every event in the last three-and-a-half years and laid it at the president's feet."

•
"I admire his service to the nation, but the one thing I would tell Gen. Mattis is that you don't quite understand that from the time President Trump wakes up and goes to bed, there's an effort to destroy his presidency."

•
... New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo "should have called out the National Guard early on and I would ask Gen. Mattis to look at the behavior of the politicians in these cities and see if you can find fault with them."

•
... acknowledged that Trump "could be a handful" and could "do better," but added that "the problems we have in America today weren't caused by Donald Trump and hopefully he can help the nation heal some of these problems."
Antifa members talk eye gouging, 'destroying your enemy,' undercover video claims (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
"Practice things like an eye gouge, it takes very little pressure to injure someone's eyes."

•
"Consider, like, destroying your enemy, not, like, delivering a really awesome right hand, right eye, left eye blow, you know? It's not boxing, it's not kickboxing, it's, like, destroying your enemy."

•
... "left-wing media, liberal media, establishment media, legacy media, has many sympathies" with Antifa's goal.

•
"The superficial resistance against the Trump administration, against conservatism, against the GOP, they have that in common with them. Liberal ignorance of what and who Antifa actually are and their history."
Lindsey Graham says Rosenstein hearing showed 'fox was guarding the henhouse' in Mueller investigation (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
"The most stunning thing to me was the scope memo outlining what Mueller could do was prepared by the same people that defrauded the [FISA] court. ... The same people that lied to the court set up the Mueller investigation."

•
"It wasn't Rosenstein. It was the people who lied to the court and manipulated the evidence, set up the whole Mueller investigation."

•
"How is it possible the FBI and the Department of Justice defrauded the FISA court so many times and nobody knew about it?"
David Webb blasts Hollywood, Black Lives Matter's calls to defund police departments (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
"This past weekend in drive-by shootings over 80 Chicagoans shot — predominantly black. Who investigates those cases? In Philadelphia there is a 14-year-old girl, a young black girl missing. Who looks for her?"

•
"The police are there to protect the community. They are there to protect the community from rioters, from looters, not to protect the looters and the rioters from the community."

•
"We need law and order in this country. We need a structure that works."

•
"I hear the cries. I agree with the cries against police brutality. We all do. Americans [are] united on that."

•
"But, these Hollywood elites are just that. As a matter of fact, they are dangerous because others may think that what they suggest or say actually makes sense."

•
... Black Lives Matter, "a dangerous farce," is to blame for anti-police rhetoric and the deaths of those officers lost.

•
"There are dead cops in New York. There are injured cops all around this country because of Black Lives Matter, and that has taken us to where we are today."

•
"And, anyone pushing for that – again, to the American people, these are dangerous elitists who live in their bordered walls and homes where they don't have to deal with the things in society that you do."
'Guardian Angel' describes pitched battle with New York looters: 'We don't surrender or retreat' (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
Since 1979, when crime was at its pinnacle across New York City, Curtis Sliwa, 66, has led a group of volunteers known as the "Guardian Angels" in signature red jackets who roam lawless pockets and aid those in need.

•
That was around 8 p.m. ... and his team of six managed to force the young men to drop their loot, although they vowed to return.

•
Around two hours later, the cluster donning all black clothing and backpacks had gone from just a few to about 100.

•
"They tried to get in, but we were going to let them. I got hit. But we don't back down, and we don't surrender or retreat. We don't have guns or weapons, but we all have martial arts training, and we do get physical if we have too."

•
As the night progressed, the mayhem escalated. At about 10:45, the looters reappeared – and this time, they had tripled in size to some 300 – most of them armed with anything from hammers, lock cutters and claw hammers to baseball bats and machetes.

•
"They started swinging at us. But we were not going to let them get inside; we were slamming and jamming quite a few of them. They were throwing glass bottles filled with liquids, as well as bricks and rocks. It was quite the battle."

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... the veteran volunteer "angel" underscored that the recently passed bail reform in New York – which came in play at the beginning of 2020 and essentially means that those apprehended don't need to post bail – is contributing to the ongoing turmoil that has clenched the city for multiple consecutive nights.

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"It has almost become a badge of courage for (the looters). They get out in a few hours, and get to tell their friends they got written up. It's like earning their stripes."

•
In the early hours of Wednesday, Sliwa had to be treated for a linear fracture of the jaw at Bellevue Hospital, while fellow Guardian Angel Aram Sabet sustained a broken eye socket and broken nose and received 48 stitches.

•
"We train for these kinds of things; we won't fold. We are defiant. We want to make a difference in these neighborhoods."

•
"The pattern is that looters come out and join any existing demonstration towards the end, then they splinter off into packs."

•
"Some of them go off on scooters and scout the area; then they start flash-mobbing on their iPhones and quick messaging others and boom, they hit an area with as many people as possible and in full force."
2 NYPD cops shot, another stabbed during 'unprovoked' attack (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
... a male suspect walked up to the officers casually and whipped out the knife.

•
Several large marches in other parts of Brooklyn had continued after the curfew that authorities imposed to stop stores from being damaged and ransacked.

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... a shocking video posted on social media Tuesday showed a New York City police officer being struck by a vehicle in what appeared to be a deliberate hit-and-run. ... the officer was still in intensive care, "but recovering slowly."

•
"Are we surprised? Are we surprised we're here in the hospital again? Did we doubt because of the rhetoric we're hearing, the anti-police rhetoric that's storming our streets, are we surprised that we got this call? I'm not. We said it's going to happen."
Texas man with 'assault rifle' at George Floyd protest allegedly plotted 'to off racists and MAGA people' (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
... brought a loaded Smith & Wesson .223 semiautomatic to the protest...

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... refused to drop his weapon when ordered to by ... police officer — releasing his weapon only after the officer drew his gun.

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... allegedly yelled "this is a revolution" and "President Trump must die" before being taken into custody.

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... created social media posts intended to "intimidate" President Trump and "MAGA [Make America Great Again] instigators."

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"The FBI respects the rights of individuals to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights. In this case, the defendant threatened multiple lives including the President of the United States and that will not be tolerated."

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... told authorities he attended the protest to protect the demonstrators from "these so-called MAGA instigators, who he planned to shoot on sight," believing that the police officers would not have been able to identify MAGA protestors.
Bail reform laws let alleged criminals back on the streets within hours, threatening public security (Fox 06/04/2020)
•
Hundreds of looters and rioters arrested by the New York Police Department over the past several days have been immediately released due to the state's new bail-reform law that some say is turning the criminal justice process into a mockery and threatening public safety.

•
Frustrated law enforcement officials across the state say repeat offenders are getting bolder by the day and claim the state's policy gives lawbreakers the green light to commit crimes without consequences.

•
... the violence seen during the demonstrations in New York is the byproduct of the new law that requires defendants to be released without cash bail on a long list of misdemeanors and some felonies including arson and burglary.

•
"This has been put in motion by our politicians that have allowed the criminal element to feel as if there's no consequences for any crime that you do and now you've seen this coming out."

•
"...Now they go home and tell all their friends, 'Listen, I got out the next day and nothing's going to happen to me.'"

•
... it's likely that "99.9 percent" of the people who were arrested and released from jail because of the new law have gone right back to looting.
Americans are being subjected to an orgy of disinformation (American Thinker 06/03/2020)
McCabe accuses Rosenstein of giving ‘false’ testimony on Comey memos (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"Mr. Rosenstein approved of, and suggested ways to enhance, our investigation of the President."

•
"Further, I personally briefed Mr. Rosenstein on Jim Comey's memos describing his interactions with the President mere days after Mr. Rosenstein wrote the memo firing Jim Comey."

•
"Mr. Rosenstein's testimony is completely at odds with the factual record. It looks to be yet another sad attempt by the President and his men to rewrite the history of their actions in 2017. They have found in Mr. Rosenstein – then and now – a willing accessory in that effort."

•
"That's the kind of thing I needed to know," Rosenstein said. "I haven't accused him of making misstatements to me. I have accused him of not being fully forthcoming."

•
"I had a right to know the deliberations inside the FBI, because McCabe knew I had just come into this job, I didn't know what they were investigating except what he told me," Rosenstein said, adding that he "didn't have the underlying evidence."
Trump says he went to White House bunker for 'inspection,' hits back at criticism of church visit (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"Well, it was a false report. I wasn't [there]. I went down during the day and I was there for a tiny little short period of time and it was much more for an inspection."

•
"... They burned down the church the day before. I heard how nice and wonderful the protesters were over there. Really? Then why did they burn down the church the day before?"
Bill Bennett fires back at Mattis over criticism of Trump, says 'we need to get a hold of' urban riots (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
Bennett said the problem in America is not "systemic" racism, but "individual" racism, adding that the idea of systemic racism " is a big lie because we refuse to talk about the things that are real, like family formation, non-family formation, the fact that there is more crime in the city.

•
"But, you know, [Barack] Obama had eight years ... and he had Democrats in charge for it for a lot of that. You know what happened then? Not much."
NY Times writers in 'open revolt' after publication of Cotton op-ed, claim black staff 'in danger' (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"His piece was inflammatory and endorsing military occupation as if the constitution doesn't exist."

•
Cotton's op-ed called on the president to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 in order to protect communities from "nihilist criminals" rioting after George Floyd's death.

•
"These rioters, if not subdued, not only will destroy the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens but will also take more innocent lives."

•
"Many poor communities that still bear scars from past upheavals will be set back still further. One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers."

•
"This venerable law, nearly as old as our republic itself, doesn't amount to 'martial law' or the end of democracy, as some excitable critics, ignorant of both the law and our history, have comically suggested."

•
"In fact, the federal government has a constitutional duty to the states to 'protect each of them from domestic violence.' Throughout our history, presidents have exercised this authority on dozens of occasions to protect law-abiding citizens from disorder."
Conservative activist turns tables on Dems over claims of voter suppression (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"If you want to be sure your vote is counted, the best way to do it is to show up and vote."

•
"And to hear inflammatory rhetoric that you're choosing your life over your vote is just not appropriate and it causes people to be nervous about voting. That is as suppressive as anything I've heard, telling people they're going to die or likely to die if they vote."

•
"We can see that people will exercise their First Amendment rights if they think it's important; voting's important, and they will vote in person," he claimed.

•
"And they should be able to vote in person without being scared to death about doing it."
Ex-Joint Chiefs chair 'sickened' by action against DC protesters, says not 'appropriate' to call in... (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel — including members of the National Guard — forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the president's visit outside St. John's Church," wrote Mullen, who served as America's highest-ranking military officer from October 2007 through September 2011.

•
"I am not convinced that the conditions on our streets, as bad as they are, have risen to the level that justifies a heavy reliance on military troops."

•
"Certainly, we have not crossed the threshold that would make it appropriate to invoke the provisions of the Insurrection Act."

•
"Furthermore, I am deeply worried that as they execute their orders, the members of our military will be co-opted for political purposes. Even in the midst of the carnage we are witnessing, we must endeavor to see American cities and towns as our homes and our neighborhoods. They are not 'battle spaces' to be dominated, and must never become so."

•
Trump has repeatedly criticized governors for not doing enough in response to rioting and looting. ... he described many governors as weak and ordered them to "dominate" the situations in their states.

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... the U.S. Park Police released a statement claiming the protesters were committing acts of violence when they were cleared out Monday night.

•
"... At approximately 6:33 pm, violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids. The protestors also climbed onto a historic building at the north end of Lafayette Park that was destroyed by arson days prior."

•
"Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street.To curtail the violence that was underway, the USPP, following established policy, issued three warnings over a loudspeaker to alert demonstrators on H Street to evacuate the area. Horse mounted patrol, Civil Disturbance Units and additional personnel were used to clear the area. As many of the protestors became more combative, continued to throw projectiles, and attempted to grab officers' weapons, officers then employed the use of smoke canisters and pepper balls. No tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners to close the area at Lafayette Park. Subsequently, the fence was installed."
Hawley rips Rosenstein over conduct of Mueller probe: 'Wasn't really serious about getting the facts' (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"I think that Rod Rosenstein admitted that he signed this warrant to a secret court, the FISA court, for a wiretap, and he admitted that he didn't even read the warrant application."

•
"This was a warrant involving the president of the United States, an ongoing investigation of the president of the United States and he didn't even read it ..."

•
"He acted like he wasn't responsible and, you know, that it was somebody else's responsibility to verify these facts. He, they misled the court so badly ... that the court on its own issued a statement that said that, 'We can't trust anything that the FBI gives us in any other case because we have been so badly lied to.' Somebody has to be responsible here."

•
Rosenstein's testimony "tells you that he he wasn't serious about doing his job. I mean, he was the acting attorney general at the time because Jeff Sessions had recused himself. He was the point person on this investigation, and it's his signature on the paper."

•
"He certainly wasn't serious about policing the FBI underneath him who were on this crusade, a handful of agents on this crusade against the president."

•
"Rod Rosenstein submitted to the court materially false statements that led the court to say they probably shouldn't have issued these warrants. I mean, it's just absolutely unbelievable. There has got to be accountability and there has got to be change."
Acting DHS Secretary Wolf responds to Mattis blast against Trump, says president has 'taken the right...' (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"Well, I think if you look at the remarks that the president made, whether he made it down in Florida shortly after the [SpaceX] launch, made in the Rose Garden, made it a couple of different places. I think his language had been very specific regarding the tragic events in Minneapolis [and] what he thinks about that."

•
"But he's also been very clear about law and order, the rule of law and needing to establish that."

•
"So I know the media likes to focus on some harsh words and some direct words that can be delivered at times and I think that's needed at times. But I encourage the American people and really everyone to look at his comments as a whole. And I think you will see that they have been balanced and he has taken the right tone regarding the events in Minneapolis, but [also] making sure he's going to stand up for law and order."

•
"He's going to stand up for the law enforcement officials that are being targeted over the last several days. And I think that's the right approach."

•
"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try," Mattis said.

•
"Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."

•
"I think what we've seen over the last three, four or five days is unfortunate. Obviously, the American people are very outraged over the death of George Floyd. It's legitimate, it's right to be concerned and push for reform in that system."

•
"But I think we do need to do that to make sure that we don't do that in a violent way. And what we've seen at the department is we see a lot of these nonviolent protests, we see violent protesters taking part of that ... and that's really where we have cause and concern."
Creating Chaos: How Antifa and other extremists drive discord online (Fox 06/03/2020)
Missouri AG says all St. Louis suspects arrested for looting, rioting have been released: 'Stunning...' (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"In a stunning development, our office has learned that every single one of the St. Louis looters and rioters arrested were released back onto the streets by local prosecutor Kim Gardner."

•
"To see that kind of level of violence and rioting that went on, police officers being shot and shot at, a retired police captain being murdered, people throwing rocks and gasoline and frozen water bottles at police officers, firefighters being assaulted and blocked from doing their job, businesses that have served the community for years being burned to the ground, it's unfathomable that every single person arrested that night has been released."
Feds investigating whether criminal actors exerting 'command and control' over unrest as bricks thrown... (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
... some of plastic bottles that have been thrown at police are often filled with cement.

•
He also described multiple incidents of Molotov cocktails thrown at buildings with people inside.

•
He also described how two sites were found in Brooklyn and Queens where pre-staged bricks were placed and transported to protests.

•
In Tampa, there were reports that members of the bomb team found mortars in bushes downtown, and bricks and other items were hidden in trash cans to throw at police officers.

•
In Seattle, a video out up online by an anarchist shows that around midnight, a crowd of 100-150 nearly all-white agitators with umbrellas started throwing bottles at police.

•
... people can be arrested for "rioting" but the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington did not actually charge anyone with rioting.

•
Washington, D.C., there have also been "significant injuries" to several federal law enforcement officers since the weekend, including over 50 Park Police officers and more than 30 Secret Service agents, according to federal law enforcement officials.

•
Most of these officers and agents were struck in the head with projectiles, including rocks and bricks, several have been hospitalized.
Cruz slams Rosenstein on Russia probe, says he was 'complicit' or 'grossly negligent’ (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"You came into a profoundly politicized world and yet, all of this was allowed to go forward under your leadership."

•
"That, unfortunately, leads to only two possible conclusions — either you were complicit in the wrongdoing, which I don't believe was the case, or that your performance of your duties was grossly negligent."

•
Rosenstein repeatedly claimed Wednesday to be unaware of details that have since been used by critics to raise questions about the probe.

•
... committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Rosenstein Wednesday: "If you knew then what you know now, would you have signed the warrant application?" "No, I would not," Rosenstein said.

•
Graham also prompted Rosenstein to acknowledge there was scant collusion evidence in August 2017.

•
"The whole concept that the campaign was colluding with the Russians, there was no there there in August 2017. Do you agree with that statement?" Rosenstein replied: "I agree with that general statement."

•
August 2017 is when Rosenstein penned the "scope memo" for Mueller's investigation, which outlined the authority of Mueller.

•
Last month, the memo was released in full, and revealed for the first time that Mueller's authority went significantly beyond what was previously known.
Rosenstein denies he suggested wearing wire, invoking 25th Amendment against Trump (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"I did not suggest or hint at secretly recording President Trump. I have never in any way suggested that the president should be removed from office under the 25th Amendment."

•
Rosenstein, during the meeting, reportedly told McCabe that he might be able to persuade then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to begin proceedings to invoke the 25th Amendment.

•
The 25th Amendment includes a section allowing the vice president and a majority of cabinet members to declare a president "unable" to perform the job.

•
"The deputy attorney general never authorized any recording that Mr. McCabe references. As the deputy attorney general previously has stated, based on his personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment, nor was the DAG in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment."
NYPD union says feud between Cuomo, de Blasio 'putting police officers in danger' (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"Rank-and-file New York City police officers were out on the street last night doing our job. Tonight, we'll go out and do it again."

•
"It's not our fault that our city and state governments can't plan and work together, but we are suffering the consequences."

•
"Police officers are being run down, knocked down and almost shot on a nightly basis. The political tug of war between Albany and City Hall needs to stop, because it is putting police officers in danger."
Mike Huckabee rips Mayor de Blasio for comments about National Guard: 'His ignorance is...' (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
... it was wrong for de Blasio to claim the National Guard is not trained to help police quell violence.

•
"Yes, they are. That is exactly what they are trained for. ... His ignorance of that is stunning to me."

•
... the "ultimate governance of the United States is not the federal, state, and local level institutions, it is self-governance."
Police union boss says 'NYPD is losing the city of New York,' begs Cuomo, Trump to send... (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"NYPD is losing the city of New York and we have no leadership in the city of New York right now, from City Hall to the brass of the NYPD."

•
"The men and women are being pelted with rocks, bricks, cars [are] lit on fire. And this is continuous. We have a curfew that's been implemented tonight at eight o'clock and everyone is still out rioting in the streets in New York."

•
"President Trump is watching it. I am asking the president to please, please immediately send federal personnel to New York City and monitor what is going on."

•
"If Governor Cuomo does not implement the National Guard immediately, then the federal government is going to have to step in."

•
"Our hands are being tied. The rank and file members of all ranks have sent me numerous emails, letters, text messages, photos of New York City ... being destroyed. We have no leadership coming from City Hall. We are being told to stand down."

•
"We have a city that is being destroyed. The public that lives there is in fear for their own lives. I'm receiving videos, photographs, license plates of looters from citizens of the city of New York while cops are being pelted."

•
"Mayor de Blasio is not allowing the NYPD to do their job. The commissioner, the chiefs of the NYPD are too afraid to let the men and women keep control of the city. History has shown that you must enforce the laws."
Former NYC police officers say new bail reform law is 'wonderful' for looters (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
... the NYPD arrested more than 700 rioters over the past two days, "but they won't be staying behind bars for long" because most are being released without bail due to the city's recent bail reform law.

•
... how many of those people arrested "went out and went back to looting and then wound up getting rearrested?" "Probably 99.99 percent."

•
Under the new law, courts are now prohibited from setting any monetary bail or keeping defendants in custody before trial in almost every type of misdemeanor case, and for a long list of felonies as well.
New York assemblywoman: 'Absolutely outrageous' how NYC Dems are handling criminals (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"And, to be honest, this has just added on to all the bad, lousy pieces of legislation that these very members passed that strip the powers from the NYPD to be able to do their jobs and make it more difficult."

•
"They have created a sense of anarchy here where people feel that they can get away with it and, quite frankly, they are."

•
A controversial New York State law passed earlier this year ensures that many of the hundreds arrested during widespread looting will be cut loose without bail.

•
"Well, the thing is that the state legislators, as well as our federal representatives, you know, they are all saying the same thing. They all stay quiet when the governor's parole board releases our cop killers. They're all pushing to release criminals over the age of 50, even if they have been convicted of murder and rape. It's completely outrageous what's happening."

•
"And, the fact that you have the elected officials [who] are almost encouraging these criminal acts because...'Hey, if you get arrested, we'll come bail you out...As a New Yorker my whole life, it's horrible to see my city being under destruction right now because the elected officials are allowing it to happen."

•
See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Minnesota newspaper lists over 360 local businesses destroyed by riots (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"Some have been reduced to rubble, and at least 66 have been destroyed completely by fire. Others have reported extensive water damage or severe fire damage."
Liz Peek: George Floyd rioting – Biden doesn't get it. It's the safety, stupid (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
President Trump has promised to quell the violent attack on our country, and said: "Where there is no safety, there is no future." He is correct.

•
Never before in our country's history have our elected officials – officials who have taken an oath to uphold our laws and pledged to keep us safe – stood aside and let rioters destroy our communities.

•
... the tragedy is not that luxury stores on Rodeo Drive or Madison Avenue are being vandalized and Louis Vuitton handbags carried off by greedy criminals, though those acts are despicable.

•
The tragedy is that poor black neighborhoods, already ravaged by COVID-19, have been ransacked, destroying stores, livelihoods and dreams.

•
The former can and will be rebuilt; the latter may never recover.

•
Nobody will invest in neighborhoods, or cities for that matter, unless local authorities can guarantee protection from the kind of wanton destruction we have seen in recent days. And people will not move into those areas unless they feel safe.

•
The hardship will not be evenly distributed. Most likely, the prosperous sections of Manhattan and Beverly Hills will be cleaned up within months.

•
But minority communities in Minneapolis or Los Angeles may never fully recover, and especially if the Democrat leaders in those cities continue to dumb down law enforcement and refuse to guarantee safety.

•
If elected, Biden would not help create the environment where small firms can flourish and opportunity can grow. Joe Biden would be exactly the wrong person at the helm.

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Lara Logan details evidence rioters have 'well-developed political agenda and they're carrying it out' (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"There are numerous incidents and mounting evidence of anarchist involvement in these protests. They are not just exploiting and hijacking it but coordinating it and escalating it."

•
"What's interesting about what they do is they intercept police communications. They monitor police traffic. They use secure communications."

•
"They know where the police are going to go and they know how to stop law enforcement responding to these incidents. And all of that is about escalation."

•
"They are operating always with the ... same tactics, they happen be on every single street in every single city ... they are using the same messaging everywhere."

•
".... And the kind of equipment they are using? This is not some emotional outpouring, these are people who have a very well developed political agenda and they are carrying it out."
Zuckerberg defiant in tense session with employees over Trump posts, report says (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
Despite public rebukes from several of his employees, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted calls to label posts from President Trump with a warning sign in a similar manner to what Twitter did last month.
DC bishop under fire for ‘partisan attack’ of Trump’s visit to Catholic shrine (Fox 06/03/2020)
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"It is regrettable that the Archbishop of Washington chose this occasion to engage in a partisan attack on the President, especially when the country is in desperate need of healing and unity."

•
"The protection of religious minorities is a bipartisan issue that has enjoyed unanimous support in Congress as well as the Trump and Obama administrations."

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"Today's unfortunate partisan attack needlessly politicizes this important issue, and distracts from the plight of vulnerable religious minorities around the world."

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... the shrine released a statement calling the visit "fitting given St. John Paul II was a tireless advocate of religious liberty" and noting that "international religious liberty receives widespread bipartisan support," adding "the shrine welcomes all people to come and pray and learn about the legacy of St. John Paul II."
Rod Rosenstein testifies in Senate – should come clean about FISA abuses targeting me and... (Fox 06/03/2020)
Ian Prior: Rod Rosenstein likely to get hostile reception in Senate testimony on origins of Mueller... (Fox 06/03/2020)
NY Gov. Cuomo apologizes to NYPD brass over riot response (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"We've gotten intel from people, we've got various different groups of anarchists that have been out trying to push their agenda out there, to hijack the movement, to cause nothing but chaos and mayhem and destructing the city and just to attack police officers."

•
"That's not what this is about. This is about people protesting something that they found unjustified, that was unjustified in Minnesota, to get their voice out. But this not and should never have been an attack on police officers. There is not a police officer in this country that doesn't condemn what happened in Minnesota and we don't need to be targeted throughout this country for the actions of someone in Minnesota."
De Blasio calls on Cuomo to apologize to NYPD as petty feud continues despite riots (Fox 06/03/2020)
•
"He dishonored the men and women of the NYPD in an absolutely inappropriate way for any leader to do."

•
"Any elected official who blames the NYPD while they were out there fighting in the streets to restore order, protect people – that's disgraceful."

•
"He owes an apology to 36,000 hardworking men and women who have been putting their lives on the line for all of us."

•
"The de Blasio-Cuomo problem is a special problem," Giuliani said.

•
"They hate each other. And frankly, de Blasio is completely incompetent. And the governor, really in good conscience, should replace him because he's the sole reason why the New York City Police Department isn't acting."

•
"And it really wasn't fair of the governor, who attacked the police department. He should have attacked de Blasio."
Las Vegas police officer in 'grave condition' after being shot in head; suspect arrested (Fox 06/03/2020)
Bill Bennett reacts to Trump law and order vow: 'This is an insurrection ... and it needs to be...' (Fox 06/02/2020)
Dana Perino says Trump's visit to St. John's Church was a good idea, but 'not executed well' (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
"I don't think that people intended to use it as a photo op. I believe that the president was trying to show resilience, that America is not going to be taken over by people who would actually set fire to St. John's."

•
"... The execution of all of that became the story today when we should really ... talk about the actual horrible destruction of America's great cities, especially New York City."

•
"They've shown no ability to be trusted at this point, killing cops now, punching people in the face for no reason. They're trying to protest violence against an innocent man, and yet they're committing violence on innocent men and women. It's disgusting. This country has had enough of it."

•
"And this fake scandal is just another frame job of the president while the rest of the country agrees with everything he did."

•
"There's this myth that that anger is driving this. There was no anger on the faces of the looters in my neighborhood on Sunday night. They were having a blast. And the unspoken truth about all of this is that it's fun."

•
"You're going out in an organized fashion. You're beating the crap out of people. You're taking stuff."
Antifa arrests coming, concerns over riots heading to suburbia, government source says (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
Much of the worry stems from the notion that many in well-armed, suburban, and rural neighborhoods won't hesitate to exercise their Second Amendment rights and elevated anxieties could lead to heavy confrontation.
Former NYPD detective rips 'coward' de Blasio: 'Time for handcuffs, not empty rhetoric' (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
"America [is] burning. The time now is for handcuffs, not rhetoric."

•
"Let's talk about the power of words. We are talking about community discussions with the mayor and discussions that somehow or other will sway the wilding criminal mobs that are lighting America on fire. The reality is, it's past that. That is behind us now."
Trump signs executive order on religious freedom, as DC archbishop slams Trump visit to Catholic... (Fox 06/02/2020)
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"This executive order fully integrates the president's vision – a vigorous defense of international religious freedom rights for all – into key aspects of United States foreign policy."

•
"Yet again, President Trump is taking a decisive action to keep his promise to people of faith around the world."

•
Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory delivered a scathing condemnation of the president's visit, saying he opposed letting the president visit the site.

•
"I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree."

•
"Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings. His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace."

•
On Monday night, the president visited St. John's, holding up a Bible and posing for a photo outside the church which caught fire Sunday night.

•
Prior to his visit — and a mandated curfew in the city — law enforcement took steps to move protesters out of Lafayette Park.

•
"Let me be clear. The president just used a Bible in a sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our churches stand for."

•
"And to do so, as you just said, he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church guard. I am outraged."

•
... the U.S. Park Police told WTOP protesters were pushed back because some were attacking police officers — not to clear the way for Trump.

•
"A source says tear gas was never used — instead smoke cannisters were deployed, which don't have an uncomfortable irritant in them."
Cuomo slams de Blasio's handling of riots, claims he has power to ‘displace’ mayor but not ‘at that...’ (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
"You have 38,000 NYPD people, it is the largest police department in the United States of America."

•
"Use 38,000 people and protect property. Use the police, protect property and people. Look at the videos, it was a disgrace."

•
In an extraordinary statement, he went on to say his "option is to displace the mayor ... bring in the National Guard" and essentially "take over." However, he said, "I don't think we're at that point."

•
"That would be such a chaotic situation in the midst of an already chaotic situation. I don't think that makes any sense."

•
"New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum. The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard," Trump tweeted. "NYC was ripped to pieces."
South Philly gunstore owner guarding shop overnight shoots, kills armed looter: report (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
... he saw a group of looters on his surveillance video breaking a padlock on his gate using bolt cutters and descending on his shop in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

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... then confronted the thieves, and one — in a group of what he says consisted of 3 or 4 people — pointed a gun at him.

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... fatally shot the gun-wielding robber using an AR-15 and the alleged thief died on the scene. The owner likely injured a second suspect in the shoulder.

•
The rest of the thieves fled, but a local hospital informed police that a man was being treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder, and police suspect he may have been involved in the botched heist.

•
The owner suspects that on the previous night, looters attempted to break in through a back door of the shop, ramming and beating at a steel door that showed signs of battering, and even marks that a crowbar was used to pry it open — to no avail.
We're witnessing the 'essence of tyranny' as 'cowardly' city leaders refuse to crack down on riots (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
"It's a very loosely affiliated group of anarchists and radicals who take advantage of large crowd scenes in order to generate violence against police."

•
"They've been doing this for years and anybody who mentioned this was deemed to be not serious about other problems in the United States."

•
"It is the essence of tyranny to see what we are seeing right now in L.A. or New York [where] the law-abiding are locked in their homes at sunset and rioting and looting are allowed to rage out of control because political actors are too cowardly to actually do anything to uphold the first mandate of government to protect your life, liberty, and property."

•
"I mean, to pretend that all of this is happening in a vacuum or that the constant flame-throwing by members of the media, the attempt to paint all of America as racist and evil and on the side of the killer of George Floyd: all of this has some very real consequences."
Trump rips ‘Cuomo Brothers,’ says New York ‘was lost to the looters’ (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
"New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum. The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces."
Judge Napolitano slams NJ gov for backing protests amid coronavirus restrictions: He... (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
... for backing protests over the death of George Floyd after cracking down on businesses that tried to open in defiance of stay-at-home orders, arguing it shows that he "simply misunderstands the First Amendment."
Former Antifa member bashes radical group as fighting for nothing but 'failed leftist socialist...' (Fox 06/02/2020)
•
"I think it has to do with the fact that so many college administrators and college campuses ... allow Antifa to work under their noses."

•
"[Campus Reform] reported on a story from the University of Florida [this past fall]. It was an Antifa group openly recruiting in broad daylight."

•
"Let me just say this very clear. We don't allow ISIS to recruit on college campuses and we should not allow Antifa to do that either."

•
"Antifa pretends to be about fighting fascism, but then they define fascism as basically anything that does not conform with their radical leftist agenda; which goes back to exactly what President Trump is doing."

•
"I'm incredibly happy that he's finally declared Antifa a domestic terrorist organization because that really helps fight against this false narrative that Antifa is fighting anything but for their failed leftist socialist ideology."

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump vows to mobilize federal resources in address to nation, makes surprise trip to church that... (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
President Trump said during a statement in the Rose Garden on Monday that he is taking "immediate action" to mobilize "all available federal resources" to stop riots and looting across the country, threatening to deploy the military if states don't send in the National Guard to protests.

•
Immediately following the speech, in an extraordinary scene, the president and his entourage walked outside of the White House, across Lafayette Square, to St. Johns Episcopal Church, which caught on fire during the protests the night before.

•
"I have recommended every governor deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers to dominate the streets. We are ending riots and lawlessness, we will end it today."

•
Trump said he is dispatching "thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers and military personnel" to stop the rioting.

•
"I want organizers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties."

•
"We cannot allow the righteous cries of peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob. The biggest victims of this rioting are peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities."
Judge's lawyers hint at 'reason to question' DOJ's motives in new Michael Flynn case filing; DOJ... (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
"Under Articles II and III of the Constitution, the power to prosecute belongs to the Executive, not the Judiciary."

•
"Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48, read against the backdrop of that constitutional principle, required the district court to grant the government's motion to dismiss the indictment with prejudice because that motion was unopposed."

•
"That language does not authorize a court to stand in the way of a dismissal the defendant does not oppose, and any other reading of the Rule would violate both Article II and Article III."

•
"Nor, under the circumstances of this case, may the district court assume the role of prosecutor and initiate criminal charges of its own."

•
"The district court plans to subject the Executive's enforcement decision to extensive judicial inquiry, scrutiny, oversight, and involvement. Under the Supreme Court's and this Court's precedents, it is clear and indisputable that the district court has no authority to embark on that course."

•
The DOJ went on to warn that Sullivan and his appointed amicus "may not conduct evidentiary proceedings based on speculation about the government's motives."
Trump unloads on governors over protest response, calls them 'weak' (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
"Most of you are weak," Trump said. "You have to arrest people."

•
"You have to dominate, if you don't dominate you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you, you're going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate."

•
"You've got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you'll never see this stuff again."

•
"We're doing it in Washington, D.C. We're going to do something that people haven't seen before."

•
He urged cities like New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles to take similar measures.

•
The president urged governors to call up the National Guard, crediting them for helping deescalate the situation in Minneapolis.

•
He told the governors they were making themselves "look like fools" for not calling up more of the National Guard as a show for force on city streets.

•
Attorney General Bill Barr, who was also on the call, told governors a joint terrorist task force would to track the agitators.

•
He told local officials to "dominate" the streets and not react to crowds but "go after troublemakers."

•
The president's fiery demands follow five straight days of protests, some of which turned to riots and looting to leave entire city blocks in ruin.

•
On Friday night Secret Service rushed Trump to an underground bunker as protesters pressed toward the White House.

•
As of Monday morning, at least 4,400 people have been taken into custody nationwide in relation to the chaos.

•
Meanwhile, countless more business owners whose livelihoods already have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic are finding their stores damaged and ransacked.

•
"Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!"

•
"SO TERRIBLE! Where are the arrests and LONG TERM jail sentences?" Trump asked in reaction to a tweet claiming to show a graphic video of a Dallas man being beaten into critical condition while trying to defend a business.
Rep. Michael Waltz calls for mayors, local lawmakers to get tough on looters and Antifa (Fox 06/01/2020)
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"These mayors and these local elected leaders need to start getting tough and drawing the distinction between peaceful protests. and looting and rioting and punks like what we're seeing with Antifa and, I think, that is what the country is calling for and we had a situation last night when the mayor of D.C. didn't put a curfew in until 11 p.m."

•
Walz, a Green Beret and veteran of the Afghanistan War, added that the area around the White House "looks like a war zone ... I fought all over the world. It looks like some of the war zones I have been in."

•
... suggested that local elected leaders are "telling the police to let the rioters vent their rage."

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"The National Guard is there in support of that and following that guidance. I don't think that's what America wants to see anymore: burning police cars, burning churches, destroying businesses that have already suffered from COVID. That is not what this country is all about, that is not peaceful protest."

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... added that the federal government and the FBI should be focused on "taking down Antifa."
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio stands by daughter after protest arrest, disputes media reports (Fox 06/01/2020)
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"How can the NYPD protect the city of NY from rioting anarchist when the Mayors object throwing daughter is one of them."

•
"Now we know why he is forbidding Mounted units to be mobilized and keeping the NYPD from doing their jobs."
Judge Napolitano: Police face an increasingly 'nightmarish' situation as protests turn violent (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
"It's a nightmare for the police because the police, under the First Amendment, that jurisprudence which guarantees the right to assemble peacefully, the police have the obligation to protect those who do the assembling."

•
"First, the police are going to protect themselves and then they are going to protect those who are lawfully there, which includes our colleagues in the media and those who are not bent on violence."

•
... getting evidence against the people engaged in violence at protests is the most important task for officers.

•
"We don't have group guilt or group prosecutions in America. We only have individual prosecutions so they may get somebody who threw a Molotov cocktail out of the group and in a police van. But if they don't have evidence that he actually did it, he's not going to be prosecuted and he's going to be let go within 24 or 48 hours, only to come back to the spot where all this started."
White House press secretary pushes back on calls for Trump to address nation amid riots, protests (Fox 06/01/2020)
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"A national Oval Office address is not going to stop Antifa. What's going to stop is action. And this president is committed to acting on this."
Tom Cotton says looting, anarchy can't be tolerated: 'It must end tonight' (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
"If local law enforcement is overwhelmed, if local politicians will not do their most basic job to protect our citizens, let's see how these anarchists respond to the 101st Airborne that is on the other side of the street."
Mass protests ‘ripped the mask off’ liberal media’s politicized coronavirus coverage, critics say (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
"The riots have ripped the mask off the mainstream media politicized coronavirus hysteria. When it was politically convenient, the media shamed and attacked people who wanted to reopen their stores or even gather at the beach."

•
"Now that rioters and looters are gathering in large numbers, the media no longer cares about social distancing, because the media sympathizes with them."

•
"Their dropping of mask shaming, social distancing and coronavirus fears as soon as the riots began shows that they have a left-leaning agenda."

•
"They've moved on from the virus because to keep reporting with the same vigor means they'd have to call out Black Lives Matter protesters and their psychopathic Antifa brethren. And that's just not done in the lefty confines of victim-oriented journalism."

•
"It turns out the media actually don't give a damn about coronavirus — when leftists are ignoring the rules."
What is Antifa, the far-left group tied to violent protests? (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
Antifa, the far-left militant movement that calls itself "antifascist," has no defined organizational hierarchy or membership process.

•
The collection of autonomous Antifa groups in mostly left-wing cities sees itself as a descendant of the European anti-Nazi movements, and generally agree that the best way to combat ideas they find odious is not through speech or debate but by direct action and physical confrontation.

•
The first modern Antifa group traces its roots back to Portland, Ore., in 2007, and more than a decade later that city has proven a hotbed for many Antifa members' preferred activities: threatening and violently assaulting journalists, declaring that all police officers should be killed or at least fired, wearing dark clothing and ski masks that sometimes obscure their artificially colored hair, and even engaging in performative clashes with right-wing groups to dull the monotony of typical suburban life.

•
... Antifa has remained one of the most visible and violent left-wing groups in the United States.

•
In May 2020, Trump said the U.S. would indeed designate Antifa a "terrorist organization," after a rash of violent protests following the in-custody death of George Floyd. The move gives authorities more tools to track and prosecute criminal members of Antifa.

•
"It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay the blame on others!" Trump tweeted.

•
... in late May, Twitter suspended the major Antifa-affiliated U.S. account.

•
The suspension came after Antifa urged members to go into "white hoods" and "take what's ours."

•
... Trump's efforts to consider Antifa a terror group "will provide a framework for local authorities and, especially, federal authorities to start investigating this criminal cartel for the street thugs that they are."

•
"In addition to the street hooliganism that we see over and over on the streets of America, this movement also has a political ideology that is agitating for a violent political revolution."

•
"... Antifa is spreading from the West Coast, where it started, to different cities. Their intimidating tactics should be stopped where they are and not allowed to spread."
Secret Service agents wounded outside White House, car bombs feared; official says Trump was... (Fox 06/01/2020)
•
More than 50 Secret Service agents were injured, fires set by rioters blazed near the White House and authorities were searching for car bombs late Sunday...

•
... some of whom were hurt by rioters throwing bottles and Molotov cocktails in Lafayette Park, just across from the presidential residence.

•
... groups in D.C. are planting cars filled with incendiary materials for future use...

•
Lights that normally illuminate the exterior of the White House were disabled early Monday morning, reportedly so that the Secret Service could use night-vision equipment to monitor protesters.

•
Additionally, the entire Washington, D.C. National Guard was being called in to help with the response to protests outside the White House and elsewhere in the nation's capital.

•
As authorities clashed with demonstrators for the third straight night, the parish house connected to the historic St. John's Episcopal Church across the street from the White House was set on fire late Sunday.

•
The church says every president beginning with James Madison, "until the present," has attended a service at the church, giving it the nickname, "the church of presidents."

•
The first services at the church were held in 1816, according to its website.

•
Protesters piled up road signs and plastic barriers and lit a raging fire in the middle of H Street. Some pulled an American flag from a nearby building and threw it into the blaze.

•
Separately on Sunday, Twitter suspended the account of Antifa, the left-wing group that Trump branded a terrorist organization earlier in the day.

•
The suspension came after Antifa urged members to go into "white hoods" and "take what's ours."

•
The developments came as it emerged that the Secret Service took President Trump to the White House's underground bunker on Friday night, when protests outside the complex intensified.

•
Protesters in Philadelphia hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, officials said, while masked crowds broke into upscale stores in a San Francisco suburb, fleeing with bags of merchandise.

•
In Austin, Texas, video showed protesters appearing to cheer as a homeless man's belongings were set on fire.

•
Looting was rampant in California, even in the well-to-do Bay Area suburb of Walnut Creek. In one bizarre episode caught on tape, looters there appeared to loot other looters.

•
In Brooklyn, two attorneys, including a New York University School of Law graduate, were charged with throwing a Molotov cocktail at an NYPD cruiser.

•
In Denver ... Dozens of demonstrators, some throwing fireworks, taunted police and pushed dumpsters onto Colfax Avenue, a major artery.

•
At least 4,100 people have been arrested over days of protests, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press. Arrests ranged from looting and blocking highways to breaking curfew.

•
Around the time Trump headed to the safety Friday night, multiple agents were being "assaulted with bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks and other items" — injuring a number of uniformed division officers and special agents.

•
The Secret Service tweeted late Sunday: "In an effort to ensure public safety, pedestrians and motorists are encouraged to avoid streets and parks near the White House complex."

•
Protesters threw water bottles, traffic cones, scooters, even tear gas cans at police lines. They set fire to a car and a trash bin and smashed windows, including at Bay Atlantic University.

•
An American flag hanging at the Export-Import Bank was taken down, burned and replaced with a Black Lives Matter banner.

•
"I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace, and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace," the president said after watching the launch of a SpaceX rocket.

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"Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the missions at hand."

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Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Saturday called the protesters "criminals" who committed "acts of violence while hiding behind their First Amendment right of lawful protest."
Giuliani claims riots were 'impossible' when he was NYC mayor, slams 'incapable' Dem leaders (Fox 06/01/2020)
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"Now with 7 days of Mob rule of cities with mostly DEMOCRAT MAYORS, it is obvious that these Mayors are incapable of protecting their citizens."

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"They enable the rioters by abandoning police precincts for burning and ordering police to stand down and be assaulted without arrest."
Marsha Blackburn warns George Floyd rioters trying to 'burn down America': Expect FBI to... (Fox 05/31/2020)
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"The Department of Justice, your state bureaus of investigation, they're going to figure out who is behind all of this."

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"These people tried to go out the last couple of nights and burn down America, and I will tell you, law enforcement is going to figure out who organized it, who has put this money behind it to give these Antifa members what they need."

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"If you've been on social media and you've been saying 'I know friends that went to the protest, I know friends that went to the riots,' you're probably going to get a knock on your door from the FBI or, in Tennessee, the [Tennessee Bureau of Investigation], and they're going to want to know what you know."

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"There's been a lot said about contact tracing to do with coronavirus. and contact tracers being hired. Let me tell you something — that is nothing compared to the contact tracing that is going to take place with all of these riots."
Barr: Violence from Antifa, other groups 'is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly' (Fox 05/31/2020)
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"With the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful and legitimate protests have been hijacked by violent radical elements. Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent, and extremist agenda."

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"It is time to stop watching the violence and to confront and stop it. The continued violence and destruction of property endangers the lives and livelihoods of others, and interferes with the rights of peaceful protestors, as well as all other citizens... The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly."

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... the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) would be involved in identifying "criminal organizers and instigators" and that federal agencies will work toward "apprehending and charging the violent radical agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest and are engaged in violations of federal law."
Trump on violent protesters: 'Where are the arrests and long term jail sentences?' (Fox 05/31/2020)
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"SO TERRIBLE! Where are the arrests and LONG TERM jail sentences?" Trump asked in reaction to a tweet claiming to show a graphic video of a Dallas man being beaten into critical condition while trying to defend a business.

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"Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!"

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Attorney General William Barr followed that move from Trump with a statement saying that "[i]t is time to stop watching the violence and to confront and stop it... The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly."

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... retweeting conservative radio host Buck Sexton, who commented that the riots aren't "going to stop until the good guys are willing to use overwhelming force against the bad guys."
Treat violent rioters as foreign terrorists, says ex-federal prosecutor: 'Their actions are equally...' (Fox 05/31/2020)
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"There is really not much difference between foreign terrorists and domestic terrorists."

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"It is just a matter of where they're from. Their actions are equally repugnant and equally criminal. and they should be treated just the same."

•
"Someone needs to be prosecuted. This is taking the murder of George Floyd and exploiting it for purposes that I don't think anyone really thinks are helpful in this entire debate and discussion. In fact, these people are simply looting and destroying property."

•
"Proof in of itself is going to be difficult in these cases but assuming you can find the proof, you then have to convince a jury of 12 people, their peers, [that] what they did was criminal and that it was serious."

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"They should be held accountable. You have to hope judges actually impose a serious sentence. I think swift justice, sure justice and firm justice here might dissuade people from acting in this way in the future," Hakes said, adding, "I sure hope so."
Sen. Ron Johnson says there was 'total corruption' in transition between Obama and Trump... (Fox 05/31/2020)
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"What we saw was a total corruption that before, during and after this transition. It's incredibly serious."

•
"What we know is corrupt investigations, the misuse of defensive briefings, all the media leaks, and, of course, the Obama administration holdovers."

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"What they did once they're inside the Trump administration to frustrate and sabotage his administration. So this is a serious, serious internal attack, an assault on our democracy, the most serious possibly in our history."
Trump announces US to designate Antifa as terrorist organization following violent protests (Fox 05/31/2020)
SpaceX spacecraft docks with International Space Station on historic NASA mission (Fox 05/31/2020)
Dan Bongino reacts to violent riots across the country: 'This isn't a protest anymore, this is a coup' (Fox 05/31/2020)
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"This is an organized internal coup by a small group of agitators acting as a domestic terror group. That's a fact."

•
"You use a light touch on legitimate protests because that's a God-given right; you don't use a light touch on a riot burning down an American city."

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"The cops I worked with at the federal and state level are more than competent, it's the political leadership getting in the way with this light touch nonsense."
Chaos is now Donald Trump’s biggest threat (NYP 05/30/2020)
Trump vows to stop 'mob violence' amid riots over George Floyd death (Fox 05/30/2020)
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"The mobs are devastating the life's work of good people and destroying their dreams."

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"Right now, America needs creation, not destruction. Cooperation, not contempt. Security, not anarchy and there will be no anarchy. Civilization must be cherished, defended and protected. The voices of law-abiding citizens must be heard and heard very loudly."

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"In America, justice is never achieved at the hands of an angry mob. I will not allow angry mobs to dominate."

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"My administration will stop mob violence and will stop it cold. It does not serve any citizen of any race, color or creed, for the government to give into anarchy, abandon police precincts, or allow communities to be burned to the ground. It won't happen."
Clashes break out near White House between police, protesters as unrest extends into weekend (Fox 05/30/2020)
•
The Secret Service later issued a statement saying that six arrests were made and that multiple agents were assaulted with bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks and other items — injuring a number of uniformed division officers and special agents."

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"They threw rocks, they threw urine and they threw alcohol at our officers and in several instances, our officers incurred injuries to include broken bones."

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"These protesters committed these acts of violence while hiding behind their First Amendment right of lawful protest."
Newt Gingrich: Coronavirus and seniors — Cuomo sold them out. Here are the astonishing details (Fox 05/31/2020)
•
Of course, the news media has been utterly unwilling to tell the truth about New York state.

•
Cuomo has been portrayed as some Churchillian figure, leading his state through this crisis courageously and effectively.

•
In reality, New York has far more infections and deaths than any other state, and it's because of bad decisions from Cuomo and others, not bad luck.

•
Most egregiously, Cuomo's Health Department actually mandated that nursing homes accept patients with coronavirus from hospitals.

•
As the pandemic worsened and hospitals in New York filled up with people infected by the virus, hospitals said they needed to move elderly patients into nursing homes with empty beds to make room for others.

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The state government wouldn't even let nursing homes require coronavirus testing for admission.

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This process led to an astonishing number of deaths in nursing homes. ... it all happened because Cuomo sold out New York's senior citizens to the hospital industry.
SpaceX makes history, launches NASA astronauts into space from US soil for the first time since 2011 (Fox 05/30/2020)
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The launch is the first time a private company, rather than a national government, has sent astronauts into orbit.

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President Trump and Vice President Pence, who is chairman of the National Space Council, watched the launch from Kennedy Space Center.

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After a short journey into orbit, Crew Dragon began its 19-hour journey to the orbiting space lab.

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Autonomous docking with the International Space Station is expected at 10:29 a.m. EDT on Sunday.

•
The duration of the astronauts' stay on the orbiting space lab is yet to be determined.

•
After separation, the Falcon 9 booster successfully returned to Earth, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

•
STS-135, the last space shuttle mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center on July 8, 2011.

•
The space shuttle Atlantis carried four NASA astronauts on the mission to resupply the ISS, as well as an experiment for robotically refueling satellites in space.

•
Since then, the U.S. has relied on Russian Soyuz rockets launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to get astronauts into space.

•
Russia charges the U.S. about $75 million to send an astronaut into space.

•
NASA recently agreed to pay Russian space agency Roscosmos $90 million for one final seat on one of its Soyuz rockets.
Dems not standing up against crime in Floyd protests because they're afraid to alienate black vote (Fox 05/30/2020)
•
"I am disappointed, shocked that there has been no Democratic lawmaker in the last 72 hours who have focused on the criminal activities of these individuals who are not protesting," he stated.

•
"These are criminals and they are breaking the law using the guise of caring about George Floyd."

•
"And, I encourage all you Democratic lawmakers, all you lawmakers, to stand up and criticize these criminals."

•
"I thank the president for spending prompt action of getting the attorney general involved in this and the county district attorney for filing charges. But, what cannot happen is this Democratic silence."

•
"And, let me just tell the truth why: because these Democratic lawmakers do not want to alienate black voters."

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"I've got news for you: you're alienating me. I'm a black voter and you have lost me if you don't stand up and do something about these criminals."
Trump warns White House protesters would have been met by 'vicious dogs', 'ominous weapons' if they... (Fox 05/30/2020)
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"Great job last night at the White House by the U.S. @SecretService. They were not only totally professional, but very cool."

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Trump said he "was inside, watched every move, and couldn't have felt more safe" and indicated that anyone who had managed to get into White House grounds would have been dealt with swiftly.

•
"They let the ‘protesters' scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone... got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard - didn't know what hit them. The front line was replaced with fresh agents, like magic."

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"Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen."

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"As you saw last night, they were very cool & very professional. Never let it get out of hand. Thank you!"

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He also criticized Democratic Mayor Bowser, who said refused to allow the city's police to get involved in protecting the White House from any violent protests.

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"On the bad side, the D.C. Mayor, @MurielBowser, who is always looking for money & help, wouldn't let the D.C. Police get involved. 'Not their job.' Nice!"
Cruz calls for criminal investigation into Twitter for violating US sanctions on Iran (Fox 05/29/2020)
Rioters do injustice to George Floyd, tortured and killed in a case of police brutality (Fox 05/29/2020)
Trump seeks to clarify tweet on Minneapolis: 'Looting leads to shooting' (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
"Looting leads to shooting, and that's why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night - or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot."

•
"I don't want this to happen, and that's what the expression put out last night means. It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement."

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"The media, Joe Biden, and the Democrats pounced, purposefully misrepresenting what the President had said, and showing once again that they are incapable of resisting their base impulse of dividing Americans, solely for the purpose of political gain, ratings, and cable news profit."

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"A man has died, a police officer is charged with murder, an American city is in chaos, and Democrats and the media see only a political opportunity and a chance to make money."
Marc Thiessen points out New York Times hypocrisy on mail-in ballots (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
"Eight years ago, the Times declared that ‘the flaws of absentee voting raise questions about the most elementary promises of democracy.' Now that Trump is raising those same questions, the publication says doing so is illegitimate. It was right the first time."
White House hits back after Twitter cracks down on Trump's Minneapolis tweet, reposts censored... (Fox 05/29/2020)
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"Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!"

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"What about all of the lies and fraudulent statements made by Adam Schiff, and so many others, on the Russian Witch Hunt Plus, Plus, Plus? What about China's propaganda? WHO's mistakes? No flags?"

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"Twitter is targeting the President of the United States 24/7, while turning their heads to protest organizers who are planning, plotting, and communicating their next moves daily on this very platform."

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"Twitter is full of s**t - more and more people are beginning to get it."
Dave Rubin on Trump's feud with Twitter: The 'free speech war' is coming to a head (Fox 05/29/2020)
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"The free speech war has been burning for the last three or four years and it seems finally now it is coming to a head."

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"That's just taking away legal protection. But even with that, we have to be careful with what we ask for because if they have less protection, they then might start policing speech even more carefully."

•
... Twitter wants to take aim at Trump and his supporters, but the tech company also overlooks tweets calling for violence against the commander in chief.

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"You could just search the George Floyd or the Minneapolis hashtag. I mean, there are literally thousands of people rejoicing in violence, calling for violence every time Trump tweets. There are often blue-checked journalists threatening him."

•
"And that really is what this is about: it's the selective decisions that they make that somehow always seem to be against right-leaning or conservative people. I think this thing is just going to keep ramping up throughout the election."
Judge Pirro says 'facts are clear,' Minnesota officer 'does not deserve to be free' (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
"What you have is a police officer with a record of [a] series of complaints over the 19 years that he's been a police officer who ended up snuffing the life out of an African-American over an alleged counterfeit $20 bill that he was using to buy food for his family."

•
"The fact that the [federal government] is looking at whether or not there is a civil rights violation, that is fine. But, this man can be charged with murder."

•
"I want to know what were those police officers doing as George Floyd was begging, saying he couldn't breathe, saying ‘please please,' begging them and then crying for his mama?"

•
"I mean, break your heart. This man who put his knee on the neck of George Floyd does not deserve to be free in this country."
Minnesota native Pete Hegseth reacts to riots: The state has 'no strong leadership' (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
"There is no strong leadership in Minnesota to come in and say, we're going to get justice in this case, but we're not going to tolerate the kind of lawlessness that wounds people's lives, wounds people's neighborhoods and communities, that's what it devolved into. That's when the president needs to step in."

•
"Minnesota has been under a draconian lockdown for months now, where business are already feeling strangled by it."

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"You distract from a meaningful cause when it devolves into violent lawlessness indiscriminately of black people and white people, being affected by this and you're not able to empower law enforcement to be able to do their job. Having them retreat from neighborhoods is not the answer."
Kansas soldier saves 'countless lives' by driving truck into active shooter: reports (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
"... saw the event unfold, determined it was an active shooter and intervened by striking the shooter with his vehicle, causing him to be critically injured, ending the encounter with the active shooter and likely saving countless lives."

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... the shooter, 37, had multiple weapons and was firing indiscriminately from the bridge.

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Both the shooter and a victim he shot, another Forth Leavenworth soldier, were taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

•
"Let's be absolutely crystal clear, his actions were heroic. His actions were extraordinary and he should be commended for that."
Biden's head-turning comments on Asians resurface amid former VP's attacks on Trump 'xenophobia' (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
Earlier this year, the former vice president hit Trump for "xenophobia" within hours of his January ban on most travel from China — a policy that Biden and outside observers have since acknowledged was the right call.

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Chris Wallace: Twitter going down a dangerous 'slope' with Trump fact-checking (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
"The danger in that is, once you go down that slope, unless you're going to fact-check everything everybody says — and Lord knows, are there things the president says that aren't true? Yes."

•
"Are there things that Joe Biden says and Democrats say that aren't true? Yes. So if you're going to fact check the president, are you going to fact check Joe Biden? If you're going to fact check, you know, some Republican congressman, are you going to fact check a Democratic congressman? And so it becomes a very dangerous thing."

•
"[If] you don't fact check everybody, then people are going to see bias," ... adding that Twitter was running the risk of "becoming a third party in the ring" during a contentious election year and "may regret it."

•
"I'm in the truth business. and I'd be perfectly happy if everything politicians said is fact-checked and everything I say is fact-checked. That's fine."

•
"But you can't do it. You just can't. And there's always going to be some bias in what you decide is so false, that needs to be fact-checked. And that just lends itself to the argument that there's political bias, political favoritism in what you call out and what you don't."
Twitter censors Trump's Minneapolis tweet for 'glorifying violence' (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
"I can't stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis," Trump tweeted. "A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right."

•
A second tweet continued, "These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let this happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you."

•
A few hours after the president sent those tweets, Twitter added a disclaimer onto the second tweet, which hides the message until users click "view."

•
"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible," the disclaimer read.

•
Trump fired back at Twitter on Friday: "Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!"

•
Critics on Twitter said Trump's comments had racial undertones and said the term "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" can be traced back to Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in 1967 as a threat to black protestors during the civil rights movement.

•
"This Tweet violates our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line, its connection to violence, and the risk it could inspire similar actions today."

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"We've taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts, but have kept the Tweet on Twitter because it is important that the public still be able to see the Tweet given its relevance to ongoing matters of public importance."

•
This marks the second time Twitter has cracked down on Trump's tweets. Earlier this week, the tech giant added a fact-checking label to the president's tweets sounding the alarm on potential fraud from mail-in voting.
Trump blasts Minneapolis mayor, vows military support if needed (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
... after another night of violent protest in Minneapolis, which included a police station being overrun and set on fire.

•
"I can't stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right."

•
"These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let this happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you."

•
... the White House press secretary, told reporters that the president was "very upset" when he watched the George Floyd video.

•
Floyd, a handcuffed black man, pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck and died in police custody earlier this week.

•
It was "egregious, appalling and tragic. He wants justice to be served."

•
... video prompted Trump to "pick up the phone" while aboard Air Force One and ask the FBI to expedite its investigation.

•
Protesters could be seen setting fire to a Minneapolis Police Department jacket and cheering.
Tucker Carlson rips social media giants after Trump executive order: 'They're not neutral platforms' (Fox 05/29/2020)
•
"They're not neutral platforms, putting out all information in the public's best interest. Again, they are publishers curating content in the same way CNN does, MSNBC does, Fox News does. But, unlike any of those news organizations, these companies are immune from lawsuits thanks to Section 230."

•
"That is corrupt, it is an unfair business advantage, it empowers a handful of tech monopolies to the detriment of everyone else, it puts a small group of people in control of all human information in English, and it guts our constitutional liberties."

•
"So, at this point, after years of ... Congress taking a payoff from these people and ignoring [this], now it is the time to stop it."
Kayleigh McEnany Shines on the Job (JWR 05/28/2020)
What's in Trump's executive order on social media? (Fox 05/28/2020)
•
Reigning in of Section 230 protections

•
Section 230 says: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

•
In other words, online platforms that host or republish speech are protected from a wide range of laws that could otherwise be used to hold them legally responsible for what others say and do.

•
"My executive order calls for new regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to make it so that social media companies that engage in censoring any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield," the president said.

•
"Immunity should not extend beyond its text and purpose to provide protection for those who purport to provide users a forum for free and open speech, but in reality use their power over a vital means of communication to engage in deceptive or pretextual actions stifling free and open debate by censoring certain viewpoints."

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Thus, the order states that social media companies who remove or restrict content be exposed to liability "like any traditional editor and publisher that is not an online provider."

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Prohibition of federal tax dollars from financing online platforms that restrict free speech

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Public Big Tech bias complaints

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Establishment of a "working group" to enforce State statutes and anti-discrimination laws
3 GOP Attorneys General: Time for Congress to take action against China's communist government (Fox 05/28/2020)
Trump marks 'sad milestone' as coronavirus deaths reach 100,000 in US (Fox 05/28/2020)
•
"We have just reached a very sad milestone with the coronavirus pandemic deaths reaching 100,000."

•
"To all of the families & friends of those who have passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent. God be with you!"

•
As of Thursday morning, the U.S. reported more than 1.7 million positive cases of COVID-19, and more than 100,440 deaths.

•
New York, the hardest-hit state, has seen more than 363,000 coronavirus cases and over 23,000 deaths, according to recent estimates, followed by New Jersey, with reports of over 155,000 cases and over 11,100 deaths.
Hawley proposes stripping Twitter of liability immunity after fact-checking Trump: 'Time to start...' (Fox 05/28/2020)
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"They are free from liability, free from suit. They get a special immunity. If they are going to act like regular publishers, if Twitter is going to editorialize about the president of the United States, they ought to be treated like a regular publisher and that's what my deal would do."

•
"They are editorializing, they are censoring, they are making judgments. They claim 'we aren't like traditional media, we are neutral, we don't have any opinions, we post other people's opinions.' It just isn't true," he argued, "and it's time to start calling them out on it."

•
"Zuckerberg is clearly quite eager to throw Twitter under the bus" because he "doesn't want to lose immunities for Facebook."

•
"How about the Chinese Foreign Ministry who have been on Twitter ... saying that United States soldiers actually started the coronavirus."

•
"Twitter has not had a word to say about any of these things. This is not a joke, this is Twitter showing its political bias."

•
"If they want to editorialize like The New York Times, go right ahead. It's a free country, they are a free company."

•
But, Hawley added, "they should not get a special deal from government because of it."
Twitter's Jack Dorsey fires back at Zuckerberg, defends fact-checking Trump tweets (Fox 05/28/2020)
•
... while defending Twitter's "Head of Site Integrity" Yoel Roth after his hyper-partisan anti-Trump tweets were discovered in the wake of the politically-charged debate over Trump's tweets.

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"Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that's me. Please leave our employees out of this. We'll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make."

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... explained that Trump's tweets "may mislead people into thinking they don't need to register to get a ballot (only registered voters receive ballots)."

•
"Thanks for the clarification @jack. This makes YOU accountable for allowing the Chinese Communist Party to abuse this site with misinformation & propaganda spread across the globe - all while the CCP bans and suppresses their own people from using Twitter!"

•
"Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud," read the conclusion of a bipartisan 2005 report authored by the Commission on Federal Election Reform, which was chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.

•
Just two months ago, Twitter flagged a video uploaded by the Trump campaign as "manipulated media," only to rebuff the campaign's efforts to have the platform flag a similar video uploaded by the Biden team.

•
"We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters."

•
"Partnering with the biased fake news media 'fact checkers' is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility. There are many reasons the Trump campaign pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and their clear political bias is one of them."

•
... 2012 article in The New York Times headlined, "Error and Fraud at Issue as Absentee Voting Rises." The article states that "votes cast by mail are less likely to be counted, more likely to be compromised and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth, statistics show."
Zuckerberg knocks Twitter for fact-checking Trump, says private companies shouldn't be... (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
"I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online."

•
"Private companies probably shouldn't be, especially these platform companies, shouldn't be in the position of doing that."
Rosenstein to testify as first witness in Senate Judiciary's Russia probe (Fox 05/27/2020)
New York health website deletes Cuomo's order linked to nursing home fatalities (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
The web page that once contained the order now directs to a page indicating that the file is "not found."

•
The archive indicates that the deletion occurred sometime after May 5, around the time that criticism over New York's nursing home fatalities intensified.

•
A copy of the page saved by the Internet archive Wayback Machine, however, shows that Cuomo's order stated: "No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the NH [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs [Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission."

•
"DOH posted updated guidance that builds on the original March 25 guidance which barred nursing homes from discriminating against COVID patients."

•
"... Then and now, nursing homes cannot discriminate against COVID patients..."

•
... Cuomo doubled down on his state's now-scrapped nursing home policy and instead blamed the problem on President Trump and his administration.

•
"... What New York did was follow what the Republican Administration said to do. That's not my attempt to politicize it. It's my attempt to depoliticize it. So don't criticize the state for following the president's policy."

•
Of the nation's more than 26,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, a fifth of them — about 5,300 — are in New York.

•
"The way this has been handled by the state is totally irresponsible, negligent and stupid. They knew better. They shouldn't have sent these people into nursing homes."

•
... New York took weeks after the first known nursing home outbreaks to begin publicly reporting the number of deaths in individual homes.
Kellyanne Conway slams Twitter's Trump fact-checks: They're done by 'people who attack him...' (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
"That part is the richest of all. These people have got nothing important right over the last three years, beginning with the very election where they were relying on their own data."

•
"I have a treasure trove of peoples' articles of how Hillary Clinton wasn't even saying Donald Trump's name, Barack Obama has hardly [uttered] Hillary Clinton's name because they all thought that the election was decided long before that. Why? Because there's very little respect for democracy."

•
"Fact-check: Over 90 percent of mainstream media reportedly vote for the Democratic presidential candidate. So many conservatives and many non-liberals and many non-voters feel like they have a platform on social media that allows them, for free, to express themselves."

•
"I mean, they are relying upon the same people who attack him all day long to ‘fact-check' him."

•
"Why all of a sudden do we have mail-in ballots if it's 86 degrees and sunny and America found their way to the beaches? Did you see the pictures this weekend? They will find their way to the polls."

•
"So, this just another attempt of those who want to keep our states locked down, our churches, mosques, synagogues closed, our professional sports locked up forever more, our amusement parks, our kids, our lives locked down."

•
"They want you, the voter, to not be able to come out and express the most important franchise. And, in advance of that, express yourselves on social media platforms."

•
"We have no presence in the mainstream media. They look down on us like we're deplorable and irredeemable."

•
"So, social media gives us that presence and the president himself has a huge advantage on social media. He has more followers than any president. He uses it more than anyone ever has to reach the people, to communicate, and to also hear back from them what's on their minds. So, that's why they're shutting this down."

•
President Trump has just over 80 million Twitter followers; former President Barack Obama has almost 118 million.
Trump warns social media giants that feds can ‘regulate’ or ‘close them down’ amid fight with Twitter (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
"Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can't let a more sophisticated version of that happen again."

•
"Just like we can't let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!"

•
It is unclear what authority, if any, the president was citing in his threat to close social media platforms down, but the tweets surely were meant to escalate pressure on the platform that hosted them.

•
Twitter's new warning label was issued even though a Twitter spokesperson acknowledged to Fox News that Trump's tweet had not broken any of the platform's rules, and even though some other experts have raised fraud concerns surrounding mail-in voting.

•
The warning label came after Trump tweeted: "There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!!"

•
Within hours, Twitter then appended a label to the bottom of the tweet reading, "Get the facts about mail-in ballots."

•
Clicking that label brought readers to a paragraph reading: "On Tuesday, President Trump made a series of claims about potential voter fraud after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the COVID-19 pandemic. These claims are unsubstantiated, according to CNN, Washington Post and others. Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud."

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Twitter acknowledged Trump's tweet "is not in violation of the Twitter Rules as it does not directly try to dissuade people from voting — it does, however, contain misleading information about the voting process, specifically mail-in ballots, and we're offering more context to the public."

•
A Twitter spokesperson also told ... that Trump's tweets "contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots."

•
"We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters."

•
"Partnering with the biased fake news media 'fact checkers' is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility. There are many reasons the Trump campaign pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and their clear political bias is one of them."
Hawley on Twitter fact-checking Trump: 'Big Tech' is subsidized by taxpayers and censors Americans (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
"It's not just the censorship in China ... they're censoring Americans. Google's YouTube is censoring Americans who are criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), [and] taking their comments down."

•
"We're always working to resolve issues on YouTube. Upon review by our teams, we have confirmed this was an error in our enforcement systems."

•
"Here is the bottom line on this: 'Big Tech' gets a huge handout from the federal government. They get this special immunity, this special immunity from suits and from liability that's worth billions of dollars to them every year."

•
"Why are they getting subsidized by federal taxpayers to censor conservatives, to censor people critical of China?"
Doug Collins says the Flynn probe was about 'getting' Trump, hurting the new administration (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
"This was about getting at a president. Let's make that very clear."

•
"The whole investigation was centered around if we can get Flynn or we can get others to either lie or to do something, then we can get President Trump. This was all about power and making sure President Trump's administration did not get off on the right foot."
Tucker rips media for scolding outdoor Americans: 'The fact that you disobeyed them drove...' (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
"Grilling a hamburger in the fresh air. Hitting the park. Walking the beach for a couple of hours. It's essential. All of us need it."

•
"Nature is medicine. Happy, balanced people understand that intuitively and don't just sit on a couch all day barking at other people on social media. Your soul will rot if you do that."

•
"For reasons that no one in authority has ever really explained, cable news yappers have been classified as a essential workers from the very first day of lockdown. And, by the way, that includes us. It also includes the partisan political activists on the other channels."

•
"They didn't lose their jobs. They have not been quarantined. If anything, they are thriving in the midst of this disaster. They feel more essential than they ever have."

•
"Your suffering has been the best thing to happen to them since impeachment, when they got to spend a full month pretending to know where Ukraine is."

•
"You can imagine their rage when they saw you outdoors this weekend, enjoying time with your family. The fact that you disobeyed them drove them insane."

•
"The people on television have lied to them and it's wrecking their lives. Meanwhile, the people on television themselves are just fine. They don't seem afraid."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Trump urges GOP to vote 'NO' on FISA bill, citing Russia probe concerns (Fox 05/27/2020)
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"I hope all Republican House Members vote NO on FISA until such time as our Country is able to determine how and why the greatest political, criminal, and subversive scandal in USA history took place!"
Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick bashes Twitter, Dems over mail-in voting: 'If they get it, it's the end of democracy' (Fox 05/27/2020)
•
"Twitter owes the president an apology. They fact-checked him ... for his opinion. And by the way, his opinion was based on fact, because the Democrats are trying to steal this election."

•
"... the Democrat plan to have everyone vote by mail is an invitation for fraud and it's a total scam."

•
"The further away ... you get from the ballot box, the more opportunity for fraud. The Democrats used to say, 'You don't have to show an I.D. to vote.' Now they don't even want you to vote [in person]."

•
" ... It has nothing to do with safety because 65-year-old and older citizens in this country, in Texas and almost every state, can already vote by mail."

•
"What the Democrats want to do is automatically send out ballots, which is against the law in Texas. You have to request them to vote by mail and they want to send that out to every citizen. This is their opportunity to try to rig the election."

•
"We're not going to put up with it. And if they get away with it ... if they get it, it's the end of democracy. It's not just the the end of this presidential campaign. If they get away with this, democracy has been shredded."
Twitter exec in charge of effort to fact-check Trump has history of anti-Trump posts, called... (Fox 05/27/2020)
Betsy McCaughey: Cuomo nursing home scandal – Deaths likely closer to 10,000 and it gets worse (Fox 05/26/2020)
•
Under criticism for forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to shift the blame to President Trump.

•
"Don't criticize the state for following the president's policy," Cuomo said... The governor points to a Trump administration statement issued on March 13.

•
Sorry, Governor, but you're twisting what the statement said. The administration recommended nursing homes should admit patients even if they were coming from a hospital battling COVID-19, not that patients with COVID-19 themselves should be admitted.

•
To the contrary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was emphatic about the dangers of allowing COVID-19 to invade a nursing home.

•
On March 18, the CDC stated that "once COVID-19 has been introduced into a long term care facility, it has the potential to result in high attack rates among residents, staff members, and visitors."

•
The agency warned "it is critical that long-term care facilities implement active measures to prevent introduction of COVID-19."

•
One week later, on March 25, Cuomo's Health Department mandated that nursing homes accept COVID patients and barred homes from requiring COVID tests for admission.

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Facilities had to fly blind, not knowing which incoming patients endangered residents and staff.

•
As soon as the mandate was announced, the national association of nursing home doctors protested that Cuomo's policy posed "a clear and present danger to all of the residents of a nursing home."

•
But the state's health commissioner, Howard Zucker, doubled down, as deaths soared, and instead began fudging the death statistics to conceal the carnage.

•
At the outset of the pandemic, New York reported how many nursing home residents died from COVID-19, whether they died at the home or after being hospitalized. That's standard.

•
But as the toll escalated, the state Health Department quietly shifted to reporting only deaths at the homes, omitting those who succumbed after going to a hospital.

•
It's likely 10,000 nursing home residents have died in New York from COVID-19, about double what the Cuomo administration is reporting.

•
In New York, the Health Department works for the hospital industry, not for patients and families.

•
New Yorkers need a Health Department that doesn't sell out to the highest bidder. And a state health commissioner who tells the truth.
Jason Chaffetz sounds alarm on Gov. Cuomo, says he wants to 'cover up' nursing home policy (Fox 05/26/2020)
•
"I also think Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo is in deep, real deep on what he did with these nursing homes and, I got to tell you, I think he wants to cover up all those numbers. I think he wants to distract from the policies he put in place that cost people's lives."

•
"I don't really know how you can trust him at this point."

•
"It's been nearly 10 weeks since the Democratic governors of California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois ordered all businesses in their states to shut down, save those they deemed essential. Job losses in these states have been especially severe because of their strict lockdowns."
Kayleigh McEnany says reporters dodging FBI's misconduct with the Flynn case is 'journalistic...' (Fox 05/26/2020)
•
"I was asked 11 questions as to why churches should be opened. It was a bit peculiar to be asked these 11 questions in a row and for the onus and the focus solely to be why churches to be essential. I've never been asked why a liquor store is essential."

•
"The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now — for this weekend," Trump said. "If they don't do it, I will override the governors. In America we need more prayer, not less."

•
"Who leaked that identity, the dossier which was used to launch a three-year investigation into this president and spy on his campaign. Why aren't those questions being asked? It's journalistic malpractice not to ask those questions."
Dan Bongino on Durham's FBI-Russia probe: I'll be 'stunned' if FBI lawyer isn't prosecuted (Fox 05/25/2020)
•
"The FBI lawyer who manipulated the email about Carter Page to make it appear that he was a Russian asset when, in fact, he was an American asset against the Russians — how he stays out of prison or prosecution is beyond me — if he's not prosecuted, I would be stunned."

•
"Even if no felony prosecution is ever brought as a result of this, this is a political scandal of the highest order and the American people should be paying attention."
Steve Hilton: There won't be a coronavirus recovery unless we reopen schools now (Fox 05/25/2020)
Elizabeth Ames: Coronavirus 'new normal' – Don't believe all the predictions. Here's why (Fox 05/25/2020)
Cuomo attempts to deflect blame of deadly nursing home coronavirus debacle on to Trump (Fox 05/23/2020)
•
"New York followed the president's agency guidance," Cuomo said...

•
"... What New York did was follow what the Republican Administration said to do. That's not my attempt to politicize it. It's my attempt to depoliticize it. So don't criticize the state for following the president's policy."

•
Cuomo has been under scrutiny from GOP politicians who say the governor should have never allowed recovering coronavirus patients to leave hospitals and go back to their residential nursing homes to spread the contagious virus.

•
Nursing care facilities, home to some of the most vulnerable citizens, have been coronavirus hotspots around the country.

•
New York leads the nation with the most reported coronavirus nursing home deaths at more than 5,000 — though the state changed how it counts deaths so the numbers of nursing home patient deaths could be even higher.

•
"This is a political season, I get it. I'm not going to get into the political back-and-forth, but anyone who wants to ask why did the state do that with COVID patients in nursing homes, it's because the state followed President Trump's CDC guidance."

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Cuomo added: "They should ask President Trump. I think that will stop the conversation."

•
... more than 4,300 coronavirus-infected elderly patients were sent to vulnerable nursing homes under a controversial state directive...

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CDC guidelines require any newly admitted and readmitted resident with a COVID-19 case to be placed in a designated COVID-19 care unit, while those who have met the criteria to have recovered can return to a regular unit in the nursing home.

•
New York – along with California and New Jersey – at the time had specific guidelines saying that nursing homes cannot refuse to take patients from hospitals solely because they have the coronavirus.

•
GOP lawmakers have requested a federal probe into Cuomo's policy to send recovering coronavirus patients back to nursing homes and related concerns that deaths at the facilities are being knowingly under-counted.
Judge Napolitano: Trump has no authority to override church bans, but can do this (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
"As ill-advised as these gubernatorial orders are — as essential as is the right to worship, as fundamental as it is — as absolutely protected by the First Amendment as it is, the president does not have any authority to override the governors."

•
Instead, Napolitano said Trump can order Attorney General William Barr and the Justice Department to file federal lawsuits against states that infringe on the First Amendment rights of their citizens.

•
Federal judges, thereby, are the ones with the legal power to override governors' orders.

•
"The president on his own, no matter [how] well-intended he may be and I believe he's well-intended here, is without authority to do that."

•
Napolitano added that in his home state of New Jersey, he has been anxious for a similar lawsuit to be filed against Democratic Gov. Philip Murphy, who has to-date considered places of worship "non-essential," even as liquor stores and other facilities remain open.

•
"Here [in New Jersey], the doors are locked and you cannot go in for private prayer on your own, much less an organized prayer service or a Catholic Mass."

•
"Judges can interfere with governors when governors violate the state constitution or the federal constitution. But the president is without authority to exercise that interference on his own."
Kayleigh McEnany spars with press on church reopenings, Flynn case (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
"What specific provision of federal law allows the president to override a governor's stance?"

•
"The president will strongly encourage every governor to allow their churches to reopen," McEnany responded, "and boy, it's interesting to be in a room that desperately wants to seem to see these churches and houses of worship stay closed."

•
"Kayleigh, I object to that because I go to church, I'm dying to go back to church," Mason told McEnany.

•
"The question that we're asking you and would have liked to have asked the president and Dr. Birx is ... is it safe? And if it's not safe, is the president trying to encourage that or does the president agree with Dr. Birx that people should wait?"

•
"Jeff, it is safe to reopen your churches if you do so in accordance to the guidelines," McEnany answered.

•
"I just wanted to follow up with you guys on that — did anyone take it upon themselves to pose any questions about Michael Flynn and the unmasking to President Obama's spokesperson?" McEnany asked the White House reporters.

•
The rest of the room remained silent. "Oh, not a single journalist has posed that question," McEnany reacted.

•
"No.1, why did the Obama administration use opposition research funded by a political organization and filled with foreign dirt to spy on members of the Trump campaign?" McEnany began, referring to the infamous Steele dossier.

•
"No. 2, why was Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn unmasked not by the intel community entirely but Obama's chief of staff, by the former Vice President Joe Biden, by Susan Rice, by the treasury secretary? I mean, this is extraordinary. You know, if it were political appointees in a Trump administration, I can guarantee you I'd have questions in my inbox right now but apparently Obama's spokesperson does not."

•
"Why was Flynn's identity leaked? In a criminal act, it is a criminal act to leak the identity of Michael Flynn to the press but it happened. Where are the questions to Obama's spokesperson?"

•
"Because my team would be running around this building should this have happened under the Trump administration."

•
"Why did the DOJ's Sally Yates learn about the unmasking from President Obama? So much for going 'by the book' as Susan Rice said three times. Thou doth protest too much, Susan Rice. And finally, question No. 5, why did James Clapper, John Brennan, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice privately admit under oath that they had no evidence of collusion while saying the opposite publicly?"

•
"It's a long weekend, you guys have three days to follow up on those questions."
Sen. Tom Cotton: 'Cannot have liquor stores and marijuana shops open, but close houses of worship' (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
"The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now — for this weekend," Trump said. "If they don't do it, I will override the governors.

•
"In America, we need more prayer not less," Trump said.

•
"I am very confident that every house of worship can help protect their members," Cotton said.
Anti-Trump media play dumb on Obamagate – See, hear, speak no evil about ex-president (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
Liberals call the Obama scandals "invented," but the invention here is the entire Russian-collusion narrative.

•
Newly released documents show Obama aides screamed "collusion" on cable TV but admitted to Congress they had no evidence.

•
No wonder journalists who energetically pushed a false narrative are playing dumb now.

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Dr. Ben Carson pushes back on NY Gov. Cuomo's 'ridiculous' defense of nursing home or (Fox 05/22/2020)
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"Obviously we don't want to take people who have an infectious disease and concentrate them in a place that isn't prepared to receive them."

•
"Obviously, you want to accept people if you have provisions and have taken the appropriate safeguards, but you just don't say, ‘Okay, let's bring somebody with tuberculosis in here because we are not supposed to discriminate against them' without having prepared for that."

•
"That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to a Republican, a Democrat or anybody with a brain."

•
"Well, it would be good to make sure that we know what the weaknesses were so that we could correct them."

•
"I'm not sure that it would be useful to put people in jail and to compound a tragedy that has already occurred."
Bombshell report on NY nursing home policy overlooked in Gov. Cuomo's daily press conference (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
"Since that is now the narrative, the media can't reverse course to hold Cuomo accountable without having to scrape the egg off their collective faces."

•
"Cuomo continues to get largely Teflon treatment. It is interesting to note that reporters get in line at Trump press conferences to ask him challenging questions and then get applauded by their journalistic peers."

•
"But they largely cower in front of Cuomo and are afraid to break ranks with their reporter colleagues."

•
"Cuomo has deflected criticism over the nursing home directive by saying it stemmed from Trump administration guidance. Still, few states went as far as New York and neighboring New Jersey, which has the second-most care home deaths, in discharging hospitalized coronavirus patients to nursing homes."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Over 4,300 virus patients sent to NY nursing homes, AP counts (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
"It was the single dumbest decision anyone could make if they wanted to kill people."

•
"This isn't rocket science. We knew the most vulnerable — the elderly and compromised — are in nursing homes and rehab centers."
Barr says America's 'democratic values' are dependent on the US beating China in the 5G race (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
"The United States and our partners are in an urgent race against the People's Republic of China (PRC) to develop and build 5G infrastructure around the world."

•
"Our national security and the flourishing of our liberal democratic values here and around the world depend on our winning it."

•
"Future 5G networks will be a critical piece of global infrastructure, the central nervous system of the global economy."

•
Security officials warn that China may use the development of 5G and its infrastructure to be able to spy on people more easily.

•
"5G technology lies at the center of the technological and industrial world that is taking shape."

•
"In essence, communications networks are not just for communications anymore. They are evolving into the central nervous system of the next generation of internet."

•
Barr noted that telecom giants like Huawei are leading the 5G race, and currently account for 40 percent of the global 5G infrastructure market.

•
"If the PRC [People's Republic of China] wins the 5G race, the geopolitical, economic, and national security consequences will be staggering."

•
... Barr said he believes the US could catch up with China's 5G progress by working "closely with trusted vendors to pursue practical and realistic strategies."

•
"We can win the race, but we must act now."
CNN obsesses over President Trump's mask aversion, ignores 'more important things': insider (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
CNN is being criticized for its wall-to-wall coverage of President Trump's mask-wearing, or lack thereof, while continuing to give short shrift to the New York nursing home coronavirus crisis presided over by one of its own anchors' brother.

•
CNN spent nearly 102 minutes on this issue on Thursday alone, dwarfing the roughly 15 minutes the network dedicated the entire week to a nursing home controversy surrounding Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a case that has at least one state lawmaker calling for a federal probe.

•
"It sounds harsh, but CNN has shown that they care more about obsessing over the president not wearing a mask than getting answers for the families of deceased New York nursing home residents."

•
"If CNN were truly interested in fulfilling their duty in serving the public good and helping to build up a more informed citizenry, they would be grilling the Cuomo administration on their nursing home debacle... Instead, they're melting down over arguably the most-tested man in the world not wearing a mask."

•
"If a segment isn't focused on hating the president, decrying reopenings of any kind, or covering for China, it's not worth giving serious thought."

•
"Twenty percent of our lost loved ones are from nursing homes ... because Governor Cuomo and several other governors forced COVID-recovering patients into nursing homes."

•
"The fact that I am seeing, last night, him ... making fun, inappropriate jokes and insensitive jokes, cruel jokes ... make no mistake. I am glad that Chris Cuomo has recovered from COVID because he apparently did have it. And I'm glad that their family is well, but my family is not well. And that is not something to joke about."

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Trump blasts Michigan AG for 'viciously threatening' Ford for letting him tour plant without mask (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
"The Wacky Do Nothing Attorney General of Michigan, Dana Nessel, is viciously threatening Ford Motor Company for the fact that I inspected a Ventilator plant without a mask."

•
"Not their fault, & I did put on a mask. No wonder many auto companies left Michigan, until I came along!"

•
"I had one on before," Trump told reporters during the visit. "I wore one on in this back area. I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it. In the back area I did have a mask on. I had goggles and a mask right back there."

•
He added it wasn't necessary to wear a mask around reporters and Ford representatives in the front of the plant because "Everybody's been tested."

•
"Do nothing A.G. of the Great State of Michigan, Dana Nessel, should not be taking her anger and stupidity out on Ford Motor - they might get upset with you and leave the state, like so many other companies have - until I came along and brought business back to Michigan. JOBS!"
Federal appeals court orders judge in Flynn case to respond to motion to dismiss charges (Fox 05/21/2020)
South Carolina election ballots reportedly found in Maryland this week (Fox 05/21/2020)
Michigan barber who defied stay-at-home order: 'I'm opening up, I won't stand down' (Fox 05/21/2020)
•
"I hope that there's a certain amount of sanity that will prevail. But, so far ... this governor, we've had nothing but trouble with her. The legislatures had told her she was not assigned this part of this position that she's taken to shut us down for another 28 days ... And, she has defied their order."

•
"And as far as I'm concerned, I'm opening up. I have a livelihood. I have a business that I have to protect. I have clients [who] rely on me. And I'm going to continue on. I'm not going to stand down."

•
"I'm 77 years old. I mean, what are they going to give me? Life? I've got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. I [couldn't] care less."

•
"Well, my business is my livelihood. This is my life. I've been doing this for nearly 60 years. You know, I've been a barber in this community since 1961."

•
"You know, and right now as far as I'm concerned, I want to send out a message to the other barbers, the other beauticians, massage therapists to stand up, to open up, and show up in this state. We need to get back to business. We need to get back to our lives."

•
"What am I going to do: live in fear all my life? I can't do that."
Laura Ingraham reveals how Michael Flynn was 'targeted by Jim Comey's FBI' (Fox 05/21/2020)
•
"I always wondered about why the Senate never called Hunter Biden to talk about the contracts he had with Ukraine as part of the impeachment or even with his contracts with China."

•
"But, I asked someone close to the whole thing and they said, ‘Well, here's the thing: everyone likes Joe Biden, he's a nice guy, and his son Hunter had struggled with substance abuse and was a fragile, frail guy.'"

•
"My response to that was, 'Why is he taking the money?' It does not pass the smell test. As you just pointed out, even the State Department officials were saying it does not pass the smell test."

•
"Again, bring it out in the open. Sunlight is always the best disinfectant. Let's see what happened, why did it happen, and the American people can decide in November."
Las Vegas gun owner recalls deadly shootout: 'I got all of my hits' (Fox 05/21/2020)
•
"I knew there was a high probability that he would miss because I was returning fire and getting hits on him."

•
"I wish I wasn't at the wrong place at the wrong time, but I'm glad it was me instead of a less-skilled defensive pistol practitioner."

•
The gunman died after being hit with 10 shots in a shootout that Baldwin estimated lasted about four seconds.

•
Each shot Baldwin fired at the gunman hit its target, including nine to the chest and one to "the central nervous system." (The second suspect fled.)
CDC now says coronavirus 'does not spread easily' via contaminated surfaces (Fox 05/21/2020)
Ken Starr predicts indictments will result from Durham probe, blasts Comey for 'delusion of collusion' (Fox 05/20/2020)
AOC-led push to kill Amazon's NYC move under renewed scrutiny as city faces catastrophic job losses (Fox 05/20/2020)
•
"At this time when coronavirus is ravaging incomes across New York, wouldn't it be nice if the city and state at least knew that one of the world's largest companies, one of the rare concerns positioned to thrive through the crisis, had made a long-term commitment to locate between 25,000 and 40,000 high-paying jobs here?"

•
"Now what I DON'T want is for our public funds to be funding freebie helipads for Amazon + robber baron billionaires," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted at the time, "all while NYCHA and public schools go underfunded & mom+pops get nowhere near that kind of a break."

•
It was a battle that AOC, and other anti-Amazon local politicians, won when in February 2019, Amazon announced it was taking its jobs elsewhere.

•
"For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term."

•
"While polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City."

•
"The impact of AOC's reckless scuttling of the Amazon deal cannot be overstated. Not only did AOC cost New York 25,000 good-paying jobs, she sent a message to job creators everywhere that they were no longer welcome in her city."

•
"With New York City expected to lose 500,000 jobs due to the pandemic, AOC's brand of left-wing politics has no place in New York or anywhere else."

•
"Only by unleashing the spirit of free enterprise can our economy recover, something AOC would never understand."

•
"Wouldn't it be nice if elected officials hadn't been so smug and shortsighted as to insist that our great metropolis had so much going for it that it could easily look the best economic development opportunity in the modern history of the city in the mouth?"

•
"But we do know that our great city's tax revenue outlook would look a lot rosier right now if a handful of posturing pols hadn't run one of the world's top companies out of town on a rail."

•
See related In the Red (Antonio Branco, 02/19/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Ken Starr calls on Flynn case judge to step aside: 'You've gone too far, you've crossed the bounds' (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"This has been a series of terrible injustices. The [Jan. 24, 2017] interview [of Flynn by] the FBI should not have taken place. The FBI investigated for four months and were closing the case. That determination was countermanded [as] a political matter, and you just talked about the other dimension: intrusion [in] the process of transition from one administration to the next."

•
"So the case should in fact be thrown out and I hope that's what my old court, the D.C. Circuit sees fit to do."

•
"As for Judge Sullivan, who has a superb reputation over the years, you've gone too far, you've crossed the bounds, you are now seeking to become a prosecutor and not a judge, and you should step aside."
Johnson says declassified Rice email shows Obama officials 'sabotaging the incoming administration' (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"The first thought when I read that declassified e-mail was, 'Why in the world was that ever classified?'"

•
"We didn't witness what America's become so famous for, a peaceful, cooperative well-wishing transition of power. Instead, we saw a corruption of that transition. A transition really designed to sabotage and really upend the new administration."

•
"It's shameful is what it is. So this this needs to be dug into further. We need to do further investigation. You know, my own committee working with others has been really focused on that whole corruption of the transition process."

•
"You would expect the incoming administration to be making a lot of phone calls, preparing for an enormous task. What you don't expect is a previous administration spying on them. You don't expect the previous administration sabotaging the incoming administration."

•
"There's some odd things about that e-mail that was written 15 days later. She said she just didn't have time. It sounds like somebody in the White House counsel's office came to her and asked her to write that e-mail outside."

•
"Where has Christopher Wray been in all this? He should have gone to the FBI. He should clean house. He should have made all this available. But he hasn't done that."

•
"We need to restore the integrity and credibility to these agencies. And this is not the way to do it by by keeping this stuff covered up for over three years."
Declassified Susan Rice email shows Comey suggested 'sensitive' info on Russia not be shared... (Fox 05/19/2020)
Trump announces executive order aiming to make hundreds of deregulations amid coronavirus permanent (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"If a bureaucratic rule needs to be suspended during a time of crisis to help the American people, we should ask ourselves if it makes sense to keep at all."

•
"Typically when our country has faced a crisis, Washington responds by grabbing more power. President Trump understands that to get the economy moving, the power needs to be given back to the people and entrepreneur."
Judge Jeanine praises Trump threat to end WHO funding: 'It’s time that the WHO cleaned up its act' (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"I think 316,000 dead people around the world is reason enough, or at least 316,000 reasons to pull American money out of an organization that could have helped us and could have prevented many of these deaths."

•
Late Monday, Trump released a blistering letter to the head of the World Health Organization, stating that his administration had conducted an investigation that confirmed the global health agency's multiple failures in the early stages of theoutbreak.

•
In the letter, the president warned that the current funding freeze will become permanent if the organization does not make "substantive" improvements within 30 days.

•
"It's time. that if there is money, there is truth and transparency behind it."
Ben Shapiro rips Washington Post profile of 'nonentity' Abrams: 'Your pathetic, stupid, terrible media' (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"The media are just absolutely egregious. They will cover any Democratic narrative in the way that Democrats would like. Stacey Abrams is a nonentity."

•
"They included a picture that looks as though she's being backlit for a Broadway show. What is going on? She looks like a magician from Las Vegas. Slap a top hat and a cane in her hand and she's going to make a tiger appear or something. It's absurdity."

•
"The media have never taken a good photo of Donald Trump — ever. Every picture of Donald Trump is him giving this smug grin ... but Stacey Abrams, they posed her in front of fog."
Texas police union voices outrage after recently released career criminal fatally stabs grandma, 80... (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
A Texas career criminal who was recently released from jail despite being arrested nearly 70 times is accused of fatally stabbing an 80-year-old woman out shopping Saturday.

•
The suspect, 38-year-old Randy Roszell Lewis, was shot and killed by a responding officer who was flagged down by witnesses at the scene. Police said the man was armed with a 6-inch blade.

•
The incident sparked outrage from the Houston Police Officers' Union, which blamed the "total failure" of criminal justice reform for his release weeks earlier — without paying bail.

•
Lewis allegedly stabbed 80-year-old Rosalie Cook in the chest as she returned to her car after shopping inside a Walgreens in Houston.

•
"Nobody should have to go through this, an 80-year-old woman, disabled, had to walk with a cane."

•
In all, he had been arrested 67 times and has faced dozens of charges throughout his life, including assault, theft, trespassing, the possession of marijuana and burglary of a vehicle.

•
"Randy Lewis should never have been free. Now an innocent woman has been murdered. Everyone deserves better. This is absolutely shameful."

•
"Where's the outrage when our cops are putting their lives on the line arresting the same person time and again who's got a violent history."

•
See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Dan Crenshaw: Dems want to keep states locked down and have the rest of the country pay for it (Fox 05/19/2020)
Rep. Stefanik calls for probe of Cuomo's nursing home order: There was 'zero transparency' (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"The governor took executive action, forcing positive COVID cases back into nursing homes. There was zero transparency in terms of informing the seniors, the workers, or the family members whether there were positive cases."

•
"They also didn't fully tell the public how many seniors' deaths there were coming from nursing homes."

•
"So, that reporting data — they didn't count the hospital deaths when there was a positive case that was transmitted because of the senior nursing home."

•
"So, I believe that these families [are owed] answers. We cannot dismiss their concerns. I have heard from families who are still grieving for the loss of their loved ones and they deserve answers."

•
"And, it's not just Republicans who are calling for this independent investigation. It's Democrats as well."

•
"It cannot be conducted by New York's Attorney General either. It needs to be an independent investigation."

•
"I'm calling for the Department of HHS to conduct this independent investigation. But I think it needs to come from the federal government."
HHS announces $354M contract with Virginia-based company to make coronavirus drugs in US (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how health threats or other sources of instability can threaten America's medical supply chains, potentially endangering Americans' health."

•
"America has the capabilities, resources, and expertise to secure our medical supply chains; now the Trump Administration is providing the leadership to make it happen."

•
"Shipping the ingredients or finished drugs to the U.S. also adds time that is not available during pandemics or other public health emergencies."

•
"The U.S. national medical supply also is placed at risk during a global health emergency when individual countries can close borders and potentially eliminate access to these critical materials."
Laura Ingraham on what's 'really' essential during the coronavirus pandemic (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"We hope and pray the reopening does go well. But now that we've moved past the immediate hospital crisis, it's time we think hard about what these state leaders have done in the name of safety."

•
"Now, from the outset, without the involvement of state legislatures, governors told us what was and what was not essential. So only essential businesses could remain open."

•
"Liquor stores, pot dispensaries, abortion facilities, pet and garden stores. Essential."

•
"Churches, gyms, schools, basketball, tennis courts, playgrounds. Not essential. So what criteria were used?"

•
"It's time to clear out the cobwebs. Why are people who screwed up so badly in the past still in their jobs in the private and public sector?"

•
"Freedom to associate. Freedom to worship. Freedom of speech. Freedom to disagree with the prevailing winds. All these rights are inalienable."

•
"Democrats answer is socialism and that's only going to bring misery. We've seen it across the globe over the decades."

•
"From climate change to COVID-19. We've seen far too many members of the permanent medical establishment maybe compromise, or at least the appearance of being compromised by ties to Big Pharma or maybe even their own political proclivities."

•
"That has to end. That has to end in order for more Americans to trust new vaccines, other treatments, or even just their point of view on issues."

•
"Your voices, your hard work, your devotion to family, to your faith, to playing by the rules. This is your government," Ingraham said.

•
"They work for you. Never let them forget that you've always had more good sense than most of the so-called experts out there who want to order you around and enjoy it. Keep punching back. Keep questioning. Don't be afraid."
'Where is Christopher Wray?' GOP lawmakers say FBI director ignoring them — and push ahead for... (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"Because Director Wray has declined to respond to our request, we are forced to write to you directly."

•
Explosive handwritten notes that surfaced earlier this month ... suggested that agents planned to interview Flynn at the White House on January 24, 2017 "to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired."

•
In the alternative, Priestap's note suggested a possible goal was to get Flynn "to admit to breaking the Logan Act" when he spoke to Russia's then-Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period.

•
The Logan Act has never been successfully used in a criminal prosecution and has a questionable constitutional status; it was enacted in 1799 in an era before telephones, and was intended to prevent individuals from falsely claiming to represent the United States government abroad.

•
Flynn, the interviewing agents told McCabe, "had a very good recollection of events, which he related chronologically and lucidly," did not appear to be "nervous or sweating," and did not look "side to side" — all of which would have been "behavioral signs of deception."

•
"As for current employees, there are what I would call more line-level employees who were involved in some of the events in the report, all of those employees ... were referred to our Office of Professional Responsibility, which is our disciplinary arm," Wray said.

•
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., specifically announced Monday that his panel will soon vote on a subpoena authorization related to the FBI's apparent surveillance abuses.

•
Obama personally had warned the Trump administration against hiring Flynn, and made clear he was "not a fan," according to multiple officials.

•
Obama had fired Flynn as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014; Obama cited insubordination, while Flynn asserted he was pushed out for his aggressive stance on combating Islamic extremism.
Senate Republicans take major steps toward full-scale probe of FBI misconduct in Trump-Russia investigation (Fox 05/18/2020)
Jeff Landry: Framing of Michael Flynn – an affront to these cornerstones of our democracy (Fox 05/18/2020)
Trump's claim he takes hydroxychloroquine prompts warnings from health experts (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
Trump said he has been taking hydroxychloroquine and a zinc supplement daily "for about a week and a half now."
Gutfeld proclaims Americans who want to return to work 'should be allowed the chance': 'They are adults' (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
"Any time you frame a question with a negative in it, people are going to go for the positive. Would you like to go back early and potentially die? Oh, no. So that means you'd rather stay [locked down] indefinitely."

•
"The questions are framed in a way to get the answer."
Pelosi 'enslaving' US to China with state bailouts, KT McFarland says (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
The hefty price tag that would add to the already bulging $3.7 trillion deficit in America due to the pandemic, would force the U.S. to borrow even more from China.

•
"The United States runs a trillion-dollar deficit every year and that's when the economy was terrific. Now what are we going to run? Three, four, five trillion-dollar deficit."

•
"Where's the money coming from? It's coming from abroad. Who are we going to borrow it from? The largest foreign debtor. The country that buys the most American debt. It's China."

•
China is only second behind Japan for holding the majority of the U.S.' debt — with $1.09 trillion owed through February 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury.

•
... China has "weaponized a virus" and will continue to use the U.S.' debt to its advantage.

•
"They want to take this crisis that they're responsible for and they want to come out the other side of it with America greatly — even more greatly — in debt to them."

•
"They're buying up our companies, our industries right now at fire-sale prices and at the same time they're not helping at all with the recovery of the world."
Pat Sajak sides with out-of-work Americans, questions media telling those out-of-work to stay home (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
"When a disc jockey or a talk show host or a journalist who is being paid to work from his or her home tells people who can't work, pay bills or pay their rent or mortgage to 'Stay home and be careful because we're all in this together,' it's okay to question the premise."
Dan Bongino: What the politicians have forgotten about America and why lockdowns are ending (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
"I don't know where politicians forgot this country is run by consent of the governed. It's a constitutional republic. It's not a monarchy, it's not an oligarchy, it is not the Soviet Union."

•
"I remember my history teacher in high school, he was a good man and he said to me: the reason you don't see more organized action in the country, civil disobedience type stuff all the time is because there is a middle class. Being that there is a middle class, people have things to lose. When you have to feed your kids, you have no paycheck for two months and everything is lost, you're going to see a lot more civil disobedience ..."

•
"The lockdown is over because America says it's over and, pretty soon, these politicians are going to figure this out."
Former FBI official: Media routinely denounced agency’s alleged abuses until Trump was the target (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
"Democrats and their puppets in the media – once fierce critics of US law enforcement and spying agencies – have suddenly become their biggest champions, at least when the issue is these agencies' targeting of Team Trump.

•
... "add to mounting evidence of what seem like serious, politically motivated abuses by the FBI and Justice Department, adding that "liberals are cheering the abuse."

•
"... the radical left element in both the Democratic Party and the media essentially wanted the FBI to rebuild so it would be a more comfortable kind of fit for them."

•
He went on to say that "that's actually what Robert Mueller spent many years doing." Mueller served as the director of the agency before former FBI Director James Comey.

•
"It became so bad, in fact, that when Mr. Mueller left in September 2013 and James Comey was coming on, FBI employees, and I'm told hundreds of them, signed a letter and essentially the letter said the FBI is being deliberately led in the wrong direction and we have some chance and some time to turn it around and we hope you do that and we'll be committed to helping you."

•
"Comey ignored the letter and kept on the same course and you saw what happened in 2015 and 2016, the FBI hit the rocks and so did the country."

•
"... they don't tell you, that we've changed our whole rules about guidelines and classifications after what Hillary Clinton got by with and how careless she was with 30,000 emails."

•
"The bottom line is the FBI that used to be fidelity, bravery and integrity was rebuilt and recast as an FBI all about diversity, equality and social justice so it's a better fit for the people who now are not going to turn around and complain about exactly what they wanted and that's a real dangerous time for us."

•
"There should be no kind of political agenda or bias inside the FBI and yet that five-page letter presented to Director Comey was all about political bias and political compromise of the FBI and it should really worry us all because we still don't know the truth about all the things that happened in the last four years to essentially subvert a presidency."
President Trump discusses bombshell revelations in Flynn case in exclusive interview... (Fox 05/17/2020)
•
"They [FBI agents] weren't after General Flynn. They wanted him to lie about me, make up a story. And with few exceptions, nobody did that."

•
... "If I were a Democrat instead of a Republican, I think everybody would have been in jail a long time ago; and I'm talking with 50-year sentences."

•
"It is a disgrace what's happened. This is the greatest political scam, hoax in the history of our country."

•
... "people should be going to jail for this stuff and hopefully a lot of people are going to have to pay."

•
"No other president should have to go through [this] and I'll tell you, General Flynn and others are heroes."

•
"This was all Obama. This was all Biden. These people were corrupt. The whole thing was corrupt and we caught them."

•
Trump went on to say that "they never thought" that they would get "caught in the act," adding that "they got sloppy."

•
"But here's the thing, it was impossible for it to happen without the man that sits right in that chair in the Oval Office. He knew everything."

•
"Yes, he probably directed them, but if he didn't direct them, he knew everything."

•
"Remember the Lisa Page text to her lover saying ‘POTUS wants to see everything?' They're not talking about me. I wasn't president. They're talking about POTUS wants to see everything."

•
... "if this happened to Obama instead of me everybody would be in jail for years already."

•
"It's a disgraceful thing. But we caught them in the act. It's a beautiful thing. And every day we're seeing more and more information come out."

•
"And once they left, it got easier and easier and now it's like an avalanche of really bad, call it treason, call it whatever you want, but they tried to take down a duly elected president of the United States."

•
"He could barely speak," Trump told Bartiromo, referencing Biden's interview on ABC.

•
"He was on ‘Good Morning America' right? And he said he didn't know anything about it... right after he said that, it gets released that he was one of the unmaskers, meaning he knew everything about it, so he lied to your friend George Stephanopoulos."
Maryland couple slain at Delaware veterans cemetery visited son’s grave almost daily, surviving son says (Fox 05/17/2020)
•
"Mom and Dad visited my brother's grave every single day, without fail, unless there was inclement weather. They usually went there in the morning."

•
But around 10:15 a.m. on that fateful Friday, at the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Bear, the elderly couple – ages 86 and 85 – were both shot, just yards from their son's grave, with Lidia dying at the scene and Paul, a U.S. Army veteran, dying in a hospital a day later.

•
The gunman was later identified as Sheldon Francis, 29, of Middletown, Del. Police responding to the scene later found him dead from a gunshot wound in a neighborhood near the cemetery.

•
It wasn't immediately clear if he shot himself or was struck by police gunfire.

•
"He came up behind them, pulled out a handgun and did his thing. He shot our dad in the back of the head and then he shot our mom."

•
"We don't know if he shot our mom first in front of our dad or if he shot our dad first in front of our mom. We don't even know if they saw him."

•
"My parents were in their 80s but they were very healthy and active. I thought they would die from natural causes someday – not be executed by a stranger in a cemetery."
Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia says US re-examining dependency on China after coronavirus fallout (Fox 05/16/2020)
•
"... the president took action to prevent federal retiree funds from being invested in Chinese companies including Chinese munitions manufacturers."

•
"That was not in our national security interest. it wasn't in the interest of those retirees — some of whom are military — because of some risks that are presented by these Chinese companies."

•
"That's just one example of a reappraisal that I think will happen about our dependence on other countries — particularly China."

•
"It was NAFTA more than anything else that prompted the president to run. USMCA has been one of his great achievements and that was about saving American manufacturing, saving American jobs, and I think [a] continued focus on that makes sense."

•
"In terms of other measures, let's see what we need. Congress [and] the president acted so quickly in March. There's been a lot of stimulus in there, and the focus now from my perspective is on the reopening."
Ken Starr: Flynn case was 'terrible injustice,' should never have been brought (Fox 05/16/2020)
•
"In our system of government, the decision whether to prosecute and to drop a prosecution is entirely vested in the Justice Department. And, ultimately, in the attorney general. So it's inappropriate. I think it's unlawful. And it's unlawful by the way under the law of the D.C. Circuit in which Judge Sullivan sits."

•
"When serious questions were raised about the legitimacy and the lawfulness of Gen. Flynn's prosecution by the Bob Mueller team, [Attorney General Bill Barr] appointed a very respected United States attorney from St. Louis ... to take a fresh look ... at all the new evidence that's come in. Evidence that apparently had been withheld from Gen. Flynn's defense lawyers."

•
"The prosecution never should have been brought in the first instance."

•
"The attorney general accepted that it's his responsibility and, with all due respect to ... Sullivan, he is overstepping his bounds here."

•
"And Judge Gleeson was right eight years ago in saying it would be an abuse of discretion for him not to accept the plea that had been entered into or to dismiss the charges that had been previously brought."
Obamagate – How Obama administration apparently weaponized intel agencies for political attacks (Fox 05/16/2020)
Rep. Andy Biggs: New House rule allowing proxy votes is outrageous – Increases Pelosi’s power (Fox 05/16/2020)
Judge Pirro shocked by Flynn judge's ruling: A stunning 'political hack job' (Fox 05/15/2020)
•
"This judge, by saying I want to consider a perjury charge against Michael Flynn, is so out of his realm that it is stunning to anyone who understands criminal justice."

•
"Are you going to say that anyone who pleads not guilty to a crime but is thereafter found guilty should be tried for perjury or just Michael Flynn? ... Are you going to say that there is newly discovered evidence as there was here or that there is Braden material that is not handed over that you're going to say ‘too bad, you pled guilty.'"

•
Pirro said that Sullivan has "already indicated his bias" when he asked whether or Flynn should be prosecuted for treason and he called the former Trump administration official an embarrassment to the country at previous hearings.

•
"This judge should be recused. He is an embarrassment to the bench and the robes that he wears, he is doing nothing by trying to extend this case through the election, and they're persecuting Michael Flynn."
Police union chief hits back after crass comment toward cops by de Blasio's health commissioner (Fox 05/15/2020)
•
"I am not surprised such vile words coming from an appointee of Mayor de Blasio, whose disdain for law enforcement is legendary."

•
"Think about that from a city that is the number one terrorist target since 2001. Although this is a pandemic and not terrorism, had it been a biochemical attack, our response would have been the same way."
How mainstream media 'sycophants' are revealing their motivations with Flynn coverage (Fox 05/15/2020)
•
"It is preposterous. I was watching James Clapper ... on another of the channels and he was asked directly: 'Why did you ask for the unmasking?' He said, ‘You know, I don't know. I don't remember,'"

•
"How do you not remember that? How do you not remember you trying to take down the national security adviser for the incoming president and you forgot what you were doing? I mean, it is so blatantly false to me."

•
"And to see the sycophants in the media go along with that answer – the ‘I don't know' answer — I think really tells a lot about what the motivation of the reporter is, if not of Clapper or Brennan or Comey, et cetera."

•
"But, it is when you see the list of people involved. ... It is almost impossible for the outgoing president, Barack Obama, not to be at least somewhat curious. ...There were so many people of the outgoing Obama administration involved, there was like a graduating class party."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Trey Gowdy: Leaking Flynn's name to media is a '10-year felony,' how's the investigation going? (Fox 05/15/2020)
•
"So I ask the FBI again: how is your leak investigation going? I know how your Michael Flynn investigation went, I know the time and effort you spent to try to catch someone in a lie. How is your 10-year felony investigation going? It has been four years now."
Nevada's vote-by-mail primary stirs fraud concerns, as unclaimed ballots pile up: 'Something...' (Fox 05/15/2020)
•
Thousands of ballots have been sent out by the Clark County Election Department to inactive voters – those who have not voted in recent elections, a roster that can include people who either have moved or are deceased – and the envelopes are piling up in post office trays, outside apartment complexes and on community bulletin boards...

•
The excess ballots have drawn complaints from local residents, who worry that anyone could pick up a ballot off the street and cast a fraudulent vote, as well as from Republican Party officials in the state who see a nefarious motive behind the vote-by-mail system being employed by the Democrat-dominated Clark County Commission.

•
"What's going to happen with these things, they're not secured at all and there are thousands of them just sitting here. This just seems fraudulent to me, something stinks here."

•
"The Democratic county commissioners were working with the Democratic Party on some kind of backroom deal. If Trump was accused of doing this, there would be an outrage."

•
"Anyone can turn in a ballot they pick off the ground. This is a dangerous proposition."

•
"People were carrying in stacks of 100 and 200 of them. We had had multiple people calling to ask if these people were allowed to do this."
Mark Levin shreds 'arrogant' Michael Flynn case judge: 'Get him the hell off this case' (Fox 05/15/2020)
•
"You don't have a case and you don't have a controversy. The parties have dropped out. The parties want to get out. You don't have the right to continue to do what you are doing."

•
"Another backdoor way to violate the Constitution. Judge [Sullivan], you expect us to follow your rulings and your opinions? You think you are the law? The United States Supreme Court ... in the unanimous decision ... written by Ruth Bader Ginsburg took a situation like this where the Ninth Circuit was using amicus curiae/friend of court briefs to change the nature and position the case — not what the parties were fighting over but what the court wanted them to fight over."

•
"This judge is a rogue judge. He's out of control, he should recuse himself but he is too damn arrogant and he won't."

•
"This judge lacks jurisdiction to do what he is doing, according to the United States Supreme Court [and] according to the United States Constitution. And if he wants to be an Obama flunky and a NeverTrumper, then take your black robe off, judge, leave the courtroom and join the rest of us."

•
"But if you are not going to conduct yourself like a serious judge, you either recuse yourself, resign, or the [DOJ] has to go over his head to the D.C. Circuit [of Appeals] and get him the hell off this case."
Gutfeld on the media’s lack of self-reflection (Fox 05/14/2020)
Sen. Thom Tillis: Coronavirus and China — US recovery includes holding Beijing accountable (Fox 05/14/2020)
Sen. Rand Paul: Flynn case abuses – Protect liberty without sacrificing security. Here's how (Fox 05/14/2020)
Ken Starr reacts to Michael Flynn unmasking list: 'Why did Vice President Biden need to unmask?' (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"It is so odd that you had so many people and at increasingly high levels [request the unmasking]. It raises a lot of, I think, very serious questions. We don't have the answers to them, but it is a very good reason to be suspicious."

•
"... why did the chief of staff to the president of the United States need to unmask? Why did Vice President Biden need to unmask? There's been no explanation for that."
Sen. Bill Cassidy trashes Pelosi's new $3T spending proposal: It 'doesn't pass the laugh test' (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"Clearly she went to her committee chairs and she said give me that which you think maybe we can get in here – a starting point for negotiations so we'll look reasonable when we retreat from it."

•
"On the other hand, it is socking it to the American people, cynically saying we're here to help you but rather instead trying to fulfill a leftwing agenda."

•
"Now clearly some aid is going to be needing [to go] further. The longer the crisis lasts, the more likely aid is going to be needed.."

•
"That said, we shouldn't kind of mash it together again with the wish list. That discredits the true need as people are attempting to sneak in an agenda cynically saying this is about me but really it's about an agenda."
Pelosi calls $3T coronavirus relief bill Democrats' starting offer as White House issues veto threat (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"This is really quite an exciting time for us because we have a monumental need for our country at this sad time," Pelosi said.

•
"House Democrats had a blank slate to write anything they wanted to define the modern Democratic Party," McConnell said.

•
"... And they chose: Tax hikes on small business, giveaways to blue-state millionaires, government checks for illegal immigrants, and sending diversity detectives to inspect the pot industry."
Public health versus public safety: Confusion looms as sex offenders are released from... (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Critics turn up heat on Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"The Mueller probe was launched not to find wrongdoing from the Trump administration, but to cover up wrongdoing by Mueller's colleagues, by his protege James Comey, by the corrupt Obama administration Department of Justice."

•
"Bob Mueller knew the day that he walked in the door there was no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russians."

•
"We looked at all the intelligence. There's zero evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russians — period."

•
"From the beginning, the Mueller investigation existed to not protect the rule of law, but to protect the FBI and DOJ from scrutiny for their crimes."

•
"That was one reason — they had to drag the investigation out through the 2018 election and through the 2019 changeover of power in the House."

•
"They needed to make sure that Republicans were no longer in control. They needed to make sure that somebody like Adam Schiff, who is a complete liar and fraud, would be able to run interference for them."
Andy McCarthy predicts Flynn would only take Trump pardon 'as a last resort' (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"I don't think General Flynn wants a pardon. I think he wants the authority that indicted him to say that there wasn't a case. I think as a last resort, he would take the pardon, but I think that you know there [are] other rounds to be played, here."

•
"It's the Justice Department's authority. It's within its Constitutional authority to dismiss this case."

•
"And I don't think you go right to a pardon just because you have a district judge who is acting in a way that doesn't comport with what a district judge is supposed to do. So you go up to the court of appeals first."
Michigan barber defying Gov. Whitmer’s coronavirus shutdown has license stripped (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
Karl Manke, 77, became a symbol of resistance when he opened the doors of his Owosso shop on May 4 and refused to close, pledging to keep his doors open until police arrest him or "Jesus walks in."

•
After a judge declined to sign an order to shut down his shop Monday without first holding a hearing, state regulators opted to suspend Manke's barber and shop licenses.

•
"It is paramount that we take action to protect the public and do our part to help save lives."

•
"I think it's totally vindictive. It's petty, it's totally in retribution because they didn't like the court order from earlier this week."

•
"Obviously she [Whitmer] has no concept at all, the damage that she's doing to our state and to families."

•
"I don't need the governor to be my mother," Manke told ... last week.

•
"I have one. God bless her, she's gone now. I don't need another mother. I can make these adult decisions myself."
Florida Gov. DeSantis calls out other governors for 'draconian' lockdowns: 'You're not a dictator' (Fox 05/14/2020)
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"I don't think any governor has the authority to restrict anyone unless there's a direct relationship to combating this virus."

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"If you look around the country, clearly there have been examples of really draconian, arbitrary restrictions that have nothing to do with public health, like you can't plant a seed in your front yard in your garden, you can't walk around the neighborhood with your daughter or something like that."

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"So some of this stuff I think has devolved into social control. I think absolutely it's gotten out of hand."

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"We were reasonable," DeSantis said. "We trusted the people to act appropriately and we've had better results than some of the states that you've seen."

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"I certainly always believed that the open air is just simply a less transmissible environment."

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"When you have the opportunity to be in good weather, you're going to be less likely to be in those enclosed environments, which is really, I think, where we've seen this virus really spread like wildfire."
Tom Homan on plan to give stimulus money to some illegal immigrants: Pelosi has 'lost her mind' (Fox 05/14/2020)
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"She wants to use taxpayer money to pay illegal aliens who committed a crime by entering the country illegally [and] there in violation of the law for working in this country illegally."

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... Pelosi's stimulus package would give employers a pass for the crime of hiring illegal immigrants.

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Homan said that Pelosi, for three years, argued that President Trump acts as though he is "above the law. But, apparently, in her eyes, illegal aliens are above the law."

•
"I don't know what the color of the sky is in her world, but she's lost her mind in this stimulus package."

•
"What happens when that happens is thousands of U.S. citizens get their identity stolen, they lose their credit rating, they spends thousands of dollars to get that fixed and employers don't hire illegal aliens out of the goodness of their heart, they hire them so they can pay them less, undercut their competition, not pay employment taxes, and commit tax evasion."
NYPD union lashes out at health commissioner over coronavirus mask plea rejection (Fox 05/14/2020)
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... in response to revelations that she told an NYPD official she didn't give "two rats' a***es" about cops getting safety masks.

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"Truth is this b*** has blood on her hands but why should anyone be surprised the NYPD has suffered under DeBlasio since he became Mayor."
Pelosi’s $3 trillion coronavirus bill lets her play left-wing Santa Claus with your tax dollars (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
Pelosi is thereby using the coronavirus pandemic to push through a long-time Democratic ambition, possibly creating a path to citizenship for the millions of people who have come to the country illegally.

•
Such a blanket amnesty would significantly enhance Democrats' future election prospects.

•
Of course, Pelosi's bill includes myriad other items that have nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic and everything to do with politics.

•
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has explained that New Yorkers are moving to Florida for better weather. Seriously. We know better.

•
Grinches on the Republican side of the aisle have called Pelosi's goodie-packed bill "dead on arrival" and no one expects it to pass.

•
But come November, Pelosi and her colleagues will doubtless remind voters of all they tried to give them, and blame the GOP for stuffing coal in their stockings instead.

•
Republicans will argue that, as we pile up trillions of dollars in more debt, getting the economy working again is the only sane way forward.

•
They will be right. The damage being done by the ongoing lockdown is enormous and includes medical needs unmet, rising suicides and drug abuse, as well as a real hit to our kids' education.

•
Nothing should stand in the way of rebuilding our economy, and certainly not Pelosi's ambitions.

•
The $3 trillion in the legislation could turn out to be just the down payment on "transforming" our economy, as the Pelosi crowd is so eager to do.
Trump eyes crackdown of NYSE-listed Chinese companies (Fox 05/14/2020)
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... is considering whether to impose stricter requirements on Chinese companies listing on U.S. stock exchanges...

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Chinese companies currently aren't required to follow U.S. accounting standards, which has led to fraudulent corporations using America's capital markets and caused investor losses.

•
The administration and Congress are looking into additional measures against Beijing as well.

•
Among the ideas are giving Americans the right to sue China for the damage COVID-19 has caused to the economy and human life, imposing sanctions and travel bans and restricting loans to Chinese businesses by U.S. firms.

•
See related Thanks, China (Bob Gorrell, 03/19/2017) cartoon from World picture album
Judge Jeanine Pirro says Flynn case judge should be 'embarrassed to put a robe on' after unusual order (Fox 05/14/2020)
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"The judge has an obligation to rule on the case before him."

•
"It is not complicated. It is a motion to dismiss with one of the most fact-laden affidavit[s] ... behind it to support the application to dismiss. It's a ministerial move that this judge apparently doesn't want to make."

•
"Now, they want to bring in the clowns. This morning, it was all the retired Watergate attorneys who want to come in and now we're going to bring in someone else to tell the judge how to rule. He's [Sullivan's] been a judge for 30 years."

•
... called on for Sullivan to "recuse himself," adding that he "should be embarrassed to put a robe on."

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"This judge doesn't belong on that case. And now what he's doing is he's poisoning the 2020 election ... He's trying to destroy the whole thing so that [Attorney General William] Barr looks like the villain here."
Judge Napolitano: How Flynn's unmasking by Obama officials became 'arguably a crime' (Fox 05/14/2020)
Gregg Jarrett: Here's the real reason Obama officials targeted Flynn 'with a vengeance' (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"And I think it's because, you know, Flynn had a bullseye on his back. People like Comey, McCabe, Brennan and Clapper all knew that once Flynn took the helm...as national security adviser, he would expose the Russia hoax."

•
"And so they went after him with a vengeance. They targeted him, and they got rid of him."
Kurtz: New Flynn revelations force CNN, MSNBC to play 'catch up' after ignoring developments (Fox 05/14/2020)
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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Devin Nunes on Obama officials' unmasking requests: 'What the hell were they doing?' (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"It appears to me like what they were doing is a lot of them went wild after Trump won. They got poisoned with this Russia hoax."

•
"That's why you had Obama ambassadors across the globe unmasking, all of them were just unmasking and then leaking out about anyone within the Trump campaign and the Trump transition team that they could and you had the media who were taking those leaks."

•
"We have never requested to unmask any American at all. So why, in the waning days of the Obama administration, would they be doing this?"

•
"Joe Biden in his office and McDonough, they were all doing what the rest of them had been doing for the few months after the election."

•
"They were unmasking anyone and everyone so that they could leak information to a press that was willing to take that illegal information to build a fake, phony narrative, to set up numerous people on the Trump team, not just General Flynn."

•
"General Flynn paid a big price for it because he was put under investigation by the dirty cops at the FBI and the Clinton campaign in 2016."

•
"We're looking at doing criminal referrals on the Mueller team, the Mueller dossier team, the Mueller witch hunt, whatever you want to call it. That's where we are now in our investigation."
Trump says critics want him to keep economy closed until election: 'It's a political thing' (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"The people that want to see the right thing happen, they agree with me. We have to get our country open."

•
"You know, if it was up to some people let's keep it closed for a long time ... and watch the United States go down the tubes. Not gonna happen. Never gonna happen on my watch."

•
"So [Dr.] Anthony [Fauci] is a good person, a very good person – I've disagreed with him."

•
"We have to get the schools open, we have to get our country open, we have to open our country. Now we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible, we can't keep going on like this ... You're having bedlam already in the streets, you can't do this. We have to get it open. I totally disagree with him on schools."

•
"I think we have to open our schools, young people are very little affected by this."

•
"We should be humble about what we don't know," Fauci told Paul.

•
"And I think that falls under the fact that we don't know everything about this virus, and we really got to be very careful, particularly when it comes to children. Because the more and more we learn, we're seeing things about what this virus can do that we didn't see from the studies in China or in Europe."

•
Trump also noted ... that Fauci has supported his earlier move to restrict travel from China in the earlier stages of the coronavirus outbreak.

•
"He said I saved hundreds of thousands of lives, which is what happened. Everybody disagreed when I did that."

•
Trump also hit the Chinese government, which knew about the coronavirus outbreak when it signed a trade deal with Trump in January. "I'm very disappointed in China, I will tell you, right now."

•
"We have to open our country, we have no choice. You know people are dying this way too ... they're dying of this closure ... where they're in their house or their apartment ... they're not allowed to go out."

•
See related Finally Got Him (Chip Bok, 03/31/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump weighs in on unmasking: 'Greatest political crime in the history of our country' (Fox 05/14/2020)
•
"If I were a Democrat instead of a Republican, I think everybody would have been in jail a long time ago, and I'm talking with 50-year sentences. It is a disgrace what's happened. This is the greatest political scam, hoax in the history of our country."

•
"People should be going to jail for this stuff and hopefully, a lot of people are going to have to pay. No other president should have to go through, and I'll tell you, Gen. Flynn and others are heroes, heroes, because what's happened to them. They weren't after Gen. Flynn. They wanted him to lie about me. Make up a story."

•
"Joe Biden's limp claim that he doesn't know anything about the railroading of Gen. Michael Flynn just got even more unbelievable. Biden is listed among the Obama administration officials who requested the unmasking of Flynn."

•
"We already knew Biden was briefed on the Flynn case before President Trump took office and now we know that he wanted Flynn unmasked."

•
Unmasking occurs after U.S. citizens' conversations are incidentally picked up in conversations with foreign officials who are being monitored by the intelligence community.

•
The U.S. citizens' identities are supposed to be protected if their participation is incidental and no wrongdoing is suspected.

•
However, officials can determine the U.S. citizens' names through a process that is supposed to safeguard their rights.

•
Flynn's name was picked up in calls with Kislyak during the presidential transition.

•
Flynn urged the Russian ambassador to not respond to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration over Russian election interference.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Lawyer appointed by Judge Sullivan to offer arguments in Flynn case already has slammed Trump WH's... (Fox 05/14/2020)
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... appointing a law firm partner "to present arguments in opposition to the government's motion to dismiss" the matter — and to consider whether the court should hold Flynn in contempt for perjury.

•
Sullivan has previously suggested Flynn may have committed treason, in a bizarre 2018 courtroom outburst, and seemingly confused key details about Flynn's overseas lobbying work.

•
... apparently pre-judging the Flynn case, writing that "the [Flynn] record reeks of improper political influence."

•
"So if the court finds dismissal would result in a miscarriage of justice, it can deny the motion, refuse to permit withdrawal of the guilty plea and proceed to sentencing."

•
"Judge Sullivan, who denied leave to file amicus briefs when he knew third parties would have spoken favorably of Flynn, now solicits briefs critical of Flynn."

•
"This is a violation of the judicial oath and applicable ethical rules. We will be filing a complaint against Sullivan."

•
... case law in the circuit generally prohibits trial court judges from second-guessing the government's decision not to prosecute a defendant.

•
Indeed, Sullivan himself had previously held in the Flynn case that "[o]ptions exist for a private citizen to express his views about matters of public interest, but the Court's docket is not an available option."

•
... Sullivan himself appeared open to the idea that Flynn could be charged with a death penalty-eligible offense.

•
"I'm not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense," Sullivan said during that hearing.

•
He added that Flynn's allegedly unregistered work with Turkey "arguably" had undermined "everything this flag over here stands for."

•
In a bizarre moment, Sullivan then asked the government's attorneys whether they had considered charging Flynn with treason.

•
The prosecutors said they had not, and Sullivan later walked back his comments after a brief recess.
Rep. Devin Nunes vows criminal referrals for Robert Mueller's team in latest Russia probe reckoning (Fox 05/13/2020)
•
"We're doing a large criminal referral on the Mueller dossier team that put together a fraudulent report — that knew there was no collusion the day that Mueller walked in the door."

•
"They set an obstruction of justice trap. There's no doubt in my mind that we will make a conspiracy referral there."

•
"We'll also be making an obstruction of justice criminal referral because we know that the House of Representatives... had multiple requests, multiple subpoenas that were out there that effectively were never answered, even though they claim they answered them. Well, now what we learned is that they lied and misled Congress by omission."

•
"They thought it was cute to just not give us things, not tell us things and say that they met the requirements. Well, now that these documents are turning up, you know, who was guiding the redactions that were done? Who was instructing things to remain classified?"

•
"Was that the leadership of DOJ and the FBI communicating with Mueller? And was that Mueller making that call or was that the senior leadership? Look, that's not for us to determine. That's for a U.S. attorney to determine who was lying. I want to see all of them held accountable for this."
Sen. Blackburn: Obama's DOJ carried out a 'taxpayer-funded conspiracy' against Flynn, Trump (Fox 05/13/2020)
•
"We all know a few things about this. We know somebody cooked up this plot, somebody gave an order, somebody did the dirty work. Michael Flynn paid a price. The Trump administration paid a price."

•
"And, the American taxpayer has footed the bill and they are saying, 'OK, tell me about this. Who did this? Where is fairness in this? And, how did we ever get here?'"

•
"We know that this made its way to the Oval Office. There was a meeting in the Oval Office. Obama and Biden were there. And, people want to know: who knew what when? Who did what?"

•
"People do want to know what happened and who decided to do this unmasking and who all was unmasked."

•
"Who all were they going in and revealing information? Who was the briefer? Not only who was the unmasker, but who was the briefer to the president since he seemed to know so much about this?"

•
"I look forward to being able to bring some daylight to this so that the American people will know what happened when you had basically a taxpayer-funded conspiracy that got carried out by the Obama DOJ and FBI. And, the taxpayers' money was used to fund all of that."
Former US attorney on judge's 'outrageous' decision in Flynn case: I thought I'd 'seen everything' (Fox 05/13/2020)
•
"And let's face it, if it looks like this is what's going on, there is strategy then that's at the heart of what this judge is trying to accomplish. And, that strategy is offensive to anyone who practices."

•
"It's the United States against Michael Flynn. And, when the United States says we're no longer going to pursue it because we don't have the evidence, then the audacity of somebody outside of that coming in who has no authority is outrageous."
Ben Shapiro: Unjust Flynn prosecution shows Obama administration shattered rule of law (Fox 05/13/2020)
Pete Hegseth: Time to confront Chinese communists and anti-American global institutions (Fox 05/13/2020)
•
Will America rally around its founding values or surrender to forces of socialism, globalism, and politically correct elitism?

•
"COVID-19 presents an opportunity to highlight the threat from Communist China — and finally do something about it."

•
"As for international institutions, the anti-American bias of the WHO [World Health Organization] is on full display."

•
"If America wants to stay strong and free, we need to ditch these poisonous international institutions, which have long since stopped serving American interests."

•
"China has mastered the art of the globalism double standard: open up for us, but we will not open up for you. We can buy your land, but you can't buy ours. We will happily take your money, but we will never embrace your freedom. 'Globalism' for China is war disguised as peace: technological war, cultural war, trade war, and military war. China has a dream — it's called the Chinese dream — and it ends with the reestablishment of the former Chinese Empire. This is why President Trump calls our trade and sovereignty policies 'dumb' — because they are. If we don't stand up to communist China now, we will be standing for the Chinese anthem someday."

•
"Globalization is here to stay, but we can manage globalization without falling for 'globalism.' There's a very big difference: one is a technological reality; the other is a scheme to eliminate national sovereignty in order to centralize control over the means of production. Simply put: globalism is worldwide socialism. The original premise of the United Nations was the idea that before countries fight with each other, their leaders should at least talk to each other. Talking is a good idea, and peaceful resolution is usually better than war. But that is not what the United Nations is today. The United Nations is now a fully globalist organization that aggressively advances an anti-American, anti-Israel, and antifreedom agenda. There's one set of rules for the United States and Israel, another for everyone else. We should just lop it off from the island of Manhattan and let it float out to sea. It would do more good out there."

•
"The patriotic mindset is the military mindset. It is what forged and founded this country. It is courage. We can be responsible, we can follow guidelines by also reopening... I think we can muster, we've done it before guys, and I think this is a chance to rise to that challenge."
Mollie Hemingway hits back at Eric Holder's claim about the 'rule of law' (Fox 05/13/2020)
Brit Hume warns there's 'more to learn about what President Obama may have done and said'... (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
"It seems to me that the people who were in one way or another involved in this, the handling of the Michael Flynn case, are now crying foul that the Justice Department decided to abandon that case."

•
"And I don't think we should take terribly seriously their complaints about this when you balance them against all the irregularities and obvious signs of bad faith that have now come to light and how this whole case was developed and prosecuted from the start."

•
"And, you know, the president knew all about it because he learned about it, presumably, from the FBI [Director] James Comey, who was in the room also at that meeting, as [was] Vice President Biden."

•
"It appears that the president [Obama] had encouraged the Justice Department, the FBI, not to tell Donald Trump about what they'd been looking into with regard to Flynn, although they were happy to tell him about the preposterous 'pee tape' that was supposedly part of that... discredited dossier."

•
"So we, we have some more to learn about what President Obama may have done and said about all this and whether he may have directed the whole thing."
Susan Rice Inauguration Day email could shed light on Obama's actions in Flynn case (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
"There's a lot that we don't know. Ever since Republicans first began discovering questionable activities by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Trump-Russia investigation ... they were asking the question, 'What did President Obama know?'"

•
"He starts talking, the president does, about the wiretap of Michael Flynn and what was heard. We know right there that the president was talking about the Flynn case and we don't know what else."

•
"That is something that really caught the eye of a lot of Republican investigators when they found it."

•
"It was pretty much the last thing Susan Rice ever did in the Obama Administration. She's writing about it and she is stressing ... it doesn't say what they did but it was 'completely by the book,' which indicates that there was some possibility of doing things not by the book and she wanted to make sure everybody knew that President Obama did it 'by the book.'"
Trump escalates feud with Obama, insists ex-president was involved in ‘crime’ (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
When asked by a reporter in the Rose Garden what crime he is accusing Obama of committing, Trump responded: "Obamagate, it's been going on for a long time, it's been going on from before I got elected, and it's a disgrace that it happened. You look at now all of this information that's being released and from what I understand that's only the beginning."

•
When pressed for details, the commander in chief told a Washington Post reporter, "You know the crime. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours."

•
Obama has long had a tense relationship with Flynn: He fired him as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 and warned the Trump administration against his hiring.

•
Obama's unexpectedly intimate knowledge of the details of Flynn's calls, which the FBI acknowledged at the time were not criminal or even improper, raised eyebrows because of his own history with Flynn — and because top FBI officials secretly discussed whether their "goal" was "to get [Flynn] to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired" when they interviewed him in the White House on January 24, 2017.

•
"The whole thing was orchestrated and set up within the FBI, Clapper, Brennan and in the Oval Office meeting that day with President Obama."
Chaffetz says new Flynn documents are 'smoking gun': Obama, Biden are 'scared' the truth will... (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
"It's hard to believe that there is anything other than direct acknowledgment and direction from the president of the U.S. to the FBI director, who then does things a couple of weeks later that is totally unprecedented in storming, in that the White House, putting this ambush together, and going after General Flynn like we've never seen before."

•
... said that "what bugs him" is that the FBI did not give the incoming president the "courtesy and respect" of giving him a "one-on-one" defensive briefing."

•
"They totally bypassed that. That is fundamentally and totally wrong and shame on Barack Obama for doing that."

•
"The more that's revealed, the more nefarious this is, the more fundamentally wrong it is. If it were the other way on the Democrats, they would be screaming bloody murder. But they're such hypocrites in this situation."
Sean Hannity: Former President Obama – The liar and hypocrite (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
The always sanctimonious former president is now upset that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn will not likely spend time behind bars, or the rest of his life as a convicted felon.

•
... Obama privately complains to members of the Obama Alumni Association that, "the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free. That's the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — but our basic understanding of the rule of law is at risk."

•
The former president's self-righteous, pearl-clutching statement is both blatantly dishonest and hypocritical.

•
In fact, Flynn was not even charged with perjury. He pled guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI.

•
The former president lied about the "shovel ready" jobs in his stimulus bill. He lied about premiums going down under ObamaCare. His "keep your doctor, keep your plan" shtick was named PolitiFact's 2013 "lie of the year."

•
His United Nations Ambassador, Susan Rice, appeared on five different Sunday talk shows and lied about the Benghazi attack. Rampant dishonesty was a way of life under the Obama administration.

•
So why is the former president so concerned with the case of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn?

•
According to Flynn's attorney Sidney Powell, Obama was a key figure in the plot to frame her client.

•
On Jan. 5, 2017, just one day, after Flynn's dead-in-the-water "Russia collusion" case was inexplicably reopened, then-President Obama pulled both FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates aside to discuss Flynn.

•
Yates testified that she was shocked to learn that Obama had intimate knowledge of Flynn's wiretapped phone calls.

•
In the days and weeks to come, Comey's FBI took unusual, aggressive and unethical measures to persecute Flynn.

•
Now that we know former President Obama is so deeply concerned with our "rule of law," and doing things "by the book," and that he knew about the contents of the call Gen. Flynn made, he owes the American people serious answers.

•
The real question must now be asked under oath: President Barack Obama, what did you know and when did you know it?
Rep. Collins responds to Obama: Flynn was unfairly targeted because they wanted to 'get at Trump' (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
"The problem has been corrected: General Flynn was unfairly targeted..."

•
"They did not like Donald Trump and they did everything they possibly could to get at him and if they had to go through and destroy a life like General Flynn, they had no problems [with it] and that is just disgusting in America."
Jesse Watters slams Obama's 'corrupt presidency' over Russia investigation: 'This guy's got...' (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
"This guy's got some nerve, Barack Obama. We now have evidence that they planted evidence, they hid evidence, they concocted evidence against the Trump campaign. This was a frame job from the very beginning."

•
"There was never evidence of collusion, except all the Obama intelligence officials went on TV and said that there was collusion. Yet under oath, they said they saw no evidence of collusion."
Ben Shapiro blasts Obama response to Flynn dismissal motion as 'high-handed garbage' (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
"... he was a joke when he was president," Shapiro added. "He was constantly, in high-handed language, doing exactly the same sort of tribalizing activity with regard to American politics he accuses others of."

•
"The fact is. from what we understand, Obama was in the loop on what his team was doing ... and then he's talking about corruption inside the Trump DOJ for killing a prosecution that was obviously malicious in intent?"

•
"When the Barack Obama FBI and Barack Obama DOJ were working together with the tacit assumption that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia. and then they are willing to bend virtually every rule in order to pursue that line of attack?"

•
"Pretty wild stuff from Barack Obama, but ... when you spent your entire political career being immune to slings and arrows, it's pretty easy to throw stones."

•
See related Miss Me? (Glenn McCoy, 02/28/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump abruptly ends news conference after fiery exchanges with CBS, CNN reporters (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
"You've said many times that the U.S. is doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing. ... Why does that matter? Why is this a global competition to you if everyday Americans are still losing their lives and we're still seeing more cases every day?"

•
"Well, they're losing their lives everywhere in the world. And maybe that's a question you should ask China."

•
"Don't ask me, ask China, okay? When you ask them, you may get a very unusual answer."

•
As the president attempted to move on to the next reporter, Jiang, who is Asian-American, pressed him on he was "saying that to me specifically," suggesting his comment was racially motivated.

•
"I'm telling you — I'm not saying that specifically to anybody, I'm saying it to anybody who would ask a nasty question like that," Trump responded.

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Trump increases attack against Obama with ‘Obamagate’ tweet 5/11/20 (Fox s:/et/2020)
•
Trump said that Flynn was innocent and was targeted in an attempt to take down his presidency. He told reporters that he was unaware that the DOJ was going to drop its case.

•
"I felt it was going to happen just by watching and seeing, like everybody else does. He was an innocent man. He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president."

•
"What they've done is a disgrace and I hope a big price is going to be paid. A big price should be paid. There's never been anything like this in the history of our country. What they did, what the Obama administration did, is unprecedented. It's never happened. Never happened. A thing like this has never happened."

•
Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, told ... that the FBI likely feared that Flynn would uncover illegitimacies surrounding the origin of the Russia probe.

•
"I think the best way to look at this is what the FBI and the Obama Administration wanted to do here was really audacious if you think about it in terms of the idea of trying to continue an investigation after a new president has come into power and is in a position to shut down the investigation — when the president ultimately is the target of the investigation."

•
Larry Kudlow ... national economic council director, told ... that he did not want to engage in a political back and forth with the former president, but said Trump has worked well in incorporating the private sector and parts of the government in the response.

•
"I don't understand what President Obama is saying. It just sounds so darn political to me. Look, what we have done may not be 100 percent perfect. These things happen once every 100 years."
'Chinese communist party' dismantled Trump's 'beautiful economy' in 60 days amid coronavirus (Fox 05/10/2020)
•
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told ... that President Trump "built the most powerful and beautiful economy in the world in three years," but, "the Chinese communist party took it down in 60 days."

•
... made the claim three days after House Republicans launched a "China Task Force" to coordinate a strategy against the geopolitical threat from Beijing — coming amid global scrutiny over China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

•
The group will set priorities, gather information and coordinate approaches to the threat coming from China, including dealing with legislation.

•
The group also is expected to look at China's influence in the U.S., its efforts to take over international organizations, supply chains and more, along with China's role in the coronavirus pandemic.

•
"We know that ‘patient zero' in China, it was about mid-November, it was in Wuhan. We know that ‘ground zero' had the P4 weapons lab where the virus likely came from."

•
"For the next two months, we know that China hid the virus from the world behind the shield of the World Health Organization, and as they did that, they sent gleaming passenger jets from China, not into the rest of China from Wuhan, but to the places like New York and Milan seeding the world with what would become a pandemic."

•
"As they did that, we also know from their own customs data, that they vacuumed up virtually all of the world's personal protective equipment [PPE], including over two billion masks."

•
"They're selling it at profiteering prices to some, and to other countries, they're actually putting pressure on those countries to deny the virus came from China, or to talk about Taiwan."

•
"This morning, Americans won't go to church because of the China virus. Sons and daughters of America won't be taking their mothers to brunch. Tomorrow, 33 million Americans won't be going to work and millions of children in America will be home climbing the walls instead of learning reading, writing and arithmetic."

•
"I think this is going to be a multi-year period as we go through, and I think that's why it's important to have somebody in the White House who actually understands economics and the economy."

•
"This will be an ongoing struggle of complexity, that we're going to have to have somebody in the White House who focuses on the economy. It's jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs."

•
"We are getting back to work, but we're also going to have to tend to these structural issues and that's what the president is going to be focused on."
Mike Huckabee: Leaders backing ongoing lockdowns should skip paychecks until people can return to work (Fox 05/10/2020)
•
"I think one thing we are beginning to recognize is part of the reason this has extended is because, all of the government people who are telling us to lock our doors and not go anywhere, they're all getting their paychecks, every last one of them."

•
"Not one government employee is failing to get their paycheck. So if we really want to solve this let's say this: if you're a government person and you're telling other people they can't get their pay, you don't get yours. And that includes Nancy Pelosi and the members of Congress."

•
"I think governors across the country are recognizing that people have had about enough of just being told to stay home, don't go anywhere, don't do anything. Everybody wants to be safe."

•
"People have applied extraordinary measures to protect themselves and their friends and their neighbors – but there's also a point in which we cannot live hunkered down forever."

•
"It's not like bombs are dropping on top of London. We're at a time when we've got to get back to work or there's not going to be anything to get out of the house to go back to."

•
"These governors who have managed by saying, 'Let's not shut everything down too quickly,' have actually had far better results than the ones who closed the doors, locked the key and started arresting people for doing such things as getting a haircut or buying seeds to plant tomatoes in their garden."

•
"You know, there's certainly a power grab that I find revolting. We don't live in a police state. I've been all over the world ... to places that are authoritarian, totalitarian governments. And every time I'm there, I'm thinking, I want to get out of here. This is not America. I like freedom. And I've visited some police states. I don't want to live in one."

•
"The way that the World Health Organization, WHO, has kowtowed to China is disgusting and revolting and President Trump is exactly right to do what he's done."
Trey Gowdy reacts to Obama's 'amazing statement' after DOJ dropped Flynn case (Fox 05/10/2020)
•
"Where is [Obama's] respect for the rule of law for the crime that Michael Flynn was the victim of?"

•
"Remember, he was unmasked by somebody in Obama's administration and then it was leaked... that is a 10-year felony, to disseminate classified information. Michael Flynn was a victim of that crime."

•
"The FBI used a dossier that was bought and paid for by your political party without vetting a single factual allegation in that dossier."

•
"You put it in front of a federal judge, where is your concern for respect for the rule of law as it relates to Carter Page and what happened to him?"
The Federalist's Ben Domenech on Obama, Biden Oval Office meeting being 'key to entire anti-Trump...' (Fox 05/10/2020)
•
"It was at this meeting that Obama gave guidance to key officials who would be tasked with protecting his administration's utilization of secretly funded Clinton campaign research, which alleged Trump was involved in a treasonous plot to collude with Russia, from being discovered or stopped by the incoming administration."

•
"That was the meeting where Sally Yates apparently found out that James Comey was circumventing their normal practices when it came to going through the White House counsel before interviewing Michael Flynn."

•
"This creates, I think, a question that really needs to be asked of the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee about what happened in that meeting, what his role might have been in spinning this up."

•
Speaking from the White House on Thursday President Trump said Flynn "was an innocent man."

•
"He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president and what they've done is a disgrace. They're scum and I say it a lot. They're scum. They're human scum."
Nunes: Transcripts show Russia investigation was 'phony the whole time' (Fox 05/10/2020)
•
"I think that's the real revelation for the American people, is they were using their own Russian dirt to ask questions. And it was all fake. It was all phony the whole time."

•
"Despite the many barriers put in our way by the then-Republican Majority, and attempts by some key witnesses to lie to us and obstruct our investigation, the transcripts that we are releasing today show precisely what Special Counsel Robert Mueller also revealed: That the Trump campaign, and Donald Trump himself, invited illicit Russian help, made full use of that help, and then lied and obstructed the investigations in order to cover up this misconduct." Schiff said in a statement.

•
But the transcripts are full of testimony from officials who said they were unaware of evidence showing coordination between the Trump team and the Russians.

•
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen – who later had a falling out with the president and was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to several crimes – repeatedly told the House panel that he had no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russian government.
Former acting AG says Flynn decision was 'just,' blames Comey for bad culture at FBI (Fox 05/09/2020)
Maryland police release footage of fatal police shooting (Fox 05/09/2020)
•
"Put the knife down!" Cohen, with his gun drawn, is heard screaming as the man runs toward him and then stops before backing away.

•
"Get on the ground! I don't want to shoot you!" Cohen shouts just before the man starts running at him a second time.

•
Moments later, the officer shoots the man in the chest. Five gunshots can be heard on the video.
Protect Americans With American Supplies (JWR 05/08/2020)
Jesse Watters calls Flynn case 'an Obama scandal,' predicts more revelations to come: 'It's about...' (Fox 05/08/2020)
•
"It's not about FBI misbehavior. It's about Obama. This is an Obama scandal. This goes all the way to the top."

•
"Winners write history, and Donald Trump won in 2016. He's probably going to win again and each day he has his guys in there looking around, they are finding more and more evidence that this thing was the most crooked, disgusting thing that's ever been perpetrated on a presidential campaign."

•
... alleged that Obama had to know about the investigation into the Trump campaign on the grounds that counterintelligence investigations always are done with the knowledge or at the order of the commander-in-chief.

•
"They are not done for the FBI or the CIA. They are done for Barack Obama or whoever is president at the time."

•
"They had to take Flynn out because Flynn was incoming and he was going to see all the things they had done: the dossier, the wiretapping, the spies, the leaks, the lies.

•
"They knew they couldn't get [Flynn] any other way, so we now have evidence that there was an Oval Office meeting with [then-FBI Director James] Comey and Biden ... and Barack Obama, and [then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates] said that Barack Obama knew about the phone call between Flynn and the [Russian] ambassador; perfectly legal."

•
"We are going to find out more, and we have documents coming in tomorrow, next week, that show even worse things. So buckle up, everybody. It's about to get ugly."
Alan Dershowitz says Barr did right thing in dropping Flynn case: 'There was never a crime' (Fox 05/08/2020)
Why farmers dump food and crops while grocery stores run dry and Americans struggle (Fox 05/08/2020)
•
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wage a silent war across the country, American farmers are being forced to pour out milk, crush eggs, toss fresh fruits and vegetables, euthanize livestock and plow under perfectly robust crops

•
Meanwhile, financially beleaguered Americans are lining up at food banks in unprecedented numbers, humanitarian leaders fear a global starvation pandemic is burgeoning, and grocery store shelves are sparsely filled.

•
So what has gone wrong? A dramatic dip in demand, weak links in the highly consolidated supply chain, and decades of industry monopolization.

•
"A large portion of our food is now produced for restaurants, hotels, schools, and institutional users, about 50 percent. Those markets have effectively closed up, and there is not enough demand for home use now."

•
"This move towards concentration of food processing has been a general trend for many years and has been done for efficiency and cost-cutting purposes. But we now see how it is impacted by a single event like COVID-19, where workers have been so impacted."

•
"Before the pandemic, U.S. consumers purchased about a third of their calories and spent over half of their food dollars on food consumed outside of their home – restaurants, fast food, schools, work cafeterias, etc.."

•
"The closure of these outlets and stay-at-home orders have radically changed where most Americans buy and consume their food, and the supply chains have been slow to reorganize and respond."

•
"A lot of the food supply chain was built to supply commercial and retail foodservice outlets. It is difficult for many of these companies to change their production practices and distribution systems in the space of a few weeks."

•
"Like vegetable and fruit farmers, dairy farmers have little choice but to dump excess milk. Different reasons are at work for each food supply chain that makes it unfeasible to easily or quickly divert the food supplies for commercial use to household use. Among them are labor shortages, falling prices, and mismatches in the facilities and equipment."

•
"This has led to increased centralization and consolidation in the food system whereby a smaller number of very large integrated firms control the processing, distribution, and sale of food in the U.S. and globally."

•
"We need less concentrated food supply chains. More regional supply chains have the ability to adapt. In order for food products to be quickly rechanneled when a segment of the food supply chain breaks, a mix of diverse sizes and types of farms, processing plants, and distributors must be included in each regional supply chain."
Trump says 'more to come' on Russia probe documents, in 'Fox & Friends' interview (Fox 05/08/2020)
•
"Yesterday was a BIG day for Justice in the USA. Congratulations to General Flynn, and many others. I do believe there is MUCH more to come! Dirty Cops and Crooked Politicians do not go well together!"

•
"There's more to come from what I understand and they're gonna be far greater than what you've seen so far."

•
"I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election," former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified in 2017.

•
"That's not to say that there weren't concerns about the evidence we were seeing, anecdotal evidence. ... But I do not recall any instance where I had direct evidence."

•
"I am not in possession of anything ... that came from out of the intelligence community," former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said when asked if she had seen evidence of a conspiracy.

•
Former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice also said "I don't recall intelligence that I would consider evidence to that effect that I saw ... conspiracy prior to my departure."

•
Other former Obama officials gave similar answers.

•
"The transcripts show a total lack of evidence, despite Schiff personally going out saying he had more than circumstantial evidence that there was collusion."
Trump reacts to Tara Reade's allegation against Joe Biden: I hope it's false 'for his sake' (Fox 05/08/2020)
•
"I don't know if it's false or not." ... "Frankly, I hope it is, for his sake"
Trump says Russia probe wouldn't have happened if Barr was AG instead of 'disaster' Sessions (Fox 05/08/2020)
•
"I didn't want to make him Attorney General, but he was the first senator to endorse me. So, I felt a little bit of an obligation."

•
"And, when the name Russia was mentioned – just the word Russia – he immediately, instead of being a man and saying this is a hoax, he recused himself."

•
"And had a deputy named Rod Rosenstein who probably, I mean, you'll see things coming out..."

•
See related I Don't Have... (Gary Varvel, 09/20/2018) cartoon from Government picture album
Tucker Carlson shreds FBI over Flynn investigation: 'This isn't about Michael Flynn. It's...' (Fox 05/07/2020)
•
"Michael Flynn did not commit a crime and they knew it. How did they know? Because the FBI had already tapped Michael Flynn's phone, which itself is a shocking outrage, completely unacceptable in a free country."

•
"But for some reason, nobody in Washington seems to notice or care about it. They should."

•
"We almost didn't find out what really happened in this case. Michael Flynn almost went to prison. And that gets to the nub of all of this. Most important question of all, how often does the FBI set people up?"

•
"How many other lives have they destroyed without the public knowing about it? In other words, this isn't about Michael Flynn. It's about you."

•
... blasted Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and cable news pundits for their hypocrisy in calling for Flynn to be punished.

•
"Keep in mind, these are supposed to be,'liberals. So whatever happened to their commitment to civil rights? To fairness? In fact, there's nothing liberal about the arguments they are making. This is the most brutal kind of power politics disguised with lies."

•
"The very same people who demand day after day that we hold American citizens to completely different standards based on how they look. Now they're telling you justice must be blind. It's absurd. It's insulting."
House intel transcripts show top Obama officials had no 'empirical evidence' of Trump-Russia... (Fox 05/07/2020)
Trump calls Flynn 'innocent man' after DOJ drops case against former national security adviser (Fox 05/07/2020)
DOJ drops case against Michael Flynn, in wake of internal memo release (Fox 05/07/2020)
•
... the department saying it is dropping the case "after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information."

•
The DOJ said it had concluded that Flynn's interview by the FBI was "untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn" and that the interview was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis."

•
Documents unsealed a week ago by the Justice Department revealed agents discussed their motivations for interviewing him in the Russia probe — questioning whether they wanted to "get him to lie" so he'd be fired or prosecuted, or get him to admit wrongdoing.

•
The latest DOJ filing stated noted Flynn's false statement plea pertains to a crime that requires a statement "to be not simply false, but 'materially' false with respect to a matter under investigation."

•
The filing said the government "is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn's statements were material even if untrue."

•
"Through the course of my review of General Flynn's case, I concluded the proper and just course was to dismiss the case," Jensen said in a statement. "I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed."

•
"He was an innocent man... Now in my book he's an even greater warrior," Trump said Thursday, while criticizing Obama administration officials. "They're human scum. ... It's treason."

•
... document revealed for the first time that Mueller's authority went significantly beyond what was previously known.

•
Rosenstein's memo was known to have authorized Mueller to probe "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump," and "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation," and "any other matters within the scope of [obstruction of justice laws]."

•
... the new document made clear that Rosenstein authorized a deep-dive criminal probe into the Trump campaign that extended well beyond Russian interference efforts.

•
The memo revealed that Mueller was, among other things, looking into whether Flynn "committed a crime or crimes by engaging in conversations with Russian government officials during the period of the Trump transition."

•
The notes, released last week, showed agents considered various options in the run-up to the fateful January 2017 interview, including getting Flynn "to admit to breaking the Logan Act" when he spoke to former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period.

•
"What is our goal?" one of the notes read. "Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?"

•
"If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ + have them decide," another note read.

•
Aside from swiftly being ensnared in Mueller's investigation in the fallout from that interview, Flynn was fired from his prominent post as national security adviser in February 2017.

•
Flynn's supporters have insisted he is innocent but was pressured to plead guilty when his son was threatened with prosecution and he exhausted his financial resources.
Sen. Kennedy reacts to new developments on Schiff's Russian collusion claims: 'That's third-world...' (Fox 05/07/2020)
•
"A disagreement is fine in a democracy, but this isn't disagreement, this is persecution."

•
"In terms of what Congressman Schiff did, that's just third-world country stuff."

•
"These weren't investigations, they weren't prosecutions, they were persecutions."

•
"Where is the FBI? Where is the Department of Justice on this? I mean, [Attorney General] Bill Barr has been the person that's been the most active, but the hits just keep on coming here and nothing gets done."
Gutfeld on Gov. Cuomo and the nursing home scandal (Fox 05/06/2020)
FBI Director Wray taking heat from GOP critics in aftermath of Flynn reveal (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
"It is well past time that you show the leadership necessary to bring the FBI past the abuses of the Obama-Biden era."
Joe Concha: How the 'reckless' mainstream media continually pushes Chinese propaganda (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
See related Who Did This? (Mike Lester, 04/04/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Hannity bashes 'truly disgusting' Obama letter hitting Biden-Ukraine probe: 'What were you hiding?' (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
"The office of the former president, Barack Obama, blasted a congressional investigation into Biden's dealing with Ukraine."

•
"Wonder why. Now, the office actually accused the investigation [of] giving credence to a 'Russian disinformation campaign,' and this ridiculous letter insinuated lawmakers were just spreading Russian propaganda."

•
"In reality, it was Obama. It was his administration. It was Biden. They are the ones that spent months and months propagating the Russian disinformation campaign. Uh, Barack? Did you ever hear of the dirty Russian dossier that Hillary Clinton paid for? Of course you have."

•
"Members of your administration, they used that unreliable Clinton-bought-and-paid-for, Russian misinformation from the get-go filled with Russian lies."

•
"Why? To deny Carter Page his civil liberties and civil rights because your people were spying, meaning [former FBI Director] Jim Comey and company, on the Trump campaign deep into the Trump presidency."

•
"That would be under your watch. Your guy, Jim Comey and company. That same Russian dossier was used to commit fraud on FISA applications, premeditated fraud."

•
"What did Obama know, and when did he know it? What did Biden know and when did he know it?"

•
"Ultimately, if President Obama was so concerned about Russian collusion, then he would've listened to Congressman Devin Nunes because Nunes warned Biden and Obama that in 2014, Russia would be playing around in their elections as they have in the past. He wouldn't have dismissed [Utah Sen. Mitt] Romney's warning in 2012 either."

•
"Well, Barack, what... were you hiding from we, the people? We would like answers."
Graham says Mueller probe 'scope memo' shows investigation 'was illegitimate to begin with' (Fox 05/07/2020)
Lindsey Graham wants to call Comey, McCabe to testify before Senate committee this summer (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
"... Durham's going to look at criminality: whether somebody broke the law in the name of enforcing the law or whether they had a political bias and took the law in their own hands."

•
"And, my goal is to have a public accounting — lay it out for the entire country and the world to see and after Durham and is done with his prosecutions."

•
"So, [the] bottom line is: we're going to make them come and tell the story and ask them hard questions."
Rep. Will Hurd: Where are the Democrats demanding the FBI explain the Flynn prosecution? (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
"When senior leaders and a couple of bad apples do these kinds of things, it impacts the entire organization and so we should be having a conversation about this."

•
"We should be having a conversation about this, we should be having hearings with these individuals to better understand what happened, why was this allowed to happen, and how do we prevent from happening in the future."
Dan Crenshaw reacts to jailing of salon owner, says some leaders ‘drunk with power’ (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
"These punishments are NOT just. They are not reasonable. Small-minded ‘leaders' across the country have become drunk with power. This must end."

•
At a hearing, Judge Eric Moye called Luther's action "selfish," and claimed she had "disrespected the orders of the state, the county and this city."

•
Luther claimed she had to reopen her business because a federal loan had arrived too late to help her.

•
... said Luther could avoid jail if she would apologize, pay a fine, and remain shut down until a statewide reopening of salons takes effect Friday.

•
But Luther opted for jail instead.

•
"I have to disagree with you, sir, when you say that I'm selfish because feeding my kids is not selfish."

•
"I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they would rather feed their kids. So, sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision. But I am not going to shut the salon."

•
In North Carolina, members of the "ReOpen NC" group were arrested last week, accused of resisting a public officer and violating the Democratic governor's executive order.

•
"If you feel the need to stay home, it is your God-given right to do so. But we want to live!"

•
"[Gov.] Roy Cooper has shown again and again how out of touch he really is. With his illogical declarations of who's essential and who's not, he's effectively destroyed generational family businesses and many good businesses alike. He's got to go. November's coming, baby."
Graham claims Democrats want to 'give China a pass' over coronavirus out of spite toward Trump (Fox 05/05/2020)
•
"I'm 100 percent convinced that without Chinese Communist Party deception the virus wouldn't be here in the United States. I'm 100 percent convinced they will never cooperate until they are made to do so."

•
"You just heard China apologists, [and] the reason they don't want to be hard on China because it would prove Trump to be right about China, and it's pretty sick."

•
"The virus didn't come from Trump Tower, it came from China," he said, adding he will introduce sanctions against Beijing in the coming days, in order to hold the CCP "accountable."
Sean Hannity's message to armed Michigan protesters: 'Show of force is dangerous', 'puts our...' (Fox 05/05/2020)
•
"No one should be attempting to intimidate officials with a show of force, and God forbid, something happens. Then they're going to go after all of us law-abiding Second Amendment people."
Trump takes swipe after Pelosi, McConnell decline coronavirus testing offer (Fox 05/04/2020)
•
"Interesting? By Congress not wanting the special 5 minute testing apparatus, they are saying that they are not 'essential,'"

•
"In any event, we have great testing capacity, and have performed 6.5 million tests, which is more than every country in the world, combined!"

•
The top two leaders at the Capitol issued a rare joint statement Saturday to "respectfully decline" the rapid testing, saying such technology should be saved for frontline workers rather than elected officials.

•
"Congress is grateful for the administration's generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time," McConnell and Pelosi said in the statement.

•
"Our country's testing capacities are continuing to scale up nationwide and Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly."

•
"No reason to turn it down, except politics. We have plenty of testing. Maybe you need a new Doctor over there. Crazy Nancy will use it as an excuse not to show up to work!" Trump continued.
Dems deploying DARPA-funded AI-driven information warfare tool to target pro-Trump accounts (Fox 05/04/2020)
•
An anti-Trump Democratic-aligned political action committee advised by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal is planning to deploy an information warfare tool that received initial funding from DARPA, the Pentagon's secretive research arm — transforming technology originally envisioned as a way to fight ISIS propaganda into a campaign platform to benefit Joe Biden.

•
... the initiative, called Defeat Disinfo, will utilize "artificial intelligence and network analysis to map discussion of the president's claims on social media," and then attempt to "intervene" by "identifying the most popular counter-narratives and boosting them through a network of more than 3.4 million influencers across the country — in some cases paying users with large followings to take sides against the president."

•
... received the funding from DARPA when his program was "part of an effort to combat extremism overseas."

•
The effort raised the question of whether taxpayer funds were being repurposed for political means...

•
McChrystal, who led U.S. forces in Afghanistan before he was fired by then-President Obama in 2010 for deriding his civilian bosses in a Rolling Stone interview, told the Post that the operation was necessary, even if it might appear unseemly.

•
"Everyone wishes the Pandora's box was closed and none of this existed, but it does."
Imported N95-style masks fall short on standards, potentially put Americans at risk for coronavirus (Fox 05/04/2020)
Peter Navarro: Protecting electricity grid — Trump orders this to defend economic, national security (Fox 05/04/2020)
•
... any successful attack on our bulk-power system could compromise America's ability to defend itself, significantly harm our economy, and pose potentially catastrophic risks to human health and safety and national security.

•
These risks are all the more significant because what happens in one part of the electric grid will likely have effects elsewhere.

•
In signing this latest executive order, President Trump has directed a set of strong actions to aggressively address the threats to America's bulk-power system.

•
These risks are particularly grave as a number of components in service on the system have already exceeded their life expectancy and will need to be upgraded or replaced.

•
The new executive order prohibits federal agencies and United States persons from procuring goods, products and materials for the bulk-power system from companies situated within foreign adversaries and where the transaction poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of American citizens.

•
In issuing this executive order, the president once again demonstrates a key principle of his administration, namely, that economic security is national security.

•
By protecting our bulk-power system against foreign attacks, President Trump is ensuring a better economic future for this country, a safer society and a more secure national defense.
Dan Bongino rips 'mini-tyrants' for keeping states closed: Did the Bill of Rights take a vacation? (Fox 05/04/2020)
•
"I'm still having a hard time digesting where these governors think they are getting this authority from."

•
"To all the tyrants and mini-tyrants out there trying to shut people in their homes with very little evidence to base it on and treating them like kids in the process, the Bill of Rights was not a suggestion, okay. The Constitution is not optional."

•
"I don't understand where you got this power. And I don't understand on one hand how you keep indicating facts, figures and data matter, but ignoring the fact... you are crushing the economy."

•
"Have they thought this through? Forget about the money for a second and people's jobs. That matters. But put that aside. What about the hospitals that are claiming they are going to go bankrupt? Have you thought that through?"

•
"In the name of public safety, you are going to bankrupt our hospitals, you imbeciles, and you are going to dry up our food supply, starve people to death. Good job. You guys really thought this through you knuckleheads."
Trump on media 'hostility': 'If I was kind to them, I'd be walked off the stage' (Fox 05/03/2020)
•
"I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen."

•
"The closest will be that gentleman up there," he continued, gesturing toward the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.

•
"They say nobody got treated worse than Lincoln... I believe I am treated worse. You see those press conferences. They come at me with questions that are disgraceful... their manner of presentation and their words. I feel if I was kind to them, I would be walked off the stage."

•
... urged him to abandon his use of "descriptive words that can be classified as bullying," and instead hold on to the "wonderful attributes that make you our great leader."

•
"They come at you with the most horrible horrendous biased questions," Trump said.

•
"You see it. 94 to 95 percent of the press is hostile, and yet... we have tremendous support... but the media might as well be in the Democrat party."

•
"I appreciate the question, and I very much appreciate the sentiment behind the question — but I'm standing up there and instead of asking me a normal question, the level of anger and hatred..."

•
"I look at them and say, what is your problem? I think we have done more than any other president in the history of our country."

•
"We rebuilt our military. We had the biggest tax cut in history... yet we have a very hostile press," Trump went on. "Nobody has seen anything like this."

•
See related He Hit Back! (Glenn McCoy, 07/07/2017) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Unmasking (Glenn McCoy, 04/04/2017) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
George W. Bush issues call to unite during pandemic: 'We are human beings,' not 'partisan combatants' (Fox 05/02/2020)
•
"Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat."

•
"In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants — we are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together and we are determined to rise. God bless you all."

•
"This is a challenging and solemn time in the life of our nation and world — a remorseless, invisible enemy threatens the elderly and vulnerable among us. A disease that can quickly take breath and life. Medical professionals are risking their own health for the health of others, and we're deeply grateful."

•
"... let us remember that we have faced times of testing before. Following 9/11, we saw a great nation rise as one to honor the brave, to grieve with the grieving and to embrace unavoidable new duties. And I have no doubt — none at all — that this spirit of sacrifice is alive and well in America. Second, let us remember that empathy and simple kindness are essential, powerful tools of national recovery. Even at an appropriate social distance, we can find ways to be present in the lives of others — to ease their anxiety and share their burdens."

•
"... let's remember that the suffering we experience as a nation does not fall evenly. In the days to come, it will be especially important to care for the elderly, the ill, and the unemployed."
Tucker Carlson on coronavirus lockdowns: 'That's not how our system works' (Fox 05/01/2020)
Michael Flynn didn’t commit a crime – he was set up by Deep State to cripple Trump presidency (Fox 05/01/2020)
Scalise says 'dirty cops' in FBI were out to get Trump and Flynn: People should go to jail (Fox 05/01/2020)
KT McFarland responds to Flynn documents: FBI's goal 'was to get Trump,' we 'were collateral...' (Fox 04/30/2020)
•
"That's the great tragedy in all this. Enough people were spying on the national security adviser. They were setting him up for a fall, setting him up to blackmail him, setting him up to bankrupt him, setting him up to turn on President Trump."

•
"They seized everybody's files and then they take the files, like they did with General Flynn in the White House interview ... and they have the transcript sitting in front of them and then they quiz him on it. and if he gets something wrong, he's obviously lying. It's not just that he makes a mistake in memory ... It's obviously a lie and we're going to charge him for perjury."

•
"Flynn and I were collateral damage. We didn't matter. The goal was to get Trump and stop his administration dead in its tracks."

•
"When Flynn didn't do it. when I didn't do it, they said [to] Flynn, 'Well, we are going to go after your son.' He pled guilty to a crime he didn't commit to save his son."

•
"I think the judge should throw this thing out, but not just exonerate Flynn, go after the people who thought that they were better than the voters of the United States of America and get those people who decided they were going to undo an election result that they didn't like by going after a president and hold them accountable."

•
... it would be only fair to make the agents involved personally fund their legal expenses noting that Flynn racked up millions of dollars in legal bills, was forced to sell his house, lost his job, and saw his reputation sullied.

•
"Make them pay for their own legal expenses. It's cost General Flynn millions of dollars to defend himself.

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Charles Hurt slams FBI over Flynn case: National security 'seems to be nowhere in their list of...' (Fox 04/30/2020)
•
"So, in other words, it begins to smell like maybe what they were doing is they were going after a political adversary in hopes of punishing him and in fact, that's exactly what ended up happening."

•
"That's not what the FBI [or] Department of Justice is there for. It's not there to ruin people's lives. It's there to prosecute charges and to protect national security and that seems to be nowhere in their list of objectives there."
Strzok stopped FBI from ending Flynn probe despite lack of 'derogatory' evidence, unsealed... (Fox 04/30/2020)
•
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley called the revelations about the FBI's conduct "chilling," especially given that the Logan Act has never been enforced and seemingly has little modern-day relevance even in the abstract.

•
"I have been a criminal defense attorney for decades. I have seen abusive tactics. However this is one of the most thuggish records I have seen. Most concerning is that they were trying to create a crime, not investigating a crime. The use of Logan only highlights that bias."

•
"There was a time when networks like MSNBC and CNN argued for civil liberties and against such abuses. Now, because such principles would benefit Trump, there is just a shrug with a common mantra 'everyone does it.' Yes, abuses occur but that is not license for their commission."
Former Gov. Pataki: Hard to consider voting for Joe Biden because he's been 'completely wrong'... (Fox 04/30/2020)
•
"I would find [voting for Biden] very hard. You know, in particular, I think one of the positives, one of the many positives that President Trump has brought out is the fact that China is a very powerful and serious adversary."

•
"And you look at former Vice President Biden's comments, you know, that China doesn't pose a threat. You look at the fact that his son [Hunter Biden] is on the board of a Chinese government-funded company that got a billion and a half dollars."

•
"And to me, one of the big issues this November is going to be China and our relationship with China. And that I think President Trump is right. And so far, I think Joe Biden has been completely wrong."

•
"You get into almost like mud wrestling with the press. And it's just extremely unfortunate. I am highly critical of the reporters. They're not interested in getting information that would help the American people. They're interested in doing things that will hurt President Trump. And on the other hand, the president should not accept that bait. He should rise above it."
Trump says China will 'do anything' to have him lose in 2020 (Fox 04/30/2020)
•
"I don't believe the polls," Trump told the news organization. "I believe the people of this country are smart. And I don't think that they will put a man in who's incompetent."
Trump blasts ‘scam’ against Flynn as FBI files raise questions about future of case (Fox 04/30/2020)
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"What happened to General Michael Flynn, a war hero, should never be allowed to happen to a citizen of the United States again!"

•
"Does anybody really believe that Roger Stone, a man whose house was raided early in the morning by 29 gun toting FBI agents (with Fake News @CNN closely in toe), was treated fairly . How about the jury forewoman with her unannounced hatred & bias. Same scammers as General Flynn!"

•
"CNN doesn't want to speak about their persecution of General Michael Flynn & why they got the story so wrong. They, along with others, should pay a big price for what they have purposely done to this man & his family. They won't even cover the big breaking news about this scam!"

•
The president's comments come as internal FBI documents were unsealed Wednesday, revealing that top bureau officials openly questioned if their "goal" was "to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired," when interviewing Flynn in the White House in January 2017.

•
The handwritten notes — penned by the FBI's former head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap after a meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Fox News is told — further suggested that agents planned in the alternative to get Flynn "to admit to breaking the Logan Act" when he spoke to then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period.

•
The Logan Act is an obscure statute that has never been used in a criminal prosecution; enacted in 1799 in an era before telephones, it was intended to prevent individuals from falsely claiming to represent the United States government abroad.

•
"What is our goal?" one of the notes read. "Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?"

•
"If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ + have them decide," another note read.

•
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley called the document's implications "chilling."

•
The memo appears to weigh the pros and cons of pursuing those different paths. "I don't see how getting someone to admit their wrongdoing is going easy on him," one note reads.

•
Flynn did not ultimately admit to wrongdoing in the interview — and later was pursued by the FBI for making alleged false statements. He pleaded guilty, but has since tried to reverse course.

•
The document indicates that the agents at least discussed the merits of a by-the-book approach: "If we're seen as playing games, WH [White House] will be furious."
Kellyanne Conway says the 'fix was in' by the FBI to set up Flynn: It was 'probably criminal' (Fox 04/30/2020)
Jim Jordan blasts Comey for FBI's treatment of Flynn: We were wrong, it was 'worse than we thought' (Fox 04/30/2020)
Judge Napolitano: If judge won't dismiss Michael Flynn case, Trump should pardon him (Fox 04/30/2020)
Hannity bashes FBI brass in Flynn case, says ex-national security adviser 'unfairly and unjustly...' (Fox 04/30/2020)
Michael Flynn prosecution: A timeline of Trump’s ex-national security adviser’s case (Fox 04/30/2020)
FBI discussed interviewing Michael Flynn 'to get him to lie' and 'get him fired,' handwritten... (Fox 04/29/2020)
Huckabee says YouTube must answer for pulling down doctors' video: 'Something is wrong with...' (Fox 04/29/2020)
•
"These guys are medical doctors. They are scientists. For heaven's sake, they didn't say anything that was really disputable. They were giving facts [and] figures."

•
"They were invoking some opinion in terms of giving [an] analysis of the facts they presented. I thought the most salient point they made in the course of the video — which I did see before it got pulled — was that historically when you have a pandemic, you quarantine the sick people — not the healthy people."

•
"I think YouTube has to answer for the selective content and the way that they have censored anything that just doesn't fit their own agenda. Something is wrong with that — with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google."

•
"There [are] 26 million Americans who don't have a job right now because we have shut everything down. Should we be careful? Absolutely. Should some things be slower in opening? Of Course."

•
"But, what we have done is to put 26 million people out of work and the only people that still get their paychecks are government — and that includes members of Congress — and they are not going back to work."

•
"So, I would say, cut their paychecks off. Quit paying members of Congress. And, let's see how long it is before they say, 'You know what? I think we have got to ramp this economy back up and get people back out into the workplace."
Media piled on Kavanaugh allegations with 'zero corroborating evidence' but ignore Biden's (Fox 04/29/2020)
•
"It really is night and day. When we looked at Brett Kavanaugh, there was literally zero contemporaneous evidence of the accusation against him by Christine Blasy Ford. Her own top witness and good friend could not corroborate her story and later admitted she did not believe Blasy Ford. Zero corroborating evidence at the time, no contemporaneous evidence, and yet there was a complete pile-on and feeding frenzy from the opposition and from the media, sort of working in concert."

•
"In this case, we don't have definitive proof either way about what happened. We do have contemporaneous evidence, however. At least five people have confirmed that this woman – Tara Reade – told them about what happened allegedly at the time back in the early to mid-90s."

•
"So, it is – as I said – night and day both in terms of the evidence that we have and in terms of the response to it from most of the press."

•
"... It's shocking that this much time has passed and that he is an actual nominee for president and they're not asking the questions ... If this were Donald Trump, would they treat it the same way? If this were Brett Kavanaugh did they treat it the same way? In other words, it's politics and political agenda playing a role in objective reporting and asking the question."
GOP senators warn jobless benefit change will ‘push unemployment higher,’ as many paid more not... (Fox 04/29/2020)
•
"I want to make people whole who lost their job through no fault of their own," Graham said. "But I don't want to pay people more not to work than to actually go to work."

•
Graham has warned that the CARES Act "created a system that can provide many hourly employees a 50 percent or more increase in wages if they choose unemployment instead of staying on payrolls."

•
"The Sasse amendment would have ensured we do not pay people more to be on unemployment than to actually get up and go work a 40 hour a week job. If we don't change this provision, we will have created a great incentive for people to leave the workforce."

•
"Under the current setup, some people's wages could actually be temporarily increased by 150 percent by leaving the workforce. This is a perverse incentive which needs to be fixed."
Get ready for a new form of bias: discrimination based on coronavirus immunity (JWR 04/28/2020)
Infectious disease expert slams study that panned hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 treatment... (Fox 04/28/2020)
•
... a study published last week indicating the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine showed no benefit for coronavirus patients in U.S. veterans hospitals was a "sham."

•
"I've no idea why [University of Virginia School of Medicine opthamology professor Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati] delved into this study, which isn't a study. It's a sham."

•
"I can't believe anyone took this seriously. There's not one dosage listed, cumulative or daily, of hydroxychloriquine or anthromicin. And people call this a study."

•
"Not one person in that paper saw one COVID patient. Only three are MDs [and] all [those] are ophthalmology trained."
Gregg Jarrett: New evidence on Michael Flynn — drop all charges and let him sue his persecutors (Fox 04/27/2020)
•
Michael Flynn is the victim of one of the worst miscarriages of justice in modern times — an innocent man who was unfairly targeted by the FBI, wrongfully prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller, and coerced into a guilty plea under threat.

•
The unvarnished truth is that the retired Army lieutenant general and former National Security Adviser never did anything wrong and committed no crimes.

•
He was set up by unscrupulous FBI officials, then relentlessly pursued by Mueller's team of overzealous prosecutors who were desperate to show that President Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
Jared Kushner on securing US supply chain amid coronavirus: We can never rely on foreign... (Fox 04/28/2020)
•
"I think the campaign platform that President Trump ran on in 2016 – which was basically 'you have to secure your borders and you have to control your own manufacturing as a national security issue' – I think those have been totally vindicated positions from the virus and I doubt it will be easy for people to argue against them in the future."

•
"We figured out how to really stimulate that supply. We believe by the month of April we will have close to five million tests that will be performed. We're anticipating for the month of May, the number we were originally asked to do, we can exceed it...we think we can double that number and we should have more than ample amount of tests in the market for the month of May."

•
"Now, the goal is not to make this a political issue and figure out how we can come together to really onshore."

•
"What we've been doing at the federal government is figuring out how do we aggregate a lot of the different demand in different key industries that are critical for our national security."

•
"We're thinking of ways right now to redo our stockpile given the nature of the hospital system and the medical distribution system and figure out how we can take all the learnings from this virus and figure out how we can be more prepared for the future."

•
"If you look at why it went overseas before, it's because people were a big cost of manufacturing. Now, it's really robots... the personnel component of manufacturing has actually gone down, but we've lost a lot of the capability here in America to be the leader in advanced manufacturing and President Trump is very committed to making sure that over the next couple of years, America regains their ability to be the leading global advanced manufacturer."

•
"By slowing the spread and flattening the curve, that has given us time to really develop search hospital capacity plans, we have enough ventilators, we have a ton of spare hospital capacity and in addition, we have a lot of PPE."

•
"We're onshoring a lot of these industries, working to make sure we're never reliant on foreign supplies again, and the doctors have learned more about how to treat this."
Stop asking us for sacrifices without empathy and humility (JWR 04/27/2020)
Cardinal Dolan says he admires Trump's leadership on helping religious community recover from... (Fox 04/27/2020)
Bongino on states releasing inmates while cracking down on parents at parks: 'This nonsense...' (Fox 04/27/2020)
•
"Just to be clear, moms and dads are being arrested in public parks for playing with their kids, for doing nothing wrong, but yet, we're releasing rapists, murderers, felons, and criminals into the streets?"

•
... reacted to the New York Post report that a man in New York City was accused of almost raping a woman 10 days after he was released from Rikers Island.

•
... has a criminal history of rape charges and was held at Rikers for that reason.

•
"I'm not being really dramatic when I tell you this is really troubling. The very threads of the republic are being pulled at right now and this kind of nonsense can't continue."

•
See related Coronavirus Public Safety (Sean Delonas, 04/09/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Newt Gingrich: How to hold China accountable for 'lying to the world' about coronavirus (Fox 04/27/2020)
•
"This was caused by the Chinese dictatorship. They lied about it. The first case was in mid-November and they were lying about it all the way through January."

•
"If every single person had set the standard in the U.S. and then encouraged the rest of the world that people died, this is China's fault, they ought to sue the Chinese to get the money. Two, I think we should seriously consider basically putting all of the debt and all of the Chinese assets in escrow so that they will pay these things."
Tom Cotton suggests Chinese students shouldn't be allowed to study sciences in the US (Fox 04/27/2020)
•
"If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers, that's what they need to learn from America. They don't need to learn quantum computing and artificial intelligence from America."

•
"It was pretty well documented by Chinese scientists that it did not originate in the food market."

•
"But wherever it originated, we know that the Chinese Communist Party was both criminally negligent and incompetent at first and then deliberately, deliberately malevolent in the way they responded to this virus for their own people and the world as early as the second week of December."

•
"I believe that was a deliberate and conscious choice by the Chinese communist leadership because they did not want to see their relative power and standing in the world decline because this virus was contained within China. If we're going to suffer an economic contraction, they were not going to allow the world to continue to prosper and China be the only country whose economy was declining. They might see an absolute decline in their economy, but they refuse to see a relative decline, especially relative to the United States."

•
"I think most Americans are shocked to learn that so many of our basic drugs are made in China," Cotton said.

•
"We need to stop that. We need to bring it back to the United States and get it out of China so we would give incentives to companies to build new plants here, create more jobs here.

•
So we're not dependent on China in a pandemic or even in any kind of health concerns.

•
"Second, China is continuing even now to take aggressive action throughout the region to break its commitments, it's cracking down on Hong Kong and violations of its commitments to Great Britain when Great Britain returned Hong Kong."

•
"It's taking aggressive action in the South China Sea. We need to invest more in our defense industrial base to offset some of the losses we're gonna see because of this virus. We need more ships. We need more submarines. We need more bombers. We need more fighters. The exact kind of systems that will deter China from aggressive action against the United States and our interests in the Western Pacific and ultimately all around the globe."

•
"China is a pariah state and we have to treat them like that."
State lacked common sense in nursing homes coronavirus approach (NYP 04/25/2020)
Media erupt over Trump comments on disinfectant and sunlight to cure coronavirus: Here's what... (Fox 04/24/2020)
Trump lashes out at Washington Post's Philip Rucker at briefing: 'Total faker' (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
Trump highlighted the prior "rumor" that heat is effective in killing the virus and questioned if "light and heat" can be applied to a cure, stressing that he's "not a doctor" but that it may or may not work.

•
However, none of that sat well with the Post's White House bureau chief, who is also an MSNBC analyst.

•
"But respectfully, sir, you're the president and people tuning in to these briefings — they want to get information and guidance and want to know what to do. They're not looking for a rumor."

•
"Hey Phil, I'm the president and you're fake news," Trump shot back.

•
"And you know what I'll say to you? I'll say it very nicely. I know you well, I know you well because I know the guy, I've seen what he writes. He's a total faker. So, are you ready?... It's just a suggestion from a brilliant lab by a very, very smart man. He's talking about sun, he's talking about heat. And you see the numbers. So that's it. That's all I have. I'm just here to present talent. I'm here to present ideas because we want ideas to get rid of this thing."

•
See related He Hit Back! (Glenn McCoy, 07/07/2017) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Trump signs executive order restricting immigration: Here's what's in it (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
"In order to protect our great American workers, I've just signed an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the United States."

•
"This will ensure that unemployed Americans of all backgrounds will be first in line for jobs as our economy reopens."

•
The order cites "the impact of foreign workers on the United States labor market, particularly in an environment of high domestic unemployment and depressed demand for labor" as a reason for the restriction — as well as pressures on health care and other factors.

•
"In light of the above, I have determined that the entry, during the next 60 days, of certain aliens as immigrants would be detrimental to the interests of the United States."

•
The order suspends green cards for immigrants who are currently outside the U.S. and do not already have a valid immigrant visa already.

•
Visa services have already been suspended by the State Department, but it is unclear when those would resume.

•
Those affected include people awarded permanent residence under the diversity lottery, work green cards and chain migration.

•
People who are seeking Green Cards under US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are already in the country, so they are not subject to the pause.

•
It is scheduled to expire in 60 days from Wednesday and adds that within 50 days the Homeland Security secretary, secretary of state and labor secretary shall recommend to the president whether the order should be continued or modified.

•
They are also to consult with Trump after 30 days to "review nonimmigrant programs and [to recommend] other measures appropriate to stimulate the United States economy and ensure the prioritization, hiring and employment of United States workers."
Ben Shapiro rips 'absolute a-hole' Cuomo for 'insane' response to NY lockdown protests (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
... Cuomo claimed that state residents should take a job as an essential worker if they were so eager to return to employment.

•
"That's insane. What an absolute a-hole. Ben Shapiro Show That is unbelievable stuff from Andrew Cuomo there."

•
"All those people out of jobs ... they can just get jobs as a reporter? They can just go become a nurse or a doctor today? What in the world?"

•
Addressing concerns that the "cure might be worse than the illness itself," Cuomo bluntly said: "How can the cure be worse than the illness, if the illness is potential death?"

•
"That is the easiest and most scoundrel-like take on politics I can imagine," Shapiro responded.

•
"Death is not equal to any of the other things. Yes, that is true for the individual. But for the society, we make these calculations all the time because that's called policymaking, and responsible policymakers make these decisions based on weighing a variety of factors."

•
Only "bad politicians" dictate policy based on "one factor," Shapiro explained.

•
"Everyone understands this. No one's willing to say it out loud because they're gutless, but everybody understands that they're going to have to make these calculations."

•
... went on to question the governor's authority to "decide what an essential job looks like," saying that question is usually decided by "people. Human beings. The economy. Not Andrew Cuomo."

•
"You know whose jobs are essential workers? Everyone's. and to pretend that the job is not essential to the person and to the economy is to override everybody else's free choice and the interest of the person who just lost their job ... and there are 30 million of them."

•
"That. is an enormous amount of scorn for people who are losing their livelihoods."
Andrew McCarthy: State coronavirus restrictions — Attorney General Barr pushes back (Fox 04/23/2020)
Tammy Bruce slams Gov. Cuomo for insulting remark about protesters: The curtain was pulled back (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
"He's been getting a lot of good reviews ... for what he's been saying on a day-to-day basis as though he's the second coming in some sense, and that he's a fabulous person. And I think what's good on a day-to-day basis is every now and then, you really get to see who people are and the curtain is pulled back."

•
"When you say 'protesters,' these were regular citizens, reporters spoke to them, who have run out of money. They've lost their businesses, they don't know what's coming the next day and he's speaking to them and treating them as if they're infants."

•
"By the way — if you want to go to work, go take the job as an essential worker. Do it tomorrow," Cuomo said.

•
... Cuomo is a "multi-millionaire" who will never feel the impact of the economy being brought to a standstill.

•
"No matter what happens in this environment, he's going to be financially fine."
Former CIA operative: China uses Dems as 'useful idiots' to spread propaganda, Biden 'in the tank'... (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
... the president should initially give President Xi Jinping the chance to "do the right thing" — acknowledge a degree of culpability, and offer up a solution to all who have been devastated by the virus.

•
"And, if they don't — which, by the way, I doubt that they will, having worked with these folks in the past — we now have to then rally the troops. And not, of course, not just the American people here. I'm talking about a global alliance to tell President Xi that, in fact, he is culpable."

•
"And then, we have a number of different tools [at our disposal]: removing them from the World Trade Organization, tariffs, [and] sanctions," he pointed out.

•
"We have a way to hit them back where they don't want to be hit the most which is, of course, their economy."

•
... China will "push back" and have already started to push their own narrative using "useful idiots in the Democratic Party" to blame Trump.

•
"So, we are going to have to be able to respond as a country to say 'enough,' grab our alliances or all these allies, and demand that they make it right."

•
"There is a profound impact then on the November election and who we choose for our president, right?"

•
"We have to say no to Joe because Joe Biden has been in the tank for the Chinese for so long."

•
... he plans to vote for Trump in November to ensure America "continue to be exceptional" and that the U.S. holds China accountable for their actions.

•
"2013, [Biden] and his son flew over to Beijing, sucked up that $1.5 billion. Plus, you have to remember Biden was vice president under, of course, under Mr. Obama when we all know what the Chinese did in terms of taking our intellectual property, stealing those jobs, facilitating the nuclear program with North Korea, [and] the ballistic missile program of Iran. The horrific record goes on and on."

•
"So, we have to say no to Joe so that we can continue to push forward with this country [and] hold the Chinese to account. That's why this election in November is so incredibly important."
Sarah Sanders takes on AOC's 'mind-blowing' comments on Americans going back to work (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
Progressive New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's call for a work boycott is "mind-blowing."

•
"This is also a person. who may want to go back to her roots and remember that most Americans – unlike those in Congress – have to show up in order to get paid and that they don't have the luxury of not doing their job and still being able to provide for their family like she does as a member of Congress."

•
On Thursday, the Labor Department reported another 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment claims last week, as massive job losses caused by the pandemic continue to grow.

•
The new report brings total job losses since the outbreak shuttered cities five weeks ago to more than 26 million, erasing the entirety of the 22.78 million labor market gains since the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

•
"There are people who are really hurting. The president is looking for ways to protect them, to help them. She might want to join in that effort instead of putting people down who are struggling and trying to figure out how best to help their families and provide that food."

•
"She might want to go back and remember that when she was a bartender and not a member of Congress, she didn't have that luxury."

•
"She had to show up to do her job in order to get a paycheck and there are millions of Americans [who] are like that [and who] need a paycheck — not just for the money but also their sense of sanity and their ability to be able to get out and do what they do best and that's work hard, because that is who the American people are."

•
"Her totally out-of-touch lack of understanding of that is mind-blowing."
Usama bin Laden wanted to kill Obama so 'totally unprepared' Biden would be president... (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
The secretive documents ... outlined a plan to take out Obama and top U.S. military commander David Petraeus as they traveled by plane.

•
"The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make [Vice President] Biden take over the presidency."

•
"Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour ... and killing him would alter the war's path"

•
Bin Laden specifically wanted fellow terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri to shoot down Obama.

•
"Please ask brother Ilyas to send me the steps he has taken into that work," bin Laden wrote to the top lieutenant, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman.

•
Kashmiri wouldn't get too far along in the plot, however; he was killed in 2011 in a U.S. drone strike shortly after bin Laden himself was shot to death by Navy SEALs.

•
... bin Laden's plan never progressed past the aspirational stage.

•
For his part, Biden has sent mixed signals on his role in bin Laden's death...

•
In late April 2011, Obama gathered together a team that included Biden before making a final decision on whether to strike at bin Laden's suspected compound.

•
In January 2012, Biden revealed he had opposed to the raid, and claimed that "every single person in that room hedged their bet" except for CIA Director Leon Panetta, who supported striking the compound.

•
"Mr. President, my suggestion is, don't go," Biden said he told his boss, as reported by The New York Times. "We have to do two more things to see if he's there.'"

•
But in 2015, Biden changed his mind and said he had told Obama he "should go."

•
Obama himself verified Biden's opposition to the plan, telling Mitt Romney in a 2012 presidential debate, "Even some in my own party, including my current vice president, had the same critique as you did."

•
"In order to give the president the leeway he needed, I said, ‘Mr. President, there's one more thing we can do.' ... One more pass to see if it was bin Laden. I said, ‘You should do that, and there'd still be time to have the raid, but that's what I would do," Biden said.

•
SEAL Team Six ultimately landed at bin Laden's compound in two MH-60 Black Hawks, killed the terror leader and seized a fateful cache of valuable intelligence.

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Texas judge’s 30-day coronavirus mask order blasted as 'ultimate government overreach' (Fox 04/23/2020)
•
A judge in Harris County, Texas, on Wednesday ordered residents to start wearing face masks in public for 30 days beginning next week — or possibly face a fine.

•
... order – affecting some 4 million Texans in Houston and some nearby communities – was announced on the same day as plans surfaced for closing a costly temporary hospital "because it wasn't needed."

•
"These kind of confused government policies fuel public anger — and rightfully so."

•
"Should guidelines for masks in confined spaces be emphatically promoted? Absolutely."

•
"But we will NEVER support 180 days in jail or $1,000 fine for not wearing a mask."

•
"Do not let commonsense guidelines lead to unjust tyranny."

•
The order by Hidalgo — whose role as a county judge in Texas is similar to that of "county executive" in other states — is scheduled to take effect Monday.

•
It requires that people in public areas or in close proximity to other people cover their nose and mouth with a mask or other covering – or face a $1,000 fine.

•
The order does not apply for exercising or outdoor walks and does not apply to children under 10.

•
... order also drew backlash from a Houston police officers' union, which called the order "draconian," and said it was seeking guidance from the state attorney general's office on whether the fine for offenders was legal.

•
"Everyone should be wearing a mask in public, I wear 1 everyday. But making not wearing 1 punishable by law, and asking our officers to enforce it, will do irreparable damage to our relationship with the community. We are already stretched too thin without having to enforce this."

•
"It is clear the so-called leader of Harris County lacks any critical thinking skills. But let me assure the public, our officers do!"
New York state rescinds DNR order for cardiac patients amid coronavirus crisis (Fox 04/22/2020)
•
New York state rescinded a blanket do-not-resuscitate order on Wednesday, that instructed first-responders not to revive patients without a pulse, in an effort to preserve resources during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

•
The order initially was deemed "necessary during the COVID-19 response to protect the health and safety of EMS providers by limiting their exposure, conserve resources, and ensure optimal use of equipment to save the greatest number of lives," according to a memo issued last week by the state Department of Health.

•
Before the initial order was issued, paramedics were told to try to resuscitate patients found in cardiac arrest for up to 20 minutes.

•
New York City's Fire Department (FDNY) and first responders never adopted the DNR order and instead adhered to the traditional 20-minute policy.

•
First responders said they were disturbed by the directive, arguing it went against their mission of saving lives.

•
"They're not giving people a second chance to live anymore. Our job is to bring patients back to life. This guideline takes that away from us."

•
As of Wednesday, there were over 263,000 confirmed cases of the virus in New York state and over 19,000 deaths.
David Bossie: Russia investigation – declassify records, public has a right to the whole truth (Fox 04/22/2020)
•
... the public still does not have complete information about why the FBI disregarded Steele's political agenda and use of Russian disinformation as it made key decisions in the investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign.

•
With all of these flashing red lights saying "stop," the FBI persisted.

•
The American people have a right to know who at the highest levels of the Obama administration was supplying the political pressure that caused this national nightmare to continue.
Possible coronavirus vaccine enters human testing trial (Fox 04/22/2020)
Gutfeld on the adults' view of reopening the economy (Fox 04/20/2020)
•
This roadmap to economic "return" looks pretty messy. That's normal. You've got 50 states, all different, with different economies, and different distances. Hence the need for a roadmap, not a prison.

•
Do we keep economies closed indefinitely? We know we can't. We've already dug a hole so deep it might even reach China.

•
And we know that, once we reopen, the curve could unflatten. Which is why no one knows the right date to reopen. So stop pretending.

•
Democrats have the luxury of doing nothing but waiting for something to go wrong. Especially when you have an ocean view and a fridge full of ice cream.

•
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently conducted an interview where she showed viewers her freezer full of ice cream.

•
"This is something you can get through the mail. Never run out. Can I show you? Other people from our family go for some other flavors, but... chocolate, and then we have some other chocolate here."

•
Marie Antoinette had cake. Nancy brought the ice cream.

•
But adults, we get it. Each decision brings risk.

•
Yet, insulated dopes still smear Americans over their "selfishness" for just needing a paycheck.

•
Patton Oswalt mocked anxious Americans for starting to crack under the lockdown.

•
He just assumes every person can sit home with Netflix and nannies, indefinitely, just like him, a well-off, finger-sniffing jackass.

•
His was an attack on class. These dolts, he laughed, would risk their lives for a cheeseburger.

•
But it's a good day when a rich leftist reveals his true hatred for the working class.

•
So as we head into another new week with more ups and downs than a kangaroo on meth, the adult knows that the path we choose must be flexible.

•
One that allows us to pull back and change course based on new info. Maybe we could do a rollout by age or region.

•
But we need the government to be straight with us on tests. Seriously, what is the deal on tests?!

•
We'll get through this. We have so far.

•
But, sadly for you, retreating to a mansion stocked with sherbet, it just isn't in the cards.
Steve Hilton: Some questions I have for Dr. Fauci about the coronavirus outbreak and our response (Fox 04/20/2020)
Coronavirus vaccine or herd immunity are only ways life can fully return to normal (Fox 04/19/2020)
Coronavirus relief – shame on Pelosi, Democrats for holding up aid for small businesses (Fox 04/19/2020)
•
It was reprehensible that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., held up the initial Small Business Relief Fund for several days in order to win funding for a list of petty parochial pork-barrel projects, including $25 million for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

•
But now Pelosi and her radical colleagues are playing the hold-out game once again, thereby putting on hold needed rescue funds for yet another week.

•
There are thousands of small-business owners in our nation wondering if they will be going out of business over the next few days.

•
Yet congressional Democratic leaders are playing cynical games to leverage more money for their favored sectors, including businesses owned by women and minorities.

•
It's hard to think of a more despicable, cold-hearted action ever perpetrated by our elected representatives.

•
The only thing more astonishing than the callous actions of the Democratic leaders is the fact that they feel they can get away with it, knowing their allies in the mainstream media will never call them out on it.

•
There are still hundreds of thousands of applicants waiting for assistance or unable to apply due to the shortfall.

•
The potential of having loans converted to grants is attractive to business owners, but not if they are required to keep their employees on the payroll by paying them out of their own savings.

•
At some point, it simply becomes more economical to just lay them off and have them collect unemployment compensation.

•
That's why getting the proposed additional $250 billion to these business owners quickly is so essential.

•
And yet, Pelosi and her minions continue to use hardworking Americans as pawns in their efforts to redirect national priorities.

•
As Rep James Clyburn, D-S.C., stated ... Democrats see this as "a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision."

•
Among the add-ons are an additional $100 billion for hospitals, $150 billion for state and local governments, and a boost to food assistance.

•
While these proposals might have merit, it is inevitable that the tug-of-war debate over what and how much should be added will unnecessarily delay the needed emergency pipeline that must get to small-business owners immediately.
Coronavirus pressures US manufacturers to bring plants home from China (Fox 04/18/2020)
•
"One of the things that has happened with this pandemic is it's revealed to everybody the limits to our digital superiority and our software and all the things that we've innovated in technology."

•
"You still have to be able to make things. You still have to have industry and industrial capacity as a country. And we've given a lot of it away."

•
Indeed, only about 11 percent of U.S. gross domestic product comes from manufacturing today, down from almost 40 percent in 1945.

•
Although cheaper Chinese labor remains a factor in companies' decisions to make their products in that country, it's not the advantage it once was.

•
Instead, China lures companies with tax breaks and other incentives, as well as the appeal of its domestic market.

•
While disruptions and shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have brought the issue of America's reliance on Chinese production to the forefront, "every company" was already "making calculations about how smart it is to rely on one market for supplies."

•
President Trump has repeatedly called on U.S. companies to bring their operations back home, moves that would likely provide a spark to a labor force that has over the past four weeks seen 22 million workers lose their jobs, at least temporarily.

•
... while a number of companies have already moved, or made efforts to move, there are others that have "huge sunk costs in the market" and are unable to relocate in "any reasonable time."

•
... the COVID-19 experience will cause many companies to "rethink the safety and security of reliance on global markets," and that there will inevitably be some movement of capital-intensive — not labor intensive — production back to the U.S.

•
"I hope that one of the things that will come about now is a broad consensus in this country that we have to be able to make things in the United States."
Ari Fleischer on latest Trump-Cuomo spat: 'Whatever the federal government does, New York...' (Fox 04/17/2020)
•
"Look, I was born in New York, raised in New York, I live in New York. I'm here to tell you, New Yorkers are often the most [loud] but not often the most accurate."

•
"[The] Federal government cannot wipe their hands of this and say, 'Oh ,the states are responsible for testing.' We cannot do it. We cannot do it without federal help. OK, it's up to the states. But then, don't ask the states, don't give them this massive undertaking that has never been done before, and then never give them any resources to do it," Cuomo said.

•
"The governor is saying [they] wipe their hands of it [and] we have no resources? The federal government is doing all of the above," Fleischer remarked.

•
"But, it is insatiable here in New York. Whatever the federal government does, New York wants more. And, that's just the way New Yorkers are wired."

•
"... The states and the federal government are working together. No one party is 'wiping their hands' of this [and] putting it entirely 100 percent on the back of the other."
Cuomo and Trump spar after NY governor says don’t 'pass the buck without passing the bucks' for reopening... ()
•
"The federal government has passed three bills to address this crisis. Of those three bills, the state governments have gotten precisely zero, zilch, nada in unrestricted aid," Cuomo said Friday. "That is passing the buck without passing the bucks."

•
"Governor Cuomo should spend more time 'doing' and less time 'complaining'. Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking!" Trump tweeted Friday touting his administration's efforts in New York.

•
"We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn't need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with testing that you should be doing."

•
"We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far, & these great men & women who did the job never hear you say thanks. Your numbers are not good. Less talk and more action!"

•
... earlier this week, Cuomo used his daily briefing later in the morning to give Trump a history lecture, quoting Alexander Hamilton in saying it was up to states to determine what happens within their respective borders, and that the president cannot control them through "federal encroachments" that undermine states' rights.

•
"We don't have a king in this country. We didn't want a king, so we have a Constitution, and we elect a president."

•
"If he ordered me to reopen in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my state, I wouldn't do it. And we would have a constitutional challenge between the state and the federal government and that would go into the courts and that would be the worst possible thing he could do at this moment."

•
The fight escalated and expanded quickly from there, with Trump first blasting Cuomo for seeking "Independence" and then likening the tensions with numerous states to a "mutiny."

•
"Tell the Democrat Governors that 'Mutiny On The Bounty' was one of my all time favorite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!"

•
That phase of the Trump-Cuomo war-of-words ended Thursday when the president announced the plans to reopen the economy, which explictly give the discretion to states and localities as to when to implement each phase of the guidelines.
Dairy farmer: Why excess milk cannot simply be sent to food banks, homeless shelters (Fox 04/16/2020)
•
... farmers can't simply send milk to a food bank, as some have suggested in recent weeks amid surging demand from the millions of Americans who have lost their incomes.

•
"There is no food bank in the United States of America that can receive an 8,000-gallon tanker truck of raw milk. I mean, it's not even legal to sell raw milk in most states, let alone who could process or package that?"

•
"So, the dairy farms are suffering because of the flow in the middle. A plant that's set up to process 25-pound bags of mozzarella cheese can't switch over like that and start bottling milk to give it to homeless shelters or food banks."

•
"I mean, it's a really complex food system that a lot of folks just don't understand."
Lindsey Graham meets Joy Behar's challenge to name three things Trump 'did right' on coronavirus (Fox 04/16/2020)
•
"The first thing he did. was — [on], I think January 31st — stop travel from China. The Chinese are the bad guy here if you're looking for a bad guy."

•
... added that the China travel restriction "probably saved us a lot of heartache," saying that move, along with subsequent restrictions on European travel and declaring a national emergency, "flattened the curve."

•
"I think they conspired with China to downplay the nature of the virus, that they reported all through January there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission."

•
"... The money that's being suspended will go to other people throughout the world to deal with health issues."
Ben Carson: We can't wait until 'every vestige' of coronavirus is gone to reopen economy (Fox 04/16/2020)
Tucker confronts NJ gov over lockdown measures: 'I wasn't thinking of the Bill of Rights when we...' (Fox 04/16/2020)
•
"The Bill of Rights, as you well know, protects Americans' rights — enshrines their right to practice their religion as they see fit and to congregate together to assemble peacefully."

•
"By what authority did you nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order? How do you have the power to do that?"

•
"That's above my pay grade, Tucker. I wasn't thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this ... we looked at all the data and the science and it says people have to stay away from each other. That is the best thing we can do to break the back of the curve of this virus, that leads to lower hospitalization and ultimately fatalities."

•
"Since you are an elected official, a leader in the government, an executive, how do you have the authority to order something that so clearly contravenes the Bill of Rights of the United States – the U.S. Constitution – where do you get the authority to do that?"

•
"Well, here's the thing. We know we need to stay away from each other, number one. Number two, we do have broad authority within the state. And number three, we would never do that without coordinating, discussing, and hashing it out with the variety of the leaders of the faiths of New Jersey."
Coronavirus timeline shows politicians', media's changing rhetoric on risk of pandemic (Fox 04/16/2020)
Cruz slams China as 'a threat to national security and global health' (Fox 04/15/2020)
•
"You know, China has has long been the most significant geopolitical threat the United States faces. And we've always viewed it as a human rights offense when they censor and silence free speech.

•
"We've now seen that it's not just a human rights threat, but it is also a threat to national security and global health when it ... comes to this Wuhan outbreak."

•
"When you had brave physician whistleblowers blowing the whistle, the Chinese government came down on them. They silenced them."

•
"They did everything they could to keep it quiet. And had they acted promptly, there may well have been a possibility this could have been contained as a regional outbreak. Instead, it ... became a global pandemic and the lives lostt — many, many of those are directly at China's doorstep."

•
The senator said he introduced legislation Wednesday to sanction Chinese officials who engage in "actively censoring and silencing public health information that endangers the lives Americans and people around the globe."

•
... U.S. officials are increasingly confident that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan laboratory as part of China's effort to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States.

•
Cruz said after the pandemic subsides, China must be held accountable for "covering it up and suppressing" important information.

•
"Too much of our medical products and our pharmaceuticals are manufactured in China and they threaten the lives of Americans cutting off vital medicines."

•
"We need to bring critical, critical infrastructure back to the United States of America."

•
See related Thanks, China (Bob Gorrell, 03/19/2017) cartoon from World picture album
Sarah Sanders on combative Trump briefings: Liberal media 'will never be happy' (Fox 04/15/2020)
•
"Look, this is the same group of people that, after I had done more than 100 briefings in that very same room, said it wasn't enough and constantly said we need more access and more briefings."

•
"Now they have access to the president of the United States and they are complaining that it's too much."

•
"I think it is great for the American people to have direct access from the person that is making the decisions as well as the people that are informing those decisions."

•
"The president isn't just going up there on his own. He's bringing in the experts that he is getting information from and allowing reporters to come in and ask questions of those people as well."

•
"I don't think it's a bad thing for the American people to have that type of transparency and that type of access, particularly during a time when there is so much uncertainty."
Trump says 'scariest day of my life' was being told US was short on ventilators (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
"This is the system we inherited," Trump continued. "I had governors requesting unreasonable sums that the federal government just didn't have and, you look at the states... The states were not prepared. I knew that every person who needed a ventilator, and didn't get one, would die."

•
After learning of the ventilator shortage, Trump said he instructed his staff to move quickly in an effort to ration and distribute the machines to those who needed them most.

•
"I instructed my team to move heaven and Earth to make sure that this didn't happen."
Trump announces US will halt funding to World Health Organization over coronavirus response (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
... the president said plans to ease the national economic shutdown were being finalized, and that he would be "authorizing governors to reopen their states to reopen as they see fit."

•
At the same time, Trump made clear that he was not going to put "any pressure" on governors to reopen.

•
Trump read a long list of names of people in business, health care and sports who will advise him on how to restart the economy.

•
Several media organizations had also uncritically cited WHO's assurances about the coronavirus.

•
The Washington Post even ran a story quoting a Chinese official asking for "empathy" and slamming the White House for acting "in disregard of the WHO recommendation against travel restrictions."

•
Former Vice President Joe Biden, just hours after Trump announced travel restrictions on China on Jan. 31, criticized the president's "hysterical xenophobia."

•
"I was the one person who wanted to do it," Trump said at Tuesday's briefing, referring to the border closure.

•
In March, The Post finally acknowledged that critics accused China and WHO of "covering up or downplaying the severity of an infectious disease outbreak."

•
See related Assurance (Chip Bok, 04/10/2020) cartoon from World picture album
Trump slams CNN analyst, Playboy reporter Brian Karem at briefing: 'Loudmouth' (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
"I know you want to blame the WHO, but I've spoken to hundreds of people across the country in the last few weeks," Karem began.

•
"They say they still can't get tested and they're not social distancing because — " "So the governors," Trump interjected, "I know your question. You ready? The governors, the governors are supposed to do testing. It's up to the governors."

•
As Trump went to move on to the next reporter's question, Karem continued shouting his question.

•
"Quiet, quiet," Trump scolded the reporter.

•
"The governors are doing the testing. It's now not up — and it hasn't been up — to the federal government."

•
The president called on the next reporter, but Karem persisted on asking his question, which was disrupting the press conference.

•
"I told them when they put this guy here, it's nothing but trouble," Trump said about Karem.

•
"He's a showboat. If you keep talking, I'll leave and you can have it out with the rest of these people. If you keep talking, I'm going to leave and you can have it out with them."

•
"It's just a simple question," Karem said.

•
"Just a loudmouth," Trump fired back.

•
See related He Hit Back! (Glenn McCoy, 07/07/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Gutfeld on Trump shattering the media ceiling (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
... after the press spent weeks concocting a fantasy rift between President Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the doc showed up to end that dream.

•
"The first and only time that Dr. [Deborah] Birx and I went in and formally made a recommendation to the president, to actually have a, quote, shutdown, in the sense of ... strong mitigation, we discussed it. Obviously, there would be concern by some that, in fact, that might have some negative consequences. Nonetheless, the president listened to the recommendation and went to the mitigation."

•
"Are you doing this voluntarily? Or did the president or vice president ask you to do that?" CBS' Paula Reid asked Fauci.

•
He responded, "No ... everything I do is voluntary. Please, don't even imply that."

•
Yes, it finally happened. Even the calmest guy in the room hates the media as much as everyone else does.

•
Note to media: when Fauci thinks you suck, that's a real diagnosis. Take two months off and don't call us in the morning.

•
After weeks of the media pretending they were on top of the virus while claiming Trump had blood on his hands, what did Trump do?

•
What any old TV pro would do. He dropped a montage to show how wrong the media was.

•
It included Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying, "His team is on it. They've been responsive, late at night, early in the morning. And they've thus far been doing everything they can do, and I want to say thank you."

•
The montage was a media trick that only the media is allowed to pull. So you know it pissed them off.

•
How dare he use their own words against them! That's propaganda.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Cal Thomas: Coronavirus side effect: More families being introduced to homeschooling (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
The first public school in what was to become the United States was established on April 23, 1635, by Philemon Pormont, a Puritan settler.

•
While for boys only, it was thought at the time that instilling religion and the Bible were essential to a well-rounded education.

•
That was true until the 20th century when court decisions, not the popular will, outlawed collective prayer and Bible reading.

•
Public education remains the single biggest monopoly in America.

•
Most politicians, with exceptions in some states, won't allow school choice because they fear the wrath of teachers unions and the loss of campaign contributions.

•
For those who are able, homeschooling is becoming an attractive option.

•
In that sense, the coronavirus might be a blessing in disguise.
Trump takes new swipe at push to expand voting by mail amid coronavirus crisis (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
"GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD. THE USA MUST HAVE VOTER I.D., THE ONLY WAY TO GET AN HONEST COUNT!"

•
Ballot harvesting – also known as vote harvesting – is political speak for a practice in which organized workers, activists, or volunteers collect absentee or mail-in ballots and drop them off at a polling location or election office.

•
The term – which carries a negative connotation – suggests voting improprieties or even election fraud.

•
Trump then suggested that "you get thousands and thousands of people sitting in someone's living room signing ballots all over the place... I think that mail-in voting is a terrible thing."

•
"It shouldn't be mail-in voting," Trump added. "It should be: you go to a booth and you proudly display yourself. You don't send it in the mail where people can pick up. All sorts of bad things can happen ... by the time it gets in and is tabulated."

•
The president argued that "there's a big difference between somebody's that out-of-state and does a ballot and everything's sealed, certified, and everything else" and the increasingly popular use of mail-in voting and absentee balloting for voters who are not out of state.

•
"There's a lot of dishonesty going along with mail-in voting," Trump said.

•
Five states – Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington – vote entirely by mail. A majority of states allow no-excuse absentee balloting.
Tucker Carlson: For Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the coronavirus crisis, it's all about power (Fox 04/14/2020)
Trump, Cuomo clash as NY governor threatens to defy potential order to reopen economy (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
"If [Trump] ordered me to reopen in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my state, I wouldn't do it," Cuomo told...

•
The fight escalated and expanded quickly from there, with Trump first blasting Cuomo for seeking "Independence" and then likening the tensions with numerous states to a "mutiny."

•
"Tell the Democrat Governors that 'Mutiny On The Bounty' was one of my all time favorite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!"

•
"We have the Tenth Amendment that is explicit," Cuomo said. "Certain responsibilities are state responsibilities."

•
Health, welfare, quarantine, those are health responsibilities. So the president should not even think of going there."

•
"Cuomo's been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state's responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc.," Trump tweeted.

•
"I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won't happen!"

•
While he called the president's current approach to reopening the economy a "dictatorial theory," he told ... in a Monday interview that Trump "has delivered for New York."
White House touts billions in coronavirus grants for innovators (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
"America's vibrant innovation ecosystem has always brought outside-the-box ideas and technologies to the forefront to address great challenges. This time of crisis is no different."

•
"Through a range of funding, grant, and award opportunities, the Trump administration is committed to leveraging our country's brilliant start-ups, entrepreneurs, and technologists in the fight against COVID-19."
Lindsey Graham: Efforts to to destroy Trump at any cost is 'getting a bit old' (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
"And, this effort to destroy Trump — no matter the cost of the country — is getting a bit old and is pissing a lot of people off."

•
... the Trump administration made four really important decisions to help save American lives in preparation for the impending COVID-19 wave.

•
"Number one: he shut down travel to China and Europe in a way to keep hundreds of thousands of people from being affected."

•
"He declared a national emergency to give the country the tools to fight back...He rejected the herd mentality of letting it run rampant through the country."

•
"People build up immunity. A couple [of] million people would have died if that had been the case."

•
"And, finally, I think the most important thing the president has done is unleash the private sector in testing and trying to develop drugs by giving FDA waivers for therapies and vaccines to speed up the process."

•
"So, I think the president has made really hard calls well, and we're going to be well below the 100,000 minimum expected and it's due to his leadership and the American people working together."

•
"So, we'll have an election over all this, but you've got to remember the Democratic Party on February the sixth was asking the Senate to stay in session to get more witnesses. These are the people who are criticizing [him]."
'Covington kid' Nick Sandmann says he's lived under 'constant threat' for over a year (Fox 04/13/2020)
•
"He was accused of blocking the path of an elderly Native American and really all the history of the injustice that the Native American people have suffered was laid at Nick Sandmann's door, and he's just a 16-year-old kid."

•
Sandmann returned to the Lincoln Memorial with Logan for the first time since his life was turned upside down by his chance meeting with Phillips.

•
"As we stood there, people began to stare at Nick and it became uncomfortable," narrated Logan.

•
"He was mindful of the death threats and bomb threats against him, his home and [his attorney Todd McMurtry]. So we decided to leave. The long looks followed us on the way."

•
"It happens everywhere I go. From in my community to different parts of the country. Everywhere I go, there is someone that will point me out."

•
"It's a constant threat and it's a terrible threat. But you can't choose to live your life in fear or they've won and they robbed you of your life."
White House hits back at media speculation on Fauci, says Trump 'not firing' him (Fox 04/13/2020)
•
"This media chatter is ridiculous – President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci. The President's tweet clearly exposed media attempts to maliciously push a falsehood about his China decision in an attempt to rewrite history."

•
"It was Democrats and the media who ignored Coronavirus choosing to focus on impeachment instead, and when they finally did comment on the virus it was to attack President Trump for taking the bold decisive action to save American lives by cutting off travel from China and from Europe. Dr. Fauci has been and remains a trusted advisor to President Trump."

•
"Sorry Fake News, it's all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up," Trump tweeted...

•
See related In January... (Chip Bok, 04/03/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Trump says decision coming ‘shortly’ on reopening economy, as task force formed (Fox 04/13/2020)
•
"For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government."

•
"Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect. It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons."

•
"With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue."

•
"A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!"

•
"I would say without question it's the biggest decision I've ever had to make."

•
"It's been my honor to be the president for the American people... I have a big decision coming up and I only hope to God it's the right decision."

•
"We're not doing anything until we know that this country is going to be healthy. We don't want to go back and start doing it over again."
Huckabee: We are 'shredding the Constitution' while enforcing quarantine measures (Fox 04/13/2020)
•
"We live in a democracy. We live in a country where we elect our leaders to make decisions — we do not relegate, delegate, and give over those decisions to people, no matter how smart they are; we don't give them to people who haven't been elected by we the people."

•
"That is a concern to me that I don't hear enough about — how we are shredding the Constitution by telling people such things as you can't sit in a car by yourself, you're going to get arrested, you can't drive up to a church in your own vehicle, and the closest contact you have is with the police officer who comes and tells us you can't do it."

•
"There are some things that should scare the living daylights out of us."
Justin Haskins: Coronavirus and socialism – AOC and friends peddling false cure for what ails US (Fox 04/12/2020)
•
After complaining that America's "systemic priorities" are all wrong, AOC said, "We have to start demanding and organizing from the bottom up – from grassroots movements, from nurses to warehouse workers to grocery store employees to the halls of Congress, demanding that we strip profit motive out of our decisions and reprioritize for the public good and the health of everyday people."

•
Demanding that the country "strip profit motive out of our decisions and reprioritize for the public good" is a not-so-subtle way of saying that we should significantly reduce markets and individual property ownership (capitalism) and put the government in charge of much of the economic and social decision-making (socialism).

•
History has proven the socialist utopia AOC is constantly screeching about will never come.

•
But whenever it's attempted, destruction, economic chaos and misery inevitably follow.

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(Just ask survivors of the Soviet Union how that socialist experiment turned out.)

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Conversely, societies that have embraced private property ownership and management – like the United States – have become the wealthiest, safest nations the world has ever seen.

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This isn't a coincidence. Freedom works because when there is a profit motive, people behave much more efficiently and cautiously than when they are spending and controlling the wealth that other people produce.

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Just ask any parent with a teenager whether people who don't have to work spend money as wisely as those who must earn it for themselves!

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"And so, it is important for us to nationalize the supply chain, it's important for us to take action in nationalizing our health care system," Omar said.

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Omar's tactics are familiar and dangerous. Historically, socialism has thrived in the midst of chaos. When people are feeling desperate and afraid, they are more willing to trade their freedom for the alleged security offered by a massive, all-powerful government than when times are good...

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But Americans should know that they'll find little comfort or security in the warm embrace of the national government, which is so dysfunctional that it can't even manage to run the Postal Service or Amtrak without losing dump trucks full of cash every year.

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Government has an important role to play in dealing with natural disasters and sudden health care crises like the present one, but that role shouldn't include eliminating economic freedom – the reason America has been so successful throughout its history – by destroying markets, reducing private property ownership or "nationalizing the supply chain."

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Of course, AOC and Omar know none of their proposals would be seriously considered under stable economic conditions.

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They're hoping to take advantage of the suffering many Americans are now experiencing due to truly extraordinary circumstances by using this crisis as a tool to expand the power of the federal government.

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And if they're successful, you can bet many of the government's new powers won't go away anytime soon – or perhaps at all.

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Beware of socialist snake oil salesmen promising to cure our economic problems by moving America closer to socialism.

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As bad as COVID-19 has been for millions of Americans, embracing socialism would, over the long run, be much, much worse.

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See related Socialism (Antonio Branco, 07/10/2018) cartoon from General picture album
Van Hipp: In coronavirus battle, here’s what Dwight Eisenhower would do (Fox 04/11/2020)
Ellis & Pence: In coronavirus fight, Americans armed with faith, freedom and democrac (Fox 04/11/2020)
Feinstein urges Trump to reverse plan to block Iran request for $5B in IMF aid, claims it is in ‘our...’ (Fox 04/11/2020)
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"I am disappointed to see reports that your administration intends to block Iran from receiving $5 billion in humanitarian aid from the IMF to combat the coronavirus pandemic."

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"Providing these funds to Iran would help it respond more effectively to the disease and mitigate the risk of further destabilization in the region."

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The administration plans to block the request for an emergency loan, amid concerns that the anti-American regime still has billion-dollar accounts available to it

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... the loan would allow Tehran to divert the money to its economy — which has been stunted by the sanctions imposed as part of the U.S. maximum pressure campaign — or to finance extremist militant groups in the Middle East.

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Iranian "officials have a long history of diverting funds allocated for humanitarian goods into their own pockets and to their terrorist proxies."

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Iran has been one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic — sending its already shaky government reeling as it faces accusations that it has been hiding what it knew about the crisis, and how early it hit the country.

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The U.S. has been turning the screws on Iran's hardline regime for years since it left the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.

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Trump said this month that Iran has been "planning a sneak attack on U.S. troops and/or assets in Iraq" and warned the regime would pay a "very heavy price" if they attacked U.S. assets.

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Her letter came a week after presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called on the Trump administration to loosen sanctions on Iran.
FBI had information Steele dossier was part of 'Russian disinformation campaign,' declassified... (Fox 04/10/2020)
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... former British spy Christopher Steele — one of their key informants in their investigation — was part of an elaborate "Russian disinformation campaign."

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"These footnotes confirm that there was a direct Russian disinformation campaign in 2016, and there were ties between Russian intelligence and a presidential campaign – the Clinton campaign, not Trump's."

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"The [REDACTED] stated that it did not have high confidence in this subset of Steele's reporting and assessed that the referenced subset was part of a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate US foreign relations."

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... report "contained information ... that the public reporting about the details of Trump's [REDACTED] activities in Moscow during a trip in 2013 were false, and that they were the product of RIS ‘infiltra[ing] a source into the network' of a [REDACTED] who compiled a dossier of information on Trump's activities."

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Friday's partial declassification, which suggested Steele's sources were part of a Russian interference effort, was immediately highlighted by Trump allies and Republicans, who have long pushed the administration to publicize more details of the FBI's flawed investigation, even as U.S. Attorney John Durham is pursuing a criminal probe into the conduct of U.S. intelligence agencies.

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The FBI heavily relied on Steele's now-discredited dossier to obtain a surveillance warrant to spy on former Donald Trump aide Carter Page, in which FBI officials asserted that Page was an "agent" of Russia.

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"The 'central and essential' evidence used to justify invasive surveillance of an American citizen in the FBI's probe into Russian interference was, itself, an example of Russian interference, according to once-secret footnotes declassified at the urging of two U.S. Senators."

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"For years, the public was fed a healthy diet of leaks, innuendo and false information to imply that President Trump and his campaign were part of a Russian conspiracy to spread disinformation."

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"The FBI's blind pursuit of the investigation, despite exculpatory and contradictory information, only legitimized the narrative. The mounting evidence undercutting this narrative should have stopped the investigation early in its tracks. Instead, it took several years and millions in taxpayer dollars to conclude that the allegations were baseless."

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"Had FBI leadership heeded the numerous warnings of Russian disinformation, paid attention to the glaring contradictions in the pool of evidence and followed long-standing procedures to ensure accuracy, everyone would have been better off. Carter Page's civil liberties wouldn't have been shredded, taxpayer dollars wouldn't have been wasted, the country wouldn't be as divided and the FBI's reputation wouldn't be in shambles."

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"My own view is that the evidence shows that we're not dealing with just the mistakes or sloppiness," Barr told...

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"There was something far more troubling here. We're going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted."
Barr says Trump was right to fire intel watchdog, calls Russia probe 'one of the greatest travesties' (Fox 04/09/2020)
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"From the vantage point of the Department of Justice, he [Atkinson] had interpreted his statute, which is a fairly narrow statute, that gave him jurisdiction over wrongdoing by intelligence people and tried to turn it in to a commission to explore anything in the government and immediately reported to Congress without letting the Executive Branch look at it and determine whether there was any problem."

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... Durham's "primary focus isn't to prepare a report. He is looking to bring to justice people who are engaged in abuses if he can show that they were criminal violations, and that's what the focus is on."

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"My own view is that the evidence shows that we're not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness. There is something far more troubling here, and we're going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law, and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted."

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"Without any basis, they started this investigation of his [Trump's] campaign, and even more concerning, actually is what happened after the campaign," Barr said.

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"[There was] a whole pattern of events while he was president ... to sabotage the presidency ... or at least have the effect of sabotaging the presidency."

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"Well, of course they're projecting into November at this point. And I think that by November, we're going to be dealing with a different set of circumstances. But I think we can adapt our election practices at the polls to accommodate public health concerns."
Video shows chaotic scene before daylight home invasion, armed robbery attempt... (04/09/2020)
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The video shows the two men entering the home and shouting out a greeting, after which the scene soon turns to mayhem, with screams and expletives heard from inside.

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Within seconds, a man authorities say is Finnan can be seen on the video being chased out the door by the male homeowner.

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Soon afterward, the man authorities said has been identified as Finnan runs away. The video ends when the homeowner rushes back into the house.

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He told authorities that when he answered the door, two men pushed their way inside the house, where his wife and two children were inside.

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Police said that the homeowner told them that, after Finnan ran off, he went back inside to get his wife's weapon while Brodacz held the man's wife and children at gunpoint.

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The homeowner and Brodacz fought, and at some point, Brodacz was disarmed, ... Brodacz was shot and killed by the male homeowner with his wife's gun.

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... told authorities that Brodacz had claimed to have seen about $200,000 in cash in boxes in the Arlington Heights home about 20 years ago and thought money might still be there.

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... charges can be filed when someone is killed during the course of a crime even if the death was caused by someone else and the person charged with murder did not intend for the person to die.
Barr disappointed by partisan attacks leveled at President Trump, says media on a 'jihad' against... (Fox 04/09/2020)
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... blasted reporters for waging a "jihad" to discredit the effectiveness of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

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"It's very disappointing because I think the president went out at the beginning of [the coronavirus pandemic] and really was statesmanlike, trying to bring people together, working with all the governors."

•
"Keeping his patience as he as he got these snarky, gotcha questions from the White House media pool and the stridency of the partisan attacks on him has gotten higher and higher."

•
... before the president mentioned the drug, the media was fair in its coverage but as soon as Trump mentioned it, "the media has been on a jihad to discredit the drug. It's quite strange."

•
"We cannot keep for a long period of time our economy shut down just on the public health thing. It means less cancer. Cancer researchers or at home. A lot of the disease reaches researchers who will save lives in the future. That's being held in abeyance."

•
"The money that goes into these institutions, whether philanthropic sources or government sources, is going to be reduced. We will have a weaker health care system if we go into a deep depression. So it just measured it in lives. The cure cannot be worse than the disease."

•
"But when you think of everything else, generations of families who have built up businesses for generations in this country and recent immigrants who have built up businesses, snuffed out. Small businesses that may not be able to come back if this goes on too long."

•
"So we have to find, after the 30-day period, we have to find a way of allowing businesses to adapt to this situation and figure out how they can best get started."
Nikki Haley, in op-ed, says coronavirus response mainly governors' responsibility, not Trump's (Fox 04/09/2020)
•
"The federal government can provide crucial resources, but the burden is on the governor and her team to distribute them. No two states are alike, and blanket approaches won't work."

•
"America is better served when presidents respect the diversity of states instead of dictating uniform solutions."

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She said governors know their residents and their state's needs better than the federal government does, and are in the best position to oversee efforts taken within the state.

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She wrote it's each state's obligation to prepare an emergency response before a crisis — making sure supplies are up to date and reaching out to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the federal government when they know a crisis is coming.

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"As our highest nationally elected leader, of course President Trump has enormous responsibility in this unprecedented crisis, and he is marshaling the federal response on a massive scale."

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"But in implementing plans to save people's lives and keep our economy afloat, look no further than the governors."

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Last month, Haley resigned from Boeing's board of directors out of "philosophical principle" when the company requested federal assistance during the crisis.
Paid to quit? Backlash builds against unemployment benefits on ‘steroids’ (Fox 04/09/2020)
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"It's a huge issue. A large slice of the U.S. workforce will make more money by not working than by working."

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"I can tell you as a worker who barely makes over minimum wage, at $12 an hour, the whole thing is complete BS."

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"I work in a hospital of all places and we aren't being compensated anything [extra]."

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... said he also knows people at his workplace "who are just wanting to get laid off, completely because they'd get more money being at home."

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"It's certainly good for some people. But there are a lot of essential employees out there — employees that we need to have, who might be resentful that they're putting in 50 hours a week, and the guy sitting at home is making $300 a week more."

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"I work in the oil fields and guys are already talking about hoping to get laid off."

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"People will realize both that they can self-certify as COVID-affected and qualify ... and that their neighbor is already doing it, and hence they are effectively losing out by not doing it themselves."

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"The first CARES bill bought us time, but now we have some time to switch to a better system. We need to be paying companies to keep workers on their payrolls but off the job."

•
"We have got to get focused on preventing any further job losses. So I think we should do two things. No. 1 ... incentivize business to re-hire every person who has been laid off because of this coronavirus emergency, and No. 2 ... government ought to help cover the payroll of every business in this country for every worker under the median wage, so they can keep their jobs."

•
"I can promise you — the people who qualify for unemployment, they won't be looking for work until July 31. In some areas like ours, they've incentivized unemployment to the extent that we have zero applicants. Nobody on unemployment is applying to go work at a sawmill."

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... added that politicians should at least stop paying people more than they'd made at work.

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"I understand why you would try to take care of people and make sure that they don't lose anything. I don't know why you would make sure that they get more than they had before."
Calls escalate for WHO to be defunded over China ties, coronavirus response (Fox 04/08/2020)
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"For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?"

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"I'm not going to support funding the WHO under its current leadership. They've been deceptive. They've been slow and they've been Chinese apologists," Graham said...

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"I don't think they're a good investment, under the current leadership, for the United States. And until they change their behavior and get new leadership, I think it's in America's best interests to withhold funding because they have failed miserably when it comes to the coronavirus and did the same thing in 2015."

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"The Chinese Communist Party used the WHO to mislead the world," Rubio said in a statement.

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"The organization's leadership is either complicit or dangerously incompetent. I will work with the Trump administration to ensure the WHO is independent and has not been compromised by the CCP before we continue our current funding."

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"When it comes to Coronavirus, the WHO failed. They need to be held accountable for their role in promoting misinformation and helping Communist China cover up a global pandemic," Scott said last week.

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"We know Communist China is lying about how many cases and deaths they have, what they knew and when they knew it – and the WHO never bothered to investigate further."

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If defunded, it would mark the latest United Nations organization to take a financial hit from the Trump administration.

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In 2018, the administration defunded the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency.

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It also defunded the U.N.'s educational, scientific and cultural organization UNESCO over concerns about the agency's anti-Israel bias.
Sen. Graham says 'no more money to the WHO,' calls them 'Chinese apologists' (Fox 04/07/2020)
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"And the next appropriations bill, there's not going to be any money for the WHO. I'm in charge of the appropriations subcommittee. I'm not going to support funding the WHO under its current leadership. They've been deceptive. They've been slow and they've been Chinese apologists."

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"I don't think they're a good investment, under the current leadership, for the United States. And until they change their behavior and get new leadership, I think it's in America's best interests to withhold funding because they have failed miserably when it comes to the coronavirus and did the same thing in 2015."

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"Without China being irresponsible, lying to the world about the way the disease is transmitted, withholding information about the level of infection, silencing doctors, there would be no pandemic."

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"China is a pandemic incubator. These with markets create conditions for the virus to spread to the human food chain, from wild animals like bats and monkeys."

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"No more money to the WHO until they get new people in charge will understand there that they're there to help the world fight disease, not apologize for China."
Trey Gowdy says American manufacturing should be long-term answer to coronavirus pandemic (Fox 04/07/2020)
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"The best remedy of all is to no longer have to rely on the [Defense Production Act] and the best way is for American manufacturers to make the things we need for our national security."

•
Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to get the company to produce face masks.

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"We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. "P Act" all the way. Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing - will have a big price to pay!"

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Gowdy said that the answer for the U.S. is to become self-sufficient during a crisis. He also said that pharmaceuticals and protective gear are a national security issue.
Dr. Carson on coronavirus pandemic: 'This is going to pass and it looks like it's moving much faster...' ()
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"The fundamentals of our economy are very strong. We just have to bridge this gap and we'll be able to get right back to having that strong economy after this is over."

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"And we know that this, too, will pass. One of the reasons that he's been very interested in making it pass faster by being open-minded and looking at some of these possible therapies that can be used is because he recognizes that the longer we extend this period of hibernation, the weaker the infrastructure of the economy becomes."

•
Carson addressed the president's critics, saying their comments only motivate him.

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"So he's looking at all of these aspects and the people who criticize him, they're going to criticize him no matter what he does. So he kind of puts that aside."

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"You know, I always find it kind of funny. They criticize no matter what he does. They don't realize that it kind of invigorates him. If they really wanted him to go away, they'd stop criticizing, but they're never going to do that. So it works just fine."

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"This is going to pass and it looks like it's moving much faster than anybody thought. And that's kudos to the American people."

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"You know, they have grasped the significance of this. They are self-isolating the way that they're supposed to be doing. I find it very refreshing."

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"It's just like the spirit that we saw back in World War II, where people are bonding together and recognizing that this is not a time for a lot of political argument, arguments."
Epidemiologist Sarah Cobey: US 'will never be able to go back to normal until there's a vaccine' (Fox 04/07/2020)
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"We're going to probably have to keep imposing some sort of restrictions on mobility or else implementing really extreme types of contact tracing in order to keep this under control until we can induce immunity to the virus artificially through vaccination."
Trump taunts media as mutual disgust reaches new depths (Fox 04/07/2020)
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"Advertising in the Failing New York Times is WAY down. Washington Post is not much better."

•
"I can't say whether this is because they are Fake News sources of information, to a level that few can understand, or the Virus is just plain beating them up. Fake News is bad for America!"

•
Whatever the merits of Trump's dissatisfaction with the two papers, it's clear that advertising has plunged because some companies are shut down while others are slashing spending while most of their customers are stranded at home.

•
As America's coronavirus death toll exceeds 10,000, two clashing narratives have come to define the president's handling of the pandemic.

•
Trump is courageously leading the country with a disruptive approach despite the naysayers, according to his supporters, or, from a press perspective, he is royally botching the emergency because of severe character limitations.

•
The president seems increasingly disgusted with the media, even beyond the bitter hostilities of the Russia probe and the impeachment battle.

•
At pressers over the weekend, he accused certain outlets of spreading false rumors, fear and panic.

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... Trump said Monday: "I only wish the public could fully understand how corrupt & dishonest so much of our Lamestream Media is."

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In such a polarized country, somewhere around half the public is going to cheer Trump's evisceration of the press, and somewhere around half is going to applaud the journalistic denunciations of the president.

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But right now people are dying.

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We're facing what Trump's surgeon general called a Pearl Harbor moment.

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And yet the two sides keep carpet-bombing each other.

•
See related He Hit Back! (Glenn McCoy, 07/07/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
GOP sounds alarm after 'quasi-official' Chinese outlet gains access to coronavirus press briefing... (Fox 04/07/2020)
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Republicans are sounding the alarm after a reporter with ties to China's propaganda machine gained access to Monday's White House coronavirus press briefing and used the platform to promote Beijing's efforts — even as right-leaning outlets, including One America News Network (OANN), were being denied seating privileges at the briefings.

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"Only last week, there were multiple flights coming from China full of medical supplies," the reporter from Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV began during Monday's briefing.

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"Companies like Huawei and Alibaba have been donating to the United States, like 1.5 million N95 masks and also a lot of medical gloves, and much more medical supplies."

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"Sounds like a statement more than a question," Trump interjected.

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The reporter then asked if Trump was willing to work "directly" with China; Trump responded that China should honor its trade deals with the United States.

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"Are you cooperating with China?" she pressed.

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"Who are you working for, China?" Trump responded. "Who are you with?"

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The reporter smiled. "Um, no, I'm working for — Hong Kong Phoenix TV."

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"Who owns that? China?" Trump asked.

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"It's based in Hong Kong. ... It's a privately owned company."

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... flagged that in 2018, a former Phoenix TV news director testified as part of an FCC filing that the outlet is essentially controlled by China's Communist Propaganda Department, and follows a directive to not report positively on the United States.

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Specifically, the former director, Chung Pong, remarked: "I know from personal experience that Phoenix TV's content is subject to the dictates of the leadership of the Central Communist Propaganda Department, Central Communist Overseas Propaganda Office, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which often directly sent instructions to Phoenix Satellite TV."

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"Moreover, over the past two years, it has been used as an outlet for airing televised confessions by various detained CCP [Communist Party of China] critics, most notably all five Hong Kong booksellers abducted by Chinese security forces in late 2015."

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"Phoenix TV has been waging information warfare in the US for yrs," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter. "They are nominally private but actually state owned. In 2018 I led effort to block them from using cutouts to spread propaganda. MSM should NEVER have given them seat at WH press conference."

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... Cruz concluded: "So to recap, the WH Correspondents Assoc gave a seat at the WH press briefing to an employee of the Chinese Communist govt, to ask globally televised Qs to POTUS, at the same time China is waging a propaganda campaign to hide their culpability & coverup of the Wuhan virus?!?"

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"Why is an outlet with such close ties to Communist China allowed in the White House briefing room?" asked Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona.

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Conservatives also pointed out that the WHCA announced last Wednesday that it was removing the right-leaning OANN from its coronavirus briefing rotation after its reporter allegedly violated its policy on social distancing.

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"These are the same people that screamed until their voices cracked about Russian interference and Russian propaganda for years," wrote Turning Point USA's Benny Johnson.

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"Now they invite literal Communist Chinese propaganda mouthpieces into the WH to question POTUS & applaud it."
Dr. Birx praises Trump, says deciding to use hydroxychloroquine 'up to the physician and the patient' (Fox 04/07/2020)
•
"I think we do a lot of drug use off-label. Physicians do all the time. And I think that's why the president made it very clear that this is up to the physician and the patient. And what the president has worked really hard on is making sure that the medication is available in pharmacies and hospitals around the United States."

•
"So physicians have the ability to make that choice. At the same time, there are rigorous clinical trials going on both by the WHO [World Health Organization] and NIH [National Institutes of Health] to look at this drug and other drugs that are under development."

•
"I would certainly listen to [the doctor] and his or her wisdom on what I should be taking. And I think that's well, every patient looks at their doctor."

•
"And I think what has happened over the last month, the information has really gotten out to the American people and to physicians around the United States and making them aware that this is an available option."

•
"As a country, we're doing the clinical research during this time, not inhibiting the use of physicians from being able to use this with their patients. But also recognizing that those two things can happen in parallel [is important]."
Michigan Dem lawmaker describes how Trump's boosting of hydroxychloroquine 'saved my life' (Fox 04/07/2020)
•
A Democratic Michigan state lawmaker has credited President Trump's publicizing of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine with saving her life after her health "plummeted" when she contracted coronavirus.

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... told ... that if it wasn't for Trump pushing the drug through the Food and Drug Administration's approval process for off-label use and touting it repeatedly during his daily press briefings, she may not have made it through the terrible contagion.

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"I really want to say that you have to give this an opportunity. For me, it saved my life. I only can go by what it is that I have gone through and what my story is, and I can't speak for anyone else. So that's not what I'm trying to do here. I'm only speaking for myself."

•
"It went from the headaches being severe to fluid building up in my lungs, to sweats breaking out to the cough and my breathing being labored. It all happened in a matter of hours."

•
When Whitsett did make it to the hospital, she found out about a state order prohibiting the use of hydroxychloroquine.

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"I did have a difficult time, even that day, obtaining the medication because of an order that was put down in my state."

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"And it was on that day so you can imagine how terrified I was that I had to beg and plead and go through a whole lot to try to get the medication."

•
Whitsett says that she has chronic Lyme disease and had heard of hydroxychloroquine but would not have thought of it as a potential coronavirus treatment if not for Trump's briefings.

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"If President Trump had not talked about this it wouldn't have been something that would be accessible for anyone to be able to get right now," she said, adding that within a few hours of taking her prescription, she was feeling much better.
Sen. Barrasso says Wyoming not issuing stay-at-home order: We've been social distancing for 130... (Fox 04/06/2020)
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"We do have a state of emergency in Wyoming. Anyone coming into our state, there is a 14-day quarantine. People are staying at home."

•
"But remember that people are spread out here. We only have about five people per square mile. We have been socially distancing the entire 130 years that we have been a state."
Coronavirus crisis — Trump must assemble economic recovery task force, before it's too late (Fox 04/06/2020)
Thousands of coronavirus-infected New Yorkers treated with anti-malarial drug (Fox 04/06/2020)
•
As many as 4,000 seriously ill coronavirus patients in New York are being treated with the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, state health officials say.

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There are also clinical trials being conducted to see whether the drug can help block transmission.

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Health officials are treading cautiously, saying they don't anticipate hydroxychloroquine will be a "miracle drug" against the coronavirus — but the studies are worth the gamble.

•
"If everything goes as planned, the eight-week trial could provide answers by summer on whether a preventive dose of the drug is safe and effective,''

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"If so, the strategy could give health officials a much-needed boost in slowing person-to-person transmission."

•
The federal Food and Drug Administration granted emergency-use authorization to use hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients amid the pandemic.

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There has been anecdotal evidence — including from China — that the drug helps patients clear the virus sooner.
MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski wonders if Trump has a ‘financial tie’ to hydroxychloroquine (Fox 04/06/2020)
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"A lot of people would say, follow the money. There's got to be some sort of financial tie to someone, somewhere that has the president pushing this repeatedly."

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"Mika must be immediately challenged to produce whatever evidence she might have in support of her explosive claim. To accuse the President of the United States of outright corruption in the midst of the greatest crisis in the lives of most Americans, is a libel most vile unless she can substantiate it."

•
"We've bought a tremendous amount of the hydroxychloroquine," Trump told reporters Sunday, saying the country has stockpiled 29 million pills of the drug.

•
"There are some signs it works on this, some very strong signs. ... They're not expensive. What do you have to lose?"

•
The president noted he's "not a doctor," but observed that the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] had issued emergency authorization for physicians to use the drug to treat coronavirus.
Rep. Chris Smith: China's deception on coronavirus – here's how to hold their leadership... (Fox 04/05/2020)
Some 430,000 people flew from China to US after coronavirus first detected: report (Fox 04/05/2020)
•
Most of the travelers flew into airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Newark and Detroit in January.

•
Thousands came directly from the city of Wuhan in the Chinese Hubei province, where the coronavirus originated.

•
The report did not account for travelers who did not fly directly from China and may have come into the U.S. on a connecting flight from the country.

•
The number of passengers flying directly into the U.S. from China was significantly reduced after President Trump issued a travel ban on Jan. 31...

•
Foreign nationals were barred from entering the U.S. if they had visited China within the past two weeks.

•
Even after the order went into effect on February 2, some 40,000 people – traveling on 279 flights – have arrived in the U.S. from China.

•
Those individuals were exempt from the restrictions because they were either American citizens, U.S. passport or green cardholders.

•
Non-citizen relatives were also permitted to enter the U.S., an exemption made by the president to prevent the separation of families.

•
Some of those flights arrived within the past week from Beijing into major U.S. airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.

•
In January, when Chinese officials were still underreporting the effect of the outbreak, Trump received push-back for issuing a travel ban, with several Democrats in Congress suggesting it could lead to discrimination.

•
The U.S. restrictions came weeks before the WHO recommended similar measures barring travel.

•
"I do think we were very early, but I also think that we were very smart, because we stopped China. That was probably the biggest decision we made so far."

•
As many as 25 percent of those infected with the coronavirus may not show symptoms.

•
Many passengers arriving from China within the past two months said they experienced lax screening procedures at U.S. airports.

•
See related Thanks, China (Bob Gorrell, 03/19/2017) cartoon from World picture album
A heartbroken President (INN 04/05/2020)
Surgeon General warns this week will be ‘our Pearl Harbor moment’ as coronavirus death toll rises (Fox 04/05/2020)
•
"Well, it's tragically fitting that we're talking at the beginning of Holy Week because this is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives..."

•
"This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized. It's going to be happening all over the country."

•
"And so, I want Americans to understand that, as hard as this week is going to be, there is a light at the end of the tunnel if everyone does their part for the next 30 days."

•
"[I]t's why we put out these three days to stop the spread guidelines. These are essentially our national stay-at-home order."

•
He emphasized the need to stay home this week in particular, to protect themselves and others.

•
"This is going to be a test of our resolve. It's going to be the test of our lives. But I am confident that we can come out on the other side, based on the data and based on what I know about the American people."
Sean Hannity: Cuomo's coronavirus failure – the real reason for New York's ventilator shortage (Fox 04/04/2020)
What Are You Going To Do? (JWR 04/05/2020)
Americans' Goodness Outweighs Pockets of Anti-Christian Bigotry (JWR 04/03/2020)
MSNBC anchor confronts Rubio on comment about journalists finding 'glee' in spiking US... (Fox 04/03/2020)
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"Some in our media can't contain their glee & delight in reporting that the U.S. has more #CoronaVirus cases than #China," Rubio tweeted...

•
"Beyond being grotesque, its bad journalism We have NO IDEA how many cases China really has but without any doubt its significantly more than why they admit to."

•
See related Media and Corona (Gary McCoy, 03/12/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
Bill Gates: Pandemic is 'nightmare scenario,' but national response can reduce casualties (Fox 04/05/2020)
•
... warned five years ago that the world's greatest threat was a pandemic, believes that the current coronavirus crisis is "a nightmare scenario," but said social distancing and a strong national response can keep casualties lower than the numbers projected by President Trump.

•
Trump predicted that the U.S. could see between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths from COVID-19 before the outbreak is under control.

•
"Well, if we do the social distancing properly, we should be able to get out of this with the death number well short of that."

•
"This is a nightmare scenario because human-to-human transmittal respiratory viruses can grow exponentially."

•
"And you know, if we had kept on going to work, traveling like we were, you know, that curve would never bend until you had the majority of the people infected and then a massive number seeking hospital care and lots of lots of deaths."

•
"Well, when you have finite resources you need to allocate them to where there's the most need. Certainly because people move around the country, we have to have the shutdown or else you'll have exponential growth. It will spread back into other parts of the country."

•
Gates gave a Ted Talk in 2015 in which he warned that "we're not ready for the next epidemic," but offered hope by saying "we can build a really good response system" to prepare.

•
His suggestions included setting up a medical reserve corps to be paired with the military, and "germ games" similar to military war games that could be used to run simulations.

•
"But between 2015 and 2020, less than 5 percent of what should have been done was done."

•
... did note that the current pandemic "isn't the worst case," given the relatively low fatality rate compared to a disease like small pox.

•
"So this is super, super bad, but — you know, we will eventually get a vaccine. Even before then, if we do the right things we'll be able to open up significant parts of the economy."

•
"I'm sure you know, once we get past this, we'll look back, understand what we could have done differently, and make sure that we're not letting it happen again, particularly because it could be even worse in terms of the fatality rate."
3M reports are 'classic example' of America being addicted to Chinese manufacturing (Fox 04/03/2020)
•
Although founded in Northern Minnesota in 1902, one of 3M's largest plants manufacturing these respirators is located in Shanghai, China.

•
"China says to 3M: 'You make them here; they stay here. We want them. You cannot export them,'"

•
"So, 3M is caught between a rock and a hard place — between President Trump and President Xi. Xi is saying 'no exports.' Trump is saying: 'You're an American company, you know, sell your goods to America.'"

•
"This is a classic example of why we've become addicted to Chinese politics, Chinese manufacture."

•
"They are holding us hostage. Even an American company can't export its masks from their Chinese plants to the United States."

•
3M has doubled mask production since January. The company's N95 masks are considered the gold standard by medical workers and public-health officials...

•
N-95 face masks made by 3M and other companies are in short supply among healthcare workers treating coronavirus patients.

•
President Trump slammed 3M in a tweet on Thursday in regards to the company's production of protective masks.

•
"We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. "P Act" all the way. Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing - will have a big price to pay!"

•
"We look forward to working closely with the Administration to implement yesterday's DPA order. We will continue to maximize the amount of respirators we can produce on behalf of U.S. healthcare workers, as we have every single day since this crisis began," the company wrote in a statement responding to the president's action.

•
"The president has got to take the CEO of 3M and shake them up and say, 'You've got to make a stand here. You've got to insist. Your Chinese landlords let you sell these masks back to your own country.'"

•
"I think it's outrageous. I think it's a scandal. But, I also think that the president has got to go to the Chinese president and say, 'Listen, you're holding our masks hostage,'"

•
"Not only that — just to add to the outrage — in early January when the Chinese figured out what the hell was going on with this virus, they bought up masks that were outside China and brought them into China."

•
"So, not only are they not letting our masks leave China, they've taken, you know, from the world marketplace...all the masks that are available for sale and brought them into China."
Ari Fleischer: Trump's coronavirus communications challenge – Why these two things are critical (Fox 04/03/2020)
Victor Davis Hanson: Dems have 'weaponized' coronavirus crisis to push radical agenda (Fox 04/03/2020)
Tucker Carlson: 4 ways to understand the establishment media's screwed up coronavirus coverage (Fox 04/03/2020)
•
The New York Times, in case you don't read it, is still being published, and it is still out in New York.

•
It ran a piece the other day with this headline, "Alarm, Denial, Blame: The Pro-Trump Media's Coronavirus Distortion."

•
According to The New York Times, "When the virus ravaged China, some pundits on the right warned the country couldn't be trusted to contain the outbreak or share accurate information about where it originated."

•
Can you believe they thought that? Where did they get that idea?

•
Then, step two: Playing down the risks; followed by step three: Share survivor stories to show the virus wasn't so bad. And finally, step four: Blame the left.

•
Now, as you're aware from watching this program and from living in this country, whatever these people accuse you of doing is 100 percent of the time exactly what they're doing themselves. And that, of course, was the case here.

•
As you know, the establishment press has been screwing up coronavirus stories from day one. So there are four steps to understanding their coverage, and here's what they are.

•
The first step, as usual: Blame racism. Here are two New York Times headlines from the early days of the outbreak: "An outbreak of racist sentiment as coronavirus reaches Australia." In other words, people's bad opinions are worse than a pandemic.

•
Here's another. "In Europe, fear spreads faster than the coronavirus itself." Okay.

•
So, then, as the virus kept spreading, there was step two: Play down the risks, which The New York Times assiduously did. On January 29th, the paper warns you to, "Beware the pandemic panic." Calm down, ladies and gentlemen.

•
A week later, they asked, "Who says it's not safe to travel to China?" Book a ticket to Wuhan, racist.

•
Somehow telling the public that coronavirus was no big deal didn't, in the end, contain the virus. So The Times went to step three: Politicize the crisis.

•
Calling the coronavirus the "Chinese virus" or the "Wuhan virus" is bigotry, the paper will tell you.

•
But they had no problem on February 26th publishing an op-ed saying, "Let's call it Trump virus."

•
And then last week, in a shameful moment that will live forever in infamy, the paper declared — and I'm quoting, "The road to coronavirus hell was paved by evangelicals."

•
Yes, that's right. A pandemic that emerged from the atheist country is really the fault of Christians, says The New York Times. That tells you a lot about where they are.

•
And now this week, the paper has settled on its favorite step — step four: Blame Fox News, of course — because there's a political strategy here. Last week, they warned about "Fox's fake news contagion."

•
This show is telling you about the dangers of this disease way back in January, when "The Times" was still wondering if it was racist to even know it existed and encouraging you to travel to Wuhan on vacation.
After mocking Trump for promoting hydroxychloroquine, journalists acknowledge it might treat... (Fox 04/02/2020)
•
After repeatedly mocking President Trump for suggesting on March 19 that hydroxychloroquine could be an effective treatment for coronavirus, media organizations have begun acknowledging that the drug — now approved for emergency use to treat coronavirus by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — may be useful after all.

•
Journalists and top Democrats have beaten a similarly hasty retreat from their previous claims that Trump's ban on travel from China was both xenophobic and ineffective.

•
But media outlets' misinformation on hydroxychloroquine was unique because it involved not simply policy disagreements but also suggestive medical advice and directives that could have dissuaded some from seeking certain treatments.

•
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, went from threatening doctors who prescribed the drug with "administrative action" to requesting that the federal government ship her state some.

•
"Trump peddles unsubstantiated hope in dark times," read a March 20 "analysis" by CNN's Stephen Collinson.

•
Saying Trump was "adopting the audacity of false hope" and embracing "premature optimism," Collinson charged that "there's no doubt he overhyped the immediate prospects for the drug" because the FDA refused to give a timeline on approving the drug to treat coronavirus.

•
"Trump is giving people false hope of coronavirus cures. It's all snake oil," read one Washington Post headline.

•
Added the Post's editorial board: "Trump is spreading false hope for a virus cure — and that's not the only damage."

•
"Mr. Trump's inappropriate hype has already led to hoarding of hydroxychloroquine and diverted supplies from people with other maladies who need it. His comments are raising false hopes. Rather than roll the dice on an unproven therapy, let's deposit our trust in the scientists."

•
USA Today's editorial board was similarly aggressive and mocking, writing, "Coronavirus treatment: Dr. Donald Trump peddles snake oil and false hope."

•
"There are no approved therapies or drugs to treat COVID-19 yet, but the president hypes preliminary chloroquine trials at White House briefing and unproven remedies on Twitter."

•
... called Trump's hope in the new treatment his "most dangerous flim-flam: False hope and quack advice."

•
The New Yorker pondered "The Meaning of Donald Trump's Coronavirus Quackery," observing that Trump's "pronouncements are a reminder, if one was needed, of his scorn for rigorous science, even amid the worst pandemic to hit the U.S. in a century."

•
Michael Cohen, a Boston Globe columnist, urged networks to stop airing Trump's coronavirus press briefings because he was spreading "misinformation" about a potential cure.

•
And, NBC News complained, "Trump, promoting unproven drug treatments, insults NBC reporter at coronavirus briefing."

•
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Arizona woman who said she and her husband drank fish-tank cleaner to ward off coronavirus has donated heavily to Democrats and acknowledges she's not a Trump supporter — despite news reports that she ingested the dangerous drug because she trusted what she thought was the president's advice.

•
The 61-year-old woman, whose first name is Wanda but has asked for her full identity to be withheld, survived the ordeal.

•
Her 68-year-old husband, Gary, did not. Wanda has said that she and her husband each took a "teaspoon" of the fish-tank cleaner;

•
"I saw it sitting on the back shelf and thought, 'Hey, isn't that the stuff they're talking about on TV?'"

•
On March 19, Trump had touted anecdotal evidence that the antimalarial drug chloroquine could be used as a treatment for coronavirus during a White House briefing, calling it a possible "game-changer."

•
In fact, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the drug on an emergency basis, even though various media reports had mocked Trump's suggestion.

•
However, the woman and her husband ingested the additive chloroquine phosphate, which has been used in aquariums to kill microscopic organisms that might harm fish and other aquatic animals.

•
Several media organizations that confused the chloroquine medication with chloroquine phosphate later issued corrections.

•
The New York Times, though, all but accused Trump of recommending the same substance in the fish-tank cleaner.

•
Nevertheless, Wanda drew national attention by claiming that Trump had suggested she consume the fish-tank cleaner with her husband, and that she did so to avoid "getting sick."

•
"My advice is don't believe anything that the president says and his people because they don't know what they're talking about," Wanda told NBC New...

•
"Your psycho prez is in [t]own, are you going to see him?" Wanda wrote on Facebook ... by way of wishing a friend a happy birthday.

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related Unmasking (Glenn McCoy, 04/04/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Florida emergency management official says 3M selling masks to foreign countries: 'We're chasing...' (Fox 04/02/2020)
•
... he was shocked to find American companies quietly partnering with foreign buyers at a time of national crisis.

•
... he has a hard time grappling with "the idea that an American company is selling masks away from our hospitals, away from our doctors ... away from the real heroes on the front lines" and called for investigations into what he described as "criminal" activity.

•
"I can't, other emergency management directors, CEOs of hospitals can't get this life-saving PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] because a company decided to make a globalist decision and not put America first."

•
"I thought perhaps maybe what 3M would finally say to me is that they have masks to sell me, but what I actually found out is even more frightening," he explained. "... Which is that the system is completely broken. 3M has lost total control. What I asked 3M is, are they aware they're authorized distributors — U.S. companies — are telling me the reason why our orders are being pushed down is because foreign countries are showing up with cash to purchase the orders ... not only did they not dispute it, [but] I asked them if they put out any guidance to prevent the behavior and the answer was no."

•
" I said ... 'I have money and I'd like to purchase some of those.' They said I couldn't, they have no masks to sell me. It's criminal what is happening."

•
... criticism is not directed towards the "workers in the factories at 3M who are working 24 hours a day to try to create this life-saving PPE. This is about the executives who decided not to put America first and it's going to have devastating consequences."

•
"Since when do we have a U.S. company that sells masks and I try to offer them money and they don't sell them to me? I have to go through their authorized distributors and their only excuse is that they don't have a perfect system."

•
"I'm relegated to making deals with brokers at costs that are ten and sometimes 20 times the actual costs of these masks, [but] at the end of the day, regardless of the cost of this point, getting the mask is the most important and we can't even get them."
Ventilator shortage during coronavirus crisis forcing doctors to decide who lives or dies (Fox 04/02/2020)
Los Angeles supervisors remove sheriff as head of emergency operations (Fox 03/31/2020)
•
... a day after he reversed an order to close gun shops amid the coronavirus pandemic.

•
"Municipalities who target lawful gun stores for closure aren't promoting safety — by weaponizing their politics to disarm you and your loved ones, these shameless partisans are recklessly promoting a gun-control agenda that suffocates your self-defense rights when you need them most."
Deroy Murdock: Trump should demand Kennedy Center rehire fired musicians (Fox 03/30/2020)
•
Despite securing $25 million with help from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced that it will fire the 96-member National Symphony Orchestra (NSO).

•
Pelosi's virtuoso performance tied up Congress from Monday through Friday, as senators and House members wrestled over her ransom demands, not least $35 million for the Kennedy Center.

•
Pelosi insisted that the House would block relief for Americans enduring the COVID-19 national emergency unless it included cash for the Kennedy Center.

•
Despite public outrage over this irrelevant extravagance, Republicans broke the impasse and gave the Kennedy Center $25 million.

•
After Pelosi's other conditions were met, the Senate passed the legislation 96-0, the House assented by voice vote, and President Trump signed.

•
Just when the president and Congress are begging employers to pay their staffers and enacting laws to help them do so, lest mass unemployment drown the U.S. economy, the Kennedy Center cut off these unionized musicians' paychecks, effective next Friday.

•
It also will boot them off their health insurance in May, if concerts do not resume by then.

•
President Trump should step up to the White House podium with these sacked musicians behind him, remind Americans that Pelosi pushed for the money that Rutter and the other backstabbers pocketed before they issued these pink slips, and tell the Kennedy Center that they must rehire these musicians at once.

•
If not, Trump will block the $25 million outlay — either immediately or as the first item in any future COVID-19 relief legislation.

•
... President Trump now can defend workers who unfairly were fired by pig-headed managers flush with 25 million barely unpacked taxpayer dollars.

•
The Kennedy Center's brazenness is as stunning as its ingratitude.

•
It's as if this establishment's leaders dared the president to confront them in public.

•
If this is what they want, President Trump should give it to them — good and hard.

•
President Trump should do the right thing. Invite these musicians to the White House, physically stand with them in front of the press corps, and rally for their immediate reinstatement. Trump's showmanship could turn this into a magic moment.

•
The president's bully pulpit should get these artists rehired.

•
Then, he and the symphony's workers can watch on stage as Nervous Nancy and the Kennedy Center's supremely arrogant bosses stumble into the orchestra pit.
Monsey Hanukkah stabbing victim Josef Neumann dies three months after attack (Fox 03/30/2020)
•
Josef Neumann, the most gravely wounded victim from a Hanukkah machete attack at a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York, died on Sunday.

•
The 18-inch machete allegedly used by 37-year-old Thomas "penetrated [Neumann's] skull directly into the brain"...

•
Two days after the attack, a graphic photo ... Neumann on a respirator and lying comatose in a bed...

•
Thomas was charged with five counts of attempted murder and federal hate crimes.

•
Thomas was allegedly covered in blood and had the machete stashed under the passenger seat of his car when NYPD cops busted him in Harlem about an hour after the attack.

•
Defense lawyer Michael Sussman has denied that Thomas is anti-Semitic, saying that his client has a history of psychosis and was off his meds at the time.

•
Before the attack, Thomas had more 20 encounters with police...
Woman, 86, dies after knocked to ground at NYC hospital for violating coronavirus social distancing (Fox 03/30/2020)
•
... after being assaulted by another patient for allegedly breaking social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus outbreak.

•
... Marshall was in the hospital for a bowel obstruction and grabbed onto a metal stand while making her way down the hallway.

•
That's when a woman identified by the newspaper as 32-year-old Cassandra Lundy, a seizure patient in a bed nearby, began complaining Marshall was not following social distancing.

•
Lundy allegedly hit Marshall over the head, knocking her to the ground. She was pronounced dead at 5:40 p.m.

•
Lundy was issued a disorderly conduct summons by hospital police and was released before NYPD arrived...

•
She ... has 17 prior arrests, on charges including drug possession, trespassing, assault and strangulation.

•
"We are committed to ensuring a safe, health-focused environment in these very demanding times so our heroic health care workers can continue to deliver the quality, compassionate care New Yorkers need more than ever. We are collaborating with the NYPD in their investigation."

•
The statement did not clarify why the hospital's staff waited hours to call NYPD.

•
New York City recorded at least 33,768 confirmed cases, with 776 deaths from the coronavirus by Monday morning...

•
There are only six countries with more cases than New York City: United States, Italy, Spain, China, Germany, and France.
Graham slams Pelosi, says she held up coronavirus aid to add 'liberal special-interest shopping list' (Fox 03/29/2020)
•
"She said she's blaming the president of the United States for people dying because of the way he's led the country."

•
"That's the most shameful, disgusting statement by any politician in modern history."

•
"This is the same speaker of the House who held up the bill in the Senate for days because she wanted same-day voting, she wanted carbon neutrality for the airlines, she wanted $75 million for the endowment for the humanities and $25 million for the Kennedy Center."

•
"She is the one that held up the package in the Senate for days to get the Green New Deal put in a recovery package, so it's the most shameful, disgusting thing I've heard yet, and it needs to stop."
Congress tried to hide 'spending porn on pet projects' in stimulus bill, but Americans noticed (Fox 03/29/2020)
•
... railed against what he called "all kinds of porn" that "some powerful members of Congress" included in the bill. He said those lawmakers "think the American people... are morons and won't notice, but they did."

•
"It's why so many Americans think there's no intelligent life in Washington, D.C.," he said.

•
"This is what many Americans heard. Members of Congress say, 'Oh, my God. We could run out of ventilators. Oh, my God, people could die quickly. Let's give money to the Kennedy Center and the post office now.' That tells the American people that common sense is dead. Nonetheless, those of us who are fiscal conservatives, we swallowed it. We had to, we passed the bill. I think it's going to help the American people."

•
... "a pox on the house and houses of all those members of Congress who took advantage of this disaster, this tragedy, to take care of their pet projects."

•
... they included a provision to speed up the FDA review process of sunscreen products, funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and additional cash for the post office.

•
"It's not a priority right now. I think once we drill down, we're gonna find out that she's [Pelosi] not the only one. I think some other people in powerful positions piled on, and I don't like it, and it's not fair to the American people."

•
"Now, look, I'm tired as a tick. I squeak when I walk. I'm so cheap with taxpayer money. But, I said, 'look, this is necessary. I swallowed it and said, we're gonna spend 2-trillion-plus dollars because the American people need it. But, when I pick up this bill and see this kind of spending porn where people were taking advantage of a catastrophe for the American people, it pi**es me off."

•
"We're we're trying to save lives and we're also trying to save livelihoods because our economy shut down. The legislation we just passed will help. It'll get money directly to people, to hospitals, to businesses. I will say that a lot of my people are very upset at the spending porn on pet projects that was slipped into the bill, but my people are also grateful for help from the American taxpayer."

•
"Sometimes, the cheapest is not in your national interest, and right. We may be able to back components for pharmaceutical drugs cheaper in China, but we've learned through this experience that that may not be in the national interest."

•
"And, after this is over, we beat the virus and we will, you're going to see some change, though, long overdue."
Coronavirus battle 'like being in a war,' Americans must call lawmakers to stop the 'pork' (Fox 03/29/2020)
•
"I hope that we're going to see the continued movement in this kind of legislation, but I also think, because there are more bills coming in, ... every person who is upset about this bill should call their congressman, call their senators and start right now to build a fire, if you will, against any more of the pork."

•
The former House Speaker blasted Democrats for a provision providing $25 million in funding to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.

•
President Trump has also expressed skepticism about the high-profile earmark, noting he'd love to see a show there but there is a time and a place for worrying about such things.

•
Gingrich claimed to Levin that the aid bill, which Trump signed into law Friday, initially cost half its eventual total before lawmakers added other provisions to it.

•
"I tell people that it's the ... pork in the bill that pulls the train and ultimately gets it done. I do think we had to pass a pretty big bill."

•
... the battle against coronavirus is akin to World War II, except this time the "global problem" is being caused by the Chinese.

•
"If the Chinese had been honest, and if the Chinese had intervened at the beginning, I think that 95 percent of this would have disappeared."

•
... the U.S. must "have as a stated goal ... [that] nothing which really matters to us in terms of our national security or our health ... be manufactured in China."

•
"This disease came from China. This is China's fault. All of us are suffering because the dictatorship in China allowed this to happen."
Greg Gutfeld warns of media's 'incurable bias': 'Best to keep your distance permanently' (Fox 03/29/2020)
•
"So now this funhouse media mirror has networks justifying not carrying the daily coronavirus briefings because, you know, Trump happens to be in them. He is president, but since he's not their guy it's not that important."

•
"But so many things don't fit inside the media's narrative. For example, they see no importance in finding out the specific names of those special creeps who slipped elitist crap into the relief package. Why? It doesn't help their cause."

•
"They haven't yet bothered to investigate how the Chinese covered up their outbreak, causing a delay in information that cost lives. Instead, the press lauded the Chinese for their quick government response."

•
"Meanwhile, the public approves the handling of this once-in-a-lifetime crisis, perhaps because they're smarter than the journalists who love to deceive them."

•
"The public understands that you weigh costs and benefits with every decision, and that sooner or later we will go back to work even when some risk is present, because you can't eliminate it entirely. But there will be groups of people in some places who can go back to work while others won't. The economy will reboot in phases. Trump gets that and so do you."

•
"But the media can't, because if they did, they wouldn't be able to yell, 'But people will die. It's so fundamentally stupid."

•
"Look, I got no doubt we will exit this dark period stronger and better than before. Jobs will return. The economy will roar back. The truth will come out. And we will have saved many lives."

•
"And the only sickness that lingers, the one that seems impervious to drugs is the media's own incurable bias. Best to keep your distance permanently."

•
See related Fake News (Mike Lester, 11/27/2016) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related Media and Corona (Gary McCoy, 03/12/2020) cartoon from Media picture album

•
See related He's Crazy! (Glenn McCoy, 05/16/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Victor Davis Hanson says Trump's coronavirus policies now 'conventional wisdom' (Fox 03/28/2020)
•
"A lot of his views ... that were written off as unorthodox, heterodox. If you think about it, they've become almost conventional wisdom now."

•
"I mean, he said you can't trust the Chinese Communist Party in 2015. And lo and behold, we don't now. And he said... you don't really have a country unless you have industry, an assembly of materials here in the United States. And everybody today wishes that we had control over medical supplies and pharmaceuticals."

•
"[Trump] said you don't have a country unless you have secure borders. Even the Europeans agree with that now."

•
The president has defended his administration's actions in the early days of the coronavirus crisis, saying he was ahead of the curve in calling for a travel ban from China.

•
"It's just, it's kind of ironic that we just shrug that this is conventional wisdom. But when he said it, it was heresy. When you have half the country shut down, you want a president who says to farmers here in California, 'You guys need water? We're going to give it to you. We want to produce food,'"

•
"You want him to say, you guys in Pennsylvania, you guys in Texas get muddy and start fracking because we're going to help. We want people in their apartments, in their homes to have heat when they turn on the thermostat."
Trump scorches Rep. Massie over threat to delay coronavirus bill, wants him booted from GOP (Fox 03/27/2020)
•
"Looks like a third rate Grandstander named @RepThomasMassie, a Congressman from, unfortunately, a truly GREAT State, Kentucky, wants to vote against the new Save Our Workers Bill in Congress. He just wants the publicity. He can't stop it, only delay, which is both dangerous & costly."

•
"Workers & small businesses need money now in order to survive. Virus wasn't their fault. It is "HELL" dealing with the Dems, had to give up some stupid things in order to get the "big picture" done. 90% GREAT! WIN BACK HOUSE, but throw Massie out of Republican Party!"

•
"Heading to Washington to vote on pandemic legislation. Because of one Member of Congress refusing to allow emergency action entire Congress must be called back to vote in House. Risk of infection and risk of legislation being delayed. Disgraceful. Irresponsible."
Our leaders, the media lie about potential treatment for coronavirus when we need the truth (Fox 03/26/2020)
Press Briefings and Ego Bruising (JWR 03/25/2020)
•
Reporters can be very opinionated, ill-tempered jerks.

•
And then, when you protest their shtick, they put on their Guardians of Democracy superhero suits and say they're doing their job — for the people.

•
No one voted to have them represent us.

•
Even in a crisis, they only represent themselves, caring most deeply for their own hyperbolic liberal opinions.

•
See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Chris Hogan on managing your money during coronavirus pandemic: 'Take care of the four walls' (Fox 03/25/2020)
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"The first thing I want to tell people to do is just take a collective deep breath and let's really start to really focus on the things that we can control."

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"We cannot control Congress. We cannot control this virus right now and all the uncertainty that's going on. But we can control our attitude, our outlook and our actions."

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"By conserve mode, what I mean is, is all unnecessary spending must stop immediately. And I'm talking about the gym memberships, because you're still paying for those online even though the gym is closed, or any unnecessary subscription ... I'm telling people you have to take care of the four walls. And what I mean by four walls, this would be your housing as well as your utilities, your food, your transportation and having clothes on your back."

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"Even if you don't have money to pay, you can pay attention to the bill. And that means picking up the phone and contacting the creditor ... You're obviously talking about the job loss or the income loss and all the things that are going on," Hogan said.

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"And you're beginning to have a discussion on what you can afford to do and when. And this is not something that is an easy conversation. As I tell people, 'You're not debating, you're stating.' And that means you're being clear about what you can afford to do and [being] up front and honest. And so you've got to have that discussion."
An Easter rebirth for our economy? Hallelujah (NYP 03/24/2020)
Trump calls for restarting economy by Easter: ‘We have to get back to work’ (Fox 03/24/2020)
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... Trump said he "would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter." The holiday this year lands on April 12.

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"We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don't turn the country off."

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"We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We don't call up the automobile companies and say stop making cars. We have to get back to work."

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"I cancelled the deal last night because Nancy Pelosi put in a lot of things that had nothing to do with the workers."

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"They start throwing Green New Deal stuff in, and the board rooms what they will look like...They have things that are just terrible, windmills everywhere."
Trump worries US will see 'suicides by the thousands' if coronavirus devastates economy (Fox 03/24/2020)
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"You're going to lose a number of people to the flu, but you're going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression. You're gonna lose people. You're gonna have suicides by the thousands."

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"Our people want to return to work. They will practice Social Distancing and all else, and Seniors will be watched over protectively & lovingly. We can do two things together. THE CURE CANNOT BE WORSE (by far) THAN THE PROBLEM! Congress MUST ACT NOW. We will come back strong!"

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"You're gonna have all sorts of things happen. You're gonna have instability. You can't just come in and say let's close up the United States of America, the biggest most successful country in the world by far."

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"We can't have the cure be worse than the problem."

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"We can do much of what we're doing and we can do it from a work environment instead of an environment where everybody's locked up and everybody is saying, 'Oh, the business is gone, the business is gone,' and everybody's suffering depression."

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"And that causes death and that causes a lot of problems. These are people, they want to save their business they don't want to be locked up in some room or some apartment or house and in the meantime, their restaurant's closed, their business is closed... I believe very strongly you're going to lose far more people by going that way than you are if we kept this thing going."
China's coronavirus lies prey on US divisions — here's how to fight their propaganda (Fox 03/23/2020)
China uses American media to push coronavirus propaganda as war of words continues (Fox 03/23/2020)
Steve Hilton: Flatten the coronavirus curve, but not the economy, before it's too late (Fox 03/23/2020)
Deroy Murdock: The media's China syndrome (03/20/2020)
Trump trade adviser Navarro says US too reliant on overseas medical suppliers (Fox 03/22/2020)
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"Our supply chains for medicines, medical supplies and medical equipment, it's spread out all over the world."

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"And that works fine when there's no problem and you don't need [the imported items]."

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"But check this out: We buy about $120 billion of medicines every year from the rest of the world. About 95 percent of them come in from about 20 countries."

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"Ten of those countries have already imposed some forms of export restrictions on things that we actually need."

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"It's a situation where we found ourselves in many of our sectors in the economy, where we've off-shored our jobs, machine tools, electronics, steel, whatever it is. That costs us jobs. In this case, it costs us lives."

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"And so one of the lessons I hope we learn after this is over is to bring those jobs home here to America so that we can make the medicines, make the face masks and have what we need here."
Jesse Watters: 'We shall overcome' the coronavirus 'if we all work together' (Fox 03/21/2020)
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"The United States of America is rolling into a recession or a depression. What we do now will determine which one it'll be. First, we have to stop the spread. You know what to do. Wash your hands, stay clean and practice social distancing."

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"If you can stay inside this week, work from home if you can. Don't fly if you don't have to. The virus is mostly in 10 large counties. A very high percentage in New York, California and Washington state."

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"Some of these areas recognize the threat and are shutting down everything. All of them need to do that."

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"All the brightest scientists in America [are] working around the clock to find a vaccine. Our people are the most innovative in the world."

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"The president should be invoking every possible law and power available to him. He should be mobilizing the military and declaring war on the coronavirus. Rally the country around the mantra 'made in America,'"

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"Every American industry should have all hands on deck. This isn't a time for weakness. This is a time for strength."

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"Our country's fighting an invisible enemy within our borders. We'll dull the spike and kill it if we all work together."

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"We've had to come together by staying apart. I know one thing for sure, we'll stop it and we'll kill it and we'll be a better country for it. Tough times are ahead," Deroy Murdock: Trump fights coronavirus effectively – political attacks on his response should stop 3/21/20 https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/deroy-murdock-trump-fights-coronavirus-effectively-political-attacks-on-his-response-should-stop

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President Trump donated his $100,000 quarterly salary to the Department of Health and Human Services to bolster its war on COVID-19.

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This is the behavior of a man who doesn't care about the public?
Shameful media still slamming Donald Trump during coronavirus crisis (NYP 03/21/2020)
David Bossie: Americans uniting to fight coronavirus, just as we united to fight World War II (Fox 03/21/2020)
Burr had coronavirus info that might have helped people. He hid it and helped only himself (Fox 03/21/2020)
Trump spars with reporters during fiery coronavirus briefing (Fox 03/20/2020)
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The spat started when Alexander asked Trump if his "impulse to put a positive spin on things" could be giving Americans a "false sense of hope" amid the pandemic.

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The president explained he had a "good feeling" about possible solutions the FDA is working on.

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"Let's see what happens, we have nothing to lose," Trump said.

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Alexander interrupted the next reporter who was called on, shouting, "What do you say to Americans who are scared?"

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"I say that you're a terrible reporter. That's what I say," Trump fired back.

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"I think that's a very nasty question and I think it's a very bad signal that you're putting out to the American people," Trump said.

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"The American people are looking for answers and they're looking for hope. And you're doing sensationalism and, the same with NBC and Con-cast. I don't call it Comcast, I call it Con-cast"

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Trump then pointed at Alexander and said, "That's really bad reporting," and urged him to "get back to reporting instead of sensationalism."

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"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," Trump said before moving on to the next reporter.

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"When people are dishonest, they truly do hurt our country," Trump said, adding that the American people have done an "incredible" job dealing with disruptions caused by the outbreak.

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"We're going to come out stronger, better, bigger in every way," he said. "Our country has been incredible." #"I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the "borders" from China - against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!"

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See related Media and Corona (Gary McCoy, 03/12/2020) cartoon from Media picture album
The Inevitable Shoe Drops: DOJ Dismisses Mueller’s Charges against Russian Businesses (03/19/2020)
Trump defends use of phrase 'China virus,' despite demands from China to stop (Fox 03/17/2020)
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Trump said during a national televised press conference that he is using the phrase as a response to China spreading conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus.

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"Rather than having an argument, I said, I have to call it where it came from. It did come from China."

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"The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!"

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China has spread rumors that a U.S. military member might have smuggled the virus into Wuhan.
Dr. Ben Carson warns people who don't follow coronavirus guidelines are 'creating part of the...' (Fox 03/16/2020)
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"The president has excellent perspective. And, you know, early on, when a lot of people were saying, 'No, you can't impose a travel ban,' you know, he he stood largely alone, courageously recognizing what the consequences would be if we had all these vectors of disease transferred to our country."

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"And then the same argument occurred when it came to Europe. And there there will be other tough decisions. He's willing to make those decisions. And that makes a huge difference."

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"The real power in this country lies with our people. We have innovative people, entrepreneurial people. But we also have people who care."

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"We're getting calls all the time from companies [saying] 'What can I do to help?'"

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"We need to understand that this is not a time for class warfare. This is a time for us to work together."

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"The American people are amazing when they're willing to work together."

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"Well, this particular virus is extraordinarily contagious. It's probably two or three times more contagious than the average flu virus that we encounter. And that's why we have to be very aggressive toward it."

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"And we can't really relax and we can't rest on our laurels. We have to continue to use scientific evidence to make the recommendations."

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"They have to understand, even if you're feeling great, you still need to follow the recommendations about keeping your hands clean, watching about your clothing, particularly if you're coming in and mingling with the people who fit into the high risk categories."

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"If you don't learn those things and do those things, then you're creating part of the problem."
Dr. Qanta Ahmed: Borders matter in coronavirus fight – travel bans bought us precious time (Fox 03/16/2020)
Coronavirus brings life in the US to a grinding halt as federal, local governments work to stop spread (Fox 03/16/2020)
Trump attempts to calm country at WH coronavirus briefing, saying 'no need to hoard' supplies (Fox 03/15/2020)
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"You don't have to buy so much, take it easy, just relax. We're doing great, it all will pass."

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The Federal Reserve took emergency action Sunday to help the economy withstand the coronavirus by slashing its benchmark interest rate to near zero and saying it would buy $700 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.

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The president saluted the move. "It's a big step, I am very happy they did it. It brings us in line with other countries."
Pharmacist Rep. Carter on how coronavirus impacts US pharmaceutical supply (Fox 03/15/2020)
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The novel coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, is causing businesses, health officials and patients to worry about the potential prescription drug shortages, especially because the vast majority of active ingredients in medicines dispensed in America are made in factories overseas, including in China.

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When asked if America will experience a shortage, Carter said, "Thus far we haven't experienced much of a shortage at all."

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"However, this is an important warning for us much like the late '70s when we found ourselves dependent on foreign oil and we realized that we needed to be energy-independent, we find ourselves now in a situation where we are dependent on China, India, outsourcing these products that we're going to need."

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"We need to be pharmaceutically independent as well. That's going to be something very important in the future."

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"I am concerned and I think we should all be concerned."

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... "currently my office is working on legislation that will encourage pharmaceutical manufactures to move their plants back here to America, to repatriate this to give them incentives to be able to come back here."

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"We need to make sure we're prepared for this," ... noting that "90 percent of all the antibiotics, 90 percent of ibuprofen, of hydrocortisone and some of the vitamins come from China."

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"That's something we need to address and we need to do it immediately."

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"Obviously this is important for not only our health security, but for our national security."

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"We've already seen some incidents where China has threatened us in a way that they are going to use this against us, well we cannot allow that to happen."

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"This is important to our national security, so yes I would rather do it through encouragement. I don't want to mandate it, but at the same time, we've got to have this."
Trump 'strongly considering' Flynn pardon (Fox 03/15/2020)
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"So now it is reported that, after destroying his life & the life of his wonderful family (and many others also), the FBI, working in conjunction with the Justice Department, has "lost" the records of General Michael Flynn. How convenient. I am strongly considering a Full Pardon!"
American life in practical standstill amid coronavirus pandemic (Fox 03/15/2020)
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"The less public gatherings we have now the better. It's a new virus. We don't have immunity to it. We don't have a vaccine to it. We want to decrease the amount of spread."

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In the New Jersey city of Hoboken, a strict nightly curfew was imposed that would ban any resident from being outside between 10 a.m. until 5 a.m. the next day.

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Starting late last week, many employers switched to telecommuting.
House OKs coronavirus relief bill, after urging from Trump, in 363-40 vote (Fox 03/14/2020)
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All House Democrats supported the plan while 40 Republicans opposed it.

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"I fully support H.R. 6201: Families First CoronaVirus Response Act, which will be voted on in the House this evening. This Bill will follow my direction for free CoronaVirus tests, and paid sick leave for our impacted American workers. I have directed .the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations that will provide flexibility so that in no way will Small Businesses be hurt. I encourage all Republicans and Democrats to come together and VOTE YES! I will always put the health and well-being of American families FIRST. Look forward to signing the final Bill, ASAP!"

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... the major objection to the bill from House Republicans was extraneous matters House Democrats kept trying to include in the coronavirus package.

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Trump had pressed for a payroll tax holiday to give some economic relief to Americans, but Pelosi has not included that in this bill, though she's signaled more legislation could be needed as the scope and hurt of the pandemic is fully realized.
Trump declares national emergency over coronavirus, enlists private sector (Fox 03/13/2020)
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"We are announcing a new partnership with the private sector to vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the coronavirus."

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"We want people to take a test quickly if they need. But we don't want people to take the test if we feel they shouldn't be doing it."

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"I am officially declaring a national emergency — two very big words. "The action I am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion...and a large amount of money for states, territories and localities."

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"We've been working very hard on this. We will overcome the threat of the virus."

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"Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of this virus and help Americans impacted by this. Again, we don't want everyone to take the test."

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"This will pass... It's going to pass through... and we'll be all the stronger for it."

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... the president said he would ask hospitals across the nation to activate their "emergency preparedness plans," and said his designation of a national emergency would allow HHS Secretary Alexander Azar to waive "provisions of applicable laws and regulations" to give medical professionals and hospitals the "flexibility" to care for all patients.

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"They can now do as they want and do what they have to do, they know what they have to do now, they don't have any problem getting it done."

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The Trump administration has also partnered with pharmacies and retailers to make drive-through tests available in "critical locations" identified by public health professionals, he said.

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"The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car," Trump said, while thanking Google for creating a website to help implement the drive-through test taking technology.

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Trump was asked about the H1N1 pandemic — which former President Barack Obama declared a national emergency over in 2009.

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"It was nothing like this and they actually lost approximately 14,000 people," Trump said, slamming the Obama administration for thinking about testing "far too late."

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"We've done it very early and we've also kept a lot of people out," Trump said.

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"We have to make short term sacrifices which will produce long term gains," Trump said, while praising the cancellation of national sporting leagues as having done "a great service."

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"We're with you every step of the way. No nation is more prepared or more equipped to face this, as you know."

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"With faith and heart and hope, we will succeeed and we will prevail. We will be very, very successful and learn for the future."

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The president also said that he would waive interest on federally held student loans and moved to prop up energy markets, by directing the Department of Energy to buy oil to fill the strategic petroleum reserve "right up to the top."

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"I don't have any of the symptoms...White House doctors, and there are a lot of them, say you don't have any symptoms whatsoever," Trump said.

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"And we don't want people without symptoms to go out and do the test."
Marco Rubio: China has ‘tremendous leverage’ over US economy, pharmaceutical market (Fox 03/12/2020)
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"About 80 percent of the active ingredients – the different components of a drug – about 80 percent of those come from abroad, and the overwhelming majority of that 80 percent are manufactured in China."

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... although the drug may be assembled in the U.S., all the components of it come from China because domestic pharmaceutical companies have offshore interests overseas for the cheaper labor.

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"For years, China has enticed American multinational corporations with access to its markets in exchange for off-shoring and sharing intellectual property. Americans watched as Beijing captured critical portions of global supply chains, including in pharmaceutical drugs and medical equipment."

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"Now, in the face of a pandemic, the absence of domestic capacity in critical medical sectors has critically endangered both the U.S. public health system and our economy. The inability to quickly increase the production of key supplies, such as surgical masks, medical gowns, respirators and pharmaceutical drugs limits our ability to mitigate the worst effects of the disease in this emerging crisis and in any future pandemic."

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... the Chinese Communist Party newspaper wrote an op-ed mocking the United States. ... the op-ed implored the U.S. to give "thanks" and "apologies" to China, as opposed to blaming China for the spread of the outbreak.

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"What it tells you is that they realize that in a moment of crisis — let's say the U.S. and China have a showdown over something and they threaten to cut us off of our pharmaceutical supplies, they could trigger a domestic problem here that would make it difficult for us to confront them."

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"That's a tremendous amount of leverage."
North Carolina police release body camera footage after Raleigh shooting protests (Fox 03/12/2020)
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... of 26-year-old Javier Torres running toward an officer during a foot chase Tuesday evening with a black object that police identified as a gun.

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A handgun also was located at the scene of the shooting.

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"As a result of the reckless and false information that has been spread on social media, a number of spontaneous protests occurred during the night which resulted in minor damage to property in and around the downtown area."

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The chief said one rumor rampant on Twitter, which claimed Torres was unarmed and actually only holding a pizza box, was not accurate. "You will see the individual does have a pizza box, but he also has a gun."

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"Whose streets? Our streets!" demonstrators chanted, as lines of protesters and police faced off.

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Police responded to a 911 call around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday about a group of men "talking trash" and one of them "flashing" a gun outside a restaurant...

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A black object, which police said was the gun, is seen in his waistband and he holds a pizza in his hand.

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"Drop the gun! Drop the gun! Drop it right now!" an officer behind him yells.

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Another officer approaches from another angle and fires a shot from a few feet away as Torres runs in his direction, the video shows.

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Police said Torres was holding the gun in his right hand, though the blurry black object is hard to discern in the footage.
House passed resolution to curb Trump's Iran war powers after Soleimani strike (Fox 03/11/2020)
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"No one in this body mourns Qassem Soleimani. Certainly not me," Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said Wednesday on the House floor.

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"No one doubts that he was a hardened terrorist with the blood of Americans and others on his hands. But that's not the issue before us today. The issue is that the Trump administration decided to kill him without authorization from Congress, without any prior consultation with Congress, and then misled the American people about why that was necessary."

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"He orchestrated the attack on our embassy in Baghdad," McCaul said, beside a poster-sized image of the charred embassy after the New Year's attack.

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"Look at this picture. This was not simply a brushfire. ... They stormed and attacked our embassy under Soleimani's orders. What more evidence do we need than this?"

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"The problem with my colleagues' argument is that it flies in the face of what's actually happened in the Middle East," said Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., the first Green Beret elected to Congress. "What's happened is deterrence has been restored. It's relatively peaceful at this point."

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Waltz said the "bill seeks to restrain a president that has shown incredible restraint."

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Trump has previously threatened to veto the measure and Congress doesn't have the two-thirds majority to override him.
Tucker Carlson: Spread of coronavirus is revealing a 'terrifying situation' (Fox 03/11/2020)
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The United States' continued reliance on Chinese-made products, including life-saving pharmaceuticals that combat the coronavirus pandemic, makes the country increasingly vulnerable.

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In an article in China's Xinhua News titled "Be bold: The World owes China a thank you," the author said that if China imposes restrictions on pharmaceutical exports, the United States will be "plunged into the mighty sea of coronavirus."

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"In other words, they threatened to kill us," Carlson commented.

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"And, we're all sort of standing back like, 'Oh, you know it's not a big deal.'"

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"There's probably not a lot you can do to stop its spread at this point, but there's a lot you can do to prepare the country to treat people who are infected and who are in trouble from those infections."

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"Just broadly, I think the government should care most of all about the safety and well-being of its people. Period. I mean, that's job one. It's always got to be job one and I don't think that our leaders care very much."

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"And, that's why they've watched as the suicide rate rises and deaths from cirrhosis and diabetes and opioid IDs rise and they don't do anything about because they don't care."
Schumer faces mounting ethics complaints over Supreme Court comments (Fox 03/10/2020)
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"At a minimum, Attorney/Senator Schumer's statements appear to be improper conduct that reflects upon his character and fitness to practice law in New York."

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... complaint claims that Schumer violated Senate ethics rules by engaging in "improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate."

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The NLPC also alleged that Schumer violated New York's Rules of Professional Conduct through "conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice."

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"It strains credulity to believe that, regardless of his Brooklyn pedigree, Sen. Schumer, who is a Harvard-educated lawyer, Senator minority leader, and vocal opponent of both Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, did not intend to choose the exact words he spoke as he turned and pointed to the Supreme Court behind him to further emphasize his point."

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"In short, his non-apology is a lame excuse for inexcusable conduct."

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"The Senate must immediately reprimand, if not censure, Sen. Schumer for his outrageous and dangerous attack on Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh."
Tucker Carlson warns viewers coronavirus outbreak will cause 'a painful period we are powerless to stop' (Fox 03/10/2020)
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"None of this is justification to panic — you shouldn't panic. In crisis, it's more important than ever to be calm but staying calm is not the same as remaining complacent. It does not mean ensuring people that everything will be fine — we don't know that."

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"Instead, it's better to tell the truth. That is always the surest sign of strength."

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"We really are that dependent on China for masks, medical equipment ... for pharmaceuticals of all kinds. It is shocking to wake up one morning to find ourselves in this supine position dependent on a country who hates us."
Record number hold Minnesota gun carry permits: report (Fox 03/08/2020)
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... carrying a firearm in public "gives you more options to respond to dangerous situations. It's all about having a choice and a chance."

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"I view my gun as a tool that gives me parity of force with bigger, stronger or more numerous opponents."

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"I have the ability to enforce decisions about my body and my boundaries without depending on others... I have more options than just hoping for rescue. I'm my own rescue."
Horrific video: Vicious New York City mugging caught on camera (Fox 03/06/2020)
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New York City police have released "sickening" surveillance video that captured a vicious street corner mugging of a 15-year-old girl.

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A group of teenage boys, according to reports, attacked her Thursday afternoon in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

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"A 15-year-old female was approached by a group of individuals, and was punched and kicked to the ground and had her property removed."

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The video begins with the girl already on the ground and one of the boys kicking her in the chest and face.

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He is then joined by the others, including one who jumps on top of her, then kicks her in the head.
Trump campaign sues CNN over ‘false and defamatory’ statements, seeks millions in damages (Fox 03/06/2020)
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"The complaint alleges CNN was aware of the falsity at the time it published them but did so for the intentional purpose of hurting the campaign while misleading its own readers in the process... the campaign filed this lawsuit against CNN and the preceding suits against The New York Times and The Washington Post to hold the publishers accountable for their reckless false reporting and also to establish the truth."

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"CNN's actions show willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression and that entire want of care which raises a presumption of conscious indifference to the consequences, and accordingly the Campaign is entitled to an award of punitive damages against CNN."

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See related He Hit Back! (Glenn McCoy, 07/07/2017) cartoon from Media picture album

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See related Trump Press (Glenn McCoy, 08/12/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Gutfeld on Chuck Schumer’s 'threat' (Fox 03/05/2020)
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I want to tell you, Senator Gasbag, never before in history have the unborn faced such hate.

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Because, you know, they're just a bag of cells unlucky enough to be conceived.

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So what is Chuck Schumer, really? He's not a firebrand or a bomb-thrower. He's just he's a follower who's following abortion protesters.

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The abortion movement has marched from the valley of abortion being "legal and rare" to "come one, come all!"

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Abortion is no longer a tragic decision, but a choice to be championed, laughed about, even bragged about.

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It's understandable that a weak and anxious man like Chuck would find himself swept up in the hawkish fever for casual termination of the small and inconvenient.

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It's funny how some in the media worried that the justices were being threatened.

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No, Chuck is just another empty, grandstanding joke.

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The justices can take care of themselves. Pity those who never have that chance.
Republican AGs blast Schumer over Supreme Court comments, as Dem leader voices regret (Fox 03/05/2020)
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"Senator Schumer should immediately apologize to Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, and the entire Supreme Court," said Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry...

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"Schumer's threats were dangerous and divisive, something all reasonable people can agree upon."

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"Any person who professes to care about the rule of law and the impartiality of the judicial branch should roundly condemn @SenSchumer for threatening two Supreme Court Justices. Schumer should be censured for his actions."

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"I am full agreement with my AG colleagues. @SenSchumer should be censured and set down for his dangerous and threatening remarks against the two honorable Supreme Court Justices."

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"It's immoral, it's despicable, and it's appalling that a U.S. Senator would think it's acceptable behavior."

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"He didn't simply threaten two sitting Supreme Court Justices, he threatened the rule of law. Reprehensible."

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... once said that officials in Washington "have decided that rather than confront the disagreements and the differences of opinion, we'll simply annihilate the person who disagrees with us."

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Carr said Schumer "shamefully proved him right by verbally attacking and threatening Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh."
Trump moves forward with cutting off funds to sanctuary cities: 'Do not protect criminals!' (Fox 03/05/2020)
McConnell slams Schumer on Senate floor for controversial remarks directed at Supreme Court justices (Fox 03/05/2020)
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... will call out Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on the Senate floor Thursday morning for his controversial warning a day earlier that Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would "pay the price" for decisions in abortion cases.

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"There is nothing to call this except a threat," McConnell said.

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After McConnell's remarks, Schumer took to the floor and began by claiming that McConnell made a "glaring omission" by not mentioning that Schumer was speaking regarding a Supreme Court case that could impact women's ability to get an abortion.

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He then admitted that he chose the wrong words to convey his message.

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"Now I should not have used the words I used," Schumer said. "They didn't come out the way I intended to."

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Schumer insisted he in no way meant to threaten Gorsuch or Kavanaugh, and that McConnell knows this.

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He claimed he was referring to the political consequences the case could have. "I'm from Brooklyn. We speak in strong language," he said.

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McConnell did not buy that, saying that Schumer was trying to "gaslight the entire country" by claiming he was not addressing the justices.

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"But if he cannot even admit to saying what he said, we certainly cannot know what he meant," McConnell said. "At the very best his comments were astonishingly reckless and extremely irresponsible."

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"At best, it was an injection of partisan politics into the process that should be immune to these justices," Grassley said. "At worst it was a threat targeting two sitting members of the Supreme Court."

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"I would call on Schumer to apologize, but we all know he has no shame," Hawley wrote ... "So tomorrow I will introduce a motion to censure Schumer for his pathetic attempt at intimidation of #SupremeCourt."

•
Schumer's words were also met with a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as the American Bar Association and President Trump.

•
"It was a disgrace to the Supreme Court and to the U.S. Senate," Trump said in an interview...

•
Schumer has brought great danger to the steps of the United States Supreme Court!"

•
"Whatever one thinks about the merits of an issue before a court, there is no place for threats — whether real or allegorical," the ABA said in a statement.

•
"Personal attacks on judges by any elected officials, including the President, are simply inappropriate. Such comments challenge the reputation of the third, co-equal branch of our government; the independence of the judiciary; and the personal safety of judicial officers. They are never acceptable."
Trump rebukes Schumer over threat to Gorsuch, Kavanaugh: 'A disgrace he was able to say...' (Fox 03/05/2020)
•
... the president compared Schumer's remarks to the "parody" of his July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky orated by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., during a congressional hearing last year.

•
"There can be few things worse in a civilized, law abiding nation, than a United States Senator openly, and for all to see and hear, threatening the Supreme Court or its Justices. This is what Chuck Schumer just did. He must pay a severe price for this!"

•
Trump told Hannity that he had wanted to sue Schiff, but was told the Democratic lawmaker was immune from any litigation.

•
"Schumer did it outside on the streets in front of a rough crowd," Trump noted. "It was a disgrace to the Supreme Court and to the U.S. Senate."

•
"As far as Schumer is concerned, it was a terrible thing he said. I was amazed by it and if that were a Republican you would see really bad things happening."

•
"It is very unequal justice, and it is a disgrace that he was able to say something like that."

•
"He wasn't shielded by the halls of Congress like Schiff was when he lied about my phone call," the president continued.

•
"I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!" Schumer warned. "You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."

•
"Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter," Roberts said in a statement
Chief Justice Roberts issues rare rebuke to Schumer's 'dangerous' and 'irresponsible' comments... (Fox 03/04/2020)
•
"This morning, Senator Schumer spoke at a rally in front of the Supreme Court while a case was being argued inside. Senator Schumer referred to two Members of the Court by name and said he wanted to tell them that 'You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You will not know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.'"

•
"Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter."

•
Schumer spokesman ... quickly responded by accusing Roberts of bias, further escalating the confrontation.

•
"Women's health care rights are at stake and Americans from every corner of the country are in anguish about what the court might do to them."

•
"Sen. Schumer's comments were a reference to the political price Senate Republicans will pay for putting these justices on the court, and a warning that the justices will unleash a major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights against the decision."

•
"For Justice Roberts to follow the right wing's deliberate misinterpretation of what Sen. Schumer said, while remaining silent when President Trump attacked Justices [Sonia] Sotomayor and [Ruth Bader] Ginsberg last week, shows Justice Roberts does not just call balls and strikes."

•
The law in question requires abortion doctors in Louisiana to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital in case a patient experiences complications during or after a procedure.

•
... it regulates abortion providers similarly to how other medical providers are regulated by the state while also ensuring doctors are competent.

•
The court's opinion in the 2016 case ... said the law placed an undue burden on women seeking abortions because it would significantly reduce the number of available facilities in the state.

•
"Assume all the doctors who currently perform abortions can obtain admitting privileges, could you say that the law still imposes an undue burden, even if there were no effect?" Kavanaugh asked.

•
Roberts suggested other states may have different standards that might be constitutional.

•
Gorsuch did not speak during the arguments.
Dr. Ben Carson: 'Political class can't recognize' this is about the 'welfare of our nation' (Fox 03/03/2020)
•
"It's wonderful that we have a leader who is willing to take decisive action to make hard cause. I've seen him many times, make a hard call when everybody else said something else. And he's been right."

•
"He has very, very good judgment. And, you know, his care in this situation is about the American people, about protecting them and not about political issues."

•
"And one of the things that I think is very interesting is that a consortium of drug companies have gotten together. They're normally, you know, competitors. They are working together to come up with cures and to come up with vaccines."

•
"Why is it that the political class can't recognize that this is something that should rise above that level and that we need to be concerned about the welfare of our nation?"

•
"We need to recognize that, you know, it is a virus and it needs to be treated like virus and like viral infections. And we need to emphasize to people that you need to do the same things that you would do for any other flu or viral infection."

•
"Keep your your hands washed. Be careful about, you know, where you go and keep yourself healthy in terms of hydration, eating things that are helpful to you, getting plenty of rest. These are the kinds things that make a big difference for people."
Dr. Drew: Media-driven panic over coronavirus is a bigger problem than the virus (Fox 03/03/2020)
•
"Essentially the entire problem we are having is due to panic, not the virus."

•
"I was saying this six weeks ago. We have six deaths from the coronavirus, 18,000 from the flu. Why isn't the message, 'Get your flu vaccine'" ?

•
"The entirety of the problem now is that people are being pushed into bankruptcy. Travel is down. The supply chain is being interrupted because of panic."

•
"The flu virus is vastly more consequential and nobody is talking about that."

•
"It is a press-induced panic that will have real consequences. It will not be the virus."

•
"My administration has taken the most aggressive approach in American history to deal with coronavirus," Trump said...

•
"We have strong borders and our tough and early actions have proven 100 percent right"

•
"We closed our borders very early to certain countries. We took a lot of heat ... Washington Democrats are trying to politicize the coronavirus."
Rush Limbaugh slams media for 'setting all-time lows' by claiming Trump called coronavirus... (Fox 03/02/2020)
•
"The coronavirus panic, the media has reached, it has now equaled the same level of irresponsibility that they had achieved during the Russia collusion hoax and whatever Trump supposedly did on the phone call to [Volodymyr] Zelensky, the new president of Ukraine."

•
"This is outrageous what these people are doing. They're literally lying about Trump claiming the virus is a hoax. They're lying about me claiming that the virus was created by the deep state."

•
"Donald Trump never said that the virus is a hoax. He said that the way the media is using it is a hoax."

•
"The same thing I've said. They said that I said that the deep state created the virus to weaponize it."

•
"It's panic city, sitting out there telling everybody the president's calling it a hoax, which he hasn't done. It is so irresponsible," Limbaugh said.

•
"It's the epitome. These people have gone beyond the realm of irresponsibility in the first two years of the Trump administration. They're setting all-time new lows — or highs, depending on how you want to categorize it."
Steve Hilton: Coronavirus crisis shows members of the left are the kings and queens of catastrophe (Fox 03/02/2020)
•
The collapse of the rule of law here at home, tell that to Trump, who is constantly being thwarted and frustrated by the Congress and courts on everything, from executive power to pardons to immigration policy.

•
I think you'll find that checks and balances are working pretty well — too well to some people's liking.

•
As for Trump, curtailing the freedom of the press — my God, can anyone think of a president who faced a more hostile media than this one?

•
After their endless predictions of imminent disaster on every subject, forgive us if we don't take the Democrats and their allies on ruling class state TV seriously with their latest catastrophizing on coronavirus.

•
Of course, it's serious, and we should take sensible precautions.

•
And while they were busy impeaching him, that's exactly what President Trump was doing, closing the border to high-risk visitors and getting going on a vaccine.

•
Here are three other practical steps: Make sure Americans don't get charged for coronavirus testing.

•
Make sure people get paid sick leave so there's no economic incentive to come to work and spread germs.

•
And just to stop the Trump haters from bleating about politicization, have a daily press briefing from the medical expert.

•
So let's get things in proportion.

•
Over 10 million Americans got the flu over the past year. How many have caught this variant of flu in America? So far, it's four.

•
But the facts and the science doesn't matter to the kings and queens of catastrophe. They need catastrophe for their twin obsessions - growing the government and hating Trump.

•
Meanwhile, the media keep comparing coronavirus to Ebola.

•
According to China's CDC, the coronavirus death rate in China is 0.9 percent for healthy adults; the death rate for Ebola was 90 percent, a hundred times worse.

•
While the Trump administration is taking sensible steps based on science, the 2020 Democrats are pushing stupid stunts based on political prejudice and dogma.

•
What we've seen this week is the media and the politicians' unhealthy addiction to drama and hype.
Steve Bannon defends Sen. Tom Cotton's controversial coronavirus origin claim (Fox 03/02/2020)
•
... that the deadly coronavirus may have originated in a high-security biochemical lab in Wuhan, China.

•
"The mainstream media and far-left [are] saying 'oh he's a conspiracy theorist."

•
"All he's saying: It's incumbent upon the Chinese Communist Party and [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] to come out and give all information... this is all Cotton's saying."

•
Cotton, R-Ark., repeatedly made the startling and unverified claim surrounding the biosafety level 4 "super laboratory" in Wuhan, telling ... that the U.S. needed "to be open to all possibilities" in exploring the origins of the outbreak that has continued to spread to countries around the world.

•
"I'm suggesting we need to be open to all possibilities and we need to demand that China open up and be transparent so a team of international experts can figure out exactly where this virus originated."

•
Pence also said that the U.S. would continue "to ask the hard questions" and "continue to call on China to be even more transparent than they've been."

•
... Bannon praised Trump and his team for calling on the Chinese government to share information collected on the novel virus, in an effort to solve the remaining unanswered questions.

•
"I think you are seeing in the subtext of what Pence is saying, the conversation President Trump is having with President Xi is to force more transparency."
My family was forced into exile from Cuba. Here's the truth for Sanders, Castro apologists (Fox 03/01/2020)
•
First of all, it is appalling to those personally affected by the Castro regime legacy of firing squads, torture, imprisonment, brutal oppression and terrorism to witness a U.S. presidential candidate seek to decipher some nominal good from the abject and all-pervasive evil of totalitarianism.

•
Many of those who support Sanders today may not have been around to witness the evils of communism over the past few decades. Sanders has no such excuse.

•
At the height of the Cold War, Sanders hobnobbed with the Soviets and established a partnership with the Sandinistas in a Nicaraguan region at war with the indigenous Miskito people.

•
He should remember that when nuclear missiles in Cuba were pointed at the United States, Fidel Castro pleaded that Khrushchev launch a first strike.

•
Sanders should remember that the Castro dictatorship ordered the shootdown of two unarmed civilian aircraft in international waters, resulting in the murder of three innocent Americans and a permanent resident for which the general and two pilots were indicted in U.S. federal court.

•
Sanders should demand the return of fugitives from U.S. justice such as Joanne Chesimard, an FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist, and terrorist bomb maker William Morales.

•
Sanders should remember the "13 de Marzo" Tugboat Massacre of 1994 when the Castro regime rammed, sprayed and ultimately sunk a tugboat of 72 men, women and children who were attempting to escape Cuba in search of freedom. 41 perished, including 10 children.

•
They were among the over 1 million Cubans who, like my family, fled totalitarianism.

•
Sanders should also remember the lives of those who died at the hands of the Castro regime in the past ten years.

•
Collectivist systems of socialism and communism have brought devastation and tyranny wherever they have been tried.

•
The regimes of communist China, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela have used socialist/communist policies to justify the most egregious human rights abuses and their iron grip on power.

•
In less than two decades, socialism has managed to plunge Venezuela – a country with the world's largest known oil reserves – into blackouts, starvation, medical shortages and utter destitution.

•
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation reveals that more than 100 million people have perished as a result of communism – from the purge policies of Mao and Stalin, including forced starvation, through the dictatorships in North Korea, Eastern Europe and Cuba.

•
Sanders should be asked about Communist China's forced reeducation and labor camps.

•
With collectivist systems where individual rights are subsumed by the so-called "greater good" of the many, once unthinkable horrors become reality.

•
Sanders' comments in regard to Cuba are particularly shocking given the Castro regime's long and sordid history of threatening U.S. interests.

•
The regime in Cuba partners with rogue regimes, terrorists and Anti-American interests...

•
The Obama Administration chartered a course to legitimize the Castro tyranny.

•
Thankfully, President Trump understands the danger of the Cuban dictatorship and has corrected this course.

•
It's very alarming that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is willing to turn a blind eye to this evil.

•
See related Comrade Bernie (Mike Shelton, 02/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Hans von Spakovsky: ‘Remain-in-Mexico’ policy is needed to reduce illegal immigration (Fox 03/01/2020)
Mike Bloomberg’s stop-and-pander betrays the NYPD (NYP 03/02/2020)
Joe Coulombe, founder of popular Trader Joe’s markets, dies (Fox 02/29/2020)
Green New Deal 'would devastate the economy,' hit working families hardest (Fox 02/28/2020)
•
"There's really nothing audacious about it except for its absolute absurdity and that's because this constitutes a federal power grab that would devastate the economy and it would hurt those working families the hardest."

•
... the study shows the typical family would have an annual hit to their income amounting to $11,000.

•
"This is massive. This would erode all of the money some of these families have for retirement savings, for basic entertainment. It would start encroaching on the very things they need to live."

•
"Our studies show ... that throughout the implementation of this plan we would be looking at five million jobs lost. And, that's a big number. ... This is impacting almost every sector negatively."

•
See related Green New Deal (Gary Varvel, 03/16/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Veterans react to forthcoming Afghanistan-Taliban 'peace agreement' (Fox 02/28/2020)
•
"I don't know that I ever had a vision or thought out what the end of this war would be. But it is hard to see a peaceful Taliban. A reluctance to accept Western views and ideas puts them fundamentally against things such as free elections, dignity for women, or partnerships with U.S. or NATO forces."

•
"The war was always going to end in a peace agreement of some kind. The real question was over the terms of the agreement. The Taliban-aligned tribes have the upper hand in these talks, and the U.S. appears willing to compromise on anything to end our role in the war."

•
"I get the desire for peace and the desire for not seeing our men and women in uniform put in harm's way, but I think when it comes to Afghanistan, this peace deal will neither bring peace not get the soldiers out of harm's way."

•
"To remove our troops currently on the ground who understand the external threats we face better than anyone, will take away our ability to conduct quick strikes, surveillance, and intelligence collection."

•
"The Taliban will never be peaceful. They thrive on control and intimidation through extreme violence. Whatever agreement that is made needs to be made by the Afghanistan government and the Taliban, with little U.S. involvement."

•
"The Taliban will not adhere to any agreement that doesn't allow them complete power, and there are also too many unethical Afghan government officials that seek power at the expense of their people regardless of peace."

•
"I don't know if the Afghan culture lends itself to peace because many have been fighting their entire lives."

•
"There might be hope if the women and children continue to be educated, and the leaders hold firm in the beliefs for a freer nation instead of an ideological stronghold for Islam."

•
"This is not how I envisioned (the war) ending, but I believe it is a possible solution if certain conditions are met. I believe it is absolutely imperative that protections for the equal rights of women are specific, state conditions of the agreement."

•
"It is crucial that there [is] no revenge or retaliation against the Afghans who worked with U.S. and Allied Forces — they are still at great risk."
Judge Pirro: Coronavirus proves importance of US-made products, 'America First' policies (Fox 02/28/2020)
•
"We rely, in the United States, too much on products that are created in other countries."

•
"And, isn't it bittersweet or ironic that if this thing started in China, that we end up relying on China for some of the products to make the mask?

•
"It's about time we brought home this to America where we are able to make — as the president has always said is his priority — products especially that involve our health care."

•
"We shouldn't rely on other countries. Because in the end, when there's a pandemic, you can't count on them to help America."
Hawley breaks down his coronavirus bill aimed at securing medical supply chain: 'Bring them back to US' (Fox 02/28/2020)
•
"We're looking at potential shortages of up to 150 commonly prescribed antibiotics and anti-viral medications."

•
"That's bad. The problem is in whole or in part, these drugs are made in China. What we need to do is give the FDA new authority to figure out what components are made in China ... [and ask] 'Is there going to be a shortfall?' If there is, give them authority to fast-track new devices, new pharmaceuticals to take their place."

•
... manufacturers would have to disclose details about "all locations of production, the sourcing of all component parts, the sourcing of any active pharmaceutical ingredients, and the use of any scarce raw materials."

•
Hawley said the coronavirus outbreak brought the issue to light, and he hopes his legislation will be the first step in bringing medical supply chains back to the United States.

•
"This is one of those things that over the last couple of decades, as with so much else, we watched so many jobs go to China, so many industries go to China. We've had all of our elites telling us there's no problem with this, it's secure and fine."

•
"It's not secure. The coronavirus is exposing that. Just as with our manufacturing base, so too with our medical supply chains. They're exposed when they're in China. That's why long-term, we need to bring them home and I hope legislation like this will be a first step."

•
"We've been told for years, 'No problem. It's not an issue,'"

•
"It's a big issue and it's time to take affirmative steps to secure the supply chains and bring them back here."
Barr sounds call to push back against anti-cop attitudes, adopt 'zero tolerance’ to resisting... (Fox 02/27/2020)
•
"Being a police officer is more difficult than it's ever been before."

•
"One reason is the emergence of a deeply troubling attitude towards police in some parts of our society. Far from respecting the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect us, it is becoming common in some quarters to scapegoat the police ... and disparage the vital role played by law enforcement in our society."

•
He highlighted statistics that show assaults against police have jumped by 20 percent to 6,000 a year and that, in 2018, 106 police officers died in the line of duty — including 11 who lost their lives in ambushes.

•
Barr said he was distressed by the attitude "that it's OK to resist police officers" and that it now happens "on a casual basis."

•
He told listeners that the reason such laws exist against resisting police is because police officers are put into dangerous situations which can escalate quickly.

•
"There are a number of DAs that have stopped enforcing resistance laws and I think we have to get back to the idea that it is completely unacceptable and we have zero tolerance for resistance of police."

•
"If people have a problem we have processes and there's a time and place to raise your concerns or complaint, but resistance is unacceptable."

•
Barr touted the administration's efforts to back the cops and said that police have "no greater champion than President Trump" before citing pro-cop and anti-crime measures signed by the president.

•
He noted that the suicide rate among law enforcement and firefighters is 40 percent above the national average.

•
"We have to get back to basics, the basic and primary function of government is to protect the safety of its citizens...[law enforcement] has to be first in line and fully and adequately funded before other resources are deployed."

•
"Support for American law enforcement needs to come from the American people too."

•
"At a minimum, support means that we as individuals lend officers an extra amount of goodwill for having chosen a life of difficult public service and frequent personal risk."

•
"Foreign wars usually come to an end ...

•
but the battle that law enforcement fights never comes to an end, it's constant.

•
There is never a final victory and the signing of a peace treaty, it's constant."

•
"That takes a special kind of courage and a special kind of sacrifice to wage."
Court hands Trump win in sanctuary city fight, says administration can deny grant money (Fox 02/26/2020)
•
"Today's decision rightfully recognizes the lawful authority of the Attorney General to ensure that Department of Justice grant recipients are not at the same time thwarting federal law enforcement priorities."

•
"The grant conditions here require states and cities that receive DOJ grants to share information about criminals in custody. The federal government uses this information to enforce national immigration laws — policies supported by successive Democrat and Republican administrations."

•
"All Americans will benefit from increased public safety as this Administration is able to implement its lawful immigration and public safety policies."

•
"These conditions help the federal government enforce national immigration laws and policies supported by successive Democratic and Republican administrations," the court ruled.

•
"But more to the authorization point, they ensure that applicants satisfy particular statutory grant requirements imposed by Congress and subject to Attorney General oversight."

•
"Not one more American life should be stolen by sanctuary cities; they're all over the place and a lot of people don't want them," Trump said at the State of the Union address...
Steve Scalise says FISA violations should mean jail time: Durham should 'literally name names' (Fox 02/26/2020)
•
"And frankly, if people go to jail for abusing that court, I don't think we're going to see those [kinds] of abuses again in the future."

•
"But, I am concerned that the bill that's moving through this week is not, frankly, including enough of the reforms and criminal penalties that need to be included to make sure that if somebody does abuse the FISA court they will be held accountable."

•
"We need to keep those tools in place. They're vital to our national security, but they were abused. And, if they're abused again, then people need to be held accountable and the penalties need to fit the crime. Which, right now, I don't think they do."

•
"Unfortunately, Jerry Nadler is trying to make this a very partisan process where he is shutting out the Republican side. But, he would be well-served to work with both parties and sit down with Congressman Jordan on the reforms that he and the members of his committee have been looking at and responsibly putting together."

•
"So far, we're not seeing that cooperation. But, we're going to push for the kind of reforms that are necessary to make sure that this important national security tool maintains the ability and integrity that it deserves with criminal penalties on the other side if somebody abuses the process like we've already seen."

•
"There is still a lot left to do by the attorney general to hold people accountable who abused the process. And, I hope he does."
Trump administration launches new unit to strip US citizenship from foreign-born terrorists, criminals (Fox 02/26/2020)
•
"When a terrorist or sex offender becomes a U.S. #citizen under false pretenses, it is an affront to our system — and it is especially offensive to those who fall victim to these criminals."

•
"The new Denaturalization Section will further the Department's efforts to pursue those who unlawfully obtained citizenship status and ensure that they are held accountable for their fraudulent conduct."

•
Officials have pointed to recent cases whereby the DOJ has secured the denaturalization of terrorists, war criminals and sex offenders.

•
They include:

•
An individual convicted of terrorism in Egypt who admitted recruiting for Al Qaeda in the U.S.

•
He was denaturalized while in Egypt and had his passport taken away from him.

•
An individual who received military training in an Afghan jihadist camp and coordinated with 9/11 mastermind Usama Bin Laden. He "self-deported" to Somaliland.

•
An individual who was convicted in Bosnia of executing eight unarmed civilians and prisoners of war during the Balkans conflict. He was denaturalized while serving a sentence in Bosnia.

•
One individual who engaged in sexual contact with a 7-year-old family member and another who sexually abused a minor for multiple years.

•
Such denaturalization proceedings are not targeted at people who commit crimes after they become citizens, only those who have made fraudulent citizenship applications and left out crimes they committed on that form.

•
A number of cases involve those who were initially denied entry to the U.S. or removed from the country, only to re-enter under a false identity.

•
Citizens cannot be deported, but those who have been stripped of citizenship revert back to permanent residency status, which allows deportation or barring of entry from the U.S. in the case of serious criminal offenses.
Rush Limbaugh defends Trump from coronavirus criticism: 'He's actually trying to protect the...' (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
"Donald Trump is president of the United States. He is not president of the world. It is not his job to control the spread of the coronavirus in China."

•
"It's not his job to control the spread of the coronavirus in the U.K. There's nothing he can do anyway about it. He doesn't have the force of law behind him. All he has is the power that being the president of the lone superpower in the world gives him."

•
"But Trump's first commitment and first responsibility is to the people of the United States."

•
"Not only on the coronavirus but on the economy, on trade deals, on whatever it is that affects the safety and prosperity of the people of America."

•
The outbreak has sicked more than 80,000 people worldwide and been blamed at least 2,700 deaths across 35 countries.

•
"But his view is: I have the ability and the foresight and the responsibility to protect the people of the United States from illegal immigration, from economic calamity, from whatever it might be, including rampant disease."

•
"The difference is Obama and his ilk are a bunch of phonies devoted to public relations victories. Trump is a real guy who is actually trying to protect the United States when it comes to coronavirus or anything else."
Trump rips into Roger Stone jury forewoman, judge amid request for new trial (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
"There has rarely been a juror so tainted as the forewoman in the Roger Stone case. Look at her background. She never revealed her hatred of 'Trump' and Stone. She was totally biased, as is the judge. Roger wasn't even working on my campaign. Miscarriage of justice. Sad to watch!"
Cruz scorches Sotomayor over court critique, turns tables on her dissent (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the use of nationwide injunctions – which stop policies from taking effect – Cruz cast the blame on liberal jurists for what he described as an abnormal number of these measures against the Trump administration in the first place.

•
He accused judges of acting as "partisan political activists."

•
This, he argued, has reasonably resulted in the government fighting back.

•
"I read it a little bit like an arsonist complaining about the noise from the fire trucks."

•
Sotomayor used her to dissent to rail against the administration for its repeated tactic of applying for emergency stays so injunctions could be put on hold.

•
"It is hard to say what is more troubling," Sotomayor wrote, "that the Government would seek this extraordinary relief seemingly as a matter of course, or that the Court would grant it," she wrote.

•
But Cruz turned the issue around, stating that the Trump administration would not have to take such measures if judges were not granting an unusual number of nationwide injunctions.

•
"If you look to the facts of what's happening with nationwide injunctions, I think it will explain why the Department of Justice has had to ask the Supreme Court to intervene over and over again."

•
Cruz noted that one-third of all nationwide injunctions have come from California courts, and that two-thirds of the states have not produced any.

•
"So you have a handful of courts that are driving this."

•
"In the eight years of the Obama administration, district courts issued 19 universal injunctions against the Obama administration. In just three years of the Trump administration, we have already had 55 national universal injunctions issued against the federal government."

•
"I believe we have a handful of judges who are operating effectively as part of the resistance movement, putting themselves in the way of Trump policies they happen to disagree with."
C.J. Pearson: Conservative students should join me in rejecting liberal academia's intolerance (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
It's time for conservatives to get tough and fight back against the liberal monopoly on higher education.

•
Considering NYU's decision to hire a professor who likened President Trump to Hitler, and to hire another whose group vandalized New York subways in support of anarchism, I have no desire to support NYU with thousands in tuition dollars.

•
On campuses such as the University of California, Berkeley, conservative student activists have been sucker-punched in the face, and conservative speakers such as Ben Shapiro are routinely met with violent protests.

•
Just this month, a mob of students surrounded pro-Second Amendment activist Kaitlin Bennett on the campus of Ohio University, where she was spat on, assaulted, and met with a barrage of derisive language.

•
According to a study conducted by Brooklyn College, liberal professors outnumber conservative professors 10-1.

•
As conservatives, we:

•
Make the choice to go deep into debt to attend institutions that are not tolerant of our beliefs;

•
Make the choice to send our kids or to attend ourselves colleges and universities where we'll be forced to self-censor and hide who we are;

•
Have chosen for far too long not to fight back. Why?

•
Instead of going to schools like NYU, conservatives should give consideration to institutions such as Hillsdale College and The King's College.

•
That's not because these institutions are so-called "conservative colleges" — ideological safe spaces are never good — but because these universities recognize the importance of the free and fair exchange of different ideas.

•
They recognize the importance of teaching students how to think rather than what to think.

•
These days, institutions like these are few and far between.

•
Higher education is a business, and we wield more power than we know.

•
It's time we use it.
New Harmony: America's failed 19th-century socialist experiment (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
The history of socialism in America did not begin with Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

•
Rather, it began in 1825 on the banks of the Wabash River in Indiana.

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On April 27 of that year, Robert Owen, a Welsh textile manufacturer-turned-philanthropist, welcomed 800 eager arrivals to the settlement he had christened New Harmony.

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New Harmony was to be a "community of equality" heralding a new way of life.

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Owen's followers would soon coin a new name for his vision: "utopian socialism."

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On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Owen issued his own variation, what he called the "Declaration of Mental Independence."

•
From that day forward, Owen proclaimed, men would be free from what he called a "trinity of the most monstrous evils that could be combined to inflict mental and physical evil upon the whole race ... I refer to private property, absurd and irrational systems of religion and marriage founded upon individual property."

•
The quest to do away with private property would animate the philosophy of socialism for the next 150 years.

•
Intellectuals were drawn to Owen and the promise of New Harmony, but managing the community's resources without individual ownership proved highly inefficient.

•
"In the end, I think one of the problems in New Harmony was that it was a big group of idealists in one place — in a very isolated place."

•
"They spent a lot of time thinking about the idea of a perfect community. Ultimately you had a lot of thinkers and not enough doers."

•
"Owen had a very hard time acknowledging that there was a failure at New Harmony."

•
"And through a period of many months when everyone around him, including his sons, was saying, 'Things are falling apart,' Owen was saying, 'Things are going great here.'"

•
"But eventually, he couldn't keep up that pretense any longer because everyone was leaving."

•
"And so Owen found a kind of alibi, I think, in blaming the people who came to New Harmony as being poor human material for his experiment."

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"All cooperative schemes which provide equal remuneration to the skilled and industrious and the ignorant and idle must work their own downfall. For by this unjust plan they must of necessity eliminate the valuable members and retain only the improvident, unskilled and vicious."
Brandon Judd rips new Greyhound 'sanctuary buses' policy: 'They're putting profit above the safety...' (Fox 02/25/2020)
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"I look at the reason that Greyhound gave... 'the safety of its employees and its passengers.' I question — what about the safety of the American public at large?"

•
"I've personally gone onto a Greyhound bus and arrested an individual that was convicted for sexually molesting a young child. What about that young child... those people that are prayed upon?"

•
"How about sex trafficking? We know that sex traffickers will exploit every opportunity that they're given and if federal agents can't go on the bus and start searching people..."

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... the policy essentially would create "sanctuary busses," inspired by the liberal-run sanctuary cities serving as safe havens for illegal immigrants.
Dan Bongino on new claims of Russian election interference: 'Putin has to be absolutely laughing' (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
"He's got to be laughing about how the bidding, his own bidding, is being done by people in this country who have this just animus towards the president, they refuse to let go."

•
"Has any president in modern American history had to put up with what this president has put up with?"

•
"You would think the Democrats who are typically tactically and politically smarter than this would figure out that it's time to start sticking to the issues and hammering him on the issues that they think would matter, but they can't seem to get away from their dreaded TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome] and they focus on the personal stuff all the time."

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See related US Media (Michael Ramirez, 08/12/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Al Pacino-led Amazon TV series criticized by Auschwitz Museum for inaccurate portrayal of Nazi... (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
The museum that preserves the site of the former German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz issued a statement condemning the recently released Amazon TV series, "Hunters."

•
Specifically, the people behind the museum took issue with a scene that shows a murderous game of human chess being played at Auschwitz, arguing that such a thing never took place there and that introducing it in the plot is dangerous and foolish.

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"Auschwitz was full of horrible pain & suffering documented in the accounts of survivors. Inventing a fake game of human chess for @huntersonprime is not only dangerous foolishness & caricature. It also welcomes future deniers. We honor the victims by preserving factual accuracy."

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"If anyone wants to show human tragedy in Auschwitz it is enough to reach for the thousands of sources (survivors' testimonies) that are deeply shocking, but creating fiction that distorts the history of this real place is disrespectful of the people who suffered here."
DHS deputy Cuccinelli: 'Activist judges' trying to block Trump immigration agenda (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
Sotomayor's problems with the conservative majority's ruling went far beyond that single case.

•
She claimed that it was symptomatic of the court's habit of siding with the government when they seek emergency stays of rulings against them.

•
"It is hard to say what is more troubling: that the Government would seek this extraordinary relief seemingly as a matter of course, or that the Court would grant it."

•
"So [Sotomayor] is sort of hitting it with a bank shot and she's missing the target that the Supreme Court has hit. And that's activist judges at the lower courts that are trying to block this president's agenda."

•
"And so this is the third time, if you count the wall and the Remain in Mexico program dating back to September of last year, where the Supreme Court has stepped in and either in word or deed told these lower courts, you're being too activist, this isn't outside the law and you need to let the case run its course. So all of those injunctions were lifted. And so today, the public charge rule will go into effect all across the country."

•
... arguing that it is not intended to be a "moral judgment on individuals."

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"It is an economic one and we expect in America, as we have for over 140 years, that people seeking to be long-term immigrants here and maybe join us as citizens will be able to stand on their own two feet."
Trump administration rule to restrict green cards for welfare-reliant immigrants takes effect (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
"It's consistent with our law for over 140 years, it's a core American value of self-sufficiency, and it's just plain old logic — what country wants to bring welfare problems into its society? We don't want to do that."

•
"We're happy to open our doors to people from all over the world but we expect them to stand on their own two feet."

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"This final rule will protect hardworking American taxpayers, safeguard welfare programs for truly needy Americans, reduce the Federal deficit, and re-establish the fundamental legal principle that newcomers to our society should be financially self-reliant and not dependent on the largess of United States taxpayers."

•
While a "public charge" standard is already part of U.S. immigration law, and immigrants have regularly had to provide documents to demonstrate self-sufficiency, the standard has been lacking a formal statutory definition.

•
The new rule defines a "public charge" as an immigrant who received one or more designated benefits for more than 12 months in a 36-month period.

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... excludes certain benefits from consideration — including tax credits, emergency medical assistance, disaster relief, national school lunch programs, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid received by individuals under 21 years of age and pregnant women.

•
The rule would be applied to immigrants on temporary or nonimmigrant visas seeking to adjust their status to permanent residency.

•
The rule has been fiercely opposed by liberal activists and civil rights groups, who claim it may have a chilling effect on migrants who need help yet fear seeking it would disqualify them from permanent residency.

•
"Nearly every sector of society has gone on record in opposition to this morally repugnant and legally dubious regulation, and for good reason: its implementation will hurt countless of immigrant and citizen families, and we're all worse off as a result."

•
"We don't think immigrants should be relying on the U.S. government for welfare and they have some legal ability to do that, but if that's their approach to the United States of America and they have no interest in self sufficiency and standing on their own two feet, that's not who we want joining our American community long term."

•
"The reaction by most ordinary Americans that talk to me about this is ‘I can't believe we needed to do this, I can't believe that welfare is available for people who aren't American citizens or who aren't already here on a permanent basis.' They are stunned by that for starters and the idea that we would encourage that is not something I have seen much in the way of favorable response."

•
"Some of these lower courts are, I think, gradually getting the message that they have to start being judges again and stop being political activists."
Sotomayor issues blistering dissent, says Republican-appointed justices have bias toward Trump... (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
"Claiming one emergency after another, the Government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, demanding immediate attention and consuming limited Court resources in each."

•
"And with each successive application, of course, its cries of urgency ring increasingly hollow. Indeed, its behavior relating to the public-charge rule in particular shows how much its own definition of irreparable harm has shifted."

•
"I fear that this disparity in treatment erodes the fair and balanced decisionmaking process that this Court must strive to protect."

•
Recent history, however, shows that the conservative majority has been anything but in lockstep with conservative politics.

•
Last year, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch — both Trump appointees — drew attention for siding with the court's liberal contingent on a number of cases.

•
Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush, had perhaps the most notorious break from the conservative ranks when he ruled in favor of Obamacare in 2012.
Paul Batura: Ronald Reagan warned us about Bernie Sanders – over 40 years ago (Fox 02/23/2020)
•
"Socialists ignore the side of man that is of the spirit," Reagan said back in 1975. "They can provide shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you're ill – all the things that are guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. But they don't understand we also dream, yes, even of owning a yacht."

•
History has always had a way of repeating itself, partly due to ignorance but also attributable to human nature.

•
... if we should have learned anything since communism went from a theory to the foundation of a tyrannical government following the Russian Revolution in 1917, it is that communism and its cousin socialism did not create utopias.

•
Instead, they brought nightmares to life.

•
By any objective standard, communism and socialism have destroyed economies, left people impoverished and sometimes starving, and brought about brutal dictatorships that deprived people of the precious freedoms guaranteed to Americans under our Bill of Rights – including freedom of speech, of the press and of religion.

•
The old saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely has proven true again and again around the world wherever Marxism has been embraced.

•
... Reagan lamented: "We've gone so far that it almost seems a rule originally designed to guard against violation of the Constitution has become an aggressive campaign against religion itself. And isn't that the very thing we set out to guard against?"

•
"Do-gooders, busy-bodies and bureaucrats need to learn that people don't like to be told what to do. Kids are kids and sometimes persuasion is better than dictatorship."

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"The citizens of this great nation want leadership, yes, but not a man on a white horse demanding obedience to his commands."

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"I believe this nation hungers for a spiritual revival ... to see government once again the protector of our liberties, not the distributor of gifts and privilege... Government cannot be clergyman, teacher and parent. It is our servant, beholden to us."

•
Reagan was right then – and his words remain just as true today.
Philip Haney, DHS whistleblower, found dead, police say (Fox 02/22/2020)
•
"Upon their arrival, they located and identified 66-year-old Philip Haney, who was deceased and appeared to have suffered a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound. A firearm was located next to Haney and his vehicle. This investigation is active and ongoing..."

•
"Somebody I deeply respected and considered a friend Phil Haney - a DHS whistleblower during the Obama Admin was apparently killed yesterday in Southern California. Pray for his family and pray they find the person who murdered him. Still trying to get confirmation on details."

•
Haney, a former DHS agent, was also the author of "See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government's Submission to Jihad."

•
He was an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, specifically its handling of radical Jihadist elements and Islamic terrorism.

•
He specialized in Islamic theology and the strategy and tactics of the global Islamic movement.
Greg Gutfeld rips Democrats, claim they 'undermine national security' with Russia accusations (Fox 02/21/2020)
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"They said today that Putin wants to be sure that Trump gets elected. Here we go again. I was told a week ago they said, you know, they're trying to start a rumor," Trump said at a Las Vegas rally.

•
"It's disinformation. That's the only thing they're good at."

•
"Wouldn't [Russian] rather have, let's say, Bernie? Wouldn't you rather Bernie who honeymooned in Moscow?"

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"This is the tragedy of impeachment. By taking things like the dossier, the Russian dossier, and making that sufficient to impeach a president of the United States for only the third time in 243 years, they have destroyed the credibility of the intelligence agencies," " Rivera said of the Russia accusations...

•
"If the day comes when there is a threat, it'll still be a punch line because they've turned that threat, a potential threat, a hypothetical threat into a joke," Gutfeld said.

•
"Now, when you hear about this, it's funny. It's not serious. So they what they've done is they've actually undermined the security of the United States by crying wolf for four years."
With liberty and two-track justice for all (JWR 02/21/2020)
•
"Equal Justice Under Law." What a joke!

•
... sentenced President Donald J. Trump's friend Roger Stone to three years and four months in prison for witness intimidation and lying to Congress.

•
Stone's penalty emerged just six days after the Justice Department (DOJ) dropped its inquiry into Trump foe, former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe.

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This is Washington's nauseating new reality — A two-track justice system offers political insiders on the left impunity and income from publishing and broadcast deals.

•
However, political outsiders on the right face crippling legal fees and incarceration.

•
President Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, is doing 7.5-years for his pre-Trump tax and bank fraud.

•
Former campaign aide George Papadopoulos served 12 days in the slammer for false statements to FBI officers. His steep legal bills and spooked clients drove him back into his parents' house.

•
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn awaits sentencing, and wants his charges dropped, after pleading guilty to false statements. Flynn reportedly took a plea after selling his house to pay his lawyers...

•
Compare the plight of these Trump allies with the charmed lives of just a few of his and the Right's tormentors.

•
Former FBI director James B. Comey was the subject of a criminal referral by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

•
The OIG concluded: "Comey violated applicable policies and his Employment Agreement" and spilled state secrets.

•
So, is Comey breaking rocks?

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"He's been traveling the country giving six-figure paid speeches on leadership."

•
Despite 588 security violations that the State Department attributed to Hillary Clinton and her associates in the E-mailgate scandal, as well as her role in purchasing the "dirty dossier" that triggered the Russia hoax, the former first lady has suffered zero consequences for an entire career of professional misconduct.

•
Lois Lerner ran the IRS unit that perpetrated the systematic political profiling of conservative groups that sought tax-exempt designation. Lerner supervised this virtual gag-the-right scheme.

•
When GOP congressional overseers sought Lerner's hard drive, they learned that it was shredded.

•
Was Lerner punished?

•
Lerner was placed on administrative leave. She received her $177,000 annual salary at home.

•
America needs equal justice, but neither undue leniency nor undeserved cruelty toward Stone.

•
Given his sentence, McCabe, Comey, Clinton, and Lerner should be locked up.

•
But since those four got zero prison time, plus book and TV deals and a hefty pension, Roger Stone deserves no less.
Bill Bennett on Bernie's surge: Most Americans don't want 'Russian ideology' in our economy (Fox 02/21/2020)
•
"Most of the American public is opposed to socialism, the ideas of socialism."

•
... it is "ironic" that while there is bipartisan concern about Russian influence in the 2020 election, there does not appear to be concern toward Russian "ideology" when it comes to socialist economic ideas.

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"How about the fact that the leading Democratic candidate [Sanders] embodies the ideology of socialism, communism?"
California prisoner confesses in letter to newspaper that he killed 2 child molesters behind bars (Fox 02/21/2020)
•
Watson is serving a life sentence for a 2009 murder conviction.

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... the man began taunting other inmates by watching children's television programming. Watson said in the letter he couldn't sleep that night "having not done what every instinct told me I should've done right then and there."

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... Watson told a prison counselor that he urgently needed to be transferred back to higher-level security "before I really (expletive) one of these dudes up," but the counselor "scoffed and dismissed" him.

•
"I was mulling it all over when along came Molester #1 and he put his TV right on PBS Kids again."

•
"But this time, someone else said something to the effect of ‘Is this guy really going to watch this right in front of us?' and I recall saying, ‘I got this.' And I picked up the cane and went to work on him."

•
Watson said he then left the housing pod to find a guard and turn himself in, but on the way, he saw "a known child trafficker, and I figured I'd just do everybody a favor. In for a penny, in for a pound."

•
"Being a lifer, I'm in a unique position where I sometimes have access to these people and I have so little to lose."

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"And trust me, we get it, these people are every parents' worst nightmare."
James Comey responds to Trump with Mariah Carey GIF: 'Why are you so obsessed with me?' (Fox 02/21/2020)
•
"'They say Roger Stone lied to Congress.' @CNN OH, I see, but so did Comey (and he also leaked classified information, for which almost everyone, other than Crooked Hillary Clinton, goes to jail for a long time), and so did Andy McCabe, who also lied to the FBI! FAIRNESS?"
Veteran detective Mark Fuhrman's advice for Jussie Smollett as actor heads back to courtroom (Fox 02/20/2020)
•
"Smollett could most probably save himself money and possible jail time by just admitting his guilt and asking for forgiveness. But he won't."

•
"... Smollett, quite frankly, is responsible for every bit of this incident and yet still maintains his absolute innocence."

•
"Smollett conspired to commit a hate crime. The hate crime had two moving parts, anti-Trump and anti-black, with the underlying assumed motive of anti-gay. Smollett continued the third part of his crime by reporting the assault and false hate crime. Smollett furthered his culpability by lying to the investigating detectives."

•
... Fuhrman investigated the Smollett case and detailed the extensive and tedious process that police went through to apparently determine that Smollett was not the victim, but the perpetrator.

•
"[The police] investigation had to proceed in the exact same way to either catch the suspect or find out just exactly what was going on in this case."

•
"Long before they had all the surveillance [video collected] and they actually identified two suspects, they asked for Jussie Smollett's phone."

•
"And Jussie Smollett wasn't going to give them the phone. This was the first flag."

•
See related One of His Better Performances (Tom Stiglich, 02/18/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Tucker Carlson: Politico is one of the reasons sucking up to China is normal in Washington (Fox 02/20/2020)
Gutfeld on new research on intolerance on campus (Fox 02/19/2020)
•
A new study shows that as badly educated, far-left college activists continue to label words as violence and ideas as not wrong but evil, they've helped turn arenas of "free" thought into monuments to the East German Secret Police

•
The new study found that a quarter of students believe in silencing views they don't like and believe it's OK to obstruct speakers.

•
Six times as many liberals felt that way as nonliberals.

•
So college is now where you send your kids, not to be educated but to be indebted; no longer to engage, but to punish each other.

•
It's a place where its gatekeepers realize the only way to preserve their bad ideas is to enlist zombie students to cooperate against their rebellious peers. Like guards in a prison camp.

•
Looking at these intolerant students on the left who shout down their opponents, you have to ask: Are those healthy minds? Are they people you can work with upon graduation?

•
Hell no, you don't want to be around that. To them, community, empathy, skepticism, nonconformity and free thought are oppressive.

•
Where once parents sent their kids to college to be educated, now they're sending them to be institutionalized.

•
It's a cuckoo's nest. And the lunatics are coming for you.

•
See related Tolerance (Michael Ramirez, 02/06/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Higher Education (Antonio Branco, 08/24/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Lisa Boothe blasts Sanders' criticism of Trump's pardons and commutations: 'Sit this one out' (Fox 02/19/2020)
•
"Anyone who is out there saying that they want a more equitable and fair criminal justice system but thinks it is fair for Roger Stone to get 7 to 9 years for non-violent offenses or Blagojevich to serve 14 years in jail for non-violent offenses isn't really for a fair and equitable criminal justice system."

•
"Reminder, President Trump is the one who got criminal justice done. Someone who has done more for criminal justice than any of the Democrats that are running for president now."

•
"I think Bernie Sanders should maybe sit this one out and, instead, praise President Trump for what he has done."
Jason Chaffetz claims 'deep state' is 'scared to death' of Trump, Barr exposing misconduct (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
"This is the deep state being exposed. These people do not want accountability."

•
"There are about 110,000 people at the Department of Justice, roughly 10,000 of them are attorneys. There is one key thing that has to happen here, [and] most people don't realize this, I was the chairman of the [House] Oversight Committee, the inspectors general out there can go out and inspect anything going on in the federal government, except attorneys at the Department of Justice."

•
"They can look at individual cases, but the one group of people that's exempt are attorneys at the Department of Justice."

•
"I think they're scared to death of Donald Trump and Barr and Durham and certainly Horowitz because they don't want people peeling back the onion [and] looking under the hood at how these people have operated at the Department of Justice."

•
"That's why they're firing back. But now they're being exposed."
Gutfeld on Obama claiming credit for Trump’s economy (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
After former President Barack Obama claimed credit for America's economic boom, President Trump fired back, saying the boom is due to rolling back Obama's policies and cutting regulations and taxes.

•
So who's right? Who even cares?

•
Think about it. The debate we're having isn't over how great things are. That ship has sailed.

•
The media and Democrats see there's no more denying the success. It's now about quibbling over credit.

•
Fine. Let the Democrats have it. It won't win them an election. But it might reduce their tears.

•
Maybe Obama did have something to do with today's economy. I mean, without Obama, would we have Trump?

•
The fact is that this debate says a lot about life today.

•
The Trump economy is so great that Trump haters now want credit for it.

•
So it's confusing. In the Democrats' world, Obama isn't responsible for his results, only for the success of whoever came next.

•
Who gets credit for George Washington's success? King George III, of course.
Tomi Lahren on attacks on Trump supporters: The 'loving and tolerant left' is a myth (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
... the media labels Trump supporters "racists," "bigots," and "deplorables" on a daily basis.

•
"And so, they're not surprised. Nor do I think they are truly horrified as we are when these things happen."

•
"Once you convince somebody that it is their moral duty to attack people, to degrade people that think differently than you do, then you can't really be surprised when it happens. They are not and, quite frankly, they don't care."

•
"Well, the 'loving and tolerant left' is the biggest myth that we are experiencing," Lahren remarked, "especially in the last five years."

•
"We know that they are anything but. And we know – quite frankly – they are not going to cover these things, they're not going to talk about them, and they are not going to discourage them."

•
"And, as we get closer to the election, I fear it's only going to get worse."

•
"Especially for those of us in the media – those who have a voice – and even those who aren't really in the media spotlight: They also have to worry when they are just out there supporting their president and it's really a shame."

•
See related Love Trumps Hate (Sean Delonas, 11/10/2016) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Tolerance (Michael Ramirez, 02/06/2017) cartoon from USA picture album

•
See related Counterpoint (Glenn McCoy, 02/03/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump threatens lawsuits over Mueller probe, blasts prosecutors on Stone case (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
"These were Mueller prosecutors, and the whole Mueller investigation was illegally set up based on a phony and now fully discredited Fake Dossier, lying and forging documents to the FISA Court, and many other things."

•
"Everything having to do with this fraudulent investigation is badly tainted and, in my opinion, should be thrown out."

•
"Even Mueller's statement to Congress that he did not see me to become the FBI Director (again), has been proven false."

•
"The whole deal was a total SCAM. If I wasn't President, I'd be suing everyone all over the place... BUT MAYBE I STILL WILL. WITCH HUNT!"

•
See related Trump Interrogation (Sean Delonas, 02/10/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
Stephanie Grisham: 'Obstructionists' across the government are working against Trump (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
"It's been proven time and time again. There are obstructionists all across this government who are working against the president."

•
... comments came after more than 1,100 former Justice Department employees signed an online petition urging Barr to resign...

•
"It didn't surprise me. A lot of those [petitioners] are career [employees]. There are many people who hailed AG Barr when we first appointed him and he's been doing a great job."

•
"The president has made clear his position on many different cases but he leaves AG Barr to do his work. He's made it clear that the two things are separate but the president will always, always tell the American people what his opinion is."
NYU College Republicans call for firing of left-wing professor who led anarchist protest (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
... Amin Husain – an adjunct instructor at the school's College of Arts and Science – should be fired after it was revealed he spearheaded a radical anti-cop rally protesting a police crackdown on turnstile jumping...

•
... is also a co-founder of Decolonize This Place, which urged its radical followers to "f*ck sh*t up" last month in a violent assault on New York City's subways that concluded with 13 arrests and $100,000 in damage.

•
"The professor is really just a far-left extremist. He has no business impressing his reprehensible views on the minds of young adults in a classroom setting."

•
"And, quite honestly, it's disappointing that NYU hasn't taken the necessary steps to make sure that this professor is nowhere near students in the future. As you mentioned, this had not just affected students. This affected commuters all over the city and NYU should make a statement by firing this professor so they don't condone violence."

•
"So, I definitely think that if anybody were to do anything like this on the other side it would quickly be buried – strongly denounced – which I think is why we're so unbalanced here."

•
"There's a complete double standard for conservatives on campus at NYU and really at colleges across the country."
Gingrich says Mike Bloomberg could spend up to $6 billion 'carpet-bombing' states with ads (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
"Bloomberg just came in with so much cash, that it made any place irrelevant, and if he's willing to double-down and triple-down, he could easily spend over a billion dollars just to get to the nomination."

•
"Advertising at some point ceases to lose its effectiveness — you see your 300th ad, you kind of get it and as other people surface things he said, the question becomes authenticity, and the American people are pretty educated about whether TV commercials are phony and when they're real."

•
"He could spend 10 percent - $6 billion - because he wants to be president, and he hates Trump, and the combination is a motivator."

•
"You have this billionaire over here who is just literally carpet-bombing states — a place like Arkansas or Oklahoma. He's probably putting more money into those two states than the entire Buttigieg campaign so far."
South Dakota governor slams Bloomberg's 'pompous ignorance' about America's farmers (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
"You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that," Bloomberg said...

•
"At one point, 98 percent of the world worked in agriculture, now it's 2 percent in the United States."

•
"Who does Mike Bloomberg think he is? Every single day farmers work long hours, but they don't just have to deal with the labor side, they understand genetics and engineering, biology, chemistry."

•
"It is incredibly difficult for farmers every day to feed the world and I'm just so proud my entire family is farmers. I've been a farmer my entire life."

•
"His comment is so out of touch with every day Americans."

•
"The agrarian society lasted 3,000 years and we could teach processes. I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer," Bloomberg also said.

•
"I would challenge Mike Bloomberg to come spend a day with a farmer, you know, to ride horses, rope steers, go out there and drive GPS controlled tractors, computer program grain handling systems and then internationally market your commodities to pay your bills and continue to do what they do best."

•
"So, yes, it's incredibly difficult work, long hours. [It's] Incredibly insulting for him to make a comment like that."
Bloomberg’s ‘mercenaries’: Billionaire Dem funding network of climate lawyers inside state AG offices (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
... amounts to Bloomberg buying state law enforcement employees to advance his preferred political agenda.

•
... hires mid-career lawyers as "research fellows" before providing them to state AGs where they assist in pursuing "progressive" policy goals through the courts.

•
"This is a fundamental question of ethics and who's running our government."

•
"When you actually get to place someone in under a specific agenda and then pay them and they're within the office, that starts to call into question whether there are multiple masters within an attorney general office and that starts to really stink."

•
"What's problematic is the arrangement through which a private organization or individual can promote an overtly political agenda by paying the salaries of government employees."

•
"The opportunity to potentially hire an NYU Fellow is open to all state attorneys general who demonstrate a need and commitment to defending environmental values and advancing progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions."

•
"State attorneys general should describe the particular scope of needs within their offices related to the advancement and defense of progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental matters."

•
"Nonpartisan, in that you need just promise to use the mercenaries to advance 'progressive' climate legal positions. So, partisan? Perish the thought. It's merely ideological."

•
... explicitly said he was using his State Impact Center attorneys — whom he referred to as "Bloomberg Fellow[s]" — to battle the Trump administration.

•
"It turns out that our first Bloomberg Fellow, Josh Segal, was a student of yours at Harvard. He's a big fan."

•
"We are looking to fill a second position... Do you know anyone 5-10 years out of school who would be interested in saving the planet from the predations of [Trump EPA Cheif] Scott Pruitt and [Trump Interior Secretary] Ryan Zinke?"

•
... the fact Bloomberg is now running for president makes the program even more suspect.

•
"It's also very clear that this is being used to attack the presidency of Donald Trump."

•
"And that raises other questions when the benefactor of this organization is running against the president."

•
"Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and if the Republican AGs were saying that ExxonMobil was going to be paying for 25 full-time lawyers to be working out of the office?"

•
"They'd be paying for them, they'd have to report back to them and talk about what their agenda is. I mean people would go crazy over that concept. Why is that any different? The reality is it's not."

•
"This is absolute outsourcing of law enforcement."

•
"Amid all the handwringing over Bill Barr, if you want to talk about weaponizing law enforcement, consider what Bloomberg would do, with the roadmap of what he's already done."
'Obama personally asked the FBI to investigate somebody on behalf of George Soros' (Fox 02/17/2020)
•
"There was a lot of White House control of the Justice Department during the Kennedy administration and I don't think we saw very many liberal professors arguing against that."

•
"I have some information as well about the Obama administration – which will be disclosed in a lawsuit at some point, but I'm not prepared to disclose it now – about how President Obama personally asked the FBI to investigate somebody on behalf of George Soros, who was a close ally of his."

•
"We've seen this kind of White House influence on the Justice Department virtually in every Justice Department. The difference: This president is much more overt about it, he tweets about it. President Obama whispered to the Justice Department about it. And, I don't think these 1,000 former Justice Department officials would pass the shoe-on-the-other-foot test. Maybe some of them would, but a good many of them wouldn't."

•
Constitutionally, Dershowitz said, the president "could make a decision to really control the Justice Department" and decide specifically whom to prosecute and not to prosecute.

•
The former member of Trump's impeachment defense team clarified, however, that it wouldn't be a good move.

•
"He shouldn't do it; it hasn't been done since Thomas Jefferson," Dershowitz said. "Thomas Jefferson did do it. We've seen this throughout our history."

•
"That's going to come out in a lawsuit in the near future, yeah. That is not unusual. People whisper to presidents all the time; presidents whisper to the Justice Department all the time. It's very common; it's wrong, whoever does it — but it's common, and we shouldn't think it's unique to any particular president. I have in my possession the actual 302 [witness report] form which documents this issue and it will at the right time come out, but I'm not free to disclose it now because it's a case that's not yet been filed."
Trump campaign fires back after Obama claims credit for economic boom (Fox 02/17/2020)
•
"Eleven years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, I signed the Recovery Act, paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history," Obama tweeted, alongside a photo of his signature on the bill.

•
But the Trump campaign, in a statement to Fox News, countered that the economy is only recovering because of the actions Trump took to undo his predecessor's policies.

•
"President Trump reversed every single failed Obama-era economic policy, and with it, reversed the floundering Obama/Biden economy."

•
"Obama and Biden orchestrated the worst economic recovery in modern history."

•
"By contrast, though, deregulating, lowering taxes, and supporting free-market policies, President Trump has created the hottest economy on record, with unemployment hitting generational lows and all-time lows for African Americans, Hispanics, the disabled, veterans and many other hard-working Americans."

•
"Paychecks are growing at the fastest pace in a decade and twice as fast for low- and middle-income Americans."

•
"It's no wonder Democrats seek to take credit for the Trump economy after eight years of betraying blue-collar workers and inflicting pain upon the middle class as Americans everywhere suffered. But the failed days of Democrat stagnation are over, and the soaring Trump economy is here to stay."
Andy McCarthy: Why Roger Stone case is the 'silliest controversy' in DC (Fox 02/17/2020)
•
"This is what nonsense this is: even the federal sentencing guidelines do not bind the judge, let alone a Justice Department recommendation about them."

•
"She's only bound by the statutes that Stone was convicted on so she could give him zero years, she could give him 50 years, she could give him anything in between."

•
... comments came after more than 1,100 former Justice Department employees have signed an online petition urging Barr to resign and praising the four prosecutors who withdrew from the Stone case after what they perceived as interference from the White House
Cal Thomas: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos doubles down on reforms (Fox 02/16/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Roger Stone case is about the left wanting to send political enemies to jail (Fox 02/15/2020)
•
An awful lot of criminals are getting out of prison early these days or not going at all. This is compassionate, they tell us, and it may be.

•
Yet somehow, those same compassionate impulses don't seem to extend to Roger Stone, one of President Trump's oldest advisers.

•
Stone was convicted of lying during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

•
In the end, Mueller couldn't find collusion between the Trump 2016 election campaign and Russia, but Justice Department prosecutors recommended to the sentencing judge that Stone should get seven to nine years in prison.

•
Good, says official Washington. He is annoying and worse, he is close to Trump. Let him die there.

•
What they really want is to send their political enemies to jail and that's what they're trying to do.
Hannity praises Barr intervention in Stone case: 'I am cautiously optimistic that real justice will...' (Fox 02/15/2020)
•
"We now see that the corruption at the highest levels of government ... unequal justice, a lack of equal application of our laws, equal justice under the law, a two-tiered justice system operated by a group of, again, the one percent [of] lawless, vindictive, evil government officials."

•
"All of this is on the line in this country and it matters how it turns out."

•
"McCabe lied over and over again, and we proved that. He was fired by the DOJ for his lying and the department's Inspector General recommended him for federal prosecution, writing, 'McCabe lacked candor on multiple occasions. Three of those occasions involve his testimony under oath.' And that's not all. McCabe even admitted he lied to the FBI. But Andrew McCabe is facing no charges whatsoever."

•
"But if you're Stone and you lie to Congress, they want to put you away for, oh, nine years."

•
"By the way, the median time spent in prison for rape is four years and two months. Murder, just a little over 13 years. Yeah, that's real."

•
"We learned today that Barr ordered outside prosecutors to review the case of Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. Thank God."

•
"When Barr stepped in and stopped the prosecutorial abuse on Roger Stone, that was huge."

•
"That case needs to be vacated completely. As we now know, the jury foreperson had a political agenda..."
Andy Biggs slams 'disparate treatment' of Roger Stone compared to Democrats (Fox 02/14/2020)
•
... what Biggs said gets the American people "really agitated" about the charge against Stone harkens back to former President Bill Clinton's impeachment for lying under oath.

•
"And, what did he get? He got his bar license revoked. Roger Stone is getting a life sentence. You have Brennan and Clapper, you've got Strzok and Comey, all these people that we think lied to Congress — they're not even getting prosecuted," he continued.

•
"So, it does look like disparate treatment and I think Mr. Barr's rationale (...) is justified."
Trump insists he has ‘legal right’ to intervene in DOJ cases, but has chosen not to (Fox 02/14/2020)
•
"'The President has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.' A.G. Barr. This doesn't mean that I do not have, as President, the legal right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!"

•
"I want to thank the Justice Department — and I didn't speak to them, by the way — they saw a nine-year sentence... nine years for something nobody can even define what he did," Trump said Wednesday.

•
"They put a man in jail, destroy his life, his family, his wife."
Dan Crenshaw calls out Bernie and AOC's Green New Deal: It's a 'third-grade science project' (Fox 02/14/2020)
•
"And more importantly on this stuff, from a policy perspective, the Green New Deal is not an actual proposal. There is no actual plan in the Green New Deal. It just says, 'Everything is going to be wind and solar and we're going to get rid of airplanes and cows.' That's not a plan. That's not a serious proposal."

•
"And the irony of it...If you care about reducing emissions, you can't do what [Democrats are] saying. What do they say all the time? They say 'ban fracking, ban fracking.'"

•
"We just reduced emissions in this country this past year by almost 3 percent — more than any other country in absolute terms. We've reduced more in the last couple of decades than the last 12 countries combined. That's a really big deal. But, why is that? Natural gas fracking."

•
See related Green New Deal (Gary Varvel, 03/16/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Don Jr calls up pro-Trump 15-year-old who was attacked in NH: ‘My family has your back' (Fox 02/14/2020)
•
"So it turns out that I actually met the 15 year old victim shortly before he was attacked by a sick leftist."

•
The suspect got in the face of Campbell, who was wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat and volunteering at the Trump tent at Windham High School, a polling location for the New Hampshire primary.

•
... as Bradley exited the voting location inside the high school and was walking by a Trump campaign tent occupied by several supporters. As he passed by the tent, police said, Bradley slapped a 15-year-old across the face and then assaulted two other adults who attempted to intercede.

•
Bradley is also accused of throwing Trump campaign signs and attempting to knock over the campaign tent.

•
"Given the main stream media's willingness to destroy the lives of teenage conservatives, like the Covington Catholic kids, it should come as no surprise that they would barely touch this story of an adult far left Democrat assaulting a 15 year old."

•
"Where are you clowns on this?"
Trump hits back at John Kelly: 'Can't keep his mouth shut' (Fox 02/13/2020)
•
"When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn't do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. Being Chief of Staff just wasn't for him."

•
"He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper, but like so many X's, he misses the action & just can't keep his mouth shut, which he actually has a military and legal obligation to do."

•
"His incredible wife, Karen, who I have a lot of respect for, once pulled me aside & said strongly that 'John respects you greatly. When we are no longer here, he will only speak well of you.' Wrong!"

•
The president's comments come after Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, defended Alexander Vindman...

•
"He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave. He went and told his boss what he just heard."

•
"Through the Obama administration up until that phone call, the policy of the U.S. was militarily to support Ukraine in their defensive fight against ... the Russians," Kelly reportedly said. "And so, when the president said that continued support would be based on X, that essentially changed. And that's what that guy [Vindman] was most interested in."

•
Kelly reportedly told the audience at the event that Trump's request was "an illegal order."

•
"We teach them, ‘Don't follow an illegal order. And if you're ever given one, you'll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss,'" Kelly explained.

•
Kelly left his post as White House chief of staff at the end of 2018, after a 17-month-long tenure in the Trump administration.

•
Kelly first served as Homeland Security secretary.
Newt Gingrich: Prosecutors' conduct in Roger Stone case 'truly absurd' and extraordinary (Fox 02/13/2020)
•
"The level of corruption among some of the career professionals is amazing and they're perfectly willing to use that bias."

•
"For a guy for whom this is a first offense, a non-violent offense, not drug-related, not violent crime related — to be given as a recommendation a maximum sentence is truly extraordinary."

•
The prosecutors asserted in the Monday filing that Stone's conduct post-indictment – including violating the judge's social media gag orders – merited a sentence much longer than the 15 to 21 months that the defense said was actually advisable under the federal guidelines.

•
"Is this the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!"

•
... the government "respectfully submits that a sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months' imprisonment would be reasonable under the circumstances," but that the government "ultimately defers to the court as to the specific sentence to be imposed."

•
Gingrich pushed back on the criticism that President Trump is influencing the Justice Department to reduce Stone's sentence, highlighting that regardless of the matter, the president has "unfettered power" vested in the Constitution to pardon Stone if he chooses to do so.

•
"If he really wanted to intervene, he could just issue a pardon and it'll be over, but he hasn't done that."

•
"Any reasonable person would look at this and say, this is a real abuse of power by some career lawyers who are anti-Trump going after a Trump supporter at a level which they would never apply to somebody who had supported Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders."
The Roger Stone Sentencing Fiasco (02/12/2020)
Limbaugh: A Genius at Radio (02/12/2020)
Dems demand Barr's resignation amid Stone sentence storm (Fox 02/12/2020)
•
Trump on Wednesday denied interfering in former associate Stone's criminal case amid a political storm over his looming sentencing, while declining to say whether he'd consider a pardon for the GOP political operative.

•
"The fact is that Roger Stone was treated horribly and so were many other people. Their lives were destroyed."

•
"Roger Stone — nobody even knows what he did... Frankly, they ought to apologize to a lot of people whose lives they've ruined."
Our police officers' lives are in grave danger and time is running out to make things right (Fox 02/12/2020)
•
This past weekend, New York City police officers were targeted for assassination — twice within twelve hours.

•
New York City police officers have been targeted for assassination five times in five years.

•
Our elected leaders have apparently learned nothing from these attacks.

•
Cops and all New Yorkers are suffering because of their failure.

•
We have warned again and again that the deteriorating environment on our streets, created by pro-criminal policies and anti-cop rhetoric flowing from New York's City Hall and our capital in Albany, has put a target on the backs of police officers.

•
We have been ignored, dismissed and accused of fear-mongering. We have been left standing alone on virtually every important public safety issue.

•
Criminals have noticed the lack of support, and they have taken advantage of it.

•
Our entire city is sliding downwards, fast.

•
The personal information of crime victims and witnesses is almost immediately handed over to criminals' attorneys.

•
And our justice system is regularly spitting out career criminals who have no business walking our streets.

•
One of those criminals was a parole violator who had tried to kill police officers before. This weekend, he tried to kill us again.

•
If our elected leaders won't reverse course, it will be up to us.

•
Cops and the New Yorkers who support us will have to make that change happen.

•
We can do it together by standing together, speaking out together and refusing to let our leaders ignore or dismiss us.

•
We need to remind them that behind every crime statistic, behind every shocking headline is a real person: a crime victim or a police officer who was attacked for doing his job.
Trump congratulates Barr on ‘taking charge’ of Roger Stone case, says it ‘was totally out of control’ (Fox 02/12/2020)
•
"Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought."

•
The president went on to say that former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which led to Stone's prosecution, was a "scam" that "was improperly brought & tainted."
Barr announces sweeping new sanctions, 'significant escalation' against left-wing sanctuary... (Fox 02/10/2020)
•
... announced a slew of additional sanctions that he called a "significant escalation" against left-wing local and state governments that obstruct the "lawful functioning of our nation's immigration system."

•
"Let us state the reality upfront and as clearly as possible. When we are talking about sanctuary cities, we are talking about policies that are designed to allow criminal aliens to escape. These policies are not about people who came to our country illegally but have otherwise been peaceful and productive members of society. Their express purpose is to shelter aliens whom local law enforcement has already arrested for other crimes. This is neither lawful nor sensible."

•
This includes assessing whether jurisdictions are complying with our criminal laws, in particular the criminal statute that prohibits the harboring or shielding of aliens in the United States."

•
... the DOJ would support DHS with "federal subpoenas to access information about criminal aliens in the custody of uncooperative jurisdictions."

•
And, Barr said, "we are meticulously reviewing the actions of certain district attorneys who have adopted policies of charging foreign nationals with lesser offenses for the express purpose of avoiding the federal immigration consequences of those nationals' criminal conduct. In pursuing their personal ambitions and misguided notions of equal justice, these district attorneys are systematically violating the rule of law and may even be unlawfully discriminating against American citizens."

•
Sanctuary cities, Barr said, are defined as those with policies that allow "criminal aliens to escape" federal law enforcement — and some jurisdictions are becoming "more aggressive" in undermining immigration authorities, with local politicians even developing "schemes" to circumvent immigration officials.

•
"In November, ICE filed a detainer for an alien who was arrested for assaulting his own father."

•
"The local police in New York City that had the alien in custody ignored the detainer. So the alien was released onto the streets, and last month, he allegedly raped and killed 92-year-old Maria Fuertes..."

•
And, In October 2017, DHS "identified a convicted criminal alien with four prior removals at a city jail in Washington State," Barr continued. "DHS filed a detainer.

•
Subsequently, the alien fought with jail staff and was taken to a local medical center for treatment.

•
But after receiving treatment, local officials released the alien in violation of the detainer.

•
In January 2018, the alien was arrested and booked for murdering and dismembering his cousin."

•
While the Constitution entrusts the police power to the states and does not require states to affirmatively assist federal authorities in implementing and enforcing immigration law, Barr said, it does clearly prohibit the states from actively interfering with federal immigration officials.

•
"The Founding Fathers carefully divided responsibility and power between the federal government and the state governments."

•
The 'Supremacy Clause' in Article VI of the Constitution provides that the 'Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof... shall be the supreme law of the land.'"

•
"This Clause is a vital part of our constitutional order. Enforcing a country's immigration laws is an essential function of the national government. And no national government can enforce those laws properly if state and local governments are getting in the way. While federal law does not require that 'sanctuary jurisdictions' actively assist with federal immigration enforcement, it does prohibit them from interfering with our enforcement efforts."

•
It is the "rule of law that is fundamental to ensuring both freedom and security," Barr asserted, saying law enforcement officers are increasingly under fire in "heinous" attacks that "come against the backdrop of cynicism and disrespect for law enforcement."

•
... involves the law prohibiting the federal government from conducting operations in its own affiliated private immigration facilities and detention centers.

•
The law, Barr said, was a "blatant attempt by the State to prohibit DHS from detaining aliens, and to interfere with the ability of the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service to manage federal detainees and prisoners."

•
"The department sued the State of California to enjoin numerous state laws that attempted to frustrate federal immigration enforcement."

•
"We prevailed on several of our claims in the lower courts, and we are hopeful that the Supreme Court will grant our request to review the remaining issues and side with us against California's obstructionist policies."

•
"Today is a significant escalation in the federal government's efforts to confront the resistance of 'sanctuary cities.' But by no means do the efforts outlined above signify the culmination of our fight to ensure the rule of law, to defend the Constitution, and to keep Americans safe. We will consider taking action against any jurisdiction that, or any politician who, unlawfully obstructs the federal enforcement of immigration law."
The Biden family has been grifting taxpayers for decades - it's time to investigate them (Fox 02/10/2020)
•
... let me present some new articles to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Here they are - the articles of incompetence.

•
Article one: Everything you do to try and hurt the president you hate blows up in your face. Just as the Senate shut down your impeachment farce, President Trump's approval ratings hit a record high. And it's obvious why.

•
While you spent the last three years working to reverse the will of the American people, the president spent the last three years working to help the American people. The results are piling up: a phase one China trade deal, USMCA, tax cuts 2.0 in the works, and yet another strong jobs report on Friday. More Americans working, earnings rising.

•
Second article of incompetence: Iowa. Your caucus fiasco showed - and I think this calls for a classic British expression at this point: You people couldn't organize a piss-off in a brewery.

•
"The party that promises technocratic management of American health care, energy and finance proved less able to tally votes even than the ancient Athenians."

•
Article three: You can't control your temper. For three years, we've put up with your endless lectures about civility and upholding democratic norms, and then the State of the Union, you put on an embarrassing, petulant stunt.

•
Article four: Even when they're trying to deceive the voters, the Democrats are incompetent.

•
Put those things together and what do you get? Private jets, gas-guzzling, plutocrat playthings.

•
You'd never catch the people's green champion on one of those, right? So okay, just there she is, Elizabeth Warren. She's on a private jet.

•
She suddenly realizes she's being filmed. So she literally tries to hide behind an aide.

•
These lefties are so incompetent, they can't even cover up their own hypocrisy.

•
So, on behalf of a nation crying with laughter at the Democrats, with great sadness — and of course prayerfulness — I sign these four articles of incompetence.

•
For years, the alleged abuse of power and corruption by President Trump has been investigated over and over and over again.

•
But what about the alleged Biden corruption? Not a single investigation.

•
Hunter was hired by a Ukraine energy company while his dad was directing taxpayer dollars towards Ukraine's energy sector.

•
Hunter Biden, tell us your expertise in Ukraine, your expertise in energy in 2014 when you were hired by Burisma.

•
When you were wandering around a crack den in Los Angeles in 2016 while on the Burisma board, was that on behalf of the company?

•
How about Joe, can you speak for yourself, too? How much U.S. taxpayer money went to Burisma while your son was on board and you sent billions of dollars to Ukraine's energy industry?

•
And while we're talking about your Ukraine corruption, how about your China corruption?
NYC cops ‘declaring war’ on Mayor de Blasio, union says, following ‘assassination attempts’ on... (Fox 02/10/2020)
•
"Mayor De Blasio, the members of the NYPD are declaring war on you!" the Sergeants Benevolent Association wrote in a tweet.

•
"We do not respect you, DO NOT visit us in hospitals. You sold the NYPD to the vile creatures, the 1% who hate cops but vote for you.

•
"NYPD cops have been assassinated because of you. This isn't over, Game on!"

•
"It is a double miracle that we are not preparing for two funerals right now."

•
"These targeted attacks are exactly what we have warned against, again and again. The hatred and violence directed at cops continues to grow."

•
In 2017, a gunman killed Officer Miosotis Familia as she sat in her patrol vehicle in the Bronx.

•
In 2014, two officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were shot dead in their patrol car in Brooklyn by a man upset about recent police killings of unarmed black men.

•
"Every time there is a funeral, the mayor shows up and guess what happens, every single officer turns around 180 and turns their back to the mayor of this city," Eric Trump ... told 'Fox & Friends' on Monday.

•
"He's been so anti-law enforcement, and it shows. He doesn't stand with the men and women out there. He just doesn't."
Pompeo warns governors of Chinese infiltration into US: 'It's happening in your state' (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
"We can't ignore China's actions and strategic intentions."

•
"The Chinese government has been methodical in the way it's analyzed our system... it's assessed our vulnerabilities and it's decided to exploit our freedoms, to gain an advantage over us at the federal level, the state level and the local level."

•
"Competition with China is happening. It's happening in your state."

•
"In fact, I'd be surprised if most of you in the audience had not been lobbied by the Chinese Communist Party directly."

•
"You add a diplomat from China, assigned here to the United States, a representative of the Chinese Communist Party, in New York City, sending a letter urging that an American elected official shouldn't exercise his right to freedom of speech."

•
"Maybe some of you have heard about the time when the Chinese consulate paid the UC San Diego students to protest the Dalai Lama."

•
"It shows depth. It shows systemization. It shows intent."

•
"Chinese Communist party officials, too, are cultivating relationships with county school boards and local politicians — Often through what are known as 'Sister City Programs' ... This competition is well underway."

•
Pompeo also spoke about China's campaign to recruit U.S. scientists and academics to share vital secrets, in exchange for monetary gain through their "Thousand Talents Plan".

•
"China's propaganda starts even earlier than college. China has targeted K-12 schools around the world."

•
"Do you know that we have no ability to establish similar programs in China? We should have reciprocity in all things. Today they have free reign in our system and we're completely shut out from theirs... Beijing knows that today's kids are tomorrow's leaders."

•
Pompeo then warned state governors about doing business with China and said it is common to indirectly finance communism without realizing it.

•
"I want to urge vigilance on the local level too. It's worth trusting but verifying. There are federal officials prepared to help you work your way through these challenges when they arise. Don't make separate individual deals that undermine our national policy. I know none of you would do so intentionally. Let us help you."

•
"I hope you will all take on board what I've said today. Don't lose sight of the competition from China that's already present in your state. Let's all rise to the occasion and protect our security, our economy, indeed all that we hold dear."
Democrats’ radical immigration legislation would help foreign criminals move to US (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
If it becomes law, the bill would remake our immigration system for the expressed purpose of helping foreign-born criminals live in the United States.

•
The bill would allow people who have committed serious felonies in other countries to move here legally.

•
It would make it nearly impossible for federal immigration officials to detain immigrants, no matter how potentially dangerous they are.

•
And perhaps most infuriatingly and remarkably, the legislation would require taxpayers to transport deported criminals back into the United States.

•
In other words, you break our laws, you hurt our people, we will send you a plane ticket.

•
We will pay for you to come back.

•
It's utter and total insanity, and yet it's very popular in the Democratic Party. So far, this bill has 44 Democratic co-sponsors.

•
The bill's primary sponsor, Rep. Jesus Garcia of Illinois, said after introducing the bill: "This is not a radical project. We are simply asking for a fair shot at the opportunity for immigrants to stay in the country they call home. And New Way Forward does just that."

•
Garcia added that the bill "would end mandatory immigration detention and the automatic pipeline to deportation through the criminal justice system. It would end deportation for people who have had contact with the criminal legal system. It would end the practices of local police engaging in immigration enforcement and the increased ... policing of communities of color. It would decriminalize immigration."

•
Many of the sponsors of this bill come from the fringes of the Democratic Party, as you would expect, but not all of them do.

•
It's happening in the dark. No one is talking about it.

•
Those who dismiss it say it is unlikely to become law – that it will never happen.

•
That's a mistake. Things change fast in modern America.

•
On issue after issue, from ending the Second Amendment to banning biological gender, to the open and aggressive racism of identity politics, yesterday's extremism has become today's Democratic Party platform.

•
If Democrats win the 2020 election, some version of the New Way Forward Act will likely become law.

•
Once again, keep this in mind. Things move fast in this country.
Trump slams 'very insubordinate' Vindman, day after ouster from White House (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
"Fake News @CNN & MSDNC [MSNBC] keep talking about 'Lt. Col.' Vindman as though I should think only how wonderful he was."

•
"Actually, I don't know him, never spoke to him, or met him (I don't believe!) but, he was very insubordinate, reported contents of my 'perfect' calls incorrectly, & was given a horrendous report by his superior, the man he reported to, who publicly stated that Vindman had problems with judgement, adhering to the chain of command and leaking information. In other words, 'OUT'."

•
Vindman was reportedly planning to leave his post at the end of the month. But instead, he was fired — the same day as E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, who also testified in the hearings, was recalled from his position.

•
... Vindman's twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, has also left the National Security Council.

•
Trump, when asked about Vindman on Friday, told reporters that he was "not happy with him."

•
"You think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not."
Tucker Carlson invites Democratic lawmakers to defend New Way Forward Act: 'It's utter and...' (Fox 02/07/2020)
•
... many congressional Democrats support and that Carlson warns "would remake our immigration system for the express purpose of helping foreign-born criminals live here."

•
"The bill would allow people who've committed serious felonies in other countries to move the United States legally, would make it nearly impossible for federal immigration officials to detain immigrants no matter how potentially dangerous they are."

•
"And perhaps most infuriatingly and remarkably, it would require taxpayers to transport deported criminals back into the United States."

•
"It's utter and total insanity. And yet it's very popular in the Democratic Party. So far, this bill has 44 Democratic co-sponsors."

•
"Many of the sponsors of the bill come from the fringes of the Democratic Party, as you would expect, but not all of them..."

•
"Yesterday's extremism has become today's Democratic Party platform. That's how it works now."

•
See related What Do We Want? (Sean Delonas, 07/12/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
Tom Homan: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has 'lost his mind' on immigration policy (Fox 02/07/2020)
•
"He created a law where he's going to give illegal aliens — people here in violation of federal law — driver's licenses. He needs to understand that [a] driver's license just doesn't give someone permission to drive. That's a form of identification used to open bank accounts, cash checks, and to join the traveler protected program."

•
"So, he should have checked with DHS before he made this change a law. Which is, again, a political attack against this administration on the [effect] of it."

•
"And, he's calling this administration arrogant? Again, he's lost his mind. As a native New Yorker, I'm incensed by what they're doing."
Legislation that protects undocumented criminals 'designed to create a whole new country' (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
... the story of Wilmer Rodriguez, who was murdered while waiting to testify in court against MS-13 gang members who assaulted him for protecting two young boys from them.

•
"Until recently, Rodriguez would have been protected by New York law, which led prosecutors to conceal the names of witnesses until shortly before trial. For their safety."

•
"But a new law, this one passed to help criminal defendants, required prosecutors to turn over Rodriguez's name to the gang members' lawyers. Almost immediately, gang members started harassing Rodriguez. This week, they killed him."

•
"That's what New York is like now. Do the right thing and you could be murdered by predators. The government is determined to protect lunacy."

•
"At this moment there is a bill pending in Congress called the New Way Forward Act. It's received almost no publicity, which is unfortunate, as well as revealing. The legislation is sponsored by 44 House Democrats, including Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. At roughly 4,400 words, it's almost exactly as long as the U.S. Constitution."

•
"Like the Constitution, it's designed to create a whole new country. The bill would entirely remake our immigration system, with the explicit purpose of ensuring that criminals are able to move here, and settle here permanently, with impunity."

•
"A press release from Congressman Jesus Garcia of Illinois is explicit about this. Garcia brags that the bill will break the 'prison to deportation pipeline,'"

•
"If this bill passes, there will no longer be any crimes that automatically require deportation. None. And one crime, falsifying a passport, will be made immune from deportation, no matter what."

•
"Because apparently 9-11 never happened, and we no longer care about fake government documents."

•
"There are people who commit rape, child abuse, and even manslaughter and receive sentences of fewer than five years. Lots of them."

•
"If the New Way Forward Act passes, immigrants who commit those crimes, and receive those sentences, would remain in the country. They'll all be eligible for citizenship one day, too."

•
"The bill would grant sweeping new powers to immigration judges, allowing them to nullify a deportation order."

•
"In other words, anti-American immigration judges — and many of them are exactly that — would have a blank check to open the borders. No vote required."
Cal Thomas: Trump's got the wind at his back and Democrats are in disarray (Fox 02/06/2020)
Trump condemns ‘evil’ impeachment after Senate acquittal: ‘It was a disgrace’ (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
Greeted by thunderous applause and a standing ovation by his supporters, the president declared "we went through hell" but described the moment as a "celebration" — while maintaining as he did throughout the impeachment inquiry and trial that he "did nothing wrong."

•
And on a day when he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were trading shots in deeply personal terms, Trump turned fire on those who prosecuted the case and other investigations against him. He called Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff "horrible" and "vicious" people.

•
"It was evil. It was corrupt. It was dirty cops. It was leakers and liars. This should never, ever happen to another president, ever. It was a disgrace."

•
And as he did earlier Thursday at a prayer breakfast, Trump brandished a copy of the day's Washington Post with a blaring headline: "Trump acquitted."

•
"We can take that home, honey. Maybe we'll frame it," he joked to first lady Melania Trump, saying that it was the "best" headline he's ever received from the outlet.

•
"I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong, nor do I like people who say 'I pray for you' when you know that is not so."

•
... Trump said people like Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., "want to destroy our country."

•
He went on to thank his family and apologized to them.

•
"I want to apologize to my family for having to go through this phony, rotten deal," he said, calling Ivanka to the podium and giving her a hug, and welcoming Melania Trump to the stage for a kiss.

•
"I just want to thank my family for sticking through it. This was not part of the deal, if I was going to run for president... I didn't know I was going to have to run again and again and again every single week, but they stuck with me."

•
Holding Melania's hand, the president added: "Our country is thriving. Our country is respected again, and it's an honor to be with the people in this room, it's an honor."
Deroy Murdock: Democrats, Trump is giving America the economy you claim to want – Be honest and say... (Fox 02/06/2020)
Gutfeld on the acquittal (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
You've heard the definition of crazy before. It's doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. Well, Democrats invented a new kind of crazy: knowing the outcome of an event well in advance, and still expecting a different result.

•
... Republicans run things. Democrats ruin them. The difference is one letter. It stands for "impeachment."

•
Now, Schiff says, President Trump could offer Alaska to the Russians "in exchange for support in the next election."

•
Alternatively, Schiff said, Trump "could decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and let Jared Kushner run the country."

•
So why cling to these crazy predictions?

•
Because they don't exist. That means you can't disprove them.

•
The response will always be, "You just wait."
Trump impeachment verdict: How the senators voted (Fox 02/05/2020)
Senate acquits Trump on abuse of power, obstruction of Congress charges (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
The Senate overwhelmingly acquitted President Trump on both articles of impeachment against him Wednesday afternoon following a brief trial, in a historic rejection of Democrats' claims that the president's Ukraine dealings and handling of congressional subpoenas merited his immediate removal from office.

•
All Democratic senators supported convicting the president of abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

•
The only party defection was on the abuse of power charge from Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who declared hours before the final vote that Trump had engaged in as "destructive an attack on the oath of office and our Constitution as I can imagine." Romney voted not guilty on the obstruction charge.

•
By a final vote of 52-48 against conviction on the abuse of power charge and 53-47 on the obstruction charge, the Senate fell far short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict and remove the president. Swing-vote Republican senators — including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee — voted to acquit on both counts.

•
While the result has been expected for months, the process brought a series of surprises and heightened animosity to Washington — exemplified dramatically during Tuesday night's State of the Union address, in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., furiously ripped up the president's speech upon its conclusion.

•
McConnell warned of "truly dangerous" Democratic partisans, saying they insist on taking down institutions that do not produce the outcomes they desire.

•
"This partisan impeachment will end today," McConnell said. "But, I fear the threat to our institutions may not. Normally, when a party loses an election, it accepts defeat. ... But not this time."
Huckabee hits back after AOC rips Trump over Rush Limbaugh honor (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
"For her to complain about a person with State IV cancer who for longer than she has been alive has actually saved AM radio in this country and has been responsible for creating an extraordinary voice for people who are conservative."

•
"Whether she likes that or not, she should admire the talent that he brought to the game and the condition that he is in right now."
Wray says FBI conduct surrounding Carter Page FISA warrant 'unacceptable' and 'cannot be...' (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
"The failures highlighted in the inspector general report are unacceptable, period. And they cannot be repeated."

•
"I do not think anyone has carte blanche to bypass rules, and I intend to make it painfully clear that is unacceptable at the FBI today."
Jonathan Turley says 'partisan troll' Nancy Pelosi needs to apologize or step down as House Speaker (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
"Her conduct tore up more than a speech, but decades of tradition and left any semblance of civility in tatters on the House floor."

•
"The country was deeply divided, but both parties maintained the tradition of civility and decorum. I was struck how members, even in the heat of furious debates, would not attack each other by name and followed rigid principles of decorum. They understood that they were the custodians of this institution and bore a duty to strengthen and pass along those traditions to the next generation."

•
"That is why I was (and remain) so offended by this display."

•
Turley ... feels that Trump "is worthy of criticism for not shaking the hand of Pelosi" and he didn't approve of some aspects of the speech, but that doesn't excuse Pelosi's behavior.

•
"At that moment, she represents the House as an institution — both Republicans and Democrats. Instead, she decided to become little more than a partisan troll from an elevated position."

•
"It was the tradition of the House that a speaker must remain in stone-faced neutrality no matter what comes off that podium. The tradition ended last night with one of the more shameful and inglorious moments of the House in its history."

•
"For those of us who truly love the House as an institution, it was one of the lowest moments to unfold on the floor... if Pelosi does not apologize and agree to honor the principle of neutrality and civility at the State of the Union, she should resign as speaker."
Mike Pence: Nancy Pelosi hit a 'new low' by ripping up Trump's SOTU speech (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
"The contrast here was a president who spent an hour-and-a-half making the speech about America and Nancy Pelosi in the final moments tried to make it about her."

•
"I think the American people see through it. They see through the pettiness, they see through the politics of all of it."

•
"I think what they got last night was a speech that lifted up the country, that celebrated the incredible progress we've made in our economy, rebuilding our military, strengthening our court, but the stories that the president told were American stories and I just know it was a great blessing to people all across America and it's one of the reasons why you see the momentum growing behind this president."

•
"I just have a strong feeling that she's [Pelosi's] going to be the last Speaker of the House to sit in that chair for a long time."

•
"There's always a basic decorum and a basic respect. But to have her [Pelosi] stand up and tear up that speech really dishonored the moment and I really thought it was beneath the dignity of a joint session of Congress and I think it will be remembered as such."

•
Pelosi said she had destroyed the speech "because it was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives."

•
She also said she was "trying to find one page with truth on it" but "couldn't."

•
Pence reacted to her response on Wednesday morning saying, "I actually don't get her take on this. Now she is saying it was filled with lies. What lies were in there?"

•
"I mean I watched the president build this speech," he continued. "Everything about the economy, everything about the military, everything about President Trump's decisive action taking out [ISIS leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi and [Iranian General] Qassem Soleimani, every story about Americans, the hopeful aspirational tone at the end. I expect when the dust settles on this speech it's going to be remembered as one of the best State of the Union addresses in history."

•
"Speaker Pelosi just ripped up: One of our last surviving Tuskegee Airmen. The survival of a child born at 21 weeks. The mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller. A service member's reunion with his family," the White House said in a tweet. "That's her legacy."

•
"This is a grieving family who lost a loved one at the hands of an illegal immigrant in California and she [Pelosi] ripped up Rocky's story," Pence said...
Rep. Andy Biggs: Trump's State of the Union amidst impeachment highlights American crossroad (Fox 02/15/2020)
•
We can embrace our past, acknowledge our shortcomings, and rally for the future of prosperity and peace, that has been our destiny, or we can choose the Socialists' view that America is fatally flawed, and we must surrender what we are to their demoralizing theme.

•
Democrats have allowed a small, but vocal, group of their extreme base to seize control of their party.

•
They have become a relentless group of evangelizing apostles of Marxism, Critical Race Theory, and Globalism, that refuse to advance this great nation.

•
Instead, they want us to become another failed example of corporatist philosophy that leaves everyone impoverished, economically and spiritually.

•
President Trump's accomplishments over the past three years have renewed our faith in the mission of the American republic.

•
While Republicans and President Trump tackle vexing problems, such as immigration, infrastructure, and balancing the federal budget and while we work to bring our soldiers home and stop America's participation in endless wars, the left's far-left base will continue to sow their malevolent seeds of discord and division.

•
And Americans can see clearly that there are two paths to take: the optimistic path to security and prosperity that comes with freedom, or a cynical downward spiral to a failed idea where government reigns supreme and individual liberty is a memory.

•
I'm betting that Americans want freedom and individual choice.

•
It may come with some difficulties, but it is far more rewarding in the long run.
Rush Limbaugh's shocking cancer diagnosis spurs support, well wishes (Fox 02/03/2020)
DHS chief Wolf accuses Pelosi of ‘grossly inaccurate’ claim about travel ban expansion (Fox 02/03/2020)
•
"Facts are stubborn. The new travel restrictions do not apply to 350 million people — as some of our critics would lead you to believe."

•
"Such statements are grossly inaccurate and irresponsible."

•
"These countries, for the most part, want to be helpful, want to do the right thing, have relationships with the U.S. and are in some cases improving relations, but for a variety of different reasons failed to meet those minimum requirements that we laid out."

•
... the agency ranked 200 countries based on a number of criteria — including to what extent the countries share information on passports and prospective bad actors, as well as whether or not the country poses an elevated national security risk in relation to crime, terrorism and illegal immigration.

•
The countries on the list were among the lowest-ranked.

•
That step led to an interagency assessment process, in which DHS communicated with the Pentagon, State Department and Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and officials discussed individual countries — including considerations such as foreign policy and national security efforts in other areas.
Liz Peek: Democrats' impeachment flop sets stage for boffo State of the Union speech by Trump (Fox 02/03/2020)
•
Addressing the nation in his State of the Union speech, President Trump will rightly take credit for signing new trade deals, building up our military, pushing our allies to carry more of our mutual defense burden, stemming illegal immigration, supporting our ally Israel, boosting incomes and jobs, confronting China's malignant cheating and spying, taking out villainous terrorists, ditching cumbersome regulations, soaring homeownership, raising our energy capabilities, and so many other initiatives that somehow overcame the furious resistance of Democrats.

•
In short, making America safer and more prosperous.

•
President Trump can boast of so many successes and initiatives ... that they have gone unheralded by a liberal press breathlessly covering the Adam Schiff show.
Trump, in Super Bowl interview with Sean Hannity, predicts fall of Pelosi: 'Radical left is...' (Fox 02/02/2020)
•
"I think she's a very confused, very nervous woman," Trump said.

•
"I don't think she wanted to do this. I think she really knew what was going to happen, and her worst nightmare has happened. I don't think she's gonna be there too long, either. I think that the radical left — and she's sorta radical left too, by the way — but I think the radical left is gonna take over."

•
"Well, it's been very unfair. From the day I won ... from the day I came down from the escalator. ... it probably started from there. It's been a very, very unfair process."

•
"The Mueller Report, Russia, Russia, Russia, as you say, which was total nonsense — it was all nonsense, the whole thing. It was very unfair, and mostly it was unfair to my family. I mean, my family suffered because of all this. And many other families suffered also."

•
"There's a revolution going on in this country, and I mean a positive revolution."

•
"Where's Hunter? Where is he? He made millions of dollars — he went from having no job, no income, he had nothing. As you know, he had a very sad experience in the military. He has nothing, to making millions and millions of dollars a year. Not just from Ukraine. From China. And from other countries. How can you do this? This is crooked as hell. What they did is very dishonest."

•
"Well, I think he's a communist. I mean, you know, look, I think of communism when I think of Bernie. You could say 'socialist.' Didn't he get married in Moscow?"

•
(Hannity then interjected that Sanders had, in fact, honeymooned in the Soviet Union.)

•
"At least he's true to what he believes," Trump concluded, by way of contrast with Elizabeth Warren.

•
On Warren, Trump said: "She's not true to it. I call her 'fairy tale.' Because everything's a fairy tale. That's how Pochahontas got started. This woman can't tell the truth."

•
On Hillary Clinton: "I think of emails. I think of the email scandal. How she got away with that is a disgrace."
Dershowitz: Pelosi, House Dems didn't impeach Trump for a 'legitimate crime' (Fox 02/02/2020)
•
"In the criminal context that would be called a victory, a great victory. Here, if they haven't charged an offense, then maybe he hasn't been acquitted, but he also hasn't been charged. He's in exactly the same situation he should have been in had they done the right thing and not impeached him at all."

•
"On Election Day, as a citizen, I will allow that to enter into my decision who to vote for."

•
"But it's not an impeachable offense. And I was there to argue a constitutional issue, not to tell people who to vote for for president."
Joe Lieberman, former Dem VP nominee, says Founding Fathers would have 'intended' Trump's... (Fox 02/01/2020)
•
... told ... that Trump shouldn't have conducted the now-infamous July 25 call with Ukraine's president in the way he did, "but did it reach the point where we can say nine months before an election [...] that, if we keep him in office, he represents a danger to the country? I don't think so."

•
"Leave it to the people in November. In other words, impeachment, as our framers intended, I believe was not meant to be punitive, to punish you either criminally or by taking you out of office."

•
... impeachment was meant "to protect the country until the next election — and the closer it is to an election, the higher the threshold to convicting somebody, a president, and removing him from office."
Final Trump impeachment vote teed up for next week after GOP blocks Dem effort for new... (Fox 01/31/2020)
•
"A majority of the U.S. Senate has determined that the numerous witnesses and 28,000-plus pages of documents already in evidence are sufficient to judge the House Managers' accusations and end this impeachment trial."

•
Chief Justice Roberts told Schumer before that vote series that he would not break ties in the Senate, after Democrats in recent days raised the possibility Roberts could possibly tip the scales for them during votes on amendments.

•
"I think it would be inappropriate for me, an unelected official from a different branch of government, to assert the power to change that result so that the motion would succeed," Roberts told Schumer.

•
There will be no trial action over the weekend. The trial will resume Monday with closing arguments by the impeachment managers and defense counsel. Senators will have the opportunity to make speeches on Monday and Tuesday.

•
After the vote on witnesses, Trump drew attention to the number of witnesses during the House's impeachment proceedings: "Democrats = 17 Witnesses. Republicans = 0 Witnesses."
Two in custody after Mar-a-Lago security breach (Fox 01/31/2020)
•
The U.S. Secret Service said Florida Highway Patrol first tried to make a traffic stop on Palm Beach Island.

•
But instead of pulling over, the driver of the black SUV sped off toward Trump's property and breached two security checkpoints near the Mar-a-Lago Club.

•
Those on the scene responded by opening fire at the vehicle.

•
The individuals in the SUV ... were later taken into custody after being pursued by Florida Highway Patrol and a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office helicopter.
Ted Cruz: Dems need Senate impeachment witnesses because they failed to prove their case (Fox 01/31/2020)
•
"Democrats are gonna vote for additional witnesses. And then the reason they are is that the House managers, I think, haven't proven their case. And so what they want to do is just keep it open as long as possible."

•
"They want to engage in a fishing expedition and just keep extending it."

•
"The simple fact that resolves this case is that a president has the authority and in fact, the responsibility, to investigate credible allegations of corruption."

•
"The Senate's going to follow the law, we've given both sides a fair trial, the House didn't have a fair proceeding, it had a one-sided partisan proceeding, we let both sides present their case, we're going to apply the law. I think by the end of the weekend, the president is going to be acquitted."
Adriana Cohen: Trump Senate impeachment trial — It's time to end the Schiff show (Fox 01/31/2020)
•
For starters, the flimsy articles of impeachment that Democrats have brought forth aren't crimes, much less the "high crimes" required to remove a sitting president.

•
That alone is sufficient grounds to end this charade that's chock full of presumptions and assumptions from partisans that the president may have done something wrong.

•
... a witness with firsthand knowledge of the phone call in question, Zelenskiy, has stated there was "no pressure" and Trump did nothing wrong.

•
Other top Ukrainian government officials confirmed this. That's what parties involved said.

•
Now, let's look at the actions that took place in the aftermath of the call. U.S. military aid was timely delivered to Ukraine and no investigations were opened into Joe Biden or Hunter Biden.

•
So why on earth are we still here? So documented liars and conspiracy theorists like House manager Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and his power-thirsty Democratic colleagues can continue this endless fishing expedition against the president on the taxpayers' dime?

•
Or so Schiff — an unhinged Trump hater — can continue to lie and smear the president before the Senate and the American people?

•
Schiff said he doesn't know who the whistleblower is despite his Congressional staff being in contact with the whistleblower last summer, reportedly colluding with Schiff's office to take down the president.

•
Are the American people supposed to believe Schiff — who's been persecuting the president for the past 3 1/2 years with one partisan-fueled investigation after another — had no knowledge of this? Only a fool's fool would believe.

•
Schiff was also one of the lead architects and propagandists behind the debunked "Russian Collusion" hoax — perhaps the biggest disinformation campaign waged against a sitting president in history.

•
Schiff will accept testimony from literally anyone who can damage the president and advance the Democratic political agenda — no matter whether the witness is credible.

•
Here's the evidence: Fox News released two videos this week that every American should see.

•
One is of John Bolton giving a TV interview in August 2019 discussing the president's phone call with Zelenksy.

•
Bolton appeared very relaxed and pleased with the call saying it was "warm and cordial."

•
He also said it was a "high priority" of the administration to combat corruption.

•
Now ask yourself this: If the president engaged in misconduct — or criminal acts warranting impeachment — why did Bolton speak so positively about the conversation?

•
Could it be that after the president fired him, Bolton changed his tune to coincide with the release of his tell-all book?

•
Consider the other video making the rounds of Schiff giving a TV interview when the president named Bolton national security adviser. Schiff said Bolton lacked credibility.

•
But now that Bolton has an ax to grind against the president and aims to juice sales for his book, Schiff wants us to believe a witness he says is not credible?

•
You can't be serious.
Senators must put an end to this travesty once and for ()
Swing-vote GOP Sen. Alexander comes out against witnesses, paving way for imminent Trump... (Fox 01/31/2020)
•
"If this shallow, hurried and wholly partisan impeachment were to succeed, it would rip the country apart, pouring gasoline on the fire of cultural divisions that already exist."

•
"It would create the weapon of perpetual impeachment to be used against future presidents whenever the House of Representatives is of a different political party."

•
"The framers believed that there should never, ever be a partisan impeachment. That is why the Constitution requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate for conviction. Yet not one House Republican voted for these articles."

•
Alexander flat-out dismissed Democrats' "obstruction of Congress" article of impeachment as "frivolous," citing the longstanding principle of executive privilege.

•
"There is no need to consider further the frivolous second article of impeachment that would remove the president for asserting his constitutional prerogative to protect confidential conversations with his close advisers."

•
At the same time, he said Democrats had easily proven their case on the "abuse of power" count that "the president asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter" and that "the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens."

•
However, Alexander, who is retiring, asserted that Trump's conduct did not justify the extraordinary remedy of his immediate removal by the Senate, especially in an election year.

•
"I worked with other senators to make sure that we have the right to ask for more documents and witnesses, but there is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution's high bar for an impeachable offense."

•
"There is no need for more evidence to prove that the president asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter; he said this on television on October 3, 2019, and during his July 25, 2019, telephone call with the president of Ukraine."

•
"There is no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this with what they call a ‘mountain of overwhelming evidence.' There is no need to consider further the frivolous second article of impeachment that would remove the president for asserting his constitutional prerogative to protect confidential conversations with his close advisers."

•
"It was inappropriate for the president to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent and to withhold United States aid to encourage that investigation."

•
"When elected officials inappropriately interfere with such investigations, it undermines the principle of equal justice under the law. But the Constitution does not give the Senate the power to remove the president from office and ban him from this year's ballot simply for actions that are inappropriate."

•
"Our founding documents provide for duly elected presidents who serve with ‘the consent of the governed,' not at the pleasure of the United States Congress. Let the people decide."

•
"The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did."

•
"I believe that the Constitution provides that the people should make that decision in the presidential election that begins in Iowa on Monday. The Senate has spent nine long days considering this ‘mountain' of evidence, the arguments of the House managers and the president's lawyers, their answers to senators' questions and the House record. Even if the House charges were true, they do not meet the Constitution's ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors' standard for an impeachable offense."
Alan Dershowitz tears into CNN on CNN: Your network 'distorted' my argument to 'misinform...' (Fox 01/31/2020)
•
... how he was "misinterpreted," but the professor insisted there was a "deliberate" attempt by the media to take him "completely out of context."

•
"Unequivocally, I do not believe, I have never said that a president can do anything if he believes his election is in the public interest to get re-elected. That's simply false."

•
"What I was doing was responding to an argument by the managers, which said, basically, that if a president has any motive, the slightest motive that is not in the public interest, that only serves an electoral interest, that's a corrupt motive and that can form the 'quid' or the 'quo' in the 'quid pro quo.' And then I cited Abraham Lincoln, who sent the troops home from the battlefield to Indiana to help the Republicans win the election and help his political prospects. And I said how do you avoid that conclusion if you accept the argument made by the managers."

•
"I never said, never suggested and it was a total distortion, not misunderstanding, distortion of my point that I want- I think a president can do anything if he thinks his election is in the national interest. I never said it, it's nonsense, and your network should never have said that I said it repeatedly."

•
"I think all of you had a responsibility to answer my Lincoln analysis and nobody did, nobody looked at the context, nobody looked at what I was answering. All you did was take that one little snippet, took it out of context, and had everybody attack me for something I didn't say, I don't believe, and I didn't even imply."

•
"That's my argument. Please present it fairly, then rebut it. But don't make up an argument I didn't say."

•
Dershowitz later alleged that at least a "handful" of senators approached him and thanked him for "making that argument."

•
"That was my point and to distort my point is to misinform your viewers."
CNN anchor John King says Republicans make 'legitimate point' about whistleblower (Fox 01/30/2020)
•
"You're asking the Congress, the Senate now, to remove the President of the United States."

•
"It's a legitimate point for the president's team and the Republicans to say: 'Shouldn't we go to the very origin of this?'"

•
"Republicans make a good point — the whistleblower started all of this. Why hasn't the whistleblower been questioned?"

•
"Shouldn't the House Democrats have found a secure way to do that? It's a legitimate point of debate as we go through this."
Trey Gowdy: Both sides in fight over whistleblower testimony are wrong (Fox 01/30/2020)
•
"We make 4-year-olds testify in court. We make women who have been sexually assaulted testify in court. So the notion that, if you are a relevant witness, that somehow you could escape being cross-examined, we don't do it for anyone else, why would we do it for this whistle-blower?"

•
"On the other hand, the reason you don't ever hear me ever talking about the whistleblower is I don't need him. I've got the transcript"

•
"Why do I care what someone who overheard the conversation felt about it or thought about it or believed about it? I can read it for myself."
Justice Roberts blocks Sen. Paul from naming whistleblower, source says – and Paul may force the... (Fox 01/30/2020)
•
"I don't want to have to stand up to try and fight for recognition," Paul shouted.

•
"If I have to fight for recognition, I will," Paul said.

•
Roberts, under the Constitution, presides over the impeachment trial. But the precise contours of his authority are not clearly established, and remain up for debate; Democrats have even said they will attempt a long-shot motion to give Roberts the unprecedented power to approve or reject witnesses.

•
Federal law protects whistleblowers only from retaliation in the workplace, and does not ensure their anonymity; and Republicans have disputed whether this particular whistleblower would even qualify for those limited protections, saying his complaint concerns a policy dispute and does not allege criminal or civil wrongdoing by the president.

•
Multiple media outlets, including CNN, mischaracterized Dershowitz throughout the day as saying that presidents can do "anything" as long as they can argue it's in the "public interest."

•
In fact, Dershowitz maintained that criminal or criminal-like conduct is impeachable, regardless of its motivation.

•
Instead, Dershowitz asserted the Senate should not be in the business of removing presidents based on nebulous and unconstitutional "abuse of power" charges that the framers expressly rejected. It would be a standard Democrats would not want applied to their own presidents, he argued.

•
It would be difficult if not impossible, Dershowitz said, to determine that a president has acted with corrupt "motive," given that countless presidents inevitably consider both the national interest and their personal political gain when making decisions.

•
Rarely do presidents act with purely corrupt or purely noble motives.

•
In the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interview clip, Bolton made no mention of any illicit quid pro quo, and acknowledged, as Republicans have claimed, that combating "corruption" in Ukraine was a "high priority" for the Trump administration.

•
Bolton also called Trump's communications with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "warm and cordial," without mentioning any misconduct. It seemingly contradicted reported assertions in Bolton's forthcoming book that Trump explicitly told him he wanted to tie military aid to Ukraine to an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden.
'GAME OVER,' Trump declares, as old Bolton, Schiff videos surface amid impeachment trial (Fox 01/29/2020)
Gregg Jarrett: Trump’s conviction in impeachment trial not justified even if Bolton claims are true (Fox 01/30/2020)
Ben Shapiro warns GOP senators that opposition to impeachment witnesses could backfire (Fox 01/29/2020)
•
"There seems to be a consensus on the right that the worst case scenario is more witnesses. I can think of a worse one: witnesses are rejected, then go on to drop pseudo-bombshells two weeks from the election, hurting both Trump and Senators who voted against witness testimony."
Dershowitz mounts unconventional defense of Trump as Senate impeachment trial enters new... (Fox 01/29/2020)
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"Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest."

•
"And if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment."

•
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sparked the response when he asked: "Does it matter if there was a quid pro quo? Is it true that quid pro quos are often used in foreign policy?"

•
"The only thing that would make a quid pro quo unlawful is if the quo were in some way illegal," Dershowitz said...
Mike Huckabee: CNN mocks tens of millions of Trump voters (Fox 01/29/2020)
•
The America first movement is an existential threat to people like Don Lemon, exposing their essential mediocrity and the precariousness of their "elite" status.

•
For the establishment elitists of both parties, President Donald J. Trump represents their worst fear: the American people voting for their own interests.
Trump scorches Bolton, says ‘fired’ hawk would have started ‘World War Six’ (Fox 01/29/2020)
•
"For a guy who couldn't get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago, couldn't get approved for anything since, 'begged' me for a non Senate [sic] approved job, which I gave him despite many saying 'Don't do it, sir,' takes the job, mistakenly says 'Libyan Model' on T.V., and ... many more mistakes of judgement [sic], gets fired because frankly, if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now, and goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?"
GOP develops aggressive 'Plan B' in impeachment trial, as several Dems appear to support acquittal (Fox 01/29/2020)
•
"He is a criminal law professor who stood in the well of the Senate and talked about how law never inquires into intent and that we should not be using the president's intent as part of understanding impeachment," Warren said Monday.

•
"Criminal law is all about intent. Mens rea is the heart of criminal law. That's the very basis of it. So it makes his whole presentation just nonsensical. I truly could not follow it."

•
Dershowitz replied on Twitter that Warren, who formerly taught at Harvard Law School, "doesn't understand the law" and had "willfully mischaracterized" his argument.

•
"Warren doesn't understand the law. My former colleague, Senator Warren, claims she could not follow my carefully laid out presentation that everybody else seemed to understand. This says more about Warren than it does about me."

•
"If Warren knew anything about criminal law she would understand the distinction between motives – which are not elements of crime — and intent, which is. It's the responsibility of presidential candidates to have a better understanding of the law."

•
... flatly turned toward House impeachment managers and declared they had picked "dangerous" and "wrong" charges against the president — noting that neither "abuse of power" nor "obstruction of Congress" was remotely close to an impeachable offense as the framers had intended.

•
In a dramatic primetime moment, the liberal constitutional law scholar reiterated that although he voted for Hillary Clinton, he could not find constitutional justification for the impeachment of a president for non-criminal conduct, or conduct that was not at least "akin" to defined criminal conduct.

•
"I'm sorry, House managers, you just picked the wrong criteria. You picked the most dangerous possible criteria to serve as a precedent for how we supervise and oversee future presidents."

•
He said that "all future presidents who serve with opposing legislative majorities" now face the "realistic threat" of enduring "vague charges of abuse or obstruction," and added that a "long list" of presidents have previously been accused of "abuse of power" in various contexts without being formally impeached.

•
"Abuse of power," he argued, has been a "promiscuously deployed" and "vague" term throughout history. It should remain a merely "political weapon" fit for "campaign rhetoric," Dershowitz said, as it has no standard definition nor meaningful constitutional relevance.

•
Dershowitz then said he was "nonpartisan" in his application of the Constitution, and would make the same arguments against such an "unconstitutional impeachment" if Hillary Clinton were on trial — passing what he called the "shoe on the other foot" test.

•
"Purely non-criminal conduct such as abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are outside the range of impeachable offenses," Dershowitz said.
Trump lawyer calls Bolton book 'inadmissible,' as defense team wraps impeachment arguments (Fox 01/28/2020)
•
"Are you going to allow proceedings on impeachment to go from a New York Times report about someone who says what they hear is in a manuscript — is that where we are? I don't think so. I hope not."
Rand Paul blasts 'scurrilous' Schumer for defaming Trump family: 'They ought to sue him' (Fox 01/28/2020)
•
... Paul said he was "offended" and "shocked" that Schumer would "be so scurrilous" as to accuse the president and his children of making money illegally off of politics when "the only people we know who have actually made money off this have been Hunter Biden and Joe Biden."

•
"So, Hunter Biden makes a million dollars a year. That's documented," he stated. "But, Schumer simply creates and makes up and says, 'Oh, maybe the president's kids are making money.'"

•
"John Bolton is making money as we speak. He's making money by testifying against the president. The only people we know that have actually made money: Hunter Biden and now John Bolton. And, they're not objective. John Bolton is not objective in any way now that he's been cashing million-dollar checks."

•
"But to have Schumer come up and say this out of the blue, 'Maybe the president's kids are making money' with no evidence at all, that's defamation and they ought to sue him."

•
"There's nothing in the record about the president's kids. So Schumer just has created this whole thing out of the whole cloth and said, 'Oh well, why don't we just go after the president's kids?'"
Dershowitz calls out House Dems in Trump's Senate impeachment trial after Bolton shock waves (Fox 01/28/2020)
•
Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, delivering a spirited constitutional defense of President Trump at his Senate impeachment trial Monday night, flatly turned toward House impeachment managers and declared they had picked "dangerous" and "wrong" charges against the president — noting that neither "abuse of power" nor "obstruction of Congress" was remotely close to an impeachable offense as the framers had intended.

•
In a dramatic primetime moment, the liberal constitutional law scholar reiterated that although he voted for Hillary Clinton, he could not find constitutional justification for the impeachment of a president for non-criminal conduct, or conduct that was not at least "akin" to defined criminal conduct.

•
"I'm sorry, House managers, you just picked the wrong criteria. You picked the most dangerous possible criteria to serve as a precedent for how we supervise and oversee future presidents."

•
He said that "all future presidents who serve with opposing legislative majorities" now face the "realistic threat" of enduring "vague charges of abuse or obstruction," and added that a "long list" of presidents have previously been accused of "abuse of power" in various contexts without being formally impeached.

•
The list included George Washington, who refused to turn over documents related to the Jay Treaty; John Adams, who signed and enforced the so-called "Alien and Sedition Acts"; Thomas Jefferson, who flat-out purchased Louisiana without any kind of congressional authorization whatosever; John Tyler, who notoriously used and abused the veto power; James Polk, who allegedly disregarded the Constitution and usurped the role of Congress; and Abraham Lincoln, who suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War.

•
Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and others would also probably face impeachment using the Democrats' rules, Dershowitz said.

•
"Abuse of power," he argued, has been a "promiscuously deployed" and "vague" term throughout history. It should remain a merely "political weapon" fit for "campaign rhetoric," Dershowitz said, as it has no standard definition nor meaningful constitutional relevance.

•
Dershowitz then said he was "nonpartisan" in his application of the Constitution, and would make the same arguments against such an "unconstitutional impeachment" if Hillary Clinton were on trial — passing what he called the "shoe on the other foot" test.

•
"Purely non-criminal conduct such as abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are outside the range of impeachable offenses."

•
... a "close review of the history" near in time to the founding of the United States, Dershowitz said, revealed that the founders explicitly wanted to avoid making impeachment so arbitrary and powerful that it effectively created a "British-style parliamentary democracy," in which presidents served at the pleasure of the legislature.

•
Dershowitz further suggested that the "rule of lenity," or the legal doctrine that ambiguities should be resolved in favor of defendants, also counseled toward acquitting the president.

•
The Constitution permits impeachment and removal of presidents for "treason," "bribery," and "high crimes and misdemeanors," but does not clearly define the terms.

•
"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense," Dershowitz said.

•
"That is clear from the history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution. You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using terms like 'quid pro quo' and 'personal benefit.'"

•
"It is inconceivable," Dershowitz said, that the framers would have intended such "politically loaded terms" and "subjective'" words without clear definitions to serve as the basis for impeachment.

•
Fearing a partisan impeachment process, the framers had rejected the offense of "maladministration" as a basis for impeachment, Dershowitz noted, and "abuse of power" was similarly vague.

•
Dershowitz wrapped up his argument, steeped in historical and textual analysis of the constitution and founding documents, by urging senators to reject the "passions and fears of the moment," as the framers had similarly warned.
A series of Republican senators lined up to shake Dershowitz's hand after his presentation ()
Laura Ingraham urges moderate GOP senators to avoid 'one night stand' with Democrats on... (Fox 01/28/2020)
•
"I like Bolton. He's been on the show a number of times, but he's a neo-con who never should have been hired by Trump in the first place."

•
"None of what he could say and none of what he could write could change the facts as they occurred. It is long past time to put an end, a merciful end to this impeachment fiasco."

•
"I'm more outraged that the four squishy senators and the Republican Party are toying with prolonging this national nightmare."

•
"Now, if you're a senator and if you listen to both sides the past week and you are telling us you still haven't decided how you're going to vote and an ultimate verdict, here's my message. You resign. You shouldn't be in the Senate."

•
"You get the sense, don't you, that the handful of moderate Republicans, they're enjoying their Hamlet routine right now, a little bit too much."

•
"People like Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, I'm sure they're great people. Nothing personal against them."

•
"Long after their one night stand with the Liberals ends, their constituents will see their posturing for what it is, a walk of shame, allowing this circus to continue for months... We'll be in for months if this continues."

•
"Just ask Jeff Flake how life is after the Democrats no longer had any use for him."
Tucker Carlson likens John Bolton to a snake, says potential testimony 'won't change the outcome' (Fox 01/28/2020)
•
"Donald Trump used to recite a poem about a woman who took a dying snake into her house and nursed it back to health. The snake did become healthy and then immediately whipped around and bit the woman."

•
"As she breathed her last breaths, the woman asked the snake, 'Why did you do this?' 'Well, because I'm a snake' was the reply. 'That's what we do.'"

•
"Republicans in Washington seem shocked to discover that Bolton has turned and betrayed his former boss, Donald Trump. But they shouldn't be shocked."

•
"That's who John Bolton is. That's who John Bolton has always been. That's what John Bolton does. And not to brag, but we called it long ago."

•
Carlson responded to those who questioned why Bolton joined the Trump administration in the first place if he disliked the president so much.

•
"The answer is simple. Bolton wanted war with Iran. He's always wanted war with Iran. He's obsessed with it ... "

•
"The media were sad to see John Bolton go. They love wars. Wars mean they get to move tanks around on a screen and talk about weapons systems."

•
"And so suddenly, for the first time, they love John Bolton. What a hero he was."

•
"Will John Bolton testify? Who knows? Either way, it won't change the outcome. Trump will be acquitted."

•
"It's a totally stupid sideshow. We'll be embarrassed about it later."
Ted Cruz lashes out at Bidens on sidelines of Trump's Senate impeachment trial (Fox 01/28/2020)
•
"Look in my view, additional witnesses are not necessary."

•
"The House managers have presented their case. They haven't come remotely close to meeting their burden of proof. Now that being said, if the Senate later this week when we vote, decides to go down that road to additional witnesses, I think at a minimum, the most important witness for the Senate to hear from, is now Hunter Biden."

•
"In the entire proceeding, we have heard just the beginning of the serious evidence of corruption involving Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company that paid Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, a million dollars a year."

•
The Republican lawmaker accused Joe Biden of "bragging" that he would cut off a billion dollars of foreign aid to Ukraine unless the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was fired.

•
Biden and former Obama administration officials have defended Shokin's removal from office, alleging that he was a corrupt prosecutor who needed to be nixed.

•
Cruz added that he believes the "president was entirely justified in asking for an investigation concerning Ukraine and potentially Hunter Biden and Joe Biden."

•
"I get that the press loves to obsess over the latest bombshell."

•
"Listen, I don't know what John Bolton's book says or doesn't say. I've seen the New York Times coverage but at the end of the day, it doesn't impact the legal issue before this Senate. The legal issue before this Senate is whether a president has the authority to investigate corruption. So the House managers built their entire case on the proposition that investigating Burisma corruption, investigating the Bidens for corruption, was baseless and a sham. The proposition is absurd."
Trump defense team ripped Dems' case 'to pieces' on day two of their opening arguments (Fox 01/28/2020)
•
"That's what adults look like when they calmly and succinctly use truth, reason, logic and common sense to combat what is irrational rage towards the president."

•
Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz was among the attorneys to deliver a spirited constitutional defense of Trump Monday night, declaring House impeachment managers had picked "dangerous" and "wrong" charges to bring against the president — noting that neither "abuse of power" nor "obstruction of justice" was remotely close to an impeachable offense as the framers had intended.

•
"The Democrats' pathetic case is getting blown to pieces. They should be embarrassed."

•
"Pam Bondi lays out well, the ever-damning detail in every single instance involving this corrupt case with Joe and Hunter [Biden]."

•
"It's time to put this to an end. It's a charade... and in 281 days, I keep talking about the ultimate jury. You, we, the American people, you get to shock the world again."
Mike Huckabee on John Bolton claim: No one does leaks like The New York Times (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
"The president's been very transparent, very clear about what he said, when he said it and to whom he said it, and I don't think there's any big revelations coming out."

•
"And the fact is the Ukrainians got the money that they wanted, they got a heck of a lot more than they got from the previous administration, who gave them blankets and MRE's [Meals Ready to Eat]. That was all they ever got."

•
"I'm not sure what the fuss is about. I just have to believe that this is a lot of 'manufactured crisis,' as some Democrats might use the term."

•
"The problem with hearing from Bolton is not so much about what he says, but the fact that he was a confidant at the highest level of national security."

•
"People need to remember that the issue of having — whether it's John Bolton or [Acting White House Chief of Staff] Mick Mulvaney — the president has a right to have the inner circle of his brain trust around him without the fear that the other branch of government is going to come in and pry information out of him, which would, in the corporate world, be proprietary. But in this sense it's still about executive privilege."

•
"It's not even protecting President Trump, it's protecting the institution of the presidency, no matter who is president, so that president, future, whenever, will be able to talk with his senior aides without fearing that it's going to be printed in the New York Times."

•
"If anybody is leaking information, be it John Bolton or others, I think that's an integrity issue for them."

•
"You don't go out and tell what you know if you've been put in an entrusted position."

•
"It's just an important matter of national security and executive privilege and every president, I don't care who he is, has the right to have that."

•
... "one of the most disgusting and frankly dishonorable things that has happened to this president has been people who are willing to take a paycheck from him but could not be loyal, and in fact were doing everything they can to undermine him."
‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli sued in NY for 'monopolizing life-saving drug' (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
"Martin Shkreli and Vyera not only enriched themselves by despicably jacking up the price of this life-saving medication by 4,000 percent in a single day, but held this critical drug hostage from patients and competitors as they illegally sought to maintain their monopoly."

•
A tablet of Daraprim rose to $750, from $17.50...
Fred Fleitz: Ambassador Bolton, withdraw your book (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
It was crushing to read weekend press reports that my friend and former boss John Bolton plans to publish a tell-all book on his time as President Trump's National Security Adviser.

•
Given the importance of protecting a president's confidential discussions with his senior advisers, I strongly disagree with Bolton's decision to release the book before the November presidential election and call on him to withdraw it from the publisher immediately.

•
President Trump's choice of Bolton was one of his best personnel decisions and was I very sorry when the courageous and visionary national security adviser left the White House after the relationship broke down.

•
Bolton played an important role in some of President Trump's most successful foreign policy decisions, including withdrawing from the nuclear deal with Iran, moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and the 2018 Counterterrorism Strategy.

•
Presidents must be able to candidly consult with their advisers without worrying they will leak these discussions to the press or obtain high-dollar book contracts to publish them.

•
A book by a former national security adviser ahead of a president's reelection bid may set a dangerous precedent since it could discourage future presidents from seeking advice from expert advisers on sensitive national security matters.

•
This is why executive privilege exists: to allow the president and other senior officials to keep certain communications and internal deliberations private if disclosing them would disrupt the functions or decision-making processes of the executive branch.

•
It ... is inexplicable how such a sensitive manuscript could be sent to the NSC in the middle of the impeachment process. Under such circumstances, a leak of the manuscript was all but certain.

•
If a manuscript of this sensitivity was to be published at all, this should happen after the election, not in the spring of 2020.

•
I don't understand the need for a former National Security Adviser to publish a tell-all book critical of a president he served, especially during a presidential reelection campaign that will determine the fate of the country.

•
There will be a time for Bolton to speak out without appearing to try to tip a presidential election.
If Senate calls impeachment witnesses, the Bidens, Schiff and whistleblower should all testify (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
"If my colleagues and others decide, you know what, we have got to have witnesses, then let's call everybody who is going to be relevant."

•
"This isn't just about [former national security adviser] John Bolton. This should be about the whistleblower, Adam Schiff, Hunter Biden — let's hear from them all."

•
"If the Senate decides to call witnesses later this week, we need to hear from Adam Schiff number one."

•
"We know his staff had contact with the so-called whistleblower before the whistleblower filed his complaint. We know that Schiff's staff gave the whistleblower direction. I want to know what direction. I want to know what they talked about."

•
"By the way, Schiff lied about that. Why did he? I think we ought to find that out," ... adding that Hunter Biden should testify, too, because "he is right at the center of this."

•
"What was he doing in Ukraine? What was he doing with Burisma [Holdings]?"

•
"And probably Joe Biden. What did Joe Biden know when he asked the Ukrainians to fire that prosecutor who was looking into Hunter?"

•
Hunter Biden served on the board Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company at the center of a scandal.

•
He was a member of the board while his father was vice president.

•
This was why President Trump wanted the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens in the fateful phone call that ultimately resulted in his impeachment by the House of Representatives.

•
... added that jurors should hear from the whistleblower as well because "that is somebody who is directly relevant here."

•
... acknowledged that he doesn't know the identity of the whistleblower and said that should be revealed.

•
"We are in an impeachment trial now. This is about overturning an election by the people of the United States and if we're going to call witnesses, the whistleblower needs to be put under oath and explain what he knew and when he knew it."
Stephanie Grisham: Timing of John Bolton book manuscript leak is 'very suspect' (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
"It's very clear the president did nothing wrong. Then suddenly, this manuscript has magically appeared in the hands of The New York Times, making very, very big claims. This is ... the same publisher that [James] Comey used, also. The fact that magically, again, the book ordering preorder link popped up a couple hours after all of this hit."
Liz Peek: Showboating Schiff scuppers impeachment trial – here's how he failed to make a case (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
As lead impeachment manager presenting the House's case to the Senate, Schiff managed to offend senators in the chamber, insult voters and, when it was clear his endless hours of presentations had failed to harness GOP votes or alter public opinion, descend into hysterical hyperbole.

•
Schiff impugned the integrity of GOP senators, saying they had been warned that if they voted with Democrats their "head(s) will be on a pike," hinting that they were subject to political blackmail.

•
The California Democrat also managed to disparage voters, saying "the president's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won."

•
He thinks impeachment is essential because Americans are too stupid to judge the president's conduct.

•
Last but not least, Schiff resorted to fear-mongering, suggesting that Trump's delay of aid to Ukraine endangered our national security, saying it meant "that we can fight Russia over there, and we don't have to fight Russia here..."

•
The lawyers noted, for example, that President Trump had on several occasions held up aid to foreign countries, rebutting claims that doing so in Ukraine was unprecedented and therefore suspicious.

•
Impeachment is a political act. Success is not necessarily defined by the outcome, but rather by the impact on public opinion.

•
The most compelling argument against impeachment is that we are but months away from a presidential election.

•
Instead of trying to eject President Trump from office through skimpy charges and partisan hearings, Democrats should offer up a candidate who can beat him in November.

•
That, of course, is their problem. So far, that candidate has not emerged.
Bolton's manuscript leaks as memoir pre-orders begin on Amazon; Trump fires back (Fox 01/27/2020)
•
Trump told Bolton in August, according to a transcript of Bolton's forthcoming book reviewed by the Times, "that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens."

•
"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book."

•
"... transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems."

•
"Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations (Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations - and far ahead of schedule."

•
"I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration."

•
Other conservatives also suggested Sunday evening that Bolton's team may have leaked the information themselves while using the media as unwitting tools to juice their book sales.

•
"A former advisor to the President and the NY Times turned impeachment hearings into a marketing strategy and there are still people wandering around wondering how we ever ended up with Donald Trump."

•
"Just like James Comey, John Bolton is trying to get rich off of a lie- and leak-fueled campaign to overturn the 2016 election results."

•
"John Bolton is running the exact same revenge playbook against Trump that James Comey used. He's even using the same agent and leaking to the same reporters. All because he's mad Trump fired him for leaking and trying to start new wars. It's so boring and predictable. ... If you think anyone other than Bolton's lawyer, publisher, or agent leaked this to 1) juice sales of his book, and 2) get revenge against Trump for firing Bolton and refusing to start a bunch of new wars, you're an idiot."

•
Bolton has said he'd be willing to testify if subpoenaed, and that he has relevant information.

•
The president has said that Bolton testimony might imperil national security and compromise executive privilege, the longstanding legal principle that generally protects executive branch deliberations from disclosure.

•
"The problem with John [Bolton] is, it's a national security problem."

•
"If you think about it, he knows some of my thoughts, he knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and it's not very positive? ... It's going to be very hard, it's going to make the job very hard. He knows other things. I don't know if we left on the best of terms. I would say probably not. So you don't like people testifying when they didn't leave on good terms — and that was due to me, not due to him."

•
"The way I look at it, I call it national security. For national security reasons. Executive privilege, they say."
Adriana Cohen: Rampant impeachment hypocrisy — Trump on trial, Democrats get a pass (Fox 01/26/2020)
Again, regarding Trump’s impeachment trial, read the transcript! (NYP 01/27/2020)
•
Long before Democrats finished making their marathon impeachment case Friday night, momentum had deserted them.

•
The loops of repetition had gone from annoying to unbearable and the wild assertions got even wilder as their talk, talk, talk became a trial of its own.

•
... President Trump's team finally got their first turn at bat Saturday and delivered several big hits in a strong start.

•
... told senators the transcript of the president's call with the president of Ukraine on July 25th "is the best evidence" that Trump "did absolutely nothing wrong."

•
After reading each passage, including those on the need to combat corruption in Ukraine and the presidents' agreement that Germany and France should pony up more aid, Cipollone noted that Dems did not mention any of those in their presentation.

•
He accused them of hiding evidence that didn't fit their "predetermined outcome" and of trying to pull off "the most massive interference in election history."

•
He returned to that point in his team's final remarks, saying this impeachment amounts to interfering in this year's election "by removing the President of the United States from the ballot."

•
Doing that, he said, is the true "abuse of power" that violates the Founders' intent.

•
The aim wasn't just to create reasonable doubt. The goal was to demolish the entire case against the president and expose lead prosecutor Rep. Adam Schiff and Speaker Nancy Pelosi as pure partisans trying to overturn the 2016 election and steal the next one.

•
Some of the defense's effort involved a meticulous reading of witness transcripts and comparing them to what Dems had said about those witnesses.

•
Another contrast was that the president's team would not insult the senators.

•
Cipollone cited two Dem examples, the first with Rep. Jerry Nadler's foolish charge that a vote against additional witnesses would amount to a "cover-up" of crimes and a "treacherous" decision.

•
The second insult was Schiff's reference to a threat allegedly made by the White House that any defecting GOP senator would find that "your head will be on a pike."

•
"I know of no Republican senator who has been threatened in any way by anyone in the administration," said Susan Collins of Maine, whose vote might be in play.

•
Another, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said Schiff "lost me" with the comment.

•
To fair-minded, reasonable people, these incidents show Dems digging themselves a hole with the very people whose votes they need.

•
That's true, but it's not the whole story.

•
A better way to understand what they're up to involves looking back at the vicious attacks on Brett Kavanaugh at his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

•
The reprehensible smears, based on false accusations of sexual misconduct going back decades, were instantly embraced by every Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, along with Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer.

•
Kavanaugh was narrowly confirmed in October of 2018, so the battle was lost. But not the war.

•
In the midterm elections just a month later, Dems picked up seven governors' seats previously held by Republicans without losing a single one they had held.

•
Most important, of course, they flipped the House to take control, with many of their new seats in districts Trump won in the 2016 election.

•
In short, Dems were rewarded for their resistance against Trump and their smears of Kavanaugh.

•
That is the lesson they learned, and it's why they are again carrying out another scorched-earth attack on Trump and the GOP.

•
This time, their voters and donors demanded impeachment. After Robert Mueller failed to deliver the goods, they immediately seized on the Ukraine call.

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So while impeachment deserves to die in the Senate and almost certainly will, it is not in the Dems' political interest to let it die quietly.

•
Buckle up for stormy days.
Tucker Carlson: Goldman Sachs specializes in hypocrisy (Fox 01/25/2020)
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The company has announced it will no longer underwrite IPOs for companies whose boards contain too many white men, because white men are bad.

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Except, apparently, for the white men who run Goldman Sachs. They're the exception. They're great.

•
The irony is that Goldman Sachs was founded by a man named Marcus Goldman, who fled precisely this type of dehumanizing dystopian politics, the kind that obsesses over which people or which race or gender or ethnicity are doing too well and need to be pulled down by force.

•
America, unfortunately, has not been immune to that kind of hatred. But for most of our history, we've avoided its worst excesses.

•
Now Goldman Sachs seems determined to stoke the hate, and the goal is pretty obvious.

•
Outsourcing and financialization have made most Americans far worse off over the last 30 years, while at the same time, Goldman Sachs and its employees have grown spectacularly rich.

•
So far, they've bought off Washington's lawmakers and its think tanks to ensure that status quo doesn't change.

•
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Goldman Sachs is feeding the mob in hopes it will eat them last.

•
It won't work. It never does.

•
But in the meantime, it will hurt America and it will help China, just like so many things Goldman Sachs has done over the past 30 years.
Trump legal team goes on offense in impeachment trial, accuse Democrats of 'massive' election... (Fox 01/25/2020)
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"For all their talk about election interference, they're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history. And we can't allow that to happen."

•
"It would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you and have placed in them. The American people decide elections. They have one coming up in nine months."

•
"They're asking you to do something that no Senate has ever done and they're asking you to do it with no evidence. And that's wrong."
Rep. Debbie Lesko: What impeachment managers in Trump's Senate trial seem to be forgetting (Fox 01/24/2020)
•
It seems the seven impeachment managers have conveniently forgotten many of the facts surrounding their deeply flawed case for impeachment.

•
As they made their opening arguments, they left out key information and used cherry-picked quotes and video clips. When we look at the facts the Democrats seem to be forgetting, it could not be more clear that this sham of an impeachment is nothing more than a political hit job against President Trump.

•
There are four inconvenient — but key — facts that haven't changed since this impeachment hoax began.

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The call transcript shows zero link between aid and political investigations. (And remember, President Trump declassified and released the transcript all on his own.)

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The aid was released without any commitment to new investigations.

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Ukraine did not know aid was withheld at the time of the July 25 phone call.

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President Trump and President Zelensky have both repeatedly said that there was no pressure. In fact, there are multiple Ukrainian officials on the record saying there was no pressure and no link between the aid and investigations.

•
Funny how these all seem to have been forgotten by the impeachment managers.
Dem impeachment witness Vindman unloads on Blackburn as Dems wrap 3rd day of Trump's trial (Fox 01/24/2020)
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"Adam Schiff is hailing Alexander Vindman as an American patriot. How patriotic is it to badmouth and ridicule our great nation in front of Russia, America's greatest enemy? ... Alexander Vindman broke the chain of command and leaked the contents of the President's July 25th phone call to his pal, the 'whistleblower.' Over a policy dispute with the President! How is that not vindictive?"

•
"It makes sense that Alexander Vindman leaked the July 25th phone call to his friend (aka the 'whistleblower')," Blackburn continued. "They both have lots in common: — Held the same NSC job — Liberals who worked under Obama — Wanted to take out Trump."

•
The whistleblower's attorney, Mark Zaid, has openly recruited potential informants from within the intelligence community since 2017, when he declared that a "coup has started" against Trump and predicted that impeachment would follow.

•
Zaid also attempted to solicit prominent actors to raise awareness to his efforts to oust Trump, which began years before Trump's call with Ukraine's leader that ultimately led to his impeachment.

•
Zaid has further acknowledged that the whistleblower had contact with a prominent 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, but has not commented on specifics.

•
"Vindman's commanding officer, Army Lt. Col. Jim Hickman: 'Do not let the uniform fool you. He is a political activist in uniform.'"

•
"You look at what his commanders said. He has a problem with his judgment. That's been pointed out. He had one commander who said he is a political activist in uniform. He has had problems with going outside of his chain of command, which is what he did here."

•
... testified he had heard others express concern that Vindman was a leaker, and could not be trusted with key information.

•
Asked about that allegation, Vindman read from a glowing performance review that described him as an exemplary officer.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: Who in the media has debunked the Biden-Ukraine allegations? (Fox 01/23/2020)
•
"I don't know how many times it was said by the managers that the Biden conflict of interest allegations has been debunked and there's no scintilla of evidence in terms of conflicts of interest and potential wrongdoing."

•
"So, when the managers tell me this has been looked at and debunked ... by [whom]?"

•
"That's becoming relevant because they talked about it almost 50 times — that the president had no reason to believe that anything improper occurred in the Ukraine with the Bidens and he was just out to create a political advantage."

•
"The question is, will that withstand scrutiny?"

•
"I don't know. It doesn't pass the smell test to me. Why are you [Burisma] paying Hunter Biden? You could say they're corrupt, but they're not stupid."

•
"I love Joe Biden, but I can tell you if the name was Trump there would be a lot of questions asked."
Tom Cotton: Republicans are surprised at how 'flimsy' the impeachment case is (Fox 01/23/2020)
•
... what we heard yesterday were repetitive arguments over and over again based on little more than hearsay, and the House Democrats' objections to Donald Trump being the president."

•
"One thing I've seen as I've listened to these House Democrats for the last few days is just how flimsy the evidence is to support their case, based primarily on hearsay. And again, repeating themselves over and over again, because they don't have the evidence that would just speak for itself."

•
"If they had an overwhelming case, they wouldn't be demanding that the Senate do the work that the House wasn't willing to do, subpoenaing documents and witnesses and going to court if necessary to enforce that."

•
"The Democrats refused to do that in the House because they wanted to rush this through to try to hurt the president's reelection chances."

•
"I wouldn't think about it in terms of a trade. I would think about it in terms of the witnesses that we may need at the end of the opening arguments."

•
... "if we get to the point where we call witnesses, I certainly don't think that we should only have Democratic witnesses and if the White House lawyers want to call Hunter Biden to understand exactly what he was paid $80,000 a month to do, then I think that would be entirely appropriate."
Rep. Kevin McCarthy reveals what he says is the real 'cover up' in impeachment trial (Fox 01/23/2020)
•
"They have moved this forward simply for one purpose and one purpose only... politics."

•
"They do not like this president. Do you know what else they don't like? They don't like their own candidates. That's what they are trying to cover up. Their candidates are so poor, they know they can't beat this president so they're trying to use impeachment to do just that."

•
"Adam Schiff continues to get fixated on the word cover-up. He is the one covering up. Covering up no evidence of Russian collusion....[he] covered up his contact with the whistleblower...covered up truth from coming out when he stopped the witnesses from answering the Republicans' questions. Now he is covering up texts with more lies. This is all that Adam Schiff has ever done and the American people are continuing to see it."
Schiff warns of Russian attack on US mainland, as Day 2 of Trump's Senate impeachment trial... (Fox 01/23/2020)
•
... the head impeachment manager, California Rep. Adam Schiff, suggested that Russians could attack the U.S. and insisted that removing Trump from office was necessary because the integrity of the 2020 election could not be "assured."

•
"As one witness put it during our impeachment inquiry, the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don't have to fight Russia here," Schiff said.

•
Schiff attracted the most criticism, however, for later making the head-turning argument that Trump must be removed from office by the Senate — rather than by voters in the 2020 election — because it is impossible to be sure the 2020 election won't be compromised.

•
"The president's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won," Schiff remarked. He did not elaborate.

•
Constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz, who will speak against impeachment, is expected to argue before the Senate that removing a president is a fundamentally undemocratic remedy that requires "criminal-like" conduct — a standard he will argue is not met by Democrats' two articles of impeachment, which do not allege federal crimes.

•
"And right here is proof of the Democrats' plan all along. Every moment of the impeachment sham has been geared toward interfering with the 2020 election. Schiff is preemptively calling into question the results of an election that is still more than 9 months away."

•
"For all the talk about Russia undermining faith in US elections, how about Russiagaters like Schiff fear-mongering w/ hysterics like this? Let's assume Ukraine did what Trump wanted: announce a probe of Burisma. Would that delegitimize a 2020 US election? This is a joke."

•
... Trump retweeted a post from Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul: "The more we hear from Adam Schiff, the more the GOP is getting unified against this partisan charade." Trump added, "True!"

•
Attempting to underscore the human cost of Trump's temporary aid holdup, Schiff further asserted that the money was "designed to help Ukraine defend itself from the Kremlin's aggression" and that "more than 15,000 Ukrainians have died fighting Russian forces and their proxies."

•
"Over the coming days, we will present to you — and to the American people — the extensive evidence collected during the House's impeachment inquiry into the president's abuse of power," Schiff argued.

•
"You will hear their testimony at the same time as the American people. That is, if you will allow it."
Rush Limbaugh calls on Republicans to make Adam Schiff 'front and center' of Senate impeachment trial (Fox 01/22/2020)
•
"I really think the Republicans ought to bring Schiff in here and put him front and center and I think they ought to call him. I think they ought to make everything the Democrats are doing related to Adam Schiff.

•
"This guy needs to upheld front and center as the energy, the face behind this entire thing, because he'll fold. Folks, he hasn't said much that is the truth since this began."

•
"He doesn't have a case telling the truth, so he's manufacturing things."

•
"I really think it's critical to expose Adam Schiff in this, I think. If we're gonna start calling witnesses..., get Schiff up there first. Everything revolves around Schiff. You are looking at human slime."

•
"I don't like saying that. You're just looking at a bad guy, folks."

•
"Adam Schiff is typical of this radical left mentality that has taken over the Democrat Party."

•
"It is unreasonable, it is indecent, it has no boundaries of... propriety."

•
"Maybe forcing Schiff to testify under oath could explain the origins of this entire fiasco."
Ex-CIA contractor who developed controversial interrogation program testifies at Guantanamo Bay (Fox 01/22/2020)
•
"I did it for the victims and families."

•
"I'd get up today and do it again. I thought my moral duty to protect American lives outweighed the feelings of discomfort of terrorists who voluntarily took up arms against us. To me it just seemed like it would be dereliction of my moral responsibilities."
Mike Lee: Only Dems' House managers deserved to be called out by Justice Roberts (Fox 01/22/2020)
•
... pointed out that he thought House managers were "personally insulting."

•
"At one point, the chief justice had to step in and remind them not to do that. This is the Senate."

•
"I'm grateful to the chief justice, he did a good job, his demeanor was great, he maintained his patience."

•
"I thought that was unfair of him to direct that at both sets of counsels because it felt to me like collective punishment for isolated guilt."

•
"This was the fault of the House management prosecution team," he continued. "They were rude, they were insulting, they were demeaning not just to the president, but to the opposing counsel and indeed to the Senate itself."

•
Lee also addressed the debate over witnesses and reacted to House Impeachment Manager Adam Schiff's comments regarding the idea of a deal between the sides...

•
"This isn't like fantasy football here, we're not making trades, or we shouldn't be."

•
"We'll trade you one completely irrelevant immaterial witness that allows us to smear the president's opponent in exchange for ones that are really relevant that you should hear. Is that a fair trial?"

•
"I still think the impeachment charges themselves are sufficiently flawed and sufficiently baseless."

•
"There's not a genuine issue of material fact here. Meaning, we don't have any facts that are in dispute that are sufficiently critical to the charges and to their success. I'm not seeing any need for witnesses at all."
Tom Homan hits back at Biden for remark on illegal immigrants arrested for DUI: He's 'lost his mind' (Fox 01/22/2020)
•
"They go off to school wondering whether their mom comes and picks them up, is she not going to be there because an ICE agent was there to arrest her," Biden told...

•
"You're going to get fired, you're fired if in fact you do that. You only arrest for the purpose of dealing with a felony that's committed and I don't count drunk driving as a felony."

•
"He was in Congress for decades. He knows how this works. There is no prerequisite, you commit any crime to be removed from the United States if you're here illegally. That is the way the law is written in statute."

•
"If he doesn't like what ICE is doing then he can change the law, but you cannot fire a law enforcement officer to enforcing the law that he took an oath to enforce, a law that was enacted by Congress. It is a ridiculous statement."

•
... referenced what it was like when he ran a national program for ICE and Biden was vice president.

•
"I oversaw [the] removal of one million illegal aliens, over 100,000 of them were DUI convictions and many didn't have any convictions at all, they were just here illegally so his tune has totally changed."

•
"We didn't hear a peep from him back when he was vice president on this issue."

•
"But the bottom line is law enforcement officers are going to enforce laws they took an oath to enforce and laws are clear and we're going to arrest and remove illegal aliens whether they have a conviction or not."

•
If they've had their due process, an immigration judge says they got to leave, they're going to be arrested and leave. What other law enforcement agency ignores a judge's order? None and neither is ICE."

•
... also reacted to statistics from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found that 29 people in the United States die every day in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver.

•
"That's over 10,000 a year, this is a huge public safety threat, whether it's a misdemeanor or felony, it's a public safety threat where over 10,000 lives a year are lost."

•
"ICE is going to enforce this law. If he doesn't like it and he becomes president he can try to convince Congress to change it, but the way Congress is acting right now, they're not going to fix anything or do anything."

•
See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Texas church hero takes on Michael Bloomberg: If we did things his way, many more would be dead (Fox 01/22/2020)
•
"Even though the White Settlement police department did arrive in roughly two minutes from the time the first call went it, by that time...the carnage would have been much, much worse."

•
... the shooter took Communion before producing his shotgun. He then opened fire and shot Richard White and Anton "Tony" Wallace at point-blank range.

•
From the time the gunman drew his weapon until he was down and it was over, six seconds had passed.

•
"You know, the team and I practice; we train. And, it's not something that we're just walking around with a gun on our hip. We do practice, you know, for different scenarios."

•
Wilson said that Democratic politicians are "chipping away" at Second Amendment rights "all the time."

•
"If Mr. Bloomberg would have his security detail turn their arms in and not guard him, he would be in the same situation as many American citizens are every day."
Impeachment-weary Trump tees off on ‘sleazebags’ Nadler and Schiff, says he’d ‘love’ to attend trial (Fox 01/22/2020)
•
"I'd love to go, wouldn't that be great?" he said when asked whether he would attend. "Sit right in the front row and stare at their corrupt faces, and I'd love to do it."

•
Trump ... claimed that he would be open to endorsing witness testimony — if not for national security issues.

•
"I can live either way," Trump said. "I would rather go the long way... I would rather interview Bolton. I would rather interview a lot of people."

•
"The problem with John is, it's a national security issue. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and it's not very positive. You don't like people testifying when they leave and it's not on good terms."

•
"Their case was so 'overwhelming' in the House that they need & demand Witnesses in the Senate!"

•
When asked why his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was not tapped to join his impeachment defense team, the president suggested that Giuliani could be called to testify.

•
"I don't want there to be a conflict, he could be a witness at some point. Rudy is on my team but I'd love to have him up there but he could have a conflict. But I think the press has been unfair to the greatest mayor in history in New York and greatest crime fighter...He hates to see what's happening."

•
"This is the greatest witch hunt. Here's the story: I did nothing wrong, it was a perfect conversation."

•
See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Chief Justice Roberts admonishes both sides at Senate impeachment trial, after marathon session erupts... (Fox 01/22/2020)
•
"It's embarrassing," Nadler began. "The president is on trial in the Senate, but the Senate is on trial in the eyes of the American people. Will you vote to allow all the relevant evidence to be presented here? Or will you betray your pledge to be an impartial juror? ... Will you bring Ambassador Bolton here? Will you permit us to present you with the entire record of the president's misconduct? Or will you instead choose to be complicit in the president's coverup? So far I'm sad to say I see a lot of senators voting for a coverup, voting to deny witnesses, an absolutely indefensible vote, obviously a treacherous vote."

•
"We've been respectful of the Senate," an animated White House counsel Pat Cipollone fired back. "We've made our arguments to you. And you don't deserve, and we don't deserve, what just happened. Mr. Nadler came up here and made false allegations against our team. He made false allegations against all of you; he accused you of a cover-up. He's been making false allegations against the president. The only one who should be embarrassed, Mr. Nadler is you, for the way you've addressed the United States Senate. This is the United States Senate. You're not in charge here. ... It's about time we bring this power trip in for a landing."

•
"At about 12:10 a.m., January 22, the chairman of the [House] Judiciary Committee, in this body, on the floor of this Senate, said 'executive privilege and other nonsense,'" Sekulow said. "Now think about that for a moment. 'Executive privilege and other nonsense.' Mr. Nadler, it is not 'nonsense.' These are privileges recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States. And to shred the Constitution, on the floor of the Senate. To serve what purpose? The Senate is not on trial. The Constitution doesn't allow what just took place. Look what we've dealt with for the last, now 13 hours. And we hopefully are closing the proceedings, but not on a very high note."

•
"'Only guilty people try to hide evidence?'" Sekulow asked, quoting Nadler incredulously. "So, I guess when President Obama instructed his attorney general to not give information, he was guilty of a crime? That's the way it works, Mr. Nadler? Is that the way you view the United States Constitution? Because that's not the way it was written, that is not the way it's interpreted, and that's not the way the American people should have to live."

•
"It is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and the president's counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world's greatest deliberative body," Roberts said. "One reason it has earned that title is because its members avoid speaking in a manner, and using language, that is not conducive to civil discourse. "

•
Roberts continued: "In the 1905 [Judge Charles] Swayne trial, a senator objected when one of the managers used the word 'pettifogging' — and the presiding officer said the word ought not to have been used. I don't think we need to aspire to that high a standard, but I do think those addressing the Senate should remember where they are."

•
At 1:30 a.m. ET, Schumer introduced his last amendment to McConnell's rules — and he unexpectedly put Roberts back in the spotlight. The proposal would have allowed Roberts to decide the appropriateness of witnesses, which Republicans nixed because the Constitution affords the Senate the "sole" power over impeachment trials.

•
That last amendment was tabled by a 53-47 party-line vote, just like ten of Schumer's other proposals.

•
When McConnell thanked Roberts for his "patience" as the proceedings wrapped up at 1:40 a.m. ET following that vote, Roberts remarked to applause, "It comes with the job."

•
Under McConnell's final, adopted rules resolution, both the Democrats' impeachment managers and Trump's lawyers will now have three session days, totaling 24 hours, allocated to present their case.

•
"Upon the conclusion of the president's presentation, senators may question the parties for a period of time not to exceed 16 hours." Per underlying Senate rules, upon which both resolutions were based, the senators have to submit those questions in writing.

•
... the House prosecutors and White House defense will have four hours of debate over the question of whether to subpoena witnesses or documents.

•
McConnell's resolution does not mention a motion to dismiss, known as a "kill switch" in GOP circles, but does not rule it out.

•
Trump has tweeted that he would like such a motion, but Senate Republicans have indicated that they don't have the votes to pass it and that they would prefer for the president to be acquitted, as he is expected to be.

•
Still, any senator could offer a motion to dismiss the two articles.

•
"It will be telling if the House managers try to get the Senate to pre-commit ourselves to supplementing the investigation they themselves oversaw and decided to shut down. Just last week, they said their case as it already exists is 'overwhelming' and 'beyond a reasonable doubt.'"

•
In all, the Senate handed President Trump a series of wins throughout the day Tuesday by voting 53-47 ten separate times to effectively kill a series of previous proposals from Schumer...

•
The party-line votes demonstrated GOP unity at the start of the trial, which is all but certain to result in the president's acquittal.

•
"It's getting late," White House counsel Pat Cipollone said late Tuesday night. "I would ask you, respectfully, if we could simply start, maybe tomorrow we can start — and they can make their argument, and they can, I guess, make a case that they once called 'overwhelming.' We'll see... Seriously, can we please start?"

•
"Tuning in to impeachment to hear Dem manager Rep. Jason Crow saying that Trump endangered 'US national security' by delaying weapons sales to Ukraine — sales that Obama flatly rejected."

•
... the senators were legally barred from having any sustenance other than water or milk at their desk all day, and could not communicate verbally with one another during the proceedings.

•
The restriction on cellphone possession and oral interaction led some members to pass and flash written notes to each other like students in a classroom.

•
"It's a partisan impeachment they've delivered to your doorstep in an election year," Cipollone thundered early in the day.

•
"They're not here to steal one election, they're here to steal two elections," Cipollone added.

•
For his part, Trump appeared undeterred by the proceedings, and committed to conducting business as usual.

•
"READ THE TRANSCRIPTS!" the president tweeted from overseas.

•
"Making great progress in @Davos," Trump wrote. "Tremendous numbers of companies will be coming, or returning, to the USA. Hottest Economy! JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!"

•
See related Impeachment (Bob Gorrell, 11/12/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Shapiro: AOC trying to explain economics is like 'a badger trying to explain calculus' (Fox 01/21/2020)
•
... Ocasio-Cortez attacked billionaires for "taking a billion dollars" "off the backs" of their employees, who she said were "undocumented people," "black and brown people being paid under a living wage" and "single mothers."

•
"No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars."

•
"I'm not here to villainize and to say billionaires are inherently morally corrupt. ... It's to say that this system that we live in, life in capitalism always ends in billionaires."

•
"You didn't make those widgets, did you? Because you employed thousands of people and paid them less than a living wage to make those widgets for you."

•
"You didn't make those widgets. You sat on a couch while thousands of people were paid modern-day slave wages and in some cases real modern-day slavery."

•
Shapiro called the Democratic "Squad" member's theory "full-scale insanity."

•
"She suggests that if you're a businessperson, entrepreneur, capitalist, then you don't get to make a profit off of the products in which you have invested and risked."

•
Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates for democratic socialism, also encouraged billionaires to surrender their "control and power"...

•
"I don't want your money as much as we want your power."

•
"She [AOC] has not generated a single thing that has done anybody any good for her entire life, except she mixed a few drinks."

•
"She has not created a job, she has not run a business ... but she wants the power of people who have done all of that because those people 'didn't create anything ... the only people who created anything was the workers.'"

•
"For at least hundreds of thousands of years, there have been workers ... people who labor, but prosperity only began when people started investing in the labor of others and engaging in free trade and commerce."

•
To prove his point, Shapiro noted that the global Growth Domestic Product (GDP) multiplied by 15,700 percent between the years 1800 and 2015.

•
"And she's sitting here explaining that she wants the power? What qualifies this dolt to run anything?"

•
See related In the Red (Antonio Branco, 02/19/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Tax (Taylor Jones, 01/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Alan Dershowitz: Trump impeachment is a 'motion-to-dismiss' case, save for 'political' considerations (Fox 01/21/2020)
•
Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, a constitutional representative for President Trump in his Senate impeachment trial, said that in a normal court of law, the case would be subject to a "motion to dismiss."

•
"A motion to dismiss, in a perfect world, would be ideal — but does the American public want to see an end to the trial so quickly?"

•
"Obstruction of Congress is not an impeachable offense. Abuse of power is not an impeachable offense. A motion to dismiss and a perfect world would be ideal, but do the American public want to see an end to the trial so quickly? I think that becomes a political issue."

•
Dershowitz underlined that he does not believe the president committed either of those acts, adding that the Trump team's legal brief lays out that case.

•
"The position is he didn't do any of these things, that he is innocent as a matter of fact."

•
"As every criminal trial lawyer knows when you have disputes over facts and disputes over law, you always argue in the alternative. You always argue that the facts are not proved, but hypothetically, even if the facts were to be proved, they wouldn't rise to the level of a crime or in this case an impeachable offense. So, it is not an acknowledgment in any way by anyone on the legal team that the president did anything wrong, that is just not how that brief could possibly be read."

•
Regarding his title of "constitutional representative" rather than formally a legal team member or lawyer, Dershowitz told Ingraham his role is similar to the capacity in which he served during the O.J. Simpson case.

•
"My role is to present the constitutional argument — I am not meeting with the team on strategic issues. I am not involved in whether witnesses should be called, or whether facts should be alleged. My argument is limited."
Trump blasts Democrats over impeachment witnesses, says he received 'ZERO' fairness in House... (Fox 01/20/2020)
•
"They didn't want John Bolton and others in the House. They were in too much of a rush. Now they want them all in the Senate. Not supposed to be that way!"

•
"Cryin' Chuck Schumer is now asking for ‘fairness,' when he and the Democrat House members worked together to make sure I got ZERO fairness in the House. So, what else is new?"
Sutherland Springs church hero to speak at Virginia gun rally: It's more about 'control' than... (Fox 01/20/2020)
•
... if he did not have an AR-15 on him at the time, he would not have been able to confront the shooter because "he had on class III body armor."

•
"Class II is usually what police departments carry and class II will stop handguns. Class III will stop rifles."

•
The former National Rifle Association instructor who lives next door to the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, grabbed his AR-15-style rifle after hearing the gunfire and went over to investigate.

•
Confronting the shooter, Willeford shot him in the leg and torso before the gunman dropped his weapon and fled the scene in his SUV.

•
The attack on the church killed 26 people and injured 20 more.

•
"He came out, he had a tactical bulletproof helmet and class III body armor and if I had not had an AR-15, I would probably have not made it."

•
"All the police departments that were around my church, all of them are great people, they were coming just as fast as they could, but they say that they were five to seven minutes estimated behind me and my community didn't have five to seven minutes to wait."

•
"It's important because the people of Virginia need to know that they can't stand for these kinds of bans. Our Constitution stands against it. It shall not be infringed."

•
"That's why our founding fathers gave us the right to speak out. That's why we have freedom of press and freedom to speak and to say what we believe and the Second Amendment defends all of those rights."

•
"Why would you want to close down [shooting] ranges? If you're going to have people with guns, don't you think that they should be trained to shoot properly and be safe? Why would you want to close down ranges?"

•
"I think it's more about control than it is about the safety of the citizens. I mean, that's obviously an issue that has nothing to do with safety. They want to control."
Steve Hilton calls impeachment 'an insult' to Americans (Fox 01/20/2020)
•
"It's a totally different mindset when you put an outsider in the Oval Office, that mindset is what's delivering results on deregulation, immigration and border trade and all the rest of it."

•
"All this is why he's delivering and why impeachment is not just a joke, but an insult to every American who has a right to expect that Congress, like the president, is spending its time getting real results for workers and families."

•
"Of course, you can forget about that from today's decadent Democrats. But the best thing the president can do is to focus on policy, on results. So we continue to see that contrast between Trump results and Democrats stunts."

•
Charles Hurt, founder of Turning Point USA, joined Hilton and criticized the "ruling class," saying they are "infatuated" with impeachment.

•
"America's divided, but it's not divided the way that the media wants us to believe," Hurt said. "It's divided between the ruling class that is just so infatuated with impeachment and destabilizing, destabilising this president and revitalization that's happening in this country."

•
"So the ruling class, the wise men of Washington, the kingdom of Washington, D.C., their entire agenda last 40 years has now been proven completely incorrect. They've been getting rich while America really has been falling behind."

•
"And it's a disgrace that the media continues to ignore the results of this president."
Dan Bongino reacts to video of mob attacking Baltimore officer: ‘I blame the political leaders...’ (Fox 01/20/2020)
•
"I was a police officer in Rudy Giuliani's New York. Listen, nobody's perfect, no mayor, no president, nobody else. But this kind of nonsense was never ever acceptable."

•
"If you were in this video in Rudy Giuliani's New York, they didn't have cell phone cameras back then, but if they did, you were going to jail."

•
"There was no doubt about it and these people need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

•
The video shows the police officer being repeatedly kicked while trying to make the arrest.

•
The suspect in the video had allegedly spat in the officer's face.

•
"Of course everybody is going to condemn the video. This is a long-term longitudinal attitude where you don't jump on the police's back and make them a political pinball at every opportunity. Unfortunately, that's what happens in a lot of big cities now. It's a real shame."
Cornyn rips GAO report that found White House violated law in freezing Ukraine aid (Fox 01/19/2020)
•
"This is the first time in history where a president has been impeached for a non-crime, for events that never occurred, ultimately the investigation never took place and ultimately the aid was delivered."

•
"This is really unique and I think every senator is going to take this very seriously."

•
"Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law."

•
"We disagree with GAO's opinion. OMB uses its apportionment authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the president's priorities and with the law."
House Democratic leader's remark about letting Trump 'prove innocence' should alarm Americans (Fox 01/19/2020)
•
Hoyer, the number-two Democrat in the House, defended the House's impeachment inquiry last month by remarking that Trump was afforded "every opportunity to prove his innocence."

•
"Mr. Hoyer from Maryland ... made a very revealing statement for anybody who's concerned about Constitutional rights — and especially for me — even those of my Democratic counterparts who worry about their communities, where they discuss police action and rights being violated."

•
"It's amazing to me how they're willingly setting that aside to come up to this — Steny Hoyer actually said 'we allowed him every opportunity to come prove his innocence,'."

•
... the comment was mindblowing in that it seemed that Congress must have "taken a vacation and le[ft] the United States."

•
"Did we all of a sudden suspend the Bill of Rights? Did we suspend any modicum of due process?"

•
... Democrats like Hoyer are creating a dangerous precedent in that people can effectively accuse other people of offenses and force them to "prove your innocence."

•
"I don't care if you think this president ought to be impeached or not. This is irrelevant. This should bother everybody."

•
... in addition to apparently reversing the burden of proof standard, Democrats have denied Trump the ability to call witnesses or present evidence in his own defense.

•
"I think the American people are going to go back and see that the senators are going to look at it and the Senate is going to say, 'Wait, this is what we're getting? ... This is what you have wasted so much time and now put us in a period of time in which we've got to do something?'"
Schiff and Dershowitz spar over whether abuse of power is impeachable offense (Fox 01/19/2020)
•
"I am making an argument much like the argument made by the great Justice Curtis," Dershowitz said. "The argument is a strong one. The Senate should hear it."

•
Dershowitz went on to argue that the Founding Fathers were concerned about giving Congress too much power and that impeachment could be used as a political tool in the partisan infighting of politics.

•
"You can't charge a president with impeachable conduct if it doesn't fit within the criteria for the Constitution."
Graham calls for swift end to impeachment trial, warns Dems against calling witnesses (Fox 01/19/2020)
•
... "the idea of dismissing the case early on is not going to happen; we don't have the votes for that."

•
"If we call one witness, we're going to call all the witnesses."

•
Personally, Graham said he would rather look into Hunter Biden's dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings outside of the context of the impeachment trial, and would rather not have any witnesses called during the trial from either side.

•
"The sooner this is over the better."
Trump lawyers respond to articles of impeachment: 'Constitutionally invalid' (Fox 01/18/2020)
•
... refuting the substance and process of the charges while accusing House Democrats of engaging in a "dangerous attack" on the right of the American people to freely choose their president.

•
"This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election — now just months away."

•
"The highly partisan and reckless obsession with impeaching the president began the day he was inaugurated and continues to this day."

•
"The articles of impeachment are constitutionally invalid on their face."

•
Trump's lawyers argued that the articles of impeachment "violate the Constitution" and are "defective in their entirety" because they were the product of invalid House proceedings that "flagrantly denied the President any due process rights."

•
At the crux of Trump's defense is that he did nothing wrong in his July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine when he asked for investigations into Democrats.

•
... military aid to Ukraine was ultimately released without any announcement of investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

•
The lawyers contend House Democrats fail to allege any crime or violation of law whatsoever, let alone, high crimes or misdemeanors.

•
"In order to preserve our constitutional structure of government, to reject the poisonous partisanship that the Framers warned against, to ensure one-party political impeachment vendettas do not become the 'new normal,' and to vindicate the will of the American people, the Senate must reject both Articles of Impeachment."

•
"In the end, this entire process is nothing more than a dangerous attack on the American people themselves and their fundamental right to vote."

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Impeach Trump (Gary Varvel, 03/05/2019) cartoon from USA picture album

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See related Yes, of the Democrats (Gary Varvel, 12/29/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Trump legal team member blasts House Dems for trying to put the impeachment jurors 'on trial' (Fox 01/18/2020)
•
"You don't, as the prosecutors which is what they are, go in and tell the jury, 'Hey, we're putting you on trial. That's not who's on trial. The judge is not on trial, and it's pure partisan politics."

•
"If the Senate doesn't admit witnesses and all documents the House wants to introduce, then the Senate is engaging in an unconstitutional and disgusting cover-up. The Senate is on trial as well as the President," Nadler said.

•
"They feel that same partisan political motivation that we can't beat him at the ballot box, so we've got to try and impeach him. This is purely politics, but we're ready to mount a full defense of the president, the Constitution, and we're ready for our actual due process to present and we've been ready for this the whole time."

•
"We shouldn't have to be there, this president should never have been impeached but we're ready to go and we have been ready to go."
Dershowitz downplays his role on Trump impeachment team, as White House adds 8th lawyer (Fox 01/18/2020)
•
"My role is limited. I'm only going to appear on behalf of the Constitution making the arguments against impeachment based on the Constitution. I'm not part of the strategic legal team."

•
"I will appear on Friday, make my argument to the Senate about the constitutional reasons why these two articles of impeachment don't satisfy the criteria and then I'll answer questions from the senators, but that will be the extent of my role."
ICE issues list of ‘fugitive’ illegal immigrants freed by New York City’s sanctuary city policies (Fox 01/18/2020)
•
"Make no mistake – it is this city's sanctuary policies that are the sole reason this criminal was allowed to roam the streets freely and end an innocent woman's life."

•
The list of fugitives put out by ICE includes suspected illegal immigrants from Nigeria, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guinea, Spain, and El Salvador.

•
Those released have arrests for assault in the first, second and third degrees, attempted robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, gang assaults and other violent offenses.

•
ICE also issued a list of illegal immigrants currently in custody, who it says "may be released into New York communities" after they have served their sentences.

•
Among the crimes for which those in custody have been charged include rape, murder and sexual assault against a child.

•
... cited statistics saying that last year ICE lodged 7,526 detainers via its New York field office.

•
Those individuals accounted for 17,873 criminal convictions and 6,500 criminal charges.

•
... charges and convictions include over 200 homicides, over 500 robberies, over 1,000 sexual offenses, over 1,000 weapons offenses, and over 3,500 assaults.

•
However, only about 10 detainers were honored by the city...

•
"Those who politicize this issue want you to believe that you have to choose between being an immigrant-friendly city and one that cooperates with ICE."

•
"Again that is simply false. The only immigrants protected by such policies are those committing violence and dangerous offenses, often in the same communities these politicians are purporting to protect."

•
Reeaz Khan, an illegal immigrant from Guyana, is accused of attacking Maria Fuertes as she walked home on Jan. 6.

•
Fuertes was reportedly found at 2 a.m. in 32-degree weather and near death on a sidewalk with her clothes pulled above her waist.

•
She was taken to a hospital, where she died from injuries that included a broken spine...

•
... she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

•
"It's a completely preventable tragedy. Had they honored the [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detainer this would never have happened."

•
"So if they'd cooperated with ICE officials, the individual would never have been let out, wouldn't have committed this crime and we wouldn't even be talking about this."
Tammy Bruce: Legislating failure and chaos with bail reform in New York (Fox 01/18/2020)
•
While the nation has been distracted by Democrats in Washington as they try to remove a duly-elected president from his office, that same political party continues to put its stamp of chaos on the city and state of New York.

•
Let this sink in: Thousands of hardened criminals and dangerous suspects are walking free or will be soon in the Empire State thanks to what was dubbed a new "bail reform" law.

•
The new law does more than eliminate bail requirements of thousands of suspects; it ties the hands of judges eliminating their ability to use their own discretion.

•
Instead, judges are forced to release suspects with the simple hope that they will show up in court for their next hearing.

•
Among those who've been released so far: An alleged serial bank robber, an alleged serial slugger (and I'm not speaking of the baseball type) and a woman who allegedly physically attacked multiple Jewish women while screaming Jew-hating insults at them. That is a classic hate crime.

•
... here's just a taste of the kinds of suspects who Democrats think should be allowed to roam the streets:

•
Using a child to commit a controlled substance crime.

•
Criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near a school. In other words, someone dealing drugs to children in school.

•
Third-degree assault as a hate crime.

•
Reckless assault of a child by a day-care provider.

•
Menacing as a hate crime.

•
Criminal obstruction of breathing, which means, of course, strangling someone.

•
Various degrees of arson.

•
Killing a police dog or police horse. Keep in mind police dogs and police horses are officers of the law, but now you can kill one and be treated as though you are a jaywalker.

•
Pointing a laser at an aircraft.

•
And ...

•
Money laundering in support of terrorism, multiple counts.

•
The Democrats have created a revolving door of criminality that would impress even Franz Kafka.

•
"It's a mess. It's more than a mess, it's a disgrace in terms of what they put forth and as the public learns more about it the outrage will build and hopefully they'll reform the reforms."

•
Somehow for Democrats, there's no consideration of the impact of their folly on other people.

•
In other words, it's another day in another city and another state that is controlled completely by Democrats.
Four former Iranian hostages: President Trump, thank you for your actions and your strength (Fox 01/17/2020)
•
We watched carefully as rioters stormed our new U.S. embassy in Iraq earlier this month.

•
The scene brought back vivid memories of the day, just over 40 years ago, when the walls were breached at the Embassy in Tehran, Iran and our nightmare began.

•
We watched the landing of the Marines sent by President Trump. We knew instantly, no American would suffer our fate.

•
For 444 days, we were tormented and tortured by some of the same people that are now leaders of the Iranian government.

•
Never knowing if this was the day you would die.

•
From time to time we were taken out blind-folded to the execution site, guns were drawn and readied and the order to fire was shouted.

•
We will never forget the sound of multiple firing pins striking empty chambers.

•
Realizing in that split second, you would live another day.

•
The suffering was not just ours.

•
Each of us had parents, some had a spouse, some also had children who waited by the television for us to be paraded out of our jail cells in propaganda exercises.

•
They watched hoping for a glimpse of a loved one to at least know we were still alive.

•
Our families suffered watching those images, we cannot even begin to understand what they went through.

•
When we returned home the politicians of the day made great promises.

•
We would be cared for and Iran would pay.

•
Soon we discovered a brutal insult at the end of our torment, President Carter had signed away our right to sue Iran.

•
President Carter left us with no ability to seek justice for our suffering.

•
Even worse the billions of dollars of Iranian deposits held by our own government were given back to Iran by President Obama.

•
Watching those Marines and soldiers secure the embassy in Baghdad, knowing that there would be no more hostages taken that day filled our hearts with pride.

•
For 40 years our government has failed to understand that the only thing that can stop a radical regime is strength.

•
But today, we stand tall to thank President Trump for his actions and his strength.

•
Today, there are no new American hostages.

•
Today, there is a very new understanding in Iran that this president isn't like the others.

•
Thank you, Mr. President.
Former Iraqi refugee trying to unseat Ilhan Omar: She is doing 'irreparable harm' to the country (Fox 01/17/2020)
•
"As an American citizen, my duty is to defend my country and my duty is to stand up to her hatred and racism that she's spreading within her community, within the country, and even worldwide."

•
"Ilhan Omar is harming every American with her hatred, her standing against what we believe in, [and] against our own Constitution."

•
"I came to the U.S. more than 25 years ago. So, basically, I'm not a refugee anymore. I'm not an Iraqi anymore. I'm an American. Period."

•
"America, for me, is my country. America opened the doors for me."

•
"She doesn't care about her district. She's done nothing for her district. All she's done is to harm her district [and] harm her followers."
NYPD union leader sides with ICE against de Blasio over ‘sanctuary’-tied murder: ‘He owns this’ (Fox 01/17/2020)
•
"The mayor can say what he wants to say — he owns this. He should step up and say these are his policies, he owns it."

•
"A lot of these guys are repeat offenders, they are violent offenders and these cops are out there day after day putting their lives on the line and it's got to be incredibly frustrating for them to arrest these guys, knowing they're here illegally, knowing that ICE could get them off the streets and three weeks later they're arresting them again for a more dangerous crime or a more heinous crime."

•
"If you're going to have a sanctuary city policy and you know it's going to result in people going back out to the street and committing more crimes, at least own it, at least stand up and say 'yeah that's our policy,'"

•
"Own it, don't sit there and try to push the blame onto someone else — it's disgusting."
DHS boss blasts NYC for springing illegal immigrant now held on murder: ‘Preventable tragedy’ (Fox 01/17/2020)
•
"It's a completely preventable tragedy. Had they honored the [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detainer this would never have happened."

•
"So if they'd cooperated with ICE officials, the individual would never have been let out, wouldn't have committed this crime and we wouldn't even be talking about this."

•
ICE had issued a federal immigration detainer on Khan in November when he was previously arrested on assault and weapons charges.

•
The NYPD ignored the detainer and Khan was released.

•
"What this does, the only sanctuary it provides is to criminals."

•
"It makes those communities less safe, it also makes ICE and law enforcement officials less safe so instead of picking up an individual in a confined jail setting, they have to go into communities to knock on doors and the like."

•
"It's very, very dangerous once jurisdictions and politicians put politics above public safety. We're trying to do everything we can to battle that, but it is an uphill battle."
Mark Levin slams Democratic hypocrisy on Trump impeachment, warns Republican 'weak links' against voting for witnesses (Fox 01/17/2020)
•
"What did Nancy Pelosi say when the Red Chinese military was spreading millions of dollars around to the Clinton campaign, to the DNC, and all the rest? — She didn't say a damn thing."

•
Levin noted there was no call from Democrats for a special counsel like Robert Mueller, and the media did not express major interest.

•
... pointed to allegations from the 1980s that then-Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., may have been in contact with the Soviet KGB in order to try to stop the re-election of then-President Ronald Reagan.

•
... pointed out the GAO has been silent on the Bidens, despite the fact their claims against Trump closely mirror former Vice President Joe Biden's videotaped recollection of threatening to withhold Congressionally-approved monies for Ukraine unless the country's top prosecutor was fired.
GOP Rep. Mast silences Dems on Soleimani killing with one question (INN 01/16/2020)
•
"Some people might call this rhetorical, but I'm not going to ask it as rhetorical: there's a number of my colleagues still remaining here. I am more than willing to yield to any of my colleagues that want to answer this question: If you walk out this hallway, and you take a right, and another right, and another right, you're going to come to several beautiful walls that have the names of our fallen service members from the war on terror. And I would ask, can any of you provide me one name on that wall that doesn't justify killing Soleimani? I've got two minutes and thirty seconds. I'll be more than happy to sit here and wait. Somebody provide me with a name on that wall that does not justify his killing|."

•
"I will note that there was no response of one time offered that did not justify the killing of Soleimani."
Kellyanne Conway: Lev Parnas is a 'proven liar,' 'nobody needs any help beating Joe Biden' (Fox 01/16/2020)
•
"The idea that you need to investigate the Bidens to defeat Joe Biden ... Have you seen this man when he tries to put a sentence together on a debate stage or in front of voters?"

•
"Nobody needs any help beating Joe Biden..."

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Sen. Marsha Blackburn: It's not Senate's job to 'expand' the impeachment case (Fox 01/16/2020)
•
"It is not our job to expand the impeachment. It is our job to review what they have sent forward, and that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to do it in an expedient matter. We're going to be fair to the president, and to the process, and we're going to get this behind us."

•
"We will pass a resolution of how we're going to proceed," she stated. "And, bear in mind ... impeachment is a noun. The impeaching process took place in the House. If they wanted to call these witnesses they could have called them."

•
"They have taken one of the most serious processes in the Constitution and they are politicizing it, and they have had this as a partisan political impeachment from day one."
NYC’s sanctuary city policy under fire after freed illegal immigrant allegedly murders 92-year-old (Fox 01/16/2020)
•
... an illegal immigrant, who was released from NYPD custody in November despite a plea from federal immigration officials to hold him, is alleged to have gone on to sexually assault and murder a 92-year-old woman.

•
"There has been a complete breakdown of law & order in New York City. NYC proudly passed sanctuary city laws & bragged about it for months. But now they, & more importantly, the citizens of NYC are facing the deadly consequences of the sanctuary policies."

•
... lay half-dressed in 32-degree weather, conscious but "incoherent" at 2 a.m. She was taken to a hospital, where she died from injuries that included a broken spine.

•
"New York City's sanctuary policies continue to threaten the safety of all residents of the five boroughs, as they repeatedly protect criminal aliens who show little regard for the laws of this nation."

•
"In New York City alone, hundreds of arrestees are released each month with pending charges and/or convictions to return back into the communities where they committed their crimes, instead of being transferred into the custody of ICE."

•
"Clearly the politicians care more about criminal illegal aliens than the citizens they are elected to serve and protect."

•
The NYPD initially told the Post that it "did not receive an ICE detainer" regarding Khan — leading ICE to take the extraordinary step of posting the fax confirmation sheet proving that the request was made.

•
"It is the height of hypocrisy for NYC to blame ICE for this tragic crime. The mayor & police chief have continually celebrated that they don't honor ICE detainers, & to deflect the criticism for this completely preventable murder is incredibly disingenuous & shameful."

•
"ICE could've wallpapered the precinct with detainers & #NYPD would still not have honored them."

•
Mayor Bill de Blasio then defended the policy, going so far as to double down and claim it makes New Yorkers safer.

•
"The Trump administration's scare tactics destroy trust in law enforcement."

•
"The day our police ask for immigration status is the day people stop reporting crimes & sharing information. It's the day we stop being the safest big city in America. We won't let that happen."

•
"Tell me Mr. Mayor: What are you going to tell [Fuerte's] family? ‘I could have prevented your loved one's rape & murder but I decided to provide sanctuary to criminal aliens instead.'"

•
"It's time to publicly call out those who have put politics over public safety, those who make our communities less secure, who create safe havens in which criminal aliens and gangs are allowed to flourish and can victimize innocent people with impunity."
Trump blasts Apple over its refusal to unlock Pensacola shooter’s iPhones (Fox 01/15/2020)
•
"We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements. They will have to step up to the plate and help our great Country, NOW! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."

•
"We have asked Apple for help in unlocking the shooter's phones," said Attorney General William Barr...

•
"So far, Apple has not given any substantive assistance. We call on Apple and other technology companies to help us find a solution so that we can better protect the lives of American people and prevent future attacks."

•
"We have always maintained there is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys," Apple said, in its statement.

•
"Backdoors can also be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers. Today, law enforcement has access to more data than ever before in history, so Americans do not have to choose between weakening encryption and solving investigations. We feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our country and our users' data."

•
"A federal judge has authorized the Department of Justice to access the contents of the dead terrorist's phones. Apple designed these phones and implemented their encryption. It's a simple, ‘front-door' request: will Apple help us get into the shooter's phones or not?" said Kerri Kupec, director of the DOJ Office of Public Affairs, in response to Apple's statement.

•
This is not the first time that Trump has stepped into an iPhone security row.

•
In 2016, the then-presidential hopeful called for a boycott of Apple products over the tech giant's refusal to comply with a judge's order to help hack the phone of a shooter in the deadly San Bernardino terror attack.

•
The FBI eventually broke into the San Bernardino gunman's iPhone without Apple's help.
Ted Cruz says outcome of Senate impeachment trial will be 'acquittal,' not dismissal (Fox 01/14/2020)
•
"Dismissal throws the case out without reaching a verdict."

•
"We're going to reach a verdict, and the verdict is going to be acquittal. The verdict is going to be not guilty because on the face of it, the articles of impeachment don't meet the constitutional standard.

•
"That is a much better outcome for the president to be acquitted of these charges than simply a dismissal."

•
"I think the Senate has decided rather than starting with dismissal, what we're going to do is we're going to allow both sides to present their cases."

•
"And so the order of proceeding is going to be the exact same way the Senate proceeded with the Clinton impeachment trial."

•
"In other words, it will start with opening argument[s] from the House managers and we'll give them a full and fair opportunity to present their case, then it'll move to opening arguments from the White House defense team and unlike how House Democrats did it, we're going to give the president a full and fair opportunity to present his case, to defend himself."

•
... the process "will then move to questions from senators," which will be submitted in writing and asked by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who would preside over the trial.

•
"It's at that point then that I think the debates will happen about whether or not to dismiss the case or to vote a final verdict then or whether to take up witnesses and I expect a contentious debate and decision probably [in] about two weeks from now when we take that up."

•
"Whether witnesses get called depends on whether there are 51 senators who want witnesses to be called."

•
"My view is, if we call witnesses, it needs to be fair, it needs to be evenhanded, it needs to respect due process. That means if the prosecution gets to call a witness, the defense should come as well."

•
"If the prosecution gets to call [former National Security Adviser] John Bolton, then the president should be able to call [former Vice President Joe Biden's son] Hunter Biden."

•
"It ought to be fair and even and respect due process. That's the way any fair proceeding should be conducted."

•
"The House didn't do that. The House didn't let the minority call witnesses. The House didn't let the White House cross-examine witnesses. Instead, they had a partisan one-sided show trial."
Barr says DOJ was consulted before Soleimani strike as Trump goes on defensive (Fox 01/13/2020)
•
"The Department of Justice was consulted and frankly I don't think it was a close call."

•
"I believe the president clearly had the authority to act as he did on numerous different bases."

•
"The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was "imminent" or not, & was my team in agreement. The answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesn't really matter because of his horrible past!"

•
"When Democrats try to defend him, it's a disgrace to our country. They can't do that."

•
"And let me tell you, it's not working politically very well for them. We killed the number one terrorist in the world, Soleimani, and it should have been done 20 years ago."
Jersey City kosher market shooters planned attack for months, investigators reveal (Fox 01/13/2020)
•
Investigators also found a bomb in the couple's van that could have sprayed shrapnel fragments "five football fields long."

•
The couple had expressed hatred of Jews and law enforcement in notes left at the grocery shooting scene and in online posts.

•
The suspects had been linked to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a militant group whose fringe members believe they're descendants of the ancient Israelites, and who have been known to rail against white people and Jews.

•
Barricaded in the kosher store, Anderson and Graham were killed after a lengthy gun battle with the police that sent the sound of gunfire booming for hours through the neighborhood in New Jersey's second-largest city and across the street from a school.
Texas man with license to carry shoots, kills suspected robber at home cookout (Fox 01/13/2020)
•
The three unidentified suspects approached the front yard where guests were socializing and attempted to rob them at gunpoint. Two of the suspects had handguns.

•
An unnamed man, who was a licensed handgun carrier visiting the residence, drew his weapon and shot one suspect.

•
The two other suspects escaped and remain at-large.

•
The wounded suspect was rushed to a hospital, where he later died.

•
The 25-year-old man who shot the robbery suspect was released after an interview with detectives.
Sen. Tom Cotton says threat of future Soleimani attacks looks different to soldiers than politicians (Fox 01/12/2020)
•
"The question of whether the attack is imminent or not ... looks very different if you're a soldier sitting in Iraq than if you're some comfortable senator sitting behind armed guards in Washington D.C.."

•
"If you've got a chance to take a mastermind like Qassem Soleimani off the battlefield, you take it."
Trump accuses ‘unhinged’ Democrats of 'defending the life' of Iran's Soleimani (Fox 01/11/2020)
•
"Where have the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats gone when they have spent the last 3 days defending the life of Qassem Soleimani, one of the worst terrorists in history and the father of the roadside bomb? He was also looking to do big future damage! Dems are ‘unhinged,'"

•
"The radical left Democrats have expressed outrage over the termination of this horrible terrorist. Instead, they should be outraged by Soleimani's savage crimes and the fact that his countless victims were denied justice for so long."
Progressive group under fire for taunting Trump by calling violent Baghdad protests his 'Benghazi' (Fox 01/09/2020)
•
VoteVets, a veterans group that helps progressive candidates seek public office, used the violent demonstrations on Tuesday to knock the president.

•
"Hey @POTUS remember [your] Benghazi rants during 2016? You're about to have your own one unfortunately in Iraq."

•
"Yes, this is just like Benghazi, except um... this time reinforcements were sent. And nobody is blaming it on an obscure YouTube video. And what the hell is a 'veterans org' doing gleefully tweeting about an attack on the US?"

•
"No big deal. Just a 'veterans group' hoping for our troops and embassy personnel to die because Orange Man Bad."

•
"Besides the fact that the ambassador hasn't been murdered & dragged thru the streets, that the protests haven't been blamed on a YouTube video but rather on the violent [demonstrators] themselves & their foreign backers, & that dozens of reinforcements were quickly sent — yep. Same."
Ted Cruz: Media and Dems have 'lost their minds,' act as apologists for Iran (Fox 01/09/2020)
•
"To serve as essentially apologists for the enemy of America, it's really sad."

•
"I get that they don't like Donald Trump. That is not lost on anybody. The media has lost their minds, many congressional Democrats have lost their minds."

•
"Under the catastrophic Obama Iran Nuclear Deal, the United States allowed between $100 billion and $150 billion to flow directly into Iran."

•
"The Obama administration sent $1.7 billion in cash, in unmarked bills, on pallets in the dead of night on a plane flown into Iran..."

•
"Money is fungible and when you flood the Ayatollah — who is chanting 'death to America' — with over $100 billion, in a very real sense that money and the Obama administration allowed to flow into Iran is what helped fund those missiles that were attacking our servicemen and women [on Tuesday] night."
Omar claim of PTSD 'offensive' to US veterans, Indiana congressman says; Squad member responds (Fox 01/09/2020)
•
Rep. Ilhan Omar complained she's "stricken with PTSD" because of recent events in the Middle East."

•
"This is a disgrace and offensive to our nation's veterans who really do have PTSD after putting their life on the line to keep America safe."

•
"And I think every time I hear about ... I hear of conversations around war, I find myself being stricken with PTSD."

•
"And I find peace knowing that I serve with great advocates for peace and people who have shown courage against war."

•
"I survived war as a child and deal with post-traumatic stress disorder — much like many who have served or lived through war."

•
"It's shameful that you as a member of Congress would erase the PTSD of survivors."

•
But Banks doubled down on his comments later Wednesday evening, posting a video that showed Omar and other Democrats giggling in the background as their colleague, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, spoke to reporters about the more than 4,000 U.S. service members killed in Iraq over the years.

•
"Your words and actions at today's press conference reveal your feelings toward our soldiers serving abroad and the video speaks for itself."
The Chicken Littles got everything wrong on Trump and Iran (NYP 01/08/2020)
Trump: Iran missiles fired at US were paid for with money released by Obama administration (Fox 01/08/2020)
•
"The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration."

•
"Iran's hostilities substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013, and they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash."

•
"Instead of saying thank you to the United States, they chanted 'Death to America.'"

•
He went on to say that Iran went on a "terrorist spree" with that money "and created hell in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq."

•
... GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz saying ... "In a very real sense, the missiles that we saw fired at U.S. servicemen and women tonight were paid for by the billions that the Obama administration flooded the Ayatollah with."

•
The cash payment of $1.7 billion, a settlement of a decades-old dispute between the U.S. and Iran — was paid in cash, with a planeload of $400 million delivered to Tehran on Jan. 17 2016, the same day Iran agreed to release four American prisoners.

•
A remaining $1.3 billion was reportedly paid out within weeks of that first payment.

•
The $150 billion, meanwhile, refers to the estimated value of Iranian assets that had been frozen abroad in financial institutions as part of international sanctions.

•
That money was unfrozen by all countries as part of the Iran deal.

•
Trump called for other countries to break away from the deal and secure a new one, arguing that the current deal begins to expire soon and "gives Iran a clear and quick path to nuclear breakout."

•
"The time has come for the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China to recognize this reality."

•
"They must now break away from the remnants of the Iran deal or JCPOA. And we must all work together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place."

•
See related Famous Last Words (Michael Ramirez, 07/14/2015) cartoon from World picture album

•
See related I've Got Your Back (Glenn McCoy, 08/06/2015) cartoon from World picture album
War Powers Resolution vote against Trump is pointless – He has right to strike bad guys (Fox 01/08/2020)
•
Rather than engaging in the partisan preening of pointless WPA bickering, Democrats should be joining with Republicans to present a unified American front, in support of a president who is trying to prevent all-out war with Tehran, not provoke it.
Iranian sleeper cells in US a 'real threat,' but attack on our soil would be 'new 9/11' (Fox 01/08/2020)
•
"So, what's important now is [if] the Iranians want to strike back, they know we will take a disproportionate attack against them."

•
"That is powerful. That is important. And, the American people should sleep much, much, easier knowing that we have somebody in the White House who is willing to take that kind of a step."
Nikki Haley: Democratic leadership, candidates are the only people mourning Soleimani death (Fox 01/07/2020)
•
"You don't see anyone standing up for Iran. You're not hearing any of the Gulf members [states], you're not hearing China, you're not hearing Russia. The only ones that are mourning the loss of Soleimani are Democrat leadership and our Democrat presidential candidates."

•
"No one else in the world [mourns], because they knew that this man had evil [in his] veins. They knew what he was capable of. And they saw the destruction and the lives lost from his hands."

•
"Go tell that to the 608 American families who lost a loved one. Go tell that to the military members who lost a limb. This was something that needed to be done and should be celebrated."

•
"... They thought that they could continue to do their multiple strikes, but when it got to the lives of Americans, the president is never going to allow that to happen ... You could see the Ayatollah crying today, because that was his number one strategist. That was the number one guy that has literally told all of the proxies in all of these countries who to kill, when to kill, how to kill, and that guy's now gone."

•
"Partisan politics should stop when it comes to foreign policy. This is about America United. We need to be completely behind the president [and] what he did, because every one of those countries are watching our news media right now, seeing what everyone is saying."

•
"This is a moment of strength for the United States. It's a moment of strength for President Trump."
Lieberman warns Dems criticizing Soleimani strike: Votes won't back anyone 'who they don't...' (Fox 01/06/2020)
•
"My final warning to my fellow Democrats: be careful what you do — either out of a general feeling of opposition to President Trump or partisanship, thinking about the Democratic primary."

•
"In the end, the American people are not going to vote for anyone for president who they don't think is willing to use American force to protect our security."

•
... Lieberman called the airstrike "morally, constitutionally and strategically correct and urged Democrats to "get together across party lines."

•
"We're at another turning point here. What President Trump did was bold, unconventional. It would be natural if there were questions about it but it's not natural that all the questions are coming from Democrats and all the praise from Republicans."

•
"That tells me that this partisanship that has disabled our government is now standing in the way of us getting together across party lines even about the killing of a man who is responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans."
Pete Hegseth fires back at AOC for 'War Crime' tweet: 'You've lost your mind' (Fox 01/06/2020)
•
"You may not like President Trump, you may have voted for the impeachment in the House, but if you're someone like ... Alexandria Ocasio Cortez saying that a tweet from the President threatening the Iranians is a war crime, you've lost your mind."

•
"I don't care about Iranian cultural sites. If they could, if you understand the Islamic Republic of Iran, if they had the power, they would destroy every single one of our cultural sites and build a mosque on top of it."

•
"Soleimani is dead. This guy has exploited terrorism for that regime for forty years and the fact that Democrats in this country can't take a pause to say this is a good thing, now let's figure out how to prevent an Iranian bomb ... is shameful."
Sally Pipes: ObamaCare turns 10 – decade of failure is nothing to celebrate (Fox 01/06/2020)
Gov. Huckabee reacts to Dems slamming Trump for threats against Iran: 'Why can’t the left...' (Fox 01/05/2020)
•
"This goon killed over 600 Americans directly responsible for tens of thousands, if not millions of deaths of Iranians and other people across the world."

•
"And for the Democrats and the media to be just mourning his death like he's some kind of hero, I mean, this guy makes Charles Manson look like a Franciscan monk for heaven's sakes."

•
"What was he [Soleimani] doing in Iraq driving around in a car from the airport? Was he cruising by to get a Sonic burger? No, he was there to carry on what he had already started and that was to attack the U.S. Embassy."

•
"The president ought to be applauded. And I can't imagine what's wrong with people if they want a country to be a loser country, a patsy, a country that always apologizes for being strong, then vote for these Democrats."

•
"But I'm just beyond offended for the simple reason that when Barack Obama took out Osama bin Laden, we all celebrated it, Republican, Democrat, it was an American celebration to get rid of this guy that launched 9/11."

•
"Nancy Pelosi and all the Democrats were whining because they didn't get notified. Can you have seen telling Adam Schiff in advance? He would have held a press conference and even given the coordinates of where the attack was going to take place."

•
"These people aren't trustworthy."

•
"But more than that, he did notify them in the 48 hours that was required."

•
"And I just want to mention that they would not have been happy even had he brought them into the Situation Room at the White House and let them see it all live. They would have said, ‘Well, the video quality wasn't as good as the last cartoon we saw.'"

•
"These people are crazy. I'm sorry. But they're crazy. They've lost their minds."

•
"They cannot accept anything the president does, even when it is in their and the Americans' best interest."
Rep. John Ratcliffe slams Ilhan Omar, Dems criticizing Soleimani strike (Fox 01/05/2020)
•
"Think about what she said when 3,000 Americans were killed by terrorists on 9/11."

•
"When the United States kills a terrorist, her response is, she's outraged at assassinating a foreign leader. This wasn't a foreign leader. This was a designated terrorist," he added.

•
"It may be a new year, and it may be a new decade, but it's the same vindictive progressive socialist mob that wrongfully impeached the president at the end of last year and they're starting... where they left off."
An Iranian expatriate's letter to President Trump (INN 01/03/2020)
•
As a proud Persian-American, please accept my infinite gratitude for your valiant and courageous act of eliminating Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force.

•
He was one of the most dangerous individuals in the region and responsible for taking many American lives.

•
The best predictor of the future is the past.

•
The Mullahs are proven, vicious mass killers. The religious fanatic mullahs' record is one of deception, dissimulation, treachery, violence and much more.

•
These Quran-trained and directed agents of a wrathful Allah can never be trusted.

•
They are expert schemers. They have been in the business of scheming for centuries.

•
They have perfected the art of deception, doubletalk, double-dealing, and treachery.

•
My advice to your administration is, do not let your guard down and make sure that no one lulls you into a false sense of security.

•
If the mullahs get their hands on the bomb, they will make use of it in numerous ways.
FLASHBACK: Charles Krauthammer compares Iran policies of Trump, 'supine' Obama (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
"This regime — the Iranians and the Quds Force — dedicated in their ideology from day one to the expulsion of the influence of the United States, the dominance of American allies and the eradication of Israel, that's the pillar of the worldview."

•
"What [Obama] is telling the Iranians is, 'I am exerting no leverage over you,'"

•
"The Iranians are so confident about how supine Obama is on this that they stick a finger in his eye and announce it publicly."

•
"What the Trump administration is doing is saying those days are over."

•
"We are not afraid of you doing something to the nuclear deal. We are going to respond point-by-point to the violations in terms of aggression in the region."
Impeachment impasse deepens as McConnell rejects Pelosi's bid to shape trial: ‘Their turn is over’ (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking from the chamber's floor Friday, rejected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's efforts to shape a pending impeachment trial as "fantasy" — leaving the process at a standstill as lawmakers return from the holiday recess.

•
"Their turn is over. They've done enough damage. It's the Senate's turn now to render sober judgment."

•
But he stressed that the chamber cannot hold a trial unless and until the House of Representatives transmits the two articles of impeachment adopted last month.

•
McConnell called Pelosi's effort to "hand-design" the proceedings in the Senate a "non-starter" and a "fantasy."

•
... McConnell charged that Democrats' "Trump derangement syndrome" has escalated into a partisan "fever," while accusing his counterparts of taking positions that contradict their actions during the Clinton impeachment.

•
"It appears that one symptom of Trump derangement syndrome is also a bad case of amnesia," he quipped.

•
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said overnight that he plans to introduce a measure Monday to dismiss the "bogus impeachment" entirely.

•
"If Dems won't proceed with trial, bogus articles should be dismissed and @realDonaldTrump fully cleared."

•
"The same people who spent weeks screaming that impeachment was so urgent ... now decided it could wait indefinitely while they check the political winds and look for some new talking points."
Soleimani's takedown fuels new partisan warfare on Capitol Hill (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
"How significant is this? We killed the most powerful man in Iran short of the Ayatollah. He was the right fist of the Ayatollah and we took the Ayatollah's arm off," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said...

•
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said ... the strike was to prevent an "imminent attack" by Soleimani's forces and sent a clear message to Tehran.

•
"I think the Iranian leadership understands President Trump will take action. ... We made very clear that these responses would be swift and decisive," he said. "We have now demonstrated that."

•
"This was a pre-emptive attack to let everyone know from North Korea, just anyone else, that if you come after Americans on President Trump's watch — you do so at your peril."

•
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Soleimani got what he "richly deserved."

•
"Qassem Soleimani masterminded Iran's reign of terror for decades, including the deaths of hundreds of Americans."

•
"Tonight, he got what he richly deserved, and all those American soldiers who died by his hand also got what they deserved: justice. America is safer now after Soleimani's demise."

•
... Graham pushed back on calls by lawmakers for more information ahead of time: "The last group of people you want to talk to about this is Democrats in Congress and Republicans in Congress."

•
"To all those Democrats criticizing the President, I was aware of what his options were — they were about to unleash holy hell on our people in Iraq and throughout the region and the president decisively took action."

•
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, described complaints by Omar and others as "absurd," noting that the attack happened in Iraq after an attack on the U.S. in Iraq, where the U.S. has "plenty of authorization to be operating in."

•
"These members of Congress know that, or maybe they don't know that ... and all this hand-wringing certainly didn't occur during the Obama administration and I wish they would leave the hypocrisy aside, leave the partisanship aside."
John Bolton congratulates those involved in 'decisive' airstrike that killed Iranian general (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
"Congratulations to all involved in eliminating Qassem Soleimani. Long in the making, this was a decisive blow against Iran's malign Quds Force activities worldwide. Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran."

•
On New Year's Eve, Bolton tweeted the attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad was "straight from Iran's playbook in 1979" that showed Iranian control of Shiite militia groups and not "Iraqi anti-Americanism."

•
"We must protect our citizens from Iranian belligerence."

•
... Iran needs to stop arming, training and financing militia groups and shouldn't "even think about attacking American targets again."
Bill Gates calls for higher taxes on ultra-wealthy Americans (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
"That's why I'm for a tax system in which, if you have more money, you pay a higher percentage in taxes. And I think the rich should pay more than they currently do, and that includes Melinda and me."

•
"The wealthiest generally get only a tiny percentage of their income from a salary; most of it comes from profits on investments, such as stock or real estate, taxed at 20 percent if they're held for more than a year."

•
"That's the clearest evidence I've seen that the system isn't fair. I don't see any reason to favor wealth over work the way we do today."

•
"Very wealthy people often have large investments they've held for long periods, and if those investments aren't sold or traded, the money is never taxed. That doesn't make sense."

•
"I've paid over $10 billion in taxes. I've paid more than anyone in taxes. If I had to have paid $20 billion, it's fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math about what I have left."

•
In his year-end letter, Gates addressed criticism that he should willingly pay more money to the government than the law requires.

•
"The answer is that simply leaving it up to people to give more than the government asks for is not a scalable solution."

•
"A vibrant economic system depends on setting expectations for who pays how much."
Oliver North: Soleimani's death is 'a good thing for every American and every freedom-loving person' (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
"The bottom line of it is, Soleimani has been a purveyor of terrorism for the Iranians for better than a decade."

•
"More than any other individual since Usama Bin Laden ... He's killed more Americans than anybody else since then."

•
"The remarkable thing of it is the intelligence that's been collected to find out where he is, where he's going, and when he's going there."

•
"One of the things that our mainstream media constantly does is it berates our president for denigrating the people who are involved in our intelligence collection."

•
"The reality of it is that he knows more about it than the swamp or any of those 'never Trumpers' ever imagined."

•
... added that Soleimani's death will "reduce the number of terror attacks dramatically."

•
"Soleimani is no more and that's a good thing for every American and every freedom-loving person."
US forces, State Department, Trump 'on high alert' after Iranian general Soleimani's death (Fox 01/03/2020)
•
"This was [a response to] Iranian aggression against us. This was Iranian strategy, Iranian money, Iranian proxies that put American lives in jeopardy and the president very quickly acted."

•
"I've been able to confirm tonight ... our military, our State Department, our president, everybody is on high alert. Every option is, I was told, 'on the table' and that American interests in Iraq and the region will be protected."

•
"Taking out this top general is ... right up there, in my view, with taking out Baghdadi in terms of the importance of stopping Iranian aggression inside of Iraq."

•
"I will say the big headline is this is a huge victory for American intelligence, a huge victory for our military. A huge victory for the State Department and a huge victory and total leadership by the president. It is the opposite of what happened in Benghazi."
Political reaction to Baghdad rocket attack killing Iranian general (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
The Pentagon confirmed the attack was ordered by President Trump.

•
"At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization."

•
"What escalated the situation was when Iran's militias killed an American a few days ago."

•
"This is very simple: General Soleimani is dead because he was an evil bastard who murdered Americans."

•
"The President made the brave and right call, and Americans should be proud of our servicemembers who got the job done.

•
"Tehran is on edge — the mullahs have already slaughtered at least a thousand innocent Iranians — and before they lash out further they should know that the U.S. military can bring any and all of these IRGC butchers to their knees."

•
"Facing repeated #IRGC attacks the U.S. & @potus exercised admirable restraint while setting clear red lines & the consequences for crossing them #Iran's Quds Force chose the path of escalation They are entirely to blame for bringing about the dangerous moment now before us."

•
"The days of rolling US senior leaders at the negotiating table & killing US soldiers on the battlefield w/impunity are over. If reports are true & Iran Quds Force commander Qassim Soleimani has been killed, this would be very necessary justice served."

•
"Tonight, he got what he richly deserved, and all those American soldiers who died by his hand also got what they deserved: justice. America is safer now after Soleimani's demise."
Normal people don't want criminal justice reform. They want criminal justice enforcement (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
"It's hard to see who benefits from it except the people getting out of jail."

•
"Democratic presidential candidates have made it clear that if they take power in Washington, this fall, they'll make the rest of the country every bit as inviting for criminals."

•
"Criminal justice reform has been one of the chief obsessions of our ruling class."

•
"Eliminating bail is just one prong of the offensive that they are waging. They're also demanding shorter prison sentences, fewer cops in 'overpoliced neighborhoods,' whatever that is. Voting rights for violent criminals in prison."

•
See related Stop Committing Crime (Michael Ramirez, 09/04/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
Hustler Magazine sends graphic Christmas card to lawmakers depicting Trump's assassination (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
"Here's all you need to know about the radical Left. A young staffer of mine opened this in a stack of holiday mail today. Just imagine if a conservative had distributed such a disgusting and hateful piece about a Democrat..."

•
See related Which One? (Mike Lester, 06/13/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Happy New Year criminals, and welcome to New York (INN 01/02/2020)
Rep. Kinzinger swipes at 'blame America first crowd,' ex-Obama aide in response to Iraq... (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
"I think a proportional response like we've been seeing so far is exactly what Iran doesn't want to see. Because it doesn't turn the world against us, it really doesn't give ammo to the 'blame America' crowd, and it does impact Iran's standing."
Marc Thiessen: Trump's Iran strategy is working. Pompeo right to call out ex-Obama team members (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
"I'll be straight up with you, you have folks who served in the previous administration who are telling the Iranian leaders today, ‘Just hang on. President Trump will lose in the election in November and we'll go back to appeasement. America will write you a big check, we'll underwrite your terror campaign around the world, we'll give you a clear pathway to a nuclear weapon system. Just wait until the Trump administration is finished.'"

•
This is outrageous. When President Trump came to office, Iran was on the march across the Middle East, its expansionism fueled by cash it received from the Obama nuclear deal.

•
"Hezbollah has fewer dollars today. The Iraqi Shia militias have fewer dollars today. The Iranian regime is having to make choices in their defense budget for 2020. The world hasn't actually seen them yet, they're coming. If you're an Iranian deciding to participate in the Iranian military, you should be prepared to take a pay cut."

•
The Trump administration is succeeding in its efforts to destabilize the regime in Tehran. For Obama officials to actively undermine those efforts is disgraceful.

•
"We have increased activity in the Strait of Hormuz. We have announced forced posture changes in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There are a handful of things that we have done that I know the Iranians understand have increased risks should they decide that they want to act out again and put American lives, American assets or those of our friends and partners in the region at risk."

•
Unfortunately, our deterrence posture is not working as well as our sanctions. The Iranians are getting away with increasingly bold attacks on the U.S. and its interests.

•
First, they attacked Japanese and Norwegian oil tankers; then, they shot down an unmanned U.S. drone; then they attacked Saudi oil facilities; then attacked a U.S. military base and killing a U.S. citizen and injuring four American service members; and now they have escalated again, deploying a mob to overrun our embassy in Baghdad, which is sovereign U.S. territory. The U.S. needs to impose serious costs on Iran for those actions, or they will continue to escalate.
New York lawmaker blasts new bail laws as dangerous to communities: 'There's no common sense' (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
... a hate crime suspect was arrested for the third time in one week and released without bail under new criminal justice reform laws...

•
"Because we have to restore common sense and you're not seeing it here at all. What you're doing is now you are posing a danger to the community."

•
... Harris, 30, has more than a dozen total arrests to her name. She was released without bail on Saturday in advance of the new "soft-on-crime" reform laws, only to be arrested again on Sunday for allegedly punching a woman unprovoked.

•
She was freed on Monday after pleading not guilty to her crimes.

•
"Christmas Eve you had a hit-and-run of a mother of three who was killed, you had an NYPD officer who was sucker-punched, and all these criminals [are] being released out without bail back into our streets and back in our communities."

•
... there used to be judicial discretion in cases like Harris's where judges could determine on a case-by-case basis whether or not the defendant was a "serious offender," posed a danger to the community, or were potentially a flight risk.

•
"What happened [was] the legislature overreached its authority, stepped into [the] judiciary, stripped from judges to determine [that]," he explained. "And, that could no longer be the case. That's a huge issue."

•
... there is a one-party rule in blue states like New York and California — eliminating compromise or a "counter" to Democrats' positions.

•
"That's why you have to start remembering the law-abiding middle-class residents — standing up for them, their values — not criminals."

•
See related For which One of Us? (Sean Delonas, 07/06/2005) cartoon from USA picture album
Benghazi team member John Tiegen: Media 'not even close' with Iraq-Benghazi comparisons (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
"I kind of laughed when someone said that, ‘Oh, this is Trump's Benghazi,'"

•
Tiegen said that the incident was not at all comparable to the 2012 terrorist attack against the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that left four people dead, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

•
"Hey @POTUS remember [your] Benghazi rants during 2016? You're about to have your own one unfortunately in Iraq," VoteVets wrote in the now-deleted tweet.

•
The "Benghazi rants" was in reference to Trump's repeated attacks against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her handling of the matter.

•
"To sit there and say it was just like Benghazi? There was no ambassador there and there was no consulate [and], technically, no personnel at all because they all got evacuated prior to the protesters getting there and that's the big difference between this administration and the last administration.

•
"At least this one took a stance before it actually was coming," said Tiegen, a Marine veteran who was working as a security contractor protecting the CIA annex in Benghazi when it was attacked in 2012.

•
... 100 Marines were being sent to the embassy to bolster security after Tuesday events.
Trump winning, Democrats whining — president achieved in 2019 despite obstruction (Fox 01/01/2020)
•
While Democrats spent the year of 2019 obstructing, President Trump spent the year achieving.

•
In 2019, the president continued to make good on his promise to rip up NAFTA and negotiate and push a new, modern, America First trade deal through the halls of Congress.

•
In addition to a Japan trade deal that would bring in $7 billion in new agricultural trade, Trump completed a phase-one China deal.

•
China agreed to an additional $200 billion in U.S. purchases in addition to rectifying much of the unevenness and unfairness that has characterized the U.S.-China relationship for decades.

•
These landmark breakthroughs on trade come on top of the hottest economy in modern history, which is making gains for all Americans.

•
Trump has created 7.1 million new jobs, including one million manufacturing and construction jobs, reversing the trend during the Obama years when 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost.

•
Paychecks, meanwhile, are growing at the fastest pace in a decade and twice as fast for low- and middle-income Americans, all while median household income has hit a record high of $65,084.

•
Furthermore, the poverty rate is at its lowest point since 2007 as 6.2 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps.

•
There is simply no denying the continued success of the Trump economy.

•
Nor is there any denying the historic progress made on issues which were stalled for decades, issues like paid family leave for federal workers.

•
This noted achievement comes just a year after Trump made significant progress on criminal justice reform, signing into law the First Step Act...

•
Beyond these key marks of progress for the Trump administration came the continued construction of a barrier on our southern border, a record 187 judges confirmed by the Senate, the reversal of onerous Obamacare taxes, and a 3.1 percent pay raise for our troops.

•
Democrats, for their part, have chosen to go the way of reckless obstruction, pursuing the first partisan impeachment in history.

•
While we do not yet know the next bizarre conspiracy theory of the left, we do know what voters care about: the issues, as the economy, health care, and immigration...

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Internal Senate memo highlights Biden admin efforts to tie highway funding to woke priorities (Fox 11/21/2023)
House approves bill slashing Pete Buttigieg's salary to $1 (Fox 11/08/2023)
•
"Pete Buttigieg doesn't do his job. It's all about fake photo ops and taxpayer-funded private jet trip to accept LGBTQ awards for him. I'm happy my amendment passed, but he doesn't deserve a single penny."
Roberts scolds liberal justices for demonizing rulings they don't like: 'Disturbing feature' of dissents (Fox 06/30/2023)
White House claims Republicans 'literally refuse to act' on immigration as GOP preps vote on major border bill (Fox 05/10/2023)
•
"Most of the problems we're seeing at the border were created by Joe Biden himself, starting on his very first day in office as president when he sent a message throughout the world that America's border is open by doing things like halting construction of the wall, reinstating catch and release, terminating the Remain in Mexico policy, the Northern Triangle agreements."

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See related Opening the Floodgates (Michael Ramirez, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
In Terror Of Michelle, Biden Gives Susan Rice Broad New Powers (JWR 02/21/2023)
Biden's State of the Union must make amends for woke response to China spy threat (Fox 02/07/2023)
•
We have tired, frightened bureaucrats engaged in woke indoctrination and bureaucratic protection who seem incapable of understanding our enemies, evaluating threats, or effectively defending America.
Rand Paul details 'shocking' growing scandal involving federal 'scam artists' and your paycheck (Fox 02/02/2023)
McCarthy confirms Schiff, Swalwell, Omar will lose committee seats (Fox 01/11/2023)
Cruz warns DOJ against trying to 'police the speech of Americans' (Fox 10/11/2022)
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"This request by advocacy organizations to have the federal government stifle critical speech on their behalf would have been unthinkable before your tenure as Attorney General."

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"... parents who voice their concerns about the health and safety of their children, or express opinions on matters of public policy more generally, are engaged in core First Amendment activity."

•
"If there is a bedrock principle in American self-governance, it is that the federal government has no place in quashing or criminalizing civic discourse."

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"The strength of our democracy is dependent on the ability of all citizens to peacefully participate in public debate without fear of persecution from your agency or any other."
GOP lawmakers demand answers from John Kerry over ‘effectively outsourcing’ US policy-making (Fox 09/30/2022)
Senate confirms Biden nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court (Fox 04/07/2022)
•
The vote was bipartisan, 53-47, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah voting for Jackson.

•
Republicans who opposed Jackson did so on several fronts: her dodging of questions on whether she favors court packing; her inability to define a "woman," insufficient explanation of her judicial philosophy her "soft on crime" sentencing record, including those of several child pornography offenders.
McConnell memo outlines case for Republicans to vote against Judge Jackson’s 'elevation to the Supreme Court' (Fox 04/05/2022)
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"Judge Jackson's prior judicial experience and her inability to answer basic questions throughout the confirmation process underscore why Leader McConnell announced that he could not support her nomination to the high court."

•
The memo criticizes Jackson's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on three fronts: her dodging of questions on whether she favors court packing; her inability to explain her judicial philosophy and her "soft on crime" sentencing record, including those of several child pornography offenders.
Graham rails against Dems at committee meeting in voicing opposition to Jackson nomination (Fox 04/04/2022)
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"I'm inclined to vote for judges of the other side, but this choice of Judge Jackson was really embraced by the most radical people in the Democratic movement to the exclusion of everybody else. After four days of hearings and hearings, I now know why the left likes her so much."

•
"We live in America today where your ideology is held against you if you're a conservative, and when you're a liberal we're supposed to embrace everything about you and not ask hard questions. That's not the world we're going to live in."
Dem senators sound alarm over reports Biden administration will end Title 42 border policy (Fox 03/31/2022)
Graham flips on Ketanji Brown Jackson, will oppose her Supreme Court nomination (Fox 03/31/2022)
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"I oppose and will vote against the nomination of Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court. My decision is based upon her record of judicial activism, flawed sentencing methodology regarding child pornography cases, and a belief that Judge Jackson will not be deterred by the plain meaning of the law when it comes to liberal causes."

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"I find Judge Jackson to be a person of exceptionally good character, respected by her peers, and someone who has worked hard to achieve her current position."

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"However, her record is overwhelming in its lack of a steady judicial philosophy and a tendency to achieve outcomes in spite of what the law requires or common sense would dictate."
Sen. Cotton blasts Biden for 'astonishing' number of migrant encounters: He wants to break his own record (Fox 03/30/2022)
House GOP pushes Wray for transparency on FBI misconduct in probing politicians, religious groups, journalists (Fox 03/27/2022)
•
While the FBI has faced increased scrutiny in recent years for alleged politicized investigations into former President Donald Trump, the problems apparently are much broader and likely go beyond the report...
Biden approval ratings plummet amid war and inflation fears in new public opinion poll (Fox 03/27/2022)
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See related Can\\\'t Stop! (Mike Shelton, 12/03/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Judge Ketanjii Brown Jackson plays politics and pleads ignorance when questioned about judicial philosophy (Fox 03/25/2022)
•
Judge Jackson's flurry of philosophy-hedging rhetoric appears to be an attempt to make her all things to all people.

•
But coupled with her record before her nomination and repeatedly pleading ignorance during her hearings, we are left with grave doubt that she would be a Supreme Court justice we could count on to faithfully interpret the Constitution.
State Dept sued by watchdog after withholding John Kerry docs until after next presidential election (Fox 03/24/2022)
Sen. Scott on Judge Jackson's confirmation hearing: 'The stench of the hypocrisy from the left is undeniable' (Fox 03/24/2022)
•
"We are going to focus on how does did she rule in the past and why were some of those rulings overturned by a higher court."

•
"We are going to focus on making sure that America's Supreme Court gets the justice they deserve. This is not Biden's Supreme Court. This is not the progressive Supreme Court. This is America's Supreme Court."

•
"I can tell you that Republicans will dig into her record, but we're interested in who she is as a judge not what she looks like. ...unlike the Democrats who literally want to assassinate the character, including of our Supreme Court justice Coney Barrett."

•
"What we have to do is make sure that she answers legitimate questions and every single question we ask about her philosophy is important."

•
"Every question she gets on her cases, those questions are important. We should never deny the American people the information they need to see to know who is coming to the court or why we are going to deny her a seat on the court."
Biden Fed nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin withdraws board candidacy (Fox 03/15/2022)
House passes American COMPETES Act to counter Chinese manufacturing (Fox 02/04/2022)
•
The legislation includes a $52 billion "chips" fund to bring semiconductor fabrication back to the United States and address supply chain disruptions exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and a $45 billion investment to ensure critical goods are made in the United States rather than relying on China.
Republicans tell Biden to fire Ron Klain, president's 'guy behind the curtain' (Fox 01/26/2022)
•
"Despite running on an agenda of unity and promising to work with both sides, President Biden has staffed his Cabinet and most senior adviser positions with radical leftists, and the results have been disastrous for hard-working families."

•
"The American people deserve accountability, and the people who made the awful decisions that created these crises should be fired, starting with the chief of staff, who seems to spend more of his day on Twitter criticizing Republicans and stoking divisions rather than working to address any of the crises our country is facing."

•
"It's clear Joe Biden isn't running the show. He ran as a moderate, but the policies he's advocated for as President have been outrageously far left."

•
"If Biden's unpopular first year in office has told us anything, it's that he should immediately reconsider the team pushing this liberal activist agenda to federalize our elections, defund the police, pack the courts, and spend millions of dollars at the expense of the American taxpayer – starting with the mastermind and long-time political operative, Ron Klain."

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"This is Joe Biden's White House and Joe Biden's administration. We've seen how much the president loves to blame others, but when it comes to the total failures of this administration, like skyrocketing inflation, an open border with record illegal immigration, the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and withering American strength on the world stage, Joe Biden has no one to blame but himself."

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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden admin roiled by crises on Afghanistan, border, inflation, COVID – but heads yet to roll (Fox 01/04/2022)
FDIC chair resigns after warning Democrats launching 'hostile takeover' (Fox 01/01/2022)
•
"When I immigrated to this country 30 years ago, I did so with a firm belief in the American system of government."

•
"During my tenure at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the United States Senate, and the FDIC, I have developed a deep appreciation for these venerable institutions and their traditions."

•
"Throughout my tenure, the agency has focused on its fundamental mission to maintain and instill confidence in our banking system while at the same time promoting innovation, strengthening financial inclusion, improving transparency, and supporting community banks and minority depository institutions, including through the creation of the Mission Driven Bank Fund."

•
"This conflict isn't about bank mergers. If it were, board members would have been willing to work with me and the FDIC staff rather than attempt a hostile takeover of the FDIC internal processes, staff and board agenda."
Balanced budget amendment needed to get US fiscal house in order (Fox 12/27/2021)
•
The United States is now running trillion-dollar deficits each and every year, and the U.S. national debt is closing in on $30 trillion...

•
That amount of debt equals almost $230,000 per taxpayer. In 1960, the debt to GDP ratio was around 54%. Now, it is 125%.

•
... neither Democrats nor Republicans have the discipline to regularly balance the budget. Special-interest politics on the left and right make it tough to get our fiscal house in order.

•
What rational person thinks Congress will ever do the hard things required to balance our budget? We have only accomplished that objective a handful of times in the last 50 years...

•
With our national debt nearing $30 trillion, it is clear that there is a structural problem that must be addressed. That is why we need to again push for passing a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) to the Constitution.

•
A balanced budget constitutional amendment provides the best hope of regaining and maintaining fiscal sanity.

•
In their private and business lives, Americans do not get a pass on their pocketbooks. They have to deal with the consequences of overspending. The government on the other hand, has ignored those kinds of rules.

•
In order for a BBA to become law on the federal level, we need a constitutional amendment to be passed by two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Then it would need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

•
Congress came within one vote in the Senate from passing and sending a BBA to the states for ratification in 1995. In the 25 years that have passed, we have added almost $25 trillion to the national debt. ...

•
I believe, now more than ever, the only way Congress will ever really balance the budget is with a constitutional amendment requiring us to do so.

•
It won't solve all our problems, but it will help put our nation on the path to a more sustainable spending path and one that does not burden future generations with our unwillingness to make tough choices today.
White House stands by nominee Saule Omarova, who was arrested in 1995 for 'retail theft' (Fox 11/17/2021)
•
"President Biden's choice for banking regulator is a Marxist academic who wants to destroy the American banking and energy sectors and implement socialism in the United States, proving once again that this White House is beholden to the radical left elements of the Democrat party."

•
In addition to writing about Marxism, she has called the banking industry she would regulate in her potential new job the "quintessential a***** industry," and calling for an end to banking "as we know it," by "the complete migration of demand deposit accounts to the Federal Reserve."

•
Demand deposit accounts are the standard checking and savings accounts most Americans have with private banks.

•
She also said in a recently resurfaced video that she supports the idea of energy industries going "bankrupt" to combat climate change.

•
Biden has nominated other controversial nominees, such as Bureau of Land Management director Tracy Stone-Manning, who was confirmed to her post by the Senate in the face of revelations of her connection to a 1989 eco-terrorism plot.

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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Senate Republicans to formally challenge Biden OSHA vaccine mandate (Fox 11/17/2021)
HHS memo shows department moving to undo Trump-era action aimed at better protecting religious liberty (Fox 11/17/2021)
Biden FCC nominee's reputation as hard left partisan alarms Republicans (Fox 11/11/2021)
•
"Sohn is a deeply divisive pick with a track record of hard left advocacy. Her public animus towards mainstream conservative outlets renders her unfit to serve as a regulator over the communications industry."

•
"It's supposed to be a serious, collegial body with sort of impartial expertise and I think when you have someone highly ideological and comes from an advocacy background, even if she otherwise has the appropriate qualifications, it undermines the idea of an expert agency when you have someone who's known as an advocate."

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"Gigi Sohn is a complete political ideologue who has disdain for conservatives. She would be a complete nightmare for the country when it comes to regulating the public airwaves," Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote...

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"I will do everything in my power to convince colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject this extreme nominee."

•
"Ms. Sohn seems to believe that the state is endorsing conservative speech by allowing cable companies to carry it. She also has suggested using the FCC's power over broadcast licenses to censor conservative outlets."

•
The White House praised Sohn when officially announcing her nomination in October, stating that she has defended broadband access for years and noted she would be the first openly LGBTIQ+ FCC commissioner.
Biden bank regulator Saule Omarova's nomination in jeopardy as she faces trouble in Banking Committee (Fox 10/26/2021)
•
She also has a history writing about Marxism, calling the banking industry she would regulate in her potential new job the "quintessential a***** industry," and calling for an end to banking "as we know it," by "the complete migration of demand deposit accounts to the Federal Reserve."

•
Demand deposit accounts are the standard checking and savings accounts most Americans have with private banks.

•
"It's not every day that we're presented with a nomination for a Lenin scholarship recipient who attended the Moscow State University and wants to end banking as we know it in the United States."

•
"If her nomination advances out of the Banking Committee, it will be an easy ‘no' vote from me. And as we've seen with other flawed nominations from the Biden administration, I think hers would face a similarly uphill battle in the Senate."

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State University thesis on Marxism, which she hasn't yet turned over to the Banking Committee despite requests from Toomey – Omarova dismissed the idea that she could have communist sympathies.

•
"I was in the Soviet Union, where there was no academic freedom, and this was a mandatory assigned topic." ... Notably ... that thesis was on Omarova's CV as recently as 2017, according to Toomey. And Omarova was also a member of a Marxist discussion Facebook group as recently as 2019.

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"There are many, many great Americans who were born and raised behind the Iron Curtain. It is not about where she happens to be from, it's about the views she holds."

•
"I will be shocked if there's Republican support for this nominee... I would hope there would be significant Democrat opposition to someone who is so hostile to free enterprise, so hostile to the idea of private banking."

•
We have serious concerns about her ideas for fundamentally restructuring the nation's banking system which remains the most diverse and competitive in the world."

•
"Her proposals to effectively nationalize America's community banks, end regulatory tailoring based on risk and eliminate the dual banking system are particularly troubling."
McConnell rejects Yellen's debt ceiling appeal, puts onus on Democrats (Fox 09/16/2021)
•
"The Leader repeated to Secretary Yellen what he has said publicly since July: This is a unified Democrat government, engaging in a partisan reckless tax and spending spree. They will have to raise the debt ceiling on their own, and they have the tools to do it."

•
"Let's be clear: With a Democratic President, a Democratic House, and a Democratic Senate, Democrats have every tool they need to raise the debt limit. It is their sole responsibility. Republicans will not facilitate another reckless, partisan taxing and spending spree."
Biden faces crisis of confidence (Fox 09/01/2021)
White House in chaos struggles to keep Biden on time (Fox 08/25/2021)
•
"He made us wait a number of hours and then touted a $5 trillion liberal wishlist that will increase greater inflation and transform our country in the worst way possible."

•
"The most embarrassing part though, was that he refused to take questions, and he turned his back and walked away — an image that has come to define him and his presidency."

•
"He turned his back on our own citizens stranded in Afghanistan, he's turned our back on our allies and partners, he's turned his back on his duties as commander in chief."
US government wants a greater role in how Americans access Internet (Fox 08/11/2021)
Kennedy: They told us it was a real infrastructure bill…It’s not (Fox 08/10/2021)
Jason Chaffetz: Dems' spending spree – here's how the states can take charge of our financial fate (Fox 07/28/2021)
Cruz spars with Agriculture Secretary Vilsack on amnesty bill, call his answers 'fertilizer' (Fox 07/21/2021)
•
"With all due respect, your answers on immigration were fertilizer, they were nonsense," Cruz said.

•
"There are 7 billion people on Planet Earth, many of who were poor and you know what, they were poor last year and we had the lowest rate of immigration in 45 years, they're poor this year, what's changed is this administration refuses to enforce the law and Texas is paying the price for it."

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"Poverty didn't magically appear on January of 2021, and the pandemic didn't magically appear on January of 2021, what appeared was Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and policies that are inhumane, that are cruel and that are failing."
Kamala Harris staff contending with low morale, internal tensions: reports (Fox 07/01/2021)
McConnell blasts Dems' infrastructure strategy, accuses Schumer, Pelosi of holding bipartisan deal... (Fox 06/28/2021)
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See related Plans (Michael Ramirez, 06/02/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Sen. Cotton accuses Biden of stacking DOJ with defund the police 'radicals' (Fox 06/23/2021)
Blackburn slams S.1 as 'assault' on 'free and fair elections' as Senate moves toward vote (Fox 06/22/2021)
Rep. Andy Biggs: Biden's border crisis – Mayorkas unfit to serve. Here's what should happen next (Fox 05/25/2021)
Cuomo says 'harassment is not making someone feel uncomfortable,’ is ‘eager’ to tell other side... (Fox 05/13/2021)
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See related A Deity (Mike Shelton, 01/04/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Grenell calls Susan Rice the ‘shadow president’ and ‘no one is paying attention’ (Fox 05/13/2021)
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"Biden is too weak to stop the progressive left from taking over... [Vice President] Kamala [Harris] does not understand what's going on...We have a shadow president in Susan Rice and no one is paying attention."

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"The foreign policy mess that they are creating is a mess because they are placating the far-left domestically."
Biden regularly consults with Barack Obama on a 'range of issues', Psaki says (Fox 03/22/2021)
•
"They consult and talk about a range of issues and I would expect that continues through the course of President Biden's presidency."

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See related The Shadow President (Gary Varvel, 02/01/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
Hannity asks 'who's really in charge' after report on Kamala Harris' foreign policy... (Fox 02/27/2021)
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"Biden is now reportedly encouraging his vice president to engage directly with world leaders — that would be his job — and by the way, even develop her own rapport with U.S. allies. Harris has also been meeting weekly with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. So the question tonight is, why?"

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"If Joe Biden is not up to the task, well, we know that he rarely appears in public, we know that he takes very few questions. We know he hasn't even scheduled a joint session of Congress for the State of the Union address."

•
"We can all see with our own eyes that Joe is frail, he is weak, and yes, he's struggling cognitively."

•
"Even a few dozen Democrats now are trying to take away the nuclear codes from Joe Biden so it's not in the hands of just him, one person ... and his vice president now holding one on one calls with other world leaders. So what's really going on here? Who's in charge? And by the way, should we be concerned?"
Removing nuclear launch powers from President Biden would be 'wildly unconstitutional': Mike Lee (Fox 02/25/2021)
Vote against Xavier Becerra – these radical views disqualify him for HHS post (Fox 02/22/2021)
Jason Chaffetz: Biden-Harris' disastrous start – first month full of hypocrisy, scandal and incompetence ()
•
The first full month of the Biden-Harris administration could not have gone worse.

•
With no accomplishments to boast of, deepening national divisions, and an embarrassing array of hypocrisy and scandal, this administration's incompetence has been on full display.

•
The administration has nothing to show legislatively. Impeachment leaves the Democrats 0-2. After dedicating a week of the Senate's time to the effort, they departed for a week-long recess.

•
They're more interested in killing jobs than creating them. Among the most far-reaching mistakes was the cancellation of the job-rich Keystone pipeline. That one move will put nearly 11,000 people out of work, including 8,000 union workers whose unions enthusiastically endorsed Biden.

•
They're failing our kids. Before taking office, Biden said he would open schools within his first 100 days. After taking office, the White House changed the goal to opening at least 50% of the schools to one day per week in person learning.

•
Destruction of women's sports. Hours after President Biden generally called for unity, he signed an executive order demanding transgender children be allowed to participate in all sports, forcing girl and women across the country to have to defeat biological males in order to be successful in their sports.

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Promises made, not kept. Prior to the election, Joe Biden mocked the overuse of executive orders. Now he sets records for the number of orders.

•
So much for ethics. Promises to be the most ethical administration since dinosaurs roamed the earth took just a few days to break. ... Yet, this pales in comparison to President Biden's family business dealings.

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Pandemic failure. Battling COVID is perhaps the country's most pressing matter. But as he prepares to resuscitate the economy, Biden picked someone to oversee federal unemployment who lost millions of dollars in pandemic aid to Nigerian fraudsters.

•
Full frontal attack on the Constitution. The Second Amendment is already under attack with Biden vowing legislation and executive orders. The administration's support for speech restrictions, tech censorship and invasive surveillance don't bode well for the future of liberty.

•
We are only one month into the Biden-Harris administration. The array of scandal, incompetence and deception is stunning.

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See related Worst Cooks (Gary Varvel, 01/25/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Anybody Home? (Mike Shelton, 02/03/2021) cartoon from Government picture album
McConnell introduces his own bill on $2,000 stimulus checks, other Trump priorities (Fox 12/30/2020)
•
"During this process, the president highlighted three additional issues of national significance he would like to see Congress tackle together," McConnell said...

•
"Those are the three important subjects the president has linked together, This week, the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus."

•
No action on McConnell's bill has been scheduled. Trump, meanwhile, warned Republicans that they should support quick delivery of stimulus checks... "Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP. $600 IS NOT ENOUGH! Also, get rid of Section 230 - Don't let Big Tech steal our Country, and don't let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election. Get tough!"

•
The current Congress ends on Sunday, Jan. 3, which means that any other action on stimulus checks must happen quickly. At that point, lawmakers will have to completely restart the legislative process.
Joe Biden and former rival Pete Buttigieg — what's really behind Transportation nomination (Fox 12/18/2020)
•
Where does President-elect Joe Biden want Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and failed presidential candidate? As far away as possible.

•
Ah, the perfect role! Heading the Department of Transportation, the Siberia of politics, never to be heard from again. No big controversies, not much attention from the media, and not someone the president needs to meet with often.

•
This nomination also highlights the lack of credentials in Buttigieg's curriculum vitae, except potholes.

•
When he was mayor of South Bend, what did Buttigieg do for transportation? Evidently not much. In 2019, the South Bend Tribune reported that the city of 42 square miles — in a state of 36,418 square miles — had the "worst pothole situation in the state."

•
Secretary Buttigieg will probably do little to make news, say little, and have little chance of expanding his political resume. And that will probably suit Joe Biden just fine.
Trump urged to veto omnibus spending bill; House GOP calls it example of ‘swamp politics’ (Fox 12/17/2020)
•
The letter, signed by 14 Republicans ... describes the measure as a "massive take-it-or-leave-it bill, negotiated behind closed doors, that expands government, spends at record levels well above 2011 base cap levels, and funds unnecessary or even harmful federal programs."

•
They also note President Trump's 2018 remarks in which he said he "would never sign another bill like this again" when he signed an omnibus spending bill. "This bill promises to be even larger, exemplifying everything that is wrong with the swamp politics of Washington, D.C."

•
"Supporting this is a vote to fund an education system that is failing to educate our children while teaching them that America is evil, it is a vote to fund grants to states that run a badly broken election system; it is a vote to fund a healthcare system that empowers insurance companies at the expense of hard-working Americans; it is a vote to underfund border security and empower cartels; it is a vote to continue war without so much as a debate much less a vote on a new AUMF for our men and women in uniform; it is a vote to fund Planned Parenthood; and, among many other things, it is a vote to send money to state and local agencies that are perpetuating the shutdowns that are destroying our way of life."
House approves defense policy bill with a veto-proof margin (Fox 12/09/2020)
Esper replacement Chris Miller tells US troops: 'It's time to come home' (Fox 11/14/2020)
•
"All wars must end. Ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; We gave it our all. Now it's time to come home... To all of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, Space Professionals and civilians: Continue to be bold... Together we will take our Nation to new heights."

•
... said the U.S. remained committed to "finishing the war that Al Qaida brought to our shores in 2001 ...but we must avoid our past strategic error of failing to see the fight through to the finish."

•
... added he was "weary of war" like many others but "this is the critical phase in which we transition our efforts from a leadership role to a supporting role. We are not a people of perpetual war – it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought."

•
Miller took over this week after former Defense Secretary Mark Esper was fired by President Trump via a Twitter message on Monday.

•
The president in a tweet before the Nov. 3 election said all U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be "home by Christmas!"

•
The Pentagon was already implementing a plan to reduce the number of troops in the country to 5,000 this month.

•
Shortly before he was fired, Esper reportedly sent a classified memo to the White House, warning against lowering troops levels any further because of conditions on the ground, including ongoing violence, the potential danger to remaining troops and the harm it could cause to U.S. alliances in the region.

•
The turnover at the Pentagon occurred days after President-elect Joe Biden was declared winner of the presidential race.
Trump fires Secretary of Defense Mark Esper (Fox 11/09/2020)
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... said he fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and that Christopher Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will take over as acting defense secretary "effective immediately."

•
"Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service."

•
Esper's firing comes five months after he said he did "not support invoking the Insurrection Act," amid nationwide protests over the summer.

•
"The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire situations."

•
"We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."
Largely civil Barrett confirmation hearings break expectations, mark stark contrast to 2018... (Fox 10/16/2020)
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"Mr. Chairman, I just want to thank you," Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein told committee Chairman Lindsey Graham on Thursday. "This has been one of the best Senate hearings that I've participated in, and I want to thank you for your fairness and the opportunity of going back and forth."

•
Graham, R-S.C., replied: "I know we have very different views about the judge and whether we should be doing this or not. But having said all that, to my Democratic colleagues, you have challenged the judge, you have challenged us, and I accept those challenges as being sincere and not personal."

•
Graham then ended the hearing and he and Feinstein, D-Calif., hugged — an ending that was a stark contrast to the 2018 hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

•
The moment followed four days of contentious but largely civilized hearings. There was partisan grandstanding and electioneering, as can be expected when lawmakers are given four full business days on national television.

•
And there were lamentations from Republicans about the fact Democratic presidential and vice-presidential nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, respectively, still won't tell voters whether they'll pack the Supreme Court.

•
Feinstein herself at one point Wednesday even told Barrett, "I'm really impressed, thank you," in response to a description of the legal principles she would have to take into account in an upcoming constitutional challenge to the ACA.

•
All of this was a sharp contrast from the 2018 confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which were marred with bombastic behavior from senators, regular interruptions from protesters, threats to lawmakers and lurid sexual assault accusations pushed against the nominee.

•
Any winners of the hearings — besides Barrett for coming through unscathed and the American people for getting a civil and largely substantive hearing for their potential Supreme Court justice — are unclear.

•
"I think that the hearings went well for Judge Barrett. When she answered questions, her responses were generally clear and articulate and she displayed a broad command of constitutional law and statutory interpretation."

•
"Moreover she seemed respectful of senators, even when they asked questions that may have been out of bounds or seemed to be grandstanding or trying to profit politically from the hearings."

•
"In short, Barrett did what she needed to do, and the panel is likely to have a 12-10 party-line vote."

•
Graham scheduled the committee vote on Barrett for 1 p.m. on Oct. 22, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he will introduce Barrett's nomination on the Senate floor the following day, before confirming her within the next three or four days, during which senators will have time to debate on the floor.
Republicans baffled by Pelosi's 25th Amendment suggestion, say she wants to 'stage a coup' (Fox 10/09/2020)
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"@SpeakerPelosi will stop at NOTHING to take down @realDonaldTrump. First it was the Russia hoax, then sham impeachment. Now she's trying to invoke the 25th amendment because he... fully recovered from the coronavirus? We won't let her get away with it."

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"Congressional Democrats have not stopped their quest to remove President @realDonaldTrump from office since the day he was sworn into office, working night and day to overturn the will of Americans. Here is another installment of their pathetic series."

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"The person who is third in line to the nuclear codes but was 'setup' by her hair salon wants to have a conversation about the 25th amendment... Good one."

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"I wouldn't put it past @SpeakerPelosi to stage a coup. She has already weaponized impeachment, what's to keep her from weaponizing the 25th amendment? We need a new Speaker!"
White House chief of staff: Pelosi's 'not negotiating in good faith' (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
... Mnuchin and Trump "have offered $1.6 trillion" and "were willing to look at a little bit more than that" to help small businesses, schools, the airline industry and "a number of the other places that are hurting right now," but Pelosi "continues to say that it's not enough."

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... "there comes a point where you understand that the other side is just playing politics."

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"The real thing is Speaker Pelosi didn't want those checks to go out to the American people before November 3rd. She felt like it would help the president and so she's been negotiating in that manner."

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"We're still willing to be engaged, but I'm not optimistic for a comprehensive deal."

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... he is, however, "optimistic that there's about 10 things that we can do on a piecemeal basis if the speaker is willing to put it before her members."

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See related Pelosi Fiddles (Sean Delonas, 03/24/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Justices Thomas, Alito slam Obergefell same-sex marriage decision as Supreme Court denies... (Fox 10/05/2020)
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... the Supreme Court case that mandated all states recognize same-sex marriages, is "found nowhere in the text" of the Constitution and threatens "the religious liberty of the many Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman."

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"... By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment, and by doing so undemocratically, the court has created a problem that only it can fix."

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Thomas said Obergefell forced Davis to choose "between her religious beliefs and her job. When she chose to follow her faith, and without any statutory protection of her religious beliefs, she was sued almost immediately for violating the constitutional rights of same-sex couples."

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"Obergefell enables courts and governments to brand religious adherents who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman as bigots, making their religious liberty concerns that much easier to dismiss."

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Thomas added: "This assessment flows directly from Obergefell's language, which characterized such views as 'disparag[ing]' homosexuals and 'diminish[ing] their personhood' through '[d]ignitary wounds.'"
Bongino on ‘infuriating’ media attacks of Trump’s drive-by 'visit' outside hospital (Fox 10/05/2020)
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"So to these media buffoons, you clowns, who don't know the first thing about honor, dignity or courage, I know you wouldn't get in that car with the president with a mask or a full bubble suit because you are chumps and cowards and spineless losers."

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He then had a message for the members of the media who criticized Trump's surprise drive-by visit outside the hospital, telling them to "shut your mouths, put your caboose in a chair and sit this one out."
DOJ rejects Nadler's request for testimony from senior officials citing Barr treatment (Fox 09/22/2020)
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The letter ... said that committee members spent most of Barr's July 28 appearance at an Oversight hearing to scold and insult the country's top prosecutor.

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"Democrat after Democrat posed questions to Mr. Barr only to cut him off when he tried to reply, substituting their own replies for his."

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"What makes me concerned for the country is this is the first time in my memory that the leaders of one of our two great political parties, the Democratic party are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts," Barr said.

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"Why can't we just say, you know, violence against federal courts has to stop? Could we hear something like that?"
NYC Mayor de Blasio responds to Trump defunding threat: 'We will see you in court' (Fox 09/03/2020)
•
In a memo to the attorney general and the White House budget director, the president called for a review of all federal funds provided to the four cities, saying, "it is imperative that the federal government review the use of federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America's cities."

•
All four cities have experienced varying amounts of violence and destruction of property amid the summer-long protests against police brutality, systemic racism and Trump himself.

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"My administration will not allow federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones," Trump wrote in the memo.
Ratcliffe defends halting election briefings, accuses members of Congress of leaking classified... (Fox 08/30/2020)
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"Within minutes of one of those briefings ending, a number of members of Congress went to a number of different outlets and leaked classified information for political purposes."

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"To create a narrative that simply isn't true, that somehow Russia is a greater national security threat than China."

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"I don't mean to minimize Russia. They are a serious national security threat, but day in, day out, the threats that we face from China are significantly greater. Anyone who says otherwise is just politicizing intelligence for their own narrative."
How well do you know America's founding documents? Watch 'Fox Nation 101: The Constitution' (Fox 07/03/2020)
It's not by accident or oversight that the nation's capital isn't a state: the Founding Fathers... (JWR 06/22/2020)
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Partisan considerations are woven into Washington life, of course, and the admission of new states to the union has historically been entangled in balance-of-power politics.

•
But there are much better reasons to oppose D.C. statehood — or, for that matter, to support it — than the deep-blue loyalties of the district's voters.

•
The pro-statehood argument is straightforward: It is outrageous, advocates say, that the 700,000 US citizens who live in Washington, D.C., are denied what their fellow citizens in the 50 states take for granted: representation in Congress.

•
It's not by accident or oversight that the nation's capital isn't a state: The Founding Fathers wrote it into the Constitution. Article I, Section 8 provides explicitly for a national capital that would not be part of a state nor treated as a state, but rather a unique enclave under the exclusive authority of Congress — a neutral "district" in which representatives of all the states could meet on an equal footing to conduct the nation's business.

•
Not being citizens of a state, the district's residents wouldn't elect their own members of Congress. But that didn't mean they were condemned to "taxation without representation."

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... the framers of the Constitution "repeatedly stated that the district would be represented by the entire Congress and that members ... would bear a special interest in its operations."

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Reasonable people can disagree on the wisdom or fairness of the framers' plan, but the only way to change it is to amend the Constitution.
Supreme Court rules against Trump administration bid to end DACA program (Fox 06/18/2020)
•
In a 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the liberal members to author the opinion, the court said the move to eliminate the program that grants privileges to children who entered the U.S. illegally as minors was "arbitrary and capricious," although they did not rule on the merits of the program itself.

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"We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies. 'The wisdom' of those decisions 'is none of our concern,'"

•
"We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action."

•
Roberts wrote that the administration "failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance," as well as the impact the decision would have on DACA recipients who have relied on the program.

•
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the dissent, saying: "These cases could — and should — have ended with a determination that his legal conclusion was correct. Instead, the majority today concludes that DHS was required to do far more."

•
"Without grounding its position in either the APA or precedent, the majority declares that DHS was required to overlook DACA's obvious legal deficiencies and provide additional policy reasons and justifications before restoring the rule of law. This holding is incorrect, and it will hamstring all future agency attempts to undo actions that exceed statutory authority. I would therefore reverse the judgments below and remand with instructions to dissolve the nationwide injunctions."
Thomas, Kavanaugh lament 'decade-long failure to protect the Second Amendment' (Fox 06/15/2020)
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"This Court would almost certainly review the constitutionality of a law requiring citizens to establish a justifiable need before exercising their free speech rights. And it seems highly unlikely that the Court would allow a State to enforce a law requiring a woman to provide a justifiable need before seeking an abortion," Thomas wrote, in an opinion joined by Kavanaugh.

•
"But today, faced with a petition challenging just such a restriction on citizens' Second Amendment rights, the Court simply looks the other way."

•
"The Courts of Appeals are squarely divided on the constitutionality of these onerous 'justifiable need' or 'good cause' restrictions. The D. C. Circuit has held that a law limiting public carry to those with a 'good reason to fear injury to [their] person or property' violates the Second Amendment," he said.

•
"By contrast, the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Circuits have upheld the constitutionality of licensing schemes with 'justifiable need' or 'good reason' requirements, applying what purported to be an intermediate scrutiny standard."

•
"Petitioner asks this Court to grant certiorari to determine whether New Jersey's near-total prohibition on carrying a firearm in public violates his Second Amendment right to bear arms, made applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment."

•
"This case gives us the opportunity to provide guidance on the proper approach for evaluating Second Amendment claims; acknowledge that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry in public; and resolve a square Circuit split on the constitutionality of justifiable need restrictions on that right."

•
"Rather than prolonging our decade-long failure to protect the Second Amendment, I would grant this petition."
Trump urges GOP to vote 'NO' on FISA bill, citing Russia probe concerns (Fox 05/27/2020)
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"I hope all Republican House Members vote NO on FISA until such time as our Country is able to determine how and why the greatest political, criminal, and subversive scandal in USA history took place!"

•
The controversy around the FBI's practices in investigating former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has also intensified some legislators' calls for FISA reform.

•
"[N]ew documents from the FBI investigation of former-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn were released to the public and they paint a troubling picture of FBI agents and officials bending the rules to entrap an innocent American who committed no crime."

•
"Our federal government's law enforcement procedures are desperately in need of reform and we have a real opportunity to begin that reform next week when the FISA program comes up for reauthorization."
Rep. Mike Gallagher: Is Congress nonessential? It's acting that way — but here's how we can... (Fox 05/22/2020)
Trump says ‘jury’s still out’ on FBI boss Wray – despite Barr defense (Fox 05/09/2020)
Judge Pirro: Flynn was railroaded by 'corrupt' people trying to change course of history (Fox 05/08/2020)
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"We've been talking about a deep state for a long time. It was Brennan, Clapper, McCabe and all of them lying to us, taking dirty dossiers that they knew were not verified, that they were told was Russian disinformation, changing legal documents to get a warrant from a court."

•
"They railroaded a three-star general to turn against the president of the United States so that they can change the course of American history. These people are bad, they are corrupt, and they have done everything in their power to create damage to this country, and thank God we got this information."

•
... the only way for the American public to have "faith in the Department of Justice and the FBI" is to hold accountable the parties involved in the misconduct of the Flynn prosecution.

•
... House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., should lose his leadership position for falsely claiming to have evidence of Russian collusion while knowingly lacking such evidence.

•
"This guy needs to lose his license, he needs no longer to be the chairman of that committee, and he needs to be run out of office. This is not the United States of America that our Founding Fathers created and it is time for these corrupt bums to get out of office."

•
See related No Partisan Bias (Michael Ramirez, 12/19/2019) cartoon from Government picture album
Trump vetoes Iran war powers resolution, swipes at Republicans who backed it (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
In a statement, Trump called the bipartisan measure "insulting" and argued that it was part of a ploy by Democrats to divide Republicans and oust him from office in November.

•
"The few Republicans who voted for it played right into their hands. Contrary to the resolution, the United States is not engaged in the use of force against Iran."

•
The Senate passed the measure 55-45 in February with the help of eight GOP senators, and so did the House in March, 227-186 with help from six Republicans.

•
Both chambers would need a two-thirds majority vote to override Trump's action, which is highly unlikely.

•
... Trump said the resolution would have hampered a U.S. president's ability to protect America's allies.

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"The resolution implies that the president's constitutional authority to use military force is limited to defense of the United States and its forces against imminent attack."

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"That is incorrect. We live in a hostile world of evolving threats, and the Constitution recognizes that the president must be able to anticipate our adversaries' next moves and take swift and decisive action in response. That's what I did!"

•
... Trump said last month that he instructed the Navy to "shoot down and destroy" any Iranian gunboats harassing American ships in the Persian Gulf.
This nursing home disaster is on you, Gov. Cuomo (NYP 05/05/2020)
•
Two weeks ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was first asked about his policy that forced nursing homes to admit patients infected with the coronavirus.

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"That's a good question, I don't know," the governor answered, turning to an aide.

•
On Tuesday, Cuomo was asked about a report from the Associated Press that his team had added more than 1,700 deaths to the count of those who died in nursing homes, bringing the total to at least 4,813.

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"I don't know the details, frankly," the governor answered, turning to an aide.

•
Cuomo is legendary for micromanaging and has been praised for his detailed daily briefings during the pandemic.

•
He has closed schools, religious services and businesses because each human life is "priceless."

•
So with known nursing home deaths representing 25 percent of all deaths in the state, it beggars belief that the governor didn't know anything about his office's fatal policy two weeks ago or the new death totals now.

•
... if you are the governor of the state that is the national epicenter of the deadly outbreak, you don't have the luxury of not knowing, or pretending not to know, about the horrendous carnage in nursing homes and rehabilitation centers.

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And if your policies contributed to that carnage, the decent thing to do is to own your mistakes and fix them.

•
"The nursing home has to make the decision," he said Tuesday. "If they don't think they can take care of someone, all they have to do is say no."

•
In this case, he "knows" something that's simply not true, according to nursing home executives. The March 25 order that forced infected patients on them allows for no exceptions and has not been changed.

•
... order was a death sentence. Some facilities say they had no deaths or even positive patients before that date, but many of both since, including among staff members.

•
Cuomo, in response, has constructed an evolving litany of self-defenses, once coldly asserting it was "not our job" to help the homes get protective equipment for their staffs, even as other officials said the equipment was being provided.

•
... Cuomo threatened to remove the facilities' licenses and warned them against committing perjury in their death reports.

•
For the owners and staffs, the threats were a warning to be silent and the investigation is a bid to pin the blame for thousands of deaths on them.

•
It was indeed harsh, especially for the families who never saw their loved ones again before the virus killed them.

•
By the same token, those families want to know why in the world the state would bar them from nursing homes but simultaneously impose infected patients on the same facilities.

•
Finally, on Tuesday, after an aide tried to explain the differences between "confirmed" and "probable" death counts, the governor interjected that "I would take all the numbers now with a grain of salt."
Sol Wisenberg: Michael Flynn case — how FBI officials, step by step, abused their power (Fox 05/04/2020)
•
... entrapment is the wrong word. ... what the Comey-McCabe-Strzok-Page cabal did to Flynn was far worse than entrapment.

•
It was an abuse of power on par with the worst such abuses this country has ever seen.

•
The law enforcement elite of an incumbent administration used the very mechanisms established to protect our national security to attack a campaign of the opposing party and continue that attack as that campaign transitioned into power.

•
President Trump is right about one thing. This should never happen again to any other president.
Grassley demands Barr 'intervene' in Flynn case, says there should be 'consequences' for FBI, DOJ... (Fox 04/30/2020)
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"Many of my colleagues r rightfully calling for prosecution of ppl who violated Flynn's constitutional rights MORE IMPORTANTLY the whole country needs to know how his rights were violated."

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"TRUTH getting out is most important so this FBI abuse won't be repeated again on someone else."

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Grassley went on to point out that the unsealed documents were "stamped with SCO as in Special Counsel's Office."

•
"Did Mueller have these docs? Why did his team sit on them? What else is Mueller team that cost taxpayers $30+ million hiding?"
Leading Republicans want to send China the bill for coronavirus pandemic's costs (JWR 04/28/2020)
•
Leading Republicans are demanding that China be made to pay financially for what they allege was a coverup of the lethal coronavirus outbreak that ultimately brought the U.S. economy to a near halt, erasing more than 26 million American jobs and costing the federal government trillions of dollars in emergency spending.

•
Key lawmakers want President Donald Trump to cancel the $1 trillion-plus U.S. debt to China and to push companies to relocate their medical product supply chains to the United States.

•
Congress in the past two months has approved nearly $3 trillion in new spending to combat fallout from the virus, a figure that does not include the financial toll for states and cities.

•
... the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has called for canceling the U.S. debt with China, slapping a "pandemic tariff" on Chinese goods and imposing unspecified sanctions on Chinese officials.

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"China needs to pay," Graham told ... accusing the government in Beijing of "gross negligence and willful deception" in its handling of the outbreak.

•
While Chinese officials almost certainly will never send the United States a check, analysts said, the mounting demands could put the president and the business community in a difficult position.

•
An open rupture in relations with Beijing could prompt Chinese officials to abandon purchases of U.S. farm goods required by the president's trade deal with China, a White House priority little more than six months before Election Day.

•
The business community, meanwhile, worries about calls for a wholesale uprooting of long-established supply networks in China but does not want to end up in a public dispute with China critics in the White House.

•
The United States also depends upon China for many pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies, further complicating any potential confrontation.

•
The administration so far has talked tough on China without committing itself to any specific proposals.

•
Graham said recently that he wanted to start "canceling some debt that we owe to China, because they should be paying us, not us paying China."

•
The proposal is an audience pleaser on cable television. But it would be almost impossible to implement.

•
The U.S. debt is not a loan that Washington can refuse to repay. China holds more than $1 trillion of Treasury securities that it purchased on the open market. Those securities carry the U.S. government's promise of repayment and are a cornerstone of the global financial system.

•
"Any attempt at a selective default would damage the safe-haven status of all U.S. Treasury securities, since that would set a precedent for the U.S. government being able to walk away from any of its debt obligations."

•
"This could reduce the demand for Treasurys and make it harder for the U.S. Treasury to secure financing for the large amounts of debt it will have to issue in the coming months and years."

•
Relations between Washington and Beijing, already raw after two years of trade conflict, have deteriorated amid the pandemic.

•
Chinese officials have been irked by the president's occasional public references to the "Wuhan virus," while U.S. officials bristled at a Chinese propaganda campaign that blamed the U.S. military for the disease.

•
... the president is not ready for a dramatic reorientation of his policy toward Beijing. For now, he said, Trump is content to wait for the results of an internal probe of China's role in the virus.

•
The anti-China efforts thus far appear largely symbolic. But some House Republicans are discussing possible legislation to require the Government Accountability Office to formally assess China's financial liability for pandemic-related costs in the United States.

•
The objective would be "to inform U.S. policymakers of how much China has screwed with us, not to pretend that China is going to pay us. Right now, we're just flailing in the dark."

•
See related Thanks, China (Bob Gorrell, 03/19/2017) cartoon from World picture album
Divided Supreme Court rules for Trump administration in requiring immigrant's removal (Fox 04/23/2020)
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"Removal of a lawful permanent resident from the United States is a wrenching process, especially in light of the consequences for family members."

•
"Removal is particularly difficult when it involves someone such as Barton who has spent most of his life in the United States. Congress made a choice, however, to authorize removal of noncitizens — even lawful permanent residents — who have committed certain serious crimes. And Congress also made a choice to categorically preclude cancellation of removal for noncitizens who have substantial criminal records. Congress may of course amend the law at any time. In the meantime, the Court is constrained to apply the law as enacted by Congress."

•
"Because of the Court's opinion today, noncitizens who were already admitted to the country are treated, for the purposes of the stop-time rule, identically to those who were not — despite Congress' express references to inadmissibility and deportability. The result is that, under the Court's interpretation, an immigration judge may not even consider whether Barton is entitled to cancellation of removal — because of an offense that Congress deemed too trivial to allow for Barton's removal in the first instance."
Coronavirus timeline – Trump acted early and energetically, don't buy Dems' criticisms (Fox 04/21/2020)
•
America seems to have avoided a catastrophic breach of its medical levees. And Democrats could not be more miserable.

•
Last month's worst-case scenarios have yet to materialize. The specter of COVID-19 killing millions of Americans has evaporated. Instead, reopening the economy dominates the agenda.

•
While Republicans cheer, Democrats jeer. Their enduring complaint: The president should have attacked COVID-19 sooner. In short, "Trump sighed; people died."

•
"The reason that we're in the crisis that we are today, is not because of anything that China did," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told...

•
"It's because of what this president did. He didn't take this virus seriously ... We didn't need tens of thousands this of people dying."

•
According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "In January, Donald Trump was warned about this pandemic, ignored those warnings, took insufficient action, and caused unnecessary death and disaster."

•
While Senate and House Democrats berate Trump's early response, what did they do as this plague germinated?

•
White House documents, the Congressional Record and news accounts reflect the Trump administration's ample action and Democrats' significant sloth on key dates as this pandemic advanced...

•
Could Trump have done more, sooner? Yes. By definition, every evening that he did not moonlight at the Vaccine Research Center, unpack test tubes and rinse Pyrex flasks was an evening he could have done more.

•
But while Trump did plenty to fight this plague early, Democrats largely toyed with impeachment and then dozed off once their magic wand failed to make him disappear.

•
They now should stop whining, concede their own comparative sloth and recognize that President Trump has led the federal government and inspired the private sector to battle a health care challenge unlike anything America has confronted since 1918's Spanish Flu pandemic.

•
The fact that COVID-19's U.S. victims count in the tens of thousands and not millions — heartbreaking as those deaths are — confirms just how much the president's efforts are succeeding.

•
See related In January... (Chip Bok, 04/03/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Clash on appointments brews as Trump threatens to invoke little-known power to adjourn Congress (Fox 04/19/2020)
•
A clash over appointments to executive agencies is brewing after President Trump threatened to invoke an obscure constitutional power to adjourn both chambers of Congress under certain circumstances as a way to allow himself to make recess appointments — filling vacancies in jobs he says are needed to help fight the coronavirus without the advice and consent of the Senate.

•
Presidents have the power under the U.S. Constitution to temporarily fill vacancies while the Senate is out of session, but the body holds what are called "pro forma" sessions – very brief meetings with a skeleton crew that happen when the body is not taking care of legislative business – in order to remain in session, thus blocking recess appointments.

•
"We have a tremendous number of people that have to come into government and now more so than ever before because of the virus and the problem."

•
"The Senate should either fulfill its duty and vote on my nominees or it should formally adjourn so that I can make recess appointments..."

•
But Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution gives the president the power to "adjourn [Congress] to such Time as he shall think proper," when the House and Senate cannot agree on when to adjourn.

•
Trump said the Senate should stop conducting its pro forma sessions and formally adjourn to allow him to make recess appointments.

•
"If the House will not agree to that adjournment I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress."

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"The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony pro forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis."

•
"Leader McConnell had a conversation today with the president to discuss Senate Democrats' unprecedented obstruction of the president's well-qualified nominees and shared his continued frustration with the process."

•
"The Leader pledged to find ways to confirm nominees considered mission-critical to the COVID-19 pandemic, but under Senate rules will take consent from Leader Schumer."

•
If McConnell is not willing to or able to force a disagreement with the House by adjourning the body, Trump likely will not be able to invoke his power to compel the adjournment, and therefore would be unable to make his recess appointments.

•
That did not stop congressional Democrats from panning Trump's comments as dangerous and uninformed...

•
The posts Trump would be aiming to fill would largely be the non-Cabinet positions at executive agencies that have been on the backburner in the Senate.

•
With Senate Democrats feverishly resisting and delaying many of Trump's appointments, McConnell has been forced to prioritize which nominees he would confirm and these posts largely are what fell by the wayside.

•
"There's only so many hours in the day when you go through judges and you go through lengthy hearings on judges that they know should be approved immediately and they can do it in one session and they can do it in one hour."

•
"We need people for this crisis and we don't want to play any more political games. I've been waiting for two-and-a-half years, three years for some of these people. It's ridiculous."
Trump ramps up pressure on Pelosi over stalemate on small business program: ‘Come back to...’ (Fox 04/18/2020)
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"An incompetent political hack! Come back to Washington & take care of our great American workers."

•
"Nancy Pelosi, she's away on vacation or something," he said earlier Friday at a White House press briefing.

•
"And she should come back. She should come back and get this done. I don't know why she's not coming back. The fact is she's not doing her job. And there's nothing unusual about that for her."

•
Trump has requested an extra $250 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), after the Small Business Administration announced this week that it has reached its $359 billion lending limit given to it in the CARES ACT.
Devin Nunes says Dems derailed hearings on China threat in favor of impeachment, Russia (Fox 04/17/2020)
Trump set to preside over record spending, deficits as coronavirus costs explode (Fox 04/14/2020)
•
Even accounting for inflation, no modern administration has seen such levels of spending, covering everything from FDR's New Deal to recession-era rescues in the early part of the Obama administration.

•
The national debt itself already tops $24 trillion.

•
Part of this was unavoidable for the president.

•
Revenues will decline as the economy has tanked, and the $2.4 trillion worth of total coronavirus relief spending Trump has signed into law — across three separate bills — was widely seen as a necessary part of the federal government's response to a historic health and economic crisis.

•
That spending may increase further as lawmakers and Trump appear to be seeking much more — the president wants another $2 trillion package focused largely on infrastructure, and Democrats are seeking a separate $500 billion measure for small business, hospital and local government relief before that.

•
All told, the total price tag could near $5 trillion if such measures are approved.

•
Yet Trump, overseeing a humming economy for the first three years of his presidency, didn't use that time to reduce the federal deficit, but instead increased the pace of federal deficit spending.

•
"When one thinks about deficits and their role in the economy ... fiscally responsible policies are bringing your deficit down during good times so that you have the fiscal space to borrow when there are emergencies like we have now."

•
"What we've seen in the Trump administration has been a strong economy paired with very large deficit spending."

•
"So over the past years, we've had huge unpaid-for tax cuts and spending increases, and what this meant was we went into this emergency situation with our debt relative to the economy twice as high as it was when we went into the recession of 2008, for instance."

•
The Trump administration, in its first three years, ramped up military spending and cut taxes, two priorities for the president that worked in conjunction to increase the deficit even as it made cuts elsewhere in the budget.

•
The attitude toward the deficit under his administration is out of character for a Republican president, especially after Republicans of the early 2010s raised hell over increases in government spending during the Obama administration.

•
"I think I could to it fairly quickly," Trump said in response to a question ... on paying off what was then a $19 trillion national debt.

•
... how long that would take, Trump responded, "Well, I would say over a period of eight years," before explaining that he believed renegotiated trade deals could help eliminate the national debt.

•
"I would argue there probably will be need for further measures and they will probably be quite large, but just tossing around one trillion and two trillion cavalierly without building it off specific needs that one sees worries me about the political process putting together a package like this... Just because it's the time for deficit spending, which it is, it's not the time for careless, poorly targeted or cavalier deficit spending."

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See related Very Special Bill (Mike Lester, 03/29/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
Grassley, in bipartisan letter, seeks 'detailed' explanation from Trump on IG firing (Fox 04/09/2020)
Trump rips into fired intelligence community IG: 'Disgrace to IGs' (Fox 04/04/2020)
•
"As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as President, have power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General."

•
"That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General."

•
"I thought he did a terrible job, absolutely terrible. He took a whistleblower report that turned out to be a fake report, it was fake...he took a fake report and he brought it to Congress with an emergency — not a big Trump fan that I can tell you."
DOJ won't pursue criminal charges against McCabe (Fox 02/14/2020)
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will not pursue criminal charges against former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, after a nearly two-year-long investigation into accusations brought by the agency's independent watchdog who found that he lacked "candor" when questioned about leaking to the media.

•
"Based on the totality of the circumstances and all of the information known to the government at this time, we consider the matter closed."

•
McCabe served at the FBI for 21 years. He became the acting director in May 2017 after President Trump fired Comey.

•
Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe in March 2018 after the inspector general found he had repeatedly misstated his involvement in a leak...
Who are the Senate committee chairs? (Fox 02/05/2020)
Graham’s resolution calls on Pelosi to send articles of impeachment to Senate, says trial will... (Fox 01/09/2020)
•
"You said it was urgent. If you believe it to be urgent, send it to the Senate for disposition."

•
"The longer it goes on the less urgent it becomes. So if it's serious and urgent, send them over. If it isn't, don't send it over."

•
... writes that Pelosi lacks "the power to effectively veto a resolution passed by a duly elected majority of the House of Representatives by refusing to transmit such a resolution to the Senate."
Graham gives Pelosi ultimatum, proposes Senate rule change to remove her from impeachment process (Fox 01/05/2020)
•
... if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not deliver articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate by the end of the week, the Senate should "take matters in our own hands."

•
Graham accused Pelosi of playing political games and trying to exert control over the Senate trial by keeping it from starting.

•
"What I would do, if she continues to refuse to send the articles as required by the Constitution, I would work with Senator McConnell to change the rules of the Senate so we could start the trial without her, if necessary."

•
"Well, we're not going to let Nancy Pelosi use the rules of the Senate to her advantage. This is dangerous to the presidency as an institution."

•
"They impeached the president, but the speaker of the House is holding the articles back, trying to extort from the majority leader of the Senate a trial to her liking. They're trying to hold these articles over the head of the president."

•
"We'll use the Clinton model, where you take the record established in the House, let the House managers appointed by Pelosi make the argument, let the president make his argument why the two articles are flawed, and then we'll decide whether we want witnesses. But this should be done in a couple of weeks."

•
"If we don't get the articles this week, then we need to take matters in our own hands and change the rules, deem them to be delivered to the Senate so we can start the trial, invite the House over to participate if they would like."

•
"If they don't come, dismiss the case and get on with governing the country."

Politics (04/21/2024) Go to: List top | Prev sect (11/21/2023) | Next sect (04/24/2024) | List bot

GOP hardliners retool for fresh push to oust Speaker Mike Johnson after Ukraine aid bill defeat (NYP 04/21/2024)
Tearful Ronna McDaniel hands RNC reins over to Lara Trump, Michael Whatley at Houston ‘coronation’ (NYP 03/08/2024)
Donald Trump wins South Carolina primary, defeating Nikki Haley in her own state: ‘Sooner than we anticipated’ (NYP 02/24/2024)
Trump easily wins Iowa caucus in landslide first vote of 2024 presidential race (NYP 01/15/2024)
Scandal-plagued Menendez claims ‘persecution’ by Justice Department after troubling ties to Qatar emerge (NYP 01/09/2024)
Ramaswamy blasts WaPo reporter with viral response to question on condemning 'White supremacy'... (Fox 01/04/2024)
•
"Institutionalized racism is institutionalized racial discrimination that we see that doesn't come from somehow discriminating against people on the basis of some tentative White supremacy."

•
"It's based on affirmative action. It's based on actually discriminating against people on the color of their skin in a way that's actually institutionalized today."

•
"I'm not pledging allegiance to your new religion of modern wokeism. I'm not going to bend the knee to your religion..."

•
"The reality is I condemned vicious racial discrimination in this country, but the kind of racial systemic discrimination we see today is the discrimination based on race in a very different direction. You want to know what the best way is to end discrimination on the basis of race? Stop discriminating on the basis of race."

•
"You people have been responsible for bringing this country to a breaking point, creating a projection of national division."
Most memorable political gaffes and blunders of 2023 (Fox 12/22/2023)
Over 20 Republicans join Democrats to kill censure resolution against Rashida Tlaib (Fox 11/01/2023)
•
"This is why Republicans NEVER do anything to stop the communists Democrats or ever hold anyone accountable!!"
Republican presidential candidate suspends campaign, endorses Donald Trump (Fox 10/26/2023)
House speaker fight: The real reason why Kevin McCarthy still hasn't been replaced (Fox 10/22/2023)
Trump fires back after GOP opponents take turns bashing him in Republican debate (Fox 09/28/2023)
Biden's 2024 team is on a mission to stop him from tripping amid struggle with 'significant spinal arthritis' (Fox 09/26/2023)
Fox News Power Rankings: The 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner, challengers and second place candidates (Fox 09/20/2023)
This GOP presidential candidate has a higher favorability rating among Democrats than voters in his own party (Fox 08/17/2023)
Democrats push bill for Supreme Court term limits after rulings don't go their way (Fox 07/03/2023)
Adam Schiff censured by House for 'false' allegations on Trump-Russia collusion (Fox 06/21/2023)
These 20 Republicans saved Adam Schiff from censure over Trump-Russia 'lies' (Fox 06/15/2023)
Congresswoman files resolution to expel Rep. Adam Schiff for pushing 'false narratives' in Durham report (Fox 05/18/2023)
•
"Adam Schiff lied to the American people. He used his position on House Intelligence to push a lie that cost American taxpayers millions of dollars and abused the trust placed in him as Chairman. He is a dishonor to the House of Representatives."

•
While the Constitution gives Congress the ability to impeach federal officials and judges, it does not allow Congress to impeach its own members.

•
However, members of Congress can be removed by expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote.
Democrats dealt another blow: third lawmaker leaves party, switches to Republican within a month (Fox 04/10/2023)
The newest political party on the ballot in three states has Democrats terrified (Fox 03/12/2023)
Trump will have to make loyalty pledge to join RNC debate stage, Ronna McDaniel says (Fox 02/26/2023)
Newt Gingrich rips Biden's 'fantasy' State of the Union: 'On the verge of laughable' (Fox 02/08/2023)
Dems praise Biden's State of the Union address as 'masterful,' 'inspiring' despite backlash from GOP (Fox 02/08/2023)
Sarah Sanders delivers GOP rebuttal to Biden SOTU, says Americans have a choice 'between normal or crazy' (Fox 02/08/2023)
•
"... forgive me for not believing much of anything I heard tonight from President Biden. From out-of-control inflation and violent crime to the dangerous border crisis and threat from China, Biden and the Democrats have failed you."

•
"... let us reaffirm our commitment to a timeless American idea: that government exists not to rule the people, but to serve the people. Democrats want to rule us with more government control, but that is not who we are."

•
"... He's the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can't even tell you what a woman is."

•
"In the radical left's America, Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire, but you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race, but not to love one another or our great country."

•
"President Biden inherited the fastest economic recovery on record. The most secure border in history. Cheap abundant, home-grown energy. Fast-rising wages. A rebuilt military. And a world that was stable and at peace. But over the last two years, Democrats destroyed it all."

•
"Despite Democrats' trillions in reckless spending and mountains of debt, we now have the worst border crisis in American history."

•
"America is great because we are free. But today, our freedom is under attack, and the America we love is in danger."

•
"We know not what the future holds, but we know who holds the future in His hands. And with God as our witness, we will show the world that America is still the place where freedom reins and liberty will never die."
McCarthy is finally Speaker. But he's not weak like you think. Now he can deploy the 'crazy boss' strategy (Fox 01/07/2023)
Ted Cruz chastises Dan Crenshaw for 'overheated rhetoric' in House speaker fight: 'Settle down' (Fox 01/06/2023)
•
"My view is settle down. This will work out and it'll be fine. That kind of overheated rhetoric, calling people 'terrorists,' is not terribly conducive to anything resembling Republican unity. It's not conducive to having strong leadership for the next two years in the House, engaging in vitriol and personal attacks."
Jordan nominates McCarthy for speaker on second ballot as Gaetz taps Jordan to take gavel (Fox 01/03/2023)
2022’s top 5 biggest political losers include senators, a congresswoman and even a world leader (Fox 12/30/2022)
GOP election strategy: Get smart about early voting or get used to losing (Fox 12/17/2022)
Democrat-turned-GOP congressman commends Gabbard for leaving party: moderate Dems 'don't exist anymore’ (Fox 10/11/2022)
Tulsi Gabbard leaves Democratic Party, denounces it as 'elitist cabal' (Fox 10/11/2022)
Lawmakers, pundits react to Liz Cheney's loss in Wyoming: 'Girl, BYE' (Fox 08/16/2022)
Liz Cheney calls on Democratic voters to switch parties, give her boost in GOP primary (Fox 08/16/2022)
Ted Cruz says Trump announcing 2024 run would 'significantly' clear GOP field (Fox 07/22/2022)
Kick Joe Manchin out of the Democratic Party, ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich says: 'Already lost control' (Fox 07/18/2022)
•
See related Joe Manchin (Dick Wright, 12/21/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Cuellar sounds off on AOC remarks, Biden admin's disregard for border security ahead of midterms (Fox 07/01/2022)
•
"Who is she to decide what's the standard of being a real Democrat. If you look at what we do as members of Congress, we represent a district – she represents her district, I represent my district – and that's the way it should be."

•
"I would ask her to look up the definition of a progressive in the dictionary. It says that a progressive is one that's open to new ideas. The only thing wrong with some of these new progressives is that they're not open to the new ideas, they're only open to their ideas. And somebody down the line came up with a standard that the only standard there should be is 'you have to agree with me, and if you don't agree with me, then you're the pro-enemy' and that's what makes it so hard to work in Congress because people set these artificial standards when we ought to be looking at how do we work together."
Biden is following in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter (Fox 06/29/2022)
Former President Trump addresses supporters at Wyoming rally (Fox 05/28/2022)
Democrats push to pack the Supreme Court, abolish filibuster, after leaked abortion draft opinion (Fox 05/06/2022)
JD Vance's victory proves the old GOP has been transformed (Fox 05/04/2022)
Trump-backed JD Vance wins tumultuous Senate GOP primary showdown in Ohio (Fox 05/04/2022)
Democratic Party's many disasters offer us a rare chance to create an American majority (Fox 04/20/2022)
Tucker Carlson: Biden's most loyal constituency has turned on him with a vengeance (Fox 04/20/2022)
Parents will be dominant voice in midterms after Democrats used kids as 'political pawns:' Kellyanne Conway (Fox 04/11/2022)
Republicans shouldn't disarm in war over Supreme Court confirmations (Fox 04/08/2022)
Gutfeld calls out Democrats: They're in 'bad shape' (Fox 04/07/2022)
Will Dems make it about Trump — yet again? (JWR 04/06/2022)
Republicans should dominate midterms but must be on guard against Democrats' gerrymandering (Fox 04/04/2022)
CNN, MSNBC, NBC and more worry about bloodbath for the Democrats in midterms: ‘The end of our country’ (Fox 04/04/2022)
House Republicans invite Hunter Biden to testify on cobalt mining, his 'expertise' on EV batteries (Fox 04/02/2022)
•
"House Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans request the attendance and testimony of Hunter Biden."

•
"Mr. Biden is well positioned to inform the Committee about issues pertaining to African cobalt mines — a metal which is essential in the manufacturing of electric vehicles."
Top 10 reasons Democrats will lose power in November (Fox 04/01/2022)
Hawley: Jackson's nomination shows Democrats have become 'radical pro-crime party' (Fox 03/30/2022)
RNC contrasts Dem support of 'woke' Disney to GOP backing of American values heading into 2022 midterms (Fox 03/31/2022)
•
"Woke corporations have become increasingly out of touch with the American mainstream – and are doing so at their own risk."

•
"Meanwhile, the Republican Party remains committed to protecting American values, speaking up for American parents, and ensuring that our kids aren't used as pawns in the far-left's scheme to undermine our way of life."

•
"Disney is happy to do business in China despite the Chinese Communist Party's myriad human rights abuses, but will go to the mat to ensure that American kids learn about sex in kindergarten."

•
"Liberal activists are working to turn American corporations into dystopian, ultra-woke propaganda arms for the far-left. Democrat efforts to seize and subvert American institutions to reflect their warped worldview now extend to the movies your kids watch – as well as what they learn in school."
Kevin McCarthy, Republicans 'Commitment to America' could result in the largest majority ever (Fox 03/31/2022)
Gowdy: How constructive was Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing in the Senate? (Fox 03/27/2022)
Tucker: Cory Booker just slobbered all over the Supreme Court nominee (Fox 03/24/2022)
Pennsylvania's Ballot Battle Will Rattle November 2022, '24 (JWR 03/14/2022)
St. Louis businessman bids to unseat 'Squad' member Cori Bush, says 'defund police' rhetoric must end (Fox 03/14/2022)
Trump wins CPAC 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll, with DeSantis second (Fox 02/27/2022)
Biden says he’s running in 2024, but 2020 Democratic presidential candidates keep coming to NH (Fox 02/13/2022)
Hillary Clinton to speak at New York Democratic convention (Fox 02/10/2022)
Levin: Trump 'hater' McConnell should not be Senate GOP leader (Fox 02/09/2022)
•
"The sleazy left and the sleazy RINOs seem to have a lot in common, don't they? Mitch McConnell condemning the Republican National Committee for censuring Cheney and Kinzinger while behind the scenes and closed doors, he threatens his own members if they don't fall in line."

•
Hours after Levin's remarks, Trump released a statement through his political action committee that somewhat echoed the host.

•
"Mitch McConnell does not speak for the Republican Party, and does not represent the views of the vast majority of its voters," the former president said.

•
See related Congratulation (Mike Shelton, 12/18/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
McConnell calls out Republican censure resolution: 'That's not the job of the RNC' (Fox 02/08/2022)
•
"The RNC has repeatedly condemned all acts of political violence and lawlessness, including what occurred on Jan. 6. Unfortunately, this committee has gone well beyond the scope of the events of that day, and is why the RNC overwhelmingly passed a resolution censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger."

•
"Republicans in both chambers of Congress and across the country remain united in our efforts to hold Democrats and Biden accountable for their failures to take back the House and Senate come November."
Obama, Holder slam GOP states for gerrymandering, but silent as Democrats do the same thing (Fox 02/05/2022)
•
See related Twister (Glenn McCoy, 04/23/2015) cartoon from Politics picture album
Republican National Committee overwhelming votes to censure Cheney, Kinzinger for sitting on Jan. 6 committee (Fox 02/04/2022)
•
"Republicans have to stand together and what has happened with the Jan. 6 investigation is that it has become a one-sided witch hunt, where they're only going after Republicans."

•
"We're sending a message that we as a party are not going to support these individuals and we feel they should be censured."
Jesse Watters shreds AOC's political record: 'what is she doing all day in Congress?' (Fox 02/01/2022)
•
"... AOC is among the least productive members of Congress. She's sponsored 34 bills in Congress [and] not a single one of them has been passed into law. So what is she doing all day in Congress? ... Turns out she's doing a whole lot of nothing."

•
"The media might love her now, but it's only a matter of time before something new comes around. Then they have to get the old product off the shelves."
There's a term for senators like Kyrsten Sinema (JWR 01/31/2022)
•
"Whether I'm in the majority or the minority, I would always vote to reinstate the protections for the minority, It is the right thing for the country."

•
... Democrats and progressives are furious not because Sinema shamelessly flip-flopped or put her career ahead of her convictions, but because she wouldn't do so.

•
In the teeth of cruel mockery, open harassment, and the loss of financial and political support, Sinema declined to betray her principles.

•
John F. Kennedy had a term for senators like her. He called them "profiles in courage."

•
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book of that title, JFK told the story of eight senators who exemplified what he called "the most admirable of human virtues — courage."

•
To pundits and politicos on the left who regard Sinema as public enemy number one, the notion that she should be praised for her courage is absurd and offensive.

•
Yet many of them had no trouble extolling Senator Mitt Romney when the Utah Republican voted in 2020 to convict Trump of abuse of power, becoming the first senator in history to support the removal of a president of his own party.
Gabbard says Biden picked ‘disaster’ Harris due to same 'identity politics' behind Supreme Court search (Fox 01/31/2022)
•
"Biden chose Harris as his VP because of the color of her skin and sex — not qualification. She's been a disaster."

•
"Now he promises to choose Supreme Court nominee on the same criteria. Identity politics is destroying our country."

•
See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
5 political dynamics to watch in 2022 (Fox 01/23/2022)
McConnell: Biden 'got it wrong again' when he claimed GOP can't say 'what they're for' (Fox 01/20/2022)
•
"If the president starts acting like a moderate like he campaigned, we can do business. The reason we've not been speaking recently this year is because he adopted the Bernie Sanders prescription for America. He did that even though he got no mandate for it, a 50-50 Senate and a couple of seats' majority in the House, and they couldn't get it through."

•
McConnell also dismissed claims from Biden and Democrats that voting rights are still an issue in the U.S. almost 60 years after the Voting Rights Act was enacted.

•
"No incursion into Ukraine is acceptable. What should we be doing about it right now? Well, first we ought to be sending anti-tank weapons to the Ukrainians, helping them learn how to use them, and ground-to-air missiles to go after the helicopters that might be a part, obviously of any Russian incursion, as well as being ready to levy a level of sanctions the Russians have never experienced before."
Manchin accuses fellow Dems of taking 'easy way out' with filibuster nuclear option vote (Fox 01/19/2022)
•
"Allowing one party to exert complete control in the Senate with only a simple majority will only pour fuel on the fire of political whiplash and dysfunction that is tearing this nation apart."

•
"Contrary to what some have said, protecting the role of the minority – Democrat or Republican – has protected us from the volatile political swings that we have endured over the last 233 years."

•
"We've changed the rules in the past. But we changed them with the rules. We didn't break the rules to change the rules. But all of a sudden now we just can't do it anymore. Just got to blow it up."

•
"We don't have to change the rules to make our case to the American people about voting rights."

•
"We could have kept voting rights legislation as a pending business for the Senate today. Next week, a month from now, this is important. Let's work it out. Let's see. Stay here and go at it."
McConnell: With filibuster vote, Schumer is 'trying to short-circuit a debate that he cannot win' (Fox 01/19/2022)
January 6 committee subpoenas Rudy Giuliani, 3 others over election fraud claims (Fox 01/18/2022)
•
"The Select Committee is looking into the causes that contributed to the violence on January 6th, including attempts to promote unsupported claims of election fraud and pressure campaigns to overturn the 2020 election results," Committee Chairman Benny Thompson, D-Miss., wrote in a statement.

•
"The four individuals we've subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes."

•
"We expect these individuals to join the nearly 400 witnesses who have spoken with the Select Committee as the committee works to get answers for the American people about the violent attack on our democracy."

•
The statement argued that the group is being subpoenaed for circulating memos and promoting claims of election fraud that led to the violent protest at the Capitol last year.

•
Several Republicans have rejected the committee's investigation, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and former Trump adviser Roger Stone.

•
"As a representative and the leader of the minority party, it is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee's abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward," McCarthy said in a statement earlier this month.

•
"This committee is not conducting a legitimate investigation as Speaker Pelosi took the unprecedented action of rejecting the Republican members I named to serve on the committee. It is not serving any legislative purpose. The committee's only objective is to attempt to damage its political opponents – acting like the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee one day and the DOJ the next."

•
Epshteyn responded to the subpoena on Twitter and described the committee's actions as a "Stalinist witch hunt."
Schumer tells Democrats reluctant to nuke filibuster: 'We are all going to go on the record' (Fox 01/18/2022)
•
See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Republicans won't let Democrats change Senate rules now, nor ever (Fox 01/18/2022)
Sanders turns up heat on Manchin, Sinema with tweet on voting rights bills (Fox 01/18/2022)
•
See related Comrade Bernie (Mike Shelton, 02/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Chuck Schumer's Georgia voting 'tall tale' shows desperation to avoid primary challenge from AOC: WSJ (Fox 01/17/2022)
•
"Mr. Schumer wants to impose no-excuses absentee voting on the whole country ... but he can't even convince his constituents in blue New York."

•
"It'd be nice to think Mr. Schumer is merely uninformed, but he's too smart not to know all this. He's desperately trying to dodge a primary from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ... he simply doesn't care."
Democratic strategist James Carville: ‘Democrats whine too much… quit being a whiny party’ (Fox 01/17/2022)
•
"You gloat and you promote. You talk about the fact that, we pretend to care about child poverty... it's the lowest child poverty rate we've had in history. We claim that we care about hourly workers. Hourly workers today have more leverage than any time we've had in my 77 years of existence on this planet, all right? You talk about we want jobs – 6.4 million jobs. More jobs than any president ever created in the first term."

•
"What you do, Chuck, is you run on what you got. You don't run on what you didn't get."
Lindsey Graham urges McConnell truce, says Trump is 'indispensable' GOP leader, 'like it or not' (Fox 01/13/2022)
•
"I'm not going to vote for anybody that can't have a working relationship with President Trump to be a team to come up with an America first agenda to show the difference between us and liberal Democrats, prosecute the case for Trump policies."

•
"And I'm not going to vote for anybody for leader of the Senate as a Republican unless they can prove to me that they can advocate an American first agenda and have a working relationship with President Trump. Because if you can't do that, you will fail."

•
"You don't have to agree with everything President Trump does or says. I don't," Graham said... "But you got to have a working relationship because our party will not do as well as we could or should if we don't have a team approach from 2022 to 2024, where the House and the Senate Republicans are working with an American first agenda led by President Trump."
Sinema doubles down on filibuster support, dealing likely fatal blow to Dems' election bills (Fox 01/13/2022)
•
"There's no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation. There's no need for me to restate its role in protecting our country from wild reversals of federal policy."

•
"This week's harried discussions about Senate rules are but a poor substitute for what I believe could have and should have been a thoughtful public debate at any time over the past year."

•
"But what is the legislative filibuster, other than a tool that requires new federal policy to be broadly supported by senators, representing the broader cross-section of Americans... Demands to eliminate this threshold from whichever party holds the fleeting majority amount to a group of people separated on two sides of a canyon, shouting that solution to their colleagues."

•
"These bills help treat the symptoms of the disease, but they do not fully address the disease itself. And while I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division affecting our country."

•
"Some have given up on the goal of erasing our divisions and uniting Americans. I have not. I've worked hard to demonstrate in my public service, the value of working with unlikely allies to get results."

•
"Today marks the longest time in history that the Senate has been equally divided. The House of Representatives is nearly equally divided as well. Our mandate, it seems evident to me, [is] work together and get stuff done for America."
Tucker Carlson: Hillary Clinton isn't old news, she may be the future for Democrats (Fox 01/13/2022)
•
See related I Do (Glenn McCoy, 07/11/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
McConnell threatens Senate shutdown if Democrats nuke filibuster (Fox 01/11/2022)
•
"Do my colleagues understand how many times per day the Senate needs and gets unanimous consent for basic housekeeping? Do they understand how many things could require roll call votes? How often the minority could demand lengthy debate?"

•
"Our colleagues who are itching for a procedural nuclear winter have not even begun to contemplate how it would look."

•
"Our colleagues who are itching to drain every drop of collegiality from this body have not even begun to consider how that would work."
Ron Johnson reveals exactly why he broke his two-term pledge (Fox 01/09/2022)
•
"During the 2016 campaign, I said it would be my last campaign and final term, That was my strong preference, and my wife's – we both looked forward to a normal private life. Neither of us anticipated the Democrats' complete takeover of government and the disastrous policies they have already inflicted on America and the world, to say nothing of those they threaten to enact in the future."

•
"Nor did we anticipate the pandemic, the government's failed response to it, the loss of freedom that has resulted, and the tyrannical approach taken by the elites who have created and maintained a state of fear that allows them to exercise control over Americans' lives."

•
"Instead of everyone working to achieve the goal President Biden stated during his inaugural address – unifying and healing America – it feels as if our nation is being torn apart."

•
"I believe America is in peril. Much as I'd like to ease into a quiet retirement, I don't feel I should, Today, I am announcing I will continue to fight for freedom in the public realm by running for reelection. It is a decision I haven't made lightly."

•
... the mainstream media and Big Tech will collude with Democrats in an effort to defeat him. "Their path, paved with false hope and greater dependency, always leads to tyranny. We cannot let them win."
James Clyburn defends federal takeover of elections: 'Cannot be left up to the states' (Fox 01/09/2022)
•
... echoed Alexander Hamilton that such elections "cannot" and "should not be left up to the states."

•
"That's why states were not allowed to put term limits on federal officials, so the elections were not solely conducted by the states."

•
"That's why the voting rights act was necessary and that's why the fifth amendment to the constitution, why the 18th amendment to the constitution are necessary – all because it had to go beyond the states to determine."
Flashback: Schumer slammed Republicans for attempting to ‘change the rules’ on the filibuster in 2003 (Fox 01/07/2022)
•
"The bottom line is this. We are defending the Constitution, we are saying there should be some balance," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a 2003 floor speech.

•
"President Bush didn't win by a landslide. This Senate is not 62 to 38, or 70 to 30. This country is narrowly divided, and that means when laws are made they move to the middle."

•
Schumer said the minority party's role in filibustering is nothing new, but "what's new is the view on the other side that if they don't get their whole way they want to change the rules."

•
"What my colleagues have done is taken the result they want ... and then come up with an argument that all of a sudden filibusters are bad," Schumer said.
REVEALED: Dem '22 Strategy: Cheat (JWR 01/05/2022)
Schumer targets filibuster reform to pass voting rights legislation (Fox 01/04/2022)
•
Schumer, who did not back changes to the filibuster in 2017 when Republicans were in charge of the Senate, said now is the time for the Senate to "adapt" and "evolve" because democracy is under threat with state-level changes to voting access.

•
"We must ask ourselves: if the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, then how can we in good conscience allow for a situation in which the Republican Party can debate and pass voter suppression laws at the State level with only a simple majority vote, but not allow the United States Senate to do the same?

•
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called Schumer's latest Senate gambit "absurd and dangerous to the institution itself." "Senator Schumer's rash, partisan power grab should be seen for what it is — desperation and a failure to do what Joe Biden and Democrats ran on: unify."

•
See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Meet the Democrats who could replace Pelosi as party leader in 2023 (Fox 01/04/2022)
Chuck Schumer on the filibuster in 2017: If you can't get 60 votes, 'you shouldn't change the rules' (Fox 01/03/2022)
•
"It looks like Gorsuch will not reach the 60-vote margin. So instead of changing the rules, which is up to Mitch McConnell and the Republican majority, why doesn't President Trump, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate sit down and try to come up with a mainstream nominee?

•
"Look, when a nominee doesn't get 60 votes, you shouldn't change the rules- you should change the nominee."

•
"I hope the Republican Leader and I can, in the coming months, find a way to build a firewall around the legislative filibuster, which is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House."

•
"Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution like the House, much more subject to the winds of short-term electoral change. No Senator would like to see that happen, so let's find a way to further protect the 60-vote rule for legislation."
Former Democrat Rep. Jeff Van Drew urges Manchin to reconsider party ID: 'Look at all they want to do' (Fox 01/03/2022)
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"I think that Joe has to take a look and see all of the other things that [the Democrats] want to do. Look at the BBB, what I call the Big Bad Bill – Look at what it does: It goes into people's [financial] accounts. Anybody that spends more than $10,000, which is everyone. They're going to hire 80,000 IRS agents and spend $800 billion."

•
"The Democratic Party has changed more and more. It's leaving middle class America, it's leaving working America."

•
"Again, I didn't really leave the Democratic Party – as has been said many times — It left me. I'd be willing to help – I know it's a tough thing to do. It wasn't tough for me at all in the end and the right thing to do and I feel better because of it."

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Van Drew pointed to the growing list of Democrat-run cities being wracked by violence and overall crime surges, the continuing supply chain crisis and the party's apparent endeavor to prevent the United States from being energy independent and instead at the mercy of OPEC.

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"The question is do you love America. I hope most of us do. Quite frankly there are people in the Democratic caucus – quite a number of them – don't love the America that we know, the America that we believe in and the America that is a shining city on the hill and the America that is exceptional — I can't accept that. That's why I left."

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"We're on our knees to China, Russia, Iran, we're weaker in our military, our police have been demeaned and diminished. How would you want to stay in that party? I don't understand it."
Schumer to use Jan. 6 anniversary to make push for federal voting rights bill (Fox 01/03/2022)
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"Domestic violent extremists sought to inflict chaos and violence. Fueled by conspiracy and the ravings of a vengeful former President, they sought to destroy our Republic. Our democracy held – for now."

•
Schumer added that "attacks on our democracy have not ceased," but "accelerated," saying Republican officials in states across the nation have "seized on the former President's Big Lie about widespread voter fraud to enact anti-democratic legislation and seize control of typically non-partisan election administration functions."

•
It is unclear which Republicans in which states Schumer was referring to in his letter, but he claimed their actions were intended to "unwind the progress of our Union, restrict access to the ballot, silence the voices of millions of voters, and undermine free and fair elections."

•
Schumer said Senate Democrats, this week, would "make clear that what happened on January 6th and the one-sided, partisan actions being taken by Republican-led state legislatures across the country are directly linked, and we can and must take strong action to stop this anti-democratic march."

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"Let me be clear: January 6th was a symptom of a broader illness – an effort to delegitimize our election process, and the Senate must advance systemic democracy reforms to repair our republic or else the events of that day will not be an aberration – they will be the new norm."

•
"Given the urgency of the situation and imminence of the votes, we as Senate Democrats must urge the public in a variety of different ways to impress upon their Senators the importance of acting and reforming the Senate rules, if that becomes a perquisite for action to save our democracy."

•
Schumer wrote that Senate Democrats have "fought back against these assaults, uniting behind comprehensive legislation that would address these threats to our democracy," but wrote that the "common-sense solutions" have been "repeatedly blocked" by Senate Republicans.

•
"The Senate was designed to protect the political rights of the minority in the chamber, through the promise of debate and the opportunity to amend. But over the years, those rights have been warped and contorted to obstruct and embarrass the will of majority – something our Founders explicitly opposed."

•
"The weaponization of rules once meant to short-circuit obstruction have been hijacked to guarantee obstruction."

•
"We must ask ourselves: if the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, then how can we in good conscience allow for a situation in which the Republican Party can debate and pass voter suppression laws at the State level with only a simple majority vote, but not allow the United States Senate to do the same?"

•
"We hope our Republican colleagues change course and work with us. But if they do not, the Senate will debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to protect the foundation of our democracy: free and fair elections."

•
See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Victor Davis Hanson: Democrats are ‘revolutionaries’ pushing radical agenda ‘even if it explodes’ (Fox 12/31/2021)
•
Whether it's packing the court or ending the filibuster or bringing in two more states or ending the electoral college or the national voting law, or Hillary Clinton's collusion – hiring a foreign national to get dirt on a presidential opponent, candidate opponent – or what we saw with the FISA abuses.

•
So they are revolutionaries and they're projecting their own pathologies on other people because they have no alternate agenda.

•
So this is a revolutionary Jacobin movement. I think everybody saw that in 2021 and I think they fear rightly that it's going to continue in 2022 – even if it explodes and takes us with it. But they're not going to change on their own.
Republicans can win big in 2022. Cheney, Kinzinger must not be allowed to help Pelosi defeat the GOP (Fox 12/31/2021)
•
Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger have made the decision to dedicate the final chapters of their careers in support of the never-ending deranged effort to destroy former President Donald Trump.

•
Trump Derangement Syndrome is a sickness and Cheney and Kinzinger don't care about the damage they're doing to the House as an institution or what condition they'll leave it in after they're gone.

•
What's clear is that Cheney and Kinzinger are propping up the sham January 6 Committee as its two fake Republicans.

•
This anti-democratic committee is abusing power and operating without any minority rights or checks and balances. Case in point: a congressional deposition without minority counsel or staff present is not a serious legislative proceeding; it's an inquisition. And Cheney and Kinzinger know this full well.

•
By working with the illegal January 6 Committee, Cheney and Kinzinger are helping Nancy Pelosi continue her reign as speaker of the House in the next Congress.

•
Make no mistake — Pelosi isn't seeking the truth with her January 6 Committee smokescreen — she only cares about clinging to power and this is the vehicle she's chosen to try to make it a reality.

•
Cheney and Kinzinger's hatred of President Trump runs so deep that they're willing to assist Pelosi and keep the threat of socialism alive in America at a time when the latest defeat of Marxism-Leninism is well within Republican grasp.

•
A Democratic majority in the next Congress would bring further devastation to the health and well-being of our constitutional republic.

•
With Pelosi in charge of the people's House for two more years, Democrats would continue to ignore the border crisis, the crime crisis, the inflation crisis, and the supply chain crisis — and stand idly by as American strength abroad is diminished.

•
Sadly, Cheney and Kinzinger are so oblivious to the big picture, so lost in their third Trump impeachment circus, that they don't seem at all bothered by it.

•
So, the obvious question is why are these two individuals who are actively seeking to undermine Republican success each and every day still members of the House Republican Conference?

•
How can these two be allowed in the room when the conference is discussing strategy and messaging to defeat the political spin coming out of the January 6 Committee that they serve on?
The Democratic Party Is On Life Support (INN 12/30/2021)
Hillary Clinton is begging Democrats to consider her as an alternative to Biden: Devine (Fox 12/24/2021)
Biden says he’s in favor of exception to filibuster for voting rights, ‘whatever it takes’ (Fox 12/24/2021)
•
"The reason the Democrats want to get rid of the filibuster is they want to admit two new states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and pack the Supreme Court and fundamentally change the structure of America forever," McConnell said...

•
"The filibuster prevents extremism... and I admire and respect Senator Sinema and Senator Manchin for saying they are not changing it."
Socialist in Seattle survives recall, and is more dangerous than ever (Fox 12/20/2021)
•
To rally the troops, Sawant baselessly claimed she was the victim of a "racist, right-wing campaign" in a city that had only eight percent Trump voters in the last election.

•
The leader of the recall effort was actually a progressive constituent who is sick of Sawant's divisive, self-serving brand.

•
Sawant is also rabidly anti-police, turning communities against the cops whenever she can. ... Sawant was an early supporter of defunding the Seattle Police Department by 50 percent. She even forwarded vicious and verifiably false accusations against cops during the height of the BLM and Antifa riots. Sawant claimed, sans evidence, that cops seemed "prepared with instructions to orchestrate violence" against protesters...

•
... the light that kept Seattle's soul alive is nearly extinguished. Sawant remaining on the council, seemingly learning nothing from the experience, will likely only empower her.

•
Sawant has undoubtedly been effective at pushing through legislation that makes socialists happy.

•
They're blinded by their fringe beliefs and they don't realize (or care) how badly it's hurting the city.

•
When they do acknowledge a negative impact, they argue it's because their policies weren't allowed to go far enough.

•
Now Sawant feels invincible, buoyed by this campaign win. That makes her more dangerous than ever.
Elizabeth Warren's transformation to pure politician is complete. She's ready to run in 2024 (Fox 12/16/2021)
•
It is the same glaring hypocrisy of democratic leaders like Warren denouncing the conservative majority as "partisan" while demanding the packing of the court to guarantee an immediate liberal majority.

•
The Warren op-ed is perfectly Orwellian in declaring that the Supreme Court now "threatens the foundations of our nation" while using that claim to destroy our highest court.

•
Warren would open up the Court to continual manipulation by shifting majorities in Congress — recreating the Court in the image of our dysfunctional Congress.

•
So, on December 15, 2021, Elizabeth Warren finally transitioned to being a pure politician unburdened and unrestrained.

•
From "Tax the Rich" to "Pack the Court," Warren is now soundbite-ready and principle-resistant for 2024.

•
See related Sitting Bull (Sean Delonas, 10/15/2018) cartoon from General picture album
Sen. John Kennedy has earned a promotion, step aside Mitch McConnell (Fox 12/09/2021)
•
Kennedy once said the Senate "is like high school, but nobody ever graduates." He described a superficial "fix" to ObamaCare as "putting paint on rotting wood."

•
"Putin is a wolf," Kennedy told... "I think he thinks President Biden is a sheep in sheep's clothing."

•
"I didn't vote for the infrastructure bill because only 23 percent of it went to infrastructure. And I wasn't going to spend taxpayer money to buy a car to get the cupholders."

•
"In 2020, you wrote another paper called ‘The Climate Case for a National Investment Authority,' where you said: ‘What we need to do to the oil and gas industry is have the federal government bankrupt them, so we can tackle climate change.'... I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade."

•
Kennedy described Biden's picks as "crypto-socialists." ... "They're fanatical. I mean, if you ask them to consider another point of view, their neck veins bulge, and they call you a Nazi or a racist. We try to question them in committee. But they don't answer the questions. They just refer you — excuse my language — they just refer you to bullshit.com."

•
Kennedy is a solid, if not rigid, conservative with twin 84 percent lifetime ratings from the American Conservative Union and the Club for Growth, with both of which I have collaborated for years.

•
Beyond being reliably hilarious, the University of Virginia lawyer and Oxford University graduate also is a sharp interrogator in oversight hearings, as assertive as a Mardi Gras Indian, and suitably defiant of authority.

•
For his next act of defiance, Kennedy should topple the exhausted chairman of the Senate Cave-in Caucus, Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell...

•
In yet another milquetoast milestone, the Senate's Republican "leader" swallowed Democrats' pending-default lies, and agreed this week to help Democrats raise the federal debt ceiling.

•
In exchange, McConnell got... absolutely nothing. This is precisely what he pledged not to do, in an October 8 letter to President Joe Biden.

•
Seeing Senator John Kennedy stand tall in McConnell's wobbly shoes would give conservatives the last laugh.
Ingraham: Stacey Abrams rides again, but Georgia should laugh back (Fox 12/04/2021)
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"Why on earth would voters there want to give up economic policies that deliver safety, prosperity and job growth for the misery of places like California and New York?"
Pelosi snaps after question about China (Fox 12/04/2021)
Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama are Democrats' top 2024 picks if Biden doesn't run: poll (Fox 11/28/2021)
Cruz blasts MSNBC over segment tying Thanksgiving to 'white supremacy' and 'genocide' (Fox 11/21/2021)
•
"We should encourage this from Democrats- more woke lunacy, please. Degrade the greatest country ever created. Spit all over our traditions."

•
"Finally, a solid majority of Americans are seeing the Left for what it is. A reckoning is coming. Midterms will be just the start."
Democrat strategist James Carville: What went wrong in Virginia election was 'stupid wokeness' (Fox 11/04/2021)
•
"What went wrong is stupid wokeness. ... I mean this ‘defund the police' lunacy, this take Abraham Lincoln's name off of schools, people see that. And it really has a suppressive effect on all across the country on Democrats. Some of these people need to go to a woke detox center or something."
Kamala Harris' prediction that Virginia result presages 2022 and 2024 comes back to bite Democrats (Fox 11/03/2021)
•
Harris said, "What happens in Virginia will, in large part, determine what happens in 2022, 2024, and on."
Biden, Obama, Harris all strike out for McAuliffe in Virginia (Fox 11/03/2021)
Ingraham: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and 'The Squad' overpower Nancy Pelosi (Fox 10/29/2021)
•
"The fact is, even at a reduced price of $1.75 trillion, it's still way more than we can afford. We are literally sticking our grandchildren with these bills – it's immoral."

•
"Don't think for a second these punitive new taxes will actually pay for the left's spending plans – they never do. It's all part of an accounting game to win over gullible, squishy Republicans and moderate Dems."

•
"American blue-collar workers get shafted once again. Biden's big climate push has nothing to do with helping the American people and everything to do with appeasing the globalists at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow a couple of days from now."

•
Meanwhile, our economy ... continue[s] to stagnate ... and Americans will see their savings and income drowned by the rising tide of inflation. Our debt and deficit will explode and we'll be even worse off than we are now.
High Stakes in Virginia (JWR 10/25/2021)
GOP congressman ends floor speech with 'Let's go, Brandon' (Fox 10/22/2021)
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"Based on the false promise that he would unify America, President Biden got into the Oval Office. And my friends on the other side of the aisle gained a razor-thin majority in the House and Senate."

•
"But you know, we know, we all know, everybody knows the unification promise was a lie, and your majority is going to be short-lived. So you must feel compelled to rush through a radical agenda before the midterms."

•
... noted that Americans are "understandably frustrated" and "actually very angry," and that Americans will not "sit back and take it much longer."

•
... concluded by saying that Americans want Democrats "to help put America back where you found it and leave it the hell alone. Let's go, Brandon!"

•
"... like many Americans, I'm frustrated seeing the country quickly decline and the erosion of our civil liberties due to Washington's policies designed to turn America upside down like the vaccine mandates, silencing parents at school board meetings, rampant crime, broken borders, rising gas and food prices, the weaponizing of the IRS, and a $5 trillion Green New Deal to restructure our lives."

•
The phrase "Let's go, Brandon" has become a euphemistic way of saying "F** Joe Biden." The phrase became a popular meme after a reporter claimed that a NASCAR crowd was chanting driver Brandon Brown's name, rather than denouncing the president.

•
"Let's go, Brandon" is now a popular saying among people frustrated with Biden and his agenda.
Laura Ingraham: Democrats should be worried (Fox 10/22/2021)
Jason Chaffetz: Dems own Biden failures – they'll run but they can't hide from policy fiascos (Fox 10/12/2021)
RNC Chairwoman McDaniel: Biden's radical spending – he promised moderation but we got Sanders socialism (Fox 10/09/2021)
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See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Hannity shames Mitch McConnell for ‘completely caving’ to Dems’ threats: ‘Where is your backbone?’ (Fox 10/08/2021)
•
"Mitch McConnell, where is your backbone? Where are your principles?" ... "Instead of forcing the Democrats' hand, as they said they would, instead of calling their bluff, as they said they would, McConnell completely caved to their threats and he did it at the last minute."

•
"Mitch McConnell, he played the typical sewer-swamp game of saying one thing, doing another, making a promise and breaking it."

•
"That is what is at stake. Mitch McConnell, if you're not willing to fight for basic, small government, simple, conservative principles... keep your promises and protect the country from what we know doesn't work – socialism... then you need to step aside. We need new leadership. Because clearly, your word is worthless."

•
See related It Has No Spine (Michael Ramirez, 02/12/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Some Republicans unhappy with McConnell's debt ceiling deal: 'Complete capitulation' (Fox 10/07/2021)
•
"I think this is just a mistake," Graham said. "I don't understand why here at the very end we did this fold, because what you're gonna do is you're going to embolden his folks. And I'm not going to live under the threat of the filibuster being changed every time we have a fight. I didn't do that when we were in charge. If they want to change the filibuster, change it."

•
Former President Donald Trump also slammed McConnell, saying in a statement the GOP leader had "folded to the Democrats, again."
McConnell to Biden: Tell Pelosi and Schumer to raise debt limit on their own (Fox 10/04/2021)
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"Since mid-July, Republicans have clearly stated that Democrats will need to raise the debt limit on their own. All year, your party has chosen to pursue staggering, ‘transformational' spending through unprecedented use of the party-line reconciliation process. I have relayed this reality to your Democratic lieutenants for two and a half months."

•
"Your Democratic majorities have not plan of their own to avoid default... I respectfully submit that it is time for your to engage directly with Congressional Democrats on this matter."

•
"Bipartisanship is not a light switch that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer may flip on to borrow money and flip off to spend it."

•
"We have no list of demands. For two and a half months, we have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well."
Biden slams Senate GOP as 'hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful' amid debt ceiling fight (Fox 10/04/2021)
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"Let me be really clear. Raising the debt limit is about paying off our old debts. It has nothing to do with any new spending being considered. It has nothing to do with my plan for infrastructure or ‘Building Back Better.'"...

•
"We're just asking them not to use procedural tricks to block us from doing the job they won't do," he said, adding that without raising the debt limit, a "meteor is set to crash into our economy."
McConnell accuses Dem leaders of ‘letting the radical left run Capitol Hill’ after infrastructure bill stalls (Fox 10/03/2021)
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"Democratic leaders are letting the radical left run Capitol Hill." ... "Socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied against the Administration's infrastructure bill and defeated it. With Americans already suffering the worst inflation in 30 years, Democrats have taken our roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways hostage to ram through an historically reckless taxing and spending spree that would hurt families and help China."

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"This unified Democratic government must stop putting radical wish-lists ahead of basic governance or they will thrust our nation into even more foreseeable and avoidable crises on their watch."
Deroy Murdock: Bernie's budget is $3.5T blueprint for instant socialism in America (Fox 09/25/2021)
Reflection of My Failed Campaign (JWR 09/23/2021)
Former President Bush to fundraise for Liz Cheney in his first 2022 event, setting up clash with Trump (Fox 09/22/2021)
Sen. John Barrasso: Biden and Democrats are the Party of chaos 9/15/21 (Fox s:/so/2022 )
Manchin: Schumer ‘will not have my vote’ on $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill (Fox 09/12/2021)
•
"He will not have my vote on 3.5 and Chuck knows that," he said, adding that it should be more like $1.5 trillion. "It's not going to be three and a half I can assure you."

•
Manchin said the bill that Democrats should be primarily focused on is the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed in the Senate and is awaiting House action.

•
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said a vote on that bill would be held on Sept. 27, but progressives have threatened to vote against it if the reconciliation bill is held up in the Senate.

•
Manchin said there is "no way" the reconciliation will pass this month, and he said progressives are making a big mistake if they follow through on their threat.

•
"They have to do what they have to do. And if they play politics with the needs of America, I can tell you America will recoil."

•
... Manchin criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., after the senator declared on Twitter the day before: "No infrastructure bill without the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill."

•
"I just respectfully disagree with Bernie, I've never seen this in legislation. I never thought the purposes of the progress we make in legislation was basically to hold one hostage over the other."
GOP’s Lauren Boebert placed in Democrat’s district in Colorado election-map proposal: reports (Fox 09/05/2021)
Larry Elder says he would replace Dianne Feinstein with a Republican if he wins California recall election (Fox 09/04/2021)
Texas GOP advances voting bill after Democrats end weeks-long walkout (Fox 08/28/2021)
Afghanistan 'political disaster' for Biden, former top Clinton adviser says (Fox 08/25/2021)
Alabama Senate hopeful Katie Britt takes on liberal media, Big Tech, career politicians: 'A mama on a mission' (Fox 08/25/2021)
•
"I firmly believe that it is time for the next generation to get off the sideline and get engaged, that if the next generation doesn't stand up and fight ... there's not going to be a country left for our children to fight for."

•
... described growing up in rural Alabama and how her family instilled the values of building good character, integrity and work ethic into her everyday life. "Those are the things that I can control. Those are the things that determine your path in life. I believe in the American dream and I believe it is alive and well..."

•
"I believe in President Trump's America First agenda and I'm going to fight for that every day ... I see the good that President Trump was able to do for our country. People want to be heard, and for the first time ever, they feel like he gave them a voice."

•
"If you can silence the President of the United States, make no mistake, you can silence anyone. People want someone who understands that, and they want someone who will fight against that. That's exactly what I'll do."

•
"I am a mother. I have a sixth-grader and a seventh-grader. And I have decided that if I don't fight, if I don't step up and fight and work to preserve the nation that I know and love, there's not going to be a nation left for my children to fight for."

•
"Mamas are sick and tired of being told their children can't go to school or they can do this or they can't do that. It is time for us to preserve the nation we know and love."
RNC's Paris Dennard: Liberal media distracting from Biden's 'failure' by fanning racial flames ahead of 2022 (Fox 08/12/2021)
Senate Republicans force Dems to vote on CRT, fracking, abortion and more in marathon 'vote-a-rama' (Fox 08/11/2021)
Dems' Hypocrisy Is Now Impossible To Ignore (JWR 08/06/2021)
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See related A Slimy Creature (Antonio Branco, 07/06/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Freedom Caucus tells McCarthy to expel Kinzinger, Cheney from GOP conference: 'Switched teams' (Fox 07/29/2021)
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"It was antithetical to have sitting in your conference individuals who professed that they want to take out the minority leader and then they want to go join the Democrats on a witch hunt through the Republican Party."

•
"We've got two members... of our party who have switched teams," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said. "What if you had a football game and two players just all of a sudden kept the same uniform but started playing for the other team. Something has got to be done."
Chuck DeVore: Texas Democrats' voting rights stunt finds them rapidly losing ground in DC, Lone Star State (Fox 07/29/2021)
House Freedom Caucus calls on McCarthy to attempt to remove Pelosi as speaker (Fox 07/23/2021)
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"Speaker Pelosi's tenure is destroying the House of Representatives and our ability to faithfully represent the people we are here to serve."
McCarthy says Pelosi 'has broken this institution' by denying GOP picks for Jan. 6 select committee (Fox 07/21/2021)
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"Speaker Pelosi has taken the unprecedented step of denying the minority party's picks for the select committee on Jan. 6. This represents something that has not happened in the House before for a select committee, by the historian."

•
"It's an egregious abuse of power. Pelosi has broken this institution. Denying the voice of members who have served in the military – Jim Banks, a Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan."

•
"As well as a leader of a standing committee. Jim Jordan isn't ranking of just his first committee, he's done it before."

•
"Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts."

•
"This has not happened before. House Democrats must answer this question. Why are you allowing a lame duck speaker to destroy this institution? This is the peoples' House, not Pelosi's House."

•
Pelosi, McCarthy added ... "made it undeniable this panel has lost all legitimacy and credibility. And it shows exactly what I warned back at the beginning of January. That Pelosi would play politics with this."

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"This has always been about politics and today's actions by the speaker just confirm that," Jordan said...

•
"... why the Capitol was vulnerable on that day when we had intelligence for weeks leading up to Jan. 6 that told us that something dangerous would happen," Banks said.

•
"She knew we would fight back against their political game and that's why she didn't want us to participate in this committee, What is the speaker afraid of?"
Pelosi bans GOP Reps. Jim Jordan, Jim Banks from serving on Jan. 6 committee, McCarthy threatens total boycott (Fox 07/21/2021)
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"Speaker Pelosi just admitted the obvious, that the January 6th Select Committee is nothing more than a partisan political charade," Jordan said...

•
"With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee," Pelosi said in a statement.

•
"The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision."

•
"We need a comprehensive investigation as to who organized this attack, who paid for it, how they nearly succeeded in overthrowing a presidential election, why they did it and how we must organize ourselves to prevent anything like it from ever happening again."

•
"This represents an egregious abuse of power and will irreparably damage this institution," McCarthy said of Pelosi's decision to reject his picks.

•
"Denying the voices of members who have served in the military and law enforcement, as well as leaders of standing committees, has made it undeniable that this panel has lost all legitimacy and credibility and shows the Speaker is more interested in playing politics than seeking the truth."

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See related Witch-Hunt Continues (Antonio Branco, 06/01/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
A new get-Trump committee? (JWR 07/06/2021)
Pelosi taps Republican Liz Cheney to sit on new committee to probe Capitol riot (Fox 07/01/2021)
Kyrsten Sinema: Dems hypocritical for trying to end filibuster after using it 'just last year' (Fox 06/22/2021)
Memo to Manchin: Join the GOP (JWR 06/11/2021)
House Republicans who voted to oust Taylor Greene demand Pelosi do same for Ilhan Omar (Fox 06/11/2021)
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"Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has made a congressional career out of the following: Fueling anti-Semitic violence against Jewish communities by perpetuating false stereotypes and anti-Semitic tropes; denigrating strategic allies of the United States; accusing members of Congress of unconstitutionally pleading allegiance to a foreign sovereign because of their support of the U.S.-Israel partnership; whitewashing the September 11 terrorist attacks that resulted in the death of over 3,000 innocent Americans, and drawing [an] equivalence between the United States and criminal organizations such as Hamas and the Taliban — both of which have been deemed by the Department of State as terrorist organizations."

•
"These comments and policy stances undermine the interests of the United States abroad and weakens the effectiveness of our foreign policy, Her continued involvement as a prominent member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee cheapens the role of Congress in foreign policy decision-making."

•
... it "sends a dangerous signal to our allies and our adversaries alike that the United States tolerates anti-Semitism, that we no longer believe in the long-term mission of supporting free peoples and free markets, and that we no longer remain committed to combatting acts of terror against the United States or our allies."

•
"Time after time, Congresswoman Omar has delivered a hollow and meaningless apology with the sole purpose of appeasing her party's leadership, only to revert back to her true sentiments and her real policy stances."

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See related Let's Not Rush to Judgement... (Mike Shelton, 07/03/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Pelosi condemns Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'verbal assault' on AOC, suggests ethics violation (Fox 05/13/2021)
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"It's so beyond the pale of anything that is in keeping with bringing honor to the House, or not bringing dishonor to the House," Pelosi, D-Calif., said... "It's so beyond the pale that ... it probably is a matter for the Ethics Committee."

•
Actually, SpeakerPelosi the Ethics Commitee should look into AOC for putting Trump admin staff and supporters on lists to destroy their lives and prevent future employment.

•
She threatened the livelihoods of Americans for simply being Republicans. BTW, there was no screaming.
Cheney swears she's 'not leaving' the GOP after being removed from House leadership post (Fox 05/13/2021)
Don't blame the filibuster for blocking Democrats' agenda (Fox 05/12/2021)
Liz Cheney becomes lightning rod, battling Trump over who’s lying about 2020 (Fox 05/05/2021)
Jason Chaffetz: Biden's first 100 days – now we know just how much president was hiding the truth (Fox 04/30/2021)
•
... the promise of Joe Biden and the reality are two different things. There is nothing bipartisan or moderate about the way the Biden-Harris administration has governed in the first 100 days.

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... we've seen Biden go it alone with an unprecedented number of executive orders this early in a presidency. We've seen massive deceptively marketed spending sprees passed on a party-line vote. We've seen many of Biden's long-held "moderate" positions abandoned. What we haven't seen is bipartisanship.

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Bipartisanship is no longer even a pretense. Biden still has not met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with whom he brags of having influenced in previous legislative battles.

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Nor has he had a single conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose requests to meet have been ignored.

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The policies of Biden and Harris must also come as a surprise to those who voted for the ticket hoping for some kind of reasonable middle ground.

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Instead, Biden has dispensed with his own long-held positions on abortion, court packing and the filibuster. And he has taken extreme positions on the Green New Deal, border security and the Second Amendment.

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Biden's alleged moderate agenda was marketed to appeal to Reagan Democrats, centrist independents and Trump-weary Republicans. But that agenda has been supplanted by one socialists and anarchists now applaud.

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Biden has come to reflect the extreme wing of his party, with self-proclaimed socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., saying Biden has "exceeded expectations that progressives had."

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The would-be president "for all Americans" supported legislation punitive to Americans who didn't vote for him – and to Americans who did.

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In killing the Keystone Pipeline on his first day, he killed thousands of good jobs. His COVID relief package was formulated to concentrate aid (what little there is of it after the bill was loaded up with pork) to large Democrat-voting urban centers.

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His failure to stem the tide of illegal (and sometimes COVID-positive) border crossers has placed significant burdens on border state taxpayers and complicated their efforts to contain the pandemic spread.

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Just 100 days in, the Republican narrative of Biden was right. He is a weak leader, possibly in mental decline, through whom extremists in the Democratic Party can push their most unpopular ideas.

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Massive spending, rising crime rates, proposed economy-killing tax increases, destruction of jobs and energy independence – thus far these are the prize fruits of the Biden-Harris administration.

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Set aside the immovable positions of partisans at either extreme and just consider the people in the middle. For them, Biden has been an abject failure.

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See related The Little Dictator (Mike Shelton, 02/02/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related The Shadow President (Gary Varvel, 02/01/2021) cartoon from Government picture album

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See related Biden\\\'s Brain Trust (Gary Varvel, 07/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
'Platitudes and political theater:' Tomi Lahren and All-Star panel react to Biden's address to Congress (Fox 04/29/2021)
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"President Biden told us one thing very clearly: The almighty government funded by you, the American taxpayer, is your savior, your messiah, and your master."

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"The government run by Democrats closed your businesses, your schools, and mandated healthy people stay at home — Now, that same government, almost completely controlled by Democrats and Joe Biden, wants to be your employer, your paycheck, your guardian, and your family."

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"The message tonight...wasn't one of freedom or liberty. It wasn't one of self-reliance or personal responsibility. It was one of depending upon the government for your health and safety; depending upon the government for your job; depending upon the government for your paycheck, and being allowed to go outside without a mask."

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"We're back to identity politics, Yes, it's great to have people of every race, every ethnicity, and every gender represented in Washington — but doesn't it matter what our qualifications are? Clearly not anymore."

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"More government, more control, less liberty, and more of our American tax dollars, There's nothing fiscally responsible about what he's doing. It's just all government, all the time."

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See related Worst Cooks (Gary Varvel, 01/25/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden's first 100 days in office: 'Aggressive' progressive agenda even to the left of Obama (Fox 04/29/2021)
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The president moved forward with a series of executive actions and legislative proposals meant to reshape the country's economic and social structure, including a two-part, $4 trillion tax-and-spend proposal centered on physical — and societal — infrastructure projects.

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The president's longtime friend, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, has described the Biden White House as a "totally left-wing administration" and accused Biden of campaigning as a centrist, only to pursue partisan policy goals once elected.

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"I think it can best be described as the 'Biden bait and switch,' President Biden ran as a moderate, but I'm hard-pressed to think of anything at all that he's done — so far — that would indicate some degree of moderation."

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Biden utilized executive orders to unwind several Trump-era immigration policies, including federal funding for the border wall and a loosening of restrictions for asylum claimants.

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His administration has expressed support for a Democrat-backed voting rights overhaul known as the "For The People Act." Republicans say the measure is biased toward Democrats and grants the federal government undue influence over state elections.

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See related Sold! (Mike Shelton, 01/20/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related The Left (Mike Shelton, 01/28/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Biden\\\'s Brain Trust (Gary Varvel, 07/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
House Dems slam 'racist' filibuster blocking 'everything we love,' say Americans 'do not care about...' (Fox 04/22/2021)
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"Everything we love is at stake," Bush said. "Senate Republicans are using the filibuster to deny our people not just everything we love, but everything we need."

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Bush continued that Americans elected Democrats in Congress "with a mandate to transform this society."

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"We demand an urgent end to the racial, racist Senate procedural — this procedural tool. This tool that blocks us from what we need, what we have to have to survive and to thrive. Blocking us from getting on with the business of protecting the communities that we were elected to serve."

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"There is only one thing that blocks us, and it is a procedure. Now no one across the country cares about procedure."

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Notably, Senate Republicans have not yet actually used the filibuster in this Congress. ... Democrats, however, used the filibuster often when Republicans were in the Senate majority. They filibustered GOP efforts to pass coronavirus stimulus bills; police reform; protections for survivors of abortion and more.

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McConnell, as Democrats push for the elimination of the filibuster under President Biden, disputes the idea that they have a mandate to pass massive changes without compromising with Republicans, which the filibuster would force them to do.

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"Does anyone really believe the American people were voting for an entirely new system of government by electing Joe Biden to the White House and a 50-50 Senate?"

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"That may be what a few liberal activists want. Does anyone believe that's what millions of Americans just thought they were electing? Of course it's not."

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"There's so much emphasis on the most extreme bills that either party might pass with a simple majority. People forget that the Senate's 60-vote threshold is the only reason that any routine, must-pass legislation is bipartisan except during divided government."

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"Big funding deals. Appropriations bills. Farm bills. Highway bills. The NDAA. The Senate's 60-vote threshold backstops all of it. It's not just about controversial items; it's about everything we do."

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More than half of currently sitting Democratic senators signed a letter in 2017 advocating for the preservation of the filibuster. Nearly all of them have either distanced themselves from that position or completely reversed their stance.
Democrats, after slamming Trump for upending ‘norms,’ now eyeing sweeping changes of their own (Fox 04/16/2021)
Zeldin slams Pelosi for praising Biden's handling of border: 'She is a dishonest hack' (Fox 04/08/2021)
Schumer says Dems were justified in using filibuster that some of them now seek to abolish (Fox 03/25/2021)
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"The Democratic side just spent four years defending and happily using the same Senate rule that many of our colleagues now attack," McConnell said. "This reversal isn't about principle. Just raw power."

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See related House-Senate Conference (Mike Shelton, 02/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Schumer, McConnell spar over Dems' S1 election bill during rare committee appearance: 'Shame!' (Fox 03/24/2021)
Senate set for clash on hot-button elections bill Dems say boosts voting rights, GOP decries as... (Fox 03/24/2020)
China a rare political issue in polarized times that could see bipartisan cooperation, lawmakers say (Fox 03/22/2021)
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See related Foreign Affairs (Antonio Branco, 05/16/2019) cartoon from World picture album
Newt Gingrich: Pelosi, Schumer and the Democratic Machine vs. The People of Arizona (Fox 03/19/2021)
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... the Democratic Party is not operating as individuals representing distinct districts of Americans.

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The Democratic Party is operating as a machine – a machine designed to drive a single agenda and impose it nationwide.

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The American system was designed to resist and break political machines like the one Kamala Harris, Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer are building. This system will be tested when H.R. 1 comes to the Senate.

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Democrats across the country are going to have to decide whether they will vote with their people or with the Democratic Machine.

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See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related House-Senate Conference (Mike Shelton, 02/05/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden supports changing filibuster rules in Senate (Fox 03/17/2021)
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President Biden said in an interview Tuesday that he is in favor of overhauling the filibuster rules that could help Democrats use their Senate majority to steamroll legislative initiatives without so much as looking at their Republican colleagues.

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Biden did not call for an elimination of the action - he doesn't have the support in the Senate even if he did - but he sided with lawmakers seen as moderates who want changes to some of the rules.

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"It's getting to the point where, you know, democracy is having a hard time functioning," Biden said.

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McConnell ... warned of a "scorched earth" landscape if Democrats end the filibuster.

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"Let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues: Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin — can even begin to imagine — what a completely scorched earth Senate would look like."

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"Everything that Democratic Senates did to Presidents Bush and Trump, everything the Republican Senate did to President Obama, would be child's play compared to the disaster that Democrats would create for their own priorities if — if — they break the Senate."

•
The Senate is evenly split 50-50, with the deciding vote going to Vice President Harris. In most legislation, there needs to be a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation to President Biden's desk.

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The filibuster can be invoked as long as there there are fewer than 60 senators willing to vote to end the debate on any particular bill.

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... in past years senators trying to stall legislation would have to speak for hours, but currently, these senators just have to announce their desire to filibuster a bill.

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Democrats do not have the votes to eliminate a filibuster, but some key senators have spoken out in favor of some rule changes.
Hannity: Nuking filibuster would be 'single largest power grab in modern American political history' ()
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The growing push to eliminate the legislative filibuster indicates a troubling partisan "power grab" among Democrats seeking to advance their "radical" agenda at the highest echelons of the U.S. government...

•
... Democrats were hoping to get rid of the legislative process because "they know that the socialist utopia vision that they have ... their radical bills will never get the 60 votes needed to clear the filibuster for the Senate. So now they will just change the rules."

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"Now the Democrats are in charge and it must be abolished and abolished immediately so they can just pass anything and everything they want and ram it down the country's throat."

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"Here's what you need to know about the Democratic Party: It's filled with now the most radical far-left individuals of any major political party in modern history."

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"The only real principle is power over everything — over the Constitution, over the Bill of Rights, over the rule of law, over basic fairness and justice. They want one-party rule. They want it in perpetuity forever and ever."
Trump tells supporters 'No more money for RINOS' as he battles GOP over fundraising with his likeness (Fox 03/09/2021)
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The former president over the weekend sent "cease-and-desist" letters to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the Republican National Committee (RNC) demanding that they stop using his name and likeness to raise money...

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Then mere hours later, Trump sent an email to his supporters telling them to ensure that their political donations go to the political action committee (PAC) directly controlled by him instead of organizations that may support Republicans who are critical of the former president.

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"No more money for RINOS. They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base — they will never lead us to Greatness," Trump said, telling donors to give their money to his Save America PAC. "We will bring it all back stronger than ever before."

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... at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), he said "there's only one way to contribute to our efforts to elect America First Republican conservatives and in turn to Make America Great Again, and that's through" his Save America PAC.

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Trump most recently said he plans to campaign for an opponent to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who was one of the seven GOP senators to vote to convict him at his impeachment trial last month.

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"I will not be endorsing, under any circumstances, the failed candidate from the great State of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, She represents her state badly and her country even worse. I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be – in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad Senator."

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Donald Trump Jr. ... slammed the idea of "blindly" supporting Republican incumbents and said there are "plenty" of Republican senators against who he and the former president would be willing to support primary challenges.

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These groups, however, are unlikely to publicly rebuke Trump over his efforts to undercut them, as the GOP base is still largely in thrall with the former president.
Trumpism without Trump? (JWR 03/04/2021)
Newt Gingrich: CPAC's 3 big winners – and why you should ignore talk of a Republican civil war (Fox 03/04/2021)
Blackburn says conservatives need to 'get busy' ahead of 2022 midterms, calls for tough... (Fox 02/27/2021)
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"This really is a different year because we have the radical left in charge of the White House, the House and Senate and they would love to get rid of our free speech...diminish our religious liberties, take away the Second Amendment and they're being very aggressive, not through legislation alone, but also through these executive orders."

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"Conservatives want lower taxes, less regulation, a strong military, they want to have individual freedoms, they want everyone to have opportunity and prosperity, so this is important that conservatives show up, make their voices heard and say we value our rights and our freedoms."

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"People need to be paying close attention and they need to make their opinions known to their elected representatives."

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"We need to make certain that they are working in their communities, with their local election commission to clean up election rolls, they need to be working with their state legislature, supporting voter ID, supporting policies that are going to make certain that the votes are handled right on the front end with the ballots."

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"On the federal level we need to fight all of this out-of-control federal spending, we need to make certain we are prohibiting some of these trade deals that are going to cost American jobs."

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"And we need to be very specific with China that we know they're our adversary, they are not our ally and we need to bring our manufacturing jobs back from China, we need to end these Confucius Institutes that are on our college campuses and we need to make sure China is held accountable for sending us COVID-19."
Ilhan Omar, other progressives question Biden's 'legal rationale' for Syria airstrikes (Fox 02/27/2021)
What will Trump tell the Conservative Political Action Conference next week? (INN 02/25/2021)
Ingraham: Democrats making ‘huge mistakes’ by ‘vilifying’ Manchin, propping up Neera Tanden (Fox 02/25/2021)
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"Why not just defend the nomination on substantive grounds? I can tell you why. Because Tanden's qualifications are really flimsy, that's why. Raising money for left-wing causes and attacking Republicans on the internet hardly qualifies you to run the Office of Management and Budget."
McConnell slams House Dems' election reform bill as 'wrong response' to lack of faith in elections (Fox 02/25/2021)
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"For several years now, we've seen the political left grow less interested in having normal policy debates within our governing institutions, and more interested in attacking the institutions themselves to tilt the playing field in their side's favor."

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"When their side loses a presidential election, it's not Democrats' fault, but the Electoral College's. When they don't like a Supreme Court decision, it's time to threaten the Justices or pack the Court. When long-standing Senate rules threaten to frustrate far-left proposals, it's the Senate rules they want to change."

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... they want to try to use their slim majorities to unilaterally rewrite and nationalize election law itself." ... Democrats want "to use the temporary power the voters have granted them to try to ensure they'll never have to relinquish it."

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"They want to force all 50 states to allow the absurd practice of ballot harvesting, where paid operatives can show up at polling places carrying a thick stack of filled-out ballots with other people's names on them."

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"They want to forbid states from implementing voter I.D. or doing simple things like checking their voter rolls against change-of-address submissions. They want to mandate no-excuse, mail-in balloting as a permanent norm, post-pandemic."

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"This sweeping federal takeover would be exactly the wrong response to the distressing lack of faith in our elections that we've recently seen from both political sides."

•
"As recently as late last September, only a minority of Democrats said they were confident the 2020 presidential election would be 'free and fair.' Just weeks later, by mid-November, once things had gone the way they wanted, Democrats' confidence magically skyrocketed up to 90%."

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"We cannot keep trending toward a future where Americans' confidence in elections is purely a function of which side won."

•
"A sweeping power grab by House Democrats, forcibly rewriting 50 states' election laws, would shove us farther and faster down that path."

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"In this country, if the people who win elections want to hold onto power, they need to perform well, pass sound policies and earn the support of the voters again."

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... House Democrats "do not get to take their razor-thin majority" to "steamroll states and localities to try to prevent themselves from losing even more seats next time." ... "Protecting democracy cannot be a partisan issue."
Trump, at CPAC, expected to hammer Biden on immigration, China (Fox 02/24/2021)
Joe Lieberman: Maryland's lessons for DC – this is what working for the common good looks like (Fox 02/24/2021)
Rep. Byron Donalds: Dems' For the People Act is really just for Democrats – here's why (Fox 02/24/2021)
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The Democrats like to reference the Constitution when prosecuting not one but two fruitless impeachment trials – but they struggle to follow the Constitution when doing the job they were elected to do, legislating.

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... the Democrats' latest attempt to disregard the Constitution in their ruthless power grab in the form of "election reform."

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This unconstitutional resolution would strip states of their constitutional responsibility as the referees of their elections by subverting local and state rules with the rule of coastal elitist politicians.

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Election law, like most laws, cannot be solved by imposing one-size-fits-all policies...

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This bill will strip power away from elected officials and the people they were elected to serve ... across the nation.

•
Unlike Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who famously said, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it," I read the bill, and it is a disaster.

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Hidden in this nearly 600-page monstrosity is the ability to do the following: Dissolve voter I.D. laws; give Washington bureaucrats the power to redraw congressional districts and create voter qualifications such as allowing 16-year-olds to vote; open the door to taxpayer-funded political campaigns, and set up fraud-prone mail-in ballots as the new standard of voting.

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Furthermore, this bill buries the politically polarizing maneuver to make Washington, D.C., a state – which speaks to this bill's misguided and elitist motivations.

•
Also, H.R. 1 changes the Federal Election Commission's membership to five members, effectively giving the Democrats complete control over the future of America's sole enforcer of campaign finance laws in the United States. This bill is a blatant assault on the Constitution.

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The media and Democratic politicians tend to poison the election integrity debate by tagging the phrase "conspiracy theory" when reporters and conservative politicians call into question breaches in election law.

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There is a dire need for reform in many states, but they don't need the help of Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y...

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Our constitutional republic's integrity can only thrive if the chief executive and our representatives are democratically elected by eligible voters.

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See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Every House Democrat signs on to sweeping HR 1 bill, GOP argues it would 'undermine'... (Fox 02/22/2021)
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"House Democrats are united in our steadfast commitment to advance transformational anti-corruption and clean election reforms by swiftly passing H.R. 1."

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"Our historic reform effort will end decades of dysfunction in Washington, return power to the people and build a more just, equitable and prosperous country for all Americans."

•
According to Democrats, the bill would "improve access to the ballot box," by creating an automatic voter registration across the country, and by ensuring that individuals who have completed felony sentences have their full voting rights restored.

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The bill will also expand early voting and enhance absentee voting by simplifying voting by mail.

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The bill also commits Congress to deliver "full congressional voting rights and self-government for the residents of the District of Columbia, which only statehood can provide," prohibits voter roll purges and "ends partisan gerrymandering to prevent politicians from picking their voters."

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Republicans have argued such a decision to advocate for D.C. statehood is a political move to ensure two permanently Democratic U.S. Senate seats in what is an approximately nine-to-one Democrat-to-Republican jurisdiction.

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The legislation also "ensures that American elections are decided by American voters," by enhancing federal support for voting system security, specifically with regard to paper ballots, and also by increasing oversight of election system vendors and by requiring the "development of a national strategy to protect U.S. democratic institutions."

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The bill also seeks to "end the dominance of big money in our policies," and aims to shine "a light on dark money in politics" by upgrading online political ad disclosure and requiring all organizations involved in political activity to disclose their large donors.

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The bill also "breaks the so-called ‘nesting-doll' sham that allows big-money contributors and special interests to hide the true funding source of their political spending," and "strengthens the political power of hardworking Americans by creating a multiple matching system for small donations."

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The matching system "will be completely paid for by a new surcharge on corporate law breakers and wealthy tax cheats" in an effort to "bear the cost of building a more just and equitable democracy."

•
The bill also, in a swipe at former President Trump, requires presidents to disclose their tax returns — something Trump managed to avoid while in office.

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The legislation would also close loopholes for lobbyists and foreign agents, and ensure that watchdogs have "sufficient resources" to enforce the law.

•
Republican opposition was fierce during the last session. At the time, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., labeled it the "Democrat Politician Protection Act" and said in an op-ed that Democrats were seeking to "change the rules of American politics to benefit one party."

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A recent Wall Street Journal editorial written in opposition to the legislation warned that H.R. 1 is an exercise by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in "cementing Democratic political power," in association with a bill aimed to provide for Puerto Rican statehood.

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"H.R.1 imposes California-style election rules nationwide. The bill requires every state to register voters based on names in state and federal databases — such as anyone receiving food stamps or who interacts with a state DMV, Overall the bill is designed to auto-enroll likely Democratic voters, enhance Democratic turnout, with no concern for ballot integrity."

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See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Collins opposes Tanden for Biden budget director, in another blow to confirmation (Fox 02/22/2021)
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"Congress has to be able to trust the OMB director to make countless decisions in an impartial manner, carrying out the letter of the law and congressional intent, Neera Tanden has neither the experience nor the temperament to lead this critical agency."

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"Ms. Tanden's decision to delete more than a thousand tweets in the days before her nomination was announced raises concerns about her commitment to transparency."

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"Should Congress need to review documents or actions taken by OMB, we must have confidence that the Director will be forthcoming."
House conservatives unveil playbook on how they’ll fight back against Democrats' $1.9T... (Fox 02/22/2021)
Who are the Lincoln Project PAC top donors? (Fox 02/14/2021)
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See related The Lincoln Project (Mike Shelton, 02/04/2021) cartoon from Adult picture album
Big tech employees opened wallets for Biden campaign (Fox 02/20/2021)
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Employees of Google's parent, Alphabet Inc., and Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. were the five largest sources of money for Mr. Biden's campaign...

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Mr. Biden's presidential campaign received at least $15.1 million from employees of those five tech firms...

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The previous Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also received large contributions from tech company employees, but their top sources of employee donations extended beyond the tech sector.

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Mrs. Clinton's biggest sources of funds from those identifying corporate employers in 2016 included employees of the personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan and JPMorgan Chase & Co., along with Google, Microsoft and Apple...

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Four years earlier, Mr. Obama's top sources of corporate employee contributions included Microsoft and Google but also Deloitte, Time Warner, now part of AT&T Inc., and the law firm DLA Piper.

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While corporations are prohibited from giving directly to campaigns, their employees are free to give as individuals...

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The top sources of money from corporate employees to the Republican incumbent Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign were employees of American Airlines Group Inc., Boeing Co., Bank of America Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., according to the Center for Responsive Politics's analysis.

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The findings come as Republicans have asserted that the big tech companies are biased against them, including allegations that companies with online platforms such as Facebook and Google censor online content to favor liberal views.

•
"There is a disconnect between the tech industry and many Republicans, We don't like Silicon Valley — and they don't like us."

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Google, Facebook and Amazon are already targets of antitrust investigations, and there is bipartisan support in Congress for measures that could diminish their clout.

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Mr. Biden has signaled that he supports rescinding the broad legal immunity that tech firms currently enjoy for information carried over their networks.

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About two-thirds of the money in presidential races is donated to candidates from individuals, who could give up to $2,800 to a candidate for the recent election. Those who donate $200 or more are required to disclose the names of their employers.

•
While corporations are prohibited from making financial donations to candidates for national office, many companies operate political-action committees, or PACs, which are employee-funded accounts that companies use to donate money to favored candidates.

•
Relatively little money in presidential elections comes from corporate PACs. Labor unions spend millions of dollars each election to support Democratic candidates.

•
Mr. Biden's campaign, according to the Journal's analysis, received $3.7 million from employees of five of the largest Wall Street firms: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan.

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In prior elections, those firms ranked among the top sources of money for the Democratic presidential candidate, records show.

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That was less than the total contributed to Mr. Biden by employees of Alphabet, who donated $5.3 million, making the tech company the No. 1 source of money...

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Google employees were the top source of donations to Mrs. Clinton's 2016 campaign and the second-largest source of money for Mr. Obama's 2012 race.

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Employees of Amazon contributed a total of $2.8 million to Mr. Biden's campaign. Amazon was the third-largest source of money among companies to Mr. Biden in the election.

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Microsoft employees have long been a top source of money for Democratic presidential candidates. Microsoft employees donated $3.2 million to Mr. Biden in the election.

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Facebook employees have emerged as a top source of money, donating $1.9 million to his campaign...

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Other top sources of money for Mr. Biden were employees of Lowercase Capital, Oracle Corp., Netflix Inc., Saban Capital Group and Morgan & Morgan...

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See related Steal Team Six (Antonio Branco, 10/20/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
7 Republican senators vote to convict Trump on incitement charge (Fox 02/13/2021)
Joe Biden is Trumpism's best asset — why do Washington elites find this so hard to understand? (Fox 02/13/2021)
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The Washington establishment still can't comprehend the dynamic which allows former President Donald Trump to withstand constant attacks and media hits without losing his core supporters. At this point, the key to Trump's following is President Joe Biden.

•
No matter how bad Trump's lawyers are (and Tuesday's opening presentation for Trump at the Senate impeachment trial may be the most incompetent, amateurish, and ill-prepared opening I have ever seen), Biden is worse.

•
No matter what the accusations against former President Trump are, his base can't leave him because the alternative is so unacceptable to them.

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Every time Biden signs another left-wing executive order (supporting tax-funded abortion, effectively eliminating Title IX protection for women's sports, killing tens of thousands of jobs in pursuit of a radical climate agenda) Trump supporters are reminded they have no alternative.

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Every time the left-wing Democrats do something crazy like abolish the words mother, father, brother, sister (and two dozen other gender-specific words) from the House Rules, people are reminded that there is no alternative.

•
As corruption grows ($600 million stolen in Washington State unemployment funds, an estimated $31 billion stolen in California unemployment payments) Americans are reminded that the left-wing elite government Democrats are not acceptable.

•
As the Chinese Communists build momentum around the world – and as pro-Chinese Communists are appointed to key government positions by the Biden administration – people are reminded that there is no alternative.

•
The emphasis on weird left-wing values and "woke" education further weakens America and tears apart the common culture which has historically made America so successful.

•
Once again, Trump supporters – and any Americans who think this is all crazy – are left with no choice.

•
What Washington elites don't understand is that Trumpism is much bigger than former President Trump.

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Trumpism is a broad and growing repudiation of oligarchical billionaires, giant companies censoring our lives, international companies selling out American values to make a buck in a Communist Chinese dictatorship.

•
Trumpism is a rejection of radical social values being imposed on our children as early as 5 or 6 years of age.

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It is a recognition that American bureaucracy so incompetent that a Nigerian cyber criminal gang stole $600 million from Washington State – and the incompetent official that presided over the fraud, Suzi Levine, has now been nominated by Biden for a major job at the Department of Labor overseeing $9 billion a year.

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(This is cronyism at its worst. She and her husband gave the Biden campaign and Democrat organizations $400,000.)...

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Nothing the left can say will shake the tens of millions of Americans' belief that the elites despise them, the bureaucrats bully and cheat them, and the news media lies to them.
House GOP to target 47 ‘vulnerable’ Democrats to capture House majority in 2022 (Fox 02/10/2021)
Cassidy vote on Trump impeachment constitutionality sparks GOP backlash at home... (Fox 02/10/2021)
Six GOP senators vote that Trump impeachment trial is constitutional and can proceed (Fox 02/09/2021)
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"The House managers had much stronger constitutional arguments. The president's team did not."

•
See related Evolution (Mike Shelton, 01/08/2021) cartoon from Politics picture album
Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's 'fine' being ousted from committees: 'It'd be a waste of my time' (Fox 02/05/2021)
•
"I woke up early this morning literally laughing thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats (+11) are for giving some one like me free time."

•
"In this Democrat tyrannical government, Conservative Republicans have no say on committees anyway. Oh this is going to be fun!"
Who are the Democratic Trump impeachment managers? (Fox 02/05/2021)
House ousts Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees in unprecedented vote (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
... for espousing violence and conspiracy theories on social media before she was elected to Congress in November.

•
The 230-199 vote was bipartisan, with 11 Republicans joining with all Democrats to oust Greene from the Committee on Education and Labor and the House Budget Committee.

•
House Republicans appointed Greene to both panels last month after the freshman rep was sworn into Congress.

•
Democrats said they were forced to take action to uphold the standards of decency in Congress because Republicans refused to penalize Greene for her history of incendiary remarks.
Rep. Nancy Mace: 'I'm sick and tired' of AOC trying to 'politicize literally everything' (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
"I deal in facts and reality. And the fact is there were no insurrectionist, no violent rioters that were in the halls of the Cannon Office Building that day," said Mace, whose office is down the hall from Ocasio-Cortez.

•
"Everyone was terrified. We were worried. It was a harrowing, life-threatening experience. No one questions that. But when we get into the details and the facts and let that slide, that that did not happen, that's where I take issue. We need to be honest or people tell the truth and deal in reality and facts."

•
"[S]he has a tendency to politicize literally everything. And I'm sick and tired. I'm sick and tired of that."
McConnell to force Democrats to vote on paying illegal immigrants, funding schools that refuse... (Fox 02/04/2021)
•
"We'll be getting senators on the record about whether taxpayers should fund checks for illegal immigrants... whether Democrats should raise taxes on small businesses in the midst of this historic crisis... and whether generous federal funding should pour into school districts where the unions refuse to let schools open. And this is just a small taste."
Schumer, McConnell strike deal on Senate power-sharing agreement (Fox 02/03/2021)
•
"The leadership of both parties have finalized the organizing resolution for the Senate," Schumer, D-N.Y., said. "We will pass the resolution through the Senate today."

•
"I'm confident that our members are ready to hit the ground running on the most important issues that face our country."

•
"Senate Democrats are not going to waste any time taking on the biggest challenges facing our country and our planet."

•
See related Work Together (Glenn McCoy, 12/16/2014) cartoon from Government picture album
Pelosi, Schumer priorities – here's how free speech, fair elections and more at risk (Fox 02/02/2021)
•
Congressional Democrats have a plan to forever keep Republicans from winning elections and influencing policy decisions with H.R. 1 in the House, and the similar S. 1 in the Senate.

•
They want to empower the government to police more speech, force states to allow vote-by-mail and taxpayer funding of candidates, and silence Americans through fear by exposing their support for issue groups.

•
The fact that these bills are the first filed shows how high a priority they are, even though the nation is still in the middle of a pandemic and economic catastrophe.

•
The mess of bad and unconstitutional policies in H.R. 1 are an existential threat to the Republican Party. They would shatter the ability of Americans to effectively organize, support causes they believe in, and hold government accountable.

•
H.R. 1 would undermine state election oversight, like efforts to clean up old voter rolls. It eliminates any restrictions on vote-by-mail. Taxpayers would be on the hook for matching 600% of campaign contributions to subsidize candidates they may disagree with – a practice that has been ripe for corruption.

•
It empowers federal regulators to categorize and regulate speech, including online. ... The government just has to say the speech "promotes," "attacks," "supports" or "opposes" a potential candidate.

•
The point is to silence dissent and shut down debate through fear, intimidation and overregulation.

•
Americans already feel they cannot engage in healthy debate. ... It's obvious why. There is a growing list of people who have been harassed, doxed, or worse, over their views – from well-known politicians being yelled at on planes, to truck drivers getting fired for contrived social media controversies.

•
"They will have the effect of harming our public discourse by silencing necessary voices that would otherwise speak out about the public issues of the day."

•
Democrat leadership doesn't care. H.R. 1 is their top priority and defeating it should be Republicans' top priority.

•
See related It’s What’s For Dinner (Antonio Branco, 12/08/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
McConnell rips Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calls 'loony lies' a 'cancer' for the GOP (Fox 02/02/2021)
•
Greene faced further criticism in recent days for her promotion of Trump's claims that the presidential election was stolen.

•
"The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully, This is why we are losing our country."
Sanders dismisses Biden 'unity' pledge to push COVID relief bill (Fox 01/31/2021)
'Dems Want a 'Return to Civility'; When Did They Practice It? (JWR 01/28/2021)
Biden says Dems won’t have the votes to convict Trump at impeachment (Fox 01/26/2021)
•
... does not believe that Senate Democrats will get 17 Republicans to vote to convict the former president.

•
See related The Pipe Dream (Michael Ramirez, 08/24/2018) cartoon from Politics picture album
McConnell relents in Senate filibuster fight, here's why (Fox 01/26/2021)
Gaetz traveling to Wyoming to take aim at Cheney amid uproar over her Trump impeachment vote (Fox 01/25/2021)
•
The vast majority of House Republicans – 197 of the 211 in the chamber, voted against impeachment.

•
"I do not want her job. I unequivocally am not seeking a position in House Leadership. I also know Wyoming can do better."

•
"By embracing the language and the arguments of the radical left instead of the America First movement, Liz Cheney is spitting into the eyes of tens of millions of Americans."

•
More than half of House Republican members are backing an effort to remove Cheney from her leadership role.
Gingrich slams Pelosi as 'most dangerous Speaker of the House we've had' (Fox 01/24/2021)
•
"She lives in an enclave that is guarded in San Francisco, She is surrounded by left-wing looney tunes who think that it's OK to live in a city where ... there's a map you can go to on the internet that shows you where feces were. They don't distinguish dog and human, but they'll show you the feces count that day around San Francisco."

•
"This is the same problem with [Vice President] Kamala Harris, They come from the center of left-wing nuttiness, and all their friends at the local country club or all their friends when they go to a cocktail party, think this craziness makes sense."

•
... added that Pelosi, whose father and brother were Democratic mayors of Baltimore, "has been in politics so long that she operates like a genuine machine politician of the old order. And she doesn't mind abusing power. She doesn't mind running over people ... she's so willing to break the rules and to, frankly, just say things that are totally untrue."
Arizona Republicans censure Cindy McCain, GOP governor (Fox 01/24/2021)
•
Ward said she's a "Trump Republican" who will "always put America first, who believes in faith, family and freedom." The way forward for the GOP, she said, is keeping Trump's 74 million voters engaged.

•
"Yes, I will be radical about those things because those are the things that keep this country great."

•
"The people who are complaining are the people who actually put us in this spot where we are in Arizona, people who have been mamby pamby, lie down and allow the Democrats to walk all over them."
Freshman GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files articles of impeachment against Biden (Fox 01/21/2021)
•
... claimed she was basing the impeachment on an alleged abuse of power by Biden from his time as vice president.

•
... accused Biden of "enabling bribery" and "blatant nepotism" by utilizing his son Hunter Biden's position on the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.

•
"President Joe Biden is unfit to hold the office of the Presidency. His pattern of abuse of power as President Obama's Vice President is lengthy and disturbing."

•
"President Biden has demonstrated that he will do whatever it takes to bail out his son, Hunter, and line his family's pockets with cash from corrupt foreign energy companies."

•
... she took to Twitter Thursday to say the "inauguration looked like a one party military state takeover with 30k troops."
Schumer and McConnell agree to 2001 'power-sharing' agreement (Fox 01/19/2021)
•
"Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell had a substantive meeting and made progress on the issues of quickly confirming President-elect Biden's nominees and conducting a fair impeachment trial."
McConnell says Trump 'provoked' the Capitol riot as Senate weighs another impeachment trial (Fox 01/19/2021)
•
"The mob was fed lies," McConnell said. "They were provoked by the president and other powerful people."

•
"...But we pressed on. We stood together and said an angry mob would not get veto power over the rule of law in our nation, not even for one night."

•
McConnell is seen as the lynchpin to any chance Trump would be convicted in the Senate. Unlike some of his GOP colleagues, McConnell has not rejected impeachment outright and said he'd carefully weigh the evidence during a trial.

•
If McConnell joins with Democrats in convicting Trump, he may clear the way for 16 other Republicans to join him to reach the two-thirds vote threshold.

•
Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa — have argued it could be unconstitutional to even hold a trial for Trump when he's out of office, though other legal scholars disagree.

•
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the incoming majority leader is expected to meet with McConnell this afternoon to discuss their new power-sharing agreement and how to proceed on impeachment.

•
Democrats will hold a tie-breaking majority Wednesday afternoon when the Biden Administration takes over and three new Democratic senators are set to be sworn-in...

•
Schumer said Tuesday there will be a Senate impeachment trial. And if Trump is convicted, the Senate will take a vote to bar him from running for office ever again.
Roy Blunt balks at attempt to impeach Trump again: ‘Not going to happen’ (Fox 01/10/2021)
•
"There is no way we're going to impeach the president. There's not the time to do it, When (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi and (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer were talking about it, it's obviously just another political point trying to be made. It's disappointing. It'd be much more disappointing if people can't through see that."

•
Still, Blunt didn't absolve Trump over the riot. "When you unleash certain forces or put certain circumstances together, everybody has the responsibility to think about, what might happen as a result."

•
"I didn't happen to agree with what Senator Hawley and Senator (Ted) Cruz wanted to do, I didn't think it would work. I didn't think there was new information to be presented. I announced that the day Josh announced he was going to be objecting to some of the electoral votes."

•
"Josh Hawley's a smart guy, he's personally a good guy to deal with, I can't imagine he's not going to continue to make important contributions in the Senate."
Biden says Cruz and Hawley are part of ‘the big lie’ while senators say they are being called Nazis (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
"I think they should just be flat beaten the next time they run." ... "The American public has a real good clear look at who they are," Biden said. "They're part of the big lie, the big lie."

•
"The Big Lie" was a term coined in Nazi Germany. "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it," Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany once said.

•
"Really sad," Cruz wrote ... "At a time of deep national division, President-elect Biden's choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing. This kind of vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart."

•
Hawley fired back with his own statement. "President-elect Biden has just compared me and another Republican Senator to Nazis. You read that correctly. Think about that for a moment. Let it sink in. Because I raised questions in the format prescribed by the laws of the United States about the way elections were conducted in the state of Pennsylvania, just as Democrats did about other states in 2001, 2005, and 2017, he is calling me a Nazi."

•
"He should act like a dignified adult and retract these sick comments. And every Democrat member of congress should be asked to disavow these disgusting comments."

•
The president-elect said that the pair of senators were "as responsible" as the president for peddling debunked election fraud claims.

•
"If he's [Trump] the only one saying it, it's one thing, but the acolytes that follow him, like Cruz and others, they are as responsible as he is."

•
"And so it's not about whether or not they get impeached. It's about whether or not they continue to hold power because of the disgust the American people have for their actions. There are decent people out there who actually believe these lies."
Democrats march toward another impeachment against Trump for deadly riot at Capitol (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
"It is the hope of Members that the President will immediately resign, But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with Congressman Jamie Raskin's 25th Amendment legislation and a motion for impeachment. Accordingly, the House will preserve every option – including the 25th Amendment, a motion to impeach or a privileged resolution for impeachment."

•
"[F]ollowing the President's dangerous and seditious acts, Republicans in Congress need to ... call on Trump to depart his office – immediately, If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action."

•
"Impeaching the President with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more," McCarthy said...
Will Democrats impeach Trump before he leaves office? How it would work (Fox 01/08/2021)
•
Pelosi says the president "must be held accountable." She noted at her news conference Thursday that her phone was "exploding with ‘impeach, impeach, impeach.'" And, if Pence and the Cabinet don't act, the House will "proceed with our action."

•
Democrats view the president's Wednesday speech as so malignant - triggering the sacking of the Capitol — that he has to be called out.

•
That's to say nothing of politically forcing Republicans to take a challenging vote and be on the record either defending or breaking with Trump.

•
Moreover, Democrats would love to leave Trump with a double impeachment mark on his record.

•
Senate impeachment rules require the Senate trial start organically once the House sends the articles of impeachment to the Senate. There is no filibuster to block this.

•
And it doesn't matter which party is in control. Impeachment articles are of the highest privileges in the Senate.

•
Still, concluding a Senate trial before Trump leaves office is challenging because they are running out of track. It takes a two-thirds vote to convict and remove the president.
Democrats march toward another impeachment against Trump for deadly riot at Capitol (Fox 01/08/2021)
Democratic lawmakers want criminal investigation into Trump call with Georgia election officials (Fox 01/04/2021)
•
"Like most election law statutes, these would require proof beyond a reasonable doubt that an accused acted 'willfully,'"

•
"This is the most demanding state-of-mind element, requiring proof that the accused knew his conduct was in violation of the law and acted with a bad intent to violate the law. If a person believes that there was fraud and is urging a public official to investigate this possibility, I don't see how a prosecutor could prove willful misconduct."

•
... pointed out that Trump had attorneys present during the call, which took place while there is ongoing litigation in Georgia in an election fraud case that Trump brought.

•
"Consequently, the conversation can be understood as a negotiation between adversary parties to a litigation, In that context, and with his lawyers on the phone with him, it would be very hard to prove that Trump had the intent to commit a crime."
Newt Gingrich: Georgia Senate runoffs – conservatives, here’s why your vote is critical (Fox 01/04/2021)
Sen. Marco Rubio: Georgia Senate runoffs — The fate of our nation is in Georgia's hands (Fox /20)
•
If Georgians believe in our democracy and our nation's institutions, they will reject Warnock and Ossoff. And in so doing, they will give Senate Republicans the power to prevent the socialist onslaught that the radical left is actively planning.
Sen. David Perdue: Georgians should vote for me & Sen. Loeffler to stop Dems’ radical socialist agenda (Fox 01/04/2021)
•
The choice is simple: we can continue this success or we can hand Congress over to the radical liberal mob that will take this country down a path from which we may never recover.

•
The stakes could not be higher to make certain that the road to socialism never runs through Georgia.
Can Georgians be foolish enough to vote for hate-filled lyiing phony like Warnock? (INN 12/30/2020)
There is no comparison between the Democrat Party then and now (INN 12/20/2020)
Dem steering committee bucks AOC, picks other NY lawmaker for coveted spot (Fox 12/18/2020)
•
See related Try Living with It... (Michael Ramirez, 04/20/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Georgians should vote for Sen. Kelly Loeffler — Dem opponent Warnock is Marxist sympathizer (Fox 12/18/2020)
•
We need leaders who understand — and have lived — the American Dream and who will fight hard to protect it.

•
Democrat Raphael Warnock is the most radically liberal candidate anywhere in the country. He would vote in lock-step with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to eliminate the Senate filibuster, pack the U.S. Supreme Court, raise taxes on families and small businesses by trillions of dollars, decimate families and farmers with the Green New Deal, socialize your health care, shut down the economy, and weaponize technology companies to silence dissent.

•
He is an unabashed Marxist sympathizer who would destroy the American Dream. He has repeatedly praised Marxism and socialism, and slammed capitalism, writing that "the Marxist critique has much to teach the black church" and that the Black middle-class should pay more attention to the "hard questions about the distribution of wealth."

•
His "mentor" — who Warnock said spoke with "the moral authority of prophet" — was a militant socialist who called for a "total reconstruction of society along the lines of Democratic Socialism."

•
Warnock's church hosted murderous communist dictator Fidel Castro for a "lovefest." where the church heaped praise on Castro.

•
... after Castro's death, Warnock praised his legacy as "complex" and compared America to communist Cuba.

•
As someone whose parents fled Cuba's violence, tyranny, and oppression, I find Warnock's comparison to be reprehensible.

•
In no way is America like Castro's Cuba — though Warnock's desire to nationalize health care, raise taxes, lock down our economy, and silence dissent would put us on that path.

•
He would completely dismantle the American Dream in favor of a socialist nightmare. America cannot afford to have Radical Raphael in the United States Senate, where he would lead the charge toward anarchy and American decline.
Senate hearing explodes as Johnson accuses Dem of spreading Russian disinformation: 'You lied...' (Fox 12/16/2020)
Kevin McCarthy calls Nancy Pelosi out over House voting inconsistency: 'Her power is more...' (Fox 12/14/2020)
•
"Pelosi is fine with House Democrats skipping work if the votes are about legislation, but in January she will demand every Democrat show up — in person — to vote for her for Speaker. Her message is clear: her power is more important than anything else."
Republicans Are Blowing It in Georgia, and We May All Pay the Price (JWR 12/11/2020)
Can Loeffler and Perdue prevail in the fraud-plagued Peach State? (JWR 12/11/2020)
Pelosi on reason for shift to supporting smaller coronavirus relief: 'New president' (Fox 12/04/2020)
•
"Don't characterize what we did before as a mistake, as a preface to your question, if you want an answer. That was not a mistake. It was a decision, and it has taken us to a place where we can do the right thing without other, shall we say, considerations in the legislation that we don't want."
House Dems face loss of majority in 2022 — socialism and Green New Deal are losing issues (Fox 11/20/2020)
Georgia Senate candidate Raphael Warnock's hate-filled and bigoted comments (INN 11/18/2020)
Sen. Loeffler calls Democrat Warnock 'most radically liberal candidate in the country'... (Fox 11/17/2020)
Georgia's Perdue urges voters to send him back to DC to fight AOC, 'radical leftists' (Fox 11/14/2020)
•
... Perdue urged supporters to ensure that he and the state's other GOP senator, Kelly Loeffler, are empowered to "stand up against AOC, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and all these radical leftists."

•
"Stand with us and let's make darn sure that the road to socialism never runs through the state of Georgia," Perdue said...

•
Georgia state law dictates a runoff if no candidate reaches 50% of the vote, a threshold that Perdue narrowly missed.

•
He currently stands at 49.71% in the count, with nearly all votes counted.
Can Democrats finally repudiate ‘The Squad’? (INN 11/13/2020)
Justin Haskins: Socialist wing of Democratic Party suffers major setback in elections (Fox 11/13/2020)
•
Radicals who hoped last week's election would advance America down the path of socialism have had a rude awakening: most Americans aren't ready to add Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin to Mount Rushmore and destroy the free-market system that made America the great country it is.

•
Unfortunately, Joe Biden is now president-elect and will become our nation's leader Jan. 20, unless a series of long-shot lawsuits by President Trump and his supporters result in a surprise upset.

•
But Biden won the Democratic presidential nomination and the general election by portraying himself as a moderate, not a socialist revolutionary.

•
And a good chunk of Biden's votes came from people whose dislike of Trump was a lot stronger than their love for the Democratic presidential nominee or his policies.

•
But one thing that has become abundantly clear in the wake of the election last week: the growing socialist wing of the Democratic Party took a major hit. The socialists moved so far left that they left millions of voters behind.

•
Led by self-described socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., (who failed twice to get the Democratic presidential nomination) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the far-far left had high hopes of succeeding in launching the transformation of American society into what they claimed would be a socialist utopia.

•
Thankfully, that did not happen. The American people did not fall for socialist propaganda and embrace unrealistic, unaffordable and unworkable socialist policies.

•
... while socialism promises heaven on Earth, in practice it results in hell on Earth — just ask the suffering people of Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and other socialist and communist nations.

•
Even Russia and China owe their limited prosperity to capitalist reforms they have introduced. And Eastern European socialist and communist nations ditched the failed systems long ago.

•
If Republicans end up keeping control of the Senate — something that looks increasingly more likely to occur — it means they will have delivered a major blow to socialists' radical agenda.

•
Without a Democratic Party majority in the Senate, it will be virtually impossible for Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and others on the far left to pass legislation to Make America Socialist.

•
... although Democrats have kept control of the House of Representatives — currently the place where socialists exert the most influence in the federal government — Republicans have cut sharply into their lead.

•
Democrats failed to flip a single Republican gubernatorial seat. That will make it extremely difficult for socialists at the state and local levels to expand their agenda outside of the nation's capital.

•
Progressives and socialists in the Democratic Party should learn a very important lesson from 2020: the American people don't want socialism.

•
... however, socialists have made it abundantly clear that they are going to do everything they possibly can to ram their ideology down Americans' throats, regardless of what the American people want and how many times socialism has failed throughout world history.

•
... comrade Bernie Sanders said that fellow socialists and progressives in Congress must "organize our people to make sure that Biden becomes the most progressive president since FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt]."

•
It's going to be up to those Americans who support individual liberty and free markets, as well as conservatives in Congress, to make sure Sanders' dangerous promise doesn't come to fruition.

•
See related Comrade Bernie (Mike Shelton, 02/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Honeymoon (Gary Varvel, 02/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Potemkin Democrats (Taylor Jones, 01/31/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Colin Reed: How far left will Biden presidency go? Battle for Senate control could tell us (Fox 11/12/2020)
•
Sure, Joe Biden is the president-elect and will move into the White House Jan. 20, barring a stunning and unlikely series of court victories by President Trump. But more than the presidency was on the ballot last week.

•
Right now, Georgia Republican candidates Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are both favored to win their races. If at least one does, the Senate will remain in GOP hands.

•
If both lose, each party will control 50 seats. As vice president, Kamala Harris would cast the tie-breaking vote and give Democrats control of the Senate by the slimmest of margins.

•
If Republicans maintain control of the Senate they will have earned a seat at the governing table — and the ability to serve as the check on the whims of far-left radicals as they find their sea legs in a Biden administration.

•
Forget about pie-in-the-sky far-left ideas like the Green New Deal or "Medicare-for-all" passing a GOP-controlled Senate. Even Biden's campaign riff — "first thing I'd do is repeal those Trump tax cuts" — is likely about to meet the cold reality of divided government.

•
Biden may not have campaigned as a left-wing radical, but he's now presiding over a party chock full of them.

•
It's an open question whether the most liberal Democrats will go along with a moderate and pragmatic Biden legislative agenda, or will instead demand Biden fight for an agenda that Bernie Sanders labeled as the most progressive since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Bernie Sanders confirms interest in Labor Secretary job under Biden administration (Fox 11/12/2020)
•
"What's true is I want to do everything I can to protect the working families of this country who are under tremendous duress right now. Whether that's in the Senate, whether that's in the Biden administration, who knows. Let's see how that unfolds."

•
"If I had a portfolio that allowed me to stand up and fight for working families, would I do it? Yes, I would."

•
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another leading progressive who was critical of Biden during the campaign, has been floated as a potential choice for treasury secretary.

•
See related Head Honcho (Antonio Branco, 09/01/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
House Democrats poised to expand majority, as Republicans warn against AOC takeover (Fox 10/31/2020)
McConnell: Democrats' call to pack Supreme Court is 'the same old threats and intimidation' (Fox 10/27/2020)
•
"They've been threatening to pack the court [since] before the [Amy Coney] Barrett nomination came along [and] before Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg passed away. These are long-standing threats."

•
"They may have ratcheted up a little bit lately, but this isn't anything new. They've been promising to blow up the Senate by changing the filibuster rule, admitting two new states — [Washington] D.C. and Puerto Rico — to give them four new Democratic senators ... They were talking about that earlier in the year. Nothing new, same old threats and intimidation by the hard left."

•
"Not only that, she's got a compelling personal story; seven children, two adopted, one of them with special needs, a great role model for working women across America. This is a happy night for the country, and in particular for this Senate Republican majority."
Democrats say Republicans will regret Barrett confirmation, slam 'manipulation' of Supreme Court (Fox 10/27/2020)
•
"The Republican majority is lighting its credibility on fire ... The next time the American people give Democrats a majority in this chamber, you will have forfeited the right to tell us how to run that majority," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said...

•
"My colleagues may regret this for a lot longer than they think."

•
Nominees once needed 60 votes to be confirmed, but Sen. Mitch McConnell changed the standard in 2017 to allow for a simple majority.

•
That move allowed for the confirmation of President Trump's previous two nominees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

•
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., first eliminated the 60-vote threshold in 2013 to overcome GOP stonewalling of President Obama's nominations to the lower courts and the executive branch.

•
Known as invoking the "nuclear option" at the time, Reid kept the higher standard in place for the Supreme Court.

•
The comments by Schumer appeared to be similar to those made by McConnell back in 2013 after the Democratic-controlled chamber eliminated the 60-vote threshold.

•
"You'll regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think," McConnell said in 2013.

•
Pelosi argued the confirmation, which she called a manipulation, was made so Trump and Republicans could "achieve their years-long campaign to destroy Americans' health care"

•
"The President's Supreme Court manipulation threatens the very values and rights that define and distinguish our nation: a woman's constitutional right to make her own medical decisions, the rights of LGBTQ Americans, the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain for fair wages, the future of our planet and environmental protections, voting rights and the right of every American to have a voice in our democracy."

•
"Will Democrats go to new, extraordinary lengths to maximize their power given the extraordinary lengths Republicans have gone to maximize their power? This is not a conversation that is ripe enough yet, but what do Republicans expect?" said Sen. Chris Murphy D-Conn., as part of the chamber's debate over Barrett.

•
"Do we just unilaterally stand down and not choose to use the same tools that Republicans did in the majority? ... I think there are now new rules in the Senate, and I think Republicans have set them."

•
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., released a statement calling the confirmation a "sad day for the Senate and for the Court."

•
"My Republican colleagues put the rule of ‘because we can' over the traditions and precedents of the Senate, the principles we hold dear as an institution, and the integrity of the federal judiciary."
Ben Shapiro: 'Nothing funny' about Kamala Harris laughing off questions about socialism (Fox 10/26/2020)
•
"... Kamala Harris is, in fact, the most liberal senator in the United States senate by non-partisan sources and the fact that she wasn't even prepped for that question demonstrates how easily the media have treated the Harris-Biden campaign thus far because that is the most obvious question to ask Kamala Harris."

•
"You're a wild leftist, you have been a wild leftist your entire career in the United States Senate, so, how do you think people are going to think that you're going to govern if you're elevated to the presidency since Joe Biden seems to be on his last legs? There is very little doubt that he is going to serve a full eight years at the very least and she didn't have an answer for that which, again, when you believe that you are guarded by the Praetorian Guard of the media and never have to answer a serious question, you can just go into the crazy laugh and hope that nobody asks you a follow-up."
Newt Gingrich: Trump should emphasize three things in closing days of campaign (Fox 10/24/2020)
Senators clash at Barrett confirmation hearing as Dems attempt procedural roadblocks, GOP... (Fox 10/15/2020)
You can't use your 'sisterhood' membership to mask your mediocrity, Kamala (JWR 10/13/2020)
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris mask the far left's scary agenda (JWR 10/13/2020)
•
The "progressives" inside and outside the Democratic Party have revealed their real agenda.

•
It is a seductive one because many people will trade their freedoms in exchange for government promising to take care of them.

•
In the end, though, such people will find they have been tricked when they thought they were being given treats.

•
This is how dictators often rise to power. Read history.
Jeremy Dys: Amy Coney Barrett's nomination won't be derailed by Democrats' political theater (Fox 10/13/2020)
Rep. Doug Collins introduces resolution to push for Pelosi removal as House speaker (Fox 10/12/2020)
•
"Speaker Nancy Pelosi's unwillingness to abide by the Constitution, combined with her recent actions, call into question her own mental fitness, which is why it's critical that the House of Representatives demand her removal from the line of succession."

•
... argues that Pelosi "is unable to adequately serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives and should therefore be removed from her position."

•
The resolution states that Pelosi "has spent the majority of the House of Representative's time pursuing baseless and fruitless investigations" against President Trump and his administration...

•
"On October 31, 2019, Speaker Nancy Pelosi oversaw the first party-line vote to begin an impeachment inquiry into a president in the history of our country."

•
"Over her tenure of her speakership, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has started to demonstrate a decline in mental fitness, calling into question her ability to adequately serve the House of Representatives and the American people."

•
See related Cruella Pelosi (Gary Varvel, 02/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Ingraham: How Biden’s ‘cynical’ campaign tactics will influence his governance (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
The Biden campaign is using three tactics as its closing strategy before the election – deflect, demonize and demoralize – which ... is a warning of how his administration would lead.

•
"Biden knows that court-packing is very unpopular and unprecedented. So he just punts the question. Yet, if Trump doesn't give his minute by minute blood oxygen reading to the jackals in the White House press corps, they pounce."

•
"The left has encouraged the disrespect of any and all authority, especially the president. They demonize Trump because they can't sell Biden... In the end, you're choosing between liberty or lockdowns. Between law and order or chaos."

•
"They want COVID to dominate your thinking so that you forget about what life was like before pandemic. Keeping you hopeless means keeping you helpless and dependent on government. That's not who we are as Americans."
Mark Levin argues 2020 election is about upholding Constitution: Democrats will ‘destroy’... (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
"The Democrat Party wants to destroy this country. That's why it intends to attack the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's one of our three branches. The Democrat Party is saying, ‘we don't give a damn. If that branch doesn't bow to our will, we're going to destroy it.'"

•
... emphasized that the Constitution protects Americans from a centralized government. Meanwhile, the Democrats are aiming to "destroy" the Supreme Court by deterring the confirmation of nominee Amy Coney Barrett and threatening to pack the court.

•
"They want to destroy half of Congress by loading it up with Democrats, so there's Democrats in Congress that control that body for a generation. Then they want to destroy the legislative process, so nothing can be done."

•
"All the checks and balances will be destroyed. Why? Because Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have an agenda that they want to ram down the throats of the American people."

•
"The Democrat Party is not this country. It doesn't get to rule over us. It doesn't get to have monopoly power over our government. And yet that's what it seeks."
Washington Post fact-check's Harris' 'little history lesson' about Lincoln: 'Wasn't exactly true' (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
"I'm so glad we went through a little history lesson. Let's do that a little more," Harris told Pence. "In 1864... Abraham Lincoln was up for reelection. And it was 27 days before the election. And a seat became open on the United States Supreme Court. Abraham Lincoln's party was in charge not only of the White House but the Senate. But Honest Abe said, ‘It's not the right thing to do. The American people deserve to make the decision about who will be the next president of the United States, and then that person will be able to select who will serve on the highest court of the land."

•
"Harris is correct that a seat became available 27 days before the election. And that Lincoln didn't nominate anyone until after he won. But there is no evidence he thought the seat should be filled by the winner of the election. In fact, he had other motives for the delay."

•
... Lincoln told his aides he wanted to delay his Supreme Court confirmation process because he was "waiting to receive expressions of public opinion from the country," though the Post noted, "that didn't mean he was waiting for ballots so much as the mail."

•
"The overarching effect of the delay is that it held Lincoln's broad but shaky coalition of conservative and radical Republicans together."

•
"Congress was in recess until early December, so there would have been no point in naming a man before the election anyway. Lincoln shrewdly used that to his advantage. If he had lost the election, there is no evidence he wouldn't have filled the spot in the lame-duck session."

•
"Lincoln, of course, said no such thing. He sent no nominee to the Senate in October 1864 because the Senate was out of session until December. Kamala Harris is simply inventing history."
Debate moderator Steve Scully raises eyebrows with tweet asking Scaramucci 'should I...' (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
Scully, who is best known as the political editor of C-SPAN and host of "Washington Journal," sent a cryptic message that caused quite a stir on social media. "@Scaramucci should I respond to trump."

•
"Now their chosen moderator certainly seems not to be very impartial. The first one. Susan Page, of course, is writing the glowing biography of Speaker Pelosi and now Mr. Scully, who interned for Joe Biden, now colluding to use the word the Democrats love with the Mooche, who, you know, I love The Mooche, but he's gone way off the deep end. He is a wild-eyed critic of the president at this point. And now to have a debate moderator seeking his advice. I think the cat's out of the bag. I don't think Mr. Scully is impartial. So that really calls into question, again, the debate commission's judgment here."

•
Scully's credibility as an unbiased debate moderator was previously questioned after it became known that he previously served as an intern for then-Senator Biden and served as a staffer for the late Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy.

•
Another tweet of Scully's from the 2016 election showed him sharing a New York Times op-ed titled, "No, Not Trump, Not Ever."

•
Trump pulled out of the Scully-moderated debate after the Commission on Presidential Debates unilaterally announced that it would be turning the Miami town hall into a virtual event as the president continues his recovery from the coronavirus.
Trump adviser Cortes blasts debate commission as 'corrupt and complicit swamp cabal'... (Fox 10/09/2020)
•
"The Commission on Presidential Debates has revealed itself as a corrupt and complicit swamp cabal."

•
"They are trying to put their thumb on the scale in favor of Joe Biden. They are trying to protect him and, in fact, bail him out."

•
"Instead of us spending the day talking about what was revealed about the radical agenda of Kamala Harris, instead — without any consultation, zero, with our campaign — the commission makes a unilateral decision to make it a virtual debate, with no medical justification."

•
"You're telling me we couldn't find cameramen? No, I don't buy that for one second. That is a ridiculous canard of an excuse — of course we could staff the debate."

•
"They are trying to use — they are playing pandemic politics ... and they are trying to use the disease as a beard to cover up for them, because the reality is Joe Biden does not want the transparency and he does not want to be physically on stage without any assistance."

•
"We can't trust him to do a zoom call from his basement where he could be assisted by teleprompters and staff. No, if he wants to be the commander-in-chief of the greatest republic in history, he has to get on the stage himself and face off with Donald Trump."

•
Later Thursday, White House physician Dr. Sean Conley announced that he anticipated that Trump would be able to resume public engagements this weekend.
Kamala Harris cheers Wall Street support as big-money donors line up for Biden (Fox 10/08/2020)
•
Despite Biden's promises to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy and regulate banks more tightly, he has raked in five times as much as Trump in donations from the securities and investment industry, with an eye-popping sum of $51.1 million. The incumbent has garnered just $10.5 million...

•
Employees from Goldman Sachs have contributed $156,584 to Biden's campaign, JPMorgan Chase has raised $379,057, and $257,821 has come from Morgan Stanley.

•
The same leaders in the banking sphere have contributed significantly less to Trump and outside groups supporting the Republican, to the tune of $11,943 from Goldman Sachs, $86,083 from JPMorgan Chase, and $96,010 from Morgan Stanley.

•
Additionally, backers from Wells Fargo have poured $267,000 into efforts to clinch a Democratic win while giving just $194,000 to Trump.

•
From Bank of America, Biden has raised $275,200, compared with Trump's $164,911.
VP debate – Harris, Pence faceoff in Utah and America should look to hear this one word (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
This debate will not end the election, nor will this election end our debate of ideas. But we need to discuss solutions and Wednesday night is a golden opportunity.

•
The vice-presidential candidates may not be the principal players in 2020, but they may be the future of America.
VP debate — The Harris agenda isn't something Americans should be forced to follow (Fox 10/07/2020)
To All Those Who 'Vote For the Man, Not the party' (JWR 10/06/2020)
Yes, Joe Biden, President Trump has said many negative things about white supremacists (Fox 10/06/2020)
•
Yes, Sleepy Joe. Trump repeatedly has denounced and battled white supremacists, even when you didn't.

•
Like nearly every Leftist, Biden obsessively repeats the lie that Trump called white supremacists "very fine people" during and after the racial melee in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump did no such thing.

•
"We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for, there is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let's come together as one! We must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion, or political party, we are ALL AMERICANS FIRST."

•
"Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

•
There were "very fine people, on both sides," in Charlottesville, "protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee," Trump said the next day.

•
He specified: "I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally."

•
Democrats repeat Trump's first sentence ad nauseam and lock up his second sentence more tightly than their Social Security numbers.

•
With this incessantly parroted Leftist lie now detonated, Biden, the Trump-loathing media, and their ilk should study the video compilations by Grabien and YouTube that document at least 20 different occasions, among many others, on which Trump has rebuked white supremacy and racial hatred.

•
Going beyond words, Trump deported the ultimate white supremacist — Nazi death-camp guard Jakiw Palij — in January 2019.

•
Palij moved to America in 1949, was exposed in the 1990s, stripped of U.S. citizenship in 2003, and ordered deported in 2004.

•
He then relaxed in America for the better part of 14 years, until President Trump told his former ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, "You need to get the Nazi out of New York."

•
... Grenell and other U.S. diplomats relentlessly raised this issue with their counterparts in Berlin, until they agreed to take Palij.

•
At long last, on August 20, 2018, the Trump administration booted Palij's Hitler-loving, Jew-hating ass to Germany.

•
Obama-Biden had two terms in office to do this. But they didn't.

•
Rather than lie constantly about President Trump's alleged refusal to condemn white supremacists, Biden should apologize for letting a Nazi Jew killer slumber soundly in his Queens bed for eight long years.
Liz Peek: 2020 VP debate – why this one matters more than most (Fox 10/05/2020)
Ingraham warns GOP to prepare for anti-Trump campaign of 'demoralization and defamation' (Fox 10/02/2020)
•
"In the last month before the November 3rd vote. The Ingraham Angle you should fully expect a series of media smears against President Trump designed to frighten any undecided voter away from supporting him."

•
"Now. this coordinated effort also includes convincing you that the tide is turning against the president, that all hope is lost. It is not. The new lies are added to the already long list of lies Democrats have tried to use to drive Trump out of office."

•
"Who supports democracy more? The candidate who campaigns hard for every vote, crisscrossing the country to address thousands of supporters every night? Or the candidate who stays at home and avoids the people?"

•
"Who supports democracy more? The candidate who has done countless interviews, many where the interviewers have tried to destroy Donald Trump? Or the candidate who only does carefully staged press events?"

•
"Who supports democracy more? The candidate who releases a list of potential Supreme Court nominees, or the candidate who refuses to provide his own list or even answer basic questions about the Democrat plan to pack the court?"
David Bossie: Trump clearly defeats Biden in first presidential debate (Fox 09/30/2020)
•
Why won't Biden answer questions about whether or not he'll upset decades of precedent by packing the Supreme Court with liberals and ending the Senate filibuster?

•
What is Biden's response to President Trump's policies that caused the lowest unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans in our nation's history before the pandemic hit?

•
What is Biden's answer to his disastrous 1994 crime bill and his chummy relationship with segregationist Southern senators?

•
He has no answer; Biden can only lob unpresidential personal insults.

•
President Trump is running for reelection with a sense of purpose and urgency. It's clear that he wants four more years because he wants to keep America great.

•
On the other hand, Biden is walking, not running for president — and slowly at that.

•
Trump is fighting with all his might to keep his job as commander in chief because he's deeply concerned about the dangerous road to socialism that Biden has in store for America.

•
The president finally got a chance to ask Biden many other questions the liberal media refuse to ask.

•
President Trump's response to the Chinese coronavirus has been outstanding. The president has done everything in his power to keep Americans safe.

•
From quickly stopping international travel to the United States, to fulfilling the request of every governor regardless of political party, to keeping the public informed, to making sure there was enough personal protective equipment, beds, and ventilators, to implementing Operation Warp Speed to quickly find a vaccine, this president has risen to the occasion.

•
It's easy to criticize when you're sitting in the cheap seats like Biden, but it's obvious that if Biden were the one confronted with this unprecedented crisis, he would have failed.

•
Moreover, and just as noteworthy, if President Trump had done everything exactly the opposite, Biden and his minions would have criticized him all the same.

•
The American people ... that President Trump made a lot of money before he was elected to public office, and they know Joe Biden's family made a lot of money during his four decades in public office.
Biden used 'illusion of reasonableness' at debate to disguise plans to 'tear down our system' (Fox 09/30/2020)
•
"That's what radicalism looks like. Anything that stands between you and the power you seek, you destroy, even if it's the world's oldest constitutional court — which our Supreme Court is."

•
"We should be afraid of people who are willing to do things like that, but in Joe Biden's case we don't seem to be afraid."

•
"Biden all but admitted on stage that he plans to tear down our system, but he did it in a calm, 'This is your captain speaking' voice."

•
"Nothing Trump said onstage was radical," Carlson argued, "virtually nothing he ever says is radical, at least if you compare to public opinion polling on the issues. It's his tone that rattles people. Trump could make a wine list sound menacing."

•
As a result, "amazingly, tragically, many people who watched last night may have concluded that Joe Biden is the stable, steady alternative."

•
"They concluded this even as Joe Biden suggested he plans to change their lives, their country, permanently and forever in ways they won't like.

•
"It's quite a trick, the illusion of reasonableness. Barack Obama was a master of this."
Gutfeld on Tuesday night's debate (Fox 09/30/2020)
At presidential debate, Trump needs to ‘smoke Joe Biden out’ on 6 policies: Ari Fleischer (Fox 09/29/2020)
The Barrett nomination leaves Democrats with no options but to Whine, Threaten and Quiver (INN 09/28/2020)
Debate flashback: Trump and Clinton’s most memorable 2016 moments (Fox 09/27/2020)
Most memorable televised debate moments in U.S. political history (Fox 09/27/2020)
Dems' Complaints About the Coming Supreme Court Vote Don't Pass the Smell Test (JWR 09/25/2020)
McConnell doing what Dems 'would do if the shoe were on the other foot' with SCOTUS nomination (Fox 09/21/2020)
•
"No one should be surprised that a Republican Senate majority would vote on a Republican President's Supreme Court nomination, even during a presidential election year," said Alexander, who is retiring this year.

•
"The Constitution gives senators the power to do it. The voters who elected them expect it."

•
"Going back to George Washington, the Senate has confirmed many nominees to the Supreme Court during a presidential election year. It has refused to confirm several when the President and Senate majority were of different parties."

•
"Senator McConnell is only doing what Democrat leaders have said they would do if the shoe were on the other foot."
Dems telling me how to handle SCOTUS picks is like 'arsonists advising the Fire Department' (Fox 09/21/2020)
•
... "being lectured by Democrats about how to handle judicial nominations is like an arsonist advising the fire department."

•
... accused Democrats of previously trying to "stack the court[s]" at the circuit court level, and reminded them how they trashed Trump's previous court nominee, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

•
"[T]hey chose to try to destroy Brett Kavanaugh's life to keep the Supreme Court seat open."

•
"You reap what you sow," said Graham.

•
"My Democratic colleagues felt that when they were in charge, we should confirm judges by a majority vote, they changed the rules to accommodate President Obama, they tried to stack the court."

•
"I stand by what I said in Jan. 2019: Harry Reid & Chuck Schumer changed Senate rules to try and stack the courts for Obama. Now it's coming back to haunt them as I predicted. I'm dead set on confirming @realDonaldTrump's nominee."

•
"They never thought [Hillary] Clinton would lose, so what you're going to have is Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer's desire to take the court on their Democratic watches come back to haunt them."

•
Graham has faced harsh criticism for a comment he made in 2016 when he told Democrats to "use my words against me" if a Supreme Court vacancy should happen during an election year of a Republican president.

•
Graham was speaking at a time when Republicans were blocking President Obama's efforts to have Judge Merrick Garland replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
Barrasso calls for speedy SCOTUS confirmation, says Dems will ‘blow up Senate’ anyway (Fox 09/21/2020)
•
... "if the Democrats win the White House and the Senate and have the House, they will change the rules and they will blow up the Senate."

•
"They have an entire war room working on this and they will expand the number of members of Supreme Court regardless of what the Republicans and President Trump do."
Gingrich: Dems’ Supreme Court battle response makes ‘two big gambles’ (Fox 09/21/2020)
•
"In 2016, it was Justice Ginsburg who said it was totally appropriate for a president to nominate and the Senate to confirm a justice during an election year so ... Republicans can go around and quote Justice Ginsburg's own statements from four years ago."

•
... explained the "two challenges" Democrats face. #He said the first challenge is that Democrats "are going to get more radical" and "more frantic."

•
"You are going to see more crowds showing up at senators' houses and trying to intimidate people, you're going to talk about packing the court in the future. There will be sort of a frenzy because the truth is that they're powerless."

•
... "if the president nominates the people that we're looking at, they are people of faith and the Democrats have to be very careful when they have somebody like Kamala Harris who is ... as openly anti-Catholic as she is to not get involved in an anti-religious thing."

•
... thinks "the real question is can Mitch McConnell find 50 votes? If he can, there is nothing the Democrats can do to stop a justice from being approved."
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's vacant seat and Biden’s flip-flop-flip on Supreme Court vacancies (Fox 09/20/2020)
Andy Puzder: Trump vs. Biden in first debate — Here's why the president needs to really prepare (Fox 09/19/2020)
Mollie Hemingway compares media treatment of Trump vs. Biden: ‘It is beyond propaganda’ (Fox 09/18/2020)
•
"It used to be said that the media acted as a public relations arm of the Democrat Party. I think it's much easier to just understand them as essentially running the Biden campaign, particularly with the trouble that Biden is having in terms of typical campaigning."

•
"It doesn't matter so much what the media are saying, because I think they're so extreme that people are just having trouble believing anything that they have to say."

•
See related Running for President (Mike Lester, 08/23/2016) cartoon from Media picture album
Optimism Is The Key Strategy For A Trump Victory (JWR 09/17/2020)
Donald Trump's Unusual Political Libido (JWR 09/17/2020)
President Pelosi? How a contested election brawl could unfold on Capitol Hill (Fox 09/14/2020)
Trump blasts Biden for calling NAFTA ‘a mistake’ after he voted for it: ‘He doesn’t know...’ (Fox 09/11/2020)
•
... the Democratic nominee devoted his career to "offshoring Michigan's jobs, outsourcing Michigan's factories, throwing open your borders, dragging us into endless foreign wars, and surrendering our children's future to China."

•
"Yesterday, Joe Biden was here in Michigan lying about his lifetime of cold-hearted globalist betrayals."

•
"I have the distinct pleasure of running against the worst presidential candidate in presidential politics. Can you imagine if I lost to him? I'd have to say I lost to the worst candidate ever put up. Don't do that to me, Michigan."

•
"Joe Biden supported NAFTA, perhaps the worst trade deal in history. Biden supported China's entry into the World Trade Organization."

•
"At every opportunity, Joe Biden twisted his blade into the heart of Michigan Workers. The only thing Joe Biden should be doing in Michigan is begging you to forgive him."

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
GOP members of House Judiciary Committee demand Nadler condemn Antifa (Fox 09/08/2020)
•
"You have wasted the first 20 months of your chairmanship on fruitless partisan investigations in furtherance of your obsession with attacking President Trump."

•
"We urge you not to waste any more time. The jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee provides you with a unique authority to condemn the violence and disorder in Democrat-run cities."
A tale of two conventions (JWR 08/31/2020)
Winning by Scaring (JWR 08/31/2020)
•
If you have an opinion that differs with prevailing liberal orthodoxy you are not only wrong, you are stupid and probably a racist.

•
If you say anything that is perceived to be hurtful to someone else in any way at all you need to be censored, shouted down, shamed, or thrown off social media.

•
We've allowed our culture to drift leftward into Marxism, that is to say Communism. Don't be fooled, Biden, Obama, and the rest don't call themselves communists, but that is exactly where they are.

•
It's been happening in our culture gradually over a few decades, only now it's full speed ahead, thanks to the pandemic and the unrelenting lies that are broadcast day after day. It's disheartening to say the least when I see so many Americans falling in line with the propaganda of the left.

•
People have been scared by the hatemongers. The left knows full well that the best way to control people is to keep them in a constant state of fear. They've done it. People are scared, scared to death.

•
President Trump has been pushing for the complete opening up of our country, which is diametrically opposite to the Democrat message.

•
But so many of my fellow Americans have been frightened by the media and the Dems that now even I'm scared too, but not of the virus.

•
I'm scared that there might be enough scared voters in this country who will think if Trump opens up, millions and millions will die.

•
If they're that scared, they might vote the Communists into power. If Biden wins, America loses. I pray it won't happen.
Dem mayor in MN endorsing Trump because 'he is looking out for our way of life' (Fox 08/31/2020)
•
"We need to protect our way of life, we need to protect the way we sustain our living up here and the Democrats now are trying to put forth a moratorium against mining and President Trump has been supporting mining the last four years of his term and he has proved that he is behind us and he is looking out for our way of life."

•
"Today, we don't recognize the Democratic Party," the mayors wrote in the letter. "It has been moved so far to the left it can no longer claim to be advocates of the working class. The hard-working Minnesotans that built their lives and supported their families here on the Range have been abandoned by radical Democrats. We didn't choose to leave the Democratic Party, the party left us."

•
"Lifelong politicians like Joe Biden are out of touch with the working class, out of touch with what the country needs, and out of touch with those of us here on the Iron Range and in small towns like ours across our nation."

•
"This is all about what we have going up here. This is our way of life. President Trump has been working for us and has proven that he is behind us and understands that the vitality of the minerals that we have for the United States."

•
See related Left! Left! (Michael Ramirez, 05/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Sally Pipes: Biden = Bernie, Obama admits. Just look at their policies (Fox 08/30/2020)
•
In the end, Biden and Sanders are united behind a policy program that would put the federal government in charge of an unprecedented share of the U.S. economy – and extract unprecedented sums from taxpayers to pay for it.

•
The two men are merely describing this radical vision in different tones of voice, hoping Americans won't catch on.
Trump has real economic record to run on in 2020, Biden doesn't. RNC hammers home president's... (Fox 08/28/2020)
•
The truth of the matter is that this president didn't "inherit" anything like what he created and sustained until the coronavirus crippled the world economy.

•
"Within three short years, we built the strongest economy in the history of the world."

•
After the Great Recession, the Obama-Biden "recovery" never produced more job openings than people looking for work.

•
President Trump did it month-in and month-out for two years.

•
In addition to inheriting the weakest economic recovery since World War II from the Obama-Biden administration, President Trump also inherited a deadly virus from China.

•
The coronavirus pandemic created the greatest global economic downturn since the Great Depression. But, unlike his opponents, President Trump was less concerned about whether he "inherited" that situation than he was with fixing it.

•
On the economic front, he is doing exactly that, and is in the process of accomplishing, for the second time, a feat that Obama and Biden never managed to accomplish even once: a rapid and dynamic economic recovery.

•
"We have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major Western nation, and we are recovering at a much faster rate than anybody."

•
"Instead of following the science, Joe Biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country. His shutdown would inflict unthinkable and lasting harm."

•
Biden is "a Trojan Horse for socialism." Hiding in that horse are admitted socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and Alexandria Orcasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and their ilk.

•
President Trump truly believes that "America is the greatest and most exceptional nation in the history of the world."

•
Let's go with that on November 3rd. It may have been too late for Troy, but it is not too late for America.
Trump dismantles Dems' despicable stance on law and order, lays out stark choice in 2020 (Fox 08/28/2020)
•
"At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his Party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice."

•
"So tonight I ask you a simple question — how can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?"

•
"If the Democrat Party wants to stand with anarchists, agitators, rioters, looters, and flag burners — that is up to them. But I, as your President, will not be a part of it."

•
"The Republican Party will remain the voice of the patriotic heroes who keep America safe and salute the American flag."

•
"During their convention, Joe Biden and his supporters remained completely silent about the rioters and criminals spreading mayhem in Democrat-run cities."

•
"They never even mentioned it during their entire convention. Now they are starting to mention it because their poll numbers are going down like a rock in water. It's too late Joe."
Adriana Cohen: Biden unfit to be president if he won’t debate Trump (Fox 08/28/2020)
•
If former Vice President Joe Biden backs out of participating in the upcoming presidential debates, then he's unfit to occupy the Oval Office. It's that simple.

•
The American people expect — and deserve — to hear from presidential candidates and learn where they stand on a multitude of important policy issues affecting our lives.

•
We need to listen to their vision for America vis-a-vis their opponent so voters can choose their candidate wisely come Election Day.

•
This is precisely why the Commission on Presidential Debates was established in 1987 to ensure that debates between candidates running for president and vice president of the United States are a permanent part of the electoral process.

•
Yet, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California is afraid that President Trump will crush Biden in the upcoming debates given the Democratic presidential nominee's well-documented verbal stumbles and gaffes that have plagued his campaign since the outset. Hence, she's now encouraging Biden to scrap the scheduled debates altogether.

•
"I don't think that there should be any debates," Pelosi said at a news conference at the Capitol on Thursday. "I wouldn't legitimize a conversation with him, nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States."

•
If this isn't a slap in the face to the electorate and a radical break with one of our most time-honored traditions in American democracy, what is?

•
"As long as the (debate) commission continues down the straight and narrow as they have, I'm going to debate him," Biden said. "I'm going to be a fact-checker on the floor as I'm debating him."

•
As he should, for if Biden chooses not to debate the president — contrary to what his predecessors have done in every presidential election cycle for decades — voters will interpret that as a sign of weakness.

•
He'll be viewed as a coward, not the commander in chief of the greatest military in the world.

•
The reality is that if Joe Biden is too feeble-minded to stand up to Donald Trump, a fellow American on U.S. soil, how would he be able to handle brutal dictators such as North Korea's Kim Jong Un, China's Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, or Russian President Vladimir Putin if elected president?

•
Not exactly the profile in courage expected from America's commander in chief.

•
Cowards don't belong in the White House. Leaders who can handle a healthy exchange of ideas and defend their policies do.
Trump mocks Biden's record, says ex-VP has spent career on 'wrong side of history' (Fox 08/28/2020)
•
"Biden's record is a shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime. He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history."

•
"After those Biden calamities, the United States lost 1 in 4 manufacturing jobs."

•
"The cost of the Biden shutdown would be measured in increased drug overdoses, depression, alcohol addiction, suicides, heart attacks, economic devastation and more. Joe Biden's plan is not a solution to the virus, but rather a surrender."

•
"Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale, and natural gas – laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico. Millions of jobs will be lost, and energy prices will soar."

•
"These same policies led to crippling power outages in California just last week. How can Joe Biden claim to be an 'ally of the Light' when his own party can't even keep the lights on?"
5 key moments from the RNC's third night (Fox 08/27/2020)
•
Vice President Pence warns that Americans "won't be safe" if Biden wins

•
"We will have law and order on the streets of this country."

•
... "the American people know we don't have to choose between supporting law enforcement and standing with African American neighbors to improve the quality of life in our cities and towns."

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... "ask yourself: Who do you trust to rebuild this economy? A career politician who presided over the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression? Or a proven leader who created the greatest economy in the world?"

•
Rep. Dan Crenshaw says America "is a country of heroes"

•
"We need to remind ourselves what heroism really is. Heroism is self-sacrifice. It's not moralizing and lecturing over others when they disagree. Heroism is grace, not perpetual outrage. Heroism is rebuilding our communities, not destroying them. Heroism is renewing faith in the symbols that unite us, not tearing them down."

•
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem slams Democrats over violence, divisiveness

•
"It took 244 years to build this great nation — flaws and all — but we stand to lose it in a tiny fraction of that time if we continue down the path taken by the Democrats and their radical supporters."

•
"From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs."

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"The violence is rampant. There's looting, chaos, destruction and murder. People that can afford to flee have fled. But the people that can't — good, hard-working Americans — are left to fend for themselves."

•
"Our party respects individuals based on who they are. We don't divide people based on their beliefs or their root."

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"We don't shun people who think for themselves. We respect everyone equally under the Constitution and we treat them as Martin Luther King Jr. wished, according to the content of their character, not the color of their skin."

•
Kayleigh McEnany recalls how President Trump supported her in a difficult time

•
Richard Grenell praises Trump for tough foreign policy

•
"I've watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany while insisting that Germany pay its NATO obligations. I was proud to witness President Trump say to foreign leaders, ‘I don't blame you for wanting America to pay for your security; I actually respect you for out-negotiating the presidents before me, but it stops with me.'"

•
"Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea, you should ask yourself, ‘Why didn't he try that over the last 48 years?'"

•
"As acting director of national intelligence, I saw the Democrats' entire case for Russia collusion, and what I saw made me sick to my stomach."

•
"The Obama-Biden administration secretly launched a surveillance operation on the Trump campaign, and silenced the many brave intelligence officials who spoke up against it."

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"They presented bogus information as facts. They lied to judges. Then they classified anything that undermined their case."

•
... when Trump won the election in 2016, instead of continuing "the American tradition of helping the president-elect transition into the White House," the Obama-Biden administration "tried instead to undercut him even more."
Stefanik at RNC says Democrat-led Trump impeachment effort was an attack on ‘your voice...’ (Fox 08/27/2020)
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"Since his first day in office, President Trump has fought tirelessly to deliver results for all Americans, despite the Democrats' baseless and illegal impeachment sham and the media's endless obsession with it," the New York Republican said.

•
"This attack was not just on the president, it was an attack on you — your voice and your vote."

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"President Trump is working to safely re-open our Main Street economy. He understands that the engine of our country is fueled by the ingenuity and determination of American workers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Joe Biden wants to keep them locked up in the basement and crush them with $4 trillion in new taxes."

•
See related Just in the Way (12/23/2019), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Michael Goodwin: At RNC Trump is putting on Greatest Reality Show on Earth (Fox 08/26/2020)
•
Day 2 of the Greatest Reality Show on Earth didn't disappoint. From start to finish, Donald Trump's Republican convention team once again unveiled a smart program that skillfully stitched together people, policies and politics.

•
Every good convention needs to tell a story and the Trumpers know what their story is and how they want to tell it.

•
They have segued smoothly from offense to defense, using both the president's record and even his rough-around-the-edges personality to great effect.

•
The script is guided by an upbeat, optimistic, America-First spirit. There are lots of mentions of faith in God and patriotism and frequent broadsides against Joe Biden, his party and policies.

•
Although the conclusion of the story is inevitable — that Trump's policies are the right policies and that he is the right man for these troubled times — it's how you get there that makes the story a success or not.

•
Trump, of course, is the star of the show, but he could overwhelm it if he were always on camera. Instead, other people sing his praises, including first lady Melania Trump, who delivered a strong performance to close out Tuesday.

•
She expressed sympathy for the death and suffering caused by the coronavirus and assured the nation that her husband would not rest until treatment and a vaccine were available to all.

•
Her testimonial of Trump's tireless work habits, his passion and "heart for America" erase forever the scurrilous rumors that somehow she is a secret dissenter.

•
She's with him, believes in him and wants four more years for him to finish what he has started.

•
Over the two nights, the president has appeared in four main segments, and they are similar in that they are intimate affairs with a handful of Americans.

•
On Monday, he met with six hostages his administration had rescued and seven workers celebrated for their roles in the pandemic.

•
Tuesday's first segment of the kind involved a former bank robber-turned inspiration for helping prisoners restart their lives and the former FBI agent who arrested him and became a best friend.

•
Their heartwarming stories told, Trump surprised the former inmate, Jon Ponder, by pardoning him on the spot. He pulled out the official order and signed it as Ponder fought back tears.

•
Later, the president helped preside over a naturalization ceremony held in the White House, where he welcomed five new citizens to what he called "The greatest nation on the face of God's earth."

•
These events are carefully designed to showcase a policy, a feature of the president that may or may not be well known or to counter a negative public perception of him.

•
Similarly, his pardon of the former bank robber was a reminder of Trump's First Step Act, a prison reform bill that even congressional Democrats were proud to support.

•
It is one of the president's proudest accomplishments and we will likely hear more about it because the whole idea counters the argument that he is mean and a racist.

•
In terms of politics, Daniel Cameron, Kentucky's first Black attorney general, gave a stirring defense of Trump and the Republican party and laced into Biden. ... "if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black," Cameron declared to Biden: "Look at me — you can't tell me how to vote based on the color of my skin."

•
Another star was Nicholas Sandmann, the high schooler defamed for wearing his MAGA hat near the Lincoln Memorial after a pro-life march.

•
Sandmann gave a smart statement, on tape, recounting the fact and saying he realized that he had been "canceled" by the media.

•
"I would not be canceled," he vowed and concluded his remarks by putting on a MAGA hat.
At upbeat Republican Convention, speakers make strong pitch for Black votes (Fox 08/25/2020)
5 key moments from the RNC's first night (Fox 08/25/2020)
•
Kim Klacik says Democrats "assume that Black people will vote for them, no matter how much they let us down"

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"Joe Biden believes we can't think for ourselves, that the color of someone's skin dictates their political views. We are not buying your lies anymore. You and your party have neglected us for far too long."

•
Rep. Jim Jordan lists promises Trump fulfilled despite opposition

•
"They tried the Russia hoax, the Mueller investigation, and the fake impeachment. But in spite of this unbelievable opposition, this president has done what he said he would do: taxes cut, regulations reduced, economy growing, lowest unemployment in 50 years, out of the Iran deal, embassy in Jerusalem, hostages home from North Korea, a new USMCA agreement, and of course he's building a wall and rebuilding our economy as we speak."

•
Nikki Haley touts American strength on the world stage

•
"... the U.N. is not for the faint of heart. It's a place where dictators, murderers and thieves denounce America... and then put their hands out and demand that we pay their bills. Well, President Trump put an end to all that."

•
... went on to claim that Biden would be "good for Iran and ISIS" and "great for Communist China" while Trump is "tough on China, and he took on ISIS and won."

•
Cuban immigrant Maximo Alvarez issues warning against far-left policies: "I've seen ideas like this before"

•
"I've seen movements like this before. I've seen ideas like this before. I am here to tell you – we cannot let them take over our country."

•
"I heard the promises of Fidel Castro. And I can never forget all those who grew up around me, who looked like me, who suffered and starved and died because they believed those empty promises."

•
Sen. Tim Scott delivers a positive message on America's promise while slamming Biden on race

•
"It's about the promise of America. It's about you and me. Our challenges and heartbreaks, hopes and dreams."

•
"We have work to do, but I believe in the goodness of America, the promise that all men and all women are created equal."
Former RNC chairman joins anti-Trump Lincoln Project (Fox 08/25/2020)
Liz Peek: Trump's turn for convention – here's the key difference between president and Biden (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
Over four evenings, Democrats wallowed in the most depressing rending of garments ever seen on national television.

•
When they weren't berating the nation for being racist, they were accusing President Trump of every sort of villainy, insulting him and by reference the 51% of likely voters who support him.

•
It's a darned strange strategy for winning back those swing-state Democrats who came out for Trump in 2016.

•
It's an even weirder way to approach "Uniting America," which was how Democrats titled their convention.

•
Rather than celebrating the obvious advances made by black Americans, including the election (twice) of our first African American president and now the first woman of color on a major party ticket, Democrats put combatting racism at the heart of their program.

•
The GOP convention will be – guaranteed – more positive, more upbeat and more fun than the tortured slog-fest we just witnessed.

•
Republicans will talk about how to move the country forward, a plan that will speak to most Americans.

•
The president and others will highlight the extraordinary gains notched by every strata of our society in the first three years of his presidency: record-low unemployment overall and especially for minorities, women, the disabled and even ex-felons.

•
Before the virus put the country on hold, the economy had added seven million jobs in total and half a million manufacturing jobs, which President Trump promised and Barack Obama derided, saying such a turnaround would require a "magic wand."

•
Trump also reset our relationship with China, finally confronting Beijing for its decades-long theft of American technology and its disregard for world trading rules. It is no wonder that the Chinese are pushing for Biden to win in November.

•
Democrats never once mentioned the violence plaguing our cities. They know they are vulnerable on this issue.
Jeff Flake joins over two-dozen former GOP members of Congress to launch ‘Republicans for Biden’ (Fox 08/24/2020)
•
"These former members of Congress cited Trump's corruption, destruction of democracy, blatant disregard for moral decency, and urgent need to get the country back on course as a reason why they support Biden," the Biden campaign official told...

•
"These former Members of Congress are supporting Joe Biden because they know what's at stake in this election and that Trump's failures as President have superseded partisanship."

•
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh dismissed the latest announcement in a statement to Fox News: "Joe Biden has been a failure in the Washington Swamp for a half century, so one should be surprised when Swamp creatures gather to protect one of their own. President Trump has unprecedented support — over 95 percent — among real Republican voters and is also making strong inroads in Biden's core Democrat constituencies, like Black Americans, Latinos, and union members. President Trump's record of success for all Americans will carry him to victory in November."
Tom Del Beccaro: Democratic unity is a myth — don’t believe it (Fox 08/22/2020)
Rep. Jeff Van Drew slams Dems for putting this in USPS funding bill: 'What are they thinking?' (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"Who told them to do that? Who wants that? Why are we doing that? I don't understand what we're actually doing sometimes rather than getting good work ... accomplished for the people of the United States of America. It's just folks arguing with each other, and Democrats not wanting to cooperate, ever."
House Democrats push forward with $25B Post Office bill, GOP dismisses rare Saturday vote as a 'joke' (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"We're going to hear a lot of terrible things about him [DeJoy], but at the end of the day, my [Democratic] friends are going to vote to give him $25 billion."

•
"And they're going to do it in a bill that has no reforms and it just says you can't change anything. Now, how smart is that?"
Newt Gingrich: Why Biden's boffo convention speech could hobble the rest of his campaign (Fox 08/22/2020)
DNC used parade of Never Trump Republicans to mask most left wing agenda in years (JWR 08/21/2020)
Barack Obama: A one-trick pony (INN 08/20/2020)
•
After eight years, everyone had been saturated with his patter of, "This is not who we are," "We must live up to our values" and, "This country sure is racist."

•
So Obama scuttled off for a few years, avoided very high profile speeches and saved his ammo for this moment. Except it's the same ammo.

•
The condescension. The presumption. The false accusations of racism. The self-righteous lectures from the worst president in America's history.

•
Obama kicks off his speech to the 2020 Democratic National Convention by calling the Constitution racist. He goes on to scold President Trump for not finding "common ground."

•
That's quite a whine from a radical who never bothered to find common ground. And treated everyone who disagreed with him with outright contempt.

•
But Obama doesn't really mean any of this stuff. These are just the routines that he learned to manipulate middle-of-the-road moderate voters. And it worked pretty well for him.

•
He calls violent thugs attacking shopkeepers and federal buildings, trying to burn churches and terrorizing communities, "peaceful protesters."

•
All these years later, Obama, like Kamala Harris, is trading on a black civil-rights identity that he never had a part of, in order to elevate an old white man he despises to the top job.

•
See related Miss Me? (Glenn McCoy, 02/28/2017) cartoon from USA picture album
Pelosi touts Dem 'path' at DNC, but here's why voters should reject it in Nov. (Fox 08/20/2020)
•
... Pelosi is ignoring this century's most profound challenge to our national security: the Chinese Communist Party.

•
She called Republican efforts to hold China accountable for failing to stop the pandemic a "diversion."

•
The caucus over which Pelosi presides is not the old Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy. It is now run by socialists.

•
Democratic policies championed by the left are extreme: raise taxes for hard-working Americans, eliminate private insurance and defund the police.

•
Their 2020 agenda can be summed up in three words: defund, dismantle, destroy.

•
If you want a snapshot of what the country might look like under the Biden-Harris-Pelosi agenda, it isn't at the convention, it's on display nightly on the streets of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and other liberal strongholds.
5 key moments from the Democratic National Convention's third night (Fox 08/20/2020)
•
Harris reflects on the past, looks to the future, blames Trump for the present.

•
... praising her running mate Joe Biden, saying that he will "bring us together" in battling against the coronavirus pandemic, an economic crisis and racism.

•
In between, Harris blamed President Trump for those same problems, claiming that the president's "failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods."

•
Later in her speech, she said Trump "turns our tragedies into political weapons."

•
Obama accuses Trump of using office for selfish purposes, Trump fires back immediately.

•
Obama did not hold back during his speech, claiming that his successor has "shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends."

•
He slammed Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the collapse of the nation's economy, arguing that "the consequences of that failure are severe — 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever."

•
Trump responded on Twitter as it was happening. ... "HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GOT CAUGHT," the president tweeted midway through Obama's speech.

•
Hours before Obama's speech, Trump targeted his predecessor, claiming that the reason he ran in the 2016 election was because Obama performed poorly as president.

•
"President Obama did not do a good job. And the reason I'm here is because of President Obama and Joe Biden, because if they did a good job I wouldn't be here. And probably, if they did a good job, I wouldn't have even run."

•
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of Biden's primary opponents, gave her full support to the Democratic nominee ... then shifted gears to bash Trump for America's woes during the coronavirus pandemic.

•
"Donald Trump's ignorance and incompetence have always been a danger to our country. COVID-19 was Trump's biggest test. He failed miserably."

•
Pelosi accuses Trump, McConnell of blocking Democratic agenda. ... "We have sent the Senate bills to protect our dreamers, to advance LGBTQ equality, to prevent gun violence, to preserve our planet for future generations, and even more. All of this is possible for America. Who is standing in the way? Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump."
Trump campaign calls Democratic convention 'boring, glitchy' in recap of 2nd night (Fox 08/22/2020)
•
"It's very clear they don't really have a message. It took the two hours to even mention Joe Biden last night. Tonight was just...boring."

•
"They don't talk policy. It's like 'Uncle Joe is a good guy.' That's just not going to cut it when you're going to be president of the United States."

•
"He was wrong on Iraq, he was wrong on the Iran nuclear deal, he didn't want to kill Usama bin Laden...and so they're just not exposing the truth on Joe Biden's lack of leadership when it came to tough foreign policy issues."

•
... looking forward to hearing "opportunist" Sen. Kamala Harris speak Wednesday. "She's someone who we need to keep talking about her record. The most liberal senator in the Senate. She's the one who keeps cementing this socialist takeover of the left."
Tucker: DNC speakers Cuomo, Obama, Bowser showed what's wrong with their party (Fox 08/18/2020)
•
The first night of the Democratic National Convention — featuring speeches from Andrew Cuomo, Michelle Obama and others — saw several instances of irony, faux compassion and shameless double standards.

•
"It is possible that no leader on Earth mishandled the coronavirus outbreak as profoundly as Andrew Cuomo did. A man with integrity would have resigned immediately."

•
"The whole thing was like watching Jeffrey Epstein boast about his internship program. You could barely believe it was happening. But it was."

•
... the first night's keynote speaker, Michelle Obama, was another unbelievable spectacle. ... "Last night she delivered a taped address from her $11 million estate on Martha's Vineyard. Michelle Obama, it's fair to say, has done well for herself. What she wanted you to know last night was that she was still a victim — she and everyone who looks like her — so shut up and accept her dominion over you."

•
... disagreed with Obama's claim that "a never-ending list of innocent people continue to be murdered" in the U.S., responding that, factually, there have been about eight unarmed African-Americans killed by law enforcement.

•
"That isn't a never ending list. Last year there was a total of 14. So what Michelle Obama just told you is a total lie, a calculated lie, a lie designed to make America more fearful, more angry, more divided, and thereby help her candidate win."

•
"Michelle Obama made very clear if you disagree with what she says, you are a bigot."

•
"... 'Half the country is evil. They hate me for my race,' says the woman whose husband was elected by that very same country twice in a row, hence allowing her to buy an $11 million spread on Martha's Vineyard. If Michelle Obama hates politics so much, why is she giving a political speech at a political convention?"

•
"You probably thought the left was secular but not anymore. They are fervent religious fanatics. Michelle Obama is their L. Ron Hubbard — Everything she does is good by definition."

•
... one of the most out-of-touch moments during Monday's convention session came from Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser:

•
"Bowser's city is falling apart right now, literally. Been there? For centuries Washington, D.C., was a beautiful place. You might remember it from your sixth-grade trip. Parks and trees and open spaces. A city the country was proud of. Now its open spaces are lined with tents and inside them, drug-addicted vagrants live and they emerge periodically to scare and harass visitors and local residents."

•
"She may have wrecked our nation's capital, a city she did not build, but she got the politics right — and that's all that matters."

•
"At least you can go to sleep in your car knowing that far away in a city run by corrupt bureaucrats, a street now has a fashionable political slogan painted across it. That is the message not just of Muriel Bowser but of the Democratic Party."
5 key moments from the Democratic National Convention's first night (Fox 08/18/2020)
•
Sanders warns of 'authoritarianism' and 'the future of our planet'. ... "At its most basic, this election is about preserving our democracy," stating that under Trump's administration, "the unthinkable has become normal," and that "authoritarianism has taken root in our country."

•
Michelle Obama rips into Trump in rare political appearance. ... claimed that Trump "is clearly in over his head" and "simply cannot be who we need him to be for us." She said that instead of leadership, "what we get instead is chaos, division and a total and utter lack of empathy."

•
Cuomo claims coronavirus is a 'symptom' of a 'weakened' America. ... "COVID is the symptom, not the illness. A virus attacks when the body is weak and when it cannot defend itself."

•
Cuomo, who has been heavily criticized for policies that critics charge resulted in thousands of COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes, accused Trump of being blind to the dangers posed by the pandemic.

•
Kasich urges Republicans to back Biden. ... called on the GOP "to take off our partisan hats and put our nation first for ourselves and, of course, for our children."

•
Unlike some of the other speakers, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar mainly used her time to rally Democrats behind Biden instead of against Trump.

•
"Joe ran for the same reasons I did. To cross the river of our divides, to bring this nation together, to be a president for all of America."
Sanders-AOC alliance puts stamp on Democratic convention, platform (Fox 08/17/2020)
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See related Left! Left! (Michael Ramirez, 05/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Pelosi calls members back to Capitol Hill to consider USPS legislation, calls post office... amid coronavirus (Fox 08/16/2020)
Biden keeps hidin’ from tough questioning by reporters, as anti-Trump media go easy on him (Fox 08/13/2020)
•
Former Vice President Joe Biden finally came out of the basement Wednesday.

•
It was almost like a groundhog sighting, signifying less than 12 more weeks of campaign insanity.

•
... Biden introduced his vice-presidential running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., in a socially distant announcement.

•
Each candidate read a canned speech with all the vigor of a linoleum salesperson. Then they exited — stage right.

•
... as happens almost every day, Biden wasn't asked any tough questions by reporters Wednesday. In fact, he and Harris weren't pressed for questions at all.

•
Biden didn't even come out of hiding at all until early July — going nearly three full months without a press conference. A couple of weeks later, he held a news conference without any questions.

•
Now when Biden does meet the press, most reporters go out of their way to not make news.

•
Watch a few minutes of interactions between reporters and both candidates, and it's obvious who's on Team Biden — almost all of the political press corps.

•
And when Biden is embarrassed by a reporter doing his job, he gets angry and lashes out in a way some would consider racist.

•
"No, I haven't taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test? Come on, man. That's like saying you, before you got on this program, you take a test where you're taking cocaine or not. What do you think? Huh? Are you a junkie?"

•
... dubbed the Biden strategy "less is more." That's OK, he's trying to get elected. He's such a gaffe master that he knows he needs to hide.

•
The problem comes when journalists accept it because they, too, are trying to get him elected. When the news media do it, all we get is the "less is less" strategy.
Why Kamala Harris VP pick could cost Biden the election (Fox 08/12/2020)
•
... the only person who should be happier with this pick than Kamala Harris is Donald Trump.
Newt Gingrich: Trump could take down Schumer and Pelosi with this Reagan tactic (Fox 08/07/2020)
•
Reagan did not negotiate his major legislation with the Democratic leadership. He appealed to the American people to get them to put pressure on members of Congress.

•
An inside negotiation would never have produced the three-year tax cut, which was the heart of Reagan's economic recovery and growth program.

•
But a campaign focused on educating and arousing the American people did.

•
Reagan had learned during eight years of working at General Electric that if you moved the majority (the voters – not the politicians) the elected officials had to follow them.

•
Reagan also knew how to say "no." After the 1984 no tax increase platform, he never allowed his staff to consider a tax increase.

•
During the Reykjavik summit, Mikhail Gorbachev offered Reagan everything in return for giving up missile defense. Reagan said "no."

•
Six months later, Gorbachev gave Reagan everything he wanted without Reagan yielding an inch on missile defense.

•
When Reagan decided he wanted to say: "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall," every element of the bureaucracy – and all of his senior staff – were opposed to it up through breakfast in Berlin and the ride to the speech.

•
Reagan ignored them and uttered the famous phrase, which forecast what would happen two years later.

•
President Trump should give a major speech to the American people outlining every offer, and the sequence of offers, which the Pelosi-Schumer legislative dictatorship has rejected.

•
He should note each group that was being hurt by the Democrats' intransigence.

•
He should indicate that their partisanship was a threat to the country and that as president he owed it to the American people to solve problems – even while the Democrats do everything they can to obstruct progress and cause the country pain.

•
Then he should announce an amazing sequence of executive orders designed to achieve as much as legally possible in dealing with the pandemic, reopening the schools, strengthening the economy and other efforts that would help Americans.

•
Finally, he should announce a new set of legislative proposals being sent to the Hill and ask every American to call their House and Senate members and ask them to put patriotism above partisanship to get something good done.

•
This is a far better outcome for America, the Republicans and President Trump than any plausible surrender to the absurd demands of Pelosi and Schumer.
In Biden's hunt for a VP Susan Rice takes the lead – and she's a threat (Fox 08/04/2020)
•
... in a normal year, no mainstream candidate would consider any of these people — all of them would be disqualified without debate.

•
Karen Bass is a lunatic Fidel Castro acolyte, who praise Scientology and once belonged to an armed revolutionary group. She's out.

•
Stacey Abrams is so delusional she thinks she's the Governor of Georgia, and by the way, she's essentially unemployed. In one of her last regular jobs, she wrote bad porn novels — for real.

•
Kamala Harris, meanwhile, is so transparently transactional that even Democratic primary voters who have a strong stomach found her repulsive.

•
But according to Joe Biden, this isn't a normal year and the normal standards don't apply.

•
For what could very well be the most important job on Earth, Biden has decided to hire exclusively on the basis of qualities that are both immutable and completely irrelevant — race, and gender. And that's it.

•
But wait a second, you ask, isn't that insulting? Isn't it wrong? Isn't it probably illegal?

•
Yes, it is all three of those things. But no one is pushing back against it, so Biden is doing it.

•
The problem is that all three of the people we just told you about might wind up in the end hurting the Biden campaign. They're just too unimpressive to run.

•
Biden's handlers seem to have figured this out. Above all, the Democratic Party wants to win this year. They're not in it for sentimental reasons or for love of Joe Biden. They're in it for the power and they want it — badly.

•
... the odds seemed to shift dramatically in another direction ... towards someone you have seen before. That would be former National Security Adviser, Susan Rice.

•
As of right now, Susan Rice appears to be in the lead for the VP slot. That's an interesting development.

•
Say what you will about Susan Rice and we're about to, but she is not a buffoon.

•
Susan Rice is smart. She is hard-eyed. She is experienced.

•
Susan Rice knows exactly what she wants and she understands the system well enough to get it. She is a threat.

•
As a member of Obama's cabinet, she pushed for the counterproductive killing of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya.

•
Then in the Clinton administration, she supported the bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan.

•
And needless to say, it goes without saying, really, Rice led the chorus of liars who claimed that Donald Trump was secretly a Russian agent.

•
"... the policies that this President has pursued globally have served Vladimir Putin's interests in dividing the West, undermining democracy."

•
Now, to be perfectly clear, this is not someone who is just throwing words out. This is someone who is highly sophisticated in the nuances of foreign policy.

•
In other words, Susan Rice knew perfectly well when she said what you just heard that it was false.

•
She knew that much of this administration's actual agenda from arming Ukraine to expanding domestic energy production here in the U.S., hurt Russian interests badly.

•
And yet, Rice didn't acknowledge that. Instead, she smeared the president as a Kremlin pawn.

•
It turns out that only people in Washington like Susan Rice want more pointless wars around the world because they're the ones who profit from them.

•
Most normal people don't want more pointless wars because they're the ones who fight them.

•
Here's her reaction to the administration's plan to remove troops from Syria.

•
"I woke up this morning to hear that news, and as I do, it seems like six days a week, I just put my head in my hands. This is [bleep] crazy."

•
It's crazy to bring troops home from a country that we have no strategic interest in, who are there to fulfill a mission we can't articulate. That's crazy. But that's a consensus view in Washington.

•
When the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was destroyed in 2012, Rice herself said something that was actually crazy.

•
She blamed that attack on an online video. Once again, Rice knew when she said it, it wasn't true, but she said it anyway.

•
"What happened this week in Cairo, in Benghazi, and in many other parts of the region ... was as a result, a direct result of a heinous and offensive video."

•
This video which dared criticize radical Islam. People saw this, they were so offended that they justifiably rose up and started shooting Americans. That was the implication of what she said.

•
But Rice knew that was a lie when she said it. ... She knew that because her own intelligence reports made it perfectly clear. But it was an election year, and Rice said what she had to say.

•
By the way, the man who actually made the video, the heinous offensive, hateful video was a Coptic Christian. He was arrested after Rice's appearances on television. He was jailed without bail.

•
It was a purely political prosecution of the kind the rest of us reassure ourselves doesn't happen in this country, but unfortunately sometimes does.

•
Whatever happened to that man? ... Four years later, he was living in a homeless shelter. His life was completely destroyed.

•
Susan Rice has never apologized to him. She doesn't appear to have even looked back. That's a moral crime.

•
Has Rice committed legal crimes? U.S. Attorney John Durham is looking into that right now...

•
The other thing we know for certain is that Susan Rice will say whatever she thinks it takes. So, it's not surprising that Joe Biden is considering her...
Steve Cortes: Joe Biden's presidency would be a transition to... what? (Fox 08/03/2020)
•
By his own admission, Joe Biden concedes he is merely a placeholder, telling a fundraising audience in May: "I view myself as a transition candidate."

•
This "transition" increasingly means a statist agenda that empowers a political rodeo of radical officeholders, reverses our country back toward globalism and encourages street-level chaos across our land.

•
This radicalism extends to potential vice presidential candidates as well. For example, two Californians reportedly on the shortlist of applicants include California Sen. Kamala Harris, who affirms taxpayer-funded health care for illegal migrants, and California Rep. Karen Bass, who has lavishly praised the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

•
But while Biden points to a progressive future of extremists, he also portends a regression backward toward the globalism that was the hallmark of his half-century in the Washington swamp.

•
Biden personifies the D.C. foreign policy establishment, which clamors for the return of a globalist commander-in-chief.

•
Biden has supported countless calamitous international armed interventions. In contrast, President Trump fulfills his campaign promises and pursues an America First foreign policy of realism and restraint.

•
As Biden repeatedly sent our warfighters abroad, he also sent our jobs overseas, and mostly to China.

•
When vice president, Biden actually asserted in a 2011 speech that "a rising China is a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America."

•
As Biden uttered that Pollyanna nonsense to his Davos-oriented CEO fanboys, industrial heartland America endured devastation.

•
Specifically, our nation lost 3.2 million jobs to China over a 12-year period from the time Biden proposed Beijing's inclusion as a most-favored trading member of the WTO in 2001.

•
As the greatest republic in world history, we clearly deserve far better than all this. We will not settle for acquiescence.

•
We will choose the 2020 candidate ready to reject radicalism, embrace sovereignty, and enforce the rule of law – because this much we know: Your way of life would not be safe in Joe Biden's radicalized America.
Tucker Carlson: Joe Biden's VP pick will be the most consequential in history (Fox 07/30/2020)
•
From his basement, strategically cloistered away in silence, Joe Biden shot ahead in the polls, not because of anything he did. He just happened to be there.

•
As of tonight, Joe Biden could win the race. Unfortunately, if he does, Joe Biden cannot govern the country. He isn't capable of it. He's all but admitted that.

•
So Biden's running mate will be the most consequential VP pick in American history, and soon we'll know who it is.

•
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CALIF.), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: "Let me just be very clear about this. I am opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education or public health. Period."

•
Oh, now wait a second, you may be wondering. I'm sitting in my house, maybe unemployed, paying a huge percentage of my net worth for health care. So why should people who aren't even allowed to be in this country in the first place get it for free at my expense?

•
And by the way, how can a government that's already $27 trillion in debt afford to pay for the rest of the world's medical bills?

•
Harris supports allowing universities and employers to discriminate based on the skin color of applicants. What decade is this?

•
She supports race-based reparations. She'd like to rewrite the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College because it's inconvenient.

•
Unlike Kamala Harris, Karen Bass is not a fraud. Karen Bass means it. She's sincere. She's an unapologetic, leftwing bomb-thrower who spent decades working to help Fidel Castro in his Cold War against the United States.

•
She literally co-sponsored the New Way Forward Act. That is a lunatic bill that would force the U.S. government to reimport at taxpayer expense hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens whom we've deported for committing crimes. Bring them back here, in many cases, violent crimes. For real.

•
Karen Bass is so extreme that, like Kamala Harris by the way, she's currently trying to repeal California's main anti-discrimination law. Bass wants to make racial discrimination legal as it was before the Civil Rights Movement.

•
Keep in mind, this is the person, these are the people who could soon be running our country.

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Miranda Devine: Biden-Sanders' radical leftist manifesto should be warning to voters (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
Joe Biden signed the death warrant for his campaign last week, even if he doesn't know it.

•
The joint manifesto he released with Bernie Sanders is 110 pages of radical far-left policies — from a job-killing $2?trillion climate agenda to eliminating cash bail and dismantling border protection.

•
Well-meaning people might stick their fingers in their ears and vote for Biden out of nostalgia for a Democratic Party that no longer exists or out of exhaustion at the relentless anti-Trump barrage.

•
But with his "Unity Task Forces" document, Biden has proven only that he is an empty husk.

•
Old Joe, who was for police and working people and law and order, is long gone. His body is there but, like his party, it has been invaded by the socialist left.

•
... he plans to punish the wealth creators and redistribute their money to an ever-expanding class of supplicants. Not that it will be enough. There's a lot more to fear in the 50,000-word manifesto.

•
The biggest clue to the destructive ideology that drives the Biden-Sanders manifesto is the word "equity," which appears 34 times.

•
Equity means equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity. It is the very DNA of Marxism and everything bad flows from it, as we saw in the Soviet Union, Mao's China, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.

•
No matter how many New York Times columnists try to craft Biden an image as "working class Joe" from Scranton, "a man who is not ideological," or dream up excuses for him not to debate President Trump, the charade is unsustainable.
If Democrats win Texas it’s all over, Sen. Ted Cruz says (Fox 07/20/2020)
•
"Texas is the single biggest target for the left in 2020, politically speaking. Texas is the key for national domination for years to come. If Democrats win Texas, it's all over."
Sally Pipes: Biden a moderate? Sanders, AOC plans for candidate suggest this instead (Fox 07/19/2020)
Authoritarian left vs. conservatives — Dems fear a level playing field, seek to control debate (Fox 07/11/2020)
David Bossie: Republican vs. Democratic 2020 platforms will lay out clear choice for voters in... (Fox 07/08/2020)
Adriana Cohen: 2020 presidential election poses clear choice: jobs or mobs (Fox 07/04/2020)
•
If you want mobs vandalizing stores, destroying public property and setting churches on fire, then vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who has spent the majority of his time hiding out in his Delaware basement while our country has been in flames in the aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy.

•
... he hasn't condemned the burning of St. John's Episcopal Church by violent protestors.

•
He hasn't denounced the heinous assaults and killings of police officers that have taken place throughout the country.

•
Nor has he said a peep about the brutal murder of civilians — including teenagers — shot and killed in the Seattle CHOP zone controlled by armed left-wing anarchists.

•
And he certainly hasn't called upon Democratic mayors and governors to get their ransacked cities and states under control.

•
The stark reality is that Democrats today would rather appease anarchists, looters and violent criminals than uphold law and order.

•
Make no mistake. Republicans who elected Donald Trump are just as horrified by the appalling death of George Floyd as Democrats. We want police reform so that type of excessive force never happens again. That we can all agree on.

•
Conservatives also support peaceful protests of any kind. But where conservatives draw the line is arson, mayhem and murder, which are antithetical to a civilized society.

•
"Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn, a Great Police Captain from St. Louis, who was viciously shot and killed by despicable looters last night. We honor our police officers, perhaps more than ever before. Thank you!"

•
The president has also taken action against those who deface America's historical monuments. ... "My Executive Order to protect Monuments, Statues etc., IS IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT. In excess of a 10 year prison term. Please do not put yourself in jeopardy. Many people now under arrest!"

•
The president has also threatened to use military force, if necessary, to break up violent protests.

•
Undoubtedly, Trump is our "law and order" president, and, thankfully for our nation, he's also our jobs president who's succeeding, once again, in creating millions of jobs.

•
... while Democrats are defunding the police and turning a blind eye to the mob's criminal destruction in cities nationwide, Trump is bringing back millions of jobs and increasing wages for union workers.

•
When voters cast their ballots in November, they'll choose between a president that's creating jobs and Joe Biden, a career politician, who tiptoes around the mob. The choice is clear.
The politics of upside-down America (JWR 06/29/2020)
House approves DC statehood bill, GOP calls move Dem 'power grab' (Fox 06/26/2020)
Fiorina indicates she’ll vote for Biden, saying she 'can't support' Trump (Fox 06/25/2020)
•
"I am encouraged that Joe Biden is a person of humility and empathy and character. I think he's demonstrated that through his life."

•
"Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president," Trump said in an interview with Rolling Stone in December 2015.

•
"Failed presidential candidate (thank you President Trump!), Carly Fiorina, said she will be voting for Corrupt Joe Biden. She lost so badly to me, twice in one campaign, that she should be voting for Joe. No complaints!!!"
Tucker Carlson warns 'as of right now, only Republicans can save us' from rule by street mob (Fox 06/22/2020)
•
"The Joe Biden you remember no longer exists. The babbling husk you see may have the same name and similar features, but behind the mask there is nothing but a jumbled collection of talking points from the 70s. 'Turn on your record player, no malarkey'. The candidate has no independent thoughts of his own."

•
"Their plan is to ride him to power. Once there, someone tough and calculating and purposeful — Kamala Harris, probably — will change the country."

•
In time ... the new American leadership will seek to expand the definition of a "hate crime" to anything they disagree with — which will essentially criminalize dissent.

•
"Who can save us from that? As of right now, only Republicans can save us from that."

•
"Not because they're inherently virtuous, not because they want to — they don't — but because they're the opposition party to the extent they still have opposition to anything. We have no choice but to ask for their help."
Watters warns 'luckiest politician of all time' Biden 'is going to have to face the music' soon (Fox 06/16/2020)
•
"At this point, he [Biden] is literally like the luckiest politician of all time. Barack Obama picked him out of nowhere to be his VP ... Then a pandemic hits so he gets to stay safely in the basement and not be embarrassed by small crowd sizes. Then a recession happens to his opponent in an election year and then there's racial riots that gets his base all ginned up, and he's raising a ton of money."

•
"The luck can't continue for that much longer. Sooner or later, things are going to get normal, and Joe Biden is going to have to face the music."

•
"At this point, Joe Biden is like a car that can't go over 60 miles an hour because when it does, the wheels fall off."

•
"He's lucky right now because you have the caution flag up so everybody's kind of keeping it under 65, but the minute that flag goes off... the speed goes up and Biden collapses."
Trump can give voters a choice - reform the police with him or abolish them with Democrats (Fox 06/15/2020)
•
The overwhelming majority of you agree that we need law and order and justice, that we need to support the police, but also reform the police.

•
My great fear is that because the Democrats have been shouting the loudest about justice and inequality — people who support the right cause — equal opportunity for Americans of all races will vote the wrong party.

•
Look at the record on law enforcement.

•
As we showed you last week, some of the worst examples of police brutality have happened in places run by Democrats for years.

•
Democrats' past record on policing is bad enough. But their new policies are even worse. Defund the police is fast becoming the actual position.

•
We know who will be the puppet masters in a Biden presidency. ... the Loony Left will be in charge of policy — people who want to defund the police. If you take away the funds, how does it exist? This is about abolishing the police.

•
Meanwhile, President Trump's signaled last week his commitment to limit use of force and lead the way on police reform with an executive order expected soon.

•
What we need is real accountability, so when the rules are broken, there are serious consequences. We need a national database for complaints so a bad cop can't be fired in one place then rehired in another. We never allow that for airline pilots. We shouldn't for police officers, either.

•
... I hope the president can encourage police departments to use alternative responders when that's more appropriate for the situation. We shouldn't be asking our brave police to solve all society's problems.

•
This is an opportunity for the president to create a clear and winning dividing line for the election — reform the police with Trump or abolish the police with the Democrats.

•
In Detroit, Michigan, over a third of the people live in poverty — a Democratic mayor since 1962. St. Louis, Missouri almost a quarter living in poverty — a Democratic mayor since 1949. And guess which American city is the capital of U.S. inequality? The one with the biggest protest this weekend, Atlanta, run by Democrats for over a century.

•
It's not just that Democrats in office have failed to deliver equal opportunity for African-Americans. In some policy areas, they are actively blocking it.

•
In the first three years of Bill Clinton's NAFTA, black Americans lost over 36,000 jobs. Now, President Trump has renegotiated it, and that's expected to bring back over 175,000 jobs.

•
Now the president wants to cut payroll tax that would help African-American workers, too. So of course, the Democrats are against that, too, just as they're against the Trump opportunity zones that are bringing investment to black neighborhoods.

•
On the substance, there is no debate. The party with the right policies to advance the right cause, equal opportunity for all races, is the Republican Party. That's why the Democrats don't want you to look at the substance, whether it's their past record or future policies. Instead, they are all about the symbols.

•
And has there ever been a more nauseating spectacle of empty gesture politics than Nancy Pelosi and her crew parading in African garb in the Congress last week?

•
One leg kneeling for a photo op, while the other kicks African-Americans down the ladder of opportunity with the Democrats' anti-black policies on education, the economy and all the rest.
Laura Ingraham lays out the ideal Republican platform for the 2020 election (Fox 06/13/2020)
•
"First, we will redouble our efforts to preserve for all Americans their freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press and freedom of assembly. We lost a lot more than just our booming economy in those lockdowns."

•
"And even with states reopening, millions of Americans are still unable to attend church services, go to weddings or any other large gathering, for that matter. Well, unless you're looting, rioting or hurling obscenities at cops, of course, then it's OK."

•
Following the fiasco of the coronavirus lockdowns, the host said, "our sacrosanct freedoms should only be abridged in true emergencies and only pursuant to laws passed by elected officials, not by decrees issued by governors or mayors, especially those who don't even follow their own rules."

•
... second platform plank called for a stop to "efforts by multinational companies to ship jobs offshore." The third plank called for a crackdown on violent criminals and support for law enforcement.

•
"We want all Americans to feel safe inside and outside their homes. And that means swift and sure punishment for violent crime, especially in poor neighborhoods."

•
"It also means supporting the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us."

•
"We recognize that the Chinese Communist Party is a grave threat to the United States and we'll take all measures necessary to prevent it from endangering our national interests."

•
"Now, for starters, we should prohibit American companies from doing any work in China that would benefit the Chinese military or enable the Communist regime to further oppress its own citizens. Tech companies, we're talking to you. We absolutely need to keep the Chinese from infiltrating and undermining our institutions of higher learning."

•
"Ever since the days of the Revolution. average Americans have fought against ... tyranny and we pledge to continue this fight no matter the odds."
Tammy Bruce: Why the GOP establishment turning against Trump confirms what we suspected (Fox 06/08/2020)
•
... it does not surprise her that the GOP establishment is not supporting President Trump because they are siding with ideas of globalism instead of "Americanism."

•
"This is about Americanism versus globalism. What is best for the American family versus what is best for the political ruling elite class."

•
... argued that Trump does not care about what the GOP establishment thinks and rather listens to the American people.

•
"Is it really about what's best for the party or what is best for the country? This confirms what we did in 2016. We suspected that major leaders on both sides of the aisle didn't care about the average American, didn't care about the things that affect our future or our lives."

•
... said Powell and Bush are "decent men" but come from the Washington "swamp environment."

•
"There's only one endorsement that really matters and that's President Trump's endorsement. We saw that what the establishment was doing in 2016 did not stop Donald Trump. But, mostly, this is an insult. Again, for the American people, we're looking at what Trump did in three years and, look, they are embarrassed. He did what they were unable to do in all that time. It's a shame, but, it confirms the importance of the election of Donald Trump."

•
See related Immigration Politics (Sean Delonas, 01/12/2018) cartoon from USA picture album
Mike Huckabee encourages all Republicans to 'make the right move,' support Trump's reelection (Fox 06/07/2020)
•
"This president is more pro-life than we've ever had, period. He's more pro-Israel. He has deregulated so much government so that the businesses of America can thrive and they have until this COVID stuff happened."

•
"This is a president who has stood up to the globalists, stood up to the unfair trade practices, brought back American jobs, has done more for minorities than any president in my lifetime in actually helping people to have good, decent jobs and a future."

•
He then noted that despite all that, some people said they did not like Trump because of his personality.

•
"Well, get over it. This is not about electing a personality, this isn't Hollywood, this is the rough, tumble world of politics."
Giuliani 'disappointed' in reports that Bush won't back Trump's reelection; says Romney has 'chip...' (Fox 06/07/2020)
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"The Bushes are hurt. Sunday Morning Futures. They're internally hurt. And my view is you get over it. I mean, the reality is this country is bigger than your personal anger at Trump."

•
"There's a personal anger that's affecting their decisions. And I'm very disappointed in that because the difference between Trump and [Democratic presidential nominee Joe] Biden is so palpable for anyone who has Republican values."
Newt Gingrich: Democrats want to steal November election – here’s how (Fox 06/07/2020)
•
Make no mistake: Voter fraud is real. Democrats, the anti-Trump news media and the so-called public interest groups on the political left will tell you otherwise, but they are either lying or totally ignorant.

•
Voter fraud is a threat to the integrity of our elections, the heart of our democracy. Democrats want to make the problem worse with their new voting laws.

•
The biggest way to expand voter fraud is to expand voting by mail. And Democrats want to impose universal vote-by-mail across the country.

•
Traditionally, voters have long been able to request that an absentee ballot be mailed to them if they have a valid excuse for not being able to go to their local polling place – the physically disabled or sick, and of course our troops stationed abroad and their families.

•
This is still the case in most states, but some – such as Oregon – simply mail an absentee ballot to every single registered voter.

•
The problem with mailing ballots like this is that the lists of registered voters across the country are in terrible shape, and states do a poor job of cleaning their voter rolls. In fact, most states have given up on doing so.

•
Every time they try, well-funded liberal groups accuse them of purging active, eligible voters from the rolls to suppress voting.

•
As a result, ballots get mailed out to people who no longer live at the same addresses because they have moved or died.

•
Therefore, a precious item, perhaps our society's most valuable – the ballot – is just out there, for anyone to exploit.

•
Voting by mail also leads to ballot harvesting – the practice of allowing third parties to collect voters' ballots and turn them in together to polling stations.

•
Imagine a political operative or a campaign volunteer showing up at your front door to collect your ballot and deliver it for you.

•
Your ballot would no longer be secret, but more importantly, the operative or volunteer could pressure or even intimidate you to vote a certain way – especially if you are sick, elderly, or speak poor English.

•
Another invitation for dishonest elections and inaccurate voting is same-day registration. Under this system, if you aren't registered to vote, you can register on Election Day and immediately vote.

•
Election officials have no time to verify your information or determine if you're even an eligible voter who lives at the address that you provide.

•
Democrats are pushing all of these measures in earnest. ... Pelosi and the Democrats are using the coronavirus as an excuse to impose these voting laws and other far-left ideas on the country.

•
I've spent a lifetime in politics and don't remember anything this bad, where people are so blatantly and openly willing to push illegality – in this case in the form of voter fraud.

•
... Democrats have gotten to the point where they believe the ends justify the means. They believe that President Trump is so terrible and evil that anything they do to win, even cheating, is justified.

•
See related Hillary Registering Voters (Sean Delonas, 10/20/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
Beto O’Rourke mocks Texas governor’s reopening message – then hears back from Crenshaw, Cruz (Fox 05/24/2020)
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"Dangerous, dumb and weak," O'Rourke wrote in retweeting Abbott's message. "Is this the new Dem slogan?" Cruz snapped back.

•
"The guy who wanted to be Texas's Senator truly believes Texans can't make decisions for themselves and that they are ‘dumb and weak' for living their lives and trying to feed their families."

•
"Governor Abbott can't force anyone to go back to work. Texans are choosing to do that, despite what people like Beto scream from their ivory towers."

•
See related Beto to Take AR15s (Gary McCoy, 09/15/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Dems Warning Trump Will Reject Election Results Should Look in the Mirror (JWR 05/22/2020)
•
In a recent Washington Post column warning Americans to "prepare for the possibility of Trump rejecting election results" — one of media's favorite projections — ... asks a question: "If he loses, would it be more surprising if Trump graciously accepts defeat and congratulates his opponent or if he claimed to be the victim of a rigged election and a 'deep state' plot?"

•
Considering Trump's temperament, it wouldn't be surprising if he blamed the "deep state" for an election failure.

•
Really, though, we have no need to speculate about what an attack on the sanctity of the electoral process would look like, since Democrats have been delegitimizing a valid election for the past four years.

•
These days, "democracy" is just another word for partisan victory. The last Democrat who lost a presidential race honorably was Michael Dukakis.

•
A stable two-party, right-left consensus has allowed us to avoid turmoil in the transition of power. It's a system that relies on trust from the electorate and good behavior from our leaders.

•
We learned about these magnificent norms from 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who, when conventional wisdom anticipated her victory, said: "We've been around 240 years. We've had free and fair elections and we've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them..."

•
But Clinton discarded any deference to results after the election, when she, and many Democrats, blamed the Russians, sexism, the unfairness of a 240-year process, James Comey's letter to Congress, and a slew of other bogeymen.

•
These concerted attacks were not only aimed at Trump's ideas, policies, or person — completely reasonable targets — but the validity of the election system itself.

•
Democrats now have an assortment of justifications for discrediting outcomes they may not like.

•
During the impeachment hearings, Nancy Pelosi maintained that "Let the election decide" was a "dangerous position" to hold because it was "jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections."

•
Adam Schiff's central rationale for impeachment was the notion that Trump had already cheated in 2020.

•
"Russia is interfering in our elections again. And Trump supporters are emulating Russian tactics," argues a Washington Post column this week.

•
Democrats know there's no genuine way, save wide-ranging censorship, to stop a foreign state from infiltrating our open information stream with their ineffective and amateurish social media accounts.

•
So we can speculate about what Trump might say if he loses — and let's hope he doesn't follow Hillary's precedent.

•
But we already know what Democrats will say if they lose: the election was rigged.
Geraldo Rivera torches Nancy Pelosi for 'brutal hypocrisy' on Hunter Biden probe (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
"How dare Democrats talk about this being a diversion when, for three years, they dragged the country through a meaningless Russia-gate probe that had nothing to do with national security, everything to do with domestic politics, had no proof of the essential premise – not from the get-go – and, still went ahead with this phone call to Ukraine to impeach the president of the United States for the third time in American history."

•
"Now they complain that the Republicans have the majority in the Senate and they are probing what needs to be probed about Burisma, about Ukraine and I hope [Sen. Ron Johnson] takes it to Russia-gate."

•
"Shame on Nancy, you had it coming once you pushed that rock up the hill trying to get Trump and now it rolled back on you. Now it's just beginning."
Sen. Tim Scott: Biden's new comment on black voters is 'most arrogant and condescending' thing... (Fox 05/22/2020)
•
... said such comments are not surprising considering Biden's record in "sponsoring a crime bill in the 1990s that jailed more African-American males than any other legislation."

•
"And President Trump comes along, and through his criminal justice reform, corrects the absolute mistakes made by Joe Biden; 1.3 million African-Americans voted for Trump. He's saying to 1.3 million African-Americans that you are not black? Who in the heck does he think he is? That is the most arrogant, outrageous comment that I've heard in a very long time and I take offense to that."

•
See related Biden Social Distancing (Sean Delonas, 04/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Joe Biden seen as a 'puppet' for far-left Democrats, critic says (Fox 05/21/2020)
Several GOP senators press for more stimulus payments during coronavirus crisis (Fox 05/21/2020)
Gregg Jarrett: Biden turning to 'deflection and diversion' amid new questions about son's... (Fox 05/21/2020)
•
"We have already heard him on videotape bragging about how he threatened to withhold a billion dollars of U.S. aid to Ukraine unless a particular Ukrainian prosecutor was fired who has signed an affidavit saying he was investigating Hunter Biden and Burisma."

•
"So, it's a classic case of suspected influence-peddling. It merits investigation."

•
Meanwhile, Biden's defenders have argued his intervention had nothing to do with Burisma and was focused on corruption concerns.

•
"No expertise in natural gas. No expertise in Ukraine. [And,] at the same time that Joe Biden was pressuring Ukraine to increase their natural gas production to the great benefit of Burisma and Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's own son."

•
"So, these are legitimate questions. And, it sounds to me like Joe Biden is the one who is guilty of deflection and diversion."
John Kennedy: Pelosi overplayed her hand with $3 trillion bill to 'remake Western civilization' (Fox 05/21/2020)
•
"Her bill is so grandiose. It's not a coronavirus bill. It's basically a 'remake Western civilization' bill."

•
... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is "actually making it easier for illegal immigrants to work in her $3 trillion bill, that fantasyland bill, than she is making it easier for the 36 million Americans out of work to get back on the job."

•
"Those are the perverse incentives that she's included in this liberal wish list."
Kristin Tate: How left-wing bureaucrats may end up handing Trump the 2020 election (Fox 05/19/2020)
•
"Left-wing leaders are using this pandemic as an excuse to grow the size and scope of state power and just leaving the middle class to suffer."

•
"This pandemic response just kind of underlines what we've known for a while now — the Democratic Party is no longer the party for the working class."

•
"These people have been told to risk everything, their livelihoods, their jobs, their savings because some left-wing bureaucrats in their state capitals have decided that they need to be on lockdown indefinitely."
Cal Thomas: Pelosi's $3 trillion coronavirus relief package tells you this about Washington elites (Fox 05/19/2020)
Dems tell Supreme Court of 'ongoing' new impeachment inquiry in effort to obtain Mueller materials (Fox 05/18/2020)
Huckabee 'stunned' by Abrams push to be Biden running mate: 'What is her qualification to be...' (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
"She is adamant to want this job. It is interesting, too, that you'd have to ask, 'What is her qualification to be president?' Because the issue is not, 'Are you qualified to be vice president, [It's] 'Are you qualified to be president?'"

•
"I'm not diminishing being the state legislature in Georgia. It's a wonderful job, but I'm not sure that qualifies you to be the leader of the free world and, somehow, she thinks she does. I'm stunned that she honestly thinks she's qualified to be Joe Biden's running mate."
Reporter's Notebook: Battle over House Dems' coronavirus aid bill sends these messages (Fox 05/18/2020)
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"Many members of Congress, including some in my own party, have decided to use this package as an opportunity to make political statements and propose a bill that goes far beyond pandemic relief."

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"I am deeply troubled by numerous provisions in this bill that could see large amounts of taxpayer dollars allocated to helping those who are not hurting at all."

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Still, many liberals said they wanted even more, something in the $4 trillion range.

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Pelosi advised Democrats to expect a massive number on the fifth coronavirus bill "because interest rates are so low. The interest rates and the prospect of access to credit has bolstered the stock market. We intend to use those interest rates to bolster the American people." In other words, debt has never been this cheap.

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... this plan was an homage to liberal Democrats in Pelosi's caucus who weren't pleased with the previous coronavirus legislation...

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... if the bill passed only in the House, it's simply a "message" bill. And, top Democrats directed part of the message at House liberals: Here's the pie in the sky measure.

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McConnell ... characterized the plan as a "totally unserious effort" and "a Democratic wish list."

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... hit all the white-hot topics, contending the bill will cut "checks specifically for illegal immigrants."

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He noted that the word "cannabis" showed up in the legislation "69 times. More times than the word ‘job' and four times as many as the word ‘hire.'"

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"It still reads like the speaker of the House pasted together random ideas from her most liberal members and slapped the word ‘coronavirus' on top of it."

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Pelosi sent a message with her bill. McConnell sent a message by not doing a bill.

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This is nearly how all things work in Washington: seemingly intractable positions by both sides, and somewhere down the road, some sort of grudging compromise.
Trump tells McConnell 'time is running out' for him to hold Russia 'hoaxers' accountable (Fox 05/16/2020)
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"Mitch, I love you, but this is 100% true. Time is running out. Get tough and move quickly, or it will be too late. The Dems are vicious, but got caught. They MUST pay a big price for what they have done to our Country. Don't let them get away with this!"

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Hemingway argued that Graham's work ethic was lacking while McConnell was shirking his responsibilities as a senate leader.

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"The Senate can subpoena records and compel testimony — holding hearings if necessary — to get to the bottom of the effort from inside the U.S. government to use a false and dangerous conspiracy theory that threatened the health and safety of the republic."

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"If that's not the Senate's business, what in the world is? And if the Senate majority leader won't care even about how this scandal uniquely harmed Republican voters, then who will?"
Republican who flipped California congressional district: People are 'underestimating' Trump's... (Fox 05/16/2020)
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"California's 25th District — Northern L.A., parts of Ventura County, very purple district — and people are underestimating the popularity right now of President Trump."

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"And it's not just among the Republicans, but also the middle third of Americans ... who just want to be able to continue to afford to live in California and want to see jobs improve, wages go up, and this economy get back on its feet."

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"So when you look at who you trust to lead us through this recovery, it should be put back in the hands of the folks that got us to this thriving economy, the record-setting economy around the world, and that is this administration and the Republican Party."

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"Just throwing more money at it from the federal government does not make an economy. The economy needs to reinvigorate, and we need to get people out there working and also buying goods."
Biden tells MSNBC he would not pardon Trump, when asked about hypothetical prosecution (Fox 05/15/2020)
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"Would you be willing to commit to not pulling a President Ford and giving Donald Trump a pardon under the pretense of healing the nation? In other words, are you willing to commit to the American ideal that no one is above the law?"

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"Absolutely yes. I commit," Biden said.

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Ford became president in 1974, after Richard Nixon resigned under the threat of impeachment.

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Ford pardoned his predecessor before any criminal charges related to the Watergate burglary could be filed.

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The presidential proclamation Ford issued pardoning Nixon explained that the preemptive clemency was necessary because the trial of a former president "will cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States."

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Ford also said in the proclamation that criminal charges against Nixon could cause the nation's recently regained "tranquility" to be "irreparably lost."

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"Mr. Vice President, you're saying that wherever the investigative trail might lead, whether that be an investigative trail pursued against Trump officials, Trump associates, administration officials, whether those are congressional investigations — that's hands-off for you, you're not gonna say, 'Let's just let bygones be bygones?"

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"It's hands-off completely. Look, the Attorney General of the United States is not the president's lawyer, he's the people's lawyer," Biden said.

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... moving on to slam the president over the Department of Justice's (DOJ) recent legal maneuvers that were favorable to Trump associates.

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"It is not something the president is entitled to do — to direct either a prosecution and or to decide to drop a case. That is not the president's role or responsibility and it is a dereliction of his duty and the dereliction of the duty of the — you know, you have what? 2,000 was it, of former attorneys general and our people who worked in the office said the president and attorney general should resign? What's going on is an absolute travesty. A travesty of justice. That will not happen I guarantee you."
Even Trump campaign's 404 page is a brutal swing at Biden (Fox 05/13/2020)
Dems won't help Republicans hold China accountable on coronavirus because of politics (Fox 05/09/2020)
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"... it is mind-boggling and unbelievable to me that everyone isn't joined together in trying to figure out how and why China did this to us."

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"... thank goodness that the president had the travel restrictions put in place earlier on. Because, if he didn't, the conditions would have been much worse."

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... "we have to know what the World Health Organization was doing, why they said that this was safe, why they said there was no problem with human transmission, why the two people who first identified this disappeared... why China didn't open its arms to us and allow our scientists — who were begging to come in to help them — to really try to reduce and restrict what was happening here."

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"... The only thing that can possibly be in their mind is politics," he said. "So, literally to risk the future of the country and the safety of the country and the fact that we want this to be the strongest country in the world in order to just politically try to achieve a goal is awful. It's horrible."

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"We need to really make sure that we understand what's going on with China here. And, we need a new supply chain. We have to change a great deal of what we have done. There is only really one good thing with this coronavirus: it taught us a lesson that what we let go over the last many years should never have happened. We have to be the strongest in the economy, the strongest in energy, the strongest in intellectual property, the strongest in science, the strongest in everything that we do. Because they are serious. China wants to be the strongest."

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"This was China's fault. China should really make reparations here."
Andy Puzder: High unemployment caused by coronavirus shows we must get America back to work (Fox 05/09/2020)
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... the left's reaction has been saturated with pure hypocrisy, complaining about the loss of jobs.

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Keep in mind that these same liberal media elites, along with their Democratic Party allies, have spent weeks attacking protesting workers, Republican governors and President Trump for wanting to reopen the U.S. economy in order to end the high unemployment caused by the pandemic.

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How can you advocate keeping the economy shut down and simultaneously complain about the loss of jobs?

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How can you criticize as reckless Americans who, unable to feed their families, asked – demonstrated, picketed, marched and begged – for their right to work, and then bemoan the loss of their jobs?

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How can you underplay the widespread economic hardship – claiming that the cure could never be worse than the disease – and then complain when it becomes increasingly obvious that the cure may well be worse than the disease?

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... President Trump's critics don't get to have it both ways. They can't advocate policies that will kill jobs and then criticize the job losses – at least they can't do so rationally.

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President Trump's emergency policies have built a strong foundation for our country's economic resurgence – but it's now up to the states to follow through on their duty to their citizens.

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It's time for everyone to stop thinking about how the economy might benefit them politically. Let's focus on returning our nation to prosperity and getting American workers back to work.

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See related Finally Got Him (Chip Bok, 03/31/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
The Dems' least offensive candidate is still strangling them (JWR 05/07/2020)
CPAC host report says number of ‘radical left’ Democrats in Congress surging (Fox 05/06/2020)
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"The days of the ‘moderate' Democrat party are over. ... congressional Democrats have demonstrated that they've abandoned any form of moderation and chosen the path forged by their radicalized party leadership."

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See related Hall of Extinction (Glenn McCoy, 04/05/2017) cartoon from Politics picture album
Biden allegations reverberate on Senate campaign trail, as Dems face accusations of double... (Fox 05/06/2020)
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"Well, at the very least it's pretty obvious that the same people who were outraged about allegations — unproven allegations against Justice Kavanaugh when he was in high school — seemed to have little or no interest, or certainly not as much interest, in suggestions of improper behavior by an adult who's in the Senate."

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"When it comes to Joe Biden, the silence from the Democrats and the double standard from the liberal media is both breathtaking and predictable."

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"I think Tara Reade's accusations against Joe Biden should be treated exactly as Joe Biden wanted Ms. Ford's allegations treated. Let's call it the 'Biden Test.'"
Kennedy knocks Dems over spending push, says Pelosi may want 'stimulus package for the murder hornet' (Fox 05/06/2020)
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"I think what Governor Cuomo forgets is how much money we've given the states already. My state has received about $2.5 billion already."

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"I don't know how many billions New York has received. That may not be as much as the governor wants, but it's not chopped liver either."

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"Our position on the Republican side of the Senate is, 'Look, we've spent $3 trillion. A lot of that did go to state and local governments. Let's step back and see how it works,'"

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"Once the economy starts to open up again, let's see whether revenues go up. There needs to be a shared sacrifice. States and cities are going to have to pare their budget just like people have."

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"Now, Speaker Pelosi, she wants to spend at least a trillion dollars. I wouldn't be surprised if she's working on a stimulus package for the murder hornet."

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"She has no concept of deficits. This is not Louisiana ditchwater spending. This is taxpayer money. And we're going to have to pay it back."

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"And all we're saying is let's go slowly and see what works and what doesn't work."
The two faces of Joe Biden (JWR 05/05/2020)
Trump lashes out at attack ad by George Conway’s Lincoln Project: ‘Disgrace to Honest Abe’ (Fox 05/05/2020)
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"A group of RINO Republicans who failed badly 12 years ago, then again 8 years ago, and then got BADLY beaten by me, a political first timer, 4 years ago, have copied (no imagination) the concept of an ad from Ronald Reagan, 'Morning in America', doing everything possible to get even for all of their many failures."

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"You see, these loser types don't care about 252 new Federal Judges, 2 great Supreme Court Justices, a rebuilt military, a protected 2nd Amendment, biggest EVER Tax & Regulation cuts, and much more."

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"I didn't use any of them because they don't know how to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe."
Dems deploying DARPA-funded AI-driven information warfare tool to target pro-Trump accounts (Fox 05/04/2020)
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An anti-Trump Democratic-aligned political action committee advised by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal is planning to deploy an information warfare tool that received initial funding from DARPA, the Pentagon's secretive research arm — transforming technology originally envisioned as a way to fight ISIS propaganda into a campaign platform to benefit Joe Biden.

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... the initiative, called Defeat Disinfo, will utilize "artificial intelligence and network analysis to map discussion of the president's claims on social media," and then attempt to "intervene" by "identifying the most popular counter-narratives and boosting them through a network of more than 3.4 million influencers across the country — in some cases paying users with large followings to take sides against the president."

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... received the funding from DARPA when his program was "part of an effort to combat extremism overseas."

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The effort raised the question of whether taxpayer funds were being repurposed for political means...

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McChrystal, who led U.S. forces in Afghanistan before he was fired by then-President Obama in 2010 for deriding his civilian bosses in a Rolling Stone interview, told the Post that the operation was necessary, even if it might appear unseemly.

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"Everyone wishes the Pandora's box was closed and none of this existed, but it does."

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The former general has previously gone on the record with a less-than-glowing assessment of Biden's competence.

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McChrystal had lost confidence in Biden after he had suggested a counterterrorism strategy.

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"Are you asking about Vice President Biden?" McChrystal said ... "Who's that?"
Media that branded Kavanaugh a rapist now a racket to protect Biden (NYP 05/04/2020)
Why Biden's Tara Reade hypocrisy, refusal to say whether he remembers her is important (Fox 05/01/2020)
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Established was the crucial aspect of Mr. Biden's (and the Democrats' in general) rank hypocrisy on this allegation versus their bloodthirsty attempt to destroy Brett Kavanaugh.

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After this interview, we do know more than we did before: we know there are things in Mr. Biden's Delaware archive he doesn't want any of us to see which he believes could negatively impact his run for the presidency; we know women are to be used and are expendable in the Democrats fight for power; and due process and justice are quaint notions to be handed out only to Democrats and their defenders.

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It's a shame, but it makes quite clear what is at stake in the 2020 election.

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See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump on Biden allegations: 'I think he should respond,' could be 'false accusations' (Fox 04/30/2020)
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"I don't know anything about it. I think he should respond. It could be false accusations."

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"He was falsely charged," Trump said of Kavanaugh. "What happened with him was an absolute disgrace to our country."

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"I can't speak for Biden — I can only say that I think he should respond. I think he should answer them."
Dem VP shortlisters condemned Kavanaugh: Here’s their response to Biden accusation (Fox 04/29/2020)
Remember when Democrats said all women should be believed in sex assault allegations? Keep... (Fox 04/28/2020)
AOC challenger calls her ‘out of touch’ for voting against latest stimulus bill (Fox 04/28/2020)
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"If she really cared, she would've come home after that last vote. If she really cared, she wouldn't drive away 25,000 jobs like she did. If she really cared, she wouldn't be telling the poorest people in her district not to go back to work like she did earlier this week. She's out of touch to tell people who are desperate for food that they shouldn't go back to work. How out of touch can you be?"

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See related In the Red (Antonio Branco, 02/19/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Sen. Cotton asks how Dems who believed claims against Kavanaugh could 'possibly agree' to be... (Fox 04/28/2020)
Carrie Severino on Joe Biden accuser: Dems have a 'sudden onset' of respect for due process (Fox 04/27/2020)
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"I don't think any of us know where the facts would lead on this. I do believe in due process, so I don't think we can come to conclusions yet."

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"The problem is no one has looked into it, from the same Democrats who during the Kavanaugh hearings were going crazy about immediately jumping to conclusions with evidence that was far, far flimsier than we're seeing here."

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... said that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was "right" when he argued that the Democrats solely push uncorroborated sexual assault accusations against Republicans to gain "power" and they are willing to do anything to "stay in power."

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"We're seeing that now. All these Democrats are refusing to talk about this. They don't want to know the evidence, they don't want to know whether or not Joe Biden abused someone because they'll do whatever it takes to try to win back the White House."

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"I think we should just remember that next time we have a Supreme Court nominee that they're telling lies about, the way they did about Supreme Court candidate Robert Bork, about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about Kavanaugh, this is an absolute double standard."
Dem lawmakers eye 'opportunity' for historic expansion of government amid coronavirus crisis (Fox 04/23/2020)
Democratic Georgia rep who endorsed Trump resigns after backlash (Fox 04/22/2020)
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"Turn the lights off, I have left the plantation," Jones said in a separate statement officially announcing his resignation.

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"I've seen more Democrats attack me for my decision to endorse @realDonaldTrump than ask me why."

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"They've used and abused folks in my community for far too long, taking our votes for granted."

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"Black Americans are waking up. An uprising is near."

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"I don't care what the Democrat Party does to me. What are they going to do? Spank me?"

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"More African-Americans, prior to this pandemic, were working more than any other time in my lifetime."

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"The Left hates me because they can't control me. They can stay mad."

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"I endorsed the White guy (Donald J. Trump) that let Blacks out of jail, and they endorsed the White guy (Joe Biden) that put Blacks in jail."
Dagen McDowell blasts Biden ad attacking Trump by reading ex-VP's own words (Fox 04/20/2020)
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"Joe Biden warned the nation in January that Trump had left us unprepared for a pandemic," the narrator claims, adding: "Trump rolled over for the Chinese."

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"Here is what Joe Biden said to remind the American people that day the travel ban was announced, January 31st."

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"This is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science."

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Biden's criticism that Trump let tens of thousands of people back into the U.S. from China left out the fact that most of those were American citizens.

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"OK, so you were against the travel ban, but now you are saying it is not tough enough because it allowed Americans to come home ... ?"

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"He does not know what he is talking about, and everybody knows it."

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See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Kevin McCarthy slams Pelosi for 'holding up' small business funds: 'Name one thing she's...' (Fox 04/20/2020)
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"When President Trump, January 31th, put in the ban in China, [on] February 24th she asked people to gather together in San Francisco. She actually fought the ban. When we wanted to put the CARES Act together, she came in and held it up. Now, we have a small business program working, she's now held up the money."

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"Last week, we watched 5 million people [file for unemployment]. How many more millions of Pelosi's layoffs will we have to endure before she'll put people before politics."

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"Even at this moment to get this agreement, we could've been done yesterday, but the Democrats continue to hold up even though we have agreed to all the numbers.'
Deroy Murdock: Pelosi, Democrats slowing PPP relief — They should be forced to explain why (Fox 04/20/2020)
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Let's not hear one more consonant from Democrats and their housekeepers in the left-wing media about President Donald J. Trump's allegedly slothful response to the COVID-19 crisis.

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Democratic lawmakers and leftist journalists now are slowing things, on purpose. And that's far, far worse.

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House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) degraded herself on March 29 by telling CNN: "As the president fiddles, people are dying."

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NBC's Chuck Todd recently asked Joe Biden, "Do you think there is blood on the president's hands considering the slow response?"

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Somehow, while fiddling with bloody hands, President Trump managed to impose his ban on alien-arrivals from China on January 31, one day after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic.

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Since then, among many things, Team Trump has:

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... deployed two hospital ships, some of whose medical personnel have disembarked to relieve their counterparts on shore.

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ordered construction of 21 temporary infirmaries housing 8,540 medical-station beds.

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rallied unprecedented private-sector initiatives and public–private partnerships.

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accelerated trials of potential vaccines and the current or imminent use of 35 different therapeutics.

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inspired Abbott Laboratories' five-minute COVID-19 test.

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underwritten 11,000 of 29,000 National Guard personnel whom governors have activated.

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supplied, as of today, via Project Air Bridge flights and other means, at least 10 million medical gowns, 44.5 million N95 masks, 63.5 million surgical masks, and 524 million gloves.

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reversed the ventilator shortage, with 10,000 units delivered, as of Thursday.

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Indeed, America suddenly is so awash in life-saving breathing equipment that Andrew Cuomo, Democratic governor of hard-hit New York, announced Wednesday via Twitter: "In our hour of need, other states stepped up to help us. We promised we would do the same. We will be sending 100 ventilators to Michigan and 50 ventilators to Maryland."

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While Trump stayed busy "not responding," Democrats hurled wrenches into the works.

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Pelosi abused this national emergency to demand taxpayer dollars for the musician-hating Kennedy Center, subsidies for windmills and solar panels, an ingenious ruse to fund illegal-alien-criminal-coddling fugitive cities, a federal ban on voter-ID cards, and loads more that would have done zero to remedy this homicidal virus or its economic aftermath.

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See related In January... (Chip Bok, 04/03/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Gingrich rips Pelosi's late-night TV ice cream video: Most 'tone-deaf' thing ever from a House... (Fox 04/20/2020)
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"I thought the notion of Nancy Pelosi holding up aid to small businesses while she stood in front of her two very expensive refrigerators and talked about how she loves to have her $11.75-a-pint ice cream to comfort her is the most tone-deaf thing I've seen a Speaker of the House do."

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The speaker has since been roundly criticized for showing off her wares while people continue to be laid off and furloughed.

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Meanwhile, Senate Democrats last week rejected a request by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to give unanimous consent to legislation that would have added $250 billion to the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program.

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"Fauci and Birx both have very personal standards. They've been advising the president but in the end, the reason you have a president is there are some decisions larger than experts and it's the job of the president to weigh everything and then try to make the best possible decision."
Dan Bongino's message to Pelosi during coronavirus lockdown: 'Get out of your bubble' (Fox 04/20/2020)
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"Let me enlighten you, Nancy, because you seem to be living in an insulated $25,000 freezer ice cream bubble and you don't get it."

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"Here it is plain and simple: People have to feed their families. These are smart Americans who are intelligent. They understand there's a risk. They live with risk every day."

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"If you need to understand that, Nancy, go talk to a construction worker on a construction site down the block that is living with multimillion-dollar equipment that could kill him in a minute. If you tell him or her on that site, 'You're going to need to wear a mask. There are precautions. You may have to wear some kind of hand protection, wash our hands often and we may have to distance, but you will be able to go to work and feed your kids.' I promise you the entrepreneurial brave American citizens will figure it the hell out."

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"Get out of your bubble. People have to feed their kids. That is what's going on right now."

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"These people, [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer and others, it's not just Democrats, either, it's some Republican governors, too. They work for us."

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"Get the hell out of our way," he added, noting that governors are "supposed to make our lives easier, not more difficult every day."

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"We're not children, we're adults. We've lived much harder lives than these people who are governing us."
Sen. Graham blasts Pelosi: 'She hates Trump to the point of hurting our own nation' (Fox 04/19/2020)
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"She is condemning President Trump for cutting funds off of the WHO because they've been in China's pocket, as she at one time mentioned, the fact the virus came out of China, that the Chinese Communist Party lied to the American people and the world at large."

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"President Trump has done a damn good job protecting this country," Graham said. "He closed down travel to China when nobody in the world suggested we should. On March 13th, he declared a national emergency, put CDC guidelines into place that I think have saved a million Americans."

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"You may not agree with me, but I believe if we'd done nothing, if President Trump had not acted March 13th, there'd be a million-plus dead Americans."

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"Gross negligence and willful deception by the Chinese government has led to 22 million Americans being unemployed and 38,000 Americans dead."
Michael Cohen writing tell-all book on Trump to be released before election: report (Fox 04/19/2020)
Why coronavirus will not cost Trump reelection (NYP 04/20/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Coronavirus — Some lawmakers are trying to exploit the pandemic (Fox 04/16/2020)
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For many Americans, the coronavirus shutdowns, whether you believe they're necessary or not, either way have amounted to a life-changing catastrophe.

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Millions of people have lost their jobs. Families across the country are suffering from debt and from uncertainty. Many of them will likely come apart under the strain.

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So in the name of protecting the public from a deadly virus, we have wound up destroying a huge number of people.

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Regardless of your political position, you could acknowledge it's one of the saddest things to happen to this country in a very long time.

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And yet some of our political class don't seem sad at all. For them, this is not a human tragedy, it is an opportunity.

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Democrats encourage voter fraud because it helps them win elections — and that's not a guess.

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IDs are racist — expect to hear a lot more of that lie. And yet weirdly, at the very same time, some of our leaders are considering requiring special papers, even blood tests just to go outside.

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Some people are using our fear for their own ends, and fake election reform is not the only way demagogues are leveraging this pandemic to put themselves in power, to capture our institutions, to erode our rights.

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This is America. We're allowed to disagree with what our leaders do, however, we like and we're allowed to express that disagreement in public.

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That's our birthright. They'd like to leverage this crisis to take your birthright away. Don't let them.
Trump slams Pelosi as 'weak and pathetic puppet' in latest coronavirus clash (Fox 04/16/2020)
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"Crazy "Nancy Pelosi, you are a weak person. You are a poor leader. You are the reason America hates career politicians, like yourself."

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"She is totally incompetent & controlled by the Radical Left, a weak and pathetic puppet. Come back to Washington and do your job!"

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See related Backseat Drivers (Gary Varvel, 03/15/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Rep. Chip Roy: Why are Dems more supportive of China than reopening businesses? (Fox 04/16/2020)
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"And we are seeing that right now unfold, [as] my Democratic colleagues are holding up $250 billion necessary for small businesses."

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"Meanwhile, Democrats want to play politics instead of actually providing the capital necessary to start businesses."

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"And I've got one big question, which is, Why are Democrats more interested in supporting the Chinese than in trying to get the American businesses restarted?"

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Democrats have increasingly pushed back after President Trump announced he would pull all United States funding from the WHO in retaliation for their suspected role in China's spread of COVID-19.

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"The president's halting of funding to the WHO as it leads the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic is senseless ... A weak person blames others. This decision is dangerous, illegal and will be swiftly challenged."

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However, Roy said he believes the president is right to hold the WHO accountable.

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"Let's encourage the [WHO] to step up and get it right, stop siding with the communists in China, [and] stop siding against the interests of the United States. And, do what is right for the American people — do what is right for the world."

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"When did they know what was going on in China? Could they have gotten in front of the six days or seven days that could have been so important to stop the spread of this virus...damaging the world and damaging the United States? We need to get to the bottom of this."

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"We need to know the truth while we continue to make sure the American people are safe and we work to get our economy back again."

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Coronavirus (Mike Lester, 03/13/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Georgia state Democrat backs Trump for reelection, draws party’s wrath (Fox 04/15/2020)
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"It's very simple to me. President Trump's handling of the economy, his support for historically black colleges and his criminal justice initiatives drew me to endorse his campaign.

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"There are a lot of African-Americans who clearly see and appreciate he's doing something that's never been done before."

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"When you look at the unemployment rates among black Americans before the pandemic, they were at historic lows. That's just a fact."

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State Sen. Nikema Williams, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, issued a statement calling Jones an "embarrassment," adding he "does not stand for our values."
Lawmakers push back against Trump by introducing resolution saying president’s authority ‘is not total’ (Fox 04/14/2020)
Democrats politicize coronavirus pandemic, want yet another baseless investigation of Trump (Fox 04/12/2020)
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While President Trump and his administration are working tirelessly to get critical medical supplies and lifesaving equipment to doctors, nurses, hospitals and patients amidst the coronavirus pandemic, guess what Democrats are doing?

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House Democrats are readying another congressional committee, on the taxpayers' dime, to investigate the president and his response to the national crisis. You read that right.

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Instead of working shoulder to shoulder with our commander in chief to save lives and resuscitate our economy, serial liar and conspiracy theorist Rep.

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Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and others on the left are plotting against the leader of the free world and members of Trump's administration tasked with responding to the complex crisis.

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As if investigating the president nonstop for the past three-and-a-half years and subjecting the nation to an extremely divisive 22-month special counsel probe and subsequent impeachment scam – based on hearsay by partisan bureaucrats – weren't enough.

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Apparently not, as the chief architect behind the debunked Russia collusion conspiracy and impeachment stunt, Schiff, has been sowing more lies, accusing the president of being slow to address the pandemic, with "catastrophic consequences."

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Democrats are exploiting the deadly pandemic by using it as a weapon to bludgeon the president during an election year in an underhanded attempt to derail his administration — once again.

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Any reasonable citizen knows that partisan politics has no place during a time of war. And we are at war.

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Right now, the majority of the country is on lockdown, with millions of Americans being stripped of their basic freedoms including one's right to assemble, travel, worship and go to work.

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"The surge of jobless claims has overwhelmed state unemployment offices around the country. And still more job cuts are expected. The unemployment rate could hit 15 percent when the April employment report is released in early May."

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But none of that seems to be of particular interest or concern to Schiff or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who's also on board with investigating the president's response to the pandemic.

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In a recent TV interview, Pelosi accused the president of "fiddling" while people are dying and called for conducting an "after-action review."

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Shouldn't these political hacks be focused on helping citizens get back to work, or addressing the massive backlog of unemployment insurance claims, or tackling other pressing matters affecting the American people?

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Clearly, the left's irrational hate and contempt for President Trump is stronger than its desire to solve the crisis and heal the nation.

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This is something voters must reject or the endless investigations – on taxpayers' dime – will never end.

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When is enough enough?

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See related Working from Home (Antonio Branco, 03/27/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Sarah Sanders: Biden is 'misleading and dividing' the country during coronavirus pandemic (Fox 04/09/2020)
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"He's already adopted a lot of Bernie's far-left extremist views and the Democrat Party has moved to the left."

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"The contrast right now is between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. That is the choice Americans have to make. And, I think that there's no question they are going to move towards Donald Trump — particularly if you look at what's happening right now."

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"You have President Trump who is taking strong actions that are saving lives and American jobs, while you have Joe Biden who is misleading and dividing the American people."
Joe Biden calling (JWR 04/08/2020)
Dana Perino blasts Bernie Sanders: He 'hijacked' Democratic Party and 'wants to do even more damage' (Fox 04/08/2020)
Former Reagan adviser Art Laffer explains why he's 'very pleased' that Biden is likely Dem nominee (Fox 04/08/2020)
Coronavirus voting reforms — Democrats repackage old left-wing plans for today's crisis (Fox 04/08/2020)
Liz Peek: Pelosi's partisan coronavirus investigation – expect this reaction from crisis-weary voters (Fox 04/06/2020)
•
It is almost inconceivable that Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is launching yet another investigation aimed at undermining President Trump. How does the woman sleep at night?

•
Here we are, in the midst of a horrific health and economic crisis, and House Speaker Pelosi wants, once again, to squander our nation's resources by playing politics.

•
Should you wonder about her ambitions, consider that she put Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who called the emergency coronavirus bill a "tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision," in charge of the inquiry.

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Never mind that the House already has an Oversight Committee; never mind that, as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., pointed out, "Congress already wrote oversight provisions into the latest funding package."

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No, Queen Nancy wants her new investigation, no matter how it damages and divides the country.

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Imagine pulling our health officials off the front lines even for a minute to testify before legislators more interested in scoring soundbites than solving the nation's problems.

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In case you haven't noticed, the coronavirus task force looks exhausted; they have been working, we hear, 20 hour days trying to cope with this monster disease.

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The last thing they need is a lot of nit-picking Democrats trying to trip them up.

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We get it. Congress is on the sidelines and President Trump is getting way too much press to make his opponents happy.

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Sure, Congress should oversee the hundreds of billions of dollars heading to struggling Americans courtesy of the CARES Act.

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Heaven knows someone should be supervising the enormous release of taxpayer money.

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For instance, it would be fascinating to know why $25 million was funneled by Pelosi to the Kennedy Center, even as that organization had already decided to lay off its employees.

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But judicious oversight, we know, will not be the focus of the committee she has formed.

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Instead, Democrats will ferret out instances in which President Trump underplayed the urgency of the coronavirus threat, or cases where different federal agencies tripped over each other, causing overlapping orders and waste, or other problems that arose while mobilizing the vast federal government against the deadly virus.

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There will be plenty of those, of course. That's called the fog of war and when the war is waged suddenly and hugely against a new and invisible threat, the fog is dense.

•
But for fair-minded Americans sick of partisan politics and who see a national crisis as a good time to holster the pistols, Pelosi's newest assault on the president will be yet another dud.

•
Just as her impeachment effort yielded nothing good for her party, so will this new investigation please only determined Democrats and further alienate all-important independent voters.

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Democrats will call health officials from President Obama's team to testify that Trump should have ordered ventilators earlier or imposed a federal lockdown sooner.

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Republicans will counter with reports detailing Obama's failure to rebuild spent federal stocks of critical supplies like ventilators.

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The GOP will show clips of Pelosi encouraging people on Feb. 24 to visit San Francisco's Chinatown for the Lunar New Year celebration, claiming it was "perfectly safe" to be there.

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Democrats will blast Trump for underplaying the disease, while his allies will play video of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president's top adviser and leading epidemiologist, saying in late January, "This is not a major threat to the people of the United States and this is not something that the citizens of the United States should be worried about right now."

•
The truth is, no one saw it coming. No one anticipated the calamity.

•
Nancy Pelosi understands this, but insists on playing games. She thinks she's scoring points with her base, and maybe she is.

•
But there is an election coming, and if the impeachment effort is any guide, this new round of finger-pointing will not serve Democrats well.

•
See related Cruella Pelosi (Gary Varvel, 02/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Democrats' coronavirus voting plan – this is the way to undermine democracy (Fox 04/06/2020)
Deneen Borelli: Coronavirus politics – Trump leads while opponents stay on attack (Fox 04/06/2020)
Andy Puzder In coronavirus crisis, Trump displays leadership Americans expect and want (Fox 04/05/2020)
•
... to paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of the president's political demise have been greatly exaggerated.

•
The American people are intelligent enough to understand the president will be unable to manufacture a booming economy in the midst of this pandemic.

•
Rather than achieving impossible results, history clearly shows us that, in times such as these, its leadership that matters most.

•
President Franklin Roosevelt didn't win four consecutive terms because he promised to magically bring back the prosperity of the Roaring ‘20s, but rather because the American people trusted him to lead them through the storm.

•
Similarly, the British Parliament did not select Winston Churchill to lead them in May 1940 — nearly a year into the Second World War — because they thought he could return peace and prosperity by November. They chose him because their nation needed leadership to carry it through the difficult times that lay ahead.

•
Americans know that until the Trump boom was blunted by an unforeseen pandemic, his policies delivered three uninterrupted years of rising incomes, full employment, economic growth and industrial revitalization. It wasn't any policy failure that put millions out of work.

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The people trust that this president can quickly restore the country to economic health once it's safe to resume normal activities.

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See related Coronavirus (Sean Delonas, 03/012/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Nancy Pelosi strikes again (JWR 04/03/2020)
•
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump has killed people by the way he has conducted himself during the coronavirus crisis, and, look, I am not going to say in reply that she has killed anybody.

•
But I will say this. She has consistently helped thwart the American good over the past several years, and she is doing it right now, not just by her divisiveness, but by having held up a $2 trillion rescue bill and trying to make parts of it obstacles to success.

•
Clearly, Trump was too casual early on, but understand that states and the Centers for Disease Control can act without his authority and that the bumbling of the administrative state has more than a little to answer for.

•
Congress was laggard, too. When Sen. Lamar Alexander held an early Senate session on the virus, attention was lacking because of a constitutionally suspect, politically driven impeachment quest.

•
Trump finally got serious. He managed in an excellent if widely berated speech to set things right. Yes, he did make factual errors promptly corrected, but he put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of a special panel, and here is a three-c kind of guy, calm, cool and collected.

•
Trump also selected Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx to sit at the top of the panel, two brilliant, articulate, self-possessed experts.

•
Through daily, televised press conferences plus other appearances, they have helped explain what is going on, the dangers involved and what the most reliable estimates of the moment tell us the future might hold.

•
The last thing Trump has been is the main thing the left insists he is: authoritarian.

•
At the urging of some of the same leftists and others, he did assume war powers to get General Motors to make more ventilators.

•
But if you want a real authoritarian, look at Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City telling synagogues that, if they keep having services, he will shut them down not just for a while, but permanently.

•
Given all kinds of entanglements, including regulations imposed by predecessors, Trump has helped edge us ever closer to what is needed.

•
... Trump helped win Democratic cooperation on a $2 trillion bill to help those whose health and pocketbooks have been most afflicted.

•
Well, not cooperation from Pelosi. This lady, who majors in delays and ripping things apart, held the bill up for days as people were suffering and the economy was worsening.

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She longed for irrelevancies, such as mandating labor union representation on corporate boards and addressing climate change in ways interfering with fixing things now."

•
Some horrible virus predictions are out there right now even as our health workers are some of the most incredible heroes America has ever seen.

•
I don't think Pelosi will ever be a hero, but she might want to focus on defeating coronavirus instead of using it to satisfy her long-term policy druthers and defeating Trump.

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See related Cruella Pelosi (Gary Varvel, 02/05/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
The Moral Incoherence of Andrew Cuomo (JWR 04/03/2020)
Deroy Murdock: Pelosi's false attack on Trump COVID-19 response ignores all he's done (Fox 04/03/2020)
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As for "the president fiddles," Nervous Nancy either knowingly lied through her clenched teeth or she is as blind as a bat in a bowl of Chinese soup.

•
Regardless, she should know that Trump is not playing the fiddle. He's waving a conductor's baton.

•
It is beyond unbearable to hear Pelosi accuse Trump of fiddling.

•
She played pizzicato for five days last week as she serenaded the (musician-hating) Kennedy Center, jet-exhaust regulations, and windmill subsidies.

•
This statement comes with no strings attached: Nancy Pelosi is the worst public servant in the United States of America.
Schiff already calling for 9/11-style commission on coronavirus response; Nunes decries 'stunt' (Fox 04/01/2020)
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"His Russia collusion hoax failed, his Ukraine scam failed, and his efforts to cover up FISA abuse failed."

•
"So, Schiff is launching yet another dumb stunt to justify his never-ending media relations operation."

•
"The same people who delayed the Coronavirus relief bill because they demanded giveaways for special interests and millions for the Kennedy Center now want to create a commission to attack the Trump Administration's response? Give me a break. And the person who is leading this effort is Adam Schiff — the same Adam Schiff who released the phone records of the President's personal attorney, a journalist, and a sitting Member of Congress. We should focus on stopping the virus, not politicizing the crisis."
McConnell says Trump impeachment trial 'diverted the attention' of the government as coronavirus... (Fox 03/31/2020)
David Limbaugh: Coronavirus stimulus bill and Pelosi's reckless gamesmanship – This is a new low (Fox 03/27/2020)
•
Following Pelosi's and Sen. Chuck Schumer's lead, congressional Democrats degenerated to class warfare to justify their obstruction, calling the bill a corporate bailout and slush fund that would not protect workers.

•
But that was just cover for loading the bill with partisan perks that wouldn't alleviate problems caused by the virus.

•
Democrats added provisions to increase federal control over elections including federal mandates on how and when we vote, and who collects absentee ballots.

•
Conservatives have long believed these progressive proposals — mandatory early voting, mail-in ballots (which would allow ballots to be marked behind closed doors), same-day registration and legalized ballot harvesting — are aimed at manipulating election outcomes and facilitating voter fraud.

•
These measures have consistently failed, but Pelosi and company figured that with a gun to Republicans' heads, they would cave to avoid being perceived as uncompassionate.

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Congressman Adam Schiff insulted Americans' intelligence even more than he usually does, by depicting these provisions as necessary to strengthen "the health of our democracy."

•
Other Democratic add-ons included aid for Planned Parenthood, millions for the John F.

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Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour for all businesses receiving stimulus funds.

•
Perhaps worst of all was their ploy to require airlines receiving assistance to fully offset carbon emissions by 2025.

•
How can Democrats still get by with their professions of compassion when they can't tie their shoes without injecting politics into their shoelaces?

•
How dare they hold this relief bill hostage for items that have nothing to do with the crisis or assisting those suffering from it while otherwise claiming to support it?

•
This stunt showcases the level of extremism choking the reason out of the Democratic Party.

•
Likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's shameless support of these Green New Deal provisions puts the lie to the notion that he is a moderate alternative to some of the more extreme leftist Democratic candidates.

•
One can hope for more bipartisanship in tackling this pandemic and its surrounding economic devastation, but that can only happen if we decouple from relief bills the less urgent problems unrelated to the crisis.

•
So far, congressional Democrats have resisted that, which, in a sane world, would come back to bite them in November.
Trump on House Dems' coronavirus relief bill: 'No way I’m signing that deal' with 'Green New Deal stuff' (Fox 03/24/2020)
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"Nancy Pelosi came and put a lot of things in the deal that had nothing to do with workers — that had to do with an agenda that they have been trying to get passed for 10 years."

•
"[The Democrats said] 'We want green energy, let's stop drilling oil' — they had things in there that were terrible."

•
"Windmills all over the place and all sorts of credits for windmills — they kill the birds and ruin the real estate. A lot of problems."

•
"Workers first," Trump said before adding: "But you have to protect companies like Boeing We can't lose those companies. If we lose those companies, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs — millions of jobs."
Trump blasts ‘nonsense’ in coronavirus bill, calls on Congress to approve aid (Fox 03/24/2020)
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"This is not about the ridiculous Green New Deal. It is about putting our great workers and companies BACK TO WORK!"

•
"Congress must approve the deal, without all of the nonsense, today. The longer it takes, the harder it will be to start up our economy. Our workers will be hurt!"
Dan Crenshaw: Dems 'tanked' coronavirus stimulus bill in the 'most partisan' way (Fox 03/24/2020)
•
"Let's talk about what they actually torpedoed here in the bill. Increased unemployment benefits — so higher weekly payments — plus expanded population for who would get those benefits. So, our independent contractors would be eligible as well. Small business loan bailouts — but not just loans. Those loans would be forgiven for rent, utilities, for payroll. And then I mean, money for businesses to keep their employees attached to that business."

•
"I don't know why Democrats hate the word business so much. I don't know why the word corporation makes them so mad, but that's what they are claiming was wrong with this bill."

•
Crenshaw said it was "utterly absurd" that Democrats would "play these kinds of games."

•
"And, for what? Just so they could put greenhouse gas emission standards for unions? I mean what are they doing?"
John Cornyn: 'Shameful' for Dems to use coronavirus relief bill for political 'leverage' (Fox 03/24/2020)
•
"These are the people who are getting paid to show up for work and there are many people [who] — through no fault of their own — aren't getting paid anything and we need to get money to them to help bridge them through this crisis."

•
"Yeah, this is all about leverage. Unfortunately, the American people don't have time to wait on these games to get the help they need. Nor do the hospitals or the businesses that are shut through no fault of their own."

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"We need to make sure that, when we get out of this health care crisis, that there are jobs there for the American people so the economy can start booming again and so the people can provide for their families."

•
... Democrats are using this "must-pass" bill as a "golden opportunity" in an attempt to "extract" everything they can on their "ideological wishlist."

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"This is reckless and irresponsible. We need to get this done today."
Sen. Kennedy slams Democrats: 'Some of my colleagues are acting like a-holes' (Fox 03/24/2020)
•
"People are losing their jobs, they are losing their savings, they are losing their 401(k)."

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"We think we know how to get the economy back on its feet over the next 60 to 90 days until we can get control of the virus — and some of my colleagues are acting like a-holes."

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"I saw a press conference by the Speaker and I mean no disrespect to her, but basically she was saying she wants President Trump to come out and endorse ObamaCare."

•
"That's not going to happen — you know that and I know that."

•
"Basically they want the Green New Deal and they are saying, 'If you Republicans don't endorse it, we are going to strangle the American people economically."
Ed Rollins: Democratic debate a snoozer full of pandering at a time when nation needs this (Fox 03/16/2020)
David Limbaugh: Biden's boorish behavior – A case study on liberal hypocrisy and propaganda (Fox 03/14/2020)
Coronavirus crisis a major test for America – So why are Biden, DSCC raising money off it? (Fox 03/13/2020)
•
The message from former vice president Joe Biden came at 7:39 p.m. EDT Thursday night.

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"This is a long email," he wrote, "but I hope you will read it all the way through and forward this to family and friends."

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What followed was the text of the speech he made earlier in the day about the coronavirus crisis.

•
So far, OK: candidates have a right to express their views on current events.

•
Voters especially want to know what candidates for president think should be done. But that wasn't the real purpose of Biden's email.

•
The real reason for Biden asking people to "read" his speech "all the way through" and "forward...to family and friends" was revealed at the email's end.

•
"This isn't the time to be complacent," the missive declared. "If you are ready to fight for the soul of this nation, you can start by donating to elect Joe Biden by clicking the button below."

•
The button, rimmed in red, proclaimed, "Donate to Elect Joe Biden."

•
Think about this. The country faces an enormous challenge – the possibility of a pandemic that could result in the death of thousands, force the quarantine of hundreds of thousands, cause millions to work from home or lose their paychecks, perhaps crater permanently a large number of small enterprises and force the country into a recession.

•
So what is Biden's response? Raise money off the crisis as it heats up.

•
He wasn't the only Democrat raising money off the American people's fears and suffering.

•
This is a presidential election season and yes, candidates are free to criticize each other.

•
But should the Democrats' first instinct in a major crisis like America faces today be to take advantage of the moment for campaign cash?

•
Have we come to a point where every emergency our country endures is fair game for partisan fundraising appeals in the heat of the event itself, based on the challenge?

•
Can you imagine how they'd be howling if the president's reelection team was sending out fundraising appeals right now, using the coronavirus challenge as an excuse to send money to Trump's campaign coffers?

•
Do Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer really have no qualms about raising money off coronavirus in the midst of the emergency...

•
Can these two men not set aside the desperate search for campaign funds in this moment of crisis?

•
Do they have no shame, no decency?
Democrats attacking Trump coronavirus response hurt economy – they shouldn’t politicize crisis (Fox 03/12/2020)
•
The coronavirus is a tragedy. So is the response from opponents of President Trump.

•
At a time when our leaders should come together and try to calm a frightened nation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are putting politics above country.

•
As much as Democrats denounce the president for his petty name-calling or supposedly racist opposition to illegal immigration – an approach, by the way, embraced by tens of millions of Americans and most Democrats in years past – the vitriol hurled at the president as our nation faces a serious crisis, not of his making, is horrifying.

•
Schumer thunders that the president is guilty of "towering incompetence." Does he think his tirades won't hurt our nation? Does he care?

•
... Schumer gave a blistering attack in which he accused Trump of being "asleep at the wheel" and having "no plan."

•
He lied that the White House had significantly reduced the resources available for fighting the disease, and railed that the president "has been slow to take action to confront the virus abroad."

•
Huh? What are we supposed to do, send the Marines into Milan?

•
This attack came nearly a month – a month! – after Trump, on Jan. 31, had declared a national health emergency, put travelers who had been in exposed areas under quarantine and closed our borders to people who had recently traveled in China, which Schumer opposed!

•
In response to the travel ban, Schumer tweeted on Feb. 5, "The premature travel ban to and from China by the current administration is just an excuse to further his ongoing was against immigrants. There must be a check and Balance (sic) on these restrictions."

•
When the president acted, there were only six cases of the virus in the United States and no deaths.

•
Most offensive, Schumer also complained that Trump "has been afraid to criticize President Xi or the Communist Party of China for silencing dissent and obscuring the truth about the Coronavirus, where it originated."

•
There is no one in our government – on either side of the aisle – who has done more to confront China's dishonesty and corruption than President Trump.

•
Where was Schumer in the decades where Beijing was orchestrating monstrous theft of our intellectual property and cyberattacking American institutions? Schumer was AWOL.

•
In battling the virus, Trump rightly kept the lines of communications open with the vile President Xi Jinping, even as he enacted the travel ban, a move that angered Beijing.

•
An article in Xinhua News, the official Communist Party mouthpiece, described that travel ban as "killing people while they are ill" and complained that the measures had "a great economic impact on China."

•
Trump was diplomatic about the thin-skinned Xi because the U.S. needed China's help in providing critical information about the disease.

•
Also, he wanted to prevent Beijing from following through on its inexcusable threat to exert "strategic control over medical products and ban exports to the United States" which, China boasted, could catch the U.S. in "the ocean of new crown viruses."

•
Did Schumer want the U.S. cut off from critical Chinese-made medical supplies?

•
Pelosi tweeted: "Bigoted statements which spread misinformation and blame Asians and the Asian American community for the #coronavirus make us all less safe."

•
She encouraged McCarthy, who was directing Americans to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, to "apologize immediately."

•
She, like Schumer, has undermined the president at every turn. Even though she, like her Democratic colleagues, was all-in on a payroll tax cut when President Obama proposed one in 2009, she somehow now thinks it is "a tax cut for major corporations."

•
We know why they are politicizing the Wuhan virus; it is likely to undermine the growth and wealth creation that has resulted from President Trump's tax cuts and regulation overhaul.

•
Fair-minded Americans will hold the president accountable for how he handles this crisis.

•
They will recognize that he didn't create it and that a brand-new disease that spreads like lightning is tough to beat.

•
Nonetheless, the buck stops at his door.

•
However, they will also recoil from the ugly blame game being played by Democrats. And they should.
Worker who confronted Joe Biden about gun control: He 'went off the deep end' (Fox 03/12/2020)
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"I also asked him how he wanted to get the vote of the working man when a lot of us, we wield arms. We bear arms and we like to do that. And if he wants to give us work and take our guns, I don't see how he is going to get the same vote."

•
"You're full of sh* ... I support the Second Amendment," Biden told Wayne in a dispute caught on camera.

•
Wayne shot back, "You're working for me, man," and told Biden that he saw an online video supporting his claim that Biden is hostile to the Second Amendment.

•
Biden, pointing at Wayne as they were mere inches apart in the middle of a crowd, said he's not working for him and told him not to be "such a horse's a**."

•
"It was a little bit disturbing to see that a politician wants to take away my right to defend myself."

•
"He doesn't need to touch anybody's weapon at all. What we need to do is we need to concentrate on teaching people how to respect firearms and how to use them – not take them away."

•
"Yeah, I thought I was pretty articulate and respectful. I didn't try to raise any feathers and he kind of just went off the deep end."

•
"I mean, I guess technically speaking he can say whatever he wants," Wayne conceded.

•
"But, he was the vice president. He wants to be the president now. You are a candidate. You work for the American people. And, if you can't understand that then you don't deserve to have a leg in this race."

•
"This is a right that we need to protect with our heart and soul. It's not to be infringed."

•
See related About Right... (Michael Ramirez, 08/11/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Gutfeld on Bernie’s non-plan for the virus (Fox 03/10/2020)
•
It's funny how Bernie thought it was so noble to say he'd make a vaccine free "once" it was available.

•
Why not make it available now? As if things magically appear before the socialists take control of distribution.

•
When a scientist makes a drug that helps the world, socialists will call him a "bigot" for taking so long.

•
And then smoke it.
Biden, on video, lashes out at Detroit worker in profanity-laced gun dispute (Fox 03/10/2020)
•
Former Vice President Joe Biden got into a heated and profanity-laced argument with a worker at a Fiat-Chrysler auto plant ... after the individual accused the Democratic presidential candidate of trying to take away his Second Amendment rights.

•
"You're full of sh* ... I support the Second Amendment," Biden shot back, stressing he's not going to take guns away.

•
The worker then told Biden, "You're working for me, man," and told Biden that he saw an online video supporting his claim that Biden is hostile to the Second Amendment.

•
Biden, pointing at the individual as they were mere inches apart in the middle of a crowd, said he's not working for him and told him not to be "such a horse's a**."

•
Biden was previously criticized for apparently offering former presidential contender Beto O'Rourke a gun control role in his administration in a pre-Super Tuesday rally.

•
O'Rourke said last year on the campaign trail, "Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47."

•
"I want to make something clear – I'm gonna guarantee you, this is not the last you're seeing of this guy – you're gonna take care of the gun problem with me, you're gonna be the one who leads this effort," Biden said of O'Rourke.

•
See related Make no Apologies (Michael Ramirez, 06/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Beto to Take AR15s (Gary McCoy, 09/15/2019) cartoon from USA picture album
Sanders hires adviser who blamed America for 9/11, questioned bin Laden op, mocked Michelle... (Fox 03/09/2020)
•
Bernie Sanders' newest senior adviser has a history of incendiary comments that include placing blame on America for 9/11, disparaging Michelle Obama's appearance, and even describing the Obama administration's Usama bin Laden takedown as "choreography."

•
"I am excited to welcome Phillip to our team," Sanders ... said in a statement Saturday.

•
"He is a gifted organizer and one of his generation's most critical voices on issues of race and inequity. He has and will continue to push me and this movement to deliver on what is owed to Black people who have yet to experience reciprocity in this country."

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"Tomorrow America remembers the day that she turned on herself, dismantled her constitution, and killed her own citizens in the name of money," Agnew tweeted on Sept. 10, 2010.

•
Then there was this one on May 2, 2011, the day U.S. Navy SEALs killed Usama bin Laden in Pakistan: "I don't believe sh*t America, and by default Obama, says. Sorry. We prolly BEEN killed Osama. All choreography. Got no proof; gut feeling."

•
And on Sept. 11, 2016, Agnew shared a cartoon of the burning World Trade Center and two boomerang-shaped planes in each tower, with "U.S. Interventionist Policy" imprinted on each.

•
His caption read: "#neverforget what goes round comes round."

•
Then on June 13, 2016, after the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., Agnew tweeted that "america is hate-founded, hate-legislated, hate-sponsored, hate-endorsed, hate-filled. This country created this."

•
"Just clarifying who to blame, it isn't radical islam and it wasn't those people in the club. It is us. We spread this hate."

•
... "a good rule of thumb: if the US is sending ‘humanitarian' aid...it's a PR cover for inhumane bullsh*t. If the US has chosen a side...it's the wrong one. If the US is PUSHING the story...it's a lie."
Democrats’ hunt for Trump slayer may lead to Hillary Clinton comeback (NYP 03/07/2020)
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All the party has to do is call. Her bag is packed.

•
Indeed, Clinton would have to be dead not to dream of a miracle, one that would give her the victory fate has twice denied her. Her platform writes itself.

•
She didn't really lose the 2016 election. Trump colluded with the Russians to deprive her of her civil right to be president. Anything else is just a Republican talking point and part of the vast right-wing conspiracy.

•
Or maybe you're a deplorable? You're with her, or a misogynist.

•
Oh, what fun. Merely to imagine doing all that again leads me to wish the very best of health to Joe Biden.
Tucker Carlson: Elizabeth Warren proved conclusively you can't get elected on identity politics (Fox 03/06/2020)
•
Democratic voters, the majority of whom are female, hate women, Warren explained.

•
They may have nominated a woman in the last presidential race, but that was probably an act of sexism, too.

•
She's a legitimately smart person — without question, the smartest candidate in the Democratic field.

•
She's also tough as hell, and fake Indian affirmative action ploy aside, she's fairly accomplished, especially by the low standards of political life.

•
... she became infected with a virulent strain of identity politics. By the end, like tertiary syphilis, it drove her insane.

•
One day Warren was talking about raising wages and protecting American workers.

•
The next, she was ranting about strange forms of racism nobody had ever heard of and then attacking the country she has once sought to improve.

•
Warren: We live in a country now with the President is advancing environmental racism, economic racism, criminal justice racism, health care racism.

•
So raise your hand if you ever heard of health care racism. Raise both hands if you think it's one of this country's top 500 problems. Elizabeth Warren thought it was.

•
Then she decided it was important — in fact, our moral obligation — to invite the rest of the impoverished world here to America to share our job market and our health care system.

•
How exactly would that help American workers?

•
Warren no longer cared. She was too woke to worry about actual people.

•
By earlier this year, she clearly needed inpatient care.

•
The mania seemed to reach its peak in January when Warren suddenly announced out of nowhere, that she would ask transgender children to pick her Cabinet members.

•
Warren: I'm going to have a secretary of education that this young trans-person interviews on my behalf. And only if this person believes that our secretary or secretary of education nominee is someone who is committed to creating a welcoming environment, a safe environment and a full educational curriculum for everyone, well, that person actually will be advanced to be secretary of education.

•
So who is this young trans-person who gets to staff the federal government?

•
No one in the news media even asked because it turns out Warren wasn't the only one who'd gone insane.

•
... no one outside cable news sets and college campuses was listening.

•
Elizabeth Warren kept talking, but nobody cared. Why?

•
Because it turns out that most people, even Democrats aren't that interested in intersectional politics.

•
They want to hear politicians talk about making the schools better or lowering health insurance premiums, the things they actually think about at home.

•
They don't want to hear some middle-aged lady drone on in an extended guilt trip.

•
Because in the end, it's really all about her. Identity politics is always just a form of narcissism.

•
That's not appealing to anybody. You can't get elected doing it.

•
See related Flies Democrats (Sean Delonas, 04/30/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Joe Concha: The media has a new post-impeachment catchphrase for Trump (Fox 03/06/2020)
Trump says he was ‘mentally' set to battle Sanders but it’ll be ‘very hard for him to come back’ (Fox 03/05/2020)
•
"I was all set for Bernie because I thought it was gonna happen. You know, we get ready for things, right? So mentally, I'm all set for Bernie ... Communist, I had everything down."
Trump, at Fox News Town Hall, suggests Biden isn't competent: 'There's something going on there' (Fox 03/05/2020)
•
Trump went on to argue that Biden was "damaged" by the impeachment process that implicated his son Hunter in apparent overseas corruption while Biden was vice president. "They aimed at Trump and they took Biden down."

•
"Here's a guy, who didn't have a job, unfortunately sadly the military was a very sad experience for him — he goes out and gets $3 million plus $183,000 a month to be a board member of a company that a lot of people said was corrupt."

•
"I'm all set for Bernie, communist," Trump began.

•
"And then we have this crazy thing that happened on Tuesday, which he thought was Thursday. But he also said 150 million people were killed with guns, and that he was running for the U.S. Senate — there's something going on there."

•
The president noted that he hadn't spoken to former President Obama since the 2018 funeral for President George H.W.

•
Bush, in part because of lingering animosity about that administration.

•
"I sat next to him, I said, 'Hello,'" Trump said, describing the funeral. "Then I said, 'Goodbye' That's about it. I didn't like the job he did. I didn't like the job he and Biden did. I didn't like the position he put us in. I didn't like what he did to our military. ... Right now we have more ammunition than ever before."

•
Concerning health care, Trump said he was "most disappointed" that he hasn't been able to "sell what a great job we've done."

•
The president touted his administration's termination of the Obamacare "individual mandate," and said plans were now less expensive — but that the "carcass of Obamacare" remains a problem.

•
... noted that Trump, when campaigning, had promised to erase the national debt within eight years — but nevertheless had approved $4.6 trillion in new debt already.

•
"I'll always talk about it, because to me it's very important," Trump said. "The good thing about the debt is we're paying almost no interest."

•
He added that more cuts would be coming but that it was crucially important to fund the military in the meantime.

•
... Trump defended his administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying his decision to limit travel from China had averted a broader domestic crisis.

•
"I think people are viewing us as doing a very good job. This started in China. How it started, is a question. ... It's gonna all work out. Everyone has to be calm."

•
"If a Republican did what Schumer did, they'd be in jail right now," Trump said to applause.
Mike Huckabee: Elizabeth Warren’s failed candidacy shows she couldn’t outrun her many lies (Fox 03/05/2020)
•
... it's likely that Warren owes her entire career to the fact that she misrepresented herself as a Native American.

•
It was a lie she tried to maintain even into the early stages of her presidential campaign.

•
In addition to lying about her ancestors, Warren has also lied about her immediate family and childhood, falsely claiming that her father was a janitor.

•
But besides lying about her past and her presidential ambitions, Warren also spent much of her time on the campaign trail of tears lying about her beliefs.

•
She claimed to be a "capitalist to the core" while advocating for draconian government interventions in practically every part of the economy.

•
Warren claimed that she would go after the billionaire class while introducing policies that would completely ruin small business owners.

•
Why did she put forth this litany of lies, mischaracterizations, and omissions?

•
For the same reason, she lied about her family background.

•
For the same reason, she made so much noise about the fact that her kids went to public school – while neglecting to also reveal that they spent a considerable amount of time in private schools as well.

•
Populism is popular these days, but Warren is the living embodiment of elitism.

•
The real Elizabeth Warren is a textbook specimen of the same pathologically out-of-touch technocratic class that steered this country to the brink of ruin before Donald Trump arrived on the scene.

•
She's another overeducated millionaire of the upper-middle-class who believes she has the right to tell the rest of us how to live.

•
The real question isn't why her campaign failed, but why it didn't implode sooner.

•
See related Sitting Bull (Sean Delonas, 10/15/2018) cartoon from General picture album
Gregg Jarrett: Schumer threat to Supreme Court justices might be a crime – Senate should censure him (Fox 03/05/2020)
•
If the full Senate does not take a firm stand against Schumer, it will be signaling to all Americans that it is more than willing to countenance dangerous threats against Supreme Court justices.

•
It is a matter of conscience, civility and security.
Sen. Johnson to force subpoena vote in Hunter Biden investigation, over Dem objections (Fox 03/05/2020)
•
"Joe Biden has never adequately answered these questions ... if there's wrongdoing the American people need to understand that. If there is no wrongdoing, or if it's not significant, the American people need to understand that."

•
"There's no question [that] the appearance of looking into Burisma and Hunter Biden appears political," Romney said ... "and I think people are tired of these, these kind of political investigations and I would hope that if there's something of significance that needs to be evaluated that it will be done by perhaps the FBI or some other agency that's not as political as perhaps a committee of our body."

•
See related The New Maverick (Antonio Branco, 02/12/2020) cartoon from Politics picture album
Dana Loesch 'sick and tired' of the left getting a 'free pass' for reckless rhetoric (Fox 03/05/2020)
•
"It has been Democrats that have accused Republicans and conservatives, myself included, of things that they themselves are the ones doing. So, I hope that censure happens and I hope an apology happens but they don't have the grace to do it."
David Bossie: After Super Tuesday, socialist Sanders and Biden go to war peddling failed policies (Fox 03/04/2020)
Where was Bernie when Americans fought for Soviet Jewry? (JWR 02/29/2020)
The Russians are coming [again] (JWR 02/27/2020)
Victor Davis Hanson: Trump and 2020 — 5 reasons why reelection is looking better and better (Fox 02/27/2020)
Tucker Carlson: Everyone in the 2020 Democratic field has been diminished. Their ideas are absurd (Fox 02/27/2020)
By going soft on Sanders, Democrats are paving the way for his nomination (NYP 02/26/2020)
Trump taunts Dems after chaotic debate performance, pleads ‘give me an opponent!’ (Fox 02/26/2020)
•
"Crazy, chaotic Democrat Debate last night. Fake News said Biden did well, even though he said half of our population was shot to death. Would be OVER for most."

•
"Mini Mike was weak and unsteady, but helped greatly by his many commercials (which are not supposed to be allowed during a debate). Pocahontas was mean, & undisciplined, mostly aiming at Crazy Bernie and Mini Mike. They don't know how to handle her, but I know she is a "chocker". Steyer was a disaster who, along with Mini, are setting records in $'s per vote. Just give me an opponent!"
Ben Shapiro: Bernie Sanders is not a social democrat, he's a lifelong communist. Dems have no... (Fox 02/26/2020)
•
Sanders explained: "We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba, but you know, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. ... When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing, even though Fidel Castro did it?"

•
But, of course, Sanders hasn't merely praised Castro's literacy programs (which, by the way, were propagandistic exploits.

•
Cuba had an 80 percent literacy rate before Castro's coup).

•
Back in the 1980s, Sanders explained that he was "physically nauseated" by former President John F. Kennedy's "hatred for the Cuban revolution."

•
In 1989, Sanders stated after visiting Cuba: "I did not see a hungry child. I did not see any homeless people."

•
He said that the Cuban people "had an almost religious affection" for Castro.

•
As it turns out, there is hardly a single communist regime of the past half-century for which Sanders has not expressed some level of moral support.

•
This week, Sanders went out of his way to praise China, explaining: "It's is an authoritarian country. ... But can anyone deny — I mean, the facts are clear — that they have taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history?"

•
Naturally, Sanders neglects to mention that China's embrace of free trade and profit margin in the 1990s was responsible for that rise from poverty.

•
That would cut against his socialist worldview.

•
Then there's the Nicaraguan communist regime of Daniel Ortega, which murdered thousands.

•
Sanders celebrated the Sandinista revolution in the 1980s (he attended a rally at which protesters chanted, "the Yankee will die"), visited Nicaragua and returned to tut-tut Ortega's human rights abuses by citing Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus.

•
It's no wonder Ortega has endorsed Sanders for the presidency.

•
The Sanders Senate website carried an editorial for years that favorably compared the regime of Hugo Chavez with the poverty record of the United States.

•
And, of course, there's Sanders' long record of propagandizing on behalf of the Soviet regime.

•
Not only did Sanders visit the Soviet Union for a honeymoon/business trip with his new wife in 1988; he returned and declared that Moscow had "the most effective mass transit system" he had ever seen.

•
He then celebrated that the Soviets were moving "forward into some of the early visions of their revolution, what their revolution was about in 1917."

•
Sanders isn't a European social democrat, warm toward Denmark and Norway.

•
He's a lifelong communist — a man who declared himself fully on board with the nationalization of nearly every major American industry in the 1970s — and an advocate for anti-Americanism abroad.

•
See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Ilhan Omar’s GOP challenger tweets ‘I am an American’ after Omar describes herself 6 other ways (Fox 02/26/2020)
•
"I am an American," wrote Republican Dalia al-Aqidi, a former Iraqi refugee who hopes to replace Omar in representing Minnesota's 5th Congressional District.

•
"That's why I'm running for Congress."

•
The response came shortly after Omar's Twitter message late Sunday, in which the freshman congresswoman listed ways that she describes herself.

•
"I am, Hijabi, Muslim, Black, Foreign born, Refugee, Somali," Omar wrote.

•
"Easily triggering conservatives, Right wing bloggers, anti Muslim bigots, tinfoil conspiracy theorists, birthers, pay me a [dollar] to bash Muslims fraudsters, pro-occupation groups and every single xenophobe since 2016."

•
"As an American citizen, my duty is to defend my country and my duty is to stand up to her hatred and racism that she's spreading within her community, within the country, and even worldwide," al-Aqidi said.

•
"Ilhan Omar is harming every American with her hatred, her standing against what we believe in, [and] against our own Constitution."

•
Like Omar, al-Aqidi came to the U.S. with her family to flee a nation ravaged by war.

•
But unlike Omar, al-Aqidi said she has stopped considering herself a refugee.

•
"I came to the U.S. more than 25 years ago. So, basically, I'm not a refugee anymore. I'm not an Iraqi anymore. I'm an American. Period."
What I can't stand about the Democrat presidential candidates (INN 02/25/2020)
Bernie Sanders just loves America's enemies (JWR 02/25/2020)
•
"You know, when Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?"

•
No, literacy programs aren't a bad thing, but they usually don't require seizing power in a violent revolution, jailing and killing political opponents, expropriating private property or outlawing the free press.

•
Teaching children to read is something that happens in free societies, too.

•
The left has nonetheless always viewed Fidel Castro as some kind of social worker who happened to take and hold power — or "come to office," as Sanders delicately puts it — via force.

•
Back in 1989, Sanders wrote, "Cuba — the one country in the entire region that has no hunger, is educating all of its children and is providing high quality, free health care — is hated with a passion by the Democrats as much as Republicans."

•
Bernie's perspective on Cuba isn't an outlier. It is characteristic of his worldview that has a sympathy for America's enemies, at least if they are Communist or Islamist; that assumes the worst of the United States; and that opposes nearly all US military interventions as misbegotten or malign (Sanders voted for the Afghan war after the 9/11 attacks and now regrets even that vote).

•
Electing Sanders as commander in chief would be almost indistinguishable from putting the late radical historian Howard Zinn, or the America-loathing linguist Noam Chomsky, or the tendentious left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore in charge of American foreign policy.

•
The country would be in the hands of an opponent of its power with no faith in its goodness.

•
There is almost no enemy of the United States that wouldn't be heartened by a Sanders victory and see it as an opportunity to make gains at the expense of the United States and its allies.

•
If his decades-long track record is any indication, the Vermont socialist would be inclined to make excuses for our adversaries and look on the bright side of their repression and rapine.

•
He's doing it with the Cuban dictatorship to this day.

•
See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Stuart Varney: No way on 'God's green Earth' that a socialist will beat Trump (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
"He loves Castro because if elected, Bernie Sanders would do something pretty similar to what Castro did."

•
"The seizure of private homes, private businesses and private wealth. That's what he would do."

•
"The only thing that Bernie Sanders has ever done is to move his party to the left. He's achieved nothing in a lifetime of politics."
Cal Thomas: Mike Bloomberg's political future in 2020 – Here's my prediction (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
Bloomberg appears to be using his considerable wealth in ways other than paying for those ubiquitous TV ads.

•
If his record as mayor of New York City is any indication of how he would behave as president, he should not even be allowed in the tourist line at the White House, unless you are comfortable with government telling you how large a soft drink you can consume, whether salt should be available at restaurants and you are fine with your guns being taken away, along with other constitutionally protected liberties.
Democrats may try to eliminate Ocasio-Cortez’s House seat, paper says (Fox 02/25/2020)
Sara Carter: Dems acting as Russian 'tools' in attempts to further Putin agenda, delegitimize Trump (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
"Democrats and 'Never Trumpers'... they keep bringing up that Vladimir Putin has this grand scheme and people placed inside the Republican and Democratic Party."

•
"Listen", she continued, saying that Russian intelligence offers didn't "need to look far for Russian agents because [Democrats] are doing all the work for Russia. It must be a celebration. All they have to do is say something and plant a little seed out there that 'Putin wants Bernie [Sanders]... Putin wants Trump... Putin wants Joe Biden,' and America is tearing itself apart."

•
"This is frightening because in a way, what they don't see is that they are the tools of Russia. Not the Republicans, but the Democrats... the 'Never Trumpers' are the tools of Russia."

•
"And that's why President Trump is doing the right thing by blowing it off, ignoring them and not even paying attention to anything that could be coming out of Putin's mouth or out of Russia... he just lets it go."
Rachel Campos-Duffy: Bernie's 'dangerous' socialist views are finally being vetted (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
"Bernie Sanders has been a supporter of Communist revolutions and regimes ...

•
He told his class when he was a professor that he was excited when he was hearing about the revolution in Cuba."

•
"He was not supporting a literacy revolution, he was supporting a communist revolution."

•
"It wasn't very long ago when he said that the American dream was more likely to be found in Venezuela than the United States of America and then he quietly took that off his website, but he hasn't been held accountable for it and I hope he's finally getting vetted because this is dangerous."
Gutfeld on Bernie Sanders' Cuba gaffe (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
Here's one quote from Bernie during the 1980s: "It's funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is, that people are lining up for food. That is a good thing! In other countries, people don't line up for food. The rich get the food and the poor starve to death."

•
Sure, that was a long time ago. But you might consider how Soviet citizens felt when they heard a free person, in a free country, papering over their misery, doing publicity for their dictator.

•
"We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But, you know, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know? When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?"

•
Ah yes, the literacy program, the old joke the left always waves when you bring up the ravages of communism. "But everyone can read!"

•
And, Ted Bundy was a great dancer, and Charles Manson played decent guitar.

•
See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Fox News, CNN, MSNBC: The battle for the American mind (INN 02/24/2020)
Hogan Gidley on new Russian election meddling claims: More 'completely false' leaks from Adam... (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
"It's another Russia witch hunt hoax. It started when this president took over in the White House and it continues today. They cannot get past themselves on these Russian lies."

•
"I don't know how many times journalists have to get leaks from Adam Schiff, or his staffers that are completely false and proven to be a lie before they just start discounting everything he says.

•
It's absolutely incredible to watch what they're trying to do to this president."

•
"Democrats continue to do those selective leaks, like they did with [Brett] Kavanaugh, like they did with impeachment time and time again. They're trying to manipulate the system, hurt this president and the media sadly is complicit and compliant with everything these Democrats are trying to do."

•
See related Unmasking (Glenn McCoy, 04/04/2017) cartoon from Media picture album
Gingrich: The Dem party's essence is now 'hate Trump' and giveaways paid for by the rich (Fox 02/24/2020)
•
"The Democrats don't want to think about facts – they want to deal with two things: I hate Trump and everything is possible because I'm going to give it to you and some rich guy is going to pay for it. That's the essence of the current Democratic Party."

•
"You have to think of Bernie Sanders and AOC as being similar people. They talk in visionary terms that have no factual meaning but they are emotionally powerful."

•
"They basically go around chanting slogans as though they were real. Sanders could never deliver on the things he is promising but, frankly, to his followers, they don't care."

•
See related Potemkin Democrats (Taylor Jones, 01/31/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Newt Gingrich predicts Sanders is more likely to cost Democrats the House than win... (Fox 02/22/2020)
•
"He's the greatest gift Kevin McCarthy — the Republican leader in the House — could possibly hope for."

•
"Because Sanders really is the true Democratic Party. He represents all of the big-government ideas, all of the radicalism, all of the weird foreign policy that is at the heart of the Democratic Party.

•
"I think that the contrast between President Trump and his record, particularly on the economy, but just in general — I mean, think about the Trump judges and then ask, you know, can Sanders give us a list of people he would nominate to the Supreme Court?"

•
"They would all be radicals. So, it could end up being one of the great historic campaigns in American history."

•
"The challenge here is something very different — Bernie Sanders essentially is a bumper sticker."

•
"It is a 'Gosh, I'd love a nice future where I didn't have to pay back my student loans, where everything was free, where somebody took care of me.' And Sanders represents in that sense, a sort of a myth. And it's very hard to fight a myth with facts."

•
See related Sanders (Glenn McCoy, 03/09/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
2020 presidential race will 'split' the Dems in a way the Republicans have never fractured (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
"But Sanders," he notes is "not running on anything remotely similar to what Bill Clinton embodied or even Barack Obama. This is a radically socialist agenda that will split the Democratic Party in a way the Republican Party has never fractured."

•
"Bernie Sanders is authentic. He doesn't change that Brooklyn accent. He doesn't change his arms. You put him anywhere in the world. He's the old socialist from Vermont."

•
"So, one of the reasons that he's doing well is the same reason that Trump is, well, he's authentically somebody. And Biden and Warren change their identities, their race? Mayor Pete has been all over the map depending on the polls."

•
"But, Bernie is right there as a hardcore socialist. He's unapologetic and he never retracts or apologized for his prior positions — just the way Trump is."

•
See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Bloomberg paid $460 million to get humiliated by Elizabeth Warren — but it doesn't matter (Fox 02/21/2020)
•
Warren rattled him so completely Bloomberg could barely function.

•
He couldn't explain his own candidacy. He made apologies for his record.

•
At one point Bloomberg bragged about cutting New York City's crime rate in half and then almost instantly disavowed the policy that made it possible.

•
... even on the most obvious question, the one he had to know was coming — How can someone as rich as you relate to normal voters? — Bloomberg whiffed it.

•
Apparently the army of consultancies hired to write his lines forgot to prepare him for it.

•
Oh, but it didn't get better from there. The conversation then turned to China.

•
Now, Bloomberg knows a lot about China. He has been getting rich there and defending its fascist government for many years.

•
He censored his own news organization to protect that country's corrupt leadership.

•
... not surprisingly, he was still acting like China's publicist.

•
When asked about China's carbon emissions, the largest in the world by far, Bloomberg claimed that India was "a bigger problem," which is a total crock.

•
You've got Google, check it yourself. China emits 29 percent of the world's carbon, twice as much as here in the U.S., and that number is still rising, not falling.

•
India, "the bigger problem," accounts for just 7 percent of the world's carbon emissions. Yeah.

•
But here's the question: Does it actually matter? That's worth we're thinking about. And the answer is, it doesn't really matter.

•
... Bloomberg is still enormously rich, and he's still blanketing daytime television with his ads.

•
Far more Americans will see Bloomberg commercials than watch Wedbnesday night's debate. That's just the truth of it.

•
So for all the highly entertaining moments, the debate didn't really change the race.

•
Bernie Sanders was still the front-runner Thursday morning, hard as that is to believe.

•
... Sanders lamely tried to claim that his famously aggressive online supporters, the ones who are supposedly harassing opponents on Twitter, might actually be secret Russian agents trying to sow discord in the Democratic Party.

•
By the end of the night, things got so fractious on stage, they couldn't even agree to unite behind the candidate who got the most votes.

•
Think about that for a minute. These are the same people who are always lecturing you about how the Electoral College is racist, and all that matters is the popular vote.

•
But of course, they never meant that. The only person who means it is Bernie Sanders.

•
And the only reason he means it is because in this case, he's the only one who can benefit from that standard.
Gutfeld on the Democratic debate (Fox 02/20/2020)
•
Turns out all it took was a little "chum" to get the sharks feeding. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the little chum who got eaten alive.

•
"A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said of Bloomberg.

•
"We are sick and tired of billionaires like Mr. Bloomberg seeing huge expansions of their wealth while a half a million people sleep out on the street tonight," added Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

•
The big winner? Sanders, who barely got touched, because everyone wanted a piece of the billionaire.

•
Of course, Mike had it coming. You don't enter late in the game, throw cash at the crowd, then tell those who've already been playing to drop out once you arrive.

•
But it's a sobering observation. Among Democrats, it's worse to be a billionaire who started businesses than to have been an apologist for the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

•
Because the Cold War was, like, history. And that was 31 years ago. A long time.

•
So maybe Bernie just forgot, like all his supporters did.

•
That's scary for the rest of us, who prefer capitalism over socialism and who rooted for America, not the Soviet Union, in the 1970s and 80s.
George Zimmerman sues Warren, Buttigieg for $265M, accuses them of attempting to garner black votes by... (Fox 02/19/2020)
•
"Trayvon Martin would have been 25 today. How many 25th birthdays have been stolen from us by white supremacy, gun violence, prejudice, and fear? #BlackLivesMatter," Buttigieg tweeted to his 1.6 million followers.

•
"My heart goes out to @SybrinaFulton and Trayvon's family and friends. He should still be with us today. We need to end gun violence and racism. And we need to build a world where all of our children — especially young Black boys — can grow up safe and free," Warren tweeted to her 3.6 million followers on the same day.

•
The lawsuit argued Warren and Buttigieg falsely tied Martin's death to "gun violence," a term that more appropriately describes the "reckless and indiscriminate use of illegally owned firearms."

•
It also claims the tweets defamed Zimmerman by implying he acted out of racism or white supremacy when he shot Martin.

•
"The only 'fear' Zimmerman experienced, as established in the 2013 trial and well-covered in the media, was in the context of Zimmerman believing he might go unconscious and die from the repeated beating of his head against the sidewalk pavement or by choking to death from the blood going down his throat due to his broken nose during the beating by Martin."

•
"It is high time that the cheap and harmful use of the race card by politicians of all stripes be made to cease and desist."

•
"Their despicable 'race tactics' are not only causing great harm to persons such as my client George Zimmerman, but also are damaging relations between black and white Americans who are all brothers.

•
"The nation should applaud Mr. Zimmerman for taking a strong stand and pushing back against hack politicians like Buttigieg and Warren, who know no bounds of decency and frankly could obviously care less about whom they hurt in their quest to dishonesty use and manipulate black voters to win the 2020 Democrat presidential primary."
Marc Thiessen: Bloomberg has a powerful message to Dems consumed by 'Trump derangement' (Fox 02/19/2020)
•
"He wants to make the case that he is the most electable Democrat, which is a very powerful message in a party that's completely consumed by Trump derangement. They just want to get rid of Donald Trump, they don't care who it is that will do it."

•
"When they say he can't buy an election, all they're doing is pointing to the fact that he's got $2 billion he is willing to spend to defeat Donald Trump."

•
"They have to stop going after him for buying an election and start going after him for the fact that he can't win over these African-Americans and what he said about farmers."

•
"These are the things that make him vulnerable because they specifically show he is alienating the exact group of voters that abandoned them in 2016 and they need to win back if they want to beat Donald Trump."
Lifelong Ohio Democrat turned Trump voter blasts Bloomberg for insulting farmers: Dems 'alienating everybody' (Fox 02/19/2020)
•
"I'd like to see him go on a farm and work a farm for one day. I'd like to see him climb in a combine and plow a field."

•
"Ohio is a big state. This guy is alienating everybody, like the Democrats. That's their game. They've completely written off the middle class, the working man. From the farmers to the coal miners and the factory workers, and it's ridiculous."

•
Speaking at London's Oxford University in November of 2016, Bloomberg told a crowd that he could "teach anybody to be a farmer."

•
"It's a process. You dig a hole, put a seed in, put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn," he said flippantly.

•
"Hillary Clinton called us 'deplorables,' now Bloomberg is calling us stupid. They're not winning over hearts and minds, I can tell you that."
Sean Hannity blasts 'mini farmer' Mike Bloomberg's insanely expensive campaign (Fox 02/19/2020)
•
"That would be billionaire farmer Mike Bloomberg who just scored a spot on the debate stage but – oh, let's see – only had to spend a slick $417 million to date in marketing campaign with zero vetting until this week and that is just the tip of the iceberg," he said.

•
"The past three years Bloomberg has shelled out tens and tens of millions of dollars to Democratic campaigns and...left-wing causes all around the country including this...anti-Second Amendment activism of his and radical environmental views."

•
"Now Bloomberg is calling to collect in the form of endorsements."

•
Bloomberg has said he is willing to spend upwards of $1 billion on his campaign, an unprecedented amount of money by any presidential campaign in American history.

•
... the president hit Bloomberg's campaign issues on the nose in a series of tweets Tuesday night.

•
"What Mini Mike is doing is nothing less than a large scale illegal campaign contribution. He is "spreading" money all over the place, only to have recipients of his cash payments, many former opponents, happily joining or supporting his campaign. Isn't that called a payoff?"

•
"Mini is illegally buying the Democrat Nomination. They are taking it away from Bernie again. Mini Mike, Major Party Nominations are not for sale! Good luck in the debate tomorrow night and remember, no standing on boxes!"

•
"Why do you want to run against Bernie so badly?" Bloomberg later quipped at Trump.

•
"Mini Mike. No, I would rather run against you!" the president replied.
Tucker Carlson: Bloomberg is trying to buy the presidency – he believes only his wealth matters (Fox 02/18/2020)
•
So on one side, you have a candidate, Bernie Sanders, who wants to turn this country into a comprehensive welfare state.

•
He plans to upend every aspect of American life in order to impose a new economic order.

•
Now Sanders isn't hiding what he plans to do; he is running on what he plans to do.

•
So what is Mike Bloomberg running on? That's a trick question, actually.

•
Bloomberg isn't running on anything. Not because he doesn't have ideas – he's got plenty of ideas, and some of them are far outside the American mainstream.

•
But Bloomberg doesn't think any of that matters. He's not running on ideas.

•
He's not trying to convince voters of anything. He's not making arguments or working to change their minds on policies they care about.

•
He is trying to buy them and hence, the presidency. It's the single most cynical political campaign ever run in this country.

•
Bloomberg is trying to subvert our democracy with cash, and he is going all-in to do it.

•
Michael Bloomberg, 2020 presidential candidate: I defended it, looking back, for too long, because I didn't understand then the unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids. I heard their pain, their confusion and their anger, and I've learned from them, and I've grown from them.

•
So think about what you just saw. It's not the normal pandering.

•
Mike Bloomberg believes passionately in gun control. It's his life's mission. It's his signature issue.

•
Stop and frisk may have been the most effective gun control policy ever administered anywhere.

•
It took thousands of illegal firearms off the streets of New York, but Democratic primary voters have decided they don't like it. They're against stop and frisk.

•
So without even pausing, Bloomberg grovels, as you just saw, and attacks his own legacy.

•
Why did he do that? Because he doesn't care. Whatever. They are only words. He'll do whatever it takes.

•
Now, they say politicians are ethically flexible, and of course, they are. But this is different. There's something ominous about it.

•
Bloomberg can seamlessly change his core beliefs because he doesn't think his beliefs are relevant to the outcome of this race.

•
Only his wealth matters.

•
And the horrifying fact is he may be right.

•
How wealthy is Michael Bloomberg? Well, for context, the richest of the fabled Russian oligarchs, Leonid Mikhelson, is worth about $24 billion.

•
Michael Bloomberg could literally give away twice that amount or spend it on a presidential race, if he wanted, and still be five times as rich as Donald Trump is.

•
It's hard to imagine just how much money that is. But with that money, Bloomberg can suffocate all opposition and seize power.

•
Our ruling class, which worships money above all, sees nothing wrong with this.

•
They're eager to help Bloomberg do it. Like Bloomberg, they're religiously libertarian on economic matters.

•
... this is a total departure from anything we have seen before in the history of this country.

•
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but in 2016, he ran for president on ideas that large numbers of voters actually liked, whether or not they liked him.

•
Secure the border, end counterproductive wars, fight the fascism of political correctness.

•
In selling those ideas, he spent about half what Hillary Clinton spent.
But Bloomberg can't be bothered with selling ideas or with a ()
•
He doesn't care what the public thinks, that's why.

•
He believes he can win by overwhelming voters with his money.

•
Democracy doesn't break when voters choose unwisely; they sometimes do.

•
Democracy collapses when what voters want becomes irrelevant.
AOC’s competition: Meet the candidates running against Ocasio-Cortez (Fox 02/17/2020)
Bill Bennett on Dems' 'shock of recognition:' They're a left-wing party now, not center-left (Fox 02/14/2020)
•
"This is a party that has gone to the left. ... This is a shock of recognition: they've become a left-wing party."

•
He said the move to the left comes after "all the work of the universities," where left-wing professors have push leftist ideologies for years.

•
"You remember that debate early on where they said how many of you will support government benefits for illegals and I think everybody raised their hands eventually on that stage? That's just not something that's going to fly in America."

•
See related Left! Left! (Michael Ramirez, 05/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
A Bernie Sanders win spells the end of America’s center-left, which is already a global trend (NYP 02/13/2020)
•
"The Democratic Party could soon be taken over by a leftist who has never formally been a member (even if he signed a pledge to govern as a Democrat should he make it to the White House)."

•
"If it's any consolation to Democrats, it's a version of the same wrenching dislocation that has beset the center-left throughout the Western world."
Trump asked what he learned from impeachment trial, response goes viral (Fox 02/13/2020)
•
Q: "Some Republicans have said they hoped you would learn a lesson from impeachment. What lesson did you learn from impeachment?"

•
President Trump: "That the democrats are crooked... that they shouldn't have brought impeachment and my poll numbers are 10 points higher."

•
Trump has maintained that there was never any quid pro quo and he was simply the subject of a flawed political witch hunt.
House Republicans boycott intel hearing, accuse Schiff of ignoring FISA abuse (Fox 02/12/2020)
•
"Under your chairmanship, the House Intelligence Committee has strayed far from its mandate of overseeing the Intelligence Community. In fact, we have gone months at a time in which we've hardly held any oversight-related briefings or hearings at all."

•
"During this period of inadequate oversight, numerous critical issues pertinent to this Committee's jurisdiction were ignored."

•
"The IG Report was followed by the release of a declassified assessment by the Department of Justice acknowledging that at least two of the four FISA applications lacked probable cause."

•
"Despite the seriousness of these issues and our clear jurisdiction, you have failed to hold a single briefing or hearing on this matter."

•
"Until the Committee prioritizes oversight activities related to urgent and critical concerns, Republican Members cannot support distractions from our core responsibilities."

•
"We hope this Committee can move past political investigations and publicity stunts and get back to the important work we traditionally have undertaken on a bipartisan basis."
Lindsey Graham hits back at criticism on CNN from Vindman's former boss: 'You're not going to drive...' (Fox 02/11/2020)
•
"I think FBI agents had a political agenda during the investigation of President Trump and they acted on it."

•
"I think CIA operatives have been out to try to get the president since he was elected."

•
"I think there are people in uniform that can't accept this result."

•
"I appreciate Lt. Col. Vindman's service, but to the general, thank you for that nice compliment."

•
"Because you wear the uniform doesn't mean you're exempt from being asked questions. Did he know the whistleblower? Was there a member of [House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam] Schiff's staff that was a friend of the whistleblower? Had these guys been planning for years a way to try to take this president down?"

•
... "when a military officer engages in a political bias in uniform, they need to be held accountable."
Justin Haskins blasts AOC and Bernie Sanders: Young people now think socialism is 'charity' (Fox 02/11/2020)
•
"This idea that socialism is basically a form of charity rather than what it really is — it's all about force, control, and manipulation."

•
"Every decision gets made by the collective, that means the individual doesn't matter. So, your religious beliefs whether you're a minority, all those things gets tossed out the window and whatever the majority wants, the majority gets and if that means you lose your liberty, too bad for you."

•
See related Sanders (Glenn McCoy, 03/09/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album
White House spokesman on Pelosi tearing up SOTU copy: 'That's how she is behind closed doors' (Fox 02/11/2020)
•
"When Nancy Pelosi comes over here and we try to brief her on border numbers, she says they're not true, gets up and leaves and walks right to a camera and says, 'The president was wrong and he's a bad person,'"

•
"Then she comes in, hears [of] troop movements in Syria. [She gets] An update on all of the information we're giving her as relates to the military. She gets up after two minutes, walks right to the cameras. 'I just can't work with the president. He's just... he's mean. And... he's childish.' And all these types of things."

•
"And we come out and say, 'Hey, that's not true. Nancy Pelosi was actually the one who was petulant and petty,'" Gidley added. "And now we saw with the tearing up of the speech, the premeditated tearing up of the speech, we've been telling the truth this whole time. That's how she is behind closed doors."
Liz Peek: Democrats gone mad — Trump investigations and clueless candidates (Fox 02/10/2020)
•
Notwithstanding the disastrous political cost of the failed impeachment, Democrats want to press forward with even more investigations into President Trump.

•
That's right: rather than pivot to projects and policies that might distract from the embarrassing collapse of the Ukraine prosecution, House Democrats want to double down.

•
Elizabeth Warren promises on day one of her presidency to "investigate violations of specific anti-corruption and public integrity laws during the Trump administration..." Now there's something voters can get excited about.

•
If insanity is defined by doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different outcome, Democrats have gone officially insane.

•
Don't they get it? Can't they see the endless attacks on the president have boosted his approval ratings, brought in a gusher of campaign cash and charged up his base?

•
For the past three years, instead of showing the country how they will provide higher incomes and a more prosperous future, Democrats burrowed in on Russiagate, and when that failed, pressed forward with a one-sided impeachment that by any measure flopped.

•
Notwithstanding the damage done to their party and to the nation, they want to continue down that same road.

•
Russiagate and Ukrainegate are of course just the tip of the iceberg.

•
Less well known are the many other investigations Democrats have launched into the president's finances, businesses, taxes and who knows what else, all of which are soaking up time and money, and delivering zero to voters.

•
Consider what we heard during Friday's debate in New Hampshire. Race was a big topic, with Elizabeth Warren confusingly calling for "race-conscious laws in education and employment, [and] in entrepreneurship.."Consider what we heard during Friday's debate in New Hampshire. Race was a big topic, with Elizabeth Warren confusingly calling for "race-conscious laws in education and employment, [and] in entrepreneurship.."

•
Bernie Sanders appeared to speak for the group when he declared, "We have a racist society from top to bottom."

•
Surely there are some who disagree.

•
After all, for eight years we were governed by a black president, who was treated considerably more kindly than President Trump.

•
Surely that counts for something.

•
And then there's Sanders, one of the front-runners, joining Tom Steyer in calling for the end of cash bail.

•
What a terrific idea, one that is now playing out in New York City with entirely predictable and disastrous results.

•
Criminals are being sprung from jail within hours of committing a crime, only to be found perpetrating exactly the same crime again, sometimes the very same day.

•
They know they won't be locked up, so what's the downside?

•
Amy Klobuchar, senator from Minnesota, sounded relatively sane compared to her rivals, saying "We have to unite under an optimistic agenda that works for working people."

•
She is right. Unfortunately for Democrats, President Trump has put just such an agenda in place.

•
His low tax program and common sense approach to regulation is indeed "working for working people," with rising wages and a 50-year low unemployment earning him the highest marks with voters of any president in the last 20 years.

•
That record will be tough to beat, even as the investigations roll onward.
David Avella: Sanders vs. Bloomberg — Democrats' choice is a socialist win or a billionaire coup (Fox 02/10/2020)
•
Self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist vs Billionaire. What better symbolizes the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party?

•
... while the media portrays President Trump as one who can't pass up airing his grievances, no one holds a grudge like Clinton.

•
Actually, she continues to be the gift to Republicans that just never stops giving, as it was her former campaign staffers who developed the app that caused the Iowa Caucuses to be a disaster.

•
The irony does not end there. At a time when the Democrats are demanding to get rid of the Electoral College, they used a complicated math equation in Iowa to award delegates.

•
The result, as of this writing, has Sanders getting more actual votes (a.k.a. popular vote) than Pete Buttigieg, but the former mayor receiving more delegates (a.k.a. Electoral College electors).

•
Assuming they are capable of counting the votes in New Hampshire, Sanders is still likely to win and no re-vote will be recommended.

•
The only person left to credibly challenge Sanders is Bloomberg.

•
Bloomberg is spending money at a level that dwarfs what anyone else has ever done.

•
He's already spent more than $250 million on his campaign, and has suggested he'd be willing to cross the billion-dollar threshold.

•
This is about the distance in size and scope between Whole Foods and the local farmer's market.

•
It does raise the question, is Bloomberg being given special treatment because he has pledged that his entire billion-dollar operation will be left in place until November whether he is the nominee or not?

•
When New Hampshire is done, what will play out next is the fight between Occupy Wall Street and Democratic Party Inc.

•
On one side, you have the Squad, environmentalists and every Democrat who wants to be very liberal on all things great and small.

•
On the other side, you have folks such as former President Obama, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Clinton surrogate James Carville, who warn that it would be a mistake to put forward a radical candidate who will scare away too many voters.

•
Put down a bet on who wins at your own peril, but one thing is certain: Sanders needs to win it outright because the Democratic Party elites will maliciously deploy convention rules and super-delegates in second-round balloting to keep him from becoming the nominee.
Jeanine Pirro to Mitt Romney: 'How about you get the hell out of the United States Senate?' (Fox 02/09/2020)
•
"Permit me to introduce you to a non-leader. The first United States senator in American history to vote to convict the president of his own party — Mitt Romney, the sole and only Republican to vote to convict President Trump.

•
"Do you ever wonder why people never mention God or religion — only bring it up when they get caught doing something or when they need an excuse for something they did? What a bunch of phonies."

•
"Your jealousy of this man [Trump] is a constant rage burning within you because you can never rise to the heights that he has."

•
"Because guys like you fold like wusses and you don't have any selflessness or the ability to think about others, as Donald Trump has thought about making America first."

•
"The people in Utah are furious with you, and your dream of endearing yourself to the Trump-hating left is a joke."
Jesse Watters to Democrats unhappy with Trump's tone after acquittal: 'I don't care' (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
"Democrats didn't like Trump's tone. I don't care. The fanatical left just put everyone through hell for three years. For what? Nothing."

•
"No collusion, no obstruction, no high crimes. Now, what are they going to do? We'll find out next week, [...] and we'll be ready."
Steve Bannon: Democrats focused on 'total destruction of Donald Trump' (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
"The nullification project's not going to stop. Here's why. They don't have the personalities. They don't have big personalities. And they don't have policies, the policies are so far left."

•
"It's the total destruction of Donald Trump, that's what they're focused on."

•
Bannon called on Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the the repeated attacks on Trump.

•
"We need to vet this and I think the Senate Judiciary is a place to start."

•
"Here's where it's going to get worse, because he's going to continue to press his agenda. And as economic conditions get better, as more jobs get better [...] They're going to continue to fight."

•
"If you think they're going to give him your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. Every day, every day it is gonna be a fight."

•
"They don't have another alternative, Trump triggers them."
'Conservative Squad' co-founder: Democratic socialist ideology must be stopped (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
"Socialism is when [the] government controls the means of production and it takes away our freedom."

•
"The country as we know it will not be the same if we inch towards socialism, so what the Democrats are doing here is alarming."
Matthew Whitaker doesn't think Dems' impeachment push is going to stop (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
"It also appears that they are looking for new angles to really fundamentally use the House tools of oversight ... for a really bad purpose — that is to score cheap political points against the president and try to weaken him."

•
"They have lurched left and they have no desire to really serve the people of America."
Laura Ingraham hails Trump on Vindman, Sondland firings: 'Get rid of the radicals undermining from within' (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
"He's winning on the economy, national security, judicial appointments and even legislatively his policies and his strategies are working and the American people are reaping huge benefits."

•
"Get rid of the radicals undermining from within and replace them with people who believe in your agenda, Mr. President."

•
"These are the good old days, folks," Ingraham said. "And surveys are showing that Americans are happier than they've been for four decades, even happier than under Ronald Reagan. This is great news for America, which means it's terrible news for the Democrats."

•
"Now, we all know why the ladies were wearing white during the State of the Union. They're already surrendering."
Sean Hannity on the president's critics: 'They all live in a bubble' (Fox 02/08/2020)
•
"Now, 'petty' Pelosi, Oh, she's not exactly a master strategist. She is an angry, bitter, mumbling, bumbling, sore loser and likely will, in fact, go down in history as the worst Speaker of the House that we have ever seen."

•
"One thing is a certainty tonight, we can say this: Her days as speaker are now numbered."

•
"Mr. Vindman, you want to be in charge of foreign policy? Why don't you try and run for president?"

•
"They all live in this bubble. They never question their own narratives. They never listen to opposing viewpoints."

•
"This latest impeachment hoax might now be in the rearview mirror but the lying, the smears, the besmirchment, the conspiracy theories, they never end."
James Carville rips elitist media, says Dems are 'losing our damn minds' (Fox 02/07/2020)
•
"Democrats talking about free college tuition or debt forgiveness. I'm not here to debate the idea. What I can tell you is that people all over this country worked their way through school, sent their kids to school, paid off student loans. They don't want to hear this s**t."

•
See related What Have I Done to Mytself? (Fuller 2018), ) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump claims he wouldn't be 'standing here' if he hadn't fired 'sleazebag' Comey (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
"Had I not fired James Comey, who was a disaster, by the way, it's possible I wouldn't even be standing here right now."

•
"We caught him in the act. Dirty cops. Bad people."

•
"If this happened to President Obama, a lot of people would have been in jail for a long time already."
Newt Gingrich: Pelosi should be kicked out of office for her 'petty, childish' behavior (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
"Speaker Pelosi has attacked him for four solid months. She has called him the most vile names possible."

•
"You know, I introduced Bill Clinton four times when I was speaker of the House."

•
"One time it was in the middle of the scandal. Every time, because of the dignity of the House and the Constitution, I used the right phrase. She didn't."

•
"I agree with Jonathan Turley — who is a Democrat — who wrote this morning that she really should be kicked out of office for demeaning the entire nature of both the Constitution and the House of Representatives."

•
"Remember, he is delivering a constitutionally required address so in a sense she is ripping up a document that exists under the Constitution."

•
"[Pelosi] disgraced the House of Representatives, she embarrassed our country and she destroyed official records. The law does not allow the speaker of the House to destroy the records of the House and the rules of the House do not permit some little temper tantrum just because you don't like what the president of the United States says," Gaetz said.

•
Gingrich said he doesn't know why Pelosi made that decision, but he doesn't care.

•
"And, she just proved...how divided the state of the union is...by the kind of petty, childish behavior that she personally exhibited."

•
"It displayed to the entire country how vicious and petty the Democrats have become."
Pam Bondi on Trump acquittal: Impeachment is 'going to go down in history as a huge stain’ (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
"We have the right president at the right time and he cannot be deterred by this sham impeachment."

•
"We showed this yesterday with his pure vindication of all of these bogus charges against him, so it's a really good day today for the president."

•
"It's really going to be a stain on Congress, I think, forever."

•
"It's going to go down in history as a huge stain because they cannot deter President Trump and because they dislike him so much, they're trying to take him out of office and they're not going to be able to overturn the election and impact the 2020 election."

•
"It's disappointing that Senator Romney bought in to all of [Lead House impeachment manager] Adam Schiff's continued lies about the president. No one else did."

•
"President Trump will be reelected and they [Democrats] are going to keep trying over and over and over again because of all the great things he has done for our country and they can't handle it and this was just a ridiculous sham on our country, for the taxpayers, waste of all this time and energy, when they could be doing all the good things that President Trump has been doing for the country."
Laura Ingraham calls on Mitt Romney to resign, says she 'may consider' opposing him in 4... (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
"Last night, [Pelosi] showed the world who she really is. A woman left with little else, but her own sour puss, facial expression and a paper ripping stunt. She let her anger get the best of her, and her white suit didn't make her look any more angelic. It was the color of surrender."

•
"If he were up for reelection this year, the people of Utah would have their own payback against him because they were defrauded by Romney. For when he had to choose, he chose [Charles] Schumer and Kamala [Harris] over common sense and conservatism."

•
"If you're one of Romney's constituents in Utah, you're out of luck. If you're a business in need of a regulation reexamined, don't bother calling his office. He has no power anymore."

•
... "we thought you'd be better for America and the way you repay millions of people, the millions who did vote for you in 2012 is to throw in with the very people who don't share our goals, who hate us. And by the way, who still hate you."

•
"Like all the other bitter 'Never Trumpers', he'd rather see the entire American economy go down the drain than give Trump a victory."

•
"Mitt, you made your stand. Now you should resign. You committed a fraud on the people of Utah, on the Republican Party, on the Constitution, and a thoroughly embarrassed yourself."

•
"If I have to move there to run against him in four and a half years, I will."
Sean Hannity says Democrats put country through hell for three years, calls Romney 'a diminished...' (Fox 02/06/2020)
•
"The petty, irrational, rage-filled, Trump-hating Democrats and their state-run media mob allies have absolutely nothing to show for their three-year never-ending, do-nothing-for-the-American-people, hate-Trump temper tantrum."

•
"The president won again and the bitter Democratic Party, the mob and the media... look at what they have put this country through for three long years: Hell. Absolutely nothing have they done for you, we, the American people."

•
"This must not be over. Let me say this tonight. For the sake of this country, we need to now get to the truth of what happened here, including the truth about the hearsay non-whistleblower whistleblower."

•
"The truth about the compromised, corrupt congenital liar, Adam Schiff, and whatever relationship the staff had with the non-whistleblower hearsay whistleblower."

•
"We must get to the truth of why the tools of government were weaponized yet again against this president."
Democrats screw up the Iowa caucuses, then blame the voters. They truly are a disaster (Fox 02/05/2020)
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel: Trump impeachment sham ends as president’s agenda ramps up (Fox 02/05/2020)
Franklin Graham slams Pelosi for tearing up speech: 'What's wrong with these people?' (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
... that Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues' disdain "felt like a very personal resentment and hatred for the successes of America."

•
"How could leaders in Congress be so indignant about good news for the people of this country?"

•
"Why would they not celebrate people seeing increases in their wages, our military being strengthened, a young girl receiving a scholarship, victories in the fight against ISIS, a military hero reunited with his family, a 100-year-old three-war veteran being honored, and other great news?"

•
The president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse concludes they have "contempt for the heart of America."
Sen. Blunt on what he believes Trump learned from impeachment (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
"I think you can't have gone through this and not realize that all of your actions can be misinterpreted by the other side who is looking eagerly as a way to misinterpret them and because of that be a little more thoughtful as you move forward."

•
"I thought he did a great job last night not getting bogged down in this impeachment discussion. I think he won't get bogged down in it over the next several months."
Kellyanne Conway calls for a Senate resolution condemning Pelosi's conduct: 'What's wrong with...' (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
"I think it shows you how petty and peevish and partisan and the Democratic Party has become."

•
"What's wrong with her? Who mutters to themselves over the State of the Union?"

•
"She looked like she was reading the Cheesecake Factory menu all night going through every single page."

•
"I think that she should either be censured or I believe the same woman who led a resolution in the House to denounce a tweet last summer — there ought to be a Senate resolution denouncing her behavior last night."
Crenshaw and Mast blast Pelosi's 'petty' behavior at SOTU: Showed America 'exactly how she feels' (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
"It was childish, it was petty. ... They can't stand the thought of anything good classical American or any good accomplishments being talked about by President Trump."
James Carville sounds the alarm as Sanders surges in primary: 'I'm scared to death' for Democratic... (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
"I'm 75 years old, why am I here doing this? Because I'm scared to death, that's why."

•
"Let's get relevant here ... all the Sanders people are taking pictures wishing Jeremy Corbyn the best. ... I don't want to go down that path."

•
The former Clinton advisor slammed the press corps for going "AOC crazy"...

•
"We've got to decide what we want to be. Do we want to be an ideological cult? Or do we want to have a majoritarian instinct to be a majority party?"

•
"What we need is power, you understand? That's what this is about. Without power, you have nothing. You just have talking points."

•
See related Left! Left! (Michael Ramirez, 05/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related What Have I Done to Mytself? (Fuller 2018), ) cartoon from Politics picture album
Sen. Marco Rubio: Trump SOTU address reminds us of what matters to America (Fox 02/05/2020)
•
He spoke to the hundreds of millions of Americans who do not spend each day refreshing their Twitter accounts to find out the latest "hot take."

•
These are Americans who are too busy with life to pass their time hooked to the ebb and flow of partisan politics.

•
... Americans are worried about how expensive it is to raise a family, to go to the doctor and to pay for college.

•
They are worried about threats from China, from Iran, from terrorists, from despotic regimes in our own hemisphere, and now from the Wuhan coronavirus.

•
Americans are worried about – and impacted every day – by the decades-long collapse of stable, dignified work that has allowed generations to give back to their children, charities and places of worship.

•
For all of our nation's history, the American Dream has been sustained by the promise not only of individual newcomers "making it," but by the ability of working Americans to raise families and build strong communities together.

•
The Democratic Party is currently experiencing a radical and dangerous turn to the left.

•
Its politicians and their media abettors are waging a war on our nation's institutions, running an inquisition against any people or ideas they deem insufficiently "woke."

•
Many Democratic politicians now openly espouse the same socialist policies that led millions of Americans' ancestors to flee their home countries in the first place.

•
And now they have elevated their obsession with impeachment above the priorities of the American people.

•
These are the same people who, during the Obama administration, told Americans that they had to accept a nation in decline.

•
These are the same people who continue to say that families, communities, and faith need to take a backseat to bureaucrats, technocrats and the omnipotence of Washington. 2/5/20

•
Thankfully, President Trump rejected that false premise four years ago and has since taken important steps to revive America's economic engine.
Trump takes on ‘radical left’ in defiant and dramatic State of the Union address; Pelosi rips up speech (Fox 02/05/2020)
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President Trump went on the offensive against socialism and left-wing policies during a defiant third State of the Union address to Congress Tuesday night — drawing groans from Democrats in attendance and prompting a furious House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to rip up her copy of Trump's speech as soon as it concluded in a remarkable scene.

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... Pelosi said she had destroyed the speech "because it was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives." She also said she was "trying to find one page with truth on it" but "couldn't."

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"Speaker Pelosi just ripped up: One of our last surviving Tuskegee Airmen. The survival of a child born at 21 weeks. The mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller. A service member's reunion with his family," the White House said in a tweet. "That's her legacy."

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Some commentators accused Pelosi of hypocrisy, noting that back in 2009, she had called on a Republican congressman to apologize or face formal censure for shouting during President Obama's State of the Union address, "You lie!"

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The flareup was a harsh reminder of the partisan discord pervading the halls of Congress, even as Trump in his speech all but ignored the historic impeachment drama that flanked this year's address...

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Trump opted in his remarks to publicly challenge Democrats on policy grounds while touting what he called the "blue-collar boom" in the country.

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... Pelosi refused to introduce Trump by saying it was her "distinct honor" and "high privilege" to do so, as is tradition.

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Instead, she simply introduced him as the President of the United States.

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Then, Trump seemingly snubbed a handshake offer from Pelosi, while Republican lawmakers chanted, "Four more years!"

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But, the president did not shake Vice President Mike Pence's hand, either, and it appeared he may simply not have noticed Pelosi reaching out her hand.

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The night was full of other dramatic, made-for-TV moments: Trump introduced a warfighter back from his fourth Afghanistan deployment to his shocked wife (which was not included in prepared remarks of the speech delivered in advance to reporters); awarded radio host Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the spot; issued an academic scholarship to a needy family; and introduced a surviving member of the Tuskegee Airmen.

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"As we work to improve Americans' health care, there are those who want to take away your health care, take away your doctor, and abolish private insurance entirely."

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"One hundred thirty-two lawmakers in this room have endorsed legislation to impose a socialist takeover of our healthcare system, wiping out the private health insurance plans of 180 million Americans. To those watching at home tonight, I want you to know: We will never let socialism destroy American health care."

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"Over 130 legislators in this chamber have endorsed legislation that would bankrupt our Nation by providing free taxpayer-funded healthcare to millions of illegal aliens, forcing taxpayers to subsidize free care for anyone in the world who unlawfully crosses our borders. These proposals would raid the Medicare benefits our seniors depend on, while acting as a powerful lure for illegal immigration."

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"If forcing American taxpayers to provide unlimited free healthcare to illegal aliens sounds fair to you, then stand with the radical left. But if you believe that we should defend American patients and American seniors, then stand with me and pass legislation to prohibit free Government healthcare for illegal aliens!"

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"If we had not reversed the failed economic policies of the previous administration, the world would not now be witness to America's great economic success."

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"Under the last administration, more than 10 million people were added to the food stamp rolls. Under my administration, 7 million Americans have come off of food stamps, and 10 million people have been lifted off of welfare."

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"Joining us in the gallery is the true and legitimate President of Venezuela, Juan Guaido. Mr. President, please take this message back to your homeland. All Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom! Socialism destroys nations. But always remember, freedom unifies the soul."

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"Tragically, there are many cities in America where radical politicians have chosen to provide sanctuary for these criminal illegal aliens."

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"In Sanctuary Cities, local officials order police to release dangerous criminal aliens to prey upon the public, instead of handing them over to ICE to be safely removed. Just 29 days ago, a criminal alien freed by the Sanctuary City of New York was charged with the brutal rape and murder of a 92-year-old woman. The killer had been previously arrested for assault, but under New York's sanctuary policies, he was set free. If the city had honored ICE's detainer request, his victim would be alive today. The State of California passed an outrageous law declaring their whole State to be a sanctuary for criminal illegal immigrants — with catastrophic results."

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Trump praised Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), saying the agency "has arrested over 5,000 wicked human traffickers — and I have signed 9 pieces of legislation to stamp out the menace of human trafficking, domestically and around the globe."

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"The state of our union is stronger than ever before," Trump declared early on to applause, as most Democrats — including those who have recently sought to have the president removed from office — remained seated, stone-faced and apparently dejected.

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"Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage-earners has increased by 47 percent — 3 times faster than the increase for the top 1 percent."

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"After decades of flat and falling incomes, wages are rising fast — and, wonderfully, they are rising fastest for low-income workers, who have seen a 16 percent pay-increase since my election. This is a blue-collar boom."

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"The unemployment rates for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans have reached the lowest levels in history."

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"African-American youth unemployment has reached an all-time low. African-American poverty has declined to the lowest rate ever recorded. The unemployment rate for women reached the lowest level in almost 70 years — and last year, women filled 72 percent of all new jobs added."

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"The veterans' unemployment rate dropped to a record low. The unemployment rate for disabled Americans has reached an all-time low. Workers without a high school diploma have achieved the lowest unemployment rate recorded in United States history. A record number of young Americans are now employed."

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"One of the single biggest promises I made to the American people was to replace the disastrous NAFTA trade deal."

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"In fact, unfair trade is perhaps the single biggest reason that I decided to run for President. Following NAFTA's adoption, our Nation lost one in four manufacturing jobs. Many politicians came and went, pledging to change or replace NAFTA — only to do absolutely nothing. But unlike so many who came before me, I keep my promises. Six days ago, I replaced NAFTA and signed the brand new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) into law."

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The USMCA, Trump maintained, "will create nearly 100,000 new high-paying American auto jobs, and massively boost exports for our farmers, ranchers, and factory workers. It will also bring trade with Mexico and Canada to a much higher degree, but also to a much greater level of fairness and reciprocity. This is the first major trade deal in many years to earn the strong backing of America's labor unions."

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"Thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country," Trump said as Limbaugh rose.

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"Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our Nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and inspire, and all of the incredible work that you have done for charity, I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I will now ask the First Lady of the United States to please stand and present you with the honor."

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"To rescue these students, 18 States have created school choice in the form of Opportunity Scholarships. The programs are so popular, that tens of thousands of students remain on waiting lists..."
Ted Cruz on Iowa chaos: Dems can't count votes and they want to run our health care? (Fox 02/04/2020)
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"Dems, right now, they can't stand in a gymnasium and count who stands under which sign and they're the ones that want to be in charge of our healthcare and everything else in our life."

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"I mean, these are the socialist candidates who say, 'We know best, trust us to run your life.' Well, guys, how about figure out how to count your votes first."
Hillary Clinton ended the practice of humble concessions (NYP 02/03/2020)
Trump's Senate impeachment trial will likely end in acquittal - that's the right verdict (Fox 02/03/2020)
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Trump did not commit "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," as the Constitution requires for impeachment. He was not even accused of any such offense.

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Instead, the House's first impeachment article charged that Trump "abused the powers of the Presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital national interests to obtain an improper personal political benefit."

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In fact, however, politics-as-usual is an abuse of power for personal political benefit.

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Nearly all the politicians accusing President Trump are guilty of it themselves.

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They pander to their base, cater to special interests, place party before country, take dark money, horse-trade, collude, siphon taxpayer funds for pork-barrel pet projects, commit gerrymandering to rig elections, flip-flop on issues, misrepresent their records, conceal information, and just plain lie.

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"Abuse of power" does not justify the impeachment of President Trump. If it did, it would impeach virtually every Democratic and Republican elected official in the United States.

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The second impeachment article is equally absurd. It impeaches Trump merely because he resisted impeachment.

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Specifically, it charges "obstruction of Congress" because Trump refused requests for information during House impeachment hearings.

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Trump did this for two main reasons.

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First, the House neglected to duly authorize its own "subpoenas."

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Second, the House's impeachment hearings violated due process.

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This raises an obvious question: Is the former national security adviser obtaining a personal financial benefit from selling books and making paid speeches while ignoring national security or other vital national interests?

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This spectacle-driven impeachment shows how history repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce.

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First, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton was a tragedy.

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Clinton sexually exploited a 22-year old intern inside the Oval Office.

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He lied about it under oath, committing perjury – a felony crime punishable with a prison sentence.

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Nevertheless, the Senate persisted to keep Clinton in the White House.

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Now, the impeachment of President Trump is a farce. It even started with an inside joke.

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For theatrical effect, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., actually opened Congress's impeachment hearing with a comedic routine, delivering a funny impression of President Trump in a prank reenactment of the president's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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Comedian Schiff's parody impeachment hearing begat Congress's parody impeachment articles.

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Schiff was even appointed lead impeachment manager so he could stage his show at the Senate impeachment trial.

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Tough crowd, the Senate. It did not laugh at Schiff's show, and on Friday it voted against giving Schiff a do-over with a new season of witness hearings. That was a wise decision.

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By distracting the president from his own job – and hijacking the attention of the public to promote a show trial when there are actual crises facing the nation – Democratic House members abused their power to obtain an improper personal political benefit at the expense of national security and other vital national interests.

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This show must not go on.
Bongino on Schiff saying there was nothing Democrats could have done differently in impeachment trial... (Fox 02/03/2020)
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"Let me give you a little hint, Adam. Here is one thing I would have done differently: I would have produced an actual high crime or misdemeanor, which is the prerequisite to impeach a president."

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"He produced nothing. Nothing Adam Schiff produced changed the hard facts of this case and the hard facts of the case are this: These are indisputable, immovable immutable facts. The aid promised [to Ukraine] was delivered on time."

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"There's no victim. You can't have a high crime or misdemeanor with literally no victim. They [Democrats] cannot find a single Ukrainian of significance to come out and say they felt pressured by President Trump."

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... "the Democrat corruption in Ukraine, which the Democrats want you to believe is a conspiracy theory, is real and has been reported on by left-wing media outlets."
Kellyanne Conway unloads on 2020 Dems in Iowa: 'Unimpressive, unremarkable, underwhelming' (Fox 02/03/2020)
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"Caucus-goers on the Democratic side will have a choice — which level of socialism they choose to reject or advance, and of which of these unimpressive, unremarkable and underwhelming candidates who remain, which by the way is a much older and whiter field than they would like people to think."

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"The Democrats' message is — it's increasingly not the Democratic Party I grew up with."

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See related Socialism Time! (Mike Shelton, 03/15/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Socialism (Bob Gorrell, 04/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
As Joe Biden competes for a win in Iowa, one GOP senator is already talking about impeaching him (Fox 02/03/2020)
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... Republicans could impeach Biden for his dealings in Ukraine, specifically his handling of foreign policy with the country as his son, Hunter, was on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.

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"I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened."

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"Joe Biden should be very careful what he's asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, 'Well, we're going to impeach him.'"

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... Biden would be accused of "being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son was on the board making over a million dollars a year."
Bernie Sanders makes closing pitch for solidarity, says Iowa caucuses 'beginning of the end' for Trump (Fox 02/03/2020)
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., another Sanders supporter, said the Democratic establishment should conform to the progressive movement, not the other way around.

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"We aren't pushing the party left," she said. "We are bringing the party home."

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Former Secretary of State John Kerry ... was overheard in a hotel restaurant Sunday warning of the very real "possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party — down whole."

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See related Left! Left! (Michael Ramirez, 05/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Try Living with It... (Michael Ramirez, 04/20/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related , )">What Have I Done to Mytself? (Fuller 2018)", ) cartoon from Politics picture album
Judge Jeanine Pirro: I want to thank Democrats for 'exposing their hate' (Fox 02/02/2020)
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"I want to take this opportunity to thank our friends, specifically Democrats Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and the whole unhinged lot of them for guaranteeing the reelection of President Donald John Trump in 2020."

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"Their nonstop hate, hypocrisy and hysteria has so exhausted us that we honestly can't wait to reelect him again."

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"Their political stunts have been a colossal waste of time and they've sealed his reelection."

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"And Adam Schiff says the president's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box because, 'We cannot be assured the vote will be fairly won,'"

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"Adam, are you stupid or do you think we are?"

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"The Democrat Party, allegedly the party of inclusion and openness, is at this moment in time the most obstructive, mutinous, nonproductive, rebellious group of haters the party has ever seen; can only be attributed to their Trump derangement syndrome."

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"I want to thank our friends, the Democrats, for taking off their masks and exposing their hate, their condescension and their disgust for the rest of us."
Kayla Gowdy: Dems' 10 biggest lies in Trump's Senate impeachment trial (Fox 01/31/2020)
Trump impeachment — Our media elites are never objective. The stakes are always too high (Fox 01/31/2020)
Trump appears to mock Pelosi by handing out pens during USMCA signing (Fox 01/31/2020)
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"You know what you hand out pens for? Accomplishments. Like, say, signing a historic trade deal with China," Elizabeth Harrington, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, tweeted back then in response to Pelosi's gesture.

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"So it's fitting that Democrats are handing out pens for their sole accomplishment: impeachment. Democrats have done NOTHING for the American people."

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"For the first time in American History, we have replaced a disastrous Trade Deal that REWARDED outsourcing with a truly FAIR and RECIPROCAL Trade Deal that will keep jobs, wealth and growth right here in AMERICA!"
Does Trump impeachment trial need witnesses? Founding Fathers answered question (Fox 01/30/2020)
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Trump's opponents claim that unless witnesses are called, the entire impeachment trial will have been a sham.

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This is consistent with what they've argued all along: any process Democrats control is fair; any process Democrats don't control is a cover-up.

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In the Democratic-controlled House, for example, Democrats said it was fair to let Democrats on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees issue subpoenas unilaterally, while requiring Republicans to get Democrats' permission.

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The Democrats also said it was fair for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to deny Trump's side the chance to call or question witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry – unless Trump first agreed to make available all witnesses Nadler demanded.

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Then there was the failed attempt by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to hold the House impeachment articles hostage until the Senate promised to run Trump's trial the way she wanted.

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Now Democrats and their liberal allies are claiming that the trial cannot be fair and the truth simply cannot be found unless the Senate hears from certain witnesses who did not testify in the House.

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Do you see a pattern here? The Democrats' impeachment strategy is simple: heads Democrats win, tails Trump loses.

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... senators already have a mountain of evidence to consider.

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... everyone knows what the House impeachment managers are up to with their demand for witnesses. Additional witness testimony would be only the beginning – not the end – of their gambit.

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... House Democrats have already declared that these witnesses were not necessary for their impeachment case.

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In the impeachment process, as in life, actions speak louder than words.

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When it suits them, Trump's opponents are quick to quote Alexander Hamilton from his observation that impeachable offenses violate "the public trust" and are "political."

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But now, with decisions about witnesses and other evidence to be made, the Democrats have flipped, arguing as if the Senate must obey the Federal Rules of Evidence.

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They claim that additional testimonial evidence must be considered and that the parties must be allowed to introduce any evidence that they claim is necessary for a fair trial.

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The Democrats can't have it both ways.

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The Senate is not sitting as a committee of investigation, but as a court of impeachment.

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Its constitutional job is not to complete an investigation that the House now complains was incomplete due to its own rush to impeach the president.

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The single task of senators is to determine if the House has proven its case and to decide whether they should remove the president from office now – or wait and let the American people make that decision when they vote in the November election.

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Ours is not a parliamentary system, and impeachment cannot be used as a "no-confidence" vote to remove a president when members of Congress dislike him and his policies.

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While America's founders included the impeachment process in the Constitution, they opposed using it in a way that, as James Madison put it, would mandate that the president serve only at the pleasure of the Senate.

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Senators should prevent that from happening now.
Sen. Paul & Rep. Gaetz: In Trump's Senate impeachment trial Dems are the ones abusing power (Fox 01/30/2020)
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The American people have seen a grand charade on display in Washington.

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First, the circus toured the U.S. House for weeks, and now the sideshow has stopped over in the U.S. Senate.

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Democrats have accused President Donald Trump of using the government to go after his political opponents, yet they are doing the very same thing right now on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

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They have wrongly weaponized the U.S. Constitution in order to go after their political opponent, President Trump.

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They have been bitter and disgruntled about the outcome of the 2016 election since day one, and this is the latest chapter in trying to undermine the will of the people and declare the last election illegitimate.

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This partisan exercise is wrong, divides our nation, and wastes not only time but millions of taxpayer dollars on a doomed theatrical production.

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House impeachment managers have railed against the president with marathon speechifying, hoping if they repeat untruths often enough, they will somehow become true.

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President Trump's legal team has chosen a different approach: a succinct case, and one relying on facts, rather than hearsay.

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The first article accuses the president of ‘abuse of power,' for the ostensible "crime" of suggesting in a phone call that foreign aid to Ukraine would be conditioned on investigations of corruption — including corruption on the part of the Bidens and their associates.

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Not only have previous presidents withheld foreign aid, including President Obama, but the United States has regularly conditioned aid on compliance with certain goals, principles, and policies.

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And plenty of people on both sides of the aisle have raised questions regarding the Bidens and Ukraine.

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However, President Trump is right when he says people need to read the transcript of the call that started all this. You won't find conditionality in there.

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The second article, which accuses the president of "obstructing Congress," is even more ridiculous and baseless than the first.

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Having the courts determine what conversations of the president and his advisors are privileged is not "obstruction" — it is correct, constitutional, and appropriate.

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Implementing their new "standard" would not only ignore that history, but it would have a chilling effect on the freedom of interaction between presidents and advisors moving forward.

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It would also distort the idea of separation of powers to one where a president is expected to instantly bow every time to whatever demands partisans in Congress make — or face impeachment.

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The Democrats are not preserving justice with their end-run around our legal system.

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If anything, it is they who are abusing their power of impeachment simply because of their impatience.

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If we truly want to talk about obstruction, however, there is no more conspicuous case than the obstruction and deception perpetrated by Rep Adam Schiff, D-Calif. — the head chef of this toxic impeachment stew.

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Though witnesses are not necessary for this trial, should they be called, Adam Schiff must be among them. He is a fact witness to the matter at hand.

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As we move toward the end of the impeachment trial, it is imperative the American people remember that the president's only true "impeachable" offense was winning the 2016 election — against all odds, and against the coordinated opposition of the establishments of both parties, the Bush and Clinton dynasties, the mainstream media, Wall Street, and the Deep State.

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The only quid pro quo relevant here is the American people's decision to send President Trump to the White House in exchange for his commitment to support our workers, grow our economy, defend our troops, and drain the swamp.

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The president has kept his promises, and America will remember in November.
Trump's impeachment trial doesn't mean anything. But Schiff wants us to 'stand with Ukraine' (Fox 01/30/2020)
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If you've been watching all week, you know this is nothing less than — and we want to be totally clear about this — a national security crisis.

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Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas: "President Trump is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and our national security."

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "The president is an ongoing threat to our national security."

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Rep David Cicilline, D-R.I.: "The President betrayed our national security and undermined the security of our elections."

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Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.: "Donald Trump has been and remains a threat to our national security."

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Rep Kathy Castor, D-Fla.: "He undermined America's national security..."

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Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn.: "And compromised our national security so that he could keep power."

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Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. and Trump impeachment manager: "He harmed America's national security. We must act without delay."

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Did you hear that? Are you listening carefully? Are you taking notes?

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The president undermined American national security and he did it on purpose.

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You know what that is? It's treason, as they'll tell you on Twitter.

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It's not simply America that was betrayed by Donald Trump's notorious phone call.

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It was perhaps, far more importantly, the noble people of Ukraine — "the Ukrainians," as we call them — our most important allies in the global war against Putinism.

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Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. and lead impeachment manager: "The widely accepted fact of Ukraine's importance to our national security makes President Trump's abuse of power in withholding a vital diplomatic and military support all the more disturbing."

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"If we had not supported Ukraine in 2014, it would have weakened our allies and exposed U.S. troops stationed in Europe to greater danger."

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"We only deter Russia by consistently demonstrating support for our friends — friends like Ukraine."

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"That is why it is so important to our security that we stand with Ukraine."

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"Countries like Ukraine are fighting our fight against authoritarianism, and God help us if it's not our fight, still."

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... as Cory Booker once explained with a totally straight face, would be treason.

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Sen. Cory Cooker, D-N.J.: "Yes, we're realizing that this president was withholding that aid, not for national security purposes, in fact, violating national security interests to pursue his own personal benefit. That is outrageous, and in my opinion, that is treasonous."

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"Treasonous." So really the question at this point is, what do you do with treason?

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Do look away and pretend you don't see it? Do you let treason pass with a vote of acquittal?

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Not unless you're a coward, a worm, a betrayer. Not unless, unlike every decent, red-blooded American, you don't really love Ukraine with the selfless love of a parent for a child.

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Not unless you're the kind of soul dead monster who would put the interest of your nation above those of Ukraine.

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Though physically distant, Ukraine is spiritually near, effectively the 51st state.

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When Ukraine sneezes, we as a nation say, "God bless you." When Ukrainian people stumble, we bruise.

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We are one, Ukraine and us, just as we have been for centuries upon centuries.

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What Adam Schiff has joined together, let no man put asunder.
Hunter Biden’s Connection to Burisma Has Been Questioned Before (01/30/2020)
Jenna Ellis: Trump Senate impeachment trial – Here's where things stand now, what should happen next (Fox 01/29/2020)
Tom Del Beccaro: Trump impeachment illustrates serious danger of criminalization of politics (Fox 01/29/2020)
Dems seek to do more damage to the legitimacy of our political system than crime they accuse prez of ever could (JWR 01/27/2020)
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It's easy to forget what President Trump's Senate impeachment trial is supposed to be about.

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The underlying question is whether the United States Senate will impose the most severe sanction it has ever inflicted on any chief executive, voting to remove a president for the first time in the history of the country and doing it about 10 months from his re-election bid.

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This is a truly radical step that, if it ever came about, would do more damage to the legitimacy of our political system than President Trump's underlying offense ever could.

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If Trump were actually convicted, the 2020 election would proceed under a cloud of illegitimacy.

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Tens of millions of Trump voters wouldn't accept the result.

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They would see it as an inside job to deny the incumbent president a chance to run for re-election, without a single voter having a direct say.

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The GOP would be brought to its knees by internal blood-letting, a prospect that Democrats surely would welcome, especially given that it would deliver them the presidency.

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Republicans would be out for revenge, and instead of a halcyon return to normalcy, our politics would be even more poisonous than before.

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Congress can hold hearings on a president's conduct, subpoena witnesses and documents and fight the executive with full force if they aren't produced, hold officials in contempt, produce reports, withhold funding, deny the executive traditional forms of interbranch comity and, if it wants to put down a long-lasting marker, censure the president.

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But it needn't drag the country through a melodrama based on the fiction that any president who hasn't crashed to, say, a 25 percent approval rating is going to be removed by his own party — in other words, exactly what Adam Schiff and his managers are doing now.
Millennial activist: Sanders targeting 'very radical ideas' to young people on Twitter (Fox 01/22/2020)
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"Seventy percent of young Americans are willing to vote for a socialist."

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Sanders tweeted, "It is time to begin thinking about public ownership of major utilities."

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"He specifically targets these very, very radical ideas, only to Twitter, only to where the young people are going to feed on it."

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"He said that he wants to consider taking over the means of production of the utilities industries in this country. That, my friend, is socialism."

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... featured Gabby Franco, who was the first female competitive shooter to represent Venezuela in the Olympics...

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"I watched as Venezuela collapsed under socialism. That economic system is a catastrophic failure. It will destroy the United States if implemented. The rise of socialism begins with a social class hatred that politicians seed on people's hearts."

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"The socialists in our country have also created a desire for wealth redistribution. They've used the student loan crisis."

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In January, Sanders tweeted, "Cancel all student debt and tax Wall Street to pay for it."

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See related Senator Bernie Sanders (Sean Delonas, 04/25/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Sanders (Glenn McCoy, 03/09/2016) cartoon from Politics picture album

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See related Socialism (Gary Varvel, 02/21/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Rep. Ratcliffe on Dems' impeachment case: Lack of fairness and due process will 'surprise' senators (Fox 01/21/2020)
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"There isn't a witness that can be called that can fix this process. There isn't a witness on either side that you can call that can inject fairness and due process into a process that had none."

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"The Nixon and Clinton lawyers were allowed to participate every single day from the beginning to the end. They were allowed to review evidence, suggest evidence, call witnesses and cross-examine witnesses."

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"By comparison, President Trump — during his 78-day impeachment inquiry — his lawyers were forbidden from participating for this first 71 of a 78-day process."

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"Not allowed to call witnesses, cross-examine witnesses, be there for the presentation or review of evidence."

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"That is a lack of due process and fairness that I think all senators, Republican and Democrat, are going to be surprised to learn."

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"I think, as a result of that, they were not going to want to hear any witnesses because the Senate isn't going to be able to fix what happened in the House."

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"[Democrats] can't make constitutional arguments because they don't have any. This impeachment fails."
Eric Trump says Dems 'detest' President Trump 'because he's getting results they could never get' (Fox 01/21/2020)
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"We are going to win this election nine months from now. Our fundraising is through the charts."

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"My father is not... a swamp creature, my father has been independently successful, he doesn't need this job. That is why they [Democrats] can't stand him. Quite frankly, he's getting results that they could never get and they detest him because of that."

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"They are more united now than ever before. They [Democrats] have cried wolf so many times. We know what the Democrats are all about. They tried this with Russia. They tried this with [Supreme Court Justice Brett ] Kavanaugh, they're trying this with Ukraine. The Republicans know what these people are doing."

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"The media does this with absolutely everything. They are the lobbying arm for the Democratic Party. Make no mistake about it."

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"They don't care to investigate Joe [Biden]. They don't care that his son was making $600,000 to do a job that he knew absolutely nothing about. They don't care that he got $1.5 billion from China. I mean, going on the list. This is what the media in this country does," he said. "It's frankly sad and it's wrong."
Trump Rounds Third with Enviable Big-League Record (01/21/2020)
AOC's socialist takeover of Democrats is working — here's why moderates should worry (Fox 01/19/2020)
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Media darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow "squad" members have never been shy about their plan to shove the Democratic Party toward adopting socialist principles.

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The first component of their plan is to reshape the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) into a powerful political force in Congress.

•
AOC, Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and other radical Democrats have been working to reform the CPC so that the socialist left has the ability to control — or, at the very least, heavily influence — the agenda for the entire party.

•
Although the CPC hasn't totally adopted this approach, socialists have in recent months made significant progress toward achieving their goal.

•
"Sticking together" is exactly what Ocasio-Cortez and her allies have been demanding of the caucus from the moment they arrived in Washington, and it's looking like their efforts have paid off.

•
The second part of AOC and her allies' plan to reshape the Democratic Party is to push out of positions of power and influence those who don't agree with their socialist platform.

•
The Democratic Party has been under the control of the left for more than a decade, but the present shift is even more extreme than many anticipated was possible at the end of the Obama era.

•
Instead of preaching "tolerance," AOC and her friends are demanding strict adherence to their brand of socialism.

•
Anything short of putting the government in charge of virtually every aspect of society is now considered "too moderate" for their party.

•
There is simply no room left in the Democratic Party for anyone who believes in anything approaching responsible government spending practices or limiting the power of the ruling administrative state in Washington — even if that limitation is slight.

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Only those who agree to walk in lockstep with Ocasio-Cortez and the other de facto leaders of the party will be tolerated.

•
As Ocasio-Cortez recently said, "Democrats can be too big of a tent."

•
Or, put another way, moderates are no longer welcome in the Democratic Party.

•
It belongs to Karl Marx now.

•
See related Left! Left! (Michael Ramirez, 05/18/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album

•
See related Big Fish Little Fish (Chip Bok, 01/23/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Reince Priebus calls on Republicans to play 'hardball' during Senate impeachment trial (Fox 01/17/2020)
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"So my point has been... stop treating this as if this is a real trial and not a political operation."

•
"This is a new political weapon in modern politics in our modern political world. And Donald Trump is the first victim."

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"One hundred years from now, if a president doesn't have the House in his same party, that president is going to be impeached. So it's time to play hardball."

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"I loved the phrase reciprocal witness list. It's exactly right. And Biden is needed in order for us to test the reasonableness of that of the president, bring up corruption and Biden on the call. But Hunter Biden is needed to test what this case is all about."

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"Sometimes the best defense is the 'So What?' defense, which is if everything the Democrats said is true, it's still not impeachable."

•
"If everything Lev Parnas has said is true, it's still not impeachable. I mean, that's what this is about."
Former DOJ official: Pelosi's choices for impeachment managers tells you all you need to know (Fox 01/16/2020)
•
"They didn't bring in sort of credible individuals who haven't really spoken on this but are very serious-minded. They brought in the most partisan individuals that have been railing against Trump and looking for impeachment since the day after he was inaugurated."

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See related Trump Witch Hunt (Sean Delonas, 03/10/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Iraqi refugee launches GOP challenge to Ilhan Omar: 'She needs to be stopped' (Fox 01/16/2020)
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"She needs to be stopped. I truly believe that I'm strong enough to beat her at her own game."

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"Every time she opens her mouth she says something either anti-U.S. or anti-Semitic."

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"I am loyal to the country that gave me a chance, gave me a brighter future," she said, claiming that Omar "continually tries to weaken the country and divide us."
Tom Homan: 2020 Dems avoided immigration because Trump beat them on the issue (Fox 01/15/2020)
•
"I mean, what are they going to say? They are going to say that they have been [beaten] by this president despite the resistance. Despite every one of those [candidates] throwing out enticements of free medical care, a pathway to citizenship, [abolishing] ICE, [getting] rid of detention..."

•
"Despite their enticements, this president – on his own – has gotten illegal crossing down 72 percent from the high in May."

•
"What are they going to say? They have failed. The president has taken them to school without their help and despite their resistance."

•
... he believes the president's administration will have completed 400 miles of border wall by the end of the year. "I think the president means what he says."

•
"And, look, when I talk about the 72 percent decline, what people aren't talking about – Brian – is how many women weren't raped [after a] 72 percent decline in illegal immigration. How many children haven't died? How many millions of dollars did the cartels not make? That's something no one is talking about."
Steve Hilton: Democrats now 'reheating leftovers' from 'pathetic' impeachment case (Fox 01/14/2020)
•
"They're reheating leftovers from the back of the fridge from eight weeks ago and serving them up for dinner. This is not what people want."

•
... called the House impeachment hearings a "parade" of "random Ukrainians" and "pompous bureaucrats" who discussed a story that did not "really affect anyone's life and doesn't make any difference to anything."

•
"These kind of political games — this is why people have such little respect for politicians."

•
"The whole thing, from start to finish, was a political stunt. It's basically a long, drawn-out version of a Democratic Party ad and they're wasting our time with it. They're abusing the Constitution."

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See related The Adam Schiff Family (Michael Ramirez, 10/08/2019) cartoon from Politics picture album
Trump hits back at ‘Mini Mike Bloomberg,’ accuses him of ‘false advertising’ (Fox 01/13/2020)
•
"Mini Mike Bloomberg is spending a lot of money on False Advertising. I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare, you have it now, while at the same time winning the fight to rid you of the expensive, unfair and very unpopular Individual Mandate."

•
"And, if Republicans win in court and take back the House of Representatives, your healthcare, that I have now brought to the best place in many years, will become the best ever, by far."

•
"I will always protect your Pre-Existing Conditions, the Dems will not!"
Cory Booker suspends 2020 presidential campaign (Fox 01/13/2020)
•
"It's with a full heart that I share this news — I've made the decision to suspend my campaign for president."

•
"It was a difficult decision to make, but I got in this race to win, and I've always said I wouldn't continue if there was no longer a path to victory."

•
As he often does when a Democratic candidate exits the 2020 contest, President Trump reacted to the news by mocking Booker's candidacy.

•
"Really Big Breaking News (Kidding): Booker, who was in zero polling territory, just dropped out of the Democrat Presidential Primary Race. Now I can rest easy tonight. I was sooo concerned that I would someday have to go head to head with him!"
Omar draws ire for condemning Iran sanctions as 'crippling' while backing anti-Israel BDS movement (Fox 01/09/2020)
•
"Since he got into office, the president of the United States has been goading Iran into war."

•
"First he canceled our best shot at avoiding armed conflict – the Iran nuclear deal. Then he announced crippling sanctions to starve the innocent people of Iran."

•
"This makes no sense. Sanctions are economic warfare. They have already caused medical shortages and countless deaths in Iran. You cannot claim to want deescalation and then announce new sanctions with no clear goal. This is not a measured response!"

•
"Ilhan Omar views sanctions on terror regimes to be 'economic warfare' but supports them when aimed at the world's only Jewish state. Must just be a coincidence."

•
"Ilhan Omar has now decried sanctions on the Castros in Cuba, Maduro in Venezuela, and the Ayatollah in Iran. At the same time, she's the leading voice in Congress on sanctioning the Jewish people in the world's only Jewish state. Wonder why."

•
Omar, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has been outspoken against Israel, once tweeting that lawmakers were supportive of the Jewish state because they were essentially being paid for it.
Andrew McCarthy: Obstruction of Congress impeachment article is absolutely frivolous (Fox 01/05/2020)
Betsy McCaughey: On Trump impeachment trial, don’t believe Chuck Schumer (Fox 01/05/2020)
Trump impeachment saga sees Dems repeatedly haunted by Clinton-era comments (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
During a 1999 appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," Schumer – who was beginning his first term in the Senate – indicated he already had a "pre-opinion" on how he would vote in Clinton's trial and argued that the Senate's role was not the same as a jury's role in a standard criminal trial.

•
"We have a pre-opinion," Schumer said in remarks CNN dug up recently. "This is not a criminal trial, but this is something that the Founding Fathers decided to put in a body that was susceptible to the whims of politics."

•
"In fact, it's also not like a jury box in the sense that people will call us and lobby us. You don't have jurors called and lobbied and things like that. I mean, it's quite different than a jury. And we're also the judge."

•
Senate Democrats coordinated with the White House on a number of impeachment-related issues behind the scenes.

•
... one of those arrangements involved White House Counsel Charles Ruff arranging a "secret signal" with Democratic leadership. If Ruff wanted to rebut anything from the Republican House managers, something rules didn't allow, he pre-arranged with then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle's aides for a senator to submit a question to then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist asking the White House to respond.

•
In one of his first votes as a senator, however, Schumer moved to dismiss the case against Clinton and voted against a motion to subpoena witnesses.

•
"I wonder if the House managers aren't a little more interested in political theater than in actually getting to the bottom of the facts."

•
"My view is we have heard from most of these witnesses over and over again. We've heard the same story."

•
... 20 years ago, Schiff was using that same argument when he first ran for Congress against Republican incumbent James Rogan.

•
"I think impeachment for most people in this district is only the most graphic illustration of an incumbent who has put the national partisan, ideological fights ahead of representing his district."

•
... at the time regarding Rogan's role in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. "People want to decide this on the basis of who's going to serve our community."

•
"The effect of impeachment is to overturn the popular will of the voters," Nadler said on the House floor during the Clinton impeachment hearings...

•
"We must not overturn an election and remove a president from office except to defend our system of government or constitutional liberties against a dire threat, and we must not do so without an overwhelming consensus of the American people."

•
Nadler added: "There must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment supported by one of our major political parties and opposed by the other. Such an impeachment will produce a divisiveness and bitterness in our politics for years to come and will call into question the very legitimacy of our political institutions."
Trump campaign blows past 2020 Dems with latest fundraising haul, sitting on over $100M (Fox 01/02/2020)
•
"President Trump's unprecedented fundraising is testament to his wide grassroots support and his stellar record of achievement on behalf of the American people."

•
"Democrats and the media have been in a sham impeachment frenzy and the President's campaign only got bigger and stronger with our best fundraising quarter this cycle."

•
"The President's war chest and grassroots army make his re-election campaign an unstoppable juggernaut."

•
"Democrats' baseless impeachment charade has only served to bolster our base and attract more voters to our cause and the result is another record-breaking fundraising month."

•
The GOP fundraising underscores how Republicans have sought to turn the impeachment fight to their advantage, tapping into an outraged base to fuel not only the president's 2020 reelection effort but also a political offensive against congressional Democrats.

•
Republicans were specifically using their November success to bolster their "Stop the Madness" campaign, a national counter-impeachment push targeting House Democrats that was launched in September.

Economy (04/24/2024) Go to: List top | Prev sect (04/21/2024) | Next sect (12/31/2023) | List bot

FTC Announces Rule Banning Noncompetes (FTC 04/24/2024)
Americans Don’t Believe Joe Biden’s Data (Brownstone Institute, 02/22/24)
Jerome Powell plans to cut interest rates despite persistent inflation — and the American people could lose big (NYP 02/17/2024)
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warns US economy heading towards ‘the cliff’ predicts debt ‘rebellion’ (NYP 01/27/2024)
Payscale says these in-demand jobs will stay hot in 2024 (Fox 01/04/2024)
SVB not anyone's fault? (JWR 03/20/2023)
How To Crash the Economy, Big Government Style (JWR 03/20/2023)
Stock market will crash in 60 days, best-selling author on Lehman collapse warns (Fox 03/08/2023)
Jamie Dimon mocks crypto, says it’s a ‘pet rock’ (Fox 01/19/2023)
•
"I called it a decentralized Ponzi scheme," Dimon said of FTX. "The hype around this thing has been extraordinary."
These business titans are sounding the alarm over the US economy (Fox 10/20/2022)
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's fall: Not unlike the economy's (Fox 10/11/2022)
Volatile markets sending investors running for refuge (Fox 09/17/2022)
Economist Laffer says recession imminent as inflation hits 40-year-high: 'Worst of all possible worlds' (Fox 07/13/2022)
Inflation surges 9.1% in June, accelerating more than expected to new 40-year high (Fox 07/13/2022)
•
See related Inflation (Mike Shelton, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Former Trump commerce secretary sounds alarm on US economy: 'Very perilous state' (Fox 07/07/2022)
Biden's economy is a flaming dumpster fire (Fox 07/07/2022)
Biden surpasses Jimmy Carter as the most incompetent steward of the American economy (Fox 04/21/2022)
Biden keeps setting new economic records — and not the good kind (Fox 04/13/2022)
Red-hot inflation gave most Americans a pay cut in January (Fox 02/11/2022)
Inflation could be a top risk for 2022, rising to 7% in Q1, Fannie Mae predicts (Fox 01/12/2022)
Hot inflation erasing Americans' wage gains, analysis shows (Fox 12/21/2021)
•
See related Inflation (Mike Shelton, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Surging inflation will cost most US households $3,500 this year, analysis shows (Fox 12/15/2021)
•
See related Inflation (Mike Shelton, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Microsoft unseats Apple as most valuable company (Fox 10/29/2021)
How do high-yield savings accounts work? (Fox 10/24/2021)
Yellen says Americans haven't experienced current inflation rate 'in a long time' (Fox 10/24/2021)
Bitcoin is 'worthless': JPMorgan CEO Dimon (Fox 10/11/2021)
•
"I personally think that Bitcoin is worthless. But I don't want to be a spokesman for that, I don't care. It makes no difference to me." "I don't think you should smoke cigarettes either."

•
"Our clients are adults. They disagree. If they want to have access to buy or sell bitcoin – we can't custody it – but we can give them legitimate, as clean as possible access."

•
Dimon has been a vocal critic of Bitcoin, previously calling it a "fraud" and "fool's gold," and at one point saying that he would fire JPMorgan traders if they traded in it.

•
But despite his strong skepticism, JPMorgan has begun offering its clients access to a half dozen cryptocurrency products.
Paulson says cryptocurrencies will eventually be ‘worthless’ (Fox 08/30/2021)
•
"I would describe them as a limited supply of nothing. So to the extent there's more demand than the limited supply, the price would go up. But to the extent the demand falls, then the price would go down. There's no intrinsic value to any of the cryptocurrencies except that there's a limited amount."
Sen. Mike Braun: Biden, Dems are building an inflation bomb. Republicans must not help them light the fuse (Fox 08/03/2021)
•
See related Inflarion (Dick Wright, 05/13/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Inflation check: These companies are raising their prices (Fox 07/24/2021)
•
See related Inflation (Mike Shelton, 06/18/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Forget inflation – deflation could rear its ugly head soon (Fox 07/08/2021)
President Biden's most secretive tax is hiding in plain sight: Inflation (Fox 06/13/2021)
•
See related Inflarion (Dick Wright, 05/13/2021) cartoon from Economy picture album
Producer prices post biggest annual increase on record (Fox 05/13/2021)
Consumer prices climb at fastest pace since September 2008 (Fox 05/12/2021)
Greg Gutfeld: Despite statistics showing low outdoor COVID spread, media peddles fear (Fox 05/12/2021)
Hannity slams Biden administration over fuel shortage, rising prices: enemies 'are doing backflips' (Fox 05/12/2021)
Bitcoin is 'fool’s gold and anybody buying it is ultimately a fool': Peter Schiff (Fox 01/11/2021)
•
"All bitcoin is is the latest iteration of fool's gold and anybody buying it is ultimately a fool."

•
Schiff explained that bitcoin investors who were able to sell after the stock's recent joyride are merely selling to other buyers who don't recognize it's all a "scheme."

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... most people who don't sell are "under the delusion" that bitcoin will someday turn to cash.

•
"It's never going to be money, It doesn't fit the very definition of money. Money needs to be a commodity. It needs to have actual value unto itself, not just the uses and means of exchange."

•
The economist likened bitcoin to fiat digital currency that's "backed by nothing" and, moreover, is not legally recognized.

•
"People who are buying it are going to wake up one day and they're just going to be a bagholder."
What Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary will mean for American taxpayers: Grover Norquist (Fox 11/30/2020)
Dow 30,000 makes history, S&P hits fresh record on Yellen, vaccine optimism (Fox 11/24/2020)
US economic growth shatters record at 33.1%, but fails to snap coronavirus recession (Fox 10/29/2020)
How 2020 broke retirees' 4% rule (Fox 10/03/2020)
The startling news about Trump's economy that mainstream media ignored: Andy Puzder (Fox 09/28/2020)
US economy plunged an annualized 31.7% in second-quarter (Fox 08/27/2020)
HUD Sec Carson and Rollins: Opportunity zones key to lifting people out of poverty (Fox 08/23/2020)
Andy Puzder: Falling jobless rate shows economy is recovering from coronavirus closures, as Trump... (Fox 06/06/2020)
Peter Navarro: Anyone who believes we're in a 'Great Depression' doesn't understand history (Fox 05/11/2020)
•
"The Great Depression was a 10-year process that came out of the end of World War I and went through an inflation and then a deflation cycle. It was accompanied by catastrophic applications of currency and trade, fiscal and monetary policy and it lasted a very, very long time."

•
"President Donald J. Trump built up the strongest and most beautiful economy in three-and-a-half years and then the Chinese Communist Party dropped a virus on the world that within 60 days has temporarily shut us down."

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"All we need to do here is focus on the mission, the original mission of Donald J. Trump, which is to bring manufacturing onshore, to have the American people make things here and we will move forward in a way where we will rebound."

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... acknowledged that "it's going to be a long process because of the structural adjustments that are going to take place as we adapt to the virus socially and culturally and economically."
Rand Paul warns of 'economic calamity': Federal government passing out 'imaginary money' (Fox 05/06/2020)
•
"We have no money, we have no rainy day account, we have no savings account. The three trillion that we've already passed out is imaginary money."

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... that money is being borrowed from China, highlighting the irony that the United States is going to be more dependent upon the country that is responsible for spreading the coronavirus to Americans.

•
"It's not a lack of money, it's a lack of commerce. If you let them trade, if you take them out from forcible home arrest, our economy will recover, but, if you keep everybody under home arrest and say you cannot practice your business, you cannot sell your goods, there will continue to be an economic calamity."

•
"All these blue state governors who don't want to open their state, now they're clamoring for federal money to bail them out because no state revenue is coming in. We don't have any money."

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See related Very Special Bill (Mike Lester, 03/29/2020) cartoon from USA picture album
What the $2 trillion coronavirus bailout is really going to cost might surprise you (JWR 04/06/2020)
Dave Ramsey's financial advice amid coronavirus pandemic: Don't get off roller coaster in middle of ride (Fox 03/12/2020)
Steve Forbes: Trump’s economic success can be even greater if he takes these steps (Fox 01/03/2020)
Trump economy defies critics – 2019 another year of the 'experts' getting it all wrong (Fox 01/01/2020)
Apple in America: Latest Mac Pro to be made in Texas after securing tariff exemptions (Fox 09/23/2019)
China tariffs not material to consumer: Former Toys ‘R’ Us CEO (Fox 08/30/2019)
•
"When you take a look at the $300 billion dollars of goods that will be subject to these tariffs ... those goods imported from China represent approximately 3 percent of total consumer expenditures."

•
"So you're talking about 15 percent tariff on 3 percent, a fraction of a fraction. It's just not material to the consumer."
Peter Morici: Fed must radically change or become irrelevant (Fox 07/16/2019)
Trump to require increased use of US steel, iron in federal projects (Fox 07/15/2019)
Bitcoin price tumbles following Trump’s criticism (Fox 07/15/2019)
•
"I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crytpo Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."

•
"Similarly, Facebook Libra's "virtual currency" will have little standing or dependability."

•
"If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National and International."

•
"We have only one real currency in the USA, and it is stronger than ever, both dependable and reliable. It is by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World, and it will always stay that way. It is called the United States Dollar!"

•
Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 and topped the U.S. dollar for the first time in February 2011.

•
In 2018, following a series of mishaps, bitcoin was in a freefall. However, in 2019 there are signs that bitcoin is rebounding.
Trump calls Fed 'most difficult problem' facing the US (Fox 07/06/2019)
•
"... Our most difficult problem is not our competitors, it is the Federal Reserve!"
Dow celebrates best June in 81 years, S&P best in 64 years (Fox 06/28/2019)
Amazon, Pentagon accused of swampy dealings over $10B contract (Fox 06/19/2019)
•
See related The Circle of Life (Glenn McCoy, 03/30/2016) cartoon from Government picture album
Main Street is booming with a businessman in the White House (Fox 05/08/2019)
•
Thanks to the GOP tax reform (TCJA), thousands of companies across the country ... were able to increase wages, hire new employees and reinvest in innovation that has spurred historic economic growth for our country.

•
Under President Trump's leadership, America has added 5.4 million new jobs and wages have increased by 2.7 percent. Additionally, the national unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent in April, with an unemployment rate of 3.1 percent for women: the lowest since 1953.

•
Nearly half of all privately employed Americans work at a small business, and in 2019 companies with fewer than 20 employees got the biggest benefits from the Trump economic boom: adding over a million new jobs across the country.

•
President Trump's economic policies have pulled America's economy back from the brink of the wage stagnation and dwindling job numbers of just a few years ago, and put us on a path to long-term prosperity.

•
... let's remember that America's new era of economic prosperity is due to finally having a businessman like President Trump in the White House.
US job growth surges in April, beating expectations with 263,000 added (Fox 05/03/2019)
US economy added 312,000 jobs in December, blowing past expectations (Fox 01/04/2019)
Three money tips [and one life tip] to make 2019 your best financial year (Fox 12/30/2018)
•
I am not a certified accountant or a professional investment adviser, but what if I could introduce you to a man who was known as the wisest and wealthiest man of his era – perhaps one of the wisest, wealthiest people of all time?

•
"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man" (Prov. 24:33-34).

•
"Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow," (Prov. 13:11).

•
"Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it," (Prov. 1:19).

•
"Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle," he wrote (Prov. 23:5).

•
"Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you," (Prov. 22:26-27).

•
"A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed," (Prov. 11:25)

•
"A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold," (Prov. 22:1).
Trump 'very disappointed' with General Motors after plant closures (Fox 11/27/2018)
•
"Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland."

•
"Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!"

•
"We are now looking at cutting all GM subsidies, including for electric cars."

•
"General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) - don't think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America's Workers!"
Jeff Bezos to employees: 'Amazon will fail' but we need to delay it (Fox 11/16/2018)
Cal Thomas: Trump promised to put American interests first – he wasn’t kidding (Fox 10/04/2018)
•
President Obama and other Democrats said manufacturing jobs were never coming back to America. They are.

•
"This is also a historic win for American manufacturers and American autoworkers, who have been treated so badly. We have lost so many jobs over the years under NAFTA."

•
"Our companies won't be leaving the United States, firing their workers and building their cars elsewhere. There is no longer that incentive. It will form America back into a manufacturing powerhouse... It will allow us to reclaim a supply chain that has been offshored to the world because of unfair trade issues. This landmark agreement will send cash and jobs pouring into the United States and into North America... Instead of jobs leaving for overseas, they will be returning back home."
Trump has just revolutionized global trade by replacing NAFTA with USMCA (Fox 10/02/2018)
•
The breakthrough, which came on the heels of an earlier deal with Mexico, vindicates President Trump's tough approach to reforming trade and will mark a fundamental turning point for American jobs and global power.

•
The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is much more than just a new name.

•
Some of its breakthroughs include:

•
Aiding farmers by curbing Canada's high tariffs and low quotas on U.S. dairy products.

•
Reinvigorating U.S. car manufacturing. Previously 40 percent of a car could be made in China or other places with few labor or environmental standards and still considered to be "North American" and imported cheaply into the USA. The agreement drops this foreign portion to 25 percent.

•
Easing the burden on sick Americans who fund drug development by paying full price for patented drugs. Both Canada and Mexico have agreed to respect drug patents on biologic drugs — the most promising field of new cures — for a period of 10 years, which means Americans won't be only ones from whom drug companies can recover expenses.

•
... self-described "free traders" who have whined incessantly about Trump's use of tariffs and other aggressive tactics should praise him.

•
Trump has taken a pact that facilitated crony trade and replaced it with one that is durable and preserves liberalized trade in North America.

•
It also serves as a new standard for trade agreements with other counties, especially its provisions to protect U.S. digital services and intellectual property — a big part of the future economy.

•
The new deal also shows that Trump will put aside political differences when it comes to protecting American jobs and profitability.

•
There are still other big trade fights on the horizon. The Trump administration is also seeking major changes to trade relationships with China, the European Union (E.U.), and Japan.

•
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, this isn't the beginning of the end, but it may be the end of the beginning of creating a new world order of trade.

•
China will be much tougher, especially since it benefits from a massive $376 billion trade in goods deficit.

•
The communist government there has built an economy that depends on stealing intellectual property from America and other advanced economies. It also manipulates its currency and has high tariffs.

•
urope too is dragging its feet on trade reform, despite signaling a willingness to agree to fundamental reform.

•
We pay for Europe's defense and it rewards us with a 10 percent tariff on U.S. cars (compared to our 2.5 percent tariff) and impenetrable barriers to U.S. agriculture, especially by France.

•
Don't expect Wall Street or the "free trade" experts in Washington to give Trump credit for this breakthrough or accept his tough tactics, including the tariffs.

•
But by the end of Trump's first term, Americans will see a sustained booming economy that benefits all of North America and the other advanced economies that are willing to play fair with us.

•
See related What Do You Mean? (Gary Varvel, 06/11/2018) cartoon from World picture album
David Bossie: Let Trump be Trump on trade (Fox 10/01/2018)
•
As the FBI conducts its seventh background investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the mainstream media wants you to believe that the Trump administration is otherwise paralyzed by the left's shameful smear campaign of a good man.

•
This narrative from the fake news couldn't be further from the truth because President Donald J. Trump is focused like a laser beam delivering on his promises for the American worker in the form of jobs, jobs, jobs.

•
This week's announcement of a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is not just another promise made and promise kept by President Trump.

•
USMCA is also a celebration of the smartest, toughest, and largest trade deal ever done – with a price tag of some $1.2 trillion in annual trade.

•
First, the new agreements on increased regional content for industries like automobiles coupled with strong protections for labor will bring back much of the supply chain of America that has gone offshore.

•
In the process, North America will once again become the globe's manufacturing powerhouse; and that will mean more manufacturing jobs and higher wages for the heartland.

•
Second, the old NAFTA was signed in an era prior to the existence of things like digital trade and cutting edge biologics – complex drugs designed for some of the hitherto difficult to cure or control diseases.

•
Third, both farmers and ranchers will benefit from agreements that will increase market access for Americans in products like dairy, peanuts, and sugar.

•
The bigger takeaways from this deal have to do with what it says about President Trump, his performance on trade, and his negotiating strategy.

•
President Trump's historic performance is happening quietly because the media under-reports both his economic actions, achievements and successes.

•
... the naysayers have been criticizing the president for his tough talk on trade and even tougher actions – from the imposition of aluminum, dishwasher, steel, and solar tariffs to the historic action against China's blatant theft of America's technological crown jewels.

•
What the naysayers miss is also the fact that the deals the president is now cutting are tough, smart deals.

•
Please know this: When you criticize Donald Trump on trade, you contribute nothing positively to America – you simply run the risk of weakening our position.

•
So please stop doing that – let Trump be Trump on trade.
Tesla chief Elon Musk’s comments spur criminal investigation: Report (Fox 09/18/2018)
David Bossie: Trump deserves thanks for economy that's benefitting all Americans (Fox 09/18/2018)
Capitalism is not perfect, but it’s the best out there: Ken Langone (Fox 08/08/2018)
A list of jobs that no one seems to want anymore (Fox 06/08/2018)
Newt Gingrich: Trump’s GDP achieves Mission Impossible [and shocks his critics] (Fox 07/27/2018)
'Made in America': Lockheed Martin adds jobs to boost F-35 production (Fox 07/23/2018)
Trump criticizes Federal Reserve over interest rate hikes (Fox 07/19/2018)
Tax cuts 2.0: What we know so far (Fox 07/17/2018)
This was the average American's 401 (k) balance last year. How do you compare? (Fox 07/07/2018)
Feeling patriotic? Here are 5 American-made products (Fox 07/03/2018)
These tax changes go into effect in July (Fox 07/02/2018)
The new 1040: A look at the proposed draft (Fox 06/29/2018)
If Harley Davidson turns its back on America we will move on: Bikers for Trump (Fox 06/28/2018)
American money flowing back into America (Fox 06/26/2018)
South Carolina steel plant reopened by UK industrialist, avoiding tariffs (Fox 06/25/2018)
The Minnesota iron industry has a friend in Trump (Fox 06/20/2018)
Trump using tariffs to pursue fair trade: Lou Dobbs (Fox 06/01/2018)
Trump administration considers tariff on cars: report (Fox 05/23/2018)
Trump's economy: The state of growth, jobs and stocks (Fox 01/30/2018)
Senate approves Jerome Powell as Fed chair (Fox 01/23/2018)
Tax reform windfall: These companies are hiking pay, delivering bonuses (Fox 01/23/2018)
JPMorgan hikes pay by 10%, opening hundreds of more branches on tax reform (Fox 01/23/2018)
General Electric planning to double purchases from Mexico, CEO says (Fox 05/12/2017)
•
General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeff Immelt is keen to double the conglomerate's purchases from Mexican suppliers next year, the Mexican president's office said in a statement on Friday, a move that could upset U.S. President Donald Trump.

•
Trump has threatened consequences for U.S firms that move operations overseas and has promised to revive manufacturing in the United States by luring jobs north.

•
He has also threatened to ditch the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a lynchpin of the Mexican economy, if he cannot renegotiate better terms.
Trump's Snap-on Visit Will Tout Buy American, Hire American Agenda (Fox 04/17/2017)
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President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday aimed at furthering his "Buy American, Hire American" agenda...

•
The order will be separated into two sections, Buy American and Hire American.

•
Under the "Buy American" portion, the administration will push forward reforms dealing with the immigration system — particularly the H-1B visa program — which then-candidate Trump promised to "end forever" on the campaign trail.

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However, President Trump has softened his tone and the administration will instead attempt to rectify abuses of laws governing entry of all workers from abroad.

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... weak enforcement and loopholes relating to temporary employment laws for foreign workers allow them to come work in the country regardless of merit or skill.

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The administration contends this ultimately leads to less-skilled H-1B workers being paid less and consequently undercutting the domestic workforce.

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The goal of this portion of the order is to create higher wages and higher employment rates for workers in the United States.

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It will be enforced by the Department of Labor, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.

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The "Hire American" section of the executive order ... will "[usher] in new, more muscular Buy American policy."

•
It will call for a comprehensive assessment of federal procurement, and a crackdown on weak enforcement of Hire American policies — including waivers and exceptions — among government agencies.

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... agencies will be held "accountable" for failure to uphold these policies.

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The government will also allow agencies to take the impact of foreign trade abuses, like dumping, into account while assessing their ability to execute the administration's goals.

•
... Trump would consider pulling out of or renegotiating trade deals depending on the results of the assessments.
Trump to order increased scrutiny of H-1B visa program (Fox 04/18/2017)
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... he will sign an order aimed at changing a visa program that brings in highly skilled workers from overseas.

•
The order, dubbed "Buy American, Hire American," would direct the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and State to propose new rules to prevent immigration fraud and abuse.

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Those departments would also be asked to offer changes so that H-1B visas are awarded to the "most-skilled or highest-paid applicants."

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The White House said the H-1B program is currently undercutting American workers by bringing in cheaper labor and said some tech companies are using it to hire large numbers of workers and drive down wages.

•
... the order also seeks to strengthen requirements that American-made products be used in certain federal construction projects, as well as in various federal transportation grant-funded projects.

•
... the commerce secretary will review how to close loopholes in enforcing the existing rules and provide recommendations to the president.

•
The order specifically asks the secretary to review waivers of these rules that exist in free-trade agreements.

•
The administration said that if the waivers are not benefiting the United States they will be "renegotiated or revoked."

•
During his campaign, Trump said at some points he supported high-skilled visas, then came out against them.

•
At one debate, he called for fully ending the program, saying: "It's very bad for our workers and it's unfair for our workers. And we should end it."

•
... the changes could be administrative or legislative and could include higher fees for the visas, changing the wage scale for the program or other initiatives.

•
About 85,000 H-1B visas are distributed annually by lottery. Many go to technology companies, which argue that the United States has a shortage of skilled technology workers.

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But critics say the program has been hijacked by staffing companies that use the visas to import foreigners — often from India — who will work for less than Americans.

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The staffing companies then sell their services to corporate clients who use them to outsource tech work.

•
Adding to the indignity: The U.S. workers are sometimes asked to train their replacements to qualify for severance packages.

•
... Trump wanted to visit "a company that builds American-made tools with American workers."
Trump signs executive orders to crack down on trade abuses, increase enforcement (Fox 03/31/2017)
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... signed a pair of executive orders aimed at cracking down on trade abuses and identifying the causes of America's massive trade deficit.

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"We're going to get these bad trade deals straightened out."

•
"The jobs and wealth have been stripped from our country, year after year, decade after decade, trade deficit upon trade deficit reaching more than $700 billion last year alone and lots of jobs."

•
Anti-dumping penalties target exporters that sell goods below the cost of production.

•
... by not using the enforcement mechanism properly, Americans lose out on funds that could be used for other purposes.

•
The second executive order calls on the Commerce Department and U.S. trade representative to produce a comprehensive report to identify "every possible cause of the U.S. trade deficit."

•
Once completed, the findings of the report will serve as the foundation that will guide the Trump administration's future trade policy.

•
Officials will consider the impact on deficits of trade abuses, non-reciprocal trade practices, specific trade obligations, poor or inconsistent enforcement and World Trade Organization rules.

•
"If anyone had any doubt about the president's resolve to fix the trade problems, these two executive orders should end that speculation now and for all time."

•
"This marks the beginning of the totally new chapter in the American trade relationship with our partners overseas."

•
... "not to do anything abruptly, but to take a very measured and analytical approach, both to analyzing the problem and therefore to developing the solutions for it."

•
The report will also examine whether bilateral deficits are caused by free trade deals, like NAFTA, and actions taken by previous administrations.

•
"Let's not make this a China story. This is a story about trade abuses, this is a story about an under-collection of duties."
Coal Miners Rejoice as Trump Unwinds Obama-Era Rules (Fox 03/28/2017)
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"The action I'm taking today will eliminate federal overreach, restore economic freedom and allow our companies and our workers to thrive, compete and succeed on a level playing field."

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"American energy resources give us a competitive advantage in the global economy, and the president's effort to capitalize on those resources is vital to stimulating economic growth."

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"The U.S. Chamber has long argued that EPA's power plant regulations are not only unlawful, they are a bad deal for American families and businesses."
Trump Cheers Ford Plan to Pump $1.2B into Michigan Factories (Fox 03/28/2017)
•
Ford (F) said Tuesday it will invest $1.2 billion in three of its Michigan factories, supporting 130 jobs in one plant that makes engines.

•
"Big announcement by Ford today. Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!"
With Trump in office, coal mining town begins making comeback (Fox 03/16/2017)
•
... there is a new sense of optimism in coal country and that is linked to a new president who, from the campaign trail, frequently bellowed: "We are going to put our miners back to work."

•
For starters, the entire economy has seen a bump. That has created a demand for steel. The high-quality coal that comes out of Appalachia is well suited for making steel.

•
Then you have President Trump who started rolling back regulations early in his time on the job.

•
During the Obama administration ... 36,800 coal miners lost their jobs.

•
Since Trump took office, 300 miners have been re-hired.
Fed Raises Rates as Labor Market, Inflation Fuel Confidence (Fox 03/15/2017)
•
As expected the Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates by 0.25% and reiterated there will likely be two more increases from the central bank this year.
Trump's First Full Month Sees Boom in Construction, Manufacturing Jobs (Fox 03/10/2017)
•
The U.S. economy added a more-than-expected 235,000 non-farm jobs last month, President Trump's first full month in office.

•
Trump ran on the promise to create 25 million jobs over the next decade.

•
Since taking office, the president has hammered industry leaders to increase U.S. production and employment, taking credit for keeping American companies such as Carrier and Ford from moving factories abroad.

•
Trump has also promised a $1 trillion investment into U.S. infrastructure that will create "millions of jobs."
U.S. Private Employers Step up Hiring; Productivity Sluggish (Fox 03/08/2017)
•
Hiring by U.S. private employers surged in February, pointing to underlying strength in the economy that could encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next week.

•
... private payrolls grew by 298,000 jobs last month, well above economists' expectations for a gain of 190,000. January's private payrolls gains were revised up to 261,000 from 246,000.
Trump Cheers Exxon's Plan to Create 45,000 Jobs (Fox 03/06/2017)
•
... will spend $20 billion by 2022 to expand its footprint along the U.S. Gulf Coast, creating more than 45,000 jobs.

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Many of the new positions will be for high-skilled, high-paying jobs with an average salary of about $100,000 a year.

•
"The United States is a leading producer of oil and natural gas, which is incentivizing U.S. manufacturing to invest and grow."

•
"This is exactly the kind of investment, economic development and job creation that will help put Americans back to work," Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

•
"Many of the products that will be manufactured here in the United States by American workers will be exported to other countries, improving our balance of trade."

•
"Buy American & hire American are the principals at the core of my agenda, which is: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!"
Dow’s Latest 1K-Point Advance New Record, Trump Policy Priorities Fuel Rally (Fox 03/01/2017)
•
The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 21000 milestone at the opening bell Wednesday morning in what was one of the fastest 1,000-point advances in the blue-chip index's history.
Coal mining begins seeing revival as Trump gives industry hope (Fox 03/01/2017)
•
A long-awaited revival is under way in this beleaguered Central Appalachia community where residents see coal as the once and future king.

•
Trucks are running again. Miners working seven days a week cannot keep up with current demand. Coal mines, long dormant after the industry's collapse, are now buzzing again with antlike activity.

•
Although it will take a while before the coal industry recovers, the metallurgical or "met coal" markets – coal used to make steel – are already seeing a major upswing.
Intel Announces $7 Billion Investment in AZ Factory, Creating Thousands of Jobs (Fox 02/08/2017)
•
... would employ about 3,000 people at its peak in "high-tech, high-wage jobs."

•
More than 10,000 additional jobs would be created in support of the factory in surrounding areas, he said.

•
"This factory will produce the most powerful computer chips on the planet, powering the best computers, the best data centers [and] autonomous cars."
Trump begins rollback of Dodd-Frank financial regulations (Fox 02/03/2017)
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President Trump signed an executive order Friday taking aim at the regulatory labyrinth created by Dodd-Frank, the massive 24,000-page law passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

•
"We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank," Trump said, after morning meetings with business leaders.

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"The Dodd-Frank Act is a disastrous policy that's hindering our markets, reducing the availability of credit and crippling our economy's ability to grow and create jobs."
Japan reportedly setting up package for Trump to create 700,000 US jobs (Fox 02/03/2017)
•
Japan, which has a consistent trade surplus with the U.S., is putting the finishing touches on a package that it claims will create 700,000 jobs in the U.S. and help create a $450-billion market.

•
a draft of the proposal that calls for cooperation on building high-speed trains in the U.S. northeast, Texas and California.

•
The two sides would also jointly develop artificial intelligence, robotics, space and Internet technology.

•
... involve $150 billion in new investment in U.S. infrastructure from Japanese government and private sources over the next decade.

•
Trump's complaints over Japanese not buying many U.S.-made cars drew a stern response from Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp.

•
"We are already producing extremely large numbers of cars in the U.S. We are one of American manufacturers, aren't we? I hope President Trump understands that."
Dow Races Past 20K in Reinvigorated Trump Rally (Fox 01/25/2017)
•
The blue-chip average sailed past what had been an elusive milestone Wednesday after President Donald Trump demonstrated in recent days he is serious about fulfilling campaign promises.
What to expect from the economy in Trump's first 100 days (Fox 01/18/2017)
Trump Effect? GM, Hyundai Pour Money Into America (Fox 01/17/2017)
Dollar Slumps After Trump Says Currency Strength ‘Killing Us’ (Fox 01/17/2017)
Monsanto Shares Up on Bayer-Trump Promise for Billions in U.S. Investment, Jobs (Fox 01/17/2017)
•
German chemical giant Bayer AG is promising President-elect Donald Trump billions of dollars in research and development spending in the U.S., as well as what it is saying will be a significant commitment to create jobs, if its planned merger with Monsanto Co. (MON) receives the necessary regulatory approvals to proceed.

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"After [Trump's] meeting with Bayer and Monsanto CEOs, Bayer has committed to $8 billion in new U.S. research and development. Bayer will also keep 100% of Monsanto's 9,000 plus U.S. workforce, and add 3,000 new U.S. high-tech jobs."

•
The commitment was made by Bayer's CEO Werner Baumann and Monsanto chief Hugh Grant after days of negotiations with the President-elect and his senior transition staff, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

•
Bayer is willing to create a multi-billion dollar spending package in the U.S., mostly focused on research and development, and produce jobs that one analyst says over time could meet or exceed the 800 jobs that Carrier Corp., agreed to keep in the U.S. after negotiations with the President-elect weeks ago.

•
There will be a key difference in the Bayer negotiations with Trump officials: the Carrier jobs came after the company received significant tax incentives provided by the state of Indiana, the site of its air-conditioning manufacturing plant that was looking to outsource jobs to Mexico.

•
The jobs that Bayer is promising to create are expected to be new jobs, without such incentives.
Fiat boss: Losing US as export destination would cripple Mexico's auto sector (Fox 01/10/2017)
•
... his company might be forced to end production in Mexico if Donald Trump's future administration imposes tariffs on Mexican vehicle imports.

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"It's possible, if the economic terms imposed by the US administration on anything that comes into the United States that, if they're sufficiently large that it would make the production of anything in Mexico uneconomical. We would have to withdraw. It is quite possible."

•
"The reality is the Mexican automotive industry has now for a number of years now been tooled-up to try and deal with the US market. If the US market were not to be there, the reasons for its existence are on the line."

•
... it was unlikely that Mexico could offer incentives sufficient to outweigh a US decision to impose tariffs.
Mike Rowe: Revival of auto manufacturing 'goes right to the national identity' (Fox 01/10/2017)
•
"Look, it's not just jobs. And when I say that, I don't mean to minimize it at all, but there's just something ... larger at work here, and it has to do with our identity, it has to do with what it feels like when we're actually making things as a country."

•
"At some point we have to ask ourselves ... who are we? What do we do other than buy things that other countries make on our behalf?"

•
"Eventually, when the bottom falls out, it's like [the 2006 movie] ‘Idiocracy,' [where] we don't know how to hang a picture any more, much less make a car."

•
"Get a skill that's in demand, that's really in demand, that can't be outsourced."

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"Plumbers, steamfitters, pipefitters, carpenters, mechanics, those men and women right now ... can pretty much write their own ticket, and so, again on a micro- level, I see a lot of reasons to feel really optimistic."
Ford confirms return of Ranger pickup and Bronco SUV (Fox 01/09/2017)
•
... will be building the trucks at Ford's Michigan assembly plant — home to the original Bronco from 1966-1986.
Fiat Chrysler announces $1 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, 2,000 new jobs (Fox 01/08/2017)
•
According to the company's plan, the plant in Warren, Michigan will be made capable of producing a pickup truck currently built in Mexico.

•
The president-elect has taken many auto manufacturers to task for Mexican production and encouraged building more vehicles in the U.S.

•
... threatening a "big border tax" for producing cars in Mexico and then selling them in the U.S.
Macy's Closing Stores, Cutting 10,100 Jobs (Fox 01/04/2017)
•
... as it closes about 63 stores this spring and looks to cut additional costs.
Ford to scrap Mexico plant, invest in Michigan; CEO cites Trump policies (Fox 01/03/2017)
•
Before he's even taken office, President-elect Donald Trump has proven to be quite the job creator.

•
Ford Motor Company announced Tuesday it will cancel a $1.6 billion plant planned for Mexico and will instead invest $700 million in a Michigan assembly plant, directly tying the decision to "pro-growth policies" championed by President-elect Donald Trump.

•
Trump had previously been critical of Ford's plans to build in Mexico.

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"Instead of driving jobs and wealth away, AMERICA will become the world's great magnet for INNOVATION & JOB CREATION."

•
"We're doing this decision based on what's right for our business," Ford CEO Mark Fields told...

•
"... One of the factors that we're looking at is a more positive U.S. manufacturing business environment under President-elect Trump and some of the pro-growth policies he said he's going to pursue. And so this is a vote of confidence."

•
In early December, air conditioner and furnace maker Carrier agreed to stay in Indiana after weeks of negotiations headed by Pence. The decision reportedly saved about 700 jobs that would have been shifted to Mexico.

•
Later in the month, wireless provider Sprint and Internet company OneWeb announced they would be adding thousands of jobs in the U.S.

•
Earlier Tuesday morning, Trump took aim at another auto giant: General Motors.

•
"General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!" Trump tweeted.

•
GM, however, quickly pushed back on Trump's assertions.

•
"GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the U.S."
Trump announces 8,000 more jobs for American workers (Fox 12/28/2016)
•
... including 5,000 that telecommunications giant Sprint will bring from "all around the world."

•
"They're coming back to the United States, which is a nice change.

•
... the other 3,000 jobs will be hires from a new company called One Web.

•
Trump was elected in part on the promise to return to the United States jobs that American companies had moved overseas, in search of cheaper labor costs.

•
Last month, he announced that Carrier would keep roughly 1,000 jobs in Indiana, after months of criticizing the air-conditioning corporation on the campaign trail for plans to move the jobs to Mexico.
The First 100 Days: Trump vows big changes for trade with China (Fox 12/14/2016)
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"We're giving things away. It's the greatest theft in the history of mankind. I've felt that way for a long time, and nobody's done anything about it."

•
... the playing field has never been level. China puts tariffs up to 30 percent on U.S. fish, while Chinese fish comes here duty-free.

•
"By pegging their currency to our dollar and manipulating their currency, they basically are grabbing us by the nose and kicking us in the rump."

•
"The nation of China is responsible for almost half of America's trade deficit," Trump said.

•
... 40 percent of all cargo at our ports is coming to and from China.

•
"The Chinese government has a long history of using aircraft orders as reward or punishment."
Trump: Claims of Russian interference in 2016 race 'ridiculous,' Dems making excuses (Fox 12/11/2016)
•
As for Trump's recent attempts to pressure American companies not to move operations abroad, the president-elect was unapologetic and denied that moving and selling back to America represents the free market.

•
"That's the dumb market, okay? That's the dumb market. I'm a big free trader, but it has to be fair," Trump said. "We're being stripped of our workers."

•
He said he wants to pursue a 35 percent tax on companies that leave, saying, "There are going to be consequences."
Make India great again? Fighter jet giants look to move production to India (Fox 12/08/2016)
•
Donald Trump may meet his match when he goes toe-to-toe with another world leader who's showing prowess at strong-arming American companies into helping make his country great again.

•
Lockheed Martin and Boeing are the two major companies involved in discussions to build fighter aircraft production plants in India as part of that country's "Make in India" initiative, which is essentially a mirror-image of President-elect Trump's aggressive desire to keep manufacturing jobs within the United States.

•
Trump has made retaining blue-collar jobs a post-election priority, and he's already had a high-profile success in preventing the loss of several hundred jobs at Indiana's Carrier plant.

•
"The U.S. is going to substantially reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. without retribution or consequences, is WRONG!"

•
Trump earlier this week also showed a willingness to go after jet maker Boeing, in particular, when he publicly sparred with the company over the cost of a new Air Force One fleet.

•
The "Make in India" program, which is the brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to eventually increase the country's manufacturing base to a quarter of the gross domestic product.

•
So when the Indian government required new jets to replace its aging fleet, any corporation that wanted to be involved knew the planes – an F-16 by Lockheed or F/A-18 by Boeing – would have to be built in India.

•
"But this is not oursourcing socks here, this is outsourcing military fighter jets."

•
"Our proposal to meet the needs of the Indian Air Force's fighter requirements entails creating a separate new Super Hornet production facility in India where Boeing has had a presence for more than seven decades."

•
The "Make in India" program is supported by President Obama's outgoing administration, which is looking to strengthen ties with India.
Bye-Bye: U.S. Job Seekers Giving Up, Leaving the Workforce (Fox 12/02/2016)
•
"There are a certain percentage of people staying home. If benefits are great in some states, people will just stay home."
Peter Navarro: At Carrier, Trump proves America First is an attitude, not a slogan (Fox 12/01/2016)
•
The new dawn of American manufacturing broke Thursday with one big step for the workers of Indiana and one far bigger step for a more muscular trade policy: Carrier will stay in Indianapolis – along with more than 1,000 jobs.

•
It is a story about how the loss of America's manufacturing base has been a politician-made disaster rather than the inevitable march of globalization.

•
In this story, American multinationals ... have been operating in a world in which they have been both pushed and pulled to foreign lands – and allowed to have their way with American workers because neither the White House or the collective power of Congress has stood in their way.

•
The "push" offshore has come from excessive regulations, the highest corporate tax rate in the world, and energy and electricity costs that are needlessly burdensome.

•
The "pull" offshore comes from the lure of sweat shop labor, lax environmental regulations, the availability of export subsidies and the advantages to foreign direct investment that come from manipulated, that is undervalued, currencies.

•
The Carrier deal teaches this push and pull can be overcome with strong leadership.

•
Here, it is true that President-elect Trump and his incredibly gifted vice president used their bully pulpits – and all of the implied powers United Technologies saw that it would face — to keep Carrier in the fold.

•
But there is much more that will unfold come Inauguration Day in a world where we need far more than a bully pulpit to revitalize America's manufacturing base.

•
Indeed, the broader goal of a Trump administration will be to change the rules of international trade in a way that once again makes it profitable for American corporations to build at home and for American workers to enjoy decent jobs at rising wages – even as the global economy soars to new heights.

•
Taxes shall be cut, regulations shall be reduced, our oil, and gas, shale, and coal resources shall be unleashed, the "push" of forces offshore shall be eliminated and it will once again be profitable to produce on US soil.

•
At the same time, the Trump administration will eliminate the "pull" offshore by smartly negotiating new trade deals and renegotiating bad trade deals to ensure American workers and domestic manufacturers will compete on a level playing field.

•
And any trade cheaters and currency manipulators be aware – the White House will no longer turn a blind eye.

•
America First: This is an attitude, not a slogan.

•
Make America Great Again: This is a mission, not a political message.

•
Carrier is but the first shot in a new era of trade peace through strength; and the world now knows that President Trump is coming to deal.

•
So be happy America. Be very happy. You have chosen your next president well.
Carrier says it has deal with Trump to keep jobs in Indiana (Fox 11/30/2016)
•
Air conditioning company Carrier said Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with President-elect Donald Trump that would keep 1,000 jobs in Indianapolis.

•
Trump spent much of his campaign pledging to keep companies like Carrier from moving jobs overseas.

•
His focus on manufacturing jobs contributed to his unexpected appeal with working-class voters in states like Michigan, which has long voted for Democrats in presidential elections.

•
"So many hundreds and hundreds of companies are doing this," Trump said.

•
"We have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us. We have to stop our companies from leaving the United States."

•
In February, Carrier said it would shutter its Indianapolis plant employing 1,400 workers and move its manufacturing to Mexico.

•
Thursday's event will mark a rare public appearance for Trump, who has spent nearly his entire tenure as president-elect huddled with advisers and meeting with possible Cabinet secretaries.

•
He plans to make other stops later this week as part of what advisers have billed as a "thank you" tour for voters who backed him in the presidential campaign.
Four reasons why our economy will thrive under President Trump (Fox 11/29/2016)
•
Voters who supported Hillary Clinton for president, including me, were shocked by the election results on Nov 8.

•
But as we deal emotionally with the surprise, we should follow the lead of the initially jumpy financial markets and shift from doom and gloom to optimism.

•
1. Both houses of Congress and President-elect Donald Trump will be pro-business.

•
With this new combination, we're likely to see legislation that helps businesses invest in growing and hiring.

•
By lowering corporate taxes; reforming patent, securities and class-action laws; and reducing regulatory burdens, businesses will have more money to invest in growth and job creation.

•
2. New infrastructure investment will create jobs and fuel growth.

•
3. Many rules that hurt business growth will vanish.

•
By simply repealing the Department of Labor's actions narrowing the independent-contractor definition, restricting intern hiring and mandating overtime for those making under $47,500, Trump will free businesses, especially startups, to create jobs.

•
4. Trump won't do anything to sabotage economic growth.

•
Many economists fear Trump will block imports, skilled at immigrants and foreign investment.

•
He won't. He cares too much about being successful, and he will rely on visible data points to define his success.

•
Trump has every opportunity to grow our economy through policies supporting economic growth. The stock market can and will be the real-time measure of his economic success.
Ford chairman tells Trump Lincoln SUV production to remain at Kentucky plant (Fox 11/18/2016)
•
Trump said that Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford had called him with the news "that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky - no Mexico."

•
... Trump said that he had "worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky. I owed it to the great state of Kentucky for their confidence in me!"

•
Ford said the company "confirmed with the President-elect" that it would continue producing Lincoln MKCs at the Louisville plant and added that it was "encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States."

•
Trump has been feuding with Ford over plans to move small-car production from suburban Detroit to Mexico. On the campaign trail, the real estate mogul promised that he would he would not let the company open a new plant in Mexico and would levy 35 percent tariffs on any Ford vehicles made there.

•
In response, Bill Ford called Trump's plan "infuriating" and "frustrating."
Trump Optimism Propels Dow to Best Week in Five Years (Fox 11/11/2016)
Trump Win Casts Doubt on Fed's Plans to Hike Interest Rates (Fox 11/09/2016)
•
Investors have tended to favor Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as a status quo candidate who would be considered a safe pair of hands at home and on the world stage.

•
Trump has pledged to tear up or renegotiate international trade agreements, which could set off a wave of protectionism, threatening to stall a tentative global economic recovery.

•
Trump's win also casts doubt over Fed Chair Janet Yellen's future. He has accused the Fed of keeping interest rates low to help Democratic President Barack Obama and indicated he might replace Yellen after her term ends in January 2018, leading analysts to speculate on whether she would resign earlier.

•
Adding to the uncertainty for the Fed and calling its further rate path into question is the lack of detail in Trump's economic plans.

•
Trump has said his policies would unleash a wave of business investment, create 25 million jobs and roughly double annual growth in the U.S. economy.

•
"We have a great economic plan, we will double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world."
Trump Blasts Ford's Mexico Move: 'We're Going to Charge Them a 35% Tax' (Fox 09/15/2016)
•
Over the next two to three years, Ford will move all small-car production out of the United States to Mexico.

•
"Five years, six years, seven years, I've been talking about it," Trump said.

•
The Republican nominee added that he can't believe Ford's "brazenness," and it's something he's going to deal with when he's president.

•
"When they make their car and they think they're going to get away with this ... when that car comes back across the border into our country - that now comes in free - we're going to charge them a 35 percent tax."
Companies Saying Goodbye to the U.S. (Fox 09/14/2016)
The new GDP numbers are terrible. No wonder Hillary won’t talk about the economy (Fox 08/26/2016)
•
Growth was 1.1 percent in the second quarter of this year and less than 1 percent for the first six months of 2016.

•
The consumer is keeping the economy out of negative territory, but that's only because we are spending more than we are earning.

•
The deficit is now climbing again to an estimated $600 billion this year.

•
... we are still 1 million manufacturing jobs short of where we were in 2007.

•
What is needed? Tax cuts. Deregulation. American energy production. Repeal of Obamacare.
Macy's to Close 100 Stores, Despite Profit Beat (Fox 08/11/2016)
RIP Yahoo: Why Marissa Mayer Failed (Fox 07/26/2016)
•
We're getting close to the final episode of Silicon Valley's longest running soap opera, All My Yahoos, starring Marissa Mayer and a host of former leads.

•
I admit to getting a little teary eyed myself when I learned that Verizon had finally agreed to buy Yahoo's core internet business for $4.8 billion.

•
The plan is to merge Yahoo's operation with AOL... At that point, Mayer will presumably exit, stage left.

•
When the deal closes in the first quarter of next year and Yahoo ceases to operate as an independent company, it will bring to an end one of the most storied and elusive turnaround efforts in tech history.

•
For me, the decade-long saga began with an internal memo by the last Yahoo executive who had a clue, Brad Garlinghouse.

•
In what came to be known as the "Peanut Butter Manifesto", Garlinghouse explained that, in trying to be all things to all people, the internet company had spread itself too thin (thus, the "peanut butter" reference).

•
It had become overgrown and unfocused. It lacked cohesive vision and clear accountability.

•
Everyone knew it was an internet company, but beyond that, it was all over the map.

•
... Yang made a real mess of things, losing more than 100 executives in a crippling talent drain and, along with chairman Roy Bostock, botching a sweet $46 billion acquisition by Microsoft.

•
When the dust settled, Google owned the search market and the advertising riches that went with it.

•
That led to a procession of chief executives over the next three years. Some were more interim than others, but all were temporary, nonetheless.

•
Finally, on a sunny day in July of 2012, the board appointed Marissa Mayer CEO and everyone rejoiced.

•
Mayer had built quite a name for herself as a vice president at Google, but some of us wondered whether she was more sizzle than substance.

•
On the other hand, she was a smart, driven workaholic who many believed capable of unraveling the great mystery of Yahoo's elusive identity and turning around the beleaguered internet company. Not a chance.

•
After missing out on search, social media, ecommerce and mobile, there was nothing left for Yahoo to become.

•
But that didn't stop Mayer from trying ... everything.

•
Instead of spreading the company too thin like peanut butter on bread, Mayer used a different food metaphor: throwing spaghetti at the purple walls to see what stuck. Nothing stuck.

•
By the time Mayer was finished, four years had gone by, $2 billion of capital had been spent, 50 internet startups had been acquired and mostly written off, countless executives had been hired and fired, and who knows how many strategies were planned, launched and abandoned.

•
Today, all that's left of an internet pioneer that was once valued at $125 billion is an investment in Alibaba, Yahoo Japan, some patents and floors covered in fallen spaghetti.

•
Maybe that's overly dramatic, but there really isn't much left to Yahoo's core business.

•
And for that purpose, it'll be worth every penny.

•
Sadly, the mysterious question will finally be answered.

•
What is Yahoo? A subsidiary of Verizon.
Yahoo's Marissa Mayer Not Going Anywhere — For Now (Fox 07/25/2016)
•
"I'm incredibly proud of everything that we've achieved, and I'm incredibly proud of our team. For me personally, I'm planning to stay."

•
"I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you. It's important to me to see Yahoo into its next chapter."

•
Still, her tenure as the top executive overseeing Yahoo could be coming to a close.

•
In its press release announcing the deal, Verizon did not specify what role — if any — Mayer will have once Yahoo is under Verizon ownership.

•
Yahoo disclosed in April that Mayer would receive an exit package valued at approximately $55 million if she is terminated without cause or if there's a "change of control" at Yahoo.

•
The bulk of the package comes in the form of accelerated restricted stock and options worth close to $52 million. She is also poised to cash in on a $3 million severance, and Yahoo would cover the cost of health benefits and outplacement.

•
Mayer's total compensation in 2015 was $36 million, according to Yahoo regulatory filings.
Verizon to Buy Yahoo's Core Business for $4.83B (Fox 07/24/2016)
•
... in cash, ending a lengthy sale process for the fading Web pioneer.

•
The deal marks the end of Yahoo as an operating company...

•
"... is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo," Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said...
Hillary Clinton's amazing, almost comical economic speech (Fox 06/22/2016)
•
"People are working harder and longer just to keep their heads above water. And to deal with the costs, the everyday costs, the costs of basics like childcare and prescription drugs that are too high. College is getting more expensive every day. And wages are still too low and inequality is too great. Good jobs in this country are still too hard to come by."

•
All true. Her prescription for this financial crunch on families: keep doing what we are doing.

•
There was something almost comical about Hillary's lecturing us about fiscal responsibility, economic fairness, and lifting the middle class.

•
Wait. Wasn't she part of the Obama administration which also promised all these things?

•
And haven't those policies given us the weakest recovery ever since the great depression, a massive increase in income inequality, a shrinkage of the middle class, and a near doubling of the national debt to $19 trillion.

•
One of her more spectacular claims was that here "in America we pay our bills." ... Not this president. Wringing up some $8 trillion of debt is hardly "paying the bills." It's passing them on to the next generation.

•
Hillary slammed Trump for not understanding the new economy and job creation, which is also a bold claim since Donald Trump is a highly successful businessman who actually has created thousands of jobs, while Hillary has gotten rich off of... politics.

•
What was billed as a "major economic speech" was entirely bereft of new ideas. In fact, it was vacant of ANY ideas at all about how to help the economy.

•
The class warfare theme ran throughout the speech, and yet this presents Hillary with another uncomfortable problem.

•
Obama has raised the minimum wage, he already did spent $830 billion on infrastructure stimulus spending, and he ?has taxed the bejesus out of the rich.

•
And the result wasn't more equality and a resurgent middle class, but an angry and worried worker class that hasn't seen a pay raise in 15 years and with household incomes in the last seven years that have fallen behind inflation.

•
Some 95 million Americans aren't working and the poverty rate is still hellishly high.

•
On trade she trashed Trump for closing our markets and threatening a trade war and then she recommended trade policies that seem almost the same as Trump's.

•
Get tougher in trade deals. Punish China for cheating. Renegotiate the Asia trade pact. Trump should sue for plagiarism.

•
Poor Hillary is selling the American voters sand in the desert: four more years of stay the course economic bromides at a time when two out of three voters say that the U.S. is on the wrong, not the right track.

•
She should listen to her husband who in a rare moment of complete honesty called the last seven years "awful."

•
Voters share that sentiment.
Donald Trump’s Idea to Cut National Debt: Get Creditors to Accept Less (NYT 05/07/2016)
•
Mr. Trump told the cable network CNBC, "I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal."

•
"And if the economy was good, it was good. So, therefore, you can't lose."

•
Such remarks by a major presidential candidate have no modern precedent. The United States government is able to borrow money at very low interest rates because Treasury securities are regarded as a safe investment, and any cracks in investor confidence have a long history of costing American taxpayers a lot of money.

•
Experts also described Mr. Trump's proposal as fanciful, saying there was no reason to think America's creditors would accept anything less than 100 cents on the dollar, regardless of Mr. Trump's deal-making prowess.

•
"No one on the other side would pick up the phone if the secretary of the U.S. Treasury tried to make that call."

•
"Why should they? They have a contract" requiring payment in full.

•
Mr. Trump told CNBC that he was concerned about the impact of higher interest rates on the cost of servicing the federal debt. "We're paying a very low interest rate," he said. "What happens if that interest rate goes two, three, four points up? We don't have a country. I mean, if you look at the numbers, they're staggering."

•
The Congressional Budget Office projects that interest payments on the federal debt will climb to $500 billion in 2020 from roughly $250 billion this year.

•
Pressed to elaborate on his remarks, Mr. Trump did appear to step back. He said that he was not suggesting a default, but instead that the government could seek to repurchase debt for less than the face value of the securities. The government, in other words, would seek to repay less money than it borrowed.

•
... the issue needed to be addressed through changes in fiscal policy — some combination of less spending and more revenue.

•
"It's a policy problem, not a debt-management problem," she said. "When it comes to fiscal responsibility, people are always looking for the easiest of answers. If there were low-hanging fruit here, the Treasury Department would already be on it."

•
Repurchasing debt is a fairly common tactic in the corporate world, but it only works if the debt is trading at a discount.

•
If creditors think they are going to get 80 cents for every dollar they are owed, they may be overjoyed to get 90 cents.

•
Mr. Trump's statement might show the limits of translating his business acumen into the world of government finance. The United States simply cannot pursue a similar strategy.

•
Any measures that would reduce the value of the existing debt, making it cheaper to repurchase, would increase the cost of issuing new debt. Such a threat also could undermine the stability of global financial markets.

•
There is a limited opportunity for Mr. Trump to pursue bond buybacks without disrupting markets.
Why Trump is a better choice for the economy (Fox 05/23/2016)
•
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump carry more baggage than a paroled safecracker seeking employment at a bank.

•
Those negatives may consume the media, but voters should consider that Trump is the better choice for the economy.

•
Apart from getting tough with China on trade, Trump wants to simplify personal and corporate taxes and otherwise ease regulatory burdens — essentially make dealing with the government easier for ordinary folks filing their taxes and buying health insurance and businesses looking to expand and add jobs.

•
Clinton's economic message is much different and largely premised on the ideas that businesses invest foolishly and discrimination by corporations, universities and other institutions are disadvantaging women and minorities and handicapping growth.

•
The digital economy is based more on intellectual property — computer apps and artificial intelligence — and less on hard assets — industrial buildings and equipment. This greatly reduces the amount of financial capital businesses need to make and create products.

•
For example, Google was launched with only $25 million in 1999 and grew into a $23 billion enterprise at its initial public offering five years later.

•
It took billions and decades for Henry Ford to create a company of similar value and global scope.
No matter who it is, next president to face economic challenge (Fox 05/21/2016)
•
Bill Clinton rode into office 24 years ago on the campaign mantra, ‘It's the economy, stupid' – and apparently, it still is.

•
And faced with flashing warning signs of tepid growth, barely rising wages and factors that signal an even further slowdown, what would a President Trump or Clinton or Sanders do about it?

•
The proposals span the gamut: Trump wants big tax cuts and tariffs on trading partners. Sanders wants a hike in the minimum wage and free college tuition. Hillary Clinton wants more infrastructure spending.

•
Trump ... has slammed his likely Democratic rival over trade policies, including the North American Free Trade Agreement... "It has cleaned out our country of jobs."

•
Trump says he'd be the "greatest jobs producer in history" by slapping tariffs on Mexico, China and other trade partners.

•
"The Republicans were always known as the party of free trade and now they are less supportive of free trade than Democrats."

•
Clinton pledges to enact the "Buffett Rule" – a basic principle that ensures no household making more than $1 million annually should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than a middle-class family pays.

•
Clinton also promises to strip tax benefits from U.S. companies that move jobs to foreign countries to get a more favorable rate.

•
Sanders repeatedly has described tackling income inequality as the hallmark of his campaign. He also has vowed to break up big banks, cap credit card rates at 15 percent and limit ways some in the financial industry have been able to monetarily benefit from taxpayer bailouts.

•
Trump says dismantling the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul would be one of his top priorities. He's also said he'd boot out Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.

•
"A Donald Trump presidency during a recession – assuming that his trade conflict doesn't cause the recession – might just be like the Democratic dream president."
Average American household debt estimated to be $90K (05/13/2016)
•
The largest single contributor seems to be the fact that the cost of living in the United States has exceeded income growth for the past 12 years.

•
Since 2003, median incomes have risen by around 26%, however, medical costs grew by 51% while food costs grew by 37% during the same time frame.

•
Another key problem is the size of the debt itself. Most Americans don't even know what exactly they owe.

•
The average U.S. household pays $6,658 each year in interest alone.
How to fix free trade (Fox 04/25/2016)
•
Modern economics teaches free trade can be a powerful policy to create better jobs and growth but only if the right conditions are met.

•
... foreign governments have often suppressed the value of their currencies against the dollar to make their exports cheaper and U.S. products artificially more expensive in their markets

•
The United States imports about $500 billion more than it exports and that requires the United States to borrow from the rest of the world.

•
Overall, the trade deficit is costing Americans about 4 million jobs, directly, and more than 6 million jobs adding the lost spending of those workers on other domestic products. And as workers have difficulty moving from industries adversely impacted by imports to exporting activities, the trade deficit is an important reason so many fewer adults in their prime working years are employed these days.

•
As manufacturing supports so much R&D, lost investments in new technologies are lowering U.S. growth and are important reasons why growth is so much lower in this century than during the Reagan-Clinton era.

•
If trade is to work for America, we simply need better trade agreements — agreements that address currency manipulation and block governments from erecting new barriers to replace old ones.
Why Bernie Sanders is winning both delegates and the political argument (Fox 04/16/2016)
•
What's notable is that while such inversion deals would reduce taxes for the corporation, they aren't driven by the desire to find cheaper labor, just lower taxes.

•
It's also notable that corporate relocation of factories to countries where labor is less expensive is rarely criticized by this administration.

•
Elsewhere, corporate tax is paid only where the income is earned. It would be a double taxation, if U.S. companies were stupid enough to bring the cash home. Instead they leave the money abroad – more than $2 trillion of it.
Former McDonald's CEO: $15 Minimum Wage is a Jobs Killer (Fox 04/11/2016)
•
"You talk about going from an average wage of $10 up to $15 for a new minimum, you're talking about a 50% increase in wages. You look at that. Small business is going to get crucified with these rules, the joint employer stuff, the union organizing, these restaurants can't afford that... it's inflationary and it's going to cause prices to go up."

•
"The franchisees are going to survive. They are going to do what they need to do to survive and that means they are going to raise prices and cut costs which means getting rid of people."
Rep. Pittenger: Chinese bid for Chicago Stock Exchange must be fully investigated (Fox 02/23/2016)
•
... the integrity of America's financial system and the safety and security of our nation's economic assets raise significant national security issues.

•
Not only is the economic strength of our country potentially at risk, but so is the economic security of our people. Indeed, the two go hand-in-hand.

•
America's national security may be increasingly at risk as sources for technology disperse across the globe

•
China is guided by its Five Year Plans and policies articulated by the Chinese Communist Party and State Council.

•
Thoughtful observers of China would concur that an acquisition of a major U.S. asset by a Chinese firm would require Chinese government approval. Until China discloses more information, we should remain skeptical of their objectives.

•
China has historically been the leading market and currency manipulator in the world.

•
... state influence in this matter could allow the Chinese government access to vast amounts of financial data of individuals and institutions, as well as the ability to shut down or alter trading should there be any confrontation between our two countries.

•
With the current volatility in the nascent Chinese markets and the fact that they are still in their infancy, we risk significantly harming America's economic infrastructure if a thorough CFIUS review does not occur.

•
Inherent in our consideration is the direct impact on our national security and the interests of the American people.

•
... acquisition of the Chicago Stock Exchange could serve as a pipeline for other Chinese state-influenced firms to access American markets – particularly, firms that would otherwise have trouble expanding in the United States due to a variety of infringements and transgressions, including transparency, corruption, and security.

•
American businesses largely adhere to transparency, openness, and rule of law in the marketplace. We have civil laws to enforce compliance.

•
In China, however, transparency offenses extend to every aspect of the ubiquitous hand of its governance, including into its marketplace, military, maritime claims, space activities, human rights violations, foreign investment practices, law enforcement practices, currency treatment, and the treatment towards journalists and dissidents.

•
Severely lacking in their culture and government is a commitment to equity and justice.

•
Recognizing the volatile Chinese economy, widespread internal corruption, lack of transparency, state-dominance over domestic companies, and the evidence of ongoing cyber-attacks on U.S. industry, it is essential that CFIUS thoroughly review this purchase with broad considerations to ensure we do not provide the Chinese government access to manipulate American markets and place our own interests at significant risk.
Janet Yellen and 'negative interest rates': America, this is the last nail in a saver's coffin (Fox 02/11/2016)
•
Most Americans have some money in a bank account. And if you're one of them, you're losing money. As low as inflation is, it's higher than the pitiful interest you get from your savings account. So a savings account is a bad bet right now. But it could get worse...a lot worse.

•
Imagine having to pay your bank to take your money! It sounds crazy, but that's what Fed Chief Janet Yellen says could happen here. It's called a negative interest rate.

•
Wall Street loves this. Corporations are addicted to cheap money. They can borrow money for a pittance to cover their payrolls and a lot of other expenses.

•
... all these financial schemes come at the expense of Main Street. Negative interest rates may start out just affecting certain bank deposits at the Federal Reserve. But eventually banks will pass on their costs to depositors...which means negative interest rates for average folks.

•
So unless you invest in the stock market, or take all your money and stuff it in your mattress, you'll be paying a bank to hold your cash.

•
Janet Yellen knows that President Obama won't be the one reappointing her as Fed Chair. So it's Congress that she has to answer to before she'll ever have to answer again to President Obama.

•
And Congressmen are more worried about the demographics of savers than they are about an artificial boost to Wall Street.

•
Most savers are older folks. They vote more regularly than any other demographic. If these voters are forced to pay banks to take their money, they'll demand blood... and politicians smell blood faster than sharks.

•
Bottom line, does Janet Yellen want to have the "tool" of negative interest rates to ward off a recession? Probably.

•
Does Wall Street want to make easy money even easier? Definitely.

•
Would the savers of America stage a popular revolt if negative interest rates are employed this year? You bet.

•
So my hope is that voters will prevent what would amount to another Wall Street bailout at the expense of Main Street.

•
Wall Street should never rise at the expense of Main Street. After all, that's what the Fed was created to prevent.
Yahoo to axe up to 15% of workforce (02/01/2016)
Why economic growth lags (JWR 01/18/2016)
•
In the debate over America's future, the issue is not whether to be optimistic or pessimistic. The right approach is to be realistic.
Macy's to Cut $400 Million in Costs, Thousands of Jobs (Fox 01/06/2016)
Heres How Much the Average American Earned and Spent Last Year, by Age (Fox 12/28/2015)
Federal Reserve Hikes Interest Rates (Fox 12/16/2015)
•
The historic decision marks the final break from an era of unprecedented interventionist monetary policy initiated in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Forget Walmart, IBM's woes, we are living in the new American Century (Fox 10/21/2015)
•
We entered the 21st Century being told by so many economists and pundits this would be the Asian Century. China's woes and inept leadership have since thrown cold water on that thinking.

•
Just as in Henry Ford's age, the future belongs to people with a "better idea."

•
Thankfully, many of those are the American entrepreneurs who are defining a New American Century.
Job theft in broad daylight as U.S. firms scam the visa game (Daily News, 10/05/2015)
Wright State ‘poster child’ for abuses of worker visa program (10/05/2015)
Boeing threatens to move jobs out of US amid 'Ex-Im Bank' impasse (Fox 09/21/2015)
Five things to know about a potential interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve (Fox 09/14/2015)
Big guns, big money coming out as battle over crude oil export ban (Fox 09/08/2015)
•
"The proponents of lifting the restrictions would say, How is it that Washington would allow Iran to export more oil but not producers in the United States?"
Relief Rally: Wall Street Surges After Global Rout, China Rate Cut (Fox 08/25/2015)
Wall Street Falls Sharply, Cuts Dramatic Losses (Fox 08/24/2015)
Good enough: Why rules of thumb beat precision (JWR 08/19/2015)
•
The bulk of academic finance is based on the idea that if we try hard enough and crunch enough numbers, we can grab capitalism by its horns and forecast what will happen next. And I shake my head at that idea.

•
Sometimes I say, "Well, Morgan, maybe you just don't understand this stuff." Which is true! But the evidence is overwhelming that those who wield complicated investing math don't understand it, either.

•
A normal person would have a hard time losing everything during the booming late 1990s. You need a team of Nobel Prize winners to do that.

•
There are two types of stupidity: One is simple ignorance. The other — far more dangerous — is brilliance so deep that you assume it applies to unrelated fields.

•
One of the biggest investing lessons I've learned is that the more precisely you try to calculate, the further from reality you're likely to end up.

•
Precise calculations create a spell of overconfidence, which makes you double down on whatever you want to believe, no matter how wrong it is.

•
In a messy world of emotions and misinformation, broad rules of thumb can be an excellent strategy.

•
Rules of thumb aren't perfect, of course. But that's their advantage. By starting with a strategy you know isn't perfect, you naturally leave yourself room for error and are more flexible in accepting the market's whims.

•
So I don't use fancy valuation models to calculate how much stocks should return over the next 10 years. I assume 6 percent a year after inflation over the long haul. I figure that's good enough.

•
I don't forecast what the market will do this year. I assume the market will go down half of all days, a third of all years and a fifth of all decades. That's probably good enough.

•
I don't predict what the economy will do this year. I assume we'll have a recession every five to seven years. Good enough.

•
Don't bother me with calculators that show me how much money I'll have in 30 years. I don't know what my bills will be next month. I save as much money as I reasonably can while living a lifestyle that I'm content with. I figure that's good enough.

•
Spare me with your analysis of why I should own stocks from some country because of economic trends. I'm diversified, and I accept that parts of my portfolio will always be doing worse than others. I figure that's good enough
Billionaire George Soros warms up to coal as stock prices hit bottom (Fox 08/19/2015)
•
... Soros has invested more than a billion dollars into think tanks, lobbyists, political action committees and politicians who have pushed for regulations that have nearly destroyed the coal industry, in favor of so called "clean energy."

•
"George Soros spent millions of dollars and multiple years helping to driving down price of coal."

•
"If he buys enough stock to have controlling interests in these coal businesses, closes them down and leaves the coal in the ground, we might accept that he is a true believer, that his investment was all about stopping climate change and saving the environment."

•
"But my suspicion is that he helped to drive stocks down, bought as many shares as he can, and, when stocks rebound, he can sell his shares and make a huge profit."
The Death of the Starter Home (08/17/2015)
Ford announces new U.S production day after Trump blasts its $2.5 Mexican plant (Fox 08/12/2015)
•
... is the first time that the Detroit-based company has returned its auto-manufacturing operation back to American soil from a foreign country.

•
Since Trump declared his candidacy back in June, the billionaire real estate mogul has consistently blamed U.S. leaders for allowing U.S. jobs in the manufacturing sector to move to places like Mexico, China and Japan.

•
Trump went on to say to that if he was president of the United States, the automotive plants in Mexico would be returning to the U.S.

•
"I would say, the deal is not going to be approved, I won't allow it. I want that plant in the United States, preferably here. So then I only have one question: Do they move the plant to the United States the same day or a day later?"

•
"We are committed to leveraging our global manufacturing footprint and will continue to invest where it makes the best sense for our business."
Google to be part of new holding company, 'Alphabet' (Fox 08/10/2015)
Seattle CEO who set firm's minimum wage to $70G says he has hit hard times (Fox 08/03/2015)
•
Only three months ago Price was generating headlines — and accusations of being a socialist — when he announced the new salary minimum for all 120 employees at his Gravity Payments credit card processing firm. Price said he was doing it, and slashing his $1 million pay package to pay for it, to address the wealth gap.

•
"I'm working as hard as I ever worked to make it work. I'm renting out my house right now to try and make ends meet myself."

•
... Price's decision ended up costing him a few customers and two of his "most valued" employees, who quit after newer employees ended up with bigger salary hikes than older ones.

•
"He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn't get much of a bump."

•
"Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me. It shackles high performers to less motivated team members."

•
"There's no perfect way to do this and no way to handle complex workplace issues that doesn't have any downsides or trade-offs."

•
... Price has dozens of new clients inspired by his move but those accounts won't start generating profits for at least another year.
Audit finds 22 of 23 taxpayer-backed ObamaCare co-ops lost money in 2014 (Fox 07/30/2015)
Seattle sees fallout from $15 minimum wage, as other cities follow suit (Fox 07/22/2015)
Average Salaries for Americans — Median Salaries for Common Jobs (Fox 07/09/2015)
Weekly Jobless Claims Rise to Highest Since February (Fox 07/09/2015)
U.S. Trade Gap Widens after Drop in Exports (Fox 07/07/2015)
Why an Internet sales tax is all wrong for our economy and our country (Fox 06/23/2015)
Company that got millions from US taxpayers now profits Chinese owners (Fox 06/19/2015)
What Friday's GDP news means (hint: it's not good) (Fox 05/29/2015)
Not Everyone Certain of 2Q Rebound (Fox 05/29/2015)
Five Major Banks Plead Guilty to Felony Charges Over Currency Rigging (Fox 05/20/2015)
Supreme Court strikes down Maryland double-tax law, other states could feel revenue pinch (Fox 05/18/2015)
States wasting millions by keeping ineligible recipients on ObamaCare’s Medicaid rolls (Fox 05/05/2015)
As Imports Surge, U.S. Trade Gap Widens to '08 Level (Fox 05/05/2015)
Our dismal GDP numbers: Under Obama US stuck in slow growth rut (Fox 04/29/2015)
•
Here's some advice to the White House: it might be time for President Obama to cancel the rest of his economic "mission accomplished" tour and help figure out how to get the U.S. growing again.

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This didn't happen by accident. The Obama policies (as well as those in the final months of the George W. Bush administration) were, almost without exception, costly and counterproductive.

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Bad ideas have bad consequences. What is especially demoralizing is that after this flurry of program spending in Washington, all we have to show for it is $7.5 trillion more debt.

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Can our economic problem truly be that we aren't spending and borrowing enough money in Washington?

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Meanwhile, almost all economists agree we need to reduce our corporate tax rate. We could create hundreds of thousands of more jobs by encouraging domestic drilling for oil and gas rather than preventing it... Fixing the ObamaCare anti-hiring rules would also boost growth. Those are the easy things – and even they can't get done in this White House.

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... we're stuck in a slow growth rut that is holding back American potential and hurting those at the bottom of the ladder the most.
Memo to Congress: Don't give Obama fast track authority for Pacific Trade Pact (Fox 04/20/2015)
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Congress should deny President Obama authority to negotiate yet another jobs killing trade pact in the Pacific.

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Free trade agreements eliminate tariffs and rein in many administrative barriers to commerce — such as inconsistencies in bank regulations and intellectual property laws — and should boost U.S. exports and give consumers a wider range of less expensive imports.

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These deals should make Americans more prosperous by moving workers from low wage jobs, such as assembling smart phones, to higher paying employment, designing new devices and solving tough software problems.

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However, what works on a professor's blackboard does not always prove out in practice.

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When imports exceed exports, economists expect the dollar to fall against foreign currencies. That would raise prices for imports in U.S. stores and lower prices for U.S. products sold abroad to rebalance trade and create good-paying jobs.

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However, principal U.S. competitors ... all pursue monetary policies explicitly intended to keep their currencies cheap against the dollar and boost sales in U.S. markets to avoid economic reforms that would better solve their internal economic problems.

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Overall, U.S. imports exceed exports by more than $500 billion annually — killing about 4 million jobs.

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Similarly, trade enforcement laws permit the Commerce Department and U.S. International Trade Commission to impose tariffs on subsidized imports that destroy jobs, but those have been weakened in recent years.

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Presidents Reagan and Clinton were forceful advocates of U.S. worker interests in international trade and from 1980 to 2000, the economy accomplished 3.4 percent growth and family incomes rose $9,900.

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The same cannot be said about both the recent Bush and Obama Administrations and since 2000, U.S. GDP growth has averaged a mere 1.8 percent and average family incomes are down about $4,600.

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A Trans-Pacific Partnership offers great economic potential and would importantly reinforce U.S. security ties with Asian nations, but it only makes sense with enforceable disciplines on currency manipulation and unfairly subsidized foreign goods.
Does Obama’s UN carbon pledge threaten much more US economic pain? (Fox 04/15/2015)
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The Obama Administration's pledge of 26 to 28 percent cuts in U.S. carbon emissions by 2025 is coming under heavy fire from business and scientific experts, who charge the radical goals were not backed up by any concrete planning, likely to cause energy-intensive industries to flee the country at a heavy cost in jobs, and unlikely to make any difference at all to global carbon emissions — or to climate.
Taxpayers Will Foot the Bill for Rising Interest Rates (Fox 04/15/2015)
Seattle boss raises entire company's minimum wage to $70,000 (Fox 04/14/2015)
Senators seek probe of claims US workers fired, forced to train foreign replacements (Fox 04/10/2015)
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A popular visa program allegedly is being misused by U.S. companies to lay off thousands of American workers and replace them with foreign labor.

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And, adding insult to injury, many of the laid-off workers allegedly have been forced to train their replacements...

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"A number of U.S. employers, including some large, well-known, publicly-traded corporations, have reportedly laid off thousands of American workers and replaced them with H-1B visa holders."

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The worker described how when the two vendors were picked – Infosys and TCS, both major Indian companies – SCE employees were told to "sit with, video chat or do whatever was needed to teach them our systems."

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If they did not cooperate, according to the testimonial, "we would be fired and not receive a severance package."

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The company explained that it's reducing its information technology department from 1,400 to 860.

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"There could not be a clearer case of the H-1B program being used to harm American workers' wages and working conditions."

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See related If There Was Justice in the World (David Horsey, 06/13/2003) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Pace of US hiring weakens with just 126,000 jobs added in March (Fox 04/03/2015)
Seattle restaurant industry warns of fallout as $15 minimum wage nears (Fox 03/24/2015)
ISIS and your money: Why you should watch your wallet (Fox p:/p=/2015)
Where are the jobs? America’s new leisure class (Fox 03/05/2015)
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To listen to President Obama, the U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders. Yet it is hardly creating jobs at a breakneck pace, and too many able-bodied men have grown lazy and show no interest in working.

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Indolent men will create major problems for Obama's successors as fewer workers will be paying taxes to support Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, and other entitlements as productive baby boomers retire.

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Obama has made abuse of federal disability programs, easy access to free health care and food stamps and other benefits programs, and mooching off girlfriends, wives and other relatives, a reasonable alternative to work.

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Another problem is that many young people gained little more than a huge student debt from four years at college.

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Much has been made of the folly of majoring in Peace Studies and Art History at second- tier colleges and universities, but four in ten college graduates lack critical thinking, analytical reasoning, literacy, and communication skills necessary to perform reasonably well-compensating white collar work.

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Many lack the organizational and self-management abilities — commonly called executive skills — to perform well without persistent instruction and supervision.

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Those are skills colleges are supposed to impart and degrees should certify, but neither is any longer true.

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Many college graduates will remain baristas because their degrees are fraudulent, and they will eventually default on their student loans.

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Fortunately for the ever boastful Obama, the collapse of the $1 trillion plus student debt pyramid will come after he leaves office.

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Ah, the best of all possible worlds. Young and aging men dependent on government largess and more inclined to vote for Democrats to continue the gravy train of free stuff...

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One thing for sure, America can boast the first civilization in history with a leisure class at the bottom.
Weekly Jobless Claims Rise (Fox 02/26/2015)
Five things you should know about Janet Yellen’s plan for higher interest rates (Fox 02/25/2015)
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Easy money policies abroad will keep mortgage rates low in America.

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The good news is that banks may start competing more for your money and pay higher rates on checking accounts

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If six years of rock bottom interest rates didn't get idle men off their couches, a few more years won't help much.

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America is not going out of business — it doesn't need free money for bankers to thrive.
Obama's Budget: Beware the "Berlin Wall" tax (Fox 02/02/2015)
Defense Against Demagogues (JWR 01/28/2015)
Basic Economics (JWR 01/14/2015)
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"Whether one is a conservative or a radical, a protectionist or a free trader, a cosmopolitan or a nationalist, a churchman or a heathen, it is useful to know the causes and consequences of economic phenomena."

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Economics is a systematic study of cause and effect, showing what happens when you do specific things in specific ways. The path to understanding outcomes is to examine consequences of decisions in terms of incentives they create rather than goals they pursue.

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Paying attention to goals rather than incentives has been responsible for disastrous public policy.
Buy American, Watch Your Taxes Go Down (Fox, 12/19/2014)
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"If you buy a T-shirt made in China for $4-5 cheaper than you can get here, you will eventually put the American T-shirt company out of business." This company will then no longer pay for a business license (tax), collect and pay sales taxes, or pay income taxes to the state and to Uncle Sam. Lower tax revenues eventually lead to economic decline. It also leads to the missing tax dollars being made up by the rest of the population.

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"All my heroes were people who could make things. Manufacturing is our strength. It's the people who get up in the morning and put their hands to something that make America strong. But they are eliminating shop courses in schools and people are losing skills."

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"I can spot a Chinese hammer from yards away just by the way the metal glints off the sun. Those hammers chip and break in no time at all. Whereas an Estwing hammer can be handed down from one generation to the next."

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"There are no laws in China covering environmental issues. They do whatever they want. One third of all our air and water pollution comes from China. They have no EPA. In America we have found ways to protect the environment but these methods cost money. As a result, we must charge higher prices. But investment in American-made products will pay off in a cleaner, safer environment and a stronger economy."

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When going into a big box store this holiday season and thereafter, ask where the 'made in America' section is. And if they don't have one, walk out!"
Obamacare tax surprise looming (CNN 01/02/2015)
21 states raising minimum wage on January 1 (CNN 12/30/2014)
Once the world's biggest mall is being torn down today (CNN 12/30/2014)
Time is running out for RadioShack (CNN 12/29/2014)
Natural gas prices plunge in mild winter (CNN 12/26/2014)
Want to get rich? Don't pay off your student loans (CNN 12/11/2014)
Is a radical 'no email' policy moral failing? (CNN 12/05/2014)
Median Household Income Is Falling Because People Are Working Less (Forbes 12/03/2014)
America defiant in 'oil war' with OPEC (CNN 12/02/2014)
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According to a report by the International Energy Agency last month, most producers in North Dakota's Bakken formation, an area that's been a key contributor to the shale revolution, can remain profitable even if oil falls to $42 per barrel (it's currently at $68).
A stupendous bounty (JWR 11/26/2014)
Part-time jobs put millions in poverty or close to it (CNN 11/20/2014)
It happens every time (JWR 11/18/2014)
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg's advice: become a plumber (CNN 11/11/2014)
Now it's the Middle Class facing disaster (JWR 11/12/2014)
Obama's China climate deal: Job killer or worth the cost? (CNN 11/12/2014)
Five banks fined more than $3 billion in currency probe (CNN 11/12/2014)
U.S. has added 2.3 million jobs this year (CNN 11/07/2014)
Why voters hate the Obama economy (CNN 11/05/2014)
My college degree is worthless (CNN 11/02/2014)
Baby Boomers say they aren't moving out of their homes (CNN 10/30/2014)
US economy chugging along at 3.5% growth (CNN 10/30/2014)
Paying thousands before health insurance even kicks in (CNN 10/27/2014)
You can stash up to $18,000 in your 401 (k) next year (CNN 10/23/2014)
Americans taking fewest vacation days in four decades (CNN 10/22/2014)
Election issue: Why people still feel the economy stinks (CNN 10/22/2014)
Fed official: Big banks should clean up their acts (CNN 10/20/2014)
Slave labor in America today (CNN 10/21/2014)
IBM shares down after it dumps chip unit, posts disappointing earnings (CNN 10/20/2014)
Opinion: Brace yourselves for another financial crash (CNN 10/15/2014)
Seniors in almost every state are struggling to afford retirement (CNN 10/09/2014)
What the heck should the Fed do now? (CNN 10/16/2014)
Ben Bernanke can't refinance: Tough lending standards (CNN 10/03/2014)
$4.35 to get your own money - ATM fees surge again (CNN 09/29/2014)
Obama administration takes first steps against tax 'inversions' (CNN 09/22/2014)
Larry Ellison stepping down as Oracle CEO (CNN 09/18/2014)
Occupy abolishes $4 million in other people's student loan debt (CNN 09/17/2014)
Mob Rule Economics (JWR 09/09/2014)
America's favorite credit card company is... (CNN 08/28/2014)
7 companies that keep more than $50 billion offshore (CNN 02/27/2014)
8 job killing companies (CNN 08/24/2014)
Sears more 'irrelevant by the day' (CNN 08/21/2014)
Bank of America nears record settlement (CNN 08/20/2014)
5 big retirement mistakes (CNN 08/06/2014)
Obama wants to plug tax 'loophole' (CNN 08/06/2014)
Jobs recovery marches on, but at slower pace (CNN 08/01/2014)
RadioShack's days are numbered (CNN 07/31/2014)
U.S. economy bounces back sharply (CNN 07/30/2014)
1 in 3 U.S. adults have 'debt in collections' (CNN 07/29/2014)
Math nerds are taking over Wall Street (CNN 07/27/2014)
Chinese homebuyers are flocking to these U.S. states (CNN 07/23/2014)
How corporations skip tax with overseas maneuver (CNN 07/22/2014)
Is this retirement move right for you? (CNN 07/18/2014)
Microsoft cuts 18,000 jobs (CNN 07/17/2014)
You pay taxes, and rich corporations don't (CNN 07/16/2014)
Save the economy: How to start dismantling governmental agencies (JWR 07/14/2014)
Citi inks $7 billion mortgage settlement (CNN 07/14/2014)
A new way to get Americans back to work (CNN 07/10/2014)
Fewer parents helping to pay for college (CNN 06/26/2014)
Barnes & Noble stock is a bestseller again (CNN 06/26/2014)
Shale gas, the silent revolution (JWR 06/25/2014)
U.S. economy: Not looking so good (CNN 06/16/2014)
Half of college grads still relying on parents' money (CNN 06/10/2014)
How much do you need to be happy? (CNN 06/05/2014)
Do bonuses promote cheating? (CNN 06/03/2014)
A remedy for Amazon-Hachette fight? (CNN 05/30/2014)
Obamanomics (JWR 05/29/2014)
U.S. economy shrinks, but it's not a big deal (CNN 05/29/2014)
HP to cut up to 16,000 more jobs (CNN 05/22/2014)
Pfizer and the flight from punitive taxes (JWR 05/19/2014)
A Lesson on Racial Discrimination (JWR 05/14/2014)
Sears: 'Burning cash,' closing stores (CNN 05/15/2014)
Washington state defies minimum wage logic (CNN 05/14/2013)
Are you making this retirement mistake? (CNN 05/13/2014)
GM's $1.3 billion recall cost wipes out profit (CNN 04/24/2014)
Who pays most income taxes? People 45 and up (CNN 03/24/2014)
North Dakota wants you: Seeks to fill 20,000 jobs (CNN 03/19/2014)
4 things to expect from Yellen's Fed (CNN 03/17/2014)
Number of U.S. millionaires hits new high (CNN 03/14/2014)
IBM's double dilemma (CNN 03/14/2014)
McDonald's workers sue for wage theft (CNN 03/13/2014)
Tesla lashes out at Chris Christie (CNN 03/11/2014)
Pizza chain Sbarro files for bankruptcy (CNN 03/10/2014)
The real reasons to export U.S. gas (CNN 03/07/2014)
Staples to close 225 stores (CNN 03/06/2014)
Radio Shack closing 1,100 stores (CNN 03/04/2014)
Free checking disappearing at the big banks (CNN 03/03/2014)
Is our economic bust out of Obama's control? Examining the historical evidence (JWR 02/27/2014)
Raise the minimum wage to $14 an hour using this one weird trick! (JWR 02/27/2014)
We Must Reject Liberalism's Economic Death Sentence on America (JWR 02/21/2014)
Fed transcripts: Bernanke chose to let Lehman fail (CNN 02/21/2014)
Why the stimulus just couldn't do it (CNN 02/20/2014)
Minimum wage hike's inconvenient truth (CNN 02/18/2014)
Obamacare will reduce income of most Americans (CNN 02/11/2014)
Yellen: 'Too many Americans remain unemployed' (CNN 02/11/2014)
AOL reverses 401 (k) cuts, CEO apologizes (CNN 02/07/2014)
AOL cuts benefits, blames Obamacare (CNN 02/07/2014)
Rise of the low-wage breadwinner (CNN 02/06/2014)
AT&T cuts wireless prices (CNN 02/02/2014)
The Solution to Income Inequality Is Opportunity, Not Entitlement (JWR 01/29/2014)
Fed continues taper as Bernanke's term ends (CNN 01/29/2014)
One percenters, stop embarrassing yourselves! (CNN 01/29/2014)
The Super Rich are mad as hell - and doing great (CNN 01/28/2013)
Ford workers to get record $8,800 profit share checks (CNN 01/28/2013)
Bitcoin exchange CEO arrested for money laundering (CNN 01/27/2013)
7 setbacks for the middle class (CNN 01/24/2014)
Report: JPMorgan set to give Dimon pay hike despite legal woes (CNN 01/24/2014)
My minimum wage isn't a living wage (CNN 01/22/2014)
Life without benefits gets tougher for jobless (CNN 01/19/2014)
Guess who's coming to America? (CNN 01/19/2014)
The great equalizers (JWR 01/03/2014)
10 Weird Ways States Tax You (JWR 01/03/2014)
Bernanke: Recovery 'remains incomplete' (CNN 01/03/2014)
Lost in the maze (JWR 12/30/2013)
The good news about 2014 [maybe] (JWR 12/30/2013)
Out of jobs, out of benefits, out of luck (CNN 12/30/2013)
Minimum wage to rise in 13 states on Jan. 1 (CNN 12/29/2013)
Many Americans feel economy isn't improving (CNN 12/27/2013)
The big swindle: In lotteries, the poor are the biggest losers (CNN 12/18/2013)
More private college presidents earning over $1 million (CNN 12/15/2013)
Ford set for most aggressive expansion in 50 years (CNN 12/12/2013)
What if the economic recovery is doomed? (CNN 12/09/2013)
How the American Dream got downsized (CNN 12/09/2013)
When should you start cashing in on Social Security? (CNN 12/04/2013)
Average student loan debt: $29,400 (CNN 12/04/2013)
Millennials may not be able to afford retirement essentials (CNN 12/04/2013)
$7.25 an hour is not a living wage (CNN 12/02/2013)
$1 coins: Unwanted, unloved and out of currency (CNN 11/28/2013)
Highest property taxes in America (CNN 11/25/2013)
U.S. should copy Switzerland and consider a 'maximum wage' ratio, too (CNN 11/21/2013)
Do Americans Prefer Deception? (CNN 11/20/2013)
JPMorgan agrees to $13 billion mortgage settlement (CNN 11/19/2013)
Thanks for your service, vets! Now try finding a job (CNN 11/11/2013)
Biggest pay raises over 30 years (CNN 11/08/2013)
8 fascinating financial insights from latest Nobel Prize-winner (JWR 10/25/2013)
JPMorgan paying $5.1 billion to Fannie, Freddie over mortgages (CNN 10/25/2013)
Why young people are saying 'no' to the workforce (CNN 10/22/2013)
Will the JPMorgan Chase settlement be fair to the public? (CNN 10/22/2013)
A Return to Keynes? (JWR 10/15/2013)
Shiller, two others win economics Nobel for 'bubble' warnings (CNN 10/14/2013)
The beauty of simplicity (JWR 10/11/2013)
How bad would a U.S. default be? (CNN 10/11/2013)
J.P. Morgan's current woes may be the least of its problems (CNN 10/09/2013)
Obama to nominate Janet Yellen as Fed chair (CNN 10/08/2013)
Business pushes immigration reform even as it lays off American workers (JWR 10/08/2013)
Incomprehensible sums (JWR 10/08/2013)
New $100 bill to debut Tuesday (CNN 10/07/2013)
Minimum Wage Madness: Part II (JWR 09/17/2013)
Minimum Wage Madness (JWR 09/17/2013)
Five years after the worst crisis since the 1930s,.. (JWR 09/12/2013)
Why Does Capitalism Still Need Defending? (JWR 09/12/2013)
Labor participation lowest since 1978 (CNN 09/02/2013)
Jobless rate is worse than you think (CNN 09/02/2013)
Instead of fixing 'economic disparities', the administration's moves have killed off... (JWR 09/02/2013)
Extra cost to make Google phone in U.S: $4 (CNN 08/28/2013)
Wells Fargo lays off 2,300 employees (CNN 08/22/2013)
Is income inequality 'morally wrong'? (CNN 07/25/2013)
A magnificent economic miracle has occurred during Obama's presidency (JWR 06/29/2013)
Amazon hiring 7,000 workers (CNN 06/29/2013)
Men are disappearing from the workforce (CNN 06/19/2013)
SEC must ride herd on credit rating agencies (CNN 05/17/2013)
Senate approves Internet sales tax proposal (CNN 05/06/2013)
Jamie Dimon is under fire (CNN 05/06/2013)
April jobs report: Hiring picks up (CNN 05/03/2013)
Falling gas prices could boost economy (CNN 04/24/2013)
Apple's profit crunch continues (CNN 04/23/2013)
Price Versus Cost (JWR 04/17/2013)
Blowing up another bubble: Easy money helps Wall Street and threatens Main Street (JWR 04/08/2013)
Jobs report: Hiring slows severely in March (CNN 04/05/2013)
SAC Capital trader charged (CNN 03/29/2013)
Can It Happen Here? (JWR 03/26/2013)
Guns and ammo sales spark jobs boom (CNN 03/25/2013)
The rich pay majority of U.S. income taxes (CNN 03/12/2013)
Social Security truths — as hard as they may be to stomach (JWR 03/05/2013)
Why America's middle class is losing ground (CNN 03/05/2013)
Americans see biggest monthly income drop in 20 years (CNN 03/01/2013)
Workers over 50 are the new 'unemployables' (CNN 02/26/2013)
Spending Junkies and Their Shameless Scare-mongering (JWR 02/25/2013)
Americans' 90% tax rate (CNN 02/08/2013)
Debt collection horror stories (CNN 02/06/2013)
Buy American and rebuild an economy (JWR 02/01/2013)
Why secretary is still the top job for women (CNN 01/31/2013)
Using a credit card? Watch out for the 'checkout fee' (CNN 01/27/2013)
$58 billion unclaimed: Is some of it yours? (CNN 01/24/2013)
Why You Should Max Out Your Retirement Accounts (CNN 01/21/2013)
Obama's economy: A snapshot (CNN 01/21/2013)
Federal Reserve was blind to crisis in 2007 (CNN 01/18/2013)
JPMorgan slashes Dimon's bonus by 53% (CNN 01/16/2013)
California could be next oil boom state (CNN 01/14/2013)
I'm unemployed and hopeless (CNN 01/10/2013)
$1 trillion coin is nuts but not $25 billion (CNN 01/09/2013)
5 jobs where pay is making a comeback (CNN 01/09/2013)
A case of Wall Street greed gone too far (CNN 01/08/2013)
What's in the 'fiscal cliff' deal? (CNN 01/05/2012)
Forget discouraged, 3 million workers hopelessly unemployed (CNN 01/04/2012)
Why your paycheck is getting smaller, no matter what (CNN 01/02/2013)
Bank fines top $10 billion this year (CNN 12/28/2012)
Big Labor's behavior led to right-to-work support (JWR 12/24/2012)
'Dairy cliff': Milk prices may double in New Year (CNN 12/22/2012)
EPA study supports more natural gas (CNN 12/21/2012)
NYSE to be sold to Intercontinental Exchange (CNN 12/20/2012)
Treasury to sell remaining GM shares (CNN 12/19/2012)
Majority of Americans have received government aid (CNN 12/18/2012)
The right-to-work dilemma (JWR 12/14/2012)
Insourcing to America (JWR 12/14/2012)
Let the real fat cats pay their fair share (JWR 12/12/2012)
Freedom from union compulsion (JWR 12/12/2012)
Fed: More easing until unemployment below 6.5% (CNN 12/12/2012)
Taxing the Poor (CNN 12/12/2012)
HSBC pays $1.9 billion to settle US probe (CNN 12/10/2012)
Rich Lefties and Their Taxes (JWR 12/06/2012)
Throwing cold water on Apple's made-in-the-U.S.A. Mac (CNN 12/06/2012)
Citigroup to slash 11,000 jobs (CNN 11/29/2012)
Unemployment benefits cost: $520 billion (CNN 11/29/2012)
Kill the dollar bill, for $1 coins instead? (CNN 11/28/2012)
Killing The Goose (JWR 11/20/2012)
Hostess Brands closing for good (CNN 11/16/2012)
Curbing tax breaks: Does the math add up? (CNN 11/13/2012)
Former Citi CEO Pandit gets $6.7 million for 2012 (CNN 11/09/2012)
Coal company announces layoffs in response to Obama win (CNN 11/09/2012)
October jobs report: Hiring increases, unemployment up (CNN 11/02/2012)
More Americans delaying retirement until their 80s (CNN 10/23/2012)
Obama's alternative energy bankruptcies (CNN 10/22/2012)
The other unemployment rate (CNN 10/18/2012)
Jobless claims snap back up (CNN 10/18/2012)
Average student loan debt nears $27,000 (CNN 10/18/2012)
Can iPhone and iPad be made in the USA? (CNN 10/18/2012)
Why Apple will never bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. (CNN 10/10/2012)
Jack Welch has no clue about jobs numbers (CNN 10/10/2012)
ATM fees hit record high, free checking accounts decline (CNN 09/24/2012)
Federal Reserve policies favor the rich (CNN 09/20/2012)
Ben Bernanke Arouses Republican Ire By Printing More Money (INN 09/16/2012)
UBS whistleblower nets $104 million reward (CNN 09/12/2012)
U.S. credit rating hinges on Congress - Moody's (CNN 09/11/2012)
Why wages aren't rising (CNN 09/11/2012)
The wealthy are 288 times richer than you (CNN 09/11/2012)
Young adults drop out of the job market (CNN 09/07/2012)
CNN Fact Check: The $2,000 question (CNN 09/06/2012)
Jobs picture brightens (CNN 09/06/2012)
CNN Fact Check: About those 4.5 million jobs... (CNN 09/05/2012)
Outlook gloomy for August jobs report (CNN 09/05/2012)
Election won't stop the Fed (CNN 09/04/2012)
The middle class falls further behind (CNN 08/22/2012)
Fed officials debate more stimulus (CNN 08/22/2012)
Why the jobs recovery favors single workers (CNN 08/16/2012)
July jobs report: Hiring picks up, unemployment rises (CNN 08/03/2012)
Obama battles job crisis: 3 years...and counting (CNN 08/03/2012)
Hiring stuck in neutral (CNN 08/02/2012)
Can Congress get out of the economy's way? (CNN 08/02/2012)
Low-paying jobs are here to stay (CNN 08/02/2012)
How to avoid 'lunatic' fiscal cliff (CNN 07/30/2012)
Sandy Weill: Break up the big banks (CNN 07/25/2012)
Taxmageddon is headed our way (CNN 07/25/2012)
Pressure mounting for Libor jail terms (CNN 07/23/2012)
Jobless claims up sharply (CNN 07/19/2012)
Made in America: The short list (CNN 07/13/2012)
JPMorgan's trading loss: $5.8 billion (CNN 07/13/2012)
N.Y. Fed asked Barclays about Libor in '08 (CNN 07/10/2012)
Airbus plans new factory in Alabama (CNN 07/02/2012)
What health reform could cost you (CNN 06/28/2012)
Hidden fees are eating up your 401 (k)s (CNN 06/28/2012)
Is your 401 (k) ripping you off? (CNN 06/25/2012)
Worsening wealth inequality by race (CNN 06/21/2012)
What else can the Fed do? (CNN 06/20/2012)
Dimon plays defense on Capitol Hill (06/19/2012)
U.S. economy heading straight for the cliff (CNN 06/05/2012)
Don't pull plug on the long-term unemployed (CNN 06/01/2012)
May jobs report: Hiring slows, unemployment rises (CNN 06/01/2012)
Get used to a life of layoffs (CNN 05/25/2012)
Regulators eye Morgan Stanley's pre-Facebook IPO actions (CNN 05/23/2012)
Why is Jamie Dimon on a Federal Reserve board? (05/21/2012)
Ex-Goldman director Rajat Gupta set for insider trading trial (CNN 05/21/2012)
FBI opens JPMorgan investigation (CNN 05/16/2012)
Dimon to face JPMorgan shareholders (CNN 05/14/2012)
Why JPMorgan gets away with bad bets (CNN 05/14/2012)
Obama weighs in on JPMorgan loss (CNN 05/14/2012)
Wall Street is betting as big as ever (CNN 05/13/2012)
Why I don't take vacation (CNN 05/12/2012)
Not working: Voices of America's laid off workers (CNN 05/12/2012)
JPMorgan loss: Ghost of the credit crisis (CNN 05/11/2012)
JPMorgan's big loss: Explain it to me (CNN 05/11/2012)
Job market dropouts (CNN 05/03/2012)
The 86 million invisible unemployed (CNN 05/03/2012)
Private sector job growth slows (CNN 05/02/2012)
Uh-oh: Big banks shrink lending (CNN 05/01/2012)
Who's teaching your kids about money? (CNN 04/30/2012)
Barnes & Noble's shares soar on Microsoft Nook investment (CNN 04/30/2012)
Make candidates debate the debt (CNN 04/27/2012)
Why half of us don't pay income tax (04/26/2012)
Why Big Banks Are Like Drug Dealers (JWR 04/25/2012)
Federal Reserve treads water on monetary policy (CNN 04/25/2012)
$1.6 billion in missing MF Global funds traced (CNN 04/25/2012)
China offshores manufacturing to the U.S. (CNN 04/24/2012)
Medicare funding runs short by 2024, trustees say (CNN 04/23/2012)
Let's kill the progressive tax rate system (CNN 04/17/2012)
Your taxes are due! (CNN 04/17/2012)
DOJ sues Apple over price-fixing scheme (CNN 04/11/2012)
Iran-fueled oil price spike biggest threat to economy (CNN 04/11/2012)
Behind the jobs recovery (CNN 04/06/2012)
March jobs report: Hiring slows, Unemployment falls (CNN 04/06/2012)
Unemployment rate: How low can it go? (CNN 04/04/2012)
Yahoo cuts 2,000 jobs as radical reshaping begins (CNN 04/04/2012)
Private sector adds 209,000 jobs in March (CNN 04/04/2012)
Your tax bill: 107 days of work to pay off (CNN 04/02/2012)
Bernanke: Job gains present economic 'puzzle' (CNN 03/26/2012)
The oil industry's plan to lower gas prices (CNN 03/23/2012)
Keystone pipeline: Separating reality from rhetoric (CNN 03/22/2012)
Home buying much cheaper than renting (CNN 03/21/2012)
Attack on Goldman Sachs misfires (CNN 03/14/2012)
Goldman exec quits, calling firm 'toxic' (CNN 03/14/2012)
What does it mean when 1.5 million American families live on less than $2 a day per person? (CNN 03/14/2012)
February jobs report: Unemployment holds amid solid hiring (CNN 03/09/2012)
Lehman Brothers: The final chapter (CNN 03/06/2012)
Stanford found guilty in Ponzi scheme (CNN 03/06/2012)
Income goes up... especially for the rich (CNN 03/05/2012)
American manufacturers importing workers (CNN 03/05/2012)
Postal chief's $384,000 pay sparks call for cut (CNN 03/02/2012)
Bernanke: Job market 'far from normal' (CNN 02/29/2012)
Wall Street greed fueling high gas prices (CNN 02/28/2012)
Water bills expected to triple in some parts of U.S. (CNN 02/28/2012)
More customers leaving big banks (CNN 02/27/2012)
How prescription drug abuse costs you money (CNN 02/24/2012)
35,000 Postal Service jobs on the chopping block (CNN 02/24/2012)
Why we need the Keystone oil pipeline (CNN 02/23/2012)
Home prices at lowest point in more than 10 years (CNN 02/22/2012)
Obama: Slash corporate tax breaks (CNN 02/22/2012)
Payroll tax cut, meet $4 gas (CNN 02/16/2012)
GM posts record profit 2 years after bankruptcy (CNN 02/16/2012)
GM moves from pension plan to 401k (CNN 02/15/2012)
Obama wants cheaper pennies and nickels (CNN 02/15/2012)
Obama to highlight 'insourcing' jobs at Milwaukee event (CNN 02/15/2012)
Mortgage settlement lets banks off the hook, again (CNN 02/13/2012)
Dumping China for American job shops (CNN 02/13/2012)
Kodak ditches digital camera business (CNN 02/09/2012)
January jobs report: Hiring ramps up, unemployment falls (CNN 02/03/2012)
Local currencies: 'In the U.S. we don't trust' (CNN 02/03/2012)
Challenger: Job cuts increased in January (CNN 02/02/2012)
The risks that killed MF Global (CNN 02/01/2012)
American Airlines plans to cut 13,000 jobs (CNN 02/01/2012)
Revive Made in USA? Easier said than done (CNN 01/31/2012)
U.S. economy picks up speed (CNN 01/27/2012)
I'm worse off than my parents (CNN 01/24/2012)
Rich, Gingrich and crazy rich (CNN 01/23/2012)
25 top-paying companies (CNN 01/23/2012)
At $400 billion, Apple is worth more than Greece (CNN 01/19/2012)
100 best companies to work for (CNN 01/19/2012)
Is Romney's effective tax rate lower than yours? (CNN 01/18/2012)
States look to hike tax on millionaires (CNN 01/16/2012)
Small OJ businesses promote Made in USA labels (CNN 01/14/2012)
Big business to Gingrich, Perry: Zip it (CNN 01/13/2012)
Election 2012: How rich are these guys? (CNN 01/13/2012)
JPMorgan profit drops 23% (CNN 01/13/2012)
Middle class dropouts (CNN 01/11/2012)
Obama to business: Bring jobs home (CNN 01/11/2012)
Will Obama break even on jobs? (CNN 01/11/2012)
What Mitt Romney did at Bain (CNN 01/10/2012)
December jobs report: Hiring up, unemployment down (CNN 01/06/2012)
Private sector hiring ramps up in December (CNN 01/05/2012)
Rick Santorum's tax plan (CNN 01/05/2012)
Doctors going broke (CNN 01/05/2012)
The new four horsemen of tech (CNN 01/05/2012)
Buyout Profits Keep Flowing to Romney (NYT, 12/18/2011)
Unemployment claims climb in holiday week (CNN 12/29/2011)
Sears, Kmart to shut 100-120 stores (CNN 12/27/2011)
Payroll tax cut: What's at stake (CNN 12/18/2011)
SEC charges former execs of Fannie, Freddie (CNN 12/16/2011)
CEO pay jumps 36.5% (CNN 12/15/2011)
Lame responses from CEOs (CNN 12/13/2011)
Corzine testifies as Senate probes MF Global (CNN 12/13/2011)
How long should we help the unemployed? (CNN 12/13/2011)
Newt Gingrich's 'mind boggling' tax plan (CNN 12/13/2011)
Tax payers now paying tens of billions in pricey pensions for ‘dangerous’ government jobs... (CNN 12/09/2011)
Corzine: 'I don't know where the money is' (CNN 12/08/2011)
11 Retirement Benefit Changes Coming in 2012 (JWR 12/07/2011)
Where are Americans headed if more than half of workers say they have less than $25,000 in savings? (CNN 12/07/2011)
Billionaires with 1% tax rates (CNN 12/07/2011)
Georgia's hottest export: Chopsticks! (CNN 12/06/2011)
Citi plans 4,500 layoffs (CNN 12/06/2011)
Postal plan: Slower delivery, 28,000 jobs lost (CNN 12/05/2011)
Gasoline: The new big U.S. export (CNN 12/05/2011)
Republican leaders shifting stance on payroll tax cut (CNN 12/02/2011)
November jobs report: Hiring up, unemployment down (CNN 12/02/2011)
Americans to forfeit $34.3 billion in vacation days (CNN 12/01/2011)
Are big banks really changing their ways? (CNN 11/21/2011)
UPS ups rates (CNN 11/18/2011)
A week of Wall Street layoffs (CNN 11/18/2011)
Postal Service reports massive $5 billion loss (CNN 11/15/2011)
Wall Street's shrinking job pool (CNN 11/15/2011)
Debt committee: Deal or no deal - then what? (CNN 11/15/2011)
Fannie, Freddie execs score $100 million payday (CNN 11/15/2011)
George Washington to debt panel: Show courage on debt and taxes (CNN 11/13/2011)
Dumping your bank? How to choose a new one (CNN 11/11/2011)
$1 tech executives (CNN 11/11/2011)
Tech's highest-paid executives (CNN 11/10/2011)
Wall Street bonuses set to plunge 20% (CNN 11/08/2011)
Keep your job for five years, get $50,000 (CNN 11/08/2011)
Older Americans are 47 times richer than young (CNN 11/07/2011)
Bank dumping days begin (CNN 11/04/2011)
Corzine resigns from MF Global (CNN 11/04/2011)
'I'm home!' Adult children move back in (CNN 11/04/2011)
October jobs report: Unemployment rate dips (CNN 11/04/2011)
Jobs data improve in October (CNN 11/02/2011)
FBI investigating missing money at MF Global (CNN 11/01/2011)
Bank of America axes $5 debit card fee (CNN 11/01/2011)
20 biggest CEO pay raises (CNN 11/01/2011)
College costs climb, yet again (CNN 10/26/2011)
What's a flat tax? (CNN 10/24/2011)
Best jobs for fast growth (CNN 10/16/2011)
Analysts split over whether trade pacts boost U.S. economy (CNN 10/13/2011)
Galleon manager Rajaratnam sentenced (CNN 10/13/2011)
Buffett made $62,855,038 last year (CNN 10/12/2011)
Obama vows to break jobs plan into separate bills after Senate setback (CNN 10/12/2011)
Unemployed risk a permanent pay cut (CNN 10/06/2011)
BofA chief: We have a 'right to make a profit' (CNN 10/06/2011)
Citi hikes fees on checking accounts (CNN 10/05/2011)
Jobs picture remains fuzzy (CNN 10/05/2011)
Tax hikes and jobs: The whole story (CNN 10/03/2011)
Bank of America may get the last laugh (CNN 09/30/2011)
Forecast says double-dip recession is imminent (CNN 09/30/2011)
90% of Americans say economy stinks (CNN 09/30/2011)
Holding on to hope: Young and unemployed in America (CNN 09/28/2011)
10 highest-paid bank CEOs (CNN 09/26/2011)
Watch out! Checking account fees are on the rise (CNN 09/13/2011)
America's debt woe is worse than Greece's (CNN 09/13/2011)
Poverty rate rises in America (CNN 09/13/2011)
Bank of America cutting 30,000 jobs (CNN 09/12/2011)
Paying for Obama's plan: It's complicated (CNN 09/09/2011)
Big Oil: To create jobs, let us drill more (CNN 09/07/2011)
August jobs report: Hiring grinds to a halt (CNN 09/02/2011)
Feds to sue a dozen-plus banks over mortgages (CNN 09/02/2011)
Wall Street Journal loves Huntsman jobs plan (CNN 09/02/2011)
Bank of America to cut 3,500 jobs (CNN 08/19/2011)
S&P said to face U.S. probe on mortgages (CNN 08/18/2011)
Wells Fargo to test $3 a month debit card fee (CNN 08/17/2011)
Will free trade create or kill U.S. jobs? (CNN 08/15/2011)
Postal Service asks Congress to allow 120,000 layoffs, overhaul benefits (CNN 08/12/2011)
We're hiring... In China! (CNN 08/11/2011)
Americans' bleak outlook on jobs (CNN 08/12/2011)
Struggling to climb out of the jobs hole (CNN 08/11/2011)
Unemployment claims fall to 4-month low (CNN 08/11/2011)
S&P president: Obama knows the problem is serious (CNN 08/10/2011)
Jobs: Worse than you think (CNN 08/08/2011)
Obama calls for political will to deal with economic challenges (CNN 08/08/2011)
Both sides could lose in Verizon strike (CNN 08/08/2011)
America's job crisis (CNN 08/08/2011)
Stocks sink following S&P downgrade (CNN 08/08/2011)
Strike hits Verizon as 45,000 walk out (CNN 08/07/2011)
Your money in a AA-rated U.S. (CNN 08/06/2011)
Obama administration official: S&P move 'a facts-be-damned decision' (CNN 08/06/2011)
S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating (CNN 08/05/2011)
July jobs report: Hiring picks up (CNN 08/05/2011)
Aviation workers deal with politics-induced furloughs (CNN 08/03/2011)
Unemployment benefits at risk (CNN 08/03/2011)
Job growth stalls, layoffs surge (CNN 08/03/2011)
Job killing companies (CNN 08/03/2011)
Meet the countries in the Triple-A debt club (CNN 07/30/2011)
Postal Service aims to shut down 3,600 offices (CNN 07/25/2011)
Who owns America? Hint: It's not China (CNN 07/22/2011)
U.S. loses $1.3 billion in exiting Chrysler (CNN 07/21/2011)
Borders liquidates: 10,700 jobs lost (CNN 07/18/2011)
Cisco to axe 16% of its workers (CNN 07/18/2011)
June jobs report: Hiring slows, unemployment rises (CNN 07/08/2011)
The number that's killing the economy (CNN 06/30/2011)
Debt ceiling FAQs: What you need to know (CNN 06/18/2011)
Made in USA: Overseas jobs come home (CNN 06/17/2011)
Economy makes people sick, literally (CNN 06/07/2011)
America's hidden unemployment problem (CNN 06/01/2011)
10 biggest money wasters (CNN 05/18/2011)
Why Geithner won't be selling our gold (CNN 05/11/2011)
Millionaires who owe no federal income tax (CNN 05/09/2011)
First-time unemployment filings surge to 8-month high (CNN 05/05/2011)
CEOs earn 343 times more than typical workers (CNN 04/20/2011)
S&P Downgrade Of U.S. Debt Says Nothing New (Forbes, 04/18/2011)
Tax the rich! OK, but then what, Mr. President? (CNN 04/12/2011)
Last-minute tax breaks for the unemployed (CNN 04/12/2011)
Banks want a favor — at your expense (CNN 04/11/2011)
Inflation pressures grow on Main Street (CNN 03/31/2011)
13% of all U.S. homes are vacant (CNN 03/28/2011)
Auto workers: Keep jobs on U.S. shores (CNN 03/25/2011)
Credit cards from hell (CNN 02/2011)
3M CEO slams Obama as 'anti-business' (CNN 02/28/2011)
Jobless claims tick back above 400,000 (CNN 02/17/2011)
Coming soon to U.S. shores: Higher prices (CNN 02/17/2011)
January jobs report disappoints (CNN 02/04/2011)
First-time unemployment claims fall (CNN 02/03/2011)
Money for nothing at Goldman (CNN 01/30/2011)
Postal Service to close another 2,000 locations (CNN 01/24/2011)
25 best employers: They're hiring! (CNN 01/24/2011)
Obama’s Kabuki Jobs Council, Brought to You By “Nut on China” (01/21/2011)
100 Best Companies to work for (CNN 01/20/2011)
Jobless claims rise above 400,000 again (CNN 01/06/2011)
Strong signs of life for the job market (CNN 01/05/2011)
National Debt by President: LBJ to Obama (Street, 01/04/2011)
Jobless claims drop below 400,000 mark (CNN 12/30/2010)
Tax cut deal: How it affects you (CNN 12/16/2010)
Unemployment claims drift lower (CNN 12/16/2010)
Jobs report a wake-up call to Washington (CNN 12/04/2010)
November jobs report: Unemployment rate up (CNN 12/03/2010)
Jobless benefits cost so far: $319 billion (CNN 11/17/2010)
New deficit plan would cut $6 trillion (CNN 11/17/2010)
Bush tax cuts: Cutting through the noise (CNN 11/13/2010)
Make Money in 2011: Your Job (CNN 11/13/2010)
October jobs report: Hiring picks up (CNN 11/05/2010)
Jobless claims surge to 457,000 (CNN 11/04/2010)
American dream fades for more as homeownership falls (CNN 11/02/2010)
Jobless claims rise, topping 460,000 (CNN 10/14/2010)
Jobs take a hit in September (CNN 10/08/2010)
Obama tax plan: Who gets hit - and why (CNN 09/24/2010)
Jobless claims decline, but not enough (CNN 09/02/2010)
July jobs report: Economy still losing jobs (CNN 08/06/2010)
Jobless claims jump to 3-month high (CNN 08/05/2010)
Airlines getting billions from new fees, House panel hears (CNN 07/14/2010)
When the benefits run out - and still no job (CNN 07/13/2010)
Forget India, outsource to Arkansas (CNN 07/08/2010)
Job gloom at all-time high (CNN 07/03/2010)
Job losses return (CNN 07/02/2010)
Say goodbye to full-time jobs with benefits (CNN 06/05/2010)
Why Amish businesses don't fail (CNN 05/09/2010)
American made... Chinese owned (CNN 05/07/2010)
April Jobs report: Best gain in four years (CNN 05/07/2010)
Job reports show signs of growth (CNN 05/05/2010)
Jobless claims in another surprise surge (CNN 04/15/2010)
Congress extends jobless benefits (CNN 04/15/2010)
Jobless claims soar (CNN 04/08/2010)
March jobs report shows growth (CNN 04/02/2010)
Job cuts surge 61% (CNN 04/01/2010)
Senate takes a stab at financial reform (CNN 03/13/2010)
What killed Lehman (CNN 03/12/2010)
America's hidden debt bombs (CNN 03/01/2010)
A telecommuting pioneer's call center revolution (CNN 02/23/2010)
The job application black hole (CNN 02/18/2010)
Unemployment taxes slam businesses (CNN 02/09/2010)
Poof: Another 800,000 jobs disappear (CNN 02/04/2010)
Obama: Here's $5,000. Go hire someone (CNN 01/29/2010)
Poll: Most say stimulus has not helped middle class (CNN 01/27/2010)
Working twice as hard for half the money (CNN 01/25/2010)
Unemployment rates rise in 29 states (CNN 11/20/2009)
Time to Drain Wall Street Bonus Pool? (CNN 11/06/2009)
Unemployment Hits 10.2% (CNN 11/06/2009)
Pace of Job Losses Slows (CNN 11/04/2009)
Jobs Will Return — in 2012 (CNN 10/30/2009)
Bank Failures Stack up: Now 106 for 2009 (CNN 10/23/2009)
Employees Face 'Shockingly Higher' Health Costs (CNN 10/19/2009)
Goldman Sachs: Your Tax Dollars, Their Big Bonuses (CNN 10/16/2009)
Bank of America: $2.2 Billion Loss (Nation's biggest bank is hit by bad loans, CNN, 10/11/2009)
Some Credit Card Companies Rush to Act Before New Law (CNN 10/11/2009)
Bad News: Jobs Market Getting Worse (CNN 10/02/2009)
Worker Morale Gets Beat Down (CNN 09/17/2009)
Goldman Sachs bites Uncle Sam's hand (CNN 07/17/2009)
IBM draws criticism for job cuts, outsourcing (CNN 03/26/2009)
IBM to cut 5,000 jobs in U.S. (Reuters. 03/25/2009)
Jobless claims spike to 26-year high (CNN 02/26/2009)

Military (12/31/2023) Go to: List top | Prev sect (04/24/2024) | Next sect (03/05/2024) | List bot

US forces around the world in 2023: From bolstering allies to attacks in Iraq, Syria (Fox 12/31/2023)
F-35 reminds China who’s top gun by shooting down a Houthi cruise missile (Fox 12/11/2023)
This US bomber is why China suddenly wants to talk about nukes and AI (Fox 11/27/2023)
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It's the only U.S. Air Force combat plane with the range and stealth to chase China's mobile missiles and carry the deep penetrating weapons to hit underground bunkers if North Korea or Iran threatens nuclear mayhem.

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The new bomber will take up its role in the nuclear deterrence triad in the 2030s, just as China builds up its nuclear arsenal.
Newest Air Force stealth bomber, the $750M B-21 Raider, takes first flight (Fox 11/10/2023)
Artificial intelligence and US nuclear weapons decisions: How big a role? (Fox 11/07/2023)
Pentagon announces new nuclear bomb 24 times more powerful than one dropped on Japan (Fox 10/30/2023)
US military needs AI vehicles, weapon systems to be 'superior' global force: experts (Fox 10/13/2023)
7 ways to fix the most glaring issues facing America’s military (Fox 09/28/2023)
Air Force releases most detailed images yet of secretive Raider nuclear stealth bomber (Fox 09/17/2023)
Pentagon looking to develop 'fleet' of AI drones, systems to combat China: report (Fox 09/09/2023)
F-16 is the greatest fighter jet of all time and we have the receipts (Fox 06/24/2023)
Tank operator highlights one of the 'major milestones' in US armory history (Fox 05/28/2023)
USS Wasp docks in NYC for Fleet Week: Inside the amphibious warship that aids Navy, Marine operations (Fox 05/27/2023)
U.S. Department of Defense announces four new military sites in the Philippines (Fox 04/03/2023)
Army moving forward with new weapons, will test in various environments (Fox 03/16/2023)
US Air Force unveils 'MUTANT' missile that can twist in air, change direction faster (Fox 03/15/2023)
China, Russia can't top our fabulous F-22 fighters (Fox 03/04/2023)
Air Force unveils B-21 Raider stealth bomber (Fox 12/02/2022)
Air Force to unveil its new B-21 Raider stealth bomber Friday (Fox 11/28/2022)
US military conducts hypersonic missile launch experiments at Virginia facility (Fox 10/26/2022)
US carries out ICBM test after delaying over tensions with China (Fox 08/16/2022)
US Navy developing water-based drones to combat China 'pacing challenge' but wary of 'unproven technology' (Fox 07/31/2022)
US seeks new portable anti-air missile to replace the Stinger (Fox 04/24/2022)
US Army using lessons from Ukraine war to aid own training (Fox 04/17/2022)
US boasts successful hypersonic missile test, after Russia used similar weapon in Ukraine (Fox 04/05/2022)
Michigan Air National Guard lands jets, takes off from US highway in military first (Fox 08/05/2021)
Boeing drone refuels Navy fighter jet for the first time (Fox 06/08/2021)
Army’s new night vision goggles compared to something ‘stolen from aliens’ (Fox 05/05/2021)
For wars of the future, Pentagon looks to distant past: The B-52 (Fox 01/25/2021)
Navy to add new attack submarines by 2045 in massive surge (Fox 01/07/2021)
Army's long-range cannon gets direct hit on target 43 miles away (Fox 12/22/2020)
Navy arms first new Flight III destroyer with next-gen weapons (Fox 12/13/2020)
US Marines can now attack from aircraft carriers with F-35C stealth fighters (Fox 12/09/2020)
Air Force accelerates F-35 as war-attack 'sensor node' (Fox 12/06/2020)
New Special Operations light attack vehicle will fire lasers (Fox 12/01/2020)
Air Force arms classic B-1B bomber with hypersonic weapons (Fox 11/29/2020)
Pentagon develops new weapons to stop 'near-space' hypersonic missile attacks (Fox 11/24/2020)
Pentagon develops self-guiding, 'autonomous' hypersonic weapons (Fox 11/23/2020)
Pentagon builds new sensing weapons for space war (Fox 11/22/2020)
Navy destroyers might kill hypersonic missile attacks (Fox 11/22/2020)
How Obama-era budget controls have hurt US military readiness against growing China... (11/16/2020)
Why an Air Force 6th-gen stealth fighter is here almost 10 years early (Fox 11/08/2020)
New Air Force 6th-Gen aircraft takes flight with F-35 (Fox 11/06/2020)
Could the Abrams live until 2030 and beyond? (Fox 10/25/2020)
Army pursues new war plans for 2035 (Fox 10/21/2020)
Army prepares robotic air assault technology for wars of the future (Fox 10/21/2020)
Could Army AI identify new, unknown Russian and Chinese tanks? Maybe soon (Fox 10/19/2020)
F-35 sends targets to ground soldiers and army soldiers send targets up to F-35s (Fox 10/05/2020)
New high-speed Army satellites accelerate attacks on enemy tanks (Fox 10/04/2020)
'Attacking at speed': Army Project Convergence and breakthrough lightning-fast war (Fox 09/27/2020)
Air Force flies 6th-gen stealth fighter – 'super fast' with digital engineering (Fox 09/22/2020)
Army pursues new 'Combined Arms Maneuver' warfare attack plan (Fox 09/18/2020)
New F-35-dropped Air Force bomb tracks and destroys targets from 40 miles (Fox 09/15/2020)
Massive breakthrough: 155 mm howitzer artillery destroys incoming cruise missile (Fox 09/14/2020)
Air Force B-2s 'attack targets' to train for war in Pacific (Fox 09/10/2020)
Navy sinks warship during Rim of the Pacific exercise, video shows (Fox 09/01/2020)
Army AI uses human brain as a combat 'sensor' (Fox 09/01/2020)
How would US Navy stop Chinese 'carrier killer' anti-ship missiles? (Fox 08/31/2020)
Pentagon calls China's test of DF-21D and DF-26 anti-ship missiles 'destabilizing' (Fox 08/31/2020)
Army merges AI and human brain to track and attack targets 8/26/20 Army merges AI and human brain to track and (ck/0/2024)
Air Force fast-tracks new ICBM to avoid 'missile gap' (Fox 08/24/2020)
First B-21 Flight: Testers to assess weapons, stealth and flight envelope (Fox 08/23/2020)
US sensor plan to stop hypersonic attack – 'You can't shoot what you don't see' (Fox 08/17/2020)
Army Futures 'tech cell' anticipates the evolution of war (Fox 08/16/2020)
Air Force bombers, drones and fighters test joint 'stealth attack' ops (Fox 08/16/2020)
Pentagon develops new 'Kill Vehicle' Interceptor to destroy ICBMs (Fox 08/12/2020)
Army works to ensure AI-enabled warfare doesn't go too far (Fox 07/28/2020)
How did the Army double the range of artillery attack? (Fox 07/28/2020)
Navy's New USS Ford can launch more attacks and drop more weapons (Fox 07/28/2020)
Army enters a new era in warfare for 2040 — the 'Big 10' (Fox 07/24/2020)
Navy Electronic Warfare stops multiple enemy missile attacks at once (Fox 07/17/2020)
Navy seeks to increase sea-based attack options (Fox 07/17/2020)
New Air Force stealth bomber arrives in just '2 years' (Fox 07/07/2020)
New Army AI technology accelerates multi-target attacks (Fox 07/01/2020)
The Pentagon has plans to destroy hypersonic weapons attacks (Fox 06/25/2020)
Lasers, AI and drones likely to inform Navy concept for new 2030 destroyer (Fox 06/25/2020)
Pentagon 2020 space strategy calls for new weapons (Fox 06/24/2020)
Army fires off test shot for new precision-strike missile (Fox 06/23/2020)
Army researchers set sights on self-regenerating armor (Fox 06/10/2020)
Army Futures Command general describes how future wars will look (Fox 06/09/2020)
New Air Force B-21 stealth bomber takes key technology step toward war readiness (Fox 06/02/2020)
New F-22 weapons now 'operational' and ready for war (Fox 06/01/2020)
Navy builds 10 new heavily armed frigate warships (Fox 05/29/2020)
Army builds new 18.6-mile-range tank-killing weapon (Fox 05/28/2020)
Destroyer-fired Navy lasers will soon destroy attacking cruise missiles (Fox 05/27/2020)
Navy ships improve attack with new multi-beam satellite antenna (Fox 05/19/2020)
Pentagon confirms development of hypersonic weapons after Trump talks up ‘super duper missiles’ (Fox 05/15/2020)
Army Futures commander sees AI-driven 'hyperactive battlefield' in future war (Fox 05/13/2020)
Army flying explosive gets new warhead and radar to destroy drones (Fox 05/12/2020)
US Special Operations arms surveillance aircraft for precision attack (Fox 05/11/2020)
New Army artillery changes course to hit targets under bridges (Fox 05/08/2020)
Air Force says nuclear weapons and stealth bombers remain ready for war, despite COVID-19 (Fox 04/30/2020)
How COVID-19 may change future weapons and war (Fox 04/14/2020)
Acting Navy secretary resigns after criticizing ousted USS Theodore Roosevelt commander (Fox 04/07/2020)
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... one day after Modly apologized for suggesting the ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt was either "too naive or too stupid" — or perhaps even deliberately insubordinate — over his handling of the ship's coronavirus outbreak.

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"This morning I accepted Secretary Modly's resignation. With the approval of the President, I am appointing current Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson as acting Secretary of the Navy."

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Crozier had circulated a memo to Navy leaders last week that was obtained by news media in which he urged speedy action to evacuate the ship of nearly 5,000 sailors as the coronavirus began to escalate.

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Approximately 155 crew members aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for COVID-19.

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"This will require a political solution but it is the right thing to do. We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors."

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He added that "due to a warship's inherent limitations of space, we are not doing this," referring to social distancing.

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"Removing the majority of personnel from a deployed U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier and isolating them for two weeks may seem like an extraordinary measure. ... This is a necessary risk."

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"Keeping over 4,000 young men and women on board the TR is an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those Sailors entrusted to our care."

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Trump on Monday said Crozier shouldn't have sent the 4-page letter in an unclassified and unsecured manner, but the president added that he did not want to destroy "somebody for having a bad day."

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On Saturday, though, Trump had taken a harder line on Crozier: "I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isn't a class on literature," Trump remarked.

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"This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear powered. And he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter."

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After Crozier's letter became public, Modly then flew to the ship, at port in Guam, and delivered a speech to the crew in which he lambasted Crozier, saying he was either "too naive or too stupid" to be in charge of an aircraft carrier — or perhaps leaked the letter intentionally.

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Modly charged that Crozier had allowed details of the ship's operational security to become public, either recklessly or intentionally.

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"If he [Crozier] didn't think, in my opinion, that this information [the letter] wasn't going to get out into the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this."

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"The alternative is that he did this on purpose."

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Modly had relieved Crozier of command of the aircraft carrier last week. He said he'd lost confidence in Crozier for having shown "extremely poor judgment" in widely distributing a memo pleading for an accelerated evacuation of the crew members to protect their health.

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Esper's staff told Modly he must apologize, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

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On Monday night, Modly issued his public apology.

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"Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid," Modly said, referring to his speech aboard the Roosevelt on Sunday.

•
"I think, and always believed him to be the opposite. We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care. Captain Crozier is smart and passionate."

•
"I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused," Modley continued.

•
"I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused."
Trump hints that he may get involved in Navy episode as Modly issues apology (Fox 04/07/2020)
•
Modly later issued an apology to the Navy and Crozier and said, "Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Cozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite. We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care. Captain Crozier is smart and passionate."

•
Trump told a press conference that he is good at "settling arguments."

•
Trump said Cozier should have resisted sending the letter but he did not want to destroy "somebody for having a bad day."
Trump scolds ousted USS Theodore Roosevelt commander for coronavirus letter; Navy boss apologizes for reaction (Fox 04/07/2020)
•
Trump criticized Cozier at a press conference Monday saying "the letter shouldn't have been sent."

•
"It shows weakness. And there's nothing weak about us now. Not anymore."

•
"We don't want to have letter-writing campaigns where the fake news finds a letter, gets a leak. We don't want that."

•
"He shouldn't be talking that way in a letter. I thought it was terrible what he did."

•
Still, Trump admitted that despite the letter Crozier's "career prior to that was very good."

•
"I'm going to get involved and see exactly what's going on there. Because I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

•
Moldly apologized Monday evening for his remarks against Crozier, which were laced with profanity, saying in a statement "Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite."

•
"Captain Crozier is smart and passionate," Modly's statement continued. I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship."

•
Trump suggested that his involvement could put an end to the bitter disagreement between the two about the way the coronavirus outbreak on the ship was handled.

•
"You have two good people and they're arguing, and believe it or not I'm good at settling arguments."
Acting Navy Secretary blasts ousted USS Theodore Roosevelt's captain as 'naive' and 'stupid' in address... (Fox 04/06/2020)
•
"If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out into the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this."

•
"The alternative is that he did this on purpose."

•
"Think about that when you cheer the man of the ship who exposed you to that...I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him. But you're not required to love him."

•
"It was a betrayal. And I can tell you one other thing: because he did that he put it in the public's forum and it is now a big controversy in Washington, D.C.."

•
In his letter addressed to senior Navy leadership in Washington, D.C., Crozier warned, "We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors."

•
... ordered Crozier to step down, citing a failure to follow the Navy's chain of command. He accused Crozier of inciting "panic" with the letter.
USS Theodore Roosevelt commander says entire crew needs to be isolated after 200 positive coronavirus... (Fox 03/31/2020)
More than 30 coronavirus cases on Pacific aircraft carrier, new ones discovered on another carrier... (Fox 03/27/2020)
Navy plans large new fleet of 'mothership'-controlled drone boats (Fox 03/19/2020)
New helicopter-killing Army artillery cannon destroys target at 39.8 miles (Fox 03/17/2020)
Army, Air Force Research Labs set sights on new hypersonic weapons (Fox 03/09/2020)
Navy builds 2nd new super high-tech Flight III destroyer (Fox 03/06/2020)
Army research lab now building future tanks (Fox 03/02/2020)
Advanced Navy undersea sonar and laser sensor finds enemy mines fast (Fox 02/28/2020)
Navy arms destroyers with new laser weapons (Fox 02/27/2020)
What is the 'Space Force' and how will it fit into the US military? (Fox 02/25/2020)
DARPA to develop hypersonic 'Glide Breaker' that would knock missile threats out of the sky (Fox 02/25/2020)
Army engineers more lethal and more explosive fragmenting missiles, artillery (Fox 02/24/2020)
New Army technology fast-tracks damaged tanks back to combat (Fox 02/21/2020)
Navy arms amphibs with 13 F-35s, changes future attack tactics (Fox 02/20/2020)
Navy preps its new USS Ford carrier for massive ocean warfare (Fox 02/17/2020)
Navy preps stealthy USS Zumwalt for new lasers, missiles and guns (Fox 02/12/2020)
Army seeks technology to see through walls and identify people on the other side (Fox 02/07/2020)
Navy fast-tracks autonomous undersea drones able to find and explode enemy mines (Fox 01/22/2020)
Navy builds aircraft carrier drone headquarters (Fox 01/17/2020)
Navy may arm new destroyer with conventional missile able to hit anywhere on Earth in an hour (Fox 01/15/2020)
Navy accelerates new ship radar to support emerging 'sea-attack' strategy (Fox 01/14/2020)
Navy strategy fast-tracks new weapons for 'offensive' attack (Fox 01/14/2020)
Air Force Secretary Barrett: Space Force now operating to preserve and protect our vital interests... (Fox 12/20/2019)
Pentagon advances new technology to destroy hypersonic missile attacks (Fox 12/17/2019)
F-22 armed with more precision attack technology (Fox 12/05/2019)
New F-35-armed Navy amphibious assault ship completes trials (Fox 11/22/2019)
Navy takes next step with new, more lethal Flight III destroyer (Fox 11/20/2019)
Air Force Research Lab works on new, next-generation hypersonic weapons (Fox 11/15/2019)
Air Force maps path to 100 new B-21 bombers (Fox 11/06/2019)
Army plans 'lase-off' competition to incinerate targets with lasers fired from Strykers (Fox 11/04/2019)
Army eyes groups of autonomous 'morphing' robots for 2040 (Fox 11/01/2019)
Army Infantry improves its ability to attack and destroy enemy tanks (Fox 10/30/2019)
Army AI task force works to massively 'speed up' weapons attacks (Fox 10/25/2019)
Top Army modernization priorities are 'on track,' says Army Vice Chief of Staff (Fox 10/22/2019)
New missile-armed Stryker unveiled by General Dynamics (Fox 10/17/2019)
Army shapes long-term war vision with new infantry vehicle (Fox 10/16/2019)
Army mini-explosive drones kill enemy drones (Fox 10/15/2019)
Army pursues new virtual soldier training for future war (Fox 10/08/2019)
Air Force bomber plan: B-2, B-52 and B-1 to fly into 2040 (Fox 10/07/2019)
Air Force arms B1-B bomber with hypersonic weapons (Fox 10/01/2019)
Air Force's new B61-12 nuclear bomb hits target in testing (Fox 09/30/2019)

Technology (03/05/2024) Go to: List top | Prev sect (12/31/2023) | Next sect (04/09/2024) | List bot

Electric vehicles release more toxic emissions, are worse for the environment than gas-powered cars (NYP 03/05/2024)
Google’s A.I. Fiasco Exposes Deeper Infowarp (Brownstone Institute, 02/17/24)
SpaceX-backed flying car startup says it hit record 2,850 pre-orders for $300K vehicles (NYP 03/04/2024)
You're charging wrong: 5 ways to make gadget batteries last longer (JWR 01/18/2024)
NASA debuts supersonic jet called ‘son of Concorde’ — capable of flying from NYC to London in 3 1/2 hours (NYP 01/15/2024)
New tech promises to improve traffic flow in major cities, experts say (Fox 01/04/2024)
Google Maps gets a massive AI upgrade with 5 new features (Fox 11/14/2023)
Is your boss spying on you? (Fox 10/28/2023)
Researchers shed light on how to read, control AI systems' minds (Fox 10/05/2023)
'Killer AI' is real. Here's how we stay safe, sane and strong in a brave new world (Fox 08/31/2023)
Study casts doubt on electric vehicles' climate, cost benefits: 'Won't achieve the goals intended' (Fox 07/18/2023)
World's first fully electric flying car approved by FAA and accepting preorders (Fox 07/01/2023)
AI comes to the farm: New technology tackles acres of weeds quickly by using robotics and lasers (Fox 06/27/2023)
8 Android accessibility tips to make life easier (Fox 06/09/2023)
Meet the American who wrote the moon-landing software: Margaret Hamilton, computer whiz and mom (Fox 04/28/2023)
AI expert warns Elon Musk-signed letter doesn't go far enough, says 'literally everyone on Earth will die' (Fox 03/30/2023)
Elon Musk, Apple co-founder, other tech experts call for pause on 'giant AI experiments': 'Dangerous race' (Fox 03/29/2023)
How to tell if your laptop camera has been hacked and someone is spying on you (Fox 03/22/2023)
On this day in history, March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell makes first telephone call from Boston lab (Fox 03/10/2023)
Aviation milestone: artificial intelligence flew a modified F-16 fighter jet for over 17 hours (Fox 02/14/2023)
The most important SOS tool ever made (Fox 02/12/2023)
Best expert-reviewed laptops for 2023 (Fox 01/25/2023)
Best expert-reviewed password managers of 2023 (Fox 01/23/2023)
Are your own devices inadvertently spying on you? (Fox 01/20/2023)
Meet the American who invented the TV remote control: self-taught Chicago engineer Eugene Polley (Fox 01/06/2023)
Delete this popular task manager app right away if you're an Android User (Fox 12/31/2022)
Why Windows is #1 target for malware: 2 easy ways to stay safe (Fox 12/29/2022)
How to know if your iPhone is listening to you (Fox 12/19/2022)
Tesla 'Highland' electric car in the works, report says (Fox 11/28/2022)
MIT researchers creating self-replicating robots with built-in intelligence (Fox 11/27/2022)
Truth Social now available in Samsung Galaxy Store (Fox 10/04/2022)
Remove your personal info from the top 7 people search sites (Fox 09/29/2022)
Hidden trackers invade your browser — how to delete them (Fox 09/26/2022)
Pathway to 9/11: How bin Laden came to mastermind the devastating terror attacks (Fox 09/09/2022)
GM’s hands-free Super Cruise driving system now works on Route 66 (Fox 08/03/2022)
Meet the American who invented the gas mask and the modern traffic signal (Fox 07/15/2022)
Meet the American who invented the motor home (Fox 06/18/2022)
Google suspends engineer following claims an AI system had become 'sentient' (Fox 06/13/2022)
Secured home WiFi router? Think, again! (JWR 03/28/2022)
Cybersecurity experts warn of impending attacks - do this now to prepare (Fox 03/10/2022)
Stuck: Ford patents pickup with magnetic bed to hold cargo in place (Fox 02/06/2022)
Self-propelled Airstream eStream is the future of travel trailers (Fox 01/20/2022)
Email spam is breaking through again. Here's what you can do to minimize it (JWR 01/19/2022)
Rivian may take on GM, Ram and Ford pickups with new tailgate tech (Fox 01/19/2022)
Ford patents new pickup tailgate with hidden door (Fox 01/17/2022)
How to find your phone when it’s lost [even if the battery is dead] (Fox 01/02/2022)
Robot dog armed with sniper rifle unveiled at US Army trade show (Fox 10/16/2021)
Your apps are watching everywhere you go unless you change this setting (Fox 09/20/2021)
9 free software copycats that work better than the real expensive programs (Fox 09/19/2021)
Amid Big Tech fight, web hosting company gives conservatives a cancel-proof alternative (Fox 09/08/2021)
•
"We are absolutely ideological. What we saw here was the need to have the internet, because it was created in America, carry with it as part of its principles American values, American ideology – that's our ideology. We believe that the American framework, the core ideas enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution incubated the internet."

•
... saw the need for a web hosting alternative in January when Amazon Web Services shut down the servers of Parler – a conservative social media alternative to Twitter – over alleged breaches of its terms of service on hate speech. That came days after Apple had blocked its app from its App Store.

•
"That was the actual physical real estate that's very hard to replicate and very hard to understand what it is. The physical real estate of the servers, the access to power and processing and storage was being taken away, the ability to create the internet and exist on the internet was being taken away by a company."

•
"So you could be rendered unable to exist online and they did that, so what we saw as the opportunity was to solve for that."

•
"Parler did a great job, built a social media platform that had I believe 15 million users and they were starting to hit an inflection point where you would have started to see more people go there and they really could have been a competitor, but what happened?"

•
"The infrastructure, Amazon Web Services and the app stores, that was what crushed them, and so I think conservatives who are seeking to build that baseline foundation of the internet like what RightForge is doing, are playing a really critical role and they'll actually allow for something like Parler to have a better shot at success later on."

•
"Our goal is to be in 10 milliseconds of anyone anywhere, so if you're hitting us, if you're pulling up a site in Egypt, we're able to deploy faster because we have servers in Europe."

•
"Because in order to stand up as an alternative site, you need the real estate we provide, you need the processing power, you need the storage."

•
Even for those who may not be the most tech-savvy or familiar with concepts like hosting and servers, questions about who owns server space and what rules are tied to them affect everyone...

•
"It's so important because the internet is everything – it's in our doorbells, it's what we see everyday, it sees and filters and controls the information going into our brains at all times."

•
"I think anyone who follows this space understands that the censorship is only going to increase from here from the main companies, They're not going to slow down."

•
See related Out of Books (Mike Lester, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

•
See related Facebook Free Speech Assault (Dick Wright, 05/08/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album

•
See related Marching (Mike Shelton, 01/11/2021) cartoon from Corporate picture album
Right to privacy is intact, but Americans must fight for it: Lara Logan (Fox 09/05/2021)
•
"There are countless ways Americans can protect themselves. The right to privacy is intact, and we have to fight for it if we want to preserve it."

•
"We did that at a time we were deliberately deceived by tech companies and their allies in government in order to give them extraordinary license to garner unprecedented power that we would never have allowed, and never have allowed in the history of this country."

•
"We have never allowed normal companies that are not tech companies to amass the kind of global power and monopoly power over the U.S., not just the U.S. economy, but the U.S. society that we have given to Google and Amazon."

•
"Do practical small things like maintain digital hygiene, clear out your history, clear out your cookies. Go into every app you use. Deny, deny, deny, deny. Do not let them use your data. Do not let them use you and take your privacy away from you."
Quick tech tip: Scan photos and documents without buying a scanner (Fox 08/21/2021)
All aboard the hyperloop: How your commute could be changing (Fox 07/19/2021)
Flying car completes first intercity test flight (Fox 07/01/2021)
Amazon's cashierless checkout coming to grocery store for first time near Seattle (Fox 06/15/2021)
NASA to show off space lasers, enabling faster transfer of data between Earth and space (Fox 05/13/2021)
What is NASA's Super Guppy plane? (Fox 03/07/2021)
Federal safety agency talking to Tesla about strange steering 'wheel' (Fox 01/29/2021)
Google search alternatives that respect your privacy (Fox 11/15/2020)
Mopar's new Hellcrate Redeye V8 is a monstrous muscle car motor (Fox 11/09/2020)
NASA reaches key milestone with US companies competing to provide moon landers (Fox 10/25/2020)
Microsoft's Windows 10 is breaking PCs (Fox 10/20/2020)
The new trick to know when your phone’s camera or mic is being used (Fox 10/04/2020)
Tech security tip: How to delete private data for good (Fox 09/26/2020)
How to erase your data to remove your life from Google’s grip (Fox 09/20/2020)
How to delete yourself from people search sites (Fox 09/19/2020)
Microsoft is cutting 'critical' support for Internet Explorer, once the world’s most popular Web browser (Fox 08/20/2020)
Live with snoops or just want privacy? Tech smarts for your smartphone (Fox 07/12/2020)
How Elon Musk was inspired to found Tesla, SpaceX after being fired from PayPal (Fox 05/17/2020)
•
"There's a silly notion that failure's not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough."

•
In fact, one significant failure — one that eventually led him to found SpaceX — was when he was ousted from his position as the CEO of PayPal.

•
In 1999, Musk started an online financial services company called X.com. The company eventually merged with a competing financial company co-founded by Peter Thiel to create PayPal in 2000.

•
Though Musk was named as the CEO of merged companies, his time in the role was short-lived.

•
Business Insider reported that in October 2000, Musk wanted to switch the PayPal servers from a Unix platform to a Microsoft Windows platform, but the other cofounders didn't like the idea.

•
While he was on his way to Australia for a vacation, Musk was fired by PayPal's board.

•
He remained the majority shareholder in the company and when eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion, Musk ended up with $180 million.

•
Even more significant than the money, though, was how Musk was inspired to move on.

•
"Going from PayPal, I thought, ‘Well, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?'"

•
"It really wasn't from the perspective of what's the ... best way to make money."

•
It was during that time that he was inspired to found SpaceX and Tesla.

•
He founded Tesla in 2003 because it would solve the problem of sustainable energy and he founded SpaceX in 2002 because it would help "make life multi-planetary."

•
In 2008, both companies were on the brink of bankruptcy, he reportedly told an audience at South by Southwest in 2018.

•
"I gave both SpaceX and Tesla a probability of less than 10 percent likely to succeed."

•
SpaceX also had several rockets and spacecraft blow up and in 2016, Tesla struggled to meet delivery goals.

•
Now, however, SpaceX is valued at more than $20 billion and Tesla makes $26 billion in sales annually.

•
"Anything which is significantly innovative is going to come with a significant risk of failure."

•
"But, you know, you've got to take big chances in order for the potential for a big, positive outcome. If the outcome is exciting enough, then taking a big risk is worthwhile."
5 router settings you must change to protect your network (Fox 04/09/2020)
Internet working because Cold War-era pioneers designed it to handle almost anything (JWR 04/07/2020)
•
Coronavirus knocked down - at least for a time - internet pioneer Vinton Cerf, who offers this reflection on the experience: "I don't recommend it. . . It's very debilitating."

•
But Cerf, 76 and now recovering in his northern Virginia home, has better news to report about the computer network he and others spent much of their lives creating.

•
"This basic architecture is 50 years old, and everyone is online. And the thing is not collapsing."

•
The internet, born as a Pentagon project during some of the chillier years of the Cold War, has taken such a central role in 21st Century civilian society, culture and business that few pause any longer to appreciate its wonders - except perhaps, as in the past few weeks, when it becomes even more central to our lives.

•
"Resiliency and redundancy are very much a part of the Internet design," explained Cerf...

•
... so far internet industry officials report that they've been able to manage the shifting loads and surges

•
To a substantial extent, the network has managed them automatically because its underlying protocols adapt to shifting conditions, working around trouble spots to find more efficient routes for data transmissions and managing glitches in a way that doesn't break connections entirely.

•
... perhaps even more goes to the seminal engineers and scientists like Cerf, who for decades worked to create a particular kind of global network — open, efficient, resilient and highly interoperable so anyone could join and nobody needed to be in charge.

•
Cerf was a driving force in developing key internet protocols in the 1970s, while working for Stanford University and, later, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which provided key early research funding but ultimately relinquished control of the network it spawned.

•
He also was among a gang of self-described "Netheads" who led an insurgency against the dominant forces in telecommunications at the time, dubbed the "Bellheads" for their loyalty to the Bell Telephone Company and its legacy technologies.

•
Bell ... and the similar monopolies in other countries wanted to connect computers through a system much like their lucrative telephone systems, with fixed networks of connections run by central entities that could make all of the major technological decisions, control access and charge whatever the market - or government regulators - would allow.

•
The vision of the Netheads was comparatively anarchic, relying on a few key technological insights and a lot of faith in collaboration.

•
The result was a network - or really, a network of networks - with no chief executive, no police, no taxman and no laws.

•
In their place were technical protocols, arrived at through a process for developing expert consensus, that offered anyone access to the digital world, from any properly configured device.

•
Their numbers, once measured in the dozens, now rank in the tens of billions, including phones, televisions, cars, dams, drones, satellites, thermometers, garbage cans, refrigerators, watches and so much more.

•
"You're seeing a success story right now," said David Clark, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientist who worked on early internet protocols.

•
"If we didn't have the internet, we'd be in an incredibly different place right now. What if this had happened in the 1980s?"

•
Such a system carries a notable cost in terms of security and privacy, a fact the world rediscovers every time there's a major data breach, ransomware attack or controversy over the amount of information governments and private companies collect about anyone who's online - a category that includes more than half of the world's almost 8 billion people.

•
But the lack of a central authority is key to why the Internet works as well as it does, especially at times of unforeseen demands.

•
Some of the early internet architects — Cerf among them, from his position at the Pentagon — were determined to design a system that could continue operating through almost anything, including a nuclear attack from the Soviets.

•
That's one reason the system doesn't have any preferred path from Point A to Point B. It continuously calculates and recalculates the best route, and if something in the middle fails, the computers that calculate transmission paths find new routes - without having to ask anyone's permission to do so.

•
Steve Crocker, a networking pioneer like Cerf, compared this quality to that of a sponge, an organism whose functions are so widely distributed that breaking one part does not typically cause the entire organism to die.

•
"You can do damage to a portion of it, and the rest of it just lumbers forward," Crocker said.

•
Even more elementally, the Netheads believed in an innovation called "packet-switching," which broke from the telephone company's traditional model, called "circuit switching," that dedicated a line to a single conversation and left it open until the participants hung up.

•
The Netheads considered that terribly wasteful given that any conversation includes pauses or gaps that could be used to transmit data.

•
Instead, they embraced a model in which all communications were broken into chunks, called packets, that continuously shuttled back and forth over shared lines, without pauses.

•
The computers at either end of these connections reassembled the packets into whatever they started as - emails, photos, articles or video - but the network itself didn't know or care what it was carrying. It just moved the packets around and let the recipient devices figure out what to do.

•
That simplicity, almost an intentional brainlessness at the Internet's most fundamental level, is a key to its adaptability.

•
Many of the internet's founding generation have memories of trying to convince various Bellheads that packet-switching was the inevitable future of telecommunications - cheaper, faster, easier to scale and vastly more efficient and adaptable.

•
Those anecdotes all end the same way, with the telephone company titans of the day essentially treating the Netheads as precocious but fundamentally misguided children who, some day, might understand how telecommunications technology really worked.

•
... recalled his own experience in trying to convince some phone company executives that he had discovered a technology that would change the world.

•
"They said, 'Little boy, go away,'" Kleinrock said. "So we went away."

•
And now, Kleinrock, 85 and staying home to minimize the risk of catching the coronavirus, and enjoying that his home internet connection is 2,000 times faster than the phone-booth sized communications device that internet pioneers used in 1969.

•
"The network," he said, "has been able to adapt in a beautiful way."
5 ways to make Windows 10 more secure (Fox 02/29/2020)
Larry Tesler, inventor of copy-and-paste computer functions, dies at 74 (JWR 02/24/2020)
•
He also devised what is known as Tesler's Law, a tenet holding that, in any computing system, there is a level of technical complexity that cannot be reduced.

•
Tesler helped refine the concept of "modeless" computing, in which a user could perform a variety of functions at all times without manually changing how the computer would operate.

•
For his best-known innovation, Tesler adapted an age-old practice of schoolchildren - cutting out pictures and pasting them in scrapbooks - to computers.

•
At first, he thought the term "cut-and-paste" would apply strictly to design and visual images.

•
"I would have some analogous thing called delete and insert to use for moving text around, but it would have the same concept."

•
"After a while, I thought you don't really need a different name. We can probably teach people what cut and paste means even if they've never heard of it before."

•
Tesler and another computer scientist, Tim Mott, "did user testing at every stage of the development. He was the one that came up with the idea of the double click to select a word."

•
While attempting to find the easiest way to copy a word or line of text, Tesler recalled, "one day Tim came in and said, 'Last night I just was tapping on the table and went tap, tap, tap, tap. How about tap, tap? That would select a word."

•
By pressing or "clicking" on a computer mouse and then dragging the cursor across an image or a block of text, the selected material could be highlighted, or "cut."

•
A similar procedure with the mouse would allow that text to be copied or "pasted" onto another part of the computer document on the screen.

•
The cut-copy-paste command was incorporated into Apple's Lisa computer in 1983, then became a standard function on the Macintosh operating system, which was introduced a year later.

•
It is now an essential element of every digital device.

•
Tesler even developed a way to make the action of the mouse more precise by developing "a software algorithm that controlled for hand shake as you were dragging the mouse."

•
"As long as they're starting out with a horizontal motion, we ... assume [there will] be some shaking in the vertical direction and kind of ignore it unless they go all the way into the next line, like more than halfway into the next line. And then go, 'Uhm ... they really do want to go to this line.' "

•
Always interested in software and design, Tesler worked on many elements of computers now taken for granted, such as the proper tension in the cord attached to a computer mouse and the amount of finger pressure needed to click the mouse.
In defiance of his Xerox boss, he developed the laser printer, making it possible to print copies quickly... (JWR 01/17/2020)
Why electric cars still don't live up to the hype (JWR 12/31/2019)
•
Mass adoption of electric cars ... cannot occur unless they can do everything gas-powered vehicles can do — including the ability to go hundreds of miles before refueling, and refueling easily — at a comparable total cost of ownership.

•
Otherwise, electric cars will be a niche product for upper-income folks.

•
And government subsidies for them will be a regressive transfer of social resources in return for little climate benefit, given that the U.S. power grid the cars draw from is 64% fueled by coal and gas.

•
Nothing happened in the past decade to undermine this basic critique.
5 ways to defend your phone against SIM swap attacks (Fox 11/25/2019)
How to print a website without the ads and junk (Fox 09/28/2019)
How to fight the spies in your Chrome browser (JWR 07/01/2019)
Microsoft warns users to patch 'wormable' Windows flaw (Fox 06/03/2019)
•
The problem will affect older Windows systems with the Remote Desktop Services feature turned on.
Home routers are open to attacks, as Huawei ‘backdoor’ shows (Fox 05/04/2019)
•
"Exploiting the poor, neglected computer inside these routers has become so popular and easy that automated tools have been created to make the process a breeze."

•
After a hacker breaches the router's Wi-Fi security and login page, then they typically target the software that controls the router, the so-called firmware. Then, in a process known as "rootkitting," a hacker drops custom, malicious firmware into the router.

•
"Depending on the goals and resources of an attacker, this can include spying on the user and any connected devices [and] injecting malware into the browser to exploit connected devices."

•
"In our experience, backdoors are very often found on home routers, regardless of the vendor."

•
Jones said routers from D-Link, Cisco/Linksys/Netgear, TP-Link, Zyxel and other well-known brands have all been found to have backdoors.

•
"So there's no need for consumers to be any more worried about Huawei routers than any others."

•
"Routers should be periodically changed, because vendors rarely support devices that have been removed from sale."

•
... installing your router in a safe place "where the wireless signal is available only inside your own house. Avoid placing it near a window."

•
"Once we stop seeing our routers as part of the furniture, we can turn our attention to keeping them as...secure as possible."

•
Other suggestions include: turn off the older WPS security setting and turn on WPA2 encryption, change the default admin username and password to a strong password, upgrade your router firmware, don't' forget to log out after managing the router and disable remote management of the router over the internet.
Password managers have a security flaw. What to do about it (JWR 02/20/2019)
Bodycam footage shows alleged ISIS-tied Arizona man's confrontation with officer (Fox 02/15/2019)
Mom catches son, 6, using Alexa to answer his math problems: 'Boyyyyy!' (Fox 12/28/2018)
Google's missing moral compass: Tech giant happy to help China but not our US military (Fox 12/11/2018)
•
Google reveals its true colors (green and greener) when it disses the U.S. military in its request for help with artificial intelligence while at the same time aiding and abetting the Chinese government's draconian internet policies, providing a search engine labeled Dragonfly.

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In eschewing its duty to the nation that provides it the freedom to innovate and thrive, Google undermines our national security strategy and enables left-wing extremist bias into our domestic politics.

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True to form, they will reap the benefits of the country they spurn while tapping into a market that has the potential to exponentially increase their revenue.

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Google is used to having it both ways: making our private information public while protecting their own; refusing to assist our military while helping a declared military competitor.

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And make no mistake, Google's benevolence to China will find application in cyber-attacks and military hardware intended to harm America and our citizens.

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Google's lack of moral compass has crossed the line into endangering the very nation that hosts it and provides the fundamentals for its success.
The worst cyber attacks of the past 10 years (Fox 11/30/2018)
A list of the biggest data leaks (Fox 11/30/2018)
5 security settings to turn on your router before it’s too late (Fox 10/31/2018)
IBM to acquire Red Hat in deal valued at $34 billion (10/29/2018)
IBM To Acquire Red Hat, Completely Changing The Cloud Landscape And Becoming World's #1... (10/28/2018)
The world’s first flying car is about to take flight (Fox 07/24/2018)
Is your Android phone watching you? Study of more than 17,000 popular apps reveals 'disturbing practice' (Fox 07/05/2018)
Hands off my data! 15 default privacy settings you should change right now (JWR 06/11/2018)
Criminals can easily hack into your web browser, report says (Fox 03/08/2018)
•
"... if a user chose to have the browser save their password for them using the built-in password managers, we were able to extract those saved usernames and passwords for all sites tested."
10 incredibly useful online sites you didn't know about until now (Fox 02/18/2018)
16 Windows 10 tricks you'll wish you knew sooner (Fox 01/28/2018)
24 hidden Android settings you should know about (JWR 01/22/2018)
Crime Fighting Robots May Be Coming to a Mall Near You (Fox 04/25/2017)
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The robots — which are each five feet tall and weigh 300 pounds — use multiple sensors, a 360-degree camera and license plate recognition to retrieve information.

•
"We also have thermo cameras and signal detection so we can actually find mobile devices that are in the air too."

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... robots aren't intended to take jobs away from security officers but rather an attempt to help cut America's trillion-dollar crime problem in half.

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"We think that is a pretty lofty goal but we think that given the real-time information that we are gathering as well as historical information...it is very plausible that we can make an impact on crime and a positive impact on the economy."
Self-driving Uber involved in car Arizona crash: report (Fox 03/25/2017)
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The cars ... and the self-driving car rolled onto its side.
CIA cyber-spying toolkit now in hands of hackers worldwide: WikiLeaks (Fox 03/08/2017)
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... chilling evidence that everyday devices like smart TVs and cell phones have potentially become critical tools in the effort to spy on American citizens.

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The trove had been "circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors," one of whom allegedly turned the archive to WikiLeaks.

•
... the problem is also greater than the government's ability to listen-in. "The hacker on the street now has the Intelligence Community's hacking tool kit. It's that simple."

•
"Televisions, refrigerators and the Internet of Things will continue to introduce new ways for technology to be used against us."

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"As more devices are connected to the Internet or connected to our lives, it increases the likelihood of it being hacked and used to spy on us."

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"Once Mom and Pop start getting hacked through their Google Home or Amazon Echo, there's going to be some reckoning."
Lithium-ion battery inventor touts new battery breakthrough (Fox 03/08/2017)
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... recently announced the development of an all-solid-state battery that beats lithium-ion in every way imaginable.

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It's cheap, it has a longer life cycle, it charges and discharges quickly and, best of all, it's noncombustible — meaning it won't explode and burst into flames.

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The all-solid-state battery cells have at least three times as much energy density as lithium-ion batteries, which could greatly extend how far an electric vehicle can travel before it needs to be recharged.

•
The new battery can be charged and discharged more times than a lithium-cell battery, meaning it will last longer.

•
And charging and recharging can be accomplished in minutes, not hours.

•
Lithium-ion batteries use liquid electrolytes to transport lithium ions between the negative and positive sides of a battery. If the battery cell is charged too quickly, it can cause a short circuit that can lead to explosions and fires.

•
all-solid-state battery uses glass electrolytes instead of liquid ones.

•
The result is a battery that can have high conductivity at 4 degrees below zero (-20 degrees Celsius) — wonderful news for electric car owners — and is made from earth-friendly materials.

•
"The glass electrolytes allow for the substitution of low-cost sodium for lithium. Sodium is extracted from seawater that is widely available."

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Longer-lasting, faster-charging, more energy-dense and won't blow up. What more could you want from a battery?
Army picks Sig Sauer's P320 handgun to replace M9 service pistol (Fox 01/20/2017)
•
One of the major goals of the effort was to adopt a pistol chambered for a more potent round than the current 9mm.

•
"From calibers, to pistol size, to the grip fit best suited for the shooter, the P320 is the most adaptable pistol available today."

•
The decision formally ends the Beretta's 30-year hold on the Army's sidearm market.
US Army asks for biodegradable ammo (Fox 01/10/2017)
•
... ammunition doesn't come without waste which slowly degrades over hundreds of years polluting whatever ground (and nearby water sources) it happens to fall upon.

•
So the Department of Defense (DoD) decided to do something about it, and is requesting environmentally friendly ammunition for use during training exercises.

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Specifically, the DoD wants "biodegradable training ammunition loaded with specialized seeds to grow environmentally beneficial plants that eliminate ammunition debris and contaminants."

•
If successful, the use of biodegradable ammunition will lead to less ground contamination while at the same time ensuring anywhere training exercises are carried out will be left rich in plant life.
Check out NASA's asteroid-catching robot arms (Fox 12/27/2016)
Exclusive: Families of Orlando nightclub shooting victims sue Facebook, Twitter and Google (Fox 12/19/2016)
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Families of the victims of the Orlando gay nightclub shooting ... filed a federal civil suit against Twitter, Facebook and Google for allegedly providing "material support" to the Islamic State and helping to radicalize shooter Omar Mateen.

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"Without Defendants Twitter, Facebook, and Google (YouTube), the explosive growth of ISIS over the last few years into the most feared terrorist group in the world would not have been possible."

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Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard who pledged allegiance to ISIS, opened fire inside Orlando's Pulse nightclub back in June; killing 49 people and wounding 53 others before being killed by a SWAT team to end the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

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ISIS quickly claimed responsibility for the attack ... although further investigation found that Mateen was not a member of the terror group but had been inspired by them in part through what he saw on the Internet.

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"Mateen was radicalized by ISIS using the defendants tools for that express purpose."

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ISIS maintains an active presence on both Facebook and Twitter and also relies heavily on the Google-owned YouTube to post propaganda messages and videos of executions.

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"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

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"Section 230 is a free pass to online service providers as long as they act only as a pass-through."

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"If you set up a place for people to talk, but don't communicate on it yourself, then you are basically immune from prosecution."

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"The defendants create unique content by matching ISIS postings with advertisements based upon information known about the viewer."

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"Furthermore, the defendants finance ISIS's activities by sharing advertising revenue."
Car-stealing 'mystery device' uncovered (Fox 12/08/2016)
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... describes it as a "relay attack" unit that was originally designed for manufacturers to test the security of their wireless systems, but it and others like it have made their way into criminal hands, and handmade versions have also been discovered.
Supreme Court sides with Samsung in patent dispute with Apple (Fox 12/06/2016)
•
A unanimous Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with smartphone maker Samsung in its high-profile patent dispute with Apple over design of the iPhone.

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Apple had won a $399 million judgment against Samsung for copying parts of the iPhone's patented design, but the case now returns to a lower court to decide what Samsung must pay.

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The case is part of a series of disputes between the technology rivals that began in 2011.

•
Apple accused Samsung of duplicating a handful of distinctive iPhone features for which Apple holds patents: the flat screen, the rounded rectangle shape of the phone, and the layout of icons on the screen.

•
At issue was how much Samsung is required to compensate Apple under an 1887 law that requires patent infringers to pay "total profit."

•
Apple said that meant all the profits from the phone sales, while Samsung argued it was limited to profits related to the specific components that were copied.

•
Samsung had argued that the hefty award ignored the fact that its phones contain more than 200,000 other patents that Apple does not own.

•
Apple said the verdict was fair because the iPhone's success was directly tied to its distinctive look.
Special forces' parachutes: What you need to know (Fox 12/01/2016)
The shotgun that doesn’t kick (Fox 12/01/2016)
Department of Justice issues voluntary smart-gun guidelines (Fox 11/20/2016)
•
"This project was designed to spur the growth of enhanced gun safety technology – and not to mandate that any particular individual or law enforcement agency adopt the technology once developed."

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... include recommendations for how smart guns should be able to be unlocked and a default state that would allow guns to fire if the technology malfunctioned.

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"... it appears the president hopes to portray the publication of the document as a ‘win' during his waning days in office."

•
The NRA-ILA memo also called into question the basic practicality of smart guns if, as the DOJ admits in its own recommendations, the technology has the ability to fail.

•
"Any firearm that won't fire when it's needed just isn't ‘smart'. And any ‘security' system that defaults to turning itself off during a problem just isn't secure."
At $800K a pop, new Navy destroyer's ammo is in question (Fox 11/13/2016)
Facebook glitch made it appear some users had died (Fox 11/11/2016)
•
The message said Facebook hoped the users' loved ones would find comfort in seeing posts that others shared about them.

•
Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's page had the death notice for a short time on Friday.

•
"We are very sorry that this happened and we worked as quickly as possible to fix it."
BleachBit selling 'cloth or something' — in homage to Clinton (Fox 11/02/2016)
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The data-deleting software known as BleachBit, made famous by the Clinton team's use of it to scrub emails from the former secretary of state's private email server, is making the most of its time in the spotlight – and is now selling special "cloths" featuring the Democratic nominee herself.

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The item is called the "Cloth or Something" — a reference to an Aug. 18, 2015, response Clinton gave when asked by Fox News' Ed Henry if she had wiped her private email server.

•
"What, like with a cloth or something?" Clinton quipped, making a scrubbing motion with her hand.

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That "cloth" turned out to be BleachBit — a powerful software tool that includes the ability to "shred files to hide their contents and prevent data recovery," according to BleachBit's website.

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Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who revealed the Clinton team's use of the software in August this year, said it deleted files so completely that "even God can't read them" — a quote Bleachbit now proudly uses as an endorsement.

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Now, the company is making the most of its high-profile in the media and the presidential race, selling cloths that bear Clinton's face, and the now-famous quote.

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"After you have smashed your BlackBerry, don't forget to wipe the fingerprints from your email server with this non-abrasive, soft microfiber Cloth or Something," the site says. "Don't wait for a subpoena: order now!"

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Bleachbit founder Andrew Ziem, who offers customers the option to have him sign the cloths, told ... that he has been staggered by the demand, which is causing him some concerns as he doesn't want to disappoint people.

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"A few days ago I had just reordered the cloths from the printer and was mostly keeping up with signing them, but yesterday sales went through the roof. I panicked as I saw them selling out so fast because I do not like back orders, and I don't know how I am going to sign them all."

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The cloths are available for $3 each, or $5 with Ziem's autograph. They are currently back ordered until Nov. 14.
Otto's self-driving semi-truck made a beer run (Fox 10/25/2016)
Parking boots are being replaced by this yellow monstrosity (Fox 10/20/2016)
US Navy commissions the Zumwalt, a destroyer like no other (Fox 10/17/2016)
A new combat vehicle that swims for the Marine Corps (Fox 09/29/2016)
•
In practice that would mean that it could launch from a ship and "swim" about 12 nautical miles through the ocean to reach the shore.

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While out on the water, it can reach speeds of six knots.

•
Once on land, it could travel about 250 miles at a maximum speed of about 70 mph.

•
It has a total range of approximately 350 miles.
AGs file suit in last-ditch bid to stop hand-off of internet control (Fox 09/29/2016)
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"Trusting authoritarian regimes to ensure the continued freedom of the internet is lunacy."

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"The president does not have the authority to simply give away America's pioneering role in ensuring that the internet remains a place where free expression can flourish."

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"Protecting free speech online should be an issue that brings Republicans and Democrats together."

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"It's an issue the American people overwhelmingly agree with and they expect us to defend internet freedom. That didn't happen in the Senate's continuing resolution and I think that was deeply unfortunate."

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Tech companies, however, have largely supported the plan.

•
In a Sept. 13 letter sent to Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress, the heads of Google, Facebook, Amazon and 20 other companies and trade groups urged lawmakers to support the plan.
Jim DeMint: It's now or never to save the internet (Fox 09/29/2016)
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A free and secure internet is not just the concern of Americans, but of people across the world, especially those living under despotic regimes.

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Congress must think long and hard about allowing President Barack Obama to give away the internet — because right now, that's what he's on track to do.

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Congress has the power to stop this. Will it?
Are 'stalking apps' hidden on your smartphone? (09/28/2016)
U-2 spy plane crash: Why 'Cold War' aircraft are still relevant today (Fox 09/27/2016)
•
What sets the U-2 apart is its ability to fly higher than any other aircraft for long periods, which is what makes it a good spy plane.

•
And spy planes are still relevant today, even in the age of satellites.

•
"Satellites are an additional layer. But they can't be retargeted quickly. They are in whatever orbit and they can't be moved, and they are easily blocked by bad weather."

•
Spy planes, on the other hand, have a lot more flexibility.

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"They can be easily moved from one part of the Earth to another, at any time."
Army building new 'ambidextrous' multi-purpose grenade (Fox 09/22/2016)
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... will let soldiers set the grenade to fragmentation or concussive effect with the flip of a switch.

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The weapon is also designed for ambidextrous use so it can be both armed and thrown easily with either hand.

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Current grenades require a different arming procedure for left-handed users.

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the new grenade's ability to provide both fragmentation and blast overpressure more effectively and safely.

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Blast overpressure refers to the impact of the grenade's shock wave on body surfaces.

•
"What's quite interesting is the objective they are trying to achieve with this, which is a discretionary weapons system."

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"This is important because it is all about minimizing collateral damage and civilian casualties, ensuring the appropriate effect is easily achieved and simple concussion/fragmentation selection makes it more likely to employ appropriate force."
Can a voting machine be hacked? (Fox 09/20/2016)
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"If you replace the computer program in a voting machine, then it will add up the votes in a different way."

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... he needs just "seven minutes alone" with a voting machine to tamper with it.

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"[Replacing the program] could shift votes around from one candidate to another, before the polls close ... There is the potential for fraud in touch-screen voting machines that are still used in six to ten states."

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... it could happen simply by replacing the machine's computer chip — which costs about $4 — with one that is pre-programmed to change the votes.

•
In his demonstration, he changed the votes by swapping out the machine's computer chip for one that he was able to reprogram to display another tally.

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"I figured out how to make a slightly different computer program that just before the close of the polls shifts some votes around from one candidate to another, and I wrote that computer program onto a memory chip ... and now to hack the voting machine, you have to get seven minutes alone with it with a screwdriver."

•
... pointed to multiple safeguards and safety procedures that protect machines. They are locked in secure areas, under 24-hour 7-day-a-week camera surveillance.

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Broken security tape on vital parts would show any violation of a machine.

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"We have so many security measures I don't see how it would be possible."

•
... it "is not a realistic assessment of the security of a voting terminal as it is used in actual elections. The physical and operational security of voting devices and the overall election platform is paramount — regardless of the technology ... a hack of any voting terminal that is not conducted in a real-world election environment — with its physical security, pre-election testing and audit processes in place, is simply not a credible test."

•
"Once again we learn that the integrity of the election process can be put at risk through manipulating technology."

•
"This story indirectly makes a case for paper balloting, with the count occurring on the spot as soon as the polls are closed."

•
"The good news is that it is not something that you can easily do from Russia."

•
"But the bad news is that it really is possible to do locally."
Air Force names futuristic long-range bomber the B-21 Raider (Fox 09/19/2016)
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... the B-21 Raider will let the Air Force launch from the continental U.S. and deliver airstrikes on any location in the world.
US military's robotic submarine hunter completes first tests at sea (Fox 08/05/2016)
•
"When the Sea Hunter is fully operational, it will be able to stay at sea for three months with no crew and very little remote control, which can be done from thousands of miles away."

•
Advanced artificial intelligence software will continuously navigate the Sea Hunter safely around other ships and in rough waters.

•
The technology also allows for remote guidance if a specific mission requires it.
US Army eyes 'dragon silk' for bullet proof vests (Fox 07/19/2016)
IBM supercomputer Watson will try to help vets beat cancer (Fox 06/30/2016)
Innovative Navy-funded drone is master of the air and water (Fox 06/29/2016)
General Motors developing hydrogen-powered submarine drone with U.S. Navy (Fox 06/24/2016)
'Pike' is a handheld, powerful, and precision-guided weapon (Fox 06/23/2016)
NASA reveals the X-57, its electric plane project (Fox 06/20/2016)
IBM's Deep Thunder gives weather forecasting an injection of tech (06/15/2016)
•
IBM is reportedly creating new algorithms that will help analyze the enormous amounts of data that can be collected when the local and global models are working in sync.

•
The endgame for this plan is for IBM to be able to deliver relevant weather information to businesses. These reports are a little different from those that follow your daily news broadcast, as they're designed to be actionable forecasts that relate to consumer behavior in relation to conditions.

•
This program demonstrates how deep learning techniques can be implemented beyond such things as last year's man vs. machine Go showdown.

•
There's obviously a place for well-publicized events that demonstrate the capabilities of this tech — but day-to-day applications like those IBM has outlined for Deep Thunder prove that these techniques are more than just fodder for research projects
Court upholds 'net neutrality' rules for internet access (Fox 06/14/2016)
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the government's "net neutrality" rules that require internet providers to treat all web traffic equally.

•
The rules treat broadband service like a public utility and prevent internet service providers from offering preferential treatment to sites that pay for faster service.

•
The Federal Communications Commission argued that the rules are crucial for allowing customers to go anywhere on the internet without a provider favoring its own service over that of other competitors.
Feds reportedly set to approve first private space mission (Fox 06/06/2016)
•
The government's endorsement would eliminate the largest regulatory hurdle to plans by Moon Express, a relatively obscure space startup, to land a roughly 20-pound package of scientific hardware on the Moon sometime next year.

•
It also would provide the biggest federal boost yet for unmanned commercial space exploration and, potentially, the first in an array of for-profit ventures throughout the solar system.
TeamViewer users are being hacked in bulk, and we still don’t know how (06/03/2016)
First look at Navy's experimental railgun that can fire at 4,500 miles an hour (Fox 05/28/2016)
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... a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole.

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The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity — a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy.

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In conventional guns, a bullet loses velocity from the moment the gunpowder ignites and sends it flying. The railgun projectile instead gains speed as it travels the length of a 32-foot barrel, exiting the muzzle at 4,500 miles an hour, or more than a mile a second.

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The Navy developed the railgun as a potent offensive weapon to blow holes in enemy ships, destroy tanks and level terrorist camps.

•
... potential to knock enemy missiles out of the sky more inexpensively and in greater numbers than current missile-defense systems...

•
"... I could conceive of a set of railguns that would be inexpensive but would have enormous deterrent value. They would have value against airplanes, missiles, tanks, almost anything."
America's nuke program runs on floppy disks (Fox 05/26/2016)
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... the Pentagon's IBM Series-1 computer which uses 8-inch floppy disks "in a legacy system that coordinates the operational functions of the nation's nuclear forces," including intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombers.

•
For youngsters, the big floppy disks were the precursor to the 3.5-inch ones, before the CD came around.

•
"This system remains in use because, in short, it still works."
Google idea would leave pedestrians glued to cars after crashes (JWR 05/26/2016)
NASA's Valkyrie robots set the table for human life on Mars (Fox 05/22/2016)
The 'Sea Wasp' will be a potent threat to terrorists and their underwater bombs (Fox 05/19/2016)
Google supercharges machine learning tasks with TPU custom chip (05/18/2016)
The bomber continues to fly high after 100 years (Fox 05/17/2016)
US Navy poised to take ownership of its most technologically sophisticated warship (Fox 05/15/2016)
Hidden high-tech ocean pods will unleash Naval drones (Fox 05/12/2016)
Elon Musk's wild Hyperloop is slowly becoming a reality (Fox 05/10/2016)
SpaceX successfully lands rocket on ocean platform for second time (Fox 05/06/2016)
New technology enables drones to sniff out hidden bombs, mines (Fox 04/26/2016)
•
... looks for signatures of explosive material or other objects by shooting out a small stream of neutrons at a given target from a small device mounted on a drone.
James Comey: FBI spent over $1 million to unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone (Fox 04/21/2016)
•
... the FBI purchased what amounts to a "zero day" from this third party.

•
This type of cybersecurity flaw is a previously unknown vulnerability to a specific piece of computer software that cyber actors exploit to gain access to a system or override certain functionalities.

•
... "zero days" serve as the preeminent method of entry for hackers, given that their targets can't protect against flaws they don't know exist.
Got a minute? That's how long it takes MIT's Web app to find a bug (Fox 04/19/2016)
Mini version of DARPA X-Plane completes test flight (Fox 04/19/2016)
•
... it would be capable of carrying several thousand pounds of cargo and whip around at speeds of nearly 500 miles per hour.

•
It could be used for humanitarian missions, as well as to drop cargo in dangerous war zones, all without risking the life of a pilot.
Homeland Security warns Windows PC users to uninstall Quicktime (Fox 04/18/2016)
•
"The only mitigation available is to uninstall QuickTime for Windows."
Apple wants judge to reject DOJ appeal in Brooklyn drug case (Fox 04/16/2016)
•
Apple said Friday it wants a New York judge to uphold a magistrate's ruling that the government has no authority to compel the company's help to get data from a locked iPhone in a federal drug case.

•
A third party helped unlock Syed Farook's phone. The FBI said the technique only works on certain iPhones and can't be used on many others, including the one at issue in a Brooklyn federal drug case.

•
This case involves an iPhone5s that was seized in 2014 from Jun Feng as part of a drug investigation.

•
Prosecutors want to get into the iPhone because, they say, the phone might contain evidence of additional crimes or suspects.
Device used to trick cellphones into revealing location raises legal issue, lawmaker says (Fox 04/13/2016)
•
An electronic device that tricks cellphones into revealing a user's location is becoming a key weapon for law enforcement in its battle against drug traffickers, terror suspects and other dangerous criminals — but its potential misuse against innocent Americans...

•
Cellular site simulators — known as "StingRay tracking" — basically are fake cell towers that use digital signals to trick a cellphone into revealing its location and other information.
'Sea Hunter': World's first unmanned ship stalks subs (Fox 04/12/2016)
SpaceX launches futuristic pop-up room, lands rocket at sea (Fox 04/08/2016)
FBI director says government 'purchased a tool' to access San Bernardino gunman's phone (Fox 04/07/2016)
•
"The people that we bought this [tool] from – I know a fair amount about them and I have a high degree of confidence that they are very good at protecting it, and their motivations align with ours."

•
The exact method the FBI used to access information on Farook's phone is a mystery that has puzzled Apple software engineers and outside experts alike.

•
... the FBI managed to defeat an Apple security feature that threatened to delete the phone's contents if the FBI failed to enter the correct passcode combination after 10 tries.

•
That allowed the government to repeatedly and continuously test passcodes in what's known as a brute-force attack until the right code is entered and the phone is unlocked.

•
It wasn't clear how the FBI dealt with a related Apple security feature that introduces increasing time delays between guesses.

•
... with those features removed, the FBI could break into the phone in 26 minutes.

•
... investigators were still analyzing the phone and had not decided whether to disclose what they had found.
FBI offers to help agencies with locked phones (Fox 04/02/2016)
•
... the agency is aware that the difficulty of accessing locked data in criminal probes "is a substantial state and local law-enforcement challenge that you face daily.''

•
The FBI is now testing to see whether the method used in the San Bernardino case may work against other types of iPhones.
FBI agrees to unlock iPhone, iPod in Arkansas homicide case (Fox 03/31/2016)
FBI breaks into San Bernardino gunman's iPhone without Apple's help, ending court case (Fox 03/28/2016)
•
"As the government noted in its filing today, the FBI has now successfully retrieved the data stored on the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple required by this Court Order."

•
"The FBI is currently reviewing the information on the phone, consistent with standard investigatory procedures."
Stealthy destroyer completes trials ahead of Navy delivery (Fox 03/25/2016)
•
The 600-foot destroyer, the largest ever built for the U.S. Navy, spent three days in the rough North Atlantic before returning late Thursday afternoon to Bath Iron Works in Maine, where the Zumwalt and two sister ships are being built.

•
Propulsion, steering and auxiliary systems were checked in seas that ranged from 5 to 10 feet, and gusts up to 40 mph for part of the week.
This double barreled handgun folds up to look like a smartphone (Fox 03/24/2016)
•
"The idea for Ideal Conceal follows the present-day demand for handguns that people can carry on a day to day basis, in a manner that makes carrying a gun easy to do. From soccer moms to professionals of every type, this gun allows you the option of not being a victim."
FBI may have found way to unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone (Fox 03/22/2016)
•
A federal judge canceled a hearing Tuesday in the legal battle to force Apple to break into an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernadino attackers, after federal officials said in a court filing they may have found another way to access the device.

•
In a filing late Monday, federal prosecutors said "an outside party" has come forward and shown the FBI a possible method for unlocking the phone used by one of the shooters in the Dec. 2 terror attack.

•
"We must first test this method to ensure that it doesn't destroy the data on the phone, but we remain cautiously optimistic. That is why we asked the court to give us some time to explore this option."

•
If the method works, the government said in the filing "it should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple."

•
The couple destroyed other phones they left behind and the FBI has been unable to circumvent the passcode needed to unlock the iPhone, which is owned by San Bernardino County and was given to Farook for his job.

•
Apple said the government was seeking "dangerous power" that exceeds the authority of the All Writs Act of 1789 it cited and violates the company's constitutional rights, harms the Apple brand and threatens the trust of its customers to protect their privacy.

•
The company said the order is unreasonably burdensome. Once created, it would be asked to repeatedly design such software for use by authorities at home and abroad, and the technology could fall into the hands of hackers.

•
The government has countered that Apple could create the software for one phone, retain it during the process to protect itself, then destroy it.

•
Apple has said that creating software is a form of speech and being forced to do so violates its First Amendment rights.

•
Apple CEO Tim Cook ripped the government's "backdoor" approach.

•
FBI Director James Comey rejected talk of seeking a "master key" and said his agency just wanted Apple to remove its "vicious guard dog" so it can pick the lock.
Lockheed is developing a fighter jet that will fly at six times the speed of sound (Fox 03/18/2016)
•
"... we're now producing a controllable, low-drag, aerodynamic configuration capable of stable operation from take-off, to sub-sonic, trans-sonic, super-sonic, and hypersonic..."
Jimmy Wales talks FBI vs. Apple, what's next for Wikipedia (Fox 03/14/2016)
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"That's an easy one. I'm really proud of Apple for fighting this thing."

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Wales, a financial trader turned Internet entrepreneur, founded Wikipedia in 2001 as an offshoot of another product...

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Inspired by programs like Linux Apache and Perl Sql, he had an idea of an open-source encyclopedia.

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Their first product, the now defunct Nupedia, didn't take off.

•
After offering Wales the option to have a Chinese university oversee Wikipedia in China, to make sure that they adhere to Chinese laws, or ban Wikipedia in China altogether, he turned down their offer.
These flying machines are the most remarkable in US history [pictures] (CNet 03/12/2016)
Bill Gates talks Apple/FBI standoff, skipping classes at Harvard, and much (Fox re/0/2016)
•
"... I think very few people take the extreme view that the government should be blind to financial and communication data but very few people think giving the government carte blanche without safeguards makes sense..."

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"Maybe they could propose an overall plan for striking the balance between government being able to know things in some cases and having safeguards to make sure those powers are confined to appropriate cases. There is no avoiding this debate and they could contribute to how the balance should be struck."

•
... the Microsoft founder said that biological tools would certainly pose a threat should they wind up in the wrong hands.
Michelin to offer revolutionary truck tire inflation system (Fox 03/10/2016)
Army tests high-tech airdrop system that 'sees' its target (Fox 03/09/2016)
DARPA teases X-Plane concept that can take off vertically (Fox 03/04/2016)
Pentagon seeks hackers to test Defense Department's cybersecurity (Fox 03/03/2016)
NASA plans supersonic passenger jet (Fox 03/01/2016)
Air Force unveils initial B-21 long range bomber design (Fox 02/26/2016)
Here's Apple's long-awaited legal response to the FBI (Fox 02/25/2016)
•
In furtherance of its law enforcement interests, the government had the opportunity to seek amendments to existing law, to ask Congress to adopt the position it urges here. But rather than pursue new legislation, the government backed away from Congress and turned to the courts, a forum ill-suited to address the myriad competing interests, potential ramifications, and unintended consequences presented by the government's unprecedented demand. And more importantly, by invoking "terrorism" and moving ex parte behind closed courtroom doors, the government sought to cut off debate and circumvent thoughtful analysis.

•
For example, if Apple can be forced to write code in this case to bypass security features and create new accessibility, what is to stop the government from demanding that Apple write code to turn on the microphone in aid of government surveillance, activate the video camera, surreptitiously record conversations, or turn on location services to track the phone's user? Nothing.

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No court has ever granted the government power to force companies like Apple to weaken its security systems to facilitate the government's access to private individuals' information. The All Writs Act does not support such sweeping use of judicial power, and the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution forbid it.

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The demand violates Apple's First Amendment rights against compelled speech and viewpoint discrimination. Apple wrote code for its operating system that reflects Apple's strong view about consumer security and privacy. By forcing Apple to write software that would undermine those values, the government seeks to compel Apple's speech and to force Apple to express the government's viewpoint on security and privacy instead of its own.
Apple developing unhackable iPhone technology, report says (Fox 02/25/2016)
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... Apple engineers are developing new security measures that would make it impossible for the government to break into a locked iPhone using methods like those at the center of the current court battle.

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Apple is resisting a judge's order directing the tech giant to override security features on the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen who killed 14 people in the December terror attack.

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The order requires Apple to supply highly specialized software the FBI can load onto the county-owned work iPhone to bypass a self-destruct feature, which erases the phone's data after too many unsuccessful attempts to unlock it.

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Federal authorities have insisted they're only asking for narrow assistance in bypassing some security features on the iPhone, which they believe contains information related to the mass murders.

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Apple argues that doing so would make other iPhones more susceptible to hacking by authorities or criminals in the future.

•
... Apple could improve the iPhone's biometric security and also make the "self-destruct" feature part of the device's hardware, as opposed to software. "That way it reduces the chances of a false negative and it will be virtually impossible for even Apple to break into the phone."

•
Last week Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump jumped into the iPhone security row, calling for a boycott of Apple products until the tech giant complies with the judge's order.
What's really at stake in the Apple vs. FBI fight (Fox 02/25/2016)
•
"There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all." — Justice Antonin Scalia (1936-2016)

•
After the San Bernardino massacre on Dec. 2, 2015, the FBI lawfully acquired the cellphone of one of the killers and persuaded a federal judge to authorize its agents to access the contents of the phone.

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Some of what it found revealed that the killer used the phone to communicate with victims and perhaps confederates and even innocents who unwittingly provided material assistance.

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It appears that the killer took advantage of the phone's encryption features to protect some of his data from prying eyes unarmed with his password.

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The cellphone was an iPhone, designed and manufactured by Apple, the wealthiest publicly traded corporation on the planet.

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Apple built the iPhone so that its users can store sensitive, private, personal data on the phone without fear of being hacked by friend or foe.

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After the FBI determined it could not replicate the killer's password without jeopardizing the phone's content, it approached Apple, and representatives of each negotiated for weeks trying to find a way for Apple to help the FBI without compromising the security of the Internet itself. They failed.

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Apple has argued that the government has no legal right to compel it to assist in a government investigation, or to compel it to alter or destroy its business model of guaranteeing the safety and privacy of its customers' data.

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The Department of Justice has argued that Apple has a legal duty to help solve the mystery of who knew about the San Bernardino attacks so that the guilty can be prosecuted and the rest of us protected from future harm.
Apple CEO defends position in encryption dispute with feds (Fox 02/25/2016)
•
Federal authorities have insisted they're only asking for narrow assistance in bypassing some security features on the iPhone, which they believe contains information related to the mass murders.

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Apple argues that doing so would make other iPhones more susceptible to hacking by authorities or criminals in the future.

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"This would be bad for America. It would also set a precedent that I believe many people in America would be offended by."

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"If the government needs the assistance of third parties to ensure that the search is actually conducted, judges all over the country and on the Supreme Court have said that those parties must assist if it is reasonably within their power to do so."

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"And that is what we have been asking, and we owe it to the victims and to the public whose safety we must protect to ensure that we have done everything under the law to fully investigate terrorist attacks on American soil."

•
Apple also is expected to argue that the Obama administration's request to help it hack into an iPhone in the federal investigation of the San Bernardino attack is improper under an 18th century law, the 1789 All Writs Act, which has been used to compel companies to provide assistance to law enforcement.

•
Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in California ordered Apple last week to create specialized software to help the FBI hack into a locked, county-issued iPhone used by Farook.
Army engineers patent limited range bullet that self-destructs (Fox 02/23/2016)
Microsoft founder Gates backs FBI in encryption fight with Apple (Fox 02/23/2016)
•
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has broken with other Silicon Valley giants by backing the FBI in its battle with Apple over hacking into a locked iPhone as part of the investigation into last December's San Bernardino terror attack.

•
... a court order requiring Apple to help the FBI access a work phone belonging to gunman Syed Farook was " a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case."

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The San Bernardino County-issued iPhone 5C was used by Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people at an office holiday party in December before they died in a gun battle with police.

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The couple physically destroyed two personal phones so completely that the FBI has been unable to recover information from them.

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Gregory Clayborn, whose 27-year-old daughter, Sierra, died in the attack, said he hasn't been asked to join the case but believes Apple is obligated to unlock the phone.

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"This makes me a little bit angry with Apple," Clayborn said. "It makes me question their interest in the safety of this country."

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Clayborn said he understands Apple's concerns, but unlocking one phone for the FBI, he said, is "as simple as it gets."
Common software would have allowed FBI to unlock San Bernardino shooter's phone (Fox 02/22/2016)
•
If the technology, known as mobile device management, had been installed, San Bernardino officials would have been able to remotely unlock the iPhone for the FBI without the theatrics of a court battle that is now pitting digital privacy rights against national security concerns.

•
A U.S. magistrate last week ordered Apple to provide the FBI with highly specialized software that could be loaded onto the work-issued iPhone 5C used by Farook.

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He died with his wife in a gun battle with police after killing 14 people in December.

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The software would help the FBI hack into the phone by bypassing a security time delay and feature that erases all data after 10 consecutive, unsuccessful attempts to guess the unlocking passcode.

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This would allow the FBI to use technology to rapidly and repeatedly test numbers in what's known as a brute force attack.

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The FBI said it wants to determine whether Farook had used his phone to communicate with others about the attack.

•
Apple has said it will protest the ruling and has until Friday to intervene in court.

•
San Bernardino had an existing contract with a technology provider, MobileIron Inc., but did not install it on any inspectors' iPhones.

•
MobileIron has confirmed that if the software were installed on the iPhone, it would unlock it.

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In many offices and classrooms, officially issued smartphones include the installed management software. It can unlock the phone, delete all information in case of loss or theft, track the device's physical location, determine which apps are installed, check battery life and push software updates.

•
The technology is intended to make such products more suitable in corporate environments, where tighter controls are important to protect company secrets.

•
... "the big question now going forward, it builds the case for, is why this guy would have an essentially uncontrolled device."

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Prosecutors said in court filings that the county gave its consent to search the device.

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County policy said digital devices can be searched at any time and Farook signed such an agreement.

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"Apple has a responsibility to maintain the trust and faith of millions of people who've depended upon Apple to produce a product that protects their privacy — their intimate, personal life."

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if the company provides a phone, it's considered reasonable practice to use such software.

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"If a company's assumption is that they might not be able to get back into a device one day then it's not really a company asset at that point, it's a gift."
FBI owes it to victims to access San Bernardino killer's phone, director says (Fox 02/22/2016)
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FBI Director James Comey said late Sunday that the agency owed the victims of last December's San Bernardino terror attack a "thorough and professional investigation" in an effort to explain why law enforcement officials are trying to compel Apple to help them gain access to a cellphone owned by one of the gunmen.

•
... Comey wrote that the FBI "can't look the survivors in the eye, or ourselves in the mirror, if we don't follow this lead."

•
On Friday, the Justice Department filed a motion to compel Apple to comply with the court order.

•
Early Monday, Cook sent an email to Apple employees saying that the FBI should withdraw its demand.

•
In the message, subject-lined "Thank you for your support," Cook states that the company has "no tolerance or sympathy for terrorists" and believes abiding by the judge's order would be unlawful, an expansion of government powers, and would set a dangerous precedent that would essentially create a backdoor to the encrypted iPhone.

•
"This case is about much more than a single phone or a single investigation, so when we received the government's order we knew we had to speak out."

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"At stake is the data security of hundreds of millions of law-abiding people and setting a dangerous precedent that threatens everyone's civil liberties."

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Apple also points to the difficulty of keeping such a "master key" safe once it has been created.

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The government has said that Apple could keep the specialized technology it would create to help officials hack the phone — bypassing a security time delay and feature that erases all data after 10 consecutive, unsuccessful attempts to guess the unlocking passcode.

•
This would allow the FBI to use technology to rapidly and repeatedly test numbers in what's known as a brute force attack.

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"The San Bernardino litigation isn't about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. It is about the victims and justice."

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"The relief we seek is limited and its value increasingly obsolete because the technology continues to evolve."

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"We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist's passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly. That's it."

•
Comey did acknowledge in his statement that the clash has laid bare a tension between privacy and security.

•
"It should be resolved by the American people deciding how we want to govern ourselves in a world we have never seen before."
DOJ would allow Apple to keep or destroy software to help FBI hack iPhone (Fox 02/20/2016)
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"Apple may maintain custody of the software, destroy it after its purpose under the order has been served, refuse to disseminate it outside of Apple and make clear to the world that it does not apply to other devices or users without lawful court orders."

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"No one outside Apple would have access to the software required by the order unless Apple itself chose to share it."

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Although the judge instructed Apple to create the software for the FBI, she said it could be loaded onto the phone at an Apple facility. The Justice Department made explicit Friday that Apple could retain custody of the software at all times.

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"They're telling Apple, 'You hold the software, we're not asking you to put a backdoor in the encryption, we just want to be able to brute force this thing,'"

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"If the precedent is this, that they deliver the phone to Apple and Apple does it, I think that's a pretty good precedent that can't be done en masse on the next thousand iPhones."

•
Authorities want Apple to bypass a self-destruct feature that erases the phone's data after too many unsuccessful attempts to guess the passcode.

•
Apple has helped the government before in this and previous cases, but this time Apple CEO Tim Cook said no and Apple is appealing the order.
DOJ files motion to compel Apple to comply in San Bernardino investigation (Fox 02/19/2016)
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"Apple has attempted to design and market its products to allow technology, rather than the law, to control access to data which has been found by this Court to be warranted for an important investigation. Despite its efforts, Apple nonetheless retains the technical ability to comply with the order, and so should be required to obey it."

•
On Tueday, a federal judge ordered Apple to help the FBI hack into an encrypted iPhone used by Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in December.

•
Specifically, the government wants Apple to bypass a self-destruct feature that erases the phone's data after too many unsuccessful attempts to guess the passcode.

•
While the judge on the case says the government is only asking for help unlocking one, single iPhone, Apple says the case is much bigger than that and sets a dangerous precedent.

•
"Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes."

•
... Apple has followed court orders to unlock phones at least 70 times, in cases that include child endangerment.
Will Apple cave in its fight with FBI? (JWR 02/18/2016)
•
The most striking aspect of Apple's message to customers on Tuesday wasn't the rejection of U.S. authorities' demand that the company help them break the encryption of an iPhone owned by Syed Rizwan Farook, who was involved in last year's murders of 14 people in San Bernardino, California.

•
It was Apple's admission that it has the technological capacity to help, despite previous statements to the contrary.

•
In other words, Apple is acknowledging that it isn't encryption that protects the personal data of its customers, but the company's stubborn insistence on keeping its software proprietary and its refusal to accept open source software.

•
"For devices running iOS 8 or higher, Apple would not have the technical ability to do what the government requests — take possession of a password protected device from the government and extract unencrypted user data from that device for the government."

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"Apple's reasonable technical assistance may include, but is not limited to: providing the FBI with a signed iPhone Software file, recovery bundle, or other Software Image File ("SIF") that can be loaded onto the SUBJECT DEVICE. The SIF will load and run from Random Access Memory and will not modify the iOS on the actual phone, the user data partition or system partition on the device's flash memory. The SIF will be coded by Apple with a unique identifier of the phone so that the SIF would only load and execute on the SUBJECT DEVICE. The SIF will be loaded via Device Firmware Upgrade ("DFU") mode, recovery mode, or other applicable mode available to the FBI."

•
The FBI and the court are not actually asking the company to decrypt the phone: They just want the custom iOS version to disable the feature that erases the data on the phone after 10 unsuccessful attempts to break the password. Disabling it would allow officials to just break the password by "brute force," bombarding the phone with tens of millions of possible character combinations.

•
Those who think encryption protects their personal data from the government — or, for that matter, from anyone determined enough to invest the effort in a brute force attack — are naive. Any encryption can be broken.

•
Customer protection is entirely in the hands of the software companies that make household-name products, and they will pursue it only as long as that's in their business interests.

•
"Who do they think they are?" asked Donald Trump. "They have to open it up." According to Trump, this is only common sense; Apple executives may end up feeling that way, too, if the alternative is to hand over its fiercely protected code to the FBI. What if it leaks out?
DARPA's unmanned sub-hunter set to revolutionize naval warfare (Fox 02/18/2016)
Tom Ridge: Why Apple should reconsider on San Bernardino court order (Fox 02/18/2016)
•
... I hope Apple CEO Tim Cook will reconsider his opposition to the court order to unlock an iPhone used by a suspect in the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

•
Mr. Cook's open letter to Apple customers, in which he explains the company's rationale, is both thoughtful and sincere.

•
He raises valid concerns about the "dangerous precedent" that would be established should Apple work with the FBI to unlock this particular phone.

•
I would agree such a danger would exist if the federal government were asking for broad powers to unlock phones without hard evidence or approved warrants. However, that is not the case in this situation.

•
It is one thing for Apple to oppose, on privacy grounds, providing back doors to the FBI regarding consumer phones generally.

•
But in this case, we know the heinous acts committed by the San Bernardino terrorists. Fourteen people were murdered.

•
When we know that a particular individual has committed a crime – as we know here – it is a wholly different matter.

•
It is logical to assume that there are phone numbers and other information on that iPhone that could very well lead to co-conspirators and perhaps prevent other attacks.

•
Earlier this month, Twitter announced it had suspended 125,000 ISIS-related accounts. Facebook has also started to take steps to help combat terrorism.

•
I applaud such efforts and was pleased to see that leaders of our tech giants recently agreed to sit down with administration officials to take a more proactive approach to dealing with the growing scourge of terrorism and their use of technology.

•
This situation underscores the need for the broader tech community and government to come together to prevent known terrorists from hiding behind technology.

•
I believe Mr. Cook when he says he has no sympathy for terrorists and that he thinks Apple customers will agree with his position.

•
Yet in opposing this court order, and in the wake of events in places like Paris and San Bernardino, can terrorists now conclude they have an ally in Apple?

•
I believe Apple customers in this instance are able to separate the need to protect their privacy with the needs of law enforcement to defend all of us from future terror attacks.
Legendary iPhone hacker weighs in on Apple's war with the FBI (Fox 02/18/2016)
•
On a technical level, Apple could carry out the order by creating a RAM disk signed by the company's production certificate for the specific ECID of the suspect's iPhone.

•
This solution would allow Apple to use existing technologies in the firmware file format to grant access to the phone ensuring that there is no possible way the same solution would work on another device.

•
The aspect that would actually affect the public is the fact that by doing this, Apple will show that breaking into an iPhone is "possible," and allow the FBI to use this case in the future as leverage.

•
Apple has been doing very well in many international markets, especially China, where the company has faced criticism with regards to security concerns. If Apple does not try to fight this court order vigorously, it will not look good to buyers around the world.

•
Although the passcode attempt counter on the iPhone 5c can be handled without much work, the FBI request to allow it to electronically make passcode attempts is a considerable issue.

•
The reason Apple stresses that this is a "backdoor" in its statement is because the order is specifically requesting that Apple make a modification that serves no purpose other than to weaken iOS security by allowing brute force attempts.

•
To allow restoration to a custom firmware, Apple would need to either: (a) make changes to the way its restore server works for this specific case, potentially causing major security concerns if any sort of mistake is made (which could make this an unreasonable / burdensome request, or (b) bring the device onto its internal network and load the firmware using the restore server used internally, since it can be assumed that such an in-house server exists for the purpose of restoring to unreleased firmware versions.

•
There is no way to say whether these valid arguments or any similar arguments will be able to sway the court, but the important takeaway here is that there are a few avenues Apple can take with regard to technical arguments against being forced to carry out this order. In other words, Apple's objections can go well beyond the moral arguments the company has posted publicly.

•
Another PR-related reason that Apple is opposing this order so vehemently is that it is aware of the fact that, if it complies, the FBI will be able to crack the passcode very quickly.

•
... it won't be easy to dispute any claim that Apple has decrypted the device for the FBI. While it wouldn't technically be true, all that would likely matter is Apple taking actions that allowed the FBI to gain access to an iPhone's once-encrypted data.
Apple ups the ante in Silicon Valley's encryption battle with government (Fox 02/17/2016)
•
Apple's decision to fight an order to help hack the phone of a shooter in the deadly terror attack in San Bernardino, Calif., in December adds another twist to the ongoing encryption battle between the tech industry and government.

•
"If Apple works or is compelled to work with the U.S. government, it will make it more difficult for U.S. companies to claim that their product or services won't be exploited by the U.S. government."

•
"Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone."

•
"Weakening encryption or creating backdoors to encrypted devices and data for use by the good guys would actually create vulnerabilities to be exploited by the bad guys, which would almost certainly cause serious physical and financial harm across our society and our economy."

•
"If the order stands, Apple and other technology companies could be ordered to build backdoors – essentially defects – into other devices, rendering them insecure and vulnerable to attack by law enforcement and by others as well."
Navy considers installing powerful railgun on destroyer within 2 years (Fox 02/15/2016)
The Pentagon's secret weapon maker (Fox 02/03/2016)
•
A department deep inside the Pentagon that officials "don't often talk about" is churning out 3D-printed micro drones, self-driving boats and an electromagnetic railgun that can shoot a projectile at 4,500 mph – all in the name of combatting the growing global threat from Russia and China.
5 Auto Repair Shop Scams Your Mechanic Might Try (Fox 01/29/2016)
Could the US deploy 'cyborg' troops? (Fox 01/28/2016)
•
The U.S. military is working to develop a new chip technology that, when implanted, will connect human brains to computers – making cyborgs.

•
For the US military, it could help warfighters on a number of levels, such as augmenting their senses- hearing, sight and more.

•
The technology has the potential to restore sight to the blind, transform prosthetics into limbs that function seamlessly like the original one and even possibly control disease.

•
DARPA hopes to create an implantable neural interface that will connect humans directly to computers at an unprecedented level.

•
What's a cyborg? By definition, a cyborg is a person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body.
FBI stymied in hunt for San Bernardino terrorists' hard drive (Fox 01/21/2016)
•
FBI investigators have been unable to find a missing hard drive or crack the encrypted codes of the jihadist couple behind last month's terror attacks in San Bernardino, Calif..

•
The two cell phones used by homegrown terrorist Syed Farook and his foreign bride Tashfeen Malik before the Dec. 2 attack, which left 14 dead and 22 injured, are highly encrypted.

•
Information on the phones could contain the key to exposing the radical Muslim couple's potential terrorist network connections and other illicit activities.

•
"As to those devices, obviously we've said from day one, the digital footprint is incredibly important for us to hopefully learn any contacts, any context, and ultimately any intent on their part."

•
The phones and a still-missing computer hard drive could contain key communications, and fill in an 18-minute gap of time after the attack and before the shootout that killed the couple.

•
"I'm certainly not looking past the possibility of a potential secondary attack based on the amount of ammunition they had. Based on all the seeming preparations they had made. Based on all the pipes they had inside the house that could easily have been made into pipe bombs."

•
"Depending on the type of encryption used by the terrorists the FBI may have a very difficult, if not impossible task."

•
"There are commercially available encryption programs, which are all but unbreakable."
Flare-Out? Mega-solar company slashing jobs despite gov't benefits (Fox 01/21/2016)
Back To The Future Of Real-Time Applications (01/20/2016)
SHOT Show: Blast an attacker with the new Taser (Fox 01/20/2016)
•
Pulse unleashes 30 seconds of high voltage output at an attacker up to 15 feet away.

•
Hit with Pulse, an attacker will be immobilized for approximately 30 seconds.
SpaceX botches rocket landing on California barge (Fox 01/17/2016)
Holy Braille: Scientists developing Kindle-style tablet for the blind (Fox 01/13/2016)
New smart gun technology may help with gun safety in the US (Fox 01/11/2016)
Ford patent could transform your car into a unicycle (Fox 12/31/2015)
Congress is pushing NASA to develop a deep space habitat by 2018 (Fox 12/30/2015)
SpaceX launches rocket 6 months after accident, then lands (Fox 12/21/2015)
Tiny Home in Tennessee Built for a Buyer Who Makes $11 an Hour (Fox 12/17/2015)
7 Shipping Containers Make a Cool (and Affordable) Home in Michigan (Fox 12/17/2015)
America's new high-tech aircraft carriers are more important than ever, experts say (Fox 12/15/2015)
Largest destroyer built for Navy heads out to sea (Fox 12/08/2015)
Scientists discover new form of carbon harder than diamonds (Fox 12/02/2015)
Blue Origin makes historic reusable rocket landing in epic test flight (Fox 11/24/2015)
Chrome has a serious security flaw (Fox 11/19/2015)
•
Using a simple game app with a bit of extra code in it, he forced the phone to call out to a special server and load up a webpage in Chrome containing malicious code.

•
When the Chrome browser visited the webpage, a flaw in the JavaScript system let the page download another app that took over the Android gadget completely. That's scary, but it gets worse.

•
Usually, attacks that lead to a full takeover of an operating system require multiple flaws, a number of steps and some user input to work. This attack does it in one go, which means as soon as the user installs a modified app, or visits a malicious page, it's over.

•
Of course, the same flaw exists in the desktop version of Chrome, meaning hackers might adapt it to launch attacks against PCs and Macs.

•
Gong says he informed Google of the flaw in August, but so far there hasn't been a fix released.

•
Be careful when clicking on links you get in email or text messages. Only click if you know where it's going and you trust the person who sent it.
Google's self-driving just car got pulled over for driving too slow (Fox 11/13/2015)
•
... Google, too, decided to milk the incident for all it's worth, jumping online to say that "after 1.2 million miles of autonomous driving (that's the human equivalent of 90 years of driving experience), we're proud to say we've never been ticketed," suggesting the Googler cooped up in the car managed to convince the cop that moving at a crawl was sensible under the circumstances, even if it did rile the drivers stuck behind it.
Taking the fight to ISIS? Here's a free rifle (Fox 11/10/2015)
•
Precision Guided Rifles are designed to help overcome factors that can impact precision for shooters like recoil, direction and speed of wind, inclination, and temperature. They also work to help counteract common human errors like miscalculating range.

•
Whether you are an inexperienced or accomplished shooter, the rifle has an 87 percent first shot success rate out to 600 yards - a percentage 40 times higher than the first shot kill rate for an average warfighter.

•
The rifle is also designed to eliminate targets moving as fast as 15 mph.

•
Both rifles incorporate the company's "RapidLok Target Acquisition." As a warfighter pulls the trigger, the target is automatically acquired and tracked. The range is also calculated and measured for velocity. Accuracy is enhanced because all this work is accomplished by the time the trigger squeeze is completely.

•
On Dec. 5, the company will begin shipping the free rifles to the chosen qualified U.S, citizens who can bring the guns into the fight against terrorism legally.
F-35A Lightning II fighter gets new gun (Fox 11/05/2015)
•
The aircraft has a core processor that can perform a mind-blowing 400 billion operations per second.
US Air Force's new stealth bomber: What you need to know (Fox 10/29/2015)
Army takes aim with more M4 weapons (Fox 10/30/2015)
The Top New Cars Owners Keep for 10 Years (10/28/2015)
Marine Corps' new helicopter completes its first flight (Fox 10/28/2015)
Navy taps Raytheon for sophisticated 'last chance' gun system (Fox 10/27/2015)
Meet 'Viper' — the newest F-16 Fighter (Fox 10/26/2015)
20 Least Reliable New Cars (Fox 10/20/2015)
Anti-drone shoulder rifle lets police take control of UAVs with targeted radio pulses (Fox 10/14/2015)
Feds spend $925,104 to ‘detect harassing messages’ on Twitter (Fox 10/14/2015)
•
Researchers hope to be able to identify "the generic language of insult," which they described as profanities and offensive language.
Lockheed Martin's modular ATHENA laser weapon is headed to production (Fox 10/09/2015)
Army tests remote-controlled weapons systems for base security (Fox 10/01/2015)
A breakthrough in cloak technology just caught the attention of the Defense Department (Fox 09/23/2015)
•
... cloak works by manipulating electromagnetic waves, such as visible light or radio waves. Because it can scatter these waves, the material is able to resist visual or radar detection, potentially making an object invisible to radar or the naked eye.
Boston Dynamics' robotic dog is going through basic training with the Marine Corps (Fox 09/22/2015)
US Air Force general says laser warfare in the sky is coming sooner than you think (Fox 09/21/2015)
Apple removes malicious apps after security breach (Fox 09/21/2015)
•
... developers in China were tricked into using software tools that added malicious code in an unusual security breach.

•
The malicious software collects information from infected devices and uploads it to outside servers.
7 worst apps that violate your privacy (Fox 09/12/2015)
Step inside Crew Dragon: SpaceX reveals interior of crewed space capsule (Fox 09/11/2015)
10 of the Most Durable Cars (09/03/2015)
The laser cannon that kills drones (Fox 09/02/2015)
NASA's next nuclear-powered Mars rover: Building the beast (Fox 08/31/2015)
LA 'black ball' reservoir rollout potential 'disaster' in the making, say experts (Fox 08/20/2015)
Will Human-Like Robots Take Over the World? (Fox 08/18/2015)
Life-size humanoid robot takes a walk in the woods (Fox 08/18/2015)
DARPA's XS-1 spacecraft could hit speeds of Mach 10 (Fox 08/13/2015)
70 years after Hiroshima, Los Alamos remains essential to our national security (Fox 08/06/2015)
•
National laboratories like Los Alamos endure because our nation has made the wise decision to use agile multidisciplinary science teams as a hedge against global uncertainty.
Hacker's RollJam device can steal your car keys, open your garage (Fox 08/06/2015)
It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No, It’s Just Another Delivery Drone (08/04/2015)
Eye-scanning tech used to track terrorists adapted to help find missing children (Fox 08/04/2015)
15 Fascinating Facts About The SR-71 Blackbird, The Fastest Plane On Earth
Feds say they have shut down Darkode malware marketplace (Fox 07/15/2015)
What US must do — right now — to combat growing cyber threat (Fox 07/10/2015)
•
The 9/11 Commission said that 9/11 was "above all, a failure of imagination." The equivalent of a 9/11 in the cyber realm has the potential to be even more devastating on our economy.
Spike Aerospace’s S-512 Supersonic Jet promises to fly from New York to London in three hours (Fox 07/08/2015)
Tiny glider could cruise through Martian skies (Fox 07/01/2015)
Pentagon's vaunted F-35 earns lousy review from test pilot in secret report (Fox 07/03/2015)
Honda confirms 8th victim of exploding airbag (Fox 06/21/2015)
•
Owners can find out if their car is part of the giant recall by going to https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/ and keying in their vehicle identification number.
Drone swarms join the Navy (Fox 06/19/2015)
LEDs: Illuminating your light choices (Fox 06/15/2015)
Officials: Second hack exposed military and intel data (Fox 06/12/2015)
LightSail spacecraft wakes up again, deploys solar sail (Fox 06/09/2015)
NASA launches ‘flying saucer’ test flight, suffers chute snafu (Fox 06/08/2015)
US Army Special Forces testing tiny drones, report says (Fox 06/03/2015)
US Air Force confirms Boeing's electromagnetic pulse weapon (Fox 05/27/2015)
FEC backs off flirtation with regulating Internet (Fox 05/22/2015)
How robots are helping Marines save lives on battlefield (Fox 05/22/2015)
Faulty Takata air bags trigger largest auto recall in US history (Fox 05/19/2015)
Windows 10 will come in many flavors and be free for most (Fox 05/15/2015)
Venus plane pushed for next NASA New Frontiers mission (Fox 05/14/2015)
NASA’s ‘Greased Lightning’ drone merges helicopter and plane technology (Fox 05/07/2015)
SpaceX tests astronaut escape system in unmanned Dragon launch (Fox 05/06/2015)
High-tech military goggles combine night vision, thermal imaging (Fox 05/05/2015)
The Internet's 'dark side' you don't use (Fox 04/25/2015)
Astronomers hate Roomba's lawnmower plans (Fox 04/20/2015)
Navy will test its electromagnetic railgun aboard DDG 1000 (Fox 04/15/2015)
SpaceX rocket landing attempt: Close again, but no cigar (Fox 04/14/2015)
Navy tests flying submarine drone (Fox 04/02/2015)
NASA tests Mars ‘flying saucer’ (Fox 03/31/2015)
Freightliner SuperTruck hauls goods, sips fuel (Fox 03/26/2015)
Bass battles blaze: George Mason students invent sound-based fire extinguisher (Fox 03/26/2015)
Sci-fi cloaking device could protect soldiers from shock waves (Fox 03/26/2015)
Scientists tout breakthrough in chemical weapons battle (Fox 03/19/2015)
Microsoft to axe Internet Explorer (Fox 03/17/2015)
•
Many Windows users associate Internet Explorer with terrible performance and badly rendered websites, but that hasn't actually been the case for a long time.

•
The most recent iterations of the browser have worked well enough, yet the legacy of the monstrosity that was Internet Explorer 6 loomed large over them.
Why you're still pestered with robocalls (Fox 03/16/2015)
Laser weapon blasts through truck (Fox 03/07/2015)
DARPA taps tech to build sophisticated artificial limbs for wounded veterans (Fox 03/05/2015)
FCC approves sweeping Internet regulation plan, Obama accused of meddling (Fox 02/26/2015)
Astronauts complete 1st of 3 spacewalks (Fox 02/21/2015)
Inside the Army's CH-47F Chinook helicopter [pictures] (02/16/2015)
Can high-tech reverse outsourcing of US clothing manufacturing? (Fox 02/10/2015)
Ferguson police testing new device aimed at reducing fatal police encounters (Fox 02/05/2015)
FCC chairman pushes far-reaching plan to regulate Internet like phone service (Fox 02/04/2015)
New techniques emerge to track terror threats on social media (Fox 02/02/2015)
Revenge of the laptop: HP, Dell, Samsung, show how light a laptop can get (Fox 01/30/2015)
White House gets drone defense wake-up call (Fox 01/27/2015)
A pistol for any purpose: SHOT Show 2015 (Fox 01/26/2015)
Digital life hack: Turn your old phone into a security camera (Fox 01/24/2015)
Legendary A-10 'Warthog' sends ISIS fleeing even as it faces Pentagon cuts (Fox 01/21/2015)
Police are using new radar that can track you inside your home (Fox 01/21/2015)
Android malware increasing, getting smarter (Fox 01/16/2015)
Centcom hack: Military tightens password security (Fox 01/13/2015)
Military innovations: X-Planes, jumbo jet war machines, 'digital quarterbacks' (Fox 01/08/2015)
This Tiny Brain for Wearables Is Cute as a Button (01/07/2015)
NASA designs ape-like robot for disasters (CNN 12/29/2014)
A New Year's resolution for the workplace (CNN 12/30/2014)
Beretta wants to be U.S. Army's new gun. Again. (CNN 12/29/2014)
What the future of robots could look like (CNN 12/27/2014)
SpaceX will try landing a rocket on a tiny ship at sea (CNN 12/26/2014)
Google fights Marriott's plan to block Wi-Fi hotspots (CNN 12/25/2014)
Google's fully functional driverless car is adorable (CNN 12/22/2014)
Space-based solar power: the energy of the future? (CNN 12/18/2014)
Army to launch 'blimp' that detects cruise missiles (CNN 12/18/2014)
Navy: New laser weapon works, ready for action (CNN 12/11/2014)
Helicopters of the future: A brief history [pictures] (CNET, 12/2014)
'Nearly flawless': Orion passes 2-orbit test flight (CNN 12/05/2014)
NASA's Mars milestone (CNN 12/03/2014)
NASA 'go' for its next giant leap into space (CNN 12/03/2014)
U.S. Army wants a new gun (CNN 12/03/2014)
Takata defies U.S. regulators over exploding airbags (CNN 12/02/2014)
NASA spaceship ready for test flight (CNN 11/30/2014)
Supersonic jets can fly from New York to L.A. in 2.5 hours (or less) (CNN 11/26/2014)
Webcam security: What you must do. Now (CNN 11/20/2014)
You're flying with NASA and you don't even know it (CNN 11/20/2014)
The U.S. government thinks China could take down the power grid (CNN 11/20/2014)
Takata airbag victims looked like they had been shot or stabbed (CNN 11/20/2014)
Feds call for nationwide Takata airbag recall (CNN 11/18/2014)
iPhone vs. Android: Which is better? (CNN 11/2014)
Why Amazon's Echo is the computer of the future (CNN 11/12/2014)
U.S. weather system hacked, affecting satellites (CNN 11/12/2014)
Pentagon wants ideas for flying aircraft carrier (CNN 11/11/2014)
Guess who's coming for your job (CNN 11/10/2014)
Elephant in your lap: Flying in an F-16 (CNN 11/07/2014)
Will the FCC ruin the Internet? (CNN 11/07/2014)
How did nurse Amber Vinson get Ebola? 'It is a mystery to me,' she tells CNN (CNN 11/06/2014)
Orbital CEO: Engines likely behind failed Antares launch (CNN 11/05/2014)
Navy's newest fighter makes first carrier landing (CNN 11/04/2014)
Floating train could whisk you from D.C. to N.Y. in an hour (CNN 11/03/2014)
Americans pay more for slower Internet (CNN 10/31/2014)
The truth about launching spaceships (CNN 10/31/2014)
Antares operator used destruct system to blow up rocket (CNN 10/30/2014)
The last thing we ever build? The machines that make machines (CNN 10/29/2014)
Unmanned NASA-contracted rocket explodes; damage is 'significant' (CNN 10/28/2014)
Elon Musk warns against unleashing artificial intelligence 'demon' (CNN 10/26/2014)
Wearable tech to hack your brain (CNN 10/22/2014)
Google unveils Inbox, a new app to fix email (CNN 10/22/2014)
Germ-zapping robot Gigi sets its sights on Ebola (CNN 10/16/2014)
Unmanned X-37B space plane lands, its exact mission a mystery (CNN 10/18/2014)
Navy's exoskeleton could make workers 20 times more productive (CNN 10/14/2014)
Mysterious Air Force space plane to land soon (CNN 10/13/2014)
Tesla reveals the D: Two motors and all-wheel-drive (CNN 10/10/2014)
Nine good reasons to be an engineer (10/09/2014)
HP: Death of a Silicon Valley titan (CNN 10/06/2014)
U.S. Navy could 'swarm' foes with robot boats (CNN 10/06/2014)
Marriott fined $600,000 by FCC for blocking guests' Wi-Fi (CNN 10/03/2014)
Microsoft introduces Windows 10 (CNN 09/30/2014)
Microsoft introduces Windows 10 (CNN 09/30/2014)
Which Browser is Best? Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Internet Explorer (PC Magazine, 09/26/2014)
NASA move could transform space exploration (CNN 09/16/2014)
Sensory isolation helmets: Is this next for plane passengers? (CNN 09/15/2014)
The submarine that found a lost H-bomb: 'Alvin' reveals the mysteries of the deep (CNN 09/12/2014)
Is the Internet about to get sloooooow? (CNN 09/10/2014)
Is the Navy missing the boat on the stealthy Ghost warship? (CNN 08/27/2014)
Experimental SpaceX rocket self-detonates over Texas (CNN 08/23/2014)
Pop-up ad creator: 'I'm sorry' (CNN 08/15/2014)
One of the coolest airline museums you've never heard of (CNN 08/12/2014)
Consumer Reports puts some dings in Tesla's reputation (CNN 08/12/2014)
IBM builds a brain out of computer chips (CNN 08/07/2014)
Eavesdropping with a camera and potted plants (CNN 08/07/2014)
FCC calls Verizon plan to throttle speeds 'disturbing' (CNN 07/31/2014)
Chevy Volt is insurance group's Top Safety Pick (CNN 07/30/2014)
Don't let the auto industry kill you (CNN 07/30/2014)
U.S. Army Contemplates 3D-Printed Warheads (Popular Science, 07/29/2014)
Amazon launches 3-D printing store (CNN 07/29/2014)
GM to pay victims at least $400 million (CNN 07/24/2014)
Air Force general: U.S. isn’t bluffing on evidence in shootdown of Malaysian jet (07/22/2014)
Google to speed up Web with smaller photos (CNN 07/21/2014)
Marines test new beach assault vehicle (CNN 07/16/2014)
F-35 fleet cleared to fly after June engine fire prompted grounding (CNN 07/15/2014)
New Internet speed record blows past Google Fiber (CNN 07/08/2014)
Ford recalls 100,000 vehicles (CNN 07/08/2014)
What's wrong with tech leaders? (CNN 07/08/2014)
Google Glass wearers can steal your password (CNN 07/07/2014)
NASA's deep-space craft readying for launch (CNN 06/26/2014)
Gingrich: Keep bureaucrats' hands off our smartphones (CNN 06/22/2014)
The hidden beauty of airport runways, and how to decipher them (CNN 06/20/2014)
Amazon Fire Phone is a shopping mall (CNN 06/19/2014)
T-Mobile wants to give you an iPhone (CNN 06/19/2014)
Meet QuiQui, the drug-delivering drone (CNN 06/19/2014)
Amazon unveils 3-D Fire Phone (CNN 06/18/2014)
Mini, jumping drones fly over Manhattan (CNN 06/17/2014)
Stalker: A creepy look at you, online (CNN 06/13/2014)
Navy's stealth destroyer designed for the video gamer generation (CNN 06/14/2014)
Inside Virgin Galactic's newest passenger spaceship (CNN 06/13/2014)
FAA OKs first commercial drone flights — for BP, over Alaska (CNN 06/10/2014)
Ford may make cars out of Heinz ketchup (CNN 06/10/2014)
Amazon launches PayPal competitor (CNN 06/09/2014)
Hollywood to feds: Let us use drones (CNN 06/04/2014)
Tool can plug gunshot wounds in seconds (CNN 06/02/2014)
Your car is a giant computer — and it can be hacked (CNN 06/01/2014)
SpaceX unveils new spacecraft to take astronauts to space station, back to Earth (CNN 05/30/2014)
At Harvard, swarming robots that mimic termites (CNN 05/29/2014)
Google's new self-driving car has no steering wheel or brake (CNN 05/28/2014)
Robots will replace fast-food workers (CNN 05/22/2014)
How celebrity hacker 'Sabu' helped feds thwart 300 cyber-attacks (CNN 05/25/2014)
Army of robots to invade Amazon warehouses (CNN 05/22/2014)
Safety board raises new concerns over jetliner batteries (CNN 05/22/2014)
AT&T’s complicated merger history (CNN 05/20/2014)
A father-son chat leads to first-of-its-kind NASA spacecraft (CNN 05/18/2014)
Technology is leaving too many of us behind (CNN 05/16/2013)
4 ways a fast lane could change your Internet service (CNN 05/13/2013)
FDA approves 'Star Wars' bionic arm (CNN 05/12/2014)
Don't outsource your dating life (CNN 05/01/2014)
Why you'll hate the Internet 'fast lane' (CNN 04/29/2014)
Tweeting a Riot (JWR 04/28/2014)
Google Now and Cortana are the future, not Siri (CNN 04/28/2014)
The 5 IT Skills Companies are Looking For Today (04/25/2014)
Don't assume you're safe from Heartbleed (CNN 04/24/2014)
How the FCC's Internet fast lane affects you (CNN 04/24/2014)
Lytro refocuses with a new $1,600 camera (CNN 04/22/2014)
Americans wary of futuristic science, tech (CNN 04/17/2014)
Ousted Yahoo exec gets $58 million golden parachute (CNN 04/17/2014)
Google's future phone: The modular Project Ara (CNN 04/16/2014)
'Kill switch' may be standard on U.S. phones in 2015 (CNN 04/16/2014)
Google Glass targeted as symbol by anti-tech crowd (CNN 04/15/2014)
Change these passwords right now (CNN 04/10/2014)
Navy's future: Electric guns, lasers, water as fuel (CNN 04/10/2014)
Heartbleed bug: What you need to know (CNN 04/09/2014)
Airbus unveils the passenger cabins for the new A350 XWB plane (CNN 04/08/2014)
Microsoft drops Windows XP support (CNN 04/08/2014)
Windows 8 soon to be more like Windows 7 (CNN 04/04/2014)
Wi-Fi speeds are about to triple (CNN 04/04/2014)
Goodyear tests its bigger, faster Zeppelin 'blimp' (CNN 04/03/2014)
The next frontier in 3-D printing: Human organs (CNN 04/03/2014)
Microsoft makes Windows 8.1 mouse-friendly (CNN 04/03/2014)
Amazon unveils streaming media device (CNN 04/02/2014)
The 57-cent part at the center of GM's recall crisis (CNN 04/02/2014)
U.S. requires new cars to have backup cameras (CNN 03/27/2014)
Why it's bad for Facebook to gobble up Oculus (CNN 03/27/2014)
The guns that know who is firing them: Can smart tech make firearms safer? (CNN 03/27/2014)
Wireless electricity? It's here (CNN 03/14/2014)
Mark Zuckerberg calls Obama to complain about NSA (CNN 03/13/2014)
Pay Attention to This (JWR 03/11/2014)
5 predictions for the Web that were WAY off (CNN 03/11/2014)
Boeing to sell phone that can self-destruct (CNN 02/27/2014)
Wow! Making planes in the world's biggest building (CNN 02/26/2014)
Tesla's future rides on a massive battery plant (CNN 02/22/2014)
Not all patent trolls are demons (CNN 02/21/2014)
How termite-inspired robots could build for us (CNN 02/13/2014)
Burying power lines not always the answer (CNN 02/12/2014)
Why we should bury the power lines (CNN 02/12/2014)
The rise of medical identity theft (JWR 02/12/2014)
Meet Glyph, a headset that beams video into your eyes (CNN 02/06/2014)
How 'hero' Snowden's leaks have made the Internet more dangerous (JWR 02/05/2014)
Area 51 spy plane and other aviation tales (CNN 02/05/2014)
Beer-delivery drone grounded by FAA (CNN 01/31/2014)
New ammo packs 3 shots into one bullet (CNN 01/30/2014)
In train wrecks, a push for safety (CNN 01/29/2014)
Gun safety advocates develop smart weapons (CNN 01/29/2014)
Small cars get crushed in crash tests (CNN 01/21/2014)
Wild West Web needs a sheriff (CNN 01/16/2013)
Airbus' Beluga: Inside the world's strangest-looking airplane (CNN 01/16/2013)
Court strikes down net neutrality rules (CNN 01/14/2014)
Wrong runway landings an urgent wake-up call (CNN 01/14/2014)
The 21st Century’s ‘For Want of a Nail’ (Time, 01/06/2014)
Ford to debut solar car (CNN 01/02/2014)
5 Tech Products That Will Be Dead in 5 Years (Time, 01/02/2014)
5 surprising facts about the Goodyear blimp (CNN 12/24/2013)
Earthrise on Christmas Eve: The Picture That Changed the World (CNN 12/24/2013)
The Navy’s Amazing Ocean-Powered Underwater Drone (Time, 12/22/2013)
California to introduce first 'smartphone killswitch' bill (CNN 12/20/2013)
Google moves into military robotics (CNN 12/16/2013)
What your wireless carrier knows about you (CNN 12/16/2013)
Light bulb ban set to take effect (CNN 12/13/2013)
U.S. seeks spy edge with stealth drone (CNN 12/12/2013)
Pilots, not computers, should fly planes (CNN 12/11/2013)
U.S. successfully launches drone from submerged submarine (CNN 12/06/2013)
Coming to grips with rise of the machines (JWR 12/06/2013)
Droning on with Amazon.com (JWR 12/05/2013)
Smart gun technology could set New Jersey law into motion (CNN 11/23/2013)
Internet gains are serendipity's loss (CNN 11/20/2013)
Feds open safety probe into Tesla fires (CNN 11/18/2013)
World's fastest car set to break records, again (CNN 11/18/2013)
Authors' case against Google Books dismissed (CNN 11/14/2013)
Drones over America? Time for debate (CNN 11/12/2013)
Navy christens newest, most efficient carrier - the USS Gerald Ford (CNN 11/08/2013)
Texas company makes metal gun with 3-D printer (CNN 11/08/2013)
FAA takes initial steps to introduce private drones in U.S. skies (CNN 11/07/2013)
Iron Man suit, from the silver screen to the battlefield (CNN 11/05/2013)
Space travel: U.S. company to offer 30 km-high balloon flights (CNN 10/24/2013)
'Son of Blackbird': Plan for a new spy plane (CNN 11/05/2013)
Google's dreaded 'blacklist' (CNN 11/04/2013)
Pilot: The safety hitch of electronics on plane (CNN 11/01/2013)
Finally, Capt. Kirk has his cloaking device (CNN 10/31/2013)
Bigger, Lighter, Deadlier! Navy launches new stealth destroyer (CNN 10/29/2013)
Titan Arm: Bionic bicep gives you the strength of Hercules (CNN 10/25/2013)
Microsoft exec savages Apple's 'struggling, lightweight' tools (CNN 10/24/2013)
Elon Musk to make James Bond submarine car a reality (CNN 10/17/2013)
USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier in a 'super-class' of its own (CNN 10/14/2013)
Adobe has an epically abysmal security record (CNN 10/08/2013)
Steve Ballmer bids farewell to shareholders (CNN 10/08/2013)
Man & Machine: Understanding our roles in an evolving world (JWR 10/07/2013)
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is the best e-reader ever (CNN 10/07/2013)
'Terminator'-style cube robots swarm and self-assemble (CNet, 10/04/2013)
Code Warriors: The new arms race for a new front line (JWR 09/30/2013)
Bill Gates: Control-Alt-Delete was a mistake (CNN 09/26/2013)
Can your cell phone bring down a plane? (CNN 09/20/2013)
10 Things I Didn’t Know About Google (Time, 09/22/2013)
Company hopes new jet will save the Air Force a bundle (CNN 09/17/2013)
The drone that may never have to land (CNN 08/23/2013)
Hits and misses of the Steve Ballmer era at Microsoft (CNN 08/23/2013)
Voice recognition will always be stupid (CNN 08/20/2013)
What does a $250,000 ticket to space with Virgin Galactic actually buy you? (CNN 08/15/2013)
Suddenly, Google is making great hardware (CNN 08/13/2013)
Hyperloop vs. world's fastest trains (CNN 08/12/2013)
Hyperloop could be a reality (CNN 08/12/2013)
The 'radical' nuclear missile test that made history (CNN 08/09/2013)
Why more Amber alerts will be waking you up (CNN 08/07/2013)
Which Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post? (CNN 08/06/2013)
Fracking the good news (JWR 07/30/2013)
5 questions on high-speed rail and its U.S. future (CNN 07/25/2013)
Amazon CEO says discovery is Apollo 11 rocket engines (CNN 07/19/2013)
Elon Musk thinks he can get you from NY to LA in 45 minutes (CNN 07/16/2013)
Apple found to have conspired to raise e-book prices (CNN 07/10/2013)
A century of the best of the U.S. Air Force [pictures] (CNet, 06/22/2013)
Much faster Wi-Fi coming soon (CNN 06/19/2013)
Houses that flip and fold into place (CNN 06/19/2013)
J.D. Power ranks GM tops in quality for first time (CNN 06/19/2013)
U.S. Navy adjusts to the times; ditches its ALL CAPS message format (CNN 06/13/2013)
X-47B heads to sea on carrier duty [pictures] (CNet, 06/11/2013)
$27,500 gun hits targets at 1,000 yards (CNN 06/11/2013)
10 Cars That Probably Should Not Have Hit the Road (06/09/2013)
Were the Wright brothers really first? Photo sparks flight fight (CNN 06/07/2013)
Apple banned from selling some iPhones and iPads after Samsung patent win (CNN 06/04/2013)
Film to digital: Seeing movies in a new light (CNN 05/31/2013)
High-school teen builds one-man submarine for $2,000 (CNN 05/29/2013)
Make sure fracking is done right (CNN 05/22/2013)
It's settled! Creator tells us how to pronounce 'GIF' (CNN 05/22/2013)
Make $30 an hour, no bachelor's degree required (CNN 05/21/2013)
Recharge your cellphone in 30 seconds (CNN 05/20/2013)
After ravages of flesh-eating bacteria, Aimee Copeland uses new bionic hands (CNN 05/19/2013)
Blackberry is about to give away its last advantage (CNN 05/17/2013)
Molding the next generation of computer scientists (CNN 05/14/2013)
Navy catapults drone from aircraft carrier (CNN 05/14/2013)
The cyber sharks are circling America (CNN 05/10/2013)
Flying car is Great Pumpkin of aviation (JWR 05/10/2013)
U.S. requires group to remove 3-D gun instructions from its website (CNN 05/10/2013)
Is this (finally) our flying car? (CNN 05/09/2013)
Tesla: Consumer Reports' best car ever tested (CNN 05/09/2013)
Buzz Aldrin: Get to Mars within 20 years (CNN 05/07/2013)
BMC Software sold for $6.9 billion (CNN 05/06/2013)
First completely 3D-printed gun shown (CNN 05/03/2013)
Staples starts selling 3-D printers (CNN 05/03/2013)
What to do when your favorite site closes (CNN 05/02/2013)
Google Glass, the beginning of wearable surveillance (CNN 05/01/2013)
Is the PC dead? (CNN 04/29/2013)
Is Big Brother coming to your job? (CNN 04/28/2013)
Next-generation ATMs boast video chat, exact change (CNN 04/22/2013)
Chromebook could free Google from Microsoft and Apple (CNN 04/19/2013)
Google forbids users from reselling, loaning Glass eyewear (CNN 04/18/2013)
Boeing's new 747-8 Intercontinental: Same same, but different (CNN 04/17/2013)
PETA eyes drones to watch hunters, farmers (CNN 04/11/2013)
Apple bans app in possible new wave of crackdowns (CNN 04/11/2013)
Google Glass already has some lawmakers on high alert (JWR 04/10/2013)
A new death ray, a la Buck Rogers (JWR 04/10/2013)
Navy to deploy laser to destroy drones, small boats (CNN 04/08/2013)
Extorting 911 call centers is latest threat against American infrastructure (CNN 04/05/2013)
Software is key to tech's next cool thing (CNN 04/03/2013)
Winky Dink and ... Bill Gates? (CNN 03/31/2013)
Cyborg bugs and glow-in-the-dark cats: How we're engineering animals (CNN 03/29/2013)
Light beyond vision: LED bulbs might help you read, concentrate, even sleep better (JWR 03/29/2013)
Scientists come a step closer to 'invisibility cloak' (CNN 03/27/2013)
The growing push to track your location indoors (CNN 03/25/2013)
Unlocking your cell phone is no crime (CNN 03/25/2013)
The quick red fox jumps — oh, never mind (JWR 03/23/2013)
Google Keep is a note-taking app with great potential (CNN 03/22/2013)
Your next phone screen could be made of sapphire (CNN 03/21/2013)
Apollo mission rocket engines recovered (CNN 03/20/2013)
Google Reader shutting down on July 1 (CNN 03/14/2013)
Benefit of office face time a myth (CNN 03/13/2013)
Heal thyself: The 'bio-inspired' materials that self-repair (CNN 02/22/2013)
Yahoo! I don't have to telecommute (JWR 03/08/2013)
Yahoo's Mayer gets $1.1 million bonus (CNN 03/07/2013)
600,000 Americans have 'megacommutes' of over 90 minutes (CNN 03/05/2013)
Best Buy ends work-from-home program (CNN 03/05/2013)
What Mayer misses on work-life balance (CNN 03/02/2013)
As tablets boom, e-readers feel the blast (CNN 02/28/2013)
Gates, Zuckerberg: Kids, learn to code (CNN 02/27/2013)
Allow Yahoo workers to work at home (CNN 02/27/2013)
Startup finds niche in digitizing physical mail (CNN 02/26/2013)
Yahoo work-from-home policy riles workers everywhere (CNN 02/26/2013)
Tech execs question Yahoo's work-from-the-office edict (CNN 12/26/2013)
Marissa Mayer: Yahoos can no longer work from home (CNN 02/25/2013)
Why I'm quitting Facebook (CNN 02/25/2013)
Mozilla to launch mobile phones with Firefox (CNN 12/24/2013)
Microsoft Hit In Latest Hacker Attack (CNN 12/24/2013)
Before they got smart: When cellphones were hideous (CNN 12/22/2013)
Google unveils touchscreen laptop, the Chrome Pixel (CNN 12/21/2013)
A 3-D pen that lets you draw objects in the air (CNN 12/21/2013)
From 3D graphics to biometric scans: How your smartphone will get smarter (CNN 12/21/2013)
Hackers take aim at key U.S. infrastructure (CNN 02/20/2013)
Wake up, America! China is attacking (CNN 02/19/2013)
How Samsung is out-innovating Apple (CNN 02/18/2013)
Tale of 'Bob': Does outsourcing new software pose cyber security risk? (JWR 02/11/2013)
Largest prime number yet discovered (CNN 02/06/2013)
HP mocks Dell buyout. Really, HP? (CNN 02/05/2013)
Wozniak: Facts in Steve Jobs movie look 'atrocious' (CNN 01/31/2013)
NYPD to Receive 'T-Ray' Vision to Detect Concealed Firearms (INN 01/25/2013)
With BlackBerry 10, struggling phone maker hopes for a comeback (CNN 01/23/2013)
'Fireflies' to scope out space rocks for mining (CNN 01/22/2013)
What you need to know about the Boeing Dreamliner (CNN 01/17/2013)
Why the Net grieves Aaron Swartz (CNN 01/15/2013)
Dreamliner's growing pains not unusual for new airplanes, experts say (CNN 01/09/2013)
Make guns smart (CNN 01/09/2013)
Hacker hits on U.S. power and nuclear targets spiked in 2012 (CNN 01/09/2013)
Microsoft to kill Messenger on March 15 (CNN 01/09/2013)
Google to bring free Wi-Fi to New York City (CNN 01/08/2013)
The top 12 tech stories of 2012 (CNN 12/27/2012)
14 years after amputation, woman gets new arm without operation (CNN 12/24/2012)
Is the pay phone making a comeback? (CNN 12/20/2012)
Instagram users should wise up (CNN 12/20/2012)
New computing devices will allow touch, smell: IBM (JWR 12/19/2012)
Is Apple starting to lose its bite? (CNN 12/18/2012)
Apple request for Samsung phone ban is denied (CNN 12/18/2012)
Massive bank cyberattack planned (CNN 12/13/2012)
Seven tips for safer online shopping (CNN 12/12/2012)
Google's maps app back on iPhone (CNN 12/12/2012)
'Superjumbo' A380 marks five years in the sky (CNN 12/03/2012)
Do Not Track is dying (CNN 11/30/2012)
Microsoft Surface Pro to start at $899 (CNN 11/29/2012)
Bing takes on Google in fight for holiday shoppers (CNN 11/29/2012)
2022: Cheap flights, more rail and hands-free cars (CNN 11/27/2012)
Brain-controlled helicopter takes mental concentration to new heights (CNN 11/23/2012)
Silent but deadly: Special forces seek quiet, subsonic bullets (CNN 11/21/2012)
Solar power when the sun has set (CNN 11/19/2012)
Travel ideas for Veterans Day ... and Doomsday (CNN 11/07/2012)
Huge plugs could have spared subways from flooding, developers say (CNN 10/31/2012)
Killing the market for stolen cell phones (CNN 10/31/2012)
Top U.S. supercomputer guns for fastest in world (CNN 10/29/2012)
Microsoft is risking an $18 billion empire on Windows 8 (CNN 10/25/2012)
Windows 8 vs. Windows RT: It matters. Let's explain. (CNN 10/24/2012)
Microsoft Surface review: Stunning hardware, but apps are sparse (CNN 10/23/2012)
Microsoft Surface tablet goes on sale for $499 (CNN 10/16/2012)
Apple vs. Google is the Most Important Battle in Tech (CNN 10/12/2012)
Google awards $60,000 prize for Chrome hack (CNN 10/10/2012)
SpaceX rocket on 1st cargo flight to International Space Station (CNN 10/07/2012)
There's nothing virtual about cyber attacks (CNN 10/07/2012)
How Steve Jobs' legacy has changed (CNN 10/05/2012)
Review: Kindle Paperwhite is king of the e-readers (CNN 10/01/2012)
Major banks hit with biggest cyberattacks in history (CNN 09/27/2012)
Self-driving cars now legal in California (CNN 09/25/2012)
Teaching an old dog new tricks: How to fix Microsoft (CNN 09/24/2012)
Gallery: Leading tablets and e-readers (CNN 09/20/2012)
You won't need a driver's license by 2040 (CNN 09/18/2012)
The ‘mule-bot’ walks again (CNN 09/12/2012)
Robotic “cheetah” sets new speed record (CNN 09/06/2012)
Finally! Windows XP no longer most popular desktop system (CNN 09/04/2012)
Apple targets the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note (CNN 09/01/2012)
U.S. routes announced for 'sports car in the sky' (CNN 08/31/2012)
Apple ruling will hurt - but not for long (CNN 08/29/2012)
Are Apple's innovations inside us now? (CNN 08/28/2012)
Jury: Samsung should pay Apple more than $1 billion (CNN 08/24/2012)
Hackers raise cash for Tesla museum honoring 'cult hero' (CNN 08/21/2012)
Air Force's hypersonic test fails (CNN 08/15/2012)
Super-Fast Plane May Be Clincher in Missile War (INN 08/15/2012)
Imagine flying from New York to London in under an hour (CNN 08/14/2012)
19 incredible Apple secrets revealed in court (CNN 08/12/2012)
Army's all-seeing, super blimp makes debut flight (CNN 08/10/2012)
Moon lander prototype blows up in NASA test (CNN 08/09/2012)
Commentary: How the U.S. can avoid a blackout like India (CNN 08/08/2012)
Apple account hack raises concern about cloud storage (CNN 08/06/2012)
How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking (Wred, 08/06/2012)
Apple aims for salted earth in Samsung fight (CNN 08/01/2012)
How technology makes us vulnerable (CNN 07/29/2012)
Police embracing tech that predicts crimes (CNN 07/09/2012)
Will your Internet provider be spying on you? (CNN 07/06/2012)
Internet blackout for thousands coming Monday (CNN 07/06/2012)
From CrackBerry to 'depressing': The BlackBerry's 5-year fall (CNN 06/29/2012)
Judge stops U.S. sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (CNN 06/27/2012)
Nanotechnology Harnesses The Power Of Fireflies (JWR 06/19/2012)
Pint-sized drones to be deployed to war zones (JWR 06/13/2012)
Hackers could access US weapons systems through vulnerable chip (JWR 06/08/2012)
Turning DNA into a hard drive (JWR 06/05/2012)
Microsoft turns on 'do not track' by default in IE10 (CNN 06/01/2012)
Apple to DOJ: Bite me (CNN 05/26/2012)
SpaceX Dragon triumph: Only the beginning (CNN 05/26/2012)
Inventor of the TV remote dies (CNN 05/22/2012)
How Alcatel-Lucent made the Internet 5 times faster (CNN 05/22/2012)
Could a computer write this story? (CNN 05/11/2012)
Top analyst: 'Apple will decline' (CNN 04/26/2012)
Apple CEO scoffs at tablet-laptop hybrid (CNN 04/25/2012)
Pentagon releases results of 13,000-mph test flight over Pacific (LA Times, 04/20/2012)
Why one in five U.S. adults doesn't use the Internet (CNN 04/17/2012)
Microsoft's master plan to beat Apple and Google (CNN 04/17/2012)
Google co-founder: China, Apple, Facebook threaten the 'open Web' (CNN 04/16/2012)
Why it's OK to leave a tech job at 5 p.m. (CNN 04/16/2012)
MIT researchers seek to create robotic 'self-sculpting sand' (CNN 04/04/2012)
Mac user: Why I love Windows 8 (CNN 03/28/2012)
Vibrating steering wheel could help drivers navigate (CNN 03/28/2012)
Who's really flying the plane? (CNN 03/24/2012)
Facebook speaks out against employers asking for passwords (CNN 03/23/2012)
Windows 8 first impressions: It's a game changer (CNN 03/16/2012)
Ex-Google employee says Google+ has ruined the company (CNN 03/14/2012)
Grenade-throwing robot to fight fires on ships (CNN 03/13/2012)
5 new looks for your future PC (CNN 03/12/2012)
Fracking in New York: Risk vs. Reward (CNN 03/09/2012)
Why the interest in illegal cell-phone jammers? (CNN 03/07/2012)
Anonymous in disarray after major crackdown snares leaders (CNN 03/06/2012)
Experts: Translated Toyota memo shows electronic acceleration concern (CNN 03/05/2012)
Invasion of the flying robots (CNN 03/04/2012)
Report: Hackers seized control of NASA computers (CNN 03/02/2012)
How a billionaire fills gas tank for $1 a gallon (CNN 02/29/2012)
Consumer Reports: Top car picks (CNN 02/28/2012)
Jargon-busting mobile industry's buzzwords (CNN 02/24/2012)
Sorry, America: Your wireless airwaves are full (CNN 02/21/2012)
Consumer Reports supports cars of the future (CNN 02/21/2012)
Microsoft: Google violates our users' privacy too (CNN 02/21/2012)
Did Google intentionally track you? (CNN 02/21/2012)
U.S. nuclear plants similar to Fukushima spark concerns (CNN 02/17/2012)
Why 'Android fragmentation' isn't so bad (CNN 02/17/2012)
Will a standardized system for verifying Web identity ever catch on? (CNN 02/15/2012)
Fish scales may inspire body armor (CNN 02/13/2012)
Chrome Web browser comes to Android phones, tablets (CNN 02/07/2012)
Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design (JWR 02/07/2012)
How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard? (JWR 02/06/2012)
U.S. government, military to get secure Android phones (CNN 02/03/2012)
Twitter CEO: 'You don't pull the batteries out of the microphone' (CNN 02/02/2012)
An airplane in your garage? (CNN 01/29/2012)
How smartphone camera tech will evolve in 2012 (CNN 01/27/2012)
Millions in SOPA lobbying bucks gone to waste (CNN 01/27/2012)
Judge orders defendant to decrypt laptop (CNN 01/24/2012)
Ownership of tablets, e-readers almost doubles in one month (CNN 01/23/2012)
Not even nostalgia could save Kodak (CNN 01/23/2012)
Why 2012, despite privacy fears, isn't like Orwell's 1984 (CNN 01/23/2012)
SOPA and PIPA postponed indefinitely after protests (CNN 01/20/2012)
Government's case against file-sharing site overreaching, attorney says (CNN 01/20/2012)
Lawmakers withdraw support of anti-piracy bills after online protest (CNN 01/19/2012)
Wikipedia, other websites back after anti-piracy bill protest (CNN 01/19/2012)
White House blasts Internet piracy bills (CNN 01/17/2012)
Wikipedia, Reddit plan blackout in SOPA protest (CNN 01/16/2012)
Dirty little secrets: The trouble with Google's social search (CNN 01/14/2012)
Apple's 7 most stubborn decisions (CNN 01/12/2012)
Thin, metal Ultrabook laptops ready for takeoff (CNN 01/12/2012)
New glass could make touchscreens lighter, more responsive (CNN 01/10/2012)
Surprise! AT&T's network got very good (CNN 01/09/2012)
5 gadget trends to watch at CES (CNN 01/06/2012)
Barnes & Noble may spin off Nook e-reader (CNN 01/05/2012)
Raining drones? (CNN 12/30/2011)
Your cell phone is out of your control (CNN 12/28/2011)
Alexander Graham Bell goes digital (CNN 12/27/2011)
Mind Control, Biometric Passwords Could Change the World (JWR 12/23/2011)
Manning case signals US vulnerability to ‘insider’ cyberattack (JWR 12/23/2011)
Why it's time to worry about rise of the android workers (CNN 12/23/2011)
Bill that could 'break the Internet' delayed until 2012 (CNN 12/22/2011)
The future of war: Far-out battle tech (CNN 12/15/2011)
MIT camera system captures speed of light (CNN 12/13/2011)
Fallout continues over smartphone tracking app (CNN 12/02/2011)
Carrier IQ: Your phone's secret recording device (CNN 12/02/2011)
Check out the world's lightest material (CNN 11/23/2011)
Anti-piracy bill meets Web-freedom backlash (CNN 11/21/2011)
Feds investigating Illinois 'pump failure' as possible cyber attack (CNN 11/18/2011)
America the cyber sucker? (CNN 11/16/2011)
Google and Kodak speed past each other (CNN 11/13/2011)
What would Steve Jobs do? (CNN 11/11/2011)
Did Steve Jobs kill Adobe Flash? (CNN 11/09/2011)
Adobe abandons mobile Flash development, report says (CNN 11/09/2011)
Robot workers take over warehouses (CNN 11/09/2011)
Next war could be a click away (CNN 11/07/2011)
Battery life on the iPhone 4S: the new 'death grip'? (CNN 11/01/2011)
Your phone company is selling your personal data (CNN 11/01/2011)
Why your next phone might be bendable (CNN 10/31/2011)
Netflix takes up 32.7% of Internet bandwidth (CNN 10/27/2011)
Massive hack hit 760 companies (CNN 10/27/2011)
The best tidbits from the Steve Jobs bio (CNN 10/26/2011)
Unmanned drone attacks and shape-shifting robots: War's remote-control future (JWR 10/25/2011)
When Steve Met Bill: 'It was a kind of weird seduction visit' (CNN 10/24/2011)
Why Google doesn't (and shouldn't) care about tablets yet (CNN 10/20/2011)
Ford vehicles will read you text messages while you drive (CNN 10/18/2011)
Dennis Ritchie: The shoulders Steve Jobs stood on (CNN 10/14/2011)
Dennis Ritchie, father of C programming language, dies (CNet, 10/13/2011)
In rare admission, Air Force explains and downplays drone computer virus (CNN 10/11/2011)
Computer virus hits U.S. drone fleet (CNN 10/11/2011)
Electric plane wins $1.35 million prize (CNN 10/04/2011)
Microsoft prepares Windows 8 for battle against the iPad (CNN 09/13/2011)
IBM's 'Jeopardy' computer lands health care job (CNN 09/12/2011)
How 9/11 inspired a new era of robotics (CNN 09/07/2011)
Electronic ‘tattoo’ could monitor vital organ functions (JWR 08/31/2011)
Drone collision in Afghanistan sparks debate on U.S. availability (CNN 08/19/2011)
New IBM computer chip mimics the human brain (CNN 08/18/2011)
HP spinoff: Carly's final goodbye (CNN 08/18/2011)
HP kills TouchPad, looks to exit PC business (CNN 08/18/2011)
Flight failure won't stop 'mad scientists' (CNN 08/15/2011)
Hackers target San Francisco's rapid transit system (CNN 08/14/2011)
New York to LA in less than 12 minutes (CNN 08/11/2011)
Amazon knifes Apple, launches Web-based Kindle Cloud (CNN 08/10/2011)
How Apple drove Amazon's Kindle from the App Store (CNN 08/10/2011)
Boeing rolls out 787 Dreamliner after years of delay (CNN 08/07/2011)
Online security doesn't exist (CNN 08/05/2011)
As Android gets popular, so does Android malware (CNN 08/05/2011)
LulzSec and Anonymous are the least of your hacker worries (CNN 07/25/2011)
Pieces of history: 30 years of shuttles (CNN 07/09/2011)
More Americans buying e-readers than tablets, study says (CNN 06/27/2011)
Gmail attack shows growing cybercrime sophistication (CNN 06/02/2011)
NASA plans capsule to take humans into deep space (CNN 05/19/2011)
Amazon e-books now outselling print books (CNN 05/19/2011)
The Commodore 64, that '80s computer icon, lives again (CNN 05/03/2011)
Boeing drone jet completes maiden flight (CNN 05/03/2011)
Space shuttle: What have we learned? (CNN 04/24/2011)
Apple blames iPhone tracking file on 'bug' (CNN 04/22/2011)
Learning from Amazon's cloud collapse (CNN 04/22/2011)
Why Amazon's cloud Titanic went down (CNN 04/22/2011)
Mac vs. PC: The stereotypes may be true (CNN 04/22/2011)
How Apple blocks its competition (CNN 04/22/2011)
How Google is teaching computers to see (CNN 04/15/2011)
Android chief: We're still open (CNN 04/08/2011)
U.S. providing 'unique capabilities' to Libya mission (CNN 03/2011)
Zero G on Ford's factory floor (CNN 03/22/2011)
The tiny cube that could cut your cell phone bill (CNN 03/21/2011)
Inventor, futurist predicts dawn of total artificial intelligence (CNN 03/10/2011)
Google goes to the tape to get lost emails back (CNN 02/28/2011)
Google nukes thousands of Gmail accounts (CNN 02/28/2011)
Computer finishes off human opponents on 'Jeopardy!' (CNN 02/17/2011)
Chrysler battery-less hybrids announced (CNN 01/19/2011)
Some Google employees defect, then rebel (CNN 12/24/2010)
Yahoo targets Buzz, AltaVista, Delicious for death (CNN 12/17/2010)
Apple's Steve Wozniak: 'We've lost a lot of control' (CNN 12/08/2010)
FTC 'do not track' plan would be a Google killer (CNN 12/02/2010)
Eye scans will help keep better track of suspects, NYPD says (CNN 11/18/2010)
Future soldiers may be wearing 'Iron Man' suits (CNN 11/12/2010)
Is this the first step toward a flying car? (CNN 11/11/2010)
U.S. military launches mystery space plane on secret mission (CNN 10/16/2010)
World's first commercial spacecraft completes manned flight (CNN 10/11/2010)
Cyber Challenge tests nation's top hackers (CNN 12/21/2009)

Science (04/09/2024) Go to: List top | Prev sect (03/05/2024) | Next sect (03/22/2024) | List bot

NASA pics capture mysterious ‘surfboard’ orbiting the moon: ‘Exquisite timing’ (NYP 04/09/2024)
NASA capsule brings sample from asteroid to Earth for the first time in American history... (Fox 09/24/2023)
US scientists make major breakthrough in ‘limitless, zero-carbon’ fusion energy: report (Fox 12/12/2022)
NASA releases black hole sonifications (Fox 05/07/2022)
NASA shares Mars landing video from Perseverance rover, plus first-ever captured audio (Fox 02/22/2021)
NASA is going to send a 'balloon the size of a football stadium' to study the stars (Fox 07/24/2020)
Michael Guillen: Leap Year 2020 — Why it's a gift from the heavens (Fox 02/25/2020)
•
It takes Earth about 365 days and 6 hours to orbit the sun – what we call the solar or tropical year.

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Those extra six hours create a problem for our Gregorian calendar, which is only 365 days long.

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In order for us to keep step with the celestial clock, we need to add a full day to the calendar every four years.

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That is: 4 x 6 hours = 24 hours = leap day!

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Leap day is tacked on to February because February used to be the last month of the Roman calendar from which ours evolved; March, the harbinger of spring, was the first.

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Moreover, leap day causes holidays to leap forward from the previous year by two days, not just one – for example, Christmas goes from a Monday to a Wednesday.

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That's how leap year got its name.

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... leap year is a gift with absolutely no strings attached.

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It gives us an extra day every four years, the way the end of daylight savings time gives us an extra hour every November.

•
There is one tiny caveat. The solar year is not really 365 days and 6 hours long – more precisely it's 365 days 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds long. And even that is an approximation!

•
It means we occasionally need to skip a leap year in order to keep our calendar in sync with the heavens.

•
Here's the little formula scientists have worked out to make sure it happens: a leap year occurs in years divisible by four, but not divisible by 100 – except for those divisible by 400.

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There's one last thing I love about 2020's leap year.

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It's very likely going to reward us with a bonus prize you rarely hear about – a leap second.

•
Our official atomic clocks, you see, are ticking too fast compared to the rate Earth is spinning on its axis – there are too many ticks in a day.

•
To compensate for this mismatch our clocks need to be stopped for a second every now and then.

•
What's more, the mismatch is increasing. The moon's gravity and other natural forces are slowing down the Earth's rotation rate even further – by about 1.8 milliseconds per century.

•
In 200 million years, a day will be 25 hours long!

•
The last occasion we had a leap second was December 31, 2016.

•
Based on current predictions, we'll all enjoy an extra second of sleep, of life, on June 30th of this year.
NASA discovers mysterious green light that quickly disappeared (Fox 09/06/2019)
NASA reveals secrets of 'Hot Jupiter' exoplanets (Fox 08/28/2019)
Rubik's Cube solved by deep learning algorithm in fraction of a second (Fox 07/16/2019)
Scientists have found a way to levitate objects with light (Fox 03/21/2019)
This experiment will shoot ghostly particles through Earth, answer why we exist (Fox 09/19/2018)
Sleeping shrinks the brain … and that's a good thing (Fox 02/06/2017)
•
The researchers found that sleep provides a time when the brain's synapses — the connections among neurons — shrink back by nearly 20 percent.

•
During this time, the synapses rest and prepare for the next day, when they will grow stronger while receiving new input — that is, learning new things.

•
Without this reset, known as "synaptic homeostasis," synapses could become overloaded and burned out, like an electrical outlet with too many appliances plugged in to it.

•
"Sleep is the perfect time to allow the synaptic renormalization to occur ... because when we are awake, we are 'slaves' of the here and now, always attending some stimuli and learning something."

•
"During sleep, we are much less preoccupied by the external world ... and the brain can sample [or assess] all our synapses, and renormalize them in a smart way."

•
For millennia, humans have probed the nature and purpose of sleep. Aristotle suggested that sleep was restorative, a time to replace or rebuild all that was burned up throughout the body during the day.

•
Modern science supports this idea, with researchers identifying sets of genes associated with restoration and metabolic pathways that turn on only during sleep.

•
"It is critical to have pruning back at night, so that the huge amount of information encoded by temporary synapses during the day won't overwhelm the brain."

•
"Pruning ensures that only the most important information is retained."
Ultralight 'super-material' is 10 times stronger than steel (Fox 01/16/2017)
•
A spongy new super-material could be lighter than the flimsiest plastic yet 10 times stronger than steel.

•
The new super-material is made up of flecks of graphene squished and fused together into a vast, cobwebby network.

•
The fluffy structure, which looks a bit like a psychedelic sea creature, is almost completely hollow; its density is just 5 percent that of ordinary graphene.

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Graphene, a material made up of flaky sheets of carbon atoms, is the strongest material on Earth — at least in 2D sheets.

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On paper, ultrathin sheets of graphene, which are just an atom thick, have unique electrical properties and indomitable strength.

•
Unfortunately, these properties don't easily translate to 3D shapes that are used to build things.

•
To address this challenge ... used precise amounts of heat and pressure to produce the resulting curvy, labyrinthine structures, known as gyroids, which were first mathematically described by a NASA scientist in 1970 .

•
"Actually making them using conventional manufacturing methods is probably impossible."

•
The material's strength comes from its enormous surface-area-to-volume ratio.

•
In the future, massive bridges could be made of gyroid concrete, which would be ultrastrong, lightweight, and insulated against heat and cold because of all the myriad air pockets in the material.
Could we build a real-life Death Star? (Fox 12/16/2016)
•
In 2012, more than 25,000 people signed a petition asking the U.S. government to construct its own Death Star.

•
The White House (as it is bound to do when petitions receive a certain number of signatures) considered the application and penned a discouraging but tongue-in-cheek response — among the concerns cited in the rejection letter were the cost of such a project, and the fact that a single, small spacecraft was apparently enough to destroy it (a significant flaw for such a massive project).

•
But it turns out that the biggest obstacles aren't just money or rebel spacecraft, but physics.

•
"I hope, strongly, that a civilization that can command the resources and energy needed to create something like a Death Star would be smart enough and wise enough to turn its attention to more beneficial causes."
Is a blue fire tornado the future of oil spill cleanup? (Fox 08/31/2016)
Mathmetician solves puzzle of parking lots (Fox 08/25/2016)
•
A Mathematician has discovered a simple trick which could revolutionize car parking.

•
He performed some simple math and found out that one tweak could make it much easier for motorists to maneuver their motor into the space whilst simultaneously allowing more automobiles to fit into a car park.

•
All planners need to do is place the bays at a 45 degree angle, which cuts down the turning circle required and therefore needs a smaller access lane, freeing up more space for parking.

•
"For a 45 degree bay angle it was a 23 percent saving."

•
"For 36 degrees it was 34 percent, but the difference is marginal and it's easier to draw lines at 45 degrees."

•
His plans only work in larger car parks, because the useless space at the edge of bays negates the effects of the space-saving lanes.
Harvard's secret meeting on synthetic human genome fuels debate (Fox 05/14/2016)
•
A prominent Stanford scientist has denounced a secret meeting of 150 scientists at Harvard this week to discuss creating a synthetic human genome, or essentially constructing human life from scratch with chemicals.
NASA races to save planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft (Fox 04/11/2016)
Astronomers spot galaxy a record 13.4 billion light-years from Earth (Fox 03/04/2016)
Scientists may have found a way to destroy the bedbug (Fox 02/03/2016)
•
"Bedbugs are one of New York City's most iconic living fossils, along with cockroaches, meaning that their outward appearance has hardly changed throughout their long lineage."

•
The bed bug is a parasite that feeds on exclusively on blood and has been associated with humans for thousands of years.

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Global infestations of bed bugs came about with the rise of heated homes and international travel, a problem that has only exacerbated by the evolution of insecticide resistance over the past 20 years.

•
... the researchers found that bedbugs are likely most vulnerable during the first nymph stage, potentially making it a good target for exterminators in the future.

•
antibiotics that attack bacteria beneficial to bed bugs — but non-essential to humans — could be another weapon to control of the insects.
NASA's Kepler comes roaring back with 100 new exoplanet finds (Fox 01/06/2016)
Space fuel: Plutonium-238 created after 30-Year wait (Fox 12/30/2015)
Obama 'took the wrong side' on climate change, says physicist Freeman Dyson (Fox 10/14/2015)
•
Climate change, according to Freeman, "is not a scientific mystery but a human mystery. How does it happen that a whole generation of scientific experts is blind to obvious facts?"

•
"Pollution is quite separate to the climate problem: one can be solved, and the other cannot, and the public doesn't understand that."

•
"To any unprejudiced person reading this account, the facts should be obvious: that the non-climatic effects of carbon dioxide as a sustainer of wildlife and crop plants are enormously beneficial, that the possibly harmful climatic effects of carbon dioxide have been greatly exaggerated, and that the benefits clearly outweigh the possible damage."
NASA releases first Pluto flyby images (Fox 07/16/2015)
DNA says 8,500-year-old 'Kennewick Man' closely related to Native Americans (Fox 06/19/2015)
Science Says the Fourth Person to Interview for a Job is Most Likely to Get It (05/22/2015)
Beyond Resveratrol: The Anti-Aging NAD Fad (Scientific American, 03/11/2015)
•
Whenever I see my 10-year-old daughter brimming over with so much energy that she jumps up in the middle of supper to run around the table, I think to myself, "those young mitochondria."

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Mitochondria are our cells' energy dynamos. Descended from bacteria that colonized other cells about 2 billion years, they get flaky as we age.

•
A prominent theory of aging holds that decaying of mitochondria is a key driver of aging.

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Recent research suggests it may be possible to reverse mitochondrial decay with dietary supplements that increase cellular levels of a molecule called NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide).

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... NR-containing supplement includes a resveratrol-like substance called pterostilbene (pronounced tero-STILL-bean), which is found in blueberries and grapes.

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How excited should we be about all this?

•
If I were a middle-aged mouse, I'd be ready to spend some of the nickels and dimes I'd dragged off the sidewalk to try NR supplements.

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But the paucity of human data gives me pause.

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Nobel laureates notwithstanding, I plan to wait until more is known before jumping up from the supper table to run out for some NR.
NASA's plan for an off-world colony: a floating city above Venus (CNN 12/23/2014)
Humans on Mars by 2035? NASA's sci-fi dream could be reality (CNN 11/17/2014)
After Apollo: Do we need to go back to the moon? (CNN 07/17/2014)
Buzz Aldrin: After moon, next stop Mars (CNN 07/15/2014)
NASA launches test flight of flying saucer craft for future manned mission to Mars (CNN 06/28/2014)
Happy anniversary! On Mars, Curiosity rover has done a lot in a long year (CNN 06/24/2014)
What an Enterprise! NASA physicist, artist unveil warp-speed craft design (CNN 06/12/2014)
NASA's bold plan: Landing people on asteroids (CNN 05/13/2014)
NASA discovers Earth-sized planet that may sustain life (CNN 04/18/2014)
U.S. gets new, hyper-accurate atomic clock (CNN 04/03/2014)
'Cosmos' dazzles in debut (CNN 03/10/2014)
Science and reason vs. political correctness (JWR 03/06/2014)
NASA discovers 715 new planets (CNN 02/26/2014)
No, the sun does not revolve around the Earth (CNN 02/19/2014)
Human lung made in lab for first time (CNN 02/14/2014)
Laser bombardment yields energy milestone (CNN 02/12/2014)
Scientists control tiny motors inside cells (CNN 02/12/2014)
Study: Water could be flowing on Mars now (CNN 02/10/2014)
Stem cell breakthrough may be simple, fast, cheap (CNN 01/29/2014)
NASA: 2 places on Mars could have been habitable (CNN 01/24/2014)
Mystery rock spotted on Mars (CNN 01/20/2014)
Mars Curiosity rover finds life-supporting chemicals (CNN 12/10/2013)
Massive, meat-eating predatory dinosaur unearthed (CNN 11/22/2013)
Lost world — what happened to Mars? (CNN 11/17/2013)
NASA releases new photo of Saturn, Earth (CNN 11/13/2013)
South Carolina team finds new hammerhead shark species (CNN 11/08/2013)
Seeking dark matter, a mile underground (CNN 10/30/2013)
Big asteroid buzzes past Earth and will again in 19 years (CNN 10/18/2013)
Rare skull sparks human evolution controversy (CNN 10/17/2013)
'God particle' theorists receive Nobel Prize in physics (CNN 10/08/2013)
Scientists create light-matter like Darth Vader's lightsaber (CNN 09/26/2013)
Voyager 1 becomes first human-made object to leave solar system (CNN 09/12/2013)
New atomic clock's precision 'groundbreaking' (CNN 08/22/2013)
Mars rover Curiosity celebrates 1 year on Red Planet (CNN 08/06/2013)
OK, everybody, wave at Saturn! (CNN 07/17/2013)
Objective of 2020 mission to Mars: Signs of life, NASA says (CNN 07/09/2013)
NASA telescope to study mysterious part of the sun (CNN 06/27/2013)
How poverty might change the brain (CNN 06/13/2013)
No evidence global warming spawned twister (CNN 05/22/2013)
Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction (JWR 05/20/2013)
Bright explosion on moon visible from Earth, NASA says (CNN 05/15/2013)
Planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft in trouble (CNN 05/15/2013)
Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say (JWR 05/06/2013)
Three more homes for life in the universe? (CNN 04/22/2013)
3 new planets could host life (CNN 04/18/2013)
NASA shoots for asteroid, new manned missions (CNN 04/10/2013)
Forget falling stars: NASA plans to catch an asteroid (CNN 04/08/2013)
Money needed to prevent big asteroid strike despite low chance (CNN 03/19/2013)
Have a drink on Mars (JWR 03/14/2013)
Curiosity proves Mars had the formula for life (JWR 03/13/2013)
NASA: Yes, Mars could have hosted life (CNN 03/12/2013)
Studying Earth's protective radiation belts (CNN 03/09/2013)
Dolphins may be calling each other by name (CNN 03/07/2013)
Mars rover drills, sees planet's true colors (CNN 02/20/2013)
Rainbow-Colored Cloud Hides Baby Black Hole (CNN 02/19/2013)
Mona Lisa rides laser beams all the way to the moon: NASA (CNN 01/25/2013)
'Braids' may heat sun's corona, study says (CNN 01/23/2013)
US scientists find evidence of ancient Martian lake (JWR 01/21/2013)
'Mona Lisa' image goes to moon and back, in successful NASA experiment (CNN 01/17/2013)
Planets, planets, planets! (CNN 01/08/2013)
How to 'take over' a brain (CNN 01/06/2012)
Phew! Asteroid to miss Earth in 2040, NASA says (CNN 12/22/2012)
'So long, Ebb and Flow': NASA crashes probes into moon (CNN 12/17/2012)
Moon probes to be 'blown apart' in Monday mountain crash (CNN 12/17/2012)
NASA Science prepares for the not-end of the world (CNN 12/12/2012)
Voyager spacecraft finds solar system is bigger than thought (CNN 12/03/2012)
Scientists measure the universe’s first starlight (CNN 11/01/2012)
Amateur astronomers discover new planet with four suns (CNN 10/16/2012)
A look at 'Looper's' potential for real world time travel (CNN 10/02/2012)
Rover finds evidence of ancient water on Mars (CNN 09/27/2012)
Brain science key in trial of alleged 'Batman' shooter (CNN 09/22/2012)
Launching a new war on cancer (CNN 09/21/2012)
Mercury probe points to different origin for 1st planet (CNN 09/18/2012)
Mars rover performing 'almost flawlessly' (CNN 09/12/2012)
Black holes, bright galaxies emerge from dust (CNN 08/30/2012)
Human voice makes giant leap in space thanks to Curiosity (CNN 08/28/2012)
A camera that can see around corners (CNN 08/19/2012)
What's Next for NASA? 10 Wild, Newly Funded Projects (CNN 08/12/2012)
What we've done on Mars, and what's next (CNN 08/12/2012)
'Impressive' Curiosity landing only 1.5 miles off, NASA says (CNN 08/11/2012)
Images of Mars landing show "exciting ride," NASA says (CNN 08/07/2012)
Mars landing went 'flawlessly,' scientists say (CNN 08/06/2012)
Curiosity opening Martian frontier? (CNN 08/06/2012)
Curiosity opening Martian frontier? (CNN 08/05/2012)
Mars landing: It could be crazier (CNN 08/03/2012)
Are we all extraterrestrials? Scientists discover traces of DNA in space (JWR 08/02/2012)
NASA's Hubble telescope finds Pluto's fifth moon (CNN 07/12/2012)
Scientists edge closer to proving existence of elusive particle (CNN 07/03/2012)
Telescope aims to head off asteriods' impact on Earth (CNN 07/01/2012)
Moon may have frozen water in south pole crater, study says (CNN 06/21/2012)
Planetary odd couple discovered (CNN 06/21/2012)
Scientists Warn of Ethical Battle Concerning Military Mind Control (JWR 04/10/2012)
Say Hello to an Extraterrestrial Ocean — and Maybe Extraterrestrial Life (Time, 03/23/2012)
Pi Day: How 3.14 helps find other planets, and more (CNN 03/14/2012)
Researchers report progress in cancer immunotherapy (JWR 03/06/2012)
Mapping out a new era in brain research (CNN 03/01/2012)
Filmmaker James Cameron aims to explore ocean's deepest parts (CNN 02/29/2012)
Super Plants: Could Re-Wired Plants Be the New Cancer Killers? (JWR 02/15/2012)
Kepler team confirms 26 more planets (CNN 01/26/2012)
Time cloaking: How scientists opened a hidden gap in time (CNN 01/05/2012)
The secrets of spider silk (CNN 01/01/2012)
NASA research orbiter starts circling moon (CNN 12/31/2011)
Space idea factory & brainstorming school (CNN 12/27/2011)
Can a molecule make us moral? (CNN 12/27/2011)
Kepler discovers more planets (CNN 12/20/2011)
Spacecraft enters 'cosmic purgatory' (CNN 12/06/2011)
With discovery, NASA now on the road to finding Earth's twin (JWR 12/06/2011)
Planet confirmed that could have water (CNN 12/05/2011)
Giant Mars rover blasts off (CNN 11/21/2011)
Giant Mars rover set for Saturday launch (CNN 11/21/2011)
Solar flares won’t kill Earth, NASA says (CNN 11/14/2011)
NASA preps rover flight to Mars (CNN 11/10/2011)
American economists win Nobel (CNN 10/10/2011)
Dark energy, science's biggest mystery (CNN 10/09/2011)
NASA launches moon research mission (CNN 09/10/2011)
A good planet is hard to find (CNN 08/21/2011)
NASA Finds Lost Spacecraft on Dark Side of the Moon (CNN 08/08/2011)
NASA counts down to Jupiter mission (CNN 07/27/2011)
A Very Cool Spacecraft Visits a Very Cool Asteroid (CNN 07/17/2011)
To replace the shuttle: A mission to Mars (CNN 06/29/2011)
Can one idea be energy's holy grail? (CNN 06/27/2011)
Black holes abound in early universe (CNN 06/15/2011)
Are we there yet? Mars rover nears crater (CNN 06/10/2011)
Gupta: Cell phones, brain tumors and a wired earpiece (CNN 05/20/2011)
First image of Mercury from orbit released (CNN 03/29/2011)
The Littlest Planet Gets a Close-Up Look (CNN 03/18/2011)
NASA probe reaches Mercury (CNN 03/18/2011)
Shuttle Discovery scheduled for its last flight (CNN 02/24/2011)
Kepler space telescope spots five Earth-sized planets in our galaxy (CNN 02/03/2011)
NASA spots smallest planet yet discovered outside Sun's solar system (CNN 01/10/2011)
Total lunar eclipse gives heavenly show (CNN 12/21/2010)
Scientists create computer-programmable bacteria (CNN 12/12/2010)
Arsenic-feeding bacteria find expands traditional notions of life (CNN 12/02/2010)
Hubble marks 20 years in space (CNN 04/25/2010)
Climate Change Is Nature's Way (WSJ, 12/17/2009)

Health (03/22/2024) Go to: List top | Prev sect (04/09/2024) | Next sect (04/09/2024) | List bot

Is your favorite produce safe to eat? Strawberries, spinach top 2024’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ list (NYP 03/22/2024)
This one kitchen item could be wreaking havoc on your health — and it’s not a microwave (NYP 02/17/2024)
I’m a sleep doctor — I never make this common morning mistake, here’s why (NYP 01/20/2024)
Here's what you're really swallowing when you drink bottled water (JWR 01/18/2024)
Reduce your risk of dementia — cut out these everyday bad habits most of us are guilty of (NYP 01/06/2024)
A catatonic woman awakened after 20 years. Her story may change psychiatry (JWR 12/26/2023)
Should I take a vitamin B12 supplement? Here's what the science says (JWR 12/11/2023)
When measuring heart attack risk, one important red flag is often overlooked, doctors say (Fox 11/27/2023)
Eye drops sold at Walmart added to FDA's list of potentially harmful products (Fox 11/01/2023)
These are the best foods for a high-fiber diet, according to nutritionists (Fox 10/21/2023)
'Extremely rare' case of dengue virus found in California (Fox 10/21/2023)
These are the 10 leading causes of death among US adults, the CDC says (Fox 10/05/2023)
The 8 biggest Alzheimer’s disease myths — and the truths behind them (Fox 10/05/2023)
New COVID vaccine push is ‘anti-human,’ says Florida surgeon general: ‘Major safety concern’ (Fox 10/03/2023)
•
"It's just a really terrible idea," Ladapo said. "And it's remarkable and really spellbinding that [the CDC] would make that kind of recommendation in the absence of evidence."

•
"The FDA and CDC could have compelled Pfizer or Moderna to conduct clinical trials — that's something that's totally doable — and they didn't do it."

•
"The risks are very real, which adds to the madness of the way that the CDC and the FDA are making decisions right now."

•
"... they're pushing the product on human beings. That is an anti-human approach ... an anti-human policy."

•
"The CDC was vocal about the spike protein being a very short-lived phenomenon ... and now we have people who, for prolonged periods of time, seem to have evidence of spike proteins circulating in their tissues. Is that a safe outcome? I don't think so."

•
"It raises serious questions about the appropriateness of using these products in human beings." ... "Human beings deserve better than these products that have very high rates ... of serious adverse events."

•
"There are so many reasons to say 'pause' at this point. Instead, the CDC and FDA are saying 'full steam ahead.'..."

•
"The problem with considering this many COVID-19 vaccines for any population right now is that there's no clinical evidence for them. That's a major problem."

•
"With the questions about negative efficacy, the persistence of spike protein, and then the stuff we've seen related to thromboembolic events like strokes and cardiac injury, I don't feel comfortable ... recommending [the vaccine] to any living being on this planet."
WWII-era military sleep method could help insomniacs nod off quickly, some claim: 'Peace and calm' (Fox 09/28/2023)
These 10 nutrition mistakes could be taking years off your life: Here's what to do instead (Fox 09/08/2023)
Eye drops recalled over bacteria, fungi contamination (Fox 08/28/2023)
Loss of smell could be warning sign for future Alzheimer’s disease, researchers say (Fox 08/09/2023)
Be well: Treat and prevent dry eye syndrome from extended screen use (Fox 08/01/2023)
Dengue fever cases could reach near-record highs this year: What to know about the tropical infectious disease (Fox 07/24/2023)
Dangers you can't see may be lurking in your unwashed bedding, says study: Beware the 'health concerns' (Fox 07/05/2023)
Infectious disease doctor warns of deadly, drug-resistant fungus that’s ‘missed by most physicians’ (Fox 06/29/2023)
First US malaria cases diagnosed in decades: What to know about the disease (Fox 06/28/2023)
West Nile virus cases, positive samples detected across the country (Fox 06/17/2023)
Confidential Pfizer document shows the company observed 1.6 million adverse events covering nearly every organ system (Conservative Review, 06/16/2023)
Want to lower your risk of dying? Getting a good night's sleep is more urgent than ever (Fox 06/13/2023)
This Government-Approved COVID Treatment Was a Death Trap (06/08/2023)
Fourth person dies from bacteria linked to recalled eye drops, CDC says (Fox 05/19/2023)
Maine health officials confirm first Powassan virus death, case this year (Fox 05/19/2023)
CDC Halts Administration of J&J Covid Vaccines in United States, Orders Remaining Doses to Be Destroyed (05/17/2023 )
Tick bites and Lyme disease: What to do if a tick bites you or your pet (Fox 05/17/2023)
The Benefits of Vitamin C in Cancer Treatment (Epoch Times, 05/05/2023)
Frightening new fungus 'candida auris': What is it? Who is susceptible? (Fox 03/23/2023)
Rare tick-borne babesiosis disease on the rise in northeastern US, says CDC: Here's why (Fox 03/17/2023)
Eye drops recalled over non-sterility: FDA (Fox 03/06/2023)
How can I keep my kidneys healthy? (JWR 02/26/2023)
Heart health warning: Man scheduled for hip replacement winds up with quadruple bypass surgery (Fox 02/15/2023)
American Heart Month: Add these heart-healthy foods recommended by experts to your grocery list (Fox 02/14/2023)
Alzheimer's drug that slows cognitive decline gets FDA approval (JWR 02/01/2023)
Care about your heart? Try getting better sleep, new study suggests (Fox 01/17/2023)
Cancer vaccine hunt makes progress, finally (JWR 01/03/2023)
Warning from LASIK eye-surgery patients to FDA: More notice of 'side effects' is needed (Fox 12/16/2022)
FDA warns that LASIK surgery patients need to be better informed of risks before eye procedure (Fox 12/12/2022)
Christina Applegate's MS: Here's why early symptoms are often overlooked (Fox 11/13/2022)
Taking 10K steps may be associated with reduction in risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease deaths: study (Fox 10/08/2022)
Eating pumpkin may help you look younger and lose weight, experts say (Fox 10/05/2022)
As a doctor and dad, I am ashamed by how horribly my field mistreats kids with 'gender-affirming' therapies (Fox 08/29/2022)
•
Like all who seek out medical care, children with gender dysphoria and their families deserve compassion and honesty from their physicians.

•
What many are getting instead are misleading, ideologically driven recommendations, resulting in physical and psychological mutilation that is difficult or impossible to reverse.
Fauci admits that COVID-19 vaccines do not protect 'overly well' against infection (Fox 07/13/2022)
Fentanyl poisoning's surprising signs: What parents and friends must know (Fox 07/06/2022)
Water-borne infections can lurk in hot tubs, public pools, lakes and oceans this summer (Fox 06/14/2022)
Does a daily aspirin help over 60s avoid heart disease and stroke? Expert recommendations just changed (Fox 04/26/2022)
70% of COVID Cases Among CDC Employees in August 2021 Were in Vaccinated Employees (Defender 04/05/2022)
NY woman reveals life with a sister's schizophrenia, writes 'love letter' to her (Fox 03/28/2022)
The best vegetables for your health, according to nutritionists (Fox 03/22/2022)
New study shows the effect owning pets has on owners' brains (Fox 02/24/2022)
Rare multisystem inflammatory syndrome appears in some teenagers after COVID-19 vaccination: study (Fox 02/24/2022)
These foods can help you look and feel younger, experts say (Fox 02/16/2022)
Antihistamines may help resolve long COVID, report suggests (Fox 02/12/2022)
Kansas woman's allergic reaction to Moderna coronavirus vaccine killed her, autopsy says (Fox 02/11/2022)
Pandemic stress could be causing your eye problems. Here's what to know (JWR 02/09/2022)
The best vegetables for your health, according to nutritionists (Fox 02/06/2022)
COVID — facts, fiction and fear (Fox 01/25/2022)
Viral TikTok shows military technique for falling asleep in 2 minutes (Fox 01/24/2022)
10 ways to manage stress, according to mental health experts (Fox 01/16/2022)
US reports highest number of rabies deaths in a decade (Fox 01/06/2022)
Cell phone radiation expert says FCC 'in denial' of health risks, demands 'full, independent investigation' (Fox 12/29/2021)
CDC recommends Pfizer and Moderna vaccines over Johnson & Johnson due to rare blood clotting issue (Fox 12/16/2021)
'Long' COVID causes bad smells and tastes, depression for some survivors: 'Hot water smells like rotting meat' (Fox 12/02/2021)
Omicron: What are the variant's symptoms? (Fox 12/01/2021)
This secret experiment tricked psychiatrists into diagnosing sane people as having schizophrenia (JWR 11/24/2021)
Diabetic foot ulcer treatment could kill COVID-19 virus, researchers say (Fox 11/11/2021)
Alzheimer’s: Study reveals how disease progresses in the brain (Fox 11/02/2021)
Some lesser-known culprits for neck and back pain — and what to do about them (JWR 10/29/2021)
What is frozen shoulder? Symptoms, treatment and a possible pandemic connection (JWR 10/08/2021)
The FDA's Aducanumab Disaster (10/07/2021)
Washington woman dead after rare J&J COVID vaccine-induced blood clot (Fox 10/06/2021)
Poison ivy vaccine making progress: report (Fox 09/21/2021)
Moderna analysis: Those vaccinated last year twice more likely to contract COVID-19 (Fox 09/15/2021)
Multiple states warn on West Nile virus risk amid peak period (Fox 09/13/2021)
Alzheimer’s disease and sleep: Could 7 to 8 hours lower the risk? (Fox 09/09/2021)
Cannabis use linked to increased risk of heart attack among young adults: study (Fox 09/08/2021)
COVID-19 variant mu detected in 49 states (Fox 09/07/2021)
Osteoporotic fractures pose serious harm to men, too: study (Fox 09/01/2021)
3 vaccinated US senators test positive for COVID-19 (Fox 08/19/2021)
Deadly ‘kissing bug’ that kills thousands needs to be taken seriously now (Fox 08/19/2021)
Fully vaccinated Southwest flight attendant dies from COVID-19 (Fox 08/15/2021)
Pfizer, J&J react to COVID-19 breakthrough infections (Fox 08/03/2021)
•
Following recent outbreaks in Massachusetts, in which nearly three-quarters of some 469 COVID-19 cases occurred in fully vaccinated individuals, federal officials involved with the country's COVID-19 response and some vaccine drugmakers are emphasizing that the shots remain protective against serious outcomes.
Sen. Lindsey Graham tests positive for COVID-19, despite being vaccinated (Fox 08/02/2021)
33-year-old fully vaccinated woman reportedly dies from COVID-19 complications in rare, breakthrough case (Fox 07/28/2021)
Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine efficacy drops to 84% after 6 months, preprint study suggests (Fox 07/28/2021)
Colorado reports plague-infected fleas and animals, blames disease for 10-year-old’s death (Fox 07/23/2021)
'Superbug' fungus spread in two cities, health officials say (Fox 07/22/2021)
Do we all have Alzheimer's? Drug makers might want you to think so (JWR 07/20/2021)
Coronavirus antibodies persist at least nine months after infection: study (Fox 07/19/2021)
Health officials warn over melanoma as summer heats up: How to prevent deadly skin cancer (Fox 07/14/2021)
FDA warns on potential Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine link to rare disorder (Fox 07/12/2021)
What parents with unvaccinated kids need to know about the Delta variant (Fox 07/06/2021)
St. Louis health officials advise wearing mask indoors regardless of vaccination status (Fox 07/02/2021)
Myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination higher in military population than expected, study finds (Fox 06/30/2021)
Eating to support kidney health (JWR 06/28/2021)
Which COVID-19 variants are circulating in US? (Fox 06/28/2021)
NJ man contracts rare mosquito-borne virus: What is Jamestown Canyon virus? (Fox 06/25/2021)
New Jersey lung transplant recipient who was vaccinated dies of rare breakthrough coronavirus case (Fox 06/25/2021)
What is myocarditis? Signs, symptoms to look for (Fox 06/23/2021)
Almost 4,000 fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts have tested positive for COVID-19 (Fox 06/22/2021)
FDA adviser who resigned over Alzheimer's drug says 'no good evidence' it works (Fox 06/21/2021)
Doctors shouldn't get rich from an unproven Alzheimer's drug (JWR 06/17/2021)
•
Biogen priced its drug at about $56,000 a year, which is exceptionally high for a medicine targeting a large population like the 6 million Americans believed to have Alzheimer's.

•
But that's not all: A misguided bit of U.S. health-care policy will compound the burden of its price.

•
Medicare pays doctors a fee worth 6% of the cost of any drug administered in their office, creating a substantial financial incentive to choose more expensive medicines regardless of merit.

•
The fee is supposed to compensate doctors for local variation in the price of medicines and storage costs.

•
Instead, it's become part of a perverse feedback loop in which physicians favor expensive drugs, and drugmakers price aggressively to appeal to them and pad profits.
New treatment slows Alzheimer’s progression in monkeys, researchers claim (Fox 06/15/2021)
Open Letter to America (Dr. Steven Hatfill, 06/09/2021)
Why Alzheimer's milestone, new research gives me hope for millions of patients and families (Fox 06/08/2021)
FDA approves Biogen's Alzheimer's drug (Fox 06/07/2021)
Tick bites on the rise: How to stay safe as you head outdoors (Fox 05/28/2021)
CDC investigating 'mild' reports of potential heart problems following COVID-19 vaccination (Fox 05/22/2021)
Mediterranean diet could reduce Alzheimer's risk, study suggests (Fox 05/11/2021)
Suspected Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine clot case reported in male, Utah hospital says (Fox 05/06/2021)
Tucker Carlson: How many Americans have died after taking the COVID vaccine? (Fox 05/06/2021)
•
... how many Americans have died after getting the vaccines designed to prevent the virus? Do you know the answer to that question? Do you know anything about the downside?

•
... what about the potential risks? You'd think you would know more about that than you do. We talk about vaccines constantly...
More blood clot cases following Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine reported (Fox 04/23/2021)
What you should do if you've received the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine (JWR 04/16/2021)
Family blames Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after man reportedly suffers stroke (Fox 04/16/2021)
•
The father of seven was rushed to the hospital, where they determined that he had a stroke as a result of a blood clot in his brain...

•
... he took medication for high blood pressure, but was otherwise a "young, healthy" man. Now, the medical episode has left him paralyzed on the right side of his body...

•
"He can't talk now and he can't walk. He's paralyzed on the right side. He knows who we are and he will just cry when he sees us."

•
Federal regulators paused the use of the one-dose J&J shot on Tuesday after six women between the ages of 18 and 48 developed blood clots, including one who died.

•
"CDC and FDA are working rapidly to investigate each case and understand whether there is a causal relationship between these blood clots and vaccine administration."
Fifth of Americans refuse to get coronavirus vaccine as Johnson & Johnson shot is put on hold (Fox 04/15/2021)
Seventh clot case involving Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine revealed (Fox 04/15/2021)
Marines' vaccine hesitancy presents early test for Biden as commander-in-chief (Fox 04/12/2021)
•
Nearly 40% of U.S. Marines who have been offered the coronavirus vaccine declined...
Coronavirus survivors might experience more intense COVID-19 vaccine side effects, experts say (Fox 04/08/2021)
COVID-19 vaccination site shuts down after adverse reactions to Johnson & Johnson shot, report says (Fox 04/08/2021)
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte tests positive for coronavirus after receiving vaccine (Fox 04/06/2021)
NY woman contracts coronavirus month after COVID-19 vaccination, report says (Fox 03/31/2021)
'Premature' to blame COVID-19 vaccine in Kansas woman's death, health officials say (Fox 03/26/2021)
FDA warns on unapproved CBD products marketed for pain relief (Fox 03/24/2021)
Should we be picky choosing a COVID-19 vaccine brand? Dr. Saphier answers (Fox 03/16/2021)
Country star Larry Gatlin tests positive for coronavirus after receiving Moderna vaccine... (Fox 03/12/2021)
Utah mother dies four days after taking second COVID-19 vaccine dose (Fox 03/11/2021)
COVID-19 pill effective in preliminary testing may be 'holy grail' of pandemic, Dr. Marc Siegel says (Fox 03/07/2021)
Eyes may show early warnings for Alzheimer's (JWR 03/01/2021)
Newt Gingrich: Defeating polio and coronavirus – this is how we kill viruses (Fox 02/28/2021)
•
For many Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic has resurfaced fears we faced in decades past. Not long ago, parents across the nation were terrified of the possibility that their children could contract the polio virus.

•
Polio was a paralyzing disease that mostly affected children. In many ways, COVID-19 and polio present similar challenges.

•
Like polio, COVID-19 is a highly contagious virus that can be deadly. But while COVID-19 enters the lungs through airborne particles, polio entered the body through the gastrointestinal tract, often via contaminated water.

•
The first major polio epidemic in the United States hit Vermont in 1894 with 132 cases. A larger outbreak struck New York City in 1916, with more than 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths.

•
In 1921, Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted polio, and lived with paralysis for the rest of his life – spending a great deal of time in Warm Springs, Georgia, to help cope with his paralysis.

•
A few decades later, polio had become one of the most serious communicable diseases among children in the United States.

•
In fact, in 1946, President Harry Truman, who served with Roosevelt, declared polio a threat to the United States and called on Americans to do everything possible to combat it, saying:...

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"The fight against infantile paralysis cannot be a local war. It must be nationwide. It must be total war in every city, town and village throughout the land. For only with a united front can we ever hope to win any war."

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By 1952, nearly 60,000 children were infected with the virus – and thousands were paralyzed. More than 3,000 children died.

•
Hospitals set up special units with iron lung machines to keep polio victims alive. Like COVID-19, people of all socioeconomic levels were affected by the scourge of polio.

•
It's against this backdrop that Dr. Jonas Salk and his research team at the University of Pittsburgh, launched what was at the time the largest human vaccine trial in history, injecting nearly 2 million American kids with a potential vaccine.

•
On April 12, 1955, Salk and his team released the first successful vaccine for polio. Cases declined sharply following the introduction of vaccine to fewer than 1,000 cases in 1962 and remained below 100 cases after that year. By 1979, the United States reported its last case of the paralyzing virus.

•
America's ability to defeat polio through large-scale, quickly implemented vaccine testing and trials is analogous with our current effort to defeat COVID-19. In many ways, Salk provided an early model for nationwide vaccine deployment that has shaped our epidemic responses – and saved countless lives.

•
One of the more remarkable aspects of Salk's story is that he never patented the vaccine or earned any money from his discovery. He preferred that it be distributed as widely as possible. When reporters later asked him why he chose to give his work away, he simply asked, "could you patent the sun?"

•
Thanks to the work of Dr. Salk, we developed a vaccine that eventually eradicated polio. And it is on his shoulders that the scientists of today stand to ultimately defeat COVID-19.
Seven new highly contagious COVID-19 variants found across US (Fox 02/16/2021)
Dementia patients more at risk for coronavirus infection, hospitalization, study finds (Fox 02/10/2021)
CDC updates coronavirus face mask guidance, endorses 'double masking' (Fox 02/10/2021)
Tucker Carlson: Have questions about the COVID vaccine? 'Shut up and take it,' says Big Tech (Fox 02/10/2021)
Coronavirus vaccination may be cause of rare blood disorder in at least 36 people: report (Fox 02/10/2021)
How Many Americans Has the American Medical Establishment KILLED? (JWR 02/09/2021)
Physician slams YouTube's 'extremely misguided' decision to pull Senate testimony about COVID... (Fox 02/09/2021)
New York man gets COVID-19 vaccine, dies soon after: official (Fox 02/08/2021)
As coronavirus variants spread, FDA drawing up guidance for adjusted vaccines, diagnostics (Fox 02/05/2021)
How many variants of the coronavirus are there? (Fox 02/05/2021)
Johnson & Johnson exec on single-shot vaccine: 'Complete protection against death and...' (Fox 02/03/2021)
Top epidemiologist urges single doses of COVID-19 vaccine (Fox 01/31/2021)
Lyme disease cases in US could be 10 times higher than currently reported, CDC study finds (Fox 01/27/2021)
California man dies days after COVID-19 vaccine, cause of death under investigation (Fox 01/27/2021)
FDA issues alert on hand sanitizer products from Mexico (Fox 01/27/2021)
Merck ends COVID-19 vaccine program, cites inferior immune responses (Fox 01/25/2021)
California resident dies several hours after receiving COVID-19 vaccine (Fox 01/24/2021)
Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine induces immune response after 1 dose: study (Fox 01/14/2021)
Can you still spread COVID-19 after you get vaccinated? (Fox 01/12/2021)
Amid faulty disinfection, coronavirus patients battled deadly, drug-resistant fungus: CDC (Fox 01/11/2021)
Those with mild coronavirus experience loss of taste, smell in 86% of cases: study (Fox 01/07/2021)
As you grow older, some tests could be skipped (JWR 01/06/2021)
Coronavirus symptoms to look out for (Fox 12/25/2020)
Vitamin D, other everyday vitamins could counter coronavirus effects: report (Fox 12/25/2020)
NYC reports 'significant' COVID-19 vaccine reaction in health care worker (Fox 12/23/2020)
Exposed to coronavirus? Know when to isolate vs. quarantine (Fox 12/23/2020)
What's driving coronavirus vaccine hesitancy in US? (Fox 12/04/2020)
•
And yet, millions have vowed not to take the fast-developed two-shot vaccines despite 95% efficacy rates...

•
"People are wary of misinformation and don't really know who to trust anymore. The development of the vaccines at this rapid pace is unprecedented, and there is a significant amount of fear and confusion"...

•
"Many are of the mindset, 'Let's see if there are any side effects or anyone dies.'"

•
"Vaccine manufacturers have not been liable for injury or death since the passing of the 1986 Vaccine Injury Act. As such, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was created, and those who have directly suffered an injury from vaccination can file a petition for compensation."

•
"The VICP has already paid out $4.4 billion to those who have won in court and proven injury or death from vaccines. However, that number is only a small fraction of those who have actually been injured. Since the COVID-19 vaccine falls under the PREP Act, legal liability will be limited once again for vaccine-related injuries and deaths."

•
"Right now, we're hearing that many states are considering mandating the vaccine, while airlines, concert ticket sales and employers would require proof of vaccination status."

•
"The New York Bar Association recently recommended mandating the COVID-19 vaccine to all New Yorkers and pushing for a federal mandate, regardless of religious or personal objections."

•
"This means I have a right to make my own medical decisions, not the government. I have the constitutional right to personal freedoms as well, including the right to travel freely and a right to medical privacy. Each of these things would be gravely violated with any mandatory vaccines."

•
"The FDA has been diligent in avoiding political pressure by maintaining a balance of speed to market and obtaining data sufficient to provide emergency use authorization. While we can't yet confirm the long-term efficacy or safety of COVID-19 vaccines, there is enough data to confirm at least three are safe and effective."

•
"I have known more than 20 people that have had the virus, two being my son-in-law and his 70-something-year-old father. He and the rest recovered within a week. Yes, they were all sick and miserable during that time but said it wasn't anything more than flu-like symptoms."
A coronavirus vaccine is coming yet many say they won't get it although they want COVID to end (Fox 11/20/2020)
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine: What to know (Fox 11/16/2020)
Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial volunteer details experience: Nothing to fear but minor... (Fox 11/13/2020)
Pfizer coronavirus vaccine volunteer describes side effects, urges others to 'get it' ASAP (Fox 11/12/2020)
Pfizer coronavirus vaccine expected to protect patients for a year: BioNTech founder (Fox 11/12/2020)
Dementia underlying cause in 3 times more deaths in U.S. than currently reported, study concludes (Fox 08/25/2020)
Honey outperforms antibiotics for cough, cold symptoms, study says (Fox 08/20/2020)
Squirrel tests positive for plague in Colorado (NYP 07/13/2020)
Wearing a mask cuts own risk of novel coronavirus by 65 percent, experts say (Fox 07/09/2020)
Five kinds of health appointments you should consider keeping, despite the pandemic (JWR 07/08/2020)
Dr. Mark Goldfeder: Coronavirus nursing home crisis – 6 things we must do now to protect seniors (Fox 07/05/2020)
Nearly half of all coronavirus deaths in US occurred inside nursing homes: report (Fox 06/28/2020)
Skipping medical care amid coronavirus a troubling pandemic byproduct (Fox 05/27/2020)
Dr. Syra Madad: Coronavirus protection – as country reopens, this is your best defense (Fox 05/27/2020)
Wear gloves, or wash hands to avoid coronavirus? (Fox 05/26/2020)
Prevent mosquito-spread viruses this summer with these tips (Fox 05/25/2020)
Can the coronavirus spread in pool water? What to know as summer approaches (Fox 05/14/2020)
Vitamin D levels may impact COVID-19 mortality rates, study claims (Fox 05/07/2020)
Spreading coronavirus? Why wearing gloves to supermarket isn't helping (Fox 04/23/2020)
Dr. Qanta Ahmed: Coronavirus anxiety affecting many Americans – Here are ways to cope at night (Fox 04/23/2020)
Coronavirus fear and anxiety can be as contagious as the illness, NYC psychiatrist says (Fox 04/22/2020)
Betsy McCaughey: Coronavirus masks – what works, new rules and explaining the shortage (Fox 04/19/2020)
•
Why are public officials suddenly urging mask use, many weeks after the Coronavirus struck?

•
Because of mounting research pointing to the huge role of asymptomatic people spreading the disease before they feel ill.

•
Whenever these asymptomatic carriers talk or simply exhale, they spread very small droplets of virus-laden saliva and respiratory mucous in the air.

•
Getting everyone to mask up helps to protect the uninfected, and keeps the unknowingly infected from spreading the virus.

•
Makes sense, but Americans have had to put up with a lot of message confusion from the outset, and now they're getting misleading advice about homemade masks.

•
What's the root problem? Year after year after year, through three presidencies, federal health bureaucrats ignored warnings about inadequate supplies of masks and other equipment in the event of a pandemic.

•
Ten federal reports sounded the alarm, even as the nation witnessed SARS, MERS, avian flu and swine flu that circled the globe.

•
In 2009, during the swine flu outbreak, the federal Strategic National Stockpile dispersed 85 million N95 masks, as well as other protective masks.

•
The masks were never replaced afterward.

•
Don't blame any president, Democratic or Republican, for this oversight.

•
The career officials at Health and Human Services knowingly allowed the nation to be undersupplied.

•
They never requested enough money to adequately stock the Strategic National Stockpile.

•
Their agenda was global, tracking down polio in Pakistan, pouring nearly $5 billion in the fight against Ebola overseas, and funding a Global Health Security Agenda serving 49 countries.

•
But no masks for Americans.
Dr. Oz answers viewer questions: Are smokers at a higher risk for coronavirus? (Fox 04/09/2020)
Coronavirus particles could stay in air for ‘several minutes’ indoors, researchers warn (Fox 04/08/2020)
Coronavirus can live on surgical masks for 7 days, but 'standard disinfection methods' can kill it (Fox 04/08/2020)
Dr. Marc Siegel opens up about his father, 96, and his use of hydroxychloroquine (Fox 04/08/2020)
•
... his 96-year-old father was recently weak and struggling to breathe but recovered after he was administered an anti-malaria drug and antibiotics.

•
"He got up the next day and was fine."

•
President Trump has been criticized by some in the media for advocating the unproven drug and has been accused of peddling false hope.
Is it safe to go into supermarkets amid the coronavirus outbreak? (Fox 04/06/2020)
•
"The next two weeks are extraordinarily important. This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe."

•
... Dr. Marc Siegel said on Tuesday that he prefers constant hand sanitizing over wearing gloves during supermarket trips. "Gloves accumulate germs, gloves accumulate viruses."

•
"You're going to not even realize when you touch something then you have it on the gloves, then you transfer it to your face, then you can get infected."

•
... washing your hands thoroughly is the best way to disinfect after making certain necessary trips to supermarkets

•
While continued washing hands is his method to avoid spreading the virus after touching surfaces, there's still the problem of getting it from other people in close proximity. "The biggest risk factor is really being around other people."

•
"... CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission."

•
... recommends staying away from busy aisles and making sure to stand 6 feet away from the person in front of you at the checkout line.

•
"When you're walking through the store, the hardest part is passing people in the aisle. Really avoid passing closely by people when you can."

•
A typical grocery cart is about 3 feet long, which means two carts would equal the 6 feet social distancing recommendation by the CDC.

•
... recommends only going to the grocery store when it's essential and buying what you need for at least a week to help prevent people from making unnecessary trips.

•
... not picking up items unless you plan to buy them, and if you use reusable bags, make sure to wash or disinfect them after each use.

•
However, as Siegel said, you should mainly focus on washing your hands.

•
He added that fresh produce should be washed even more thoroughly once it's in your house.

•
"Convenient and safe access to food and essential products at local grocery stores is more critical than ever during these uncertain times."
Dr. Saphier on whether you should avoid going to the supermarket to slow the spread of coronavirus (Fox 04/06/2020)
•
"Thousands of people are on ventilators now and this is a big week for people because some of these people have been on ventilators for multiple weeks now and this is when we're either going to see people dying or people coming off of the ventilators and recovering."

•
"And so they're trying to keep as many people out of the hospitals as possible because ... the hospitals are saying they only have a few ventilators left."

•
"We don't want more people on the ventilators this week. We need to care for the people who are already there. That's why they are saying try to stay in."

•
"The next two weeks are extraordinarily important. This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe."

•
"If you need to go the grocery store absolutely go to the grocery store, but please please please consider wearing a mask, make sure you are washing your hands multiple times."

•
... "some people tend to wear gloves and then think that they're OK and they forget that they've touched things and then they touch their face and that's how they get infected."

•
"If you need to go to the pharmacy, if you need to go to the grocery store you should absolutely go, but if you don't have to go, if you were just going because you're really craving like a coffee cake, maybe you hold off for a week."
Former CDC Chief Tom Frieden: Coronavirus – These simple steps can make a real difference (Fox 04/03/2020)
Making a coronavirus face mask: Dermatologist offers advice on best materials, how to soothe... (Fox 04/03/2020)
Will zinc supplements protect against coronavirus? (Fox 04/02/2020)
Drs. Frieden and Dooley: Coronavirus safety tips — 6 simple ways to stay healthy (Fox 03/31/2020)
•
It helps to understand how you can get infected.

•
If someone with the virus coughs or sneezes close to you, droplets with virus in them can spread to your eyes, nose or mouth.

•
Or, if that person coughs or touches an object (such as a doorknob) which you touch, virus can get onto your hands.

•
If you then touch your face, virus can get into your eyes, nose or mouth. These are the most likely ways people will become infected.

•
DO stay home

•
DO plan carefully for trips outside

•
Keep hand sanitizer with you and use it every time you re-enter your car or house.

•
If you must touch doorknobs, push plates, elevator buttons, handrails or handles on sinks and paper towel dispensers, bring a tissue or other clean object to use and discard it after use.

•
If possible, only ride an elevator when there's no one else in it.

•
After returning home, wash your hands well with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or clean them with an alcohol-based sanitizer. (Even better: do this while you're away from home, too.)

•
DO cover your cough or sneeze

•
Cough or sneeze into a tissue, throw it away and then wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or clean them with an alcohol-based sanitizer.

•
If you cough or sneeze into your arm or sleeve, your arm or sleeve may now be contaminated and can spread infection to anyone who touches it.

•
You should regularly clean clothing, especially frequently worn items such as outer layers.

•
If you cough or sneeze into your hand, wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or clean them with an alcohol-based sanitizer.

•
DON'T visit crowded places

•
DON'T touch your face

•
Don't rest your face in your hands while sitting at a table or desk.

•
If your face itches and you can't resist scratching, don't use your hands. Instead, use a clean object, such as tissue or a clean scrap of paper.

•
If you have to touch your face, for example to use eyedrops, wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based sanitizer first, or wear clean, unused nitrile or vinyl gloves.

•
DON'T touch shared objects

•
If you have to touch a shared object, wash your hands or use a hand sanitizer afterward and before you touch your face.
Coronavirus myths vs. fact: Popular theories on the novel virus debunked (Fox 03/22/2020)
Things you can do right now to stop the spread of coronavirus (Fox 03/17/2020)
•
There is no coronavirus vaccine and ... the most effective way to prevent transmission is by avoiding any exposure to the virus.

•
The virus can have mild symptoms but can also lead to pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and death.

•
Despite all of the coronavirus unknowns, little has changed in how medical experts believe you can best protect yourselves and your families.

•
The virus is known to affect its hosts with different levels of severity. It is not uncommon for those infected to not even know they have the virus and venture out into the public.

•
The COVID-19 virus is primarily transmitted in microscopic droplets that are produced in an infected host's cough or sneeze.

•
The coronavirus can remain on a surface long after someone who was infected had touched it.

•
... important that a healthy individual avoids touching their mouth, nose or eyes.

•
... "current evidence suggests that novel coronavirus may remain viable for hours to days on surfaces" made with different materials.

•
... "ethanol, hydrogen-peroxide or bleach-based cleaners are effective at killing those coronaviruses that survive on surfaces."

•
Experts believe the virus is mainly spread through droplets that come out of your mouth and nose.

•
When an infected person speaks or exhales or coughs or sneezes, the droplets travel about 3 to 6 feet before gravity pulls them to the ground.

•
These droplets could otherwise be inhaled or land in the mouths or noses of those nearby.

•
The CDC recommends frequent handwashing amid the coronavirus outbreak.

•
The process is simple: Take soap and run some water. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds, especially after being in public or blowing your nose.

•
Soap is considered the best option, but if you do not have access, hand sanitizer with 60 percent alcohol is also recommended.

•
... one of the best ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to practice covering your mouth with a napkin or your elbow when you cough or sneeze.

•
If you feel under the weather, stay home. If you absolutely must go outside, wear a facemask if you're sick.

•
People who have coughs and sneezes should stay home as much as possible, and call ahead to the doctor's office if they're planning to get their illness checked out.

•
People who have confirmed coronavirus illness should stay home, as should those who were in close contact with a confirmed case.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: 5 coronavirus survival action steps you can take right now (Fox 03/09/2020)
What staring at a screen all day may be doing to your eyes (Fox 03/08/2020)
Coronavirus: What you need to know (Fox 03/07/2020)
It seems that a good part of my youth was spent in a mental asylum without walls (JWR 02/26/2020)
How a medical test snowballs into too many (JWR 02/03/2020)
Staying in a hotel room? You might want to avoid sitting in the upholstered chairs (Fox 12/19/2019)
Meningitis: Causes, symptoms and treatment (Fox 11/24/2019)
Are kissing bugs dangerous? Here's what to know (Fox 11/16/2019)
Minnesota man contracts rare fungal infection that killed his dog last year (Fox 09/23/2019)
Massachusetts resident contracts rare tick-borne illness that can cause brain infection, death (Fox 08/22/2019)
Massachusetts man diagnosed with deadly mosquito-borne virus; risk raised to 'critical' in... (Fox 08/12/2019)
Disney World's mosquitoes: 4 weird ways the theme park allegedly manages pesky insects (Fox 08/10/2019)
For stroke treatment, even 15 minutes can make a difference in outcome (Fox 08/05/2019)
Can holding in your pee really kill you? (Fox 07/31/2019)
Flesh-eating bacteria: How to prevent necrotizing fasciitis this summer (Fox 07/19/2019)
270,000 Americans die annually from this strange disease – Here’s how to protect yourself (Fox 07/03/2019)
Texas woman discovers horde of black worms known to carry dangerous parasite in backyard (Fox 07/03/2019)
Are supplements for brain health just a waste of money? (Fox 06/22/2019)
Fitness fanatics should rethink daily 10,000-step goal, Harvard study claims (Fox 06/05/2019)
Are you putting yourself at risk for Lyme disease? (Fox 06/01/2019)
Hawaii confirms 3 recent cases of rat lungworm disease in US visitors, says tourist ate slug... (Fox 05/24/2019)
'Kissing bug’ bites Delaware girl in state’s first confirmed case, health officials say (Fox 04/24/2019)
•
... kissing bug, an insect that can carry a deadly illness called Chagas...

•
The bloodsuckers spread the disease by biting humans, typically on the face, and then defecating near the wound.

•
The disease can cause life-threatening heart issues, including heart disease, strokes, arrhythmias and cardiac arrest.

•
Chagas disease, which has spread to the U.S., was previously only found in Central and South America and Mexico. An estimated 300,000 people living in the U.S. have the disease.

•
The bugs are also found in the U.S., with the highest concentration found in the southern half of the country.

•
Doctors can detect the disease through a simple blood test.

•
If the infection is caught early enough, medications should be able to treat it.

•
"If untreated, infection is lifelong and can be life-threatening."
Can elderberries help fight flu symptoms? New study explains how 'ancient remedy' allegedly works (Fox 04/24/2019)
New York Post: E-record rules are burning out docs and killing patients (Fox 03/29/2019)
•
Driving while texting is so dangerous that it's outlawed.

•
But doctors and nurses are expected to care for patients while keeping their eyes glued to a computer screen, following prompts and clicking boxes.

•
Some electronic health-record systems require 62 clicks just to order Tylenol, and a full ER shift involves 4,000 clicks.

•
No wonder mistakes are rampant.

•
Going digital was a good idea but Washington hubris turned it into a costly mess.

•
Then-president-elect Barack Obama announced in 2009 that he'd make sure "all of America's medical records are computerized" within five years.

•
Government force was employed to make the change happen with lightning speed.

•
The Obama administration's 2009 stimulus bill slapped hefty penalties on providers that didn't comply by 2016.

•
"It's not that we're a bunch of Luddites who don't know how to use technology."

•
Doctors were forced to install systems fast, without a clue about which ones actually worked.

•
"There really wasn't the time to let the cream rise to the top; everyone had to jump in and pick something."
CBD oil is the new rage among millennials. But, as a doctor, here's what I worry about (Fox 03/23/2019)
Kale rejoins the 'Dirty Dozen' list as one of the most contaminated with pesticides (Fox 03/20/2019)
Dr. Marc Siegel: Aspirin saves lives but it also cost lives – Here’s what you need to know about the drug (Fox 03/19/2019)
In biggest advance for depression in years, FDA approves novel treatment for hardest cases (JWR 03/06/2019)
No link between autism and measles vaccine, even for 'at risk' kids, study finds (Fox 03/05/2019)
How an anti-inflammatory diet can help tame an autoimmune condition (JWR 02/20/2019)
After many sleepless night she found a remedy that worked (JWR 02/04/2019)
•
The so-called military method is supposed to make you fall asleep within two minutes.

•
It was developed during World War II to enable U.S. pilots to fall asleep under less-than-ideal circumstances, according to the 1981 book "Relax and Win: Championship Performance in Whatever You Do," by Bud Winter.

•
1. Relax all the muscles in your head. Your face alone has 43 muscles. Pretend none of them work.

•
2. Relax your arms and drop your shoulders. Try one arm and then the other. You can do it in sections as you work down each of your arms.

•
3. Relax your torso and breathe out. The intercostal muscles - the ones that assist in moving your chest as you breathe: Those are mostly involuntary, but pretend you're relaxing them, too. Even pretending goes a long way here.

•
4. Pretend all the feeling has gone from your legs. Thighs first, then calves. (People familiar with meditative body scan might find these familiar.)

•
5. While you're doing all of this, try to clear your mind. If that's not working, that's okay - repeat "don't think, don't think, don't think" to clear it. You can also try thinking of one of two other images he suggests in the book - relaxing in a hammock in a dark room or lying in a canoe on a quiet lake.
How does a person freeze to death? (Fox 01/31/2019)
Diabetes and America – We can't afford more deaths because of rising insulin prices (Fox 01/19/2019)
•
Out-of-control diabetes causes devastating problems to every organ in the body – including the eyes, the nerves, the kidneys and the heart.

•
And now some people using insulin are suffering devastating financial problems as well.

•
Eli Lilly's Humalog cost $21 per vial in 1996 when it first came out – but has skyrocketed to $275 per vial now.

•
Sanofi's Lantus was $35 a vial in 2001 when it was first on the market – but is now $270.

•
Novo Nordisk's Novolog was $40 in 2001 and rose to $289 in 2018.
Dr. Marc Siegel: Pot and your health – Here’s what a physician wants you to know about marijuana (Fox 01/09/2019)
•
As a physician, I want marijuana users and addicts to be treated as patients – and not criminals – while at the same time I am very aware that regular marijuana use carries significant health risks.

•
My job is to let you know that there is no free lunch medically with marijuana or any drug.

•
Even if a state or a society decides that it is wise economically and politically to make marijuana legal, at the same time we must be prepared for the health consequences even more than the legal ones.

•
It's clear to me that there is enough scientific evidence out there for me to discourage regular marijuana use for most people.

•
My first concern is traffic accidents, since marijuana is known to impair judgement.

•
Unfortunately, pot smoking among pregnant women is on the rise and it is bound to rise even more.

•
... when it comes to adolescents and adults, long-term marijuana use has been associated with decreased school and job performance, memory loss, and psychiatric disorders including anxiety and depression.

•
Symptoms include acute anxiety, rapid heart rate and paranoia.

•
Pot smoke is also known to cause wheezing and airway inflammation...

•
... it's important to note that there is evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug to other drugs, both licit and illicit...

•
Here's the bottom line: Marijuana is a useful drug medically when it comes to treating chronic pain, epilepsy, as well as the debilitating pain of cancer and the nausea of cancer treatments.

•
But it should not be used to treat morning sickness, and recreational use of any kind should include consideration of potential side effects especially effects on mental health.
Washing avocados? Why the FDA recommends cleaning the fruit before eating it (Fox 12/22/2018)
Tennessee Rep.-elect Mark Green questions CDC data on vaccines, autism (Fox 12/13/2018)
Tough new opioid policies leave some cancer and post-surgery patients without painkillers (Fox 12/12/2018)
•
"No pain medication! Having a limb amputated is one of the most painful things you can have done. And the tibia is one of the most painful parts of the leg. He had unimaginable, horrific pain. I was so mad, I called the hospital."

•
"They said that the new [Nevada] law means we can't prescribe to patients when we discharge them."

•
"Opioids are dangerous drugs. They have to be prescribed with extreme caution. But for people who've had their leg cut off, or someone who has cancer, or has been in a bad car crash, there's nothing worse than leaving them in pain."

•
"There's anticipatory panic, (among physicians)" Laird said. "Doctors perceive a liability for prescribing opioids."

•
"Our patients have been in and out of hospitals. They get prescriptions from different doctors, they have serious, life-limiting illnesses."

•
"They're actively dying and in pain. We put in a diagnosis in his records, so there's no question what we're using the opioids for. [The restrictions] are an exercise in silliness. In hospice, addiction is the last of our concerns."
Health experts offer solutions for unintended consequences of opioid crackdown (Fox 12/12/2018)
•
More than 70,000 people in the U.S. last year died from overdoses, most of which involved illegal opioids.

•
The overdose problem – and a rise in suicides, another byproduct of the drug epidemic — is so pervasive it's being blamed for a drop in U.S. life expectancy.

•
The crisis has led to a rush of public health and law enforcement initiatives at all levels of government.

•
The federal government has vowed to cut prescription opioids by a third.

•
"Defeating this epidemic will require the commitment of every state, local, and federal agency," President Donald Trump said in a March...

•
"Failure is not an option. Addiction is not our future. We will liberate our country from this crisis."

•
... set off alarm bells for many of the millions of Americans with chronic pain who legally take opioids, under their doctor's supervision, and are suffering a range of unintended consequences that have left them undertreated, ignored, and desperate for alternatives.

•
"We're targeting the most vulnerable and sickest people who have been on opioids a long time."

•
Striking the right balance between getting control of the overdose epidemic and protecting access to treatment that brings relief to pain sufferers is a public health imperative.

•
The failure to do so threatens to exact a heavy price on the tens of millions of Americans whose pain is severe and disabling, and who are not driving the drug overdose epidemic.

•
Neglect of this large population of patients has the potential to prompt many to seek illegal opioids, or to become another statistic in the crisis of the rising U.S. suicide rate.

•
... because the guidelines do not offer alternative pain care options, "patients have endured not only unnecessary suffering, but some have turned to suicide or illicit substance use. Others have experienced preventable hospitalizations or medical deterioration."

•
Federal data on overdose deaths generally do not offer specific statistics on how many involved patients who were prescribed opioids, though other data – such those compiled by states – indicate they account for a small minority.

•
... released national opioid overdose data based on approximately 15,000 records collected between January and October of this year, and found that 94 percent of opioid overdoses involved illicit drugs, with only 4 percent being prescribed.

•
But that hasn't stopped political leaders from developing policies and initiatives around cutting prescriptions as well as the supply of opioids. Trump vowed to cut opioid prescriptions by 30 percent over three years.

•
And many state and government officials are boasting about opioid prescription reductions, giving a misleading impression ... that progress is taking place in the drug overdose epidemic.

•
Many prescribers trigger so-called "red flags" by errors or omissions in pain patients' medical records, he said, and shouldn't automatically be treated as sinister.

•
"We have a lot of hammers out there looking for a nail."

•
"The key is to get the government out of medicine entirely. Let the politicians and lawyers do what they do and let us practice medicine. We have licenses and DEA certificates and most of us know what we're doing."

•
"In 2006, we were required to take a course in pain management. The thrust of the course was that we were underprescribing and our patients were in pain. If a patient said she had pain I was expected, by the patient and the hospital nurse, to medicate. If I did not, I was written up. She might be sitting in bed reading a comic book but, if she said, 'my pain is an 8' (out of 10) she was to be medicated."

•
"Now, MDs are blamed for overprescribing. Pain is subjective and I only can judge by what a patient tells me, but we are pretty good at separating legitimate pain from drug-seeking behavior. If the governments, both state and local, would let doctors doctor, we could handle this, but with their insatiable thirst for control of everything, the situation just keeps getting worse."

•
"In select patients and for certain medical conditions, opioids may be the only drugs that provide relief from devastating pain."

•
"We've heard from some of these patients, and listened carefully to their concerns about having continued access to necessary pain medication. We've heard their fear of being stigmatized as a person with addiction, and the challenges they face in finding health care professionals willing to work with patients with chronic pain."

•
"Tragically, we know that for some patients, loss of quality of life due to crushing pain has resulted in increased thoughts of or actual suicide. This is unacceptable."

•
"We have to look at our culture and attitude toward people with pain – and people with addiction – but mostly with pain."

•
"In our medical schools, there are less than seven hours on average of education about pain. Even though it affects more people than any other problem, it is the number one public health problem. But we've spent little on research to try to find a solution to this. We need to make pain and addiction a core of our medical education curriculum."

•
"Sequential pain management is an incredible failure. As long as we have a for-profit insurance agency, it's not going to get much better. We're seeing the devolution of the profession of pain medicine to the business of pain medicine."

•
The debate over opioids and pain management has become emotional, with the overdose crisis and the dearth of reliable data fanning the flames.
Doctors caught between struggling opioid patients and crackdown on prescriptions (Fox 12/12/2018)
•
The hospital would stop treating pain with opioids. And every doctor ... had to stop prescribing them.

•
Doctors otherwise risked losing hospital admitting privileges – and perhaps even their medical license.

•
... doctors complied and stopped prescribing, affecting roughly 230 of their patients.

•
Tragically, among those were several who committed suicide, the doctors said, when they couldn't find another health care provider to relieve the pain.

•
That's a scenario playing out across the country, as government agencies respond to the staggering rate of drug overdose deaths...

•
Doctors who maintain they are responsibly prescribing opioids are getting caught up in the crackdown ... leaving little room to both play by the rules and properly treat huge numbers of patients who legitimately suffer chronic and intense pain.

•
... accuse the federal government of interfering in the physician-patient relationship, and pursuing simplistic, politically expedient solutions that put tens of millions of Americans at risk.

•
"Not only is the government legislating the way we care for chronic pain patients, they are substantially taking away our ability to do it."

•
"... clinicians prescribing higher doses, pharmacists dispensing them, and patients taking them came under suspicion."

•
"Patients with chronic pain, who are stable and, arguably, benefiting from long-term opioids, face draconian and often rapid involuntary dose reductions."

•
"Often, alternative pain care options are not offered, not covered by insurers, or not accessible ... Consequently, patients have endured not only unnecessary suffering, but some have turned to suicide or illicit substance use. Others have experienced preventable hospitalizations or medical deterioration."

•
Dozens of pain patients have told ... they were dropped or forcibly tapered down by doctors who long treated them quite successfully, but who became fearful about losing their license after being formally admonished, or hearing about other doctors who ran afoul of the government.

•
Much of the opioid overdose epidemic in recent years stems from illegal drugs, not legitimate prescriptions.

•
But more than a decade of overprescribing – out of ignorance for some, and for others the chance to rake in big profits – played a significant part, according to federal authorities and others who have studied the issue.

•
Assured by what some charged were deliberately deceptive pharmaceutical companies insisting opioids weren't very addictive, some health care providers prescribed liberally, even for minor procedures such as a pulled tooth, or non-serious orthopedic injuries.

•
Overprescribing led to greater daily dosages or easy-to-get refills – more than were needed.

•
That, along with the theft and resale of opioids from people who had prescriptions, laid the groundwork for the crisis.

•
"Doctors around the country are terrified because of what happened to me and other doctors. We don't arrest car dealers if someone drives a car and gets into a fatal accident."

•
"Standards of care are being decided by a jury of people without medical training. It's a very bad situation. We're playing Whack-a-mole with the wrong mallet."

•
For many medical professionals, treating pain patients has become a thankless task.

•
The stakes are too high, they say, as even those who try to responsibly manage opioid treatment for their sickest pain patients find themselves hounded by authorities or pharmacists.

•
"If we had a good alternative to opioids, every physician would be at the front line of it to prescribe that."

•
"We're looking only at the supply, and cutting off people who are not abusing the medication. It made all the difference in the world, I couldn't sit or stand or walk because of nerve damage. I went from being bed-ridden and completely non-functional to doing my work as a prosecutor."

•
"Walgreens has determined that you may have issued prescriptions for opioids that exceed the CDC guidelines. ... Walgreens pharmacists may notify appropriate regulatory agencies when prescriptions are refused."

•
"I am a double board-certified anesthesiologist and pain specialist, treating complex pain and cancer pain always w/comprehensive approach. Insulting."

•
"... it is the goal of the Department of Justice to reduce opioid prescriptions by one-third over the next three years."

•
"They were very vague," he said of the DEA agents. "They said ‘You're risking your freedom by prescribing to patients like these.' I said ‘Patients like what?' They said, ‘Patients who might sell the pills.'"

•
"Doctors are taking plea deals because they don't want to go to prison. Once they arrest a doctor, they seize all their medical records. A doctor can't make any more income. They seize your assets, and can't afford an attorney."

•
"It's immoral and unsafe to forcibly taper down or abandon a patient. Some doctors don't give these patients any withdrawal medication. Who is the worst offender, then? The CDC, the DEA, the U.S. attorneys who are shutting down doctors, or the doctors who abandon patients?"

•
"There are two things doctors do – we save lives and we relieve suffering. If we're not willing now to relieve suffering, then what are we about?"
As doctors taper or end opioid prescriptions, many patients driven to despair, suicide (Fox 12/10/2018)
•
We have a terrible problem, we have people committing suicide for no other reason than being forced to stop opioids, pain medication, for chronic pain. It's mass hysteria, a witch hunt. It's one of the worst health care crises in our history. There are 5 to 7 million people being tortured on purpose.

•
The CDC guidelines...have been hijacked and weaponized as an excuse for draconian legislation.

•
People with pain shouldn't have to suffer because people without pain are abusing opioids.
Washington woman dead from brain-eating amoeba after using neti pot filled with tap water, report says (Fox 12/08/2018)
E. coli outbreak possibly linked to romaine lettuce in California, FDA official says (Fox 11/22/2018)
FDA warns against eating romaine lettuce due to E. coli multistate outbreak (Fox 11/20/2018)
Pancreatic Cancer: Early detection is good business 11/16 Pancreatic Cancer: Early detection is (od/0/2018)
Rat lungworm' explained: What to know about the parasitic roundworm (Fox 11/05/2018)
Pennsylvania mom says daughter ‘screamed bloody murder’ after touching poisonous caterpillar (Fox 11/01/2018)
Dr. Marc Siegel: Dementia — what you need to know (Fox 10/22/2018)
•
Treating co-existing depression is crucial, as is keeping the mind actively engaged with mental exercises, tasks, or regular use of a computer.
Blood-sucking 'kissing bugs' spreading dangerous parasitic disease in US, health officials warn (Fox 08/24/2018)
•
These blood-suckers spread a dangerous illness called Chagas disease.

•
The disease, which has spread to the U.S., was previously only found in Central and South America and Mexico.

•
The disease, triggered by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is sometimes called the "silent killer" because many people don't show any symptoms.

•
Kissing bugs spread the infection by biting a human, typically on their face (hence the nickname), and then defecating near the wound.

•
The parasite can then get rubbed into the open wound or get into the body if someone touches their mouth or eyes afterward.

•
Chagas disease can cause life-threatening heart issues, including heart diseease, strokes, arrhythmias and cardiac arrest.

•
Doctors can detect the disease through a simple blood test. If the infection is caught early enough, medications should be able to treat it.

•
"If untreated, infection is lifelong and can be life threatening," the CDC warns.

•
"Previous studies have found that, on average, 50% of kissing bugs are infected with the Chagas parasite."
Lyme disease spreads to all 50 states, report finds (Fox 08/07/2018)
•
The disease, which is not always easy for doctors to diagnose, is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and results in symtoms including fever, headaches, fatigue and a bulls-eye rash.

•
Untreated cases can result in joint problems, or issues with the heart or nervous system.
Dr. Marc Siegel: Here's a secret to a longer and healthier life (Fox 08/05/2018)
Vegans and vegetarians may think they’re 'eating healthy.' They’re not (Fox 08/04/2018)
•
The recommended daily dose for most adults is 2.4 micrograms per day

•
Those on plant-based diets ... need to pay particularly close attention to their B-12 intake.

•
So long as the stomach and intestines are functioning normally, a relatively small daily supplement will suffice — with 50, 20, even 10 micrograms being sufficient.

•
People with absorption problems may require higher doses, typically between 500 -1000 micrograms daily.

•
B-12 is extremely important. Whether by adding enough scrambled eggs and milk to their diets — or taking a supplement — people on plant-based diets must ensure they're getting enough B-12 to avoid getting some nasty health problems.
How do you know if your cut has flesh-eating bacteria? (Fox 07/31/2018)
•
... given the gravity of the condition — which destroys skin and muscle tissue — people with it need immediate medical care. But how do you know if your cut has flesh-eating bacteria?

•
Most commonly, people get necrotizing fasciitis when the bacteria enter the body through breaks in the skin, including cuts and scrapes, burns and surgical wounds.

•
One feature of necrotizing fasciitis is "pain that's out of proportion" to the wound.

•
Some patients may also experience crackling sounds or sensations due to the presence of air under the tissue.

•
Other early symptoms include a red or swollen area of skin around the cut that spreads quickly, and pain beyond the area of skin that's red.

•
People who have these symptoms after injury should see their doctor right away.

•
Patients may also experience flu-like symptoms, including fever, stomachache, nausea, diarrhea, chills and body aches.

•
Later symptoms of the condition include ulcers, blisters or black spots on the skin and pus oozing from the infected area, the CDC says.

•
As the infection spreads, a patient may become confused or delirious; and pain may appear to improve as nerves are destroyed.

•
Anyone can get necrotizing fasciitis, although the majority of people who develop it have other health problems that lower their bodies' ability to fight infection.

•
Patients with necrotizing fasciitis need quick and aggressive treatments.

•
The condition is treated with strong, intravenous antibiotics, and with surgery to remove dead tissue.

•
Sometimes, doctors need to amputate an infected limb to stop the infection from spreading.

•
People are advised to clean all minor cuts with soap and water; cover open wounds with clean, dry bandages until they heal; and see a doctor for puncture wounds and other deep or serious wounds.
Man has 4 limbs amputated after dog lick leads to severe infection, report says (Fox 07/31/2018)
Get rid of mosquito bites fast with these simple tricks (Fox 07/25/2018)
Vermont woman reveals horrific wild parsnip burns in warning about dangerous plant (Fox 07/18/2018)
Infant dies day after showing symptoms of meningitis, family says (Fox 07/13/2018)
•
... speaking out about vaccines after doctors reportedly told them that he was likely infected by an unvaccinated individual.

•
... her son had received his 4-month vaccinations two days prior.

•
Bacterial meningitis can be serious and cause death in as little as a few hours.

•
Those who recover may suffer permanent disabilities including brain damage, hearing loss and learning disabilities.
Pfizer rolls back drug price hikes after Trump talks (Fox 07/10/2018)
The numbers that matter most in staying healthly ()
Mom warns of venomous caterpillars after son's harrowing medical scare (Fox 06/20/2018)
CDC warns people to avoid 'all types of romaine lettuce' as E. coli outbreak continues (Fox 04/20/2018)
•
... urging consumers not to buy or consume romaine lettuce "unless you can confirm it is not from the Yuma, Ariz., growing region."

•
"Based on new information, CDC is expanding its warning to consumers to cover all types of romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Ariz., growing region. This warning now includes whole heads and hearts of romaine lettuce, in addition to chopped romaine and salads and salad mixes containing romaine."

•
"Unless the source of the product is known, consumers anywhere in the United States who have any store-bought romaine lettuce at home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick."
Alzheimer's pervasive plaque contained when key enzyme is removed in mice, study finds (Fox 02/15/2018)
Doctor removes brain-eating tapeworm growing in man's eye (Fox 02/14/2018)
•
If contracted, the parasite typically will attach to the small intestine where it usually grows up to seven meters.

•
However, in rare cases, the worm can travel into the bloodstream and embed itself in the brain or eyeball.

•
The concern, the doctor said, was in removing the parasite before it dies. If it died in the eye, the inflammation could cause Cordero to go blind. However, if it stayed alive, it could potentially release more larvae and travel to the brain.

•
... was able to remove 3 mm of the worm, which was fertilized with thousands of eggs.

•
... the pork tapeworm is responsible for 30 percent of epilepsy cases where humans live near roaming pigs.
Oregon woman has 14 worms pulled from eye after rare infection (Fox 02/13/2018)
Is Social Security to blame for so many men dying at 62? (Fox 02/13/2018)
Two drinks a day can help you fight Alzheimer's, study says (Fox 02/05/2018)
•
"Low doses of alcohol are potentially beneficial to brain health. [Alcohol in moderation] improves the brain's ability to remove waste."
Nursing homes misuse powerful antipschyotic drugs to control residents, new report says (Fox 02/05/2018)
•
"Antipsychotic drugs alter consciousness and can adversely affect an individual's ability to interact with others."

•
"They're helping the industry, not the patients."

•
In each facility ... it was a struggle for her to convince management that those dosages should be stopped.

•
"Instead of seeing what's wrong with her, they just want to drug her up."
11 easy ways to protect against cancer-causing chemicals (Fox 11/09/2017)
Exactly what to do if you get a tick bite (Fox 07/07/2017)
Brain-eating amoeba: What is it, and how do you prevent contracting it? (Fox 06/20/2017)
Chew on this: Cancer-detecting gum may soon be available (Fox 04/10/2017)
•
The gum absorbs what are known as "volatiles" in a person's saliva as they chew it, then the chewed gum is analyzed to determine whether it contains certain chemicals produced in the body when a person has cancer.
Trump's opioid addiction commission lauded by relatives of overdose victims (Fox 03/31/2017)
•
... President Donald Trump had established an opioid addiction commission that is tasked with looking at ways to respond to an epidemic that claims some 90 deaths each day in the United States.

•
They are the loved ones of people who became addicted – typically through a painkiller first prescribed by a doctor following an injury or another physical condition – and died of an overdose.

•
The crackdown on unscrupulous doctors is part of a concerted effort in New Jersey to fight the opioid epidemic on multiple fronts – law enforcement, medical and a preventive educational campaign.

•
"We believe with all our hearts that it takes four legs to make a sturdy chair. It takes prevention, law enforcement, treatment, recovery, and support."

•
"They need to look at how doctors prescribe, doctors need to be more focused on the patient rather than just giving a prescription to mask the pain."

•
"Some doctors take the easy way out, they prescribe a stronger dose when a painkiller isn't enough anymore."

•
"It's an illness that doesn't discriminate, if there are prescription drugs you can become addicted very quickly without even understanding what it is because your body and your mind play tricks on you."
Protect yourself against Zika and Lyme disease this summer (Fox 03/25/2017)
One more good reason to repeal ObamaCare. Now (Fox 03/23/2017)
•
... Republican congressional leaders and the Trump Administration are close to an agreement that would repeal one of Obamacare's most significant regulations, its "essential health benefits" requirement.

•
This should be welcome news for conservatives seeking repeal of the law, but it's even better news for consumers looking for lower health insurance premiums.

•
Conservatives have long argued that the essential health benefits requirement in Obamacare most represents the law's aggregation of power in the federal government.

•
The notion that every plan sold on ObamaCare exchanges across the country must offer the same set of benefits may seem relatively uncontroversial, particularly when some of the requirements (such as those requiring coverage for prescription drugs or laboratory services) may seem perfectly reasonable.

•
But what if someone – let's say, an unmarried man without kids – doesn't want to pay for a plan that includes pregnancy and newborn benefits, or pediatric services.

•
Under ObamaCare, he's forced to purchase (and pay for) a plan that includes them anyway.

•
The better approach is to allow consumers to have a choice of plans that include benefits that suit their needs – and to have the option to select a richer set of benefits at a correspondingly higher premium.

•
Turning back the essential health benefits requirement would be a big step forward toward efforts to lower health care costs, expand consumer choices, and reverse the federalization of health policy inherent in President Obama's signature health care law.
Now, there's proof: Love keeps people alive longer (Fox 03/09/2017)
•
... feeling and expressing love is the single most important variable in remaining emotionally and physically healthy and living longer.

•
Think about that, for a few moments. Decades of Harvard research have revealed that love between humans — whether deep and abiding friendship or truly heartfelt romance — insulate the cells in our bodies from damage and destruction.

•
Nourishing our souls at a profound level of human connectedness makes our bodies able to withstand oxidation. Literally.

•
Do you believe that science will ever reveal why that is? I don't.

•
I think it is mystical and immeasurable and — precisely because it is not subject to rational, analytic inquiry — another very compelling argument for that supreme force of creation called God.

•
Specifically, the Harvard study found that feeling lonely was linked with more physical illness and earlier death.

•
And, conversely, having someone to rely on was clearly associated with reduced emotional and physical symptoms, preserved brain function, and less physical pain — for decades.

•
According to the study, it is the quality of relationships — not the quantity of them — that matters.

•
Deep levels of connection and trust are what enhance and preserve lives — not throwing lots of parties or being the life of the party.

•
We are less vulnerable to decay, if we are less alone. Period.

•
We don't need Snap Chat. We need to snap out of it and find one another, for real.
Toxic metal at higher concentrations in gluten-free food? (Fox 02/17/2017)
•
... rice flour, which is used as a substitute for wheat, tends to accumulate toxic metals that can increase the risk of cancer, heart disease and neurological illness.
Tooth infection leads to 26-year-old California dad's death (Fox 02/01/2017)
Why Plaque Attacks (01/31/2017)
Ticks that spread Lyme disease now in half of US counties (Fox 01/19/2017)
Texas Attorney General: Obama's concerns about poor Americans losing their health care is suspiciously one-sided (Fox 01/17/2017)
Dr. Manny: 3 main reasons why ObamaCare failed (Fox 01/04/2017)
•
... let's take a look at three major reasons why ObamaCare failed the American people.

•
1. Skyrocketing costs: At no point in time did the $3-trillion-a-year ObamaCare plan work in favor of controlling the soaring health care costs in our country.

•
2. Low levels of doctor participation: The law did not take into account that there were not enough medical providers around the country — particularly specialists — that would accept federally funded insurance programs.

•
3. Lack of overall health education: President Obama and his advisors sought to place emphasis on entitlements and free cost of care for patients rather than the importance of equally cost-efficient preventative medicine.

•
This mentality has helped contribute to our country's high rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes, which again contribute to high-costs for the average consumer.

•
Already we in the medical community are applauding the Trump administration's efforts put health care back in the hands of providers and patients, and out of the control of Washington.
A doctor’s straight talk: America, your health care is not a federal responsibility (Fox 01/04/2017)
•
Supporters of President Obama's signature law loudly tout its one success — an increase in the number of insured Americans.

•
Regrettably, it did so by reducing access to medical care for all Americans.

•
More insured patients plus fewer available doctors equals longer and longer wait times.

•
That is why 752 residents of President Obama's home state of Illinois died: they had to wait too long to get life-saving care that was not available in time.

•
This is called death by queueing, something U.S. veterans experience every day.

•
ObamaCare has aided the growth of the malignancy that is destroying U.S. health care: a massive federal administrative apparatus and regulatory machine that diverts trillions — not millions or even billions — of "health care" dollars away from health care services to pay itself, to pay the health care bureaucracy.

•
There is another, even more compelling, reason to repeal ObamaCare.

•
Health care is not the fed's job!

•
The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, "The powers not delegated to the United States [the federal government] ... are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

•
As the Constitution does not grant control of health care to Washington, health care should be "reserved to the States."

•
Every management expert will tell you that the lower down in the power structure you put decision-making authority, the more responsive, more effective, and more efficient an organization or a system like health care will be.

•
Local control always achieves better outcomes than a distant centralized, one-size-fits-all approach.

•
If Congress repeals ObamaCare, what should they replace it with? That is the hot question-of-the-moment. There is a one-word answer.

•
What should Congress replace ObamaCare with? Nothing! I write again, Nothing!

•
Let the states decide how best to care for their people. Let the states organize health care activities within their borders and make whatever deals they like across borderlines.

•
Finally, should Washington continue to provide health care funding if the states control their health care?

•
That is another story, a big one that requires more elaboration than the remaining word limit for this article allows.
EXCLUSIVE: CDC Chief Frieden: How to end America's growing opioid epidemic (Fox 12/17/2016)
•
Lives, families, and communities continue to be devastated by this complex and evolving epidemic.

•
In 2015, more than 52,000 Americans lost their lives from an overdose.

•
More than 33,000 of these deaths involved a prescription or illicit opioid.

•
This crisis was caused, in large part, by decades of prescribing too many opioids for too many conditions where they provide minimal benefit and is now made worse by wide availability of cheap, potent, and easily available illegal opioids...

•
These deadly drugs have found a ready market in people primed for addiction by misuse of prescription opioids.

•
... a story often told to students of public health: A person on a riverbank saves one drowning person after another, before stopping, exhausted, to think: How can I stop people from falling into the river?

•
It is urgent and critical that we rescue people whose lives are at immediate risk.

•
While we implement these emergency response strategies, it is also important that we look upstream and prevent opioid use disorder in the first place — this starts with improving how providers prescribe opioids for pain treatment.
Dr. Manny: 5 steps Trump can take to help curb the opioid epidemic in America (Fox 12/09/2016)
•
1.) Prioritize a new model for health care providers to assess pain

•
2.) Implement electronic monitoring for prescription drug points of purchase

•
3.) Entice the pharmaceutical industry to look for alternatives for pain management

•
4.) Focus on patient treatment, as well as prevention and education

•
5.) Work with drug enforcement agencies and border control to halt the import of illicit drugs
A grim tally soars: More than 50K overdose deaths in US (Fox 12/09/2016)
•
"I don't think we've ever seen anything like this. Certainly not in modern times."

•
Overall, overdose deaths rose 11 percent last year, to 52,404.

•
By comparison, the number of people who died in car crashes was 37,757, an increase of 12 percent.

•
Gun deaths, including homicides and suicides, totaled 36,252, up 7 percent.
Dr. Manny: Why the medical community should celebrate Trump's trust in Price (Fox 11/29/2016)
•
Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., has been an outspoken opponent of ObamaCare, but not reckless in his approach for reform.

•
The House budget committee chairman is a former orthopedic surgeon who has said that it's "important that Washington not be in charge of health care."

•
Price himself put forth a plan called the "Empowering Patients First Act," which includes refundable, age-adjusted tax credits for people to buy insurance themselves if they don't have access to coverage through an employer or government program.

•
His plan also includes provisions so that people in Medicare, Medicaid or Tricare can opt out and get tax credits toward the cost of private coverage.
Dr. Marc Siegel: The doctor's visit of the future [after ObamaCare is reformed] (Fox 11/18/2016)
•
So-called comprehensive insurance creates more problems than it solves — in my practice, a regulatory chokehold limits referrals and treatments — and doctors have been fleeing from it in increasing numbers.

•
As of a year ago, at least 20 percent of doctors were not accepting new Medicare patients, 25 percent were not seeing Medicaid patients at all and 43 percent were not participating in the ObamaCare exchanges.

•
The doctor's office of the future will be a friendlier place if there are just two parties in the room: the doctor and the patient.

•
The third party, insurance, belongs at the front desk only, and even there it should not be a looming presence.
Dr. Manny: Will Trump's health care reform mirror Paul Ryan's plan? (Fox 11/16/2016)
•
Under ObamaCare, it was possible to purchase insurance after you became ill, rather than maintaining a plan while you were healthy.

•
ObamaCare required insurers to take on the patient regardless of how severe the illness had become, allowing for patients to dip in and out of plans and only pay for them when they needed it, which helped drive the cost of premiums for others.
Dr. Manny: Why Carson's voice is vital in Trump's health care plan (Fox 11/15/2016)
•
Carson, who once referred to ObamaCare as "the worst thing to happen to America since slavery," has repeatedly called for less government involvement between patients and health care providers, as well as expanded use of health savings accounts.

•
Carson began making headlines in 2013, when at the National Prayer Breakfast he criticized the Obama Administration's Affordable Care Act with the president seated just a few people away. He believes the statute has allowed the government to dictate the will of the people.

•
"When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health-savings account to which money can be contributed – pretax – from the time you're born till the time you die. If you die, you can pass it on to your family members, so that when you're 85 years old and you got six diseases, you're not trying to spend up everything. You're happy to pass it on and there's nobody talking about death panels."

•
Under Carson's proposal, each family would act as their own insurer, with the ability to shift money from one member within the account to another to cover an individual's needs.

•
Individuals would also be able to purchase catastrophic health care, which he believes over time would still cost families less than the amount charged for current plans.

•
Under Carson's vision, the same dollars that would be given to patients through Medicare would go into the health savings account, unless the individual chooses to opt-in to Medicare.

•
The overall goal of his plan, he has said, is to eliminate the need for people to be dependent on government programs.

•
I look forward to the day when health care is less about what the government tells me I can provide my patients with, and more about providing my patients with what they need.
Dr. Marc Siegel: What doctors know about the ObamaCare crisis [and you should, too] (Fox 10/27/2016)
•
For practicing physicians, the problems with ObamaCare go well beyond spiraling-out-of-control premiums ... and the flight of the insurance providers...

•
True, ObamaCare is a failed Ponzi scheme.

•
The insurers who remain in the game are being forced to raise premiums because healthy young people aren't signing up, which would help preserve profits.

•
But the heart of the problem with the heavily subsidized, unwieldy ObamaCare plans is found in the doctor's office.

•
You come in demanding care, and we clog up the whole health care system when we dispense it.

•
First, ObamaCare plans have many fewer choices attached to them.

•
This means I am spending precious time — yours and mine — during your visit trying to find an orthopedist for your knee pain or an allergist for your hives or a gastroenterologist to refer you to for your colonoscopy.

•
I frequently find myself squinting at a list of doctors whose names I don't recognize.

•
And if my hospital doesn't accept your plan, I may be sending you to get your lab work in one facility and your chest X-ray in another, which means my staff has to scramble to piece all your results together when you call for them two days later.

•
And what about your $5000 deductible? Most of my ObamaCare patients who proudly sport their new coverage are not prepared to discover that it doesn't cover the basic services they need.

•
Meanwhile, most of my face time with you has been replaced by computer time, where I enter your data (a 2009 federal law mandates electronic medical records) and you find yourself looking at my back for much of the visit.

•
I don't want anyone to feel sorry for doctors — it is still a privilege to take care of you, and most of us still make a decent living — but the fact is that my reimbursements for this watered-down insurance are decreasing as fast as your premiums are rising.

•
And it isn't just ObamaCare that's affecting quality of care in the doctor's office. It's all government-run insurance.

•
Medicare has become a highly regulated, lower quality insurance that's particularly cumbersome to work with, because the elderly tend to have more medical problems.

•
Hillary Clinton, if she's elected president, aims to increase ObamaCare subsidies, provide a public option at the state exchanges, offset deductibles with tax-free subsidies of up to $5000 per family, provide full coverage for the first three sick visits in a year, expand Medicaid to all 50 states and lower the eligibility age for Medicare.

•
All of this sounds great, until you consider that it is likely to cost hundreds of billions of dollars and have no impact whatsoever at the doctor's office — where we are clogged with low-paying, low-quality insurance, with no relief in sight.
Dr. Manny: Stop poisoning our autistic kids (Fox 10/27/2016)
•
In 2016, you would think that we have moved past intentionally poisoning our sick and taking advantage of our disabled, but yet here we are, watching hundreds of our friends and relatives fall for the latest batch of miracle-touting supplements being peddled on social media and elsewhere.

•
... has found that Humble and his church leaders use the internet to prey on the vulnerable and promote their elixir, dubbed "MMS," which is short for Master Mineral Solution.

•
... investigation into MMS found that for a church donation of $95.99, parents can obtain five sets of chemicals that, when mixed together, create a potion better suited for cleaning swimming pools or kitchen countertops than being ingested by a child.

•
One Department of Justice official told the news program that MMS is essentially Clorox, meaning these well-intended parents who are so blinded in their desperate search for a cure are essentially poisoning their autistic children.

•
The children suffer from diarrhea and nausea — which the church claims means the solution is working.

•
I am heartbroken, and I believe that this is the highest level of crime that anyone can commit against vulnerable families and their children.

•
There is no miracle fix for autism, but there are proven therapies and treatments that can help these families, which includes my own.

•
These therapies have helped my son make countless advancements over the past 20 years without the aid of any harmful chemicals.

•
I urge all of you out there who are dealing with a medical crisis or battle of your own to trust science when it's well researched, and most importantly when it adheres to the "do no harm" approach in medicine.
One-fourth of US cancer deaths linked with 1 thing: smoking (Fox 10/24/2016)
It's time for a new dialogue about prostate cancer screening (Fox 10/18/2016)
Democratic Minnesota governor says ObamaCare 'no longer affordable' (Fox 10/12/2016)
Longforgotten research unearths new mystery about Lyme disease (Fox 10/12/2016)
•
... the diagnosis is frequently missed because of poor lab tests and other factors, and that Lyme becomes a chronic condition when untreated or inadequately treated.

•
The patients describe symptoms that include incapacitating "brain fog" and weakness, intense anxiety, severe muscle pain, and paralyzing headaches.

•
Many say that they required treatment with antibiotics lasting months or longer to be cured after years of misery.

•
The medical establishment mostly views "chronic Lyme" as the product of quack doctors exploiting desperate patients by offering unproven therapies.

•
It's hard to overstate the animosity that characterizes this clash.

•
A few angry patients have compared establishment Lyme experts ... to the Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele.
College students nationwide flood mental-health centers (Fox 10/11/2016)
More US babies born addicted to opiates like heroin (Fox 09/27/2016)
•
The proportion of U.S. babies born suffering from withdrawal syndrome after exposure to heroin or prescription opiates in utero has more than doubled in less than a decade.

•
These babies may have central nervous system issues like seizures and tremors, gastrointestinal problems and feeding difficulties, breathing challenges, as well as unstable body temperatures.

•
Typically, they remain in the hospital for several weeks after birth and receive low doses of methadone, a medicine designed to wean addicts off heroin and prescription opiates.

•
Treatment can ease withdrawal symptoms in newborns, but can't necessarily address developmental problems these infants may have later on.
Another ObamaCare co-op folds, leaving only 6 remaining (Fox 09/13/2016)
Wasp sting causes man's stroke (Fox 08/30/2016)
ObamaCare coverage options disappearing across country, report finds (Fox 08/29/2016)
•
"The president repeatedly promised that his health care law would provide more choices, ‘bend the cost curve,' and allow Americans to keep the plans they liked and could afford. He failed to live up to those promises, and families are paying the price."

•
Citing major losses, the top five insurers – Humana, Anthem, Aetna, UnitedHealth Group, and Blue Cross Blue Shield – have threatened to pull out of the exchanges and have selectively started to do so in many counties.

•
When ObamaCare was first pitched to the public, the administration pushed the narrative that marketplaces would thrive and Americans who had been unable to afford medical coverage in the past would finally be able to do so.

•
While some aspects have been a success – 20.3 million Americans signed up for ObamaCare as of March 2016 – the unbalanced model of getting healthy younger people to foot the bill for older or sicker people who often require more coverage has presented a problem for ObamaCare and threatens its very existence.

•
The new report found that as insurers pull out, several states are now likely to have just a single insurance option across all counties.
Aetna to drop some Affordable Care Act markets (Fox 08/15/2016)
Some great leaders had mental illness — it may have helped (Fox 08/11/2016)
•
Some of America's greatest leaders in history have had mental health problems and it may have helped in times of crisis, psychiatrists and psychologists said.

•
"Some of those mental health problems can, in fact, make for greatness."

•
Saying someone has psychiatric issues, "in my view ... is a compliment," said Ghaemi, author of the book "A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness."

•
Manic depressive people are often more creative, more empathetic and realistic than the more mentally healthy.

•
These people tend to succeed in times of crisis and fail in times of peace and prosperity.
High numbers? 1 in 8 American adults smokes pot (Fox 08/09/2016)
•
Thirteen percent of adults in the U.S. now say they currently smoke pot — up from 7 percent in 2013.

•
Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adults under age 30 said they currently use marijuana.

•
In each of the older age groups the researchers looked at, no more than 1 in 10 people said they currently use marijuana.
Why You Should Think Twice Before Drinking Tap Water (Fox 08/11/2016)
Deadly beach vacation dangers (Fox 06/21/2016)
Double-digit ObamaCare premium hikes projected in 2017 (Fox 06/15/2016)
What you need to know about cellphones, rats and cancer: Putting it into perspective (Fox 06/08/2016)
Drugs for schizophrenics regularly dispensed to foster kids (Fox 06/09/2016)
•
Susan dosReis, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore ... said she knew of no good reason to prescribe more than one antipsychotic at a time.

•
"We need to have programs in place to ensure that when individuals need these medications that other things are in place so they're not a detriment to their health."
Measuring Life By the Spoonful (JWR 06/08/2016)
A 6-minute plan to rid clothes of ticks (Fox 05/31/2016)
•
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends washing tick-infested clothes and then drying them for one hour.

•
The recent research found that drying time can be significantly reduced if clothes aren't washed first, as ticks are extremely sensitive to dryness.

•
Drying should be combined with other prevention methods, such as the use of repellent, the study said.

•
Tick bites are responsible for an estimated 300,000 Lyme-disease infections in the U.S. a year, and several other diseases.
Cancer-stricken farmers sue Monsanto over Roundup (Fox 05/16/2016)
•
Three cancer-stricken Nebraska farmers and an agronomist are suing Monsanto, alleging that the company misled consumers about the safety of Roundup, the most widely used herbicide around the globe.

•
The World Health Organization labeled glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, as a likely carcinogen last year.

•
"Monsanto championed falsified data and has attacked legitimate studies that revealed Roundup's dangers. Monsanto led a campaign of misinformation to convince government agencies, farmers, and the general population that Roundup is safe."

•
... Monsanto markets Roundup as "safe enough to drink."

•
Since last year, some countries have restricted or outright barred the sale of Roundup, and California labeled glyphosate a carcinogen...
Transgender Surgery Isn't the Solution (WSJ 05/13/2016)
•
At the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgendered. "Sex change" is biologically impossible.

•
Claiming that this is civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.
Ever wonder what happens when you stop eating meat? (05/10/2016)
America’s drug crisis: When will we wake up to the tragedy of the opiate epidemic? (Fox 05/01/2016)
•
It's an old story but a very sad one. A celebrity is rumored to have died of a drug overdose and the world mourns. And, of course, media outlets and the public in general become aware — ever so briefly — that we, as a country, are in the midst of a drug crisis — more specifically an opiate abuse and overdose epidemic.

•
... the even sadder news is that mothers, brothers, sons and daughters are dying every single day of prescription drug overdoses.

•
The celebrity deaths, while horrible, can help raise awareness to a larger societal problem.

•
... According to the CDC 78 Americans die every single day of an opiate drug overdose — and over half of those deaths are from doctor-prescribed opiate pain medications...

•
Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US...

•
Even more unsettling than those statistics is the trend: Since 1999, the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids, including prescription opioid pain relievers, has nearly quadrupled._

•
Indeed, 90 percent of the entire world's pain prescriptions are written right here in the good old U.S. of A. Can we see a connection?

•
It is readily apparent that the more pain prescriptions doled out, the more people seem to be dying from prescription overdoses.

•
But why is there this exponential increase in opiate prescriptions — are we in so much more pain as a country?

•
What there has been is an increase in the influence and growth of pharmaceutical companies that are developing ever-more powerful medications that numb pain and that can get people hooked.

•
To be clear: there are, of course, people who need pain meds.

•
Compounding the problem, there is no objective way for a physician to measure pain: it's all client self-report. So it becomes increasingly difficult for a doctor to discern the genuine pain management patient with the addicted opiate addict exaggerating their pain to manipulate getting another prescription.

•
Yes, we all know of the famous heroin overdoses — heroin has become the drug most commonly associated with images of drug addiction and death in the public psyche.

•
And yet heroin's legally prescribed cousin — pharmaceutical opiates — kill more people every year than heroin does.
Recall of sunflower seeds for Listeria risk affects Trader Joe's, Walmart and more major retailers (Fox 05/05/2016)
America's No. 3 killer is medical errors, study finds (Fox 05/04/2016)
•
... about 9.5% of Americans who die each year are killed by a medical error, making it the No. 3 cause of death behind heart disease and cancer.
Criminal investigation reportedly launched into Dole Food over listeria outbreak linked to deaths (Fox 04/30/2016)
Hawaii looks to allow psychologists to prescribe drugs (Fox 04/29/2016)
Significant premium hikes expected under ObamaCare (Fox 04/28/2016)
•
Expect the state-by-state premium requests to reflect what insurers see as the bottom line: The health law has been a financial drain for many companies.

•
The health law's nagging problems center on lower-than-hoped-for enrollment, sicker-than-expected customers, and a balky internal stabilization system that didn't deliver as advertised and was already scheduled to be pared back next year.
Dyson hand dryers spread more germs than paper towels, study says (Fox 04/18/2016)
•
... jet air dryers spray 1,300 times more viral plaques than paper towels.
Dr. Manny: I'm talkin' to you, De Niro — autism is not caused by vaccines (Fox 04/13/2016)
•
I was upset with him because ... he was prepared to allow the screening of "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe," a controversial documentary that essentially serves as an infomercial for the anti-vaccine movement.

•
The so-called brain behind this baseless documentary is a British doctor named Andrew Wakefield. In addition to falsely claiming that vaccines cause autism, he has been sanctioned by the British medical authorities and was stripped of his medical license. His research has been disproven, but he and his legion of followers claim that it's part of a greater conspiracy to cover up the cause of autism.

•
De Niro said his wife recalls seeing a change in their now 18-year-old autistic son after he was vaccinated. When pressed, he said that as a parent of an autistic child, he is concerned and wants to know the truth. He also expressed regret over pulling "Vaxxed" from the festival.

•
I don't challenge De Niro's vision for questioning the origin of autism, and I don't discredit his concerns as a father. As the father of an 18-year-old autistic son, I too have questions that I want answered.

•
I am in the trenches each and every day not just for my patients, but for my son.

•
When it comes to health, false promises and misinformed theories lead to inefficient therapies and dead end research.

•
At the end of the day, it leads to anger and the misperception that somebody "caused" whatever medical hardship you're facing to happen to you, and that is not a good starting point when it comes to autism.

•
One: we must do more for these young adults entering the real world. We need more education, more job opportunities, better government support and full integration into society. Two: we must support genuine autism research. We must find out where autism originates, which could possibly begin in the womb.

•
Creating an environment of suspicion only delays what we must accomplish today.
ObamaCare may force employers to pull the plug on millions of health plans, CBO report finds (Fox 03/28/2016)
•
Some will opt to go on Medicaid, but others will be kicked off their company plans by employers who decide not to offer coverage anymore.
Light therapy shows promise in activating memories lost due to Alzheimer's (Fox 03/18/2016)
Scientists claim 'extraordinary success' with treatment using immune cells to target cancer (Fox 02/16/2016)
Ticks carrying Lyme disease in almost half of US counties (Fox 01/18/2016)
•
Common symptoms can include fever, headache, and fatigue, all of which can be easily confused with the flu.

•
Some patients, but not all, develop a characteristic "bull's eye" rash soon after the tick bite.

•
If caught early, Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics. But untreated Lyme disease can lead to lasting cognitive problems, joint and muscle pain and mood disorders.
DR. MANNY: The US is winning the 'war on cancer,' but the fight is far from over (Fox 01/13/2016)
•
I am hopeful about America's war on cancer, and some of the country's leading experts on this disease agree.

•
... we still don't know for sure what causes cells to mutate, then divide and spread — some scientists think it's bad luck, while others say it's due to choices we make every day.

•
And there still remains a lot to be learned about the genetics of the human body as they relate to cancer development, in a world population faced with compromising lifestyle factors and environmental factors that are seriously out of control.
Utah fears thousands infected in hepatitis C outbreak after exposure to hospital nurse (Fox 01/10/2016)
How pets save us billions every year in health care costs [no wonder tails are wagging] (Fox 12/31/2015)
•
a new scientific study has emerged quantifying an exciting relationship between pet ownership and decreased health care costs.

•
This is unsurprising considering companion animals provide their human handlers with senses of purpose, consistency and unconditional love.

•
A staggering nearly 7.6 million homeless companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, tragically with 2.7 million of these potential pets euthanized.

•
Saving an animal life with health improvements and cost savings for the owner — now that's something to wag your tail about!
Express Scripts offers low-cost alternative to Turing drug (Fox 12/01/2015)
•
... it will make a treatment for the rare infection toxoplasmosis that costs $1 per pill...

•
Daraprim, the drug that costs $750 per pill, comes from Turing Pharmaceuticals, which stirred outrage among doctors, patients and politicians when it bought rights to the pill earlier this year and then subsequently jacked up the price.

•
The 62-year-old drug had been priced at $13.50 per pill before that.
More Food Recalls Are Coming, Here's Why (Fox 11/09/2015)
Death rates rising among middle-aged white people, study finds (Fox 11/03/2015)
We are becoming a nation of diabetics. Here's how to reverse this dangerous trend (Fox 11/03/2015)
•
I'm talking about Type 2 diabetes, which is a lifestyle condition that now affects one in four adults over 65 in the U.S. with one in three over the age of 20 prediabetic.

•
Medical experts claim that the prevention of Type 2 diabetes is possible if people adhere to dieting and exercise. Although this sounds logical, it has proven to be ineffective for two reasons.

•
First, people are simply confused about what diets to follow and 80% of them fail...

•
Second, exercise burns very few calories relative to one's daily intake ... in an average American diet of 1,800 or 2,000 calories per day.

•
Furthermore, once we hit 45 or 50, there is also a gradual decrease in the ability to maintain skeletal muscle function and mass, so exercise is even harder for most adults.

•
Endocrinologists insist that "insulin resistance" in three sites in the body – muscle, fat, and liver cells — causes Type 2 diabetes...

•
I have studied diabetes for over 20 years and based on my own experience as well as that of my patients', I propose a simple alternative explanation: Type 2 diabetes is linked to the overconsumption of grains.

•
We all know that our bodies are like hybrid cars. We can either burn glucose or fat. When people overeat grains and grain-based products, their fat cells fill with fatty acids as their body converts all that excess dietary glucose ingested through the carbohydrate rich grains to fat.

•
At some point, your fat cells are full and can no longer accept more fatty acids. In response, your muscles start to burn fatty acids and the glucose in your body is not burned and remains in your bloodstream, leading to high blood sugar and Type 2 diabetes.

•
The "fatty acid burn theory" is far more logical and can explain many anomalies about Type 2 diabetes...

•
What this means is that Type 2 diabetes is not some mysterious disease or pandemic, it is a lifestyle condition that can be prevented and even reversed.

•
I urge the American public to take responsibility for your health instead of buying into outdated theories supported by forces that do not have your best interest at heart (including the personal agenda of pharmaceutical companies and the government's subsidization of grain production).

•
If you want to avoid gaining weight and risk the onset of Type 2 diabetes or seek to reverse your diabetes and get off your medications, reduce your consumption of grains and see what happens. No need to count carbs, measure or weigh your food, or follow strict diets.

•
Just cut down on your overconsumption of bread, pasta, pizza, donuts, muffins, cookies, pies and cakes...
Lawmakers sound alarm over failing ObamaCare co-ops (Fox 11/03/2015)
Drugmaker to offer $1 version of $750-per-pill medication (Fox 10/23/2015)
•
Stepping into the furor over eye-popping price spikes for old generic medicines, a maker of compounded drugs will begin selling $1 doses of Daraprim, whose price recently was jacked up to $750 per pill by Turing Pharmaceuticals.

•
The 3 1/2-year-old drug compounding firm also plans to start making inexpensive versions of other generic drugs whose prices have skyrocketed...

•
"We are looking at all of these cases where the sole-source generic companies are jacking the price way up. There'll be many more of these" compounded drugs coming in the near future.

•
The high price of prescription medicines in the U.S. — from drugs for cancer and rare diseases that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year down to once-cheap generic drugs now costing many times their old price — has become a hot issue in the 2016 presidential race.

•
At the eye of the storm is former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, head of Turing Pharmaceuticals, scorned last month for buying rights to and then increasing by more than 5,000 percent the price of Daraprim, a 62-year old drug with no competition.
5 Americans come down with Q fever after traveling to Germany (Fox 10/01/2015)
California company recalls cucumbers after salmonella outbreak (Fox 09/05/2015)
•
... after a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 285 people in 27 states and killed a San Diego woman.

•
Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce of San Diego on Friday voluntarily recalled its "Limited Edition" brand garden cucumbers, which were grown in Mexico.

•
The cucumbers were distributed in Alaska; Arizona; Arkansas; California; Colorado; Florida; Idaho; Illinois; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Minnesota; Mississippi; Montana; Nevada; New Jersey; New Mexico; Oklahoma; Oregon; South Carolina; Texas; and Utah.
Texas teen dies of rare brain-eating amoeba infection (Fox 08/31/2015)
•
It is commonly found in warm freshwater such as lakes, rivers and hot springs, as well as soil. It usually infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose...

•
The organism is most commonly encountered in the southern United States during the summer, when temperatures are highest.

•
Of 133 people known to have been infected with it in the United States since 1962, only three have survived.
The scary truth about the human waste that’s on your food (Fox 08/24/2015)
•
The scary truth: Many farm workers simply don't have ready access to restrooms, and the issue isn't contained to specific crops or certain parts of the world.

•
"One of the problems is that the we have these trade agreements with all kinds of countries saying we recognize their food safety systems as equivalent to ours, and they're not."

•
... India, China, and Mexico have been some of the worst offenders, historically speaking...

•
... the U.S. only tests for pathogens in about 2 percent of the food that crosses its borders...

•
So, what can you do to minimize risk? Hanson suggests buying as much produce as possible from local farmers who you know and trust to keep their fields sanitary.

•
Buying American produce over imported is a good second choice, but it still can't guarantee waste-free food.

•
Then, most importantly: Wash. Your. Produce.

•
Hanson washes all of his produce three times with water before eating it — yes, even those bagged salads that say "pre-washed" on the label.

•
"But if someone in your household has any likelihood of an impaired immune system ... you should also use some mild soap on the first wash to make sure you loosen everything."
Scientists identify molecule that could protect against Alzheimer’s disease (Fox 08/20/2015)
California hospital patients contract antibiotic-resistant 'superbug' (Fox 08/20/2015)
Guide to the healthiest cooking oils (Fox 08/17/2015)
Oklahoma woman has both arms, legs amputated after tick bite (Fox 08/14/2015)
Man dies from brain-eating amoeba in Oklahoma lake (Fox 08/13/2015)
•
... contracted Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare infection that derives from contact with Naegleria fowleri — also referred to as the brain-eating amoeba...

•
... the amoeba is naturally present in most freshwater sources — like lakes, rivers and hot springs — and rapidly multiplies in very warm, stagnant water.

•
Infection usually occurs when a person inhales contaminated water through the nose, by which the amoeba travels upward in the body, destroying brain tissue and causing brain swelling and death.

•
The disease can't be transmitted from person to person.

•
PAM may also occur when contaminated water from inadequately chlorinated swimming pools, or heated and contaminated tap water enter the nose.

•
Drinking water contaminated with the amoeba does not result in infection.
Death toll from Legionnaires’ disease up to 12, NYC Mayor says (Fox 08/10/2015)
Officials order cooling tower inspections to battle deadly Legionnaires outbreak in NYC (Fox 08/07/2015)
Spice Up Your Life — It'll Make You Live Longer (08/04/2015)
NYC targets cooling systems as death toll in Legionnaires' outbreak hits 7 (Fox 08/05/2015)
About 380 people in U.S. have been sickened by contaminated Mexican cilantro (Fox 08/05/2015)
Beware plant that can cause blindness, Michigan health officials say (Fox 08/04/2015)
Death toll in South Bronx Legionnaires' disease outbreak rises to 7, officials say (Fox 08/04/2015)
Dr. Manny: How prescription drug abuse is helping to fuel violence in America (Fox 06/19/2015)
•
In conjunction with what other experts will tell us, I believe that an epidemic of drug abuse in this country is helping to fuel the violence. I am not talking about marijuana, cocaine or heroin – I am specifically singling out prescription drug abuse.

•
Make no mistake about it, these are powerful drugs intended to treat many mental illnesses. Most of them, if they are taken as intended, do provide great relief to patients. However, there are instances of violence that have occurred while suspects were under the care of a psychiatrist and were taking the prescriptions legally.

•
One in 10 Americans now takes antidepressant medications and many others illegally acquire these drugs for recreational use. I am certainly not suggesting that one in 10 of us is a killer.

•
As the nation once more looks for answers to an unthinkable tragedy, many will race to call for better gun control and background checks. Others will want social answers and call for better ways to mend the racial divide that exists in some of our communities.

•
But what I ask our leaders is to also address the epic level of untreated mental illness in our country, which when paired with illegal drug abuse, has only left us reeling time after time.

•
Uncontrolled drug abuse in people that already possess racism and hatred in their hearts makes for an incredibly dangerous situation.
Dad donates liver to save newborn son (Fox 06/17/2015)
Why the ObamaCare math doesn't add up (Fox 06/08/2015)
Texas doctors do first skull and scalp transplant (Fox 06/04/2015)
Harmful bacteria may be lurking in your single-serve coffee machine (Fox 05/19/2015)
New Sugar-Based Mosquito Repellent Is Safe For The Environment And People (05/15/2015)
•
... lures with sugar and kills with micro encapsulated garlic oil...

•
"Bait and kill approaches have long been used to control other insects and pests."

•
"This is the first time science has identified one for mosquitoes, and one that is safe for people and the environment."
Best wines for your health (Fox 05/13/2015)
How to keep kitchen germ free (Fox 03/31/2015)
US lowers fluoride in water; too much causing splotchy teeth (Fox 04/27/2015)
420 Day: A physician's take on pot (Fox 04/20/2015)
5 foods for better brain health (Fox 03/31/2015)
Saffron supplements can prevent muscle weakness and pain after a strenuous workout (Fox 03/31/2015)
Indiana to declare public health emergency over HIV outbreak (Fox 03/26/2015)
Fasting for your health: Harmful or helpful? (Fox 03/20/2015)
More than 2 dozen people test positive for tuberculosis at Kansas school (Fox 03/19/2015)
FDA study finds little evidence of antibiotics in milk (Fox 03/06/2015)
More parents asking doctors to delay vaccinating children, study finds (Fox 03/02/2015)
The Olive Oil Compound That Kills Cancer Cells (JWR 02/25/2015)
Water Fluoridation May Trigger Depression And Weight Gain (JWR 02/25/2015)
How to Stay Sharp As You Age (02/19/2015)
CDC discovers new virus in Kansas (Fox 02/20/2015)
Your Favorite Herbal Supplements Could Be Anything But ()
5 myths and facts about your microwave (Fox 02/10/2015)
Man in vegetative state for 12 years wakes up to tell remarkable story (Fox 02/07/2015)
FDA could set millions of genetically modified mosquitoes loose in Florida Keys (Fox 01/26/2015)
•
"It's not even so much about the science — you can't go ahead with something like this if public opinion is negative."

•
Climate change and globalization are spreading tropical diseases farther from the equator.

•
"But there are no problems. Why are we trying to fix it? Why are we being used as the experiment, the guinea pigs, just to see what happens?"
Woman who worked with Ebola patients monitored at NJ hospital (Fox 01/20/2015)
Magnesium, an invisible deficiency that could be harming your health (CNN 12/31/2014)
•
Feeling exhausted? Or noticing weird muscle cramps that are throwing off your workouts? You might be suffering from a magnesium deficiency.
Scientists: Random gene mutations — 'bad luck' — primary cause of most cancer (CNN 01/02/2015)
Caramel apples linked to fatal listeria outbreak (CNN 12/19/2014)
6 Things You Had No Idea The Human Eye Can Do ()
Deadly High: How synthetic drugs are killing kids (CNN 12/01/2014)
Scientists: 'Positive' results in 1st human trial of experimental Ebola vaccine (CNN 11/27/2014)
Popular HIV Drug Treats Age-Related Blindness (JWR 11/24/2014)
Does cold weather cause colds? (CNN 01/07/2014)
Norovirus sickens more than 170 on cruise ship (CNN 11/16/2014)
Nebraska hospital prepares for new Ebola patient (CNN 11/13/2014)
•
See related Arrivals-Departures (Mike Lester, 08/06/2014) cartoon from USA picture album
Regular pot habit changes your brain, may even lower your IQ, study says (CNN 11/10/2014)
•
See related Brain Damage (Michael Ramirez, 01/23/2014) cartoon from USA picture album
NYC Ebola 'Active Monitoring': From 117 Cases to 357 in 1 Week (INN 11/08/2014)
Study: Long-term shift work lessens brain power (CNN 11/04/2014)
National debate: Weighing returning Ebola workers' liberty, public safety (CNN 10/30/2014)
Hagel announces mandatory Ebola quarantine (CNN 10/29/2014)
What's the best way to treat Ebola? (CNN 10/28/2014)
Army major general speaks to CNN from inside Ebola quarantine (CNN 10/28/2014)
Chris Christie on Ebola policy: 'We're not moving an inch' (CNN 10/28/2014)
Christie's office: Quarantined woman headed to Maine (CNN 10/26/2014)
Nurse ordered released in New Jersey; boy under Ebola evaluation in New York (CNN 10/27/2014)
Ebola: Some U.S. states announce mandatory quarantines — now what? (CNN 10/27/2014)
NYC Ebola case no public threat, officials say — but NY, NJ boost airport screening (CNN 10/24/2014)
NY doctor positive for Ebola had no symptoms until Thursday, officials say (CNN 10/23/2014)
Suspected Ebola Case Being Investigated in New York (INN 10/24/2014)
Living life from a hospital room (CNN 10/23/2014)
Ebola fears: Airline contacts 800 passengers, country issues travel bans (CNN 10/18/2014)
Ebola Cover-up? African Dies Vomiting on Plane to New York (INN 10/17/2014)
Ebola in U.S.: Who has it, who doesn't, who might (CNN 10/17/2014)
Amid Ebola fears, cruise ship quarantines worker, airline contacts travelers (CNN 10/17/2014)
Rubio: 5 steps to beat Ebola (CNN 10/15/2014)
I'd have to do WHAT to eat that? (CNN 10/16/2014)
Last of 3 treated at Dallas hospital for Ebola to be transferred to suburban D.C. (CNN 10/16/2014)
Ultimatum to Nurses: One Mistake and You Die (JWR 10/15/2014)
CDC: U.S. health worker with Ebola should not have flown on commercial jet (CNN 10/15/2014)
Second health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital (CNN 10/15/2014)
Ebola: 5 things nurses say the Texas hospital got wrong (CNN 10/15/2014)
Ebola highlights public health crisis (CNN 10/14/2014)
Google test provides live chats with doctors (CNN 10/13/2014)
Michigan toddler dies of enterovirus D68, a pernicious strain of a spreading virus (CNN 10/11/2014)
Texas health worker is positive for Ebola, would be 1st Ebola transmission in U.S. (CNN 10/12/2014)
Ebola screenings begin at JFK; four more airports start next week (CNN 10/11/2014)
When assisted suicide is not the answer (CNN 10/08/2014)
How to keep Ebola out of America (JWR 10/08/2014)
Ebola, Electronic Medical Records and Epic Systems (JWR 10/09/2014)
Get proactive about screening for Ebola (CNN 10/06/2014)
Ebola drugs are in the works (CNN 10/06/2014)
Who's in charge of stopping Ebola in the U.S.? (CNN 10/03/2014)
Ebola prompts talk of enhanced screening at U.S. airports (CNN 10/05/2014)
Former U.S. Ebola patient back in hospital; Dallas patient critical (CNN 10/05/2014)
Dallas Ebola patient is in critical condition, hospital says (CNN 10/04/2014)
Ebola reaches U.S.: A tragedy of errors (CNN 10/01/2014)
U.S. Ebola case: 80 monitored in Dallas (CNN 10/02/2014)
1st Ebola diagnosis in the United States: Should we worry? (CNN 10/01/2014)
CDC: First diagnosed case of Ebola in the U.S. (CNN 09/30/2014)
Hospitals ask patients to pay upfront (CNN 09/29/2014)
A Simple Game May Soon Spot Alzheimer's Risk Before Symptoms Appear (JWR 09/22/2014)
More than 700 infants exposed to TB at Texas (CNN 09/22/2014)
Reduce your risk of dementia right now (CNN 09/16/2014)
Study: Schizophrenia is 8 diseases (CNN 09/16/2014)
Enterovirus D68 sickens more than a dozen in New York (CNN 09/12/2014)
'Magic mushrooms' help smokers quit, and other studies you missed (CNN 09/12/2014)
Is U.S. ready for a pandemic? Investigation says we're 'ill-prepared' (CNN 09/08/2014)
Teens need to start school later (CNN 08/28/2014)
Doctors: Early school start times unhealthy for students (CNN 08/28/2014)
15 diseases doctors often get wrong (CNN 08/26/2014)
How I overcame depression (CNN 08/26/2014)
What happens when you survive Ebola? (CNN 08/21/2014)
'Miraculous day' as American Ebola patients released (CNN 08/21/2014)
Patient tested in California for possible Ebola exposure (CNN 08/20/2014)
Bipolar disorder and the creative mind (CNN 08/15/2014)
Why Robin Williams lost to depression (CNN 08/13/2014)
Going public with depression (CNN 08/12/2012)
Vibrio vulnificus: A summertime bacteria (CNN 08/07/2014)
Why worry about the measles outbreak? (CNN 08/07/2014)
Ebola is here: 5 reasons not to panic (CNN 08/05/2014)
A panic more lethal than a virus (JWR 08/05/2014)
Experimental drug likely saved Ebola patients (CNN 08/04/2014)
Company expands voluntary fruit recall (CNN 08/04/2014)
Ebola patient walks into Atlanta hospital; family will see him through glass (CNN 08/02/2014)
Possible evacuation of Americans infected with Ebola triggers fears in U.S. (CNN 08/01/2014)
Experts: U.S. health care system well-prepared for Ebola (CNN 07/31/2014)
Could the Ebola outbreak come to the United States? Yes and no. (CNN 07/31/2014)
Number of 9/11-related cancer cases is growing (CNN 07/30/2014)
Marijuana legalization is a risk not worth taking (CNN 07/30/2014)
Surgeon general issues skin cancer warning (CNN 07/29/2014)
How often you should wash your sheets, bras, hair and more! (CNN 07/29/2014)
5 studies you may have missed (CNN 07/25/2014)
FAQ: What the Obamacare court decisions mean for you (CNN 07/23/2014)
Fruit recall affects Costco, Trader Joe's, Walmart, Kroger stores (CNN 07/22/2014)
9-year-old girl dies from brain-eating amoeba in water (CNN 07/15/2014)
Colorado's troubles with pot (CNN 07/10/2014)
Why you must vaccinate your kids (CNN 07/09/2014)
We all pay for $1,000 a pill drug (CNN 07/07/2014)
Are Americans crazy to tolerate costly health care? (CNN 06/24/2014)
75 CDC staff possibly exposed to anthrax, agency says (CNN 06/19/2014)
Depression a 'powerful' risk factor for heart disease in young women (CNN 06/19/2014)
4 surprising benefits of vegetables (CNN 06/19/2014)
California declares whooping cough epidemic (CNN 06/13/2014)
The dangers of junk sleep (CNN 06/12/2014)
E. coli outbreak linked to sprouts sickens 17 people (CNN 06/09/2014)
20 cell phones with highest radiation levels (CNN 06/09/2014)
Cutting budgets for medical research is dangerous (CNN 06/06/2014)
Lifestyle changes can cut your risk of colon cancer (JWR 05/23/2014)
Boil water notice given to 670,000 Oregon residents after E. coli found (CNN 05/23/2014)
Measles virus used to put woman's cancer into remission (CNN 05/15/2014)
Promising New Cancer Treatment Works For 80% Of Cancers (JWR 05/11/2014)
Big Pharma's Favorite Prescription: Higher Prices (Business Week, 05/08/2014)
A bug repellent that could save lives (CNN 05/05/2014)
I was an accomplice to my brother's suicide (CNN 05/02/2015)
The 2014 'Dirty Dozen' (CNN 05/02/2015)
MERS makes first U.S. appearance, in Indiana (CNN 05/02/2015)
CDC: 5 things cause two-thirds of U.S. deaths (CNN 05/01/2014)
Texas family plagued with ailments gets $3M in 1st-of-its-kind fracking judgment (CNN 04/26/2014)
Coffee may reduce risk for type 2 diabetes (CNN 04/24/2014)
Marijuana use linked to heart problems (CNN 04/23/2014)
A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital's secret list (CNN 04/23/2014)
Medicare vs. private insurance: Which costs less (CNN 04/21/2014)
Casual marijuana use may damage your brain (CNN 04/16/2014)
Will you 'like' the doctor who tells you you're dying? (CNN 04/10/2014)
It’s Time to Pay Attention to Sleep, the New Health Frontier (Time, 04/09/2014)
Stomach illness that hit 83 people on cruise ship may be linked to norovirus (CNN 04/09/2014)
Doctors make millions off of Medicare (CNN 04/09/2014)
Spinal cord work is unexpected shocker: 'This is a breakthrough' (CNN 04/08/2014)
Drugs for the dying: Compassionate use (CNN 04/05/2014)
Got Obamacare, can't find doctors (CNN 03/19/2014)
Shift workers beware: Sleep loss may cause brain damage, new research says (CNN 03/19/2014)
Factory meat, cruel and bad for us (CNN 03/14/2014)
Work out smarter, not longer (CNN 03/13/2014)
Drug company will give ailing 7-year-old medicine that could save him (CNN 03/12/2014)
How dangerous is sleep deprivation, really? (CNN 03/12/2014)
You will pay dearly for stolen sleep (JWR 03/12/2014)
Report: Cancer will be No. 1 killer in U.S. (CNN 03/11/2014)
Alzheimer's toll may rank with cancer, heart disease (CNN 03/05/2014)
Company denies drug to dying child (CNN 03/10/2014)
Doctor, LOOK at me (CNN 03/09/2014)
Junk-food fakes: Healthy alternatives to fast food (CNN 03/06/2014)
Mysterious cluster of birth defects stumps doctors (CNN 03/01/2014)
Nutrition labels getting a makeover (CNN 02/27/2014)
Polio-like illness found in five California children (CNN 02/24/2014)
New cancer immunotherapy treatment already shows promise (JWR 02/21/2014)
What to do about your bad breath (CNN 02/20/2014)
Loneliness: 5 things you may not know (CNN 02/19/2014)
Want to see a doctor? Be prepared to wait! (CNN 02/17/2014)
'Putting the next generation of brains in danger' (CNN 02/12/2014)
What does your employer know about your health? (CNN 02/12/2014)
How the Navy avoids norovirus (CNN 02/10/2014)
Hospital to 18 patients: You may have been exposed to incurable disease (CNN 02/10/2014)
Beyond the antioxidant buzz: Plant foods boost our health in multiple ways (JWR 02/10/2013)
'The Biggest Loser': A warning from someone who's been there (CNN 02/10/2013)
Doc: My state in addiction stranglehold (CNN 02/06/2014)
Who smokes in the US? (CNN 02/04/2014)
Most cancers in our world pandemic are preventable — here's how (CNN 02/04/2014)
How to avoid digital eyestrain (CNN 02/03/2014)
Sugar not only makes you fat, it may make you sick (CNN 02/03/2014)
10 deadly foods you probably have in your kitchen (Fox 01/31/2014)
CDC: Stomach bug strikes second cruise ship (CNN 01/30/2014)
It's later than men think (JWR 01/28/2013)
10 things we learned about surviving anxiety (CNN 01/28/2013)
Strawberries are health and nutrition powerhouses (JWR 01/27/2013)
Here's what to do about your anxiety (CNN 01/24/2014)
What is clean eating? (CNN 01/23/2013)
Cutting back on processed foods easier than you might think (JWR 01/22/2014)
Does microwaving food remove its nutritional value? (CNN 01/21/2014)
Dying: What no one wants to talk about (CNN 01/12/2014)
Creigh Deeds introduces mental health legislation (CNN 01/07/2014)
The gifts of Jahi (JWR 01/01/2014)
Terri Schiavo's family joins family of teen Jahi McMath in fight over life support (CNN 01/01/2014)
How a cow could kill you: New antibiotic guidelines still fail to protect public (CNN 12/27/2013)
CNN Poll: Health care law support drops to all-time low (CNN 12/23/2013)
Are multivitamins a waste of money? Editorial in medical journal says yes (CNN 12/16/2013)
The lesson we didn't learn from Newtown (CNN 12/16/2013)
After Newtown, mental health gains prominence in gun debate (CNN 12/14/2013)
Could Americans ever give up their pills? (CNN 12/13/2013)
When Idealism Gets Mugged by Reality (JWR 12/11/2013)
Four stories: After Obamacare 'fix,' many are still left out (CNN 12/11/2013)
A mother's journey with mental illness (CNN 12/11/2013)
Study: There's no such thing as healthy obesity (CNN 12/03/2013)
The Lowdown on the Obamacare Health Insurance Penalty (JWR 12/02/2013)
Adam Lanza's motive a mystery in Sandy Hook killings (CNN 11/27/2013)
Princeton to make meningitis B vaccine available (CNN 11/21/2013)
Eat nuts, live longer (CNN 11/21/2013)
Mental health advocates: Shortage of beds could mean more violence (CNN 11/20/2013)
A nightmare health scenario we can stop (CNN 11/20/2013)
Stay sharp with these anti-aging drinks (JWR 10/19/2013)
Is hand sanitizer toxic? (CNN 10/16/2013)
Coconut creations are hot. But are they healthy? (JWR 10/14/2013)
Obamacare: Your guide to health insurance terms (CNN 09/26/2013)
Obama Lied, My Health Plan Died (JWR 09/23/2013)
New online tools can help consumers find the best deals on medical care (CNN 09/23/2013)
No thanks, Obamacare. I'll pay the penalty (CNN 09/20/2013)
Man's gut fermented food into alcohol, making him drunk, case study finds (CNN 09/19/2013)
Brain-eating amoeba may be linked to Hurricane Katrina (CNN 09/19/2013)
CDC sets threat levels for drug-resistant 'superbugs' (CNN 09/16/2013)
Brain amoeba found in tests of water supply where boy died in Louisiana (CNN 09/12/2013)
Brain-eating amoeba survivor leaves hospital (CNN 09/11/2013)
4-year-old dies after brain-eating amoeba infection (CNN 09/07/2013)
Eight patients monitored for deadly Creutzfeldt-Jakob brain disease, N.H. says (CNN 09/05/2013)
Obamacare exchanges aren't the only game in town (CNN 09/05/2013)
Brain-eating amoeba survivor continues to improve (CNN 09/01/2013)
Playing for time: Can music stave off dementia? (CNN 08/31/2013)
Wheat: Friend or foe? (JWR 08/28/2013)
Broccoli could help prevent arthritis (CNN 08/28/2013)
Fruit juices and smoothies: Dangerous for your health? (JWR 08/26/2013)
Florida boy, 12, dies from brain-eating parasite (CNN 08/24/2013)
Unavoidable mineral may be playing key role in spreading Alzheimer's (JWR 08/23/2013)
Experimental drug apparently beats brain-eating amoeba in Florida (CNN 08/22/2013)
The end of diseases may no longer be science fiction (JWR 08/19/2013)
Typhoid Mary case may be cracked, a century later (JWR 08/16/2013)
Boy infected with rare brain-eating amoeba in Florida (CNN 08/12/2013)
U.S. reports a breakthrough in malaria vaccine (CNN 08/07/2013)
What is a stent? (CNN 08/06/2013)
Girl battling brain-eating amoeba continues to fight (CNN 08/06/2013)
Salad mix blamed for cyclospora outbreak in Nebraska, Iowa (CNN 07/30/2013)
Arkansas girl battles brain-eating amoeba (CNN 07/29/2013)
Belly-flops can cause injuries (CNN 07/23/2013)
The 10 warning signs of Alzheimer's (CNN 07/18/2013)
Do we want to die tethered to a machine? (CNN 07/18/2013)
Fear dementia? It's not your genes that you should be concerned with, experts say (JWR 07/17/2013)
Why you should be afraid of Lyme disease (CNN 07/11/2013)
Cost of U.S. childbirth outrageous (CNN 07/09/2013)
No more chemo: Docs say it's not so far-fetched (CNN 06/26/2013)
New drug may be best treatment for leukemia yet (CNN 06/20/2013)
Cash-only doctors abandon the insurance system (CNN 06/11/2013)
Frozen fruit mix suspected in hepatitis A outbreak (CNN 05/31/2013)
Trust your memory? Maybe you shouldn't (CNN 05/18/2013)
Yuck! What's in your pool water (CNN 05/17/2013)
Paying for the New Psychiatry (JWR 05/17/2013)
How to feel your best (JWR 04/26/2013)
Doctor: 'I gave up on health care in America' (CNN 04/25/2013)
How Big Pharma rips you off on drugs (CNN 04/25/2013)
America's air is getting cleaner - and less costly (CNN 04/24/2013)
An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer (JWR 04/22/2013)
25 fast and easy ways to get healthier (CNN 04/10/2013)
Heart attacks: What you should know (CNN 04/10/2013)
Obama announces $100M to unlock mysteries of the brain (CNN 04/02/2013)
Aspirin during a heart attack: What you should know (JWR 03/29/2013)
5 things to do at the dentist's office (CNN 03/29/2013)
7,000 warned of potential HIV, hepatitis exposure (CNN 03/28/2013)
Where do allergies come from? (CNN 03/26/2013)
From 58 pounds to thriving (CNN 03/25/2013)
Why cigarettes are here to stay (CNN 03/24/2013)
Living with a 'borrowed brain' (CNN 03/09/2013)
U.S. manages disease, not health (CNN 03/08/2013)
It's still winter. Keep healthy by including these 5 surprising foods in your diet (JWR 03/08/2013)
CDC: 'Nightmare bacteria' spreading (CNN 03/06/2013)
Vitamin D Deficiency Affects Genes for Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders
3 diet tricks of people who live longer (JWR 03/01/2013)
Remember when? Understanding age-related memory loss (JWR 02/28/2013)
Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us (Time, 12/20/2013)
Study the use of nanoparticles in food (CNN 02/14/2013)
The secrets to healthy brain aging (JWR 02/13/2013)
The juice on the juicing craze (JWR 02/13/2013)
Doctor gives stroke survivors new shot at mobility, independence (JWR 02/08/2013)
Harvard Experts: Regular exercise pumps up memory, too (JWR 02/08/2013)
Pain relief without drugs or surgery (JWR 01/14/2013)
The vanishing mineral: The more essential magnesium proves for well-being,.. (JWR 01/11/2013)
How sleep loss destroys your health (JWR 01/11/2013)
The importance of a 'stop day' (CNN 01/11/2013)
Blood clots: 4 things you need to know (CNN 12/31/2012)
No longer be intimidated. You can save a life! (JWR 12/31/2012)
Go nuts for health! (JWR 12/28/2012)
Food without fear (JWR 12/26/2012)
Act on mental illness (JWR 12/18/2012)
Get serious about mental health care (CNN 12/18/2012)
After tragedy, don't obsess, heal gently (CNN 12/18/2012)
6 easy ways to help your immune system (JWR 12/17/2012)
The $70 childbirth bill (CNN 12/02/2012)
Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Eliminating these four white foods may make it easier to eat less, lose weight (JWR 11/23/2012)
7 simple ways to detox your diet and your home (JWR 11/19/2012)
Can you believe this traffic? Health consequences of a long commute (CNN 11/19/2012)

History (04/09/2024) Go to: List top | Prev sect (03/22/2024) | Next sect (04/09/2024) | List bot

PBS misremembers William F. Buckley Jr. — the man who built a movement (NYP 04/09/2024)
The critics were right about 'Old Tippecanoe' (JWR 02/23/2024)
On this day in history, January 4, 1965, LBJ touts utopian 'Great Society' in State of the Union address (Fox 01/04/2024)
What life was like 50 years ago in America, compared to now in 2024 (Fox 01/03/2024)
Meet the American who created time zones, Charles F. Dowd, schoolmaster set clock for mankind (Fox 12/29/2023)
Meet the American who wrote 'Jingle Bells,' James Lord Pierpont, dashing dreamer and scandalous rebel (Fox 12/15/2023)
On this day in history, December 15, 1791, Bill of Rights ratified, codifying unique freedoms in new nation (Fox 12/15/2023)
On this day in history, November 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan elected president: 'Morning again in America' (Fox 11/04/2023)
On this day in history, October 21, 1797, legendary warship USS Constitution is launched in Boston (Fox 10/21/2023)
On this day in history, October 19, 1789, John Jay sworn in as first Supreme Court chief justice (Fox 10/19/2023)
On this day in history, October 18, 1867, United States purchases Alaska from Russia for cool $7.2 million (Fox 10/18/2023)
On this day in history, October 14, 1912, Teddy Roosevelt shot in chest, makes campaign stop minutes later (Fox 10/14/2023)
On this day in history, October 13, 1792, cornerstone of White House is put down (Fox 10/13/2023)
Meet the American who first planted apples in the colonies: William Blaxton, eccentric settler (Fox 10/13/2023)
On this day in history, September 28, 1781, the Siege of Yorktown begins (Fox 09/28/2023)
On this day in history, September 23, 1806, Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis as heroes after journey (Fox 09/23/2023)
On this day in history, Sept. 21, 1780, Benedict Arnold betrays cause of American independence (Fox 09/21/2023)
On this day in history, September 19, 1796, President George Washington issues his Farewell Address (Fox 09/19/2023)
•
"One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. They tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection."

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"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism."

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"The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
On this day in history, September 11, 2001, US experiences the worst terrorist attack in American history (Fox 09/11/2023)
Meet the American who launched modern submarines, John Philip Holland, 'brilliant' self-taught engineer (Fox 08/18/2023)
On this day in history, July 30, 1956, 'In God We Trust' is declared national motto (Fox 07/30/2023)
What is Juneteenth? The history behind the oldest commemoration of the abolition of slavery in the US (Fox 06/19/2023)
On this day in history, June 14, 1777, Congress adopts 'Stars and Stripes' flag, the 'new constellation' (Fox 06/14/2023)
On this day in history, June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin famously flies kite during thunderstorm (Fox 06/10/2023)
Meet the American who invented the shopping cart, Sylvan Goldman, Oklahoma supermarket mogul (Fox 06/09/2023)
Meet the American who 'won the war for us': Andrew Jackson Higgins, World War II New Orleans boatbuilder (Fox 06/02/2023)
On this day in history, May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opens amid great civic fanfare (Fox 05/24/2023)
On this day in history, May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issues proclamation creating Mother's Day (Fox 05/09/2023)
On this day in history, May 8, 1945, President Truman announces surrender of Nazi Germany forces in WWII (Fox 05/08/2023)
On this day in history, May 1, 1931, Empire State Building opens during Great Depression (Fox 05/01/2023)
On this day in history, April 30, 1789, George Washington inaugurated as first US president (Fox 04/30/2023)
On this day in history, April 27, 1805, US Marines attack shores of Tripoli, key victory in Barbary Wars (Fox 04/27/2023)
On this day in history, April 24, 1800, Library of Congress is born, oldest federal cultural institution in US (Fox 04/24/2023)
On this day in history, April 21, 1836, Texans rout Mexican army on San Jacinto River: 'Remember the Alamo!' (Fox 04/21/2023)
Meet the American who led 77 Minutemen against 700 Redcoats at Battle of Lexington: Captain John Parker (Fox 04/14/2023)
On this day in history, April 4, 1973, World Trade Center opens in NYC, crowned by tallest towers on Earth (Fox 04/04/2023)
How They Convinced Trump to Lock Down (DailyClout 03/24/2023)
On this day in history, March 23, 1775, patriot Patrick Henry demands, 'Give me liberty or give me death!' (Fox 03/23/2023)
The Coolidge presidency at 100 (JWR 02/21/2023)
On this day in history, Jan. 15, 2009, US Airways flight makes miraculous landing in the Hudson River (Fox 01/15/2023)
On this day in history, Jan. 10, 1776, Thomas Paine publishes 'Common Sense,' an explosive call to rebellion (Fox 01/10/2023)
On this day in history, Jan. 8, 1790, George Washington delivers first-ever State of the Union address (Fox 01/08/2023)
On this day in history, Jan. 6, 1941, FDR delivers Four Freedoms speech, steeling Americans for World War II (Fox 01/06/2023)
On this day in history, Dec. 17, 1903, Wright brothers accomplish first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (Fox 12/17/2022)
On this day in history, Dec. 16, 1773, brazen Boston Tea Party protest escalates American rebellion (Fox 12/16/2022)
On this day in history, Dec. 15, 1791, Bill of Rights ratified, codifying unique freedoms in new nation (Fox 12/15/2022)
On this day in history, Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack kills 2,403 Americans, launches US into WWII (Fox 12/07/2022)
On this day in history, Dec. 5, 1848, President Polk ignites California Gold Rush with address to Congress (Fox 12/05/2022)
On this day in history, Dec. 4, 1783, Washington bids farewell to his troops at Fraunces Tavern in NYC (Fox 12/04/2022)
•
"We had been assembled but a few moments when his excellency entered the room. After partaking of a slight refreshment in an almost breathless silence the General filled his glass with wine and turning to the officers said, 'With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.'..."

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After nearly eight years of war and strife, this would be the last time many of these men would see each other again...

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The general officially resigned his commission on Dec. 23 in front of the Continental Congress, delivering an emotional address.

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... "having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life."

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Washington then returned to Mount Vernon, Virginia, with the expectation of retiring as a gentleman farmer.

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But in 1789, Washington was persuaded back into politics — and was elected as America's first-ever commander-in-chief.
On this day in history, Dec. 2, 1823, President Monroe touts doctrine defending Western Hemisphere (Fox 12/02/2022)
On this day in history, Nov. 14, 1776, British press names famous Londoner Ben Franklin leader of rebellion (Fox 11/14/2022)
On this day in history, Nov. 11, 1921, Tomb of Unknown Soldier dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery (Fox 11/11/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 28, 1886, Statue of Liberty unveiled to the US (Fox 10/28/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 26, 1825, Erie Canal opens, transforming American infrastructure, commerce (Fox 10/26/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 24, 1861, transcontinental telegraph completed, connecting coasts for first time (Fox 10/24/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 21, 1797, legendary warship USS Constitution launched in Boston (Fox 10/21/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 19, 1789, John Jay sworn in as first Supreme Court chief justice (Fox 10/19/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 11, 1890, Daughters of the American Revolution founded in Washington, DC (Fox 10/11/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 10, 1845, US Naval Academy founded after planned mutiny shocks nation (Fox 10/10/2022)
Meet the American who first planted apples in the colonies: William Blaxton, eccentric settler (Fox 10/07/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 5, 1813, William Henry Harrison routs Brits, Tecumseh in Battle of the Thames (Fox 10/05/2022)
On this day in history, Oct. 3, 1863, Lincoln issues powerful Thanksgiving proclamation (Fox 10/03/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 28, 1781, the Siege of Yorktown begins (Fox 09/28/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 27, 1779, John Adams assigned to lead peace talks with England (Fox 09/27/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 26, 1960, Kennedy and Nixon battle in first televised presidential debate (Fox 09/26/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 23, 1806, Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis as heroes after journey (Fox 09/23/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 19, 1796, President George Washington issues Farewell Address (Fox 09/19/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 15, 1950, US troops land at Inchon, turning the tide of the Korean War (Fox 09/15/2022)
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the bombing of Auschwitz (INN 09/09/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 9, 1776, American colonies named 'United States of America' (Fox 09/09/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 7, 1813, Uncle Sam becomes symbol of nation during War of 1812 (Fox 09/07/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 6, 1757, Marquis de Lafayette is born, hero of two revolutions (Fox 09/06/2022)
On this day in history, Sept. 5, 1774, First Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia (Fox 09/05/2022)
On this day in history, August 25, 1916, National Park Service created under President Wilson (Fox 08/25/2022)
On this day in history, August 24, 1814, British troops ransacked, torched White House and Capitol (Fox 08/24/2022)
On this day in history, August 22, 1776, the British invade Brooklyn by sea (Fox 08/22/2022)
On this day in history, August 19, 1812, Old Ironsides legend born in smashing victory over Royal Navy (Fox 08/19/2022)
This year on V-J Day we must make sure a new generation understands why it still matters (Fox 08/14/2022)
On this day in history, August 4, 1790, Coast Guard is established by Alexander Hamilton (Fox 08/04/2022)
Remembering the struggles of Ulysses Grant (JWR 05/02/2022)
The 'Little Magician' who transformed American politics (JWR 02/21/2022)
Presidential salaries, from George Washington to Joe Biden (Fox 02/21/2022)
History of popcorn: Fun facts about the movie theater snack (Fox 01/28/2022)
Albert Einstein on life in the US: 'A tremendous degree of anti-Semitism exists here' (INN 11/21/2021)
•
Written to a friend in 1936 who was considering a position in American academia, the letter provides a glimpse at the level of anti-Semitism in the US at the time, and the difficulties a Jewish immigrant with no connections might expect to face.

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"A tremendous degree of anti-Semitism exists here, especially in academia (though also in industry and banking)."

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"Mind you, it never takes the form of brutal speech or action, but simmers all the more intensely under the surface. It is, so to speak, an omnipresent enemy, one that is impossible to see, and whose presence you only perceive."

•
"You are unfortunately relying on a false assumption. I am very lonely here, and I am not in touch with anyone, least of all with any musicians. The assignment of positions is completely disorganized, so you find out about vacancies at any given location only through personal connections."
Bret Baier: What would Ulysses S. Grant do? The first 'executive order' president on consequences of overreach (Fox 09/13/2021)
Labor Day meaning: A brief history of the holiday and why we celebrate (Fox 09/06/2021)
Declaration of Independence: 5 facts you may not know on this Fourth of July (Fox 07/04/2021)
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1.) Independence Was Not Declared on July Fourth.

•
2.) 26 copies of the Declaration of Independence still exist.

•
3.) George Washington's reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776 led to a riot in New York City where King George III's statue was torn down.

•
4.) After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and other documents were secretly stashed at Fort Knox during World War II.

•
5.) 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence, but many of them never became famou.
This Day in History: July 2 (Fox 07/02/2021)
This Day in History: June 5 (Fox 06/05/2021)
This Day in History: May 29 (Fox 05/29/2021)
This Day in History: May 26 (Fox 05/26/2021)
Al Capone and the rise of organized crime in Chicago (Fox 05/24/2021)
This Day in History: May 21 (Fox 05/21/2021)
This Day in History: May 13 (Fox 05/13/2021)
This Day in History: May 12 (Fox 05/12/2021)
This Day in History: May 11 (Fox 05/11/2021)
This Day in History: April 23 (Fox 04/23/2021)
This Day in History: April 7 (Fox 04/07/2021)
This Day in History: Jan. 26 (Fox 01/26/2021)
This Day in History: Jan. 2 (Fox 01/02/2021)
This Day in History: Jan. 1 (Fox 01/01/2021)
This Day in History: Dec. 19 (Fox 12/19/2020)
This Day in History: Nov. 27 (Fox 11/27/2020)
It’s 400th anniversary of arrival of Pilgrims. Why haven’t we heard more about it? (Fox 11/21/2020)
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In November 1620 a battered old ship called the Mayflower arrived in the waters off Cape Cod in what is now the state of Massachusetts.

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The passengers aboard the Mayflower were our nation's first founders — or, as Daniel Webster called them, "Our Pilgrim Fathers."

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Webster delivered a speech to honor these Pilgrims on the 200th anniversary of the Mayflower's arrival.

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Calvin Coolidge, then-governor of Massachusetts and president-elect, delivered an address on the 300th anniversary.

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Regrettably, we haven't heard much about this year's anniversary because the Pilgrims have fallen out of fashion in elite circles.

•
No matter what the revisionist historians at the Times cook up, the truth about the Pilgrims is more remarkable than any story or holiday special. This Thanksgiving, it's worth reflecting on why we celebrate the Pilgrims and their living legacy for our nation.

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The Pilgrims were not the first European settlers to arrive in America, but they were exceptional nonetheless.

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As President John Quincy Adams put it, earlier European settlers were traders and adventurers motivated by "avarice and ambition." They came principally to fish, farm and trap furs.

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By contrast, the Pilgrims braved the rough seas "under the single inspiration of conscience," as Puritan Separatists from the Church of England seeking the freedom to practice their faith.

•
These Pilgrims distinguished themselves further by drafting a remarkable document to govern their community in the New World: the Mayflower Compact.

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In this covenant, the ship's passengers agreed to form a "civil body politic" of "just and equal laws" based on the consent of the governed and dedicated to the "Glory of God" and the "general good of the colony."

•
Immediately after signing the compact, the signatories conducted a democratic election to choose their first governor.

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This little compact, at less than 200 words, foreshadowed many of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution more than a century later, including faith in God, the natural equality of mankind, government by consent, and the rule of law.

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Little wonder, then, that Adams referred to the Mayflower Compact and the Pilgrims' arrival as the "birth-day of your nation." Or that Webster, despite all the events preceding Plymouth, said "the first scene of our history was laid" there.

•
But that history was only just beginning. The Pilgrims still had to conquer the desolate wilderness and establish their settlement. And they still had to survive their first winter, which has come to be known as "the starving time."

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Upon landfall, the Pilgrims "fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean," according to the journal of William Bradford, a Pilgrim leader.

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But it would be a "sad and lamentable" winter of disease, starvation, and death. Half the settlers died during that first winter. Seldom did more than a half-dozen have the strength to care for the ill, provide food and shelter, and protect the camp.

•
At that rate, there might not have been any camp left to protect by spring. But what can only be called a providential moment came in March, when a lone Native American walked boldly into the Pilgrim's camp and greeted them in English. His name was Samoset.

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Samoset had learned some broken English by working with English fishermen in the waters off what is now Maine. He and the Pilgrims exchanged gifts and he promised to return with another Native American, Squanto, who spoke fluent English.

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Squanto's tribe had been wiped out a few years earlier by an epidemic plague; he now lived among the Wampanoag tribe in what is today southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The plague had also weakened the Wampanoags, though not neighboring rival tribes.

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The Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, thus had good reason to form an alliance with the Pilgrims. Squanto introduced him to the settlers and facilitated their peace and mutual-aid treaty, which lasted more than 50 years.

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Squanto remained with the Pilgrims, acting, in Bradford's words, as their interpreter and "a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectations." He instructed them on the cultivation of native crops like corn, squash, and beans. He showed them where to fish and hunt. He guided them on land and sea to new destinations.

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As the Pilgrims recovered and prospered throughout 1621, they received the blessings of a bountiful fall harvest. The Pilgrims invited Massasoit and the Wampanoags to join them in a feast to express their gratitude to their allies and to give thanks to God for His abundant gifts. This meal, of course, was the First Thanksgiving.

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Now the Thanksgiving season is upon us and once again we have much to give thanks for. But this year we ought to be especially thankful for the Pilgrims on the 400th anniversary of their arrival.

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... the faith, bravery and wisdom of the Pilgrims places them in the American pantheon. Alongside the patriots of 1776, the Pilgrims of 1620 deserve the honor of America's founders.
This Day in History: Nov. 19 (Fox 11/19/2020)
This Day in History: Nov. 5 (Fox 11/05/2020)
This Day in History: Nov. 1 (Fox 11/01/2020)
This Day in History: Oct. 26 (Fox 10/26/2020)
Human remains found at burial site linked to 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (Fox 10/21/2020)
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The violence took place on May 31 and June 1 in 1921, when a white mob attacked Tulsa's Black Wall Street, killing an estimated 300, mostly Black, people and wounding 800 more while robbing and burning businesses, homes, and churches.
FLASHBACK: Justices Scalia and Breyer spar over Constitutional originalism (Fox 10/13/2020)
This Day in History: Oct. 5 (Fox 10/05/2020)
This Day in History: Sept. 19 (Fox 09/19/2020)
Craig Shirley: What coronavirus-era Americans can learn about sacrifice from the World War II generation (Fox 03/24/2020)
The child abduction and murder that changed American justice (Fox 03/16/2020)
As we move into new decade, at look at life 100 years ago (JWR 12/31/2019)
Why Thomas Jefferson considered impeaching George Washington (Fox 12/16/2019)
Secret identity of fourth Soviet spy who stole US atomic bomb secrets finally revealed (Fox 12/04/2019)
When Democrats tried to impeach Ronald Reagan: New documentary (Fox 12/04/2019)
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"I must say that the support of the American government and people at the time after the intervention in Grenada, that was was quite substantial," said Keith Mitchell, who initially supported Grenada's Marxist revolution but quickly became disillusioned with it.

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Today, Mitchell is the Prime Minister of Grenada.

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"We've seen a tremendous transformation in the quality of life of the people since [Operation Urgent Fury]... Nothing beats freedom. Freedom is fundamental."
Accidental Presidents, Part 5: Conspiracy, murder, and a near constitutional crisis (Fox 05/04/2019)
Accidental Presidents, Part 4: Lessons in leadership (Fox 04/27/2019)
Accidental Presidents, Part 3: How two assassinations torpedoed civil rights in America (Fox 04/20/2019)
Accidental Presidents, Part 2: Why VPs matter, and why it's time to change how we choose... (Fox 04/13/2019)
Accidental Presidents, Part 1: Politics today isn't as bad as you think (Fox 04/09/2019)
America's deadliest battle: World War I's Meuse-Argonne Offensive 100 years later (Fox 09/26/2018)
The immortal Indianapolis (JWR 08/17/2018)
The first federal Thanksgiving in 1779 still has lessons for us today (Fox 11/23/2017)
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... "to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed."
JFK’s Russian Conspiracy (05/27/2017)
•
On a day in early December, one of Moscow's agents in the United States, working undercover as a journalist for Izvestia, reported a private meeting with the president-elect's "closest adviser."

•
The adviser, who met privately with the Russian spy, was frank and hopeful about a significant improvement in relations from the previous administration.

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He "stressed that was not merely expressing his personal opinion but the position of the future president."
The true legacy of Leo Thorsness, an American hero (Fox 05/11/2017)
From a lassoed president to drunk VP, inaugurations have often been unpredictable affairs (Fox 01/19/2017)
•
After the fireworks for George Washington's 1789 inauguration, which took place in New York City, the new president had to walk both to church and to his house because of 18th Century gridlock — too many horses and carriages swarming the narrow streets.

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President Dwight D. Eisenhower was lassoed by a cowboy at his 1953 inaugural parade.

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And unruly guests stole White House silverware, glasses and candlesticks from Abraham Lincoln's White House shortly after his 1865 inaugural address.

•
But the most dramatic instance of misfortune surrounding an inauguration, according to Gerhardt, was with President William Harrison in 1841.

•
Harrison, who was 68, gave his almost two-hour long inaugural address during a cold, blustery day – but refused to wear an overcoat or hat.

•
After his speech, he attended parade festivities and kicked back a few cocktails at three inaugural balls.

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Unfortunately for Harrison, he would have the shortest tenure in U.S. presidential history. Just a month after his inauguration, Harrison died of pneumonia.

•
There were almost 20,000 guests waiting outside of the White House for Andrew Jackson's 1829 inauguration.

•
A mob of inebriated and starving guests in muddy boots barged through the White House once they were allowed in – standing on chairs and sofas, engaging in physical fights over food and drinks and breaking dishes and White House furniture.

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Jackson managed to escape the chaos through either a window, or side door, and dashed back to his hotel.

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When President Abraham Lincoln took his second oath of office in 1865, his team had to deal with a public relations disaster: his new vice president, Andrew Johnson, showed up drunk to introduce him.
'Pearl Harbor: The Truth' airs ahead of the 75th anniversary of the attack (Fox 12/02/2016)
Bret Baier: A new path for the US and Cuba? What Ike and JFK might tell President-elect Trump (Fox 11/30/2016)
Archaeologists think they found Pilgrims' original settlement (Fox 11/23/2016)
How Thomas Jefferson abandoned diplomacy and changed US history (Fox 10/16/2016)
•
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson ... had a concern more intimidating than anything else he'd faced before: the threat of pirates off the coast of North Africa, a region known as the Barbary Coast.

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These pirates had already taken over two American ships, the Dauphin and the Maria, plundering their goods and taking their crews hostage.

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Unfortunately, this was a common fate for ships venturing near the area, where the Sahara's arid coast was divided into four Islamic nation-states.

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These nations had preyed upon foreign shipping for centuries, attacking ships international waters both in the Mediterranean and along the northwest coast of Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.

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Unable to pay enough to buy the goodwill of the Barbary countries, America was forced to let its ships sail at their own risk.

•
That left Jefferson and good friend and United States' ambassador to Great Britain John Adams, as Jefferson said in March of 1786, feeling "absolutely suspended between indignation and impotence."

•
To Adams's surprise, the bearded Sidi Haji Abdrahaman had welcomed him warmly. Adams decided his new diplomatic acquaintance was "a benevolent and wise man" with whom the United States could do business.

•
The discussion was cordial, and Adams and Jefferson began to believe that a solution was in sight.

•
When the talk turned to money, however, the bubble of optimism soon exploded.

•
Although he now despaired of an easy solution, Adams wasn't ready to stop talking. He could understand financial concerns, and he was already beginning to realize what O'Brien would later say of the pirates: "Money is their God and Mahomet their Prophet."

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Yet greed alone couldn't explain the madness and cruelty of the demands. Unsatisfied, the famously blunt Adams wanted a better answer.

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While maintaining the best diplomatic reserve he could muster ... Adams asked how the Barbary states could justify "[making] war upon nations who had done them no injury."

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The response was nothing less than chilling.

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According to his holy book, the Qur'an, Abdrahaman explained, "all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave."

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Christian sailors were, plain and simple, fair game.

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The man who had written that all people were "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" was horrified at Abdrahaman's religious justification for greed and cruelty.

•
Dashing Adams's high hopes, Abdrahaman refused to play the role of "benevolent and wise man." Despite the Americans' horror, he wasn't apologizing in any way. He showed no remorse or regret. He believed the actions of his fellow Muslims fully justified.

•
Adams believed America should pay for peace, but Jefferson expressed another view. He did not wish to "buy a peace," as he put it. He preferred "the obtaining of it by war."

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But war was too risky at that point, especially against such a powerful threat, and Jefferson was not yet in a position to push the country toward a military conflict.

•
But when Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, he finally got the chance to move beyond diplomacy.

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He sent the recently re-formed U.S. Navy and Marines to blockade Tripoli, launching the Barbary Wars, which ultimately ended in victory for the United States.

•
Without this strategic move and the bravery of these heroes, the course of American history would be dramatically different. Our Navy likely wouldn't be the largest and most capable in the world, and our Marine Corps might not be as integral in protecting our freedom as it is today.

•
America as we know it — a place that is uniquely free and powerful — would not exist.
Donald Trump and the history of American Presidential sexting (INN 10/13/2016)
•
... Trump does have one quality in common with Hamilton that most of our Presidents have lacked — what you see and hear from him is what you get.

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He has never lied about what he thinks, how he feels and who he is.

•
His opponent has lied repeatedly about all three, and about much, much more besides.
US Navy celebrates 241st birthday (Fox 10/13/2016)
Goats in the White House (JWR 09/27/2016)
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It's the conceit of every age that it's uniquely entitled to all the superlatives: the best, the worst, the biggest, the smallest.

•
Nothing before was anything like the present age, nor is it possible that anything in the future will surpass it.

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The Donald is bigger than life; nobody dominates a room, an arena or a debate platform quite like him.

•
Hillary, if not bigger than life, is at least louder. Her shrill lies speak volumes yet to be written about.

•
The cruel and unkind among us waited not so much to hear what she would say (we've heard it all before), but to see if she could say it without falling down.

•
The hype for Monday night called it "the debate of the century," and maybe it was if only because the century is only 16 years old.

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The Clinton campaign has tried to keep Bubba under wraps, lest he revive memories of his adventures between the sheets.

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... "if all the women Bill harassed show up for the debate there won't be room for anyone else."

•
But however trashy the Clinton occupancy of the White House was, it was not unique.

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Presidents before them lived lives of unique scandal, unprincipled vulgarity and singular impropriety.

•
There were no presidents before Barack Obama who aspired to be a messiah.

•
Presidents, like kings, are human, too, and many if indeed not most who preceded him had a run of fun. Bubba was a piker.

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John F. Kennedy was the lost leader; one historian observed that "he nailed everything that was not nailed down, and then some."

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We've had a black president, Hillary wants to be the first woman president and certain ambitious pols in the LGBT chorus no doubt yearn to be first Nancy boy to make it to the Oval Office.

•
They're too late. President James Buchanan, a bachelor, and Rufus King, a senator from Alabama, lived together for more than a decade known in Washington circles as "the Siamese twins," a common slang of the day for gay couples.

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President Andrew Jackson called the senator "Miss Nancy," and others called him, perhaps more kindly, "Aunt Fancy."

•
Grover Cleveland was accused of having fathered a child when he was a lawyer in Buffalo, and when he ran for president in 1884 his opponents chanted, "Ma, ma, where's my pa?" and when he was elected his supporters replied, "Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha."

•
Jimmy Carter, a rare straight shooter in the boudoir, spoke only of what might have been.

•
"I've looked at a lot of women with lust in my heart." he said, "I've committed adultery in my heart a lot of times."

•
Mr. Jimmy's heart was sometimes too big for his own good.

•
It's the zipper that so many of our presidents had trouble with.
How an assassination attempt changed Ronald Reagan's presidency — and history (Fox 09/26/2016)
•
But what began as routine became anything but. What would soon happen would forever, in a flash, change the trajectory of Ronald Reagan's presidency, life, and rendezvous with destiny.

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Hinckley came carrying no grandiose ideological or political vision. He was, however, carrying a gun. He was also harboring a heavy heart for a young actress named Jodie Foster, whom he had been stalking.

•
The addled young man had a singular personal goal: to gain the attention of Foster. He would succeed.

•
Instinctively, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy turned himself into a human shield, placing his body between the president and shooter. He took a bullet for Ronald Reagan.

•
Another agent, Jerry Parr, thrust Reagan into the backseat of the limo, landing atop the 70-year-old president's frame as he barked directions to the driver to escape.

•
"Jerry, get off," pleaded Reagan, "I think you've broken one of my ribs." The president would later recall that the feeling in his upper back was "unbelievably painful."

•
Reagan did not yet know it, but he had been shot. Parr soon figured as much. He noticed frothy blood bubbles coming from the president's lips. He ordered the driver to head straight to George Washington University Hospital.

•
To Reagan's great fortune, the best and brightest happened to be on hand for a hospital-wide meeting of department heads. The chief thoracic surgeon and chief brain surgeon were both present.

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Reagan would joke to the superb surgical team: "I hope you're Republicans."

•
"My fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breathe," he later wrote in his diary, "it seemed I was getting less & less air."

•
Reagan also reacted with prayer. "I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayed," he later said.

•
"But I realized I couldn't ask for God's help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who had shot me. Isn't that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all God's children and therefore equally beloved by him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back into the fold."

•
The "mixed up young man" had little confusion about his choice of weaponry. He had employed .22 Devastator bullets, manufactured to explode on impact.

•
One bullet stopped mere centimeters from Reagan's heart. If the wound was not stitched soon, and if Reagan was not given a lot of blood, he would bleed to death.

•
Ronald Reagan would see his survival as nothing short of divine intervention.

•
When he got back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Reagan recorded that sentiment in his diary. "Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can," he wrote.

•
He was convinced that the Soviet Union was an evil entity that needed to be consigned to the ash-heap of history.

•
It was a principal reason why he had sought the White House. Now, he made victory in the Cold War his overriding priority.

•
That was the historical-spiritual force that John Hinckley's revolver unwittingly let loose on March 30, 1981.

•
It was one of numerous ways that Ronald Reagan's presidency — a consequential one of numerous accomplishments, foreign and domestic — would impact America and the world.

•
It was a bullet that changed not only Ronald Reagan's life but his history and the world's history.
Presidential Debates: Most memorable zingers and blunders (Fox 09/26/2016)
Historic recognition: George Washington's family tree is biracial (Fox 09/18/2016)
•
George Washington's adopted son was a bit of a ne'er-do-well by most accounts, including those of Washington himself, who wrote about his frustrations with the boy they called "Wash."

•
"From his infancy, I have discovered an almost unconquerable disposition to indolence in everything that did not tend to his amusements," the founding father wrote.
The more things change, the more they actually don't (JWR 09/01/2016)
•
In today's technically sophisticated and globally connected world, we assume life has been completely reinvented.

•
In truth, it has not changed all that much.

•
Even as ideologies and governments come and go, the same old, same old problems and challenges remain.

•
America and the rest of the world have made enormous progress in technology, science and social relations.

•
But beneath the veneer of 2016, human nature remains the same, and life often operates on principles similar to those from a half-century ago — and even before that.

•
That persistent continuity of the human experience is why studying history remains about the only way to understand who we were, are, and will be.
Before Phelps, this American brought home 24 gold medals (Fox 08/12/2016)
•
We usually think of MacArthur as one of the supreme commanders of World War II, liberator of the Philippines and rebuilder of a shattered postwar Japan — and the genius behind one of the greatest military master strokes in history: the landing at Inchon during the Korean War.

•
But in 1928 MacArthur was president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and led his country's team to some of its most glorious moments — and laid the foundations for America's love affair with the Olympics ever since.
Karl Rove: This Day in Convention History — FDR and the voice from the sewer (Fox 07/25/2016)
Karl Rove: This Day in Convention History: An inside job (Fox 07/20/2016)
Karl Rove: This Day in Convention History – How Lincoln won the nomination (Fox 07/20/2016)
Karl Rove: This Day in Convention History — How it all began (Fox 07/18/2016)
Rare Thomas Jefferson letter railing against England discovered in attic trove (Fox 07/05/2016)
•
"As in the Revolutionary War, [the British] conquests were never more than of the spot on which their army stood, never extended beyond the range of their cannon shot."

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"We owe to their past follies and wrong the incalculable advantage of being made independent of them..."

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"We must sacrifice the last dollar and drop of blood to rid us of that badge of slavery, and it must rest with England alone to say whether it is worth eternal war, for eternal it must be if she holds to the wrong."

•
"It proved... that New Orleans can be defended both by land & water; that the Western country will fly to its relief ... that our militias are heroes when they have heroes to lead them on."

•
Jefferson also comments on Napoleon's demise and how it eventually worked to America's advantage.

•
"[His] downfall was illy timed for us. It gave to England an opportunity to turn full handed on us, when we were unprepared. No matter. We can beat her on our own soil..."
The Leave campaign of 1776 reverberates to this day (JWR 07/04/2016)
Independence Day (JWR 06/24/2016)
D-Day Anniversary: The day we knew we were going to win (Fox 06/06/2016)
Soldier's faith: Rare Bible carried at the battle of Bunker Hill has moving inscriptions (Fox 06/02/2016)
•
"Cambridge, Jun 17 1775. I desire to bless God for his Kind aperince [sic] in delivering me and sparing my life in the late battle fought on Bunker's Hill. I desire to devote this spared life to his Glory and honour. In witness my hand, Francis Merrifield."
Letter from Thomas Jefferson blasts Alexander Hamilton's love of 'every thing English' (Fox 05/31/2016)
•
The letter — penned on June 20, 1816 — was sent to a Jefferson contemporary who was a confidante of three U.S. presidents and was penned a decade after Hamilton was killed in a duel with his life-long rival, Aaron Burr.

•
Hamilton had backed Jefferson over Burr for president in 1800.

•
Hamilton and Jefferson long sparred over the role of the federal government... Hamilton favored more federal power, whereas Jefferson favored states' rights.

•
In the letter, Jefferson writes that Hamilton's mind "was really powerful, but chained by native partialities to every thing English; who... sincerely believed it for the good of this country to make them their model in every thing; without considering that what might be wise and good for a nation essentially commercial, and entangled in complicated intercourse with numerous and powerful neighbors, might not be so for one essentially agricultural, and insulated by nature from the abusive governments of the old world..."

•
"You have fairly stated the alternatives between which we are to choose: 1. licentious commerce and gambling speculations for a few, with eternal war for the many; or, 2. restricted commerce, peace, and steady occupations for all," Jefferson writes to his confidante.

•
"If any State in the Union will declare that it prefers separation with the first alternative, to a continuance in union without it, I have no hesitation in saying, ‘Let us separate,'" he wrote.

•
"There are few more iconic people in American history than Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, and their relationship and visions represented distinct paths that America could take."
A revolutionary year in America (JWR 05/23/2016)
Captain Cook's ship Endeavour 'found' in Newport Harbor (Fox 05/02/2016)
Legal eagle recalls launching career in defense of Japanese war criminals (Fox 04/03/2016)
Letter written by a young, liberal Reagan warns against communism in Hollywood (Fox 03/21/2016)
•
A newly surfaced letter penned by Ronald Reagan may have foreshadowed the 40th president's transition from Hollywood Democrat to conservative icon.

•
"Please believe me I don't want to be a ‘Red Baiter' or go on a ‘witch hunt,' but if the liberal cause is to win in the fight against native Fascism it must first stand up and be counted as opposed to communism."

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"What I wanted to say is that if you agree with me that it is important to keep American liberalism true to its real tenets of freedoms, please do speak up for it again whenever you might be called upon to speak."

•
"The seed was being planted in his mind that there are strong elements in his own party that are so different from his own, that perhaps he'll never see eye-to-eye."

•
As Reagan began to take his anti-communism message to AVC conventions and other events, often to a chilly response, he began to second-guess his involvement in the Democratic Party.
Our Forgotten Statesman (JWR 03/16/2016)
•
Madison, who would become known as the "Father of the Constitution," argued that in a pure democracy, "there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual."

•
Adams added: "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

•
Madison, along with Hamilton, argued for a strong but limited central government that could unify the country.

•
Madison's political genius is mostly seen in his contribution to The Federalist Papers, which were co-authored with Hamilton and John Jay.
US presidents and Israel: Always expect the unexpected (INN 03/09/2016)
•
As we continue our path along the most interesting election cycle in modern American history, the Pro-Israel Community (which is largely non-Jewish and, regrettably, includes less than half of American Jewry) is engaged in well-meaning efforts to identify and support the most pro-Israel candidate among the combatants.

•
It is a worthwhile exercise, and will ultimately boil down, as it has in the recent past, to support for the Republican nominee.

•
There plainly is no Democratic candidate worthy of consideration.

•
But what do we get from a seemingly pro-Israel president, and what do we lose when a candidate is elected whose views are hostile to Israel?

•
A look back at history suggests that the answer is surprisingly complex and unpredictable.

•
Let's begin with the last president to serve before the creation of the State of Israel – Franklin Roosevelt.

•
While FDR presided over the Allied Forces' victory over the Nazi regime, his presidency was marred by his refusal to bomb the train tracks to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps – a simple and nearly cost-free initiative that would have saved millions of Jewish lives.

•
His presidency was further tarnished by his refusal to permit the SS St. Louis (the "Voyage of the Damned"), carrying hundreds of Jewish refugees, to dock on US soil, thereby condemning the refugees to a return to Europe and many to an almost certain death.

•
... FDR, by his actions and inactions, may have been the most anti-Semitic president to ever hold office. Certainly no other president was in a position to save so many Jewish lives and utterly failed in that opportunity.

•
Then came Harry Truman, the president who had the courage to immediately recognize the State of Israel after it declared its independence in 1948.

•
It was only after Eddie Jacobson, Truman's close friend and former business partner from Missouri, came to Washington at the behest of Weizmann and pleaded with Truman to reconsider, that Harry Truman, in the face of continuing opposition from the Secretary of State, had his famous meeting with Weizmann and recognized the nascent State of Israel.

•
Eisenhower personally witnessed the liberation of the death camps and the lifeless condition of the Jewish inmates who had managed to survive. Surely, he would be supportive of Israel as a much-needed place of refuge for the Jews of Europe and North Africa. Again, not exactly.

•
To Eisenhower, Israel was an irritant in the broader picture of the geo-politics of the Middle East. Under Eisenhower, there was a complete embargo on the sale of arms by the US to Israel...

•
And, when Israel captured the Sinai from Egypt in a defensive war in 1956, Eisenhower demanded that Israel unilaterally withdraw in exchange for nothing.

•
Kennedy's father, Joseph, was an avowed anti-Semite and Nazi sympathizer. As the US Ambassador to England, Joseph Kennedy wrote of how he admired Hitler's strategy of uniting Germans around a common enemy – the Jews – and how the Jews were deserving of their isolation and discrimination.

•
Kennedy was the first American president to employ the rhetoric of America's "special commitment" to Israel. More importantly, Kennedy ended the embargo on US arms sales to Israel that had been in place under Truman and Eisenhower.

•
JFK, whose father admired Adolf Hitler, became the first president who was undoubtedly pro-Israel.

•
LBJ didn't seek out a role in the Arab-Israeli dispute. Rather, it was thrust upon him as the Arabs moved closer to war in 1967. LBJ made sure that Israel had the military support that it needed, and he did not interfere as the Six Day War came to a close.

•
... he helped to broker UN Resolution 242, which contemplates Israeli withdrawal of "territories" (note the absence of the word "all") in exchange for "secure boundaries." LBJ clearly was a friend of Israel, although that friendship hardly could have been predicted by pro-Israel voters in 1964.

•
President Nixon did not like Jews, plain and simple. And based upon his demonstrable anti-Semitism, it would have been reasonable to conclude that Nixon would have been the last person we would want to have in office should Israel face an existential threat.

•
But Israel did face an existential threat right in the middle of the Nixon presidency – the Yom Kippur War.

•
Faced with its enemies advancing on three fronts and a severely depleted arsenal, Golda Meir called on the United States for urgent assistance and Nixon responded by authorizing the largest airlift of weapons and military supplies in the history of Middle Eastern warfare.

•
Nixon, an avowed anti-Semite, is credited by many in the Israeli Government with being Israel's greatest friend. He certainly came to Israel's rescue in its hour of greatest need.

•
Carter was no friend of Israel but his religious background gave him an obsessive interest in the Middle East. Carter was determined to force Israel into a lopsided deal with the Palestinians but two things got in his way: (1) the election of Menachem Begin as Israel's Prime Minister, and (2) the Iran hostage crisis.

•
Carter did broker a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt that was initiated with Sadat's visit to Israel in 1977 and culminated with a signed treaty in early 1979. In contrast to 1956, here Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for a peace accord that has remained in place for some 35 years and prompted a similar treaty with Jordan.

•
Carter, whose anti-Zionism sentiments were only fully revealed after he left office, did little damage to Israel and, arguably, provided Israel with material assistance.

•
But when it comes to Israel, there were two Reagans. One offered lofty rhetoric of the unbreakable friendship between Israel and the United States – rhetoric theretofore unspoken in the Republican Party...

•
But then there was the Reagan who condemned Israel's destruction of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, declared an embargo on the sale of US planes to Israel in response, caused the United States to sell highly sophisticated AWACS surveillance planes to Saudi Arabia in the face of bitter Israeli and Congressional opposition, and who laid a wreath at the cemetery of Nazi soldiers in Bitburg, Germany against the fervent pleas of Elie Wiesel.

•
Reagan, superficially, had his heart in the right place. But he often was influenced by anti-Israel advisors throughout his cabinet.

•
There's an important lesson to be learned from the Reagan presidency. A well-intentioned president – and Reagan certainly fits this bill — may be inadequate to counter the dangerous forces at play within the Departments of State and Defense.

•
President George H. W. Bush was steadfastly opposed to any building in Judea and Samaria, and sought to punish then Housing Minister Ariel Sharon by threatening to veto US loan guarantees of $10 billion...

•
When AIPAC cried foul over Bush's mean-spirited threat, the president revived the ancient canard of undue Jewish influence by referring to himself as "one little lonely guy" fighting against "powerful political forces."

•
... you had Bill Clinton, someone who genuinely admired and respected the State of Israel, but who was firmly committed to a "two state solution."

•
Clinton had the opportunity to interface with Israel's most decorated war heroes, both unfortunately being in the left wing Labor Party.

•
It was a prescription for disaster. With Rabin, Clinton achieved the "Oslo Accords" – a series of one-sided agreements that were greeted by the Palestinians with a brutal escalation of terrorism.

•
And, with Barak's encouragement, Clinton came up just short of reaching a complete settlement with Yasser Arafat at Camp David – a settlement where the Arabs were offered virtually all of Judea and Samaria as well as the Temple Mount.

•
One can only wonder why this proposal was rejected by Arafat, but we must be grateful for his recalcitrance.

•
The agreement plainly would have been suicidal for Israel.

•
President Clinton plainly had warm feelings for Israel but he injected himself into Israeli-Palestinian negotiations like no president before or since.

•
As we moved into the Bush II era, however, something fundamentally changed: On September 11, 2001, the United States was tragically attacked by Muslim extremists.

•
While most nations were shocked and expressed solidarity with America, the Palestinians were proudly celebrating in the streets.

•
This unprovoked hatred affected President Bush deeply and he understood, like no president before him, just how absurd it was to expect the Israelis to make concessions to such villainous people.

•
President Bush informed Sharon, by letter dated April 14, 2004, that the United States recognized the new "realities on the ground" ... in Judea and Samara and that, in future negotiations, a return to the 1949 armistice lines was "unrealistic."

•
Unfortunately, Bush's letter to Sharon was torn to shreds by Secretary of State Clinton as soon as she took office.

•
That brings us up to date as we now consider President Obama.

•
As evident from this brief history, some presidents looked bad but ended up good, and some looked good but ended up bad.

•
Obama, in contrast, looked bad and was bad.

•
No president in history has been as openly hostile to Israel as Obama, and the agreement he reached with Iran has funneled billions of dollars to known terrorist groups and paved the way for a nuclear Iran.

•
Hillary Clinton, if elected, will continue where Obama left off.

•
So what can we learn from history as we consider which Republican candidate to support?

•
Nonetheless, we have learned to look for the following qualities in choosing our elected officials:

•
A keen sense of who is right and who is wrong in the Israel/Palestinian controversy;

•
A willingness to identify and confront evil rather than to excuse it;

•
A recognition that Israel knows what is best for it and, therefore, an unwillingness to pressure Israel to make unwanted concessions;

•
A willingness to keep Israel at a level of extreme military superiority relative to its neighbors, recognizing that Israel has never asked for US soldiers to be placed in harms way in its defense;

•
A recognition that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is all but irrelevant to the upheaval in the Muslim world.

•
A recognition that Congress has mandated since 1995 that the US Embassy be housed in Jerusalem, Israel's eternal capital, and there is no good reason to further delay this legislative direction.

•
They say that in Israel, one who believes in miracles is a realist.

•
Looking back some 90 years on the cast of characters who were privileged to hold the most powerful position on the face of the earth, it is nothing less than miraculous that Israel has continued to grow, prosper and flourish.

•
The hand of God is everywhere to be seen in Israel's development. We should, of course, try to pick the right president, but let's not forget who's really running the show.
Let us now praise other presidents (JWR 02/18/2016)
Clinton and Sanders and Progressivism (JWR 02/17/2016)
•
It's only historical ignorance that could explain black affinity for progressivism.
Amateur archaeologist discovers lost Spanish settlement in Florida Panhandle (Fox 02/17/2016)
The president without a party (JWR 02/15/2016)
•
John Tyler's presidency was born in a fog of constitutional confusion.

•
On April 4, 1841, President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, just one month into his term as the nation's ninth chief executive. It was the first time a president had died in office, and no one could say with certainty what was supposed to happen next.

•
The relevant language in the Constitution was murky: "In case of the [president's] death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office."

•
Within hours of returning to Washington upon learning of Harrison's death, Tyler convened a meeting of the cabinet — all Harrison appointees, of course — and declared that he was now the legitimate president and not merely a caretaker.

•
Cabinet members, Webster informed Tyler, expected to be treated as the president's partners in making policy, with decisions to be reached by consensus.

•
"I beg your pardon, gentlemen. I am very glad to have in my cabinet such able statesmen as you ... and I shall be pleased to avail myself of your counsel and advice. But I can never consent to being dictated to. I am the president and I shall be responsible for my administration."

•
On his first day in office, Tyler had established a precedent that settled the question of succession without plunging the nation into a crisis of leadership.

•
It was a precedent that Americans would follow ever after, and eventually formalize with the ratification of the 25th Amendment.

•
... the 10th president was courageous and principled, if not always wise, and he was beset by challenges and partisan conflicts that would be inconceivable for any modern president.

•
Tyler had been expected to support Whig priorities, and high on the party's agenda was the reestablishment of a national bank.

•
But when Congress passed a law resurrecting the Bank of the United States, Tyler — adhering to his longstanding view that the bank was unconstitutional — vetoed it.

•
Congress passed another version of the same law; Tyler vetoed that one, too.

•
What happened next was unheard-of. Whig leaders gathered and issued a statement expelling Tyler from their party, and every member of the cabinet (except Webster, who was then enmeshed in foreign negotiations) resigned.

•
For the rest of his term, nearly three-and-a-half years, Tyler was a president without a party.

•
In 1844 Tyler became the first incumbent president to announce that he would not seek a second term. On his last full day in office, Tyler became the first president to have a veto overridden by Congress.

•
Tyler ended the Seminole War and brought Florida into the union as the 27th state. He resolved a thorny dispute with Great Britain over the border between Maine and Canada. He signed the first treaty opening trade with China, and brought about the annexation of Texas.

•
One crucial lesson of John Tyler's term in office is that presidents are never to be underestimated.

•
Even unpopular presidents — even maverick presidents rejected by their own party and cabinet — wield substantial political influence and have the power to shape the course of national events.

•
Another lesson, especially salient this Presidents Day, is that running mates matter.

•
Thanks to Tyler's firm precedent, the transition of power to the vice president has always been taken for granted.
Ronald Reagan: Remembering the champion of religious liberty on his birthday (Fox 02/06/2016)
•
"Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant, and the rule of law under God is acknowledged."

•
"Without God there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure."

•
"We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions."
Family members of Challenger victims to mark 30 years since shuttle disaster (Fox 01/28/2016)
The 'Father of the Air Force' challenged the limits of freedom of speech and lost (Fox 01/21/2016)
•
"These incidents are the direct result of the incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense by the Navy and War Departments."

•
"The bodies of my former companions in the air moulder under the soil in America, and Asia, Europe and Africa, many, yes a great many, sent there directly by official stupidity."

•
Mitchell was quickly brought up on Article 96 of the Articles of War which prohibits "all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline."

•
His trial was a national sensation, attended by societal elite and crowds of veterans.

•
Mitchell's lawyer tried to argue that Mitchell's freedom of speech trumped his duties as an officer, but the defense easily ripped through the argument by pointing out allowing complete freedom of speech in the military could create anarchy.
Revolutionary War-era ship unearthed at Virginia construction site (Fox 01/07/2016)
The Tommy Gun lived up to its original name: The Annihilator (Fox 12/24/2015)
Attacking Our Founders (JWR 11/11/2015)
•
Every once in a while, I receive an ugly letter sarcastically asking what do I think of their wisdom declaring blacks "three-fifths of a human."

•
Let's examine some facts about our founders and slavery.

•
Would it have been preferable for the southern states to be able to count slaves as whole persons, thereby giving southern states more political power?

•
Would blacks have been better off without constitutional ratification and a Union made possible by the three-fifths compromise?

•
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass understood the compromise, saying that the three-fifths clause was "a downright disability laid upon the slaveholding states" that deprived them of "two-fifths of their natural basis of representation."

•
Completely ignored in most discussions of slavery is the fact that slavery was mankind's standard fare throughout history

•
What distinguishes the West, namely Britain and the U.S., from other nations are the extraordinary measures they took to abolish slavery.
Battle joined: Army panel backs WWII vet’s posthumous bid for Medal of Honor (Fox 11/04/2015)
This sniper crawled nearly 2 miles to kill one enemy general (Fox 10/22/2015)
The only ship left in the US Navy that has sunk an enemy ship is 217 years old (Fox 10/16/2015)
Chemical lab designed by Thomas Jefferson discovered in University of Virginia Rotunda (Fox 10/15/2015)
Archaeologists uncover secrets of historic Revolutionary War battle site (Fox 09/30/2015)
70 years after WWII: A world order imperiled (Fox 09/01/2015)
•
"Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won. The skies no longer rain death ... men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight."

•
"I speak for the unnamed brave millions homeward bound to take up the challenge of that future which they did so much to salvage from the brink of disaster ... Their spiritual strength and power has brought us through to victory ... take care of them."

•
The actions they took and the decisions they made kept America safe. None desired another war or relished confrontation. But they instinctively grasped the need to stop enemies before they reached our shores.

•
Roosevelt knew that the United States could not ultimately excuse itself from all of the tribulations of the world. He knew that doing nothing would mean a future where Americans would contend hopelessly and desperately with a totalitarian world.

•
Victory did not usher in the end of all war. It did not make America the policeman of the world — a role we have never wanted and would never accept. But it enshrined an economic and military supremacy that has lasted until now, and which has benefited not just Americans, but all who value freedom and security.

•
The U.S.-Japan alliance is the most important in deterring a Chinese government that regrettably has embarked on expansionist adventures unseen in the region since 1945.

•
This order has depended on alliances with nations that share our values, a strong military and a supreme navy. The simplicity of the formula is one of its many virtues.

•
Our military is strong but diminished, and our navy has the fewest ships since before World War I. In addition, the foreign threats we face are abetted at home by economic stagnation; racial and class division induced by politicians; and leaders who pay lip service to America, but who don't really believe in this country the way the World War II generation did.

•
"I speak for the thousands of silent lips, forever stilled among the jungles and the beaches and in the deep waters of the Pacific which marked the way."
The USA's Real Birthday (JWR 08/21/2015)
College Board to rewrite US history exam after critics blast anti-America language (Fox 08/04/2015)
•
"They don't grasp that America is based on a declaration of principles and that our whole history consists of people striving to bring those principles to life."
Identities of mysterious Jamestown settlers revealed (Fox 07/28/2015)
An 'incredible revelation': Reagan carried a gun after attempted assassination, author says (Fox 06/15/2015)
•
"I trust these [Secret Service] people around me, but if someone comes at me again, I want to be prepared."
Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge? (JWR 05/29/2015)
Remembering the meaning of Memorial Day (Fox 05/25/2015)
Lt. Col. Robert Hite, of 'Doolittle Tokyo Raiders,' dead at 95 (Fox 03/30/2015)
150 years after sinking, Confederate submarine slowly reveals its secrets (Fox 01/30/2015)
Bibi Isn't the 1st Jewish Leader Stung by White House (INN 01/25/2015)
•
As protests go, the march had been remarkably quiet, dignified, and respectful. There were no picket signs, no shouting of slogans, no criticism of the president. It was, essentially, a plea for mercy. The problem was that the rabbis represented a cause that President Roosevelt preferred to ignore. They were a source of political discomfort.

•
"The President had been much displeased by the March of the Rabbis instigated by the notorious Bergson and had used language that morning while breakfasting which would have pleased Hitler himself."
Be less romantic about the past (JWR 12/29/2014)
Crew unearths Boston time capsule from Paul Revere era (CNN 12/11/2014)
After Pearl Harbor: Rare photos from the American home front (CNN 12/07/2013)
History of U.S. Army guns (CNN ry/ne/gall)
When did Black Friday start? (CNN 11/28/2014)
What you don't know about Thanksgiving (CNN 11/26/2014)
Blast from the past: New Reagan recordings released (CNN 11/10/2014)
Lethal beauty in the Wild West: Tiffany & Co's rare bejeweled show-guns (CNN 11/10/2014)
Reagan's Campaign Speech Continues to Reverberate 50 Years Later (JWR 10/28/2014)
Don't let U.S. history be forgotten (CNN 10/15/2014)
113-year-old time capsule found in Boston (CNN 10/10/2014)
Saving the Flying Fortress (CNN 10/02/2014)
Five other U.S. leaders and the words that tripped them up (CNN 08/22/2014)
Convicted Cold War spy John Walker dies in federal prison (CNN 08/29/2014)
Former Navy carrier on final voyage (CNN 08/22/2014)
Researchers: Centuries-old ship at NYC ground zero likely from Philadelphia (CNN 08/05/2014)
U.S. reveals secret plans for '60s moon base (CNN 07/24/2014)
A U-boat and its American prey haunt Gulf of Mexico (CNN 07/16/2014)
Fourth of July Fast Facts (CNN 07/04/2014)
The man who built Lady Liberty (CNN 07/03/2014)
America's most endangered historic places (CNN 06/23/2014)
Declassified report: Two nuclear bombs nearly wiped out North Carolina (CNN 06/12/2014)
After 125 years, ship rediscovered at bottom of San Francisco Bay (CNN 04/23/2014)
What the late '60s really looked like (CNN 04/05/2014)
5 things you might not know about JFK's assassination (CNN 03/31/2014)
Could century-old theft explain mystery of gold coins? (CNN 03/04/2014)
Clinton documents: Much has changed, but much still the same (CNN 03/01/2014)
The man who didn't want to be president (JWR 02/17/2014)
The Hunley: Zeroing in on what caused Civil War submarine's sinking (CNN 12/14/2013)
Museum: Iconic Spruce Goose is safe (CNN 12/13/2013)
5 of the oldest businesses in America (CNN 12/13/2013)
Why you don't throw trash out the window (CNN 12/01/2013)
The mother of Thanksgiving (JWR 11/26/2013)
The myth vs. reality of President Kennedy (JWR 11/22/2013)
The colliding myths of November (JWR 11/22/2013)
The real JFK conspiracy (JWR 11/22/2013)
What JFK learned — and taught — about leadership (CNN 11/20/2013)
5 things you might not know about JFK's assassination (CNN 11/15/203)
John F. Kennedy: The day (CNN 11/14/2013)
Is there more to JFK assassination? (CNN 11/13/203)
Piece of Civil War ironclad brought to surface in Savannah (CNN 11/13/2013)
Ken Burns: Learn Lincoln's words by heart (CNN 11/12/2013)
Who is Pfc. Clarence Merriott, and why was his Purple Heart for sale? (CNN 11/11/2013)
Congress, give Doolittle Raiders their medal (CNN 11/03/2013)
America's students failing to learn history (CNN 10/07/2013)
George Washington finally has his presidential library (JWR 09/30/2013)
The inner demons that drove Nixon (CNN 07/30/2013)
The most important jet you can't see (CNN 07/19/2013)
Despite fights about its merits, idea of American exceptionalism a powerful force through history (CNN 06/30/2012)
Skyjacked: A nation with no airline security (CNN 06/24/2013)
The 10 deadliest U.S. tornadoes on record (CNN 01/10/2013)
Tracking suspects down: Some landmark U.S. manhunts (CNN 04/204/2013)
A final toast for the Doolittle Raiders (CNN 04/14/2013)
Washington emerges: Across the river and into history (JWR 02/20/2013)
Uncle Sam says it's not Presidents Day (CNN 02/03/2013)
Real heroes: four died so others might live (CNN 02/03/2013)
President's Month (JWR 02/01/2013)
NASA, Texas towns mark Columbia disaster (CNN 02/01/2013)
The 10 deadliest U.S. tornadoes on record (CNN 01/30/2013)
10 inaugural moments that mattered (CNN 01/19/2013)
Presidential inaugurations and oaths (CNN 01/17/2013)
By the Numbers: Presidential inaugurations (CNN 01/17/2013)
History suggests that era of entitlements is nearly over (JWR 01/14/2013)
From Second Amendment to assault weapons ban: A look at U.S. gun laws (CNN 01/10/2013)
Time to toot horn for George H.W. Bush (CNN 12/31/2012)
How Squanto became a Thanksgiving symbol (JWR 11/21/2012)
By the numbers: Second term presidents (CNN 10/09/2012)
Presidents of the United States (CNN 10/06/2012)
Navajo code talker from World War II dies (CNN 11/02/2012)
USS Enterprise sailing off to history's scrap heap (CNN 11/01/2012)
Experts warn of superstorm era to come (CNN 10/31/2012)
When Ike faced down a rising nuclear power (CNN 10/24/2012)
10 debate moments that mattered (CNN 10/02/2012)
Who was the best foreign policy president? (CNN 09/20/2012)
150 years since America's bloodiest day (CNN 09/17/2012)
How today's GOP has its roots in anti-slavery crusade (CNN 08/25/2012)
The Most Destructive U.S. Hurricanes of All Time (CNN 08/24/2012)
When flying was a thrill (CNN 08/19/2012)
What we in 2012 can learn from Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 (CNN 08/06/2012)
The 20 Most Influential Americans of All Time (Time, 07/25/2012)
When Italian immigrants were 'the other' (CNN 07/10/2012)
Despite fights about its merits, idea of American exceptionalism a powerful force through history (CNN 07/01/2012)
Why the Titanic fascinates more than other disasters (CNN 04/06/2012)
History amended by earliest recording of sound (CNN,02/08/2012)
How Thomas Jefferson’s secret Bible might have changed history (CNN 01/11/2012)
Irving Berlin's gift of 'God Bless America' (CNN 12/04/2011)
Decoding history: A World War II Navajo Code Talker in his own words (CNN 12/04/2011)
Convicted RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan seeks prison release (CNN 11/26/2011)
Our untelevised presidents (CNN 11/20/2011)
Submariners unsung heroes of Cold War (CNN 11/10/2011)
Harvard professor among veterans to get Congressional Gold Medal (CNN 10/31/2011)
Golda Meir Sought Bombing of Auschwitz, New Research Shows (INN 09/03/2011)
The blood and sweat behind Labor Day (CNN 09/02/2011)
Is there hope for America in an era of broken trust? (CNN 08/05/2011)
For debt crisis lessons, look back 225 years (CNN 07/22/2011)
Napoleon's brother in New Jersey? (CNN 07/07/2011)
Top 10 Historic U.S. Floods (CNN 04/14/2011)
38 years ago he made the first cell phone call (CNN 04/03/2011)
How the 'Obama doctrine' compares with predecessors (CNN 03/30/2011)
Nine U.S. presidents attacked since Civil War (CNN 03/26/2011)
Remembering the Triangle Fire 100 years later (CNN 03/25/2011)
Angry bird: Hawk divebombs retired general in his front yard (CNN 04/01/2011)
Did Abraham Lincoln's assassin get away? DNA could end questions (CNN 12/24/2010)
JFK's Secret Service agents reflect on loss of a president (CNN 11/22/2010)
Top 10 Forgettable Presidents (CNN 02/15/2010)
Was McCarthy Right about the Left? (Wasington Post, 04/14/1996)
•
... liberals and leftists held the high ground in the dispute over whether a communist conspiracy actually existed in the United States or was simply a by-product of "the paranoid style in American politics."

•
They came to accept that there was a foreign communist menace but never a domestic one.

•
In the upmarket universities and other places where the dominant form of polite liberalism thrived, the accusers, who had named names and had pointed out the communist spies, were scorned as despicable vermin.

•
... the forces of domestic anti-communism were described largely as manifestations of social underdevelopment and popular irrationality, not legitimate concern.

•
By the end of the 1960s, the demonization of the anti-communists had gained currency, and not just on the far left.

•
... were dismissed as adventurers, opportunists, cats paws of reaction, psychos, creeps, blackmailers and junior Joe McCarthys.

•
As playwright Lillian Hellman recalled, "The McCarthy group — a loose term for all the boys, lobbyists, congressmen, State Department bureaucrats, CIA operators — chose the anti-Red scare with perhaps more cynicism than Hitler picked antisemitism."

•
But in the last year as though from a buried, toxic waste dump, poisons, moving with the slow capillary action of history long hidden, are hiccuping up a different truth.

•
... provided proof past peradventure that the Communist Party of the United States was subsidized by the Soviet government and used as a base for extensive espionage.

•
So now liberals must face the question: Was Joe McCarthy right?

•
In liberal and leftist circles the term "Moscow gold" was accompanied most often by derisive laughter and the riposte that it was not Moscow gold but the paid dues of FBI informants that kept the CPUSA afloat.

•
Actually, it was both.

•
The recent publication of a batch of Venona transcripts gives evidence that the Roosevelt and Truman administrations were rife with communist spies and political operatives who reported, directly or indirectly, to the Soviet government, much as their anti-communist opponents charged.

•
The Age of McCarthyism, it turns out, was not the simple witch hunt of the innocent by the malevolent as two generations of high school and college students have been taught.

•
The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, executed in June 1953 for atomic espionage, were guilty; Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment was guilty; and that dozens of lesser known persons such as Victor Perlo, Judith Coplon and Harry Gold, whose innocence of the accusations made against them had been a tenet of leftist faith for decades, were traitors or, at the least, the ideological vassals of a foreign power.

•
Even moderate politicians who insisted upon the fact — and argued that these people might have influenced U.S. foreign policy — were scorned.

•
Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio said, "The greatest Kremlin asset in our history has been the pro-communist group in the State Department who surrendered to every demand of Russia at Yalta and Potsdam, and promoted at every opportunity the communist cause in China until today communism threatens to take over all of Asia."

•
Secretary of State Dean Acheson, a pillar of the establishment, concluded that Taft had joined "the primitives."

•
The part played by Klaus Fuchs, a high-level physicist, who had worked at Los Alamos, has been known for many years, as has the treason of the Rosenbergs.

•
Now we know, thanks to the latest Venona transcripts, that a Harvard-trained physicist named Theodore Alvin Hall was passing secrets about the instrument which changed world politics in the last half of the 20th century.

•
And where was Harry Truman?

•
His hagiographers today present him as the plucky, courageous, little guy who stood up to world communism and led America into a new age of cosmopolitan internationalism.

•
When Winston Churchill delivered his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Fulton, Mo. in March 1946, Truman immediately disavowed the former British prime minister.

•
Astonishing as it may seem to those who get their history from movies and TV, the American president invited Joseph Stalin to come to Fulton and give a speech presenting his side of the story.

•
Truman actually offered to send the battleship Missouri to fetch the Soviet tyrant.

•
Truman soon changed directions giving us the Truman Doctrine (calling for resistance to communism everywhere), the Marshall Plan (to rebuild Western Europe) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (to defend it from Soviet attack).

•
But he also called the investigation of Alger Hiss "a red herring," encouraging the suspicion that the government was not really addressing the communist threat.

•
Inevitably came Sen. Joe McCarthy to exploit this suspicion.

•
"While I cannot take the time to name all of the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205 that were known to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist Party and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy in the State Department."

•
... in a global sense McCarthy was on to something. McCarthy may have exaggerated the scope of the problem but not by much.

•
The government was the workplace of perhaps 100 communist agents in 1943-45. He just didn't know their names.

•
The Venona transcripts contain the code names of about 200 persons, although some of these were clearly persons who had unwitting contact with Soviet agents.

•
The Venona documents indicate that there were perhaps a dozen Soviet agents in the State Department alone.

•
In the ongoing kulturkampf dividing the society, the elites of Hollywood, Cambridge and liberal think-tankery had little sympathy for bow-legged men with their American Legion caps and their fat wives, their yapping about Yalta and the Katyn Forest.

•
Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belsen, all the Nazi concentration camps were dismantled, but the Gulag grew and left-liberals like California congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas and the editors at the New Republic magazine seemed not to care.

•
In our own era liberals found Ronald Reagan's characterization of international communism as an "evil empire," gauche, tasteless and embarrassing.

•
Would they have preferred, a very, very bad empire, a wicked one or merely naughty?

•
The liberal penchant for government giganticism, complex bureaucracy and central planning may also have taken root in the liberal admiration of the Soviet system in the 1930s.

•
... enough new information has come to light about the communists in the U.S. government that we may now say that point by point Joe McCarthy got it all wrong and yet was still closer to the truth than those who ridiculed him.

Terrorism (04/09/2024) Go to: List top | Prev sect (04/09/2024) | Next sect (02/21/2021) | List bot

Teen who pledged loyalty to ISIS busted for ‘truly horrific’ plot to commit mass shootings at Idaho churches (NYP 04/09/2024)
Las Vegas 'lone wolf' terror attack foiled by FBI, police (Fox 12/04/2023)
Jordanian national living illegally in Texas accused of 'studying how to build bombs' to target Jews (Fox 11/03/2023)
ISIS sympathizer threatened to turn St. Patrick's Day parade into 'horror scene,' kill 'fat rat mayor' (Fox 03/18/2023)
New York's first execution in decades could be ISIS-inspired murderer who killed 8 in terror attack: reports (Fox 02/15/2023)
Virginia man convicted of supporting ISIS accused of meeting with ‘American Talban’ (Fox 01/26/2023)
Trial begins for accused NYC truck attack driver Sayfullo Saipov (Fox 01/09/2023)
•
Eight people were left dead and 12 others injured following the 2017 attack, which took place near the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
Suspect in NYC police stabbing may have Islamic extremist ties (Fox 01/01/2023)
New Mexico man indicted for allegedly trying to establish 'Islamic State Center' (Fox 08/27/2022)
Did a terror spree in Israel extend to New Jersey? (INN 04/18/2022)
US teens planned ISIS-inspired attack on Chicago mosque, FBI says in newly released court docs (Fox 03/26/2022)
Listen: Texas gunman rants about Jews in final phone call (INN 01/20/2022)
About that Muslim terrorist used as the excuse for the Texas temple hostage taking ... (JWR 01/17/2022)
•
In rallies and seminars throughout the past year, groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Council for Social Justice demanded that Siddiqui be freed.

•
She was sentenced to 86 years in prison after her 2010 conviction for attempting to kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan who were preparing to interrogate her. She was able to grab an M4 rifle and, according to her indictment, open fire. Her shots missed and she was wounded by return fire.

•
When she was arrested, she was carrying "documents that discussed the construction of weapons, referenced a 'mass casualty attack,' and listed a number of New York City landmarks."

•
After she was shot, she struggled with the Americans. A witness heard her say, "I am going to kill all you Americans. You are going to die by my blood."

•
In addition, Siddiqui had a family connection to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. She moved from the United States to Pakistan after the al-Qaida attacks, telling a psychologist who interviewed her that "Americans were intending to abduct Muslim children and were converting them to Christianity."
Texas synagogue hostage crisis suspect identified (Fox 01/16/2022)
•
The FBI on Sunday identified the British national who died at the scene after allegedly taking hostages at a Texas synagogue...

•
The incident ended Saturday night with the hostages safe and the man holding them dead, according to authorities.

•
The man allegedly had demanded the release of a Pakistani woman who is imprisoned nearby on charges of trying to kill American service members in Afghanistan.

•
That woman, Aafia Siddiqui, is serving an 86-year prison sentence after being convicted in Manhattan in 2010 on charges that she sought to shoot U.S. military officers while being detained in Afghanistan two years earlier.

•
She's a Pakistani neuroscientist who studied in the United States at prestigious institutions — Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

•
Top FBI and Justice Department described her as an "al-Qaida operative and facilitator" at a May 2004 news conference and warned of intelligence showing al-Qaida planned an attack in the coming months.

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In 2008, she was detained by authorities in Afghanistan. American officials said they found in her possession handwritten notes that discussed the construction of so-called dirty bombs and that listed various locations in the U.S. that could be targeted in a "mass casualty attack."

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Inside an interview room at an Afghan police compound, authorities say, she grabbed the M4 rifle of a U.S. Army officer and opened fire on members of the U.S. team assigned to interrogate her.
Who is Aafia Siddiqui, Texas inmate known as 'Lady Al Qaeda'? (Fox 01/16/2022)
Florida man posted bomb-making instructions online for ISIS, facing up to 15 years in prison (Fox 10/27/2021)
NYC man who wanted to join Taliban and kill US troops convicted in federal court, prosecutors say (Fox 10/11/2021)
New York City subway bomber Akayed Ullah gets life sentence (Fox 04/22/2021)
New York City subway bomber should get life sentence, prosecutors say (Fox 04/02/2021)
Bringing the 'ISIS Beatles' to justice in US courts: Behind the complex mission (Fox 10/20/2020)
Justice Department asks Supreme Court to hear Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's case (Fox 10/07/2020)
2 ISIS 'Beatles' indicted in US on charges linked to beheadings of American hostages (Fox 10/07/2020)
Two men arrested after allegedly planning ‘Netflix worthy’ terrorist attack on US in support of ISIS (Fox 09/24/2020)
How an Islamic terror sheikh ended up selling meth in Orange County (INN 09/07/2020)
•
During the Black Lives Matter riots, a white Muslim illegal alien stabbed a New York cop, grabbed his gun, and opened fire on other officers while shouting "Allahu Akbar."

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Despite wounding three cops and claiming "my religion made me do it," there's been little coverage.

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In the midst of a pandemic and nationwide race riots, we should not forget that there is more than one threat vector. Islamic terrorists don't go away just because no one is paying attention.

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And the same prison system that helped produce the wave of BLM violence has also incubated Islamic prison terror cells like the one that plotted to kill Americans on another Sept. 11.

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The Nation of Islam has been a feeder for both Islamic terrorism and Black Lives Matter violence. All three are deeply violent, bigoted, and possessed of a feverish hatred of America.
Justice Department charges 2 with plotting to support Hamas, shoot cops in Minnesota (Fox 09/05/2020)
Wisconsin mom's support of ISIS terror group gets her 7 years in prison (Fox 08/25/2020)
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A Wisconsin mother of seven accused of hacking Facebook accounts to provide support to the Islamic State was sentenced to more than seven years in prison

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... admitted to hacking Facebook accounts to pledge her allegiance to the terror group and to communicating with other supporters.

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Through social media, she tried recruiting potential ISIS members and encouraged supporters who could not travel to ISIS-controlled areas to initiate terror attacks in their home countries

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"Dais not only personally pledged her allegiance to a terrorist organization but took steps designed to help others cause death and destruction around the world."
Trump announces government 'must' again seek death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber (Fox 08/02/2020)
Arizona woman tried sending money to Al Qaeda for weapons to 'kill Americans': FBI (Fox 07/24/2020)
'Terror-related' shooting at NAS Corpus Christi prompts search for possible 2nd suspect (Fox 05/22/2020)
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A gunman described as an "Arab male" and later identified by The Associated Press as Adam Alsahli of Corpus Christi was killed in a gunbattle with law enforcement at the station.

•
... the suspect tried to speed his vehicle through a security gate at the naval facility around 6:15 a.m.

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Thursday but was stopped by a guard who managed to put up a barrier in time to block the driver's access.

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A female security officer was shot in the chest during an exchange of gunfire with the suspect, but she was wearing body armor and survived with only minor injuries, Other security personnel soon arrived and fatally shot the suspect.

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A similar lockdown occurred at NAS Corpus Christi last December after a suspect with a stolen firearm rammed a truck into a barricade there. The suspect later pleaded guilty to destruction of U.S. government property.
Zacarias Moussaoui, only Sept. 11 terrorist convicted in US court, says he renounces terror, bin Laden (Fox 05/20/2020)
NAS Pensacola shooter had prior contact with Al Qaeda, sources say (Fox 05/18/2020)
New documentary reveals Bill Clinton kept CIA from killing bin Laden (Fox 04/21/2020)
•
... the U.S. had an opportunity to kill Usama bin Laden in the 1990s after tracking his location with the help of Afghan tribal informants, but were unable to do so because of an order signed by then-President Bill Clinton.

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That order allowed the CIA to engage in "lethal activity" against the Al Qaeda leader, but the purpose of the strike could not be to kill him.

•
"We were being asked to remove this threat to the United States essentially with one hand tied behind our backs."

•
"Our tribal contacts came to us and said, ‘Look, he's in this location now. When he leaves, he's going to have to go through this particular crossroads.' And so what they proposed was to bury a huge cache of explosives underneath those crossroads so that when his convoy came through they could simply blow it up. And we said absolutely not. We were risking jail if we didn't tell them that."

•
... at that point in time, the president, State Department, and other officials did not view bin Laden as much of a threat, and senior officials "ignored and even ridiculed" those who said otherwise.

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Clinton has in the past discussed why he did not go after bin Laden on another occasion, essentially arguing that he did not want to kill innocent bystanders.

•
"The threat was real. And if President Clinton had taken action and killed Usama bin Laden, there wouldn't have been a 9/11, and if there wouldn't have been a 9/11 there wouldn't have been an Afghanistan, and if there wouldn't have been an Afghanistan there wouldn't have been an Iraq. What would the world be like?"
Accused Monsey attacker deemed unfit to stand trial (INN 04/20/2020)
Missouri man gets 19 years in prison for role in ISIS attack planning (Fox 03/04/2020)
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He posted on social media that he had converted to Islam and posted photos of weapons and the ISIS flag.

•
According to a criminal complaint, Hester was told the attack would target "buses, trains and a train station in Kansas City" on the Presidents Day holiday.
Mass shooting at NAS Pensacola was an 'act of terrorism', Barr says (Fox 01/13/2020)
NYC woman who plotted terror bombing on law enforcement gets 15 years in prison (Fox 01/09/2020)
•
In a poem called "Take Me to the Lands Where the Eyes Are Cooled," Siddiqui wrote that she "taste[s] the Truth through fists and slit throats" and that there is "[n]o excuse to sit back and wait — for the skies rain martyrdom."
Connecticut man who allegedly tried joining ISIS is caught: 'I can kill' (Fox 12/16/2019)
There are terrorists among us in America (INN 12/12/2019)
Boston Marathon bombing survivor flips off 'terrorist supporter' outside court (Fox 12/13/2019)
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"MAKE NO MISTAKE. I will testify again in a heartbeat. But believe me when I say. YOU DO NOT WANT ME TO. I was strong then. I am even stronger now. You do NOT want me back on that stand. No matter the city."
Naval Air Station shooter wrote anti-American and anti-Israeli tweets before rampage: report (Fox 12/07/2019)
Naval Air Station Pensacola shooter was Saudi aviation student, investigators eye potential terror link (Fox 12/06/2019)
•
"Immersing international students in our U.S. Navy training and culture helps build partnership capacity for both the present and for the years ahead," Cmdr. Bill Gibson, the center's officer in charge, said in 2017.

•
"These relationships are truly a win-win for everyone involved."

•
Many U.S. military pilots have complained for decades that some of the Saudi pilots are not safe flyers.

•
... the scene of the shooting — a classroom, where students usually spend three months at the beginning of the program — indicated that the shooter was a student who was "early" in his training.

•
"I'm very concerned that the shooter in Pensacola was a foreign national training on a U.S. base. Today, I'm calling for a full review of the U.S. military programs to train foreign nationals on American soil. We shouldn't be providing military training to people who wish us harm."
US man faces new terrorism charges, allegedly the highest-ranking citizen fighting overseas (Fox 12/03/2019)
Terrorist watchlist ruled unconstitutional after lawsuit by Muslim US citizens; next steps... (Fox 09/05/2019)
•
The decision from U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs, who sued with the help of a leading Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

•
Trenga found that the government's list of more than 1 million people identified as "known or suspected terrorists" was unconstitutional.

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Although the plaintiffs in the case had not received any official notice they were on a watchlist, they said they had "inferred" they were on it because they were "routinely subjected to additional screening when they fly on a commercial airplane and when they enter the United States at a land border or port."

•
... because the government did not dispute the factual contention that at least five plaintiffs were regularly subjected to extra screening, Trenga said the case was ripe for resolution by summary judgment.

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"The court concludes that the risk of erroneous deprivation of plaintiffs' travel-related and reputational liberty interests is high, and the currently existing procedural safeguards are not sufficient to address that risk."

•
... the FBI's lawyers argued that the difficulties suffered by the plaintiffs pale in comparison to the government's interests in combating terrorism.

•
Gadeir Abbas, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called the ruling an unequivocal victory.

•
He said he will be asking the judge to severely curtail how the government compiles and uses its list.

•
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement that the organization's "legal team has finally brought an end to the secretive watchlist, which is effectively a Muslim registry created in the wake of the widespread Islamophobia of the early 2000s."

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"There is no evidence, or contention, that any of these plaintiffs satisfy the definition of a 'known terrorist'."

•
The watchlist, also known as the Terrorist Screening Database, is maintained by the FBI and shared with a variety of federal agencies.

•
Customs officers have access to the list to check people coming into the country at border crossings, and aviation officials use the database to help form the no-fly list, which is a much smaller subset of the broader watchlist.

•
The vast majority are foreigners, but according to the government, there were roughly 4,600 U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents on the list as of 2017.

•
Earlier this year, the House of Representatives adopted a proposal from Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar that would force the Trump administration to disclose details about how it shares the watchlist with foreign countries.

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See related Regret (Glenn McCoy, 06/06/2017) cartoon from Terror picture album

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See related Anything Else to Declare? (Glenn McCoy, 11/01/2017) cartoon from Terror picture album
NYC women plead guilty to plotting terrorist bombing (Fox 08/24/2019)
South Carolina ‘terrorist sympathizer’ placed bomb inside teddy bear, FBI says (Fox 06/19/2019)
NYC man who wanted to carry out Times Square terrorist attack arrested, feds say (Fox 06/07/2019)
John Walker Lindh, American ex-Taliban militant, set to walk free Thursday (Fox 05/21/2019)
•
"In those moments, when he chose to stay silent, he sealed his fate as a traitor to the United States."

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"At any point, he could have warned him that something was being planned."

•
Hours later, Lindh's fellow detainees erupted in a violent revolt that left Mike Spann dead.

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... he is alleged to have told a TV producer last March that he would "continue to spread violent extremism Islam upon his release."
ISIS bride claims she’d be model citizen if she's allowed to return to US: ‘I didn’t hate America’ (Fox 04/01/2019)
•
While she was a part of ISIS, she became a mouthpiece for the terror group, calling for Americans to be killed.

•
"Americans wake up! Men and women altogether. You have much to do while you live under our greatest enemy, enough of your sleeping! Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriot, Memorial etc Day parades..go on drive by's + spill all of their blood or rent a big truck n drive all over them. Kill them."

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"Before I came, I've never done any crime and I'm sure I'm not going to be doing any crimes in the future, and I know I've come to Syria and look like I am a supporter of the worst terror group in history."

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"I didn't hate America. I didn't hate anything. I just thought it was obligatory – when I started practicing I was very scared of the concept of hellfire. The Koran told me to go."

•
In the early days of the caliphate, life was alright, she was able get food, and fully embrace the ideology of the caliphate – even though it committed such terror.

•
But as the U.S.-led coalition began to tighten the noose, life became hard, food started to dry up.

•
And when Presidnet Trump took office, he told the U.S. military to take the gloves off, at which point the airstrikes picked up and ISIS families were moved from one town to another.

•
Today, every ISIS member I speak to says they regret their decision.

•
But it seems clear they only changed their mind when it became clear their caliphate had been defeated.
John Walker Lindh, American ex-Taliban fighter, to be released in May, hasn't denounced Islamism (Fox 03/19/2019)
•
... Walker Lindh told "a television news producer that he would continue to spread violent extremist Islam upon his release."
Alabama Sen. Doug Jones: Let ISIS bride back into US to face justice system (Fox 02/25/2019)
•
"While I certainly understand the initial reaction to prohibit Hoda Muthana from coming back to the United States, I am concerned that allowing anyone who has committed crimes against the people of this country to remain beyond the reach of our justice system is the wrong approach and sends the wrong message."

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"My view is that she should absolutely be brought to justice for inciting violence against Americans. Doing so would send a powerful message that any American who lends support to a terrorist organization will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law."

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"Americans wake up! Men and women altogether. You have much to do while you live under our greatest enemy, enough of your sleeping!"

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"Go on drivebys, and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriots, Memorial, etc day ... Kill them."
ISIS wife dilemma: US-born citizens, even terrorists, can't be barred from re-entry, experts say (Fox 02/19/2019)
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"They should be brought home and charged criminally under terrorism, murder or other applicable laws. At the very least they should be charged with material support to a terrorist group."

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"These women should be held responsible for their choices and actions in support of a genocidal death cult."

•
"A naturalized citizen can be denaturalized if they achieved citizenship via fraud, or if they are members of a subversive group – ISIS and al Qaeda would count as such – within five years of being naturalized."

•
"That means the U.S. government cannot prevent the women from entering the U.S. if they get here. However, getting to the U.S. could prove to be a challenge if they have lost or destroyed their passports and/or if they have been added to the no-fly list as potential terrorists."

•
"Legally, we don't have an obligation to facilitate travel home, but an American who arrives at the border can't be barred from entry."
Alabama-born ISIS wife who reportedly told Americans to kill themselves now begging to come home (Fox 02/18/2019)
•
"Americans wake up! Men and women altogether. You have much to do while you live under our greatest enemy, enough of your sleeping!"

•
"Go on drivebys, and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriots, Memorial, etc day ... Kill them."
How Minneapolis' Somali community became the terrorist recruitment capital of the US (Fox 02/16/2019)
•
FBI stats show 45 Somalis left to join the ranks of either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq- and Syria-based ISIS combined.

•
And as of 2018, a dozen more had been arrested with the intention of leaving to support ISIS.

•
Both numbers are far higher than those of alleged terrorist wannabes who left or attempted to leave the country from other areas in the country where Muslim refugees have been resettled.

•
In the case of the Somalis, it's no longer just the men.

•
Early last year, a female was apprehended by authorities on charges of supporting providing material support to Al Qaeda and arson.

•
So what has made the area such a hotbed for such activity?

•
And what has been Rep. Ilhan Omar's record in addressing the issue - either before she was elected, or since?

•
With by far the largest Somali American population in the United States - estimates of up to 100,000 - the insular ethnic community in Minnesota offers a rich recruiting ground.

•
"Recruitment takes place online as well as face-to-face radicalization, sometimes with promises of what appears to be legitimate opportunities."

•
"They blame the failures of government on foreign intervention and link it to the reason why most Somalians have escaped home. The promise that al-Shabaab will restore a Sharia state and get rid of the government is somewhat attractive."

•
Most of those alleged to have joined al-Shabab had completed high school, and were either in college, or working in an array of industries as maintenance, security guards and caregivers.

•
"In trying to lead youth away from joining gangs, many parents were taking their children to the mosques, which deal with everything, including mental health concerns." ... that opened the way for radicalization.

•
As for Omar, she spoke up for a group of six Somalis arrested in 2015 for trying to cross into Mexico, as part of a plan to join ISIS in Syria.

•
As the case went to trial the following year, the then-state representative wrote a letter to the trial judge requesting "compassion"...

•
"Such punitive measures not only lack efficacy, they inevitably create an environment in which extremism can flourish, aligning with the presupposition of terrorist recruitment."

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"The best deterrent to fanaticism is a system of compassion. We must alter our attitude and approach; if we truly want to affect change, we should refocus our efforts on inclusion and rehabilitation."

•
"Rep. Omar is asking for our justice system to support known terrorists, this sets an extremely poor precedence and should not be allowed."

•
"She clearly has a bias and an agenda and does not understand what the United States truly stands for."

•
Omar has also been criticized by others in her community who contend her plea didn't go far enough.

•
Officials also said they repeatedly met with the families of the suspects, cautioning parents about their children's plans - to no avail.

•
... a Somali-American embarked on a mass stabbing spree at the St. Cloud mall in Minnesota, before being fatally shot by an off-duty police officer.

•
"That is a more likely scenario at this point than a large class of kids trying to get to a foreign terrorist organization in the theater of war."
Judge rules against stripping convicted terrorist of US citizenship (Fox 07/21/2018)
Berkeley High grad pleads guilty to helping ISIS, spoke of plan to kill 10,000 in Bay Area (Fox 07/20/2018)
Texas teen planned ISIS-inspired mall shooting, authorities say (Fox 05/02/2018)
•
"This is a message for America and any other country that is fighting Islam and slaughtering the Muslims with their fighter jets and other such weaponry."

•
"I'd actually like to make a cop surrender and drop his gun // Then douse him with gasoline and burn him // record it."
Al-Qaida 'warrior' gets life for killing 2 US soldiers in Afghanistan (Fox 02/17/2018)
•
"If this man ever walks the streets again, the first thing he will do is try to kill Americans."

•
"There is not an ounce of remorse, not a smidgeon of self-doubt."

•
... the Federal Bureau of Prisons "is going to have its hands full with this violent and uncooperative defendant."
Mall of America stabber sentenced to 15 years for attack (Fox 02/16/2018)
•
... said he was inspired by the Islamic State group and "went to Mall of America to answer the call for Jihad" because he believed the United States was "at war with Islam."

•
... he attacked 19-year-old Alexander Sanchez and 25-year-old John Sanchez while shopping. The brothers suffered serious injuries.
Chelsea bomber gets multiple life prison sentences for New York blast that injured 30 (Fox 02/13/2018)
•
"He is proud of what he did, scornful of the American justice system, and as dedicated as ever to his terrorist ideology.

•
Rahimi, an Afghanistan-born man inspired by ISIS and Al Qaeda in 2012, began attempting to radicalize other inmates at the Metropolitan Correctional Center late last year.

•
"As the evidence at trial demonstrated, the defendant was committed to waging his holy war against Americans years before he carried out his attack."

•
"Even today, he appears to remain steadfast in that commitment and has shown no remorse. The defendant's communications while incarcerated further demonstrate that, far from appreciating the depravity of his actions, he is proud of what he did, scornful of the American justice system, and as dedicated as ever to his terrorist ideology."
Minnesota woman, 19, who allegedly told students to 'join the jihad,' is indicted (Fox 02/07/2018)
•
"Hassan said she wanted the school to burn to the ground and that her intent was to hurt people."

•
"Hassan said this was that same thing that happened in 'Muslim land' and nobody cares if they get hurt, so why not do this?"

•
... writing a letter to her roommates in March, asking them "to join the jihad in fights," and to "[j]oin al-Qaeda, Taliban, or Al Shabaab."

•
Hassan also "told the police and fire investigators 'You guys are lucky that I don't know how to build a bomb because I would have done that,'"
Terrorism eyed after driver allegedly targets pedestrians in Philadelphia (Fox 01/29/2018)
•
The driver, who wasn't immediately identified, is in "extremely critical condition" after he was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.

•
"Anytime someone is trying to run people over we got to look at that angle and see what the investigation leads us."

•
An off-duty officer happened to be in the area when the commotion happened and intervened.

•
The driver immediately attacked the officer, which prompted the cop to fire his service weapon.

•
The off-duty officer reportedly made a verbal warning before firing his gun.

•
The pedestrian who was struck was taken to the hospital and is said to be in serious condition, but suffered injuries that did not appear to be life threatening.
Woman mad at US actions abroad set campus fires, prosecutors say (Fox 01/23/2018)
•
"Hassan stated she started the fires because she's been reading about the US military destroying schools in Iraq or Afghanistan and she felt that she should do exactly the same thing."

•
"She said that her fire-starting was not as successful as she wanted."

•
"You guys are lucky that I don't know how to build a bomb because I would have done that."

•
"Hassan said she wanted the school to burn to the ground and that her intent was to hurt people."

•
"Hassan said this was that same thing that happened in 'Muslim land' and nobody cares if they get hurt, so why not do this?"
ISIS soldier seen executing prisoner in video believed to be NJ high school graduate (Fox 01/19/2018)
Prosecutors: New Jersey bomber tried to corrupt inmates (Fox 01/16/2018)
•
... he provided inmates with speeches and lectures by bin Laden and al-Awlaki along with "The Book of Jihad," bomb-making instructions and various issues of a propaganda magazine.

•
... let inmates view the materials on his laptop and gave them electronic copies...
Are New Yorkers becoming like Israelis? (INN 12/12/2017)
Port Authority explosion suspect: What we know about Akayed Ullah (Fox 12/11/2017)
Port Authority explosion: Suspect ID'd in 'attempted terrorist attack' (Fox 12/11/2017)
•
A Bangladeshi man reportedly inspired by ISIS set off a pipe bomb inside New York's Port Authority bus terminal during rush hour Monday morning...

•
... suffered burns and wounds to his abdomen and hands and appeared to be the only person seriously injured in the pipe bomb explosion, authorities said.

•
At least four other people suffered minor injuries.

•
The suspect allegedly packed the 5-inch metal pipe bomb and battery pack into the right side of his jacket, but the device exploded earlier than intended.

•
See related Daylight-Savings Time Terrorism (Sean Delonas, 11/04/2016) cartoon from Terror picture album
NYC terror attack suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, entered US through Diversity Visa Program (Fox 11/01/2017)
•
"The terrorist came into our country through what is called the 'Diversity Visa Lottery Program,' a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based," Trump tweeted.

•
"We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter)."

•
The DV program makes up to 50,000 immigrant visas available annually, "drawn from random selection among all entries to individuals who are from countries with low rates of immigration" to the U.S.

•
Applicants must prove they have a clean criminal record, have a high school diploma or its equivalent, or have at least two years of work experience within the past five years in order to qualify.

•
The program originated as part of a bill introduced in 1990 by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., then a member of the House.

•
Schumer's measure to make a set number of visas available to "diversity immigrants" from certain countries was absorbed into a larger House immigration bill, which was sponsored by Schumer and 31 others, including several Republicans.

•
The House legislation passed in a bipartisan – but contested – vote, 231-192, while the Senate version containing the "diversity immigrants" part passed more easily, 89-8, and went on to be signed by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

•
The Trump White House ... calling the DV program "outdated," adding that it "serves questionable economic and humanitarian interests."

•
Saipov is accused of killing eight people and injuring 11 others when he drove a rented Home Depot truck down a New York City bike lane, plowing into pedestrians, before slamming into a school bus.
NYC terror attack leaves 8 dead, several injured; suspect's notes pledged ISIS loyalty (Fox 11/01/2017)
•
... had a printout of an ISIS flag in his car and left behind handwritten notes pledging his loyalty to the Islamic State.

•
Saipov had handwritten notes pledging his loyalty to the Islamic State terror network and shouted "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") after the crash.

•
Saipov's notes, written in Arabic and pledging loyalty to ISIS, turned up in and near the vehicle.

•
The attack on a bright Halloween afternoon occurred not far from the new World Trade Center building and the site of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

•
Saipov, who was shot by police, was taken into custody and remained hospitalized.

•
Eight people died in the attack and 11 were injured.

•
Saipov was an Uber driver who had passed a background check.

•
Four of the injured were teachers and students who were riding on a short yellow school bus near Stuyvesant High School when they were hit by the suspect's Home Depot rental truck. One student remained in critical condition.

•
Following the attack, President Donald Trump tweeted, "looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.!"

•
Trump later tweeted his "thoughts, condolences and prayers to the victims and families of the New York City terrorist attack. God and your country are with you!"

•
Police said the truck entered the bike path on West Street a few blocks from the new World Trade Center — the site of the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history — and plowed into several people.

•
The driver jumped out of his rental truck — which police say Saipov rented from a Home Depot in New Jersey around 2 p.m. Tuesday — carrying what turned out to be a paintball gun and a pellet gun.

•
See related Coming... (Michael Ramirez, 08/19/2017) cartoon from Terror picture album
Terror suspect's NJ mosque has been under NYPD surveillance: Report (Fox 11/01/2017)
•
The Omar Mosque in Paterson, N.J., located near Saipov's home, is among multiple Muslim houses of worship in the New York metro area being studied by the NYPD as possible locations for "budding terrorist conspiracies."

•
... "very concerned" with reports that the suspect, who reportedly shouted "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") and pledged allegiance to ISIS, was living in the area.

•
... Saipov is not a U.S. citizen and is originally from Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic east of the Caspian Sea in Central Asia.

•
A 2016 U.S.-commissioned report said Uzbek nationals were "most likely to radicalize while working as migrants abroad," according to the U.S. State Department.

•
Previous terror attacks linked to Uzbek nationals have included an attack at the Istanbul airport in 2016, preparing suicide bombers in Turkey, several plots to commit attacks in Russia, and a gruesome beheading of a child in Russia by a nanny who was reportedly religiously motivated.

•
Uzbeks have also fought in Afghanistan and Syria.
ISIS-inspired plot targeted Times Square, NYC subway, feds say (Fox 10/06/2017)
Muslim shot by SWAT: 'Get on the ground and bow before Allah’ (INN 08/01/2017)
Boston: We must never forget what the jihadists did on Patriot's Day (Fox 04/17/2017)
•
It's been four years since that day — the day Islamic radicals waged jihad on the Boston Marathon.

•
Four people were killed. Sixteen people lost their legs — in the name of the religion of peace.

•
We must never forget what the Islamic radicals did to us — the blood they spilled on American soil on Patriot's Day, four years ago.
Boston marks 4th anniversary of deadly marathon bombing (Fox 04/15/2017)
•
Three spectators were killed and over 260 others were wounded after two bombs planted near the finish line exploded on April 15, 2013, spraying shrapnel into the crowds.
London terror attack: American visiting UK killed in rampage, family says (Fox 03/23/2017)
•
A Utah man was killed and his wife seriously injured during the terrorist attack outside London's Parliament building on Wednesday.

•
... the husband and wife were scheduled to return to the United States on Thursday.

•
They had previously visited Germany and Austria in what they called "a dream vacation."

•
"A great American, Kurt Cochran, was killed in the London terror attack. My prayers and condolences are with his family and friends."
Airport shooting suspect in court on mental health issues (Fox 03/15/2017)
•
An Alaska man charged in a Florida airport shooting rampage is due in court for a hearing on his mental health problems.

•
Santiago is accused in the Jan. 6 shooting that killed five and wounded six at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

•
Santiago previously told the FBI he acted under government mind control, then claimed inspiration by the Islamic State extremist group.
It's official: Pentagon now calling terror group 'ISIS' (Fox 02/24/2017)
•
"We view ISIS, ISIL and Da'esh as interchangeable terms for the same thing. ISIS is the term most known and understood by the American public, and it is what our leadership uses. This memo simply aligns our terminology."
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, mastermind behind 1993 World Trade Center attack, has died (Fox 02/18/2017)
•
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind firebrand Islamist cleric behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, has died in federal prison.

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Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian radical who maintained a global following even while imprisoned for more than two decades, died Saturday morning at Butner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina, where he was serving a life sentence.

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Abdel-Rahman was convicted in 1995 of plotting terror attacks throughout New York City, targeting the United Nations and other New York City landmarks.

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He was also linked to the 1993 World Trade Center attack in which six people died and more than 1,000 others were injured.

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Known as "The Blind Sheikh," Abdel-Rahman lost his eyesight when he was 10 months old.

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In the mid-1980s, Abdel-Rahman made his way to Afghanistan, where he built a strong rapport with former Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

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Bin Laden once credited Abdel-Rahman as the inspiration and justification for the September 11 attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center.
Ex-Guardsman who supported ISIS in Africa is sentenced to prison (Fox 02/10/2017)
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A former National Guard soldier who admitted traveling to Africa and boarding a truck to join the Islamic State group before ultimately bailing out was sentenced Friday to 11 years in prison.

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Mohamed Jalloh, 27, of Sterling, Virginia, pleaded guilty in October to attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group.

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Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence. The defense had asked for a term of less than seven years, saying the man has renounced ISIS.

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"I'm sorry to the court, to the people and to the U.S. military."

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Jalloh is one of more than 100 people in the U.S. to be charged with terror offenses connected to the Islamic State since 2014.

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Jalloh, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone, had traveled back to Africa with his father in 2015. While there, he met an ISIS recruiter.

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He intended to travel to Libya to join ISIS, but the plans fell through.

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Later that year, Jalloh traveled to Niger, again with the intent of joining the group.

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This time, he went so far as to get on a truck with other recruits to trek across the Sahara to Libya.

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... Jalloh described how he got cold feet and sneaked off the truck after 18 hours.

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"Guys in the truck would whip people with a hose to pack you in."

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"This was the worst, most scary situation that I had ever been in as an adult."

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Before returning to the U.S., Jalloh made contact online with an ISIS operative named Abu Saad Sudani, who put Jalloh in contact with a person he hoped would help Jalloh carry out an attack in the U.S.

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But that person turned out to be a government informant.

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In conversations with the informant, Jalloh discussed carrying out a Fort Hood-style attack.

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He also sent hundreds of dollars to an undercover FBI employee he believed was an ISIS member.

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"I feel like a complete idiot for accepting such a superficial and dishonest interpretation of Islam," Jalloh wrote in a letter to the court.
ISIS supporter sentenced to prison in Muhammad cartoon contest attack (Fox 02/08/2017)
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An American-born Muslim convert convicted of supporting the Islamic State terror group and helping to plot a 2015 attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years behind bars.

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During the investigation, police found that Kareem has hosted two ISIS followers in his home to discuss the attack.

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It's still unknown whether the Texas attack was inspired by ISIS or carried out in response to an order from the group.
Man accused of killing Colorado transit officer reportedly self-described 'radical Muslim' (Fox 02/02/2017)
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... the murder of a transit officer was a targeted attack.

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... police found jihadist materials inside a backpack at the time of his arrest.
Florida sheriff's deputies foil alleged mass shooting plot at middle school (Fox 01/27/2017)
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Two Florida teenagers were arrested Thursday for allegedly planning an orchestrated mass shooting at their Orlando-area middle school.

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Local news reports said that one of the the two planned to drop a pencil during gym class to signal to the other to begin shooting.

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Students who reportedly knew about the plot were told to wear white and shout "Eugene" to avoid being a target. Some students were told not to come to school altogether.

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The two teens, ages 13 and 14, were arrested when deputies executed search warrants. Weapons were found at both suspects' homes.

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The teens were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and were placed in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
'Worst of the worst' blocked Obama from keeping promise to close Gitmo (Fox 01/19/2017)
Dallas cop sues social media companies for allegedly helping influence police shooter (Fox 01/17/2017)
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... against Twitter, Facebook and Google for allegedly providing "material support" to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and purportedly helping radicalize Micah Johnson, the Army veteran who killed five police officers and wounded nine others in an ambush last July.

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... argued that the three social media platforms "knowingly and recklessly provided the terrorist group HAMAS with accounts to use its social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda."

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"We want to hold these companies accountable for allowing terrorists to use their sites as an instrument to conduct terrorist operations."

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"Google, Facebook and Twitter profit from terrorist postings and create new content when they combine postings with advertisements targeted at specific viewers."

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"The New Black Panther Party and other black separatist groups are directly linking themselves to Palestian groups and they are sharing this stuff on Facebook."

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Hamas, along with terror groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, maintain an active presence on both Facebook and Twitter as a way to recruit and radicalize followers and also rely heavily on the Google-owned YouTube to post propaganda.

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"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

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In layman's terms, this basically means that sites like Facebook or YouTube are not liable for what their users post on their sites.

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Facebook and Twitter argue that they are doing everything they can to prevent terror groups from using their sites.
Florida airport shooting suspect said he did it for ISIS, officials reveal (Fox 01/17/2017)
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Accused Florida airport shooter Esteban Santiago told investigators that he spoke with ISIS terrorists in "jihadi chat rooms" and carried out the deadly Jan. 6 attack on behalf of ISIS.

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Santiago, 26, practiced firing his semiautomatic handgun at a range in Alaska during the months before he allegedly killed five people and wounded six others at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

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"At various points...he said he carried out the attack because of government mind control."

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"But he later said he did so because of [ISIS]...after participating in jihadi chat roms."

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Santiago had initially told officials he was a victim of mind control after he was arrested without incident following the shooting.
Orlando nightclub attacker's wife could face life in prison on new charges (Fox 01/17/2017)
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... prosecutors said she deliberately helped her husband's terror plans while trying to keep police and the FBI off their trail.

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Salman, 30, "did knowingly aid and abet" her husband's attempts to support the Islamic State terror group.

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The indictment painted a much different picture from her claim she was clueless about his intentions.

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The "aiding and abetting" charge signals that the feds believe she played a major role in the attack.

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Mateen died in a shootout with police after he killed 49 people and wounded 53 others at the Pulse Nightclub on June 12, 2016.

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As for the obstruction charge, prosecutors said Salman "knowingly" misled police and the FBI about the massacre.

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"I was unaware of everything," Salman told ... in November. "I don't condone what he has done. I am very sorry for what has happened. He has hurt a lot of people."
Feds arrest Orlando nightclub shooter’s wife (NYP 01/16/2017)
Feds asking judge to appoint security officer in alleged ISIS case (Fox 01/06/2017)
Four Guantanamo detainees transferring to Saudi Arabia, as part of final wave (Fox 01/04/2017)
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The transfers are proceeding despite renewed opposition from President-elect Donald Trump ... "There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield."

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"There is one commander in chief at a time and the secretary of Defense will continue to carry out his responsibilities as he sees appropriate."

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There are 59 Gitmo detainees remaining. Roughly 20 are expected to be transferred before Trump is sworn in later this month.

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U.S. officials say 30 percent of released detainees are suspected of returning to the battlefield.
Manhattan bomb suspect pleads not guilty to attempted murder (Fox 12/20/2016)
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The man accused of setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York, injuring more than 30 people, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges.
House Report: US facing biggest Islamic terror threat since (Fox 09/11/2016)
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The United States faces its highest threat from Islamist terrorists since 9/11 and much of that stems from those radicalized at home.

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Throughout 2016, ISIS conducted 62 attacks worldwide, injuring 732 people and killing 215 in several countries, including the United States, France, and Belgium.

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"Make no mistake: we face a deadlier threat than ever before not only because our enemies have gotten savvier, but because we took the pressure off them."

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"For eight years, the Obama Administration reluctantly played global whack-a-mole with terrorists rather than leaning into the fight with decisive leadership."

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... individuals with ties to terrorist groups in Syria are attempting to gain entry to the United States through the U.S. refugee program, which has resettled nearly 13,000 Syrian refugees across the nation this year.

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... American law enforcement and intelligence officials have repeatedly indicated that the United States lacks reliable and credible intelligence to properly vet and screen potential Syrian refugees, as well as the diligent vetting of all refugee populations.

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"The attack last week at Ohio State University is further proof that our homeland remains in the crosshairs of Islamist terrorists."

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"Groups like ISIS are radicalizing new operatives from within our borders, and just this week, their new spokesman called for more inspired attacks by supporters ‘all over the world'."

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Authorities have arrested 115 individuals in the United States and charged 4 others in absentia in ISIS-linked cases since 2014.

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Also in 2016, the Obama administration transferred 48 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in 2016, and ... at least 30 percent of all former Guantanamo Bay prisoners are known, or suspected, to have returned to terrorism and jihadist activity following their release.

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"The Trump Administration will inherit a generational struggle that has only gotten longer. But rest assured, we will work closely with them to turn the table on these fanatics."
Security stepped up on Los Angeles rail system after reported threat (Fox 12/06/2016)
Investigators believe OSU attacker self-radicalized, inspired by ISIS propaganda (Fox 11/29/2016)
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Investigators have found evidence that the man who plowed a car into a crowd at Ohio State University Monday before stabbing several pedestrians with a butcher knife was inspired by ISIS propaganda.

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Artan also praised American-born Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki as a "hero" and railed against U.S. interference in Muslim lands...

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"Every single Muslim who disapproves of my actions is a sleeper cell, waiting for a signal. I am warning you Oh America!" Artan also said.

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Leaders of Muslim organizations and mosques in the Columbus area condemned the attacks while cautioning people against jumping to conclusions or blaming a religion or an ethnicity.
US Islamist group arming up in anticipation of Trump, report claims (Fox 11/29/2016)
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An Islamist group with secretive compounds around the U.S. is arming up in anticipation of raids by the incoming Trump administration.

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Muslims of America, which is headquartered in Hancock, N.Y., and run from Pakistan by leader Sheikh Gilani, operates 22 "Islamic villages" around the nation.

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The compounds are legal, but Gilani has recently ordered all unarmed members to gather firearms, licenses and hunting permits.

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"I foretold disastrous results should this man be elected as the American President. He has come as a test and trial for the faithful adherents of the holy books."

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Supporters say the compounds are simply Islamic communes for mainly African-American Muslims who seek to follow Gilani's teachings in a rural setting.

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... members across the country were given instructions by Gilani to "be prepared to fight," against President-Elect Trump, who the group believes is part of a satanic-Zionist conspiracy to destroy Islam.

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Muslims of America's headquarters in rural New York is known as "Islamberg."

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According to a 2007 FBI report ... MOA "possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns within the U.S. and overseas."
'Stop interfering with other countries': OSU attacker slammed US over treatment of Muslims on Facebook (Fox 11/29/2016)
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The man who plowed a car into a crowd at Ohio State University before stabbing several pedestrians with a butcher knife praised American-born Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki as a "hero" and also rallied against U.S. interference in Muslim lands, law enforcement officials said.

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"America! Stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah. We are not weak. We are not weak, remember that."

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"Every single Muslim who disapproves of my actions is a sleeper cell, waiting for a signal. I am warning you Oh America!" Artan also said.

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... the reference of al-Awlaki on Abdul Razak Ali Artan's social media accounts is "deeply concerning" because it could suggest he was self-radicalized before launching the attack.

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In recent months, federal law enforcement officials have raised concerns about online extremist propaganda that encourages knife and car attacks, which are easier to pull off than bombings.

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The Islamic State group has urged sympathizers online to carry out lone-wolf attacks in their home countries with whatever weapons are available to them.

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... Artan was born in Somalia and was a legal U.S. permanent resident.
Somali student behind car, knife attack at Ohio State University that injured 11 (Fox 11/28/2016)
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A Somali-born student at Ohio State University injured 11 people, one of them critically, on Monday when he attacked a crowd of pedestrians on campus in an incident one lawmaker said "bears all the hallmarks of a terror attack."

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... Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, plowed a small gray Honda into the crowd outside Watts Hall, an engineering classroom building.

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Artan then got out of the vehicle and attacked people with a butcher knife before he was shot and killed by a campus police officer.

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The officer, identified as Alan Horujko, 28, happened to be in the area because of a reported gas leak. Ohio State University Police Chief Craig Stone said Horujko arrived on the scene and shot Artan in under a minute. OSU Department of Public Safety Director Monica Moll said Horujko had done a "fabulous job."

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... five of the victims had been struck by the car, five others had suffered lacerations or stab wounds and another person had orthopedic injuries.

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... Artan came into the United States as a Somali refugee, and was granted status as a legal permanent resident.

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... an interview with Artan, who identified himself as a Muslim and a third-year logistics management student who had just transferred from Columbus State Community College in the fall.

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He said he was looking for a place to pray openly and worried about how he would be received.

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"I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media. I'm a Muslim, it's not what media portrays me to be."

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"If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don't know what they're going to think, what's going to happen. But I don't blame them. It's the media that put that picture in their heads."

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... Artan was a logistics management major in the university's College of Business

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Neighbors say Artan was always polite and attended daily prayer services at a mosque on the city's west side.

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The motive behind the attack is still unclear, ... a Facebook post that may have been written by Artan earlier Monday. The post appeared to condemn U.S. military action in Muslim countries.

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"The fight against ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terror organizations and their global incitement to radicalism, must be carried out on battlefields far away, and by confronting online propaganda here at home."

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... "this is the type of indiscriminate violence our enemies are urging their followers to use against us."

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Leaders of Muslim organizations and mosques in the Columbus area condemned the attacks while cautioning people against jumping to conclusions or blaming a religion or an ethnicity.

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The Islamic State group (ISIS) has urged sympathizers online to carry out "lone wolf" attacks in their home countries with whatever weapons are available to them.
One suspect dead, 9 injured after attack at Ohio State University involving car, butcher knife (Fox 11/28/2016)
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An 18-year-old Somali man was behind an attack involving a car and butcher knife on the campus of Ohio State University Monday that left nine people injured.

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After the suspect plowed his vehicle into the crowd, officials said he got out of the vehicle and began attacking people with a butcher knife before he was shot and killed by a campus police officer.

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... the attacker, identified as Abdul Artan, came into the United States as a Somali refugee, and was granted status as a legal permanent resident.

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... the injuries included stab wounds, and being struck by a vehicle.

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"The guy ended up just coming and hopping the curb with his car and trying to mow down a couple people. He lost control, and I think he ended up hitting three people, and then people were around the car. Somebody asked him if he was OK and the guy just hopped out of the car with a butcher knife and starting chasing people around."
Man arrested for plotting terror attack on Times Square (Fox 11/21/2016)
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A Brooklyn man has been arrested for plotting a terror attack on Times Square and trying to join ISIS at least five times.

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Days after the terror attack in Nice, France in July, Naji was caught on wiretaps discussing with a confidential source plans to stage a similar attack in Times Square.
NY, NJ bombing suspect faces judge; lawyer says he'll plead not guilty (Fox 11/10/2016)
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The charges against him included using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place.
Iraqi terror suspects latest examples of flawed refugee vetting system, say critics (Fox 10/24/2016)
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Two Iraqi men who allegedly lied their way past U.S. immigration officials and continued their terrorist-related activities after being admitted as refugees are the latest evidence that a flawed screening process is putting Americans at risk.

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"These latest cases of refugees who turned out to be terrorists confirm that it is simply impossible for our screening system to detect all those who are a threat."

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"These two men should never have been admitted."

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"They were interested and involved in terrorism before they came here, and our so-called great vetting system, that obviously isn't as great as the Obama administration claims, did not pick up on it."

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Over the last seven years, more than 100,000 Iraqi refugees have been granted refugee status in the U.S., and President Obama has granted nearly 13,000 Syrians the same.

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"Our intelligence from Iraq is much greater than in Syria because we had a military presence there for so long."

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"We had biometrics, fingerprints, and documentary evidence to identify bad actors. But cases like these show this vetting process is not foolproof."

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... a recent Senate report ... said there are "dozens" of refugees convicted of terror-related crimes.
Terror in the US is a real danger during the Mosul campaign (INN 10/23/2016)
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Based on experience with the civilian front at war in Israel, there are levels of precaution and preparedness that it would be worthy - and could be life saving - to share with the US at this time.

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Because the current US led military attack on the city of Mosul, the jewel of the Islamic State and its last stronghold in Iraq, may generate ISIS reprisals against US citizens on US soil.

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What are some standard security measures taken in Israel - as a matter of course - that can be implemented to help US citizens cope with the premonition of terror attacks?

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All modes of transport must be protected with guards, especially intercity trains.

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Guards must be immediately placed at all public buildings, places of worship, hospitals, campaign rallies, sporting events, restaurants, amusement parks and major hotels

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An increase in security guards at all of these venues would be vital. A particularly vulnerable target is the local elementary school and playground, because of the perceived helplessness of children who make easy prey for terrorists.

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Guards must eyeball everyone as they ask security questions - the technique used at Ben Gurion Airport. Shifting pupils in the eye may tip off a guard that something is not right.
2 Milwaukee men accused of trying to join Islamic State group (Fox 10/14/2016)
NY-NJ bomb suspect pleads not guilty of trying to kill police (Fox 10/13/2016)
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Ahmad Khan Rahimi, an Afghan-born U.S. citizen ... is charged with five counts of attempted murder of a police officer and weapons offenses.

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Rahimi also faces federal charges in both states.
Arizona woman accused of planning to enact terrorism (Fox 10/13/2016)
Mall terrorist was newly interested in Islam, used steak knives during attack, FBI says (Fox 10/06/2016)
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The Islamic terrorist who wounded 10 people during a September attack at a Minnesota mall used a pair of steak knives to stab his victims in the head...

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Adan, armed with a knife in each hand, previously had charged Falconer twice.

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"We are very grateful that off-duty police officer was in the mall that night."

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... he had flunked out of school and lost interest in his typical hobbies before turning more deeply to Islam.

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"We were told (he) had not previously shown an interest in religion."

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Adan yelled Islamist phrases during the attack and, at one point, approached Falconer and asked him if he were Muslim.

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"We have numerous credible witness accounts of him asking victims during the attack if they were Muslim and at least one instance yelling 'Allahu akbar' while stabbing one of his victims and others heard him yelling ‘Islam Islam' during the attack."

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Falconer ultimately fired 10 shots, hitting Adan six times.

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After killing Adan, Falconer showed his police badge to horrified shoppers who were unsure of what was unfolding in front of them.

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While driving to the mall, Adan struck a cyclist – who rolled across the car's hood. Adan did not stop and later ran a red light en route to his planned attack.

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When the attacks happened, the Islamic State-run news agency claimed Adan was a "soldier of the Islamic State" who had heeded the group's calls for attacks in countries that are part of a U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition.

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It wasn't immediately known whether the extremist group had planned the attack or knew about it beforehand.
Transcripts of Orlando shooter's conversation with police reveal ISIS influence (Fox 09/28/2016)
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"Yo, the airstrike that killed Abu Wahid a few weeks ago — That's what triggered it, okay?" he told the police negotiator, an apparent reference in the transcript to the Islamic State commander.

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"What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there. You get what I'm saying?"
Mall shooting suspect had blog with picture of ISIS leader (Fox 09/26/2016)
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The Turkish immigrant accused of gunning down five people at a Washington mall smirked at his first court appearance Monday even as reports revealed he had a blog with photo posts of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

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Authorities said they have not ruled out terrorism as a motive in the shooting at the Cascade Mall in Burlington.

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Cetin told detectives he was responsible for the mall murders.

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Aside from the posts featuring noted Islamists, Cetin's blogs also featured posts about serial killer Ted Bundy and the Area 51 test site.

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Cetin's alleged rampage lasted about one minute ... he used a rifle that was recovered at the scene before fleeing the mall in a car.
Border agents alerted FBI on NJ-NY bombing suspect in 2014 (Fox 09/23/2016)
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... Rahami was questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in March of 2014 upon his return to the U.S. from a 13-month trip to Pakistan.

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The FBI was notified about the interview months before Rahami's father told the FBI his son could be involved with terrorism.

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Typically, when someone is flagged like Rahami was, they are given a secondary interview and questioned further.

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The information was likely sent to the FBI after being gathered by the National Targeting Center, a division of Customs and Border Protection that targets people and goods at all major ports of entry that pose potential risk to the United States.

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The NTC is credited with capturing failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad in 2010 as he was boarding a flight to Dubai from JFK.

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It is not known what about Rahami might have raised a red flag, but the agency does track individuals who travel to parts of the world where ISIS or Al Qaeda are active.

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"What happened here, as was the case with other terrorists who came on the governments radar, like Syed Farook, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and others, is that our immigration system is producing alerts, and providing the opportunity to investigate suspicious people and activity, but the leads are not followed."

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"This is partly because our loosely-run immigration policy has flooded the works with too many people to monitor, and too many immigrant enclaves in which bad actors can melt into the background."

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"I believe this oversight on the part of the FBI also stems from a policy emanating from the top that denies any connection between our immigration policy and these incidents of terror attacks, and therefore tends to dismiss or underutilize the national security value of immigration tools."

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Rahami allegedly spent time in a religious seminary in Pakistan that was known to have ties to the Taliban.
EXCLUSIVE: Federal complaint against bombing suspect omits journal's ISIS references (Fox 09/21/2016)
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Pages from the bloody journal of the New York and New Jersey bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami show he was a follower of Al Qaeda as well as the Islamic State terror group, yet federal investigators made no reference to ISIS in their complaint charging him on Tuesday.

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"I looked for guidance came Sheikh Anwar, Brother Adnani, Dawla. Said it clearly – Attack the kuffar (non-believer) in the back yard."

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The Counter Extremism Project's research counted 77 extremists — 43 U.S. extremists and 34 European extremists — with ties to Anwar al-Awlaki.

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They include the Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen in June, as well as Syed Farook, one of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre in December 2015.

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In addition, the journal included rantings plotting revenge against the U.S. government for slaughtering Muslim holy warriors.

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... Rahami suggested he was worried police or the feds would capture him before he could carry out a suicide attack, becoming a martyr.

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"The sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets," the journal declared.

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Another section included a reference to "pipe bombs" and a "pressure cooker bomb" and declared: "In the streets they plan to run a mile."

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... the journal ended with the words: "Death to your oppression."

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The pages appeared to be pierced by a bullet from the shootout that ended with Rahami in handcuffs on Monday.
Known wolves: Several terrorists were under investigation before they attacked (Fox 09/21/2016)
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Two years after the FBI concluded Ahmad Khan Rahami was not a terrorist, the Afghan immigrant was charged in federal court with using a weapon of mass destruction in a weekend terror attack that injured 31 people.

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So did Rahami convert overnight or did investigators miss his Islamist leanings in 2014?

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"The challenge that the bureau has when they investigate a man like this man is to identify not a criminal, but to try to discover what I would call the ‘not-yet guilty,'"

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The missed opportunity to nab Rahami before he allegedly bombed a New York City neighborhood is just the latest instance in a string of squandered chances by authorities to identify and stop potential terrorists before they carry out their plots.

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Another issue is the sheer volume of tips flowing to authorities. FBI Director James Comey has said there are more than 1,000 active terror investigations taking place in all 50 states.

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"The fact that we can't even look at somebody's heritage or religious background in a Muslim that's a Muslim extremist – that's what we need to look for."

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"To exclude the FBI from looking in that direction is a mistake. We've gone so far in political correctness to stay away from the term ‘profiling' that we can't do a regular investigation."
Federal charges filed against NY, NJ bombings suspect (Fox 09/20/2016)
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Ahmad Khan Rahami is accused of use of weapons of mass destruction, bombing a place of public use, destruction of property by means of fire or explosive, and use of a destructive device during and in furtherance of a crime of violence.

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Investigators believe Rahami planted bombs in New York City, as well as in Elizabeth and Seaside Park, N.J. One of the devices exploded in Manhattan Saturday night, wounding 31 people.

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The court filing makes alleges significant premeditation by Rahami. An affidavit claims that he began buying bomb components in June, purchasing citric acid, circuit boards, ball bearings and electric igniters on eBay.

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The court filing also included excerpts from a handwritten journal found on Rahami during his arrest Monday. Investigators say Rahami accused the U.S. government of "slaught[er] against the mujahidean [sic] be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Sham [Syria], Palestine ..."

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The journal also lauded Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric killed in a 2011 drone strike, and Nidal Hasan, the former U.S. Army major who went on a 2009 rampage at the Fort Hood military installation.

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Prosecutors say the document ends: "The sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets. Gun shots to your police. Death To Your OPPRESSION."
Bombing suspect's father says he called FBI on his violent son 2 years ago (Fox 09/20/2016)
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The father of the man suspected in the New York and New Jersey bomb blasts claimed Tuesday he called the FBI on his own son two years ago — but a source said he immediately recanted, as multiple news agencies reported that officers found a journal pierced with a bullet hole after the shootout that ended with the suspect in handcuffs.

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Ahmad Khan Rahami's father, Mohammad, spoke to reporters outside his home in Elizabeth, N.J.

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"Two years I called the FBI, my son, he's doing very bad, OK? But they check it almost two months... They say he's not a terrorist. I said, 'OK.' Now they say he is a terrorist. I say, 'OK.'"

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Rahami's father said that two years ago, his son "was doing bad. Yeah, he stabbed my son, he hit my wife and I put him to jail two years ago."

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Mohammad Rahami added that Ahmad stabbed his brother Nasser "for no reason."

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"He recanted immediately – he left that part out. He said he didn't mean his son was a terrorist, just that he was interested in gang activity and watching violent videos. There was no derogatory information on him, and no basis to continue the investigation.

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FBI's scrubbing of the allegations made against Rahami at the time did not turn anything up — or as a law enforcement source close to the investigation described, the lead "washed out."

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The notebook that turned up on Rahami after the shootout included writing that referenced "killing the kuffar," or unbeliever.

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The journal and a separate note contained written rants suggesting Rahami was influenced by several terrorist ideologies ... Rahami referenced Usama bin Laden and the American terror cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

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Rahami was arrested for stabbing a person in the leg and possession of a firearm in 2014.

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But a grand jury declined to indict him, despite a warning from the arresting officer that Rahami was likely "a danger to himself or others."

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While the hunt for Rahami has ended, the investigation into his alleged path from server at a family restaurant to terrorist bomber is just beginning.

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Friends of Rahami's who spoke with media outlets trace the roots of his radicalism to his trips to jihadist hotbeds in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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"It's like he was a completely different person. He got serious and completely closed off."

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Rahami began wearing traditional Muslim robes after one trip to Afghanistan... He grew a beard and began praying in the back of his family's chicken restaurant.

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There are family influences on Rahami, too.

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Rahami's dad, Mohammad, told Wagner that he fought the Soviet Army in the 1980s as a member of the mujahedeen, the same group that spawned Usama bin Laden and a generation of terrorists.

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... his brother posted a meme in 2013 showing extremist fighters with the quote: "I bring men who desire death as ardently as you desire life." The same brother also posted a 9/11 conspiracy theory video last month.

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Rahami was born in Afghanistan in 1988 and came legally to the U.S. in January 1995, several years after his father arrived in America as an asylum seeker.

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"I would like people to respect my family's privacy and let us have our peace after this tragic time. I would not like to answer any questions."
Officials capture Afghan-born man sought in connection with New York, New Jersey bombings (Fox 09/19/2016)
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The Afghan immigrant who authorities believe planted bombs in New Jersey and New York this weekend was captured Monday after a dramatic gun battle with police that was sparked when officers found him sleeping in the doorway of a bar.

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... in search of Ahmad Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was identified as the primary person of interest in the Saturday night blast in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, an explosion in New Jersey's Seaside Park on Saturday morning and a foiled bomb attack Sunday night near a train station in Elizabeth, NJ.

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A bar owner in Linden, NJ spotted a man sleeping in his doorway and called police.

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Rahami pulled a gun and shot the officer — who was wearing a bulletproof vest — in the abdomen, and more officers soon joined in a running gun battle with Rahami.

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Rahami was shot at least once in the leg and eventually brought down and captured alive.

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... investigators discovered five suspicious devices — one of which exploded while a bomb squad robot tried to disarm it — near a train station.

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... a "number of individuals" who are possibly connected to the explosion were taken into custody.

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"Today I believe we're going to find out [the bombing] was being influenced by foreign sources."

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... a "number of individuals" who are possibly connected to the explosions were taken into custody.

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... the New York and New Jersey bombs used flip phones as detonators. ... the New York bombs contained shrapnel consisting of ball bearings and BBs.
Officials probe bombings, stabbings in three U.S. cities in a 12-hour span (Fox 09/18/2016)
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"I am concerned. We have a bomb that detonated and no one apprehended."

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The trio of dangerous episodes began Saturday when a pipe bomb exploded inside a plastic garbage can in New Jersey's Seaside Park at 9:30 a.m. Investigators eventually found several devices "wired together" that did not detonate in the same garbage can.

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Several hours later, and just 80 miles north, a bomb detonated on West 23rd St. in Manhattan at 8:30 p.m., injuring 29. The blast appeared to originate from a construction toolbox in front of a building. A garbage can was found mangled nearby.

•
... the unexploded device and the detonated bomb were "both similar in design."

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An hour after the New York bomb exploded, a knife-wielding man injured nine people — seven men and two women — during a bloody rampage at a central Minnesota shopping center.

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During the assault ... the man reportedly asked at least one victim if they were Muslim and also referenced Allah.

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ISIS-related media on Sunday morning claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the unidentified assailant "a soldier of the Islamic State."
Explosion in New York City believed to be 'intentional,' mayor says; 29 injured (Fox 09/18/2016)
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All 29 people injured in the explosion, which happened on West 23rd Street in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, had been released from area hospitals by Sunday morning.

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"Whoever placed these bombs we will find, and they will be brought to justice. Period."

•
"No evidence of an international terrorism connection with this incident, but it is very, very early in the investigation, and it's just starting."

•
The blast appeared to originate from a construction toolbox in front of a building at around 8:30 p.m..

•
Less than three hours after the explosion, investigators located a pressure cooker inside a plastic bag at West 27th Street that was attached to wiring and a cellphone.

•
... device on 23rd street and the device on 27th street were "both similar in design."

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... the explosion blew out the windows of businesses and scattered debris in the area.

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The blast happened in front of a residence for the blind, near a major thoroughfare with many restaurants and a Trader Joe's supermarket.
Minnesota mall attacker referenced Allah before stabbing rampage, police chief says (Fox 09/18/2016)
•
ISIS claimed responsibility after a knife-wielding man injured eight people at a mall in central Minnesota Saturday evening, a bloody rampage during which he reportedly asked at least one victim whether they were Muslim and referenced Allah.

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... the suspect ... was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer from another jurisdiction. Five of the eight victims had been treated and released from a local hospital and all were expected to survive their injuries.

•
"The executor of the stabbing attacks in Minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition."

•
... the man's father identified him as Dahir A. Adan, 22. Speaking to the newspaper through an interpreter, Ahmed Adan, whose family is Somali, said his son was born in Africa and had lived in the U.S. for 15 years.
Bill Clinton's terrorism strategy led to 9/11. Hillary Clinton's is the exact same (JWR ng/0/2016)
•
"We've got to do it with air power," she declared...

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Today, the terrorists no longer fear the ferocity of the United States' response.

•
The rise of the Islamic State put a halt to Obama's retreat, but not before the Islamic State cancer was allowed to grow and metastasize across the globe.

•
"Al Qaeda is not gone. It is not down. It is not out. It has not been eclipsed."

•
"It is biding its time, working, waiting. ... It will come for us again, and we are not paying attention."

•
Bush's strategy was to fight them over there so that we do not have to face them over here.

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The Clinton strategy is to fight them from the air so that we do not have to face them on the ground.

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But as we learned on 9/11, if we fight them from the air alone, we will face them on the ground - American ground.

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The Clinton Doctrine failed once. Do we really want to go back?
More ex-Gitmo detainees returning to terror, as Obama faces closure complications (Fox 09/16/2016)
•
... two more former prisoners have returned to the battlefield – bringing the total number of detainees who have returned to terror under the Obama administration to nine.

•
The new report shows that of the 161 former detainees released during this administration, nine are "confirmed" to be "directly involved in terrorist or insurgent activities."

•
By comparison, 532 detainees were released during the Bush administration, of which 113 have re-engaged in some type of terror-tied activity.

•
"The administration has made clear it intends to transfer as many terrorist detainees as possible from Gitmo before the president leaves office in order to fulfill a misguided campaign promise. This is reckless, and it puts American lives at risk."

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"For the president, this is about keeping a campaign promise. For us, this is about keeping Americans safe."
On 9/11 anniversary, Homeland Secretary Johnson says US safer but 'challenged' by newer, lone-wolf (Fox ks/0/2016)
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"Our government's become pretty good at detecting and preventing something hatched from overseas."

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"We're better than we were 15 years ago. Where we're challenged, however, is the lone wolf-style attack."
Three men tried to stop San Bernardino attack, report finds (Fox 09/10/2016)
Dana Perino: We must never forget the faith and patriotism of those on Flight 93 (Fox 09/09/2016)
•
... huddled in the back of Flight 93, the passengers learn of the plane that hit the Pentagon.

•
And they realized that the hijackers were lying to them — they weren't going back to an airport.

•
In just minutes, these passengers accepted their duty and made a plan.

•
In an act of defiance against the terrorists who hated their way of life, the passengers held a vote...

•
They decided to try to wrest back control of the plane instead of being used as a weapon against their own people.

•
In those next few minutes, several passengers made phone calls to loved ones; three of those calls were recorded, and you can listen to them at the visitors' center at the memorial.

•
Go listen to those calls to better understand the story. Let yourself cry. It helps.

•
After the calls, the passengers come together in prayer. Bounded by their faith and their patriotism, they defied the terrorists and ultimately lost their lives. But they saved countless others.

•
The victims of the other three flights had no chance to fight back because they didn't know what was happening.

•
The passengers of Flight 93 barely had time to process the news, but they acted swiftly. They were brave. And selfless.
FBI investigating whether Virginia stabbings were ISIS-inspired (Fox 08/23/2016)
•
Farooqui had traveled to Turkey in the last year and may have tried to sneak into Syria to meet with ISIS militants.

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Farooqui allegedly attacked a man and woman at an apartment complex... Both victims were seriously injured in the attack.

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Witnesses told authorities that Farooqi was yelling "Allah Akbar."

•
Authorities believe that Farooqui may have been trying to behead the male victim...

•
Investigators said that there was no connection between Farooqui and the victims.
Suspect who tried disguising terror trip as getting 'teeth fixed' pleads guilty, feds say (Fox 08/16/2016)
•
A man in Michigan pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents after he said he tried flying to Lebanon to join the terror group Hezbollah, but told the feds the purpose was to "get his teeth fixed."

•
He sold his house, gave a relative his car and packed up all his possessions before trying to leave.
NY man pleads guilty to plotting New Year's terror attack (Fox 08/11/2016)
•
... Lutchman explored websites related to violent jihad and initiated contact with now-deceased Islamic State terrorist Abu Issa Al-Amriki in Syria in December 2015. Prosecutors say Al-Amriki told him to plan an attack on New Year's Eve and kill non-believers, or "kuffar."

•
The FBI says it used paid informants to uncover the plot and take Lutchman to a Walmart store to purchase black ski masks, two knives, a machete, ammonia and other supplies for the attack.
Mississippi woman sentenced to 12 years for trying to join ISIS in trip disguised as honeymoon (Fox 08/11/2016)
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Her fiance, Muhammad Dakhlalla, pleaded guilty March 11 to a similar charge and is set to be sentenced Aug. 24.

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Prosecutors have said Young, who converted to Islam while studying at Mississippi State University, had prodded Dakhlalla into the plan.

•
The two were arrested in 2015 before boarding a flight from Columbus, Mississippi, with tickets for Istanbul, Turkey.

•
"I found the contacts, made arrangements, planned the departure," Young had written in a farewell letter to her family. "I am guilty of what you soon will find out."

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The daughter of a school administrator and a police officer who served in the Navy reserve, Young is a former honor student, cheerleader and homecoming maid at Vicksburg's Warren Central High School.

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The two were arrested in August 2015 before they could board the flight from Mississippi with tickets for Istanbul purchased using her mother's credit card without permission.

•
"After her conversion, Young distanced herself from family and friends and felt spending time with non-Muslims would be a bad influence."

•
"Young continually asked Dakhlalla when they were going to join (the Islamic State group) and began to express hatred for the U.S. government and to express support for the implementation of Sharia law in the United States."
Churches take new security measures in face of terror threats (Fox 08/08/2016)
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The time-honored tradition was shattered when a car passed by the Riverside, Calif., church, slowing down as the front passenger leaned out of his window and bellowed menacingly through a bullhorn.

•
"Allahu Akbar!" the unidentified man repeated several times as the unnerved parents drew their infants close and exchanged worried glances.

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... no law was broken – even if an unmistakable message was sent and received.

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... the church now has security officers on hand for all regular services.

•
"It is a deep sorrow to live this way in the 'new America,'"

•
Instead of offering sanctuary from evil, churches could in fact be attractive targets for terror.

•
"Many churches are now hiring self-defense instructors for classes or security guards that include off-duty police."

•
"Until [radical Islam is defeated], we can expect Christians, including in the West, to rationally tighten security measures and try to protect themselves from attack."

•
In February, Khial Abu-Rayyan, 21, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., was arrested after he told an undercover FBI agent he was preparing to "shoot up" a major church near his home on behalf of ISIS.

•
A month earlier, the Rev. Roger Spradlin of Valley Baptist Church – one of the biggest congregations in Bakersfield, Calif. – told attendees that they had received a threat written in Arabic.

•
"Undercover officers were then placed during worship services."

•
Last September, an Islamic man clad in combat gear was charged with making a terrorist threat after entering Corinth Missionary Baptist Church, in Bullard, Tex., and claiming that God had instructed him to kill Christians and "other infidels."

•
A year earlier, police were called to Saint Bartholomew's Catholic Church in Columbus, Ind., after the house of worship was vandalized with the word "Infidels!" along with a Koranic verse sanctioning death for nonbelievers.

•
Similar graffiti was found that same night at nearby Lakeview Church of Christ and East Columbus Christian Church.

•
"I don't know that there is any real protection against the 'lone wolf' mentality, not without infringing on everybody's freedoms."

•
"We don't have metal detectors, people go in and out. Churches are family-orientated, public, tax-supported spaces; so they may appeal to some as a target."

•
Earlier this year, the FBI disrupted a plot by a Muslim convert to blow up the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center, in Aventura, Fla.

•
A 2014 audit by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that anti-Semitic incidents rose 21 percent across the country that year.
DOJ pressed on decision to drop Orlando gunman from terror list (Fox 07/27/2016)
•
"It is unclear how the FBI made the decision to remove Mateen from the TSDB, despite the concerns that had been raised."

•
"If Mateen's name was included at the time that he purchased the firearms, under existing authorities, the Justice Department would have been alerted to the purchases and had an opportunity to potentially stop the attack."
Islamic relief agency admits illegal funds transfer to Iraq (Fox 07/21/2016)
•
A Missouri-based Islamic charity that was shut down after being identified by the federal government as a global terrorist organization admitted in federal court Wednesday that it illegally funneled $1.4 million to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions.

•
... wrongly used its tax-exempt status to solicit funds, representing them as legitimate charitable contributions.
US intel bulletin warns of persistent threat from 'Western female violent extremists' (Fox 07/20/2016)
•
... "continued trend of Western female violent extremists... engaging or attempting to engage in plotting against targets in the West, including their home countries."

•
"Western female violent extremists have also demonstrated an ongoing interest in conducting supportive activities such as fundraising or traveling to marry foreign fighters..."

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"We remain concerned Western female violent extremists who are unable or unwilling to travel abroad could instead choose to engage in violence at home."
Killer of Baton Rouge law enforcement officers a man of mixed messages (Fox 07/19/2016)
•
Gavin Long was a man of mixed messages. He peddled self-published books with abstract themes about self-empowerment and spiritual enlightenment, but also posted rambling internet videos calling for violent action in response to what he considered oppression.

•
In the last message sent from his Twitter account early Sunday, he wrote: "Just bc you wake up every morning doesn't mean that you're living. And just bc you shed your physical body doesn't mean that you're dead."

•
Nine hours later, he ambushed law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, fatally shooting two police officers and a sheriff's deputy and injuring three others before being shot dead himself. It was his 29th birthday.

•
... he said he belonged to the Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah, also known as the Washitaw Nation, a black anti-government group whose members believe they are indigenous to the United States and beyond the federal government's reach.

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"I AM restored to my own aboriginal-indigenous appellation ... without colorable law (legal) contract from GAVIN EUGENE LONG to Cosmo Ausar Setepenra in accord with the laws, customs, religious practices, traditions, distinct identities, characteristics and divine principles and language(s) of my Ancestors ..."

•
He urged viewers to question their "mindsets" and fight back, insisting that protests alone don't work.

•
"You see, that's what separates me from the 7 billion. And that's why I'm so powerful because I stand on my rights."

•
"Oh, and this is very important, I just wanted to let you all know — because if anything happens with me. I just wanted to let you all know: don't affiliate me with nothing. yeah, I was also a Nation of Islam member, I'm not affiliated with it. They try to put you with ISIS or some other terrorist group. I'm affiliated with the spirit of Justice, nothing else."

•
In the months leading up his fatal encounter with police, Long had used videos to promote his three-volume book series "The Cosmo Way," self-published last year under the name Cosmo Setepenra.

•
He called himself a "Freedom Strategist, Mental Game Coach, Nutritionist, Author and Spiritual Advisor" who wrote books he described as lessons about nutrition, self-awareness and empowerment.

•
"My advice is to question everything and everyone. Your parents, what they taught you growing up, your schooling, your society, your history, your beliefs, and everything you've been taught regarding what and who you really are."

•
"You've got to fight back. That's the only way a bully knows to quit."
Orlando nightclub killer taunted co-workers with claims he was linked to terror groups (Fox 07/19/2016)
•
Omar Mateen responded to the taunts by telling his co-workers that he had connections to terrorists and a mass shooter, but he later told his bosses he made that up to get them off his back, and the FBI determined he was not a threat.

•
"I love the United States. The boasting I did it just to satisfy the gang of co-workers who ganged up against me."

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"I'm 1,000% pure American. ... I'm against these terrorists anyone of them."

•
Mateen, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State during a call with police dispatchers amid a three-hour standoff, died in a hail of gunfire after police stormed the venue.
Baton Rouge killer carefully plotted attack against police, brought 3 guns, investigators say (Fox 07/18/2016)
Baton Rouge cop killer may have stalked police before ambush, say sources (Fox 07/18/2016)
•
Police believe Long, who was wearing body armor during his attack, had been in Baton Rouge for six days and knew that cops often frequented the gas station and car wash where the shooting unfolded.

•
Long was associated with the Nation of Islam, the militant Muslim group led by Louis Farrakhan, according to a report by The Daily Caller.

•
That report cited YouTube videos in which a person believed to be Long called for violence against white America, and revenge for the death of Alton Sterling, a black man killed July 5 while being arrested by Baton Rouge police.

•
While in the military, Long was awarded several medals, including one for good conduct, and received an honorable discharge.

•
According to radio traffic, Baton Rouge police answered a report of a man with an assault rifle and were met by gunfire. For several long minutes, they didn't know where the shooting was coming from.

•
"There simply is no place for more violence. It doesn't further the conversation. It doesn't address any injustice perceived or real. It is just an injustice in and of itself."
US government releases secret chapter from 9/11 (Fox rt/0/2016)
•
Under wraps for 13 years, the report contains numerous redactions but states some hijackers "were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi Government."

•
"I know that the release of these pages will not end debate over the issue, but it will quiet rumors over their contents – as is often the case, the reality is less damaging than the uncertainty."
Not if, but when? Terror in France renews warnings about US threat (Fox 07/15/2016)
•
"We all know, there will be a terrorist diaspora out of the caliphate as military force crushes the caliphate."

•
"Those thousands of fighters are going to go someplace. Our job is to spot them and stop them before they come to the United States to harm innocent people."

•
"Western civilization is in a war," Gingrich said, before going so far as to say the U.S. should "test" Muslims in America, and, "If they believe in Sharia, they should be deported."

•
"We are in a war. We had better rethink the rules or we are going to lose the war."
US frees Yemeni prisoner from Guantanamo, sends him to Italy (Fox 07/10/2016)
Dallas sniper followed black militant groups on Facebook, was sent home from Afghanistan over harassment claim (Fox 07/09/2016)
•
... the African American Defense League, posted a message earlier in the week encouraging violence against police in response to the killing in Louisiana.

•
"The Pig has shot and killed Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana! You and I know what we must do and I don't mean marching, making a lot of noise, or attending conventions. We must `Rally The Troops!' It is time to visit Louisiana and hold a barbeque." The message was attributed to Dr. Mauricelm-Lei Millere, a leader in the organization.
Homeland Security Chairman McCaul: The war is at our doorstep (Fox 06/22/2016)
•
We are a nation at war, and our own city streets have once again become the frontlines.

•
To defend the American people, we need bold leadership and strategic thinking, including a clear-eyed assessment of the danger, a vision for how to win the wider war against Islamist terror, and a willingness to take decisive action.

•
On each of these accounts, the Obama administration has failed.

•
First, we believe that you need to define an enemy in order to defeat it. So let's be clear: Our nation has been attacked by radical Islamists, and we are at war with them and the legions of extremist foot soldiers that have filled their ranks.

•
Sadly, the President consistently refuses to call the threat what it is, and his Administration even tried censoring references to Islamist terrorists out of the transcripts of the Orlando shooter's 911 phone calls.

•
President Obama believes calling the threat by its real name demonizes an entire religion and alienates everyday Muslims that can help win this struggle.

•
Fighting back against this insidious ideology should not offend anyone but those who subscribe to it.

•
Second, we need a vision for winning this generational struggle.

•
Yet again, the Administration has failed to deliver, arguing for "strategic patience" instead of laying out a plan to confront looming threats.

•
Radical Islamists are working to infiltrate our country — online and across borders — and have been able to increase their impact by "crowd-sourcing" terror. In just the past two years, ISIS alone has been linked to nearly 100 plots against the West, and the United States was the top target.

•
Third and finally, our country must be forward-looking about the danger and proactive in addressing it.

•
We know all-too-well that delay can be deadly. Terror has gone viral, in part, because America failed to lead.

•
ISIS could have been destroyed early on, but because it was not, the war has come back to our doorstep.

•
Accordingly, our country must be determined to take the fight to the enemy and to clear terrorist hotspots, no matter where they emerge. Such sanctuaries allow radical Islamists to expand their influence, train new operatives, and plot against us.
Anatomy of the terror threat: Files show hundreds of US plots, refugee connection (Fox 06/22/2016)
•
Newly obtained congressional data shows hundreds of terror plots have been stopped in the U.S. since 9/11 – mostly involving foreign-born suspects, including dozens of refugees.

•
The files are sure to inflame the debate over the Obama administration's push to admit thousands more refugees from Syria and elsewhere, a proposal Donald Trump has vehemently opposed on the 2016 campaign trail.

•
"[T]hese data make clear that the United States not only lacks the ability to properly screen individuals prior to their arrival, but also that our nation has an unprecedented assimilation problem."

•
An Atlantic City man using his "Revolution Muslim" site to encourage confrontations with U.S. Jewish leaders "at their homes".

•
An Iraq refugee arrested in January, accused of traveling to Syria to "take up arms" with terror groups.

•
... the data shows America has been facing a steady stream of plots.

•
For the period September 2001 through 2014, data shows the U.S. successfully prosecuted 580 individuals for terrorism and terror-related cases.

•
Further, since early 2014, at least 131 individuals were identified as being implicated in terror.

•
... at least 40 people initially admitted to the U.S. as refugees later were convicted or implicated in terror cases.

•
Among the 580 convicted, they said, at least 380 were foreign-born. The top countries of origin were Pakistan, Lebanon and Somalia, as well as the Palestinian territories.

•
... show a sharp spike in cases in 2015, largely stemming from the arrest of suspects claiming allegiance to the Islamic State.

•
The senators say the terror-case repository still is missing critical details on suspects' immigration history, which they say the Department of Homeland Security has "failed to provide."

•
Immigration data the senators compiled came from other sources.

•
"The administration refuses to give out the information necessary to establish a sound policy that protects Americans from terrorists."
FBI, DOJ release new, full transcript of Orlando shooter's 911 call (Fox 06/20/2016)
•
... calling the morning's furor over omissions in the document "an unnecessary distraction."

•
The old version had several words scrubbed and read: "I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted]."

•
"This is evil, this is ISIS. It's radical Islam. At some point, we lost 49 lives here and we lost a journalist who was beheaded by ISIS. We need a president that's going to say I care about destroying ISIS."

•
"As the killer made these statements, he did so in a chilling, calm and deliberate manner."

•
... Mateen told negotiators he had a "vehicle outside that has some bombs. Just to let you know. You people are gonna get it, and I'm gonna ignite it if they try to do anything stupid."

•
Mateen claimed he had an explosive vest similar to the kind used by terrorists "in France."

•
"In the next few days, you're going to see more of this type of action going on."

•
No explosives were ever found on Mateen inside the club or in any vehicles outside. Mateen was armed with two guns during the rampage.

•
"Orlando further steels our resolve to carry out all aspects of our coalition military campaign plan."

•
"First, destroying ISIL's parent tumor in Iraq and Syria, which is necessary, but not sufficient; second, combating ISIL's metastases worldwide wherever it appears; and third helping protect the homeland."
DOJ to scrub Islam references from transcripts of Orlando terrorist's calls to police (Fox 06/20/2016)
•
The Department of Justice is scrubbing references of radical Islamic beliefs from the transcripts of calls Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen made to police during his massacre.

•
... the transcripts will not include Mateen's oath of loyalty to ISIS or any other religious justification for the attack.

•
"What we're not going to do is further proclaim this man's pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups, and further his propaganda," Lynch told NBC. "We are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance [to the Islamic State]."

•
"I pledge my alliance to (ISIS leader) abu bakr al Baghdadi.. may Allah accept me."

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"The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west"

•
"You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance."

•
"The fact that Loretta Lynch is somehow redacting the specific enemy that is being called out here is a PR move."

•
"Why didn't they do this with the Mafia, to spare Italian-Americans?" Giuliani asked.

•
"Why? Because if you did, you would never make the connection [which ultimately] brought them down."

•
... before his final moments came, Mateen declared allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — right in the midst of the slaughter.

•
President Obama famously has tried not to use the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism" in his remarks.
Alleged American ISIS fighter praises Orlando gunman in new video (Fox 06/19/2016)
•
"Omar Mateen, one of the soldiers of the [caliphate], was one of the few that was truthful to his lord."

•
"While having prepared his weapons and taken steps, while having trust and reliance upon Allah, it is through his hand that Allah punished his enemies."

•
"Do you think you're at war with a small group of Mujahedeen in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other places? You are sadly mistaken. And do you think you can defeat us by bombarding our homes with the help of your drones and F-16s [and government groups]? Then again, you have sadly made a great mistake."

•
"Oh America, indeed you are at war with all the true and sincere Muslims around the world."
Timeline of terror: Missed warning signs of Orlando radical worry experts (Fox 06/17/2016)
•
... there were unmistakable warning signs of his growing Islamic radicalism as recently as just weeks before his rampage.

•
He was on an FBI watch list twice, reported to authorities by a fearful co-worker, raised alarms at Disney World earlier this year and made a Florida gun shop owner nervous enough to alert police.

•
"The question is whether the FBI had the evidence to take action and did not."

•
The FBI conducted a 10-month investigation into Mateen first in 2013, prompted by Mateen's claim he had connections to Al Qaeda and Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

•
By 2016, Mateen was able to pass a full background check to purchase firearms.

•
"We don't know that he was any more of a threat in 2013 and 2014 than anyone else shooting off their mouth."

•
"Back then he was deemed insignificant enough to fall below the other threats with which the FBI was contending. They have to triage the work since they have limited assets. They clearly guessed wrong."

•
"The Islamic State is attempting to radicalize people in the United States and around the world with various grievances or who are even mentally unbalanced to commit terror acts in their name, and these people are striking out in places they have been before, as well as places and people they know."

•
Born to Afghan immigrants in New York, Mateen was raised in both New York and Florida. A habitual troublemaker, he reportedly cheered the 9/11 attacks while high school peers watched in horror.

•
In 2013, Mateen passed a second background check by his employer, but was removed from his job as a courthouse guard after making derogatory comments about Jews and claiming that Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, was right to kill 13 service members at the military base in Fort Hood, Texas.

•
In April, he took his family to Disney World, but their behavior was reportedly alarming enough for Disney officials to have contacted the FBI to alert them that Mateen and his wife appeared to be casing the theme park as a venue for a potential attack.

•
When employees told Mateen they didn't carry the body armor he sought, Mateen "made a phone call in a foreign language, hung up and then asked about ammunition in bulk."
Orlando gunman had turned over share of house to relatives for $10 (Fox 06/17/2016)
Orlando terrorist reportedly traded texts with wife during massacre (Fox 06/17/2016)
•
In the midst of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, Omar Mateen texted his wife to ask her if she had seen news about the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
Orlando terrorist's chilling Facebook posts from inside club revealed (Fox 06/15/2016)
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In the hours after he blasted his way into an Orlando gay nightclub, and with his victims lying dead or wounded around him, Omar Mateen took to Facebook to pledge his loyalty to ISIS and threaten more attacks on the civilized world.

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Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 inside Pulse early Sunday, died when a SWAT team stormed the club.

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But in the roughly four hours between his initial rampage and his death, the 29-year-old radicalized Muslim broadcast his twisted message of hate on social media.

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"I pledge my alliance to (ISIS leader) abu bakr al Baghdadi..may Allah accept me."

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"The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west"

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"You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance."

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"... Omar Mateen used Facebook before and during the attack to search for and post terrorism-related content."

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"According to information obtained by my staff, five Facebook accounts were apparently associated with Omar Mateen."

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... Mateen accessed his Facebook account to search for media reports, using search words such as "Pulse Orlando" and "Shooting."

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... he also made 16 phone calls from inside the club after the bloody spree began. Investigators are tracking down each of the recipients of those calls.

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"America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state," Mateen wrote.

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"In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic state in the usa."
Feds zero in on Orlando terrorist's widow as she drops out of sight (Fox 06/16/2016)
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"In terms of the wife, she could be charged with aiding and abetting, being a co-conspirator, or making false statements to federal investigators, depending on what she did."

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"... if she knew her husband's plans and was with him when he purchased the firearms, helped him to scope out the joint, covered up evidence or lied to investigators about what she knows, that could lead to an indictment."

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If Salman drove her husband to the scene so he could scout targets, or accompanied him to purchase firearms, knowing of his plans, then under federal law, she is just as guilty as he is of the crimes, even though she didn't pull the trigger.

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Salman, whose family is originally from the Palestinian Territories, was married twice, the first time in a marriage arranged by her parents in their homeland. She wed Mateen on Sept. 29, 2011, after meeting him online. They have a 3-year-old son.

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Mateen also was previously married. His first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, married Mateen in 2009 after meeting him online.

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Yusufiy told reporters that Mateen was mentally unstable and abusive. She said she left him shortly after their marriage, but did not formally divorce him until June 21, 2011.
Orlando terrorist reportedly raised suspicion at gun shop weeks before massacre (Fox 06/16/2016)
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Employees at a Florida gun shop declined to sell Orlando nightclub terrorist Omar Mateen bulk ammunition last month after seeing him engage in suspicious behavior.

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... Mateen had also asked for heavy-duty body armor of a type typically used by law enforcement. The store does not sell body armor.

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... Mateen spoke on the phone in a Middle Eastern-sounding language and was repeatedly texting on his phone.

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"[He] just seemed very odd. The questions he was asking were not the normal questions a normal person would be asking."

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Employees eventually turned Mateen away.

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"If something is suspicious, it's our discretion. We are the gatekeeper."

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... in the week before he murdered 49 people at the Pulse nighclub in Orlando, Mateen visited another gun shop, where he purchased a pistol and a .223 SIG Sauer semiautomatic rifle.

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... Mateen had been kicked out of a training academy for would-be corrections officers in 2007 after he allegedly threatened to bring a gun onto the academy's campus.

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... Mateen referenced the 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, in which 32 people were killed, and said "something like that could happen here in the academy class."

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... Mateen threatened to shoot his classmates after his hamburger touched pork at an academy cookout. ... Mateen "flipped out", told people not to laugh at him, and said "he was going to come back and shoot us."

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However, representatives of the school and the local sheriff's office said they had no record of any disciplinary actions involving Mateen.
Watchdog: Countries in visa-free travel program not sharing terror info (Fox 06/16/2016)
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More than a dozen countries participating in a program that allows visitors into the U.S. without a visa are not sharing terrorists' identities and other vital information as required by law.

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"This is very dangerous because for the most part, these are allies, some of which have pockets of Islamic radicalism."

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... "more than a third of VWP countries are not sharing terrorist identity information" or criminal history.

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"The problem is Islamic Jihad is not confined to the Middle East but is throughout Europe including in those countries participating in the program."

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Belgian citizens from neighborhoods associated with radicalization, for instance, can travel freely under the waiver program.

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"The administration has been saying Americans are more secure because of information sharing, but the program is worthless if it's not being implemented."

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The threat of terrorists exploiting the VWP is nothing new. Noted cases include those involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as well as the would-be 20th hijacker on 9/11 and attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid.

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According to 9/11 final report, "for terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons."
If you don't name the problem, you can't solve it (INN 06/15/2016)
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"If you don't name the problem, you can't solve it."

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"For sure it is Islam. All their attacks are based upon jihad, and they say ‘we have to fight the Crusaders and the Jews who are the enemies of Islam,'"

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Obama's refusal to link the attack with Islamic terrorism may be due to the fact that the United States has economic interests in Arab countries and also due to the fact that Muslims in both the U.S. and Europe usually traditionally for the left.

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"[Obama] doesn't want to offend these populations. These are the two main reasons in my opinion."
Wife of nightclub shooter knew of deadly plans, source says (Fox 06/14/2016)
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The wife of the Orlando nightclub shooter knew of her husband's deadly plans and did nothing to stop him.

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FBI agents have interviewed Omar Mateen's wife, Noor Salman, in the days since Sunday's massacre that killed 49 and wounded 53 more. Mateen died in a shootout with police early Sunday morning.

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Salman told investigators that Mateen shared his plans with her to carry out an attack and Mateen may have even called her from the gay club Pulse during the slaughter.

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... investigating reports that Mateen visited Pulse several times before the attack...

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"Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent."
Source: Orlando attacker’s ties to American suicide bomber in Syria ‘deeper’ than thought (Fox 06/14/2016)
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"If there wasn't evidence for material support of terrorism, if there weren't overt acts and support of a conspiracy, if there wasn't evidence of an actual crime committed, they were not in a position to arrest them."

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"The FBI closed this file because the Obama administration treats radical Islamic threats as common crimes. I am not trying to solve a crime. I am trying to prevent an attack and if we kept the file open and we saw what he was up to, I think we could have stopped it."

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"I am not suggesting he be followed because he is a Muslim. I am suggesting that he be followed because of what he did and what he said."
Krauthammer: Only way to stop terror attacks like Orlando massacre is to defeat ISIS (Fox 06/13/2016)
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... gun control and FBI investigations will not stop suspected terrorists from committing acts on U.S. soil...

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The gunman, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, had been investigated by the FBI twice in 2013 and 2014.

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... intelligence investigations will help, but "in a country of this size with so many people as potential targets of investigation, unless you want to create a police state, there is no way that you can prevent" such attacks.

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ISIS has repeatedly posted on the Internet urging supporters to kill Westerners wherever they could, but Krauthammer said that recruitment will go down only when ISIS is defeated.

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"Ultimately, the only way to decrease recruitment is not with logic, not with argument, not with really clever programmers who know how to do twitter. It is by defeating the jihadists or showing them in retreat."
Slipped through the cracks: Orlando killer worked for DHS, State contractor (Fox 06/13/2016)
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The security company that employed Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen also is a federal contractor for the Homeland Security and State departments — raising more questions about how he passed background checks despite being on the FBI's radar screen and the level of security at a firm handling sensitive U.S. operations.

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Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded dozens more early Sunday inside the gay nightclub Pulse, started working for G4S Secure Solutions in 2007 and until the attack was employed as an armed guard at a gated retirement community in South Florida.

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The U.K.-based firm has a far-reaching portfolio that goes well beyond retirement villages, however, with its U.S. arm having become of the biggest government contractors since 9/11.

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This includes helping secure 40 U.S. embassies worldwide and working with U.S. agents on border patrol.

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The company said Mateen passed company screenings — including psychological and criminal checks — when hired in 2007 and again in 2013.

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"Every G4S security officer participates in a training program that far exceeds industry standards, becoming a specialist trained to both recognize and react to unique hazards of an assigned post."

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At least one former G4S employee, Daniel Gilroy, says he raised numerous concerns with supervisors about Mateen's hateful and potentially dangerous behavior.

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... Mateen, a Muslim, used "horrible words" at the sight of women and blacks and was in a constant state of "anger and rage."

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However, the company refused to take action on his complaints, and Gilroy was forced to quit last year after Mateen began sending him harassing text and phone messages.

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"The company wouldn't do anything. This guy was unhinged and unstable. He talked of killing people."

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... co-workers were concerned about "inflammatory and contradictory" statements he had made, including claiming family connections to Al Qaeda.

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Mateen later admitted making the statements but said he did so out of anger because he thought his co-workers were discriminating against him.

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But the history of co-workers' complaints at a company that last year alone reportedly had $89.3 million in federal contracts raised more questions about Mateen's continued employment and access to government information and sites.

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G4S became one of the U.S. government's biggest contractors after the 9/11 attacks.

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G4S has 623,000 employees in 110 countries, including 54,000 in North America, reports show.
Orlando gunman's descent into Islamic terror comes into focus (Fox 06/13/2016)
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The Muslim terrorist who killed at least 49 people in an Orlando nightclub early Sunday was an angry loner who beat his ex-wife, alienated co-workers and made at least two mysterious trips to Saudi Arabia.

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"These trips to Saudi Arabia also make it less likely that Mateen is a so-called ‘lone wolf' who acted mostly independently."

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Mateen appeared first on FBI radar in 2013 after co-workers at G4S Security reported that Mateen made "wild" claims that he had family and friends in Al Qaeda and Hezbollah and was connected to the Boston Marathon bombers.

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In a 911 call Mateen made during the Sunday morning attack, in which he also pledged allegiance to ISIS, Mateen reportedly mentioned the marathon bombers again.

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The 2013 investigation was closed after agents came to believe the statements were mere boasts and Mateen was not legitimately tied to any terror groups.

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"He seems to be looking for any opportunity to associate with the terrorist group du jour."

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Aside from the terror claims reported by co-workers, some who worked with Mateen were also disturbed by his language when talking about minorities, other religions and gay people.

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"He talked about killing people all the time."

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... Saddique may have also contributed to Omar's worldview. Born in Afghanistan, Saddique is an eccentric pro-Taliban activist...
Former co-worker says Orlando gunman was 'unhinged and unstable', went on racist, misogynistic rants (Fox 06/13/2016)
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Orlando's mayor on Monday revised the death toll in the nightclub shooting to 49, from 50. The 50th body was identified as gunman Omar Mateen.

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The gunman who killed at least 50 people at an Orlando nightclub early Sunday was described by a former colleague as an "unhinged and unstable" person who repeatedly made racist, misogynist and homophobic remarks.

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Gilroy described Mateen as a devout Muslim who brought a prayer mat to work and prayed several times a day.

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"There was never a moment where he didn't have anger and rage."

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"And he was always loud and cursing. And anytime a female or a black person came by, he would use horrible words."

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"I would just like to kill all those [n-words]" after a conversation between Mateen and a black man.

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"A few times he mentioned homosexuals and Jewish people, but we didn't deal with them quite as often, so it was mostly women and blacks, because those were the people in front of us."

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Gilroy told ... that he complained to his superiors several times about Mateen, but they refused to take action because, Gilroy claimed, Mateen was Muslim.

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Gilroy said he quit G4S in 2015 after Mateen began sending him dozens of harassing text and phone messages per day.

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"Everything he said was toxic and the company wouldn't do anything. This guy was unhinged and unstable. He talked of killing people."

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G4S said Mateen had worked for the company since 2007 and had passed a company screening and background check twice, once when he was hired and again in 2013.

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"In 2013, we learned that Mateen had been questioned by the FBI but that the inquiries were subsequently closed."

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"We were not made aware of any alleged connections between Mateen and terrorist activities, and were unaware of any further FBI investigations."
Final chaotic gun battle with ISIS-inspired terrorist detailed by police (Fox 06/13/2016)
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Orlando police punched holes in the side of a nightclub after hours of fruitless negotiations with the ISIS-linked terrorist who killed 49 people inside, freeing dozens of trapped clubgoers and luring the killer outside, authorities said Monday as a more detailed picture of the deadliest terror attack on American soil since 9/11 came into focus.

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Mateen, armed with a handgun and long gun, began his deadly spree around 2 a.m., engaging in a gun battle with a uniformed off-duty officer working security at the club's entrance before he started shooting club patrons, wounding 53 in addition to the dozens killed.

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Additional officers quickly responded, forcing Mateen to retreat into a bathroom with about four or five hostages while authorities rescued "dozens of injured and non-injured" from the dance floor and lounge and bar area.

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In the bathroom for about three hours, Mateen called 911 to pledge his allegiance to ISIS and engaged in unproductive negotiations with police. Mateen claimed he had a bomb vest and explosives, ... though authorities have not said either of those supposed ordinances was ever found.

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During this time he also expressed solidarity with the Boston Marathon bombers and called those terrorists his "homeboys."

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"He was cool and calm when he was making those phone calls to us."

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There were no shots fired during the time Mateen was in the bathroom, ... However, at least one of the hostages, who had been texting his mother, was later discovered among the dead.

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Authorities came to believe "further loss of life was imminent" around 5 a.m., prompting a rescue operation that involved an explosive breach of the bathroom wall.

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Mateen came through that hole in the wall with guns in hand and began firing at officers, who shot and killed him.

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... if any of the dead or wounded may have been killed by friendly fire during the final chaotic gun battle.

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"[Officers'] backdrop was a concrete wall and they were being fired upon. But that's all part of the investigation."

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... weapons used in the attack were purchased legally by Mateen during the last week.
50 killed in shooting at Florida nightclub in possible act of Islamic terror (Fox 06/12/2016)
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The gunman, Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, was heard shouting "Allah Akbar" while engaging officers.

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Mateen, 29, lived in Fort Pierce, Fla. He was born in New York to parents of Afghan origin and was a Muslim.

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Mateen was married in 2009 to a woman who was born in Uzbekistan, according to the couple's marriage license, but the two divorced in 2011.

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"He was not a stable person. He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn't finished or something like that."

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A licensed security officer, Mateen also had a Statewide Firearms License.
Police say 'around 20' killed in shooting at Orlando nightclub, more than 40 taken to local hospitals (Fox 06/12/2016)
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The gunman, whose identity was not immediately released, "may have leanings" toward radical Islam.

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"There are allegations the individual made threats in the past to having ties to terrorist organizations."
US seeks to seize San Bernardino shooter's life insurance (Fox 07/01/2016)
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"Terrorists must not be permitted to provide for their designated beneficiaries through their crimes."
Al Qaeda magazine calls for targeting American business leaders (Fox 05/16/2016)
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... "assassination is an effective toll in warfare. The prophet ordered the killing of many criminal leaders using this method ... And here we are, following the footsteps of the prophet on how he dealt with his enemies and friends."

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"We will never put down our weapons until we fulfill what Allah wants from us. We are determined to keep fighting and striking Americans with operations by organized jihadi groups and by Lone Jihad, [and] pursuing America in its homeland — by the will of Allah."

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... encouraging radical Islamic terrorists to emulate the Palestinian stabbings of Israelis by walking up to Americans and stabbing them to death.
Report: FBI foils alleged terror attack at prominent Florida synagogue (Fox 05/02/2016)
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A man who may have converted to Islam planned to throw an explosive device into a prominent Florida synagogue on Friday.

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James Medina was accused of trying to blow up the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center during Passover services.
NYPD contacts thousands whose names appear on Internet 'terror target' list (Fox 04/30/2016)
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Thousands of New Yorkers are being discreetly informed by NYPD detectives that their names have appeared on a list of "potential targets," possibly compiled by terrorists.

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In October 2014 ... U.S. military personnel were sent an Army intelligence bulletin warning them to be vigilant after Islamic State militants called on supporters to scour social media for addresses of their family and to "show up and slaughter them."

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... the list sounds like a clumsy attempt by ISIS to create the impression it has global reach through the web.

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He said the names may have been randomly selected from a social media platform like Facebook.

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"They hope that some person may be sitting home and get inspired."

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"They're hoping that a person with a mental health issue thinks they're a soldier."

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Once such a list circulates, police are obligated to inform people whose names may appear.

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At the very least, a terrorist group accomplishes one goal: Getting law enforcement to tie up valuable resources.

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"You have to stay vigilant."
Three relatives of San Bernardino shooter arrested (Fox 04/28/2016)
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The arrests don't appear to stem from any actions related to the terror attack, but rather a marriage-for-citizenship scam...
US cyber command opening up new front against ISIS (Fox 04/25/2016)
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"Our cyber operations are disrupting their command-and-control and communications."

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The operation's objective is to upset ISIS' efforts to attract new recruits and spread propaganda. Officials also hope to stymie electronic cash transfers.

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"You could disrupt their support networks, their business networks, their propaganda and recruitment networks."

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"Why should they be able to communicate? Why should they be using the Internet? The Internet shouldn't be used for that purpose."
Pro-ISIS hackers release names, personal info of targeted State Dept. employees (Fox 04/25/2016)
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A team of hackers supporting the Islamic State terror group announced Sunday it had stolen the names, phone numbers and other personal information of State Department employees.

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The hackers, known as the United Cyber Caliphate, made the announcement in a statement labeled "Wanted to be killed."

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... the ISIS-linked group posted the names of more than 3,500 New Yorkers, claiming, "We want them dead."
Calls grow for Obama to declassify 9/11 docs ahead of Saudi (Fox ip/0/2016)
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President Obama is facing renewed pressure to declassify and release 28 pages of sealed documents regarding the 9/11 terror attacks that some suspect show a Saudi connection.

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"If the president is going to meet with the Saudi Arabian leadership and the royal family, they think it would be appropriate that this document be released before the president makes that trip, so that they can talk about whatever issues are in that document."

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Last year, convicted Al Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui implicated high-level Saudi royals in the 9/11 attacks and fueled the ongoing congressional effort to declassify the official report.

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"You believe that support came from Saudi Arabia?" — "Substantially."

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"And when we say, 'the Saudis,' you mean the government, the — rich people in the country? Charities?" — "All of the above."
Mississippi woman who attempted to join ISIS pleads guilty to terror charge (Fox 03/30/2016)
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The Vicksburg beauty turned her back on her teenage pageantry after she converted to Islam in March 2015, when she began wearing a burqa and distancing herself from non-Muslim friends.

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Prosecutors said she "began to express hatred for the U.S. government" and expressed "support for the implementation of Shariah law in the United States."

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"What makes me feel better after watching the news is that an akhi carried out an attack against US marines in TN! Alhamdulillah, the numbers of supports are growing..."
US commuter trains a soft target for terrorists, say experts (Fox 03/29/2016)
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While no major incidents have occurred on U.S. rail lines, they remain vulnerable to attack * and could be impossible to fully secure.

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"Anybody that thinks we are going to be exempt from this kind of terrorism in America is more optimistic than I think is justified."

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"I realize it is going to cost some money, but we have to think about doing that kind of thing because an attack can happen tomorrow; it can happen anywhere."

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In 2004, terrorists inspired by Al Qaeda struck in Madrid, killing 192 on the commuter rail system.

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A year later, four Islamic terrorists set off a series of bombs aboard London Underground trains and a double-decker bus, killing 52.

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And last August, three Americans – including two service members – stopped a terrorist who opened fire aboard a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris.

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America has already been the target of at least 84 official terror plots or attacks, six that were related to trains and metros.

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Seral were aimed at transportation systems in New York, including thwarted plots to bomb subway stations, a commuter train and a conspiracy to attack a train between Toronto and NYC.

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Authorities also stopped a plot to bomb the Washington metro system at Arlington National Cemetery.

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At least three terror plans were foiled by confidential informants or through law enforcement stings, but authorities know that intelligence and deterrence can't make the system 100 percent safe.

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"Because of the distances they cover, and the open spaces, and the requirement for access, if you actually secured them in a way that prevented them from being vulnerable to terrorist attacks, it would be unbelievably expensive and accessible to no one."

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Yet one major attack could force the U.S. to spend whatever it takes to ensure safety aboard the rails.

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A mass casualty attack aboard a train would result in Americans "suddenly having the will and the money to dramatically increase visible security protocols."

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"If security is to approach Israeli standards, then busy systems will grind to a halt."

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"If security is to be set at EU standards, then protection will be marginal as events in Belgium, England, France and Spain have shown."

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... biggest fear is an explosion in a subway, where the underground tunnel could multiply the force of an explosion, leave riders trapped and impede first responders from helping. That's why underground rail lines should be the top priority for security officials.

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Metal detectors at every entrance, armed guards aboard the trains, bomb-sniffing dogs and even a ban on bags could all become suddenly acceptable were there to be a major attack aboard a rail line.

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"I am not interested in hearing about cost to the taxpayers. I am really interested in hearing how we can do it effectively for the least amount of money."

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"The problem I have is that we need to get beyond fixing the problem after a whole lot of people have died. We've got plenty of warning now and we need to be doing some things."
The women marked for death by Islamic fatwa face threats with fear, courage (Fox 03/28/2016)
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Twenty-seven years ago, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called for the death of a British author, giving new fame to Salman Rushdie and infamy to the term "fatwa."

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Rushdie, whose "The Satanic Verses" had been deemed offensive to Muslims, remains threatened by the Islamic decree, but six American women who lack the resources of a best-selling author also have been marked for death by Muslim leaders. Some have been driven from their homes and jobs and even forced to live the rest of their lives in hiding, with little hope that the fatwa will be lifted.

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"It is not safe, of course, not even in the West, for anyone who has a fatwa of death issued against them."

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Darwish, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen who was born Muslim and later converted to Christianity, spoke out against radical Islam following the 9/11 attacks.

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She has since been the subject of multiple fatwas issued by various Islamic clerics. Like others who bear a price on their heads, Darwish stays below the radar, and constantly looks over her shoulder.

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"There are constant attempts to silence us by many Islamic organizations," she said. "We are the No. 1 target of jihadists and ISIS sympathizers who are now in all 50 states."

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Molly Norris was a respected newspaper cartoonist in 2010, when Comedy Central censored a "South Park" episode that featured the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, amid outrage from extremists. Norris fought back with free speech, but it cost her her career.

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Norris was deluged with death threats. Influential U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki issued a fatwa calling for her death a year before he was killed by a U.S drone strike in Yemen.

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... bureau advised Norris of the "very legitimate" threats against her. The bureau stopped short of telling Gomez to go underground, but advised her to take certain precautions, including changing her appearance.

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Norris opted to disappear, leaving her job and home and cutting off communication with friends and neighbors.

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"People are shocked to realize a journalist inside the U.S. could be forced into hiding by radical Islam."

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"This issue is a really big one as far as our freedoms are concerned.

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... Al Qaeda's "Inspire" magazine on its "Wanted: Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam"...

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Fatwas are not empty threats, according to experts. Many subjects in addition to Charbonnier have been killed by fanatics who believe they win eternal favor by making good on the threats.

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After the order went out against Rushdie, the British-Indian author hired armed guards, traveled under a phony name, wore disguises and rarely saw his own son. Stores that sold his books were burned and the Japanese translator of "The Satanic Verses" was murdered.

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Just last month, 40 state-run Iranian media outlets added a reported $600,000 to the near $4 million bounty for Rushdie's head and renewed calls for his death.

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Geller has defiantly lived under Islamist death threats since at least 2006, when her blog, Atlas Shrugs, reprinted cartoon images of Muhammad originally published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

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"I was their prime target. Muslims have called for my death and published on Twitter what they think is my home address. Shortly after the Garland event, ISIS issued a formal fatwa calling for my death."

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A month later, a 26-year-old Muslim man, Usaamah Rahim, was killed by Boston police after charging at them with a military knife. After his death, police revealed that Rahim was an ISIS follower who had planned to behead Geller in retaliation for her Muhammad art exhibit.

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She was denied entry into the UK in 2013 as "not conducive to the public good" and has been branded a bigot by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Geller, who lives in New York City under constant guard, said she will never give up her campaign to warn the world about radical Islam.

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"I take nothing for granted. I'm aware of the risks. But I would rather die standing up than on my knees."

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born, Dutch-American, routinely calls for a reformation of Islam, asserting that "we cannot get away from the reality that there is something within Islam that inspires, incites and mobilizes millions of people to engage in what our president euphemistically calls ‘violent extremism.'"

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Death threats against the pair ran rampant and Van Gogh was soon murdered in the streets of Amsterdam, a note pinned to his body promising that Ali would be next.

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Raza does not have personal bodyguards, and is not provided protection by the Canadian government.

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"Many people get full-time security, but I just leave it in God's hands to protect me. If I allow myself to be afraid I can't do the work I do, so I don't wallow in the luxury of fear."
Four Americans confirmed killed in Brussels attacks, death toll at 35 (Fox 03/28/2016)
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... the death toll from the coordinated bombings at the airport and the Maelbeek subway station had increased to 35 after four people succumbed to their injuries.
Belgian terrorists can enter the US without a visa (INN 03/23/2016)
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... Congress has warned the administration of US President Barack Obama that Belgium is a terror hotspot, but despite repeated requests the current program has not been changed.

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According to the US visa waiver program citizens of Belgium, which is a partner nation in the program, can enter America with minimal background checks - meaning radicalized Muslims can legally travel to the US at will.

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"The visa waiver reform, this is something we have been perusing and the (Obama) administration has brushed us off at every turn."

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"It's the case that if those folks are citizens of Belgium they qualify for the visa waiver program and can hop on a plane and get here. Clearly, that is not adequate given what happened."

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... "at least six of the Paris attackers could have attempted to enter the country under this program."

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Molenbeek ... "is a hellhole that is filled with Belgian national Islamic radicals who qualify to travel to the US without a visa under the visa waiver program."

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... jihadist attacks could come from Europe and not just Syria and other terror bastions.

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"The problem was not just people coming from Syria. There was a major vulnerability from places in Europe and this Molenbeek neighborhood was one of the most egregious that I had seen."
Lawmaker: Brussels attackers may have targeted Americans (Fox 03/24/2016)
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... the Brussels terror attacks may have been a "proxy" effort to "target Americans" in the country.

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... pointed to the location of the attacks – near the counters of U.S. airlines at the Brussels airport, and a subway station near the U.S. Embassy – in making the claim. He said both are locations with the potential for American casualties.
FBI findings in Calif. stabbing attack continue pattern of downplaying terror, say critics (Fox 03/18/2016)
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... it followed a pattern in which the federal government downplays domestic terrorism even when there are seemingly obvious links. The flag, the manifesto annotated with reminders to pray to Allah in between stabbings...

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Even the stabbings themselves, which came as a wave of terrorist blade attacks occurred in Israel, were indicators of an extremist motivation.

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"The Department of Justice is avoiding stating the obvious, which is that an individual who commits violence in the name of ISIS is a terrorist."

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"If someone commits violence and has an ISIS flag and jihadist manifesto in their backpack, they are telling you what their motive was. It's as iron-clad as a suicide note."

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"I am glad the FBI investigation did not find any links to outside terror groups, but Faisal Mohammed clearly paid attention when the Islamic State called for these kinds of lone wolf stabbing attacks."

•
In the days following the attack, local and federal law enforcement repeatedly claimed in a series of press conferences that Mohammed was motivated by being excluded from a study group.

•
The handling of the case seems to reflect a top-down law enforcement approach to downplay terrorism in such attacks.

•
"The Department of Justice continues to process investigations of terrorism cases through the lens of political correctness."

•
"They go to great lengths to avoid the obvious, that is calling it what it is: Radical Islamic terrorism. It is as if by doing so, they will calm the public's fear, when in fact all their actions and statements only acerbate them."

•
Following the Dec. 2 attack in San Bernardino, in which a jihadist couple killed 14 and wounded 22, federal officials refused to ascribe a terror motive for two days.

•
The administration had for all those years earlier categorized the mass killing by the Muslim major as "workplace violence."

•
"Officials seemed to think that in order for an act to be connected to a terrorist organization, the deranged individual must have been in direct contact with Abu Bakar al Baghdadi specifically telling him what to do."

•
"They evidently haven't learned that the methodology used by radical Islamic groups like ISIS has changed. It has morphed and adapted to utilize social media and the Internet."
Call it terrorism, says father of hero who helped stop stabber at Calif. college (Fox 12/09/2015)
•
Price, whose son Byron Price, a 31-year-old construction manager for the family business who was working nearby and was stabbed when he heroically intervened, suspects the White House's reluctance to identify acts of radical Islamic terror has trickled down to investigators who are still probing the Merced attack.

•
"Why don't we just call it what it is — domestic terrorism?"

•
"Everyone is afraid to be politically incorrect. I do believe in law enforcement and believe they will do their job, but it seems like to me we aren't getting the whole story. I just wonder how much of this is driven from way higher up and is politically driven — I just don't know."

•
"It seems like people way higher up are not taking this as seriously as they should, at best, and, at worst, they are deliberately ignoring what has really happened for political reasons."

•
"Even if Faisal Mohammad is only one individual, his aim was to cause terror, and while it may not have been commanded by ISIS, the group inspired him."
FBI: California college stabbing suspect may have been self-radicalized, had ISIS propaganda (Fox 03/17/2016)
•
"At the time of the stabbings, Mohammad was carrying a backpack which contained a two-page, hand-written plan detailing his intentions to include taking hostages and killing students and police officers. Investigators also found a photocopy of an ISIL flag and a list of items he thought he would need for an attack such as zip ties, glass breaker, and a knife among his belongings."

•
Mohammad, whose victims all survived, left behind a rambling, two-page manifesto in which he instructed himself to "praise Allah" as he worked his way through his hit list.

•
"He was a loner and an extreme Muslim."

•
... investigators found a second copy of the manifesto in Mohammad's garbage can, along with several discarded petroleum jelly cans, duct tape wrappers, large zip ties, a package that had contained a knife and sharpener, a red prayer rug and a copy of the Koran.

•
The manifesto authored by the 18-year-old freshman, copies of which were found both on his body during the autopsy and in the trash can in his dorm, bore names of his targets, a vow "to cut someone's head off" and as many as five reminders to "praise Allah."

•
He detailed how he wanted to behead, stab and shoot his victims.

•
"No. 27 was to ‘make sure people are tied down,' No. 28 was "sit down and praise Allah,'"

•
"I remember seeing four or five times, scribbled on the side of the two-page manifesto, where he wrote something like ‘praise Allah.'"

•
"There was a gruesome statement he made about wanting to cut someone's head off and kill two people with one bullet, and he planned to shoot the police."
Top DOJ prosecutor: ISIS 'actively' seeking cyberattack tools (Fox 03/16/2016)
IPhone could ID unknown San Bernardino attacker, prosecutor says (Fox 03/05/2016)
•
"We know we have some witnesses that said they thought they saw three ... some saw two, some saw one. The majority said two, and the evidence we have up to this point only supports two."

•
"The information contained solely on the seized iPhone could provide evidence to identify as of yet unknown co-conspirators..."

•
... the county-owned iPhone used by Farook may have introduced a "lying-dormant cyber pathogen" endangering the county's computer network.

•
Apple says unlocking Farook's phone would make all other iPhones more vulnerable to future attacks.

•
"Several of the survivors tell me bone-chilling stories of where they were, and what they saw. Some of them describe in precise detail, laying on the floor, hiding under furniture and the bodies of their co-workers, that they saw three assailants, not two, walking around in heavy boots as they carried out their murders.

•
"What if there is evidence pointing to a third shooter? What if it leads to an unknown terrorist cell? What if others are attacked, and you and I did nothing to prevent it?"
Muhammad cartoon contest attack plotter supported ISIS, witness says (Fox 03/03/2016)
New documents reveal details about Boston Marathon bombers (Fox 02/29/2016)
•
Tsarnaev also told agents that only he and his brother Tamerlan planned the bombing that killed three people at the race's finish line on April 15, 2013 because they could not trust anyone else.

•
He added that he did not tell anyone to stay away from the Boston Marathon that day, because he did not care if any of his friends were hurt.

•
"The devices were easy to build, because instructions were available in a copy of Inspire magazine the two downloaded from the Internet."

•
The documents released on Monday also showed that Tamerlan Tsarnaev passed the U.S. citizenship test and denied terrorism links just months before the bombing.

•
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a statement that it found no errors in the processing of his citizenship application.
FBI says Michigan man pledged support to ISIS, father thwarted mass shooting at church (Fox 02/06/2016)
•
"I tried to shoot up a church one day. I don't know the name of it, but it's close to my job."

•
"It's one of the biggest ones in Detroit. Ya. I had it planned out. I brought a bunch of bullets. I practice a lot with it. But my dad searched my car one day and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask."

•
"It's easy and a lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church. Plus, it would make the news. I regret not doing it. If I can't do jihad in the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here."
Grassley raises concerns on prisons using terror-tied groups to vet Islamic chaplains (Fox 02/05/2016)
•
A top Senate Republican is warning that the federal Bureau of Prisons could be letting Muslim groups with terror ties vet chaplains and religious instructors, increasing the risk of indoctrination and radicalism behind bars.

•
"It is imperative that the BOP take every measure possible to ensure the safety of its personnel within federal prisons and take all reasonable measures to ensure that Islamic extremism is stopped at the gates of each prison. Currently, it is not clear whether the BOP is doing so."

•
"Islamic extremism in U.S. prisons is a bipartisan concern — and unfortunately a real concern."
Islamic State threatens feds, military after theft of personal data ()
•
The federal workforce, already shaken by a massive cybertheft of personal data, now confronts another reality - ISIS has some of that same information.

•
"We are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move, we have your names and addresses, we are in your emails and social media accounts, we are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!"

•
The following 27 pages in the document listed the names, email addresses and passwords, locations and phone numbers for U.S. personnel.

•
... Islamic State Hacking Division ... posted a "Kill List" in March that purportedly included the names and addresses of 100 U.S. service members.
Feds release new evidence, seek link between San Bernardino attack, prior terror plot (Fox 01/29/2016)
•
... shared the same violent objectives and lived in the same California community known as The Inland Empire...
Boston bomber showed 'opposite of remorse,' prosecutors say (Fox 01/28/2016)
•
Tsarnaev, 22, was convicted last year and sentenced to die for his role in an attack that killed three people and injured more than 260.

•
At his sentencing hearing, he said he was sorry for the lives he took and the suffering he caused.

•
In newly released court documents, prosecutors said Tsarnaev expressed anything but regret when he was questioned by two FBI agents after his capture days after the bombings.
FBI arrests Milwaukee man accused of planning Masonic temple attack (Fox 01/26/2016)
•
They planned to station one person at the temple's entrance while the other two went through the building, killing everyone they saw. They then planned to walk away from the scene as if nothing had happened.

•
"I am telling you, if this hit is executed, it will be known all over the world ... all the Mujahedeen will be talking and they will be proud of us."

•
"Such operations will increase in America, when they hear about it. The people will be scared and the operations will increase. ... This way we will be igniting it. I mean we are marching at the front of the war."

•
Hamzeh added that he hoped to kill 30 people. He also said his group was Muslims and they were "defending Muslim religion."

•
"We are here defending Islam, young people together join to defend Islam, that's it, that is what our intention is," he said.
Two Virginia men arrested on terror charges (Fox 01/17/2016)
10 Yemeni detainees sent from Gitmo to Oman, in 'troubling' transfer (Fox 01/14/2016)
•
... the transfer ... a "thinly veiled attempt to undercut the will of Congress and would further endanger the American people."

•
The administration is banned by law from transferring Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, given the risk in that country.

•
"The administration has not been forthright with the American people about the terrorist affiliations and activities of these detainees, or provided sufficient assurances that they will not return to the battlefield, particularly given their possible proximity to Yemen."
Pennsylvania police reportedly warned 3 'radical' associates of terror suspect on the loose (Fox 01/11/2016)
Police, FBI investigating if Philadelphia terror suspect is part of larger group (Fox 01/10/2016)
•
"He stated that he pledges his allegiance to Islamic State, he follows Allah and that is the reason he was called upon to do this."
'Refugees' in US found to be Palestinian jihadists (INN 01/08/2016)
Suspect in Pa. cop ambush said he acted 'in the name of Islam,' police confirm (Fox 01/08/2016)
•
The suspect, 30-year-old Edward Archer, told homicide investigators he "pledges his allegiance to Islamic State, he follows Allah, and that is the reason he was called upon to do this."

•
The suspect fired a total of 13 shots Thursday night, Ross said. Three bullets struck the officer in his left arm.

•
"This guy tried to execute the police officer. The police officer had no idea he was coming."

•
Jim Kenney, who is in his first week as mayor of the nation's fifth largest city, said, "There are just too many guns on the streets and I think our national government needs to do something about that."
Refugee who aimed to attack Idaho Fourth of July celebrations sentenced to prison (Fox 01/08/2016)
•
Prosecutors say the 33-year-old Russian-speaking truck driver who fled Uzbekistan in 2009 downloaded jihadist and martyrdom videos from a terrorist website and communicated with a terrorist organization, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Authorities monitored his communications and arrested him in 2013.

•
Besides targeting Boise, authorities said, Kurbanov also discussed with a confidential FBI source targeting military bases, in particular West Point Military Academy in New York.

•
They also showed videos of Kurbanov in the jail spitting on a jail deputy and spitting on a camera and other areas of a special holding cell. One of the jail workers testified that Kurbanov soaked paper towels with his urine and threw it into another inmate's cell.

•
... Kurbanov lacked an appreciation for a system of government that would spend more than $1 million on his defense on the foundational idea that anyone accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty.

•
"The lengthy term of imprisonment imposed by the Court ensures that this defendant, who by his words and acts was intent on taking American lives, does not and will not pose any further threat to the safety and security of our community."
Two Mideast refugees arrested on terror charges appearing in US courts (Fox 01/08/2016)
•
Two men born in Iraq who came to the U.S. as refugees had court dates in California and Texas Friday on terror-related charges, as investigators say one of the men wrote that he wanted to travel to Syria because he was "eager to see blood."
American charged with plotting attack on US military base in Afghanistan (Fox 01/06/2016)
•
The charges against Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh include conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and conspiracy to bomb a government facility.
Ripe for radicalization: Federal prisons 'breeding ground' for terrorists, say experts Ripe for radicalization: Federal prisons 'breeding ground' for terrorists, say experts (Fox 01/05/2016)
•
America's federal prisons have become a "breeding ground" for radical Islam ... imprisoned terrorists are more likely to spread their beliefs than renounce them.

•
Prisons have long been criticized for a culture that can make some inmates more dangerous than when they entered, but the possibility that typical felons could become lone wolf terrorists upon earning parole is a disturbing new wrinkle.

•
"If we continue to downplay the threat, we do so at our own peril."

•
"We have never been faced with such a large number of terror inmates before."

•
... Chicago gang member Jose Padilla, who converted to radical Islam while doing time in prison in the 1980s, and was later accused of plotting to set off a radiological "dirty bomb" in the U.S.

•
Nolen, who is awaiting trial, allegedly beheaded a 54-year-old female worker while yelling Islamic slogans. ... Nolen converted to Islam while serving time in an Oklahoma prison after attacking a police officer in 2010.

•
"Over the years, our Federal prisons have become a breeding ground for radicalization."

•
"By allowing volunteers to enter the system without first having to undergo a comprehensive background check, some of the most vulnerable members of society have become susceptible to radicalization."
New York bar owner says suspect arrested as would-be terrorist is 'an aggressive panhander' (Fox 01/01/2016)
Upstate NY man charged with plotting New Year's Eve restaurant attack for ISIS (Fox 12/31/2015)
•
... a 25-year-old U.S. citizen and self-professed Muslim convert...

•
... Lutchman and an accomplice working for the FBI bought knives and a machete for the attack.

•
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren announced early Thursday evening that the city's New Years Eve fireworks display was cancelled.
Security tight as terror threat looms over New York, Los Angeles New Year's celebrations (Fox 12/31/2015)
•
"The ability to protect everything all the time everywhere is not possible in any venue anywhere in the world."
Cleric denies ties to San Bernardino killers as phone records surface (Fox 12/28/2015)
•
The cleric acting as spokesman for the San Bernardino mosque where terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook worshipped claims he barely knew Farook and didn't know his terrorist wife at all.

•
But phone records and other evidence uncovered by federal investigators cast doubt on his story.

•
... a flurry of at least 38 messages over a two-week span in June, coinciding with the deadly Muslim terrorist attack on two military sites in Chattanooga, Tenn.

•
While he confirms the text messages with Farook, he claims they were merely discussing food donations for his Dar-al-Uloom al-Islamiya of America mosque.

•
Abbassi maintained at a press conference that he didn't know Farook any better than he knew the reporters in the room. But members of the mosque say Farook was a fixture there.

•
He had been coming to pray and study at least three times a week for two years. In fact, he memorized the Koran there, something you cannot do without learning Arabic, a subject Abbassi teaches.

•
His other assertion that he never even saw Farook's wife, Tashfeen Malik, also strains credulity. Malik joined her husband in shooting 35 of his government co-workers at a Christmas party.

•
"No one knows anything about his wife," assistant imam Mahmood Nadvi agreed. "She never came to prayer."

•
But longtime mosque member Gasser Shehata, who claimed to have prayed "shoulder to shoulder" with Farook, said Dar-al-Uloom prepared a chicken-and-rice dinner to celebrate the couple's wedding last year.

•
Reportedly, hundreds of congregants attended the walima reception, including the mosque leadership.
King says terror threat coming from mosques, calls for better surveillance (Fox 12/27/2015)
•
"... the fact is, (mosques are) where the threat is coming from."

•
... some Americans have a "blind political correctness" on such issues and that civil libertarians and other critics of better mosque surveillance can "cry all they want."

•
"I would expect al-Baghdadi to say that. We've had some impact, but unfortunately overall he is probably right... ISIS is stronger."
Pennsylvania man accused of trying to help ISIS on Twitter pleads not guilty (Fox 12/23/2015)
•
Prosecutors say he used 57 Twitter accounts to spread Islamic State propaganda and had a bag with ammunition, suggesting he may have been planning an attack.
Pennsylvania teen indicted over support for ISIS (INN 12/23/2015)
Back in the terror fold: Former Gitmo detainees returning to life of extremism (Fox 12/22/2015)
•
The nightmare Sean Smith's family faced following his death in Benghazi got worse when they learned the Sept. 11, 2012 attack was planned by a jihadist who had been in U.S. custody only a few years earlier.

•
... the knowledge that Abu Sufain bin Qumu helped plan the attack after being released from the Guantanamo Bay military prison has left his family wondering if his death could have been avoided – and asking why the Obama administration is so intent on releasing more detainees.

•
"Turning loose all these prisoners doesn't make any sense," Sean's mother Pat Smith told ... "Give me the keys so I can keep them locked up."

•
"I don't trust them [the presidential administration] anymore. How is turning them loose keeping us safe? How did that benefit my son?"

•
"It's absolutely dangerous to America to release these guys. It was a slap in the face of our family. And it's a slap in the face of America.

•
Several other Guantanamo alumni have ended up back in the war against the west, with many re-entering U.S. radar only after they were killed.

•
One of the main reasons cited is that Guantanamo Bay, the facility that has long housed the worst of the worst, is infamous among terrorist groups and helps drive anger at America.

•
"We see the Internet traffic. We see how Guantanamo has been used to create this mythology that America is at war with Islam."

•
... of the 647 detainees transferred or released, 17.9 percent were confirmed of reengaging in extremist activity with another 10.7 percent suspected of doing the same.

•
Gitmo veterans enjoy a special status among jihadists that goes beyond the battlefield.

•
"... What about those who use their rock star status to radicalize without engaging in violence? We must remember this is an ideological war."

•
"Closing Guantanamo Bay will have no impact on terrorist recruitment and radicalization. There is not a single case that I am aware of where a moderate, peace-loving Muslim became angry over the Gitmo issue and suddenly decided to wage violent jihad..."

•
No one should be surprised when a committed terrorist proves not to have been rehabilitated by a lengthy stay at Guantanamo.

•
"[The] administration treats these prisoners like they would drug lords as opposed as terrorists. It's absolutely irresponsible."

•
"Releasing a suspected terrorist before they are properly tried is, to me, aiding and abetting the enemy."
Man who loaned gun to Boston bomber sentenced, says he was 'dumb' (Fox 12/22/2015)
To catch a terrorist: Pols see child porn laws as model for tracking jihadists (Fox 12/22/2015)
Fox News Poll: Social media not part of background checks? 'That's crazy!' (Fox 12/18/2015)
•
Voters are puzzled over news the Obama administration, fearing a civil liberties backlash, doesn't screen posts on social media when doing immigration background checks.

•
Sixty-three percent say "that's just crazy," according to a Fox News poll released Friday. That's about twice as many who think it "makes sense" (32 percent).

•
Somewhat more (36 percent) think it would be effective to use profiling techniques to increase government surveillance only on certain individuals. And the same number says encouraging more people to carry weapons to defend against attackers would be effective (36 percent).

•
On a related question about mass shootings in general, 59 percent think there would be fewer victims of mass shootings if more law-abiding people carried guns, while 29 percent say the answer is to ban guns.

•
Following Paris and San Bernardino, voters say terrorism is the most important issue facing the country.
Pentagon proposing big release of Gitmo detainees (Fox 12/17/2015)
Pal of San Bernardino terrorists charged on multiple counts (Fox 12/17/2015)
•
Marquez is reportedly a recent convert to Islam.

•
Marquez legally purchased the AR-15 rifles used in their killing spree and later cooperated with investigators.

•
The FBI has confirmed the attack was terror related, but so far believe the pair was inspired, but not directed, by ISIS.
San Bernardino killers reportedly buried in small funeral (Fox 12/16/2015)
•
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik were reportedly buried in a Muslim cemetery hours away from San Bernardino in a ceremony attended by about 10 people, including members of Farook's family and people who used to pray with the couple at mosques.

•
... the funeral followed traditional Islamic rituals, where the bodies were cleansed and wrapped in white cloth and buried.

•
Most Muslims in the San Bernardino community refused to attend burial or perform funeral prayer.
Feds can't say whereabouts of those whose visas were revoked over terror threat (Fox 12/17/2015)
Chattanooga shooting a 'terror attack,' FBI Director James Comey says (Fox 12/16/2015)
•
The semantic dance of whether or not to call the July mass shooting in Chattanooga a "terrorist" attack appears to be winding down.

•
"We've investigated Chattanooga as a terror attack from the beginning."

•
"The Chattanooga killer was inspired by a foreign terror organization. It's hard to entangle which particular source...there are lots of competing poisons out there."
San Bernardino shooter reportedly sent Facebook message supporting jihad in 2012 (Fox 12/15/2015)
Enrique Marquez reportedly spoke of 'sleeper cells' to patrons at his job (Fox 12/12/2015)
Radioactive radical: Body of San Bernardino jihadist bride unclaimed (Fox 12/11/2015)
•
"No one wants to claim her and no one wants to do the funeral."

•
"They are all waiting for someone else to be the one to take care of this part of it."

•
If no one steps up, she will likely be cremated at taxpayers' expense, a fate forbidden by Islamic law for even the most reviled radical killers.

•
"If nobody claims a body, it is turned over to the public administrator, who will handle it civilly and not religiously."

•
"Cremation is usually standard because it's the cheapest option."

•
"The state is not going to care about religious tradition. She was a terrorist."
Tashfeen Malik reportedly tried to contact extremist groups, but was ignored (Fox 12/11/2015)
•
... it was likely whoever she was contacting didn't respond out of fear of being caught in a law enforcement "sting" operation.

•
"You have to say it was an intelligence failure. You have to. Because it was."
Minnesota man accused of conspiring to help ISIS (Fox 12/10/2015)
'Intelligence failure?': Calif. terrorists may have been on authorities' radar (Fox 12/10/2015)
Federal authorities set to indict friend who bought guns for San Bernardino terrorist (Fox 12/10/2015)
•
Investigators believe Marquez bought the rifles and gave them or sold them to Farook in preparation for that planned attack.
Call it terrorism, says father of hero who helped stop stabber at Calif. college (Fox 12/10/2015)
•
The California college student who stabbed four people last month in a campus spree that ended when he was killed by campus police was described by his roommate as "an extreme Muslim" and carried a manifesto and a photocopy of an ISIS flag — more than enough to convince John Price he was a terrorist.

•
"Why don't we just call it what it is — domestic terrorism? Everyone is afraid to be politically incorrect. I do believe in law enforcement and believe they will do their job, but it seems like to me we aren't getting the whole story. I just wonder how much of this is driven from way higher up and is politically driven."

•
Mohammad, whose victims all survived, left behind a rambling, two-page manifesto in which he instructed himself to "praise Allah" as he worked his way through his hit list, a photocopied ISIS flag and at least one shaken roommate who remembers him as a menacing loner.

•
Authorities believe Mohammad, who carried out his attack with an 8-inch hunting knife, planned to steal a gun by overpowering a campus cop and then take several more victims.

•
The manifesto authored by the 18-year-old freshman, copies of which were found both on his body during the autopsy and in the trash can in his dorm, bore names of his targets, a vow "to cut someone's head off" and as many as five reminders to "praise Allah."

•
He detailed how he wanted to behead, stab and shoot his victims...

•
"There was a gruesome statement he made about wanting to cut someone's head off and kill two people with one bullet, and he planned to shoot the police."

•
"It seems like people way higher up are not taking this as seriously as they should, at best, and, at worst, they are deliberately ignoring what has really happened for political reasons."

•
"Even if Faisal Mohammad is only one individual, his aim was to cause terror, and while it may not have been commanded by ISIS, the group inspired him."
Match made in hell: SoCal terrorists likely forged bond in online jihadist forums (Fox 12/09/2015)
•
The online romance between Southern California terrorists Farook Rizwan Syed and Tashfeen Malik was more a meeting of like minds than lonely hearts, with two radical jihadists forming a bond of hate and bloodlust in the dark recesses of the Internet.

•
"They were actually radicalized before they started [dating online]. As early as the end of 2013 they were talking about jihad and martyrdom, before they became engaged."

•
... the picture that is now emerging is one of two hardcore radicals brought together by their mutual desire to kill in the name of radical Islam.

•
Given their movements once together in the U.S., and the arsenal of weapons, ammunition and bombs they accumulated in their home, it seems clear that everything they did was in preparation for the carnage they wrought last week.
Was local high school a target of San Bernardino terrorists? (Fox 12/09/2015)
•
San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook reportedly had multiple photos of a local high school on his cellphone, and amid authorities' suggestions that the killer and his Jihadi bride possibly planned additional carnage...

•
Farook, 28, had worked as an environmental health services inspector for the Public Health Department for five years at the time of the attack. He had reviewed 10 schools alone in the San Bernardino City Unified School District during a 12-day span in October and November 2015...
Farook planned earlier terror attack, says pal who supplied guns in San Bernardino shooting (Fox 12/09/2015)
•
... Marquez was identified early on as the legal purchaser of the two AR-15 assault rifles used in the attack.

•
... Farook and another unidentified individual may have conspired to carry out an attack in 2012.

•
However ... the pair "got spooked" and decided not to go through with their plan after a series of terror-related arrests in Southern California.

•
The new information appears to confirm that Farook's radicalization predates his marriage to Malik, whom he met in 2013 and wed the following year.

•
... Syed was in part radicalized in the U.S., and investigators were still "looking and investigating a number of individuals domestically."

•
Marquez is being described by investigators as a very important witness who is providing significant information to federal agents about acquaintances of Farook and Malik.

•
Marquez has not been charged with any crime in connection with last week's rampage.

•
... Marquez was in the process of converting to Islam and had begun using an Islamic name, making it more difficult for authorities to get in touch with him.

•
... Marquez had checked himself into a Los Angeles-area psychiatric facility soon after the shooting.
Obama is fueling global jihad (INN 12/08/2015)
•
One of the biggest mistakes in dealing with radical Islamic terrorism is to blame only Islamic State (ISIS) when it is, in fact, part of a much broader movement and more than one organization.

•
Regardless of the specific motives behind the timing of the killing spree in San Bernardino that killed 14 people, this horrific massacre was a clear-cut act of radical Islamic terror.

•
America wants to know the truth. And yet, federal authorities ignore the U.S. mosques - and social media's role at the center of Islamic terror attacks. Both are a source of support, recruitment and radicalization of terrorists.

•
The real truth is unnerving and extremely appalling:

•
The mosque attended by the terrorist who killed U.S. soldiers at a base in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is affiliated with the same Islamic group as the mosques patronized by the Boston marathon bombers and the 9/11 hijackers who attacked the Pentagon.

•
Undeniably, the Islamist jihadist terror has come full circle in a "multi-pronged Islamic invasion" under the guise of illegal immigration, known as Islamic Hijrah or jihad by emigration.

•
Almost 400 alleged ISIS adherents are inside the U.S.

•
ISIS, now is threatening more attacks in the next six months, claiming to have "71 trained soldiers in 15 different states."

•
In total, the FBI currently has nearly 1,000 active investigations into ISIS sympathizers.

•
... "the leaders of the Islamic organizations... were actually interfacing with government leaders and advising them with how to proceed in the War on Terror."

•
The San Bernardino terrorists attended the Islamic Center of Riverside, which is owned by the North American Islamic Trust, which is the bank for the Muslim Brotherhood.

•
The Society of North America (ISNA) was founded by an Al-Qaeda guy who used to advise Bill Clinton and Al Gore and is now in prison.

•
... "we were being advised by the enemy on how to investigate and deal with the enemy."

•
CAIR, is an Islamic supremacist organization with the same goals as those of Al-Qaeda and ISIS...

•
MPAC has secured a close working relationship with the Obama White House despite a record of anti-Semitism and whitewashing the terrorist threat while condemning law enforcement.

•
... the purpose of this network within the U.S. is "to wage civilization jihad... until the entire world, and specifically the United States, is under Sharia law and the Islamic State is established here."

•
The Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Egypt's president, Anwar Sadat in 1981, and in 2011, with Obama's help - overthrew Hosni Mubarak, who was also trying to keep the Egypt-Israel peace treaty alive.

•
... the current U.S. administration has an official policy of backing so-called "moderate Islamists," and the "jihadist Muslim Brotherhood."

•
... Obama regime was funneling millions of dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood.

•
... Obama secretly transferred a staggering $8 billion to the Muslim Brotherhood to guarantee that the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula be turned over to the Muslim Brotherhood's terrorist wing Hamas.

•
The bottom line — for now — is that Obama's meeting scores of known Islamist terrorists at the White House, aiding and abetting the enemy in collusion with the Muslim Brotherhood fuel global Jihad.

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Americans needs to understand that the evil scourge of terrorism is here to stay until the end of Obama's presidency.

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It seems that his real legacy will likely be the establishment of a global haven for terrorism.
Farook took out debt consolidation loan to support San Bernardino massacre (Fox 12/08/2015)
Investigators looking into possibility Tashfeen Malik was ‘an operative’ (Fox 12/08/2015)
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... the "number one" way terrorist organizations are recruiting is through family, with the internet being second.
Bank records show $28,500 deposit to Syed Farook's account two weeks before the shooting (Fox 12/08/2015)
Terror couple's bombs were set to kill first responders (Fox 12/07/2015)
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"This was meant to kill more, but also scare other future responders to attacks."
Investigation ties San Bernardino attackers to Middle East terror suspects, sources say (Fox 12/07/2015)
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"We felt from early on these two couldn't have done this alone."

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... the amount of evidence pointing in the direction of the Middle East had forced the Obama administration to "do an about-face" about the nature of Wednesday's attack over the previous 24 hours.

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The latest developments in the investigation are likely to force authorities to take a closer look at Malik, a Pakistani citizen who spent several years in Saudi Arabia.

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... Malik's family members opened up to various media outlets about her increasing religious fervor during the later years of her life.

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"... she has become a religious person, and she often tells people to live according to the teachings of Islam."
Dry run: San Bernardino shooter practiced at gun range days before attack (Fox 12/07/2015)
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During the two visits — one of which lasted several hours — Farook shot both an AR-15 and a handgun...

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Additionally, investigators believe both Farook & Malik were "dry-firing" in the back yard of another Southern California home in the days leading up to the attack, according to law enforcement sources.

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Dry-firing, as explained by a source, is pulling a gun's trigger with no bullets in the weapon's chamber.

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"The intent is to train the mind to kill."

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... three years ago, Marquez bought two assault rifles later used in the shooting, but authorities haven't been able to talk to him because he checked himself into a mental hospital after the attack.
San Bernardino gunman obsessed with ISIS and Israel, dad says (Fox 12/06/2015)
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San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook shared ISIS' ideology, wanted to see the establishment of an Islamic caliphate and was fixated with Israel, Farook's father told an Italian newspaper during an interview in which he also offered his own unusual ideas about Israel.

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"My son said that he shared [ISIS leader Abu Bakr] Al Baghdadi's ideology and supported the creation of the Islamic State."

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"He was also obsessed with Israel."

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"I told him he had to stay calm and be patient because in two years Israel will not exist anymore."

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"Geopolitics is changing: Russia, China and America don't want Jews there anymore. They are going to bring the Jews back to Ukraine. What is the point of fighting? We have already done it and we lost. Israel is not to be fought with weapons, but with politics. But he did not listen to me, he was obsessed."

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The elder Farook's ex-wife and the mother of his children, Rafia, said in court papers filed during divorce proceedings in 2006 that her then-husband had a history of substance abuse.

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"My husband is mentally ill and is on medication but is also an alcoholic and drinks with the medicine."

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"[Farook's] mother is very religious, as he was, and they united against me."

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"Once we had a dispute over the historical figure of Jesus. My son called me a godless person and he decided that my marriage with my wife had to end. They destroyed the family."
Family members say Tashfeen Malik became more religious in years prior to massacre (Fox 12/06/2015)
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"I recently heard it from relatives that she has become a religious person, and she often tells people to live according to the teachings of Islam."

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... after Malik started college, she began to urge her family to become "good Muslims."
Neighbor to family of San Bernardino terrorist couple purportedly saw but didn’t report ‘suspicious activity’ (Fox 12/05/2015)
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A man identified as Aaron Elswick told an ABC News affiliate that a fellow neighbor noticed "quite a few packages" being delivered "within a short amount of time" at a home registered to the mother of Syed Farook.

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Elswick said his neighbor also noticed the occupants of the home purportedly owned by Farook's mother "doing a lot of work out in the garage" but perhaps "didn't want to profile" Farook and his family.

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The revelation follows investigators' reports after the deadly shooting that they found roughly 4,500 rounds of ammunition, 12 pipe bomb-type devices, and bomb-making tools inside Farook and Malik's Redlands, Calif., apartment and garage.

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The couple lived there with their 6-month-old daughter and purportedly Farook's mother.

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"I think his mother knew. I think anybody who walked into that apartment knew."

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A law enforcement official says that more than three years ago, the person who lives in the house, whom the Associated Press reported was a friend of Farook's, bought two assault rifles later used in the shooting, but authorities haven't been able to talk to him because he checked himself into a mental hospital after the attack.

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Islamic State radio also released a statement early Saturday saying two supporters of the terror group committed the San Bernardino killings.
San Bernardino gunman reportedly contacted foreign terror organizations (Fox 12/05/2015)
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Islamic State radio also released a statement early Saturday saying two supporters of the terror group committed the atrocity in California.
Stating the obvious? FBI awkwardly acknowledges San Bernardino massacre likely terrorism (Fox 12/04/2015)
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Three days after a heavily armed Muslim couple who lived in a home investigators described as "an IED factory" burst into a Southern California office building and gunned down 14 people, the FBI acknowledged Friday that it is treating the case as an act of terrorism.

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The pair attempted to cover up their digital trail, damaging hard drives and other electronic devices.

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The federal government's hesitance to conclude the attack was a terrorist activity stoked outrage among many of Obama's critics.

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Obama, who has been criticized for his insistence on labelling as "workplace violence" the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, in which a Muslim Army major killed 13 people and injured another 30 while shouting "Allahu Akbar," was measured when discussing Wednesday's attack.

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... the post by Malik, in which she pledged allegiance to ISIS leader and self-proclaimed "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at the outset of the attack, seemed to erase remaining doubts about the motive.

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Facebook officials confirmed that Malik made the post just before she and Farook stormed a San Bernardino party for his co-workers before escaping.

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The aura of mystery surrounding Malik has given rise to suspicions she may have been the radicalizing force who turned Farook from an aloof county restaurant inspector into her cohort in carnage, an Islamist fanatic capable of murdering co-workers who had embraced him for years.

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"Usually it's ISIS supporters trying to radicalize young girls online as they try to find new wives, but this may be the first case I know of where the opposite happened."

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... Farook's older brother, who shares his name, served in the U.S. Navy, which would seem to indicate that Farook's radical leanings did not come from within his own family.

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"It is possible that she radicalized him or that suspected terrorists inside America he was communicating with are responsible for the radicalization, which led him to be attracted to a more hardline Salafi girl."

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Farook is a third-generation American from a family hailing from Karachi. Sources close to his family insisted that his marriage to Malik was not arranged. He told co-workers, who hosted a baby shower for him and his wife earlier this year, that Malik was a pharmacist.

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Farook ... also had gotten into several heated arguments with a co-worker, Nicholas Thalasinos, about Islam.

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Thalasinos reportedly questioned whether Farook's faith was truly a "religion of peace."

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He was one of the 14 killed in Wednesday's attack.
Investigators probe whether wife radicalized husband before San Bernardino massacre (Fox 12/04/2015)
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Federal investigators believe there is a "very serious" possibility that Tashfeen Malik, one of two shooters who murdered 14 people and wounded 21 others in San Bernardino, Calif. Wednesday, radicalized her husband and co-assailant, county restaurant inspector Syed Farook.

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Investigators also believe that the couple had planned a second attack after the shooting at a social service center for the disabled when they were killed in a shootout with local authorities approximately two miles away.

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Investigators believe that on at least one of those trips to Saudi Arabia, one or both members of the couple made contact with suspected Al Qaeda terrorists.

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... there was a "very strong" possibility that Malik functioned as Farook's terror trainer and may have even put together pipe bombs found by authorities at the various crime scenes Wednesday.

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... Malik underwent and passed a Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism screening as part of the process of getting the K-1 visa.

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Wearing black tactical gear and wielding assault rifles, Farook, 28, and Malik, 27, sprayed as many as 75 rounds into a room at the Inland Regional Center, where about 75 of Farook's co-workers had gathered Wednesday morning. Farook had attended the start of the event but slipped out and returned in battle dress.

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Four hours later and two miles away, the couple died in a furious gun battle in which they fired 76 rounds, while 23 law officers unleashed about 380, police said.

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... authorities were trying to piece together a money trail that would have enabled the suspects to acquire over $30,000 worth of guns and explosives.

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Among the weapons found were three rigged-together pipe bombs at the social service center, each equipped with a remote-control detonating device that apparently malfunctioned; more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition and multiple pipe bombs in the rented SUV where they died; and 12 pipe bombs, tools for making more, and over 3,000 additional rounds of ammunition at a family home in the nearby town of Redlands.

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Officials were also looking for a man who bought the two AR-15 rifles the couple used in the attack. ... Farook legally bought two pistols found on the couple, but an unidentified man bought the rifles.

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Farook was a devout Muslim who prayed every day and recently memorized the Koran.

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"He never ever talked about killing people or discussed politics, or said that he had problems at work. He always had a smile on his face."

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... Farook "doesn't agree that Islam is not a peaceful religion."
Police, feds probe terror as possible motive in SoCal massacre (Fox 12/03/2015)
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As chilling details emerged about the Muslim couple who unleashed carnage Wednesday morning in Southern California, storming a social services office in tactical gear and assault rifles, killing 14 at an office gathering before dying hours later in a shootout with police, speculation mounted that the pair left their "IED factory" home hell-bent on jihad.

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Dressed in body armor and wearing GoPro cameras, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, burst into the San Bernardino facility and shot up a conference room where Farook's employer, the county health department, was hosting a holiday party.

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"They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission."

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Farook, who authorities said was born in Illinois, and raised in California and had worked as a $51,000-per-year restaurant inspector at the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health for five years, was described by co-workers as a "devout" Muslim, who lived in a home in nearby Redlands, which sources described as "an IED factory."

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Bomb squads working with robots swept the home late into the night Wednesday, and witnesses reported hearing several explosions.

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The nationality of Malik, who had a 6-month-old baby with Farook, was not immediately known. Family members told The Associated Press the couple was married.

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... the couple were each carrying an AR-15 rifle and a pistol — all later determined to have been legally purchased...

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... the vehicle also contained so-called "rollout bags" with multiple pipe bombs, as well as additional ammunition.

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The couple also had GoPro cameras strapped to their body armor and wore tactical clothing, including vests stuffed with ammunition magazines.

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"That's a military tactic for a sustained fight."

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In addition to the explosives found at the SUV, authorities discovered and detonated three pipe bombs late Wednesday at the Inland Regional Center, the complex where the initial shooting took place...

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... investigators discovered multiple pipe bombs in the house, as well as small explosives strapped to remote-controlled cars.

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The couple dropped off their baby daughter with relatives Wednesday morning, saying they had a doctor's appointment...
Tsarnaev lawyers seek death penalty do-over, citing SCOTUS case (Fox 12/02/2015)
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Tsarnaev, now 22, was sentenced to death in June after being convicted of working with his brother to plant pressure cooker bombs at the 2013 race's finish line in an attack that killed three and injured hundreds.

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"It is a frivolous argument. There is no such thing as "passive" deployment of a bomb, which is innately a destructive device."
Study finds 300 active ISIS supporters online in the US (Fox 12/02/2015)
FBI using elite surveillance teams to track at least 48 high risk ISIS suspects (Fox 11/26/2015)
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With as many as 1000 active cases, ... at least 48 ISIS suspects are considered so high risk that the FBI is using its elite tracking squads known as the mobile surveillance teams or MST to track them domestically.

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"The FBI together with law enforcement agencies across the country are engaged in this. It takes enormous amount of manpower to do this on a 24-7 basis. It takes enormous amount of money to do this."

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With at least a dozen agents assigned to each case, providing 24/7 coverage, this high level of surveillance reflects the severe risk associated with suspects most likely to attempt copycat attacks after Paris.

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"It is a big resource drain. Yes it is. Almost overwhelming."

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One of the lessons of Paris is that the radicalization process can be swift.

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... the time between radicalization and crossing the threshold to violent action can be very short.
Pakistani man gets 40 years for failed Al Qaeda plot to bomb NYC subway (Fox 11/24/2015)
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... the case marked the first time documents recovered in the 2009 Navy SEAL raid against Usama bin Laden's compound were used as trial evidence.

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One prosecution witness, Najibullah Zazi, pleaded guilty in the subway plot as part of a cooperation agreement. Zazi testified that after receiving explosives training in Pakistan, he received instructions from the same Al Qaeda contact as Naseer and was told to use "marriage" and "wedding" as code for attacks.
State Department issues worldwide travel alert (Fox 11/23/2015)
Phoenix flagged as potential 'hotbed' for terror recruiting (Fox 11/20/2015)
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Recent apprehensions of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia along the southern U.S. border have renewed security concerns in the region, amid claims that Phoenix in particular is becoming a "hotbed" for terror recruiting and activity.

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... the FBI even briefed Phoenix police two weeks ago to notify them that the Islamic State is trying to recruit "high-school age students."

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... Border Patrol agents in Arizona caught three Saudi nationals last Saturday trying to evade a highway checkpoint. They were detained in an area considered one of the hottest smuggling routes in the U.S. and just a few miles from where, two days later, agents arrested five Pakistani nationals and one Afghani trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

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"When it comes to terrorism there are no coincidences, and that fact that three Saudi Arabians were detained in the same area ... days before Pakistanis and Afghans were arrested in the same area isn't coincidence."

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"Officers are routinely trained to recognize and identify all types of criminal activity — narcotics, prostitution, DUI, criminal gangs — but not Islamic jihadist activity."

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"The FBI says Phoenix is a hotbed and very active, lots of chatter on the airwaves."

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The two men were killed after trying to ambush an event featuring controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Garland, Texas. Simpson and Soofi shared an apartment in the Autumn Ridge complex and attended the Islamic community center nearby. They were believed to be sympathetic to Islamic terror groups such as ISIS.
Testing the gates? Syrians nabbed south of the border, Arizona arrests stoke terror fears (Fox 11/19/2015)
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Two separate reports of groups of America-bound Syrians detained below the U.S. southern border and the arrests of six other Middle Eastern men nabbed with smugglers in Arizona in recent days are raising concerns that Islamic State militants could be probing security – and stoking fears some may already be here.Two separate reports of groups of America-bound Syrians detained below the U.S. southern border and the arrests of six other Middle Eastern men nabbed with smugglers in Arizona in recent days are raising concerns that Islamic State militants could be probing security – and stoking fears some may already be here.

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Whether sneaking in illegally or entering the U.S. through the refugee program, Middle Eastern immigrants are raising fears that terrorist groups — including ISIS and Al Qaeda — could be planting sleeper cells in the U.S. to mount attacks like the coordinated ones in Paris last Friday that left 129 dead and hundreds more injured.

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"We know that terrorist groups look for the weakest link, or any way they can gain entry."

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"It is likely that terrorists have already managed to get through. The Border Patrol catches only a fraction of the people who try to cross illegally, perhaps 40 or 50 percent. They have already caught a number of aliens from countries associated with terrorism, but we can't be confident they have caught everyone who has tried."

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"To make matters worse, there is very little interior enforcement, so once they get past the border, they are relatively free to operate here, rent a place to live, get a driver's license in some states, just like the 9/11 terrorists did."

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... two Al Qaeda terrorists from Iraq who had killed American soldiers were able to enter the country as refugees.

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The pair, Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, settled in Bowling Green, Ky., after killing American soldiers.

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In 2010, they were caught with a machine gun and a missile launcher that they planned to smuggle to insurgents in Iraq.

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"And these are trained terrorists in the art of bombmaking that are inside the United States..."
72 hours before Paris attacks, ISIS-linked social media account reveals 'God bless you in your mission' (Fox 11/15/2015)
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FBI Director James Comey has told field offices across the country to intensify surveillance on ISIS suspects, hoping to prevent violence in this country.

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Before the attack, Comey confirmed there are 900 active ISIS investigations, spread over all 50 states.
ISIS flag, radical manifesto raise questions about Calif. campus stabber's motive (Fox 11/10/2015)
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The California college student who stabbed four people last week was carrying an image of the black flag of ISIS according to a report Tuesday, as well as a handwritten manifesto with instructions to behead a student and multiple reminders to pray to Allah, yet authorities continued to insist Faisal Mohammad's motives had nothing to do with radical Islam.

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"This fits exactly with what ISIS is looking for, individuals to go and do an act of terrorism unilaterally."

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"The fact that he may have been kicked out of a study group does not preclude this being a lone wolf act. It only needs some sort of trigger, which could be totally unrelated to Islam, that causes him to act on his rage and attribute it to Allah."

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"ISIS is not looking for a few good men; one crazy will do. This is what a lone wolf looks like."

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Mohammad's manner of dress during the attack and some of the websites he may have visited in the days leading up to the incident ultimately led local authorities to hand control of the investigation over to the FBI.

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"As far as any further investigation into any outside influence, the FBI will be handling that from now on."
California campus begins to heal as questions swirl after stabbing attack (Fox 11/09/2015)
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... a manifesto he carried included numerous reminders to pray to Allah and a pledge to behead one victim.

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... the body of the freshman, who was killed by campus police, remained unclaimed, no one from his family has spoken publicly and the role his Muslim faith may have played in the attack remains murky.

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A backpack carried by Mohammad, who was shot and killed by campus police on a nearby bridge, contained zip-tie handcuffs and duct tape.
Campus stabber's manifesto included 'praise for Allah,' plan for beheading (Fox 11/06/2015)
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A handwritten manifesto carried by a California college student whose stabbing spree Wednesday left four wounded bore names of his targets, a vow "to cut someone's head off" and as many as five reminders to "praise Allah."

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"No. 27 was to ‘make sure people are tied down,' No. 28 was "sit down and praise Allah.'" ... "I remember seeing four or five times, scribbled on the side of the two-page manifesto, where he wrote something like ‘praise Allah.'"

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Mohammad's intended bloodbath began around 8 a.m.,when he burst into his classroom with an 8-inch hunting knife. Police said it would have continued - and possibly claimed lives - if he hadn't been interrupted by a construction team, and then shot dead by police.

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"There was a gruesome statement he made about wanting to cut someone's head off and kill two people with one bullet, and he planned to shoot the police."

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"He did not have a firearm with him and didn't seem to have a lot of experience with firearms because he thought he could kill two people with one bullet. He reminded himself in the list to raise the gun slowly. He scripted everything out in chronological order."

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Mohammed slashed and stabbed four people... "He had a smile on his face, he was having fun..."

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"He was banking on the fear factor... His plan went haywire because people fought back. He got so befuddled at the activities that happened; it took the script away from him."

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Mohammed claimed in his manifesto he was angry over being kicked out of a study group.

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Mohammad, a resident of Santa Clara, had just turned 18 in October, and was studying computer science and engineering major at the Northern California college.

•
Mohammad's family has not come forward and attempts to locate them were unsuccessful.
ISIS-linked tweet praises Calif. university stabber as details on his background emerge (Fox 11/05/2015)
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Faisal Mohammad, who was killed by University of California Merced police, was described by at least one witness as smiling as he slashed at victims, called a loner by a fellow dorm resident and drew praise Thursday from a Twitter account associated with ISIS, which just last week released a series of videos calling for lone wolf stabbing attacks.

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"He had a smile on his face, he was having fun," a construction worker who helped stop the attacker...

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Campus police shot and killed Mohammad, a computer science & engineering major who graduated from Wilcox High School in Santa Clara last June. Police detonated his backpack and are testing a substance inside.

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The four victims are expected to survive. Authorities say Mohammad was armed with a hunting knife, and that its blade was 8 to 10 inches long.

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"It was a really big knife and he was swinging it down so I figured if I was on the ground and my feet were at him, he could get my legs and not my body."

•
The suspect fled the building. He was shot and killed by pursuing campus police on a nearby foot bridge.

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"Over the past three days, the Islamic State has released nineteen videos encouraging Palestinians stabbing attacks on Israel."

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"The media campaign coincides with a wave of renewed violence between Israel and Palestine, after a wave of seemingly lone wolf attacks by Palestinians targeting Israelis."
Judge hears case to dismiss charges against defendant in Benghazi attack (Fox 10/17/2015)
‘I know how to defend myself’: SEAL who killed bin Laden responds to ISIS threat (Fox 10/07/2015)
Senator questions releasing Gitmo detainee to questionable Saudi terror rehab program (Fox 09/23/2015)
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"The release of this dangerous detainee ... is another example of President Obama playing politics with national security and putting campaign promises ahead of U.S. national security interests."

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The freshman senator also questioned why Defense Secretary Ashton Carter would authorize the release, considering Saudi Arabia's recidivism track record.

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... also requested that the administration give Congress a Memorandum of Understanding regarding Shalabi's transfer so members "can fully understand the commitments made by Saudi Arabia to monitor this individual."
Krauthammer on the US fight against terror: 'Do we have the leadership?' (Fox 09/11/2015)
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"What we're getting here, and what we got for the last 6 years with Obama, is a president who said, 'this war is unsustainable, it's hurting us, it changes us in ways, it's got to end'. As if he could decree its end."

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"This is a long, twilight struggle and it looks as if we have leadership that doesn't want to recognize it, and wants to live in a different universe."
Florida 'online troll' charged in alleged plot to bomb 9/11 memorial event in Kansas (Fox ty/0/2015)
Refugees: Another one for the 'not our problem' file (JWR 09/10/2015)
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Fazliddin Kurbanov ... was brought to the U.S. as a refugee in 2009, joining hundreds of other Uzbeks in Boise, Idaho. He came with his wife and young child, his sister and his two ailing parents.

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So grateful was Kurbanov to America for rescuing his entire family from "persecution" that he spent the next few years conspiring to commit jihad against us.

•
As he cheerfully told his terrorist buddies back in Uzbekistan: "We are the closest ones to infidels. We have almost everything. What would you say if, with the help of God, we implement a martyrdom act? ... There are military installations right here, targets, and vehicles are available as well."

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Kurbanov had plenty of time on his hands to plot terrorist attacks in the U.S. because he was being supported by you, taxpayer.

•
For the cherry on top, the whole welfare-dependent, Islamic terrorist-nurturing family won refugee status in America by claiming they were persecuted in Uzbekistan for being Christians.

•
A few years ago, the FBI realized we'd let in scores of Iraqi terrorists as "refugees," including Mohanad Shareef Hammadi and Waad Ramadan Alwan — the latter of whose fingerprints were found on boxes of IEDs seized in Iraq.

•
On FBI surveillance tapes, the men bragged about having used a sniper rifle to kill American soldiers north of Baghdad, blowing up Bradley tanks and building more than a dozen bombs for use against U.S. Troops.

•
After being happily "resettled" into public housing in Bowling Green, Kentucky, they continued their war against America, including one specific Army captain.

•
Soldiers who had survived an IED attack that killed four troops in Iraq were warned by the FBI that their comrades' murderers had been relocated to America — courtesy of the U.S. government — and might be coming for them.

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The Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had received asylum in the U.S., before launching the 2013 attacks that left four dead and thousands injured in Boston.

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That's not including the three Jewish men whose throats Tamerlan slit in Waltham, Massachusetts, a few years earlier.

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The entire extended Tsarnaev family got asylum based on Russia's brutal crackdown on Chechnyan Muslims — persecution so unspeakable that various family members continued to vacation there.

•
Hundreds of "refugees" from Somalia and elsewhere, who have been granted fast-track U.S. citizenship because of their sworn fear of persecution in their home countries, seem to forget all about that "credible fear" as soon as the time comes to go back and engage in jihad.

•
Only after Munyenyezi was granted citizenship did we find out that, as the federal court put it, she had "personally participated in the mass killing of innocent women, men and children merely because they were called Tutsi."

•
Although her American citizenship was revoked, Munyenyezi remains a legal U.S. resident, whom we are supporting in prison for the next decade.

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Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, or "the Blind Sheik," imprisoned for life in the U.S. for his participation in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing: Asylee.

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Ramzi Yousef, ringleader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing: Asylee.

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Egyptian Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, who shot up the El Al ticket counter at the Los Angeles airport, killing two: Refugee.

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For at least half a century, the U.S. has taken in the vast majority of the world's refugees. Isn't it somebody else's turn, now?

•
If our current immigration policies aren't stopped, this country will soon be nothing more than another failed Latin American state.

•
Donald Trump's soaring popularity suggests that America may not be ready to commit suicide yet...
Arizona Man Charged with Supporting ISIS (INN 08/28/2015)
Mississippi couple accused of trying to join ISIS (Fox 08/11/2015)
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Both Young and Dakhlalla are U.S. citizens. Mississippi State University spokesman Sid Salter said records show Dakhlalla graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in psychology. He said Young was enrolled until May as a sophomore chemistry major but had not enrolled for classes since.

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Young specified her skills with math and chemistry and said she and Dakhlalla would like to be medics treating the injured.

•
... he expressed a desire to become a fighter for the group. "I am willing to fight," he is quoted as saying.

•
She also expressed a desire to "raise little Dawlah cubs."
Accused 'lone wolf' arraigned on state terrorism charges in killing of NJ student (Fox 08/04/2015)
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Tevlin was murdered in West Orange while sitting in his car at a traffic light. He was shot eight times.
'Greta Investigates Lone Wolves – Enemies Among Us,' highlights Brendan Tevlin murder case (Fox 07/31/2015)
US authorities allege Oregon imam assisted radicals (Fox 07/21/2015)
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U.S. authorities are seeking to revoke the citizenship of an Oregon imam who they say tried to conceal past associations with radical Islamic groups.

•
Born in Somalia, Kariye came to the United States on a student visa in 1982.

•
After returning to the United States in 1988, he applied for asylum and swore under oath that he hadn't left the country or been arrested.

•
Kariye returned to Pakistan in 1990 and worked for three years to recruit sympathizers and raise funds for Maktab Al-Khidamat, the precursor of Al Qaeda. He was listed as the Oregon point of contact on a 1994 flyer advertising a nationwide fundraising tour for Afghan jihad.

•
He pleaded guilty to using a fraudulent Social Security number and defrauding the state Medicaid program by lying about his income to receive state-funded health insurance. A federal judge sentenced him to five years on probation.

•
As the longtime leader at Portland's largest mosque, Masjed As-Saber, Kariye is a well-known figure in the city's Islamic community.

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Kariye was one of 10 people who in 2010 sued the federal government over their placement on the no-fly list. Eight others have since joined the case.

•
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Kariye and other plaintiffs in the case, filed a motion...
Chattanooga gunman's troubling spiral fueled by drugs, booze and jihad (Fox 07/20/2015)
Sailor shot in Tenn. terror attack dies; gunman reportedly failed drug test at nuclear plant (Fox 07/18/2015)
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Smith's death comes as authorities revealed that Abdulazeez had started working in 2013 as an engineer at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant on the shores of Lake Erie.
President Obama Needs to Stop With the Political Correctness About Islam (Fox 07/17/2015)
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The truth is that Islamic radicals live among us, waiting to wage jihad against the infidels — folks like you and me.

•
Not once did he mention the words "radical Islam." Not once did he mention "jihad" or "terrorism."

•
... how can we fight a war on terror when our Commander-in-Chief won't even acknowledge who the enemy is — or that we even have one?
Tennessee gunman first radicalized, now idolized by Internet jihadists (Fox 07/17/2015)
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"Terrorist organizations are spending time and money and using American social media platforms to recruit and incite sympathizers and ‘lone wolves' here in the United States and around the world."

•
"The social media companies have a moral responsibility to make their platforms safe from these horrific and directional posts that call for terrorist behavior that we have been witnessing over the past months."
Gunman identified in shooting deaths of 4 Marines at Tennessee Navy facility (Fox 07/16/2015)
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The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center said it has seen nothing so far to connect Abdulazeez to any terrorist organization. But it noted that the Islamic State group has been encouraging extremists to carry out attacks in the U.S.

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The gunman first shot up a recruiting center before driving to the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center and killing four Marines before he was shot, authorities said.

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... one of the Marines who was killed was a "decorated war hero with two Purple Hearts." The youngest was 19 years old...

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... Abdulazeez graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 2012. Before that, he graduated from Red Bank High School with a yearbook photo featuring the quote, "My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?"

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... Abdulazeez's father had been investigated several years ago for possible ties to a foreign terrorist organization and at one point was on – but later removed from – a terror watch list.

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"We are treating this as an act of domestic terrorism," said Bill Killian, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Son of Boston police captain allegedly involved in terror plot (Fox 07/13/2015)
•
"... the defendant had a long history of mental illness and in the last 18 months had become obsessed with Islam."

•
"While we were saddened and disappointed to learn of our son's intentions, we are grateful that authorities were able to prevent any loss of life or harm to others."
FBI head: Several potential attacks thwarted ahead of July 4 (Fox 07/09/2015)
•
He cited as an example the case of a 26-year-old terror suspect who was fatally shot by police in Boston last month after authorities said he lunged at them with a military-style knife. The FBI has said he had been scheming with other men, both now facing charges, of a future plot to kill a conservative blogger known for provoking Muslims but decided to change plans.
Terror suspect accused of killing four people in two states faces new terrorism charges (Fox 07/08/2015)
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After his arrest in July 2014, Brown told detectives from both states that he "was engaged in jihad" and referred to the specific murder of Tevlin, as a "just kill."

•
Tevlin, 19, was shot eight times in West Orange on June 25, 2014 while sitting in his car at a traffic light.
FBI: 3 men plotted for months before cartoon contest attack (06/19/2015)
ISIS Pressure Cooker Attack in New York Thwarted (INN 06/17/2015)
Suspected ISIS sympathizer allegedly attacks NYC agents amid widespread terror sweep (Fox 06/17/2015)
FBI claims New York City student planned ISIS-inspired attack (Fox 06/17/2015)
Man allegedly helped plan Texas cartoon contest shooting (Fox 06/16/2015)
Third man arrested in connection with Boston beheading plot (Fox 06/12/2015)
Lords of Finance, The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (Fox 06/12/2015)
Boston Bomber's Friend Sentenced to 3 and a Half Years (INN 06/06/2015)
Sources: Administration tried to recruit Taliban 5 members as informants, effort was ‘total failure’ (Fox 06/05/2015)
Gangster-turned-radical imam may have radicalized dozens behind bars (Fox 06/04/2015)
Report: Muslim Shot in Boston Planned to Kill Jewish Blogger (INN 06/04/2015)
Boston terror suspect reportedly targeted 'Draw Muhammad' activist for beheading (Fox 06/04/2015)
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"They want to make an example out of me to frighten the rest of the US into silence and submission. This is not about me. This is about whether the US will stand for freedom or submit and cower before violent intimidation."
US officials warn no way to monitor ISIS' online encrypted messages (Fox 06/03/2015)
Boston terror suspects plotted to behead police officers, source says (Fox 06/03/2015)
Police shoot, kill man under surveillance by Joint Terrorism Task Force (Fox 06/02/2015)
Boston Marathon bomber's college friend gets 6 years in prison (Fox 06/02/2015)
Bulletin warns US analysts overwhelmed by pro-ISIS social media, military posts threatened (Fox 05/26/2015)
2 'homegrown' jihadists nabbed in California on way to join ISIS, say officials (Fox 05/22/2015)
A fitting sentence for the Boston Marathon terrorist (JWR 05/18/2015)
•
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's life is a meager compensation for the murder of Martin Richard, Lingzi Lu, Krystle Campbell, and Sean Collier. But it is the highest price he can be made to pay under our system of justice, and a jury of his peers has unanimously recommended that he pay it.

•
Tsarnaev and his brother set out to slaughter as many victims as possible, and to do so with a maximum of cruelty and horror. . Under federal law, the death penalty is meant to be reserved for the worst of the worst.

•
Tsarnaev placed a nail-filled pressure-cooker bomb a few inches behind an 8-year-old boy, and sauntered off to buy a quart of milk after the child was blown to pieces. If such a murderer doesn't qualify as worst of the worst, no one does.

•
But the destruction Tsarnaev caused will last a lifetime — in shattered families that will never be made whole, in physical wounds that will never fully heal, in emotional trauma that will never be shaken off. Above all, in the death of innocents who will never again smile, or dream, or love.

•
Human justice is imperfect. But in returning a verdict of death for the Boston Marathon bomber, 12 Massachusetts jurors have come as close as they could.
Jurors sentence Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for Boston Marathon bombing (Fox 05/15/2015)
'Terrorism has gone viral': US officials, lawmakers warn of growing jihad-inspired attacks (Fox 05/10/2015)
Military posts put on elevated alert level amid recent ISIS warnings (Fox 05/08/2015)
'I Don't Care if I Win or Lose - I'm Doing the Right Thing' (INN 05/06/2015)
•
Geller in turn accused the press of abandoning the First Amendment and the values of free speech "so as not to offend savages."

•
... Geller insists that is merely because criticism of Islam - and the violent, often murderous response to it - has become the "defining issue" for free speech.

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"It was not I who chose Muhammad cartoons as the defining issue for the freedom of speech; it was the jihadis when they massacred the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists."

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"They made it clear that they would kill if we expressed our freedom of speech in this way. That made it imperative that we defend the freedom of speech by drawing Muhammad cartoons and thereby showing that we would not capitulate to violent intimidation."

•
"I don't care if I win or lose. I care about doing the right thing, and will continue to do so, come what may."
We're Giving Up Our Freedoms so as Not to Offend Savages (INN 05/05/2015)
•
Geller lashed out at the media "elites" for criticizing her group - the attackers' intended victims - as opposed to radical Islamists responsible for such violent attacks.

•
"It's dangerous because increasingly we are abridging our freedoms so as not to offend savages."

•
"The very idea that if something offends me or if I'm insulted by something, I'll kill you, and that way I can get my way — and somehow this is OK with members of the elite media and academia — is outrageous."

•
"We have to have this conversation, and the fact that we have to spend upwards of $50,000 dollars in security speaks to how dangerous and how in trouble freedom of speech is in this country."

•
"And then we have to get on these news shows and somehow we - those who are targeted, those who were going to be slaughtered - are the ones who get attacked, speaks to how morally inverted this conversation is."

•
"I'm not concerned with Muslims, especially peaceful Muslims. I am concerned with the 25% which support Sharia; I am concerned with the amputations and the female genital mutilation and the honor violence; I am concerned that the media whitewashes and scrubs this. I am concerned for the victims."
Starnes: The Islamic State Can Blow It Out Their Hookah (Fox 05/06/2015)
•
The Islamic State says they have 71 trained soldiers in 15 states waiting to commit acts of jihad in retaliation for that Muhammad cartoon contest. They specifically mention five states - Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, California and Michigan. And they also threatened to kill contest organizer Pamela Geller and her supporters.

•
"We will send all our lions to achieve her slaughter... everyone who houses her events, gives her a platform to spill her filth are legitimate targets."

•
Now look, ISIS could be blowing smoke out of their hookahs for all we know. But what if they're telling the truth? We know the FBI had one of the jihadists on their radar. So, what if there are more?

•
Not that it matters to the White House. They don't even believe there's such a thing as Islamic radicals, out of either willful ignorance or cowardice.

•
But the cold hard reality is that we don't know how many more radicalized Muslims might be living among us, waiting to attack.

•
And by the way, the nation owes a debt of gratitude to the Lone Star State for demonstrating the proper response when Islamic radicals do try to wage jihad. You shoot back.
Purported ISIS warning claims terror cells in place in 15 states (Fox 05/06/2015)
Lindsey Graham: 'New phase in the war' if ISIS directed Texas attack (Fox 05/05/2015)
•
Graham said it is possible the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack Tuesday, may be "taking credit after the fact." But "if they were in fact in a command and control relationship with these guys, that's a new phase of the war that's on us."

•
"That's different than a lone wolf attack," Graham said. If so, "that's ominous."
ISIS claim responsibility for shooting at Texas Muhammad cartoon contest (Fox 05/05/2015)
•
"We tell America that what is coming is more bitter and harder and you will see from the soldiers of the Caliphate what harms you."
Texas officer saved lives in shooting outside Muhammad cartoon contest, police say (Fox 05/04/2015)
•
A Texas traffic cop saved untold lives Sunday night when he took down two heavily armed men bent on storming a building where a 'Draw the Prophet' Muhammad contest was taking place, killing both before they could make their way inside.

•
... two suspects, believed to have driven some 1,100 miles from Phoenix to invade the contest at a suburban Dallas venue, shot assault rifles outside, wounding a security guard and hitting at least one police car.

•
... men — wearing body armor — drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center on Sunday night and began shooting at a security officer with assault rifles.

•
"We think [the suspects'] strategy was to get to the event center [and] into the event center. We were able to stop those men before they were able to... shoot anyone else."

•
But it was the unidentified Garland police officer, who spends most of his shift assigned to traffic duty, who killed both suspects, who were each dead at the scene.

•
Simpson is an American Muslim who became the subject of a criminal investigation in 2006 because of his association "with an individual whom the FBI believed was attempting to set up a terrorist cell in Arizona."
Two suspects killed, officer injured after shooting outside Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas (Fox 05/04/2015)
•
Two armed men were killed after opening fire on a security guard outside an exhibit of artistic depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in suburban Dallas Sunday evening.

•
"Muhammad fought and terrorized people with the swords. Today, here in Garland, we fight Muhammad and his followers with the pen. And the pen, the drawings, will prove mightier than the sword."

•
Others held signs with messages such as, "Insult those who behead others," an apparent reference to recent beheadings by the militant group Islamic State.
ISIS-linked Twitter accounts reportedly claim responsibility for Texas shooting (Fox 05/04/2015)
•
"The knives have been sharpened, soon we will come to your streets with death and slaughter!"

•
"Allahu Akbar!!!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire at the Prophet Muhammad art exhibition in texas!"

•
"Kill Those That Insult The Prophet."

•
"They Thought They Was Safe In Texas From The Soldiers of The Islamic State."
Boston Marathon bomber's lawyer urges jury to spare his life (Fox 04/27/2015)
DOE: Terrorist attacks threaten electric grid, 'results could be devastating' (Fox 04/22/2015)
Jury dismissed after dramatic first day of penalty phase in Boston bombing trial (Fox 04/21/2015)
•
Jurors in the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Tuesday were shown a picture of the man flashing a middle finger at a video camera from his jail cell about three months after the bombing that killed three and injured 260.

•
"This is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, unconcerned, unrepentant and unchanged. He had one more message to send."

•
"I remember hearing just blood-curdling screams. I just remember looking around, just seeing blood everywhere, sort of like debris falling from the sky."

•
The 12-member jury must be unanimous for Tsarnaev to receive a death sentence; otherwise, he will automatically get life behind bars.
Muslim family says daughter left Alabama home to join ISIS (Fox 04/21/2015)
6 Minnesota men charged with trying to join ISIS in Syria (Fox 04/20/2015)
Kansas man accused of plotting to detonate bomb at Fort Riley military base (Fox 04/10/2015)
•
He told ... killing Americans was permissible because the Koran "says to kill your enemies wherever they are."

•
"Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush! I am so nervous. NOT because I'm scared to die but I am EAGER to meet my lord."
Gretchen's Take: Islamic terrorists should receive death penalty in our country (Fox 04/09/2015)
•
But I think we should look at Islamic terrorists — whose only mission in life is to kill Americans — differently.

•
If we don't send Islamic terrorists to death row here in the United States, to me, that sends a message to the outside world — and to any terrorist — that we're weak.
Why Boston Marathon bomber jury may not agree to death penalty verdict (Fox 04/09/2015)
Will Boston jury sentence marathon bomber to death? (Fox 04/09/2015)
Wisconsin man charged with trying to join ISIS (Fox 04/09/2015)
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev found guilty on all counts in Boston Marathon bombing (Fox 04/08/2015)
•
The two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the finish line, turning the traditionally celebratory home stretch of the world-famous race into a scene of carnage and putting the city on edge for days.

•
In the next phase of the trial, the jury will hear evidence on whether Tsarnaev should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison.

•
Prosecutors, however, portrayed the brothers — ethnic Chechens who moved to the U.S. from Russia more than a decade ago — as full partners in a plan to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries. Jihadist writings, lectures and videos were found on both their computers, though the defense argued that Tamerlan downloaded the material and sent it to his brother.

•
The government called 92 witnesses over 15 days, painting a hellish scene of torn-off limbs, blood-spattered pavement, ghastly screams and the smell of sulfur and burned hair. Survivors gave heartbreaking testimony about losing legs in the blasts or watching people die. The father of an 8-year-old boy described making the agonizing decision to leave his mortally wounded son so he could get help for their 6-year-old daughter, whose leg had been blown off.

•
Some of the most damning evidence included video showing Tsarnaev planting a backpack containing one of the bombs near where the 8-year-old was standing, and incriminating statements scrawled inside the dry-docked boat where a wounded and bleeding Tsarnaev was captured days after the tragedy.

•
"Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop," he wrote.
Boston Marathon bomber wanted to terrorize US, prosecutor says (Fox 04/06/2015)
•
"There was nothing about this day that was a twist of fate. This was a cold, calculated terrorist act. This was intentional. It was bloodthirsty. It was to make a point. It was to tell America that we will not be terrorized by you anymore. We will terrorize you."

•
Martin Richard, an 8-year-old Boston boy, was killed when the bomb Tsarnaev was accused of planting exploded. And two young women died when Tsarnaev's brother set off a bomb just down the street. Both explosives were placed in crowds gathered at the finish line of the 2013 marathon. More than 260 people were wounded.

•
"That day, they felt they were soldiers. They were the mujahedeen, and they were bringing their battle to Boston."

•
"These children weren't innocent to him. They were American. Of all the places that he could have placed the bomb, he placed it right there."

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"This is the result of the defendant's choice to be a terrorist, his choice to make a statement. These were choices that he was proud of."
Massive New York Bomb Attack Thwarted (INN 04/02/2015)
•
Velentzas allegedly said she did not understand why people were travelling overseas to fight when "there were more opportunities of 'pleasing Allah' in the United States."

•
Velentzas praised the 9/11 attacks, and was allegedly "obsessed" with pressure cookers, which were used to bomb the Boston Marathon.
Two women arrested in alleged terrorist bomb plot targeting New York (Fox 04/02/2015)
British man pleads guilty in Oregon terror camp case (Fox 03/30/2015)
NY gang boss resurfaced at Florida mosque, sending radicalized jihadists overseas, say feds (Fox 03/28/2015)
•
"The United States believes that the defendant is still an extremist, just as he was in the early 1990s."

•
"The only differences are that the defendant is now focused on training others to commit violent acts as opposed to committing them himself and the violent acts are to occur overseas instead of inside the United States."

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In his younger life as the leader of the "Forty Thieves" gang, Robertson "murdered several individuals; participated in assassination attempts; used pipe bombs, C-4, grenades, other explosives, and automatic weapons; participated in a robbery resulting in a hostage situation; and attempted the murder of police officers."
National guardsman nabbed at Chicago airport, allegedly on way to join ISIS (Fox 03/26/2015)
•
"According to the charges filed today, the defendants allegedly conspired to provide material support to ISIL and planned to travel overseas to support the terrorist organization."

•
"In addition, they plotted to attack members of our military within the United States. Disturbingly, one of the defendants currently wears the same uniform of those they allegedly planned to attack."
Pressure cooker parts, BBs, nails found in Tsarnaev's home (Fox 03/25/2015)
Feds investigating ‘ISIS kill list,’ military spouse says families warned to be ‘vigilant’ (Fox 03/23/2015)
•
The original posting listed information for dozens of American servicemembers and called on ISIS sympathizers to kill them.

•
... ISIS militants urged supporters to scour social media for addresses of their family members — and to "show up [at their homes] and slaughter them."
Tsarnaev note in boat used jihadi themes, terrorism expert says (Fox 03/23/2015)
Air Force vet charged with trying to join ISIS (Fox 03/17/2015)
•
"Pugh, an American citizen and former member of our military, allegedly abandoned his allegiance to the United States and sought to provide material support to ISI[S]."
Police describe battling Boston Marathon bombers in escape attempt (Fox 03/16/2015)
Watchdog: 'Potential instruments of terrorism' could be slipping into US on rail shipments (Fox 03/13/2015)
Survivor tells Boston Marathon bombing trial blast felt like she was 'on a rocket' (Fox 03/09/2015)
Northern Virginia teen reportedly accused of helping man join ISIS (Fox 03/05/2015)
Pakistani man guilty in Al Qaeda plot to attack NYC subway (Fox 03/04/2015)
•
"If the defendant hadn't been stopped, hundreds of innocent men, women and children wouldn't be alive today."
'A soldier in a holy war': Prosecutor gives opening statement in Boston Marathon bombing trial (Fox 03/04/2015)
•
"The bomb tore large chunks of flesh out of Martin Richard," and the boy bled to death on the sidewalk as his mother helplessly looked on.

•
"He believed that he was a soldier in a holy war against Americans."

•
"He also believed that by winning that victory, he had taken a step toward reaching paradise. That was his motive for committing these crimes."
Jury seated in trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect (Fox 03/03/2015)
Brooklyn men accused of plot to join ISIS wanted to 'strike fear in the hearts of infidels' (Fox 02/26/2015)
•
"This is real. This is the concern about the lone wolf, inspired to act without ever going to the Mideast."

•
"The flow of foreign fighters to Syria represents an evolving threat to our country and to our allies."
3 arrested in New York City for allegedly conspiring to support ISIS (Fox 02/25/2015)
•
Three New York City residents — two with Uzbekistan citizenship, and one a citizen of Kazakhstan — plotted to travel to Syria to join ISIS militants and 'wage jihad'.

•
One of the defendants also offered to kill the president of the United States if ordered to do so.

•
"I will just go and buy a machine gun, AK-47, go out and shoot all police."

•
"Anyone who threatens our citizens and our allies, here or abroad, will face the full force of American justice."
Justices won't give lawyers access to secret court records (Fox 02/23/2015)
Homeland Secretary Johnson suggests term 'violent extremism' used at behest of Muslim leaders (Fox 02/22/2015)
•
Johnson said the leaders argue their religion is about peace and brotherhood and "resent" that Islamic State is "attempting to hijack that from us."

•
"If we don't identify our enemies, we cannot defeat them. Unless you accurately identify who your enemy is, then you can't come up with an effective strategy, a winning strategy to defeat that enemy."
Minnesota man accused of conspiracy to support Islamic State (Fox 02/19/2015)
Military spouses targeted in twisted ‘CyberCaliphate’ hack (Fox 02/11/2015)
For relatives of terror victims, Cuba detente revives painful memories (Fox 02/09/2015)
From prison, al-Qaida member points a finger at Saudi Arabia, renewing Sept. 11 questions (Fox 02/07/2015)
6 indicted in alleged plot to support ISIS, Al Qaeda (Fox 02/07/2015)
•
Six Bosnian natives who immigrated to the U.S. sent money and military equipment to support Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State terror group.

•
"ISIL presents a growing threat not only in Syria and Iraq, but throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and now in the United States as well."
Al Qaeda member’s testimony implicating Saudis fuels calls to declassify 9/11 (Fox ts/0/2015)
Jordan hangs 2 terrorists, vows 'earth-shaking' response to grisly ISIS video (Fox 02/04/2015)
•
In a statement, Jordan's army vowed an "earth-shaking" response "proportionate to the magnitude of the tragedy of all Jordanians." And government spokesman Mohammad Momani said that Jordan's response to the assassination "will be swift. Jordanians' wrath will devastate Daesh's ranks."

•
"Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians."

•
The U.N. Security Council, in a statement, condemned the "brutality of ISIL, which is responsible for thousands of crimes and abuses against people from all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities, and without regard to any basic value of humanity."
Military intel boss: ‘Very little’ can be done to stop Taliban 5 from returning to fight (Fox 02/03/2015)
•
"We continue to look at monitoring the number of sources that will tell us when these individuals have gone back into business. Directly, though, besides notifying folks that these terrorists have gone back into business, there's very little at this point the DIA could do besides warning of their continued operations."

•
He stressed that his agency has been on the "periphery" of the move to release those five detainees, and confirmed his agency was not even consulted prior to their release.
FBI adds alleged al-Shabab recruiter from Virginia to most-wanted terrorist list (Fox 01/30/2015)
•
"It is important for us to locate Mohamed because he has knowledge of the Washington, D.C., area's infrastructure such as shopping areas, Metro, airports, and government buildings. This makes him an asset to his terrorist associates who might plot attacks on U.S. soil."
Fox News Poll: 47 percent say Obama downplays threat from Islamic terrorists (Fox 01/28/2015)
‘Semantics’: White House draws rebuke for saying ISIS trade, Bergdahl swap different (Fox 01/28/2015)
•
"The White House screwed up on the Bergdahl trade, plain and simple, and now they want justify their actions by splitting hairs on how they compare the Taliban to ISIS."

•
"Is the Taliban not responsible for American deaths? Frankly, it's more nonsense from an administration that seems to have lost its sense of reality."
Al Qaeda agent floated in swap for US prisoners? Obama's legacy takes scary turn (Fox 01/26/2015)
•
The customary belief from national security experts is that negotiating with the bad guys in any way will encourage more bad guys and more bad behavior.

•
Sadly, the bad guys now know there can be a reward for having something the U.S. wants. They know what they need to do in order to get the attention of President Obama and his national security team.

•
This terrible decision is the Obama legacy. We are sliding down the slope that the Obama administration keeps greasing.

•
"The proposed swap involving the Al Qaeda agent, Ali Saleh Al-Marri, raises troubling questions about whether the Bergdahl trade opened a kind of Pandora's box, signaling to foreign governments that they can pressure the United States to make concessions on terrorism by trading American prisoners abroad for dangerous extremists held in the United States."
Freed Al Qaeda operative floated as part of prisoner swap, ex-diplomat says (Fox 01/26/2015)
Police investigate 'credible' bomb threats on 2 planes at Atlanta airport (Fox 01/24/2015)
US: 19-Year-Old Woman Jailed for Planning to Join ISIS (INN 01/24/2015)
•
"Had she succeeded in her plan to get to Syria, she would likely have been brutalized, killed or sent back to the United States to commit other crimes."
Colo. teen who tried to help ISIS sentenced to 4 years in prison (Fox 01/23/2015)
US not sending Gitmo detainees to Yemen (Fox 01/22/2015)
NYC may yank terrorism report to appease mosque ‘spying’ critics (NY Post, 01/18/2015)
•
With what seems today like a crystal ball, the 2007 NYPD report identified an "emerging threat" — al Qaeda-inspired jihadists in the United States and abroad, hell-bent on attacking their host countries.

•
"Radicalization is something the NYPD saw happening in Europe. It was prescient in identifying this phenomenon and predicting it would increase."

•
"The majority of radical individuals began as ‘unremarkable' — they had ‘unremarkable' jobs, had lived ‘unremarkable' lives and had little, if any criminal history."

•
Most terrorist wannabes are reasonably well-educated male Muslims between ages 18 and 35, local residents, second- or third-generation with roots in the Middle East or South Asia, and from middle-class families.

•
"The Internet is a driver and enabler for the process of radicalization" — providing information on extremist beliefs to practical advice on constructing weapons

•
Recent converts to Islam can be the most radical. "Their need to prove their religious convictions to their companions often makes them the most aggressive."

•
Potential jihadists flock to mosques as their religious beliefs deepen, then withdraw from them when "the individual's level of extremism surpasses that of the mosque."

•
Once a person is radicalized, an attack can happen very quickly. "While the other phases of radicalization may take place gradually, over two to three years, this jihadization component can be a very rapid process, taking only a few months, or even weeks."
Lawmakers fear US visa program could be exploited by foreign fighters (Fox 01/16/2015)
FBI says plot to attack U.S. Capitol was ready to go (CNN 01/15/2015)
Boehner credits US surveillance in catching Capitol bombing plot (Fox 01/15/2015)
Oklahoma police chief shot during bomb threat investigation; alleged shooter posted about ISIS (Fox 01/15/2015)
ISIS sympathizer allegedly plotted terror assault against US Capitol (Fox 01/14/2015)
Man Arrested for Planning 'ISIS-Inspired' Attack on Capitol Hill (INN 01/15/2015)
Feds order random searches in airports, after Al Qaeda publishes new bomb recipe (Fox 01/14/2015)
GOP senators push bill to limit Gitmo transfers, call for ‘time out’ after attacks (Fox 01/13/2015)
NYPD, FBI issue alerts after ISIS puts out video calling for attacks on law enforcement (Fox 01/12/2015)
Paris attacks revive concerns about US security, intelligence gaps (Fox 01/08/2015)
•
"President Obama's policies are making us less safe. ... It's just a matter of time that we're going to get [hit] here at home if somebody doesn't adjust soon."

•
Graham and other critics complain U.S. intelligence-gathering has suffered in recent years, and accuse the administration of treating enemy combatants as common criminals with its interrogation and detention policies.

•
"He has criminalized the war."

•
Without addressing the Paris attacks specifically, Clapper explained the Snowden leaks have changed the way terrorists operate, as they "went to school" on U.S. methods.

•
"We are having much more difficulty tracking the activities of terrorists," he said. He addressed the challenge of having to gather high-quality intelligence while also curtailing collection activities and dealing with budget cuts — and being mindful not to infringe on civil liberties or do anything that, if revealed, could cause embarrassment.

•
"We call this new paradigm immaculate collection."

•
Graham urged funding be restored for the U.S. intelligence community. "When you limit your ability to gather intelligence about what they're up to, you open yourself up to an attack," he said.

•
"The issue is why do we need Gitmo? One reason is we should have a place that's secure to interrogate terrorists that we capture. They have not had a intelligence-gathering policy that will allow us to fully interrogate terrorists who are captured."

•
"We have to be able to go in there and find out what's happening so we can be tipped off and not stand back and treat all communities as if they're the same. If it's Islamist terrorism, we have to have more surveillance in those communities."
Boston bombing trial lawyers fail to reach plea deal (CNN 01/05/2015)
Boston bomb suspect Tsarnaev makes last scheduled appearance before trial (CNN 12/18/2014)
Cheney has no regrets: 'I would do it again in a minute' (CNN 12/14/2014)
•
"With respect to trying to define that as torture, I come back to the proposition torture was what the al Qaeda terrorists did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11. There's no comparison between that and what we did with the respect to enhanced interrogation."
GOP congressman: We 'ought to rethink' Gitmo transfer policy (CNN 12/07/2014)
NY Stabbing Testimony: 'I'm Killing a Jew!' (INN 12/10/2014)
Jewish Man Stabbed in Crown Heights' 770 Chabad Center (INN 12/09/2014)
Police kill intruder who stabbed student in NY synagogue (CNN 12/09/2014)
•
An officer yells out again, "Stay away from me" — but it doesn't stop the man from lunging for, and picking up, the knife he'd briefly dropped.
The man then starts running toward police, saying, "Are you going to arrest me?"
Police officers — as, by then, there were three at the scene — can be heard yelling as well. "Drop the (expletive) knife! Drop the (expletive) knife!"
Then comes a gunshot.
FBI warns military of ISIS threat (CNN 12/01/2014)
Two Minnesota men charged for alleged ISIS support (CNN 11/25/2014)
US: Former Terrorist Requests to Be Set Free Until Sentencing (INN 11/20/2014)
Five Guantanamo detainees transferred (CNN 11/20/2014)
Virginia woman charged in connection to ISIS recruitment (CNN 11/17/2014)
9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui claims Saudi (CNN nt/0/2014)
Officials: U.S. wants to know how ISIS recruited 3 Denver teens (CNN 11/12/2014)
Did Robert O'Neill really kill bin Laden? (CNN 11/04/2014)
Ex-SEAL who shot bin Laden identifies himself (CNN 11/06/2014)
Central Command general to ISIS: We can hear you (CNN 11/06/2014)
U.S. military ordered to hide identities, change routines to avoid terrorist attacks (JWR 10/31/2014)
Ax attack on D.C. cop prompts warnings, new protocols for police (CNN 10/31/2014)
NYPD Admits Axe Attack May Be Terrorism (INN 10/24/2014)
NYPD: Hatchet attack an act of terror (CNN 10/24/2014)
Hatchet assault on New York police comes during fears of Islamist attacks (CNN 10/24/2014)
Man attacks New York police officers with a hatchet (CNN 10/23/2014)
Washington monitoring Canada shootings (CNN 10/22/2014)
Ex-counterterror chief: U.S. lost track of terrorists after Snowden (CNN 10/21/2014)
Hunter: Terrorists crossing into U.S. — but maybe not ISIS (CNN 10/10/2014)
Top Homeland Security official: ISIS hasn't crossed border into U.S. (CNN 10/08/2014)
How Thomas Jefferson would have handled ISIS (CNN 10/04/2014)
Prosecutor to seek death penalty in Oklahoma beheading (CNN 10/02/2014)
FBI wants help identifying ISIS jihadist in execution video (CNN 10/07/2014)
Was arrested teen on his way to join ISIS? (CNN 10/06/2014)
Call Oklahoma beheading what it is: Terrorism (CNN 09/30/2014)
Prosecutor likely to seek death penalty in Oklahoma beheading (CNN 09/30/2014)
2nd Oklahoma man threatened to behead coworker, police say (JWR 09/29/2014)
Workplace Jihad in Oklahoma (INN 09/29/2014)
U.S. beheading suspect to be charged Monday (CNN 09/28/2014)
Oklahoma beheading suspect regains consciousness, interviewed by police (CNN 09/27/2014)
Beheading suspect was recently fired, Oklahoma police say (CNN 09/26/2014)
Boston bombing suspect's trial location won't move — even if the trial date will (CNN 09/24/2014)
They're here. Are we ready? (JWR 09/24/2014)
Why Arab Bank Was Found Guilty In Precedent-Setting Case (JWR 09/24/2014)
Lone wolves are biggest terror threat (CNN 09/23/2014)
Osama bin Laden's son-in-law sentenced to life in prison (CNN 09/23/2014)
Feds: NY store owner plotted to send jihadists to Syria, kill U.S. troops himself (CNN 09/16/2014)
We need to think outside the box on ISIS (CNN 09/03/2014)
ISIS is forcing a 'moment of truth' (CNN 08/27/2014)
When Americans leave for jihad (CNN 08/27/2014)
If ISIS attacks again, what will U.S. do? (JWR 08/26/2014)
The American Jihadi Serial Killer No One's Talking About (CNN 08/22/2014)
Pal of Boston bombing suspect expected to plead guilty to related charges (CNN 08/20/2014)
Feds: Afghan doctor in Philly tied to anti-Western insurgents (CNN 08/09/2014)
Tsarnaev friend convicted of obstructing Boston bombings probe (CNN 07/21/2014)
Eric Holder: 'We are at a dangerous time' (CNN 07/13/2014)
Colorado woman accused of trying to help ISIS (CNN 07/02/2014)
Controversy grows over prosecution of alleged Benghazi attack mastermind (CNN 06/28/2014)
Benghazi killings suspect Abu Khatallah pleads not guilty in U.S. (CNN 06/28/2014)
Judge: U.S. violated rights of those on 'no-fly' list (CNN 06/24/2014)
Official: Squeezing intel out of Benghazi suspect won't be easy (CNN 06/19/2014)
What's next for Benghazi terror suspect Ahmed Abu Khatallah? (CNN 06/18/2014)
The Gitmo detainees swapped for Bergdahl: Who are they? (CNN 05/31/2014)
Prosecutors: Tsarnaevs used Christmas lights to make bomb fuses (CNN 05/21/2014)
Jury finds radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri guilty in terror trial (CNN 05/19/2014)
Jewish Convert To Islam Convicted For Inciting Terror (INN 04/26/2014)
The man who inspired the Boston bombings (CNN 04/11/2014)
Boston bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev sought out a different name (CNN 04/09/2014)
Four things we learned about the Boston bombing (CNN 04/08/2014)
California man arrested near Canadian border on terror charges (CNN 03/17/2014)
Former FBI Agent Says Leading Muslim Group a 'Hamas Front' (INN 03/11/2014)
Your Nose Could Save Your Life (JWR 03/11/2014)
Suit against anti-terror squad tossed (JWR 02/21/2014)
What Government Doesn't Want You to Know (JWR 02/18/2014)
No, death isn't 'too good' for Tsarnaev (JWR 02/13/2014)
Retired lawyer killed after package sent to home explodes (CNN 02/12/2014)
Admiral's e-mail on photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse: 'Destroy them' (CNN 02/11/2014)
Source: U.S. debating targeted killing of American terror suspect overseas (CNN 02/10/2013)
Sniper attack on Silicon Valley power grid spurs security crusade by ex-regulator (CNN 02/07/2014)
Feds seek death penalty for Boston bombing suspect Tsarnaev (CNN 01/30/2014)
Russian man faces weapon of mass destruction charges in Pennsylvania (CNN 01/26/2014)
'Jihad Jane' sentenced to 10 years (CNN 01/06/2014)
Would NSA surveillance have stopped 9/11 plot? (CNN 12/30/2013)
Local man planned suicide attack at Wichita, Kansas, airport, feds say (CNN 12/13/2013)
Is the U.S. less safe from terror? (CNN 12/03/2013)
Hijacker returns to the United States (CNN 11/06/2013)
How to undermine Al-Shabaab (CNN 10/18/2013)
Norwegian may be suspect in Westgate mall attack, Kenya sources say (CNN 10/18/2013)
Alleged al Qaeda operative Al Libi taken to New York week after capture in Libya (CNN 10/14/2013)
Good thing U.S. terrorist hunters weren't furloughed (CNN 10/07/2013)
Army veteran pleads to lesser charge in Syria fighting case (CNN 09/20/2013)
Man who shot at White House pleads guilty (CNN 09/18/2013)
Jihadist terrorism in America since 9/11 (CNN 09/09/2013)
Fort Hood shooting jury recommends death penalty for Nidal Hasan (CNN 08/28/2013)
Jury convicts Nidal Hasan on all charges in Fort Hood shooting (CNN 08/23/2013)
Nidal Hasan's fate in military jury's hands (CNN 08/22/2013)
Nidal Hasan challenges witness account of Fort Hood shooting at court-martial (CNN 08/07/2013)
Words vs. Bullets: How Obama Fights Terrorism (INN 08/15/2013)
Students Indicted for Aiding Boston Bomber (INN 08/09/2013)
Not allowed to drop out, Nidal Hasan defense team in 'morally repugnant' spot (CNN 08/08/2013)
Fort Hood shooting survivor comes face-to-face with Nidal Hasan (CNN 08/07/2013)
Three Forgotten Facts About the Fort Hood Massacre (JWR 08/06/2013)
Fort Hood Victims to be Questioned by Attacker (INN 08/05/2013)
Photos of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev released after Rolling Stone complaints (CNN 07/19/2013)
List of foiled Islamic terrorist plots in the post-9/11 United States (0
Boston bomb suspect pleads not guilty (CNN 07/11/2013)
Let Them Starve: Gitmo Swindlers Strike Again (JWR 07/10/2013)
Falling under the spell of a slain terrorist (CNN 06/28/2013)
Indictment returned against Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (CNN 06/27/2013)
Avoid the need for spying using one not-so-weird trick (JWR 06/20/2013)
Surveillance thwarted stock exchange bomb plot, officials say (CNN 06/18/2013)
Will America Regret Snowden's Intelligence Leaks? (JWR 06/13/2013)
Video shows Boston bombing suspects at gym days before attack (CNN 05/31/2013)
Group seeks probe into death of man who knew Boston bombings suspect (CNN 05/30/2013)
Rumsfeld: I give the Bush administration a D-, Obama gets an F (CNN 05/23/2013)
Official: Dead Boston bombings suspect involved in 2011 slayings (CNN 05/22/2013)
Man killed by FBI agent knew Tsarnaevs, official says (CNN 05/22/2013)
Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man? (JWR 05/20/2013)
Former Chechen rebel: 'I have nothing to do with' Boston bombings (CNN 05/17/2013)
Uzbek terror suspect to appear in court (CNN 05/17/2013)
Suspect: Boston bombing was payback for hits on Muslims (CNN 05/16/2013)
Friendly fire led to officer's shooting during Boston manhunt (CNN 05/15/2013)
Close down Gitmo? Why, sure (JWR 05/07/2013)
The War on Terror: Up Close and Personal (JWR 05/06/2013)
Funeral director: Hard to find grave for alleged Boston bomber (CNN 05/06/2013)
The 5 major developments in the Boston Marathon case over the weekend (CNN 05/06/2013)
Feds search Boston bombing suspect's apartment (CNN 05/05/2013)
Second autopsy awaits Boston bombing suspect (CNN 05/03/2013)
Boston Marathon bombings: What we learned this week (CNN 05/03/2013)
Official: July Fourth celebration Boston bombers' original target (CNN 05/03/2013)
Guantanamo’s Hunger Artists (JWR 05/02/2013)
Bomb suspect's buddies covered for him, feds say (CNN 05/01/2013)
Carjacking victim recalls differing demeanors of bombing suspects (CNN 05/01/2013)
Country must pay closer attention to extremist beliefs (JWR 04/30/2013)
Boston victims face lifetime of medical bills (CNN 04/30/2013)
Boston probe eyes slain Canadian jihadist, source says (CNN 04/29/2013)
FBI interviewed 'Misha' in Boston bombings probe, source says (CNN 04/29/2013)
The Boston-Bomber Trail: Fresh Clues in Rural Dagestan (Time, 04/29/2013)
From dorm to prison cell: Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's new digs (CNN 04/28/2013)
Boston bombing suspect less talkative (CNN 04/27/2013)
From fear to cheers: The final hours that paralyzed Boston (CNN 04/26/2013)
U.S.-Mexican border welcomes terrorists (JWR 04/25/2013)
Boston Bombing Suspect Texted Mother: 'Ready to Die For Islam' (INN 04/25/2013)
Boston bombing suspects planned Times Square blasts, NYC mayor says (CNN 04/25/2013)
Sources: Bombing suspect had no guns when captured in boat (CNN 04/25/2013)
Latest developments in the Boston bombing investigation (CNN 04/25/2013)
America's Insane Asylum for Jihadists, Hustlers and Frauds (JWR 04/24/2013)
Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret (JWR 04/24/2013)
Boston bombings investigation moves forward (CNN 04/24/2013)
Keys to Boston attack could lie half a world away in restive region of Russia (CNN 04/24/2013)
Boston blasts site reopens as officials try to question suspects' parents abroad (CNN 04/24/2013)
Bombing suspect's uncle: Friend in Cambridge 'brainwashed him completely' (CNN 04/24/2013)
What next after Boston? (JWR 04/23/2013)
Radical Islam, once again (JWR 04/23/2013)
A Crumbling Progressive Facade (JWR 04/23/2013)
Boston bomb suspect: My brother was the mastermind (CNN 04/23/2013)
Casual Terrorism (JWR 04/22/2013)
5 key questions in Boston bombing probe (CNN 04/22/2013)
FBI chronology: Brothers used similar bombs in marathon, police showdown (CNN 04/22/2013)
Boston Marathon Terrorist Wakes Up (INN 04/22/2013)
US man departing for Syria arrested on terror charges (JWR 04/21/2013)
What are the Boston suspect's legal rights? (CNN 04/21/2013)
Timeline: A look at Tamerlan Tsarnaev's past (CNN 04/21/2013)
From backpacks to 'flash-bangs': Boston's week of terror (CNN 04/21/2013)
Governor: 'We have a million questions' for bombing suspect (CNN 04/21/2013)
Jihad Will Not Be Wished Away (National Review, 04/20/2013)
What the suspects' family has to say (CNN 04/20/2013)
Older brother in Boston bombings grew increasingly religious, analysis shows (CNN 04/20/2013)
As Boston reeled, younger bombing suspect partied (CNN 04/20/2013)
No immediate suggestion of accomplices in Boston bombings (CNN 04/20/2013)
Terror, murder charges could be filed against Boston suspect (CNN 04/20/2013)
Boston suspects: Immigrant dream to American nightmare (CNN 04/20/2013)
Seven questions about the Boston bombers (CNN 04/20/2013)
FBI agents interviewed bombing suspect in 2011 (CNN 04/20/2013)
In the end, Boston bombing suspect is done in by a flapping tarp (CNN 04/20/2013)
Police chief: Boston manhunt began with intense firefight in dark street (CNN 04/20/2013)
Key developments in Boston bombings investigation (CNN 04/20/2013)
'CAPTURED!!!' Boston police announce Marathon bombing suspect in custody (CNN 04/19/2013)
King: Suspected bombers' parents 'wrong,' 'offensive' (CNN 04/19/2013)
Uncle calls Boston Marathon bombers 'losers,' urges nephew to surrender (CNN 04/19/2013)
Ricin: Almost never deadly (CNN 04/19/2013)
FBI releases photos, video of Boston bomb suspects (CNN 04/18/2013)
FBI confirms letters to Obama, others contained ricin (CNN 04/18/2013)
Investigators search apartment after Boston Marathon attacks (CNN 04/15/2013)
Terrorism strikes Boston Marathon as bombs kill 2, wound dozens (CNN 04/15/2013)
No Tears for Lynne Stewart (JWR 04/10/2013)
Potential plea options rejected; Fort Hood massacre trial set (CNN 03/20/2013)
Bounty on two Americans tied to Somali terror group (CNN 03/20/2013)
The trouble with U.S. drone policy (CNN 03/13/2013)
Oregon man charged in terrorist attack (CNN 03/06/2013)
Terror Suspect Pleads Guilty in New York Bomb Plot (INN 02/08/2013)
Panetta, Dempsey defend U.S. response to Benghazi attack (CNN 02/07/2013)
U.S. drones (CNN 02/07/2013)
DC shooter wanted to kill as many as possible, prosecutors say (CNN 02/06/2013)
American who aided Mumbai terror attack to be sentenced in federal court (CNN 01/24/2013)
Our interrogation legacy: 'Zero Dark Thirty' forces viewers to face reality (JWR 01/14/2013)
The Blind Sheik and Our Mute President (JWR 01/09/2013)
Osama and the Two Nazirs (JWR 01/03/2013)
We still need answers on Benghazi (CNN 11/29/2012)
Sex sells, but what about Libya? The Petraeus affair raises big questions (JWR 11/20/2012)
Social media snags 4 U.S. residents allegedly supporting Taliban (CNN 11/20/2012)
Ex-CIA chief Petraeus testifies Benghazi attack was al Qaeda-linked terrorism (CNN 11/16/2012)
Man gets life in NYC subway plot (CNN 11/16/2012)
How the Map Would Look if US Were Attacked as Israel is (INN 11/15/2012)
Our enemies learned the Lessons of the Battle of Benghazi. Will we? (JWR 11/08/2012)
Suspect in Saudi ambassador assassination plot pleads guilty (CNN 10/17/2012)
Man arrested after plotting Federal Reserve bomb, authorities say (CNN 10/17/2012)
Driver for Osama bin Laden has conviction reversed (CNN 10/16/2012)
The Deadly Disgrace of Obama's Pro-Terrorist Lawyers (JWR 10/12/2012)
Panetta: Cyber threat is pre 9/11 moment (CNN 10/12/2012)
U.S. official sought more security for Benghazi post (CNN 10/09/2012)
Feds: Chicago-area man charged over attempted terrorist attack (CNN 09/15/2012)
Note lets family know 9/11 victim went down fighting (CNN 09/11/2012)
11 years after 9/11: Who are the terrorists? (CNN 09/11/2012)
Judge orders accused Fort Hood shooter to have his beard shaved (CNN 09/06/2012)
Prosecutors: 'Anarchist' group of U.S. soldiers aimed to overthrow government (CNN 08/28/2012)
Navy SEAL to release book on bin Laden raid, publishing company says (CNN 08/22/2012)
The PC Insanity Surrounding the Nidal Hasan Trial (JWR 08/20/2012)
Who is DC shooting suspect? (CNN 08/17/2012)
Appeals court halts Hasan case over beard (CNN 08/15/2012)
Federal report: Bag with bomb was at Detroit building guard desk for weeks (CNN 08/08/2012)
Military, music marked temple suspect's path to Wisconsin (CNN 08/06/2012)
Police identify Army veteran as Wisconsin temple shooting gunman (CNN 08/06/2012)
Gunman, six others dead at Wisconsin Sikh temple (CNN 08/05/2012)
FBI official: Hasan should have been asked about e-mails with radical cleric (CNN 08/02/2012)
Undercover Agents Overthrow Neo-Nazi Gang in Florida (INN 08/01/2012)
Five things you need to know about U.S. national security (CNN 07/29/2012)
Congress warned that al-Qaida in Iraq is coming to America (JWR 07/26/2012)
McRaven on bin Laden raid: One of history's "great intelligence operations" (CNN 07/26/2012)
Fort Hood suspect may be 'forcibly shaved' before trial (CNN 07/25/2012)
Civil rights groups sue U.S. for killing of Americans tied to al Qaeda (CNN 07/19/2012)
Feds: AWOL soldier found guilty in Fort Hood bomb plot (CNN 05/24/2012)
Authorities: 2 latest suspects not involved in alleged NATO plot (CNN 05/20/2012)
Police: 3 terror suspects at NATO summit were plotting to hit Obama's campaign HQs (CNN 05/19/2012)
Accused 9/11 mastermind to be arraigned (CNN 05/05/2012)
Homegrown terror isn't just Islamist (CNN 05/03/2012)
Inside the plot to devastate New York (CNN 05/02/2012)
NYC subway bomb plotter found guilty on all counts (CNN 05/01/2012)
The bin Laden Situation Room revisited – One year later (CNN 05/01/2012)
Obama administration: Yes, we use drones (CNN 05/01/2012)
How risky was the Osama bin Laden raid? (CNN 04/30/2012)
Jury to get subway bomb plot case (CNN 04/30/2012)
Is White House overselling impact of bin Laden's death? (CNN 04/30/2012)
CIA Memo Reveals Admiral, Not Obama, In Charge of Bin Laden Raid (INN 04/29/2012)
NYC bomb plotter said he hoped bombs killed many (CNN 04/18/2012)
Key witness to testify in New York subway terror plot trial (CNN 04/17/2012)
Holder: Not 'assassination' to target Americans in terror hunt (CNN 05/17/2012)
Police: Suicide attack on U.S. Capitol foiled (CNN 02/17/2012)
U.S. officials tell Jewish groups to be vigilant because of Iran tensions (CNN 02/16/2012)
N.C. teacher accused of being part of beheading-for-hire plot (CNN 02/02/2012)
Trial for accused Fort Hood shooter delayed (CNN 02/02/2012)
Accused Fort Hood shooter seeks court-martial delay (CNN 02/02/2012)
TSA rail, subway spot-checks raise privacy issues (CNN 01/28/2012)
Police accuse 2 teens of planning to bomb school (CNN 01/27/2012)
Special Ops' burden of success (CNN 01/25/2012)
Ten years of 'Gitmo' — and more to come (CNN 01/11/2012)
Kosovo native plotted Tampa bombings, feds say (CNN 01/09/2012)
Detainee "too dangerous to release" (CNN 01/09/2012)
Muslim leaders say boycott sends message (CNN 12/30/2011)
Military is ‘target of choice’ for domestic terrorists, defense officials say (JWR 12/08/2011)
Can latest terror suspect claim entrapment? (JWR 11/23/2011)
New York bomb suspect monitored for two years, officials say (CNN 11/21/2011)
'Lone wolf' terror suspect arraigned in New York (CNN 11/21/2011)
The enemy is inside the wire: Shariah front groups now oversee (JWR 11/01/2011)
Militia members plotted to kill federal officials, prosecutors say (CNN 11/01/2011)
Panetta friend to uncork 141-year-old wine for successful bin Laden mission (CNN 10/26/2011)
US Teenage Muslim Charged in ‘Jihad Jane’ Terror Plot (INN 10/24/2011)
U.S. citizens who've plotted terror in America (CNN 10/15/2011)
Iranian plot to kill Saudi ambassador thwarted, U.S. officials say (CNN 10/11/2011)
Anwar Al-Awlaki's American Journey (JWR 10/06/2011)
Samir Khan: Proud to be an American traitor (CNN 10/03/2011)
Strange sorority fixation was link that led to anthrax suspect (CNN 10/01/2011)
FBI agent's 'mental poker game' against al Qaeda (CNN 09/30/2011)
U.S. drone killing of American al-Awlaki prompts legal, moral debate (CNN 09/30/2011)
Man, 26, charged in plot to bomb Pentagon using model airplane (CNN 09/29/2011)
FBI's terrorism search goes undersea (CNN 09/28/2011)
On the run for 41 years, hijacker traced to Portugal (CNN 09/27/2011)
Appeals court's unusual ruling: Convicted enemy combatant's sentence not tough enough (CNN 09/20/2011)
US defends right to pursue threats, no matter the country (CNN 09/16/2011)
Judge's ruling on Miranda rights in terrorism case touches off legal debate (JWR 09/16/2011)
Pay attention to terror threats (CNN 09/10/2011)
Authorities piece together clues from flight logs over 9/11 threat (CNN 09/10/2011)
9/11 threat from al Qaeda operative intercepted, official says (CNN 09/09/2011)
Bush: No sense of jubilation about bin Laden's death (CNN 09/05/2011)
Small choices, saved lives: Near misses of 9/11 (CNN 09/05/2011)
U.S. warns on small planes, but says no plots known (CNN 09/04/2011)
New exhibit shows artifacts from the 9/11 terrorist attacks (CNN 09/01/2011)
The making of a memorial: Reshaping ground zero (CNN 08/31/2011)
Justice Dept. Keeping Islamic Bank Settlement Secret (JWR 08/29/2011)
US Helps Pay PA Terrorists Who Murdered Americans (INN 08/15/2011)
The CIA should be a bit more ‘CAIR’ less (JWR 08/04/2011)
White House outlines plan to battle homegrown extremism (JWR 08/04/2011)
Homeland Security to regulate sale of fertilizer used in bombings (JWR 08/03/2011)
Ex-CIA official sounds alarm about hackers' next targets (CNN 08/03/2011)
How the AWOL Muslim soldier accused of plotting to kill Fort Hood troops was foiled (JWR 07/29/2011)
America's power grid too vulnerable to cyberattack, US report warns (JWR 07/28/2011)
Official: Soldier said he wanted to attack Fort Hood troops (CNN 07/28/2011)
General approves possible death penalty in Fort Hood shooting case (CNN 07/06/2011)
Al Qaeda still greatest danger, U.S. adviser says (CNN 06/29/2011)
FBI investigating reported Somali-American suicide bomber (CNN 06/02/2011)
Iraqis indicted on terrorism charges came to US as refugees (JWR 06/01/2011)
Capital charges refiled against alleged 9/11 conspirators (CNN 05/31/2011)
‘Senseless’ seems easier than saying ‘jihad’ (JWR 05/26/2011)
U.S. imams arrested for alleged Pakistani Taliban links (CNN 05/14/2011)
Gates: SEALs who killed bin Laden concerned for their safety (CNN 05/13/2011)
Beware 'lone wolves' in aftermath of bin Laden killing, advisory says (CNN 05/11/2011)
Schumer proposes 'no-ride' list for Amtrak (CNN 05/09/2011)
A connect the dots mission for bin Laden intelligence analysts (CNN 05/04/2011)
Debate rages about role of torture (CNN 05/04/2011)
Man now called 'possible suspect' in mall bomb investigation (CNN 04/22/2011)
Military to pursue first capital prosecution against terror suspect (CNN 04/20/2011)
Guilty plea entered in attempt to blow up Metro stations (CNN 04/11/2011)
Might a military jury deny 9/11 suspect's death wish? (CNN 04/06/2011)
Accused 9/11 terror suspects to face military trials (CNN 04/05/2011)
Suspect in attempted bombing at MLK Day parade to be arraigned (JWR 03/23/2011)
Ex-CAIR Official Faces Sentencing (JWR 03/17/2011)
Compelling Testimony, Political Theater at Radicalization Hearing (JWR 03/11/2011)
Vetting King's ‘crimes’ (JWR 03/11/2011)
Islamists Dominate DOJ's List of Terror Prosecutions (JWR 03/10/2011)
Obama orders resumption of military commissions at Guantanamo (CNN 03/08/2011)
2 N.J Muslims plead guilty to plotting terrorist acts (JWR 03/06/2011)
American jihadi gets 25 years for 'South Park' and Facebook death threats (JWR 02/25/2011)
Saudi national arrested in Texas on terror charge (CNN 02/24/2011)
Scientific review reaches no conclusion on source of anthrax (CNN 02/15/2011)
House votes to extend key provisions of Patriot Act (CNN 02/14/2011)
Napolitano: Nation's terror threat may be highest since 9/11 (CNN 02/09/2011)
Report: FBI, Army failures preceded Fort Hood massacre (CNN 02/03/2011)
Ex-official: FBI hunting for 3 men who may have links to 9/11 attacks (CNN 02/03/2011)
Woman called 'Jihad Jane' pleads guilty (CNN 02/01/2011)
Gitmo isn't closing now (CNN 12/26/2010)
Al Qaeda group contemplated poisoning food in U.S., officials say (CNN 12/22/2010)
JFK bomb plotter sentenced to life in prison (CNN 12/15/2010)
Authorities: Burn cleared California house of explosives (CNN 12/11/2010)
Revolution Muslim leader changes tune (CNN 12/09/2010)
Document: Up to 25% of freed Gitmo detainees return to terrorism (CNN 12/08/2010)
Authorities in Maryland arrest man in alleged bomb plot (CNN 12/08/2010)
FBI: Suspect claimed he wrote jihadist fitness article (CNN 11/28/2010)
Somali-American accused of plotting to bomb Oregon tree-lighting event (CNN 11/27/2010)
Criminal complaint — attempted use of weapon of mass destruction (11/26/2010)
Judge in Hasan hearing recommends court martial, seeking death penalty (CNN 11/17/2010)
Landmark terrorism trial ends in acquittal on all but 1 count (CNN 11/17/2010)
Thailand extradites accused international arms dealer (CNN 11/16/2010)
Bush on waterboarding: 'Damn right' (CNN 11/05/2010)
FBI: Gunfire at Virginia recruiting center linked to other incidents (CNN 11/03/2010)
High alert in U.S. after suspicious package found in UK (CNN 10/29/2010)
Shootings at Pentagon, Marine museum, recruiting station linked (CNN 10/29/2010)
Man charged with plotting to bomb D.C.-area Metrorail stations (CNN 10/27/2010)
Military wants to scan communications to find internal threats (CNN 10/27/2010)
Man charged with plotting to bomb D.C.-area Metrorail stations (CNN 10/27/2010)
NY man charged with planning to kill former President George W. Bush (CNN 10/26/2010)
Witness: Suspect in Fort Hood massacre bought high-tech gun (CNN 10/21/2010)
Fort Hood witness says he feared there were more gunmen (CNN 10/20/2010)
Fort Hood witness: "You train for this, let's go" (CNN 10/19/2010)
At Fort Hood: sounds of war, memories of a massacre (CNN 10/18/2010)
Witness testifies he took, deleted video of the Fort Hood shooting (CNN 10/14/2010)
Suspect in attempted Christmas bombing to represent himself in hearing (CNN 10/14/2010)
Fort Hood shooting suspect faces military hearing on charges (CNN 10/11/2010)
9 years in Afghanistan: Experts see worldwide war with no end in sight (CNN 10/07/2010)
Times Square bomb plotter to be sentenced (CNN 10/05/2010)
Chicago ties cast shadow on 1960 presidential win (USA Today, 09/26/2010)
Obama administration seeks to dismiss al-Awlaki lawsuit (CNN 09/25/2010)
Terror threat against America diversifying, security officials say (CNN 09/22/2010)
FBI Tells "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" Cartoonist to Go Ghost After Threats (09/17/2010)
Report: al Qaeda poses changing threat to America (CNN 09/10/2010)
Discovery Channel HQ given 'all clear' (CNN 09/02/2010)
Official: U.S. may refocus counter-terrorism fight on Yemen (CNN 08/25/2010)
State Department report: Al Qaeda still top threat to U.S. (CNN 08/06/2010)
Source: 14 indicted on Somalia terror-related charges (CNN 08/02/2010)
Two convicted in JFK airport bomb plot (CNN 08/02/2010)
FBI warns Seattle cartoonist about threats from radical cleric (CNN 07/14/2010)
Shahzad pleads guilty to Times Square bombing charges (CNN 06/21/2010)
Inside One American's Hunt for Bin Laden (CNN 06/20/2010)
Armed pair held at Central Command base (CNN 06/15/2010)
Terror suspect showed 'radicalized behavior' in school (CNN 06/08/2010)
N.J. men planned to 'wage violent jihad,' feds say (CNN 06/06/2010)
Feds: Ohio couple conspired to send money to Hezbollah (CNN 06/05/2010)
Alleged Fort Hood shooter to appear in courtroom for first time (CNN 05/31/2010)
Document says number of attempted attacks on U.S. is at all-time high (CNN 05/27/2010)
Obama's top intelligence adviser resigns (CNN 05/21/2010)
ICE: Detained man had Times Square bomb suspect's name, number (CNN 05/20/2010)
U.S. citizen pleads guilty to sending funds to al Qaeda (CNN 05/19/2010)
From Long Island to Lahore: The plot to bomb New York (CNN 05/14/2010)
Analysis: The spread of homegrown terrorism (CNN 05/07/2010)
Obama adviser: Times Square bombing suspect linked to Taliban (CNN 05/09/2010)
Bill aims to strip certain Americans of their citizenship (CNN 05/07/2010)
Official: Times Square suspect had Taliban ties (CNN 05/07/2010)
Arrests made in Pakistan in Times Square probe (CNN 05/04/2010)
Alleged bin Laden associate arrested in Iraq (CNN 05/04/2010)
Car bomb found in parked SUV in Times Square (CNN 05/02/2010)
2 held on terror charges in New York (CNN 04/30/2010)
Government offers compromise on Fort Hood documents (CNN 04/27/2010)
Taxi driver pleads guilty in New York subway terror plot (CNN 04/23/2010)
New York imam who lied to feds ordered to leave U.S. (CNN 04/15/2010)
Source: Terror plot targeted Times Square, Grand Central stations (CNN 04/12/2010)
Group arrested not Christian or militia, insider says (CNN 02/30/2010)
Jihad Jane, American who lived on Main Street (CNN 02/06/2010)
White House considers military trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (CNN 03/05/2010)
Official: New York terror suspect Najibullah Zazi to plead guilty (CNN 02/22/2010)
Chiquita finding bittersweet for families of men killed in Colombia (CNN 02/12/2010)
On terrorism, will we get fooled again? (CNN 02/06/2010)
White House eyes moving site of 9/11 trial (CNN 01/29/2010)
Report: National security falls short (CNN 01/26/2010)
Guantanamo North, and East (WSJ, 12/19/2009)
Terror task force arrests 2 in New York Terror task force arrests 2 in New York (CNN 01/08/2010)
Official: Lead prosecutor named in Fort Hood case (12/11/2009)
Suspect dies in Times Square shooting; holiday crowds unharmed (CNN 12/10/2009)
A TIMELINE OF TWO LIVES (Dallas News, 11/29/2009)
Imam's e-mails to Fort Hood suspect Hasan tame compared to online rhetoric (Dallas News, 11/29/2009)
Web site posts what it says are half million text messages from 9/11 (CNN 11/25/2009)
Senate to press ahead with probe into Fort Hood (Reuters, 11/18/2009)
U.S. military base slayings prompt Pentagon review (Washington Times, 11/17/2009)
2007 memo criticizes Fort Hood suspect's judgment, professionalism (CNN 11/17/2009)
Imam: Fort Hood suspect asked help finding wife (CNN 11/17/2009)
Cleric says he was confidant to Hasan (Washington Post, 11/16/2009)
Dems hail, Republicans bash decision to try 9/11 suspects in New York (CNN 11/15/2009)
Fort Hood: If Nidal Malik Hasan talks, will he live? (CSM, 11/14/2009)
Put Osama bin Laden on Trial (CNN 11/13/2009)
Politicians Rip Decision on Terrorism Trials (CNN 11/13/2009)
9/11 Family Members Welcome, Criticize Civilian Trials (CNN 11/13/2009)
Ft. Hood Suspect Charged with 13 Murders (Washington Times, 11/13/2009)
Walter Reed Officials Asked: Was Hasan Psychotic? (NPR, 11/11/2009)
Fort Hood Suspect Warned of Threats within the Ranks (Washington Post, 11/10/2009)
Fort Hood suspect: Portrait of a terrorist? (CSM, 11/09/2009)
Answers Sought on Fort Hood Suspect's Link to Imam (NPR, 11/09/2009)
U.S. Knew of Suspect’s Tie to Radical Cleric (NYT, 11/09/2009)
Lieberman Suggests Army Shooter Was 'Home-Grown Terrorist' (WSJ, 11/09/2009)
Fort Hood gunman had told US military colleagues that infidels should have their throats cut (Telegraph, 11/08/2009)
Some Predicted Trouble from Fort Hood's Maj. Hasan (11/08/2009)
Suspect Nidal Malik Hasan in Stable Condition After Fort Hood Killings (CNN 11/06/2009)
Fort Hood's 9/11 (NYP, 11/06/2009)
Peaceful Preaching inside, Violent Message outside a New York Mosque (CNN 11/06/2009)
Feds: Boston Terror Suspect Planned to Kill Officials, Attack Mall (CNN 10/21/2009)
Northern New Jersey Draws Probers' Eyes (Washington Post, 11/18/2001)

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IRS warns anew of 2021 tax scammers: 'very active and very creative' (Fox 02/21/2021)
5 phishing scams you need to be aware of (Fox 10/20/2017)
Card Skimming at ATMs Jumps — Your Bank Balance Is at Risk (08/05/2015)
•
"Shield the [ATM] pad from prying cameras as you enter your PIN, and regularly check your account for evidence of fraud."

•
The first part is crucial: cover your actions with your other hand as you enter the PIN.

•
As for checking your account — and setting up account activity alerts — that's key to minimizing your actual losses.

•
Do just those two things and, probably, you'll be fine — even if the ATM crooks keep redoubling their efforts which is what some experts gloomily expect.
Steer clear of a cyber attack: Seven ways to protect yourself from hackers (Fox 01/20/2015)
Credit card thieves take gas in 'pump and dump' scheme (CNN 11/11/2014)
4 things Chase customers should do right now (CNN 10/03/2014)
10 Words You Should Never Use to Describe Yourself (06/02/2014)
JPMorgan: 76 million customers hacked (CNN 10/02/2014)
Above the law: America's worst charities (CNN 06/13/2013)
E. coli outbreak linked to sprouts; hummus, dips, walnuts recalled (CNN 03/22/2014)
IRS monitor: $1 million phone scam 'largest ever' (CNN 03/20/2014)
Contaminated reusable grocery bag causes gastric illness outbreak (LAT, 05/09/2012)
Global Payments credit card hack: What do I do? (CNN 04/02/2012)
1.5 million card numbers at risk from hack (CNN 04/02/2012)
'Massive' credit card data breach involves all major brands (CNN 03/30/2012)
Bank fee Whac-a-Mole: New charges hit accounts (CNN 09/24/2010)
Wells Fargo loses overdraft fee case (CNN 08/11/2010)

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The race to the bottom (Alen Tonelson, 2002)

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The Electoral College

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Gutfeld on Kamala Harris and Bill Clinton's Women Empowerment Talk (Fox 03/24/2021)
•
In between giggle fits, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to sit down with former President Bill Clinton to discuss "empowering women and girls."

•
Why is the incumbent Democratic V.P. interviewing the Democratic ex-president? Even CNN wouldn't allow that, unless they're brothers.

•
And I'm sure when asked about empowering women and girls, Bill said, "when... And on what private island?"

•
He'd prefer a two-on-one, but at his age, you don't want to tempt fate. Besides, Kamala's waiting for another old white guy to have a cardiac event.

•
See related Jeffrey Epstein Clinton (Sean Delonas, 08/18/2019) cartoon from Adult picture album
Thanksgiving conversation may be tough to swallow (JWR 11/28/2019)
Should I go public about an incident in 2009 between Michelle Obama and myself? (JWR 04/11/2019)
Gutfeld on Kim Kardashian becoming a lawyer (Fox 04/11/2019)
•
What's the last thing you'd expect Kim Kardashian to reveal?

•
That she's studying to become a lawyer.

•
And I say, why not?

•
If Hillary Clinton, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Michael Avenatti can become lawyers, why can't Kim?

•
She's got more sense than all of them combined.

•
By the way, Avenatti just got his $5 million private jet confiscated. What does that tell you?

•
That this litigating lollipop had $5 million and spent it on a private jet.

•
Avenatti only got charged because the media's roach motel drew him out of the nooks and crannies where he did his dirty work.

•
CNN and MSNBC put that creep on TV a zillion times, only because they thought he was just like them.

•
Maybe they were right.

•
Look, we should all become lawyers.

•
Because if you look at life, it's basically a game of Monopoly and lawyers are the people who write the instructions and actually take a few minutes to read them.

•
Without a law degree, we're just saps.

•
So instead of mocking Kim, we should follow her lead.
Stop pretending you don’t love Thanksgiving (Spectator 11/21/2018)
You Are What You Say You Are (JWR 05/25/2016)
•
Last year, I declared myself a springbok trapped in a human body.

•
With such a declaration, some people will suggest that I am suffering from a condition known as species dysphoria, in which one thinks he is a wild animal trapped in a human body.

•
Species dysphoria is similar to gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person believes he is a woman trapped in a male body or a man trapped in a female body.

•
Many people will argue that I am in need of psychological counseling. I'd dismiss such a suggestion as animalphobia.

•
You might ask, "Williams, why in the world would you want to call yourself a springbok?" The reason is simple. There is nothing in the Internal Revenue Code that says springboks have a federal tax obligation.

•
In these modern times, reality is coming to be seen as optional.

•
Say you are a man and want to be able to check out the ladies' bathroom. You simply say you have transgendered yourself and are a lady. At schools, you could visit the ladies' locker room and maybe even shower with the ladies.

•
In the interest of equality, these options would also be open to those who think they are men trapped in women's bodies and have transgendered themselves into men.

•
Just as people are not bound by sex, they are not bound by race. ... In Dolezal's eyes, just as in the eyes of transgender people, the reality of DNA is not only irrelevant but also oppressive. Those who believe otherwise are seen as racist, homophobic or both.

•
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, sometimes called "Pocahontas," claimed that she was of Cherokee Indian ancestry. That helped her land a job at diversity-hungry Harvard University as a professor of law.

•
The irrelevancy of DNA and being able to say what you are can lead to income-earning opportunities heretofore nonexistent.

•
One reader, upon reading last year's column in which I claimed to be a springbok, warned, "Watch out for lions!"
Dana Perino: My Thanksgiving do's and don'ts for talking politics around the table (Fox 11/25/2015)
Scotland, you want out? We'll take your place (CNN 09/12/2014)
An Oath for Obama (JWR 07/22/2014)
How to become super, super wealthy (CNN 06/09/2014)
Every day is grammar day when you've got this job (CNN 03/03/2014)
Thank You President Obama for Freeing Me (JWR 02/17/2014)
Elegy for the Incandescent Bulb (JWR 01/06/2014)
If Bill Clinton Becomes First Lady (JWR 11/19/2013)
Dear Mr. Putin: The American people's reply (JWR 09/13/2013)
Needed: Another Cold War (JWR 08/13/2013)
6-step guide to dodging taxes just like Apple (CNN 05/23/2013)
Advice from the master (JWR 05/21/2013)
Best. Graduates. Ever! (JWR 05/14/2013)
Kids, never let skills and competence stand in your way (JWR 05/01/2013)
Financial responsibility, Obama-style (JWR 04/09/2013)
A Political Dropout Confesses (JWR 04/03/2013)
In some GOP circles, reform is already underway (JWR 01/29/2013)
Cold, calculated advice courtesy of your benovelent Uncle Sam (JWR 01/29/2013)
Barack & Hillary at the movies (JWR 09/24/2012)
I can't wait for the Trump debate (CNN 12/12/2011)
Bitter 'Julian Assange' tweaks Zuckerberg on 'SNL' (CNN 12/21/2010)
Saving the Planet - with 7-38 video (George Carlin, 05/2007)
Bush lays off congress; will outsource lawmaking to India (2003)
Outsourcing Yet Another Job (2006)

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Secrets hiding behind a tree’s ‘age rings’: Experts weigh in (NYP 01/21/2024)
World’s oldest forest found just a short drive from NYC, scientists confirm: ‘Seen by dinosaurs’ (NYP 01/13/2024)
'Ring of fire' eclipse: What to know about the rare phenomenon headed to the US (Fox 10/11/2023)
Rare wave clouds spotted in the skies over Virginia (Fox 06/19/2019)
Stunning bald eagle photo becomes viral sensation (Fox 05/28/2019)
Dr. Seuss-like flower appears in Texas (Fox 03/17/2017)
•
"These are created when a wool sower wasp lays its eggs in a white oak."

•
"When the eggs hatch in spring, chemicals on the grubs stimulate the plant to produce this gall, which provides food and protection for the growing wasps."
Strange orange alligator turns heads in South Carolina (Fox 02/09/2017)
•
To be more accurate, it's a rusty, clay, sweet-potato color, and no one is sure why.
FIGHT TO DEATH: 2 moose found frozen near remote Alaska village (Fox 11/19/2016)
•
"It was such a surreal sight — so serene and quiet, but a stark vision of how brutally harsh life can be."
Feds mull whether to remove red wolf from endangered species list (Fox 09/22/2016)
The incredible story of America's national parks (Fox 08/25/2016)
Great white shark nursery, possible birthing site, discovered off Long Island (Fox 08/25/2016)
17-year cicadas set to invade the Northeast (Fox 04/14/2016)
Wolf pack kills 19 Wyoming elk in one night (Fox 03/25/2016)
•
... it is not unusual for wolves to kill one or two elk a night in that part of the state but to have 19 killed in one night is rare.

•
A surplus killing is when an animal kills more of its prey than it can eat and abandons what's left.

•
... the wolves killed 17 elk calves and two adult cows at a feedground...

•
... there is nothing the state can do about the wolves. The animals are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Feral swine have Texas county at epicenter of hog wild battle (Fox 01/05/2016)
•
"One hog can become 200 over the course of two years," ... 70 percent of the hogs must be killed each year just to maintain current population levels.
Yellowstone park proposes killing 1,000 bison this winter (Fox 11/18/2015)
Tiny flies create zombie honeybees that take night flights, then die (Fox 10/11/2015)
‘Ant island’ floats on South Carolina floodwaters (Fox 10/06/2015)
Sunday’s rare supermoon eclipse: What you need to know (Fox 09/24/2015)
Whales spotted on Long Island Sound for first time in years (Fox 09/24/2015)
New England's fall colors expected to be 'patchy' (Fox 09/03/2015)
•
"To get really vibrant colors, we need a great setup. We need a nice, reasonably mild, reasonably rainy spring. We need a summer that has ample rainfall. And the biggest factor is a fall season that has a lot of sunshine, warm days and cool nights."
The 'Great American Eclipse' is coming (Fox 08/24/2015)
California sinking faster than thought, aquifers could permanently shrink (Fox 08/24/2015)
•
Some areas of the Golden State are sinking more than 2 inches per month...
Ancient reptile with 'ridiculously long neck' unearthed in Alaska (Fox 08/06/2015)
Beautiful butterfly on brink of revival, despite century of threats (Fox 07/30/2015)
Rarely-seen deep water whale washes up on Massachusetts beach (Fox 07/26/2015)
This Texas centipede is the stuff of nightmares (Fox 07/07/2015)
Alien-like worm invades US (Fox 06/23/2015)
Furry bandit steals a ride on alligator's back (Fox 06/15/2015)
How to find your park (Fox 04/10/2015)
Bear Necessities: Warning as hungry grizzlies awaken, venture out for food (Fox 04/21/2015)
•
"Deterring and scaring away grizzlies from a long distance is the key, [and outdoors lovers should consider] hiking with a bell. If you see a grizzly up close, it's all about bear spray and hoping it isn't a mama grizzly with cubs. They're dangerous."
Billions of gooey blue creatures wash up on West Coast shores (Fox 04/20/2015)
400-pound alligator moved from Texas pond to preserve (Fox 04/08/2015)
Termite ‘superswarm’ threatens South Florida (Fox 04/01/2015)
Hunters seek entry to Grand Canyon National Park, where roaming buffalo cause havoc (Fox 03/04/2015)
America’s 18 most surreal places you must visit in your lifetime (03/02/2016)
What deluges? 11 trillion gallons of rain still needed to end California drought (CNN 12/18/2014)
Video shows Grand Canyon filling with clouds (CNN 12/13/2014)
800,000 bees attack, leaving one person dead, four injured (CNN 10/08/2014)
Blood moon returns early Wednesday, and this time it's bigger (CNN 10/03/2014)
The Lost Ward (09/22/2014)
•
Shortly before the assault, the young man, who had a history of bipolar disorder, had been released from a hospital when the emergency department wasn't able to find an available psychiatric bed.

•
"This is a dramatic illustration of something that's happening every day."

•
While there were once more than 500,000 beds for the mentally ill nationally, the number has dropped steadily over the past 50 years.

•
... there has also been a decreased willingness by government and private payers to shoulder inpatient costs.

•
Patients with severe mental illness now increasingly turn up at hospital emergency rooms, which are often ill-equipped to diagnose or care for them.

•
Others are more likely to end up in prisons or on the street than in a ward or hospital.

•
"There's a new urgency at the federal, state and local levels to do something about it."
America's weird and amazing rock formations (CNN 05/19/2014)
10 record-setting natural wonders in the United States (CNN 03/06/2014)
Spectacular beach art that's destroyed at high tide (CNN 02/21/2014)
The beauty, the art and the good of snow (CNN 02/14/2014)
Meet the beetles: Hawaii mobilizes to fight bug invasion (CNN 02/09/2014)
18-foot python found in Florida (CNN 02/06/2014)
Grand Canyon filled with river of clouds (CNN 12/03/2013)
Hawaii molasses spill could lead to more predator species, agency says (CNN 09/12/2013)
America's tallest mountain a bit shorter (CNN 09/12/2013)
Panetta: Don't take oceans for granted (CNN 07/17/2013)
Shark wrestler becomes most famous man from Nantucket outside a limerick (CNN 07/17/2013)
5 Fruits You Thought Were Veggies (CNN 06/31/2013)
'Crazy ants' a threat in southern U.S. (CNN 05/17/2013)
They’re baaack! Bugs emerge after 17 years (CNN 05/06/2013)
Algae bloom kills record number of manatees (CNN 03/11/2013)
Deadly mice to rain down on Guam snakes (CNN 02/28/2013)
Florida tackling python problem with hunting contest (CNN 12/06/2012)
Five fabulous fall foliage train rides (CNN 09/30/2011)
Yellowstone ranger says respect, don't fear, bears (CNN 07/10/2011)
Ants using chemical warfare, class project finds (CNN 06/08/2011)

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The scary reason lights are dimmed on flights during takeoff and landing (NYP 04/11/2024)
Rocket set to release remains of 330 people, including George Washington... into space... (NYP 01/06/2024)
'After Death' producer says film explores how death, life 'not as black and white as we've been told' (Fox 10/27/2023)
20 surprising tips that adults wish they could tell their younger selves (Fox 10/07/2023)
Why are men obsessed with the Roman Empire? History expert says it’s a ‘very American thing’ (Fox 09/21/2023)
Job interview 'coffee cup test' used by corporate executive goes viral: 'Manipulative' (Fox 09/08/2023)
Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg 'absolutely dead serious' about fighting in UFC Octagon, Dana White says (Fox 06/22/2023)
Mark Zuckerberg agrees to cage fight with Elon Musk: 'Send Me Location' (Fox 06/22/2023)
Orange ladybugs and the spiritual meaning behind the insect: What to know (Fox 03/28/2023)
Frozen pipes: What not to do — and how to prevent them entirely (Fox 02/03/2023)
History of popcorn: Fun facts about the movie theater snack (Fox 01/19/2023)
Game on! Check out these mind-bending puzzles and optical illusions (Fox 10/28/2022)
Photos that stun: 23 amazing pix of our living world from Nikon’s microscopy competition (Fox 10/25/2022)
Massachusetts dog walker surrounded by pack of coyotes: How to keep kids, dogs safe (Fox 10/19/2022)
Californians plagued with feet-eating 'mini-shark' bugs (Fox 09/03/2022)
Meet the American who wrote 'Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ': Union general Lew Wallace (Fox 08/26/2022)
Good luck omens! Why the praying mantis, butterfly and ladybug are thought to bring good things (Fox 08/02/2022)
Alligator spotted carrying football in its mouth in Florida (Fox 04/02/2022)
Dog that knows 40 commands gets job at Florida children's hospital (Fox 03/28/2022)
Joe Rogan offers to 'arrange' Elon Musk's training after challenging Putin to a fight: 'Epic' (Fox 03/28/2022)
Spring cleaning for forgotten spaces: Tips for tidying up unconventional spots at home (Fox 03/22/2022)
First day of spring is March 20: Science behind the vernal equinox (Fox 03/20/2022)
Disney reveals where gingerbread displays go after the holidays in viral TikTok (Fox 01/17/2022)
National Spaghetti Day: A look at the history of the dish (Fox 01/04/2022)
Candy canes: Odd and interesting facts (Fox 12/26/2021)
How to care for poinsettias: Your guide to the Christmas flower (Fox 12/19/2021)
1850s gingerbread spice cake is the taste of Christmas nostalgia (Fox 12/08/2021)
Study reveals how warmer summers worsen tick infestation for moose (Fox 11/22/2021)
National Nut Day: Health benefits of pistachios, almonds, cashews and more revealed (Fox 10/22/2021)
Why bread bags have different color twist ties (Fox 10/17/2021)
•
... each color represents a different day that the bread was baked: blue tags indicate the bread was baked on Monday, green tags indicate Tuesday, red tags indicate Thursday, white tags indicate Friday and yellow tags indicate Saturday.

•
... most commercial bakeries are closed on Sunday and Wednesday, which is why those days don't have specific colors.
How to spot a flood-damaged used car (Fox 09/05/2021)
Country singer Aaron Lewis disses libs, Bruce Springsteen in new patriotic song (Fox 07/03/2021)
•
"Am I the only one here tonight / Shakin' my head / And thinkin' something ain't right? / Is it just me / Am I losing my mind / Am I standing on the edge / Of the end of time?"

•
"Am I the only one / Willin' to fight / For my love / Of the red and white / And the blue / Burnin' on the ground / Another statue comin' down."

•
"Am I the only one / Who quits singin' along / Everytime they play a Springsteen song."
Blood Moon lunar eclipse 2021: Where and when to watch (Fox 05/13/2021)
Venomous spiders found at University of Michigan library prompt two-day shutdown (Fox 02/24/2021)
National Pizza Day: 5 signs you're at a bad slice shop (Fox 02/09/2021)
Kansas game warden frees tangled deer by literally shooting their antlers apart (Fox 01/14/2021)
Audrey Hepburn’s 'sad' childhood revealed in doc: ‘It was one of the traumas that left a very deep...’ (Fox 01/08/2021)
Santa's milk and cookies: The surprising history behind the popular Christmas tradition (Fox 12/25/2020)
How to follow Santa's Christmas sleigh ride with NORAD — and how the tradition accidentally... (Fox 12/24/2020)
Billionaire former Zappos CEO left no will – here’s why you should (Fox 12/12/2020)
Ever seen your dog mix it up with a raccoon? I did, and it isn't pretty (JWR 11/25/2020)
Macy's Santa Claus won't be home for holidays (Fox 10/22/2020)
•
Macy's said Santa Claus won't be greeting kids at its flagship New York store this year due to the coronavirus, interrupting a holiday tradition started nearly 160 years ago.

•
More than a quarter of a million people come to see Santa at Macy's in New York each year, the company said, making it hard to create a safe environment during a pandemic.

•
Macy's has been using Santa Claus to draw crowds to its New York store since the early 1860s, calling itself "The Home of Santa Claus" for decades.

•
And Macy's had a starring role in the 1947 film "Miracle on 34th Street," where a girl discovers the real Santa inside the store.
PA bakery claims cookie sales have predicted past presidential elections — and here's how... (Fox 10/16/2020)
•
A family-owned bakery in the town of Hatboro claims that its election-themed cookies — which are currently flying off the rack — have accurately predicted the outcome of the past three presidential elections.

•
... had launched its most recent "cookie poll" about six weeks back, offering both "Trump 2020" cookies and "Biden 2020" cookies in red and blue, respectively.

•
This year's sales, however, are unlike anything the bakery has seen during the last four election cycles.

•
"So far as of 10 a.m. Trump is in the lead 3 to 1."

•
"We are NOT favoring a candidate, we are NOT displaying personal feelings or commenting on who we want to win."
Netflix indicted by Texas grand jury for ‘Cuties’ film (Fox 10/07/2020)
•
"Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children," a spokesperson for Netflix told... "This charge is without merit and we stand by the film."

•
"The legislators of this state believe promoting certain lewd material of children has destructive consequences. If such material is distributed on a grand scale, isn't the need to prosecute more, not less?"

•
"We are ultimately asking the President to instruct the DOJ to investigate Netflix not just for this film, but for its pattern of behavior."

•
See related Netflix Exploits Children (Gary McCoy, 09/15/2020) cartoon from Adult picture album
5 scams spreading online that can cost you thousands (Fox 09/12/2020)
Mark Steyn rips Oscars diversity criteria: 'We used to mock the Commies for doing things...' (Fox 09/11/2020)
•
"We used to mock the Commies for doing things like this. When the Commies took over in Hungary in 1945 the Hungarians loved all their operetta. But the problem with the operetta is it was all full of merry widows, gay hussars, countesses and princes. You couldn't have that in a Communist state."

•
... recounted attending a performance of a work called "The State Department Store," which he remarked "played about as well as it sounded."

•
Such productions were mocked by the locals until the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.

•
According to the Academy, the criteria is meant to "encourage equitable representation on and off-screen" by ensuring more people of color fill positions on a film set from the starring role to interns and everything in between..."

•
"At least 30 percent of the secondary roles would have to be Black. As we've seen, the New Afrikan Black Panther movement is entirely White, so that film could never get made in today's Hollywood."
Paul Batura: National Dog Day – celebrate the joy they bring to our lives (Fox 08/26/2020)
•
... it was President Harry Truman who was said to have once remarked, "If you want a friend in Washington – get a dog!"

•
"When all were named upon the earth, And in the sky and sea, The little creature said, ‘Dear Lord, There's not one left for me.' Kindly the Father said to him, ‘I've left you to the end. I've turned my own name back to front, And called you dog, my friend.'"

•
See related Socialist Economy (12/18/2018), ) cartoon from USA picture album
Bob Ross' time in the Air Force influenced him in 'The Joy of Painting,' pal says (Fox 07/04/2020)
North Carolina man hears screams, pulls 2 young girls from Outer Banks rip current in 'heroic'... (Fox 05/18/2020)
•
... the incident is a reminder of how quickly ocean conditions can change, even on what appears to be a perfect day.

•
"A perfect day on the beach doesn't always mean that it's a perfect day in the ocean, so it is critically important that all visitors check the beach forecast for hazards and rip currents before heading to the beach and always use something that floats when in the water."

•
If individuals do find themselves caught in rip currents, officials urge to not swim against the current, instead swimming out of the current and then to shore.
What is a tornado? What to know about this devastating weather (Fox 05/06/2020)
Sleet or hail? Here's how they are different (Fox 05/06/2020)
AAA expert shares tips for getting your car on the road after coronavirus stay-at-home orders... (Fox 05/01/2020)
What is a 'depression cake,' or a 'war cake'? (Fox 04/25/2020)
Disney shares grilled cheese sandwich recipe from Toy Story Land (Fox 04/14/2020)
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver shares 'basic bread' recipe using minimal ingredients (Fox 04/14/2020)
Here are the top Home Depot shopping hacks (Fox 04/08/2020)
Chess master Garry Kasparov loses to computer in first of 6-game match: This Day in History (Fox 02/12/2020)

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A nation can survive its fools... (PDF)
Cicero's Prognosis (Millard Caldwell, 1965)
President George Washington's Farewell Address (1796)

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The real Trump: How the President talks about himself (INN 07/12/2019)
•
Hear a self profile of Donald Trump in his own words, seen through the prism of how he presents his Presidency and policies.

•
You will hear a revealing insight into his psyche, how he sees himself in the context of the Presidency.

•
It is important to listen to all of it, because it gets more interesting as he speaks.

•
Is he egocentric or genuinely absorbed by the well-being of his country?

•
Is he a vehement isolationist, or a sterling defender of needy nations?

•
Is he a real permanent friend of Israel, or only a transient seeker of American interests?

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Tucker: Something ominous is happening to men in America (03/07/2018)
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The American Thinker
The American Cause
Declaration Foundation
Reclaim Democracy
Eagle Forum
ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice)
Open the Books (Government Wasteful Spending)
Campus Reform
Virginia Dare
Trade alert
Mad in USA
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fy>Carr said Schumer "shamefully proved him right by verbally attacking and threatening Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh." US gets dragged into fight as Australia-China war of words escalates (Fox 05/01/2020)
Biden denies sexual assault allegation, in his first comments on Tara Reade's claims (Fox 05/01/2020)
Bill de Blasio Highlights the Far Left's Jewish Problem (JWR 05/01/2020)
North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker '99 percent' sure Kim Jong Un is dead (Fox 05/01/2020)
FDA allows emergency use of remdesivir to treat coronavirus patients after promising study (Fox 05/01/2020)
Stop kicking the North Korean can down the road (JWR 05/01/2020)
Flynn bombshell puts renewed attention on Durham probe, source says Barr talking to him... (Fox 05/01/2020)
Chinese propaganda tactics shifting to elevate, amplify Russian disinformation (Fox 05/01/2020)
Bolsonaro effect? More Brazilians seen defying coronavirus restrictions (Fox 05/01/2020)
100,000 crew members never made it off cruise ships amid coronavirus crisis (Fox 05/01/2020)
Army general describes massive 'war on coronavirus' (Fox 05/01/2020)
NYC reopening still 'a few months away at minimum', de Blasio says (Fox 05/01/2020)

2020‑04 (04/30/2020)

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